Tehran Dismisses Reports Of Renewed US Talks Amid Domestic 'Anger' Tehran Dismisses Reports Of Renewed US Talks Amid Domestic 'Anger' https://thecradle.co/articles/tehran-dismisses-reports-of-renewed-US-talks-as-incorrect-speculation Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday denied reports that Tehran and Washington were https://thecradle.co/articles/washington-tehran-set-to-resume-nuclear-negotiations-report  to resume indirect nuclear negotiations, rejecting the claims as baseless. "Public opinion is currently so angry that no one even dares to talk about negotiations and diplomacy," Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian media on Saturday. His comments follow a https://thecradle.co/articles/washington-tehran-set-to-resume-nuclear-negotiations-report  by Amwaj.media on 4 July, citing unnamed Iranian sources who claimed that backchannel discussions were being revived following last month’s 12-day Israeli–US war on Iran. On 29 June, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi told reporters that no date had been set for further negotiations. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier said that a return to talks was “under consideration and based on national interests,” but stopped short of confirming any decision or timeline. Baghaei emphasized that recent Israeli strikes on Iranian cities and civilian infrastructure made diplomacy politically impossible, pointing specifically to what he described as war crimes. “With the passage of several days since the cessation of the Israeli aggression, new dimensions of the war crimes committed by Netanyahu in Tehran and other Iranian cities subjected to attacks by the Israeli entity are being revealed,” he said. Baghaei cited the Israeli bombing of Evin Prison Hospital, which killed 79 people, as an example of the “brutal Israeli war crime” committed during the assault. He called for international condemnation of the “aggressive entity,” saying it must be “held accountable and punished” for crimes against the Iranian people. Iranian and US negotiators were set to meet in Oman on 15 June for a sixth round of indirect nuclear talks. The meeting was cancelled after Israeli warplanes bombed Tehran two days earlier, with Iranian and Omani sources confirming the talks were suspended indefinitely in response to the assault. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 12:50 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tehran-dismisses-reports-renewed-us-talks-amid-domestic-anger

Poland Blasts Trump-Putin Dialogue After Drone Strike Escalation Poland Blasts Trump-Putin Dialogue After Drone Strike Escalation NATO's largest and most well-protected 'eastern flank' country is angry over President Donald Trump's phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski has called on Trump to restart military aid to Ukraine, and he highlighted recent Russian airstrike that damaged the Polish Embassy compound in Kiev. Trump's Thursday call with Putin yielded no fresh progress on ending the war, but it did result in anger and tensions among European allies, and certainly wasn't received well by Zelensky. In a message posted on X on Friday, Sikorski urged Trump to resume the supply of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine amid record-setting numbers of drones sent against the country this week. He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "mocking" US-led peace efforts. Zelensky suggested something similar, painting a picture that Trump is still getting 'played' by the Russian leader, who has no authentic intent to end the war. "Massive Russian attack last night has caused fires and much damage, including to the Polish consulate in Kyiv," Sikorski wrote in the post. "President Trump, Putin is mocking your peace efforts. Please restore supplies of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine and impose tough new sanctions on the aggressor." Sikorski, however, separately confirmed that no one was harmed in the embassy strike, also suggesting little damage. Trump has described that he was "very disappointed" by the Putin call, while a Friday call with Zelensky centered on the Ukrainian leader urging new, tougher sanctions on Moscow. But Trump has resisted this, also amid similar requests from European allies, given the likelihood of this ending a path toward negotiated settlement altogether. Ukraine is the first country to stop 400+ Shahed drones per night using interceptor drones, the Telegraph. The old model — shoot down $20k drones with $1M missiles — no longer works. NATO is studying Ukraine’s model, but has no working equivalent yet. 1/ https://t.co/ORvT8xjDz6 — Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1941474840462098653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Trump is also busy trying to salvage bilateral US relations with Russia as part of the process. More sanctions would do little to impact Moscow's decision-making in Ukraine at this point, and Trump knows this, as Moscow increasingly relies on China, India, and even North Korea and Iran for defense and energy-related trade. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 12:15 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/poland-blasts-trump-putin-dialogue-after-drone-strike-escalation

One Big Beautiful Budget Deficit One Big Beautiful Budget Deficit By Philip Marey, Senior US strategist at Rabobank Summary On Thursday, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that is supposed to include all Trump’s promises on fiscal policy in his second term. The bill includes tax cuts and additional spending on Republican priorities. The bill will extend the income tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, which were set to expire by the end of the year and would have caused a fiscal cliff. There will be tax deductions for taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. The bill includes additional spending on defense and immigration enforcement. To finance the tax cuts and additional spending, or at least some of it, there are tax increases for and spending cuts in Democratic priorities. The tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will be terminated. What’s more, new taxes on wind and solar energy projects will be imposed if they use too much foreign content. Federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be reduced and the slack should be picked up by the states. There will also be cuts in spending on Medicaid, the health care program for low-income people. Finally, at the request of Trump, and much to the dismay of the fiscal hawks, the debt limit will be raised by $5 trillion. On balance, budget deficits are projected to rise by $3.4 trillion over the 2025-2034 period according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. However, the bill front-loads tax cuts and delays spending cuts, causing a fiscal cliff at the end of 2028 that will create political pressure in 2028 to extend the tax cuts and kick the spending cuts further down the road. Therefore, the upward impact on budget deficits in the next 10 years could be even larger. Despite the large rise in the budget deficit, the upward impact on the growth trajectory of the US economy is likely to be limited. A large part of what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell as “tax cuts” are actually extensions of the TCJA, which have been widely anticipated. Meanwhile, the increase in defense spending is relatively modest and keeps it below what other NATO members have pledged (as percentage of GDP). Despite all the talk about Trump’s “grand strategy”, this means that US foreign policy ambitions will be severely limited in the coming decade: a victory for the isolationists. The One Big Beautiful Budget Act of 2025 underlines that two traditional wings of the Republican Party, the fiscal hawks and the foreign policy hawks, have been pushed aside by the MAGA movement. Introduction  The US Congress has passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that is supposed to include all Trump’s promises on fiscal policy in his second term. The self-imposed deadline was for the Senate and the House of Representatives to get a uniform bill to President Trump’s desk by July 4. On Tuesday, in the Senate, Vice President Vance had to step in as the tie breaker, because 50 senators voted in favor of the bill (50 Republicans) and 50 against (all 47 Democrats and 3 Republicans). Rand Paul voted “nay” because of the rise in the debt limit. In contrast, Susan Collins and Thom Tillis found the Medicaid cuts too deep to support the bill. Today, in the final vote of the House of Representatives, there were 218 votes in favor of the bill (218 Republicans) and 214 against (all 212 Democrats and 2 Republicans). Thomas Massie voted against the bill because he wanted more spending cuts, calling the bill a “debt bomb”, and at the other end of the Republican spectrum Brian Fitzpatrick – who supported the earlier House version of the bill – objected to the deeper cuts in Medicaid and SNAP. What’s in the bill? The One Big Beautiful Budget Act (OBBBA) of 2025 includes tax cuts and additional spending on Republican priorities. The bill will extend the income tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, the main fiscal policy package of Trump’s first term. These tax cuts were set to expire by the end of the year and would have caused a fiscal cliff. There will be tax deductions for taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security, in line with Trump’s promises of “no taxes” on these three sources of income during his 2024 campaign. There will also be a rise in child tax credits. The deduction cap on state and local taxes (SALT) will also be raised, at the request of Republican lawmakers in high tax states. The bill includes additional spending on defense and immigration enforcement. The latter will be improved by extending the border wall, increased detention of migrants, and additional funds for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The largest items in defense spending are shipbuilding, the Golden Dome defense system against foreign missiles, and replenishing the stock of ammunition. However, this would still leave defense spending at about 2.7% of GDP by 2034, which is well below the target that other NATO members have pledged at the recent summit in The Hague. Of course, compared to these countries the US has spent much more in cumulative terms, but the more relevant benchmark is what is needed against enemy countries. To put this in a historical perspective: when the US tried to outrun the Soviet Union during the Reagan years the US spent more than 6% of GDP. To finance the tax cuts and additional spending, or at least some of it, there are tax increases for and spending cuts in Democratic priorities. The tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will be terminated. This was one of Trump’s campaign pledges. What’s more, new taxes on wind and solar energy projects will be imposed if they use too much foreign content. Federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be reduced and the slack should be picked up by the states. There will also be cuts in spending on Medicaid, the health care program for low-income people. However, they have been eased to keep the so-called “Medicaid moderates” on board. The fiscal hawks wanted more spending cuts, but the Republican leadership needed to keep the centrists on board, given the small margins in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Finally, at the request of Trump, and much to the dismay of the fiscal hawks, the debt limit will be raised. What’s not in the bill To the relief of foreign investors, and spurred on by the US business sector, the proposed introduction of Section 899 to the Internal Revenue Code has been removed from the One Big Beautiful Bill because of a forthcoming international tax agreement announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Section 899 would have introduced retaliatory taxes on foreign companies from countries that impose “unfair taxes” on US companies, such as undertaxed profits rules, digital services taxes, and diverted profits taxes. However, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith have stated that the US Congress could still adopt Section 899 if the new international tax agreement is violated. What has never been in any version of the bill is a serious attempt to rein in spending on Social Security and Medicare. Consequently, US public debt remains on a trajectory that hardly seems sustainable in the long run. The budget impact of the bill On July 1, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill as passed by the Senate would decrease budget deficits by $0.4 trillion, relative to the budget enforcement baseline for consideration in the Senate. Of course this sounds great and is what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell to the public. However, this baseline – imposed by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham – already assumes an extension of the TCJA income tax provisions. On its own this is a choice that could be defended, however when the CBO scored the TCJA in 2017 they assumed that these tax provisions would expire, in line with then current law and with the common practice of budget scoring by the CBO. So taken together, the budget impact of these tax extensions has been deleted. This is truly One Big Beautiful Magic Act. As Lindsay Graham put it last week: “I’m the king of the numbers, I’m Zeus, the budget king.” With a simple shift-in-accounting trick1, $3.8 trillion has disappeared into a black hole of time inconsistency. In the same letter on July 1, the nonpartisan CBO stated that compared with their January 2025 baseline budget projections, it would increase deficits over the 2025-2034 period by $3.4 trillion. So in reality, the OBBBA has a significant upward impact on the budget deficit. What’s more, the bill front-loads tax cuts in the next few years and delays spending cuts, causing a rise in the budget deficit in the short run and political pressure down the road to extend the tax cuts, further increasing annual budget deficits. Many deficit-increasing measures are scheduled to expire in 2028, while many deficit-reducing measures do not start until after 2028. This would create a large fiscal cliff in 2028 that could force another extension of tax cuts, similar to the response that we are seeing this year in anticipation of a 2025 fiscal cliff that would emerge if the OBBBA had been rejected. Keep in mind that in November 2028 elections will take place for the presidency, the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate. In addition to extending tax cuts, there may be pressure to undo much of the deficit reduction scheduled by the OBBBA to take place after 2028. This could increase the upward impact of the bill on the budget deficit in the next ten years from $3.3 trillion to $4.8 trillion according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). In other words, the OBBBA of 2025 would repeat the same trick used in the TCJA of 2017 by keeping the projected upward impact on the federal deficit limited through sunsets that are very likely to cause extensions of deficit-increasing measures when the fiscal cliffs comes in sight. These measures are only temporary in name, in reality they are permanent. The economic impact of the bill Despite the large rise in the budget deficit, the upward impact on the growth trajectory of the US economy is likely to be limited. A large part of what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell as “tax cuts” are actually extensions of the income tax provisions in the TCJA. In fact, the One Big Beautiful Bill is removing the fiscal cliff that loomed at the end of this year. What’s more, the extension has been widely anticipated because the Republicans could not afford the fiscal cliff from an electoral perspective. So this should not change the growth projections of the US economy. The additional stimulus would come from the other tax cuts, which are considerably smaller. No serious attempt has been made to improve the US public debt trajectory. Fiscal discipline has gone out of the window on Capitol Hill and the few remaining fiscal hawks are at best slowing down the upward trajectory of the debt. This leaves the enforcement of US fiscal discipline to the bond vigilantes. However, they are faced with limited alternatives to US treasuries. Nevertheless, as far as they are able and willing to diversify away from US treasuries, they could demand higher yields. In the long run, this is increasingly likely. Either through higher interest rates or through higher tax rates if US lawmakers are going to put their fiscal house in order, this budget explosion could slow down economic growth down the road. However for now, the low tax rates of the TCJA have been extended and some new tax cuts have been added. Just stop thinking about tomorrow. The foreign policy impact of the bill Despite all the talk about Trump’s “grand strategy”, defense spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill does not seem compatible with preserving US military dominance. Cutting taxes (or extending tax cuts) without touching Social Security and Medicare has left little room for increasing defense spending. This means that US foreign policy ambitions will be severely limited in the coming decade. In this sense the OBBBA is also a victory for the isolationists. While the recent US attack on Iran can be seen as a short-term victory for the foreign policy hawks in the Republican Party, the OBBBA will give the isolationists the upper hand in the long run. Conclusion In the end, this bill is essentially about extending the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and adding some new tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign of 2024. Despite spending cuts on clean energy programs and health care for low income Americans, the fiscal hawks saw their wings clipped again and the US public debt continues to rise. However, the foreign policy hawks are in for some big disappointments as well. They may be basking in the glory of the attack on Iran, but there is no budget for their future ambitions. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” underlines that these two traditional wings of the Republican Party, the fiscal hawks and the foreign policy hawks, have been pushed aside by the MAGA movement. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 11:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/one-big-beautiful-budget-deficit

FBI, Sheriff's Office Arrest 28 Motorcycle Gang Members In 'Operation Mongolian Beef' FBI, Sheriff's Office Arrest 28 Motorcycle Gang Members In 'Operation Mongolian Beef' Over two dozen alleged members of an outlaw motorcycle gang have been arrested and charged in connection with a March shooting at a Florida gas station, the FBI's Jacksonville office announced on Wednesday. In total, 28 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang were arrested during a joint operation, dubbed "Operation Mongolian Beef," which was done in coordination between the FBI Jacksonville Division, the Volusia Sheriff's Office, and the Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office, according to a https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/jacksonville/news/dozens-of-violent-offenders-arrested-in-operation-mongolian-beef , which added that arrest warrants were issued for three other members of the gang, whose arrests are pending. As the https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fbi-sheriffs-office-arrest-28-motorcycle-gang-members-in-florida-5881932  notes further, the individuals have been charged with aggravated rioting in relation to the shooting at a gas station in New Smyrna Beach during Bike Week on March 8, 2025. Aggravated rioting is when an individual participates in a riot of 25 or more other people, according to the statement. It is a second-degree felony and punishable by up to 15 years in prison. As part of the operation, the FBI and its law enforcement partners carried out 14 search warrants at multiple properties, including at the Mongols Clubhouse in Edgewater, Florida; four homes in Volusia County; three homes in Brevard County; two homes in Miami-Dade County; one home in Chesterfield County, Virginia; one home in Palm Beach County; and two homes in Polk County. “The FBI has made a commitment to all Americans that we will crush violent crime across the country,” FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley said in the statement. “There is no doubt Volusia County and, in fact, the entire state of Florida is safer today with these violent offenders off the street.” The Mongols motorcycle gang, also known as the Mongols Motorcycle Club, is an international organization that self-identifies as an “outlaw” motorcycle gang, meaning its members define themselves as within the “1 percent” of motorcycle clubs who do not abide by the law, https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/eighteen-members-and-associates-clarksville-mongols-motorcycle-gang-sentenced to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The group has slogans such as “Respect Few, Fear None” and “Live Mongol Die Mongol,” which the DOJ said illustrate the members’ “cut-throat attitude.” Its members typically wear vests and patches, or have tattoos identifying their connection to the group, the DOJ said. Outlaw motorcycle gangs are generally highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in a range of criminal activities, including violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking, https://www.justice.gov/archives/criminal/criminal-vcrs/gallery/outlaw-motorcycle-gangs-omgs to the DOJ. The Mongols gang is one of many such outlaw gangs that pose a “serious national domestic threat,” the department said. Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the March 8 shooting took place at around 11.30 a.m, and involved members of the Mongols gang and a rival gang called the Warlocks. He said the Mongols knew in advance that the Warlocks would be at the gas station and planned to “attack them.” The Mongols arrived at the gas station and fired at the rival gang members, Chitwood said at a press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRs401QdmkQ , adding that “bullets were flying, innocent people were there, children were there.” Two Warlocks were shot and sustained minor injuries, Chitwood said. They declined to cooperate with law enforcement, but officials were able to use video footage from the shooting, including footage taken by bystanders, to identify at least 31 individuals allegedly involved in the incident, he said. Chitwood said the Mongols are recognized as an organized crime domestic terror group in the United States, and internationally. “They lit the fuse,” he said of the group. “It’s game on now. It’s game on because there’s going to be a treasure trove of evidence that’s going to lead to more and more indictments and arrests and put all the motorcycle gangers on notice.” https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 11:05 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-sheriffs-office-arrest-28-motorcycle-gang-members-operation-mongolian-beef

Columbia To Pay $9 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over US News College Ranking Data Columbia To Pay $9 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over US News College Ranking Data https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/columbia-to-pay-9-million-to-settle-lawsuit-over-us-news-college-ranking-data-5881944 (emphasis ours), Columbia University has agreed to pay $9 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit by a former student who claimed the school submitted inaccurate data to U.S. News & World Report, artificially inflating its position in the publication’s annual ranking of American universities. In a statement to The Epoch Times, a university spokesperson said Columbia did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the agreement and is entering into the settlement to “avoid protracted and costly litigation.” “Columbia University has reached a settlement agreement regarding the alleged misreporting of data to U.S. News & World Report in connection with its Best Colleges rankings,” the spokesperson said. The settlement covers about 22,000 undergraduate students at Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, and Columbia’s School of General Studies who were enrolled from the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2022, the spokesperson said. “While the University denies any wrongdoing, it deeply regrets deficiencies in prior reporting and has adopted new steps to improve the quality and accuracy of information available to prospective students,” the spokesperson added. “Since 2022, the University has published Common Data Sets for all three undergraduate schools which are reviewed by a well-established, independent advisory firm to ensure reporting accuracy.” The settlement stems from a https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2025/07/03/id5881952-Columbia-lawsuit.pdf filed against Columbia’s Board of Trustees in August 2022 by a former student who accused the university of misrepresenting some of the data it submitted to U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR’s) annual list. According to the complaint, Columbia’s USNWR ranking has steadily risen from 18th place in 1988 to 2nd place in 2022 through the reporting of false data. The lawsuit stated that USNWR’s yearly college rankings are popular with the general public and influence university application patterns. It further said the publication relies on universities, including Columbia, to self-report the data, which is then used to determine the universities’ rankings. In March 2022, Michael Thaddeus, a professor of mathematics at Columbia, published https://www.math.columbia.edu/~thaddeus/ranking/executivesummary.pdf concluding that the university had misreported data to USNWR. The lawsuit said that Thaddeus found, among other things, that Columbia reported to USNWR that 82.5 percent of undergraduate classes enroll fewer than 20 students, which marked a higher percentage than any other school in the top 100 USNWR rankings. His analysis of data from Columbia’s Directory of Classes indicated that the correct figure was likely between 62.7 percent and 66.9 percent, the lawsuit said. Columbia also told USNWR that 8.9 percent of undergraduate classes enroll 50 students or more, but an analysis of data from Columbia’s Directory of Classes indicated that figure was more likely between 10.6 percent and 12.4 percent, according to the lawsuit. The university also told the publication that 96.5 percent of its non-medical faculty are full-time, but the analysis by Thaddeus found that the correct figure was likely 74.1 percent. It also reported that its student-faculty ratio is 6:1, but Thaddeus found it was likely 11:1. The lawsuit stated that Colombia’s actions were “objectively false, misleading and deceptive.” They also led to students paying “premiums for tuition, fees and costs based, in material part, upon Columbia’s USNWR ranking,” according to the lawsuit. It alleged breach of contract, unjust enrichment, common law fraud, and violation of New York General Business Law. In September 2022, the university https://provost.columbia.edu/statement-common-data-set that it had “previously relied on outdated and/or incorrect methodologies” for some of the data it had submitted to USNWR and said it had changed those methodologies for current and future data submissions. Then-Provost Mary Boyce said in a statement that “anything less than complete accuracy in the data that we report—regardless of the size or the reason—is inconsistent with the standards of excellence to which Columbia holds itself.” “We deeply regret the deficiencies in our prior reporting and are committed to doing better,” Boyce added. In June 2023, Columbia https://provost.columbia.edu/news/announcement-regarding-us-news-and-world-reports-undergraduate-survey its undergraduate schools would stop submitting data to the U.S. News rankings, saying it remained “concerned with the role that rankings have assumed in the undergraduate application process.” It said the rankings appeared to have an outsized influence on prospective students and may “distill a university’s profile into a composite of data categories.” https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 10:30 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/columbia-pay-9-million-settle-lawsuit-over-us-news-college-ranking-data

Thiel Joins Luckey & Lonsdale To Launch New Bank Aimed At Filling SVB Void For Stablecoins, AI, Defense & Advanced Manufacturing Thiel Joins Luckey & Lonsdale To Launch New Bank Aimed At Filling SVB Void For Stablecoins, AI, Defense & Advanced Manufacturing A group of high-profile tech investors, including military tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, is preparing to launch a new bank designed to serve the niche left behind by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — and to do so with ambitions that extend deep into cryptocurrency, defense tech, and artificial intelligence. The bank, to be called Erebor, has formally applied for a national banking charter in the United States, according to documents made public this week. Named after the “Lonely Mountain” in The Lord of the Rings, Erebor would aim to serve the "innovation economy" - start-ups and individuals in sectors often viewed as too risky for traditional lenders, including blockchain, AI, defense, and advanced manufacturing. Erebor’s founders, who include backers of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, say their institution will fill a gap left by SVB’s 2023 collapse, which shook the tech sector’s financial infrastructure. That failure triggered panic among start-ups, many of which relied heavily on SVB’s tailored credit offerings. Though SVB’s remnants were absorbed by First Citizens and some staff migrated to HSBC, entrepreneurs and investors continue to complain of tightened credit access and fewer bank partners willing to underwrite emerging technologies, https://www.ft.com/content/8c903f2e-42a6-496b-b098-ca733f340ffc  reports. Erebor’s co-founders first discussed launching a bank after the collapse of SVB in 2023, according to a person close to the matter. SVB had been the main bank for US start-ups and their venture capital backers. Its assets were sold to First Citizens, which has since relaunched SVB, and a number of its bankers moved to HSBC in the US. But investors and executives complain about a gap in banking services for fledgling tech companies since SVB’s demise — with some start-ups struggling to get the same access to capital. -FT The application describes Erebor as “a national bank… providing traditional banking products, as well as virtual currency-related products and services, for businesses and individuals,” with a focus on customers underserved by both traditional and fintech institutions. It will also offer services to non-U.S. companies seeking access to the American banking system. One of the bank’s major innovations, and potential regulatory flashpoints, is its plan to become a dominant player in stablecoin transactions, a controversial corner of the cryptocurrency world where digital tokens are pegged to traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar. Erebor’s filing describes its goal as becoming “the most regulated entity conducting and facilitating stablecoin transactions.” Founders Luckey, best known for founding Anduril Industries, and Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir and managing partner of 8VC, are not expected to be involved in Erebor’s day-to-day operations. Instead, the bank will be led by co-CEOs Jacob Hirshman, a former adviser to crypto firm Circle, and Owen Rapaport, CEO of digital assets compliance company Aer. Mike Hagedorn, a longtime banking executive and former EVP at Valley National Bank, will serve as president. Despite its tech-forward posture, Erebor will be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with a secondary office in New York City. In keeping with the start-up culture it hopes to serve, Erebor will be a digital-only bank, offering customer support and financial products exclusively through a smartphone app and website. Much about Erebor remains under wraps. Portions of the application, including its equity structure, business plan, and shareholder identities, were submitted confidentially. The Erebor venture underscores the ongoing realignment of financial services in the tech sector, as traditional banks grow more cautious and venture-backed firms look to build their own institutions. Whether Erebor succeeds where SVB fell — and whether its fusion of crypto, defense, and Silicon Valley politics finds regulatory favor — remains to be seen. For now, its founders are betting there’s a mountain of opportunity left to reclaim. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Wed, 07/02/2025 - 19:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/thiel-joins-luckey-lonsdale-launch-new-bank-aimed-filling-svb-void-stablecoins-ai-defense

Americans Must Oppose The Establishment Of An East Asian NATO Americans Must Oppose The Establishment Of An East Asian NATO https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/americans-must-oppose-the-establishment-of-an-east-asian-nato/ Ely Ratner’s latest offering in https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/case-pacific-defense-pact-ely-ratner?s=ESPZZ005Y4&utm_medium=promo_email&utm_source=fa_edit&utm_campaign=pre_release_ratner_prospects_b&utm_content=20250527&utm_term=ESPZZ005Y4 , “The Case for a Pacific Defense Pact,” is a textbook example of how groupthink, careerism, and militarist ideology continue to warp US foreign policy discourse. Ratner, now back at the Marathon Initiative after a stint as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, proposes a new multilateral NATO-style alliance in the Pacific. This would be a grotesque escalation of already dangerous US commitments in East Asia. From the perspective of anyone interested in realism, restraint, or constitutional government, this proposal is not only strategically unwise but morally and fiscally indefensible. Let us begin with the obvious. Ratner envisions binding the United States to the defense of Australia, Japan, and the Philippines, with others (e.g., South Korea, New Zealand) to follow. But the US is already encumbered with mutual defense treaties in the region, such as with Japan and the Philippines—agreements that are themselves dangerous anachronisms dating from the early Cold War. Ratner, rather than asking whether these entanglements serve American interests, wants to double down by interlocking them in a region-wide web of obligations. To what end? To contain China, a country that, despite its size, has shown no intention or ability to project power beyond its near seas in a sustained or existentially threatening way. The notion that Beijing aspires to be the next Nazi Germany, complete with pan-regional domination, is sheer fantasy—one that defense contractors and think tanks like the Marathon Initiative and the Center for a New American Security are happy to propagate for funding and prestige. Ratner is a veteran of both. His entire professional career has been spent either in government positions advocating military buildup or in think tanks crafting white papers that rationalize the same. That this man would now argue for institutionalizing a war alliance against the very country he has built his career warning against is predictable, but no less dangerous. Libertarians have long warned against expansive foreign commitments that tie American lives and treasure to the ambitions and anxieties of foreign powers. Ratner’s proposed “Pacific Defense Pact” would formalize exactly the sort of blank-check militarism that the Founders abhorred. It would commit the United States to a potential war over rocks in the South China Sea or fishing disputes in the East China Sea, escalating every regional quarrel into a possible global conflict. If China is a threat to Japan or the Philippines, those nations—wealthy and capable in their own right—can and should take responsibility for their own defense. Ratner attempts to buttress his case by citing the growing military cooperation among Australia, Japan, and the Philippines. But rather than taking this as evidence that these states are capable of handling their own regional affairs, he takes it as a reason for the U.S. to get more deeply involved. This is precisely backward. If America’s allies are increasing their capabilities and coordination, what better time to reduce, not increase, US exposure? Moreover, the article is riddled with familiar alarmism: Chinese ships near disputed islands, alleged disinformation campaigns, and weaponized economic policies. Ratner ignores the fact that the United States engages in all of these tactics itself. He paints a picture of a defensive, peace-loving Washington encircled by an aggressive, expansionist Beijing—a cartoonish dichotomy unworthy of serious analysis. He also omits any discussion of the provocative role the U.S. has played in stoking regional tensions, such as through arms sales, freedom-of-navigation operations, and explicit promises to defend Taiwan. The article’s most galling claim is that the proposed pact would not burden the U.S. military with new obligations but would merely formalize existing relationships. This is either dishonest or delusional. Anyone familiar with alliance politics knows that formalizing mutual defense guarantees dramatically raises expectations, lowers diplomatic flexibility, and can actually increase the likelihood of conflict since such pacts, once signed, create pressure to demonstrate credibility, to act decisively, and to escalate disputes that might otherwise be ignored or resolved diplomatically. From a constitutional and fiscal perspective, Ratner’s proposal is especially dangerous. The U.S. is $34 trillion in debt, overstretched militarily, and embroiled in military deployments on every continent. The last thing it needs is a new Cold War style alliance. Japan, the Philippines, and Australia (along with a host of others, such as India, Indonesia, and South Korea) are perfectly capable of defending themselves against a country that still struggles to project naval power beyond the first island chain. In sum, Ratner’s Pacific Defense Pact is not a serious proposal for American security. It is a serious proposal for keeping the defense contractors flush, the think tanks buzzing, and the machinery of war humming. As the author of https://libertarianinstitute.org/books/the-fake-china-threat-and-its-very-real-danger/ , I must once again stress: this fear-mongering has real costs—to our economy, to our liberty, and to the lives of Americans who might be asked to fight and die in a wholly unnecessary war. We should reject Ratner’s vision not only because it is strategically misguided but because it is morally bankrupt. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 09:20 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/americans-must-oppose-establishment-east-asian-nato

Senate Republicans Revise Trump Tax Bill To Win Over Holdouts, Eye July 4 Passage Senate Republicans Revise Trump Tax Bill To Win Over Holdouts, Eye July 4 Passage Senate Republicans unveiled a revised version of President Trump’s $4.2 trillion tax package early Saturday morning, making targeted concessions on state tax deductions, Medicaid policy, and renewable energy provisions in an effort to unite their caucus ahead of a July 4 deadline set by the White House. The updated draft reflects compromises among Senate GOP factions that have sparred for weeks over how aggressively to cut social safety net programs and whether to roll back clean energy incentives enacted under the Biden administration. The legislation, if passed, would serve as the centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s second-term economic agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced that voting on the bill would begin Saturday afternoon, with a final vote potentially coming as soon as Sunday. If it does pass the Senate, Republican leaders have indicated they will call House members back to Washington early next week in hopes of sending the legislation to the president’s desk before Independence Day. However, it remains uncertain whether all 50 Republican senators are prepared to back the measure. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Saturday on Fox News that he would oppose beginning debate on the bill immediately, citing the need for more time. “This is an important bill,” Johnson said. “There’s no need to rush it.” A Revised SALT Cap To address concerns from House Republicans representing high-tax states, the new draft raises the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years. The cap would snap back to its original level thereafter, with a modest 1% annual increase during the interim period. The deduction would begin phasing out for taxpayers earning more than $500,000 annually. A House provision aimed at curbing SALT workarounds used by pass-through businesses was stripped from the text. While fiscal conservatives have criticized the SALT compromise as overly generous, the deal is expected to secure the support of swing-district Republicans and has been endorsed by the White House. Senate Republicans also removed a controversial Section 899 “revenge tax” on foreign companies and investors following concerns from Wall Street and a request from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Tax Relief and Medicaid Tweaks The legislation makes permanent the individual and corporate tax cuts first enacted in 2017 and introduces new temporary breaks for tipped workers, seniors, and car buyers. In a nod to moderate Republicans, the revised bill creates a $25 billion rural hospital fund intended to mitigate the effects of Medicaid spending reductions that critics warn could threaten services in underserved areas. Senator Susan Collins of Maine had pressed for a $100 billion allocation but has not yet commented on whether the smaller fund will earn her support. The new version delays the full impact of a 3.5% cap on state Medicaid provider taxes from 2031 to 2032. The cap, which would begin phasing in by 2028, applies only to states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, the bill imposes new work requirements for Medicaid recipients and would require ACA-expansion beneficiaries to contribute to their care through co-pays or deductibles. Renewable Energy Rollbacks and New Land Sales Republicans accelerated the phaseout of tax credits for wind and solar energy projects, now requiring such projects to be fully operational by the end of 2027 to qualify. That change, reportedly supported by Mr. Trump, could impact companies like NextEra Energy, the nation’s largest renewable developer. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the change, warning on social media that the rollback would “jack up your electric bills and jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The bill also ends the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit sooner than earlier versions proposed, cutting it off after September 30, 2025, including for used and commercial EVs. A separate provision reinstated in the draft would authorize the sale of up to 1.2 million acres of federal land across 11 western states for housing and community development, a measure pushed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. The plan could raise up to $6 billion but faces resistance from GOP senators in affected states. Tax credits for hydrogen production, originally slated to end this year, would now continue through 2028 for projects started by then. Broader Cuts and Debt Ceiling Increase The legislation includes steep cuts to funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and federal food assistance programs, while increasing allocations for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. It preserves $15 million in funding for a task force to study alternatives to the IRS Direct File program, though it drops language that would have terminated the free filing service entirely — a defeat for tax software providers like Intuit. A proposed tax on money transfers by non-citizens was scaled back from 3.5% to 1%, a win for companies like Western Union and MoneyGram. Finally, the bill would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, a move intended to avert a potential federal default projected for as early as August. With internal GOP divisions still simmering, the path to final passage remains uncertain. Yet with Independence Day looming, Senate Republicans are betting that the new concessions will be enough to unify their ranks — and deliver a long-sought legislative victory for the president. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 06/28/2025 - 13:25 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senate-republicans-revise-trump-tax-bill-win-over-holdouts-eye-july-4-passage

UN Nuclear Inspectors Depart Tehran As Iran Vows To Keep Enriching UN Nuclear Inspectors Depart Tehran As Iran Vows To Keep Enriching A group of inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has finally and formally departed Iran after the country decided to halt its cooperation with the agency, following last month's surprise bombing raids by Israel and the United States. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed in statement shared on X on Friday that its personnel are returning to the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria.  Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, clarified that it's as yet unclear just how many IAEA inspectors left the country in this 'final' wave of departures. "The language used doesn’t clarify whether all or only some of the staff departed, but it appears that a number of them are still in Iran," he https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/4/iaea-inspectors-depart-tehran-after-us-israel-iran-conflict . IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has urged Iran to resume monitoring and verification efforts as soon as possible, saying it is of "crucial importance" that direct dialogue with Tehran continues. "The inspectors have been housed in Tehran unable to visit Iran’s nuclear sites since Israel attacked the country on June 13," https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-n-pulls-nuclear-inspectors-out-of-iran-for-safety-reasons-b65d84ef?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAh7Qimbj0b-m0xGrPAUAW0TBef_tay7-7FvAFUb0aIHyqKNvMH86sviuxF1mbA%3D&gaa_ts=6867f28d&gaa_sig=tLL1hAmN0dPmP9ipilNgZX8_f_Dk-rV938-7iF5CM7Xi8dWUY8jzrrKqRhqhNHES1Oc7_xE_BPaJsRu4uKGH0Q%3D%3D details. "They were housed at a hotel in the capital but may have later moved to a U.N. location, according to one of the people." All of this comes after the Trump White House has threatened the potential for more military action should Iran resume enrichment of uranium, which it has promised to do undeterred. According to more from WSJ: Their departure makes the prospect of any significant international access to Iran’s nuclear sites extremely unlikely, allowing it to carry out nuclear work unchecked. Iran’s activities are, however, being watched closely by Western and Israeli intelligence agencies, and the IAEA has access to satellite imagery of its sites. It also raises the prospect of a standoff over Iran’s participation in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which bans it from nuclear weapons and requires regular inspections of its atomic program.  For decades, Iran has been subject to rigorous inspections of its core nuclear sites. Inspectors would visit its enrichment sites and check its stockpile of enriched uranium every couple of days, ensuring that Iran wasn’t diverting fissile material for a nuclear weapon.  An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict. https://t.co/65YQcDL7Ik — IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) https://twitter.com/iaeaorg/status/1941102218981314885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Iran has meanwhile said that while it doesn't plan to retaliate further against the United States, it will carry on peaceful nuclear energy activities as a matter of national sovereignty. "As long as there is no act of aggression being perpetrated by the United States against us, we will not respond again," Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-nuclear-trump-talks-uranium-strikes-rcna216689  on Thursday. "Our policy has not changed on enrichment," Takht-Ravanchi crucially added. "Iran has every right to do enrichment within its territory. The only thing that we have to observe is not to go for militarization." https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 07:35 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/un-nuclear-inspectors-depart-tehran-iran-vows-keep-enriching

This Is The Income A Family Needs To Be Middle Class, By State This Is The Income A Family Needs To Be Middle Class, By State Across the United States, what qualifies as “middle class” varies widely depending on where you live. This map, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-income-a-family-needs-to-be-middle-class-by-state breaks down the median household income for each U.S. state, revealing sharp contrasts in earning power. It provides a snapshot of where families may feel more or less financially secure based on local income benchmarks. The data for this visualization comes from https://smartasset.com/data-studies/how-to-be-middle-class-americas-largest-cities-2023 . Editor’s note: This map uses median household income as a simple indicator of the middle class in each state. True middle class status typically spans a range of incomes. Top Earners Cluster in the Northeast Maryland, Washington D.C., and Massachusetts lead the nation with household incomes at or above $90,000. High concentrations of federal jobs, tech firms, and elite educational institutions contribute to these numbers. According to Pew Research Center, these regions also report strong access to health care and education, reinforcing higher cost-of-living dynamics. RankStateMedian Household Income 1Maryland$90,203 2District Of Columbia$90,088 3Massachusetts$89,645 4New Jersey$89,296 5New Hampshire$88,465 6Washington$87,820 7California$85,388 8Utah$84,131 9Virginia$83,848 10Connecticut$83,771 11Colorado$82,067 12Alaska$81,818 13Minnesota$80,774 14Oregon$77,305 15Illinois$76,384 16Hawaii$76,285 17New York$74,314 18Georgia$74,063 19Rhode Island$74,008 20Wisconsin$73,014 21Nevada$72,618 22Pennsylvania$71,412 23Arizona$71,033 24Michigan$69,965 25North Dakota$69,478 26Texas$69,430 27North Carolina$67,671 28Delaware$67,016 29Iowa$66,122 30Missouri$65,795 31South Dakota$64,956 32Indiana$64,806 33Florida$64,666 34Nebraska$64,573 35Kansas$64,362 36South Carolina$63,718 37Ohio$61,891 38Maine$61,489 39Montana$59,955 40Tennessee$59,862 41Oklahoma$59,071 42Wyoming$58,845 43Louisiana$58,833 44Vermont$58,654 45Idaho$58,208 46Alabama$55,771 47Kentucky$54,942 48New Mexico$54,076 49Arkansas$52,664 50West Virginia$49,170 51Mississippi$47,519 The South Continues to Lag Behind Southern states like Mississippi, and Alabama have the lowest median household incomes, under $54,000. Economic mobility in these regions is often hindered by lower investment in public infrastructure and education. As https://www.brookings.edu/topics/poverty-5/#:~:text=Explore%20Brookings%27%20multidisciplinary%20examination%20of%20economic%20i%2C%20inequality%2C,mobility%2C%20and%20policy%20solutions%20to%20support%20inclusive%20growth.  notes, many Southern states also experience higher poverty rates and limited access to high-paying industries. States with Growing Incomes Several states in the West and Midwest—including Oregon, and Utah—are emerging with stronger income levels, typically in the $70,000-$80,000 range. If you enjoyed today’s post, check out https://www.voronoiapp.com/money/US-Workers-Earning-Under-17Hour-by-State-1726  on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 08:45 https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/income-family-needs-be-middle-class-state

Feminists Are Begging For Men To Come Back But Still Blame Them For Everything Feminists Are Begging For Men To Come Back But Still Blame Them For Everything https://alt-market.us/feminists-are-begging-for-men-to-come-back-but-still-blame-them-for-everything/ One rule has remained true for generations when it comes to the division between the sexes: Men are held accountable for everything, women accept accountability for nothing. Obviously, there’s going to be exceptions to the rule, but the majority of the time it is true that modern western women have a serious problem taking responsibility when things go wrong. They have been taught from a very early age that they are victims: Victims of men, victims of society, victims of “patriarchy”, victims of religion, victims of biology, victims of circumstance, etc. The feminist movement is built entirely around the notion that women can weaponize their victimhood as a means to control society. I continue to hold that feminism is the KEY movement that has undermined the success of western culture. Their zealotry has led to the destruction of the nuclear family (the most important factor in a healthy nation). They have helped to facilitate the near collapse of the west and this problem needs to be addressed before it’s too late. I recently came across an article in the New York Times which explains the decline in western relationships in a way that is both hilarious and depressing. The essay is titled https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/style/modern-love-men-where-have-you-gone-please-come-back.html . The author (a 50-something woman from Chicago) recalls the old days of dating when men were easy targets for exploitation. “We knew what worked. We knew how to frame a face, a gesture, a moment of implication — just enough to ignite fantasy and open a wallet. I came to understand, in exact terms, what cues tempt the average 18-to-36-year-old cis heterosexual man. What drew him in. What kept him coming back. It wasn’t intimacy. It wasn’t mutuality. It was access to simulation — clean, fast and frictionless…” “…That dynamic has quietly collapsed. We have moved into an era where many men no longer seek women to impress other men or to connect across difference. They perform elsewhere. Alone. They’ve filtered us out.” The author insinuates that the era of easy money and easy sex for women was a product of the masculine dynamics of competition and status (blame men). Yet, she also seems to be waxing nostalgic, longing for those days to return. This was the “Sex And The City” era in the late 1990s and early 2000s that was born from the sexual revolution of second wave feminism. It was the era in which female promiscuity and greed was glorified as the ultimate expression of women’s empowerment. The idea was to turn women’s early adult years into a Dionysian orgy; giving away sex to any man with decent looks and a fat wallet in the hopes of eventually trapping a lifetime pay-pig. Marriage and maybe family would come in their 30s (or maybe 40s), but not until they had achieved as much degenerate fun as they could muster. The problem is, women are on a biological clock, which is why for thousands of years marriage was THE primary concern for the fairer sex. To waste their 20s giving away their bodies for nothing? That was unthinkable insanity. This would doom them to decades of misery as lonely old maids living off the charity of others, and frankly nothing has changed. Childless cat ladies are still a thing and they are still embarrassing.  Only in the first world are these women able to survive. No one looks at a spinster and sees her as “powerful” or free. Everyone can smell her failure. Her desperation. Her cope. This is why, more and more, we are beginning to see a sense of panic among women who bought into the feminist con game. They’re realizing that men are not chasing them anymore. It started out as a joke among woke leftists who laughed at the “rise of incels”. The number of single men refusing to enter the dating world was skyrocketing and the feminists said this was a good thing. Let the “ugly scrubs” wallow in their loneliness while the ladies go out and gorge on freedom and fun until they get sick. However, the trend has continued to the point that a majority of men are checking out completely. Recent surveys reveal that https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/08/for-valentines-day-5-facts-about-single-americans/ ages 18-29 are single. Around 30% of men have not been sexually active for a year or more. In 1980, 60% of adults were married by the age of 25. Today, only 20% are married by age 25. Men are exiting relationships and marriage at record pace, and because men are the initiators of relationships (men are biologically designed to take risks and pursue), women are starting to feel the pinch. The latest data predicts that https://medium.com/the-savanna-post/45-of-women-estimated-to-be-single-and-childless-by-2030-1faf959b26cf ages of 25 to 44 will be single and childless by the year 2030, and not necessarily by choice. If a woman is single and childless by the time she reaches her mid-30s, her chances of creating a family drop exponentially along with her fertility. They are calling it the female loneliness epidemic and it’s bearing down on western society like a freight train. Even feminists are getting worried. As the New York Times opines: “There was a time, not so long ago, when even a one-night stand might end with tangled limbs and a shared breakfast. When the act of staying the night didn’t announce a relationship, just a willingness to be human for a few more hours. Now, even that kind of unscripted contact feels rare. We’ve built so many boundaries that we’ve walled off the very moments that make connection memorable…” “This idea that vulnerability is a threat instead of an invitation has created a culture of hesitation, of men circling intimacy but never entering it. And the result is thousands of tiny silos. Everyone performing closeness, but no one making a move that binds. Isolation. Loneliness. A hunger for contact that has nowhere to land…” But of course, the Times doesn’t seem to think women are culpable in the slightest for this outcome. Instead, they continue the blame game: “So here’s what I’ll say: You are missed. Not just by me, but by the world you once helped shape…” “We remember you. The version of you that lingered at the table. That laughed from the chest. That asked questions and waited for the answers. That touched without taking. That listened – really listened – when a woman spoke. You are not gone, but your presence is thinning. In restaurants, in friendships, in the slow rituals of romantic emergence. You’ve retreated – not into malice, but into something softer and harder all at once: Avoidance. Exhaustion. Disrepair. Maybe no one taught you how to stay. Maybe you tried once, and it hurt. Maybe the world told you your role was to provide, to perform, to protect — and never to feel…” Listen men, your lack of participation is starting to stress out the ladies. Just admit you can’t handle intimacy. Just admit you can’t handle these “powerful” women and their vast intellects and emotional genius. You need to be taught how to behave, that’s all. Just crawl back to them and they’re ready to tolerate you again. Isn’t that nice? They’re giving you a second chance… At no point does the author ask WHY men are exhausted? At no point does she ask any actual men what they think or feel before writing her nonsensical screed. Obscured by insufferable and flowery prose, she still blames men while asking them to come back. And that should tell you everything you need to know about feminism in general. I would ask feminists the million dollar question that they have avoided for so long:  Have you considered the possibility that men ghost you and will not commit to you because YOU are the problem?  The answer is no, obviously. I’m a man in my mid-40s who thankfully dodged the bulk of wokeness in the dating world, but I think I can still explain for the NYT why men are walking away if they’re willing to listen. 1) First, I must say that an author in her 50s still longing for casual sitcom encounters like she’s in her 20s reveals a lot about why modern women are oblivious. Real life is not Sex In The City – Most men of means do not gravitate towards long term relationships with women in their grandma phase. She should already be in a happy relationship or marriage, she’s had plenty of time to figure this out. Feminism has made women think they can engage with life on their own schedule. They can’t. 2) Men are especially wary of women with baggage. Women initiate 70% of breakups and divorces and feminist influence over family law has made divorce easier and more lucrative than ever for women. The older a woman is the more baggage she has and the less likely a man is going to want to date her seriously, let alone put an expensive ring on her finger. Western women have been taught they need to party in their 20s, then pursue serious relationships in their 30s or 40s. Meaning, they ignore their best prospects for at least a decade. Their ideology sets them up to enter the relationship market when their marriage value is lowest. 3) Men are no longer tolerating the concept of the sexual revolution. They don’t want to take any chances on women who think promiscuity is a virtue. They know that statistically, women who sleep around lack discernment, the ability to connect, self respect and mental stability. Starting a relationship with such a person will only lead to disaster. They never stay happy for long (the grass is always greener). And so, men stay home. Want to get them back? Keep your body count low. 4) Third-Wave Feminists spent the better part of the last 20 years telling men they are pure evil for being masculine and wanting to chase women. So, men did what you asked of them – They stopped chasing you. They found other more interesting endeavors like their careers and their hobbies. If you want men to come back, perhaps you should APOLOGIZE for all those years of slander. 5) Modern women have greatly overestimated the usefulness of sex as a bartering tool for securing a man. If you want a man to stick around you’re going to have to show him love and respect, not just what’s inside your pants. 6) Men are far more conditioned to be alone than women are. Women are communal creatures. They rely on constant interactions, affirmations and group inclusion. Social media might fill the void for a while but it can’t give them what they really want – Intimate personal attention 24/7. Only a partner and children can give you that. In a battle of who can endure loneliness longer, men will win, so don’t make it into a battle. 7) I’ll tell you the biggest open secret that modern women still don’t understand – They claim that men are afraid of approaching them. They say that men today are “weak” and that they can’t handle the new era of the “boss babe”. They argue that men need to abandon their traditional masculine roles and act more feminine; this will make it easier for everyone to get along. These are common jabs at the male ego designed to make men feel ashamed for distancing themselves from feminists. In reality, men value one thing above all else: Peace. If you can’t offer peace, then no man with any sense of self worth has a use for you. Feminists offer the opposite of peace, and so they have no value. 8) Feminism, like all Marxist movements, is obsessed with power. Everything they do is driven by a desire for power and control; not just over their own lives but over the world around them. Modern women say they want the same power as men, but they need to accept that no matter how much the scales are tipped in their favor through laws, government subsidies, easy college grants, DEI hiring and unfair divorce, they will never be like men. The author suggests that men no longer shape the world because they have abandoned the current relationship dynamic. This is foolish. Men continue to shape everything around you. Every utility, every necessity, every government, nearly every company, your safety and security, your ability to be free, it’s all reliant on men. You have no power and you never will. Feminist empowerment is a fantasy based on institutional leverage which men ALLOW them to have. Until they stop coveting power they can’t comprehend or handle the divisions between men and women will not be resolved. In short, if feminists want men to pay attention to them again, they will have to stop being feminists. Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Thu, 06/26/2025 - 17:00 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feminists-are-begging-men-come-back-still-blame-them-everything

Trump Expects Hamas Answer In 24 Hours On 'Final' Peace Proposal Trump Expects Hamas Answer In 24 Hours On 'Final' Peace Proposal President Donald Trump https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/trump-hamas-peace/2025/07/04/id/1217585/ Friday that it would likely become clear within 24 hours whether Hamas would accept what he described as a "final proposal" for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza. He also mentioned in the fresh statement that he had discussions with Saudi Arabia about broadening the Abraham Accords, in reference to the normalization agreements between Israel and certain Gulf nations established during his first term in office. On Tuesday Trump said that Israel had agreed to the terms required for a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which both sides would aim to work toward ending the lengthy war which has been raging in the wake of the Oct.7, 2023 terror attacks. A Hamas official on Thursday told the BBC that the Palestinian militant group is now "ready and serious" to reach a deal if it ended the war. That was in reaction to President Trump having said that Israel has agreed to the "necessary conditions" to finalize the proposed 60-day ceasefire in Gaza. Trump said the US would "work with all parties to end the War" - in a post on Truth Social. However, no details have been given on this particular ceasefire plan. Israel has not confirmed it agreed to any specific conditions as of yet. "I hope... that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better - IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE," Trump wrote. But what will the consequences be if Hamas refuses - more bombing of the Gaza Strip? Some details revealed in Israeli media have been presented https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-hamas-response-to-gaza-ceasefire-hostage-deal-should-come-in-24-hours/ : According to an unsourced Channel 12 report Thursday, Trump has https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-sides-await-hamas-response-to-truce-deal-trump-said-to-offer-personal-pledge-to-end-war/  a direct guarantee to Hamas that if it agrees to the so-called Witkoff framework — which includes the release of 10 living hostages in two phases and 18 bodies in three phases over the course of a 60-day ceasefire — the US will ensure efforts continue to reach a lasting end to the conflict. Israel is also believed to be under heavy US pressure to clinch a ceasefire deal ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington for talks with Trump next week. The prime minister is set to visit the White House on Monday. Trump also said Friday that Gazans have "been through hell" and that "I want the people of Gaza to be safe." But he didn't directly answer when a reporter asked if the US is still considering taking any security responsibility over the Gaza Strip as part of the proposed truce plan. Trump, in response to a question about whether he intends to control the Gaza Strip: I want the people of Gaza to be safe; that’s more important than anything else. They’ve been through hell https://t.co/pcXiPpwDBz — mahmoud khalil (@zorba222) https://twitter.com/zorba222/status/1940889029572284513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The plan that the Trump administration floated in February included the permanent relocation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and turning the land into a Mediterranean resort destination. No Arab or neighboring nation has stepped forward to say they would accept more Palestinian refugees. Almost all regional states have historically absorbed at least tens or hundreds of thousands. American security contractors are currently present in the Gaza Strip, controversially as part of a US and Israeli-backed humanitarian aid distribution program. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Fri, 07/04/2025 - 10:10 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-expects-hamas-answer-24-hours-final-peace-proposal

Why Do 1,000 Refugees Get Free Wimbledon Tickets While Long Suffering Locals Get None? Why Do 1,000 Refugees Get Free Wimbledon Tickets While Long Suffering Locals Get None? https://dailysceptic.org/2025/06/30/why-do-1000-refugees-get-free-wimbledon-tickets-while-long-suffering-locals-get-none/ Glancing upwards only to spot a drone hovering over their gardens last week was the last straw for residents of Welford Place SW19, whose homes overlook the much lauded All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC). While the eye in the sky probably belongs to an accredited broadcaster scouting out local colour ahead of the annual championships, the intrusion felt all too typical of the approach that the Wimbledon high command itself takes to its near neighbours. The annual championships may charm a world audience with its cultivated celebration of grass court tennis, strawberries and a nostalgic evocation of English fair play, but for neighbours this image, as carefully manicured as its famous lawns, is virtually shredded. From a highly controversial planning application to a woke offer of 1,000 free tickets for refugees, local Wimbledonians feel excluded as never before from the international spectacle on their doorsteps. Nowhere in the mainstream media’s fawning previews of Wimbledon 2025 has there been mention of the battle commencing next week in a quite different London court. On July 8th, just as the tournament heats up in its final week, a determined group of local activists is challenging the basis of planning permission granted by the Mayor of London’s office to the All England Lawn Tennis Club in the High Court. Save Wimbledon Park will be pinning its hopes on a judicial review. The group which has fought the plans tirelessly has secured pro bono legal support, but is still crowdfunding towards the £200,000 necessary to take their case to the High Court. At stake is a public park designed by Capability Brown and since designated metropolitan open land, with an adjacent golf course. In its place the All England Club intends to relocate its training facility to build 38 new courts, an 8,000-seat stadium, a 30,000 sq. ft maintenance operation and nine kilometres of roads and paths. Along with 21,000 locals who signed a petition in protest, the area’s neighbouring MPs (Lib Dem and Labour) are united in opposition, although after revisions the plans were approved by Merton’s Labour council and last September by the Mayor of London. Were it not for the determination of local activists it would have been game, set and match to the Wimbledon overlords. Along the way the AELTC had paid out nearly £80,000 to each of the golf club members, including Ant and Dec and Piers Morgan, for their share of the remaining lease on the land. To the club’s immediate neighbours its territorial ambitions having been making themselves blatantly clear for years now. Until recently, it was possible to drive past the club – along the only road directly connecting the busy London ‘villages’ of Wimbledon and Southfield – during the championships. A realistic fear now is that the ‘temporary’ road closures in place only in recent years under the questionable guise of security are set to become a permanent fixture. One clue lies on Somerset Road, the residential border of the existing site, where a public highway has been paved over by the AELTC almost as it if it is claiming its right of passage. A more transparent admission was made by the Club’s planning consultant at a GLA hearing last autumn when he admitted that public access to the new site would be heavily limited for most of the year. I made use of the final access before this year’s closure to drive past over the weekend only to see the AELTC is already making expansionist use of the parkland with new corporate hospitality suites, car parking facilities and family breakout areas. As a child growing up within the shadow of St Mary’s Church whose spire still graces the sundown closing titles of the BBC television coverage, I found proximity to the club, and the international circus it brought to town, thrilling. We all did. It was then quite common to see famous players enjoying a celebratory drink in a local bar, and more recently I spotted Roger Federer in black tie heading off to celebrate his first Wimbledon title. But like so much of sport, today’s AELTC has developed into a different beast. No longer a glamorous but approachable neighbour rooted in its local history, it has moved on; professionalising, commercialising, corporatising and now set on colonising its neighbouring green space. Whether we attended the championships or not it had felt like ‘our’ championships; now it feels like ‘theirs’, despite, or perhaps because of, this global behemoth’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) efforts. So how is the Goliath in this dispute looking to subdue the David on its green flank? By firing up its gold-plated community affairs operation. I still have family and friends living on the boundaries of the club. It is these immediate locals who in good spirits accommodate the traffic, the noise, the parking restrictions, even the requirement to prove their residency to lanyard-toting security youths just to gain access to their own homes for the duration of the championships. It wouldn’t take a PR genius to consider that the offer of tickets to these beleaguered locals might be an obvious place to start in winning them over. But instead neighbours learn from the latest championship newsletter that the focus for outreach appears to prioritise the global south over south-west 19. Whereas free ‘family events’ are offered to the qualifying competition, it is one thousand refugee guests and their support teams that are offered complimentary tickets to the event proper. Could this be a generous way to encourage newcomers to embrace the best of British? This would be a worthy endeavour, especially as the local demographic has changed dramatically in recent years so that it is as usual to see women who are completely covered as it is to see women in tennis gear. Cynicism aside – if the AELTC is extending ‘Love all’ with unapologetic pride in its history and the culture it represents it should earn the applause of Centre Court. If on the other hand, if this is a transparent play for the favour of local politicians and Sadiq Khan while a billion-pound development scheme remains in question, the utterly unaccountable behemoth that inhabits a beautiful site in South-West London will seem even less a well-intentioned neighbour than yet another entitled, globalised corporation with scant regard for its immediate impact. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 08:10 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-do-1000-refugees-get-free-wimbledon-tickets-while-long-suffering-locals-get-none

CIA Memo: Obama Team 'Excessively Involved' In Fueling Trump-Russia Narrative CIA Memo: Obama Team 'Excessively Involved' In Fueling Trump-Russia Narrative Authored by https://headlineusa.com/author/lcornelio/ , A newly declassified https://headlineusa.com/tag/cia  memo revealed that top officials within the Obama administration deliberately manipulated intelligence to exaggerate Russia’s purported 2016 election interference. This set the stage for the years‑long Trump‑Russia collusion probe.  The review, commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe in May 2025, https://www.cia.gov/static/Tradecraft-Review-2016-ICA-on-Election-Interference-062625.pdf  the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference. It found then‑CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and DNI James Clapper were “excessively involved” in framing the initial Russia narrative.  All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump. Thank you to the career https://twitter.com/CIA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw — CIA Director John Ratcliffe (@CIADirector) https://twitter.com/CIADirector/status/1940452440937263396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw On Dec. 6, 2016—just weeks after President Donald Trump’s election—then-outgoing President Barack Obama ordered the probe, concluding Vladimir Putin “aspired” to sway the vote.  However, according to the declassified 2025 review, Brennan, Comey and Clapper rushed the 2016 assessment in a “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” fashion, raising questions about a “potential political motive.”  The review found intelligence officials felt “jammed” by the rushed timeline, with many seeing the draft report for the first time at the sole in-person review on December 19. One CIA author called it “unusual” that so few changes were made to such a lengthy and high-profile assessment.  This rushed assessment ultimately cast doubt on Trump’s legitimacy and opened the door to the Mueller investigation, partisan congressional hearings, and countless media leaks.  “All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump,” Ratcliffe said, thanking CIA officers who conducted the review. New York Post columnist Miranda Devine broke the story on https://nypost.com/2025/07/02/us-news/obamas-trump-russia-collusion-report-was-corrupt-from-start-cia-review/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost , revealing the review’s damning conclusions.  The review confirms what was already widely known in conservative and Republican circles: Brennan, Comey and Clapper were the political architects of the Trump-Russia hoax.  https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Thu, 07/03/2025 - 12:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cia-memo-obama-team-excessively-involved-fueling-trump-russia-narrative

French Left-Wing MPs Introduce Amendment To "Reduce" Coverage Of Migrant Crime Stories French Left-Wing MPs Introduce Amendment To "Reduce" Coverage Of Migrant Crime Stories https://rmx.news/article/france-left-wing-mps-introduce-amendment-to-reduce-coverage-of-migrant-crime-stories-claim-right-wing-parties-create-a-moral-panic-around-immigration/ When reality does not mesh with the “narrative,” the left’s standard tactic is to turn to censorship, and the French left is no different. The French Greens and other left-wing parties now want to make sure that news stories are not used for ideological purposes by the “far right,” claiming that certain media outlets are causing a “moral panic” around immigration due to migrant murders. According to a parliamentary amendment tabled on June 25, 2025, by a group of Green and left-wing MPs in the National Assembly, news stories of actual events that have happened, and actual lives lost, are being improperly used by the right. Amendement de l'écologiste Taillé-Polian sur le texte audiovisuel public : il "mène une réflexion éditoriale sur la place qu'occupent les faits divers dans la couverture de l'actualité." Et oui, l'exposé sommaire parle bien des meurtres de Lola et de Thomas. https://t.co/Q4b9YGQFMA — David Delorme-Ⓜ️onsarrat (@David_Del_Mon) https://twitter.com/David_Del_Mon/status/1940132621692154006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Another post from the French Observatory for Journalism ,wrote: “BREAKING NEWS | Green and left-wing deputies submit an amendment to REDUCE the coverage of crime stories in PUBLIC media. The authors believe these stories are used for ‘political exploitation;’ the text cites the murders of Lola and Thomas.” 🚨ALERTE INFO | Des députés écologiste et de gauche déposent un amendement pour RÉDUIRE la couverture des faits divers dans les médias PUBLICS. Les auteurs considèrent que ces faits sont utilisés pour "récupération politique" ; le texte cite les meurtres de Lola et de Thomas. https://t.co/KL5ohIXTt4 — Observatoire du journalisme (Ojim) (@ojim_france) https://twitter.com/ojim_france/status/1940392919414047175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The amendment calls for public media outlets to “conduct an editorial review of the role of news stories in news coverage.” French National Rally parliamentary leader, Marine Le Pen, wrote in response to the new amendment. “Political control and the concealment of information are hallmarks of totalitarian ideologies. The Greens, who have been drifting toward the far left for years, are taking a new and alarming step in this tendency to curb freedom of expression, a cornerstone of democratic societies. The French must be aware that their right to know is now clearly threatened by these fundamentally anti-liberty measures,’ she wrote on X. Le contrôle politique et la dissimulation de l’information sont des marqueurs des idéologies totalitaires. Les verts qui dérivent depuis des années vers l’extrême gauche franchissent un nouveau pas inquiétant dans cette propension à brider la liberté d’expression, fondement des… https://t.co/JOzbq2oJlz — Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/1940433613964660909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The text put forward by the left cites the case of https://rmx.news/crime/lola-demonstration-triggers-probe-into-far-right-organizers/ . The authors of the amendment claim that these news stories were then rehashed with “racialist semantics” by politician and leader of the Reconquête party in France, Éric Zemmour, and other allegedly radical right-wing figures. The amendment denounces the creation of concepts such as “Francocide” and “savagery” in relation to these crimes. It also specifically cites the influence of French news outlets like CNews, Valeurs actuelles, and what it claims is the “fascism sphere” of news reporting. The politicians who launched the amendment denounce that these factual news stories were used for “political gain,” to the detriment of neutral reporting. More than 6,000 people turned out for a march through the French town of Romans-sur-Isère on Wednesday in memory of Thomas, a 16-year-old boy stabbed to death on Sunday by a group of youths who gatecrashed the winter ball in nearby Crépol and shouted how they "wanted to kill… https://t.co/JhaIGBXHuy — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1727335413314892062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw They denounce the structuring of a media space close to the far right, accused of exploiting news stories to advance a vision of security and identity. A number of social media users reacted negatively to the tabled amendment. “Move along, there’s nothing to see. They don’t want the French to know what’s happening all over the country, that’s for sure counterproductive for them. Promoting diversity and ethno-cultural replacement when we know the consequences,” https://x.com/Ian_031_/status/1940402551633170491  one user. Citing the image of drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, which many credit with sparking the 2016 migrant wave after it was editorially weaponized to justify open borders, one user wrote: Bien évidemment ça ne concernera pas les faits divers de gauche. https://t.co/Mw4jsCGm25 — John 🗺️🧬 (@Johndoephth) https://twitter.com/Johndoephth/status/1940399366885552547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Notably, the cases of Lola and Thomas are just two of thousands of such cases involving crime and immigration in France in recent years. In France, https://rmx.news/crime/france-foreigners-commit-69-of-robberies-violent-crimes-and-sexual-assaults-on-public-transport/ , according to official data. 🇫🇷 Marseilles. France The French port city is now a major narcotics hub for Europe. Last year, a 15-year-old was stabbed 50 times and burned alive in the drug violence as murders hit record highs. This is the "New France." https://t.co/2ueIZ5BKH4 — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1908116262875525378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw In France, the statistics are greatly misleading, as many of the French citizens committing violent and serious crimes are the children of immigrants or the grandchildren of immigrants. Zemmour has faced prosecutions for alluding to this fact, saying that many of the suspects are French citizens with a migration background. “The entire French society doesn’t resort to savagery. Then, what is it? We know who the savagery comes from,” he said. “We all know who commits these assaults. We all know who ran over the police officer Melanie. We all know who killed the bus driver in Bayonne. We know who breaks everything at amusement parks. We know who spoils the beaches of Marseille. We know who is forbidden in a swimming pool in Switzerland. We know all that. We know who it is: 99.9 percent are the children of North African and African immigrants,” said Zemmour, according to https://rairfoundation.com/frances-eric-zemmour-on-migrant-crisis-we-know-who-the-savagery-comes-from-despite-media-cover-up/ , which translated his remarks on the Face à l’Info program. Zemmour, an Algerian-born French Jew who previously worked for Le Figaro, was referencing crimes against French people by migrants or citizens of migrant descent, including Philippe Monguillot, a bus driver who was https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bus-driver-beaten-to-death-passengers-face-masks-france/  after he asked them to wear their masks when they got on his bus without tickets. In addition, he mentioned the https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/qui-etait-melanie-lemee-la-gendarme-de-25-ans-decedee-lors-d-un-controle-20200706  by Youcef T., who dragged her with his vehicle for nearly a kilometer and then left her to die. In other words, the cases of Thomas and Lola are just two cases in a sea of such cases. They only became symbols of a wider societal problem that is rocking France to its core. France’s issues with i, including a https://rmx.news/article/number-of-murders-and-attempted-murders-rose-by-91-in-france-since-2000/  in murders since 2000, highlight the fact that it is not “right-wing propaganda” driving the public to the right, but instead a serious and statistical reality that the French face on a daily basis. The war against news outlets like CNews is far from simply an effort from the left, with ongoing https://rmx.news/france/macron-government-could-move-to-crush-media-rival-cnews-known-for-airing-conservative-views-by-revoking-its-license/ , as Remix News has reported in the past. https://rmx.news/article/france-left-wing-mps-introduce-amendment-to-reduce-coverage-of-migrant-crime-stories-claim-right-wing-parties-create-a-moral-panic-around-immigration/ https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sat, 07/05/2025 - 07:00 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/french-left-wing-mps-introduce-amendment-reduce-coverage-migrant-crime-stories

These Are The 50 Poorest Countries By GDP Per Capita In 2025 These Are The 50 Poorest Countries By GDP Per Capita In 2025 GDP per capita offers a quick litmus test of how wealth is generated per person within a country. By dividing total economic output by population, it levels the playing field between nations of very different sizes. The infographic, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-50-poorest-countries-by-gdp-per-capita-in-2025/ . All values are in 2025 U.S. dollars. Data is missing for Afghanistan, Eritrea, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Palestine. ℹ️ GDP per capita doesn’t account for: local prices, currency exchange rates, or distribution variance within the country. There’s also a more existential question of whether economic output can be equated to wealth. Measuring Relative Economic Productivity South Sudan is the poorest country in the world in 2025, with a $251 GDP per capita. More startlingly, India makes the list as well. It’s the 50th poorest by GDP per capita ($2,878), a rare case of a https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-115-trillion-world-economy-in-one-chart/  by GDP having low levels of individual productivity. Rank Country Region GDP Per Capita (2025) 1 🇸🇸 South Sudan Africa $251 2 🇾🇪 Yemen Middle East $417 3 🇧🇮 Burundi Africa $490 4 🇨🇫 Central African Republic Africa $532 5 🇲🇼 Malawi Africa $580 6 🇲🇬 Madagascar Africa $595 7 🇸🇩 Sudan Africa $625 8 🇲🇿 Mozambique Africa $663 9 🇨🇩 DRC Africa $743 10 🇳🇪 Niger Africa $751 11 🇸🇴 Somalia Africa $766 12 🇳🇬 Nigeria Africa $807 13 🇱🇷 Liberia Africa $908 14 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone Africa $916 15 🇲🇱 Mali Africa $936 16 🇬🇲 Gambia Africa $988 17 🇹🇩 Chad Africa $991 18 🇷🇼 Rwanda Africa $1,043 19 🇹🇬 Togo Africa $1,053 20 🇪🇹 Ethiopia Africa $1,066 21 🇱🇸 Lesotho Africa $1,098 22 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso Africa $1,107 23 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau Africa $1,126 24 🇲🇲 Myanmar Asia $1,177 25 🇹🇿 Tanzania Africa $1,280 26 🇿🇲 Zambia Africa $1,332 27 🇺🇬 Uganda Africa $1,338 28 🇹🇯 Tajikistan Asia $1,432 29 🇳🇵 Nepal Asia $1,458 30 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste Asia $1,491 31 🇧🇯 Benin Africa $1,532 32 🇰🇲 Comoros Africa $1,702 33 🇸🇳 Senegal Africa $1,811 34 🇨🇲 Cameroon Africa $1,865 35 🇬🇳 Guinea Africa $1,904 36 🇱🇦 Laos Asia $2,096 37 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe Africa $2,199 38 🇨🇬 Congo Africa $2,356 39 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands Oceania $2,379 40 🇰🇮 Kiribati Oceania $2,414 41 🇰🇪 Kenya Africa $2,468 42 🇲🇷 Mauritania Africa $2,478 43 🇬🇭 Ghana Africa $2,519 44 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea Oceania $2,565 45 🇭🇹 Haiti Americas $2,672 46 🇧🇩 Bangladesh Asia $2,689 47 🇰🇬 Kyrgyz Republic Asia $2,747 48 🇰🇭 Cambodia Asia $2,870 49 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire Africa $2,872 50 🇮🇳 India Asia $2,878 N/A 🌎 World World $14,213 Nigeria (8th poorest, $807) is another less dramatic example of large economy whose population brings down its GDP per capita. However, the gap between the poorest and even moderately poor countries is vast. South Sudan at $251 per capita has roughly one-eleventh the GDP per capita of India at $2,878, despite both making this list. Some Pacific island nations also appear on the list (Solomon Islands, Kiribati). These small, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-five-smallest-countries-by-gdp-size-in-2025/  face unique economic challenges with limited diversification opportunities. This seems counterintuitive, since other small islands (especially in the Caribbean) tend to be some of the https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-top-10-tax-havens/  in the world. However there is difference between the two groups. The latter have historical colonial relationships that provide institutional advantages—like sophisticated legal and financial infrastructure. Regional Trends Amongst the World’s Poorest Countries Noticeably, most of these economies are clustered in Sub‑Saharan Africa, with a handful from South Asia and the Pacific. Chronic conflict, fragile institutions, and limited industrial bases continue to suppress income growth in many of them, even as the global economy rebounds after the pandemic. Africa in particular is heavily underrepresented on the world stage. It accounts for 19% of https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-population-vs-gdp-by-global-region/  and only 3% of the $113 trillion world economy. Want to see how the other half lives? Check out: https://www.voronoiapp.com/economy/Ranked-GDP-Per-Capita-by-Country-in-2025-5370  on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Wed, 06/25/2025 - 04:15 https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-50-poorest-countries-gdp-capita-2025

U.N. Quietly Lowers Population Forecasts U.N. Quietly Lowers Population Forecasts https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/06/24/un_quietly_lowers_population_forecasts_152945.html For decades, we’ve been told that the world’s biggest problem is too many people. From Malthus in the 18th century to “The Population Bomb” in the 1960s, the warnings were dire: More people would mean more famine, more poverty, more environmental destruction. But something unexpected has happened. The demographic math has changed. And the United Nations, the world’s most cited authority on population forecasts, has taken notice. Until recently, their models predicted that the global population would continue to grow throughout the 21st century, reaching a peak of nearly 11 billion by the year 2100. But in its 2022 and 2024 revisions, the U.N. quietly lowered its global population projections. The https://population.un.org/wpp/  puts the peak at just 10.3 billion, and it comes nearly two decades earlier, around 2084. That might still sound like a big number. But it’s a sharp departure from the “endless growth” assumptions many policymakers, investors, and institutions still use to guide their decisions. The real story is not just that the U.N. is forecasting fewer people. It’s that many demographers believe that even those numbers are still too high. Fertility Collapse The shift in projections isn’t happening because people are dying faster. In fact, life expectancy continues to rise, albeit modestly, in most parts of the world. The big change is that people are having fewer children – much fewer. Around 1970, the global fertility rate (the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime) was about five children per woman. Today, it’s down to 2.25 and falling. In nearly 70% of the world’s countries, fertility rates are already below the so-called “replacement rate” – the level needed to maintain a stable population. In developed countries, that’s typically pegged at around 2.1 children per woman. In higher-mortality countries, it is slightly higher. This global fertility decline has happened faster than most experts expected. And that’s why the U.N. has revised its models twice in just the last five years. But not everyone thinks the U.N. has gone far enough. Over the last decade, several independent teams of researchers have developed alternative population projections. Most of them show that fertility will drop faster than the U.N. is predicting. A team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), for example, gained wide attention in 2020, when it projected that the global population would peak around 2064 at just over 9 billion and decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100. Wolfgang Lutz, one of the world’s most respected demographers, has also published projections showing a lower and earlier population peak. Lutz’s group at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital bases its models on education and urbanization trends, which are closely tied to fertility behavior. In a 2024 analysis of surveys involving over a million women in Sub-Saharan Africa, Lutz and his co-authors concluded that fertility rates there are falling faster than expected, especially as female education improves. In their 2019 book, “https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Planet-Global-Population-Decline/dp/1984823213/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5LMDDXOJHZD0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JXIcUTUuPvWSPF77QyS0rsGOsK85RMqyZHdCnVvZ_zrbOWTdi_vCGK1O9oL9QtrgRV7RpYhs8qSOKAEIUvB3KGMsuJBlbqKBKhpHCMdwHUCJdtQe6gp7PQdTxo8-7-bLMkqyvCgTp3l0tt5ST0rPFhkv2F_FbDXDb0wcOaTVDprKzc3XNe5E9XiI6GPb5LndafpnR-nW1ZPZhyQ25JgEJ1AgPJFzn7aPram_ttIOZ0Y.nXCWWNGmIvZ94EQQaXbxjqG9fDqBPe4iz08GZqIX0Eo&dib_tag=se&keywords=empty+planet&qid=1750345227&sprefix=empty+planet%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1 ,” Canadian journalists Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson summarized the case for the likelihood of the lower projections. While not academic demographers, they conducted extensive interviews and focus groups in about a dozen countries, asking women about their thoughts on family and childbearing. They concluded that the fertility collapse is as much cultural as economic, and that the cultural factors will drive down fertility rates further and faster than in the past. “Predictions are hard – especially about the future.” So said that famous American philosopher, Yogi Beara. As a result, all models use probabilistic variations that incorporate a wide range of possible futures. For example, while the U.N.’s median projection sees a peak at 10.3 billion in 2084, their model also includes a low-fertility scenario, in which the population peaks around 2060 at 9.5 billion and declines from there. That lower path aligns more closely with the academic projections. It’s All About Africa The fertility rate has already fallen to or below the replacement rate in countries where nearly three-quarters of the world’s population lives. In another 15%, the rate is only just above the replacement rate and is falling fast. However, there are about two dozen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Southwest Asia where the rate is still very high. Although these countries only account for about 11% of the world’s population, they will contribute nearly all of whatever population growth there is between now and whenever the population peaks. The common denominators in the countries that have kept birth rates high are a blend of religious fundamentalism (particularly fundamentalist Islam), limited international engagement, and weak state capacity. Nonetheless, the birth rate is falling in these countries, albeit to varying extents. Most of the debate over the trajectory of future global population boils down to how fast and to what extent these countries will follow the same fertility decline seen in the rest of the world over the last 50 years. Why This Matters The population projections we rely on shape everything from how we plan cities to how we fund pensions. They inform immigration policy, school construction, military recruitment, and long-term economic growth assumptions. If those projections are off by a billion people or by two decades, that is not just a rounding error. It’s a seismic shift in the underlying math of the future. However, most institutions continue to operate on autopilot, assuming that a growing population – encompassing more workers, consumers, and taxpayers – is the natural order that will persist indefinitely. However, the data clearly indicate that the era is rapidly coming to a close and the age of population growth is ending. Indeed, in some places, it already has. For the past three years, China has reported a decline in its population. What follows, and how we react to it, is one of the most critical and least understood stories of our time. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Tue, 06/24/2025 - 20:55 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/un-quietly-lowers-population-forecasts

​​​​​​​Strait of Hormuz Disruption Fears Surge After Former Iranian Minister Threatens Transit Restrictions ​​​​​​​Strait of Hormuz Disruption Fears Surge After Former Iranian Minister Threatens Transit Restrictions JPMorgan's forecast of triple-digit Brent crude prices could soon be a reality as conflict risk in and around the Strait of Hormuz intensifies. The waterway, which handles roughly 20% of global oil trade, remains one of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints. Any disruption, particularly amid growing military escalation between Iran and Israel, could impact energy flows worldwide and send prices soaring.  The most concerning sign of potential maritime disruption in the Strait of Hormuz emerged in the overnight hours via a https://x.com/Khandoozi_se/status/1935052780219118000 by former Iranian Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi. While unofficial, the timing and seniority of the comment may reflect broader regime sentiment—or serve as a warning of what's to come. "Starting tomorrow, for 100 days, no oil tankers or LNG cargoes will be able to pass through the strait without Iran's approval," Khandouzi said.  He stated, "This policy is decisive if it is implemented "in a timely manner." Any delay in its implementation means enduring more war inside the country. Trump's battle must be ended with a combination of economy and security."  Such messaging, especially when paired with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval activity in the region, raises the increasing probability of IRGC actions targeting commercial shipping lanes in the strait. This escalation could serve as the catalyst that turns https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-could-hit-130-worst-case-scenario-jpmorgan Brent crude forecast from a scenario into a market reality. Some more excerpts from the https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/oil-could-hit-130-worst-case-scenario-jpmorgan :  A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—the world's busiest oil-shipping channel—would shut down the region's oil trade, supercharging oil prices. The skinny waterway—at its narrowest point it is only 21 miles (33 km) wide— separating the UAE, Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean, and facilitates the movement of some 30% of the world's seaborne oil trade and 20% of the world's LNG supply (Table 1). Widespread GPS jamming has been reported across the strait for the last several days: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chokepoint-watch-gps-jamming-impacts-tankers-across-strait-hormuz Which unfolded into a maritime disaster early Tuesday when crude oil tanker Front Eagle slammed into the port quarter of the tanker Adalynn, sparking a massive fire on Adalynn, and concerns about a potential ecological disaster have surged.  https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/tanker-collision-near-strait-hormuz-amid-gps-signal-degradation ⚠️ Harrowing images of dark fleet tanker ADALYNN (IMO #9231767) post collision. https://t.co/Y1FUBNNtis — Ed Finley–Richardson (@ed_fin) https://twitter.com/ed_fin/status/1934958125766856897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw All in all, the world's most critical maritime chokepoint appears to be in the crosshairs of the Iranian regime. On Tuesday, President Trump met with his national security team for over an hour to discuss the Middle East and later held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The key question now is whether the U.S. will enter the conflict. If it does, a shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is almost guaranteed—setting the stage for global energy markets to be thrown into turmoil. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Wed, 06/18/2025 - 07:20 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/strait-hormuz-disruption-fears-surge-after-former-iranian-minister-threatens-transit

Not Just The EPA: Despite Warnings, Biden's Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion In Its Final Hours Not Just The EPA: Despite Warnings, Biden's Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion In Its Final Hours https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/06/30/shovel_ready_despite_warnings_bidens_energy_department_disbursed_42_billion_in_its_final_hours_1119426.html , In its last two working days, the Biden administration’s Energy Department signed off on nearly $42 billion for green energy projects – a sum that exceeded the total amount its Loan Programs Office (LPO) had put outhttps://www.energy.gov/lpo/loan-programs-office . The frenzied activity on Jan. 16 and 17, 2025, capped a spending binge that saw the LPO approve at least $93 billion in current and future disbursements after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election in November, according to documents provided by the department to RealClearInvestigations. It appears that Biden officials were rushing to deploy billions in approved funding in anticipation that the incoming Trump administration would seek to redirect uncommitted money away from clean energy projects. The agreements were made despite a warning from the department’s https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-watchdog-calls-on-loan-office-to-suspend-financing/ , urging the loan office to suspend operations in December over concerns that post-election loans could present conflicts of interest.  In just a few months, some of the deals have already become dicey, leading to fears that the Biden administration has created multiple Solyndras, the green energy company that went bankrupt after the https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/04/12/remembering-solyndra--how-many-570m-green-energy-failures-are-hidden-inside-bidens-instructure-proposal/ . These deals include: Sunnova, a rooftop solar outfit that thus far had $382 million of https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/what-happens-to-sunnovas-doe-loan-guarantee-if-it-files-for-bankruptcy/ . The company did not respond to a request for comment. Li-Cycle, a battery recycling facility, had a $445 million loan approved in November, but since then, the company was put up for sale and has https://investors.li-cycle.com/news/news-details/2025/Li-Cycle-Obtains-Creditor-Protection-Under-CCAA-and-Chapter-15/default.aspx . The Energy Department said no money has been disbursed on that deal. Li-Cycle did not respond to a request for comment. A $705 million loan was approved on Jan. 17 for Zum Energy, an electric school bus company in California, and its https://www.energy.gov/lpo/articles/lpo-announces-conditional-commitment-zum-services-inc-deploy-battery-electric-school At $350,000 and more, electric school buses currently cost more than twice as much as their diesel counterparts. So far, Zum has received $21.7 million from the government, according to usaspending.gov. The company did not respond to a request for comment. A $9.63 billion Blue Oval SK loan on Jan. 16 was the second largest post-election deal, topped only by a $15 billion loan the next day to Pacific Gas & Electric, with most of that for renewables. The Blue Oval project in Kentucky – a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean entity – has been dealing with https://archive.is/jtXOk . More than $7 billion has been obligated on that deal, according to the Energy Department. Blue Oval did not respond to a request for comment. The money and the hasty way in which it was earmarked have drawn the attention of the Trump administration. “It is extremely concerning how many dozens of billions of dollars were rushed out the door without proper due diligence in the final days of the Biden administration,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement to RCI. “DOE is undertaking a thorough review of financial assistance that identifies waste of taxpayer dollars.” The enormous sums came from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which injected $400 billion into the LPO, a previously sleepy Energy Department branch originally intended to spur nuclear energy projects. That total represented more than 10 times the amount the LPO had ever committed in any fiscal year of its existence. Prior to the post-election blowout, the office’s biggest fiscal year was 2024, when it committed $34.8 billion, records show. Even with the rush to push billions out the door in its last months, close to $300 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act money remains uncommitted by the LPO. Trump administration officials have already nixed some smaller deals. Secretary Wright recently urged Congress to keep the money in place as the LPO now aims to use it to further the Trump administration’s energy policy, particularly with nuclear projects. That unprecedented gusher of cash from the LPO echoes the efforts of the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to push $20 billion out the door before it left office. As RCI has previously reported, the EPA – which had never been a consequential grant-making operation – was tasked with awarding $27 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding through the https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/22/overnight_success_bidens_climate_splurge_gives_billions_to_nonprofit_newbies_1066437.html in which Biden officials parked some $20 billion outside the Treasury’s control. That money was earmarked for a handful of nonprofits, some of which had skimpy assets and were linked with politically connected directors. The LPO’s post-election bonanza was put together in even less time. The Energy Department deals, however, involve mostly for-profit enterprises, which raises questions about whether the Biden administration was propping up companies that would not have survived in the private marketplace. Should any of the companies hit it big in the future, shareholders could get rich, while taxpayers will receive only the interest on the loan. “The loan office should not be in the virtual venture business,” said Mark Mills, executive director of the https://energyanalytics.org/ . “But in a few cases, it could make sense to serve as a catalyst or backstop for viable and important projects from a national security or policy perspective.” RCI spoke with several Trump administration officials who declined to comment on the record, given the extensive ongoing review of both the LPO’s post-election arrangements and other Energy Department projects linked to Biden’s climate agenda. “They wanted to get the billions to companies that probably wouldn’t exist unless they could get money from the government,” one current official said. “The business plans, such as they were, were ‘how do we secure capital from the government?’” During Biden’s tenure, the office was run by Jigar Shah, who on June 17 was named to the board of directors of the https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clean-energy-entrepreneur-jigar-shah-140000987.html . https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/330936366/202423049349301947/full . The center did not respond to a request to speak with Shah. Thus far, no entity has received the entire amount of the deals the Biden administration struck since last November, according to the Energy Department and usaspending.gov. In a handful of cases, companies have come to the current administration and opted out of the deals. Still, millions of taxpayer dollars have already been distributed, in some instances, to deals the department listed as “conditional commitments.”  Wright has said there are https://archive.is/BNiPO#selection-1501.0-1504.0  about the post-election binge, and vowed some of the deals will be scrubbed.  In 2023, the Biden administration made subtle https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/05/30/2023-11104/loan-guarantees-for-clean-energy-projects , cutting strings and stipulations that traditionally attach to loans. Consequently, the office cut deals after the election on terms more favorable to the recipient than the taxpayer, and in several cases, making a “conditional commitment” the same as a loan, according to Trump officials. The changes also moved money that a later administration could have cut into “obligated” silos, making the deals harder to cancel, according to the current Energy Department. “Essentially, they had the Loan Program Office operating like a graveyard energy venture capital fund,” one Trump official told RCI. “This was all tied to the religious fervor for any green energy project in the prior administration, and the goal was not to get the government repaid but to advance the ‘green new deal.’” The $93 billion under review represents a separate “green bank” from smaller Biden administration deals that the Energy Department has already canceled. Last month, the Government Accounting Office said the department was not on track to “issue loans and guarantees before billions of dollars of new funding expires.” As part of the review, Wright issued https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-wright-announces-new-policy-increasing-accountability-identifying-wasteful  that he said offer more protection to taxpayers. The department may now require significantly more information from loan recipients and applicants, such as “a project’s financial health, a project’s technological and engineering viability, market conditions, compliance with award terms and conditions and compliance with legal requirements, including those related to national security.” The department declined to provide the terms of specific deals, again citing the ongoing review. Trump administration officials claim the business plans for many of these deals were threadbare, that term sheets were essentially tossed out, and the entire process could be described, in the words of a Biden EPA official in December, as “throwing gold bars” off the Titanic https://www.projectveritas.com/news/epa-advisor-admits-insurance-policy-against-trump-is-gold-bars-off-titanic Despite these dubious outcomes and the alleged removal of taxpayer protections that accompanied the deals, Trump administration officials said they remain committed to the LPO. The office has a valuable role to play in fulfilling energy policy goals, which include nuclear projects, strengthening the nation’s power grid, and limiting the U.S. reliance on Chinese supply chains for key minerals and elements. “It’s as if you went away and the kids threw a rager in the house,” one official told RCI. “You may need some new furniture and the like, but it’s still a really nice home. The Office can be a critical resource for the manufacturing base of this country, and our goal is not to end the LPO but to improve it.” The Trump administration could face some of the same financial issues if it rejiggers the LPO along lines that support its energy policy goals, particularly within the nuclear industry. Projects there have been marred by https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/11/Nuclear-Power-Dilemma-full-report.pdf and massive cost overruns and delays in construction, making federal loans to the section inherently risky.  Prominent voices – and investors –  https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/bill-gates-is-backing-this-geothermal-company-will-trumps-republicans  with a subsidiary of EnergySource Minerals LLC (ESM), which hopes to extract lithium from geothermal brine. A deal with https://www.ioneer.com/ ." The https://www.ioneer.com/rhyolite-ridge-project/about-rhyolite-ridge/  project is a mining and manufacturing center in Nevada to produce lithium and boron. Those elements have implications for defense and national security in addition to energy, according to ioneer Vice President Chad Yeftich.  “Ioneer believes government policy should encourage projects if we want critical minerals developed domestically,” Yeftich said. “Time is the key risk for development as China continues to provide financial support to its critical minerals industry and dump critical minerals into the market thereby depressing the price.” Yeftich noted Rhyolite Ridge has secured $200 million in private capital, but in February, its chief private equity partner broke ties with the project. Finance professionals familiar with big deals told RCI that such a rupture so close in timing to the loan would likely deep-six the arrangement, but Trump officials said Biden’s LPO stripped such boilerplate language from many of the post-election deals.  Secretary Wright told RCI that these maneuvers suggested the previous administration was more interested in disbursing funds than protecting taxpayers. “Any reputable business would have a process in place for evaluating spending and investments before money goes out the door, and the American people deserve no less from their federal government.” https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Wed, 07/02/2025 - 12:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/not-just-epa-despite-warnings-bidens-energy-department-disbursed-42-billion-its-final

Spy Satellite Uncovers Massive Stealth Flying Wing At Secretive Chinese Base Spy Satellite Uncovers Massive Stealth Flying Wing At Secretive Chinese Base China is well aware that Western spy satellites, including those operated by the U.S., maintain constant overhead surveillance of high-value military assets, such as bases and research facilities.  The deliberate exposure of a previously unseen, large, low-observable flying-wing HALE (High-Altitude Long-Endurance) unmanned aerial vehicle at the Malan test facility may not have been an accident.  Instead, it appears to be a deliberate act of signaling by Beijing to the Trump administration, highlighting the rapid acceleration of China's next-generation air combat capabilities at a time when the global security environment is rapidly deteriorating. With the war in Ukraine ongoing and tensions in the https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-proclaims-total-air-superiority-over-iranian-capital-area-war-intensifies , Beijing's timing suggests an intent to assert technological parity and deterrence against the U.S. Broadly speaking, the world is entering a more dangerous and unstable era — a shift from a unipolar world with the U.S. in control to a bipolar geopolitical order, where volatility is expected to intensify throughout the 2030s. https://www.twz.com/air/massive-chinese-stealth-flying-wing-emerges-at-secretive-base cited new satellite spy images via Planet Labs that show the previously unseen HALE drone at a secretive test base near Malan in Xinjiang province.  Massive Stealth Flying Wing Emerges At Secretive Chinese Base This appears to be China's largest high-altitude, long-endurance drone, and one that has clear low observable qualities. Exclusive: https://t.co/NNbs6SyxCq — Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1934259291629945312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw "Specifically, the craft was parked outside of a sprawling new facility that was built very recently to the east of the base, connected to it by a very long taxiway leading to a security gate," Rogoway said. Rogoway pointed out the drone's design resembles that of the B-21 Raider and possibly the U.S. RQ-180, with clipped wingtips, a domed center section (likely housing engines or systems), and possibly small vertical stabilizers to aid flight stability. This drone may mark a significant leap in China's next-generation drone combat ecosystem, possibly supporting or integrating with other platforms, such as the H-20 bomber, J-36, and smaller tactical drones — mirroring the U.S. approach.  https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sun, 06/15/2025 - 19:15 https://www.zerohedge.com/military/spy-satellites-uncover-massive-stealth-flying-wing-secretive-chinese-base

Senate Passes Trump's $3.3 Trillion Tax And Spending Bill Senate Passes Trump's $3.3 Trillion Tax And Spending Bill Update (1207ET): The Senate has passed the GOP's tax & spending cuts bill by a vote of 51-50.  🚨 BREAKING: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill has officially PASSED the U.S. Senate, with JD Vance breaking the tie It now heads back to the House for a vote on the changes made. It COULD still hit Trump’s desk by July 4th. https://t.co/qszGm5sAt3 — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1940079165778067822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw It now heads back to the House... *  *  * After more than 21 hours of continuous voting, late-night negotiations, and a rare floor appearance by Vice President J.D. Vance, Senate Republicans remained mired in division early Tuesday over President Donald J. Trump’s $3.3 trillion tax and spending proposal, raising fresh doubts about the survival of his signature legislative priority. At the center of the impasse is Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, who has struggled to unite a fractured GOP conference around the sprawling bill. dubbed by Trump as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” - which includes sweeping tax cuts, a $5 trillion debt ceiling increase, significant Medicaid reductions, and a rollback of clean energy subsidies. Currently, eight major Republican holdouts remain opposed or undecided. With only a razor-thin margin for defections, Thune can afford to lose just three votes. Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have declared their opposition, and Maine’s Susan Collins is leaning no. That leaves Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — a perennial swing vote — as the potential deciding factor. Thune and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) spent the early morning hours huddling with Murkowski, offering compromises and tweaks to the bill in hopes of flipping her vote. “I think we’re going to get there,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House Tuesday morning. “It’s tough. We’re trying to bring it down, bring it down so it’s really good for the country.” But that optimism was not yet matched on the Senate floor, where votes on dozens of amendments continued into a second day. A visibly weary Thune said shortly after 5 a.m., “We’re getting to the end here,” though it remained unclear whether he had secured the votes. Both Thune and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) insist there's a deal to pass the bill, but we shall see...  BREAKING: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) says Republicans have the votes to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill in the U.S. Senate, according to Fox News. “Yeah we got em.” https://t.co/evCSYxn8mG — RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) https://twitter.com/RedWave_Press/status/1940048103572443525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Tensions Boil Over on Medicaid, SNAP, and Debt Ceiling Murkowski’s objections stem largely from the bill’s steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which could hit Alaska’s vulnerable populations particularly hard. Efforts to carve out protections for the state were dealt a blow when Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled key provisions in violation of the Byrd Rule, which restricts what can be included in budget reconciliation bills. Negotiators scrambled to rewrite the language. A compromise on delaying SNAP cuts based on Alaska’s progress in improving administrative error rates appeared to gain traction. But language aimed at providing Alaska with an enhanced Medicaid funding match had not yet cleared MacDonough’s scrutiny by early Tuesday. Meanwhile, Paul has proposed replacing the $5 trillion debt ceiling hike with a far smaller $500 billion increase — a move he argues would preserve leverage for deeper cuts in a follow-up reconciliation bill. But most Republicans see the idea as a nonstarter. “I don’t want anything,” Paul said when asked if he could be persuaded to support the package in exchange for concessions. A Late-Night Drama on the Floor Just before dawn, Murkowski was seen shaking her head repeatedly during an intense discussion with Thune, Crapo, and fellow Alaskan Sen. Dan Sullivan, https://punchbowl.news/archive/7125-am/  reports. At one point, she and Thune left the chamber to confer privately in his office. Though Thune called it “just chatting,” it was clear that GOP leaders were pulling out all the stops to secure her vote. The ongoing drama frustrated even Democrats. “There’s still no text,” one exasperated Democratic senator told https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5378354-trump-bill-senate-vote-vance-thune/?email=c14f3288a64818ecb98f8e0573beceb318faed57&emaila=eb3b115abed24cacb59032280aed3dee&emailb=67a847116066088d41479c6f1dae9ff2f033f69b05a6b0ce26810fdcc2c7acc9&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07.01.25%20RS%20-%20Breaking%20Alert%20-%20Vance . “Have you seen what’s going on, on the floor, I’ve never seen anything like that,” the lawmaker continued. Meanwhile Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Republicans of “slow-walking” the bill to buy time for internal negotiations. “They’ve made a lot of promises, contradictory promises to different parts of their caucus,” Schumer said on MSNBC. Amid the floor chaos, senators did pass a bipartisan amendment, 99 to 1, to strike language in the bill that would have barred states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade in a blow to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). The language was removed over concerns about consumer and child safety raised by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Other proposed amendments, however, failed. Collins’ bid to double the bill’s rural hospital relief fund to $50 billion - funded by restoring the top marginal tax rate for ultra-high earners, was rejected by a wide margin. A conservative amendment to roll back Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act has yet to receive a vote but threatens to split the conference further: if it fails, hardliners like Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rick Scott (R-FL) may walk away. If it passes, moderates like Murkowski and Collins could defect. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, equated Collins’ amendment to “a band aid on an amputation.” Her amendment would have increased the top tax rate on individuals earning more than $25 million in a year to 39.6%. -https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-30/one-big-beautiful-bill-means-senate-all-nighter-with-divided-republicans Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), joined by Murkowski, has been circulating an amendment to soften the bill’s rollback of clean energy incentives. The Ernst amendment would delay the expiration of wind and solar credits, and remove a new excise tax on projects using components from China and other foreign adversaries. Fiscal hawks oppose the change, arguing it waters down promised savings. And then we go back to the House... Even if the Senate manages to pass the bill, trouble awaits in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is under pressure from both moderates and Freedom Caucus hardliners, many of whom are dissatisfied with the Senate’s deeper Medicaid cuts and smaller spending offsets. Part of the calculus is to strip language that could threaten the bill’s odds in the House, which is planning to vote on the Senate measure later this week. The House’s own version of the bill passed by a single vote. The Senate’s deeper Medicaid cuts — which caused Tillis to defect — will put pressure on swing-district Republicans, while Freedom Caucus hardliners are angry that the Senate bill would create larger deficits than the House-passed measure. -Bloomberg “This bill doesn’t deliver what we promised,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said, citing insufficient relief on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. LaLota supported the House version but has vowed to oppose the Senate’s. Behind the scenes, Johnson has been urging Senate Republicans to use a “wraparound” amendment - a final catch-all tweak to the bill, to restore some House provisions, including provider tax language and SNAP reforms. But expectations of a major rewrite at the eleventh hour are slim. “I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please, please, please put it as close to the House product as possible,” Johnson said Monday. But few on Capitol Hill took that hope seriously. In short, it's still a shit show even if Thune and Mullin claim otherwise... for now.  *  *  * Grow your own food with https://store.zerohedge.com/wise-food-storage-heirloom-seed-vault-39-varieties-4-500-seeds/?utm_source=zerohedge.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=store_promo   Free shipping in the USA. https://store.zerohedge.com/wise-food-storage-heirloom-seed-vault-39-varieties-4-500-seeds/?utm_source=zerohedge.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=store_promo https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Tue, 07/01/2025 - 12:08 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eight-gop-holdouts-threaten-passage-trumps-33-trillion-tax-and-spending-bill

Col. MacGregor: Dear President Trump, Keep America First - Not Israel first, Not Ukraine First Col. MacGregor: Dear President Trump, Keep America First - Not Israel first, Not Ukraine First Authored by https://x.com/DougAMacgregor/status/1934083238630154312 (ret.) In the last 72 hours, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iran when negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing. Iran was caught off-guard. But Iran recovered more quickly from its Pearl Harbor moment than Israel expected. In less than 18 hours after Israel’s surprise attack, Iran responded firing hundreds of ballistic missiles including hypersonic missiles into central Tel Aviv and across Israel. Meanwhile, Israel's Iron Dome failed. Israeli intelligence failed. Now Netanyahu is pleading with Washington to intervene with American Military Power to rescue Israel from certain defeat; a defeat Netanyahu crafted with encouragement from Washington. At the same time, Russia, China, Pakistan and most of the Muslim World are rallying to Iran’s defense. Supplies, equipment and technical assistance are pouring into Iran. It’s time for a reality check: Washington burned through $12 trillion in the Middle East since 2003. Result? 7,000 dead Americans. 50,000 wounded, open borders and 100,000 Americans dying yearly from Fentanyl poisoning. Today, the United States is $37 trillion in debt, a sum that does not include so-called “agency debt.”   77 million Americans voted for President Trump because he promised to end the overseas conflicts and halt the march to WW3. Trump’s mandate is unchanged: Secure America’s borders, ports and coastal waters. Deport illegal aliens, crush the criminals r-ping and murdering Americans. Restore the rule of law. But not one more drop of American blood for foreign wars. One Israeli strike on Kharg Island—where 90% of Iran's oil exports flow—or Bandar Abbas terminals, and Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz. That's 20% of global oil supply. That means disrupted supply chains and runaway inflation. Gas hits $7/gallon overnight. Every working family crushed. Truckers can't deliver food. Economy crashes. For what? So Israel that started this insane war can drag Americans into a wider regional conflict with the potential for nuclear war?   We have 40,000 troops in UAE, Qatar, across the Persian Gulf. They are sitting ducks. Iranian Shahed-136 Drones cost $20,000 each. American Patriot Missiles cost $4 million per interceptor. Do the math. We will run through our inventory of missiles and go broke while Americans come home in boxes.   The Middle East is on the brink. Here's what Washington must do to defuse conflict:   1. Ask for an Emergency UN Security Council meeting. Ask for an Immediate ceasefire making it clear that Washington opposes the destruction of Iran, Israel and any other state in the Middle East.   2. Demand that Israel stop the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and withdraw its forces from Gaza and the West Bank. 3. Suspend all military aid to Israel until Israel agrees to remove its troops from Gaza and permit humanitarian assistance to reach the people of Gaza. 4. Propose the commitment of Armed Forces from non-aligned nations to police Gaza and the West Bank. 5. Propose that the United States, Russia, China, India and Brazil convene a peace conference to arbitrate the dispute between Israel, Iran and Israel’s neighbors.   I led American Soldiers under fire into action. I've seen plenty of flag-draped coffins. I don’t want to see any more. Washington’s warmongers had 22 years. They failed. They lied. They profited while America bled. Time's up.   America First means AMERICA FIRST. Not Israel first. Not Ukraine first. Not NATO first. AMERICA FIRST. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sun, 06/15/2025 - 18:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/col-macgregor-dear-president-trump-keep-america-first-not-israel-first-not-ukraine

America's 75,000 Page Horror Story America's 75,000 Page Horror Story https://www.schiffgold.com/commentaries/the-75000-page-horror-story While most of the American government can be characterized by regulatory overgrowth, few areas loom larger in the public imagination than the Tax Code. This reputation is well earned, https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Most-Serious-Problems-Tax-Code-Complexity.pdf   Hundreds of years of revisions have left American taxpayers in an unenviable situation. While tax rates are at historic highs, the complexity of the Tax Code itself presents enough problems to be worthy of a complete renewal. The first problem with the Tax Code complexity is that enforcement has become such a nightmare that https://www.schiffgold.com/commentaries/trump-needs-the-money-printer  cannot begin to properly enforce it. The next problem is that the tax code’s complexity unfairly benefits those with time, resources, and ironically, money, to spend avoiding taxation, allowing the richest and most unethical to benefit from the web of confusion. The last problem with the tax code is that it creates a fundamental rift between the American people and the government through providing a realistic view into the complexity and self-contradictory nature of the state. The IRS is much maligned by anyone who wants to keep their well learned money, yet one of their greatest problems they face is that https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-15/irs-job-cuts-will-slow-processing-of-returns-on-tax-day-and-beyond  of the tax codes mean that the source document for enforcement provides much less clear guidance than can be found at other agencies. Only a small part of the tax code can be enforced, and the subjective choice about what part that is allows a lot of room for corruption and uncertainty. Additionally, the IRS bears the burden of punishing people who unknowingly violated the tax code while being unable to hunt down those who use its complexity to their advantage. A simplified Tax Code would benefit the IRS both strategically and administratively.  https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/tax-avoidance-top . The IRS’ inability to enforce the Code along with the massive opportunity for abuse make complicated tax laws a boon for their intended targets. At the root of the American identity is a repulsion to taxation. Of course some taxation is necessary for any government to exist, but https://budget.house.gov/press-release/cato-institute-poll-americans-want-congress-to-pair-tax-cuts-with-significant-spending-reforms#:~:text=Taxes%20Are%20Already%20Too%20High,spending%20to%20balance%20the%20budget.  but forcing a massive and extremely complicated set of laws to come into contact with nearly every American, every year, does little to repair the bond that has been severed. The worst stereotypes of the Federal Government are shown to be true in the tax codes’ bland display of bureaucratic rot and excess. Before the level of taxation can be discussed, we must first recognize the blatantly terrible practicalities of the tax code. It is both theoretically and practically compromised. It does no good for those enforcing it or those it is being enforced upon. While a simplified tax code might not provide a special case for every possibility in human life, https://www.schiffgold.com/guest-commentaries/free-markets-from-competition-to-cooperation . Some good things would not be as heavily incentivized by tax credits, but the deletion of the miasma of confusion that currently exists would allow Americans of all types to flourish.  https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Mon, 06/30/2025 - 17:40 https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/americas-75000-page-horror-story

DHS Respond After 'Violent Rioters' Storm ICE Facility, Assault Law Enforcement Officers DHS Respond After 'Violent Rioters' Storm ICE Facility, Assault Law Enforcement Officers The Department of Homeland Security has responded after anti-ICE protesters in Portland, Oregon stormed an ICE facility and assaulted federal law enforcement officers on Saturday.  "Secretary Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law," reads a post on X. "If you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Violent rioters in Portland, OR stormed an ICE facility after launching fireworks, hurling smoke grenades, and throwing rocks at federal law enforcement. Our heroic law enforcement secured the facility. Four officers were injured. Secretary Noem’s message to the rioters is… https://t.co/9bXdgz6c8P — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/1934276749434527804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Multiple police officers were injured Saturday night in the attack - which included a mob launching fireworks, smoke grenades and rocks at federal law enforcement, causing property damage as they forcibly entered the ICE facility.  Four officers were injured in the attack, which came after the city hosted a "No Kings" protest at 1 p.m. - which was framed by officials as a "large-scale free speech gathering."  ANTIFA members have attacked ICE officers in Portland and forced the inside the facility gates. Portland PD is providing no assistance. It is time for the National Guard to intervene in Portland. https://t.co/8JiipiVxGc — Uncle Mike (@MikeHicksX) https://twitter.com/MikeHicksX/status/1934115448632615287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Tens of thousands of people showed up to march through downtown and returned to Waterfront Park around 4 p.m. - around five miles from the ICE field location, https://www.foxnews.com/us/officers-injured-portland-rioters-breach-ice-building-explosives-rocks  reports. Every single person in America needs to watch this This is happening LIVE right now in Portland Oregon at an ICE location Democrats have destroyed the property, taken out the doors, trashed it, wrote ‘Fuck ICE’ and graffiti everywhere They are SCREAMING threats at officers.… https://t.co/g7uHMn0Ejr — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/1934149506179989598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw At around 6:30 p.m., the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) declared an unlawful assembly, while at around 8 p.m. they observed criminal activity - including assault and criminal mischief, and announced that they would be making targeted arrests. "Portland rioters are violently targeting federal law enforcement and we won’t sit idly by and watch these cowards," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sun, 06/15/2025 - 18:05 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dhs-respond-after-violent-rioters-storm-ice-facility-assault-law-enforcement-officers

Top Iranian Cleric Issues Fatwah Calling For All Muslims To Seek Vengeance On US, Israel Top Iranian Cleric Issues Fatwah Calling For All Muslims To Seek Vengeance On US, Israel In a new fatwah which appears clearly aimed at the United States, Israel, and their respective leaders Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, a top Iranian Shia cleric has called on Muslims to take vengeance as Islamic 'warriors'. Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a longtime prominent Shia religious authority, said in the new edict that any individual or government that threatens or assaults the the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Shia nation's religious authority in an effort to harm the 'Islamic Ummah' and its governance is considered an enemy of Islam, or one who wages war against God. Grand Ayatollah Makarem was reportedly responding in the edict to question put forward by his followers is https://en.mehrnews.com/news/233797/Anybody-who-threatens-Leader-Shia-Marja-is-Enemy-of-God : "Any person or regime that threatens the Leader or Marja (May God forbid) is considered an enemy of God," Grand Ayatollah Makarem said in his Fatwa, according to Iranian state media. His rank and authority within the Iranian religious establishment is at the highest level for a Twelver Shia religious cleric, under the Supreme Leader. He added according to a translation that "any cooperation or support for that enemy by Muslims or Islamic states is haram or forbidden. It is necessary for all Muslims around the world to make these enemies regret their words and mistakes." He also described that if a Muslim who "does his duty suffers hardship or loss in their campaign, they will be rewarded a fighter in the way of God, God willing." While he didn't specifically mention US President Trump in his fatwah, this is precisely how some are taking it. IRAN: Grand Ayatollah tells “Muslims of world” to kill POTUS Trump. Makarem Shirazi: “Anyone threatening or acting against Supreme Leader is Mohareb (enemy of Allah, designated for killing)… If harm comes to you in this mission, you will be recognized as (warriors) of Allah.” https://t.co/nwofafw7Zp — Khosro K Isfahani (@KhosroIsfahani) https://twitter.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/1939303311146139863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The White House has already alleged there was a prior plot to assassinate Trump, in a case last year; however, Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never actually directly called for the American leader's death. But likely, more minor clerics within Iran have done so. This past week Trump directed a series of Truth Social messages at the Khamenei. For example, he said "Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth." Trump then told Khamenei: "You got beat to hell." This was of course in reference to the major B-2 bombing raids on Iran's nuclear facilities. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Mon, 06/30/2025 - 09:05 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/top-iranian-shia-cleric-issues-threatening-fatwah-directed-us-israel

Leftist Protesters Attempting "Global March To Gaza" Get Beaten And Arrested In Egypt Leftist Protesters Attempting "Global March To Gaza" Get Beaten And Arrested In Egypt There is perhaps no group more tiresome and naive than western progressives; constantly seeking to socially engineer not just their own nations, but nations on the other side of the world.  If they can't do it through the monetary manipulation of subversive bureaucratic institutions like USAID, then they will try to do it directly with protests, marches and mobs.  The problem is, no one likes them and no one wants them around.  The tolerance they enjoy in Europe and the US does not exist in other countries and they don't seem to get it. Just as leftists ignorantly demand multiculturalism without understanding the inevitable and violent consequences of inviting the third world into the west, they also tend to invite themselves overseas into the backyards of civilizations that despise everything the political left supposedly stands for. Thousands of activists, primarily from western countries, have descended on Egypt this week for a “Global March to Gaza,” a movement aiming to break the Israeli blockade that they argue has pushed the region to the brink of famine.  Some 4,000 volunteers from over 80 countries joined the protest, according to organizers.  This number is unconfirmed and footage of arriving protesters shows much smaller groups. They planned to land in Cairo, take buses to the city of Arish in northern Sinai, and then march around 30 miles through the desert peninsula to the Egyptian side of the Gaza border at Rafah. Organizers said the activists would sleep in tents along the route and expected to arrive at the border on Friday. The idea was clearly ill conceived from the beginning, with protesters believing they have the ability to march 30 miles across the Egyptian desert towards a war zone without interference, but the group never actually made it beyond Cairo.  Egyptian authorities detained at least 200 pro-Palestinian activists in Cairo on Thursday (with more reportedly being held).  Among the detainees were people from Australia, France, Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. Footage shows activists being beaten by an angry mob of Egyptians (possibly security forces) after they attempted a sit down protest and locked arms. FAFO: Democrats arriving in Egypt planning to ‘March to Gaza’ in solidarity with the Palestinians are being attacked and thrown out by Egyptians who won’t tolerate Palestinian sympathizers. https://t.co/mTWLMiTDa0 — @amuse (@amuse) https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1933703980623761674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw They also claimed to have been beaten by Egyptian police after they were arrested.  Most of the activists are now being deported back to their countries of origin. As Israel’s war in Gaza enters its 21st month, high-profile international campaigners are becoming increasingly active in their attempts to "break the siege" (or steal the spotlight).  Recently Israel intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship, the “Madleen,” detaining its passengers and taking them to Israel.  Among the activists on board was Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg and French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan. At bottom, the events in Gaza and the Middle East have nothing to do with the western populace and the circumstances go well beyond the limited understanding of first-world progressives.  These are not places or cultures where civil protest is permitted.  These are cultures where violence is the first and only means of societal change.  One cannot effectively intervene if one foolishly believes first world strategies can be applied to third world problems. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Sun, 06/15/2025 - 16:55 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/leftist-protesters-attempting-global-march-gaza-get-beat-and-arrested-egypt

WEF Claims It Will Take 123 More Years To Achieve Full Gender-Parity Globally WEF Claims It Will Take 123 More Years To Achieve Full Gender-Parity Globally It will take 123 years to reach full gender parity globally, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/ . While progress has been made since the report started in 2006, https://www.statista.com/chart/34694/share-of-the-gender-gap-closed/ that an analysis of the constant set of 100 economies included since that year shows that such change is moving slowly. Over the years, the report’s scope has expanded, with a total of 148 countries analyzed in the 2025 edition. Analysts created an index scoring and ranking these countries on their respective levels of gender equality, where 100 percent is considered full parity. The latest report found that the world has now closed 68.8 percent of the gender gap, marking an improvement of +0.3 percentage points since the 2024 edition. This change was calculated based on a constant set of 145 economies in both years. But this global figure hides the huge variation that exists in the different subindexes and even those subindexes’ own components. https://www.statista.com/chart/34694/share-of-the-gender-gap-closed/ You will find more infographics at https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/ While it would take 17 years for equal educational attainment to be reached, it would take 135 years to close the gap in regards to economic participation and as many as 162 years for political gender parity to be reached. This is based on the trend of the population-weighted averages for the 100 constant economies featured in all editions of the index (2006-2025). Wide variation exists across countries too. For example, the five lowest ranked countries under the economic subindex are Sudan (31.3 percent), Pakistan (34.7 percent), Islamic Republic of Iran (34.9 percent), Egypt (40.6 percent) and India (40.7 percent). At the top end of this subindex are Botswana (87.3 percent), Liberia (86.5 percent), Eswatini (85.6 percent), the Republic of Moldova (85.3 percent) and Barbados (84.8 percent). The political empowerment subindex shows the widest variation across economies, ranging from just 0.6 percent in Vanuatu to 95.4 percent in Iceland. The report states that out of the 148 places covered, only nine had closed more than half of the political empowerment gap. These were: Iceland, Finland, Bangladesh, Norway, UK, Nicaragua, New Zealand and Germany. https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden Fri, 06/27/2025 - 21:20 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wef-claims-it-will-take-123-more-years-achieve-full-gender-parity-globally