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Questions Are Piling Up Fast As Pratt Suddenly Loses Second Place In LA Mayoral Vote

Update (2200ET): In a stunning shift, 9 days after the actual election day, LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman has suddenly overtaken former reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race on Sunday, the latest election results show.

"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes." - Stalin https://t.co/G3iT14i3gI pic.twitter.com/hwRJP8kmff

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 8, 2026

With 83.2% of the expected vote in, Democratic incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who NBC News projected on election night will advance to the November runoff, maintained her lead with 250,871 votes, or 34.68%, according to the updated vote tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Sunday afternoon. Raman has 27.12% of the ballots counted so far, surpassing Pratt, who has 26.69%. She is now ahead of him by 3,113 votes.

Although no news outlet has projected which candidate will face Bass in November, Bass' campaign released a statement following Sunday's drop, referring to Raman as the mayor's "general election opponent."

Spencer Pratt took to social media:

"A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday.."

43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before...?

Probably nothing. 🤷 https://t.co/W2E3k6PHyR pic.twitter.com/ZfzHCy9enb

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 8, 2026

This post on X summed up the general farce well...

"How did a blue city only increase votes for Nithya by mail, without increasing votes for Karen Bass? This is fraud"

Don't forget, "democracy" itself is at stake here...

Remember everyone…we are still in the lead, and we’ve got allllllll the way til July 6th to keep counting. They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes 😉 pic.twitter.com/rqgIcwUtGZ

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 7, 2026 What a fucking joke!!!

*  *  *

Spencer Pratt entered election night with momentum, a measurable polling advantage, and what looked like a path to one of the two runoff spots in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Days later, the outcome is still unknown, and Pratt's path to the runoff is narrowing fast. Late-arriving mail-in ballots have methodically eroded his margin over Nithya Raman, and the trajectory has prompted pointed questions about how California counts its votes and who benefits when the process drags on for weeks.

California's jungle primary structure allows two candidates from the same party to advance to the general election, and it is widely believed that Democrats intentionally designed this system to ensure Republicans would be shut out of general elections. If Raman overtakes Pratt, the November ballot will feature two Democrats, freezing out the candidate who ran as the race's most prominent outsider voice on crime and homelessness in a city that has become a symbol of both.

As of the latest available count, Pratt's lead over Raman sits at just over 7,000 votes, a margin of under one percent, with roughly 22 percent of ballots still waiting to be counted. Pre-election polls had Pratt leading Raman by three to four points, and the expectation was that he would advance to the November runoff.

The gap between those projections and the current count grows harder to square with each new ballot drop. In the most recent batch, Raman pulled approximately 40 percent of the vote, compared with Pratt's 18 percent. Even Democratic incumbent Karen Bass, the race's front-runner, captured only 33 percent of that same drop. The remaining candidates split what was left.

The slow-rolling count and the bizarre trend of Raman getting the lead over all candidates in the mail-in vote have drawn national attention.

And former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), is blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom. "The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I'll tell you, it's Gavin Newsom," McCarthy said on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. "When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month."

He continued, "Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?" He went further on the structural shifts that preceded the current chaos. "We had cut off voter registration 30 days before the election. That helps the registrars to know who's going to vote and the candidates. Now we have same day voter, and you don't have to show ID. Gavin changed the rules where he mails ballots to everyone. So he took away the choice to Californians to vote in person or to vote absentee. Everybody gets mailed a ballot. But he didn't clean up the rolls. So that raises doubt in people's minds."

That doubt has found a louder audience online. Robby Starbuck posted a breakdown on X that laid out the ballot-drop pattern in stark visual terms.

Spencer Pratt is likely going to be overtaken by far left Nithya Raman today. This graph shows the count on Election Day through last night.

Nithya did this by suddenly winning 1st in every new ballot drop.

North Korean "elections" have more self respect. Even they'd find it absurd for 3rd to suddenly jump to 1st place in every ballot drop DAYS after an election. It's just ludicrous. pic.twitter.com/fL0nU5k8Ma

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

Starbuck followed that with another post on Sunday morning that demonstrates just how unlikely it is that Raman would be performing so well in the mail-in ballots.

ChatGPT can't find a single example of a 3rd place candidate surging, days AFTER Election Day, to overtake 2nd place.

It couldn't find 1 example in all of American history. That's what's happening with Nithya Raman & Spencer Pratt.

Los Angeles has 3rd world country elections.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

Mail-ins arriving before Election Day:

Bass: 38.1%
Pratt: 27.9%
Raman: 20%

Mail-ins arriving after Election Day:

Raman: 37% (+17% surge)

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 7, 2026

Elon Musk entered the conversation by pointing to what he sees as the underlying mechanism. "The reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud," Musk wrote on X, replying to Starbuck's post. "When you combine no ID and mail-in voting, fraud is de facto legalized."

Voters watched Pratt finish a solid second in the polls and on election night, then saw that lead steadily shrink as waves of late-arriving ballots were added to the count. When a state with California's resources still can't produce timely, transparent results in one of the nation's most closely watched elections, skepticism is inevitable.

If Pratt ultimately loses a runoff spot, it will become yet another flashpoint in the growing national debate over whether Americans can trust how elections are conducted and counted.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 22:10

Oil Jumps After Israel Strikes Military Targets In Iran, Ignoring Trump Pleas Not To "Strike Back" Summary

• Despite Trump's pleading to Netanyahu not to respond, Israel launched missiles at Iran striking military targets inside the country. 
• Iran fires missiles on Israel, after IDF unleashed deadly airstrike on Beirut earlier Sunday.
• Despite Trump saying on Sunday that he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike ​back, an Israeli official warned that "There will be a forceful response."
• Sunday is day 100 since President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury.
• Ghalibaf warns after IDF escalation in Lebanon: US & Israeli bases, assets in region are 'legitimate targets'.
• Talks stuck on unfreezing assets: "Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran," Iranian Gen. Mohsen Rezaei told CNN. "This is our own, not America's money."
• Defying Washington, Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz (Fars).

//--> //--> US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 15, 2026?
Yes 7% · No 94%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  * 

Oil Spikes After Israel Strikes Military Targets Inside Iran, Ignoring Trump's Pleas

Ignoring Trump's pleas not to respond to Iran's earlier strike, the Israel Defense Force has confirmed that it has launched strikes in the last few minutes against military targets in Western and Central Iran.

The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2026

According to unconfirmed reports, explosions were heard in at least 6 cities across Iran, including Kermanshah, Urmia, Tehran, Mehrabad, Tabriz, Isfahan.

Israeli strikes on Najafabad, western Iran. pic.twitter.com/5QezAUbp2k

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) June 8, 2026

Iran's decision is a slap in the face for Trump who earlier had communicated with Israel's Netanyahu, pleading the PM not to strike back.

The move, which will make Trump look even more powerless as he can't control either Iran or Israel, sent oil surging over $3 in late Sunday trading, with WTI last just around $94 and Brent below $97.

 

*  *  *

Trump Presses Israel To Hold Back

President Trump said on Sunday he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike ​back after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for an attack on the outskirts of Beirut, news outlet Axios reported. 

Iran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. would depend on a ‌ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. But Israel earlier on Sunday launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the U.S. announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

The Israeli military later said it had identified missiles launched from Iran and that its defense systems had intercepted them. Details on whether Israel suffered any damage were not yet available.

Trump, who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had been briefed about the escalation between Iran ​and Israel, a U.S. official told Reuters. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"It's certainly not going to help negotiations," Trump told Fox News after the Iranian missile launches. "What I would suggest to Iran: ​You've shot your missiles, that's enough, get back to the table and make a deal."

Asked about the earlier Israeli strike on Beirut, he said: "I'm not happy about it." Trump ⁠also told Axios he would call Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate.

Iran's chief peace negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said U.S. bases and Israeli assets are legitimate targets because of hostile acts including the "violation of agreements over Lebanon." "They showed that they ​only understand the language of power," he wrote on X.

۱/ نه به آتش‌بس پایبندند نه به گفتگو باور دارند، و با محاصرهٔ دریایی و نقض توافقات دربارهٔ لبنان نشان دادند که فقط زبان قدرت می‌فهمند.

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) June 7, 2026

Ebrahim Rezaei, an influential hardline lawmaker who serves as spokesperson for the Iranian parliament's national security committee, posted on X that Iran would deliver a "decisive and painful response" to Sunday's Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

به حمله رژیم صهیونسیتی به ضاحیه پاسخ قاطع و دردآور خواهیم داد. این سگ هار را باید تأدیب کرد و سر جایش نشاند.
امشب آسمان سرزمین‌های اشغالی را ببینید.

— ابراهیم رضایی (@EbrahimRezaei14) June 7, 2026

Iran ​has not targeted Israel directly since a ceasefire in the wider war in April, although Hezbollah has done so.

In turn, an Israeli official, responding to the apparent threat, told Reuters that Israel would retaliate against any attacks on its territory from Iran, and consider it "an opportunity to renew the campaign".

Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that Trump launched in February with a campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.

"We're very close to a deal, or I'm ​going to blow the hell out of them," Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course. Trump has said a similar version of the same news for much of the past month. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes on Sunday on Beirut's southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh that has long been a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel. The Israeli military earlier said it had intercepted two projectiles fired over the border. It issued an evacuation order for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and surrounding areas ahead of possible strikes there.

Elsewhere in Beirut on Sunday, mourners ​held a military funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, a ​senior military officer killed in a strike on his ⁠vehicle in south Lebanon on Saturday.

The wider war has been stalemated since the U.S. and Israel paused their attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for Middle East oil. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Though Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary agreement that ​would reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that have included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting U.S. bases.

Early on Saturday, U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar ​sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, ⁠both in the strait, after shooting down drones launched by Iran that U.S. Central Command said posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the U.S. military said late on Saturday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated against U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait's army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.

Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from ⁠developing a nuclear ​weapon, and he is under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated. 

Tehran's ​demands include the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions, recognition of its sway over the strait and the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets. However, as reported earlier, Washington is weighing making Iranian assets available to Gulf neighbors to repair damage inflicted by Iran. Iran's Deputy Foreign ​Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Sunday any such diversion of Iranian assets would be illegal, and Tehran would take measures in response.

* * * 

Iran Launches Missiles On Israel In First Since April

Tehran makes good on its earlier threats, after the IDF conducted a deadly airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier Sunday. Day 100 of the war has seen a major renewal and escalation, again bringing Iran and Israel into a likely state of all-out war, per WSJ:

Iran fired missiles toward Israel on Sunday, after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Beirut hours earlier targeting the Tehran-backed militants Hezbollah, Israel’s military said.

It marks the first time Iran has targeted Israel during its ceasefire with the U.S. that went into force in early April.

The attack came after Tehran threatened to hit Israel and American bases in the Middle East in response to the airstrike on the Lebanese capital, the first time Israeli warplanes have targeted Beirut since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced by the U.S. last week.

So is the ceasefire dead yet?

BREAKING: Trump to Fox News:

What I would suggest to Iran: You've shot your missiles, that's enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.

Source: @TreyYingst

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

President Trump has continued to maintain adherence to it, and days ago suggested that a 'moderate' amount of firing doesn't necessarily mean a broken ceasefire.

WATCH: Iranians celebrate missile strikes targeting Israel. pic.twitter.com/CzQKenllnN

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

Israel earlier confirmed an airstrike on a Hezbollah headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut. Iran last week warned again hitting Beirut, saying it would assure US and Israeli bases and assets in the region would come under new attack. The earlier warning is reviewed as follows: 

• Iran's military said Israel had "crossed all red lines" in intensifying its attacks in southern Lebanon and targeting the south Beirut suburb of Dahieh.
• "If it expands its attacks in that area, or responds to Iran's action, it will face more forceful blows, and devastating attacks will be launched" against Israel and its supporters, the military added.

Video of reported initial inbound projectile on Israel circulating...

A third round of sirens sound in northern Israel, after the IDF intercepted several Iranian ballistic missiles. No initial reports of injuries or damages.

A senior Israeli official tells Israeli media: “There will be a forceful response.” pic.twitter.com/BixzsXOrhs

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 7, 2026 US, Israeli Bases are 'Legitimate Targets': Iran Issues Fresh Threat

On Sunday Tehran ramped up its threats to renew ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel and America's Gulf allies, describing that the Israeli military's ongoing deadly attacks on Lebanon could obliterate the extended ceasefire with the US

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on X that the ongoing American naval blockade against the Islamic Republic, with Washington having given a green light to Israel for its attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon, turns both countries' bases and assets in the region into “legitimate targets.” The last days even saw a Lebanese general and other officers killed by IDF airstrike in south Lebanon.

"They neither abide by a ceasefire nor believe in negotiations," Ghalibaf wrote.

Below is the latest Bloomberg summary on where stalled negotiations stand... to be expected it cites "little progress":

"The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war Washington and Israel began 100 days ago, as fresh attacks pile pressure on a fragile ceasefire," Bloomberg writes, and continues:

• The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8.
• Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the fate of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets and a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• US Central Command said early Sunday it downed two Iranian attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial to global energy exports that’s also been at the heart of discussions.
• On Friday, six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach their intended target, hours after four unmanned craft headed to Hormuz were shot down, Central Command said. The US struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, it added.

Talks Stuck on Unfreezing Iran's Assets

The U.S. and Iran remain stuck in preliminary talks to end the war, with the main obstacle being Tehran's demand for access to billions of dollars in frozen assets and the Trump administration's refusal to provide upfront cash or broader sanctions relief. Tehran is seeking about $12 billion upfront and $24 billion during a proposed 60-day negotiation window.

"Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran," Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran's top official, told CNN on Friday. "This is our own, not America's money."

For the Trump administration, releasing frozen funds for Tehran is optically displeasing because the president spent years blasting the Obama administration over the $1.7 billion Iran payment tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, and later criticized the Biden administration's move to allow Iran access to $6 billion in assets during a prisoner swap.

The U.S. government estimates that Tehran has $100 billion in inaccessible assets, mostly oil revenue trapped abroad, including funds in China, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq.

Iran FM Complains of 'Moving Goal Posts'

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei spoke with CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen about the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.

Baghaei stated, "The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome."

He outlined one of the main problems is that "the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran's rights," including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty.

"At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets, they're not going to give us any concession," he said. CNN reported earlier on Sunday that the US plans to allow Iranian assets to be used for rebuilding projects in Gulf countries impacted by the war, according to a source close to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Baghaei added that the US must "simply stop their sanctions" and "need to let Iranian assets be released and be available for the Iranians."

Iran Implements Toll System as US Balks

Beyond US-Iran talks, IRGC-linked Fars News reports that Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fars said the payments are deposited into Iran's treasury under the budget law and directed toward designated spending areas. Some payments are reportedly settled not in cash but in USDT/Tether or through barter arrangements.

Top Overnight Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

US-Iran Conflict Flashpoints

• US Central Command shot down two Iranian attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday that threatened international maritime traffic
• US forces intercepted multiple Iranian missiles and drones in the Persian Gulf late Friday and responded with attacks on radar sites in Iran
• Six ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted, with a seventh not reaching its intended target
• US attacked Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island early Saturday
• Iran condemned US attack on its radar and coastal surveillance facilities as a clear violation of the April 8 ceasefire

Peace Negotiations Status

• The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war 100 days after it began
• Negotiations are bogged down over the fate of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets
• Pakistan's interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the US
• Iran's Baghaei said the US needs to let Iranian assets be released and must stop their sanctions
• The Trump administration is seeking to steer Iranian assets toward helping US allies in the Persian Gulf rebuild from damage inflicted by Tehran

War Damage and Infrastructure

• About 7,000 megawatts of Iran's power-generation capacity was damaged in the war, with some 2,500 megawatts restored to service so far
• Despite 4,000 megawatts of damaged power plant capacity remaining offline, there are currently no plans to implement planned blackouts this summer
• Kuwait's airspace was temporarily closed for two hours early Saturday as a precautionary measure due to Iranian missile and drone attacks

Economic Impact

• Italy extended a fuel tax cut until July 3, cutting pump prices by €0.05 per liter for diesel while keeping it unchanged for unleaded fuel
• India raised prices of domestic cooking gas for the second time since the Iran war started, with a 14.2-kilogram LPG cylinder increasing by 29 rupees
• Container shipping spot rates from Asia to northern Europe rose 27% to $3,649 as of Friday, while rates to the US West Coast increased 20% to $3,933
• Crude oil remains below $100 a barrel despite the Strait of Hormuz being effectively blocked for over three months, defying forecasts for prices as high as $200

Previous US-Iran Wrap

• US Intercepted Fresh Iranian Ballistic Missile Attacks Overnight As Tehran Blasts 'Ceasefire Violations'

Institutional Market commentary:

• Goldman analyst Johann Cohen: Markets appeared to suffer from headline fatigue, alongside fading expectations of any near-term agreement between the US and Iran.
• UBS analyst Zeynep Akkok: European equities are resilient, with SX5E trading off earlier lows and price action is largely unchanged into the weekend as markets pause after recent moves. The focus remains on US-Iran negotiations, with US President Trump flagging talks are in their final stages, but the continued lack of tangible progress caps upside. The tone remains constructive, but increasingly conditional on delivery.
• Goldman analyst Chris Hussey: But as we saw back in 2021, global supply chain shortages are plentiful. The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still cutting off about 10% of the world's oil supply with a bigger impact on things like jet fuel, diesel, and aluminum.

Global Supply Chain:

• Alarming Supply-Chain Stress Sends Transport Cost Soaring, Fueling Inflation Fears
• UBS Reactivates Supply-Chain Stress Watch After Detecting Alarmingly Rapid Deterioration

Energy Market:

• Goldman Explains Why Oil Refuses To Rise Despite Continued Hormuz Closure
• Oil Prices Hold Gains As Gasoline Stocks Hit 12 Year Lows, Cushing 'Tank Bottoms' Loom

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 21:45

Ex-CIA Official Accused Of Inventing Secret Spy Program To Amass $40 Million Gold Hoard

In one of the most insane allegations in recent U.S. intelligence history, a former senior CIA official stands accused of creating an entirely fictitious highly classified program - a "black box" special access program framed as vital continuity-of-government planning - to siphon millions of dollars in government funds for personal enrichment. The result: a personal hoard of 303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million, roughly $2 million in cash, and 35 luxury watches discovered during an FBI raid on his Virginia home.

David J. Rush is seen in his booking photo. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office/AP) The Arrest and the Hoard

David J. Rush, a 49-year-old former senior executive in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T), was arrested on May 19, 2026, following the May 18 search of his Ashburn, Virginia, residence. He faces a single federal charge of theft of public money, stemming from approximately $77,000 in fraudulent military leave pay he allegedly obtained by lying about his Navy status after an honorable discharge in 2015.

The case has sent shockwaves through the U.S. intelligence community and exposed profound questions about internal controls, personnel vetting, and the risks of extreme compartmentalization in America's most sensitive programs.

303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million were recovered from Rush's home.

The Alleged Scheme: A Fake "Special Access Program"

According to people familiar with the ongoing criminal investigation cited by the Washington Post, Rush did not simply steal assets outright. He allegedly constructed an elaborate fiction: a phony Special Access Program (SAP) - one of the government's most tightly controlled classification compartments.

What Is a Special Access Program?

SAPs are highly compartmented programs that require specific "read-in" authorization. Even personnel with Top Secret/SCI clearance cannot access them without explicit need-to-know approval. They are designed to protect the nation's most sensitive operations.

Rush reportedly "read in" two colleagues to this sham program, effectively enlisting them - possibly without their full knowledge - and insulating the operation from normal scrutiny. He allegedly persuaded one colleague to transfer millions of dollars into the program through a fraudulent government contract that he "made up."

The fake program was framed around continuity of government (COG) operations - highly classified plans to ensure the federal government can continue functioning during catastrophic events such as nuclear war, major natural disasters, or other national emergencies. These plans involve presidential succession, secure relocation of leadership, and other doomsday measures.

Rush allegedly used this cover story to justify requests for large quantities of gold bullion and foreign currency, ostensibly for operational or post-catastrophe needs. A defense contractor was reportedly convinced to purchase substantial amounts of gold under this pretext.

"He made up a contract." - Person familiar with the investigation, The Washington Post

A Web of Lies: Fabricated Credentials

The gold scheme is only part of the story. Federal investigators allege Rush built his entire CIA career on a foundation of falsehoods spanning nearly two decades.

Rush claimed to hold a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in addition to presenting himself as a Navy pilot who had completed training at the Naval Test Pilot School and other advanced military aviation programs. In reality, he had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1997 as an information systems technician, was commissioned as an officer in the Navy Reserve in 2004, and served until receiving an honorable discharge as a lieutenant in 2015. Federal investigators found no record that Rush had ever attended Clemson University or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nor any documentation supporting his claims of pilot training or the other elite military credentials he listed on employment and security clearance forms.

These fabrications apparently survived multiple background reinvestigations, polygraph examinations, and the rigorous vetting required for TS/SCI access and senior positions. Former CIA officers have described the process as a "full-on colonoscopy." The failure has stunned many in the intelligence community.

Rush worked in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, responsible for developing technical tools and capabilities for espionage. He reportedly had involvement in one of the U.S. government's most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs - so compartmented that only a handful of officials and lawmakers were aware of its existence.

Details of this real program remain highly classified. U.S. officials warned that disclosure could jeopardize ongoing operations.

This raises serious questions: How could one individual create a new SAP without apparent superior approval? Were the two colleagues he read into the fake program aware it was fraudulent? Why did internal financial and oversight controls fail to flag the large, unusual requests for gold and currency?

George Bush Center for Intelligence - Wikipedia Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 21:35

Buildings Collapse After 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Philippines; Tsunami Warnings Issued

A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani province in Mindanao early Monday morning, triggering tsunami warnings and causing reported building collapses in the General Santos area.

The quake hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located roughly 26 kilometers southwest of Kablalan in Sarangani Province. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the event at magnitude 7.8, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.0.

Tsunami Warning Issued

Phivolcs immediately issued a tsunami warning for coastal communities across multiple provinces in Mindanao. Residents in Sarangani, Davao Occidental, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and several other areas were advised to evacuate to higher ground immediately due to the risk of waves exceeding one meter. The warning remains in effect as authorities monitor the situation.

Building Collapses Reported

Footage of the major Philippines earthquake.

Originally an 8.8-9.0 now adjusted to 7.8-8.2

Tsunami advisories in effect. It was a fairly deep earthquake, so praying the tsunami impacts are minor. pic.twitter.com/hjIr0Sr5t8

— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) June 8, 2026

Video footage circulating on social media shows buildings collapsing in General Santos City following the strong shaking.

WATCH: Footage shows a high school building that collapsed following the powerful earthquake that struck the Philippines. pic.twitter.com/XGgbnposCY

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 8, 2026

Some videos appear to capture a commercial building going down, while other reports and footage indicate damage to school structures in the region.

Another video captures the Jollibee building collapse in General Santos, Philippines following powerful earthquake. No word on casualties. https://t.co/LJEVl0qTjC pic.twitter.com/DgixNijwoY

— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) June 8, 2026

An establishment in General Santos City collapses after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Sarangani province on Monday (June 8, 2026) morning. Intensity VI was felt in the city. | Che Palicte (🎥: Quero Ya) pic.twitter.com/yiDEIZKwHQ

— Philippine News Agency (@pnagovph) June 8, 2026

The earthquake struck on what was the first day of the school year in some areas.

Strong shaking was widely felt across Mindanao, including in Davao City. Intensity reached very strong levels in parts of Sarangani and nearby provinces.

No official casualty figures have been released as of this report. Authorities are still assessing the full extent of damage. Aftershocks have continued in the hours following the mainshock, including at least one magnitude 5.0 event.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 21:20

Korea "Black Monday": Kospi Halted For 20 Minutes After Crashing Almost 10%

After the close on Friday, we said that on Monday, Korean stocks would be a "bundle of joy"...

Korea on Monday will be a bundle of joy

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

... and that appears to be playing out in early Asian trading, as the Kospi index crashed 8.8% just after the open, taking the key index's decline from its recent peak to nearly 17%, poised to enter a technical correction and on pace for an outright bear market (20% drop from highs) should the local plunge protection team fail to stem the collapse.

Memory maker Samsung Electronics fell as much as 11% while peer SK Hynix Inc. slid 10%.

Since these two stocks account for virtually all the recent upside in Korean stocks, levered retail investors - who were buying everything foreign investors had to sell after a record stretch of 21 days of non-stop selling... 

Foreigners have sold Korean stocks every single day - mostly to domestic ultra-levered retail investors - since May 6, the longest stretch on record by far. pic.twitter.com/78EQExLJr6

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

... are having a very bad day. 

The sudden plunge triggered a circuit breaker, halting trading for 20 minutes.  The Korea Exchange held an emergency meeting Monday to assess rising volatility and discuss measures to ensure stable market operations.

What is perhaps most shocking about this move (aside from being notably more of an extension of Friday's losses in EWY in the US session - and not just catch down - is that it comes as SK Hynix and Nvidia announced a multi-year technology partnership to advance next-generation memory for the global AI factory buildout and accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing.

Something that would typically trigger all kinds of circular panic bids as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says: “Together, we will co-develop the next generation of memory for AI factories and support the accelerating global expansion of AI infrastructure — from frontier model training to agentic and physical AI.”

Concerns over overheating in the AI rally combined with uncertainty in the macro environment have taken some steam out of global tech stocks over the past few sessions. Korea is seeing outsized losses after its world-beating gains, with the Kospi still up 77% since the start of the year.

As we pointed out most recently last Thursday just as the Kospi hit its all time high, foreign investors have been fleeing, selling more than $10 billion worth of Kospi shares on a net basis last week alone.

That’s put pressure on the won, with the currency touching its weakest level against the dollar since March 2009.   

We warned Friday that market breadth is the central worry. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, enjoying AI-driven chip demand, account for 54% of the Kospi’s market weight and roughly half of the gauge’s average daily turnover in May, according to Korea Exchange data. Nearly three-quarters of its gains this year have come from the two firms.

When the benchmark hit a record on Tuesday, only 2.6% of stocks reached 52‑week highs while 31% slid to 52‑week lows

Single‑stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix are adding to concerns.

The four most popular single-stock ETFs accounted for 21% of the total ETF turnover in South Korea in their first five sessions after launching May 27, exchange data show.

“The current market structure is vulnerable to a downturn as it’s dominated by the short gamma in the leveraged ETFs,” said Kenny Kim, chief executive officer at Meridian One Asset Management.

“The setup requires investors to chase rallies with heavy buying when the market rises, but forces them to dump shares when the market falls.”

Retail investors, once key drivers, are showing less willingness to commit fresh cash. Brokerage deposits fell to 121 trillion won ($79 billion) by May 22 from 137 trillion won on May 12, according to the Korea Financial Investment Association.

Meanwhile, margin balance hit a record 38 trillion won on May 29, up from 27.3 trillion won at end-2025, KFIA data show.

Rising margin loans alone may indicate heightened interest. But the increase, while investor deposits fall, may point to more leverage stress without fresh appetite to take on risk, according to Shawn Oh, an equity sales trader at NH Investment & Securities.

“The signal is clear: the cash buffer eroding while active leverage refuses to unwind,” he added.

The South Korean market faces risk of a “Black Monday” event with “currency instability, interest-rate repricing and profit taking in semiconductors all happening at the same time,” said Kim Doo-un, an analyst at Hana Securities.

The government on Sunday laid out a series of targeted measures to try and bolster the won, pledging firm action against speculative trading and other activities. The moves come as policymakers across Asia step up efforts to support their currencies amid rising energy costs and a stronger dollar stemming from the Iran war.

There is a silver lining for some as Korea's loss is crypto's gain...

Kospi bubble bursting is just what bitcoin bros are waiting for https://t.co/aAazCwjzpG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

...for now.

Finally there is one potentially 'existential' threat to the 'semis shortage' narrative that is circulating one some desks tonight.

Google has published a paper in which researchers claim to have redone the entire 'Transformer' process within the LLM framework, which uses caching instead of constantly compounding memory (which has been the source of screaming demand)...

Google has published a paper that might end the transformer era.

For the last 7 years, every major AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, has been built on the exact same architecture: The Transformer.

But Transformers have a fatal flaw.

To remember context, they have to process every… pic.twitter.com/uhiv6Hef3W

— How To AI (@HowToAI_) June 6, 2026

Bottom line, if this becomes the norm, the multi-digit returns on Semi stocks (forecast on the back of the belief in seemingly endlessly higher prices and demand) are dead in the water.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 20:36

Sam Altman Pushes Plan For Backdoor Government Backstop By Handing Out Small Equity Stake To Americans

Back in November, amid mounting speculation that OpenAI's massive cash burn was massively unsustainable in light of the $1.4 trillion of funding commitments by the AI company, which in turn has sparked the biggest capex flood in modern history all on the hope that the company's promised payments will be made good, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar sparked a market selloff when amid an admission that OpenAI was “looking for an ecosystem of banks [and] private equity” to support its ambitious plans, she explicitly said that the US government would have to “backstop the guarantee that allows the financing to happen." 

In other words, as we explained at the time, when all the other sources of funds dried up - clearly a scenario the company is considering judging by her response - the company would have to come to the US taxpayer.

Friar further explained that "Federal loan guarantees would really drop the cost of the financing," enabling OpenAI and its investors to borrow more money at lower rates to meet the company's ambitious targets. Right... because there is nothing like a company with $14BN in revenue, $1 trillion in "valuation" and $1.4 trillion in commitments, than loading up to the gills with government-backstopped debt... if only Enron and Lehman had thought to do the same, both would still be around.

Anyway, after the market vividly demonstrated it was less than enthused by this proposal, sending shares in the AI sector sharply lower as it signaled OpenAI itself doubted it would have the financial wherewithal to meet its obligations, the company promptly shelved any discussion of a taxpayer bailout backstop Federal loan guarantee, and even prompted a rare tweet from Sam Altman to explain why Sarah didn't really mean the things she said. 

All that changed late last week, when Donald Trump caught much of the AI industry by surprise when he threw his weight behind a radical proposal for companies such as OpenAI to hand equity stakes to the American people.

Elements of the idea, which had started as a fringe argument on the progressive left, have recently drawn support from an unlikely cast of characters including Trump cabinet members, democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders and Maga populists such as Steve Bannon.

But the concept suddenly gained more traction in the White House when - six months after OpenAI first flirted with the idea of a backstop - OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman visited Capitol Hill this week.

According to the FT, the plan proposed by his company, alongside others, would involve setting up a sovereign-wealth-style fund into which AI companies would contribute equity so the American public can share in the lossmaking sector’s soaring valuations. What was left unsaid is that while the "American public" would share in the soaring valuations, they would also share in the AI sector's continued losses and, more importantly, would be on the hook for the hundreds of billions in commitments if OpenAI is unable to fund them.

Translation: OpenAI - which reportedly is worth just shy of $1 trillion on pre-IPO paper, is once again seeking a government bailout, pardon, backstop. 

Such a plan would be distinct from the $9bn stake the Trump administration took in chipmaker Intel last year, as the public would own shares individually, rather than the US government directly owning equity, according to a person with knowledge of OpenAI’s plans.

In response to a question about equity stakes on Air Force One on Friday, Trump suggested “pieces [of AI companies] could be given to the American public” in an effort to quell the growing alarm around the rapid rollout of the technology. As if the American public can somehow sell its shares of OpenAI to offset soaring electricity prices. 

ALTMAN COMPLETELY FLIPS AI NARRATIVE AS HE PLANS IPO

Then: Sam Altman warned AI would wipe out entire job categories.

Now: he says companies blaming AI for layoffs are adopting AI the least.

What changed? OpenAI is racing to go public this year at up to $1 trillion+ pic.twitter.com/zcvnk8LTG7

— Official Layoff (@LayoffAI) June 2, 2026

Industry sources told the FT that a voluntary contribution of small amounts of equity — led by OpenAI — was the most likely outcome. This would be used to build a fund that is distributed to Americans, similar to the scheme Alaska has for redistributing oil revenues.

Brad Gerstner, a large investor in Anthropic and OpenAI, said on Friday he was “encouraging founders/companies to donate shares for the direct benefit of all citizens” and that this could filter through to Americans via a previously established plan for the Trump administration to put $1,000 in an investment account for every child born between 2025 and 2028.

According to the FT, OpenAI - which has a philanthropic arm sitting on more than $200bn in largely undisbursed funds - has floated the idea of giving the government a stake in the company with administration officials in recent months. 

In a paper published in April, OpenAI proposed that policymakers and AI companies work together to seed a “Public Wealth Fund that provides every citizen - including those not invested in financial markets - with a stake in AI-driven economic growth”. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has shown interest in similar proposals, according to a person familiar with the matter.

However, some White House officials and OpenAI rivals, including Anthropic, were caught by surprise by Trump’s Friday announcement. Altman had no plans to be in Washington next week, according to a person close to the discussions, despite Trump announcing a White House meeting with AI bosses for the coming week.

A person close to Anthropic, which the US government has designated as a “supply-chain risk”, said the company was not having conversations with the administration about providing equity to the government, suggesting that Antrhopic's cash burn is now ostensibly far less than that of OpenAI. After all, who voluntarily cedes equity in their venture unless they want something in return. 

Which brings us to the next question: Why is this happening now?

The idea of public ownership of AI companies had been gaining traction on the progressive left for some weeks and was supercharged by an intervention from Sanders, the Vermont senator, in the past few days. Sanders proposed a one-off 50% tax raid on AI labs.

His proposal has won qualified support from some on the populist right, including Bannon, Trump’s former chief of staff, who has long railed against the power of AI companies. Strategists from the Democratic and Republican parties are simultaneously grappling with how to appease voters increasingly worried about the threat AI poses to jobs ahead of November’s elections, not to mention AI's relentless impact on higher electricity prices, which is rapidly becoming one of the top political topics into the midterms. 

OpenAI’s Altman was in Washington this week, where he met Sanders and other lawmakers from both political parties. He did not discuss these proposals with Trump this week, according to media reports.

Sam Altman exiting Bernie Sanders' office.

His company, valued at close to $1tn, is likely to go public soon, while Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which owns xAI, are also racing to the public markets. This prompted us to ask, tongue-in-cheek, if the OpenAI taxpayer bailout would come before the IPO, or after.

Question is will OpenAI do the IPO before the government bailout or after https://t.co/mckJPwGJfM pic.twitter.com/k20K84YTeG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

Is there any precedent?

The Trump administration has broken with economic orthodoxy by aggressively pursuing equity stakes in key sectors as part of an America First industrial strategy. Last year, it spent $9bn taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel and has invested billions of dollars in rare-earths and quantum computing start-ups in exchange for stock.

However, there is certainly no precedent whatsoever for the government taking a stake in lossmaking AI labs collectively worth trillions of dollars (based on laughable hockeystick projections which assume China will never be able to undercut prevailing pricing models). Additionally, the Intel equity was bought using funds already appropriated by the Biden-era Chips Act. Buying a stake in leading AI companies, rather than accepting a donation, would be expensive and probably require approval from Congress.

Will there be a backlash?

The initial response from pro-business Republicans and AI investors has been muted. In a post before Trump’s comments, billionaire Silicon Valley investor and White House adviser David Sacks warned against the government assuming “direct ownership and control” of AI companies - a post that was endorsed by Republican senator Ted Cruz.

If the Trump administration did go for equity stakes in leading labs, the backlash would be even more widespread, said Samuel Hammond, director of AI policy at the pro-tech Foundation for American Innovation, with protests from investors and companies that were not cut in on the deal.

“Even if taking partial ownership of frontier AI companies can make sense on paper, in practice it’s a recipe for political favouritism and corruption,” he added. 

Sacks, who was previously Trump’s AI tsar and was one of the most accelerationist voices in the administration, left his role this year. His lieutenant Sriram Krishnan announced on Saturday that he would be leaving the Trump administration at the end of this month.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 20:25

A "Black Mark" On Tim Cook's Resume: How Apple Missed The AI Revolution

Apple's AI problems didn't become impossible to ignore because competitors released better chatbots. They became impossible to ignore when Apple itself realized it had fallen behind, according to a new feature by Bloomberg. 

By early 2025, senior leaders inside the company were holding emergency-level discussions about the state of Apple's AI efforts. What was supposed to be a major leap forward—Apple Intelligence and a next-generation Siri—had instead exposed deeper weaknesses. While Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic were rapidly improving their models, Apple was struggling to deliver features it had already announced.

Bloomberg writes that the issue wasn't simply that Siri needed work. Executives increasingly believed Apple had underestimated the importance of generative AI altogether. The company had spent years assuming its traditional strengths—hardware, privacy, and tightly integrated software—would be enough. By the time ChatGPT reshaped expectations for consumer AI, Apple had no competitive answer.

Internally, confidence in the existing AI organization had eroded. Leaders concluded that the company's problems were structural as much as technical. Decision-making was fragmented, ownership was unclear, and AI lacked the urgency that surrounded other major Apple initiatives. What had once been viewed as a side technology suddenly looked like the foundation of the industry's future.

That realization triggered a leadership shake-up. Mike Rockwell, best known for leading Vision Pro, emerged as one of the strongest advocates for a more aggressive AI strategy. He had long argued that Apple was not taking the technology seriously enough. When the company's AI shortcomings became impossible to ignore, he was brought in to help rescue Siri and reset the effort.

The shift also forced a change in Tim Cook's approach. Historically, Cook delegated product strategy to his lieutenants, stepping in mainly for reviews and major decisions. AI became an exception. After the disappointing rollout of Apple Intelligence, Cook reportedly became far more involved, pushing executives to move faster and treating AI as a top corporate priority rather than another software feature.

Bloomberg even called Apple Intelligence 1.0 a "black mark" on the resume of Tim Cook. 

Perhaps the clearest sign of Apple's miscalculation is how dramatically its position has changed. The company initially downplayed the importance of chatbot-style assistants and generative AI products. Now it is preparing to launch a more conversational Siri and AI experiences that look much closer to what competitors have already been offering for years. Apple once argued that many of these products weren't necessary; now it is racing to build them.

The consequences extend beyond software. Several future hardware projects have reportedly been delayed because Apple's AI capabilities weren't ready. Devices that depended on intelligent assistants, computer vision, or advanced AI interactions could not move forward without the underlying technology.

What makes the situation unusual is that Apple rarely finds itself reacting to industry trends rather than defining them. The company built its reputation by anticipating shifts in computing before everyone else. With generative AI, it appears to have done the opposite. Instead of leading the transition, Apple spent years underestimating it and is now trying to catch up.

The real story isn't the launch of a new Siri. It's that Apple spent decades shaping the future of consumer technology, only to discover that the next major platform shift had started without it.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 19:15

Trump Admin Announces $850MM To Modernize US Coal Capacity, Build 2 New Plants

By Robert Walton of UtilityDive

The Trump administration approved 76 coal-related permits in more than a year of efforts to revive the flagging fuel and execute an agenda of “energy dominance.” His latest attempt includes tapping Defense Production Act funding to expand the industry.

“Last year we prevented 17 GW of coal-powered electricity from going offline. That’s enough power for about 13 million homes, and at a very low price. It’s the lowest price,” Trump said of coal resources.

But critics say the opposite is true. “This move, along with the President blocking the retirement of old coal plants that are too costly to operate, is making most Americans poorer,” Jenkins said. “This is a total misuse of the Defense Production Act, a giant giftwrapped payout to subsidize and prop up a flailing industry that can no longer compete in the free market.”

The coal funding is “another example of Trump ignoring the affordability crisis,” Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, said in a statement. “Abusing emergency authorities to justify subsidies for coal is a waste of taxpayer dollars and a clear giveaway to an absurdly outdated, expensive and dirty fossil fuel.”

DOE said it plans to use up to $425 million in Defense Production Act Title III funds to support a dozen coal-plant projects and $75 million for the West Gateway Terminal Project, to operate a rail-served marine export terminal. The coal projects include:

• $19 million for Arizona Electric Power Cooperative to modernize and extend the operating life the Apache Generating Station near Cochise, Arizona;
• $33 million for Duke Energy Kentucky to boost generating capacity at its East Bend Station in Boone County, Kentucky;
• $22.5 million for Oklahoma Gas and Electric’s Sooner DCS Modernization Project near Red Rock, Oklahoma, to modernize the facility’s distributed control system to maintain reliability and improve efficiency; and,
• $46.3 million for Tennessee Valley Authority to revitalize its Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tennessee, to meet regional demands for dispatchable power.

The West Gateway Terminal Project “will support continued growth in U.S. coal exports, improve supply chain resilience, and strengthen energy partnerships with allies throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” DOE Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit said in a statement.

In a separate announcement, DOE said four projects will receive up to $350 million under the agency’s “Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning and Modernization” initiative, to add or preserve roughly 3.6 GW of coal-fired capacity.

Apache Generating Station near Cochise, Arizona;

Along with almost 3 GW of new capacity split between Alaska and West Virginia, DOE announced funding for a project in Guayama, Puerto Rico, to retrofit and modernize an existing 510-MW coal-fired plant, and another project in Cumberland, Maryland, to recommission a 205-MW facility that ceased operations in 2024.

The Anchorage plant will have 1.25 GW of new coal capacity and the West Virginia Energy Campus project will offer 1.6 GW, according to a fact sheet from DOE. They would be the first new U.S. plants to come online since 2013, Trump said.

Also Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an emergency order directing the Orlando Utilities Commission to ensure that Unit 1 at the coal-fired Stanton Energy Center near Orlando, Florida, remains available to operate. The unit was slated to enter a premature extended cold shutdown this month. The order is effective through Sept. 1. 

“Americans are upset about high electricity prices,” Wright said at the White House event. “Blame closing existing, reliable, secure plants, and replacing them with subsidized, unreliable plants — a gauranteed way to drive electricity prices up.”

But critics say coal plants are expensive to operate and the administration’s efforts are driving U.S. power bills higher. In March, the Sierra Club published analysis showing the Trump administration’s emergency orders to keep six retiring fossil-fueled power plants online have cost ratepayers more than $230 million.

More emergency orders have been issued since the Sierra Club analysis. Coal supporters, however, say the resources are essential and Trump’s investments will help maintain power grid reliability.

“Coal is a critical part of America’s energy security,” America’s Power President and CEO Michelle Bloodworth said in a statement. The group represents the U.S. coal sector.

“The United States has approximately 400 years of domestic coal reserves, making it one of the most fuel-secure energy sources available,” Bloodworth said.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 18:40

A Lot More Than Just Rates Moving Markets

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

The plan this weekend was to write about the AI Revolution. It would have dovetailed well with recent pieces Buggy Whips and Horses and Being Forced to Understand UBI. We discussed this, Iran, and much more on Bloomberg TV (1:43:30 mark), where I did bring out the red rocket ship tie, in honor of the SpaceX IPO.

But it is difficult to stick to the plan when the Nasdaq 100 drops almost 5% in a day and the Philly Semiconductor Index (a driving force of the big rally since the initial Iran attack sell-off) dropped over 10%! 10% in a single day for the most important subsector (of late) is a big deal!

As Mike Tyson famously said, “we all have a plan until we get punched in the face” and I’m not sure which would have been worse, a punch in the face from Tyson or 5% down on the Nasdaq 100? At least we can recover from market movements, not sure I could recover from a Tyson punch.

Rates – A Part of the Story

The jobs data came in hot. I would say, yet again, but as we published in our NFP Instant Reaction, there were fewer inconsistencies in this report. It doesn’t quite settle the Jobs – Data vs Vibes question, but it was a step in that direction.

The market is now pricing in one hike in 2026, as opposed to a 69% chance at the start of the week (though that should not have derailed stocks the way they were derailed).

10-year Treasury yields rose to 4.53% from 4.43% at the end of last week. Hardly warranting such a large sell-off in equities. The 10-year only moved 3 bps higher from Wednesday’s close to Friday’s close – kind of noise in the grand scheme of things. It was 4.66% on May 19th but the Nasdaq 100 was a touch lower than today.

I continue to think we see a steady grind higher in yields:

• Price increases are being passed on to the consumer, and in the vast majority of industries, the consumer seems willing to pay those prices.
• I continue to focus on the longer-dated oil futures contracts. My “go-to” choice has been the January 2027 WTI contract – it finished the week marginally higher ($78.22 vs $77.14) on increased concerns about the lack of a deal with Iran. My pain point is that higher for longer is baked into oil prices, but not necessarily bond prices. This will feed into diesel costs, amongst other things, that will feed into more potential price pressures in the economy. As we discussed briefly, as of May 29th (last reporting date) the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was almost back to the 2023 lows. How much more can be released? Yes, the world is figuring out ways to counter the supply shock, but the tool of releasing reserves may be nearing an end.
• Spending on military is increasing globally. There are also spending pressures on many countries to offset the affordability issue, which is global in nature.
  • Iran isn’t the only country in the Middle East selling less oil. While Iran bears the brunt of the pain, the entire region is selling less. For countries where much of the population lives on government handouts from their petroleum profits, that creates the need to borrow. So, some traditionally large buyers of U.S. Treasuries may be busy dealing with their own funding needs.
• Stablecoins to the Rescue? One interesting element to the admin’s strategy was to use stablecoins in particular as a backdoor way for foreigners to buy T-bills. With the Clarity Act struggling to get turned into law, and Bitcoin back to its lows of the year (more on that later), that doesn’t seem like it will help much in the near-term.

I don’t like the backdrop for bond yields here. It is a global issue, but the transition from Treasuries being the “gold standard” to a “generic sovereign bond” to many purchasers impacts Treasuries a little more.

Fighting Parabolic Moves is Crazy! (until it isn’t)

You can fight parabolic moves all you want, but normally you go broke by the third or fourth time you call the market crazy. Once a parabolic move cracks there may be opportunities.

Gold in the past year is a pretty good example. The steady churn higher. One decent pullback, that quickly turned back into a grind higher, followed by a “final” parabolic move higher. It never reclaimed that level and has been grinding lower.

Everyone seems to be asking, is this the fake pullback, like we saw with gold in 2025, or the end of the parabolic run? SOXX, an ETF tracking this index, had a small outflow on Friday, in terms of share count, but is close to its share count high. SOXL, a 3x ETF, had inflows, but from a relatively low base. I have found the flows of these two “sibling” funds to be curious over the past few weeks, and that latest flow data doesn’t help. Maybe the best explanation is some retail holders were getting nervous and selling the 3x leveraged ETF to buy unleveraged versions and shifted some money back on the big drop?

Not sure if this parabolic move is over, but it is interesting to think about.

3.5 Stories FAR MORE IMPORTANT than Rates

I think there were 4 stories that hit the tape later in the week that bear the most responsibility for the move. Let’s start with what I think was the most important headline.

• SpaceX, Other Mega IPOs Denied Fast Index Entry by S&P.  The eligibility rules for inclusion in S&P Dow Jones Indices would not shorten the 12-month seasoning period, and there would be no waivers on profitability regardless of size/market cap. I don’t think it is possible to overestimate the importance of index inclusion. China working hard to get their stocks (and to a lesser extent, their bonds) into indices is probably enough evidence to stop right there, but I won’t. There was some small 100-year issuance done in Europe a few years ago, that immediately skyrocketed in price, primarily because index demand was insatiable (eligible bonds typically go in at the end of the month). Again, according to Grok, at the end of 2024 there was $20 TRILLION linked to the S&P 500. MU is the 10th largest holding in SPY with a market cap of just under $1 trillion. It is 1.5% of the index. So presumably a company with a market cap of $1 trillion (which is around where some are being talked about) would mean $300 billion of “instant” demand if included in the indices? That seems so wrong, but the math seems to work, so I’ll run with it.
• That ruling changes the potential “forced” demand. If it goes into the index, it gets bought. And no one is going to underweight these mega IPOs given their potential for outsized gains (index people are primarily afraid of not tracking in general). According to Grok, at the end of 2025, “only” $1.5 trillion tracked the Nasdaq 100. Impressive by any standard, but not the holy grail for these new IPOs.
• The profitability test is also a concern. The goal of many of these IPOs remains growth, as it probably should be given the market environment, but that means they are not focused on profitability. From what I understand, the offering documents are not talking about near-term profitability. That potentially pushes the inclusion further down the road.
  • The ½ important story, is that the offering documents let investors see the numbers, and by the sounds of it, some of the numbers relative to valuations are raising an eyebrow. I don’t think that is super important, or should be a surprise, but I heard it mentioned enough this week, to put it down as ½ a headline that is important.
• This is largely a zero-sum game, because stocks would have been sold to make room for the IPOs, but from a headline perspective that is one or two steps removed, and forces participants to come up with money for the new issues using different mechanisms. Maybe that is a “weak” answer, but I don’t think it impacts markets as zero-sum at the moment – treat this lack of inclusion as a headwind.
• It will be curious to live in a world where some of the biggest companies, by market cap, don’t move the S&P 500, but it seems that this is the path we are heading down.
• Stories hit the tape that Meta was potentially considering raising “tens of billions” in a stock offering after Google’s record $85 billion share deal. We have lived in a world where knowing “blackout” periods was important because companies tended to buy back less stock during those periods (not sure if that was ever true, but it is a perception that was out there). Is the market going to have to digest a lot more equity issuance than previously thought? Is the share buyback era shifting? Share buybacks have been a tailwind for markets, and a reversal of that could weigh on markets. The issuance seems to make a lot of sense (tapping as many pools of capital as possible to work on the AI and Data Center buildout), but it should weigh on markets as it is yet more dollars to absorb.
• Broadcom missed AI Expectations. Not sure how true that headline is, but it gathered momentum after their earnings. I suspect it was as much about the market waiting for an excuse to sell, than it was anything really inherent to their business. If it was just their business, the damage wouldn’t have been so widespread. Regardless of the accuracy of the headlines, we had the media, for the first time in ages, being able to question the ongoing AI spend. That is important, especially for anyone who was looking for a “catalyst” to end the parabolic run.

I think these 3.5 stories played a much bigger role in the weakness than either Iran or rates did.

That is somewhat concerning from a risk perspective, because all 3.5 stories have “legs” to them and if this is a real challenge to the parabolic move, we have plenty of downside left for stocks.

More AI Anecdotes

Last week I mentioned that at conferences, attendees no longer want to “hear” about AI. They want concrete examples of implementations. What worked? What didn’t?

Conversations I’ve had this past week all point to similar questions about “is AI currently a good value proposition.” If I wasn’t hearing that so much, I wouldn’t have planned on writing about the AI Revolution. A lot of questions rising to the surface about whether the cost of tokens is delivering what was expected in terms of efficiencies or business opportunities/development. It is far from being one-sided, but the move for many from “relatively inexpensive monthly subscriptions” to a token-based model is letting people do more thorough analysis.

Yes, AI is only going to get better, but are we paying too much for what it delivers today? Probably not, but the parabolic run in stocks linked to the sector leaves them susceptible to any level of doubt.

Gambling versus Investing

Sometimes I refer to the “gambling” crowd as the “degens.” The ones who love 0DTE (Zero Day to Expiration Options), “meme” stocks, Leveraged ETFs (especially single stock leveraged ETFs), and even alt coins. Anything to turn 1 into 100.

I believe they helped drive gold higher at the margin. Without a doubt they focus on crypto periodically, but as bitcoin volatility has declined, it has attracted less of this money.

Have they played a role in the big move in semis? Not if SOXL or TQQQ (3x leveraged ETFs) are a sign, as they’ve been experiencing outflows, but I cannot help but think they have helped the parabolic move (it is, almost definitionally, the type of thing they do).

Which brings me to one other security I’m watching closely. The MSTR Multi-Coupon Cumulative Perpetual Preferred often referred to by MSTR and social media as STRC. The current coupon is set to 11.5%. My “basic” understanding is that this instrument is designed to set its coupon to pull the instrument towards par. Whenever it trades much above 100, the strategy is to use the premium to add bitcoin.

It was trading around 99 until early this week when MSTR sold some bitcoin, apparently to fund the dividend.It was 32 bitcoin – a tiny fraction of the almost 850,000 bitcoin MSTR holds! It seems like a trivial amount (and in fact is a trivial amount). But there was a sentiment that MSTR would never sell bitcoin to pay the dividend (saw a lot of quotes about being told to sell a kidney to buy more Bitcoin).

This closed Friday at 93.4 (with bitcoin at $61.5k). Bitcoin is trading lower than that now. While this particular security should not be directly linked to the price of bitcoin (based on capital structure, etc.), it seems to be a driving factor.

Is the “gambling” crowd still heavily invested in crypto? Did they chase the recent upside, only to end up down 25% in less than a month?

Disruptive tech (I often use ARKK as a proxy) got hit hard this week and while off its lows is down on the year.

I fear that the crowd that gambles in some or all of these spaces is under pressure across the board, which may lead to selling pressure. As a whole, this isn’t a big group, but at the margin, when they are chasing the same trade, they have an outsized impact.

Bottom Line

Look for yields to trend higher. That isn’t a major problem for equities, but it isn’t helping.

Credit will have to leak wider, even with higher yields, if equities continue to drop. There is just too much money in various cap structure trades for that not to occur, but credit will outperform. In fact, the equity issuance by some companies, rather than issuing even more debt, is good for credit at the expense of the equity price. Not quite the Debt Diet, but plays out similarly (5-year ORCL CDS for example is well off its highs in March).

I think the 3.5 stories, along with Iran, and higher yields, can add to pressure on stocks.

Having said that, this admin has come up with some stick saves for stocks before and they have all weekend to come up with another one! It is so painfully scary to be bearish equities, and that is probably the right trade, but that doesn’t make it any less scary.

Sell in May and Go Away seemed stupid, until this first week of June.

I continue to see this as an economy with two distinct components:

• An economy facing “affordability” issues, dealing with a low hire, low fire job market (though that might be understating the health of the job market, but I haven’t fully gotten on board with that). That part of the economy is struggling and consumers seem to be sticking to experiential spending versus goods spending, but how long can that last? The stocks affected reflect this.
• The AI and data center buildout economy. Booming! Yet, after any parabolic move, was Wall Street so stupid a couple of months ago that this area was so undervalued that a parabolic move makes sense? Or was the move so great that any questions could cause a significant pullback (who’d have thought we’d be wondering if a one-day 10% move is “significant”). The answer is probably somewhere in between.

Without some new headline out of DC (or a change of tune from the S&P) look for choppiness and more weakness in stocks.

I think the “rotation” theme is limited as this move is about questioning the AI/Data Center valuations and nothing has been done to fix the affordability issues.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 17:30

'I Could've Kept It That Way': Trump Admits The Inflation Is His Choice - For A War That 'Isn't A War'

In a wide-ranging interview in which he touted record stock prices and rebranded weapons-grade uranium as "nuclear dust" (and then stormed out), President Donald Trump said the quiet part out loud: the prices Americans are paying at the pump are not an accident. This was all his decision.

"I could've kept it that way," Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker in an interview taped in a rain-battered Wisconsin barn before he was set to appear at a farming industry roundtable discussion - describing the cheap gasoline everyone enjoyed during his first few months back in office. "But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn ... We're going to have higher gasoline. We're going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people."

"The farmers love me"

Asked about farmers who can no longer afford fertilizer - seventy percent of them, by Welker's count - Trump didn't push back, but instead changed the subject to loyalty.

"I had a choice to make. I could keep it going. The farmers were doing great. Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could've kept it that way. But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody."

Trump leaned on his heavy support in the heartland. "I love the farmers, and the farmers love me. The farmers trust me," he said, pointing to the $28 billion in trade-war bailouts he cut growers in his first term. So - the economic cost of the US-Israeli war on Iran is something that Americans should be willing to eat for him.

And again, promises of utopia: 

"And when we have a completion, you will see things like you've never seen. The oil will go down."

"It's all coming down as soon as the war's over," he promised of gas and diesel. When Welker pressed for a timeline, he bristled - "No, but you keep talking about speed" - and reached again for Vietnam.

Welker: 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer.

Trump: The farmers are doing well. All of them support me.pic.twitter.com/ZIRNIE1IPR

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

The public is less patient: an Economist/YouGov survey this week found sixty-eight percent of adults want a deal to end the war as fast as possible, including fifty-five percent of his own 2024 voters. They are being asked to finance a known cost today against a promised windfall on an unscheduled tomorrow, on the word of a president whose case rests on never having to name the day. That is not an economic argument. It is a leap of faith with a fuel surcharge.

Blame The Fed

And of course, it's the Fed's fault for not aligning with Trump's agenda. Given whispers that the institution is actually considering hiking rates in response to a strong jobs report, Trump preemptively branded the move as a crime against prosperity. 

"There's no reason to raise interest rates ... What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. I don't want to kill success. We should actually lower interest rates."

And then - in what should give any bondholder pause: "Growth is the greatest thing you can have, and growth does not cause inflation." No, apparently it takes braking a core campaign promise to personally engineer higher prices. Meanwhile, new Fed chair Kevin Warsh gavels his first meeting later this month, and Trump was careful to say he would not "have a big influence on him" - except, he clearly spelled out his expectations.

"I would like to see rates get lower," he said, "because we could build this into the greatest machine that the world has ever seen, but you can't do that when everybody immediately raises interest rates."

 

Meanwhile, Trump insists Iran can be starved into surrender... 

"They tried a blockade, and now we blockaded them," he said of Iran. "And, as you know, they're losing $400-500 million a day. It's not sustainable for them. They have an economy that's shot, in addition to everything else." The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil; and the valve Trump is twisting shut to strangle Tehran is the same valve lifting fuel costs in Des Moines. The blockade he is celebrating and the inflation he admitted choosing are directly linked.

Asked what happens if the talks fail, Trump did not hedge: "Either way, we win." Asked about the highly enriched uranium still buried in Iran, he offered a branding note.

"The official name is highly enriched uranium. And I call it nuclear dust because it seemed to be nice, and everyone understands it better, and it's sort of cute, and people picked it up."

He assured Welker the sites are under constant watch from orbit: "If anybody walked there, if you walked over there, I would be able to read your first name on your lapel. And these are cameras up in space. It's pretty amazing technology. Space Force." He claimed, in passing and without elaboration, that the United States "took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes." He put Iran's surviving arsenal at "maybe 21-22% of their missiles ... It's a lot of missiles, but it's not what it was when we first attacked." 

No New Wars (because this isn't a war!)

Trump was elected in large part on three words he repeated from 2015 onward: no new wars. 

Welker asked the obvious question - had he broken that promise? Trump said 'no,' but then insisted that he had never made the promise in the first place.

"First of all, I didn't guarantee no war," Trump said. "Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?" When Welker pointed out that he had said it "over and over again," he did not relent. "So when you say I promised, I didn't promise anything. I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war."

WELKER: What changed? You insisted 'no new wars'

TRUMP: I didn't guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world? pic.twitter.com/UJacjLWL0p

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

For the anti-interventionists who treated that pledge as a covenant - the ones who forgave a great deal because at least he would not start the next Iraq - this is the moment the bill came due, narrated by the man who ran it up. He is now prosecuting two wars at once. He will not call either one a war. And his defense, start to finish, is not strategic. It is linguistic.

Not a war, a "military exercise" for "regime change"

Trump then leaned heavily on semantics, insisting this isn't a war...

"I call it a military exercise because people would rather have it called that," he said early on. "It's not a big war for us. It's not."

WELKER: Iran just attacked US allies in the region. Is the US at war with Iran?

TRIUMP: I call it a military exercise because people would rather have it called that. It's not a big war for us. pic.twitter.com/ghOfzVwxsZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

Pressed on the naval blockade of Iran – which is, under international law, itself an act of war – he simply declined to engage the category. "I don't consider that a war, but if you want to define it as such, I guess you can." Asked directly how he would define it, he offered the cleanest statement of the whole doctrine: "I don't define it at all. I don't think about it. I just do what I have to do." 

Describing the leadership Tehran has installed after the killing of the old Supreme Leader and his lieutenants, Trump volunteered the word the entire post-Iraq right swore off: "And you could say it's regime change actually because these are very different people. I find them to be more rational, very smart." - said the guy who built his brand on mocking the people who gave the country Iraq and Libya. And not in one country but two: in the same interview he claimed the United States "took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes." 

Thirteen dead - better than Vietnam! 

Trump's proof that it is all going well is a body count. "We've had 13 people killed," he said, more than once, "and that includes two wars. That's Venezuela, and that's Iran." He means it as triumph: fewer dead than Vietnam, than Iraq, than any war you can name. But for the people who took "no new wars" at face value, the framing collapses on contact. Thirteen Americans are dead in two conflicts the president started and refuses to call wars, sold under the banner he insists makes it acceptable: "You know, it's America first. I'm doing our country a service."

Trump: "I'm moving very fast. I'm into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years." pic.twitter.com/d4Ol50TIMH

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

That is the real breach, and it is worse than a broken promise. You can hold a man to a promise. What you cannot do is hold him to a war he will not admit is a war, or a pledge he insists he never made. The Wisconsin barn produced no policy reversal and no apology. It produced something more useful to understand: a president who has discovered that the surest way to keep a promise is to deny, on camera, that you ever gave it.

Doing The World A Service

At the end of the day, Trump had no choice:

"I had to stop a country, very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon because they'd use it. They'd blow up the world. They'd blow up the Middle East. They'd blow up Israel. They'd come here. They'd blow up Europe. They're nuts, okay? They’re crazy people. I deal with them. And very high-strung people. Little crazy. And – I get along with them. I like them. But you don't want to let them have a nuclear weapon. And I'm doing the world a service, but I'm doing our country a service. You know, it's America first. I'm doing our country a service. Nice rain."

Indeed... 

Trump then called Welker and the MSM 'crooked' and stormed out - which, hey, we can't argue with! 

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 17:15

Angry Pentagon Sources Leak Report Of Israel's 'Unhinged' Spying On US Officials

It's no secret that Israeli spying and surveillance is pervasive, and it is often even directed at its most powerful ally and backer, the United States. But the phenomenon has escalated of late, outraging Washington intelligence officials.

Behind the scenes of this alliance which mainstream media and pundits typically project as essentially untouchable, deep-seated friction is boiling over. In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon has officially elevated Israel's counterintelligence threat level to its highest possible category, driven by surging internal alarm that this primary Mideast regional ally is aggressively ramping up espionage operations targeting senior US officials - even Trump's own top Iran negotiator.

Pentagon file image

The intelligence warning, freshly reported this weekend by NBC News and The New York Times, highlights a profound rift within the national security apparatus as tensions mount between the Trump administration and Israel over the ongoing joint war on Iran.

The revelation's timing is interesting, given it comes after Axios reported at the start of this month that on a phone call President Trump 'steamrolled' Prime Minister Netanyahu. Trump is said to have been "pissed" and at one point yelled and berated Netanyahu, saying "What the fuck are you doing?"

And now, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is broadcasting an internal alert raising Israel's specific threat designation to "critical". According to details revealed in a Sunday NBC report:

The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.

The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a “critical level,” according to the official.

And parallel to this, a report by the NY Times lists out names that are very high level within the Trump administration. Israel has allegedly focused its electronic and human efforts to eavesdrop on the following officials (likely among others):

• Steve Witkoff, Trump’s premier regional negotiator.
• Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official.
• Michael P. DiMino IV, one of Colby’s primary deputies.

The Israeli embassy in Washingtons has slammed the reports as 'completely false': "This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on," it said in a statement.

But the major US media reports highlight American intel officials who don't try and tone down or couch their words. Instead they speak of "unhinged" Israeli spying on US government officials.

The targeting of Colby is particularly notable given his past public policy statements, where he has explicitly called for a "reset" on the foundational US relationship with Israel. More broadly, Israel is worried about losing the political Right in the United States, given the number of younger, prominent conservative 'influencers' who have been highly critical of Israel of late.

Meanwhile the DIA dossier explicitly concludes that Israel's capabilities to execute both human espionage (HUMINT) and technical collection (SIGINT) and provides deals and documentation of specific recent incidents

That unnamed US officials are leaking this story to legacy media is, like previous leaks, another sign of growing resentment in the US NatSecState over the Iran war debacle, and Israel's critical role cajoling the US in & pushing Trump to resume the war.https://t.co/y7o79ISehr

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) June 6, 2026

Current and former US officials summarized the crisis to NBC by noting that Israel's recent clandestine activities have moved far beyond the baseline, routine espionage conventionally tolerated on some level between friendly nations.

It appears the Netanyahu government is going to great lengths to ensure President Trump doesn't make a 'bad deal' to end the Iran war. Also, it's clear - given these new leaks by US officials - that Trump insiders are quite outraged at this Israeli aggression on the intelligence-sharing front.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 16:55

Former Musk Adviser Sriram Krishnan Leaving White House AI Role

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

Senior White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter executive who advised Elon Musk during his acquisition of the social media platform, announced Saturday he will leave his role at the end of June.

U.S. President Donald Trump hands a pen to Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence Sriram Krishnan after signing an executive order while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) (2nd L) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Dec. 11, 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images

In a social media post, Krishnan described serving the American people as "the privilege of a lifetime" and thanked President Donald Trump for the opportunity.

"Without his leadership, we would not be leading in the AI race," Krishnan wrote.

Krishnan also thanked David Sacks, saying he had worked most closely with him over the past 18 months and praising his advocacy for American leadership in artificial intelligence.

Among the accomplishments Krishnan said he was most proud of were helping architect and publish the American AI Action Plan, advancing AI acceleration partnerships, helping develop the National AI Policy Framework for AI executive order, and advocating for the American AI technology sector with allies around the world.

Looking ahead, Krishnan said the United States and its allies face challenges involving energy, data centers, and expanding access to artificial intelligence technologies.

"I plan on building institutions that help tackle some of those challenges for America and its allies," he wrote.

Krishnan also thanked numerous administration officials and others for their support, including Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Elon Musk, and others.

Krishnan leaves as opposition to AI data centers has grown rapidly across the country as projects expand into communities.

According to Data Center Watch, an estimated $152 billion in potential data center investment was blocked or delayed in 2025. Hundreds of activist groups in 42 states organized to oppose new projects or expansions. Critics cite concerns over water consumption, electricity demand, noise, and the lack of long-term studies on health and environmental impacts. There are more than 3,100 data centers in the United States, according to the Data Center Map. There are another 1,800 data centers in some state of development.

Trump announced Krishnan was joining the White House as an adviser in December 2024.

"Sriram Krishnan will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy," the president said at that time. "Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure."

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 16:20

New York Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium

Authored by Nicholas Zifcak via The Epoch Times,

The New York state Legislature passed a one-year data center permit moratorium June 4 in the final days of the legislative session. If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs it into law, New York would be the first to enact a statewide moratorium.

A data center in Tennessee. Courtesy of CleanSpark

The legislation requires a pause on permitting while the state Department of Environmental Conservation conducts a comprehensive study on the impact of data centers on electricity, pollution, and water and land use.

The law would apply to data centers that draw 20 megawatts or more of power at peak use. It would also require data centers to increasingly rely on non-carbon energy sources, using one-third renewables by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.

When asked on June 3 about the legislation during an unrelated event in Brooklyn, Hochul said she will consider the moratorium, and that "the status quo can't continue."

Hochul said that if data centers are built in New York, she wants to ensure local communities benefit.

The governor expressed concern that though local communities may want data centers, they may not be in a strong position to handle negotiations with those looking to build them: "Question No. 1, is the community able to negotiate enough to get benefits?" she said.

Hyperscale data centers, which today largely handle artificial intelligence data processing, consume enormous amounts of energy, ranging from tens to hundreds of megawatts - equal to the power used by tens of thousands of homes during peak demand.

As of July 2025, New York state's electrical grid operator had received more than two dozen large load requests to connect to the power grid, equivalent to 6,055 megawatts of power. By December 2025, the large load requests had increased to 48, totaling 12,000 megawatts, nearly doubling in five months.

The operators said in a report in February that maintaining on-demand power availability and grid reliability will be a major challenge given the additional demand.

This comes at a time when New York state electricity rates haven been on a steady incline. According to the state power grid operator, the main factors are rising natural gas prices and a climate law that is forcing older carbon-emitting power plants to make costly upgrades or go offline faster than newer, cleaner energy sources are being added to the grid.

To address this, the moratorium legislation would also require the state utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, to require utilities to assess the costs of serving data centers, including any necessary infrastructure upgrades, and to establish separate rates for such centers.

Local Impact

Communities in upstate New York present an attractive location for large data centers with inexpensive land, cooler temperatures, and, in some areas, abundant hydroelectric power.

That's the case in St. Lawrence County, where the St. Lawrence River delineates the border with Canada and a massive hydroelectric dam serves the region. Not only is there abundant power from the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, but the region's manufacturing history also means there's infrastructure to use and deliver it.

New York's independent power grid manager has received 17 large load, 10 megawatts or more, requests to connect to the grid in St. Lawrence County, eight of which appear to be from data centers. Whether such requests translate into solid proposals is yet to be seen, but county legislator Rita Curran said she is aware of two proposals currently under review.

Curran sponsored a resolution in the county Board of Legislators that passed on June 1, acknowledging the enormous impact data centers can have on the local electric grid and on communities at large, and noting significant local opposition. Even so, the resolution calls on the governor and the legislature not to usurp county authority in the review and approval process for data centers, and ensures that "counties are not preempted from exercising their land use, taxation, and zoning authority."

The resolution also urges local city governments to consider a moratorium on data centers. Curran told The Epoch Times it is a homerule issue. "I just feel like the people who live here and the people who govern here should have some ability to be part of the discussion versus everything being ruled by people that have never been here."

She said she's not happy the state legislature passed the moratorium.

"I think that they will hinder any development at all. We don't have a great business environment for people," Curran said.

"The decisions should be more based in the communities because what goes on in Albany is like a different world."

Patrick Kelly, CEO of the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency, agrees that the local process can handle the decision. He said the potential moratorium sends the wrong signal.

"In terms of business development, business friendliness, being open for business and investment, moratoriums aren't necessarily an encouraging outcome," he told The Epoch Times.

Kelly thinks local communities should decide because they are the ones most affected by the facilities. He said the existing processes for the community to review any such proposals are already in place, including local zoning, planning, permitting, and project approval.

"I think letting those processes do the work that they were set up to do leads to the best outcomes for any community," Kelly said.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 15:10

Bessent Examining Use Of Frozen Iranian Assets To Help Gulf Countries Rebuild

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly pursuing a pathway to repurpose Iranian assets to compensate Amerca's Gulf allies which have suffered significant damage due to Iran's attacks in the wake of Trump's Operation Epic Fury.

Over eighty oil, gas, and vital infrastructure facilities across the Gulf have been hit - with most of the attacks having occurred in March and April - with one recent report estimating up to $58 billion in damage. Iran has sought to justify these attacks as 'retaliation' for these Gulf countries hosting American bases during the US unprovoked assault on the Islamic Republic.

Image source: White House

"Treasury will utilize all tools available to allow Iranian assets to be made available to our Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for any future damage caused by Iran," a US official told ABC's Senior White House correspondent Selina Wang over the weekend.

"The Secretary has also directed his team to assess conditions amongst our Gulf allies and request comprehensive estimates of the costs associated with repairing damage Iran has inflicted since the start of the conflict," the source continued.

"Treasury will further consider whether Iranian assets could be used to support repairs for past damages," it added, per the ABC correspondent. She also wrote on X:

The Iranian assets could include frozen assets and ships the U.S. has seized. The administration is reaching out to Gulf allies right now and asking for their evaluation.

If Treasury pulls the trigger on such a plan, it would likely further derail efforts to get Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table. Already the US has balked at Iran's own insistent it be given reparations for damage done. 

Iran is demanding that its billions in funds long frozen by Washington be given back as part of a deal. The Trump administration has so far appeared to reject this.

While some Gulf allies might welcome this, some might see it as unrealistic and a recipe for just prolonging the war. In this scenario, Gulf societies would only suffer more, especially in any future escalation leading to all-out war.

The D.C. think tank Freedom for Defense of Democracies has estimated Iran's damage suffered since the US-Israel war on it was launched at well over $100 billion, and possibly reaching as high as $300 billion - according to the highest-end estimates.

"FDD’s first model-based estimate of Iran's economic losses to date due to Operation Epic Fury are $144 billion, or 40 percent of pre-war GDP," a late April report said.

TOTAL IRAN ECONOMIC DAMAGE ESTIMATE, FDD on April 23...

On this basis, Tehran will pursue its case that it unjustly suffered the greatest damage to its national infrastructure and society, and that the surprise attack was launched as it was seeking to engage in good faith negotiations with the United States, ironically enough.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 14:35

Choose One: Housing Is Shelter, Or Housing Is Just Another Asset In A Bubble Economy

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via Of Two Minds,

This will get massive pushback because it's true: either Housing Is Shelter, or Housing Is Just Another Asset in a Bubble Economy - it can't be both. This reality gets pushback because the conversion of housing from shelter into just another asset bubbling higher in a bubble-dependent economy has been so profitable for those inflating the bubble.

The basic pushback goes like this: housing has always been an investment, nothing has changed. This is classic misdirection. This is like saying "stock market options have always been a way to hedge positions" to justify the transition from hedging to extremes of gambling, i.e. zero-day expiration options (ODTE).

Whenever I suggest that housing is being hoarded by the wealthy and corporations as a low-risk asset to park credit-generated capital, I get pushback: no, I'm told, the percentage of housing that's empty most or all of the year owned by the wealthy and corporations is tiny, as is the percentage of housing owned as short-term vacation rentals (STVRs).

The problem with these claims is they're based on completely fraudulent / inaccurate statistics. There is no regulatory system that audits whether owners who obtained "owner occupied" mortgages actually live in the dwelling, or whether owners, especially those hidden behind LLCs and other cloaking mechanisms, are "owner occupants" as claimed.

Owner-Occupancy Fraud and Mortgage Performance (Philadelphia Federal Reserve) Occupancy fraud has been suggested as a contributor to the housing bubble. We show it was pervasive and remains present.

In other words, even the most cursory audits find significant percentages of "owner occupied" housing is vacant most or all of the time or is an unregistered short-term vacation rental. Anecdotally, many upper-middle class households own not just vacation / second homes in rural locales but "investment" homes that are empty or they use occasionally in urban areas, which due to high demand / valuations are hoarded because selling them in a bubble economy means the sellers will be unable to buy back into the market in the future.

The "monetize your empty room" AirBnB idea that began the short-term vacation rental market has transmogrified into a monster consuming the housing market in resort locales. Surveys have found that 15% or more of all available housing in resort locales is now absentee-owner short-term vacation rentals, and two-thirds of condominium buyers are out-of-state.

STVRs Have Destroyed America's Resort Towns

Some argue this doesn't matter because resort housing tends to be in rural regions with few jobs. It matters to local residents who are priced out. But "investment" housing isn't limited to resorts; there are an unknown but consequential number of vacant / STVR "investment" housing units in urban areas with jobs and strong demand for permanent housing.

Cities with rent control such as San Francisco and New York have renters who keep their low-cost flat vacant while living abroad. Since the rent-controlled apartment cannot be replaced once it's surrendered, it makes sense to hoard the rental for future or occasional use. Again, there is no system of auditing who actually lives in a dwelling as a permanent resident, as this is viewed in the US as an invasion of privacy.

(In Japan, local authorities keep close tabs on who is actually living in every dwelling as a matter of course. When we stayed in a friend's temporarily vacant flat for a few days, officials came to the door to check on who we were.)

The monetary policies of suppressing interest rates and expanding credit have favored the wealthy who have the income to support additional mortgages and the need to park their expanding capital somewhere. Housing is attractive because it's less volatile than the stock market and offers higher appreciation in a bubble economy than bonds.

Those seeking housing as shelter cannot compete with wealthy households and entities seeking places to park credit-generated capital for income and/or appreciation. In a bubble-dependent economy, there's no need to go through all the trouble of renting an empty dwelling, as the appreciation alone makes the investment worthwhile. Renting out an "investment" incurs risks and costs that are best avoided - unless the property generates a hefty profit as a remotely managed unregistered short-term vacation rental.

Once again, the pushback is pushback against inconvenient truths that threaten the ownership class that has reaped gains from housing as an asset class in a bubble economy. It's now evident that large corporate owners of thousands of rental units have used predatory pricing - oops, I mean dynamic pricing - to jack up rents in markets they are dominant players in; once the price point is set higher, small landlords push up their rents to the new "market price."

In a non-bubble economy, credit is scarce and expensive, and so asset bubbles can't be inflated as credit inflates. As credit inflates, the pool of money sloshing around seeking a low-risk home for safety and appreciation expands, and this pool sloshes into housing, driving home prices and rents out of reach of those whose income is wages, not wages plus capital-generated income.

Bubbles in housing generate artificial scarcity, scarcity not in the total number of dwellings but in the number of dwellings available and within reach for those seeking shelter, i.e. whatever is left after wealthy households and corporations with access to credit snap up housing as a low-risk place to park capital that offers tax benefits and appreciation.

Housing affordability has reached historic lows.

Housing payments have reached historic highs.

The wealthiest 10% have used their income and credit to bid up assets which bubble higher in bubble-dependent economies.

So here's the truth: we can choose housing as shelter or housing as an asset in a bubble economy, but we can't choose both. Housing as an asset in a bubble economy pushes housing out of reach of those seeking shelter.

And of course there's pushback against the truth that ours is a bubble-dependent economy. For a definitive answer, let's see how well the economy is doing after all the credit-asset-speculative bubbles pop and decline back to their starting point.

My book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free)

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 13:25

Americans' Average Monthly Mortgage Payment Tops $2000 For The First Time Ever

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

U.S. households are being financially squeezed at a level that we have never seen before. I have often said that we are in a long-term cost of living crisis that never seems to end, and that is not an exaggeration at all. Just about everything has been getting more expensive in recent years, and as a result our standard of living has been going down. In many areas of the country, you now have to earn six figures just to live a basic middle class lifestyle. The numbers that I am going to share with you in this article may be hard to believe, but they are very real. Inflation has been out of control for many years, and hard working American families are being absolutely crushed.

For the first time in U.S. history, the average monthly mortgage payment now exceeds $2,000…

Homeowners faced a sticker shock at the end of 2025 as the average monthly mortgage payment topped $2,000 for the first time—a historic milestone reflecting the combined pressure of high home prices and elevated interest rates.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the average payment for existing mortgage holders climbed to $2,005, representing a striking 44% surge compared to 2021, according to the latest quarterly outstanding mortgage report from the Realtor.com® economic research team.

In other words, the typical homeowner saw their monthly mortgage payment jump by more than $600 in just three years, an eye-watering surge.

Take another look at those figures.

All along, federal bureaucrats have been feeding us numbers that show that the inflation rate is very low, but the average monthly mortgage payment has risen by 44 percent just since 2021.

Needless to say, someone is not telling us the truth.

But that isn’t even the worst part.

Today, what the average American family is paying for health insurance each month is even higher than the average monthly mortgage payment…

The numbers don’t lie. The average American family now pays over $2,200 a month for health insurance; surprisingly, that’s more than the average monthly mortgage payment of $2,000. Let that sink in. Keeping a roof over your head costs less than keeping your family covered.

That is not a market failure. That is a system rigged by liberals and government bureaucrats designed to benefit corporate giants at the expense of everyday Americans. Premiums are soaring, and insurers are cashing in. It needs to stop.

Americans are noticing. A recent poll found that a staggering 90 percent of Americans say health insurance companies have too much control and should be broken up, with 74 percent strongly agreeing. The overwhelming majority of Americans know there is a problem. They are screaming for justice.

That is outrageous.

Is there anyone out there that wants to attempt to defend how expensive health insurance has become?

Our system is so broken, and the politicians in Washington have given up on trying to fix it.

Meanwhile, pretty much everything else is becoming more expensive too.

And thanks to the war in Iran, American households have had to shell out an extra 100 billion dollars in just three months…

The war in Iran has cost US households $100 billion in three months, Moody’s Analytics says.

Now in its fourth month, the conflict has cost nearly $750 per household. The increased cost to consumers has mostly been felt in energy prices, but the inflation picture continues to deteriorate the longer the war drags on without a resolution in sight. What’s more, Moody’s says that tailwinds for household like Donald Trump’s tax cuts have been offset by war-fueled cost increased.

This is money that is coming directly out of your pockets.

The rising cost of gasoline alone has sucked an extra 400 dollars out of the typical U.S. household…

According to researchers at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, Americans have paid an additional $51.7 billion in gasoline and diesel costs since the conflict began on February 28, equivalent to nearly $400 per household. And Moody’s Analytics, in findings shared with CNBC, puts this figure even higher, at $450.

There is no end in sight for the crisis in the Middle East, and that means gasoline prices are likely to go significantly higher.

Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is “dropping toward levels not seen since the 1980s”…

America’s emergency oil reserve is dropping toward levels not seen since the 1980s, as the United States rapidly drains its supplies to stabilize global energy markets rattled by the war with Iran.

According to the latest report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. has 365.1 million barrels of oil sitting in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the week ending May 22, compared to 374.2 million a week prior and down by over 50 million barrels since the conflict began on February 28.

The price of oil has a direct impact on prices for just about everything else, and so that is really bad news.

As ordinary Americans are being squeezed harder and harder, household debt has been rising and the credit card delinquency rate has spiked to a very alarming level…

According to data released by the New York Fed in May, total U.S. household debt climbed to an all-time high of $18.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2026. Much of this is housing debt, and credit card balances dropped slightly over the period, but the rising total has coincided with an increase in late payments.

The percentage of credit card balances at least 90 days delinquent reached 13.1 percent in the first quarter, up 0.4 percent from the previous one and reaching its highest rate in 15 years.

Millions upon millions of Americans are working as hard as they can and it still isn’t enough.

To many people, it just seems like there is no way that they can win, and so many are choosing to simply drop out of the game.

In fact, one out of every three American men are no longer in the workforce at all…

The number of American men participating in the workforce has fallen to one of its lowest levels in nearly two decades, according to new federal labor statistics.

Just 66 percent of men age 20 and older were employed or actively seeking work as of April, according to data released earlier this month by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure has dropped sharply from 73 percent in 2006 and now sits near levels last seen during the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.

The numbers mean roughly one in three American men are no longer in the workforce.

This is what a crumbling economy looks like.

Only 66 percent of American men that are at least 20 years old are working.

How low does that number have to drop for us to admit that we have a historic crisis on our hands?

I have heard from so many readers that are feeling more financial stress right now than they ever have in their entire lives.

That isn’t a coincidence.

Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have resulted in a sl0w-motion economic decline that has really started to pick up speed in recent years.

Now the pain is beginning to feel like it is unbearable, but the truth is that our problems are only going to intensify from here.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 11:40

US Intercepted Fresh Iranian Ballistic Missile Attacks Overnight As Tehran Blasts 'Ceasefire Violations' Summary

• Iran's foreign ministry says US overnight action, especially bombing coastal radar facilities, is a violation of ceasfire.
• New nighttime salvo of missiles on Kuwait, Bahrain: Six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted, CENTCOM said.
• Overnight flare-up started with Iranian attack drones in Strait being intercepted by US forces.
• Trump admits Iran still has some 20% of its missile arsenal: "It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked." (CNBC)

//--> US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026?
Yes 21% · No 80%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

Iran FM Blasts New US 'Ceasefire Violations'

Iran has again accused the US of breaking the ceasefire, with the Foreign Ministry on Saturday stating the US "not only lacks the will to reduce tensions and return to the path of stability, but with its adventurist actions, it seriously endangers the security of the region."

The ministry on X denounced fresh US attacks its coastal radar and surveillance facilities in Sirik region and on Qeshm Island - saying this breached the ceasefire. The ministry “strongly calls on the countries of the region to observe the principle of good neighborliness and adhere to the fundamental principle of international law of refraining from allowing aggressors to use their territory and facilities to plan and carry out aggressive actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

It seems clear that for each US action, Iran is seeking to establish deterrence, and so is not hesitating to fire or inflict some kind of 'cost' either on US bases or the Gulf allies hosting them.

More Pakistani efforts to forge together agreement to get US-Iran back to the formal negotiating table:

Pakistan's Interior Minister @MohsinnaqviC42 has just departed from Lahore for Tehran where he will meet Iranian Leadership and deliver important messages as part of Pakistan's Mediation efforts between the US and Iran -- This is Naqvi's third standalone visit to Tehran and 4th… https://t.co/mmaVRrU2aX

— Anas Mallick (@AnasMallick) June 6, 2026 Salvo of Ballistic Missiles Fired on Kuwait, Bahrain

Soon after the initial drone shootdown engagement (below), it became apparent that anti-air defense systems were active over Kuwait, as its armed forces warned the public that explosions were the result of inbound projectile intercepts. While there were no reports of damage, the ground result is still anything but clear or certain (based on past instances of the US and Gulf allies concealing or downplaying damage or casualties).

Within hours after this initial exchange of fire, Iran followed up with more ballistic missiles on nearby Bahrain and Kuwait - as 'punishment' for the countries hosting US forces and American bases.

Bloomberg reports that "Six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach its intended target, hours after four drones headed to the Strait of Hormuz were shot down, Centcom said." It notes that the "US military struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island in return."

It Started With Iranian Drone Shootdowns

More details have come to light of the latest overnight flare-up in fighting between US and Iranian forces in and around the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.

The Friday night and overnight clashes started when the US military reportedly intercepted and shot down at least four Iranian one-way attack drones. According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the incoming unmanned aerial vehicles were heading directly toward the Strait of Hormuz and posed an "imminent threat to maritime traffic."

Following the drone shootdowns, American forces immediately launched retaliatory strikes against key military targets inside Iranian territory. CENTCOM further detailed that American assets hit Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites located in Goruk, a city in the Hormozgan province, as well as on Qeshm Island, a strategically vital Iranian outpost in the mouth of the strait.

Each Exchange Another Escalation Toward Full-Scale War

One thing is clear: these 'limited' escalations are becoming more regular, and even almost nightly at this point, raising the stakes and possibility of a more full-on, dangerous renewed war.

Every exchange like this could mean a return to full-scale war, and that’s what’s going to happen eventually unless Trump just pulls out, which I don’t think he’s gonna do. https://t.co/PFUiLoXktm

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) June 6, 2026

It has also become increasingly evident and acknowledged that the ceasefire has allowed Iran to reconstitute much of its missile and drone capabilities, and underground launch tunnels are being dug out with heavy equipment.

President Trump himself has recently admitted this state of things, amid the extended ceasefire:

US President Donald Trump, who has insisted for months that Iran was near its breaking point, conceded Friday that the country retains some missile and drone capacity. In an interview with NBC News, he said about 21-22% of Tehran’s missile arsenal remains.

“It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” he told the television network during a visit to Wisconsin. Earlier Friday, he told reporters the US is “having great success with Iran,” and “they’re in no position to have a nuclear weapon.”

Sunday will mark 100 days since the start of Operation Epic Fury. Trump and US officials had touted only a 'short' conflict, and seemed to have been betting on the government being toppled.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 11:04

UK Cop Fired For Questioning Islam In 'Safe Space'

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity,

A Christian police community support officer lost his career after asking a Muslim colleague about jihad and Hamas atrocities during a diversity session that promised open discussion. At the same time, training drilled "white privilege" into police ranks.

Luke Salmons, a 46-year-old Christian father of two and respected PCSO with North Yorkshire Police, relates how he attended a mandatory training day on race, religion and culture. Trainers spent several minutes marching up and down the room chanting "Islam is a religion of peace" repeatedly. A Muslim sergeant then spoke about his faith and invited questions in what was presented as a "safe space" where "there was no such thing as a bad question."

Salmons asked what the sergeant, as a peaceful Muslim, thought about the situation in Gaza and atrocities carried out by Hamas and other groups in the name of Islam. He also asked what jihad meant to him. The discussion was civil. The sergeant later invited Salmons for coffee to continue the conversation privately.

Christian police officer had his career ended for asking questions about jihad and radical Islam during a 'safe space' discussion on race and diversity. pic.twitter.com/rAxi5U8zYF

- Patrick Christys (@PatrickChristys) June 5, 2026

Salmons brought a book on the topic to work. Colleagues photographed it in his locker and reported him as a risk. An inspector then suspended him, declaring "I don't like your beliefs." Salmons noted the obvious double standard: no inspector would ever say that to a Muslim officer.

He was suspended on full pay for months, resigned under pressure in April 2025, and faced gross misconduct proceedings. Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, he appealed. Chief Constable Tim Forber overturned the dismissal before Salmons had even finished presenting his case. There was no apology and the episode devastated his family.

"I loved my job and I was good at it. I was well respected as a PCSO and my colleagues said they loved working with me and couldn't understand what was happening. But an overzealous inspector took against me and that was the end of my career, even though I had done nothing wrong," he related.

"It devastated me and my family. For months we lived in total uncertainty, with my reputation being shredded in secret. I resigned not because I had done anything wrong, but because the silence, the delay and the pressure became unbearable for my wife and daughters," Salmons added.

This is the new reality inside parts of British policing: open discussion of uncomfortable facts about Islamist ideology is treated as career-ending wrongthink, while entire days are devoted to chanting slogans and centring one faith above others.

The same ideological pressures are visible in operational failures. In the Henry Nowak case, an 18-year-old white British student was stabbed five times. He told responding officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe. Instead of treating him as a medical emergency, officers handcuffed him after his attacker falsely claimed racism. The attacker was allowed to walk away. An inquest is examining whether the handcuffing contributed to Nowak's death.

The police watchdog investigated itself and declared no wrongdoing.

Serving and former Hampshire officers later admitted the mandatory DEI training played a role. They told former Home Secretary Suella Braverman they had "it drummed into us about our white privilege and unconscious bias." One described the outsourced trainer as "deeply hateful of white people and our culture."

Meanwhile, shocking street interviews and bodycam footage show officers across forces admitting they will arrest people for speech that causes offence if an allegation is made - including phrases such as "send them all home." In one Birmingham incident, officers restrained a light-skinned suspect while a crowd of young men from ethnic minority backgrounds kicked and struck him; the police did not intervene to protect the suspect.

There has been a collapse in police standards:

These are the predictable result of years of diversity training that reframes native Britons, especially white ones, as inherent problems and elevates subjective feelings of offence above evidence and equal protection.

Into this crisis steps Keir Starmer. When US Vice President JD Vance directly addressed the Henry Nowak murder and the broader pattern, Starmer's team responded by once again accusing outsiders of interference.

Keir Starmer hits back at JD Vance for 'stirring up division' after he pointed to 'migrant invasion' as cause for Henry Nowak's murderhttps://t.co/Pwg1KGDNe7

- GB News (@GBNEWS) June 5, 2026

A No 10 spokesman said: "In recent days we have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets. The Nowak family are grieving after Henry's horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes. Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country."

Downing Street also rejected "any suggestion of two-tier policing."

Vance had stated the uncomfortable truth: "Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it."

He added: "Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response - the only response - is righteous anger. One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership. Anything else is an excuse."

Henry Nowak's murder will become a watershed moment in the UK.

And the Americans are right to share their concerns about what is happening to our country. pic.twitter.com/0Qdf972jQO

- Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) June 5, 2026

Starmer's outrage rings hollow. The same voices now demanding silence on UK failures spent years commenting on American policing cases. The real division comes from policies that import incompatible cultures at scale, shield certain ideologies from scrutiny, and punish officers who notice the consequences.

Hmmm pic.twitter.com/32jNIK0aHI

- @amuse (@amuse) June 5, 2026

Starmer now brands anyone linking such failures to mass migration and ideological capture as "stirring up division." Britain's police forces have been turned into enforcers of protected ideologies rather than impartial protectors of the public.

Luke Salmons was punished for treating a "safe space" as genuinely open. Henry Nowak paid with his life while officers prioritised a racism narrative drilled into them by ideologues. Thousands more officers stay silent for fear of the same fate. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's response to criticism is to attack the messengers.

Equal justice, free inquiry inside the police, and honest discussion of the cultural and demographic realities driving these failures are not optional extras. They are the minimum requirements for a functioning civilisation. Anything less is managed decline dressed up as compassion.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 10:30

Short-Term Bitcoin Holders Are Realizing Their Largest Losses On Record; Most Oversold Since 2018 Collapse

After this week's bloodbath...

Bitcoin is now flashing its most oversold signal since 2018, raising the odds of a relief rebound toward $70,000 in the coming weeks.

The extremely oversold reading followed a roughly 30% decline in BTC over the past month, as geopolitical risks, higher oil prices, fading hopes for a 2026 Federal Reserve rate cut, and panic over Strategy’s latest Bitcoin sale weighed on sentiment.

In addition, there was some online chatter seems to speculate that retail investors may be selling crypto to chase the biggest IPO ever.

The Elon Musk-owned rockets, satellite and AI company SpaceX is selling up to 30% of its record $75 billion offering straight to retail investors through Robinhood, Fidelity and Charles Schwab, more than three times the slice a typical IPO sets aside for individuals.

The roadshow opened Thursday already oversubscribed, with more orders than shares on offer, Bloomberg reported. It is offering shares at a $1.8 trillion valuation.

Bitcoin fell roughly 16% over the same timespan and briefly traded below $60,000 before recovering to around $61,000.

Oversold readings this extreme often appear near seller-exhaustion zones where short-term buyers begin positioning for a relief rebound.

In 2018, the collapse was triggered in large part by the SEC's regulatory crackdown on ICOs, announcing its first civil penalties against Paragon and CarrierEQ/Airfox. But, the 2018 bear market was already underway due to the bursting of the 2017 ICO bubble, regulatory uncertainty (China bans, etc.), exchange hacks, and fading retail hype. November was more of a capitulation phase than a new shock.

In 2020, Bitcoin’s RSI dropped to around 15.56 before BTC rebounded by about 50%, helped by the Federal Reserve’s emergency shift to near-zero interest rates and large-scale bond purchases. 

In February 2026, for instance, BTC’s daily RSI dropped to around 15.86 while price held above the $60,000 support area. The signal preceded a nearly 30% recovery toward $82,850.

Following bitcoin's worst week in two years, Strategy(MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor published a framework on X, arguing that the Bitcoin community is evolving into four distinct ideological camps.

As CoinDesk reports, rather than viewing these groups as competitors, he presents them as complementary forces that will collectively shape bitcoin’s future.

• The first group, Bitcoin Maximalists, sees Bitcoin as the ultimate monetary breakthrough. They believe bitcoin has already solved the problem of digital scarcity and offers superior property rights, protection from inflation, and economic empowerment. Their focus is conviction: bitcoin is not one crypto asset among many, but the dominant digital monetary network.

• The second group, Bitcoin Capitalists, views Bitcoin as a form of digital capital that should be integrated into the global economy. They support corporate treasury adoption, institutional custody, bitcoin-backed securities, lending markets, and broader financial infrastructure. Their goal is to expand bitcoin's reach by embedding it into existing economic systems rather than replacing them.

• The third group, Bitcoin Technologists, focuses on improving the protocol. They argue that Bitcoin must continue to evolve to address challenges in scalability, privacy, usability, security, and future threats such as quantum computing. While they support innovation, Saylor notes that changes to bitcoin's base layer must be approached cautiously to avoid unintended consequences.

• The fourth group, Bitcoin Fundamentalists, prioritize protecting bitcoin's original principles: decentralization, self-custody, immutability, censorship resistance, and individual sovereignty. They are wary of excessive institutional influence, financialization, and protocol changes that could compromise Bitcoin's core characteristics.

Saylor's central argument is that Bitcoin needs all four perspectives. Maximalists provide conviction, Capitalists drive adoption, Technologists ensure long-term resilience, and Fundamentalists safeguard the protocol's integrity.

Saylor argues that Bitcoin's most successful path lies in a balance among these four forces.

As CoinTelegraph reports, Bitcoin has fulfilled two of three key conditions to spark the next BTC price “rally,” new analysis says.

Bitcoin price comeback hinges on US, Korea demand

Bitcoin whale traders are laying the foundations for BTC price relief, even as BTC/USD plumbs two year lows.

In an X post on Friday, trader CW confirmed that Bitcoin whales on both Hyperliquid and Bitfinex are signaling a market rebound.

BTC/USD long positions on Bitfinex. Source: CW/X

CW notes that Hyperliquid whales have adopted a “bullish stance” on the market, while on Bitfinex, long positions have tailed off. The latter is a classic sign that an uptrend is due next.

“What remains is for the Kimchi Premium and Coinbase Premium to turn positive,” he commented.

The Coinbase Premium is the difference in price between Coinbase’s and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs and has been mostly negative in 2026.

Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index. Source: CryptoQuant

A negative premium reflects weak US demand, while the Kimchi Premium monitors the South Korean exchange sector.

Once demand returns across the board, Bitcoin has a better chance of reentering a sustainable uptrend.

CW acknowledged that the Kimchi Premium has already “decreased significantly” versus earlier in the week.

Bitcoin starts its latest "bottoming out" phase

As Cointelegraph reported, consensus overall favors a macro bottoming phase playing out for BTC/USD next.

The week has seen the pair touch a key bear-market trend line in the form of its 200-week simple moving average (SMA) — another essential ingredient in a bottom formation.

“Bitcoin has only just started deviating below the 200-week SMA,”  trader and analyst Rekt Capital emphasized to X followers on Friday.

“The significance of this is that historical Bear Market Bottoming out formations have started to develop via such deviations.”

BTC/USD one-week chart with 200SMA. Source: Rekt Capital/X

Earlier, trader Leviathan described BTC price action as copying the 2022 bear market "almost perfectly."

Additionally, CoinTelegraph notes that short-term bitcoin holders are realizing their largest losses on record, according to Checkonchain data cited by crypto analyst Scott Melker.

The short-term holder realized profit/loss ratio has dropped to a new all-time low, falling below levels seen in previous Bitcoin drawdowns.

Bitcoin short-term holder realized profit/loss ratio vs. price. Source: Checkonchain

The metric tracks whether recent buyers are selling at a profit or loss. A deeply negative reading means newer holders are exiting below their cost basis, signaling panic selling.

Melker also noted that roughly 5.3 million BTC held by long-term holders is now underwater, above the post-FTX peak and the highest level since the March 2020 COVID crash.

Similar stress has appeared near past capitulation zones. Bitcoin bottomed near $15,500 after FTX before rallying roughly 690% to around $126,000 in 2025. After the COVID crash, BTC rose about 1,700% from $3,800 to nearly $69,000.

"Sentiment has tracked price almost perfectly," Melker said, adding:

"Traders were euphoric at the May peak, then hit peak despair on June 3. That’s usually when the bottom is close. Usually."

And finally, bitcoin bears piled aggressively into short positions as BTC price slid to $60,000, raising the question: Will the $2.6 billion in new short leverage lead to an upside squeeze?

The Bitcoin (BTC) crash to $61,100 on Friday wiped out $335 million in leveraged long positions. However, after a 21% decline in Bitcoin's price, bulls might have set a perfect trap as negative market sentiment intensified. Bearish positions built up heavily between $63,000 and $66,000, setting the stage for a potential $2.6 billion short squeeze.

Estimated cumulative Bitcoin liquidation at major exchanges, USD. Source: CoinGlass

Estimated liquidations for a further 8% drop in Bitcoin to $57,000 from $62,000 stand at $1.2 billion. In contrast, a rally to $66,000 would put $2.6 billion of short positions at risk. This potential squeeze might provide enough fuel to revive buyer confidence following a record-breaking 13-day streak of net outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs daily net flows, USD. Source: SoSoValue

The minor $3 million net inflow on Thursday could represent a temporary breathing room after 15 days of selling that drained $5.1 billion. It remains too early to conclude that momentum has officially flipped in favor of the bulls. Ultimately, if bears kept their leverage low and played conservatively, the actual threat of a massive short squeeze might be minimal.

Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

A neutral funding rate typically ranges between 6% and 12%, with longs paying to keep their positions open. The current negative 2% Bitcoin perpetual futures funding rate suggests growing confidence among bears. Thus, even if it takes time for Bitcoin to reclaim the $66,000 level, bulls have fully deleveraged, reducing downside risk.

Nasdaq 100 futures (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView

Bitcoin has severely underperformed the Nasdaq 100 index, but the tech sector is beginning to display weakness after Broadcom (AVGO US) closed down 12.6% Thursday, erasing $280 billion in market value. The company trimmed its AI chip sales forecast for the second half of 2026, putting investors on alert.

Impact of the tech sector IPOs and Strategy’s 32 BTC sale

Other prominent names in the AI sector also felt the impact. Micron (MU US) traded down 7.8% while Arm (ARM US) dropped 4.5%. With highly anticipated IPOs from SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI in sight, investors likely opted to raise cash ahead of those offerings. Analysts claim this liquidity drain also contributed to Bitcoin's recent weakness.

Source: X/dgt10011

Jeff Park, partner at ParaFi Capital and Bitwise advisor, argues that the AI sector is draining money from other investments as the market becomes a “hot ball of money” that everyone suddenly “has to own”. However, Park reminds that once this period of AI mania blows off, capital will eventually rotate back to Bitcoin as its discounted valuation works in its favor.

Regardless of whether Bitcoin’s weakness stems from AI sector hype, excessive confidence from bears poses a major risk once spot Bitcoin ETF inflows pick up or the fear surrounding a recent 32 BTC sale from Strategy (MSTR US) dissipates.

A rally back to $66,000 might seem unlikely at first glance, but a sudden short squeeze could quickly shift momentum in favor of the bulls.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 09:55

Germany's First F-35 Stealth Fighter Moves Closer To Service With Key Engine Installation

Authored by Sujita Sinha via Interesting Engineering,

Germany's first F-35A fighter jet is now closer to delivery after its engine was installed during final assembly, according to Lockheed Martin. This milestone shows steady progress on one of Germany's biggest defense modernization efforts since the Cold War.

Germany's first F-35 reaches a key production milestone as its powerful F135 engine is installed.Lockheed Martin Europe/X

Lockheed Martin Europe posted the update on social media, describing the engine installation as "another key production milestone on the path to delivering advanced 5th Gen capability for Germany."

The company shared photos of the aircraft on the assembly line as workers installed the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine. Now that the engine is in place, the jet will move on to final testing before its first flight and handover to the German Air Force.

Powerplant Transforms Aircraft Into Operational System

Germany's first F-35 uses the Pratt & Whitney F135, which is the most powerful engine in any Western fighter jet today. It produces about 43,000 pounds of thrust with afterburner and is a key part of the jet's design.

The F135 was made specifically for the F-35 and cannot be swapped for another engine. Besides providing power, it also helps the jet stay stealthy. Engineers shaped the exhaust nozzle and air intake to lower radar visibility from different directions.

Installing the engine is a major step in final assembly because it marks the change from a finished airframe to a working combat jet. After the engine is in, technicians start checking how the propulsion system works with the jet's controls, sensors, and software.

Die Power hinter Deutschlands erster F-35 🇩🇪

Mit dem erfolgreichen Einbau des Triebwerks hat das Flugzeug einen weiteren wichtigen Meilenstein erreicht - auf dem Weg zur Auslieferung modernster Fähigkeiten der 5. Generation für Deutschland. pic.twitter.com/foTw7YotgE

- Lockheed Martin Europe (@LMEuropeNews) June 4, 2026 Berlin's Response To A Changing Security Environment

Germany decided to buy the F-35A soon after Russia began its full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The F-35A will replace the Luftwaffe's old Tornado jets, which have been used for NATO nuclear-sharing missions for many years.

As part of NATO, Germany keeps aircraft and trained pilots ready to deliver U.S. nuclear weapons if needed. With the Tornado nearing retirement, German officials looked for a replacement that could handle future missions.

The F-35A, which takes off and lands like a regular jet, became the top choice for its stealth, survivability, and certification for nuclear missions. German leaders found that no European jet matched these features for the job.

Multi-Billion-Dollar Investment In Future Air Power

Germany has ordered 35 F-35A jets for about $8.4 billion. The deal covers more than just the planes - it also includes pilot training, simulators, logistics, weapons integration, and the infrastructure needed to run the fleet.

This purchase puts Germany in a growing group of European countries that have joined the F-35 program. The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Finland, and Switzerland have all either received or ordered the jet.

As more European countries use the F-35, NATO is shaping its future air combat plans around this common fifth-generation jet. Using the same aircraft makes training, maintenance, and joint missions easier.

Next Steps Before Delivery

The engine was installed following the usual steps at Lockheed Martin's F-35 production line in Fort Worth, Texas. After installation, the jet undergoes additional system checks, fuel testing, and ground runs to ensure everything works properly.

Next, engineers check how the engine works with the jet's software and flight systems before allowing flight tests. Once these steps are done, the jet can be accepted by the customer.

For the Luftwaffe, acquiring the F-35A will give it new capabilities that Germany's current fighter jets do not have. The Eurofighter Typhoon and Tornado can handle air combat and strikes, but neither was built to be stealthy.

The F-35's stealthy design allows it to fly in heavily defended airspace and makes it harder for enemy radar to detect. As advanced air defenses spread, this feature is expected to be key in Germany's future military plans.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 08:45