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Zero Rss

White Girls Raped By Dogs, Whisky Bottles, & 100s Of Men: Britain's Migrant Grooming-Gang Scandal Exposed

Zero Rss
4 days 18 hours ago
White Girls Raped By Dogs, Whisky Bottles, & 100s Of Men: Britain's Migrant Grooming-Gang Scandal Exposed

Via Remix News,

Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe used a Westminster Hall debate on Monday to confront MPs with harrowing testimony from White girls and women who were raped, tortured, trafficked, and degraded by migrant grooming gangs, and abandoned by the very authorities that should have protected them.

The debate was secured after 260,974 Brits signed a petition calling for Parliament to address the rape gang scandal. Lowe opened by thanking the signatories and welcoming survivors who were sitting in the hall, saying the debate was not about politics, but about them.

“I want the world to hear what we heard during the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings, an inquiry that should never have needed to happen,” Lowe said.

He then read out a series of graphic testimonies that exposed the scale of the abuse suffered by almost exclusively White girls.

One survivor said she was only “about 12, nearly 13” when a man raped her before forcing an empty Jack Daniel’s bottle inside her and breaking the glass. Another described being held down by groups of men as they took turns to rape her, before beating her and threatening to kill her and harm her loved ones if she ever spoke out.

I want the world to hear what we heard. pic.twitter.com/2DtCS0QztE

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 1, 2026

Lowe told MPs that the evidence heard by his inquiry included repeated allegations that White British girls were deliberately targeted.

One survivor said abusers made constant references to “White girls” and “Christian girls,” claiming they had “fewer morals or lower values,” while Muslim girls were described as having “dignity and higher moral standing.”

Another alleged victim said race “did play a part” in the selection of victims, adding that the girls she encountered during her exploitation were “almost exclusively White.”

The testimony also included claims that children in care were effectively handed over to abusers. One survivor said men would sound a car horn outside a children’s home before a staff member brought a child to the front door. Another said, “It was all of the White girls in every home that I went to.”

In one of the most disturbing accounts read to MPs, a survivor recalled seeing the back of a van opened to reveal “15, 20 girls locked in dog cages.” Another said dogs were brought in during an attack while men stood around filming, laughing, and betting on what would happen. She said she had nowhere to move and was raped by a dog while a man held her face and stared into her eyes because “he wanted to see me break.”

Lowe also read testimony from a survivor who said she was raped by “probably about six or seven hundred different men” over three years after the abuse began when she was 13. Another said abuse escalated around Eid and holidays, when parties became “bigger, worse, and “more violent,” with more men and more girls involved.

The Restore Britain leader claimed that institutions had repeatedly failed victims. One girl said she went to hospital at 15, bleeding, swollen, and unable to sit down after an assault, but was given tablets and discharged after telling staff her drink had been spiked because she was too frightened to say what had really happened. “They did not ask any questions,” she said.

Another survivor alleged that she was raped by multiple police officers in different parts of the country. A further testimony claimed a man put a cigarette out on a baby’s face.

Lowe said the abuse was also used to attack the faith and identity of victims. One Christian survivor said her cross was used as a way to break her down, with abusers asking, “Where is your God now? Has your God forsaken you?”

The politician said he could have continued reading testimony “for hours and hours,” warning that Parliament no longer had any excuse for inaction.

“All of us in this building have a responsibility to finally act. Not to talk, but to act,” he said. “Our Rape Gang Inquiry report will be released in the coming days. It will change Britain for good.”

Lowe launched his own independent inquiry before the U.K. government announced a statutory national investigation into grooming gangs, a probe that identified evidence of child sexual exploitation across dozens of local authority areas.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/03/2026 - 03:30
Tyler Durden

US Warns Ally Oman That It Better Pick The 'Right' Side In Hormuz Standoff

Zero Rss
4 days 19 hours ago
US Warns Ally Oman That It Better Pick The 'Right' Side In Hormuz Standoff

The saga of rare Washington pressure on its longtime regional ally Oman continues, with on Tuesday The Wall Street Journal reporting that US officials are growing "increasingly frustrated" with Muscat's neutral stance, which they now view as hostile to US interests.

Oman has stood accused of cooperating with Iran on a proposed toll collection scheme which would benefit Tehran and circumvent America's aims for the region.

Via container-news

"In recent days, the Trump administration has threatened to sanction and even bomb Oman, after a new intelligence assessment concluded that Muscat was planning to join Iran in tolling vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to another U.S. official," WSJ writes. "Oman has repeatedly denied that it plans to do so."

Interestingly, Oman actually provided some level of military assistance to the US even as it launched an unprovoked attack on the Islamic Republic alongside Israel.

"Omani territory was used to provide some logistical supplies to the U.S. military at the start of the war, say Arab and U.S. officials," notes the report. "But the U.S. official said the military assistance was small."

During a cabinet meeting last week, President Trump made clear that Muscat must align with US-backed 'international norms' or face consequences, warning, "Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up."

Omani Information Minister Abdulla al-Harrasi has recently emphasized that the Sultanate remains "ready to work with the United States and all responsible partners to promote stability" and protect mutual interests. 

The small strategically located Arabian peninsula country has sought to walk a fine line, but Washington is angered as it has yet to explicitly condemn Iran, even after weeks of attacks on Gulf states (at the height of Operation Epic Fury):

Since the war started, Oman has assisted ships, including from the U.S., by providing navigational guidance, search-and-rescue services and medical assistance to ship crews, said a person familiar with the matter.

Harrasi said the country remained committed to the free flow of commerce and energy through the strait. “Any threat to freedom of navigation in these waters would harm the interests of the entire international community, including the United States,” he said.

In May, Oman was the only Persian Gulf country that refused to sign an Emirati-led U.N. statement condemning Iran’s move to charge tolls in Hormuz. 

Some have called Oman the "Switzerland of the Middle East" - a status that Omani diplomats are proud of. Likely they are also very wary of being seen as is America's or Israel's corners - especially before their domestic Arab population.

One analyst quoted in the WSJ has summarized where things stand: Oman's approach to Tehran so far has "opened the door to criticism and unwelcome scrutiny of a country that has long prided itself on its impartial foreign policy."

Meanwhile, via Financial Times on Tuesday: "Greek shipping tycoon Evangelos Marinakis ready to pay Strait of Hormuz transit fees."

Marco Rubio on Iran:

We can't have a world in which only Iranian ships get through the straits.

If they are going to shut down the straits for everybody, we are going to shut down the straits for them. pic.twitter.com/OU2unUVGum

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 2, 2026

If this trend of different shipping companies and nations approaching Tehran to do separate deal-making to transit the strait continues, we could see Iran placed in a stronger position globally than before the war began.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/03/2026 - 02:45
Tyler Durden

Russia Weighs $50 Million Plan To Influence Armenia's Election

Zero Rss
4 days 20 hours ago
Russia Weighs $50 Million Plan To Influence Armenia's Election

Via Eurasianet,

  • Reuters reported that Russian officials discussed influence operations aimed at weakening Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary election.

  • One alleged proposal involved temporarily bringing Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia to vote for opposition candidates.

  • Despite the reported efforts, polling suggests Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party remains the clear frontrunner as Armenia debates its future relationship with Russia and the West.

Russia has mulled an extraordinary measure of exporting humans to Armenia in an effort to undermine Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s chances of retaining power in the fast-approaching parliamentary elections on June 7, according to an investigative report published by the Reuters news agency. 

Despite the Kremlin’s best efforts to manipulate the election’s outcome, recent polling data shows that Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party is pulling away from a collection of opposition forces and appears increasingly likely to have a majority in the next parliament.

According to Reuters, citing four sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Kremlin set up an agency in October called the Directorate for Strategic Cooperation and Partnership to run a wide array of influence operations in Armenia, including disinformation campaigns.

Another initiative reportedly considered involved transporting Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia temporarily so that they could vote for opposition candidates. Up to 2 million Armenian citizens are believed to be living and working in Russia. Election rules bar expats from voting.

Several Reuters sources said that Russian officials estimated that it would cost about $50 million to send 100,000 Armenians back to their homeland to cast ballots. Reuters could not confirm whether the repatriation-to-vote operation had been set in motion, and, if it had, how many Armenian citizens had actually returned for the elections.

Any such effort would appear to be a waste of time and money. A recent poll published by the International Republican Institute showed that Pashinyan’s public support is growing, the percentage moving from the low 20s to over 30 percent now. 

Given the fragmented support for opposition forces, Pashinyan’s party should be able to retain a parliamentary majority if it can maintain 30 percent support on June 7.

Pashinyan has sought to break Armenia out of Russia’s geopolitical orbit over the past two years and steer the country towards greater integration with the United States and European Union. Russia, meanwhile, is keen to maintain its political hold on Yerevan.

The parliamentary vote is widely seen as a referendum on Armenia’s geopolitical future.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/03/2026 - 02:00
Tyler Durden

Early Returns Show Surprises In California As Other States Wrap Up

Zero Rss
4 days 22 hours ago
Early Returns Show Surprises In California As Other States Wrap Up

Update (0030ET): Voters in six states went to the polls today for key primaries. While many races followed expectations, California delivered notable early drama with slow-counting mail ballots still to come.

California Governor (Top-Two Primary)

The race to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom remains the biggest story. In a crowded nonpartisan jungle primary, early returns (approx. 45-50% counted) show:

  • Steve Hilton (R) leading at ~26.7%
  • Xavier Becerra (D) close behind at ~25.8%
  • Tom Steyer (D) trailing at ~19.6%

Chad Bianco (R) is further back. If trends hold, Hilton and Becerra are positioned to advance to November - setting up a potentially competitive general election in deep-blue California. Mail ballots could still shift the order.

Polymarket: Will Xavier Becerra advance? (Yes 93% · No 7%) View on Polymarket

 

Los Angeles Mayoral Primary

Incumbent Karen Bass (D) leads with ~36.5-38% (46%+ counted), followed by a strong surge from Spencer Pratt (R) at ~30%. Nithya Raman (D) trails at ~20%. Bass and Pratt are heavily favored to advance to the November runoff. Pratt’s performance reflects voter frustration with homelessness, crime, and city governance.

Pre-election Polymarket: Will Karen Bass win the 2026 LA mayoral election? (Yes 68% · No 33%) View on PolymarketIowa
  • U.S. Senate (open seat): Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) won the GOP nomination decisively. State Rep. Josh Turek (D) won the Democratic nod. This sets up a key battleground race in November.
  • Governor (open): Early leads for Republican Zach Lahn in the crowded GOP field; Democrat Rob Sand unopposed.
Other Notable Races
  • Montana Senate (open): Kurt Alme (R) secured the GOP nomination.
  • California’s 11th Congressional District (replacing Nancy Pelosi): Scott Wiener (D) won with a strong lead.
  • New Jersey: Rebecca Bennett advanced in NJ-7; progressive Adam Hamawy won the open NJ-12.

Overall Takeaway: A night of outsider energy and tight races, particularly in California. Full results may take days or weeks due to mail-in ballots. These outcomes will shape the November midterms.

* * *

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primaries are among the most closely watched races today.

A voter fills out a ballot at a polling station in Des Moines, Iowa, on Nov. 6, 2018. Joshua Lott/Getty Images

Voters in six states will go to the polls today for a series of key races.

The biggest item of the night will be the litany of races in California, the nation's largest state. Others will be held in Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey, and South Dakota.

Here are the most important races to watch.

California Governor

The race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of the most-watched in the nation.

California's gubernatorial elections are designed to be nonpartisan. With about six candidates polling with at least 5 percent support, only the top two vote-getters will be on the general gubernatorial election ballot in November, even if both are of the same party.

In the final weeks leading into the primary, the election underwent a total shake-up when front-runner Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) left the race - and Congress - following multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Swalwell has denied the allegations.

Currently, the Democratic front-runners are former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and billionaire Tom Steyer. The two are polling close, although Becerra retains a slight advantage.

//--> //--> //--> Will Xavier Becerra advance from the 2026 California Governor primary election?
Yes 93% · No 7%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

The main Republican candidates in the race are Steve Hilton, a British American TV show host and conservative commentator, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Polling leaves it unclear whether Hilton or Steyer is favored for second place.

Los Angeles Mayoral Primary

Residents of Los Angeles will also vote in the nonpartisan mayoral primary.

Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is facing off against 10 other contenders. She is expected to win the top spot in the primary.

//--> //--> //--> Will Karen Bass win the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election?
Yes 68% · No 33%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Meanwhile, the top Democratic contender for the second-place spot - member of the Los Angeles City Council Nithya Raman - is seeking to hold off a challenge from former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, running as a Republican, and make it to the general election.

California's 22nd Congressional District

In California's 22nd Congressional District, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) will face off in a nonpartisan primary with state Rep. Jasmeet Bains and Randy Villegas, both Democrats.

Valadao is expected to win a place in the general election, although his final opponent will be decided by the outcome on June 2.

//--> //--> //--> Will David Valadao advance from the CA-22 Primary?
Yes 90% · No 10%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Polling in the district is sparse. A single poll conducted at the beginning of May by Data for Progress, a left-leaning pollster, showed Valadao with 44 percent support, Villegas with 25 percent, and Bains with 21 percent.

California's 48th Congressional District

In California's 48th Congressional District, a flurry of candidates have put their names into the ring.

Republican Jim Desmond leads in polls in the nonpartisan election, with fellow Republican Kevin O'Neil coming in second in some polls. Marni von Wilpert and Ammar Campa-Najjar are the Democratic front-runners.

The seat was one of five redrawn to favor Democrats last year - but that advantage only holds if a Democrat wins the nonpartisan primary.

California's 11th Congressional District

In California's 11th Congressional District, a slate of Democrats is competing to replace outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Most polls show a lead for candidate Scott Wiener, a Democrat, while Pelosi has endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. Chan has come in second in some polls, and Wiener enters the primary as the clear front-runner.

//--> //--> //--> Will Scott Wiener receive the most votes in the CA-11 primary?
Yes 99% · No 1%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

The two Republicans in the running - when they have made it into the polls at all - have pulled less than 5 percent support.

Iowa Senate

Although Iowa has long been a lock for Republicans, it is among Democrats' targets this year, as there are indications that the party could flip Senate seats previously considered safe. This year, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) will not be seeking reelection, leaving the seat open.

Polls indicate that Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) is favored for the Republican nomination over her rival, state Sen. Jim Carlin.

//--> //--> //--> Will the Republicans win the Iowa Senate race in 2026?
Yes 62% · No 38%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

The polls leave it unclear whom the Democrats will nominate between candidates Josh Turek and Zach Wahls. Turek has led in more recent polling.

//--> //--> //--> Will Josh Turek be the Democratic nominee for Senate in Iowa?
Yes 93% · No 7%
View full market & trade on Polymarket Iowa Governor

Iowa's gubernatorial race is open after Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, announced that she would not seek reelection in 2026.

Several Republicans are contending for the nomination to replace her. The polls show that candidates Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Zach Lahn, and Adam Steen are leading in that race. On the Democratic side, only state Auditor Rob Sand is running.

A general election poll conducted in April by Echelon Insights, a Republican-aligned pollster, found that Sand had 51 percent support against Feenstra, who was polling at 39 percent.

Montana Senate

In Montana, the last-minute exit of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) from the race left Republican challengers little opportunity to register against former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, who registered for the GOP nomination just as Daines exited the race.

On the Democratic side, no polls have been conducted, leaving it unclear who is in the lead for the nomination.

As recently as 2024, the state was represented by Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat. Some general election polls have shown 44 percent support for a generic Democrat.

New Mexico Governor

In New Mexico, Democrat and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland is highly favored to win the Democratic nomination in the blue-leaning state, which some Republican strategists had eyed as a potential target in 2024.

On the Republican side, Gregg Hull narrowly leads Doug Turner in polls for the nomination.

New Jersey's 7th Congressional District

One of the two top targets for Democrats in New Jersey is the seat of Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.).

Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, is favored to win the nomination, leading in most polls. Her closest rival is Brian Varela.

New Jersey's 12th Congressional District

In New Jersey's 12th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) is retiring, leaving open a safely Democratic seat in a district where the primary essentially is the general election.

The race has exposed ideological rifts in the Democratic Party.

Leading the progressive side in the race is Dr. Adam Hamawy, a Princeton trauma surgeon and Army veteran with endorsements from progressive heavyweights such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

The main other contenders for the Democratic nomination include East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, state Rep. Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, and Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/03/2026 - 00:29
Tyler Durden

Barbarian Mindset: How Leftists And Third-World Invaders Think Alike

Zero Rss
4 days 23 hours ago
Barbarian Mindset: How Leftists And Third-World Invaders Think Alike

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

The fall of the Roman Empire is often presented as symbolic of the slow but steady decline of the western world today, and it’s true, this comparison might be more accurate than many people realize. The disastrous collapse which escalated over the course of the 5th century was driven by economic crisis, a split of the empire into eastern and western halves, government reliance on foreign mercenaries for security, uncontrolled mass immigration, and ultimately, barbarian invasion.

When the western empire failed, Rome was plundered and centuries of human innovation and progress were lost in the flames. It’s an element that modern historians often gloss over – Each time the west has fallen, incredible knowledge that took generations to discover was dispersed into the ether. Each time, the human species was set back for centuries.

Many lives were sacrificed and ancient cities were destroyed, but the loss of time is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. It took another 400 years for the western world to reconstitute under Christian rule, but barbarians attacked again in the form of Muslim hordes in the 9th century. It’s almost as if the grasping, predatory hands of useless ravagers are always lurking in the shadows, waiting for the west to rise from the ashes.

History is, of course, nuanced and complex, but some patterns are patently obvious and the attempts to sack Rome, Europe and greater Christendom repeated regularly over the course of a thousand years. Western civilization endures, succeeds, creates wonders, creates wealth and advances human invention. Then, the third world invades in an effort to strip whatever wealth was amassed.

There have been other civilizations, or attempts at civilizations beyond the west which suffered similar fates. The fall of the Bronze Age empires is a perfect example; a calamity of human history very similar to the fall of Rome, if not more mysterious. There was the collapse of China’s Han Dynasty in the 3rd century due to corruption, rebellion and foreign invasion by Mongolian tribes. The collapse of the Gupta Empire in India, triggered by Hunnic barbarian incursions, etc.

However, only the west survived in the long run and only the west is still targeted for demolition in the modern era. I would break this pattern down into two distinct forms of human endeavor or states of existence…

The Tribes Of Order: People who build, invent, create, persevere, maintain and seek to survive through merit, self discipline and industry. (Ayn Rand might refer to this group as the “producers”).

The Tribes Of Chaos (Barbarians): People who survive through brutality, piracy and deceit; those who live by stealing from the tribes of order. They wait until wealth and abundance is accumulated by others and then strip it away when given an opportunity.

Why do barbarians do this? Well, because it’s far easier to smash and steal than it is to plan and innovate. Some might argue that the mentality is genetic.  Some would argue it’s a product of culture. Others assert it’s a product of low IQ or low capacity for creative thinking. I’m inclined to believe that it’s a mix of all of these things.

How The West First Solved The Barbarian Problem

I believe there is a distinct and identifiable moment in history when the barbarian plunder of the west went into decline, and that was the First Christian Crusade in 1096 AD.

This was, in a way, the act of self defense through “colonization”. That is to say, the pattern of pillaging stops whenever the west takes forceful action to colonize the third world. In terms of the crusades, instead of allowing the barbarians to loiter on the doorstep of Europe and take territory whenever they pleased, the Holy Crusades sought to push them back and defeat them on their home turf.

Centuries later after the Muslims were mostly contained, European exploration led to colonies across Asia and Africa, civilizing cultures with the barbarian mindset. The insatiable desire to hijack the accomplishments of the Tribes of Order was countered by simply GIVING these people western accomplishments…and taking by away their ability to project power.

When the west expanded to take over management of the third world, the invasions ceased and the third world was introduced to the wealth of modernization without having to steal it. One could easily argue that western colonization was a net positive for the world. It’s not a coincidence that far-left ideologues and communists demonize it so frequently; they do this because they know colonization works. They use it themselves.

The Return Of The Barbarian Hordes

It is entirely predictable that, as the west embraces liberalism and socialism, the third world invasions have returned. We are the only culture that feels “shame” over our historic successes, so much so that many people are convinced we deserve punishment for the colonies of the past.

The biggest factor in this program of shame is the globalist agenda to erase national borders and identity through multiculturalism. However, I think it’s important to understand that the globalists are not forcing third worlders to immigrate to the west; these people WANT to come here and the globalists are simply opening the gates to let them in.

Why do they travel from countries where their culture is dominant? Why come to Europe or the US where their values are not aligned, their languages do not function and their tribal thinking is incongruent? Again, you can take the man out of barbarism, but you can’t take the barbarism out of the man. They come here because they see an opportunity to plunder the west after centuries of being thwarted. It’s a behavior that’s hard-wired into their gray matter.

I outlined this dynamic in my article “The Third World Is Forever Chasing The White Man”, in which I examined the habit of third world populations to constantly scratch for a piece of the first world instead of improving their own conditions at home. I also touched on the habit of leftist minorities to appropriate western culture and pretend they built it first (How often, for example, has Somalian Democrat Ilhan Omar falsely claimed that America was built by Muslims?).

These people do not want to develop their own accomplishments, their own stories, their own discoveries – they want ours. It’s the barbarian mindset.

I am reminded of a fascinating discussion by African commentator Franck Zanu, who presented his theory on why he believes African societies will “never develop” without the aid of western colonization. He noted that African languages have no word for “maintenance” – The concept simply does not exist in their vernacular.

It’s a deeply profound observation on the difference between the third-world and the west. The act of maintenance is a key element that defines the Tribes of Order. Without maintenance, no civilizational legacy can be constructed. Instead, human beings continue to clamor in the dirt, or wait around for someone else to build and maintain a system that they can latch onto and feed off of.

This problem is the underlying lesson in the documentary “Empire of Dust”, in which Chinese engineers travel to Africa to build roads and infrastructure, only to be consistently thwarted by a lazy population that seeks only to get paid for doing as little as possible.  In many cases, they sabotage their own construction efforts to drag out the process.  As a culture, they see no value in working to build something of lasting importance, and the Chinese engineers are left bewildered.

The evidence is endless within the very African nations that were once colonized.  Billions upon billions of dollars in infrastructure was handed over to them, and in countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), they let it all rot instead of maintaining it. They don’t understand the riches that follow an ordered nation, they think only in terms of wealth that can be looted in the midst of chaos.

But what does any of this have to do with the leftist movements plaguing the west today?

Communism/Marxism Is Organized Chaos

It sounds contradictory, but the philosophy of communism is a form of “organized chaos”, or engineered chaos to achieve a particular agenda. I would attach globalism to this equation because globalism is, ultimately, a desire for a globally centralized form of communism that operates on similar mechanics.

And who does this philosophy most appeal to in the west? Usually it’s the aimless ideologues with little or no ability to survive in a world where merit and strength are valued (woke activists, feminists, DEI advocates, etc.). And, people who consider themselves the “have-nots”. Useful idiots and emotional spastics who have been convinced that all the failings of their miserable lives are the fault of a rigged system.

They’re convinced that society has stolen achievements away from them, that the cards are stacked against them, that the shining city on the hill is laughing at them. If only the system was forced to be “more equitable”, if only wealth was properly redistributed, they would be rich, famous and successful.

So, the political left taps into this narcissistic desire for unearned distinction. It tells people, for the good of humanity, they must burn everything to the ground to get what they want. They are barbarians in first-world clothing; born within the gates, but barbarians all the same.

This is where communists and third worlders seem to intersect. They are part of the same “Tribe of Chaos.” This is why leftists are so desperate to open borders to mass immigration. This is why the policies of far-left Democrats seem to aid plunder by migrants (like Somalian scammers in Minnesota or California). This is why leftists seem to be obsessed with enabling the Islamic invasion of Europe.

It’s all about chaos and the fleecing of societies that value order. The globalists are also members of the chaos tribe, but they think of themselves as straddling the line between. Their vision of a “new world order” can only be achieved through the destruction of the old world, the erasure of the past, the rewriting of history and memory and morality. They are grotesque pillagers of time.

If they get their way, the barbarian mindset will become the norm. People of order and merit (the producers) will be perpetually enslaved to the whims of parasites. It will be a never-ending cycle of struggling industry followed by collapse, back to the dark ages but condensed down to a terrible science. We will work to build and build again while the hands of the horde rush in to knock it all down and pick the bones clean.

Without aggressive action to safeguard our own tribe, nothing we create will ever belong to us.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 23:25
Tyler Durden

How China Is Remaking Its Vast Western Frontier

Zero Rss
4 days 23 hours ago
How China Is Remaking Its Vast Western Frontier

China is undertaking a vast effort to reshape its western frontier, transforming Xinjiang and Tibet from remote borderlands into strategic hubs for industry, energy, tourism and trade, according to a new lengthy report from Financial Times.

Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing is pouring investment into highways, railways, renewable energy projects, manufacturing bases and tourism infrastructure across a region that covers nearly a third of China’s territory. Officials see the west not as a distant hinterland but as a frontline for economic growth, national security and connectivity with Eurasia.

Xinjiang

The strategy serves several goals. It aims to integrate Xinjiang and Tibet more deeply into China’s economy, strengthen border security, expand access to critical resources and energy, and make western China a more important link in global supply chains. Analysts say this could also reduce the effectiveness of future Western sanctions by increasing the regions’ economic importance.

The transformation is most visible in Xinjiang. Tourism has surged, with record visitor numbers drawn to ski resorts, scenic villages and newly built infrastructure. International hotel chains are rapidly expanding in the region, while exports, manufacturing and state-backed investment continue to grow. For many Chinese visitors, Xinjiang is increasingly marketed as a safe and attractive destination rather than a politically sensitive region.

Yet the economic boom has not been accompanied by a rollback of state control. Human rights groups say the surveillance systems, security apparatus and policies that followed the mass detention of Uyghurs remain firmly in place. Critics argue Beijing is pairing economic incentives with continued social control and cultural assimilation.

The FT writes that Tibet is undergoing a similar transformation. Massive hydropower projects, transmission networks and mineral extraction plans are positioning the region as a future energy hub. The flagship Yarlung Tsangpo dam could become the world’s largest hydropower project, supplying electricity far beyond Tibet. Supporters see these developments as engines of growth; critics warn of environmental damage, pressure on local communities and risks to downstream countries.

At the same time, rights groups and researchers say policies promoting Mandarin-language education, migration and “ethnic integration” are accelerating the assimilation of Tibetans and Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese society. Beijing rejects such criticism, saying it protects minority cultures while promoting development and national unity.

Taken together, the projects signal a long-term effort to remake China’s west. Roads, railways, factories, power plants and tourist attractions are reshaping the region’s economy and its role within China. But the transformation is occurring alongside an extensive security system, raising questions about whether development is being used not only to modernise the frontier but also to cement Beijing’s political control over it.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 23:00
Tyler Durden

Cliffwater Private Credit Fund Gates Investors For Second Straight Quarter After Redemption Requests Soar To 17%

Zero Rss
4 days 23 hours ago
Cliffwater Private Credit Fund Gates Investors For Second Straight Quarter After Redemption Requests Soar To 17%

The market may be in full-blown face-ripping bubble mode, and software stocks are now gripped in by a category 5 gamma squeeze hurricane, but not even that is helping the ongoing debacle that is private credit.

The flagship private credit fund of Cliffwater, a fund which has was slammed by redemption requests in the past quarter as the private credit crisis came to a fore, has again gated investors by capping redemptions at 5% in the second quarter after investors looked to pull more than three times that amount, or 17% of shares, Bloomberg reported, in a sign of relentless pressure on the $1.8 trillion market.

The $31 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund informed shareholders Tuesday that they’d get about one-third of their requested money back, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. The prior quarter, investors got back around half of the roughly 14% they asked for, with the vehicle choosing to cap withdrawals at 7%.

Shortly after Cliffwater’s decision in March, S&P Global Ratings lowered its outlook on the interval fund to negative from stable, warning that the 5% redemption threshold is “an important guardrail.”

“Our repurchase program is intentionally designed to provide shareholders with periodic liquidity that aligns with the fund’s long-term investment strategy and its underlying assets,” Cliffwater CEI Stephen Nesbitt said in the letter to investors. And by periodic liquidity he meant far less liquidity than investors hoped to recovery. 

The firm previously said that the fund, which has delivered a roughly 9.4% annualized net return since it was formed in 2019, has enough liquidity to meet 5% redemptions for more than a year without selling a position or an asset. After a second straight quarter of gating that may be tested very soon.

Cliffwater has become something of an unlikely giant in the private credit market by raising money at a rapid clip and deploying it across both direct loans and funds that do such lending themselves. Other non-traded business development companies are set to report the results of their second-quarter tender offers in the coming weeks. In the previous period, some like Blackstone’s BCRED went to extraordinary lengths to let investors cash out (all for nothing as the looming redemption flood will overrun even the giant fund), while other funds at Apollo Global, BlackRock and Blue Owl enforced their 5% caps.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 22:44
Tyler Durden

Feds Seize Over A Ton Of Cocaine At Massive US-Mexico Drug-Smuggling Tunnel

Zero Rss
4 days 23 hours ago
Feds Seize Over A Ton Of Cocaine At Massive US-Mexico Drug-Smuggling Tunnel

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

Authorities charged four suspects on June 1 with felony drug distribution violations after finding a hidden tunnel used by drug runners inside a retail store in San Diego County that led into Tijuana, Mexico.

Investigators also seized more than a ton of cocaine worth about $45 million in connection with the subterranean tunnel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Homeland Security’s Tunnel Task Force in charge of the operation.

“For these defendants, it wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It was lights and sirens,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.

Federal agents with the tunnel task force started surveilling a Buy 4 Less warehouse on the 2400 block of Roll Drive in San Diego in late December 2025 after they became alerted to suspicious activity at the location, according to prosecutors.

A group of seven or eight “employees” at the Buy 4 Less showed up regularly at the store, but very few customers were seen coming in and out of the location, investigators said.

The supposed employees were seen taking multiple suitcases out of the store and into vehicles or walking the suitcases, which appeared to be empty, across the border into Mexico, according to the court complaint.

Investigators say that on May 29, a man loaded three large, heavy items into a white van that left the warehouse and parked on a street near a mechanic shop. Another man on a bicycle was seen looking around and into parked cars, allegedly conducting counter-surveillance for the van, investigators said.

Federal agents watched as people removed three deep freezers from the first van and placed them into the bed of another truck, then load the deep freezers with packages, according to court documents.

After the vans were loaded onto a truck, the truck left and parked a short distance away. Another man took the truck keys and drove away.

San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies with a K9 police dog stopped the truck and were alerted to the presence of a controlled substance by the canine officer.

After the traffic stop, the agents watching the warehouse saw two other men take heavy boxes out of the Buy 4 Less and load them onto a second truck, which was then driven away. Another sheriff’s deputy with a police canine stopped the second truck.

The traffic stops led federal agents to discover 851 packages of cocaine with a combined weight of more than 1 ton inside the two trucks and van.

The subterranean passageway, stretching from Tijuana, Mexico, to the purported retail store near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry known as “Buy 4 Less,” shown in this photo, is estimated to be about 1,933 feet long, 55 feet deep, and 4.5 feet in height, with a ventilation system and electricity. U.S. Department of Justice

The drug seizures also allowed federal investigators to obtain a signed judicial warrant to search the Buy 4 Less, where they found the exit point of the subterranean tunnel hidden beneath the floor of a storage room inside the store, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego.

The tunnel is about 55 feet deep and extends about 1,064 feet from the Buy 4 Less to the U.S.–Mexico border. Agents estimate it continues another 800 feet to another entry point in Mexico.

The tunnel was accessed using a sophisticated hydraulic lift and was equipped with ventilation and electricity, and was up to 4.5 feet tall in some areas, according to investigators.

Trucks coming from Mexico enter the United States at an inspection station after crossing the border in Otay Mesa, Calif., on April 1, 2025. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

The drug bust and tunnel discovery are expected to impact the cartel’s drug pipeline into California.

“This investigation and seizure represent a significant blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego Kevin Murphy.

Charged in the case were Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, 29, of San Diego; Brandon Escalante Sandoval, 26, of Mexico; Jose Jimenez, 32, of San Diego; and Antonio Cortez, 18, of Mexico.

Hernandez Lopez is charged with conspiracy to use a cross-border tunnel and conspiracy to import controlled substances. All defendants are charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego said the tunnel is one of 99 discovered in the Southern District of California since 1993 and the first since 2022.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 22:35
Tyler Durden

Whistleblower Leaks Stanford's Private Foreign-Funding Records, Exposing CCP-Linked Donors

Zero Rss
5 days ago
Whistleblower Leaks Stanford's Private Foreign-Funding Records, Exposing CCP-Linked Donors

Some of America's top universities have become soft targets for foreign espionage and influence operations, creating potential gateways for adversarial powers to access sensitive research, elite policy networks, and federally funded innovation pipelines.

The latest report from The Stanford Review should be viewed as yet another warning about the urgent need to protect academic institutions from foreign funding channels, obscure overseas donor networks, and national security risks within the higher education bubble.

The independent, student-run newspaper at Stanford University reports that a whistleblower has come forward with "non-public foreign funding disclosures of Stanford University" that, for the first time, reveal the names of Chinese state-backed entities and individuals funding the left-leaning university.

INVESTIGATION: A whistleblower has leaked Stanford's private foreign-funding records to the Review, revealing millions in funding from Chinese state-linked entities and CCP donors. pic.twitter.com/RWQkaxvAft

— The Stanford Review (@StanfordReview) June 1, 2026

According to the report, Stanford University accepted millions of dollars from Chinese state-linked firms, political elites, and entities tied to Beijing's political warfare and influence operations. This startling revelation is based entirely on disclosures the whistleblower provided to the student news organization.

The report continued:

Chen Yuan served as Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 2013 to 2018. He is the oldest son of former Vice Premier Chen Yun. Before chairing CAIFC, he served as president of the state-owned China Development Bank from 1998 to 2013, turning it into one of the world's largest policy lenders. Hoover also houses the diaries of Mao Zedong’s former secretary, Li Rui. The diaries contain commentary on senior CCP leaders, including Chen Yun and his family.

Chen Yuan’s sister, Chen Weili (陈伟力), spent two years at Stanford as a visiting scholar earlier in her career. Chen Yuan's son, Xiaoxin Chen (陈晓欣), attended Stanford and donated $1,020,000 to the university in 2024. Members of the Chen family appear in Stanford records both as students and donors.

Stanford declined to provide additional information. Responding on behalf of External Relations and the Office of Development, a university representative said it is Stanford's longstanding practice not to disclose donor names or gift details without the donor's authorization. The representative said Stanford conducts rigorous due diligence on all gifts, with an additional layer of scrutiny for international ones.

A restricted gift of this kind works as a research contract. The funds go to a named Hoover researcher or project rather than to the university unconditionally. The disclosure appears in filings made under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

The money was routed through the San Francisco law firm Adler & Colvin. No other reported donation in the disclosures was structured this way. Every other donor listed a home or company address. Routing a foreign gift through a legal intermediary can make it difficult to verify the donor's true identity, as it obscures the funds' true source.

The Hoover Institution shapes U.S. geopolitical discourse and participates in national research security work, including the congressionally authorized SECURE programs. Its scholars have led research on Beijing's global influence campaigns, including the program on China's Global Sharp Power (now called "US, China, and the World"), which examines how the CCP projects political influence through academic partnerships and financial engagement abroad. The SECURE program, which oversees $67 million in taxpayer funds, has faced growing scrutiny from Washington lately. The House Select Committee on the CCP is pressing the National Science Foundation to pause the program and review the University of Washington and Texas A&M after finding that they have been collaborating with Chinese military-linked entities.

Stanford works with the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and federally funded research programs. The Hoover Institution participates in national research security initiatives, including the SECURE program and the NSF-funded SECURE Analytics program. At the same time, Stanford takes millions of dollars from Chinese state-linked companies and elites connected to the United Front Work Department, the CCP body that co-opts and influences groups outside the Party. U.S. government reports tie these networks to the CCP's influence apparatus.

Millions of dollars in gifts and research contracts have flowed from Chinese companies and political entities tied to Beijing's state and military-industrial system to Stanford:

Millions from Chinese State-Linked Entities

  • BOE Technology Group provided $254,000 in contracts in 2019 for research on high-conductivity stretchable electrode arrays. BOE is a Chinese state-subsidized manufacturer that the House Select Committee on the CCP says was founded in 1993 as a military and defense supplier and operates as a subcontractor for the PLA. In 2026, a federal jury found that BOE had infringed U.S. patents.

  • Huawei Technologies provided $250,000 in contracts and gifts from 2019 to 2020, after the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security placed it on the Entity List. The purpose was not specified.

  • State Grid Corporation of China provided $1.5 million in contracts and gifts in 2019 to fund fellowships for graduate and postdoctoral scholars from China conducting energy research.

  • The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) awarded $1.1 million in contracts in 2018 to a Stanford principal investigator for the Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT-1), the first stage of a Sino-U.S. joint project led by CAS's Institute of High Energy Physics. U.S. participants include Stanford and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The federally run National Institute of Standards and Technology designed and fabricated the telescope's superconducting detector arrays, which Stanford integrated into the receiver before the components were shipped to Tibet.

  • China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) provided $380,000 in contracts from 2023 to 2026 for a Stanford principal investigator studying cement integrity for long-term hydrogen storage.

  • China National Technical Import & Export Corporation provided $619,000 in contracts in 2022. The purpose was not specified.

  • The Ma Huateng Foundation provided $5.45 million in contracts in 2019. The purpose was not specified.

  • Jingdong Group (JD.com) provided $3.9 million in contracts and gifts from 2018 to 2021. The purpose was not specified.

  • Dowson Tong (汤道生), president of Tencent's Cloud and Smart Industries Group, gave $800,000 from 2024 to 2025 to support a faculty member's research in the School of Engineering and the Hong Kong/Stanford University Charitable Trust.

  • Tencent Charity Foundation Limited awarded $441,000 in contracts and gifts in 2016 to support Professor Leskovec's work on the diffusion of information.

  • Guangdong Qitian Institute awarded $4.75 million in contracts from 2019 to 2023 to a Stanford principal investigator developing a curriculum to support the launch of QiTian School.

  • Midea Group provided $680,000 in contracts in 2024. The purpose was not specified.

  • Weichai Power provided $1 million in contracts in 2018 for executive education lectures at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

  • The Beijing Institute of Collaborative Innovation (BICI) provided $984,000 in contracts from 2020 to 2021. The purpose was not specified. The Beijing Municipal Government established BICI.

Gifts from CCP-Connected Political Elites

  • William Ding, CEO of NetEase, gave $25.1 million from 2020 to 2021. Ding served as a Representative of the 11th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress and sits on the 13th CPPCC.

  • Diana Chen, CEO of Pioneer Group Holdings, gave $6.2 million in 2023. Chen has served on the Beijing Committee of the 11th, 12th, and 13th CPPCC and is an Executive Member of the China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA), which is subordinate to the United Front Work Department of the CCP.

  • C. C. Tung and Harriet W. Tung gave $3 million from 2020 to 2024. C. C. Tung (Tung Chee-chen) is the Governor of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), supervised by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). In July 2022, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned state and local leaders that the CPAFFC and the United Front Work Department may exploit sister-city agreements to advance Beijing's interests. A Jamestown Foundation analysis characterized CUSEF as a vehicle for United Front "lobbying laundering."

The Stanford Review noted:

Stanford reports foreign gifts and contracts as required by federal law, though it does not always disclose the source of the funds.

What the disclosures show is a university that studies Chinese influence operations while accepting money from the people who run them.

Without a transparency mechanism for foreign gifts and contracts, the public has no way to know which researchers are funded by whom, or to what end.

Perhaps the millions of dollars from Chinese state-linked companies and elites connected to Beijing help explain why Stanford has become a haven for the radical left:

American Communist Party spotted canvassing at Stanford. pic.twitter.com/UxzUGarK4P

— The Stanford Review (@StanfordReview) January 11, 2026

We’ve got an update from the Stanford hunger strikers, who are back and charging in with full-blown moral superiority. One leads off with, “As a Muslim, specifically, I have a responsibility to stand up against injustice,” and it only gets more sanctimonious from there.

They’re… pic.twitter.com/CjpmzXmkg7

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) May 15, 2025

🚨 Professor David Palumbo Liu, Stanford University, co-founder of 'Campus Anti-Fascist Network.'

"When Zionists say they don't feel safe on campus, I've come to see that as they no longer feel immune to criticism of Israel. Get used to it."

BONUS: Refuses to condemn Antifa. pic.twitter.com/PiVP5iMfOn

— NizNellie3 (@NizNellie3) June 12, 2025

Spy networks at Stanford? 

Meet @ElsaJohnson, an American undergraduate junior at Stanford University who faced transnational repression (as well as her family!) from the Chinese Communist Party including online and physical surveillance on campus.

Our universities have become soft targets for foreign… pic.twitter.com/pOc5GuJrND

— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) March 26, 2026

Chinese students pose a unique threat to American universities. In August, we hosted an event on how to prevent academic espionage on campus. Listen to these Stanford students describe how the Chinese Communist Party exploits Chinese students studying abroad to collect… pic.twitter.com/Wrn2YSWdQC

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) November 11, 2025

Meanwhile, foreign adversaries plowed $800 million into universities in 2024 (data via think tank American for Public Trust). 

Tens of billions of dollars from overseas have flowed into universities over the decades. 

The foreign-funding money trail may help explain why many universities have become fertile ground for Marxist radicalization, anti-capitalist ideology, and increasingly hostile views toward America’s political and economic system.

From a national security perspective, the concern here is not just about money flowing into classrooms, but about whether this foreign-linked funding is radicalizing the future generation. Short answer: yes. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 22:10
Tyler Durden

"The Value Didn't Arrive": Bain Finds Cost-Savings From AI Are Falling Far Short Of Projections

Zero Rss
5 days ago
"The Value Didn't Arrive": Bain Finds Cost-Savings From AI Are Falling Far Short Of Projections

Now that attention within the AI revolution has one again firmly turned toward the cost-benefit equation (i..e., ROI) of tokens (see "From Singularity To Tokenomics: The AI Narrative Just Hit A Serious Snag") in particular, and the trillions behind the AI spending rollout in general, and we say once again because every few months we get some iteration of the following report from Goldman published almost two years ago today...

... we have more bad news: according to a global survey by Bain, cost savings from automation are broadly falling short of projections. Which means that those expecting big savings from their investments in artificial intelligence, which is most companies, will be disappointed. 

The missed targets “should be making executives uncomfortable,” since many of them are approving increased spending for artificial intelligence on the basis of expected savings, the consulting firm said in a report shared exclusively with Bloomberg News. The problem is there are little actual savings to speak of. 

The survey, completed in April, was based on responses from executives at 951 companies with more than $100 million in revenue, across nine sectors: retail, technology, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, consumer products, energy, financial services, telecom/media/entertainment and insurance.

It found that among companies measuring their AI cost savings, the largest share (40%) realized reductions of 10% or less. Predictably, most had been expecting to see far more meaningful improvement, especially since they spent far more than that on the new technology. 

Here’s the part that Bain found the most troubling: 44% of large companies that are funding their next wave of AI spending are basing those investments on the last round of savings - savings that haven’t yet materialized. 

“The prior wave underdelivered. The savings pool is smaller than assumed,” Bain warned. “And the investment case for the current wave was sized against projections rather than actuals.” Kinda like the bubble in AI forward earnings: based on projections - which as any intern can tell you can flip on a dime - rather than actuals. 

“Self-funding the next wave from past returns sounds like discipline. In reality, it is a circular bet with a structural leak,” the firm cautioned, and concluded that "The technology worked. The value didn’t arrive."

Whether driven by hope or FOMO or a blend of both, the AI boom is exposing divides between promise and reality. An MIT research report last year showed that 95% of corporate AI pilots fall flat and concluded that the “primary factor keeping organizations on the wrong side of the GenAI Divide is the learning gap, tools that don't learn, integrate poorly, or match workflows.” 

So Bain’s latest survey wasn’t the first evidence of AI underdelivering so far on expectations. And it’s not likely the last either.

But the Bain report isolated a different problem: “Despite a decade of investments in data modernization running well into hundreds of billions of dollars globally, the No. 1 reason AI programs underperform is that companies cannot reliably get access to their own data,” Bain said.

“Companies that don’t validate their reinvestment math against what automation actually returned, rather than what it was supposed to return, are compounding risk rather than managing it” the Bain report concluded, confirming what many have already sensed: virtually nobody has done effective ROI analysis amid a technological rollout that has already soaked up more than $1 trillion in capital, the return on which appears to be modest at best. 

Bain's prescription: Instead of waiting to structure all of their data to make it ingestible by AI, companies should start with what’s available to feed into the models, and then use AI to help sort out how to structure the rest.

Meanwhile, companies that were meeting their savings targets reported running into barriers with data structure and accessibility at even higher rates than those missing their targets, but they were less likely to report organizational challenges such as insufficient budgets or competing priorities.

Adding fuel to the fire, a comparable report from Gartner found that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027, due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. 

“Most agentic AI projects right now are early stage experiments or proof of concepts that are mostly driven by hype and are often misapplied,” said Anushree Verma, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “This can blind organizations to the real cost and complexity of deploying AI agents at scale, stalling projects from moving into production. They need to cut through the hype to make careful, strategic decisions about where and how they apply this emerging technology.”

As such, Gartner recommends agentic AI only be pursued where it delivers clear value or ROI, noting that "Integrating agents into legacy systems can be technically complex, often disrupting workflows and requiring costly modifications. In many cases, rethinking workflows with agentic AI from the ground up is the ideal path to successful implementation."

“To get real value from agentic AI, organizations must focus on enterprise productivity, rather than just individual task augmentation,” said Verma. “They can start by using AI agents when decisions are needed, automation for routine workflows and assistants for simple retrieval. It’s about driving business value through cost, quality, speed and scale.” 

The problem, it now appears, is that virtually nobody has done an actual ROI analysis. But with token costs now soaring...

... the time has finally arrived, and as enterprises pull back in horror from the "great promise" of the agentic black hole, one can easily understand why both OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which are extrapolating their burst in agentic revenue in perpetuity, are rushing to go public before the market once again does the ROI math.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 21:50
Tyler Durden

Do We Really Believe In Freedom?

Zero Rss
5 days ago
Do We Really Believe In Freedom?

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times,

Do we really believe in freedom?

Or do we only believe in freedom when it applies to people who agree with us?

Do we trust people we fundamentally disagree with to remain free citizens?

Or do we believe they must be controlled through laws, censorship, surveillance, or social pressure because they are too dangerous to be trusted with liberty?

That question sits at the center of what I am most interested in during this moment in history, the 250th year of the American experiment.

Because when I look around, it increasingly feels like both sides are drifting in the same direction while packaging it differently.

Each side frames the other as dangerous, radical, and incapable of self-governance. People on the left often believe the right is racist, authoritarian, anti-science, and driven by extremism. Many people on the right believe the left is hostile to faith, hostile to biology, hostile to free speech, and willing to use institutions to socially engineer society.

If you genuinely believe those things about your political opponents, then freedom starts to feel dangerous.

And once freedom feels dangerous, control starts to feel justified.

For me, the COVID-19 pandemic broke the illusion.

I suddenly realized I could no longer clearly see what the political left still offered someone like me. I watched censorship expand rapidly. I watched speech become conditional. I watched people lose jobs and platforms for asking questions. I watched mandates imposed alongside liability protections and dissent treated as danger.

I watched mandates destroy livelihoods.

I watched small businesses close while major corporations consolidated wealth and power. I watched people who had spent decades building restaurants, gyms, farms, salons, and family businesses suddenly deemed “nonessential.”

I wasn’t reading about these policies. I was living under them.

At the same time, I was living in a state that increasingly felt hostile to the practical realities of my life. Everything started feeling harder. More permits. More taxes. More hoops. More social pressure. It felt harder to make a living, harder to farm, harder to build, harder to protect my family, and harder to simply live outside institutional approval.

Socially, it also became harder to honestly say what I believed without risking professional or personal consequences.

This week, I heard arguments celebrating the fact that Democrats overwhelmingly voted against liability protections for chemical companies accused of poisoning Americans. Many people presented that as evidence that one side cares about ordinary people while the other protects corporations from accountability.

But that moral high ground becomes more complicated when you remember that many of those same political voices supported mandating a vaccine under an emergency authorization, with liability protections already built into the system. At the same time, dissent around those policies was aggressively silenced.

And the reality is that we are still learning about the long-term effects, trade-offs, and consequences years later.

That is not a conspiracy theory.

That is simply how medicine and biology work. Scientific understanding evolves over time.

The George Floyd era accelerated another version of this same instinct.

Suddenly, institutions across America were pressured to publicly demonstrate ideological “purity” around race, gender, identity, and social justice. Diversity, equity, Indigenous representation, and LGBTQ+ inclusion became not just social values but institutional litmus tests in many professional environments.

In some cases, executives, journalists, professors, and employees lost their positions not because they had committed crimes or acts of hatred, but because they failed to meet ideological expectations during a moment of intense cultural pressure.

And once again, people became afraid to say the wrong thing out loud.

But now I watch similar instincts emerge from the political right under different circumstances.

There are increasingly subjects people feel afraid to discuss openly because they fear losing jobs, reputations, platforms, or financial access. Concerns about extremism, hate speech, anti-Semitism, immigration, terrorism, and national security are all increasingly used to justify expanded speech restrictions and surveillance powers.

And to be fair, some of those fears are real.

But history shows that societies rarely surrender freedom all at once. Usually, it happens piece by piece, each side justifying control because they believe the other side is simply too dangerous to remain fully free.

Many people argued I should have stayed and fought politically where I was. But I didn’t.

I moved to Central Texas. Honestly, I needed to breathe a little.

And yet, even now, as I watch the country continue to fracture, I try very hard not to become tribal myself. I try to zoom out and see the bigger picture.

At the core of it, I still believe in freedom.

But that realization leads me to an uncomfortable conclusion: If I truly believe in freedom, then I have to believe the people around me deserve freedom, too—even when I deeply disagree with them.

Otherwise, what I’m actually asking for is not freedom, but power for my side and restriction for theirs.

Maybe the real test of a free society is not whether we support freedom for people we agree with.

Maybe the real test is whether we still support it when we don’t agree with each other.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 21:45
Tyler Durden

Leftists Try To "Cancel" Giants Quarterback For His Appearance At Trump Rally

Zero Rss
5 days 1 hour ago
Leftists Try To "Cancel" Giants Quarterback For His Appearance At Trump Rally

Leftists often claim that when someone of celebrity status appears with Donald Trump, it gives Trump "legitimacy."  This is the common rationale they use to justify their insane cult-like behavior - Their habit of using mobs of mindless activist zombies in order to frighten people with status away from openly identifying as conservative.  The truth is, the political left is a paper tiger, an astroturf movement with no power, blustering with false bravado.   

In reality, celebrities do not give Trump legitimacy.  His landslide election victory gives him legitimacy.  

The radical left is a one trick pony, constantly repeating the same lies and exaggerations in the belief that if they lie long enough those lies will eventually become part of the popular zeitgeist.  For example, a white sports star has a positive interaction with Trump and the progressive media conjures a narrative that he is alienating his minority team mates because shaking hands with Trump is the same as shaking hands with "racism."

This tiresome strategy is being used once again on New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart after he appeared on stage with Trump at a New York political rally.  Leftist journalists assert that Dart shaking hands with Trump is the same as shaking hands with Hitler.  The engineered controversy led to a couple of the QB's teammates expressing discomfort over the event. 

Thankfully, the opinions of Dart's teammates are meaningless and he has every right to stand on stage with whoever he pleases.  At present, it seems as though other Giants players understand that they don't have to align politically in order to play a football game. 

Linebacker Abdul Carter (a Muslim) initially voiced discomfort with the optics of the event, according to multiple reports. Dart said he discussed the issue directly with Carter and brushed off any rumors about beef between the two players.  For those who don't like Dart's promotional appearances, frankly they can shut up and stew in their salty snowflake juices about it.

The media, though, is never going to shut up about it because their job is to create controversy out of thin air.

  

Some outlets think Dart needs to be cancelled (as if the political left has any power to cancel anyone anymore).  Sports media site SB Nation claims that Dart's freedom to meet publicly with Trump does not mean he has the freedom to avoid "criticism" (persecution).  It's the same incessant woke argument of "cancel culture vs consequence culture." 

Their version of events displays an insufferable seething; something that might have been more familiar back in 2020.  One has to wonder, do these people ever grow out of their childish delusions of grandeur?  And the answer is no, no they do not.  But we still examine such left-wing crash-outs because they give us insight into the thought processes of progressive authoritarians.  As SB Nation asserts:

"Freedom is pretty great, isn’t it? Here in the United States we love to talk about freedom. The people who love to talk about it the most, who bathe in the idea of American exceptionalism, tend to be those who rarely (if ever) travel abroad. They love to speak about the world in platitudes, always through the lens that the God-loving USA is free, and nowhere else is.  It’s a refrain the majority of Western foreigners find hilarious. Folks in the U.K? They’re free. Europe? Free as well. Australia, Canada, New Zealand — yeah, they’re free.

There are 20 nations broadly recognized as having freedom of expression, with the USA ranking third behind Denmark and Norway. Sure, all those nations might not let you brandish a firearm in public or hurl hate speech at people — but denying that doesn’t make them “un-free.”"

Yes, it does make those countries unfree.  If any viewpoints including the truth can be labeled "hate speech", then the populace does not have free speech.  If the government can put people in prison over jokes and online memes, then those people are not free.  In the UK, around 12,000 people each year are arrested for using restricted speech online.  Most of these arrests are for basic and factual criticisms relating to mass immigration and migrant crime. 

This is not freedom.  

The US is the only country in the world with freedom of speech codified into constitutional law.  It is the only country in the world where the government is restricted from making laws referencing public speech.  SB Nation uses their false narrative of "speech vs hate speech" to launch into their attack on Jaxson Dart.  This is how these people rationalize their totalitarian behavior.  SB Nation continues:

"We’re having this discussion on a sports website because sports are, and always have been, inherently political. It’s impossible to divorce the two, as much as you might want them to be separate..."

For the political left, everything is political.  From movies to TV shows to commercials to video games to comic books to beauty pageants to sports.  Leftist activists believe they should control the platforms of famous people and exploit those platforms for propaganda.  When a celebrity steps out of line, the struggle session begins. 

During the Biden Administration normal people could not escape left-wing politics because they injected their woke ideology into everything.  Sports are not political in the slightest, but progressive movements have tried to force wokeness into them at every turn. 

"Dart made a choice by grinning on stage with the sitting president, one who happens to be historically unpopular, the most divisive in modern history, and largely reviled in both New York and New Jersey, the states the New York Giants represent.

Dart was absolutely free to introduce Trump, he’s free to support him - and personally, I don’t want to see him lose his job for exercising his freedom.  That crucially doesn’t mean Dart should be free of any criticism or allowed to dance away from his decision..."   

A classic woke deflection: "We don't want to see this man cancelled, but he should be cancelled..."  At no point do the people at SBN explain why it's a bad thing for a Giants QB to meet with Donald Trump, other than leftists in New York "don't like Trump" and they think Trump is vaguely racist, even though they can't come up with a single legitimate example of racism. 

"Dart has spoken as well, but limited his remarks on the appearance to a pre-written statement and has not taken any questions. Even in an instance where a white athlete started the drama, it’s become incumbent upon his black teammates to answer the lion’s share of questions about their teammate. Unfortunately, this is par for the course..."

Trump's policies have nothing to do with Jaxson Dart.  The man is not political and his views are not up for scrutiny simply because he likes a President that leftists hate.  Jaxson Dart does not answer to The View.  He does not answer to SB Nation.  He does not have to answer to his teammates, and his teammates don't have to answer to the media. 

As much as the activist mob might want to make Dart pay for escaping the liberal plantation, none of them has the power to do anything to him.  There comes a point when leftists need to accept that they are impotent.  Their cancel culture heyday is long gone and the culture of sane normality is leaving them far behind.      

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 21:20
Tyler Durden

High-Dose Vitamin D Lowers Diabetes Risk In Some People

Zero Rss
5 days 1 hour ago
High-Dose Vitamin D Lowers Diabetes Risk In Some People

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times,

A specific variation in the vitamin D receptor gene may determine whether high-dose supplementation lowers diabetes risk in prediabetic people.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

Nearly 115 million Americans are on the road to diabetes. New research suggests an inexpensive, widely available supplement could slow that journey, but only for some of them.

A genetic quirk in roughly 70 percent of prediabetic adults may determine whether high-dose vitamin D can meaningfully lower their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

The research builds on the D2d trial. More than 2,000 U.S. adults living with prediabetes were randomized to either take 4,000 units of vitamin D or a placebo for up to 3.5 years. Initially, the trial did not find any significant changes across the participants. The recommended daily allowance is 600 to 800 units for average adults.

However, when scientists analyzed participants' DNA, a more nuanced picture emerged: those carrying specific variations - known as AC or CC - in a gene called ApaI responded strongly to supplementation. Over the 3.5 years of the study, participants carrying the AC or CC variant had a 19 percent lower chance of developing diabetes. The roughly 30 percent with the AA variation saw no benefit at all.

"Diabetes has so many serious complications that develop slowly over years," study lead researcher Bess Dawson-Hughes said in a statement. "If we can delay the time a person spends living with diabetes, we can reduce some of those harmful side effects or lessen their severity."

The distinction matters because prediabetes - defined by higher-than-normal blood sugar that hasn't yet crossed into diabetes territory - affects more than two in five U.S. adults, and often progresses silently. Identifying who stands to benefit from vitamin D intervention could allow clinicians to target supplementation far more precisely than current blanket guidelines allow.

1 Gene Affects How Your Body Responds To Vitamin D

Vitamin D in the blood is converted into its active form in the body. Vitamin D receptors are highly prevalent and present in many cells throughout the body.

When vitamin D binds to cell receptors, it helps cells do what they are supposed to do. In pancreatic cells, vitamin D facilitates the release of insulin to regulate blood sugar.

People with the AC and CC variations were responsive to vitamin D and, therefore, derived more benefits from supplementation.

* * * 

[ZH: We sell high-dose Vitamin D + K2, which massively helps with calcium absorption. Pick some up here.]

* * *

The findings could help develop a personalized approach to preventing Type 2 diabetes, senior author Anastassios Pittas, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, said in the statement. "Part of what makes vitamin D appealing as a potential preventive tool is that it is inexpensive, widely available, and easy for people to take."

However, researchers emphasized that more research is needed to determine which individuals might benefit from higher doses of vitamin D, with Dawson-Hughes noting that future testing could involve a simple, affordable genetic test to identify those most likely to benefit from supplementation.

Recommendations For Vitamin D Levels

The first step is to have your 25-hydroxyvitamin D level tested, Diana Cusa, senior registered dietitian at Plainview Hospital in New York, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.

"If your levels are found to be deficient, you may consider supplementation and review your dietary intake and sun exposure habits," she said.

Cusa recommended that those who choose supplements should take 600 to 800 international units (IU) daily of vitamin D3 for general health. "Higher doses may be needed if a deficiency is noted or for any targeted prevention trials," she added.

Current guidelines recommend 600 IU per day for people up to 70 years of age and 800 IU for those older than 70. Excessive vitamin D intake can be harmful and has been linked to increased risks of falls and fractures among older adults.

Sunlight, Cusa pointed out, is one of the most effective natural sources of vitamin D, and spending time outdoors can help boost your levels. "However, it's important to be cautious - not to spend too long in the sun without proper sunscreen, as excessive exposure increases the risk of skin cancer," she cautioned.

While you cannot overdose on vitamin D from sun exposure, she added, taking high-dose supplements can lead to toxicity, "so supplementation should be approached carefully and ideally under medical guidance."

Natural sources of vitamin D include fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and rainbow trout. Other good sources are beef liver, mushrooms, egg yolks, and cod liver oil. "These foods, which are rich in protein and healthy fats, can help support stable blood glucose levels when consumed in moderation," Cusa said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 20:55
Tyler Durden

US Treasury Sanctions Iran's Largest Crypto Exchange

Zero Rss
5 days 1 hour ago
US Treasury Sanctions Iran's Largest Crypto Exchange

Peace talks appear stalled, or even halted completely - despite President Trump's denials - and the US Department of Treasury is still swinging hard, as part of the ongoing effort to bring about economic collapse in Iran and 'solve' the Hormuz Strait shipping crisis.

In the latest installment of Washington's economic whac-a-mole, the US on Tuesday unveiled sanctions on Iran's biggest cryptocurrency exchange - and several others, for allegedly enabling the Iranian government and blacklisted state institutions to thwart US and EU sanctions.

The largest platform, identified as Nobitex, is believed to have assisted in allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to pour into Iran's central bank and the ⁠Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as a sanctions work-around and parallel financial system.

via Shutterstock 

"While Iran’s economy is in free ⁠fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in announcing the new action.

"Following the commencement of U.S. combat operations in Iran, Nobitex played a role in protecting and moving assets and funds out of Iran to shield regime ‌wealth despite ​internet blackouts," the statement added.

Nobitex rejected that it has direct government connections and denied that it has been assisting state institutions. It also said it did nothing to conceal the identities of the owners.

As for ownership, Reuters has documented:

...Nobitex is controlled by two brothers from one of Iran’s most ​powerful families, with close ‌ties to the new supreme leader. The two are members of the Kharrazi family, one of the most influential dynasties ‌in the Islamic Republic. Corporate records show that when the exchange started, the brothers were listed under a surname rarely used by members of the family.

The brothers were named by the Treasury as Seyed Mohammad ‌Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali ⁠and Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali, who were also subject to individual sanctions, along with the exchange’s chief executive officer, Amir ⁠Hossein Rad.

Last Friday Bessent detailed how the US has seized a total of $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency assets to date as part of the economic component of President Trump's Operation Epic Fury.

During a speech before the Reagan National Economic Forum, Bessent stated:

"Just outright grabbed the wallets. Some of them may be typing in right now and might not realize their wallet had been grabbed."

Assets are held "on behalf of the Iranian people" - he described, while framing that the Iranian government had 'stolen' the money from the Iranian populace.

Did this action help fuel BTC's crashing well below $68K on Tuesday?

Today's sanctions against Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex target the Iranian digital asset exchanges responsible for at least 72% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025.

Remember that much of the crypto going into Iran has flowed through Binance over the years. With… https://t.co/5SiHwTTGVC

— Max Meizlish (@maxmeizlish) June 2, 2026

As we've featured before, for ordinary Iranians - roughly one in six of the population - crypto served as a vital lifeline. Facing relentless rial depreciation (down nearly 90 percent since 2018), chronic inflation of 40 to 50 percent, and frequent power blackouts or internet shutdowns during protests, citizens turned to Bitcoin and stablecoins like U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins (USDT) on the Tron network to hedge savings, facilitate remittances, and move value when traditional banking failed. Spikes in Bitcoin withdrawals to personal wallets often coincided with domestic unrest and regional conflicts.

Yet this parallel financial system has also become a powerful tool for the state. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) steadily tightened its grip on Iran’s crypto flows. IRGC-linked addresses received more than $3 billion in 2025—up from over $2 billion in 2024—with their share rising to more than 50 percent of total Iranian crypto inflows by the end of 2025. These figures represent conservative lower bounds based only on identified and sanctioned wallets.

Washington in the meantime is still entertaining dreams of sparking some kind of anti-regime uprising based on applying the economic squeeze to the Iranian system, but apart from unrest back in January, this has utterly failed to materialize. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 20:30
Tyler Durden

Trump Signs AI 'Cyber Defense' Executive Order

Zero Rss
5 days 2 hours ago
Trump Signs AI 'Cyber Defense' Executive Order

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

AI companies would be required to submit their frontier models on a voluntary review basis before public releases.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 2 intended to address cybersecurity threats posed by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the new frontier models being released by major industry players.

Signed in private, the order allows some AI firms to submit their cutting-edge frontier models to a voluntary government review 30 days before a full public release.

That would entail "provid[ing] the Federal Government with access to covered frontier models, subject to appropriate confidentiality, cybersecurity, insider-risk, and intellectual-property protection, use, and nondisclosure requirements, for a period of up to 30 days before they plan to release such models to other trusted partners."

The order also gives the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and other related agencies 30 days to "expedite and prioritize the cyber defense of civilian Federal Government information systems" and establish or expand a federal program that would "enhance AI-enabled defensive tools."

Trump's order also creates an "AI cybersecurity clearinghouse" that would function in "voluntary collaboration" with the AI industry and other critical infrastructure operators. The goal would be to scan for software vulnerabilities in frontier AI models while prioritizing "remediation and distribution of vulnerability patches."

Trump had planned to sign a previous version of this executive order, but said on May 21 that he would delay the signing after becoming dissatisfied with "certain aspects of it."

Earlier that month, the Commerce Department's Center for AI Standards and Innovation announced partnerships with AI giants Google, Microsoft, and xAI to test their new frontier models for potential security risks ahead of full public releases.

Cybersecurity concerns over frontier AI models surged after Anthropic on April 7 announced its Claude Mythos Preview model, which is not yet publicly available due to the company's concerns that bad actors could use it to find critical software exploits.

The Trump administration had previously moved to ban Anthropic from doing business with the federal government after the company refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude models, stating that it was concerned they would be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, which the Pentagon denies.

Despite the ban, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said in April that he had been in talks with the Trump administration over Claude Mythos Preview.

The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit that "educates the public about the implications of advanced AI," on June 2 called for Congress to codify Trump's executive order to "create a legal framework that makes federal government review of advanced AI models mandatory."

Trump's executive order allows AI companies to submit their frontier models to government review on a voluntary basis.

"After the national security wake-up call from advanced AI models like Mythos, we are pleased to see that the Trump administration is taking the risks of these models seriously. However, we know that Big Tech will still try to cut corners on safety and security," Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, said in a statement.

"The next AI models will be even more powerful and will pose even bigger threats to our country than Mythos. These companies need oversight and cannot be trusted to do the right thing voluntarily."

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 20:05
Tyler Durden

US, China Militaries Hold 'Candid' Deconfliction Talks In Hawaii As Trump Goes Quiet On Taiwan

Zero Rss
5 days 2 hours ago
US, China Militaries Hold 'Candid' Deconfliction Talks In Hawaii As Trump Goes Quiet On Taiwan

American and Chinese military officers have sat down for rare deconfliction talks in Hawaii, soon on the heels of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing last month. According to a late Monday statement from the Chinese Navy, the two superpowers held what they described as "candid and constructive" exchanges during a two-day closed-door meeting. It happened last week in Honolulu, reports have newly revealed.

The sides came away agreeing that improved communication could successfully reduce tactical miscalculations and enhance professionalism in the highly contested waters and skies of the Indo-Pacific.

Prior 2018 exchange, via Reuters

There's been a recent uptick in Chinese PLA military drills near Taiwan, with warplanes frequently buzzing the self-ruled island. But Washington has been fairly quiet in response to these developments which have put Taipei's armed forces frequently on high alert.

The sudden outbreak of US-China military-to-military dialogue is clearly designed to ease diplomatic anxieties especially after top Chinese military officials noticeably boycotted the high-profile Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore over the weekend.

President Trump in the meantime has been making clear that he will not have direct contact with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, in line with long-running status quote policy.

That a sitting US president is not speaking to Taiwan's elected leader is actually normal based on Washington's policy of strategic ambiguity, and official acknowledgement of 'One China'.

Trump is strongly signaling that this will not change for now:

No sitting U.S. president has spoken directly with a Taiwanese leader since 1979 due to diplomatic sensitivities in managing relations with China, although in December 2016, while Mr. Trump was president-elect, he received a congratulatory call from then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen.

"I think [Lai], if he has time, would love to tell him our side of the story, the Taiwan story, which is one that — of resiliency, of a state staying up against the Chinese aggression," Alexander Yui, Taiwan's Representative to the U.S., told "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 17.

At last month's summit, Xi and Trump reportedly agreed to pursue a "constructive relationship of strategic stability." Geopolitical analysts are spinning this as an attempt to finally establish practical boundaries for how the two nuclear-armed titans interact on the global stage.

Wang Dong, an international studies professor at Peking University, summarized the shift in a statement to Reuters: "This shared strategic framing shifts the bilateral dynamic beyond reactive crisis management toward more deliberate, forward-looking stability-building."

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has lately made a surprising declaration which indicated relations between the US and China are actually better than they've been in many years. However, this might be news to Beijing. But if the White House keeps staying relatively quiet on the Taiwan issue, China will indeed see this as a win.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 19:40
Tyler Durden

US Bill Would Prevent Chinese Connected Cars In Canada From Entering United States

Zero Rss
5 days 3 hours ago
US Bill Would Prevent Chinese Connected Cars In Canada From Entering United States

Authored by Olivia Gomm via The Epoch Times,

Two U.S. lawmakers are set to introduce a bill aimed at preventing Chinese-connected vehicles from entering the United States via Canada and Mexico, amid growing concerns over Chinese-made electric vehicles entering the Canadian market.

BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded on a ship are stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port at Suzhou Port, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province on Sept. 11, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens and Senator Elissa Slotkin, both Democrats, announced the Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act last week at a conference in Michigan.

The bill would prohibit connected vehicles from China and other "adversarial nations" from entering the United States, including vehicles made or designed in China, as well as vehicles made by a Chinese company or an entity more than 15 percent owned by Chinese companies, according to a May 28 press release from Stevens's office.

It would also establish a process for vehicle manufacturers to apply for specific authorization to allow otherwise prohibited vehicles to enter the United States. Authorization would only be granted under "strict conditions, with both transparency and congressional oversight."

Federal authorities in Canada have also raised concerns that connected vehicles could pose security and privacy risks if the data they collect falls into the wrong hands.

In a memo, Public Safety Canada said Canada must expand its economy in response to a changing geopolitical environment, but warned that opening its markets to "new players" could also "amplify the presence of high-risk vendors."

The department said unauthorized access to data and connected vehicle systems "could be used to establish patterns of life or conduct surveillance on sensitive sites." It also said national security laws in countries such as China can compel manufacturers and suppliers to share data with their home governments or police, increasing the risk that Canadian data could be exploited.

A one-page readout on the U.S. bill says connected vehicles would threaten U.S. national security if the information collected "were to fall into the hands of our adversaries."

"Vehicles today can collect and transmit massive amounts of data - geolocation of drivers, mapping of critical infrastructure, full-motion video, and more," the readout says.

Connected vehicles could also be "remotely accessed and tampered with," presenting a "tremendous" risk to U.S. safety and security, the readout says, noting the Chinese auto industry is heavily subsidized, allowing Beijing to "undercut competitors and quickly flood new markets."

"The Chinese Communist Party should never have access to sensitive information about American drivers, roads, or critical infrastructure," Stevens said in a statement, adding that the bill would "close dangerous loopholes" that currently allow Chinese connected vehicles to enter the United States through Canada and Mexico.

Canada's Auto Sector

Recent data from Global Affairs Canada indicates 2,910 Chinese EVs were allowed into Canada for the first time in May, after Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in January to allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into Canada at a reduced tariff rate of 6.1 percent, from the previous 100 percent rate.

Ottawa has said 49,000 EVs represent less than 3 percent of Canada's auto market, but the quota represents nearly half of Canada's battery electric sales in 2025.

According to data tabled in the House of Commons on May 29 by International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu in response to a question by Conservative MP Rhonda Kirkland, the initial 49,000-unit quota will grow 6.5 percent, exceeding 63,000 units by February 2031.

Sidhu said at least 10 percent of the quota volume must be reserved for lower-cost EVs by the second quota year, increasing on an annual basis to reach 50 percent of the total quota volume by year five.

The minister also said the arrangement is expected to catalyze new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada to create new automotive manufacturing jobs for Canadians.

Chinese electric vehicle company BYD said last week that it plans to enter the Canadian market at the end of this year, and open more than 20 dealerships, including in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal.

Canadian automotive representatives have voiced concern about Chinese EVs potentially undermining Canada's auto sector and presenting risks to the future of Canada's integrated North American automotive supply chain.

Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association CEO Brian Kingston has said the future of Canada's auto sector depends on the country's trade relations with the United States - the destination of 90 percent of Canadian-made autos.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told MPs at a parliamentary committee meeting last month that her government's approach to Chinese EVs is "very holistic" in protecting auto workers and supply chains "while bringing in really good technologies."

Forced Labour

Human rights groups, China experts, and opposition MPs have also raised concerns that goods made with forced labour are being used to manufacture cars and parts assembled in China.

While the Canada Border Services Agency has blocked some shipments of Chinese car parts over forced labour concerns in recent years, there have been far fewer enforcement cases in Canada than in the United States.

Forced labour was raised as a concern in the United States Trade Representative's annual report on foreign trade barriers released March 31, which said Canada's enforcement measures remain limited in some areas.

Sidhu said in his May 29 response that all Chinese automotive manufacturers that intend to sell EVs in Canada must comply with Canadian laws and regulations, including those related to data governance, labour standards, and environmental requirements.

Paul Rowan Brian and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 19:15
Tyler Durden

Dems Have A Voter Problem. Gerrymandering Was Never Going To Fix It

Zero Rss
5 days 4 hours ago
Dems Have A Voter Problem. Gerrymandering Was Never Going To Fix It

Authored by Ryan Young via RealClearPolitics,

In November 2024, 47% of Virginia voters cast ballots for Republican congressional candidates. Under the map Virginia Democrats tried to push through, those voters would have ended up with exactly one Republican district out of 11. Going from a 6-5 to a 10-1 split was what Democrats called "restoring fairness."

To get it done, Democrats bypassed a bipartisan redistricting commission that Virginia voters had specifically created in 2020 to end partisan map-drawing. They drafted the new map behind closed doors. They passed a constitutional amendment on Oct. 31, 2025, even though early voting for the general election had been underway since Sept. 19 - violating the state constitution's requirement that an intervening election occur between the two legislative votes. They missed the requirement that amendments be posted publicly 90 days before a vote. And they put a ballot question before voters asking whether they wanted to "restore fairness" - language a circuit court judge called "flagrantly misleading."

Every step of this process required ignoring a rule or deceiving a voter.

That is not a party making a policy argument. That is a party that has decided winning at any cost is more important than following the rules.

When the Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the effort was unconstitutional, Democrats did not stop and reflect. Instead, they doubled down. Rather than accept the Virginia Supreme Court's decision, House Speaker Don Scott and Attorney General Jay Jones filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, riddled with spelling errors and mistakes. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the ruling "unprecedented and undemocratic." U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said four unelected judges had "cast aside the will of the voters." Most revealingly, the New York Times reported that, on a call with Jeffries, Virginia Democratic members of Congress discussed lowering the mandatory retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices from 73 to 54 - the exact age of the youngest justice in the majority. This would force the entire court to retire and create an opportunity to replace them with justices who would reinstate the map. Today's Democratic politicians are showing their true colors: These are radicals in moderates' clothing. Republicans should respond accordingly.

Republicans should not mistake what happened in Virginia for a one-off procedural accident. Democrats' willingness to bypass a voter-approved bipartisan commission, ignore constitutional rules, mislead voters on the ballot, and then float court-packing to overcome their illegality is a window into how the modern Democratic Party operates.

But Democrats' bizarre map was never going to solve their underlying problem.

People are voting with their feet by moving to well-run red states. The 2030 census is projected to shift eight to 10 electoral votes from blue states to red ones - a 16- to 20-point shift that will dramatically tighten the path to the White House for a Democrat candidate.

If Democrats want to compete in the years ahead, they will need to move to the middle to meet voters where they are. Instead of seeking to rig the game, Democrats should persuade voters on the issues the voters actually care about. They should support mainstream, commonsense ideas that they have too long resisted. School choice polls at roughly 74% nationally. Voter ID polls at 84%. Cracking down on welfare fraud polls at 71%, including 62% of Democrats. These are easy wins just waiting for politicians of both parties. It doesn't take a political genius to realize that Democrats should stop their sprint to the left and side with the majority of voters instead.

Virginia's brief attempt at gerrymandering was a disgrace and a national embarrassment. Democrats' unhinged reaction to its defeat was even worse. But the aftermath should be a moment of reflection and readjustment for both parties. Voters are looking for leaders who listen to their concerns, make government work for them, and improve their lives. Democrats should seek to win, fair and square, by pursuing commonsense policies the people want. This is how our system is supposed to work. Otherwise, Democrats - and voters - will continue to see red.

Ryan Young is the Legal Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 18:25
Tyler Durden

Woman Fatally Stabbed "Two Dozen Times" In Brazen Daytime Attack On Atlanta's MARTA Train

Zero Rss
5 days 4 hours ago
Woman Fatally Stabbed "Two Dozen Times" In Brazen Daytime Attack On Atlanta's MARTA Train

A woman riding a MARTA train in Atlanta was killed in a brutal daytime attack Saturday, suffering nearly 20 stab wounds in what investigators say was a seemingly random act of violence, according to the NY Post.

Police allege that 25-year-old John Elijah Matthews approached 66-year-old Margaret Swan after boarding the train Saturday morning. Surveillance video reportedly shows him lingering near Swan before pulling out a knife and attacking her. According to court documents, Swan cried out and attempted to get away, but the suspect allegedly restrained her and repeatedly stabbed her.

Investigators say the assault continued as the train neared Oakland City Station. Matthews allegedly forced Swan to the floor and remained over her while she lay gravely injured.

The NY Post writes that after the attack, authorities say the suspect exited the train carrying the knife, leaving Swan motionless inside the rail car. Responding officers and emergency personnel tried to save her, but she was pronounced dead. The knife believed to have been used in the attack was later recovered.

Witness descriptions helped MARTA police quickly locate and arrest Matthews on the station platform shortly after the incident.

In a statement, MARTA officials described the killing as a senseless tragedy and extended condolences to Swan’s family, as well as those who witnessed the violence firsthand.

The fatal stabbing came just days after another passenger was attacked at Georgia State Station, raising fresh concerns about safety across the transit system. Some riders argued that recent changes to fare collection have made it easier for unauthorized individuals to access trains and stations, though officials have not linked the policy to either incident.

Matthews, who reportedly has no fixed address, remains in custody at the Fulton County Jail. He has been charged with felony murder and was scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 18:00
Tyler Durden

A Mass-Graves Myth Is Media Malpractice

Zero Rss
5 days 4 hours ago
A Mass-Graves Myth Is Media Malpractice

Authored by Daniel McCarthy via PJ Media,

A hoax costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and appears to incite arson attacks against dozens of churches.

No, this isn't the latest headline out of Minnesota - look a little further north.

Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

In 2021, at a time when media throughout the Western world were still in a state of agitation after the killing of George Floyd, Canadian outlets picked up a story too sensational not to be true:

Hundreds of indigenous First Nations children had been buried in unmarked graves at residential schools run by the Catholic Church in British Columbia.

The Kamloops Indian Band sent around a press release that "confirmed" it.

The statement claimed the remains of 215 children had been found with the help of an expert using ground-penetrating radar.

"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify," said the band's chief, Rosanne Casimir.

"Some were as young as three years old," she continued, asserting "the final resting place of these children" was in the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Only it wasn't. No human remains have been found at Kamloops, as media that fanned the flames of the story now admit.

Even now, Canada's biggest daily paper, The Globe and Mail, phrases its retraction in cagey terms.

"There has been no public confirmation of the discovery of any human remains," the paper conceded on May 30.

That funny phrasing leaves one wondering, is there private confirmation of human remains - another "knowing," perhaps?

The Globe and Mail editorial, titled "There is no reconciliation without truth," is a masterpiece of embarrassed equivocation, lamenting conditions for First Nations children at Canada's residential schools and even insisting the absence of bodies "does not mean children did not die there" before finally, eight paragraphs into the story, taking a smidgen of responsibility:

"The media, including The Globe and Mail, did not initially scrutinize, much less challenge" the story, the editorial board concedes.

"The initial headlines and stories in the media simply stated as fact that the remains of 215 children had been found. Many of those early stories, including in this newspaper, made references to 'mass graves'," a phrase that went beyond even Chief Casimir's claims.

Yet right after admitting its failures, the paper speculates, "Perhaps it will be proven, some day, that there are hundreds of unmarked graves at Kamloops" - as if the error here was being a little too hasty to declare what will sooner or later turn out to be true.

After all, that would be the "truth" that fits the narrative The Globe and Mail lays out in the first seven paragraphs of its story, a tale of wicked residential schools and countless First Nations children doomed to a miserable death.

The narrative comes first - the facts must follow.

This time they didn't, but next time?

The narrative isn't going away just because its showcase story has been debunked.

The consequences of the media hype aren't going away, either:

Canadian taxpayers footed the bill to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars - real money in U.S. dollars, too - for First Nations groups to investigate "soil anomalies."

The government simply doesn't know where the money went.

As enormous as the fraud here appears to be, worse is the destruction unleashed by arsonists and vandals against Catholic Churches in the story's wake.

Canada's state broadcaster, the CBC, cataloged 33 churches "burned to the ground" between 2021 and 2024, with 24 of those incidents "confirmed arsons."

"A researcher and some community leaders suggest Canada's colonial history and recent discoveries of potential burial sites at former residential schools may have lit the fuse" for these incendiary attacks, the CBC reported.

Yet the media lit the fuse - not only by hyping an outrageous story that was never backed up by evidence but also by laying down a grand narrative that stoked anger at churches.

(And, in typical fashion, although the residential schools were Catholic-run, other churches also suffered from indiscriminate attacks apparently inspired by the story.)

We see this kind of thing too often in America, too.

Unlike the unmarked graves at Kamloops, George Floyd's death was a reality.

But the grand narrative spun by the media for years leading up to the riots perpetrated in Floyd's memory was every bit as irresponsible as the narrative that sold the Kamloops hoax.

Black Americans were not being casually killed by white police officers, and high-profile cases like Floyd's almost always involved individuals who were violently resisting arrest.

American media outlets, like Canada's, have let progressive politics shape the stories they tell - and how they tell stories - and this often leads to violence.

The Globe and Mail has a long way to go before it makes amends, and the same can be said about a shameful number of America's largest news sources, too.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/02/2026 - 17:40
Tyler Durden

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  • Questions Are Piling Up Fast As Pratt Suddenly Loses Second Place In LA Mayoral Vote
  • Oil Jumps After Israel Strikes Military Targets In Iran, Ignoring Trump Pleas Not To "Strike Back"
  • Ex-CIA Official Accused Of Inventing Secret Spy Program To Amass $40 Million Gold Hoard
  • Buildings Collapse After 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Philippines; Tsunami Warnings Issued
  • Korea "Black Monday": Kospi Halted For 20 Minutes After Crashing Almost 10%
  • Sam Altman Pushes Plan For Backdoor Government Backstop By Handing Out Small Equity Stake To Americans
  • A "Black Mark" On Tim Cook's Resume: How Apple Missed The AI Revolution
  • Trump Admin Announces $850MM To Modernize US Coal Capacity, Build 2 New Plants
  • A Lot More Than Just Rates Moving Markets
  • 'I Could've Kept It That Way': Trump Admits The Inflation Is His Choice - For A War That 'Isn't A War'
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