Zero Rss

New Pakistani Strikes On Afghanistan Kill 13 Civilians, Taliban Says

Several months ago, close in time to when the US-Iran war started, a separate conflict had erupted further east, along the Af-Pak border and even reaching as deep into Afghanistan as far as Kabul (where Pakistani airstrikes rained down).

Hostilities have abruptly flared up again along the Afghan-Pakistan border overnight as cross-border airstrikes launched by the Pakistani military killed 13 civilians, according to Afghan Taliban officials.

Getty Images

The aerial attacks impacted the Afghan border provinces of Kunar, Khost, and Paktika, stated Zabihullah Mujahid, according to Afghan officials.

There has been relative calm in the situation as a months-long ceasefire largely held, but the new bombardment marks the deadliest single episode in several weeks.

The Pakistani side has made no mention of civilians, but instead says its operation killed over two dozen armed militants:

Pakistan's government said on Wednesday that 26 "militants" linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group were killed in the attacks. 

"In the aftermath of recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan .... precise and calibrated Strikes were carried out along Pakistan Afghanistan border areas on hideouts and safe havens," Pakistan's information minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X.

He did not comment on any civilian casualties after Afghan authorities, who have denied Afghanistan is used for militancy, said at least 12 people, including children, were left dead in the strikes.

An AFP correspondent has offered a vastly differing account, with on report saying: "An AFP journalist saw a house completely destroyed in the southeastern province of Khost, where residents were digging graves to bury those killed in the overnight attack."

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated in the aftermath that "11 children, one woman, and one elderly man were killed" in strikes on Khost, Kunar and Paktika provinces.

Pakistan's military released footage and its own counter-narrative:

Pakistan's Information Minister: 26 terrorists killed in strikes on hideouts along the Afghanistan border. pic.twitter.com/22r3dnMV8V

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 10, 2026

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which share the disputed 1,600-mile Durand Line, have shifted from cautious engagement to open hostility.

The history has been marked by shifting from one-time allies to on-and-off again enemies. Many analysts are pointing to 'blowback' for Pakistan after sponsoring the Taliban's rise in the first place, decades ago (which also had the help of the CIA in 'Operation Cyclone'). Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of sheltering Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who carry out cross-border attacks.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 02:45

'Full Force Of The Law': British PM Threatens Belfast Anti-Immigration Rioters While Lowe Says 'Millions Must Go'

Via Remix News,

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has threatened Belfast’s nighttime rioters with the “full force of the law” after they conducted arson attacks on cars and homes on Tuesday night after a brutal video went viral featuring a Sudanese man trying to behead a disabled Scottish victim.

“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable. There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it. Those responsible will feel the full force of the law,” wrote Starmer on X.

The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable.

There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.

It is clear that people were targeted last night…

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 10, 2026

On the other end of the spectrum, Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe says “millions must go” in response to the attack on disabled 44-year-old Scottish victim Stephen Ogilvie.

Lowe went even further, stating that “civil servants, judges, and politicians” must be “held to account for what has been done to this country.”

“If they have knowingly placed unvetted dangerous third world savages in our communities, near our children, then a Restore Britain Government will aim to prosecute them. If that includes Reform’s Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, then so be it. When they held the power – they welcomed that Sudanese monster into our country and handed him a visa. An attempted beheading followed their decision,” he continued.

Millions must go. pic.twitter.com/hHXXYa2bwQ

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 10, 2026

I want people finally held to account for what has been done to our country.

Civil servants, judges, politicians.

If they have knowingly placed unvetted dangerous third world savages in our communities, near our children, then a Restore Britain Government will aim to prosecute…

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 10, 2026

Starmer’s Labour Party has accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of fueling the nighttime riots in Belfast. Protests turned violent on Tuesday evening after a shocking video showed a Sudanese man violently attacking Ogilvie with a knife before he was saved by locals who beat the perpetrator.

Houses are being burned down in Belfast in response to yesterday's attempted beheading of a man by a Sudanese migrant.

Videos are surfacing of several HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation — properties frequently contracted by the UK Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers)… pic.twitter.com/X7kD94nWX9

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 9, 2026

Yesterday evening, dozens of masked men gathered in residential areas and set fire to several houses, a shop, and numerous vehicles.

Labour Party leader Anna Turley partly blamed Musk and his news platform X for the riots after Musk shared several posts on Tuesday that had called for protests. Turley told Times Radio: “I think we need to acknowledge and see that social media plays a role in this. And I think there are actors with evil intentions who are often sitting many, many kilometers away.”

The knife attack follows a range of other heinous attacks and high-profile incidents involving foreign nationals in Great Britain. Numerous people shared calls for demonstrations, which were also picked up and further disseminated by Elon Musk.

While rallies in London, for example, were peaceful, groups of masked rioters gathered in Belfast before sunset and began setting fire to cars and buses. In the later hours, they directed their anger at houses where migrants also lived. A Middle Eastern supermarket was also set on fire.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 02:00

Why China's Population Decline Is Irreversible

Authored by Antonio Graceffo via The Epoch Times,

China’s demographic collapse is so advanced that even an immediate return to replacement-level fertility cannot prevent a massive population decline because there are simply too few women of childbearing age.

The ageing crisis facing China is well documented and widely reported. The crisis stems from a combination of longer life expectancies and a reduction in births below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. The result is a smaller workforce, a smaller pool of taxpayers, a smaller group of consumers driving the economy, and a growing population of retirees who need financial and medical support.

China’s ageing crisis, however, is so acute that this framing misses a crucial structural issue.

Currently, the pool of women capable of bearing children is so depleted that even an overnight return to replacement-level fertility cannot prevent substantial population decline.

China has approximately 190 million women of childbearing age. Even if the fertility rate immediately rose to 2.1, the population would still decline by more than 40 percent by the end of the century. The demographic pyramid has already determined the outcome. The trajectory is irreversible.

China’s population has contracted for four consecutive years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ 2025 Statistical Communiqué, the total population stood at 1.40489 billion at the end of 2025, a net decrease of 3.39 million people. Births numbered 7.92 million against 11.31 million deaths, yielding a natural growth rate of negative 2.41 per thousand, the steepest annual loss on record outside of the 1959–61 famine caused by Mao’s misguided policies.

The 2024 uptick, driven by the auspicious Year of the Dragon, proved to be an outlier. Births fell 17 percent in 2025, reaching the lowest level since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

Rhodium Group’s April 2026 analysis projects that even if births remain at 2025 levels for the next decade, the annual population decline will widen to 7.6 million by 2035, implying a cumulative loss of nearly 60 million people between 2026 and 2035, roughly equivalent to the population of France.

By mid-century, RAND projects that China could lose 250 million people from its current population of 1.4 billion. The United Nations’ longer-range estimate puts China’s population as low as 663 million by 2100 if current trends persist.

The crude birth rate of 5.63 per thousand in 2025, confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics, was the lowest since 1949. China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen to approximately 1.0, less than half the replacement level of 2.1, placing it among what demographers classify as “lowest-low” fertility societies, alongside South Korea and Singapore.

The one-child policy, which began in 1980, prevented hundreds of millions of births, reducing the average number of children per family from six to fewer than two. As the CCP became aware of the looming demographic collapse, the policy was relaxed to allow two children in 2016 and then expanded to three children in 2021.

However, the shift to a two-child policy resulted in only a brief uptick in births, while the expansion to three children had almost no meaningful impact.

The cohorts now entering peak childbearing age are the children of the one-child generation, already a reduced cohort, and are now themselves having fewer children than their parents did. Each generation compounds the deficit of the last.

In major cities, the situation is worse still. Beijing’s population aged 20 to 29 fell from 4.6 million in 2015 to 2.5 million in 2024, a drop of more than 2.1 million, while residents aged 60 and above rose by more than 1.7 million during the same period. Shanghai recorded approximately 107,000 births against 164,000 deaths in 2025, a natural decrease of 57,000, offset only by net in-migration of more than 100,000. Rhodium Group notes that China’s most-developed coastal provinces are growing solely through internal migration, not reproduction.

The number of women of childbearing age has been further reduced by sex-selective births. China’s sex ratio stands at 1.04 males per female overall, with the imbalance more pronounced in younger cohorts. The population of women in their twenties fell by 35 million between 2010 and 2021. Those women were never born. They cannot be incentivized, legislated, or subsidized into existence.

On current decline projections, China’s elderly population aged 65 and over stands at 211 million, while the 50 to 64 age cohorts add another 325 million. Those cohorts will die before a new generation reaches maturity. United Nations projections estimate that China’s population will fall from 1.4 billion to 633 million by 2100 under current trajectories, the largest absolute population loss of any nation over that period. Even an immediate return to replacement-level fertility would not reverse the trend.

With only 190 million women of childbearing age, there are simply not enough potential mothers to offset the mortality burden of the older generations. The 40 percent decline estimate is conservative relative to the UN baseline because it assumes fertility immediately and permanently returns to 2.1, a scenario no demographer currently projects.

The CCP is not unaware of the crisis. Xi Jinping has publicly called for a new culture of marriage and childbearing. The government has extended maternity leave, offered cash bonuses for newborns, and eliminated tax incentives on contraceptives. None of these measures have worked. In fact, they have all been tried before and failed. South Korea, facing a similar ageing crisis, spent roughly $280 billion on pro-natalist programs over two decades, more per capita than any country in history, and still watched its fertility rate fall from 1.08 in 2006 to 0.68 by 2024.

Money and incentives cannot manufacture women who were never born. The demographic collapse is now mathematically guaranteed. The CCP may have finally defeated China.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 23:25

Black Activism In America Has Become Cultural Poison

Much like the feminist movement (or any leftist movement), black rights activism in America has mutated from its original form into something bizarre and monstrous.  Civil rights conflicts tend to be born from legitimate grievances if a society's intention is to create general "equality" under the law.  But this is only the surface view, the lipstick, the young and naive version of what these movements are all about.

They appeal to the western sense of honor, reason and fairness. However, there is such a thing as suicidal empathy.  The western world has become so infatuated with the idea of total equality that many people are willing to overlook the undeniable and sometimes dangerous differences between ethnic groups and their subcultures. 

Lacking the ability to discern and yes, discriminate to a logical degree, is not something the west can afford to do.  What happens when civil rights become a license for cultural elimination?  White people, a minority in decline with 11% of the global population, have to stop exercising empathy and start exercising caution. 

The Karmelo Anthony case is just one of many examples of expansive minority violence against white Americans being justified in the name of civil rights.  To be sure, there are many black conservatives out there who do not agree and they are being targeted by left-wing activists for speaking out.  But sadly, a vast majority of blacks in the US are captured by the far-left plantation. 

They don't want to leave, because woke ideology tells them they are perpetual victims.  And in the mind of perpetual victims everything is permissible.  All behavior is justified, including murder and the destruction of the host civilization.  Even Austin Metcalf's family, the true victims in this situation, are not safe.

Low-IQ animals scream racist slurs at Austin Metcalf’s family as they leave the courthouse 🚨

They then block their car in to stop them from leaving peacefully…

Imagine your brother/son was just murdered and you have to deal with these hysterical freaks ↘︎ pic.twitter.com/qwwciAkMV6

— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) June 10, 2026

The interesting thing about the political left and minority movements in general is that they reveal their hand every time they suffer a loss, as much as when they celebrate a win.  These are frothing and rabidly emotional groups and they cannot control themselves in the slightest.  With the sentencing of Karmelo Anthony for the murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, the "champions" of civil rights are out in force threatening mob violence, attacks on innocent white bystanders and they are calling for more murders.

In other words, they want revenge for Karmelo Anthony being rightfully punished.  They believe they are above punishment.  They believe they are beyond the law.  They think they should be allowed to do whatever they want to white people because they see themselves as victims of white society.  This kind of mentality only ever leads to one thing: Tragedy. 

Karmelo Anthony supporter: "What do I tell my 5 boys? What do we do now!?"

Uh… don't murder? pic.twitter.com/DGrnCbhhe6

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 9, 2026

Walking away is exactly what Karmelo Anthony should have done.  It's what any sane person with half a brain would do.  But, in a weak ghetto culture where pride is inflated and misplaced, if someone "disrespects" you, it's the same as if they tried to kill you.  Therefore, killing them is not only reasonable, it's applauded by your peers. 

"Austin Metcalf got what he deserved, Rosa Parks days are over" pic.twitter.com/dprgvKOf0r

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 8, 2025

Reverse the skin colors of the people involved in this scenario and see if people like this woman make the same argument.  If it was Austin Metcalf that stabbed Karmelo Anthony over a shove, they would be calling for Metcalf's head.  They would be calling Metcalf a coward and a psychopath.  If Metcalf was exonerated for murder by the court system, there would be riots in the streets.   

There is no reasoning with such people, because they don't want justice, they want power. 

🚨 NOW: BLACK PANTHERS are attempting to launch a RACE WAR outside the Collin County Courthouse after Karmelo Anthony was found GUILTY

“We got to tell our kids the truth that this is a RACIST-ASS COUNTRY We gotta tell them the truth.”

“THIS IS A WAR”

“Don't NOBODY want to hear… pic.twitter.com/MoCQSQRQlE

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 9, 2026

Shocking video out of Florida shows a black man riding up to a White man and accusing him of being on the jury that convicted Karmelo Anthony before punching him, despite him being tried in Texas.

“I thought you wuz on da jury selection fo Karmelo, my b.” pic.twitter.com/Wqekvvnisj

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) June 10, 2026

Punishment for crime, for black activists, is an act of war.  And once again they claim to be the victims, the defenders, the righteous rebellion.  And so, there's nothing to be done.  The violence will simply continue - A new "fiery but mostly peaceful" summer is on the horizon.  And, the only thing that will stop it is an immovable mountain of consequences. 

When the reaction from civilized society against black activists is swift and merciless, this is when their culture of chaos will end. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 23:00

US Investigating Iran War Critic Trita Parsi, Co-Founder Of Non-Interventionist Think Tank

Via Middle East Eye

The Trump administration has launched an investigation into prominent Iran war critic Trita Parsi, according to a report in the Free Press.

According to US officials and documents reviewed by the pro-Trump outlet, officials are looking into the possibility of deporting Parsi, who holds both Iranian and Swedish citizenship.

via the Quincy Institute

Parsi, who is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and co-founded the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), has been a vocal opponent of the ongoing US attacks on Iran.

A Trump official told the Free Press that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been "very clear" in his intentions to tackle “people who support adversaries of ours and whose work furthers their agenda and undermines our security.

“Anyone who seeks to undermine the US, we're taking a hard look at," the official said.

Since the beginning of the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February, the Trump administration has increasingly targeted figures of Iranian descent in the US.

In April, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarina were detained and had their residency permits rescinded after they were – incorrectly – identified as relatives of former Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani by far-right influencer Laura Loomer.

Despite denying their links to Soleimani, the pair remain in custody in Texas.

The US also detained and revoked the green cards of relatives of former Iranian minister Masoumeh Ebtekar in April.

Parsi is a critic of the Islamic Republic whose family fled to Sweden to escape persecution in Iran. He has faced attacks from Iranian monarchists and pro-Trump figures over his opposition to the conflict.

He has also been highly critical of US backing for what many call Israel's genocide in Gaza and its attacks on Lebanon.

Speaking to Middle East Eye in May, Parsi warned that the US's ability to secure a deal with Iran would ultimately come down to its ability to restrain Israeli attacks in the region.

"If Trump either cannot or will not do so, then the value of any agreement with Washington comes sharply into question," he said.

A couple of years ago, the Quincy Institute, an anti-interventionist think tank, tallied which experts most often testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee between 2021 and 2024, under both Democrats and Republicans. The second most frequently invited think tank was…

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) June 9, 2026

"A ceasefire that leaves Israel free to reignite hostilities at will – while the United States remains unable to prevent itself from being dragged back into conflict – offers little assurance of stability. Under such circumstances, the utility of a deal with Washington diminishes dramatically."

MEE contacted the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment, but had received no response from either at time of publication.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 22:35

JPM Call With Axon Reveals Race To Fortify U.S. Data Centers Against Kamikaze Drone Swarms

Axon Enterprise is moving beyond its legacy police body-camera and TASER products and rapidly expanding into drones, robotics, and counter-drone systems, positioning itself as a top supplier in the public safety sector, according to JPMorgan analysts.

In a note on Wednesday, JPM analysts led by Joseph Cardoso said recent FAA rule changes regarding beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations have removed a key barrier to scaling drones for first-responder programs, while expanding demand for counter-drone threat technology across law enforcement, critical infrastructure, and large public venues.

Cardoso and his team hosted Axon's Jeff Kunins, Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer, on a call earlier this week and focused on the evolving U.S. drone market, industry trends, and Axon's positioning:

1. Regulation finally catches up, driving inflection point for DFR and CUAS. The past year represents an inflection for drone-as-first-responder (DFR) and counter-drone (C-UAS), anchored by regulatory changes, including: 1) FAA/TSA rule changes in Aug-25 related to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), which removed the requirement for human observers, a prerequisite that had been a barrier to scaling, since prior rules mandated a oneto-one human observer per drone, undermining the core value proposition of faster and cheaper response times relative to human responders; and 2) the Safer Skies Act, passed in Dec-25, extending drone mitigation authority to select state & local agencies, an important milestone with standalone detection only functional in nuanced situations. While still early, changes have been characterized as seminal rather than incremental, reflecting regulation catching up to the technology, with the SFPD, for example, already conducting DFR missions in dense urban corridors and overall deployments expanding rapidly

2. Counter-drone mitigation boasts an expansive toolkit, albeit with no "winner" to date. The mitigation technology landscape was characterized as a land rush, with heavy investment underway and no settled winners to date. For example, a wide range of tools is available in the market today, including RF jamming, cyber takeover, directed energy lasers, interceptor drones, and kinetics (both destructive and non-destructive), none of which have demonstrated a high success rate across both mitigation effectiveness and cost, particularly against the backdrop of what can be safely deployed in crowded civilian environments. As a result, the market is expected to undergo a rapid iterate-and-fail evolution over an extended period, making it a critical decision for companies to determine where to focus.

3. Highlights tale of two stacks with integrated DFR and open counterdrone. Relative to DFR, the importance of a vertically integrated stack was emphasized, particularly given the need for the operating experience to be tightly coupled with the drone itself, which drove Axon's decision to closely align and partner with Skydio. By contrast, counter-drone will likely remain an open ecosystem for some time, given the unknowns around which cocktail of sensors and effectors will deliver the best results related to producing superior detection and mitigation outcomes from any arbitrary hardware mix.

4. Made in America expected to be a durable tailwind. The durability of American-made policy tailwinds was underscored, as Axon highlighted: 1) companies like Skydio have surpassed Asia-based alternatives on price-performance and product-market fit for law enforcement use cases; and 2) restrictions on foreign drone and camera suppliers due to data-security concerns, have broad bipartisan support

5. Beyond blue lights, drone opportunity expected to be sizeable across enterprise use cases. The enterprise opportunity for drones was characterized as large, immediate, and growing fast off a small base. Use cases highlighted include perimeter security for data centers, logistics networks, and corporate campuses, as well as operational applications such as automated indoor inventory checks, with Axon noting hourly drone patrols at its HQ and inventory checks at its warehouses. On the counter-drone side, demand is already concrete in corrections (contraband drops) and increasing for critical infrastructure, with recent Middle East drone attacks on data centers cited as a motivator for U.S. operators to seek prophylactic capabilities. Importantly, security adoption is expected to come first, followed by operational use cases that broaden the TAM over time.

6. Axon is participating across multiple drone opportunity fronts. Axon is participating across three areas related to drones: 1) outdoor DFR, with Skydio integrated into Fusus real-time crime center (RTCC), Axon Evidence, and the rest of the portfolio, such as body cameras (request button) and 911 solutions; 2) indoor tactical drones for SWAT-type use cases; and 3) counter-drone via Dedrone, which combines first-party hardware (RF sensors, RF mitigation) and software with third-party hardware (additional sensors and effectors), an area where Axon noted its leadership across state & local as well as FedCiv markets, including deployment in every NFL stadium.

Recall that we have been tracking Axon's drone deals with Ukrainian companies and observing how the company is positioning itself as a key importer of battlefield-tested drone and counter-drone technology.

In late January, we noted that the global data center buildout, power grid modernization wave, and broader AI infrastructure boom were missing a critical layer of low-altitude air defense against small drones. One month later, multiple data centers in the Gulf region were hit by Iranian one-way attack drones, underscoring how quickly that threat moved from scenario to reality (read here).

Our view is that the U.S. has major air-defense gaps across data centers, power assets, logistics hubs, and other critical infrastructure. Those vulnerabilities could be exploited by bad actors, creating massive demand for counter-UAS systems to fill gaps in air defense.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 22:10

Florida Supreme Court Allows New GOP Congressional Map To Remain In Place

Via American Greatness,

The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block a new congressional map approved by Republican lawmakers earlier this year.

The map allows the districts to remain in place as the state prepares for upcoming elections.

The decision marks a victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders who advanced the mid-decade redistricting effort following a US Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana’s congressional map.

DeSantis signed the revised map into law in May after the nation’s highest court ruled that Louisiana’s congressional plan, which included an additional majority-Black district, violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The new Florida map could strengthen Republicans’ position in the state’s congressional delegation.

Republicans currently hold a 20-8 advantage in Florida’s US House seats, and the revised districts could potentially expand that margin to as much as 24-4.

The legal challenge was brought by several Democratic groups that sued the state shortly after the map was enacted.

A Florida judge previously rejected efforts to stop the map from taking effect.

On Wednesday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld that decision in a 6-1 ruling, according to The Hill, refusing a request for a temporary injunction against the new districts.

The ruling means the map will remain in place while other legal challenges continue.

Opponents of the map wanted the court to require Florida election officials to continue using the congressional districts from the previous election cycle during the state’s August primaries.

The court  declined that request.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 21:45

Fed Up With Food Delivery App Fees & Tips? Barclays Has Terrific News

Whether consumers are ordering from Uber Eats or DoorDash, delivery costs before tips now average roughly $8 to $10 per order. Add in the tip, and the basic meal for one at Chipotle, such as a burrito bowl, moves into unaffordable territory for many working-class folks. The result is that food delivery, once pitched as a mass-market convenience, is increasingly looking like a discretionary luxury.

Barclays internet equity analyst Ross Sandler penned a note on Wednesday titled "Autonomous Food Delivery Likely Hits Critical Mass By 2030," covering how automation in last-mile delivery could push delivery costs down to as little as $1 per order.

"The promise of autonomous food delivery is still a few years out, but showing very positive signals in markets that have been quick to embrace it. AVs should reduce the cost of delivery for both marketplaces (currently $8-$10 per order) and for consumers (tipping, $5 per order) down to as low as $1 per order," Sandler wrote in the note.

He continued, "As witnessed already in select APAC geos with low delivery costs, when this kind of improvement happens to the cost curve, consumer adoption should go through the roof. China's online food delivery penetration is 40% of orders in tier one cities, well ahead of the US, with cost being the biggest delta.

"UBER and DASH have a number of strategies in place in both SDR (sidewalk delivery robotics) and drones, but claim that these efforts are not likely to hit a material percentage of orders until 2030 and beyond."

The analyst sees "sidewalk delivery robots as the nearer-term opportunity. Current costs are around $5 to $7 per drop, but could fall toward $1 over time as utilization improves. Drones offer faster delivery and a larger "wow" factor, but regulatory hurdles, battery limitations and airspace approvals make the path more complicated."

Automated last-mile food delivery will certaintly improve the economics, and the added benefit is no tip.

Once delivery costs plummet, likely by the end of the decade, improved affordability should drive more people to order restaurant meals at home.

All of this is welcome news from Sandler's team at Barclays, but delivery costs are unlikely to decline meaningfully until automation is added to the last-mile process. Even then, the path to $1 delivery fees with no tip won't be frictionless. Local politicians and regulators could slow the adoption of automation with policies because voters will revolt over job displacement. Still, the benefit is obvious: cheaper delivery and no tip required, something almost everyone can agree on.

Guy breaks down how ridiculous food delivery app fees have gotten... 

This guy breaks down how ridiculous food delivery app fees have gotten.

He shows how a $4.99 iced coffee can easily turn into $19+ once you add the service fee, delivery fee, tip, and priority fee. Even if you subscribe to the app to “save money,” you’re still hit with multiple… pic.twitter.com/CLGsCeW3jr

— End3of6Days9 (Helen) 🇺🇸 (@end3of6days9) June 9, 2026

Kevin O'Leary says Gen Z is financially cooked... 

Kevin O’Leary says Gen Z is financially cooked when people making $70K a year are spending $28 on lunch pic.twitter.com/7s820Xnhg9

— Mikli (@CryptoMikli) May 18, 2026

Professional subscribers can read more about automation and AI at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 21:20

Middle Schoolers' Reading & Math Scores Remain Below Pre-Pandemic Levels, US Results Show

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times,

Although math and reading scores for 9-year-old students across the country have improved slightly over the past three years, their 13-year-old peers have seen no gains in the same subject areas, according to U.S. Department of Education data released on June 10.

Still, scores for both age groups remain below the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic in both subject areas.

That’s according to the latest release of the Nation’s Report Card, which provides new data for the two age groups dating back at least three years.

For the 9-year-olds, average scores last year were 4 points higher in both reading (218 out of 500) and math (238 out of 500) than those in 2022.

For the 13-year-olds, average reading scores have remained at 256 since 2023, while math scores decreased by 1 point from 2023 to 270 last year.

The data, summarized by the federal agency’s National Assessment of Educational Progress office, are based on standardized assessment scores across all states for both public and private school students.

For the latest report, the office examined scores of more than 7,000 9-year-olds and more than 8,000 13-year-olds across more than 400 schools.

Stagnant or declining scores on the Nation’s Report Card across all grade levels in recent years have been a topic of debate among federal leaders. President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon advocate eliminating the Department of Education, promoting universal school choice, and incentivizing states and local school districts to make improvements based on local priorities for public education. They’ve enjoyed support from Republican members of Congress.

Democrats have called for preserving the federal agency and providing more state and federal funding for public schools. During committee hearings in the past year, members also opposed private school voucher initiatives and criticized charter schools for taking funding away from public schools based on the per-pupil aid formulas.

The Department of Education has not yet released comments on the latest report.

The latest Nation’s Report Card data coincide with a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit organization made up of industry experts who review the effectiveness of teacher training programs. Its latest research indicates that about half of the nation’s colleges and universities with education programs of study aren’t providing effective reading instruction based on the most recent proven bodies of research.

Reading outcomes, the report said, won’t improve without better teacher preparation.

Child literacy advocates and leaders in both K–12 and higher education across the nation urge policymakers and university administrators to consider the council’s recommendations to reverse this negative trend.

“When a new teacher walks into a classroom without a solid grounding in the science of reading, we’ve already put that teacher—and every child in front of them—at a disadvantage,” Anne Wicks, a program director at the George W. Bush Institute policy center, said in a statement.

“This is fixable, and it’s time to act.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 20:55

"It Was Like Two Bucks": Homeless Residents Say They Were Paid To Vote In Los Angeles Mayoral Race

Shocking videos posted on social media show multiple homeless Skid Row residents claiming they accepted cash payments ranging from $2 to $5 in exchange for voting for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and city councilwoman Nithya Raman in last week's mayoral election.

Spencer Pratt was eliminated from the mayoral race on Monday, after Raman secured the number two spot in what many believe was a mathematically improbable surge in votes from post-Election Day mail-in ballots.

Skid Row is home to almost 4,000 people and has the highest concentration of homelessness in Los Angeles County. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A man who identified himself as Kevin Shepherd says he cast a mail-in ballot for Bass after being offered $2 and negotiating the payment up to $4. He says he completed the ballot and deposited it into a ballot box. When asked whether payments extended to Raman as well, Shepherd confirmed they did. He also told investigators that outreach workers showed up in the area "three to five times a week" in the weeks leading up to the election, with multiple organizations cycling through.

Rene Johnson, 39, told a similar story. She says she received $5 after being directed to vote for Bass and describes groups regularly moving through Skid Row asking residents to sign paperwork.

"But, you know, at the time, I didn't know that that was going on," Johnson said. "I was just trying to make five bucks, you know? But I didn't do the fraud." Asked directly whether she believed the arrangement amounted to fraud, Johnson did not hesitate. She called it "fraudulent behavior" and said she believed people were being taken advantage of.

A third, unidentified woman who says she lives on the street described a recurring pattern of politically motivated visits. "It was like two bucks," she said of her payment, adding that "yeah, they come out here all the time." A fourth resident, Mark Sanchez, says canvassers paid him on multiple occasions to sign materials tied to local officeholders. "To sign a petition for the mayor or different things in office, and they paid me $4 or $5 in different accounts," Sanchez said. "It happened more than four or five times."

WOAH 🚨 Homeless women living on Skid Row in Los Angeles says someone came and had her fill out a ballot for Karen Bass

They told her who to vote for and then paid her $2 for the vote

She says “they come out here all the time” to get votes for Democrats

“They told you to vote… pic.twitter.com/BEuPbM1RKg

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) June 9, 2026

The content creator who filmed the videos says a friend who works nearby tipped him off after witnessing political volunteers operating in the area during the run-up to Election Day. He spent roughly two hours talking to residents. "Everybody said it was normal," he said, describing what he heard on the street about the paid ballot activities.

Don Garza, a disabled military veteran who has lived on Skid Row since 1999, offers perhaps the sharpest indictment of what has allegedly gone on there. He says voter registration drives run by nonprofit organizations have been a fixture of life in the area for years. "We are tired of it. We don't want people coming in and deciding elections and taking advantage of us," Garza said. "Every one of them thinks they have claim to our voice. They think they speak for us."

The California Post previously reported that thousands of homeless voters were registered at Los Angeles shelters despite many not actually residing at those facilities. A Venice shelter with 185 registered Raman voters received $600,000 in taxpayer money with ties to Raman's office. The pattern suggests something more systematic than a few isolated transactions.

🚨Los Angeles Election Fraud Caught on Hidden Camera

LA election petitioners were caught on tape giving homeless individuals other voters' information, instructing them to forge voter names and signatures, and offering cash and drugs as incentives to register to vote. https://t.co/lCmAAPktyR pic.twitter.com/mf4dsxv4Md

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 8, 2026

Ballot harvesting, which involves collecting completed mail ballots and delivering them on voters' behalf, remains legal in California, but the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has published a how-to guide that illustrates how close that line can be pushed.

WATCH: Some Skid Row residents tell @FOXLA they’ve been offered cash, cigarettes and other incentives to sign political petitions and paperwork.

The allegations come days after a longtime petition circulator pleaded guilty in a federal voter registration case. pic.twitter.com/SAtnmwGG0k

— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) June 11, 2026

The California Post could not independently verify the residents' accounts on camera. However, it is hard to dismiss the consistency of the testimony across multiple unconnected individuals.

However, paying people to vote is clearly illegal. California Elections Code Section 18521 prohibits any person from receiving money, gifts, loans, or other consideration in exchange for voting or refraining from voting for any particular candidate. Section 18522 makes the flip side equally illegal, barring anyone from offering or providing such inducements. Violations carry criminal penalties.

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli says his office will investigate the concerns the Post has uncovered and will "follow the evidence" to determine whether the law was broken.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 20:30

Australian Financial Watchdogs Back New Powers To Curb Money-Laundering Via Crypto

Authored by Rex Widerstrom via The Epoch Times,

Australian crime-fighting and financial agencies are moving to prevent the use of cryptocurrency for money laundering, scams, and money-mule activities.

Illustration of Bitcoin and Ethereum coins held together in front of diverses EURO banknotes in Paris, France, on June 5, 2026. Joao Luiz Bulcao/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

The Australian Banking Association (ABA), Transparency International, and the regulator, AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre), are backing a proposal to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.

The change means the CEO of AUSTRAC can limit or stop a "reporting entity" or institution from using a "high-risk mechanism," such as cryptocurrency, to transfer funds.

The CEO must be satisfied that transferring funds has or will cause "significant harm to either the financial system, the Australian community, or both."

Currently, there are around 19,000 reporting entities, including banks and credit unions; non-bank lenders and stockbrokers; gambling and bullion service providers; and remittance service and virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

All are required to have processes and controls in place to protect their systems from criminal misuse.

Yet that number will soon expand to over 100,000 when new sectors, including lawyers, accountants, conveyancers, real estate professionals, and dealers in precious metals and stones, come under Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime from July 1 this year.

Sector-Wide Powers Needed, AUSTRAC Argues

Senator Michaela Cash asked what evidence suggested AUSTRAC's current powers were inadequate.

Daniel Mossop, the centre's national manager for policy rules, said current law mandated that the agency take a case-by-case approach, looking at individual businesses.

"What we can't do is have a look at a sector or a channel or a product and say, 'On the basis of what we are seeing here, there is an unacceptable risk,' [and] when you're dealing with really high-risk things, [it] becomes more inefficient.

"What we've seen over the last few years is a proliferation of new channels, payment methods, and products ... the real diversification of the market.

"When we have looked at some of these channels, what we have seen is high levels of criminal misuse in particular sectors, and that has caused us, along with the department [of Home Affairs], to start questioning whether the policy and legislative settings are right to deal with that type of threat," Mossop said.

Cash then asked officials whether they would support a change requiring the AUSTRAC CEO to report to Parliament on any prohibitions imposed.

Andrew Warnes, first assistant secretary of Home Affairs' criminal justice division, said there would be a "range of information" available and that lawmakers could always overturn the CEO's decision.

"We do not expect the power will be used particularly regularly," Warnes said.

"It will be a power that will be used occasionally, at best, based on our discussions with AUSTRAC. And when you look at the use of other powers in AUSTRAC's legislation, this is going to sit at the higher end, and you will have that parliamentary review, ostensibly of [every decision].

"A review mechanism is ultimately a matter for parliament, if it wants to do it. I expect this will be used on such a sparse occasion that your review will only be looking at one example. The next mechanism that might be banned might not have even been invented yet."

Crypto ATMs Major Area Of Concern

One are of concern is cryptocurrency ATMs, which have proliferated from 23 machines in 2019 to about 2,000 today - Australia has the third highest volume of such machines globally.

AUSTRAC told the committee it estimates that almost 150,000 transactions, totalling over $275 million, occur every year via crypto ATMs, with about 99 percent being cash deposits to make purchases.

The ABA says (pdf) they have been linked to "significant scam-related activity, high-risk cash-based transactions, and the rapid movement of illicit funds."

The recent Crypto Crime Report, shows a 162 percent year-on-year increase in the amount of cryptocurrency received by criminals.

That led the ABA to suggest the new powers be used on that channel than on banks.

"Banks are already subject to prudential supervision by APRA (Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority) and market conduct regulation by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission), both of which hold comparable product intervention powers," said Chris Taylor, the ABA's chief of policy.

"Extending the AUSTRAC CEO's power to ADIs (Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions) creates overlapping regulatory authority without a corresponding uplift in risk mitigation."

Further, crypto ATMs charge fees of up to 17 to 19 percent, or more, on the purchase of cryptocurrency.

"There's clearly some degree of consumer harm or some risk of consumer harm going on," Taylor argued.

"AUSTRAC's data is clearly showing that people who are using these ATMs are either themselves subject to a scam or they are involved in money mule activities, which is helping to move criminal proceeds, either from scams or from other types of illicit activities, so we really struggle to see a legitimate use case here."

A large number of scam victims tricked into sending money via crypto ATMs were elderly, Taylor said.

"When AUSTRAC first released this data, they talked about an 85-year-old woman who had physically fed in, over the course of a year, $325,000 of her life savings. That's heartbreaking."

The banks also want the period during which any channel was prohibited to be reduced from 3 years to 18 months, in line with the powers of ASIC.

Transparency International supported the bill, saying in its submission that, "For too long, Australia has been a major destination for kleptocrats, organised crime gangs, and corrupt officials to wash their illicit funds. Much of this dirty money flows out of low and middle-income countries."

The bill also amends the meaning of financing terrorism to include new offences of providing monetary support to a state sponsor of terrorism.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 20:05

Cops Bust India-Based Gold Scam Before Widow Loses $700K

A widow who was told her Social Security funds were being used to support terrorism nearly lost $700,000 in a gold scam, according to WOOD ABC 8.  

The fraudsters convinced her to buy gold, but a suspicious coin dealer alerted authorities before the transaction could be completed. Ben Soldaat, owner of Grand Rapids Coins, noticed several red flags. The woman seemed confused, unusually urgent, and showed little interest in the gold itself. Concerned she was being manipulated, he contacted the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators learned the woman had been told by a caller posing as a Social Security agent that criminals were using her account for terrorism, drug trafficking, and money laundering. She was instructed to buy gold so law enforcement could supposedly track the offenders.

Yug Chauhan

Working with detectives, authorities set up a sting operation. Instead of real gold, an undercover officer posing as the woman delivered a package of chocolate gold coins to the courier sent to collect it.

The report says that the courier, 20-year-old Yug Chauhan of Illinois, was arrested and charged with false pretenses over $100,000 and using a computer to commit a crime—both 20-year felonies.

Investigators believe the scam originated in India and are continuing to pursue those behind it.

Officials say gold-related scams targeting seniors are becoming increasingly common nationwide, often involving callers who impersonate government agents. They stress that family members and businesses play a critical role in spotting warning signs before victims lose their savings.

The targeted woman ultimately recovered her money and later thanked Soldaat for intervening. She hopes her experience serves as a warning to others, noting that many scam victims are not as fortunate.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 19:40

Raising Girls Who Won't Be Bullied Off The Starting Line

Authored by Patti Garibay via RealClearPolitics,

The parents of California high school track athlete Reese Hogan did something no parent should have to do. They went to the press to ask why Gov. Gavin Newsom is fine letting a biological boy compete against their daughter for a girls' title. Reese put in the hard work required for a girl to take home the title. Reese is the one who deserves the trophy. But in 2026, asking for a fair race makes you the troublemaker.

A few hundred miles up the coast, Nicki Minaj said she's done biting her tongue. Her California home keeps getting "swatted," and Newsom's office hasn't lifted a finger. She accuses Jay-Z and Roc Nation of trying to destroy her career.

To be clear, Minaj has made choices and taken positions many conservative Christians wouldn't endorse. But that's precisely what makes this so revealing. Even someone who once fit in so comfortably within an elite cultural crowd can be cast out the moment she refuses total ideological conformity. She has become a whistleblower of what many women already knew: The woke crowd celebrates women only as long as they stay compliant. The second you deviate from the approved script, you're on your own.

Let's think about that for a minute. A rap star with millions of fans feels she's run out of room in today's celebrity culture. If she can't speak her mind, what hope does a stay-at-home mom in Cincinnati have when she shows up to a school board meeting?

These examples illustrate that feminism is no longer about women. It's about sticking to a script. Question the script - about your body, your faith, your daughter's locker room, your right to stay home and raise babies - and the same crowd that once chanted about your "liberation" will call you a danger to society.

Our girls grow up watching this unfold, learning very early what kind of woman this culture will tolerate.

Nowhere is the script more obvious than in the fawning reception over the new novel "Yesteryear." The book imagines a so-called "tradwife" taken back to 1855 to suffer for the sin of choosing motherhood and modesty. The reviews are exhausting. The point is not subtle. Women who choose home, husband, and Sunday morning church are to be pitied or mocked. Never mind that those women are some of the happiest people I know. Never mind that the moms I meet for coffee tell me their grandmothers had something we lost, and they want it back.

More than 30 years ago, mothers like me looked at what the Girl Scouts had become and knew we needed an alternative. Our daughters deserved more than moral relativism dressed up as girl power. We started with 10 American Heritage troops in Cincinnati. Today we have tens of thousands of members across the country. Not just because we are counter-cultural, but because we are anchored, and we're clear about who these girls are and Whose they are.

Here's what clarity looks like for girls today. It's a seven-year-old learning to tie a square knot and pray confidently out loud with her troop for the first time. It's a 12-year-old earning her camping badge while learning the simple, biological fact that God created us male and female. It's a high-schooler putting her phone in a basket at troop meetings and rediscovering what her own voice sounds like.

That is the future. It is bold and brave in a way that the loudest voices cannot tolerate. It's a simple yet profound message I will keep sharing with young girls every chance I get. I hope other women break free of perceived barriers about what women should say or think. When they do, they'll find genuine freedom in choosing courage, conviction, and clarity, and stepping into the calling God himself placed on their lives.

To Nicki, and to every woman who feels she has been kicked out of a club she didn't even want to join, I would say this: You are not crazy, and you are not alone. Real freedom was never found in burning down every wholesome thing your great-grandmother believed in. That isn't liberation. It's just a new kind of bondage, dressed up as progress. Real freedom is what God designed for us from the beginning - life inside the guardrails of His perfect love and wisdom.

To the parents of Reese Hogan, and to every parent watching this nonsense and wondering if anyone is paying attention: We are. We are raising girls who will grow into women who refuse to be bullied off the starting line.

The feminism our culture peddles today has decided to trash women. But common-sense Americans will be over here doing what we have always done - raising bold and brave girls, one campfire and one prayer at a time.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 19:15

Trump Nominates US Attorney Jay Clayton As Director Of National Intelligence

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is nominating Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his director of national intelligence.

The move comes weeks after former intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard said she is stepping down from the role.

Trump, in announcing the decision on Truth Social, wrote that “few people anywhere” in the legal community have as much respect as Clayton, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whom the president also described as “highly respected.”

“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” he wrote in the post.

Last month, Gabbard announced she was stepping down as the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) because her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte was named by Trump to serve as acting director in a move that drew pushback from Democratic and some Republican lawmakers.

Pulte will serve as the acting U.S. intelligence chief and would take over from Gabbard later in June, Trump said on Tuesday.

Last week, the president told the Wall Street Journal that he would encourage Pulte to downsize parts of the intelligence office, which oversees 18 federal agencies and units.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said on June 5, adding that Pulte has broader latitude to make significant changes due to his being the acting head of the ODNI.

“You’re less shackled,” he said. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”

Going further, Trump suggested that the ODNI could even be “terminated” in its entirety, noting that a similar downsizing process was undertaken at the Department of Education.

“We’ve made the Department of Education much smaller, and likewise, this should be much smaller,” he added.

Trump praised Pulte as a “very smart guy” while speaking to reporters last week and added that he “may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

The decision to name Pulte as acting director, however, prompted Democratic opposition to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in a vote earlier this week.

“Just voted NO again on a clean FISA reauthorization. We shouldn’t allow the government to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans—especially with Bill Pulte in charge,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) wrote in a post on X as the House failed to extend the provision.

Some Republican senators, meanwhile, indicated they would not have voted to appoint Pulte if Trump nominated him.

“The Senate doesn’t have any role to play in terms of confirming acting officials, but I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill about Pulte.

Clayton had served as head of the SEC from May 2017 until December 2020.  He also served as the head of the prominent law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the largest in the world.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 18:25

One Forgotten Housing Supply-Side Lever Could Unfreeze Affordability

Rental affordability remains far superior to mortgage affordability, with the U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate trending around 6.5% in early June. With home prices still at record highs, last week's housing report showing sellers pulling listings at a near-record pace as buyers balk at prices is yet another warning sign that the frozen housing market remains well intact.

The Trump administration's affordable housing strategy focuses on market deregulation, expanded homeownership, stricter citizenship requirements for federal housing assistance, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchasing $200 billion of their own mortgage-backed securities to artificially lower mortgage rates and increase home affordability.

Even with all that, the housing market remains locked in a deep freeze into early summer, as the math for prospective homebuyers just does not add up, largely due to a housing shortage.

JPMorgan analysts recently said that the current housing shortage of around 2.8 million homes could take about 10 years to resolve. That is simply not enough time for the Trump administration to make good on its promise to unfreeze the market, as younger generations are forced into rentals.

But there is good news: Goldman analysts led by Arun Manohar outlined that manufactured housing remains one of the most underused affordability tools, as the estimated housing shortage is well north of 3 million and as high as 4 million homes.

Manohar pointed out that shipments of manufactured homes averaged about 265,000 units annually before 2000, but plunged to around 80,000 per year since 2010 after the 1990s boom ended in delinquencies, tighter lending standards, and more zoning restrictions.

"One approach for increasing the supply of homes at more affordable price points is to promote access to manufactured housing," Manohar wrote in the report last week.

Manufactured homes now account for about 6% of owner-occupied U.S. housing, down slightly from roughly 7% in 2010. There are about 8.4 million manufactured housing units nationwide, mostly concentrated in the South and Southeast.

Mostly situated in rural areas.

... and typically have less square footage than a traditional single-family home.

Manohar continued that these manufactured housing units are "residences that are prefabricated in a factory setting and then transported to their final location for installation," adding, "This method not only streamlines the construction process but also offers significant cost savings compared to traditional site-built homes, making manufactured housing a promising solution for those seeking affordable housing options."

Manufactured homes are cheaper and faster to build than stick-built homes.

These tiny homes could be a meaningful supply-side lever to improve housing affordability, especially for lower-income and first-time buyers, as the frozen housing market is expected to take years to normalize.

How To Profit

Professional subscribers can read the full note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 18:00

Polls Turn Against Netanyahu As Trump Says PM 'May Quit Politics'

Via The Cradle

A poll published by an Israeli research center on Tuesday has revealed that most Israelis do not want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to run in the upcoming election. 

The poll was released by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, based in occupied Jerusalem.

It was conducted between May 31 and June 5. According to the results, 61 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu should not run in the elections. Thirty-five percent were in favor of the premier running. 

The number of Israeli Jews who are opposed to his running stood at 57 percent, while 39.5 percent of Jewish Israelis believe he should run. 

Among the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship living in the territories ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba, 83 percent are against Netanyahu running in the election, according to the poll. 

Eleven percent of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship support his candidacy, the poll added. A recent poll revealed a significant deterioration in the global reputation of Netanyahu and Israel.

The survey was published amid growing uncertainty over Netanyahu’s political future following comments by US President Donald Trump, who claimed the premier may want to step back from politics.

Trump told ABC News on Tuesday that he was unsure “if Bibi even wants to continue.”

Most Israelis don't want Netanyahu to run in the next election, poll finds https://t.co/80hA7dxXLg

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) June 9, 2026

“I don’t know, he’s had an amazing career. Does he want to continue? Because, you know, he’s a wartime prime minister. We will very shortly win the war one way or the other, and you know he’s a wartime prime minister,” Trump added.

Likud has since responded, saying that Netanyahu will run in the upcoming election. Netanyahu is mired in a years-long criminal trial over corruption and other scandals. The trial has seen near-constant delays.

The prime minister has also failed to resolve the Haredi draft crisis plaguing Israel, with ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) still avoiding conscription and opposition parties criticizing the ruling coalition for placing secular reservists at the forefront of the conflict.  

Israeli army leadership has warned of a collapse in the reserve forces, and troops are taking heavy losses in battles against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

Since Netanyahu's government came to power in late 2022, illegal West Bank settlements and annexation plans have expanded dramatically, and a genocide in Gaza has taken place. 

Pew Research: Israel Net Favorability

🇬🇭 Ghana: +13
🇳🇬 Nigeria: +6
🇮🇳 India: +4
🇰🇪 Kenya: +3
——
🇧🇷 Brazil: -19
🇺🇸 U.S: -23 (was +30 in 2013)
🇸🇸 South Africa: -31
🇦🇷 Argentina: -34
🇨🇦 Canada: -37
🇲🇽 Mexico: -37
🇰🇷 South Korea: -43
🇬🇧 U.K: -44
🇫🇷 France: -44
🇩🇪 Germany: -50
🇮🇹… pic.twitter.com/viP24XwTkA

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 4, 2026

Tel Aviv has also continued to wage brutal wars on multiple fronts, including Lebanon and Iran. 

The draft crisis and other long-standing issues between Netanyahu and the opposition have prompted former premiers Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid to merge parties in a bid to challenge the prime minister politically. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 17:40

Crisis Comes Closer: Social Security's Projected Insolvency Moved A Year Earlier

Continuing a trend of increasingly dismal projections, Social Security's trustees have revised their prediction of when the massive benefit program's trust fund will run out of money, moving it to the fourth quarter of 2032, sooner than last year's projection that the money will run out in 2033. They attributed most of the the change to declining fertility rates and immigration, along with tax reductions included in Trump's 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). 

When the trust fund runs out, money will still be coming into the program via ongoing taxes from workers and self-employed individuals. However, without the ability to tap the trust fund, the program won't be able to keep paying out full benefits. Under the law governing the program, insufficient assets means payouts must be cut for all beneficiaries by a uniform percentage. In their report posted on Tuesday, the trustees projected that benefits will have to be slashed by 22% in 2032.

Politicians have plenty of unpredictable crises to deal with.

But the Social Security trustees write a report to Congress every year telling them the date when this particular crisis will happen.

It used to be far in the future. Now, it’s just six years away. pic.twitter.com/tKkgrhPCVE

— Dominic Pino (@DominicJPino) June 9, 2026

That scenario assumes Congress and the president fail to intervene by then. Given older Americans' high propensity to vote -- which will only be magnified with their retirement income under threat -- it's a safe bet that something's going to change to fend off an across-the-board slashing of benefits.

Potential tweaks include raising the eligibility-age for receiving Social Security income, increasing payroll taxes that fund the program, and "means-testing" that would cut benefits for better-off Americans. The federal government would like you to believe that Social Security isn't currently means-tested, but it truly is in a back-door way: the higher your income, the more your Social Security benefit is taxed. Taxation of Social Security income is just a roundabout  way of slashing benefits -- by giving you your "full" benefit but then confiscating a portion. Congress could also choose to throw out the (increasingly fictional) framework that positions Social Security as a self-funding pension program -- by opting to fund benefits with general revenue and borrowing. 

Composition of Federal Spending, 1962-2025. Source: "Spending, Taxes and Deficits: A Book Of Charts," 2026 Brookings

Though Congress has long kicked the can down the road, we'll soon have a group of legislators trapped by the timing of their particular tenure in office, and compelled to take action for the first time since a 1983 deal brokered by President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O'Neill.  "Senators elected this fall will be in office when the SocSec trust fund hits insolvency. So it *should* be a major campaign issue. But few voters care," observed the Brookings Institution's Jessica Riedl on X. "They have their silly narratives ('stop stealing the trust fund,') & fake solutions ('remove the cap'). But, y'all were warned."

"Remove the cap" refers to the fact that the Social Security portion of the payroll tax is only applied to incomes up to $184,500 in 2026. Demagoguing leftist politicians regularly tout removing the payroll-tax cap as a simple solution, but as with the government's broader fiscal woes, the problem is so large that sticking it to more prosperous Americans doesn't get you very far. 

The trustees pointed to multiple factors driving their revised projection on when the trust fund will run out. In addition to dropping fertility rates -- which continues to worsen the ratio of people taking benefits to to people paying into the program -- they also said reduced immigration is lowering program revenue. They also noted that revenue has been decreased by Trump's OBBBA-enabled $4,000 tax deduction that primarily benefits moderate-income recipients of Social Security benefits. Riedl and the American Enterprise Institute's Andrew Biggs also highlighted a much lesser-known dynamic that's pushing Social Security toward insolvency: 

This is mainly because - when converting lifetime earnings into today's dollars to calculate initial benefit levels - SocSec adjusts for the economy's long-term wage growth instead of price inflation.

Since wages grow faster than prices over the long-term, it can be like a…

— Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 (@JessicaBRiedl) June 9, 2026

Though Social Security's crisis is getting closer and closer, most federal politicians will continue to steer clear of the issue until 2032, and the few who dare to address it before then will be promptly accused of "attacking" the program. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 17:20

Karen Bass' Brother Joins Class-Action Lawsuit Against Karen Bass over LA Wildfires

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

The brother of embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has sued the very city government his sister leads, alleging officials failed to protect homeowners and business owners during the destructive Palisades Fire.

Kenneth Bass and his wife Cindy joined a class-action lawsuit in May against the City of Los Angeles, alleging the city failed to fill the Santa Ynez Reservoir when the wildfire broke out on January 7, 2025, according to multiple reports.

The lawsuit, filed on May 18, was first reported by L.A. Material.

It includes more than 180 plaintiffs and names multiple defendants, including the Bass-run Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

In the lawsuit, Kenneth Bass alleged he and his wife suffered smoke inhalation injuries, as well as emotional distress stemming from the destruction of their home.

The couple previously owned a property with a pool and panoramic views of the Malibu Pier, according to L.A. Material.

Mayor Bass has publicly referenced her family's loss, telling reporters in 2025: "The loss that you're going through, I share indirectly. It's hit my family too."

Bass adviser Yusef Robb dismissed questions about the lawsuit, telling reporters that there was "nothing new here."

"Thousands of people are plaintiffs in this action, which names 18 public and private sector defendants," Robb added.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office downplayed the lawsuit, saying the city is confident it is not liable for the wildfires.

Meanwhile, a Frantz Law Group attorney representing Kenneth Bass told the California Post the lawsuit is part of a broader mass tort process and said his family ties are "irrelevant" to his claims.

"As part of the mass tort legal process, Mr. and Mrs. Bass' names were formally added as some of the nearly 40,000 victims who suffered losses," the attorney stated. "Their family connections are irrelevant, and as non-public citizens they are entitled to respectful privacy as they pursue their legal rights along with all represented victims."

Bass was elected mayor in 2022, after serving for over a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is facing a tough re-election campaign amid criticism over her administration's handling of the wildfire response.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 17:00

New CFTC Prediction Market Proposal Would Ban War And Terrorism Bets While Allowing Sports Markets

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has unveiled a proposed framework for prediction markets that would prohibit contracts tied to violent or harmful events, including terrorism, war, and political assassinations, while largely preserving sports-based markets, according to Bloomberg.

Under the proposal, "gaming" would be interpreted more narrowly, focusing on activities driven primarily by chance. As a result, most existing sports event contracts would remain permissible.

According to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, the agency's goal is to "protect the integrity of our regulated markets without standing in the way of responsible innovation."

The proposal is intended to modernize and clarify how event contracts are evaluated, replacing broad restrictions with a more targeted approach. Dorothy DeWitt, a former CFTC market oversight official, said the framework "provides clarity as to what types of contracts are unlikely to be readily susceptible to manipulation."

Bloomberg writes that the regulator also signaled concern about contracts whose outcomes can be influenced by a single individual or specific in-game actions, suggesting those markets may face heightened scrutiny.

The initiative follows the rapid expansion of prediction markets after legal victories opened the door to election and sports-related contracts. As trading activity and investor interest continue to grow, the industry has sought clearer guidance on which markets are acceptable under federal oversight.

Supporters view the proposal as a step toward a more predictable regulatory environment that could encourage further investment and participation. Critics argue it risks legitimizing gambling-like activity within financial markets and could divert the agency from its traditional mission.

The proposal marks another milestone in the ongoing debate over how prediction markets should be regulated and where the line between investing and wagering should be drawn.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 16:40

Even 'Trust The Election' Pundits Are Suspicious

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

California’s rigged elections are difficult to defend...

California Democrats have rigged another election, and outsider Spencer Pratt has been bumped from the Los Angeles mayoral race.  On Election Day, Pratt’s lead over third-place Nithya Raman was so large that she publicly cried over her loss.  After a week of mail-in-ballot shenanigans, Raman has surged to secure a coveted spot on the November ballot — a statistical improbability in any jurisdiction familiar with arithmetic and basic ethics.

This “come from behind victory” has made it difficult for the usual election-fraud-deniers to pretend that California’s elections are free, fair, legal, or remotely based in reality.  I noticed that National Review writer Dan McLaughlin — who spent a lot of time after 2020’s stolen election defending Joe Biden’s “victory” — felt compelled to make this small concession: “I’m suspicious of the voting in LA.  For now, in the absence of evidence, that’s just vague suspicion unsupported by proof, but the vote-counting process reeks.”

I wrote a number of essays describing the historic irregularities of the 2020 election after Joe Biden supposedly “won” more than fifteen million extra votes than Barack Obama had secured in his re-election victory.  In the 2020 election, President Trump won almost every traditional bellwether county across the country by double-digits.  He expanded his voter support in almost every demographic and did better with black voters than any Republican since Eisenhower.  He exceeded expectations in swing states.  Economic variables and historic precedent strongly forecast a Trump victory.  It was entirely reasonable to look at the statistical improbabilities of the 2020 election outcome (another race that was “decided” more than four days after Election “Day”) and conclude that the numbers did not make sense.  It was entirely appropriate for Americans to gather outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and demand that Congress refrain from certifying an election irreparably tainted by mail-in-ballot fraud.  Nevertheless, McLaughlin took time to mock me (and many others) and suggest that I had never heard of “split-ticket” voting.  McLaughlin-type pundits have a difficult time understanding anybody who doesn’t blithely repeat back talking points mass-distributed by the corporate “news” machine.

It strikes me as ridiculous that McLaughlin finds it necessary to couch his “suspicions” about California’s elections behind verbal acknowledgments that, absent “evidence” and “proof” of fraud, no clear conclusions can be drawn.  If you arrive home to find your front door smashed open, your house ransacked, and all your valuables missing, it is not a “vague suspicion” to conclude that your home has been burgled.  I get the sense that McLaughlin would tell police, “In the absence of evidence, any conclusion that I’m the victim of burglary is just vague suspicion unsupported by proof.”  I think this is why common-sense Americans have no interest in listening to pundits these days; doing so requires a level of pretending that makes most people feel dirty.

I don’t know Dan.  Maybe he’s a nice guy.  Maybe he believes what he writes.  But he seems like somebody who would defend a future Democrat president who rounds all of us up into “MAGA Camps,” so long as CNN quoted Eric Holder as saying that the whole thing was legal and right.  At some point, a person has to put his “thinking cap” on and start asking questions.  Government bureaucrats and politicians are not truth-tellers; they’re propagandists.  If you don’t have the sand to question authority, you’re just a parrot begging for a cracker.  And if California’s most recent rigged election is the first time you’ve had “vague suspicions” about the legitimacy of America’s elections, then your punditry has the same whiff of freshness as a carriage horse’s bun bag.

Across the board, Americans do not trust the election process. 

 Every presidential election since the 2000 contest between Bush and Gore (which took thirty-five days to settle) has been sullied by allegations of fraud, disenfranchisement, illegal voting, ballot spoilage, electoral violations, and all manner of ethical misconduct.  Members of the New Black Panther Party intimidated voters in Philadelphia in order to secure a Pennsylvania election victory for Barack Obama in 2008.  Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama deceived Democrat voters by perpetuating the lie that Russia “stole” the election for Donald Trump in 2016.  While the corporate news media and Silicon Valley’s social media tsars censored reporting on Hunter Biden’s “laptop from Hell” in the lead-up to the 2020 election, Democrat-controlled cities reported more mail-in-ballots for Sleepy Joe than lawful registered voters.  Since Trump’s 2024 landslide victory over Kamala Harris, Democrats have claimed that Elon Musk stole all the swing states for the president.

Nobody believes that our elections are on the up-and-up.  

The fifty states do not uniformly require official photo ID.  Election statutes are not uniformly enforced.  Judges routinely step in to alter the rules for some areas but not others.  Election “Day” has become Election Months because most states permit early voting that lasts for weeks, as well as the late tabulation of mail-in-ballots that arrive well after the election.

In many Democrat-controlled jurisdictions, multiple ballots arrive at every home, apartment, post office box, chicken coop, doghouse, street corner, vacant field, Walmart, convenience store, parking lot, and homeless encampment.  American citizens don’t control election outcomes through their votes.  Campaign operatives control election outcomes through ballot “harvesting” — whereby blank ballots are mailed out, filled out, and collected without ever involving the “voters” whose “votes” are cast in their names.

Once the vote counts are officially posted, most jurisdictions are incapable of verifying the legality of each vote cast or replicating the results with matched ballots and voter records.  The local and state election commissions instead defer to the “Trust us, bro” standard of government accountability.

The whole electoral process is corrupt. 

Everybody knows it.  Democrats and Republicans have different reasons for distrusting the outcomes.  But the point remains: Nobody trusts the outcomes.  Pundits such as Dan McLaughlin exist to reassure the public that everything is hunky-dory.  Don’t trust your eyes or the organ between your ears, they say.  

Trust the process and the Establishment politicians who benefit from that process.

Why not?  

These are the same professional “authorities,” after all, who “rationally” handled the arrival of the mostly-harmless COVID virus by closing schools, churches, and businesses; locking us up in our homes; creating arbitrary mask rules; forcing us to follow ludicrous “safety” protocols; and threatening to take our children away if we refused to submit to experimental injections redefined as “vaccines.”  If you didn’t learn to “trust the experts” during COVID, I don’t know what to tell you.  After we “flattened the curve in fifteen days,” we also proved that owning property causes “climate change” and that Dementia Joe Biden was the most popular president in American history!  It was a banner few years!

Notwithstanding the proven track record of the Establishment Class, California’s recent “election” is forcing more people than ever to question whether this whole voting monstrosity in America is legitimate.  When even “I will defend the integrity of the 2020 election to my dying breath” Dan McLaughlin admits that the radically shifting results for the Los Angeles mayoral race have made him “suspicious” of the voting process in California, the tide might be turning.  Who knows.  Maybe Dan will start to wonder whether it really makes sense that Joe Biden — a political candidate who struggled to receive more than single-digit support during prior attempts to reach the White House — won eighty-two million votes in 2020, eclipsing voter support for both President Obama and President Trump.

Common sense isn’t for everybody.  Some people prefer to trust corrupt election officials.  As Dan McLaughlin says, “The machine wins.”  Well, the machine does tend to win when pundits refuse to recognize, confront, and condemn fraud.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/11/2026 - 16:20