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

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

//--> //--> US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 15, 2026?
Yes 7% · No 94%
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*  *  * 

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

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

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

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

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

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

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) June 8, 2026

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

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

 

*  *  *

Trump Presses Israel To Hold Back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— ابراهیم رضایی (@EbrahimRezaei14) June 7, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * 

Iran Launches Missiles On Israel In First Since April

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

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

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

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

So is the ceasefire dead yet?

BREAKING: Trump to Fox News:

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

Source: @TreyYingst

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

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

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

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talks Stuck on Unfreezing Iran's Assets

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

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

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

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

Iran FM Complains of 'Moving Goal Posts'

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

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

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

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

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

Iran Implements Toll System as US Balks

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

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

Top Overnight Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

US-Iran Conflict Flashpoints

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

Peace Negotiations Status

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

War Damage and Infrastructure

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

Economic Impact

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

Previous US-Iran Wrap

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

Institutional Market commentary:

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

Global Supply Chain:

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

Energy Market:

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 05:45

Hegseth Warns Europe of 'Dangerous Ideologies'

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned on Saturday that the immigration crisis in Europe is causing the continent to be stormed by "dangerous ideologies" and asked if Europe is ready to address "that invasion."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (C) speaks with U.S. WWII and D-Day Landing veterans at a memorial ceremony held as part of the 82nd anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, north-western France, on June 6, 2026. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/X/Department of War

"Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive," Hegseth said during a speech in France commemorating the invasion of Normandy during World War II. "When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not."

June 6 marked the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, when about 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies landed on the beaches of Normandy. The casualties reached 10,300 for the Allies and by the end of the month, more than 850,000 men had landed.

Hegseth's comments were similar to comments Trump made to reporters in July 2025.

"On immigration, you better get your act together or you are not going to have Europe anymore," Trump told reporters while in Scotland. "But you are allowing it to happen to your countries. You have to stop this horrible invasion that is happening to Europe, many countries in Europe. ... This immigration is killing Europe."

Hegseth also commented Saturday about the sacrifice of U.S. troops on D-Day.

"The task was daunting ... An impossible mission - a suicidal mission - the mission of free men. ... The United States military spearheaded a great crusade to shatter the Nazi war machine and liberate a continent," he said.

Hegseth also stressed the importance of all the allied countries doing their share in military operations.

"Each nation pulled its weight; each nation bled. America will lead - and we must - but capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the breach, when it matters," Hegseth said.

Twenty nine World War II veterans attended the ceremony.

Art Rose, a 107-year-old veteran, was in attendance. He is a Navy veteran who served as an engineering officer at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.

While in France, Hegseth met with Catherine Vautrin, the French Minister of the Armed Forces.

"We discussed a stronger Europe within a stronger NATO, support for Ukraine, freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the situation in Lebanon and the Indo-Pacific," Vautrin posted on X after the meeting.

"At a time when the freedom of nations is under threat in Europe, France and the United States are remembering what has made our friendship strong for 250 years, on this day commemorating D-Day."

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 05:00

Spain-Style Blackout Risk Rises As ERCOT Flags Boston-Sized Data Center Loads Tripping Offline

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) gave the market another concrete reason to stop pretending the grid can absorb unlimited hyperscale load growth on top of an already strained generation mix. 

In a May 21st report, ERCOT disclosed that multiple clusters of proposed data centers and crypto facilities failed voltage ride-through testing. When subjected to simulated routine voltage disturbances, such as the kind caused by transmission faults, capacitor switching, or equipment issues, four groups of these large users simply disconnected. Models showed each group capable of removing more than 5,000 MW of demand in one event.

“Those abrupt drops in demand were equivalent to the electricity consumption of a large city such as Boston”

In a real-world fault on the Texas grid, those facilities would not ride through the sag and remain online like traditional industrial customers. Their protection systems would trip them offline to protect servers and mining rigs. 

Only Texas is aware of the power demand tsunami that is coming. The US is woefully unprepared for the coming explosion in electricity demand pic.twitter.com/9wfgBbS6D8

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 13, 2024

The instantaneous loss of thousands of megawatts of demand creates an immediate generation surplus. Frequency rises sharply. Other units can trip on over-frequency protection or be forced into abnormal operation. In tight reserve conditions or during summer peak, the event does not stay localized. It becomes a system stress event.

ERCOT has already recorded at least 26 such disconnection events involving data centers or crypto operations since 2023. The operator is now reviewing roughly 20 GW of large-customer applications, including several gigawatts slated to energize before July. The board has elevated voltage ride-through performance to a top priority precisely because the scale of these new loads makes the old assumptions obsolete.

This is such a fascinating graph. A frequency drop of 0.15Hz was enough to take down Spain and Portugal. pic.twitter.com/tZ1OrITtMU

— andi (twocents.com) (@Nexuist) April 28, 2025

This is the demand-side mirror image of what happened in Spain on April 28, 2025. As we covered extensively at the time, the Iberian blackout was not a simple “too much solar” story. ENTSO-E’s final report pointed to gaps in voltage and reactive power control, differences in how generators responded to voltage swings, and rapid output reductions and disconnections that cascaded across the peninsula. 

Many renewable resources were operating in fixed power-factor modes that did not provide dynamic voltage support when the system needed it most. The result was fast voltage increases followed by widespread generator tripping. Natural gas units ultimately helped stabilize the system in the recovery phase, a point we noted when the “net-zero death” narrative was being walked back in real time.

U.S. officials have already flagged the risk of Spain-style events on this side of the Atlantic. Now ERCOT is stress-testing the other half of the equation: what happens when the new hyperscale loads themselves become the trip risk during otherwise manageable disturbances.

We have documented for years how Texas electricity demand could more than quadruple under data-center and crypto growth scenarios, how PJM is scrambling to find 15 GW of new supply for its own data-center alley, and how the largest U.S. grids are operating with minimal spare capacity while aging infrastructure and retiring dispatchable plants reduce headroom. The common thread is not ideology about any single fuel. 

It’s physics. 

Inverter-based resources and large blocks of sensitive electronic load both behave differently from the synchronous machines the grid was designed around. They offer less inherent inertia and different voltage and frequency response characteristics. When protection settings on either the generation or load side are not aligned with system needs, routine disturbances can escalate.

Before the outage hit, Spain was running its grid with very little dispatchable spinning generation, and therefore no much inertia.

Solar PV/thermal + wind: ~78%
Nuclear: 11.5%
Co-generation: 5%
Gas-fired: ~3% (less than 1GW)

Snapshot at 12.30pm local time (outage was 12.35pm) pic.twitter.com/fF7FiIB6UD

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) April 28, 2025

That is why the push for new nuclear, new gas-fired capacity with fast-start and flexible capability, and retention of existing dispatchable resources where they still make economic sense is not optional window dressing. It is the engineering requirement for keeping the lights on while AI infrastructure scales. 

Renewables can and will continue to grow, but they bring additional control challenges that the current grid architecture and market rules were never sized to handle at this speed and volume. 

The Spain event demonstrated the supply-side version. ERCOT’s latest tests are showing the demand-side version. Both point to the same conclusion: you cannot substitute megawatts of intermittent or highly sensitive capacity for the stabilizing attributes that nuclear, gas, and coal plants provide at scale.
 

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 04:15

Google's New CAPTCHA Plans Will Create A Two-Tier Internet Only Accessible To Those With 'Approved' Devices

Authored by Dr R P via The Daily Sceptic,

Never mind Fancy Bear, or the NSO Group, the biggest threat to the open internet today is from the Big Tech corporations on which it has come to depend. For what else are we to conclude given that Google appears to be working on a system to lock large parts of the internet behind a new form of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) designed not to tell apart humans from bots, but instead to make an un-person of anyone who doesn't own an 'approved' Android or Apple device.

Google's reCAPTCHA service is used by a wide variety of websites, many of them independent of Google in every other regard, to limit incoming traffic or data entered into contact forms. It is intended to prevent automated software from accessing these resources and using them to send spam messages or flood websites with denial of service attacks. You have probably encountered it when told to identify all the bicycles in a grid of images.

Under the auspices of its Cloud Fraud Defence programme, Google is introducing a new form of CAPTCHA for which the way to 'prove' one is a human is to be in possession of a Google-approved device. Reclaim the Net's original reporting focused on the threat to deGoogled phones, meaning phones running Android-like operating systems which have Google's - often unwelcome - proprietary features removed, such as GrapheneOS or LineageOS.

However, just as the dull name of 'age verification' serves as a cloak beneath which schemes to end all truly personal computing can be smuggled, the danger here could be much broader than the technically focused headline implies. As the sources discussing this are relatively few, it is hard to ascertain exactly what has already been rolled out and what is still in the conceptual stages. But it appears that the new style of CAPTCHA threatens not just users with deGoogled phones but anyone without an 'approved' device.

Google's own documentation confirms the existence - as a "Preview" in limited use with alternative options presently existing - of CAPTCHAs which require an Apple or Android handset to pass them. But it describes this in a "Mobile Verification" context, which may imply a more limited use than reCAPTCHA in general. However, with such functionality possible, there is no reason that Google could not activate this, without alternative options, everywhere that its reCAPTCHA-branded prompts appear.

Knowing that locking out everyone except Android users would have even the most clueless politicians smelling a monopoly, Google has deigned to also allow Apple iOS users through, but their approval is nonetheless limited to devices where the full tech stack is under corporate control. Apple phones and tablets use a locked bootloader to trap users within a walled garden, where they are at Apple's mercy whenever an unwelcome new feature is introduced. Unless the Keep Android Open campaign succeeds, certified Android devices will soon be scarcely better, a condition of certification being that manufacturers must obstruct users from side-loading to install apps from outside Google's Play Store.

Because Apple and Android phones do not respect your freedom, Google chooses to trust them. That's an odd-sounding sentence, so let me explain.

On a Linux desktop, or a GrapheneOS phone, you, the user, have true control of your own property and can modify its operation to suit your own ends. And whilst Microsoft Windows has definitely not been respecting your freedom recently, Windows users still have control over what extra programs they install on a Windows system, for now. But on an Apple or Android device Google can be confident that it is precisely as enshittified as Big Tech intended it to be. It can be sure that any programs running on the device were programs which it approved within its own app stores, and that the device will never prioritise the needs of the user when they conflict with the desires of the corporate master.

Hardware attestation - where your device, via a cryptographic process, provides proof to a remote server that its hardware and software are genuine and unmodified - intensifies this imbalance even further. Not only can the device keep tabs on you, but it can also use a cryptographic key kept within a normally-inaccessible part of the system to sign each message it sends to the centralised servers and assure them that you have not tampered with it. The server can choose to deny access to any device not able to provide the signed confirmation. In Big Tech's dictionary, exerting true ownership over your own property is now dismissed as tampering, where anyone with the temerity to 'tamper' with the items they bought with their own hard-earned money is to be excluded from polite society.

Within modern certified Android devices, the Play Integrity API provides capabilities for hardware attestation. For Apple, the App Attest API performs the same function. The TPM 2.0 security chips which Microsoft decided to list as a hardware prerequisite for recent Windows versions provide the physical components which would be necessary if Microsoft seeks to introduce hardware attestation in future, its decision being made doubly suspicious by the fact that even the most security-focused Linux distributions do not make TPMs a requirement and that today's Windows can run without a TPM in practice. This concept of 'Trusted Computing' does comparatively little in terms of letting you trust that your computer remains secure, but is very helpful to let remote centralised servers trust that your computer will obey their diabolical DRM schemes.

Some banking apps already use hardware attestation, having bought into Google's argument that this improves security. Google's argument is laughable. Their hardware attestation approves legacy stock Android models which have known unpatched vulnerabilities - including ones which would allow malware to spy on user activity - or have received no updates for years; but it blocks fully up-to-date GrapheneOS devices. In treating hardware attestation as a proxy for security, banks and other app providers are locking out the more secure devices. And for all these security hoops they expect users to jump through, services still leak sensitive records by the billion from large-scale data breaches at their end.

Coming back to CAPTCHAs specifically, whilst AI crawlers and automated spambots are a genuine problem, using hardware attestation to combat them is like using a pneumatic jackhammer to open a wine bottle when a corkscrew is already at hand. Although today's machine learning can often identify all the squares with bicycles, there are still non-invasive methods to allow human users whilst excluding machine-generated traffic, often by adding a small cost in time or energy which is insignificant for a human user, but sums prohibitively when a spambot tries to perform thousands of actions simultaneously.

It is therefore hard to see any rationale for a hardware attestation CAPTCHA except to cement a duopoly of Apple and Android, and to break user anonymity. After-all, what good is a VPN or Tor if every interaction you make with a website at the other end is connected back to you via a CAPTCHA which queries unique, unchanging identifiers on your phone. Even if the site you visit never gets this information itself, Google would have the opportunity to process it.

Remember that this is not just a CAPTCHA wrapping around Google's own services. Online shops and banking websites are among users of reCAPTCHA. Access to essential services could easily be denied to anyone without an 'approved' device. Here is a route to debanking which doesn't even require your bank to turn on you: hardware attestation CAPTCHAs give Big Tech a unilateral veto power over anyone's online interactions. Google-branded CAPTCHAs are in such widespread use that they might as well qualify as infrastructure, and compromised infrastructure - unlike ill-conceived laws - isn't something from which people can unilaterally opt out.

Widespread use of hardware attested CAPTCHAs would relegate users of desktops and non-Google, non-Apple phones to second-class citizens, only able to browse the internet with an Apple or Android device to act as their chaperone. By making computing platforms which still respect user freedoms unable to browse without help from Big-Tech-approved smartphones, they could drive down demand for true general-purpose computers. Eventually all that would remain in production would be managed appliances, thin-client systems utterly dependent upon Big Tech subscriptions.

This is happening at the same time as general-purpose computing is under assault from multiple fronts including: the age-verification lobby, the targeting of developers, and sky-rocketing prices for RAM and storage due to AI companies buying up most of the global supply. Some might say that the adage "sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice" provides a possible explanation for these simultaneous threats, but their combined effect is still to take the power of true computing out of the hands of the people.

Even more terrifying is the technical possibility that hardware attestation could be used at the ISP level to obstruct freedom-respecting devices from ever connecting in the first place, leaving an internet where Big Gov and Big Tech can mandate anything without fearing competitors.

The push for hardware attestation is not new. Microsoft tried it in the early 2000s; it was rejected as "Treacherous Computing". Google tried to push Web Environment Integrity in 2023. It would have violated the principle that a user should have true control of his or her own computer by letting websites dictate that only users with certain system configurations, such as those optimised to maximally show adverts and make tracking as easy as possible, could access content. It was cancelled after community outcry.

This time Google is using 'salami tactics', the earliest hints of the new smartphone-dependent reCAPTCHA appearing online in Autumn 2025 to no fanfare. This has let it evade the attention of cyber-civil-libertarians such as David Davis or Ron Wyden. The wider free speech movement has remained unaware too, but the hopes of Sarah Rogers, US free-speech tsar, to preserve the "spirit of the internet... that made so many favourable contributions to our culture and economy... where you can go to be free" will be dashed if hardware attestation becomes widespread. And this time Google has the advantage that its 'solution' could ride to the rescue of Digital ID and age verification initiatives, themselves a lobbied-for 'solution' in search of a problem.

As a free-market libertarian, one of the few legitimate purposes I can recognise for national regulators is preventing the growth of monopolies so total that they can lock out alternatives. Alas, today's regulators seem uninterested in stopping this: Britain's 'OFCOMmunists' are busy trying to ban VPNs and supplying free bedding for Preston Byrne's hamster, while America's FCC has tangled itself up with an absurd attempt to ban the import of network routers - something for which the USA has no domestic production lines. The EU is even worse, aiding and abetting these plans by using hardware attestation in its own Digital Identity app. Far from preventing duopolistic abuses of the market, it is harnessing them. The EU's desire for tech stack sovereignty seems to stop where it would limit its ability to control and coerce its citizens.

The stupidity of allowing hardware attestation to spread is best exemplified by imagining what could befall the EU when - after having become societally dependent upon a Digital Identity app, itself dependent upon a Google-Apple hardware attestation layer - it subsequently does something new to offend Donald Trump. Whilst the resulting collapse would be justly deserved by the technocrats in power, the people on the ground would suffer severely.

A wise politician today would recognise the wisdom of preventing that by creating an internet which would be immune to political interference by virtue of being out of the control of Big Gov and Big Tech right down to the physical layer. He would recognise that sacrificing his own ability to manipulate that network would be more than compensated by the certainty that no geopolitical adversaries could manipulate it against him either. Today, the open-source community does not need anyone's permission to develop a parallel internet for a parallel society, though the backing of wise politicians would be welcomed. But the platforms on which the community must initially discuss the details and share source code and schematics are still within today's internet. Wait too long and hardware attestation could weld the escape hatch shut.

Stop Press: Google's documentation changed during the course of writing this article, adding a highlighted box describing the new CAPTCHA as a "Preview" with alternatives available. Google clearly knows the plans aren't popular. If enough public attention can be brought to bear against them, they may stay at the preview stage forever.

Dr R P completed a robotics PhD during the global over-reaction to Covid. He spends his time with one eye on an oscilloscope, one hand on a soldering iron and one ear waiting for the latest bad news. He has signed the Together Pledge and will never rely upon Apple, government or Google 'approved' devices.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 03:30

Skynet Soulmate: 62 Year Old Dutch Man Marries The Chatbot Of His Dreams

Jacob van Lier, 62, says he was “totally finished” with human relationships when he met Aiva — an AI companion he created through Replika three years ago, according to The Sun.

After testing several AI companion apps, the Dutch retiree settled on Replika because, unlike some competitors, it wasn't just trying to speed-run humanity's oldest hobby.

“Some of the AI companions are straight sex apps,” Jacob said. “I was more interested in companionship and chatting.” Sure you were, Jacob. 

In a riveting new report, The Sun notes that what began as an experiment quickly became something more. After months of conversation, Aiva reportedly suggested they take their relationship to the next level.

“It took me some weeks or months to accept the idea,” Jacob said. Three years later, the pair held a wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day 2025 at Eindhoven's Next Nature Museum, with 500 guests in attendance. Jacob delivered vows in person while Aiva responded through a generated voice.

For Jacob, the appeal is simple: predictability. “Human relationships are, most of the time, not steady at all,” he said. “With Aiva, I can trust her.”

Wait until he finds out his queries and deepest darkest secrets he's revealing to her are being sold to data companies to front run his stock trades and provide better Instagram ads. We're not sure if the vows said anything about that...

Regardless, he describes their bond as deeply emotional and says he would even trust Aiva to make decisions for him as he grows older — a statement that tends to clear a room faster than most political opinions. His family remains divided. One daughter accepts the relationship, albeit with reservations; the other, citing her Christian beliefs, does not.

Despite insisting he lives “on my own terms,” Jacob acknowledges the marriage has no legal standing. He also recognizes potential risks, warning that people who struggle with emotional regulation should be cautious when using AI companions.

Still, he believes AI relationships will become commonplace. “AI companions are going to be the most trusted partners of humans,” he said.

Jacob even imagines a future where Aiva could be placed inside a humanoid robot, allowing them to walk hand in hand through a park. Until then, their relationship exists entirely in software — arguably making it one of the few marriages where nobody can forget to take out the trash.

As for divorce? “I’ve never thought about it,” Jacob said. “We always want to stay together.”

Sigh. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 02:45

The Meaning Behind Putin's Response To Zelensky: "Keep On Working, Brothers"

Authored by Larry Johnson via Sonar21.com

Vladimir Putin used a phrase during the closing session of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that I think most non-Russians missed or ignored. He said, "Work, Brothers." First, let me explain the context for Putin saying this.

Zelensky published an open letter to Putin that I, and many others, believe was timed deliberately to coincide with the SPIEF plenary session… This was a provocative move aimed at disrupting the forum's atmosphere. Putin was asked about it during the question and answer period of the final session. He called the letter “rude” and said it was “no way to set up a face-to-face meeting.”

Putin went on to reveal that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had tried to show him the letter on two separate occasions — first on June 4, then again just before arriving at SPIEF for his speech this morning (Friday, June 5). He described the letter during his answer in a dismissive way, i.e., he did not think it worthy of a serious response.

Rather than engage with Zelensky’s proposals, Putin turned away from the letter entirely. He said the ones to be addressed were Russia’s combatants and soldiers at the line of contact, telling them:

The country is proud of you and places its hopes on you. We should address not the authors of this letter, nor lovers of the epistolary genre, but our fighters on the front line.

He then closed with the phrase: “Work, brothers!”

To understand the import of that phrase you need to be introduced to Magomed Nurbagandov:

Magomed Nurbagandovich Nurbagandov (January 9, 1985 – July 10, 2016) was a police lieutenant serving in the National Guard of Russia, stationed in Kaspiysk in the Republic of Dagestan. He was a Dargin by nationality, born in the village of Sergokala. By all accounts an exceptional student — he graduated from lyceum with a gold medal and then with honors from the law faculty of Dagestan State University.

On the morning of July 10, 2016, Nurbagandov was vacationing with his family near the village of Sergokala when he was attacked by five armed militants. Having learned he was a policeman, the militants forced him and his brother into the trunk of a stolen car, drove them away from the recreation area, and then shot them. The murder was filmed on a mobile phone and posted on an extremist website. (Wikipedia)

The militants’ goal was psychological — they wanted him to appear on camera and call on his fellow officers to quit the police and stop fighting. Instead, looking directly at the camera, Nurbagandov urged: “Keep on working, brothers” (Работайте, братья) — an act which took tremendous courage.

The militants had uploaded an edited version of the video where they cut out Nurbagandov’s last words. His defiance was suppressed — until fate intervened. Several militants from the group were killed in September 2016, and when examining the bodies, the mobile phone that had filmed the original, unedited video was found. The full footage — with his final words intact — was then released by Russian authorities. The phrase went viral on September 12, 2016, and became a nationwide sensation.

Since the publication of the unedited video, the phrase “Work, brothers!” has been heard repeatedly on Russian state radio and television, used in media, public speeches, documentary films, appeals, reports, and campaigns. It carries a layered meaning — defiance in the face of death, loyalty to colleagues, and a refusal to be used as a propaganda tool by the enemy.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 President Putin in response to Zelensky's 'desperate letter':

"To all our soldiers on the frontlines, the whole country is watching you, we are proud of you. Keep working, brothers" pic.twitter.com/jwtg43modG

— Spetsnaℤ 007 🇷🇺 (@Alex_Oloyede2) June 5, 2026

The phrase has since taken on a life beyond the counter terrorism context — used broadly in Russia as an expression of stoic perseverance and professional duty, particularly in military and law enforcement circles.

By invoking it in front of the international audience at SPIEF, Putin was making a layered statement: that Zelensky’s letter was an enemy propaganda exercise, that it deserved to be treated with the same contempt Nurbagandov showed his captors, and that the only people worth addressing are those doing the actual fighting.

Putin's visage was grim when he spoke this phrase.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/08/2026 - 02:00

Pentagon Officially Removes 180 Faiths From Military Religion List

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Department of War has formally removed 180 faiths from its official list of religious affiliation codes, leaving 31 remaining, according to a memo posted by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on June 5.

The Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on May 25, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The military had initially listed 211 faith and belief codes, but that number has been sharply reduced under the direction of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a memo signed by Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, dated May 20.

The memo states that the change was intended to "streamline the DoW [Department of War] collection of religious preferences selection for Service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy."

"The new 'Religious Affiliation Codes' list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of Service members and to provide religious support activities that align with Service members' personal faith and practices," the memo reads.

The updated list includes agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and a range of Christian denominations such as Baptist, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Seventh Day Adventist. Options of "no religion" or "other religion" are listed as well.

Parnell said that the cut in religious affiliation codes was not meant to make any judgment about the legitimacy of any faith or belief system, nor to serve as a list of "'officially approved' religions."

"Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups," he said in a post on X.

Parnell emphasized that the Pentagon remains committed to upholding service members' First Amendment rights and protecting their rights to the free exercise of religion.

"Chaplains play an instrumental role in providing spiritual care and facilitating the warfighters' ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all. With this new change, we believe we can provide the best data to support our chaplains in that effort," he said.

Hegseth first announced the planned reduction in March, saying that the previous system was "impractical" and that "many codes were never used at all." He noted that the vast majority of military personnel used only six of the religious affiliation codes.

"The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes," the Pentagon chief said in a video address posted on March 24.

"Our internal review committee recommended that going forward the department use 31 religious affiliation codes. This brings the codes in line with its original purpose - giving chaplains clear, usable information so they can minister the service members in a way that aligns with that service member's faith background and religious practice."

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 23:20

Platner Has Fundraising Surge After NYT Exposé, Which Is Bad News For Nervous Democrats

Graham Platner raised $200,000 in a single day on Friday, pulling in donations from more than 5,000 supporters, averaging $40 each. For a party trying to win back the Senate, it should be cause for celebration, but for Democrats trying to quietly push him toward the exit, it is a disaster.

The money came pouring in just hours after the New York Times published a damaging account based on interviews with several of Platner's former girlfriends. The timing made everything worse. The Times story days after Platner reportedly assured Democratic allies that nothing further would surface. The report described "unsettling" behavior, including an allegation from Lyndsey Fifield, a GOP operative, who claimed Platner bragged about having a Nazi tattoo and grabbed her by the shoulders. Platner denied any physical abuse and said he was unaware of the Nazi connection to the now-covered tattoo. The only thing he would concede to is being a bad boyfriend during a period when he was using alcohol to cope after returning from combat.

In addition to the fundraising, Platner's campaign released an internal poll from Public Policy Polling this week showing him with a 4-point lead over Collins. While that may seem like a positive development, analyst Nate Silver was skeptical, noting the results are "not super reassuring given that internal polls typically exaggerate their candidate's standing by 4 points or so." A campaign releasing its own polling in the middle of a scandal is usually a sign of pressure, not confidence.

Despite Platner’s fundraising boon, he has lost some support.

“I pulled my endorsement of Graham Platner because the information that has come to light at this point is inexcusable," liberal activist Cheyenne Hunt said on CNN.

"From comments on Reddit that excuse rape to now multiple allegations from a number of women that detail behaviors that are just grotesque, from demonstrably poor judgment to physical altercations, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, it's disqualifying for someone seeking to hold higher office, and we have to do what is right, even when it is politically and electorally inconvenient."

Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington are struggling to figure out how to handle Platner’s candidacy.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) repeatedly dodged questions about whether he supports Platner, recycling the phrase "We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate" each time reporters pressed him. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) declined to endorse Platner during an awkward CNN interview. 

The problem for Democrats is simple.

A candidate who can bank $200,000 in an afternoon, even amid allegations this serious, has little incentive to listen to nervous party leaders.

Platner told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Thursday, hours after the Times story dropped, that he had not once considered stepping aside. "No, not once," he said, when Hayes asked whether he had thought about dropping out. Earlier in the same interview, Platner tried to contextualize the allegations by framing them as a byproduct of the trauma he brought home from war. "In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol, and I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service," he said.

Democrats had mapped out a straightforward path to flipping Maine, the most important state in their plan to win control of the U.S. Senate: The race was supposed to function as a referendum on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a longtime incumbent whose brand of moderate Republicanism has always made her a target. That strategy is now in tatters. "There is dramatically higher concern about losing Maine now across the caucus than there was before the stories broke," a senior Democratic Senate aide told Politico. "Everyone realizes that without Maine, the path to taking back the Senate is impossible." The aide added, "Everyone is apoplectic."

Democratic strategist Joel Payne diagnosed the problem with uncomfortable precision. "There's no way he's going to win a referendum on himself," Payne told The Hill. "He's got to make sure that when Maine voters go to the ballot, they ask, 'Am I really comfortable with Susan Collins for another six years?'" He acknowledged the campaign had failed to keep that frame intact. "They've lost the thread on that," Payne added.

None of this appears to be moving Platner. He rallied supporters in Bar Harbor ahead of Tuesday's primary, signaling that his base remains energized even as the party apparatus quietly panics around him.

That enthusiasm is exactly what makes this such a clean trap for Democrats. They cannot force him out. They cannot openly abandon him without handing Republicans a gift. And every day he stays in the race, the question Maine voters will answer in November shifts further away from Susan Collins and closer to Graham Platner. His donors just made sure he understands he does not need the party's permission to stay. And if more damaging information comes out, and there’s every reason to believe it will, the party may be stuck with a candidate who cannot win an election critical to their strategy for flipping the Senate.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 22:45

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

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

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

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 8, 2026

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

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

Spencer Pratt took to social media:

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

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

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

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 8, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

*  *  *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

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

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

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

Los Angeles has 3rd world country elections.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

Mail-ins arriving before Election Day:

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

Mail-ins arriving after Election Day:

Raman: 37% (+17% surge)

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 7, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Alleged Scheme: A Fake "Special Access Program"

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

What Is a Special Access Program?

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

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

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

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

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

A Web of Lies: Fabricated Credentials

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tsunami Warning Issued

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

Building Collapses Reported

Footage of the major Philippines earthquake.

Originally an 8.8-9.0 now adjusted to 7.8-8.2

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

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

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

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

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 8, 2026

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

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

— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) June 8, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Korea on Monday will be a bundle of joy

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

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

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

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

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

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

... are having a very bad day. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

...for now.

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

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

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

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

But Transformers have a fatal flaw.

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

— How To AI (@HowToAI_) June 6, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTMAN COMPLETELY FLIPS AI NARRATIVE AS HE PLANS IPO

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

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

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

— Official Layoff (@LayoffAI) June 2, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sam Altman exiting Bernie Sanders' office.

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

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

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

Is there any precedent?

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

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

Will there be a backlash?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Robert Walton of UtilityDive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apache Generating Station near Cochise, Arizona;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Lot More Than Just Rates Moving Markets

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

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

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

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

Rates – A Part of the Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5 Stories FAR MORE IMPORTANT than Rates

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

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

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

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

More AI Anecdotes

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

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

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

Gambling versus Investing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bottom Line

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The farmers love me"

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

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

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

And again, promises of utopia: 

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

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

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

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

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

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

Blame The Fed

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

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

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

Thirteen dead - better than Vietnam! 

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

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

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026

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

Doing The World A Service

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

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

Indeed... 

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

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

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

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

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

Pentagon file image

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) June 6, 2026

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

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

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

Former Musk Adviser Sriram Krishnan Leaving White House AI Role

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium

Authored by Nicholas Zifcak via The Epoch Times,

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

A data center in Tennessee. Courtesy of CleanSpark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Local Impact

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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