Zero Rss

UK Adopts 'No Gain, No Loss' Tax Treatment For Crypto Lending And Liquidity Pools

Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com,

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs will treat certain disposals involving cryptoasset loans and liquidity pools as “no gain, no loss,” deferring Capital Gains Tax until a user makes an economic disposal of the underlying cryptocurrency.

The measure, published Monday, takes effect 6 April 2027 and applies to individuals and trustees who enter cryptoasset loan and liquidity pool arrangements, according to the policy paper. 

It amends the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992.

The rules cover three scenarios. In a single cryptoasset lending arrangement, a user who acquires or disposes of an interest in exchange for cryptoassets of the same type as those invested will be taxed on a no-gain-no-loss basis. 

Borrowing arrangements will treat borrowed cryptoassets as acquired at market value at the time of borrowing, with any collateral disregarded for Capital Gains Tax purposes.

For automated market-making arrangements — liquidity pools operated through smart contracts — a user acquiring an interest in exchange for the same type of cryptoasset is also taxed on a no-gain-no-loss basis. On exit, that treatment holds to the extent the user receives the same quantity first invested. Any difference between what was invested and what is received triggers a gain or a loss.

HMRC said the change aligns tax treatment with the economics of these arrangements, recognizing gains and losses only when a participant makes an economic disposal.

HMRC simplifies DeFi crypto tax rules

The measure addresses problems that arose from HMRC’s own 2022 guidance, which stakeholders said produced disproportionate administrative burdens. 

A call for evidence ran from July to August 2022, followed by a consultation between 27 April and 22 June 2023 that sought to align tax with economic substance by not treating crypto used in DeFi lending and liquidity pools as a taxable disposal. 

HMRC published a summary of responses at Budget 2025 and set out its approach at that time.

The change is expected to affect about 700,000 individuals who engage in these transactions, according to the paper. HMRC said users will benefit from a framework that is easier to understand.

The current UK regime treats crypto as an investment asset, with selling, swapping, or spending it counting as a disposal for Capital Gains Tax at 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher-rate taxpayers. The new treatment modifies that disposal rule for certain lending and liquidity pool arrangements.

Final costing will be subject to scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility and set out at a future fiscal event. HMRC said the measure is not expected to have any significant macroeconomic impact.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 04:15

EU's Russian LNG Imports Hit Record High Ahead Of 2027 Ban

Authored by Alex Kimani via OilPrice.com,

The European Union imported a record 9.97 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG)  worth €5.96 billion (~$6.82 billion) from Russia's Yamal LNG facility in the first half of 2026, marking a 16% increase compared to the same period in 2025 as they front-loaded Russian energy supplies ahead of impending phase-out bans. 

Kpler data shows that European buyers absorbed over 97% of the Siberian facility's total output during the first half of the year, despite years-long efforts to overcome dependency on Russian energy.

Overall EU imports of Russian LNG increased by 11% Y/Y during the period, while imports of Russian pipeline gas increased 7%Y/Y, according to the data.

Supply bottlenecks in the Middle East, including blockades in the Strait of Hormuz and damage to Qatari infrastructure, forced European buyers to lean heavily on readily available Arctic gas.

The EU's ban on short-term Russian LNG imports went into effect on April 25, 2026, under the REPowerEU Gas Regulation.

However, exemptions built into the regulation have allowed European buyers to maintain or even accelerate their intake of Russian gas before a complete blanket ban takes effect on January 1, 2027.

While LNG faces tighter initial phase-outs, pipeline imports from Russia under short-term legacy contracts were given until June 17, 2026 while long-term pipeline gas remains legally permitted until September 30, 2027.

France, Belgium, and Spain are the largest buyers of LNG from the Yamal facility, while Hungary is the largest buyer of pipeline gas shipments delivered via the TurkStream pipeline.

Meanwhile, Hungary and Slovakia continue to receive Russian crude via the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline as they hold official temporary exemptions from the EU's embargo on Russian seaborne oil.

A Russian airstrike damaged the pipeline in Ukraine, entirely halting oil flows to both nations for nearly three months.

Both were forced to rely on emergency reserves and alternative routes such as Croatia's Adria pipeline during the disruption.

In response, Hungary and Slovakia have agreed to construct a new 127 km pipeline exclusively to transport refined oil products between their respective major refineries.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 03:30

Where Men Outnumber Women Around The World

Why do some countries have noticeably more men than women, while others have the opposite pattern?

This map, via Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins, shows which countries have male- or female-majority populations using World Population Review data on the number of males per 100 females.

While sex ratios at birth differ only slightly, demographic forces can produce striking imbalances over time.

Countries Where There Are More Men

Of the 233 countries and territories in the dataset, men outnumber women in just 33%.

RankCountryRatio (Males per 100 females) 1🇶🇦 Qatar243.7 2🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates175.0 3🇴🇲 Oman166.5 4🇧🇭 Bahrain163.2 5🇲🇻 Maldives159.8 6🇰🇼 Kuwait156.5 7🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia152.0 8🇪🇭 Western Sahara122.0 9🇸🇨 Seychelles122.0 10🇵🇼 Palau116.2 11🇧🇹 Bhutan114.5 12🇧🇳 Brunei112.9 13🇲🇵 Northern Mariana Islands112.7 14🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea111.2 15🇬🇱 Greenland110.2 16🇲🇾 Malaysia109.5 17🇲🇹 Malta108.2 18🇸🇬 Singapore106.8 19🇫🇴 Faroe Islands106.5 20🇮🇳 India106.4 21🇯🇴 Jordan106.0 22🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea105.5 23🇮🇸 Iceland105.2 24🇹🇻 Tuvalu105.0 25🇸🇧 Solomon Islands104.6 26🇦🇩 Andorra104.4 27🇲🇭 Marshall Islands104.4 28🇩🇿 Algeria104.0 29🇨🇳 China103.6 30🇳🇷 Nauru103.5 31🇨🇻 Cape Verde103.4 32🇱🇾 Libya103.3 33🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines103.2 34🇨🇮 Ivory Coast103.2 35🇮🇷 Iran103.2 36🇳🇪 Niger103.1 37🇸🇳 Senegal103.0 38🇬🇦 Gabon102.8 39🇾🇪 Yemen102.7 40🇵🇰 Pakistan102.5 41🇳🇬 Nigeria102.5 42🇬🇺 Guam102.3 43🇦🇫 Afghanistan102.1 44🇵🇫 French Polynesia102.0 45🇪🇬 Egypt101.9 46🇺🇿 Uzbekistan101.8 47🇻🇺 Vanuatu101.8 48🇲🇱 Mali101.8 49🇹🇱 Timor-Leste101.7 50🇧🇿 Belize101.7 51🇳🇴 Norway101.7 52🇸🇪 Sweden101.6 53🇲🇦 Morocco101.6 54🇼🇸 Samoa101.6 55🇨🇾 Cyprus101.5 56🇱🇺 Luxembourg101.5 57🇦🇸 American Samoa101.5 58🇹🇬 Togo101.4 59🇸🇮 Slovenia101.4 60🇭🇳 Honduras101.3 61🇰🇲 Comoros101.1 62🇺🇸 United States101.0 63🇮🇶 Iraq101.0 64🇱🇦 Laos100.9 65🇮🇩 Indonesia100.9 66🇫🇲 Micronesia100.8 67🇰🇾 Cayman Islands100.7 68🇧🇯 Benin100.7 69🇹🇩 Chad100.6 70🇲🇬 Madagascar100.6 71🇵🇾 Paraguay100.5 72🇪🇹 Ethiopia100.4 73🇸🇾 Syria100.4 74🇸🇴 Somalia100.3 75🇧🇴 Bolivia100.3 76🇬🇩 Grenada100.3 77🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos Islands100.0 --🌐 Global Average101.2

Despite the smaller number of male-majority countries, there are roughly 42 million more men than women worldwide.

There are two main reasons for this.

• First, the Gulf states are the clearest outliers. Countries such as Qatar, the UAE, Oman, and Kuwait rely heavily on temporary migrant workers employed in construction, energy, and infrastructure, industries dominated by men. Because many of these workers arrive without their families, national gender balances become unusually skewed.

• Second, three of the world’s most populous countries, China, India, and the United States, all have more men than women. Although their ratios are less extreme, their large populations magnify the difference.

In India alone, a ratio of 106.3 men per 100 women translates into a male surplus of more than 40 million.

Countries Where There Are More Women

The largest concentration of female-majority countries is found across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Former Soviet states account for seven of the 12 countries and territories with the lowest ratios of men to women.

RankCountryRatio (Males per 100 females) 1🇭🇰 Hong Kong81.7 2🇬🇵 Guadeloupe82.4 3🇲🇶 Martinique82.8 4🇲🇩 Moldova85.1 5🇲🇴 Macau85.2 6🇲🇫 Saint Martin85.5 7🇷🇺 Russia86.4 8🇦🇲 Armenia86.5 9🇱🇻 Latvia86.8 10🇺🇦 Ukraine87.1 11🇧🇾 Belarus87.2 12🇬🇪 Georgia87.4 13🇧🇱 Saint Barthelemy88.5 14🇵🇷 Puerto Rico88.7 15🇹🇴 Tonga89.5 16🇦🇼 Aruba89.5 17🇱🇹 Lithuania89.6 18🇻🇮 United States Virgin Islands89.7 19🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands89.8 20🇷🇸 Serbia90.0 21🇷🇪 Reunion90.4 22🇸🇻 El Salvador90.5 23🇼🇫 Wallis and Futuna90.5 24🇳🇵 Nepal90.7 25🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda90.9 26🇵🇹 Portugal90.9 27🇪🇪 Estonia91.0 28🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina91.0 29🇧🇸 Bahamas91.1 30🇨🇼 Curacao91.2 31🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis91.4 32🇿🇼 Zimbabwe91.4 33🇾🇹 Mayotte92.0 34🇧🇧 Barbados92.1 35🇳🇺 Niue92.3 36🇭🇺 Hungary92.6 37🇬🇫 French Guiana92.9 38🇨🇫 Central African Republic92.9 39🇲🇪 Montenegro92.9 40🇭🇷 Croatia93.3 41🇱🇰 Sri Lanka93.7 42🇧🇬 Bulgaria93.7 43🇵🇱 Poland93.8 44🇷🇴 Romania93.9 45🇫🇷 France94.1 46🇬🇷 Greece94.1 47🇲🇽 Mexico94.1 48🇸🇽 Sint Maarten94.3 49🇺🇾 Uruguay94.3 50🇦🇮 Anguilla94.3 51🇲🇿 Mozambique94.5 52🇹🇭 Thailand94.5 53🇰🇮 Kiribati94.7 54🇿🇦 South Africa94.7 55🇬🇾 Guyana94.7 56🇲🇰 North Macedonia94.8 57🇱🇧 Lebanon94.8 58🇯🇵 Japan95.1 59🇰🇿 Kazakhstan95.1 60🇨🇰 Cook Islands95.2 61🇱🇸 Lesotho95.2 62🇸🇰 Slovakia95.3 63🇲🇼 Malawi95.4 64🇳🇦 Namibia95.4 65🇧🇲 Bermuda95.4 66🇷🇼 Rwanda95.5 67🇲🇨 Monaco95.7 68🇮🇹 Italy95.9 69🇻🇳 Vietnam96.0 70🇹🇰 Tokelau96.1 71🇰🇭 Cambodia96.3 72🇦🇿 Azerbaijan96.3 73🇪🇸 Spain96.4 74🇲🇷 Mauritania96.5 75🇫🇰 Falkland Islands96.6 76🇸🇿 Eswatini96.6 77🇹🇲 Turkmenistan96.6 78🇧🇩 Bangladesh96.7 79🇧🇷 Brazil96.7 80🇸🇸 South Sudan96.7 81🇸🇲 San Marino96.8 82🇹🇯 Tajikistan96.9 83🇳🇮 Nicaragua96.9 84🇵🇲 Saint Pierre and Miquelon97.1 85🇦🇹 Austria97.1 86🇬🇧 United Kingdom97.1 87🇱🇨 Saint Lucia97.1 88🇨🇺 Cuba97.2 89🇨🇿 Czechia97.4 90🇯🇪 Jersey97.4 91🇨🇴 Colombia97.4 92🇳🇨 New Caledonia97.4 93🇧🇪 Belgium97.5 94🇻🇪 Venezuela97.5 95🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago97.5 96🇩🇪 Germany97.6 97🇬🇬 Guernsey97.6 98🇨🇷 Costa Rica97.6 99🇹🇳 Tunisia97.6 100🇪🇷 Eritrea97.6 101🇦🇱 Albania97.7 102🇹🇼 Taiwan97.7 103🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan97.7 104🇯🇲 Jamaica97.7 105🇭🇹 Haiti97.7 106🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau97.9 107🇮🇲 Isle of Man97.9 108🇫🇮 Finland97.9 109🇮🇪 Ireland98.0 110🇦🇴 Angola98.0 111🇿🇲 Zambia98.1 112🇰🇵 North Korea98.2 113🇩🇯 Djibouti98.2 114🇸🇩 Sudan98.2 115🇬🇳 Guinea98.2 116🇹🇿 Tanzania98.4 117🇬🇹 Guatemala98.4 118🇨🇩 DR Congo98.5 119🇦🇺 Australia98.5 120🇵🇸 Palestine98.5 121🇫🇯 Fiji98.5 122🇺🇬 Uganda98.6 123🇨🇦 Canada98.6 124🇲🇸 Montserrat98.6 125🇦🇷 Argentina98.6 126🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe98.7 127🇧🇮 Burundi98.7 128🇩🇴 Dominican Republic98.8 129🇰🇪 Kenya98.8 130🇳🇱 Netherlands98.8 131🇨🇱 Chile98.8 132🇨🇭 Switzerland98.8 133🇩🇰 Denmark98.9 134🇵🇪 Peru98.9 135🇱🇮 Liechtenstein98.9 136🇳🇿 New Zealand98.9 137🇲🇲 Myanmar99.0 138🇬🇮 Gibraltar99.0 139🇬🇲 Gambia99.2 140🇲🇳 Mongolia99.2 141🇧🇼 Botswana99.2 142🇲🇺 Mauritius99.3 143🇧🇫 Burkina Faso99.3 144🇮🇱 Israel99.3 145🇨🇲 Cameroon99.3 146🇪🇨 Ecuador99.4 147🇰🇷 South Korea99.4 148🇩🇲 Dominica99.5 149🇹🇷 Turkey99.5 150🇵🇭 Philippines99.5 151🇸🇱 Sierra Leone99.5 152🇸🇷 Suriname99.7 153🇬🇭 Ghana99.7 154🇱🇷 Liberia99.8 155🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo99.9 --🌐 Global Average101.2

Russia offers one of the region’s most prominent examples. Higher male mortality, shorter male life expectancy, historical wartime losses, and alcohol-related deaths all contribute to its ratio of 86.4 men per 100 women.

Why Sex Ratios Change Over Time

Sex ratios at birth naturally favor boys by a small margin, but populations rarely maintain that balance. Migration, life expectancy, war, public health, and economic opportunity can all reshape a country’s demographic profile over decades.

As these forces evolve, the map represents a snapshot rather than a permanent reality. Countries experiencing rapid immigration, population aging, conflict, or major improvements in healthcare may see their gender balance shift substantially from one generation to the next.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 02:45

"Deport Criminals Who Steal Or Kill": Spanish Model Blasts Barcelona's Immigration Crisis

Via Remix News,

Influencer and model Jessica Goicoechea has posted a video on her social media channels in which she openly criticizes the insecurity she believes plagues Barcelona and details the personal measures she has taken to protect herself. In the clip, Goicoechea displays several security items she recently bought in Andorra, including 4 bottles of pepper sprays and a taser gun, which she describes as her "new essentials."

The video ends with a direct message: "Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona."

??? JUST IN: Spanish model Jessica Goicoechea shows off her 4 bottles of pepper spray and a Taser gun while speaking out against immigration.

"Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona," she said.

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea wrote a statement explaining that... pic.twitter.com/ATZYvfkOaX

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 13, 2026

The publication quickly sparked intense debate across social platforms. While some users criticized her for publicly showcasing self-defense weapons, many others - particularly women - expressed support and inquired about where similar products could be purchased. In response, Goicoechea stated that she is receiving "infinite messages" from women seeking ways to protect themselves. She defended her actions by saying that, given the current situation, she believes "if you don't protect yourself, no one will."

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea followed up with a written statement. She explained that she had never wanted to enter debates about safety or immigration but felt compelled to speak out because conditions have deteriorated.

"I'm never going to shut up again," she declared. The model described living in fear while walking the streets of Barcelona and highlighted what she called a daily increase in stabbings and shootings that she becomes aware of almost constantly.

In the same statement, Goicoechea emphasized that her concerns are not aimed at immigration in general but specifically at individuals who commit crimes. She pointed to recidivism, impunity, and insufficient controls on people with serious criminal records as the core issues.

"The problem is not where someone comes from, but how they behave," she maintained.

Addressing comments under her video, Goicoechea responded to one follower who linked Barcelona's rising crime to immigration by saying she "100% agrees."

?? "They started hitting me in the stomach and in the face."

A Polish model, attacked by a group of migrants in Milan, spoke to Polish media about her experience.

The attack only ended abruptly thanks to the heroics of an Italian man who intervened.

The report links the attack... pic.twitter.com/ln1Rds6mTN

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

"It all stems from political mistakes, regardless of the party's political color, due to poor immigration planning," read the comment she agreed with.

She later clarified that this agreement applied only to those who engage in criminal activity. She argued that "if you come to steal or kill, I prefer you be deported."

Goicoechea reiterated that her goal is to call for improved street safety and a firmer response to crime. "I believe that demanding safe streets and firm laws against those who come to commit crimes is essential and common sense," she concluded in the statement shared on her profiles.

????Poland is much safer than the US, says Polish-American supermodel Joanna Krupa.

She directly refers to the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was killed by a career criminal with 14 convictions.

"I certainly feel more secure in Poland than in the States."... pic.twitter.com/eCGIieS5nG

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 23, 2025

Her comments arrive amid a series of violent incidents recorded across Catalonia in recent weeks, including approximately thirty firearms-related events, many concentrated in the Barcelona metropolitan area. These have been accompanied by frequent robberies and assaults that continue to affect both local residents and tourists, often generating significant public attention.

Other European models have delivered similar messages about crime concerns in the past, including Polish-American supermodel Joanna Krupa.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 02:00

Iran War 3.0: Where Did This All Go Wrong?

Authored by Alastair Crooke

When the US Navy, in co-ordination with Qatar and Oman, tried to slip a convoy of four vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, via Omani waters, last Tuesday night – rather than pass via Iran’s officially approved route – Trump may have imagined (or been told) that with the massive funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei under way, that Iran would not react as the US Navy attempted to force open an American corridor. Trump however, misread the Iranian jibe – Hormuz is its “atomic weapon.” Iran will not relinquish it.

Trump insists – in clear contradiction to the terms set out in paragraph five of the MoU – that Iran has no right to interfere with any ship trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Iran nonetheless is acting within the terms of the agreed de-escalation framework, and has warned repeatedly that it would strike any vessel circumventing the Iranian control mechanism.

Iran responded directly to Trump’s challenge to Iranian control of the Strait by striking two vessels with missiles and a third with an armed drone. A forth Qatari-owned tanker, laden with liquefied natural gas, was set ablaze, forcing its crew to abandon the stricken vessel.

These Iranian ripostes provoked Trump to order American air strikes against Iranian targets; to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports; and to revoke the MoU framework he had signed with what he called the “Iranian scum” – thus ending the ceasefire. “We hit them hard last night,” Trump said at the NATO summit in Ankara. “We will probably hit them hard again tonight.”

Trump did hit Iran again Wednesday night – even though Iran had not attacked another vessel seeking to by-pass the Iranian corridor. In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Muwaffaq Al-Salti airbase in Jordan.

Vice-President Vance is saying to Iran, “If you try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the American military will respond. It’s that simple” – i.e. Iran either keeps the Strait fully open to all, or the US will keep hitting it, as it did on Tuesday night.

Iran insists that it is the US that has violated the MoU and (via the spokesman for Iran’s Parliamentary National Security Committee) warns that further attacks by the US on Iran will be met by a comprehensive all-out surprise offensive by Iran – and potentially by other options too, such as an Iranian withdrawal from the NPT, changing the country’s nuclear doctrine, and closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait alongside the Strait of Hormuz.

So, Vice-President Vance is saying if Iran restricts Hormuz (i.e. it stays open to friendly states’ vessels) the US will escalate. And Iran is responding to this threat by warning that it will escalate militarily – two strikes for every one American strike – and that they may also turn to new doctrines of warfare.

Essentially, Trump has plunged into an escalatory trap, seemingly in part out of pique at his collapsing polls at home. He did, however, directly put himself in this situation by trying to “act cute” during the Khamenei funeral pre-occupations in order to try to gain a “quick win.”

How long will this escalatory episode last? Certainly, it will not lead to the opening of the Strait; nor bring a return of the status quo ante that preceded the war. As long as Iran maintains its ability to exert control over Hormuz, there is no basis to assume that the situation will return to what it was.

On the contrary, and more likely, the crisis will accelerate the onset of looming global economic crisis that could last until the economic pain becomes acute, as the drawdown on sour crude continues – and as the effects on the real economy in the West become visible.

With shortages of munitions and the drawdown on air assets from the Middle East already beginning, Trump probably lacks the wherewithal to go full “Iran War 3.0.”

The timeline to this new bout of low-intensity tit-for-tat therefore, is likely dictated by refinery inventories in the US; but also by the extent of the “hurt” being experienced by Trump back home in the context of his fading political prospects, but also by his dislike for any personal humiliation.

Where did this all go wrong? Possibly the crux of it derives from the moment that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Sayyed Mojtaba, issued his statement that he had held a different view on the MoU to that of the negotiating team, but had agreed to proceed with it after receiving an assurance from the Iranian President that he would ensure and take into account Iran’s overarching principles in respect to relations with the US.

The Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei’s statement put on notice both the US – and the Iranian negotiators – that Iran’s approval of the MoU was no open mandate, but rather closely tied to the 10 principles originally enunciated by the new Supreme Leader.

At some point, the Iranian leadership seemingly came to the conclusion that Iran was being played by the US; that the MoU was a deception –

…and that the entirety of events since the announcement of the MoU reflected a US strategy based on the view that in the previous round of the war against Iran – [that the US and Israel] failed to achieve their objectives – necessitating a halt to the confrontation, albeit temporarily, in order to regroup and prepare “more thoroughly” for a new round when the right conditions arise.

This led to the Iranian reassessment that the Hormuz and Lebanon components constituted the vital leverage to engage in a new war as the West ramps up pressure as a holding strategy – whilst the US and Israel prepare for the next round of war.

The interim US strategy is no change to US-Israeli objectives, but rather an adjustment to their operational mechanisms to provide for certain compromises that Washington considers necessary (i.e. closer working with Turkey and via Erdogan to engage Syria’s Jolani) to reshuffle the Lebanon deck, and then to “assess how the cards lie,” as Vance outlined.

It is not certain that this new US policy will work. The world is changing rapidly. Their expected triumph of Israel over the Middle East has resulted in failure. Trump’s MoU ploy to open Hormuz likely will fail, too.

The connected war on Russia and the siege of China are faltering too – and Israel’s (until now unassailable) hold over the US is in question too. A senior US democrat, Rahm Emanuel, and potential 2028 US Democratic presidential candidate, spoke in Israel yesterday; he warned in no uncertain terms that Israel “has lost the world’s support, become a ‘regional pariah,’ [and that its] alliance with the US is ‘at a crossroads’.”

And finally, a “black swan” now can be observed swimming in increasingly sunlit waters – Eric Katz writing in Notus writes that, “a draft report inside the US Treasury Department is set to warn of the risks posed by the artificial intelligence market, likening key aspects of it to the dotcom bubble that upended the US economy when it burst in the early 2000s.”

Treasury analysts wrote –

Career Treasury analysts found that AI firms are more deeply entrenched in the US economy than their dotcom predecessors and pose significant risk to the entire system if financial conditions change, productivity goals are missed or various choke points stymie growth.

A downturn in the AI market would send shockwaves throughout the entire economic ecosystem.

A market downturn in the US – exacerbated by an energy crisis – could spell disaster for Trump’s midterm hopes.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 23:25

China's Mass Production Of Dual-Use Drone Engines Fuels A Global Proliferation Crisis

China's greatest military advantage may be its ability to convert its massive civilian manufacturing base into wartime production of low-cost, one-way attack drones modeled after Iran's Shahed-136.

This is especially alarming because the U.S. defense industrial base is only beginning (read here) to prepare for a transition to wartime output, even as a global drone procurement race accelerates. Nation-states are set to stockpile millions of autonomous, low-cost weapons in the years ahead.

We have already shown readers how Chinese firms appear to be ramping up production of Shahed-style drones, with open-source footage from social media increasingly pointing to expanding production capacity.

Some scary stats on China's militaro-industrail complex's capacity:
- China casts more metal products than the next nine countries combined and >5× the US.
- Its shipbuilding capacity is ~200× the US (a total-capacity figure, not per-ship speed).
- It makes ~90% of the world's… pic.twitter.com/RcxKN4SDZZ

— Léo (@LeoKharon) July 13, 2026

The latest finding centers on the drone's powerplant: the Iranian MADO MD-550 engine, which is used throughout the Shahed family and in Russia's Geran-2 variant. MD550-type engines are also being mass produced in China and widely advertised on Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba.

The problem is not that China manufactures small aviation engines; it is that commercially available, dual-use engines can be incorporated into Shahed-style drones with limited visibility into the final buyer or end use.

The United Nations has identified the Iranian MADO-550 as the engine used in the Shahed drone family, while the U.S. Treasury has said the sanctioned Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (commonly known as Mado company). 

Chinese vendors on Alibaba advertise MD550-type UAV engines in large quantities, although the listings alone do not show any connection to a Chinese state weapons program.

More importantly, the Alibaba listings are evidence of commercial availability, not proof that Beijing is deliberately supplying one-way attack drone programs. However, the listings only highlight the erosion of the boundary between civilian manufacturing and weapons production.

The real threat is that long-range strike drones can increasingly be assembled from commercially produced parts at a scale traditional export-control systems were never designed to contain. This means Shahed-style systems are likely to proliferate far beyond nation-states, spreading to proxies, criminal networks, and other threat actors.

Like this: 

• Fiber-Optic Kamikaze Drone Found In Mexico Signals New Drone Threat South Of Border

Latest evidence:

• Why Is China Advertising Insane War Drones On Facebook

The question is no longer whether these drones will reach the West, but when.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 23:00

Open Borders Are A Death Sentence To Western Nations

Authored by J.B.Shurk via AmericanThinker.com,

As simmering conflicts between Western citizens and Western governments boil over the next few years, we must never forget how we got to this point: Elected officials and irremovable bureaucrats occupying permanent administrative roles have refused to respect the wishes of the citizens whom they ostensibly represent and serve.

From the United States to the United Kingdom, citizens have demanded that their governments secure national borders and end the steady flow of illegal aliens into their communities.  From France, the Netherlands, and Germany to Australia and New Zealand, citizens have demanded that their governments arrest and remove Islamic immigrants who are guilty of rape, murder, or other violent crimes.  With the exception of President Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration law and deport illegal alien criminals (despite formidable resistance from the courts, leftist NGOs, and Establishment politicians from both the Democrat and Republican Parties) in the United States, no Western official has done anything to remedy the scourge of unlawful mass invasion in a deliberate, meaningful, and effective way.  Instead, Western governments hide from their citizens the true number of illegal immigrants living among them.  Western governments hide from their citizens a full accounting of the crimes committed by foreign nationals who should never have been permitted entry in the first place.

Mass illegal immigration is not a new problem.  In the United States, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law in 1986.  Defended by both political parties as a way of combating illegal immigration while providing long-term lawbreakers legal status, it effectively awarded millions of foreign nationals amnesty.  Politicians convinced the American people to support this trade-off: In return for citizens’ reluctantly permitting the government to reward the unlawful behavior of foreign immigrants who had no right to reside in the United States, the government would protect citizens by cracking down on future illegal immigration and punishing businesses that hired illegal immigrant workers.  The U.S. government never lived up to its side of the bargain.

Instead, U.S. officials have lied to their citizens for forty additional years.  Until President Trump entered office, U.S. borders were not secured.  Businesses were rarely punished for hiring illegal aliens.  Unbeknownst to most American citizens, State and federal welfare programs continued to add illegal aliens to their taxpayer-funded dole rolls.  School districts in both cities and small towns continued to enroll illegal alien children.  Hospital emergency rooms continued to overflow with illegal alien patients seeking “free” medical care.  American jobs — especially blue-collar jobs — continued to go to illegal aliens because employers could pay foreigners less, avoid state and federal taxes, and use the threat of deportation as exploitative leverage over their workforces.  Illegal alien workers continued to place downward pressure on hourly wages.  Illegal aliens continued to place upward pressure on the costs of housing, energy, and household necessities.  

Sometime in the ‘90s, American politicians and government bureaucrats began admitting to Americans that there were roughly eleven million illegal aliens inside the United States.  For the next thirty years, politicians and bureaucrats repeated the same “eleven million” figure as if no net-increase in immigration had occurred.  Anybody living in small-town America knew this to be a demonstrable lie.  In the nineties, local school classrooms were made up almost entirely of American kids who grew up speaking English in households whose families had been living in the United States for generations.  As each year passed, those same classrooms were increasingly filled with kids whose parents had come from all over the world, and even small school districts were forced to hire staff who could attend to the needs of an increasingly foreign student body unfamiliar with basic English.  

Former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has said repeatedly that there are more than one hundred million illegal aliens residing in the United States.  In other words, roughly one out of every three people living inside the borders of the U.S. is a foreign national unlawfully here.  If those foreign nationals are employed, then they are likely guilty of identity fraud and committing a number of additional state and federal crimes.  Of those committing identity fraud, many are using social security numbers stolen from American citizens.  Illegal aliens who steal Americans’ identities adversely affect citizens’ credit scores, tax obligations with the IRS, and background checks.  Illegal aliens who fraudulently vote by claiming to be American citizens steal votes from actual American citizens.  Foreign nationals who illegally vote in American elections deny American citizens legitimate representation and undermine Americans’ constitutional form of self-government.

In 1986, lawmakers from both parties promised an end to illegal immigration.  Instead, tens of millions of new illegal aliens have continued to arrive.  In return for grudgingly acceding to the government’s desire to provide a one-time gift of amnesty to those foreigners whose first act in the country was to break our immigration laws, Americans continued to lose jobs, pay more for everything, and be defrauded by identity theft.  Even worse, they were forced to watch as foreign cultures transformed their schools and towns.  They were forced to watch as foreigners successfully ran for political office and pushed foreign policies and beliefs upon American citizens.  

New York City has a Muslim mayor from Uganda who has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for only eight years.  Minneapolis has a Muslim member of Congress from Somalia who became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of seventeen.  Roughly 4% of Congress are foreign-born naturalized citizens, while 15% of Congress have at least one immigrant parent.  A third of the judges occupying prestigious and powerful positions on the D.C. District Courts were born in foreign nations.  

These numbers are going in one direction — up!

When President Barack Obama spoke enthusiastically about “fundamentally transforming” the United States, this is what he had in mind.  If you invite third-world communists to break into your country, pretty soon your government will be filled with third-world communists, too.  Americans were never consulted about this “fundamental transformation.”  Politicians and bureaucrats steamrolled American citizens with tall tales of foreign immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking safety in the United States.  Nobody tried to explain why all the foreigners fleeing persecution in their home countries still wave their national flags in American neighborhoods and at American sporting events.  Nobody tried to explain why foreigners from all over the world couldn’t obtain asylum in countries closer to home.  Nobody tried to explain why so many foreigners claiming asylum in the United States continue to visit their friends and families in their native countries. 

No American ever voted for this radical transformation.  No politician or government bureaucrat respected American citizens enough to seek their consent.  Nevertheless, politicians and bureaucrats continue to lie to the American people by pretending that foreign nationals are not taking over their society.  Because they despise American citizens, government officials tell obvious lies without shame.

Where is all this shameless and callous disregard for the will of American citizens headed?  It is headed toward the same dead end already appearing in other Western nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and France: Increasingly, Western peoples are electing political representatives who promise to end divisive and deadly mass immigration policies.  The more that government officials undermine their citizens’ electoral will, the more that citizens are turning to the streets to be heard.  

Peaceful forms of civil disobedience are evolving into violent altercations with police. 

Instead of listening to their citizens, Western governments call them racists and censor their online speech.  At some point, citizens will conclude that their governments have become threats to their security and way of life.  Governments will lose their legitimacy.  Western countries will become battlefields.  Open borders guarantee that Western nations will die.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 22:35

Fast Food Giant Under Investigation Over Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak: Report

Federal and state health officials are reportedly zeroing in on Taco Bell restaurants as a possible culprit in one of the biggest parasite outbreaks to slam the U.S. in years, a nasty bug that turns your guts into a nonstop disaster zone of explosive diarrhea and misery.

More than 4,000 people have already been sickened, the vast majority of them in Michigan, where victims are enduring days of gut-wrenching, bathroom-racing hell that has hospitalized at least 80 people so far.

The Washington Post reports that officials are probing whether contaminated fresh produce at the fast-food chain helped spread the Cyclospora parasite, which hitches a ride in feces-tainted veggies. No smoking gun has nailed Taco Bell or any single supplier yet, but the chain has yanked lettuce, cilantro, onions, pico de gallo, and guacamole from some Detroit-area locations after a nationwide recall notice surfaced last week.

Taco Bell insists it is playing it safe and putting customers first.

"The health and safety of our guests is our top priority," the company said in a statement obtained by the Post. "Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, so we have voluntarily pulled some items at select spots as a precaution while authorities continue their review."

Michigan is ground zero for the outbreak and is getting absolutely hammered, with a staggering 3,300-plus cases and hundreds more piling up daily as state health officials repeatedly flag leafy lettuce and salad greens as the leading suspect after interviewing more than 1,000 sick patients.

"Current results point to lettuce or salad greens as a potential source," Michigan's health department warned Monday. Meanwhile, federal officials at the CDC and FDA are being far more cautious, insisting there is no confirmed single multistate outbreak and that the numbers are not yet definitively unusual even as they log 145 cases across 17 states outside Michigan, along with 20 hospitalizations.

As we previously noted, Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite that loves hitching rides on fresh produce. Once it gets inside you it unleashes watery diarrhea, vicious cramps, vomiting, nausea, exhaustion, and fever that can drag on for days or even weeks if left untreated.

One victim, Cristy Cooper, recently spoke from her hospital bed to the New York Post about the nightmare that started June 25.

"This is worse than any flu I have ever gotten. It is just so miserable," she said. "I am worn out from it. I really am."

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 22:10

New Women's Athletics Guidelines Crack Down On 'Sexualizing' Camera Angles

Authored by Calum Patterson via Dexerto,

New broadcasting guidelines have been introduced in Europe to prevent women athletes from being sexualized through camera angles and slow-motion replays.

The European Broadcasting Union partnered with European Athletics to release new guidance for women's athletics coverage, with broadcasters urged to focus on performance and technical ability.

The guidelines warn against lingering shots of athletes' bodies, low camera angles that capture revealing views, and slow-motion replays that offer little technical or storytelling value.

"The sexualization of women athletes through selective camera angles and editing choices continues to be a significant concern across many sports broadcasts," said Glen Killane, Executive Director of EBU Sports.

"Lingering shots on bodies, low-angle cameras that capture revealing views, and excessive slow-motion replays that serve no technical or storytelling purpose are among the issues observed in the media coverage of women's athletics competitions today."

Broadcasters urged to avoid 'compromising' shots

The 23-page Raising the Bar document uses examples from real broadcasts to highlight potentially "compromising" shots across high jump, pole vault, long jump, and running events.

Broadcasters are advised to avoid tight shots from behind athletes, low cameras underneath competitors, and certain slow-motion replays. Instead, wider angles showing run-ups, take-offs, and technique are encouraged.

British Olympic pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw said some athletes have even become distracted by camera positions during competitions.

"Many athletes, myself included have been in competitive scenarios where they are more focused on the cameras instead of their own performance," she said.

Bradshaw also revealed she has received social media abuse and seen "inappropriate videos" of herself and fellow athletes created from slow-motion competition footage.

The guidelines are now available to broadcasters covering women's athletics, with the EBU saying coverage should focus on athletes' "technical ability and compelling storytelling."

Never forget. https://t.co/q5Fzz1gp6G pic.twitter.com/CPthfFWxBx

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 14, 2026 Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 21:45

Israeli Officials Try To Push US Refueling Tankers Out Of Ben Gurion Airport Amid Disruptions

Immense controversy has remained centered on Ben Gurion International Airport as dozens of giant US Air Force refueling tankers have essentially taken over the main Israeli flight hub for many months, since the start of Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Reports also say it has cost the airport hundreds of millions of dollars at this point.

The Israeli government itself seems to be divided, and there's been outrage among the general public as the presence of the American tankers has blocked and slowed regular commercial flights, leading to the recent cancelations of many passengers' tickets, but with an expected tens of thousands more cancelations to come.

On Tuesday the simmering controversy erupted again, and has even raised the possibility of introducing fresh tensions with Washington, after Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that the government will not allow more than 20 US refueling tankers to be parked at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport at any given time.

Regev specifically addressed the domestic public's concerns over air travel. "Hundreds of thousands of plane tickets were bought by Israelis to fly and enjoy their summer vacation," the official said. "We promised that we will enable commercial flights and we will not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes."

Haaretz had already by June tallied that "Some 75 U.S. refueling planes occupy more than half of Ben-Gurion Airport's parking spots and fill up takeoff and landing slots" and cites airport officials who warn: "For lack of a solution, 1.5 million passengers may have their flights canceled this summer."

Anadolu Agency

"Therefore I have given instructions that we will not allow any US refueling tankers to land at Ben Gurion Airport beyond the agreed number of 20 planes and the remaining planes will land at Air Force bases," Regev adds.

Israeli media notes that the crisis has been building:

The directive comes after the Israel Airports Authority warned that unless more US aircraft are removed from the country’s main international air gateway, as many as 50,000 flight tickets could be at risk of cancellation in the coming weeks.

The monthslong presence of US military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport amid the Iran war has been preventing a full return to normal commercial flight operations, while also driving up operational costs for local airlines.

It's a deep irony that Israelis are increasingly complaining the United States military has effectively taken over Israel's international travel hub.

Media reports have been going so far as to call Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport a "US military base" - as the prominent local newspaper Haaretz does:

The US refueling aircraft and other military assets, which have been stationed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for months, are causing congestion and may result in flight cancellations, Israeli officials and media reports have said, calling the facility a "US military base."

That prior report complained that "U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft have been stationed at Ben Gurion International Airport for three months, occupying parking spots, taking up takeoff and landing slots and worsening congestion at Israel's main international gateway since the war with Iran erupted in late February, officials say."

Again, a central irony here is that it has largely been US military assets protecting Israel the whole time, going all the way back from last year's June war, from Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The U.S. has reportedly paused the withdrawal of its aerial refueling aircraft from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.

The Times of Israel, citing the Israel Airports Authority, reports that the tankers continue to occupy parking space… pic.twitter.com/ag8FY7ETET

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 14, 2026

The Netanyahu government is perceived by many to be a prime reason the US and Iran are at war in the first place, and so the Pentagon might argue that it's only fair that Israel host its large fleet of military planes and refueling aircraft.

Iran's large retaliatory strikes on US airbases in the Gulf region during the opening weeks of the conflict essentially forced the Pentagon to move its expensive, large aerial assets much further back from the front lines of the war. Previously several parked tankers at Gulf facilities were destroyed or damaged.

It still remains unclear whether the Transportation Minister's directive is approved by Netanyahu's office. Likely all it will take is one angry phone call from President Trump and the order could be reversed.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 21:20

The Lockdown Disaster Must Not Be Forgiven

Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

Six years since “15 Days to Slow the Spread", data shows why our policies didn't work...

That policy has to have been one of the most disastrous in world history, created by “experts” who took all established pre-pandemic planning documents and tossed them out the window at the first opportunity.

It was a policy based on inaccurate reports out of China, which claimed that their lockdowns effectively stamped out transmission of Covid-19 within a matter of days.

It was a policy that ignored solid research – from established epidemiologists like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya – which found that the coronavirus had already spread much more widely than previously realized.

It must be noted forever that lockdowns and the associated mask mandates, vaccine passports, and school closures continued in some places for several years. The ramifications of those wretched policies will be quite literally endless. It’s not an exaggeration to say that lockdowns, our policies, and responses have quite literally changed the course of world history.

One would think that there would definitely be a concerted effort to understand whether such policies were effective or not. Whether approaching respiratory viruses with authoritarian crackdowns on businesses and schools was necessary to save lives.

Yet six years later, there’s unfortunately very little interest in examining those questions. And when you understand the data from Sweden, you will see exactly why.

Study on Swedish Approach to Covid Shows Lockdowns Didn’t Work

A study published in PubMed examined the Swedish approach to Covid policy, relative to its European counterparts, primarily because Sweden did not rely on lockdowns in response to the pandemic, but instead used “voluntary and sustainable mitigation recommendations,” the study says.

Despite a “majority of Swedes” supporting those policies, “this approach faced rapid and continuous criticism.”

That criticism came primarily from public health figures such as, surprise, surprise, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who criticized Sweden repeatedly for going against the herd.

“You’ve compared us to Sweden, and there are a lot of differences,” he said during a Senate Committee hearing in September 2020. “But compare Sweden’s death rate to other comparable Scandinavian countries. It’s worse. So I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare Sweden with us.”

“If you look at Sweden, they are in some trouble,” Fauci claimed on Good Morning America in late 2020. “They are starting to see that their death rate is much higher than the surrounding countries of Norway, Denmark, and Finland…They’re starting to see now that they’re having to rethink some of the things they did.”

This was, of course, not true. They did not “rethink” their strategy of light touch recommendations over lockdowns. And comparing Sweden exclusively to its neighbors is an absurd misdirection that no other country was subjected to. But Fauci, obviously never one for honesty or intellectual integrity, represented many public health figures who were anxious to see Sweden fail.

Yet as this research shows, reality was precisely the opposite.

The study explains that Sweden received criticism for “not legally enforcing mask-wearing in public spaces,” as well as keeping schools open and “being too permissive” with its policies. All the things that we were told were necessary to stop Covid and save lives. The researchers tested these statements using excess mortality data and stringency indices to compare Sweden across the whole of Europe, not just its neighbors.

They chose excess mortality because, unlike Covid specific measurements, it’s less subject to bias, differences in testing, and counting, and individual definitions of Covid-caused outcomes. It also accounts for deaths that “could potentially be indirectly attributed to the negative effects of strict lockdown measures and the overall strain on healthcare systems, leading to reduced access to healthcare for other diseases, among other factors.”

Turns out that what they discovered was that Sweden vastly outperformed the rest of Europe from 2020-2022, with outcomes that were remarkably similar to the other Nordic countries.

“Among 42 European countries, the cumulative excess all-cause mortality from January 2020 to December 2022 ranged from 46 (Luxembourg) to 1,080 (Bulgaria) deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, with a median of 351/100,000,” they write. “In Sweden, the excess mortality rate of 158/100,000 was among the lowest, ranked 37th among 42 countries, and not very different from other Nordic countries: Norway (129), Denmark (97), and Finland (228).”

So why did Sweden underperform in 2020 relative to their neighbors? Likely due, as the study explains, to “mortality displacement due to low all-cause mortality in 2019,” as well as “poorly organized older adult care structures.”

What does this mean? Essentially, there were significantly fewer deaths from all causes in Sweden in 2019, meaning there were more extremely elderly people alive in 2020 that were susceptible to severe outcomes from Covid. This is reflected in the massive age gradient with Covid-associated deaths. In Sweden, “~40% of the COVID-19-associated deaths were among patients in nursing homes,” the study says, “and 67% of all COVID-19 deaths were among individuals above 80 years of age, representing 10% of all deaths in that age group.”

For younger age groups, Covid was mostly a non-issue. “COVID-19 deaths below 50 years of age represented only 1.2% of all COVID deaths, including 21 individuals below 20 years of age, mostly with underlying co-morbidities, representing 1% of all deaths in that age group.”

Effectively, Covid ravaged extremely elderly people, while those under 50, despite the lack of mask mandates and lockdowns, saw very limited impact.

Sweden’s Lack of Lockdowns Led to Better Outcomes

Equally important, they examined the “stringency index” for countries across Europe, then made a data table comparing that stringency to excess mortality from 2020-2022. Effectively, how strict were a country’s policies, and how much did that matter to reducing excess mortality?

Turns out, there’s a definitive, resounding answer which this chart demonstrates perfectly. Countries are plotted based on their stringency index, the x-axis, and excess mortality, the y-axis. The line demonstrates the trend in mortality rates, and there’s virtually no relationship between the severity of policy and preventing excess mortality.

The R-squared, effectively the relationship between stringency index and excess mortality, is just 0.14. The closer to 1, the more related stringency is to outcomes. This is 0.14.

Countries like Italy and Spain were some of the strictest when it came to lockdowns and mandates, yet ranked near the top in excess mortality rates. The UK, Portugal, the Netherlands and others were significantly more stringent and also had demonstrably worse outcomes. Denmark was the second least strict country and had the best outcomes, at least in this examination.

What does this tell us? Well, put simply, Fauci was wrong. Sweden did not underperform relative to its neighbors. It did significantly better than the rest of Europe, and of course, the United States. Lockdowns and stringency were not related, whatsoever, to reducing excess mortality. They never mandated masks, one of his chief policy recommendations, and outperformed other countries like Germany which imposed N95-level mandates for months on end.

This is a clear repudiation of the lockdown model. Which is precisely why Sweden’s example is deliberately being ignored today.

Because learning the actual results of these historically bad policies requires humility, accountability, and honesty, all qualities that many in public health are truly incapable of possessing.

Republished from the author’s Substack

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 20:55

Meta Used AI To Lay Off Workers With Medical Conditions: Lawsuit

Twenty-six Meta employees have sued the company, alleging that AI-assisted systems used in its layoff process unfairly disadvantaged workers with disabilities, medical conditions, pregnancies, or family-care responsibilities.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Oakland, California. The employees, who are proceeding anonymously, claim Meta considered factors such as productivity scores and employees' use of AI tools when deciding which jobs to eliminate. According to the complaint, this approach penalized workers whose medical leave or caregiving obligations reduced their recorded activity.

The plaintiffs were informed in May that their employment would end beginning July 22. They are asking the court to temporarily halt the layoffs while their discrimination and retaliation claims proceed through individual arbitration.

Meta rejected the allegations.

"Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI," a company spokesperson said Tuesday, adding that the claims have no merit.

The case may be the first lawsuit against a major U.S. employer challenging the alleged use of artificial intelligence in selecting employees for layoffs.

Meta eliminated approximately 10% of its global workforce in May - nearly 8,000 positions - and had reportedly considered additional reductions. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has since said he does not anticipate further company-wide layoffs this year.

The restructuring comes as Meta significantly expands its investment in artificial intelligence and incorporates AI agents into both its products and internal operations.

The lawsuit alleges that Meta used several AI-supported systems to evaluate and rank employees for termination. These reportedly included "Metamate," an internal large-language-model assistant; an employee-trained "second brain" that monitored workplace communications and documents; and a productivity score generated by analyzing activity such as keystrokes, screen content, emails, and browsing history.

The plaintiffs argue that these systems disproportionately affected employees who had disabilities, took protected medical leave, were pregnant, or needed time away to care for relatives. They accuse Meta of violating federal and state laws prohibiting workplace discrimination and retaliation.

They also allege that Meta failed to assess its AI systems for discriminatory bias, as required under recently enacted regulations in California and New York City.

The employees are based in six states, including California and New York, as well as the District of Columbia.

Based on reporting by Daniel Wiessner for Reuters.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 20:30

Trump Gave Saudi Crown Prince Green Light For Attack On Yemen's Sanaa Airport

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

Axios reported Monday that President Trump gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) his support for an attack on Yemen ahead of Saudi Arabia’s bombing of the Sanaa International Airport, which shattered a years-long truce between Riyadh and the Houthis.

US officials told Axios reporter Barak Ravid that Riyadh sought support for the attack during conversations with US officials last week, which included a Friday conversation between Trump and MbS. The report said MbS "asked Trump for his backing for a military action against the Houthis and received it."

White House image

The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE-led war against the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, from 2015 to 2022, throughout the entire first Trump administration.

The US provided significant military and intelligence support to the Saudis, meaning the US could have provided support for Monday’s attack on the Sanaa airport.

Ravid noted that the fact that MbS sought support from Trump before launching the strike suggested he’s preparing for the potential of it leading to a wider conflict with the Houthis and that Riyadh will need US military and diplomatic support.

In response to the Saudi strikes on the Sanaa airport, Ansar Allah launched missile and drone attacks against a Saudi airport and warned aircraft to stay out of Saudi airspace until the blockade on the Sanaa airport is lifted.

The Saudis bombed the Sanaa airport to prevent the landing of a flight from Iran that was carrying a Yemeni delegation that attended the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. After the strikes, the plane was able to land in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

The tensions began when a plane from Iran picked up the delegation from Sanaa earlier in the month, marking the first known Iranian flight to the airport in more than 10 years, as the Saudis have maintained a partial blockade on the airport despite the 2022 ceasefire.

The moment Saudi airstrikes hit Sana’a International Airport. pic.twitter.com/syYhcpz7SK

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) July 13, 2026

Yemeni officials are warning that the next move could be the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

“If the current situation aggravates, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz will be closed in an operational alliance. Oil prices would then skyrocket to $200 a barrel in a dreadful shock,” said Mohammed al-Farah, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 20:05

Great Rewiring: US Supports Iraq-Syria Oil Pipeline To Erode Tehran's Hormuz Leverage

President Trump's naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is set to take effect Tuesday at around 1600 ET, after Iran attacked several commercial vessels, declared the waterway "closed until further notice," and exchanged multiple rounds of missiles and suicide drones with US forces.

Yet, unlike the opening phase of the U.S.-Iran conflict, Hormuz remains partially open as Tehran's leverage continues to erode.

At the same time, there is a growing sense of urgency among U.S.-allied Gulf states to launch a generational infrastructure buildout - from new pipelines to coastal ports - designed to reduce their exposure to the maritime chokepoint and bypass Hormuz altogether.

Bloomberg reports that the US is backing talks to revive an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast, creating an export route that would entirely bypass the Hormuz chokepoint and, in turn, reduce Tehran's leverage over shipping traffic.

US envoy Thomas Barrack has held talks with high-level Iraqi and Syrian officials and companies, including Chevron. The discussions also focused on rebuilding the long-idled Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline.

Other options include a new pipeline from Basra to Haditha, with branches extending toward Syria, Turkey, or Jordan.

The report continued:

A State Department official confirmed the US government is supporting efforts by Iraq and Syria to enhance trade routes through rehabilitating the pipeline between the two countries and expects American companies to play a role in its construction.

Earlier Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi at the White House and said "massive" new oil partnerships will be announced this or next week.

Either reviving the old pipeline or building a new one would help Iraq diversify away from the uncertain Hormuz chokepoint that forced it early in the conflict to shutter oil production by 60%. Baniyas, home to Syria's largest refinery, is emerging as a potential energy export hub, with Chevron, TotalEnergies, TI Capital, and UCC Holding involved in discussions.

Less than a week into the U.S.-Iran conflict, specifically on March 3, we began to see the writing on the wall...

Surprising Fujairah is not a bigger oil terminal: it bypasses the straits completely.

Expect major infrastructure push here after the war. https://t.co/Do1gK7KBDQ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 3, 2026

On Monday, the Financial Times reported that Dubai's state-owned ports and logistics giant, DP World, is planning to bypass the critical waterway with a new container port on the UAE's east coast in Fujairah.

We have detailed how U.S.-aligned Gulf states are increasingly making plans to rejigger energy and container supply chains away from the Hormuz area. This will only accelerate the erosion of Tehran's geopolitical leverage over the chokepoint.

Read the report here.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 19:40

Why Digital ID Is The Hill To Die On: The Authentication Layer

Authored by Joshua Stylman via Substack,

A friend and I got into it recently. He’s smart, freedom-minded, and totally gets the danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Expiring money, programmable control, carbon budgets - he sees most of the expanding tyranny clearly. And yet he dismisses Digital ID as a distraction. When I try to make the case that digital ID is the gateway to the gulag in the metaverse, he demands I name ONE thing Digital ID gives the government that they can’t already do.

My answer: it enables CBDC.

Of course, governments have already encroached on our privacy and freedoms in ways our forefathers couldn’t have imagined. But even with the creeping surveillance state, the government can’t fully implement programmable currency without authenticated identity on every transaction. They’re components of the same beast. Digital ID is the authentication layer while CBDC is the currency that runs on top of it.

Stop Digital ID and you prevent CBDC from being built at any scale that matters.

The institutions driving this, the usual suspects including the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the United Nations, are quite explicit about their intentions. Their own documentation spells it out: digital identity is a requirement for centralized digital currency. And in case the documents aren’t clear enough, Agustín Carstens, the former GM of the BIS couldn’t have been more explicit about their goals:

“A key difference with the CBDC is that central banks will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that.”

Perhaps we should take these institutions at their word?

When Enforcement Goes on Autopilot

What my friend is missing isn’t really about capability. The game has never been about what the government can do. It’s about the cost of doing it.

Right now, controlling what you buy, where you go, what you read - all of that requires boots on the ground. Investigations, warrants, real people making decisions. The friction is the protection.

Digital ID eliminates that friction entirely. What was once selective tyranny becomes universal tyranny. Code restricts transactions based on compliance status. No human oversight required.

Here’s an easy way to think about it: police can break into your home right now. Most people don’t lose sleep over that. Would they feel the same about automated drones entering every home simultaneously based on AI-triggered criteria? The capability itself isn’t the threat… the automation at scale is.

And for anyone thinking “the government already has my Social Security number and my phone tracks my GPS” - you’re missing the difference. Right now those systems are siloed - your bank doesn’t know what your doctor said, your DMV doesn’t know your browser history, etc. Digital ID is the interoperability layer - one key someone else controls - and can revoke. Five keys for five doors means losing one is manageable. One master key for everything means someone else decides whether you get in at all.

In 2021, getting into my own taproom legally required a vaccine card. New York City had rolled out some half-baked digital pass, but for the most part it was still paper back then. Still, it was obvious where this was headed. When I started warning friends, co-workers, the guy in the coffee shop - really, anyone who’d listen - that this was a dry run for digital identity infrastructure, that the compliance checkpoint they’d just accepted would eventually become programmable and permanent, most thought I was insane.

After getting tired of long emails and late-night rants, I started publicly documenting what I thought was coming. It was painfully obvious that centralized digital money meant rations, expiring savings, compliance-based access to daily life. A sort of digital cage. A few people in my life perked up, but most still scoffed.

Fast forward a few years and what’s being rolled out right now is exactly what I described - except ultimately, this system won’t just cover vaccines, it will define and govern all acceptable behavior.

So when I hear smart people wave away Digital ID because “the government can already track you,” it’s maddening. You're stuck on what they can already do. They're building something entirely new. It’s like watching speed cameras being installed on every block and saying “well, they could already give me a ticket.” Sure, one decision at a time. Now imagine no human involved on any blocks, ever. The marginal cost drops to zero and the decision isn’t made by a person but by a line of code.

That’s a profoundly different category of power entirely. And after what we all lived through in 2021 - watching our neighbors accept a digital pass as the price of participation without blinking - we saw the compliance muscle is already trained. Covid was the Milgram experiment, the Stanford Prison experiment, and the Asch conformity test rolled into one and our species failed all three. The only thing missing then was the infrastructure at societal scale.

Photo Credit

The Cover Story May Change. The Agenda Doesn’t.

Most Americans assume they’re exempt from this kind of thing. A few years ago, the majority of people I knew had no idea there were massive protests happening all over the world. It was partly because our media couldn’t be bothered to cover it, but also because we’re that insulated. And maybe that’s by design - because America was built on individual liberty in a way most countries weren’t, and that cultural resistance is exactly why they’re normalizing the infrastructure everywhere else first, then importing it here as “international best practice.” And we’ll sleepwalk right into it.

Make no mistake: if America accepts the authentication layer, the rest of the world loses its last permission structure to resist.

Not to beat a dead horse, but we watched a trial run during Covid.

That’s why paying attention to what’s happening abroad isn’t paranoid, it may give us signal for what’s coming.

The UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 mandates age verification for social media platforms using “ID checks, AI, or age assurance technologies.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer is fast-tracking implementation - writing clauses into the children’s wellbeing bill to “enforce a ban quickly.” Leaked Cabinet Office meetings revealed ministers discussing Digital ID for every baby at birth registration. A parliamentary petition against mandatory Digital ID gathered nearly 3 million signatures. They’re building it anyway. Just a few days ago, Apple rolled out age verification for all UK users - ID scans or credit card checks to access certain features.

Brits tried to route around it with VPNs: usage more than doubled - from 650,000 daily users to over 1.4 million, according to a UK government report. The government’s response? Not to reconsider the ruling but to start discussing restrictions on VPNs. The ratchet only turns one way. Mandate identity verification. When people evade it, they restrict the evasion tools. Each “solution” requires more control.

One of my best friends, a police sergeant who lost his job after 24 years without missing a single day (the Cal Ripken of the NYPD), for refusing to comply with vax mandates - told me years ago that whenever we’re being told something is being done for our safety, alarm bells should ring. He was right. Remember “nobody’s safe until everybody’s safe”?

The cover story is always about protection. Protect the children, protect women from online misogyny. Lately it’s been all about protecting us from antisemitism and protecting us from Islamophobia. Scroll the news on any given day and both are being amplified in the same cycle.

It should go without saying - my intention isn’t to diminish anyone’s real feelings. Just last week I wrote about this at length in The Enemy Is Not Each Other. The fear is real, and the people experiencing it aren’t wrong to feel it. My argument is that the infrastructure being built to address those feelings is the cage. Every emotional trigger - real or not - becomes the justification for another identity checkpoint.

Australia passed its own age verification law. Kids are already bypassing it with fake birthdays and unregulated apps. Of course, this law won’t protect kids in any meaningful way, but it sure does build a new gatekeeper.

In Africa, Gates Foundation-funded biometric ID systems are rolling out under the banner of financial inclusion. The cover story changes by region - in this case, aid vs. protection. TikTok requires a government ID in Europe. Discord requires facial age estimation globally. As Fenigson put it: “It’s exactly the same. The only difference is that in the West, they just have to make more excuses so that people can swallow it easily.”

And America?

California signed AB 1043 into law - effective January 1, 2027, every operating system provider in the state must implement age verification. Not a bill. Signed law. Operating System-level identity verification baked into every device.

And that’s exactly what Mark Zuckerberg proposed under oath during his congressional testimony on child safety. His “fix” was astonishing: have Apple and Google verify the identity of every smartphone user at the OS level, for every app. “Doing it at the level of the phone is just a lot cleaner,” he said. In plain terms: he deflects Meta’s legal liability while two companies already under antitrust scrutiny get deputized as identity gatekeepers for the entire internet.

Congress is writing the laws, while the tech CEOs are designing the system. Worth noting: just last week, a jury found Meta - and YouTube - negligent for harm to children in a landmark lawsuit, and in a separate case, Meta was ordered to pay $375 million for misleading users on child safety. So, the company that just lost two massive lawsuits for harming kids is now advising Congress on how to build the identity infrastructure for the entire internet. What could go wrong?

A bipartisan “Kids on Social Media Act” is moving through Congress. Florida introduced an App Store accountability bill that would force Apple and Google to verify the ages of all users and collect identifying data.

As Derrick Broze pointed out, the White House’s own National Policy Framework for AI, released in March 2026, leads with “Protecting Children” and calls on Congress to establish age-assurance requirements for AI platforms. The language is soft. The infrastructure it enables is the same. This isn’t a partisan project. Both “sides” are building it.

And in March 2026, more than 400 computer scientists from around the world signed an open letter warning that age-verification mandates enable censorship, centralized power, and loss of privacy - and that the systems could cause more harm than good. They’re describing the authentication layer. They just don’t call it that.

It's Not Just Governments

You actually don’t need government mandates when corporations normalize biometric collection on their own. And increasingly, you don’t need to choose - the mandates are converging with initiatives from Big Tech and Big Banking, all built on the same infrastructure.

I’ve been making this point to friends who have insisted CBDC was off the table once the President said he wouldn’t build it. Sure, the US government might not - but what about JPMorgan Chase? Through public-private partnerships, private institutions can be steered into building the exact infrastructure the government just promised not to touch. What’s the word for that again?

In November 2025, Apple launched Digital ID in Apple Wallet enabling the ability for people to scan their passports, take selfies, complete “facial and head movements” for verification - and then their identities live on their phone. It has TSA acceptance at 250+ airports and can be used as driver’s licenses in 12 states and growing. Apple’s press release promises “additional Digital ID acceptance use cases to come in the future.” The scope is unlimited by design.

Recently, Discord announced “teen-by-default settings” rolling out globally to its 200 million users. To access age-restricted content or modify safety settings, users must complete “age assurance” - facial age estimation or government ID submission, of course. Discord launched this in the UK and Australia first, delayed the global rollout after backlash - not because they reconsidered their plan, but because users pushed back on implementation. It’s still coming, even if the timeline shifted.

The framing is always the same:

Apple: “security and privacy.” Discord: “teen safety.” Zuckerberg: “protecting kids.”

I’ve watched this play out in my own life. Friends who laughed at the idea of a social credit score in 2020 are now paying for Clear and TSA PreCheck - voluntarily handing over biometrics for the privilege of skipping a line. I don’t recall a public discussion about the ethical ramifications of this. It just became normal. That’s the compliance muscle doing its job.

And here’s the punchline: the databases don’t stay separate. They get sold, merged, subpoenaed, hacked. Discord’s age verification system already leaked 70,000 government IDs in a single breach. Unlike a password, you can’t reset your face. Once the infrastructure exists, there’s no doubt “if” it will connect to government systems - just “when.”

I’d argue there may be a second motive here that nobody in Congress bothered to examine during Zuckerberg’s testimony. As a student of online advertising for 30 years, I find this one fascinating: In a move that actually helped users for once, Apple blocked third-party tracking, letting users opt out of being followed across apps - which most did. Advertisers have been flying blind ever since, operating on educated guesses about who you are. Remember, Zuckerberg’s proposal puts identity verification right back at that same OS-level.

Identity verification at the operating system level fixes the ad industry’s problem overnight. Your real identity, confirmed at the device level, is attached to everything you do on the device. That means every data broker, every advertiser, every platform that currently operates on probabilistic identity matching gets handed a verified identity graph - courtesy of federal law. Lovely.

Zuck is hardly proposing a solution to surveillance capitalism... he’s proposing its next infrastructure upgrade. The kicker is that he’s asking Congress to mandate it.

And for anyone who thinks there’s a freedom-friendly version of this, look at Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, now rebranded as “World.” As an aside, I can’t think of a better name for this character than Alt-Man.

Worldcoin’s pitch is “Proof of Human” - a decentralized, privacy-preserving answer to AI-generated fakes. Legendary tech investor Marc Andreessen is endorsing it. On paper, it could even sound libertarian. The mechanism is iris scanning. You stare into a corporate-owned orb, it captures your biometric data, and you get a cryptographic ID that proves you’re human. They say the image isn’t stored - just a mathematical hash. But a unique identifier derived from your body is a biometric, regardless of what format it’s saved in.

Thirty-three million people have already scanned. The app now stores government-issued IDs too. And the recruitment started in the Global South - the same places MOSIP (a Gates Foundation-funded digital ID platform) is being installed. The entry point is AI safety. The infrastructure is the same.

But Who’s Building It?

Anyone in my orbit knows I’ve been yelling about the danger of CBDC for the last few years. Once they understood the components - programmable money, expiration dates on savings, control over what you buy and when - some people got it right away. But, most just brushed it off. As per usual, convenience for privacy. No big deal.

Now you’ve seen the infrastructure being installed across every continent and every sector. But who designed this? Gee, I wonder.

A few months ago, Bill Gates went on camera and told us. The stack: digital identity systems combined with digital financial switches. He named the components - MOSIP for identity, Mojaloop for payments. Called them both “necessary tools” for the future they’re building. Not two separate things. One integrated system.

Perhaps most disturbingly, the blueprint for this plan predates the crisis that normalized it. Texts from the recently released Epstein files show private discussions about digital identity infrastructure going back to as early as 2017. The correspondent? Dr. Melanie Walker - neurotechnology adviser to Gates, World Bank director, Gates Foundation deputy director, WHO adviser, and co-chair of the WEF’s Global Future Council on Neurotechnology. She was texting Jeffrey Epstein about creating “a new type of social security number, used for all types of identity, with health as a single use case.” Sayer Ji has documented the full DARPA connection in detail.

The strategy: “Start with health.” The vision: “The magic is to make all the systems communicate.”

In those same texts, Walker mentions that DARPA’s Geoff Ling and Raj Shah (USAID, now Rockefeller) both recommended her for Surgeon General. She tells Epstein that the heads of MGH, Cleveland Clinic, Hopkins, and Mayo are “all working together” - and that she told them about him. Epstein’s response? “Are they doing digital idea already? Do they have a lead or a strategy?”

This was 2017. Three years before vaccine passports made ‘showing your papers’ a daily reality for billions. The plan being deployed now was being privately discussed by people embedded in the Gates, World Bank, and DARPA networks years before any public health crisis made it politically viable.

Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, published their framework for global digital platform regulation in January 2024. Whitney Webb has documented how the WEF’s Partnership Against Cybercrime pushes the same framework from the cybersecurity angle - tying every person’s internet access to a digital ID. The logic is simple: manufacture consent through crisis. The entry points consistently multiply and the destination never changes, no matter who is in power.

Remember what I said about international best practices? Well, the White House is promoting the SAVE Act - framed as election security - by pointing to India and Brazil’s biometric voter databases as the standard America should meet. Naturally, the bill lists REAL ID as the first accepted proof of citizenship. The entry point here may be voting, however, the infrastructure remains the same.

Hiding In Plain Sight

Christine Lagarde announced the European Central Bank’s timeline: pilot in 2027, full rollout by 2029. That’s not speculation, it’s their stated plan. And it’s not some long-term dystopian vision - we’re at the crossroads right now.

She’s not hiding the model. As Efrat Fenigson noted: “Christine Lagarde and the ECB say that China is the blueprint for their digital euro. They’re copying the ECNY, the Chinese central bank digital currency.” And what does China’s system require? Authenticated identity on every transaction. The blueprint is the authentication layer. It always was.

The West used to be the antidote. Now it’s copying the surveillance state’s homework.

There is no CBDC without Digital ID - not at any meaningful scale, not with enforcement features, not as a system of control. Every transaction requires authenticated identity. Every rule requires someone to apply it to. The authentication layer isn’t a convenience feature - it’s the control mechanism.

And yes, theoretically privacy-preserving alternatives exist. But stuff like zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized ID aren't what's being built, funded, or legislated. In fact, quite the opposite. What's being rolled out is centralized, biometric, and state-adjacent.

Once built, it doesn’t get unbuilt. When in human history have those in power gained a capability and voluntarily given it back?

Anyone who has been paying attention over the last few years understands what I’m outlining isn’t science fiction. Canada famously froze bank accounts of truckers who protested vaccine mandates, as well as those who donated to their cause. China’s social credit system already restricts travel for people with low scores. PayPal published a policy allowing fines for “misinformation” - at their sole discretion - and only retracted it after backlash, claiming it was an error. The fine mechanism for intolerance stayed, naturally.

Those were manual, clumsy, one-off interventions that required human decisions, but imagine all of that happening automatically, instantly, attached to everything - your electric car, your kid’s ability to go to school, even your ability to buy a morning coffee.

Nobody targets you, nobody makes a decision, the transaction just doesn’t go through.

And there’s no one to appeal to, because there was no person involved in the first place.

If you want to see what the full stack looks like deployed on cleared ground with no legacy systems, there’s already a working model. The Substack writer esc - for my money, one of the more important voices around right now - has been documenting Gaza’s reconstruction in extraordinary detail. The GREAT Trust plan issues digital tokens to Palestinian landowners in exchange for land rights - ownership converted into conditional access on a programmable ledger. Kushner presented AI-powered smart cities at Davos: six to eight planned cities where, according to the trust’s own slides, all services and economy will be run through ID-based AI-powered digital systems. E-wallets have already been distributed to over 245,000 recipients - before the reconstruction has even formally begun. No cash. No anonymity. No interaction outside the system.

The architecture I’m describing in this essay isn’t theoretical. Gaza appears to be the laboratory. Unless it’s stopped, I suspect we can expect strategic deployment all over the world in the coming months and years.

What You Can Do

The system requires your participation to work. The catch is that this may also be its biggest weakness. It only becomes a cage when adoption is near-universal. In other words, when opting out means you can’t participate in daily life. When cash still works, and analog alternatives survive, resistance may be inconvenient but still livable. That’s why they need you to volunteer.

Don’t give it.

Use your passport to fly, pay cash wherever you can. Most importantly resist Real ID compliance at all costs. They’re trying to eliminate friction so the more we can slow them down by adding it, the harder their plan becomes to implement.

For the detailed practical playbook - how to navigate banking, travel, and daily life outside the system - I’d point you to the work Catherine Austin Fitts and the Solari team have been doing for years. They’ve been busy mapping the resistance infrastructure while most normies are still debating whether any of this was real.

If we value the ability to live outside the reach of a technocratic government - one that takes elements of cancel culture, ESG, and surveillance and parlays them into a programmable monetary system controlled by the state - this is the hill to die on. Not because we’ll win every battle after - I’m pretty sure we won’t. However, losing this one makes everything else exponentially harder. Once the authentication layer is everywhere, every other control mechanism merely becomes a software update.

The cage isn’t locked. Not yet.

My friend still thinks Digital ID is a distraction. I’m not sure I’ve convinced him yet. But I’m also not sure he’ll have the luxury of being wrong about this much longer.

Don’t help them build it.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 19:15

Jack Smith's Team Spied On 44 Lawmakers' Texts, Built A Case On Them, And Misled Congress: Grassley

Former special counsel Jack Smith's investigators blew past the Justice Department's own privilege safeguards to directly access text messages between Trump White House officials and 44 members of Congress - then had the FBI match the phone numbers to lawmakers' names, according to DOJ records released Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a letter accompanying the records that Smith's team "bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages." The FBI then worked out which senators and House members had sent or received them, Davis wrote.

The filter unit existed for one purpose: to screen messages pulled from the National Archives for privileged material before line investigators ever laid eyes on them.

"All communication to/from the Filter Team must go through the Coordinator," one internal protocol document states - adding that nothing was to reach the investigative team without a filter attorney's sign-off.

The messages, sent between October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021, ran between a bipartisan roster of lawmakers and Trump White House figures including chief of staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, now-CIA Director John Ratcliffe and now-FBI Director Kash Patel, the records show.

I received records frm DOJ confirming Jack Smith's investigative team reviewed the contents of text msgs sent by 44 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Im 1 of the 44

Im alerting my colleagues who were impacted and will release the records w Sen Johnson so American ppl can see the evidence

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 14, 2026

Among the 44 lawmakers: Grassley himself, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.); House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.); Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.); Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; then-Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), now mayor of Los Angeles; and then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), now head of the EPA.

An internal DOJ email dated Aug. 21, 2023, shows Smith's team discussing "54 excel files with text messages from White House phones" being loaded into a shared drive - material gathered under the codenames "Project Coconut," the election-interference probe, and "Project Cranberry," the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

"Jack Smith's criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes," Grassley said Tuesday, charging that investigators reviewed messages from dozens of lawmakers "outside the scope of the government's investigation" - and that Smith's team "ran roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) called the disclosure "yet another grotesque example" of the Biden-era Justice Department's weaponization, saying no one should be shocked by Smith's "recklessness and blatant abuse of power."

'Just toll records'

The records land squarely on testimony Smith gave under oath seven months ago.

At his Dec. 17 deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, Smith repeatedly assured lawmakers that his office's reach into Congress stopped at "toll records" - bare logs of who called whom, and when.

"Did you seek a search warrant for the content of any text messages from Members?" a committee lawyer asked.

"No, I don't recall that," Smith answered.

"It was just toll records?"

"Correct."

Asked separately whether the toll records his office obtained from members of Congress included "the content of text messages," Smith answered flatly: "No."

Jack Smith explicitly denied under oath during his House Judiciary deposition last December that he reviewed text messages from members of Congress:

Q: "Did the records that you requested from the Member of Congress include the content of text messages?"

Smith: "No." https://t.co/XLb9lyFXSP pic.twitter.com/jBDSAYYQzD

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 14, 2026

Strictly speaking, those questions concerned records sought directly from lawmakers and their phone carriers - not the White House data Smith's office already held. But nowhere in the 255-page deposition did Smith volunteer that his investigators possessed - and, per the Davis letter, had directly accessed - the actual contents of members' messages, harvested from the other side of the conversation. The committee, unaware of the National Archives trove, never asked.

A review of the transcript also found Smith sharpened his sworn answers after the fact. In an errata sheet correcting the record, Smith revised his response on whether any other lawmaker's phone had been seized from "I don't know" to a definitive "I don't -- no." Another correction strikes the word "text" from his reference to "text records" that could prove certain Jan. 6 calls happened - leaving just "records."

Either way, the 'perjury' word is being tossed around now...

Looks like perjury https://t.co/WzUTnqGati

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 14, 2026

Roughly 30 pages of the transcript released by the committee - including the page carrying Smith's "just toll records" exchange - were inserted as images rather than searchable text, meaning keyword searches of the document skip past them. The committee did not respond to questions about the formatting.

Months of warnings

Tuesday's release caps a months-long drip of Arctic Frost disclosures: 197 subpoenas touching more than 430 Republican individuals and groups; toll records for at least 11 senators and six House members, all shielded by court-approved gag orders; and internal emails showing prosecutors were warned that congressional subpoenas could violate the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause.

In one email released this spring, a member of Smith's team wrote that the office was about to "fire off subpoenas for so many members tolls" that Smith himself should be looped in first.

Smith has insisted the phone-records furor is overblown. "Recent narratives about my team's work are false and misleading," he told the committee in his opening statement, stressing that toll records "do not include the content of calls." His attorneys have previously called the collection lawful - noting that special counsel Robert Hur obtained President Biden's toll records, and that the Justice Department under Trump's first term seized phone records of Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, along with those of dozens of congressional staffers.

"Jack Smith has answering to do," Grassley said, vowing to haul the former special counsel before the Senate Judiciary Committee "in the coming months."

December 2025: Jack Smith swore under oath that he didn't spy on text messages belonging to members of Congress.

Today: New evidence confirms he spied on dozens of members of Congress, myself included.

This is a blatant abuse of power, and exactly what our Founders warned… pic.twitter.com/3eqwiylLXI

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 14, 2026 Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:50

Rubio Invites Countries To Summit Addressing "Underestimated Threat" From Far-Left Terrorism

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is will meet with delegations from scores of countries this week for a summit focused on the neglected threat posed by “the resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.”

ABC News reports that a note shared with foreign governments describes the concept of the meeting as addressing a threat that “has remained a blind spot in the international community’s counterterrorism focus, underestimated and under-resourced, despite the danger it poses.”

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told Newsmax that the Trump administration is taking seriously the gaps that have persisted for decades in counterterrorism strategy.

The United States is taking the resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism incredibly seriously. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are addressing gaps in our counterterrorism strategy that have been largely ignored by previous administrations. pic.twitter.com/fm0AXscLTT

— Tommy Pigott (@statedeptspox) July 13, 2026

The conference seeks to combat international organizations, specifically the decentralized antifa movement, which the administration has formally designated as a domestic terrorist organization.

Law enforcement and counterterrorism experts have exposed a “clear trend” of “globally networked, politically-motivated terrorists — particularly far-left terrorists” increasingly turning to “organized, deadly violence to advance their political objectives.”

The gathering will include senior ministers from over 60 countries — including nations across Europe, Latin America, Asia, as well as India and Israel—to discuss intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation.

The meeting, scheduled to take place in Washington on Thursday, will lay the foundation for “coordinated action” to counter international organizations that are “seeking to implement an extreme political vision through intimidation and coordinated campaigns of terror” according to ABC News.

The initiative aligns with a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy released in May 2026 that prioritizes “violent secular political groups” alongside traditional threats.

Some allies and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other critics have accused the administration of utilizing counterterrorism authorities to target politically opposed but peaceful activists and donors, according to ABC News.

🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Sec. of State Marco Rubio in the coming days will converge a swath of allies to DECIMATE Antifa and communist-linked terrorists across the world

ANY rioter or agitator waving Antifa flags should be arrested on the spot, because they are supporting terrorists! pic.twitter.com/le736pigYJ

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 12, 2026

The State Department has clarified that the terrorist designations are aimed at groups that are “engaged in violent terrorist activities such as kidnapping, targeting U.S. law enforcement, targeting the civilian population.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:25

New York's Millionaire Exodus Is Costing Billions In Lost Revenue

Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood outside Ken Griffin's $238 million Manhattan penthouse in April and declared victory. "When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we're taxing the rich," he said in a social media video marking the debut of New York City's first pied-à-terre tax, an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live in the city full time. He promised the tax would raise "at least $500 million directly for the city," money he said would fund free child care, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods. "This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers," Mamdani said. "Now it's coming to an end."

BREAKING: Mamdani announces new tax on all property worth over $5 million if the owner doesn’t live in NYC full time pic.twitter.com/qN7pU3xEDg

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 15, 2026

Three months later, a new study suggests the mayor picked an odd moment to celebrate.

The Citizen Budget Commission published an analysis Monday, finding that New York's shrinking share of the nation's millionaires cost the state an estimated $10.7 billion in lost personal income tax revenue in 2022 alone. New York's share of the country's millionaires fell from 12.7 percent in 2010 to 8.7 percent in 2022, the steepest decline of any state over that period. Had New York simply held its 2010 share, the Commission concluded, the state would have collected roughly $10.7 billion more in personal income tax that year.

So Mamdani, who took office in January, had inherited a tax base already showing signs of flight. His pied-à-terre push targets exactly the kind of high earners the CBC says have been leaving in growing numbers, and critics view the timing as more provocation than plan. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, has stopped short of backing an outright tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers this year, though she supports the pied-à-terre concept for luxury second homes in the city.

"In New York, the top 1% of earners pay about 45% of all state income taxes in any given year, so New York's revenue is very reliant on high earners to stay in New York, and that has been a challenge in recent years," said Jared Walczak, an economist and senior fellow at the Tax Foundation think tank, told the New York Post.

Walczak said city-level measures like Mamdani's cannot fix the underlying problem, since any meaningful tax change requires action in Albany. He also warned that continued hikes combined with more competitive alternatives elsewhere could accelerate departures.

Abir Mandel, senior state policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, said New York currently ranks last in the nation for tax competitiveness. She pointed to Elon Musk relocating his companies from California to Texas as the kind of decision New York risks inviting without reform, cautioning that the state will otherwise struggle to attract both population and business. Of Wall Street's outsized role in propping up state revenue, Mandel offered a blunt assessment. "Wall Street is the golden goose," she said. "But for how long?"

The CBC report traces the stagnation back well before Mamdani ever took office. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised income taxes on high earners during the COVID pandemic, and Hochul now oversees Medicaid spending, which is on pace to reach $58 billion by the end of the decade. Ken Girardin, a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute, pointed to the state's 2019 rent-control overhaul and its green-energy mandate as a one-two punch that reduced housing supply and raised energy costs. "Albany is directly responsible for the stagnation," he said.

New York has lost more residents to every other state than it has gained from any of them, with Florida and Texas among the top destinations for departing New Yorkers, and that's a huge problem.

Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United, called the study's findings hard to ignore. "It's difficult to not be alarmed by this data," he said. "With this CBC tool, Upstate New Yorkers can see for themselves the devastating impacts of Albany's policies - businesses failing to grow, population decline, and the loss of revenue. NYS needs to course correct now before it's too late and we become permanently entrenched in a cycle of fewer people."

Asked about the study on Monday during an unrelated event, Mamdani dismissed concerns that higher earners will flee the city, arguing that New York gained millionaires after past tax increases by Albany. He defended his broader philosophy without addressing the CBC's specific findings. "I've been very clear about the fact that we live in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and it's unacceptable that one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty, and I believe that the wealthiest can do a little bit more to ensure that everyone can afford to live here," he said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:00

Rubio Pledges To Dismantle International Criminal Court's Threat To US Sovereignty

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

The State Department is launching a campaign to “dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty,” the department said, including through disabling the court’s ability to target American servicemen or officials.

The State Department said in a July 13 statement that actions under consideration include U.S. officials contacting foreign nations to highlight the ICC’s abuses and the risk posed to other countries by the court, and urging them to withdraw from the body.

The Trump administration is also considering revoking visas and imposing travel bans on ICC personnel, imposing increased sanctions against the ICC and its affiliates, and increasing pressure on nations that refuse to reject ICC rulings while still relying on U.S. assistance.

“No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans,” the department said.

The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, asserting its jurisdiction if a member of the ICC is unable or unwilling to undertake prosecutions itself.

The United States has never been a member of the ICC; however, the court’s statutes give it the power to prosecute crimes committed in a member state by nationals of non-member states, including Americans.

“The ICC poses an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty - it claims the authority to prosecute and even imprison American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America’s national interest,” the State Department said.

“Americans never signed up for this, and all American presidents since the ICC’s ratification have maintained that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Americans.”

The ICC’s spokesperson, Oriane Maillet, said the court would not comment on the matter at this stage.

President Donald Trump’s opposition to the court goes back to his first term in office. He and other officials in Washington have long said the ICC should not have the authority to investigate and prosecute U.S. citizens, particularly members of the military.

In March 2020, ICC prosecutors opened an ​investigation in Afghanistan that included looking into possible crimes by U.S. military personnel. However, since 2021, it has deprioritized the United States’ role, focusing ⁠on alleged crimes committed by Taliban forces and the Afghan government.

‘Waging a War Against Our Country’

“As we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes and compacts and the force of so-called international law,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video message posted on July 13.

Rubio said that when the ICC was established, it said it was limited to dealing with the most serious of offenses.

“But the truth is, it was something far more radical and extreme. It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited,” he said.

Rubio said that the court’s power has only continued to grow, and that the United States should not stand idle and let judges living thousands of miles away make determinations well beyond their jurisdiction.

“The American people never agreed to any of this, and they never will,” Rubio said.

“Read the words of our Declaration of Independence. We fought a revolution against a foreign power, transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us.”

In December 2025, Rubio sanctioned two ICC judges after accusing them of being engaged in the “illegitimate targeting” of Israel. Rubio said at the time that neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC, and therefore rejected the court’s jurisdiction.

“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction,” Rubio said in the Dec. 18 statement.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 17:00

New York Becomes First State To Enact One Year Ban On New Data Centers

The blowback against data centers escalated this morning, when New York became first state in the nation to enact a moratorium on data centers, pausing construction on new facilities for one year.

An executive order by Gov. Kathy Hochul bans state lawmakers from approving environmental permits for hyperscale data centers. Hochul said Tuesday the pause will give lawmakers time to create a framework to protect residents and the environment. 

"Massive data centers are being built across our state and our country. The scale and speed of this development has put unprecedented demand on energy and water resources, and threatens to drive up utility costs. Before it goes any further, I need safeguards in place to protect New Yorkers," Hochul said in a social media post. 

AI data centers, which contain thousands of servers and typically use 50 or more megawatts of power to operate, have been blamed for everything from noise pollution to sending regional electricity prices soaring. They also require a steady supply of water to keep cool. 

Hochul said the state still welcomes AI investments and businesses, and looks forward to helping them grow and thrive. 

"But when you benefit from the talent and energy of New York, we expect you to protect our resources and give back to our communities," Hochul said. 

New York will lead in responsible innovation while protecting families and communities.

Today, I’m signing a first-in-the-nation Executive Order to hit pause and set the rules for AI data centers.

Join me live: https://t.co/5T2eFyoc7m

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) July 14, 2026

The order comes as the state is experiencing unprecedented growth in the demand for data center development driven by AI and other computing operations, according to the governor's office. The data centers require "millions of gallons of water, draining the local supply." 

"The bottom line is progress shouldn't arrive with a higher utility bill, depleted water supplies, or noise pollution. So we have no choice but to address these challenges created by these massive facilities," Hochul said. 

Hochul said New York will require data centers to either produce their own energy or pay a premium for accessing New York's grid. Hochul also said she opposes any tax subsidies for AI data centers as well. 

The Department of Public Service will create the guidelines for centers to ensure new facilities meet consistent standards. 

Hochul said the process will take up to a year, prompting the moratorium. Once state officials finalize the standards, the ban will be lifted. 

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand applauded the move: "This one-year moratorium is fundamentally about trust. Right now, New Yorkers aren't convinced these massive facilities benefit them. Before we move forward, our communities need ironclad guarantees that their energy bills won't spike, their water will be protected, and their air will remain clean," Gillibrand said.   

Gillibrand described the need for federal action regarding AI as well: "That requires establishing clear, reliable rules of the road. We must build a framework that protects our kids from harmful algorithms and social media tools; shields seniors and consumers from AI-driven scams and fraud; and safeguards American jobs and livelihoods from displacement."
"It kills good-paying union jobs"

Not everyone is pleased with the moratorium. 

"A shortsighted moratorium only accomplishes one thing: it kills good-paying union jobs. Rather than implementing guardrails to build the future of American ingenuity, Governor Hochul is taking her ball and going home. We urge the governor to work with all parties, including the hardworking New Yorkers whose jobs are at stake, to implement common sense guardrails," United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters general president Mark McManus said. 

The  Associated General Contractors of New York State also objected to the moratorium, calling it "the wrong policy for New York." 

"Halting permits for as much as a year in this fast-moving sector will not simply delay projects—it will send them permanently to Virginia, Texas, Georgia and other states actively competing for these investments and the construction and other jobs that come with them. Once a developer breaks ground somewhere else, that project—and the opportunities and tax revenue that come with it—are not coming back," AGS NYS president and CEO Mike Elmendorf said. "Data center construction is the strongest-performing segment in an otherwise uncertain construction market nationwide, and New York's construction industry—which still has not recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels—cannot afford to forfeit it."

Elmendorf called the moratorium a "de facto ban that tells the marketplace New York is closed for business."

Meanwhile, PA senator John Fetterman, snubbed the NY decision by simply stating "China wins."

China wins. 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/tTiMwxPNaq

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) July 14, 2026

A grassroots pushback against data centers has been spreading across the nation in the past year and most recently culminated in the so-called Silion Alley in Virginia - which has the highest concentration of data centers in the US - and where we reported a week ago that giant data center landlord Blackstone is walking away from plans to build its portion (which at this point is the only portion left after its partner already pulled out days earlier) of a 2,100-acre data center campus in Virginia - also known as Prince William Digital Gateway which would house as many as 37 data-center buildings - handing a win to residents who fought for years to topple the project. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 16:40