Zero Rss

The Fuel-Mix Saving America's Largest Grid From Blackouts Today

Power prices soared on Thursday across PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states, as a brutal multi-day heat dome pushed electricity demand toward critically high levels and raised the risk of rolling blackouts.

Ahead of triple-digit temperatures today across the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York, PJM has declared a level 2 grid emergency and ordered emergency load reductions.

The alert, one step below a warning of imminent rolling blackouts, applied across PJM's territory from Illinois to Washington, DC.

Under North American Electric Reliability Corp. definitions, an Energy Emergency Alert 2 means the grid operator can no longer meet expected requirements but is still maintaining minimum contingency reserves.

GridStatus data shows the PJM grid was kept afloat Thursday almost entirely by natural gas, nuclear, and coal. As of Friday morning, the three fuel sources were supplying more than 94% of the grid's total power.

Wind and solar power generation were largely in the single digits when the grid needed reliable dispatchable power. This is an uncomfortable reality for the Democratic Party, which has become little more than a band of climate socialists hellbent on destabilizing the grid with an unreliable power mix. 

Average power prices across PJM are set to soar from late morning into late afternoon.

Current power prices (as of Friday morning):

Today's load forecast will crest around 160.85 GW by late afternoon - the moment when everyone will have their ACs cranking.

So far, the PJM grid has held. But with a few more days of triple-digit heat ahead, the takeaway is clear: fossil fuels and nuclear power are keeping the lights on, AC units humming, and preventing rolling blackouts.

Do not let the Democratic Party, now unhinged climate socialists, claim otherwise. The real question is why these socialists, who project anti-American rhetoric daily, remain so committed to destabilizing the grid with de-growth climate policies when fossil fuel dispatchable power is what saves the grid during peak-demand crisis hours.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 10:20

Interpol Fingers Snake-Tattooed Ukrainian Woman In Monaco Oligarch Bombing

Update 2: Interpol has identified 39-year-old Ukrainian woman Anastasiia Berezovska as the suspect in the Monaco bombing which targeted a Ukrainian tycoon. 

In a Red Notice posted on its website, the police organization released two photos of the suspect on Friday - noting that she has a tattoo - which appears to be of a snake, on her right arm which extends from shoulder to elbow. The notice also says she has dark hair and speaks German. 

The suspect was seen running away from Monaco on Monday while wearing a bucket hat, after 58-year-old oligarch Vadim Ermolaev, his mistress, Anna Nasobina, 46, and their young son were injured in the blast. 

The suspect captured fleeing the scene on CCTV

Monaco's Prosecutor General, Stéphane Thibault, confirmed the suspect is living in Germany, while a senior investigating source told the Daily Mail that the woman had "attempted to look like a man" during the attack, but a witness was able to identify her. 

* * *

Update: Earlier yesterday, Monaco authorities stated that a person was taken into custody - then released - in the probe of the blast that reportedly hurt Ukrainian tycoon.

However, a few hours later, prosecutors confirmed that they had identified the suspect in the bombing.

*  *  *

As Chris Summers reported earlier via The Epoch Times, a manhunt is underway for a bomber after a Ukrainian businessman - who was sanctioned by Kyiv for alleged ties to Russia - and two other people were seriously injured in an explosion in the foyer of an upmarket apartment building in Monaco.

Investigators examine the scene of a bombing—which injured three people—in Monaco on June 30, 2026. Philippe Magoni/AP

French media has identified Vadym Iermolaiev, a construction tycoon from Dnipro in central Ukraine, his wife, and his 13-year-old son as being the victims of the explosion, which took place on the evening of June 29.

Iermolaiev - who had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and obtained a Cyprus passport - was sanctioned by Kyiv in June 2024 for allegedly selling vodka in Russian-occupied Crimea.

In a June 29 X post, the Monaco government said, "Tonight, shortly before 9 p.m., a violent explosion linked to a booby-trapped package was heard in the Principality not far from Place des Moulins."

"A suspect was spotted by the video surveillance system fleeing toward the municipality of Beausoleil on French territory," it added.

Prosecutor Stephane Thibault said on June 30 that the Monaco police had opened an attempted murder investigation, adding that it was not being treated as terrorism.

"In coordination with the French authorities, we are pursuing efforts to identify and apprehend him. I hope that will happen quickly, given the resources we are deploying," Thibault said.

Thibault said the female victim was in a life-threatening condition.

Monaco's ruler, Prince Albert II, described the bombing as "an odious act" and said the country had mobilized all its services to ensure security.

Christophe Mirmand, minister of state for Monaco, said the victims were "returning home peacefully" when the bomb exploded, citing surveillance footage.

"They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building," he said.

"It appears that the family was specifically targeted."

He said surveillance footage suggested the suspect "had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims."

'Unverified Allegations' Rejected

A public relations company, the Silver Eye Communications Agency, released a statement to Monaco Life in which it confirmed Iermolaiev was targeted but rejected media outlets' characterization of him as an "oligarch" and "unverified allegations" printed in numerous European newspapers.

"The use of an explosive device in an attempt on a person's life is a barbaric act that has no place in any civilized society," Silver Eye said.

"The fact that Mr. Iermolaiev's child was also injured makes this crime particularly shocking.

"Mr. Vadym Iermolaiev is not an oligarch. He has never held political office, never controlled strategic sectors of the Ukrainian economy, never enjoyed a monopoly in any industry and has never been part of Ukraine's political establishment."

Monaco is a tiny principality on the Mediterranean coast with a population of only 38,000 - many of whom are wealthy foreign nationals attracted by its minimal taxes. The country is completely surrounded by France, which also defends it militarily under the terms of a 2002 treaty.

The Monaco government said two adults and a child were taken to a hospital in the nearby French city of Nice.

Silvano Ippolito, a neighbor who lives opposite the scene of the explosion in Place des Moulins, said he saw a young boy on the ground and immediately called his wife, a doctor, who treated the boy’s badly injured mother.

“She intervened very quickly, before the emergency services arrived, to apply tourniquets and perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as the woman was losing consciousness,” Ippolito said.

Suspect Caught On Camera

A photograph of the suspect, published by French media, shows a man in a black jacket, light-colored pants, and white shoes running along while trying to conceal his face with a black bucket hat.

Iermolaiev founded the Alef Group, a conglomerate involved in commercial real estate, manufacturing, and agriculture.

He was heavily involved in reshaping downtown Dnipro before the war with Russia began in 2022.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, Iermolaiev said he had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a Cypriot citizen in 2017. Cyprus is a European Union member, allowing him to live in France or Monaco.

In April, Iermolaiev's son Artur, 35, pleaded guilty in Estonia to fraud charges in relation to a 100 million euro ($114 million) phone call scam, and was given a suspended jail sentence, and ordered to pay an 8.5 million euro ($9.7 million) fine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not commented on the incident in Monaco.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Paris, which is also responsible for Monaco, was liaising with the authorities in Monte Carlo, the capital of Monaco.

A view of the residential building where an explosive device seriously injured Vadym Iermolaiev, his wife, and his son, in Monaco, on June 30, 2026. Philippe Magoni/AP Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 10:18

Futures Rebound With Cash Markets Closed; Gold, Bitcoin Jump

While US cash markets are closed for the July 4th holiday, stocks around the world rebounded from yesterday's momentum rout as the latest round of jitters about the AI trade subsided, with Europe’s benchmark rising to an all-time high. S&P futures rose 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rebounded 1.2% in thin holiday trading after South Korean memory giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics recovered, helping to drive a 2% rally in Asian shares after earlier tumbling with SK Hynix plunging as much as 30% from its all time high. Europe’s utility and technology sectors outperformed to set the Stoxx 600 up for a second straight record close. The dollar touched a two-week low amid another mjni flash crash in the USDJPY overnight while gold extended gains.

Friday’s gains marked the latest turn in a stretch of choppy trading as markets grapple with whether the second quarter’s AI-driven rally has gone too far. With stocks recovering after a two-day rout in chipmakers, investors are waiting for the upcoming earnings season as the next signal of whether massive spending on AI infrastructure can translate into profits.

“The fundamentals are still very, very strong and the market is still underpricing them,” Tim Moe, Goldman equity strategist told Bloomberg TV. “There still is a lot longer to go in the overall positive profit environment for memory stocks and the AI hardware supply chain space overall.” 

With momentum crashing, its funding counterparties in the momentum pair trades, bitcoin and gold, jumped. Gold rose 1.2% to around $4,170 an ounce, the highest level in nearly two weeks, after money markets dialed back expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes this year. Bitcoin also moved sharply higher, reversing from its recent rout and rising above $62. Having previously dislocated dramatically, gold and bitcoin are back to trading as the same asset class. 

The outlook for easier monetary policy also weighed on the dollar, which headed for its worst weekly performance since May. Meanwhile, the yen swung between gains and losses as speculation grew that Japanese authorities may be less predictable in how they intervene to support the currency.

Worries that persistent inflation pressures would leave the Fed little choice but to tighten policy have subsided in recent days, with oil prices easing and an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in US labor market growth. The first fully priced-in quarter-point Fed hike has moved back to December, from October.

“Unless and until we see clearer signs that the energy spike has filtered its way through to underlying inflation, we think that the Fed will opt for a cautious approach to policy tightening,” noted Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at Ebury.

European stocks were little changed in early Friday trading, but still set to wrap up their fourth straight week of gains, as investors remained optimistic that the Federal Reserve will hold off on rate hikes for now.The Stoxx 600 traded little changed at to 648.41, with utilities outperforming while consumer and personal good firms underperform. Here are the biggest movers Friday:

• Genfit shares jump as much as 15%, with the French biopharmaceutical company saying it’s set to benefit from US Medicare coverage for a diagnostic blood test for liver disease, known as NASHnext, which is powered by Genfit’s technology
• Pluxee gains as much as 8.6%, to the highest in almost two months, after the employee benefits provider delivered a slight beat in the third quarter and maintained its full-year guidance
• MIPS gains as much as 19%, the most in nearly two years, after the Swedish helmet technology firm announced it settled a patent infringement lawsuit initiated by BrainGuard. Pareto Securities says the news removes a key overhang
• AFRY gains as much as 6.4%, the most since April, after the Swedish engineering consultancy’s recommendation was raised to buy from hold at Pareto Securities, expecting its upcoming second-quarter report to “mark a turn in AFRY’s earnings trajectory”
• Maersk gains as much as 4.6% after being raised to neutral from sell at Goldman Sachs, with the bank turning “less negative” on the 2027 supply-demand outlook, seeing a “slightly later and shallower acceleration in new capacity growth in 2027”
• Craneware shares tumble as much as 31%, the most in seven years, after the software company warned that FY26 financial performance is likely to be below market expectations
• Stellantis shares fall as much as 1.7% after the carmaker was downgraded to reduce at HSBC, which says it’s concerned about cash outflows and the potential need for de-stocking

Asian stocks rose at the end of a volatile week as shares of heavyweight South Korean semiconductor makers bounced back following a two-day slide. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied as much as 2.2%, erasing early losses. Samsung, SK Hynix and Japan’s Kioxia each jumped more than 8%. Anthropic is in talks with Samsung to be a manufacturing partner for a custom AI chip, according to a report. However, TSMC’s shares slipped, tracking declines in US chip stocks. Friday’s rebound in Asia was also aided by improved risk sentiment after weaker than expected US June employment data and lower oil prices challenged expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes this year. The MXAP index lost 1.4% in the previous session, when chipmakers plunged on concerns over excess AI capacity and intensifying competition. It is up 1.5% for the week. This week’s price action has served as another reminder that the fortunes of Asia’s benchmark remain closely tied to a handful of tech names. The two Korean chipmakers and Kioxia carry a combined more than 12% weighting in the regional gauge. TSMC alone holds close to 11% — the most for a single stock.

“We’re looking much more forward now in terms of expectations, in terms of growth, what 2027 will look like,” said Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X Management, in a Bloomberg TV interview. “The AI trade’s really got breadth now,” with infrastructure and energy supply names also offering opportunities beyond memory chips, he added.

Looking ahead, Samsung is expected to announce its preliminary quarterly earnings on July 7 while SK Hynix will list ADRs on the Nasdaq next Friday. Traders will be watching for monetary policy decisions from New Zealand and Malaysia’s central banks next week. Several other companies in the region are due to report earnings, including Fast Retailing, Seven & i and Tata Consultancy Services.

Brent steadied below $72 a barrel as traders weighed the outlook for increased supply through the Strait of Hormuz and continuing talks between the US and Iran.

Meanwhile, nervousness about AI valuations has seen investors turning away from US stocks at the fastest pace since March, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists. The country’s stock funds had $17.2 billion in outflows in the week through July 1, the team led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note, citing EPFR Global Data. Investors turned to some international stocks instead, with Japanese equities seeing their biggest inflows in seven weeks at $1.9 billion.

Market Wrap

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% as of 9:26 a.m. New York time
• Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.2%
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5%
• The MSCI World Index rose 0.2%
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1444
• The British pound was little changed at $1.3354
• The Japanese yen was little changed at 161.22 per dollar
• Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $61,973.66
• Ether rose 2.1% to $1,739.81
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.93%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.80%
• West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
• Spot gold rose 1.2% to $4,170.41 an ounce

DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Happy Independence Day to our US readers as they celebrate 250 years of AMEXIT. A reminder of our piece on the US quarter millennium success story and the prospects of that continuing in the decades ahead can be found at the Deutsche Bank Research Institute here.
As we reach the end of the week, the biggest dilemma facing those of us in England is whether to stay up—or get up—for a 1am kick-off against Mexico in their home stadium on Monday morning. Given the game is being played at 2,240 metres above sea level, where there’s around 23% less air than we're used to breathing on English football grounds, it's fair to say expectations are being kept at a sensible altitude.  

I learned yesterday that the human body tends to perform worst between two and five days after arriving at high altitude. Apparently, the optimal strategies are either to fly in just before the event or about two weeks beforehand. The latter was clearly impossible, but do bear it in mind for your next ski trip.  

Some pubs are reportedly opening at 1am on Monday morning for the occasion. The last time I was in a pub at 1am on a Monday, some members of my team had yet to be born. I'm not expecting to break that streak. If anything, it'll be a cup of hot chocolate on the sofa while writing the EMR. 

The tech altitude sickness of late is reversing a bit this morning with the KOSPI (+4.60%) back up after a difficult week. The rally has been led by Samsung Electronics, which has surged +8.2% on reports that Anthropic PBC is in discussions with the company to produce a customised AI chip. Chinese equities are also rebounding, with the CSI 300 (+1.15%) recovering after two consecutive losses, while the Shanghai Composite (+0.69%) is posting moderate gains. The Hang Seng (+1.57%) is extending its weekly gain to around +4.0%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 (+1.38%) is trading notably higher, supported by stronger-than-expected services sector activity. S&P 500 (+0.35%) and Nasdaq (+0.83%) futures are also higher.

Economic data released earlier this morning showed that China’s services sector expanded more than anticipated in June, driven by robust domestic and international demand. The RatingDog Services PMI eased slightly to 54.1 from 54.4 in May but beat the 53.0 expected. There was continued growth in new business, with both domestic and overseas orders increasing. Notably, services exports rose at their fastest pace since October 2024. Meanwhile, the S&P Global Australia Services PMI improved to 50.5 from 48.7 in May, signaling a modest recovery in activity.

It's also worth noting that Bloomberg are carrying a story this morning that the Trump administration and its allies are actively exploring ways to reshape the Federal Reserve by removing or replacing key officials. Despite a recent Supreme Court decision allowing Fed Governor Lisa Cook to remain in her role for now, efforts to challenge her position are continuing, with a renewed focus on following procedural grounds for potential removal. Former Chair Jerome Powell is also under scrutiny, according to the story, with ongoing political and legal pressure potentially creating an avenue for his departure.

At the same time, the administration is seeking to influence the central bank through upcoming appointments, including the presidency of the Atlanta Fed, a role seen as strategically important for its economic analysis and future voting power on interest rates. So one to watch.  
Ahead of that, markets put in another strong performance yesterday, as an underwhelming US jobs report led to mounting hopes that the Fed wouldn’t hike rates this year. Indeed, the newsflow was pretty dovish in general, as we saw Brent crude trade within touching distance of $70/bbl for the first time since February, though it ultimately settled +0.32% higher on the day at $71.80/bbl. This backdrop helped spark a decent rally across the board, including record highs for Europe’s STOXX 600 (+1.41%) and the German DAX (+2.16%). Germany has started to announce some serious reforms in recent weeks and over the last 36 hours we saw another that we’ll detail later which helped the domestic mood. The main exception to the global positivity was chip stocks once again, which saw another slump. This left the S&P 500 (+0.0001%) remarkably flat on the day even as most individual stocks were relieved by the dovish repricing, with the equal-weighted S&P 500 (+0.76%) surging to another all-time high as well.  

This strong performance came as the US jobs report hit the sweet spot for markets in several respects. It was still in positive territory, with payrolls up +57k in June, whilst the unemployment rate hit a one-year low of 4.2%. So it meant investors were still pretty optimistic on the near-term outlook. But because payrolls grew by less than the +113k reading expected, the print also helped to push back against the prospect of an imminent rate hike. Indeed, the details included downward revisions to the April and May prints of -74k in total, which took the 3-month average for payrolls down to +111k, so relative to expectations it generally underwhelmed.  

With the jobs report in hand, the speculation about an imminent July rate hike continued to ebb. Indeed, market pricing has shifted a lot in the last 48 hours, as we also had the comments from Fed Chair Warsh at Sintra on Wednesday that inflation risks had come down. So market pricing for a July rate hike has fallen from 34% on Tuesday, to 27% on Wednesday after Warsh’s comments, and just 18% by last night’s close after the jobs report. Moreover, just 30bps of hikes are now priced in by the December meeting, the fewest since the Fed meeting a couple of weeks ago when the dot plot surprised in a hawkish direction.  

In light of that, US Treasuries rallied yesterday, particularly at the front-end of the curve. So the 2yr yield (-3.9bps) fell back to 4.14%, whilst the 10yr yield (+0.5bps) was little changed at 4.48%. And notably, it wasn’t just Fed rate hikes being cast into doubt, as there were growing question marks about whether the ECB would deliver another rate hike as well. In fact, the probability of another rate hike by September fell beneath 50%, and even the probability of a hike by December was down to just 70%. That was partly down to the oil price decline during the European session. The moves also came as ECB President Lagarde said in an interview that the ECB were “convinced we made the right decision” with the June hike but that second-round effects “have not materialized so far”. The ECB repricing meant the 2yr German yield was down another -1.4bps to 2.49%. Nevertheless, long-end yields in Europe still moved higher, with those on 10yr bunds (+2.5bps), OATs (+2.6bps) and BTPs (+2.0bps) all rising.  

This backdrop of lower oil prices and a dovish repricing was generally a very strong one for equities. That was particularly clear in Europe given its exposure to the energy shock, and the STOXX 600 (+1.41%) hit a new record high, as did the DAX (+2.16%). In the US, equities also did very well for the most part, though the S&P 500 index rose by a mere hundredth of a point to 7483.24 (+0.0001%) as its advance was curtailed by another slump in chip stocks. Indeed, the Philly semiconductor index was down -5.44% yesterday, building on its -6.27% decline on Wednesday, with all 30 companies in the index losing ground. So given that semiconductor stocks make up around a sixth of the S&P 500, it was tough for the index to gain much traction, even though 70% of its constituents still advanced on the day. 

Elsewhere yesterday, Bloomberg reported that several European countries accepted that ships going through the Strait of Hormuz would have to pay fees to Iran and Oman. What might happen is still very unclear, but it spoke to concerns that the Strait of Hormuz won’t be going back to the status quo that prevailed before the conflict began.  

Speaking of Europe, as highlighted earlier, Wednesday saw the German government announce a big reform package, which includes income tax relief, pension reforms, and reductions in red tape. Our German economists have more details on the package (link here), and they write how it demonstrates the willingness of both coalition partners to compromise. In terms of next steps, the coalition partners have set themselves a clear deadline to implement these reforms by year-end, which should bode well for sentiment and dovetails with our economists’ forecast that growth will pick up in the second half of the year.  

Looking at the day ahead now, it’s a fairly quiet one with US markets closed for the Independence Day holiday. Otherwise, data releases include the final services and composite PMIs for June from several countries. Then from central banks, we’ll hear from ECB President Lagarde, the ECB’s Nagel and Makhlouf, and BoE Governor Bailey.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 09:54

Tibetan Man Sets Himself On Fire Outside UN Headquarters In New York

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A Tibetan activist died on Thursday after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, according to the New York City Police Department.

Police responded to an emergency call at around 6.30 p.m. ET on July 2 and found the man with severe burns, a police department spokesperson said in a statement to multiple news outlets.

The man, who was an Uber driver, was carrying a Tibetan flag during the incident. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the spokesperson.

Police are still investigating the incident and have not disclosed the man’s identity or potential motive for him to self-immolate.

The Tibetan National Congress of New York and New Jersey said in a July 3 statement posted to Instagram that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who has “dedistatement that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who had “dedicated his life to participating in peaceful, non-violent demonstrations to expose China’s human rights abuses in Tibet.”

The organization said Rangzen broadcast a livestream on Facebook before self-immolating near the U.N. headquarters, in which he called for Tibetan independence and spoke about the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The activist attributed his actions to his commitment to Tibet and emphasized that they were not driven by any personal circumstances, the Tibetan National Congress added.

In his final message, he said: “I don’t want you to mourn for me, I want you to continue the struggle for Tibetan independence, because the lack of independence is the root of all our problems,” according to the Tibetan National Congress.

“We must recognize and remember that Lobga Rangzen committed this act for the political freedom of Tibet,” Jamyang Norbu, founder of the Tibetan National Congress, said in the statement.

“It is a tragedy that he passed away, but his commitment to the independence of Tibet will not be forgotten.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the United Nations for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

According to nonprofit group Free Tibet, more than 150 people have self-immolated inside Tibet since 2009 in protest against the Chinese occupation in 1950. Rangzen’s death marked the first known case of a Tibetan self-immolation in the United States, the Tibetan National Congress said.

Free Tibet said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified security forces’ activity in response to the protests, punishing protesters and their families. Some self-immolators who survived were detained, and their whereabouts remain unknown, according to the group.

During Human Rights Day in December 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Chinese officials over their roles in the CCP’s human rights abuses in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

The department said at the time that Tibetans have been subject to serious human rights abuses in the region, including ”arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and physical abuse,” as part of the CCP’s efforts to “severely restrict religious freedoms.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 09:30

Cafe Bombing Kills 9, Wounds 22, In Busy Court Area Of Central Damascus

On Thursday a bomb ripped through crowded cafe in central Damascus, killing at least nine people and wounding 22 others, in an attack very near the main entrance of the Palace of Justice - in an area frequented by lawyers, courthouse employees and visitors.

Al Jazeera correspondent Obaida Hitto, who reported from the scene in the aftermath, stated that "The casualties are higher because it is such a busy area." The death toll could rise given that many bystanders are being treated for severe injuries at a Damascus hospital - some in critical condition.

The target was a well-known gathering place for attorneys. "According to lawyers' groups on social media, the names of six lawyers who were killed have been identified, while eight others were injured in the blast," Mohammed al-Tawil, head of the Syrian Bar Association, told Germany's dpa.

via Associated Press

And per the NY Times, "Syria’s interior ministry said the blast, near the main courthouse complex in Damascus, had been caused by an explosive device but did not say who was responsible."

The reported noted, "State media published images of bloodied floors and overturned chairs as emergency workers rushed through crowded streets to the scene."

Various jihadi groups, including ISIS, continue to threaten civilians all across the country, a reality which has only expanded in post-Assad Syria, and after the rise of US-backed, self-appointed President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and Islamic State commander.

Government forces under Sharaa have been seen as tolerating and even cooperating at times with ISIS-style terrorist groups. But at the same time the Sharaa regime has sought to present itself to the outside world as 'moderate'.

Sectarian crimes and targeted killings, particularly against Syria's Alawite, Christian, and Druze communities have continued. Euronews reports:

"I ran to the place and saw people lying on the floor with blood pooled around them everywhere," he added, saying the scenes recalled the blasts that Damascus experienced during the nearly 14-year civil war.

Damascus has been the site of multiple attacks and incidents since the new authorities took over following the toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

The deadliest came in June 2025, when an attack on a Damascus church killed 25 people. The suicide attack was later claimed by a Sunni Islamist group, while the authorities blamed it on the Islamic State group.

In the meantime a new parliament is being sworn-in in Damascus, dozens of members which were handpicked by Sharaa. Some are well-known extremists.

"Among the 70 new appointees is Hassan Soufan, who was the head of Ahrar al-Sham, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group that fought as part of the 14-year CIA-backed insurgency against former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government," writes Beirut-based The Cradle. The report further says:

While maintaining secular institutions such as a parliament, Syria is unofficially governed by extremist Sunni Muslim religious figures known as “sheikhs” who are embedded within government institutions and public service departments, including police stations, municipalities, and the judiciary.

BREAKING | Explosion in a coffee shop near the Justice Palace in Damascus, Syria. pic.twitter.com/qkbD7x28sf

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 2, 2026

With Assad gone, mainstream Western press has basically stopped covering events in Syria, even though killings and terrorist attacks have persisted.

At the same time, the country has little in the way of military defenses to speak of, with Israeli bombings having largely wiped out anti-air defenses as well as offensive missile silos.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 08:35

Watch: Shocking Footage Of Britain's Two-Tier Policing

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

In the latest sickening example of two-tier policing under Keir Starmer's government, a female officer in Birmingham charged straight into a street attack, shielded the three black aggressors, and then turned her aggression on their white British victim - an inebriated teenager who had just been randomly assaulted.

While the attackers dispersed without consequence, multiple officers swarmed the white lad, barked obscenities at him, shoved him into a police car the wrong way round, and then dragged him back out again.

A bystander who tried to explain that the white kid was the victim was completely ignored.

3 blacks attack a drunk white kid in Birmingham, the female police officer comes in to protect the violent blacks and arrest the white kid

Absolutely disgusting the way white people are treated in England (@KnockoutAudit) pic.twitter.com/Nct3OcqxaQ

— ??????????????? (@Re_mi_gra_tion) July 1, 2026

This is not policing. This is ideological enforcement, where native Britons are treated as the problem and mass migration's imported violence gets a free pass.

The main footage of the attack and the officer's intervention spread rapidly on X.

Further clips reveal the tone of the encounter. One officer is heard snarling at the restrained teen: "You're going to walk to the car you fucking dick." The contrast with how such language would be deployed against anyone else is glaring.

"You're going to walk to the car you fucking dick"

They would never speak to a darkie like this pic.twitter.com/irPoNe9Yhg

— ??????????????? (@Re_mi_gra_tion) July 1, 2026

Another angle captures officers trying to force the handcuffed lad into the back seat the wrong way round while yelling "Get in the fucking car."

"Get in the fucking car"

Whilst they try to shove him into the back seat the wrong way pic.twitter.com/MpWJuZKhpo

— ??????????????? (@Re_mi_gra_tion) July 1, 2026

When that fails, reinforcements arrive - another eight officers in total - and they drag him out again because of the botched seating.

Another 8 police officers turn up

They drag him out of the car because he's not in the seat properly because they forced him the wrong way pic.twitter.com/zR3QJ2y3ON

— ??????????????? (@Re_mi_gra_tion) July 1, 2026

A witness wearing glasses can be seen on camera telling officers that the white lad had just been randomly attacked by the group. The officers brush past the information and continue processing the victim as the aggressor.

Public reaction has been swift and unforgiving. One observer captured the robotic programmed nature of the response:

?? British police in 2026 are genuinely like circuit-programmed androids

When they identify a scuffle, their sights lock on to the nearest white human regardless of the circumstances

Shameless cyborgs pic.twitter.com/uxlryjILci

— welshman (@welshmaan) July 1, 2026

The handling shows a blatant failure of duty, with the arresting officer targeting the white male despite clear evidence he was not the agressor. It is impossible the officer did not see the two black males actively attacking him.

We must demand the immediate release of the bodycam footage from the recent unlawful arrest in Birmingham.

The handling of this incident is a blatant failure of duty, as the arresting officer targeted the white male as the aggressor despite the clear reality of the situation.... pic.twitter.com/sDmwwZJoKf

— Anth?? (@AnthNFS) July 2, 2026

West Midlands Police have reportedly asked people to stop sharing the footage. Of course they have.

This is not an isolated lapse. It fits a documented pattern of selective enforcement and excessive force against native Britons while authorities tiptoe around minority perpetrators.

Earlier this month, outrage erupted over South Yorkshire Police officers filmed shoving, baton-wielding and Tasering teenage girls during a dispersal in Rotherham.

The footage showed male officers brutally shoving small teenage girls flying onto the concrete like ragdolls. These are young girls, not hardened criminals. One wrong landing and they could have smashed their heads open.

South Yorkshire Police later acknowledged: "The short clip on social media of the police response to an incident in Rotherham over the weekend appears nothing short of shocking." The force's Professional Standards Department said it was reviewing all available footage, including body-worn video, and that officers are expected to act in a "lawful, proportionate, and fair" manner.

The Rotherham location itself sharpened the hypocrisy. It remains the epicentre of the grooming gangs scandal in which authorities failed for years to protect an estimated 1,400 young victims from predominantly Pakistani Muslim gangs. Political correctness and fears of racism accusations paralyzed police and social services. Now the same forces apply heavy-handed tactics to young British girls celebrating a school leavers' event.

Similar incidents piled up around the same period. Footage emerged of officers manhandling a five-year-old boy - nearly yanking his arms from their sockets while forcing him into a police car - while pepper-spraying his father and confronting his mother who was holding a baby.

South Yorkshire police shove a five year old kid into a car while almost pulling his arms out of their sockets, pepper spraying the father and getting in the mother's face as she holds a baby in her arms. What on earth did they do? pic.twitter.com/BV40eH9sD1

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) June 14, 2026

Another clip showed officers smashing a man's head into a metal bollard, then handcuffing and dragging him while threatening the person filming.

This case is actually way worse than the initial footage revealed. This longer video shows that after smashing the guy head first into a metal bollard the police handcuff him and drag him around. They then threaten and shove around the person filming it. https://t.co/3rF0kufikg

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) June 14, 2026

A further video captured police slamming Siobhan Whyte to the ground during a protest linked to the Henry Nowak case. Her daughter had been murdered by an illegal migrant, stabbed 23 times in the head with a screwdriver.

???BREAKING: British Police Slam Elderly Woman to the Ground in Broad Daylight!

Her daughter was stabbed 23 times in the head with a screwdriver – but Starmer's police don't care.

While arresting 5-year-olds, UK cops now beat Britons of any age. pic.twitter.com/SXag5tNjhe

— Mario ZNA (@MarioBojic) June 15, 2026

A 50-year-old military veteran and father of three with 13 pins in his right ankle was struck with riot shields and kicked in the head four times while sitting on a wall filming and stating he was doing nothing wrong.

These episodes form part of a growing catalogue of police interactions with native British citizens that many describe as disproportionately aggressive. The common thread is eroding public trust.

If you keep assaulting and arresting innocent members of the public, especially when they're being victimised, then the people are going to start turning on you.

Best stop it.

When consent is revoked, and it will be at this rate, you're nothing more than civilian thugs....

— Cthulhu Loves You (@CthulhulLovesU) July 2, 2026

The Henry Nowak case stands as the starkest recent precedent. On 3 December 2025, 18-year-old Henry was fatally stabbed five times in Southampton. His attacker, Vickrum Digwa, convinced arriving officers he was the victim and claimed racial abuse.

Police arrested and handcuffed the dying Henry instead of providing immediate aid. It took eight minutes for officers to discover the stab wound even though Henry repeatedly told them he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

Digwa was never handcuffed during his time in custody before being charged.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct confirmed it is investigating two Hampshire officers for potential gross misconduct. The evidence indicates both officers may have breached standards of duties and responsibilities, use of force, and discreditable conduct.

These relate to potential failures to recognise that Henry needed urgent medical attention, to immediately act after he said he had been stabbed and could not breathe, and the decision to arrest and handcuff Henry rather than provide immediate first aid.

There is also an indication one officer may have breached the standard relating to authority, respect and courtesy for appearing to dismiss Henry saying he had been stabbed.

'I don't just want these officers under investigation, I want them arrested!'

Adam Brooks (@EssexPR) discusses the police's failings following the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed in his final minutes. pic.twitter.com/mVxtd9Xx68

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 1, 2026

The officers face investigation but have not been suspended. Adam Brooks stated on GB News: "I don't just want these officers under investigation, I want them arrested!"

The Birmingham incident follows the same script. The white victim is processed aggressively while the actual attackers are permitted to leave. West Midlands Police have reportedly moved to limit circulation of the footage rather than address the conduct on camera.

This suggests the same institutional reluctance to confront anti-white bias that has already been admitted in training contexts around the Nowak case.

Britons pay for policing through their taxes. They have every right to demand officers who de-escalate rather than escalate against teenagers, who protect the vulnerable instead of dismissing them, and who operate without the stain of two-tier standards.

When footage repeatedly shows the opposite - and when legacy media largely ignores it until social media forces the issue - the contract between police and the public frays further.

Accountability mechanisms exist. Body-worn video exists. The public expects both to deliver transparency and consequences where warranted. Without that, resentment will only deepen.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 08:10

Apple Intelligence Fails To Ignite "Upgrade Activity," UBS Says

Apple Intelligence is not yet moving the needle or exciting the customer base the way Wall Street had expected when analysts pitched AI as the spark for a new iPhone upgrade supercycle. That narrative continues to sputter.

UBS analysts, citing their latest Evidence Lab survey of more than 7,500 smartphone users across five major markets, found that Apple's AI features are "not driving upgrade activity," with the share of respondents saying they would upgrade sooner for Apple Intelligence falling to about 24%, while those saying it has no impact on their purchase decision rose to about 31%.

Here's an excerpt from David Vogt, the UBS analyst covering Apple and other technology hardware names, who wrote Wednesday that Apple Intelligence has yet to spark the long-awaited iPhone upgrade supercycle:

Apple Intelligence is not driving upgrade activity as total respondents indicating that they would upgrade sooner for Apple Intelligence features declined to ~24% (-500 bps HoH) while those noting no impact on their purchasing decision rose to ~31% (+300 bps HoH).

Beyond the lack of spark behind Apple Intelligence, the survey found that 12-month iPhone purchase intent rose by about 300 bps year-over-year in the US market to about 20%, while in China it fell by about 100 bps to around 15%. The U.K. and Germany posted solid gains, up 600 bps and 400 bps, respectively.

Another bright spot: Interest in an Apple-branded foldable remains strong, even as the broader foldable phone market has cooled.

What Vogt said:

As Apple is expected to launch a foldable iPhone at its annual September event, we highlight interest in both a foldable smartphone and a foldable specifically by Apple. 'Net interest' in a foldable smartphone notably declined ~600 bps HoH to (8)% in aggregate. While 'net interest' in an Apple foldable also declined (-100 bps HoH), we note that the favorability spread of a foldable specifically by Apple over a foldable smartphone widened by ~600 bps HoH to ~48%. We believe that the sentiment towards an Apple foldable is directionally positive for iPhone demand, particularly as AI features recently announced at WWDC26 are unlikely to be a material driver in our view.

Vogt estimates FY26 iPhone units at 261.6 million, up 15.7% year-over-year, helped by stronger iPhone 17 demand and some pull-forward from expected price increases. He noted that a foldable iPhone could add as many as 5 million units initially, or about a 2% upside to his estimates.

The analyst maintained Apple's 12-month price target of $296, based on 30 times its CY27 EPS estimate of $9.86. He said the valuation already reflects stronger near-term iPhone demand and some AI optionality, while concerns over the product roadmap, China weakness, and possible price hikes have stunted some multiple expansion.

According to Bloomberg data, Wall Street analysts are largely bullish on the stock, with 35 "Buy" ratings, 19 "Holds," and 2 "Sells." The average 12-month price target is around $319.

Share are back over the $300 level.

Is Apple Intelligence a dud? 

Professional subscribers can read more notes on Apple and AI at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 07:35

These Are The World's Most & Least Free Countries

Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025, according to Freedom House. More than 50 countries saw political rights and civil liberties deteriorate, including the United States.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, ranks the world’s most and least free countries using Freedom House’s 2026 Freedom in the World report, which evaluates political rights and civil liberties across 195 countries and territories.

Finland topped the rankings with a perfect score of 100, followed by New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden at 99. Meanwhile, South Sudan scored 0, the lowest possible rating, highlighting the widening divide between the world’s strongest democracies and most repressive regimes.

Why Europe Dominates the Freedom Rankings

Europe accounts for most of the world’s highest-scoring countries, led by the Nordics and Western Europe. Strong electoral systems, independent courts, press freedom, and protections for civil liberties helped countries like Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands rank near the top globally.

There are two European outliers with low scores out of 100: Belarus (7) and Russia (12). Both are run by repressive autocratic regimes that have been in power for over two decades. The two Eastern European countries feature neither press independence nor free and fair elections, and rank among the least free countries worldwide.

The below data table shows the countries with the highest freedom scores in 2025:

Outside of Europe, the world’s freest countries include New Zealand (99), Canada and Uruguay (97), and Japan (96).

Within each of these countries, robust civil society and independent journalism help keep elected officials accountable, while political transitions are handled without fear of violence.

The Decline of the U.S.

Alongside Bulgaria and Italy, the United States had one of the steepest declines in its score in 2025 among countries classified as Free. The world’s leading superpower fell to a score of 81, its lowest on record, tying South Africa and falling behind Panama (82).

Over the past two decades, the U.S. score has slipped by 12 points, driven by rising polarization and political violence. The 2025 decline was caused in part by government efforts to crack down on nonviolent expression by citizens and noncitizens alike.

The weakening of anticorruption safeguards and enforcement practices by the new U.S. presidential administration was also cited as contributing to the lower score compared to previous years.

The World’s Least Free Countries

While the U.S. remains firmly classified as “Free,” the gap between democratic and authoritarian countries remains stark. The lowest-ranked countries were concentrated across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, where elections are restricted, opposition movements are suppressed, and civil liberties remain severely limited.

South Sudan, one of the world’s youngest countries, obtained the worst possible score of 0, followed by a tie between Sudan and Turkmenistan (both 1). In each of these countries, minority rights are under assault and political freedoms are nonexistent.

Larger countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East also rank poorly. Vietnam scored 20, while Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates tied at 18.

Three regimes in the Americas also appear within this bottom tier of Not Free countries: Cuba (9), Nicaragua (14), and Venezuela (13).

Curious to see how other countries have changed their fortunes since last year? Check out The State of Freedom Around the World on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 06:15

What England Can Teach Us About 'Democratic Socialism'

Authored by Stephen Moore via The Epoch Times,

If you want to see modern-day socialism in action, look no further than to the other side of the pond at not-so-jolly old England. The story of Britain’s decline is a warning signal to those here in the States who are thrilled by the warm embrace of socialism.

Right now, the Brits are having the same debate about the merits of socialism as we are in our major cities and blue states. In England, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party is out. But instead of turning to the right, it appears the UK will swerve further to the collective ownership of the left. Andy Burnham—the former socialist mayor of Manchester—is next in line. God save the queen.

As Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal reports, “Burnham’s socialism is the real deal. He wants the state to control more of the means of production. ... (H)e advocates public ownership of water, housing, energy and transportation.”

Burnham calls it “business-friendly socialism.”

Sure.

That will make the trains run on time.

What short memories.

After World War II, the Brits experimented with creeping socialism for more than three decades. The Labour Party handed over to public bureaucrats and unions the means of production: the Bank of England, the coal mines, the airlines, iron, steel, and phone service, to name a few. Prices soared, nothing worked, unemployment lines lengthened, and the Brits got a lot poorer.

Britain’s share of world output fell by half, from more than 10 percent to less than 5 percent. About the only thing Britain had going for it was four lads from Liverpool called the Beatles, who singlehandedly brought deep pride back and caused a mini-stimulus. But in the 1970s, the downturn worsened.

We interrupt this story with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. She saved the kingdom by slashing taxes and privatizing everything she could get her hands on. It was the precursor to Reaganomics.

That didn’t last long. Now it’s Thatcherism in reverse—just as the left in America wants to reverse the Reagan and Trump legacies of deregulation, lower taxes, and sound money.

What seems to be driving this leap toward “democratic socialism” on both sides of the Atlantic is a middle-class fury over inflation. The idea of free food, housing, child care, and health care is alluring.

But prices have risen not because of a failure of capitalism. It was mostly caused by massive money printing, widespread shutdowns of private industry, retail businesses and schools, and stay-at-home orders during COVID-19. Government became the provider, and the leap forward in state expenditures was never entirely extinguished.

In both the United States and in England, the “affordability crisis” is mostly in government-owned, government-operated, or heavily regulated businesses. In the U.S., that’s health care, education, and college tuition. In Britain, it’s those industries plus energy, housing, and child care.

There is an infestation of socialism in Britain that has sucked the dynamic and wealth-producing spirit out of the UK.

We need a socialism vaccine in America.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 05:30

Ukraine Plans To Hyper-Innovate Humanoid Robot Soldiers

At the start of February, we pointed out that "humanoid warfare nears" and suspected these war bots were headed for Ukraine for testing. 

That hunch was confirmed by early March, after a TIME Magazine article reported that Foundation Robotics, a U.S.-based startup developing humanoid robots for industrial and military applications, had recently sent two Phantom MK1 robots to Ukraine for testing. 

Mike LeBlanc, co-founder of Foundation... 

The modern battlefield across western Eurasia has become the world's AI weapons lab, where drones, autonomous systems, electronic warfare, and ground bots are being stress-tested in real time. 

For any 'war unicorn' startup trying to validate AI-enabled killing machines, Ukraine has become the proving ground, and soldiers on the front lines will quickly tell these startups whether their products work or not - that's the part of hyperinnovation that people aren't seeing yet, but it is becoming visible as low-cost AI killing systems begin to spread across the world. 

Last month, we were the first to debut a new video showing the Phantom MK1 robot operating a mobile light mortar system during a live-fire training exercise in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Now several Ukrainian news outlets, including United24 Media, say that Ukraine plans to launch a grant competition to develop humanoid robots for military use, part of a broader push to automate the front line and reduce battlefield risk for its troops.

Here's more from the report:

Ukraine will launch a grant competition focused on developing humanoid robots for the needs of the Defense Forces, Brave1 head Andrii Hrytseniuk said during the Brave1 Advantage event, attended by a Militarnyi correspondent on July 2.

The main goal of the initiative is to robotize as much of the first line of contact as possible and reduce risks for Ukrainian service members.

According to Hrytseniuk, the project follows a wider global trend, as humanoid robotics is rapidly developing in the United States and China.

At the initial stage, Ukrainian developers are expected to focus on simpler platforms that can gradually receive more advanced functions.

Unlike the global civilian humanoid robot market, Ukraine's program will focus strictly on defense needs and military use cases.

Meanwhile, CNBC finally caught up in the reporting ... 

With Phantom MK1 robots reportedly making their debut in Ukraine earlier this year, Foundation could be emerging as one of the leading humanoid robotics players for the modern battlefield among Western militaries.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 04:45

Europe's Climate-First Policies Fuel Resistance To Air Conditioning As More Than 1,300 Die In Heat Waves

Via American Greatness,

Europe continues to rely on alternatives to air conditioning even as deadly heat waves claim lives across the continent.  Officials argue that expanding air conditioning is not a long-term solution.

France’s record-breaking heat last week has been linked to about 1,000 deaths, most involving elderly people.

According to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Europe has recorded more than 1,300 excess heat-related deaths since June 21.

Despite experiencing fewer hot days than many other regions, it also records the highest number of heat-related deaths per capita.

A 2007 study found that air conditioning can reduce heat-related deaths by 75%. Even so, only about 20% of European homes have air conditioning, compared with roughly 90% of homes in the United States.

Rather than expanding air conditioning, many European officials have focused on alternative strategies, including public cooling stations and other measures designed to reduce heat in densely populated historic cities.

Ine Vandecasteele, an urban adaptation expert with the European Environment Agency, said widespread air conditioning is not the preferred solution.

“My honest response is I don’t think that should be the solution anywhere,” Vandecasteele told CBS News.

“It is an immediate response, which can support essentially those who may be vulnerable in hospitals, or in very short term can help. But in the longer term, what happens is, installing more air conditioning actually emits more heat into our environment, so it will actually increase the speed of warming.”

Higher energy costs have also discouraged broader adoption of air conditioning across much of Europe.

Italy has taken a different approach than many of its European neighbors.

According to the National Institute of Statistics, about 56% of Italian homes had air conditioning as of 2024.

European Union data also show Italy accounts for roughly one-third of the bloc’s electricity consumption for air conditioning.

Italian officials have also distributed wearable devices in Rome to monitor elderly residents, who face the greatest risk during periods of extreme heat.

Public attitudes toward air conditioning also differ from those in the United States. A recent survey in France found that one in six respondents said they would rather endure the heat than increase air conditioning use for environmental reasons.

Vandecasteele said she was not surprised by those findings. “We’re not doing this for us,” she said. “We’re doing this for the future generations.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/03/2026 - 04:00

Canada Was A Liberal Paradise... Until The Liberals Took Over

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

There was a version of this country that worked.

This was a country that used to punch above its weight across all key metrics and in a large part, did so espousing classical liberal values.

Multiculturalism here was both uncontroversial and functional. People came from everywhere, integrated, and got on with building lives, businesses and contributing to that overall ethos Canadian culture.

Minority rights and gender equality stopped being fights and became defaults.

Ontario, the most populous province, ran one of the cleanest grids on the continent for half a century on the back of CANDU, a reactor we designed ourselves. Peaceful, homegrown, zero-carbon, clean energy, and nobody lost any sleep over it. In fact, most people probably weren’t even aware of that.

By every classical liberal measure that actually mattered, Canada was a success story that inspired the rest of the world.

I want to be precise about the word “liberal”. The small-l, “classic” version meant open markets, open minds, equal treatment, and a state clueful enough to stay out of the way. That Canada earned its stature honestly.

Then, in 2015, the big-L Liberals took over the small-l idea. They have spent a decade undertaking what looks like something between a “controlled demolition” and act of subversion.

Start with energy, our single largest missed opportunity

We can’t build pipelines. A country sitting on one of the largest energy endowments on earth cannot get its own product to its own coast or even to its own citizens. In 2017 the Trudeau government changed the rules and moved the goalposts on the Energy East pipeline which resulted in its cancellation.

Canada is sitting on the fourth largest oil reserves on earth, after other political temperate zones: Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and we import between 500K – 600K barrels per day, nearly all of it, from the United States (“Elbows Up!”)

When Germany came knocking in 2022, Chancellor Scholz flew here and asked, practically begged, for us to sell them natural gas. Russia has just invaded Ukraine, and that put the Germans (which had wisely demolished their own nuclear power grid) into an awkward spot of having to buy energy from Putin.

Our answer?  There has “never been a strong business case.” Maybe we could interest the Germans in some solar panels and windmills. They went and signed a fifteen-year deal with Qatar instead. Qatar. Not exactly a human-rights exemplar, especially during Pride Month.

We did eventually sign an LNG deal with Germany, off the West Coast, in May of this year. Four years late, for volumes that would have looked modest in 2022. Better than nothing. Slower than everything.

None of this was an accident of incompetence. It was ideology. A decade of WEF-flavoured talking points, degrowth dressed up as climate virtue, and a governing instinct that treated Canadian resource wealth as something to apologize for.

Ottawa’s own reports spelled out the anti-capitalist drift in black and white (Bombthrower covered one here). When the environment file is handed to a former Greenpeace activist pinned to the far left of the spectrum, the pipeline math and the LNG math and the nuclear math all start to make a grim kind of sense.

Speaking of nuclear. The recent strategy was supposed to prove we still build things. “10 New Nuclear Reactors!” Oh boy.

Read past the headline. The plan is:

• two reactors under construction …by 2035, and
• five more “planned” (or “under development”) by… (checks notes)… 2040.

Planned. Under development. Unserious.

Meanwhile…. over in China,  they’re projecting roughly 200 gigawatts of total capacity, which means about 100 new reactors, finished and powered-on by 2040. They finish a reactor in about five years, and they a couple dozen under construction simultaneously. We are going to have started two.

We invented the CANDU. We are now a rounding error in the industry we helped create.

On Indigenous affairs, honesty requires two things at once

Most people can only manage one.

The first is that the historical record is genuinely damning. Broken treaties. Mishandled reserves. The residential schools. Generational neglect. Like slavery in the United States and elsewhere across the world, our treatment of First Nations casts a long shadow, and pretending otherwise isn’t helpful.

The second is that none of us alive today built that system. Nobody alive today bears any culpability for it. How could we?

The dichotomy between responsibility and duty was always so cogently captured in a lecture I remember in college, given by the late Jack Richardson: the great Canadian producer. I remember it well, but I’ll paraphrase:

“When you’re the producer on a record, your job is to deliver the master to the label – full stop.

Anything that gets in the way of that: the bass player dies of a heroin overdose, somebody burned the studio down, the lead singer’s wife left him and now he’s out on a ledge…

…all kinds of things can go wrong and none of them may actually your fault, but every single one of them is your problem.

You have to deliver the fucking record. That’s on you“.

That is exactly where reconciliation should sit. Something we did not cause and still have to remedy… somehow.

But nothing that we do are actual remedies.

Instead of the hard, unglamorous business of clean water, functioning services and honoured agreements, we got theatre: Never-ending land acknowledgements read off laminated cards. Streets renamed, it seems deliberately, to incomprehensible text strings. Empty gestures that move no needle on any stated goal and instead breed the exact resentment they claim to be healing.

A growing share of the public has stopped seeing any of this as a lingering injustice to be addressed but now views it as a permanent guilt-management industry to tune out.

The elephant in the room: Immigration

Immigration was our masterpiece.

For decades we skimmed the cream of the planet. Skilled, educated, motivated people from every culture and country, selected through a points system that drilled down on simple KPI: can you come here, integrate, and build something? Successful applicants kept their heritage, celebrated it, added it to the mix, …and got to work.

We took people on humanitarian grounds too, generously so, but never more than we could economically and culturally absorb.

That gave us extraordinary dynamism. Entrepreneurs and investors who arrived with nothing and hit it out of the park. Chamath Palihapitiya came as a refugee from Sri Lanka and became one of the most influential venture investors of his generation.

Prem Watsa came from India and built Fairfax into a company that earned him the “Canadian Warren Buffett” tag honestly.

Legends, both. We could use as many of those as the world will send us.

Then we changed the filter.

The points system asked whether you could succeed here. The volume model, switched on after (guess when?) 2015, asked almost nothing. The targets stopped being calibrated to housing, services, and absorption capacity, and got calibrated to two different things instead: cheap imported labour for the mega-employers who lobbied for it, and a river of tuition to turn colleges into degree farms selling permanent residency with a diploma stapled to it.

The numbers got loud. Population grew faster in 2023 than in any year since the 1950s, almost entirely through immigration, into a housing market that was already broken. We’ve all seen the graph, I don’t need to repost it. By 2024 Ottawa was admitting north of 480,000 permanent residents a year, with temporary-resident inflows stacked on top that pushed the real figure far higher.

Then, even the Capital-L Liberals blinked. In late 2024 they slashed the targets and Justin Trudeau conceded, in his own words, that they “didn’t get the balance quite right.” Permanent-resident targets came down to 395,000 for 2025 and 380,000 for 2026, with brutal cuts to international students. Mark Carney, having replaced him, kept the lower numbers. Governments do not reverse that hard, that fast, on policies that are working.

Here is the part that gets people shouted down for raising, so let me be clear here:

This is a screening argument, and nothing else.

When you select immigrants, you screen. At least you’re supposed to.

Skills, language, education, and yes, background. When you stop selecting and simply move volume, you stop screening, and you get the entire Bell-curve of humanity – and quite possibly the wrong tail of it. That includes people from low-trust societies who carry their grievances and factional conflicts across the border with them, and it includes the criminal minority that any large, unvetted inflow will contain.

Ethnicity is beside the point here. The removed filter is the entire point.

The failure compounds when institutions respond to the predictable problems by looking away or dismissing credible criticisms as racism. When a serious crime involving a recent arrival gets softened in the media coverage, or when the judge sentencing a convicted violent criminal dials back the penalties in order to avoid deportation, ordinary people notice. They are not stupid.

People start rumbling about “two-tier” justice systems and “immigration discounts” for criminals, and they are correct.

True story: Racism in Canada had been all but eradicated.

This is reason I bothered writing any of this. Because it’s Canada Day. And I see too many reactions to what has happened in this country get boiled down to the lowest-IQ filter that exists: racism.

For what now seems like a bygone Golden Age, racism in this country was basically over.

Structural racism had been excised from the systems and institutions while garden variety cultural racism was confined to relatively few fringe dwellers. Every few families had one of those Archie Bunker type uncles and nobody really took them seriously.

The overwhelming majority of Canadians, born here and immigrants alike, simply did not organize their lives around skin colour. That was the win. That was paradise. We had it.

Some may say we always sorted ourselves, that Little Italy and Little India prove it (“Checkmate, multiculturists!”). They actually prove the opposite. Ethnic neighbourhoods are on-ramps: the first generation clusters for the food and the familiarity, the second scatters to the suburbs and marries out (including inter-marriage with other groups); and the whole thing runs on choice and empties itself by design. A bakery on a corner is culture. A hiring rule keyed to race is policy. The paradise ran on the former and its destruction happens on the latter.

Look at where a decade of dismantling this has left us.

For starters, racism is back from both sides, with a twist:

Structural racism came back, only this time wearing progressive branding. Job postings openly signal racial and other identity preferences. Criminal sentencing now weighs a defendant’s race, background and immigration status.  A system that largely made race irrelevant has spent the last decade making it central again, then acts astonished at the reaction.

And because of that reaction cultural racism is now, also back with a vengeance. Resentment festers among perfectly normal people, including fully integrated immigrants from the earlier waves who did everything right and now watch the standard collapse behind them. That Archie-Bunker racism, the crude ambient kind we had mostly shamed out of public life, is back and being said out loud. Grassroots organizations that used to sit at the crank-fringe are growing past it. Social media runs on lowest-common-denominator rage bait, and a lot of it is now straight-up racist.

We spent forty years turning down the temperature on race in this country and it worked. Then, in the name of turning it down further, we cranked it al the way back up.

The title isn’t a joke, it’s the truth.

A classically liberal paradise is precisely what we built. Open, tolerant, prosperous, boringly functional, (“peace, order, good government”) the envy of people who had to flee places that were none of those things. The small-l achievement was real, and it was ours.

The big-L party inherited it, mistook the inheritance for a mandate to undertake a mass civilizational social engineering project, and spent a decade trading competence for platitudes, energy for symbolism, selection for volume, and hard-won racial peace for a fresh cycle of division marketed as inclusivity.

We had this one in the bag.

Now, not so much.

Happy Canada Day.

If you’re a net-producer, high agency Canadian interested in joining a like-minded group for the politically homeless in Canada, check out Ready.ca

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 23:25

US Fentanyl Crisis Eases But Remains Dominant

According to the latest provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. drug overdose deaths have come down from the peaks of the past years while remaining at high levels.

Recent figures suggest a notable decline to around 70,000 annual fatalities in 2025, following a peak of nearly 110,000 in 2023.

Still, synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, continue to be the main driver of overdose mortality, involved in more than half of the U.S. cases and underscoring the scale and persistence of the crisis.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz shows in the chart below, the role of synthetic opioids has grown dramatically over the past decade... 

You will find more infographics at Statista

In early 2015, fentanyl and related substances were involved in just 12 percent of all drug overdose deaths. This share rose steadily in the following years, surpassing 50 percent by early 2020 and reaching around two-thirds of overdose deaths by 2021-2022, as the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation.

At its peak in 2023, synthetic opioids accounted for roughly 70 percent of all overdose fatalities in the country, highlighting how decisively fentanyl has overtaken other drugs, in part because its extreme potency makes it cost-effective to mix into other drugs, thereby increasing the risk of overdoses.

The underlying trend reflects both a sharp increase in deaths linked to synthetic opioids and a relative stabilization, or even decline, of fatalities involving other substances. 

Deaths involving fentanyl surged from fewer than 6,000 per month in early 2015 to more than 75,000 annually by 2023 (12-month rolling totals), while deaths linked to other drugs remained broadly flat or declined slightly over the same period.

However, the latest provisional CDC data point to a potential turning point.

Throughout 2024, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids declined from around 72,700 in January to below 50,000 by December (rolling totals), bringing their share of total overdose deaths down to about 60 percent.

While this marks a notable improvement, fentanyl remains at the center of the U.S. overdose epidemic.

Public health experts attribute the recent decline to a combination of factors, including expanded access to naloxone (a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses), increased public awareness, intensified prevention efforts and shifts in drug supply.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 23:00

The 4 Percent Rule Is Showing Its Age: Smarter Withdrawal Strategies For 2026

Authored by Peter Daisyme via Due,

The 4 percent rule has guided retirement planning for three decades. The idea is simple: withdraw 4 percent of your savings in year one, adjust that dollar amount for inflation each year after, and your money should last about 30 years. It is a useful starting point and a great mental shortcut. But the person who created it has spent recent years telling people it is far more flexible - and often more generous - than the rigid version most savers cling to.

Experts say the best retirement withdrawal strategy adjusts to changing conditions. oneinchpunch/shutterstock Where The 4 Percent Rule Came From

Financial planner William Bengen introduced the rule in 1994 after crunching decades of historical market data. He wanted to find the highest withdrawal rate that would have survived even the worst market conditions of the 20th century, including the Great Depression and the brutal 1970s. The answer he landed on was about 4 percent, and the figure stuck so firmly that it became gospel.

The crucial detail that gets lost is what "survived the worst case" actually means. Bengen was not describing the typical retirement - he was describing the single most unfortunate starting year in history. For the vast majority of retirees, a portfolio drawn down at 4 percent not only lasted; it grew substantially.

What The 4 Percent Rule Gets Right - And Wrong

The rule's strength lies in its simplicity and conservatism. It forces you to think in terms of a sustainable withdrawal rate rather than a lump sum, and it builds in a margin of safety. The weakness is that the same conservatism can leave you underspending for decades and dying with a fortune you never enjoyed.

"The 4 percent rule - or the newer version of the 4.7 percent rule - is the worst-case scenario. It's really designed for only the most conservative person to use in retirement planning."

That is Bengen himself, quoted by Bankrate. With broader diversification across asset classes, he has argued that retirees may be able to start with withdrawal rates closer to 4.7 percent in some circumstances. In other words, the famous 4 percent figure is better viewed as a conservative baseline than a hard spending limit.

Why 2026 Calls For A Flexible Approach

A fixed percentage ignores what is actually happening around you. Markets rise and fall, and inflation eats into every dollar you pull out. Bengen has called inflation retirees' "greatest enemy" for exactly this reason - a few bad inflation years early in retirement can do lasting damage to a portfolio. Morningstar's ongoing research has landed on a more cautious starting figure in some years, underscoring that there is no single magic number that works in every environment.

The real risk hiding behind the 4 percent rule is called sequence-of-returns risk. If the market drops sharply in your first few years of retirement while you are also withdrawing, you sell assets at depressed prices, and your portfolio may never fully recover. The same average return delivered in a different order can produce wildly different outcomes. That is why when you retire and how you adjust matter as much as the percentage you choose.

A Real-World Look At Sequence Risk

To see why flexibility matters so much, picture two retirees who both start with $1 million and both average the same 7 percent return over time. The only difference is the order of those returns. The first retiree hits a string of strong market years right after retiring; the second runs into a steep downturn in years one and two. Even though their average returns are identical over the long run, the second retiree is withdrawing money from a shrinking portfolio at the worst possible moment, locking in losses they can never fully recover. Years later, the first retiree may have more money than they started with, while the second is watching their balance dwindle.

That is sequence-of-returns risk in plain terms, and it is the best argument against rigidly withdrawing a fixed inflation-adjusted amount no matter what. A retiree willing to trim spending modestly during the early bad years dramatically improves their odds of never running out.

Three Withdrawal Strategies Worth Considering

Instead of locking yourself into one rate, build in flexibility. These approaches all reduce the odds of running dry while letting you spend more when conditions allow:

• Guardrails: Start near 5 percent, then trim spending in down years and give yourself a raise after strong ones.
• The bucket approach: Keep one to two years of expenses in cash so you never sell investments during a downturn.
• Dynamic spending: Tie withdrawals to portfolio performance rather than a rigid inflation adjustment, so your spending breathes with your balance.

Each acknowledges a simple truth: real retirees do not spend the exact same inflation-adjusted amount every year for 30 years. They flex, and a strategy that flexes with them is more realistic and usually more efficient.

How To Set Your Own Number

Your personal safe rate depends on several factors the rule of thumb ignores:

• Your retirement age and realistic life expectancy.
• How much of your spending is covered by guaranteed income, such as Social Security or a pension?
• Your asset mix and your tolerance for spending cuts in a bad year.
• Whether leaving a large inheritance is a goal or a non-issue.

A 70-year-old with a pension and modest spending can safely withdraw far more than 4 percent. A 55-year-old early retiree with no other income should probably start at a lower level. The number is personal, which is exactly why a one-size-fits-all rule eventually breaks down. The healthiest approach is an annual check-in where you review your balance, spending, and remaining time horizon, and then adjust. Early in retirement, when sequence risk is highest, these reviews matter most.

Don't Forget Taxes In Your Withdrawal Plan

Your withdrawal rate is only half the equation; the order in which you tap your accounts matters too. Pulling money tax-efficiently - generally from taxable accounts first, then tax-deferred accounts like a traditional 401(k), and finally Roth accounts - can stretch your savings meaningfully further than withdrawing haphazardly. Required minimum distributions, the taxation of Social Security, and Medicare premium thresholds all interact with how much you withdraw and from where. A retiree who coordinates withdrawals with taxes can often support a higher effective spending rate than one who ignores them, simply by keeping more money out of the government's hands. It is one more reason the rigid 4 percent rule is just a starting point rather than a complete plan.

The Bottom Line

Treat the 4 percent rule as a floor for planning, not a ceiling for spending. Run your own numbers, account for your guaranteed income and time horizon, stay flexible enough to adjust in volatile years, and revisit the plan annually. Done right, you avoid both nightmares: running out of money too soon and reaching the end of a long life having denied yourself a retirement you could easily have afforded. If you want a deeper framework, our retirement planning guide can help you pressure-test your assumptions before you stop working.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 22:35

US Navy Tests 3D-Printed Composite Patches To Speed Up F/A-18 Fighter Jet Repairs

Authored by Mrigakshi Dixit via Interesting Engineering,

The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) have co-developed a 3D-printed composite repair method designed to reduce F/A-18 Super Hornet maintenance times by approximately 50 percent.

An F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot prepares for flight at Fleet Readiness Center Southwest in San Diego.NAWCAD Visual Information

When an F/A-18 fighter jet gets damaged at a remote base, fixing its advanced composite parts typically takes weeks. The Navy had to wait for specialized technicians to arrive or ship massive parts across the globe to repair depots in the US, keeping combat jets grounded.

Also, the Navy faces a drop in critical combat readiness as it struggles to keep up with fighter jet repairs.

The new method could solve this challenge. The engineers have designed a high-performance, 3D-printed composite patches that can be manufactured and applied directly onto grounded aircraft. Rather than waiting weeks for a shipping container, sailors at forward bases can soon hit print.

"Our goal is to put capability directly into the hands of the Fleet," said NAWCAD Commander Rear Adm. Todd Evans. "By simplifying a complex repair so it can be done forward, our engineers would get aircraft back in the fight faster - it's a smart solution that makes our squadrons more self-sufficient and directly improves operational readiness."

Print, Patch, Fly

The strategy's real advantage is that it leverages infrastructure the Navy already owns. As per the official release, the service has deployed industrial 3D printers to 22 maintenance sites around the world. The process strips away geographic vulnerability.

Sailors can complete repairs on-site instead of waiting for replacement parts to be shipped from repair depots in the United States by manufacturing the necessary patches where the aircraft are deployed.

Transitioning 3D printing from a novelty to a flight-ready combat repair requires extreme precision. To guarantee safety, the joint engineering team developed extensive application procedures and specialized quality checks. The patches are designed to withstand the extreme aerodynamic forces and thermal environments typical of supersonic fighter operations.

The technology has already passed strict laboratory tests.

Flight Testing Expected Soon

In the summer, it faces the ultimate test: a live flight demonstration on an operational Super Hornet. This is the U.S. Navy's primary carrier-based, twin-engine fighter jet. It handles everything from air-to-air combat to precision bombing runs.

Testing the 3D-printed patch on an operational jet, instead of a stripped-down laboratory model, will be a huge milestone. It will ultimately showcased whether or not the Navy is confident enough to let a pilot fly a frontline combat jet at high speeds with a 3D-printed part attached to it.

Reportedly, this deployment of the new patch method aligns with a major structural shift for the U.S. Marine Corps, which plans to deactivate all remaining Hornet squadrons by 2030. The service is phasing out the maintenance specialties associated with the aging fighter jet as it transitions entirely to a tactical fleet of fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft.

Nevertheless, if the method gets widely adopted, the patch method will fundamentally alter how naval aviation views sustainment. The Navy will be able to respond to the demands of modern combat with much greater speed and agility.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 21:45

America's $31 Trillion Economy By State

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, its economy has grown to nearly $31 trillion, making it the world’s largest by a wide margin.

Using the latest estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), this visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, ranks every state by nominal GDP in 2025, showing how each contributes to national output.

California: The Economic Engine of America

If California were an independent country, it would have the world’s fourth-largest economy, behind only the U.S., China, and Germany, and ahead of all other nations. It is currently the world’s largest subnational economy.

This data table lists U.S. states by their 2025 nominal GDP.

Rank State Nominal GDP in 2025 (billions $) Share of U.S. GDP (%) 1 California 4,251 13.8 2 Texas 2,904 9.4 3 New York 2,468 8.0 4 Florida 1,835 6.0 5 Illinois 1,202 3.9 6 Pennsylvania 1,056 3.4 7 Ohio 967 3.1 8 Georgia 925 3.0 9 Washington 895 2.9 10 North Carolina 894 2.9 11 New Jersey 887 2.9 12 Massachusetts 820 2.7 13 Virginia 798 2.6 14 Michigan 730 2.4 15 Arizona 598 1.9 16 Tennessee 590 1.9 17 Colorado 584 1.9 18 Maryland 568 1.8 19 Indiana 545 1.8 20 Minnesota 531 1.7 21 Wisconsin 473 1.5 22 Missouri 468 1.5 23 South Carolina 379 1.2 24 Connecticut 376 1.2 25 Oregon 343 1.1 26 Alabama 341 1.1 27 Louisiana 340 1.1 28 Utah 316 1.0 29 Kentucky 307 1.0 30 Nevada 281 0.9 31 Iowa 277 0.9 32 Oklahoma 274 0.9 33 Kansas 241 0.8 34 Arkansas 198 0.6 35 Nebraska 198 0.6 36 District of Columbia 193 0.6 37 Mississippi 165 0.5 38 New Mexico 153 0.5 39 Idaho 136 0.4 40 New Hampshire 126 0.4 41 Hawaii 125 0.4 42 Delaware 117 0.4 43 West Virginia 109 0.4 44 Maine 103 0.3 45 Rhode Island 84 0.3 46 Montana 82 0.3 47 North Dakota 82 0.3 48 South Dakota 81 0.3 49 Alaska 75 0.2 50 Wyoming 53 0.2 51 Vermont 48 0.2 - 🇺🇸 U.S. 30,762 100.0

California is a powerful, diversified economy in which different sectors dominate different areas. Los Angeles, for example, is a major media hub, while San Francisco and the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley remain a global center for many of the world’s most valuable tech firms.

The Central Valley, meanwhile, serves as one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, with high output in dairy products, wine, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

Beyond these well-known sectors, the Golden State is also a major player in energy, particularly solar power, as well as a key logistics hub owing to the massive ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The Trillion-Dollar Club

Beyond California, five other states have a GDP exceeding a trillion dollars as of 2025: Texas ($2.9 trillion), New York ($2.5 trillion), Florida ($1.8 trillion), Illinois ($1.2 trillion), and Pennsylvania ($1.1 trillion).

Some of these state economies, like Illinois and New York, are highly concentrated in one major city, such as Chicago or New York City. Others, like Florida and Texas, are more diffuse. Four Texan cities, for example, number among the country’s 10 most populous as of 2025.

In line with its diversified economy, Texas is a major agricultural, defense, and energy player. The Lone Star State also has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.

The Diversified U.S. Economy

While technology and entertainment drive California, Texas combines energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and defense.

Elsewhere, states specialize in industries ranging from finance and pharmaceuticals to tourism and farming. This geographic diversity helps make the U.S. economy more resilient, as slowdowns in one industry or region can be offset by strength in others.

The Great Plains, for example, are major producers of agricultural goods like soy and corn, as seen in the Iowan ($277 billion) and Nebraskan ($198 billion) economies. These states are particularly sensitive to droughts or trade disputes with major agricultural markets like China or Mexico.

Meanwhile, other states depend more on tourism, particularly in major cities. Nevada’s $281-billion economy, for example, is heavily concentrated in Las Vegas, making the state vulnerable to drops in tourist numbers.

Curious how each U.S. state ranks in terms of its business reputation? Check out Ranking the Best State Economies in 2024 on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 21:20

'Something Has Gone Completely Wrong': Palantir's Alex Karp Goes Ballistic On OpenAI, Anthropic

On Wednesday, Palantir CEO Alex Karp delivered a blistering critique of frontier AI labs, accusing them of having an "effing insane" business model that leaves enterprises paying escalating token costs for limited value while risking their proprietary data and intellectual property. He said that top AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI were misleading corporate partners - "overselling" the risks of AI while at the same time offering their most powerful models to companies and governments worldwide. 

When CNBC host Becky Quick said "You sound pretty angry," Karp replied: "This is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me," he told CNBC, joking later that he might "get kicked out of the room."

Karp's comments come amid a "revolt" against U.S. AI labs - driven by a combination of high costs, questionable ROI, and increasing regulatory headwinds which have driven some major U.S. companies to cheaper Chinese alternatives, creating multiple pressure points for OpenAI, Anthropic, and others.

"Something Has Gone Completely Wrong"

Karp slammed the token model used by Anthropic and OpenAI - saying "I'm not throwing shade at them, but something has gone completely wrong," he said. "The basic view among enterprises in this country is I'm going to chillax and waste my time with tokens."

He argued that that labs were overselling risks while simultaneously pushing powerful models, and that companies were effectively paying a "wealth tax" that transferred their "alpha" (competitive advantage) to third parties. On national security, he warned: "Are we really going to outsource the battlefield of this country to the consensus view in Silicon Valley? That is effing insane."

Palantir CEO Alex Karp on what customers actually want, the real business of frontier labs, and the importance of open source models:

“What the technical customers want is control over their compute, their models, their data stack, and their alpha. They want to know they own the… pic.twitter.com/2hvTx7VSyj

— Palantir (@PalantirTech) July 1, 2026

The remarks aligned with a 9-point "AI sovereignty" manifesto Palantir posted on X the day before, which criticized "tokenmaxxing" for incentivizing disposable scripts over robust systems and urged institutions to retain control over their data, model weights, and competitive edge.

Via X: 

Our thoughts on the importance of AI sovereignty.

1. Your AI sovereignty dictates your institution’s future. Sovereignty is the precondition for choice. Relinquishing sovereignty transfers the future choices of your institution to others, who are likely to exploit it for their gain and your loss.

2. Data retention is your treasure. Transfer it at your own peril. Your ability to win is dictated by your ability to recognize and use your unique edges, and you keep winning by compounding the underlying data to generate new insights. Transferring that data hands over access to your pre-existing winning plays and yields the means of production for new ones.

3. Tokenmaxxing hijacks your value orientation and decreases your institutional fortitude and intelligence. The pursuit of high token usage incentivizes disposable scripts over robust software — with the addictive feeling of false progress. There is a reason why those selling tokens refuse to charge based on value.

4. Controlling your weights is controlling your fate. Weights are the distilled form of hard-won, accumulated institutional knowledge. If you let others control your weights, you are allowing them to migrate the alpha of your business to theirs.

5. There is no contradiction between sovereignty and alpha. The architecture that maximally preserves sovereignty is one that enables institutions to own their tribal knowledge, and to compound it as alpha.

6. Politicizing the technical issues involving sovereignty is what your adversary wants. Techno-politicization is the wellspring of false sovereignty. Techno-politicization drives decisions that seem to reduce dependency, but ultimately limit agency — especially on the battlefield in the West.

7. Real expertise is existential. Allowing politics or favoritism to determine your technical decisions rewards whoever is best at politics, not whoever is right. Listen to those closest to the problems, not those speaking most compellingly about them.

8. Learn from institutions that are winning or that have consistently delivered. Institutions facing existential threats do not have the luxury of making technical decisions based on political preferences.

9. Only listen to institutions, countries, and people who have a proven record of being right. A track record of correctness is the best and only signal for future correctness. Judging something as right or wrong based on who you like is exceedingly misguided.

"Controlling your weights is controlling your fate," the manifesto stated. "If you let others control your weights, you are allowing them to migrate the alpha of your business to theirs."

Karp noted Palantir's expanded Nvidia partnership, which enables custom, sovereign AI deployments where customers retain control over compute, models, data, and weights - a direct counter to the metered frontier API model.

Watch CNBC's full interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp

The Cost-Driven Shift To Chinese Models

As we've been noting, high token prices and mixed returns have prompted several U.S. companies to adopt or explore Chinese open-weight models:

• Microsoft is considering a Microsoft-hosted, fine-tuned version of China's DeepSeek V4 (or another open-source model) as a lower-cost engine for its Copilot Cowork agentic tool, as it moves toward usage-based pricing.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed the company cut internal AI spending by nearly 50% by defaulting engineers to Chinese open-weight models (Zhipu AI's GLM 5.2 and Moonshot AI's Kimi series) via an internal gateway, while maintaining high usage.
• Cursor, a fast-growing AI coding startup, built its Composer 2 model on top of Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.5 (backed by Alibaba).

Data from OpenRouter shows Chinese models capturing a rapidly growing share of global token consumption - in some periods exceeding 60% among top models - as enterprises seek cost relief without fully sacrificing capability.

Karp had warned against underestimating China's progress; these examples illustrate the trend in real time.

Watch the entire interview below:

here is the entirety of Palantir CEO Alex Karp's televised nervous breakdown this morning on CNBC pic.twitter.com/gzD8debrKB

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026 Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 21:15

Green Hypocrisy. The Case Of Baltimore's Bresco Waste-To-Energy Incinerator

Authored by Geoffrey Pohanka via RealClearEnergy,

One definition of hypocrisy is pretending to have beliefs, values, or virtues that your actions do not match. In simple terms, it means saying one thing and doing another.

On June 4th, 2024, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed executive order 01.01.2024.19, Implementing Maryland's Climate Pollution Reduction Plan. It stated Climate change poses an existential threat to the economy, natural resources, and public health for every Maryland resident. Maryland communities, particularly historically marginalized and overburdened communities, are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Maryland's Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 set ambitious climate goals for the State, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60% by 2031 and obtaining net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The Climate Pollution Reduction Plan estimates that the implementation of new climate policies will generate up to $1.2 billion in public health benefits, $2.5 billion increase in personal income for Marylanders, and a net gain of 27,400 jobs between now and 2031.

Clearly an ambitious plan to take on climate change that some describe as the greatest single threat to human existence. But how serious are the green advocates in Annapolis in taking on one of the single largest CO2 emitters in the state, and one that can't possibly be missed while driving the interstate through Baltimore.

I am talking about that large smokestack along I-95 in downtown Baltimore. This is the Bresco waste incinerator, the waste-to-energy plant that burns up to 2,250 tons of Baltimore's municipal trash every day. The Bresco incinerator is the 10th largest incinerator in the country, the largest single polluter in the city, and accounts for 36% of its total air emissions. Bresco's one smokestack emits more NOx into Baltimore's air than ever other stationary industrial source in the city combined, some 75% of the total releases. It is also one of the largest NOx emitters in the state. The NOx emissions are so large that closing the facility would be equal to taking over half the cars off Baltimore's roads. Every year, the incinerator emits more sulfur dioxide into Baltimore's air than all the cars and trucks on the road eight times over. It is also the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, releasing 690,033 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Lead emissions have totaled over 10,000 pounds since the plant began operations in 1985. The plant emits between 60 and 120 pounds of airborne mercury annually. This is over 30 times more mercury emissions per unit of energy produced than regional coal plants.

Maryland is a member of RGGI, the regional greenhouse gas initiative, that caps and taxes CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants. According to a Baltimore Sun article, RGGI is equivalent to a 44% tax on fossil fuel power plant revenues and has, at least indirectly, caused most of the State's coal power plants to become uneconomic to operate and voluntarily close. Though the plant does generate usable steam for heating and cooling of 255 downtown businesses and electricity for up to 40,000 homes, the Bresco incinerator emits roughly double the amount of greenhouse gases per megawatt hour of energy produced than each of the largest coal power plants that had operated in Maryland.

One important goal of Maryland's Climate Pollution Reduction Plan is to protect historically marginalized and disproportionately impacted populations from pollution. Yet 114,000 people living just a few miles from the incinerator, are exposed to its pollution daily. In a clear case of environmental injustice, Baltimore's most economically and socially vulnerable neighborhoods are more affected by air pollution from sources like Bresco than Baltimore's wealthy neighborhoods. Bresco is located in South Baltimore among predominantly low-income and Black communities. The combination of emissions from Bresco and local vehicle traffic have proven to be a toxic mix. South Baltimore is unfortunately home to some of the most polluted air in Baltimore City. As a result of this, South Baltimore has the highest hospitalization rates for asthma. The communities closest to Bresco also suffer from lower life expectancies. This all means that the communities Bresco affects most directly are also the communities least able to manage the health damages that Bresco causes. A report determined that the Bresco incinerator was responsible for $55 million in health problems a year for people living near it.

Considering the many environmental challenges this plant presents, one would logically be shocked to learn that not only is this plant not on the chopping block, it has been heavily subsidized by the State of Maryland. Since 2011 Maryland has classified waste-to-energy incineration as a Tier 1 renewable energy source under the Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires electric utility companies to source a portion of their energy from renewable energy sources. Between 2012 and 2022, over $100 million in subsidies have been granted to the two in-state trash incinerators to maintain operations, despite emissions of more greenhouse gas per unit of energy produced than other power sources and including coal power.

Very recently the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation ending the "misclassification" of trash incineration as renewable energy and will end subsidizing companies that burn trash, instead redirecting these funds toward investments more green sources of energy generation such as solar energy. This does not mean that Bresco's future will be in peril. When speaking with an important Maryland State Senator, I asked is it not better to put trash in a landfill instead of incinerating it? His response what that methane emissions from landfills was a greater menace to the environment the CO2 generated from burning waste. Perhaps he is unaware that modern landfills have the technology to capture methane before it enters the atmosphere and using it as a renewable resource. Studies have also shown that while methane has a powerful short-term impact on the climate, there is very little of it and it quickly dissipates once released into the atmosphere.

The latest word is that the 41 year old Bresco incinerator will likely continue to operate through the mid-2030s, according to a Maryland Department of Public works report.

Geoffrey Pohanka, Chairman, Pohanka Automotive Group, Capitol Heights MD

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 20:55

These Countries Have The Highest Percentage Of Female Population

Across most of the world, men and women are present in nearly equal numbers.

Yet in a handful of countries and territories, women make up well over half the population, creating some of the world’s largest gender imbalances.

This visualization, created by Harris Saleem via Visual Capitalist, ranks the countries and territories with the highest female share of the population using the latest available World Bank data.

Longer female life expectancy is a major factor, but migration and age structure also shape these demographic patterns.

Where Women Make Up the Largest Share

Hong Kong leads the ranking, with women accounting for 54.9% of the population. Moldova, Macao, Latvia, and Armenia round out the top five, each with female population shares above 53%.

 

Many countries on the list are in Eastern Europe or are island territories, where aging, migration, and historical mortality patterns can all have an outsized effect on the population mix.

 

Although the differences may appear small, they are significant at the national level. A female share above 53% can represent hundreds of thousands, and in larger countries millions, more women than men.

Why Some Countries Skew Female

In many developed economies, the answer often comes down to longer life expectancy. Women tend to outlive men globally due to biological advantages and lower exposure to certain high-risk behaviors and occupations. As populations age, this longevity gap becomes more visible.

Healthcare improvements also play a role. While better medical care has increased life expectancy for both sexes, women generally retain a longevity advantage that becomes more pronounced in older populations.

Migration can also reshape gender balances. In some countries, working-age men leave for jobs abroad, increasing the share of women who remain. In others, male-dominated immigration has the opposite effect.

When the Pattern Reverses

Not every country skews female. Some Gulf states, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have large male immigrant workforces, pushing their populations heavily male.

Meanwhile, parts of South Asia and China have historically seen male-skewed populations, partly reflecting son preference and imbalanced sex ratios at birth. National gender ratios are ultimately shaped by a combination of health, aging, migration, and social factors.

To compare the other side of the demographic divide, check out Countries With the Highest Percentage of Male Population.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 20:30

Feds, LAPD Announce Major Human Trafficking Sting In LA

Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times,

Federal authorities have arrested 10 people in a major human trafficking investigation, with prosecutors saying the individuals targeted children and adults along South Los Angeles' Figueroa Corridor, marking the second large federal operation in the area in less than a year.

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli speaks as Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell (R) and Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Los Angeles Field Division, look on at a press conference announcing an arrest in the Palisades Fire investigation in Los Angeles on Oct. 8, 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, alongside Homeland Security Investigations, the Los Angeles Police Department, and IRS Criminal Investigation, announced the arrests on July 1.

A 65-count superseding federal indictment, returned June 25 and unsealed July 1, alleges that members and associates of the Hoover Criminal Gang (HCG) controlled much of the sex trafficking and prostitution activity along the Figueroa Corridor between February 2021 and June 2026.

Prosecutors said the indictment identifies 51 alleged victims.

Nine defendants were arrested on July 1, while another defendant was taken into custody on June 29.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the arrests were intended to disrupt one of the city's most persistent trafficking operations.

"Sex trafficking of young women and children ranks among the worst criminal offenses our office prosecutes - truly the lowest of the low," he said.

Essayli added that officials hope the arrests will "break the cycle of crime and abuse in one of L.A.'s most notorious human trafficking corridors."

Gang Members Charged

Federal prosecutors said six newly charged defendants are alleged members or associates of the HCG. They face charges that include racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking of minors, sex trafficking through force, fraud, or coercion, drug trafficking conspiracy, and money laundering.

The indictment also charges Mukeshkumar Rambhai Ahir, 45, the manager of the Stadium Inn & Spas motel in South Los Angeles, with financially benefiting from the alleged trafficking operation.

Prosecutors allege that between September 2024 and January 2026, Ahir deposited more than $64,000 that he knew came from the gang's alleged sex trafficking activities.

They also allege he structured deposits by making smaller cash transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements. Those allegations have not been proven in court.

According to the indictment, gang members allegedly recruited vulnerable girls and young women through social media and face-to-face contact, focusing on minors, runaways, foster youth, and people facing financial or emotional hardship.

The suspects allegedly promised luxury lifestyles before using intimidation, violence, and drugs to maintain control over victims. They also allege that victims were forced to surrender all money earned from commercial sex work and were punished if they refused.

Federal prosecutors also announced separate indictments against three additional men accused of sex trafficking in unrelated cases connected to the broader enforcement effort.

Those cases involve allegations of trafficking minors between the ages of 15 and 17, as well as adults, through force, fraud, or coercion. Two of those defendants were arrested on July 1, while another was arrested on June 24, according to prosecutors.

If convicted, some defendants face mandatory minimum prison sentences of 15 years and could receive life sentences under federal law.

Meanwhile, the 11 defendants charged in the original federal indictment announced in 2025 have pleaded not guilty. Their trial is scheduled to begin on March 18, 2027.

Investigation To Continue

LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the operation represents more than a series of arrests.

"We are dismantling the criminal enterprises that profit from human trafficking, rescuing victims, and reclaiming the Figueroa Corridor for the community that has always deserved better," he said, according to the July 1 announcement.

During the news conference, McDonnell said the operation builds on "Operation Broken Blade," which began in August 2025.

"We promised results. Today, we're here to show them," McDonnell said.

He added that investigators "will continue with the relentless enforcement" and would not surrender the community to criminal organizations.

The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney's Office, with assistance from several state and local agencies and victim support organizations, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Saving Innocence.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/02/2026 - 20:05