Aggregator

"It's not the perfect end to the match."

Lindsay Clancy’s defense lawyer Kevin Reddington directly appealed to President Trump early Tuesday to pardon the killer mom after her murder trial ended in a mistrial last week.

The Gentlemen ends not with a bang, but with a chainsaw.

When in doubt, run. That could be the UCLA offense’s motto given what happened Saturday. A run game that went nowhere last season covered nearly as much ground as Bruins fans who drove to Berkeley from Los Angeles. UCLA’s 277 rushing yards against Cal were its most against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent since 2023....

It is always a difficult task whittling down the NFL’s 50 Most Interesting. There are so many world-class stars, so many characters, coaches in the spotlight, so many under-the-radar fan favorites from which to choose.

When the NBA announced the findings and penalties from the investigation into the Clippers’ alleged salary cap circumvention for star forward Kawhi Leonard, the summary report prepared by Wachtell Lipton had a clear statement toward the end of the 36-page report. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank and President of Business...

"It's the most jaw-dropping thing. It was literally on the plane when it went into the tower, which is just crazy," Jason Seymour said of his mom's purse, now in the collection of the 9/11 Museum.

Bolsonaro Leads Socialist Lula As "Huge Bet" On Right-Wing Victory Fuels Brazil ETF Options Frenzy

Summary:

• "Explosive Surge" in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) call open interest
• BTG Pactual/Nexus Survey Shows Bolsonaro Leads Over Socialist Lula 
• UBS Calls Brazil Election "Extremely Close" - Bolsonaro Win Would Cement LatAm's Political Shift

The BTG Pactual/Nexus survey released earlier today puts right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro narrowly ahead of socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, though within the margin of error, as a deepening Supreme Court scandal strengthens the conservative challenger's campaign.

🇧🇷‼️ | El Candidato Presidencial, Flávio Bolsonaro, lideró una masiva concentración de personas durante las celebraciones por el día de la independencia de Brasil. Bolsonaro afirmó que la voz del pueblo es la voluntad divina y aseguró que en las elecciones de octubre desplazará a… pic.twitter.com/UQkdjNQDyh

— UHN Plus (@UHN_Plus) September 7, 2026

At the center of the political turmoil is Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case that sent former President Jair Bolsonaro to prison for plotting a coup. Newly published private messages, according to Bloomberg, suggest closer ties between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of failed lender Banco Master, which is under investigation for fraud.

"Anyone who votes for Lula is voting for Alexandre de Moraes," Bolsonaro recently told supporters.

Polymarket odds for next month's Brazilian election show the gap between Bolsonaro and Lula narrowing dramatically.

Overnight, we ​​​​​​showed an "explosive surge" in iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) call open interest.

And someone appears to be making a huge bet on just that: explosive surge in EWZ call OI https://t.co/nqFaGgms4R pic.twitter.com/uen9bXmqBw

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 8, 2026

"The Brazil FOMO is real," The Market Ear wrote on X. 

EWZ call open interest just hit record highs. The Brazil FOMO is real.https://t.co/23lNn352mk

— The Market Ear (@themarketear) September 7, 2026

A Bolsonaro victory would reinforce South America's broader shift from unhinged left-wing regimes toward the common sense right.

UBS Calls Brazil Election "Extremely Close" - Bolsonaro Win Would Cement LatAm's Political Shift 

Socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's polling lead over right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has eroded in recent weeks, leaving both statistically tied in UBS' latest runoff polling average. 

Arend Kapteyn, UBS' global head of economics and strategy research, described the upcoming election in early October as "extremely close" in a note to clients on Monday.

Lula (Left); Bolsonaro (Right)

Kapteyn's note today puts Bolsonaro at 50.4% in a hypothetical runoff, against 49.6% for Lula, adding that the narrowing spread leaves the candidates statistically tied. 

Kapteyn continued:

On 4 October, Brazilians will vote for a president, the entire Chamber of Deputies and two-thirds of the Senate. Brazil currently has one of the highest real interest rates in the world, contributing to increasingly adverse debt dynamics. In our view, an election outcome that delivers a credible fiscal consolidation program could significantly improve the macroeconomic outlook. Relative to our baseline, real interest rates could fall by at least 2.5 percentage points (to around 5% from 7.5%), potential growth could be 1pp higher (2.5% rather than 1.5%), and inflation could be around 1pp lower (3.5% rather than 4.5%).

Our poll aggregator currently shows first-round voting intentions of 42.5% for Lula and 36.0% for Flávio Bolsonaro. Given the historical polling error of approximately 3 percentage points, the candidates' confidence intervals overlap. Rejection rates are elevated for both candidates, while other contenders collectively attract 21.5% of voting intentions. If no candidate secures an outright majority in the first round, a runoff will be held on 25 October.

The second round appears even tighter. Lula currently polls at 49.6% of voting intentions versus 50.4% for Flávio. Compared with our poll update a week ago, the lead has effectively changed hands. Importantly, these surveys were conducted before the latest controversy involving a Supreme Court justice, who is alleged to have advised an individual under fraud investigation, a case that could potentially implicate key allies within Lula's inner circle.

Historically, incumbent presidents have generally secured re-election when their "good or great" approval rating exceeded 40%. Lula currently stands at 37% on this measure. Conversations with two political consultants also suggest that momentum may be shifting in Flávio's favor. Nevertheless, prediction markets continue to assign Lula a modest advantage. Polymarket implies odds of roughly 55%-43% in Lula's ffavor while Kalshi places the race at approximately 55%-44%.

Polymarket Odds:

Read:

• Brazil's Socialist President Sees Lead Disappear As Bolsonaro Heir Turns Presidential Election Into Coin Toss
• Brazil's Socialist President Sees Lead Evaporating, New Poll Shows

The election may determine whether Brazil moves further left or right politically. Across the continent, the latest country to shift right was Colombia. Many others have followed:

By mid-2026, South America had already flipped. Argentina (Milei), Chile (Kast), Colombia (de la Espriella), Peru (Keiko Fujimori), Ecuador (Noboa), Bolivia (Paz), and Paraguay (Peña) sit on the right.

The remaining large left-wing governments are Brazil and Uruguay. Brazil accounts for about half of South America's GDP and population. If Brazil goes right, the region would be entirely aligned with the Trump administration and would be on track to rid itself of nation-killing socialism and other failed progressive experiments.

In Germany on Sunday, right-wing Alternative für Deutschland delivered its strongest election result ever in Saxony-Anhalt, dealing a sharp blow to the political establishment. Nomura analysts indicate that Europe may be in the early stages of "lurching right" (read the report).

Putting this all together, Western voters are rejecting nation-killing left-wing regimes that have done nothing more than allow mass migration, pursue progressive experiments, and neuter the West's industrial and power grids with climate change policies, which has only given China a leg up in the AI and weapons race. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/08/2026 - 07:50

With the exception of monitoring their young starting pitchers’ workloads, the Mets are still playing to win — often successfully — every day.

Thieves stole four Renoir paintings worth millions of euros from a French Riviera museum, dropping one as they fled, police said.

“He was spiraling."

The proud parents braved the rain as they walked alongside the 13-year-old while on their way into William's alma mater in Berkshire, England.

The proud parents braved the rain as they walked alongside the 13-year-old while on their way into William's alma mater in Berkshire, England.

Europe's Von der Leyen Wants To Put Private Bank Deposits Under State Direction

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

How will we deal with private property in Europe in the future?

A highly complex debate follows from this question, one that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen interpreted in her own very particular way on Friday. In a speech to French business leaders at the MEDEF’s La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France in Paris, the former defense minister talked about using EU citizens’ bank deposits to get the ailing eurozone, the European economy, back on its feet.

An unmistakable message: In the view of the EU’s chief Eurocrat, private property as a protective wall shielding citizens from an overreaching state has served its purpose as a pillar of civilization.

Central planning, subsidy madness – this is Brussels under the magnifying glass.

Certainly: In the face of towering government debt and capital flight from the old continent, in whose wake thousands of patents and tens of thousands of highly qualified professionals are being swept away, citizens’ wealth is bound to awaken political appetites. A ruthless expropriation or the decreed redirection of cash, as the finest bureaucratic German puts it, is supposed to solve the problems Brussels itself has caused through its stubborn climate policy, its overregulation and its continuing insanity of interventionism.

Von der Leyen was explicit before the business leaders: Europe has savings, she said, but unfortunately those savings are sitting on the sidelines. Ten trillion euros are sitting as cash savings in the hands of private households in bank accounts, lectures von der Leyen in the manner of a classic central planner who can no longer take her eyes off citizens’ wealth. The European economy must now put this capital to work for its companies, the chief bureaucrat decreed.

None of this merely sounds like Erich Honecker. Von der Leyen is increasingly turning into a socialist sister in spirit to this disastrous regime.

Von der Leyen is following the path of the German chancellor. Friedrich Merz, too, discovered the cash holdings of Germans as political capital for himself more than a year ago – thoroughly socialist, indeed almost dictatorial, the chancellor also pointed to the possibilities opened up by what he called an activation of this money.

Ursula von der Leyen and Friedrich Merz reveal not merely an ethical and ideological abyss; they are contemplating dictatorial control over the private wealth of citizens who are still sovereign.

Almost tragically comical is the economic ignorance of these two political protagonists of an EU that is now openly turning toward an illiberal ideology.

Bank deposits are by no means useless cash. From the perspective of the banking sector, customer deposits are a central source of refinancing and liquidity, embedded in the money and credit cycle and enabling the provision of loans. Bank credit in the modern monetary system does not simply arise from passing on existing deposits. Commercial banks create new bank money through lending, although this process cannot simply be understood as a mechanical “leveraging” of existing deposits. Customer deposits thus fulfill numerous functions, from private liquidity planning and cash holdings to the financing and management of banking processes.

Such a massive intervention in the highly complex and fragile liquidity and credit structure of the banking sector would not merely be a barbaric act of socialism – it would be a frontal assault on the functionality of the banking system as such.

Nevertheless, the EU will resort to massive interventions – financially, after all, they have run into a wall.

Starting in 2028, repayment of the €800 billion Eurobond “NextGenerationEU” will come due. Von der Leyen’s speech before business leaders was ostensibly directed at the private sector, but in reality it concerned the financing of the European debt club, which is now moving toward tapping every financial source that can help keep the Ponzi scheme of European credit alive – the activation of cash appears to be one of those sources.

France is caught in a debt spiral, with new borrowing amounting to 5.7% of GDP this year and a parliamentary deadlock that rules out any form of fiscal consolidation.

Germany, too, will post new borrowing of more than 5 percent next year if the municipal deficit, the special funds and the social insurance funds are included – making common financing through Eurobonds, the consolidation of the mountain of debt under the roof of the European Commission and under the active liquidity assistance of the ECB increasingly likely.

And here the circle closes.

While capital is leaving the old continent through every remaining, every still-open channel, the financial needs of the EU’s ideological grand experiment and its nation-states are growing beyond measure.

The green subsidy machine alone destroys billions year after year. The final push over the economic cliff, however, will come from Europe’s rediscovered appetite for militarism. Military Keynesianism is not, however, an economic alternative to the free market. It is merely another fiscal grave that the political leadership is digging in its panic in these months.

The following final chapter is essentially known: Brussels will opt for massive capital controls.

The framework for this is already taking shape: In two years, the digital euro is to be introduced, initially as a pilot phase and, almost certainly at a later stage, as a monetary standard that will allow Brussels to exercise complete control over transfers abroad.

A ban on foreign bank accounts for EU citizens is also on the table and is being introduced step by step, just like the digital ID and the harsh regulation of the crypto sector. Slowly but steadily, the gates are closing.

Basically, this is how it always works in socialism: One day, the central planners will run out of other people’s money. Only then does the grinding machinery of repression by the powerful central authority begin.

* * * 

About the author:  Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/08/2026 - 07:20

The monarch called the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests" in a letter on Monday.

The monarch called the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests" in a letter on Monday.

This is the season that will emphasize why the playoffs should, at minimum, be re-seeded by best-to-worst record after the first round — if not simply seeded that way from the outset.

Retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan, also known as "Decoy Dan," has been accused of secretly and illegaly colluding with a liberal group to take down his namesake Alaska senator, a watchdog alleged.

The biggest question about this team is whether Aaron Glenn can show that he should be the guy that leads the Jets beyond this year when the rebuild accelerates.

As a longtime beauty editor, I treated my face and body to the best products and treatments, but my underarm routine was pretty much nonexistent.