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The "Saturday Night Live" alum officiated the star-studded wedding at Madison Square Garden.

The "Saturday Night Live" alum officiated the star-studded wedding at Madison Square Garden.

Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to understand the folly of a wealth tax in California, yet he’s suddenly pushing one for the whole nation.

The figure is a sevenfold increase from Thursday, when the health department first announced two people had been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in the Manhattan nabes.

DENVER — It took until the last game of the series at Coors Field this weekend before a lead changed hands, almost unheard of in the mile-high ballpark that practically births chaos. In the end, it didn’t go in the Giants’ favor. The Giants’ Rafael Devers watches one of his two home runs Sunday against...

The Princess of Wales posed with her arm wrapped around her 12-year-old eldest, who almost surpasses her now in height.

The Princess of Wales posed with her arm wrapped around her 12-year-old eldest, who almost surpasses her now in height.

Tracking The Caribbean Super Yacht Migration

The superyacht season across the Caribbean and the Gulf of America has shifted into the off-season, with hurricane season now roughly a month in. As tropical activity risks rise across the Atlantic basin, some owners and charter fleets have shifted pleasure yachts and sailboats toward the Mediterranean, where the summer season is now in full swing. 

Ship-tracking and maritime intelligence platform MarineTraffic tracked the great migration of superyachts, including 2,156 departures of pleasure craft and sailing vessels from top Caribbean hubs between March and June. Of these, 161 showed a clear signal for an Atlantic, European, or Mediterranean route.

Out of 2,156 pleasure craft and sailing vessel departures recorded between March and June 2026 from Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the US Virgin Islands, St Barths, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, and St Martin / St Kitts / St Lucia, 161 movements showed a clear Atlantic, European or Mediterranean route signal.

The departure side is concentrated in a handful of familiar yachting hubs. Martinique led with 48 movements (29.8%), followed by Antigua with 37 (23.0%), Saint-Martin with 23 (14.3%), Guadeloupe with 17 (10.6%), and the U.S. Virgin Islands with 14 (8.7%). At port level, Le Marin stood out as the main starting point.

MarineTraffic described the journey to Europe as less of a direct sprint and more of a staged migration:

The journey is rarely direct. Many vessels cross the Atlantic in stages, using Bermuda and the Azores as natural waypoints before continuing toward southern Europe and the western Mediterranean. Horta is the main mid-Atlantic stop, accounting for 28 vessels, followed by St George's, Bermuda with 9, and Ponta Delgada with 3, reflecting the classic Caribbean–Azores–Europe crossing pattern. Once in European waters, vessels fan out toward key Mediterranean yachting hubs, led by Palma de Mallorca with 12 vessels, followed by smaller flows into Barcelona, Genoa, Ibiza, Monaco and Tivat.

The timing underlines the seasonal nature of the migration. May was the busiest month, accounting for 73 of the 161 movements (45.3%), ahead of April (33), June (32) and March (23). The fleet is dominated by sailing vessels, which account for 109 movements (67.7%), while pleasure craft represent 52 (32.3%). In the clearest crossing records, vessels had already travelled an average of around 2,700 nautical miles at roughly 6.6 knots, with some Caribbean-to-Palma routes extending to around 3,680 nautical miles.

The journey of pleasure craft from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean

As the Caribbean winter season gives way to the Mediterranean summer, pleasure craft begin one of the most visible seasonal repositioning patterns at sea. Using #MarineTraffic data, we can trace how these… pic.twitter.com/oQoGr1HhUp

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) July 2, 2026

The Atlantic hurricane season ends at the end of November and December is typically when superyachts begin returning to the Caribbean and Gulf of America for the holiday rush. That marks the start of the Caribbean's prime time charter window, with peak Caribbean yachting season running through April as owners and charter fleets shift back from the Mediterranean.

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/05/2026 - 19:15

Erling Haaland’s 80th-minute header, and 90th-minute blast, delivered his homeland its greatest victory ever, sending the Norwegians to their first World Cup quarterfinal after pulling off a 2-1 upset of Brazil.

No, The Framers Would Have Hated The Billionaire Tax

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in the Wall Street Journal on the bizarre claim of Gov. Gavin Newsom and others that the Framers would have supported wealth taxes, including the proposed Billionaire’s Tax. It is a claim that seeks to mask the economically unwise with the historically unfounded. The Framers sought to protect property from legislative redistributive impulses. James Madison wrote that the bicameral system, and particularly the Senate, “ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” That does not sound like an ally of Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna.

Was James Madison the Zohran Mamdani of his time? Gavin Newsom appears to think so. In joining the growing number of Democratic leaders supporting a wealth tax, the California governor claimed that the U.S. Constitution and our Founders were all about wealth distribution: “The system America’s founders built,” he said, “was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades.”

The only problem with this argument is that it is utterly and demonstrably false. The Madisonian democracy is designed to avoid the concentration of political power, not the concentration of wealth.

The Founders were great believers in capitalism and the free market. In my recent book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the economic philosophy of the Founders in exploring the history and future of this unique republic. This isn’t simply the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence but also the anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” which the Founders embraced.

Many of the Founders were themselves quite wealthy, including banker Robert Morris Jr., who was known as the “Financier of the Revolution” and would be a billionaire today.

Our revolution was the first true Enlightenment revolution, heavily influenced by writers such as John Locke, who believed in a natural right to property. That right came not from the government, but from God, and “excludes the common right of other Men.”

That Lockean principle was manifest in George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was a basis for the Declaration of Independence. It extolled “the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

James Madison drafted protections from government seizure of property, including the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which requires compensation for any property taken by the government.

The Constitution not only protects property, but was later amended to allow for income taxes rather than wealth taxes.

Far from supporting a wealth tax, the constitutional system referenced by Mr. Newsom makes a federal wealth tax unconstitutional.

Mr. Newsom’s recent endorsement of a national wealth tax was likely meant to blunt the outrage over his opposition to the resolution to create a state Billionaires’ Tax on the coming November ballot.

California has reportedly lost trillions of dollars in the exodus of billionaires and other wealthy taxpayers fleeing the high taxes and class politics of the state. Mr. Newsom knows that this draining of wealth spells doom for his state, which is already grappling with a massive, growing deficit. He offered a curious argument for opposing the state wealth tax: “You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do.”

The argument suggested that most citizens are effectively a captive population to be culled by California leaders, dupes who are unable to escape a state with a deadly combination of some of the highest taxes and highest living costs in the nation.

Unions and others pushed the Billionaire Tax to avoid budget cuts and fund the state’s runaway expenditures, from pension funds to projects such as the infamous high-speed train to nowhere.

To deal with California’s reverse Gold Rush, drafters made the proposed Billionaire Tax retroactive to claw back money from those who have escaped.

The national Billionaire Tax pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) seeks to cut off any escape for the wealthy short of leaving the country. When she ran for president, Ms. Warren warned the wealthy that she was coming for “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts.”

Of course, this assumes that the wealthy would be little more than passive prey in a hunt by the Internal Revenue Service. That is precisely what socialists thought in France decades ago, before an exodus from the country that, along with other socialist policies, brought it to near economic ruin. It was later rescinded.

Nevertheless, wealth taxes make for great politics. What is concerning is that, in addition to a wealth tax, Democratic leaders like Ms. Warren are pledging to pack the Supreme Court if they retake power. A packed court with an insistent liberal majority would let the Democrats push through measures that would otherwise be declared unconstitutional, including a wealth tax.

Congress could then gradually lower the level of wealth needed to trigger the tax, opening up the homes and estates of citizens as an untapped reservoir of money for the taking.

“You’re next” could then apply not just to office holders but to property owners in a push to redistribute wealth.

That strategy may well unfold in coming years, but it will be the realization of a Mamdanian, not a Madisonian, system.

Mr. Turley is a law professor at George Washington University and author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/05/2026 - 18:40

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Michigan Senate race, leaving the Democratic contest a two-way battle between Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens for the critical seat.

K-9 Santi, a five year old Belgian Malinois, was spending a well earned 4th of July night off when disaster struck

A beloved stretch of California’s rugged coastline is headed back to Indigenous stewardship after a Gavin Newsom-backed state commission approved the transfer of a popular Mendocino County beach to three Indigenous tribes. The 136-acre property, encompassing Blues Beach and the dramatic coastal bluffs just south of the community of Westport, will be transferred to Kai...

The biggest moment of Eliezer Alfonzo’s professional career will come amid the darkest moment of his personal life. Ahead of Alfonzo’s MLB debut on Sunday, reports from Venezuela confirmed that his stepmother and 16-year-old little sister — who had both been missing in the rubble of a hotel following last month’s devastating earthquakes in the...

Veteran Major League Baseball umpire C.B. Bucknor will retire at the end of the 2026 season, bringing to a close a three-decade career that was as controversial as it was lengthy. Bucknor is one of seven umpires who accepted Major League Baseball’s voluntary buyout offer as he chooses to step away before the league’s full...

Leavitt also suggested that school choice could be part of the remedy for the rise of the radical left.

Speaking to the media before the Red Sox's 8-1 win over the Angels on Saturday, Contreras said he felt it was important to take responsibility for his actions, even though his suspension was still under appeal.

'Thought People Hated Him': Trump Surprised Iranians Are Crying At Khamenei's Funeral Amid Massive Turnout

President Trump this weekend mused in an interview with Axios that so many people and officials are currently gathered for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's funeral in Tehran that they could all be taken out in one fell swoop.

"They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with," Trump said.

AFP via Getty Images

He again emphasized that the Iranians "are begging to make a deal" but said both sides decided to take a week off from the conflict as well as talks to give time for Khamenei's funeral events to end. There are major public events scheduled to go for up to a week.

Trump acknowledged that neither side will shoot at the other as the funeral procession and multi-city observances continued. Predictions in international press accounts have said events are expected to attract some 30 million mourners.

The first and second days of public funeral ceremonies in Tehran attracted millions of people, after Friday saw top representatives from at least 70 foreign governments pay last respects.

Amid the scenes of public mourning, and also with some Iranian officials loudly calling for 'revenge' - Trump made this interesting comment to Axios:

He added that he was surprised to see some Iranians crying at the funeral, saying he thought people hated Khamenei. "Maybe it's fake tears," Trump mused.

Footage and images of massive crowds of people packing out central Tehran squares and roads have flooded social media over the weekend. External critics and enemies of Iran have been claiming that millions of people were 'forced' by Iran's security services to attend the funeral.

⭕️🇺🇸 President Trump told Axios U.S.-Iran negotiations are paused until the funeral ceremonies for the late Iranian Supreme Leader conclude on July 9, saying both sides agreed to “take a week off” and that “neither side will shoot at the other” during that time.

Referring to… pic.twitter.com/MqabN3ojTJ

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 4, 2026

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Iran has described the following in a Sunday report:

Thousands and thousands of people are streaming through to pay their respects on the second day of the public farewell ceremony for the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

We know that tomorrow, in the capital of Tehran, there will be a funeral procession, and we are expecting millions of people to attend.

Also on the schedule, the bodies of Khamenei and his slain family members are also going to be taken to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in Iraq.

Khamenei and his family members are later to be buried in the city of Mashhad, which is his birthplace. His surviving son, Mojtaba Khamenei - the current supreme leader - is still in hiding and has yet been seen at the funeral.

Reports say the Iranians are fearful that US and Israeli intelligence, or their potential spy assets on the ground, could track Mojtaba's movements if he were to make public appearance at his father's funeral.

🇮🇷 Aerial images are emerging of massive crowds of Iranians gathered for Ali Khamenei's funeral.

After today's ceremonies, the body will be moved to Qom on Tuesday and then to Iraq for further religious processions around holy sites and shrines before finally being buried on… https://t.co/bV5WNMm365 pic.twitter.com/FkDkKQM5Tj

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 5, 2026

As for Trump expressing 'surprise' that millions of Iranians would mourn the late Khamenei, this seems but the latest admissions (in a long familiar pattern) of Washington getting pretty much every key assumption wrong about Middle East states and cultures it seeks to do regime change it. 

This also hearkens back to US claims in Iraq that they "would greet us as liberators"... the same sentiment was at times expressed just ahead of the Feb. 28 US-Israeli attack on Iran. But a mass uprising strong enough to topple the government never materialized - though the US and Israel tried to encourage this.

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/05/2026 - 18:05

In what’s already been a celebratory week for new Lakers center Walker Kessler, it appears he’s found a new reason to celebrate. Kessler and his girlfriend, Abbie Stockard, revealed on an Instagram Story post that they got engaged during the Fourth of July weekend. On the photo posted of the two sharing their latest news,...

The long afternoon that appeared to await Nolan McLean and the Mets never materialized, as the rookie right-hander recovered to help lead a 10-9 victory over the Braves at Truist Park.