Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• “This Is Not Financial Advice”: How finfluencers prey on economic desperation. NOEMA on the meme-finance ecosystem hiding behind the disclaimer — and what regulators have already let slip past it. Long, careful, frustrating. (NOEMA)

• This Is Why America Can’t Have Robots And Other Nice Things: A sharp piece on the actuator and component supply-chain story underneath US humanoid-robotics ambitions. China owns the parts; everything else is a press release. Westmag and Atlas Motion Systems are here to fix the actuator crisis (Core Memory) see also How the U.S. Fell Behind in Adopting the Electric Car: Adoption of electric cars has taken off globally — electric vehicles (EVs) made up a quarter of new car sales in the world in 2025. The United States was in the lead in launching the modern electric car — Tesla’s Model S was first delivered in 2012 — and, until recently, U.S. policies provided substantial encouragement to auto manufacturers and households to adopt the technology. However, China has dominated the recent global surge in production and sales of EVs, and Europe has also overtaken the U.S. in EV adoption. What explains the U.S.’s lagging performance? (Econofact)

• Prediction Markets Are Learning From the Addiction Industry: TNR on Polymarket and Kalshi quietly absorbing the lobbying, retention, and UX playbook of online gambling. The “information market” framing surviving on hopium and a federal preemption argument. A new coalition of industry influence-peddlers is forming, tasked with defending these nascent businesses from regulation at all cost. (New Republic)

• Cloud Hoarders: Today clutter creeps beyond the home. We are constantly bombarded with digital clutter — emails, texts, and voice messages from every realm of life. And we create our own, snapping photos or jotting down notes, likely with the intention of allowing these creations to “sit” in seemingly infinite “spaces” in perpetuity, mostly out of sight and mind. When we run out of storage space, companies are more than happy to trade gigabyte-sized slices of The Cloud for dollars, and so our digital footprint swells.Who is coming to rescue us from our digital stuff? An essay on the people now accumulating physical things — vinyl, books, prints, old hardware — as a deliberate rebuke to the streaming-everything model. The vibe-shift, told without smirk. (Liberties Journal)

• The World Cup Is Sports Betting’s Biggest Moment—and Maybe Its Last Hurrah: Gamblers are expected to wager $50 billion on the coming World Cup, but signs of betting fatigue are emerging across the U.S. Biggest Moment – and Maybe Its Last Hurrah: Gamblers are expected to wager $50 billion on the coming World Cup, but signs of betting fatigue are emerging across the U.S. (Barron’s)

• America’s Consumer Corporate Protector: As acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Russell Vought has undone years of agency enforcement work. Apple, Walmart and Toyota have all benefited from Russell Vought’s vision for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Bloomberg Free)

• Nothing Explains Trump’s Washington Quite Like the Reflecting Pool Scandal: David A. Fahrenthold on a controversy that’s deeper than it looks. Among the approximately 1.776 billion scandals of this Trump administration, one has recently stood out to me: the ongoing boondoggle at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. What was supposed to be a minor maintenance project has somehow become one of the purest reflections of Trump-era governance, involving a no-bid contract, a golf-club manager from New Jersey, and the color “American Flag Blue.” (Slate) see also He Blew the Whistle on DOGE. Then His Brakes Were Cut: A federal IT staffer filed a complaint about DOGE, then went public. Shortly after Elon Musk boosted a post calling his claims false, his brake lines were cut. Now he’s suing for defamation. Wired on the federal contractor who went public on DOGE’s data handling — and what happened to his car the week after he testified. The kind of detail you cannot launder out of the story. A federal IT staffer filed a complaint about DOGE, then went public. Shortly after Elon Musk boosted a post calling his claims false, his brake lines were cut. Now he’s suing for defamation. (Wired)

• “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees say guards deny them food and clean water until they sign English documents: The Guardian with sworn statements from inside the Florida detention site — the basic-rights violations the administration keeps refusing to comment on. Reads exactly as bad as it sounds. Detainees say they’re given ‘rotten’ water and denied meals for not signing papers in English that they don’t understand (The Guardian)

• Screwworm In Texas Cattle Could Drive Up Beef Prices—After DOGE Axed Prevention Efforts: A flesh-eating parasite that was largely eradicated from U.S. livestock in the 1960s has been found in a 3-week-old calf in a south Texas border town, the USDA confirmed, a threat that could drive the already soaring price of beef even higher after Elon Musk-led government cuts slashed ongoing efforts to prevent its spread. (Forbes) see also How Funding Cuts Left the World Vulnerable to Ebola: Bloomberg with the long, sourced version of the USAID-cuts-meets-Ebola-outbreak story. The line between fiscal policy and disease vector, drawn in detail. (Businessweek)

• The World Cup According to Gianni Infantino: The New Yorker’s long sit-down with the FIFA president on the eve of the expanded tournament. As damning as a print profile can be while staying on-record. Infantino is remaking global soccer in his own image. Can the sport survive him? (New Yorker)

Video of the day: Every Metro System Should be this Beautiful

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Chris Davis, Chairman and Portfolio Manager of Davis Funds. The firm oversees $20 billion in client assets, with Davis (and colleagues) co-investing $2 billion in their own mineus alongside shareholders. Davis was named Morningstar’s Portfolio Manager of the Year; he also sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway and Coca-Cola.

 

Globalization Uber Alles: the FTAA & the Decline of America (2011)

Source: Friends of Liberty

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

 

The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Iran's World Cup Squad Belatedly Granted US Visas But Some Staff Blocked

Via Middle East Eye

Members of Iran's World Cup 2026 administrative staff have not been given visas to enter the United States, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

According to US officials, while Iranian footballers have been granted visas for the tournament, which begins on Thursday in Mexico, some support staff are reportedly not being allowed to join the squad.

via Reuters

On Friday, a White House official told Reuters that the players had received their visas, after Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said on Thursday that they had not.

Iran plays its first match on June 16 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, California. Its participation in the tournament has been the subject of much speculation after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February.

Negotiations between the US and Iran are continuing, but both sides have continued to fire on enemy targets.

Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that the Iranian staff not granted visas include Mehdi Kharati, the executive director; Hedayat Mombini, the secretary general of the football federation; and Mohsen Motamedkia, media director.

Staff members without visas will travel to Mexico with the team while efforts to obtain the documents continue, Tasnim said.

Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team's base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, due to the visa issues and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the US should be kept to a minimum.

The team is scheduled to land in Tijuana on Sunday. After facing New Zealand, Iran will play Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.

The US has never formally said it did not want the Iran team to stay on its territory, Pasandideh said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US would not allow Iran to include in its delegation people linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Mehdi Taj, a former IRGC commander and now president of Iran's football federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December. 

"Iran's participation in the World Cup - even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy - shows that Iran seeks peace," Pasandideh said through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 16:20

US To Tighten Rule Regarding Nonprofits Paying Excessive Executive Compensation

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of the Treasury issued a notice on Friday, announcing their plan to issue proposed regulation concerning taxation on high compensation paid by tax-exempt organizations to employees.

The notice relates to excessive compensation and excess parachute payments, the IRS said in a June 5 statement. Parachute payments are made to key employees when they are terminated or when the business undergoes a merger or acquisition. An excess parachute payment is any such payment that exceeds three times an employee’s average annual compensation for the most recent five years.

Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on any nonprofit or tax-exempt organization paying an employee more than $1 million in remuneration in a tax year or an excess parachute payment, according to the notice.

The new rule changes tax applicability regarding excessive compensation.

Prior to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, taxes on such payments were applicable to a tax-exempt organization’s five highest-compensated employees for a tax year whose compensation exceeded $1 million.

But under the new rule, the excise tax is applicable to any employee whose compensation exceeds $1 million in a tax year beginning after Dec. 31, 2025. The requirement of being among the five-highest compensated employees has been eliminated.

The rule is also applicable to any former employee who was a top-five compensated employee exceeding $1 million for any tax year between Dec. 31, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2025.

There is no change to taxation on parachute payments. Such payments will continue attracting taxes as per existing rules.

The updates also provide certain exceptions regarding people offering volunteer services to tax-exempt organizations.

IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said the latest rule “strengthens the accountability of tax-exempt organizations.” The regulation “broadens the scope of tax from a limited group of executives to potentially any highly compensated employee.”

The Treasury and the IRS are inviting public comments on the notice until Aug. 4.

The notice comes after the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) recently raised concerns about the implementation of the new regulations.

In a May 1 letter to IRS and Treasury officials, AICPA said there was a need for comprehensive guidance and transition relief given the changes made to the compensation rule.

“We respectfully urge Treasury and the IRS to prioritize the issuance of transition relief to address several immediate issues that could disrupt the operations of tax-exempt organizations,” the letter said.

“Absent timely transition relief, these issues may result in significant and unintended financial exposure for tax-exempt organizations and related entities subject to the section 4960 excise tax.”

Commenting on the latest IRS and Treasury notice, Kelsey Mayo, chief of retirement policy and regulatory affairs at the American Retirement Association (ARA), said that retirement plan professionals who work with tax-exempt employers must be aware of the notice, according to a June 5 statement from the National Association of Plan Advisors, a sister organization of the ARA.

With the changes in Section 4960, nonprofits may have to “think more carefully” regarding how they deliver benefits to their executives, Mayo said.

“Because benefits provided through a qualified retirement plan can reduce the compensation that counts toward the excise tax, advisors, TPAs, recordkeepers, and other plan professionals may have an opportunity to add value to their nonprofit clients by evaluating how their qualified plan design aligns with both their talent strategy and their excise tax exposure,” she said. TPA refers to third-party administrators who provide insurance services.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 15:10

Feds Launch Probe Into California's Elections

Days after California’s primary election, the votes are still being counted, and the winners are still unknown, and no one, save for California officials, seems happy about it.

“The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world," Political data analyst Nate Silver wrote on X on Tuesday.

"Like honestly 'it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election' is failed state sh-t and should be much more stigmatized. The fact that it's tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness."

And President Donald Trump is now demanding answers.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday, targeting what he called the deliberate manipulation of California's governor and Los Angeles mayoral races.

"There's BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up," he wrote.

"May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???" 

In a follow-up post, Trump escalated further.

"The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES."

He then singled out mail-in ballots specifically.

"Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS."

United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, confirmed in a post on X that his office “has multiple election fraud investigations underway” in California, and is coordinating with the FBI in Los Angeles.

“California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence,” he wrote.

In a post on Substack, Nate Silver noted that California averaged 38 percent of its votes counted after Election Day across the last five general elections. In the 2022 midterms, half of all votes were tallied post-Election Day. Silver did not spare California from the comparison its leaders apparently dread. "California likes to tout that it's larger than many countries," he wrote, "but most developed countries are able to wrap up nationwide elections more quickly than California can tabulate its votes. Colombia held a presidential election on Sunday, and 99.98 percent of the result was in on Monday morning. Japan also counts most of its votes overnight. And in the UK (not exactly a poster child for state capacity), you can generally expect to have calls for all 650 parliamentary seats the morning after the election."

Silver posted a chart showing that California is the slowest state in the nation to count votes.

It's hard to overstate how much of an outlier California is for its slow vote-counting relative to literally any other state or almost any other industrialized democracy. pic.twitter.com/KIvABnIKgn

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 5, 2026

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber offers a rather weak excuse for her state’s handling of elections.

"I know the value of being fast for some folks," she said. "For me, accuracy is far more important."

That line might land better if California's sluggishness were actually producing superior accuracy.

Still, Silver's data suggests the state's election administration has major structural problems regardless of how long the counting takes.

 The state began nudging counties toward all-mail elections in 2016, applied the model statewide during the pandemic in 2020, and finally made it permanent in 2022. Under current California law, every registered voter automatically receives a mail ballot, and any ballot postmarked by Election Day and received within a week afterward counts as valid. Each of those ballots must be individually opened, verified, and processed before it can be tabulated. The result is a counting operation that drags on for weeks while the rest of the country waits. The system California guarantees maximum delay and minimum accountability, all while breeding distrust in the system. 

U.S. Attorney Essayli says his office is conducting a “comprehensive audit” of California’s voter rolls, and will “not look the other way” from fraud, and promised that his office will “investigate and prosecute.”

 “Every legal vote deserves to be counted,” he said. “Every illegal vote cancels one out.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 14:35

The post Five Big Take Aways from the May Jobs Report appeared first on CEPR.

 

 

This week, I sit down with Chris Davis, Chairman and Portfolio Manager at Davis Funds. They discuss his approach to managing risk and the key elements changing the economy. We also discuss Chris’s mentors including Charlie Munger, and how he settled into the family business.

A list of his current reading and favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation will be available here shortly.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube (video), YouTube (audio), and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our BONUS Masters in Business Monday with Joe McLean, Managing Partner at MAI Capital Management, where he leads firm’s Sports & Entertainment division, serving 100s of pro athletes/entertainers across NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA + NASCAR. His path to finance runs directly through the locker room as a 4-year NCAA Division 1 player at U of Arizona. Dubbed the athlete’s “Money Whisperer” by the New York Times, he is known for his non-negotiable 60% savings mandate for clients.

 

 

 

Current Reading/Favorite Books

 

 

 

The post MiB: Beating the S&P For Generations with Chris Davis of Davis Funds appeared first on The Big Picture.

UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone In Lockstep With Big Tech

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity,

The Labour government in Britain is accelerating its assault on digital privacy under the well-worn banner of child protection. Fresh plans leaked to the press reveal ministers intend to compel Apple, Google and other tech firms to restrict smartphones so thoroughly that a digital ID will be needed to use them with unfettered access.

The mechanism comes in the form of expanded age verification that effectively demands digital identification for device setup and use. What is sold as safeguarding the young is shaping up as a backdoor mandate for every adult in Britain to submit ID just to operate a phone or go online.

This development lands alongside Google's confirmation that it will soon bring digital IDs to Android devices in the UK via Google Wallet. Users will record a short video selfie and scan a government-issued ID to add a digital version of their passport or other documents.

Google is bringing Digital IDs to the UK 'soon' to bolster age checks on Android phones https://t.co/H9wSASduQe

- GB News (@GBNEWS) June 4, 2026

The feature, already rolling out in select EU countries this summer, is explicitly tied to the UK's Online Safety Act requirements for age checks on content involving self-harm, eating disorders, bullying and pornography.

Google is exploring certification under the government's digital identity trust framework, which could extend its use to everyday purchases such as alcohol.

Apple has already implemented similar restrictions on iOS devices in Britain, forcing age confirmation or locking users into limited "child mode."

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo has been blunt about where this leads. "Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm. This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops."

She continued: "Put simply, the Labour Government is introducing ID checks for the internet. No one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online."

Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm.

This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.

- Silkie Carlo (@silkiecarlo) June 5, 2026

Carlo warned that the proposals replace genuine parental responsibility and meaningful tech design with "performative, authoritarian government control that children can easily circumvent by accessing adult-registered devices." For the UK's fifty million adult internet users, the outcome is stark: "this backdoor digital ID requirement would invoke the death of anonymity and internet privacy."

The mechanics are chilling. Without submitting to intrusive ID checks during device setup, users face a "chokehold on your software and internet access leaving you with a child-locked device." Restrictions on messaging, streaming and browsing open the door to client-side scanning - government spyware sitting in every pocket. Carlo noted this has long been a GCHQ ambition and "will be exploited for other purposes before long."

The bigger picture involving "The Government mandating that all phones/devices in Britain require ID and surveillance software is a crossing of the Rubicon that would make the UK one of the most authoritarian internet regimes in the world."

"I don't know anywhere else in the world that has done this," Carlo warned.

The story broke via a leak to The Times rather than any parliamentary process. Carlo called it a travesty: "This extreme technological censorship requires rigorous public and parliamentary scrutiny that is totally missing." Big Brother Watch has pledged to fight the measures.

These phone-level controls do not exist in isolation. They slot directly into the UK's wider digital ID infrastructure, already exposed as a dystopian experiment in mass surveillance.

The government's One Login platform and planned GOV.UK Wallet create a centralized system for identity verification across public services, with biometric data, audit trails logging every use, and a permissions framework that can deny access to everything from jobs to age-restricted purchases.

What begins as convenient "right-to-work" checks or alcohol verification quickly becomes a comprehensive record of daily life, open to expansion and abuse.

The ambition reaches even further back - to the cradle. Labour ministers have privately discussed assigning digital IDs to newborn babies alongside their health records, modeled on Estonia's system.

Framed initially as a tool to tackle illegal immigration through right-to-work verification, the scheme has ballooned into a cradle-to-grave tracking apparatus. Critics across the spectrum have labeled it a sinister overreach with nothing to do with stopping the boats and everything to do with building a permanent digital file on every citizen from birth.

Shadow ministers and former cabinet figures have condemned the lack of debate and the affront to British traditions of liberty.

This national infrastructure mirrors global blueprints pushed by the World Health Organization and funded by the Gates Foundation. A WHO document outlines a globally interoperable digital identity system for permanent, lifelong tracking of vaccination status from birth registration onward.

Records would integrate personally identifiable information with socioeconomic data including household income, ethnicity and religion. AI would target the "unreached," combat "misinformation," and support conditioning access to education, travel and other services on compliance.

Community health workers and digital alerts would enforce behavior, while fast healthcare interoperability standards enable cross-border data sharing. The architecture is explicitly designed for surveillance and control, not mere convenience.

The picture sharpens further with recent pushes for AI-designed "super vaccines." Cambridge researchers have created the first entirely AI-generated antigen, tested in humans, aimed at training immunity against entire families of viruses rather than single strains.

Data drawn from viral surveillance programs feeds these systems. While presented as pandemic preparedness, the combination with digital ID infrastructure creates obvious pathways for tracking compliance.

Refusal could trigger digital consequences - restricted access to services, finance or movement - under the same "safety" logic already being applied to phones and age verification. The surveillance grid expands while public oversight remains minimal.

Real concerns about child exploitation and online harm are being weaponized to justify systems that deliver mass identification, device-level control, client-side scanning and lifelong data profiles.

While children can bypass the restrictions; adults lose the fundamental right to anonymous communication and private device use. The same political class that has presided over record migration, grooming scandals and institutional failures now demands ever more intrusive tools to monitor the population it claims to protect.

This is not incremental safety policy. It is the deliberate construction of an authoritarian digital regime. Every new verification layer, every leaked proposal for device lockdown, every tie-in with global vaccine-tracking architectures erodes the space for individual autonomy.

Britain is being marched toward a future where showing a passport-equivalent digital ID becomes the price of entry to the internet, to commerce, to normal life - all while the architects insist it is voluntary and 'for the children'.

It is a stark crossing of the Rubicon indeed. The only question is whether the British public will recognise the destination in time to turn back.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 10:30

Goldman's World Cup Winner Prediction Is ...

The 2026 Football World Cup kicks off June 11, with Mexico vs. South Africa opening the tournament at Mexico City Stadium.

The tournament will feature 48 teams across 104 matches at stadiums in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico from next Thursday through July 19.

Jan Hatzius, chief economist and head of global investment research at Goldman Sachs, published a cheat sheet for clients that used a forecasting model built around Elo ratings - the ranking system originally developed for chess - to handicap the tournament. His top pick diverges from the latest Polymarket odds, with Hatzius placing Spain at the top of the list as the most likely World Cup winner.

"The model says that Spain has a 26% probability of winning the trophy, followed by France at 19%, Argentina at 14%, Brazil at 8%, and England at 5%," Hatzius said.

He noted, "Spain is predicted to win because it has the highest Elo ranking, supported by scoring talent and good momentum into the competition. Argentina is penalised by the "winner's slump", i.e. the statistical underperformance of reigning champions in the following World Cup; France suffers from likely facing top-ranked Spain in the semifinals; and England underperforms its Elo rating given historical tournament disappointment, geographical headwinds (likely facing Mexico in high-altitude Mexico City), and a slightly unlucky draw." 

Hatzius built a regression model to estimate how many goals each team is likely to score against another, using nearly 20,000 international matches since 1978. The model shows a steep decline in goal scoring, with much of it occurring after World War II.

Elo measures national team strength based on results and opponent quality, updating as teams win, lose, or draw. By this metric, Hatzius and his team place Spain No. 1, ahead of Argentina and France, which differs slightly from FIFA's official men's rankings.

Most Likely Predicted Group Stage Results

Road To Winner

Unlike our previous notes on Goldman's World Cup probabilities in 2022, 2018, and 2014, the rise of Polymarket has changed the betting game, bringing prediction markets directly into the sports-betting mainstream.

The latest Polymarket odds show France at 17%, Spain at 16%, and England at 11%...

...putting market pricing at odds with Goldman's model, which ranks Spain as the winner.

Professional subscribers can read the full World Cup note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 09:55

'Take The Badge Off': Former Ferrari Boss Slams New $635k EV That Company Thinks Will Attract 'Younger Buyers'

One week after Ferrari unveiled its first-ever all-electric car, called the Luce, the design continues to divide analysts. Some referred to the new model as a "mix between a Honda Accord EV and a Tesla," while others said that Tesla's Model S Plaid was far superior. The latest report from Goldman analysts provided new details about their most recent visit to Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello.

Last Friday, Ferrari hosted an investor day, which analyst Christian Frenes attended. He spoke with top Ferrari executives just days after the Luce reveal event in Rome earlier in the week.

Frenes said management framed the Ferrari Luce as an "additive range model designed to expand the customer base."

He continued:

Management reaffirmed the Luce as a strategic entry point to engage new demographics and regions, particularly in markets with higher BEV penetration such as Asia and the Nordics while also targeting a new and younger customer group. The exterior design intentionally distinguishes the EV from existing ICE and PHEV models. Management also reaffirmed it remains aligned with its "technological neutrality" approach continuing to sell V12s and V8s to those interested.

Beyond design, Ferrari's battery-powered, four-door, five-seat Luce has another problem: its price tag - a staggering 550,000 euros, or about $638,660. If Ferrari expects that to open the brand to a younger, broader customer base, management certainly has a different view of the world - one that isn't grounded in reality.

For starters, Tesla's Model S Plaid costs only a fraction as much and, on key performance metrics, appears to outperform the Luce. The Model S also comes with Full Self-Driving, a feature we are fairly certain Ferrari's first EV lacks.

By the end of last week, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna appeared to be on damage-control duty after shares dropped in response to negative investor reaction to the Luce's design and performance specifications.

crazy.. pic.twitter.com/DTNVAYNPZX

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) May 27, 2026

Let's not forget that Ferrari hybrids are depreciating faster than their petrol-powered counterparts. This is a sign that car collectors are shunning anything electric (read the report). 

Shares have yet to recover to pre-Luce reveal levels.

Beyond the terrible design and high price, one could debadge the Luce, and it would be hard to decipher the car from a Kia or Toyota or even a Nissan ... 

Ferrari Luce, explained pic.twitter.com/F0vRf03cwj

— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) May 26, 2026

That problem itself has infuriated Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the former Ferrari president, who told local media that the Luce "risks destroying a legend, and I'm deeply sorry. I hope they at least remove the Prancing Horse from that car."

American automotive YouTuber Doug DeMuro said Luce has the specs of a "nice Polestar" .. .

Professional subscribers can read the full Ferrari note at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 08:45

UK Conservatives Blast Labour North Sea Ban As 'Utter Madness'

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The current UK government's policy of not allowing new drilling in the UK North Sea is “utter madness” as billions of barrels of untapped oil could benefit the UK industry and reduce Britain’s reliance on imports, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, has said.

The ruling Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer has recently moved to permanently ban new oil and gas licenses in the UK section of the North Sea, drawing criticism from the UK offshore industry associations and from the Tories.

The Conservatives’ Badenoch commented this week on a new study by the University of Aberdeen, whose researchers said on Wednesday that it would be “economically, environmentally, and strategically beneficial for the UK to prioritise domestic oil and gas production rather than increasing reliance on imports.”

The University of Aberdeen’s peer-reviewed study found that significant untapped potential remains in the West of Shetland basin, which is estimated to contain about 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) yet to be discovered.

The study highlights that the remaining potential in the area could extend the life of the UK oil and gas sector, said Nick Schofield, Professor of Igneous & Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen.

“West of Shetland is not a depleted frontier - it is a technically demanding but strategically important energy province,” Schofield noted.

The study showed the “utter madness” of the ruling Labour in opposing drilling in the North Sea, Badenoch said.

“The University of Aberdeen survey just demonstrates the utter madness of the stance taken by Keir Starmer and John Swinney,” the leader of the Conservatives said in remarks carried by Belfast Telegraph.

“Domestic oil and gas are vital to the nation’s energy security, as well as being the economic lifeblood of the North East,” Badenoch said.

“Yet the industry is on its knees due to the windfall tax and the ban on new developments. The Conservatives would scrap both immediately,” she added.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 08:10

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• The Father-Daughter Showdown That Shook an $18 Trillion Investing Empire: WSJ on Abby Johnson finally winning the long, quiet war for Fidelity — and what her late father gave up to make it happen. The succession story the family kept out of the press for a decade. (Wall Street Journal)

• If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you: Sam Kriss at his most unhinged and most correct. A furious, funny polemic against the replacement of human thought with algorithmic slop. (Sam Kriss) see also The literary world is sleepwalking into an AI disaster: The Argument on why publishing’s slow-motion capitulation to AI-generated content is an existential crisis hiding in plain sight. (The Argument)

• The Secret Sauce of: It’s the Paycheck, Not the Tax Code. Sweden is indeed highly equal by international standards, largely thanks to pre-distribution. And the kollektivavtal is really the big story here. But there are wrinkles, suggesting some increasing concentration of wealth at the top; and perhaps there are also some surprising lessons from American success stories about raising wages.Arin Dube on what the Swedish wage-compression model actually rests on — collective bargaining coverage, not headline tax rates. The kind of empirical correction that should reset half the policy conversation. (Arin’s Substack)

• Why YouTubers Are Turning Hollywood Upside Down. Variety spoke with Hollywood producers, filmmakers, distributors and YouTube executives about this sea change and the young rebels taking Hollywood by storm. The Backrooms kids went from viral creepypasta to major studio deals. Variety on how a generation of creators raised on YouTube is rewriting the rules of the entertainment business. (Variety)

• It is the end of the world and I am here to take you home: A short, well-written Substack essay on the texture of life at the end of an era. Pair with whatever weekend you’ve been having. (Natalie’s Substack)

• Soon She’ll Be the Queen of Belgium. But for the Last Two Years, She Was the Princess of Harvard. On Wednesday and Thursday, Crown Princess Elisabeth is graduating from Harvard’s prestigious Kennedy School of Government with a master’s in public policy. Vanity Fair on Princess Elisabeth’s Harvard exit — Kennedy School degree, low-key roommates, and the next-monarch-of-Belgium logistics in the background. A lighter read than the headline suggests. (Vanity Fair)

• The Painful Truth About Long Covid: There might finally be a way forward for long Covid treatment—if only you were allowed to talk about it.Nothing about Long Covid adds up. Prevalence rates range from 3% to 86% depending on the study. The confusion is the point—this is a disease that defies easy categorization. (Wired)

• Why Are Men So Bad at Making—and Keeping—Friends? What do we make of this ostensible myth of the male loneliness crisis? One interpretation is that there is nothing to worry about, and everybody is fine. The trouble with that interpretation, however, is the fact that everybody is so evidently not fine. Derek Thompson on the data behind the male-friendship recession — hours, networks, who actually shows up. The trend he keeps writing about that the rest of the chattering class keeps under-pricing. (Derek Thompson) but see also To make friends, join a club. To join a club, find an activity fair. These citywide events are a low-stakes way to meet people and combat loneliness. Vox’s Highlight on the modest, slightly desperate revival of adult activity fairs — and the social-isolation data that makes them necessary. Pair with the Derek Thompson piece. (Vox)

• Inside the plan to make Victor Wembanyama the biggest athlete on the planet: The NBA, staring down the approaching retirements of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant in the coming years, was in dire need of a new face, someone even the most casual fans could identify. Wemby had a solution: “I’m not gonna give basketball a choice of who the face is going to be.”  The Athletic on the joint Nike/Spurs/NBA effort to engineer Wembanyama into the next global sports brand. Specific, well-sourced, and timely with the Finals on. (The Athletic)

• 38 Tony Nominees Reveal the Strangest Skills They’ve Picked Up: The stars of “Giant,” “Fallen Angels,” “The Rocky Horror Show,” “Ragtime” and more prove they’ll go to great lengths to be believable in a role. NYT Theater’s annual photo feature. Light, charming, exactly the right length. (New York Times)

Video of the day: Martin Scorsese Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films | GQ

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Chris Davis, Chairman and Portfolio Manager of Davis Funds. The firm oversees $20 billion in client assets, with Davis (and colleagues) co-investing $2 billion in their own mineus alongside shareholders. Davis was named Morningstar’s Portfolio Manager of the Year; he also sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway and Coca-Cola.

 

25% of manufactured goods imports have two or three trade dependencies

Source: McKinsey

 

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The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Has Trump Opened Pandora's Box?

Authored by John Rosenburger, Senior Fellow at Eisenhower Media Network

The limits of U.S. military power are now fully exposed.

2.5 months in to the U.S.-Israeli war against a nation that posed no threat to the United States’ vital interests, justified by a pyramid of lies, several things are abundantly clear. President Trump failed to define clear and viable political objectives to achieve in our role as Israel’s proxy in yet another war of choice. “Viable” here meaning objectives that are realistically attainable through the military means at a nation’s disposal.

In his classic work Strategy, British theorist B. H. Liddell Hart emphasized that a political leader’s foremost duty is to ensure that war aims are grounded in military reality. As he famously warned, political objectives must “not demand what is militarily impossible.”

Yet that is precisely the error President Trump committed.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons & Amazon

Without clearly defined political objectives, it is impossible to construct U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which is in charge of military operations in West Asia and appears to be moving from one ineffective tactic to the next without any unifying operational design. The repeated bombing of military‑related targets across a country the size of Western Europe with more than 90 million people is not a strategy; it is a tactic untethered to any discernible operational or strategic end state.

By limiting ourselves almost entirely to the use of airpower—fully aware that the American public will not accept another protracted ground war in the Middle East, particularly on behalf of Israel’s interests—the Trump administration has boxed itself into an approach with no historical precedent for success. No regime of Iran’s scale has ever been overthrown through airpower alone, and there is no reason to believe this conflict will be the first.

Despite repeated assurances that the war is being won, President Trump has provided no stable or coherent definition of what “victory” actually means. Is it regime change and internal overthrow of the Iranian government? Is it unconditional surrender of Iran’s armed forces? Is it the seizure of nuclear material previously claimed to have been obliterated? Take your pick. The absence of a clear, consistent political end state leaves military commanders struggling to determine what they are supposed to achieve.

Credit: Evan Vucci, @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

History shows that wars fought without well‑defined political objectives, matched with a viable military strategy, tend to devolve into wars of attrition—conflicts that favor the side with greater resilience and willingness to endure. We see that historical truism unfolding before our eyes. We fail to appreciate that Iran is waging a fundamentally different kind of war, one rooted in national survival, and that resolve has shaped the character and trajectory of the conflict.

It is also clear that this war was based on a host of flawed assumptions. The Trump administration assumed that by assassinating the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, the IGRC and security apparatus of the nation would collapse, and the Iranian people would flood into the streets to violently overthrow the government. How they would do that while being unarmed defies logic. That overthrow, of course, didn’t happen. It had the opposite effect. The government and the people have never been more unified.

Credit: Hamshahri Photo/Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration assumed that the massive armada of air power it would employ would quickly destroy Iran’s capability to retaliate. It didn’t. It assumed that the Iranian armed forces would not attack U.S. bases and embassies in the region. They did. It assumed that Iran did not have the capability to hide and accurately employ thousands of ballistic missiles and drones for days and weeks on end. It did; another gross failure of both U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies as the Iranians pound Israel’s cities, U.S. bases, and Gulf nations night after night.

The Trump administration assumed Iran was incapable of closing the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. military destroyed Iran’s naval surface fleet. They ignored the fact that Iran had several other means of interdicting the movement of any ships through the Strait—a plethora of different mines, small attack submarines designed to operate in shallow water, swarms of armed fast boats, multiple types of attack drones, and an arsenal of ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Equally concerning, the administration overlooked the fact that Lloyds of London and other maritime insurance companies would not underwrite the loss of tankers and cargo ships that attempted to cross the Strait. Iran will ensure the Strait remains closed using its arsenal of asymmetric weapons they’ve designed for just that purpose, giving them powerful leverage in future negotiations.

Credit: MassLive, AP, CalMatters

The result? Cascading and disastrous effects. The U.S.-Israel war against Iran initiated a global economic crisis, strangling the production and transportation of oil, liquid natural gas, urea, helium, and aluminum from the nations surrounding the Persian Gulf. The war further increased U.S. national debt, which is just shy of $39 trillion dollars and growing. The Trump administration increased our national debt by $1 trillion in the first 5 months of this year, and borrowed another $343 billion last month alone. Now, the Department of War is asking Congress for another appropriation of $200 billion to cover the unexpected costs of this war of choice. For the first time in our nation’s history, our debt-to-GDP ratio is 122 percent, with no sign of decreasing. The consequences could be catastrophic to our economy in the months and years ahead if left unabated.

This war of choice has practically exhausted the U.S. military’s inventory of offensive and defensive missiles, inventories that cannot be replenished for years. It’s increased our country’s strategic vulnerability and reduced the Pentagon’s ability to deter other threats around the globe. The limits of U.S. military power are now fully exposed. Russia and China smile with glee.

Nine U.S. military bases in the Gulf States have been destroyed or abandoned. The Gulf States are unlikely to ever welcome American forces back into their countries, as the Trump administration has demonstrated that the United States cannot and will not protect Gulf Arab allies. The administration has essentially destroyed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition and also managed to alienate most NATO allies in the process.

Russia is enjoying a windfall in oil and natural gas sales and revenue as it becomes the principal supplier of oil to China, India, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other nations that relied on oil from the Gulf nations. Airlines across the globe are rationing jet fuel and reducing flights. Prices for gas and diesel are exploding at the pump here in the United States, which will thrust additional inflation on the American people struggling to afford the costs of food, housing, transportation, and medical insurance.

Credit: U.S. Department of State/Wikimedia Commons

Furthermore, given that the U.S. attacked Iran with no warning twice during earnest negotiations the past year, Iran has no reason to ever trust us again and negotiate an end to this conflict. We’re witnessing the unintended consequences of a war of choice that was poorly conceived and poorly planned, driven entirely by hubris. In two short months, Iran has gained the operational and strategic initiative and will determine the outcome of this war. It seems the Trump administration has opened Pandora’s Box.

Lastly, the administration has failed to define a path to victory that culminates in the restoration of a durable peace in the Middle East.

Professor Donald Stoker captures this imperative in his illuminating book Why America Loses Wars, noting that “…if the political leadership has done its job, their definition of victory [the political objective] includes a clear vision of what they want the post-war situation to look like. Ultimately, as Cicero tells us, war is about the restoration of peace; if it does not seek this, the war is not just. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman insisted that “The legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace. War is fighting for the peace we want.”

All were right.

Absent an effective political and military strategy that restores stable and enduring peace between nations in the region, this war risks becoming yet another U.S. exercise in violence untethered from purpose; a war ending in failure, useless destruction, and economic depression that will require years to overcome.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 23:25

Where It's Hardest To Afford A Home

Big cities like Hong Kong or Los Angeles are well-known for their expensive real estate markets. But there are also plenty of housing markets you wouldn’t necessarily expect among the least affordable – including several in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

As Statista's Tristan Gaudiaut details below, according to a 2026 ranking by Forbes, Hong Kong remains the world’s least affordable housing market, with median home prices still more than 16 times higher than median pre-tax household incomes, based on the dominant housing type in each market.

You will find more infographics at Statista

It is followed by Sydney (13.8) and Vancouver (11.8), while several U.S. cities, including San Jose (11.4), Los Angeles (10.9) and Honolulu (10.5), also rank among the least affordable.

The first European market in the ranking is London, with a price-to-income ratio of 8.1.

Overall, the list highlights the continued dominance of major cities in Australia, Canada and the United States.

While affordability ratios have eased slightly in some markets in recent years, the broader trend remains unchanged.

Across most major urban areas, ratios still hover well above historic norms, often in the 8-to-14 range, meaning housing costs continue to outpace incomes by a wide margin and keep homeownership out of reach for large parts of the population.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 23:00

NASA Ends Mars Mission 6 Months After Losing Communication With Spacecraft

Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times,

After more than a decade of service, unlocking treasure troves of insights into Mars's atmosphere, NASA announced on June 3 that its MAVEN mission has come to an end after a still unknown anomaly threw the spacecraft off course and drained its battery.

NASA’s MAVEN mission is observing the upper atmosphere of Mars to help understand climate change on the planet. MAVEN entered its science phase on Nov. 16, 2014. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution," NASA's MAVEN mission launched in November 2013 to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, specifically how it interacts with solar flares and other types of space weather, as well as readings of the dust storms. The mission was supposed to last one year, but the hardware continued to operate for another decade, providing insights crucial to sending a human crew there with the right protection in the future. It was also able to give ground systems early warning of incoming coronal ejecta from the sun.

"MAVEN has profoundly advanced our understanding of Mars's atmosphere, climate history, and habitability, making it a cornerstone of NASA's exploration of Mars for over 11 years," Tiffany Morgan, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said during a press call. "MAVEN's findings have helped shape future mission designs and have strengthened our understanding of Mars as a system."

MAVEN additionally served a crucial communication role as part of NASA's Mars Relay Network, working alongside the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft to pass along priceless data collected by rovers on the Martian surface back to Earth. It was also recruited to help observe the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed through the solar system.

Mission leaders last heard from the spacecraft on Dec. 6, 2025, just before it made a routine pass behind the Red Planet - similar to how NASA lost signal with the Artemis II crew as they flew around the far side of the moon. Loss of signal was only supposed to last 30 minutes.

Mission leaders then explained that "a brief fragment of telemetry data" was able to be recovered by analyzing radio signals picked up by open-loop receivers on NASA's Deep Space Network. That data showed the MAVEN spacecraft was in "safe mode" and caught in a spin when it emerged from behind Mars.

The spin indicated that there was a disruption in the spacecraft's trajectory, and a review board concluded that the rotation caused batteries to drain, rendering it unrecoverable.

An anomaly review board was created in February to determine what happened to the spacecraft while it traveled around the far side of the planet. Mission leaders expected more questions to be answered in the coming months and declined multiple requests to share their own speculation of what happened.

As for MAVEN's fate, NASA officials said that the spacecraft will continue to orbit Mars for 50 to 100 years.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 22:35

Moscow To Host US-Russia Hockey Match Week Of July 4th

The world's two largest nuclear powers are apparently turning to old school, Cold War-style sports diplomacy to thaw out their deeply frozen bilateral relations, even as there's as yet no solution to the grinding Russia-Ukraine war.

Russian and American ice hockey players are scheduled to face off in Moscow on July 1. President Vladimir Putin first proposed holding hockey matches between Russian and American players in both countries during a direct phone call with President Trump.

Getty Images

Soon after that March 2025 phone call the Kremlin noted at the time that Trump had "expressed support" for the initiative.

According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham Russia), the event is part of a broader series of matches. Notably the initial match is timed just ahead of the milestone 250th anniversary of US independence on July 4th.

"We hope this will help melt the ice that formed between us," AmCham Russia President Robert Agee said Thursday. The announcement was made at the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which is currently ongoing.

He confirmed that Russia and the US would play the match, expressing that it will be a "friendly" game, according to TASS.

While it's unclear which players will make up the rosters from either side, The Moscow Times has cited that Agee said "NHL superstar and prominent Putin supporter Alexander Ovechkin will be involved in the event, though the full roster will be a mix of professional and amateur athletes. He did not provide further details."

The International Ice Hockey Federation banned Russia from all official international tournaments immediately following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and so this event constitutes a rare, symbolic defiance of the international sports body and its regulations set down.

In the meantime, the Ukrainians are fuming over the plan, as they want to see Russia as isolated as possible. But a US against Russia hockey game, covered by international media and featuring superstar athletes on the ice would be anything but 'isolation'.

Back when Putin was literally on the ice himself for an exhibition...

WATCH: Putin scores 8 goals in an exhibition hockey game in Russia pic.twitter.com/XePFMRIej9

— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) May 10, 2019

Indeed it in and of itself would be a big diplomatic win for Moscow, but the White House sees this as essentially worth it if it can lead to peace, and eventual normalization of relations with Russia.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 21:20

The Market Is Starting To Price In Something Most People Still Don't See

Authored by Milan Adams,

There is a strange disconnect developing between financial markets and the average person.

Most people still see the situation with Iran as another distant geopolitical story. It appears on television for a few minutes, disappears behind domestic political news, and then returns a few days later when another headline emerges. Investors, however, are beginning to treat it very differently. They are not watching the negotiations because they care about diplomatic symbolism. They are watching because a growing number of traders believe the global economy may be far more vulnerable to a prolonged disruption than policymakers are willing to admit.

The irony is that the biggest threat is no longer war itself. The biggest threat is uncertainty.

For months, markets convinced themselves that a deal between Washington and Tehran was only a matter of time. There would be disagreements, public threats and last-minute complications, but eventually economic reality would force both sides toward some form of compromise. That belief became so widespread that many investors stopped considering what would happen if the opposite occurred.

Now that assumption is being tested.

Over the last several days, optimism surrounding a diplomatic breakthrough has faded once again. Conflicting reports about the future of the negotiations have pushed oil markets into another period of volatility, and prices remain dramatically higher than they were before the crisis began. Brent crude recently climbed back above $95 per barrel after fresh uncertainty surrounding the talks, while industry executives warned that the market may still be underestimating the risks ahead.

What makes this particularly dangerous is that the global economy no longer has the same shock absorbers it once had.

Back in 2008, governments could throw enormous amounts of money at a crisis. During the pandemic years, central banks unleashed trillions of dollars in liquidity. Today many of those same governments are carrying debt loads that would have been considered extraordinary only a decade ago. Interest costs are rising. Economic growth is slowing. Consumers have spent years absorbing inflation that never fully disappeared. The financial system looks stable on the surface, but underneath that surface there are clear signs of fatigue.

That is why the Strait of Hormuz matters so much.

Most people know it is an important shipping route. What they often do not understand is how concentrated global energy flows actually are. In peacetime, roughly one fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas moves through that narrow corridor. Think about that for a moment. One out of every five barrels of oil consumed somewhere on this planet depends on a maritime bottleneck that can be measured in miles rather than hundreds of miles.

The modern global economy was built on the assumption that this route would remain available.

Everything from airline tickets to fertilizer prices is connected to that assumption.

The danger is not necessarily a complete shutdown. Markets do not need a worst-case scenario to panic. They only need enough uncertainty to begin pricing in the possibility of one. Once that happens, shipping costs rise, insurance premiums increase, inventories start being accumulated instead of consumed, and companies begin preparing for disruptions that may never actually occur. Ironically, those preparations themselves can create economic damage.

That process may already be underway.

One of the most interesting comments this week came not from a politician but from one of the world’s largest oil traders. A senior executive at Vitol warned that markets could be seriously underpricing the risks associated with the current situation. According to him, the real stress may not appear when headlines are at their most dramatic. It may appear months later when refiners and industrial consumers suddenly discover that physical supplies are harder to obtain than expected.

History suggests he may have a point.

Most economic shocks do not begin with a dramatic collapse. They begin with a series of small disruptions that seem manageable in isolation. A delay here. A shortage there. Higher insurance costs. Longer shipping routes. Reduced inventories. Rising borrowing costs. None of these developments look catastrophic on their own. The problem appears when they begin reinforcing one another.

By the time ordinary consumers notice the impact, the chain reaction is usually well advanced.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 20:55

Climate Change: No. 1 Problem Of No Nation?

Despite claims of new records for global high temperatures every few years now, the topic of climate change has still not reached the top of the agenda for many people.

As Valentine Fouurreau reports, data from Statista Consumer Insights shows respondents in none of the 32 nations covered by the survey collectively rated climate change as the most important problem for their own country when asked to name the issues that were of the biggest significance to them.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Of the countries included in our infographic, Japan comes closest with climate change being named as a severe issue by the fifth-highest number of respondents, followed by China and India in rank 7.

Generally, this is more of an expression of the few problems of Japanese and Chinese people, as still only 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively, rated the climate change issue as severe.

Despite ranking only seventh in India, climate change was recognized as a big problem there by more people, 34.

Among developed nations such as France, Germany, South Korea or the U.S., worry about climate change hovered between 23 and 28 percent.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 20:30

Waste Of The Day: Mismanagement At SF Zoo

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: The taxpayer-funded San Francisco Zoo "does not have a healthy or stable financial condition," according to a city audit released in May. The zoo has no written plans or budgets to guide its construction projects, and spent $12 million on them without city approval. Employees are also allegedly hiring their friends and relatives as contractors.

Key facts: The zoo is required to get approval from San Francisco's Recreation and Park Commission before paying more than $50,000 for a construction project. But employees never did so while spending millions on a new "Madagascar Center" and other huge projects, auditors found.

There is also a "widespread view among staff that [the zoo] has a toxic workplace environment," according to the audit. Employees were allegedly chosen for senior roles based on "discrimination and favoritism," not "professional qualifications."

The zoo spends more than $4 million on contracted services like security and advertising every year, but there is no evidence that any of them went through a competitive bidding process to find the best price. The zoo keeps no records of its contractors and was unable to tell auditors how much they are being paid, the audit found.

The audit also confirmed that former zoo CEO Tanya Peterson's fiancé was hired to perform concerts, and other relatives of zoo staff received more than $800,000 for construction projects. The San Francisco Chronicle first exposed the nepotism allegations in 2024, which eventually contributed to Peterson's resignation.

The City of San Francisco gives the zoo $4 million in funding every year, though that amount has not increased since 1993. Most of the zoo's revenue comes from tickets, but low attendance has caused the zoo to outspend its budget for at least the last eight years. The zoo hid this fact from the city by projecting "unrealistically high" attendance numbers each year and making purchases based on the inflated revenue that never materialized, according to the audit.

Oversight of the zoo has been difficult because employees are ignoring public records requests, according to the audit. They claim that because the zoo is a nonprofit, it is exempt from open records laws, but the zoo signed an agreement years ago to share all records as if it were a city agency.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world's largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.

Background: The city plans to bail out the zoo with an $8.5 million loan after a city-commissioned report found that closing the zoo or finding a new operator would be more expensive.

The zoo is also planning to bring in pandas from China to fill a new exhibit that will cost $27 million to build. Activist groups like In Defense of Animals have opposed the proposal, arguing the zoo cannot properly care for new animals until it fixes its financial problems.

Summary: San Francisco's zoo has a responsibility to its animals and to taxpayers to manage its money through a carefully-planned budget, not endless deficits.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 18:25

Putin Rejects Open Letter By Zelensky Urging Meet: 'Pointless'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded dismissively to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's open letter issued the day prior, which urged that the two leaders meet in order to finally forge a peace deal and bring an end to the war, now it its fifth year.

Putin made clear Friday that he sees no point in holding a personal meeting with Zelensky. He was asked directly about the letter while attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). In response the Russian leader addressed not the "authors of the epistolary genre," but to Russian soldiers on the frontline: "The whole country is proud of you and is counting on you. Keep up the good work, brothers!" And then, per TASS:

Asked to clarify if this response means that he doesn’t plan to meet with the letter’s author, Putin said, "So far, I see no point in this."

He went on to reject the idea of "meeting just for the sake of meeting" - but did reveal for the first time that only last month he sent an informal envoy to Ukraine at Kiev’s request. Apparently that was the opening of a serious diplomatic overture.

But then, he noted, Ukrainian forces bombed a college dormitory in Lugansk merely soon after the Russian envoy arrived. The brutal attack killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls - and injured many dozens more. The Kremlin was outraged at the 'terrorist act' and the following week heavily bombed various Ukrainian cities, especially the capital. 

State media featured more of Putin's response:

The letter is either "a means to create an environment for a personal meeting, or maybe is this letter meant to make sure that no personal meetings can take place at all,” he remarked, concluding: “I think it's the second.”

Zelensky's lengthy Thursday letter had said Ukraine is also ready for a "full ceasefire." Zelensky wrote: "Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us - and you. I am proposing a meeting. Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations," he added.

The letter also at one point said, "The choice is yours now. Enough of war" and then spells out that "Ukraine proposes to end this war."

"This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited," Zelensky added. And then interestingly, "We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention."

Despite the long appeal, President Putin and the Kremlin have demonstrated a willingness to allow a long war to drag on, and are unlikely to be moved. Putin has said there's no need for a truce unless a deal is already close or about to be signed. But the two sides aren't any closer to being at the negotiating table as yet.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 18:00

Minnesota Mob Blindness: St. Paul Prosecutor Drops All Charges Against City Church Demonstrators

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

Minnesotans are familiar with the perils of "snow blindness," a temporary blindness caused by overexposure to ultraviolet rays from the reflection from snow and ice. It appears that Minnesota politicians and prosecutors have a type of mob blindness, where they cannot see crimes committed in front of them by the far left. That condition appears to be tragically evident in St. Paul, where City Attorney Irene Kao made an absurd denial of any criminal activity at the demonstration in the City Church on Jan. 18th. While claiming that there were no observable crimes, Kao's decision just happened to be enormously popular with the mob-driven politics and polling in her state.

In January, dozens of anti-ICE protesters, and former CNN journalist Don Lemon, descended upon the church and disrupted a mass because a church official had connections to ICE.

The demonstrators could have been charged with such offenses as disorderly conduct, interfering with a religious observance, knowingly participating in a noisy assembly and making or continuing a disturbing or excessive noise.

There was a demonstrator who was able to get her misdemeanor charges dismissed earlier. However, Emily Phillips was arrested for her conduct outside of the church and actually responded to police demands that she stop using her bullhorn.

Her case is a good point of comparison. Protesting outside is vastly different from entering a church or event to disrupt it or shout down speakers.

These demonstrators entered a church, refused to leave when told to do so, and abused parishioners while stopping the services.

Kao offers little more than a shrug: "Following a careful evaluation of the video footage, investigative reports, and other available materials, prosecutors determined that the current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes."

There are 39 people still charged by the federal government under the FACE Act.

Kao insisted, "The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one's religious beliefs. Balancing these equally important rights is paramount to our decision today."

This is not protected free speech. It is conduct. Indeed, it is criminal conduct.

While Kao stressed that there was no property damage, it is not required under these criminal charges.

What is missing is not the basis for criminal charges but the will to prosecute them. Once again, Democratic politicians are yielding to the mob and refusing to see the criminal conduct.

It is reminiscent of CNN national correspondent Omar Jimenez reporting live from Kenosha, Wis., with a raging fire in the background over a chyron reading, "FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING."

These politicians and state prosecutors hope to ride this rage wave back into power in Congress and the White House. Indeed, some have told voters to "let your rage fuel you."

We have seen this pattern before in history. Establishment figures often try to harness the rage of the mob, only to be ultimately consumed by the rage themselves.

Irene Kao's decision is a cynical concession to the mob. It is a decision that will give the Minnesota mob a further sense of license.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling books "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage" and "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/05/2026 - 17:40