French Gambling Regulator Orders ISPs To Block Polymarket

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

France’s Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), or the National Gambling Authority, has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket.

Prediction websites are considered illegal gambling, the ANJ said in a Friday press release.

The regulator said that Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France and that advertising unauthorized gambling sites constitutes a criminal offense with fines of up to 100,000 euros ($114,000).

Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, from elections and sporting events to economic data and geopolitical developments. Polymarket has surged in popularity over the past two years, with billions of dollars in trading volume, while drawing scrutiny from regulators over whether its event contracts constitute illegal gambling or unlicensed financial products.

Countries that blocked access to Polymarket include Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil and Indonesia. At press time, Polymarket said it was geoblocked in 36 regions.

France’s gambling regulator first shared plans to block the platform in November 2024 for failing to comply with national gambling laws.

French gambling authority cites outcome manipulation concerns

France’s gambling authority said Polymarket boasts “addictive features” that are similar to regulated gambling offerings, but “amplified by the absence of the protective mechanisms found in the legal gambling market.”

It also cited potential outcome manipulation tied to some event contracts on Polymarket, adding:

“Some of the bets offered on this platform appeared to be rigged: for example, bets on the weather revealed that weather sensors may have been hacked.”

The cybercrime unit of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into this matter in May 2026 and found a lack of identity verification, such as Know Your Customer checks.

Prediction markets have also drawn scrutiny from US regulators. On June 17, Kentucky sued five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, accusing them of operating unlicensed sports betting platforms. At least 17 other states have followed suit.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued eight states, arguing they had interfered with the federal regulator’s exclusive authority over federally regulated event contracts. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/19/2026 - 08:10

Germany To Join French Nuclear Exercise, Deepening 'Counter-Russia' Deterrence

In the latest development related to what some analysts have called the 'new Cold War' and nuclear saber-rattling between Russia and the West, Germany and France are planning a major nuclear exercise later this year.

The atomic drills were announced Friday, after a joint top-level meeting of the French and German governments near Cologne. "Alongside this work on a shared doctrine, German conventional forces will this year take part in a nuclear exercise of the French military," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled. 

picture alliance/dpa

He detailed while at a press event alongside French President Emmanuel Macron that a "strategic steering group" established by the leading European allies would continue looking at deterrence in the future, with an eye on Russia.

"This is complementary to our nuclear participation and deterrence within NATO, which we still hold to," he added. He also previewed "a maneuver in the autumn held on the initiative of France" - while speaking of the Ukraine war.

"We will clarify together what form exactly this participation will take," he said.

France is newly positioning itself at the forefront of nuclear deterrence for Europe, a role that the United States has long assumed, and currently still does.

According to some of Macron's statements at the same event: "Patriotism, yes; nationalism, never. At a time when Europe is rearming, to think that each of us separately accumulating capabilities is the way history is going is absurd." More details have been offered in the following:

Mr Macron and Mr Merz began the defence council at Nörvenich air base beside a French Rafale and a German Eurofighter – a symbolic backdrop after the aircraft designed to replace them was scrapped.

Nuclear deterrence offers one field where the strained partnership can still move forward.

German troops would play a conventional supporting role and would not control French weapons. Berlin will also help develop radar and space-based systems for detecting ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

Currently the United States and the UK, which both maintain nuclear arsenals, form the core of NATO's nuclear deterrence strategy. While France also possesses nuclear weapons, it does not yet participate on a leadership level in NATO's nuclear planning group. The US military also contributes F-35, refueling aircraft, and other support planes. 

Germany's Chancellor Merz:

For the first time, I have accepted the offer made by the French President to jointly think about nuclear deterrence.

Historically speaking, General Charles de Gaulle had already offered the Federal Republic of Germany a French nuclear umbrella many… pic.twitter.com/lIug2JjqVB

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 17, 2026

Russia has not infrequently held its own strategic drills over the course of the last several years of war in Ukraine. It has also become the 'new normal' for Russia and Europe to hold rival conventional war games, amid threats, warnings and ongoing miliary flexing.

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/19/2026 - 07:35

Nearly Half Of Poles Now Want To Stop Arming Ukraine

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The reason is Poles’ radically shifting views towards Ukraine since the start of their spiraling dispute sparked by Zelensky’s state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits.

Leading Polish conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita published the results of a survey that it commissioned showing that 45.2% of Poles now want to stop arming Ukraine. The majority are from the opposition, which includes conservative and libertarian-nationalist (populist in American political parlance) groups who a separate survey recently showed could form a coalition government after fall 2027’s next Sejm elections, and is almost three times larger than the 18.3% from December 2022.

Krzysztof Bosak, one of the populist Confederation’s co-leaders, is quoted as reaffirming his party’s consistent policy of supporting conditional aid to Ukraine that tangibly advances Polish interests. Its rapid growth in popularity per the second-mentioned survey above is likely due to the public realizing that Confederation was right all along about Ukraine amidst their country’s spiraling dispute with it that was sparked by Zelensky’s state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits.

This palpable sentiment is arguably responsible for why the conservative “Law & Justice” (PiS) opposition’s prime ministerial candidate boldly broke with this party’s leadership earlier in the week by calling on the EU to stop funding Ukrainian arms till it “enters the path of pro-human values.” PiS is also separately embroiled in a power struggle between co-founder Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki over the latter’s refusal to shutter his sub-group within the party.

The combination of these factors could lead to more disgruntled PiS supporters flocking towards Confederation, thus potentially turning the party in the senior partner in any coalition that could be formed after fall 2027’s next Sejm elections, which could lead to serious changes in Polish foreign policy. The second survey that was hyperlinked to in the introduction shows that Confederation and the Confederation of the Polish Crown that earlier split from it have more support combined than PiS.

It’s therefore within the realm of political reality that the populists maintain their role as the country’s most powerful opposition force, especially if support for PiS continues declining while support for Confederation continues growing, with Poles’ radically shifting views towards Ukraine being the reason. Rzeczpospolita’s report cites the Defense Ministry’s recently declassified statistics showing that the former PiS government gave Ukraine around €3.4 billion worth of military equipment from 2022-2023.

The National Security Bureau disclosed in early 2025 that Poland’s aid to Ukraine totaled 4.91% of its GDP by then (most going to refugees and the above statistics showing that the liberal coalition only sent around €350 million by mid-2026) and constituted hundreds of pieces of equipment. Although PiS has since hardened its approach towards Ukraine, just like its opponents did under public pressure, it could have preemptively averted Ukraine’s descent into an anti-Polish state had it attached strings to its aid.

For example, aid could have been sent only if Ukraine first allowed the full exhumation and proper reburial of the Volhynia Genocide’s victims, officially recognized and apologized for this war crime, and banned Banderism. That didn’t happen and now “Poland Finally Realizes The Geostrategic Challenge Posed By Ukraine”, thus further contextualizing why nearly half of Poles no longer want to arm what’s at this point their top regional rival, which also poses a latent security threat if it’s not soon denazified.

Tyler Durden Sun, 07/19/2026 - 07:00

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

• Inside Nokia’s Race to Catch the iPhone and Android Wave: IEEE Spectrum’s oral history of Nokia’s doomed attempt to compete with the smartphone revolution — a masterclass in how incumbents fail even when they see the future coming.  (IEEE Spectrum)

• The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year: Former CDC staffers on the cuts now haunting the outbreak response: “Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC lab director tells WIRED. (Wired) see also Why Do We Need Explosive Diarrhea to Remind Us Public Health Matters?  Lisa Jarvis on the Michigan cyclosporiasis outbreak and hollowed-out public health. Headline of the day! (Bloomberg free)

• An SEC email address mix-up is causing confusion and threatening to disrupt its proposal to scrap quarterly reporting requirements: The comment (or…comments) period on the semiannual reporting rule closed on July 6, but the email address confusion cropped up on Monday in a letter to the commission from nonprofit investor advocate Better Markets. The letter, addressed to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, said the posted email address was “incorrect,” and said the error “undoubtedly deprived some members of the public of the opportunity to express their views on an extensive, far-reaching and dramatic change to corporate reporting that upends half a century of practice.”
So on brand…  (Fortune)

• Its the golden age of insider trading:
–Truth Social to sell trading firms ‘fastest’ access to Trump’s posts. Trump Media & Technology Group has unveiled a paid-for, licensed data feed that will give banks and trading firms “the fastest” access ‌to posts from influential Truth Social accounts, such as President Donald Trump’s, whose posts often move global markets. The product, called “Truth API,” will deliver posts from the 10 most influential accounts to customers at a significantly faster pace than a regular push notification on the Truth Social platform, a spokesperson said. (Reuters)
-White House teleprompter operator made more than $100K betting on Trump’s speeches: Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000. (ABC News)

• Counterfeit Air-Bag Parts Are Killing U.S. Drivers—and the Government Can’t Stop It: Counterfeit airbag parts are killing American drivers, and regulators can’t stem the flow. The Journal investigates the replacement part that might be a grenade. After 10 deaths, regulators are warning the public about airbags in used cars with components marked as made by a Chinese company, but tracing them is difficult (Wall Street Journal)

• For Software Engineers, the AI Reckoning Is Already Here: Artificial intelligence has changed computer programming more than it has any other profession, and coders are transforming right along with it. (Businessweek)

• The Mystery Money Powering Trump’s Second Term: The president and his allies have built a network of groups financed by wealthy donors and businesses that is advancing his priorities with little public disclosure. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Big Read. After the strongman The Magyar revolution: Hungary’s new era What will the dismantling of the Orbán machine lead to? (Financial Times free)

• A Free-Speech Meltdown: PEN America’s president resigned over an article detailing the isolation and exclusion that many Israeli and Jewish writers feel after October 7. (The Atlantic) see also FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals: ProPublica documents the gifts — Kennedy Center galas, fancy dinners — that Paramount lavished on FCC officials while seeking regulatory approval. The appearance of corruption is indistinguishable from the thing itself. (ProPublica)

• Vinyl in the Veins: Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: every record is made of oil. (Longreads)

Video of the day: We Need to Talk About Louis – Part 1 of 5

People in Many Countries Now View China More Positively Than the U.S.

Source: Pew Research Center

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist, a modern custodian built as a clean sheet from the ground up, fully integrated with artificial intelligence. He began his career at Morgan Stanley before launching Retirement Wealth Advisors, and then FormulaFolios. The through-line of his career has been creating lower-cost, tech-enabled, financial advice.

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 Reliance On China's Beidou Satellite System Is A Game-Changer In War With US

Authored by former CIA officer Larry Johnson

During the 12-day war in June 2025, Iranian missiles and drones struggled against sophisticated Israeli and American electronic warfare. GPS jamming and spoofing repeatedly disrupted their guidance systems, limiting their effectiveness during the intense 12-day conflict. Fast-forward to early 2026, and the battlefield dynamics had shifted dramatically. Iran’s precision strikes began threading through advanced air defenses, hitting high-value targets across the Gulf with surprising accuracy.

Intelligence analysts pointed to one key factor: Iran had ditched GPS for China’s Beidou satellite navigation system.

The US unwittingly provided the spark that ignited China’s quest for the Beidou. The story begins in 1993 when a single Chinese container ship, the Yinhe, sailing to Iran, the vessel was accused by the CIA of carrying chemicals for weapons production.

Middle Eastern ports, under pressure from the US, refused entry and the ship was stranded in the Indian Ocean. The US not only pressured allies but reportedly disabled the ship's GPS access, forcing it to drop anchor for weeks. Inspections in Saudi Arabia eventually cleared the vessel, but China received no apology or compensation.

This humiliation—losing navigation mid-ocean due to reliance on a foreign-controlled system—became a pivotal lesson for Beijing. It accelerated development of an independent satellite navigation network: Beidou (BDS).

• BDS-1 (2000s) provided initial regional coverage.
• BDS-2 expanded capabilities.
• BDS-3 (completed around 2020) transformed it into a global powerhouse with dozens of satellites, far more ground stations (especially in the Global South), and superior accuracy in many regions compared to GPS.

Today, Beidou outperforms GPS in coverage and precision across roughly 165 countries, offering a resilient alternative that cannot be unilaterally jammed or spoofed by Western powers.

After the 2025 conflict exposed vulnerabilities in GPS-dependent systems, Iran moved decisively. By late 2025 or early 2026, it integrated Beidou into its missile and drone arsenals. Reports from March 2026 already highlighted dramatic improvements: Iranian munitions evaded electronic countermeasures that had worked months earlier.

Key advantages of Beidou for Iran include:

• Resistance to jamming/spoofing — Advanced frequency-hopping and anti-interference tech.
• Higher accuracy — Circular error probable under 5 meters in key regions, enabling precise strikes with fewer munitions.
• Real-time command — Secure messaging allows mid-flight adjustments over long distances.

This upgrade has contributed significantly to Iran’s ability to penetrate US defenses in the Gulf countries and dramatically improved Iran’s ability to strike critical targets, which has undermined confidence in US security guarantees in the Gulf.

The US decision to use GPS as a weapon in 1993 has backfired spectacularly—proof that humiliating China inspired a technological leap that now gives China and its allies a strategic advantage over the US.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 23:20

Academia Embarrasses Itself... Again

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Over at Twitchy, a publication that curates the news in funny yet insightful ways, a headline reads, “Head of Medical School Tells Congresswoman the Vast Majority of Pregnancies Occur in Women.”  Sure enough, Twitchy is telling the truth.

During witness testimony before a congressional committee examining the impact of forced “diversity,” preferential (non-merit-based) admissions, and “woke” ideology upon the quality of medical schools, the chancellor of UC San Francisco testified under oath that not all pregnancies come from women.  That chancellor, Samuel Hawgood, is not some administrative bureaucrat with a made-up bachelor’s degree in the discriminatory effects of man-made “climate change” upon “transgender” Pakistanis (and an obligatory master’s in why American taxpayers must foot the bill for all “sex change” surgeries around the world).  No, Hawgood is an actual pediatrician who previously served as UCSF’s dean of the School of Medicine.  A man who did his residency at the Royal Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Brisbane cannot tell us how babies are made.

It is astounding to watch just how far down the propaganda rabbit hole so-called “institutions of higher learning” have dragged society.  Until very recently, this kind of public display of sophistry would have embarrassed an intellectual of the lowest order.  For a medical doctor and university chancellor to pretend that men can get pregnant is a flashing neon sign warning just how corrupt and dishonest all of academia has become.  These days, university leaders sound indistinguishable from North Korean spokespeople assuring starving citizens that they are better off than anyone else in the world.

How did we get to this point in time when professors tell rank lies to the American people, while hiding behind their titles as false evidence that those lies are somehow “truths”?  Well, social media favorite “Oilfield Rando” points to part of the problem.  In an X post responding to the doctor’s pseudoscientific testimony, Rando includes an itemization of Chancellor Hawgood’s university pay and accompanying benefits.  The man in charge of one of the country’s top educational institutions takes home well over a million dollars each year.  Unless Chancellor Hawgood is a moron who genuinely believes men can get pregnant, it is likely that he is willing to sell his intellectual reputation and personal honor for a seven-figure salary.

What does that say about the current state of our society?  The modern university arose from Christian monasteries dedicated to God’s truth.  This is why divinity degrees are generally accorded highest honor during processions accompanying graduation ceremonies.  As monasteries developed into secular institutions of higher learning, they remained places dedicated to the pursuit of truth.  Harvard’s motto, veritas, simply means “truth.”

For hundreds of years, faculty members did not take positions on college campuses because they sought fame or fortune.  They became scholars and professors because they were dedicated to the rigors of their calling.  Just as a Christian monk lived in poverty because the pursuit of truth provided spiritual nourishment and personal fulfillment, a scholar embraced a penurious life within academia in exchange for the privilege of seeking authentic truth.  The reward — unvarnished enlightenment — was understood to be more valuable than money.

I have spent enough time on university campuses to understand that they are no longer sanctuaries for truth.  There was a time not so many decades ago when campuses were “safe spaces” for all ideas.  Unlike the real world, where an employee might be fired for taking unorthodox positions in the workplace, colleges once encouraged professors and students to advance eccentric, heretical, and dissenting points of view on any subject.  Intellectual debate was more important than “hurt feelings” or “political correctness.”

Now, the opposite is true.  Universities are so concerned about “hurt feelings” and “political correctness” that they proudly designate most of their campus a “safe space” free from the “dangers” of debate, disagreement, or dissent.  Of course, the kicker is that in the process of creating “safe spaces,” colleges must first decide what points of view to defend as part of their unquestionable curricula.  They stake out positions just as a cleric might do with tenets of a religious faith.  In this way, the university has come full circle.  It has once again become a medieval monastery filled with members of a religious order.  It’s just that these twenty-first-century “monks” despise God, truth, and Christianity.

In 2026, a pediatrician and chancellor of a major university is incapable of stating the truths that biological sex is real and that only women can become pregnant.  As much as we might be inclined to laugh, this should make us feel sad.  There has never been a time in human history when people struggled with the distinctions between men and women.

We are presently in an era when the people with the most prestigious titles and credentials are either dumber or more dishonest than the least educated members of any human society that ever existed.  In exchange for their dumbness and dishonesty, they are paid extremely high salaries.  The corporate news media command us to treat these people with respect because they have been recognized as official “experts.”  And these highly paid, credentialed, respected experts from prestigious institutions of higher learning are too cowardly to tell the truth.  The noble pursuit and defense of veritas have been replaced with ignominy and indoctrination.

University cowardice, of course, does not stop with the idiotic fad of “transgenderism.”  There are all kinds of bizarre, fanciful, and unscientific commandments within the “woke” faith.  Believing in hard work, skill, intellect, and merit is now cast as unacceptable “white supremacy.”  Instead, we are told, people should be admitted to universities and receive degrees based on the color of their skin, their recognized victimhood, and/or their sexual proclivities.  Entire generations of intellectual lightweights are now certified “experts” because they claimed to have Native American blood or wrote college admissions essays about having sexual relations with broccoli.  They can’t do math.  They can’t write without the help of AI.  But since they call themselves “doctors” or were handed Ivy League degrees, they expect the rest of society to respect them and believe what they say.

It is such an odd time to be alive.  In the halls of government and academia, nonsensical beliefs masquerading as “truth” run rampant.  Within these wonderlands of delirium, two ideas are so sacrosanct that they cannot be questioned:

(1) using any kind of energy other than those available during the Middle Ages causes catastrophic “climate change”; and

(2) mass immigration and “multiculturalism” strengthen a society. 

Consequently, university professors and government ministers expect us to believe two preposterous things. 

 First, unless we pay carbon taxes and allow bureaucrats to centrally manage the economy, we will all die.  

Second, unless we replace Western civilization with other civilizations, we are all bigots.

In other words, our “educated elites” treat as indisputable “truths” the canards that bad weather and insufficient “diversity” are the two biggest problems of our time.  Their solutions?  Central bankers, multinational corporations, and government bureaucrats should strictly regulate how productive people build things and prosper.  Ideally, incompetent people rewarded for their perceived “victimhood” and “diversity” should be put in charge of future production.  This is not a plan for success.  This is an idiotic operation that guarantees civilizational self-destruction.

Should we survive this age of stupidity, our descendants will look back and wonder why clear-thinking scholars from our august institutions of higher learning didn’t do more to halt the suicidal impulses now gripping Western civilization.  

How could the very universities that trace their lineages back to Western monasteries’ pursuit of God’s truth become cesspools of falsehood, paganism, and superstition?

Western civilization’s survivors will not have to look hard for their answer: University chancellors were given millions of dollars to “educate” the public about men having babies. 

College campuses are catnip for crazies.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 18:40

"Start Spreadin' The News": New York Losing Billions As Millionaires Flee Big Apple

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in the New York Post on the sharp decline in millionaires in New York, costing the state billions as many flee. The exodus has been building for years but may now be accelerating. As Mayor Mamdani holds another press conference promising to end the “violence of evictions,” businesses are reading the writing on the wall. Rather than work to make the state more attractive to wealthy residents and businesses, Democrats are seeking to diminish the appeal of two-tax states. They want to tap into a long-barred area of taxation: the wealth rather than just the income of citizens. By passing a national wealth tax, Democrats will reduce the benefit of fleeing high-tax states like California and New York.

“Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today” — that’s how the famous song “New York, New York”  captures the Big Apple’s draw.

Today, the line is becoming more ironic than iconic: Many people are indeed leaving … from New York, New York.

Worse yet, those “vagabond shoes” that “are longing to stray” are on the feet of the wealthiest New Yorkers.

And as they flee, according to a new study, they’re taking away billions in badly needed tax revenue.

As Mayor Zohran Mamdani and others pledge massive social programs and free services by taxing the wealthy, the wealthy are just melting away.

The reason is simple: if “you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

In today’s economy, it’s no longer necessary or even particularly beneficial to be in New York to make money in financial and other areas.

When any business meeting is a screen and a click away, you can go to a low-tax state like Florida or Texas and do as well as you can in the Big Apple.

Not surprisingly, many are choosing the money over the mystique and the madness.

This week the Citizens Budget Commission reported that New York’s share of millionaires fell from 12.7% in 2010 to 8.7% in 2022 — the largest drop of any state.

The exodus of wealthy citizens left New York short $10.7 billion in tax revenue.

By denouncing the remaining wealthy as effectively freeloaders who are “not paying their fair share,” Mamdani is only spurring them on.

It’s a demonstrably false claim that I discuss in my book Rage and the Republic — and part of a growing class-warfare theme the left is deliberately using to fuel political rage.

Yet it’s easy to form a mob —  and far more difficult to control it.

That is particularly the case when your economic policies destroy your economy, and your ability to pay for all the free services that you’ve promised.

There’s a good-faith debate to be had over optimal tax levels, but the fact is that the top 10% of Americans pay more in taxes than the other 90% of the country. The top 1% pays roughly 40% of federal taxes.

As rational actors flee the state, Mamdani and New York Democrats are forced to cull the shrinking herd of high-end taxpayers who remain, layering on special fees like a pied-à-terre tax to be imposed on NYC’s luxury property owners.

And rather than change course to make New York a more attractive place to do business and live, national Democrats are moving to make other states no better — by nationalizing wealth taxes and by taxing fleeing citizens as if they still lived in the state.

Many are following Sen. Bernie Sanders’ and Rep. Ro Khanna’s call to impose a federal wealth tax they’ve dubbed the Billionaire Tax.

The idea is to stem the exodus from California and New York by giving the highest earners no place to go . . . except out of the country.

That’s the option many took when similar wealth taxes were attempted in countries like France, only to be rescinded after doing massive economic damage.

Fleecing the wealthy is a revenue loser.

New York is losing billions, and California has reportedly lost trillions due to top taxpayers’ departure.

Unwilling to adopt greater fiscal restraints and truly compete for businesses and residents, Democrats are looking for pockets of new areas to tax.

The wealth tax is a virtual bonanza of untapped revenue — if it can make it through the courts.

Our Constitution was amended in 1913 to allow for an income tax, not a wealth tax.

Once you pay taxes on what you earn, you’re supposed to be able to use your hard-earned money to buy whatever you wish, from bikes to boats.

Democrats now want to tax those possessions: “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren once dramatically warned.

And Khanna recently confirmed what some of us have been saying for years: The Billionaire Tax isn’t only for billionaires.

“The tax should not stop at billionaires,” he said in a pitch to his party’s rising socialist movement; “it must reach centimillionaires. The tax has to reach all fortunes $50 million and up.”

Khanna and others hope that, once taken nationally, a wealth tax would destroy the benefit of moving to low-tax states — and open up literally trillions in new potential revenue.

In the meantime, New York will continue to burn billions as it taps its dwindling number of millionaires.

As their wealthy neighbors depart, those remaining will have to make up for their loss.

Being among the last to leave New York will be a costly distinction.

They will indeed “wake up” — and find that they’re “king of the hill, top of the list” for wealth redistribution.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times bestselling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 17:30

Paul Pelosi Officially Charged With Hit-And-Run In Northern California

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run on July 17 after authorities alleged he struck another vehicle parked on the side of a road on July 3 in Napa County, California.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office also charged Pelosi, 86, of St. Helena, with making an unlawful turn.

A witness who saw the accident called 911. Napa County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene in Yountville, California, on July 3 and found Pelosi sitting inside his brown convertible, about one-quarter mile away from the damaged car that was struck on the shoulder of a roadway, the department reported.

According to deputies, Pelosi’s car sustained damage to the front.

Pelosi allegedly told deputies he hit something but he did not know what or when, and had continued driving, according to the sheriff’s department statement.

He did not test positive for alcohol, authorities said.

Deputies did not arrest Pelosi at the scene. No injuries were reported at the time, and he was allowed to go home with a misdemeanor citation for leaving the scene of an accident.

The sheriff’s office recommended Pelosi to the California Department of Motor Vehicles to determine whether he should be allowed to continue driving, which is common for older drivers.

The maximum sentence for a hit-and-run offense is one year of probation, according to the district attorney’s office.

Paul Pelosi’s first court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 14.

This is the second time in four years that Pelosi has been charged by the Napa County District Attorney following an auto accident in the county.

He was convicted in Napa County Superior Court in 2022 of drunk driving and causing injury after pleading guilty to the charges.

Paul and Nancy Pelosi attend the 66th GRAMMY Awards Pre-GRAMMY and GRAMMY Salute to Industry Icons Honoring Jon Platt at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2024. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Pelosi was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution to the accident victim for medical bills, serve five days in jail, and submit to blood, breath, or urine tests if requested by an officer.

He was also mandated to enroll in a program for three months and install an ignition interlock device on his vehicle for one year as part of the sentence.

In an unrelated incident that same year, he was attacked and beaten with a hammer inside the couple’s San Francisco home.

A spokesperson for the Pelosi family did not immediately return a request for comment.

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

Landmark Decision: Federal Appeals Court Rejects New Jersey's AR-15 And Magazine Bans

In a major victory those seeking to rid America of bans on so-called "assault weapons," for the first time ever, a federal appeals court has ruled that a state's ban on AR-15s and similar rifles, and its ban on "high-capacity" magazines, violate the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.

The bans in question had been enacted by New Jersey, but the ruling carries weight throughout the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which also includes Pennsylvania and Delaware. More significantly, the Third Circuit ruling creates a direct circuit split -- the term used to describe a situation where two or more federal courts hand down different interpretations of the same legal controversy, which results in litigants in different parts of the country experiencing sharply different outcomes. Circuit splits are one of the key factors that make an issue ripe for US Supreme Court review.

Bans of AR-15-style rifles -- like the one wonderfully wielded here by Instagram's "3gunreanna" -- could be eradicated by this time next year

Late last month, the Supreme Court already agreed to hear an appeal of rulings that upheld a "assault rifle" ban imposed by Connecticut and by Cook County -- where Chicago is situated. The question posed to the high court by the petitioners: "Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semi-automatic rifles." 

Comically flaunting his supposed credentials on the issue by noting that he "qualified as an expert shot" in the Navy and is thus "familiar with firearms," New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill condemned the ruling in a statement: 

“Today’s decision is dangerous, wrong, and make no mistake, it will make New Jersey communities less safe...This decision is not only legally wrong, it’s completely out of step with parents and the people of the Garden State...We will not back down from extreme, right-wing attempts to weaken the laws of New Jersey.”

The Third Circuit Court reviewed the case en banc -- that is, all active judges of the circuit participated in hearing and deciding the case.  They threw out the New Jersey rifle and magazine bans by a 10-to-5 margin. A majority of the Third Circuit judges were appointed by Republicans, but the majority opinion was written by a Biden-appointed judge, Arianna Freeman. As required by the landmark 2022 Bruen decision, the Third Circuit and all other federal courts are required to evaluate whether a given restriction on the right of armed self-defense is consistent with the country's historical tradition of firearms regulation. 

Biden-appointed Judge Arianna Freeman, a Swarthmore and Yale product, wrote the majority opinion 

Freeman and her fellow judges in the majority flatly rejected the notion, embraced by other circuits, that AR-15 rifles are not "arms" as the term is used in the Second Amendment: 

“Even the narrowest Founding-era definition of ‘Arms’ addressed by the Heller Court ‘stated that all firearms constituted ‘arms,’”... “Because semi-automatic rifles are firearms, they are ‘Arms’ within the meaning of the Second Amendment. The Constitution thus ‘presumptively protects’ individuals’ right to keep and bear semi-automatic rifles.”

The majority decision also rejected the ban over the "common use" standard that was created by the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision: 

“Bans on weapons in common use for lawful purposes are unlawful. So are severe restrictions on weapons in common use for lawful purposes .. However much nuance we might employ, we could not overcome the dearth of relevantly similar Founding-era restrictions. “

They also found no historical roots with which to justify the ban on AR-15 and similar rifles: 

“Together, Heller and Bruen teach that bans or broad prohibitions on possessing or carrying of a class of weapons in common use for lawful purposes fail to find support in our Nation’s tradition of firearm regulation. That is so even when the regulations are passed with the intention of reducing gun violence .. That principle resolves our inquiry here.

In the primary dissenting opinion, Biden appointee Patty Shwartz said "the objective features of AR-15s and [large-capacity magazines] render them disproportionate to ‘ordinary self-defense needs’ and thus outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s protection.”  Of course, Schartz's suggestion that the 2nd Amendment is about "ordinary self-defense" is completely at odds with the Second Amendment's plain language and the well-documented intentions of its drafters. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 13:25

DHS Issues Funding Warning To States That Don't Purge Voter Rolls

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday said that states that do not purge their voter rolls of potentially ineligible voters and noncitizens could lose funding.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, on July 17, 2026. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

It came as he said the DHS has identified more than 250,000 noncitizens who were illegally on voter registration rolls in four states: California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

"We know Iran hacked state voter files and attempted to compromise our systems where military members used to vote," he said, adding that DHS "security enhancements" will be mandatory.

"If these states want a grant, and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they're going to have to implement security measures."

Voting systems have to be secured, and voter registration lists need to be "scrubbed," Mullin said.

"We need to make sure that individuals that are legally able to vote are voting," he said.

When a staff member discovered the relationship with the prospective defendant, Johnston fired the employee, according to Hanaway.

"President Trump is correct when he said that election security is national security ... this is just exposing what took place and to make sure it never happens again.

"And there's some really easy steps that can be taken to secure our elections, and it shouldn't be a partisan issue."

Mullin said he is asking election officials in those four states to check voter rolls for people who are not American citizens, saying that it's not a "partisan issue" to safeguard the process.

"We will secure our elections," he said, adding that DHS has a mandate to "keep our voters safe and our elections safe."

The remarks from Mullin follow a speech given by President Donald Trump on July 16 in which he detailed what he said were significant irregularities and flaws in the 2020 election and problems with voter rolls in states.

He called to pass a voter identification bill that is currently stalled in Congress.

"I've also ordered DHS to notify every state about non-citizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately," Trump said in his speech on Thursday.

"But most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act."

Trump was referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a highly debated election bill that would mandate voters to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and present valid photo identification to cast ballots in federal elections.

It was passed in the House but faces opposition in the Senate.

The Trump administration has called on Republican senators who hold the majority to remove the legislative filibuster to pass it, although Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said his party lacks the votes to do so.

Trump said in his address that recent intelligence findings showed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other foreign adversaries tried to meddle in the 2020 election, that there was evidence of voter fraud being buried, that hundreds of thousands of deceased people and noncitizens are active on voter rolls, and that voting systems were exposed to manipulation and hacking attempts.

"This vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you," Trump said.

The White House on Thursday concurrently released sections of documents related to alleged vulnerabilities in U.S. voting systems, China having acquired and exploited U.S. voter data, the results of a Michigan voter-registration investigation, and details on noncitizens on state voter rolls.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 12:50

The Falkland Islands: Don't Cry Argentina

Authored by Noel Williams via AmericanThinker.com,

Yesterday, Mr. Noel S. Williams noted the impudent and impertinent behavior of Argentina’s soccer players after their World Cup semi-final match against England (you’re welcome).

The unfurling of the banner that read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” may have flown under the radar for many, but it was actually a rather sizable geopolitical offense.

The Falkland Islands Government has now issued a statement condemning the Argentinian team’s hubris.

Here is part of it:

That said, it is hardly news to anyone that the people of the Islands were victims of an aggressive invasion in 1982, which left many traumatised [sic].

The banner displayed by Argentina last night, therefore, was particularly insensitive for many people in the Falklands.

...

We welcome the UK Government’s supportive statement this morning.

The statement also calls upon FIFA to sanction their atrocious behavior in keeping with their categorical rules to eliminate politics from sports.

Now we will see if FIFA has really purged their inherently corrupt tendencies.

As for sport, frankly Argentina probably deserved to win the match because England essentially chose to lose (after taking the lead).

Nevertheless, their brutish behavior (fouls, simulations, swarming, and the “dark arts” in which they specialize) are not a good advertisement for the game.

Good sportsmanship and soccer don’t dovetail, but Argentina’s tactics scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Argentina does have a much-loved player named Lionel Messi, and a considerable fan base, but their soccer shenanigans are messy.

I hope FIFA president Gianni Infantino is not coyed by their fervor.

Since Argentina is now in the World Cup Final, he has the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of FIFA’s rules about politics and sportsmanship by imposing punishment in a high-profile moment.

He said he wants the tournament to unite the world — prove it by sanctioning Argentina for the pariah they are.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Side-note, England play Argentina at Rugby later today and tensions are already rising...

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 11:40



 

 

This week, I speak with Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist, a modern custodian for independent financial advisors. We discuss why Jason started the company and his plans to change asset management through technology. He weighs in on the state of RIAs, and how AI is going to change everything.

A list of his current reading/favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here on Tuesday.

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 Masters in Business next week with Lori Heinel, Global Chief Investment Officer of State Street Investment Management, the asset management arm of giant State Street Corp. She oversees over $5.7 trillion in assets (as of year-end 2025), which includes everything from index funds and ETFs to active strategies, multi-asset solutions, and alternatives. She was named to Forbes’ 2025 “50 Over 50” list.

 

 

 

Current Reading/Favorite Books

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

 

This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin

Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

 

Books Barry Mentioned

The Bogle Effect: How John Bogle and Vanguard Turned Wall Street Inside Out and Saved Investors Trillions by Eric Balchunas

The post MiB: Jason Wenk, Altruist founder and CEO appeared first on The Big Picture.

Venezuela Quake Disaster Tops 5,000 Deaths As 50,000 Remain Missing

Venezuela's official death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 has surpassed 5,000 and could climb much higher.

New footage of the June 24th earthquake in La Guaira shows multiple buildings collapsing #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/hq1ywikhpA

— CNW (@ConflictsW) July 11, 2026

Poorly constructed multifamily housing complexes, built with low-quality materials under the socialist government's mass-housing programs, collapsed "like sandcastles" when the quakes hit the coastal state of La Guaira.

The devastating earthquakes in Venezuela exposed exactly how the socialist government built housing for their people. Look at this video from La Guaira.

The buildings in the Misión Vivienda program were constructed using expanded polystyrene (EPS) panels coated with a thin layer… pic.twitter.com/N4qLX7W3Xa

— Maila Maria Rosa (@MailaMariaRosa) June 28, 2026

The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes struck within seconds of each other, devastating Chávez-era socialist housing projects in La Guaira and reducing buildings to rubble.

As the Spanish daily newspaper ABC recently reported, "The explanation given by engineers and construction specialists is that low-quality materials were used in the Chavista Housing Mission, without supervision and without the application of anti-seismic standards."

Aerial footage shows the widespread destruction across La Guaira, Venezuela.
pic.twitter.com/KVUrstkx97

— Resist the Mainstream (@ResisttheMS) June 25, 2026

Local authorities reported 16,740 injuries and said that more than 6,400 people had been rescued from the rubble. The death toll surpassed 5,000 on Friday, while the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people remain missing.

2/
The UN estimates as many as 50,000 people may still be missing. Nearly 17,000 are wounded, and more than 21,000 are living in shelters. Recovery could cost $37 billion — while Venezuela's own funds sit frozen abroad.

— CEPR (@ceprdc) July 17, 2026

On Friday, acting President Delcy Rodríguez said that Venezuela has drawn on $346 million of its own reserves at the International Monetary Fund to begin reconstruction projects in the quake-ravaged region.

"My heart is with the people of Venezuela," IMF's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a post on X.

Supporting ongoing disaster relief efforts, the US military has shifted ships, rotary-wing aircraft, cargo planes, and amphibious landing craft to deliver vital supplies directly to damaged coastal infrastructure.

Racing the clock and clearing bottlenecks to help save lives in Venezuela:
Since mobilizing to Simón Bolívar International Airport in the aftermath of the earthquakes, the @usairforce Contingency Response Element (CRE) has been vital in accelerating the flow of critical relief… pic.twitter.com/pfIgvmFx8N

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) July 17, 2026

US military forces supporting Venezuela's disaster response are helping stabilize the country after the devastating quake.

Still, the deployment is notable: US troops are now positioned inside Venezuela just as US military activity around Cuba could intensify, amid rumors of a potential invasion (read here).

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 11:05

More Than 227,000 US Property Foreclosure Filings In First Half Of 2026

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

A total of 227,548 properties in the United States made foreclosure filings in the first six months of this year, a 21 percent increase from the same period last year, according to real estate analytics company ATTOM.

The first half foreclosure filings are also up by 28 percent from the same period two years back, ATTOM said in a July 16 report.

In states with a minimum of 500 foreclosure filings, Idaho registered the largest year-over-year increase: 59 percent. This was closely followed by Colorado with 57 percent, Georgia with 52 percent, and North Carolina with 47 percent.

Foreclosure is a legal process by which a mortgage lender repossesses a property after the borrower fails to make mortgage payments on time. Initially, the lender issues a notice of default once payments are missed for 90 days. If the borrower fails to settle the claim within 30 days, the lender can repossess the property and sell it off.

In the first half of the year, 0.16 percent of all housing units made a foreclosure filing, according to ATTOM.

Florida had the highest rate, with 0.27 percent of housing units making a filing. South Carolina was in the second spot with a 0.26 percent rate, followed by Indiana and Delaware, both with a rate of 0.25 percent.

“Foreclosure activity continued to increase in the first half of 2026, but the broader picture remains one of a market that is gradually returning to more typical patterns,” Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM, said in a statement.

Foreclosure filings in a year’s first half hit their lowest level in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but have risen since. Prior to the pandemic, first-half filing numbers were higher than the 2026 figure for every single year between 2008 and 2019.

However, the filing increase in the first half of 2026 also suggests “that some homeowners may be facing greater financial strain than they were a year ago,” Barber said.

In a June 12 post, legal services company Nolo predicted foreclosure rates would gradually rise in the latter part of 2026.

The company cited factors such as high interest rates and reduced buyer demand as contributing to a growing housing crisis. Unless there is significant relief or intervention, the trend of rising foreclosures is likely to continue, it said.

High Mortgage Rates, Avoiding Foreclosure

The average weekly rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has mostly remained above the 6 percent level since September 2022, according to data from Freddie Mac.

Since mid-May, rates have been hovering around the 6.5 percent level. For the week ending July 15, rates were at 6.55 percent.

Meanwhile, demand in the housing market has subsided, with some house hunters backing off due to high costs, real estate brokerage Redfin said in a July 16 statement.

“High mortgage rates mean that even homes in the most affordable price point—under $350,000 in the Grand Rapids area—are a stretch for a lot of buyers, and they’re hard to find and competitive,” Christine Kooiker, a Redfin Premier agent in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said in a statement.

Elevated mortgage rates can raise monthly payments for homeowners who have taken loans at variable rates. This can squeeze them financially, potentially pushing some properties into foreclosure.

For homeowners struggling to pay their monthly mortgages, there are some ways they can avoid having their properties foreclosed. One way is to refinance the mortgage, according to a Sept. 26, 2025, post by financial services company Rocket Mortgage.

Refinancing can help a homeowner shift to a more affordable monthly payment plan in case the current one is financially challenging.

Another option is to seek mortgage forbearance from the lender. If a lender approves, mortgage payments may be temporarily paused or lowered to give the homeowner enough time to get their finances back in shape.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 10:30

US Strikes Take Out 116 Telecoms Towers In Southern Iran

Communications and even the supply of drinking water has been severely impacted in some places of southern Iran, amid continuing US airstrikes on civic and national infrastructure, amid the seventh consecutive day of war.

"Hormozgan’s chief of communications and information technology says the US's overnight attacks disrupted telecommunications in Bandar Abbas and Hajiabad, in the northern part of the province," Al Jazeera reports

Authorities there have tallied at least 116 telecommunication towers which were taken out of service due to the US onslaught. This has resulted in outages and disruptions of fixed-line, mobile, and internet services, per Tasnim news agency.

via Fars

This suggests the US is returning to a strategy which seeks to create destabilization within, targeting the ability of the public to communicate and access information, returning the situation to the early weeks of the war, which saw Tehran authorities themselves curb internet and some telecoms access for the citizenry.

It might also be that the US simply perceives infrastructure like telecommunications towers as utilized chiefly by the government and military, in a dual-use way, and so is ready to punish entire swathes of the country in order to cripple this ability.

It could be Washington still maintains the fantasy of fomenting a mass uprising against government leadership by imposing as much daily hardship and disruption, and economic pain as possible. Of course, the biggest squeeze is the blockade of Iranian ports and disallowing the country's ability to sell oil.

The Wall Street Journal this week observed that it will continue to be ordinary Iranians feeling the immense strain:

Iran’s economy is already buckling under the combined weight of years of sanctions and soaring inflation. The conflict has intensified those pressures by damaging factories, disrupting trade and payments, shutting down internet access and further weakening the currency.

Consumer prices in June were up 88.6% from a year earlier, according to official statistics. Just in the first few days of July, the price of a tray of eggs in Tehran shot up by 40%, to the equivalent of $3.30, according to Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It seems the US wants to create the conditions of a return to the January economic protests, which resulted in thousands of deaths, which involved protesters and rioters clashing with police and security services, the latter which suffered deaths too as clearly some of the anti-government elements were armed.

According to more of the Iranian economy's spiral via the WSJ report:

Iran’s gross domestic product is expected to shrink by 5.4% this year, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund prepared before the recent uptick in fighting. 

According to Kahalzadeh’s calculations, only the top 3% of Iranian households are able to afford the full food basket recommended by Iranian health officials. Many families are buying basic groceries like rice, meat and pasta on credit via a government program. Others are eliminating meat from meals and purchasing staples one at a time as their wages lose value.

Below: Despite US bombs blowing up vital telecoms infrastructure, there's a renewed effort by Saudi-Israeli aligned opposition media to accuse the regime of imposing a new internet blackout...

Meanwhile the war on infrastructure is only growing more aggressive and somewhat unprecedented. Power is one thing, but going after the population's water supply?...

"Iranian authorities also said the supply of drinking water to several villages in the south had been cut off, accusing the US of striking power facilities and desalination plant pumps in the village of Bonji, according to Tasnim," Al Jazeera writes.

Already Iranians nationwide have been urged to conserve electricity - for example by switching off air conditioners during peak hours, amid an ongoing severe strain on the power grid. Things look to get a lot worse for Iranians, and the outlook for broader war, before they get better.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 09:55

Meanwhile In The English Countryside...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A British woman out for a long countryside hike with her daughters found herself being shadowed by a creepy migrant male for miles.

The footage is clinical, relentless, and deeply unsettling. No confrontation is shown. No words are exchanged on camera. Just the steady pursuit across English fields and paths that once felt like the safest places in the country.

This is the England being delivered by successive governments that treat rural communities as dumping grounds for unchecked military aged foreigners.

?? Meanwhile in the English Countryside

Imagine being followed like this on a 10 mile Hike. This is England now. pic.twitter.com/CNMytntV8U

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) July 17, 2026

In an instagram post, the woman wrote "This is what it's come to. Yesterday, in broad day light; I was out with my 3 little girls and this guy appears from no where, we were literally in the middle of a field and he just popped up and followed us until I managed to get us on the road where he then just stood and watched us."

She added, "My heart was racing as he was pretty close until he saw I was filming. My girls were absolutely petrified, I kept telling them, don't be scared, don't look back, just keep going. No one should be made to feel like this and we should be able to walk around, where we live without having to look over our shoulders, especially in broad day light."

Here are the original clips with a further commentary on the incident from the woman who says the migrant was making sexual noises at them.

View this post on Instagram - A post shared by Alicia King (@aliciaking1985)

View this post on Instagram - A post shared by Alicia King (@aliciaking1985)

The clip, shared widely this week, lands at the exact moment other stories reveal the same pattern. At Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, male detainees were caught peering into women's bedrooms from outside.

A review by the Chief Inspector of Prisons found groups of men hanging outside the windows of female rooms. Forty-three per cent of the women, who need constant chaperones, said they felt unsafe going outside.

One woman told inspectors: "We cannot go outside because of the males and our time to do things are quick because of them."

The centre was also holding a man assessed as a risk of harm to women and another with impending prosecutions for sexual offences.

Vile illegal migrants caught on camera looking into women's bedroomshttps://t.co/ZnImlTXmaz

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 14, 2026

The few female asylum seekers there were so distressed by the behaviour that staff escorts became standard. The men, according to the report, asked inspectors why they were not allowed to "mix with female detainees."

This is the same system now preparing to drop large numbers of single adult males into quiet English villages with almost no consultation.

In the tiny Oxfordshire village of Piddington, population around 370, residents recently voted 96 per cent in favour of a symbolic independence referendum. Nearly 180 adults cast ballots. One hundred and seventy-five said yes.

The trigger was the Home Office plan to house up to 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers at a former Ministry of Defence site sitting between Piddington and Upper Arncott.

Utility companies have already been instructed to prepare connections. Work is eyed for late summer. No detailed public proposal or full impact assessment has been published.

Parish Council Chairman Tim McNally described the result as "truly astonishing." He said: "Self-determination is what people want whilst they are being ignored and driven into a corner. This is a natural human instinct and reaction."

Local resident Graham Rixon put it more bluntly: "We're a village of 350 people - there's another village down the road of even less people, and they're going to dump 1,200 people here."

He added that most would probably not speak the language and that "inadequate provision has been made." Another resident, Gwen McEwan from nearby Arncott, called the prospect "frightening."

The site sits next to a children's play area. The nearest shop is more than two miles away with no pavement along the B-road. Residents note that people currently walk the village at night without consequence. That comfort is precisely what is being put at risk.

Similar plans have targeted other small communities. In one case a village of just 150 people faced 121 migrants placed in new-build houses next to a playground and primary school. Teenage girls began taking longer routes home.

In Barnham, Suffolk, a village of 600 faces over 1,000 asylum seekers at a disused RAF site two minutes from a primary school.

Residents have started teaching children to lock doors and stay quiet. Fencing already has holes.

In Crowborough, East Sussex, locals formed volunteer security patrols after hundreds of single male asylum seekers arrived at a former training camp. Women began carrying personal alarms and taking self-defence classes in daylight. One volunteer described the patrols as "a visible presence to provide safety and security. We are a deterrent."

The pattern is consistent. Single adult males, many arriving illegally by boat, are moved out of hotels and into rural sites with minimal infrastructure and even less local say.

Projections show migrants absorbing a large share of new housing while British households remain on long social housing waiting lists.

The policy is sold as ending the "hotel" image. In practice it simply relocates the same pressures onto communities that never asked for them and lack the policing or services to absorb sudden demographic change.

Rural England was once defined by the freedom to walk its paths without looking over your shoulder. That freedom is being eroded by design. The government treats small villages as surplus capacity.

The safety of women and children is treated as secondary to the political imperative of dispersing arrivals as quickly and quietly as possible.

Piddington's near-unanimous vote will not legally detach the village from the United Kingdom. It does something more important. It records, in public, the precise moment ordinary people decided they would no longer pretend this is sustainable.

The English countryside is not a warehouse. The people who live there are not collateral.

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

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 09:20

The post Exporters Still Are Not Eating the Trump Tariffs: They are Taxes on Us appeared first on CEPR.

32 Jailed Over 2018 Italian Bridge Disaster That Killed 43

Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times,

An Italian court sentenced 32 people to a total of more than 170 years in prison on July 16, over their role in a 2018 bridge collapse that claimed the lives of 43 people.

The collapsed Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, on Aug 14, 2018. Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

The former head of Italian motorway operator Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI), Giovanni Castellucci, received the longest sentence of 12 years in prison for his role in the disaster, which saw the Morandi motorway bridge near the city of Genoa fall apart during a rainstorm on the morning of Aug. 14, 2018.

Michele Donferri Mitelli, another former senior manager at the publicly traded motorway management company, was given an 11-year sentence, with a further 30 defendants receiving custodial sentences.

Others sentenced included managers and engineers from ASPI's engineering subsidiary SPEA, as well as former officials from Italy's Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.

Of the 57 people who stood trial, a further 25 were either acquitted or cleared due to the statute of limitations, Italian outlet La Repubblica reported.

The Genoa courtroom fell silent as presiding judge Paolo Lepri read the verdicts for around 45 minutes, with 400 relatives of the victims, lawyers, journalists, and members of the public listening, Reuters reported.

Egle Possetti, president of the Committee for the Remembrance of the Morandi Bridge Victims, called the verdicts "important" and "positive."

"We believe the judges have done a thorough job, examining each position in detail," she told Italian public broadcaster RAI.

"We are pleased that responsibility has been acknowledged in all three areas of prosecution, that is, by ASPI, by SPEA, and by the ministry," said Possetti, who lost her sister, brother-in-law, and her sister's two children in the collapse.

The verdicts, however, are subject to appeal, with Castellucci, who also served as CEO of Atlantia, the controlling shareholder in ASPI at the time, planning to do so.

He was convicted of complicity in multiple counts of manslaughter through negligence, with prosecutors asking for a sentence of more than 18 years, rather than the 12 years he was eventually given, RAI reported.

Castellucci is already in prison, serving a six-year sentence over another fatal incident in 2013 on a viaduct in southern Italy, and was not in court to hear the verdict, but his legal team said they would appeal and that he had been made a scapegoat.

His lawyers, Giovanni Paolo Accinni and Guido Carlo Alleva, said they are "ready to appeal" the sentence, saying they believe their client "could not and should not have been convicted."

"We will read the reasons. We are convinced of Castellucci's innocence, but the trial doesn't end here. Criminalizing company CEOs is unfair; Castellucci is already in prison for this. And so is another CEO who bears no guilt," they said, according to Genoese outlet Il Secolo XIX.

The other CEO they are referring to is the former CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato and RFI, Mauro Moretti, who is currently serving a five-year sentence relating to a 2009 rail disaster in Viareggio, Tuscany, which killed 32 people.

Under the Italian legal system, the ruling of the first instance can be appealed at least twice.

Following the sentencing, Possetti said that "the new battle begins to succeed in having this ruling confirmed on appeal and above all to delegitimize any attempt to provide additional protection to managers, who should be subject to the law like the rest of us," Il Secolo XIX reported.

The Collapse

The collapse of the Morandi bridge in August 2018 stunned Italy and sparked years of investigations into the management and maintenance of its aging infrastructure.

A 650-foot portion of the bridge collapsed, plunging 160 feet onto a riverbed, a railway, and two warehouses, while as many as 35 vehicles were driving across it.

The disaster sparked a dispute between Atlantia, controlled by the Benetton family, and the Italian government, which eventually culminated in the sale of Atlantia's controlling stake in ASPI.

Prosecutors argued that years of poor maintenance, ignored warning signs, and delayed improvement works contributed to the collapse, saying that vital repairs were postponed while profits continued to be pocketed.

The prosecutors' argument was backed up by a 2020 expert report into the disaster, which said the collapse was triggered by the rupture of corroded steel cables inside one of the stay cables on the southern side of pile 9, Italian outlet IVG reported that year.

A "pile," known as a "pier" in the United States, is a vertical concrete structure that supports the weight of the bridge deck above it.

The corrosion of the prestressing strands within pile 9 had progressed over decades due to the ingress of water and oxygen, according to the report, which concluded that the root cause was long-term inadequate maintenance and insufficient inspections by ASPI and its subsidiary Spea.

It found that proper controls and maintenance interventions, if properly implemented, would have had a high probability of preventing the collapse. The report also noted that warnings and recommendations made by the bridge's original designer, Riccardo Morandi, regarding corrosion risks had been progressively neglected over the years.

The defense teams rejected this theory, saying that the disaster was caused by an original design defect in the bridge's stay cable in pile 9, which failed, and that no maintenance program could have prevented the collapse.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 08:10

Finnish MEP Warns Britain Is 'Worst Example' Of Free Speech In Europe After Entry Ban

Via Remix News,

Finnish MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen has warned that Britain is fast becoming the worst example in Europe when it comes to defending free speech after he became the latest elected European politician to be banned from entering the country ahead of his appearance at the inaugural Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Great Britain.

In a video posted on social media, the conservative politician said, “I was just banned from entering the U.K. I am an elected member of the European Parliament and was invited to speak at the very first conservative CPAC conference in the U.K.

“We had the adverts out, flights and hotel booked, and I was supposed to head to the airport in just two hours.

“Then, only moments ago, I was informed that my presence wouldn’t be conducive to the public good.

“Throughout my political career, I have defended our girls and women from the threats posed by mass migration. For some, like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, this is hate speech.

“For me, it is simply what all politicians should be doing: addressing the problem, changing the legislation and sending them home.”

Tynkkynen then warned the British people that something is “deeply wrong” with their country, and that it was “becoming the worst example in Europe of the death of freedom of speech.”

"Dear British People, something is deeply wrong with your country. You are becoming the worst example in Europe of the death of free speech."

Finnish conservative @SebastianMEP reveals he is the latest elected politician to be banned from entering Britain on the eve of #CPACUK,… pic.twitter.com/Q73a2dwtGQ

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 16, 2026

He urged them to change their leadership if they wanted to change their lives “for the better.”

Tynkkynen is a member of the co-governing Finns Party, a right-wing populist party that is currently the second-largest in the Finnish parliament. The party holds seven of the 19 ministerial positions in Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s coalition government.

He is also a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), the European parliamentary faction originally founded by the U.K. Conservative Party when Britain was still a member of the European Union.

Tynkkynen is the latest in a growing list of European and US politicians and political commentators to be banned from Britain after the Home Office deemed their conservative views not to be “conducive to the public good.”

This is the phrase used by the U.K. government in notices handed to individuals when they are informed that their Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) has been revoked.

In May, Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński vowed to sue U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally after the Home Office cancelled his permission to travel to Britain ahead of a major patriotic rally in London.

“This is what communism looks like in the 21st century,” Tarczyński said.

“Starmer will be sued by me. Not the government, not the Home Office, but Starmer personally. Once you lose the next election, communist, we’ll meet in court!” the conservative politician added.

Other figures banned ahead of speaking at the London rally back in May included Dutch conservative activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, US commentator Joey Mannarino, MAGA influencer Valentina Gomez and Spanish political commentator Ada Lluch.

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Tyler Durden Sat, 07/18/2026 - 07:00

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 American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It? The largest U.S. automakers have backed away from electric vehicles, even as global sales are booming. The decision may make them obsolete. (New York Times)

• AI is changing what we can do. Who we become is still our choice: To understand AI’s effect on moral character, ethicist Kwame Anthony Appiah goes back to John Stuart Mill, and the idea that people are shaped by their choices. (Humanist Review) see also AI isn’t destroying entry-level jobs. It’s changing them: Here are the ways leading companies are already responding to the AI revolution in professional services. (Financial Times)

• From Hong Kong to Xiānggǎng: The Hong Kong of old is over. Go to Xiānggǎng and see for yourself. Stephen Roach on Hong Kong’s transformation into Xiānggǎng — the slow-motion absorption of a once-global city. (Conflict Stephen Roach)

• Shooting Starlink: The “no limits” partnership between Russia and China is taking aim at Elon Musk: Secret documents from a series of clandestine Russian-Chinese military forums reveal a joint plan to defeat Elon Musk’s Starlink and a weapons development partnership far deeper than either country will admit. From air- and missile-defense systems to AI-enhanced drone capabilities, cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is allowing Russian forces to keep pace with Ukrainian innovations while China gains the opportunity to test its wares under combat conditions. Although the threat of increased Western sanctions continues to place constraints on their “no limits” partnership, Russia and China are moving forward with several joint projects — and former U.S. military officers are concerned about Washington’s will to stop them. (The Insider)

• What Even Is Ultraprocessed Food? It’s less a useful label and more of a vibe. One of the biggest boogeymen around these days is ultraprocessed food. You can see dozens if not hundreds of news articles every week decrying the damage that these foods are doing to our health. UPFs are apparently responsible for everything from dementia to heart disease and virtually every other health problem in between. They’re so bad that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering “taking action” against UPFs to stop Americans from eating them. (Slate)

• The Lost Joy of Music Piracy: What.CD, Oink, and the banalities of streaming. As an avid pirate suddenly finding himself in the midst of the music business, Sheridan saw the issue from a different angle than most of the suits he was surrounded by. “I got brought in and we were being flown to New York, the label was taking us out to these expensive dinners and paying for everything—top notch hotels, everyone had private cars and drivers. There was so much money going around, and it wasn’t the artists who were rolling in cash. I remember one of my first comments to Trent [Reznor] was, ‘Now I see why CDs cost 18 dollars.’” (Pigeons & Planes)

• What will be left for us to work on? A thoughtful essay on the shrinking frontier of human-only work as AI capabilities expand. The question isn’t whether machines will take jobs — it’s whether the jobs that remain will be worth doing. My keynote at ICML 2026 (AI As Normal Technology)

• Winners of the International Aerial Photographer of the Year: Stunning images from above — the kind of photography that makes you reconsider what the world actually looks like when you’re not standing on it. A collection of winners and selected images from the competition’s “Top 101” grouping, chosen from more than 1,500 entries by professional and amateur aerial photographers around the world (The Atlantic)

• The 25 most influential works of American culture: A decade-by-decade look at the books, music, art and ideas that shaped society. The Washington Post’s interactive ranking — across music, literature, film, TV, and art. The list will start arguments, which is the point. (Washington Post)

• The bitter history of England vs Argentina, a World Cup semi-final steeped in bad blood: Maradona’s Hand of God, Beckham’s red card, the Falklands — every England-Argentina match carries the weight of decades of grudge. The Athletic previews the latest chapter. (The Athletic)

Video of the day: Does Anyone Know the Real Mick Jagger? He’s Not So Sure

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this weekend with Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist, a modern custodian built as a clean sheet from the ground up, fully integrated with artificial intelligence. He began his career at Morgan Stanley before launching Retirement Wealth Advisors, and then FormulaFolios. The through-line of his career has been creating lower-cost, tech-enabled, financial advice.

 

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Source: On Deck

 

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