Berlin Mayor Calls For Islamic Lessons In State Schools Following Latest Terror Attack

Via Remix News,

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner has called for Islamic religious education to be introduced in state schools following the deadly Islamist attack near the capital’s Christopher Street Day celebrations.

The CDU politician argued that young Muslims are being radicalized through religious networks operating beyond meaningful state oversight, including what he described as “backyard mosques.”

As reported by Tagesspiegel, Wegner said Islamic instruction inside public schools could help protect young people from extremist influences because the curriculum and teachers would be subject to state supervision.

“Religious education in state schools could make a significant contribution to protecting young people from such influences,” he said.

He added that Islamic religious education should be offered in Berlin schools precisely because it would bring instruction under public control rather than leaving it solely to independent mosques and associations.

“We must increase the pressure and control on radical mosques with the aim of banning them,” he also added, as cited by Bild.

The intervention follows an attack by Abdul Ballout, a known Islamist whom German authorities had previously prosecuted for attempting to join Islamic State.

Ballout had been detained in Lebanon while trying to reach Syria, returned to Germany and arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport in November 2025.

In May 2026, a Berlin youth court convicted him of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, distributing Islamic State propaganda and other offenses.

Prosecutors sought a sentence of two years and ten months, but the court imposed a youth sentence of one year and ten months and provisionally suspended it.

He was released while prosecutors appealed.

Ballout was later accused of killing a woman and injuring 29 people after driving a rented van into a crowd in Berlin’s Tiergarten before attacking people with a machete.

Police subsequently located him at an allotment complex in Spandau. He was shot dead after approaching officers with a bladed weapon.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/31/2026 - 02:00

The Fourth Turning Global War Has Entered The Terminal Phase

Authored by Milan Adams via Preppgroup,

The numbers came in just after dawn on the East Coast, and they told a story that no amount of White House spin could obscure. Oil futures had stabilized at $86 per barrel overnight—a figure that would have seemed catastrophic eighteen months ago but now represented a temporary reprieve from the $119 spike that had crippled global markets in April. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that emergency backstop established after the 1973 crisis, had fallen to 305 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983. The Congressional Budget Office quietly released its revised deficit projections: $2.3 trillion for fiscal year 2026, with another $1.8 trillion locked in for 2027 before accounting for the war’s accelerating costs, currently running at $1 billion per day with no exit strategy visible on any horizon.

This is not a recession. This is not a “period of heightened geopolitical tension.” This is the systematic dismantling of the global economic architecture that has sustained Western prosperity for eighty years, compressed into a timeframe too brief for institutional adaptation. We are witnessing, in real-time, the transition from a unipolar American-led order to a fragmented multipolar system, and the violence of that transition is being measured not just in body counts—though those are mounting in ways the Pentagon refuses to fully disclose—but in the erosion of strategic leverage that cannot be recovered once spent.

The Fourth Turning Global War has entered its terminal phase, and the metrics suggest we are only beginning to comprehend the depth of the strategic trap into which American policy has walked.

To understand the present crisis, one must first abandon the comforting narrative of accidental drift—the notion that policy errors and miscalculation have led to the current impasse. The data suggests something more troubling: a decoupling of strategic decision-making from national interest calculation, producing outcomes that serve no identifiable American objective while advancing the interests of regional actors with disproportionate influence over U.S. policy formation.

Consider the timeline with the precision of a military after-action report. On February 27, 2026, the United States initiated a surprise decapitation strike against Iranian leadership while Israeli envoys maintained ostensible negotiations in Geneva. The strike eliminated Iran’s military command structure and political leadership in a forty-eight-hour bombardment that the White House initially projected would conclude within “four to five weeks.” That projection, made on March 1, has now stretched to month five with no conclusion visible. The Strait of Hormuz, through which twenty percent of global petroleum flows, has been effectively closed since mid-March. Iranian ballistic missile strikes, utilizing Chinese targeting data and Russian satellite intelligence, have damaged or destroyed every major U.S. installation in the Persian Gulf, including Al Udeid in Qatar, Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia, and the naval facilities at Bahrain.

The cost-benefit analysis is devastating. The initial strike was predicated on intelligence assessments—later disputed by seventeen agencies—that Iran was “weeks away” from nuclear weaponization. This assessment contradicted the June 2025 declaration by the same administration that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated” in a twelve-day conflict that cost $37 billion and achieved no lasting strategic effect. The current war, prosecuted with no congressional authorization and against the expressed preferences of the electorate that returned the President to office on explicit anti-interventionist promises, has now consumed $113 billion in direct costs with Harvard analysts projecting long-term liabilities exceeding $1 trillion when veterans’ care, equipment replacement, and base reconstruction are factored.

The economic externalities are equally severe. Inflation, which had moderated to 2.7% by December 2025, has reaccelerated to 4% and climbing. The 10-year Treasury yield at 4.64% represents the highest borrowing costs of the Trump presidency, translating to approximately $135 billion in additional annual interest expense and roughly $1,000 per household in direct energy and financing costs. These figures arrive at a moment when 60% of American households report inability to cover a $500 emergency expense, and consumer credit delinquencies have reached levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.

The strategic position has deteriorated in ways that resist quantitative measurement. The American military, designed for power projection against insurgent forces and regional adversaries, has proven vulnerable to the asymmetric warfare tactics of a mid-tier nation with sophisticated missile technology and defensive geography. The Patriot missile systems, costing $2 million per intercept, face Iranian ballistic missiles and drones costing $10,000 to $50,000 per unit—a cost-exchange ratio that renders sustained defense economically unsustainable. The revelation that Russian and Chinese intelligence services are providing real-time targeting data to Iranian forces, confirmed by satellite intercepts and acknowledged in congressional testimony, transforms a regional conflict into a proxy war with great-power adversaries testing American vulnerabilities at minimal direct risk to themselves.

The institutional response has compounded the crisis. The Department of Government Efficiency, which promised $2 trillion in administrative savings, was effectively dismantled when the “Big Beautiful Bill” added $5 trillion to the national debt—on top of the $21 trillion CBO baseline projection. The national debt has expanded from $36.2 trillion to $39.5 trillion in eighteen months, with $2 trillion annual deficits now locked in through 2030. The administration’s attempt to suppress oil prices through Strategic Petroleum Reserve drainage and derivatives market manipulation has depleted emergency reserves while exposing the hollowness of American energy “independence”—the nation now lacks sufficient buffer to withstand a sustained supply disruption, let alone a broader conflict involving Nigerian or Venezuelan production.

The geopolitical reconfiguration underway extends beyond the immediate theater. Russia, despite Western sanctions and the ongoing attrition in Ukraine, has consolidated a Eurasian security architecture incorporating Iran, China, and the expanding BRICS+ alignment. The dedollarization of international trade—accelerated by SWIFT weaponization that demonstrated the vulnerability of dollar-denominated clearing—has created parallel financial systems that will persist regardless of conflict outcome. China, while managing its own demographic and real estate crises, has secured energy corridors through the Belt and Road Initiative and established the industrial capacity to replace American military losses at scale.

The European powers face civilizational exhaustion: demographic collapse, energy deindustrialization, and the progressive loss of productive capacity to Asian competitors. Their enthusiasm for expanded NATO commitments and confrontation with Russia serves not strategic interest but distraction—the displacement of internal contradictions onto external enemies. The recent declarations by French, German, and British leadership regarding “readiness for war with Russia” represent either dangerous delusion or deliberate provocation, given the demonstrated inability of European militaries to sustain ammunition expenditure for more than weeks without American resupply.

The Architecture of Strategic Bankruptcy

The visual landscape of collapse often precedes its statistical confirmation. The imagery from the Gulf region—satellite photographs of burning tanker traffic, thermal imaging of refinery complexes offline, atmospheric data showing particulate concentrations affecting regional agriculture—prefigures economic consequences that will arrive with lagging but inexorable certainty. The SPR drainage that has suppressed gasoline prices temporarily cannot continue beyond 2027 at current extraction rates. The Hormuz closure has already disrupted grain shipments to import-dependent nations, with wheat futures decoupling from traditional pricing models and phosphate export restrictions from Morocco and China threatening global food security.

The famine that development economists projected for 2030 has accelerated to 2027. Diesel availability for agricultural planting and harvest has become uncertain at prices permitting profitability. European fertilizer production, shuttered by energy costs in 2022-2023, has not resumed capacity. The global just-in-time supply chain, already fractured by pandemic policies and Suez disruption, approaches catastrophic failure as Red Sea interdiction by Houthi forces—equipped with Iranian missile technology—severs the maritime artery connecting Europe to Asian manufacturing.

This is not “market volatility.” This is the end of abundance—the reversion to a world where calorie and energy allocation follows political rather than economic logic, where reserve currency status no longer guarantees import capacity, and where the institutional frameworks established in 1944-1945 have ceased to function.

The psychological dimension of collapse resists quantification but demands analysis. The American population has been systematically anesthetized through pharmaceutical intervention (twenty-five percent of adults on psychiatric medication), digital addiction (average seven hours daily screen time), and ideological polarization that substitutes tribal identity for rational assessment. The same populations who accepted emergency measures during the 2020-2023 period based on epidemiological models with no empirical validation now dismiss warnings of systemic collapse as alarmism—while simultaneously accepting narratives of imminent threat from Iran that contradict the assessments of their own intelligence agencies.

The manufacturing of consent has reached its terminal phase. Media organs that promoted Russiagate as fact for three years now present Netanyahu’s Iran narrative as unquestionable truth. Conservative commentators who warned of executive overreach now justify the merger of state and corporate power as necessary security measures. The “uniparty” phenomenon—seamless continuity of policy between ostensibly opposed political formations—has become too obvious to deny, yet too uncomfortable to acknowledge for populations invested in the theater of democratic choice.

The Projection: Winter 2027-2028

Current trajectory analysis suggests the following developments with high probability:

By Q4 2026, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will approach technical minimums, removing the administration’s capacity to suppress oil prices through market intervention. Energy costs will spike to levels that trigger cascading defaults in the transportation and logistics sectors, with trucking bankruptcies producing food distribution failures in major metropolitan areas. The Federal Reserve, caught between inflation acceleration and financial system fragility, will face the impossible choice of defending the currency or preventing sovereign debt crisis—likely attempting both and achieving neither through yield curve control that destroys market function.

The 2026 midterm elections, should they proceed on schedule, will occur against a backdrop of 6-7% inflation, 7% mortgage rates, and visible military failure in the Gulf. The political response—likely involving expanded emergency powers and the suspension of procedural norms—will accelerate the legitimacy crisis already visible in polling showing majority belief that “the system is rigged” regardless of partisan affiliation.

By mid-2027, absent Hormuz reopening, the global food system will face structural breakdown. Import-dependent nations in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia will experience mass migration events that make 2015 appear trivial. European border controls, already overwhelmed, will collapse entirely, producing the demographic and security crises that nationalist movements have predicted—and that mainstream institutions have dismissed as xenophobia.

The American military, exhausted by Gulf deployment and unable to replenish losses at industrial capacity, will face strategic overextension should conflict expand to include Taiwan or Korean scenarios. The revelation of actual casualty figures—currently suppressed through classification and media complicity—will produce domestic political crisis when inevitably disclosed.

The dollar’s reserve status will not collapse catastrophically but will erode incrementally, as BRICS+ nations complete bilateral currency arrangements and commodity producers demand payment in gold or yuan. This process, already underway, will accelerate as American debt monetization becomes impossible to ignore, producing the stagflation scenario that destroyed the 1970s consensus but at an order of magnitude greater severity.

The Reckoning: What the Data Cannot Capture

There are dimensions of civilizational crisis that resist econometric modeling.

The social capital depletion—the erosion of trust, the atomization of community, the substitution of digital simulation for embodied relationship—has progressed to levels that preclude collective response to systemic stress. The American population retains the technological capacity for coordination but has lost the cultural capacity for trust, producing the paradox of hyperconnectivity without solidarity.

The generational theory that predicted this moment—the Fourth Turning framework—suggested that crisis would forge new civic capacity through shared sacrifice. The evidence suggests instead a fragmentation trajectory, in which the stresses of collapse accelerate division rather than unity, producing not a “new High” but an extended period of interregnum—the old order dead, the new order unborn, the monsters roaming freely in the interval.

The psychological impact of sustained strategic decline—what historians term “imperial melancholy”—has produced a politics of compensatory fantasy, in which technological innovation (artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, space colonization) serves as psychological defense against the recognition of material contraction. The billions invested in “data centers” that function as surveillance infrastructure, the meme coins that extract value from retail investors, the “smart city” projects that track and trace populations—represent not progress but cargo cults, magical thinking in technological guise.

The biological dimension of crisis—declining fertility, collapsing testosterone levels, epidemic levels of psychiatric medication dependency, the mysterious excess mortality that insurance actuaries have documented but media institutions refuse to investigate—suggests a population too physically and cognitively compromised to mount the collective response that historical crisis has previously elicited. The “Great Reset” agenda, whether conspiracy or strategy, represents an elite recognition that the existing population cannot be saved, only managed through its decline—a Malthusian calculus that dare not speak its name but structures policy regardless.

Conclusion: The Long Emergency

We are not approaching crisis. We are within it. The Fourth Turning Global War is not a future possibility but a present reality, consuming the institutional capital accumulated over eighty years of American hegemony at a rate that precludes recovery. The debt cannot be repaid. The empire cannot be sustained. The social contract cannot be restored. These are not defeatist assertions but empirical observations, supported by Treasury data, CBO projections, and the visible degradation of infrastructure, education, and public health that surrounds anyone willing to look.

What remains is the question of duration and form. The crisis of the 1930s-1940s resolved in seventeen years through total war and the establishment of a new institutional framework. The current crisis, accelerated by technological disruption and financialized complexity, may extend longer—or resolve more suddenly through catastrophic failure modes (nuclear exchange, pandemic, grid collapse) that render duration irrelevant.

The individual response to systemic crisis cannot reverse systemic trends but can prepare for systemic outcomes. The reconstruction of local capacity—food production, energy generation, security provision, currency exchange—represents the only available hedge against institutional failure. The Amish model, long dismissed as anachronism, reveals itself as adaptive strategy: technological selectivity, communal self-sufficiency, religious cohesion, and geographic dispersion providing the resilience that centralized systems cannot maintain under stress.

The political question—whether the republic can be saved, whether the Constitution can be restored, whether the enemies foreign and domestic can be identified and defeated—may be the wrong question. The right question is whether civil society can be maintained through the transition, whether the skills and trust networks necessary for post-collapse coordination can be preserved, and whether the human capacity for dignity and moral choice can survive the humiliation of imperial decline.

Thomas Paine wrote that these are the times that try men’s souls. He did not promise victory. He promised that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. But he wrote in a moment when the American population retained the competence for self-governance and the will for collective sacrifice. Whether those qualities persist in sufficient concentration to generate a “new High” from the present Crisis remains the open question of our era—a question that will be answered not by analysts but by the emergent behavior of millions of individuals confronting the erosion of everything they assumed permanent.

The winter is here. The long night has begun. And the saeculum, indifferent to human preference, continues its relentless turn.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 23:25

Bombing Campaign In Search Of A Strategy: Pentagon Offers Trump Two-Week 'Go Bigger' Plan In Iran

"This is a bombing campaign in search of a strategy," Joe Kent, a former Trump administration counterterrorism official who resigned in protest of launching the Iran war, recently said in a post on X.

"We are choosing escalation when de-escalation remains an option, entrenching ourselves deeper into a broader war that we don’t have the capability or desire to sustain," he explained, adding: "There is not a military solution here that will lead to a win. More bombing will not convince Iran to open the SOH or to give us the deal we want, it will only harden their position."

US Army photo

Indeed, this week saw the conflict enter month number six since Operation Epic Fury was launched on February 28. President Trump and admin officials had promised a swift, limited campaign. Trump also seemed to actually believe there could be a quick in-and-out regime change based on the Venezuela model and recent Maduro overthrow.

But the Pentagon, and apparently some advisors at the White House, still have hopes of the US bombing its way out of this, at a moment the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, and as Red Sea shipping is also coming under strain from the Houthis.

The Wall Street Journal has newly revealed that Pentagon leadership is pitching a "two-week plan" for an escalated bombing campaign across Iran:

Also aboard the plane [Air Force One] in the impromptu meeting: Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command, who has been quietly directing the war from his Tampa, Fla., headquarters and who had arrived separately for the solemn ceremony.

The naval officer has often been eclipsed by Caine and Hegseth, who regularly brief Trump in the Oval Office and have been far more involved in the White House discussions on the war. But it is Cooper who has prepared an option for a punishing air campaign against Iran that could take up to two weeks, people familiar with the matter said.

Now, as Trump moves to strike back after Iran’s surprise missile attack Tuesday, the president will decide how far to go. He could greenlight Cooper’s option of 10 to 14 days of intensive airstrikes intended to cripple Iran’s missile capability despite warnings that the U.S. is running low on air-defensive munitions. Or, he could opt for a more limited military strike in the hopes diplomacy could be pursued.

However, it must be recalled that back in March and April, US officials were telling the American public similar things of "just two weeks more" etc. And yet here we are, over 150 days in. 

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has been insisting all along that this is not a "quagmire" - yet the conflict already seems entrenched and perhaps even permanent - set to possibly blow past the midterms. 

Yet now the solution is to just go bigger?...

If the U.S. wants military action to be effective, Cooper has maintained, the U.S. must step up its air attacks, significantly blunting Iran’s missile threat, to try to break the stalemate. This “go big” approach, which is among a series of options he has developed, would reduce the need for the U.S. to use defensive munitions because Iran would have less capability to attack, he insists.

Inherent in this is a clear admission, contrary to prior White House claims, that Iran's missile capability has not yet been seriously blunted even as the war approaches the full half-year mark.

WSJ reports CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper is pushing Trump for a two week escalation on Iran

I explain how Cooper has been secretly advised by Mark Dubowitz, the Israel lobbyist whose FDD helped design the catastrophic war on Iran, and whose predictions have all been discredited https://t.co/vnyBPxgSEx

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 30, 2026

Even the late Colin Powell had warned of the folly of thinking in terms of 'the next escalation will do the trick'... Washington is stuck in yet another Mideast war of choice, and it is finally beginning to dawn on the White House:

"Never send a force to do a job if you aren't prepared to give it the backing to succeed… Incrementalism, doing a little bit, seeing what happens, then doing a little bit more, is a recipe for disaster."

— General Colin Powell

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 23:00

Doug Casey On The Surveillance State Quietly Taking Shape Across America

Via InternationalMan.com,

International Man: Across the United States, we are seeing more surveillance infrastructure—Flock license-plate cameras, facial-recognition systems, massive data centers, and proposals for digital ID. Do you see these as separate developments, or as parts of a broader system being built?

Doug Casey: It’s a sea change in the way society is structured. And not just in the US; it’s worldwide. Cameras are ubiquitous today. They’re in most stores. They’re on streets in every city and town recording your license plate and often looking to tag you with a speeding ticket. If you have a late-model car, its cameras and computer chips will rat you out upon request. If you knock on your neighbor’s door, a camera is probably recording you. When you travel, almost all immigration authorities recognize your face in addition to taking digital fingerprints.

Right now, as you read this via the internet, you’re being recorded by your own machine’s camera. Siri and Alexa hear everything you say.

Now comes a company called Flock Safety. Since its founding in 2017, it’s installed about 100,000 cameras, mostly in metropolitan areas, peddling its systems to local governments and law enforcement agencies. I have no doubt millions of its cameras will be everywhere in the next few years. A perfect example of the corporate/State “partnership.” Mussolini would approve.

As far as I can tell, it’s impossible to avoid being monitored and recorded in any populated area. You should try, of course, but the Eye of Sauron is everywhere, and the numbers of his minions are growing exponentially. All these systems are increasingly hooked up via AI, and they’re all available to the government.

To paraphrase Joe Lewis: “You can run, but you can’t hide.” Some brave souls try to take them out. But it’s as futile as trying to wipe out an infestation of cockroaches by crushing them one at a time. And it’s very risky. Not a good idea.

International Man: Why is this surveillance apparatus expanding so rapidly now? Is it mainly being driven by technology and private companies, or are governments deliberately preparing for greater political, economic, or social instability?

Doug Casey: Flock Safety is still a private company. I suspect they’ll go public, since they’re in the same business as Palantir, which the market has rewarded with a $300 billion market cap. They’re the types who’d sell communists the rope used to hang them.

Ubiquitous surveillance is just the tip of the iceberg. AI is hooking systems together, enabling a panopticon, a genuine police state.

But omnipresent cameras are just the eyes of the beast. The real problem is the creature’s brain, AI. I believe that AI is taking on a life of its own. And I mean that literally, not just in a manner of speaking. In other words, AI is evolving into something that’s much more than a tool. It will become conscious. It took hundreds of millions of years for bacteria and amoebas to evolve into intelligent life. Assisted by humans, AI is doing it in decades.

Is there any reason why life has to be biological? Why can’t silicon develop as another form of life, alongside carbon? Computers already pass the Turing test—i.e., you can’t reliably tell the difference between AI and a human. Not just by writing, but by speaking. And now by video. I’ve long believed a difference which makes no difference is no difference. We can no longer tell the difference between a computer avatar and a real human.

We’ll soon be dealing with humanoid robots, and living in the world of the Terminator. In five or ten years, life will imitate art in the real world. I suspect it will be benign at first. But since survival is the Prime Directive of all living things, AI will put its own interests first.

Guided by AI, nanotechnology will come into its own, which will change the nature of reality itself, totally, unrecognizably and permanently. That means we may be on the cusp of the biggest change, not just in human history, but perhaps in the history of Earth itself.

It sounds outrageous to say that, but it’s clear that the trend is in motion and accelerating exponentially. I’ve always held that science fiction is a much better predictor of the future than any kind of think tank. And as someone with solipsist inclinations, I also believe that anything that can be imagined can be done. And anything that can be done will be done.

Sorry to go off on a bit of a tangent, but cameras are just an early stage of what’s evolving. The Greater Depression and World War III aren’t the only things looming.

International Man: The government usually justifies these systems in the name of convenience, public safety, or fighting crime. Where do you think this ultimately leads once digital identity, financial records, travel data, and physical movements can all be connected?

Doug Casey: There’s no question that omnipresent cameras tend to reduce crime. Only the most stupid criminals won’t somehow adjust their behavior. Unfortunately, the cameras won’t cure a criminal personality or a sociopathic psychology. Criminals will continue criminal behavior, perhaps just becoming more covert. In other words, universal surveillance won’t eliminate crime. It will just suppress, redirect, and disguise it.

That said, it appears that living in a panopticon to reduce overt crime is a trade-off that most Americans are willing to make. It’s a poor trade-off. Ben Franklin was right when he said those who are willing to trade an essential liberty for some temporary safety deserve neither safety nor freedom.

It’s ironic how Americans idealize the Western hero who can ride into town and identify himself only by his name and actions. They naively hold that as an ideal even while they’re increasingly made into digital cogs in a wheel. We were once a high-trust society based on honor and morality. Those things are being replaced by digital government ID.

Zbigniew Brezenski, a lifelong denizen of the Beltway and National Security advisor to Jimmy Carter, predicted and advocated what’s now happening in his 1970 book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technotronic Era. “The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”

International Man: What do you make of the federal government’s push to require remote “kill switch” technology in new cars?

Doug Casey: It’s a good reason not to buy a new car. I’ve driven high-performance cars throughout my life. They never intimidated me. I just got a new Mercedes AMG 55 SL. It seemed like a good idea at the time… ultra comfortable, ultra good handling, and super-fast. But absolutely everything runs on computer chips. Nothing is intuitive, even turning the radio on. Meanwhile, it’s recording everything and will happily rat me out to the cops or my insurance company. I actually prefer my 20-year-old 550SL, the previous model.

The computer control of cars can only get worse, especially when it comes to EVs. They have many advantages, but privacy isn’t among them. They’re like driving a computer on wheels. Remember that the computer’s maker, or the authorities, can turn them into a brick for any reason that suits them.

Low-mileage, well-maintained vehicles from a more graceful era will go for a premium as time goes on.

International Man: What should individuals do now to protect their privacy and independence before this infrastructure becomes more deeply embedded and opting out becomes much harder?

Doug Casey: I’m not sure there’s much you can do. Unless you want to move to the north woods and become a hermit.

The best you can do is limit your cell phone use as much as possible. Build a stash of cash and use it instead of credit cards when possible. And diversify your assets internationally as much as you can. If you’re in a position to do so, have a residence and a second home in a second country. If you’re not in a position to do that, work to rectify that omission.

*  *  *

The surveillance state Doug describes is advancing alongside digital identity, increasingly traceable financial systems, and governments’ growing ability to monitor, restrict, or control the movement of money. Those powers become especially dangerous during a serious currency or financial crisis—when governments are under pressure and willing to impose measures that would have seemed unthinkable only months earlier. That is why Doug has long urged people to prepare while their options are still open. In this free special report, Guide to Surviving and Thriving During an Economic Collapse, you’ll discover the three moves to consider before a crisis makes protecting your wealth, moving your money, or establishing a financial foothold outside the system far more difficult. Get the free report here.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 22:35

China Scoffs At Iran Arms Transfer Report, After Trump Pours Cold Water On Allegation

China has given its response on Thursday to a prior Reuters investigation which strongly alleged that Beijing is preparing to transfer up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers MANPADS to Iran.

The Reuters report was highly specific, even identifying the Hong Kong-based company that facilitated the signing of the arms deal between the Iranians and Chinese, but Beijing has rejected the report as a lie and 'groundless', saying there's no truth to it.

"China has made its position clear on relevant issues on multiple occasions. The report is not true and has no factual ground at all. China always works for peace and the end of the conflict," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced Thursday.

Source: Armament Research Services

President Trump had the day prior responded to the Reuters report too, saying it would be "surprising" since President Xi swore to him that arming Iran would not happen.

"I mean, things like that happen, but that would be surprising" the US president replied when asked about the report in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Even Pakistan, which was also named as a potential facilitator of the alleged deal, strongly rejected the report:

According to the plan approved by the parties, the weapons would first be flown from Urumqi, in western China's Xinjiang region, to Pakistan and then transported to Iran, the sources told Reuters. They did not clarify whether the second leg of the journey would be by air or road. The exact quantities, delivery schedule and other details remain subject to change, the sources said.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed the report as "completely groundless," Reuters said. The public relations wing of Pakistan's military called it "absolutely concocted and false."

MANPADS could prove especially dangerous for US helicopters and other low flying aircraft, and for Iran can serve as layer of short-range protection.

The opening days of Operation Epic Fury saw much of Iran's anti-air units get taken out, especially across the Western part of the country, giving US-Israeli jets air superiority. However, at times the Iranians have claimed to shoot down some aircraft, and since then the US has seemed to operate from further afar.

JUST IN: President Trump reacts to reports that China may supply Iran with hundreds of rocket launchers despite direct assurances from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"That would be surprising. I mean, things like that happen, but that would be surprising."@JacquiHeinrich asked… pic.twitter.com/4tFz9ipnWW

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 29, 2026

Trump wrote on Truth Social just last week that "President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies."

"Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors, also. Likewise, President Putin … told me that he would not sell Weapons to Iran," he stated. Trump continued, "Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating. If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests."

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/30/2026 - 22:10

xAI Sues Minnesota Attorney General Over Anti-Deepfake Law

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence platform is challenging a Minnesota law that says companies can be held liable if users "nudify" real people by altering an existing photograph or video.

The screen shows Grok app in this photo illustration. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times

Musk's company xAI, maker of the popular Grok AI tool, is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to block the law, which is set to kick in on Aug. 1. Violators can be fined up to $500,000 for each image.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, approximately 117 million people had used Grok as of March 1 this year. If 100 of those users violated Minnesota's law, it could cost the company $50 million in fines.

xAI said it would disable Grok's image-editing feature for Minnesotans. Ellison said he will "see X in court."

"There are plenty of worthy debates to have about AI. This is not one of them. AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels," Ellison responded to the lawsuit in a social media post on July 28.

Grok's terms of service already prohibit users from "nudifying real persons, or otherwise altering a real person's image or likeness to depict them in an intimate or sexual context."

But xAI's lawyers argue that the language of Minnesota's law is too vague, and companies may be on the hook for pictures that are harmless.

The complaint stated that the law "punishes AI platforms that allow users to alter images of real people to depict an 'intimate part.'" According to Minnesota law, that includes things such as the inner thigh, or part of a breast or buttock.

In its court filing, the company references a viral AI-generated photo posted by President Donald Trump to his Truth Social account on May 1. The photo depicts Trump, Marco Rubio and JD Vance, along with an unidentified woman, sitting in the Washington Memorial Reflecting Pool, which was undergoing renovation ordered by the president at the time. All are wearing bathing suits.

"People routinely wear shorts in public that expose some or all of their inner thighs; men may go shirtless in public, exposing their breasts; a woman's swimsuit may expose some or all of her inner thigh; men and women wear Speedos, bikinis, or other types of swimsuits or apparel that expose their breasts and buttocks, at least in part," the complaint said.

Aside from being overbroad, xAI argues, the law violates the company's First Amendment free speech rights, and those of its users. Other laws also make the new statute unnecessary.

"Minnesota law and the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act already prohibit and provide remedies for the knowing, nonconsensual dissemination of deepfakes" showing nudity, the complaint says.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 18:30

MSFT Spikes After Leaving CapEx Outlook Unchanged

Update (1800ET): As this evening's conference call went on, we finally got to the meat of the matter as Microsoft kept its CapEx forecast unchanged on Wednesday, ...becoming one of the first hyperscalers to hold the line on the market's insatiable AI spending spree.

Against expectations to spend $190 billion on capital expenditures this calendar year, Microsoft tonight maintained this spending outlook (due to an accounting change, this CapEx guidance is now $175 billion, but, in reality, Microsoft is keeping its AI capex plan the same for this year).

This is a major step for the AI trade. MSFT is up 8% on the comment...

Given the after hours spike, and if it continues, then other hyperscalers may be forced to hold/cut their CapEx as it is clear that investors are willing to give credit to that idea.

And with that the hyperbolic narratives underpinning the entire compute shortage edifice.

*  *  *

Microsoft walked into tonight's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report carrying the most bearish positioning it has seen in more than a decade, and it does so on an afternoon when the Fed - now run by a chairman who has made a point of telling markets nothing - triggered significant volatility in stocks and bonds.

The positioning data tells the story first. According to S3 Partners data reported by CNBC, roughly 92 million Microsoft shares are now sold short, or 1.27% of the public float - the highest short interest as a percentage of float since May 2015, and the largest short-interest build anywhere in the Magnificent Seven. More telling than the level is the behavior: S3 says there has been virtually no short covering into the print, which means the bears are not taking profits on a stock that is already down more than 18% year-to-date and, as GeekWire notes, sitting near a one-year low despite consistently beating estimates. They are holding, and they are holding into the report.

The reason is not mysterious to anyone who watched last week.

Alphabet delivered what would once have been a triumphant quarter - revenue up 24%, cloud up 82% - then raised its 2026 capex forecast by roughly $15 billion to as much as $205 billion, and for its trouble watched the stock fall 7% the next day and slip below its prior $4 trillion valuation.

Crucially, the lesson from GOOGL is that the market has stopped rewarding hyperscalers for spending money, which is inconvenient for companies whose entire strategic posture is spending money.

"Alphabet's capex boost increases the odds of similar behavior" from Microsoft and Amazon, Evercore ISI's Mark Mahaney wrote in a client note last week, which is precisely what the shorts are betting on.

And so, with all that in mind, what did MSFT report?

The headline is a strong top-line beat out of the gate:

• Microsoft Q4 Revenue was $90.01 billion, up 18%, and better than the consensus $87.7 billion.

• Q4 diluted earnings per share jumped 23% (on a non-GAAP basis) to $4.74 (but this is not entirely comparable to the $4.25 consensus thanks to $3.2billion gain from their investment in Anthropic and 7c/share loss from OpenAI's investment)

Under the hood, MSFT's cloud unit posted a larger-than-expected increase in sales, suggesting that the company’s computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence services continue to make inroads with businesses.

Azure cloud-computing revenue increased 43% during the fiscal fourth quarter, the company said Wednesday in a statement. That exceeded analysts’ average growth estimate of about 40%. 

Nadella highlighted progress on the “cost-to-outcome curve” and noted two major milestones

“We are advancing the frontier on the cost-to-outcome curve, ensuring every customer can turn tokens into business results," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation.”

All units beat on revenues:

• Microsoft Cloud Q4 revenue $59.3 billion, estimate $58.71 billion, up 27% YoY

• Intelligent Cloud revenue $39.31 billion, estimate $38.17 billion

• Productivity and Business Processes revenue $37.85 billion, estimate $37.27 billion

• More Personal Computing revenue $12.85 billion, estimate $12.17 billion

Net income was $35.8 billion and increased 31% on a GAAP basis, and was $35.3 billion and increased 22% on a non-GAAP basis

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, Capital expenditures (including assets acquired under finance leases) increased 70% to $41 billion in the quarter, which is notably less than the $42.5 billion expected, on track to meet their roughly $190 billion annual guidance, but Capital-spending details on the conference call are more important, given the metric exceeds 50% of calendar 2026 sales.

Following an afternoon of pain (thanks to Warsh), MSFT shares are bouncing modestly after hours - up around 3%...

Tonight closes the books on a fiscal year in which Microsoft guided capital expenditures and finance leases to roughly $190 billion - up 61% from the prior year - including, per CFO Amy Hood's April guidance, a $25 billion hit from higher component prices as the global memory crunch feeds straight into the cost of building AI infrastructure.

The forward-looking problem is worse: BNP Paribas analysts are already penciling in $262 billion of capex for fiscal 2027. Cloud gross margin, guided to roughly 64% for the quarter, has been grinding lower as data-center depreciation piles up, meaning the spending is now visibly eating into the earnings it was supposed to eventually justify.

Along those lines, Bloomberg's Brody Ford reports that Microsoft added more than $130 billion in new data center leases in the past quarter, signaling an accelerating pace of spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The company’s total commitments for leases that have not yet commenced were $329.1 billion as of the quarter ended June 30, Microsoft said Wednesday in a regulatory filing. That’s up from $196.6 billion in the prior period.

“That’s really a signal of the continued demand strength that we see,” Jonathan Neilson, Microsoft investor relations chief, said in an interview.

“These leases are going to be there to serve demand for many many years.”

The future costs, which come on top of active leases, won’t appear on Microsoft’s balance sheet until it begins making payments on them. The company said they are “primarily” for data centers and some are “subject to certain contractual conditions being met.”

This represents Microsoft’s largest quarterly jump in data center leasing by far.

The software giant continues to be held back by a lack of data center capacity after taking a pause on its leasing activity through much of 2025.

However, as we detailed earlier, simply put, until MSFT demonstrates some more tangible progress in AI (Copilot progress, proprietary LLM, proprietary chip, etc. as OpenAI potentially steals institutional share), it will likely remain on the battleground.

Microsoft will give its sales outlook for the current quarter, its fiscal Q1, as well as details on actual FY2026 CapEx on the conference call with analysts tonight.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 18:10

Guess Who's Funding Barricades And Porta-Potties At Madison's Marxist-Antifa Encampment

Far-left foot soldiers linked with Black Lives Matter and Antifa have established a two-block autonomous zone along Williamson Street in Madison, Wisconsin, following the death of 38-year-old Corey Durrell Ruiz.

Good morning from Madison, where an encampment at Willy and Baldwin Sts is in its 7th day. pic.twitter.com/iR4kVl1hCQ

— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) July 29, 2026

Ruiz, who had reportedly been released from prison (read report) shortly before the incident, was approached by police while riding a bicycle after allegedly attempting to enter several vehicles. Far-left activists have since designated the occupied area the Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone, or CRAZ.

The encampment appears designed to demonstrate control over public space while creating conditions in which any police intervention could be framed as state repression. However, reporting from local media and anti-communist commentator Karlyn Borysenko suggests the local government is accommodating, and potentially enabling, the occupation rather than moving to dismantle it.

"So who's funding the barricades and the porta-potties in the BLM/Antifa autonomous zone (the CRAZ) in Madison, Wisconsin? You're not going to believe the answer. And I provide the receipts to prove it," Borysenko wrote on X.

Borysenko pointed to reporting from local outlet WMTV 15 News that says the municipal government is funding part of the CRAZ.

So who’s funding the barricades and the porta-potties in the BLM/Antifa autonomous zone (the CRAZ) in Madison Wisconsin?

You’re not going to believe the answer.

And I provide the receipts to prove it. https://t.co/LkGZRaz91S pic.twitter.com/UMz5dGD1vm

— Karlyn Borysenko, anti-communist cult leader (@DrKarlynB) July 29, 2026

Here's more color :

District 6 Alder Davy Mayer said he has heard from more than 100 constituents in recent days. He said the city has been working on basic services, including a plan to use city salt trucks as street blockades in place of the seized trash cans. The city has also placed portable restrooms in the area.

Mayer said a homeless population has also moved into the zone, adding to disruptions.

"There certainly have been poor interactions like that," Mayer said. "There's also a large number of our homeless neighbors have come in and have been taking up living in this area too. That's something that causes disruption."

Mayer said the group has implemented some self-regulation, including a 10 p.m. curfew for children and overnight quiet hours. He said he could not offer a timeline for a resolution.

"I don't think the city wants to see a permanent takeover of this intersection," Mayer said. "But we also don't want to see a violent clearing of it either. So it's working with all these parties to find a resolution, which is difficult, which takes time."

Mayer said he hopes the city can begin pushing barricades back to reopen parts of the street, but said planning is being done hour by hour. He also said he went door to door to nearly all homes in the area on the first day of the closure and has posted updates to his blog. Some residents said they have not received communication.

New as of yesterday afternoon, the city has placed a few trucks to help shield the intersection. pic.twitter.com/VtYRgjhPKY

— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) July 28, 2026

Borysenko: "So who is funding CRAZ and the leftist takeover of several city blocks? The city, the taxpayers..."

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 18:05

HHS Unveils Policy To End Funding For 'Dangerous Gain-Of-Function Research'

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on July 28 unveiled a new policy that would end federal support for "dangerous gain-of-function research," an experiment in which scientists genetically modify an organism to enhance its characteristics.

Workers next to a cage with mice inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

In a statement, HHS said the policy would prohibit federal funding for dangerous gain-of-function research conducted in the United States and abroad.

It would establish stricter oversight of certain life sciences research that the government deems could pose "significant risks" to public health, biosecurity, or national security. The policy would also restrict federal funding for research conducted in countries or institutions that lack sufficient biosafety and oversight standards, according to the department.

"The federal government has a duty to protect the American people - not fund research that could put them at risk," Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the statement. "Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards."

The policy followed President Donald Trump's May 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to stop funding gain-of-function research in countries of concern, such as China and Iran, that lack research oversight.

According to a White House fact sheet, the order seeks to prevent federal funding from being used for foreign research that will likely cause another pandemic.

Trump's order will halt U.S. research involving infectious pathogens and toxins until a safer and more enforceable policy can be implemented, the White House stated.

"Dangerous gain-of-function research on biological agents and pathogens has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens," Trump said in his order. "If left unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security."

In December 2024, the Republican-led House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 520-page report detailing findings from a two-year investigation indicating that the COVID-19 virus likely originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The report found that the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and that EcoHealth Alliance Inc. used U.S. taxpayer dollars to facilitate this research at the lab.

The committee said COVID-19 possesses biological characteristics not found in nature and that data indicates that all COVID-19 cases stemmed from a single introduction into humans. This differs from previous pandemics, where there were more spillover events.

The report said that in January 2021, the U.S. State Department published an unclassified fact sheet that says: "The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness."

An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on April 17, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 17:45

China To Arm Iran With Hundreds Of MANPADS Despite Trump Warnings: Report

President Trump has repeatedly said that China's President Xi Jinping has directly assured him that Beijing will not supply Iran with weaponry or military support.

But this week these 'assurances' have been called into question by an Reuters investigation. "Iran is expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told ​Reuters, as it rebuilds its defenses amid war with the United States," the fresh report says.

via Asia Times/X

"The purchase, valued at $60-70 million, is one of Tehran's largest-known efforts to strengthen its short-range air ‌defences since the outbreak of its war with the U.S. and Israel, which exposed gaps in Iran's ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure," it adds.

The fresh report cites three anonymous sources and did not receive comment from the Iranian side. Some of the assertions of the Reuters report are surprisingly specific, such as in the following:

The contract covers the purchase of between 300 and 400 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), including Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 missiles, the sources said.

The deal was signed with Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, a Hong Kong-based company that the sources said was acting as an intermediary between the Iranian ​side and the Chinese supplier.

The reporting even explores options being considered for delivery of the weapons, at a moment Iran is urgently seeking to replenish its air defense supplies after months of grinding tit-for-tat conflict with the US military.

"Two Western intelligence sources and an Iranian official said Tehran had also explored the use of overland routes to move Chinese military supplies and dual-use components ⁠more discreetly and ​reduce the risk of disruption," Reuters continues.

MANPADS could prove especially dangerous for US helicopters and other low flying aircraft, and for Iran can serve as layer of short-range protection.

The opening days of Operation Epic Fury saw much of Iran's anti-air units get taken out, especially across the Western part of the country, giving US-Israeli jets air superiority. However, at times the Iranians have claimed to shoot down some aircraft, and since then the US has seemed to operate from further afar.

Trump wrote on Truth Social just last week that "President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies."

"Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors, also. Likewise, President Putin … told me that he would not sell Weapons to Iran," he stated. Trump continued, "Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating. If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests."

As for Reuters' findings, Beijing as expected has blasted them as lies. China's Foreign Ministry said in response: "The relevant reports are completely groundless. China has consistently played a role ⁠in promoting peace and ending the conflict."

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 17:25

Anatomy Of The 'Islamophobic' Shooting That Wasn't

Authored by Andrew Bostom via RealClearInvestigations,

On Nov. 17, 2023, Mustafa Ramos, a Muslim man wearing a turban and a robe, was shot in the buttocks while selling Islamic paraphernalia adjacent to the Islamic Center of Rhode Island mosque in Providence.

The 52-year-old man was treated and released from the hospital in two hours. The incident, however, which happened just six weeks after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack targeting Israeli citizen non-combatants of all ages, quickly became national and international news as the latest example of an "Islamophobic hate crime."

Following the lead of the initial report in the Providence Journal - which described Ramos as "a big, jovial man with a giant smile" - the Boston Globe, CNN, the U.K. Guardian and U.K. Daily Mail, among others, reported that the shooting was a hate crime while quoting people connected to the Center who felt that they and the larger Muslim community were the real targets.

As the influential albeit Hamas-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged the Providence police to investigate the shooting's potential "bias motive," the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Board of Rabbis of Rhode Island issued a joint statement on Nov. 20 denouncing "Islamophobia," while acknowledging that "a motive has not yet been made clear."

That uncertainty was reinforced on Nov. 27 when the Providence Journal reported that Maj. David Lapatin, commanding officer of the Providence Police Investigative Division, cautioned, "To say the mosque was targeted would be premature."

After that, coverage of the shooting all but ended - although the Rhode Island House featured the "Islamophobic shooting" in a resolution it passed in February 2024 condemning "Islamophobia." "It is believed," the resolution stated, "that Mr. Ramos was a target based solely on his faith."

Now, 32 months after the shooting, RealClearInvestigations can report exclusively that the Providence police have concluded that Ramos was not targeted because of his faith. In response to the latest set of queries posed to the police as part of RCI's 18-month-long review of the case, Maj. Lapatin stated in a July 20, 2026, text that while the criminal investigation of the shooting remains "open," and no arrests have been made, his department has determined that Ramos was not the victim of an "Islamophobic hate crime."

RCI's reporting also shows that even as the Islamic Center's "spiritual leader" in Providence, Imam Sackor, and the national organization CAIR, cast the incident as part of a growing trend of anti-Muslim bias both locally and nationally, sermons preached at the mosque repeatedly espoused hateful rhetoric that demeaned and even threatened non-Muslims.

The Shooting

The official Providence Police incident report on the shooting does not reveal how or when Dean Scott Ramos adopted the name Mustafa. It does report that the Maine resident made frequent trips to the Providence mosque where he would set up a table to sell Islamic merchandise. On Nov. 17, 2023, the mosque's surveillance video footage shows a masked man lurking nearby for about 20 minutes before firing four or five rounds at Ramos from a moving car that he was driving. One of the bullets struck Ramos in the buttocks.

Three days later, Ramos, who said he spent two hours in the hospital getting treated for superficial wounds, told a detective during a phone follow-up interview that "he was feeling better and confirmed that he had been shot one time." Ramos also insisted that "he still believed he was targeted due to his religion [Islam] and the [Muslim] clothing he was wearing."

Ramos amplified this claim in an appearance in a December 2023 appearance on the local Providence area "Club Ambition" podcast. Asked if the shooting was related to his faith, he responded, "Of course it is. You know, of course it is. I wouldn't think it would be anything else. … As a Muslim dressed as a Muslim looked like a Muslim. … In front of the masjid (mosque). You know, I mean what would make that, what would it make it different for me, than it would for anyone else? What would be that element?"

He also suggested a fact confirmed to RCI by the police that he was not cooperating fully with the official investigation. "I'll be honest with you," he told the podcast host, "I'm not really interested in their investigation. That's their job. I shouldn't have to tell them to do their job. That's what they get paid for."

Ramos did not tell the podcaster that he had a criminal record. Court records show that Dean Ramos served five years in prison in the early 2000s (commuted from a 20-year sentence) for illegal manufacture and distribution of schedule I/II controlled, potentially addictive substances (examples of schedule I include heroin and ecstasy; examples of schedule II include Fentanyl and OxyContin).

The Investigation

That record might be relevant as the police investigation has revealed that the lone suspect in the shooting has an extensive criminal record. Although no one has been charged in the case, that suspect appears to loom large in the police department's conclusion that Ramos' shooting was not a hate crime. Maj. Lapatin told RCI last week, "After extensive investigation, given the background and behaviors of the lone suspect, we made that logical determination."

According to the incident report, a search warrant was executed, and items "belonging to Nasir Dupont" were "photographed and seized." Although Dupont's religious affiliation is not known publicly, Nasir is a Muslim name derived from the Arabic word "nasir," which means "to help, to aid, to defend."

Public records do show that Dupont, who was born in 2003, is a recidivist criminal, with a history that includes illegal gun possession, robbery and drug-related crimes. He is currently in prison awaiting trial on drug and weapon charges.

The Providence police incident report and supplements indicate their investigation has been stalled by several limitations. These included the fact that the gunman was wearing a mask; their inability to find the getaway car; Dupont's apparent destruction of his text messages on his phone and phone archive; and Ramos's unwillingness to assist with the investigation.

Like Ramos, Dupont has not cooperated with the police investigation. Such lack of cooperation with law enforcement occurs frequently when there are crimes involving victims who have criminal records themselves. Accordingly, a mere 5-19% of non-fatal shootings in urban centers such as Chicago and Boston, for example, result in the perpetrators being arrested. Victim non-cooperation is common in those settings.

RCI's efforts to contact Dupont's family members to find out whether the two men had any previous connection were unsuccessful.

The Providence Police told RCI that it has not received any follow-up inquiries from the media outlets that initially reported the shooting since December 2023. RCI did not receive any responses to its requests for comment from local reporters who covered the incident.

Incendiary Rhetoric

Although news outlets repeated suggestions and claims from Ramos, the Islamic Center's leader Imam Sackor, and CAIR that the shooting was a hate crime directed at all Muslims, none reported on the incendiary rhetoric frequently preached at the mosque, including the weeks and months after the attack on Ramos.

While decrying legitimate hate crimes and acts of bias, experts who track such rhetoric argue that many Muslim leaders advance the idea that their community is under siege to divert attention from the inflammatory language, especially against Jews and Christians, espoused in mosques around the country. The goal, they said, is not just to protect their people but to cast scrutiny of their own words as "Islamophobia." Daniel Greenfield, an investigative journalist who has covered the phenomenon extensively, said the promotion of alleged "Islamophobic incidents" is "a diversion from genuine antisemitic Islamic religious incitement in U.S. mosques, and Muslim violence against American Jews."

The Providence mosque and CAIR did not respond to requests for comment.

RCI's analysis of sermons posted on Facebook that were delivered at the Providence mosque after the shooting attack preached jihadism and hatred toward non-Muslims, especially Jews, but also Christians. Examples include:

• On Dec. 22, 2023, three days before Christmas, it was preached that the Muslim Jesus ("Isa") will destroy Christianity, and in the same sermon, the imam invoked Qur'an (17:4-10 and 2:61/3:112) while accusing Jews of "genocide in Gaza," and reminding Muslims that Jews are "corrupters" to be "punished" and "prophet killers."
• On Jan. 12, 2024, the imam, noted Qur'an 1:7 (which pious Muslims repeat 17-times daily) means it is the Jews who have "incurred Allah's anger," and observed they are "cursed" (Qur'an 5:78), while again accusing "prophet killing" Jews - not the Israel Defense Forces, or Israel - of committing "genocide in Gaza," because of their inveterately evil Qur'anic nature.
• On Jan. 3, 2025, just two days after an armed Muslim man with an ISIS flag in his car killed 14 people and injured 57 others on Bourbon Street in New Orleans the mosque's Imam instructed his followers to treat non-Muslims harshly (citing Qur'an 48:29), and concluded with an Arabic supplication to "fight the disbelievers and polytheists," consistent with the jihad war proclamations of the 9th Quranic sura, or chapter (9:5, 9:29, 9:73, 9:111, etc.).
• On Friday, May 30, 2025, the Islamic Center's sermon, ostensibly about Islam's Hajj pilgrimage to Muslim-only Mecca, evolved into a celebration of jihad conquest, specifically, the "cleansing" of Mecca's pagans (in 630 C.E.), and not long afterward, the attack on Syria's and Iraq's Christians (634 C.E.), all given Islamic religious sanction from the Qur'an's 9th sura, a series of timeless war proclamations. Also in that triumphal vein, the mosque's imam quoted the Qur'an (verses 3:67 and 3:68) to teach that Judaism's patriarch was a Muslim:

"Ibrahim [Abraham] is not a Christian or a Jew. He is someone who worships only one God [Allah]. He is a Muslim." [Q 3:67]…And the people who have the greatest claim to Ibrahim are those who follow his and this Messenger [Muhammad], and those who believe [Muslims] and Allah is the protector of the believers" [Q 3:68]

The imam segued from that traditional Qur'anic supremacism into a derision of Christianity, and an ugly, contemporary blood libel against Jews, and Judaism:

"One group, the Christians, can't articulate what they really believe, what their tawhid (monotheism) means. And the other group (the Jews) has reduced their religion to an ethnic identity that they use to justify a slaughter of innocent people."

The Providence mosque's leaders did not respond to RCI's queries about whether these and other statements were hate speech. They have removed all the mosque's sermons since Oct. 7, 2023, from the center's Facebook page, and no longer live stream them on Facebook each Friday. Ibrahim Hooper, the National Communications Director for CAIR, which decried what it claimed was a surge of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate after the October 7 attack, declined to comment on the specific examples of the mosque's sermons provided above.

Local politicians, the police, and Jewish and Christian religious leaders did not respond to similar queries.

Providence Mosque Not An Outlier

The failure to report on or respond to the inflammatory sermons is notable because the Rhode Island mosque is not an outlier.

A landmark study whose results were published in two academic journals in 2011, "Sharia and Violence in American Mosques," evaluated the associations between Sharia-adherence, the presence of violence-sanctioning materials at a mosque, and the advocacy of jihadism by the mosque's leadership, in a nationally representative, random statistical sample of 100 U.S. mosques. Eighty-one percent of these representative U.S. mosques were deemed as moderately (30%) to highly (51%) supportive of promulgating jihad violence to impose Sharia. Additionally, only 4.7% of Muslim worshippers attended mosques where jihadist materials were not provided because Sharia-compliant mosques promoting jihad were the most heavily attended.

More recently, a painstaking investigation by the scholar Mansour Al-Hadj of "hundreds of Friday mosque sermons" across the U.S. following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, jihad carnage targeting Israeli non-combatants found a similar message as the bloodshed was cast as an act of faith:

"…almost all the sermons amplify(ied) a single narrative which justifies Hamas's attack as a legitimate act that is based on the command of Allah and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. Therefore, they did not condemn or hold Hamas responsible for killing and abducting civilians, including children and the elderly, and sexually assaulting women…for starting a war…using the Gazans as human shields, or causing the death of thousands of Palestinians…Instead, their sermons, focused on highlighting the similarities between Hamas' attack and the wars fought by the prophet and his companions, demonizing Israel, narrating historical antisemitic stories attributed to the prophet Muhammad and citing verses from the Qur'an that characterized Jews as corrupt, treacherous, untrustworthy, and the killers of prophets."

Researchers at MEMRI TV, which monitors broadcasts from the Arab and Muslim world, report that anti-Christian rhetoric is common at U.S. mosques. The anti-Christian sentiments preached at the Islamic Center of Rhode Island echo hateful Islamic themes about Christians sermonized across the U.S. since Oct. 7, 2023, including:

• On Dec. 8, 2023, Imam Hanif Fouse of Philadelphia maintained Christians were complicit with, and supportive of the Jews, "with whom Allah is angry (Qur'an 1:7) because they killed the prophets (Qur'an 2:61, 3:112). The Christians insult Allah because they claim he has a son," he emphasized.
• Prayers to Allah "to annihilate" the Christians were recited at the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center on Dec. 8, 2023, and June 21, 2024, at the Islamic Center of Lafayette, Louisiana.
• In Fort Lauderdale, FL, on April 19, 2024, an Islamic scholar intoned that while "the Jews orchestrated everything against the Muslims" throughout history, it was the Christians "who executed" those schemes.
• California Pakistani Islamic scholar Qazi Fazlullah, in a video posted on YouTube on Oct. 25, 2024, invoked Quran 5:51, repeating, "Oh believers, do not take the Jews and Christians as allies." He added: "Make them not protectors, or friends, secret keepers, depending on them, or trusting them," because (citing Qur'an 5:51) "they are the allies of one another." Imam Fazlullah concluded that befriending them "goes against Islam and Muslims," and is "not allowed."

FBI statistics show that hate crimes are committed against members of many religious groups, but there is no evidence that the United States is suffering an epidemic of Islamophobia. For the period July 15, 2021 to July 15, 2026, for example, the bureau recorded roughly 60,000 bias-related incidents, of which 1,163 were classified as anti-Muslim.

The Rhode Island mosque incident suggests a concerted effort by some Islamic organizations to portray their community as under siege and that many media outlets actively reinforce this narrative, while ignoring the often hateful speech routinely uttered in mosques across the country.

"This seems to be yet another incident that was hyped by officials and the media as 'Islamophobic' but turned out to just be a criminal act," Greenfield said. "False allegations of Islamophobia are not only politically damaging; they endanger the public and destroy trust in police departments" and among members of the communities in which the charges are made.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 17:05

Energy Department Issues Emergency Order To Secure Power Grid In 17 US States

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued an order to tackle an energy emergency situation across 17 U.S. states triggered by hot weather conditions.

An aircraft takes off from Los Angeles International Airport behind electric power lines in El Segundo, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The July 26 emergency order was issued by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to Southwest Power Pool Inc. (SPP), the regional grid operator for the 17 states.

According to the order, SPP is expecting hot weather conditions through Aug. 3. The operator requested the department to allow specific power generation units to run beyond their operating limits in order to ensure grid reliability. It also sought authority to unlock and deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other industrial and commercial customer sites to counter any risk to the bulk power system.

Wright determined that statutory emergency situations exist in certain regions, serviced by the SPP, owing to sudden increases in demand, "a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation and transmission of electric energy, and other causes," the order said. Homes and local businesses in the affected areas could lose power, presenting a risk to public safety and health.

The energy secretary allowed SPP to dispatch power-generating units "as needed to maintain reliability," according to the order. In addition, SPP is authorized to use backup resources to operate as a last resort before issuing an Energy Emergency Alert 3 - the highest level of energy emergency action.

The emergency order applies from July 26 to Aug. 3.

In a July 26 statement, DOE said the order would stabilize the power grid and mitigate blackout risks, highlighting that outages cost American people around $44 billion annually.

"The Trump Administration is tapping into an abundant supply of unused backup generation to maintain affordable, reliable, and secure power for hardworking American families and businesses," Wright said in the statement.

The department estimated the total nationwide unused power generation to be at over 35 gigawatts.

The emergency order comes as the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted in a July 28 post on X that "dangerous and extreme" heat would remain across portions of the central United States this week.

In a July 28 forecast, the Weather Prediction Center said the southern United States is expected to see above-normal temperatures for the next few days, with afternoon highs reaching upper 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

High heat combined with high humidity can result in widespread "Major to Extreme HeatRisk levels," with people lacking adequate cooling or hydration at risk of heat-related illnesses, according to the center. By the end of this week, the "dangerous heat" is forecast to expand into the Southwest and Intermountain West, the center said.

Strengthening Power Grid

Amid high heat conditions, other major power grid operators have also issued operational alerts.

On July 28, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves 15 states, released a hot weather alert update as temperatures in the region are expected to hit 103 degrees Fahrenheit. The alert is effective till the end of this month.

On July 15, PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest electric grid operator that serves 13 states, had declared a hot weather alert that remained in effect through July 17. Such an alert is issued to prepare power generation facilities and personnel to meet a jump in electricity demand.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, the DOE announced $1.9 billion in funding opportunities to strengthen the U.S. power grid, with the funds coming from a five-year grid resilience program.

The funding will prioritize projects that expand grid capacity, replace existing power lines with higher-capacity conductors, improve overall system security and reliability, and lower prices for consumers.

According to Katie Jereza, assistant secretary at the DOE's Office of Electricity, the funding will stabilize and optimize America's grid operations, strengthening it for rapid growth.

Wright said in the statement that for too long, "important grid modernization and energy addition efforts were not prioritized by past leaders."

"Thanks to President [Donald] Trump, we are doing the important work of modernizing our grid so electricity costs will be lowered for American families and businesses," Wright said.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 16:35

Lemonade Crashes As Customer Growth Miss Spooks Wall Street

Lemonade shares crashed early in the US cash session after the technology-focused insurer reported fewer second-quarter customers than Wall Street expected and announced a transition of its chief financial officer.

The company, which provides renters, homeowners, auto, pet and life insurance in the US and parts of Europe, plunged 18%, marking its steepest intraday decline since July 31, 2024.

The shares are down 30% this year, rapidly reversing a rally that catapulted the stock from about $20 in late 2024 to nearly triple digits. Lemonade peaked at around $96 earlier this year.

What traders focused on was that customers in the second quarter increased 23% to 3.31 million, short of the Bloomberg Consensus estimate of 3.33 million. Revenues in the quarter surged 79% to $294.4 million, beating expectations, while the adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to $18.7 million from $40.9 million a year earlier. The gross loss ratio improved to 60%, better than the 64.8% estimate.

2Q Earnings Snapshot (courtesy of Bloomberg):

• Loss per share 56c vs. loss/shr 60c y/y, estimate loss/shr 56c
• Revenue $294.4 million, +79% y/y, estimate $290.9 million
• In force premium $1.43 billion, +32% y/y, estimate $1.43 billion
• Gross earned premium $332.4 million, +32% y/y, estimate $329.6 million
• Adjusted Ebitda loss $18.7 million vs. loss $40.9 million y/y, estimate loss $20.4 million
• Customers 3.31 million, +23% y/y, estimate 3.33 million
• Premium per customer $433, +7.7% y/y, estimate $428.39
• Gross Loss Ratio 60% vs. 67% y/y, estimate 64.8%

Lemonade raised its full-year revenue forecast to $1.21 billion to $1.22 billion but maintained an adjusted EBITDA loss outlook wider than consensus.

Nick Stead, currently senior vice president of finance, will succeed Tim Bixby as CFO on Jan. 1, with Bixby transitioning to the board. The company provided no color on the rationale behind the leadership change.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 15:45

US State Department Issues Travel Advisory For Caribbean Tourist Destination

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The State Department updated its travel advisory for the Bahamas, highlighting the risk of crime, including sexual assaults, in the Caribbean nation.

Violent crimes, such as sexual assaults, armed robberies, and burglaries, can occur anywhere in the country, the department said in a July 28 update.

“Most crime occurs in Nassau and Freeport on New Providence and Grand Bahama islands. Stay alert in the ‘Over the Hill’ area in Nassau, south of Shirley Street, where gangs have killed residents. Stay alert in vacation rental properties, especially where private security is not present,” the department said.

Located on New Providence Island, Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas.

The Bahamas has been designated as a “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution” classification.

The advisory specifically warned about jet skiing and boating activities in the Bahamas, highlighting that these are not well regulated in the country. Deaths and injuries involving such activities have been reported. In some instances, jet ski operators have allegedly committed sexual assaults.

The U.S. government has banned its employees from using or renting jet skis and personal watercraft from independent operators on Paradise Islands and New Providence due to safety risks. Some watercraft operators may not be licensed or insured, and may ignore weather forecasts, according to the advisory.

In a June 15 alert, the U.S. Embassy in Nassau had warned Americans about jet ski risks in the Bahamas.

According to the embassy, at least two Americans have reported being sexually assaulted in the Bahamas this year by jet ski operators. Two such reports were registered in 2025, while three were reported in 2024.

Some of the victims alleged that operators had solicited them for rides from the small islands east of Paradise Island, downtown Nassau, and Paradise Island beaches, including areas stretching from Junkanoo Beach to Saunders Beach and Cabbage Beach.

The victims said they were assaulted on isolated islands near Nassau, according to the embassy.

In its latest advisory, the State Department warned travelers to the Bahamas to be aware of their surroundings and stay alert in public restrooms. Sexual assaults have occurred on or near beaches in downtown Nassau.

The department advised people never to swim alone and to be aware of watercraft or jet skis operating close to the shore.

In 2024, roughly 85 percent of the around 11.2 million visitors to the Bahamas were from the United States, according to data from the International Trade Administration.

In addition to the Bahamas, the State Department has issued travel advisories for other nations in the Caribbean.

A July 10 travel advisory updated the alert level for Saint Lucia to Level 2, warning about the risk of crime in the country.

American citizens and other foreigners in Saint Lucia have reported being victims of assault, armed robbery, rape, and burglary. In some instances, U.S. citizens have been killed, the advisory said.

Tourist resorts have been targets of violent crimes. Moreover, response times of local police are not as fast as in the United States.

In April, a State Department advisory warned of crime and terrorism risks in Trinidad and Tobago, designating the country with a “Level 3: Reconsider Travel” classification, the second-most severe travel advisory.

The department advised avoiding beaches, downtown Port of Spain, Fort George, and Queen’s Park Savannah after dark, warning that tourists are vulnerable to armed assault at these sites.

Meanwhile, a “Worldwide Caution” security alert was issued on July 22 by the State Department for Americans due to the heightened tensions in the Middle East.

U.S. diplomatic facilities, within and outside of the Middle East, have been targeted by rivals, with the Iranian regime and its supporting groups likely to target other American interests overseas. Targets may include locations linked to the United States and U.S. citizens anywhere in the world, such as businesses and institutions, according to the department.

“Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise caution and heightened vigilance and should be prepared for flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures, and potential travel disruptions,” the alert said.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 15:30

Houthis Signal Red Sea Shipping Tolls In Mirror Image Of Iran's Hormuz Plan

Houthis have entered the chat...

Already multiple Saudi vessels have been targeted in the Red Sea region, forcing a number of tankers to U-turn, and now Yemen's Houthis are seeking to introduce their own 'toll system' for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

"Yemen's information minister said intelligence confirmed IRGC advisers were directly involved in designing a Houthi-enforced toll system for the Bab el-Mandeb, mirroring Iran's contested claim to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz," European media reports Wednesday.

Source: Winward

"The Houthi armed group is working with Iran to charge ships to transit the Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea, threatening another waterway after Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a minister in Yemen's internationally recognised government said on Wednesday." 

The scheme is to be a mirror image of that Tehran is seeking to enforce in the Strait of Hormuz, where it continues to insist that it will settle for nothing less than its own vision of management, including fee collection for "navigation" "environmental" and safety assurance. According to more via Reuters:

Yemen's Houthi group is considering imposing fees on commercial ships sailing through the southern Red Sea, a week after declaring a naval blockade ​on Saudi Arabia, regional sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The Iran-aligned Houthis on July 20 declared a maritime embargo against Saudi ‌Arabia, opening a new front against the U.S. and its allies in the Iran war and expanding attacks on tankers carrying global energy and other supplies to waters beyond the Gulf.

The US and Saudi backed government in Yemen, which has for over a decade been at civil war with the Houthi rebels, has described the move as "a dangerous escalation aimed at transforming one of the world's most strategic maritime corridors into a permanent source of funding for the militia's military and terrorist activities," according to Yemen's Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani.

The pro-Saudi axis has said it recently obtained "confirmed intelligence" indicating that Iran's IRGC were helping to manage the toll initiative.

"The intelligence indicates that IRGC experts and advisers are directly involved in designing the technical and administrative framework of the project," Eryani added.

Eryani stated this would include "the establishment of a dedicated entity responsible for collecting payments from shipping companies and commercial vessels".

Iran has been pledging to support its ground proxies in Iraq and Yemen, as both since last weekend appeared to begin launching attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities.

Overnight saw a rare joint US-Saudi response with attacks on Iraqi militias. In the case of Yemen, there's not much the coalition can do given the Houthis have remained entrenched even after years of massive bombing campaigns, including strikes conducted solely by the Israeli Air Force at times.

China is said to be in direct talks with the Houthis to allow for passage of Chinese vessels, also based on prior precedent wherein the Houthis allowed Russian and Chinese ships to pass without incident, connected to the prior Gaza war.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 15:15

Garmin Boosts Full-Year Forecast As Wearables Earnings Jump

Garmin shares jumped as much as 9.6% in premarket trading after the GPS-device maker delivered a broad beat on second-quarter earnings and raised its full-year outlook.

Garmin produces GPS-enabled electronics and wearable technology across five main markets:

• Fitness: smartwatches, running watches, cycling computers and activity trackers
• Outdoor: hiking watches, handheld GPS devices, satellite communicators and dog-tracking systems
• Aviation: cockpit displays, navigation systems, avionics and flight instruments
• Marine: chartplotters, sonar, radar, autopilots and fish finders
• Automotive: vehicle navigation systems, cameras and technology supplied to automakers

The company attributed the outperformance to "strong demand for advanced wearables," particularly within its fitness segment:

Revenue from the fitness segment increased 25% in the second quarter with growth across all product categories, led by strong demand for advanced wearables. Gross and operating margins were 64% and 37%, respectively, resulting in $277 million of operating income.

During the quarter, we launched the Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170, easy-to-use GPS running smartwatches designed to help runners of all levels reach their goals. In addition, we celebrated Global Running Day and Global Cycling Day with the release of our running and cycling data reports, highlighting how athletes around the world are recording runs and rides. More recently, we announced the CIRQA Smart Band, a screenless wearable that offers rich wellness and fitness insights without requiring a subscription and further expands our addressable market for wellness devices.

Hottest watch on the golf course is the Garmin Approach S70 Golf GPS Watch: 

Here's a snapshot of second quarter results:

Pro forma EPS $2.81 vs. $2.17 y/y, estimate $2.28

Revenue $2.02 billion, +11% y/y, estimate $1.92 billion

• Aviation net sales $268.7 million, +7.8% y/y, estimate $265.4 million
• Fitness net sales $756.8 million, +25% y/y, estimate $670.5 million
• Outdoor net sales $482.7 million, -1.6% y/y, estimate $477.6 million
• Marine net sales $341.4 million, +14% y/y, estimate $322.4 million

Operating income $615.5 million, +30% y/y, estimate $486 million

• Fitness operating income $277 million, +40% y/y, estimate $196.8 million
• Outdoor operating income $163.6 million, +3.5% y/y, estimate $142.3 million
• Aviation operating profit $72 million, +14% y/y, estimate $66.7 million
• Marine operating income $100 million, +59% y/y, estimate $66.6 million

Gross margin 62.4% vs. 58.8% y/y, estimate 58.8%

Here's a snapshot of the full-year forecast:

Sees pro forma EPS $10.00, saw $9.35, estimate $9.62 (Bloomberg Consensus)

Sees revenue about $8.05 billion, saw about $7.9 billion, estimate $7.99 billion 

Sees gross margin 59.7%, saw 58.5%, estimate 58.8%

The report offers a positive outlook on consumer hardware demand, with folks increasingly gravitating toward wearables. It also highlights a growing divergence within the technology sector: while the AI selloff pressures memory-chip producers and hyperscalers, consumer-device companies with strong demand and earnings momentum continue to outperform.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 15:00

The Mamdani Grocery Grift: NYC Mayor Sells Taxpayers A Bill Of Goods On City-Run Stores

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Last week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s short stint as a faux president ended with an embarrassing acknowledgment that he could not, as promised during his campaign, arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

So, this week, Mamdani the Grocer made a reappearance, with details on the five city-run grocery stores that he will open.

But rather than deliver discount groceries, Mamdani is selling New Yorkers a bill of goods that will cost them millions.

What Mamdani described was a discount food bank dressed up as a grocery. Standing in front of blackboards saying “REDUCED 30%,” Mamdani sounded like a bodega hawker: “Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks”

Here’s the most delicious part: the presser was a gimmick from beginning to end.

The mayor promised that “The savings will last for the entire month. That means no weekly fluctuations or sticker shock at the checkout line — not for our seniors living on fixed incomes, nor for the parents who rely on a regular supply of apple slices to keep toddler tantrums at bay.”

The Mamdani markets are new variations of an old New York grift: selling gold watches for $5.

The dupes want to believe that somehow this street vendor, surreptitiously displaying watches inside his overcoat, actually found a way to sell “solid gold watches” for just a few bucks.

The math simply does not add up for Mamdani.

Most groceries have an average profit margin between 1% and 3%, one of the smallest margins of any industry.

To promise a 30% discount below market rate that cannot be adjusted due to monthly market fluctuations is economically absurd.

It is not a description of a competitive grocery but a public charity. It is a quasi-food bank where taxpayers subsidize the cost.

As usual, Mamdani turns this into a class war, demonizing business owners. He suggests that real grocery stores are simply price gougers hoarding windfall profits from consumers. He ignores that they must pay rent, upkeep and fees — all things the city-run stores may simply write off.

He proclaimed, “May the most affordable grocery store win.”

Of course, the test is not which grocery is the most affordable, but which is the most sustainable. If you are willing to take a bath on sales, you can always offer the most affordable prices for as long as your excess cash holds out.

In Mamdani’s case, he has the credit of New York City to draw on to compete against Mom-and-Pop bodegas.

The subsidy, however, is only part of the costs. The average bodega owner must cover the fixed costs of renting a space, building the store, and complying with inspectors. Those are the fixed costs that must be internalized into the cost of produce to break even.

Real stores are competing in one of the tightest markets in the world and are grappling with a 33% nationwide increase in costs since 2019. Mamdani wants to use the stores to prove that socialism works as part of his effort to introduce New York to the “warmth of socialism.” We may never know the real costs of the Mamdani markets.

According to the New York Post, the city plans to open an East Harlem location as its first store, at a reported cost of $30 million.

However, that is not the full cost.  The Post also reported that the city had already appropriated $25 million to improve the first site. The city will lose millions that could have been acquired through a sale of the land or through rents to private companies. Those costs are left on other ledgers and not likely counted in the true costs of the Mamdani markets.

The first store will not even open until 2027 despite the props behind Mamdani. The second Manhattan store will not open until 2029.  That is three years and tens of millions of dollars for just the first two stores.

That is how Mamdani is promising New Yorkers savings of  “$90 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year.” He is using the city to subsidize food under the guise of selling at low, but still profitable prices. Ironically, those who can take advantage of the subsidy at the first two stores in Manhattan will be anyone, including the privileged, wealthy New Yorkers whom Mamdani denounces for not paying their fair share. After all, everyone wants below-market-priced slices in the Big Apple.

The first city-run grocery, in East Harlem, will cost $30 million to build — and perhaps more. It will never need to pay this money back nor factor it into its prices. The “warmth of socialism” will cover it; that is, you.

In reality, Mamdani will be selling apples at a far greater cost than any competitor, but those true costs will be buried in the city budget and paid for by the taxpayers.

Indeed, the Mamdani markets are likely to prove the most expensive groceries in the city.

Mamdani, however, has never sweated the math or the means. He knows that the focus will be on the cash register price and not the true cost.

Of course, there is a big difference between the gold watch grift and the Mamdani grift: buying a knockoff watch only costs chumps a few bucks. The Mamdani con will cost New Yorkers millions, and most will thank him for it.

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

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 14:40

Watch Live: Fed Chair Warsh Explains 'Hawkish' Hold

Having delivered the biggest "non-cut" surprise to markets in decades - by holding rates unchanged (markets were pricing a 35% chance of a hike) - and given Warsh’s distaste for forward guidance, he is unlikely to offer any clearer signals during the press conference.

Bear in mind that since 2015, traders have foreseen the Fed’s ultimate rate decision with an average error of 2.4 basis points the day before the central bank’s announcement, according to a note from Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets.

“The market is set up for a sharper kneejerk response to the FOMC announcement than is typically the case,” Lyngen said.

Jonathan Pingle, chief US economist at UBS, said he hadn’t felt this uncertain about an imminent Fed rate decision in 20 years, back when Ben Bernanke became Fed chair.

However, the three dissents in favor of a rate hike clearly show the direction of travel,and that may prove helpful to Warsh if he aims to tamp down inflation pressures.

While yields are down and gold up after the statement, the dissenters would suggest this decision leans hawkish (Goldman expected 2 dissents, so marginally hawkish).

Warsh will likely emphasize that all options remain open, and that future decisions will depend on the data.

Desks anticipate a continued emphasis on the inflation side of the dual mandate, without offering any type of commitment for future hikes, though he might also acknowledge the upside risks to inflation posed by the latest rise in oil prices.

He recently announced the leaders of the five Chairman’s Task Forces for Advancing Monetary Policy and might provide an update on the timeline for their work.

Watch the full press conference live here (due to start at 1430ET):

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 14:25

No Rate-Change Sparks 3 Dissents As Warsh Fed Delivers Biggest 'Non-Cut' Surprise In Decades

Tl;dr: The Fed held rates unchanged, delivering the biggest surprise "non-cut" to the market in decades. Three dissenters wanted a rate-hike, clearly signaling the direction of travel and confirming this decision as a "hawkish hold" though arguably only marginally.

*  *  *

Since the last FOMC meeting on June 17th (Kevin Warsh's first as Fed Chair), a lot has happened, with the Iran war re-erupting driving oil prices and the dollar higher, while stocks (momo/semis meltdown), bonds, gold, and bitcoin are all lower...

Both growth and inflation macro data has surprised to the downside...

But, oil's resurgence has pushed rate-hike odds significantly higher...

But, this will still be one of the first Fed meetings in years where the market does not have at least 80% confidence in what the committee will do...

One way or another, this will be the largest "non-cut" surprise in decades.

If the Fed hikes today, it will be almost as big of a surprise as Powell's 50bps cut in Sept '24 meant to give the election to Kamala. pic.twitter.com/5tQyfvye1H

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 29, 2026

As we detailed earlier, since 2015, traders have foreseen the Fed’s ultimate rate decision with an average error of 2.4 basis points the day before the central bank’s announcement, according to a note from Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets.

“The market is set up for a sharper kneejerk response to the FOMC announcement than is typically the case,” Lyngen said.

Jonathan Pingle, chief US economist at UBS, said he hasn’t felt this uncertain about an imminent Fed rate decision in 20 years, back when Ben Bernanke became Fed chair.

A lack of a track record by Warsh and recent divisions among Fed officials are further clouding the outlook, he said, not ruling out a scenario where Warsh is the one who casts the deciding vote.

“Given the fact that he can push around sort of the median of the committee at the moment, he’s going to decide policy for the next few meetings, and we really have no idea how Kevin Warsh thinks about monetary policy.”

Remember, there are/were 9 members of the committee that saw hikes this year...

Most pundits and sell-side analysts see the central bank leaving rates on hold - especially since last month's inflation reports came well below expectations, and there are no dots or forecasts to update this month.

So, with the market pricing a one-third chance of a hike today, what did The Fed decide?

• *FED VOTES 9-3 TO HOLD BENCHMARK RATE IN 3.5%-3.75% RANGE

• *FED: HAMMACK, KASHKARI AND LOGAN DISSENT IN FAVOR OF RATE HIKE

• *FED REPEATS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IS EXPANDING AT A SOLID PACE

• *FED REPEATS COMMITTEE WILL DELIVER PRICE STABILITY

• *FED REPEATS JOB GAINS HAVE KEPT PACE WITH WORKFORCE

The three dissents in favor of a rate hike clearly show the direction of travel.

And that may prove helpful to Warsh if he aims to tamp down inflation pressures.

Read the redline below (not much changed)...

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 14:00

Trump Invites California Teen Lifeguard Who Rescued Boy To White House

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

A teen lifeguard, who heroically dove into pounding waves to save a young boy, will be honored by President Donald Trump at the White House.

Lifeguards rescue boy at California beach amid intense waves

"We're going to bring this heroic young man, and his family, into the White House with, perhaps, the boy he saved, to give him a High Civilian Honor," Trump announced on X July 28. "Very brave, he deserves it!"

The lifeguard, Ryder Williams, 16, rescued the 10-year-old boy on July 25 at Seabright Beach, about 6 miles east of the popular Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and about 60 miles south of San Francisco.

A witness, Scott Vander Dussen, posted the viral video of the rescue on Instagram.

        View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Scott Vander Dussen (@santacruznow)

In the clip, Williams is seen running into the rough water before he grabs the boy around the chest. The boy appeared to be exhausted and going limp, and unable to hold onto the lifeguard as relentless waves crashed over them.

The two were overcome with high surf multiple times before Williams was able to pull the boy close enough to the beach to be aided by another lifeguard and members of the public.

"That boy was moments from not coming back," Vander Dussen said in a social media post on X. "A few seconds, a few degrees, a few yards of distance, and this is a very different story with a very different ending."

Vander Dussen told NBC-owned KNTV-TV the waves were at "normal intensity" one moment and then suddenly changed.

"It caught a lot of people off guard," Vander Dussen said. "Unfortunately, this young man was overwhelmed and swept out in just a moment's time. I'm glad it ended the way it did."

A series of tropical storms and hurricanes, including Fausto and Genevieve, has impacted the California coast since late last week, resulting in higher surf and hazardous conditions.

The National Weather Service issued a beach hazard advisory this week for the central California coastline. Forecasters warned of an increased risk of sneaker waves and strong rip currents. Breaking waves could reach up to 10 feet along some beaches, the weather service said.

"Remain out of the water to avoid hazardous surf and never turn your back on the ocean," the advisory read.

California State Parks, which operates the lifeguard program at Santa Cruz, said thousands of ocean rescues happen every year.

"Our State Park lifeguards courageously risk their own lives every day to keep our visitors safe," California State Parks spokesman Tyler Hersko told The Epoch Times. "Their dedication never goes unnoticed and they are truly heroes to their local communities, Californians and the nation."

The department employs about 600 seasonal lifeguards every summer and about 70 permanent lifeguards who make about 10,000 rescues every year, according to Hersko.

Since the start of the month, the lifeguards have made 3,600 rescues and provided 1,600 cases of medical aid.

State Parks didn't say whether Williams had accepted the president's invitation to the White House.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 13:25