Zero Hedge

The COVID Reckoning That Never Came

The COVID Reckoning That Never Came

Authored by Ed Dowd via 'Beyond The Narrative' substack,

The COVID Reckoning That Never Came... And the Silence That Proves the Psyop

Over the last several years I have been posting nonstop on X about the same nightmares we’ve been living through…the COVID psyop, the experimental mRNA shots, the mandates that destroyed lives, the injuries, the excess deaths, and the relentless propaganda machine that tried to silence anyone who noticed the bodies piling up. I have watched it all in real time: the fear porn, the goalpost moving, the “safe and effective” lies repeated like gospel while real-world data told a different story.

Now we have fresh, documented revelations that should have blown the lid off of everything. Instead? Crickets from the media and, more disappointingly, from the current administration that promised accountability.

Senator Ron Johnson dropped another devastating report and hearing in late April 2026: “Unmasked: How Biden Health Officials Purposely Turned a Blind Eye Toward COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Signals.” Internal records show FDA officials knew their VAERS monitoring was inadequate to say least. They had better data-mining tools ready to flag clear safety signals: cardiac deaths, strokes, pulmonary issues, Bell’s palsy but they chose not to use them. Why? To avoid “vaccine hesitancy.”

This was not screw-up territory. It was deliberate. Vaccine-injured people sat across from Peter Marks and other top FDA brass begging for acknowledgment. They got stonewalled. Johnson rightly calls this one of the biggest scandals in his decades in public service. Then in early June he held another hearing exposing potential cancer links to the mRNA shots and the systematic suppression of critical studies. Same playbook: inconvenient science gets buried or attacked.

Around the same time, Tulsi Gabbard, in one of her final moves as DNI, declassified documents laying out Fauci’s role in funding gain-of-function research at Wuhan, the lab-leak cover-up, the intelligence manipulation, and the retaliation against truth-tellers. Millions of taxpayer dollars funneled into risky biolabs, followed by the full narrative-control machine kicking in to blame nature instead of the obvious.

These are not anonymous X threads. This is a sitting Senator with subpoena power and the former Director of National Intelligence dropping official records.

So where is the firestorm? Where are the front-page exposés, the prime-time specials, the demands for real hearings and prosecutions? In 1976 the swine flu vaccine was pulled after 25 deaths and 500 cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome. In the covid shot era we have approximately 39,000 deaths reported to VAERS following the shot. Apparently lives got cheaper over the last 50 years. The legacy media has mostly ignored it, downplayed it, or run the usual “right-wing conspiracy” dismissals. Paid to lie… and crickets on recent FDA COVID vax revelations. Their complicity is not an understatement, rather it was essential to the entire psyop.

Even more frustrating is the relative silence from the current Trump administration. After years of vowing to expose the lies and drain the swamp on the pandemic response, these revelations land and… not much follow-through. No aggressive push for accountability. No sustained public reckoning for the officials who covered up safety signals or manipulated the origins story. That silence hits hard. Additionally the vaccines are still on the market and this administration is now complicit. What an epic failure!

A lot of us did not need Johnson’s reports or Gabbard’s declassifications to see the fraud. Back in 2022 and 2023, my team at Phinance Technologies was already digging into the data and uncovering the real narrative through our Humanity Projects. We analyzed excess deaths, disability surges, absence rates, and the human and economic costs of mass inoculations when almost no one else wanted to touch it. Check out the full body of work here: Humanity Projects

What we found through cold, hard numbers lined up with what the bodies on the ground were showing. We weren’t surprised by the latest revelations from Senator Johnson. We had been sounding the alarm years earlier, while getting labeled conspiracy theorists for it.

We watched the institutionally well-established benefits of natural immunity get summarily dismissed and memory holed. We saw “two weeks to flatten the curve” turn into endless boosters for the compliant and job losses for the unvaccinated. We saw friends and family injured or worse, then told it was “rare,” “coincidence,” or “misinformation.” Those of us who protested the mandates and the experimental mRNA shots were labeled Russian disinformation, dangerous spreaders, even domestic terrorists. It did not stick, but they tried.

For those who saw through the propaganda early, resisted it, and watched peers fall for it our worldview has forever changed. The greatest cover-up ever. But despite the MSM blackout, word has gotten out through underground channels, thanks in no small part to Senator Ron Johnson and others who refused to let subject die.

The betrayal runs deep. These new revelations do not surprise us but rather they confirm what the data and our own eyes showed years ago. They lied. They knew they were lying. They censored, gaslit, and destroyed lives to protect the narrative. Many institutions including public health, intelligence, media, Big Pharma were all in on it and still propagating the lies today.

That loss of trust is profound and permanent for millions of us. We no longer default to believing official statements. We demand primary data. We assume self-preservation and narrative control from authorities until proven otherwise. The COVID era did not just damage credibility on one issue instead it shattered how an entire group of people view government, “experts,” and authority. “Doing your own research” proved to be a critical lifesaver.

The people in authority still defending the garbage jab or pretending none of this matters can keep taking their 12 boosters (dirty little secret… they are not). The rest of us are done. We are profoundly changed. More skeptical. More data driven. Less willing to comply. Team Humanity was born out of this mess.

The window for real accountability is slamming shut. Even if these official revelations get memory-holed, the lesson is clear: they never planned to come clean. They want us to forget and move on to the next crisis.

I am not forgetting. And from what I see every day, millions are not either. As time rolls forward and the cognitive dissonance of those who took the vaccine wears off…our numbers will continue to grow.

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” — Luke 8:17

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 16:20

5 Charts To Navigate This Chaotic Market

5 Charts To Navigate This Chaotic Market

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

I have 5 charts for you today which put this crazy market into context and give some clarity on what might come next.

We’re at a fascinating crossroads for markets, geopolitics, and finance.

Let’s get started.

Semis Party Like It’s 1999

First up, semiconductor returns. The index below includes U.S. semi stocks like Nvidia, Micron, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Texas Instruments, and more:

Source: Charlie Bilello 

As you can see, during the dotcom bubble, semiconductor stocks soared 234% over 14 months in the period leading up to February 2000. That was the peak of the market, and tech stocks wouldn’t recover for about 15 years.

And in the past 14 months, SOX is up 237%. Reminiscent of the dotcom days.

Maybe this time is different, and yes, the stocks are more profitable today. But it’s undeniable that markets are getting bubbly. Semis are looking especially frothy. When AI spending inevitably slows down, watch out below…

+$2.99 Trillion

Over the past year, America’s federal debt jumped by $2.99 trillion.

Needless to say, our current trajectory is unsustainable. We’re paying about $1.2 trillion per year just in interest on federal government debt.

This is the key reason I believe interest rates will need to go down to near zero sometime in the next few years. Even if inflation remains above target. And it’s why I still believe holding precious metal investments is key to wealth preservation and growth.

AI Infrastructure Surpasses Humans

We all know data centers are booming. But the chart below puts it all into perspective. It compares office construction (blue) to data centers (red):

Source: Zerohedge

Simply remarkable. We’re spending more on infrastructure for AI than humans.

And since 2016, spending on data centers is up more than 10x.

But all around the country, locals are pushing back against big tech. Data centers are extremely loud. They spike local electricity prices to unaffordable levels. In some cases, they pollute the water with nitrites and other chemicals.

And most importantly, our power grid is hitting its limits. We can’t build new power plants fast enough to keep up. So eventually, the data center boom will have to slow down significantly. And that will likely mark the top of this boom/bubble.

Silver vs Stocks

Silver has had a rough few months. After rising almost 4x in a year, it has been cut in half.

The chart below compares silver to the S&P 500. As this chart rises, silver is beating stocks. When it falls, it is losing.

Source: Tavi Costa

As you can see, even at the recent highs we didn’t get anywhere near the levels we saw in 2011, when silver outperformed stocks for an extended period.

We’ve gotten our big correction, and I believe the next 5 years will be excellent for silver. It still has a long way to go to reach 2011 levels (compared to stocks). And supply deficits today are far more extreme than they ever were back then. Solar is booming and investment demand is soaring, especially in Asia.

I remain convinced silver will find new highs over the next few years. Maybe sooner.

-$246B Gambling Losses

The USA’s gambling problem is getting worse. As a whole, Americans are on track to lose $246 billion this year.

Source: Joey Politano

As we highlighted last week, Americans invest about $600 billion in 401ks every year. That number could be $850 billion if we ever learn that gambling has horrible odds.

Look, if you can afford to gamble and enjoy it, great. But many people are trying to strike it rich. And that almost never happens.

Gambling is all around us, and we should be on guard against its pernicious effects. Saving and investing should always come first.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 15:10

China Lands Reusable Rocket On Barge, But SpaceX Remains Years Ahead

China Lands Reusable Rocket On Barge, But SpaceX Remains Years Ahead

China successfully landed the first-stage booster of a Long March 10B rocket on a floating barge during an orbital launch test earlier Friday, marking the first major step in reusable launch technology, albeit roughly a decade behind Elon Musk's SpaceX.

"This mission … signifies a historic breakthrough in China's reusable rocket technology and a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of China's space access capabilities," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation wrote in a social media post.

Reusable rockets are key to SpaceX's dominance of the global launch market, with Musk's company having mastered booster recovery and reuse a decade ago:

  • December 21, 2015: First successful landing of an orbital-class Falcon 9 booster.
  • April 8, 2016: First successful landing on an ocean drone ship.
  • March 30, 2017: First relaunch of a previously flown Falcon 9 booster, marking the start of operational reuse.

Ten Years Ago: SpaceX Falcon 9 First Stage Landing  

Blue Origin, SpaceX's closest U.S. rival, completed the first successful landing of a New Glenn first-stage booster last November.

BryceTech's latest launch report for Q1 2026 shows how SpaceX's reusable-rocket technology has transformed Musk's space and AI company into a market leader.

SpaceX launched 40 rockets during the quarter, compared with 12 for China, five for Rocket Lab, and four for Russia, reinforcing the widening gap between SpaceX and the rest of the global launch industry.

More evidence of SpaceX's dominance:

And again:

SpaceX is a major reason America's space program continues to lead the world today and should maintain that lead through 2030.

Investors are waiting for the commercialization of Starship...

With SpaceX maintaining roughly a decade-long technological lead over nation-state-backed programs such as China's, it is little surprise that Wall Street analysts are piling in with bullish ratings on SPCX. Raymond James is the most aggressive, setting a Street-high 12-month price target of $800. Read the report here.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 14:35

Without Subsidies, Is AI Unaffordable?

Without Subsidies, Is AI Unaffordable?

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Let's pull all this into an undeniable conclusion: AI is based on massively subsidizing users' costs.

What's already abundantly clear but verboten to say as it would pop the bubble of AI valuations and triumphalism is that AI is unaffordable once the direct and indirect subsidies are withdrawn. Nothing that consumes this much electricity and requires such an immense scale of costly processing and memory capacity can be low-cost, never mind free.

The major AI platforms and vendors are subsidizing corporate and individual users in the hopes that they can achieve AI sector dominance --and the pricing power that comes with it--via the network effect, the dominance generated by having the majority of users bound by habit or dependence to your platform or tools.

This battle for network effect dominance is playing out in full view:

AI Giants Are Handing Out Tons of Free Computing Power to Grab Startup Share: (wsj.com) Pitched battle for business users comes as AI companies seek lasting streams of revenue.

Hans Ibarra, a founder building an AI-voice startup, has found himself on the receiving end of a big opportunity: Top artificial-intelligence companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others desperate to win his business are ramping up discounts.

Across Silicon Valley, startup founders like Ibarra are enjoying a wave of computing credits and fielding competing offers from AI-model makers racing to land new enterprise customers. Cursor, the AI-coding company bought by Elon Musk's SpaceX, offered a 75% discount through July 5.

"If I'm choosing between a really cheap Chinese model that I actually have to pay for, and a very expensive Anthropic model that I don't have to pay for, I'm going to pick the Anthropic model," Acker said. "I'm always going to pick the one for which I have free credits."

Meanwhile, back in the real world of costs, AI Costs More Than The People It Replaced (forbes.com)(via Tom D.)

It turns out that experienced human workers doing the work right in the first place is cheaper than having AI run a probability distribution process that needs vetting and corrections. And remember, AI isn't actually "intelligent," it's just a probability distribution using natural language.

As management guru Peter Drucker observed, enterprises don't have profits, they have costs. Purveyors of AI platforms and tools have costs, and so do their customers. Those costs are currently being funded by investors, who are in effect subsidizing the AI companies' "free" giveaways of horrendously costly "tokens" in a manic, desperate attempt to grab the brass ring of network effect dominance before their cash runs out.

This raises a question: Is this any way to run a railroad? In other words, is this actually a viable business model, burning billions of dollars in cash to lock in network effect dominance in a field that is rapidly obsoleting every iteration of an innately limited mode of computation? Is claiming that a probability distribution is "intelligent" in the same way humans are intelligent a viable business model when there is ample evidence this simply isn't true?

AI and human intelligence are drastically different--here's how (scientificamerican.com)

What happens when enterprises have to pay the unsubsidized costs of AI is they immediately curtail their AI spending because the customer-facing / financial benefits of AI are at best elusive and often negative. Peter Drucker was onto something that is currently being lost in the PR-propaganda push of those trying to cash in on the AI euphoria: enterprises don't have profits, they have costs, and the real-world costs of AI are extraordinarily high while the payoffs are ambiguous.

There are many other hidden subsidies within the AI machinery. There are corporate tax write-off subsidies, energy subsidies, tax credit subsidies for building data centers, and so on. If these were stripped out, what would the real unsubsidized costs of AI be? No one knows, but they would be higher than what's presented as the cost now.

Then there's the if it's legal, it's moral, and what's legal is for sale subsidy: AI is built on the systemic theft of copyrighted content. Last month alone, AI scrapers gorged on 246,000 pages from my Of Two Minds server, and hundreds of thousands of pages of my copyrighted works on my mirror site and other sites posting my work.

This is legal, but is it moral? Nobody asks such questions because the important thing is to avoid saddling AI users with the real costs. So if all those content creators get nothing--in effect, subsidizing both AI companies and the users of their AI platforms and tools--well, so what, because if it's legal, it's moral, and what's legal is for sale.

Well that's just peachy, but let's do a thought experiment where every creator of copyrighted work got paid for supplying AI with its database, and every user of AI had to pay us content creators. How about a penny a page / image / sound clip? so 246,000 pages per month (again, only a fraction of the total volume of my work that was scraped by AI companies for their "free" use in a single month) would be $2,460 a month paid to me by AI users benefiting directly from my copyrighted work. Wouldn't that be fair, i.e. moral?

Recall that US copyright law is explicit: all creative content is copyrighted upon completion, period.

How many current users of AI are willing to pay the full unsubsidized costs for their use of AI? We can safely say far fewer than are using the tools for "free" due to subsidies both direct and indirect.

Let's pull all this into an undeniable conclusion: AI is based on massively subsidizing users' costs. Once those subsidies end, what's left are costs, not profits. Play that any way you like, but massive subsidies are not sustainable, though they generate a temporary illusion of viability that can be exploited by those selling a fantasy of future profitability to credulous investors and enterprises.

Left unsaid is a lot of money is being gambled on the illusion that subsidies are sustainable. They're not. Enterprises don't have profits, they have costs.

*  *  *

My book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free)Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.comSubscribe to my Substack for free

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 12:50

Key Revelations From 4th Batch Of Pentagon UFO Files

Key Revelations From 4th Batch Of Pentagon UFO Files

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

The Pentagon released its fourth new batch of UFO files on July 10, including a transcript from a conference that included scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.

This release of information on UFOs, which the government refers to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), has a total of 40 files, including 19 videos, 14 documents, four audio clips, and three images.

The mix of partially unredacted files and historical documents is sourced from multiple agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, NASA, and the Department of Energy.

The Pentagon said it is not the last release of UFO files in relation to President Donald Trump’s executive order, according to a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

High-Speed ‘Rectangle’

In one report, five U.S. military-affiliated personnel witnessed a strange object over the eastern United States in 2019.

“I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing [REDACTED] for the [Army] and Navy. A small object was below us and appeared to be traveling in a straight line opposite our direction at high speed,” the observer wrote.

“I tracked it for ~10-15 seconds before we turned on the recorder to provide the attached video. When I zoomed in to try and achieve more resolution, the object’s speed took [it] out of my [field of view] and I was unable to reacquire, even at a lower zoom.”

The military service member said the object “appeared to be rectangular,” and said others “with equal or more experience” were also unable to identify it.

In the 20-second video, the object is tracking quickly to the left of the screen before it zooms out of view.

The report came from a “range fouler debrief,” which is a “standardized reporting form the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training,” according to the Pentagon.

Balloon Over the Atlantic?

Another range fouler debrief described a sighting over the Atlantic in 2020 of what an observer suggested could have been an unidentified balloon.

The heavily redacted report stated that the object “traveled with the wind, the closer we came to it,” and that it was difficult to ascertain which direction it was heading, but it was “generally” moving south without any “maneuvers or change in direction.”

“The object itself was a darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15ft in height. Structurally, it appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon, but we were unable to verify that as we passed at the merge,” the observer wrote.

The strange object slowly comes into focus in the 32-second video, which was captured by a U.S. military infrared sensor, before the footage abruptly cuts off.

Manhattan Project Scientists  

One of the historical documents included in the Pentagon’s fourth batch of UFO files is a transcript of a conference at the-then Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1949.

Now known as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the facility was hosting leading scientists and physicists at the time, including many who had worked on the Manhattan Project.

After unknown “green fireballs” had been observed for several months near the laboratory, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission convened the conference to determine their origin and explain the phenomenon.

The panel failed to reach a consensus to explain the “green fireballs,” with one hypothesis suggesting they could be meteors entering the atmosphere at a “shallow” angle and altitude.

Lincoln LaPaz, an expert specializing in meteorics at the time and one of the key witnesses, said “95 percent of the observations indicate a very nearly horizontal path” of the objects, which he estimated were moving “between 3 miles per second and 12 miles per second.”

That would equal roughly 10,800 to 43,200 miles per hour, within the range of speed for a meteor.

However, after running calculations based on the objects’ estimated light, speed, and kinetic energy, Edward Teller suggested that if they were not characteristic of a “material body,” they “might be an electron phenomenon.”

LaPaz replied, “You see why I’m puzzled, Dr. Teller.”

“Nothing like this, to my knowledge, has ever been observed in the case of meteorite drops,” he added.

At the conclusion of the meeting, another scientist said, “The puzzling thing is the long horizontal path; also, absence of noise is puzzling.”

When meteors fall through the atmosphere, their high speed creates a sonic boom, along with other noises, sometimes a crackling or “whooshing” sound.

‘Six-Pointed Star’ Near China

A 12-second infrared sensor video came from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command last year, showing “an area of contrast resembling a six-pointed star” that remains in the center of the screen.

The Pentagon said the video was taken near China over the Yellow Sea.

The area of contrast looks similar to the “eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length” that was submitted by U.S. Central Command in 2013, and featured in the Pentagon’s initial batch of UFO files released in early May.

Another video taken in 2025, this time over the East China Sea, shows what appears to be an object tracking across the sky for nearly five minutes.

What is seemingly multiple areas of contrast moving in formation across the sky, at times appearing like a curved line similar to a massive, fast-moving flock of birds, was shown in a video taken over the South China Sea in 2024.

Intrusion Near Nuclear Facility

The Energy Department included a file detailing a UFO sighting in the airspace over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas, in 2015.

Two officers reported seeing the object at 7 a.m. local time flying northward “in a non-threatening manner” at roughly 10 to 15 miles per hour.

As the facility was placed on lockdown, the officers continued tracking the object and, through binoculars, reported that it looked to be approximately four feet tall and two feet wide at the bottom.

“They noted that the object did not make any sound. Furthermore, the [lieutenant and security police officer] stated that they were unable to identify any type of propulsion system on the object while using binoculars to assess the object. After viewing it for 1-2 minutes, the object then continued north offsite,” the report states.

Observers were split on the object’s color, with some reporting it looked black, while others said it “appeared to be silver, red, and blue.”

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

Was SK Hynix's US Debut The AI Bubble Top? BNP Says It's Still 1998

Was SK Hynix's US Debut The AI Bubble Top? BNP Says It's Still 1998

With SK Hynix's American depositary receipts now trading under the temporary ticker SKHYV as of late Friday morning, the seven-times-oversubscribed offering highlights Wall Street's rush for more direct exposure to high-bandwidth memory amid the AI infrastructure boom.

Against the backdrop of mounting concerns about an AI infrastructure bubble, Roth Capital Partners' sales trading team asked clients earlier Friday: "How will investors, looking back two years from now, view the timing and significance of SK Hynix's US offering?"

Taking a look at the GS TMT Memory Exposed Index (GSTMTMEM Index), Goldman Sachs' thematic basket tracking companies with high exposure to the memory chip cycle, the trade appears to have peaked in mid-June.

Zooming in on the recent price action in the GSTMTMEM Index:

That rollover has since spread into the broader South Korean market, with the Kospi entering a bear market this week as the memory stock euphoria begins to fade.

Adding to the AI bubble doomerism camp is UBS' proprietary Market Fragility Index, an internal risk gauge measuring how vulnerable markets are to a sharp reversal or volatility shock, which currently prints at an eye-popping high.

But not everyone on Wall Street is pessimistic, and analysts at BNP Paribas say the AI boom increasingly resembles the late 1990s.

João Torres, a European credit strategist at BNP Paribas based at the bank's Portugal branch, penned a note on Friday with a title that suggests the AI bubble has more room to inflate: "The Bubble Playbook: It's still 1998."

"Technological progress can create industrial bubbles. Chart 2: Equity IPOs following late 90s path, led by Tech We analysed the extent to which the AI buildout is evolving in line with previous industrial bubbles. The late 1990s provide a fitting playbook. In our view, AI has similarities of an industrial bubble but is not yet extreme," Torres wrote in the note.

The BNPP Bubble Indicator currently stands around the 84th percentile, driven by elevated animal spirits, valuations and earnings expectations. At that level, near-term stock returns could be positive, but historical patterns suggest softer performance over six to 12 months if the indicator moves to the 85th percentile level.

Torres put together a compelling chartpack that suggests today's environment is more like the late 1990s:

Chart 1: Technological breakthroughs can lead to industrial bubbles

Chart 2: Equity IPOs following late 90s path, led by Tech

Chart 3: Spreads tend to widen when balance sheets deteriorate

Chart 4: Supply in late 90s – from K-shaped to a crowding-in effect

Chart 5: Expectations are rising faster just as they did in the late 90s

Chart 6: Great Expectations – a new paradigm ahead

Chart 7: $ HY Risk Premium – low but not extreme

Chart 8: Credit Conditions are not restrictive yet

Chart 9: The Fed could resume rate hikes, as in the late 90s

Chart 10: BNPP Bubble Indicator is currently at the 84th percentile

Chart 11: Closest template is the dotcom bubble

Chart 12: Overweight $ IG Banks vs. $ IG Corporates

Chart 13: € IG TMT: Reverse Yankees are trading wide vs. Domestic

Professional subscribers can read more on memory and KOSPI at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

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

Muhammad Tops Baby Boys' Names In England And Wales For Third Straight Year

Muhammad Tops Baby Boys' Names In England And Wales For Third Straight Year

Official Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released today shows Muhammad - including variant spellings - has once again claimed the top spot as the most popular name for newborn boys in England and Wales.

This marks the third consecutive year Muhammad has led the boys' chart, continuing a trend that has drawn significant public attention and debate about demographic changes.

The ONS figures for 2025 births confirm Muhammad's dominant position. In previous years, when spellings are combined, it has frequently outranked traditional English names like Oliver and Noah.

Commentators have linked the sustained popularity to the UK's growing Muslim population, which now makes up a significant and increasing share of births in many areas.

Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe responded strongly to the news, posting: “Muhammad has comfortably topped the list for the most popular boy name for the third year running. You can call me Islamophobic, I really don’t care… This is awful and demonstrates the rapidly changing demographics of our country.”

Lowe, who recently chaired an independent Rape Gang Inquiry Report, has highlighted concerns about integration, cultural shifts, and failures in addressing grooming gangs. His report estimates that at least 250,000 young, mostly white British girls have been victims of systematic abuse by predominantly Pakistani Muslim grooming networks over decades, with institutional cover-ups exacerbating the crisis.

The report and Lowe's comments tie into broader discussions about rapid demographic transformation, with critics arguing that names like Muhammad's dominance reflect communities that have not fully integrated and, in some cases, parallel issues seen in grooming gang scandals where perpetrators often shared similar names and backgrounds.

Broader Implications

While many celebrate Britain's multiculturalism, others like Lowe warn of parallel societies and strain on social cohesion. The baby name data is often cited alongside grooming gang reports as evidence of deeper cultural challenges.

Full ONS rankings for 2025 are expected to provide more context on rising and falling names across both genders.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 09:55

Small Business Chapter 11 Filings Increase 50% Year Over Year

Small Business Chapter 11 Filings Increase 50% Year Over Year

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Small business Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings jumped 50 percent in the first half of 2026 from the same period last year, signaling pressure on business owners.

Chapter 11 is a type of bankruptcy filing that reorganizes a company’s debt to keep it afloat and allow the entity to become solvent. Subchapter V of Chapter 11 relates to small business filings. In the first half of this year, a total of 1,663 Subchapter V bankruptcy filings were made, up from 1,107 filings in the first half of 2025, the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) said in a July 8 statement.

Overall commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings also increased, with 4,589 filings in the first half, up by 28 percent annually.

“The increase in bankruptcy filings over the past year, particularly among small businesses, reflects ongoing financial pressures facing households and employers,” ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss said in a statement.

“Higher borrowing costs, increasing expenses, and geopolitical volatility are leading more debtors to turn to the bankruptcy system to restructure obligations and pursue a financial fresh start.”

Optimistic sentiment among small businesses has dipped. In a June 9 statement, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said that its Small Business Optimism Index declined in May. The index is based on surveys of NFIB members.

Eighteen percent of respondents cited inflation as the single most important business problem they face, the highest level since December 2024.

A net 36 percent of respondents in the survey raised their average selling prices, the highest since March 2023. A net 34 percent said they planned to raise prices.

The NFIB had called on Congress to advance small business priorities this year, according to a Jan. 6 statement from the organization.

Top priorities include lowering healthcare costs for small business owners, reducing fuel and electricity costs, passing regulatory reforms, minimizing labor mandates, and granting the right to repair cars, smartphones, and tractors.

2025 was an eventful year for small businesses, highlighted by the permanent extension of the 20 percent Small Business Deduction, which stopped a massive tax hike on more than 33 million small business owners nationwide,” NFIB Senior Vice President for Advocacy Adam Temple said in a statement.

A tax relief provision that allowed small businesses to deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income was set to expire after 2025, but was made permanent under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last year.

Congress should now “pass legislation that will allow the small business economy to flourish and make life more affordable for consumers,” Temple added.

Supporting Small Businesses

In May, the Small Business Administration announced a new $50 million grant to support the Made in America manufacturing initiative.

The fund aims to ensure small domestic manufacturers receive the necessary technical assistance and training.

During March 30 remarks at a business conference, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act led to a reduction in taxes for roughly 12 million small business owners by almost $7,000 on average.

President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

“Across the country, households and businesses are already seeing the benefits of this legislation, with millions of Americans keeping more of what they earn and watching their paychecks go further,” Bessent said at the time.

The unemployment situation has also improved, with fewer Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 4 than in the previous week. At 215,000 claims, the figure was also below economists’ expectations of 218,000 claims.

This was a reversal from a rising trend over the previous two months, which economists attribute to the trend of non-teaching staff from educational institutions applying for unemployment benefits during the summer holiday.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for maintaining the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) deal in a June 29 statement, citing benefits for American businesses.

The Chamber said that more than 13 million U.S. jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, energy, and service sectors are dependent on North American trade.

Streamlined trade facilitation measures and preferential treatment enabled by the USMCA allowed small businesses to compete in international markets, the Chamber said.

On July 1, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that the United States opted not to renew the USMCA deal in its current form.

Washington will discuss with partners to “address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries,” he said. The deal has not been canceled and remains in force pending the resolution of disagreements or until it expires.

Lawmakers have criticized USMCA for offshoring manufacturing jobs from the United States and causing a depression in domestic wages.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 09:20

Cuba Plunges Into Second Island-Wide Blackout As Communist System Unravels

Cuba Plunges Into Second Island-Wide Blackout As Communist System Unravels

Cuba suffered its second nationwide blackout in a matter of days late Friday, another sign that the communist-controlled island is sliding deeper into economic collapse amid tightening US sanctions and renewed pressure from the Trump administration.

Havana blames US "gunboat diplomacy" and the financial sanctions for its economic demise, but the roots of the crisis are decades of communist rule, chronic underinvestment, widespread economic mismanagement and a crumbling power grid.

Yet America's Democratic Party is increasingly embracing socialism and communist ideology, a deeply misguided political messaging campaign at a time when Cuba is offering a real-world case study in how such systems repeatedly fail, leaving economic ruin, institutional decay and human suffering in their aftermath.

The latest islandwide blackout came as four US lawmakers urged the Trump administration to sanction Cuba's state-run overseas medical-services operator, arguing it exploits healthcare workers and generates revenue for the communist regime.

As we've described, the Feds are in the process of dismantling the command and control structure of a Cuba/China foreign subversion network with alleged links to left-wing NGOs and Democratic Party socialists:

Even top Democrats are calling for investigations:

Back to the blackout. Just before the first nationwide outage earlier this week, Raúl Castro's grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, told USA Today that he was prepared to negotiate with President Trump.

The timing is notable. The Trump administration is intensifying pressure on Havana as Cuba's communist regime continues to implode, and at some point, will eventually force the regime toward market reforms and a greater role for capitalism.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 08:45

Leftists Celebrate Murder Of Conservative British Politician

Leftists Celebrate Murder Of Conservative British Politician

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The savage killing of 78-year-old Reform UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe has unleashed a torrent of vile celebration from left-wing activists, revealing the depths of ideological hatred among the left in the UK.

Widdecombe, the outspoken former Conservative MP and prisons minister, was found dead with serious injuries at her Dartmoor home, prompting an immediate murder investigation by Devon and Cornwall Police.

Police keenly informed the public that a 26-year-old white British man has been arrested on suspicion of the crime. The incident is not being treated as terrorism, but the public reaction - particularly from leftist corners - has shocked many and exposed a chilling tolerance for violence against political opponents.

Detective Chief Inspector Ilona Rosson emphasized the tragedy: "This is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this difficult time. Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace." The force urged against speculation while deploying resources for house-to-house inquiries.

What followed was a mask-off moment. Rather than universal condemnation, platforms like Bluesky - often touted as a "kinder" alternative - filled with jubilation, with users openly celebrating the death of the elderly conservative.

The stream of derogatory and celebratory posts include accusations that Widdecombe was a "racist old bitch" and a comment that "Science produced an answer to Ann Widdecombe," referencing her past comments on gender ideology.

Users shared cartoons, GIFs, and barbs that treat her violent end as punchline or progress.

Widdecombe served as MP for Maidstone for many years and held roles including Minister of State for Prisons and Shadow Home Secretary. A staunch Eurosceptic, she backed Brexit and later joined Reform UK. Her socially conservative views - opposition to abortion, support for traditional marriage, and criticism of leftist policies - made her a lightning rod. Yet she commanded respect for consistency and wit, appearing on entertainment shows while maintaining principles.

Leftist celebrations aren't anomalies; they stem from years of framing conservatives as villains. Terms like "bigot" or "racist" dehumanize, paving the way for glee at misfortune. This echoes reactions to other figures, revealing a worldview where ideological purity trumps basic humanity. Platforms shielding such content while censoring dissent exacerbate division.

Critics rightly note two-tier dynamics. Emphasis on the suspect's description here contrasts with vagueness elsewhere, fueling skepticism. Broader failures - open borders straining cohesion, cultural erosion, elite dismissal of native concerns - create fertile ground for extremism. Widdecombe warned against these trends. Her death amplifies those warnings.

Reform UK figures now face heightened risks. Leader Nigel Farage's security needs underscore the stakes. Media and activist demonization of "the right" as fascistic contributes to a climate where violence seems justifiable to some.

Widdecombe's passing, tragic as it is, spotlights the stakes. A principled voice silenced violently amid cheers reveals civilizational fragility. Defenders of freedom - pro-sovereignty, anti-woke, pro-debate - must push back. The alternative is descent into the very barbarism celebrated by the unhinged.

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

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/11/2026 - 08:10

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