“If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
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Site: Zero HedgeSteel Stocks Slide After US Nears Deal With Mexico To Cut Steel Duties, Cap ImportsTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 17:09
After weeks of quiet, Trump's trade deals are starting to take shape: first it is the ongoing negotiations with China which are "going well", then we learned that an interim deal with India was largely completed, and now Bloomberg reports that in the third positive trade news of the day, the US and Mexico are closing in on a deal that would remove cut steel duties - including Trump’s 50% tariffs on steel imports up to a certain volume - in a revamp of a similar deal between the trade partners during his first term.
The talks are being led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and since Trump hasn’t been directly involved in the negotiations he would need to sign off on any deal.
While the agreement hasn’t been finalized, under the current terms it would allow US buyers to import Mexican steel duty-free as long as they kept total shipments below a level based on historical trade volumes. The new cap would be higher than what was allowed under a similar deal during Trump’s first term, Bloomberg sources reported, which was never a fixed figure but designed to “prevent surges.”
Following the Bloomberg report, US steel stocks moved lower: Cleveland-Cliffs dropped more than 7%, and Nucor fell more than 4%. The Mexican peso trimmed losses.
At an event on Tuesday, Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he told US officials in meetings last week that steel tariffs are not justified in Mexico’s case because the US sends more steel to Mexico than vice versa. Last Friday, he posted a picture that showed him shaking hands with a smiling Lutnick in Washington.
“We are waiting for their response, because on Friday we gave them the details of Mexico’s argument and we are right,” Ebrard told reporters Tuesday. “So we are going to wait for their response which will probably be this very week.”
Last week Trump announced he would double steel duties to 50% after saying he would approve the purchase of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, a move he said would protect the domestic industry and national security. While domestic steelmakers welcome the move, end-users have urged the administration to ease the tariffs.
The negotiations come as Sheinbaum seeks an accommodation with Trump over immigration and drug trafficking across their shared border, which the US leader has demanded Mexico halt. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Sheinbaum Tuesday of “encouraging” more anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, where the US has deployed troops. Sheinbaum has called Noem’s claim “absolutely false.”
The talks also come ahead of a Group of Seven leaders summit in Canada, where the two presidents are likely to meet.
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Site: LifeNews
The Montana Supreme Court on Monday struck down three pro-life laws passed in 2021, upholding District Court Judge Kurt Krueger’s 2024 decision that concluded the laws violated the state’s right to privacy.
“The laws have been on hold since 2021 after a preliminary injunction was granted in Planned Parenthood’s favor,” John Riley reported.
According to the Attorney General’s office, here are the three commonsense laws struck down:
HB 136 prohibited abortion in the case of babies who can feel pain, generally defined as a baby 20 or more weeks old.
HB 140 required that a pregnant woman be afforded the opportunity to view an active ultrasound and listen to a baby’s heartbeat before undergoing an abortion.
HB 171 established a protocol for the prescription of abortion-inducing drugs to protect the health and welfare of mothers, requiring in-person visits for prescribing and dispensing of chemical abortion drugs.
REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.
The Montana Attorney General’s office and Gov. Gianforte blasted the decision, written by Justice Beth Baker. “This isn’t surprising. It’s another rubber stamp for Planned Parenthood from their allies on the Montana Supreme Court” said Emilee Cantrell, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice. “And as the dissenting opinion correctly points out, ‘the State’s vital role in protecting and preserving human life,’ was ignored.”
Gov. Gianforte hammered the justices for striking down the three laws that were aimed at protecting the life, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies,
“Activist justices on the Montana Supreme Court continued their series of attacks on commonsense measures to protect the life, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies. Clinging to a shaky, outdated ruling and failing to account for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions, these activist justices aren’t interpreting the law. They’re overreaching, making law from the bench and rejecting the will of Montanans’ duly-elected representatives who make laws.
“These activist justices rejected modern medicine and are instead clinging to medical care available more than 50 years ago. Ultimately, they have failed the lives, health, and welfare of mothers and their babies, and they should be ashamed.
Gov. Gianforte concluded
“As a pro-life governor, I believe all life is precious and must be protected. I will continue to defend the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves. I’ll also pray for changed hearts as we work to bring nabout a culture of life for every Montanan, born and unborn.”
In her 69 page decision, Justice Baker “cited the Montana Supreme Court’s 1999 ruling, commonly known as the Armstrong decision, which stated that the state constitution’s right to privacy protected access to abortion before a fetus is viable,” Riley reported.
Wrote Justice Baker, “Armstrong thus explicitly and unequivocally acknowledged that the right of individual privacy—encompassing the right to personal and procreative autonomy—is protected separately under Montana’s right to privacy, a broader provision independent of federal law.”
Gov. Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Austin Knudsen “have argued the Armstrong case was wrongly decided, and the state again made that argument in this case,” according to Riley.
In January 2022, Knudsen told the state Supreme Court that “All three laws unquestionably enhance the health and safety of Montana women. And they represent basic regulations of the practice of medicine—bread-and-butter exercises of (state government).” He added that the reasoning in Armstrong
is a deeply flawed tribute to unrestrained judicial activism. Nowhere in Montana’s constitutional text is there a right to elective abortion. Instead, the framers intentionally excluded abortion from the Constitution and left to the Legislature the prerogative to permit, prohibit, or regulate it.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
The post Montana Supreme Court Strikes Down 3 Pro-Life Laws, Claims Unlimited Right to Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusHere is another wonderful discovery from the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, an illuminated psalter from the beginning of the 13th century. (Département des manuscrits. NAL 1392) The manuscript begins with 13 pages of images of the life of Christ, each within a circular medallion, two per page, enclosed in a rectangular decorative border; these cover all the major feasts of Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Zero HedgeViral Footage Appears To Show Waymo Vehicles Fleeing Los Angeles After RiotsTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 17:00
Law-abiding Americans watched in disbelief as Marxist-aligned NGOs sparked chaos in downtown Los Angeles. Riots and looting raged overnight and entered the fourth day, with videos flooding X showing individuals—possibly illegal aliens, migrants, or even U.S. citizens—waving Mexican flags as they torched Waymo Jaguars.
Waymo confirmed to CNBC on Monday that five of its vehicles were set on fire in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, prompting the company to suspend service across the metro area.
Got this the other side of the Waymo fires pic.twitter.com/HVOXKZtI3V
— Los Angeles Alerts (@AlertLosAngeles) June 9, 2025Multiple Waymo vehicles set ablaze here in LA pic.twitter.com/p2iVDUbEIL
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) June 9, 2025As of Tuesday, Waymo's service remained suspended due to ongoing protests, with a company representative stating that "some areas are currently inaccessible because of the protest."
"There's no specific timeframe available at the moment; I recommend checking the app periodically for updates," the company representative continued.
A viral video posted Monday evening by an X user claimed, "Waymo is moving their cars out of LA."
Waymo is moving their cars out of LA pic.twitter.com/lkpANPwmjx
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) June 9, 2025Viral images of Mexican flag-waving rioters torching vehicles and looting are spreading globally. The Democratic Party's color revolution against Trump is now fueling chaos in the streets of Los Angeles — and the optics are disastrous for Democrats, as it only strengthens Trump's case for a mass deportation mandate of criminal illegal aliens.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogI unbox – open the package – of the newly reprinted Pre-55 Missal from the Benedictines of Norcia which just arrived. The monks forewarned that they don’t have many at the time I made this video. They will eventually have … Read More →
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Site: Zero HedgeRogue NGOs Prepare For Nationwide Color Revolution; Walmart Heiress Calls For "Mobilization"Tyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 16:40
A network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with known affiliations to Marxist-aligned political ideologies initiated coordinated protest activity across Los Angeles last Friday. Almost immediately, these protests escalated into widespread unrest, including acts of vandalism, arson, and looting, consistent with patterns observed in previous color revolution-style mobilizations by the Democratic Party.
In response, President Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard units and Marines to secure high-risk areas and prevent further civil unrest, with looting and chaos continuing in the overnight hours...
Apple store in LA looted last night.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2025
But don’t worry, Gavin Newsom has it under control and the media say it’s totally peaceful.pic.twitter.com/oarl25BmxJThey're protesting ICE by looting Adidas pic.twitter.com/vjViwA9cmD
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 10, 2025There is reason to believe that an early staging of a coordinated national mobilization effort is underway to unleash a color revolution across cities, similar to BLM-style protests that morphed into riots in 2020, spearheaded by a group identifying itself as "No Kings." This organization appears to function as a front entity for broader far-left networks, with affiliated support from established rogue leftist NGOs, including Indivisible, a Soros-funded nonprofit previously linked to a failed color revolution targeting Elon Musk's Tesla earlier this year.
Leftist news outlet Common Dreams stated that Indivisible's Leah Greenberg is one of the leading groups behind the "No Kings" movement.
This weekend's planned protest is receiving organizational backing—or, at the very least, logistical support—from nearly 200 groups, including a wide range of NGOs (get ready for the bussing of professional protesters to cities near you).
Here's a partial list of those groups...
Notably, the timing coincides with June 14, a symbolic convergence of Flag Day, President Trump's birthday, a military parade in Washington, DC, and the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, suggesting deliberate political signaling behind the mobilization effort.
Map: Nationwide Mobilization Effort
FBI Director Kash Patel told media outlet Just the News, "The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots."
Patel might want to take a look at the funding Billionaire Walton Family Heir Christy Walton (one of the heirs to Walmart) could be involved in; the 50501 movement, the leftist group also partnered with No Kings, re-posted Walton's protest mobilization ad in the New York Times.
"Who had Christy Walton, Walmart Heiress, on your Bingo Card paying for ads in The New York Times to promote: "No Kings", June 14, Nationwide Protests? Anyone?!?" 50501 movement wrote on Facebook.
Hey @Walmart why are the Walton’s funding these riots? https://t.co/wLOjjacv7z
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) June 10, 2025Riots and chaos in Los Angeles are creating terrible optics for the Democratic Party. The NGOs' deployment of migrants and radical leftists as frontline actors—some of whom are burning vehicles, looting, and causing chaos while waving foreign flags—has strongly reinforced President Trump's mandate from the American people regarding the urgent need to deport criminal illegal aliens.
They are demanding to stay in a country that they have no respect for pic.twitter.com/b8NE6U4d3N
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) June 9, 2025"The protests the Left is calling "No Kings" for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as "the Left's Anti American Flag Day protests." That's what they are," author and commentator James Lindsay wrote on X.
The protests the Left is calling "No Kings" for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as "the Left's Anti American Flag Day protests." That's what they are.
— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) June 10, 2025All in all, early indications suggest staging efforts nationwide are underway with the Democratic Party's color revolution operation against Trump, supported and funded by rogue NGOs, in an effort to shift public opinion polls. Democrats are using the same playbook from their 2020 BLM riots.
There is growing public awareness of the Democratic Party's deployment of dark NGO networks to orchestrate domestic unrest through tactics resembling the 2020 BLM riots. The ongoing unrest that could potentially spread nationwide by the weekend is best characterized as a hybrid war—cultural and informational against the sitting president of the U.S.
The central unresolved question remains: To what extent are these leftist NGO-linked operations influenced or financed by foreign actors?
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Site: Zero HedgeWe Are Being Amused & Abused To DeathTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 16:20
Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
“But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” – Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.” – Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
I find myself ruminating about whether there is anything myself or any other average Joe can do to make a difference in this world, controlled by psychopaths, satanists, egomaniacal billionaires, corrupt evil politicians, a cabal of greedy financiers, neocon warmongering globalists, and the propaganda entertainment complex. When a complex entity becomes too large, it becomes inefficient, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncontrollable.
The corruption, waste, and purposeful use of governmental power to enrich politicians and their billionaire benefactors, to the detriment of the country and the average citizen, has grown to an incomprehensible and uncontainable level. Whether DOGE was a legitimate undertaking by Musk and his tech geniuses to cut wasteful spending and uncover fraud, or nothing more than a PR stunt designed to keep the MAGA army satiated with the appearance of making America great again, it appears to have sunk into the swamps of DC, foiled by the uni-party once again.
But the show must go on, and this past week’s episode of “As the Empire Crumbles” was certainly entertaining, with the most powerful politician in the world hurling insults at the richest man in the world, who responded by accusing the president of pedophilia, while calling for his impeachment and the creation of a new political party. The MAGA acolytes were flabbergasted, as their two heroes, who were going to usher in a new golden era, came to blows and have irreconcilably broken up. Who could have predicted that the two biggest egos on the planet would ultimately clash and dissolve their partnership? Many of the twitterati were convinced it was just more 4D chess, just as they believed the Q bullshit during Trump’s first term.
The world was captivated and enthralled by this trivial social media war, while NATO/Ukraine desperately attempted to initiate WW3 with their attacks on Russian airbases, the Crimean bridge, and Russian passenger trains. Thousands of tweets and hundreds of articles have been written about this Trump/Musk bickerfest, while the world is imploding and we are accelerating headlong towards a global war, initiated by the three stooges running France, U.K. and Germany, and cheered on by the likes of Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo.
Trump’s campaign trail promise to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours has proven to be nothing more than his predictable bloviating bullshit. It has become clear he has absolutely no sway over the EU warmongers, or his own Deep State CIA operatives carrying out the attacks on Russia, as his weak and ineffectual efforts to end the conflict start to diminish his presidency from the outset.
The Gaza genocide continues, with American financial and military support, even though Trump promised to end that conflict. Iran continues to resist efforts to stop its nuclear enrichment program. China pretends to be negotiating with Trump on tariffs but is content letting the Soros installed leftist judges across the country place roadblock after roadblock in the way of Trump’s tariff, deportation, and governmental downsizing agenda. Foreign leaders know they can wait out all of Trump’s threats by just slow walking negotiations and hoping the Republicans lose the House in 2026.
China is biding its time until they believe America is sufficiently preoccupied with its own domestic turmoil and its Ukraine quagmire, and they will initiate their inevitable Taiwan takeover. The United States has not won a war in 80 years and is in no position to wage war in Europe and Asia simultaneously. Trump professes to be for peace, but the Deep State actors controlling the government and the globalist billionaires pulling the strings will force him into WW3. That is how Fourth Turnings roll.
With the intense opposition to the Big Beautiful Bill from Musk and key Republicans in the Senate, the next few months could get messy on the fiscal front. Musk is entirely correct, calling the BBB a massive, outrageous, pork-filled disgusting abomination of congressional pork. When the mind numbingly stupid media outlets declare it will add $3 trillion to the national debt over ten years, that means $3 trillion more than the $21 trillion of additional debt already projected. And this assumes no recessions, no financial crisis, no wars, and no fake pandemics. They purposefully give the impression our national debt only goes up by $3 trillion over ten years.
I’m absolutely certain the average prole, distracted by their technological bread and circuses, has no clue our debt is on automatic pilot to increase by nearly 70% over the next ten years. The average person remains trapped in a false comfort zone, designed by their overlords, to keep them satiated with toxic foodstuff, propaganda disguised as entertainment, and believing going deeper and deeper into debt, buying trinkets and baubles makes them wealthy. Until that comfort zone is shattered by the bitter reality of the next financial implosion, the masses will do nothing to try and alter the disastrous course plotted by their overlords.
The GOP passage of $9.4 billion of DOGE cuts is nothing more than a PR stunt to convince the ignorant masses they are actually doing something about the deficit. The dopes making bets on Draft Kings and posting videos on Instagram have no concept about how ridiculously out of control our government has become. They add $6 billion to the national debt every single day, so their $9.4 of “cuts” will be gone in 37 hours. Our deficits are big, but they are not beautiful. Our deficit in FY24 was $1.8 trillion. Through the first 7 months of FY25 the deficit is $1.049 trillion. At the current rate of spending, the deficit will be $2.2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year.
Interest on the national debt is now the second biggest expenditure and has gone from $500 billion during Trump’s first term to $1.3 trillion today. These deficits are clearly unsustainable, and anything which is unsustainable will not be sustained. But the corrupt, captured politicians and insatiably avaricious Wall Street bankers will keep dancing until the music stops. Then they will use their next engineered financial crisis to take more of our money and further restrict our liberties and freedom. CBDCs and social credit scores anyone?
The real reason Trump and the GOP need to pass the big beautiful, bloated pig of a bill is because our Ponzi scheme economy depends upon the never-ending issuance of trillions in debt every year to give the fabricated appearance of stability. This is why the GOP applauds Musk’s low hanging fruit DOGE cost savings and ignores them in their outrageously corpulent budget bill. The truth is any actual reduction in government spending (36% of GDP) would ripple through an economy entirely dependent upon government largess and immediately create a massive recession and probable depression.
Ponzi schemes have to keep growing until they run out of suckers believing the bullshit underlying the Ponzi. This is where those controlling the levers of society (Bernays’ invisible government) utilize their limitless well of propaganda techniques, technological distractions, and mindless entertainment venues to keep the ignorant masses amused, delusional, and living in denial of the reality staring them in the face.
Since the 2008 financial crisis we have been muddling through economically at a 10,000 feet macro level, with periodic crisis episodes (housing collapse, fake pandemic) utilized by the powers that be to issue trillions more debt as the antidote to the initial crisis created by too much debt. At a micro level, the average American has seen a significant decline in their standard of living, as official government reported inflation has eroded 40% of their purchasing power, when in reality they have lost more than 60% of their purchasing power. The reality for the average American prole is debt slavery, either self-imposed to keep up with the Joneses or forced upon them to survive this globalist-imposed death by a thousand cuts economy.
Credit card debt of $1.3 trillion is at an all-time high, up $350 billion (35%) since 2020. The average balance on those credit cards is over $7,000 and the average interest rate on those unpaid balances is over 21%. Student loan debt of $1.8 trillion is at an all-time high, up $100 billion since 2020, with over 25% of these loans in default. Auto loan debt of $1.7 trillion is at an all-time high, up $350 billion (27%) since 2020. The average length of these loans is now 70 months. The borrower is underwater by the fifth year of these loans. Shockingly, credit card and auto loan delinquencies have been soaring in the last year, with credit card delinquencies above 3% for the first time since 2012, and auto loan delinquencies surpassed 8% for the first time since 2010. Does that sound like a consumer on solid ground?
In addition, the housing market is a disaster looking for a trigger. The Wall Street hedge funds (Blackrock) bought up millions of homes, driving prices 140% (Case Siller Index) higher than the 2012 low, while outstanding mortgage debt has risen from the 2012 low of $13 trillion to $21 trillion today. Prices are ridiculously high and mortgage rates of 7% make it virtually impossible for an average working stiff to buy even a small home. The market is frozen.
This is why Trump and his GOP minions must avoid a recession at all costs by continuing to rack up $2 trillion annual deficits. A recession would result in millions of layoffs, which would mean unpaid mortgages, which would mean foreclosures and slashing of home prices, which would trigger housing collapse 2.0, which would turn the recession into a depression, causing a stock market collapse. Now you know why they are desperate to pass this big, beautiful behemoth of bilge.
The Fed is in a precarious position of their own making, with all choices pointing towards disastrous outcomes. They are already sitting on over $1 trillion of unrealized bond losses, while their Wall Street owners sit on another $400 billion of unrealized bond losses. If these entities ever have to realize those losses, our entire banking system would collapse. The Fed has cut rates by 1%, but market rates went up, as their power to mislead market players diminishes.
They have reduced their balance sheet from $9 trillion to $6.7 trillion. The last time they tried to reduce their balance sheet in 2019, the repo market spasmed and they used the Covid cover to drastically print more fiat. Trump is mocking Powell and demanding interest rate cuts. Powell is pretending to be independent, but he is praying for some kind of crisis to again set the printing presses to hyper-speed. I’m sure the ruling oligarchs are hatching a new crisis to expand their wealth, power, and control, while further impoverishing and enslaving the plebs.
It is clear at least to me, we stand on the precipice of an economic conflagration capable of putting the final nail in the coffin of this empire of debt. At the same time there are unrelenting evil forces who are frantically creating the casus-belli to initiate World War III and the massive death and destruction that would produce. The simultaneous commencement of these two events would produce the type of climax expected in the waning years of a Fourth Turning, with a final resolution expected by 2032.
Most people are blissfully unaware of the imminent demise of their comfortable existence, so addicted to their techno-gadgets and mindless social media performance art, they are incapable of critical thought regarding the dystopian world they inhabit.
“People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
“If politics is like show business, then the idea is not to pursue excellence, clarity or honesty but to appear as if you are, which is another matter altogether.” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
If you ever needed proof politics is nothing but show business, it is this big, beautiful bill episode of drama, fiction, comedy, and tragedy. Excellence, clarity, and honesty have no part in this absurd psychodrama of lies, accusations, and continued downward spiral of this empire of debt. We know Huxley believed the masses could be sufficiently distracted by their own ego driven pursuits, but I don’t think even he realized how much power the technological “advances” of our times (TV based mass media, the internet, corporate/government controlled social media, Big Pharma) would be used by the ruling elite to control, manipulate, sedate, and scare the ignorant masses into voluntary subservience. Everything we are witnessing and living through is nothing more than a theater production, designed by Bernays’ invisible governing authorities to herd us towards their technological gulag, with the slaughterhouse as the other alternative.
Huxley’s 1932 dystopian vision, which he believed was more likely than Orwell’s 1949 dystopian vision of the future, and reinforced in a letter to Orwell in 1949 shortly before his death, has been the pre-dominant method used by our overlords to rule over, manipulate, and exploit the foibles of the unthinking masses. They have kept their citizens distracted with pleasures, drugged into passivity, taught to feel rather than think in government run indoctrination centers (public schools) and overloaded with so much useless trivial information, they are incapable of distinguishing between good and evil – actually believing their servitude is freedom.
While Huxley’s dystopia continues, the ruling class fears their passive mind control methods aren’t as effective in achieving their great reset agenda, and in need of some Orwellian censorship, disinformation, brute force, government intimidation, harsh mind control, and guaranteeing compliance through fear. Aren’t we lucky to be experiencing the best of both dystopian visions. Those controlling the levers of society have used the school system to create a soulless amalgamation of hedonistic mass consumers; purposeless, apathetic, with muddled brains unable to understand their unintended enslavement to the evil demons running our world and controlling their lives.
Knowing most of what we see on our screens and hear from supposed “experts”, left wing corporate media talking heads, and Fox News bimbos, is gibberish and propaganda, it is hard to distinguish real threats from clickbait, purposeful disinformation, and scare tactics designed to make you do what they want you to do. The precarious financial situation of the country is real. The danger from an AI cage built through a tech-state merger with Palantir to surveil and digitally profile everyone is real.
The threat of the Ukraine-Russia conflict morphing into WW3 is real. The desire by billionaire globalists to introduce a Great Reset, Great Taking, and CBDCs is real. The planned, funded, and executed invasion of our southern border during the Basement Dummy administration by third world dregs, with the sole intention of destroying the social fabric and finances of the country, run by the Soros/Clinton/Obama triumvirate is real.
Even with the dismantling of their USAID insurrection funding source, this week’s festivities in Los Angeles kicked off the summer of civil war. There is nothing real or spontaneous about these riots. Whenever pallets of bricks suddenly show up on streets in city centers, you know Soros and his ilk are behind the organized destruction of that particular city. The brick and bomb throwers are being paid to riot and take photo ops. This will assuredly be rolled out in our other Democrat controlled urban shitholes across the land. The governor of California and the communist mayor of Los Angeles are paid acolytes of Soros, stoking insurrection and should be arrested and thrown into the dungeons of DC, like the grandmothers and patriots who sauntered through the Capitol on January 6.
We find ourselves on the precipice of a financial, social, and military calamity, all driven by the three driving forces of this Fourth Turning: debt, civic decay, global disorder. Anyone not noticing events are intensifying, conflict is expanding, anger is building, and the world is accelerating towards that precipice at breakneck speed, is simply ignorant or their minds are so numbed by their i-gadgets and government school indoctrination, that it’s beyond their comprehension to acknowledge reality.
At this point in history, I do not believe there are enough awakened critical thinking citizens to make a difference during the waning years of this Fourth Turning. We can’t vote our way out. We likely can’t shoot our way out. We can’t buy our way out. When the majority are proud of their ignorance and believe it is superior to actual knowledge, your society is pretty much fucked.
“What is happening here is that television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. I am using this world almost in the precise sense in which it is used by spies in the CIA or KGB. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information–misplace, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information – information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing. I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
The existing financial, social and political paradigms will have to collapse and be swept away for any real change to occur. The problem is it appears that is exactly what the billionaire globalist elite are trying to trigger. In the aftermath, amidst chaos, financial ruin, civil and global war, social strife, and a political vacuum, they envision establishing an authoritarian global world order, with CBDCs, social credit scores, 15-minute cities, and Big Brother level surveillance. If this vision prevails, Orwell wins the award over Huxley for the most accurate dystopian nightmare.
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” ― Samuel Adams
“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.” – George Washington
Our only hope resides in the hubris and arrogance of the ruling class. Once the collapse is underway, its course is unpredictable and unstable. The best laid plans have a way of going awry. This could offer an opportunity for normal rational people to make their stand. If a liberty movement, backed by the 300 million firearms residing in the red states, could re-ignite the brush fires of freedom in the minds of men, maybe we could reset the course of our country. The odds probably aren’t worse than they were in 1776. At this point, all we can do is prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually for the coming storm. Buy supplies, guns and ammo. And remember what your forefathers accomplished with far less. The choice is slavery or freedom.
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Site: Henrymakow.comPlease send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comIn a world that embraces lies as long as they are big enough, and repeated often,we're supposed to forget the Trump was a pedophile. We are supposed to believethat Musk's confirmation that Trump is in the Epstein file, (why it is being withheld,)was a smear caused by a clash of egos. Now the two men can make up and go on as usual.Trump was a nasty pedophile. I doubt he is one now. He should not allow Mossad blackmail toinfluence life-and-death decisions. He should confess to his disgusting past and resolve to take the high road. Don't you think he would be forgiven?More serious is the fact that Trump (and Putin and Netanyahu) belong to Chabad, a Jewish supremacist cult that conjures up world wars to kill the goyim (defined as anyone who reject Chabad as God.) They believe that a "social catastrophe" will summon the Jewish "Messiah." Trump must denounce Chabad and its genocidal goals.Meanwhile, he could admit that Fort Knox is empty and the CIA murdered JFK. Imagine how his credibility and popularity would explode!Trump's role in history is the same as Hitler's was - to provide false Fascist opposition to Rothschild Communism.He must realize that he will be reviled as much as Hitler if he leads the US to world war.JD Vance prevaricates when asked about Trump's raping underaged girlsZionist errand boy demands Iran give up nuclear energy - it won't happen. If he wanted peace, he would ensure that Iran has nuclear weapons.Tulsi Gabbard posts "bizarre" video: 'Closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation'Gabbard used the story to suggest leaders should not provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin over his war in Ukraine."This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing now," she said. "Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and war mongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers."--The COLOR REVOLUTION MASTERMINDS Behind LA's RIOTS & the WAR ON TRUMP"Barbara Boyd uncovers the true orchestrators behind the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. Discover how these events are linked to broader geopolitical strategies stretching from Ukraine to the US, and orchestrated by Anglo-American (Rothschild) intelligence networks. Explore the deep dive into the color revolution against Trump, understand the role of British intelligence, and learn how the destabilization of America is part of a greater agenda. Get informed on what steps need to be taken to dismantle this apparatus and protect our republic."Simpsons creators shill for migrant invasion - past episode predicts social breakdown due to expelling freeloaders--How the LA Riots Fit Perfectly Into Agenda 2030's Plan-RFK Jr. Removes All Members of CDC Vaccine Advisory PanelThe health secretary says 'A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.'--Gaza: Aid Trucks Lure the Starving and then Opened Fire on Them-A MUST LISTEN: William Lyne on Red Ice Radio - Occult Science Dictatorship-China Is Deliberately Using Fentanyl to 'Kneecap' the US, FBI Director SaysChina's long-term plan is to use fentanyl to 'take out generations of young men and women' in the United States, FBI Director Kash Patel said.-IAEA an 'instrument for Israel,' secret documents seized by Iran revealIranian media says the documents show that Tehran's confidential letters to the IAEA were passed on to Israel"These documents clearly show that instead of playing a neutral role, the IAEA has become an instrument serving the objectives of the Zionist regime," Fars news agency cited an informed source as saying on 10 June.The documents prove that "Iran's official and confidential letters to the IAEA - containing sensitive information - were channeled to the espionage agencies of the Zionist regime through covert conduits," the report added.The report also notes that several top Iranian nuclear scientists ended up getting assassinated due to their names being disclosed by the IAEA."
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Site: ChurchPOP
There are two things that anyone who knows Pier Giorgio knows about Pier Giorgio: he loved God and he loved life.
What fewer people recognize about Pier Giorgio is that he also loved the late medieval poet Dante Alighieri, known primarily for his work, The Divine Comedy, which just happens to be one of the most formative works of poetry in Western civilization.
While this may not be surprising that the Italian boy was familiar with and loved the most famous Italian work of literature in the language’s history, consider that Pier Giorgio was not the greatest student in his short life and that many of his formative years were spent out of the country because of his father’s work as a diplomat.
However, once you really invest in reading and understanding Dante, especially the third portion of his Comedy, Paradiso, you will not be surprised by Pier's love for the poet and his most famous work.
The biography of Pier Giorgio’s life, A Man of the Beatitudes: Pier Giorgio Frassati, written by his sister Luciana, cites multiple examples of Pier signing (page 41), referencing (87 and 92), and celebrating Dante Alighieri (78). This is due to what Luciana describes as his “deep understanding of Dante” (46).
While one could attribute all of these to just a patriotic, well-read young man, one really should ask why Pier Giorgio continues to draw specifically from the well of Dante.
The beginning of this post made the obvious statement that Blessed Pier Giorgio loved God, loved life, and loved Dante. What is less obvious is that he loved these three things because they are all closely related.
God is the author of our individual lives and life itself.
Every good that is part of what it means to be alive is presented completely and perfectly in God. To say something is alive is to say it is more like God. When a person truly loves God, that person will love life itself even when that life involves difficulties.
Dante breathed life into everything he wrote because he often wrote about God, or things closely related to God, or tried to see God present in everything.
Pier Giorgio was famously called “a man of the beatitudes” at his beatification Mass by Pope Saint John Paul II. He made his journey on earth one of constant contact with and service for those in need wherever he was.
Fittingly, he also enjoyed the strenuous physical journey up the many mountains of Italy. Both of these elements of his life come together in Dante’s second leg of the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, which sees a pilgrim climb up a mountain of purification from sin to virtue in order to be prepared for an eventual flight amongst the stars of heaven.
Pier Giorgio, like Dante, was scaling a much greater mountain than the Alps when he was here on earth, so that when he died, he would be ready for an even greater ascent.
The beatitudes themselves, found in Matt. 5:1-12, are so-called because those who live them out are truly “blessed” from God’s perspective. They subvert conventional wisdom about who is blessed and cursed, so in order to accept the beatitudes as true, one needs to accept the Source of them, Jesus Christ.
Dante imagines the life of the blessed in heaven in his final section of the Divine Comedy, Paradiso, and it is one of movement, which means that it is full of life.
Pier Giorgio was constantly moving because he was driven to serve by his love of Jesus Christ, which he found as much in the poor as he did in the Eucharist, and his generous spirit. Because he was so filled with life, the life of God by sanctifying grace, he wanted to share that life. He did this through his love.
Pier Giorgio gave a love that Dante said, “moves the sun and other stars” (Paradiso, Canto XXXIII). Would that our lives be filled, and then be moved, by this same love.
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Site: LifeNews
The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-10 on June 10, 2025, to advance a bill to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. That’s the 1994 law Joe Biden’s administration used to put pro-life Americans in prison for peacefully protesting abortion.
The FACE law was weaponized by the Biden administration to target and imprison peaceful pro-life activists, including elderly women. The legislation, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, aims to prevent future administrations from using the law to punish pro-lifers for exercising free speech and religious freedoms outside abortion clinics.
The FACE Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, prohibits the use of force, threats, or physical obstruction to interfere with abortion businesses and pro-life pregnancy centers. However, pro-life groups argue it has been disproportionately enforced against their advocates.
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Data cited by Roy’s office shows that 97% of FACE Act prosecutions from 1994 to 2024 targeted pro-life activists, including cases against elderly women like 89-year-old Eva Edl, a wheelchair-bound Soviet concentration camp survivor convicted for praying and singing hymns outside a Michigan abortion clinic in 2020.
“This vote is a victory for the unborn and for the free speech of Americans who stand for life,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, which has championed the repeal effort. “The FACE Act was twisted into a tool to jail grandmas and peaceful protesters while ignoring attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. It’s time to end this injustice.”
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department prosecuted 55 pro-life activists in 24 cases, securing 34 convictions, according to congressional testimony.
Notable cases include Paul Vaughn, arrested by FBI agents at his Tennessee home in 2022 for a 2021 nonviolent sit-in, and Edl, who faced up to 11 years in prison for her role in a peaceful blockade.
Pro-life advocates argue these prosecutions, often paired with “conspiracy against rights” charges to inflate penalties, represent a double standard, as attacks on pro-life facilities post-Dobbs—such as vandalism and firebombings—rarely faced federal charges.
“Joe Biden’s DOJ turned the FACE Act into a weapon against everyday Americans who believe in the sanctity of life,” Roy said in a statement. “With a Republican-led Congress and President Trump’s support, we can repeal this law and protect free speech for all.”
The bill’s passage through the Judiciary Committee marks a significant step, though it faces hurdles in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has introduced companion legislation, and pro-life groups are hopeful that President Donald Trump, who pardoned 23 FACE Act convicts in January 2025, will sign the repeal if it reaches his desk. Trump’s Justice Department has already limited FACE Act enforcement to “extraordinary circumstances,” leaving most cases to state and local authorities.
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee before a potential floor vote. If passed, it would end a law that pro-life groups say has been used to silence their message and imprison their supporters, including vulnerable elderly activists.
The post House Committee Passes Bill to Repeal Law Biden Used to Put Pro-Life Grandmas in Prison appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero Hedge'Several Agencies' Spied On Foreign Musk Associates During Biden Years: ReportTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 15:40
In the final years of President Biden’s term, as Elon Musk began publicly criticizing Democrats and shifted his support to Donald Trump, multiple federal agencies launched a quiet but sweeping inquiry into Musk's foreign associates.
Francis Chung/POLITICO
The investigation, reported by the Wall Street Journal, involved the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and included briefings to officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It focused on foreign nationals — particularly from Eastern Europe and other sensitive geopolitical regions - who were seen traveling to and from Musk’s private properties in 2022 and 2023.
While the probe never led to formal charges and its current status remains unclear, it smacks of yet another politically motivated investigation, while government defenders may argue it was warranted given Musk's proximity to America’s most closely guarded government secrets. The inquiry predated Trump’s return to power in January and was allegedly prompted in part by concerns that foreign actors could attempt to sway or compromise the influential CEO.
The timing, of course, makes that assertion highly suspect.
Musk, who runs five companies including SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), has enjoyed privileged access to senior government officials and oversees ventures that contract directly with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. SpaceX, in particular, holds highly sensitive launch and satellite surveillance agreements with the Pentagon.
Trump administration officials, when asked about the prior investigation, said they had no knowledge of it. Since returning to office, the president has cracked down on foreign influence, issuing a series of executive orders restricting international travel and enrollment in American universities, and imposing new vetting requirements on political donors and campaign associates with ties abroad.
The irony, current and former officials note, is that one of Trump’s closest political allies had already been the subject of a counterintelligence review under his predecessor.
Musk’s relationship with Trump has unraveled dramatically in recent days following a public feud that erupted on social media and spilled into news conferences. Once described by insiders as the administration’s “shadow budget director,” Musk had briefly served as a special government employee tasked with streamlining federal expenditures. He was also the primary benefactor behind America PAC, a political action committee that poured more than $250 million into Trump’s reelection campaign, much of it from Musk’s own fortune.
According to the report, as Musk’s influence grew, so too did concern among his political and corporate peers about the people in his orbit.
Even as they worked together over the past few months, however, there had been signs of tension over Musk’s association with foreign nationals.
Musk traveled with foreigners to such an extent that the staff of his super PAC, which he started last year to help re-elect Trump, became concerned about who was joining him at meetings and events, two people familiar with the group’s operations said.
An official at the group, called America PAC, said they had to institute extensive vetting to keep foreigners out of their efforts. Two campaign staffers also said they were worried about Musk’s coterie of foreign nationals. -WSJ
Muh Russia...
And here we go again... the Journal of course goes into a report they broke in October - the peak of Trump-Musk campaigning before the election, that Musk had maintained direct contact with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin since late 2022, sparking internal alarm among national security officials and raising questions about the propriety of such outreach during an active conflict in Ukraine.
The Journal also claims that SpaceX attorneys advised Musk against pursuing a higher security clearance, fearing that formal disclosure of his foreign communications could either jeopardize the application or trigger its revocation.
Still, Musk remains a figure of enormous influence inside and outside government. His ventures span commercial spaceflight, artificial intelligence, transportation, and social media - sectors deeply entwined with U.S. national security and public discourse. His naturalized U.S. citizenship, obtained after emigrating from South Africa, does not exempt him from the types of scrutiny often applied to private individuals with sensitive access and overseas entanglements.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveIrene Montero, the socialist-communist government minister responsible for a law that freed a multitude of rapists, did not receive when she was in government the victims of ecclesiastical sexual abuse with whom she demonstrated yesterday.Cathcon: Along with the synodalists, someone else politically instrumentalising the abuse crisis for their own ends. The person responsible forCatholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: LifeNews
A federal investigation has concluded that Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in Texas violated federal law by failing to promptly treat Kyleigh Thurman’s life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, resulting in severe health consequences, including the loss of a fallopian tube.
Pro-life advocates argue the case highlights hospital mismanagement, not Texas’ pro-life laws, which explicitly permit treatment for ectopic pregnancies.
According to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) report, Thurman, 36, sought emergency care in 2023 for symptoms including vaginal bleeding and cramping. Despite clear signs of an ectopic pregnancy—where a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, posing a risk of rupture and death—the hospital discharged her without treatment or transfer to another facility.
Days later, after continued bleeding, she returned, but the hospital again delayed care until her fallopian tube ruptured, necessitating emergency surgery that compromised her future fertility.
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The CMS investigation found the hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) by failing to provide a proper medical screening or stabilizing treatment.
This tragedy stems from hospital failures, not pro-life protections. Blaming Texas’ abortion ban misrepresents the truth and distracts from holding hospitals accountable for neglecting women in crisis.
Thurman’s case, detailed in a complaint filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, underscores the dangers of ectopic pregnancies, which account for up to 10% of first-trimester maternal deaths nationwide. Her initial visit showed low hormone levels and a blocked fallopian tube, but staff sent her home with a miscarriage pamphlet. Only after her OB-GYN’s urgent pleas on a third visit did the hospital act, too late to prevent the rupture.
Pro-life groups argue that Texas’ abortion ban, enacted after the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, includes clear exceptions for ectopic pregnancies and other medical emergencies. They contend that fearmongering by abortion advocates has sown confusion among providers, leading to hesitation in cases where treatment is legally permitted.
Hospitals must train staff to follow the law and prioritize women’s lives. Pro-life laws protect both the mother and her unborn child, and ectopic pregnancy treatment aligns with that mission.
The CMS report noted multiple hospital deficiencies, including failure to consult an OB-GYN during Thurman’s initial screening. Ascension Seton Williamson issued a statement denying the allegations but offered no further comment.
For pro-life advocates, Thurman’s ordeal reinforces the need for accountability in healthcare, not the dismantling of laws protecting unborn life.
The post Hospital Failures, Not Abortion Ban, Caused Failure to Treat Woman’s Ectopic Pregnancy appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: Zero HedgeStaked Ethereum Hits All-Time High As ETH ETF Inflows SurgeTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 15:00
Ethereum surged to a four month high this morning, just shy of $2800 (a key resistance zone) as ETF inflows and Staking have reignited interest in the smart contracts ecosystem.
BlackRock's ETH ETF has become a major focal point in Ethereum investment, and its recent activity is nothing short of impressive. For nine straight trading days, the fund has attracted over $490 million of fresh capital - a streak that has drawn attention from investors and analysts alike.
As themerkele.com's Will Izuchukwu reports, a wider embrace of Ethereum by institutions is reflected in the inflows to Ethereum ETFs, which have notched up a 14-day winning streak— the longest streak yet in 2025.
These inflows are coming when Ethereum is returning to prominence among blockchain networks for fee generation, which is a really important indicator of network activity and demand.
CoinTelegraph's Martin Young notes that staked Ethereum has clocked a new record as the asset’s price reclaimed a 12-day high amid major institutional accumulation.
The amount of Ether staked on the Beacon Chain reached a record high of 34.65 million ETH on Sunday, eclipsing the previous high on Nov. 10, 2024.
The amount of Ether staked has been relatively stable, above 33 million for the past year. However, it started to tick up again in June, according to the network explorer Beaconcha.in.
The higher staking level indicates that more holders are not prepared to sell at current levels, preferring a yield from staking instead.
Almost 30% of supply staked
A Dune Analytics dashboard confirmed the record figure, reporting that 34.8 million ETH was staked as of Monday, while Ultrasound.Money reports 34.7 million staked.
The analytics platform also reports that the current amount staked is equivalent to 28.7% of the current circulating supply of Ether, which is 120.8 million, as issuance returned to inflationary in February.
ETF staking coming soon?
The milestone also comes as the industry anticipates the approval of spot Ether ETF staking by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Analysts have suggested that staked Ether ETFs could debut “within the next few weeks,” following a recent filing by ETF provider REX Shares that used “regulatory workarounds.”
Finally, the last few weeks have seen Ethereum significantly outperform Bitcoin...
...after bouncing off the 2019/2020 ratio low support.
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Site: AsiaNews.itRiyadh and Abu Dhabi are investing billions in artificial intelligence and data centres in a two horse race followed with attention and some fear in Washington and Beijing who are trying to boost their partnerships. Gulf states have energy and money, but still lacks qualified talents and brilliant minds. In the first quarter, Saudi GDP boomed, driven by the non-oil sector.
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Site: Zero Hedge'Invest Now Or Learn Russian Later': NATO Chief Wants 400% Increase In Europe's Air Defense Spending'Invest Now Or Learn Russian Later': NATO Chief Wants 400% Increase In Europe's Air Defense SpendingTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 14:45
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday urged the European allies to make a "quantum leap" in military spending to deter Russia, which affirms Trump's own longtime message, as the NATO chief called for a whopping 400% increase in the Continent’s air and missile defense budget.
"The fact is, we need a quantum leap in our collective defense," Rutte said before an audience of the London-based think tank Chatham House. "The fact is, we must have more forces and capabilities to implement our defense plans in full. The fact is, danger will not disappear even when the war in Ukraine ends."
The comments came days after he stated provocatively that Europe must invest heavily in defense now, or learn Russian later.
"If we don't act now, the next three years, we are fine, but we have to start now, because otherwise, from three, four or five years from now, we are really under threat," he had said. "I really mean this. Then you have to get your Russian language course out, or go to New Zealand."
NBC reviews that all of this is happening just ahead of a key NATO meeting later in June:
Trump's call for NATO allies to up their minimum defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP was once seen as outlandish; but last month Rutte too backed this idea and said he expected it to be adopted at NATO's June 24-25 summit.
On Monday he made a similarly ambitious call. He asked for a "400% increase in air and missile defense" and added that "militaries also need thousands more armored vehicles and tanks, millions more artillery shells, and we must double our enabling capabilities, such as logistics, supply, transportation, and medical support."
Canada is already seeking to demonstrate to Washington and NATO that it is taking significant strides to meet the challenge:
Canada, under pressure to spend more on its military, vowed on Monday to boost funding for the armed forces and hit NATO's 2% military spending target this fiscal year, five years earlier than promised.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also said Canada was likely in future to devote a greater percentage of GDP on defense, given the need to replace outdated equipment and reduce its heavy reliance on Washington.
Canada just committed $60 billion in defense spending to meet NATO’s 2% of GDP target.
— Marc Nixon (@MarcNixon24) June 9, 2025
That’s based on an estimated $3 trillion GDP for 2025.
New jets, vehicles, drones, and Arctic surveillance are coming — but how will we afford it with rising debt and a slowing economy? pic.twitter.com/1ee30Olw7oNATO defense ministers are further expected to soon formalize the following increase in spending policies:
- They’ve agreed that 3.5% of GDP would be used for "core defence spending" - such as heavy weapons, tanks, air defence.
- 1.5% of GDP per year will be spent on defense- and security-related areas such as infrastructure, surveillance, and cyber. However, the full list of flexibility has not yet been negotiated.
- "These targets describe exactly what capabilities Allies need to invest in over the coming years," Rutte told journalists.
Washington could step back from Ukraine support...
If #NATO allies fail to meet the defense spending target, the #US could scale back support for #Ukraine, says @TalaMichelIssa, Chief Business Reporter. #WNewsExtra pic.twitter.com/DBRqVwakAs
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) June 9, 2025This is being collectively pushed for amid heightened Cold War-style rhetoric regarding Moscow's intentions.
"The threats facing NATO are growing and our adversaries are certainly not waiting for us to re-arm or be ready for them to make the first move," Rutte has also said. "We would prefer our allies move out urgently on reaching the 5%."
Kremlin officials grab popcorn, set for more inter-NATO turmoil over the future of the alliance...
'NATO in a very deep crisis' over the 5% spending hike — Lavrov
— RT (@RT_com) June 9, 2025
'At the same time the US is switching focus to Asia-Pacific while leaving Europe to deal with its problems on its own' pic.twitter.com/Sqdz8NjwcCBut this assumes that Moscow's war in Ukraine is fundamentally expansionist in nature, and this has not been demonstrated - it is simply assumed. It remains that President Putin has shown no interest even in some kind of outright military occupation of Kiev.
So the idea that he's ready to invade Poland or anywhere else on NATO's 'Eastern flank' next is a huge assumption. Moscow has all along pointed out that it's the NATO alliance which expanded itself right up to Russia's doorstep.
Unhinged fear-mongering... engaged:
Stupendously idiotic stuff here from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. pic.twitter.com/X46yZULWNL
— Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) June 9, 2025* * *
A note from Rabobank:
It’s unclear how much chickening out there is in geopolitics. Ukrainian drones just hit another Russian military target, destroying two fighter jets, as Germany’s outgoing spy boss and NATO chief Rutte both warned Russia could launch an attack against it within five years.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the eastern flank. There is no east or west, there is just NATO,” Mr Rutte said, and the danger “will not disappear when the war in Ukraine ends.” Rutte specifically told the UK: “Spend more or learn to speak Russian.”
To help Brits appalled at the idea of learning a foreign language, and those who believe it might be better than vast state spending when fiscal deficits and public debt are sky high: “Когда мне снизят центральную банковскую процентную ставку?” (‘When do I get my rate cut?’ – that’s all that matters, right?) Even Canada is moving its Coast Guard to national defence and PM Carney will announce defence spending will be NATO’s 2% of GDP target this fiscal year - just in time for it to rise to 5% at its upcoming summit.
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Site: Zero HedgeNation's 2nd-Largest Wine And Spirits Distributor Exits California Market Over Costs, SuppliersTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 14:40
Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Wine and spirits distributor Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is leaving the California market.
RNDC cited increasing costs and changes among suppliers as one of the reasons it has decided to stop operating in the state.
“This decision follows years of increasing costs, industry headwinds, and supplier shifts that have made it difficult to operate sustainably in the state,” its leadership said in an emailed statement to its customers on June 4. “We are incredibly proud of our California team and all of their hard work over the years. Please know that our commitment to you during this transition remains unwavering.”
RNDC has lost several significant distribution partnerships in California in recent years. The company’s announcement comes just months after two major suppliers, Tito’s Vodka and Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman, departed from their California distribution relationship with RNDC in favor of its competitor, Reyes Beverage Group.
E. & J. Gallo Winery, which owns the High Noon brand, also ended its relationship with RNDC in the state in 2025, opting instead for Reyes Beverage Group.
In 2023, Sazerac ended its longtime relationship with RNDC in California. The bourbon and whiskey maker moved its brands including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, and Fireball Whisky, to the Reyes Beverage Group.
RNDC did not return a request for comment.
Other companies such as Chevron, Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, have in recent years moved their headquarters from California to states like Texas or Nevada. Unlike RNDC, which also plans to cease servicing the state, these companies continue to operate in California’s sizable economy.
RNDC joins a list of national companies—many of them insurance providers—that have fully exited the California market.
Farmers Direct Property and Casualty Insurance Company withdrew from the California homeowners insurance market in 2023. That same year, American National also announced it would stop offering homeowners insurance in the state, a move that affected more than 36,000 policies. In addition, Merastar Insurance stopped renewing homeowners and car insurance policies in California beginning in 2024.
Some other companies still operating in California have made moves to limit their operations in the state. State Farm and Allstate announced they would no longer be accepting new applications for homeowners insurance, citing rising costs and wildfire risks.
A Farmers Direct Property and Casualty Insurance spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times the company made its decision to increase efficiency and mitigate risk exposure.
Berkshire Hathaway’s AmGUARD, a division of the firm’s GUARD Insurance company, informed the California Department of Insurance in July 2023 of its plan to cancel the homeowners and personal umbrella policies it holds in the state, which followed through on two months later. AmGUARD’s notice came the same day that the small insurance firm Falls Lake Insurance submitted a letter indicating it would also be canceling policies in the state.
A 2022 report by the Hoover Institution found that 352 companies relocated from California to other states between 2018 to 2021, primarily due to the state’s high operating costs.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveScroll down for today'sSaint of the Day/ FeastReading of the MartyrologyDedication of the MonthDedication of the DayRosaryFive Wounds Rosary in LatinSeven Sorrows Rosary in EnglishLatin Monastic OfficeReading of the Rule of Saint BenedictCelebration of MassReading from the School of Jesus CrucifiedFeast of Saint BarnabasSeen here with Saint Paul contesting with pagansFrom the Golden Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: 4Christum
Gay activism in the diocese of apostate Timothy Dolan
Archdiocese New York: Apostate Parish Celebrates Homosexual March – Gloria.tv
The Apostate Parish Priest is Brian Jordan, OFM
St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Manhattan plans to celebrate its annual "United In Love Pre-Pride Festive Mass" on June 28.
This homosexual propaganda Eucharist coincides with a so-called "WorldPride" event in the city that weekend.
The Catholic parish is notorious for homosexual activism. The prelate responsible for the scandal is "conservative" Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.
Across state lines, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church is planning to celebrate its seventh annual homosexual propaganda Eucharist on the same weekend.Gay activism in the diocese of apostate Joseph TobinHoboken's apostate church, Our Lady of Grace, engages in gay activism in rebellion against God's natural law and Catholic moral doctrine, using Bergoglio's photo.Apostate and gay activist Alexander M. SantoraApostate Alexander M. Santora implemented Bergoglio's pseudo-blessing for sodomite couplesWATCH: New Jersey Gay Pride Mass Proceeds with Apostate Cardinal Tobin’s Approval
Pro-Gay Apostate Cardinal Tobin Approves Pride Mass – Gloria.tvThe names of the apostate churches St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Grace are on the list of dissident gay activists New ways Ministry -
Site: AsiaNews.itThe Asian Development Bank is investing US$ 1.5 billion to promote more efficient farming that increases productivity while reducing the environmental impact of growing the main staple in the Asian diet. Rice farming alone generates 1.5 per cent of greenhouse gases. New irrigation systems and the use of drones are among the tools to cut the amount of methane released into the atmosphere.
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Site: Catholic ConclaveImages of Marko Rupnik's mosaics have been removed from the Vatican news site Vatican news. The decision represents a first sign of acceleration by the Holy See on the case of the former Jesuit accused of having abused, over a period of thirty years, numerous religious women during his career as a world-renowned artist and theologian. His was a particularly controversial case, not least because Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: LifeNews
A North Texas man faces capital murder charges after slipping abortion drugs into his pregnant girlfriend’s drink, resulting in the death of her unborn child and her hospitalization.
The case has sparked outrage among pro-life advocates, who say it underscores the sanctity of unborn life and the dangers of unregulated abortion drugs.
Justin Anthony Banta, 38, an information technology staffer for the U.S. Department of Justice, was arrested June 6, 2025, by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office following a months-long investigation. According to a sheriff’s office press release, Banta intentionally added “Plan C,” a commonly known abortion drug known as mifepristone, to his girlfriend’s drink without her knowledge or consent in September 2024. The incident occurred at a Tarrant County coffee shop, where the victim, whose identity remains confidential, met Banta and later suspected he had tampered with her beverage.
The victim, who was six weeks pregnant, informed Banta of her pregnancy and expressed her desire to keep her baby, authorities said. Despite her wishes, Banta allegedly encouraged an abortion, offered to cover the cost, and suggested ordering the drugs online.
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When she refused, he took matters into his own hands, purchasing the abortion pills and secretly adding them to her drink, according to investigators. The act led to the loss of her unborn child and required her hospitalization for medical complications.
Banta faces additional charges of tampering with physical evidence, and the Texas Rangers have filed the capital murder charge in Tarrant County. If convicted, he could face life in prison or the death penalty, reflecting Texas’ legal recognition of the unborn as victims in cases of intentional harm.
Pro-life advocates point to this case as evidence of the risks posed by the availability of abortion drugs like mifepristone, often marketed as “Plan C.” They argue that such drugs, accessible online with minimal oversight, can be misused to harm women and end unborn lives against a mother’s will.
The victim’s condition remains undisclosed, but her ordeal has drawn sympathy from pro-life communities across the state.
Banta is being held in the Parker County Jail. His arraignment is pending, and the investigation remains ongoing as authorities review additional evidence.
The post Texas Man Faces Murder Charge After Killing His Girlfriend’s Unborn Baby appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Mises InstituteMarxism has infected not only our body politic but also most of our institutions from higher education to religious organizations, as Marxists insist that human action is determined by class and racial affiliations. Ludwig von Mises had a more accurate understanding of how humans act.
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Site: AsiaNews.itSouth Korea's new president and the Chinese leader spoke on the phone for about 30 minutes. China insists on the importance of 'multilateralism' against the backdrop of Trump's tariffs. South Korea calls on Xi to play a 'constructive role' in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
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Site: LifeNews
Free speech and religious freedom advocates, groups speaking out on the harms of radical gender ideology, and 22 states have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of two Vermont families who had their foster-care licenses revoked by Vermont because of their religious beliefs. On May 30, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the families filed their opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Wuoti v. Winters.
Despite a track record of success and high praise from social workers who knew Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt, Vermont’s Department for Children and Families revoked their foster-care licenses after the couples expressed their religiously inspired and widely held belief that girls cannot become boys or vice versa. The state applies this policy categorically—prohibiting families with these views from caring for any child, even if they sought to care for a relative, provide respite care for an infant for just one day, or care for a child who shared their faith.
“Vermont’s foster-care system is in crisis: There aren’t enough families to care for vulnerable kids,” said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse. “As numerous states have attested, religious families play a critical role in the foster-care system. Yet instead of inviting families from diverse backgrounds to help care for vulnerable kids, Vermont is shutting the door on them, putting its ideological agenda ahead of the needs of suffering kids. When it comes to finding kids a loving home, everyone should be able to recognize that the needs of kids should come first. And even Vermont agrees that the Wuotis and the Gantts are loving and caring parents willing to open their door to any child.”
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The state’s foster-care system has more kids in need than families willing to care for them, and officials have had to place some kids in institutions and unlicensed placements, including hospitals and police stations, to fill the gap. To help meet this need, the Wuotis became foster parents in 2014 and adopted two brothers from foster care. The Gantts became foster parents in 2016 and focused on caring for kids born with drug dependencies or with fetal alcohol syndrome. The Gantts have since adopted three kids.
Vermont officials described the couples as “amazing,” “wonderful,” “kind,” and “welcoming.” Yet the state revoked both families’ licenses when they expressed their religious belief that a person should live consistent with their sex and marriage is the union of one man and one woman. According to the state, that made them “unqualified” to parent any child regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity. Vermont will not license these families to provide any type of foster care or even respite care. ADF attorneys say this exclusion burdens constitutional rights as much as it needlessly deprives kids of loving homes.
“Foster parents represent the best of society: local citizens who give back to their community by helping the State raise children that have fallen into its care,” explains the multi-state brief led by Florida and the Arizona legislature. “Unfortunately, foster-care systems are in crisis across the nation as states deal with a shortage of foster homes. Vermont’s brusque approach to foster care has only exacerbated that crisis…States like Florida, Oklahoma, and Idaho, whose foster systems are highlighted in this brief, employ foster-care programs that achieve the same interests through means that do not disqualify scores of good-hearted citizens with genuinely held religious and political views: by matching like-minded parents with like-minded children.”
In a brief filed by The Conscience Project on behalf of prospective foster families in Vermont, attorneys further detail the discrimination by state officials. “Despite the clear desire and ability to provide a safe and loving home for children in need, the Crams were denied a license to foster. According to the denial letter sent to the Crams in June of 2021 by Vermont’s Department for Children and Families, the Crams’ ‘fundamental belief’ of ‘God’s plan for all of us,’ would ‘not meet the emotional or developmental needs of children.’”
The post 22 States Support Couple Who Lost Foster Care License in Vermont Because They’re Christians appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LifeNews
A George Soros-backed political action committee (PAC) is launching a multimillion-dollar effort to flip Texas blue, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in the Republican stronghold in decades. However, Texas Majority PAC, which has received millions of dollars in funding from Soros, hopes to change that trend with its new “Blue Texas” initiative, according to the WSJ.
Soros and his network of political spending outfits have poured hundreds of millions into supporting Democratic candidates and causes in recent election cycles. Soros donated $2.1 million to Texas Majority PAC in 2024 and $1 million in April, WSJ reported.
The Blue Texas initiative aims to boost candidate recruitment, organize volunteers, and increase voter turnout, with the goal of turning Texas into a battleground state by 2032, according to the WSJ. Texas Majority, along with state and county Democratic parties, spent about $35 million during the 2024 election cycle, and the new initiative’s price tag is expected to surpass that amount.
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In addition to backing state and national Democrats, the Soros family has poured millions into local races and initiatives to push a left-wing agenda. Soros-backed groups spent heavily in 2022 and 2024 to pass ballot measures enshrining abortion as a right in state constitutions, and have routinely supported soft-on-crime prosecutors and judges in major American cities.
The group is particularly focused on the 2026 Senate race, in which former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred — who lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024 — is expected to run again. On the Republican side, Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are vying for the GOP nomination.
A recent Texas Southern University poll showed Cornyn with a 4-point lead over Allred in a hypothetical general election matchup, and Paxton with just a 2-point lead.
“If a win is on the table in 2026, we don’t want to leave it there by not being organized,” Katherine Fischer, the deputy executive director of Texas Majority PAC, told WSJ.
Democrats have funneled massive sums into Texas in recent elections. Allred raised nearly $100 million, while former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s failed 2018 bid to unseat Cruz brought in over $80 million compared to Cruz’s $38 million.
Despite significant spending in the state in 2024, Democrats failed to win key races. Former Vice President Kamala Harris lost Texas to President Donald Trump by nearly 14 points, and Cruz defeated Allred by 8.5 points.
The flight for the White House in 2032 will be particularly consequential in Texas given that the state is expected to add electoral votes after the 2030 reapportionment, while Democratic strongholds such as California and New York are projected to lose them, The American Redistricting Project estimated in December 2023
“There is no choice for Texas or for anyone else in the country who wants to see a Democrat in the White House after 2032 but to find a pathway through Texas,” Fischer told the WSJ.
Texas Majority did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
LifeNews Note: Melissa O’Rourke writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience
The post George Soros Group Spending Millions to Try to Make Texas a Blue State appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
YouTube is full of videos of women complaining that men are no longer
interested in forming relationships.
Heterosexuality is based on the exchange of female worldly power for male protection & love.
Most men love a woman because she sacrifices power. She trusts his leadership.
Feminism has taught women to seek power instead of love, and compete with men. This has effectively neutered them. Power = penis.
(Feminism is a Communist depopulation program aimed at undermining marriage and the family.)
Feminism taught men to seek a woman's approval above his own (i.e. transference, idealizing a woman instead of obeying his best Self.)(Disclaimer - This template has worked for centuries. That's why the usual suspects are trying to destroy it.)Possession is the Essence of Marriage(Updated from Dec. 2009 and April 1, 2018)by Henry Makow Ph.D.
My wife recently asked me why I loved her.Rather than enumerate her good qualities, I answered honestly: "Because you are submissive."
At the risk of being politically incorrect, many men do not seek strong independent women. They do not seek great beauty, brains or sex, but the simple feeling of "possessing" a woman. In other words, what they seek is a degree of ownership or power. This is part of masculine identity.
And many women have the complementary desire, to be possessed, to totally "belong" to their husband.In a blog post, Joseph William, in his thirties, claims he has slept with 100 women and nearly all of them wanted to be dominated in bed. They wanted the man to take charge. This has a general application. Women need men to take the initiative. They acquiesce or reject.The essence of heterosexuality is the exchange of female power for male power expressed as love. This is the heterosexual contract. If a woman is not submissive or a man unloving, the contract has been broken, and they must consider separation.
When a woman surrenders to her husband, she gives him the power to grant her wishes, or not. He does not exploit, control or dominate. He respects her individuality and freedom.He wants her to want to be his. He consults and nurtures. He makes the final decision.Every family needs a head. A creature with two heads is a monster.
INTIMACYWe have a powerful hunger to become one with another person. Two people only can become one when a woman surrenders to her husband. This is how women love. Two people cannot become one if they have competing agendas.The greater a woman's acceptance of her husband's leadership, the greater his love for her. When the issue of worldly power is settled, a husband's sense of self expands to encompass his wife. She becomes part of his ego. He knows that her child is his.He loves her passionately because she has given herself to him. She has given him everything he wants.Women were designed to crave a man's constant passionate and exclusive love. But feminism ensures they will never get it because it teaches them to be "independent."In "The Power of Sexual Surrender" psychiatrist Marie Robinson writes that femininity is based on "an essential female altruism" i.e. putting husband and children first. Real women do not seek power. They seek love. They are cherished because they dedicate themselves to husband and children.Women express love in terms of surrender, i.e. trust. She empowers her husband by submitting to him. Thus, she inspires him to sacrifice for her and their children. Women domesticate men and give them purpose.Of course, this surrender applies only to the man she loves, the man who has courted her and won her love. If she gives her trust to the wrong man, that is her responsibility.THE BEST WAY TO IMPRESS A WOMAN? DON'T TRYWomen have about 20 years of peak sex appeal. They have to seal a deal before they lose it. They are the sellers. Men are the buyers.When men treat women as sex goddesses, sex objects or prey, as society teaches, they are doomed to fail.Men need to approach women as they are, fallible human beings with normal human desires.They need to get to know a woman as friends and decide if they want a deeper relationship.Women need sex but they want love (an honest human relationship) more. Take an enema and purge everything Hollywood has taught you about love and sex. It is bullshit.Lasting love is not based on sex appeal or sparkling repartee. You can have great sex with a woman who is not conventionally beautiful. All women are beautiful in the sex act. Lasting love is based on mutual dependence.A man must decide what he wants to do with his life, and then find a woman who will help him achieve his goal.
CONCLUSIONBecause the Illuminati bankers control the media and nearly everything else, most of us are ignorant of how egregious and criminal their social engineering is.Men are active by nature; women are passive. This is the basic yin-yang of nature. By messing with this dynamic, Illuminati social engineers (black magicians?) are throwing a spanner in the gears of human reproduction and happiness. Their promotion of homosexuality to heterosexual children is criminal. They should be charged with child abuse.This is what Satanists do--override nature. They are evil. They hate us and we have every right to hate them and their minions (liberals) in government, education and the media.---Related - Having Sex is not Making LoveFirst Comment from M in Brazil
Good post and very true; too bad it's getting worsE. Man and woman are lost, at least here in Brazil. I am so sick and tired of this feminist, LGBT, race theory, communist agenda, white man-enemy agendas, but unfortunately, it's all over from commercials, companies, celebrities, gov. pushing this on us on every occasion.
I am glad my daughter reads this site, she can learn and have a better outcome in life than I had.
Here in Brazil, women (not all but most), have to pay half of all expenses in the household even if their husband makes 10 times more, it doesn´t matter. They have to pay their share and do most housework since men here say it's their job. What we see nowadays is no longer the sacred union between a men and woman where man treat their wives as a gift given to them by the Lord and woman reverence their husbands and give them children. Instead we are living in times where modern relationships are the norm. Because of that, what we can expect from a marriage is two colleagues living together where each person has their own lives, share their bills 50/50 and if things get too hard they'll just get a divorce and move on to the next partner as if their actions won't have consequences to their children or themselves.
Then you have good men that cannot find a Christian woman to marry because the women are not committed to the relationship nor to God. It has been hard for both good man and a good woman here. This world is definitely not what it used to be.
In my work and at my daughter's college, we see more and more incentives for women to abandon their children with strangers and go to work. From speakers to projects aiming at mothers and women, the effort to put women in their unnatural place is astonishing. At my work, I see women with high paying jobs making all the decisions in their household while their husbands stay home with their kids. And this is a difficult situation because since the feminist agenda has been active for so long, both genders are complacent in maintaining these ungodly roles.
My daughter tells me about her college, where the girls if they want to have a boyfriend they have to pay for all their expenses on dates and this goes on into the marriage and how most people engage in premarital sex as if it's nothing but a sport. So the women have to pursue a carrier because they can't rely on men. It's truly sad where humanity is heading to.
Coincidentally, in Brazil there is a youtube channel called Casamento de Verdade (Marriage biblically) from Professor Afonso (he lives in the US now), he mentioned why its important to be submissive (women) marriage. Its was really good and all women liked it and had no problem with it. The 90 thumbs down were basically from men and not the women. In the comments, woman were complaining about having to pay the bills either 50/50 in the marriage and in some cases all of it and having to do all the house work. -
Site: Zero HedgeIndia And US Advance Toward Interim Trade Deal After Four-Day TalksTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 12:15
Indian and US negotiators have made progress in their latest round of talks in New Delhi on Tuesday on a bilateral trade deal, having focused on market access for industrial and some agricultural goods, tariff cuts and non-tariff barriers, Reuters reported citing Indian government sources.
"The negotiations held with the U.S. side were productive and helped in making progress towards crafting a mutually beneficial and balanced agreement including through achievement of early wins," one of the sources said.
The U.S. delegation, led by senior officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, held closed-door negotiations with Indian trade ministry officials headed by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal.
Among the preliminary agreements reached, both sides discussed increasing bilateral digital trade, by improving customs and trade facilitation measures, the sources said, adding that "negotiations will continue" for early conclusion of the initial tranche of the trade pact.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed in February to conclude a bilateral trade agreement by fall 2025 and to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Here are some of the highlights of the preliminary agreement:
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India and US aim to sign first tranche of trade pact by fall 2025, with both sides agreeing to hold more talks on bilateral pact.
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The two sides are expected to sign an interim agreement by the end of the month, before the expiry of Trump's 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners, including a 26% tariff on India.
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Both sides discussed increasing bilateral digital trade, by improving customs and trade facilitation measures, the sources said.
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Indian and U.S. negotiators made progress in their latest round of talks in New Delhi on Tuesday on a bilateral trade deal, having focused on market access for industrial and some agricultural goods, tariff cuts and non-tariff barriers, Indian government sources said.
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The next phase of negotiations could tackle more complex matters, with the goal of signing the first tranche of the bilateral trade pact by September or October, the officials added.
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India resisted U.S. demands to open its markets to wheat, dairy and corn imports, while offering lower tariffs on high-value U.S. products such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts, one of the sources said.
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India also asked the U.S to revoke its 10% baseline tariff. However, the U.S. side opposed this, noting that even Britain was subject to this under its recent bilateral trade agreement.
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Additionally, India sought an exemption for its steel exports from a 50% tariff.
According to Reuters, the potential 26% tariff on India would be devastating to Indian goods - including rice, shrimp, textiles and footwear, which together comprise nearly one-fifth of India's merchandise exports - and could severely hit exports and dampen foreign investment inflows.India has pledged to increase purchases of American goods, including energy products like liquefied natural gas, crude oil, coal and defence equipment.India’s exports to the U.S. rose 28% to $37.7 billion in the first four months of 2025, while imports increased to $14.4 billion, widening India’s trade surplus, according to U.S. government data. -
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Site: LifeNews
Democrats in the New York Legislature approved a bill on Monday that gives individuals with terminal illnesses the right to end their own lives, known as medical aid in dying (MAID).
The New York State Senate approved S138, or the “Medical Aid in Dying Act,” which allows those with incurable illnesses to be prescribed medication to “hasten the patient’s death,” according to the bill’s text. The legislation will now head to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, and if enacted, New York will join 11 other states and the District of Columbia with similar assisted suicide laws.
“It’s not about hastening death, but ending suffering,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who sponsored the proposal, according to ABC News. Hoylman-Sigal did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The bill was approved by the Senate with a 35-27 vote, with no Republicans supporting it and six Democrats joining the opposition. In April, the State Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 81-67, also with no Republican votes in favor.
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New Yorkers who are expected to die within six months, as confirmed by two doctors, would be able to request lethal medications, according to the bill’s text. Two witnesses must sign the request to confirm that the patient has decision-making capacity and is acting voluntarily, without any coercion.
“Assisted suicide? That’s the priority, with all the issues facing New Yorkers?” Republican state Sen. Rob Ortt said at a news conference on Monday, as reported by The New York Times.
Critics are concerned that the bill could put New York on a similar path as Canada, which has among the most expansive MAID laws in the world. In 2023, 4.7% of deaths in Canada were assisted by physicians.
“This is a dark day for New York State. For the first time in its history, New York is on the verge of authorizing doctors to help their patients commit suicide,” said the New York State Catholic Conference in a statement following the Senate’s passage of the bill. “We reject the false notion that suicide is ever a solution. Instead, we call on New York State to expand palliative and hospice care, mental health services, and family caregiver support.”
The Medical Aid in Dying Act has been endorsed by several medical organizations, including the Medical Society of the State of New York, New York State Academy of Family Physicians, the New York State Psychiatric Association and the New York State Nurses Association.
Hochul’s office has indicated that she will be reviewing the legislation, though it is not yet known whether she will sign it into law, according to the NYT.
“Make no mistake – this is only the beginning, and the only person standing between New York and the assisted suicide nightmare unfolding in Canada is Governor Hochul,” the New York State Catholic Conference said.
LifeNews Note: Melissa O’Rourke writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
The post Democrats Think Killing People is a Solution appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThis morning, Pope Leo XIV met with 98 representatives of the Holy See diplomatic corps in the Clementine Hall. They are a model, "certainly not perfect", of the Church's message in favour of "human fraternity and peace among all peoples, [. . .] serving the dignity of the human person'.
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Site: Mises InstituteWith US Government bonds being downgraded, another sign that Washington's borrowing and spending is out of control, not that anyone in power is listening. Think of the downgrade as a canary in a coal mine.
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Site: Steyn OnlineSteyn and Simberg respond to Mann's demand that he and his lying lawyers should not have to pay sanctions...
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Site: Steyn OnlineThe pilot programme for civilisational suicide...
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Site: Catholic ConclaveEvery year at Pentecost, the thousands of pilgrims returning from Chartres on specially chartered trains sing a traditional song upon their arrival. One of them received a ticket this Monday for "disturbing the station."The success of the Chartres pilgrimage continues unabated. Year after year, the ranks of these traditionalist Catholics who walk from Paris to Chartres at Pentecost grow, and the Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Catholic ConclaveMy apologies for the delay!Scroll down for today's:Saint of the Day/ FeastReading of the MartyrologyDedication of the MonthDedication of the DayRosaryFive Wounds Rosary in LatinSeven Sorrows Rosary in EnglishLatin Monastic OfficeReading of the Rule of Saint BenedictCelebration of MassReading from the School of Jesus CrucifiedFeast of Blessed Giovanni DomeniciGiovanni Dominici, OP (English: John Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: southern orders
Here’s the moneybyte:What is striking, in all of the first statements of the new pope, is the happy naturalness with which he continually appeals to the tradition of the Church through great authors who are witnesses to it: from Ignatius of Antioch to Ephrem the Syrian, Isaac of Nineveh, Symeon the New Theologian, Benedict of Nursia, Leo the Great, and repeatedly to “his” Augustine. Brief references, but not affected, rather all of them relevant for their pertinence to the themes that the pope was touching on. These patristic references are accompanied by the constant one to the magisterium of the modern popes, in particular Leo XIII and Francis.
It is precisely to this last fact that I would like to draw attention. This could easily be interpreted either as evidence of the new pope’s substantial continuity with his predecessor, from whom he would be distinguished only on the surface, due to obvious and expected differences in temperament; or, on the contrary, as a mere tactical and instrumental expedient, aimed at preventing and easing possible hostile reactions toward a papacy that would be effecting with discretion a substantial rupture with the so-called “Church of Francis.”
I believe that both approaches are wrong. What Pope Leo has expressed, in every act and word of his during these first weeks of his pontificate, is nothing other than the authentically Catholic conception of tradition.
One fundamental factor of safety in the new pontificate seems already to be a given, based on the experience of these first weeks. Unlike his predecessor, Leo will not give us cause to fear that he will play the pope “as he sees fit.” He made this clear from the beginning, when, referring to a phrase of Ignatius of Antioch (but echoing reflections that Benedict XVI had also made in his time), he defined “an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority. It is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.”
It is in this sense that I would hazard to predict that the style of his pontificate will be Ratzingerian and patristic.
READ THE GREAT ARTICLE THERE!
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
The excuse that this regime is better than it was, or might otherwise have been, only lasts so long.
Every transition government in history has deployed that trope. Think the Girondins in France, Kerensky in Russia, Weimar in Germany, the Second Spanish Republic, Chiang Kai-shek in China, and so on. In order, they were replaced by Robespierre then Napoleon, Lenin then Stalin, Hitler, Franco, and Mao.
In each of these cases, the transitional government was caught between and ultimately smashed by pressures from both sides: industrial and intellectual partisans of the old regime with legacy control, on one side, and the radicalism of the populist movements that brought new people to power on the other.
Threading this needle is not easy in revolutionary moments. Of such times, history teaches one lesson more than any other. The new regime must be brutally honest about the criminality of the old one and work with focus to dismantle it as fast as possible. Anything short of that leads to its own discrediting and eventual replacement.
In every area of government today under the Trump administration, now entering its second phase, we witness these very historical forces at work. The grassroots movement that beat all odds to put the new people in power had high and even revolutionary expectations following the five most horrid years of our lives.
Some of these hopes are being partially met in good ways but blocked and neglected in too many other ways that are unbearably conspicuous. This dynamic affects the budget disaster, the demand for transparency, and in the realm of public health.
As a result, the wild optimism that greeted the inauguration of Trump has turned to something different, a mixture of incredulity from the grassroots combined with outrage and disgust from the legacy media and establishment that fought this revolution at every turn.
This further raises the prospect about which we’ve repeatedly warned: the Trump administration could go down in history as a transitional regime like we’ve seen so many times in history, a four-year experiment in moderation bookended by different brands of totalitarianism on either side.
This is a serious matter, not a parlor game. Nor is this a typical political battle. What happened over the last five years was for the ages. The world economy was smashed by nearly all states due to a lab leak for a product partially funded by the US government. The unannounced fallback plan, pushed in the name of science, was to universally distribute a new shot with a new gene-altering technology.
The shot did not work. It was not effective. It was not safe. Nor were they properly vetted because they were imposed by military edict under the cover of emergency. Other therapeutics were disparaged and banned. The critics in all areas were censored and shut down. People who refused the injection were fired. Public health collapsed in the name of preserving it.
Those harms have seen no justice.
Meanwhile, to finance this calamity, debt-financed spending ballooned by $8-10 trillion, leaving the federal government’s budget $2 trillion higher than it otherwise would have been. The shots are still on the market despite undeniable and widely known harms.
None of this is a secret, as it might have been in former times. Because of information technologies, people are well aware of every detail. The so-called “populist movement” has become a vast community of in-depth expertise, fully capable of running circles around legacy people and institutions.
The new leaders – elected to change course on all the above and more, including the accompanying crime and migration chaos – began with tremendous bravado and sweeping edicts that seemed promising. Four months later, they are asking for patience while dealing with legacy barriers on all sides from media harassment to court blockages.
The trouble is that public trust is completely gone. The whole country, traumatized by years of lies, has become Missouri: show me.
First, no one believes that the “one big beautiful bill” is just a first step on the way to future draconian cuts. We’ve seen this too many times, which is why Elon Musk finally broke his silence and denounced the entire “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” as “a disgusting abomination.” That has set off a power struggle for the ages.
Second, in areas of government transparency, there have been some steps but not nearly enough to fulfill the promises. There are still no new Epstein files. The JFK files are a mess and incomplete. We know no more than already public information about the two shooters who tried to kill Trump. There are still many lingering questions about 9-11, the Covid disaster, and so much else. This is not the opening for which the people had hoped.
Third, let’s talk more at length about the public health area of policy where we’ve seen the most progress. We have a new and excellent Executive Order on science. Tax-funded Covid testing has ended. A contract of $750M for a Bird flu shot has been cancelled. There are new limits on gain-of-function research, and experiments on beagles and other animals are over. Many terrible contracts from NIH have been cancelled while parts of the CDC have been dismantled.
As for the mRNA shots, the market has been narrowed from everyone to only vulnerable populations, leaving aside the known issue that vulnerable populations should not risk them either.
There are new standards for randomized controlled trials with placebos, but no assurance that these companies will do them in a timely way. RCTs for a five-year-old product with massive immune-altering effects can never cobble together a valid sample selection at this late date, nor is a continuation of this experiment in any form morally justified.
In two tremendous victories, the shots have been removed from the routine childhood schedule, the first time this has ever happened to any product targeting a specific disease apart from eradication or replacement. In effect, the CDC/FDA are saying: it is better to get Covid than risk these products. Such a message will drive uptake to new lows approaching zero eventually.
In addition, the outrageous advice from the CDC that expectant women should take them is gone, finally. The champion of that policy has fled the CDC.
These are all welcome changes in policies that never should have existed in the first place. Even now, however, no one says the quiet part out loud: even if these shots had been safe and effective, which they are not, they were never necessary for the overwhelming number of people. Which raises the profound question of how and why all this came to be in the first place.
There are other initiatives too concerning food nutrition, mental health, and other matters in the MAHA Commission report that are hugely welcome changes from what has existed before.
The people in power in these agencies are pleading for patience. That is not unreasonable. Remember that these few appointees are confronting a beast larger, more entrenched, and better financed than any hegemon in human history. The pharma/media/tech/NGO/academia complex is larger and more powerful than the slave trade, the East India Company, Standard Oil, or even the munitions industry that started the Great War.
It’s certain that such a Leviathan cannot be ended in three months, not even with the best people in charge. All the grassroots really need to see is evidence of progress plus a transparent reason for delays. If the shots cannot be pulled now, people need to know why. If Covid emergency powers cannot be ended, explain why. If the new Moderna shot was already in the works and could not be stopped, people need to know the reasons.
Everyone who has watched all this unfold is of two minds, never mind the endlessly mutating factions within the dissident movements that have seen their leadership ascend to power. The people in the MAGA/MAHA/DOGE movements are as thrilled by the progress so far to the same extent that mainstream media and the legacy establishment are furious about all the changes.
For my own part, having watched public affairs for decades, this is the first time I’ve witnessed some progress in at least one area of state operations. That is worthy of celebration. I don’t even need to dwell on the many ways in which improvement over the darkest times of our lives is perhaps not as great an achievement as it would be otherwise.
That said, the release of yet another shot, implausibly called NexSpike, especially in light of all evidence and promises, is a tremendous shock for which no one was prepared. If they were in the works and the appointees could not stop them, we should be told that and the full explanation should be given to all. If President Trump himself is still attached to the foul spawn of Operation Warp Speed, and has forced them back onto the market despite vast public opposition, we should know that too.
Above all else, what we really need is the blunt truth about the last five years. We need to know that the people in office, whether elected or appointed, still share the deep outrage that fueled the movement that put them in power. We need to hear frank talk about the harms, the mandates, the suffering, the deceptions, the payoffs, the graft, the abuses, the illegal vanquishing of freedom, science, and human rights.
It is not enough to proclaim a new Golden Age and be done with it. This pertains to every aspect of public life. Press conferences by the new officeholders, with smiles and promises of better behavior in the future, don’t cut it given the mass loss of trust, rampant cynicism, and grassroots fury. There must be more straight talk, more decisive action that goes to the heart of what happened, and some degree of accountability.
We hear daily rumors that all of this is coming. Great. In which case, the new leaders need to make that clear. The masses are not inherently unreasonable. But they are the people within whom the leadership must reason – not “message,” not presented with flim-flam, not entertained with digital Punch and Judy shows, and not sniffily dismissed as ignorant extremists and conspiracy theorists.
Every new leadership in government that inherits that kind of disaster of the last five years is necessarily going to be squeezed between the legacy regime – including its vast bureaucracies and industrial interests – and the populist movements that put them in power. In these cases, the status quo usually proves irresistible but with disastrous consequences later.
Now is the time to stop that unfolding disaster, one which can only compound the errors of the past.
Reprinted with permission from Brownstone Institute.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
Russia’s leadership is in “conclave” determining its riposte.
Trump has been silent for two days. Unprecedented. In the last days, Ukraine and its facilitators attempted a massive attack on Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber-force; succeeded in collapsing two bridges onto civilian trains heading to Moscow; attacking the Kerch Bridge; and assassinating a Russian general via explosive body bomb.
As Clausewitz noted two centuries ago, the point of military force is to compel an outcome: i.e. that an adversary finally does what is wanted of him. Thus, in respect to military adventures there is need for clarity of thought from the outset. It must have a realisable political objective that has a prospect to be implemented.
What then, was the objective behind these Ukrainian “irregular” attacks? One certainly was demonstrative – PR exercises to say that Ukraine and allied services are still capable of mounting special forces style, innovative operations. And are therefore worthy of continued support. As Colonel Doug Macgregor cautions:
For the most part it was a PR stunt to try and convey the impression that Ukraine is capable of carrying on the war. Anything you hear from the Western outlets … are probably untrue or at least grossly exaggerated … We damaged ourselves and our relationship – what there is left of it – with Moscow … that’s the real fallout from this.
Okay. But PR stunts are no strategy, nor do the attacks hold any prospect for a shift in the overall strategic military paradigm. It doesn’t say that the West or Ukraine has suddenly discovered a political strategy towards Russia per se. That doesn’t exist. For the most part, the innumerable western declarations come as a hodge-podge of fantasies.
The second objective however, may indeed have had a clear strategic end-state – and has demonstrated feasibility and the possibility to compel a desired outcome: The various attacks have imposed on Trump the uncomfortable reality that he, as President, does not control US foreign policy. The collective Deep State has just made that plain.
As General Mike Flynn has warned:
The Deep State is now acting outside of the control of the elected leadership of our nation … These persons in our Deep State are engaged in a deliberate effort to provoke Russia into a major confrontation with the West, including the United States.
In effect, the likes of Generals Keith Kellogg and Jack Keane, with their adolescent narratives that only through pressure, more pressure and pain will compel Putin (always presumed to be weak) to accept a frozen conflict in the hope that it can obvert from an American defeat in Ukraine.
The British during WW2 similarly believed that the Nazi regime was not strong, and could be overthrown by strategic bombing, intended to bring about the collapse of German society. Today, General Kellogg advocates “bombing” Russia with sanctions – mirroring the British conviction that such tactics “must be bad for morale.”
Trump’s advice from his Generals either did not meet the criterion of political realism – because it was based on fantasies of incipient Russian collapse and a hopeless misreading of Russia and its Army. Or perhaps his Advisers, either inadvertently or deliberately, “shafted” Trump and his agenda of normalising relations with Russia.
What will Trump say now to Putin? That he was indeed forewarned (recall his writing just days ago that “bad things – if it were not for me – I mean REALLY BAD things would already have happened to Russia”) and claim that his advisers did not give him the full details; or will he candidly admit that they deceived him? Alternatively, will he take the line that the CIA was merely operating to an old Presidential “Finding” that authorised attacks into the depth of the Russian hinterland?
All such putative answers would spell one thing – that Trump is not in control. That he and his European allies (such as Britain) cannot be trusted.
Either way, Trump’s advisers will have understood that Zelensky and by extension his NATO enablers, were exploiting the SALT/START Treaties’ vulnerability – in order to use concealed drones, hidden in civilian containers, to attack the very bombers covered by USA-Russia treaties: Article XII of the START treaty specifically requires “a display in the open of all heavy bombers within the airbase.” This provision was a confidence building act (visible monitoring) to guard against a surprise “first strike” nuclear attack.
START 1 cut long-range or strategic nuclear arsenals by 30-40 percent. New START slashed accountable deployed strategic arms by another three-quarters. In 2021, Presidents Biden and Putin extended New START until February 2026.
Of course, these unidentified enablers understood the gravity of striking the strategic nuclear force of a major rival nuclear weapons power.
How would the US respond if an adversary (perhaps a non-state actor) launched a strike against strategic long-range nuclear capable bombers in the USA using cheap and easily available drones hidden in containers? We are in a new era of risk – one in which pagers and cell phones can be weaponised as bombs – and of “sleeper” drones that can be remotely activated to attack airfields, either civilian or military.
Larry Johnson has observed that after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, intended to destroy the US aircraft carriers berthed there, the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto reportedly said the following in the aftermath of Japan’s great victory at Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve … We have won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbour and thereby lost the war.”
The silence of the bears will soon be ended and we will know more about Russian resolve; but a relationship in which Trump is understood to “mean what he says, and does what he says” likely is over. The Russians are furious.
What happens next is unknown.
Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation.
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Site: southern orders
This is what Cardinal Ruini recently wrote on Sandro Magister’s blog on April 27, 2025. I think these four conditions were discussed during the conclave:
Ruini: Four Conditions Indispensable for the Good Governance of the Church
(s.m.) Cardinal Camillo Ruini offers this “prayer” of his for the cardinals who in a few days will enter into conclave to elect the new pope.
But he also offers it for the whole Christian people, which the next successor of Peter will have the task of “confirming in the faith.”
Ruini, 94, was the cardinal closest to John Paul II, whose vicar he was for the diocese of Rome, as well as president of the Italian episcopal conference. And he was among the great electors and admirers of Benedict XVI, whose value he recalls in this text, but also a limitation: his “meager aptitude for governing.”
A limitation to which the future pope would best not fall subject.
Prayer for the Church of the Near Future
by Camillo Card. Ruini
The legacy of Pope Francis is a question that profoundly impacts the Church and shakes it. In these lines I will address it from a perspective that is trusting, because it is founded on the merciful power of God, who guides our steps in the way of the good.
I will formulate four wishes – which are also invocations – for the Church of a future that I hope is very near. I trust in a good and charitable Church, doctrinally secure, governed according to the law, and deeply united within itself. These are my prayer intentions, which I would like to see widely shared.
1. First of all, then, a good and charitable Church. Love brought to living efficacy is in fact the supreme law of Christian testimony and therefore of the Church. And it is what people, even today, are most thirsty for. Our style of government must therefore be freed of all useless rigidity, all pettiness and dryness of heart.
2. As Benedict XVI wrote, today faith is a flame that threatens to go out. Rekindling this flame is therefore another great priority of the Church. For this there is need of much prayer, there is need of the ability to respond in a Christian vein to the intellectual challenges of today, but there is also need of the certainty of truth and the security of doctrine. For too many years we have been experiencing that, if these are weakened, all of us, pastors and faithful, are severely penalized.
3. Then there is the question of government. The pontificate of Benedict XVI was undermined by his meager aptitude for governing, and this is a concern that is valid for all times, including the near future. Woe betide, moreover, if it be forgotten that this is a question of governing that very special reality which is the Church. Here, as I said, the fundamental law is love: the style of government and the recourse to law must be as far as possible in keeping with this law, which is very demanding for anyone.
4. In these years we have perceived some threats – which I do not want to exaggerate – to the unity and communion of the Church. To overcome them, and to bring to light what I like to call the “Catholic form” of the Church, mutual charity is once again decisive, but it is also important to reawaken the awareness that the Church, like every social body, has its rules, which no one can ignore with impunity.
At the age of 94, silence is more fitting than words. I hope nonetheless that these lines of mine may be a little fruit of the good that I want for the Church.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Is Putin’s Soft Approach Bringing War in its Train?
Paul Craig Roberts
“If Mr. Putin genuinely wants to save the lives of his soldiers and of his civilians then he should end the war conclusively and dramatically right now. This, I believe, is well within his power if he has the will and the vision to act as the situation requires.” — Gilbert Doctorow
I am pleased to see Gilbert Doctorow’s concurrence with my longstanding position that the greatest threat to peace is Putin’s reluctance to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a quick decisive end. Putin’s ongoing war is a direct road to wider war.
In his ever-widening war Putin has done nothing to prevent the Kiev government from continuing the war. I have suggested that Putin hoped to use peace negotiations to achieve a wider understanding with the West. Others have attributed Putin’s inaction to his concern that if Russia acts decisively, the result will be to unite the West to more hostile action. Still others attribute the never-ending conflict to Russian weakness. Whatever the cause, the longer the war continues the more it spins out of control. Although dismissed by Putin, the attack on Russia’s triad is a very serious matter.
Gilbert Doctorow and John Helmer are commentators, analysts, whatever you want to designate them, who seek out the facts instead of pushing official narratives. They don’t always see eye-to-eye, but I read them as a check on my own thinking. The fact that most so-called experts are pushing narratives instead of correct explanations is why we are in danger from such reckless actions as attacking Russian strategic nuclear forces. As I have said, that attack should scare the world to death.
Use it or Lose It
Gilbert Doctorow
https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/more-on-use-it-or-lose-it
I note with some satisfaction that my last two essays questioning Vladimir Putin’s ‘softly, softly’ approach to conduct of the war in Ukraine attracted particular support from the Community. In what follows, I intend to take this logic one big step further for the sake of argument. Let us do what Herman Kahn famously proposed in his controversial book of 1962 and think about the unthinkable.
I do this in the knowledge that a fair percentage of readers in Alternative Media, including this web platform, may be pacifist minded. My intention is not to offend them, but to allow them to consider other positions on how this war can be prosecuted to bring it to a close sooner rather than later and to spare the lives of combatants and civilians on both sides of the conflict. All the while, my first concern is to avoid escalation to nuclear exchanges, which is what the Community surely believes to be the underlying motive of Putin’s ‘softly, softly’ approach.
In a world of demented politicians occupying highest office, as in the case of Joe Biden, assisted by wholly irresponsible, insane assistants like Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken, ‘softly, softly’ may have made sense. In a world dominated by Realists like Donald Trump it no longer makes sense.
*****
As readers of yesterday’s essay here will be aware, the Russian government is presently pretending that the attack by Ukrainian drones on its strategic bombers last weekend never happened. Mr. Putin spoke about the Ukrainian attempts to sabotage the peace talks the day before they were scheduled to resume in Istanbul on 2 June by staging terror attacks on civilian rail infrastructure in the Kursk and Bryansk oblasts. This allowed him to attach the ‘state supported terror’ label to the Kiev regime and to prepare the world community for a possible decapitating strike some time in the future. But in time present, Russia’s response to the attacks of last weekend were just more of the same destruction it has rained down on Ukrainian drone manufacturing facilities, design offices and arms caches over the past year or more, all without any apparent effect on the intensity of Ukrainian drone counter-strikes on civilian targets within the Russian Federation, not to mention Ukrainian sabotage by paid agents inside Russia.
The only indirect Russian response to the Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s heavy nuclear capable bombers in air bases across the Federation was the seemingly offhand remark by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ryabkov during this past week that it is unlikely there will be any renewal of the New START treaty which mandated the vulnerable stationing of Russian bombers out in the open when that treaty expires early next year.
The logic of Putin’s conduct of the war has been to minimize casualties among Russian soldiers. That prioritization has dictated against Russia’s staging any further storming of Ukrainian fortified cities such as was practiced in the first year of the war in the capture of Mariupol and Bakhmut. Though Russian forces have been advancing steadily along the entire 1200 km Donbas front for many months now, the big summer offensive that Western military commentators are talking about is unlikely to happen precisely because such offensives normally result in much higher casualties on the attacking side than in the defending side and the Kremlin does not want to reverse its overall advantage in casualties incurred till now, which may be reckoned at 7:1 or better.
Let us be clear eyed: this laudable concern for its soldiery results not only from humane considerations. I believe that uppermost are political considerations. Russia today is not the USSR in 1942. It is a democracy, not an iron-fisted, murderous dictatorship and it is responsive to the wishes of its citizenry, who do not want to lose vast numbers of men on the battlefield for the sake of national interests.
The Kremlin is sticking to its plan of a slow war of attrition that has played out reasonably well till now. However, this war of attrition has not brought Ukraine to the point of capitulation, which is the fundamental precondition for their agreeing to the peace terms set out in the Memorandum that the Russian delegation handed over to the Ukrainians a week ago in Istanbul and made available publicly by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since then.
Considering the size of Ukraine and of its population; considering the residual military aid it may yet receive from friends around the world even if the USA steps aside; considering the hatred of moskali (pejorative for Russians) in the broad Ukrainian population that the past decade of intense U.S.-paid propaganda has fanned – the naturally arrived at point of capitulation by Kiev is unforeseeable, even if many, myself included, have suggested it could come soon. Supporting this view are the videos of Russia’s war correspondents speaking to front-line soldiers, especially those manning artillery or tanks shown on Russian state television daily: these soldiers are constantly moving positions to stand clear of incoming artillery and drone strikes coming within minutes of what they themselves are firing. This means that the Ukrainian forces are not fleeing the battlefield but are staying and fighting with deadly effect. Regrettably I do not see any of this reflected in the commentaries of my peers.
*****
During the first Istanbul face to face meeting of Russian and Ukrainian peace negotiators, the head of the Russian delegation Medinsky pointed out that Russia is ready to continue the fight with Ukraine to complete victory however long that takes and he made reference to the Great Northern War with Sweden conducted to victory by Peter the Great…over the course of 21 years.
Twenty-one years!
However, the logic of this argument does not hold. As I said long ago, Vladimir Putin launched the Special Military Operation in February 2022 because he and his advisors saw a window of opportunity to end the military build-up of Ukraine and its planned accession to NATO. The window of opportunity was defined by Russia’s having reached a new plateau in development and first deployment of cutting-edge strategic weapons systems giving it an edge of perhaps five years over the United States. It was also defined by the way the economy had been made sanctions proof since 2014.
This window of opportunity would close within five years as the USA caught up in strategic weapons and as Putin’s holding center stage in Russian politics comes to an end for natural reasons of health, life longevity and so on.
In the meantime, the war itself has created new ‘sell by dates’ on its continuation. The rise to power of Donald Trump has pointed to the possible withdrawal of US military support for Europe under NATO, all of which has empowered those voices in Brussels calling for a big expansion of military production and expansion of military budgets in Europe. It is now conceivable that Europe will pose a serious threat to Russia in conventional warfare within a five-year time horizon unless Russia scores a military victory in Ukraine soon, compelling a capitulation not only in Kiev leading to the country’s neutrality but also capitulation in Brussels and Washington leading to negotiations redrawing the European security architecture and bringing Russia in from the cold.
If Mr. Putin genuinely wants to save the lives of his soldiers and of his civilians then he should end the war conclusively and dramatically right now. This, I believe, is well within his power if he has the will and the vision to act as the situation requires.
As I suggested a couple of days ago, an Oreshnik strike on the headquarters of Ukrainian terror operations headed by Kyrylo Budanov in downtown Kiev would seriously curtail if not completely shut down the terror dimension of Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Why wait?
An Oreshnik strike on wherever in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and his closest advisors happen to be would free up Ukrainian politics for a genuine move towards peace talks as opposed to the charade we see today.
But why stop there? It is widely assumed that the leading country in the West promoting delivery of a humiliating defeat on Russia and the country’s subjugation is the United Kingdom. It is widely assumed that the planners and likely help-mates to the Ukrainians in their implementation of Operation Spider Web last weekend were the Brits.
Accordingly, I believe that the best response to the attack on the Russian nuclear triad of last weekend would be for Russia to quietly sink a couple of British nuclear submarines.
Who would back Britain in a retaliatory strike against Russia? No one! Mr. Trump is not going to put the entire USA under threat of instantaneous destruction from unstoppable Russian missiles by rising to the defense of Mr, Keir Starmer and his warmonger ministers.
To those who fear for Mr. Putin, who admire his saintly forbearance, I repeat the bit of folk wisdom I received from my boss in a multinational corporation back in the 1980s: the cemeteries are filled with irreplaceable people.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025
Further comment by PCR:
An alternative to Doctorow’s view that “the logic of Putin’s conduct of the war has been to minimize casualties among Russian soldiers” is that Putin, having foolishly relied on the Minsk Agreement that was used to deceive him was not prepared for the conflict that Washington forced upon him. Therefore, the Russian intervention had to be restricted to clearing Ukrainian forces from the independent Donbas republics. Having been trapped into a limited response, Putin was kept in the trap by Western accusations that he had “invaded Ukraine” and would go on from there to Western Europe. If Putin finally mobilized sufficient forces to destroy resistance, the West would find its prediction confirmed and unite to enter the conflict. Thus was Putin trapped in his “Special Military Operation.”
Fearful of an expanded conflict, Putin’s failure to respond to provocations and to enforce his red lines has expanded the conflict into attacks on Russia’s nuclear triad, and Putin side-stepped reality again. The consequences of Putin’s acceptance of provocations is his lack of credibility. The West does not believe that he will really fight. This belief, reinforced by Putin’s behavior, will result in a provocation that cannot be ignored, and WW III will begin.
Doctorow is correct that the only way to avoid a real war is for Putin to quickly produce an overwhelming Russian victory that completely removes Ukraine from the conflict and sends a believable message to the West. This can be done with conventional weapons. At the moment Putin’s non-action has eviscerated the credibility of Russia’s war doctrine.
Will Putin end the conflict with victory, or will he condemn the world to war?
I seldom see intelligent and relevant analysis from Russian commentators . Whether this reflects censorship or a misunderstanding of events I do not know. The Western foreign policy community simply repeats official narratives.
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Site: Zero HedgeFutures Rise As Market Awaits Outcome US-China Trade TalksTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 08:20
US equity futures are little changed, paring earlier gains along with European stocks, as Commerce Secretary Lutnick says US-China trade talks are "going well" and that they’re expected to go on all day. The bar for an improvement risk appetite appears high after Chinese stocks suddenly fell toward the end of trading day earlier, sparking a broader souring of sentiment. As of 8:00am S&P futures were up 0.1% into today’s trade talks and tomorrow's CPI print; Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%, with Mag7 names seeing muted returns ex-TSLA which is +3%. Semis/Cyclicals are seeing a bid. The UK’s FTSE 100, however, was poised to close at an all-time high for the first time since March. US/China talks continue for a second day with Bessent empowered to alter US export controls; US/Iran talks are set for Thursday.
US Treasuries extended gains ahead of a $58 billion auction of three-year bonds; the USD is higher into tomorrow's CPI; commodities are higher led by Ags/Energy. Today’s macro data print is the Small Business Optimism survey, which rose from 95.8 to 98.8, beating expectations of a 96.0 print.Inpremarket trading, Mag 7 tech giants were miexed: Tesla +2%, Nvidia +0.2%, Alphabet -0.2%, Amazon -0.1%, Meta Platforms +0.6%, Apple -0.3%, Microsoft -0.3%. McDonald’s fell 1.6% after Redburn downgrades the restaurant chain to sell from buy, saying weight-loss drugs are suppressing consumer appetites and presenting an under-appreciated longer-term threat. Here are some other notable premarket movers:
- Brown & Brown (BRO) falls 3% after agreeing to buy privately-held insurance brokerage Accession Risk Management Group for $9.825 billion.
- Insmed (INSM) rises 17% after the company announced positive topline results from Phase 2b study of treprostinil palmitil inhalation powder as a once-daily therapy in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
- JM Smucker (SJM) falls 7% after the packaged-food company projected profit for the coming fiscal year that trailed Wall Street’s expectations, continuing a challenging run for the biggest US packaged food producers.
- TechTarget (TTGT) drops 4.8% after the marketing software firm was downgraded to underweight at JPMorgan on a lack of catalysts.
- Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) ADRs rise 5% after agreeing to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya Inc. for $1.3 billion in cash plus an issuance of stock, a deal that propels its ambition to become China’s answer to Spotify
While Monday’s negotiations in London between the US and China delivered no breakthrough, American officials had sounded optimistic that the two sides could ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements. With a key inflation read on tap Wednesday, investors are waiting for fresh drivers after stocks rebounded to near record levels from their April lows.
“We believe the path of least resistance for equities remains upward and potentially see room for some US performance catch-up,” wrote Alastair Pinder, global equity strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc.
As delegations from the US and China arrived at London’s Lancaster House for the start of talks on Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said discussions were “going well” and expected negotiations to continue “all day today.”
Meanwhile, analysts at firms including Barclays and JPMorgan Chase & Co. see further upside for US stocks, in part because they expect institutional investors to abandon their cautious stance and ramp up exposure to equities. Citigroup strategists said that technology heavyweights have attracted a flurry of bullish bets as optimism around the trade outlook overshadows trade concerns.
“Flow activity has been largely one-sided, driven by new risk flows for large caps,” the team led by Chris Montagu wrote. “While tariff policy issues remain a concern, investors have also been assessing the evolving macro backdrop.”
European stocks were little changed, with investors reluctant to make big bets ahead of a second day of trade negotiations between the US and China. Stoxx 600 fell 0.2% with energy and auto sectors leading gains, while financial services stocks among the biggest laggards. Among individual stocks, UBS fell after Vontobel analysts wrote that Swiss capital demands could impact its competitiveness. The FTSE 100 surpassed its previous closing peak as investors took comfort from an improving economic outlook and easing trade tensions, with the UK becoming the first nation to strike a deal with President Donald Trump after his April 2 tariff announcements. That said, sentiment remains fragile as London faces an exodus of companies moving listings to the US and shelving initial public offerings.
Here are the most notable European movers:
- SoftwareOne shares rise as much as 12% to hit a seven-month high after the company said its deal to buy Crayon will close on July 2.
- Umicore shares jump as much as 10% to hit a seven-month high, after Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded the chemicals firm to buy and doubled the price target.
- Tecan shares gain as much as 5.4% after Berenberg started coverage of the Swiss laboratory-equipment maker with a buy rating, saying it is a high-quality operator that currently trades at a discount.
- Bellway shares rise as much as 4.1% after the UK housebuilder reported robust trading and said it expects to build more houses and sell them at higher prices than previously thought.
- Aberdeen rises as much as 5.9%, climbing to highest since August 2023, as JPMorgan upgrades to overweight and places the UK investment firm on a positive catalyst watch.
- Puuilo gains as much as 8.5%, setting a new record high, as DNB Carnegie says the Finnish home-improvement retailer’s results surpassed what had been already bullish expectations.
- European energy stocks are outperforming as oil prices rise for a fourth straight day due to investor optimism around extended US-China trade talks and signs of near-term tightness in the physical market.
- FirstGroup rises as much as 7.2%, hitting the highest since Sept. 2012, as analysts welcome a full-year beat from the UK bus and rail company.
- UBS shares drop as much as 7.4%, erasing all of Friday’s gains that followed the Swiss government proposing new rules that could see the bank hold up to $26 billion in fresh capital.
- Renk shares fall as much as 10% after Bank of America double-downgraded the stock to underperform, saying it has run too far in the short term and noting the German firm’s lack of exposure to defense electronics.
- Hochschild Mining shares plummet as much as 21%, the most in over two years, after the company warned the Mara Rosa mine in Brazil will produce far less gold than hoped this year.
- GB Group shares drop as much as 13% after the identity verification and fraud prevention specialist delivered another year of “underwhelming” growth, according to Jefferies.
Earlier in the session, Asian equities rose before the second day of trade talks between the US and China began, as traders stayed cautiously optimistic over any potential progress. The gains in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index narrowed to 0.3% from 0.7% earlier. TSMC, MediaTek and Commonwealth Bank of Australia were among the biggest boosts. Taiwan led the charge among local markets, with notable advances also in Indonesia and South Korea.
Chinese stocks slid suddenly in the afternoon session amid speculation that the US-China trade negotiations might have hit bumps. The move came on an elevated trading volume with major index ETFs also see surging volume. Rare earth names on the opposite saw a sharp move higher. Defensive names including high-div and agribusiness sector managed to claimed the loss first, and lead the index to rebound around 13:28. China managed to recovered part of the loss and ended up small loss by end of day. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dipped almost 1% during the session and then recovered most of the losses.
Focus continues to be on the US-China trade talk in London of which more active headlines are expected to rise. From a full day perspective, Pharma continued the positive momentum, banks picking up buyers as risking off. Growth names all pulled back in PM.
“Beyond the very short term dynamic, I think our expectation should be very low because I think that what we have seen from Geneva talks, London talks now is that this is going to be a protracted, long period of discussions between the two,” Bilal Hafeez, CEO at Macro Hive, said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index also trims gains, up 0.1%, while the Swiss franc tops the G-10 FX leader board, rising marginally along with haven assets. USD/JPY rises as much as 0.5% to the day’s high of 145.29, before paring gains; the yen came under selling pressure after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Japan’s price trend still has some ways to go to reach 2. The dollar index would likely stay in a range “given the tariff uncertainty and the need for investors to keep assessing conditions,” Malayan Banking Bhd strategists wrote in a note.
In rates, treasuries hold modest gains in early US session, supported by bigger advance for gilts after soft UK labor-market data boosted expectations for Bank of England interest-rate cuts this year. US yields are 2bp-3bp richer across maturities with the curve flatter; 10-year is around 4.45%, about 2.5bp lower on the day with UK counterpart outperforming by around 4bp. Gilts outperformed their US and European peers after UK employment fell by the most in five years and wage growth slowed more than forecast. UK 10-year yields fall 7 bps to 4.56% as traders also boosted their Bank of England interest-rate cut bets; swaps tied to Bank of England’s policy rate price in around 47bp of easing by year-end vs 41bp at Monday’s close.
The US session features first of this week’s three Treasury coupon auctions, a 3-year new issue for $58 billion at 1pm New York time; $39 billion 10-year and $22 billion 30-year reopenings follow Wednesday and Thursday. WI 3-year yield near 3.955% is ~13bp cheaper than last month’s, which stopped through by 0.2bp. Traders will be closely watching Tuesday’s three-year Treasury auction as a read on whether or not foreigners are reducing their holding of US assets, wrote Chris Turner, head of foreign exchange strategy at ING Bank in London. “The focus therefore will be on the indirect bid at the auction and also the general gauge of auction success,” Turner wrote. “A poor auction could rekindle the weaker dollar story.”
In commodities, spot gold reversed an earlier fall and is now a few dollars higher on the day. Oil prices rise for a fourth day, with WTI up 0.1% at ~$65 a barrel. Bitcoin rises 0.4% and above $109,000.
Looking to the day ahead now, and data releases include UK unemployment and Italian industrial production for April, and in the US there’s the NFIB’s small business optimism index for May (printed at 98.8, above the est. of 96.0 and up from 95.8 prior).. Meanwhile from central banks, we’ll hear from the ECB’s Villeroy, Holzmann and Rehn.
Market Snapshot
- S&P 500 mini little changed
- Nasdaq 100 mini little changed
- Russell 2000 mini +0.2%
- Stoxx Europe 600 -0.1%
- DAX -0.6%
- CAC 40 little changed
- 10-year Treasury yield -2 basis points at 4.45%
- VIX +0.2 points at 17.38
- Bloomberg Dollar Index +0.1% at 1211.05
- euro -0.1% at $1.141
- WTI crude +0.4% at $65.58/barrel
Top Overnight News
- US military confirmed it has activated 700 marines to help protect federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area: RTRS
- US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of one of the main committees that advises the government on vaccine safety and policy. BBG
- META is creating a new AI research lab dedicated to achieving “superintelligence,” and Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI, is set to join the initiative (Meta is in talks to invest billions into Scale AI). NYT
- House Speaker Johnson said they are on track to get a budget bill passed by Independence Day and urged the Senate to modify SALT as little as possible.
- US GOP Rep. Green notified the Speaker he would resign from Congress after the reconciliation package vote.
- China is tapping its $1.5 trillion housing provident fund to salvage its property sector, with the government program outpacing banks in providing mortgages. BBG
- TSMC reported a 40% jump in May revenue, fueled by companies stockpiling chips in response to mounting trade uncertainty. BBG
- Huawei’s founder said US export controls won’t have an impact on the company as Washington exaggerates the firm’s capabilities. Ren Zhegfei said Huawei’s Ascend chip, the main rival to NVDA’s products in China,
- “still lags behind the US by one generation.” FT
- Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank is still some distance from its inflation goal in comments that helped accelerate a weakening of the yen. While Ueda also talked down the possibility of any rate cut to boost the economy, the mention of a possible need to offer support for the economy likely gave the impression that the bank’s next move to raise rates will be more distant. BBG
- The U.K.’s labor market cooled in the three months to April, offering reassurance to Bank of England policymakers despite the level still being well above that required to return inflation to target any time soon. Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses rose 5.2% from a year earlier, down from 5.5% in the three months to March. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in the period from 4.4% in the prior quarter, the highest since May-July 2021. WSJ
- Britain approved a £14.2 billion investment to help build its nuclear plant Sizewell C. The country’s wide-ranging spending review — set to be announced tomorrow — includes plans to offer cheaper financing for housebuilders. BBG
- META is creating a new AI research lab dedicated to achieving “superintelligence,” and Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI, is set to join the initiative (Meta is in talks to invest billions into Scale AI). NYT
- Autos are a key component of trade negotiations and Trump might need to make a choice: he can’t keep his auto tariffs and strike trade deals. Politico
Tariffs/Trade
- US-China talks in London were scheduled to continue on Tuesday at 10:30BST/05:30EDT (delayed from 10:00BST/05:00ET, no reason provided) following talks on Monday which concluded after 6 hours and 40 minutes; the US Treasury announced Tuesday's talks began around 10:44BST/05:44ET. Heading into the talks, US Commerce Secretary Lutnick said discussions with China are "going well", and talks are to continue all day Tuesday.
- US DoJ requested that judges extend a hold on the ruling against Trump tariffs.
- Japanese PM Ishiba and US President Trump will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
- Japanese Economy Minister Akazawa said the key is if Japan and the US can agree on a trade package, while it was separately reported that he is to visit the US and Canada from June 13th-18th for tariff talks, according to Nikkei.
A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk
APAC stocks traded mostly higher with risk sentiment underpinned amid some optimism surrounding US-China talks which are set to resume on Tuesday and have been described so far by US officials as a 'good meeting' and "fruitful". ASX 200 gained on return from the long weekend with the advances led by outperformance in Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Energy and Tech, while further upside was capped amid mixed consumer and business sentiment surveys. Nikkei 225 initially outperformed as it coat-tailed on the recent upside in USD/JPY which was partially facilitated alongside comments from BoJ Governor Ueda who stated that the BoJ is keeping the real interest rate negative, so underlying inflation achieves 2% and keeps inflation sustainably and stably at 2%. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp kept afloat as the attention centred on US-China talks in London which are scheduled to extend for a second day.
Top Asian News
- Chinese President Xi and South Korean President Lee held a phone talk, while Xi said that China and South Korea should promote strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level and he urged the countries to inject more certainty into regional and international situation. Furthermore, Xi urged they jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade and ensure stable, smooth global and regional industrial and supply chains.
- Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with French President Macron in France and said that China is ready to work with the EU to further expand areas of cooperation and promote new development in China-EU relations, while Han said at the UN Ocean Conference that China will carry out bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects to support small island states and other developing countries in implementing sustainable development goals.
- Chinese Finance Ministry announced that China is working on setting up a childcare subsidy system.
- BoJ Governor Ueda said if the economy and prices come under strong downward pressure, the BoJ has limited room to underpin growth with rate cuts with the short-term rate still at 0.5% and noted that underlying inflation is still below 2%. Ueda stated the BoJ is keeping the real interest rate negative, so underlying inflation achieves 2% and keeps inflation sustainably and stably at 2%, but reiterated that the BoJ will raise interest rates if it has enough confidence that underlying inflation nears or moves around 2%.
European bourses (STOXX 600 -0.1%) opened mixed and on either side of the unchanged mark; sentiment did gradually improve just after the cash open but then a bout of hefty pressure took most European indices back into negative territory. No clear driver for the downside, but perhaps in anticipation of the US-China talks.
European sectors are mixed and with no clear theme or bias. Energy takes the top spot, following closely by Autos & Parts; the latter likely benefitting from the optimism surrounding the US-China talks. Financial Services sits at the foot of the pile, with the downside driven by losses in UBS (-6.6%), reversing some of the upside seen on Friday and as traders digest the latest government proposals which aim to force the bank to hold an extra USD 26bln in extra capital.Top European News
- UK Chancellor Reeves is planning a ‘housing bank’ to provide cheaper financing for builders and is considering a funding settlement of up to GBP 25bln for social housing in Wednesday’s spending review, according to FT.
- ECB's Holzmann said the pause in cutting rates could last a while and if economic data worsens there could be more cuts, while he is moderately optimistic about what will happen with Trump and tariffs, according to Orf TV.
- ECB's Villeroy says ECB has successfully normalised policy; policy and inflation are now in a favourable zone Being in a favourable zone does not mean the Bank is static. ECB will be as agile as needed.
- ECB's Rehn says will take decisions on a meeting by meeting basis, must avoid complacency over the inflation outlook.
- French President Macron says he does not rule out the possibility of dissolving the National Assembly and calling snap elections, according to Bloomberg.
FX
- USD has kicked the session off on the front foot with support stemming from the positive readout of the US-China trade talks which saw US Treasury Secretary Bessent state that it was a 'good meeting' with China, whilst Commerce Secretary Lutnick said talks were "fruitful". Focus today will be on the US 3yr auction, to give further indication of if the "Sell America" theme is still at play. DXY currently around 99.15.
- EUR is a touch softer vs. the broadly firmer USD with fresh macro drivers lacking for the Eurozone. Markets continue to be drip-fed ECB speak with known hawk Holzmann noting the pause in cutting rates could last a while. Elsewhere, France's Villeroy remarked that the Bank has successfully normalised policy, adding that policy and inflation are now in a favourable zone. However, being in a favourable zone does not mean the Bank is static. EUR/USD continues to pivot around the 1.14 mark and is currently contained within Monday's 1.1386-1.1439 range.
- JPY is fractionally lower vs. the USD, albeit off worst levels which saw the pair hit a new high for the month during APAC trade at 145.29. The price action took place alongside the broad pick-up in the USD and mostly positive risk appetite, which eventually faded. In terms of Japanese-specific newsflow, BoJ Governor Ueda reaffirmed the familiar rate hike signal but also stated the BoJ has limited room to underpin growth with rate cuts if the economy and prices come under strong downward pressure. On the trade front, Japanese Economy Minister Akazawa is reportedly to visit the US and Canada from June 13th-18th for tariff talks. USD/JPY has returned to a 144 handle but is holding above its 50DMA at 144.34.
- GBP is sat at the foot of the G10 leaderboard in the wake of the latest UK jobs which report which showed an expected uptick in the unemployment rate to 4.6% from 4.5%, a 109k slump in the HMRC payrolls change metric for May (largest decline since May 2020) and a further cooling of average earnings. In reaction, BoE market pricing moved dovishly, now fully pricing in a 25bps cut in September vs November pre-data. Cable has slipped onto a 1.34 handle for the first time since June 2nd with a current session low at 1.3457 (June 2nd low was at 1.3451).
- Antipodeans are both are slightly softer vs. the USD with price action choppy during APAC hours on account of mixed Business Sentiment data from Australia and the overall constructive risk tone. However, of greater interest for both will likely be the outcome of the US-China trade talks in London today given that China is both nation's largest trading partner.
- PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1840 vs exp. 7.1853 (Prev. 7.1855).
Fixed Income
- Gilts are outperforming, gapped higher by 55 ticks after a dovish UK labour market series. This caused Gilts to open at 92.36 before extending to a 92.66 peak with gains in excess of 80 ticks on the session at best. In brief, HMRC Payrolls fell more-than-expected with the accompanying wage figures also cooler than expected. In the near term, there is around a 10% implied probability of a June cut while August has increased to -18bps vs 15bps pre-release - a cut is now fully priced in September vs November pre-data.
- Bunds are in the green but with upside of only around half of that seen in Gilts at best. Specifics for the bloc include the latest ECB SMA and remarks from Villeroy, who said that while policy has now been normalised and the ECB is in a “favourable zone” this does not mean they are “static”. Bunds were only a little firmer in APAC trade, then caught a slight bid as the risk tone dipped in early morning trade before taking another leg higher alongside the Gilt open. Currently at 130.63, if the move continues, Friday’s high is just above at 130.77 before 130.99 from Monday and then last week’s 131.47 peak.
- USTs are broadly in-line with Bunds though the magnitude of gains is a little less, given that US equity futures have proven to be more resilient than European peers this morning; though, US equity sentiment is still very much on the back foot. Thus far, this has taken USTs to a 110-12 peak. If surpassed, Friday’s pre-NFP high resides at 110-29. The US data docket is light, focus turns to US-China talks in London and a 3yr auction thereafter.
- Netherlands sells EUR 2.45bln vs exp. EUR 2-2.5bln 2.50% 2035 DSL: average yield 2.749% (prev. 3.011%).
- Germany sells EUR 3.078bln vs exp. EUR 4bln 2.40% 2030 Bobl: b/c 1.8x (prev. 1.20x), average yield 2.14% (prev. 2.07%) & retention 23.05% (prev. 22.67%)
- Books have opened on the UK's 1.75% September 2038 I/L Gilt via syndication; price guidance 11.75-12.25bps above November 2037 I/L. Orders for the UK's 2038 I/L are in excess of GBP 46bln; price guidance unchanged. Orders for new UK 2038 I/L Gilt exceed GBP 58bln, according to a bookrunner; guidance set at 2037 I/L +11.75bps.
Commodities
- Crude prices are indecisive on a day when two major events (US-China talks and the Iranian nuclear counteroffer) are taking place. Ahead of the Iranian proposal, both sides confirmed the sixth round of nuclear talks will take place this weekend - the timing is unclear. Brent Aug'25 currently trades in a USD 66.95-67.40/bbl range.
- Spot gold is looking to build on Monday’s gains, as ongoing US-China tariff negotiations continue to support safe-haven demand - but with gains capped by modest Dollar strength. XAU/USD trades around 3,330/oz.
- Base metals are broadly lower, tracking the mood seen in Gold ahead of further trade/mineral-specific updates. EV sensitive metal Lithium is the outperformer, however, Palladium, used only in combustion cars, is suffering, given optimism on a rare earth deal. Copper has been rangebound, though is ultimately lower after the prior session of gains. The industrial metal looks to test the USD 9,760 mark, and sits within a USD 9,724-9,782.55 range.
- Kazakhstan says its oil exports to Germany via Druzhba pipeline +48% Y/Y in Jan-May; via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline at +10% Y/Y in Jan-May.
Geopolitics: Middle East
- The sixth round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran will take place either on Friday in Oslo or on Sunday in Muscat, according to an Axios reporter citing a US official, while Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the sixth round of Iran-US talks is being scheduled for Sunday, June 15th in Muscat.
- Security sources estimated if nuclear talks fail, Israel would have to decide whether to attack Iran, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
- Israel launched strikes on Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, according to Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV.
- Israel's navy attacked Houthi targets in the Hodeidah port of Yemen, via an army statement.
Geopolitics: Ukraine
- Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv which Ukraine's defence systems attempted to repel, while emergency units were dispatched to several districts in Kyiv after Russian drone attacks, according to the mayor.
- Flights were halted at all airports serving Moscow following a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Russia's civil aviation authority.
US Event Calendar
- 6:00 am: May NFIB Small Business Optimism 98.8, est. 96, prior 95.8
DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap
Who knew quiet Mondays were still a thing? Its only taken until June but maybe we can start easing back into weeks again. Famous last words I’d imagine. To be fair we were all waiting for the outcome of the US-China trade talks, which will now carry on into today. Indeed, after the volatility of the last two months, it was striking just how little any of the major assets shifted yesterday, with the S&P 500 (+0.09%) barely budging while 10yr Treasuries (-3.2bps) saw their narrowest daily trading range in over 6 weeks. The calm is unlikely to last though with more trade talk headlines likely to come through today, US CPI to look forward to tomorrow and that 30yr Treasury auction on Thursday.
In terms of those trade talks, the US and Chinese negotiators started to talk in London yesterday, with talks reported to resume again today at 10am London. There were some positive noises heading into the meeting, with US NEC Director Kevin Hassett saying to CNBC that they expected that “after the handshake”, that “any export controls from the US will be eased and the rare earths will be released in volume”. So that suggested a potential compromise whereby the US would ease their export controls in return for China easing their own restrictions on rare earths. There were few substantive comments after yesterday’s round of talks, with Treasury Secretary Bessent saying they had a “good meeting” and Commerce Secretary Lutnick calling the discussions “fruitful”. While we await any concrete news, it’s worth remembering that markets have been used to a lot of back-and-forth in recent weeks. After all, US tariffs on China went all the way up to 145%, before they were then slashed back to 30%. Then Trump said that China “HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.” But the following week he had a phone call that he said “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.” So there’ve been several twists and turns already, and markets are getting fairly used to this uncertainty by now. Note that US / India trade talks are also quietly expected to end today so maybe we'll see some headlines there soon too.
In a generally light session, one supportive factor was some positive news on the inflation side, as the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations showed a clear decline in inflation expectations. 1yr expectations came down four-tenths to 3.2%, whilst 5yr expectations were down to a 14-month low of 2.6%. So that was a far more benign assessment of inflation relative to other measures, as the University of Michigan’s reading had shown 1yr expectations surging up to 6.6% in May. So that was seen as encouraging ahead of the CPI print tomorrow, and that in turn supported a rally in front-end Treasuries, with the 2yr yield down -3.3bps on the day to 4.00% and the 10yr down -3.2bps to 4.47%, while 30yr yields were -2.8bps lower ahead of that monthly supply on Thursday.
Against that backdrop, the risk-on move broadly continued, which helped the S&P 500 (+0.09%) to a very modest advance. That was driven by the Magnificent 7 (+0.92%), which hit a 3-month high led by a +4.55% rise for Tesla which continued to recover as last week’s Trump-Musk feud appeared to wane. Small-cap stocks also outperformed, with the Russell 2000 (+0.57%) hitting a 3-month high of its own. On the other hand, defensive sectors within the S&P 500 lost ground, including utilities (-0.66%) and consumer staples (-0.24%). It was also a more negative story in Europe, with the STOXX 600 (-0.07%) losing ground after 4 consecutive gains, whilst the German DAX (-0.54%) saw a particular underperformance in thin trading due to a holiday.
In the quiet session, Italian BTPs continued to edge tighter, with the spread of 10yr Italian yields over bunds falling to just 92.1bps (-0.6bps), which is the tightest they’ve been since February 2021. In fact, the spread is getting increasingly close to the post-Euro crisis low of 88bps, back in 2015. Meanwhile in the UK, gilts did briefly underperform after the government announced a U-turn on paying winter fuel payments to most pensioners. But that had unwound by the end of the session, with 10yr gilt yields (-1.2bps) performing broadly in line with elsewhere.
Commodities gained amid the sanguine market mood, with WTI crude (+1.10%) posting its fifth advance in six sessions to reach a two-month high of $65.29/bbl.
Asian equity markets have picked up a bit of momentum overnight led by the Nikkei (+0.91%) and the ASX (+0.71%). Other markets are up but off their highs with the Hang Seng (+0.33%) and Shanghai Composite (+0.11%) slightly higher. S&P 500 (+0.35%) and NASDAQ (+0.45%) futures are optimistic we'll get positive trade headlines today.
In FX, the Japanese yen (-0.19%) is dipping, trading at 144.85 against the dollar, following comments from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, who noted that Japan’s price trend still has a considerable distance to cover to reach the 2% target. Some market participants have interpreted these remarks as diminishing the likelihood of an imminent interest rate hike.To the day ahead now, and data releases include UK unemployment and Italian industrial production for April, and in the US there’s the NFIB’s small business optimism index for May. Meanwhile from central banks, we’ll hear from the ECB’s Villeroy, Holzmann and Rehn.
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Site: southern orders
It's time for Pope Leo to help the entire hierarchy and lowerarchy, to include Religious men and women, to do an examination of conscience about how Vatican II was implemented which has caused so much heartache and division in the Church, both of which are still ongoing some 60 years after Vatican II and its horrible premise of "renewal" which was called reform.Here, I am not speaking about a Catholic's personal reform through repentance of sin and reconciliation with God and the Church, because Vatican II's implementation did not focus upon that. It focused on reforming the Liturgies of the Church, reforming priestly life and religious orders of men and women.It was about reforming how the Church, meaning the institutional Church, dialogues with the those outside the confines of the Church, those Christians separated from the Catholic Church and her pope and bishops, those of other religions and those of the world with no specific faith or belief in God.
The greatest error in the implementation of Vatican II is a certain spirit that wanted create a different Church than what existed prior to Vatican II for almost 2,000 years. There were those who wanted to change not just certain "changeable" disciplines but wanted to change doctrines and dogmas in order to dumb down the Church and thus make her pliable to the falsehoods of other religions and no religions, godless ideologies and thus create unity in falsehood rather than truth.
The one area that affected 100% of Catholics was the changes regarding the Mass. Let me be clear, I have not been nor am I now opposed to refining the older Mass according to the pattern that Sacrosanctum Concilium recommended or mandated.
I am opposed to using the word "REFORM!" When not applied to sinners, reforming the liturgies of the Church implied that what preceded Vatican II was flawed, corrupt and insufficient for the salvation of souls and making saints of Catholics while they traversed this world. That is a lie.
And I am old enough to remember how bishops, priests and religious derided those Catholics, in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II, for being "so pre-Vatican II" as though that was a spiritual and moral disease. What rubbish!
Pope Francis brought the Church backwards to that kind of hermeneutic which Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI tried so hard to reverse.
So my recommendation to Pope Leo is to help those who were mean spirited in implementing their spirit of Vatican II on the Church, to repent and be reformed.
Let's speak of real renewal in the liturgy, helping people to go deeper into what the Liturgical Rites reveal or are sacramental signs of. It is the Most Holy Trinity, God's mystical love for the Church and all people and how God makes us a part of His eternal Trinitarian life, here and now and in the ever after.
Today, the greatest refinement needed for the Liturgies of the Church are not the liturgies which a small minority of Catholics celebrate, the Ancient liturgical forms, but how the modern Mass and adjunct liturgies are celebrated. And here the reform doesn't necessarily refer to the liturgical books, although that might indeed be a need, but to those who have corrupted the Modern Liturgies of the Church through the abandonment of liturgical laws of prayer and rubrics and created a didactic liturgy based on the personalities of clergy and laity, and enclosed circle!
Pope Benedict XVI's vision for the Church and her liturgies needs to be recovered and implemented. Pope Leo can do it!
Refinement in Continuity is what I would suggest calling it!
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Site: Zero HedgeTrump Travel Ban, Restrictions Go Into Effect On 19 NationsTyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 08:05
Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A travel ban signed by President Donald Trump has gone into effect, barring nationals from 12 countries from entering the United States and restricting entry by nationals from seven others.
Travelers cart their luggage through the international arrivals area at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. William Liang/AP Photo
The ban, instituted through a presidential proclamation rather than an executive order, went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on June 9. As a proclamation, it isn’t legally binding but signals a shift in federal policy.
A total of 12 countries face complete bans under the proclamation, including Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Burma (also known as Myanmar), the Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
People from these nations are barred from entering the United States for immigration or other reasons.
The seven countries that the president partially restricted travel from are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Trump suspended the entry of individuals from those seven countries “as immigrants, and as nonimmigrants,” on B-1, B-2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas, according to the directive.
Those who are already in the country from these nations with a valid visa will be permitted to remain.
Trump tied the proclamation to national security and public safety. In a video on social media, Trump linked the new ban to the June 1 terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas.
The suspect in that attack, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, was an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks and other national security or public-safety threats,” Trump’s order reads. “Screening and vetting protocols and procedures associated with visa adjudications and other immigration processes play a critical role in implementing that policy.”
He tied the Afghanistan ban to the Taliban’s current control of the nation, the Iran ban to the Islamic state’s status as a “state sponsor of terrorism” and noncooperation with the United States, and Somalia’s to the nation’s internal terrorism issues.
The proclamation also mentions the significant influx of illegal immigrants from Haiti.
“This influx harms American communities by creating acute risks of increased overstay rates, establishment of criminal networks, and other national security threats,” the proclamation reads.
Others were tied to noncooperation by foreign governments, including not accepting deported foreign nationals.
For example, according to the White House, Chad had visa overstay rates of 37 percent, 49 percent, and 55 percent, depending on the type of visa, in 2022 and 2023.
“The high visa overstay rate for 2022 and 2023 is unacceptable and indicates a blatant disregard for United States immigration laws,” the directive said.
The travel ban results from a Jan. 20 executive order that Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the United States and whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.
The order met with criticism from some international and immigrant groups, including the International Refugee Assistance Project.
In a statement, the group said that the ban “weaponizes and distorts immigration laws to target people that the president dislikes and disagrees with” and would create “chaos.”
The African Union Commission also expressed concerns about the “potential negative impact” of the move.
“The African Union Commission respectfully calls upon the U.S. administration to consider adopting a more consultative approach and to engage in constructive dialogue with the countries concerned,” the commission said in a statement.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
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Site: AsiaNews.itAs the local assembly passes a controversial anti-terrorism law allowing three-month detentions without charge, human rights organisations launch a new appeal against the repression of activists.Of concern are the recent cases of missing students, a phenomenon that is part of a decade of autonomist claims and human rights violations.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe president of the Philippine Bishops' Conference has taken a stance on the start of proceedings for the impeachment of the vice-president and daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, which after several postponements linked to the clash with the Marcos clan is set for tomorrow.The cardinal: 'Although impeachment is by nature a political process, it is not exempt from the moral demands of truth, justice and accountability'.
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Site: Mundabor's blogWe are now well into the month of June. Here in Blighty, this month has been abused, for many years now, to promote the satanical agenda of the Sodomites. I had already noticed, in past years, that the craze was attenuating. This year, it’s a total collapse. You might say that Trump’s victory has created […]
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
This website relies on readers’ support — https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/donate/
Can Reality Any Longer be Acknowledged? “The Attack on Russia’s Strategic Forces”
Paul Craig Roberts
https://www.globalresearch.ca/reality-acknowledged-paul-c-roberts/5889833
The attack on Russian strategic forces by Ukraine, with or without President Trump’s knowledge and with or without help from Washington and the British, could have been the most dangerous event in East-West relations during my lifetime. The reason is that recently revised Russian war doctrine states that an attack, even by a non-nuclear country, on the Russian strategic triad requires a strategic response. Strategic usually means nuclear or at least a disabling response.
Putin dodged the responsibility (more later), but no one knew for certain that he would. In other words, whoever is responsible for the attack on Russia’s strategic bombers subjected Ukraine, Europe, the US to the possibility of nuclear attack, depending on whom the Russians decided was responsible. This person (or persons) is a madman, a maniac who must be identified and removed from his position. Try to imagine how it is possible for, say Zelensky, to launch an attack that could result in nuclear war between the US and Russia. How can control over whether or not the US faces nuclear war be in the hands of Zelensky? If Zelensky is responsible, the US and NATO have a massive failure in command and control. If Trump or someone in the Trump administration gave the green light, they should be removed for committing the most potentially dangerous act during my lifetime.
The extraordinarily reckless and extremely dangerous attack on Russia’s nuclear triad is being treated by all concerned as a nothing event, a mere terrorist act, not an act of war. The fact that there is no acknowledgement in Washington, Europe, Moscow, or the media of the seriousness of an attack on Russian strategic forces, and thereby no measures put in place to prevent such dangerous acts, means either full scale, not proxy, war between Russia and the West or Russia’s surrender. Perhaps Putin would like to surrender in order to avoid nuclear war, but he won’t be permitted to surrender.
Putin took the lead in burying the seriousness of the attack on Russia’s nuclear triad. By designating the attack a “terrorist act” he evades the responsibility that Russian strategic doctrine imposes on him for a strategic response.
Nothing of consequence has happened, says the President of Russia. Amen say Washington and Europe. Therefore, whoever is responsible for the attack knows that the next attack can go further. It too will be unacknowledged as an act of war.
How many times can Putin pretend that attacks on Russia’s sovereignty, which is what attacks on Russia’s nuclear triad are, are mere terrorist events before he discredits himself with the Russian people?
The purpose of the recent revision of Russian strategic doctrine was to discourage or prevent attacks by Western proxies such as Ukraine on Russian strategic forces. It failed because Putin has taught the West not to take him seriously. He is ever ready to turn the other cheek. Now Putin has shown that he will not acknowledge attacks on Russian strategic forces as anything other than a terrorist event, not an act of war. So Putin has negated Russian strategic doctrine. It means nothing. Now that the West knows this, Russia can expect escalating provocations. All of Putin’s good intentions have ended in disaster, and a major war will be the consequence.
It could be that Russia is doomed. Decades of successful Western propaganda have turned most of the Russian professional and intellectual class into Atlanticist Integrationists. They think that Russia belongs as part of the West and are willing to make concessions of sovereignty to be part of the West. Clearly this point of view is strong in the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Zionist American neoconservatives are very much aware of this Russian weakness, and they are adept at taking advantage of it. They don’t have to do much, because Putin does their work for them.
Putin has declared Ukraine to be conducting terrorism, not war, against Russia. Putin’s declaration also absolves Washington and Europe for any responsibility.
Here are English language Russian headlines of Putin’s hiding from reality that apparently he is unable to face up to. Or perhaps he is not yet ready, being at work constructing a powerful military that US/NATO cannot resist.
“‘Illegitimate Kiev regime’ turning into terrorist organization” – Putin
“The latest terrorist acts carried out by Ukraine in Russia are the outcome of decisions made by the Ukrainian political leadership.” Putin added that “the decisions to carry out such crimes were, of course, made in Ukraine” by the political leadership in Ukraine. In other words, Washington and Europe have no responsibility for the act of war, which is not an act of war, but merely terrorism. See this: https://www.rt.com/russia/618651-kiev-regime-rejecting-peace/
In other words, the Kremlin has said that Washington and Europe have nothing to do with the attack on Russia’s strategic triad, and that Ukraine is merely creating terrorist incidents, not making war against Russia.
I find it hard to believe that Putin is this stupid. My bet is that he is not yet ready. He keeps the minor Ukraine conflict going while he builds up to remove NATO from Russian borders.
Trump can remove the coming conflict by giving Putin the mutual security agreement Russia has been requesting for years. This would be the costless solution, but Trump is not really in power, and the power and profit of the US military/security complex needs the Russian Enemy.
So, how will a devastating war be avoided? Information such as I have just presented is banned by the official narratives. It is scary how many Americans are gleeful over the attack, brainwashed as they are by their indoctrination that “the Russian enemy” needs to be taught a lesson if not destroyed. How can such indoctrinated people be saved from their own folly?
Indeed we might find ourselves in more than one devastating war. The American neoconservatives are still trying hard to get a war going with Iran by raising the specter of Iranian nukes. It is a false charge, but the indoctrinated American public, according to recent polls, supports war with Iran to prevent an Iranian nuke. Mike Whitney tells the story: https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/will-tuckers-article-on-x-stop-a-war-with-iran/
If two devastating wars are not enough, China is there to be provoked into a third war. Democracy and an ignorant population make a mixture for disaster.
Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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Site: Zero HedgeUBS Survey Finds "Little Growth" In Smartphone Units "Over Next Few Years"Tyler Durden Tue, 06/10/2025 - 07:45
Apple's annual developer conference on Monday underwhelmed on the artificial intelligence front, and new survey data from UBS showed softening demand for iPhones. On a broader note, UBS highlighted a cooling period has arrived in overall interest in purchasing smartphones, with the U.S. market seeing the sharpest pullback.
According to UBS Evidence Lab's 2Q25 survey of 7,500 consumers across five countries (US/UK/Germany/Japan/China), the 12-month forward smartphone purchase intent fell from 36% in 2Q25 from 39% in 4Q24, flat YoY. The U.S. experienced the sharpest decline, sliding to 37% from 50% in 4Q24 and 44% in 2Q24.
"Of particular note was a sharp decline in 12M forward purchasing intents in the US to 37% (from 50%/44% in 4Q24/2Q24)," UBS analyst David Vogt wrote in the note, attributing the drop to front-loaded demand ahead of potential new U.S. tariffs.
Sources: UBS Research, UBS Evidence Lab
The 12-month forward purchase intent share for iPhones fell to 14% from 18% in 4Q24, with the U.S. showing a significant drop to 17% from 24%. Samsung's purchase intent remained stable at around 9%.
The aspirational replacement cycle, or the expected or intended time that consumers plan to wait before replacing their current smartphone with a new one, lengthened to 31.1 months (2.59 years), up from 29.7 months in 4Q24, indicating slower replacement rates, particularly in the U.S.
Sources: UBS Research, UBS Evidence Lab
"Among the respondents that indicated they are likely to purchase a device within the next 12M, 82% of indicated they would be willing to accommodate some sort of price hike should smartphone OEMs decide to raise ASPs to offset pressures to BoM cost from tariffs," Vogt noted.
Sources: UBS Research, UBS Evidence Lab
On the Generative AI front, the much-hyped upgrade supercycle that Wall Street analysts forecasted last fall with the launch of AI-enabled iPhones has largely failed to materialize.
Interest in Generative AI-enabled smartphones rose to 19% from 16% in 4Q24), with China showing the most enthusiasm at 78%. Japan was the only region with negative net interest, while the U.S. had only 8%.
Sources: UBS Research, UBS Evidence Lab
Only 34% of respondents would pull forward purchases or pay extra for AI features...
Sources: UBS Research, UBS Evidence Lab
Overall, UBS forecasts modest year-over-year growth in smartphone unit sales of around 1% in 2025, followed by flat growth in 2026.
"We believe investors expect little growth, if any, in smartphone units over the next few years," Vogt emphasized.
Not the great news for Apple...
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
The Inside Story of Washington’s Cover-up of Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty
Republished from seven years ago.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/06/09/israel-completely-owns-america-subject-people/
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