Newly uncovered internal Hamas documents confirm a longtime theory explaining the motives behind the Oct.7, 2023 terror attack which kicked off the bloody and grinding Gaza war, which still shows no signs of abating and has resulted in unprecedented death and destruction in the Gaza Strip.
The documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, demonstrate that Hamas leaders had a specific aim of preventing a potential peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia based on the US-backed Abraham Accords. This was speculated about soon after the horrific attacks that also kicked off the hostage crisis.
Yahya Sinwar signaling 'victory' at a 2021 rally, via Shutterstock.
This is according to minutes from a high-level meeting which cite now slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and which were reportedly discovered by Israeli forces in Gaza tunnels. Sinwar was quoted in the internal papers, which are dated Oct. 2, 2023 - as saying, "There is no doubt that the Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly."
He expressed alarm that a deal would "open the door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow the same path."
Indeed the Palestinians have long feared that broad acceptance of the Abraham Accords in the region would leave the cause of a statehood permanently forgotten and sidelined. It would allow for Israeli expansion with impunity, and with no powerful Arab block to resist or raise a voice. It would also likely dry up any funding or weapons support for armed groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
The Wall Street Journal presents the following, quoting notes from the meeting further:
For Sinwar and Hamas, who have called for total destruction of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, this was unacceptable. Sinwar said it was time to unleash an attack that had been in the planning stages for two years.
The goal, he said, is "to bring about a major move or a strategic shift in the paths and balances of the region with regard to the Palestinian cause." He expected to get help from the other Iranian-backed forces of the so-called axis of resistance to Israel.
He called for an "extraordinary act" in order to halt the move toward Israeli-Saudi normalization.
WSJ: "The Israeli military says it found minutes from an Oct. 2, 2023 meeting of Hamas leadership where Yahya Sinwar said an 'extraordinary act' was needed to confront Israeli-Saudi normalization."
Hamas has not commented on the documents' authenticity, but again, their contents appear fully consistent with concerns voiced by some Palestinian officials long prior to Oct. 7 - that the Palestinian cause would suffocate and die if the Arab Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, achieve full diplomatic normalization with Israel.
One year ago, at the tail-end of the Biden administration, the US was still trying to entice the Saudis to sign a deal - even offering help with developing a civilian nuclear program and fewer restrictions on arms purchases in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.
The US position has long been that a Palestinian state must be born out direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, and not accomplished superficially within an external forum like the UN. But powerful Arab states like Saudi Arabia would theoretically apply immense pressure on the Palestinian side.
Israel for its part has clearly rejected that it will allow for a Palestinian state so long as Hamas still exists, and PM Netanyahu has even linked the more secular-leaning Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to 'terrorism'. He has also rejected a prior US call to allow the PA to take over and administer the Gaza Strip. The reality is that the current Gaza war makes the prospect of achieving a Palestinian state more distant than ever.
Israeli military in Hamas tunnels and commander bunkers under Gaza, via IDF.
And the prospect of Palestinian statehood resulting from some kind of Israel-Saudi normalization agreement based on Trump's Abraham Accords (conceived during his first administration) - which US media reports previously hailed as 'deal of the century' - also clearly seems a pipe dream at this point.
In this regard at least, Sinyar's 'extraordinary act' served its purpose, but the bloody aftermath is thousands of Israelis killed, many tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and wounded, and a region on fire.
Authored by Megan Knab via CoinTelegraph.com,
There are few historical examples of such a massive about-face for an industry, from banks debanking crypto businesses to now embracing stablecoins. If you talk to most crypto startup founders or companies with crypto on the balance sheet, they will all have war stories about finding, applying for and maintaining bank accounts.
Over the past three years, over half of debanking complaints have been lodged against four American banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citibank. Now, as the policies that discriminated against the crypto industry, like “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” and the recision of controversial accounting rule SAB 121, have been repealed, a new openness to blockchain technology from the finance sector is possible.
It is imperative that the banking industry stop shunning crypto and start — at least understanding it — to stay competitive. How stablecoins are deployed will separate the banking winners and losers.
Of course, stablecoins are not a new concept. For years, large institutions like JPMorgan and Santander have experimented with stablecoins and blockchains. Those experiments were around small functions like internal treasury reconciliation and interbank settlement. Much of this was also on private blockchains created by those banks. Implementing digital dollars on private chains, however, misses out on the core innovation of stablecoins.
While the use case of stablecoins for international remittances is clear, we are just scratching the surface of the power of stablecoins on public networks. For example, stablecoins eradicate unauthorized payment disputes and enable far faster pay cycles.
Payroll payments are also complex. Payday is a web of thousands of automated clearing houses, wires, comma-separated values and PDFs. The programmability of stablecoins enables companies to create efficiency among all these data structures, processing times, reconciliations and paycheck reporting.
Many smaller banks are just now waking up to the opportunity to incorporate permissionless, public network stablecoins into their workflows. Similar to how many businesses started to investigate how AI might change their businesses with the 2022 release of ChatGPT, so too are banks needing to look at how stablecoins will upend money movement.
Recently, Custodia Bank issued its own stablecoin, Avit, on Ethereum. Custodia’s users can access quick, cheap banking services that are hard to beat. This is an excellent example of implementation for other financial institutions to follow.
Active stablecoin wallets increased from 19.6 million in February 2024 to over 30 million in February 2025, according to Artemis and Dune. US President Donald Trump hopes to have stablecoin legislation on his desk by August 2025. Wyoming already did so in late March 2025.
Stablecoin infrastructure has improved significantly, and there is increased confidence in the security of stablecoins. 91% of the supply of stablecoins is fiat-backed, and only 8.5% are backed by collateralized crypto assets. Riskier algorithmic stablecoins have gone out of vogue.
Incremental changes also make it easier for non-crypto businesses to use stablecoins. There are now simple solutions for many of the original UX problems with stablecoins.
Additionally, more assets are moving onchain. Using stablecoins on public networks like Ethereum, payment companies will be better prepared to serve the future financial system. It’s not just stablecoins that are updating the financial system, either. Earlier this year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on Squawk Box he wants the SEC to “rapidly approve the tokenization of bonds and stocks.”
For banks looking for a competitive advantage in a world of powerful fintechs, shifting interest rates and lower consumer savings, using the power of stablecoins to improve their products and their internal operations might be the most powerful decision they make.
Lisbon has reportedly asked the European Commission to pressure Paris over the stalled expansion of electricity supplies following the recent ten-hour outage
Portugal plans to ask the European Commission to pressure France over limited electricity supplies from the latter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing Energy Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho. The move follows the April 28 blackout that left millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France without electricity for up to ten hours.
Portugal is reportedly blaming Paris for failing to complete and expand critical electricity interconnections with Spain – shortcomings that Lisbon argues exacerbated the blackout by restricting cross-border energy support. The power outage has been described as the largest in recent European history.
Carvalho claims that Brussels has the authority to arbitrate the matter under EU law, noting that the weak interconnections between France and Spain continue to hamper the bloc’s internal energy market.
“We will involve the president of the EC on this to make sure that we are all integrated,” she said, expressing hope for a resolution. “This is a European question, it’s not a question between the three countries.”
She urged the Commission to step in if the internal market is being compromised, emphasizing its power to pressure France into accelerating work on infrastructure.
Read more
Spain opens probe into major power grid failure
The Iberian Peninsula has some of the lowest energy connectivity levels in the EU, the FT noted. Power links between France and Spain were automatically disconnected to safeguard the wider European grid after Spain’s system began to fail.
Earlier this week, Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen said an initial investigation had revealed that the chain reaction of grid disconnections were triggered by power generation failures in the provinces of Granada, Badajoz, and Seville.
A preliminary technical assessment by Entso-E, the European association of transmission system operators, reported that 2.2 gigawatts of capacity went offline in southern Spain less than a minute before the full system collapse. The root causes of the substation failures remain under investigation.
When EU backed officials in Romania fabricated the accusation that right leaning presidential candidate Calin Georgescu was only popular because of a Russian disinformation operation on social media, the most common assumption was that this was purely a political stunt to draw voters away from his campaign. Instead, the establishment surprised many around the world with Georgescu's arrest and eventual disqualification from the race.
To this day there is still no concrete evidence that Russia had any hand in the candidate's campaign or made any measurable effort to sway the election in his favor.
At bottom, Georgescu was the clear favorite to win exactly because he was a populist, nationalist and wanted to keep Romania out of the Ukraine conflict. This is what the Romanian people want. However, the qualities that endeared him to the public were also the qualities that made him a target for removal. The strategy has only resulted in even greater defiance by the voters and given a clear boost to George Simion, the conservative alternative.
Georgescu has thrown his support behind Simion, a self proclaimed fan of MAGA and a staunch opponent of Romanian involvement in Ukraine. Simion recently crushed the existing government coalition in the do-over elections, causing Romania's Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to resign. The final election, slated for this Sunday, will finally end the chaos of the uncertain election process.
As critics of the action to stifle the populist movement point out, the government only seems to have made voters more galvanized against the status quo. It's clear that the progressive multiculturalist seat of power in Europe is fading, and they are willing to use any authoritarian means necessary to "save democracy".
The problem is that the more the European Union squeezes their fist around member nations, the more countries end up slipping through their fingers. Simion's odds of winning the election are high. High enough, in fact, that the progressive media has unleashed a rancid flood of swampy propaganda attacking the candidate in preparation of his likely victory.
Within the past two days we have seen some incredibly biased and manipulative headlines.
The Guardian says: ‘Between a mathematician and a Trump-loving hooligan’: Romania’s stark presidential choice
From the Washington Post: A Russian-stoked protest movement lifts a MAGA-like populist in Romania
From Politico: Romania’s Simion wants a broad coalition. Good luck with that.
From The New York Times (in reference to Simion's possible win): Romania Is About to Experience Disaster
From Foreign Policy: Romania’s Far Right Is More Extreme Than You Think
This is not journalism, this is agit-prop for the globalist oligarchy. CNN only referred to Simion as "A MAGA Courting Populist", which is generally true, but in their tiny leftist minds this accusation alone is a kind irredeemable condemnation.
The reaction from the corporate media in the west reveals how valuable Romania is for the future plans of NATO and the EU. Sitting directly on Ukraine's southwest border with access to the Black Sea, Romania would be a key strategic position in a future war with Russia should Europe be insane enough to pursue a conflict. There is also the matter of the European population becoming increasingly disenchanted with the progressive elites in power. Their open border policies and carbon controls have nearly destroyed most of the union and left it in third world shambles.
A win for populists in Romania could herald even greater wins by other nationalist parties across the continent in the next few years.
The United States of America, as we have known it, Has Been Destroyed by the US Supreme Court
Paul Craig Roberts
“The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse. The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go. The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any “PROCESS” but, in order to get them out of our Country, we have to go through a long and extended PROCESS. In any event, thank you to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our Country. This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” — President Trump, Truth Social, May 16, 2025 at 5:59 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114519753109701350
As I predicted, the liberal-left, committed as it is to the establishment of a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel, used the mindless judiciary to protect “rights” of non-citizens who broke the law by entering the country illegally. The judges defined the preservation of America in terms of defending “rights” for illegals who are not US citizens to use US courts to evade enforcement of US law. No one knows where these American rights of non-Americans came from, but the morons on the Supreme Court are defending them. The Supreme Court’s ruling against America in favor of illegal aliens reads like the babel of an insane asylum. Which is what the court is. Instead of standing when judges enter the courtroom, they should be pelted with rotten tomatoes and rotten eggs. There is no reason to respect them as they do not respect America and its Constitution. Most of them are activists for overthrowing traditional America.
The judiciary has also created a fourth branch of government, the civil service or executive branch employees, who the judiciary has now made independent of presidential control.
So, five months into the presidential term, my prediction has come true that the Democrats, committed as they are to the replacement of white racist Americans with people of color, would use the courts to defeat the will of the people as expressed in the presidential election.
Americans do not realize, despite the over-abundance of evidence, that they have been in a civil war for many years. That a civil war was underway became completely and totally clear in 2016 and again in 2020 and again during the Biden regime’s illegal prosecutions of Donald Trump and falsely accused and incarcerated “insurrectionists.” That the US Department of Justice and federal courts could be used to imprison American patriots who protested a stolen presidential election demonstrated for even morons to see that the Democrat liberal-left was committed to overthrowing America.
Parents in every state had the evidence before their noses every day of the school year. In place of education, white kids were taught, and still are, that they are racists, along with their parents and grandparents, that they might have been born into the wrong body, that gender is unrelated to biology and determined by self-declaration. Parents who resisted sex change operations for their underage children risked losing them to seizure by Child Protective Services. Young kids were being sexualized at an early age, taught how to give oral sex and to copulate. The Democrats heavily into pedophilia are creating receptive children for themselves. Merit was abandoned as a basis for admission to quality schools for the gifted and as the basis for graduation, resulting in the destruction of the educational experience once offered to the gifted, people America certainly needs. Corporations and even the military sidelined hiring and promotion for white heterosexual Americans in order to give illegal preference to DEI. Corporate advertising promoted, and still does, miscegenation. Democrat political jurisdictions permitted Antifa and Black Lives Matter to loot and burn white business areas of cities and refused to prosecute. Laws were passed that reduced the accountability of people of color for crimes.
For these and many other reasons enough of the insouciant American population saw the light and responded by electing an American as president. It only took 7 Supreme Court justices and a sprinkling of Democrat federal district judges to defeat the American people’s uprising.
Americans need to understand that the Supreme Court with its ruling has destroyed America. A country that cannot defend its borders and that cannot deport illegal entrants is described in Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints, a description of the fate that awaits white Americans, but Americans cannot stop scrolling their cell phones long enough to read a book that tells their future.
If Americans understood what awaits them, it is possible that they could save themselves if there was a massive violent uprising, but the people are too weak-minded and weak-willed to save themselves even if they could face up to the threat.
With my prediction that Trump’s agenda would be blocked proven true, I am encouraged to offer another prediction. The Democrats will steal the mid-term elections. The RINO Republicans, media, and judiciary will help them in order to get rid of Trump. Next, President Trump will be successfully impeached, and he and members of his government and supporters will be prosecuted. White heterosexual Americans will be discriminated against in every aspect of life. All who protest will face charges. The United States of America is about to disappear.
My backup prediction is that the American Establishment will override the Democrat liberal-left, because the ruling establishment sees Trump as an effective agent for their construction of an American neo-colonial empire consisting of Greenland, Panama, Gaza, and the Middle East (see today’s companion article.) This opens up new avenues of plunder for the ruling elite. The destruction of American unity that the Democrat liberal-left has achieved plays into the hands of the elite as the absence of unity prevents constraints on their privatization of government. Now that I think about it, my backup prediction could well be the most likely one.
Is Trump Bringing Netanyahu to Heel and Substituting An American Colonial Empire in Place of Greater Israel?
Paul Craig Roberts
Last Tuesday Nima and I discussed whether Trump can break free from Netanyahu’s grip on America https://www.youtube.com/live/4tun0-L8DJw .
Three days later, Professor Michel Chossudovsky sent me his interview by Drago Bosnia that provides a unique point of view into the mystery of what is transpiring in the Middle East https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-trump-says-goodbye-to-greater-israel/5887309 .
Chossudovsky suggests that President Trump is deep-sixing Greater Israel and replacing it with an American colonial project in which Gaza becomes a US possession or territory. The prize is the billions of dollars of gas reserves that run from Egypt’s border with Gaza to northern Syria. Chossudovsky notes that the US embassy in Iraq and the one under construction in Beirut, Lebanon, are the two largest in the world, far too large for the countries and in fact are management centers for Washington’s colonial empire in the Middle East. Chossudovsky reports that Trump has said “Good Bye Greater Israel.” The area is now being organized into Washington’s colonial empire.
What Chossudovsky says makes sense and clears up conundrums that Nima and I struggled with. If Chossudovsky is on the money, this is a world changer. I wonder if Russia and China understand this? Does Iran? Turkey? Saudi Arabia?
Notice that in his White House press conference with Netanyahu Trump and Netanyahu falsify history and the Gaza story and praise one another. But Trump’s praise for Israel is followed by Trump’s declaration that Gaza is to become a US possession — https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-does-donald-trump-want-to-transform-gaza-into-a-u-s-territory/5879488 . Trump’s praise for Israel is the sweetener for Trump’s declaration of the end of Greater Israel and the beginning of Washington’s Middle Eastern colonial empire.
Notice that in the question and answer session with the media following the speeches by Trump and Netanyahu, Netanyahu is asked if he accepts Israel’s loss of Gaza to the US. He gives it a thumbs up. So it appears that a profit-making US neo-colonial empire, with the profits shared throughout the region, will replace Greater Israel.
It appears that both Washington and Israel consider the Diaspora of the Palestinian people and the termination of the Palestinian state to be a done deal and that the few Arab states that remain accept Trump’s plan. The only remaining potential obstacle is Muslim Iran. It would be pointless to consult Libya, Iraq, and Syria as these are no longer functioning states. Perhaps Turkey is a wild card. If so, Turkey can be won over by Washington’s betrayal of the Kurds.
Has the leftwing stolen our youths?
You can see here in this young white American female how successful the anti-American left has been in using its control over US education to brainwash white American students. This one takes the side of immigrant-invaders and she thinks it is illegal to detain illegal aliens.
Of course, this could be a Democrat Party anti-Trump propaganda video.
Regardless, so many Americans have had their minds programmed with disinformation that it will be extremely difficult for Trump to Make America Great Again.
Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban revealed after a meeting with the Defense Council that Ukraine is meddling in the ongoing Hungarian referendum over whether to support Ukraine’s EU membership plans.
He also accused the opposition of unprecedentedly colluding with them.
This coincided with Hungary reportedly downing a Ukrainian drone, which followed tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions after Ukraine accused Hungary of spying on it and Hungary accused Ukraine of pushing hostile propaganda.
The larger context concerns Hungary’s principled refusal to send arms to Ukraine or allow its territory to be used by others to that end due to its pro-peace policy. As can be evinced above, it’s also against Ukraine joining the EU, the reason being that Ukraine discriminates against the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia/Transcarpathia. Even though Orban has repeatedly explained how the aforesaid policies align with Hungarian national interests, Zelensky and many in the West accuse him of being Putin’s puppet.
This was the tacit pretext upon which Ukraine let a gas deal with Russia lapse at the start of the year to the detriment of downstream customers like Hungary and Slovakia, the second of which began following in Budapest’s geopolitical footsteps after Prime Minister Roberto Fico’s return to power in late 2023. Ukraine’s move was therefore clearly meant to punish them for their pro-peace policies, which Ukraine believes undermine European unity towards the conflict and could one day obstruct EU financial aid.
The latest tensions are more troubling than any of the aforesaid since they concern security issues. Mutual mistrust was boiling for a while as detailed above but it’s now taking on a new dimension. Given their deteriorating ties since 2022, it was to be expected that they’d spy on each other, but few could have expected Ukraine’s innuendo that Hungary might be preparing an invasion and Hungary’s innuendo that Ukraine might try to orchestrate a Color Revolution. These claims deserve to be scrutinized.
Ukraine’s build upon smears that Hungary is a Russian proxy and might therefore be ordered to open a “second front” sometime in the future on the pretext of protecting its co-ethnics. While they’re indeed being discriminated against, the costs of a Hungarian military intervention in their support far outweigh the benefits. Hungary would ostracize itself from the West, open itself up to crippling sanctions and possibly even allied attack, and have to incorporate or forcibly expel Zakarpattia’s Ukrainian population.
Hungary’s claims are more believable since Ukraine already behaves as a Western proxy. Former Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov boasted in January 2023 that “We’re carrying out NATO’s mission today, without shedding their blood.” The Wall Street Journal then reported in March 2024 that Ukraine was fighting Russia in Sudan, while last summer, a GUR official claimed credit for a deadly Tuareg attack on Wagner in Mali. It thus wouldn’t be surprising if Ukraine is helping the West undermine Russian-friendly Orban.
With this insight in mind, Ukraine is much more of a credible threat to Hungary than the inverse.
In fact, Ukraine might exploit the latest tensions as the pretext for ramping up pressure on Hungary, which could in turn prompt more European countries to do the same.
Any legal action against the Hungarian opposition for their collusion with the Ukrainian special services might also lead to serious EU sanctions. Hungary must therefore brace itself for major meddling ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
Poles will be electing their next head of state as incumbent Andrzej Duda’s second term expires
The Polish presidential election is underway in what will likely be a tight contest pitting critics of the EU against those supporting deeper integration. A runoff will be held on June 1 if no candidate secures a majority in Sunday’s first round.
Around 29 million eligible voters will be choosing the successor to President Andrzej Duda from a field of 13 candidates. According to the latest opinion polls, three contenders have emerged as frontrunners.
Emerging as the frontrunner is Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is aligned with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition. A pro-European candidate and advocate of judicial reform, Trzaskowski narrowly lost the last presidential election to Duda five years ago. He is seen as the most pro-Ukrainian contender, though he has pledged to cut some social benefits to Ukrainian nationals.
Karol Nawrocki, backed by the Law and Justice party and running on a conservative platform, is polling second. He strongly opposes what he calls left-wing ideologies and has criticized EU migration and climate policies. Nawrocki rejects Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO and is against financial support for refugees, though he backs continued military aid to Kiev.
Read more
Anti-Ukrainian sentiment rising in Poland – media
Slawomir Mentzen, an economist from the right-leaning Confederation Liberty and Independence party, is currently polling in third place. Mentzen is prominent on social media, especially TikTok, where he has criticized EU regulations on car emissions and home heating, arguing they undermine Polish sovereignty. He has also condemned the government’s refugee policy, claiming it strains public resources.
Public sentiment toward Ukrainian refugees has shifted significantly of late. Media reports claim a growing numbers of Poles now support having them returned home. The issue has become prominent in the campaigns of several of the leading candidates.
The official results are expected on Monday, although exit polls will be released shortly after voting ends at 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.
It brings me back to my little, humble parish of Saint Joseph Church in Augusta, Georgia where I was a member from 1960 to 1976, the age of 6 to 22.
Although a civilian parish in the Diocese of Savannah, most of the laity were active or retired Army. Thus in the early 1960’s, we had war brides from Italy (my mother being one of them) as well as from Austria, France, Germany, Yugoslavia, Poland and other places in Europe. We also had many Korean brides from the Korean War and soon to have many Vietnamese brides from the Vietnam War.
The Mass we all attended was the Traditional Latin Mass. No language group had their own Masses isolated from other language speaking groups in the parish. We were all united by the Latin Mass.
It wasn’t until about 1970 I think, that the Korean community in my parish grew so much that with the vernacular Modern Mass they sought a Korean priest to offer Mass for them in Korean. Thus they became their own Mass community separate from the other Masses in the parish.
What a joy it was, though, before the Balkanization of languages in our Latin Rite, to be with so many different nations, peoples and languages at our Sunday Mass in little old St. Joseph Church in Augusta, Georgia. What a cosmopolitan parish it was united under one roof and one Mass in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Right-wing EU critic George Simion is running against pro-EU Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan in the second round
Romanian voters returned to the polls on Sunday, May 18 for the second round of a presidential election rerun following a court-annulled vote last year. The runoff is between George Simion, a critic of Brussels who has been banned from entering Ukraine, and Nicusor Dan, the pro-EU mayor of the capital, Bucharest.
Around 19,000 polling stations have opened across Romania for the second round of the election. Voting began at 7am local time (4am GMT) and is scheduled to end at 9pm, with exit polls expected soon after.
George Simion, the leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), came in first in the initial round earlier this month with 40.96% of the vote – nearly 20 percentage points ahead of Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who came in second. Recent polls, however, show a tighter race, with one reporting a tie and another giving Dan a narrow lead.
Dan, who is running as an independent, is a Sorbonne-educated mathematician who entered politics after years of activism. He has pledged to fight corruption, reduce economic inequality, and maintain strong ties with the EU and NATO. He also claims that Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital to national security.
Simion opposes EU bureaucracy and Brussels-mandated policies, which he has described as part of a “greedy and corrupt bubble.” He supports what he calls a “Europe of sovereign nations” and has positioned himself as a defender of “traditional values,” in contrast to “globalist ideologies.” He has denied being anti-European, describing his alliance as “Eurorealist, not Euroskeptic,” according to Politico.
Although Simion has insisted he is not pro-Russian, he opposes sending weapons to Ukraine and has called for a negotiated settlement to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. He has also praised US President Donald Trump, calling him “a symbol of freedom,” and has said he would reverse what he describes as an “anti-American shift in Europe.”
Read more
Presidential frontrunner accuses EU candidate of vote rigging
The election follows the annulment of the previous vote, in which independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu led in the first round with 23% of the vote. Romania’s Constitutional Court overturned the results, citing electoral irregularities and allegations of foreign interference, including campaign activity on TikTok and suspected Russian “hybrid” influence. Moscow has denied having any involvement.
Georgescu was later barred from running again by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), which cited his alleged “anti-democratic” and “extremist” positions and procedural violations. The court upheld the BEC’s decision.
Simion has publicly supported Georgescu, arriving with him at a polling station on Sunday. He previously said he might appoint him prime minister if elected.
READ MORE: Ban of RT journalist proves Romanian election a ‘meme’ – Moscow
On the eve of the vote, Simion claimed that voter manipulation was taking place in Moldova, where many Romanian citizens are voting. He has also deactivated his TikTok and Facebook accounts, citing compliance with the election silence rules.
After Simion’s strong showing in the first round, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned and announced the Social Democratic Party’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition, stating that the bloc no longer has political legitimacy. The PSD has said it will not support either candidate in the runoff.
Washington will study ceasefire roadmaps presented by Moscow and Kiev, the head of the State Department said
The US does not want negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to drag on indefinitely, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, emphasizing that Washington expects concrete results.
He made the remarks after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in three years in Istanbul on Friday. The countries agreed on a prisoner swap involving 1,000 people on each side, and to continue contacts once both parties have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals.
“On the one hand, we’re trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war. So there’s some element of patience that is required,” Rubio said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
“On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste. There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to. So we don’t want to be involved in this process of just endless talks. There has to be some progress, some movement forward,” he added.
Rubio said the US would examine ceasefire proposals from both Russia and Ukraine. “If those papers have ideas on them that are realistic and rational, then I think we know we’ve made progress,” he said.
Read more
Istanbul Talks 2.0 are a great chance for Zelensky to accept reality
The diplomat confirmed that the US is ready to impose further sanctions on Russia if no deal is reached. He expressed confidence that both chambers of Congress would pass Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill introducing 500% tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, natural gas, and uranium.
According to the White House, Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by phone on Saturday, reiterating President Donald Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
Moscow has rejected demands for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, insisting that talks must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO – a move Russia considers a threat to its national security.
President Vladimir Putin has maintained that a lasting truce would require Ukraine to halt its mobilization, stop receiving weapons from abroad, and withdraw troops from Russian territory. He also warned that Kiev would likely use a temporary ceasefire to rearm and regroup.
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us
Conservative movements are often depicted as unyielding and uncompromising; dangerously incapable of adaptation when new ideas come to light. This image of the political right is rooted in a number of misconceptions. In reality, modern conservatives are often far too compromising – Far too willing to go along to get along. None of us wants to be seen as a dictator.
Perhaps the most important and defining characteristic of conservatives (at least in the US) is a regard for freedom, but ONLY freedom that is tempered by responsibility. When leftists (or libertarians) scrutinize the conservative ideal they usually reach back around 50 years to the days of evangelical censorship – The attempts to shut down the porn industry, temper the gay agenda in media, warn about satanic references in movies and violence in video games.
This was the era of the Christian “busybody” and a lot of people made fun of them for it. To be clear, they were wrong in some instances, but as our current predicament in the west proves, they were right about many things, too.
The supposed balance to the evangelicals was Liberalism. Most liberals today are certainly not the staunchly individualist and freedom minded people they once were. In fact, the majority of them joined woke activists without question or kept their mouths shut while the far-left pulled a speed run into Orwell’s 1984.
Perhaps in a desperate attempt to save their ideology from losing all relevancy, some liberals slipped over to the center and criticized the woke mob. Most of them didn’t have the balls to jump into the culture war until a few years ago. Those of us in the conservative sphere had already been exposing the existential dangers of post-modernism, futurism and luciferianism for decades.
Centrist liberals say they want to temper the political left’s addiction to Marxism and Communism. As recent events have proven, they are simply not up to the task of controlling their political cousins. The woke movement spread like a cancer throughout the entire liberal body and they bowed in fealty. The only thing that stopped the rot was the right wing finally taking a stand and going on the offensive.
With conservative principles currently gaining momentum there is a chance that America could actually turn back the clock on mores and social cohesion to a time when traditional values were held in much higher regard. This can only be a good thing in my opinion, but it requires a reconsideration of our concept of personal liberty. Maybe some behavior needs to be reined in? Maybe total unchecked chaos and limitless individualism is a bad thing?
Liberals warn that conservatives are gaining too much power after the success of MAGA in last year’s elections and therefore we must be kept in check. Their argument? The woke left is beaten, but now the world must put a leash on the “woke right”.
The “woke right” label in itself is a rather remedial and silly attempt to divert popular discussion away from traditional values (a development that hasn’t taken place in the US in a long time). Morals, nobility and responsibility might become “cool” again, and liberals simply can’t have that.
They argue that their way (a continued idealization of individualism without taking inherent narcissism, psychopathy and the mentality of mobs into account) is the best way. However, we have seen where liberalism without boundaries ends. The cult of chaos (wokeness) is simply a natural extension of the liberal ideal. They demand an end to ALL restrictions, even the restrictions of objective truth.
They want total open multicultural expansion, unfettered freedom to interpret biology and morality according to subjective preference, unchecked sexual deviancy, no consequences whatsoever for their actions. Liberals are not as far from this end of the spectrum as they pretend. They don’t like cultural structures and rules either. They don’t like collective limitations (unless they control those limitations). They don’t even believe in evil; they only believe in circumstances.
Conservatives now stand atop the fray of the culture war and many of us are suggesting that, in order to prevent the nightmare of wokeness (or something even worse) from ever happening again, we might need to instill some enduring rules of social conduct. The liberals in turn are freaking out. They especially seem to despise Christian Nationalists who want to bring America back to an era of carefully defined moral order.
A decade ago I might have agreed with this concern, at least in part. I’m not fond of the idea of a theocracy in which the church rules the state. I also agree that most people have a conscience outside of biblical teaching (If we didn’t then humanity would have gone extinct long ago).
That said, Christian Nationalism does not require theocracy, and if you do have a conscience then you should already be in agreement with most Christian fundamentals anyway. Living in a society where Christianity is more widely embraced wouldn’t make any difference for you. It would only be incompatible if a person harbors post-modern delusions that view Christianity as the enemy. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be living in America anyway. All you have to do is go elsewhere.
I think liberals need to acknowledge that they are a product of a very narrow moment in time and that time is fading. For most of American history Christianity was the preeminent cultural compass. The US was always Christian and nearly all of our leaders were Christian. America has in fact always been a Christian nation and Christian Nationalism was the norm. Christians are still the majority today (62%) despite the endless negative campaign to shut them down.
As recently as the 1990s, over 90% of all Americans identified as Christian. Things have only changed in the past 30 years, and they have done so dramatically to the negative.
In light of the unfettered horrors of wokism I’m increasingly convinced that Christian doctrine is a necessary firewall designed to filter out otherwise malicious ideological malware. If the progressives (and their liberal counterparts) are not kept in check by someone, then the woke march could repeat by the next generation.
So, what is to be done?
The underlying debate is this – Should one group define western culture above all others and defend it against existential threats. Are Christian Nationalists that group? I would say yes to both questions, because of America’s spiritual history and the fact that there’s no other viable alternative. Do we continue to allow liberals to anoint themselves the arbiters of American culture? Or, do we try something different?
Is this hard-right position also “woke right”? The term “woke right” is often linked back to Kevin DeYoung’s 2022 review of Stephen Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism. In his article entitled “The Rise of Right-Wing Wokeism” he argues that:
“Besides trafficking in sweeping and unsubstantiated claims about the totalizing control of the Globalist American Empire and the gynocracy, Wolfe’s apocalyptic vision—for all of its vitriol toward the secular elites—borrows liberally from the playbook of the left.
He not only redefines the nature of oppression as psychological oppression (making it easier to justify extreme measures and harder to argue things aren’t as bad as they seem), he also rallies the troops (figuratively, but perhaps also literally?) by reminding them they’re victims. “The world is out to get you, and people out there hate you” is not a message that will ultimately help white men or any other group that considers themselves oppressed…”
“…If critical race theory teaches that America has failed, that the existing order is irredeemable, that Western liberalism was a mistake from the beginning, that the current system is rigged against our tribe, and that we ought to make ethnic consciousness more important—it seems to me that Wolfe’s project is the right-wing version of these same impulses.”
While DeYoung’s analysis seems to be coming from a sincere place and he does defend Christian culture as an important part of American life, his analysis requires a certain level of ignorance to stay afloat. Liberals and left leaning Christians refuse to consider one important factor:
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
The entire premise behind the notion of the “woke right” requires that none of the threats above prove to be real. That there is no globalist conspiracy to destroy the west and Christianity. That the subversion of conservative principles is imagined. That there is no white replacement in the US and Europe. That conservatives are not being oppressed and that tribal organization against our attackers is unwarranted or impractical.
DeYoung (and most liberals) prefer passive Christianity. If Christians had thought like DeYoung in the Middle Ages, the entire west would have been wiped off the face of the Earth by Muslim invaders centuries ago. Instead, they took direct action to save themselves. The issue is not even particularly nationalist in origin, it’s only that nations are the easiest barrier to rally and defend. At bottom, Christians must at times act to prevent their own erasure.
Wokeness is largely about false witness – Leftists claim they are being oppressed when they are provably not. The political right cannot be woke because the western world and Christianity are indeed under constant attack. This is not debatable.
In Europe today, the war on Christians and conservatives (or populists) is evident and it is undeniably systemic. Europeans have been under siege by engineered mass immigration from the third-world. Most of the migrants come from places (Islamic) that despise Christianity and view personal liberty as an aberration or heresy. The governments of France, Germany, England and Romania are actively imprisoning right leaning political opponents and silencing them online, all in the name of liberal democracy.
In the US, woke zealots and the global elites have used everything from mass censorship to medical tyranny to mob violence to shut down and terrorize the political right. The Biden Administration made multiple public proclamations declaring conservatives a domestic threat to democracy. We were accused of being insurrectionists. We were painted as terrorists, and all we did was ask questions and demand truthful answers. This isn’t an exaggerated tale of victimhood conjured up for sympathy, it’s just the facts.
The debate over Christians and conservatives taking direct action instead of waiting around for the next crisis reminds me of a fascinating film directed by Bill Paxton called ‘Frailty’. If you haven’t seen it then I recommend doing so before I spoil it for you here.
In the movie, Bill Paxton plays a father with two sons living a relatively normal life as a devout man with a good heart. One day, he approaches his sons with a terrifying tale: He was visited by an angel from heaven that told him he has been chosen for a mission to destroy evil. The evil, he says, is enacted by demons that take the form of human beings. He claims that God has demanded that he and his sons remove these demons before they do anymore harm.
The youngest son believes his father without question and in full faith. The older son does not and asserts that the man might be going dangerously insane.
What follows is an escalating conflict between father and son as Bill Paxton begins to kill the people he believes are demonic. When he touches them, he says he can see the crimes they’ve committed. The older son refuses to participate in the murders and tries to sabotage Paxton’s efforts. Finally, Paxton accuses his oldest of being a demon as well. The boy eventually kills his father in order to stop the murders.
Plot Twist: Bill Paxton really did receive a vision from God. He really was killing demons, and his eldest son was also a demon the whole time.
Liberals who perpetuate the woke right narrative remind me of the oldest son in Frailty.
They play at being even handed, fighting to keep the scales of power from tipping in either direction. In truth, they are blinded by their own self righteousness and their belief that there is no such thing as evil. The rest of us see it, but if we try to do something about it these same people obstruct and sabotage and accuse us of “becoming monsters to defeat the monsters”. They allow the sparks of woke chaos to survive.
Should western civilization be allowed to discriminate? Should we be able to refuse to associate? Should we have the right to be tribal (like everyone else) and deny entry to malicious cultures and ideologies? Is our heritage valid and enduring? Is Christian Nationalism the solution to the woke luciferian agenda? It seems to me that the elites want conservatism dead so badly that it must be a threat to them.
We ARE fighting demons, and a culture without a spiritual consensus is a dying culture. Christian Nationalism was the natural default of American society for centuries. Many people who are not Christians are still perfectly capable of living and thriving within such a society as long as they don’t try to tear it down. The Overton Window has merely been rigged so far to the left that any return to the old standard sounds like madness; it is in fact the most sane thing we could possibly do to save our country.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
The longest reported length of death by assisted suicide was 137 hours in Oregon in 2023. Let me state that again, one person took 5 days and 17 hours to die by assisted suicide in 2023, after ingesting the lethal poison cocktail.
Washington had slapped restrictions on Ankara over an S-400 deal with Russia
The US is relaxing sanctions on Türkiye’s defense industry and has approved a major arms deal, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.
In 2020, Washington imposed restrictions on Ankara under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) in response to Türkiye’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense missile system. Ankara repeatedly rejected calls to abandon the deal with Moscow, insisting on its sovereign right to choose its weapons suppliers.
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Turkish President Erdogan says he 'can't harm relations with Russia' by ditching S-400 on Trump's demand
“We can safely say that CAATSA sanctions are being eased,” Erdogan told reporters on Saturday, after returning from the European Political Community summit in Albania. He added that he had spoken with the new American ambassador to Türkiye, Tom Barrack.
“With my friend Trump taking office, we reached a more open, more constructive, more sincere communication,” he said.
The easing of restrictions coincides with US approval of a potential missile sale worth over $300 million — a move Erdogan described as a step toward removing remaining barriers between the two NATO allies. “As two major NATO allies, there should be no defense restrictions,” he said.
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Erdogan accepts Putin’s request to host Russia-Ukraine talks
During a phone call in March, Erdogan urged Trump to lift the sanctions, finalize a $23 billion deal for 40 F-16 fighter jets, and reinstate Türkiye in the F-35 fighter jet program. Ankara was removed from the project in 2019 over concerns that the Russian-made S-400 system could compromise the jet’s security. Trump is reportedly open to Türkiye’s return, provided the S-400 system is dismantled or relocated to a US-controlled base.
Erdogan and Trump recently held another call, during which they discussed Syria, Gaza, and efforts to end the Ukraine conflict. Trump, who previously described his relationship with Erdogan as “excellent,” called the conversation “very good and productive.”
Türkiye hosted the first direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in three years on Friday in Istanbul, during which the two sides agreed to a large prisoner swap.
The ARM Cuauhtemoc sail vessel was visiting New York to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s independence
A sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy collided with the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday evening.
Video from the scene shows the ARM Cuauhtemoc’s three tall masts, decorated with lights, toppling after they struck the underside of the bridge’s road deck.
The New York Post cited fire officials and its own sources as saying that multiple members of the ship’s 277-person crew had been injured. The newspaper also reported that rescuers were pulling people from the water.
The Latin Times reported, citing its sources, that dozens were injured, including three people in critical condition. According to the outlet, the barque’s crew likely misjudged the height of the 171-foot masts in relation to the bridge’s 127-foot clearance at high tide.
In an absolutely stunning modern metaphor a ship blaring Mexican music and flying a massive Mexican flag just got destroyed by the Brooklyn bridge.
Can’t make it uppic.twitter.com/AUJy0q3oFB
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Essentially all of America's major cities on the west coast are experiencing a period of steep economic decline. The reason for the financial squeeze and the exodus of major business chains is obvious - Democrat run cities enforce progressive criminal policies and progressive tax policies. The two elements combined make it nearly impossible for most companies to function and turn a profit. Even worse, businesses are finding it difficult to ensure their employees stay safe.
The theft issue is astronomical, even after the California State Government (and city governments) reversed a law which made prosecution of anyone stealing under $950 in goods almost impossible. Criminal residents took full advantage of the lack of enforcement and gutted numerous retail outlets, forcing them to lock up their stock behind plastic and chains. The elimination of the law might lesson the incentive to steal, but too many criminals know they are still unlikely to be caught or have their cases pursued by the city.
Denny's, Walgreens, Michael Kors and others have shuttered San Francisco locations. So far in 2025, the San Francisco Police Department has recorded more than 8,100 crime reports, including 530 robberies and over 4,600 instances of larceny theft.
In San Francisco's once bustling Union Square shopping district, some of the largest retailers are running for the hills. Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Uniqlo, Adidas, American Eagle, J. Crew, Madewell, Aldo, L'Occitane, as well as Psycho Bunny, Sunglass Hut, and Razer have all closed stores in the area or are in the process of leaving.
However, the city is placing hope in the arrival of a brand new Nintendo flagship store in Union Square, which they think will help rejuvenate shopping activity. The store is one of only two in existence outside of Japan.
It probably doesn't need to be spelled out, but the desperation and delusion are palpable here. The store is a unique item to the US, but not enough to draw in a shopping revival in the already hollow Union Square. San Francisco's reputation as a tourist destination is undeniably sullied. A single successful store is also not going to drive other businesses to take a chance in a market they already escaped.
Why Nintendo would choose to establish a flagship operation in the area is a mystery, but the city government has recently created a "Downtown Revitalization Program" (including something called the "San Francisco New Deal") which offers a number of financial incentives, grants, low interest loans and rewards for "beautification". Nintendo may have gathered enough taxpayer cash already to pay for their first year of operations.
In other words, no company is going to put down roots in San Francisco unless the local government pays them to do so.
A summit of the Arab League began in Baghdad on Saturday, with Syria's president absent following Iraqi outcry. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was the first Arab leader to arrive in Baghdad on Friday, followed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Saturday.
However, a diplomatic source told AFP that most Gulf leaders would not be attending. Other figures present in Baghdad on Saturday include United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (right) walks with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (left) upon his arrival in Baghdad for the 34th Arab League summit on 17 May 2025
The summit is expected to discuss the numerous crises afflicting the region, including Israel's ongoing attack on the Gaza Strip.
US President Donald Trump, who has been touring the Gulf states, sparked outrage in the Arab world earlier this year when he declared his country would take control of Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
In response, Arab leaders announced the development of a post-war plan at the previous summit in Cairo in March to rebuild the territory.
The Iraqi government has said this month's summit would endorse the plan, which calls for a $53bn fund to finance Gaza's reconstruction over five years. Under the proposal, the territory would be administered during a transitional period by a committee of Palestinian technocrats, before the PA regains control.
"We are not just rebuilding Iraq, we are also reshaping the Middle East through a balanced foreign policy, wise leadership, development initiatives, and strategic partnerships," Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani wrote in an opinion piece earlier this month.
Syrian al-Qaeda founder
Iraq is still trying to stabilize after years of violence sparked off by the US-led invasion in 2003 that overthrew long-time ruler Saddam Hussein.
Controversy had swirled around an invitation extended by Sudani to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who came to power after overthrowing Bashar al-Assad in December. Numerous Iraqi politicians had called for him to be blocked from attending over his past membership in al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis during the 2000s through often indiscriminate and sectarian attacks.
On Saturday, it was reported that Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, who was also a member of Syria's al-Qaeda wing alongside Sharaa, would be attending the summit rather than the president.
Iraqi media reported last month that at least 50 MPs from Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataeb Hezbollah - two Iran-backed armed political factions that provided military support to Assad against Sharaa and other Syrian opposition groups - had filed criminal complaints in Iraqi courts against the Syrian president.
The Islamic Dawa Party, which held the prime ministership during the bulk of the al-Qaeda insurgency, also warned against inviting Sharaa to Iraq. Though they did not mention the prime minister by name, they said that anyone invited to the Arab League conference should have a "spotless" legal record, both at home and abroad.
However, Sudani - like several other Arab leaders - has been keen to normalize ties with Syria following 13 years of civil [proxy war for regime change] war that have destabilized the wider region, including fueling the rise of the Islamic State group in Iraq.
The summit also comes shortly after Sharaa met with Trump, who announced the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria during the Assad era. Still, not everyone has been so open to mending relations with Iraq's western neighbor.
Safaa Rashid, a Baghdad resident who lost three cousins in al-Qaeda blasts in 2005, told Middle East Eye last month that he was appalled by Sudani's decision to invite Sharaa.
"[Sharaa] is the face of terrorism," he said. "He must be held accountable. I lost three cousins to his group’s violence... How can someone like this be welcomed as if he were an honored guest?"
Last week we noted new report from the New York Federal Reserve, which showed that while Americans' credit card debt is falling, credit scores are starting to decline due to an uptick in student loan delinquencies.
The NY Fed's Center for Macroeconomic Data's quarterly report reveals that overall household debt rose by $167 billion - with credit card debt declining by $29 billion. Yet, the delinquency rate for student loans surged from below 1% to nearly 7.7% after a pandemic-era pause on student loan payments was lifted in September 2023.
While the payments were resumed, policymakers extended a one-year ramp-up period that shielded borrowers' missed payments from being reported to credit bureaus. This extension expired in October 2024, with delinquencies starting to hit the first quarter of 2025.
Needless to say, it's total carnage among borrowers, as one can see from Reddit's 'StudentLoans' forum.
"My credit score dropped 240+ points. i dont know what to do!!" said one Redditor, who says she can't pay her bills because she doesn't have a job after graduating in 2024.
"My score was in the high 700s and dropped to about 480," said another Redditor, who said they were notified by reporting agency Experian that their credit "took a massive hit."
"My transunion and equifax scores took a -100 hit due to my loans "just being recognized this January,"" reported another borrower.
"My credit dropped from a 720 to a 550," said yet another - who reported having "6 total loans from school" that have been "deferred for a while."
"Credit Got Torched" reads a Friday post. "i am unfortunately 1 of the 9 million people who received delinquency marks on my credit report from the dept of education for student loans, which decreased my credit score by 118 points."
Interestingly, several redditors said their scores tanked from loans taken out in their names that they were unaware of - including the first example, who said "I have 10 student loans overall, 5 sub, 5 unsub, and have never had anything else on my credit or anything, no cards or loans, etc. I did get my identity stolen, but I disputed the loans that were taken out fraudulently, and my score was barely affected at all from it."
According to the NY Fed report, while over half of the newly delinquent borrowers already have subprime credit scores, around 2.4 million borrowers who entered delinquency this year had scores over 620 - which could have allowed them to qualify for auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards, prior to the delinquency being reported. 3.2 million borrowers whose scores were under 620 (56.6% of the newly delinquent population) saw their scores decline by an average of 74 points.
Another 2 million borrowers with scores between 620 - 719 (35.9% of new delinquencies) saw their credit scores fall by an average of 140 points - while there were 400,000 borrowers whose scores were above 720 (7.2% of new delinquencies) that saw their scores fall by over 100 points.
Over 1 million borrowers saw drops of at least 150 points.
The report found that seven states have a conditional student loan delinquency rate — which excludes borrowers who don't have a payment due — above 30%, including Mississippi (44.6%), Alabama (34.1%), West Virginia (34%), Kentucky (33.6%), Oklahoma (33.6%), Arkansas (33.5%) and Louisiana (31.8%).
At the end of the first quarter, over 20 million federal student loan borrowers weren't in repayment and five million had a zero-dollar monthly payment. -Fox News
"After a five-year hiatus, student loan delinquency has returned to the pre-pandemic 'normal' with more than 10 percent of balances and roughly six million borrowers either past due or in default," according to the NY Fed report, which noted that the collections process that resumed in May includes the "garnishment of wages, tax returns, and Social Security payments."
"Additionally, millions of borrowers face steep declines in their credit standing which will increase borrowing costs or seriously limit their access to credit like mortgages and auto loans."
Romania’s George Simion claims authorities in neighboring Moldova are sabotaging his campaign
Romania’s Eurosceptic presidential candidate George Simion has accused the pro-EU government in neighboring Moldova of attempting to rig Sunday’s runoff vote. The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) came in first in the initial round of the presidential election rerun on May 4, securing more than 40% of the vote.
Roughly 30% of Moldova’s population are dual Moldovan-Romanian citizens. Simion’s supporters argue that early turnout among Romanians voting in Moldova is suspiciously high – nearly three times the level recorded during the same period in the first round.
“Enough campaigning – now we have to stop the massive fraud! The government in Moldova has started stealing votes. We won’t let them!” Simion wrote on Facebook on Friday.
The AUR has claimed that Moldova’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) has been directing voters to support Simion’s opponent, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. “By 1 p.m., over 50,000 votes had been cast by the diaspora – an increase of almost 70% compared to the first round. These figures are no coincidence,” the party wrote on its website.
Read more
Romanian presidential frontrunner slams ‘authoritarian’ Macron
The AUR also accused Moldova’s broadcaster Pro TV Chisinau of waging “an illegal and partisan campaign in favor of the establishment candidate” and of voter manipulation “under the guise of independent journalism.”
Chisinau has denied any interference in Romania’s election. “Out of respect for the voters, we urge all political actors to refrain from making accusations that only serve to undermine this democratic exercise,” government spokesman Daniel Voda said. He encouraged Romanian nationals living in Moldova to cast their ballots “without fear.”
The election rerun was ordered after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the November vote, in which independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu came first with 23%. Authorities cited “irregularities” in his campaign, along with intelligence reports alleging Russian interference – claims Moscow has strongly denied.
Simion condemned the annulment of the 2024 election results as a “coup d’état.” He is currently banned from entering Moldova, which he has called “an artificial country” that “will never join the European Union.”
Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,
Los Angeles County is launching a new program to warn criminals and deter retail theft, according to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who says local businesses have lost millions of dollars to theft since January.
Retailers can contact local law enforcement to obtain one of 10,000 yellow warning decals to post at their business and inform the public that thefts will be prosecuted by the regional retail theft task force.
The sticker also has a QR code for the public to use to report any crimes.
According to the National Retail Federation, the Los Angeles area is the worst in the nation for organized retail crime.
At a press conference on May 14 in front of a 7-Eleven convenience store in West Los Angeles, Hochman said ending the cycle of catch-and-release in recent years that sent serial retail thieves back on the streets to reoffend is a top priority.
“Small businesses, stores, and even big-box retailers constitute the lifeline of our communities, and the lifeblood of our communities are under attack,” Hochman said.
“They’ve had to deal over the last several years with criminals who had the mistaken belief that you can come into a 7-Eleven, for instance, take whatever you want, leave, and nothing would happen.
“We are here today to explain to them the exact opposite,” he said. “You will be held accountable, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The district attorney said he intended to use new authority afforded by Proposition 36, passed by state voters last year, to prosecute thieves and repeat offenders.
The proposition—also known as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” went into effect on Dec. 18, 2024.
The new law increased penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, and reclassified some misdemeanors as felonies for repeat offenders. The penalties can include sentences of up to three years in jail or prison if the defendant has already been convicted for certain thefts.
Since December, the county has filed over 1,000 Prop. 36 felony theft charges against repeat offenders, according to Hochman.
“We are armed with an additional set of laws under Prop. 36,” Hochman said.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said 10,000 warning decals will be available for local stores beginning May 16, 2025. Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Before Prop. 36 went into effect, petty thefts under $950 were classified as misdemeanors, and thefts could not be aggregated to meet the felony threshold, creating a “culture of impunity,” Hochman’s office stated.
One of the felony arrests made since the new law took effect was of Corry Summerville, 38, who was allegedly a serial shoplifter at the 7-Eleven featured in the news conference.
Summerville has been charged with 12 felony charges and one count of robbery related to alleged thefts at the convenience store owned by franchisee Jawad Ursani between January and March.
Four employees resigned, allegedly out of fear of continued encounters with Summerville, according to the Los Angeles Police Department Commanding Officer Capt. Richard Gabaldon.
One of the employees was allegedly violently assaulted when he asked Summerville to pay for items.
“We commend the victim for ultimately coming forward,” Gabaldon said at the news conference.
Los Angeles Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the district where the 7-Eleven is located, said her family often frequented the store.
“When a store is repeatedly targeted or a theft turns violent, it does more than hurt the business,” Yaroslavsky said at the event. “It makes you wonder if it’s safe to send your kids in. It makes you worry that someone could get caught in the middle. And it makes you feel like no one is in charge.”
The district attorney is also partnering with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute organized retail crime. Investigators are targeting serial shoplifters, smash-and-grab mobs, and large-scale criminal enterprises.
“This is a warning to all the criminals out there, if you come to these stores and think you’re going to come here and commit a crime, we’re going to arrest you and present a good case to the D.A., and you will go to jail for that,” said LAPD Capt. Francis Boateng, commanding officer of the department’s commercial crimes division.
Convenience store owner Ursani, who has operated the 7-Eleven featured at the news conference for more than 25 years, said he was grateful for the support from Hochman and the law enforcement communities.
“My store was targeted not once, but twice, by a smash-and-grab of about over 50 teenagers and a repeat [alleged] shoplifter who is now detained and will be held accountable by this D.A.’s office as we speak,” Ursani said. “Each incident costs us in stolen goods, broken equipment, staff morale, and personal safety.”
Ursani said he has had to spend thousands of dollars on protection for the store, instead of spending the money on inventory and community investments.
“It’s not just about theft, it’s about fear and instability it brings to everyone who depends on this store and our entire community,” Ursani added.
Prop. 36 has given law enforcement more tools to target operations that harm communities, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Division Chief Joe Mendoza.
“While Proposition 36 promotes necessary criminal justice reform, it also allows us to focus resources on serious, organized theft operations that harm our communities,” Mendoza said.
The progressive ideal is largely to blame for the monstrous creation that is ghetto culture. The idea that racial narcissism among blacks should not only be tolerated but celebrated has led to a surge in open animosity for societal rules and standards within the US. Far more than any other group, the black community makes up the largest share of physical crime according to their percentage of the population. This includes robbery, aggravated assault, and homicides.
For example, black Americans make up only 13% of the population but commit around 52% of all homicides according to FBI statistics. The recent case of Karmelo Anthony comes to mind, a black teen who admitted to stabbing a white teen and killing him because the white teen allegedly "pushed him" (which he argues was a threat that made deadly force justifiable).
The concept of "disrespect" as an offense that justifies murder is only one problem. There is an identifiable trend of theatrical sociopathy within the black community that goes far beyond the norm. The prevailing theory is that this is predominantly cultural - Black Americans have the highest rate of single parent households in the country (50% of black homes compared to 20% of white homes in 2023). Most of these households are run by single mothers. Single mother homes are a notorious indicator of future criminality among juveniles.
Then there is the problem of racial victim culture; the false idea that black Americans are being "oppressed" in the US by a systemic conspiracy of white patriarchs. In reality, white Americans have been exponentially tolerant and have provided special privileges for blacks (affirmative action and DEI), largely because progressive society demands that reparations be made for slavery 150 years ago and segregation 60 years ago. The form of those reparations has more or less been white guilt and a quiet passiveness in the face of increasing antagonism.
Leftists claim white people should take it because historically they deserve it. Ignore the fact that every culture on Earth had institutional slavery and all the slaves sent to the Americas were purchased from African tribes that enslaved other African tribes.
However, it appears that the black community's precious supply of white guilt has finally run out and people are fed up. The term "Black Fatigue" has gone viral this week on social media, sparking a much needed conversation among not just whites, but also blacks and other minorities. The catalyst blamed for the trend is the now widely known "Shiloh Hendrix Incident" which has led to public support and an uproar among progressives who demand the woman be prosecuted for dropping an N-bomb.
I don’t think it’s so much “black fatigue” as it is POS fatigue which you can see in various races.
For instance, white people are sick of Antifa and radical leftists who coat their entitlement and destruction with pseudo-morality. Hispanic people don’t like border hoppers who… pic.twitter.com/yaHMKKnlj3
Perhaps white Americans finally speaking up instead of remaining silent is what was needed all along. The fear has not been so much about black reprisal, but reprisal from the leftist mob, which until recently had weaponized cancel culture to destroy the lives of anyone speaking outside of prescribed leftist opinions.
The following clips illustrate Black Fatigue in the most symbolic way possible: An arrogant desire to destroy what other groups build, no matter how meaningless and petty the situation might be. Never helping, never cooperating, never trying to make things better.
Black fatigue
Who has it? pic.twitter.com/x0aoz9AKBN
And an egotistical need to display power over other groups (especially white people) by sabotaging them even though they have done nothing wrong and want to be left alone. Oversensitive reactions to every perceived slight, creating a psychology of persecution that leads blacks to lash out over everything. These are habits not limited to individuals, but habits of the culture as a whole.
This black mother is absolutely terrible as she teaches her baby girl to bully white girls, whom she captions as “baby Karens” in her video. pic.twitter.com/L5ExtXYZGL
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 19, 2024Black fatigue is leading to a dangerous place and it's clear that at least some in the community see what is happening and they're trying to mitigate the damage. Historically speaking, the next stage would be mass anger and retaliation for such behaviors.
Hopefully it won't come to that. If ghetto culture is abandoned and calmer minds prevail then it's likely most racial strife within the US today will disappear as quickly as it gestated. But this would require that a large portion of black Americans accept the reality that they are not victims and that they are causing the problem. How likely is it that this will happen given decades of woke indoctrination that says white people are always the source of every conflict and trespass?
* * *
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Imposing new restrictions against the backdrop of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev is wrong, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico believes
The EU is wrong to slap Russia with a fresh round of sanctions against the backdrop of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said. He compared the restrictions to a “plague” and stated that they do more harm to the bloc itself while hardly affecting Russia.
EU ambassadors on Wednesday approved a 17th package of sanctions against Russia, which targets nearly 200 oil tankers that the West claims are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet.” These are older vessels that operate outside the Western insurance system. The move came just two days before a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul in what were the first direct peace talks between the two sides in three years.
“Sanctions are like a plague and I reject the sanctions policy,” Fico told the Slovak STVR broadcaster, maintaining that the restrictions imposed by Brussels have so far only damaged the EU. He believes that Russia managed to quickly adapt to all the punitive measures.
Read more
EU mulling ‘punitive’ new tariffs on Russia – Politico
Fico also said he would support a national referendum on rejecting EU sanctions on Russia should someone call for one. If any new restrictions risk damaging the Slovak economy, he will veto them at the EU level, he stated.
The Slovak leader also said that he discussed a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow earlier in May. According to Fico, diplomacy is still the best way to resolve the Ukraine conflict, with negotiations between Putin and US President Donald Trump being key to reaching a settlement.
On Friday, Moscow and Kiev agreed to a major prisoner swap and decided to continue contacts once each side prepares a detailed ceasefire plan and presents it to the other. Following the talks, several EU nations called for more pressure against Moscow. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated that the EU and US must “suffocate” the Russian economy “once and for all.”
Slovakia took what Fico calls a “constructive” and pragmatic approach towards Russia upon coming to power in 2023. “Europe needs Russia, and Russia needs Europe,” he said in a video message last week, reflecting on his visit to Moscow. “We must pursue a policy of cooperation, not one of hatred and iron curtains.”
Romania’s George Simion and Poland’s Karol Nawrocki have vowed to oppose Brussels’ policies and build stronger ties with Donald Trump’s America
A joint election campaign rally by Romanian election frontrunner George Simion and Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki have announced plans for what the former described as a “pro-MAGA” union at a joint rally the two held earlier this week in Poland. Supporters at the event chanted the name of US President Donald Trump.
Both EU nations are heading into presidential elections this Sunday. Poland will hold the first round of voting, while Romania will see a runoff between Simion and Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan.
Speaking at the rally in support of Nawrocki in Zabrze on Tuesday, Simion vowed to reverse what he called an “anti-American change in Europe.” A critic of the EU who has been banned from entering Ukraine, Simion won the first round of the presidential election rerun in Romania on May 4 with more than 40% of the vote.
His words prompted the crowd to begin chanting: “Donald Trump! Donald Trump!” The politician joined the chant and called the American leader “not just a person but a symbol of freedom.”
George Simion, who is a presidential candidate in Romania, came to support Karol Nawrocki at his rally.
Karol Nawrocki is a candidate for President of Poland.
Everyone in the background is cheering ,”Donald Trump! Donald Trump!”!!pic.twitter.com/hbXwpUGU3C
Nawrocki, a conservative candidate who is supported by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, is currently polling second behind Rafal Trzaskowski, who is aligned with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition.
Addressing the rally, he vowed to “build a Europe of values, a Europe of homelands, in which we will not allow the EU to centralize and turn Poland and Romania into provinces.” Nawrocki opposes EU and NATO membership for Ukraine, as well as financial aid for refugees, while supporting continued military assistance to Kiev.
Read more
Romanian presidential frontrunner slams ‘authoritarian’ Macron
Speaking to the magazine American Conservative a day after the rally, Simion stated that, together with Nawrocki, they “could become two pro-MAGA presidents committed to reviving our partnership with the United States.” He also vowed to “shift our focus to bilateral negotiations with the Trump administration” if elected.
The rally prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to claim on X that “Russia rejoices” at seeing Nawrocki standing together with “his pro-Russian Romanian counterpart George Simion.”
Simion responded by posting an image of Tusk meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 2010 and calling him “Putin’s man in Poland.”
Moscow has never commented publicly about any ties with either Simion or Tusk. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier blasted the Romanian presidential election as “scandalous” after RT correspondent Chay Bowes was deported from the country right after arriving in the country to cover the vote.
Peace, Leo notes, is not merely a negative condition, namely the absence of conflict. True peace between people has as a positive precondition a purity of heart that entails freedom from pride and vindictiveness, and a will to cooperate and understand rather than to conquer. Here there is an echo of Augustine’s famous account of peace as “the tranquility of order,” where order involves a unity of purpose. Peace in a community requires agreement on an end, and for Augustine it must be the right end. What end is that? For Augustine it is God, and significantly, Leo remarks that “peace is first and foremost a gift. It is the first gift of Christ.” (I have more to say about Augustine’s account of peace in a recent Postliberal Order article.)
Turning to justice, Leo indicates that this too requires well-ordered societies. In this connection, he calls attention to Leo XIII’s famous social encyclical Rerum Novarum. Importantly, while he mentions working conditions, poverty, and the like, his emphasis is on something else. He says:
It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, “a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.” In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.
The phrase in quotation marks is from Rerum Novarum, and it is the one direct quote from that document. Like Leo XIII and other popes who have set out Catholic social teaching, Leo emphasizes that the health of the family is the fundamental precondition of the health of society, and that seeing to the health of the family is one of the duties of governing officials.
This basic truth of Catholic social teaching is radically at odds with long-prevailing attitudes on both the political left and the political right. Both, in their different ways, wrongly insist on emphasizing economics rather than morality and culture when addressing social problems. Both have essentially endorsed the sexual revolution and its transformation in attitudes about divorce, extramarital sex, homosexuality, and the like, albeit the right has done so in a more gradual, piecemeal, and in some cases reluctant manner. And both have now essentially adopted the libertarian position that even if one laments the sexual revolution, government has no place in trying to roll it back. From the point of view of Catholic social doctrine, true social justice cannot be achieved until we at long last abandon these errors.
On the topic of truth, Leo says:
Where words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its altered perception of reality, takes over unchecked, it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking. For her part, the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding.
Though earlier in his address, he had also called for “carefully choosing our words. For words too, not only weapons, can wound and even kill.”
Leo’s point here seems to be, first, that one obstacle to truth prevailing in human relationships today is the degree to which people’s perceptions are shaped by the “virtual world” – social media and the like, with the biases, groupthink, hot takes, and emotion-driven commentary that it fosters. This virtual world is reminiscent of the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave, which radically distort the understanding of those who dwell in it.
Another obstacle to truth, Leo indicates, is the way that language is so often used today as a weapon or a means of obfuscation, rather than a means of communicating for the sake of mutual understanding and describing objective reality. Hence the tendency of politicians to use words to flummox opponents, rile up allies, and keep citizens perpetually off balance and divided; and of ideologues to introduce novel usages so as to lend false plausibility to rank sophistries (think of the violence done to language by gender theory, for example).
Leo teaches that we must remain grounded in objective reality and insist on using language to convey that reality, even bluntly wherever necessary. This, he goes on to say, is what charity requires, for genuine unity between people must be grounded in truth. And ultimately, he also says, “truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers.”
This emphasis on truth as ultimately Christocentric once again echoes Augustine. It also once again echoes Leo XIII, who in Rerum Novarum not only emphasizes that getting the family right is a basic precondition of social justice, but also that, even more fundamentally, “no satisfactory solution will be found unless religion and the Church have been called upon to aid.” As Leo XIII went on to say in that grand encyclical:
Without hesitation We affirm that if the Church is disregarded, human striving will be in vain… And since religion alone, as We said in the beginning, can remove the evil, root and branch, let all reflect upon this: First and foremost Christian morals must be reestablished, without which even the weapons of prudence, which are considered especially effective, will be of no avail, to secure well-being.
One last remark about Leo XIV’s address. His phrase “family of peoples” is, I think, especially apt today as an implicit correction to two opposite extreme errors found on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. On the left we find a globalism that tends to dissolve borders and treats national loyalties as if they are somehow inherently suspect. On the right we find a jingoistic bellicosity that overcorrects for this globalism. To see the world as a family of peoples is to see what is wrong with both of these extremes. For distinct peoples have a right to preserve what defines them as a people, culturally, linguistically, and economically. But a good member of a family of peoples does not bully or intimidate or lord it over other family members.
Sam Altman-backed Oklo says it is navigating what CEO Jacob DeWitte calls “good uncertainty” as potential Trump administration executive orders could accelerate Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing, expand military and Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear roles, and boost U.S. nuclear fuel supply chains, according to UtilityDive.
On Oklo’s Q1 2025 earnings call, DeWitte confirmed the company is engaged in a “pre-application readiness assessment” with the NRC, aiming to smooth its formal license submission for a newly upsized 75-MW reactor design in Q4 2025. The company still targets late 2027 or early 2028 for first power production at its Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site.
DeWitte noted the recent departure of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as Oklo board chair removes a potential conflict of interest should OpenAI become a future power customer. Oklo already holds about 14 GW in nonbinding agreements with data centers and industrial operators.
The White House is weighing four nuclear-related executive orders, including directives to overhaul NRC licensing with an 18-month deadline for new applications, reconsider radiation exposure limits, and authorize military and DOE property for reactor deployments—potentially bypassing standard NRC approvals.
These efforts aim to boost U.S. nuclear capacity to 400 GW by 2050, up from about 100 GW today. While the NRC is already implementing changes from last year’s ADVANCE Act, further reforms could shorten Oklo’s expected 24- to 30-month licensing timeline.
The UtilityDive report says that Oklo is also among eight companies eligible for the military’s Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program, enabling on-base reactor deployments. It’s developing nuclear fuel fabrication facilities capable of reusing spent fuel that would otherwise sit in long-term storage.
Meanwhile, NuScale Power is actively pursuing contracts for its small modular reactor (SMR) technology, targeting a firm customer order by the end of 2025. CEO John Hopkins said the company could deliver an operational power plant by 2030 “if we get closure on a deal here soon.” NuScale is awaiting expected NRC approval in July for its uprated 77-MW design and has 12 modules in production through manufacturing partner Doosan, capable of delivering up to 20 per year.
Hopkins emphasized NuScale’s focus on finalizing real contracts rather than nonbinding agreements, stating, “We’re actually in the process of submitting and negotiating term sheets. We’ve got customers that [want] to … touch steel.” Potential buyers include data center operators, heavy industry, and utilities. CFO Ramsey Hamady added that a signed deal would likely involve multiple parties, including plant operators and tier-one data center or AI developers.
Unlike Oklo’s build-own-operate model, NuScale provides SMR technology and plant services, likening its role to “the chip in the Dell computer.” While NuScale has courted data center customers similar to Oklo, it also promotes its reactors for hydrogen production, desalination, carbon capture, and petrochemicals.
NuScale has about two years of financial runway but expects a committed project to significantly improve its outlook. “We’ll be in a great place if our biggest challenge is keeping up with orders,” Hamady said.
Then, saying that he has “seen pictures,” (Pope Francis)
regretted the fact that priests still wear vestments with lace: “Where are we? Sixty years after the Council! Some updating [is needed] even in liturgical art, in liturgical ‘fashion’!”
“Yes, sometimes bringing some of Grandma’s lace goes, but sometimes,” Francis told the priests. “It’s to pay homage to grandma, right? It’s good to pay homage to grandma, but it’s better to celebrate the mother, the holy mother Church, and to do so how Mother Church wants to be celebrated.”
Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,
The title is a bit crude and is deliberately mocking in tone. But it has to be because there is a deeply-entrenched, almost sacred presumption embedded in the nation’s foreign policy catechism that “allies”, “alliances” and “coalitions of the willing” are the be-all-and-end-all of enlightened, necessary and effective foreign policy.
American policy-makers and diplomats perforce should therefore never leave these shores for the wider world without them. This dogma perhaps reached its epitome in Secretary of State James Baker’s “coalition of the willing” during the utterly pointless first Gulf War of 1991 and has plagued us ever since. Unfortunately.
In fact, the truth is more nearly the opposite–so it needs to be stated coarsely, almost defiantly. To wit, allies in today’s world are mostly an albatross, completely irrelevant to the military security of the American homeland and a major source of unnecessary friction and even outright conflict among the nations.
In a word, America is such an outsized economic and military Hegemon that all the little and mid-sized nation’s it has lined-up in formal and de facto alliances are inherently incentivized to pursue policies that minimize their own defense investments—even as they are also encouraged to throw diplomatic caution to the winds. That is, Washington’s “alliances” enable the domestic politicians or elected governments of these small allies to be more aggressive or confrontational vis-a-vis the “bad guys” designated by Washington than they surely would be if operating only upon their own steam.
For instance, the former Estonian prime minister between 2021 and 2024, Kaja Kallas, and now foreign affairs chief for the EU has been a loud-mouthed, vitriolic critic of Russia and hardline supporter of sending other people’s money [i.e. yours] to the support of the equally pointless proxy war against Russia on the Ukrainian steppes.
Of course, with a population of just 1.3 million, GDP of barely $40 billion and armed force of 8,000, Estonia amounts to a cipher of an ally in the scheme of things. So it does absolutely nothing for America’s homeland security, even as it has emboldened Kallas to become a loud irritant to the Big Bear of a country next door.
Then again, if there were no such thing as NATO and the Article 5 military shield of the US, do you think Kallas would be noisily whooping it up for Zelensky? Would her people have tolerated her posturing as little David waving a sling-shot at the Goliath next door?
We dare say the very opposite would have prevailed. Estonia and its leader would have taken care to make nice to their extra large sized neighbor—as small countries have done from times immemorial.
And if making diplomatic nice and conducting mutually beneficial economic commerce wasn’t working for some reason, although it almost always does, they would have been obligated to arm themselves to the hilt. That is, mobilize 10-25% of GDP for defense, if necessary, rather than the pittance of 2.9% of GDP that Estonia actually spends. In turn, that would establish deterrence—the standing up to a potential aggressor the heavy cost in blood and treasure it would be obligated to face in breaching the borders and sovereignty of a smaller neighbor.
And, no, for crying out loud, the 21st century world is not unique when it comes to the relationships between big, small and middle sized nations. What we described above as making nice in diplomacy and economics and making deterrence clear is actually the way the world of nations is supposed to work, and, prior to the rise of the Hegemon on the Potomac, actually usually did.
Most certainly the gods of history have not conferred upon Washington’s politicians and apparatchiks a mandate to befriend and safeguard from one end of the planet to the other every Little Guy from the heavy breathing of nearby Big Guys.
Kaja Kallas on X: “Ukraine’s brave and fierce fight for freedom has been an “inspiration” to the Estonian people. Many have joined the voluntary Defence League.
Indeed, in a world not dislocated by the Hegemon on the Potomac no one would think to describe the reckless foolishness of Kiev in militarily attacking and brutalizing the Russian speaking populations of the Donbas after the Maidan Coup of February 2014 as an “inspiration”.
It was actually stupid beyond belief—something that neighbors not addled by the Hegemon’s military shield or egged on by the CIA, NED, USAID, the State Department and Pentagon would have no problem recognizing and observing.
Indeed that observation applies to the whole passel of little countries that have been admitted to NATO since the turn of the century. For instance, when it comes to the five small Balkan countries that do not even share the Black Sea shorelines with Russia, here is the pitiful military capacity and defense heft (measured as % of GDP) that they bring to America’s homeland security.
In order to put this pittance of military manpower in perspective, moreover, we first note by way of comparison the size of police forces in major US cities. While these domestic police men, women and theys may eat too many donuts on the job and thereby fail any combat readiness tests, when it comes to sheer human muscle the city police forces listed here outrank most of what these Balkan “allies” bring to the table.
Size of Police Forces In Major US Cities:
This is by way of saying that all of the above cities have bigger forces of men in blue than do most of the small the NATO allies depicted below, where we show their active military manpower and their defense spending as a % of GDP.
Clearly, these countries are not shaking in their boots about the Russian Bear. In the most recent year of red hot proxy war between NATO and Russia on the hapless steppes of the Ukraine, none of these five even bothered to spend 2% of GDP on defense!
Indeed, even the bigger fry positioned cheek-by-jowl with Russia on the Black Sea didn’t evince any greater fear of the Bear. Romania spends only 2.2% of GDP on defense and its voters just elected a president who wanted to make friendly with Putin—which democratic chosen leader was, of course, ixnayed by Romania’s “allies” in Brussels and Washington.
Likewise, Bulgaria spends but 2.2% on defense, as well. And, understandably, Serbia has not even seen fit to join NATO. Well, not since its capital was bombed to smithereens in 1999 by NATO war planes, owing to its insistence that Kosovo not be severed from its sovereign territory owing to the writ of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Even then as Russia’s firm ally in the region, Serbia spends about 2.3% of GDP on defense and has about 28,000 active men in uniform in its armed forces. That is, Serbia’s neutral forces total about the same as the combined military might of the five small fry on the Adriatic side of the Balkans.
Moreover, it also turns out that these five wee NATO members actually spend about the same pittance for military capabilities as is hoovered-up by Ukraine-bordering Hungary and Slovakia. The former spends about 2.0% of GDP on defense while the latter’s military spending is 2.1% of GDP. Yet both governments next door to the Russian Bear are militantly opposed to the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and successfully get along with Moscow quite well!
In short, none of these countries really seem to fear the Russian Bear or they would be spending double digit percentages of their GDP making themselves so well armed as to make a unappetizing meal for the alleged aggressor in Moscow. To the contrary, they have either joined NATO to get into the Atlantic Club or have simply eschewed the opportunity (Serbia) or gone along for the ride (Hungary and Slovakia).
The point is, extending NATO to the Balkans was a stupid joke perpetrated by Warfare State apparatchiks in Washington and Brussels. It does absolutely nothing for America’s homeland defense militarily, while enabling Russia’s small next door neighbors to spend a pittance for defense and from time to time squeak-up to the Bear in a provocative manner that they would not dream of doing on the strength of 8,000 lightly armed soldiers of their own.
Of course, the same thing is true up north on the Baltic. The three Baltic republics both experienced and do remember their decades of Soviet occupation. Yet their present day budgetary statements make abundantly clear that they do not really perceive post-communist Russia to be the same existential same threat at all. That’s why they spend nickels and dimes on make-pretend militaries, even as their politicians like Kallas demagogue about Putin in order to stir up the home voters and incur the favor of the warmongering neocon apparatchiks who dominate the NATO and the EU.
Still, no countries with the wafer-thin military capacities depicted in the numbers below truly fear their Russian neighbor. If they did, with or without NATO, they’d put their budgetary dollars where the unfortunate rhetoric of some of the loud-mouthed politicians lies.
Armed Forces Size and Defense % of GDP:
In short, the Donald’s observations about the state of the world usually amount to a random collection of the true, the false and the foolish. But in the case of all these pipsqueak NATO allies he surely hit the nail on the head.
Washington’s “Allies” in The Baltics
That is to say, all of these allies are far more trouble than they are worth. The military security of the American homeland can be secured by an invincible strategic nuclear triad based on bombers, land-based ICBMs and its deep sea nuclear subs–none of which require foreign bases or foreign “allies”. That, and a powerful conventional Fortress America defense of its shorelines and air space would more than do the job of maintaining the military security of the American homeland in today’s world.
Neither of these military capabilities are enhanced in the slightest by the pipsqueak allies that have been drafted into NATO since 1999. Nor in today’s world is there any risk that a larger power as economically lame as Russia or Ponzi-based as Red China could attack, conquer and roll-up tens of trillions of GDP, military age manpower and defense production capacities among large numbers of their small fry neighbors.
Indeed, both Russia and China well know that the cost of invasion, conquest and pacification in today’s world would not remotely be worth the candle. That’s perhaps why the answer to the question as to how many countries Red China has conquered in the last four decades is, well, zero!
To the contrary, what America’s 750 bases and 160,000 servicemen positioned abroad from Japan to Germany, Italy and the UK actually amount to are dangerous “trip wires”designed to:
Suffice it here to note that during the heyday of America’s development as the greatest nation on earth—from the cancellation of the treaty with France in 1797 to the ratification of the NATO Treaty in 1949—America had no alliances, no military treaties and no allies empowered to provoke conflicts with their neighbors on the understanding that Uncle Sam had their backs.
He didn’t and during those 152 years everything worked out for America as well as any nation in history before or since. And absolutely nothing has changed to alter the wisdom of Washington and Jefferson about avoidance of Entangling Alliances.
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The amount of money the US government spends on foreign aid, wars, the so-called intelligence community, and other aspects of foreign policy is enormous and ever-growing. It’s an established trend in motion that is accelerating, and now approaching a breaking point. It could cause the most significant disaster since the 1930s. Most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video with all the details. Click here to watch it now.
The New York Times continues to work tirelessly to maintain the narrative that the United States is now a fascist regime. Earlier, the Times demonstrated its view of balanced analysis by running a collection of legal opinions titled “A Road Map to Trump’s Lawless Presidency.” Now, it is featuring three Yale professors fleeing fascism for the safety of Canada, making direct references to the rise of the Nazis. The video is titled “These Yale Professors Study Fascism.”
All three professors are going permanently to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto. It appears that the systemic rollback of free speech for conservatives in Canada is not a deterrent for Yale professors longing to be free.
The seven-minute opinion video features the three scholars: Yale philosophy Professor Jason Stanley and history professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder (who are married).
Shore insisted that the United States is now a fascist country replicating the Nazi takeover. Indeed, she mocks those of us who believe that our constitutional system has proven itself for centuries as a guarantor of civil liberties, including our system of checks and balances. Shore dismisses such assurances while suggesting that the American people are a virtual ship of fools in not recognizing the fascists all around them: “The lesson of 1933 is that you get out sooner rather than later.” She added that Americans are
“like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink.’ We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship. Our ship can’t sink,” she said. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
Professor Snyder declared that Americans are deluding themselves:
“If you think there is this thing out there called ‘America,’ and it’s exceptional, that means that you don’t have to do anything. Whatever is happening, it must be freedom. Soon, you are using the word freedom, what you are talking about is authoritarianism.”
The New York Times splices in ominous images of migrants being detained, children crying, and anti-Israel protesters being arrested. It also shows the image of Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute, a ridiculous claim fostered by the media.
Previously, Snyder did interviews claiming an oligarchic conspiracy led by Musk:
“we’re shifting from a democracy, which had some pretty heavy oligarchical streaks running through it, toward something like an oligarchy, in which I think it’s fair to say that it’s not Trump who’s the most important person. It’s Musk. Trump has debts. Musk has money. Trump has debts specifically to Musk for getting him elected. And I think the burden of proof is actually on Trump to show that he has any room for maneuver in this system. And it’s going to be interesting to see how congressional Republicans react, because what this particular oligarch wants is to break the federal government. And whatever their views might be, not — many of them don’t actually want the United States of America to cease to exist so that oligarchs can pick up the pieces.”
That is who the New York Times featured in its latest apocalyptic diatribe. What is interesting about one interview is how Snyder predicts Trump will engage in censorship through litigation, noting that it will not involve direct censorship barred by the First Amendment. He entirely ignores the massive censorship system of conservatives fostered by the Biden Administration on social media. That was apparently not something that you would speak out against, let alone leave the country over.
Professor Stanley’s past contributions to the political debate include his condemnation of “the right-wing hateosphere” in a diatribe that he later reaffirmed:
I am really, truly, embarrassed by the fact that my mild comment ‘F[**]k those assholes’ is being spread. This wildly understates my actual sentiments towards homophobic religious proponents of evil like Richard Swinburne, who use their status as professional philosophers to oppress others with less power. I am SO SORRY for using such mild language.
In the New York Times video, Stanley clinically explains that “you know you’re living in a fascist society when you’re constantly going over in your head the reasons why you’re safe. What we want is a country where none of us have to feel that way.”
It is a curious statement. Most of us fight to preserve our civil liberties to maintain a country that remains the longest, most stable, and most successful constitutional system in history. We do not dramatically pick up our things and stomp out of the country in a self-aggrandizing huff.
Losing elections can certainly make some “feel that way,” but for the rest of the country, it seemed like democracy at work. In the meantime, our courts are sorting out challenges to Trump executive orders, with many judges, including Trump appointees, ruling against the Administration. Those are the pesky “checks and balances” that Professor Shore blissfully dismissed in the New York Times video.
What is truly striking is that even Yale (which has purged virtually all conservatives from its faculty ranks) is not sufficiently “safe” for these three academic émigrés. They are going to the University of Toronto and Ontario to feel truly safe.
Of course, Ontario is not viewed as a safe space for many conservatives or contrarians. It proved hardly protective for University of Toronto professor emeritus Jordon Peterson when he was ordered to take mandatory training classes to curb his controversial writings. That order was upheld by successive Canadian courts.
So now these three academics will relocate to Toronto to teach Canadian students about fascism. They may, however, want to tread lightly on the subject of free speech.
Discussions with NATO members on a potential withdrawal will begin after the bloc’s summit in June, Matthew Whitaker has said
Washington plans to start discussing the details of a partial European troop pullout with other NATO members later this year, the US ambassador to the bloc, Matthew Whitaker, has said. America has sought to do so for over three decades and is running out of patience, he added.
NBC News reported in April that the US is considering withdrawing up to 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe. US President Donald Trump later confirmed that he is considering a partial pullout, but did not provide a timetable. Whitaker has now said discussions will take place later this year.
”It will be certainly after the summit, sometime later in the year, we are going to start those conversations... All our allies are ready to do it,” he told Reuters on Friday, referring to the bloc’s upcoming summit in The Hague.
“We are not going to have any more patience for foot dragging in this situation... We just need to work through the practical consequences,” Whitaker said, adding that “nothing has been determined” yet. “But as soon as we do, we are going to have these conversations in the structure of NATO.”
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Trump says he could pull US troops out of Europe
The cost of replacing the US equipment and personnel following the withdrawal could amount to around $1 trillion over 25 years, Politico reported earlier this week, citing a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The sum would include one-off purchase costs ranging from $226 billion to $344 billion, depending on the equipment to be replaced, as well as expenses regarding maintenance, personnel, and support.
The list of military hardware that European NATO members would need to acquire after the pullout could include 400 tactical combat aircraft, 20 destroyers, and 24 long-range surface-to-air missiles, the news outlet said.
As of early 2025, there were nearly 84,000 US troops stationed in Europe, with the largest concentrations in Germany and Poland, and smaller deployments in Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania, according to US European Command.
The US is NATO’s largest financial contributor, and Trump has repeatedly criticized the bloc’s European members for failing to meet defense spending targets and urged them to take more responsibility for their own defense.
