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Delivering on President Trump's Executive Order 14212, the "Make America Great Again" (MAHA) Commission released a 72-page report titled "The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again," outlining America's childhood chronic disease crisis and its potential contributing causes.

The Government has never admitted that the United States is in an existential public health crisis. Today, we did—and now we’re going to do something about it. pic.twitter.com/3u9z3WNCTN

However, before listing the host of potential contributing causes of chronic illnesses, the report first addresses "Corporate Capture and the Revolving Door." Starting on page eighteen, the incestuous relationship between big government and bigger monopolies begins to paint a picture of how we've ended up here in the first place—a complete lack of surprise for anyone familiar with "regulatory" agencies.

Beginning under President Franklin D. Roosevelt—a fan of Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile's fascist economic framework—the Executive branch began creating agencies to "administrate" the various social programs created by the New Deal. Sometimes referred to as "the swamp," or as Mussolini called it, "the state within the state," Americans have come to know these agencies of unelected bureaucrats as the "Administrative State." 

"Although the U.S. health system has produced remarkable breakthroughs, we must face the troubling reality that the threats to American childhood have been exacerbated by perverse incentives that impact the regulatory bodies and federal agencies tasked with overseeing them," the report reads. 

Relying on the "honor system," the report highlights how corporations fund their own safety studies which government agencies use to base approvals upon. Conversely, public tax dollars fund but a small portion of the total research dollars spent on chronic childhood diseases—further "exacerbated" by the revolving door between regulatory agencies, and the corporations they're supposed to regulate.

Key Takeaways

• Food Industry spent $60 billion for drug, biotechnology, and device research in nutrition science compared to $1.5 billion in government funded research.

• Over 40% of US children have a chronic health condition - including asthma, allergies, obesity, autoimmune diseases, or behavioral disorders - a dramatic rise over past decades.

• Over 75% of young Americans are ineligible for military service.

• Teen suicide and depression have surged, with suicide among 10-24-year-old girls up 67% since 2007.

• 95% of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members had financial ties to food and pharmaceutical companies

• The chemical manufacturing industry spent roughly $77 million on federal lobbying activities in 2024, while 60% of their lobbyists previously held federal posts.  

• More than ten thousand chemicals listed on the EPA's inventory are designated as confidential, and generic chemical names are used to identify them.

• The pharmaceutical industry, from 1999 to 2018, spent $4.7 billion on lobbying expenditures at the federal level, more than any other industry.

• Nine out of the last 10 FDA commissioners—and approximately 70% of the agency's medical reviewers—have gone on to work for the pharmaceutical industry. 

• Over 80% of clinical departments and teaching hospitals at U.S. medical schools receive some degree of pharmaceutical funding, while half of the total costs for continuing medical education (CME) is funded by industry.

• Between 2010 and 2022, the industry provided $6 billion to over 20,000 patient advocacy organizations.

Dr. Kat Lindley, a board-certified medical doctor and President of the Global Health Project, tells ZeroHedge that the report is an important first step. 

"The MAHA report is a great step in addressing the issues of chronic childhood diseases head-on," Lindley said. "The issue is multifaceted and it is great to see this administration placing children above profits."

However, Lindley is among many who call for a more active and common-sense regulatory approach, especially regarding the unnamed elephant in the room. 

"We also need a common sense approach to what has not been addressed in this report, and that is the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines," Lindley said, adding, "According to passive surveillance data and clinical observations, we believe these vaccines have potentially caused an increase in inflammatory diseases, neurological diseases, myocarditis, pericarditis and childhood cancers, just to name a few. We must tackle this issue head-on as well."

When every administrative agency is a copy of a copy, of a copy, perhaps the boldest promise of "Make America Healthy Again" is the opportunity for regulatory reforms.

The report also emphasizes that rebuilding America's food supply chain will require putting ranchers and farmers at the center of the conversation and focusing on promoting clean, healthy food. 

At ZeroHedge, we've partnered with the clean food think tank Beef Initiative to bring our readers best-in-class reporting on MAHA trends and direct access to "rancher-direct" clean food, sourced directly from independent ranchers nationwide.

Rebuilding America's food supply chain starts with one simple step: know your rancher. It's time to stop supporting the processed foods industrial complex run by mega globalist companies, which has transformed the current food supply chain into a toxic mess of seed oils and junk. It's time to get back to basics, find a rancher, find a farmer, and most importantly, plant your own garden. With this comes food freedom and liberty. 

The MAHA Commission is expected to release the next report outlining the solutions by August 12, 2025. While it's clear that centralized government agencies have failed us, only time will tell if bigger and more centralized federal authority will be the proposed "solution." Or, perhaps MAHA will break the cycle by closing the revolving door.

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Read the full MAHA Report:

Via The Libertarian Institute

The former top US diplomat in Ukraine said that any deal to end the Russian invasion must also deter China, arguing that engaging in peace talks with Moscow is a mistake.

Bridget Brink, who served as ambassador to Ukraine until late April, told Face The Nation, "The real question is, how are we going to help to end this war? And to do that, it can’t be peace at any price." She continued, "It has to be a peace that does things that advance our own interests. And those are really simple. It’s how to keep Ukraine free, how to deter Russia, and how to send the right signal to China."

Then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink (R) meets with Ukrainian military officials in Kiev, July 20, 2022. US Embassy image

Brink argued that talks with Russia should not begin until the Kremlin agrees to an unconditional ceasefire.

"So, my strong advice in terms of how to deal with Putin in Russia is not to give a single meeting or concession or legitimacy until Putin agrees to an unconditional ceasefire that’s verifiable and moves forward toward a just and lasting peace," she explained.

If President Donald Trump adopted Brink’s position, it would effectively bring the talks to an impasse. Moscow has stated that it will not agree to a ceasefire until the two sides are closer to a deal to end the conflict.

Brink went on to assert that Trump’s engagement with President Vladimir Putin would give "legitimacy" to the Russian leader.

During her tenure as ambassador to Ukraine, the former envoy implemented the Joe Biden administration’s policy of attempting to isolate Moscow.

However, while Washington’s sweeping sanctions regime was intended to isolate and cripple the Russian economy, the Kremlin has largely been able to circumvent the penalties. Rather than bringing Moscow’s war machine to a halt, Russia’s military is now stronger than it was at the beginning of the conflict.

Hawks seem to never acknowledge the potential for nuclear conflict as they urge more muscular confrontation with Moscow...

I really think that Ukraine hawks just do not understand what nuclear weapons are.

What people in the West also don’t understand is that we have thousands of nuclear warheads pointed at us right now.

After a full nuclear exchange, fallout would kill nearly all people on earth. pic.twitter.com/axbfZ9ouML

Brink became the US ambassador to Ukraine in 2022, the year the war began. She held that position until she resigned on April 21.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Stumblebum's Legacy

"Every time I watch The View, I become even more misogynistic."

- Laura Loomer

Bad as it was, “Joe Biden,” the figment president was merely one manifestation of a nation made mad by power-seeking demons, real-live, ill-intentioned human beings driving a runaway political machine, the party of hoaxes, hustles, and hatred. 

The country is just now struggling to exit a convulsion of mass mental illness. The demons are still there, though, and still hard at work trying to drag you all back into mass formation.

A central mystery is how the news media made itself the enemy of the people, and this conundrum is not at all explained by Jake Tapper and Alex Marshall in their book Original Sin. 

It’s actually just another hustle with overtones of hoax, like everything else in the evil cavalcade of narratives spun out in the news media’s war on reality. Tapper and Marshall want you to believe that a faceless collective they call “the White House” managed to conceal “Joe Biden’s” well-advanced disintegration from the voting public, and that was. . . that. The media wuz fooled! Goll-lee!

Of course, that fails to explain a whole lot — such as: how come anybody watching daily video clips of “Joe Biden” in action, could not fail to see the broken old puppet he is. Alex Marshall, receiving his “award for excellence” from the White House Correspondents’ Association weeks ago said, “We just missed it.” 

Yeah, sure...

They also apparently missed the programmatic devastation to American society that was carried out in the old stumblebum’s name.

I will give you the key to that conundrum, and then you will understand why all this happened, and why the many lingering demons are still at it in their self-styled “resistance” to America-in-recovery. Mr. Marshall lied, you understand. The media connived with the demons. They were in on the gag the whole time.

If there is any “original sin” in the story, it revolves around Hillary Clinton. This monster emerged as the junior partner to her husband, political wonder-boy Bill Clinton. From the get-go, the narrative painted her as a wife sore-beset by her charismatic husband’s infidelities. (Forget that her only child, Chelsea, is a dead-ringer for her former law partner, Webb Hubbell.) However their connubial affairs worked, Hill and Bill had a deal: when he was done, she would eventually rise to become the first woman president, and they would go down in history as two era-defining, Boomer gen, political wonder-geniuses.

It was a flawed plan. 

For one thing, Hillary utterly lacked Bill’s political charisma, which was his ability to avidly engage with other people and their issues. Hillary didn’t care much for other people, and only pretended to be interested in their issues. Also, people could easily read that in her demeanor. Nobody was fooled. If anything, she had negative charm, anti-charisma. Her own interests were strictly limited to obtaining power and riches. With enough power, Hillary noticed, you didn’t need charm or charisma. You could simply order people around. But the power couple left the White House broke in 2001, and were caught trying to spirit away some of the presidential dinner-ware.

The next phase of Hillary’s career was fortune-building. The Clinton Foundation was set up in 1997, ostensibly to fund Bill’s presidential library. It would become a fantastic grift magnet in the years to come, taking them from broke-ass-broke to demi-billionaires. Her launching pad was a seat in the US Senate. (She ran and won in New York when she was still First Lady in the 2000 election.)

2008 was supposed to be Hillary’s apotheosis from senator to president. The setup was perfect. The country was tired of Double-ya Bush. The time was exactly right for a woman president. Hillary was the obvious choice by a country mile. Except that she was edged out in the primaries by the Democratic Party’s alternative play for something even more amazing, in a contest of historic firsts, than a woman president — a black president, proving to the world how morally upright the USA had become, America liked how it felt. We were good people, after all!

Barack Obama liked playing his role, and he seemed to have more charisma than Hillary (though he didn’t care much for other people either, really). His sketchy background included a lot of people tinged with Marxism, such as his mentor in Chicago, Bill Ayers, an infamous Sixties radical, rumored to have ghost-written Obama’s books. And he was ensorcelled by big bankers like Robert Rubin of CitiGroup, and by Globalist bigshots orbiting Davos and the WEF.

Yet, Senator Hillary Clinton was still aggregating power as leader of Democratic women voters, a massive base. It was clear that she would remain in the game, aiming for her eventual “turn” in the White House. So, Mr. Obama made a deal with her: he would elevate her to Secretary of State, further fortifying her credentials, and then stand behind her in a 2016 run.

Hillary used her years at State to also fortify the Clinton Foundation’s coffers in various pay-to-play schemes — such as the Skolkovo tech deal with Russia and the Uranium One deal that netted the Clinton Foundation combined pledges of over $275-million, according to Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer. The 2010 Haiti earthquake crisis was another bonanza for the foundation and its partners. One might also surmise, from the recent DOGE reports, that the fabulous armature for grift that USAID became, spawning countless NGOs, was engineered by Obama appointees like Samantha Powers and Hillary’s State Department machine.

In 2015, Hillary, off-and-running, came to the rescue of the Democratic National Committee. The party was foundering in debt. It entered a joint fund-raising agreement with a PAC called Hillary for America (HFA) and the Hillary Victory Fund. The agreement gave Hillary control over the DNC’s finances, strategy, and staffing decisions that enabled her to snake out Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination. Hillary’s nomination, the drive toward her “turn,” was when the trouble really blossomed.

Pitted against the rising outsider, Donald Trump, in 2016, Hillary’s lack of charisma was sinking her campaign. So, with a little help from John Brennan at the CIA, Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS political media company, the FBI under Director Jim Comey, and lawfare ninja Marc Elias at the Perkins Coie DC law firm, the Russia collusion hoax was dreamed up and put into action.

That was the “original sin” that set up the Party of hoaxes, hustles, and hatred to become greatest lie-spewing operation in US history, with reverberations for the decade-to-come. It also became the greatest ass-covering op in US history, with each successive raft of lies — the Mueller Investigation, impeachment #1, the stolen election of 2020 and installation of “Joe Biden,” the J-6 op, impeachment #2, the Trump prosecutions of 2024 — all requiring successive layers of cover-up and lies.

Since the news media despised Donald Trump, and was convinced by its own bullshit that Hillary would win the 2016 election, they all ran with the Russia collusion story and turned it into RussiaGate. They miscalculated, of course. Mr. Trump won, a stunning surprise, a shock really to everyone, including Mr. Trump himself, who utterly lacked experience running a government and was bamboozled, sand-bagged, and eventually hoaxed into defeat — Covid-19 being the coup-de-grace. The news media had to continue lying to the country throughout and beyond all of that to pretend that they were not equally culpable for all this mischief.

And so, they ran with every deception of “Joe Biden’s” ruinous term in office. Alas for them, the indefatigable Mr. Trump rallied, persevered through the concocted prosecutions cooked up by Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, and the rest of lawfare ninjahood, and is now back in power with an assembled team of appointees who are the Left’s worst nightmare.

What kept it all going — all the lying, gaslighting, deception, prevarication, and sedition — was the lack of accountability. It was a fatal intoxicant. That’s over now, though turning in the direction of justice is necessarily difficult and delicate, considering the elevated level of derangement among the public, the fragility of the national psyche, and the danger signals emanating from the zeitgeist.

It looks like the accounting will begin in earnest now. We are going to find out who was acting behind the empty figure of “Joe Biden,” and who ran the auto-pen. And working backward from there, this will all unspool in one, long, appalling thread of treason.

United States Steel Corp. shares surged to their highest level since April 2011 after President Trump announced on Truth Social his full backing of a partnership between the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker and Japan's Nippon Steel.

Trump confirmed that U.S. Steel will remain headquartered in Pittsburgh, calling the deal the largest investment in Pennsylvania's history and a first critical step in revitalizing the nation's steel industry, aligning with his 'America First' agenda of rebuilding critical supply chains. 

"I am proud to announce that, after much consideration and negotiation, US Steel will REMAIN in America, and keep its Headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh," Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

He continued, "For many years, the name, "United States Steel" was synonymous with Greatness, and now, it will be again. This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy." 

The president said much of the investment will unfold over the next 14 months and will be "the largest Investment in the History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

Trump concluded the post by stating: "My tariff policies will ensure that steel will once again be, forever, MADE IN AMERICA. From Pennsylvania to Arkansas, and from Minnesota to Indiana, AMERICAN MADE is BACK. I will see you all at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh on Friday, May 30, for a BIG rally."

Earlier, a Wall Street Journal report said that Nippon sweetened the deal by "roughly doubling its spending plan and even pledging to build a brand-new mill to win Washington's blessing for its takeover of U.S. Steel." 

While Trump initially criticized the deal, he has since warmed to it because it aligns with America First's policy goals of bolstering domestic supply chains and revitalizing manufacturing. 

The merger agreement between U.S. Steel and Nippon, which values U.S. Steel at $55 per share, expires June 18 unless extended.

Shares of U.S. Steel jumped to the highest level since April 2011 following the president's Truth Social post. 

Meanwhile, the United Steelworkers union remains strongly opposed, citing Nippon's history of undercutting U.S. steel markets.

As the U.S. heads into Memorial Day weekend, with pools opening, millions set to travel, and backyard barbecues just ahead, a late-session report from the Financial Times revealed that one of President Trump's first Project Stargate AI infrastructure projects is underway in Texas. 

According to FT's sources, the under-construction AI data center in Abilene, Texas, is the first U.S. Stargate project, and Oracle is purchasing a staggering 400,000 Nvidia GB200 "Superchips" that will be housed in eight buildings. When the facility comes online next year, the AI chips will require a massive 1.2 gigawatts of electricity. 

Site owners Crusoe and Blue Owl Capital have raised $15 billion in debt and equity to finance the Abilene project. JPMorgan provided a sizeable chunk of the debt financing, totaling $9.6 billion across two loans, with $7.1 billion announced this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Crusoe and Blue Owl have separately invested about $5 billion in cash. Oracle has signed a 15-year lease for the mega project that will be fully operational by mid-2026. 

Your hard hat tour of OpenAI’s Stargate megafactory in Abilene, TX with @sama @ChaseLochmiller and lots of red dirt

pic.twitter.com/mMkeKpLVOU

The Abilene facility is part of the broader Stargate project, a $500 billion effort to scale U.S. AI computing backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX. The new Abilene data center will rival Elon Musk's plans to expand his "Colossus" data center in Memphis, Tennessee. 

"The Abilene data center is a crucial step in OpenAI's move to reduce its dependence on Microsoft," FT noted, adding, "OpenAI and Microsoft agreed to terminate their exclusivity agreement earlier this year after the startup became frustrated that its demand for power far exceeded the US tech giant's supply."

Sources said Oracle will be leasing the computer power of the 400,000 Nvidia GB200 chips to chatbot startup OpenAI.

Meanwhile, massive U.S. data centers continue to come online—even as China's DeepSeek AI has demonstrated high efficiency, delivering more useful computation with less power. This raises a critical question: Have U.S. AI projects achieved similar levels of efficiency, or are they falling behind in the AI race? Remember what Goldman said about the data center peak capacity in April? Well...

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

America’s housing market has been in a “deep freeze” for more than a year.  

The combination of very high interest rates and very high home prices has frozen millions of potential buyers out of the market.  As a result, home sales have fallen to extremely depressed levels.  When I first warned that we were heading into a housing market depression, a lot of people thought that I was exaggerating.  But now the numbers show that is exactly what has happened.  

The following are 6 signs that the housing market depression in the United States is getting even worse.

#1 Sales of previously-owned homes in the U.S. just fell again.  In fact, we just witnessed the slowest April that we have seen since 2009…

The spring housing market continues to struggle amid high interest rates and low consumer confidence.

Sales of previously owned homes in April declined 0.5% from March to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. That is the slowest April pace since 2009.

In 2009, there were 306 million people living in the United States.

Today, there are 340 million people living in the United States.

So the fact that we have fallen to a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Recession should deeply trouble all of us.

#2 Sales of previously-owned homes are falling even though active listings and new listings are both rising…

Active listings—the total number of homes for sale—last month hit the highest level since March 2020. They climbed 1.2% from a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis and rose 16.7% year over year.

New listings rose to the highest level since July 2022, increasing 1.3% month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis and 8.6% year over year—the largest annual gain since May 2024.

“A lot of people are selling their homes and downsizing because they’re worried about the economy,” said Meme Loggins, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Portland, OR. “During the pandemic, everybody wanted more space for a home office or for their kids to run around, but now people are more focused on saving money. A lot of folks are getting rid of their investment properties, and I’m working with a couple of federal employees who are afraid of losing their jobs, so they’re selling their homes and thinking of moving into condos.”

#3 Most potential young homebuyers have been completely forced out of the market.  Shockingly, the average age of a homebuyer in the U.S. has surged to an all-time record high of 56…

The average age of homebuyers in the U.S. has risen by six years since July 2023 — another sign that younger Americans are being priced out of the market due to escalating ownership costs.

The average age of homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 in 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors’ annual state-of-the-market report released Monday. That’s a historic high, up from an average age in the low-to-mid 40s in the early 2010s.

#4 The median age of first-time homebuyers is spiking as well…

The median age of first-time buyers also rose from 35 to 38, while the share of first-timers dropped from 32% to 24% of all buyers for the year ending July 2024. That marks the lowest percentage since NAR started tracking the metric in 1981.

“In my two decades in the mortgage business, I’ve never seen a more difficult time for millennials to purchase a home,” says Bob Driscoll, senior vice president and director of residential lending at Massachusetts-based bank Rockland Trust.

This is a really bad thing for our society.

If most young couples cannot purchase a home until they are in their late thirties, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

#5 Zillow is reporting that home values have fallen in 27 U.S. states so far this year.  Is this the beginning of a price crash?…

Home values fell in half the country as the housing market faces a nationwide downturn.

According to Zillow, monthly home values dropped in 27 out of the 50 states this year. While Florida, Colorado, Washington, D.C., California and Washington state experienced the greatest value declines from March to April, the data could foreshadow a larger housing market shift.

#6 Meanwhile, employers continue to conduct mass layoffs all over the nation, and this is only going to increase pressure on the housing market.  For example, Walmart just announced that it will be laying off about 1,500 very well paid corporate employees…

Walmart is laying off around 1,500 corporate employees across various departments within its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, multiple reports say.

In a memo shared with associates on May 21, Walmart executives said the company is “reshaping” some of its teams in an effort to modernize its business and enhance “associate, customer and member experiences.”

Most of the U.S. population simply cannot afford to shell out several thousand dollars for a mortgage payment every month.

Either interest rates will have to come down or housing prices will.

And if housing prices start falling like we saw in 2008 and 2009, that will cause all sorts of problems for our major financial institutions.

So hopefully the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates before it is too late.

One recent survey discovered that financial stress is at an all-time high for 70 percent of the U.S. population.

Absurdly high housing costs are one of the biggest reasons why so many people are financially stressed right now.

Home prices are way too high and so are rental prices.

If you were able to purchase a home and lock in a mortgage more than five years ago, you were extremely fortunate.

Those that wish to relocate now are facing ridiculously high prices and painfully high interest rates.

It has been said that he who hesitates is lost.

In this case, that is so true.

A lot of people out there that waited to pull the trigger have completely missed their chance.

Now the housing market is entering a very difficult chapter, and a tremendous amount of pain is ahead.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Two weeks after Travis Stice, CEO of shale giant Diamondback Energy, warned that the US energy industry "is at a tipping point" and - more ominously - that US shale output has finally peaked (resulting in Diamondback slashing its capex budget as Saudi Arabia launched the latest OPEC+ price war), we now have confirmation that the CEO was right.

As Goldman commodity strategist Yulia Grigsby writes in her latest Oil Tracker note, amid continued declines in oil prices, there was a silver lining: namely that US total rig and frac spread count continued to decline quickly, especially in the Permian, -14% and -22% from year ago, respectively, as shown in the chart below.

Grigsby speculates that while the Permian activity slowdown may partly reflect the preservation of the best inventory rather than wells shutdowns, oil fields with higher breakevens, e.g. North Dakota shale, are also planning to reduce drilling activity. 

And, having previously taken stock of Q1 earnings reports, we remind readers that several high profile public producers already reduced their drilling and completion activity on the back of lower prices and most producers reduced their 2025 capex guidance. As a result, Goldman expects the crude production in the US Lower 48 to decline by 0.4mb/d by 2026Q4 from 2024Q4.

Incidentally the latest Baker Hughes data showed that rotary rigs in the US tumbled by another 8 in the latest week...

...and are now down to a 4 year low of 465 as the industry enters crisis "cash conservation" mode.

But one doesn't have to believe in "peak oil" to expect further US production declines: regulation and sharply higher extraction prices may suffice to send the price of oil surging.

According to Bloomberg, Texas regulators are warning that wastewater from fracking in the biggest US oil basin is causing a "widespread" increase in underground pressure — a development that risks hindering crude output and harming the environment.

Shale oil wells in the Permian Basin generate millions of gallons of chemical-laced water, which drillers then pump back into the earth. Landowners and activists have said for years that this process causes toxic leaks. Now the state’s powerful oil and gas regulator, the Railroad Commission of Texas, is acknowledging the scale of the problem and imposing restrictions that could increase crude production costs.

Chevron Corp., BP Plc, and Coterra Energy Inc. as well as water management specialists Waterbridge Operating LLC and NGL Energy Partners, are among the companies that have received notices about the pressure issue from the Railroad Commission of Texas, according to a Bloomberg News review of public records. The RRC sent the messages to companies applying for new wastewater disposal wells.

Producers began injecting more water into shallow rock formations roughly five years ago after pumping it deep below the surface was found to trigger earthquakes. But the volumes are now so large that the dirty water is breaching wells and causing the ground to swell and rupture, threatening to contaminate drinking supplies for people and livestock.

Potential restrictions on both deep and shallow injection zones could mean producers will have to pump their wastewater farther afield, increase recycling or pay to clean it up. All of these options would add to costs in the Permian, which accounts for about half of America's total crude production. It would be the latest blow to US producers already grappling with low oil prices and a shrinking inventory of top-tier drilling sites, despite President Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash US “energy dominance” by backing fossil fuels. 

According to Bloomberg, the RRC has updated its standard language in the letters to producers in a nod to the severity of the problem. It now says that disposing wastewater into the Delaware Mountain Group rock formation in the prolific western part of the Permian “has resulted in widespread increases in reservoir pressure that may not be in the public interest and may harm mineral and freshwater resources in Texas.”

“Drilling hazards, hydrocarbon production losses, uncontrolled flows, ground surface deformation, and seismic activity have been observed,” the commission says. 

Guaranteeing that US oil output will slide, starting next month, the RRC will place limits on water-pressure levels due to “the physical limitations of the disposal reservoirs.” It will also require operators to assess old or unplugged oil wells within half a mile of the disposal site, twice the previous distance.

The RRC’s staff has been studying issues related to wastewater disposal for several years, spokesperson Bryce Dubee said in an email. 

“Let there be no doubt that our work and analysis to protect residents and the environment in West Texas has been happening for years and will continue,” Dubee said. The commission conducted a two-hour webinar on Thursday to explain its new guidelines for permitting saltwater disposal wells in the Permian.

Permian Basin oil production has soared over the past decade to about 6.7 million barrels of oil each day, more than the output from Iraq and Kuwait combined, and in some views has become a global swing producer. But for each barrel of crude, it produces three to five barrels of water that contain so much salt and toxic materials that pumping it back underground is the only cost-effective disposal method. 

The shallow disposal zones, located between oil-rich layers of shale and the surface, consist of porous rock that can absorb water. But the 100-year history of crude production in the Permian means they are perforated with thousands of well bores, some up to a mile deep. Because of higher water pressure, fluids are now breaking through to oil drilling areas and old wells that were either abandoned or poorly cemented shut decades ago. 

The regulator’s tighter restrictions come just weeks after Coterra was forced to halt some oil production in Culberson County, Texas, after waste fluids leaked into its wells. Executives said the problem was localized and could be fixed by strengthening the protective casing around its wells. 

Coterra is remediating the affected wells but did not give an expected completion date. The company said it doesn’t expect the issue to affect its long-term reserves. 

“We thought we were well calibrated,” Blake Sirgo, Coterra’s senior vice president for operations, said on a call with analysts May 6. “Sometimes the oil field still surprises us.”

One person who’s not surprised is Sarah Stogner, the district attorney for three West Texas counties in the Permian Basin. She’s been warning of rising subsurface pressure since 2021, when a landowner noticed oil and gas oozing from old wells on her property that had sat idle for decades. Stogner, then a lawyer for the landowner, publicized the case on social media, calling them “zombie wells.” Over the next few years, several more wells blew out in the area, with some ejecting toxic fluids more than 100 feet in the air for several days. 

“These were old fields that suffered from a lack of pressure for decades,” she said. “Suddenly we were seeing pressure where it shouldn’t be. It was clear even back then there was a field-wide problem.” 

The RRC mostly ignored her appeals for a thorough investigation, she said. Its elected commissioners, whose campaigns are largely funded by the oil and gas industry, framed the issue as primarily a plugging problem, claiming that old and abandoned wells had been improperly cemented shut, or not at all. 

But it’s now becoming clearer that the underlying problem is too much wastewater injection. 

One blowout near Imperial, Texas, gushed toxic water high in the air for two weeks and had to be cemented shut in 2022. Researchers at Southern Methodist University later found the ground around the eruption site had been steadily bulging for three years, eventually rising 40 centimeters (16 inches) before it burst open. Wastewater injection volumes several kilometers away “strongly correlate” with the ground movement, they said in a paper published in July 2024. 

SkyGeo, an analytics company that uses radar to track ground movements, reached a similar conclusion.

“The injection of saltwater causes this unnaturally high pressure, and then it’s going to find weak spots to come out,” said CEO Pieter Bas Leezenberg.

The RRC said its new permitting requirements will “ensure injected fluids remain confined to the disposal formations to safeguard ground and surface fresh water.” To Stogner, the measures are an admission that toxic water leaks are a serious problem for the regulator, and for the Permian Basin. “They just completely ignored us,” she said. “But now they cannot deny that it’s happening.”

And with that, oil producers will no longer be able to sweep the toxic problem under the rug - or ground as it may be - and since the mandated changes will require millions if not billions in additional spending to comply with regulations, which means all-in production costs are set to soar, and since oil prices will only continue to slide, we are about to see a wholesale shutdown of the Permian, and - as because the commodity cycle never fail - all the excess production in the US will turn into a deficit, sending oil prices soaring as the commodity bullwhip effect comes home.
 

Last week's Istanbul peace talks between Russia and Ukraine did not lead to much in terms of achieving ceasefire or peace as there were no breakthroughs whatsoever. However, it did give the two sides a chance to increase their swaps of POWs, and this is where Istanbul bore fruit.

The delegations agreed to a swap of 1,000 captives from each side, totaling 2,000 - which makes it by far the biggest single exchange of the war. Friday saw the two sides complete an initial round of fulfilling this agreement, with almost 800 people released.

Image source: Zelenskyy/Telegram

The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that "270 Russian servicemen and 120 civilians" were returned to Russia on Friday, wile Ukraine said 390 people arrived back to Ukraine, including 270 military personnel and 120 civilians. Three women were among the Ukrainians released.

"We are bringing our people home," Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on social media. The swap happened at the Belarus-Ukraine border, and was facilitated by several buses.  

Zelensky confirmed: "The first part of the agreement to exchange 1000 for 1000 has been implemented."

"On the Ukrainian side, dozens of people waited for hours to greet the returnees at a meeting place in Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, many hoping to see their family members among those being brought back," observed one report.

"Many brought Ukrainian flags and photographs of their loved ones – in case any of the returnees would recognize them and give them information about their whereabouts," the report added.

The NY Times alleges that Ukrainian prisoners in Russian hands are treated much worse:

Unlike Moscow, Kyiv is also sensitive to demands by the Western nations backing its military that Ukraine comply with international law on the treatment of prisoners.

The Ukrainians allow visits to prisoner of war camps by both the United Nations and Red Cross; those organizations have largely been denied access in Russia and the Ukrainian territory it occupies.

Russia and Ukraine have begun a large exchange of prisoners of war on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, with around 1,000 soldiers from each side expected to be swapped at the Ukraine-Belarus border when completed. https://t.co/ud6wQNWAbN pic.twitter.com/NovYMwGJkp

This largest prisoner exchange of the war is expected to continue over the coming days. There remain significant logistical challenges to be able to make it happen.

As drones and large-scale aerial attacks continue being exchanged, prisoner swaps have been rare bright spot in the war. Other than this, the warring sides haven't agreed on anything else.

By Hanna Bechtel of The College Fix

Capitalism is an “oppressive system” that is “incredibly difficult to survive,” a financial coach said during a recent lecture at Iowa State University.

The “Anti-Capitalism Personal Finance Lecture” featured Leo Aquino, a “non-binary Filipinx writer, journalist, and financial coach” known for “their commitment to uplifting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ stories,” according to the event description.

During the lecture, Aquino advocated for an “anti-capitalist” budgeting approach that encourages people to reframe their relationship with money to prioritize well-being over profit, mainly benefiting queer and trans-identifying individuals.

The speaker defined anti-capitalism as “the belief that financial systems do not need to adhere to capitalist values for us to survive.”

An anti-capitalist personal finance perspective supports workers’ abilities to control their labor and decide how profits are invested. It requires people to redefine their “definition of wealth,” Aquino said.

The speaker encouraged students to stop blaming themselves for their financial situations and start questioning the underlying system.

Aquino defined capitalism as “an economic system where workers are required to sell [their] labor for a wage in order to survive.”

The financial coach said this system prioritizes profits over people while causing burnout, depression, and anxiety. “[Capitalism] is an oppressive system profiting from our lack of financial literacy and interpersonal conflicts around money.”

Further, capitalism “necessitates racism, ableism, homophobia, colonialism, and other forms of oppression to perpetuate conflict.” It “has forced people from marginalized communities to do unrealistic things to survive in an oppressive system,” Aquino said.

The speaker contrasted traditional budgeting, defined as a monthly estimate of income and expenses, with anti-capitalist budgeting, described as a “neutral space for us to practice compassionate data analysis.”

Aquino said the goal is not “to make the rich richer” but to “help others save, budget and spend money in line with their values.”

The financial coach also described several means of budgeting, with each depending on one’s own personal financial aptitude. One budgeting strategy included using a “needs vs. wants” model. Aquino said “some things are needs and wants [at the same time] … things like makeup and dining out are needs for our mental health.”

People should be able to spend quality time eating out with friends without “thinking so much about the financial consequences of that behavior.” An oppressive capitalist economic system is the cause of this internal conflict, the speaker said.

Further, Aquino characterized money as a tool used to navigate capitalism “with more ease,” adding people don’t necessarily want more money, “they want more freedom to do the things they love and enjoy.”

Queer and trans communities in particular benefit the most from anti-capitalist finance movements. “One-third of LGBTQ elders live in poverty and cannot afford to retire due to discrimination against their community in the past,” Aquino said.

Meanwhile, young trans communities are “going into debt for gender-affirming healthcare due to current legislation.”

When an ISU student asked about how this form of financial planning resists capitalism, Aquino said, “you can only do so much.” Everyone has to be willing to make compromises while still living in a capitalist system.

The coach said people must still advocate “for the changes [they] want to see in the economic world.”

“It is less about resistance and more about coping,” Aquino said.

Aquino is the founder of Queer and Trans Wealth, a financial coaching and education business “dedicated to increasing the financial literacy and economic empowerment of queer and trans communities,” according to its website.

The College Fix reached out to Aquino and the university in the last week via email for further comment on the lecture and its contents, but received no response.

Aquino’s website lists several personal writings, which include titles such as “How to crowdfund your gender-affirming surgery,” “How to share your pronouns,” and “How to make your own porn.”

Authored by Bradley Peak via CoinTelegraph.com,

Is Tether MiCA compliant?

The EU’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, better known as MiCA, is the first major attempt by a global economic power to create clear, region-wide rules for the crypto space, and stablecoins are a big focus.

MiCA mandates best practices. If a stablecoin is going to be traded in the EU, its issuer has to follow some stringent rules:

1. You need a license

To issue a stablecoin in Europe, you must become a fully authorized electronic money institution (EMI). That’s the same kind of license traditional fintechs need to offer e-wallets or prepaid cards. It’s not cheap and it’s not quick. 

2. Most of your reserves have to sit in European banks

This is one of the most controversial parts of MiCA. If you issue a “significant” stablecoin — and Tether’s USDT certainly qualifies — at least 60% of your reserves must be held in EU-based banks. The logic is to keep the financial system safe. 

3. Full transparency is non-negotiable

MiCA requires detailed, regular disclosures. Issuers have to publish a white paper and provide updates on their reserves, audits and operational changes. This level of reporting is new territory for some stablecoins, especially those that have historically avoided public scrutiny.

4. Non-compliant coins are getting delisted

If a token doesn’t comply, it won’t be tradable on regulated EU platforms. Binance, for example, has delisted USDT trading pairs for users in the European Economic Area (EEA). Other exchanges are following suit.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) clarified that people in Europe can still hold or transfer USDT, but it can’t be offered to the public or listed on official venues. 

In other words, you might still have USDT in your wallet, but good luck trying to swap it on a regulated platform.

Key reasons why Tether rejects MiCA regulations

Tether is unique in that it has explained why it wants nothing to do with MiCA regulations. The company’s leadership, especially CEO Paolo Ardoino, has been pretty vocal about what they see as serious flaws in the regulation, from financial risks to privacy concerns to the bigger picture of who stablecoins are really for.

1. The banking rule could backfire

One of MiCA’s most talked-about rules says that “significant” stablecoins — like Tether’s USDt  — must keep at least 60% of their reserves in European banks. The idea is to make stablecoins safer and more transparent. But Ardoino sees it differently.

He’s warned that this could create new problems, forcing stablecoin issuers to rely so heavily on traditional banks could make the whole system more fragile. 

After all, if there’s a wave of redemptions and those banks don’t have enough liquidity to keep up, we’d witness a struggling bank and a stablecoin crisis simultaneously.

Instead, Tether prefers to keep most of its reserves in US Treasurys, assets it says are liquid, low-risk and much easier to redeem quickly if needed.

2. They don’t trust the digital euro

Tether also has a broader issue with the direction Europe is heading, especially regarding a digital euro. Ardoino has openly criticized it, raising alarms about privacy. 

He has argued that a centrally controlled digital currency could be used to track how people spend their money, and even control or restrict transactions if someone falls out of favor with the system.

Privacy advocates have echoed similar concerns. While the European Central Bank insists that privacy is a top priority (with features like offline payments), Tether isn’t convinced. In their eyes, putting that much financial power in the hands of one institution is asking for trouble.

3. Tether’s users aren’t in Brussels. They’re in Brazil, Turkey and Nigeria

At the heart of it, Tether sees itself as a lifeline for people in countries dealing with inflation, unstable banking systems and limited access to dollars. 

These are places like Turkey, Argentina and Nigeria, where USDT is often more useful than the local currency.

MiCA, with all its licensing hoops and reserve mandates, would require Tether to shift focus and invest heavily in meeting EU-specific standards. That’s something the company says it’s not willing to do, not at the expense of the markets it sees as most in need of financial tools like USDT.

Did you know? Turkey ranks among the top countries for cryptocurrency adoption, with 16% of its population engaged in crypto activities. This high adoption rate is largely driven by the devaluation of the Turkish lira and economic instability, prompting citizens to seek alternatives like stablecoins to preserve their purchasing power.

What happens when Tether doesn’t comply with MiCA

Tether’s decision to skip MiCA didn’t exactly fly under the radar. It’s already having real consequences, especially for exchanges and users in Europe.

1. Exchanges are dropping USDT

Big names like Binance and Kraken didn’t wait around. To stay on the right side of EU regulators, they’ve already delisted USDT trading pairs for users in the European Economic Area. Binance had removed them by the end of March 2025. Kraken followed close behind, removing not just USDT but also other non-compliant stablecoins like EURT and PayPal’s PYUSD.

2. Users are left with fewer options

If you’re in Europe and holding USDT, you’re not totally out of luck; you can still withdraw or swap it on certain platforms. But you won’t be trading it on major exchanges anymore. That’s already pushing users toward alternatives like USDC and EURC, which are fully MiCA-compliant and widely supported.

Even major crypto payment processors are pulling support, leaving users with fewer options for spending their crypto directly.

3. A hit to liquidity? Probably.

Pulling USDT from European exchanges could make the markets a bit shakier. Less liquidity, wider spreads and more volatility during big price moves are all on the table. Some traders will adjust quickly. Others? Not so much.

Did you know? Tether (USDT) is the most traded cryptocurrency globally, surpassing even Bitcoin in daily volume. In 2024, it facilitated over $20.6 trillion in transactions and boasts a user base exceeding 400 million worldwide.

Tether vs MiCA regulation

Tether may be out of sync with the EU, but it’s far from retreating. If anything, the company is doubling down elsewhere, looking for friendlier ground and broader horizons.

Firstly, Tether’s picked El Salvador as its new base, a country that has fully embraced crypto. After getting a digital asset service provider license, the company is setting up a real headquarters there. Ardoino and other top execs are making the move too.

Moreover, after banking over $5 billion in profits in early 2024, Tether is putting its capital to work:

• AI: Through its venture arm, Tether Evo, the company has picked up stakes in firms like Northern Data Group and Blackrock Neurotech. Tether has also launched Tether AI, an open-source, decentralized AI platform designed to operate on any device without centralized servers or API keys. The goal is to use AI to boost operations and maybe build some new tools along the way.

• Infrastructure and AgTech: Tether invested in Adecoagro, a company focused on sustainable farming and renewable energy. It’s a surprising move, but it fits Tether’s bigger strategy of backing real-world, resilient systems.

• Media and beyond: There are also signs Tether wants a footprint in content and communications, signaling it’s thinking far beyond crypto alone.

Tether’s MiCA exit highlights crypto’s global regulatory chaos

Tether walking away from MiCA is a snapshot of a much bigger issue in crypto: How hard it is to build a business in a world where every jurisdiction plays by its own rulebook.

The classic game of regulatory arbitrage

This isn’t Tether’s first rodeo when it comes to navigating regulations. Like many crypto companies, they’ve mastered the art of regulatory arbitrage, finding the friendliest jurisdiction and setting up shop there. 

Europe brings in strict rules? Fine, Tether sets up in El Salvador, where crypto is welcomed with open arms.

However, it does raise questions. If big players can simply move jurisdictions to dodge regulations, how effective are those rules in the first place? And does that leave retail users protected or just further confused?

A crypto world that’s all over the map

The bigger issue is that the global regulatory landscape is incredibly fragmented. Europe wants full compliance, transparency and reserve mandates. The US is still sending mixed signals. Asia is split; Hong Kong is pro-crypto, while China stays cold. 

Hong Kong has also passed the Stablecoin Bill to license fiat-backed issuers and boost its Web3 ambitions. Meanwhile, Latin America is embracing crypto as a tool for financial access.

For companies, it’s a mess. You can’t build for one global market; you must constantly adapt, restructure or pull out entirely. For users, it creates massive gaps in access. A coin available in one country might be inaccessible in another just because of local policy.

As a final thought: Tether’s resistance to MiCA seems to be more than just a protest against red tape. 

It’s making a bet that crypto’s future will be shaped outside Brussels, not inside it.

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on May 22 that it had arrested a woman for assaulting then-interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin.

Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, allegedly spat on Martin while he was conducting a television interview. The incident was caught on camera. 

According to a statement from the District U.S. Attorney’s Office, Sommer approached Martin while he was standing outside its headquarters in Washington, cursing at him.

“Martin turned to face Sommer. Sommer then said, ‘Are you Ed Martin? You are. Ed Martin.’ Sommer lunged at Martin and spit on his shoulder,” the statement said.

Sommer cursed at Martin again as she turned and walked away, shouting,

“You are a disgusting man. ... My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served.”

Following the incident, Sommer allegedly replied to numerous posts on Martin’s X account, taking responsibility for the incident. According to court documents, she posted the same message in each reply.

“ED, that was me that spit in your face today ... that absolutely definitely spit in your face on camera. Hi, hello,” the posts read. 

Martin, the former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, was appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia earlier this year by President Donald Trump. 

Trump nominated him for the position on a permanent basis, but had to rescind the offer after some GOP senators refused to support him. 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters on May 6 that he would not vote to confirm Martin because they disagreed on the treatment of individuals accused of rioting at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Tills said Martin seemed “like a good man” and that he’d made a good case that some of these individuals had been “over-prosecuted,” but also said there was “friction” on which individuals should be prosecuted. 

“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protests happened, I’d probably support him,” Tillis said. 

“But not in this district.” 

For his part, Martin had a sense of humor about the setback. 

He posted on X a picture of himself dressed as pope with the words “Plot twist,” since Trump’s announcement was made on the same day the Vatican was in the process of electing Pope Leo XIV.  

On May 13, Martin announced that Trump had appointed him to a dual role in the Department of Justice as “pardon attorney” and director of the Weaponization Working Group, which will investigate government prosecutorial overreach.