Putin’s First Ever Visit To Japanese-Claimed Islands Provokes Outrage In Tokyo Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a provocative visit to the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time ever. Japan immediately lodged a “strong” protest given it also has long claimed the territory, resulting in an avalanche of denunciatory headlines in Japanese press. Putin held a meeting there “on ensuring the security of Russia’s […]

Violent Crime Rate Drops In Major US Cities Authored by Timothy Frudd via The Epoch Times, A new report shows that violent crime dropped in many of the United States’ largest cities during the first half of 2026, and there was a more than 17 percent decline in the number of homicides. A Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, which gathered data from 66 of the largest cities in the United States, was released on Aug. 5. It […]

“No Rock Left Unturned”: Tether Completes Independent Audit Of Reserves With KPMG Stablecoin giant Tether has announced that KPMG U.S. completed the first independent audit of its reserves after years of struggling to get a Big Four accounting firm to do so. The San Salvador-based company, which issues the largest stablecoin in existence, USDT, said the audit was “the largest inaugural financial audit in history.” Tether […]

News Groups Sue Trump Over Paid Early Access To Truth Social Posts Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump was sued on Wednesday by two news organizations seeking to shut down a service that sells paid access to the president’s posts on his Truth Social platform. This illustrative photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for Truth Social, with it’s website on a computer screen in the […]

Anthropic’s $2 Trillion Bet Is That Nothing Goes Wrong The most revealing aspect of a $2 trillion Anthropic IPO is not the staggering valuation, but the suspension of disbelief required to justify it. To buy into that number, investors must assume that artificial intelligence is becoming economically indispensable at breakneck speed, that a formidable moat will protect a handful of frontier-model developers, and that the exorbitant […]

The ‘Burrito’ Debate: What’s It Really About… Authored by JD Breen via Pretium Insights, Two years ago, “conservative” pundits rightly ridiculed the Biden Administration for suggesting inflation was fine while blaming its poor approval ratings on Americans’ ignorance of how little they were spending. Now, under the Trump Administration, the same “influencers” mock young people for noticing how much things cost. Last […]

Inside Utah’s Trans-Marxist Militia: From Cuba Revolutionary Trips And Rifle Training To Declaring War On Landlords via Miah Blackwell of The Cougar Chronicle,  Over the last few years, individuals and groups tied to violent and extremist LGBTQ activism have been emerging in the heart of Utah. In May, we exposed how extremist students and clubs at UVU have been responsible for vandalism, violent threats and rhetoric, and even […]

Doug Casey On The End Of Honest Markets Via InternationalMan.com, International Man: Markets are supposed to reflect economic reality. But when central banks suppress interest rates, governments debase currencies, and major powers manipulate oil prices for political purposes, can any market still be considered honest? Doug Casey: Almost all markets are distorted in some way by government intervention. Interest rates are the […]

Workday Soars Most On Record As Silver Lake Weighs $43 Billion Buyout Workday shares jumped the most on record during late-afternoon trading on Thursday after a Reuters report said Silver Lake was in discussions to acquire the human-resources and financial-management software company. According to the report, the deal would value Workday at $43 billion and rank among the largest software buyouts in history. Here’s more from the […]

“Unofficial” FBI Group Swept Up Journalists, Politicians As Russian Disinfo “Conduits” For Probing Biden-Ukraine Dealings An FBI analytical group that reviewed confidential-source reporting about Biden family corruption in Ukraine was “unofficially formed” inside the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force in late 2019 and did not corroborate the allegations it was assigned to assess before labeling the reporting as Russian […]

The University Of Michigan Is Now Hiding Grades From Fragile Freshmen Authored by Andrea Widburg via AmericanTinker.com, In 2017, Macalester College, a pricey Midwestern college, ran an article in its glossy “Macalester Today” magazine titled “The Dog Is In.” Indeed, that was the cover story. In the article, Macalester boasted about having multiple therapy dogs roaming the campus to help students deal with homework […]

Araghchi Mocks ‘Fake Intelligence’ Amid Skepticism Over Iranian Plot Against Trump In Turkey US mainstream media has this week been dominated by claims that an Iranian assassination threat prompted President Donald Trump to secretly switch planes while flying out of Turkey last month, with Air Force One serving as a decoy while he flew out on a smaller military aircraft. The details of the ‘escape’ from alleged danger are wild, and […]

Cyberattack Cripples California City’s 911 System, Forces Emergency Shutdown Via American Greatness, A Northern California city of roughly 30,000 residents was forced to shut down its entire computer network Friday after a cyberattack knocked out its 911 system, the latest sign of how vulnerable American municipalities remain to digital assaults. Suisun City, located about 45 miles from San Francisco, declared a state of […]

Gamer Recruitment Campaign Sparks Record Air Traffic Controller Hiring: FAA The Federal Aviation Administration reached historic hiring levels for air traffic controllers through its campaign to target gamers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an Aug. 9 post on X that the campaign “supercharged the entire hiring process to get the BEST & BRIGHTEST in faster.” As a result, the TSA hit 94 percent of its hiring goal […]

Tailing 30Y Auction Prices At Highest Yield In 25 Years After yesterday’s ugly 10Y auction, moments ago we got the last of the week’s refunding auctions, when the Treasury sold $25BN in 30Y paper (the same paper that has seen yield shoot up in the past week, ever since Warsh’s most recent FOMC meeting in which he left the long-end hang out to dry), and just like the 10Y auction before it, this one was also rather deplorable. […]

Supreme Court Sets November Arguments In Religious Liberty, Prison Medical Care, And Agency Power Cases Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The Supreme Court on Aug. 11 scheduled oral arguments for November in three high-stakes cases involving a religious liberty challenge to Colorado’s preschool funding rules, a lawsuit over inadequate prison medical care, and a separation of powers dispute involving Labor Department […]

Running The Hormuz Gauntlet: Recruitment Ad Offers Tanker Crews Double Pay To Brave Drone Strikes Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen posted on X what appears to be a recruitment ad from Singapore-based maritime crewing agency Singhai Marine Services, offering a rare look at the pay and “transit” bonuses available to tanker crews transiting the highly contested Strait of Hormuz. Singhai Marine is recruiting a full crew to […]

Diesel Crack Spread Explodes To Record As Wall Street Warns Of Refined-Products “Perfect Storm” Wall Street Warns About “Perfect Storm” Diesel Crunch:  Goldman’s Daan Struyven Shows Global Diesel Exports Crashing Citi’s Anthony Yuen Warns: Global Diesel Inventories “Below 5YR Minimum” BofA’s Francisco Blanch Warns: “Diesel’s Perfect Summer Storm” Unfolding  Jefferies’ Sam Burwell Warns: Hormuz Shock “Manifesting Itself In […]

Treasury Department Ends Ownership Reporting For US Small Businesses Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times, The Treasury Department on Tuesday finalized a rule permanently exempting U.S. companies and individuals from reporting beneficial ownership information to authorities, rolling back Biden-era Corporate Transparency Act requirements. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations […]

LIS Technologies’ New $6.2M Oak Ridge Building Is The Missing Link In Nano’s Fuel-To-Reactor Stack LIS Technologies just bought the building that makes the Nano Nuclear vertical-integration story look more like a fuel cycle, instead of a slide deck. The check for $6.2 million purchased K-1580, a 37,803-square-foot, three-story, newly renovated facility at 150 Americus Way on the historic K-25 Enrichment Site of East Tennessee’s […]

Paramount Mulling California Exodus Amid Antitrust Scrutiny Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times, Paramount Skydance could be the next major company to leave California as the media giant faces intensifying antitrust scrutiny over its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s top legal officer, said the Los Angeles-based company is “committed” to staying in California. But he also noted that […]

​​​​​​​”Abolish NYSE Stock Exchange,” Says China-Based Hasan Piker Producer, Mamdani Campaign Alum Far-left influencer Hasan Piker’s China-based producer, Eric Hovagim, who also worked on socialist Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, has said on recent podcasts and streams that he wants to “ban the American stock market” and has boasted about his relationship with a known Beijing-based propagandist waging an informational war […]

Tehran’s Houthi Proxies Attack Saudi Aramco Again, Crude Spikes, As Iran’s Military Command To Be ‘More Aggressive’ Summary Saudi Aramco attacked again: Houthi drone strikes on a Saudi refinery sent oil prices higher. Hormuz stalemate & standoff: US says it can sustain the Iranian port blockade indefinitely. Iran digs in: Tehran appears prepared for a prolonged war of attrition. Hard-liners rise: Iran reshuffled senior […]

Private Credit’s Problems Just Got Real Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance For most of this year, the private credit story I’ve written about (and warned about) has been about investors trying to get their money out. Now the loans themselves appear to be cracking. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that defaults across several of the largest publicly traded private credit funds have climbed to their highest levels in […]

Massive Blast Rocks Italian Munitions Plant At Heart Of Europe’s Ammo Supply Chain A massive explosion has been reported at a major Italian manufacturer of medium- and large-caliber ammunition, formerly known as Simmel Difesa. The plant operates in Colleferro and Anagni, near Rome. Local Italian outlet Sky TG24 reports:  Fire and explosion at Colleferro, in the facility of the former Simmel Difesa, currently owned by KNDS […]