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  3.  <channel>
  4.    <title>ZeroHedge News</title>
  5.    <link>https://www.zerohedge.com</link>
  6.    <description/>
  7.    <language>en</language>
  8.    
  9.    <item>
  10.  <title>Trump Touts "Great Progress" In China Tariff Talks, Suggests "Total Reset" On The Table</title>
  11.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-touts-great-progress-china-tariff-talks-suggests-total-reset-table</link>
  12.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Trump Touts "Great Progress" In China Tariff Talks, Suggests "Total Reset" On The Table&lt;/span&gt;
  13.  
  14.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;President Donald Trump said late on Saturday that "great progress" was being made in ongoing U.S.-China talks over tariffs menacing the global economy, and even suggested a “total reset" was on the table as tariff negotiations are set to continue Sunday in Switzerland.&lt;/p&gt;
  15.  
  16. &lt;p&gt;No major breakthrough was announced in discussions that lasted over 10 hours between U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and a delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. Still, Trump struck an upbeat tone.&lt;/p&gt;
  17.  
  18. &lt;p&gt;“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland. Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”&lt;/p&gt;
  19.  
  20. &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="truthsocial-embed" src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114486066663976973/embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="600"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;script src="https://truthsocial.com/embed.js" async="async"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  21.  
  22. &lt;p&gt;He gave no further details, and officials at the White House also offered little information during and after the opening day of discussions.&lt;/p&gt;
  23.  
  24. &lt;p&gt;Trump's post followed reports that talks would continue Sunday, after extending late into the day on Saturday. Talks have been shrouded in secrecy, and neither side made comments to reporters as they left.&lt;/p&gt;
  25.  
  26. &lt;p&gt;Several convoys of black vehicles left the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva, which hosted the talks aimed at de-escalating trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks took place.&lt;/p&gt;
  27.  
  28. &lt;p&gt;The opening day of negotiations were held in the sumptuous 18th-century “Villa Saladin” overlooking Lake Geneva. The former estate was bequeathed to the Swiss state in 1973, according to the Geneva government.&lt;/p&gt;
  29.  
  30. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  31. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;The Chinese delegation has left for the trade talks with the U.S. to be held today and tomorrow in Geneva in a bid to deescalate tensions, triggered by U.S. tariff wars. &lt;a href="https://t.co/eMS1cubnCJ"&gt;pic.twitter.com/eMS1cubnCJ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  32. — Chen Weihua （陈卫华） (@chenweihua) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/chenweihua/status/1921106980296417595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  33. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trump's assessment aside, while prospects for a major breakthrough appeared dim when the talks opened there is hope that the two countries will scale back the tariffs they have slapped on each other’s goods, a move that would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on US-China trade.&lt;/p&gt;
  34.  
  35. &lt;p&gt;Trump last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145%, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the countries’ boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.&lt;/p&gt;
  36.  
  37. &lt;p&gt;And even before talks got underway, Trump suggested Friday that the U.S. could lower its tariffs on China, saying in a Truth Social post that “ 80% Tariff seems right! Up to Scott″ Bessent.&lt;/p&gt;
  38.  
  39. &lt;p&gt;Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, noted it will be the first time He and Bessent have talked. She doubts the Geneva meeting will produce any substantive results: “the best scenario is for the two sides to agree to de-escalate on the ... tariffs at the same time,” she said, adding even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It cannot just be words.”&lt;/p&gt;
  40.  
  41. &lt;p&gt;Goldman Sachs expects both sides to cut tariffs by more than half when negotiations are over.&lt;/p&gt;
  42.  
  43. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/US%20China%20tariffs%20revised%20Goldman.png?itok=a6Mwsa0v" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/US%20China%20tariffs%20revised%20Goldman.png?itok=a6Mwsa0v"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7fc15540-e3bf-47ff-b07b-0e81f756874c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="334" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/US%20China%20tariffs%20revised%20Goldman.png?itok=a6Mwsa0v" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  44.  
  45. &lt;p&gt;Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has aggressively used tariffs as his favorite economic weapon. He has imposed a 10% tax on imports from almost every country in the world.&lt;/p&gt;
  46.  
  47. &lt;p&gt;But the fight with China has been the most intense. His tariffs on China include a 20% charge meant to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States.&lt;/p&gt;
  48.  
  49. &lt;p&gt;The remaining 125% involve a dispute that dates back to Trump’s first term and comes atop tariffs he levied on China back then, which means the total tariffs on some Chinese goods can exceed 145%.&lt;/p&gt;
  50.  
  51. &lt;p&gt;Total US tariffs on Asian countries in context are shown below.&lt;/p&gt;
  52.  
  53. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/us%20tariffs%20on%20asia%20in%20context.jpg?itok=VbtM-SkN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/us%20tariffs%20on%20asia%20in%20context.jpg?itok=VbtM-SkN"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d846e69a-99f5-4e5f-b9ca-b395a8edc6b1" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="360" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/us%20tariffs%20on%20asia%20in%20context.jpg?itok=VbtM-SkN" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  54.  
  55. &lt;p&gt;During Trump's first term, the U.S. alleged that China uses unfair tactics to give itself an edge in advanced technologies such as quantum computing and driverless cars. These include forcing U.S. and other foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; using government money to subsidize domestic tech firms; and outright theft of sensitive technologies.&lt;/p&gt;
  56.  
  57. &lt;p&gt;Those issues were never fully resolved. After nearly two years of negotiation, the United States and China reached a so-called Phase One agreement in January 2020. The US agreed then not to go ahead with even higher tariffs on China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. The tough issues - such as China’s subsidies - were left for future negotiations.&lt;/p&gt;
  58.  
  59. &lt;p&gt;But China didn’t come through with the promised purchases, partly because COVID-19 disrupted global commerce just after the Phase One truce was announced. As a result, America's trade deficit with China came to a staggering $263 billion last year.&lt;/p&gt;
  60.  
  61. &lt;p&gt;The fight over China's tech policy now resumes.&lt;/p&gt;
  62. &lt;/div&gt;
  63.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  64. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T03:25:30+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 23:25&lt;/span&gt;
  65. </description>
  66.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 03:25:30 +0000</pubDate>
  67.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  68.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029405 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  69.    </item>
  70. <item>
  71.  <title>Senators Cotton &amp; Graham Work To Sabotage Chances Of Iran Deal</title>
  72.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/senators-cotton-graham-work-sabotage-chances-iran-deal</link>
  73.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Senators Cotton &amp; Graham Work To Sabotage Chances Of Iran Deal&lt;/span&gt;
  74.  
  75.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://news.antiwar.com/2025/05/08/senators-cotton-and-graham-work-to-sabotage-chances-of-iran-deal/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  76.  
  77. &lt;p&gt;Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), two of the most hawkish members of Congress, &lt;a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senators-congress-should-vote-trumps-potential-iran-nuclear-deal"&gt;are working together&lt;/a&gt; to sabotage the Trump administration’s chances of reaching a deal with Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
  78.  
  79. &lt;p&gt;On Thursday, the senators &lt;strong&gt;held a press conference outlining a resolution they’re introducing that demands that any deal with Iran must include the total dismantlement of Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program&lt;/strong&gt;, an idea that Iranian officials &lt;a href="https://archive.vn/cZtvh"&gt;have made clear is a non-starter.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  80.  
  81. &lt;p&gt;"To the Iranian regime: you claim all you want is a peaceful nuclear power program. You can have it, but you cannot enrich and you must dismantle," &lt;a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/05/graham-cotton-warn-iran-nuclear-deal-without-complete-dismantlement-wont-pass-senate/?smid=tw-share"&gt;Graham said&lt;/a&gt;. "And you must dismantle now."&lt;/p&gt;
  82.  
  83. &lt;p&gt;Graham and Cotton said that any deal must require ratification from the Senate and must also impose limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for its allies in the region, &lt;strong&gt;conditions that are also a non-starter for Tehran&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  84. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Cotton-Graham.jpg?itok=yn3NRs21" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Cotton-Graham.jpg?itok=yn3NRs21"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e49011e9-96e9-4e2c-9eb3-1bce6957fe8f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Cotton-Graham.jpg?itok=yn3NRs21" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Graham and Cotton at a press conference on May 8, 2025 (photo via Graham’s office)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  85.  
  86. &lt;p&gt;"A treaty with Iran in this space is only possible if you get 67 votes," Graham said. "You’re not going to get 67 votes for a treaty regarding their nuclear program unless they deal with the missile program and their terrorism activity. So is it possible? Yes, if Iran changes."&lt;/p&gt;
  87.  
  88. &lt;p&gt;The senators also &lt;strong&gt;repeated President Trump’s threat that if there is no deal&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;the US will attack Iran&lt;/strong&gt;."&lt;/p&gt;
  89.  
  90. &lt;p&gt;"Iran can either have a nuclear program that’s lying in ruins, smoking, destroyed, and dismantled, or it can have a peaceful civilian nuclear power program with no centrifuges, no enriching, no re-processing, and no pathway to a nuclear weapon," he said.&lt;/p&gt;
  91.  
  92. &lt;p&gt;Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran over its nuclear program even though &lt;a href="https://news.antiwar.com/2025/03/25/us-intelligence-says-iran-is-not-building-a-nuclear-weapon/"&gt;his intelligence agencies recently reaffirmed &lt;/a&gt;that there’s no evidence Tehran is building a bomb or that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reversed his ban on the development of nuclear weapons.&lt;/p&gt;
  93.  
  94. &lt;p&gt;Iran is currently enriching some uranium at 20% and 60%, which is still lower than the 90% needed for weapons-grade. Tehran has made clear that it’s willing to bring enrichment levels back down to 3.67%, the limit imposed by the JCPOA.&lt;/p&gt;
  95. &lt;/div&gt;
  96.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  97. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T03:20:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 23:20&lt;/span&gt;
  98. </description>
  99.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 03:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
  100.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  101.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029369 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  102.    </item>
  103. <item>
  104.  <title>Number Of Jailed Journalists Remains High</title>
  105.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/number-jailed-journalists-remains-high</link>
  106.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Number Of Jailed Journalists Remains High&lt;/span&gt;
  107.  
  108.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;361 journalists were imprisoned as a result of their work&lt;/strong&gt; as of December 1, 2024, according to &lt;a href="https://cpj.org/data/imprisoned/2023/?status=Imprisoned&amp;start_year=2024&amp;end_year=2024&amp;group_by=location"&gt;data&lt;/a&gt; from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). &lt;/p&gt;
  109.  
  110. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/jailed-20180725.jpg?itok=otNmgGum" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/jailed-20180725.jpg?itok=otNmgGum"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e00e3391-76af-4b4f-8751-1255c644fde4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/jailed-20180725.jpg?itok=otNmgGum" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  111.  
  112. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/16414/jailed-journalists-timeline/"&gt;Statista's Anna Fleck points &lt;/a&gt;out that &lt;strong&gt;this number was the second highest on record&lt;/strong&gt; since the CPJ started collecting this data in 1992, following only after 2022 when at least 369 journalists were incarcerated. &lt;/p&gt;
  113.  
  114. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/16414/jailed-journalists-timeline/" title="Infographic: Number of Jailed Journalists Remains High | Statista"&gt;&lt;img alt="Infographic: Number of Jailed Journalists Remains High | Statista" height="499" src="https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/16414.jpeg" style="max-width: 960px;" width="499" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
  115.  
  116. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You will find more infographics at &lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/"&gt;Statista&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  117.  
  118. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;These figures do not include those who were jailed and released throughout the year.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  119.  
  120. &lt;p&gt;At the end of 2024, &lt;strong&gt;China had the largest number of journalists held behind bars&lt;/strong&gt; (50). &lt;/p&gt;
  121.  
  122. &lt;p&gt;This is likely a low estimate, according to a CPJ &lt;a href="https://cpj.org/special-reports/in-record-year-china-israel-and-myanmar-are-worlds-leading-jailers-of-journalists/"&gt;report&lt;/a&gt;, since censorship makes it difficult to determine the exact number of imprisoned journalists. &lt;/p&gt;
  123.  
  124. &lt;p&gt;The next top jailers of journalists were Israel (43), Myanmar (35), Belarus (31) and Russia (30).&lt;/p&gt;
  125.  
  126. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Together, these five countries accounted for more than half of the global total of imprisoned journalists (53 percent), as of the day of the census.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  127. &lt;/div&gt;
  128.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  129. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T02:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 22:45&lt;/span&gt;
  130. </description>
  131.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 02:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  132.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  133.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029384 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  134.    </item>
  135. <item>
  136.  <title>A Matter Of Faith</title>
  137.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/matter-faith-0</link>
  138.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;A Matter Of Faith&lt;/span&gt;
  139.  
  140.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For many people around the world, religion plays a prominent role in their everyday lives, while others embrace secular ideas&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  141.  
  142. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/27033/share-religious-people-by-country/"&gt;As Statista's Felix Richter reports&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/global-consumer-survey/surveys"&gt;according to a Statista Consumer Insights survey, &lt;/a&gt;carried out between January 2024 and March 2025, many of the &lt;strong&gt;most religious countries in the world can be found in Africa and the Middle East. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  143.  
  144. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/27033/share-religious-people-by-country/" title="Infographic: A Matter of Faith | Statista"&gt;&lt;img alt="Infographic: A Matter of Faith | Statista" height="500" src="https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/27033.jpeg" style="max-width: 960px;" width="500" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
  145.  
  146. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You will find more infographics at &lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/"&gt;Statista&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  147.  
  148. &lt;p&gt;Among the countries included in the survey, Pakistan, Egypt and Nigeria scored highest with 99 percent of all adults in the surveyed age group professing to a religion.&lt;/p&gt;
  149.  
  150. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The most secular country in the survey was China,&lt;/strong&gt; with only 17 percent of the adult population saying that they followed a religion. &lt;/p&gt;
  151.  
  152. &lt;p&gt;The number is not surprising given the fact that religious faith was marginalized under Communism in the country. &lt;/p&gt;
  153.  
  154. &lt;p&gt;Other relatively secular places in Asia included Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.&lt;/p&gt;
  155.  
  156. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/3977/religion-in-europe/"&gt;In Europe,&lt;/a&gt; Czechia (30 percent follow a religion) is the country with the fewest people who declare themselves believers – a fact that is in part tied to the country’s communist past, while &lt;a href="https://praguemorning.cz/why-are-czechs-not-religious/"&gt;tensions with and rejection of the Catholic Church started much earlier in the country&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  157.  
  158. &lt;p&gt;Further East in Europe, religion has not been stifled as much despite a socialist past – for example in Romania, Serbia or Lithuania. &lt;/p&gt;
  159.  
  160. &lt;p&gt;Poland, the home of famous pope John Paul II, also showed more religious tendencies than many of its Western European neighbors.&lt;/p&gt;
  161.  
  162. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the West of the continent, Ireland was the most religious, while in Southern Europe, religion was most widespread in Greece, Italy and Portugal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  163.  
  164. &lt;p&gt;Peru and Brazil were the only countries surveyed on the American continent with at least 80 percent saying they followed a religion. &lt;/p&gt;
  165.  
  166. &lt;p&gt;Most other countries here – with the exception of Canada – did nevertheless score consistently high on religious faith with little difference between North and South.&lt;/p&gt;
  167. &lt;/div&gt;
  168.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  169. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T01:35:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 21:35&lt;/span&gt;
  170. </description>
  171.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 01:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
  172.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  173.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029381 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  174.    </item>
  175. <item>
  176.  <title>Is There More To The Fetterman Story?</title>
  177.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/there-more-fetterman-story</link>
  178.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Is There More To The Fetterman Story?&lt;/span&gt;
  179.  
  180.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/05/09/is_there_more_to_the_fetterman_story_1109230.html"&gt;Authored by Christopher Nicholas via RealClearPennsylvania&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  181.  
  182. &lt;p&gt;So &lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/760929c1-ed0d-4f6f-a70c-d5fa9605d454?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JuNGdkIn0.1o6Mji3xSehMmYa3Z3n6MFtRDg3Ck3wXWIAtO8iwKXA"&gt;the big&lt;/a&gt; recent exposé on Sen. John Fetterman in New York Magazine has many Republicans trying to excuse his erratic behavior by claiming his Senate staff “dimed” him out because of his evolution into a hard-core supporter of Israel.&lt;/p&gt;
  183.  
  184. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/686246_jpg_92.jpg?itok=waS8Xqma" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/686246_jpg_92.jpg?itok=waS8Xqma"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5cb3bdff-a3a1-4d5a-a07b-cd897bd38522" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="344" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/686246_jpg_92.jpg?itok=waS8Xqma" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  185.  
  186. &lt;p&gt;That alone does not come close to passing the smell test.&lt;/p&gt;
  187.  
  188. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It’s clear Fetterman’s staff is at war with their boss,&lt;/strong&gt; and it’s impossible for a senator to serve our large and diverse state with that distraction at hand. Perhaps it was their way of pushing the senator to return into some form of treatment?&lt;/p&gt;
  189.  
  190. &lt;p&gt;Either way, having our senior U.S. Senator’s office hamstrung like this is not a good thing for Pennsylvania.&lt;/p&gt;
  191.  
  192. &lt;h2&gt;But first, some background.&lt;/h2&gt;
  193.  
  194. &lt;p&gt;The new phrase we’re all learning now, since we’re living in it, is the “&lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/7ea00d11-0bf4-4f9d-a9b4-5c537a47de3c?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JuNGdkIn0.1o6Mji3xSehMmYa3Z3n6MFtRDg3Ck3wXWIAtO8iwKXA"&gt;attention economy&lt;/a&gt;.” As the Berkeley Economic Review noted: “The term ‘attention economy’ was coined by psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who &lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/32dcb337-5bdb-4456-93b5-39fa109d60b6?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JuNGdkIn0.1o6Mji3xSehMmYa3Z3n6MFtRDg3Ck3wXWIAtO8iwKXA"&gt;posited&lt;/a&gt; that attention was the ‘bottleneck of human thought’ that limits both what we can perceive in stimulating environments and what we can do. &lt;strong&gt;Our attention has always been limited, valuable, and scarce &lt;/strong&gt;… But what distinguishes the present day is that technological advances have made an overwhelming amount of information available, strategically aimed at capturing our attention. As for the general public, it has never been easier to garner such personal levels of attention though means like social media.”&lt;/p&gt;
  195.  
  196. &lt;p&gt;President Trump excels at dominating the country’s political attention economy. Whether that’s good for him and/or the country remains an open question – even as we recently passed the 100-day mark of his second term.&lt;/p&gt;
  197.  
  198. &lt;p&gt;Is there any Democrat around today who even comes close to Trump’s dominance in the attention economy? To me, there’s just one: &lt;strong&gt;John Fetterman. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are a distant second.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  199.  
  200. &lt;p&gt;Fetterman is a walking “look at me” sign – given the contrast between his appearance and his diction and his education pedigree. Plus, he lives poor but has a multi-million trust fund at his disposal.&lt;/p&gt;
  201.  
  202. &lt;p&gt;Who had access to world class health care but ignored his doctors for five years and then lied to his boss, then Gov. Tom Wolf, about it.&lt;/p&gt;
  203.  
  204. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b078d785-78f1-4ac1-8e9b-b256027d4e69" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="129" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/beef%20initiative_2.JPG?itok=xygdyhxL" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  205.  
  206. &lt;p&gt;Who later suffered a bad stroke and then lied to the state about it and his recovery as he campaigned for higher office while, of course, serving as the state’s lieutenant governor.&lt;/p&gt;
  207.  
  208. &lt;p&gt;A true renaissance Yinzer … who of course, grew up in south-central Pennsylvania’s York.&lt;/p&gt;
  209.  
  210. &lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;as he recently played footsie for a time with Trump and his administration – it captivated the political media … and our attention.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  211.  
  212. &lt;p&gt;In the end, he met with Trump in Florida before the swearing in, met with many of his cabinet designees, and &lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/2206eaed-4ccd-4a8c-a65a-de2a6b886dd6?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JuNGdkIn0.1o6Mji3xSehMmYa3Z3n6MFtRDg3Ck3wXWIAtO8iwKXA"&gt;voted for about half of them&lt;/a&gt;, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a &lt;a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-vote-trump-cabinet-picks-top-nominees/"&gt;CBS News round up&lt;/a&gt; on Trump Cabinet confirmation votes.&lt;/p&gt;
  213.  
  214. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Against this backdrop, Fetterman continued to excel at his true love – social media shit-posting.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  215.  
  216. &lt;p&gt;He had indeed angered mainstream progressive Democrats over his dalliance with Trump and increasingly, his support for Israel – and opposition to PLO/Hamas – in which he sounded more like a Republican.&lt;/p&gt;
  217.  
  218. &lt;p&gt;Many in-state Democrats are counting the days until someone, anyone, takes him down in the 2028 primary, still three-plus years away. Whether that could happen is another open question, as is: who would Republicans rather try to defeat in ‘28 – Fetterman or a Democrat who had just defeated him in their primary?&lt;/p&gt;
  219.  
  220. &lt;p&gt;Against this backdrop came that New York magazine story, which paints a picture of an isolated senator: “&lt;strong&gt;Fetterman’s staffers, his truest believers, now question his fitness to be a senator. They worry he may present a danger to the Democratic Party and maybe even to himself&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
  221.  
  222. &lt;p&gt;Of course, this will raise all sorts of alarm bells, especially given the senator’s previous and ongoing mental and physical health struggles.&lt;/p&gt;
  223.  
  224. &lt;p&gt;After digesting the story, many Pennsylvania Democrats went “a-ha!,” agreed with their findings, and said or thought the senator needed some mental health help. Meanwhile, many Republicans, both in and out of the state, dismissed the article as just a hit piece, brought on by his pro-Israel shift.&lt;/p&gt;
  225.  
  226. &lt;p&gt;They took it as an opportunity to blast the senator’s staff for turning on him, and decided there was no there there, and it was just all sour grapes because of his vocal support for Israel.&lt;/p&gt;
  227.  
  228. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is real life ever that neat?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  229.  
  230. &lt;p&gt;It’s difficult to get through New York magazine’s entire report and think it’s just about disgruntled staffers acting out.&lt;/p&gt;
  231.  
  232. &lt;p&gt;And where is Fetterman’s wife, who has a new book coming out in early July titled: Radical Tenderness – The Value of Vulnerability in an Often Unkind World.&lt;/p&gt;
  233.  
  234. &lt;p&gt;In a normal “playing defense” situation like this, the staff would bring out the spouse to vouch for the elected. We’ve seen it a million times.&lt;/p&gt;
  235.  
  236. &lt;p&gt;A complicating factor: there are several vignettes in the report about the Fettermans having arguments – in-person and on the phone – relating to the situation in Israel and Gaza.&lt;/p&gt;
  237.  
  238. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There had been no response from Team Fetterman on this until late Tuesday afternoon when the senator himself echoed the hit piece narrative.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  239.  
  240. &lt;p&gt;Then over the weekend &lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/4bd6639b-b681-44a5-8b06-5e0e83686043?j=eyJ1IjoiM3JuNGdkIn0.1o6Mji3xSehMmYa3Z3n6MFtRDg3Ck3wXWIAtO8iwKXA"&gt;a story – with video – dropped&lt;/a&gt; about Fetterman apparently refusing to fasten his seat belt on a flight to Pittsburgh back in February. Reports &lt;a href="https://apnews.com/article/john-fetterman-trump-democrats-senate-pennsylvania-8129e206ed9479ad8534eac3fd128abe"&gt;out this week&lt;/a&gt; note Fetterman's bizarre actions and remarks at a meeting with local labor leaders.&lt;/p&gt;
  241.  
  242. &lt;p&gt;So, there’s something going on here, and it’s not just about an issue or position that Fetterman now espouses. Let’s hope Fetterman gets the help he needs – especially since it clearly helped him earlier.&lt;/p&gt;
  243.  
  244. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Christopher Nicholas is a veteran GOP political consultant, president of Eagle Consulting Group, and author of the PA Political Digest newsletter.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  245. &lt;/div&gt;
  246.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  247. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T01:00:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 21:00&lt;/span&gt;
  248. </description>
  249.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 01:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  250.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  251.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029340 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  252.    </item>
  253. <item>
  254.  <title>A Brief Visual History Of US Trade Disputes</title>
  255.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/brief-visual-history-us-trade-disputes</link>
  256.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;A Brief Visual History Of US Trade Disputes&lt;/span&gt;
  257.  
  258.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;As global policy uncertainty continues to dominate the headlines, &lt;strong&gt;maintaining a balanced perspective is crucial.&lt;/strong&gt; For investors, understanding the broader trade landscape - including where America’s largest trade deficits and surpluses lie - can help identify both emerging risks and overlooked opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;
  259.  
  260. &lt;p&gt;In partnership with &lt;a href="https://www.newyorklifeinvestments.com/?utm_source=digital&amp;utm_medium=visualcapitalist&amp;utm_campaign=websitetraffic&amp;utm_content=chartinguspartners"&gt;New York Life Investments&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/nyl02-charting-u-s-trade-relationships/"&gt;Visual Capitalist's Julia Wendling breaks down &lt;/a&gt;the &lt;strong&gt;key players in America’s trade ecosystem&lt;/strong&gt; - offering a clearer view of the relationships shaping U.S. economic dynamics.&lt;/p&gt;
  261.  
  262. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-10_12-01-09.jpg?itok=WoZ3nTYX" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-10_12-01-09.jpg?itok=WoZ3nTYX"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a48e8fdd-5db0-4f94-88b6-a118f425d54a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="2128" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-10_12-01-09.jpg?itok=WoZ3nTYX" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  263.  
  264. &lt;h2&gt;Who Are America’s Primary Trade Partners?&lt;/h2&gt;
  265.  
  266. &lt;p&gt;A country’s &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-u-s-trade-partners-by-import-value/"&gt;largest trading partners&lt;/a&gt; play a pivotal role in shaping its economic stability, currency strength, and market potential—all of which influence investor sentiment.&lt;/p&gt;
  267.  
  268. &lt;p&gt;For the U.S., trade is concentrated among three key partners: Canada, Mexico, and China. Canada and Mexico, closely tied through the USMCA trade agreement, account for &lt;strong&gt;16.9%&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;16.2%&lt;/strong&gt; of total trade, respectively. China follows at &lt;strong&gt;7.0%&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  269.  
  270. &lt;table class="tablepress tablepress-id-5603" id="tablepress-5603"&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr class="row-1"&gt;&lt;th class="column-1"&gt;Rank&lt;/th&gt;
  271. &lt;th class="column-2"&gt;Country&lt;/th&gt;
  272. &lt;th class="column-3"&gt;Percent of Total Trade&lt;/th&gt;
  273. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody class="row-striping row-hover"&gt;&lt;tr class="row-2"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
  274. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇨🇦 Canada&lt;/td&gt;
  275. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;16.9%&lt;/td&gt;
  276. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-3"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;
  277. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇲🇽 Mexico&lt;/td&gt;
  278. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;16.2%&lt;/td&gt;
  279. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-4"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
  280. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  281. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;7.0%&lt;/td&gt;
  282. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-5"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;4&lt;/td&gt;
  283. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇳🇱 Netherlands&lt;/td&gt;
  284. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;4.3%&lt;/td&gt;
  285. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-6"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;5&lt;/td&gt;
  286. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇬🇧 United Kingdom&lt;/td&gt;
  287. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;3.9%&lt;/td&gt;
  288. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-7"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
  289. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇯🇵 Japan&lt;/td&gt;
  290. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;3.9%&lt;/td&gt;
  291. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-8"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
  292. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇩🇪 Germany&lt;/td&gt;
  293. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;3.7%&lt;/td&gt;
  294. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-9"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;8&lt;/td&gt;
  295. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇰🇷 South Korea&lt;/td&gt;
  296. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;3.2%&lt;/td&gt;
  297. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-10"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;9&lt;/td&gt;
  298. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇧🇷 Brazil&lt;/td&gt;
  299. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.4%&lt;/td&gt;
  300. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-11"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;10&lt;/td&gt;
  301. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇸🇬 Singapore&lt;/td&gt;
  302. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.2%&lt;/td&gt;
  303. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-12"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;11&lt;/td&gt;
  304. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇫🇷 France&lt;/td&gt;
  305. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.1%&lt;/td&gt;
  306. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-13"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;12&lt;/td&gt;
  307. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇹🇼 Taiwan&lt;/td&gt;
  308. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.1%&lt;/td&gt;
  309. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-14"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;13&lt;/td&gt;
  310. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇮🇳 India&lt;/td&gt;
  311. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.0%&lt;/td&gt;
  312. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-15"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;14&lt;/td&gt;
  313. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇦🇺 Australia&lt;/td&gt;
  314. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;1.7%&lt;/td&gt;
  315. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-16"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;15&lt;/td&gt;
  316. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇧🇪 Belgium&lt;/td&gt;
  317. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;1.7%&lt;/td&gt;
  318. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-17"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt; &lt;/td&gt;
  319. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Other&lt;/td&gt;
  320. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;26.9%&lt;/td&gt;
  321. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;The remainder of the top 15 trading partners spans Europe and Asia.&lt;/p&gt;
  322.  
  323. &lt;h2&gt;America’s Largest Trade Deficits and Surpluses&lt;/h2&gt;
  324.  
  325. &lt;p&gt;Trade imbalances are a frequent flashpoint in economic and political discussions. So, where do the biggest gaps lie?&lt;/p&gt;
  326.  
  327. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://www.bea.gov/news/2025/us-international-trade-goods-and-services-february-2025"&gt;largest trade deficits&lt;/a&gt; are with China, Mexico, and Vietnam. Notably, the U.S. deficit with China alone (&lt;strong&gt;$295 billion&lt;/strong&gt;) nearly equals its combined deficits with Mexico and Vietnam (&lt;strong&gt;$296 billion&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
  328.  
  329. &lt;table class="tablepress tablepress-id-5604" id="tablepress-5604"&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr class="row-1"&gt;&lt;th class="column-1"&gt;Rank&lt;/th&gt;
  330. &lt;th class="column-2"&gt;Country&lt;/th&gt;
  331. &lt;th class="column-3"&gt;Trade Deficits ($ billions)&lt;/th&gt;
  332. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody class="row-striping row-hover"&gt;&lt;tr class="row-2"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
  333. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  334. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-295.4&lt;/td&gt;
  335. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-3"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;
  336. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇲🇽 Mexico&lt;/td&gt;
  337. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-171.8&lt;/td&gt;
  338. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-4"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
  339. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇻🇳 Vietnam&lt;/td&gt;
  340. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-123..5&lt;/td&gt;
  341. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-5"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;4&lt;/td&gt;
  342. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇮🇪 Ireland&lt;/td&gt;
  343. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-86.7&lt;/td&gt;
  344. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-6"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;5&lt;/td&gt;
  345. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇩🇪 Germany&lt;/td&gt;
  346. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-84.8&lt;/td&gt;
  347. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-7"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
  348. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇹🇼 Taiwan&lt;/td&gt;
  349. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-73.9&lt;/td&gt;
  350. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-8"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
  351. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇯🇵 Japan&lt;/td&gt;
  352. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-68.5&lt;/td&gt;
  353. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-9"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;8&lt;/td&gt;
  354. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇰🇷 South Korea&lt;/td&gt;
  355. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-66.0&lt;/td&gt;
  356. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-10"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;9&lt;/td&gt;
  357. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇨🇦 Canada&lt;/td&gt;
  358. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-63.3&lt;/td&gt;
  359. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-11"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;10&lt;/td&gt;
  360. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇮🇳 India&lt;/td&gt;
  361. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;-45.7&lt;/td&gt;
  362. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the other side of the ledger, the U.S. runs trade surpluses with countries such as the Netherlands (&lt;strong&gt;$55.5 billion&lt;/strong&gt;), Hong Kong (&lt;strong&gt;$21.9 billion&lt;/strong&gt;), and Australia (&lt;strong&gt;$17.9 billion&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
  363.  
  364. &lt;table class="tablepress tablepress-id-5607" id="tablepress-5607"&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr class="row-1"&gt;&lt;th class="column-1"&gt;Rank&lt;/th&gt;
  365. &lt;th class="column-2"&gt;Country&lt;/th&gt;
  366. &lt;th class="column-3"&gt;Trade Surpluses ($ billions)&lt;/th&gt;
  367. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody class="row-striping row-hover"&gt;&lt;tr class="row-2"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
  368. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇳🇱 Netherlands&lt;/td&gt;
  369. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;55.5&lt;/td&gt;
  370. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-3"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;
  371. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇭🇰 Hong Kong&lt;/td&gt;
  372. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;21.9&lt;/td&gt;
  373. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-4"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
  374. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇦🇺 Australia&lt;/td&gt;
  375. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;17.9&lt;/td&gt;
  376. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-5"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;4&lt;/td&gt;
  377. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇬🇧 United Kingdom&lt;/td&gt;
  378. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;11.9&lt;/td&gt;
  379. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-6"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;5&lt;/td&gt;
  380. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇧🇷 Brazil&lt;/td&gt;
  381. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;7.4&lt;/td&gt;
  382. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-7"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
  383. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇧🇪 Belgium&lt;/td&gt;
  384. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;6.3&lt;/td&gt;
  385. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-8"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
  386. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇸🇬 Singapore&lt;/td&gt;
  387. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;2.8&lt;/td&gt;
  388. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-9"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;8&lt;/td&gt;
  389. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia&lt;/td&gt;
  390. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;0.4&lt;/td&gt;
  391. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is also a sizable surplus with South and Central America, totaling &lt;strong&gt;$47.3 billion&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  392.  
  393. &lt;h2&gt;A Brief History of U.S. Trade Disputes&lt;/h2&gt;
  394.  
  395. &lt;p&gt;The U.S. has a long tradition of using tariffs and other protective measures to support domestic industries—often targeting its top trading partners.&lt;/p&gt;
  396.  
  397. &lt;p&gt;Before the latest round of Trump-era tariffs, the U.S. and Canada clashed in several notable disputes, including the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs (1930), the Lumber War (1982), and the first wave of Trump tariffs in 2018.&lt;/p&gt;
  398.  
  399. &lt;h2&gt;Insights Amid Uncertainty&lt;/h2&gt;
  400.  
  401. &lt;p&gt;In times of heightened uncertainty, clear insights are more valuable than ever. By unpacking the U.S.’s trade relationships and historical context, investors can gain a deeper understanding of potential market impacts—and spot opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed.&lt;/p&gt;
  402. &lt;/div&gt;
  403.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  404. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-11T00:25:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 20:25&lt;/span&gt;
  405. </description>
  406.  <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 00:25:00 +0000</pubDate>
  407.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  408.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029383 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  409.    </item>
  410. <item>
  411.  <title>India And Pakistan Agree To US-Mediated "Full &amp; Immediate Ceasefire"</title>
  412.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-says-india-and-pakistan-agreed-full-immediate-ceasefire</link>
  413.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;India And Pakistan Agree To US-Mediated "Full &amp; Immediate Ceasefire"&lt;/span&gt;
  414.  
  415.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, appeared to be &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/last-hours-india-pakistan-fighting-grows-most-expansive-decades"&gt;spiraling toward broader&lt;/a&gt; conflict on Saturday, setting the stage for another day of scary headlines that could trigger World War III. But just moments ago, President Trump announced on &lt;a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114483405683675564"&gt;Truth Social&lt;/a&gt; that India and Pakistan have "&lt;strong&gt;agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE&lt;/strong&gt;." &lt;/p&gt;
  416.  
  417. &lt;p&gt;"&lt;strong&gt;After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE&lt;/strong&gt;," Trump said. &lt;/p&gt;
  418.  
  419. &lt;p&gt;The president continued, "&lt;strong&gt;Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter&lt;/strong&gt;!"&lt;/p&gt;
  420.  
  421. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-10_08-28-56.png?itok=cSiLDUwl" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-10_08-28-56.png?itok=cSiLDUwl"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="17383ce4-cdf8-4734-98f3-7b6e844c2328" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="171" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-10_08-28-56.png?itok=cSiLDUwl" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  422.  
  423. &lt;p&gt;Trump's announcement is a surprise, but it comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began back-and-forth diplomacy to end the weeks-long confrontation between India and Pakistan. &lt;/p&gt;
  424.  
  425. &lt;p&gt;The Guardian provided more color on Rubio's diplomatic mission: &lt;/p&gt;
  426.  
  427. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  428. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rubio has been engaged in back-and-forth diplomacy between the two countries in recent days, calling for de-escalation as India and Pakistan have been engaged in daily clashes since Wednesday.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  429.  
  430. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The US's top diplomat "continued to urge both parties to find ways to de-escalate and offered US assistance in starting constructive talks to avoid future conflicts," state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement on Saturday.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  431. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  432.  
  433. &lt;p&gt;About 25 minutes after Trump's Truth Social post, Rubio wrote on X:&lt;/p&gt;
  434.  
  435. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  436. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Over the past 48 hours, @VP Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  437.  
  438. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  439.  
  440. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  441. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  442.  
  443. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  444. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Over the past 48 hours, &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@VP&lt;/a&gt; Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit…&lt;/p&gt;
  445. — Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/1921175185836708140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  446. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earlier, G7 foreign ministers issued a joint statement calling for "immediate de-escalation" between the two countries. &lt;/p&gt;
  447.  
  448. &lt;p&gt;UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his counterparts in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US urged "maximum restraint from both" countries. They cautioned that "further military escalation poses a serious threat to regional stability."&lt;/p&gt;
  449.  
  450. &lt;p&gt;"We call for immediate de-escalation and encourage both countries to engage in direct dialogue towards a peaceful outcome," said the G7 foreign ministers.&lt;/p&gt;
  451.  
  452. &lt;p&gt;X user Matt Van Swol wrote: &lt;strong&gt;"How many hats can Marco Rubio wear and still deliver incredible results???? This is absolutely amazing." &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  453.  
  454. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f003773d-a9eb-4c54-aaa9-35cc51bedd22" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="129" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/beef%20initiative_0.JPG?itok=O9jkgYJG" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  455. &lt;/div&gt;
  456.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  457. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T23:55:02+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 19:55&lt;/span&gt;
  458. </description>
  459.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 23:55:02 +0000</pubDate>
  460.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  461.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029363 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  462.    </item>
  463. <item>
  464.  <title>The Louisiana Purchase And Pragmatic Presidential Power</title>
  465.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/louisiana-purchase-and-pragmatic-presidential-power</link>
  466.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;The Louisiana Purchase And Pragmatic Presidential Power&lt;/span&gt;
  467.  
  468.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/05/09/the_louisiana_purchase_and_pragmatic_presidential_power_1108944.html"&gt;Authored by Frank Cogliano via RealClearHistory&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  469.  
  470. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On April 30th, 1803, American diplomats in Paris reached an agreement with the French government to purchase the Louisiana Territory for approximately $16 million.&lt;/strong&gt; It’s a massive but imprecisely defined tract of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, north of modern Texas. &lt;/p&gt;
  471.  
  472. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/686241_png_92.jpg?itok=lVrc4l0i" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/686241_png_92.jpg?itok=lVrc4l0i"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="49054376-3843-4b36-9174-7ccfb3695049" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="321" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/686241_png_92.jpg?itok=lVrc4l0i" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  473.  
  474. &lt;p&gt;According to the treaty’s terms, the United States would acquire approximately 828,000 square miles of territory, including the port of New Orleans. T&lt;strong&gt;he territory included approximately 60,000 non-Native settlers (French, Spanish, African, and creole – half of whom were enslaved) and around 150,000 Native Americans.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  475.  
  476. &lt;p&gt;The Louisiana Treaty was the result of prolonged negotiations between the U.S., France, and Spain over access to the Mississippi River. After the Spanish closed New Orleans to Americans in 1802, &lt;strong&gt;President Thomas Jefferson persuaded Congress to appropriate $2 million for the purchase of the port. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  477.  
  478. &lt;p&gt;Napoleon Bonaparte had sought to revive the French Empire in the New World. His ambitions were frustrated by the successful resistance of formerly enslaved revolutionaries in Haiti, and in March 1803 he decided to sell all of Louisiana to the U.S. to finance his wars in Europe. &lt;/p&gt;
  479.  
  480. &lt;p&gt;Word of the Louisiana Treaty reached Washington on July 3, 1803. Thrilled at the news, President Jefferson shared it with the editor of “The National Intelligencer,” a newspaper friendly to his administration. It published this brief note on the Fourth of July: “The Executive have received official information that a Treaty was signed on the 30th of April between the ministers of the U.S. and France, by which the U.S. has obtained full right to and sovereignty over New Orleans and the whole of Louisiana.” At noon, Jefferson appeared on the steps of the presidential mansion to greet a crowd gathered to celebrate American independence, and confirmed that the United States had struck a deal to acquire Louisiana.&lt;/p&gt;
  481.  
  482. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jefferson acknowledged the strategic importance of acquiring New Orleans&lt;/strong&gt; and hoped that the U.S. might remain an agrarian republic, a goal he thought would be furthered by the addition of so much new, farmable territory. However, he harbored doubts about whether the Constitution authorized the president to acquire territory through such a transaction. &lt;/p&gt;
  483.  
  484. &lt;p&gt;In coming to an agreement the American negotiators, Robert Livingston and James Monroe, had exceeded their mandate to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans for a smaller sum – which presented President Thomas Jefferson with a dilemma. &lt;/p&gt;
  485.  
  486. &lt;p&gt;During the summer of 1803, Jefferson drafted a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing the purchase, which he shared with members of his cabinet, including Secretary of State James Madison, Attorney General Levi Lincoln, and Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin. &lt;/p&gt;
  487.  
  488. &lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;the treaty set a six-month deadline for ratification and implementation&lt;/strong&gt;. Livingston, the American minister in Paris, reported that Napoleon was having misgivings. He feared that if the U.S. failed to meet the deadline, Napoleon would repudiate the agreement. Although he retained doubts about the treaty’s legality, Jefferson concluded that there would not be enough time to amend the Constitution.&lt;/p&gt;
  489.  
  490. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jefferson was aided by public opinion.&lt;/strong&gt; The Louisiana Treaty was popular throughout the United States. Newspapers across the country welcomed the agreement as a diplomatic triumph. The Federalist opposition grumbled that East and West Florida weren’t included in the deal, but opposition to the treaty overall was limited. &lt;/p&gt;
  491.  
  492. &lt;p&gt;On October 20th, the Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of 24 to 7. Eight days later the House of Representatives passed an act enabling Jefferson to take possession of and govern Louisiana, appropriating the funding to make it possible. The president signed the relevant legislation into law on October 31st, just within the six-month deadline required by the treaty.&lt;/p&gt;
  493.  
  494. &lt;p&gt;Historians have often presented the Louisiana Treaty as a departure for Thomas Jefferson. After all, when he had served as George Washington’s secretary of state during the early 1790s, he had opposed Alexander Hamilton’s fiscal program on the grounds that the Constitution did not authorize such activities. &lt;/p&gt;
  495.  
  496. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His response to the Louisiana Treaty, however, suggests that his “strict constructionist” views of the Constitution might have evolved&lt;/strong&gt;. It seemed as though he embraced “broad construction,” the view that the Constitution allowed Congress and, especially, the president to take actions which were not specifically prohibited. &lt;/p&gt;
  497.  
  498. &lt;p&gt;This has led Jefferson’s critics, then and now, to accuse him of hypocrisy. &lt;strong&gt;The man who sought to limit the power of his predecessors sought to exercise it when he became president.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  499.  
  500. &lt;p&gt;Such a view, while tempting, is too simplistic. Jefferson had learned during his disastrous tenure as governor of Virginia during the War of Independence that executives sometimes need to take action in response to exigent circumstances. He did so early in his presidency when he ordered the U.S. Navy to North Africa to counter the threat posed by the Barbary states without calling Congress into session to seek a declaration of war. &lt;/p&gt;
  501.  
  502. &lt;p&gt;However, Jefferson believed that while presidents might need to act quickly in a crisis, they should be subject to congressional oversight, as required by the Constitution. During the Barbary War he sought &lt;em&gt;ex post facto &lt;/em&gt;congressional approval for his actions, which came in the form of funding. &lt;/p&gt;
  503.  
  504. &lt;p&gt;In 1803 Jefferson reasoned that if the Senate ratified the Louisiana Treaty and the House of Representatives appropriated the necessary funds to make the purchase as required by the Constitution, then the treaty would be legally binding and his actions would be vindicated. &lt;/p&gt;
  505.  
  506. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pragmatism rather than hypocrisy might be the best way to describe Thomas Jefferson’s approach to presidential power. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  507.  
  508. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Frank Cogliano is Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh and is a fellow with the Jack Miller Center.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  509. &lt;/div&gt;
  510.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  511. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T23:50:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 19:50&lt;/span&gt;
  512. </description>
  513.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 23:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
  514.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  515.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029341 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  516.    </item>
  517. <item>
  518.  <title>States Sue Trump Admin Over Termination Of Funding For EV Charging Stations</title>
  519.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/states-sue-trump-admin-over-termination-funding-ev-charging-stations</link>
  520.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;States Sue Trump Admin Over Termination Of Funding For EV Charging Stations&lt;/span&gt;
  521.  
  522.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Trump administration is being sued by a&lt;strong&gt; coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia over claims it is withholding billions of dollars in funding&lt;/strong&gt; approved by Congress to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, according to a federal lawsuit announced on April 7.&lt;/p&gt;
  523.  
  524. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://coag.gov/app/uploads/2025/05/NEVI-COMPLAINT.pdf"&gt;lawsuit&lt;/a&gt; is led by attorneys general from California, Colorado, and Washington and was filed in the District Court for the Western District of Washington.&lt;/p&gt;
  525.  
  526. &lt;p&gt;It centers on the $5 billion in funding allocated under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program in 2022 to facilitate electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the states.&lt;/p&gt;
  527.  
  528. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20-%202025-05-10T114831.398.jpg?itok=p-LkqNlO" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20-%202025-05-10T114831.398.jpg?itok=p-LkqNlO"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e0b56a52-4b4c-4b8f-b83d-1222242d48b7" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image%20-%202025-05-10T114831.398.jpg?itok=p-LkqNlO" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  529.  
  530. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/states-sue-trump-admin-over-termination-of-ev-charging-station-funding-5854281?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge"&gt;As Katabella Roberts reports for The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;strong&gt; that funding was established through the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,&lt;/strong&gt; also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, amid a push towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and making at least &lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/department-of-transportation-halts-funding-for-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-5806066"&gt;500,000&lt;/a&gt; publicly available EV chargers in the United States by the end of this decade.&lt;/p&gt;
  531.  
  532. &lt;p&gt;Congress required the $5 billion funding to be distributed among the states over fiscal years 2022 through 2026.&lt;/p&gt;
  533.  
  534. &lt;p&gt;So far, an estimated $3.3 billion had already been made available, according to the lawsuit.&lt;/p&gt;
  535.  
  536. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shortly after taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an &lt;a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/"&gt;executive order&lt;/a&gt; titled “Unleashing American Energy,” in which he directed federal agencies to “immediately pause” all funds appropriated via the Infrastructure Law, &lt;/strong&gt;including the funds allocated for EV charging stations made available through the NEVI program.&lt;/p&gt;
  537.  
  538. &lt;p&gt;The order stated that America is “blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our Nation’s economic prosperity,” but that, in recent years, “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” have impeded the development of those resources, while also limiting the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reducing job creation, and increasing energy costs.&lt;/p&gt;
  539.  
  540. &lt;p&gt;Following Trump’s directive, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), an agency under the Department of Transportation (DOT), &lt;a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-plan-approval-suspension.pdf"&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; it was suspending the commitment of funds under the NEVI program and rescinded approval of state plans, pending a review.&lt;/p&gt;
  541.  
  542. &lt;p&gt;The lawsuit challenges the FHWA’s authority to terminate the funding and claims its actions deprive the states of billions of dollars in appropriated funds and violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Separation of Powers Doctrine, and the Take Care Clause, among others.&lt;/p&gt;
  543.  
  544. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  545. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“This infrastructure is critical to the success of plaintiff states’ environmental, public health, and transportation programs—projects Congress actively chose to support in enacting the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] and establishing the NEVI Formula Program. &lt;strong&gt;The harms to plaintiff states will continue and become increasingly damaging if unabated&lt;/strong&gt;,” the states wrote in the suit.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  546. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  547.  
  548. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lawsuit asks the court to declare Trump’s directives unlawful, to vacate the administration’s actions, and permanently stop it from withholding the funds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  549.  
  550. &lt;p&gt;Department of Transportation and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Highway Administration Administrator Gloria Shepherd are listed as defendants.&lt;/p&gt;
  551.  
  552. &lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/05/07/california-sues-trump-administration-for-illegally-withholding-billions-in-bipartisan-infrastructure-funds-another-trump-gift-to-china/"&gt;statement&lt;/a&gt; announcing the suit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said the administration’s decision “will devastate the ability of states to build the charging infrastructure necessary for making EVs accessible to more consumers, combating climate change, reducing other harmful pollution, and supporting the states’ green economies.”&lt;/p&gt;
  553.  
  554. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  555. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“President Trump’s illegal action withholding funds for electric vehicle infrastructure is yet another Trump gift to China—ceding American innovation and killing thousands of jobs,”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; they said.&lt;/p&gt;
  556.  
  557. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;“Instead of hawking Teslas on the White House lawn, President Trump could actually help Elon - and the nation - by following the law and releasing this bipartisan funding.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  558. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  559.  
  560. &lt;p&gt;The attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Vermont joined the lawsuit.&lt;/p&gt;
  561.  
  562. &lt;p&gt;The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Transportation and Tesla for comment.&lt;/p&gt;
  563. &lt;/div&gt;
  564.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  565. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T23:15:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 19:15&lt;/span&gt;
  566. </description>
  567.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 23:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
  568.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  569.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029380 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  570.    </item>
  571. <item>
  572.  <title>FDA To Deploy Artificial Intelligence Across Agency</title>
  573.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/fda-deploy-artificial-intelligence-across-agency</link>
  574.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;FDA To Deploy Artificial Intelligence Across Agency&lt;/span&gt;
  575.  
  576.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/fda-to-deploy-artificial-intelligence-across-agency-5854634?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge"&gt;Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis ours),&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  577.  
  578. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to roll out artificial intelligence across the agency&lt;/strong&gt; following a successful pilot program.&lt;/p&gt;
  579. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%288%29_0.jpg?itok=YMZ2ARxN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%288%29_0.jpg?itok=YMZ2ARxN"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="32cfbeb5-cecf-43ed-a510-b0b8d305a4ba" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image_92%288%29_0.jpg?itok=YMZ2ARxN" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in White Oak, Md., on June 5, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  580.  
  581. &lt;p&gt;FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has directed all FDA centers to immediately start using artificial intelligence (AI) and fully integrate it by the end of June, the FDA &lt;a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-announces-completion-first-ai-assisted-scientific-review-pilot-and-aggressive-agency-wide-ai"&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; in a May 8 statement.&lt;/p&gt;
  582.  
  583. &lt;p&gt;By June 30, all centers will use what the agency described as &lt;strong&gt;a “common, secure generative AI system integrated with FDA’s internal data platforms.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  584.  
  585. &lt;p&gt;“I was blown away by the success of our first AI-assisted scientific review pilot,“ Makary said in a statement. ”We need to value our scientists’ time and reduce the amount of non-productive busywork that has historically consumed much of the review process. &lt;strong&gt;The agency-wide deployment of these capabilities holds tremendous promise in accelerating the review time for new therapies&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
  586.  
  587. &lt;p&gt;AI refers to computer systems that can carry out complex tasks typically performed by humans.&lt;/p&gt;
  588.  
  589. &lt;p&gt;“AI can be generally described as a branch of computer science, statistics, and engineering that uses algorithms or models to perform tasks and exhibit behaviors such as learning, making decisions, and making predictions,” FDA officials said in 2023.&lt;/p&gt;
  590.  
  591. &lt;p&gt;Makary said on Thursday that &lt;strong&gt;past years have featured discussions on utilizing AI and that it’s time to start using it to save time, with some tasks that once took days now taking mere minutes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  592.  
  593. &lt;p&gt;“We at the FDA now have to ask big questions that we’ve never asked before. Why does it take over 10 years for a new drug to come to market? Why are we not modernized with AI and other things? We’ve just completed our first AI-assisted scientific review for a product and that’s just the beginning,” he &lt;a href="https://x.com/DrMakaryFDA/status/1920151300429185233"&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; earlier in the week on social media platform X.&lt;/p&gt;
  594.  
  595. &lt;p&gt;The rollout across the FDA is being coordinated by Jeremy Walsh, Booz Allen Hamilton’s former chief technologist, who was recently appointed as the agency’s chief AI officer, and Sridhar Mantha, who previously led the Office of Business Informatics at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.&lt;/p&gt;
  596.  
  597. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;President Donald Trump has encouraged agencies to adopt wider use of AI,&lt;/strong&gt; including through an executive order that &lt;a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/"&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; it is U.S. policy to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”&lt;/p&gt;
  598.  
  599. &lt;p&gt;An April memorandum from the White House &lt;a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/M-25-21-Accelerating-Federal-Use-of-AI-through-Innovation-Governance-and-Public-Trust.pdf"&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; that agencies “must adopt a forward-leaning and pro-innovation approach that takes advantage of this technology to help shape the future of government operations.”&lt;/p&gt;
  600.  
  601. &lt;p&gt;The FDA had previously &lt;a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-regulatory-science-research-programs-conducted-osel/identifying-and-measuring-artificial-intelligence-ai-bias-enhancing-health-equity"&gt;expressed&lt;/a&gt; concern that AI contains bias that may “worsen inequalities in health care delivery,” while also &lt;a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/167973/download"&gt;saying&lt;/a&gt; AI could speed up review of drug applications to bring quicker timelines for making drugs available to patients.&lt;/p&gt;
  602. &lt;/div&gt;
  603.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  604. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T22:40:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 18:40&lt;/span&gt;
  605. </description>
  606.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 22:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
  607.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  608.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029343 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  609.    </item>
  610. <item>
  611.  <title>These Are The World's 50 Most Valuable Companies</title>
  612.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/these-are-worlds-50-most-valuable-companies</link>
  613.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;These Are The World's 50 Most Valuable Companies&lt;/span&gt;
  614.  
  615.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The world’s most valuable companies hold immense sway over the global economy, shaping everything from technology to consumer trends. As of May 2025, U.S. giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia are worth trillions of dollars, reflecting America’s long-standing leadership in innovation and capital markets.&lt;/p&gt;
  616.  
  617. &lt;p&gt;In this graphic, &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-50-most-valuable-companies-in-2025/"&gt;Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu ranks&lt;/a&gt; the world’s 50 most valuable companies, color coding them according to their country of origin.&lt;/p&gt;
  618.  
  619. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Worlds-Top-50-Companies-May-2025.jpg?itok=hqYMZ_i_" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Worlds-Top-50-Companies-May-2025.jpg?itok=hqYMZ_i_"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7c3d6425-7a8f-44ca-8071-7bd729ffe235" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="652" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Worlds-Top-50-Companies-May-2025.jpg?itok=hqYMZ_i_" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  620.  
  621. &lt;h2&gt;Data &amp; Discussion&lt;/h2&gt;
  622.  
  623. &lt;p&gt;The figures we used to create this graphic were sourced from &lt;a href="https://companiesmarketcap.com/"&gt;companiesmarketcap.com&lt;/a&gt;, as of May 5, 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
  624.  
  625. &lt;table class="tablepress tablepress-id-5643" id="tablepress-5643"&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr class="row-1"&gt;&lt;th class="column-1"&gt;Rank&lt;/th&gt;
  626. &lt;th class="column-2"&gt;Name&lt;/th&gt;
  627. &lt;th class="column-3"&gt;Country&lt;/th&gt;
  628. &lt;th class="column-4"&gt;Market Cap&lt;/th&gt;
  629. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody class="row-striping row-hover"&gt;&lt;tr class="row-2"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
  630. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Microsoft&lt;/td&gt;
  631. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  632. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$3,241,850,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  633. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-3"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;
  634. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Apple&lt;/td&gt;
  635. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  636. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$2,970,580,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  637. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-4"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
  638. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;NVIDIA&lt;/td&gt;
  639. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  640. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$2,777,210,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  641. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-5"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;4&lt;/td&gt;
  642. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Alphabet&lt;/td&gt;
  643. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  644. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$2,003,080,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  645. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-6"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;5&lt;/td&gt;
  646. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Amazon&lt;/td&gt;
  647. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  648. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$1,978,370,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  649. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-7"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
  650. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Saudi Aramco&lt;/td&gt;
  651. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia&lt;/td&gt;
  652. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$1,622,480,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  653. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-8"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
  654. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Meta&lt;/td&gt;
  655. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  656. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$1,512,830,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  657. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-9"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;8&lt;/td&gt;
  658. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Berkshire Hathaway&lt;/td&gt;
  659. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  660. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$1,104,700,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  661. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-10"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;9&lt;/td&gt;
  662. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Broadcom&lt;/td&gt;
  663. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  664. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$943,775,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  665. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-11"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;10&lt;/td&gt;
  666. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;TSMC&lt;/td&gt;
  667. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇹🇼 Taiwan&lt;/td&gt;
  668. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$914,907,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  669. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-12"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;11&lt;/td&gt;
  670. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Tesla&lt;/td&gt;
  671. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  672. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$902,706,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  673. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-13"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;12&lt;/td&gt;
  674. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Walmart&lt;/td&gt;
  675. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  676. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$794,728,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  677. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-14"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;13&lt;/td&gt;
  678. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Eli Lilly&lt;/td&gt;
  679. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  680. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$737,662,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  681. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-15"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;14&lt;/td&gt;
  682. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;JPMorgan Chase&lt;/td&gt;
  683. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  684. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$701,887,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  685. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-16"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;15&lt;/td&gt;
  686. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Visa&lt;/td&gt;
  687. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  688. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$668,214,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  689. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-17"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;16&lt;/td&gt;
  690. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Tencent&lt;/td&gt;
  691. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  692. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$579,706,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  693. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-18"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;17&lt;/td&gt;
  694. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Mastercard&lt;/td&gt;
  695. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  696. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$509,590,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  697. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-19"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;18&lt;/td&gt;
  698. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Netflix&lt;/td&gt;
  699. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  700. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$482,623,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  701. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-20"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;19&lt;/td&gt;
  702. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Costco&lt;/td&gt;
  703. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  704. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$450,289,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  705. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-21"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;20&lt;/td&gt;
  706. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Exxon Mobil&lt;/td&gt;
  707. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  708. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$445,094,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  709. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-22"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;21&lt;/td&gt;
  710. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Oracle&lt;/td&gt;
  711. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  712. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$418,643,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  713. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-23"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;22&lt;/td&gt;
  714. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Johnson &amp; Johnson&lt;/td&gt;
  715. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  716. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$372,941,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  717. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-24"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;23&lt;/td&gt;
  718. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Procter &amp; Gamble&lt;/td&gt;
  719. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  720. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$372,383,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  721. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-25"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;24&lt;/td&gt;
  722. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;UnitedHealth&lt;/td&gt;
  723. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  724. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$368,468,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  725. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-26"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;25&lt;/td&gt;
  726. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Home Depot&lt;/td&gt;
  727. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  728. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$359,534,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  729. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-27"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;26&lt;/td&gt;
  730. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;SAP&lt;/td&gt;
  731. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇩🇪 Germany&lt;/td&gt;
  732. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$353,045,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  733. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-28"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;27&lt;/td&gt;
  734. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;AbbVie&lt;/td&gt;
  735. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  736. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$346,844,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  737. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-29"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;28&lt;/td&gt;
  738. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;ICBC&lt;/td&gt;
  739. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  740. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$319,841,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  741. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-30"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;29&lt;/td&gt;
  742. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Bank of America&lt;/td&gt;
  743. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  744. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$309,711,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  745. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-31"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;30&lt;/td&gt;
  746. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Coca-Cola&lt;/td&gt;
  747. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  748. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$308,616,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  749. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-32"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;31&lt;/td&gt;
  750. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Novo Nordisk&lt;/td&gt;
  751. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇩🇰 Denmark&lt;/td&gt;
  752. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$305,812,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  753. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-33"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;32&lt;/td&gt;
  754. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Alibaba&lt;/td&gt;
  755. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  756. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$302,206,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  757. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-34"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;33&lt;/td&gt;
  758. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Hermès&lt;/td&gt;
  759. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇫🇷 France&lt;/td&gt;
  760. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$292,331,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  761. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-35"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;34&lt;/td&gt;
  762. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Palantir&lt;/td&gt;
  763. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  764. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$292,059,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  765. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-36"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;35&lt;/td&gt;
  766. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;T-Mobile US&lt;/td&gt;
  767. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  768. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$281,932,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  769. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-37"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;36&lt;/td&gt;
  770. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;LVMH&lt;/td&gt;
  771. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇫🇷 France&lt;/td&gt;
  772. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$277,473,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  773. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-38"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;37&lt;/td&gt;
  774. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Nestlé&lt;/td&gt;
  775. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇭 Switzerland&lt;/td&gt;
  776. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$272,769,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  777. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-39"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;38&lt;/td&gt;
  778. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Philip Morris International&lt;/td&gt;
  779. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  780. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$269,574,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  781. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-40"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;39&lt;/td&gt;
  782. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;ASML&lt;/td&gt;
  783. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇳🇱 Netherlands&lt;/td&gt;
  784. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$268,697,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  785. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-41"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;40&lt;/td&gt;
  786. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Kweichow Moutai&lt;/td&gt;
  787. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  788. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$267,306,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  789. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-42"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;41&lt;/td&gt;
  790. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Roche&lt;/td&gt;
  791. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇭 Switzerland&lt;/td&gt;
  792. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$265,138,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  793. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-43"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;42&lt;/td&gt;
  794. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Salesforce&lt;/td&gt;
  795. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  796. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$261,581,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  797. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-44"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;43&lt;/td&gt;
  798. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Samsung&lt;/td&gt;
  799. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇰🇷 South Korea&lt;/td&gt;
  800. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$260,653,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  801. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-45"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;44&lt;/td&gt;
  802. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Agricultural Bank of China&lt;/td&gt;
  803. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
  804. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$256,870,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  805. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-46"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;45&lt;/td&gt;
  806. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Toyota&lt;/td&gt;
  807. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇯🇵 Japan&lt;/td&gt;
  808. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$250,853,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  809. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-47"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;46&lt;/td&gt;
  810. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Wells Fargo&lt;/td&gt;
  811. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  812. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$240,321,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  813. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-48"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;47&lt;/td&gt;
  814. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;International Holding Company&lt;/td&gt;
  815. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates&lt;/td&gt;
  816. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$240,030,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  817. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-49"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;48&lt;/td&gt;
  818. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Chevron&lt;/td&gt;
  819. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  820. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$236,681,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  821. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-50"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;49&lt;/td&gt;
  822. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;Cisco&lt;/td&gt;
  823. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
  824. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$235,992,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  825. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr class="row-51"&gt;&lt;td class="column-1"&gt;50&lt;/td&gt;
  826. &lt;td class="column-2"&gt;L'Oreal&lt;/td&gt;
  827. &lt;td class="column-3"&gt;🇫🇷 France&lt;/td&gt;
  828. &lt;td class="column-4"&gt;$235,450,000,000&lt;/td&gt;
  829. &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two largest companies in this graphic, Microsoft and Apple, have regularly &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/americas-most-valuable-company-in-each-year-1995-2025/"&gt;swapped places&lt;/a&gt; as the world’s most valuable company over the past decade.&lt;/p&gt;
  830.  
  831. &lt;p&gt;Both companies are integrating artificial intelligence into their product offerings, which has helped fuel their market cap growth in recent years.&lt;/p&gt;
  832.  
  833. &lt;p&gt;Next, let’s take a closer look at some of the non-U.S. companies in this graphic.&lt;/p&gt;
  834.  
  835. &lt;h4&gt;🇦🇪 International Holding Company (IHC)&lt;/h4&gt;
  836.  
  837. &lt;p&gt;International Holding Company (IHC), based in Abu Dhabi, has rapidly become one of the Middle East’s most valuable firms with a market capitalization of $240 billion.&lt;/p&gt;
  838.  
  839. &lt;p&gt;Originally a fishing company, IHC has transformed into a conglomerate with investments across healthcare, agriculture, real estate, and artificial intelligence. This includes a $50M investment in Elon Musk’s &lt;a href="https://www.agbi.com/banking-finance/2022/06/abu-dhabi-firms-invest-25m-each-in-elon-musks-spacex/"&gt;SpaceX&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  840.  
  841. &lt;h4&gt;🇹🇼 TSMC&lt;/h4&gt;
  842.  
  843. &lt;p&gt;Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) holds a market cap of almost $1 trillion, making it the most valuable company in Asia. As the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, TSMC manufactures chips for major names like Apple, Nvidia, and AMD.&lt;/p&gt;
  844.  
  845. &lt;p&gt;Check out &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-value-of-the-global-semiconductor-industry-in-one-giant-chart/"&gt;this graphic&lt;/a&gt; from January 2025 to see a market capitalization breakdown of the global semiconductor industry.&lt;/p&gt;
  846.  
  847. &lt;h4&gt;🇨🇳 Tencent&lt;/h4&gt;
  848.  
  849. &lt;p&gt;Tencent, with a market cap of nearly $600 billion, remains one of China’s most influential tech companies despite &lt;a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/22/business/chinese-tech-giants-shares-plunge-online-gaming-ban-intl-hnk"&gt;regulatory headwinds&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  850.  
  851. &lt;p&gt;The company is best known for its WeChat platform, but is also involved in gaming, cloud services, fintech, and even original content production. Through its Tencent Video platform, which has over 120 million paid subscribers, the company produces a variety of dramas, shows, and animations.&lt;/p&gt;
  852.  
  853. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If you enjoyed today’s post, check out this map showing the &lt;a href="https://www.voronoiapp.com/markets/Billion-Dollar-Companies-by-Country-in-2025--4925"&gt;number of billion dollar companies by country in 2025&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  854. &lt;/div&gt;
  855.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  856. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T22:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 18:05&lt;/span&gt;
  857. </description>
  858.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 22:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  859.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  860.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029379 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  861.    </item>
  862. <item>
  863.  <title>80% Of 'Liberal' Americans Want Elon Musk Thrown In Prison</title>
  864.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/80-liberal-americans-want-elon-musk-thrown-prison</link>
  865.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;80% Of 'Liberal' Americans Want Elon Musk Thrown In Prison&lt;/span&gt;
  866.  
  867.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://modernity.news/2025/05/10/wheres-due-process-now"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  868.  
  869. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A new Rasmussen poll has found that 80 percent of Americans identifying as ‘Liberal’ would like to see Elon Musk thrown in prison merely for being involved with the Department of Government Efficiency.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  870.  
  871. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Elon_Musk_Colorado_2022_0.jpg?itok=WfPJoTlU" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Elon_Musk_Colorado_2022_0.jpg?itok=WfPJoTlU"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="339b5bd8-9b1f-435b-af84-e913124e3df2" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Elon_Musk_Colorado_2022_0.jpg?itok=WfPJoTlU" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  872.  
  873. &lt;p&gt;The poll found that almost three quarters of Democrats want Musk jailed, but when extended to those describing themselves as ‘Liberal’ the amount rose to 80 percent.&lt;/p&gt;
  874.  
  875. &lt;p&gt;The question was worded &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Would you support a hypothetical law that would imprison Elon Musk for his role in DOGE?”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  876.  
  877. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  878. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;FULL STORY:&lt;a href="https://t.co/EqwfwI5MAs"&gt;https://t.co/EqwfwI5MAs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  879. — Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1920455528217522310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  880. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;“A new telephone and online survey … of 1,067 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on April 30-May 4, 2025 …  finds that 54% of Likely Voters would support a hypothetical law that would imprison Musk for his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” reads &lt;a href="https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/71_of_democrats_want_elon_musk_in_prison" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"&gt;the report&lt;/a&gt; from Rasmussen.&lt;/p&gt;
  881.  
  882. &lt;p&gt;This includes “39% who would Strongly Support such a law,” it continues.&lt;/p&gt;
  883.  
  884. &lt;p&gt;A more ‘moderate’ 68 percent said they would support a law banning Musk from being involved in any way with government, presumably purely because he is supportive of President Trump.&lt;/p&gt;
  885.  
  886. &lt;p&gt;“The fact that a majority of Democratic voters would support imprisoning Elon Musk for trying to make government more efficient is a shocking indictment of the modern left, which has become increasingly more tyrannical in recent years,” said Justin Haskins, senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, who co-conducted the poll with Rasmussen.&lt;/p&gt;
  887.  
  888. &lt;p&gt;He added, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“We’ve reached a point where many Americans would rather unjustly punish innovation than fix the broken systems Musk was trying to reform.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  889.  
  890. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  891. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;For what crime exactly?&lt;/p&gt;
  892. — LisaO (@lisachriso) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/lisachriso/status/1920490078171808251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  893. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  894. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Due process for me, but not for thee.&lt;/p&gt;
  895. — Lakota Patriot (@n8ivpatriot) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/n8ivpatriot/status/1920481795839082925?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  896. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;It proves Musk was right when he recently posted this:&lt;/p&gt;
  897.  
  898. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  899. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  900. This is their standard playbook throughout the world. &lt;a href="https://t.co/FgmgeyQ2rp"&gt;https://t.co/FgmgeyQ2rp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  901. — gorklon rust (@elonmusk) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1906722265879683381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;March 31, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  902. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  903. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;He's exposing their waste and fraud.&lt;/p&gt;
  904. — Will 🇺🇸 (@NoLeftTurns) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/NoLeftTurns/status/1920479775853887515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  905. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  906. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Expose the truth, and the left wants you locked up.&lt;/p&gt;
  907. — Masculine Based (@MasculineBased) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MasculineBased/status/1920477658455875702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  908. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or worse.&lt;/p&gt;
  909.  
  910. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  911. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;That’s not a criminal; that’s a patriot. Musk is doing what our so-called leaders should be doing. shining a light on corruption. But the left? They'd rather protect the swamp.&lt;/p&gt;
  912. — Make Men Great Again (@OneXOneY) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/OneXOneY/status/1920477744422625400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  913. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  914. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Demons don't like the light. 💀&lt;/p&gt;
  915. — M (@FrivolouslyPink) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/FrivolouslyPink/status/1920506216985268684?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  916. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;* * *&lt;/p&gt;
  917.  
  918. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via &lt;a href="https://pauljosephwatson.locals.com/support" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"&gt;Locals&lt;/a&gt; or check out our unique &lt;a href="https://www.modernity.news/shop" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"&gt;merch&lt;/a&gt;. Follow us on X &lt;a href="https://x.com/modernitynews" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"&gt;@ModernityNews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  919. &lt;/div&gt;
  920.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  921. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T21:30:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 17:30&lt;/span&gt;
  922. </description>
  923.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 21:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
  924.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  925.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029386 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  926.    </item>
  927. <item>
  928.  <title>America's Largest Grid Operator Warns Of Summer Power Shortages </title>
  929.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/americas-largest-grid-operator-warns-summer-power-shortages</link>
  930.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;America's Largest Grid Operator Warns Of Summer Power Shortages &lt;/span&gt;
  931.  
  932.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;When America's largest power grid operator warns of "&lt;strong&gt;growing risks&lt;/strong&gt;" of summer power shortages, people pay attention—especially now, after witnessing Spain's brief brush with &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spain-hit-massive-really-massive-power-blackout"&gt;net-zero collapse&lt;/a&gt;, when its failing green energy grid triggered the worst blackout in a generation.&lt;/p&gt;
  933.  
  934. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PJM Interconnection&lt;/strong&gt;, the largest power grid operator in the U.S., issued a warning Friday that &lt;strong&gt;extreme heat this summer&lt;/strong&gt; could collide with record electricity demand, potentially triggering disruptions... &lt;/p&gt;
  935.  
  936. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"This season also marks the first time in PJM's annual assessment, however, that available generation capacity may fall short of required reserves in an extreme planning scenario that would result in an all-time PJM peak load of more than 166,000 MW,"&lt;/strong&gt; the &lt;a href="https://insidelines.pjm.com/pjm-summer-outlook-2025-adequate-resources-available-for-summer-amid-growing-risk/"&gt;grid operator warned&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  937.  
  938. &lt;p&gt;PJM reported it expects around 179,200 MW of available generation capacity this summer, along with 7,900 MW of contracted demand response—resources activated during extreme heat when 65 million customers across its service area, spanning 13 states and the District of Columbia, are setting air conditioning thermostats to max cool. &lt;/p&gt;
  939.  
  940. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-02-12_07-47-29.png?itok=ShVkC79C" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-02-12_07-47-29.png?itok=ShVkC79C"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="297" src="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-02-12_07-47-29.png?itok=ShVkC79C" width="500" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  941.  
  942. &lt;p&gt;The grid operator &lt;strong&gt;warned that a perfect storm&lt;/strong&gt; of retiring fossil fuel plants, sluggish renewable energy growth, and soaring demand could trigger shortages for the first time:&lt;/p&gt;
  943.  
  944. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  945. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;"PJM continues to voice concerns about the supply and demand imbalance driven by generator retirements and the slow build of new resources in the face of accelerating demand growth."&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  946. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  947.  
  948. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, U.S. power demand continues to increase because of electrification trends that fall under the 'Powering Up America' theme we have laid out for readers (&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/next-ai-trade"&gt;read here&lt;/a&gt;), including the buildout of massive AI data centers, electric vehicles, and onshoring trends. Earlier this week, &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/shock-surging-us-power-demand-suggests-gdp-growth-over-3"&gt;Goldman's Hongcen Wei offered his take&lt;/a&gt; on America's power.&lt;/p&gt;
  949.  
  950. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PJM's warning about potential summer shortfalls&lt;/strong&gt; is a direct consequence of aggressive net-zero and green energy policies, which have destabilized power grids and driven prices higher—&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/goldman-says-mid-atlantic-power-prices-finally-caught-ai-data-center-load-growth-story"&gt;particularly in Mid-Atlantic states&lt;/a&gt; governed by far-left lawmakers. &lt;/p&gt;
  951.  
  952. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  953. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Goldman Says Mid-Atlantic Power Prices "Finally Caught Up To AI Data Center Load Growth Story" &lt;a href="https://t.co/6BInBek7Zz"&gt;https://t.co/6BInBek7Zz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  954. — zerohedge (@zerohedge) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1819892289558212942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;August 4, 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  955. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's now up to the Trump administration&lt;/strong&gt; to push for the restoration of reliable fossil fuel generation to reestablish grid stability (&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/nations-largest-grid-fast-track-natgas-power-plants-fuel-next-ai-trade"&gt;some good news so far&lt;/a&gt;). A fragile power grid isn't just an infrastructure issue—it's a &lt;strong&gt;national security threat&lt;/strong&gt;. Those who undermined the nation's grid with green agendas to force grids to retire stable power production for unreliable power generation with Chinese solar panels must be &lt;strong&gt;held accountable&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  956. &lt;/div&gt;
  957.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  958. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T20:55:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 16:55&lt;/span&gt;
  959. </description>
  960.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 20:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
  961.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  962.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029364 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  963.    </item>
  964. <item>
  965.  <title>DOGE Announces Deactivation of 500,000 Federal Credit Cards</title>
  966.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-announces-deactivation-500000-federal-credit-cards</link>
  967.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;DOGE Announces Deactivation of 500,000 Federal Credit Cards&lt;/span&gt;
  968.  
  969.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doge-announces-deactivation-of-500000-federal-credit-cards-5854577?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge"&gt;Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis ours),&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  970.  
  971. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on May 7 that it has canceled about half a million “unneeded” credit cards used by federal agencies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  972. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%2810%29_1.jpg?itok=EAf0NhUK" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%2810%29_1.jpg?itok=EAf0NhUK"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5edc8bef-05dd-43f8-9e3d-d0df136127f2" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image_92%2810%29_1.jpg?itok=EAf0NhUK" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Credit cards, in this file photo. Mike Stewart/AP Photo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  973.  
  974. &lt;p&gt;In a post on social media platform X, DOGE &lt;a href="https://x.com/DOGE/status/1920266878271758634"&gt;wrote&lt;/a&gt; that over the past 10 weeks, its program to audit “unused” or “unneeded” credit cards has been expanded to 32 federal agencies.&lt;/p&gt;
  975.  
  976. &lt;p&gt;DOGE, led by tech billionaire and Trump administration adviser Elon Musk, said that &lt;strong&gt;more than 500,000 agency credit cards were deactivated in that time period, out of roughly 4.6 million active cards and accounts used by the government.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  977.  
  978. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;So, still more work to do,&lt;/strong&gt;” the organization wrote in the post, which included a screenshot of a spreadsheet showing the canceled agency cards.&lt;/p&gt;
  979.  
  980. &lt;p&gt;The spreadsheet showing what cards were canceled included ones used by the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Labor Department, Small Business Association, Treasury Department, Commerce Department, Interior Department, Education Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department, Defense Department, Health and Human Services Department, State Department, and others.&lt;/p&gt;
  981.  
  982. &lt;p&gt;The May 7 statement means that DOGE has &lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doge-says-470000-us-agency-credit-cards-deactivated-5842849"&gt;canceled another&lt;/a&gt; 30,000 credit cards used by agencies since mid-April, when it provided the last update on the effort.&lt;/p&gt;
  983.  
  984. &lt;p&gt;At the time, &lt;strong&gt;Musk reposted DOGE’s comment and &lt;a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1912355571875082427"&gt;claimed&lt;/a&gt; that “twice as many credit cards are issued and active than the total number of government employees.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  985.  
  986. &lt;p&gt;DOGE’s website &lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doge-says-it-has-saved-1000-per-taxpayer-5852731"&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that it has saved about $165 billion, or $1,000 per taxpayer, since it was established through an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January.&lt;/p&gt;
  987.  
  988. &lt;p&gt;Days before that, top congressional Democrats &lt;a href="https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/100-days-trump-blocks-least-430-billion-dollars-funding-owed-american-people"&gt;alleged&lt;/a&gt; that DOGE, the Trump administration, and Musk were holding up some $430 billion in funds that they said were appropriated by Congress.&lt;/p&gt;
  989.  
  990. &lt;p&gt;Trump’s drive to downsize and reshape the federal government has already led to the dismantling of entire agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.&lt;/p&gt;
  991.  
  992. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DOGE has been a major part of that effort,&lt;/strong&gt; and the White House has said it is responsible for tackling what it calls fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government, while streamlining operations.&lt;/p&gt;
  993.  
  994. &lt;p&gt;The government overhaul has led to numerous lawsuits seeking to block the Trump administration and DOGE from proceeding with some of the planned dismissals and other activities.&lt;/p&gt;
  995.  
  996. &lt;p&gt;Musk’s government tenure is nearing its end. As a special government employee, the Tesla CEO is allowed only 130 days to work before he must depart.&lt;/p&gt;
  997.  
  998. &lt;p&gt;Musk told Tesla investors last week that &lt;strong&gt;he would be stepping away from DOGE and the Trump administration in May. &lt;/strong&gt;However, he said he would still be involved in some capacity to ensure that DOGE’s cuts remain intact. In its quarterly report released on April 23, Tesla posted lower-than-anticipated profits due to a variety of factors.&lt;/p&gt;
  999.  
  1000. &lt;p&gt;Musk told Trump at a Cabinet meeting on April 30 that it had been “an honor“ to work with his ”incredible Cabinet” and with Trump himself.&lt;/p&gt;
  1001.  
  1002. &lt;p&gt;“A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days,” Musk said. “As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before. Ever. So this portends very well for what happens, for the rest of the administration.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1003.  
  1004. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Reuters contributed to this report.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1005. &lt;/div&gt;
  1006.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1007. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T20:20:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 16:20&lt;/span&gt;
  1008. </description>
  1009.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 20:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1010.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1011.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029345 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1012.    </item>
  1013. <item>
  1014.  <title>Pope Leo Warns Over AI As MIT Researcher Finds 90% Probability Of 'Existential Threat'</title>
  1015.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/pope-leo-warns-over-ai-mit-researcher-finds-90-probability-existential-threat</link>
  1016.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Pope Leo Warns Over AI As MIT Researcher Finds 90% Probability Of 'Existential Threat'&lt;/span&gt;
  1017.  
  1018.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his first formal audience as the newly elected pontiff,&lt;strong&gt; Pope Leo XIV identified artificial intelligence (AI) as one of the most critical matters facing humanity&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1019. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/vatican-pope_jpg_92.jpg?itok=d9Bn6O3R" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/vatican-pope_jpg_92.jpg?itok=d9Bn6O3R"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4bc58734-e016-4d3d-b62a-96471974e4d7" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/vatican-pope_jpg_92.jpg?itok=d9Bn6O3R" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pope Leo XIV celebrates mass with the College of Cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on Friday, the day after his election as 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (Vatican Media/The Associated Press)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1020.  
  1021. &lt;p&gt;"In our own day," Pope Leo declared, "the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution &lt;strong&gt;and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor&lt;/strong&gt;." He linked this statement to the legacy of his namesake Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical &lt;em&gt;Rerum Novarum&lt;/em&gt;, which addressed&lt;strong&gt; workers’ rights and the moral dimensions of capitalism.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1022.  
  1023. &lt;p&gt;His remarks continued the direction charted by the late Pope Francis, who warned in his 2024 annual peace message that AI - lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness&lt;strong&gt; - is too perilous to develop unchecked&lt;/strong&gt;. Francis, who passed away on April 21, had called for an international treaty to regulate AI and insisted that the technology must remain “human-centric,” particularly in applications involving weapon systems or tools of governance.&lt;/p&gt;
  1024.  
  1025. &lt;h2&gt;'Existential Threat'&lt;/h2&gt;
  1026.  
  1027. &lt;p&gt;As concern deepens within religious and ethical spheres, &lt;strong&gt;similar urgency is resonating from the scientific community.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1028.  
  1029. &lt;p&gt;Max Tegmark, physicist and AI researcher at MIT, has drawn a sobering parallel between the dawn of the atomic age and the present-day race to develop artificial superintelligence (ASI). In a new paper co-authored with three MIT students, &lt;strong&gt;Tegmark introduced the concept of a “Compton constant” - a probabilistic estimate of whether ASI would escape human control.&lt;/strong&gt; It’s named after physicist Arthur Compton, who famously calculated the risk of Earth’s atmosphere igniting from nuclear tests in the 1940s.&lt;/p&gt;
  1030. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/3799_jpg_92.jpg?itok=jsTy1mEW" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/3799_jpg_92.jpg?itok=jsTy1mEW"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d2895d0a-c8a0-46a8-b57a-98f57b461910" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="400" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/3799_jpg_92.jpg?itok=jsTy1mEW" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Max Tegmark, a professor of physics and AI researcher at MIT, said global AI safety regimes need to be agreed upon. Photograph: Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Getty Images&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1031.  
  1032. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“The companies building super-intelligence need to also calculate the Compton constant, the probability that we will lose control over it&lt;/strong&gt;,” Tegmark told &lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/10/ai-firms-urged-to-calculate-existential-threat-amid-fears-it-could-escape-human-control"&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Guardian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. “It’s not enough to say ‘we feel good about it’. They have to calculate the percentage.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1033.  
  1034. &lt;p&gt;Tegmark has calculated&lt;strong&gt; a 90% probability that a highly advanced AI would pose an existential threat. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1035.  
  1036. &lt;p&gt;The paper urges AI companies to undertake a risk assessment as rigorous as that which preceded the first atomic bomb test, where Compton reportedly estimated the odds of a catastrophic chain reaction at “slightly less” than one in three million.&lt;/p&gt;
  1037.  
  1038. &lt;p&gt;Tegmark, co-founder of the Future of Life Institute and a vocal advocate for AI safety, argues that&lt;strong&gt; calculating such probabilities can help build the “political will” for global safety regimes&lt;/strong&gt;. He also co-authored the &lt;strong&gt;Singapore Consensus on Global AI Safety Research Priorities&lt;/strong&gt;, alongside Yoshua Bengio and representatives from Google DeepMind and OpenAI. The report outlines three focal points for research: &lt;strong&gt;measuring AI’s real-world impact, specifying intended AI behavior, and ensuring consistent control over systems.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1039.  
  1040. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This renewed commitment to AI risk mitigation follows what Tegmark described as a setback at the recent AI Safety Summit in Paris&lt;/strong&gt;, where U.S. Vice President JD Vance dismissed concerns by asserting that the AI future is “not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety.” Nevertheless, Tegmark noted a resurgence in cooperation: “&lt;strong&gt;It really feels the gloom from Paris has gone and international collaboration has come roaring back&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1041.  
  1042. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/anza-red-black-infinity-handle/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/anza-red-black-infinity-handle/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/anza-red-black-infinity-handle/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2e0a45d0-a4d0-47b8-9b03-4f6dfe63546b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="350" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/anza%20made%20in%20the%20usa%202_3.JPG?itok=Zfi_GqzK" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1043. &lt;/div&gt;
  1044.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1045. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T19:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 15:45&lt;/span&gt;
  1046. </description>
  1047.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 19:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1048.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1049.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029385 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1050.    </item>
  1051. <item>
  1052.  <title>"You Couldn't Survive A Week Living In Intifadaville!" - Bill Maher Blasts Woke Democrats' Anti-American Base</title>
  1053.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-couldnt-survive-week-living-intifadaville-bill-maher-blasts-woke-democrats-anti</link>
  1054.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;"You Couldn't Survive A Week Living In Intifadaville!" - Bill Maher Blasts Woke Democrats' Anti-American Base&lt;/span&gt;
  1055.  
  1056.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Via &lt;a href="https://www.vigilantfox.com/p/bill-maher-takes-a-flamethrower-to"&gt;VigilantFox.com&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1057.  
  1058. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bill Maher just dropped a brutal reality check on Democrats, saying they’re doomed if things don’t change soon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1059.  
  1060. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Maher-1.jpg?itok=30sqw3w4" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Maher-1.jpg?itok=30sqw3w4"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="66cffe2a-268a-4cdb-b6f3-89b131b8b964" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Maher-1.jpg?itok=30sqw3w4" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1061.  
  1062. &lt;p&gt;But before that happened, a young guest pointed to a separate issue within the Democratic Party.&lt;/p&gt;
  1063.  
  1064. &lt;p&gt;Maher’s &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.hbo.com/real-time-with-bill-maher"&gt;Real Time&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; opened with an interview with David Hogg, the youngest person ever elected as a DNC vice chair.&lt;/p&gt;
  1065.  
  1066. &lt;p&gt;David is not someone most conservatives agree with on much, but he dropped a surprisingly good take on why Democrats are bleeding voters.&lt;/p&gt;
  1067.  
  1068. &lt;p&gt;The answer? They’re no longer the party of fun.&lt;/p&gt;
  1069.  
  1070. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He got a huge reaction from Bill Maher after saying Democrats need to reconnect with young men who just want to “get laid and have fun” without walking on eggshells.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1071.  
  1072. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1f6afdd5-4f26-426f-8def-5f6e644fe67a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="129" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/beef%20initiative_1.JPG?itok=o5ikVvxf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1073.  
  1074. &lt;p&gt;He said the parties have flipped. Democrats are now the snobs who judge your every move, whereas Republicans are much less rigid.&lt;/p&gt;
  1075.  
  1076. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“What I think happened last election is younger men—they would rather vote for somebody who they don’t completely agree with, they don’t feel judged by, than somebody who they do agree with, that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around constantly because they’re going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1077.  
  1078. &lt;p&gt;And because of that, young men are walking away.&lt;/p&gt;
  1079.  
  1080. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“Nobody is perfect. But ultimately, what we have to do here is figure out how to bring people back in and work towards the bigger goal of advancing the future of this country and helping young people especially get by, so that they’re able to focus on their lives and getting with a young woman or something like that, instead of how are they going to pay their rent, for example, or how are they working their two jobs.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1081.  
  1082. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1083.  
  1084. &lt;p&gt;Maher clapped, stood up, and shook Hogg’s hand after that comment.&lt;/p&gt;
  1085.  
  1086. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="680"&gt;
  1087. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;The show opened with an interview with David Hogg, the youngest person ever elected as a DNC vice chair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1088. David is not someone most conservatives agree with on much, but he dropped a surprisingly good take on why Democrats are bleeding voters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1089. The answer? They’re no longer the… &lt;a href="https://t.co/EyI2DsPiJ0"&gt;pic.twitter.com/EyI2DsPiJ0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1090. — The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1921079644121428466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1091. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then came the monologue—and this one was brutal. Maher unleashed a scathing critique of what he sees as a massive problem within the Democratic Party: young people who despise their own country.&lt;/p&gt;
  1092.  
  1093. &lt;p&gt;He rattled off some jaw-dropping stats, then looked straight into the camera and said they “have no perspective.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1094.  
  1095. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Less than 1 in 4 Democrats under 30 say they’re proud to be an American. Fifty-four percent say they’re embarrassed by it. Embarrassed like America is your mom picking you up at school? You’re embarrassed to be an American?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1096.  
  1097. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Well, guess what? The feeling’s mutual because you have no perspective,” &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Maher rebuked.&lt;/p&gt;
  1098.  
  1099. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="680"&gt;
  1100. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Then came the monologue—and this one was brutal. Maher unleashed a scathing critique of what he sees as a massive problem within the Democratic Party: young people who despise their own country.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1101. He rattled off some jaw-dropping stats, then looked straight into the camera and… &lt;a href="https://t.co/fHwzmMkH0M"&gt;pic.twitter.com/fHwzmMkH0M&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1102. — The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1921079810975044031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1103. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maher didn’t stop there. He called out progressive rallies where the American flag is disrespected, and the Palestinian flag is cheered instead.&lt;/p&gt;
  1104.  
  1105. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“At an AOC Bernie Sanders rally in Idaho last month, someone threw a Palestinian flag over an American flag, and the crowd erupted in approval,”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Maher said with disgust.&lt;/p&gt;
  1106.  
  1107. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“What should have happened after that is one of the adults on stage should have told their young, loyal followers, this is not a symbol of freedom. This is [the American flag].”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1108.  
  1109. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="680"&gt;
  1110. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Maher didn’t stop there. He called out progressive rallies where the American flag is disrespected, and the Palestinian flag is cheered instead.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1111. “At an AOC Bernie Sanders rally in Idaho last month, someone threw a Palestinian flag over an American flag, and the crowd erupted in… &lt;a href="https://t.co/LA2bwEmuGl"&gt;pic.twitter.com/LA2bwEmuGl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1112. — The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1921080091305517500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1113. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then came a warning to Democrats about where their base is headed.&lt;/p&gt;
  1114.  
  1115. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="680"&gt;
  1116. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Then came a warning to Democrats about where their base is headed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1117. “The problem is, the energy of the party is with the young—and the young are with the terrorists. That’s not good. So talk to your children and remind them: you don’t really want to live like your heroes in… &lt;a href="https://t.co/KLYRE0oNIk"&gt;pic.twitter.com/KLYRE0oNIk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1118. — The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1921080297015152686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1119. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The problem is, the energy of the party is with the young—and &lt;strong&gt;the young are with the terrorists&lt;/strong&gt;. That’s not good. So talk to your children and remind them: you don’t really want to live like your heroes in Hamas,” Maher said, before dropping this reality check:&lt;/p&gt;
  1120.  
  1121. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;All the sh*t you [young liberals] do all day, it was all made in America. &lt;/strong&gt;Your smartphone, your Grubhub, your freedom to b*tch about America. That’s all American stuff. You tell your phone you want a milkshake, and a guy brings it to your house. Please, &lt;strong&gt;you couldn’t survive a week living in Intifadaville&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1122.  
  1123. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/billmaher/status/1921044023881470046"&gt;Watch the full monologue below:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1124.  
  1125. &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="381" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2t560SJVHeM" title="New Rule: Retake the Flag! | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)" width="677"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1126. &lt;/div&gt;
  1127.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1128. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T19:10:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 15:10&lt;/span&gt;
  1129. </description>
  1130.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 19:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1131.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1132.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029377 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1133.    </item>
  1134. <item>
  1135.  <title>Jaguar Begins Search For New Ad Agency After Woke Disaster </title>
  1136.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jaguar-begins-search-new-ad-agency-after-woke-disaster</link>
  1137.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Jaguar Begins Search For New Ad Agency After Woke Disaster &lt;/span&gt;
  1138.  
  1139.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Five months after Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) effectively "&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jaguar-attempts-bud-light-itself-cringeworthy-woke-ad"&gt;Bud Light'd&lt;/a&gt;" itself with a woke social media campaign, the British automaker is reportedly severing ties with its ad agency, according to British media. &lt;/p&gt;
  1140.  
  1141. &lt;p&gt;But why now—half a year later? The backlash over its controversial woke rebranding occurred last fall, yet the company's pronoun-wielding executive publicly defended the cringe ad at the time.&lt;/p&gt;
  1142.  
  1143. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/08/jaguar-searches-new-advertising-agency-rebrand-derided/"&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/a&gt; first reported that JLR was severing ties with its ad agency, Accenture Song, after the marketing disaster on November 19.&lt;/p&gt;
  1144.  
  1145. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1146. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Copy nothing. &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jaguar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#Jaguar&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/BfVhc3l09B"&gt;pic.twitter.com/BfVhc3l09B&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1147. — Jaguar (@Jaguar) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Jaguar/status/1858800846646948155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 19, 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1148. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Elon Musk asked JLR: "Do you sell cars?" &lt;/p&gt;
  1149.  
  1150. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1151. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Do you sell cars?&lt;/p&gt;
  1152. — gorklon rust (@elonmusk) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1858914024013910020?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 19, 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1153. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2021, Accenture Song joined forces with Spark44, JLR's client-agency joint venture, to create a new marketing approach for JLR's shift to an electric-first, modern luxury business.&lt;/p&gt;
  1154.  
  1155. &lt;p&gt;But JLR's marketing blunder was merely a repeat of Bud Light's trans activism and a lesson for corporations not to stack their teams with woke activists.&lt;/p&gt;
  1156.  
  1157. &lt;p&gt;Much like Bud Light's disastrous foray into identity politics, JLR fell into the same woke trap. Now, the brand is paying the price as a multi-year sales decline deepens.&lt;/p&gt;
  1158.  
  1159. &lt;p&gt;Days after the ad was launched and backlash erupted, Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover said the ad's "intended message" had been lost in "a &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jaguar-attempts-bud-light-itself-cringeworthy-woke-ad"&gt;blaze of intolerance&lt;/a&gt;" on social media platforms and rejected the notion that the video was woke.&lt;/p&gt;
  1160.  
  1161. &lt;p&gt;"If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we'll just get drowned out. So we shouldn't turn up like an auto brand," Glover stated. On LinkedIn, the executive still promotes his pronouns...&lt;/p&gt;
  1162.  
  1163. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-09_15-05-42.png?itok=GNqFkNS1" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-09_15-05-42.png?itok=GNqFkNS1"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9ee51828-d6a4-4370-bfaf-5acdf3e3a845" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="254" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-09_15-05-42.png?itok=GNqFkNS1" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1164.  
  1165. &lt;p&gt;Unlike JLR, &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/volvo-anti-jaguar"&gt;Volvo's ad team read the room&lt;/a&gt;. Sensing the Overton Window had shifted away from far-left wokeism toward themes of family, tradition, and stability—they released this...&lt;/p&gt;
  1166.  
  1167. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1168. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Volvo posted a 3 min and 46 second ad on Instagram, shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar and Oppenheimer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1169. It goes against every single rule you can think about as a social lead. Length. Format. Over-produced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1170. Every comment under the ad said it… &lt;a href="https://t.co/wkmghuP4ye"&gt;pic.twitter.com/wkmghuP4ye&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1171. — Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/HuinGuillaume/status/1859472963323510995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 21, 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1172. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Revisiting the earlier question: Why did JLR wait six months to start searching for a new ad agency?&lt;/p&gt;
  1173.  
  1174. &lt;p&gt;Was it due to slumping sales, or perhaps pressure related to tariffs? We may never get the full story—but what's clear is this: woke marketing is dead. Companies view the purple-haired college graduate as an increasing liability rather than an asset. &lt;/p&gt;
  1175.  
  1176. &lt;p&gt;Why does Aston Martin get it?&lt;/p&gt;
  1177.  
  1178. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Gc2ClspWEAAhHVw.jpg?itok=SNMWFXxQ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Gc2ClspWEAAhHVw.jpg?itok=SNMWFXxQ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="85684d98-bf1d-4af2-b5a9-4988e66d4184" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="754" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Gc2ClspWEAAhHVw.jpg?itok=SNMWFXxQ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1179.  
  1180. &lt;p&gt;*  *  *&lt;/p&gt;
  1181.  
  1182. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You can support ZeroHedge by picking up a &lt;a href="https://store.zerohedge.com/zerohedge-waxed-canvas-hat"&gt;waxed canvas hat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1183. &lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/zerohedge-waxed-canvas-hat?utm_source=zerohedge.com&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=store_promo" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/zerohedge-waxed-canvas-hat?utm_source=zerohedge.com&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=store_promo" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/zerohedge-waxed-canvas-hat?utm_source=zerohedge.com&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=store_promo"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="cb0c6159-b2bf-4f30-9f3b-f422801d15a9" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="338" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/black_hatB__12491.1734706273.1280.1280.jpg?itok=-qFJPM9o" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Click hat... add to cart... check out... receive awesome hat...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  1184.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1185. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T18:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 14:45&lt;/span&gt;
  1186. </description>
  1187.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 18:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1188.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1189.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029316 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1190.    </item>
  1191. <item>
  1192.  <title>Tesla Scraps Cybertruck Range Extender </title>
  1193.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/tesla-scraps-cybertruck-range-extender</link>
  1194.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Tesla Scraps Cybertruck Range Extender &lt;/span&gt;
  1195.  
  1196.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tesla has reportedly scrapped plans for a bed-mounted battery pack designed to boost the Cybertruck's range to nearly 500 miles—up from its current 350 miles, depending on the model.&lt;/p&gt;
  1197.  
  1198. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/cybertruck-range-extender.jpg?itok=5AYbwFt9" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/cybertruck-range-extender.jpg?itok=5AYbwFt9"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="fbab6827-bda6-4711-afef-9c5ec0a7a840" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="241" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/cybertruck-range-extender.jpg?itok=5AYbwFt9" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1199.  
  1200. &lt;p&gt;Customers who paid a $2,000 reservation fee for the range extender shared emails from Tesla on X last week, stating:&lt;/p&gt;
  1201.  
  1202. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Update to Your Cybertruck Range Extender Order&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1203.  
  1204. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1205. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thank you for being a Cybertruck owner.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1206.  
  1207. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We are no longer planning to sell the Range Extender for Cybertruck&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. As a result, we will be refunding your deposit in full. The amount will be returned to the original payment method used for the transaction.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1208.  
  1209. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thank you for your understanding. The Tesla Team&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1210. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1211.  
  1212. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/GqYeWz5bMAM038N.jpg?itok=quydYosa" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/GqYeWz5bMAM038N.jpg?itok=quydYosa"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="bd4582d8-6d50-4523-97df-ec66b1da1ccc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="762" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/GqYeWz5bMAM038N.jpg?itok=quydYosa" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1213.  
  1214. &lt;p&gt;In April, EV blog Electrek was the first to report that Tesla removed the range extender from the Cybertruck online configurator on its website, where buyers could reserve it with a "$2,000 non-refundable deposit."&lt;/p&gt;
  1215.  
  1216. &lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href="https://electrek.co/2025/05/07/tesla-never-make-cybertruck-range-extender-achieve-promised-range/"&gt;Electrek's&lt;/a&gt; first take on Tesla quietly pulling the Cybertruck's extender:&lt;/p&gt;
  1217.  
  1218. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;It does seem to be a more negative set of announcements&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; recently from Tesla, or a failure to deliver. Maybe that's me looking for the -ne and not giving the other announcements more credence, due to a more -ne view of Tesla at the moment. It can be a challenge to come into this with a biased viewpoint.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1219.  
  1220. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I am going to be generous, and say Tesla in certain markets is having a challenging time.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1221.  
  1222. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;They have some very big bets on the table, with robotaxi, and I struggle with that one as a concept in the short to medium term. Maybe in 10 years time, in London I will laugh at my lack of vision. However, that robotaxi is going to need to be one smart cookie to manage the streets of a lot European capitals.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1223.  
  1224. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In our view&lt;/strong&gt;, stuffing a bulky range extender battery into the bed of the Cybertruck was always a poor idea.&lt;/p&gt;
  1225.  
  1226. &lt;p&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;far more efficient solution comes from&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/defense-firm-unveils-cybertruck-special-forces-able-survive-ieds"&gt;Archimedes Defense and Unplugged Performance's UP.FIT&lt;/a&gt; division: a frunk-mounted, jet-powered generator that offers on-demand range extension without sacrificing rear cargo space. This combination of &lt;strong&gt;diesel-electric hybrid systems&lt;/strong&gt; isn't just for the Cybertruck—it has game-changing potential for all EVs. Not to forget, diesel-electric hybrid systems have powered trains for nearly a century. &lt;/p&gt;
  1227. &lt;/div&gt;
  1228.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1229. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T18:35:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 14:35&lt;/span&gt;
  1230. </description>
  1231.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 18:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1232.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1233.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029371 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1234.    </item>
  1235. <item>
  1236.  <title>FBI Has Launched 250 Probes Tied To Online Networks That Prey On Minors</title>
  1237.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-has-launched-250-probes-tied-online-networks-prey-minors</link>
  1238.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;FBI Has Launched 250 Probes Tied To Online Networks That Prey On Minors&lt;/span&gt;
  1239.  
  1240.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fbi-has-launched-250-probes-tied-to-online-networks-that-prey-on-minors-5854649?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge"&gt;Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis ours),&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1241.  
  1242. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The FBI has been investigating at least 250 subjects allegedly tied to violent online networks that prey on minors.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1243.  
  1244. &lt;p&gt;The networks, under investigation by all of the FBI’s 55 field offices, are known as “764” but have other names.&lt;/p&gt;
  1245. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%2811%29_1.jpg?itok=_808gBq7" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%2811%29_1.jpg?itok=_808gBq7"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="514b6ba2-a3e2-4d0f-b631-a4aaa9576c97" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image_92%2811%29_1.jpg?itok=_808gBq7" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington on Nov. 6, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1246.  
  1247. &lt;p&gt;“The FBI is growing increasingly concerned about&lt;strong&gt; a loose network of violent predators &lt;/strong&gt;who befriend minors and other vulnerable individuals through popular online platforms and then coerce them into escalating sexual and violent behavior,“ the FBI said in a May 8 statement to The Epoch Times, noting this includes ”pushing victims to create graphic content, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), harm family pets, cut themselves with sharp objects, or attempt suicide.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1248.  
  1249. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;Some of these predators even watch live-streamed self-harm and other violent content.&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;
  1250.  
  1251. &lt;p&gt;The FBI had issued &lt;a href="https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250306"&gt;a public service announcement&lt;/a&gt; on March 6, warning about “a sharp increase” in the activity of “764” and other such online networks.&lt;/p&gt;
  1252.  
  1253. &lt;p&gt;In targeting minors, the bureau said, these networks “use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to coerce or extort victims into producing, sharing, or live-streaming acts of self-harm, animal cruelty, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1254.  
  1255. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;The footage is then circulated among members of the network to continue to extort victims and exert control over them&lt;/strong&gt;,” it said in the March announcement.&lt;/p&gt;
  1256.  
  1257. &lt;p&gt;The platforms exist on social media, gaming platforms, and mobile applications, with the victims usually being between the ages of 10 and 17, though some aged 9 have also been targeted, according to the FBI.&lt;/p&gt;
  1258.  
  1259. &lt;p&gt;“These violent actors target vulnerable populations to include children, as well as those who struggle with a variety of mental health issues, such as depression, eating disorders, or suicidal ideation,” the bureau said.&lt;/p&gt;
  1260.  
  1261. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Predators, they said, usually “groom their victims by first establishing a trusting or romantic relationship before eventually manipulating and coercing them into engaging in escalating harmful behavior designed to shame and isolate them.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1262.  
  1263. &lt;p&gt;This coercion consists of blackmail, such as predators threatening to share online explicit photos and videos of victims and their family and friends.&lt;/p&gt;
  1264.  
  1265. &lt;p&gt;“The networks control their victims through extreme fear, and many members have an end-goal of forcing the victims they extort or coerce to live-stream their own suicide for the network’s entertainment or the threat actor’s own sense of fame,” the FBI said.&lt;/p&gt;
  1266.  
  1267. &lt;p&gt;Warning signs of victims include mood swings, changes in eating and sleeping habits, scars, receipt of anonymous gifts such as currency, and wearing sleeves or long pants in hot weather.&lt;/p&gt;
  1268.  
  1269. &lt;p&gt;On May 7, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrests of 205 child-sex predators as part of a five-day sweep, during which 115 children were rescued.&lt;/p&gt;
  1270.  
  1271. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;If you harm our children, you will be given no sanctuary,&lt;/strong&gt;” Patel said.&lt;/p&gt;
  1272.  
  1273. &lt;p&gt;“There is no place we will not come to hunt you down. There is no place we will not look for you, and there is no cage we will not put you in, should you do harm to our children.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1274. &lt;/div&gt;
  1275.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1276. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T18:00:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 14:00&lt;/span&gt;
  1277. </description>
  1278.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1279.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1280.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029346 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1281.    </item>
  1282. <item>
  1283.  <title>Federal Judge In San Francisco Halts All Large-Scale Firings By The Trump Administration</title>
  1284.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/federal-judge-san-francisco-halts-all-large-scale-firings-trump-administration</link>
  1285.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Federal Judge In San Francisco Halts All Large-Scale Firings By The Trump Administration&lt;/span&gt;
  1286.  
  1287.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2025/05/10/federal-judge-in-san-francisco-halts-all-large-scale-firings-by-the-trump-administration/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Jonathan Turley,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1288.  
  1289. &lt;p&gt;Many of us have been waiting for the arguments on May 15th before the Supreme Court in the birthright citizenship case to see if the justices will put long-needed limits on district courts issuing national injunctions. Critics object that Democratic groups are going to blue states in open forum-shopping to secure such injunctions from favorable judges —  a record number of injunctions for an Administration that only just passed its 100th day mark. &lt;strong&gt;Those complaints are likely to only increase after the new order by District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco. It is arguably the most expansive yet in its scope and assertion of judicial power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1290.  
  1291. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Illston-Susan-3408-767x633-1.jpg?itok=y6pv7lIE" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Illston-Susan-3408-767x633-1.jpg?itok=y6pv7lIE"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b01abe3f-7bda-4107-b6d1-0aeae0e8363a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="413" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Illston-Susan-3408-767x633-1.jpg?itok=y6pv7lIE" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1292.  
  1293. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At the request of unions and other groups, Judge Illston (a Clinton appointee) imposed a temporary restraining order (TRO) for 14 days to stop the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale layoffs and program closures across two dozen agencies.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
  1294.  
  1295. &lt;p&gt;For those calling for district courts to be restrained, Judge Illston’s TRO (which often leads to a preliminary injunction) will seem like another court ruling with total abandon.&lt;/p&gt;
  1296.  
  1297. &lt;p&gt;Trump is carrying out his pledge to dramatically downsize the government, including targeting waste and unnecessary or superfluous programs. One can certainly disagree with that judgment. The unions and Democrats opposed the pledge during the campaign. &lt;/p&gt;
  1298.  
  1299. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;However, after the public elected him, the question is whether a single district judge has the ability to stop a president from implementing such policies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1300.  
  1301. &lt;p&gt;Unions insist that Congress set up a specific process for the federal government to reorganize itself and that that process is not being followed. &lt;/p&gt;
  1302.  
  1303. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Specifically, Illston is arguing that the &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/903"&gt;process&lt;/a&gt; includes consultation with Congress. &lt;/strong&gt;The law, 5 U.S.C. § 903 states in part:&lt;/p&gt;
  1304.  
  1305. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1306. &lt;p&gt;(a)Whenever the President, after investigation, finds that changes in the organization of agencies are necessary to carry out any policy set forth in &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/901#a"&gt;section 901(a) of this title&lt;/a&gt;, he shall prepare a&lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-189118746-1280750974&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt; reorganization &lt;/a&gt;plan specifying the&lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-189118746-1280750974&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src="&gt; reorganizations &lt;/a&gt;he finds are necessary. Any plan may provide for—&lt;/p&gt;
  1307.  
  1308. &lt;p&gt;(1) the transfer of the whole or a part of an &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt;, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, to the jurisdiction and control of another &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;
  1309.  
  1310. &lt;p&gt;(2) the abolition of all or a part of the functions of an &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt;, except that no enforcement function or statutory program shall be abolished by the plan;&lt;/p&gt;
  1311.  
  1312. &lt;p&gt;(3) the consolidation or coordination of the whole or a part of an &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt;, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, with the whole or a part of another &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt; or the functions thereof;&lt;/p&gt;
  1313.  
  1314. &lt;p&gt;(4) the consolidation or coordination of part of an &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt; or the functions thereof with another part of the same &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt; or the functions thereof;&lt;/p&gt;
  1315.  
  1316. &lt;p&gt;(5) the authorization of an officer to delegate any of his functions; or&lt;/p&gt;
  1317.  
  1318. &lt;p&gt;(6) the abolition of the whole or a part of an &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt; which &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-1419699195-1280750973&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt;agency&lt;/a&gt; or part does not have, or on the taking effect of the &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-189118746-1280750974&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src="&gt;reorganization&lt;/a&gt; plan will not have, any functions.&lt;/p&gt;
  1319. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1320.  
  1321. &lt;p&gt;The President shall transmit the plan (bearing an identification number) to the Congress together with a declaration that, with respect to each&lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-189118746-1280750974&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt; reorganization &lt;/a&gt;included in the plan, he has found that the&lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&amp;height=800&amp;iframe=true&amp;def_id=5-USC-189118746-1280750974&amp;term_occur=999&amp;term_src=title:5:part:I:chapter:9:section:903"&gt; reorganization &lt;/a&gt;is necessary to carry out any policy set forth in &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/901#a"&gt;section 901(a) of this title&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1322.  
  1323. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The law has always occupied a gray area since a president has the authority under Article II to run the executive branch and remove individuals. &lt;/strong&gt; Judge Illston recognizes that inherent authority as a “prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his coequal branch and partner, the Congress.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1324.  
  1325. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.1.0.pdf"&gt;lawsuit&lt;/a&gt; was filed last week, and the court issued its order not long after arguments.&lt;/p&gt;
  1326.  
  1327. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Judge Illston did acknowledge that two courts of appeal recently rendered decisions against jurisdiction in such cases&lt;/strong&gt; in Widakuswara v. Lake, No. 25- 5144, 2025 WL 1288817 (D.C. Cir. May 3, 2025) and Maryland v. U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 25- 1248, 2025 WL 1073657 (4th Cir. Apr. 9, 2025). The court notes that those decisions are not binding on a San Francisco district court and rejects their value as “persuasive authority.”  Judge Illston declared that  “Tthe [sic] Fourth Circuit offers no reasoning for its conclusion that the district court lacked jurisdiction, and this Court finds the dissenting opinion in that case more robust and more persuasive. ” It similarly embraced the dissent in the D.C. Circuit case.&lt;/p&gt;
  1328.  
  1329. &lt;p&gt;Danielle Leonard, a lawyer representing the challengers, told the court that Trump is destroying the government, insisting, “It’s an ouroboros: the snake eating its tail.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1330.  
  1331. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For critics, it may look more like Article III devouring Article II. The order will only heighten the pressures leading into the May 15th arguments in Washington.&lt;/strong&gt;  It will also increase pressure on Congress to move forward with legislation designed to rein in district courts in the use of national or universal injunctions.&lt;/p&gt;
  1332.  
  1333. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Here is the order: &lt;a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.85.0.pdf"&gt;AFGE v. Trump&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1334. &lt;/div&gt;
  1335.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1336. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T16:50:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 12:50&lt;/span&gt;
  1337. </description>
  1338.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 16:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1339.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1340.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029373 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1341.    </item>
  1342. <item>
  1343.  <title>Western Allies Pressure Russia To Accept 30-Day Ceasefire Starting Monday</title>
  1344.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/western-allies-pressure-russia-accept-30-day-ceasefire-starting-monday</link>
  1345.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Western Allies Pressure Russia To Accept 30-Day Ceasefire Starting Monday&lt;/span&gt;
  1346.  
  1347.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pressure is mounting on Moscow to take it's offerings of short, three-day ceasefires (there have been two thus far) to the next level, by accepting terms for a 30-day ceasefire that would begin as early as Monday.&lt;/p&gt;
  1348.  
  1349. &lt;p&gt;The so-called 'coalition of the willing' - including &lt;strong&gt;Britain, France, Germany and Poland on Saturday called on Russia accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire&lt;/strong&gt;. Currently, Putin's unliterally proposed 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire is partially holding - or at least has resulting in Ukraine halting sending drones onto Russian territory.&lt;/p&gt;
  1350.  
  1351. &lt;p&gt;Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha &lt;a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/10/trump-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-zelensky-putin"&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt; on X &lt;strong&gt;"Ukraine and all allies are ready for a full unconditional ceasefire on land, air, and at sea for at least 30 days starting already on Monday."&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1352. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/starmerz_0.jpg?itok=qsWbmGzz" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/starmerz_0.jpg?itok=qsWbmGzz"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;figure role="group" class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"&gt;&lt;img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="61cd5f41-a7a2-43b9-a6d6-61a827a67568" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/starmerz_0.jpg?itok=qsWbmGzz" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Via BBC&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1353.  
  1354. &lt;p&gt;"If Russia agrees and effective monitoring is ensured, a durable ceasefire and confidence-building measures can pave the way to peace negotiations," he added. This is meant to basically extend the weekend 3-day ceasefire by a month.&lt;/p&gt;
  1355.  
  1356. &lt;p&gt;The Trump administration has been &lt;strong&gt;pressing for faster results from Moscow&lt;/strong&gt;. President Trump characterized an earlier Wednesday phone call with Zelensky as positive, after which the US leader called for "ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire."&lt;/p&gt;
  1357.  
  1358. &lt;p&gt;And Macron and Trump then spoke Thursday, after which the French leader said had a "strong" conversation for a "unconditional 30-day ceasefire, as did our British and Nordic partners earlier this morning."&lt;/p&gt;
  1359.  
  1360. &lt;p&gt;Trump has offered as an incentive the easing of anti-Russia sanctions, but Moscow's refusal to go along could result in the opposite, per &lt;a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/10/trump-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-zelensky-putin"&gt;Axios&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  1361.  
  1362. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;They [European leaders] stressed to Trump that if Putin refuses the 30-day ceasefire, &lt;strong&gt;European countries will impose new sanctions on Russia&lt;/strong&gt;, the sources said.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1363. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Trump seemed satisfied to see Ukraine embracing the ceasefire and accepting direct negotiations with Russia," one source said.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1364. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The second source said Trump was glad to hear they all back his proposal. &lt;strong&gt;"We're waiting for Russia's move now,"&lt;/strong&gt; the source said.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1365. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Secretary of State Marco Rubio has &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-calls-30-day-cease-fire-russia-ukraine-war?ref=rawdiary.com"&gt;previously warned&lt;/a&gt; that Washington may abandon efforts to mediate an end to the three-plus-year-long war if Russia and Ukraine fail to make a peace agreement.&lt;/p&gt;
  1366.  
  1367. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1368. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“I think they’re closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years but it’s still not there,” &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Rubio said in an interview with NBC News on April 27.&lt;/p&gt;
  1369. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1370.  
  1371. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1372. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;A comprehensive (air, land, sea, infrastructure) cease fire for 30 days will start the process for ending the largest and longest war in Europe since World War II. As &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@POTUS&lt;/a&gt; has repeatedly said, stop the killing-now. &lt;a href="https://t.co/OC49YEFP4P"&gt;https://t.co/OC49YEFP4P&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1373. — Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/generalkellogg/status/1921173197539484063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 10, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1374. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky &lt;a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1921213741472866529"&gt;posted on X&lt;/a&gt; that "We share a common view: an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire is needed for at least 30 days," and that they "waiting for Russia's response" - in reference to the European leaders Starmer, Zelensky, Macron, Tusk, and Merz - who are visiting Kiev on Saturday.&lt;/p&gt;
  1375.  
  1376. &lt;p&gt;"Once the ceasefire begins, there will be the best moment for diplomacy," he said. "Ukraine is ready for meetings and negotiations in any format."&lt;/p&gt;
  1377.  
  1378. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e56f5e7f-0f6d-4e44-863a-02c64a17f999" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="129" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/beef%20initiative.JPG?itok=lP3z1vIf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1379. &lt;/div&gt;
  1380.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1381. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T16:15:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 12:15&lt;/span&gt;
  1382. </description>
  1383.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 16:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1384.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1385.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029370 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1386.    </item>
  1387. <item>
  1388.  <title>It's Donald Trump's Economy Now</title>
  1389.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-donald-trumps-economy-now</link>
  1390.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;It's Donald Trump's Economy Now&lt;/span&gt;
  1391.  
  1392.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/05/08/its_donald_trumps_economy_now_152765.html"&gt;Authored by William Galston via RealClearPolitics&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1393.  
  1394. &lt;p&gt;When the Commerce Department released a report on April 30 showing that the economy had shrunk during the first quarter of 2025 – the first such decline since 2022 – President Donald Trump was quick to respond.&lt;strong&gt; “This is Biden,” he said, adding that “You could even say that the next quarter is sort of Biden [too].”&lt;/strong&gt; Later that day, he told a group of corporate executives that “This is Biden’s economy.” He capped his day by posting on Truth Social that&lt;strong&gt; “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1395.  
  1396. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/686248_jpg_92.jpg?itok=s_yVqiXc" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/686248_jpg_92.jpg?itok=s_yVqiXc"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="08f2e829-81ee-4075-a326-2e6580f95e0d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="334" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/686248_jpg_92.jpg?itok=s_yVqiXc" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1397.  
  1398. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the end of the week, the president had refined his message.&lt;/strong&gt; When asked about responsibility for the economy during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, he stated that “The good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1399.  
  1400. &lt;p&gt;But do the American people agree with President Trump? According to recent public opinion surveys, the answer is No. Specifically:&lt;/p&gt;
  1401.  
  1402. &lt;p&gt;Gallup asked a random sample of Americans, “&lt;strong&gt;Who do you think is more responsible for the current state of the U.S. economy?” Forty-six percent said Trump (up from 43% in March), compared to 27% for Biden,&lt;/strong&gt; while 21% said that they were equally responsible. Although Democrats and Republicans mostly responded along party lines, independents assigned principal responsibility to Trump rather than Biden by a margin of 43% to 24%.&lt;/p&gt;
  1403.  
  1404. &lt;p&gt;A Morning Consult survey released on May 6 underscored the rapid shift of economic responsibility from Biden to Trump. “A slim majority of voters (53%) say current economic conditions are mostly the result of Trump’s policies, up from 46% in March and 39% in February, when voters were more willing to give the current president the benefit of the doubt,” the authors of the survey wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
  1405.  
  1406. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two recent surveys allow us to see how different groups view the question of Trump’s responsibility for the economy.&lt;/strong&gt; The NPR/PBS News/Marist poll asked a sample of Americans whether current economic conditions are “mostly something President Trump inherited” or “mostly a result of President Trump’s own policies.” 39% chose the former statement, compared to 60% who selected the latter. Among key groups that moved toward Trump in the 2024 election, sentiments among Independents were divided 39-61; among young adults ages 18-29, 34-66; among Hispanics, 32-68. Not surprisingly, a strong majority of Americans-56%--disapproved of his handling of the economy, compared to 40% who approved. Among swing groups, his approval rating was even lower, hovering around one-third of the respondents.&lt;/p&gt;
  1407.  
  1408. &lt;p&gt;This brings us to the Economist/YouGov survey released May 6. The poll asked simply, Which president “is more responsible for the state of the economy”? Fifty-one percent of Americans, and 55% of registered voters, chose Trump, compared to 28% and 31%, respectively, for Biden. Only 23% of moderate voters, 22% of independents and Hispanics, and 19% of young adults thought that Biden was more responsible than Trump for the economy.&lt;/p&gt;
  1409.  
  1410. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This survey went on to test other key claims Trump made in response to the GDP report.&lt;/strong&gt; For example, 75% of registered voters hold him “very” or “somewhat” responsible for the stock market. When asked for their response to the president’s assertion that this is Biden’s stock market, not his, 24% of registered voters agreed with him, but more than twice as many – fully 57% – disagreed.&lt;/p&gt;
  1411.  
  1412. &lt;p&gt;In sum, the president is blaming his predecessor for the condition of the economy, but the American people aren’t buying it. One possible explanation for their rapid transfer of responsibility from the previous to the current president is that Trump is a victim of his own success. His unrivalled ability to command the public’s attention with vivid statements and bold action has highlighted his key economic measures, especially his imposition of record tariffs on friend and foe alike. He has drawn such a sharp line with his predecessor’s policies that it is hard for most people to understand how Biden’s influence on the economy could be continuing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1413.  
  1414. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For better or worse, it’s now Donald Trump’s economy. If it performs poorly, he and his party will pay the price.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1415.  
  1416. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a senior fellow. A former policy advisor to President Clinton and presidential candidates, Galston is an expert on domestic policy, political campaigns, and elections. His current research focuses on designing a new social contract and the implications of political polarization.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1417. &lt;/div&gt;
  1418.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1419. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T15:40:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 11:40&lt;/span&gt;
  1420. </description>
  1421.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 15:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1422.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1423.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029342 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1424.    </item>
  1425. <item>
  1426.  <title>Diddy Trial Drama: Star Witness Vanishes Ahead Of Explosive Testimony</title>
  1427.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/diddy-trial-drama-star-witness-vanishes-ahead-explosive-testimony</link>
  1428.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Diddy Trial Drama: Star Witness Vanishes Ahead Of Explosive Testimony&lt;/span&gt;
  1429.  
  1430.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The high-profile sex trafficking case against Sean "Diddy" Combs has taken a stunning turn; &lt;strong&gt;one of the prosecution’s key witnesses has mysteriously gone missing just days before opening statements are set to begin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1431.  
  1432. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2f47aa71-b86a-446c-b5af-8f0dfb2f66ee-AP24327792599703_jpg_92.jpg?itok=NqaGfVWz" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2f47aa71-b86a-446c-b5af-8f0dfb2f66ee-AP24327792599703_jpg_92.jpg?itok=NqaGfVWz"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7bde4de9-56c7-4670-bb13-c8ba94559215" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="375" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2f47aa71-b86a-446c-b5af-8f0dfb2f66ee-AP24327792599703_jpg_92.jpg?itok=NqaGfVWz" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1433.  
  1434. &lt;p&gt;Federal prosecutors told a Manhattan judge this week that &lt;strong&gt;they’ve been unable to reach "Victim 3," &lt;/strong&gt;a central figure expected to deliver bombshell testimony against the hip-hop mogul.&lt;/p&gt;
  1435.  
  1436. &lt;p&gt;The missing woman, who does not reside in New York, had planned to testify without using a pseudonym and was prepared to detail “very personal and explosive” abuse she allegedly endured at the hands of Combs, according to the &lt;em&gt;Daily Mail&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1437.  
  1438. &lt;p&gt;Maurene Comey - daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and a member of the prosecution team - informed U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian that &lt;strong&gt;efforts (or 'efforts') to contact the woman and her lawyer have so far failed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1439.  
  1440. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prosecutors admitted that if they can’t locate her soon, Victim 3 may not take the stand at all.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1441.  
  1442. &lt;p&gt;Combs’ defense attorney, Teny Geragos, demanded clarity by week’s end, pressing the court for a final decision on whether the witness will be called to testify.&lt;/p&gt;
  1443.  
  1444. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="https://siphox.zhstore.com/" data-image-href="https://siphox.zhstore.com/" data-link-option="2" href="https://siphox.zhstore.com/"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="927a39f8-88c3-4408-83a3-1b0e86a72ed6" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="141" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/SiPhox_10.png?itok=M6ykQdmF" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1445.  
  1446. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two other accusers, identified as Victim 2 and Victim 4, have been cleared to testify under pseudonyms during the upcoming trial.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1447.  
  1448. &lt;p&gt;Combs, 55, faces a mountain of federal charges alleging he ran his businesses like a criminal empire — orchestrating a slew of serious crimes including kidnapping, arson, bribery, and sex trafficking.&lt;/p&gt;
  1449.  
  1450. &lt;p&gt;Prosecutors say the Bad Boy Records founder used his star power and deep pockets to trap young women in nightmarish abuse, including so-called “Freak Offs” — drug-fueled orgies where women were allegedly coerced into sex acts with male sex workers as Combs recorded the encounters.&lt;/p&gt;
  1451.  
  1452. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If convicted on all counts, Combs could spend the rest of his life behind bars.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1453.  
  1454. &lt;p&gt;Sources say the hip-hop mogul turned down a plea deal from prosecutors last week.&lt;/p&gt;
  1455.  
  1456. &lt;p&gt;Jury selection for the blockbuster trial is ongoing, with both sides expected to finalize which jurors they’ll strike from the pool by Friday.&lt;/p&gt;
  1457.  
  1458. &lt;p&gt;Stay tuned...&lt;/p&gt;
  1459. &lt;/div&gt;
  1460.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1461. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T15:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 11:05&lt;/span&gt;
  1462. </description>
  1463.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 15:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1464.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1465.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029347 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1466.    </item>
  1467. <item>
  1468.  <title>President Trump's Stake In Europe's Mauling Of Apple</title>
  1469.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/president-trumps-stake-europes-mauling-apple</link>
  1470.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;President Trump's Stake In Europe's Mauling Of Apple&lt;/span&gt;
  1471.  
  1472.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/01/president-trumps-stake-in-europes-mauling-of-apple/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Robert Bork, Jr, via American Greatness,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1473.  
  1474. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The European Commission’s half-a-billion-euro fine slapped on Apple—and a €200 million fine on Meta—is a reminder that protectionism is a global trend, not just an element of the Trump agenda. &lt;/strong&gt;Worse than the magnitudes of these fines is the message that they send: the European Union is determined to enforce its Digital Markets Act (DMA) to outlaw the basic business models that made Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon America’s most innovative companies. &lt;/p&gt;
  1475.  
  1476. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are now explicitly targeted by this law as digital “gatekeepers” in need of wholesale restructuring.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1477.  
  1478. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-09_14-24-02.jpg?itok=cW83Bz38" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-09_14-24-02.jpg?itok=cW83Bz38"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="af3f8d88-6099-4f2b-853d-3e54fd89cea5" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="280" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-09_14-24-02.jpg?itok=cW83Bz38" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1479.  
  1480. &lt;p&gt;At home, the Trump administration’s antitrust regulators continue complaints left over from the previous administration against these same companies. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Department of Justice Antitrust Chief Gail Slater are perhaps expressing the current administration’s residual desire to punish big tech companies for their past censorship of conservatives. The massive fine imposed on Apple by the EU should put antitrust in a new context for the administration. If Europe wins, the American tech sector will be broken.&lt;/p&gt;
  1481.  
  1482. &lt;p&gt;If this sounds hyperbolic, consider what the DMA actually does. Apple has invested more than $100 billion in the last five years to produce products that are seamlessly and safely linked, providing levels of security and privacy valued by consumers worldwide. Central to Apple’s success is the willingness of developers to create new apps with powerful capabilities for Apple customers. But Apple enforces conditions on developers. They are granted a degree of access to Apple systems, but not so much that they can steal Apple’s proprietary algorithms or—most importantly for antitrust—access and exploit user data.&lt;/p&gt;
  1483.  
  1484. &lt;p&gt;For example, when developers create apps that rely on sound, Apple requires them to ask users for their permission before accessing their microphones. If developers want to record audio, they also must get explicit permission. Similar guardrails are in place for apps used for banking, gaming, and a variety of content and services. Developers can access Apple’s Touch ID, but they cannot access data in the Secure Enclave inside the iPhone. Apple is like a bank that will allow access to a safe deposit box but won’t allow rifling through other people’s boxes.&lt;/p&gt;
  1485.  
  1486. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taken literally, the law’s demand for “interoperability” with developers and competitors would force Apple to expose consumers’ most sensitive data.&lt;/strong&gt; The EU mandate would allow access to consumers’ communications over iMessage—whether 6-digit codes texted by banks, Wi-Fi passwords, or personal communications. Also at risk is data on AirPlay, CarPlay, and Siri. Every message, email, phone call, image, and calendar will be potentially exposed to myriad developers, sure to be exploited and likely to be resold on the international market. Thus, Europe, in the name of protecting consumers, will force the exposure of users’ data, commoditizing it in the name of interoperability. It is a virtual certainty that some buyers will be cut-outs for China. As the FBI has warned, China “uses elaborate shell games” and overweight voting rights to control companies without tipping off its real ownership.&lt;/p&gt;
  1487.  
  1488. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is Europe doing this?&lt;/strong&gt; It seems to be out of a mixture of progressive thinking and anti-Americanism. The largest seller of smartphones in Europe is Samsung, with 37 percent of the market. Add to that China’s Xiaomi market share, and the two Asian giants have a combined 53 percent share of the European smartphone market. And yet it is Apple’s 22 percent share that somehow defines it as a “gatekeeper” in need of radical restructuring. These latest fines for violating the DMA are eye-popping, but they continue an anti-American trend that has resulted in roughly $8 billion in fines imposed on another top American innovator, Google, over the past decade.&lt;/p&gt;
  1489.  
  1490. &lt;p&gt;Europeans might be forgiven for feeling whipsawed. The DMA and its companion Digital Services Act were drafted with the active encouragement of the Biden Administration and former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who was in constant dialogue with European regulators. But the attitude in America is now hardening. In a letter to EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wrote that the provisions of the Digital Markets Act “stifle innovation, disincentivize research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1491.  
  1492. &lt;p&gt;Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, chair of the House antitrust subcommittee, noted that&lt;strong&gt; the fine “is a tax on U.S. companies operating in the EU. Any trade deal with the EU or its member countries must address the unfair targeting of our most successful companies.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1493.  
  1494. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will President Trump let this happen? &lt;/strong&gt;Or will he rise to the occasion to defend America’s most competitive companies? As President Trump engages the European Union in trade negotiations, he should seize this opportunity to stand up for American investors, innovators, and more than 5 million U.S. tech workers.&lt;/p&gt;
  1495. &lt;/div&gt;
  1496.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1497. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T14:30:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 10:30&lt;/span&gt;
  1498. </description>
  1499.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 14:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1500.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1501.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029335 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1502.    </item>
  1503. <item>
  1504.  <title>Chipotle Will Try Expanding To Mexico, Where Taco Bell Once Failed Miserably</title>
  1505.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chipotle-will-try-and-expand-mexico-where-taco-bell-once-failed-miserably</link>
  1506.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Chipotle Will Try Expanding To Mexico, Where Taco Bell Once Failed Miserably&lt;/span&gt;
  1507.  
  1508.            &lt;div property="schema:text" class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chipotle Mexican Grill announced plans this week to enter the crowded Mexican market, partnering with local firm Alsea—which operates brands like Starbucks, Domino’s, and Burger King—to open restaurants by early 2026, a &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91322719/can-chipotle-succeed-in-mexico-where-taco-bell-failed"&gt;new report from FastCompany&lt;/a&gt; says.&lt;/p&gt;
  1509.  
  1510. &lt;p&gt;But the question then arises whether fast food Mexican can cut it in the land of tacos and burritos...&lt;/p&gt;
  1511.  
  1512. &lt;p&gt;FastCompany &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91322719/can-chipotle-succeed-in-mexico-where-taco-bell-failed"&gt;explored the idea&lt;/a&gt; that Americanized versions of local cuisines have struggled abroad. Domino’s failed to win over Italians, and Taco Bell’s two attempts to conquer Mexico flopped.&lt;/p&gt;
  1513.  
  1514. &lt;p&gt;In fact, Taco Bell's 1992 debut collapsed within two years, as crispy tacos were “an anomaly” and had to be rebranded as “tacostadas.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1515.  
  1516. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As one critic put it, it was like “bringing ice to Antarctica.”&lt;/strong&gt; Taco Bell tried again in 2007, emphasizing convenience over authenticity. “Foolish gringos,” a Monterrey food writer commented, and the brand withdrew once more.&lt;/p&gt;
  1517.  
  1518. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/chip_4.jpg?itok=KQ7UDMBZ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/chip_4.jpg?itok=KQ7UDMBZ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="959792b7-431e-49fc-a58a-23f9c2da53ff" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="311" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/chip_4.jpg?itok=KQ7UDMBZ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1519.  
  1520. &lt;p data-end="1597" data-start="1193"&gt;Chipotle hasn’t directly addressed these failures but promises its offerings “will resonate with guests in Mexico,” according to chief business development officer Nate Lawton.&lt;/p&gt;
  1521.  
  1522. &lt;p data-end="1597" data-start="1193"&gt;“The country’s familiarity with our ingredients and affinity for fresh food make it an attractive growth market for our company.” Alsea CEO Armando Torrado added that his company brings “vast knowledge of the Mexican consumer.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1523.  
  1524. &lt;p data-end="1790" data-start="1599"&gt;Still, some experts question Chipotle’s authenticity, noting its burritos prioritize heft over variety. Its current bestseller—a honey chicken burrito—seems designed more for American tastes.&lt;/p&gt;
  1525.  
  1526. &lt;p data-end="2171" data-start="1792"&gt;Yet Taco Bell now has over 8,000 global locations, including hundreds in Central and South America, proving success is still possible. And with global trade rules in flux and about half its avocados sourced from tariff-vulnerable Mexico, Chipotle’s push to diversify its customer base makes strategic sense.&lt;/p&gt;
  1527.  
  1528. &lt;p data-end="2171" data-start="1792"&gt;Whether Mexican consumers will embrace its burritos remains to be seen, the report &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91322719/can-chipotle-succeed-in-mexico-where-taco-bell-failed"&gt;concludes&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  1529. &lt;/div&gt;
  1530.      &lt;span rel="schema:author" class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"&gt;&lt;a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" class="username" xml:lang=""&gt;Tyler Durden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
  1531. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-10T13:55:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Sat, 05/10/2025 - 09:55&lt;/span&gt;
  1532. </description>
  1533.  <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 13:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1534.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1535.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1029215 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1536.    </item>
  1537.  
  1538.  </channel>
  1539. </rss>
  1540.  

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