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  4.    <title>ZeroHedge News</title>
  5.    <link>https://www.zerohedge.com</link>
  6.    <description/>
  7.    <language>en</language>
  8.    
  9.    <item>
  10.  <title>Cal State Prof Arrested, Accused Of Assaulting ICE Agents During Cannabis Farm Raid</title>
  11.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cal-state-prof-arrested-accused-assaulting-ice-agents-during-cannabis-farm-raid</link>
  12.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Cal State Prof Arrested, Accused Of Assaulting ICE Agents During Cannabis Farm Raid&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;&lt;a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/cal-state-professor-arrested-accused-of-assaulting-ice-agents-during-cannabis-farm-raid/28221"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Emily Sturge via Campus Reform,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  15.  
  16. &lt;p&gt;A California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) professor was arrested July 10 after allegedly assaulting law enforcement agents during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation targeting illegal labor at marijuana farms. &lt;/p&gt;
  17.  
  18. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjYW1wdXMucmVmb3Jt%20%282%29_2.jpg?itok=FBck9EWB" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjYW1wdXMucmVmb3Jt%20%282%29_2.jpg?itok=FBck9EWB"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2a2216c2-53b7-4323-879f-b95f24fae094" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="282" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjYW1wdXMucmVmb3Jt%20%282%29_2.jpg?itok=FBck9EWB" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  19.  
  20. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://ciapps.csuci.edu/directory/Details/jonathan.caravello"&gt;Jonathan Anthony Caravello&lt;/a&gt;, a math and philosophy lecturer, is among four U.S. citizens “being criminally processed for assaulting or resisting officers” during coordinated ICE raids &lt;/strong&gt;at Glass House Farms cannabis grow sites in Camarillo and Carpinteria, California, according to the &lt;a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/13/ice-cbp-arrest-least-361-illegal-aliens-during-marijuana-grow-site-operation-rescue"&gt;Department of Homeland Security&lt;/a&gt; (DHS).&lt;/p&gt;
  21.  
  22. &lt;p&gt;Caravello is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1944468395082264964"&gt;accused&lt;/a&gt; of throwing a tear gas canister at ICE agents during the protest&lt;/strong&gt;, which occurred near the CSUCI campus.&lt;/p&gt;
  23.  
  24. &lt;p&gt;Protesters reportedly “attempted to intercept” officers by “throwing rocks” at federal vehicles, “shattering windows and windshields,” &lt;a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/camarillo-farm-raid-immigration-glass-house-farms/"&gt;CBS News&lt;/a&gt; reports.&lt;/p&gt;
  25.  
  26. &lt;p&gt;One protester allegedly &lt;a href="https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1943522825194868753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1943522825194868753%7Ctwgr%5Ea3c08e5bfcd0e04289ca9dd441e6355b754d1b2c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fiframe.nbcnews.com%2FBA4XcMDM%3F_showcaption%3Dtrueapp%3D1"&gt;fired&lt;/a&gt; a pistol at officers. &lt;/p&gt;
  27.  
  28. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://www.calfac.org/about-cfa/"&gt;California Faculty Association&lt;/a&gt; (CFA),&lt;strong&gt; an “anti-racism, social justice” labor union comprised of 29,000 California State University faculty members,&lt;/strong&gt; is defending Caravello, claiming he was peacefully protesting and accusing federal agents of kidnapping him.&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;⚠️ MISSING PERSON ⚠️&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  32. Jonathan Anthony Caravello&lt;br /&gt;
  33. DOB: 02/16/1988&lt;br /&gt;
  34. Professor at CSU Channel Islands&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  35. Kidnapped by unidentified ICE agents at 2:33pm, Thursday July 10th at Las Posas Rd/Laguna Rd community ICE defense protest.&lt;/p&gt;
  36. — California Faculty Association (@CFA_United) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CFA_United/status/1943840247093375325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 12, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  37. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;The CFA doubled down in a &lt;a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/cal-state-professor-arrested-accused-of-assaulting-ice-agents-during-cannabis-farm-raid/in%20a%20press%20release"&gt;press release&lt;/a&gt;, calling Caravello’s arrest an “abduction.”&lt;/p&gt;
  38.  
  39. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“We strongly condemn the abduction of California Faculty Association professor, member and activist Jonathan A. Caravello, Ph.D. and other community members terrorized and arrested by federal immigration authorities while exercising their constitutional rights to protest peacefully,”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; the CFA wrote. &lt;/p&gt;
  40.  
  41. &lt;p&gt;U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli debunked the “kidnapped” allegation and said Caravello will appear in court on Monday. &lt;/p&gt;
  42.  
  43. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  44. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Professor Jonathan Caravello was not “kidnapped” by federal agents. He was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement. He is charged with a violation of 18 USC 111 and will have a court appearance tomorrow. &lt;a href="https://t.co/QrIivjrthd"&gt;https://t.co/QrIivjrthd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  45. — U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1944468395082264964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  46. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Federal law states that a violation of 18 USC 111 means “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees,” according to &lt;a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/111"&gt;Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  47.  
  48. &lt;p&gt;CSUCI defended Caravello in a &lt;a href="https://www.csuci.edu/news/releases/caravello.htm"&gt;written statement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  49.  
  50. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  51. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“At this time, it is our understanding that Professor Caravello was peacefully participating in a protest – an act protected under the First Amendment and a right guaranteed to all Americans,” the statement reads. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  52.  
  53. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“If confirmed, we stand with elected officials and community leaders calling for his immediate release,” it continues. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  54. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  55.  
  56. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  57. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;An important notification from CSUCI: Statement about Professor Jonathan Caravello being taken into federal custody during a protest. &lt;a href="https://t.co/7knmXShvwH"&gt;https://t.co/7knmXShvwH&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/aHlRGmYS26"&gt;pic.twitter.com/aHlRGmYS26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  58. — CSU Channel Islands (@csuci) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/csuci/status/1944167767848132749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 12, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  59. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meanwhile, the California Faculty Association is urging supporters to contribute monetary &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMBjPGfzKOR/"&gt;donations&lt;/a&gt; for bail and legal fees for Caravello.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  60.  
  61. &lt;p&gt;The association is also &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMCZwGbuSvP/"&gt;asking&lt;/a&gt; individuals to write “Character Reference” letters that will “go before the judge when setting bail” and encouraging individuals to “sign up for a jail support shift so John has someone waiting when he is released.”&lt;/p&gt;
  62.  
  63. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512546967-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=1o1X9x-z" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512546967-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=1o1X9x-z"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f115bdaf-8ed5-4124-a507-36d19cf1a21d" 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/282211752512546967-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=1o1X9x-z" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  64.  
  65. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Screenshots of social media posts shared by @cfa_united on Instagram.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  66.  
  67. &lt;p&gt;Members of the CFA held a &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMEx7BhA4QC/?img_index=1"&gt;candlelight vigil&lt;/a&gt; Sunday night for the individuals “abducted in the Camarillo farm raids.” &lt;/p&gt;
  68.  
  69. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;During the cannabis farm raids, law enforcement reportedly arrested at least 361 illegal aliens from both sites and rescued at least 14 children from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking, &lt;/strong&gt;DHS confirmed in a &lt;a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/13/ice-cbp-arrest-least-361-illegal-aliens-during-marijuana-grow-site-operation-rescue"&gt;press release&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  70.  
  71. &lt;p&gt;The group advertised the vigil on Instagram with the hashtag “#FreeJohnCaravello.”&lt;/p&gt;
  72.  
  73. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512588335-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=wi8XP-jX" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512588335-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=wi8XP-jX"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="049dbb5e-dbcd-4e76-8b9f-926b9cfc3e3a" 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/282211752512588335-Untitled%20desi.jpg?itok=wi8XP-jX" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  74.  
  75. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Screenshots of social media posts shared by @cfa_crew on Instagram.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  76.  
  77. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Campus Reform&lt;/em&gt; reviewed Caravello’s student evaluations on the website &lt;a href="https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/"&gt;RateMyProfessors.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  78.  
  79. &lt;p&gt;One anonymous student &lt;a href="https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2634764#:~:text=Jon%20is%20awesome!,class%20you%20get%20participation%20points!"&gt;warned&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt; “If you want a professor that tries to bring his political commentary or agenda into absolutely every possible situation, then this professor is for you. Don’t bother trying to debate politics with him because any retort you bring up will immediately be shut down.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  80.  
  81. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512483680-Screenshot%2020.jpg?itok=Wj3RABXJ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/282211752512483680-Screenshot%2020.jpg?itok=Wj3RABXJ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e65d1f18-a01c-4508-8e6c-e24d1ccefb25" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="189" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/282211752512483680-Screenshot%2020.jpg?itok=Wj3RABXJ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  82.  
  83. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Screenshot obtained from RateMyProfessors.com.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  84.  
  85. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Campus Reform&lt;/em&gt; is monitoring updates to this story and has contacted Jonathan Anthony Caravello, California State University Channel Islands, and the California Faculty Association for further updates and comment. This article will be updated accordingly. &lt;/p&gt;
  86.  
  87. &lt;p&gt;As of July 14, spokespeople from the California State University Channel Islands and California Faculty Association told &lt;em&gt;Campus Reform&lt;/em&gt; there are no updates or additional information to share at this time.&lt;/p&gt;
  88. &lt;/div&gt;
  89.      &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;
  90. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T18:40:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 14:40&lt;/span&gt;
  91. </description>
  92.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
  93.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  94.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048546 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  95.    </item>
  96. <item>
  97.  <title>These Are The 10 Least Livable Cities In The World</title>
  98.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-10-least-livable-cities-world</link>
  99.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;These Are The 10 Least Livable Cities In The World&lt;/span&gt;
  100.  
  101.            &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;While some cities are celebrated for their &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-most-livable-cities-of-2025"&gt;high quality of life&lt;/a&gt;, others are plagued by deep-rooted challenges that make daily life difficult and dangerous in many cases.&lt;/p&gt;
  102.  
  103. &lt;p&gt;From ongoing wars and political instability to inadequate infrastructure, this map,&lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-10-least-livable-cities-in-the-world-in-2025/"&gt; via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, &lt;/a&gt;shows the 10 least livable cities in the world, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s &lt;a href="https://image.b.economist.com/lib/fe8d13727c61047f7c/m/1/d95f9984-df44-41a6-84e7-9e7bc0b3c788.pdf"&gt;Global Liveability Index 2025&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  104.  
  105. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Least-Livable-Cities-2025_03-web.jpg?itok=Lv4eKrTE" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Least-Livable-Cities-2025_03-web.jpg?itok=Lv4eKrTE"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5be961f1-6f0b-43d0-b7f1-78bd8efab373" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="651" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Least-Livable-Cities-2025_03-web.jpg?itok=Lv4eKrTE" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  106.  
  107. &lt;p&gt;The index ranks cities on over 30 factors across five categories to determine their overall livability. Factors include:&lt;/p&gt;
  108.  
  109. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  110. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stability:&lt;/strong&gt; Prevalence of crime, terror, military conflict, civil unrest/conflict&lt;/p&gt;
  111. &lt;/li&gt;
  112. &lt;li&gt;
  113. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Healthcare:&lt;/strong&gt; Availability and quality of private and public healthcare, general healthcare indicators&lt;/p&gt;
  114. &lt;/li&gt;
  115. &lt;li&gt;
  116. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Culture and environment:&lt;/strong&gt; Humidity/temperature rating, cultural and sporting availability, social or religious restrictions&lt;/p&gt;
  117. &lt;/li&gt;
  118. &lt;li&gt;
  119. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Education:&lt;/strong&gt; Availability and quality of private education, public education indicators&lt;/p&gt;
  120. &lt;/li&gt;
  121. &lt;li&gt;
  122. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Infrastructure:&lt;/strong&gt; Quality of road network, public transport, international links, availability of good housing&lt;/p&gt;
  123. &lt;/li&gt;
  124. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;What is the Least Livable City in the World?&lt;/h2&gt;
  125.  
  126. &lt;p&gt;Below, we show the 10 least livable cities in the world according to The Economist, and their livability scores.&lt;/p&gt;
  127.  
  128. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-46-03.jpg?itok=1uWzQMGq" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-46-03.jpg?itok=1uWzQMGq"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="74b22000-4376-49ba-bad8-9c78024a4a5b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="227" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-46-03.jpg?itok=1uWzQMGq" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  129.  
  130. &lt;p&gt;Damascus, the capital of Syria, remains the world’s least livable city in 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
  131.  
  132. &lt;p&gt;Despite a dramatic regime change in Syria in late 2024, the effects of over a decade of civil war have left the capital with shattered infrastructure, limited access to health care and low levels of public safety.&lt;/p&gt;
  133.  
  134. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The overall score for Damascus is nearly 10 points lower than that of the next-worst city, Tripoli, Libya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  135.  
  136. &lt;p&gt;Tripoli, Libya’s capital, &lt;a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164891"&gt;continues to struggle&lt;/a&gt; with political instability, factional fighting, and collapsed public services. Like Damascus, it showed no improvement over previous years.&lt;/p&gt;
  137.  
  138. &lt;p&gt;Kyiv continues to rank near the bottom amid &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-ukraine-is-russias-third-deadliest-war/"&gt;Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia&lt;/a&gt;, which has severely impacted its infrastructure and safety.&lt;/p&gt;
  139.  
  140. &lt;p&gt;Overall, the bottom of The Economist’s livability rankings is largely filled by cities from the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.&lt;/p&gt;
  141.  
  142. &lt;p&gt;The average score for livability in 2025 was 76.1 out of 100, the same as 2024. However, scores in the stability category have continue to decline amid widespread geopolitical tension and &lt;a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-ongoing-armed-conflicts-lesser-known/"&gt;civil unrest&lt;/a&gt; around the world.&lt;/p&gt;
  143.  
  144. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To see which cities ranked as the most livable cities of 2025, check out this &lt;a href="https://www.voronoiapp.com/other/Copenhagen-Is-the-Most-Livable-City-of-2025--5625"&gt;graphic&lt;/a&gt; on Voronoi.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  145. &lt;/div&gt;
  146.      &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;
  147. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T18:20:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 14:20&lt;/span&gt;
  148. </description>
  149.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
  150.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  151.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048543 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  152.    </item>
  153. <item>
  154.  <title>Gold Revaluation: Trump's Red Button Option?</title>
  155.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/gold-revaluation-trumps-red-button-option</link>
  156.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Gold Revaluation: Trump's Red Button Option?&lt;/span&gt;
  157.  
  158.            &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://vongreyerz.gold/gold-revaluation-trumps-red-button-option"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  159.  
  160. &lt;p&gt;Could a gold revaluation be on Trump’s mind? Below, we consider the options facing a debt-sick America.&lt;/p&gt;
  161.  
  162. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/1587681342237.jpg?itok=K4WgDDLU" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/1587681342237.jpg?itok=K4WgDDLU"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0003912b-7ff5-40a0-afb7-ce23c70386be" 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/1587681342237.jpg?itok=K4WgDDLU" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  163.  
  164. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Bug Racing for a Windshield&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  165.  
  166. &lt;p&gt;As we’ve been warning for years, the US and USD are a bug rapidly seeking a debt-hard windshield.&lt;/p&gt;
  167.  
  168. &lt;p&gt;The trend and speed of this collision (and &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/tariff-needle-debt-balloon-era-ending-liquidity-crisis"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;debt trap&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;) are becoming increasingly more obvious with each passing day and headline.&lt;/p&gt;
  169.  
  170. &lt;p&gt;In simplest terms, as US debt levels soar moon-bound, trust and interest in its IOUs (and the currency/dollar backing those IOUs) are sinking toward the ocean floor.&lt;/p&gt;
  171.  
  172. &lt;p&gt;The evidence of such otherwise “dramatic” statements is literally everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;
  173.  
  174. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hard Questions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  175.  
  176. &lt;p&gt;For example, although not at war, the US is running World War 2 debt-to-GDP ratios at the 120% level.&lt;/p&gt;
  177.  
  178. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/aaaa_0.jpg?itok=Bktsuhfx" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/aaaa_0.jpg?itok=Bktsuhfx"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="aa04a8b8-8142-4521-99a8-adc611e01ed4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="175" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/aaaa_0.jpg?itok=Bktsuhfx" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  179.  
  180. &lt;p&gt;How did this happen? What’s the “emergency” behind this grotesque ratio?&lt;/p&gt;
  181.  
  182. &lt;p&gt;And more importantly, how can Uncle Sam save himself?&lt;/p&gt;
  183.  
  184. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simple Answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  185.  
  186. &lt;p&gt;Answering the first question is fairly simple.&lt;/p&gt;
  187.  
  188. &lt;p&gt;We arrived at this appalling turning point because the US has been getting debt drunk for decades.&lt;/p&gt;
  189.  
  190. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bbbbb.jpg?itok=l6AtF92X" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bbbbb.jpg?itok=l6AtF92X"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="106ca7cf-2078-4241-a50d-f9f5253c5379" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="201" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bbbbb.jpg?itok=l6AtF92X" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  191.  
  192. &lt;p&gt;Ever since Nixon took away the gold chaperone from the USD, politicians have been buying temporary prosperity, debt-based “growth” and duped voters by taking US public debt levels from $248B in 1971 to $37T (and counting) today.&lt;/p&gt;
  193.  
  194. &lt;p&gt;This number alone is staggering.&lt;/p&gt;
  195.  
  196. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trillions Matter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  197.  
  198. &lt;p&gt;The difference between “billions” and “trillions” is not merely alphabetical, it’s brutal.&lt;/p&gt;
  199.  
  200. &lt;p&gt;1 BILLION seconds ago, for example, places us in 1997. Bit 1 TRILLION seconds ago places us at 30,000 BC.&lt;/p&gt;
  201.  
  202. &lt;p&gt;Let that sink in for a moment.&lt;/p&gt;
  203.  
  204. &lt;p&gt;If this shocks or bothers you, well… you’re not alone.&lt;/p&gt;
  205.  
  206. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The World Has Called the USA’s Bluff&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  207.  
  208. &lt;p&gt;The rest of the world is shocked too, which explains why its central banks have been quietly net-dumping USTs and net-stacking physical gold since 2014.&lt;/p&gt;
  209.  
  210. &lt;p&gt;This further explains why freezing the FX reserves of Russia in 2022 only accelerated the distrust of a now weaponized (and once neutral) world reserve currency.&lt;/p&gt;
  211.  
  212. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;De-Dollarization…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  213.  
  214. &lt;p&gt;What followed was a well-telegraphed and carefully &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/how-the-west-was-lost-declining-world-reserve-currency"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;forewarned trend of de-dollarization&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; from the BRICS+ coalition.&lt;/p&gt;
  215.  
  216. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tier-1 Status…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  217.  
  218. &lt;p&gt;This trend took off around the very same time that the BIS, the mother of all central banks, officially classified gold as a Tier-1 reserve asset, making an open mockery of its “sister Tier-1 asset,” the UST.&lt;/p&gt;
  219.  
  220. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Central Bank Gold Stacking…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  221.  
  222. &lt;p&gt;Gold stacking by central banks, of course, continued to skyrocket at the same time:&lt;/p&gt;
  223.  
  224. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/ccccccc.jpg?itok=7KMEWb0S" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ccccccc.jpg?itok=7KMEWb0S"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="157a607e-716a-4d52-ad42-f078026c482b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="283" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/ccccccc.jpg?itok=7KMEWb0S" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  225.  
  226. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;COMEX Panic…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  227.  
  228. &lt;p&gt;If such signs of US dollar and debt woes/distrust were not obvious enough, the &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/comex-flows-is-the-gold-case-almost-too-obvious"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;COMEX and LBMA exchanges&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; out of New York and London then began scurrying like headless chickens.&lt;/p&gt;
  229.  
  230. &lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;/p&gt;
  231.  
  232. &lt;p&gt;Because they were trying to find enough physical gold to meet delivery demands to get the gold off of these exchanges, which, since 1974, were once just &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/tonya-harding-explains-golds-flash-crash"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;derivative schemes used to manipulate rather than deliver gold&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  233.  
  234. &lt;p&gt;But the hidden facts (and implications) were far simpler. Counterparties to &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/making-sense-of-comex-insanity"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;this legalized price-fixing scam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; now wanted their actual gold more than their paper contracts.&lt;/p&gt;
  235.  
  236. &lt;p&gt;Why? &lt;/p&gt;
  237.  
  238. &lt;p&gt;Because they saw physical gold’s growing, inevitable and superior role in a future monetary system moving away from the debt-discredited USD and UST.&lt;/p&gt;
  239.  
  240. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Petrodollar Signposts…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  241.  
  242. &lt;p&gt;To add insult to the USD’s injury, a growing and simultaneous &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/golden-question-is-the-petrodollar-the-next-thing-to-break"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;trend away from the petrodollar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; during the same period was as obvious as it was media-ignored.&lt;/p&gt;
  243.  
  244. &lt;p&gt;But the message was clear: Faith in a USD-driven future was openly in decline.&lt;/p&gt;
  245.  
  246. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Denial Stage?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  247.  
  248. &lt;p&gt;Defenders of the USD, of course, were quick and right to remind the world that no other nation or currency could beat or replace the mighty Dollar.&lt;/p&gt;
  249.  
  250. &lt;p&gt;After all, it is the world’s reserve currency.&lt;/p&gt;
  251.  
  252. &lt;p&gt;It still holds the majority position in global FX reserves and, let’s be honest, neither China, Russia, nor any other nation has the reputation or bond market to replace the dollar, right?&lt;/p&gt;
  253.  
  254. &lt;p&gt;Right.&lt;/p&gt;
  255.  
  256. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reality Check: Gold’s Future in a Fiat Swamp&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  257.  
  258. &lt;p&gt;But, here’s the kicker.&lt;/p&gt;
  259.  
  260. &lt;p&gt;Nations like China or Russia aren’t trying to replace the USD with their Ruble or Yuan.&lt;/p&gt;
  261.  
  262. &lt;p&gt;They, like the rest of the world, are slowly going to replace the USD with gold.&lt;/p&gt;
  263.  
  264. &lt;p&gt;This doesn’t mean a gold-backed world reserve currency, just a gold-based world settlement system.&lt;/p&gt;
  265.  
  266. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;China Playing Chess&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  267.  
  268. &lt;p&gt;Take China as an obvious example.&lt;/p&gt;
  269.  
  270. &lt;p&gt;They have no problem de-valuing their fiat currency when measured against gold, an asset they’ve been quietly stacking and misreporting for decades in a chess game of common sense as the USA plays checkers with QE.&lt;/p&gt;
  271.  
  272. &lt;p&gt;Nor does China have much love for USTs…&lt;/p&gt;
  273.  
  274. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/ddddddd.jpg?itok=5IkVFfi8" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ddddddd.jpg?itok=5IkVFfi8"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="287efcd1-6529-4283-8388-864c06faac40" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="270" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/ddddddd.jpg?itok=5IkVFfi8" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  275.  
  276. &lt;p&gt;As I type this, China continues to pair gold to the oil it imports from Russia and Iran (conveniently dubbed “evil” by the weaponized US media).&lt;/p&gt;
  277.  
  278. &lt;p&gt;In just over a decade, China’s gold-to-oil ratio was 8 barrels of oil to one ounce of gold. Today, that same ounce of gold buys China 50 barrels of oil.&lt;/p&gt;
  279.  
  280. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, China has no problem seeing its Yuan price of gold rise from 7000/ounce in 2014 to 24,000/ounce today.&lt;/p&gt;
  281.  
  282. &lt;p&gt;In short, the Yuan has collapsed against gold but not against the USD.&lt;/p&gt;
  283.  
  284. &lt;p&gt;But China can live with this for the simple reason that it sees a gold-based new world order, and it has been stacking that gold for years.&lt;/p&gt;
  285.  
  286. &lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;/p&gt;
  287.  
  288. &lt;p&gt;Because the BIS, the IMF, and, of course, the BRICS+ nations see a world in which gold is superior to the debt-discredited USD as a strategic reserve asset.&lt;/p&gt;
  289.  
  290. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gold: Far More than an “Allocation”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  291.  
  292. &lt;p&gt;Gold is no longer an allocation, hedge or subject of debate—it is the future of global trade and currency settlements. Period.&lt;/p&gt;
  293.  
  294. &lt;p&gt;My colleague, &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/author/egon-von-greyerz"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Egon von Greyerz&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, saw this decades ago.&lt;/p&gt;
  295.  
  296. &lt;p&gt;Of even date, for example, gold is now 20 % of global FX reserves. The USD percentage is falling dramatically to a 46% position, and the Euro holds a 16% slot.&lt;/p&gt;
  297.  
  298. &lt;p&gt;But if central backs and BRICS+ nations continue to stack gold at current levels, gold may not be an official “world reserve currency” in substance or title, but it will be the new leading FX reserve asset in both title and power.&lt;/p&gt;
  299.  
  300. &lt;p&gt;In sum, each of the foregoing themes, of which we have detailed and warned in &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/insights"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;numerous prior articles&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/a&gt; explains the debt “emergency” facing the USD.&lt;/p&gt;
  301.  
  302. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Real Question: What Can the USA Do Now?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  303.  
  304. &lt;p&gt;But what about the corollary question? That is: What options do the US have left to solve its debt (and hence currency) crisis?&lt;/p&gt;
  305.  
  306. &lt;p&gt;This, too, has been on our minds for years.&lt;/p&gt;
  307.  
  308. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More Fantasy Money?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  309.  
  310. &lt;p&gt;Ultimately, there are &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/no-matter-how-you-turn-it-the-global-system-is-already-doomed-got-gold"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;no easy solutions or good scenarios left&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  311.  
  312. &lt;p&gt;The MMT fantasy, for example, of solving a debt crisis with more debt that is paid for with mouse-clicked money has been tried in earnest since the QE guns took the Fed from a pre-08 balance sheet of $800B to a 2022 high of nearly $9T.&lt;/p&gt;
  313.  
  314. &lt;p&gt;As reminded above, that difference between a Billion and Trillion is just plain madness.&lt;/p&gt;
  315.  
  316. &lt;p&gt;The US, faced with solving its debt crisis (and &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/from-biden-to-bonds-unmasking-a-template-of-lies"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bond market&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;) at the expense of its paper dollar, is running out of time, options and global patience.&lt;/p&gt;
  317.  
  318. &lt;p&gt;So, again—what can the US do today?&lt;/p&gt;
  319.  
  320. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More War?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  321.  
  322. &lt;p&gt;For Hemingway, at least, the most obvious next step is further currency debasement and war, which the past, current and even future headlines seem to confirm, from the Middle East to Eastern Europe:&lt;/p&gt;
  323.  
  324. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/gggg_0.jpg?itok=DqoexO5K" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/gggg_0.jpg?itok=DqoexO5K"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b3609d70-9bb1-43bf-b00a-1d6b6d9329de" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="217" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/gggg_0.jpg?itok=DqoexO5K" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  325.  
  326. &lt;p&gt;But with distrust in US politics and foreign policies rising in alternative media platforms highlighting left and right scandals on everything from Russia-Gate laptops to Epstein cover-ups and AIPAC-guided uh-ohs, trust in the left and right stirrups of the DC saddle is tanking at a rapid rate.&lt;/p&gt;
  327.  
  328. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Re-sets, DOGE Cuts &amp; Tariff Walls?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  329.  
  330. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, the IMF has been telegraphing &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/2023-the-abcs-of-cbdc-the-great-resets-more-centralized-control"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;a great reset&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; since COVID, and the current Trump administration has been trying to use DOGE cuts and &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/america-first-policy-or-fantasy-analysing-the-tariff-pivot"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tariff wars&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to bring debt and spending levels down.&lt;/p&gt;
  331.  
  332. &lt;p&gt;But regardless of one’s political bias, let’s be mathematical: None of these policies is enough, and none of them, as of today, are even working – as the Elon/Trump social media war intensifies in a backdrop of rising rather than falling deficit levels.&lt;/p&gt;
  333.  
  334. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More Financial Repression?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  335.  
  336. &lt;p&gt;I also expect, and have warned of, &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/gold-vs-toxic-brews-of-financial-repression-capital-controls"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;more financial repression and capital controls&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; around the corner.&lt;/p&gt;
  337.  
  338. &lt;p&gt;But again, not much of a solution given current and future debt levels, debased dollars (worst DXY Q3 in 40 years) and a middle class already on its knees.&lt;/p&gt;
  339.  
  340. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Red Button Option: Gold Revaluation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  341.  
  342. &lt;p&gt;But DC has another option, which even the &lt;a href="//efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/files/bstfinaccountingmanual.pdf"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fed’s recent May 2025 Manual&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; openly hints toward.&lt;/p&gt;
  343.  
  344. &lt;p&gt;I call it the “red-button option” of a radical gold revaluation to effectively use a precious metal (rather than a Fed mouse-click) to achieve QE-like monetization without having to issue more unloved USTs.&lt;/p&gt;
  345.  
  346. &lt;p&gt;One can read the Fed’s lengthy May report on their own, but the Fed-speak boils down to this:&lt;/p&gt;
  347.  
  348. &lt;p&gt;The Fed can add gold certificates to its balance sheet, which can then become assets of the Treasury Department’s TGA account to pay down a sliver of its $37-TRILLION-dollar public debt.&lt;/p&gt;
  349.  
  350. &lt;p&gt;But the trillion-dollar question remains: How will these $42.00 gold certificates be re-valued?&lt;/p&gt;
  351.  
  352. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Doing the Math&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  353.  
  354. &lt;p&gt;In a February &lt;em&gt;Forbes&lt;/em&gt; article, for example, there was talk of marking these certificates to market.&lt;/p&gt;
  355.  
  356. &lt;p&gt;If that were the case, the 8131 tons of US gold (roughly 260 million ounces) at the current spot price would give Uncle Sam about $850B in instant new money to pay off some debts.&lt;/p&gt;
  357.  
  358. &lt;p&gt;This is nice, but hardly a solution to getting the aforementioned 120% debt-to-GDP figure down to pre-08 levels at a ratio compelling enough to restore trust in—and demand for—Uncle Sam’s unwanted IOUs.&lt;/p&gt;
  359.  
  360. &lt;p&gt;But what if the US government put in a bid for $20,000 gold?&lt;/p&gt;
  361.  
  362. &lt;p&gt;This would create a new price floor for the precious metal while simultaneously placing newly revalued gold certificates ahead of UST’s and mortgage-backed-securities on the Fed’s balance sheet?&lt;/p&gt;
  363.  
  364. &lt;p&gt;Sound crazy?&lt;/p&gt;
  365.  
  366. &lt;p&gt;If you read the May Fed Report, they hint at such a balance sheet “example” but shy away from naming a new price valuation on the gold certificates.&lt;/p&gt;
  367.  
  368. &lt;p&gt;This means we can only guess at what comes next.&lt;/p&gt;
  369.  
  370. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Desperate Times, Desperate Measures?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  371.  
  372. &lt;p&gt;But desperate times require desperate measures, and there is nothing more desperate than the USA (and balance sheet) in its current form.&lt;/p&gt;
  373.  
  374. &lt;p&gt;An emergency gold re-valuation of $20,000, by way of just one example (perhaps lower, perhaps higher?), would create instant trillions in liquidity to address Uncle Sam’s otherwise mathematically unsustainable bar tab.&lt;/p&gt;
  375.  
  376. &lt;p&gt;Such a measure would buy time for US IOUs and votes for a beleaguered White House.&lt;/p&gt;
  377.  
  378. &lt;p&gt;Such considerations, once thought extreme, must now be considered with desperate seriousness in a backdrop of only desperate options.&lt;/p&gt;
  379.  
  380. &lt;p&gt;Nixon made a radical change in 1971. Can a red-button gold revaluation in 2025 or 2026 be equally ignored?&lt;/p&gt;
  381.  
  382. &lt;p&gt;Let’s wait and see.&lt;/p&gt;
  383.  
  384. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Be Careful of What You Wish For&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  385.  
  386. &lt;p&gt;And regardless of whether the inflationary red button is pushed or not, gold wins either way, as the dollar’s purchasing power in such a debt landscape has no absolute direction left to it other than downward.&lt;/p&gt;
  387.  
  388. &lt;p&gt;Gold, as the ultimate, most stable, stacked and historically most trusted anti-fiat asset, has no direction left than upward.&lt;/p&gt;
  389.  
  390. &lt;p&gt;Let’s also not forget that if gold is so re-valued, then the nation with the most gold will have the most leverage in this new system.&lt;/p&gt;
  391.  
  392. &lt;p&gt;But as &lt;a href="https://vongreyerz.gold/gold-revaluation-solution-or-desperation"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I’ve suggested elsewhere&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, that nation is more likely to be China than the USA. It has a lot more gold than the World Gold Council reports…&lt;/p&gt;
  393.  
  394. &lt;p&gt;If so, like all empires whose average hegemonic age hovers around 250 years, the era of the American empire is coming to an obvious turning point, no matter how you stack it.&lt;/p&gt;
  395. &lt;/div&gt;
  396.      &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;
  397. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T18:00:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 14:00&lt;/span&gt;
  398. </description>
  399.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  400.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  401.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048529 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  402.    </item>
  403. <item>
  404.  <title>Phoenix Taco Shop Owner Busted For Hiring Illegals - Time To Crack Down On Employers</title>
  405.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/phoenix-taco-shop-owner-busted-hiring-illegals-time-crack-down-employers</link>
  406.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Phoenix Taco Shop Owner Busted For Hiring Illegals - Time To Crack Down On Employers&lt;/span&gt;
  407.  
  408.            &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;Knowingly hiring illegal aliens is a major crime, and under President Trump's Border Czar Tom Homan, the federal government is cracking down on employers who exploit cheap migrant labor. In some cases, employers have even been caught &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ice-detains-361-illegal-immigrants-finds-14-minors-operation-california-marijuana-farms"&gt;hiring illegal alien children&lt;/a&gt; (or maybe even trafficked by labor mules), as exposed during last week's ICE raids on marijuana farms in Governor Newsom's far-left progressive utopia of California.&lt;/p&gt;
  409.  
  410. &lt;p&gt;Hiring scrutiny on employers continues nationwide, with local media outlet &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.12news.com/weather/"&gt;12 News&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; in the Phoenix area reporting that Homeland Security Investigations arrested Blademir Angulo, 42, after a four-month-long investigation found he had hired at least a dozen illegal aliens at his restaurant, El Taco Loko. &lt;/p&gt;
  411.  
  412. &lt;p&gt;Here's more from the local media outlet:&lt;/p&gt;
  413.  
  414. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  415. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to court documents, Angulo not only hired the workers but also allegedly paid them in cash and allowed them to live in recreational vehicles and trailers on property he owns in Laveen, near 63rd Avenue and Baseline Road. Agents also surveilled a second property near 16th Avenue and Southern Avenue as part of the investigation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  416.  
  417. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;An 18-page federal complaint filed on July 11 charges Angulo with four federal crimes: Alien in Possession of a Firearm, Harboring Illegal Aliens, Improper Entry by an Alien, and a Pattern and Practice of Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  418.  
  419. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In an interview, Angulo admitted that he knew what he was doing was illegal, but denied ever paying money to anyone to bring his employees across the southern border. One employee had a differing account, reportedly telling investigators he owed Angulo $12,000 for smuggling him into the United States.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  420. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  421.  
  422. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  423. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;"A West Phoenix taco shop owner is in federal custody tonight, accused of knowingly hiring a dozen illegal immigrants at his business."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  424. "The owner of the shop is accused of smuggling and hiring people who are not American citizens." &lt;a href="https://t.co/glzY5BBKSu"&gt;pic.twitter.com/glzY5BBKSu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  425. — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1945116353360224602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 15, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  426. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;The case in Phoenix should serve as a major wake-up call to employers nationwide who have hired illegals and displaced American labor with cheap, unauthorized labor. Trump's immigration officials are ramping up enforcement against such business owners, and as the administration moves to end temporary legal protections for migrants, major corporations (&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dear-border-czar-nonprofit-boasts-400-companies-employ-migrants"&gt;view here&lt;/a&gt;) that employed them are also going to come under increased scrutiny. &lt;/p&gt;
  427.  
  428. &lt;p&gt;Enforcing immigration policies has already sparked a &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-sparks-domestic-labor-renaissance-native-born-workers-surge-record-high-foreign-born"&gt;labor renaissance for native workers&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  429. &lt;/div&gt;
  430.      &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;
  431. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T17:40:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 13:40&lt;/span&gt;
  432. </description>
  433.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
  434.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  435.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048512 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  436.    </item>
  437. <item>
  438.  <title>New York Man Charged With Stealing Half A Million Dollars Worth Of Gold Bars</title>
  439.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/new-york-man-charged-stealing-half-million-dollars-worth-gold-bars</link>
  440.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;New York Man Charged With Stealing Half A Million Dollars Worth Of Gold Bars&lt;/span&gt;
  441.  
  442.            &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://www.theepochtimes.com/us/new-york-man-charged-with-stealing-half-a-million-dollars-worth-of-gold-bars-5887504?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  443.  
  444. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A New York man was charged for allegedly being involved in the theft of more than $500,000 worth of gold bars from an elderly resident in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Ephrata Police Department said.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  445.  
  446. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20-%202025-07-15T080129.801.jpg?itok=_EstStY6" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20-%202025-07-15T080129.801.jpg?itok=_EstStY6"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e0b0a9c4-206b-433d-9582-8a2f22522f7d" 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-%202025-07-15T080129.801.jpg?itok=_EstStY6" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  447.  
  448. &lt;p&gt;Zhong Ren, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, was charged on July 10 with multiple offenses, including theft by unlawful taking, criminal conspiracy of theft by deception, and impersonating a public servant.&lt;/p&gt;
  449.  
  450. &lt;p&gt;He was arrested after an elderly resident of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, filed a police report in April about the theft of gold bars valued at $555,892, &lt;a href="https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/ephratapd/10338/arrests/ren-zhong-theft-unlawful-taking-moveable-property-pacc-3921-and-4-additional-charges"&gt;according&lt;/a&gt; to the police department.&lt;/p&gt;
  451.  
  452. &lt;p&gt;Police suspected that Ren was one of the individuals who&lt;strong&gt; deceived the victim into using her lifetime investment savings to buy physical gold bars to protect her money from a purported theft threat, which was a fabrication by the scammers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  453.  
  454. &lt;p&gt;The scammers allegedly gained access to the victim’s computer in March and told her that someone was trying to withdraw funds from her investment accounts, the police department stated.&lt;/p&gt;
  455.  
  456. &lt;p&gt;The victim was instructed to convert her lifetime investment money into physical gold bars and hand them over to federal employees, who would then store the gold bars in the Federal Reserve vault in Philadelphia while a supposed fraud investigation was underway.&lt;/p&gt;
  457.  
  458. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In April, individuals posing as federal employees came to the victim’s house in Ephrata on two separate occasions to collect the gold bars, the police department said.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  459.  
  460. &lt;p&gt;Police said that law enforcement authorities believe that Ren is a member of an “international criminal organization” that orchestrates such fraudulent schemes.&lt;/p&gt;
  461.  
  462. &lt;p&gt;Ren was arraigned, and his bail was set at $550,000. He is currently being held at Lancaster County Prison. It is unclear whether Ren has been assigned legal representation at the time of writing.&lt;/p&gt;
  463.  
  464. &lt;p&gt;The El Cerrito Police Department in California has previously issued warnings to the public about gold bar scams, saying the schemes have become increasingly prevalent nationwide.&lt;/p&gt;
  465.  
  466. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In a June 12 Facebook &lt;a href="https://web.facebook.com/ElCerritoPolice/posts/gold-bar-scams-are-becoming-prevalent-nationwide-victims-are-contacted-by-indivi/699750866154210/?_rdc=1&amp;_rdr&amp;wtsid=rdr_0q3SFZwkH7rNEyEhB"&gt;post&lt;/a&gt;, the police department urged the public to be wary of contacts from unknown numbers or individuals claiming to represent legitimate organizations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  467.  
  468. &lt;p&gt;It stated that gold bar schemes often involve scammers impersonating government officials or tech support representatives. The perpetrators will try to convince the victims to convert their money into gold bars by claiming that their financial accounts have been compromised or are vulnerable to hacking.&lt;/p&gt;
  469.  
  470. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Scammers often create a sense of urgency and fear to pressure victims into acting quickly,”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; it stated. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“No legitimate organization will ask you to convert your savings into gold and hand them over to a courier.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  471.  
  472. &lt;p&gt;The public is advised not to provide any information to the caller, to verify the legitimacy of the contact by directly reaching out to the organization the caller claims to represent, and to report the scam to the police.&lt;/p&gt;
  473. &lt;/div&gt;
  474.      &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;
  475. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T17:20:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 13:20&lt;/span&gt;
  476. </description>
  477.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
  478.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  479.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048523 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  480.    </item>
  481. <item>
  482.  <title>Bessent Says "Formal Process" To Find Successor To Jerome Powell Has Begun</title>
  483.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bessent-says-formal-process-find-successor-jerome-powell-has-begun</link>
  484.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Bessent Says "Formal Process" To Find Successor To Jerome Powell Has Begun&lt;/span&gt;
  485.  
  486.            &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 data-end="193" data-start="0"&gt;U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Tuesday that a "formal process" is underway to find a potential successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.&lt;/p&gt;
  487.  
  488. &lt;p data-end="462" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" data-start="195"&gt;In an interview with &lt;em data-end="240" data-start="216"&gt;Bloomberg Surveillance&lt;/em&gt;, Bessent remarked, &lt;em data-end="341" data-start="260"&gt;"There are a lot of great candidates, and we’ll see how rapidly it progresses."&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  489.  
  490. &lt;p data-end="462" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" data-start="195"&gt;He also noted that it would be confusing for Powell to stay on at the Federal Reserve after his term as chair concludes.&lt;/p&gt;
  491.  
  492. &lt;p&gt;Since last month President Donald Trump has intensified his criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, repeatedly accusing him of mismanaging monetary policy and calling for aggressive interest rate cuts.&lt;/p&gt;
  493.  
  494. &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W2YWw9ak-co?si=B_oNDu6nPQUqyXuK" title="YouTube video player" width="560"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  495.  
  496. &lt;p&gt;Trump has argued that Powell is acting too slowly to respond to economic conditions and said, “Maybe I should go to the Fed… Am I allowed to appoint myself at the Fed? I'd do a much better job than these people.”&lt;/p&gt;
  497.  
  498. &lt;p&gt;He has labeled Powell with a series of insults, calling him “stupid,” “too late,” “a numbskull,” and demanding the Fed slash rates by a full percentage point to stimulate the economy.&lt;/p&gt;
  499.  
  500. &lt;p&gt;Trump’s attacks continued into July, growing even sharper. On July 8, he declared that Powell “should resign immediately.” A few days later, he criticized Powell over cost overruns tied to a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Federal Reserve, referring to him as a “knucklehead” and “stupid guy.”&lt;/p&gt;
  501.  
  502. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bessent%20powell.jpg?itok=EIj7CUcf" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bessent%20powell.jpg?itok=EIj7CUcf"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e7f1104e-05ae-451a-becc-8db9f9cad59e" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="338" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bessent%20powell.jpg?itok=EIj7CUcf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  503.  
  504. &lt;p&gt;Last week, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought also criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for a renovation project he called “too lavish,” referring to it as “Versailles on the National Mall.”&lt;/p&gt;
  505.  
  506. &lt;p&gt;On CNBC, Vought cited “fundamental mismanagement” at the Fed.&lt;/p&gt;
  507.  
  508. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, a potential successor to Powell, added, &lt;strong&gt;“If there is cause to fire Powell, Trump has the authority to do so.”&lt;/strong&gt; The criticism appeared coordinated, with other figures like Fed candidate Kevin Warsh and Vice President J.D. Vance joining in.&lt;/p&gt;
  509.  
  510. &lt;p&gt;Trump also reiterated his demand for rates to be cut to around 1%. Members of his team suggested they might review the renovation project as a possible justification to remove Powell “for cause.”&lt;/p&gt;
  511. &lt;/div&gt;
  512.      &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;
  513. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T17:00:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 13:00&lt;/span&gt;
  514. </description>
  515.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  516.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  517.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048492 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  518.    </item>
  519. <item>
  520.  <title>Hegseth Confirms Pentagon Will No Longer Participate In 'Globalist' Forum</title>
  521.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hegseth-confirms-pentagon-will-no-longer-participate-globalist-forum</link>
  522.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Hegseth Confirms Pentagon Will No Longer Participate In 'Globalist' Forum&lt;/span&gt;
  523.  
  524.            &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/2025/07/15/hegseth-confirms-pentagon-will-no-longer-participate-in-globalist-forum"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  525.  
  526. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has confirmed that the Pentagon will no longer play any role in the Aspen Security Forum, a think tank described as a “mountain retreat for the liberal elite.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  527.  
  528. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Hegseth-1.jpg?itok=26IIuMyi" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Hegseth-1.jpg?itok=26IIuMyi"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7fd0402a-9505-409b-9e48-58cf4429f427" 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/Hegseth-1.jpg?itok=26IIuMyi" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  529.  
  530. &lt;p&gt;Hegseth posted simply “correct” with a link to a &lt;em&gt;Just The News&lt;/em&gt; article about the Pentagon pulling all its scheduled speakers at the “globalist” talking shop.&lt;/p&gt;
  531.  
  532. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  533. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Correct. &lt;a href="https://t.co/tbi8vvTWBu"&gt;pic.twitter.com/tbi8vvTWBu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  534. — Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1944799112840278182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  535. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;The report states:&lt;/p&gt;
  536.  
  537. &lt;div class="moder-ba4ca11a2b495a3743c1034df671f142 moder-within-content-for-video-posts2" id="moder-ba4ca11a2b495a3743c1034df671f142"&gt; &lt;/div&gt;
  538.  
  539. &lt;p&gt;The Defense Department cited the left-wing nature of the Aspen Institute and the participation of such critics of President Trump as Biden administration National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.&lt;/p&gt;
  540.  
  541. &lt;p&gt;The annual forum put on by the Aspen Institute – which has been dubbed “the mountain retreat for the liberal elite” – describes the event as “the premier national security and foreign policy conference in the United States.”&lt;/p&gt;
  542.  
  543. &lt;p&gt;Roughly a dozen top Defense Department officials – including the secretary of the Navy and the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command – are still listed as speakers on the Aspen Security Forum agenda this week, but a source told Just the News over the weekend that that will no longer happen.&lt;/p&gt;
  544.  
  545. &lt;p&gt;“The Department of Defense has no interest in legitimizing an organization that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Just the News.&lt;/p&gt;
  546.  
  547. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  548. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;NEW: Roughly a dozen top U.S. military officials — including Secretary of Navy &amp; commander of Indo-Pacom — were slated to speak at the Aspen Security Forum this week. No longer. Hegseth DoD just pulled them all from participating at the “globalist” forum.&lt;a href="https://t.co/QxRcU4FC3v"&gt;https://t.co/QxRcU4FC3v&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  549. — Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1944760592218177855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  550. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;The move underscores Hegseth’s commitment to prioritizing America’s interests over globalist agendas.&lt;/p&gt;
  551.  
  552. &lt;p&gt;The Aspen Institute, which hosts the forum, has been slammed for ties to leftist donors and its history of promoting narratives that clash with the values of the Trump administration, such as a focus on countering “misinformation” and its association with anti-Trump activists.&lt;/p&gt;
  553.  
  554. &lt;p&gt;By pulling senior military officials, including the Secretary of the Navy, from this event, Hegseth sent a clear message that the Department of Defense will not lend credibility to organizations perceived as undermining the America First ethos.&lt;/p&gt;
  555.  
  556. &lt;p&gt;This action aligns with the administration’s broader goal of rejecting globalist frameworks that prioritize international consensus over national sovereignty, ensuring that U.S. military leadership remains focused on domestic priorities and security.&lt;/p&gt;
  557.  
  558. &lt;p&gt;It’s yet another example of Hegseth’s dedication to implementing Trump’s America First agenda within the Pentagon. Since taking office, Hegseth has consistently pushed for policies that strengthen the U.S. military’s focus on readiness, lethality, and national interests, such as rolling back diversity initiatives, reinstating troops dismissed over vaccine mandates, and fast-tracking drone production to outpace global competitors like China and Russia.&lt;/p&gt;
  559.  
  560. &lt;p&gt;His decision to distance the Pentagon from the Aspen Security Forum reflects a deliberate rejection of forums that have historically platformed establishment figures responsible for foreign policy failures.&lt;/p&gt;
  561.  
  562. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  563. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;I voted for this.&lt;/p&gt;
  564. — Anon Burger (@anonburger1234) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/anonburger1234/status/1944800141606596670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  565. &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;
  566. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Good. Anyone whining about it should also be fired.&lt;/p&gt;
  567. — StopBSWokeCulture 🇺🇸 (@MkayUokay) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MkayUokay/status/1944765962118648030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  568. &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;
  569. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Important reminder. It was the Aspen Institute that did the Biden laptop “tabletop exercise” in advance of its appearance. Scumbags all.&lt;a href="https://t.co/Zu5u6N03Fn"&gt;https://t.co/Zu5u6N03Fn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  570. — Comrade O’Brien (@HipsterDoofus64) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/HipsterDoofus64/status/1944844006070030653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  571. &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;
  572. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Based Pete Hegseth. Best upgrade ever! &lt;a href="https://t.co/j2on8I9DcL"&gt;pic.twitter.com/j2on8I9DcL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  573. — 𝔼𝕟𝕕 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝔻𝕊 𝕃𝕦𝕟𝕒𝕔𝕪 🇺🇸 (@DerangedLibs2) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/DerangedLibs2/status/1944799846579273934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  574. &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;
  575. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Grateful for &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@PeteHegseth&lt;/a&gt; . &lt;a href="https://t.co/KGbrREPdQa"&gt;pic.twitter.com/KGbrREPdQa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  576. — DragonSword778 (@DragonSword778) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/DragonSword778/status/1944819379159396409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  577. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  *  *&lt;/p&gt;
  578.  
  579. &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"&gt;Locals&lt;/a&gt; or check out our unique &lt;a href="https://www.modernity.news/shop"&gt;merch&lt;/a&gt;. Follow us on X &lt;a href="https://x.com/modernitynews"&gt;@ModernityNews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  580. &lt;/div&gt;
  581.      &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;
  582. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T16:40:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 12:40&lt;/span&gt;
  583. </description>
  584.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
  585.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  586.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048519 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  587.    </item>
  588. <item>
  589.  <title>Trump's "Major Statement" On Russia Is A Clumsy Attempt To Thread The Needle</title>
  590.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trumps-major-statement-russia-clumsy-attempt-thread-needle</link>
  591.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Trump's "Major Statement" On Russia Is A Clumsy Attempt To Thread The Needle&lt;/span&gt;
  592.  
  593.            &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://korybko.substack.com/p/trumps-major-statement-on-russia"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  594.  
  595. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His threatened secondary sanctions could majorly backfire by harming the US’ own interests.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  596.  
  597. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20-%202025-07-15T062100.070.jpg?itok=F699zoym" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20-%202025-07-15T062100.070.jpg?itok=F699zoym"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a937e817-dfd0-4dfc-9be8-dcd0b5b1c680" 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/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20-%202025-07-15T062100.070.jpg?itok=F699zoym" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  598.  
  599. &lt;p&gt;The “&lt;a href="https://www.rt.com/news/621329-trump-announcement-ukraine-us/"&gt;major statement&lt;/a&gt;” on Russia that Trump earlier hyped up turned out to be a &lt;strong&gt;clumsy attempt to thread the needle between &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/trumps-latest-angry-tweet-about-putin"&gt;radically escalating US involvement&lt;/a&gt; in the &lt;a href="https://thealtworld.com/andrew_korybko/heres-what-i-learned-from-analyzing-the-new-cold-war-every-day-for-three-years-straight"&gt;Ukrainian Conflict&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/how-might-the-us-relations-with-ukraine"&gt;walking away&lt;/a&gt; from it. &lt;/strong&gt;His new three-pronged approach includes:&lt;/p&gt;
  600.  
  601. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  602. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;1) the rapid dispatch of &lt;a href="https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/trump-announces-delivery-of-17-patriot-systems-1752509579.html"&gt;up to 17 Patriot missile systems&lt;/a&gt; to Ukraine; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  603.  
  604. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2) more arms sales to NATO countries &lt;a href="https://www.rt.com/news/621340-nato-pay-full-price-us-weapons/"&gt;who’ll in turn&lt;/a&gt; transfer them to Ukraine; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  605.  
  606. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;3) &lt;a href="https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/trump-threatens-100-tariff-on-russia-secondary-sanctions-on-countries-that-buy-russian-oil/ar-AA1IAmW0"&gt;up to 100% secondary sanctions&lt;/a&gt; on Russia’s trading partners if a peace deal isn’t reached in 50 days.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  607. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  608.  
  609. &lt;p&gt;In the order that they were mentioned, each corresponding move is aimed at:&lt;/p&gt;
  610.  
  611. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  612. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;1) bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses in order to decelerate the pace of Russia’s continual on-the-ground gains; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  613.  
  614. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2) helping Ukraine reconquer some of its lost land; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  615.  
  616. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;3) coercing China and India into pressuring Russia into a ceasefire. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  617. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  618.  
  619. &lt;p&gt;The first two goals are self-explanatory, with the second being unrealistic given the failure of Ukraine’s much more heavily armed &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-nyt-and-wsjs-critical-articles"&gt;counteroffensive in summer 2023&lt;/a&gt;, while the third requires some elaboration.&lt;/p&gt;
  620.  
  621. &lt;p&gt;China and India’s large-scale imports of discounted Russian oil have served as crucial valves from Western sanctions pressure by helping to stabilize the ruble and thus Russia’s economy in general. Even though these imports also help their own economies, Trump is wagering that they’ll at the very least curtail them in order to avoid his threatened 100% secondary sanctions. He might make an exception for the Europeans and Turks, who also purchase Russian resources, on the pretext of them arming Ukraine.&lt;/p&gt;
  622.  
  623. &lt;p&gt;By focusing on Russia’s two largest energy importers, Trump is trying to greatly reduce the budgetary revenue that the Kremlin receives from these sales while sowing further divisions within the RIC core of BRICS and the SCO, expecting as he is that at least China or India will partially comply at minimum. Prior to his deadline, he envisages that their leaders – who are years-long close friends with Putin – will try to pressure him into the ceasefire that the West wants, though it’s unknown whether they’d succeed.&lt;/p&gt;
  624.  
  625. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In any case, Trump is poised to place himself in a dilemma entirely of his own making if one of them doesn’t comply with his demand to stop trading with Russia, or if one or both only do so in part. &lt;/strong&gt;He’d either have to delay the imposition of his threatened 100% secondary sanctions on all their imports, lower the level, or reduce the scale to only apply to their companies that still trade with Russia otherwise there could be serious blowback, especially if China is the one that doesn’t fully comply.&lt;/p&gt;
  626.  
  627. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His preliminary trade agreement with China, which he described in early May as a “&lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/china-us-agree-pause-trade-war-trump"&gt;total reset&lt;/a&gt;” in their ties, could collapse and thus raise prices across the board for Americans.&lt;/strong&gt; As regards India, their ongoing trade talks could collapse too, which could create an opening for advancing the &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-us-was-inadvertently-responsible"&gt;nascent Sino-Indo rapprochement&lt;/a&gt; whose existence was &lt;a href="https://www.rt.com/india/621465-jaishankar-india-china-relations/"&gt;cautiously confirmed&lt;/a&gt; by its top diplomat on Monday. Each case of blowback, let alone both of them at the same time, could be very detrimental to American interests.&lt;/p&gt;
  628.  
  629. &lt;p&gt;Trump’s attempt to thread the needle therefore isn’t just clumsy, but &lt;strong&gt;it could also majorly backfire, thus raising the question of why he agreed to do so&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  630.  
  631. &lt;p&gt;It looks like he was misled into thinking that Putin would agree to a ceasefire that doesn’t resolve the root security-related causes of the conflict in exchange for a &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/fact-check-potential-russian-us-cooperation"&gt;resource-centric&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://korybko.substack.com/p/korybko-to-newsweek-a-russian-us"&gt;strategic partnership&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  632.  
  633. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Putin declined, Trump took it personally and &lt;a href="https://thealtworld.com/andrew_korybko/five-significant-disagreements-account-for-trumps-newfound-anger-with-putin"&gt;imagined that Putin was playing him&lt;/a&gt;, which led to Trump’s advisors manipulating him into this escalation as vengeance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  634. &lt;/div&gt;
  635.      &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;
  636. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T16:00:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 12:00&lt;/span&gt;
  637. </description>
  638.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  639.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  640.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048483 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  641.    </item>
  642. <item>
  643.  <title>DoJ, CFTC End Biden-Era Probe Into Polymarket</title>
  644.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-ends-biden-era-probe-polymarket</link>
  645.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;DoJ, CFTC End Biden-Era Probe Into Polymarket&lt;/span&gt;
  646.  
  647.            &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;Nine months after what Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan called &lt;strong&gt;a “last-ditch effort” to go after companies deemed to be associated with President Biden’s political opponents&lt;/strong&gt;, the Trump administration's Department of Justice has shut down two investigations into the crypto-betting platform.&lt;/p&gt;
  648.  
  649. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-26-51.jpg?itok=L9sRYybH" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-26-51.jpg?itok=L9sRYybH"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="85a31f6e-2df0-4a5d-ab9a-bf0081525d0d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="328" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-15_08-26-51.jpg?itok=L9sRYybH" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  650.  
  651. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Polymarket CEO, Shayne Coplan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  652.  
  653. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-15/polymarket-probe-ended-by-doj-in-win-for-crypto-bets-under-trump"&gt;Bloomberg &lt;/a&gt;reports, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, that&lt;strong&gt; the predictions exchange received formal notice earlier this month&lt;/strong&gt; from the US Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission that the &lt;strong&gt;probes had ended&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  654.  
  655. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Polymarket’s popularity surged during last year’s election campaigns&lt;/strong&gt; as users flocked to the platform to place cryptocurrency wagers on the outcome.&lt;/p&gt;
  656.  
  657. &lt;p&gt;But that also drew investigators, examining whether the site was accepting trades from US-based users in violation of a previous settlement with federal regulators.&lt;/p&gt;
  658.  
  659. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-15/polymarket-probe-ended-by-doj-in-win-for-crypto-bets-under-trump"&gt;Bloomberg &lt;/a&gt;reports that The CFTC had its own investigation into the platform. The derivatives regulator, which oversees prediction platforms because their contracts are considered akin to swaps, had entered into a settlement with Polymarket in January 2022 over allegations it failed to register with the agency.&lt;/p&gt;
  660.  
  661. &lt;p&gt;As part of the deal, Polymarket vowed to wall off US traders from its exchange.&lt;/p&gt;
  662.  
  663. &lt;p&gt;Both the CFTC and Justice Department lawyers in Manhattan were &lt;strong&gt;investigating whether the New York-based platform continued accepting wagers from people in the US using virtual private networks or other means to bypass the company’s controls.&lt;/strong&gt; The prediction market notched about $2.6 billion in trading volume in November.&lt;/p&gt;
  664.  
  665. &lt;p&gt;The situation escalated dramatically a week after the November elections, &lt;strong&gt;when FBI agents carried out a pre-dawn raid at the Soho penthouse of CEO Shayne Coplan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  666.  
  667. &lt;p&gt;The decisions are the&lt;strong&gt; latest example of US authorities reversing course on Biden-era actions involving digital-asset firms&lt;/strong&gt;, and comes as some in Washington are celebrating what’s being billed as&lt;strong&gt; “Crypto Week” &lt;/strong&gt;with plans to usher in industry-backed rules that have sent the price of Bitcoin to a record.&lt;/p&gt;
  668.  
  669. &lt;p&gt;Polymarket has been building a war chest with new investment rounds led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.&lt;/p&gt;
  670.  
  671. &lt;p&gt;It also &lt;strong&gt;recently announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s X and xAI &lt;/strong&gt;to offer event forecasts on the social media platform.&lt;/p&gt;
  672.  
  673. &lt;p&gt;The resolution of the two investigations &lt;strong&gt;may even pave the way for Polymarket to officially re-enter the US market.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  674.  
  675. &lt;p&gt;That could include registering with the CFTC as a futures exchange or potentially acquiring another entity with a CFTC license.&lt;/p&gt;
  676. &lt;/div&gt;
  677.      &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;
  678. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T15:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:45&lt;/span&gt;
  679. </description>
  680.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  681.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  682.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048536 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  683.    </item>
  684. <item>
  685.  <title>Tariff-ic! Core Consumer Price Inflation Cooler Than Expected In June</title>
  686.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/tariff-ic-core-consumer-price-inflation-cooler-expected-june</link>
  687.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Tariff-ic! Core Consumer Price Inflation Cooler Than Expected In June&lt;/span&gt;
  688.  
  689.            &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;Will the dreaded tariff-flation show up this time? Or will the excuse factory be required to spin the Trump-policy-driven price hike expectations as coming next time?&lt;/p&gt;
  690.  
  691. &lt;p&gt;Expectations were for a modest acceleration in prices in June and headline Consumer Prices did just that rising 0.3% MoM (as expected) and +2.7% YoY (up from +2.4% prior and hotter than the +2.6% YoY expected)...&lt;/p&gt;
  692.  
  693. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmA311_0.jpg?itok=2KVFiA0g" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmA311_0.jpg?itok=2KVFiA0g"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5119c9d9-fd25-4aaf-bc9f-42274a98588c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="289" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmA311_0.jpg?itok=2KVFiA0g" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  694.  
  695. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  696.  
  697. &lt;p&gt;The MoM acceleration was driven by a&lt;strong&gt; flip from deflation to inflation for Energy prices&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;
  698.  
  699. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2864%29.jpg?itok=bL4Fc1qo" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2864%29.jpg?itok=bL4Fc1qo"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="331c3aa0-a02b-4b88-ba0e-091fc538606c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="552" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2864%29.jpg?itok=bL4Fc1qo" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  700.  
  701. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  702.  
  703. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New and Used Car prices are dropping!!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  704.  
  705. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB42A.jpg?itok=Nl2D--Vo" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB42A.jpg?itok=Nl2D--Vo"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b59bff80-3c0c-4019-b5f3-b669562585d9" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="297" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmB42A.jpg?itok=Nl2D--Vo" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  706.  
  707. &lt;p&gt;That's not supposed to happen...&lt;/p&gt;
  708.  
  709. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2867%29.jpg?itok=aQQ5Mx4m" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2867%29.jpg?itok=aQQ5Mx4m"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7c4174f1-4690-4a7a-a4e9-071a2ff301bf" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="298" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2867%29.jpg?itok=aQQ5Mx4m" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  710.  
  711. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CPI Highlights: &lt;/strong&gt;the index for shelter rose 0.2% in June and &lt;strong&gt;was the primary factor in the all items monthly increase&lt;/strong&gt;. The energy index rose 0.9% in June as the gasoline index increased 1.0% over the month. The index for food increased 0.3% as the index for food at home rose 0.3% and the index for food away from home rose 0.4% in June.&lt;/p&gt;
  712.  
  713. &lt;p&gt;The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2% in June, following a 0.1% increase in May. Indexes that increased over the month include household furnishings and operations, medical care, recreation, apparel, and personal care. The indexes for used cars and trucks, new vehicles, and airline fares were among the major indexes that decreased in June.&lt;/p&gt;
  714.  
  715. &lt;p&gt;The headline CPI YoY is the hottest since February but&lt;strong&gt; Core CPI printed cooler than expected (+0.1% MoM vs +0.2% MoM exp)&lt;/strong&gt; with the YoY rise higher at +2.9% (as expected)...&lt;/p&gt;
  716.  
  717. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm1281_0.jpg?itok=rz566Pog" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm1281_0.jpg?itok=rz566Pog"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="91957818-c180-4c4b-8a95-201a684805a4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="289" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm1281_0.jpg?itok=rz566Pog" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  718.  
  719. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  720.  
  721. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Core Goods prices are accelerating&lt;/strong&gt; on a YoY basis...&lt;/p&gt;
  722.  
  723. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2865%29.jpg?itok=bDA6y7pJ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2865%29.jpg?itok=bDA6y7pJ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="79d4a947-25fc-4645-be5c-a5a2b5d1bf72" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="550" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2865%29.jpg?itok=bDA6y7pJ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  724.  
  725. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  726.  
  727. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More details on Core CPI which rose 0.2%, below the 0.3% 3 estimate:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  728.  
  729. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  730. &lt;p&gt;The shelter index increased 0.2% over the month. The index for owners’ equivalent rent rose 0.3% in June and the index for rent increased 0.2%.&lt;/p&gt;
  731.  
  732. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  733. &lt;p&gt;Conversely, the lodging away from home index fell 2.9% in June.&lt;/p&gt;
  734. &lt;/li&gt;
  735. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  736. &lt;li&gt;
  737. &lt;p&gt;The household furnishings and operations index rose 1.0% in June, after rising 0.3% in May.&lt;/p&gt;
  738. &lt;/li&gt;
  739. &lt;li&gt;
  740. &lt;p&gt;The index for recreation increased 0.4% over the month.&lt;/p&gt;
  741. &lt;/li&gt;
  742. &lt;li&gt;
  743. &lt;p&gt;The apparel index increased 0.4% in June and the personal care index rose 0.3%.&lt;/p&gt;
  744. &lt;/li&gt;
  745. &lt;li&gt;
  746. &lt;p&gt;In contrast, the index for used cars and trucks fell 0.7% in June after declining 0.5 percent in May.&lt;/p&gt;
  747.  
  748. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  749. &lt;p&gt;The new vehicles index fell 0.3 percent over the month, and the airline fares index declined 0.1 percent.&lt;/p&gt;
  750. &lt;/li&gt;
  751. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  752. &lt;li&gt;
  753. &lt;p&gt;The medical care index increased 0.5% over the month, following a 0.3-percent increase in May.&lt;/p&gt;
  754.  
  755. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  756. &lt;p&gt;The index for hospital and related services increased 0.4 percent in June as did the index for prescription drugs.&lt;/p&gt;
  757. &lt;/li&gt;
  758. &lt;li&gt;
  759. &lt;p&gt;The physicians’ services index rose 0.2 percent over the month.&lt;/p&gt;
  760. &lt;/li&gt;
  761. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  762. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.9% over the past 12 months. The shelter index increased 3.8% over the last year. Other indexes with notable increases over the last year include medical care (+2.8%), motor vehicle insurance (+6.1%), household furnishings and operations (+3.3%), and recreation (+2.1%).&lt;/p&gt;
  763.  
  764. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is the 5th monthly 'miss' for Core CPI in a row&lt;/strong&gt; - the sky is falling analyst crowd continues to be wrong...&lt;/p&gt;
  765.  
  766. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm9054_0.jpg?itok=xPDy5aoH" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm9054_0.jpg?itok=xPDy5aoH"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="6b015867-272f-4048-8e25-3451c708a7e2" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="289" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm9054_0.jpg?itok=xPDy5aoH" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  767.  
  768. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  769.  
  770. &lt;p&gt;Rent/Shelter inflation slowed in June...&lt;/p&gt;
  771.  
  772. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  773. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rent &lt;/strong&gt;inflation June 3.77% YoY, down from 3.80% in May and the&lt;strong&gt; lowest since Jan 2022&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  774. &lt;/li&gt;
  775. &lt;li&gt;
  776. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shelter &lt;/strong&gt;inflation June 3.80% YoY, down from 3.86% in May and the&lt;strong&gt; lowest since Oct 2021&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  777. &lt;/li&gt;
  778. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2868%29.jpg?itok=Va41c7cW" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2868%29.jpg?itok=Va41c7cW"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1c3d68fe-af75-4824-91ee-d5800f66e0c5" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="313" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2868%29.jpg?itok=Va41c7cW" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  779.  
  780. &lt;p&gt;SuperCore CPI (Services ex-shelter) rose 0.36% MoM, lifting prices 3.34% YoY - highest since feb but well off the YTD highs&lt;/p&gt;
  781.  
  782. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm3591.jpg?itok=buFsYTar" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm3591.jpg?itok=buFsYTar"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ca20996e-89bc-4075-96cd-5036ee43aec2" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="287" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm3591.jpg?itok=buFsYTar" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  783.  
  784. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  785.  
  786. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Medical Care Services costs &lt;/strong&gt;are also starting to accelerate (not exactly tariff-driven)...&lt;/p&gt;
  787.  
  788. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2866%29.jpg?itok=6n4_EyJp" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2866%29.jpg?itok=6n4_EyJp"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3b7e6e3f-0a0f-4d07-b237-5f2b91cb1d3c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="554" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%2866%29.jpg?itok=6n4_EyJp" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  789.  
  790. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  791.  
  792. &lt;p&gt;On a 3m- and 6m- annualized basis, there are no signs of the tariff-driven price hikes as yet...&lt;/p&gt;
  793.  
  794. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/cpi_0.jpg?itok=k126eXqx" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/cpi_0.jpg?itok=k126eXqx"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a7bb3a87-ed21-43bb-a616-d7bc43164431" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="552" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/cpi_0.jpg?itok=k126eXqx" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  795.  
  796. &lt;p&gt;Source: Bloomberg&lt;/p&gt;
  797.  
  798. &lt;p&gt;Not exactly the damning evidence of terrifying tariff-flation that the establishment wants us to believe is coming...&lt;/p&gt;
  799.  
  800. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  801. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;No inflationary pass throughs. But they will absolutely, definitely show up next month, or maybe the month after, but certainly before 2030.&lt;br /&gt;
  802. Because... "The lack of tariff inflation remains transitory" &lt;a href="https://t.co/pbD9Cc3owN"&gt;https://t.co/pbD9Cc3owN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  803. — zerohedge (@zerohedge) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1945100012947427486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 15, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  804. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Developing...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  805. &lt;/div&gt;
  806.      &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;
  807. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T15:37:45+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:37&lt;/span&gt;
  808. </description>
  809.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:37:45 +0000</pubDate>
  810.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  811.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048457 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  812.    </item>
  813. <item>
  814.  <title>Ron Paul: Mistrusting Government About Epstein And More...</title>
  815.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ron-paul-mistrusting-government-about-epstein-and-more</link>
  816.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Ron Paul: Mistrusting Government About Epstein And More...&lt;/span&gt;
  817.  
  818.            &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://ronpaulinstitute.org/mistrusting-government-about-epstein-and-more/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  819.  
  820. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last week the Department of Justice announced that Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list” of prominent individuals who may have broken the law at Epstein’s private island.&lt;/strong&gt; These individuals could be blackmailed by Epstein and whatever intelligence agencies were working with him.&lt;/p&gt;
  821.  
  822. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/dr-hero-img-07-14-25.jpg?itok=Stgi_rID" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/dr-hero-img-07-14-25.jpg?itok=Stgi_rID"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0844bc54-67fd-4374-a0e7-e5dce0af33a1" 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/dr-hero-img-07-14-25.jpg?itok=Stgi_rID" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  823.  
  824. &lt;p&gt;In February, in response to a question about when Epstein’s client list would be made public, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had it on her desk and would soon release it.&lt;/p&gt;
  825.  
  826. &lt;p&gt;She now says she meant she had a file related to Epstein, not the Epstein client list.&lt;/p&gt;
  827.  
  828. &lt;p&gt;The Justice Department also claimed it did a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death and can &lt;strong&gt;definitively say that Epstein committed suicide&lt;/strong&gt; even though an autopsy paid for by Epstein’s brother concluded that Epstein was likely murdered.&lt;/p&gt;
  829.  
  830. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Justice Department’s announcement last week was met with outrage&lt;/strong&gt;, much of it coming from some of President’s Trump’s most prominent allies, such as popular media figures Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Benny Johnson.&lt;/p&gt;
  831.  
  832. &lt;p&gt;The willingness of so many Trump allies to openly criticize the Epstein announcement and other actions like the bombing of Iran is a positive development.&lt;strong&gt; Advancing liberty requires that more people refuse to automatically trust government officials, whether concerning Epstein, wars, the economy, or other important matters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  833.  
  834. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/What-happens-if-you-lie-under-oa.jpg?itok=27aiHbuW" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/What-happens-if-you-lie-under-oa.jpg?itok=27aiHbuW"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2a5694f6-1d05-4022-8dd2-668218fe9d0a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="343" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/What-happens-if-you-lie-under-oa.jpg?itok=27aiHbuW" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  835.  
  836. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Widespread questioning of government presents an opportunity for the liberty movement.&lt;/strong&gt; Those who understand the philosophy, history, and economics of liberty can explain that it is not just that some government officials lie. Instead, all governments lie, and the more important the issue the bigger the lie. In fact, the modern state is built on a series of lies, including:&lt;/p&gt;
  837.  
  838. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  839. &lt;p&gt;that the moral prohibitions against murder and theft do not apply to the government,&lt;/p&gt;
  840. &lt;/li&gt;
  841. &lt;li&gt;
  842. &lt;p&gt;that government regulations protect consumers, workers, and small businesses from greedy corporations,&lt;/p&gt;
  843. &lt;/li&gt;
  844. &lt;li&gt;
  845. &lt;p&gt;that the best way to help the poor is through government bureaucracies, not private charities,&lt;/p&gt;
  846. &lt;/li&gt;
  847. &lt;li&gt;
  848. &lt;p&gt;that government bureaucrats know a child’s educational needs better than do the child’s parents,&lt;/p&gt;
  849. &lt;/li&gt;
  850. &lt;li&gt;
  851. &lt;p&gt;that the US government is justified in intervening in countries around the world because the US is an exceptional force for justice and liberty and its crusade for global democracy is worth the ending of many innocent lives,&lt;/p&gt;
  852. &lt;/li&gt;
  853. &lt;li&gt;
  854. &lt;p&gt;that the government has the moral authority to override personal health and lifestyle choices — such as whether to drink raw milk — for our own good,&lt;/p&gt;
  855. &lt;/li&gt;
  856. &lt;li&gt;
  857. &lt;p&gt;that foreign aid takes money from wealthy Americans to give to poor people in other countries,&lt;/p&gt;
  858. &lt;/li&gt;
  859. &lt;li&gt;
  860. &lt;p&gt;that a government-created central bank can print the way to prosperity while enabling a welfare-warfare state without causing a boom-bust business cycle and continuously reducing the average American’s standard of living through eroding the dollar’s purchasing power,&lt;/p&gt;
  861. &lt;/li&gt;
  862. &lt;li&gt;
  863. &lt;p&gt;that gun control, mass surveillance, and airport harassment keep us safe, and&lt;/p&gt;
  864. &lt;/li&gt;
  865. &lt;li&gt;
  866. &lt;p&gt;that government is the source of our rights so government can restrict or “modify” our rights at will.&lt;/p&gt;
  867. &lt;/li&gt;
  868. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exposing such lies is key&lt;/strong&gt; for restoring liberty. The good news is that &lt;strong&gt;the more mistrust of government grows the easier it will be to find people receptive&lt;/strong&gt; to our message.&lt;/p&gt;
  869. &lt;/div&gt;
  870.      &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;
  871. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T15:25:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:25&lt;/span&gt;
  872. </description>
  873.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:25:00 +0000</pubDate>
  874.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  875.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048479 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  876.    </item>
  877. <item>
  878.  <title>Charting The U.S. Pharma Supply Chain As Trump Threatens 200% Tariffs </title>
  879.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/charting-us-pharma-supply-chain-trump-threatens-200-tariffs</link>
  880.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Charting The U.S. Pharma Supply Chain As Trump Threatens 200% Tariffs &lt;/span&gt;
  881.  
  882.            &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 Trump's &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-steady-despite-trump-tariff-threats-copper-and-pharma-awaiting-us-eu-updates"&gt;proposed 200% tariff&lt;/a&gt; on the pharmaceutical industry would not take effect immediately, instead allowing for a 1 to 1.5-year grace period. Over time, the&lt;strong&gt; U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain could undergo a massive shift&lt;/strong&gt;, becoming less reliant on foreign-made drugs and medical supplies. The Trump administration currently views this dependency as a &lt;strong&gt;national security threat&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  883.  
  884. &lt;p&gt;One week ago, the &lt;strong&gt;president warned&lt;/strong&gt; that long-awaited industry-wide tariffs would be announced "very soon" after a 232 investigation was launched in April. Even with a grace period, the delay will &lt;strong&gt;force a complete reconfiguration&lt;/strong&gt; of overseas supply chains for domestic ones, which could have a significant impact on profit margins for 'Big Pharma' and even affect drug prices. &lt;/p&gt;
  885.  
  886. &lt;p&gt;"&lt;strong&gt;A 200% tariff would inflate production costs, compress profit margins, and risk supply chain disruptions, leading to drug shortages and higher prices for U.S. consumers&lt;/strong&gt;," Barclays analysts wrote last week. &lt;/p&gt;
  887.  
  888. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UBS analysts warned that the Trump administration's 12- to 18-month tariff grace period is "insufficient,"&lt;/strong&gt; arguing that reshoring efforts would require a lot more time. &lt;/p&gt;
  889.  
  890. &lt;p&gt;"&lt;strong&gt;We would usually think of 4 to 5 years as the timeline to move commercial-scale manufacturing to a new site,&lt;/strong&gt;" the analysts wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
  891.  
  892. &lt;p&gt;According to the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, even a 25% tariff on pharmaceutical imports could drive up U.S. drug prices by $51 billion annually, raising prices by as much as 12.9% if costs are passed on. The group slammed Trump's proposal as "counterproductive" to health outcomes. Yet, as we've come to understand, these tariffs are merely economic tools to secure better trade deals or, in this case, to force corporations to reshore production.&lt;/p&gt;
  893.  
  894. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To visualize &lt;/strong&gt;the U.S.' heavily dependent medical supply chain on overseas trading partners, research firm &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://brycetech.com/"&gt;BryceTech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; released an in-depth graphic on Tuesday, highlighting the &lt;strong&gt;industry's deep overseas dependencies&lt;/strong&gt;. The graphic suggests that significant domestic investment will be required—echoing UBS's view that a 12- to 18-month grace period is insufficient to reshore production at scale.&lt;/p&gt;
  895.  
  896. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_09-36-09.png?itok=4oBL8b1D" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-15_09-36-09.png?itok=4oBL8b1D"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f68c9117-1802-43b6-a306-add3174f0d01" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="287" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-15_09-36-09.png?itok=4oBL8b1D" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  897.  
  898. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;illustration reinforces UBS's warning&lt;/strong&gt; that a 12- to 18-month grace period is far too short to reshore production at scale, signaling the need for increased time. A &lt;strong&gt;larger takeaway&lt;/strong&gt; is that these supply chains need to be reshored as the world fractures into a bipolar state, and definitely before the 2030s. &lt;/p&gt;
  899. &lt;/div&gt;
  900.      &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;
  901. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T15:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:05&lt;/span&gt;
  902. </description>
  903.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  904.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  905.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048487 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  906.    </item>
  907. <item>
  908.  <title>Jamie Dimon Says Private Credit Is Dangerous But Allocates $50 Billion</title>
  909.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jamie-dimon-says-private-credit-dangerous-allocates-50-billion</link>
  910.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Jamie Dimon Says Private Credit Is Dangerous But Allocates $50 Billion&lt;/span&gt;
  911.  
  912.            &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://mishtalk.com/economics/jamie-dimon-says-private-credit-is-dangerous-but-allocates-50-billion/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  913.  
  914. &lt;p&gt;JPMorgan puts $50 Billion on riskier companies to get in on the action.&lt;/p&gt;
  915.  
  916. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Direct-Lending.jpg?itok=R8D7RoAN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Direct-Lending.jpg?itok=R8D7RoAN"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="bc29d00b-c906-42c7-b2cf-c5162863f145" 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/Direct-Lending.jpg?itok=R8D7RoAN" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  917.  
  918. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie Dimon Wants In&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  919.  
  920. &lt;p&gt;At every market top there is a signal. But signals are not discernable until after the fact. Is this bit of arrogance a signal?&lt;/p&gt;
  921.  
  922. &lt;p&gt;The Wall Street Journal reports &lt;a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/jamie-dimon-private-credit-dangerous-jpmorgan-d339f333"&gt;Jamie Dimon Says Private Credit Is Dangerous—and He Wants JPMorgan to Get In on It&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  923.  
  924. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  925. &lt;p&gt;Jamie Dimon says Wall Street’s hottest trend is a recipe for a financial crisis, but he’s investing billions to get in on it anyway. His plan: swoop in strategically and profit if there’s a meltdown.&lt;/p&gt;
  926.  
  927. &lt;p&gt;In the ballroom of the swanky Loews Hotel in Miami Beach, Dimon got on stage in front of hundreds of clients in February to talk about the boom in unregulated lending to highly indebted companies. This fast-growing market has been sidelining big banks for years, and JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) chief executive said it reminded him of the craze in subprime mortgages that sparked the 2008 financial crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
  928.  
  929. &lt;p&gt;“Parts of direct lending are good,” Dimon said at the event in February, according to people who attended. “But not everyone does a great job, and that’s what causes problems with financial products.” He said that in the 2008 financial crisis, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers got in late, made bad choices and “bought these two shitty little mortgage companies,” leading eventually to “everything” blowing up.&lt;/p&gt;
  930.  
  931. &lt;p&gt;The comparison was jarring. Just hours earlier, JPMorgan had announced it was investing $50 billion in private credit, more than a decade after financial firms such as Blackstone and Ares Management, which aren’t banks, kicked off the boom in lending to financially risky companies. Banks have typically shied away from this business because of stiff regulations meant to protect depositors.&lt;/p&gt;
  932.  
  933. &lt;p&gt;The rise of private credit has disrupted banks’ fee-rich business of lending to corporate America, and JPMorgan and some of its peers have lost out as their new, unregulated competitors have expanded.&lt;/p&gt;
  934.  
  935. &lt;p&gt;Dimon is racing to claim a stake before JPMorgan, the nation’s biggest and most profitable bank, is left behind, people familiar with his thinking said. Even if there is a crisis, Dimon has said he can position JPMorgan to profit.&lt;/p&gt;
  936.  
  937. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;JPMorgan was actually an early participant in the market but let its private-credit unit go just as the boom was igniting&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  938.  
  939. &lt;p&gt;JPMorgan had promised to overhaul how it managed risk after its “London Whale” debacle in 2012, when traders took aggressive bets that bank executives were effectively in the dark about and lost more than $6 billion, leading the bank to admit wrongdoing and agree to pay more than $920 million in fines. The following year regulators imposed stricter limits on how much risk banks were allowed to take in corporate lending.&lt;/p&gt;
  940.  
  941. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;em&gt;As a bank, you can only watch private credit come from nowhere and get to a trillion dollar industry for so long&lt;/em&gt;,” said Glenn Schorr, a senior analyst at Evercore covering Wall Street. “This is what its clients are asking for.”&lt;/p&gt;
  942. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  943.  
  944. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FOMO Hits JP Morgan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  945.  
  946. &lt;p&gt;Jamie Dimon is singing those Fear of Missing Out blues.&lt;/p&gt;
  947.  
  948. &lt;p&gt;It is very reminiscent of Citibank’s 2007 blowup.&lt;/p&gt;
  949.  
  950. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Quotes of the Day / Top Call&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  951.  
  952. &lt;p&gt;On July 10, 2007 I posted &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://mishtalk.com/uncategorized/quotes-of-the-day-top-call/"&gt;Quotes of the Day / Top Call&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  953.  
  954. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  955. &lt;p&gt;No End Soon to Buyout Boom: “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing”.&lt;/p&gt;
  956.  
  957. &lt;p&gt;If ever there was market arrogance, the statements by Chuck Prince says it all.&lt;/p&gt;
  958.  
  959. &lt;p&gt;It’s tough calling a top but I am going to try. I suggest the current trend is exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;
  960. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  961.  
  962. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Music Stops for Chuck Prince&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  963.  
  964. &lt;p&gt;On November 2, 2007 I noted the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://mishtalk.com/uncategorized/music-stops-for-chuck-prince/"&gt;Music Stops for Chuck Prince&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  965.  
  966. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  967. &lt;p&gt;The party is over and the music has stopped for Chuck Prince. His last dance is a two-step out the door. Citi’s Prince Plans to Resign&lt;/p&gt;
  968. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  969.  
  970. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dear Citigroup Customer...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  971.  
  972. &lt;p&gt;On March 27, 2008 I commented &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://dear%20citigroup%20customer%20%E2%80%A6./"&gt;Dear Citigroup Customer ….&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  973.  
  974. &lt;p&gt;The post describes fraudulent letters sent out by Citigroup telling Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) customers their mortgage rate were about to reset and offered them a higher fixed rate.&lt;/p&gt;
  975.  
  976. &lt;p&gt;Citigroup knew full well mortgage rates were headed lower. I provided image clips of the letters.&lt;/p&gt;
  977.  
  978. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is This the Top?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  979.  
  980. &lt;p&gt;You tell me. I thought the signal was clear in 2007.&lt;/p&gt;
  981.  
  982. &lt;p&gt;Now?&lt;/p&gt;
  983.  
  984. &lt;p&gt;I did not think the market would roar back to new highs after the tariff whipsaw, but it did.&lt;/p&gt;
  985.  
  986. &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;S&amp;P 500 Daily Chart&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
  987.  
  988. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/SP-500-Daily-Chart-2025-07-13.jpg?itok=TjYLfWw9" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/SP-500-Daily-Chart-2025-07-13.jpg?itok=TjYLfWw9"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4ca3591d-ab2a-4bc1-997b-ad85b36a889f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="302" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/SP-500-Daily-Chart-2025-07-13.jpg?itok=TjYLfWw9" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  989.  
  990. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;S&amp;P 500 Daily Chart from Stockcharts, annotations by Mish&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  991.  
  992. &lt;p&gt;There are three open gaps below that I expect to be filled. But timing is unknown.&lt;/p&gt;
  993.  
  994. &lt;p&gt;A gap occurs when stocks open above the high of the previous day (or below the low of the previous day) and stay there for the secession.&lt;/p&gt;
  995.  
  996. &lt;p&gt;The December-March double-top eventually plunged over 20 percent intraday. Then Trump backed down on tariffs.&lt;/p&gt;
  997.  
  998. &lt;p&gt;From that low, the S&amp;P 500 made a new all-time high. But nothing fundamentally has changed.&lt;/p&gt;
  999.  
  1000. &lt;p&gt;If anything, fundamentals are worse. We have new 50 percent tariffs on copper, steel, and aluminum. Trump just announce a 30 percent tariff on Mexico and the EU, and 50 percent on Brazil.&lt;/p&gt;
  1001.  
  1002. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As long as the market ignores these actions, Trump will do more.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1003. &lt;/div&gt;
  1004.      &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;
  1005. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T14:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 10:45&lt;/span&gt;
  1006. </description>
  1007.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1008.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1009.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048476 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1010.    </item>
  1011. <item>
  1012.  <title>Congressman Faces Eviction Over $85k Back-Rent For Luxury DC Penthouse</title>
  1013.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/congressman-faces-eviction-over-85k-back-rent-luxury-dc-penthouse</link>
  1014.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Congressman Faces Eviction Over $85k Back-Rent For Luxury DC Penthouse&lt;/span&gt;
  1015.  
  1016.            &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;Florida Republican Congressman Cory Mills is being sued over his alleged failure to pay $85,009 in rent for his Washington DC luxury penthouse apartment&lt;/strong&gt;. Lashing out at a journalist after the news broke, Mills blamed the problem on the apartment's payment system -- but he's allegedly been late on 18 out of 24 payments since he moved in two years ago. &lt;/p&gt;
  1017.  
  1018. &lt;p&gt;According to the legal complaint filed in DC Superior Court last week and &lt;a href="https://x.com/SollenbergerRC/status/1944843953032839213"&gt;first reported&lt;/a&gt; on X by the &lt;em&gt;Daily Beast's&lt;/em&gt; Roger Sollenberger, Mills didn't pay $85,009 in rent covering the period between March and July, a sum that does not include late fees. &lt;strong&gt;His monthly rent&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;for the posh quarters overlooking the Potomac River&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;is $20,833&lt;/strong&gt;, well above his base salary of $14,500 a month. However, Quiver Quantitative estimates his net worth is &lt;a href="https://www.quiverquant.com/congresstrading/politician/Cory%20Mills-M001216/net-worth"&gt;$24 million&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  1019. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/patio.jpg?itok=kPe4vS3u" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/patio.jpg?itok=kPe4vS3u"&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="270c16de-c0d8-489c-90d0-b704ec9f6d1c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/patio.jpg?itok=kPe4vS3u" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The view from a penthouse at the luxury apartment complex where FL Rep. Cory Mills signed on for $20,833 in monthly rent&lt;/strong&gt; (via &lt;a href="https://www.1331maryland.com/gallery/"&gt;1331 Maryland&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1020.  
  1021. &lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href="https://www.1331maryland.com/penthouses/"&gt;apartment's website&lt;/a&gt;, the property offers “the services and amenities of a world-class hotel,” with Mills' penthouse boasting &lt;strong&gt;"access through private elevators for discrete comings and goings ... &lt;/strong&gt;captivating views in every residence serve as scenic backdrops for everyday living." &lt;/p&gt;
  1022.  
  1023. &lt;p&gt;Responding to Sollenberger's reporting, Mills &lt;a href="https://x.com/CoryMillsFL/status/1944874543761486130"&gt;posted&lt;/a&gt; screenshots of two emails he'd sent to the apartment managers -- on June 17 and July 3 -- asking for payment links. &lt;strong&gt;"Facts are a finicky thing but wouldn’t expect you to be anything other than a biased hack!"&lt;/strong&gt; wrote Mills.   &lt;/p&gt;
  1024.  
  1025. &lt;p&gt;However, a ledger of Mills' payments that was attached to the legal complaint shows him &lt;strong&gt;repeatedly racking up late-payment charges of more than $850 each&lt;/strong&gt; during the time he's lived in the building. In January, the apartment complex owner gave formal notice to Mills that he owed $18,229, along with a "notice of intent to file a lawsuit."  &lt;/p&gt;
  1026. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/mills.jpg?itok=WnEj-c4l" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/mills.jpg?itok=WnEj-c4l"&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="252bee70-9d0c-4564-b851-20f2b0e66f6f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="324" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/mills.jpg?itok=WnEj-c4l" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earlier this year, Mills was investigated over an assault accusation leveled by the female co-founder of Iranians for Trump&lt;/strong&gt; (Photo via &lt;a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/747236-landlord-sues-cory-mills-over-missing-rent-payments-on-washington-apartment/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Florida Politics&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1027.  
  1028. &lt;p&gt;This isn't the first unflattering allegation against the 44-year-old congressman that relate to his Maryland Avenue address. In February, &lt;strong&gt;news broke that DC police were investigating him after an assault complaint was made by 27-year-old Sarah Raviani,&lt;/strong&gt; who co-founded Iranians for Trump.&lt;/p&gt;
  1029.  
  1030. &lt;p&gt;Though police requested a search warrant, &lt;a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/21/cory-mills-florida-congressman-alleged-assault/"&gt;prosecutors denied their request&lt;/a&gt; and declined to press charges. Raviani retracted the allegations she'd made to a 911 operator and first responders. She later told the &lt;a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/21/cory-mills-florida-congressman-alleged-assault/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Washington Post&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; "no physical altercation took place." An initial &lt;a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/722412-d-c-police-investigate-cory-mills-for-alleged-assault/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Florida Politics&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; report on Raviani's police complaint said "force was used to move Raviani to another location." &lt;strong&gt;Controversy arose over police officers' decision not to take Mills into custody&lt;/strong&gt; when they responded to the 911 call, in light of her allegations and her &lt;a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/21/cory-mills-florida-congressman-alleged-assault/"&gt;purportedly&lt;/a&gt; observable injuries. In May, Mills told &lt;em&gt;The&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Blaze&lt;/em&gt; that he and his wife, Rana al Saadi, have been &lt;a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/gop-rep-cory-mills-explains-why-he-was-married-by-a-radical-islamic-cleric"&gt;going through divorce proceedings&lt;/a&gt; for 2 1/2 years. &lt;/p&gt;
  1031. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/raviani.jpg?itok=XJdLDZRd" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/raviani.jpg?itok=XJdLDZRd"&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="7c798857-7ed4-4499-b7a5-08a647155e30" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="418" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/raviani.jpg?itok=XJdLDZRd" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Police were called to Mills' penthouse in February after Sarah Raviani said she'd been assaulted; she later retracted her allegations &lt;/strong&gt;(Raviani via X)&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1032.  
  1033. &lt;p&gt;In March, a House Ethics Committee probe was launched after the Office of Congressional Conduct &lt;a href="https://ethics.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/OCC-Report-and-Findings.pdf"&gt;reported&lt;/a&gt; several potential violations by Mills, including:&lt;/p&gt;
  1034.  
  1035. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Mills may have &lt;strong&gt;omitted or misrepresented required information&lt;/strong&gt; in his financial disclosure statements"&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1036. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Mills's campaign committee may have accepted &lt;strong&gt;excessive contributions in the form of personal loans&lt;/strong&gt; and contributions that may not have derived from Rep. Mills’s personal funds"&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1037. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Mills' may have entered into, enjoyed, or held &lt;strong&gt;contracts with federal agencies&lt;/strong&gt;" in violation of "House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law."  &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1038. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mills co-founded munitions manufacturer and security contractor Pacem Solutions. An Army veteran who has made his military service a major thrust of his campaigns, &lt;strong&gt;Mills was awarded a Bronze Star&lt;/strong&gt; for having given "life-saving care" to two soldiers at "great risk to his own life" while "under intense enemy fire" in Iraq. However, &lt;strong&gt;doubts have been raised about the claims in the citation&lt;/strong&gt;. One of the supposedly-saved soldiers said he didn't have life-threatening injuries, and &lt;a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cory-mills-florida-bronze-star-iraq-b2745118.html"&gt;"I don't recall [Mills] being there&lt;/a&gt; either," while the other one called the incident a "fabrication." &lt;/p&gt;
  1039.  
  1040. &lt;p&gt;Mills represents Florida's &lt;a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/FL/7"&gt;7th&lt;/a&gt; congressional district stretches between Orlando and Daytona Beach. The second-termer has already indicated &lt;strong&gt;he's likely to run for Senate next year.&lt;/strong&gt; According to &lt;a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/722412-d-c-police-investigate-cory-mills-for-alleged-assault/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Florida Politics&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, Mills told reporters in January, "You can probably guarantee my hat is going to be thrown in the ring for 2026.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1041.  
  1042. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Meanwhile, his rivals have a growing stack of ammo... &lt;/em&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="2025-07-15T14:25:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 10:25&lt;/span&gt;
  1046. </description>
  1047.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:25:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1048.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1049.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048335 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1050.    </item>
  1051. <item>
  1052.  <title>Lesbian Couple Expose 'Gay Babies Section' In Barnes &amp; Noble</title>
  1053.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/lesbian-couple-expose-gay-babies-section-barnes-noble</link>
  1054.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Lesbian Couple Expose 'Gay Babies Section' In Barnes &amp; Noble&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;a href="https://modernity.news/2025/07/14/lesbian-couple-expose-gay-babies-section-in-barnes-noble"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1057.  
  1058. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A lesbian couple posted a now viral video expressing their shock at discovering an entire section in Barnes &amp; Noble dedicated to gay books for babies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1059.  
  1060. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Gay.jpg?itok=ggffEHyU" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Gay.jpg?itok=ggffEHyU"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="180632d8-7acf-49b1-9738-309ac98ad997" 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/Gay.jpg?itok=ggffEHyU" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1061.  
  1062. &lt;p&gt;The pair found titles such as “Gay B, C’s” featuring LGBTQ+ terms for each letter of the alphabet, and “Bye Bye Binary,” a book featuring a baby and suggesting that newborns can be non-binary.&lt;/p&gt;
  1063.  
  1064. &lt;p&gt;“Okay, we’re gay. But we’re in Barnes and Noble and there’s a gay kids book section. And this is crazy,” the couple urged, adding “It’s pushing it. For a baby. This is pushing it.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1065.  
  1066. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="680"&gt;
  1067. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Two lesbians are appalled by the gay propaganda books in the children’s section at Barnes &amp; Noble.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1068. “Okay, we're gay. But we're in Barnes and Noble and there's a gay kids book section. And this is crazy.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1069. “It's pushing it. For a baby. This is pushing it.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1070. Why are you promoting… &lt;a href="https://t.co/tsBqPqjAZg"&gt;pic.twitter.com/tsBqPqjAZg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1071. — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1944449446244426233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1072. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;In The Gay B, C’s book the couple show that “B is for Bi” and “I is for Intersex,” blatantly pushing sex on small kids.&lt;/p&gt;
  1073.  
  1074. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1075. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;They are trying to indoctrinate your kids.&lt;/p&gt;
  1076. — Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1944452114945597897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1077. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the trash that Democrats screech all day long about being banned.&lt;/p&gt;
  1078.  
  1079. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1080. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;So insidious. How old r kids learning their ABCs, 3, 4? Notice how innocent they make it sound. "I *like* more than one gender!" Well most of us do. But we're not sexually attracted to both. They leave that part out, but the damage is done. "It's good to be bi!" Start 'em young. &lt;a href="https://t.co/0J4GaLAJYe"&gt;https://t.co/0J4GaLAJYe&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/DtL2mEZjo9"&gt;pic.twitter.com/DtL2mEZjo9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1081. — Jules! (@sparkly_jules1) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/sparkly_jules1/status/1944472305784017181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1082. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although many believe it should be, it’s not banned, it’s right out in the open in the biggest book store chain in the country.&lt;/p&gt;
  1083.  
  1084. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1085. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;This has nothing to do with gay or lesbian sexual orientation.&lt;br /&gt;
  1086. These books are pushing LGBTQIA+/Queer politics &amp; grooming kids to reject normalcy, stability, beauty &amp; Western civilization. &lt;a href="https://t.co/zS0MUEQ9rW"&gt;https://t.co/zS0MUEQ9rW&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1087. — Jeffrey May (@iamjeffreygmay) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/iamjeffreygmay/status/1944463363624272308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1088. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;With all the rainbow colours and drawings to attract kids right at the age when they’re most impressionable.&lt;/p&gt;
  1089.  
  1090. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1091. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Glad to see based members of that community. More people need to start outing these businesses for having this garbage near our children.&lt;/p&gt;
  1092. — The Facts Dude (@The_Facts_Dude) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/The_Facts_Dude/status/1944450188128485863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1093. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Based” is an exaggeration, but when young gay women are outraged by what they’re witnessing, maybe it’s time something was done about this.&lt;/p&gt;
  1094.  
  1095. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1096. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;It’s a cult and they want to corrupt our children.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1097. It’s evil.&lt;/p&gt;
  1098. — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1944451626695364620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1099. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barnes &amp; Noble went ahead and blocked conservative influencer Collin Rugg for sharing the video, which has over three million views at time of writing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1100.  
  1101. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1102. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;I’m honored that they don’t like me. &lt;a href="https://t.co/ROEkOCnBQ3"&gt;pic.twitter.com/ROEkOCnBQ3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1103. — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1944450209922375822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1104. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;But maybe it was just an activist in this one store that managed to get this section approved?&lt;/p&gt;
  1105.  
  1106. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1107. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Can confirm. Made a trip over to B&amp;N of E46th. Every book in this pic is woke brainwashing. &lt;a href="https://t.co/U8k1HaZzlK"&gt;pic.twitter.com/U8k1HaZzlK&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1108. — Waffle House Coffee ☕ (@WHHotCoffee) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/WHHotCoffee/status/1944556467547197754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1109. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nope.&lt;/p&gt;
  1110.  
  1111. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1112. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Emeryville Barnes &amp; Noble 🤢 &lt;a href="https://t.co/smv6FxIBgu"&gt;pic.twitter.com/smv6FxIBgu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1113. — b01dface (@b01dface) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/b01dface/status/1944585787821146442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1114. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know what to do.&lt;/p&gt;
  1115.  
  1116. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"&gt;
  1117. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Sounds like people need to boycott BN.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1118. Should also call their headquarters to tell them this is unacceptable.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1119. Nothing will change unless they hear from us and sales drop:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1120. (800) 962-6177&lt;/p&gt;
  1121. — Ms. Jazz (@Linda82982011) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Linda82982011/status/1944506320406949996?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 13, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1122. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  *  *&lt;/p&gt;
  1123.  
  1124. &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"&gt;Locals&lt;/a&gt; or check out our unique &lt;a href="https://www.modernity.news/shop"&gt;merch&lt;/a&gt;. Follow us on X &lt;a href="https://x.com/modernitynews"&gt;@ModernityNews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1125. &lt;/div&gt;
  1126.      &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;
  1127. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T14:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 10:05&lt;/span&gt;
  1128. </description>
  1129.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1130.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1131.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048468 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1132.    </item>
  1133. <item>
  1134.  <title>Pittsburgh Will Be Transformed Into "AI Hub Of World" With $75 Billion Investment </title>
  1135.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/pittsburgh-will-be-transformed-ai-hub-world-75-billion-investment</link>
  1136.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Pittsburgh Will Be Transformed Into "AI Hub Of World" With $75 Billion Investment &lt;/span&gt;
  1137.  
  1138.            &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 Trump is set to join Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick at a major energy and AI summit at Carnegie Mellon University this afternoon. According to local media, McCormick is expected to unveil plans for at least $&lt;strong&gt;75 billion in energy and AI infrastructure investment across Pittsburgh&lt;/strong&gt;, aiming to transform the city from a hollowed-out manufacturing town into "&lt;strong&gt;the AI hub of the world&lt;/strong&gt;."&lt;/p&gt;
  1139.  
  1140. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1141. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;📍 PITTSBURGH: "$75 billion investment coming to Pennsylvania"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1142. Today, &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@POTUS&lt;/a&gt; will join &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SenMcCormickPA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@SenMcCormickPA&lt;/a&gt; in Pennsylvania to announce tens of billions of dollars in new AI and energy investments — bringing thousands of new jobs. &lt;a href="https://t.co/gBJqFHowoF"&gt;pic.twitter.com/gBJqFHowoF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1143. — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1945094233766895903?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 15, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1144. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Monday, McCormick told &lt;a href="https://www.audacy.com/kdkaradio/news/local/massive-energy-investment-announced-for-pennsylvania"&gt;KDKA Radio's Marty Griffin&lt;/a&gt; that $75 billion in new investments in energy and AI innovation are coming to the region because the &lt;strong&gt;state is uniquely positioned&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  1145.  
  1146. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1147. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;"We got abundant energy, we got this incredible, skilled workforce, we got unbelievable technology, particularly at Carnegie Mellon and then we've got proximity. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We're within 500 miles of more than half of America's population&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;." &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1148. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1149.  
  1150. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;President Trump will join McCormick at the summit&lt;/strong&gt; later today to announce massive investments in data centers, energy infrastructure, the transition from coal to gas, and other major energy projects and skilled labor. &lt;/p&gt;
  1151.  
  1152. &lt;p&gt;"&lt;strong&gt;There's no city on Earth better positioned to lead in the new AI economy than Pittsburgh&lt;/strong&gt;," Joanna Doven, executive director of the AI Strike Team, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, adding, "We're not just a city of inventors and researchers. We're a city of collaborators."&lt;/p&gt;
  1153.  
  1154. &lt;p&gt;The AI Strike Team aims to make Pittsburgh the global AI hub and &lt;strong&gt;estimates that 100,000 jobs can be created in the region by 2028&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  1155.  
  1156. &lt;p&gt;Today's summit comes after two major developing economic revival stories for the state:&lt;/p&gt;
  1157.  
  1158. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1159. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/amazon-invest-20-billion-pennsylvania-ai-infrastructure"&gt;Amazon's record-setting $20 billion investment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; in data centers across Pennsylvania — the largest economic development project in the state's history and;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1160. &lt;/li&gt;
  1161. &lt;li&gt;
  1162. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/x-ticker-now-available-nippon-steel-completes-14bn-us-steel-deal"&gt;a $14 billion partnership between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel&lt;/a&gt; aimed at strengthening domestic steel production and safeguarding thousands of American jobs.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1163. &lt;/li&gt;
  1164. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;The broader AI push across America is stunning...&lt;/p&gt;
  1165.  
  1166. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-06-26_11-04-19.png?itok=EFyNeyNQ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-06-26_11-04-19.png?itok=EFyNeyNQ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e2143f26-9870-474d-8352-b19bd3af3ba8" 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/2025-06-26_11-04-19.png?itok=EFyNeyNQ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1167.  
  1168. &lt;p&gt;President Trump is expected to &lt;em&gt;depart Washington, D.C., at 12:30 pm and will &lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;arrive at the summit in Pittsburgh around 2:30 pm&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1169.  
  1170. &lt;p&gt;Ahead of the summit, McCormick joined CNBC... &lt;/p&gt;
  1171.  
  1172. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1173. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;.&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SenMcCormickPA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@SenMcCormickPA&lt;/a&gt;: "We're so excited about this... we've got about 60 CEOs of the biggest companies in the world. We've got commitments of [tens of billions of dollars] of investment in data centers, in energy production... in distribution, and investing in skilled workers." &lt;a href="https://t.co/j9CpCnagoT"&gt;https://t.co/j9CpCnagoT&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/8JByvrFlGw"&gt;pic.twitter.com/8JByvrFlGw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1174. — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1945104560923512876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 15, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1175. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1176.  
  1177. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1178. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/zuckerberg-focused-building-mega-gigawatt-size-data-centers"&gt;Zuckerberg "Focused" On Building Mega Gigawatt-Size Data Centers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1179. &lt;/li&gt;
  1180. &lt;li&gt;
  1181. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ubs-identifies-start-trump-era-construction-boom-ai-grid-goldman-sees-upside-used-machinery"&gt;UBS Identifies Start Of Trump-Era Construction Boom In AI, Grid; Goldman Sees Upside In Used Machinery Prices&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1182. &lt;/li&gt;
  1183. &lt;li&gt;
  1184. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mp-materials-shares-surge-50-pentagon-will-become-largest-shareholder"&gt;Rare Earth Producer MP Materials Soars 50% After US Government Becomes Largest Shareholder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1185. &lt;/li&gt;
  1186. &lt;li&gt;
  1187. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trumps-nuclear-order-and-how-profit-all-you-need-know-about-coming-nuclear-energy"&gt;Trump's "Nuclear" Order And How To Profit: All You Need To Know About The Coming Nuclear Energy Transition&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1188. &lt;/li&gt;
  1189. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;. . . &lt;/p&gt;
  1190. &lt;/div&gt;
  1191.      &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;
  1192. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T13:45:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 09:45&lt;/span&gt;
  1193. </description>
  1194.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1195.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1196.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048464 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1197.    </item>
  1198. <item>
  1199.  <title>Bud Light Still Struggling Years After Dylan Mulvaney Nuked Brand On TikTok </title>
  1200.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/bud-light-still-struggling-years-after-dylan-mulvaney-nuked-brand-tiktok</link>
  1201.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Bud Light Still Struggling Years After Dylan Mulvaney Nuked Brand On TikTok &lt;/span&gt;
  1202.  
  1203.            &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;Beer sales over the July 4th holiday weekend came in stronger than previously expected, prompting distributors to raise their outlook for the remainder of the year and fueling renewed optimism around Constellation Brands (STZ). Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) also posted a solid performance during the period, though one brand under its adult beverage umbrella remained a clear laggard. Unsurprisingly, it was &lt;strong&gt;Bud Light, still struggling to recover for reasons that need little explanation&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
  1204.  
  1205. &lt;p&gt;In the latest iteration of &lt;em&gt;Goldman's Beverage Bytes survey&lt;/em&gt;—covering 40 beer distributors and 125,000 retail outlets, or about 25% of all U.S. alcohol-selling locations—&lt;strong&gt;analysts led by Bonnie Herzog&lt;/strong&gt; found that, although expectations were tempered heading into the holiday weekend due to soft scanner data, an uncertain macro environment, and &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/beer-distribution-data-signals-rough-start-summer-drinking-season"&gt;weak Memorial Day trends&lt;/a&gt;, favorable summer weather trends across the Lower 48 during the July 4th holiday (which fell on a Friday) helped drive surprisingly strong beer demand. &lt;/p&gt;
  1206.  
  1207. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-09-00.png?itok=R84vj8ck" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-09-00.png?itok=R84vj8ck"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="254b4c97-10c0-4ea1-84f1-80d7386a713b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="185" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-09-00.png?itok=R84vj8ck" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1208.  
  1209. &lt;p&gt;Herzog said, "As a result, distributors are now incrementally more upbeat about the all-important summer selling season and their growth outlook for the category this year." &lt;/p&gt;
  1210.  
  1211. &lt;p&gt;About 60% of respondents said sales were up year-over-year, with &lt;strong&gt;STZ and ABI emerging as the top performers&lt;/strong&gt;. Brands such as Modelo Especial, Pacifico, and Sun Cruiser saw solid momentum, though Corona Extra continued to underperform. &lt;/p&gt;
  1212.  
  1213. &lt;p&gt;Here are the notable takeaways from the report:&lt;/p&gt;
  1214.  
  1215. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1216. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The promotional environment appeared broadly rational over the 4th of July holiday weekend - as 53% of beer volumes were promoted (in-line with last year) - though ABI was the clear standout in terms of promotional intensity;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1217. &lt;/li&gt;
  1218. &lt;li&gt;
  1219. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Most distributors indicated that beer category sales accelerated in Q2 vs Q1 - citing improved weather trends and strength for Mich Ultra and Busch Light (among others);&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1220. &lt;/li&gt;
  1221. &lt;li&gt;
  1222. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Most distributors expect the second half of the year to be stronger vs the first half - with distributors now expecting category growth declines this year of only -1.0% (vs -1.9% expected in our Memorial Day survey);&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1223. &lt;/li&gt;
  1224. &lt;li&gt;
  1225. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Volume trends for Modelo Especial &amp; Pacifico were also quite strong over the holiday weekend - something the majority of distributors indicated - however, Corona Extra remains under some pressure; and&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1226. &lt;/li&gt;
  1227. &lt;li&gt;
  1228. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sun Cruiser remains a standout - and the majority of distributors indicated that volumes were up for the brand over the 4th of July holiday weekend vs last year. However, distributors highlighted the spending on Sun Cruiser is unsustainable and some raised concerns that the category is becoming saturated.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1229. &lt;/li&gt;
  1230. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was a lot to unpack in the holiday volume trends... &lt;/p&gt;
  1231.  
  1232. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topline Results:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1233.  
  1234. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1235. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) led all manufacturers, with 52% of distributors reporting higher volumes vs last year—followed by Constellation Brands (STZ) at 33% and Boston Beer (SAM) at 18%. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1236. &lt;/li&gt;
  1237. &lt;li&gt;
  1238. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Overall beer category performance improved: 40% of distributors reported year-over-year volume gains for July 4th (vs 20% on Memorial Day); 37% still saw declines. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1239. &lt;/li&gt;
  1240. &lt;li&gt;
  1241. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hard seltzers remained weak: 64% of distributors reported volume declines, though this was a slight improvement from Memorial Day (70%).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1242. &lt;/li&gt;
  1243. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By brand, Herzog noted twice that Bud Light "continues to struggle" and "remains pressured following the Bud Light controversy," more than two years after the brewer's woke marketing team&lt;/strong&gt;—aiming to score DEI points—hired Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male acting as a woman, for what became one of the worst ad promotions ever in corproate America.&lt;/p&gt;
  1244.  
  1245. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-15-55.png?itok=347XepoV" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-15-55.png?itok=347XepoV"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2f9dd0ed-87f2-4564-b41c-4dc27620b55f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="362" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-14_10-15-55.png?itok=347XepoV" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1246.  
  1247. &lt;p&gt;Refresher: This is who nuked the brand. &lt;/p&gt;
  1248.  
  1249. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1250. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;JUST IN: Bud Light’s marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid is taking a leave of absence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1251. Here she is slandering her customer base as “fratty and out of touch” as she defends the decision to hire a tranny to promote their products.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  1252. If Bud Light is smart, they will fire… &lt;a href="https://t.co/wJMkyitD8F"&gt;pic.twitter.com/wJMkyitD8F&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1253. — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1649592629095694341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;April 22, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1254. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brand highlights over the holiday weekend:&lt;/p&gt;
  1255.  
  1256. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1257. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ABI (Anheuser-Busch InBev):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1258.  
  1259. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1260. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Strongest performer overall. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1261. &lt;/li&gt;
  1262. &lt;li&gt;
  1263. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michelob Ultra was a standout, with 93% of distributors seeing y/y gains (56% significantly).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1264. &lt;/li&gt;
  1265. &lt;li&gt;
  1266. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bud Light remains a drag—74% reported lower volumes; marketing support remains weak.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1267. &lt;/li&gt;
  1268. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Constellation Brands (STZ):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1269.  
  1270. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1271. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Strong holiday weekend performance. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1272. &lt;/li&gt;
  1273. &lt;li&gt;
  1274. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pacifico led, with 65% of distributors seeing gains. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1275. &lt;/li&gt;
  1276. &lt;li&gt;
  1277. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Modelo Especial also performed well (52% up), while Corona Extra continues to face challenges (47% down).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1278. &lt;/li&gt;
  1279. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Molson Coors (TAP): &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1280.  
  1281. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1282. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mixed performance. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1283. &lt;/li&gt;
  1284. &lt;li&gt;
  1285. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Coors Banquet was a bright spot (73% up).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1286. &lt;/li&gt;
  1287. &lt;li&gt;
  1288. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Coors Light and Miller Lite both underperformed, with 74% and 78% of distributors, respectively, reporting y/y declines.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1289. &lt;/li&gt;
  1290. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Heineken (HEIN): &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1291.  
  1292. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Weak showing, with only 14% reporting growth and 46% noting volume declines.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1293. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Boston Beer (SAM): &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1294.  
  1295. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1296. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Modest improvement; Sun Cruiser stood out, with 72% of distributors reporting growth (44% significantly). &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1297. &lt;/li&gt;
  1298. &lt;li&gt;
  1299. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twisted Tea and Truly showed signs of pressure, with 35% and 76% of distributors respectively reporting declines.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1300. &lt;/li&gt;
  1301. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hard Seltzer Category:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1302.  
  1303. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1304. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Remains under pressure. White Claw: 31% up, 41% down.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1305. &lt;/li&gt;
  1306. &lt;li&gt;
  1307. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;High Noon: 40% up, 40% down slightly.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1308. &lt;/li&gt;
  1309. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1310.  
  1311. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our takeaway&lt;/strong&gt;: Bud Light's struggles continue. Someone ought to write a white paper on why woke marketing nukes brands. &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jaguar-sales-plummet-975-after-awful-theythem-rebrand"&gt;Remember Jaguar earlier this year?&lt;/a&gt; These marketing teams lined with liberal college elites are completely out of touch with how the real world operates, and oblivious to the fact that the Overton Window has shifted to the center-right. Woke is over (for now). &lt;/p&gt;
  1312.  
  1313. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pro subs&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; can &lt;a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/97ejwcfzjguqrnq4v4bix/Americas-Beverages_-_Bev-Bytes_-Beer-Distr-Survey-Strong-4th-of-July-improved-beer-growth-outlook.pdf?rlkey=e72xl6f9s6ufsk7fl55mrypgj&amp;st=9wo8fgru&amp;dl=0"&gt;read the full note in the usual place&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1314. &lt;/div&gt;
  1315.      &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;
  1316. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T13:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 09:05&lt;/span&gt;
  1317. </description>
  1318.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1319.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1320.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048103 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1321.    </item>
  1322. <item>
  1323.  <title>DOGE Announces Billions Of Dollars In Federal Contracts Terminated</title>
  1324.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-announces-billions-dollars-federal-contracts-terminated</link>
  1325.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;DOGE Announces Billions Of Dollars In Federal Contracts Terminated&lt;/span&gt;
  1326.  
  1327.            &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-billions-of-dollars-in-federal-contracts-terminated-5887193?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge"&gt;Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis ours),&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1328.  
  1329. &lt;p&gt;The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said over the weekend that&lt;strong&gt; agencies have terminated more federal contracts worth as much as $2.8 billion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1330. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%28328%29_0.jpg?itok=yn7dYilv" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%28328%29_0.jpg?itok=yn7dYilv"&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="c789b5dd-4e9d-4002-8314-f3792bfd8de9" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image_92%28328%29_0.jpg?itok=yn7dYilv" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website is displayed on a phone, in this photo illustration. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1331.  
  1332. &lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href="https://x.com/DOGE/status/1944038593057505388"&gt;post&lt;/a&gt; on social media platform X on July 12, DOGE, a task force established by President Donald Trump in January, said that “over the last week, &lt;strong&gt;agencies terminated 230 wasteful contracts,” resulting in savings of $407 million.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1333.  
  1334. &lt;p&gt;That includes a contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a “Mexico sustainable landscapes consultant” and a Treasury Department contract for “mentoring, evaluation, learning specialist services in Haiti,” according to the DOGE post. The post included what appears to be screenshots of the programs’ descriptions.&lt;/p&gt;
  1335.  
  1336. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earlier this month, DOGE’s website &lt;a href="https://doge.gov/savings"&gt;released&lt;/a&gt; an update that the task force has saved approximately $190 billion&lt;/strong&gt;, which it says amounts to around $1,180 per taxpayer. So far, the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Education Department, Office of Personnel Management, and Department of Labor have initiated the most cuts, according to the site.&lt;/p&gt;
  1337.  
  1338. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, DOGE’s database shows that around 11,700 contracts have been terminated across all federal agencies, with an estimated saving of around $44 billion. At the same time, around 15,500 federal grants have been slashed, it shows, worth some $44 billion.&lt;/p&gt;
  1339.  
  1340. &lt;p&gt;The update from DOGE comes as the Senate is slated to vote on spending cuts this week that would claw back $9.4 billion in public media and foreign aid spending. Senate Democrats are trying to kill the measure but need a few Republicans to join them.&lt;/p&gt;
  1341.  
  1342. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trump has asked lawmakers to rescind nearly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which represents the full amount it’s due to receive during the next two budget years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1343.  
  1344. &lt;p&gt;On July 10, the president warned that he would withhold his backing for any Republican lawmaker who opposes the rescissions package, which also includes cuts to foreign aid.&lt;/p&gt;
  1345.  
  1346. &lt;p&gt;“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN &amp; MSDNC put together,” Trump said in a Truth Social &lt;a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114831435031070955"&gt;post&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1347.  
  1348. &lt;p&gt;Trump went on to say that “any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1349.  
  1350. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other than Trump, the White House has said that the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1351.  
  1352. &lt;p&gt;The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.&lt;/p&gt;
  1353.  
  1354. &lt;p&gt;The update from DOGE over the past weekend suggests that the organization is still engaged in activities to identify and root out what it deems to be fraud, waste, and abuse within the federal government, following the departure of former White House special government employee Elon Musk from the administration in late May.&lt;/p&gt;
  1355.  
  1356. &lt;p&gt;Musk, who had effectively served as a spokesperson and leader for DOGE during his time in the White House, has since had a falling out with the Trump administration and Republicans, announcing earlier this month that he would form his own political party.&lt;/p&gt;
  1357.  
  1358. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Associated Press contributed to this report.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1359. &lt;/div&gt;
  1360.      &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;
  1361. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T12:50:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 08:50&lt;/span&gt;
  1362. </description>
  1363.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1364.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1365.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048212 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1366.    </item>
  1367. <item>
  1368.  <title>Futures Rise, Nvidia Spikes After Trump Greenlights Selling Some Chips To China</title>
  1369.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-rise-nvidia-spikes-after-trump-greenlights-selling-some-chips-china</link>
  1370.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Futures Rise, Nvidia Spikes After Trump Greenlights Selling Some Chips To China&lt;/span&gt;
  1371.  
  1372.            &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;US equity futures are higher, led by Tech with the biggest overnight news being that &lt;strong&gt;Trump is allowing NVDA to resume its (less advanced) H2O chip sales to China; &lt;/strong&gt;there had been chatter of a chips-for-rare earths pact to thaw US/China trade relations.  As of 8:00am ET, S&amp;P futures rose 0.3%, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.5%, with NVDA jumping another +5.3% in pre-market trading, while AMD +3.5%, MRVL +2.85, AVGO +1.4% also gained. The balance of Mag7 is mostly higher; semis are poised to be the best sub-group, and cyclicals are higher with banks with a mild bid into earnings this morning. Bond yields are lower as the curve bull flattens into CPI with JPM noting that some FICC client convos are pointing to a dovish CPI print. The USD is weaker and commodities are declining across all 3 complexes though &lt;strong&gt;precious, crude, and sugar remain bid. &lt;/strong&gt;Today’s focus is the unofficial kick off 25Q2 earnings and Banks have a low bar to cross and CPI is not yet expected to reflect the expected inflation from the trade war.  &lt;/p&gt;
  1373.  
  1374. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/ES%202025-07-15_8-05-47.png?itok=-0bg4CiH" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ES%202025-07-15_8-05-47.png?itok=-0bg4CiH"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c9d68472-9e13-4a0a-ad59-94c21ede7958" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/ES%202025-07-15_8-05-47.png?itok=-0bg4CiH" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1375.  
  1376. &lt;p&gt;In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks were higher: Nvidia rose 4.4% as the company planned to resume sales of its H20 AI chip in China after securing Washington’s assurances that such shipments would get approved (Meta +0.6%, Apple +0.3%, Alphabet +0.2%, Amazon +0.2%, Tesla +0.2%, Microsoft -0.1%).&lt;/p&gt;
  1377.  
  1378. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Semiconductor firms also gain alongside Nvidia, including AMD (AMD) +5% and Broadcom (AVGO) +1.5%.&lt;/li&gt;
  1379. &lt;li&gt;Makers of wound-care products are falling after the US government proposed to change how skin substitutes are paid for.&lt;/li&gt;
  1380. &lt;li&gt;MiMedx (MDXG) tumbles 17% while Organogenesis (ORGO) sinks 25%&lt;/li&gt;
  1381. &lt;li&gt;BlackRock (BLK) falls 1.9% after the investment firm’s net inflows missed analyst estimates in the second quarter. The company’s reported assets under management beat the average analyst estimate.&lt;/li&gt;
  1382. &lt;li&gt;MP Materials (MP) gains 7% after Fox Business reported that Apple is set to announce a $500 million deal with the company for rare earths produced in the US, citing people familiar with the matter.&lt;/li&gt;
  1383. &lt;li&gt;Trade Desk (TTD) rallies 14% after S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices said the advertising technology company will join the S&amp;P 500 Index before trading opens on July 18.&lt;/li&gt;
  1384. &lt;li&gt;Wells Fargo &amp; Co. (WFC) falls about 2% after lowering its full-year guidance for net interest income, after another quarter of tepid growth amid the ongoing trade war.&lt;/li&gt;
  1385. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Outside of earnings, micro focus this am is on NVDA (+5%) with the company planning to resume H20 chip sales to China after assurances from Washington that shipments will be approved. After the White House banned exports in April, it’s a surprise reversal that may add billions to Nvidia’s revenue this year. The move may help spur easing tensions between US-China trade negotiations/furthers the "TACO" trade. TTD (+15%) set to replace ANSS in S&amp;P 500. &lt;/p&gt;
  1386.  
  1387. &lt;p&gt;For Nvidia, the approval of export licenses for the H20 chip not only boosts its earnings prospects but also bodes well for progress in trade talks between the White House and key partners. With stocks trading near record highs, investors will also gain a clearer read on corporate health as major banks mark the unofficial start of earnings season.&lt;/p&gt;
  1388.  
  1389. &lt;p&gt;“The US policy reversal on selling AI chips to China clearly constitutes good news for the industry,” said David Kruk, head of trading at La Financiere de L’Echiquier. “Other than that, the upward trend is still being fueled by investors riding the TACO trade — there are threats but they have yet to materialize.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1390.  
  1391. &lt;p&gt;CPI is the big macro event for today: economist estimates for m/m change range from 0.1% to 0.4%, with the median 0.3%. June report is first of three to be released before Fed’s September meeting, for which traders have priced in 15bp of easing (see our &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/cpi-preview-will-impact-tariffs-finally-emerge"&gt;CPI preview here&lt;/a&gt;). Goldman warns to watch for: 1) weakness in used cars, 2) modest increase in car insurance, 3) modest rebound in airfare, 4) +0.08pp increase on core inflation from tariff pressures. After months of seeing little inflation, CPI probably experienced slightly faster growth in June as companies started to pass along higher costs of imported merchandise associated with tariffs. The options market is betting the S&amp;P 500 will swing 0.6% in either direction after the release. &lt;/p&gt;
  1392.  
  1393. &lt;p&gt;It’s still too early to gauge the impact of the Trump administration’s tariff agenda on inflation, said Arend Kapteyn, UBS Group AG’s global head of economic and strategy research. He noted that July’s data, set to be released next month, would likely provide the earliest indication of any clear effect. The lag is helping to underpin the Federal Reserve’s wait-and-see approach to cutting interest rates, with swaps pricing in less than two quarter-points of monetary easing this year.&lt;/p&gt;
  1394.  
  1395. &lt;p&gt;“We’re about to go into a five- to six-month period of accelerating inflation,” Kapteyn told Bloomberg TV. “It’s a trade-off between when does the labor market starts to ease, starts to crack — and we’re already seeing some signs of that — versus how quickly is the inflation data increasing.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1396.  
  1397. &lt;p&gt;The latgest Fund Managers Survey by Bank of America showed that fund &lt;strong&gt;managers are rushing back into risky assets at a record pace &lt;/strong&gt;on optimism over economic growth and strong corporate profits. The share of investors taking a higher-than-normal risk level in their portfolios registered the biggest increase over a three-month span going back to 2001, the poll showed. It also pointed to strong increases in allocations to US and European stocks, as well as tech shares.&lt;/p&gt;
  1398.  
  1399. &lt;p&gt;“We are still far from levels where we would advocate a short, but given valuation and positioning, it makes sense to take some chips off the table,” he said.&lt;/p&gt;
  1400.  
  1401. &lt;p&gt;European stocks advance with the Stoxx 600 up 0.2%. Technology, media and auto shares are leading gains as Nvidia plans to resume sales of its H20 AI chip to China. Among individual stocks, B&amp;M sinks to a record low following a weak first quarter. Here are the biggest European movers:&lt;/p&gt;
  1402.  
  1403. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;European semiconductor stocks are gaining ground on Tuesday as Nvidia plans to resume sales of its H20 AI chip to China.&lt;/li&gt;
  1404. &lt;li&gt;Experian shares advance as much as 5.2%, touching a new record high, after the UK credit services firm reported first-quarter organic revenue growth that beat estimates.&lt;/li&gt;
  1405. &lt;li&gt;Orsted climbs as much as 6.4% after Morgan Stanley upgrades the Danish offshore wind developer to overweight from equal-weight, saying in note that an improving risk/reward makes it “worth a fresh look.”&lt;/li&gt;
  1406. &lt;li&gt;Accelleron shares jump as much as 13% to a record high after the Swiss engine parts maker raised its guidance.&lt;/li&gt;
  1407. &lt;li&gt;Trustpilot Group shares rise 12% to the highest since March after the British holding company’s preliminary first-half revenue beat the average analyst estimate.&lt;/li&gt;
  1408. &lt;li&gt;TomTom shares rise as much as 11% on Tuesday after the GPS-maker narrowed its revenue forecast for the full year by lifting the bottom rung of the range.&lt;/li&gt;
  1409. &lt;li&gt;Ericsson shares fall as much as 4.4% after the telecom equipment maker said sales growth in 3Q is expected to be below average seasonality over the past three years.&lt;/li&gt;
  1410. &lt;li&gt;B&amp;M shares plunge as much as 14%, hitting their lowest level on record, after posting weaker topline growth than anticipated in the first quarter despite weak comparatives and favorable weather.&lt;/li&gt;
  1411. &lt;li&gt;Barratt Redrow shares plummet as much as 13%, after the property developer said it built fewer houses than hoped in FY25 and posted disappointing guidance for FY26.&lt;/li&gt;
  1412. &lt;li&gt;Solvay falls as much as 4.2% as JPMorgan says it “joins the profit warning party,” with the Belgian firm becoming the latest in the European chemicals space to cut its guidance.&lt;/li&gt;
  1413. &lt;li&gt;AFRY slumps as much as 9.2% after its second-quarter results, the Swedish engineering consultancy’s biggest decline since its previous quarterly statement in late April.&lt;/li&gt;
  1414. &lt;li&gt;Azoty shares drop 3.1% to the lowest since June 24 after Orlen indicated it’s not interested in buying the Polish chemicals producer’s polymers project.&lt;/li&gt;
  1415. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earlier in the session, Asian stocks also advanced as Nvidia’s plan to resume some chip sales to China stoked optimism over geopolitics. Chinese shares were mixed as the latest economic data raised concerns over pressure on domestic consumption. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained as much as 0.7% after Nvidia said it plans to restart sales of its H20 AI accelerator to China. Alibaba, Tencent and TSMC were the biggest boosts to the gauge. Benchmarks in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea advanced. Mainland Chinese shares fluctuated after macro numbers showed an uneven recovery. While economic growth exceeded expectations in the second quarter thanks to strong exports to markets outside the US, consumer demand at home remained weak. That’s bound to keep investors cautious after a recent equity rally.  Elsewhere, traders are positioning for the weekend upper house election in Japan. Sentiment is cautious, as a surge in bond yields underscored mounting worries about the nation’s fiscal situation. Markets are watching the JGB yield breakout ahead of upper house elections &amp; potential pressure on US rates. &lt;/p&gt;
  1416.  
  1417. &lt;p&gt;In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index falls 0.2% ahead of US inflation data that is forecast to show an acceleration in CPI for June. The euro and pound both add 0.2%. &lt;/p&gt;
  1418.  
  1419. &lt;p&gt;In rates, Treasuries climb, pushing US 10-year yields down 2 bps to 4.41% ahead of June CPI data, supported by bigger gains in European bond markets, where curves are similarly flatter.  European government bonds rise with little reaction seen in bunds to stronger-than-expected German ZEW data and a beat for euro-area industrial production. Short-dated US government bond yields rose after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it would be confusing for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to remain at the central bank after his term ends, adding that a “formal process” has already begun to identify a potential successor.&lt;/p&gt;
  1420.  
  1421. &lt;p&gt;In commodities, oil prices are little changed, paring earlier losses with WTI near $67 a barrel. Spot gold climbs $18 to around $3,362/oz. Bitcoin retreats 3% to near $117,000. &lt;/p&gt;
  1422.  
  1423. &lt;p&gt;Looking at today's calendar, US economic data slate includes July Empire manufacturing and June CPI (8:30am). Fed speaker slate includes Bowman (9:15am), Barr (12:45pm), Barkin (1pm), Collins (2:45pm) and Logan (7:45pm).&lt;/p&gt;
  1424.  
  1425. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Market Snapshot&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1426.  
  1427. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;S&amp;P 500 mini +0.3%&lt;/li&gt;
  1428. &lt;li&gt;Nasdaq 100 mini +0.6%&lt;/li&gt;
  1429. &lt;li&gt;Russell 2000 mini little changed&lt;/li&gt;
  1430. &lt;li&gt;Stoxx Europe 600 +0.2%&lt;/li&gt;
  1431. &lt;li&gt;DAX +0.1%, CAC 40 little changed&lt;/li&gt;
  1432. &lt;li&gt;10-year Treasury yield -2 basis points at 4.41%&lt;/li&gt;
  1433. &lt;li&gt;VIX -0.4 points at 16.8&lt;/li&gt;
  1434. &lt;li&gt;Bloomberg Dollar Index -0.1% at 1200.91&lt;/li&gt;
  1435. &lt;li&gt;euro +0.2% at $1.1682&lt;/li&gt;
  1436. &lt;li&gt;WTI crude little changed at $67.03/barrel&lt;/li&gt;
  1437. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Top Overnight News&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1438.  
  1439. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Fed Chair Powell responded to Senate Banking Chair Scott and Senator Warren regarding building renovations in which he stated the inspector general had full access to project information and receives monthly reports, while he has asked the board's inspector general to take a fresh look at the project, according to Politico and Reuters&lt;/li&gt;
  1440. &lt;li&gt;Stocks advanced after Nvidia Corp. secured US assurances to resume sales of some artificial intelligence chips to China, lifting sentiment on a busy day that also features inflation data and big bank earnings.&lt;/li&gt;
  1441. &lt;li&gt;Gold advanced, recovering from Monday’s modest drop, as investors digested mixed messages from the US regarding the progress of trade negotiations.&lt;/li&gt;
  1442. &lt;li&gt;Japan’s long-term government debt yield touched the highest level since 2008, as a raft of election tax-cut pledges puts investors on edge and risks higher costs all around in the country.&lt;/li&gt;
  1443. &lt;li&gt;Liquidity in sovereign bond markets is falling and term premium is rising. With little sign of budgetary restraint almost anywhere, a fiscal crisis in a developed bond market is not inconceivable.&lt;/li&gt;
  1444. &lt;li&gt;Euro hedging costs are subdued ahead of key US inflation data, as summer trading conditions and a shift in market focus toward labor metrics dampen demand for short-dated gamma.&lt;/li&gt;
  1445. &lt;li&gt;Stocks traders appear to be looking past the possibility of a stronger-than-expected inflation reading on Tuesday, putting them in a vulnerable position if President Donald Trump’s trade war leaves its mark on US consumer prices.&lt;/li&gt;
  1446. &lt;li&gt;US President Donald Trump’s latest threat of 100% tariffs on Russia would risk complicating relations with two nations crucial to his economic and strategic goals: China and India.&lt;/li&gt;
  1447. &lt;li&gt;Kevin Warsh, a top contender to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, is finally ready to cut interest rates. As a governor at the US central bank from 2006 to 2011, Warsh called for higher rates even in the depths of the financial crisis, warning often of impending inflation. That’s a concern he’s reiterated as recently as last year. But this year, Warsh has become an enthusiastic supporter of lower borrowing costs.&lt;/li&gt;
  1448. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trade/Tariffs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1449.  
  1450. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;US Department of Commerce announced it is withdrawing from and terminating the 2019 agreement suspending anti-dumping duty investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico, while it is issuing an anti-dumping duty order, resulting in duties of 17.09% on most imports of tomatoes from Mexico.&lt;/li&gt;
  1451. &lt;li&gt;Mexico's Economy Ministry rejected the US decision on tomato duties which it considered unfair and against the interests of both Mexican producers and US industry, while it will support local tomato producers to seek a deal under which the duty is suspended.&lt;/li&gt;
  1452. &lt;li&gt;EU draws up retaliatory tariffs for US goods in case a trade deal is not reached with aircraft and booze among imports targeted as EU debates how to respond to Trump’s latest trade threats, according to WSJ.&lt;/li&gt;
  1453. &lt;li&gt;Japanese PM Ishiba and trade negotiator Akazawa are to meet with US Treasury Secretary Bessent during his trip to Japan, while the meeting is being considered for July 18th in Tokyo, according to Yomiuri.&lt;/li&gt;
  1454. &lt;li&gt;Japan's Economy Minister and trade negotiator Akazawa said Japan is still arranging the makeup of attendees for the US National Day at Osaka Expo, while he added they will continue dialogue through various channels to seek an agreement with the US on tariffs.&lt;/li&gt;
  1455. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1456.  
  1457. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;APAC stocks were ultimately mixed with the region indecisive in the aftermath of the latest Chinese GDP and activity data, while participants also awaited CPI data and the start of earnings season stateside. &lt;/strong&gt;ASX 200 gained with strength in tech and some defensive sectors, while the positive sentiment was also facilitated by an increase in Consumer Confidence and as Australian PM Albanese met with Chinese President Xi. Nikkei 225 traded indecisively following recent currency weakness and rising JGB yields. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp diverged following the somewhat mixed tier-1 data releases from China in which GDP figures for Q2 and Industrial Production in June topped forecasts but Retail Sales and Fixed Assets Investments disappointed, while House Prices were varied and continued to contract.&lt;/p&gt;
  1458.  
  1459. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Top Asian News&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1460.  
  1461. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Chinese President Xi met with Australian PM Albanese and said it is most important to seek common ground while sharing differences and that China is ready to work with the Australian side to push bilateral ties further and make great progress. Furthermore, Australian PM Albanese said in the meeting with Chinese President Xi that they welcome progress on cooperation on free trade and value their relationship with China, while he added they will continue to approach the relationship in a calm and consistent manner guided by their national interest.&lt;/li&gt;
  1462. &lt;li&gt;China's stats bureau spokesperson reiterated that the economic foundation needs to be consolidated and stated that overall economic performance in H1 was stable with steady progress, although structural contradictions within the economy have not been fundamentally alleviated. The stats bureau official stated that domestic demand as a contribution to economic growth has been a driving force for GDP but noted that they need to improve investment structure and environment, while the real estate market is heading towards stabilisation and policy support to boost consumption in H1 should sustain spending in H2. Furthermore, it was stated that China is at a critical moment in improving consumption structure and it will supplement policy support with measures to ensure a stable operation of the economy.&lt;/li&gt;
  1463. &lt;li&gt;China held its urban work conference and will vigorously promote the optimisation of urban structure, while it will pay more attention to overall urban planning and make efforts to build innovative cities with vitality, according to Xinhua.&lt;/li&gt;
  1464. &lt;li&gt;Japan and the EU will issue a joint statement to strengthen economic alliance with a focus on trade, tech and supply chain coordination, according to Yomiuri.&lt;/li&gt;
  1465. &lt;li&gt;China Commerce Ministry announces revisions to export control catalogue. Revises procedures for handling Gallium metal extraction tech. Adds battery cathode material prep tech to control list.&lt;/li&gt;
  1466. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;European bourses (STOXX 600 +0.3%) are modestly firmer across the board, paring some of the pressure seen in the prior session but with gains capped ahead of today's key risk event, US CPI. &lt;/strong&gt;European sectors hold a positive bias. Tech takes the top spot, with the chip sector boosted after NVIDIA (+5.0% pre-market) said it will resume H20 AI chip shipments to China. Telecoms is pressured by post-earning losses in Ericsson (-2.4%).&lt;/p&gt;
  1467.  
  1468. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Top European News&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1469.  
  1470. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;BoE is announcing a "package of measures designed to maintain stability in the financial sector while offering new growth opportunities for mid-sized banks and building societies.".&lt;/li&gt;
  1471. &lt;li&gt;Incoming ECB member Radev says any further steps should remain firmly data dependent; I share the view that the threshold for additional rate cuts should remain high".&lt;/li&gt;
  1472. &lt;li&gt;UK Chancellor Reeves says under new reforms, banks will send investment opportunities to savers with cash sitting in low interest accounts for the first time. Govt will allow long term asst funds to be held in stocks and shares ISAs next year&lt;/li&gt;
  1473. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FX&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1474.  
  1475. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;DXY is giving back some of Monday's gains in quiet trade as markets await crucial CPI data for June. Core M/M CPI is expected to pick up to 0.3% from 0.1% with the Y/Y rate seen rising to 3.0% from 2.8%. The release will be parsed for any evidence that Trump's tariff policy is adding to price pressures in the US. DXY briefly made its way onto a 98 handle, matchings Monday's best at 98.12.&lt;/li&gt;
  1476. &lt;li&gt;EUR is firmer vs. the broadly weaker USD as markets await any material breakthrough in US-EU trade negotiations. On which, WSJ reports that the EU has drawn up retaliatory tariffs for US goods in the event a trade deal is not reached with aircraft and booze among the imports targeted. Elsewhere, it was reported that the ECB is to discuss a more negative scenario next week than previously envisaged in June after Trump's latest tariff threat, but is still seen as holding rates at the meeting. German ZEW data showed a better-than-expected improvement for the expectations and current conditions components but failed to have any sway on EUR. Elsewhere, French political risk could be a focus later today with French PM Bayrou to outline a plan to narrow France's deficit; will likely lead to calls for a vote of no confidence.&lt;/li&gt;
  1477. &lt;li&gt;JPY flat vs. the USD, halting a recent run of declines. Yen traders are still trying to assess the likelihood of an imminent US-Japan trade deal. Yen traders will also be mindful of the movements in the back-end of the Japanese curve, which, in part, has been supported by expectations of looser fiscal policy by Japan as a result of this weekend's election. USD/JPY ventured as high as 147.88 overnight before fading upside.&lt;/li&gt;
  1478. &lt;li&gt;GBP is a touch firmer vs. the USD and flat vs. the EUR. Newsflow surrounding the UK have been quiet at the start of the week given the UK has already secured a trade agreement with the US. However, newsflow is set to pick up with Mansion House text releases from BoE Governor Bailey and Chancellor Reeves due at 21:00BST today.&lt;/li&gt;
  1479. &lt;li&gt;Antipodeans are both towards the top of the G10 leaderboard on account of the bounce back in risk sentiment seen today. Both also digested mixed tier-1 data releases from China in which GDP figures for Q2 and Industrial Production in June topped forecasts, but Retail Sales and Fixed Assets Investments disappointed, while House Prices were varied and continued to contract.&lt;/li&gt;
  1480. &lt;li&gt;CAD is a touch softer vs. the USD in the run up to Canadian inflation metrics (coincides with the US release). As it stands, the BoC is currently on pause and avoiding forward guidance with the central bank taking a meeting-by-meeting due to economic uncertainty.&lt;/li&gt;
  1481. &lt;li&gt;PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1498 vs exp. 7.1758 (Prev. 7.1491)&lt;/li&gt;
  1482. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed Income&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1483.  
  1484. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;USTs are flat and in narrow ranges ahead of US CPI. CPI is expected to pick up to 0.3% M/M in June (prev. 0.1%) for both the headline and core. While the Y/Y is seen at 2.7% (prev. 2.4%) and 3.0% (prev. 2.8%) for the headline and core respectively. A series that will be, primarily, scrutinised for any signs of tariff-induced price pressures.&lt;/li&gt;
  1485. &lt;li&gt;Bunds are leading peers, firmer by just under 50 ticks at best having peaked at 129.65 thus far. Upside that takes the benchmark to within reach of Friday’s 129.74 peak but leaves it shy of 130.00 and then multiple past peaks above, which continue all the way back to 131.95 from mid-June when the recent downward trend began. Outperformance potentially as the complex takes a breather from recent pressure and as traders digest reports the ECB will discuss a more negative tariff scenario at next week's meeting. No move in Bunds following the German ZEW figures, which were firmer-than-expected.&lt;/li&gt;
  1486. &lt;li&gt;OATs also firmer but to a lesser degree than Bunds. PM Bayrou from 15:00BST will begin presenting details of the 2026 budget. The goal will be cost savings of EUR 40bln by 2026, in order to bring the deficit-to-GDP ratio down to 4.6% vs the 5.4% projected for 2025, in-line with their fiscal commitments to the EU.&lt;/li&gt;
  1487. &lt;li&gt;Gilts are firmer, between USTs and Bunds in terms of magnitude. The immediate docket is light for the UK as we count down to the Mansion House speeches by BoE’s Bailey and Chancellor Reeves; the latter expected to announce a package amounting to the ‘biggest financial regulation reforms in a decade’. Into this, Gilts are at the upper-end of a 91.86 to 92.06 band. Notching a WTD peak and now eyeing 92.19 from last Thursday before that week’s 92.63 best.&lt;/li&gt;
  1488. &lt;li&gt;UK DMO sells GBP 1.0bln in 4.25% 2032 Gilts via tender: b/c 4.42x &amp; avg. yield 4.161%.&lt;/li&gt;
  1489. &lt;li&gt;Germany sells EUR 3.899bln vs exp. EUR 5bln 1.90% 2027 Schatz: b/c 2.3x, average yield 1.87% and retention 22.02%.&lt;/li&gt;
  1490. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commodities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1491.  
  1492. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;WTI and Brent are currently lower in what has been a choppy session thus far; price action overnight was rangebound which continued into European hours where newsflow remained light up until a Trump-Russia related FT article. The report suggested that US President Trump asked Ukraine's Zelenskiy if Ukraine could hit Moscow if the US provided them with long-range weapons; the Ukrainian President replied with "absolutely...". This report sparked some modest upside, which then continued for around 30 minutes thereafter, taking Brent Sept'25 to a fresh session peak of USD 69.36/bbl.&lt;/li&gt;
  1493. &lt;li&gt;Precious metals are mixed, with slight gains seen in spot Silver/Gold whilst Palladium is a little lower. The yellow-metal currently trades towards the upper end of a USD 3,341.55-3,365.72/oz range, but with price action fairly muted ahead of US CPI. 3M LME Copper trades towards the mid-point of a narrow USD 9,602.33-9,656.5/t range.&lt;/li&gt;
  1494. &lt;li&gt;Base metals hold a negative bias, with incremental losses seen in 3M LME Copper prices as trades digest the latest Chinese GDP and activity metrics.&lt;/li&gt;
  1495. &lt;li&gt;Kazakhstan's PM Bektenov says they try to comply with OPEC+ commitments as much as possible. Not considering options to withdraw from the deal.&lt;/li&gt;
  1496. &lt;li&gt;China has lowered gasoline and diesel prices by CNY 130/ton and CNY 124/ton, respectively as of July 16th.&lt;/li&gt;
  1497. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Geopolitics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1498.  
  1499. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;US President Trump reportedly asked Ukrainian President Zelensky if Ukraine could hit Moscow in the scenario that the US provided long-ranged weapons, via FT citing sources; call that this conversation occurred within took place on July 4th. To the question from Trump, Zelensky reportedly replied, "Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons." Trump reportedly signalled support for the idea, as a strategy to force Russia to the negotiating table. US president said to have encouraged Ukrainian leader to "step up deep strikes on Russia".&lt;/li&gt;
  1500. &lt;li&gt;Russian Kremlin says US President Trump's statement is serious and needs to be analysed Putin will comment on it if he deems it necessary. Decisions taken in Washington and Brussels are seen by Ukraine as a signal to continue the war. Russia is ready for a next round of talks with Ukraine. However, there have been no proposals for the Ukraine side so far.&lt;/li&gt;
  1501. &lt;li&gt;EU Foreign Representative Kallas says it is a good sign that the US appears to realise Russia does not want peace with Ukraine, hope the US will move forward with more sanctions against Russia.&lt;/li&gt;
  1502. &lt;li&gt;"Hamas member and leader Faraj al-Ghoul was killed in an Israeli raid", according to Al Arabiya.&lt;/li&gt;
  1503. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;US Event Calendar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1504.  
  1505. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jul Empire Manufacturing, est. -9.2, prior -16&lt;/li&gt;
  1506. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI MoM, est. 0.3%, prior 0.1%&lt;/li&gt;
  1507. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI Ex Food and Energy MoM, est. 0.26%, prior 0.1%&lt;/li&gt;
  1508. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI YoY, est. 2.6%, prior 2.4%&lt;/li&gt;
  1509. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI Ex Food and Energy YoY, est. 2.93%, prior 2.8%&lt;/li&gt;
  1510. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI Index NSA, est. 322.51, prior 321.46&lt;/li&gt;
  1511. &lt;li&gt;8:30 am: Jun CPI Core Index SA, est. 327.82, prior 326.85&lt;/li&gt;
  1512. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Central Banks Speakers&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1513.  
  1514. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;9:15 am: Fed’s Bowman Gives Welcoming Remarks&lt;/li&gt;
  1515. &lt;li&gt;12:45 pm: Fed’s Barr Speaks on Financial Inclusion&lt;/li&gt;
  1516. &lt;li&gt;1:00 pm: Fed’s Barkin Gives Speech in Baltimore&lt;/li&gt;
  1517. &lt;li&gt;2:45 pm: Fed’s Collins Delivers Closing Keynote at NABelgium Event&lt;/li&gt;
  1518. &lt;li&gt;7:45 pm: Fed’s Logan Speaks on the Economy&lt;/li&gt;
  1519. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1520.  
  1521. &lt;p&gt;Welcome to US CPI day and to the start of US earnings season with several banks reporting later on. I’ve just about recovered from a day out yesterday at a Theme Park where I managed to get away with just one baby rollercoaster. Maisie and the twins went on about 20! They are all now tall enough to not need me anymore for ALL the rides. My job here is done! I never have to go on a rollercoaster again. My biggest stress was trying to keep up with a very tense game of cricket between England and India without my wife knowing I wasn't paying attention to what the family were saying. The CPI print will get my full attention today though as a lot will rest on inflation in the coming months including whether the Fed can cut rates, how the Trump administration’s tariff policy will be received, and most importantly how it impacts long-end bonds with fiscal balance sheets stretched in many countries. See our US economists' preview here. They expect monthly headline CPI to come in at a 5-month high of +0.34%, with core also at a 5-month high of +0.32%. We seem to be the highest on the street with consensus at +0.27% and +0.25% respectively.&lt;/p&gt;
  1522.  
  1523. &lt;p&gt;If DB is correct, that would push up the year-on-year numbers, with headline CPI up three-tenths to +2.7%, and core CPI up two-tenths to +3.0%. Consensus is a tenth lower on both. We’ll mostly be focusing on signs of tariff-related inflation in the core good categories. President Trump continued to beat the low inflation drum yesterday though, saying "we have no inflation", and that "we should be less than 1%" when referring to interest rates.&lt;/p&gt;
  1524.  
  1525. &lt;p&gt;Ahead of today's big print, markets have been a bit mixed to start the week as the weekend tariff headlines reverberate, and global long-end bonds continued to edge higher. However US futures are edging up this morning (Nasdaq futures +0.3%) after Nvidia have seemingly been given the green light to resume exporting their H20 chips to China that were suspended in April.&lt;/p&gt;
  1526.  
  1527. &lt;p&gt;We saw significant headlines on Russia yesterday, as Trump threatened to impose 100% “secondary tariffs” if a ceasefire deal with Ukraine isn’t reached in 50 days. Trump’s announcement was vague on details, with Commerce Secretary Lutnick referring to both “tariffs” and “secondary sanctions”. Reporting later on appeared to confirm that this would include tariffs against buyers of Russian minerals, similar to a proposed sanctions bill in the Senate that is now set to be paused. This could impact the likes of China and India, which account for most of Russia’s oil exports, though there are doubts over how practical such secondary tariffs would be to implement. For now, with any swift definitive sanctions against Russian oil being avoided, oil prices actually saw a decent slump yesterday. Brent crude fell -1.63% to $69.21/bbl, which helped to ease some of the inflationary fears after the weekend tariff announcements. Trump’s comments came during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Rutte, at which he also announced that the US will send additional Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine that will be paid for by Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
  1528.  
  1529. &lt;p&gt;Trump also made some brief remarks on trade, saying that he is “always open to talk”, including with the EU, even as he insisted the recent US letters to trading partners “are the deals" and "there are no deals to make". That left plenty of ambiguity as markets continued to digest the 30% tariff threats made to the EU and Mexico over the weekend. According to AFP, the European Commission said it would propose a new list of US goods worth €72bn that could be subject to EU tariffs should talks between Washington and Brussels fail. Our European economists yesterday published a blog on the potential impact of 30% tariffs (see here).&lt;/p&gt;
  1530.  
  1531. &lt;p&gt;For the most part, markets yesterday brushed off the prospects of fresh trade escalation, with the STOXX 600 (-0.06%) recovering to little changed after opening -0.6% down. The more trade-sensitive German DAX did decline by -0.39%, alongside a -0.27% fall for the CAC 40, but the FSTMIB (+0.27%) advanced and here in the UK the FTSE 100 (+0.64%) hit a fresh all-time high. Mexican equities struggled a bit more though, with the S&amp;P/BMW IPC index falling -0.41%. This came as President Sheinbaum confirmed that Mexico has a tariff plan should an agreement by August 1 fail.&lt;/p&gt;
  1532.  
  1533. &lt;p&gt;The equity performance was more positive in the US, with the S&amp;P 500 (+0.14%) closing within 0.2% of last week’s record high. The resilience came as Bitcoin (+2.10%) continued to climb past $120,000 and to a new record, helping fintech and payments companies like PayPal (+3.55%), Coinbase (+1.80%) and Visa (+0.74%). Bitcoin is now up nearly +75% since the US election last November. The Magnificent 7 (+0.10%) saw a modest gain yesterday, with Meta up +0.48% after CEO Zuckerberg said it will invest “hundreds of billions” in a push for AI superintelligence.&lt;/p&gt;
  1534.  
  1535. &lt;p&gt;Ahead of today's CPI release, fed futures slightly dialled back their expectations for rate cuts this year, with the amount priced by December down -1.8bps on the day to 48bps, its lowest in nearly four weeks. That helped to push Treasury yields higher, with the 2yr yield (+1.4bps) rising to 3.90%, whilst the 10yr yield (+2.4bps) rose to 4.43% and 30yr closed +2.8bps to 4.98%, the highest close since May 23. Overnight, Treasury yields are flat as we go to print but 30yr JGB yields are up another +1.9bps ahead of the Upper House elections this weekend and have traded at their highest level since 1999. 10yr JGBs are around a basis point higher and earlier touched the highest level since 2008. So lots bubbling under the surface in Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
  1536.  
  1537. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile in Europe, yields also moved higher yesterday amidst growing concern about the fiscal trajectory, with those on 10yr bunds (+0.6bps), OATs (+2.0bps) and BTPs (+2.2bps) all rising. There was also a fresh rise in 30yr yields to multi-year highs, with the 30yr yields in Germany (+2.1bps to 3.24%) and France (+4.5bps to 4.24%) reaching their highest levels since 2011. For France, that followed President Macron’s announcement that the 2026 defence budget would be increased by €3.5bn in 2026, followed by another €3bn in 2027. By contrast, UK gilts outperformed, with the 10yr yield down -2.2bps on the day.&lt;/p&gt;
  1538.  
  1539. &lt;p&gt;In Asia markets are mixed. Chinese stocks are underperforming, with the Hang Seng (+0.08%) struggling to maintain its initial gains despite Nvidia’s H20 announcement, while the CSI (-0.45%) and the Shanghai Composite (-0.98%) are both declining. The Nikkei (+0.12%) is seeing slight gains, and the S&amp;P/ASX 200 (+0.54%) is also trading positively. However, South Korea’s KOSPI (-0.11%) is dipping after a good run.&lt;/p&gt;
  1540.  
  1541. &lt;p&gt;Returning to China, GDP increased by +5.2% in the second quarter, outperforming Bloomberg's estimates of +5.1%, although this marks a deceleration from the +5.4% growth recorded in the first quarter. Most of the growth bias is export led over domestic, which was backed up by retail sales growth decelerating to 4.8% YoY in June (v/s +5.3% expected), down from a 6.4% YoY increase in May. Industrial output rose by +6.8% YoY though, exceeding market expectations of 5.6%. Fixed asset investment increased by +2.8% in the first half of this year, falling short of market predictions of a +3.6% rise. Simultaneously, the decline in real estate investment intensified, dropping -11.2% in the first half of the year, compared to a -10.9% decrease in the first five months, while investments in infrastructure and manufacturing also showed signs of slowing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1542.  
  1543. &lt;p&gt;Finally, as I mentioned at the top, “Crypto Week” is happening in Washington D.C., where the House of Representatives are set to vote on the CLARITY Act, the GENIUS Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act. The GENIUS Act’s vote in particular could have serious implications for the rapidly growing stablecoin industry – and for US debt markets – and a vote can be expected as early as end of today.&lt;/p&gt;
  1544.  
  1545. &lt;p&gt;To the day ahead now, as I mentioned look out for the US CPI release. We’ll also get the US July Empire Manufacturing Index, Germany’s July ZEW Survey, Eurozone May Industrial Production, and Canada’s June CPI. Central bank speakers include the Fed’s Bowman, Barr, Collins and Barkin, and BoE Governor Bailey. Earnings include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, Citigroup and BNY Mellon&lt;/p&gt;
  1546. &lt;/div&gt;
  1547.      &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;
  1548. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T12:26:58+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 08:26&lt;/span&gt;
  1549. </description>
  1550.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:26:58 +0000</pubDate>
  1551.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1552.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048432 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1553.    </item>
  1554. <item>
  1555.  <title>Drone Attacks On Northern Iraqi Oil Field On The Rise Amid Iran Tensions</title>
  1556.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/drone-attacks-northern-iraq-oil-field-airport-rise-amid-iran-tensions</link>
  1557.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Drone Attacks On Northern Iraqi Oil Field On The Rise Amid Iran Tensions&lt;/span&gt;
  1558.  
  1559.            &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 data-end="225" data-start="49"&gt;On Monday an explosive-laden drone &lt;a href="https://english.news.cn/20250714/6cdcd5aaf4e9416da18c1a30105014e5/c.html"&gt;sought to target vital infrastructure&lt;/a&gt; in northern Iraq, in an area known to host final remnants of US troops and officials. The US has long been most closely involved with Iraqi Kurdistan.&lt;/p&gt;
  1560.  
  1561. &lt;p data-end="225" data-start="49"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The drone carrying explosives was intercepted and brought down early Monday near Erbil International Airport&lt;/strong&gt; in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, local officials said. A later, &lt;strong&gt;separate nighttime (Monday) attack targeted a key oil field in the region&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1562. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/erbiloilfield.jpg?itok=SK5Keu6m" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/erbiloilfield.jpg?itok=SK5Keu6m"&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="f22de950-bcdb-4637-b3e0-aced0f4c2bca" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="314" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/erbiloilfield.jpg?itok=SK5Keu6m" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source: Rudaw&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1563.  
  1564. &lt;p data-end="362" data-start="227"&gt;The region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism stated that the drone targeting the airport was shot down at 2:20 a.m. local time (2320 GMT on Sunday).&lt;/p&gt;
  1565.  
  1566. &lt;p data-end="469" data-start="364"&gt;While no casualties or property damage resulted, and no group has taken responsibility for the incident so far,&lt;strong&gt; it suggests the possibility that Iran-allied Shia paramilitaries could be ready to cause havoc&lt;/strong&gt;, following the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June, which the US also became involved in through bombing three nuclear facilities.&lt;/p&gt;
  1567.  
  1568. &lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;Iraq has seen a rise in drone-related attacks in recent weeks - with for example earlier this month security forces having shot down another explosive drone near Erbil Airport.&lt;/p&gt;
  1569.  
  1570. &lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;And recently similar device was intercepted near a Kurdish Peshmerga base in Kirkuk province. This brings up the possibility of anti-Kurdish factions, or even the possibility of remnant ISIS cells.&lt;/p&gt;
  1571.  
  1572. &lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;In the night hours of Monday, there are new reports of yet another drone attack in the region, and this time unverified videos suggest that damage has been done (unconfirmed):&lt;/p&gt;
  1573.  
  1574. &lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;
  1575. &lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en" xml:lang="en"&gt;Pictures of the oil field in Erbil province, Iraqi Kurdistan, targeted by anonymous drones. &lt;a href="https://t.co/63M1cdqB6Q"&gt;pic.twitter.com/63M1cdqB6Q&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1576. — The Outpost (@outpostosint) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/outpostosint/status/1944827616080617564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;July 14, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1577. &lt;script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;According to Rudaw English, a Kurdish &lt;a href="https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/140720254"&gt;regional outlet&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  1578.  
  1579. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1580. &lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two explosive-laden drones target the Khurmala oil field in Erbil province&lt;/strong&gt;, resulting in no casualties - citing Kurdish counterterrorism units.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1581. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1582.  
  1583. &lt;p data-end="710" data-start="471"&gt;The oil field lies southwest of Erbil, and reports suggest they were intercepted by US-led coalition forces on Monday night. The area lies about 60 kilometers from Erbil city.&lt;/p&gt;
  1584. &lt;/div&gt;
  1585.      &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;
  1586. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T12:15:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 08:15&lt;/span&gt;
  1587. </description>
  1588.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1589.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1590.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048217 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1591.    </item>
  1592. <item>
  1593.  <title>Nvidia, AMD Get Green Light To Restart Certain AI Chip Sales To China</title>
  1594.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/nvidia-secures-green-light-ship-h20-ai-chips-china-signaling-major-turnaround</link>
  1595.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;Nvidia, AMD Get Green Light To Restart Certain AI Chip Sales To China&lt;/span&gt;
  1596.  
  1597.            &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;Update (0805ET):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1598.  
  1599. &lt;p&gt;Bloomberg reports, "AMD received similar assurances from the US Commerce Department and plans to restart shipments of its MI308 chips to China once licenses for sales are approved." &lt;/p&gt;
  1600.  
  1601. &lt;p&gt;This means both AMD and Nvidia will be able to resume shipments of certain AI chips to China, pending license approvals. &lt;/p&gt;
  1602.  
  1603. &lt;p&gt;In premarket trading, shares of both AMD and Nvidia were trading 4.5% higher. &lt;/p&gt;
  1604.  
  1605. &lt;p&gt;Earlier, Nvidia announced that its H20 AI chips would be approved for export to China under a U.S. export license... Read below.&lt;/p&gt;
  1606.  
  1607. &lt;p&gt;*   *   * &lt;/p&gt;
  1608.  
  1609. &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
  1610.  
  1611. &lt;p&gt;Nvidia shares rose as much as 5% in premarket trading in New York after the company announced in a blog post that exports of its H20 AI chips to China would be approved under a U.S. export license — a major reversal from the Trump administration's earlier stance aimed at curbing Beijing's AI ambitions.&lt;/p&gt;
  1612.  
  1613. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Snag_81c8df6.png?itok=PIIdTKLN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Snag_81c8df6.png?itok=PIIdTKLN"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="731e36d5-b27d-40a3-9c54-44a861be8970" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Snag_81c8df6.png?itok=PIIdTKLN" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1614.  
  1615. &lt;p&gt;Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the White House last week, appeared in a CNN interview on Sunday, and is now in China, where he met with government and industry officials to discuss AI.&lt;/p&gt;
  1616.  
  1617. &lt;p&gt;In his CNN interview, Huang emphasized that ensuring U.S. leadership in the AI race requires global AI systems to be built on the American tech stack, not Chinese technology. In other words, export restrictions on Nvidia chips would need to be lifted.&lt;/p&gt;
  1618. &lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/2025-07-14_06-45-27.png?itok=ly3-BNfH" data-link-option="0" href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/2025-07-14_06-45-27.png?itok=ly3-BNfH"&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="8ba4a287-ba76-4b02-a961-b82a14fc58cc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="315" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-14_06-45-27.png?itok=ly3-BNfH" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500" /&gt;&lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;em&gt;CNN's Fareed Zakaria speaks with Jensen Huang. Source: CNN&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  1619.  
  1620. &lt;p&gt;Nvidia's &lt;a href="https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-ceo-promotes-ai-in-dc-and-china/"&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt; provided further details on the resumption of H20 AI chip shipments to China:&lt;/p&gt;
  1621.  
  1622. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1623. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In Beijing, Huang met with government and industry officials to discuss how AI will raise productivity and expand opportunity. The discussions underscored how researchers worldwide can advance safe and secure AI for the benefit of all.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1624.  
  1625. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Huang also provided an update to customers, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;noting that NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the NVIDIA H20 GPU again. The U.S. government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1626. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1627.  
  1628. &lt;p&gt;Well telegraphed... &lt;/p&gt;
  1629.  
  1630. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
  1631. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/nvidia-ceo-makes-pit-stop-white-house-china-trip"&gt;Nvidia CEO Makes Pit Stop At White House Before China Trip&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1632. &lt;/li&gt;
  1633. &lt;li&gt;
  1634. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/dont-have-worry-nvidia-ceo-says-chinas-army-wont-rely-us-ai-chips"&gt;"Don't Have To Worry": Nvidia CEO Says China's Army Won't Rely On U.S. AI Chips&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1635. &lt;/li&gt;
  1636. &lt;li&gt;
  1637. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/nvidia-ceo-calls-biden-era-ai-curbs-failure-china"&gt;Nvidia CEO Calls Biden-Era AI Curbs A "Failure" With China&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1638. &lt;/li&gt;
  1639. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nvidia previously projected it would lose billions of dollars in revenue this quarter due to sales restrictions. In the fiscal first quarter, it took a $4.5 billion charge related to the licensing rule, citing "excess inventory and purchase obligations as demand for the H20 diminished." The company estimated that the rule led to $2.5 billion in lost first-quarter revenue and anticipated an additional $8 billion in losses in the second quarter. &lt;/p&gt;
  1640.  
  1641. &lt;p&gt;In May, Huang told investors, "The $50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry." Now it appears the Chinese market is back on the table. &lt;/p&gt;
  1642.  
  1643. &lt;p&gt;The approval of export licenses for the H20 chip will serve as a goodwill gesture by the Trump administration to progress trade talks with Beijing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1644. &lt;/div&gt;
  1645.      &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;
  1646. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T12:05:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 08:05&lt;/span&gt;
  1647. </description>
  1648.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1649.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1650.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048403 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1651.    </item>
  1652. <item>
  1653.  <title>JPMorgan Beats Top And Bottom Line On Solid Investment Banking, Trading Results</title>
  1654.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jpmorgan-beats-top-and-bottom-line-solid-investment-banking-trading-results</link>
  1655.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;JPMorgan Beats Top And Bottom Line On Solid Investment Banking, Trading Results&lt;/span&gt;
  1656.  
  1657.            &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;Q2 earnings season has officially begun as the big banks start reporting results, and the first one as usual is JPMorgan, with no surprises after yet another top and bottom line beat. Here is a snapshot of what the largest US banks just reported:&lt;/p&gt;
  1658.  
  1659. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Adjusted EPS $4.96, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $4.47&lt;/li&gt;
  1660. &lt;li&gt;Adjusted revenue $45.68 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $44.05 billion, but down $5.3 billion from a year ago due to a slide in non-interest revenue. &lt;/li&gt;
  1661. &lt;li&gt;Managed net interest income $23.31 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;missing &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimate $23.59 billion
  1662. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;FICC sales &amp; trading revenue $5.69 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $5.22 billion&lt;/li&gt;
  1663. &lt;li&gt;Equities sales &amp; trading revenue $3.25 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimate of $3.2 billion&lt;/li&gt;
  1664. &lt;li&gt;Investment banking revenue $2.68 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of  $2.16 billion&lt;/li&gt;
  1665. &lt;li&gt;Advisory revenue $844 million, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $672.2 million&lt;/li&gt;
  1666. &lt;li&gt;Equity underwriting rev. $465 million, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $351.4 million&lt;/li&gt;
  1667. &lt;li&gt;Debt underwriting rev. $1.20 billion, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beating &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;estimates of $1.01 billion&lt;/li&gt;
  1668. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1669. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;JPMorgan's &lt;strong&gt;provision for Q2 credit losses was $2.85BN, below the est. $3.22BN&lt;/strong&gt;, as a result of net charge-offs of $2.41 billion (just under the $2.46 billion estimated) and a reserve build which shrank to $0.4 billion, down from $1.0 billion in Q1 and $0.8 billion a year ago. The bank said that charge-offs were"“primarily driven by Card Services." Putting this number in context, JPMorgan reported a credit card net charge-off rate of 3.4%, less than the 3.66% that analysts predicted. And some more context: American credit card balances hit $1.18 trillion outstanding in the first three months of the year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.&lt;/p&gt;
  1670.  
  1671. &lt;p&gt;The effective tax rate for the company was 18.0%, below the 21.3% managed tax rate. This is notable because the bank discussed a “significant item” which appears to be an &lt;strong&gt;income tax benefit &lt;/strong&gt;that represents $774 million of net income (and $0.28 of earnings per share).  Some more from a footnote: “&lt;em&gt;Second-quarter 2025 net income, earnings per share and ROTCE excluding the $774mm income tax benefit are non-GAAP financial measures. Excluding this item resulted in a decrease of $774mm (after tax) to reported net income from $15.0B to $14.2B; a decrease of $0.28 per share to reported EPS from $5.24 to $4.96; and a decrease of 1% to ROTCE from 21% to 20%. Management believes these measures provide useful information to investors and analysts in assessing the firm’s results.” &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1672.  
  1673. &lt;p&gt;And visually:&lt;/p&gt;
  1674.  
  1675. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%201_1.png?itok=e6d3tn9e" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%201_1.png?itok=e6d3tn9e"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a8c4e3c6-80be-442a-b1b4-8bb187f5917f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="322" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/JPM%201_1.png?itok=e6d3tn9e" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1676.  
  1677. &lt;p&gt;Commenting on the quarter, Jamie Dimon called the results “strong” noting that “each of the lines of business performed well." Discussing CIB, he noted that “we supported clients as they navigated volatile market conditions" adding that the group “gained momentum as market sentiment improved." In CCB, Dimon touted about 500,000 net new checking accounts, and cited “positive early reactions” to the “refreshed Sapphire Reserve.” In AWM, “asset management fees rose 10%.” &lt;/p&gt;
  1678.  
  1679. &lt;p&gt;And while Dimon mentions the announced dividend boost, he says the bank has “far in excess of our required capital levels,” along with “an extraordinary amount of liquidity.” Sure enough, JPMorgan’s return on equity hit 18%, which then goes all the way up to 21% if you’re using ROTCE. Here it is visualized.&lt;/p&gt;
  1680.  
  1681. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/jpm%20fortress.png?itok=duTsliWk" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/jpm%20fortress.png?itok=duTsliWk"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="29d0880f-9ade-42ec-9374-dc4c0aa5e4eb" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="330" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/jpm%20fortress.png?itok=duTsliWk" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1682.  
  1683. &lt;p&gt;The positive sentiment from Dimon in his comments also extended to the US economy, which he says “remained resilient.” Looking ahead, he calls out “the finalization of tax reform and potential deregulation,” as you might expect. But Dimon added a word of warning that &lt;strong&gt;“significant risks persist,” especially “from tariffs and trade uncertainty, worsening geopolitical conditions, high fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1684.  
  1685. &lt;p&gt;Turning to the most profitable group, Commercial and Investment Banking, JPMorgan’s traders notched a record first half with $8.9 billion in markets revenue.&lt;br /&gt;
  1686. The volatility around trade policy drove a lot of activity as investors repositioned their holdings. &lt;/p&gt;
  1687.  
  1688. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;JPMorgan’s FICC revenue topped predictions, coming in at $5.7 billion, beating estimates of $5.22 billion,  “&lt;strong&gt;driven by higher revenue in Currencies &amp; Emerging Markets, Rates and Commodities, partially offset by lower revenue in the Securitized Products Group and Fixed Income Financing.” &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1689. &lt;li&gt;Equity Sales and Trading of $3.25 billion also beat estimates of $3.2 billion, "&lt;strong&gt;driven by higher revenue across products, notably in Derivatives.&lt;/strong&gt;"&lt;/li&gt;
  1690. &lt;li&gt;Investment banking revenue also beat expectations, coming in at $2.7 billion, up 9%. The number was 15% higher from the prior year, boding well for typical leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which report on July 16. As BBG reminds us, one thing to note is that JPM floated an internal memo from yesterday which said that the bank is creating a unit focused specifically on bespoke financing structures as public and private markets converge.&lt;/li&gt;
  1691. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/commercial%20and%20investment%20bank.png?itok=XNOkEUL7" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/commercial%20and%20investment%20bank.png?itok=XNOkEUL7"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b267d6b9-83c8-43d0-b63e-fb23f14fdad8" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="374" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/commercial%20and%20investment%20bank.png?itok=XNOkEUL7" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1692.  
  1693. &lt;p&gt;Elsewhere, average loans were up 5% year over year and average deposits were up 6%, with both up 3% if you’re looking at quarter over quarter. &lt;/p&gt;
  1694.  
  1695. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/CCB%20JPM.png?itok=iXsIqAdf" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/CCB%20JPM.png?itok=iXsIqAdf"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a10ad50e-ead8-499f-bd05-6f4f9799b965" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="377" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/CCB%20JPM.png?itok=iXsIqAdf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1696.  
  1697. &lt;p&gt;Taking a quick look at the bank’s asset and wealth management division, the group generated $1.5 billion of net income up 17% compared to a year ago as net revenue was up 10% to $5.8 billion, “driven by growth in management fees on strong net inflows and higher average market levels, as well as higher brokerage activity and higher deposit balances.” Assets under management were up 18% to $4.3 trillion and client assets were up 19% to $6.4 trillion, “driven by continued net inflows and higher market levels.” And yet $3.7 billion of noninterest expense was up 5%, “driven by higher compensation, including higher revenue-related compensation and continued growth in private banking advisor teams, as well as higher distribution fees.” &lt;/p&gt;
  1698.  
  1699. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20asset%20wealth.png?itok=Co8Qm6Gw" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20asset%20wealth.png?itok=Co8Qm6Gw"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="81edf661-ebdd-4a4a-8add-aa92cb54750b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="336" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/JPM%20asset%20wealth.png?itok=Co8Qm6Gw" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1700.  
  1701. &lt;p&gt;Finally, while the corporate division is usually ignored by most investors, this quarter it was somewhat more notable as it generated $1.7 billion of net income down a remarkable-sounding $5.1 billion. Here's why: $49 million of noninterest revenue was down $7.7 billion, “&lt;strong&gt;driven by the absence of the $7.9 billion net gain related to Visa shares in the prior year, partially offset by lower net investment securities losses.” &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1702.  
  1703. &lt;p&gt;Another notable item: “the current quarter included a $774 million income tax benefit” - that’s the one we talked about earlier - “driven by the resolution of certain tax audits and the impact of tax regulations finalized in 2024 related to foreign currency translation gains and losses.” Expect this disclosure to spark questions during the investor call. &lt;/p&gt;
  1704.  
  1705. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20corporate.png?itok=v6JKpKzb" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20corporate.png?itok=v6JKpKzb"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0edd9696-78d3-4325-a5a8-cb65d5d708b0" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="329" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/JPM%20corporate.png?itok=v6JKpKzb" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1706.  
  1707. &lt;p&gt;JPM also reported 317,160 employees down slightly from 318,477 in this year’s first quarter, but up from 313,206 a year ago. This leads directly to the bank’s $13.7 billion of compensation expense which was just higher than what analysts expected. &lt;/p&gt;
  1708.  
  1709. &lt;p&gt;The bank also reported a total $4.55 trillion of assets, which represents a 10% jump from where they were only a year ago, a whopping increase. As Bloomberg puts it, "It’s like the biggest bank in the US bought two big regional rivals -- a pair of top-20 US banks -- in the span of 12 months or so." Or, rather, was gifted as in the case of the 2023 bank crisis when the FDIC promptly made Jamie Dimon an even bigger billionaire. &lt;/p&gt;
  1710.  
  1711. &lt;p&gt;Finally, looking at the company's outlook, it once again raised its net interest income projection by $1 billion, from $94.5 billion to $95.5 billion.&lt;/p&gt;
  1712.  
  1713. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/firmwide%20outlook.png?itok=c14za6ah" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/firmwide%20outlook.png?itok=c14za6ah"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="06255765-ce2e-4fb0-aa7b-86db49d381ef" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="279" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/firmwide%20outlook.png?itok=c14za6ah" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1714.  
  1715. &lt;p&gt;The results, which generally beat across the board, were solid but not stellar enough to blow the market away which had already priced JPM stock to perfection, and the shares are trading fractionally lower premarket just shy of record highs.&lt;/p&gt;
  1716.  
  1717. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20stock.png?itok=Z-4ImjwB" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/JPM%20stock.png?itok=Z-4ImjwB"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="60d99651-fff1-4448-a8db-703125d1daa2" 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/JPM%20stock.png?itok=Z-4ImjwB" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1718.  
  1719. &lt;p&gt;Full Q2 presentation below&lt;/p&gt;
  1720.  
  1721. &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="1.2941176470588236" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_35832" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/888492321/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-HG7GgVfmiujn6ueuFHD6" title="JPM Q2 2025 Presentation" width="100%"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1722. &lt;/div&gt;
  1723.      &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;
  1724. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T12:01:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 08:01&lt;/span&gt;
  1725. </description>
  1726.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1727.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1728.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048424 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1729.    </item>
  1730. <item>
  1731.  <title>MP Materials Surges 10%, Apple To Announce $500 Million Partnership, Joining Pentagon As Investors</title>
  1732.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mp-materials-shares-surge-10-apple-set-announce-500-million-partnership-joining-pentagon</link>
  1733.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;MP Materials Surges 10%, Apple To Announce $500 Million Partnership, Joining Pentagon As Investors&lt;/span&gt;
  1734.  
  1735.            &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;Apple is reportedly set to &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mp-materials-shares-surge-50-pentagon-will-become-largest-shareholder"&gt;join the Pentagon as an investor&lt;/a&gt; in MP Materials and announce a $500 million partnership&lt;/strong&gt; with the company, according to a Fox Business report citing individuals familiar with the matter this morning.&lt;/p&gt;
  1736.  
  1737. &lt;p&gt;MP shares surged more than 10% on the news in a move that comes after a more than 100% gain over the last several months for the critical U.S. rare Earth mineral company. &lt;/p&gt;
  1738.  
  1739. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%281%29_26.png?itok=_e1Sm4CZ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%281%29_26.png?itok=_e1Sm4CZ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="748472ea-e645-4be9-998a-27283d396912" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="259" 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%281%29_26.png?itok=_e1Sm4CZ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1740.  
  1741. &lt;p&gt;The deal includes a commitment from Apple to purchase rare earth magnets produced at MP’s facility in Texas, using domestically sourced materials.&lt;strong&gt; As part of the agreement, the two companies are also expected to develop a new recycling facility in Mountain Pass, California&lt;/strong&gt;, to recover and repurpose rare earth elements from used electronics.&lt;/p&gt;
  1742.  
  1743. &lt;p&gt;In addition, Apple and MP plan to build a second manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas, further solidifying a U.S.-based supply chain for these critical materials.&lt;/p&gt;
  1744.  
  1745. &lt;p&gt;Over a month ago, we &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mp-materials-rockets-17-after-trump-admin-mulls-prioritizing-us-based-rare-earth-projects"&gt;flagged MP and USA Rare Earth as two companies likely to be major winners&lt;/a&gt; from Washington’s rare earth reshoring push—particularly under policies aimed at reducing reliance on China. Since we first mentioned it more than a month ago, the stock is up more than 100%.&lt;/p&gt;
  1746.  
  1747. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/unnamed%20%281%29_883.png?itok=yd7sw_VJ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/unnamed%20%281%29_883.png?itok=yd7sw_VJ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="940d1939-b938-4fda-afb6-1ab038f3b99d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="229" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/unnamed%20%281%29_883.png?itok=yd7sw_VJ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1748.  
  1749. &lt;p&gt;We noted at the time that MP’s uniquely central role in the domestic rare earth supply chain positioned it for outperformance, and we pointed out that the stock had an enormous 21% short interest, making it ripe for a squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
  1750.  
  1751. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recall that one year ago, in our April 2024&lt;/strong&gt; note titled &lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/next-big-mineral-trade-revealed-morgan-stanley"&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Next Big Mineral Trade Revealed by Morgan Stanley,"&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; we &lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;identified MP Materials&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt; as "&lt;strong&gt;one company that stands to benefit&lt;/strong&gt;" from the restoration of America's rare earth supply chain. &lt;/p&gt;
  1752.  
  1753. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-10_13-29-08.png?itok=D1_k8Gbe" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-07-10_13-29-08.png?itok=D1_k8Gbe"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f6131bbc-80e9-4e93-849a-3678bccc1db1" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="569" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-07-10_13-29-08.png?itok=D1_k8Gbe" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1754.  
  1755. &lt;p&gt;Further, our most recent report for subscribers &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"&lt;a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/coming-rare-earth-revolution-and-how-profit-all-you-need-know-about-ex-china-supply-chain"&gt;The Coming Rare Earth Revolution And How To Profit: All You Need To Know About The "Ex-China Supply Chain&lt;/a&gt;"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; detailed why MP stood to substantially outperform in the coming months and years as the critical rare earth supply chain was shifted domestically to exclude China, and to benefit domestic miners and producers such as MP. &lt;/p&gt;
  1756.  
  1757. &lt;p&gt;Our conviction was promptly validated days ago when the U.S. government—via the State Department and the Pentagon—took a 15% stake in MP, an exceedingly rare move that made the U.S. the company’s largest shareholder.&lt;/p&gt;
  1758.  
  1759. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/aapl%20mp.jpg?itok=B23-iWi_" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/aapl%20mp.jpg?itok=B23-iWi_"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5e1fb4f9-0194-49a6-8b44-cd84b22fa0e3" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="331" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/aapl%20mp.jpg?itok=B23-iWi_" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1760.  
  1761. &lt;p data-end="708" data-start="413"&gt;The investment marked a "transformational" public-private partnership by the Trump admin, aimed at building a domestic &lt;em&gt;rare earth element &lt;/em&gt;supply chain. As part of the deal, the Pentagon will receive convertible preferred shares and warrants equal to a 15% stake—surpassing stakes held by CEO James Litinsky and BlackRock. The shares convert at $30.03 each and carry no cash dividend.&lt;/p&gt;
  1762.  
  1763. &lt;p&gt;MP stock surged over 50% on the news, becoming the top performer in the mining sector this year and more than covering the cost of our premium subscription for readers who acted quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
  1764.  
  1765. &lt;p&gt;That was great news. But it was even better news that among the biggest shorts were Goldman's hedge fund clients who, for months, had plotted and schemed how to unobtrusively short the name during the bank's various idea dinner events.&lt;/p&gt;
  1766.  
  1767. &lt;p&gt;Here is an &lt;a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f0cjozs3fx3942scsa3ju/GS-Adam-Wijaya-MP.pdf?rlkey=c4gymkh2694dlbgz3uv1cv7kk&amp;dl=0"&gt;excerpt from the latest note &lt;/a&gt;by Goldman energy and natural resources specialist Adam Wijaya out days ago:&lt;/p&gt;
  1768.  
  1769. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1770. &lt;p&gt;Rare Earths… how high… biggest move in the space yesterday came from Rare Earths complex… led by MP +51%... &lt;strong&gt;have hosted several Metals idea dinners over the last few weeks and this name has been a consensus short… pain yesterday was real...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1771. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1772.  
  1773. &lt;p&gt;Now, that pain is very likely going to continue today. Thanks, "Tim Apple". &lt;/p&gt;
  1774. &lt;/div&gt;
  1775.      &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;
  1776. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T10:55:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 06:55&lt;/span&gt;
  1777. </description>
  1778.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1779.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1780.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048394 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1781.    </item>
  1782. <item>
  1783.  <title>China Q2 GDP Drops To 5.2% But Beats Expectations Thanks To Subsidies And Tariff Frontrunning</title>
  1784.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/china-q2-gdp-drops-52-beats-expectations-thanks-subsidies-and-tariff-frontrunning</link>
  1785.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;China Q2 GDP Drops To 5.2% But Beats Expectations Thanks To Subsidies And Tariff Frontrunning&lt;/span&gt;
  1786.  
  1787.            &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;China's GDP grew 5.2% on the year in the second quarter, just fractionally above expectations (as is usually the case when Beijing reports fake numbers) the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday, fueled by frontloaded exports ahead of even more tariffs and a flood of subsidies that supported the manufacturing sector.&lt;/p&gt;
  1788.  
  1789. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/china%20gdp.png?itok=PrLwTuWJ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/china%20gdp.png?itok=PrLwTuWJ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="40bc3844-2460-4f4e-a173-bfd45b752847" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="244" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/china%20gdp.png?itok=PrLwTuWJ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1790.  
  1791. &lt;p&gt;The figure beat the median forecast for 5.1% growth but was slower than the 5.4% expansion in the first quarter. Still, it keeps the country on track to meet the government's growth target of "around 5%" for the full year.&lt;/p&gt;
  1792.  
  1793. &lt;p&gt;Exports rose 5.8% for the quarter, off slightly the 5.9% growth pace in the first half of 2025, as the trade war with the U.S. fueled front-loading and export diversion to other countries. The U.S. jacked up tariffs on Chinese goods in April to as high as 145%, before temporarily lowering most of them following an agreement about a month later. A decline in U.S.-bound shipments was offset by growth in other regions, such as Southeast Asia - which China uses as a transshipment hub - and Europe, where dumping of Chinese EVs is crushing the local automotive industry.&lt;/p&gt;
  1794.  
  1795. &lt;p&gt;The economy "withstood pressures and rose to challenges, with overall stable and improving economic performance," the NBS said in a statement as it goalseeked the random number which has zero bearing to what is going on in the economy. In fact, the one number that does matter, &lt;strong&gt;China power output, rose just 0.8% YoY for the Jan-Jun period (to 4537.1b kwh), and is a much more accurate reflection of China's actual growth. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1796.  
  1797. &lt;p&gt;Wednesday's GDP figure reveals that "growth in the world's second-largest economy remains resilient, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's volatile tariff policy on China" according to the Nikkei. After reaching near embargo-level rates, US tariffs on Chinese imports were lowered to 55% following a temporary truce reached in May, prompting a new flood of exports seeking to frontrun the eventual increase of tariffs.&lt;/p&gt;
  1798.  
  1799. &lt;p&gt;The data also underscores a perennial imbalance in China's economy that could face further headwinds in the second half of the year: &lt;strong&gt;sluggish domestic demand and an excess supply of goods. &lt;/strong&gt;As noted before, the country remains stuck in its longest streak of deflation in decades, weighing on corporate profits and wage growth. Consumption continued to lag behind other growth drivers, as falling home prices and a weak job market dampen consumer spending.&lt;/p&gt;
  1800.  
  1801. &lt;p&gt;"The economic outlook for the rest of the year remains challenging," said Zichun Huang, an economist at Capital Economics. "With exports set to slow and the tailwind from fiscal support on course to fade, growth is likely to slow further during the second half of this year."&lt;/p&gt;
  1802.  
  1803. &lt;p&gt;Elsewhere in the data dump, Industrial output growth jumped to 6.8% in June from a year earlier, accelerating from May's 5.8%, suggesting manufacturers have been rushing to fulfill orders amid May's trade truce with Washington. &lt;/p&gt;
  1804.  
  1805. &lt;p&gt;Growth in retail sales, a proxy for consumption, slowed sharply to 4.8% in June year-on-year, from 6.4% in May. The surveyed urban jobless rate stood at 5% in June, unchanged from May, though unemployment is expected to worsen as a record 12.2 million college graduates hit the labor market this summer. &lt;/p&gt;
  1806.  
  1807. &lt;p&gt;Beijing has made reviving consumption a central economic objective for the year, &lt;strong&gt;though it has so far refrained from offering cash handouts to households. &lt;/strong&gt;Instead, China focused on expanding the budget and &lt;strong&gt;widened the range of subsidized goods to include smartphones and tablets. &lt;/strong&gt;The central government earmarked 300 billion yuan ($41.8 billion) to fund subsidy program for consumer goods this year. While some cities suspended the program in recent months after funds ran out, the government has pledged to roll out a new round of subsidies this month.&lt;/p&gt;
  1808.  
  1809. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/china%20data%20dump.png?itok=JxaePxDV" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/china%20data%20dump.png?itok=JxaePxDV"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="51ed6f4e-a80d-46c9-91a1-f335151e4bef" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="323" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/china%20data%20dump.png?itok=JxaePxDV" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1810.  
  1811. &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, a prolonged property market slowdown continues to weigh on consumer confidence, as housing accounts for around 70% of Chinese household wealth. New home prices in 70 key cities in June fell 0.3% from May, the biggest monthly drop in eight months, according to data provider Wind Information. Falling asset prices have dampened consumers' appetite for big-ticket items, intensifying price wars in industries ranging from electric vehicles to food.&lt;/p&gt;
  1812.  
  1813. &lt;p&gt;Sheng Laiyun, NBS deputy director, acknowledged that existing policies are insufficient to stem falling home sales and prices. &lt;strong&gt;"More efforts are needed to stabilize and transform the sector," &lt;/strong&gt;Sheng told reporters on Monday.&lt;/p&gt;
  1814.  
  1815. &lt;p&gt;One major challenge facing Beijing is how to end persistent deflation. In recent weeks, authorities have urged industries, including solar panels and electric vehicles, to refrain from price wars that have pushed many companies into the red, though analysts question how effective such top-down approach will be.&lt;/p&gt;
  1816.  
  1817. &lt;p&gt;The producer price index, which measures wholesale prices at factory gates, recorded its steepest drop in almost two years in June. The government has recently stepped up its criticism of excessive competition, signaling greater desire to address oversupply issues. But "local officials may balk at the economic cost of implementing them unless they are also accompanied by more substantial demand-side stimulus," Capital Economics wrote in a report last week.&lt;/p&gt;
  1818.  
  1819. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/China%20CPI%20ppi.png?itok=BkwZORU1" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/China%20CPI%20ppi.png?itok=BkwZORU1"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ac9b6a04-ab26-4846-a6fc-cbfc3f8ef29f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="316" width="500" class="inline-images image-style-inline-images" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/China%20CPI%20ppi.png?itok=BkwZORU1" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1820.  
  1821. &lt;p&gt;Trade relations with the U.S. remain uncertain as Beijing is set to renegotiate terms with Washington as the Aug. 12 deadline on the trade war truce approaches. Tensions have also escalated with the European Union, where officials have criticized China's new export controls on rare-earth minerals. Leaders from the bloc are set to meet with their Chinese counterparts later this month.&lt;/p&gt;
  1822.  
  1823. &lt;p&gt;Some advisers to Chinese policymakers are urging more proactive measures to absorb the impact of volatile U.S. tariff policy. Huang Yiping, a member of the People's Bank of China's monetary policy committee, said earlier this month that China should consider launching an additional fiscal stimulus of up to 1.5 trillion yuan to offset the tariff shock.&lt;/p&gt;
  1824.  
  1825. &lt;p&gt;Still, many analysts believe the robust (if completely fake) GDP figures reported so far suggest policymakers are in no rush to unveil large-scale stimulus measures to meet the full-year growth target of around 5%. Or at least the fake numbers give Beijing the buffer zone to ignore the ongoing economic slowdown until it's too late. &lt;/p&gt;
  1826.  
  1827. &lt;p&gt;"A major stimulus is unlikely if exports remain steady, because Beijing will do just enough to hit its growth target," said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group.&lt;/p&gt;
  1828.  
  1829. &lt;p&gt;"In short, what Beijing will do largely depends on the economic policies and tariff rates set in Washington."&lt;/p&gt;
  1830. &lt;/div&gt;
  1831.      &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;
  1832. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T10:50:04+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 06:50&lt;/span&gt;
  1833. </description>
  1834.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:50:04 +0000</pubDate>
  1835.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1836.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048401 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
  1837.    </item>
  1838. <item>
  1839.  <title>8 Chinese Nationals On Student Visas Charged In Computer 'Pop-Up' Scam Targeting Elders</title>
  1840.  <link>https://www.zerohedge.com/political/8-chinese-nationals-student-visas-charged-computer-pop-scam-targeting-elders</link>
  1841.  <description>&lt;span property="schema:name" class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"&gt;8 Chinese Nationals On Student Visas Charged In Computer 'Pop-Up' Scam Targeting Elders&lt;/span&gt;
  1842.  
  1843.            &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/8-chinese-nationals-on-student-visas-charged-in-computer-pop-up-scam-targeting-elders-5886856?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&amp;src_src=partner&amp;src_cmp=ZeroHedge"&gt;Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis ours),&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1844.  
  1845. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eight Chinese nationals on student visas in the United States have been indicted for their alleged role in a scam targeting elderly Americans through fraudulent computer pop-ups&lt;/strong&gt;, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced on July 11.&lt;/p&gt;
  1846.  
  1847. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%28332%29_0.jpg?itok=oaZSvbnZ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image_92%28332%29_0.jpg?itok=oaZSvbnZ"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e86c26e2-c5b9-4797-9911-4239d0b40357" 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_92%28332%29_0.jpg?itok=oaZSvbnZ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" /&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1848.  
  1849. &lt;p&gt;The defendants, who came to the United States to attend college, are accused of defrauding more than 50 victims across 19 states out of more than $10 million. They were indicted by a federal grand jury in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.&lt;/p&gt;
  1850.  
  1851. &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;These indictments highlight the relentless efforts of Homeland Security Investigations [HSI] to safeguard our elderly population from complex fraud operations,”&lt;/strong&gt; Edward V. Owens, HSI Philadelphia special agent in charge, &lt;a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/chinese-nationals-charged-conspiracy-defraud-elderly-victims"&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; in a statement.&lt;/p&gt;
  1852.  
  1853. &lt;p&gt;“Schemes like these cause significant emotional and financial harm to elderly victims across the country. HSI, in partnership with the FBI, remains steadfast in our commitment to securing justice for the victims and ensuring that those responsible are held fully accountable.”&lt;/p&gt;
  1854.  
  1855. &lt;p&gt;The defendants are Yankun Jiang, 24, and Hanlin Yang, 24, both of State College, Pennsylvania; Chenhao Chen, 25, Xiaoqing Tu, 24, and Dongjie Lu, 35, all three of California; Lei Bao, 22, of New York; Kuo Zhang, 31, of New Jersey; and Jiacheng Zhang, 25, of Florida.&lt;/p&gt;
  1856.  
  1857. &lt;p&gt;According to the second superseding indictment, the defendants are accused of running the computer pop-up scam from August 2023 to February 2024. The pop-ups were disguised as coming from Microsoft, falsely warning victims that their computers had been hacked and displaying a phone number to call for help.&lt;/p&gt;
  1858.  
  1859. &lt;p&gt;When victims called the number, they were allegedly fed various lies, for example, that their bank accounts were “not secure” and that they would need to withdraw from their savings, according to the court document.&lt;/p&gt;
  1860.  
  1861. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To conceal their crimes, the defendants allegedly instructed the victims not to tell anyone what they had been told&lt;/strong&gt;, and to tell banks that the large cash withdrawals were for purposes such as “home remodeling,” the court document states.&lt;/p&gt;
  1862.  
  1863. &lt;p&gt;The defendants or “couriers” who were part of the conspiracy allegedly traveled to the victims’ homes to collect the money while impersonating a “federal agent” or “federal marshal,” according to the court document.&lt;/p&gt;
  1864.  
  1865. &lt;p&gt;If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine.&lt;/p&gt;
  1866.  
  1867. &lt;p&gt;Jiacheng Zhang and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.&lt;/p&gt;
  1868.  
  1869. &lt;p&gt;Chen’s lawyer declined to comment when contacted by The Epoch Times.&lt;/p&gt;
  1870.  
  1871. &lt;p&gt;The Epoch Times contacted the remaining six defendants’ lawyers for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.&lt;/p&gt;
  1872.  
  1873. &lt;p&gt;The FBI &lt;a href="https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA240129"&gt;released tips&lt;/a&gt; to help the public protect themselves from tech support and government impersonation scams in January 2024. The agency asks people not to click on unsolicited pop-ups on their computers or contact unknown telephone numbers provided in pop-ups, texts, or emails.&lt;/p&gt;
  1874.  
  1875. &lt;p&gt;The Federal Trade Commission warns on its &lt;a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-and-report-tech-support-scams"&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; that scammers might disguise pop-up windows as error messages from computers’ operating systems or antivirus software, as well as logos from trusted companies or websites.&lt;/p&gt;
  1876.  
  1877. &lt;p&gt;“Real security warnings and messages will never ask you to call a phone number,” the Federal Trade Commission states.&lt;/p&gt;
  1878.  
  1879. &lt;p&gt;In April, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida &lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/pinellassheriff/posts/pfbid022TaTSW8XhTao6VQjPiUKiLsvPdvYcFyYm1KsqjAzMWsihJ4MofHfNWm4BxBRjkURl"&gt;issued a warning&lt;/a&gt; regarding a scam targeting locals through fake computer pop-ups disguised as antivirus company McAfee’s security alerts, saying&lt;strong&gt; one victim had already lost more than $530,000.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1880.  
  1881. &lt;p&gt;The sheriff’s office asked the public to always use up-to-date security software and to never allow remote access to their computers in response to unexpected pop-ups.&lt;/p&gt;
  1882.  
  1883. &lt;p&gt;In recent months, there have been other cases involving Chinese nationals in connection with scams.&lt;/p&gt;
  1884.  
  1885. &lt;p&gt;In April, a federal grand jury in California &lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/chinese-national-charged-for-alleged-involvement-in-govt-impersonation-scam-5848858"&gt;indicted&lt;/a&gt; a Chinese citizen, who was a former resident of San Jose, California, for alleged involvement in a government impersonation scam. According to prosecutors, an elderly victim, who was allegedly tricked into believing that there was a federal warrant for her, lost more than $780,000 to the scam.&lt;/p&gt;
  1886.  
  1887. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In May, a Chinese citizen was &lt;a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/chinese-national-accused-of-impersonating-us-marshal-to-scam-victim-5863284"&gt;accused&lt;/a&gt; of impersonating a U.S. marshal in an attempt to con a New York state resident out of $98,000.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1888.  
  1889. &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1d5GhpsfbpQ?si=iGRA5v7B7AswEyP7" title="YouTube video player" width="560"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1890. &lt;/div&gt;
  1891.      &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;
  1892. &lt;span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-07-15T10:30:00+00:00" class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"&gt;Tue, 07/15/2025 - 06:30&lt;/span&gt;
  1893. </description>
  1894.  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1895.    <dc:creator>Tyler Durden</dc:creator>
  1896.    <guid isPermaLink="false">1048219 at https://www.zerohedge.com</guid>
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