The key indicators this week include July New Home Sales, the second estimate of Q2 GDP, Personal Income and Outlays for July, and Case-Shiller house prices for June.

----- Monday, August 25th -----
8:30 AM ET: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for July. This is a composite index of other data.

10:00 AM: New Home Sales for July from the Census Bureau.

This graph shows New Home Sales since 1963. The dashed line is the sales rate for last month.

The consensus is for 630 thousand SAAR, up from 627 thousand in June.

10:30 AM: Dallas Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity for August.

----- Tuesday, August 26th -----
8:30 AM: Durable Goods Orders for July from the Census Bureau.  The consensus is for a 4.0% decrease in orders.

9:00 AM: S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Index for June.

This graph shows the year-over-year change in the seasonally adjusted National Index, Composite 10 and Composite 20 indexes through the most recent report (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).

The National index was up 2.3% in May and is expected to slower further in June.

9:00 AM: FHFA House Price Index for June. This was originally a GSE only repeat sales, however there is also an expanded index.

10:00 AM: Richmond Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity for August.

----- Wednesday, August 27th -----
7:00 AM ET: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

----- Thursday, August 28th -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for initial claims to increase to 236 thousand from 235 thousand last week.

8:30 AM: Gross Domestic Product, 2nd Quarter 2025 (Second Estimate) and Corporate Profits (Preliminary). The consensus is that real GDP increased 3.0% annualized in Q1, unchanged from the advance estimate.

10:00 AM: Pending Home Sales Index for July.  The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in this index.

11:00 AM: the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey for August. This is the last of the regional Fed manufacturing surveys for August.

----- Friday, August 29th -----
8:30 AM: Personal Income and Outlays, July 2025. The consensus is for a 0.4% increase in personal income, and for a 0.5% increase in personal spending. And for the Core PCE price index to increase 0.3%.  PCE prices are expected to be up 2.6% YoY, and core PCE prices up 2.9% YoY.

9:45 AM: Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for August.

10:00 AM: University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Preliminary for August).

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• Monetary Policy and the Fed’s Framework Review Chair Jerome H. Powell: “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy,” an economic symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)

• Taylor Sheridan’s Extreme Productivity: The prolific mind behind “Sicario” and “Yellowstone” only started his writing career at 40. The realest deadlines (a young family, a $350m ranch) have pushed him to grind at an unbelievable pace. (SatPost by Trung Phan)

• Lisa Su Runs AMD—and Is Out for Nvidia’s Blood: While everyone else has been talking about Nvidia’s GPUs, Lisa Su has discreetly turned AMD into a chipmaking phenom. And as the US-China tech war rages, she’s at the center of it all. (Wired)

• Brain Food: Alzheimer’s breakthroughs of mice and men, the stranger-than-fiction phenomenon of comb jelly intelligence, RIP Dobby, and three recommendations. (The Garden of the Forking Paths)

• How America Got Its Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back: Chili’s was once a relic of the ’90s. Then it blew past its competitors—and conquered casual American dining. In its Texas test kitchen, I saw how. (Slate)

• The West is bored to death: Our nihilistic politics are a product of the crushing ennui and spiritual vacancy of modern life. (New Statesman)

• The heir’s property: one man’s journey to reclaim family land in the American South: An in-depth look at the issue of land passed down through generations, told through the lens of one man’s struggle to retain land purchased a century ago by his great-grandfather, who was born into slavery during the Confederacy. (USA Today)

• The Democratic Party Faces a Voter Registration Crisis: The party is bleeding support beyond the ballot box, a new analysis shows. (New York Times) see also How the Democrats Became the Party That Brings Pencils to a Knife Fight: Will the battle over Texas’ gerrymandering lead to a new era for the party? (New York Times)

• Getting to the Moon or Mars? Musk and Bezos Tackle Space Travel’s Refueling Problem: Spacecraft that could fuel up in orbit would be less weighted down at liftoff and fly deeper into space. (Wall Street Journal)

• 50 Years After ‘Born to Run,’ We Took a Trip to Springsteen Country: Few albums capture a time and place the way Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ evokes 1970s New Jersey. A pair of superfans hit the road to see how much of that world remains. (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Ellen Zentner, Chief Economic Strategist and Global Head of Thematic and Macro Investing for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. The firm manages over $7 trillion in assets.

Consumer spending is under downward pressure from slowing job growth, student loan payments restarting and deportations lowering the number of consumers

Source: Apollo

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~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Atlas Robot Moves Spot Parts From One Place To Another As Humans Keep Playing Tricks On It

Authored by Daniel Patrascu via autoevolution,

Thanks to the many ongoing projects in this field, we're used by now to seeing humanoid robots performing all sorts of impressive, almost human-like tasks and movements. But it's not until you see one performing something as mundane as moving things from one box to another, or arranging stuff on a shelf, that you realize just how far things have gone.

Boston Dynamics, one of the most important names in robotics on this planet, has been working on a humanoid robot ever since 2013. It calls it the Atlas, and it April last year the most recent version of the machine made its way under the spotlight.

As it presents itself today, the Atlas is made of titanium and aluminum 3D printed parts and stands five feet (1.5 meters) tall. Tipping the scales at 196 pounds (89 kg), it has hands, legs, and a head that move thanks to no less than 28 electrically powered joints.

The previous versions were powered by hydraulics, and that kind of limited the range of motions the robot was able to perform, but also its strength, to some degree. Now that the switch to electricity has been made, the sky is the limit.

Like all other robots of its kind, the Atlas can lift and maneuver loads, including irregular objects, and can navigate unstructured, difficult terrain, without any prior knowledge of it. And it looks amazing doing all of that, thanks to the light ring head propped on the torso.

But a robot, no matter how spectacular its body is, is as good and effective as the software that powers it. In its current form, the Atlas uses the same software that powered the previous versions, but there were plans to deploy the Orbit, a solution that already powers the Spot dog-like robot.

In the fall of last year Japanese carmaker Toyota got involved in the Atlas project. Through the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the company got in bed with Boston Dynamics (which, by the way, is owned by South Korean carmaker Hyundai) to gift the Atlas with one of its Large Behavior Models (LBM) solutions.

The basic idea about LBM is that it can be used to improve the robot's dexterous manipulation skills, allowing it to perform a multitude of tasks, including simultaneously. Above all, such a system allows robots to gain skills by simply watching demonstrations from humans, requiring no complex code to be written.

It's been months since the partnership between Boston Dynamics and TRI was announced, and to be fair, I kind of forgot all about it. Then the two partners published a stunning video of the Atlas (attached below this text) performing all sorts of tasks in a room somewhere, all while humans tried to play tricks on it.

The Atlas, powered by the TRI LBM, is seen at first repeatedly crouching to pick up some what appear to be the body parts of its sibling robot, the Spot, from inside a box. It then rises up and deposits them in another container.

It sounds like a pretty simple task, and it is, at least for a human. Present-day robots find it extremely difficult to coordinate hands and legs to such a degree, combining object manipulation with locomotion, especially when nearby humans "interject unexpected physical challenges mid-task."

What it means is that, from time to time, a human closes the lids of the box that contains Spot parts using a hockey stick, or simply pulls the box away from Atlas. The robot doesn't seem to mind, and patiently reopens the box or pulls it back close to it to continue its work.

The second part of the video shows the Atlas picking up Spot components from a table and depositing them on nearby shelves, including in boxes. In doing so, the robot shows real skill in performing packing, sorting, and organizing tasks.

According to the two partners in this research, the incredible coordination of the robot's actions is owed to the fact that a single LBM controls the entire machine, "treating the hands and the feet almost identically."

It's unclear what the next step in the project is, but we now hope the next update on the Atlas will come our way much sooner than a few months.

Just like the Spot, the Atlas was imagined by Boston Dynamics as a tool to be used in industrial settings. Among the first companies to adopt it for real-world applications is Hyundai, which plans to incorporate it into its carmaking operations. When will that happen is anybody's guess…

The Atlas is not the only humanoid robot currently in the works, and not even the only one that will be deployed in the automotive industry. The Sanctuary AI Phoenix has already been tested on the floor of the Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) and European auto supplier Magna, the Apptronik Apollo is expected to work for Mercedes-Benz, the  Figure 02 is on team BMW, and the Tesla Optimus, well, you know where that one is going…

h/t Capital.news

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 20:05

Washington D.C. Has The Highest Unemployment Rate In The Nation

The U.S. labor market remains resilient in 2025, but unemployment figures vary widely by state.

While the national unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in June, some regions are experiencing far higher (or far lower) joblessness.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, highlights the unemployment rate by state using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for June 2025.

Washington D.C. Tops Unemployment by State

Washington D.C. tops the list with the highest unemployment rate at 5.9%, as seen in the data table below with the unemployment rate of every U.S. state (and D.C.).

The capital’s high rate marks a significant jump from 5.0% in early 2024, suggesting rising challenges in the capital’s job market amidst Trump’s layoffs across federal agencies.

Nevada (5.4%) and California (5.4%) follow closely behind, reflecting persistent difficulties in sectors like tourism, entertainment, and technology.

Michigan (5.3%) also ranks among the hardest hit, driven by weakness in manufacturing.

The States with the Lowest Unemployment Rates

At the other end of the spectrum, South Dakota recorded the lowest unemployment rate at just 1.8%.

North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%) also reported very low levels of unemployment, underscoring the relative strength of smaller state economies.

Montana and Hawaii, both at 2.8%, round out the bottom five, showing stability even in some tourism-driven markets.

While the U.S. national unemployment rate of 4.1% is slightly above the lows seen during the post-pandemic recovery, the range between the highest and lowest states—more than four percentage points—illustrates the uneven nature of the labor market in America.

To learn more about the challenges Americans are facing, check out the graphic on the cost of the American dream on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 19:40

How Managers Are Using AI To Hire And Fire People

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is evolving rapidly, and some are warning that using AI to make executive decisions without careful consideration could backfire.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

AI is being used more and more in recruitment, hiring, and performance evaluations that could lead to a promotion or termination.

Researchers, legal experts, legislators, and groups such as Human Rights Watch have expressed concern over the potential that AI algorithms are a gateway to ethical quagmires, including marginalization and discrimination in the workplace.

This warning bell isn’t new, but with more managers using AI to assist with important staff decisions, the risk of reducing employees to numbers and graphs also grows.

A Resume Builder survey released in June found that among a group of 1,342 managers in the United States, 78 percent use AI tools to determine raises, 77 percent use it for promotions, 66 percent use it for layoffs, and 64 percent use it for terminations.

The use of AI as a human resource tool is already a cautionary tale. In an unprecedented 2023 workplace discrimination case, digital labor platform iTutorGroup paid $365,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The English language tutoring service was forced to pay damages to job applicants who were filtered out by its AI algorithm. The company used an AI algorithm that automatically rejected more than 200 applicants based on their age. The candidates were automatically disqualified if, in the case of women, they were older than 55 years old. Male applicants 60 years and older were also rejected.

“Hundreds of applicants lost out on employment during a difficult time for job seekers,” Timothy Riera, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District, said in a statement.

Avoiding Dehumanization

Civil regulations and government legislation are being put forward as a guardrail against the use of AI to evaluate and monitor employee performance.

In March, the California Civil Rights Council finalized its regulations surrounding AI decision-making systems in the workplace, which go into effect on Oct. 1. The regulations include protections for employees against the use of AI systems to increase company efficiency. This encompasses actions such as hiring assistance, firing, and promotions.

At the federal level, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the AI Whistle Blower Protection Act in May. If passed, the bill will offer employment compensation and protection from retaliation to those working directly with AI who choose to disclose issues with these systems.

“Today, too many people working in AI feel they’re unable to speak up when they see something wrong. Whistleblowers are one of the best ways to ensure Congress keeps pace as the AI industry rapidly develops,” Grassley said.

Additionally, the states of Illinois, California, and New York have proposed, introduced, or passed legislation aimed at protecting workers from AI algorithmic discrimination in areas including recruitment, hiring, promotion, employment renewal, discipline, and training.

Business owners, AI experts, and managers using these digital tools to make decisions affecting employees have stressed the need for human oversight.

“I’ve used AI in recruitment. Tools like ChatGPT-powered screening systems and resume parsers have been game-changers,” AI expert and consultant Peter Swain told The Epoch Times.

Swain is the CEO of a namesake company that focuses on helping entrepreneurs strike a balance between AI systems and their human workforce. He illustrated the pros and cons of using AI systems to handle executive tasks.

“Advantages? Speed and scalability—AI can process 1,000 resumes in the time it takes a human to read 10. It also reduces bias if trained properly,” Swain said.

“Disadvantages? Garbage in, garbage out. If the AI is trained on biased data, it perpetuates those biases. Plus, it lacks the human touch—cultural fit and soft skills can’t be fully assessed by an algorithm.”

Data-driven tasks are where AI tools tend to shine, Swain said, but using them for actions such as raises, promotions, and layoffs is “tricky territory.”

“I’ve dabbled with AI-driven performance analytics—tracking [key performance indicators], productivity ... but I’d never let it make the final call,” he said. “It’s a tool, not a decision-maker. The risk is dehumanization, reducing people to data points.”

Swain also called AI’s use in managerial decisions an ethical “minefield.”

“AI can amplify biases if not carefully monitored—think gender, race, or age discrimination baked into training data,” he said. “Transparency is key. Employees need to know how decisions are made and have recourse to challenge them. Accountability matters—if AI screws up, who’s responsible? You can’t just blame the machine.”

A software company’s booth during the AI+Expo Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington on June 2, 2025. As AI technology advances, its use in company administrative work has become more common. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times Volumes of Data

Stephen Engel, CEO of Sanative Recovery and Wellness, told The Epoch Times that he recently used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to assist with deciding whether to fire an employee.

He said that although AI didn’t make the final decision, its ability to handle volumes of data quickly allows managers to think more clearly and “step back from the emotion of the situation” and analyze situations more objectively.

“To me, that’s the real value of AI in this context. ... It allowed me to think through the situation, weigh options more rationally, and ultimately decide on the best course of action,” Engel said.

“I also used ChatGPT afterward to help guide my thinking about what qualities and strengths to prioritize for my next hire. Again, not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a tool to focus my thinking.”

Some business owners use AI tools to identify employees who need help.

“Our AI voice simulations let new employees engage in realistic mock calls from day one. These interactions are scored automatically and paired with coaching opportunities. It’s a way to see quickly who’s progressing and who might need more support,” Lonnie Johnston, CEO of the training platform WizeCamel, told The Epoch Times.

“Our platform helps surface employees who are struggling early and tracks whether they are improving on an acceptable schedule.”

He gave a recent example of how AI evaluations provided data to help supervisors make decisions.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 19:15

India, Russia Set $100BN Trade Target, Rejecting US Pushback

Via The Cradle

India and Russia plan to increase their annual trade to $100 billion over the next five years – an increase of 50% – despite US opposition to the growing cooperation between New Delhi and Moscow, a top Indian minister announced on Thursday.

During the first day of a three-day visit to Moscow on Wednesday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar emphasized the need for India and Russia to broaden their trade ties, foster additional joint ventures between their companies, and hold more frequent meetings to resolve issues such as payment systems. Russia ranks as India’s fourth-largest trade partner, while India holds the position of Russia’s second-largest.

Via Associated Press

"We are all acutely aware that we are meeting in the backdrop of a complex geopolitical situation. Our leaders remain closely and regularly engaged," he said while speaking at the India–Russia Business Forum in the Russian capital.

Jaishankar added that rising global uncertainty puts the emphasis back on "dependable and steady partners."

Economic uncertainty has come from recent actions taken by US President Donald Trump to punish India for its ongoing purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude skyrocketed after the start of the war with Ukraine in 2022. After its oil exports to Europe collapsed in the wake of the war, Russia turned to India, offering steep discounts.

In response, Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods, saying the oil purchases help fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war machine.” Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on India further, to 50 percent, a rate high enough to ensure Indian exports to the US will not be competitive.

In response, India has said it has the right to buy oil from the cheapest source, calling the tariffs "unreasonable."

Following Trump’s threats, India’s state refiners began last week to buy large volumes of non-Russian crude. Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. have purchased oil from multiple alternate suppliers in recent weeks, including suppliers in the US, Brazil, and Gulf states, for October delivery.

Private Indian refiners are expected to continue purchasing Russian oil per the long-term contracts they have previously signed. Earlier this month, India halted plans to purchase US weapons and military aircraft in response to President Trump’s tariffs on New Delhi’s exports.

“India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled,” two sources speaking with Reuters said. 

Before the war in Ukraine, less than 1% of India’s oil came from Russia. Now it is 42%.

The system is allowing India to profiteer by buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it, and pocketing $16B in excess profits.

This opportunistic arbitrage is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/zp4FuKs9vJ

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 19, 2025

In February this year, Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans for the procurement and joint production of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

The sources told Reuters that India’s defense minister was also planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P-8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during the trip to Washington, which has now been canceled. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:50

Trump's Tariffs Will Reduce Deficits By $4 Trillion Over Next Decade, Says CBO Report

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A report released on Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will reduce federal deficits by around $4 trillion over the next decade.

If Trump’s global tariff hikes continue, increased revenue could shrink primary deficits by $3.3 trillion and cut federal interest payments by $0.7 trillion over the next decade, the CBO said. The current top tariff rates may not hold as negotiations with trading partners and international legal challenges are ongoing.

“We estimate that the effective tariff rate for goods imported into the United States has increased by about 18 percentage points when measured against 2024 trade flows,” the budget office said in its report, adding that Trump’s tariffs would reduce “the need for federal borrowing.”

The CBO also said it “projects further increases in tariff revenues in the coming months” and that “if there are no further changes in tariff rates, we project that customs duties from new and existing tariffs will total about $200 billion this fiscal year.”

But the office cautioned that revenues often lag several months behind the implementation of tariff policies, noting that once the rates are in effect, they don’t get applied to goods that are already in transit to the United States.

“In addition, importers have the option to delay payments by up to six weeks by participating in Customs and Border Protection’s Periodic Monthly Statement program,” added the CBO, which is a federal agency within the legislative branch that provides budget and economic information to both houses of Congress.

In July, Congress passed the GOP-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that contained several major Trump priorities on energy, the border, spending, and tax cuts. The CBO has said that it would add around $3.4 trillion to the national deficit over the coming decade, although the White House has disputed those figures.

The Trump administration has also said that the tariffs and policies initiated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump backed and signed into law, would bring forth economic growth over the coming years that would offset any additions to the national deficit.

“It was the largest tax cut for middle and working class families in our nation’s history, and the president wants to see this country get our fiscal house in order. That’s why this was a fiscally responsible bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 21 in response to the CBO report on the bill.

In a statement on Thursday, the White House again touted the bill by posting excerpts from a series of recent newspaper articles that praised the measure. Earlier this month, the administration also said that Americans would see an average tax cut of $3,752 under the bill, citing a report from nonprofit organization the Tax Foundation.

Friday’s report from the CBO comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would scrap some of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico earlier this year, saying those measures were necessary to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking into the country.

“We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “Today, the Government of Canada is harmonizing its tariffs with the U.S.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:25

Dutch Foreign Minister Steps Down After Israel Sanctions Blocked, Caretaker Govt Fragments

Dutch parliament is fiercely divided on whether it should take more measures which add teeth to recent actions calling out Israel for the mounting civilian death toll and starvation conditions in the Gaza Strip. Just last month, the hardline Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who actively assist in Jewish settler expansion in the West Bank, were formally declared persona non grata in the Netherlands.

On Friday, following a five-hour parliamentary debate which made clear that the caretaker government is divided, foreign minister Casper Veldkamp (center-right New Social Contract party) stepped down in protest after members of his own cabinet blocked new sanctions measures imposed on Israel.

Caspar Veldkamp, file image

Veldkamp acknowledged that the government had already made positive moves, but he explained, "I felt resistance in the cabinet against more measures as a result of what is happening in Gaza City and the occupied West Bank at the moment."

"I find myself unable to implement meaningful additional steps to increase pressure on Israel," he added in a statement to the press. He felt 'constrained' on the vital issue, Veldmamp described.

Bloomberg observes that Veldkamp has "faced resistance to his stance from some members of the caretaker coalition that has run the Netherlands since the government collapsed in June."

Over twenty countries, including many in Europe and Netherlands among them, have this week signed a joint declaration condemning Israel's approval of a major West Bank settlement project, dubbing it "unacceptable and contrary to international law." However, Veldkamp and some in parliament have wanted to go beyond mere symbolic acts.

Parallel to the situation in the United States, the Dutch right is beginning to split on Israel - as more and more conservatives, and especially young people begin to question their governments' constant support of Israel - or at least lack of accountability when it comes to Tel Aviv's actions.

The political landscape on the Right in The Netherlands has always been supportive of Israel. But the shift is illustrated by parties like the Forum for Democracy (FvD), which have led the most vocal criticisms of Israel - and from the Right. Though its founding its relatively recent (2015), party leader and founder Thierry Baudet has described to ZeroHedge that FvD - despite currently having just a handful of seats in parliament - is the single largest party by membership in The Netherlands.

MP Baudet previously took to the parliament floor where he spoke inconvenient truths, and made clear his position that what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza goes too far:

"All of the Netherlands was wondering why the cabinet actually fell. I already raised the question on June 4th last year: did the cabinet perhaps fall over Gaza - not over immigration?" Baudet questioned.

Heel Nederland vroeg zich af waarom het kabinet nou eigenlijk viel. Ik wierp al op 4 juni j.l. de vraag op: is het kabinet wellicht gevallen op Gaza — niet op immigratie?

De PVV heeft immers gewoon meegedaan met de plaatsing van al die AZC’s de afgelopen anderhalfjaar, wat in… pic.twitter.com/YKNKGQBH9K

— Thierry Baudet (@thierrybaudet) August 22, 2025

Baudet continued in his earlier this summer parliament address, "Could it be that Geert Wilders [who resigned in June pulling his party out of government and toppled the ruling coalition] foresaw today’s clash, in which he would inevitably face opposition from a majority of the House - for whom expelling, killing, or starving all of Gaza would go too far?"

Indeed the issue has become a growing flashpoint, also as on Friday the UN declared a state of famine in parts of Gaza, ahead of the October 29 general elections.

The Dutch 'far-right' party Forum for Democracy has been forging relationships with Trump admin officials, and also with conservative/libertarian-leaning anti-Israel movements in the United States...

Division in Dutch parliament and within the caretaker government is only likely to grow more intense between now and then, and could translate into wins for parties critical of Israel and movements like FvD picking up many more seats.

* * *

Some of FvD party leader Thierry Baudet's latest statements before parliament (auto-dubbed):

"The complete destruction of Gaza and the colonization of the West Bank is morally unacceptable, unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective, and moreover, disastrous for everyone involved: for the Palestinians, for Europe, and for the Israelis themselves. This is why the FVD (Foundation for Freedom and Democracy) supports sanctions against both Hamas and the Netanyahu government," the MP has said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:00

Shocking NEW Documents Expose Multi-Front Effort To Protect Clintons While Framing Trump

Submitted by Peter Schweizer & Seamus Bruner of The Drill Down, 

Newly unearthed documents show deep state government actors once again circling the wagons to protect Bill and Hillary Clinton — and suppressing evidence that implicated them. Last week it was the FBI, this week it is the IRS.

In 2019, the IRS Criminal Investigations Division quietly launched a probe into the Clinton Foundation's tax practices, working closely with whistleblowers John Moynihan and Larry Doyle, financial experts who had compiled thousands of pages of evidence.

According to internal agency memos reported by Just the News, IRS agents reviewed the evidence and at least one agent concluded it meant that the "entire [Clinton Foundation] enterprise is a fraud." Agents then moved to treat the whistleblowers as cooperating witnesses and even set up secure computer servers to hold the material they had collected.

Then, without warning, the lights went out. "Can't talk about the CF," agents told the whistleblowers. By the summer of 2019, their inquiry was dead. Moynihan and Doyle are now battling the agency in Tax Court over the apparent shutdown of the investigation.

The IRS's abrupt reversal follows an earlier, more infamous pattern. In 2016, FBI field offices in New York, Washington, and Little Rock all opened probes into the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation, partly on the strength of Peter Schweizer's 2015 bestselling book, Clinton Cash, which exposed numerous examples of the Clintons using the foundation while she served as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama as a pay-to-play scheme for business and foreign government interests seeking political influence.

The book told the story of Uranium One, a US mining company that was sold to the Russians after investors pledged more than $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. That story was confirmed in a front-page story by the New York Times when the book was published and based on its material.

The FBI field office investigations were proceeding until they were ordered by higher-ups to stop. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates ordered prosecutors to "shut it down." Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe required his personal approval for every investigative step — effectively choking the cases.

The fallout from Clinton Cash was real. Clinton staffers scrambled for advance copies of the book, while Hillary's own pollsters flagged the Uranium One deal as her campaign's biggest vulnerability in the early primary states. By January 2016, the FBI was looking into the book's allegations — until the brakes were pulled.

Appearing on an OANN program this week, Schweizer told host Matt Gaetz that the government's double standard is unmistakable. "At the same time, they are killing an organic investigation into Clinton corruption… they were also creating a completely fictional investigation tying [Donald] Trump to Russia," he said.

Five FBI field offices had been involved before being shut down, including a satellite office in Africa. Schweizer called the saga proof of a new kind of corruption — "offshored, globalized corruption," complete with political dynasties selling access and foreign oligarchs buying influence.

The contrast between the scuttled investigation of the Clinton Foundation and the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into the Trump campaign's purported ties to Russia is glaring. While the Clinton probes were heavily throttled, the FBI raced to open a full investigation into Trump's campaign on the flimsiest of tips — a conversation in a London wine bar — green-lighting it within three days. Clinton's Russia vulnerabilities were turned into Trump's burden, projected onto his campaign in a haze of innuendo.

Put together, the picture is damning: an IRS that dropped the ball in 2019, and an FBI and DOJ that throttled their own field offices in 2016. The whistleblowers are still pressing their case, six years later.

But the old memos are now re-surfacing, and the "deep state" may yet face a reckoning from what may prove the largest political scandal of modern times.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 17:40

U.S. Government Finalizes Deal For 10% Equity Stake In Intel, Will Release $8.87 Billion In Funding

Update 8/22/25 1657EST: Bloomberg is reporting that the deal will see the U.S. government acquiring 433.3 million shares of Intel at $20.47 per share. The government will be "passive" owners with no board members and agrees to vote with the company's board of directors. The government's stake will be funded by $5.7 billion in award grants, the report says, and the government will get a warrant for an additional 5% of the company that can be exercised under certain conditions.

Bloomberg writes:

Under the Friday agreement, the US will receive 433,323,000 shares of common stock — representing 9.9% of the fully diluted common shares in Intel — with the government pledging to release nearly $8.87 billion in funding under the Chips and Science Act, people familiar with the terms said, speaking on condition of anonymity to outline the deal before it was formally unveiled. That represents the remaining Chips Act funding that was awarded but not yet distributed to Intel, they said. The shares are non-voting and there is no board seat for the US government, according to the people. Tan was at the Commerce Department building on Friday finalizing the deal.

"This historic agreement strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote on Twitter following the news.

BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies.

This historic agreement strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge.

Thanks to Intel… pic.twitter.com/AYMuX14Rgi

— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) August 22, 2025

As a reminder, here's how the negotiation started just about two weeks ago...

--

President Donald Trump announced that Intel has agreed to give the US government a 10% ownership stake, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

“They’ve agreed to do it and I think it’s a great deal for them,” Trump said today. He described the deal as a “great opportunity” to help revive Intel, which he argued has slipped behind global chipmaking competitors. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is expected to attend the signing.

“And I said, You know what? I think the United States should be given 10% of Intel, and he said, ‘I would consider that,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’d like you to do that,’” Trump said of his talks with Tan last week.

The agreement reportedly stems from discussions over the Chips and Science Act, with subsidies being converted into ownership shares. Such a move would represent a rare and controversial level of government intervention in a major American company, normally reserved for wartime or systemic crises. Intel declined to comment on the timing, but its stock climbed more than 6% after the news.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration wants taxpayer dollars to generate direct returns, not just one-time grants. Officials clarified that companies already ramping up US investments—like TSMC and Micron—would not be pressed for similar concessions.

Trump has signaled a broader strategy of economic statecraft in his second term, seeking greater US leverage over critical industries. Earlier this year, he secured revenue-sharing deals with Nvidia and AMD on China-bound AI chip sales and obtained a “golden share” in Nippon Steel that gives him influence over US Steel.

The news comes days after it was announced that SoftBank Group is making a surprise $2 billion investment in Intel, buying shares at $23 apiece. Bloomberg first reported the SoftBank deal to purchase $2 billion worth of Intel shares at $23 apiece. As we noted last week, shares last peaked above $64 in 2021.

"For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation," SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son wrote in a statement. He added, "This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role."

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, a longtime SoftBank associate, added: "I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment."

SoftBank's US footprint is expanding, we noted last week. It recently bought Foxconn's Ohio EV plant, a move that could help Stargate, as Asian chip giants like TSMC and Samsung commit billions to the 'America First' agenda. 

Recall, we wrote days ago about the Trump administration's interest in taking direct stakes in US strategic companies, first with...

• US To Have 'Golden Share' In Nippon Steel Partnership With US Steel: Sen. McCormick

Then with:

• Rare Earth Producer MP Materials Soars 50% After US Government Becomes Largest Shareholder

Bloomberg reported last week that Washington was in talks to convert up to $10.9 billion in Chips Act grants into equity, which could have given the government roughly a 10% stake and made it Intel's largest shareholder.

This mirrored the Pentagon's $400 million preferred equity purchase of MP Materials last month, which we had flagged ahead of time despite others calling it "unprecedented."

A press conference is expected Friday afternoon with more details, according to Bloomberg. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 17:07

'Wake Up & Smell The Coffee... We're Marching Into A Promised Land Of Accountability...'

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

By The Batch

“The problem with the future is that it is both unpredictable and inescapable.”

- Tarik Cyril Amar

Please everybody, extricate yourselves from the mud-wallow of cynicism. Naysayers arise and open your eyes! Sleepwalkers and black-pillers, smell the coffee and wake up! Sob-sisters dry your tears! We are marching into a promised land of accountability after all.

Our country, you well know, has been sore beset under a long-running seditious coup orchestrated by an ever more insane Bolshevik-Jacobin syndicate of political reprobates seeking to erase every boundary between the real and the unreal since 2016, a year that now lives in infamy. All their malice and roguery has been focused on the odd figure who somehow rose to lead the opposition to their burgeoning color revolution, Mr. Trump, who, through some alchemy of fortitude, managed to evade their many-footed depredations — to get re-elected.

Of course, you’ve also noticed that psychological projection is the heart of the seditionists’ game. Whatever ploy or subterfuge they accuse you of, is exactly what they are doing. Their mainstay is the phrase conspiracy theory. Whenever one of their many turpitudes is carried out — such as a rigged election — your notice of it is labeled a conspiracy theory. In fact, their long train of activities to turn the country upside-down and inside-out has been one drawn-out seditious conspiracy. And that is liable to be precisely one of the charges lodged against them — but surely not the only charge.

You have seen news (anywhere but in The New York Times) that grand juries are being convened here and there to scrutinize a whole lot of bad behavior by a whole lot of officials who recklessly wielded their power, who betrayed the nation, who broke institutions, destroyed lives, careers, and households, and, as an added insult, attempted to make you swallow one patent absurdity after another — a Potemkin president, drag queens in the schools, a massive invasion of alien mutts across an open border, Saint George Floyd and “mostly peaceful protests,” math is racist, boys in girls’ sports and locker rooms — all in their campaign to destroy American cultural coherence while they seized totalistic political control and sniped their adversaries off the game board. (Just look how they destroyed Rudolf Giuliani, a heroic figure who saved New York City in the 1990s.)

Grand juries are a sign that something serious is up. Evidence is being gathered by a new FBI, no longer dedicated to just covering-up its past crimes. A sign of how serious this effort is: the hiring last week of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as Co-Deputy FBI Director. Mr. Bailey, you may recall, presided over the Missouri v Biden lawsuit (2022) about the “Joe Biden” White House’s efforts to coerce social media into censorship. The SCOTUS killed the case on spurious grounds for “lack of standing to sue.” But the government censorship crusade was a hallmark affront to the Constitution in the years’ long seditious conspiracy against the American people. It could even return as a criminal— not a civil — case this time, since censorship was so central to the overall coup.

The convening of several grand juries tells you that cases are being made now and that they will be tried in batches or tranches according to the various episodes of the coup. I’ll venture to describe what some of these batches might comprise.

The origin and execution of RussiaGate, involving former President Obama, then-Veep Joe Biden, CIA Director Brennan, FBI chief Comey, DNI Clapper, Susan Rice, Mary McCord, Sally Yates, Adam Schiff (then-Chair of the House Intel Committee), and Senator Mark Warner (then-Chair of the Senate Intel Committee), plus Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Peter Strzrok, Bruce Ohr, John Carlin, Joe Pientka, Steven Somma, and a number of other DOJ / FBI foot-soldiers, and CIA London Station chief Gina Haspel.

Another batch might be the judges in the FISA Courts, who made themselves tools of a corrupt FBI, starting with then-Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer, and including James Boasberg, who notoriously let FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith skate after his forging a crucial document that would have revealed Carter Page to be a CIA asset. Federal judges are not granted immunity from criminal prosecution under the Constitution.

Another batch might be the gang who put together spurious Trump Impeachment No. 1 over the Ukraine Phone Call matter: Adam Schiff, CIA / NSC mole Eric Ciaramella (the “whistleblower”), Intel IG Michael Atkinson, Col. Alexander Vindman of the NSC; plus lawfare ninjas Mary McCord and Norm Eisen who helped plan the scheme, the two Ukraine Ambassadors officers they schemed with, Marie Yavonovitch and Jeffrey Pyatt; plus “Russia expert” Fiona Hill of the NSC. In the Senate trial phase of the impeachment, consider that then-Attorney General William Barr withheld exculpatory evidence from Mr. Trump’s defense attorneys contained in the Hunter Biden laptop, the existence of which he was concealing, and which was stuffed with emails and memoranda detailing the Biden Family’s grifting operation in Ukraine.

Another batch would have to include the FBI / CIA / DOJ / DOD and Congressional characters who helped stage various aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot (the so-called “insurrection”) including (again) Christopher Wray, General Mark Milley, Speaker Nancy Pelosi; plus Steven M. D’Antuono, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, who arranged and then covered-up the pipe-bomb caper at the DNC headquarters that day.

Another batch might be the lawyers in the DOJ / FBI who cooked-up the Mar-a-Lago raid without an authentic legal predicate: Deputy AG Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray appear to have been responsible for that ploy — and especially the degrading manner of its execution with a SWAT team, staged evidence photo ops, and the rifling of Melania Trump’s lingerie drawers.

Then there’s a big batch of the fifty-one former intel officers (including several CIA ex-chiefs), who signed the infamous letter labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation,” a potential incident of criminal election interference.

Let’s not leave out the absurd campaign of serial fake prosecutions for civil and criminal charges launched in Atlanta, Washington, and New York City, coordinated (again) by lawfare artists Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, plus Ben Wittes, Marc Elias and others, through the good offices of Attorney General Merrick Garland and whomever in the White House was coaching the likes of Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, Letitia James, and Alvin Bragg.

You see how this goes? This ongoing coup against the people of this land is spectacularly wide-ranging and multilayered, with a cast of hundreds. The cases entailed are complex, and it is axiomatic that conspiracy cases are especially difficult to win. Of course, there are many other charges that range, say, from possibly treason to conspiracy against rights under color of law, defrauding the government, lying to the FBI and to Congress, election interference, malicious prosecution. . . .

The cases are huge and complex. Are Pam Bondi and Kash Patel up to it? I guess we’ll find out. I’m inclined to believe that quite a few of these rogues are going to court and some of them will land in prison. So, quit taking those black pills and cheer up.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 16:20

US House Adds CBDC Ban To Massive Defense Policy Bill

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

The US House added a provision banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) into an almost 1,300-page bill setting the country’s defense policy for the 2026 fiscal year.

A revision of HR 3838, the House’s version of a bill implementing the National Defense Authorization Act, was shared on Thursday by the House Rules Committee to include sweeping language banning the Federal Reserve from studying or creating digital currency.

The House passed a similar Republican-backed bill, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, in July with a slim vote of 219 - 210, which now has an uncertain future in the Senate.

The National Defense Authorization Act and related appropriations bills are seen as “must-pass” national security legislation as they outline how the military will be funded and how it will spend its budget.

It’s typical of lawmakers to add non-defense-related provisions that could otherwise be stalled or heavily revised if passed as standalone bills.

House leaders promised CBDC ban in defense bill

Top House Republicans had promised to include a CBDC ban in the military spending bill in a deal with conservative hardliners in July.

A group of Republican holdouts had refused to move three crypto bills forward unless a CBDC ban was guaranteed to pass, stalling a vote to set up floor debate on the bills for over nine hours, the longest in the House’s history.

At the time, the House passing the CBDC-banning bill on its own was seen as unlikely due to a lack of support. Debate on the bills eventually moved forward after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the CBDC ban would be added to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Source: Tom Emmer

Provision would stop Fed-issued digital currency

The provision in the defense policy bill would ban the Fed from issuing any digital currency or asset and stop the central bank from offering financial products or services directly to individuals.

It adds that the central bank may not “test, study, develop, create, or implement” a digital currency or asset, but allows a carve-out for stablecoins, saying the bill does not prohibit “any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private.”

A CBDC bill died last Congress

House Republicans have been looking to ban CBDCs for some time.

The party’s House leaders had looked to pass a version of the CBDC-banning bill in the last congressional session.

A similarly named bill, called the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, was introduced by Representative Tom Emmer in early 2023, but it didn’t progress and died with the last Congress.

Emmer reintroduced a version of the bill in the current Congress, and Republicans have backed the effort as aligning with President Donald Trump’s executive order in January prohibiting CBDCs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:25

Mass-Casualty Bus Crash Reported On New York Highway

A deadly bus crash has been reported on I-90 near Pembroke, New York. The accident has been declared a mass-casualty incident. New York State Police confirmed multiple fatalities, including at least one child. More than 50 people were on board the bus when it lost control and flipped into a ditch. 

Local outlet WIVB reported that several air transport helicopters and ambulances arrived at the scene after the bus lost control around 12:40 p.m., veered into the median, and overturned into a ditch near Exit 48A eastbound. 

A look at the accident on the I-90 near the Pembroke exit heading Eastbound: https://t.co/qh9a6EkYtj pic.twitter.com/B9UBXaQ6Bk

— WBEN NewsRadio 930AM (@WBEN) August 22, 2025

"Many people were ejected. Over 50 people were on the bus," WIVB noted, adding that the bus was returning to New York City from Niagara Falls. Many of the passengers were of Indian, Chinese, and Filipino nationality. 

Peter Cutler, the vice president of communications and internal affairs at Erie County Medical Center, said hospital staff received a "mass casualty notification" following the bus crash to prepare for dozens of patients. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has been briefed on the situation. 

I’ve been briefed on the tragic tour bus accident on the @NYSThruway.

My team is coordinating closely with @nyspolice and local officials who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved.

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) August 22, 2025

"This is a developing story

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:15

Canada's Carney Backs Down On Tariffs As Trump Welcomes Another Win

Another major economy and country backs down, and Trump wins again - as on Friday Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada will drop its retaliatory tariffs in step with the United States as both countries work to de-escalate their trade dispute.

Carney in a Friday press conference said the US side clarified it would not apply tariffs to Canadian products that adhere to the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Even Politico has starkly described it as Carney backs down in a major concession:

"We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now," Carney told reporters in Ottawa, noting that the average U.S. tariff rate on Canadian goods is 5.6 percent, the lowest among America’s trading partners. "Today, the Government of Canada is harmonizing its tariffs with the U.S."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that Canada will be DROPPING their retaliatory tariffs against the US and removing tariffs on US goods covered by existing trade deals.pic.twitter.com/Y9ONDpOk1g

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 22, 2025

However, he noted that some duties, particularly on steel, aluminum, and automobiles, will still remain in effect. Other sources quoted in various reports have also indicated this.

"In this context and consistent with Canada’s commitment to USMCA, I am announcing today that the Canadian government will now match the United States by removing all of Canada’s tariffs on US goods specifically covered under USMCA," said Carney, previewing that the change will take effect on September 1.

"Canada and the US have now re-established free trade for the vast majority of our goods," he added.

The White House hailed the move: "We welcome this move by Canada, which is long overdue. We look forward to continuing our discussions with Canada on the Administration's trade and national security concerns," a Trump admin official said. And more via breaking Canadian media reports:

• U.S. President Donald Trump commended the tariff removal, calling it "nice" and saying he wanted to "be good to Canada."

• Trump raised tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 per cent on Aug. 1.

• The Trump administration said Canada's rate was being hiked in response to fentanyl trafficking and Canada's earlier decision to hit back with counter-tariffs.

The Canadian dollar is strengthening notably against the US dollar today (helped by Powell's words and Carney's actions)...

Reuters has reviewed of the transition from Trudeau:

Carney's predecessor as prime minister, Justin Trudeau, imposed 25% tariffs on $21 billion in goods imported annually from the U.S. on March 6 in response to Trump's initial duties.

The C$30 billion was part of an overall retaliation plan to target C$155 billion worth of imported goods from the U.S., though the remaining C$125 billion has been delayed.

Carney had repeatedly claimed he had a mandate from the public to 'stand up to' the Trump administration, but alas he's the latest in a line of global leaders to instead sit down amid the immense tariff and trade pressure.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:05

Awkward: "Brazen Election Cheating" Allegations Rock Minneapolis Mayoral Endorsement

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party stripped the party's endorsement of radical leftist Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh in the Minneapolis mayoral race over "brazen cheating." The emerging election cheating scandal hilariously occurred amongst Democrats. Awkwardly, this comes from the same party of woke leftists that insists U.S. elections are the "safest in the world" and free from manipulation. Clearly, this corrupt party that serves progressive elites - not the working class - wants a do-over in this local election. 

BREAKING: Due to vote irregularities at the DFL convention, DFL is revoking its Omar Fateh endorsement pic.twitter.com/8VHrhvonpV

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 21, 2025

On Thursday, Minnesota DFL chair Richard Carlbom wrote in a statement, "After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention's voting process on July 19, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention."

Carlbom added, "Now it's time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they've unleashed on Minnesotans."

A series of challenges were submitted to the Minnesota DFL after last month's convention, citing serious issues with the electronic voting system and raising questions about election integrity in Fateh's endorsement over incumbent Jacob Frey. The Minneapolis DFL also recognized it had erroneously eliminated DeWayne Davis after the first round of voting due to 176 undercounted votes.

Mayor Jacob Frey spokesperson says endorsement of Fateh was "brazen cheating." https://t.co/eUMU92ZyM0 pic.twitter.com/aHF8U1GYVb

— Anthony Gockowski (@AntGockowski) August 21, 2025

Jonathan Turley chimed in on X about Fateh's short-lived endorsement, 

"Omar Fateh is accusing fellow democrats of being effectively election deniers who are claiming election machine voting was flawed. Sounds familiar. As with Hogg after the DNC election, the party is planning a do-over."

Omar Fateh is accusing fellow democrats of being effectively election deniers who are claiming election machine voting was flawed. Sounds familiar. As with Hogg after the DNC election, the party is planning a do-over. https://t.co/cLYwhtzrfF

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 22, 2025

Turley couldn't be more right… Fateh's campaign claimed that "establishment Democrats, including many Frey supporters," coordinated the effort to nuke his endorsement.

Meanwhile, Fateh's brother-in-law...

Since Omar Fateh is now accused of cheating, here’s a reminder:

His brother-in-law, Muse Mohamed was convicted of lying to a grand jury about illegally handling absentee ballots tied to ballot harvesting.

Investigators later confirmed he did, in fact, handle those ballots. pic.twitter.com/iKERUDV1Kz

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 21, 2025

If Democrats are willing to cheat in local elections, especially against themselves, then how about revisiting the 2020 presidential election?

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 14:25

From the Philly Fed:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released the coincident indexes for the 50 states for July 2025. Over the past three months, the indexes increased in 41 states, decreased in eight states, and remained stable in one, for a three-month diffusion index of 66. Additionally, in the past month, the indexes increased in 38 states, decreased in five states, and remained stable in seven, for a one-month diffusion index of 66. For comparison purposes, the Philadelphia Fed has also developed a similar coincident index for the entire United States. The Philadelphia Fed’s U.S. index increased 0.5 percent over the past three months and 0.1 percent in July.
emphasis added

Note: These are coincident indexes constructed from state employment data. An explanation from the Philly Fed:

The coincident indexes combine four state-level indicators to summarize current economic conditions in a single statistic. The four state-level variables in each coincident index are nonfarm payroll employment, average hours worked in manufacturing by production workers, the unemployment rate, and wage and salary disbursements deflated by the consumer price index (U.S. city average). The trend for each state’s index is set to the trend of its gross domestic product (GDP), so long-term growth in the state’s index matches long-term growth in its GDP.

Click on map for larger image.

Here is a map of the three-month change in the Philly Fed state coincident indicators. This map was all red during the worst of the Pandemic and also at the worst of the Great Recession.

The map is mostly positive on a three-month basis.

Source: Philly Fed.

And here is a graph is of the number of states with one month increasing activity according to the Philly Fed. 
This graph includes states with minor increases (the Philly Fed lists as unchanged).

In July, 39 states had increasing activity including minor increases.

Beyond The Data Center: Goldman's Silicon Valley Field Trip Finds AI Moving From Chips To Workflows

Goldman analysts led by George Tong returned to Silicon Valley for their second AI field trip, meeting with AI startups, public companies, VCs, and professors from Stanford, UCSF, and UC Berkeley to assess whether corporate America is truly embracing generative AI. The visit comes as record AI capex fuels record hyperscale data center buildouts nationwide, while investors search for clues on whether the adoption phase will materialize: a shift beyond infrastructure into the application layer.

"Insights indicate AI labs are expanding from the infrastructure layer to the application layer and LLM costs are sharply declining though capex may continue to rise as Gen AI usage and adoption grows," Tong wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 

He continued: "Academic research on LLM technologies could further bring down costs. While software development costs are falling and increasing competitive and pricing risks, moats in application AI and SaaS companies include broader user distribution, engagement with power users to drive reinforcement learning from feedback loops, integration into workflows and leveraging proprietary data."

Tong's discussions with Silicon Valley business and academic leaders point to an acceleration in generative AI adoption starting in 2026. 

Here's a summary of the findings:

• Shift from infrastructure to applications: AI innovation is moving beyond chips and cloud (Nvidia, GPUs, etc.) toward actual end-user applications and vertical software solutions.

• LLM costs are sliding: Training and using large language models is getting cheaper, though capex will still rise as usage expands. Academia is helping reduce costs: University research may accelerate efficiency gains in AI models.

• Software development deflation: Building with AI is cheaper and faster, but that means higher competition and pricing pressure for software companies.

Tong said the conversations in Silicon Valley point to "positive implications" for S&P Global, Moody's, Iron Mountain, Verisk Analytics, and Thomson Reuters. He noted that his team has initiated coverage on McGraw-Hill with a "Buy" rating and a $27 12-month price target based on a "digital transformation" in the education space. 

The analyst provided clients with a "chart of the week" that showed how McGraw-Hill is leveraging AI to improve product efficacy and drive growth. 

Is the AI rate adoption (read here) enough to justify this record capex spending (more details here) by hyperscalers? 

Let's hope so, or AI stocks face a hefty correction. 

More in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 13:40

Judge Declares Alina Habba's Roles As US Attorney For New Jersey 'Unlawful'

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge on Thursday found that Alina Habba, a former attorney to President Donald Trump, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey since July.

Alina Habba speaks after being sworn in as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 28, 2025. Pool via AP

“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote in a 77-page opinion.

“And because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases,” Brann said.

Trump appointed Habba in March as interim U.S. attorney, a role limited to 120 days unless extended by a vote of the district’s judges. When Habba’s term expired in July, the judges opted to replace her with her second-in-command, Desiree Grace. The Justice Department responded by firing Grace and reinstalling Habba, this time designating her as “Special Attorney to the Attorney General.”

By law, interim U.S. attorneys may serve only 120 days before district judges either appoint a temporary successor or the Senate confirms the administration’s nominee. If neither happens, the office’s first assistant may temporarily assume the role. In New Jersey, that would have been Grace, but her removal cleared the way for Habba, now the most senior official in the office, to stay in charge.

The Trump administration took this unusual maneuver as Democrats continue to block the president’s U.S. attorney nominees from getting a full Senate vote. While the administration has extended several interim appointments by sidestepping Senate confirmation and judicial appointment, Habba’s is so far the only one to face a formal legal challenge.

The challenge was brought by three criminal defendants in New Jersey, who argued that Habba lacked legal authority to prosecute them after her 120-day interim appointment ended in July. They asked the court to throw out their indictments, claiming that any case filed under her leadership was invalid.

Brann agreed that Habba had no legal authority but declined to dismiss those charges. Instead, he ruled that anyone who prosecutes them “under the supervision or authority of Ms. Habba” would be subject to disqualification, and that any prosecutorial actions she has made since July 1 should be declared voided.

The case was reassigned to Brann after Michael A. Chagares, chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, ordered it moved out of the District of New Jersey. In a brief, one-sentence directive, Chagares said the trial was being transferred to the Middle District of Pennsylvania “in the public interest,” offering no further explanation.

Anticipating an appeal, Brann stayed his ruling and allowed Habba to remain in place while higher courts review the matter.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. It has argued that the president has broad discretion to decide who leads U.S. attorney offices.

“The President has made clear that he will not permit anyone other than Ms. Habba to fill the current vacancy in the office of the United States Attorney on a temporary basis. That is his prerogative; this Court cannot second-guess it,” the department wrote in a court filing.

Shortly after Habba took office, she opened an investigation into New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy over the state’s immigration policies. No charges have been filed so far in connection with the inquiry.

In May, her office charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assaulting federal officers while McIver and two other lawmakers were conducting a “congressional oversight inspection” at an immigration detention center in Newark. Prosecutors allege that McIver tried to block the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who had been barred by federal agents from joining the delegation.

McIver has denied wrongdoing and is seeking dismissal of the case.

Habba’s office also charged Baraka with trespassing, but later dropped the case.

Habba’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 13:20

Trump 'Very Angry' At Ukraine Repeatedly Attacking Russian Pipeline To Hungary, Slovakia

For the second time in less than two weeks, Russian oil shipments to Hungary have been suspended following yet another Ukrainian strike on the Druzhba pipeline.

Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced it Friday, with Slovak officials also confirming. "This is yet another blow to our energy security - another effort to pull us into the war," Szijjarto stated on social media. It occurred near the Russia-Belarus border.

Source: EPA

Prior strikes on the Druzhba pipeline network took place on August 13 and August 18, with the last attack having crippled a vital transformer station, which had previously but briefly halted oil flows.

It is certainly nothing new that Ukraine's intelligence and military is targeting Russian energy infrastructure; however, what is new is President Trump's surprise reaction:

U.S. President Donald Trump said he got “very angry” after Ukraine damaged a Russian oil pipeline that supplies his friend Viktor Orbán, Hungary's prime minister.

Trump responded to a note from Orbán, who complained about a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Aug. 13 hitting the Druzhba oil pipeline, which supplies Hungary, Slovakia and other countries in Central Europe with Russian oil through Ukrainian territory.

“Viktor — I do not like hearing this. I am very angry about it. Tell Slovakia,” Trump wrote according to a letter published online by Orbán's ruling Fidesz party. “You are my great friend,” the U.S. president added.

Below is the letter as released by Hungarian state media and the prime minister's office:

The incident that Trump was responding to was an earlier August attack, which occurred "just before the historic meeting between President Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in Alaska" - as Orban wrote.

"Hungary supports Ukraine with electricity and petrol, in return they bomb pipeline that supply us. Very unfriendly move," Orban stated.

Trump might also condemn this newest Friday attack if he's asked about it by reporters - but there remains something deeply contradictory about the White House stance. Trump just this week in a Truth Social post seemed to say that Ukraine must go on the offensive against Russia if it hopes to achieve a peace deal which benefits Kiev. As the WSJ noted: 

By Thursday, he was saying that Kyiv had no chance of winning the war without new attacks on Russia.

“It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense,” Trump posted on social media. “Interesting times ahead!!!”

His turnaround underscored the fading optimism about Trump’s latest push to end the war.

Trump seems to be signaling that he wants to see Ukraine go on the offensive, but refrain from hitting energy sites. This is at least consistent with Trump's wanting a 'freeze' on attacks targeting energy infrastructure, which had been enacted for a brief period months ago.

Hungary continues to rely heavily on Russian oil, even after most European nations have imposed sanctions and sought alternative sources.

Polish-Hungarian relations in three tweets. pic.twitter.com/ji8czGaGw9

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) August 22, 2025

Budapest's Russian energy supply is primarily delivered through the Druzhba pipeline, which passes through Belarus and Ukraine before reaching Hungary and Slovakia.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 13:00

FTC Sues Gym Chain For Making It 'Exceedingly Difficult' To Cancel Memberships

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against the operators of LA Fitness and other gyms over allegations that they make it “exceedingly difficult” for subscribers to cancel recurring gym memberships and related services, according to a statement issued by the agency on Aug. 20.

An LA Fitness location, in this file photo. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The FTC lawsuit was filed on Aug. 20 against Fitness International LLC and Fitness & Sports Clubs LLC, which together own and operate LA Fitness and other gym chains, including Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club, and Club Studio, which have more than 600 locations and more than 3.7 million members nationwide.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) and seeks monetary relief for consumers harmed by the alleged practices.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants use “difficult” cancellation procedures that are found to be time-consuming and inadequately disclosed to consumers when they join up. Members who wish to cancel must generate a cancellation form online and print it. Then, they need to submit the printed forms to the gym during limited hours.

The forms must be submitted to the “specific manager at the location who is authorized to process the forms,” and not just any gym employee, the complaint states. Another way to cancel is by certified or registered mail, which necessitates a visit to the post office.

The cancellation processes are “opaque, complicated, and demanding,” the FTC stated, adding that many consumers who have gone through the procedures “nevertheless find that they continue to be billed for their memberships.”

According to the agency, the gym operators have retained the system despite receiving tens of thousands of reports from consumers complaining about the cancellation procedures.

The companies offer gym memberships in the range of $30 to $299 per month, depending on additional services such as towel service or child care. The costs incurred by the consumer, while joining, include the first and last month’s dues, monthly recurring dues, and annual fees, the FTC stated.

“The FTC’s complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced—a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The commission voted 3–0 to authorize the filing of the complaint.

According to ROSCA, an online seller must disclose all material terms before attempting to charge any consumer’s credit card, debit card, or bank account, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC is the enforcer of this Act.

Gym Response

Fitness International President Jill Hill expressed disappointment with the FTC complaint in a company statement published on Aug. 20.

“The allegations are without merit, and the statute the FTC relies upon—the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), enacted almost 15 years ago—was designed to address only online retail transactions, does not require any specific method of cancellation, and has never before been applied to the health club industry. We remain confident that we will prevail in court,” Hill said.

She said most of the gym memberships were done at physical locations and not online. The companies have “launched an online cancellation option for all members, regardless of how they originally signed up,” Hill said.

“With just a few clicks, members may cancel online—a step we voluntarily implemented well ahead of regulatory deadlines,” she said.

The companies work to comply with all health club state laws regarding membership cancellations, according to Hill.

The FTC had announced a “Click-to-Cancel” rule in 2024 under the Biden administration. The rule, which went into effect earlier this year, was postponed by the Trump administration to give businesses additional time to comply.

The rule mandates that canceling a subscription must be as simple as signing up.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 12:40