Zero Rss

Non-English-Speaking Bus Driver Faces Manslaughter Charges After Horror Virginia Crash Kills Entire Family

A commercial bus driver, who federal officials say could not speak English, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges likely, after his charter bus plowed into vehicles on a Virginia highway Friday morning, killing five people, including an entire Greenfield, Massachusetts, family of four.

The New York Post reports that Virginia State Police revealed the 48-year-old bus driver, Jing S. Dong, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and will likely face additional charges after killing five people, including an entire family of four from Massachusetts: Dmitri Doncev, 45; his wife, Ecterina, 44; their 13-year-old daughter, Emily; and their 7-year-old son, Mark.

This is the car of an entire family that was ki11ed after a bus driver drove into the back of a stopped car.

The driver, Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, is a Chinese born naturalized citizen who doesn’t read or speak English.

He attained his commercial driver’s… pic.twitter.com/AaQ8ZiwuZr

— Kentucky Girl (@Notwokenow) May 30, 2026

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on X that Dong, "a man from China who became a U.S. citizen — doesn't speak English. He received his commercial driver's license from New York State in 2024."

"Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states accountable, enforcing the rules of the road, and cracking down on drivers who can't speak English," Duffy said.

Update on the tragic bus crash in Virginia:

Five people are dead, including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, after the driver of a motorcoach slammed into stopped traffic on I-95. @FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs and our investigators are on the ground at the crash… pic.twitter.com/NWPBd9aLPr

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 29, 2026

X sleuths have begun digging into the bus operator, allegedly E&P Travel Inc., and claim corporate records list the company's registered address as an apartment unit in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Satisfactory safety rating... https://t.co/nKMVmxxkdc

— maybe danielle 💻🚛🇺🇸 (@maybedanielleee) May 29, 2026

There has been a shocking uptick in non-English-speaking migrant truckers involved in horrific highway crashes. Some of these truckers entered the country under the Biden-Harris regime's nation-killing open border policies.

Duffy and the Trump administration have been cracking down on this through federal and state actions, especially CDL enforcement, English-proficiency rules, and licensing audits.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that freight brokers can be sued under state law for negligent hiring when they hire unsafe trucking firms that later cause crashes. This could be an extinction event for non-English-speaking migrant truckers because no freight broker wants to carry that liability.

Back to the bus driver, Dong: How did he receive citizenship without being able to speak English?

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 11:05

Parabolic Semiconductor Rally: What Breaks The Trade?

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

AI Validation Fuels A Ninth Weekly Advance

The headline tape made fresh history. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,580.06, finishing up 1.43% on the week and posting its ninth consecutive weekly gain. That’s the longest weekly winning streak since 2024, and only the 5th time since 1965 that has occurred. While markets previously saw weakness following such streaks, the 24- and 52-week outcomes were primarily positive, except in 1989.

However, the Russell 2000 actually fell 0.59% to 2,919, a reminder that the small-cap participation everyone hoped for in March still hasn’t shown up despite the megacap rip. Underneath the headline, the dispersion that’s defined this rally has only widened. Technology and financials carried Friday’s tape while energy lagged on falling crude.

Two macro stories collided midweek, and the market chose to celebrate one and shrug at the other. First, the April PCE inflation print landed Thursday morning with the highest headline reading in nearly three years at 3.8% year-over-year, with core PCE at 3.3%. However, the monthly core reading came in at 0.2%, below the 0.3% consensus, and that softer monthly tone gave the Fed-cut camp something to work with. Second, Axios reported Thursday that the US and Iran had reached a tentative 60-day Memorandum of Understanding to extend the ceasefire framework. Oil promptly slid to a six-week low near $89 WTI, the VIX collapsed to its lowest reading since January, ending the week at 15.32, and the rally accelerated. The combination of a softer core PCE and a reduced geopolitical premium handed equity bulls everything they wanted in two sessions.

The dominant micro story came after the bell on Thursday. Dell Technologies reported fiscal Q1 results that were, by any measure, extraordinary, with revenue hitting a record $43.8 billion, up 88% year-over-year, $24.4 billion in AI orders booked, and $16.1 billion in AI server revenue recognized. That is simply astonishing. However, what really drove the price on Friday was management raising the FY27 AI server revenue target to $60 billion, along with full-year revenue at the midpoint of $167 billion, a 50% annual increase. Dell’s report validated the AI capex thesis at exactly the moment the market was beginning to question how far the parabolic move could extend. The bull case strengthened alongside the asymmetry.

Cross-asset moves followed the same script. Treasury yields eased modestly on the cooler core PCE, the dollar softened slightly, and gold extended to roughly $4,576. Bitcoin remains in a bear market and has slid below $73,700. Beneath the AI exuberance, however, a separate undercurrent of institutional skepticism is building around AI infrastructure overcapacity. Several portfolio managers flagged commercial budget fatigue as a near-term risk, with reports surfacing that Microsoft trimmed its code license spending. The narrative isn’t unbroken, but it is being questioned.

📈Technical Backdrop – New Highs, Thinner Air

The trend is unambiguous. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,580.06, posting fresh all-time highs on three of the last five sessions and clearing the prior closing record by roughly 1.4% on the week. The index sits firmly above its 50-day moving average at 7,058 and 200-day moving average at 6,830, putting price roughly 7% above the 50-DMA and nearly 11% above the 200-DMA. On the momentum side, the 14-day RSI has climbed above 70 and is back in overbought territory. Additionally, the MACD has expanded with the new highs and is crossing back above its signal line.

By the standard measures, the bull trend that resumed after the April 7 Iran ceasefire is fully intact and accelerating. A retracement to the previous all-time highs, where the market broke out after the April correction is about 7.5% lower. While such a correction should be expected, given the high levels of complacency during the advance, such a decline will fell far worse that it actually is.

However, the warning signs underneath the surface are getting louder, not quieter. Breadth continues to deteriorate. The percentage of S&P 500 members trading above their 200-day moving average is still hovering near 57%, essentially unchanged from a week ago despite the index hitting new records. Equal-weight is now lagging cap-weight by a meaningful margin over the trailing month, and the cumulative advance-decline line has been making lower highs even as the index makes higher ones. Notably, that’s a textbook bearish divergence. The Nasdaq remains the standout, but the lift is being delivered by a handful of AI-linked mega-caps doing the heavy lifting.

The technical setup for next week makes adding more to equity exposure at current levels uncomfortable. Above the close, resistance sits at the round-number psychological level of 7,700, followed by the consensus year-end target zone near 7,800. Below, the rapidly trailing 5-day moving average around 7,550 is now the first short-term floor, and the prior Wednesday close at 7,520 acts as immediate support. Importantly, a break of 7,520 opens significant room before the next major support. The upside to consensus year-end targets is 2% to 3%. The downside to a routine test of the 200-DMA is 10%.

For positioning, the indicated trade is to use these new highs to harvest gains, not to chase them. Specifically, we continue to suggest trimming positions that have run materially above target weight. Tighten trailing stops on the most extended names, semis especially. Hold new cash deployments back until breadth confirms or a technical break invalidates the trend. With the VIX at 15.32, near its lowest level since January, downside protection is unusually cheap right now.

🔑 Key Catalysts Next Week

The week of June 1 is the heaviest catalyst calendar of the quarter with three threads colliding all at once. First, jobs and inflation data dominate the macro side, with ISM Manufacturing kicking off Monday and Nonfarm Payrolls closing Friday. Second, Broadcom (AVGO) reports Wednesday after the close. After Dell’s blowout Thursday night, the bar Hock Tan needs to clear has been raised significantly. Third, the Iran 60-day Memorandum of Understanding announced Thursday still needs formal ratification within the next two weeks, and any breakdown in those talks would reverse the volatility compression that fueled this past week’s rally.

On the macro side, the order matters. Monday’s ISM Manufacturing print will frame the week and the consensus expects 49.8, a hair below the expansion line. A surprise above 50 would confirm the manufacturing reset narrative and reinforce the bull case for industrials and cyclicals. Conversely, a miss below 49 would reawaken the late-cycle slowdown worry given that Q1 GDP was just revised down to 1.6%. Tuesday brings JOLTS plus Factory Orders, followed on Wednesday by ADP private payrolls and ISM Services, the more important of the two PMIs given that services dominate US output. Friday’s NFP is the data the Fed actually weighs and consensus sits at 145,000 with the unemployment rate at 4.2%. Notably, the asymmetry favors a downside surprise and a print below 100,000 would put September cuts squarely back on the table.

What investors should watch most is the Broadcom (AVGO) setup as mentioned above. The options markets are pricing an implied move of roughly 7% on the print, well above the historical average and the most asymmetric outcome would be a beat with cautious forward guidance. AVGO is priced for management to extend its “$100 billion in AI chip revenue by 2027” line of sight into a hard number, but anything short of that, combined with hyperscaler capex moderation in the commentary, would trigger the kind of broad semiconductor de-risking that the technicals already flag as overdue. The macro releases matter. However, Broadcom Wednesday is the trade the entire tape is built around right now.

💰 The Parabolic Semiconductor Rally

Previously, we laid out the case that market leadership is narrow, increasing summer risk. This week I want to focus the lens on Friday’s Daily Market Commentary topic: “The parabolic semiconductor rally.” That short commentary generated several questions that deserved a more complete response. So, I want to use today’s BullBearReport to expand on my thoughts on the trade: it’s not just leadership; it’s nearly the entire trade.

I mentioned last week that, across the market sectors, roughly $23 billion has flowed into technology ETFs since February; however, almost every other sector has been flat to down since prior to the Iran crisis. Most importantly, it is worth noting that even Energy has failed to rally despite the surge in oil prices and Technology has now surpassed its early year outperformance.

However, that is just the major sectors of the S&P 500. The sector we want to focus on today is the parabolic semiconductor sector, for which we will use the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), which closed Friday at $598, putting it 168% above its 50-month moving average. That is the most extreme deviation from trend in any major sector ETF on record. The setup is unique, and the asymmetry has turned against holders. Here’s why semis could break first, and how to position accordingly.

The standard measures of stretched are useful, but they understate what’s happening in semiconductors. Bank of America’s technical desk flagged the SMH weekly RSI above 80 for two consecutive weeks, an all-time high reading and only the fifth such instance since 2012. The fund trades roughly 150% above its 200-week moving average, exceeding the prior peaks of 100% to 108% set in 2021 and 2024. Both of those readings preceded drawdowns of more than 30%.

However, the cleanest single picture is the 50-month moving average. The 200-month MA at $88 is too far below the current price to be a useful mean reversion target. The 50-month MA at $224 is the actual trend that has tracked semis through every cycle since 2002.

Today, SMH sits 168% above that line. The prior peak deviation was 95% when the same parabolic semiconductor surge occurred in 2021, and that move resolved in a 49% drawdown over the following twelve months. By comparison, today’s reading nearly doubles the prior record.

The picture is unambiguous. Today’s reading isn’t part of the historical range. It is the historical range plus an additional 70 percentage points of overshoot. Mean reversion to the 50-MMA from $598 to $224 implies a ~63% price decline. That’s not a forecast, just arithmetic.

The question is what would cause such a mean-reverting event?

The Customers Are Five Companies

Every parabolic move eventually runs into a customer concentration problem, and the semiconductor rally has the most extreme version I’ve seen in my career. The entire AI infrastructure thesis rests on five hyperscalers continuing to underwrite the buildout. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Oracle account for the overwhelming majority of demand for forward AI chips. Their combined 2026 capital expenditure is projected above $800 billion, and the SMH basket is priced for that number to keep accelerating into 2028.

Importantly, the dependency runs in only one direction. The hyperscalers can throttle capex at will. They have the cash flow, the balance sheet flexibility, and shareholder bases that increasingly want to see returns on the prior years’ spending. Semiconductor names cannot create demand in a reciprocal manner. They are at the mercy of the hyperscalers’ ongoing spending commitments. Therefore, the moment any single hyperscaler tempers forward capex guidance, the bid under Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, and Micron evaporates instantly.

The customer dependency runs five-to-one, and the supplier dependency is even tighter. Notice in the diagram above that more than half of SMH is exposed to four names that all rely on the same five buyers. There is no diversification inside the basket. If hyperscalers throttle, the entire ETF moves together.

“When 73% of professional money managers sit on the same side of a trade, the marginal buyer is already in. There is no second leg of buyers waiting to bid the dip.” Bank of America’s May Fund Manager Survey identified long global semiconductors as the most crowded trade on Wall Street at a record 73% reading.

The answer to why the parabolic semiconductor move has been so sharp, and why fundamentals do not seem to matter, comes down to a single word: Gamma.

The Gamma Squeeze Is Doing The Work

The fundamental story explains why semis are extended. It doesn’t explain why the move went vertical over the last six weeks. That mechanical acceleration is a textbook gamma squeeze, and understanding the plumbing matters because the same mechanism that drove the move up is what makes the unwind violent on the way down.

The chain of events is straightforward. Retail and momentum traders pile into short-dated call options on Nvidia, Broadcom, and SMH. Dealers who sold those calls are short gamma and must buy the underlying stock to stay delta-neutral as the price rises. Their hedging buys push the stock higher, which forces more hedging, which pushes the stock higher still. The feedback loop runs until call buying stalls or expiration removes the options from the dealers’ books.

The mechanics of this particular parabolic semiconductor advance are symmetric, and that’s the danger. Every share that dealers were forced to buy on the way up becomes a share they’re forced to sell on the way down. The buying and selling aren’t driven by fundamentals. They’re driven by hedging discipline against a derivatives book. When the catalyst hits, whether it’s a guidance disappointment, a hyperscaler capex cut, or simply monthly options expiration removing the gamma support, the loop reverses.

An additional wrinkle makes the unwind worse than the rally. Once stocks start falling, put buying replaces call buying. Dealers are now short put gamma and must sell stock as prices fall to stay hedged. The selling begets more selling, just as the buying begets more buying. We saw this exact pattern in the August 2024 unwind, when SMH dropped 34% in roughly six weeks despite no change in the underlying AI demand thesis. The fundamentals weren’t worse. The gamma was gone.

For positioning, the gamma backdrop changes how you think about hedging. Buying puts after the move starts is expensive because implied volatility has already expanded. The cheap insurance is bought before the unwind. That window is open today, but there is a high probability it will close after Broadcom reports earnings on Thursday if their guidance disappoints.

History Doesn’t Repeat, But It Rhymes Loudly

Every prior parabolic semiconductor move resolved the same way. The 2000 dot-com peak gave back 82%. By 2008, the GFC drawdown cost another 52%. In 2018, the trade war pulled the index back 30%. Then the 2022 rate-shock cycle delivered a 49% peak-to-trough decline, followed by a 34% reset during the 2024 August unwind. None of these were forecast in advance. Each was justified by a “different this time” narrative right up until the moment it wasn’t.

The 2000 entry on the chart matters most. That parabolic semiconductor move featured the same combination of features that defines today’s landscape: a “different this time” narrative built on a real technology transition, and a concentrated trade among professional investors. The post-peak drawdown was 82%, and SMH itself took roughly 9 years to recover to its prior high from the 2008 trough, which compounded the damage. The current setup doesn’t have to deliver that outcome. However, the prior parabolic peaks all delivered something materially worse than the typical correction. The current setup is more extreme than any of them, not less.

What Should Investors Do Now

Here’s the problem with selling a parabolic semiconductor move outright. Parabolic moves run further than anyone thinks possible before they break, and the final leg often delivers the largest gains of the entire move. Outright shorting is a way to get “carried out on a stretcher.” We saw it in 1999, and then the same trap caught short sellers in 2021, and again in early 2024. The discipline is to manage the asymmetry of the move, not to predict the top.

Specifically, here’s the playbook we’re applying in the model portfolios this week.

Make no mistake. This is not a “doom and gloom” analysis, and none of this is bearish on the secular AI thesis. The AI capex cycle is real, and the long-term demand for compute infrastructure is durable. However, secular themes regularly produce cyclical drawdowns of 30% to 50% on the way to their long-term payoff. Internet adoption was real in 2000, and the underlying secular story has played out across two decades. That truth didn’t save anyone who bought Cisco at the peak. Disciplined exposure management is how we participate in the secular story without owning the worst part of the cyclical drawdown.

Most crucially, trimming exposure is not a market call. It’s risk management at a point where the asymmetry no longer favors holders. The reward for staying long the last 10% of a parabolic semiconductor move is small. Round-tripping the previous 50% is permanent damage to capital. When leadership gets this narrow and this stretched, the rally and the risk are the same trade.

Position accordingly, and stay nimble through next week’s catalyst window.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 10:30

"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown

Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours as the far-left and well-funded maximum pressure campaign entered its ninth day on Saturday. The continued mobilization only suggests a coordinated pressure operation, with dark-money-funded NGOs appearing to provide organizational and financial support.

Citizen journalist Nick Sortor went undercover at the anti-ICE encampment outside Delaney Hall in Newark on Saturday night, documenting what he described as far-left revolutionaries training their so-called 'woke warriors' to combat ICE agents.

Sortor explained:

I went undercover into a leftist training "class" here outside ICE Newark, where rioters are each handed ~$100 of equipment to pretend to be medic.

These people are basically Antifa's support staff.

They were given goggles, latex gloves, and most notably, 3M P100 respirators with MULTIPLE spare cartridges — all new in the box.

The respirator + spare cartridges cost $75 each. And they were doling them out like candy.

These are NOT organic riots. They're well organized and well-funded. These groups need to be broken up into a million pieces.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: I went undercover into a leftist training “class” here outside ICE Newark, where rioters are each handed ~$100 of equipment to pretend to be medics

These people are basically Antifa’s support staff

They were given goggles, latex gloves, and most notably, 3M P100… pic.twitter.com/CeB6m4QlYo

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 30, 2026

Chaos.

🚨 BREAKING: MAJOR clashes underway between NJ police and anti-ICE rioters in Newark

SUPER physical fights

WE NEED NATIONAL GUARD! pic.twitter.com/vMMmlcxBZb

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 31, 2026

🚨 BREAKING: NJ POLICE HAVE LOST CONTROL —THEY’RE OVERWHELMED

VlOLENT CLASHES UNDERWAY

(One of my phones is now a casuaIty) pic.twitter.com/qMbW6hfqZ9

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 31, 2026

🚨 BREAKING: ABSOLUTE WARZONE OUTSIDE ICE NEWARK AS RIOTERS ATTACK NJ RIOT POLICE

POLICE ARE BEING HIT WITH ROCKS, AND ANTIFA IS THROWING FLASHBANGS BACK AT THEM

WE NEED NATIONAL GUARD! pic.twitter.com/4fOG4gRvri

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 31, 2026

🚨 BREAKING: Anti-ICE rioters are now STEALING items from local businesses and SETTING FIRES in the street near ICE Newark

Police are a QUARTER MILE AWAY

TOTAL ANARCHY pic.twitter.com/cdax1nH7Bd

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 31, 2026

Even the globalists at The Atlantic were recently forced to acknowledge ... 

Late Saturday evening, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said, "We know that people from outside the state have been interfering in the protests and escalating them. 5 of the 6 people arrested last night by state police were from outside New Jersey."

WOW! The governor of New Jersey just revealed 5 of the 6 people arrested here outside the Newark ICE facility by NJ State Police were from OUT OF STATE

Once again: NOTHING about this is organic.

NJ GOV. SHERRILL: “We know that people from outside the state have been interfering… pic.twitter.com/Ceo8omhb2W

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 30, 2026

Fox News Digital observed signs from several far-left organizations at the ICE facility, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the Freedom Socialist Party, the Internationalist Group, the Labor Committee to Defend Immigrants, and the CUNY Internationalist Clubs.

Demonstrators carried copies of "Challenge," a newspaper affiliated with the Progressive Labor Party, with headlines including "LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!" and "NO PAPERS, NO BORDERS, NO BOSSES."

Fox News Digital reported that one protester accused Gov. Sherrill and liberal politicians of not spending enough time at the immigration facility, claiming they were there to "protect the racists because racism protects their profits."

That protester told the crowd that the "only thing that's going to save us is a mass militant, multiracial, anti-racist rebellion against this system."

Protesters responded by chanting, "If we don't get it, shut it down!"

Last week, we noted that one of the dark-money-funded NGOs organizing the protest is the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ).

Influence Watch states on its website that NJAIJ is a coalition of over 50 groups that advocate for left-of-center immigration policy. Its executive committee includes the ACLU of New Jersey, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New Jersey Working Families Party, the American Friends Service Committee, and Faith in New Jersey.

Earlier on Saturday, Fox News Digital reporter Michael Dorgan questioned far-left Marxist influencer Hasan Piker about foreign influence and funding connected to China and the Neville Roy Singham network.

Related:

• Hasan Piker Says Quiet Part Out Loud, Maps Radical Left NGO Network To China-Based Marxist Financier

Piker denied having a direct connection with the China-based billionaire who funds far-left movements in the US that are seen merely as CCP influence operations by US federal investigators.

Related:

• Feds Subpoena Hasan Piker, CodePink Cofounder Over "Humanitarian" Trip To Communist Cuba

"I don't know why there's this environment of suspicion or this environment that takes this sinister shape for some reason when we're talking about things that are totally above board and totally legal," Piker said. "I don't have any personal contact with Roy Singham or any of these other people. I mean, I know some of these people. They're wonderful people in general. They are activists."

Piker claimed that the federal government "has been actively trying to target activists and protesters," shifting the blame to President Donald Trump.

"I feel like that's not great, especially considering that Donald Trump said he was going to end cancel culture, he was actually going to end woke-ism, and that he was the free speech president," Piker said. "I feel like there are a lot of people who believe in that message, and now he's betrayed that message."

"People are allowed to believe whatever they want to believe," he continued. "That's the American spirit, baby."

Yet nonprofits were never intended to organize street violence, clash with police, shut down infrastructure, riot, burn down city streets, incite Marxist revolution, or serve as proxies for statecraft operations by foreign governments.

Federal investigators understand that protests during the Trump era are not grassroots protests. These are part of the protest industrial complex paralyzing American infrastructure on demand, financed by left-wing billionaire family foundations through nonprofits, as well as entities based in hostile foreign power, such as the Singham network, which even the New York Times says conducts propaganda operations for the CCP.

That's why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled Thursday that a coming crackdown on dark-money funded NGOs will be seen in the "weeks and months ahead."

🚨 WOW! Scott Bessent just revealed the IRS has moved to make NGOs LIABLE for violent activity committed by their grant recipients like Antifa

George Soros has been put on NOTICE.

"The IRS is now giving guidance on the Form 990, which nonprofits they have to file. We are going… pic.twitter.com/15ToheHbwa

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 28, 2026

It's not just China…

• Is There A "Cuba Connection" Behind The Radicalization Of America's Nonprofit Left

Last October, Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute, briefed President Trump on television about radical left NGOs and activist networks.

"We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors," Bruner told Trump.

Source: Government Accountability Institute

This subject is near and dear to Elon Musk, who at the time commented on a video of Seamus briefing Trump.

Way more than $100M of US taxpayer money

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2025

Hedge fund legend Kyle Bass noted, "SecScottBessent is doing God's work. Imagine if the IRS required a full donor list to be public to maintain the 501 (c) (3) 's tax-exempt status."

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 09:55

Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable?

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

Russia’s consequent focus on the western front might embolden US-backed NATO member Turkiye to accelerate its power play in the south at the risk of sparking another regional crisis after Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador-at-Large Artyom Bulatov warned in a recent interview that “Westerners, with energy worthy of a better cause, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain’, seeking to make irreversible the rupture – provoked by themselves – of socio-economic, trade, transport, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built in the region not over years, but over centuries.” He also condemned the weaponization of regional interaction mechanisms like the Council of the Baltic States against Russia.

Truth be told, a new Iron Curtain is inevitable and has been since summer 2024 when the Baltic States and Poland combined their respective border fortification plans along NATO’s Eastern Flank to unveil what they now officially refer to as the “EU Defense Line”, which readers can learn more about here. This initiative will likely be expanded to include Finland too, thus stretching from the Arctic to Central Europe. Even in the event of a Russian-US rapprochement, which is now unlikely, these barriers will still remain.

Russian experts, who operated for so long under the influence of the wishful thinking fantasy that the EU is challenging Russia at its senior US patron’s behest and not due to its own ideologically driven hatred of Russia (contrary to its objective interests), are finally waking up to reality. New President of the Russian International Affairs Council Dmitriy Trenin, who issued an unprecedented clarion call in April for correcting foreign policy misperceptions, published a relevant piece in parallel with Bulatov’s interview.

Titled “The EU, Like ‘NATO 3.0,’ Will Remain Our Adversaries”, it dramatically begins by informing readers that “For the first time since 1945, the most pressing military threat to Russia is coming from Europe—European states themselves. This represents the most significant military-political shift for Russia since the victory in the Great Patriotic War.” The goal, Trenin believes, is “to split the Russian Federation into externally controlled components and turn them into semi-colonies of the European Union.”

This will be pursued through indefinitely perpetuating the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine together with ramping up sanctions and military pressure for undermining domestic political stability.

He shared five suggestions in response to these threats:

1) strengthen the homefront;

2) demonstrate willingness to strike targets in the EU (and actually do so if need be);

3) strengthen ties with China to the point of a de facto global alliance;

4) exploit US-EU divisions; and

5) and capitalize on political shifts in EU states.

Trenin also reaffirmed Russia’s new self-identity as a (Eurasian) civilization-state, the subtext being that Russians en masse are increasingly viewing themselves as different from Europeans for the first time since Russia’s experiment of emulating the West began three centuries ago. All the insight that he shared in his article pairs with what Bulatov shared in his interview and the “EU Defense Line” that’s under construction to ensure that a new Iron Curtain is inevitable. Russians are also finally accepting this too.

In terms of the bigger picture, three trends are self-evident:

1) the EU will independently continue challenging Russia regardless of however Russian-US relations develop;

2) Russia will continue prioritizing the World Majority over the West; and 3) Russian-EU tensions will become the new normal.

With Russia focusing on the western front as a result, US-backed NATO member Turkiye is expected to accelerate its power play in the south, thus sowing the seeds of another regional crisis after Ukraine.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 09:20

Immigrant Hordes Set Paris Ablaze Because Their Soccer Team Won

In case you needed further justification for denying your woman's request for a vacation in Paris, hordes of migrants gave your position another boost over Saturday night, as they rampaged across the "City of Light" and other French locales, setting structures and vehicles ablaze, smashing the windows of occupied cars, destroying shops and unleashing other varied forms of mayhem. And they were doing this because they were happy...about a soccer game. 

La Tour Eiffel est noyée sous un nuage de fumée après un départ de feu sur les quais de seine.

Situation toujours très tendue dans ce secteur.#PSG #PSGARS #Arsenal #UCLfinal #Paris pic.twitter.com/89XVXjfRho

— Luc Auffret (@LucAuffret) May 31, 2026

Yes, attacking French society (such as it is) was the outlet for joy they felt over Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defeating the London-based Arsenal soccer team via a penalty shootout in the Champions League final. After the game, they poured into the streets and began destroying other people's property.

🇫🇷 Paris currently looks like a war zone. Again.

North African gangs are blocking the streets and destroying everything in sight following PSG winning the Champions League.

Total chaos. pic.twitter.com/pzRsF0iXX7

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) May 30, 2026

Police deployed tear gas in clashes around Paris. More than 400 people were arrested across France by Sunday's early hours, including at least 280 in Paris, according to the French interior ministry. Seven police officers were injured. Last year's PSG championship also sparked disaster, including the death of a 17-year-old. 

The situation is worsening and getting completely out of control in Paris.

The Champs-Élysées area is being destroyed, with migrant gangs reportedly even attempting to set fire to the Arc de Triomphe.

A literal war zone. pic.twitter.com/yENmLrpRXm

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) May 30, 2026

"Only in France does a football club's victory spark riots," lamented conservative leader Marine Le Pen. "Only in France does everyone feel compelled to lock themselves in their homes on the evening of a victory to avoid being confronted with violence. The French can no longer stand these scenes of chaos that multiply at the slightest pretext, and this, despite an extraordinary security apparatus." The destruction was visited upon bakeries, restaurants, retail stores, bus shelters and cars.

In perhaps the most disturbing video of the night, rioters were seen shattering the windows of a car occupied by two young women: 

🚨HAPPENING NOW IN PARIS: Islamic anarchists are swarming women in cars and doing god knows what to them.

Where is President Macron? https://t.co/qnTruGIZvy

— Drew (@AllegedlyDrew) May 31, 2026

While major media won't do it, we're highlighting migrants as the principal offenders because people lacking native French characteristics dominate imagery of the hellish scenes across Paris and France. 

This is Paris, France tonight. Import the third world, become the third world. pic.twitter.com/BaiCRW1cRP

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 31, 2026

"Yay, fellas, our team won!" :

North African PSG fans burned, devastated and looted Paris. If you import third world you become third world. pic.twitter.com/auvt2Z9Hu0

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) May 31, 2026

Some of the ugliest scenes played out on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which was once widely and reasonably nicknamed the "most beautiful avenue in the world." On Saturday night, thanks to a long-running cultural invasion that continues to plumb new dystopian depths, the stretch famous for the Arc de Triomphe, luxurious shops and fine dining was among the world's most alarming.   

The Muslim gang riots continue in Paris.

A huge fire was started at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Notice how they chant “Allahu Akbar.” This is a religious war, and this is their way of saying “we own the place now.” pic.twitter.com/MLXSc3IEXi

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) May 31, 2026

In a contribution to French society that should live in infamy, leftist Second Vice President of the National Assembly Clemence Guette posted a message before the violence started unfolding, touting the "victory of a collective" (nice Marxist flourish there!), and asking authorities "not to spoil the party once again," and to refrain from "violent repression," saying police should "let Parisians and Francilians have their pride and joy for this evening." 

Here's what "pride and joy" looks like to moronic, multicultural Marxists: 

Problems in Paris pic.twitter.com/KOU8r5UF4S

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2026

And here's what Paris looked like before being blessed by cultural enrichment:  

Paris before the Globalists started implementing their Plan to use French Tax Payer to import & house Tens of Millions of African & Asian Migrants.

It’s not just Paris - it’s the entire Western Civilised World. pic.twitter.com/CbUAYwzuKx

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) May 31, 2026 Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:45

Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base; Tehran Identifies Two Key MOU Sticking Points Summary

• Iran is pushing forward legislation formalizing control/management of Hormuz Strait shipping, which flies in the face of Trump warnings & conditions.
• An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base, a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force. BBG says missile intercepted, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans.
• Two more American drones reported destroyed or damaged in the Kuwait base attack (DropSite/BBG).
• Iran says two big MOU agreement issues remain & are not finalized: Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions, Nuclear File

//--> //--> US-Iran nuclear deal by July 31?
Yes 55% · No 45%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

Iran Moves to 'Legalize/Formalize' Management Of Hormuz Strait

A Saturday message and warning from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters via Al Jazeera: "The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran." It added that "all ships, commercial vessels and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy."

So despite President Trump's latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears to be completely brushing his words aside, and is moving closer to formalizing its authority over vital energy shipping waterway.

State-run Nour News is reporting that a bill outlining Tehran's role in managing passage through the strategic waterway has been finalized and is expected to be brought to a vote soon.

According to Bloomberg, Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi did not provide a specific timeline for the vote but said the legislation is on track to become law. Salimi said that "only Iran and Oman can decide on Strait of Hormuz management" - adding that "the Omani side has given preliminary approval" to Tehran's plan. He further emphasized the strategic importance of Hormuz, declaring that "the Strait of Hormuz is more important and more valuable to the Islamic Republic of Iran than dozens of nuclear bombs."

Previous comments by Salimi indicate the bill would cover shipping security, the collection of navigation and environmental pollution fees, as well as the creation of a regional development and progress fund - all of which critics have dismissed as but Tehran's ruse to collect what is in effect a "toll". The legislation is expected to undergo review by Iran's Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting and approving all laws before they take effect.

More Reported US Drones Destroyed

Reports of more MQ-9 Reaper damage or destruction have emerged; however, the Pentagon has not verified this, and is not expected to. This along with the past week of 'live-fire' tit-for-tat incidents suggests an escalating situation, even as the warring sides try to get back to the peace negotiations table. It looks like it could be related to the Saturday missile attack on a US base in Kuwait, but details are murky. Per DropSite:

2 more drones were reportedly downed in Iran on Friday. https://t.co/VocxypbfSC

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 30, 2026 MOU Holdup: The Sticking Points

Some latest commentary on where things stand via Al Jazeera... the key issues:

• Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions
• Nuclear File

"So far, there is no timeframe. However, we know that the negotiations are still continuing. The agreement, according to Iranian officials here, is not finalised yet. Proposals and messages are being exchanged through Pakistani mediators and some other regional players as well," the report says. Per AJ:

The Iranians, while saying that it is not finalised, have largely agreed on many items. However, there are still some sticking points.

Finally, the Iranians are quite clear at this stage. They are saying that they are not discussing the nuclear file or nuclear programme unless confidence-building measures are put in place. Only if the first phase is successful will they be open to discussing their nuclear programme.

These confidence-building measures have been precisely identified as the unfreezing of billions in assets held aborad.

New Iranian Attack on US Base in Kuwait

An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base, a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force's expeditionary forces in the Gulf region. An initial report from Bloomberg News indicates that Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the tactical ballistic missile in the last 24 hours, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans and damaging one MQ-9 Reaper drone while severely damaging another.

About five people, including both contractors and active duty personnel, suffered minor injuries, the person said. One Reaper was destroyed and at least one other was seriously damaged. -BBG

⚠️ Bloomberg reporting the consequences of Thursday night's Iranian ballistic missile strike on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait: Several Americans suffered minor injuries. Two MQ-9 Reaper strike drones - $30 million each - seriously damaged.

The weapon: a Fateh-110 ballistic… https://t.co/WgmB42pBU5 pic.twitter.com/3xYK4oHSHx

— The Tectonic (@thetect0nic) May 30, 2026

News of the strike on ASAB, where the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing under U.S. Air Forces Central acts as a forward logistics, airlift, and combat-power gateway for the broader CENTCOM theater, comes as the US and Iran on Friday reached a tentative memorandum of understanding to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and restart nuclear negotiations. However, the proposal still requires final approval from President Trump, according to U.S. officials cited by Fox News.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also indicated yesterday that Washington is maintaining maximum leverage, saying sanctions relief will remain off the table unless Tehran reopens the Hormuz chokepoint, transfers highly enriched uranium, and accepts that it cannot maintain a nuclear program. Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore overnight, where he said the US military is prepared to resume strikes against Iran if negotiations over the nuclear program collapse.

.@SECWAR “We were in a cabinet meeting just a couple of days ago, and the president said—hey, it will be a great deal—and if Iran doesn’t want to make a great deal that ensures they don’t get a nuclear weapon—they can deal with the guy on my left.

That was the only time I’ve… pic.twitter.com/Int1YiuflQ

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) May 30, 2026

"Any deal will be a good one. A great one," Hegseth said Trump told him. "And if Iran doesn't want to make a great deal that ensures they don't get a nuclear weapon, they can deal with the guy on my left," he added, referring to the War Department. "We are more than capable," Hegseth noted in reference to a renewed military strike against Tehran. "Our stockpiles are more than suited for that, both there and around the globe."

Hegseth's remarks came just hours after Trump met with officials in the White House Situation Room to discuss the next phase of negotiations with Iran. "The Situation Room meeting has concluded and lasted approximately two hours. President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," a White House official said in a statement issued late Friday.

MOU Not Finalized, Tehran Confirms

Iran's Foreign Ministry commented on the memorandum of understanding between the two nations, stating that nothing has been finalized yet.

News of progress toward a peace deal comes as energy experts warn of an energy cliff that could emerge as soon as next month if the Hormuz chokepoint remains closed. It's clear that inventories, floating storage, rerouted cargoes, emergency substitutions, and rationing have absorbed the initial shock of lost Gulf-area crude, offsetting the roughly 10 million barrels of oil that weren't reaching their intended destinations each day. Additionally, daily headlines have pushed Brent crude futures to $91 per barrel by Friday afternoon.

But as we've warned, if the Hormuz chokepoint doesn't reopen in the near term, crude oil could soon be aggressively repriced higher, as those inventories are being drained at an alarming rate.

Latest on the energy market:

• UBS Warns Of "Scary" Oil Price Scenarios Once Inventory Buffers Run Dry

• "Approaching Unheard Of Inventory Levels": Exxon, Chevron Issue Apocalyptic Warning About What Happens Next To Oil

• 'Tank Bottoms' Loom At Cushing After Across-The-Board Inventory Draws, Another Huge SPR Drain

Latest Bloomberg headlines:

US Naval Blockade

• The US continues its blockade of Iranian vessels, with the US Central Command attempting to stop Iranian vessels seeking to pass through the blockaded area by issuing warnings along the blockade line.

• US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still in place as of Saturday morning.

Iranian Missile Attacks

• An Iranian ballistic missile strike on Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base within the past 24 hours caused minor injuries to several Americans and seriously damaged two MQ-9 Reaper strike drones.

• Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the Fateh-110 missile, but falling debris struck the air base.

Ceasefire Negotiations

• The US and Iran have reached a preliminary deal to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and discuss Tehran's nuclear program, but President Trump has yet to agree to the terms.

• Trump left a two-hour Situation Room meeting on Friday without deciding on the possible deal, despite earlier suggesting an agreement was near.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that the US is ready to restart attacks on Iran if a deal cannot be reached.

Strait of Hormuz Transit

• Iran state TV reports that 2 ships have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.

• The US affirmed that deals with Iran to sail through the Strait of Hormuz safely are prohibited, regardless of whether a payment is made.

• Several vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz have been attacked in recent days, according to the Chevron CEO.

• Qatar opposes permanent legal fees for transit through the Strait of Hormuz, but a temporary fee for mine-clearing purposes is negotiable.

Polymarket: //--> //--> Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by June 15?
Yes 8% · No 93%
View full market & trade on Polymarket //--> //--> US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 7, 2026?
Yes 14% · No 86%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

The clock is ticking for a deal to avert an energy cliff that top energy experts warn is near.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:30

"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it.

I know, I was shocked too.

The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes”. Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day.

It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Titled “Growing up in an online world”, it contains this hilarious line in the foreword:

…there is, I think, an overwhelming consensus that excessive screen time can harm children and young people and we need to call this out unflinchingly rather than passively wait for someone else to prove causation”.

Which is a pretty neat summary of how our political system works in general, and certainly in this case: We don’t know if there’s even a problem yet, but by God we’re gonna do something about it.

That the something they end up doing makes them rich and powerful is just one of the curious coincidences tyrants can always rely on.

{Sidenote: This morning the BBC had “Overwhelimg consensus” in their headline on this story, but at some point the absurdity of that quote was realised, and the headline changed. Now there’s this disclaimer near the end: “There is no consensus among the wider scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” Funny stuff.}

Elsewhere, the report wails about “a wave of radicalized children” who pose “a real risk to society”, and calls social media “an incredibly powerful and uncontrolled commercial detriment to health”.

In a similar vein, The Guardian is warning of a “tsunami of harm”, and has assembled an all-star cast of interested parties to talk up the scariness of social media meanness.

After meeting with “bereaved parents” earlier today, Keir Starmer has “vowed to take action”.

His potential rival for the leadership has been even more vocal. Political eunuch and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting is all over this, campaigning hard to be the next disposable suit full of bugger all to “lead the country”:

Big tech's behaviour has been akin to big tobacco, introducing an addictive and harmful product whilst avoiding regulation.

We’ve got to give our children their childhood back, and that starts with a social media ban for under-16s. pic.twitter.com/soRbjbHIsG

— Wes Streeting (@wesstreeting) May 26, 2026

He thinks a ban should be “just the start”:

Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back […] A ban for under-16s must be the start, not the end […]We have given the pen to tech moguls to write our future for us. It’s time to take the pen back.”

Streeting is an idiot whose ambition outweighs his intellect by a factor of ten, and who clearly doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing.

Some political handler behind the scenes probably told him to go hard on this issue because it will make him look tough and assertive, but the likely truth is he’s being wheeled out as the extreme option so a “sensible middle ground” option – probably Andy Burnham – can enforce “common sense policies”.

What will those policies be? It doesn’t really matter, but we’ll get to that.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, notable only for garnering less than 5% of the vote in the 2015 leadership election, is out there promising “action”:

'The question isn't whether we are going to act, we will'

As a consultation on social media use for under-16s comes to an end Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told #BBCBreakfast the Government plans to take actionhttps://t.co/jJ6RakraWV pic.twitter.com/6lLD8yVoY9

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) May 26, 2026

…they haven’t decided what “action” yet, exactly but it’s definitely going to happen.

The Guardian has a handy list to choose from, including but not limited to:

– social media bans
– “digital curfews”
– “function limitations”
– age gating “addictive features”
– protecting children from personalised algorithms
– enforcing screen time limits.

Which one will it be?

Well let me answer that question with another question – Who cares?

The powers that be certainly don’t.

This is very much an “any colour you want so long as it’s black” situation.

Choose an outright ban – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the social media ban.”

Choose screen time limits – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from screen time limitations.”

Choose digital curfews – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the digital curfew.”

Since all the proposed measures rely on age verification for enforcement, they all achieve the end goal: No more online anonymity, for kids or adults alike.

Debating the list is pointless, and making a choice counterproductive. It’s like choosing the colour of your electric chair: It makes no difference to the end result, but your entirely cosmetic choice lends tacit approval of the whole process.

We all know where this is going: Age gating everything, everywhere and then – eventually – digital ID.

It’s just…

…and you’re left wondering, who is this even for?

What is the point of this worn-out, unenthusiastic propaganda?

We know what they’re going to do, they have said they’re going to do it, and still they feel the need to play out this performative umming and erring.

Just get on with it.

All the people who don’t believe them will NEVER believe them, and all the poor fools who do believe them will always believe them.

So why carry on this absurd pretense?

It’s like when you’re watching a really dull movie – one that has telegraphed its “clever twist” in the first ten minutes – but is still insisting on dragging out the run time for two more hours of what the writers evidently consider skillful foreshadowing.

Or when you get a call from an unknown number, and some eager breathless voice announces “this is not a sales call”, before launching into a fifteen minute speech about double glazing or solar panels, and you’re just waiting for a pause long enough to say “no thanks”, and hang up.

It is a sales call, and you’ve known that from the beginning, and they know you know, but they can’t stop talking because then you’ll leave. They have to keep talking because they know you’re not listening.

So maybe that’s the answer. Maybe they can’t take a breath because people will hang up.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:10

More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: "The Russians Are Coming!"

Flights at Germany's Munich Airport were once again temporarily suspended on Saturday after a drone sighting was reported, eliciting a response from a large number of police and security services personnel.

Euronews reviews in the wake of the incident, which ended with the key European hub resuming regular operations after no UAV was found or identified, "Munich Airport closed twice within 24 hours in October following suspected drone sightings."

This is the latest in a months-long spate of similar air traffic disruptions due to mysterious reported drone incursions, with European officials frequently voicing suspicions of a Russian sabotage and disruption campaign of EU airspace.

Getty Images/Bloomberg

But the biggest incident this week happened in Romania, where local officials described that during the Russian military's assault on Ukraine Thursday night, a Russian drone slammed into the residential building in the southeastern city of Galati - resulting in an explosion and a fire that injured two people.

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned the "grave and irresponsible escalation from Russia" while further declaring it has issued formal request for more anti-drone defense measures from NATO.

"Romania has informed allies and NATO's secretary-general about the circumstances and requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania," the ministry said.

While Romania and other countries which border Ukraine have witnessed 'errant' drones and missiles come across the border before, this was the first time Romania in particular has suffered casualties as a result of a projectile hitting a densely populated city or area.

President Putin himself has weighed in, demanding that forensic proof that this was indeed a Russian drone - and not a Ukrainian one - be handed over to the Kremlin for an investigation.

He also used the opportunity in Friday remarks to highlight that Russia is always blamed for any and all drone incursions into European airspace due to Russiaphobia. Putin said according to TASS:

Ukrainian drones have previously entered the airspace of various countries, and initial reports consistently claimed it was "a Russian attack," President Vladimir Putin said in response to a TASS question about the drone incident in Romania.

"We know that Ukrainian drones have flown into Finland, Poland, and several Baltic states. The initial reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania. 'Oh no, the Russians are coming, it’s a Russian attack!'" Putin recalled.

While the Russian leader was being deeply ironic with his 'the Russians are coming' comment, it is true that just earlier this month NATO jets were scrambled over Estonia and shot down an errant Ukrainian-origin drone which had drifted into Baltic/EU airspace.

"We apologize to Estonia and all our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents," a Ukrainian government statement had acknowledged. "We have been and remain in close cooperation through our specialized institutions to get to the heart of the matter in each case and seek ways to prevent them, including through the direct engagement of our expert groups."

Munich Airport is operational again after an earlier potential drone sighting halted flights. The airport is currently our most disrupted airport with 33 canceled flights and 114 delays so far averaging nearly an hour. pic.twitter.com/dcmSVZ4EIZ

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 30, 2026

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then deflected, calling attention to Russian actions: "Moscow does this on purpose, together with intensified propaganda," it said.

As for the spate of mystery UAV sightings over Northern and Western Europe, it's anyone's guess as to the origins. Some pundits have suggested these are merely irresponsible hobbyists, or else pranksters. However, the reality of projectiles entering neighboring countries as a result of the Ukraine war is much more serious, and a significant threat to these populations.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 07:35

Le Pen Leads Every Major Rival In New French Presidential Runoff Polling

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Marine Le Pen would beat every major rival in a second-round French presidential election runoff, according to new polling that hypothesized her eligibility to stand in the election expected in April next year.

A Toluna-Harris Interactive poll for M6 and RTL, conducted on May 27, found Le Pen ahead in all three tested runoff scenarios when she is the National Rally candidate.

The strongest result came against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with Le Pen taking 67 percent to his 33 percent. She also defeated former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal by 54 percent to 46 percent, and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe by 52 percent to 48 percent.

The figures are significant because Philippe and Attal are among the most prominent names in the broader Macron-aligned camp, which has long presented itself as the main barrier to a National Rally victory. Le Pen has twice lost runoff elections to Macron, back in 2017 and 2022.

Yet the poll suggests that even the strongest establishment contenders would currently fall short against Le Pen in a head-to-head vote.

France, Toluna-Harris poll:

Presidential run-off election

Le Pen (RN-PfE): 52%
Philippe (HOR-RE): 48%

Le Pen (RN-PfE): 54%
Attal (RE-RE): 46%

Le Pen (RN-PfE): 67%
Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 33%

Fieldwork: 25-27 May 2026
Sample size: 1,744

➤ https://t.co/qOzl2nSVPC pic.twitter.com/ZwUFcw7Ma7

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 29, 2026

Le Pen is currently barred from running after being handed an immediate five-year ban from public office, but she has appealed the ruling. A decision on that appeal is expected on July 7. Should she remain unable to run, National Rally president Jordan Bardella is widely expected to become the party’s presidential candidate.

That would still leave National Rally in a commanding position. Earlier polling this week showed Bardella leading the first round with 32 percent, well ahead of Philippe on 17 percent and Mélenchon on 16 percent. The same May Odoxa political barometer also showed Bardella beating Philippe in a second-round runoff by 52 percent to 48 percent, reversing the result recorded two months earlier, when Philippe had led by the same margin.

Taken together, the surveys point to a deepening problem for France’s centrist and left-wing parties. Whether the candidate is Le Pen or Bardella, the National Rally is now polling not merely as a first-round protest vehicle, but as a party capable of winning the presidency outright.

If Le Pen’s appeal succeeds, she would enter the race as the most formidable candidate in the field. If it fails, Bardella would inherit a political landscape in which the National Rally brand is already ahead of its most likely rivals.

🇫🇷 @MLP_officiel promises the French people a referendum on immigration if the National Rally candidate wins next year's presidential election.

Current polling shows both possible RN candidates, Le Pen and @J_Bardella, beating all other major rivals in a second round run-off. pic.twitter.com/X0t1RCRMec

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 29, 2026

On Friday, Le Pen announced her intention, should the National Rally win the presidency, to offer the French public a referendum on mass immigration.

“The French people have been betrayed. In 2027, we will restore a democratic vitality to France by returning power to the people,” she wrote on X.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/31/2026 - 07:00

The Nocebo Effect: The Real PsyOp Behind Fake Pandemics

Authored by Mike Adams via Natural News.com,

The Nocebo Effect Is the Hidden Engine of Modern Pandemic Narratives

When authorities tell you to be afraid of a virus, your mind can make symptoms real, even when no pathogen exists. This is not conspiracy theory; it's documented science, and it has been weaponized against the public for decades. The nocebo effect -- the evil twin of the placebo -- is the key to understanding how pandemics are manufactured as psychological operations. The word "nocebo" means "I will harm" in Latin, and that's exactly what this phenomenon does: it turns negative expectations into real physical harm.

The idea that a suggestion can make you sick is as old as medicine itself, yet it has been deliberately ignored by the scientific establishment because it threatens the entire foundation of the infectious disease model. Research on the nocebo effect in the context of COVID-19 shows that the pandemic produced a "nocebodemic effect" characterized by mass negative interpretation of health services and medical treatments. When combined with the fear narrative pumped out by governments and media, this creates a perfect storm of psychogenic illness that requires no actual virus to produce symptoms. The institutions that profit from sickness have learned to weaponize this effect on a scale never seen before.

How the Nocebo Effect Works: Mind Over Matter, the Dark Side

The placebo effect demonstrates that belief can heal, but its dark twin shows that belief can also harm. In the book "Awaken the Power Within," hypnotist Del Hunter Morrill explains that suggestions create our belief systems and cultural mores, and they affect how we think, respond, and act. When suggestion is carefully engineered by those in power, it can produce real physiological effects. Consider the documented case of a patient who convinced himself he was dying after a mistaken last rites -- and actually died. That's the power of the nocebo response.

Modern research confirms that negative expectations about treatments can cause patients to experience side effects that have no biological basis. A 2017 study in The Lancet concluded that some patients experiencing adverse events while taking statins were actually suffering from a nocebo effect: when patients and doctors were aware of the statin use, reporting of adverse events was much higher than when they were unaware. The mechanism is well understood: the brain's expectation of harm triggers the release of neurotransmitters and hormones that can produce real pain, fatigue, and inflammation. The pharmaceutical industry and governments have weaponized this by flooding the public with constant warnings about symptoms, deaths, and "variants" that prime the population for mass nocebo responses.

COVID-19: The Greatest Nocebo Operation in History

The COVID-19 pandemic stands as the most extravagant mass nocebo operation ever conducted. The docuseries "The End of COVID" argues that the Wuhan coronavirus was not a real viral pandemic but a manufactured crisis, challenging the idea that diseases spread via viral transmission. My own reporting has exposed that PCR tests are fraudulent -- they cannot diagnose infection and were used as theater to convince people they were sick. The CDC's germ theory of disease collapses under scrutiny, as no pure virus has ever been isolated and shown to cause contagious illness. What we experienced was social contagion of fear, not viral contagion.

Yet there was a real toxic element: as I have repeatedly stated, chemical agents released by the Department of Defense caused genuine symptoms in some populations, but the narrative blamed a fictional virus. Then came the lethal experiments in hospitals -- using ventilators and remdesivir -- that killed patients for profit while calling it COVID. Finally, the mRNA injection was promoted as a "vaccine" but functioned as a biological weapon, with injuries later rebranded as "long COVID." The interview with Alec Zeck and Mike Winner makes clear that everything about the supposed viral evidence -- genome sequences, PCR tests, electron micrograph images -- is built upon circular reasoning and logical fallacies.

The real pandemic was not COVID; it was a pandemic of manufactured fear designed to trigger nocebo sickness on a global scale.

The Obedience Test and What It Reveals About Society

The lockdowns, mask mandates on children, social distancing decals on floors, and forced isolation were never about health. They were irrational theater designed to test how far people will go to obey authority. As I noted in an interview with Samantha Bailey, the narrative surrounding infectious diseases and pandemics provides governments and organizations like the CDC with significant control over people's lives through measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory vaccinations. The fear generated by these narratives is a powerful tool that justifies extensive actions even when not supported by robust scientific evidence.

Throughout the COVID nocebo psyop, the world proved itself unbelievably gullible. In the span of a few months, billions of people accepted the mass suspension of civil liberties, economic destruction, and the injection of experimental gene therapies into their arms. The trauma of lockdowns and mask-wearing in schools is likely to haunt those who lived through it for many years to come. Yet the controllers are already planning the next rollout. As I warned in an interview with Thomas Renz, they are working on the next pandemic -- likely to appear around the time the WHO treaty is fully implemented. The names will change -- "Smurf virus," "Hantavirus," or something else -- but the pattern will remain the same: manufacture fear, trigger the nocebo response, demand compliance, and use the chaos to push depopulation and digital surveillance agendas.

Breaking the Spell: How to Say No to Nocebo and Protect Your Health

Your best defense against this weaponized mind-control system is simple: reject authority and embrace skepticism. Do not let fear dictate your choices. The nocebo effect is powered by negative expectations, so starve it by refusing to consume the fear porn of the corporate media. As noted in psychological research, the nocebo effect occurs when the treatment context generates negative expectancies that lead to worse health outcomes [13]. If you refuse to participate in the narrative, you refuse to give it power over your body.

I have lived this approach for decades. I take no vaccines, no prescription medications, and I avoid hospitals like the plague. Instead, I rely on natural medicine -- vitamin D, zinc, ivermectin, medicinal herbs, and real food. I eat organic, avoid processed toxins, and spend time in sunlight. My health has never been better, while those who trusted the system -- who lined up for every booster, who wore masks religiously, who cowered in fear -- have suffered and died in alarming numbers.

The principles of self-reliance, natural healing, and critical thinking are not just lifestyle choices; they are survival mechanisms in a world that is actively trying to make you sick through suggestion. Say no to nocebo. Refuse to participate in the sorcery of mass suggestion. Break the spell, and you will live longer, freer, and healthier than you ever imagined possible.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 23:20

Seattle To Declare "State Of Emergency" To Protect Transgender Refugees?

The ultimate claim to victimhood is the claim that a group of people are "refugees" from mass persecution or "genocide."  The political left covets this victim status more than anything else because, within first world liberal societies, refugees have immediate political capital and access to easy money.  Within every leftist narrative there is an agenda for power and a life without adult responsibility.

It is perhaps ironic that thousands of progressive activists and LGBT advocates are leaving red states over imaginary oppression after they spent years attacking conservatives for escaping blue states over very real medical tyranny.  At least conservatives never called themselves "refugees." 

Leftists specifically believe their rights are being violated in red states because conservative governments won't allow them to mutilate their children with hormone therapy and sex change surgeries.  This nightmare trend, which is increasingly proven by science to have a detrimental effect on the minds and health of the people who undergo gender therapies, is still heavily protected in leftist havens like Seattle.

For reasonable and sane people still living in the Emerald City, relocation should be a top priority because the golden hordes are making the great northwest their home base.  Seattle's new "democratic socialist" (communist) mayor Katie Wilson is more than happy to oblige the mentally ill mob clamoring for access.  The problem is, as the crazies move in, all the businesses are moving out.

This conundrum leaves Wilson's poorly managed city in a financial bind.  New transgender resident are calling themselves "refugees" and demanding access to tax based subsidies in order to survive.  One would think they could simply get jobs like everyone else.  But, much like third world migrants, everywhere these people go they are always jobless and in dire need of handouts. 

The Seattle LGBTQ Commission has requested that Mayor Katie Wilson declare a civil state of emergency due to an influx of transgender and queer individuals relocating from conservative states, which is straining local housing, food, and mental health resources.

National data shows that 84% of transgender and nonbinary people have made major life decisions, such as relocating, since November 2025 due to state policies.  This mass influx is means some Seattle support organizations will face a depletion of resources by the end of the summer.

In response, the mayor is launching an interdepartmental team to assess community needs by August.  Under Seattle Municipal Code and state law, the mayor can proclaim a civil emergency which grants temporary powers.  These include entering contracts and spending without standard bidding, budgeting, or permitting delays. Accessing or reallocating city contingency/emergency funds. And, directing personnel and resources more flexibly.

However, the most likely agenda behind an emergency declaration would be to push for federal funds, which, of course, Seattle will not get. 

The city is facing a massive budget shortfall of half a billion dollars for 2026 and 2027, which means numerous programs and employees will have to be cut.  Katie Wilson has driven away a number of corporate taxpayers and more are getting ready to leave.  This has recently forced the mayor (who initially said good riddance to big business) to change her communist tune and take more diplomatic approach to corporations in the region.

Unfortunately for her, she has made her bed with a gaggle of mentally disturbed fanatics; they want their handouts and they want to destroy major companies paying for those handouts.  As this trend continues it is likely that Seattle faces severe economic crisis, or even collapse. 

On the bright side, the relocation of hundreds of thousands of trans activists means less problem children for red states.  Given that these people seem to cause chaos wherever they go, it's better that they congregate in a place like Seattle and drive each other insane rather than spread out and plague the daily lives of normal people.    

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 22:45

Shortages And Rationing Loom As Global Oil Reserves Fall At Fastest Rate In History

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis. Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once all of the mines have been removed, it will take the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf weeks to arrive at their destinations. Moving forward, Persian Gulf countries will be exporting much less oil and natural gas for the foreseeable future because of all the oil and natural gas infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the war. It will take years before all of that infrastructure is fully repaired and rebuilt. Meanwhile, global supplies of oil and natural gas will be very tight for an extended period of time..

What I have just laid out for you is the best case scenario.

Ultimately, what we end up facing could be so much worse.

Over the past couple of months, global oil reserves have been falling at the fastest rate ever recorded…

Record inventory draw: Global oil stocks have fallen by 246 million barrels in March-April, with draws in May hitting a record 8.7 million barrels per day.

Hormuz closure impact: The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has cut off 25% of the world’s seaborne oil, compounding already low reserves and boosting prices.

US price outlook: Analysts expect U.S. gasoline prices could reach $5 this summer unless flows resume, with relief unlikely before autumn.

Needless to say, this is not sustainable.

Here in the United States, the strategic petroleum reserve has been dropping at a record-breaking pace…

The SPR’s most recent drawdown, covering the week ended May 22, shows a drop of 9.1 million barrels, leaving the reserves at 365 million barrels. The previous weekly drawdown, covering the week of May 15, was its steepest on record — the U.S. withdrew 9.92 million barrels from the SPR then.

Before that record-breaking decline, the largest weekly drop in the SPR’s history occurred in the week ended Oct. 7, 2022, when the reserves dropped by 7.41 million barrels, and was connected to the war in Ukraine.

Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted as well.

At some point the tanks are going to hit minimum operating levels and we are going to have an enormous crisis on our hands.

The chief economist at Capital Economics is projecting that commercial oil inventories “could reach critically low levels by the end of June”…

“At the current pace of drawdown, commercial oil stocks could reach critically low levels by the end of June,” Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on May 18.

If supply conditions don’t improve soon, “prices could rise sharply,” Shearing warned.

Jeff Currie is warning that Asia is already very close to minimum operating levels, and he is projecting that the U.S. could potentially be dealing with shortages in July…

Oil markets are nearing minimum operating levels in Asia, with Europe likely next and the U.S. potentially facing shortages by July, said veteran market strategist Jeff Currie on Monday, underscoring the global energy shock due to the Iran war.

Headline global inventory figures can be misleading as much of the oil stored worldwide cannot be used immediately, said Currie, Carlyle’s chief strategy officer of energy pathways and co-chairman of Abaxx Markets.

A large portion of that oil is needed to keep pipelines and storage systems running safely, leaving only a smaller share available for the market. Asia is already close to these so-called “minimum operating levels,” Currie told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Wealth Conference in Singapore.

This is really happening.

The Australian government is so concerned about what is ahead that they have already prepared a plan to limit the amount of fuel each vehicle can purchase per day when that becomes necessary…

Contained in documents obtained by Guardian Australian under freedom of information, one option the government had at its disposal to arrest a local fuel supply shortage would be to impose a “maximum transaction value per vehicle per day” – a rationing rule which would limit how much fuel a single vehicle can buy at a service station over a 24-hour period.

If the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened, we could eventually see similar measures get implemented all over the world.

Of course rationing of motor oil has already started…

Nissan is rationing 5W-30 and 0W-20 Nissan Genuine Motor Oils. Starting this week, Nissan’s stock of these oils has dropped by 30% year-on-year. With only 70% left in the tank, the brand is already taking precautions, sending memos to dealers to manage its stock during the shortage.

The brand will prioritize certain owners, such as those claiming “warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” according to Kim Less, the vice president of aftersales at Nissan Americas, in the bulletin addressed to Nissan dealers.

“Given these constraints, it is critical to prioritize the use of Nissan Genuine 0W-20 (and 5W-30, where applicable) for warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” Kim Less, vice president of aftersales, Nissan Americas, said in the May 15 bulletin to Nissan dealers.

I would encourage my readers to stock up on motor oil while they still can.

Supplies are only going to get tighter from this point forward.

The pharmaceutical industry is also very dependent on raw materials from the Middle East, and one pharmacist is claiming that the current drug shortage is the “worst I’ve ever known”…

Some people living with heart conditions, stroke risks, eye infections and bipolar disorder are among those unable to get the medications they rely on, a pharmacist has said.

Graham Jones, who owns Shrivenham Pharmacy in Oxfordshire, said vital medication like aspirin was harder to obtain because of surging global prices and government funding which was not keeping up with costs.

Jones said the current medication shortage was the “worst I’ve ever known”.

Personally, I am even more concerned about the global fertilizer shortage.

The UN is telling us that we could be facing a worldwide food crisis that could last for “years”…

The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz risks a global food crisis that could extend for years, the UN warned.

Global fertilizer companies have slashed production over shortfalls of sulphur, required to make many farming inputs; about half of the global supply passed through the strait before the Iran war.

As a result, farmers are likely to produce lower yields in coming harvests. Richer economies like those in Europe are mulling building fertilizer stockpiles, reducing duties on imports, and onshoring production, but poorer ones have limited room to adapt.

I want to be very clear about what lies in front of us.

No matter what happens now, there will be shortages and rationing.

It is just a matter of how intense they will be and how long they will last.

Needless to say, the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead is not promising at all.

We really do have a major crisis on our hands, and it will become a historic nightmare if the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened soon.

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

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 22:10

Meet The Woke Vegan "Christian" Democrat Senate Candidate From Texas

For at least a decade the progressive movement has been obsessed with infiltrating every aspect of American life and culture, even going so far as co-opting Christian churches in an attempt to claim them as "safe spaces" for woke ideology.  This might sound odd to those who grew up in the devoutly atheist era of liberalism, but those days are long gone and seem quaint in comparison to today's cavalcade of circus freaks.  

Well, despite their crushing defeat in 2024 the parade of unhinged woke Democrats has not abated.  In fact, it seems to be getting worse.  Numerous democratic socialists are running for office in blue states and cities and some are unseating more centrist Democrat incumbents.  The party is being overrun with far-left fanatics, a predictable outcome when one accepts the fact that leftists never admit they are wrong and always double down.

A prime example, maybe the most egregious example, is James Talarico - A Democrat candidates for US Senate in Texas.  Talarico is a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2018.  Talarico has ties to an NGO called Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), which coaches potential civic leaders in far-left ideology.  

Though, the candidate is best know as the aspiring woke pastor who argued that God is "non-binary" in defense of trans athletes (men pretending to be women) stealing trophies and scholarships from real women. 

It's important to remember that 2021 was the pinnacle of the woke movement in US politics.  The Biden Administration opened the floodgates to DEI cultism in politics and ideologues in the Democratic party were rushing to signal their virtue.  In other words, politicians operating in this time period where showing their true Marxist colors for the world to see.  They believed they had won.

Talarico's hot takes ran the gamut, showcasing an unhinged zealotry and a disturbing attempt to blend LGBT and Equity talking points into Christian doctrine.  He has since attempted to distance himself from some of his more meme-worthy claims, but the internet is forever.  His run is against Republican candidate Ken Paxton, who is now famous for unseating GOP incumbent John Cornyn in a landslide and sending a message that Trump owns the party.

Talarico opposed Voter ID in 2021, which is noteworthy today because around 80% of American voters say they support the requirement in order to protect the integrity of elections from foreign influence.

Here’s James Talarico 🏳️‍🌈 saying he opposes voter ID in 2021

Keep in mind, voter ID is something both Dem and GOP voters agree on. pic.twitter.com/5OzRTfIqQ3

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) May 28, 2026

He refers to women as "neighbors with a uterus" in order to avoid offending trans women.  

What does James talarico call women?

"neighbors with a uterus" pic.twitter.com/aRO4nLi5GQ

— Lone Star Liberty PAC (@LoneStar_PAC) May 28, 2026

He referred to the American flag as a 'complicated symbol' that had been 'co-opted and betrayed', which was a common narrative pushed by leftists during the Biden Administration as a means to capture "patriotism" away from conservatives and paint them as a "threat to democracy." 

James Talarico: “The American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us.” pic.twitter.com/zcMowHvZeL

— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) May 25, 2026

Talarico then argued that the Bible 'is silent' when it comes to abortion.  He has apparently never heard of the 6th Commandment. 

James Talarico: “I trust women to make decisions about their own bodies. I don’t think that’s a place for government. That’s a belief I hold not despite my faith, but because of my faith. Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion.” pic.twitter.com/dalwu6JP6F

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 26, 2026

And, maybe the most embarrassing sin of all for a Texan, Talarico promotes veganism (of course he does).  He justifies his crusade against meat in the name of fighting man-made climate change (which does not exist).

Talarico is not a cowboy after all…turns out he is a Vegan pic.twitter.com/eaXZStUgzJ

— realstephaniegaddis🦋🌺 (@stephanegaddis) May 27, 2026

The Senate candidate, as a Democrat project, represents an interesting beta test.  Can the party bleach the history of a woke cultist and present him as a down-home country loving BBQ eating Christian patriot who just happens to be running on the blue side of the aisle?  It's highly unlikely, but this strategy is popping up all over the country. 

Democrats are elevating many white-male prospects who present as vaguely populist (and vaguely straight), and they are turning away from overt DEI and BLM.  The DNC has dumped tens of millions of dollars into Talarico's campaign so far.  But the organization is so saturated with woke that it's impossible for them to find any candidates without a long list of absurd leftist positions in their past. 

So, like Talarico, these campaigns have to hide or gloss over their uncomfortable histories in order to ever have a chance of competing in a red state.  

One cannot separate Talarico from his far-left rhetoric.  He said those things because he believed them, and no doubt he believes them to this day.  Leftists always double down.  They might lie in order to win an election, but they'll double down after they get what they want.  Talarico is not so much a "Trojan Horse" as he is the candidate Democrats had to settle for.   

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 21:35

Three Debates Americans Have Had For 250 Years

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

George Washington rode west from Philadelphia in command of 13,000 troops on a mission that would test his leadership unlike any previous campaign.

These men were not soldiers in the Continental Army. They were citizen militiamen—forerunners of the National Guard—called up from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. And Washington was no longer simply a general. He was president of the United States.

The year was 1794, and Washington had made one of the most fateful decisions of his presidency: to use armed force against fellow Americans.

Congress, desperate for revenue to pay war debts, had enacted a tax on whiskey. Grain farmers in Western Pennsylvania saw the tax as immoral and unjust.

Protestors attacked revenue agents, destroyed the property of tax-paying farmers, and fired shots that killed a local militiaman.

Growing bolder, they fashioned banners on “liberty poles” with slogans like “Equal Taxation and no Excise” and “Liberty or Death.”

For two years, Washington searched for a peaceful resolution. But when 5,000 rebels gathered outside Pittsburgh, vowing to take the city, he knew the time for action had come.

In the end, the Whiskey Rebellion was anticlimactic, resulting in no further violence.

Yet more than 200 years later, Americans still strenuously disagree on basic questions of government.

When is a president justified in mobilizing the National Guard? At what point does a protest become an insurrection? What counts as free speech?

Some fundamental issues were settled at the nation’s founding, a panel of scholars told The Epoch Times. But more were left unsettled. And Americans continue to debate those same issues today.

Unanswered Questions

America will be governed by the people. The Declaration of Independence established that, and the Constitution ratified it.

Abraham Lincoln later distilled the American creed to just 10 words in his Gettysburg Address: “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

But what does that mean?

“The question is: Who are the people?” David A. Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University, said.

The first states couldn’t agree on the polarizing issue of slavery, so they omitted a definition of citizenship from the Constitution, Bateman told The Epoch Times. Citizenship wasn’t defined until 1868, when the 14th Amendment was ratified after rigorous debate.

“The Framers wrote a very brief, cogent, succinct document, and left a lot unsaid,” J. Edwin Benton, a professor of political science and public administration at South Florida University, said.

“They intended that future generations could take these basic precepts and expand on them,” Benton told The Epoch Times.

Here are three things Americans still argue about.

How Much Power Do Presidents Have?

President Donald Trump mobilized the Illinois National Guard in October 2025, saying federal facilities there had come under coordinated assault by violent groups intent on obstructing immigration law enforcement.

Trump cited a federal law authorizing the president to deploy the National Guard to suppress an invasion or revolt, or to enforce the law when regular authorities can’t.

Two days later, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and others filed a federal lawsuit, arguing Trump’s order infringed on the sovereignty of Illinois.

The Supreme Court agreed, saying the administration failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to be accused of abusing his power.

Debates about the limits of presidential authority go back to the very beginnings of the presidency, Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, told The Epoch Times.

“Hamilton and Jefferson had very different ideas about the centrality and desirability of executive power in our political system, and that continues to be a flash point,” Wilson said.

Hamilton favored a stronger executive. Jefferson preferred a weaker role. A hundred years later, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft continued debating the same issue.

Roosevelt thought all the white space in the Constitution should be filled by the president.

“It was not only [a president’s] right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws,” Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography.

Taft held the opposite view. He read the Constitution like a pharmacist reads a prescription.

“The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant,” Taft wrote. Each right had to be spelled out in the Constitution or in an act of Congress.

Most presidents have sided with Roosevelt. Many have been checked by Congress or the Court, and widely criticized by their opponents.

Presidents Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden all also joined Trump in having their executive actions blocked by the Supreme Court.

When Jefferson pushed the boundaries of the office by making the Louisiana purchase without first getting congressional approval, John Adams said Jefferson had become the most federalist of the Federalists. That was meant as an insult, implying that Jefferson had abandoned his own principles and switched sides.

Andrew Jackson was censured by Congress for manipulating fiscal policy after moving funds from the national bank to state banks.

Critics called the 16th president “King Lincoln” for his expansive use of power during the Civil War, including suspending habeas corpus and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Opponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal called it a “Fascist regimentation.”

“This is not just a story about Donald Trump,” Wilson told The Epoch Times. “This is a much longer-running pattern in American history.”

What’s the Role of the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, overturning what had been seen as a right to abortion in the United States.

Protesters gathered in the sweltering heat to voice their displeasure.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) later called for the Court to be expanded to 15 members “in the wake of recent rulings upending decades of precedent.” Others have called the current panel a “post-legitimacy court.”

Yet 50 years earlier, Roe v. Wade had sparked an outcry by overturning longstanding state laws prohibiting abortion.

Then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the decision smacked of “judicial legislation.” Others labeled it judicial activism.

Justice Byron White said the Court had simply fashioned “a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers.”

Americans have disagreed with Supreme Court decisions for centuries.

The Constitution devotes only 378 words to the Supreme Court, a fraction of that given to the other branches. Over the years, the Court has filled out that job description for itself.

For example, Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review, which gives the Court the right to determine whether laws or presidential actions violate the Constitution.

Andrew Jackson refused to enforce Worcester v. Georgia in 1832. Lincoln did the same with the Ex parte Merryman decision in 1861.

Franklin Roosevelt proposed adding six justices to the Court in 1937—a move widely seen as an attempt to change its ideological balance.

More recently, Joe Biden, as president, called for Congress to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices.

The Supreme Court was supposed to be the quiet branch of government, according to David Schultz, a professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University.

“To quote Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, the Supreme Court would be the ‘least dangerous branch,’” Schultz told The Epoch Times.

But the Court often has to deal with the white space in the Constitution, and that’s nearly always controversial, he said.

How ‘Free’ Is Free Speech?

Riley Gaines, a former collegiate athlete and advocate for reserving women’s sports to biological females, was invited to speak at San Francisco State University in April 2023. Protestors disrupted the event and then accosted Gaines as she tried to leave campus.

A month earlier, a conservative federal judge’s talk at Stanford Law School was interrupted and cut short by student protestors. Judge Kyle Duncan had been invited to speak by the campus Federalist Society. Turning Point USA and Heritage Foundation decried those incidents as attacks on free speech.

In April 2024, Asna Tabassum, valedictorian of the graduating class at the University of Southern California, was not permitted to speak at commencement due to safety concerns. The cancellation came after pro-Israel groups alleged that Tabassum had promoted anti-Semitic views and advocated for abolishing the state of Israel.

In 2025, New York University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology disciplined student speakers who made unauthorized remarks at commencement speeches. Both students characterized action of war in the Gaza Strip as genocide. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and human rights group PEN criticized the universities’ actions as threats to free speech.

The very concept of free speech was sparked by an event similar to our contemporary clashes over free expression.

“The idea carries over from the trial of John Peter Zenger,” Schultz said.

Zenger was tried for libel in 1733—more than 40 years before the Declaration of Indepencence—after printing a newspaper critical of the New York governor. The jury acquitted Zenger.

That established the freedoms of speech and the press that were later included in the Constitution.

But there are some limits, said Ken Kollman, a professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame.

“Courts have long drawn lines between speech that is constitutionally protected and speech that is not,” Kollman told The Epoch Times.

Drawing those lines has often sparked controversy.

In 1798, with America on the brink of war with France, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

These laws authorized the president to deport non-citizens or to imprison them during wartime. Another law made it a crime to “print, utter, or publish ... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about the government.

Bateman sees echoes of this today in the deportation of activists with unpopular views.

“Everybody supports free speech in principle,” Wilson said. “The question is: who is willing to support it in practice when it becomes difficult or inconvenient or offensive?”

Signs of Good Health

Is free speech working well today? No, says Kollman. “We are living in a moment when the once-shared notion of protecting open and free debate is being eroded by our partisan [and] other social divisions.”

But we need robust debate, the scholars agreed. The future of the country depends on it.

“Encouraging, fostering, and protecting institutions and processes that encourage open and free debate are all vital for the survival of a liberal democracy,” Kollman said.

“Embrace conflict. Embrace heated, unconstrained argument. And stop trying to impose an etiquette about what it should look like—whose primary function is to constrain it,” Bateman said.

Said Wilson, “Americans ought to think about their responsibility as citizens.

“One of the Founders’ clear beliefs was that the Republic could survive and be healthy only if it had a virtuous, informed, and engaged citizenry.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 21:00

Bondi Claims DOJ Produced 'Everything Required' In Epstein Files Release

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) acted in a transparent manner and acted appropriately in releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as she testified before Congress on Friday.

“To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Bondi said in a statement ahead of a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee.

She added that “justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President [Donald] Trump and his administration,” according to a written copy of her opening statement on Friday.

Bondi told lawmakers in her opening statement that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, had overseen the process to release the Epstein case files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump last year.

The former attorney general said it was “an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process” and added that the DOJ had made redaction errors during the process. However, she mostly defended the DOJ’s work and said that it had complied with the law and demonstrated “an unprecedented commitment to transparency.”

Democratic lawmakers said that Bondi’s interview should have been televised, with Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) saying on Friday on Capitol Hill that Democrats are “incredibly disappointed of the decision” not to have Bondi’s interview recorded and “released to the American public.”

Another, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Calif.), alleged that Bondi was “instrumental in the Epstein files cover-up,” without elaborating. “She must explain who ordered the delays [and] who approved the redactions,” he said.

But Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the head of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters that the interview with Bondi on Friday will be released to the public as quickly as possible.

“You’ll know everything that’s been asked” if there are questions, he told reporters at the Capitol before the hearing started. “We'll release all the transcripts, and if anyone is lying to Congress, that’s a felony,” he also said.

Earlier this week, Bondi confirmed to CNN and other media outlets that she was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and received treatment, including surgery, for the disease.

Bondi was replaced by Trump in early April with Blanche, who was the president’s former personal attorney before he was tapped to join the administration. At the time, Trump and Bondi said that she would be working in the private sector.

Officials with the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled that Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while he was on trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein and is now serving a 20-year term in a federal prison.

The DOJ was tasked with releasing files related to Epstein and Maxwell under a measure, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that was passed in Congress and signed into law by Trump. Previously, some lawmakers had accused the department of not releasing all the files or slow-walking the process.

Blanche, who was involved with overseeing the release of the files, said earlier this year that more than 3 million pages were released, noting that a significant amount of work was required to issue redactions of witness names, among other procedures, before the files were disseminated to the public.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 19:50

The Market's Biggest Buyer May Be Disappearing

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Yesterday, as part of laying out the two paths I can see the economy taking, I wrote that beneath the surface, the American consumer is tapped out. The average consumer - AKA the "retail investor" - has been a key in driving the stock market higher the past half decade.

This morning, I noticed two reports that came out yesterday that add to the conclusion that this "retail investor" looks increasingly broke. 

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal highlighted how rising prices and the highest interest rates in decades have pushed even relatively high-income households into financial distress. One example was a hospital operations director earning nearly $200,000 annually who accumulated $15,000 in credit card debt at a 26% interest rate. Despite making the minimum payments, the balance barely moved.

And the broader data confirms this isn’t an isolated story.

As I’ve noted, the percentage of credit card balances that are 90+ days delinquent climbed to 13.1% in the first quarter, the highest level in 15 years and the worst reading since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Total credit card balances reached a record $1.25 trillion for a first quarter, while average credit card interest rates have surged from 14.6% in early 2022 to roughly 21% today.

Delinquency rates have risen across low-, middle-, and high-income households alike. In other words, this is no longer just a lower-income problem. The financial strain is moving up the income ladder, which fits perfectly with what I’ve been writing about for months.

Student loan delinquencies have also exploded higher as repayment obligations returned. Credit card delinquencies have surged to post-financial-crisis highs.

Auto loan defaults, particularly among subprime borrowers, are sitting near multi-decade extremes. New data from Experian shows that nearly 19% of new vehicle loans now carry monthly payments of at least $1,000, up from 17.4% a year ago and more than triple the 5.4% level seen just five years ago.

Contrary to popular belief, these aren’t primarily luxury vehicles, either. Roughly three-quarters of the loans are tied to mainstream models, led by popular pickup trucks like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500.

The surge reflects years of rising vehicle prices and larger loan balances, with the average amount financed reaching a record $43,952 and the average monthly payment climbing to an all-time high of $770. While delinquency rates remain below 2018 levels overall, both 30- and 60-day late payments are increasing, with the most significant stress emerging among subprime borrowers, who face the highest risk of default as elevated rates and larger loan balances continue to strain household finances.

Meanwhile, as noted yesterday, the personal savings rate has collapsed back toward historic lows as households burn through what little financial cushion remains.

Consumers have continued spending, but increasingly through debt rather than income growth. What appeared to be resilience was often leverage.

The fundamental problem is simple: the modern U.S. economy has become heavily dependent on credit expansion. For decades, growth has been supported by ever-lower borrowing costs, rising asset prices, and consumers’ ability to refinance, roll over debt, and take on more leverage.

That model breaks down when real interest rates remain positive for an extended period. For years, I’ve argued that as long as rates stay near or where they are, consumer finances are only going to deteriorate further. Debt accumulation can sustain spending temporarily, but eventually higher interest costs begin consuming larger and larger portions of household cash flow. At some point, debt service crowds out discretionary spending. Consumers stop buying. Delinquencies rise. Credit availability tightens. Economic growth slows.

As the New York Post put it yesterday, Americans are “too broke to have fun”.

Nearly 60% of Americans say they don’t have enough money to make fun plans this summer — as gas and restaurant prices soar, according to a new poll.

Cash-strapped folks are fueling a “fun drought” with more that 57% of people surveyed saying “cost and budget” are what’s keeping them from having a good time, according to a survey of more than 5,000 US residents.

Overall, the state-by-state survey found 48% of the nation feels like they lack fun in their lives — and 12% can’t even remember the last time they had a free day to enjoy themselves, according to the study, funded by Dave & Buster’s and conducted by Talker Research.

And it will continue getting worse. Positive real rates (or something closely resembling positive real rates) act like a slow suffocation mechanism on a debt-based economy.

Every month that rates remain elevated, more households are forced into the same position described throughout the Wall Street Journal article: juggling balances, making minimum payments, delaying purchases, draining savings, and hoping no unexpected expense arrives.

The uncomfortable reality is that there is little evidence this process reverses on its own. Absent a meaningful decline in interest rates or some form of Federal Reserve intervention, the math continues to worsen. Consumers are already showing signs of exhaustion. Delinquencies are rising. Savings are depleted. Credit card balances are at record levels. Debt counseling agencies are reporting surging demand.

The longer rates remain restrictive, the greater the probability that what currently appears as a gradual deterioration turns into a full-blown consumer retrenchment.

And when nearly 70% of U.S. GDP depends on consumer spending, a consumer retrenchment quickly becomes an economic problem.

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It also means that when the stock market turns lower, what is left of savings and retirement accounts for the very same Americans, shrinking, is going to put them under significantly more financial stress.

If this thesis is correct and the consumer continues to weaken under the weight of elevated rates and mounting debt burdens, I’d be watching areas of the market that have historically been more resilient during economic slowdowns. Things like bonds, gold, consumer staples, defensive sectors, emerging markets with less stretched valuations, and even the equal-weighted S&P 500 all appear better to me than momentum-driven segments of today’s market. That doesn’t mean these assets are immune to a downturn—virtually everything gets hit when liquidity dries up and growth slows. But compared to richly valued technology stocks, speculative growth names, leveraged trades, cryptocurrencies, and other risk-on assets that have benefited enormously from abundant liquidity, they could experience less downside.

If the economy is moving toward a period of consumer retrenchment and slower growth, preserving capital may prove far more important than chasing the last stages of a risk rally.

--

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Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 18:40

Green Retreat: California Eases Carbon-Market Costs For Oil Refiners

California's green-energy regime has hollowed out the state's refining and oil industry, leaving motorists paying the highest gasoline prices in the country. AAA data show the state gasoline average now north of $6 per gallon, compared with a national average of roughly $4.36 as of Saturday morning.

The result of political blowback in California over unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump is a retreat from left-wing climate policies that could offer relief to motorists, Bloomberg News reports.

On Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted to create up to $4 billion in free carbon allowances for oil refiners and other industrial polluters. This will help them more easily comply with the state's greenhouse gas limits under the Cap-and-Invest program.

Earlier this year, CARB proposed further tightening emission limits by removing 118 million allowances from the market to keep the state on track to meet its 2030 climate targets. For refiners, that would mean further reducing emissions or paying more for allowances, with mounting costs already pushing them out of the state. 

The move will help contain gasoline prices at the pump and prevent refiners from leaving the state, especially after energy disruptions in the Gulf region pushed California gasoline prices above $6.

Take US oil giant Chevron, which recently warned that California is careening toward an energy crisis because of the Iran war, and that the company may quit refining oil in the state unless officials roll back taxes and regulations.

California is highly exposed to the disruption rippling through commodity markets, as it imports about 20% of its refined fuels from Asia. But as extensively discussed here, oil product shipments from China, South Korea, Singapore, and elsewhere have been disrupted, leaving Asian nations struggling to meet domestic demand, let alone export to California.

Chevron’s oil refining head Andy Walz recently warned that the potential for fuel shortages in California is his worst fear: “We have refineries in Asia that are having to cut crude, and so they’re going to make fewer products,” Walz said in an interview in late March. “What if San Francisco doesn’t have the jet fuel it needs? Or Los Angeles? Or maybe gasoline?”

Since California is disconnected from the U.S. fuel-making centers of Texas and Louisiana, it is essentially an energy island.

Walz noted in March, days after the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out, that tightening California's cap-and-invest program "made no sense when you look at global tensions right now."

California's green regime has produced nothing but disastrous consequences for households, making fuel prices the highest in the nation:

• California Refinery Closures Spell Trouble for Fuel Prices, Supply: Experts

There are national security implications stemming from the green regime, especially for the state with the nation's largest concentration of military personnel and national security activity.

The retreat on climate targets by state regulators is a win for consumers and the nation, as green is nothing more than inflationary and degrowth, hitting working-poor households the hardest with unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump.

Elsewhere, the US-Iran conflict has forced left-wing states such as New York, Massachusetts, and others to dial back unrealistic climate ambitions.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 18:05

Caught On Tape: Washington Nationals Official Admits To Discriminating Against Religious Player

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson has been caught on camera admitting that he discriminates against starting pitcher Trevor Williams because of his Catholic faith.

The Daily Caller reports that O’Keefe Media Group has released a new undercover report where Hudson admits that the team avoids featuring starting pitcher Trevor Williams on social media because of his 2023 criticism of the Dodgers’ Pride Night.

That particular event honored a drag group dressed as nuns and performing on a crucifix that Williams called a mockery of Catholicism.

BREAKING NEWS: Washington @Nationals Director of Community Relations Admits on Hidden Camera to Active Religious Discrimination Against Starting Pitcher Trevor Williams, Surveillance of Nationals Fans’ Google History, and Segregated LGBTQ+ Corporate Meetings to an O’Keefe… pic.twitter.com/AWqlq6wXV9

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 26, 2026

According to Fox News, in a 2025 interview with Bishop Robert Barron, Williams explained why he spoke out, saying, “Baseball stadiums should be a place where everyone feels welcomed, like 100%. We should all feel welcomed there. But that was clearly against one certain religion. If you don’t draw the line in the sand, who’s gonna do it?”

Hudson described Williams as “super Christian-Catholic” with religious tattoos, and confessed that even lighthearted social media posts—for example, ones asking “Is a hot dog a sandwich?”—avoid including Williams because he spoke out.

Hudson also admitted on hidden camera to digitally surveilling fans who attend Nationals Park, saying, “If you ever come to a Nats game, there is someone on our team who’s responsible for figuring out everything about you, given your purchasing habits, what teams you come to when the Nats play, like what teams you come, and assigning you into a bucket of people and then catering content to you.”

The Daily Caller reports that Hudson told the undercover reporter that if a team supporter accepts online cookies “we’re getting your, a plethora of your Google history.”

In the video, the Nationals executive also described himself as “very far-left leaning” and admitted that he has a “Join the Communist Party” poster in his kitchen.

After the video came to light, Hudson deleted his X account, changed his Instagram, and denied the comments when confronted.

Hudson has since been removed from the team’s front office page amid online calls for boycotts and claims of religious discrimination.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 17:30

Trump Blasts "Barack Hussein Obama Judge" After Kennedy Center Renovation Blocked

President Donald Trump lashed out Saturday after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the planned closure and renovation of the Kennedy Center, accusing the Obama-appointed judge of halting what Trump described as a badly needed structural and aesthetic overhaul of the performing arts venue.

In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said millions of dollars in marble, furniture, steel, heating, air conditioning, and other materials had been ordered or were about to be ordered for what he called a "magnificent structural and aesthetic rebuilding" of the center. He argued the building had serious problems involving rust, rot, pests, failing pipes, aging HVAC systems, and structural beams that needed replacement, making it unsafe to keep audiences inside during major construction.

Trump also attacked Cooper personally, alleging a conflict of interest involving the judge's wife, attorney Amy Jeffress, and tying the Kennedy Center ruling to broader complaints about what he called a "rigged" court system. He said the decision could force the center to remain open despite safety concerns and warned that the institution may soon close "probably never to open again."

Jeffress, according to Trump, "doesn't use the 'Cooper' name" because the couple "don't want people to know that she has a Conflict of Interest with an important Judge." He described Jeffress as "a Radical Left Democrat" who "worked as a Federal Prosecutor and Counselor to Obama Attorney General, Eric Holder," "worked behind the scenes for the January 6th Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs," represented former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and is "currently representing Sleepy Joe Biden on the release of his audio tapes." Trump claimed Jeffress is "totally wired into the Left System, from her husband down," adding that "it is impossible for me to be treated fairly."

As the Epoch Times noted earlier, Donald Trump wants to transfer all operations of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Congress after a federal judge blocked a two-year closure of the venue for renovations.

"The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on May 29.

He accused Democrats of caring "more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center," and therefore "we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it."

Washington-based Judge Christopher R. Cooper issued an order on May 29, which temporarily halted the name change and stopped the center from being shut down for a two-year remodel.

"The Kennedy Center's organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board's unilateral say-so," Cooper said.

Congress organized the center as a "bureau" within the Smithsonian Institution directed by a board of trustees, he said.

The board was given several duties, including "programming obligations," "memorial obligations" honoring the legacy of Kennedy, and general maintenance obligations, the judge said.

To satisfy these obligations, Congress "empowered the Board to do the kinds of things that boards typically do: negotiate contracts, prepare budgets, employ personnel, solicit and accept gifts, transfer property, bargain with employees, procure insurance, and issue annual reports."

The lawsuit's claim that the center's board violated its fiduciary duty in voting to close the center was "likely to succeed," the judge said.

A fiduciary duty is a duty of loyalty, care, and good faith that one party owes to another in positions of trust.

Cooper ruled that the building needed to stay open during the planned construction, which would have started after July 4.

Trump said in his May 29 statement that the building needed to be closed for renovation because it had rotting beams and parking areas that were about to collapse.

"I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight," Trump wrote.

"Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into 'NEVER NEVER LAND.'"

Trump said the Department of Commerce will arrange a full transfer of operations, maintenance, and management to Congress.

The Epoch Times contacted the White House for additional information.

The ruling came in response to litigation initiated in December 2025 by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board of trustees over its renaming as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Beatty is an ex officio member of the center's board of trustees.

Trump appointed himself to the chairman of the venue's Board of Trustees after he entered his second term as president in early 2025.

The president swiftly removed and replaced the board's chairman and every single board member who did not share his vision for "a Golden Age in Arts and Culture."

The current board, which included Vice President JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, and Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo - unanimously voted to rename the institution the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December 2025. Trump welcomed the name change but noted that he didn't ask for it.

The rebrand came with backlash from some in the performing arts community, as high-profit shows like Hamilton pulled out of plans to tour there.

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas said it stood in solidarity with the Dramatists Guild and Actors' Equity Association members who cut ties with the Kennedy Center after Trump's new board took over.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Actors' Equity Association and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas for comment on the latest development.

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 16:20

Missiles Rain Down On Northern Israel In Large Hezbollah 'Revenge' Operation

Northern Israel has come under heavy attack from Hezbollah on Saturday, after this past week a full-scale war has resumed in southern Lebanon, which even saw the resumption of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, much further to the north.

Even while Tel Aviv maintains the illusion of a ceasefire with Lebanon (as in, its government and national army), there is no ceasefire with Iran-linked Hezbollah, following weeks of sporadic drones being sent on northern Israel, as well as troop positions of invading IDF forces.

The Saturday drone and missile waves hit multiple locations in and around the Galilee area, with regional media reporting that at least eight missiles were launched at Israeli positions in the initial salvo, one of which struck a site in Kiryat Shmona city.

Hezbollah subsequently announced it had carried out 22 military operations against Israeli army positions and equipment within the prior 24 hours. It framed this as a revenge operation for Israeli attacks on civilian centers in Lebanon.

Times of Israel has cited IDF statements saying Israel is bracing for more attacks out of Lebanon. "Hezbollah launched several rockets from Lebanon at the Western Galilee a short while ago," it said in a late in the day Saturday (local time) update. "The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted and others struck open areas, causing no injuries."

Sirens across several towns and cities were activated, and there were scenes of coastal locales being impacted, with throngs of people scrambling for bomb shelters.

Starting early last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he instructed his military to "press the pedal even harder" against Hezbollah, reportedly upon a greenlight being given by Washington, following increased drone attacks from the Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran on northern Israel.

Impacts filmed in water areas of Nahariya Beach...

נפילות סמוך לחוף נהריה pic.twitter.com/NQaEPkwIdN

— כל החדשות בזמן אמת (@Saher_News_24_7) May 30, 2026

"We are at war with Hezbollah. Just in recent weeks, our brave fighters have eliminated more than 600 terrorists," Netanyahu announced in video statement. "But we are not taking our foot off the gas. On the contrary, I have instructed them to press the pedal even harder."

"We will strike them. Yes, they are attacking us with drones, cyber-enabled drones, and we have a special team working on this — and we will solve that too…But what this requires from us now is to intensify the blows, increase the force. We will strike them decisively," the Israeli leader said.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 15:45