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The lovebirds have been together for over 30 years.

The lovebirds have been together for over 30 years.

One MLB player took advantage of the All-Star break.

US Slaps Brazil With 25% Tariffs After Rubio Says Socialist Leader "Failed To Negotiate In Good Faith"

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on X late Wednesday night that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is set to impose a 25% tariff on "most Brazilian imports."

"Let there be no confusion about why: President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith," Rubio said.

He added, "His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that."

Today, President Trump directed USTR to impose a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports. Let there be no confusion about why: President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith.

His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 16, 2026

USTR released a statement saying the 25% tariffs on certain Brazilian goods come after a yearlong Section 301 investigation that found trade and regulatory practices in the South American country unfairly restricted US commerce.

"Safeguarding American economic interests against unfair trade practices is the bedrock of President Trump's America First policies," Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrote in a statement.

Greer commented on Bloomberg TV: 

Brazil’s unreasonable acts, policies, and practices have undermined the competitiveness of American farmers, workers, innovators, and businesses. pic.twitter.com/Opu5TOsqmo

— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) July 16, 2026

Bloomberg cited a senior administration official who said imports of coffee, beef and certain ethanol products would be exempt from the new duties.

Honing in on Rubio's X post, which said Lula's “economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians," the bigger issue here is that Lula is an unhinged socialist.

The Trump team, along with folks adjacent to the administration, has been working to reshape Latin America's political landscape by shifting the region away from socialist governments sympathetic to China and toward right-wing, capitalist governments more aligned with the US. The effort is part of a broader Western Hemisphere defense strategy.

Americas Political Map: Presidential Shift From Left To Right

Country-by-country presidential shift tracker

Following the stunning Colombian presidential race, in which Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella won the election, the next major race to watch will be Brazil's. Lula is expected to face right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in the run-up to October's presidential election.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/16/2026 - 10:25

Build your lifetime library.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman revealed the one red-line issue that could push him to ditch the Democratic Party.

The self-proclaimed "swampeprenuer" reportedly was inspired by the ongoing Florida Python Challenge.

U.K. Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the players’ behavior was “entirely inappropriate. I expect FIFA to do its investigation thoroughly.”

The tech shocked some shoppers who questioned why a store that was made famous for having items priced at $1 would even need a scanner.

A metal detectorist recently spotted a 2,700-year-old bronze sword in an unusual position — standing upright in the ground.

Das: Déjà Vu All Over Again! Are Stock Markets Repeating Dot.Com Mistakes?

Authored by Satyajit Das via NewIndiaExpress.com,

The sky-high valuations of space and AI firms today are similar to that of internet ventures before 2000. Herd instinct is leading promoters and investors, not financial and technological reality

Burning cash rapidly, with large unfunded commitments, space and AI businesses are all dependent on uncertain funding access (Express illustrations | Mandar Pardikar)

The listing of SpaceX and forthcoming artificial intelligence floats bear similarities to the lead-up to the 2000 dot-com crash, which resulted in losses of over $5 trillion.

Even survivors like Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell and eBay, which had sufficient cash to ride out the turmoil, suffered massive falls in share price that took years to recover.

Today, familiar mistakes around technology, investment approach, business models, valuation and oversight are being repeated. Like the actress Tallulah Bankhead, investors believe that if they have to live life again, they want to make the same mistakes—only sooner.

The dot-com boom was built around the internet, its enabling infrastructure and retail commercialisation as applications developed. Investors with little technical knowledge piled in, hoping for huge returns. Today’s focus is space and AI. 

Take SpaceX, an unwieldy conglomeration of Starlink satellite operations, a space launch business, a controversial social media service, a struggling AI venture as well as plans for orbital data centres, a moon base and an inter-planetary colonisation programme. The satellite broadband and X platforms use established technologies, but the launch business’s cost advantage relies on reusable rockets that remain a work in progress. Orbiting data centres and interplanetary colonies are technically unproven. The SpaceX prospectus provided unhelpful techno-babble—extending “the light of consciousness to the stars” and harnessing the sun “to power a truth-seeking AI”.

During booms, investors aggressively finance prospects with limited understanding and less due diligence, feeding herd-like tactics and poor business models that amplify risks and speculative excess. While some lessons have been learnt, others are recurring. SpaceX’s launch revenues are underwritten by the US government. That business and Starlink will face significant challenges from nationally sponsored and subsidised competitors, especially in Europe and Asia, because of increasing reluctance to outsource critical national infrastructure to US interests. 

Then there are other AI businesses hitting the stock market in the months ahead. One reason OpenAI pivoted away from a retail to an enterprise focus, replicating Anthropic’s strategy, was lacklustre conversion of free users to subscriptions. But companies have balked at the cost as suppliers switch from subscription models to payment for tokens, with many users now placing caps on usage.

OpenAI and Anthropic’s income and growth are also affected by increasing competition from cheaper, open-sourced—primarily Chinese—models, the threat of regulation and export bans because of potential AI security applications. The cost of the models themselves is growing because of scarcity of skills alongside shortages of processors, electricity and water for cooling.

These businesses all have uncertain paths to profitability, with SpaceX, whose primary profitable business currently is Starlink, warning in its prospectus: “We have a history of net losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.” Burning cash rapidly, with large unfunded commitments, these businesses are all dependent on uncertain funding access.

Yet, valuations have again decoupled from reality. In October 1999, shortly before the dot-com crash, the market cap of 199 internet stocks tracked by Morgan Stanley was $450 billion, against annual sales of about $21 billion and collective losses of $6.2 billion. Now consider that SpaceX raised around $75 billion in June, based on a market valuation of almost $1.8 trillion, or over 90 times of current revenue and 220 times earnings. Analysis by Morningstar argued that even using generous assumptions SpaceX was worth less than half that amount. OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to be valued in excess of $1 trillion. These values would be higher than those implied by their latest funding rounds. 

Current prices are not shaped by future free cash flows, but expressions of tribal affiliation and identity alongside deep faith in a technology. On the day that SpaceX listed, an equity trader gave a speech on the firm’s trading floor: “In 1969 we put a man on the moon… Now let’s go to Mars!” For many, SpaceX shares were cheap on a new extra-terrestrial measure: a price-to-universe ratio!

With negative earnings and cash flow, in a reprise of 2000, values are based on unreliable indicators like ‘eyeballs’ (unique website visitors or page views). With loss-making companies currently trading at a premium to money-making firms, as in the late 1990s, promoters do not want to be profitable as it would mean a lower valuation.

As in 2000, there is an absence of corporate governance. The imperious Elon Musk, the world’s first paper trillionaire, will control the world’s first ‘orbital infrastructure conglomerate’ using a dual-class share structure that reduces shareholder oversight and ensures that he cannot be removed. Musk’s known disregard for governance and self-dealing strategy shifts were dismissed. 

As in the dot-com bubble, banks, analysts and media, despite obvious conflicts of interest, play a pivotal role amplifying the ‘new economy’ narrative. Goldman Sachs, one of the underwriters, expects SpaceX’s AI revenue to increase 100-fold by 2030. Banks involved in the SpaceX offering received fees totalling more than $500 million. Exchanges desperate to boost the number of tech stocks listed agreed to include SpaceX in indices under expedited entry rules, meaning investors—especially passive investors—would have to sell existing holdings to make way for SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI shares. Intermediaries will benefit from large trading volumes. 

The real purpose of the current round of IPOs is to allow insiders to cash out, transferring risk to over-enthusiastic and unsuspecting investors. In 2000, once the 180-day lock-up period expired, allowing original funders and employees to sell restricted shares, there were widespread sell-offs as supply flooded the market. Listing overvalued stock also provides founders with currency for acquisitions. Musk may merge SpaceX with Tesla, consistent with his previous transactions involving Solar City, Twitter, and xAI. Given his unfettered control of SpaceX, it would obviate the need for an expensive and heavily-leveraged transaction to take Tesla private.

Like the dot-com episode, this too is likely to end badly. To paraphrase historian Christian Wolmar writing about British railways, booms cannot be sustained on “little more than optimism feeding on itself”.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/16/2026 - 10:05

The hits just keep on coming for England after their devastating World Cup exit.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the FCC is also expected to escalate a separate investigation into Disney's broadcast television licenses.

"I'll never work again just based on people's fear that I would do this again and, and even if it wasn't true, I’m done," he testified in February.

"I'll never work again just based on people's fear that I would do this again and, and even if it wasn't true, I’m done," he testified in February.

Flood waters from a water main break filled the streets of West Hollywood Thursday morning.

When asked how she plans to tackle so much at once, she said with a laugh, “I don’t know, I’ve figured it out so far so I guess I’m just gonna keep figuring it out.”

Former Vanity Fair columnist George Wayne has penned a piece for Hampton Sheet Magazine in which he recalls a wild stay at the Chateau Marmont.

Israeli filmmaker Alma Har'el has set her follow up project to "Honey Boy" and is teaming with pro-Palestinian activist Javier Bardem.

An online fundraiser for a leftist Canadian woman cops say slapped a teenager at the Jersey Shore after getting triggered by her pro-Trump clothing has been taken offline for violating the site's policies around raising money for those accused of a violent crime.