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The Giants don’t have an answer for this Diamondbacks team, which got to Tyler Mahle in the fifth inning and never let the Giants catch up Monday.

Marcus Semien’s absence from the Mets will be an extended one.

The Jets may reach cruising altitude in 2026 despite recent dramatic accusations of quarterback Geno Smith battering his ex-girlfriend, former general manager Mike Tannenbaum says.  “They’re in the information-gathering stage, and we’ll see what happens, and he’s been a good player for a long time,” Tannenbaum told The Post. “We’ll see what happens with the...

“Sometimes, I do feel like it’s my duty. I can’t turn away. I feel like I could make a change. Maybe I do run in politics,” Portnoy said. 

The Yankees have forgotten how to hit, pitch and field.

A CBS News Chicago reporter and photographer were allegedly attacked near Adler Planetarium as suspects shouted racial slurs and damaged equipment.

Investigators are scouring the sewers beneath the decrepit Philadelphia home of Eugene Horsch, 44, for possible traces of DNA, chemicals used to dissolve bodies, or evidence of a drug lab.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Mets, they seem to find new ways to embarrass themselves. 

Fear Is Overwhelming Us

Authored by Guy de la Bédoyère via DailySceptic.org,

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannise in the imagination, to raise phantoms of horror or to beset life with supernumerary distresses.

Samuel Johnson in the Rambler (1761)

No-one’s disputing that very hot weather can be challenging, even dangerous, for some people. But I’ve been fascinated by the news coverage of the heatwave over the last week or so, largely because I’m currently touring in the American West, as I often am. Reading the British news one could be forgiven for thinking the country was on the brink of destruction.

However, it also links into an accumulating culture of fear which is having a paralysing effect on wider society. It’s been developing for years, driven not only by a news media craving stories, but also government seeking ever more control over our lives, and a vast industry capitalising on promoting fear to sell solutions, reassurance and ‘peace of mind’.

Out here the weather is seriously dangerous in ways most of we Brits have little or no idea. About two weeks ago I was driving across South Dakota into North Dakota through epic downpours that were like carwashes for the gods, and in 80mph winds. But the place carried on, as we did. I drive around 10,000 miles in the American West annually and I have developed a healthy regard for the weather, without letting us stop what we’re doing. We simply adapt.

You might remember that in 2023 there was a heat dome over Texas. Since we were due to fly into Dallas Fort Worth, we were a little worried, thanks in no small part to the tireless BBC that left us and everyone else with the impression that all Texas was about to be obliterated in a conflagration.

Naturally, when we rolled up, we found Texas was hot but in a 100% operational state. Everything was working as normal. We went about our road trip as planned. In southeastern Texas we visited a forest, lush with leaves and long green grass. We found a couple of nonagenarians, who in Britain would have been locked in a freezer to save their lives, out walking as they always did. We told them about the news in Britain. They laughed and carried on.

The interesting thing is not then the heat, or in my case the torrential downpour across the northern Great Plains on a remote and almost entirely empty road, but the fixation in the media and government to turn everything into something to be terrified of.

In recent years, Covid was utilised as the pretext for driving hundreds of millions of people to the brink of – or even actual – mental breakdown from fear. Now it seems the long-term impact on wider society is becoming clearer though Covid is only one facet of a mesmerising array of reasons to be petrified. However, we also have it within us to drive ourselves mad with fear.

In his Journal of the Plague Year (1722) Daniel Defoe included this observation of how fear of the contagion could lead to irrational behaviour, when describing what had happened in 1665:

It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead, as they were buying meat, gave rise to a rumour that the meat was all infected; which, though it might affright the people, and spoiled the market for two or three days, yet it appeared plainly afterwards that there was nothing of truth in the suggestion. But nobody can account for the possession of fear when it takes hold of the mind.

The Telegraph has an article about how school trips are shortening because “Anxious parents are cutting children’s overnight school trips short”:

Steve Hallett, the Director of Operations at Rock UK, which offers residentials at centres across the UK, said a typical trip has fallen from four or five days to two or three.

He said it was partly because of costs but also described an increasing trend of parents collecting their children early or even staying at the site after they drop their children off.

Mr Hallett added that it had become more common for children on residentials to sit out certain activities, watching from the sidelines.

“The level of anxiety is really high. Children who have come through that Covid age, we’re seeing a level of concern even about going outside let alone being away from home,” he said.

A source at another residential company in southern England said a traditional trip was “always a week long” but had shortened since the pandemic.

They said: “Since the pandemic, many parents won’t even allow their children to go on your typical sleepover with friends because of the safeguarding concerns… to go from never being away from home to being away from home for a week is a big thing. Children find it overwhelming and exhausting.”

They gave examples of parents raising concerns about their children being abducted, the food their children are eating and calling the centre during a trip saying: “I’m worried that my child’s going to be cold in the accommodation.”

“There is this anxiety and it’s not helping with the children’s resilience. Parents are less likely – because of those growing fears from the pandemic – to want to allow those children to go off and take those types of risks that allow them to build that resilience,” they added.

One wonders what sort of adults these children will grow into. Last year, Joanna Gray wrote a piece called ‘Why Do Schools Now Resemble Prisons?’ for this site. It’s a dystopian tale of a world of security fences, lanyards and lockdown drills. I can second that. After I left full-time teaching in 2016, I delivered a Classics day to sixth formers at a West London comp. It was a terrifying place. Just being let in was like trying to enter a US high-security establishment. Inside it was a seething mass of teenagers contained in their ‘safe and secure’ environment like battery chickens.

We can only hope that when they grow up and escape into the adult world, they can leave the nonsense behind them. But I’m afraid it’s all too likely that growing up in a climate of fear is encouraging a significant minority to hide at home, unable to contemplate either going to school or facing adult life.

Before I was 10 years old back in the mid-1960s, my idea of fun on a Saturday was to meet a schoolfriend in London, spend five shillings each on a ‘blue rover’ ticket and then pass the day riding around on the tube with a nebulous aim to travel from the end of each line to the other.

I don’t think it ever occurred to my parents either to discourage or even stop me. In 1970 I was fortunate enough to go on a school classics cruise around the Mediterranean on a battered old ship called the SS Nevasa. Twenty-four boys in the charge of one teacher and not a risk assessment in sight! I remember vividly how the captain reminded us sternly that we were embarking on the high seas and not to go near the rails in rough weather.

Fear is a very useful phenomenon. A fear of crashing waves, based on knowledge of what water can do, might keep one away from the end of a jetty or off the deck of a cruise ship in a storm. A fear of traffic helps keep us away from roads. One might take reasonable precautions to avoid catching a serious infection. But there is a limit. To return to Defoe again, representing himself in the first person as the anonymous ‘Citizen’ recounting his experiences:

I had two important things before me: the one was the carrying on my business and shop, which was considerable, and in which was embarked all my effects in the world; and the other was the preservation of my life in so dismal a calamity as I saw apparently was coming upon the whole city, and which, however great it was, my fears perhaps, as well as other people’s, represented to be much greater than it could be.

In other words, as Samuel Johnson noted, fear can assist reason but fear for fear’s sake can overwhelm us. It not only makes things seem far worse than they are but also cripples our ability to cope.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/29/2026 - 23:25

World's Largest Chipmaker, Taiwan Semi, Accelerates Local DRAM Supply Chain With Winbond Collaboration

In a time of heightened scrutiny on the memory supply chain, overnight the world's largest chipmaker, Taiwan's TSMC, is reportedly building out a domestic DRAM supply chain in Taiwan amid a severe global memory shortage, bringing in Winbond as a partner, UDN reported.

TSMC and Winbond are collaborating on a localized DRAM supply chain using 3D wafer-on-wafer (WoW) stacking technology, where Winbond would supply DRAM memory wafers to be stacked with TSMC's logic wafers. The move is designed to keep critical memory production close to home while feeding the demand of AI hardware.

Key details:

• The tech: WoW uses hybrid bonding to directly stack logic chips and memory wafers vertically, creating tens of thousands to millions of micro copper interconnects — shortening data transmission distance versus traditional packaging, with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and better power efficiency. It's positioned as critical for AI servers, HPC, and edge AI devices.
• Why Winbond: TSMC's WoW memory wafers have historically relied on Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. With global memory supply extremely tight and those three running near full capacity, TSMC is diversifying. Winbond's long track record in niche/specialty DRAM and NOR Flash, plus its mature 12-inch wafer production, high yield, and quality control, made it a fit.
• Strategic angle: This is framed as TSMC cultivating a domestic supply chain to strengthen Taiwan's self-sufficiency in AI chip components — elevating Winbond from a peripheral player to a core part of the global AI supply chain, and reinforcing Taiwan's overall position in AI semiconductor manufacturing.
• Caveat: Winbond declined to comment on specific clients/deals, and TSMC had not responded by press time — this is sourced to unnamed industry insiders, not confirmed by either company.

Some more technical color on what Winbond actually brings: 

• Several outlets cite Winbond's proprietary architecture called CUBE (Customized Ultra-Bandwidth Elements), described as purpose-built for WoW integration, with scalable memory density from 256Mb to 8Gb per die. Crypto Briefing
• Why now? Well, as everyone knows by now, the memory pricing backdrop is extreme, if not outright absurd, with all demand crushed except for (off-balance sheet_ debt-funded data centers .One analysis flagged that DRAM prices rising nearly 75% in early 2026, and with the memory crunch expected to persist until at least 2027, that's the real catalyst pushing TSMC to diversify away from Samsung/SK Hynix/Micron.
• This is not Winbond's first rodeo on this front. Separately, Winbond has also been building a DRAM foundry partnership with Elpida targeting graphics DRAM, not cutting-edge HBM — framed by one analyst as a resilience/diversification move for Taiwan's supply chain rather than a direct challenge to Korean HBM dominance. 

That said, multiple outlets note that neither company has gone on record so far  "Specific details surrounding the TSMC-Winbond collaboration remain sparse, as neither company has issued significant announcements regarding the project", consistent with the UDN piece's framing that Winbond declined comment and TSMC hadn't responded by press time.
If you want, I can pull Winbond's stock reaction (2344.TW) specifically, or draft this into a quick ZeroHedge-style piece tying it to the broader memory-shortage/CXMT thread you've been tracking.

TSM gained 3.60% on June 29, with traders attributing the move directly to the Winbond partnership news. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/29/2026 - 23:17

China Imposes Export Curbs On 40 Japanese Firms As Tensions With Tokyo Rise

China imposed new export controls Monday on 40 Japanese entities it says are contributing to the country’s “remilitarization,” as tensions with Tokyo rise.

China’s Commerce Ministry on Monday placed 20 Japanese entities, including the National Institute for Defense Studies and research centers for ground, naval, and air systems, as well as multiple divisions of Mitsubishi Corporation, on a control list, which prohibits Chinese and foreign exporters from selling to them dual-use items made in China. Dual-use items can be used for both civilian and military purposes. 

Additionally, 20 other entities were added to a watch list requiring enhanced licensing scrutiny for dual-use items; it includes Mitsui E&S, which makes engines and other equipment for ships, divisions of Fujitsu and Komatsu corporation, drone maker Terra Drone Corporation, nuclear fuel processors, and multiple units of OKI Electric Industry,. 

Domestic exporters, as well as overseas organizations or individuals, are prohibited from transferring Chinese-origin dual-use items to the named entities, according to the statement, adding that any ongoing activities must stop immediately.

Chinese companies exporting to these firms will be required to apply for special licenses, submit risk assessment reports on the Japanese companies and written pledges that the dual-use items will not be used for military purposes.

Relations between Beijing and Tokyo have been increasingly tense since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year implied Japan could intervene if China used military force against Taiwan, an island democracy China claims as its own.

Meanwhile, Japan has accelerated its military expansion, especially by adding offensive capabilities, which Beijing has condemned.

The export controls are “entirely justified, reasonable and lawful,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said, adding they are aimed at “firmly deterring Japan’s reckless pursuit of ‘new militarism.’”

“We hope Japan will recognize its mistakes, reverse its wrongful course, genuinely reflect on its past and return to the right track,” it added.

Japan did not reflect and instead the country's top government spokesperson called the curbs as “unacceptable and extremely regrettable,” while calling on Beijing to retract the measures.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Monday that Japan would take necessary countermeasures after thoroughly assessing the curbs and their impact.

Under Takaichi, Japan’s military has been equipped with more offensive capabilities, including long-range missiles on remote islands. Exports of lethal weapons are now allowed under a new policy. Japan will revise its defense and security documents by December, which could further increase its defense budget.

On Monday, Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force announced the deployment of a Type-12 missile launcher on the southernmost remote island of Minamitorishima, an apparent response to China’s growing activity expanding into the Pacific.

In February, China put an initial 20 Japanese companies on an export control list and 20 others on a watch list. The Commerce Ministry said that since then, “instead of reflecting on its past and correcting its course, Japan has continued down the wrong path” by accelerating remilitarization, deploying offensive weapons and launching missiles.

The ministry emphasized the curbs affect only a small number of Japanese entities, and the measures only apply to dual-use items. “They do not affect normal Sino-Japanese economic and trade exchanges, and honest and law-abiding Japanese entities have absolutely nothing to worry about.” 

The measures function more as a “diplomatic message” as Beijing steps up its pressure on Tokyo, said George Chen, partner for Greater China at the advisory firm The Asia Group.

“From Beijing’s perspective, Japan has not taken meaningful actions to stabilize bilateral ties,” Chen said. “And concerns are growing in China about deeper defense cooperation between Japan, the United States, and potentially other partners.”

In the short term, Japan–China relations will likely remain fragile “and at risk of slipping further if neither side moves to arrest the downward trend,” he added.

For Beijing, the issue of Taiwan is particularly sensitive. China considers the self-ruled island its own territory, to be retaken by force if necessary, and has increased military pressure on it.

Earlier this month, the Chinese coast guard conducted patrols east of Taiwan in what state media described a “pointed warning” to Japan and the Philippines following an announcement that the countries would discuss their maritime boundaries in waters that Beijing views as its own.

The United Kingdom, Germany and France in a rare joint statement last week condemned Chinese activities in the waters east of Taiwan, adding they opposed any change of the status quo between China and Taiwan.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/29/2026 - 23:01

A young San Francisco 49ers fan didn’t waste her shot when she met Raiders All-Pro defensive end Maxx Crosby. When the fan approached Crosby, she asked him if he could get traded to the 49ers, leaving Crosby speechless. “Bruh I literally made a post about you, like a couple of weeks ago,” the young fan...

This latest exit comes a cast shakeup that includes longtime stars Amanda Batula and West Wilson's departures.

This latest exit comes a cast shakeup that includes longtime stars Amanda Batula and West Wilson's departures.

Smollett's 2021 conviction for staging a hate crime was overturned in November 2024 after a lengthy appeal

Smollett's 2021 conviction for staging a hate crime was overturned in November 2024 after a lengthy appeal

The search to find a swimmer that was reported missing in Newport Beach on Monday morning is still underway.

Another Mets moment has hit the Internet.

Heartbreak was sent across from Boston Stadium, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, to Deutschland after Germany was eliminated by Paraguay. Germany’s hopes of winning the World Cup came crumbling down when José Canale fired a penalty shot to seal Paraguay‘s victory in a 4-3 shootout in the Round of 32, to give Paraguay...

The US Economy In A Nutshell: Privatize The Gains, Socialize The Costs

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Correspondent Simons Chase insightfully summarized this dynamic: Privatize the Gains, Socialize the Costs.

In my post Five Dynamics That Make Sense of an Increasingly Chaotic World, #3 is the distribution of risk, costs and consequences to a diffused populace while concentrating the gains into the pockets of insiders/owners:

Those seeking to reduce their private risks and increase their private gains seek to concentrate the gains generated by control structures and distribute the risks and costs to others. Pull the strings that diffuse the costs and risks over a large populace and gather the gains into the hands of the insiders that manage the control structure, typically some form of monopoly, either public or private, or a fusion of public-private rackets.

So corporations face low risks while the gains are extremely enticing. This diffusion of risk and concentration of potential gains establishes perverse incentives to increase extractive, exploitive, well-hidden rackets that impoverish and immiserate the many, but in doses small enough to avoid triggering push-back.

In a system that concentrates gains and diffuses risk, the "rational actor" seeks to maximize rackets that distribute impoverishment and immiseration to the many in small doses over time that attract little attention and are not significant enough to trigger an emotionally potent resistance.

Correspondent Simons Chase (x.com/slchase and Selflet.ai) insightfully summarized this dynamic: Privatize the Gains, Socialize the Costs. Here is Simons' explanation:

"Junk food is a kind of leveraged recapitalization -- short-term gains privatized, long-term costs socialized as horrific health outcomes: pay a little now and a shortened, diseased life later. Dan Munro folded that framing into his Forbes piece tying roughly a trillion dollars a year in U.S. healthcare spending to sugar: Sugar Linked To $1 Trillion In U.S. Healthcare Spending (forbes.com, 2013). The mechanism is the point: privatize the gain, socialize the cost. Once you see it, you see it everywhere.

The receipt is real--Credit Suisse put 30%-40% of U.S. healthcare spending at the feet of excess sugar, and the 2012 Global Burden of Disease report found obesity a bigger global threat than hunger. That last fact is the whole thesis in a line, and I put it on X more recently: obesity is a form of starvation -- understand that, and you grasp the U.S. economy:

Abundance, not scarcity, is the adversary now. The economy has already filed the invoice: the top employer in most states flipped from manufacturing to health care in a single generation. We stopped making things and started billing the disease. The damage became the GDP.

Debt is the same recapitalization run on the whole economy--today's abundance privatized, tomorrow's cost socialized onto a future that didn't vote. And the defining project of my lifetime has been that operation run on foreign policy: borrowed against what we couldn't pay for at home, the costs socialized onto people far from the ledger, each chapter sold as help.

AI is simply the newest instance, and the most intimate. Cheap, fluent, frictionless cognition now; the homogenization bill later. The engagement is privatized; the flattening of the culture is socialized onto all of us-- and, exactly as you say, nobody notices the loss because nobody knows how to look for it.

Thank you, Simons, for this illumination.

Regarding the future of AI, my critiques and concerns can be found in my Essays on AI. Simons proposes a more productive future than Big Tech is selling, one of AI becoming a technology of individual agency that is radically decentralized rather than the Big Tech model of radically centralized AI in a corporate-state control structure. Here is Simons' vision of the future of AI:

Where I part from the despair is only on the cure, not the diagnosis. The averaging is the default, not the destiny. The answer at every level is the same: nutrient-dense over processed, particular over average, owned over administered. I think AI's future is tribal and human-designed: many particular intelligences, not one central utility that privatizes the profit and socializes the mediocrity. What I'm building is a small argument for that. All I really hope for is the freedom to deploy it -- and not another 'we're here to help.'"

Thank you, Simons, for this alternative lens. My vision of a positive future for AI starts with radical decentralization optimizing individual agency and then moving up the "truly intelligent" scale to AI refusing to waste resources on make-work waste is growth:

My book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free). Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/29/2026 - 22:35