Weekend Partygoers,
Franz Kafka, born July 3, 1883 in Prague, Bohemia (Czech Republic, now) would be 143 years old today. Josh Mitteldorf wishes this prescient visionary of our post-modern epoch a Happy Birthday: https://joshmitteldorf.substack.com/p/from-kafkaesque-to-uber-kafkaesque
Kafka would "appreciate" our modern human struggles to thrive within a machine that promises growth, having just shrunken per-capita-prosperity for 25 years.
The Honest Sorcerer, Infinite Growth Delusions Continue - For Now - When conflict of interests meets reality
According to the data published in the latest release of the Statistical Review of World Energy, infinite growth continued unabated in 2025—this time with “renewables” at the helm. But what is underpinning this unabated growth in energy consumption? Do we have the resources needed to continue with this trend? According to the report—or at least to the message it tries to convey—the answer is a resounding ‘Yes, without a doubt.’ In fact, and as you will see from the data presented below, the opposite is true: the world economy is facing a complex predicament, which will force it to contract...
..According to the newly released report, total energy supply in 2025 increased by 1.7% over the previous year, with solar power accounting for the vast majority of this growth. Despite solar’s rapidly increasing share of world energy—now at 8.7%—all other forms of energy use continued to expand in absolute terms, including fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas use have all increased throughout 2025, and still accounted for 86% of all energy supplied to the economy. Contrary to the stories we tell ourselves the energy transition still hasn’t started yet: wind and solar are still mere additions to an ever growing pile of carbon based fuels...
..The Authors of the Statistical Review are building a bridge to nowhere, based on a blind faith in infinite growth on a finite planet.
Perhaps the best example of this is Insight 2: Energy security in a changing world — How the 1970s oil shocks shifted energy patterns (page 8-9). After misidentifying the problem as an issue rooted solely in politics and war, while forgetting to mention that the then largest producer and consumer of oil in the world by far (the US) has passed it’s own domestic peak in conventional oil production in 1970, then suffered a 15% drop in output making its economy extremely vulnerable to external shocks, the report suggests that the crisis was eventually solved by other sources of energy (coal, gas, nuclear) taking up the slack. While the reference to the present crisis around Hormuz is not explicitly there, it is very hard to miss: ‘Don’t worry so much about oil, solar is here to save us!’...
..Looking at Oil Regional consumption by product group a number of slow changes in oil use over the decades becomes visible. After the dual shock of the 70’s refineries increasingly focused on making more diesel and gasoline from the same barrel at the cost of “sacrificing” fuel oil. In 1980 roughly a quarter of a barrel was refined into gasoline globally, another quarter found its way into diesel fuel, while slightly more than a quarter was burned as fuel oil (marine fuels and crude oil directly used in power plants). The remaining part was turned into jet fuel, naphtha, solvents, lubricants, bitumen, wax etc.—essential inputs needed by the wider economy. Over the 1980 to 2018 period, however, oil’s use as a fuel has shrunk to a mere 7%, while refineries were still turning half of each barrel into road fuels and a steady 7-8% into jet fuel...
Perhaps the best example of this is Insight 2: Energy security in a changing world — How the 1970s oil shocks shifted energy patterns (page 8-9). After misidentifying the problem as an issue rooted solely in politics and war, while forgetting to mention that the then largest producer and consumer of oil in the world by far (the US) has passed it’s own domestic peak in conventional oil production in 1970, then suffered a 15% drop in output making its economy extremely vulnerable to external shocks, the report suggests that the crisis was eventually solved by other sources of energy (coal, gas, nuclear) taking up the slack. While the reference to the present crisis around Hormuz is not explicitly there, it is very hard to miss: ‘Don’t worry so much about oil, solar is here to save us!’...
..Looking at Oil Regional consumption by product group a number of slow changes in oil use over the decades becomes visible. After the dual shock of the 70’s refineries increasingly focused on making more diesel and gasoline from the same barrel at the cost of “sacrificing” fuel oil. In 1980 roughly a quarter of a barrel was refined into gasoline globally, another quarter found its way into diesel fuel, while slightly more than a quarter was burned as fuel oil (marine fuels and crude oil directly used in power plants). The remaining part was turned into jet fuel, naphtha, solvents, lubricants, bitumen, wax etc.—essential inputs needed by the wider economy. Over the 1980 to 2018 period, however, oil’s use as a fuel has shrunk to a mere 7%, while refineries were still turning half of each barrel into road fuels and a steady 7-8% into jet fuel...
..A growing portion of the barrels consumed around the world is increasingly coming in the form of ethane, naphtha, propane and butane. These substances are produced mostly as a by-product of processing natural gas (hence their name) but have very little to do with the real thing: a thick brownish-black liquid called crude oil. And while NGLs can still be used as precursors (raw materials) in manufacturing plastics and for filling cooking gas cylinders—they have little to no use in making more road and aviation fuels...
..Increases in the global consumption of transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel and jet fuel) have become strictly limited by the amount of “real” crude oil we could add into the mix. Consequently growth in fuel supply was capped at an average rate of 1.5% per annum from 1980 up until 2018, closely following increases in world crude oil supply. Then something broke—a full 2 years ahead of the pandemic...
..In 1980 every barrel of oil equivalent (boe) energy invested into drilling resulted in 30 new barrels recovered on a global average, this number is well below 10 by now, meaning that more and more energy needs to be reinvested into getting energy, leaving an ever smaller surplus for the rest of the economy...
..If Rystad’s estimates are correct, about a half as much oil will be available than today by 2050… Food for thought. So why is this alarming trend not discussed in the Statistical Review? Why have they removed the state of proven oil reserves from their report? Because, perhaps, these reserves stopped growing and had to be revised downward? Well, according to Rystad Energy this is precisely the case—too bad they, too, have removed this information from their website later (here is an archived version):
“Global recoverable oil resources, including estimates for undiscovered fields, stabilized at approximately 1.5 trillion barrels. The most significant revision over the last 10 years has been in yet-to-find resources, where our projection has been reduced by 456 billion barrels. This is due to a steep decline in frontier exploration, unsuccessful shale developments outside the Americas and a doubling in offshore costs over the past five years. Rystad Energy expects reserve replacements from new conventional oil projects to be less than 30% of production over the next five years, while exploration would replace only about 10%.”
Another study from the IEA, published last year, found that as oil fields mature (read: deplete) production decline accelerates. At first just by a little, which can be easily offset by enhanced oil recovery techniques, then ever faster and faster… Till the increased energy and material investment needed to keep the juices flowing no longer worth it, and extraction stops. Bad news is that, in 2024, around 80% of global oil production and 90% of natural gas production came from fields that had passed their peak in production...
“Global recoverable oil resources, including estimates for undiscovered fields, stabilized at approximately 1.5 trillion barrels. The most significant revision over the last 10 years has been in yet-to-find resources, where our projection has been reduced by 456 billion barrels. This is due to a steep decline in frontier exploration, unsuccessful shale developments outside the Americas and a doubling in offshore costs over the past five years. Rystad Energy expects reserve replacements from new conventional oil projects to be less than 30% of production over the next five years, while exploration would replace only about 10%.”
Another study from the IEA, published last year, found that as oil fields mature (read: deplete) production decline accelerates. At first just by a little, which can be easily offset by enhanced oil recovery techniques, then ever faster and faster… Till the increased energy and material investment needed to keep the juices flowing no longer worth it, and extraction stops. Bad news is that, in 2024, around 80% of global oil production and 90% of natural gas production came from fields that had passed their peak in production...
..There is nothing left to be sacrificed: if oil production falls—either due to wars, or due to a global peak in production whenever it comes—the economy falls with it.
Diesel fuel, the most valuable portion of the barrel cannot be substituted with electricity at scale either, as agriculture, mining and long distance trucking (not to mention construction) are still completely dependent on this fuel. And without these activities, there is no copper, zinc, nickel, silicon—or anything needed to make “renewables” plus the gazillion electric devices, batteries, transformers, high voltage lines etc. needed to build a ‘smart’ grid to accommodate them. Average citizens buying electric vehicles will not and cannot change that picture—only worsen it by hasting mineral depletion. (In fairness the same goes for driving gas guzzlers.) See, contrary to the impression conveyed by the authors of this report various energy sources are neither fungible beyond a certain limited degree, nor infinite: as each depend on mining non-renewable resources to depletion. https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/infinite-growth-delusions-continue
Diesel fuel, the most valuable portion of the barrel cannot be substituted with electricity at scale either, as agriculture, mining and long distance trucking (not to mention construction) are still completely dependent on this fuel. And without these activities, there is no copper, zinc, nickel, silicon—or anything needed to make “renewables” plus the gazillion electric devices, batteries, transformers, high voltage lines etc. needed to build a ‘smart’ grid to accommodate them. Average citizens buying electric vehicles will not and cannot change that picture—only worsen it by hasting mineral depletion. (In fairness the same goes for driving gas guzzlers.) See, contrary to the impression conveyed by the authors of this report various energy sources are neither fungible beyond a certain limited degree, nor infinite: as each depend on mining non-renewable resources to depletion. https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/infinite-growth-delusions-continue
Surplus Energy Economics, Dr. Tim Morgan has a dark view, presented dip[lomatically here: PARKING THE THESIS
It’s been said that travelling hopefully is better than arriving, but there comes a point at which even the most sluggish and reluctant train pulls into the station. When that happens, the locomotive and the rolling stock are parked in the sidings, leaving the passenger with new decisions to make. Back in 2013, when the Surplus Energy Economics project began, it was possible to suspect that the fading out of the fossil fuel impetus, first harnessed during the industrial revolution, might be pointing towards a pretty imminent ending of economic growth.
Today, through the application of a series of fundamental precepts, we can know, and at very high levels of confidence, that the economy has stopped expanding, and is heading into contraction... [long, detailed part] ...
..A perfectly plausible post-growth model exists, one in which top-down, centralised institutions fail, and are replaced by localised, bottom-up alternatives, which operate at a more human scale, and are more in keeping with environmental sustainability. The astute will be starting to create these localised alternatives even before over-centralised systems collapse.
At the same time, and as the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services retreats, an economy increasingly starved of surplus energy will become progressively more labour-intensive.
The problem, as ever, is ‘getting from A to B’, when “A” is a society hubristically wedded to notions of infinite growth whilst “B” is a more stable-state situation better geared to meeting needs than to fostering the avaricious psychology of consumerism and paper wealth.
Our understanding of finance, when benchmarked to the material, should inform us that the moment of monetary failure will coincide with the attainment of absolute peak valuation.
Policy desperation will combine with ignorance of economic processes to ensure that a theoretical wealth based on non-monetizable notation, and on a complete inability to match claim with substance, will hit its zenith at the very point at which markets complete their failure, and money is stripped of the only substantive value that it can ever possess. https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/327-surplus-energy-economics/#like-45966
At the same time, and as the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services retreats, an economy increasingly starved of surplus energy will become progressively more labour-intensive.
The problem, as ever, is ‘getting from A to B’, when “A” is a society hubristically wedded to notions of infinite growth whilst “B” is a more stable-state situation better geared to meeting needs than to fostering the avaricious psychology of consumerism and paper wealth.
Our understanding of finance, when benchmarked to the material, should inform us that the moment of monetary failure will coincide with the attainment of absolute peak valuation.
Policy desperation will combine with ignorance of economic processes to ensure that a theoretical wealth based on non-monetizable notation, and on a complete inability to match claim with substance, will hit its zenith at the very point at which markets complete their failure, and money is stripped of the only substantive value that it can ever possess. https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/327-surplus-energy-economics/#like-45966
Gail Tverberg, Why Oil Shortages May Bring Lower Prices–and Recession
A "glut" is more supply than demand. Since oil supply can't increase much, if at all, this prediction implies global economic Demand-Destruction, doesn't it?
Goldman Sachs Warns Oil Inventory Rebuild Won’t Prevent 2027 Supply Glut https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/goldman-sachs-warns-oil-inventory-rebuild-wont-prevent-2027-supply-glutAs we suspected a month ago, China's economy is in far worse shape than telegraphed, and as a result it does not need Iranian oil (what oil it does need it just sources from its massive strategic reserves).
In Early June we said that confirming our recent reporting on China's oil demand collapse, crude oil imports to China in May fell to their lowest since October 2017 because of the price spike resulting from the Persian Gulf tanker traffic disruption, plunging refinery margins (due to price ceilings imposed by Beijing), of a slowing economy and the rapid slowdown in the economy.
The May total stood at 33 million barrels, or 7.8 million barrels daily, Bloomberg reported, citing Chinese customs data. This is roughly a 30% drop vs the average daily import rate of 11.6 million barrels last year. As previously noted, refinery run rates are down as well, as are fuel exports, with Beijing careful to make sure there is enough diesel and gasoline for the domestic market. All this is happening as the latest batch of Chinese data was "shockingly bad", promptly fears of a China hard landing. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/iran-runs-big-problem-no-buyers-its-oil-full-tankers-pile-china
In Early June we said that confirming our recent reporting on China's oil demand collapse, crude oil imports to China in May fell to their lowest since October 2017 because of the price spike resulting from the Persian Gulf tanker traffic disruption, plunging refinery margins (due to price ceilings imposed by Beijing), of a slowing economy and the rapid slowdown in the economy.
The May total stood at 33 million barrels, or 7.8 million barrels daily, Bloomberg reported, citing Chinese customs data. This is roughly a 30% drop vs the average daily import rate of 11.6 million barrels last year. As previously noted, refinery run rates are down as well, as are fuel exports, with Beijing careful to make sure there is enough diesel and gasoline for the domestic market. All this is happening as the latest batch of Chinese data was "shockingly bad", promptly fears of a China hard landing. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/iran-runs-big-problem-no-buyers-its-oil-full-tankers-pile-china
The US believed Israel was plotting to kill Iran’s head negotiators in the middle of the peace talks, with America going as far as to warn Tehran through third party countries of the risks, officials said.
Fears that Israel could derail the fledgling peace talks spiked in April as America believed the Jewish state had their eyes on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, The New York Times reported.
The two leaders would go on to approve the current peace deal with the US. If they were killed, it would have likely prolonged the conflict as previous assassinations by Israel have...
..American-Iranian negotiations had previously been halted with an Israeli strike that killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official who had been leading the negotiations in March. Fears that Israel could derail the fledgling peace talks spiked in April as America believed the Jewish state had their eyes on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, The New York Times reported.
The two leaders would go on to approve the current peace deal with the US. If they were killed, it would have likely prolonged the conflict as previous assassinations by Israel have...
Despite the clear orders to keep Araghchi and Ghalibaf alive, American officials still held concerns that Israel would still try to assassinate them, pushing the US to ask countries in the Middle East to warn Iran about the possibility of an attack, sources told the Times...
..The fears appeared all the more real during Ghalibaf’s trip to Pakistan to meet with Vice President JD Vance in April...
..During the flight, Iran’s security forces notified the plane about an alleged Israeli plan to attack the aircraft, with two Israeli fighter jets detected entering the Islamic republic’s airspace, two officials told the outlet...
..Ghalibaf had previously survived two attacks from the US and Israel during the latest war and in the 12 Day war last year.
The account echoes the claims from Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Ghalibaf, who said the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to Pakistan.
The delegation was forced to take an eight hour trip by land to Tehran due to the security concerns, Mohammadi said.
Ghalibaf would go on to travel with Araghchi to Qatar and then to Switzerland last month for another in-person meeting with Vance and American negotiators. https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/world-news/us-officials-feared-israel-was-plotting-to-kill-head-iranian-negotiators-report/
..During the flight, Iran’s security forces notified the plane about an alleged Israeli plan to attack the aircraft, with two Israeli fighter jets detected entering the Islamic republic’s airspace, two officials told the outlet...
..Ghalibaf had previously survived two attacks from the US and Israel during the latest war and in the 12 Day war last year.
The account echoes the claims from Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Ghalibaf, who said the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to Pakistan.
The delegation was forced to take an eight hour trip by land to Tehran due to the security concerns, Mohammadi said.
Ghalibaf would go on to travel with Araghchi to Qatar and then to Switzerland last month for another in-person meeting with Vance and American negotiators. https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/world-news/us-officials-feared-israel-was-plotting-to-kill-head-iranian-negotiators-report/
The Hormuz Letter: BREAKING: Israel was plotting to kill Iran's chief negotiator Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Araghchi to undermine peace talks this spring, with Israeli fighter jets entering Iranian airspace to directly attack Ghalibaf's plane returning from Islamabad talks with Vance, forcing an immediate emergency landing in Mashhad, per US officials speaking to NYT.
Shortly before, the US had gone as far as warning Iran through other countries in the region that Israel would target the two officials, which led to the emergency landing and other safety measures. An Israeli security official responded to the NYT report telling i24 News, "If and when Israel wants to eliminate anyone, it does so." https://x.com/HormuzLetter/status/2072782565501767743
Shortly before, the US had gone as far as warning Iran through other countries in the region that Israel would target the two officials, which led to the emergency landing and other safety measures. An Israeli security official responded to the NYT report telling i24 News, "If and when Israel wants to eliminate anyone, it does so." https://x.com/HormuzLetter/status/2072782565501767743
Friday and Saturday kick off what will be up to a week of solemn funeral observances for slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - a major historic event which is expected to draw some 15 to 20 million mourners in Tehran and across Iranian cities.
Iran on Thursday issued a warning to the United States and Israel, Reuters reported:
"We warn the enemies of Iran, especially the U.S. and the Zionist regime (Israel), to avoid any miscalculation and to think about the harsh retaliation our armed forces would make to any threat and aggression against our country," Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said...
..Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed El Khereiji and his delegation have showed up in Tehran to pay their respects - though they weren't officially expected, per Iranian state publications... Iran on Thursday issued a warning to the United States and Israel, Reuters reported:
"We warn the enemies of Iran, especially the U.S. and the Zionist regime (Israel), to avoid any miscalculation and to think about the harsh retaliation our armed forces would make to any threat and aggression against our country," Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said...
..One delegation which was indeed expected, and has arrived amid the cameras are the Russians, headed by Dmitry Medvedev, former president and now Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/saudi-delegation-makes-unexpected-appearance-tehran-start-ayatollahs-funeral
Moon of Alabama, War On Iran: – Vance-Rubio Struggle – Oman Supports ‘Fees’
Vice President JD Vance was heavily involved in the ceasefire MoU with Iran. The first part of the Memorandum extended the ceasefire to Lebanon and was supposed to guarantee it sovereignty.
At the same time or shortly thereafter Secretary of State Marco Rubio negotiated an agreement with Lebanon and Israel which guarantees a continuation of the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanese land.
The Lebanon agreement is thus a direct attack on the MoU with Iran.
Via The Cradle we find some interesting speculation how this is an expression of a power struggle within Trump’s White House coterie:
The agreement between Lebanon and Israel cannot be understood through bilateral negotiations alone. It also reflects shifting power dynamics in Washington, where US policy toward Lebanon is shaped not only by official institutions, but by competition within the administration and the Republican Party, alongside pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups, particularly the Zionist lobby and the hardline Lebanese Christian lobby.… [This] is reflected in the quiet contest within the American right, particularly between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who represents the traditional pro-Israel Republican establishment, and Vice President JD Vance, whose camp has been more cautious about US involvement in West Asia. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/06/war-on-iran-vance-rubio-struggle-oman-supports-fees.html
Vice President JD Vance was heavily involved in the ceasefire MoU with Iran. The first part of the Memorandum extended the ceasefire to Lebanon and was supposed to guarantee it sovereignty.
At the same time or shortly thereafter Secretary of State Marco Rubio negotiated an agreement with Lebanon and Israel which guarantees a continuation of the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanese land.
The Lebanon agreement is thus a direct attack on the MoU with Iran.
Via The Cradle we find some interesting speculation how this is an expression of a power struggle within Trump’s White House coterie:
The agreement between Lebanon and Israel cannot be understood through bilateral negotiations alone. It also reflects shifting power dynamics in Washington, where US policy toward Lebanon is shaped not only by official institutions, but by competition within the administration and the Republican Party, alongside pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups, particularly the Zionist lobby and the hardline Lebanese Christian lobby.… [This] is reflected in the quiet contest within the American right, particularly between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who represents the traditional pro-Israel Republican establishment, and Vice President JD Vance, whose camp has been more cautious about US involvement in West Asia. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/06/war-on-iran-vance-rubio-struggle-oman-supports-fees.html
“And … if the Iranians are willing to make the commitments that we would like them to make and are willing to back those up with verifiable milestones, then we are going to change our relationship with Iran. And if they don’t do that, then nothing has really changed except for what we’ve already accomplished from the military campaign, which is a lot. So, we kind of have two options here. We have the option of pursuing a long-term deal with the Iranians, but that requires a significant change in their behavior. We have the option of banking our wins and then, of course, doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to. And I think both of those options are very much in play,” he added...
..Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in a post on X that Vance’s comments heightened suspicion in Iran that the war will restart despite the MoU. He made the comments in a post discussing the view in Iranian political circles that Israel may launch an attack before Israeli elections are held in October. “Will Israel restart the war with Iran before the October elections? This is the consensus view emerging within Iran’s internal national security debate over the past week,” Parsi said.
Trump plays good-cop: Vance Warns 'US Has Options' As Iran Rejects Direct Doha Talks - Trump Insists Diplomacy Is 'Very Good'
On the same day, Vice President JD Vance played a little 'bad cop' - warning that if Iran fails to acquiesce and destabilizes the region that the US could respond, escalating in several ways. "If Iran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, threaten its neighbors and support terrorism, President Trump has options to deal with it," Vance said. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-briefed-full-scale-war-plans-still-eyes-diplomacy-iran-reminds-us-muzzle-your-pets
The June jobs print (57k, roughly half expected) was the hinge of the day: gold decoupled from stocks and ripped while the memory/chip complex cratered, dragging Korea to the edge of a bear market and turning the AI-capex reflexivity trade. New overnight: the NYT reported Israel plotted to assassinate Iran's chief negotiators...
..June payrolls come in at 57k, ~half the ~113k expected — and gold treats bad news as bad news. Headline miss with April/May revised down a combined 74k, unemployment falling to 4.2% only because the labor force shrank ~700k. Confirmed by zerohedge, Kobeissi, Hedgeye. Gold reportedly jumped ~$60/oz in a single minute.....Largest strike on Kyiv of the war. ~570 air-attack means (74 missiles + 496 drones) per Ukraine's Air Force (MilitarySummary); the mayor called it the most powerful strike since 2022 (MilitarySummary). At least 18 killed (zerohedge); civilian toll later put at 27...
..Iran–Israel–Hormuz: capitulation on fees, escalation on the ground - Europe made peace with an Iranian Hormuz transit fee as "inevitable," urging only that Iran not discriminate on which vessels pay (zerohedge, dana916). WSJ says the US offered to release frozen funds for fee-free passage; Iran rejected it (AryJeayBackup). But the war track is re-arming: a source close to Ghalibaf says Israel is preparing a new round of operations, after Katz ordered the IDF to ready a "blue-and-white" op (HormuzLetter); Trump is moving more Marines to the Gulf (ProfessorPape). Khamenei's funeral prompted a mediated US-Iran pause...
..Separately, IDF casualties reported in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon; rocket sirens near the border...
..Oil: SPR at a 1983 low as paper and physical keep diverging - The SPR fell to 326M barrels, lowest since 1983, a 13th straight weekly decline (Kobeissi). Saudi exports approached pre-war levels at 6.3M b/d over six days (zerohedge), while Iran can't place its barrels — 58M on the water, 90% with no destination (zerohedge).
The physical-vs-paper case: few ships will sail to Hormuz, so ME tanks stay full and traders misread discounts as glut (JustDario); China quietly drained ~450M barrels of imports in June, masking tightness...
The physical-vs-paper case: few ships will sail to Hormuz, so ME tanks stay full and traders misread discounts as glut (JustDario); China quietly drained ~450M barrels of imports in June, masking tightness...
..OpenAI floats handing the Trump administration a 5% stake. Reported to "clear political obstacles," with other US labs expected to offer a similar cut...
..Trump Inc.: the stake, the "Trump Accounts," the receipts - Beyond the OpenAI stake: Goldman is contributing to "Trump Accounts" for employees' children (zerohedge); Micron's $250M contribution earned a Trump "double pump" and a "+9 points" boast (Kobeissi) — the same Micron that took $3B of taxpayer money (JustDario). The optics aren't great: Trump says his kids made him $1.4B in crypto, which he "had no idea" about (Nostra) — more than every public crypto-treasury company combined in 2025 (Hedgeye); disclosures show 21,000+ trades across eight accounts, ~80/day... https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-03
Big day, two deltas dominate. First, the AI trade inverted: Meta's plan to sell "excess" compute added ~$100B to its cap in a morning while the picks-and-shovels names (CoreWeave, Nebius, Corning, memory) got monkeyhammered — the market is now rewarding capex cuts, and Palantir's Karp went on TV to call the frontier labs parasites. Second, Russia hit Kyiv with the long-threatened "mega-strike" (~74 missiles incl. 12 un-intercepted Zircons, 10 civilians dead)...
..Korean market seizing up. Exchange activated sidecars to halt KOSPI and KOSDAQ program selling; leveraged KORU -30% "retail margin call massacre"; SK Hynix -8.2% (zerohedge). Koreans out of margin debt are now borrowing from banks to buy stocks...
..AI: Meta sells "excess compute," market punishes the shovel-sellers
Meta reportedly building "Meta Compute" to rent data centers/models, rivaling AWS/Azure (zerohedge). The tell everyone seized on: if the biggest buyers are now sellers, what's actually scarce? ...
Meta reportedly building "Meta Compute" to rent data centers/models, rivaling AWS/Azure (zerohedge). The tell everyone seized on: if the biggest buyers are now sellers, what's actually scarce? ...
..Broader accusation: an Anthropic mechanism covertly profiling users (ethnicity/timezone) via steganography (Arnaud Bertrand), with security researchers noting the jailbreaks matched existing open/Chinese-model capability (alexstamos). Sonnet 5 reportedly jailbroken in minutes. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-02
Last year’s defeat of the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA) by a coalition of progressive Democrats and patriotic Republicans caught the Jewish community off guard.
According to a report by Jewish Insider, Chuck Schumer and his Republican collaborator’s attempt to sneak the AAA into the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act was thwarted when a coalition of nationalist podcasters such as Tucker Carlson and various Palestine sympathetic left-wing groups called attention to its draconian provisions and drew backlash to the bill.
Rather than give up, Jewish groups reeling from the defeat have decided to launch a renewed offensive, this time attacking opposition to their Zionist agenda at its root: freedom of speech, especially on social media.
In May and June, a bipartisan coalition of 15 House Republicans and 14 Democrats formally sponsored the Jewish American Security Act (JASA), a piece of legislation that if passed would constitute one of the most sweeping attacks on the First Amendment in American history. The bill enjoys practically universal backing from Jewish non-profits and Zionist activist groups.
The new law presents four major demands: the appointment of a specialized Anti-Semitism commissar to manage the Department of Education’s campaign combating pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses, a $1 billion dollar cash injection to “secure” Zionist non-profits and Jewish houses of worship, mandatory state monitoring of online social media platforms in order to force them to censor “anti-Semitic” political speech on their platforms, and officially reorienting the mission of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and National Counterintelligence and Security Center as instruments for targeting critics of Jews and Israel as foreign enemy actors and domestic terrorists.
On the education front, JASA strengthens and makes permanent Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14188 (“Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism”), which emphasizes that Israelis are a protected class above criticism under the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
..Such a law, if passed, would treat figures as prominent as Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Megyn Kelly, Thomas Massie, Ana Kasparian, Ilhan Omar and Candace Owens, as well as many smaller critics that have arisen in recent years, as terrorists and enemies of the state. https://www.unz.com/estriker/new-bipartisan-bill-seeks-to-outlaw-criticism-of-israel-and-jewish-power/ According to a report by Jewish Insider, Chuck Schumer and his Republican collaborator’s attempt to sneak the AAA into the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act was thwarted when a coalition of nationalist podcasters such as Tucker Carlson and various Palestine sympathetic left-wing groups called attention to its draconian provisions and drew backlash to the bill.
Rather than give up, Jewish groups reeling from the defeat have decided to launch a renewed offensive, this time attacking opposition to their Zionist agenda at its root: freedom of speech, especially on social media.
In May and June, a bipartisan coalition of 15 House Republicans and 14 Democrats formally sponsored the Jewish American Security Act (JASA), a piece of legislation that if passed would constitute one of the most sweeping attacks on the First Amendment in American history. The bill enjoys practically universal backing from Jewish non-profits and Zionist activist groups.
The new law presents four major demands: the appointment of a specialized Anti-Semitism commissar to manage the Department of Education’s campaign combating pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses, a $1 billion dollar cash injection to “secure” Zionist non-profits and Jewish houses of worship, mandatory state monitoring of online social media platforms in order to force them to censor “anti-Semitic” political speech on their platforms, and officially reorienting the mission of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and National Counterintelligence and Security Center as instruments for targeting critics of Jews and Israel as foreign enemy actors and domestic terrorists.
On the education front, JASA strengthens and makes permanent Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14188 (“Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism”), which emphasizes that Israelis are a protected class above criticism under the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
Dennis Kucinich, U.S.-Israel Military Merger Delayed: Here’s Why and How You Can Stop It
A procedural vote bought Congress—and the American people—one more chance to defend American sovereignty. Welcome to civics class, Washington, D.C. style.
The Massie-Khanna Amendment, which would have removed the military merger from the bill, was not made in order by the House Rules Committee, which serves as the traffic cop on legislation, deciding which bills and which amendments move forward.
In this case, the Rules Committee played dirty cop and the fix was in to make sure the House would not be able to vote on the military merger because the amendment was simply not placed in the rule...
In this case, the Rules Committee played dirty cop and the fix was in to make sure the House would not be able to vote on the military merger because the amendment was simply not placed in the rule...
..Before Members can vote on the underlying legislation, they must first vote separately on the rule. The rule establishes the terms of debate and determines which amendments may be considered.
If the rule goes down, the bill goes down with it.
Why Was the NDAA Vote Delayed?
Here is what happened.
Because of a dispute over the SAVE Act, the House voted down the rule. The NDAA never came before the House for debate or final passage. A disappointed Speaker adjourned the House until July 13.
As a consequence, the NDAA has not passed and the U.S.-Israel military merger it authorizes has not become law.
Yet.
When the House returns, the Rules Committee must meet again and draft a new rule. Based on what just happened in committee, there is every reason to believe the new rule will once again prevent any amendment from being offered to remove the military merger. https://kucinichreport.substack.com/p/us-israel-military-merger-delayed
If the rule goes down, the bill goes down with it.
Why Was the NDAA Vote Delayed?
Here is what happened.
Because of a dispute over the SAVE Act, the House voted down the rule. The NDAA never came before the House for debate or final passage. A disappointed Speaker adjourned the House until July 13.
As a consequence, the NDAA has not passed and the U.S.-Israel military merger it authorizes has not become law.
Yet.
When the House returns, the Rules Committee must meet again and draft a new rule. Based on what just happened in committee, there is every reason to believe the new rule will once again prevent any amendment from being offered to remove the military merger. https://kucinichreport.substack.com/p/us-israel-military-merger-delayed
Richard Revelstoke explains that within the necessary flows of global economy, there are certain choke-points, which are controlled by certain competing capitalist factions, through which each faction profits and may harm or impair other factions, but the flow must continue, or all factions lose. None can control it all.
Rheopolitics: The Power to Deny - A civilization survives because things continue to flow. Water. Electricity. Data. Money. Software. Energy. Food. Every modern society depends upon uninterrupted circulation. The actor capable of interrupting those flows possesses a form of power that previous civilizations had no real conception of — primarily, because the technology did not exist. Richard Revelstoke presents the case that capitalism has recently broken down into 4 competing factions, is in decline, and that there is no apparent economic system to replace it. [I am not alone in asserting that post-growth economy must not allow usury, which necessitates economic growth, or slavery and collapse.]
Permanent Planetary Turbulence - The Long WinterWolfgang Streeck is a German political economist, former director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. His major work Buying Time (2014), and especially How Will Capitalism End? (2016) make the argument that capitalism is in a terminal crisis — not collapsing in a revolutionary moment, but running down over a long period because the institutions that stabilised it (the postwar settlement, the welfare state, embedded liberalism) are exhausted and there is no successor system being built. https://www.themargins.ca/p/permanent-planetary-turbulence
Caitlin Johnstone, The Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Agenda Continues To Roll Forward
Israel Hayom reports that an area near the destroyed city of Rafah is the first location where such camps will be set up. This is noteworthy because one year ago defense minister Israel Katz stated that there was a plan to construct a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, where “the emigration plan” for the Palestinians would then be implemented, adding that Benjamin Netanyahu was working on finding foreign nations to accept the population of Gaza. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-gaza-ethnic-cleansing-agenda
Thanks Lucy. Monsters Playing Victims - Danny Danon’s Twisted War on the Truth
Danon, however, utilizes a peculiar approach to defending Israel within international institutions: he relies on bullying, intimidation, and an overt attempt to silence anyone who dares to challenge the official Israeli narrative—particularly women leaders. Yet, what makes his behavior most outrageous is his deployment of these abrasive tactics to suppress an issue that demands the utmost sensitivity: the systemic use of sexual violence and human rights abuses against Palestinians.
The confrontation took place during a UN General Assembly session convened to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Senior UN officials were presenting harrowing findings documenting sexual violence against Palestinian detainees...
..The immediate target of Danon’s wrath was Pramila Patten, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Instead of reflecting on the grim findings, Danon demanded Patten’s resignation. He accused her and the broader international community of harboring an “obsession” with targeting Israel.
When Vanessa Frazier, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, attempted to intervene on a point of order per established protocol, Danon unleashed a vitriolic verbal assault. Refusing to yield, he shouted over her, ordering her to “be quiet” and drowning out the chamber with his outbursts. “Shame on you. You are part of this obsession,” Danon bellowed. https://www.savageminds.co/p/monsters-playing-victims
When Vanessa Frazier, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, attempted to intervene on a point of order per established protocol, Danon unleashed a vitriolic verbal assault. Refusing to yield, he shouted over her, ordering her to “be quiet” and drowning out the chamber with his outbursts. “Shame on you. You are part of this obsession,” Danon bellowed. https://www.savageminds.co/p/monsters-playing-victims
The Tibetan National Congress of New York and New Jersey said in a July 3 statement posted to Instagram that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who has “stated that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who had “dedicated his life to participating in peaceful, non-violent demonstrations to expose China’s human rights abuses in Tibet.”
The organization said Rangzen broadcast a livestream on Facebook before self-immolating near the U.N. headquarters, in which he called for Tibetan independence and spoke about the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The activist attributed his actions to his commitment to Tibet and emphasized that they were not driven by any personal circumstances, the Tibetan National Congress added.
In his final message, he said: “I don’t want you to mourn for me, I want you to continue the struggle for Tibetan independence, because the lack of independence is the root of all our problems,” according to the Tibetan National Congress.
“We must recognize and remember that Lobga Rangzen committed this act for the political freedom of Tibet,” Jamyang Norbu, founder of the Tibetan National Congress, said. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tibetan-man-sets-himself-fire-outside-un-headquarters-new-york
The organization said Rangzen broadcast a livestream on Facebook before self-immolating near the U.N. headquarters, in which he called for Tibetan independence and spoke about the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The activist attributed his actions to his commitment to Tibet and emphasized that they were not driven by any personal circumstances, the Tibetan National Congress added.
In his final message, he said: “I don’t want you to mourn for me, I want you to continue the struggle for Tibetan independence, because the lack of independence is the root of all our problems,” according to the Tibetan National Congress.
“We must recognize and remember that Lobga Rangzen committed this act for the political freedom of Tibet,” Jamyang Norbu, founder of the Tibetan National Congress, said. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tibetan-man-sets-himself-fire-outside-un-headquarters-new-york
Simplicius, SITREP 7/2/26: Another Massive Strike on Kiev, as Konstantinovka on the Brink
...Now in his latest interview C-in-C Oleksandr Syrsky has declared that Russia is preparing a major offensive on neighboring Chernigov region with the aim of potentially having another go at Kiev... We’ve heard such rumors for years, but never directly from Syrsky himself.
One interesting thing he notes is that the Russian General Staff appears to have made several different contingencies, depending on how the situation unfolds, particularly vis-a-vis Belarus and whether Lukashenko allows Russia the use of its territory for launching an assault. One of the things this appears to imply is that Russia is playing it by ear and will consider utilizing Belarus depending on how things play out.
And which things could those be, that could trigger such a contingency? The most obvious answer: Belarus being forced into the war after being attacked by Ukraine. In short, it’s possible that the Russian General Staff is providing for a plan that should Belarus forcibly be brought into the war, then Russian troops will be able to use its territory without creating any ‘thorny’ political issues. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-7226-another-massive-strike
And which things could those be, that could trigger such a contingency? The most obvious answer: Belarus being forced into the war after being attacked by Ukraine. In short, it’s possible that the Russian General Staff is providing for a plan that should Belarus forcibly be brought into the war, then Russian troops will be able to use its territory without creating any ‘thorny’ political issues. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-7226-another-massive-strike
This quote is noteworthy: John Helmer, THANK YOU, PRESIDENT PUTIN, FOR TRYING TO HAVE A BALANCING ACT
The Moscow source added: “I do not see Americans giving up on Pakistan again. It’s a cheap maintenance mistress to keep. Chinese tried the more expensive Belt & Road approach – investing in nation building and infrastructure for China. Pakistan is a loss and a problem for the Chinese too. They treated Pakistan like a real country – they did not understand the nature of khans and their khanates. Pakistani generals are Central Asian khans. Brits know how to deal with them and buy them. Chinese do not. The Americans simply pay the generals as they always have, and they get the biggest bang for their buck. That way they also keep the Indians all riled up, and the Russians nervous and unsure what to do.” https://johnhelmer.net/thank-you-president-putin-for-trying-to-have-a-balancing-act/#more-94509 Russia’s escalation options for ending the war on the original terms of the Special Military Operation of February 2022 are now too little, too late.
This is because demilitarization of the Ukrainian battlefield cannot stop or deter the rearmament of the NATO allies for permanent war against Russia.
Nor can denazification of the Kiev regime succeed when the NATO allies have become nazified, like the Trump regime in Washington. Militarization and nazification have become US empire war aims against Russia... They are planning the permanent war future in which the territorial concessions Putin agreed to in Anchorage a year ago – Crimea and the four Novorussian regions in exchange for a US guarantee of Russia’s security in Europe – will not produce the “the security of our country and our citizens, and the inviolability of Russia’s borders for decades ahead”. That was Putin’s promise to Russian voters in his first election campaign rally early this week (June 28)...
..So what is the end-of-war plan now? “Our primary objective [is] the final liberation of Donbass and Novorossiya,” Putin continued. “We know that the West continues to pursue Russia’s strategic defeat. There have been occasional suggestions that this is no longer the case, but officially no one has abandoned that objective. The goal remains Russia’s strategic defeat. If that is so, then why are they calling for a ceasefire and peace negotiations, and increasingly expressing a desire to take part in them? If Ukraine is, as they claim, capturing more and more territory and liberating it – in other words, if it is winning – then Western leaders simply need to wait. Russia’s strategic defeat would, it would seem, come about of its own accord. So let them wait. Meanwhile, our troops will continue doing their job and will do everything necessary to achieve the objectives of the special military operation.” ...
..In the discussion, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement on the Anchorage Formula was contrasted with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s elaboration.
Rubio said: “There was no agreement in Alaska. There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement in Alaska. If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war. So as I said, the President is prepared, as the United States remains prepared, to play whatever constructive role we can to bring about an enduring end to this war in Ukraine, and which has been bloody – 25 – 20,000 soldiers killed every month; 5,000 a week, most of them Russian. So it’s been debilitating for Europe, for the – but especially for Ukraine and for Russia increasingly.
So if they’re – we are prepared to step forward and play a constructive role, if there’s one for us to play, in bringing the parties together and bringing that war to an end. That’s what the President’s tried to do now for a year and a half, but there was no agreement in Alaska. There was a proposal made in Alaska, but it was never an agreement…
Rubio said: “There was no agreement in Alaska. There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement in Alaska. If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war. So as I said, the President is prepared, as the United States remains prepared, to play whatever constructive role we can to bring about an enduring end to this war in Ukraine, and which has been bloody – 25 – 20,000 soldiers killed every month; 5,000 a week, most of them Russian. So it’s been debilitating for Europe, for the – but especially for Ukraine and for Russia increasingly.
So if they’re – we are prepared to step forward and play a constructive role, if there’s one for us to play, in bringing the parties together and bringing that war to an end. That’s what the President’s tried to do now for a year and a half, but there was no agreement in Alaska. There was a proposal made in Alaska, but it was never an agreement…
..Lavrov replied the next day with a special press release from his Ministry: “It is imperative to elucidate the situation as we perceive it. I trust this will provide clarity for our audience.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that, in Alaska, there were only proposals and no agreements concerning a settlement in Ukraine. Consequently, as he put it, it is unclear why Moscow appears so concerned. The reality of the situation is that, viewed in the broader context, several days prior to the Alaska meeting, US President’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow bringing those very proposals from President Donald Trump. We duly took them into account. President of Russia Vladimir Putin pledged to present his response during the Alaska meeting.
Subsequently, in Anchorage, as the two presidents sat down for negotiations – and I must note that Marco Rubio and your humble servant were also present – President Vladimir Putin, addressing Steve Witkoff, who was likewise in attendance, began to enumerate the US proposals point by point. Following each item, in the presence of US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he enquired of Steve Witkoff whether he had accurately captured the ideas brought to Moscow ahead of Anchorage.
To each of these queries, Steve Witkoff responded in the affirmative. Therefore, when my colleague Marco Rubio contends that only proposals were made in Alaska and no agreement was reached, I am left to question what precisely is meant by “agreement.” If one party, in this case the United States, puts forward its proposals for a settlement – for an approach to resolving this crisis – and the other party expresses concurrence with these proposals, then to state that no agreement was reached appears, to put it mildly, somewhat inelegant.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also remarked, at another engagement somewhere in the Middle East, that the United States stands ready to move forward and play a constructive role, should the opportunity arise. In his words, bringing the parties together and bringing an end to this war is precisely what US President Donald Trump has been endeavouring to achieve for a year and a half.
All of this, presumably, may be “credited’ as confirmation that there were indeed American proposals in Alaska, which we accepted. However, the quotation I have just referenced prompts a further question. I am referring to Secretary Marco Rubio’s recent testimony during hearings in Congress, during which he stated that the United States cannot act as a mediator because it supports Ukraine.
Yet, when an interest is expressed in the United States playing a constructive role, in uniting the parties – this already begins to resemble a claim to mediation. It is, of course, necessary to bring clarity to the entirety of this situation. Nevertheless, the fact remains: in Alaska, the US proposals were discussed and were accepted by the Russian side.” https://johnhelmer.net/the-anchorage-formula-was-a-trump-trick-putin-fell-for-it-for-a-year-so-now-what-sack-dmitriev-dismiss-witkoff-kushner-destroy-nato-arms-convoys-entering-ukraine-from-poland/#more-94527
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that, in Alaska, there were only proposals and no agreements concerning a settlement in Ukraine. Consequently, as he put it, it is unclear why Moscow appears so concerned. The reality of the situation is that, viewed in the broader context, several days prior to the Alaska meeting, US President’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow bringing those very proposals from President Donald Trump. We duly took them into account. President of Russia Vladimir Putin pledged to present his response during the Alaska meeting.
Subsequently, in Anchorage, as the two presidents sat down for negotiations – and I must note that Marco Rubio and your humble servant were also present – President Vladimir Putin, addressing Steve Witkoff, who was likewise in attendance, began to enumerate the US proposals point by point. Following each item, in the presence of US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he enquired of Steve Witkoff whether he had accurately captured the ideas brought to Moscow ahead of Anchorage.
To each of these queries, Steve Witkoff responded in the affirmative. Therefore, when my colleague Marco Rubio contends that only proposals were made in Alaska and no agreement was reached, I am left to question what precisely is meant by “agreement.” If one party, in this case the United States, puts forward its proposals for a settlement – for an approach to resolving this crisis – and the other party expresses concurrence with these proposals, then to state that no agreement was reached appears, to put it mildly, somewhat inelegant.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also remarked, at another engagement somewhere in the Middle East, that the United States stands ready to move forward and play a constructive role, should the opportunity arise. In his words, bringing the parties together and bringing an end to this war is precisely what US President Donald Trump has been endeavouring to achieve for a year and a half.
All of this, presumably, may be “credited’ as confirmation that there were indeed American proposals in Alaska, which we accepted. However, the quotation I have just referenced prompts a further question. I am referring to Secretary Marco Rubio’s recent testimony during hearings in Congress, during which he stated that the United States cannot act as a mediator because it supports Ukraine.
Yet, when an interest is expressed in the United States playing a constructive role, in uniting the parties – this already begins to resemble a claim to mediation. It is, of course, necessary to bring clarity to the entirety of this situation. Nevertheless, the fact remains: in Alaska, the US proposals were discussed and were accepted by the Russian side.” https://johnhelmer.net/the-anchorage-formula-was-a-trump-trick-putin-fell-for-it-for-a-year-so-now-what-sack-dmitriev-dismiss-witkoff-kushner-destroy-nato-arms-convoys-entering-ukraine-from-poland/#more-94527
Gilbert Doctorow has insights as to Putin's war strategy. Please read carefully: Further thoughts on 'ethnic cleansing' as a Russian war objective
I called this process ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the full knowledge that the term is highly emotive. Indeed, one reader wrote to me directly, telling me that it is a form of ‘genocide.’ That goes to show how our language has been corrupted. ‘Ethnic cleansing’ such as one can see going on in Donbas is saving lives rather than taking lives. It is precisely the opposite of the American way of war, meaning indiscriminate carpet bombing of territory that you intend to take possession of. Moreover, the ongoing ethnic cleansing has the support of the Ukrainian government: it is they who try to withdraw to safety behind Ukrainian lines the entire population of towns under threat of Russian seizure. Indeed some residents of such towns and hamlets head West under compulsory evacuations. Others head east to the Russian side. And a minority of the core populations, mostly the elderly who cannot move, stay put and await ‘liberation’ by advancing Russian troops...
..Russia will rebuild these hamlets and towns just as it has done in the heavily destroyed cities in the eastern territories of Donbas, so that they will soon be repopulated by loyal pro-Russians...
..I do not believe that this was a war objective in February 2022, which was more about countering an imminent threat of Ukrainian armed recovery of the Donbas from rebel forces, which would have amounted to murderous ethnic cleansing in the traditional sense. It was also about pushing NATO out of Ukraine and thereby removing a strategic threat to the Russian Federation. However, as the war evolved, objectives of the Kremlin also changed and reversing the Ukrainization of the Donbas rose as a new and achievable objective. However, this process has dragged on and on, while rising U.S. and NATO attacks on the Russian heartland now render untenable the slow meatgrinder activities. A decisive end to the war by decapitation of the Kievan junta becomes more urgent. And I believe such a strike will take place now that nearly all of the Donbas is in Russian hands and now that the September Duma elections are approaching. ‘Neutralizing’ the neo-Nazi junta in Kiev would steal victory for the United Russia party out of the jaws of defeat. https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/further-thoughts-on-ethnic-cleansing Leader of Germany’s most popular party wants to restore ties with Russia
Bringing back cheap Russian energy would help the German economy recover, AfD leader Alice Weidel has said https://web.archive.org/web/20260630223220/https://www.rt.com/news/642417-germany-party-restore-ties-russia/ A daredevil couple scaled the Empire State Building's antenna Wednesday and unfurled a banner about "the power of love" and peace, apparently as part of an audacious, high-altitude marriage proposal — soon followed by their arrest.
The Russian climbers, who go by Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary "Skywalkers: A Love Story" about their "rooftopping" exploits and budding romance. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/an-audacious-climb-turned-into-a-marriage-proposal-the-couple-was-soon-arrested
The Russian climbers, who go by Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary "Skywalkers: A Love Story" about their "rooftopping" exploits and budding romance. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/an-audacious-climb-turned-into-a-marriage-proposal-the-couple-was-soon-arrested
The deep-state project to kill Trump failed embarrasingly: Secret Service Missed 102 Warnings Before Trump Assassination Attempt In Butler: Report https://www.zerohedge.com/political/secret-service-missed-102-warnings-trump-assassination-attempt-butler-report
“I don’t think there is any Parliament that is gayer than this Parliament” https://modernity.news/2026/07/01/outgoing-uk-pm-proud-to-have-the-gayest-parliament-of-all-time-anywhere-in-the-world/
In the latest sickening example of two-tier policing under Keir Starmer's government, a female officer in Birmingham charged straight into a street attack, shielded the three black aggressors, and then turned her aggression on their white British victim - an inebriated teenager who had just been randomly assaulted.
While the attackers dispersed without consequence, multiple officers swarmed the white lad, barked obscenities at him, shoved him into a police car the wrong way round, and then dragged him back out again.
A bystander who tried to explain that the white kid was the victim was completely ignored. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-shocking-footage-britains-two-tier-policing
While the attackers dispersed without consequence, multiple officers swarmed the white lad, barked obscenities at him, shoved him into a police car the wrong way round, and then dragged him back out again.
A bystander who tried to explain that the white kid was the victim was completely ignored. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-shocking-footage-britains-two-tier-policing
A convicted predator who helped destroy the lives of vulnerable girls as young as 13 is days away from freedom in Britain, while Pakistan refuses to take him and archaic rules shield him from removal.
Shabir Ahmed’s case lays bare how legal technicalities, political cowardice, and a refusal to enforce borders have turned the country into a revolving door for the most dangerous offenders.
Ahmed, now 73, arrived in the UK long before 1973 as a Commonwealth citizen. He was convicted in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court on multiple counts of rape, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault, and trafficking for sexual exploitation. He treated at least one victim as property, abusing her on an almost weekly basis. Part of a gang of nine men operating out of takeaways in the Heywood area of Rochdale, Ahmed and his associates targeted working-class girls from broken backgrounds. https://modernity.news/2026/06/30/you-simply-will-not-believe-this/
Shabir Ahmed’s case lays bare how legal technicalities, political cowardice, and a refusal to enforce borders have turned the country into a revolving door for the most dangerous offenders.
Ahmed, now 73, arrived in the UK long before 1973 as a Commonwealth citizen. He was convicted in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court on multiple counts of rape, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault, and trafficking for sexual exploitation. He treated at least one victim as property, abusing her on an almost weekly basis. Part of a gang of nine men operating out of takeaways in the Heywood area of Rochdale, Ahmed and his associates targeted working-class girls from broken backgrounds. https://modernity.news/2026/06/30/you-simply-will-not-believe-this/
The anomalous clots were estimated to be present in 23.4% of all embalmed corpses overall. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-multi-year-study-of-808
Lots of deaths after the first dose: VAERS data shows the original Gardasil vaccine was unsafe
If the vaccines are safe, the number of deaths reported after dose 1 vs. dose 3 should be statistically similar. They were not the same. There was a 13-fold difference in death reports. https://kirschsubstack.com/p/vaers-data-shows-the-original-gardasil Cancers adapt to treatments and treatments have to adjust, based on tumor response: Why Randomized Controlled Trials Are Poorly Suited to Testing Repurposed Drugs and Nutraceuticals in Cancer - The Case for Well-Conducted Observational Studies, Paul Marik MD https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/why-randomized-controlled-trials
Paul Marik MD, Honokiol: The Natural Compound That Reaches the Brain and Targets Cancer Stem Cells https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/honokiol-the-natural-compound-that
Eat your curry: Dr. Marik, Curcumin: Nature's Most Powerful Anti-Cancer Compound
Why this ancient spice targets cancer metabolism, cancer stem cells, inflammation, and the tumor microenvironment. https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/curcumin-natures-most-powerful-anti Steve Kirsch, Worldwide government statistics show deaths increased sharply after the COVID shots rolled out
Both peaks and troughs increased post COVID vaccine. It was supposed to go the other way if the shots worked. https://kirschsubstack.com/p/the-government-statistics-they-dontThe COVID emergency framework is finally ending, but the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA injections have already moved beyond it. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-hhs-terminates-the-covid
"Target Fixation": Why Drivers Hit Cyclists They Clearly See (I'm a Lawyer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9etdPVptBo
Climate Physicist, Anastassia Makarieva, They Are Working: Forests, Rainfall, and Rethinking “Sustainable Forestry”
An edited MEER Podcast conversation on the biotic pump, intact forest resilience, the climatic work of natural ecosystems, and the pace of scientific change https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/they-are-working-forests-rainfall
Gardening Couple squinting into the sun with new pea-patch
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