Gas Prices Nearing Levels That Could Push Trump Towards Iran Talks, Says JPM Commodities Expert One of the main macro drivers this week remains the Gulf energy shock, as chokepoints from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab el-Mandeb are disrupted. Turmoil in the Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine is also sending chills through commodities desks. Related energy coverage: RBC Commodities Chief Warns “War Entering Dangerous Phase” As […]

Trump Must Hand Over Finance Records Sought By BBC In Defamation Lawsuit, Judge Rules Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times, A judge in Florida has ruled President Donald Trump must hand over financial records sought by the BBC for its defense against his $10 billion defamation lawsuit. The U.S. president is suing the corporation over an episode of “Panorama” that edited together different sections of his speech on […]

Trump Losing Patience, In ‘Revenge Mode’ After 13th Consecutive Night Of US Strikes On Iran The latest little peace overture by Washington widely reported Thursday night was apparently a big nothingburger, as on Friday the Iraqi prime minister’s office has denied a New York Times report claiming that Iran rejected a US ceasefire proposal delivered to Tehran by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. The fresh statement from the prime […]

Historic Buffalo Church Torches Twice In Four Days Following Sale To Islamic Group Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, A 140-year-old Catholic church in Buffalo has been deliberately set on fire for the second time in four days, the third blaze to hit the site this year. Investigators confirmed arson. The property was sold years earlier by the Diocese of Buffalo to a company affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center, […]

Trump’s Tariff Wall Returns With Forced-Labor Duties On 60 Countries The Trump administration imposed Section 301 tariffs on 60 countries accused of failing to “impose and effectively enforce” bans on goods produced with forced labor, according to a new notice from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Today, Ambassador Greer is taking action, at President Trump’s direction, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 by […]

US New Home Sales Rise For First Time In 3 Months As Prices Near 5-Year Lows With Case-Shiller reporting existing home price declines in half of America’s largest cities, and despite a weaker homebuilder confidence print, New Home Sales were expected to rebound from April and May’s ugly declines… and they did, but only very modestly. New home sales rose 1.6% MoM (+4.8% MoM exp) marking the first rise in three months, but May’s […]

US PMIs Mixed But Still Signal Accelerating Economic Growth In Q3 With ‘hard data’ trending weaker, today’s preliminary July PMIs offer the first glimpse at whether the reignition of the Iran War is weighing on ‘soft’ survey sentiment in the US economy. The data was mixed (as always) with Manufacturing disappointing while Services accelerated more than expected: Flash US Manufacturing PMI: 53.8 (June: 53.9). 4-month low. […]

Yet Another Wildberries Facility – Russia’s Amazon – Goes Up In Flames After Ukraine Drone Strike Another large warehouse and logistics hub for major online Russian retailer Wildberries has been targeted and struck by Ukrainian drones. This is the third time in a week the company widely considered to be the ‘Russian Amazon’ has seen its warehouses go up in flames. At least eight of its shipping facilities have been attacked overall […]

“It’s Getting Worse”: HSBC Warns Commodities Face Squeeze As Chokepoint Chaos Spreads The key takeaway heading into the weekend is that maritime chokepoint chaos has spread from the Strait of Hormuz to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while fighting across the Black Sea has intensified between Russia and Ukraine. The widening disruptions have prompted several institutional desks this week to warn that a potential squeeze on physical […]

Braggawatts, Cheap Chinese Compute, & Simple ROI Authored by Peter Tchir via Academy Securities, With weakness in chips and AI the prior week, that was a major topic of conversation, as was the escalation in Iran (please see Academy’s Geopolitical Analysis for the latest on Iran and geopolitics more broadly). Two key themes from last weekend’s From Trinkets to Compute seem to be playing out: Cheap Chinese Compute […]

NANO Nuclear And Fortil Advance Critical KRONOS Fuel System NANO Nuclear Energy has pushed another critical piece of its KRONOS MMR program toward preliminary design, this time with French engineering group Fortil. If there’s a corner of the French industrial sector that America should be comfortable leaning into, their nuclear segment is arguably the safest bet. Their 57-reactor fleet, accounting for 70% of the country’s […]

“I’m Not Racist”: Musk Slams Snooty Leftist Interviewer, Says “I Support The Normal People” Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, During a terse exchange, Elon Musk told the virulently leftist editor-in-chief of The Economist that civil war in Britain is inevitable on current trends – driven by rapid migration of people whose beliefs clash with Western civilisation. In response, Zanny Minton Beddoes accused Musk of […]

Futures Rebound As Brent Dips Below $100 US equity futures are seeing a modest rebound after posting their biggest drop this month, as Brent crude dropped back under $100 a barrel, and bond yields and rate hike odds – which track the price of oil one to one – halted their ascent. As of 6:00am ET,  S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, with the index still on track for its first back-to-back weekly loss since the early stages of the Iran […]

Inside Global Aerospace & Defense Boom: 12 Takeaways From World’s Most Important Airshow The Farnborough International Airshow is coming to a close in the UK, marking the end of one of the aerospace and defense industry’s top gatherings. Institutional research desks have had boots on the ground, tracking commercial-aircraft orders, defense procurement and other industry trends. A team of Citi analysts led by John Godyn […]

India’s Fuel Exports Set To Soar In July As Refining Margins Jump By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com, India is on track to export the highest volume of refined petroleum products in months as refining margins have jumped with the re-escalation of the Middle East conflict. India is estimated to ship as many as 1.55 million barrels per day (bpd) of light and middle distillates in July, per data by commodity analysts […]

Deaths Now Outnumber Births In 17 US States Natural population growth is slowing across much of America. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 17 states recorded more deaths than births between July 2024 and July 2025, up from only four states during much of the 2010s. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld created this map showing natural population change in every state. Because […]

EU Is Launching A Mission To Board Russian Shadow Fleet Tankers In The Indian Ocean The European Union has authorized its naval mission in the Indian Ocean (apparently there is one) to stop and board Russian shadow fleet tankers suspected of operating under false flags, the bloc announced on Wednesday. The Spanish Navy frigate Santa María F81, deployed as part of the European Union Naval Force Operation ATALANTA, seen off the coast […]

Eco Loon Lobbies For Cameo In British Soap To Spread Climate Alarmism Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, BBC naturalist Chris Packham has openly requested a guest role on the fictional soap EastEnders so he can turn the nation’s most-watched entertainment show into a vehicle for climate crisis messaging. In comments reported by GB News and drawn from a Radio Times interview, the veteran naturalist described his […]

EU Approves Biggest Russia Sanctions Yet After Holdout Greece Secured LNG Exemption What is there left to sanction and what is its effectiveness? Europe is boasting of no less that its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, approved by the EU on Thursday. Apparently it has found plenty of entities still to sanction, as the compiled blacklisting is said to be the EU’s largest in four years, targeting primarily financial and […]

The Multipolaristas’ Are China-Maxxing Authored by Iain Davis via Off-Guardian.org, Let’s consider the arguments of those who advocate global governance, the people whom Hrvoje Morić identifies as the Multipolaristas. They are often engaged in China-maxxing and are, whether they know it or not, essentially serving as propagandists for the global oligarchy. Research conducted by analysts working for the South China Morning […]

The Odyssey And The Tiresome Woke War Against White Culture Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us We’ve all heard the argument for most of our lives: “White culture doesn’t exist.” It’s perhaps the most common racial refrain because it’s the most socially acceptable to repeat. If someone said “Black culture doesn’t exist because black people all herald from different tribes…” that person would be […]

China Plans Planetary Defense Test By Slamming Mach 26 Spacecraft Into Asteroid A new paper under peer review by the Chinese-language Journal of Deep Space Exploration lays out an ambitious plan to crash a spacecraft at Mach 26, or 20,000 mph, into a near-Earth asteroid to test new planetary defenses. The South China Morning Post reports that a team led by Li Mingtao, chief scientist for planetary defense at the China National […]

Will The Supreme Court Legalize Home Distilling? Authored by Andrew M. Grossman & Robert Alt via RealClearPolicy, Ohioan John Ream is an accomplished aerospace engineer and brewery owner. He would like to try his hand at making Bourbon. However, federal law prohibits distilling spirited beverages at home. On Monday, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the United States asking it to hear his case, which raises important […]

Mapping Americans’ Per Capita Health Care Spending By State Health care represents a major share of consumer spending in America, but the amount spent per resident varies considerably by location. New data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis highlights the differences in per-capita health care spending across the country in 2024. The map below, via Visual Capitalist’s Srijaa Chatterjee, ranks every state using the […]

Waste Of The Day: Education Fraud Sweeps Nation Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: Since 2019, school districts across 24 states and Puerto Rico have lost $225 million to fraud confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress. No more than $67 million has been recovered. Key facts: Open the Books and the State Financial Officers Foundation documented 74 […]