Polestar Barred From Selling Future EVs In US Under Connected-Vehicle Rule The U.S. has become increasingly irrelevant to Polestar’s growth story. The Geely-backed EV maker said Thursday that it is “increasing its strategic focus on Europe,” where much of its growth is now centered. The shift follows a decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security not to authorize Polestar to sell future model-year […]

No Accountability Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance I honestly don’t know where Bitcoin is going from here. It could be substantially higher a year from now. It could be substantially lower. It could spend the next five years frustrating both the bulls and the bears. I’ve learned over the years that making precise price predictions about speculative assets is a fool’s errand, and I’m not interested in pretending […]

Trump Says Iran Violated Ceasefire With Hormuz Drone Attack On Cargo Ship Update (11:55am ET): While today’s announcement by Dubai that the UAE was under missile attack proved to be a false alarm, the US ceasefire it nonetheless becoming increasingly unstable. Following yesterday’s attack by Iran drones on a cargo ship next to Oman, we were wondering how long until Trump responds (and how), and he did just that moments ago when he […]

Volkswagen CEO Plans 100,000 Job Cuts In Generational Overhaul German business news outlet Manager Magazin reports that Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is eyeing a major restructuring that could eliminate as many as 100,000 jobs. The latest VW earnings show just why: Europe’s largest automaker remains bloated in a world of weak demand, a softening Chinese market, rising Chinese competition in Europe, and low margins. “Volkswagen CEO […]

Amazon Prime Day Household Spending Underwhelms, Survey Finds The massive four-day shopping event for Amazon Prime members kicked off Tuesday and runs through the end of the week, but early survey data suggest the sales event is off to a sluggish start, with average household spending on day one tracking below last year’s pace. Bloomberg cited high-frequency data from market research firm Numerator, which surveyed thousands of […]

How Resilient? By Bas van Geffen, senior macro strategist at Rabobank A cargo ship was hit by an unknown object near the coast of Oman yesterday. The vessel took some damage, but the company reported that “crew, vessel, and cargo are all safe.” The ship has since left the strait, and tankers continue to transit. Still, these attacks force a rethink about the safety of the Strait of Hormuz, just as shipping from the Gulf region […]

John Bolton Pleads Guilty To Retaining National Security Information John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of retaining national security information related to his work during the first Trump administration.  Bolton appeared Friday morning for a re-arraignment in Greenbelt, Maryland before Obama-appointed judge Theodore D. Chuang. He faces a prison […]

Did Trump Make the Right Deal With Iran? Curt Mills vs. Will Chamberlain Debate Tonight President Trump’s agreement or MOU with Iran has infuriated the likes of Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, and Randy Fine while earning praise from the America First camp: Joe Kent, Steve Bannon, Jack Posobiec, etc. Voters (both republican and democrat) seems content with the deal and the hope it may usher in a “return to normal”. as admin […]

World Cup Pundit Branded Racist For Calling African Team’s Performance “Wild” Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, Bastian Schweinsteiger, the former Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Germany midfielder, has been accused of racism by Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae for comments he made as a pundit ahead of one of the team’s 2026 World Cup matches. While previewing Germany’s group-stage match against Ivory Coast, […]

UMich Sentiment Rebounds From 46-Year Record Low In June, Inflation Fears Fade Further Having rebounded from record (46 year) lows in preliminary June data, University of Michigan’s final June Sentiment survey was expected to show further improvement as gas prices have fallen since the US-Iran ‘peace’ MoU signing. And it did with the headline index rising from 48.9 flash and 44.8 prior to 49.5 (but that was below the 50.0 […]

Musk’s Starlink Plots To Become A Mobile Carrier; TD Cowen Sees Possible T-Mobile Buyout The signs were already in plain sight that Elon Musk’s Starlink was positioning itself to challenge the big three U.S. wireless operators: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. One of the clearest signals was SpaceX’s $17 billion deal for EchoStar wireless spectrum last year, followed by a recent trademark filing for “Starlink Mobile.” We noted […]

UAE Retracts Warning About “Potential Missile Threat” Update: it appears the earlier warning by the UAE was a false alarm: UAE SENDS ALERT SAYING ‘PLEASE DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS WARNING’ UAE ASKS PEOPLE TO IGNORE PREVIOUS WARNING * * *  Earlier Is the ceasefire over (again)? Moments ago stocks hit session lows and oil jumped from post-war lows after the UAE issued a phone alert warning of potential missile strikes. Iran’s […]

Vance: Iran Agreed To Establish A Direct Line Between IRGC & US Military Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Vice President JD Vance has said that during talks in Switzerland, Iranian officials agreed to establish a direct line of communication between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the US military. Vance told Sohrab Ahmari, the US editor for UnHerd, that one of the things the US wanted to “come […]

Mamdani’s Rent-Freeze Approved By NYC Guidelines Board The New York City Rent Guidelines Board voted 7–1 to freeze rents on about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments for up to two years, giving tenants a win on a central campaign promise from Mayor Zohran Mamdani while revealing tensions over the board’s independence. The board set the annual increase at zero percent for both one-year and two-year leases starting in October. […]

Futures Drop, Chips Resume Slide As OpenAI IPO Delay Dents Sentiment Futures point to a lower start for cash trading on the last day of the week, as tech stocks dragged global indexes lower following renewed selling in chipmakers, while a report that OpenAI could postpone plans to go public also weighed on sentiment. The volatility reflects a valuation test, profit‑taking and flow-driven positioning, according to Christian […]

Warships, Helicopters, Transport Planes: US Military Shifts Assets To Quake-Ravaged Venezuela Venezuela’s massive twin-earthquake disaster, which unfolded on Wednesday evening, has left dozens of apartment towers and other structures in ruins. The death toll has climbed to about 235, with at least 4,300 people injured. On one independent monitoring platform, the number of missing topped 50,000 overnight. The sheer scale of the […]

IAEA Chief Confirms Nuclear Inspectors Returning To Iran, No Timeline Given For the first time since the US-Iran MoU was signed earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced it will have access to Iran for official inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities. However, a precise timeline for when the inspections are expected to commence was not given. “There is an agreement and to comply with that […]

Russia Says It Downed Almost 700 Ukrainian Drones In Massive Overnight Barrage As Fuel Shortages Worsen Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Friday morning that the military intercepted at least 660 Ukrainian drones across the country and Crimea, in what shaped up to be one of the most massive overnight aerial assaults since the 2022 invasion began. Drones being sent across the border in the hundreds has become a nightly, highly […]

OpenAI Plans Delaying IPO Until 2027, Blames SpaceX One month ago, during the height of the tokenmaxxing craze – when companies were spending ridiculous amounts of money, in many cases without knowing they were even doing so, just to test out the latest agentic craze – first OpenAI and then Anthropic rushed to announce they will follow in the footsteps of the SpaceX IPO, and were planning (or rather hoping) to go public in the next […]

Boiling Frog Nation Authored by Kevin Finn via AmericanThinker.com, I almost feel sorry for leftists. Almost. But I don’t. The reason is simple: so much of what they say and do runs counter to the core principles on which this country was founded. Over the years, I’ve challenged dozens of left-leaning friends and acquaintances to name the top ten things the political left has done in the last quarter-century to make America […]

“Unlike Anything I’ve Seen In 40 Years”: Explosion In Data-Centers And Memory Costs Fueling Third Inflation Wave We’re finally starting to see hints of relief when it comes to inflation. Prices at the pump are starting to come down, monthly core CPI momentum has slowed, used cars were down around 2% YoY, and food inflation is starting to moderate. On the other hand, there’s America’s massive explosion in artificial-intelligence […]

What’s The Likelihood Of A NATO-Russian Clash Around 2030? Authored by Andrew Korybko, If Russia continues fighting this “war of attrition” for years to come instead of decisively ending it soon, then it’ll be more vulnerable than ever to the “cordon sanitaire’s” invasion threats around 2030, thus compelling it to either capitulate or resort to nuclear weapons in self-defense. RT drew attention to Deputy Foreign […]

US Forces Kill Senior ISIS Leader In Syria, After Large-Scale Troop Withdrawal The US military is still conducting attacks inside Syria, at a moment its close regional ally Israel is gobbling up territory in the south, and Golan region, with IDF ground forces holding territory within dozens of miles of Damascus. “A senior Islamic State leader was killed by an airstrike last week, Central Command announced on Wednesday, as the […]

Qatar & The US Warn EU Of Gas Crunch Over Methane Regulation Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, Major LNG suppliers say the EU’s methane regulations are too burdensome to comply with and could lead to reduced gas supplies. The U.S. and Qatar contend that tracking methane emissions across complex gas supply chains is technically difficult or impossible. With nearly 60% of its LNG imports coming from the U.S., […]

NATO Chief Challenged On The “Defensive” Alliance’s History Of Offensive Regime Change After his Oval Office visit today, an affair dominated by foreign reporters speaking truth to power by clamoring for more global military spending, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had to defend his alliance’s often-touted moral assertion: that NATO is defensive in nature. Asked by ZeroHedge whether NATO’s good deeds in Libya and Iraq (a de […]