Belarus Frees 52 Political Prisoners, Gains US Sanctions Relief, Warm Letter From Trump

In an unexpected development this week, the United States has lifted some key sanctions on close Russian ally Belarus, with President Trump also issuing a warm thank you to the country.

Over 50 political prisoners have been released, reportedly at Trump's request, and have been transferred to freedom in bordering Lithuania. In return, the US is lifting sanctions on the country's national airline, Belavia - which go back to 2023.

Kremlin.ru, The White House

There are reports that direct flights between the US and Minsk will also resume. The State Dept has signaled that it might even reopen its embassy in the Belarusian capital.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said her country is "deeply grateful" to Trump and the US. Among the freed were many Lithuanian citizens.

"52 prisoners safely crossed the Lithuanian border from Belarus today, leaving behind barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear," she wrote on social media.

As for President Trump, he also proclaimed, "52 is a lot. A great many. Yet more than 1,000 political prisoners still remain in Belarusian prisons and we cannot stop until they see freedom!" This strongly suggests there's more deal-making to come.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met Thursday with senior Trump admin official John Coale in Minsk, with the two discussing "a range of issues, including additional prisoner releases and regional security issues, like ending the weaponization of illegal migration from Belarus into neighboring NATO countries."

Coale announced that the sanctions lifting includes "limited relief package will allow Belavia to service and buy components for its existing fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft."

"Dear Mr. Lukashenko, Melania joins me in sending our best wishes on the occasion of your birthday... As you look forward to the coming year, we pray for your health and well-being."https://t.co/iHU0CgEFHS

— Vitaly Shevchenko (@VitalyBBC) September 11, 2025

Russia's aviation sector has also long been sanctioned, leading to the potential for unsafe travel or possible aerial disasters - as aging fleets are in need of regular servicing, often dependent on access to US and Western parts.

As part of the exchange, Trump indicated that he looks forward to meeting with President Lukashenko in the future, in a sign of a likely further thawing of relations.

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/13/2025 - 07:35

Germany's Sycophantic Elite And The Coming Economic Crash

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

When it comes to the causes of Germany’s collapse, there is an iron silence in both corporate boardrooms and political circles. They have made themselves comfortable in the green subsidy Valhalla. Meanwhile, the Chancellor shows satisfaction with his policies, clinging faithfully to the communication patterns of the past.

From a media-political perspective, Friedrich Merz resembles a dinosaur. His understanding of media work follows the routines of the 1990s. If a deficit opens in the social insurance system, Merz loudly demands budget cuts. If an industry falls into crisis, a “summit” is supposed to provide healing. Coalition conflicts are resolved on camera over a beer. This is sluggish communication aimed at an increasingly disinterested audience—an attempt to suppress the painful symptoms of a failed political agenda that has grown far beyond the ability of politics to manage.

Smiling and self-satisfied 

And so, on Friday morning, the Chancellor declared himself fundamentally content with his government’s decisions—cheerful, upbeat, and self-absorbed. Only communication, according to Merz on “CDU.TV,” left something to be desired. True to the motto: if there is no political substance, at least the style should appear harmonious and well-mannered.

The Chancellor, who just months ago declared that he had “taken over the country,” thus awarded himself a glowing report card. Why should he care about the actual state of the nation, which from both an economic and domestic perspective must already be described as systemically fragile?

Domestically, Merz has already failed on the facts created by the German party-state: unrestrained migration and the ideological reprogramming of the economy. Abroad, his main achievement is finding money for the proxy war in Ukraine and occasionally playing tourist in Kyiv in a casual outfit for the cameras. Merz embodies a chancellor from a bygone era when everything still seemed controllable. In today’s world, his role-playing appears clumsy, directionless, and utterly lacking the strategic foresight our time demands.

Germany has no elites 

Merz faces no serious resistance within society because Germany lacks credible elites. A true elite—in politics or business—would grasp the larger trajectory of policy, comprehend the central questions of societal progress in depth, and present them to the public for sober deliberation.

Criticism of elites is not limited to their silence on ecological socialism, which has been unleashed on society like a plague. The ethical foundation of a true elite must include rigorous analysis of conflicts and problematic developments. Ask yourself why in Germany—and indeed in all of Europe—there is not even the beginning of a public debate about our monetary system and its systemic destruction of purchasing power.

Monetary policy operates largely in the shadows, and rarely does the truth about political leadership come into such stark light as with Ursula von der Leyen’s utter failure in trade negotiations with the United States. The geostrategic future of the EU lies in the hands of dilettantes and ideologically blinkered amateurs.

A true elite would seek to position Germany in the reordering world with the BRICS nations, open trade routes, and disentangle the fatal involvement in the proxy war in Ukraine. None of this is happening.

Half-knowledge on an odyssey 

And yet the pressure from the streets is slowly reaching Berlin. Exploding insolvencies are already leaving scars on the labor market and social funds—and will soon carve a path of devastation through public budgets.

In municipalities that have suffered most from the infantile transformation policies—think of Stuttgart, once the heart of the German auto industry—local coffers are already exhausted.

On Friday, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder demanded a “small revolution”: the return of the combustion engine. At the same time, however, he insisted on continuing e-mobility subsidies. Söder has not grasped what is truly at stake—his job, and the future of his own children.

He is the best example of the elite problem: they vaguely perceive the connections but consistently draw the wrong conclusions, being too deeply enmeshed in the networks of Brussels, Berlin, and the power machinery of lobby interests.

The welfare entrepreneur 

Take the lobbyists of the solar industry—or, more broadly, the green transformation crash economy. Here again we see corporatism: the tight fusion of political and business leaders into a common-interest cartel. It is a historical, recurring phenomenon, usually marking the final chapter of social and economic cycles. The motto: grab what you can, and to hell with what comes after—après moi, le déluge!

True elites create value through their own actions—without siphoning off anonymous funds through political promises or the coercive machinery of the state.

The EU’s green policy has produced the subsidy entrepreneur. At heart, this political player resembles a welfare recipient—dependent on public handouts, seeing society only as the paymaster for his useless activity. He produces no goods or services demanded by the market and thus never attains the status of an economic elite, which must legitimize itself through performance and success.

Preparing for the aftermath 

Perhaps some still remember the coffee party that the Chancellor styled as an “investment summit,” where 61 German CEOs gathered for a photo op with him. Packaged by the media as “Made for Germany,” it was in truth a symbol of the corporatist status quo. Everything staged for effect, no one daring to slaughter one of politics’ golden calves—like the Green Deal—to signal a real restart.

A real investment summit would have to exclude politics. It would bring together leading corporations and—ideally—medium-sized businesses (which barely exist in Germany) to draw up a clear list of demands and put pressure on policymakers. Germany’s economy has long passed the point of no return. A crisis is inevitable, no matter what reforms are attempted now.

The timid complaints of Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius or the IGBCE chemical union about high energy costs do nothing to change this. They shy away from naming the real cause: the green transformation and unrestrained eco-socialism that is paralyzing the country.

Entrepreneurs could, however, perform a decisive service by already sketching the economic framework for the post-crisis era—just as the Bretton Woods system was created even before World War II ended.

That framework is simple: Germany must recommit to free markets and private property, moving toward a minimal state that renounces interventionism and ideological steering.

The importance of excluding politics—prone as it is to ideological excess and intellectual reductionism of economic complexity—from designing this framework, and limiting it only to execution, is proven by the catastrophe into which these ideologues have already plunged us.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, he worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/13/2025 - 07:00

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• How Tim Cook sold out Steve Jobs: There’s a tech industry habit of second-guessing “what would Steve Jobs have done” ever since he passed away, and most of the things people attribute to him seem like guesses about a guy who was very hard to predict and often inconsistent. But recently, we have one of those very rare cases where we know exactly what Steve Jobs would not have done. Tim Cook and Apple’s leadership team have sold out the very American opportunity that made Steve Jobs’ life and accomplishments possible, while betraying his famously contemptuous attitude towards bullshit institutions. (Anil Dash)

• AI Will Not Make You Rich: The disruption is real. It’s also predictable.  (Colossus) see also ChatGPT as the Original AI Error: The human fascination with conversation has led us AI astray (Paul Kedrosky)

• 5 forecasts early climate models got right – the evidence is all around you. The earliest climate models made specific forecasts about global warming decades before those forecasts could be proved or disproved. And when the observations came in, the models were right. The forecasts weren’t just predictions of global average warming – they also predicted geographical patterns of warming that we see today. (The Conversation)

• ‘JennaWorld’ Spotlights Jenna Jameson and the Glory Days of Porn: The 13-part podcast, from Molly Lambert and iHeartPodcasts, recalls an era in the late ’90s and 2000s when porn stars were (almost) mainstream.  (New York Times)

• How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads: The death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950. (Our World In Data) see also How to Build a Medieval Castle: Why are archaeologists constructing a thirteenth-century fortress in the forests of France? (Archaelogy Magazine)

• Rivals Rub Shoulders in the World of Competitive Massage: Each year, massage therapists from around the globe gather to face off, collaborate, and make sure that no body gets left behind. (New Yorker)

• The European Heir Restoring Forgotten American Cars to Glory: An Italian jewelry scion has turned an old drive-in theater in Pennsylvania into a showplace for his collection of domestic vehicles. (New York Times)

• How Ben Franklin’s French Diplomacy Raised Money—and Saved the American Revolution: He led the effort to secure the financing the fledgling country needed to survive and win the war. It’s hard to imagine anybody else could have succeeded. (Wall Street Journal)

• NASA discovers ‘clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars’ Detailed analysis of images of speckled rocks found by NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a “potential biosignature.” (Washington Post) see also Happy Birthday, LIGO. Now Drop Dead. Ten years ago, astronomers made an epic discovery with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Cosmology hasn’t been the same since, and it might not stay that way much longer. (New York Times)

• The argument against the existence of a Theory of Everything: The Holy Grail of physics is a Theory of Everything: where a single equation describes the whole Universe. But maybe there simply isn’t one? (Big Think)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Heather Boushey, previously a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, and chief economist to the president’s Invest in America cabinet. She is currently a senior research fellow at the Reimagining the Economy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

Technology can change the world in ways that are unimaginable until they happen

Source: @OurWorldInData

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

 

The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Retarded Or Evil? Leftist Arguments Justifying The Murder Of Charlie Kirk

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

If you’re like me and have been watching the news feeds and social media for developments on the Charlie Kirk assassination, you have probably also come across a disturbing army of leftists online cheering for the conservative speaker’s death. Some posts, featuring people laughing and celebrating, have tens-of-thousands of upvotes. It’s not just the comments, it’s the mob of crazies supporting the comments.

What I see in this mountain of degenerate psychopathy is confirmation. I and many other analysts have been warning for years that the fight for what remains of the western world will happen on two fronts: The globalists at the top, and the leftist hordes on the bottom. While it’s true that globalists often fund woke groups through NGOs and corporations, they are simply giving aid to people that already have the will and the intent to destroy the US.

That is to say, the idea of the “false left/right paradigm” no longer applies. At the bottom of the pyramid there are millions of insane people with violent intentions that want to see you dead because you disagree with them. They won’t go away simply because the globalists go away. They represent a parallel threat.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is truly delusional and I have no patience for such stupidity any longer. Look at it this way – The woke movement is a death cult. In every cult there are certainly people who are useful idiots who do bad things because they are told to, but there are also many people who are consciously evil.

And if you want to see pure evil, take a gander at the endless array of grotesque reactions from activists to Kirk’s death. Endless social media posts cheering for Kirk’s murder. Leftist leaders like Ilhan Omar essentially blaming Kirk for his own assassination. Democrats trying to stop a silent moment of prayer for Kirk in Congress. Witnesses even report that leftist protesters at the Utah event cheered right after Kirk was shot.  The list of horrors is mind boggling.

If you have any doubts about the nature of the progressive cult just watch how they revel in the blood and maybe then you will understand. These people are not human beings, they are monsters, and now they feel very emboldened because they think they can get away with political killings.

A prime example is in the numerous arguments they present to justify Kirk’s assassination. Social media is rife with them, thousands of posts supported by hundreds of thousands of people. What I would like to do is break some of the most common arguments down and identify if the ideas are retarded, or evil (or both). Let’s get started…

Leftist Claim: “Charlie Kirk’s words were offensive and caused harm, therefore he deserved to die.”

Diagnosis: Retarded And Evil

The political left has long treated words as being equal to violence. For them there is no distinction. This is the foundation of the “wrong think” ideology. Charlie Kirk never harmed a living soul and under the law he had every right to express his views regardless of whether or not people get offended. He never led a mob to burn down a city block. He never organized a terror cell. He never advocated for violence. He never even punched a commie. The most he did was advocate for the right to self defense.

If opinions are violence, then anyone can be killed for their opinions. Thinking you are immune because you have the “right opinions” is perhaps the most ignorant assumption a person can make, but leftists are generally low IQ individuals.

On the other hand, there is also the underlying agenda among elitist groups to make “hate speech” a subject of government enforcement. We have seen this in full swing in the UK the past year and it’s getting ugly. ANYTHING can be designated hate speech, from posting jokes online to flying your national flag.

Strangely, only conservatives seem to get arrested for speech violations. It’s almost as if only conservative ideas are being outlawed.

Hate speech laws are the doorway to mass censorship, and if progressives and their globalist partners can’t put those laws in place, then they have decided to enforce color of law through political violence so that conservatives are afraid to speak.

Leftist Claim: “It’s Ironic That Charlie Kirk Was Pro-Gun And Then He Was Killed By A Gun…”

Diagnosis: Retarded

It’s actually not ironic at all. Kirk often pointed out that the majority of gun violence is committed by leftists – In leftist controlled cities and in minority neighborhoods which vote predominantly Democrat. If leftists were removed from the equation, gun crimes (and crime overall) in the US would plummet.

Charlie was most likely murdered by a leftist (the evidence released so far indicates this). We’ll find out soon enough. If so, then the assassination only supports his argument that the political left is the danger. Not gun rights.

Leftist Claim: “Where Was The Good Guy With A Gun To Protect Charlie…?”

Diagnosis: Retarded

Good guys with guns stop at least 1.8 million crimes per year according to surveys on DGU (Defensive Gun Use) data. But Kirk never argued that the presence of good guys with guns makes him bulletproof. Good guys with guns die all the time, especially if they are targeted for political assassination. The gun is to give someone a fighting chance if they see the threat coming. It doesn’t make them invincible.

Leftist Claim: “If only Charlie hadn’t defended gun rights, maybe he would be alive today…”

Diagnosis: Evil

When leftists make this argument what they are really saying is: “If you don’t give up your gun rights, we have the right to shoot you.”

Leftist Claim:  “Kirk would have been saved by the increased gun control he opposed…”

Diagnosis:  Retarded

The murder weapon was a basic .30 Cal hunting rifle, probably holding a maximum of four rounds.  It’s not the type of firearm on any ban wish list that the Democrats have put forward.  

If leftists are going to make this argument then they will have to admit that their true intention is to ban ALL guns, not just scary “black rifles”.  

Leftist Claim: “Charlie Kirk Lived By The Sword And Died By The Sword…”

Diagnosis: Retarded

As noted earlier, Kirk never attacked anyone, never harmed anyone, and only fought for the right to speak his views without being censored or threatened. If debate is a threat to the political left then their ideas must not hold up to public scrutiny. In other words, they killed Charlie Kirk because he exposed their ideas as faulty.

That’s not “living by the sword”, that’s being nice. Leftists don’t want to see us truly take up the sword, which is why the media is currently scrambling to call for peace.

Leftist Claim: “Kirk Was A Radical And Now Is A Time To Abandon Radicalism And Make Peace…”

Diagnosis: Evil

Lets be clear, the vast majority of the violence is only coming from one side, and that’s the progressive Marxist/globalist side.  It’s rather convenient that progressives suddenly want peace after years of violent rhetoric and actions. Why are they doing this? Because they know that retribution on a large scale is so near. When an opponent has waged aggressive war for years and then suddenly wants a ceasefire, it’s usually because he’s about to get hurt and he wants to regroup.

Woke activists have been begging for an ass kicking for at least the past decade and now they are starting to realize they just might get it.  They desperately want our anger over Kirk’s death to fizzle out over time.

Kirk was not a radical in the slightest. He only spoke the facts to the best of his ability, Facts cannot be radical. The truth is never extreme. However, now that he has been killed, I suspect leftists are going to see a lot of actual “radicals” in the near future.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 23:25

New EPA Proposal Would Restore About 50% Of Lost Biofuel Demand

The White House is reviewing an EPA proposal that would make large refiners cover about half or less of the 1.1 billion gallons of biofuels exempted last month for small refineries, according to three sources familiar with the matter, according to Reuters/Yahoo.

The plan, still under discussion, could leave roughly 550 million gallons of demand unmet, potentially boosting the supply of renewable fuel credits and pushing their price lower.

Farm-state lawmakers and biofuel producers have been pressing for full restoration of lost demand. The oil industry, meanwhile, has resisted, warning of higher compliance costs. The EPA’s approach is seen as a compromise to stabilize the credit market without overwhelming refiners.

"The EPA is in the process of evaluating a range of options that strike an appropriate balance between obligations, reallocation, and other factors that will deliver for farmers, consumers and American energy dominance," a White House official told Reuters. The EPA declined to comment further.

Reuters reports that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires refiners to blend billions of gallons of biofuel each year or buy credits, but small plants can seek waivers for financial hardship. In August, the EPA cleared a backlog of more than 170 such requests dating to 2016. It is only required to reallocate gallons exempted in 2023 and beyond, as earlier credits have expired.

The proposal under review would cover 2023 and later years, with percentages applied differently depending on the year, sources said. It is expected to be finalized before October 30, the deadline for setting 2026–2027 blending quotas.

The debate underscores the long-running clash between Big Oil and the farm lobby — two constituencies President Donald Trump has sought to keep on side. The stakes are high: the 2023 and 2024 waivers alone amounted to 1.4 billion credits, equal to 1.1 billion gallons, and more exemptions could follow as 2025 applications are reviewed.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 23:00

Researchers Found Unvaccinated Children Healthier Than Vaccinated, Didn't Publish Findings

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Researchers from a large health care system in Michigan found that vaccinated children were more likely to develop a chronic health condition, but never published the findings, according to a copy of the study obtained by The Epoch Times.

A nurse practitioner holds a vaccine in an undated file photograph. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Henry Ford Health System, whose employees carried out the study, said it was deficient.

Dr. Marcus Zervos, an infectious disease specialist at the Henry Ford Health, and colleagues studied 18,468 children born between 2000 and 2016 who were enrolled in the health system’s insurance plan, drawing data from medical, clinical, and payer records and supplementing with information from Michigan’s immunization registry.

After 10 years, 57 percent of the vaccinated children had a chronic health condition such as asthma, compared to just 17 percent of the unvaccinated children.

“This study found that exposure to vaccination was independently associated with an overall 2.5-fold increase in the likelihood of developing a chronic health condition, when compared to children unexposed to vaccination,” the authors wrote. “This association was primarily driven by asthma, atopic disease, eczema, autoimmune disease and neurodevelopmental disorders. This suggests that in certain children, exposure to vaccination may increase the likelihood of developing a chronic health condition, particularly for one of these conditions.”

The study was first reported by Aaron Siri, managing partner of Siri & Glimstad LLP, this month in his book, Vaccines, Amen: The Religion of Vaccines.

Before receiving a copy of the study, The Epoch Times asked Zervos and his coauthors for it and questioned why it was never published.

Zervos responded to questions about the study by asking in an email, “Can you tell me what book this appeared in.” When told, he did not respond further.

Co-authors did not return inquiries.

A spokesperson for Henry Ford Health acknowledged that researchers there carried out the study.

“This report was not published because it did not meet the rigorous scientific standards we demand as a premier medical research institution,” a spokesperson for Henry Ford Health told The Epoch Times in an email. “Data has consistently shown vaccinations are a safe and effective way to protect children against potentially life-altering diseases.”

‘The Only Real Problem’

Siri, who has worked with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., represents a group called the Informed Consent Action Network. He and Del Bigtree, the group’s CEO, say they met with Zervos in 2017 and proposed that he compare the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

They initially proposed obtaining data from a federal network called Vaccine Safety Datalink, but Zervos suggested utilizing the health data from Henry Ford Health, Siri wrote in his book.

Siri requested that the researchers publish the results of the study, regardless of what it showed.

“Dr. Zervos looked us right in the eyes and assured us that he was a man of integrity and would publish the results, whatever the finding,” Siri said.

Siri received a copy of the study in 2020. He and Bigtree say that Zervos and a coauthor told them that superiors at Henry Ford Health did not want it submitted for publication and that they were concerned they could lose their jobs if they submitted it.

“The only real problem with this study—and why it didn’t get submitted for publication—is that its findings did not fit the belief and the policy that ‘vaccines are safe,’” Siri said during a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 9. “Had it found vaccinated children were healthier, it no doubt would have been published immediately. But because it found the opposite, it was shoved in a drawer.”

Previous research comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children has returned mixed results. A German study published in 2011, for instance, found that unvaccinated children were more likely to suffer diseases targeted by vaccines. An American study published in 2020 found vaccinated children had higher odds of suffering from developmental delays, asthma, and ear infections in their first year of life.

Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, told the hearing that he reviewed the study and found it problematic. One issue was how vaccinated children visited doctors during the study period more often than unvaccinated children, according to Scott.

“When diagnoses require doctor visits, children seeing doctors more often will inevitably have more recorded conditions,” he said. “This is classic detection bias that inflates risk estimates without reflecting true health differences.”

Even after excluding unvaccinated children whose parents never took them to the doctor following birth, the vaccinated group still had an increased risk of developing a chronic health condition, the researchers stated, according to Zervos and the other researchers. They also analyzed the data at one, three, and five years following birth and found that the vaccinated children were still more likely to develop a chronic health condition. “Therefore, our findings do not appear to be due to differential use of health resources,” they wrote.

The researchers also said that their findings “cannot prove causality and warrant future investigation.”

The hearing was held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the panel, said during the hearing that the study was “high-quality” and “suspiciously withheld by the authors.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), its ranking member, questioned why it has taken five years following completion for the study to be disclosed to the public.

“My hope has always been that the scientists would publish it,” Siri said. “And we’ve tried to persuade them many, many times, so it could go through the normal, peer-review process.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 22:35

Visualizing Americans' Median Salaries By Age Group

How much do Americans earn at different stages of life?

The discrepancies between the median earnings of each age group in the U.S. might surprise you.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, highlights the median annual earnings of full time wage and salaried workers across age groups in the U.S., using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Median Salary by Age in America

As seen in the data table below, America’s youngest workers (aged 16 to 19) earn the least, with annual earnings of just $33,280. This figure is almost half the national median, reflecting their limited experience and lower-paying entry-level roles.

As workers gain more education and experience in their 20s, earnings rise significantly to $40,664 for those aged 20 to 24.

Income growth accelerates as workers enter their 30s and 40s. Median earnings reach $59,228 for ages 25 to 34 and peak at $70,824 between ages 45 and 54.

This period typically reflects career stability, advanced skills, and leadership roles, contributing to higher paychecks. Notably, the 35 to 44 bracket ($70,252) is nearly identical to the peak decade, showing sustained strength in mid-career earnings.

Later Career and Retirement Age Earnings

After 55, earnings begin to taper off as workers aged 55 to 64 earn $67,392. After that, those 65 and older see median earnings of $62,296, nearly identical to the overall national median.

Interestingly, older workers (65+) earn around $3,000 more than those in the 25 to 34 bracket, reflecting a group of late-career professionals who continue to command strong wages.

To learn more about household finances and earnings in the U.S., check out this map of poverty by state on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 22:10

California Passes Law Banning ICE Officers From Wearing Masks

California's legislature has passed a bill that bans federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks while on duty, with criminal penalties for noncompliance. 

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent watches as Customs and Border Protection officers confront protesters in Camarillo, Calif., on July 10, 2025. Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images

The bill, SB-627, bans any law enforcement officer or agent from wearing a "facial covering that conceals or obscures their facial identity in the performance of their duties," with exceptions for motorcycle helmets and SWAT officers, along with N-95 masks for COVID-19. 

Assuming it's signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), violators could face either a fine or charged with a misdemeanor.

The bill also strips law enforcement officers from qualified immunity for officer and agents who commit "assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, abuse of process, or malicious prosecution" while wearing a mask, and could face a fine up to $10,000.

The bill applies to federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel throughout the state - so criminals seeking revenge will have a wide swath of cops to target. 

"The ICE masked secret police are raining terror on communities across California, and it has to stop. Law enforcement should never be easily confused with the guy in the ski mask robbing a liquor store, yet that’s what’s happening with ICE’s extreme masking behavior," Sen. Scott Wiener (D-generate), the bill's leading sponsor, wrote. 

"They should be proud to show their faces and provide identifying information in the course of duty." 

The agencies have hit back - saying that masking prevents members of law enforcement and their families from being harassed.

"ICE law enforcement officers wear masks to prevent doxing, which can (and has) placed them and their families at risk. All ICE law enforcement officers carry badges and credentials and will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity," the agency wrote on its website in the FAQ area. 

ICE is responsible for heading up the apprehension, prosecution and removal of illegal immigrants from the United States. 

That said, the bill may be unconstitutional - after the Supreme Court held in a 2012 case (Arizona v. United States) that states cannot regulate federal immigration law enforcement. Yet, the word "immigration" is not mentioned in the text of the bill, which applies to all law enforcement activity. 

The bill was approved by a 2/3 majority in the California Senate and a simple majority in the lower House. 

*  *  *

Reminder: Order by Sunday night for Wednesday delivery

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 21:20

Largest Group Of Lawbreaking Gang Members Is Aged 13 To 16, FBI Report Reveals

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The biggest cohort involved in gang activity in the United States is youths 13 to 16 years old, the FBI revealed as part of the agency’s Gang Activity, 2021–2024 special report published on Sept. 8.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation building in Washington on Aug. 7, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

There were 79,507 offenders engaged in gang activities during the four years, and of these, 19,163 were aged 13 to 16—the highest among all age groups.

This was followed by 17- to 19-year-olds with 13,563 offenders, and those 20 to 24 with 11,452 offenders.

“Over one-third (33.8 percent) of offenders were juveniles under the age of 18, and more than half (58.2 percent) were under the age of 25,” the report said.

Besides being top offenders, the 13- to 16-year age group also accounted for the largest number of victims of gang activity. More than half of the victims were under the age of 30.

“Of known victim-offender relationships for incidents involving gang activity, 67.1 percent of victims knew the offenders in some manner. Conversely, 30.1 percent of relationships described the offenders as strangers.”

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the juvenile justice system in the United States aims to rehabilitate youth found guilty of crimes rather than punish them.

“In many cases, juveniles face much lower maximum possible sentences compared to adults convicted of the same offense,” the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) justice manual states.

“Juveniles under the age of 18 will not be detained past their 21st birthday, and individuals aged 18 to 21 who are being prosecuted as juveniles will face a maximum of five years.”

Charges against juveniles are not pursued as criminal prosecutions but as delinquency proceedings, it said. Juveniles also have robust privacy protections, including sealed records, non-jury trials, and closed rooms.

When a legal system implements softer punishments for children, it’s an incentive for gangs to recruit kids, Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI special agent, said in a post on LinkedIn.

“Gangs seek petty criminals, and they promote teenage recruits to commit petty crimes—presumably because these young recruits are not only undisciplined and easily influenced but also largely immune to serious legal consequences,” he wrote.

“On some occasions, youth which have proven themselves as trust worthy, may be tasked to conduct more serious acts, such as look out for a homicide, sexual assault, and possibly even murder. The legal consequences are typically very weak for younger criminals, especially at the Federal level, allowing these gangs to get away with these crimes.”

‘Not Afraid of Law Enforcement’

Juvenile delinquency was one of the main reasons cited by President Donald Trump for his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.

“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released,” Trump said in an Aug. 6 post on Truth Social.

He shared a picture of 19-year-old DOGE staff member Edward Coristine, who was attacked last month allegedly by 10 juveniles during an attempted carjacking incident and left bloodied.

“They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” Trump wrote.

Trump federalized the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Aug. 11, ordering 800 troops from the National Guard to assist with law enforcement. This past week, the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration, arguing that “the military should not be involved in domestic law enforcement.”

Meanwhile, crime committed by youngsters in school locations has risen over the past several years, according to the FBI’s Crime in Schools, 2020–2024 report.

In 2024, there were 329,424 criminal incidents, more than triple the 100,810 reported in 2020. The age group most frequently reported as offenders was 13 to 15, the FBI said.

Out of the 1.25 million known offenders over the five years, 478,279 were in this age group, followed by 297,873 who were 16 to 18, according to the report.

“Many of the victims were not hurt or suffered only a minor injury and were acquainted with the offender,” it said.

According to a 2017 post by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), some children and adolescents are motivated to join gangs to have a sense of connection in formative years.

Risks of children joining gangs increase when they grow up in areas with high gang activity, lower adult supervision, a lack of hope about the future due to limited education or finances, a lack of positive role models, and unstructured free time.

Parents may face gang retaliation when confronting a child suspected of being a gang member.

Moreover, parents may be held liable for their children’s past behavior, the AACAP said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 20:55

China To Help Local Government Repay $1 Trillion In Unpaid Bills To Private Sector

Every single day, we get a new story of another stealth bailout by China (since a bazooka stimulus remains out of the picture seeing how China pretty much used them all up by the time covid rolled out and pushed the country's consolidateded debt to GDP to around 400%). Here's another: according to Bloomberg, China is preparing to tackle the massive backlog of unpaid bills owed by local governments to the private sector, an amount of arrears some have estimated at over $1 trillion.

Of course, since there is no actual "loose cash" floating around in China, in another financial MC Escher painting, Beijing will need to take out more massive loans to repay bills that couldn't be repaid because of too much debt. The government is considering asking state lenders and policy banks including China Development Bank to lend to local authorities so they can make the payments in arrears. 

The amount of money under discussion would plug at least 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) of debt owed to private companies in the first phase of a longer-term initiative. Officials aim to complete the task by 2027, according to the people.

What this means is that Beijing's massive subsidy engine is about to go into turbo overdrive, and the world is about to be flooded with below cost crappy EVs and enough solar panels to cover the Sahara.

President Xi warned in a February speech made public last month that the government’s delayed payments to companies risks undermining people’s trust in the authorities. Underscoring the importance Beijing is placing on the issue, China’s top leader said unpaid bills could “cripple” affected businesses in the embattled private sector and was hurting "society at large."

Of course, while the proposed assistance would offer relief to private-sector contractors, it would shift more risk onto state banks that already face rising loan losses, and is why gold just continues to surge day after day. 

Local government-related entities in China are estimated to owe 10 trillion yuan, or about $1.4 trillion, to corporates and civil servants, equivalent to 7% of the country’s gross domestic product last year, according to economist David Li Daokui’s estimate. Hilariously, China's GDP continues to grow at a fixed 5% every single year. Which means that the government is now directly funding all of the growth with even more debt! 

Caitong Securities said in a report last week that China may allocate about 200 billion yuan in special bonds this year to settle overdue payments to companies, based on projections for land-reserve and project-construction special bonds.

The nudging has already begun and in recent months, authorities have instructed the nation’s major banks to provide support for the initiative, including asking them to give short-term liquidity loans to regional governments to settle overdue bills tied to their affiliated entities. While such debts are typically not owed by the local governments, they are responsible for repayment because they are backing the entities in debt. The policy may need further backing from regulators, as bankers are concerned about potential risks and need some form of assurance they won’t be held responsible if the advances turn bad, one of the people said.

Bottom line: now we know why there has been such a surge in Chinese stocks in recent days; the simple answer: after the latest $1 trillion debt transfer from the private sector to the government, all risk assets will benefit while China's consolidated debt is about to explode even higher, which also means that the recent spike in gold and crypto isn't ending any time soon. 

*  *  *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 20:30

Trump's Crackdown On Prescription Drug Ads: What To Know

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ramp up its efforts to ensure that advertising of prescription drugs directed to consumers is transparent and accurate.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media while signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 5, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

That includes requiring drug makers to provide more information on the risks of using the drug, and stepping up enforcement of federal laws regulating these ads.

This action, ordered by a presidential memorandum on Sept. 9, could have far-reaching implications for drug manufacturers, who collectively spend billions each year to present their products directly to prospective patients through broadcast media.

The ripple effect could impact new media, as the FDA ramps up enforcement in digital spaces, including via social media influencers, algorithmically served ads, artificial intelligence (AI), and chatbots.

Here’s what to know.

Direct-to-Consumer Ads Skyrocket

Direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs has been regulated by the FDA since 1962 but was not generally used until the mid-1980s. At that time, lengthy descriptions of a drug’s risks and possible side effects were required in each ad.

The practice expanded rapidly starting in 1997, when the FDA added a provision allowing pharmaceutical companies to broadcast ads that included only the most important risks while referring consumers to other sources for more complete information.

This “adequate provision” of risk information could be as simple as including a toll-free phone number or website URL in the ad, or telling consumers to consult their doctor.

Since then, direct-to-consumer drug advertising has grown to a $13.8 billion business as of 2023. 

In 2024, seven companies spent a combined $3.3 billion to advertise 10 medications. The top advertiser, AbbVie, spent nearly $1.4 billion to promote the use of Skyrizi, Rinvoq, and Vraylar. 

Drug companies maintain that their ads are accurate and helpful.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group, stated: “[Direct-to-consumer advertising] provides patients with important fact-based, useful and accessible information about potential treatment options.”

The Sept. 9 statement added that member companies are committed to responsible advertising practices that help Americans make informed health care decisions with their doctors.

The United States and New Zealand are the only countries to allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Impact of Consumer Ads

The Trump administration maintains that the practice of omitting much of the risk information from broadcast advertising has negatively affected the health of Americans.

Researchers Janelle Applequist and Jennifer Gerard Ball found that most prescription drug ads—94 percent—relied on positive emotional appeals and did little to educate the consumer.

According to the FDA, advertising generates patient-physician conversations that emphasize the use of medication over lifestyle changes that might be equally beneficial.

One concern is that the ads may lead patients to ask for a prescription that their physicians are not convinced is medically appropriate. A 2002 study published by BMJ concluded that when patients requested a drug, “In most cases physicians prescribed requested medicines but were often ambivalent about the choice of treatment.”

A year later, a study published by the Journal of Medical Economics concurred that exposure to advertising “led to large increases in treatment initiation.”

However, that study reported that advertising also improved patients’ compliance with their prescribed medication regimen. Other researchers have said that direct-to-consumer ads may reduce the chance of illnesses going undiagnosed.

Prescription drug use has increased dramatically in the United States over the last 30 years, to the point where children born in 2019 can expect to spend roughly half of their lives taking prescription medications, according to Jessica Y. Ho, a researcher at Penn State University.

What FDA Will Do Now

First, the FDA will introduce a new federal rule to remove the 1997 Adequate Provision exception. That would likely mean that broadcast prescription drug ads will again have to include a fuller listing of risks and side effects of using a medication.

Federal rulemaking can be a lengthy process, taking one to three years to complete.

In the meantime, the FDA will ramp up enforcement of existing federal laws regulating consumer ads for prescription drugs.

The FDA noted that enforcement letters, a first step in gaining compliance with a regulation, numbered about 130 each year in the late 1990s. In 2023, the agency sent only three enforcement letters.

Federal officials sent 100 letters to drug companies on Sept. 9, advising them to comply with current federal regulations for direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

The FDA said it would also issue dozens of enforcement letters targeting “false and misleading advertising” that “misbranded” drugs. The FDA can take a variety of enforcement actions related to a misbranded drug, including recalls, seizures, and civil penalties. Serious cases of misbranding could result in criminal charges.

Also, the FDA will expand its oversight of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs to include social media. That includes influencer partnerships, sponsored content, targeted ads, AI-generated content, and chatbots.

Other Administration Actions

The executive memorandum differs from an executive order in that it does not have the force of law. This is the latest action by the Trump administration aimed at pharmaceutical industry reforms.

Earlier on Sept. 9, the Make America Healthy Again Commission released its strategy report, stating its intention to evaluate the impact of current diagnostic thresholds and prescription trends on children’s mental health.

In July, the president asked U.S. drug makers to comply with his Most Favored Nation Prescription Drug Pricing policy, ensuring that U.S. consumers pay the lowest available price for prescription medications.

Manufacturers have said that if they lower prices in the United States, they will not be able to recoup research and development costs for expensive drugs.

Americans pay nearly three times as much for prescription medication as any peer nation, often even more. 

An April executive order included actions to ensure that pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen in the drug supply chain, can’t hold on to rebates provided by pharmaceutical companies and instead must pass savings on to Medicare beneficiaries.

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk referred The Epoch Times’ request for comment to Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi did not reply to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 20:05

Poverty Ticked Up Among US Seniors In 2024

Poverty rates ticked up among seniors in the United States in 2024, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

As Anna Fleck shows in the chart below, last year, 9.9 percent of U.S. adults aged 65 and older were experiencing poverty, up from 9.7 percent in 2023.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Poverty rates were highest among under 18 year olds, although the situation improved marginally for the group from 15.3 percent in 2023 to 14.3 percent in 2024, as well as for the 18 to 64 year olds, dropping from 10 percent to 9.6 percent in this period.

This chart looks at the official poverty measure, which is based on pre-tax cash income and continues to be used as a benchmark for tracking broad national economic trends over time.

In 2009 an additional measure was introduced, called the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). Unlike the official measure, the post-tax SPM takes into consideration factors such as food and housing subsidies and medical out-of-pocket costs, comparing it with a poverty threshold that reflects actual spending, while also taking into consideration regional differences in housing costs. In 2024, the SPM rate for seniors ticked up to 15 percent from 14 percent in the two previous years. By this measure, the 65 year olds and up marked the highest poverty level among all age groups.

The increase is is partly attributed to assistance programs from the pandemic years ending as well as inflation.

After seeing Tuesday’s figures, the rights group National Council on Aging (NCOA) released a statement warning that continued cuts would have serious detrimental effects for senior Americans.

“When we lifted up individuals and families during the pandemic, poverty among older Americans went down to 9.5 percent. When that help went away, poverty increased,” said Ramsey Alwin, president of the group.

“Programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs), and Medicaid provide much-needed assistance that must continue. But the recently enacted cuts to SNAP will increase hunger among older Americans and the recently passed Medicaid cuts will lead to a sicker older population.”

The NCOA is calling for Congress to reauthorize and fully fund the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), which helps Medicare’s low-income beneficiaries afford health care and prescription drugs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 19:40

COVID-19 Is No Longer A Top 10 Cause Of Death, CDC Report Says

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

COVID-19 is no longer a top 10 cause of death in the United States, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on April 23, 2020. Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images

The overall death rate dropped to 722 per 100,000 in 2024 from 750.5 per 100,000 people in 2023, the CDC said.

“Suicide replaced COVID-19 as the 10th leading underlying cause of death,” the agency said in its report.

According to data released by the CDC, the COVID-19 death rate appeared to peak in early 2021. Other significant peaks in COVID-19 deaths were observed in mid-2021 and in early 2022, as well as in April 2020 and August 2020.

In the report released this week, the CDC said that heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injury were the leading causes of death. COVID-19 had been ranked as the third-leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, when the pandemic first emerged, federal data show.

After heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injury, the other causes of death listed in the agency’s report were stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and suicide.

“The death rate decreased from 2023 to 2024 for all demographic groups except infants,” the CDC also wrote in the report, adding that “death rates also decreased for all race and ethnicity groups.”

A report released in May by the CDC shows that the national infant mortality rate dropped to about 5.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024—from about 5.6 per 1,000 live births, where it had been the previous two years. Federal health data show that Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the country.

In late August, Mississippi’s health department said it declared a public health emergency because of rising infant mortality rates in the state. Data released by the state show that the mortality rate increased to 9.7 per 1,000 live births last year, it said in a statement at the time.

Meanwhile, the U.S. suicide rate has steadily risen, increasing by 37 percent between 2000 and 2018, according to the CDC’s data. That rate dropped slightly between 2018 and 2020 before it returned to a peak rate of around 14.2 suicides per 100,000 people in 2022, the last available data.

Both the CDC and doctors’ groups have, for years, said that heart disease is the leading cause of death nationwide. Earlier this year, the American Heart Association said that “many of the risks factors that contribute to it remain on the rise,” and added in a news release that roughly 2,500 people die of heart disease each day in the United States.

While cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, the World Health Organization says that it is the No. 1 killer worldwide. The most common cancers, it says, are breast, lung, colon, and prostate.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 19:15

Trump Warns His Patience With Putin Is "Running Out Fast"

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he is losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and could issue new tariffs and sanctions to compel the Russian leader to enter cease-fire negotiations with Ukraine.

Trump said that his patience with Putin’s refusal to participate in peace talks with Ukraine was “running out and running out fast,” during an interview with Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” on Sep. 12.

Trump ist genau wie Putin - ein Blender....
Trump hat erneut erklärt, dass seine Geduld gegenüber Putin zur Neige geht. Er droht mit gewissen Sanktionen.
„Meine Geduld scheint schon fast erschöpft zu sein, und das schnell – aber es braucht ja zwei zum Tango tanzen... Als Putin es… pic.twitter.com/RjA9J8We7n

— Konstanze Hoffmann (@KonstanzeHoffm1) September 12, 2025

As Andrew Thornebrooke reports for The Epoch Times, the president added that “it does take two to tango,” saying that Putin’s recalcitrance on committing to peace talks was in part due to the Russian leader’s mutual animosity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“There’s tremendous hatred between him and Zelenskyy,” Trump said.

Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine and other international conflicts a key part of his presidential agenda, but has struggled at times to convince Putin and Zelenskyy to meaningfully negotiate on ending the conflict.

The comments follow a high-profile summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska in August, which aimed to bring Russia back to the negotiating table but ultimately did not result in the resumption of cease-fire talks.

“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said at the time.

That meeting itself was the result of a threat by Trump to impose new sanctions on the Russian oil sector, including secondary tariffs on nations such as India and China that purchase oil from Russian entities.

Trump renewed those threats during Friday’s interview, saying the United States would have to “come down very, very strong” on Russia if Putin did not commit to peace talks with Ukraine.

When asked what coming down on Russia would look like, Trump said that it would involve “hitting [Russia] very hard with sanctions to banks and having to do with oil and tariffs also.”

Trump also reached out to U.S. allies in Europe earlier this week in the hopes of building international support for secondary tariffs of up to 100 percent on China and India.

The move demonstrates how much Trump and his administration have shifted in handling the war in Ukraine since first coming to office, moving from pausing all support of Ukraine early in the year to renewing weapon sales to Kyiv and threatening sanctions against Moscow.

The difficulty lies in getting either Kyiv or Moscow to relent on any of several key war aims, with Zelenskyy refusing to consider the giving up of any territory to Russia and Putin demanding that it be given territory it has failed to conquer.

For now, Moscow appears undeterred. This week alone, Russia launched its largest aerial assault against Ukraine and sent drones into NATO member Poland’s airspace.

NATO leadership has not yet verified whether the drones entered Polish airspace deliberately or as part of an operation in Ukraine that went wrong.

Trump said during Friday’s interview that Russian assets “shouldn’t be close to Poland.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 18:50

Polymarket Eyes $10 Billion Valuation As Prediction Market Preps US Comeback

Authored by Sam Bourgi via CoinTelegraph.com,

Polymarket prepares US return with CFTC relief, new funding and a valuation that could soar to $10B as prediction markets gain momentum...

Blockchain-powered prediction market Polymarket is reportedly preparing a US launch that could value the company as high as $10 billion, highlighting the surge of investor interest in prediction markets and crypto ventures.

Citing sources familiar with the conversation, Business Insider reported Friday that Polymarket is exploring re-entering the US while seeking new funding that could more than triple its June valuation of $1 billion. One investor valued the company at up to $10 billion, the report said.

As Cointelegraph reported, Polymarket was raising a $200 million round in June led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, an early backer of companies including OpenAI, Paxos and Palantir.

Polymarket, a decentralized platform that allows users to trade event outcomes without a centralized bookmaker, gained prominence during the 2024 US presidential election, where its markets correctly anticipated Donald Trump’s victory.

Polymarket activity skyrocketed during the US presidential election, based on monthly active traders. Source: Dune

The company was barred from serving US users in 2022 following a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In July, however, it acquired Florida-based derivatives exchange QCX, which could pave the way for a regulated return to the US market.

In September, the CFTC issued a no-action letter to QCX, granting relief from certain federal reporting and recordkeeping requirements for event contracts. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said the decision effectively gives the platform “the green light to go live in the USA.”

Source: Shayne Coplan

Blockchain prediction markets gain steam

The move comes as rival platform Kalshi is reportedly nearing a $5 billion funding round, according to The Information. That follows a Paradigm-led raise in June, when the company secured $185 million at a $2 billion valuation.

Kalshi’s recent momentum stems partly from a 2024 court ruling that allowed it to offer political-event contracts — a ruling the CFTC appealed but voluntarily dropped in May of this year. The favorable rulings left intact Kalshi’s right to list political-event contracts under existing regulation.

Source: Factcheck1ntern

Kalshi ranks among the most active prediction markets alongside Polymarket, measured by trading volumes and monthly active users. Still, like Polymarket, its user base has declined since the election.

Market watchers say momentum is shifting, fueled by the start of the National Football League season. Market analyst Tarek Mansour noted this week that Kalshi processed $441 million in volume since kickoff, writing: “NFL Week 1 is equal to a US election.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 18:25

Trump May Meet With Syria's Al-Qaeda-Leader-Turned President In New York This Month

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Syrian media has confirmed that Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, will be attending the UN General Assembly in New York City this month, where he may land a meeting with President Trump.

Syrian diplomatic sources told The Media Line that the US has granted an entry visa to Sharaa for the General Assembly, which he will be attending from September 21 to September 25, a step the US is taking while denying visas to Palestinian Authority officials as an effort to impede Western countries from recognizing a Palestinian state.

Via PBS

The Media Line report also said that preparations are underway for a bilateral meeting between Trump and Sharaa on the sidelines of the General Assembly. The two leaders met in Saudi Arabia back in May, and Trump praised Sharaa as a “young, attractive guy” with a “strong past.”

Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, got his start with al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he fought an insurgency against US troops before being imprisoned from 2006 to 2011. In 2012, he travelled to Syria and formed al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.

In 2016, Sharaa claimed the al-Nusra Front was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. At the time, he thanked the “commanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties.” In 2017, Julani merged his group with several other Islamist factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the offensive that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

According to The New Arab, Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, who will also be traveling to New York, was also a founding member of the al-Nusra Front and oversaw its transition into HTS.

The US will be welcoming the two former al-Qaeda leaders to New York less than two weeks after the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which killed  2,606 people at the Twin Towers in New York City.

Reports say the US may be placing travel restrictions on Iranian officials who are attending the General Assembly, but there’s no sign that travel will be limited for Sharaa and his delegation. The Media Line report said Sharaa may also visit New York’s Turkish House, the headquarters of several Turkish diplomatic missions, together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of HTS’s major backers.

While Sharaa now presents himself as a moderate, Syrian government forces have been responsible for the massacre of thousands of Alawites and other minorities since he took power. Since Assad was ousted, there have been over 3,000 extrajudicial executions in Syria.

Jolani | the West’s new face of ‘Syrian democracy,’ 24 years after 9/11 pic.twitter.com/VSr03bfOQa

— HQ (@HKX37) September 12, 2025

Despite the violence, the US has embraced the new Syrian government by lifting sanctions and removing HTS from its list of terror organizations. Israel, which supported and celebrated the overthrow of Assad, has used the HTS takeover as a pretext to invade and occupy more territory in southwest Syria.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 17:40



 

 

This week, I speak with Heather Boushey, a former Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, a former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. In this episode, they discuss the economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden’s economic policy, and economic equality in the US. She is the author of “Unbound: How Economic Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About.”

A list of books we discussed is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Jaime Magyera, Head of U.S. Wealth & Retirement Business at BlackRock. She has driven the firms adoption of alternatives as a fast growing part of the Blackrock platform for advisors and RIAs. The firm manages over $11 trillion in client assets, and Magyera is a Wealth and Retirement divisions are a substantial portion of that.

 

 

 

Authored Books

 

 

Books Barry Mentioned

 

 

The post MiB: Heather Boushey on Reimagining the Economy appeared first on The Big Picture.

Hotel occupancy was weak over the summer months, likely due to less international tourism.  The fall months are mostly domestic travel.

From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 6 September

The U.S. hotel industry reported negative year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 6 September. ...

31 August through 6 September 2025 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024):

• Occupancy: 57.7% (-0.5%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$149.52 (-0.2%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$86.20 (-0.7%)
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2025, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2024.  Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. 
The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is tracking behind both last year and the median rate for the period 2000 through 2024 (Blue).
Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.
The 4-week average will increase during the Fall travel period.
On a year-to-date basis, the only worse years for occupancy over the last 25 years were pandemic or recession years.

Are Moviegoers Tired Of Comic Book Adaptations?

If there ever was a surefire way of making a billion dollars at the box office, it was making a big-budget superhero movie in the 2010s.

Between 2010 and 2019, twelve movies based on comic book adaptations reached the billion-dollar threshold at the global box office, with “Avengers: Infinity War”, released in 2018, and “Avengers: Endgame” from 2019 even surpassing $2 billion in box office sales.

Since 2020, there has only been one more billion-dollar comic book adaptation – “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) – or two, if you’re counting “Deadpool & Wolverine”, which is officially a spin-off from the X-Men series.

Moreover, several high-profile releases, e.g. “The Marvels” (2023) or “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023), have disappointed at the box office in recent years, giving rise to the idea of “superhero fatigue”.

As Statista's Felix Richter shows in the chart below, according to The Numbers, adaptations of comic books and graphic novels accounted for just 15.6 and 3.2 percent of ticket sales at the North American box office in 2023 and 2024, down from 29.9 and 31.0 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

You will find more infographics at Statista

While some argue that this is due to “superhero fatigue” after a decade-long overabundance of DC and Marvel movies, others say it’s just “mediocre movie fatigue”, suggesting that many of the latest installments of popular comic book franchises have been lazy cash grabs.

This year’s box office performance of major comic book adaptations such as “Superman” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” would suggest that audiences are still open to enjoying a good superhero blockbuster.

Both movies received generally positive reviews and are among the highest-grossing films of the year so far.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 14:45

Spot Bitcoin ETFs See Strong Demand; Crypto Market Tops $4 Trillion As Gen-A Shuns Gold

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw strong demand this week, recording more than $1.7 billion in inflows before the trading week closes on Friday. 

SoSoValue data showed that the ETFs had a strong week, with Wednesday having nearly $800 million in inflows. As of Thursday, the ETF tracker showed that spot Bitcoin ETFs already had $1.7 billion in net inflows this week.

As Ezra Reguerra reports via CoinTelegraph.com, the strong performance marks the ETFs’ biggest weekly total in nearly two months, highlighting renewed confidence in the asset class. 

The strong ETF inflows came as Bitcoin climbed back to $115,000, up 4.5% from its $110,000 price last Friday. 

Spot Bitcoin ETF daily net inflow data. Source: SoSoValue

Spot Ether ETFs recover from nearly $800 million in outflows

Spot Ether ETFs also had a strong week, recording over $230 million in net inflows as of Thursday. This is a sharp asset class recovery after nearly $800 million in outflows last week. 

While ETH ETFs recover, corporate treasury holder BitMine continued to stack up Ether  purchases this week. On Monday, BitMine purchased 202,500 ETH, which sent its holdings to the 2 million ETH milestone. The company made a follow-up purchase on Wednesday, buying $200 million in ETH from Bitgo. 

Data from the Strategic ETH Reserve website shows that BitMine currently holds over 2 million ETH, worth $9.3 billion at the time of writing. 

The ETH data tracker also shows that in total, ETH reserve companies hold nearly 5 million ETH, worth about $22.1 billion.

Meanwhile, ETF issuers hold 6.6 million ETH, worth nearly $30 billion, to back the assets. This means that almost 12 million ETH, nearly 10% of the circulating supply are held by institutions. 

CZ compares the crypto market cap to Nvidia 

The broader crypto market also crossed $4.1 trillion again this week, a level previously reached in July and August. 

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao highlighted the milestone on X, comparing the combined value of the entire crypto space to Nvidia, which stands at roughly $4.3 trillion, according to 8marketcap. 

“The combined market cap of all future money is less than one chip company’s market cap. You do the math,” Zhao wrote. 

Indeed, as Darius Moukhtarzadeh, Research Strategist at 21Shares, writes, Gen Alpha will grow up with Bitcoin as a cultural and financial native, making it their default store of value over traditional gold investments.

Gold has long been considered the ultimate store of value — shiny, scarce and time-tested. 

For Gen Alpha, however, the first generation truly born into a digital world, that shine is already starting to fade. 

Instead, they’ll grow up with a very different baseline for value, how it moves and where it lives. In reality, Bitcoin won’t just be an investment option; it will be a default for this generation.

Born into a digital world

Unlike previous generations, Gen Alpha won’t discover Bitcoin as something new or revolutionary. They’ll inherit a world where Bitcoin has always existed, present in financial apps, discussed in classrooms and embedded in digital platforms. To them, it won’t feel risky or radical. It will feel normal.

From day one, their experience of value will be digital-first. Physical cash will be rare, as most payments will be cashless. They’ll learn about scarcity through gaming tokens and in-app economies, not gold coins in a drawer. In that context, Bitcoin won’t seem exotic; it will be part of everyday life. On the contrary, gold will be perceived as exotic by Gen Alpha as a yellow stone with historic value. 

Bitcoin is easier to access than gold ever was

Gold is hard. You need to buy it from a trusted dealer and store it physically to have complete control. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a few taps away. With child-friendly fintech apps and educational tools already present, Gen Alpha could be exposed to Bitcoin before they even understand how a savings account works. 

Access will be seamless through crypto-enabled games, loyalty rewards or allowance apps. The barriers that once made Bitcoin feel technical or inaccessible are rapidly disappearing.

Trust will be earned, not assumed

Where older generations gradually lost faith in institutions, Gen Alpha started from a place of deep skepticism. They’re growing up in an era of economic uncertainty, institutional distrust and algorithmic information. For them, “trust” won’t be given to governments or banks by default; it will have to be earned through transparency.

Bitcoin, by design, fits that worldview. It’s open-source, auditable and decentralized. It doesn’t ask for trust, it allows verification. In a world where the mantra is “don’t trust, verify,” Gen Alpha will naturally gravitate toward systems that don’t require faith in intermediaries.

Bitcoin will be culturally native

Bitcoin is no longer just an asset; it’s part of pop culture. For Gen Alpha, that cultural familiarity will only deepen. They’ll encounter Bitcoin through finance apps, influencers, creators, games and even school programs.

Just like social media was second nature to Gen Z, digital assets will be embedded in Gen Alpha’s online identity. That constant exposure through memes, brands, and mainstream platforms will make Bitcoin feel more culturally relevant than something like gold, which lacks that digital presence.

Bitcoin is programmable

Gold is physical, heavy, and inert. It sits in vaults. It’s hard to move and harder to use. Bitcoin is the opposite. It’s programmable, borderless, divisible and integrated into the broader world of decentralized finance.

As Gen Alpha grows up expecting digital systems to be flexible and responsive, Bitcoin’s dynamic nature will be a feature, not a bonus. It simply fits the world they’ll build and live in.

A generation that won’t need convincing

Every generation reshapes the financial system in its image. Millennials flirted with Bitcoin. Gen Z normalized it. Gen Alpha won’t have to be convinced.

They won’t see Bitcoin as an alternative to the old system. They’ll see it as part of the system. Not because of ideology, but because of familiarity, usability and cultural relevance. 

Gold had its moment. Bitcoin is just getting started. Gen Alpha will grow up with it in their wallets, not in a vault.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/12/2025 - 14:25