To Afford Seattle Rent, You Need Nearly $91,000 A Year

Renting in Seattle now requires a much higher income than just a few years ago, according to new Zillow data sourced by Axios.. To afford the typical monthly rent in the metro area, a household must earn nearly $91,000 annually — about 23% more than five years ago.

Zillow uses the standard guideline that rent should take up no more than 30% of household income. Based on that, the typical Seattle-area rent of $2,271 in April would require an annual income of $90,840, the 11th-highest threshold among major U.S. metros.

Seattle’s relatively high household incomes help cushion the blow for many families: the region’s median household income reached $110,744 in 2023, well above Zillow’s affordability mark. But single earners face tighter constraints. Census data show Seattle’s per capita income was $82,508 last year — leaving many individuals below the level needed to comfortably pay average rent.

Axios writes that nationally, typical rents stood at $2,024 per month in April, requiring about $80,949 in annual income — roughly $10,000 less than in Seattle.

“Housing costs have surged since pre-pandemic, with rents growing quite a bit faster than wages,” said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. “This often leaves little room for other expenses, making it particularly difficult for those hoping to save for a down payment on a future home.”

The findings highlight the widening gap between housing costs and wages across the country, even in regions with relatively strong incomes like Seattle.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 23:00

When Smartphones Get Smarter, Do We Get Dumber?

Authored by Makai Allbert via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As Mohamed Elmasry, emeritus professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, watched his 11- and 10-year-old grandchildren tapping away on their smartphones, he posed a simple question: “What’s one-third of nine?”

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Freepik, Getty Images

Instead of taking a moment to think, they immediately opened their calculator apps, he wrote in his book “iMind Artificial and Real Intelligence.”

Later, fresh from a family vacation in Cuba, he asked them to name the island’s capital. Once again, their fingers flew to their devices, Googling the answer rather than recalling their recent experience.

With 60 percent of the global population—and 97 percent of those younger than 30—using smartphones, technology has inadvertently become an extension of our thinking process.

However, everything comes at a cost. Cognitive outsourcing, which involves relying on external systems to collect or process information, may increase one’s risk of cognitive decline.

Habitual GPS (global positioning system) use, for example, has been linked to a significant decrease in spatial memory, reducing one’s ability to navigate independently. As AI applications such as ChatGPT become a household norm—with 55 percent of Americans reporting regular AI use—recent studies found that it is resulting in impaired critical thinking skills, dependency, loss of decision-making, and laziness.

Experts emphasize cultivating and prioritizing innate human skills that technology cannot replicate.

Neglected Real Intelligence

Referring to his grandkids and their overreliance on technology, Elmasry explained that they are far from “stupid.”

The problem is that they are not using their real intelligence.

They—and the rest of their generation—have grown accustomed to using apps and digital devices—unconsciously defaulting to internet search engines such as Google rather than thinking something through.

Just as physical muscles atrophy without use, so too do our cognitive abilities weaken when we let technology think for us.

A telling case is now called the “Google effect,” or digital amnesia, as shown in a 2011 study from Columbia University.

The current generation has grown accustomed to using apps and digital devices. hughhan/unsplash, Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Betsy Sparrow and colleagues at Columbia found that individuals tend to easily forget information that is readily available on the internet.

Their findings show that people are more likely to remember things they think are not available online. They are also better at recalling where to find information on the internet than recalling the information itself.

A 2021 study further tested the effects of Googling and found that participants who relied on search engines such as Google performed worse on learning assessments and memory recall than those who did not search online.

The study also shows that Googlers often had higher confidence that they had “mastered” the study material, indicating an overestimation in learning and ignorance of their learning deficit. Their overconfidence might be the result of having an “illusion of knowledge” bias—accessing information through search engines creates a false sense of personal expertise and diminishes people’s effort to learn.

Overreliance on technology is part of the problem, but having it around may be just as harmful. A study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research discovered that “the mere presence” of a smartphone reduced “available cognitive capacity”—even if the phone was off or placed in a bag.

This “brain drain” effect likely occurs because the presence of a smartphone taps into our cognitive resources, subtly allocating our attention and making it harder to concentrate fully on the task at hand, researchers say. Not only does excessive tech use impair our cognition, but also, clinicians and researchers have noticed that it is linked to impaired social intelligence—the innate aspects that make us human.

Becoming Machine-Like

In the United States, children ages 8 to 12 typically spend four to six hours per day looking at screens, while teenagers may spend up to nine hours daily looking at screens. Further, 44 percent of teenagers feel anxious, and 39 percent feel lonely without their phones.

Excessive screen time reduces social interactions and emotional intelligence and has been linked to autistic-like symptoms, with longer durations of screen use correlated with more severe symptoms.

Dr. Jason Liu, a medical doctor who also has a doctorate in neuroscience, is a research scientist and founding president of the Mind-Body Science Institute International. Liu told The Epoch Times that he is particularly concerned about children’s use of digital media.

He said he has observed irregularities in his young patients who spend excessive time in the digital world—noticing their mechanical speech, lack of emotional expression, poor eye contact, and difficulty forming genuine human connections. Many exhibit attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, responding with detachment and struggling with emotional fragility.

“We should not let technology replace our human nature,” Liu said.

Corroborating Liu’s observations, a JAMA study followed about 3,000 adolescents with no prior ADHD symptoms over 24 months and found that a higher frequency of modern digital media use was associated with significantly higher odds of developing ADHD symptoms.

As early as 1998, scientists introduced the concept of the “Internet Paradox,” which is that the internet, despite being a “social tool,” leads to antisocial behavior.

Observing 73 households during their first years online, researchers noted that increased internet use was associated with reduced communication with family members, smaller social circles, and heightened depression and loneliness.

However, a three-year follow-up found that most of the adverse effects dissipated. The researcher explained this through a “rich get richer” model; introverts experienced more negative effects from the internet, while extroverts, with stronger social networks, benefited more and became more engaged in online communities, mitigating negative effects.

Manuel Garcia-Garcia, global lead of neuroscience at Ipsos, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, told The Epoch Times that human-to-human connections are vital for building deeper connections and that while digital communication tools facilitate connectivity, they can lead to superficial interactions and impede social cues.

Supporting Liu’s observation of patients becoming “machine-like,” a Facebook emotional contagion experiment, conducted on nearly 700,000 users, manipulated news feeds to show more positive or negative posts. Users exposed to more positive content posted more positive updates, while those seeing more negative content posted more negative updates.

This demonstrated that technology can nudge human behavior in subtle yet systematic ways. This nudging, according to experts, can make our actions and emotions predictable, similar to programmed responses.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 22:35

HHS Rolls Out 'MAHA In Action' To Spotlight Health Reforms

Early in his tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to make transparency a key element of the department under his leadership.

This week, HHS announced the debut of MAHA in Action, an online platform highlighting federal initiatives and state-led reforms implementing the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.

MAHA in Action offers visibility into how health care reforms are working in communities across the country, according to a HHS press release.

“Make America Healthy Again isn’t just a slogan—it’s a mission statement, and we’re delivering results, fast,” Kennedy said.

“The MAHA in Action tracker puts the wins on the map. It gives the public, the press, and policymakers real-time visibility into how we’re restoring health, integrity, and accountability to every corner of our public health agency.”

As Jeff Louderbeck reports for The Epoch Times, MAHA in Action features updates on federal reforms underway across multiple HHS agencies. Among them are removing petroleum-based dyes and harmful additives from the U.S. food supply, restoring public trust in vaccine safety and scientific transparency, closing the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) loophole that allows chemicals into food with unknown safety data, and finding the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic, including autism.

One transparency-centered tool on MAHA in Action involves the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Conflicts of Interest.

In recent months, HHS has dismissed all 17 members of the ACIP panel, ended the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children, and ordered the removal of mercury from influenza vaccines.

After it voted to advise officials to stop recommending influenza shots that have mercury, the remade ACIP said it plans to look at multiple other vaccines.

The ACIP conflicts of interest section on MAHA in Action includes declarations disclosed by voting members during ACIP public meetings since 2000.

“ACIP members are required to declare any potential or perceived conflicts of interest that arise in the course of ACIP tenure and any relevant business interests, positions of authority or other connections with organizations relevant to the work of the ACIP,” according to MAHA in Action.

MAHA in Action also includes an interactive map that follows Kennedy’s MAHA tours and a list of state policies that align with the MAHA agenda.

Among the key “victories” since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House include 12 states with USDA-approved SNAP waivers restricting candy and sugary drinks, eight states banning synthetic dyes or select additives from school meals, two states requiring warning labels on products with unsafe ingredients, 22 states limiting cell phone use in schools, and states restricting lab-grown meat, expanding access to Ivermectin, and removing fluoride from municipal water supplies among other initiatives, MAHA in Action reported.

“Americans are tired of toxic food, failed science, and chronic disease becoming the norm,” Kennedy said.

“We’re turning the tide through bold federal action at HHS and state-driven reforms. The momentum is real, and we’re just getting started,” he added.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Washington on May 22, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The MAHA Commission, chaired by Kennedy and established by Trump, “was on track to submit its Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy report to the president on August 12th,” Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, told The Epoch Times in an email on Aug. 11.

“The report will be unveiled to the public shortly thereafter as we coordinate the schedules of the President and the various cabinet members who are a part of the commission,” he added.

The commission’s first report was released in May. It largely details problems with the health of Americans and attributes the rise of chronic diseases among children to a poor diet full of ultraprocessed foods, exposure to chemicals, a lack of physical activity, and the overprescription of medications.

Trump established the commission in February and said that the commission should “study the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis and any potential contributing causes, including the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, Government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”

Per the order, the commission was required to submit its first report to the president within 100 days. It was also required to present a strategy to Trump on how to address chronic diseases, including obesity, within 180 days. That deadline was Aug. 12.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 22:10

Microsoft Failed To Disclose Key Details About Use Of China-Based Engineers In U.S. Defense Work, Record Shows

Authored by Renee Dudley with research by Doris Burke via ProPublica,

Microsoft, as a provider of cloud services to the U.S. government, is required to regularly submit security plans to officials describing how the company will protect federal computer systems.

Yet in a 2025 submission to the Defense Department, the tech giant left out key details, including its use of employees based in China, the top cyber adversary of the U.S., to work on highly sensitive department systems, according to a copy obtained by ProPublica. In fact, the Microsoft plan viewed by ProPublica makes no reference to the company’s China-based operations or foreign engineers at all.

The document belies Microsoft’s repeated assertions that it disclosed the arrangement to the federal government, showing exactly what was left out as it sold its security plan to the Defense Department. The Pentagon has been investigating the use of foreign personnel by IT contractors in the wake of reporting by ProPublica last month that exposed Microsoft’s practice.

Our work detailed how Microsoft relies on “digital escorts” — U.S. personnel with security clearances — to supervise the foreign engineers who maintain the Defense Department’s cloud systems. The department requires that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Microsoft’s security plan, dated Feb. 28 and submitted to the department’s IT agency, distinguishes between personnel who have undergone and passed background screenings to access its Azure Government cloud platform and those who have not. But it omits the fact that workers who have not been screened include non-U.S. citizens based in foreign countries. “Whenever non-screened personnel request access to Azure Government, an operator who has been screened and has access to Azure Government provides escorted access,” the company said in its plan.

The document also fails to disclose that the screened digital escorts can be contractors hired by a staffing company, not Microsoft employees. ProPublica found that escorts, in many cases former military personnel selected because they possess active security clearances, often lack the expertise needed to supervise engineers with far more advanced technical skills. Microsoft has told ProPublica that escorts “are provided specific training on protecting sensitive data” and preventing harm.

Microsoft’s reference to the escort model comes two-thirds of the way into the 125-page document, known as a “System Security Plan,” in several paragraphs under the heading “Escorted Access.” Government officials are supposed to evaluate these plans to determine whether the security measures disclosed in them are acceptable.

In interviews with ProPublica, Microsoft has maintained that it disclosed the digital escorting arrangement in the plan, and that the government approved it. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other government officials have expressed shock and outrage over the model, raising questions about what, exactly, the company disclosed as it sought to win and keep government cloud computing contracts.

None of the parties involved, including Microsoft and the Defense Department, commented on the omissions in this year’s security plan. But former federal officials now say that the obliqueness of the disclosure, which ProPublica is reporting for the first time, may explain that disconnect and likely contributed to the government’s acceptance of the practice. Microsoft previously told ProPublica that its security documentation to the government, going back years, contained similar wording regarding escorts.

Former Defense Department Chief Information Officer John Sherman, who said he was unfamiliar with the digital escorting process before ProPublica’s reporting, called it a “case of not asking the perfect question to the vendor, with every conceivable prohibited condition spelled out.”

In a LinkedIn post about ProPublica’s investigation, Sherman said such a question “would’ve smoked out this crazy practice of ‘digital escorts.’” His post continued: “The DoD can’t be exposed in this way. The company needs to admit this was wrong and commit to not doing things that don’t pass a common sense test.”

Experts have said allowing China-based personnel to perform technical support and maintenance on U.S. government computer systems poses major security risks. Laws in China grant the country’s officials broad authority to collect data, and experts say it is difficult for any Chinese citizen or company to meaningfully resist a direct request from security forces or law enforcement. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has deemed China the “most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.”

Following ProPublica’s reporting last month, Microsoft said that it had stopped using China-based engineers to support Defense Department cloud computing systems. The company did not respond directly to questions from ProPublica about the security plan and instead issued a statement defending the escort practice.

“Escorted sessions were tightly monitored and supplemented by layers of security mitigations,” the statement said. “Based on the feedback we’ve received, however, we have updated our processes to prevent any involvement of China based engineers.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Hegseth last month suggesting that the Defense Department needed to strengthen oversight of its contractors and that current processes “fail to account for the growing Chinese threat.”

“As we learn more about these ‘digital escorts’ and other unwise — and outrageous — practices used by some DoD partners, it is clear the Department and Congress will need to take further action,” Cotton wrote. He continued: “We must put in place the protocols and processes to adopt innovative technology quickly, effectively, and safely.”

Since 2011, the government has used the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, known as FedRAMP, to evaluate the security practices of commercial companies that want to sell cloud services to the federal government. The Defense Department also has its own guidelines, which include the citizenship requirement for people handling sensitive data.

Both FedRAMP and the Defense Department rely on “third party assessment organizations” to evaluate whether vendors meet the government’s cloud security requirements. While the government considers these organizations “independent,” they are hired and paid directly by the company being assessed. Microsoft, for example, told ProPublica that it enlisted a company called Kratos to shepherd it through the initial FedRAMP and Defense Department authorization processes and to handle annual assessments after winning federal contracts.

On its website, Kratos calls itself the “guiding light” for organizations seeking to win government cloud contracts and said it “boasts a history of performing successful security assessments.”

In a statement to ProPublica, Kratos said its work determines “if security controls are documented accurately,” but the company did not say whether Microsoft had done so in the security plan it submitted to the Defense Department’s IT agency.

Microsoft told ProPublica that it has given demonstrations of the escort process to Kratos but not directly to federal officials. The security plan makes no reference to any such demonstration. Kratos did not respond to questions about whether its assessors were aware that non-screened personnel could include foreign workers.

A former Microsoft employee who worked with Kratos through several FedRAMP accreditations compared Microsoft’s role in the process to “leading the witness” to the desired outcome. “The government approved what we paid Kratos to tell the government to approve. You’re paying for the outcome you want,” said the former employee, who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential proceeding.

Kratos said it “vehemently denies the characterization from an unnamed source that Kratos’ services are pay for play.” In its statement, Kratos said that it has been “accredited and audited by an independent, non-profit industry group” for factors that “include impartiality, competence and independence.”

“Kratos hires and retains the most technically sophisticated, certified security and technology experts,” the company said, adding that its personnel “are beyond reproach in their work.”

For its part, Microsoft said hiring Kratos was simply part of following the government’s cloud assessment process. “As required by FedRAMP, Microsoft relies on this certified assessor to conduct independent assessments on our behalf under FedRAMP’s supervision,” Microsoft said in its statement.

Still, critics take issue with the FedRAMP process itself, saying that the arrangement of a company paying its auditor presents an inherent conflict of interest. One former official from the U.S. General Services Administration, which houses FedRAMP, likened it to a restaurant hiring and paying for its own health inspector rather than the city doing so.

The GSA did not respond to requests for comment.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Department’s IT agency, reviewed and accepted Microsoft’s security plan. Among those involved were senior DISA officials Roger Greenwell and Jackie Snouffer, according to people familiar with the situation. Neither responded to phone messages seeking comment, and DISA and Defense Department spokespeople did not respond to ProPublica’s request to interview them.

A DISA spokesperson declined to comment for this article, saying “any responses will come from Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs.”

The Office of the Secretary of Defense did not respond to questions about whether Greenwell and Snouffer, or anyone at DISA, understood that Microsoft’s China-based employees would be supporting the Defense Department’s cloud. A spokesperson also did not directly respond to questions about Microsoft’s System Security Plan but in an emailed statement said the information in such plans is considered proprietary. The spokesperson noted that “any process that fails to comply with” department restrictions barring foreigners from accessing sensitive department systems “poses unacceptable risk to the DOD infrastructure.”

That said, the office left open the door to the continued use of foreign-based engineers with digital escorts for “infrastructure support,” saying that it “may be deemed an acceptable risk,” depending on factors that include “the country of origin of the foreign national” being escorted. The department said in such scenarios foreign workers would have “view-only” capabilities, not “hands-on” access. In addition to China, Microsoft has operations in India, the European Union and elsewhere across the globe.

In a statement to ProPublica on Friday, Hegseth’s office said the Pentagon’s investigation into tech companies’ use of foreign personnel “is complete and we have identified a series of possible actions the Department could take.” A spokesperson declined to describe those actions or say whether the department would follow through with them. It’s unclear whether Microsoft’s security plan or DISA’s role in approving it was a part of the review.

“As with all contracted relationships, the Department works directly with the vendor to address concerns, to include those that have come to light with the Microsoft digital escort process,” Hegseth’s office said in the statement.

h/t Capital.news

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 21:45

These Are The US Cities Where Groceries Are The Most Expensive

Grocery bills vary dramatically across the U.S., and some cities are feeling the pinch more than others.

Adding to the strain are record meat prices, driving up up food price inflation 3% compared to June of last year. Meanwhile, vegetable prices are spiking as farmers struggle with labor shortages amid rising deportations.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, ranks the top 20 American cities with the highest cost of groceries, based on data from Numbeo.

America’s Top 20 Cities by Cost of Groceries

For the rankings, each city’s grocery index is compared against New York City, which is used as a baseline of 100:

Rank City Groceries Index
Mid-Year 2025 1 Honolulu, HI 120.2 2 San Francisco, CA 100.1 3 New York, NY 100 4 Seattle, WA 95.3 5 Boston, MA 90.5 6 San Jose, CA 89.8 7 Washington, DC 87.2 8 Philadelphia, PA 85.7 9 Pittsburgh, PA 83.1 10 Sacramento, CA 81.8 11 Los Angeles, CA 81.7 12 Minneapolis, MN 81.1 13 Chicago, IL 80.4 14 Atlanta, GA 79.9 15 Baltimore, MD 77.7 16 Charlotte, NC 77.3 17 Denver, CO 77 18 Spokane, WA 76.5 19 Miami, FL 75.8 20 Raleigh, NC 74.9

Honolulu, Hawaii ranks far above all other U.S. cities with a groceries index of 120.2. That’s over 20% more than in New York City, the benchmark.

As an island state, Hawaii faces higher import and transportation costs, driving up the price of food staples. The state’s geographic isolation continues to make everyday goods, including groceries, particularly expensive.

Meanwhile, California and Washington state are well-represented in the top 20. San Francisco (100.1), San Jose (89.8), Sacramento (81.8), and Los Angeles (81.7) all make the list, as does Seattle (95.3) and Spokane (76.5).

These cities are known for higher costs of living in general, and groceries are no exception. Limited space for agriculture and strong demand from dense populations contribute to elevated food prices.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out this graphic on the top 10 states with the highest cost of living on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 21:20

Atlas Robot Moves Spot Parts From One Place To Another As Humans Keep Playing Tricks On It

Authored by Daniel Patrascu via autoevolution,

Thanks to the many ongoing projects in this field, we're used by now to seeing humanoid robots performing all sorts of impressive, almost human-like tasks and movements. But it's not until you see one performing something as mundane as moving things from one box to another, or arranging stuff on a shelf, that you realize just how far things have gone.

Boston Dynamics, one of the most important names in robotics on this planet, has been working on a humanoid robot ever since 2013. It calls it the Atlas, and it April last year the most recent version of the machine made its way under the spotlight.

As it presents itself today, the Atlas is made of titanium and aluminum 3D printed parts and stands five feet (1.5 meters) tall. Tipping the scales at 196 pounds (89 kg), it has hands, legs, and a head that move thanks to no less than 28 electrically powered joints.

The previous versions were powered by hydraulics, and that kind of limited the range of motions the robot was able to perform, but also its strength, to some degree. Now that the switch to electricity has been made, the sky is the limit.

Like all other robots of its kind, the Atlas can lift and maneuver loads, including irregular objects, and can navigate unstructured, difficult terrain, without any prior knowledge of it. And it looks amazing doing all of that, thanks to the light ring head propped on the torso.

But a robot, no matter how spectacular its body is, is as good and effective as the software that powers it. In its current form, the Atlas uses the same software that powered the previous versions, but there were plans to deploy the Orbit, a solution that already powers the Spot dog-like robot.

In the fall of last year Japanese carmaker Toyota got involved in the Atlas project. Through the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the company got in bed with Boston Dynamics (which, by the way, is owned by South Korean carmaker Hyundai) to gift the Atlas with one of its Large Behavior Models (LBM) solutions.

The basic idea about LBM is that it can be used to improve the robot's dexterous manipulation skills, allowing it to perform a multitude of tasks, including simultaneously. Above all, such a system allows robots to gain skills by simply watching demonstrations from humans, requiring no complex code to be written.

It's been months since the partnership between Boston Dynamics and TRI was announced, and to be fair, I kind of forgot all about it. Then the two partners published a stunning video of the Atlas (attached below this text) performing all sorts of tasks in a room somewhere, all while humans tried to play tricks on it.

The Atlas, powered by the TRI LBM, is seen at first repeatedly crouching to pick up some what appear to be the body parts of its sibling robot, the Spot, from inside a box. It then rises up and deposits them in another container.

It sounds like a pretty simple task, and it is, at least for a human. Present-day robots find it extremely difficult to coordinate hands and legs to such a degree, combining object manipulation with locomotion, especially when nearby humans "interject unexpected physical challenges mid-task."

What it means is that, from time to time, a human closes the lids of the box that contains Spot parts using a hockey stick, or simply pulls the box away from Atlas. The robot doesn't seem to mind, and patiently reopens the box or pulls it back close to it to continue its work.

The second part of the video shows the Atlas picking up Spot components from a table and depositing them on nearby shelves, including in boxes. In doing so, the robot shows real skill in performing packing, sorting, and organizing tasks.

According to the two partners in this research, the incredible coordination of the robot's actions is owed to the fact that a single LBM controls the entire machine, "treating the hands and the feet almost identically."

It's unclear what the next step in the project is, but we now hope the next update on the Atlas will come our way much sooner than a few months.

Just like the Spot, the Atlas was imagined by Boston Dynamics as a tool to be used in industrial settings. Among the first companies to adopt it for real-world applications is Hyundai, which plans to incorporate it into its carmaking operations. When will that happen is anybody's guess…

The Atlas is not the only humanoid robot currently in the works, and not even the only one that will be deployed in the automotive industry. The Sanctuary AI Phoenix has already been tested on the floor of the Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) and European auto supplier Magna, the Apptronik Apollo is expected to work for Mercedes-Benz, the  Figure 02 is on team BMW, and the Tesla Optimus, well, you know where that one is going…

h/t Capital.news

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 20:05

Washington D.C. Has The Highest Unemployment Rate In The Nation

The U.S. labor market remains resilient in 2025, but unemployment figures vary widely by state.

While the national unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in June, some regions are experiencing far higher (or far lower) joblessness.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, highlights the unemployment rate by state using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for June 2025.

Washington D.C. Tops Unemployment by State

Washington D.C. tops the list with the highest unemployment rate at 5.9%, as seen in the data table below with the unemployment rate of every U.S. state (and D.C.).

The capital’s high rate marks a significant jump from 5.0% in early 2024, suggesting rising challenges in the capital’s job market amidst Trump’s layoffs across federal agencies.

Nevada (5.4%) and California (5.4%) follow closely behind, reflecting persistent difficulties in sectors like tourism, entertainment, and technology.

Michigan (5.3%) also ranks among the hardest hit, driven by weakness in manufacturing.

The States with the Lowest Unemployment Rates

At the other end of the spectrum, South Dakota recorded the lowest unemployment rate at just 1.8%.

North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%) also reported very low levels of unemployment, underscoring the relative strength of smaller state economies.

Montana and Hawaii, both at 2.8%, round out the bottom five, showing stability even in some tourism-driven markets.

While the U.S. national unemployment rate of 4.1% is slightly above the lows seen during the post-pandemic recovery, the range between the highest and lowest states—more than four percentage points—illustrates the uneven nature of the labor market in America.

To learn more about the challenges Americans are facing, check out the graphic on the cost of the American dream on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 19:40

How Managers Are Using AI To Hire And Fire People

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is evolving rapidly, and some are warning that using AI to make executive decisions without careful consideration could backfire.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

AI is being used more and more in recruitment, hiring, and performance evaluations that could lead to a promotion or termination.

Researchers, legal experts, legislators, and groups such as Human Rights Watch have expressed concern over the potential that AI algorithms are a gateway to ethical quagmires, including marginalization and discrimination in the workplace.

This warning bell isn’t new, but with more managers using AI to assist with important staff decisions, the risk of reducing employees to numbers and graphs also grows.

A Resume Builder survey released in June found that among a group of 1,342 managers in the United States, 78 percent use AI tools to determine raises, 77 percent use it for promotions, 66 percent use it for layoffs, and 64 percent use it for terminations.

The use of AI as a human resource tool is already a cautionary tale. In an unprecedented 2023 workplace discrimination case, digital labor platform iTutorGroup paid $365,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The English language tutoring service was forced to pay damages to job applicants who were filtered out by its AI algorithm. The company used an AI algorithm that automatically rejected more than 200 applicants based on their age. The candidates were automatically disqualified if, in the case of women, they were older than 55 years old. Male applicants 60 years and older were also rejected.

“Hundreds of applicants lost out on employment during a difficult time for job seekers,” Timothy Riera, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District, said in a statement.

Avoiding Dehumanization

Civil regulations and government legislation are being put forward as a guardrail against the use of AI to evaluate and monitor employee performance.

In March, the California Civil Rights Council finalized its regulations surrounding AI decision-making systems in the workplace, which go into effect on Oct. 1. The regulations include protections for employees against the use of AI systems to increase company efficiency. This encompasses actions such as hiring assistance, firing, and promotions.

At the federal level, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the AI Whistle Blower Protection Act in May. If passed, the bill will offer employment compensation and protection from retaliation to those working directly with AI who choose to disclose issues with these systems.

“Today, too many people working in AI feel they’re unable to speak up when they see something wrong. Whistleblowers are one of the best ways to ensure Congress keeps pace as the AI industry rapidly develops,” Grassley said.

Additionally, the states of Illinois, California, and New York have proposed, introduced, or passed legislation aimed at protecting workers from AI algorithmic discrimination in areas including recruitment, hiring, promotion, employment renewal, discipline, and training.

Business owners, AI experts, and managers using these digital tools to make decisions affecting employees have stressed the need for human oversight.

“I’ve used AI in recruitment. Tools like ChatGPT-powered screening systems and resume parsers have been game-changers,” AI expert and consultant Peter Swain told The Epoch Times.

Swain is the CEO of a namesake company that focuses on helping entrepreneurs strike a balance between AI systems and their human workforce. He illustrated the pros and cons of using AI systems to handle executive tasks.

“Advantages? Speed and scalability—AI can process 1,000 resumes in the time it takes a human to read 10. It also reduces bias if trained properly,” Swain said.

“Disadvantages? Garbage in, garbage out. If the AI is trained on biased data, it perpetuates those biases. Plus, it lacks the human touch—cultural fit and soft skills can’t be fully assessed by an algorithm.”

Data-driven tasks are where AI tools tend to shine, Swain said, but using them for actions such as raises, promotions, and layoffs is “tricky territory.”

“I’ve dabbled with AI-driven performance analytics—tracking [key performance indicators], productivity ... but I’d never let it make the final call,” he said. “It’s a tool, not a decision-maker. The risk is dehumanization, reducing people to data points.”

Swain also called AI’s use in managerial decisions an ethical “minefield.”

“AI can amplify biases if not carefully monitored—think gender, race, or age discrimination baked into training data,” he said. “Transparency is key. Employees need to know how decisions are made and have recourse to challenge them. Accountability matters—if AI screws up, who’s responsible? You can’t just blame the machine.”

A software company’s booth during the AI+Expo Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington on June 2, 2025. As AI technology advances, its use in company administrative work has become more common. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times Volumes of Data

Stephen Engel, CEO of Sanative Recovery and Wellness, told The Epoch Times that he recently used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to assist with deciding whether to fire an employee.

He said that although AI didn’t make the final decision, its ability to handle volumes of data quickly allows managers to think more clearly and “step back from the emotion of the situation” and analyze situations more objectively.

“To me, that’s the real value of AI in this context. ... It allowed me to think through the situation, weigh options more rationally, and ultimately decide on the best course of action,” Engel said.

“I also used ChatGPT afterward to help guide my thinking about what qualities and strengths to prioritize for my next hire. Again, not as a replacement for human judgment, but as a tool to focus my thinking.”

Some business owners use AI tools to identify employees who need help.

“Our AI voice simulations let new employees engage in realistic mock calls from day one. These interactions are scored automatically and paired with coaching opportunities. It’s a way to see quickly who’s progressing and who might need more support,” Lonnie Johnston, CEO of the training platform WizeCamel, told The Epoch Times.

“Our platform helps surface employees who are struggling early and tracks whether they are improving on an acceptable schedule.”

He gave a recent example of how AI evaluations provided data to help supervisors make decisions.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 19:15

India, Russia Set $100BN Trade Target, Rejecting US Pushback

Via The Cradle

India and Russia plan to increase their annual trade to $100 billion over the next five years – an increase of 50% – despite US opposition to the growing cooperation between New Delhi and Moscow, a top Indian minister announced on Thursday.

During the first day of a three-day visit to Moscow on Wednesday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar emphasized the need for India and Russia to broaden their trade ties, foster additional joint ventures between their companies, and hold more frequent meetings to resolve issues such as payment systems. Russia ranks as India’s fourth-largest trade partner, while India holds the position of Russia’s second-largest.

Via Associated Press

"We are all acutely aware that we are meeting in the backdrop of a complex geopolitical situation. Our leaders remain closely and regularly engaged," he said while speaking at the India–Russia Business Forum in the Russian capital.

Jaishankar added that rising global uncertainty puts the emphasis back on "dependable and steady partners."

Economic uncertainty has come from recent actions taken by US President Donald Trump to punish India for its ongoing purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude skyrocketed after the start of the war with Ukraine in 2022. After its oil exports to Europe collapsed in the wake of the war, Russia turned to India, offering steep discounts.

In response, Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods, saying the oil purchases help fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war machine.” Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on India further, to 50 percent, a rate high enough to ensure Indian exports to the US will not be competitive.

In response, India has said it has the right to buy oil from the cheapest source, calling the tariffs "unreasonable."

Following Trump’s threats, India’s state refiners began last week to buy large volumes of non-Russian crude. Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. have purchased oil from multiple alternate suppliers in recent weeks, including suppliers in the US, Brazil, and Gulf states, for October delivery.

Private Indian refiners are expected to continue purchasing Russian oil per the long-term contracts they have previously signed. Earlier this month, India halted plans to purchase US weapons and military aircraft in response to President Trump’s tariffs on New Delhi’s exports.

“India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled,” two sources speaking with Reuters said. 

Before the war in Ukraine, less than 1% of India’s oil came from Russia. Now it is 42%.

The system is allowing India to profiteer by buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it, and pocketing $16B in excess profits.

This opportunistic arbitrage is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/zp4FuKs9vJ

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 19, 2025

In February this year, Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans for the procurement and joint production of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

The sources told Reuters that India’s defense minister was also planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P-8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during the trip to Washington, which has now been canceled. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:50

Trump's Tariffs Will Reduce Deficits By $4 Trillion Over Next Decade, Says CBO Report

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A report released on Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will reduce federal deficits by around $4 trillion over the next decade.

If Trump’s global tariff hikes continue, increased revenue could shrink primary deficits by $3.3 trillion and cut federal interest payments by $0.7 trillion over the next decade, the CBO said. The current top tariff rates may not hold as negotiations with trading partners and international legal challenges are ongoing.

“We estimate that the effective tariff rate for goods imported into the United States has increased by about 18 percentage points when measured against 2024 trade flows,” the budget office said in its report, adding that Trump’s tariffs would reduce “the need for federal borrowing.”

The CBO also said it “projects further increases in tariff revenues in the coming months” and that “if there are no further changes in tariff rates, we project that customs duties from new and existing tariffs will total about $200 billion this fiscal year.”

But the office cautioned that revenues often lag several months behind the implementation of tariff policies, noting that once the rates are in effect, they don’t get applied to goods that are already in transit to the United States.

“In addition, importers have the option to delay payments by up to six weeks by participating in Customs and Border Protection’s Periodic Monthly Statement program,” added the CBO, which is a federal agency within the legislative branch that provides budget and economic information to both houses of Congress.

In July, Congress passed the GOP-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that contained several major Trump priorities on energy, the border, spending, and tax cuts. The CBO has said that it would add around $3.4 trillion to the national deficit over the coming decade, although the White House has disputed those figures.

The Trump administration has also said that the tariffs and policies initiated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump backed and signed into law, would bring forth economic growth over the coming years that would offset any additions to the national deficit.

“It was the largest tax cut for middle and working class families in our nation’s history, and the president wants to see this country get our fiscal house in order. That’s why this was a fiscally responsible bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 21 in response to the CBO report on the bill.

In a statement on Thursday, the White House again touted the bill by posting excerpts from a series of recent newspaper articles that praised the measure. Earlier this month, the administration also said that Americans would see an average tax cut of $3,752 under the bill, citing a report from nonprofit organization the Tax Foundation.

Friday’s report from the CBO comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would scrap some of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico earlier this year, saying those measures were necessary to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking into the country.

“We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “Today, the Government of Canada is harmonizing its tariffs with the U.S.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:25

Dutch Foreign Minister Steps Down After Israel Sanctions Blocked, Caretaker Govt Fragments

Dutch parliament is fiercely divided on whether it should take more measures which add teeth to recent actions calling out Israel for the mounting civilian death toll and starvation conditions in the Gaza Strip. Just last month, the hardline Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who actively assist in Jewish settler expansion in the West Bank, were formally declared persona non grata in the Netherlands.

On Friday, following a five-hour parliamentary debate which made clear that the caretaker government is divided, foreign minister Casper Veldkamp (center-right New Social Contract party) stepped down in protest after members of his own cabinet blocked new sanctions measures imposed on Israel.

Caspar Veldkamp, file image

Veldkamp acknowledged that the government had already made positive moves, but he explained, "I felt resistance in the cabinet against more measures as a result of what is happening in Gaza City and the occupied West Bank at the moment."

"I find myself unable to implement meaningful additional steps to increase pressure on Israel," he added in a statement to the press. He felt 'constrained' on the vital issue, Veldmamp described.

Bloomberg observes that Veldkamp has "faced resistance to his stance from some members of the caretaker coalition that has run the Netherlands since the government collapsed in June."

Over twenty countries, including many in Europe and Netherlands among them, have this week signed a joint declaration condemning Israel's approval of a major West Bank settlement project, dubbing it "unacceptable and contrary to international law." However, Veldkamp and some in parliament have wanted to go beyond mere symbolic acts.

Parallel to the situation in the United States, the Dutch right is beginning to split on Israel - as more and more conservatives, and especially young people begin to question their governments' constant support of Israel - or at least lack of accountability when it comes to Tel Aviv's actions.

The political landscape on the Right in The Netherlands has always been supportive of Israel. But the shift is illustrated by parties like the Forum for Democracy (FvD), which have led the most vocal criticisms of Israel - and from the Right. Though its founding its relatively recent (2015), party leader and founder Thierry Baudet has described to ZeroHedge that FvD - despite currently having just a handful of seats in parliament - is the single largest party by membership in The Netherlands.

MP Baudet previously took to the parliament floor where he spoke inconvenient truths, and made clear his position that what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza goes too far:

"All of the Netherlands was wondering why the cabinet actually fell. I already raised the question on June 4th last year: did the cabinet perhaps fall over Gaza - not over immigration?" Baudet questioned.

Heel Nederland vroeg zich af waarom het kabinet nou eigenlijk viel. Ik wierp al op 4 juni j.l. de vraag op: is het kabinet wellicht gevallen op Gaza — niet op immigratie?

De PVV heeft immers gewoon meegedaan met de plaatsing van al die AZC’s de afgelopen anderhalfjaar, wat in… pic.twitter.com/YKNKGQBH9K

— Thierry Baudet (@thierrybaudet) August 22, 2025

Baudet continued in his earlier this summer parliament address, "Could it be that Geert Wilders [who resigned in June pulling his party out of government and toppled the ruling coalition] foresaw today’s clash, in which he would inevitably face opposition from a majority of the House - for whom expelling, killing, or starving all of Gaza would go too far?"

Indeed the issue has become a growing flashpoint, also as on Friday the UN declared a state of famine in parts of Gaza, ahead of the October 29 general elections.

The Dutch 'far-right' party Forum for Democracy has been forging relationships with Trump admin officials, and also with conservative/libertarian-leaning anti-Israel movements in the United States...

Division in Dutch parliament and within the caretaker government is only likely to grow more intense between now and then, and could translate into wins for parties critical of Israel and movements like FvD picking up many more seats.

* * *

Some of FvD party leader Thierry Baudet's latest statements before parliament (auto-dubbed):

"The complete destruction of Gaza and the colonization of the West Bank is morally unacceptable, unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective, and moreover, disastrous for everyone involved: for the Palestinians, for Europe, and for the Israelis themselves. This is why the FVD (Foundation for Freedom and Democracy) supports sanctions against both Hamas and the Netanyahu government," the MP has said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 18:00

Shocking NEW Documents Expose Multi-Front Effort To Protect Clintons While Framing Trump

Submitted by Peter Schweizer & Seamus Bruner of The Drill Down, 

Newly unearthed documents show deep state government actors once again circling the wagons to protect Bill and Hillary Clinton — and suppressing evidence that implicated them. Last week it was the FBI, this week it is the IRS.

In 2019, the IRS Criminal Investigations Division quietly launched a probe into the Clinton Foundation's tax practices, working closely with whistleblowers John Moynihan and Larry Doyle, financial experts who had compiled thousands of pages of evidence.

According to internal agency memos reported by Just the News, IRS agents reviewed the evidence and at least one agent concluded it meant that the "entire [Clinton Foundation] enterprise is a fraud." Agents then moved to treat the whistleblowers as cooperating witnesses and even set up secure computer servers to hold the material they had collected.

Then, without warning, the lights went out. "Can't talk about the CF," agents told the whistleblowers. By the summer of 2019, their inquiry was dead. Moynihan and Doyle are now battling the agency in Tax Court over the apparent shutdown of the investigation.

The IRS's abrupt reversal follows an earlier, more infamous pattern. In 2016, FBI field offices in New York, Washington, and Little Rock all opened probes into the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation, partly on the strength of Peter Schweizer's 2015 bestselling book, Clinton Cash, which exposed numerous examples of the Clintons using the foundation while she served as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama as a pay-to-play scheme for business and foreign government interests seeking political influence.

The book told the story of Uranium One, a US mining company that was sold to the Russians after investors pledged more than $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. That story was confirmed in a front-page story by the New York Times when the book was published and based on its material.

The FBI field office investigations were proceeding until they were ordered by higher-ups to stop. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates ordered prosecutors to "shut it down." Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe required his personal approval for every investigative step — effectively choking the cases.

The fallout from Clinton Cash was real. Clinton staffers scrambled for advance copies of the book, while Hillary's own pollsters flagged the Uranium One deal as her campaign's biggest vulnerability in the early primary states. By January 2016, the FBI was looking into the book's allegations — until the brakes were pulled.

Appearing on an OANN program this week, Schweizer told host Matt Gaetz that the government's double standard is unmistakable. "At the same time, they are killing an organic investigation into Clinton corruption… they were also creating a completely fictional investigation tying [Donald] Trump to Russia," he said.

Five FBI field offices had been involved before being shut down, including a satellite office in Africa. Schweizer called the saga proof of a new kind of corruption — "offshored, globalized corruption," complete with political dynasties selling access and foreign oligarchs buying influence.

The contrast between the scuttled investigation of the Clinton Foundation and the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into the Trump campaign's purported ties to Russia is glaring. While the Clinton probes were heavily throttled, the FBI raced to open a full investigation into Trump's campaign on the flimsiest of tips — a conversation in a London wine bar — green-lighting it within three days. Clinton's Russia vulnerabilities were turned into Trump's burden, projected onto his campaign in a haze of innuendo.

Put together, the picture is damning: an IRS that dropped the ball in 2019, and an FBI and DOJ that throttled their own field offices in 2016. The whistleblowers are still pressing their case, six years later.

But the old memos are now re-surfacing, and the "deep state" may yet face a reckoning from what may prove the largest political scandal of modern times.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 17:40

U.S. Government Finalizes Deal For 10% Equity Stake In Intel, Will Release $8.87 Billion In Funding

Update 8/22/25 1657EST: Bloomberg is reporting that the deal will see the U.S. government acquiring 433.3 million shares of Intel at $20.47 per share. The government will be "passive" owners with no board members and agrees to vote with the company's board of directors. The government's stake will be funded by $5.7 billion in award grants, the report says, and the government will get a warrant for an additional 5% of the company that can be exercised under certain conditions.

Bloomberg writes:

Under the Friday agreement, the US will receive 433,323,000 shares of common stock — representing 9.9% of the fully diluted common shares in Intel — with the government pledging to release nearly $8.87 billion in funding under the Chips and Science Act, people familiar with the terms said, speaking on condition of anonymity to outline the deal before it was formally unveiled. That represents the remaining Chips Act funding that was awarded but not yet distributed to Intel, they said. The shares are non-voting and there is no board seat for the US government, according to the people. Tan was at the Commerce Department building on Friday finalizing the deal.

"This historic agreement strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote on Twitter following the news.

BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies.

This historic agreement strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge.

Thanks to Intel… pic.twitter.com/AYMuX14Rgi

— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) August 22, 2025

As a reminder, here's how the negotiation started just about two weeks ago...

--

President Donald Trump announced that Intel has agreed to give the US government a 10% ownership stake, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

“They’ve agreed to do it and I think it’s a great deal for them,” Trump said today. He described the deal as a “great opportunity” to help revive Intel, which he argued has slipped behind global chipmaking competitors. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is expected to attend the signing.

“And I said, You know what? I think the United States should be given 10% of Intel, and he said, ‘I would consider that,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’d like you to do that,’” Trump said of his talks with Tan last week.

The agreement reportedly stems from discussions over the Chips and Science Act, with subsidies being converted into ownership shares. Such a move would represent a rare and controversial level of government intervention in a major American company, normally reserved for wartime or systemic crises. Intel declined to comment on the timing, but its stock climbed more than 6% after the news.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration wants taxpayer dollars to generate direct returns, not just one-time grants. Officials clarified that companies already ramping up US investments—like TSMC and Micron—would not be pressed for similar concessions.

Trump has signaled a broader strategy of economic statecraft in his second term, seeking greater US leverage over critical industries. Earlier this year, he secured revenue-sharing deals with Nvidia and AMD on China-bound AI chip sales and obtained a “golden share” in Nippon Steel that gives him influence over US Steel.

The news comes days after it was announced that SoftBank Group is making a surprise $2 billion investment in Intel, buying shares at $23 apiece. Bloomberg first reported the SoftBank deal to purchase $2 billion worth of Intel shares at $23 apiece. As we noted last week, shares last peaked above $64 in 2021.

"For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation," SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son wrote in a statement. He added, "This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role."

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, a longtime SoftBank associate, added: "I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment."

SoftBank's US footprint is expanding, we noted last week. It recently bought Foxconn's Ohio EV plant, a move that could help Stargate, as Asian chip giants like TSMC and Samsung commit billions to the 'America First' agenda. 

Recall, we wrote days ago about the Trump administration's interest in taking direct stakes in US strategic companies, first with...

• US To Have 'Golden Share' In Nippon Steel Partnership With US Steel: Sen. McCormick

Then with:

• Rare Earth Producer MP Materials Soars 50% After US Government Becomes Largest Shareholder

Bloomberg reported last week that Washington was in talks to convert up to $10.9 billion in Chips Act grants into equity, which could have given the government roughly a 10% stake and made it Intel's largest shareholder.

This mirrored the Pentagon's $400 million preferred equity purchase of MP Materials last month, which we had flagged ahead of time despite others calling it "unprecedented."

A press conference is expected Friday afternoon with more details, according to Bloomberg. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 17:07

'Wake Up & Smell The Coffee... We're Marching Into A Promised Land Of Accountability...'

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

By The Batch

“The problem with the future is that it is both unpredictable and inescapable.”

- Tarik Cyril Amar

Please everybody, extricate yourselves from the mud-wallow of cynicism. Naysayers arise and open your eyes! Sleepwalkers and black-pillers, smell the coffee and wake up! Sob-sisters dry your tears! We are marching into a promised land of accountability after all.

Our country, you well know, has been sore beset under a long-running seditious coup orchestrated by an ever more insane Bolshevik-Jacobin syndicate of political reprobates seeking to erase every boundary between the real and the unreal since 2016, a year that now lives in infamy. All their malice and roguery has been focused on the odd figure who somehow rose to lead the opposition to their burgeoning color revolution, Mr. Trump, who, through some alchemy of fortitude, managed to evade their many-footed depredations — to get re-elected.

Of course, you’ve also noticed that psychological projection is the heart of the seditionists’ game. Whatever ploy or subterfuge they accuse you of, is exactly what they are doing. Their mainstay is the phrase conspiracy theory. Whenever one of their many turpitudes is carried out — such as a rigged election — your notice of it is labeled a conspiracy theory. In fact, their long train of activities to turn the country upside-down and inside-out has been one drawn-out seditious conspiracy. And that is liable to be precisely one of the charges lodged against them — but surely not the only charge.

You have seen news (anywhere but in The New York Times) that grand juries are being convened here and there to scrutinize a whole lot of bad behavior by a whole lot of officials who recklessly wielded their power, who betrayed the nation, who broke institutions, destroyed lives, careers, and households, and, as an added insult, attempted to make you swallow one patent absurdity after another — a Potemkin president, drag queens in the schools, a massive invasion of alien mutts across an open border, Saint George Floyd and “mostly peaceful protests,” math is racist, boys in girls’ sports and locker rooms — all in their campaign to destroy American cultural coherence while they seized totalistic political control and sniped their adversaries off the game board. (Just look how they destroyed Rudolf Giuliani, a heroic figure who saved New York City in the 1990s.)

Grand juries are a sign that something serious is up. Evidence is being gathered by a new FBI, no longer dedicated to just covering-up its past crimes. A sign of how serious this effort is: the hiring last week of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as Co-Deputy FBI Director. Mr. Bailey, you may recall, presided over the Missouri v Biden lawsuit (2022) about the “Joe Biden” White House’s efforts to coerce social media into censorship. The SCOTUS killed the case on spurious grounds for “lack of standing to sue.” But the government censorship crusade was a hallmark affront to the Constitution in the years’ long seditious conspiracy against the American people. It could even return as a criminal— not a civil — case this time, since censorship was so central to the overall coup.

The convening of several grand juries tells you that cases are being made now and that they will be tried in batches or tranches according to the various episodes of the coup. I’ll venture to describe what some of these batches might comprise.

The origin and execution of RussiaGate, involving former President Obama, then-Veep Joe Biden, CIA Director Brennan, FBI chief Comey, DNI Clapper, Susan Rice, Mary McCord, Sally Yates, Adam Schiff (then-Chair of the House Intel Committee), and Senator Mark Warner (then-Chair of the Senate Intel Committee), plus Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Peter Strzrok, Bruce Ohr, John Carlin, Joe Pientka, Steven Somma, and a number of other DOJ / FBI foot-soldiers, and CIA London Station chief Gina Haspel.

Another batch might be the judges in the FISA Courts, who made themselves tools of a corrupt FBI, starting with then-Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer, and including James Boasberg, who notoriously let FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith skate after his forging a crucial document that would have revealed Carter Page to be a CIA asset. Federal judges are not granted immunity from criminal prosecution under the Constitution.

Another batch might be the gang who put together spurious Trump Impeachment No. 1 over the Ukraine Phone Call matter: Adam Schiff, CIA / NSC mole Eric Ciaramella (the “whistleblower”), Intel IG Michael Atkinson, Col. Alexander Vindman of the NSC; plus lawfare ninjas Mary McCord and Norm Eisen who helped plan the scheme, the two Ukraine Ambassadors officers they schemed with, Marie Yavonovitch and Jeffrey Pyatt; plus “Russia expert” Fiona Hill of the NSC. In the Senate trial phase of the impeachment, consider that then-Attorney General William Barr withheld exculpatory evidence from Mr. Trump’s defense attorneys contained in the Hunter Biden laptop, the existence of which he was concealing, and which was stuffed with emails and memoranda detailing the Biden Family’s grifting operation in Ukraine.

Another batch would have to include the FBI / CIA / DOJ / DOD and Congressional characters who helped stage various aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot (the so-called “insurrection”) including (again) Christopher Wray, General Mark Milley, Speaker Nancy Pelosi; plus Steven M. D’Antuono, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, who arranged and then covered-up the pipe-bomb caper at the DNC headquarters that day.

Another batch might be the lawyers in the DOJ / FBI who cooked-up the Mar-a-Lago raid without an authentic legal predicate: Deputy AG Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray appear to have been responsible for that ploy — and especially the degrading manner of its execution with a SWAT team, staged evidence photo ops, and the rifling of Melania Trump’s lingerie drawers.

Then there’s a big batch of the fifty-one former intel officers (including several CIA ex-chiefs), who signed the infamous letter labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation,” a potential incident of criminal election interference.

Let’s not leave out the absurd campaign of serial fake prosecutions for civil and criminal charges launched in Atlanta, Washington, and New York City, coordinated (again) by lawfare artists Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, plus Ben Wittes, Marc Elias and others, through the good offices of Attorney General Merrick Garland and whomever in the White House was coaching the likes of Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, Letitia James, and Alvin Bragg.

You see how this goes? This ongoing coup against the people of this land is spectacularly wide-ranging and multilayered, with a cast of hundreds. The cases entailed are complex, and it is axiomatic that conspiracy cases are especially difficult to win. Of course, there are many other charges that range, say, from possibly treason to conspiracy against rights under color of law, defrauding the government, lying to the FBI and to Congress, election interference, malicious prosecution. . . .

The cases are huge and complex. Are Pam Bondi and Kash Patel up to it? I guess we’ll find out. I’m inclined to believe that quite a few of these rogues are going to court and some of them will land in prison. So, quit taking those black pills and cheer up.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 16:20

US House Adds CBDC Ban To Massive Defense Policy Bill

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

The US House added a provision banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) into an almost 1,300-page bill setting the country’s defense policy for the 2026 fiscal year.

A revision of HR 3838, the House’s version of a bill implementing the National Defense Authorization Act, was shared on Thursday by the House Rules Committee to include sweeping language banning the Federal Reserve from studying or creating digital currency.

The House passed a similar Republican-backed bill, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, in July with a slim vote of 219 - 210, which now has an uncertain future in the Senate.

The National Defense Authorization Act and related appropriations bills are seen as “must-pass” national security legislation as they outline how the military will be funded and how it will spend its budget.

It’s typical of lawmakers to add non-defense-related provisions that could otherwise be stalled or heavily revised if passed as standalone bills.

House leaders promised CBDC ban in defense bill

Top House Republicans had promised to include a CBDC ban in the military spending bill in a deal with conservative hardliners in July.

A group of Republican holdouts had refused to move three crypto bills forward unless a CBDC ban was guaranteed to pass, stalling a vote to set up floor debate on the bills for over nine hours, the longest in the House’s history.

At the time, the House passing the CBDC-banning bill on its own was seen as unlikely due to a lack of support. Debate on the bills eventually moved forward after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the CBDC ban would be added to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Source: Tom Emmer

Provision would stop Fed-issued digital currency

The provision in the defense policy bill would ban the Fed from issuing any digital currency or asset and stop the central bank from offering financial products or services directly to individuals.

It adds that the central bank may not “test, study, develop, create, or implement” a digital currency or asset, but allows a carve-out for stablecoins, saying the bill does not prohibit “any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private.”

A CBDC bill died last Congress

House Republicans have been looking to ban CBDCs for some time.

The party’s House leaders had looked to pass a version of the CBDC-banning bill in the last congressional session.

A similarly named bill, called the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, was introduced by Representative Tom Emmer in early 2023, but it didn’t progress and died with the last Congress.

Emmer reintroduced a version of the bill in the current Congress, and Republicans have backed the effort as aligning with President Donald Trump’s executive order in January prohibiting CBDCs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:25

Mass-Casualty Bus Crash Reported On New York Highway

A deadly bus crash has been reported on I-90 near Pembroke, New York. The accident has been declared a mass-casualty incident. New York State Police confirmed multiple fatalities, including at least one child. More than 50 people were on board the bus when it lost control and flipped into a ditch. 

Local outlet WIVB reported that several air transport helicopters and ambulances arrived at the scene after the bus lost control around 12:40 p.m., veered into the median, and overturned into a ditch near Exit 48A eastbound. 

A look at the accident on the I-90 near the Pembroke exit heading Eastbound: https://t.co/qh9a6EkYtj pic.twitter.com/B9UBXaQ6Bk

— WBEN NewsRadio 930AM (@WBEN) August 22, 2025

"Many people were ejected. Over 50 people were on the bus," WIVB noted, adding that the bus was returning to New York City from Niagara Falls. Many of the passengers were of Indian, Chinese, and Filipino nationality. 

Peter Cutler, the vice president of communications and internal affairs at Erie County Medical Center, said hospital staff received a "mass casualty notification" following the bus crash to prepare for dozens of patients. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has been briefed on the situation. 

I’ve been briefed on the tragic tour bus accident on the @NYSThruway.

My team is coordinating closely with @nyspolice and local officials who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved.

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) August 22, 2025

"This is a developing story

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:15

Canada's Carney Backs Down On Tariffs As Trump Welcomes Another Win

Another major economy and country backs down, and Trump wins again - as on Friday Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada will drop its retaliatory tariffs in step with the United States as both countries work to de-escalate their trade dispute.

Carney in a Friday press conference said the US side clarified it would not apply tariffs to Canadian products that adhere to the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Even Politico has starkly described it as Carney backs down in a major concession:

"We have the best deal of anyone in the world right now," Carney told reporters in Ottawa, noting that the average U.S. tariff rate on Canadian goods is 5.6 percent, the lowest among America’s trading partners. "Today, the Government of Canada is harmonizing its tariffs with the U.S."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that Canada will be DROPPING their retaliatory tariffs against the US and removing tariffs on US goods covered by existing trade deals.pic.twitter.com/Y9ONDpOk1g

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 22, 2025

However, he noted that some duties, particularly on steel, aluminum, and automobiles, will still remain in effect. Other sources quoted in various reports have also indicated this.

"In this context and consistent with Canada’s commitment to USMCA, I am announcing today that the Canadian government will now match the United States by removing all of Canada’s tariffs on US goods specifically covered under USMCA," said Carney, previewing that the change will take effect on September 1.

"Canada and the US have now re-established free trade for the vast majority of our goods," he added.

The White House hailed the move: "We welcome this move by Canada, which is long overdue. We look forward to continuing our discussions with Canada on the Administration's trade and national security concerns," a Trump admin official said. And more via breaking Canadian media reports:

• U.S. President Donald Trump commended the tariff removal, calling it "nice" and saying he wanted to "be good to Canada."

• Trump raised tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 per cent on Aug. 1.

• The Trump administration said Canada's rate was being hiked in response to fentanyl trafficking and Canada's earlier decision to hit back with counter-tariffs.

The Canadian dollar is strengthening notably against the US dollar today (helped by Powell's words and Carney's actions)...

Reuters has reviewed of the transition from Trudeau:

Carney's predecessor as prime minister, Justin Trudeau, imposed 25% tariffs on $21 billion in goods imported annually from the U.S. on March 6 in response to Trump's initial duties.

The C$30 billion was part of an overall retaliation plan to target C$155 billion worth of imported goods from the U.S., though the remaining C$125 billion has been delayed.

Carney had repeatedly claimed he had a mandate from the public to 'stand up to' the Trump administration, but alas he's the latest in a line of global leaders to instead sit down amid the immense tariff and trade pressure.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 15:05

Awkward: "Brazen Election Cheating" Allegations Rock Minneapolis Mayoral Endorsement

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party stripped the party's endorsement of radical leftist Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh in the Minneapolis mayoral race over "brazen cheating." The emerging election cheating scandal hilariously occurred amongst Democrats. Awkwardly, this comes from the same party of woke leftists that insists U.S. elections are the "safest in the world" and free from manipulation. Clearly, this corrupt party that serves progressive elites - not the working class - wants a do-over in this local election. 

BREAKING: Due to vote irregularities at the DFL convention, DFL is revoking its Omar Fateh endorsement pic.twitter.com/8VHrhvonpV

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 21, 2025

On Thursday, Minnesota DFL chair Richard Carlbom wrote in a statement, "After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention's voting process on July 19, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention."

Carlbom added, "Now it's time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they've unleashed on Minnesotans."

A series of challenges were submitted to the Minnesota DFL after last month's convention, citing serious issues with the electronic voting system and raising questions about election integrity in Fateh's endorsement over incumbent Jacob Frey. The Minneapolis DFL also recognized it had erroneously eliminated DeWayne Davis after the first round of voting due to 176 undercounted votes.

Mayor Jacob Frey spokesperson says endorsement of Fateh was "brazen cheating." https://t.co/eUMU92ZyM0 pic.twitter.com/aHF8U1GYVb

— Anthony Gockowski (@AntGockowski) August 21, 2025

Jonathan Turley chimed in on X about Fateh's short-lived endorsement, 

"Omar Fateh is accusing fellow democrats of being effectively election deniers who are claiming election machine voting was flawed. Sounds familiar. As with Hogg after the DNC election, the party is planning a do-over."

Omar Fateh is accusing fellow democrats of being effectively election deniers who are claiming election machine voting was flawed. Sounds familiar. As with Hogg after the DNC election, the party is planning a do-over. https://t.co/cLYwhtzrfF

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 22, 2025

Turley couldn't be more right… Fateh's campaign claimed that "establishment Democrats, including many Frey supporters," coordinated the effort to nuke his endorsement.

Meanwhile, Fateh's brother-in-law...

Since Omar Fateh is now accused of cheating, here’s a reminder:

His brother-in-law, Muse Mohamed was convicted of lying to a grand jury about illegally handling absentee ballots tied to ballot harvesting.

Investigators later confirmed he did, in fact, handle those ballots. pic.twitter.com/iKERUDV1Kz

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 21, 2025

If Democrats are willing to cheat in local elections, especially against themselves, then how about revisiting the 2020 presidential election?

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 14:25

Beyond The Data Center: Goldman's Silicon Valley Field Trip Finds AI Moving From Chips To Workflows

Goldman analysts led by George Tong returned to Silicon Valley for their second AI field trip, meeting with AI startups, public companies, VCs, and professors from Stanford, UCSF, and UC Berkeley to assess whether corporate America is truly embracing generative AI. The visit comes as record AI capex fuels record hyperscale data center buildouts nationwide, while investors search for clues on whether the adoption phase will materialize: a shift beyond infrastructure into the application layer.

"Insights indicate AI labs are expanding from the infrastructure layer to the application layer and LLM costs are sharply declining though capex may continue to rise as Gen AI usage and adoption grows," Tong wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 

He continued: "Academic research on LLM technologies could further bring down costs. While software development costs are falling and increasing competitive and pricing risks, moats in application AI and SaaS companies include broader user distribution, engagement with power users to drive reinforcement learning from feedback loops, integration into workflows and leveraging proprietary data."

Tong's discussions with Silicon Valley business and academic leaders point to an acceleration in generative AI adoption starting in 2026. 

Here's a summary of the findings:

• Shift from infrastructure to applications: AI innovation is moving beyond chips and cloud (Nvidia, GPUs, etc.) toward actual end-user applications and vertical software solutions.

• LLM costs are sliding: Training and using large language models is getting cheaper, though capex will still rise as usage expands. Academia is helping reduce costs: University research may accelerate efficiency gains in AI models.

• Software development deflation: Building with AI is cheaper and faster, but that means higher competition and pricing pressure for software companies.

Tong said the conversations in Silicon Valley point to "positive implications" for S&P Global, Moody's, Iron Mountain, Verisk Analytics, and Thomson Reuters. He noted that his team has initiated coverage on McGraw-Hill with a "Buy" rating and a $27 12-month price target based on a "digital transformation" in the education space. 

The analyst provided clients with a "chart of the week" that showed how McGraw-Hill is leveraging AI to improve product efficacy and drive growth. 

Is the AI rate adoption (read here) enough to justify this record capex spending (more details here) by hyperscalers? 

Let's hope so, or AI stocks face a hefty correction. 

More in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 13:40

Judge Declares Alina Habba's Roles As US Attorney For New Jersey 'Unlawful'

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge on Thursday found that Alina Habba, a former attorney to President Donald Trump, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey since July.

Alina Habba speaks after being sworn in as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 28, 2025. Pool via AP

“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Judge Matthew Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote in a 77-page opinion.

“And because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity, she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases,” Brann said.

Trump appointed Habba in March as interim U.S. attorney, a role limited to 120 days unless extended by a vote of the district’s judges. When Habba’s term expired in July, the judges opted to replace her with her second-in-command, Desiree Grace. The Justice Department responded by firing Grace and reinstalling Habba, this time designating her as “Special Attorney to the Attorney General.”

By law, interim U.S. attorneys may serve only 120 days before district judges either appoint a temporary successor or the Senate confirms the administration’s nominee. If neither happens, the office’s first assistant may temporarily assume the role. In New Jersey, that would have been Grace, but her removal cleared the way for Habba, now the most senior official in the office, to stay in charge.

The Trump administration took this unusual maneuver as Democrats continue to block the president’s U.S. attorney nominees from getting a full Senate vote. While the administration has extended several interim appointments by sidestepping Senate confirmation and judicial appointment, Habba’s is so far the only one to face a formal legal challenge.

The challenge was brought by three criminal defendants in New Jersey, who argued that Habba lacked legal authority to prosecute them after her 120-day interim appointment ended in July. They asked the court to throw out their indictments, claiming that any case filed under her leadership was invalid.

Brann agreed that Habba had no legal authority but declined to dismiss those charges. Instead, he ruled that anyone who prosecutes them “under the supervision or authority of Ms. Habba” would be subject to disqualification, and that any prosecutorial actions she has made since July 1 should be declared voided.

The case was reassigned to Brann after Michael A. Chagares, chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, ordered it moved out of the District of New Jersey. In a brief, one-sentence directive, Chagares said the trial was being transferred to the Middle District of Pennsylvania “in the public interest,” offering no further explanation.

Anticipating an appeal, Brann stayed his ruling and allowed Habba to remain in place while higher courts review the matter.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. It has argued that the president has broad discretion to decide who leads U.S. attorney offices.

“The President has made clear that he will not permit anyone other than Ms. Habba to fill the current vacancy in the office of the United States Attorney on a temporary basis. That is his prerogative; this Court cannot second-guess it,” the department wrote in a court filing.

Shortly after Habba took office, she opened an investigation into New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy over the state’s immigration policies. No charges have been filed so far in connection with the inquiry.

In May, her office charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assaulting federal officers while McIver and two other lawmakers were conducting a “congressional oversight inspection” at an immigration detention center in Newark. Prosecutors allege that McIver tried to block the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who had been barred by federal agents from joining the delegation.

McIver has denied wrongdoing and is seeking dismissal of the case.

Habba’s office also charged Baraka with trespassing, but later dropped the case.

Habba’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/22/2025 - 13:20