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Peace Talks Stall: U.S. Denies Iranian Claims Of Warning Shots At Destroyers

Peace Talks Stall: U.S. Denies Iranian Claims Of Warning Shots At Destroyers

Summary:

  • U.S. CENTCOM Denies Report 
  • Iran Military Fires “Warning Missiles” At US Destroyers In Gulf of Oman
  • Iran FM Warns American Bases Are Legitimate Targets, Cites ‘No Tangible Progress’ In Talks

Polymarket 

US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026?
Yes 25% · No 76%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of June?
Yes 18% · No 83%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Iran Military Fires “Warning Missiles” At US Destroyers In Gulf of Oman

AFP is reporting that Iranian military forces fired “warning missiles” at two U.S. Navy destroyers transiting the Gulf of Oman, citing Iranian state media.

“In continuation of operations to counter maritime misconduct and harassment, as well as the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers by the terrorist naval forces of the United States, following the firing of warning missiles, the hostile destroyers DDG-103 and DDG-8 have left the Gulf of Oman towards the Indian Ocean,” Iranian military forces wrote in a statement published by state news agency IRNA.

Meanwhile…

  • US DENIES REPORT IRAN ATTACKED OR FIRED AT US NAVAL SHIPS

Most Important Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

Military Confrontation

  • Iran’s army fired warning shots using Qadir missiles and drones at two US Navy destroyers (DDG-103 and DDG-87) in the Sea of Oman on Friday, forcing them to retreat to the northern Indian Ocean, according to Iranian military statements
  • Iran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring dozens at Kuwait’s main airport, after the US struck an oil tanker headed to Iran

Peace Talks

  • The US and Iran have made little progress in talks over an interim peace deal this week, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying no tangible progress has been achieved
  • President Trump said ceasefire talks are in the ‘final’ stages despite the stalled negotiations
  • Iran’s Foreign Minister dismissed the idea of Supreme Leader meeting Trump after the US president expressed openness to such a meeting

U.S. Congressional Opposition

  • The Republican-led House voted 215-208 on Wednesday to halt the US war with Iran, breaking with President Trump
  • Trump called the House vote against the Iran war ‘meaningless’ and ‘unpatriotic’ in a Truth Social post

Regional Impact

  • Lebanon’s Prime Minister told Iran to stop treating the country as a ‘bargaining chip’ on Friday
  • Hezbollah rejected a US-brokered truce proposal in Lebanon, though attacks on northern Israel have eased
  • The US said Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire contingent on Hezbollah stopping attacks and evacuating operatives from southern Lebanon

Nuclear

  • Iran permitted UN atomic watchdog monitors to visit its Bushehr nuclear power plant this week while stonewalling inspectors’ demands to verify its enriched uranium stockpile.

Iran FM Warns American Bases Are Legitimate Targets, Cites ‘No Tangible Progress’ In Talks

At a moment it’s become more than clear that the US and Iran are not anywhere closer to the negotiating table, and after they’ve shown little progress after a week of clashes – as one Friday morning Bloomberg headline reads, Tehran has again putting US bases in the region on notice, while admitting “no tangible progress” in negotiations on ending the conflict.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in fresh remarks has said that “standing against the world’s greatest power, equipped with nuclear weapons, for 40 days is no joke,” and that “the world has realized the true power of the Iranian nation.”

Araghchi also again issued a direct warning to regional Gulf states: “We warned regional states that US bases used for any aggression against Iran are legitimate targets” – he was quoted Friday by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) as saying.

File image: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi 

However, the Iranian foreign minister also cautioned that there is a way forward, stressing that despite conflict, “We are committed to fostering sustainable, constructive ties with Saudi Arabia.”

The war is fast approaching the 100-day milestone, which comes Sunday, since Trump first initiated his Operation Epic Fury. He had in the opening ‘assured’ the American public of only a short conflict lasting but a few days or weeks.

Iran’s supreme leader too has been signaling defiance while apparently in hiding, saying that the US and Israel had been dealt a “decisive blow”

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s message was read out by a prayer leader at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic’s founder on Thursday:

In his message, Khamenei said his country’s enemies, after “facing a decisive blow,” were now “experiencing a deeply meaningful and profound humiliation.”

He went on to accuse them of seeking to “plant the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division” among the public, calling for unity to “neutralize their sinister plot.”

Tehran is still seeking to integrate the Lebanon situation into a broader US-Iran peace deal. But in Lebanon itself, sporadic fighting has raged despite declaration of a ceasefire – of which Hezbollah has declared itself not part of.

On Friday, “The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Friday warned residents of six towns and villages including south Lebanon’s Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate,” according to CBS.

More reports of mystery explosions in Strait of Hormuz, off Oman…

“Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported mass displacement from the three villages named in the warning, and it subsequently reported a strike on one of the villages, Arqoun,” the report continues.

And Al Jazeera also reports Friday that “Israel’s deadly strikes continue across Lebanon, killing at least six today, despite the announcement of a new US-brokered ceasefire agreed between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington, DC.”

The public is increasingly pessimistic that a ceasefire can be achieved anytime soon, even as Trump has seemed to soften on the issue of retrieving highly enriched uranium: US-Iran permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026?

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 09:45

ZEC Crashes As Zcash Admits ‘Critical Counterfeiting Vulnerability’ Exposed By Claude

ZEC Crashes As Zcash Admits ‘Critical Counterfeiting Vulnerability’ Exposed By Claude

Authored by Martin Young via CoinTelegraph.com,

The price of ZEC fell on Thursday after further details were disclosed of a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard pool that could theoretically allow a bad actor to mint an unlimited amount of ZEC.

According to a post on X, security engineer Taylor Hornby, who was engaged by Shielded Labs, discovered the bug on May 29 and disclosed it to the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which deployed an emergency response to fix the vulnerability with a hard fork activated on June 3. 

However, there are new concerns about the extent to which the vulnerability, which has existed since May 2022, has been used, leading Zcash to fall more than 30% over the past 24 hours to $410 at the time of writing. Its market capitalization has shrunk by more than $3 billion.

However, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said on Friday it is unlikely that ZEC has been illegally minted this way, though he acknowledged “it cannot be formally cryptographically proved impossible.”

“Sadly, due to the Orchard Pool exploit, I had to dump our entire ZEC bag,” he said.

“The Holy Trinity is dead,” he added, referring to Zcash and the two other tokens he sold this week, Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Near Protocol (NEAR).

ZEC crashes almost 50% in 24 hours after two months of solid gains. 

Claude assists in bug discovery 

Taylor used Claude Opus 4.8, which was released on May 28, a day before the discovery, to assist in a highly targeted review of the Orchard circuit, the cryptographic component underlying Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool.

The critical bug allowed false inputs into an elliptic curve multiplication check, which means the math that is supposed to cryptographically verify transactions could be fooled.

Taylor built and tested a working exploit, which generated unlimited counterfeit ZEC. 

“If he had run the same tool on Zcash mainnet it would have generated unlimited, undetectable counterfeit ZEC in his mainnet Zcash wallet,” the security researchers said on Friday. 

The primary concern is that there is no cryptographic way to prove whether anyone had previously exploited it before it was patched, due to Orchard’s privacy properties. 

However, Shielded Labs was “not overly concerned” because the bug was subtle enough to evade years of expert review, and the discovery was a deliberate, highly skilled effort using cutting-edge tools and AI.

The firm is working with Zcash developers on a proposed network upgrade to allow anyone to verify the integrity of the ZEC supply and to prove the nonexistence of counterfeit tokens in the Orchard pool, they stated. 

Not the first counterfeiting vulnerability for Zcash

Mert Mumtaz, co-founder and CEO of Solana tooling firm Helius, said that almost all privacy protocols have a variant of this same vulnerability. 

“This same FUD comes back every five months as new people learn how privacy pools work,” he said. 

He explained that it is a theoretical risk in most zero-knowledge privacy protocols from circuit bugs that are hard to exploit or detect.

This is not the first time a similar vulnerability in Zcash has been discovered. In 2018, a counterfeiting vulnerability in the cryptography underlying zk-proofs was discovered by the Electric Coin Company, which remediated it with no losses in 2019. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 09:20

Demented NY Dems Erase “Mother” From State Law, Replace Her With “Gestating Parent”

Demented NY Dems Erase “Mother” From State Law, Replace Her With “Gestating Parent”

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity,

Latest nonsense targets family courts, custody, and parental rights

Outrage is exploding after New York Democrats rammed through legislation that strips the words “mother” and “father” from key sections of state law and replaces them with cold, clinical inventions: “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent.”

Yes, really. They’re pushing for the erasure of biological motherhood and fatherhood in the name of activist ideology.

The bill passed the Assembly months ago and cleared the Senate this week with minimal debate. It now sits on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk. If she signs it, the changes take effect November 1 and will rewrite references across family court proceedings, domestic relations, child support, custody determinations, and even education statutes. “Paternity” becomes “parentage.” “Putative father” becomes “alleged parent.”

Sponsors Sen. Luis Sepulveda and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin packaged the overhaul as a long-overdue update to parentage laws. The memo claims the new language simply aligns statutes with existing court rulings and accommodates surrogacy arrangements plus same-sex parenting.

In practice, every traditional reference to mothers and fathers in these legal contexts gets replaced. The language is deliberately stripped of sex-based meaning. Motherhood is reduced to a temporary biological process. Fatherhood is defined by its absence from gestation.

Democrats and allied lawyers argue the old terms were outdated the moment same-sex couples and surrogates entered family court in larger numbers. They insist the rewrite creates consistency and avoids confusion in complex modern cases.

Republican and conservative leaders wasted no time labeling the move what it plainly is: ideological overreach dressed up as progress.

State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar called it “woke culture run amok” and pure one-upmanship that wastes legislative time while the state budget remains stalled.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman was even more direct, charging that Democrats led by Hochul have “declared war on families” by canceling “Mom and Dad.”

State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick and U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney both highlighted the grotesque misplacement of priorities. While New Yorkers face crushing taxes, failing schools, and public safety failures, Albany chose to spend its final days neutering the language of motherhood.

Even some rank-and-file Democrats reportedly viewed the bill as unnecessary. Hochul herself claimed she was unfamiliar with it when asked and said she would “take a look.” For the woman who styles herself the state’s “first mom governor,” the dodge was telling.

This latest New York push is not happening in a vacuum. Similar efforts to strip “mother” and “father” from official language have surfaced repeatedly in Democrat strongholds and taxpayer-funded institutions.

In Wisconsin, Democrat Governor Tony Evers tried to insert language into the state budget bill that would replace “mother” with “inseminated person” and “biological father” with “natural parent” in contexts involving paternity disputes and artificial insemination.

Other proposed swaps erased “woman,” “female,” “wife,” and “husband” entirely. Critics correctly described it as beyond parody and a direct insult to every actual mother in the state.

This turgid trend is far from limited to the US. A government-funded Scottish charity called Scotland’s International Development Alliance produced an official “inclusive language guide” that explicitly branded the words “mother” and “father” as “oppressive.”

The guide instructed users to replace them with neutral terms like “parent” or “guardian” and framed traditional family language as something that reinforces unwanted power structures. Taxpayer money supported the entire project.

New York’s “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent” formulation follows the identical script. What began as fringe suggestions in activist guides and budget amendments has now advanced to actual state law in one of America’s largest blue states.

This is coordinated ideological creep. Each step tests how much biological reality the public will accept being rewritten out of existence.

Women who carry and birth children will still be mothers in every meaningful sense. The law cannot change that biological fact. What the law can do is remove any formal recognition of that reality in the places where recognition matters most: custody disputes, parental rights, and official records.

Surrogacy and same-sex parenting arrangements can be accommodated with precise legal definitions without requiring the rest of society to pretend motherhood is a neutral administrative function. The bill does not solve a genuine legal problem. It manufactures one to satisfy a narrow ideological demand.

This is the same mindset that insists men can become women, that sex is assigned rather than observed, and that dissent from any of it constitutes bigotry. It is the systematic replacement of observable truth with preferred fiction.

New York Democrats are not leading on this issue. They are following the same script playing out in other blue strongholds: rewrite language, capture institutions, then punish anyone who refuses to comply. The speed and lack of serious debate around this bill show how normalized the project has become inside the party.

Governor Hochul still has time to veto this bill. If she signs it, she will own the decision to erase “mother” and “father” from New York law. Either way, the voters who actually care about protecting women, children, and the English language now have a clear marker of which party treats biological reality as optional.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 09:00

US Jobs Soar By 172K In May, Smashing Estimates In 4 Sigma Beat; Unemployment Rate Remains At 4.3%

US Jobs Soar By 172K In May, Smashing Estimates In 4 Sigma Beat; Unemployment Rate Remains At 4.3%

With Wall Street expecting a strong – not great – number, and a modest decline from April’s 115K, moments ago the BLS reported a shocker: in May the US added 172K jobs…

… not only a 4-sigma beat to the median estimate of 88K, but also above the highest estimate of 125K.

In a noteable change from previous months’ downware revisions, the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised up by 29,000, from  +185,000 to +214,000, and the change for April was revised up by 64,000, from +115,000 to +179,000. With these revisions, employment in March and April combined is 93,000 higher than previously reported.

Turning to the Household survey, unlike previous months, we saw the number of employed people rise by 149K from 162.622K to 162.771K…

… with both the Household and Establishment survey rising for the first time in months.

The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, in line with expectations. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates showed little or no change in May for adult men (4.0%), adult women (3.8%), teenagers (14.7% ), and people who are White (3.8%), Black (6.6%), Asian (3.8%), or Hispanic (5.0%).

The labor force participation rate held at 61.8% in May, and the employment-population ratio changed little at 59.2 percent. These measures showed little change over the year, after accounting for annual population control adjustments. 

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 12 cents or 0.3%, in line with estimates. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by  3.4%, also in line with estimates. In May, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory  employees rose by 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $32.31

Some more details from the report:

  • The number of people jobless less than 5 weeks declined by 286,000 to 2.2 million in May, largely offsetting an increase in the prior month. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed over the month at 2.0 million but is up by  524,000 over the year. The long-term unemployed accounted for 27.5 percent of all unemployed people in May. 
  • The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.8 million, changed little in May. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. 
  • In May, the number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job changed little at 6.2 million. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.
  • Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force changed little at 1.7 million in May. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 486,000 in May, essentially unchanged from the previous month. 

Taking a closer look at the Establishment survey, job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, local government, and health care. Employment in financial activities declined. 

  • Leisure and hospitality added 70,000 jobs in May, well above the average monthly gain of 14,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, food services and drinking places added 48,000 jobs.
  • In May, employment in local government rose by 55,000, largely reflecting a gain in local government, excluding education (+44,000).
  • Health care added 35,000 jobs in May, in line with the average monthly gain of 38,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, ambulatory health care services added 26,000 jobs, including a gain of 11,000 in home health care services. Employment continued to trend up in hospitals (+6,000).
  • Social assistance employment continued to trend up in May (+12,000), mostly in individual and family services (+10,000). Over the prior 12 months, social assistance had added an average of 17,000 jobs per month. 
  • Employment in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction increased by 5,000 in May and is up by 10,000 since February.
  • Financial activities employment declined by 22,000 in May and is down by 107,000 since a  recent peak in May 2025. Over the month, job losses occurred in insurance carriers and related activities (-11,000) and commercial banking (-3,000).
  • Employment in transportation and warehousing was essentially unchanged in May (+1,000) but is down by 92,000 since reaching a peak in February 2025. Over the month, transit and ground  passenger transportation (+9,000) and warehousing and storage (+6,000) added jobs. Air  transportation lost 9,000 jobs, largely reflecting a business closure.
  • Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including  construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, information, professional and  business services, and other services.

And visually:

One notable thing about the composition was the unexpected surge in Local Government jobs, which surged by 55K, the biggest jump since March 2024. It is unclear what prompted this. 

Indeed, the composition of the job gains leaves a lot to be desired. As UBS notes, the upside surprise in May payrolls is concentrated in a few sectors with clear calendar and seasonal tailwinds, rather than broad-based strength.

The largest contributor was leisure & hospitality (+70k), far above its recent trend, consistent with UBS’s expectation that the timing of Memorial Day pulled hiring forward into May from June. Local government (+55k) was another key driver, likely reflecting smaller-than-usual seasonal education outflows and stronger non-education hiring, in line with UBS’s upside risks around state/local dynamics. Healthcare (+35k) and social assistance (+12k) provided steady baseline gains. Meanwhile, financial activities (-22k) detracted meaningfully.

Putting it together, UBS concludes that the beat looks largely explained by timing distortions (holiday effects), public-sector swings, and steady services hiring, rather than a genuine reacceleration in underlying labour demand – reinforcing expectations that some of this strength may unwind or revise lower in coming months.

Others were similarly unimpressed: according to Vanguard, “Today’s strong jobs number looks appears like a seasonal surge than a turning point for the labor market. The labor market still appears resilient, but not as if it’s reaccelerating, and the unemployment rate remains essentially stuck around 4.3%. What’s notable is that unemployment is increasingly concentrated among younger, more educated workers who are staying in the labor force, and that’s one reason it may be harder for the rate to move meaningfully lower from here”

Looking at the composition of the numbers, we see even more weakness, with part-time jobs +266K while full-time jobs drop by 79K, second month of decline in a row and 4th in the past 5.

in kneejerk reaction, today’s very hot print immediately pushed rate hike odds higher, with traders now fully pricing in a quarter point rate hike by year-end. According to Adam Crisafulli, “This jobs report will make life even harder for Warsh as his preferred dovish policy pathway is even more difficult to justify.”

As for the market, it is unclear how traders read this. As a reminder, JPM said that any number above 130k, could lead to SPX loses 1% to gains 50bp, depending on the internals. And now the narrative begins to nudge said internals in a bullish direction. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 08:49

Globalist CEOs Sound Alarm Over Swiss Population Cap Vote

Globalist CEOs Sound Alarm Over Swiss Population Cap Vote

Summary: 

  • Increasing Number of Globalist CEOs Concerned About Swiss Population Vote

  • Nestle CEO Warns Against Swiss Population Cap Vote

  • UBS CEO Warns Swiss Population Cap Is An ‘Extreme’ Measure

  • Switzerland’s “Ten Million” Vote Nears 

Nestle CEO Warns Against Swiss Population Cap

Globalist CEOs who ignored more than a decade of Europe’s mass migration invasion from the third world because it was good for business may soon face headwinds from Swiss voters: a June 14 referendum that would cap the country’s permanent resident population below 10 million through 2050.

Nestlé CEO Philipp Navratil is the latest to warn Swiss citizens that a vote to cap the population at 10 million would not be good for business.

“Switzerland has established and created the conditions that enable a global company like us to thrive,” Navratil said at the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken on Friday, who was quoted by Bloomberg. 

“It is important that these conditions and advantages in Switzerland remain in place. When we vote in the coming weeks, we need to keep that in mind,” Navratil added.

Navratil’s comments come just days after UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti called the hard-cap vote an “extreme initiative.”

The proposal has received strong support in many local polls, though the latest polling data puts opposition just north of 50% for the first time.

Switzerland’s population is already above 9.1 million, and estimates suggest migration would need to fall by at least half to avoid hitting the proposed ceiling by 2050.

Yet while these globalist CEOs found no issue with a decade of extreme mass migration from the third wolrd world into Europe, everyday working-class people have borne the brunt of the consequences.

UBS CEO Warns Swiss Population Cap Is An ‘Extreme’ Measure

A proposal headed for a June 14 vote in Switzerland made headlines for seeking to place a hard cap on the country’s permanent resident population at 10 million through 2050.

The vote is also being watched as a referendum on immigration pressure in Europe more broadly. UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has caught the vapors over the idea, describing it as an “extreme” measure that fails to address the country’s underlying challenges.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti (photo: Chiara Zocchetti )

I do worry about these extreme initiatives,” Ermotti said, speaking from the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken on Thursday. “Switzerland has 30% of foreign-born people, almost like in Australia, twice as Germany. And that leads to certain frustration within society. But it’s not a way to solve the problem.”

Switzerland’s population stood at approximately 9.1 million at the end of 2025. Since 2000, it has grown by about 1.9 million people, with roughly four-fifths of that increase attributable to net international migration. Swiss federal authorities measure the increase since the introduction of free movement of persons in 2002 at around 1.7 million.

Foreign nationals now make up about 27% of the resident population, while migration-background shares are higher. In 2024, 41% of Switzerland’s permanent resident population aged 15 and over had a migration background, including first-generation and second-generation residents. Ermotti highlighted the scale of the demographic shift, noting that Switzerland’s foreign-born share is comparable to Australia’s and roughly double Germany’s.

The “No to a Switzerland with 10 Million” initiative, backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), would enshrine a hard population limit in the Federal Constitution. If passed, it would require Switzerland’s permanent resident population to remain below 10 million until 2050. If the population exceeds 9.5 million before then, the Federal Council and Parliament would have to take measures, particularly in asylum and family reunification.

If the 10 million threshold is exceeded, Switzerland would also have to renegotiate or terminate international agreements that contribute to population growth, including the EU Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons after two years. That would also put the broader Bilateral Agreements I with the EU at risk. Supporters point to real pressures: housing shortages and rising rents in cities like Zurich and Geneva, strained infrastructure, overcrowded public transport, and concerns over long-term social cohesion in a small, mountainous nation.

UBS’s High Stakes In The Debate

UBS, one of Switzerland’s largest private-sector employers with more than 30,000 employees in the country and a heavily international workforce, has significant skin in the game. The bank relies on global talent to sustain its operations in finance, a sector where skilled foreign workers fill critical roles. A rigid population cap, critics including business leaders argue, could exacerbate labor shortages in an already aging society with a fertility rate of around 1.3 children per woman.

Ermotti’s comments come as Switzerland grapples with balancing economic dynamism against quality-of-life concerns. Opponents of the cap, including the Federal Council and business groups, argue that Switzerland needs foreign workers in companies and public institutions such as hospitals and care homes, and that a constitutional ceiling would create uncertainty around Swiss-EU relations. Recent net immigration has moderated somewhat, falling for a second consecutive year in 2025, but remains high by historical standards.

The UBS chief stressed the need for evidence-based policymaking. “The discussions need to be balanced,” he said, urging authorities to ground decisions “on fact rather than emotion and scaremongering.”

Parallel Battles Over Capital Rules

Ermotti’s remarks on the population initiative coincided with ongoing tensions over Switzerland’s proposed capital requirements for UBS. The government is pushing to increase the common equity capital UBS must hold domestically against its foreign operations to 100% of each unit’s equity value, from 60% currently. The bank estimates this would require an additional roughly $20 billion in CET1 capital for its Swiss entity, a move it warns would damage its business model and, by extension, the broader domestic economy.

Parliament continues to debate the core package, with the process expected to last until next year. Ermotti’s call for fact-based deliberation applies equally here, as the bank awaits clarity on reforms that were partially watered down in April but remain demanding.

A Defining Moment For Swiss Identity And Economy

The referendum remains contested, though the latest reported polling shows opposition ahead, with 52% against the initiative and 45% in favor. It taps into broader European debates over low native fertility, labor needs, infrastructure limits, and national character. Switzerland’s direct democracy hands the ultimate choice to voters, making the outcome a potential bellwether for how high-income nations navigate sustained immigration.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 08:47

Alarming Supply-Chain Stress Sends Transport Cost Soaring, Fueling Inflation Fears

Alarming Supply-Chain Stress Sends Transport Cost Soaring, Fueling Inflation Fears

Nearly three weeks ago, UBS analyst Pierre Lafourcade reactivated his desk’s supply-chain watch coverage after stress across global supply chains was “rising at its fastest pace since the early pandemic.” That warning is now increasingly getting louder by the week, with ongoing disruptions around the Hormuz chokepoint and the resulting energy supply shock, pushing up input, freight, and other logistics costs across the global economy.

Weeks after Lafourcade’s warning, which can be read here, the May 2026 Logistics Managers’ Index Report showed transportation costs surging to the highest level in the index’s nearly 10-year history, while transportation capacity fell and transportation utilization remained elevated.

“Supply chains have been resilient despite these ongoing disruptions. However, in the past this level of elevate cost has eventually led to significant levels of supply-driven inflation,” the report stated.

Capacity is quickly contracting…

… and utilization is elevated, according to the report.

As a result, logistics costs are at “the highest level since March 2022,” the report noted, adding, “This previous peak was part of a run of high logistics inflation that led to the highest U.S. inflation in 40 years.”

The report warned, “Supply-driven inflation is more difficult for the Fed to combat than demand-driven inflation because higher interest rates cannot create greater supply (in some cases, they actually may hinder supply). If logistics costs remain elevated, it is likely there will be at least some inflation. Respondents seem to be predicting with this, forecasting aggregate logistics costs will increase at a rate of 253.6 over the next 12 months.”

Bloomberg was the first to cover the Logistics Managers’ Index Report on Thursday. This reporting only added to UBS analyst Lafourcade’s mid-May report that global supply chain stress was quickly emerging, with the Global Supply Chain Stress Index rising by 1.2 standard deviations in March and April, the second-largest two-month jump since July 2020.

Our read-through is that the potential for a supply-side inflation shock feeding into the economy could create a headache for the Federal Reserve. Higher rates would be the standard cure, but monetary policy cannot create trucking capacity, reopen trade chokepoints, lower diesel prices, or fix global shipping disruptions. That raises the risk of sticky inflation even as growth slows. This is why the Trump administration is working quickly to resolve issues in the Hormuz chokepoint.

On Wednesday, the Fed’s Beige Book cited mounting concern among the business community about supply and freight costs.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 05:45

Inquest To Examine If Police Hand-Cuffing Contributed To Henry Nowak’s Death

Inquest To Examine If Police Hand-Cuffing Contributed To Henry Nowak’s Death

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity,

The system that failed Henry Nowak will come under refreshed scrutiny as some medical experts have suggested police actions could have contributed to his tragic death.

An inquest will probe whether Hampshire police officers caused or contributed to the 18-year-old student’s death when they yanked his arms behind his back, handcuffed him, and treated him as a suspect while he lay bleeding out and pleading that he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

This comes even though the Independent Office for Police Conduct has already investigated and cleared the officers of misconduct.

The coroner was not satisfied that prior probes fully met the state’s obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to life.

A jury inquest at Winchester Coroner’s Court will examine the broader circumstances, including any police acts or omissions and delays in treatment. However, the inquest is now adjourned until at least September 2027.

On December 3, 2025, in Southampton, 18-year-old first-year University of Southampton student Henry Nowak was stabbed five times with a ceremonial knife by Vickrum Digwa, 23. Digwa then lied to police, falsely claiming Henry had racially abused and attacked him while faking an eye injury.

Details continue to emerge revealing that Digwa also essentially taunted and tortured Henry while he was dying.

Henry remained conscious for roughly an hour after the attack. He repeatedly told anyone who would listen that he had been stabbed and could not breathe. When officers arrived, they believed the attacker’s story over the bleeding victim’s direct pleas. Bodycam footage shows Henry being dragged, turned, and having his arms forcefully pulled behind his back for handcuffing. Within about three minutes of those actions he lost consciousness and died.

A nearby major trauma center at Southampton University Hospital was only a two-to-three-minute drive away.

Dr. Krzysztof Magier, a paediatric critical care lead, has experience in battlefield medicine and specialist training in treating severe trauma including gunshot and stab wounds. He reviewed the police bodycam footage and the post-mortem report. He directly contradicts the pathologist and initial coroner findings that Henry had no chance of survival and that handcuffing changed nothing. On the contrary – he believes there is a high probability that the police intervention contributed to his death.

Here is the core of his analysis:

He analyzed the post-mortem report, which points to damage to the subclavian vein as the main source of bleeding, and explains where the problem lies.

In a healthy person, venous bleeding occurs under low pressure and often stops on its own thanks to a naturally forming clot. Simply bringing the wound edges together and pressure from surrounding tissues closes the vein enough to slow or even stop the bleeding.

From the police bodycam footage, when police arrived at the scene (probably 5-10 minutes after the injury), Henry was conscious enough to speak quite loudly. He was therefore not yet in a terminal state. After his arms were twisted behind his back and he was cuffed, it most likely caused the vein to stretch, the clot to tear, and a sudden intensification of bleeding. Within just about three minutes he lost consciousness and died.

People with suspected internal injuries should never be violently moved or jerked – such action can destroy the natural clot and lead to massive internal hemorrhage.

Instead of immediately calling an ambulance team and handing the patient over to paramedics, the police cuffed him. If paramedics had been the first to arrive on scene, Henry’s chances of survival would have been significantly higher. ‘50%’ – writes Dr Magier.

Paramedics could have quickly set up a drip, administered fluids to increase circulating blood volume and tranexamic acid to stabilize the clot, and if necessary performed needle decompression (inserting a thick and long needle into the lung), because the problem was not so much lack of lung function but compression of the blood-filled lung on the heart and mediastinum, which blocks circulation.

What is worse, the incident took place just a few minutes’ drive by car (2-3 minutes by ambulance on blue lights) from Southampton University Hospital – a regional Major Trauma Centre with full specialist backup, procedures and equipment. ‘I am convinced that if Henry had arrived there alive, the doctors would not have let him die’ – writes Dr Magier.

In summary: aggressive police intervention, instead of saving a life, led to death through inappropriate handling of a severely injured person, even though top-class care was within reach of a few minutes. ‘I fear that the Judge and pathologist were too lenient towards the police’ – writes Dr Magier.”

Multiple trauma experts and serving officers reviewing the same footage have reached the same conclusion: the forceful restraint and positioning almost certainly disrupted a forming clot and restricted breathing in a chest injury victim who was still talking and conscious moments earlier.

The IOPC looked into the officers’ contact with Henry, including the decision to handcuff a dying man who posed no threat and the first aid provided – or not provided. They cleared the officers.

Officers who followed training that prioritizes accusations of racism over immediate medical care for a white victim were given a pass by the system that trained them.

This was not an isolated failure of judgment on a chaotic night. It occurred in a force where officers have openly admitted that mandatory “Inclusion Matters” DEI training left them feeling controlled and pressured to adopt specific ideological views about race.

Serving and former Hampshire officers told former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that sessions drummed in white privilege and unconscious bias.

One trainer was described as “deeply hateful of white people and our culture.” Officers feared career damage for pushing back.

The same training environment that frames native Britons as inherently privileged appears to have influenced how officers processed a white student’s desperate claims against a minority attacker’s false racism narrative.

Chief Constable Alexis Boon later apologized to Henry’s family for the handcuffing and arrest. One officer has since resigned. But the institutional response remains the same: investigate ourselves, find no misconduct, move on.

Coroner Jason Pegg made clear that previous investigations, including the IOPC process, did not fully satisfy the state’s duty to investigate a death in custody properly. The inquest will now look at whether police actions or delays in getting Henry proper medical care contributed to his death. It will be held with a jury.

Members of Henry’s family has asked that the case not be used to sow division. That is understandable. But the facts on the bodycam footage and the medical analysis speak for themselves. A conscious young man who could have reached a major trauma center alive was instead restrained in a way experts say likely accelerated his death, while officers prioritized the attacker’s story.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused Elon Musk of “whipping up division” after the X owner criticised the police’s “heinous” treatment of Henry.

Rather than confront the bodycam evidence, Starmer’s instinct is of course to target the platform and the individual drawing attention to it.

This is the classic establishment reflex when two-tier policing and ideological capture are exposed. The same voices that stayed quiet or defended the system now blame free speech and outside scrutiny for the resulting anger.

Meanwhile, the underlying issues – DEI training that pressures officers to view white victims through a lens of suspicion, the willingness to believe an attacker’s false racism claim over direct pleas for medical help, and the refusal to suspend officers in a case this egregious – remain unaddressed.

Vickrum Digwa has been jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years. That is justice for the murder. But the question the inquest must answer is whether the state’s own agents – trained under DEI frameworks that treat white victims with suspicion – finished what the knife started.

Police exist to protect the public without regard to race. When ideology overrides that duty and the system then clears itself while the Prime Minister attacks critics instead of demanding answers, trust collapses.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 05:00

Israelis Complain US Military Has Turned Ben Gurion Airport Into ‘Its Own Base’

Israelis Complain US Military Has Turned Ben Gurion Airport Into ‘Its Own Base’

In a deep irony, Israelis are increasingly complaining the United States military has effectively taken over Israel’s international travel hub.

Media reports this week are going so far as to call Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport a “US military base” – as the prominent local newspaper Haaretz does:

The US refueling aircraft and other military assets, which have been stationed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for months, are causing congestion and may result in flight cancellations, Israeli officials and media reports have said, calling the facility a “US military base.”

via Reuters

The report complains that “U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft have been stationed at Ben Gurion International Airport for three months, occupying parking spots, taking up takeoff and landing slots and worsening congestion at Israel’s main international gateway since the war with Iran erupted in late February, officials say.”

Haaretz tallies that “Some 75 U.S. refueling planes occupy more than half of Ben-Gurion Airport’s parking spots and fill up takeoff and landing slots” and cites airport officials who warn: “For lack of a solution, 1.5 million passengers may have their flights canceled this summer.”

Again, a central irony here is that it has largely been US military assets protecting Israel the whole time, going all the way back from last year’s June war, from Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The Netanyahu government is perceived by many to be a prime reason the US and Iran are at war in the first place, and so the Pentagon might argue that it’s only fair that Israel host its large fleet of military planes and refueling aircraft.

One traveler told The National: “They are turning it into a military base. At some point this is going to be as hard as any checkpoint between the West Bank and Israel.”

And Israeli commentator Noga Tarnopolsky wrote on X: “The only international airport in Israel, now a US airbase. Switzerland, with a similar population, has three international airports. At least two additional airports were budgeted over the years, and it would be interesting to know where that money went.”

A senior airport official was cited in the same report as saying, “What’s happening at the airport is insane. I haven’t seen anything like this in 35 years.”

“They’ll be cancelling thousands of flights for people here in the coming weeks,” the official added. “All the routes, all the destinations. The only place left to get out a bit and clear your head is a huge base and one where you can stay for a long time. Get ready.”

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 04:15

The French Never Wanted Mass Immigration

The French Never Wanted Mass Immigration

Via Remix News,

French leaders know how to manipulate their voters, but the voters are also apparently easily manipulated. Every leader from French President Emmanuel Macron to François Mitterrand in the 1980s has decried immigration numbers and promised a crackdown, all while allowing immigration numbers to continuously climb year after year.

Here are just some relevant quotes:

Emmanuel Macron said in 2023: “There is an immigration problem in France.”

In 2016, then French President François Hollande said, “There are too many arrivals, immigration that shouldn’t be there.”

In 2023, then leader Nicolas Sarkozy said: “There are too many immigrants in France.”

In 1991, former leader Jacques Chirac said, “We must stop family reunification. We must completely revise the right of asylum. We must open the debate on the right of all foreigners to social benefits.”

In 1989, the famous leader François Mitterrand said, “On immigration matters, we have crossed the tolerance threshold.”

The age-old adage is that “nobody voted for this.”

It is true that the specific question of mass immigration never came to a referendum, but it is also fair to say that some very pro-migrant candidates, such as Macron, have continuously made it into office.

Still, one would assume that in a democratic system, with leader after leader calling for a halt to immigration, that immigration levels would tend to trend lower. However, this is not how Western democracy has worked over the last decades. The same developments have been seen in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Leaders know the masses are unhappy about immigration, so they make proclamations against immigration to placate the masses, all while actual policy serves an entirely different purpose.

Macron is arguably the worst offender the French have ever seen when it comes to migration. In 2023, he said France must reduce immigration, beginning with legal entrants in a wide-ranging interview with weekly political magazine Le Point. Macron’s remark comes after he said in 2022 that migration “is part of France’s DNA” and oversaw a record increase in immigrants in 2022.

What has his record been since then?

Well, Macron was lying, as this chart clearly shows:

The foreign population has soared year after year, reaching record after record. In 2025, a record number of first-time legal residence permits were issued, totaling 384,000. In short, France is being buried in a wave of mass immigration that only a minority of French actually wanted. The estimates of how many foreigners are now living in France varies wildly, with some figures going as high as 9 million. However, there are also millions of legal French citizens who also have a migration background, which has led to a massive demographic shift.

Poll after poll has shown the French are remarkably opposed to mass immigration.

In a CSA poll for CNews in 2023, 64 percent of French said “we should stop non-European immigration to France.”

In a CSA poll for Europe 1 in 2024, 48 percent of French people said they wanted zero immigrants coming to the country, including 53 percent of women respondents.

In an Ifop poll in 2026, 60 percent of French people said they believe France is witnessing “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.”

In a poll from Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for Le Figaro in 2023, 74 percent of French said they believe there are too many migrants in France and 72 percent said they want a referendum on immigration.

In a CSA poll for CNews in 2023, 80 percent of French said they support a total ban on more immigration.

Meanwhile, in communist China, where there is not even an illusion of a democratic vote, foreigners only make up 0.06 percent of the population of 1.4 billion people. It may be hard to believe for many, but there are now fewer foreigners in all of China, at 845,000, than there are in just one European city, Berlin.

The political leaders that have governed the West have lied every step of the way on immigration, and in the process, they have gravely imperiled democracy. Many looking to authoritarian China see a country on the rise, where high-speed trains and critical infrastructure are quickly and efficiently erected, where crime is low, and social cohesion generally high.

Meanwhile, Europe is throwing up protectionist barriers against China at a time when China is pulling ahead in green energy, automobile manufacturing, machine tools, and AI.

Mass immigration has been an unmitigated economic, educational, security, and budget disaster for the West.

Democracy itself should not necessarily be condemned, however. Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, all thriving democracies, have managed to keep their borders almost entirely closed to mass immigration while growing their economies, all based on the will of the people.

In the end, it may have something to do with Europeans themselves and their culture of guilt, self-righteousness, and virtue signaling, which are attitudes that tend to dominate amongst European populations. The trend has been remarkably uniform across the Western world. It is not only France, but also the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, all marching in lockstep. While we can point our fingers at the mass media and academia, we also have to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask how we collectively allowed this to happen.

Read more here….

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 03:30

UBS CEO Warns Swiss Population Cap Is An ‘Extreme’ Measure

UBS CEO Warns Swiss Population Cap Is An ‘Extreme’ Measure

A proposal headed for a June 14 vote in Switzerland made headlines for seeking to place a hard cap on the country’s permanent resident population at 10 million through 2050.

The vote is also being watched as a referendum on immigration pressure in Europe more broadly. UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has caught the vapors over the idea, describing it as an “extreme” measure that fails to address the country’s underlying challenges.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti (photo: Chiara Zocchetti )

I do worry about these extreme initiatives,” Ermotti said, speaking from the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken on Thursday. “Switzerland has 30% of foreign-born people, almost like in Australia, twice as Germany. And that leads to certain frustration within society. But it’s not a way to solve the problem.”

Switzerland’s population stood at approximately 9.1 million at the end of 2025. Since 2000, it has grown by about 1.9 million people, with roughly four-fifths of that increase attributable to net international migration. Swiss federal authorities measure the increase since the introduction of free movement of persons in 2002 at around 1.7 million.

Foreign nationals now make up about 27% of the resident population, while migration-background shares are higher. In 2024, 41% of Switzerland’s permanent resident population aged 15 and over had a migration background, including first-generation and second-generation residents. Ermotti highlighted the scale of the demographic shift, noting that Switzerland’s foreign-born share is comparable to Australia’s and roughly double Germany’s.

The “No to a Switzerland with 10 Million” initiative, backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), would enshrine a hard population limit in the Federal Constitution. If passed, it would require Switzerland’s permanent resident population to remain below 10 million until 2050. If the population exceeds 9.5 million before then, the Federal Council and Parliament would have to take measures, particularly in asylum and family reunification.

If the 10 million threshold is exceeded, Switzerland would also have to renegotiate or terminate international agreements that contribute to population growth, including the EU Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons after two years. That would also put the broader Bilateral Agreements I with the EU at risk. Supporters point to real pressures: housing shortages and rising rents in cities like Zurich and Geneva, strained infrastructure, overcrowded public transport, and concerns over long-term social cohesion in a small, mountainous nation.

UBS’s High Stakes In The Debate

UBS, one of Switzerland’s largest private-sector employers with more than 30,000 employees in the country and a heavily international workforce, has significant skin in the game. The bank relies on global talent to sustain its operations in finance, a sector where skilled foreign workers fill critical roles. A rigid population cap, critics including business leaders argue, could exacerbate labor shortages in an already aging society with a fertility rate of around 1.3 children per woman.

Ermotti’s comments come as Switzerland grapples with balancing economic dynamism against quality-of-life concerns. Opponents of the cap, including the Federal Council and business groups, argue that Switzerland needs foreign workers in companies and public institutions such as hospitals and care homes, and that a constitutional ceiling would create uncertainty around Swiss-EU relations. Recent net immigration has moderated somewhat, falling for a second consecutive year in 2025, but remains high by historical standards.

The UBS chief stressed the need for evidence-based policymaking. “The discussions need to be balanced,” he said, urging authorities to ground decisions “on fact rather than emotion and scaremongering.”

Parallel Battles Over Capital Rules

Ermotti’s remarks on the population initiative coincided with ongoing tensions over Switzerland’s proposed capital requirements for UBS. The government is pushing to increase the common equity capital UBS must hold domestically against its foreign operations to 100% of each unit’s equity value, from 60% currently. The bank estimates this would require an additional roughly $20 billion in CET1 capital for its Swiss entity, a move it warns would damage its business model and, by extension, the broader domestic economy.

Parliament continues to debate the core package, with the process expected to last until next year. Ermotti’s call for fact-based deliberation applies equally here, as the bank awaits clarity on reforms that were partially watered down in April but remain demanding.

A Defining Moment For Swiss Identity And Economy

The referendum remains contested, though the latest reported polling shows opposition ahead, with 52% against the initiative and 45% in favor. It taps into broader European debates over low native fertility, labor needs, infrastructure limits, and national character. Switzerland’s direct democracy hands the ultimate choice to voters, making the outcome a potential bellwether for how high-income nations navigate sustained immigration.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/05/2026 – 02:45