As a content creator, I’ve noticed something hard to ignore: the posts that get the most engagement are rarely the ones that bring people together. They’re usually the ones that stir people up. The ones that make us mad or pick at our differences. The ones that feed the algorithm.
And yet, part of my job is to keep engagement going. It’s only natural that when a post performs well, I look at it and think, okay, people responded to that. It shapes what I post next—how I talk, what I highlight, even what I believe my “lane” is.
But what happens when the content that performs best doesn’t actually represent who I am?
For example, I write for The Epoch Times, and I know certain topics draw a lot of readers. But does that mean I should only write what gets clicks? Or do I have a responsibility to keep writing what I believe is meaningful, even if it doesn’t blow up online?
Last week, I posted a short video from my ranch. I was standing next to my cows, talking about the decision to import Argentinian beef—and how I didn’t think that was good for American farmers. Normally, my videos reach around 7,000 to 10,000 views. This one hit nearly 80,000, simply because I mentioned President Donald Trump.
And with that came more than 2,000 comments, many of them hateful.
People told me I was stupid, that I “got what I voted for.” They said I was aging poorly or that I looked unhealthy. Some even wished harm on my family.
But here’s what’s interesting: no one has ever said those things to my face.
In real life, people are kind.
We can disagree, but we still treat each other like human beings.
Online, though, the rules change. The algorithm rewards division, and division drives engagement. Engagement drives creators to lean further into whatever keeps people talking. It’s a loop—anger fuels clicks, clicks fuel income, and income rewards outrage.
The problem is, the more we live inside that feedback loop, the more we start to mistake it for real life. We begin to think the world is as cruel and divided as our comment sections. But it’s not. Social media is a curated, artificial experience that has very little to do with reality.
I’ve even run my own little tests to better understand it. When I post about God—about faith, gratitude, or anything that invites peace—the engagement drops dramatically. But when I talk about politics, the numbers skyrocket.
So I can’t help but ask: Are people more devoted to politics than to God? Or is it that the algorithm boosts whatever makes us angry, frustrated, or divided?
Because it really seems like the system is built to reward irritation over inspiration. The algorithm knows that anger spreads faster than peace. If you start to notice, you’ll see the pattern everywhere: content that makes people mad always travels farther. That’s not an accident. The machine is learning exactly what keeps us scrolling—and conflict is its favorite fuel.
But when division becomes profitable, unity starts to disappear. When angry voices get boosted, peaceful ones get buried. And before long, we start believing that the world is angrier than it actually is.
That belief shapes everything—our conversations, our politics, even our sense of safety. It makes us afraid to be honest because nuance doesn’t trend. Kindness doesn’t go viral.
So maybe the real choice we face isn’t just what we consume, but what we create.
As a creator, I can chase engagement or stay true to what I believe matters. I can talk about what gets clicks, or I can speak of truth, even when it doesn’t get rewarded.
Because the truth is, God doesn’t measure engagement.
He measures courage, integrity, and the willingness to keep speaking truth, even when it’s unpopular.
So the next time I post, I’ll ask myself: Am I feeding the algorithm, or am I feeding the soul?
And maybe—just maybe—if enough of us choose the latter, the machine will change. Perhaps it will finally begin to give us what our souls actually long for: unity, love, and God.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
COVELO, Calif.—Driving up the steep and windy road from his station in Ukiah, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall stops his pickup at a pullout overlooking California’s Round Valley.
“It’s where the trouble begins and never ends,” he told The Epoch Times.
Native American sovereignty and California’s policies that shield illegal immigrants have allowed Mexican drug cartels to swoop in on tribal lands of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, a confederation of several tribes, the sheriff said.
The valley, known for illegal marijuana grows on tribal lands, is remote and surrounded by forested mountainous terrain. It’s a patchwork of tribal lands and those sold off to private owners years ago.
Kendall, 56, grew up here in the 1970s. During the drive to Covelo, an isolated town in the valley, he talks about how the times have changed over the decades.
“Back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was a beautiful place—a lot of freedom here,” he said. “When we were kids, we’d be riding our horses and having fun. Every kid in this valley had a horse. We’d go out to the river. All of us had summertime jobs, hauling hay and cutting firewood.”
His nostalgic journey ends abruptly as he passes a burned-out building with murals of missing women on its walls—a stark reminder of the violence that plagues the valley. Other banners along the road display their names and faces, including that of Khadijah Rose Britton, a native American woman who, according to the FBI, was last seen in Covelo being kidnapped at gunpoint in 2018.
Today, Kendall says, “there’s a little bit of farming, and then just tons and tons of marijuana, and pretty much all of it is illegal.”
“We see a lot of Hispanics here when there is no work, no sawmill jobs, no grapes, no vineyards and not much logging. They’re all here taking orders to grow marijuana, and a lot of it’s happening on tribal lands.”
He estimates up to 80 percent of the illegal marijuana in Mendocino County is grown on tribal lands, based on aerial surveillance and satellite imagery revealing a vast network of illegal grow ops.
Kendall first encountered Mexican cartels in his county in the mid-1990s.
“I got shot at right over there in a Mexican grow” 25 years ago, he said, pointing to a footpath through the brush. “A guy pops out of a tent with a 12-gauge and I’m screaming at him in English and Spanish, ‘Drop it or I’m going to drop you!’ and he takes off running and gets a round off at me over his shoulder.”
Years ago, a group of Hispanics growing marijuana in the hills “were digging up artifacts and just tearing things up,”’ Kendall said. “We hit this place with search warrants years ago. We got thousands of plants.”
Today, even though the cartels and the laborers who work for them cultivating and harvesting the illicit marijuana are mostly illegal immigrants, Kendall is not legally allowed to call in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) due to state Senate Bill 54, signed in 2018 by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
The law prohibits state and local law enforcement from using their resources to assist federal immigration enforcement agencies, including ICE, and forbids them from asking about a person’s immigration status or sharing confidential information with federal agents.
Today, two competing Mexican cartels, Jalisco New Generation Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, are exploiting California’s sanctuary state policies and the sovereignty of native tribes to illegally grow marijuana in the county, the sheriff said.
The cartels have tagged their territory with spray paint in different areas of the valley, he said.
“We know that we’ve got some hard hitters from a cartel in the Mexican state of Michoacán,” said Kendall, who suspects a shootout in the hills in May was infighting among La Familia Michoacana members, known for gun battles in the streets of Mexico.
A roadside shrine with a crucifix marks the site where Jorge M. Zavala Estrella, 30, was shot and killed in the shootout.
“These guys had some bad blood over money and grow operations, and they met nose-to-nose right up here,” he said, pointing out the spot on Hulls Valley Road.
Another man was shot about a dozen times and was bleeding out near the edge of the road when deputies found him. He was airlifted to an out-of-county hospital and survived, the sheriff said.
A third and fourth suspect were also involved in the gun battle, and the homicide investigation is ongoing, Kendall said.
Kendall estimates about 300 shots were fired.
“There was brass collected everywhere,” he said.
Shootouts are common, he said, “about three or four every year,” and firearms used include AK-47s, AR-15s and M-16s.
Kendall suspects the money for infrastructure to grow illegal marijuana is coming from south of the border because the toxic chemical containers are labeled in Spanish and most local residents can’t afford to pay for hoop houses and haul in soil and water.
“Somebody’s putting up the money for this,” he said. “There are millions of dollars being poured into the marijuana industry up here.”
The Biden administration’s “wide open” border policies made things worse in Mendocino, he said.
“I’m not playing partisan politics here,” Kendall said. “It’s a fact. Borders were open.”
Illegal immigrants who couldn’t pay the full fare to Mexican cartels to cross into the United States fell into debt with the Mexican cartels, and much of that debt is being worked off in the marijuana grows, Kendall said.
Over the last few years, Kendall’s deputies have seen an increase in human trafficking cases as the cartels bring in more illegal immigrants to cultivate, trim, and harvest the illegal marijuana crops.
“It’s sex trafficking, it’s labor trafficking, it’s narco-slavery,” he said.
One victim told Kendall after he crossed the border from Mexico into the United States, he was picked up in California and informed by the driver working for a cartel he would be taken to Washington state to work in the “logging industry.”
“I’ve spoken with a lot of people in marijuana grows—once they’re caught—who have been trafficked, and didn’t realize it,” he said.
Kendall found the man months later in Mendocino, one of three Northern California counties—including Trinity and Humboldt—that comprise the Emerald Triangle, an area long known for cannabis cultivation.
“He’s in the middle of the forest, in the middle of nowhere, in a weed grow. He has no idea where he is. He thinks he’s in the state of Washington. He doesn’t know anyone, except for a couple of other clowns that are also working there. He doesn’t know how to get out of there,” the sheriff said.
“So, where do you start to find your way home? He’s in a foreign country. He doesn’t speak the language, and these guys show up and bring food now and then. And, whether he knows it or not, he has been trafficked.”
The man told him the cartels promised to pay him for his labor at the end of the growing season but didn’t, Kendall said.
“A lot of these folks I’ve spoken to aren’t getting paid at all,” he said. “We had two people wander out of the brush—husband and wife. They weren’t getting paid. They wanted to leave, and the gate was locked, and the boss goes and lights their car on fire.”
Many of the laborers at illegal grow sites in several California counties live in squalor at makeshift camps where their basic human needs are not being met, and they aren’t there of their own free will, he said.
“They’re scared to death of the cartels,” Kendall said. “They wind up here, but they’re still under that control.”
The sheriff’s department is underfunded, understaffed, and under-equipped to deal with all the crime related to illegal marijuana grow operations, he said.
“This is cartel violence that not even the United States government seems to be able to handle, and we’re expected to take it on when we’ve got six deputies for 3,500 square miles,” Kendall said.
“We’re not Mayberry,” he said, referring to the quaint, fictional town in the 1960’s TV series about a rural police department. “I wish we were because we’d have enough personnel to handle Mayberry.”
Kendall isn’t looking forward to the coming weeks of harvest season, which usually means more robberies, murders, and mayhem.
“There’s cash, there’s marijuana, there’s greed,” he said.
Tribes Sue Sheriff
Tribal sovereignty also poses a challenge for law enforcement. In April, the Round Valley Indian Tribes and three residents of the reservation filed a lawsuit against Kendall and other law enforcement agencies over raids that occurred on tribal land in July 2024. The lawsuit alleges sheriff’s deputies failed to produce valid search warrants and illegally destroyed medicinal cannabis gardens and cultivation.
Kendall wouldn’t comment on specifics related to the case but said the tribes are trying to assert their sovereignty over marijuana grown on tribal lands.
While the tribes “should have sovereignty,” the sheriff said he has received complaints from tribal members saying the reservation has been overrun by cartels.
“We’ve had some really good, forward thinking tribal leaders over the years—really good people—but there’s a little ebb and flow where we’ll get some people in who are making money off the marijuana, and the rules change,” Kendall said.
Reservations are often the “canary in the coal mine,” he said. “If something goes south there, because it’s a very close, tight-knit community, it’s going to go south across the entire county,” he said.
Kendall says partisan politics are getting in the way of law enforcement and public safety, but he does his best to stay out of the fray.
“I’m careful what I say because I don’t want to alienate people, but I still have to tell the truth,” he said, adding that one of the more important things he can do is to call out corruption and deception. “There’s a very small portion of people who are making money on it, and they are being bullies and creeps, intimidators, knee-cappers, to the good people.”
Kendall says he’s repeatedly called California Gov. Gavin Newsom but the governor won’t return his calls.
The national unemployment rate for the U.S. rose to 4.3% in August 2025. But that figure masks vast differences in local labor market health across states.
In this Markets in a Minute graphic, created in partnership with Terzo, Visual Capitalist’s Julia Wendling maps all 50 states and the District of Columbia by their August 2025 unemployment rates.
Data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The National Picture
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in August, up slightly from 4.2% in July.
This was the second consecutive monthly increase and the highest level since October 2021. Long-term unemployment, which tracks the share of those unemployed for 27 weeks or more, rose for the third month in a row in August.
According to Reuters, the uptick reflects a softening economy, as higher tariffs and widespread public-sector layoffs strain the labor market amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.
Unemployment Rates by State
At the top of the list with the lowest unemployment rates are South Dakota (1.9%), North Dakota (2.5%), and Vermont (2.5%).
Conversely, California (5.5%), Nevada (5.3%), and Michigan (5.2%) are facing slower job growth. Tech layoffs and a weakening consumer spending profile are weighing on employment.
What’s Ahead
Economists and policymakers are closely watching for the delayed September employment report, postponed by the ongoing government shutdown. The report is a key indicator for investors, offering a clear read on the nation’s economic pulse and signaling areas of strength or weakness.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Nov. 3 urged a federal judge to reject former FBI Director James Comey’s argument that he was “vindictively and selectively” prosecuted by the Trump administration.
DOJ lawyers filed a motion asking the judge to reject Comey’s bid to dismiss federal charges alleging that he made a false statement to Congress in 2020 and obstructed a congressional investigation.
In the court filing, prosecutors defended President Donald Trump’s Sept. 20 post calling on the DOJ to take action against his political foes, including Comey.
“The defendant spins a tale that requires leaps of logic and a big dose of cynicism, then he calls the President’s post a direct admission,” prosecutors wrote. “There is no direct admission of discriminatory purpose. To the contrary, the only direct admission from the President is that DOJ officials decided whether to prosecute, not him.”
Comey had argued in an Oct. 20 motion that he was “singled out” for prosecution because he had frequently criticized Trump and what he described as Trump’s “personal animus” toward him, referencing Trump’s social media posts to support his claim.
DOJ lawyers contended that while Trump’s posts may suggest he “disfavors” Comey, they cannot be considered direct evidence of a vindictive motive.
Prosecutors said that Trump’s Sept. 20 post reflected a “legitimate prosecutorial motive,” grounded on the president’s views that Comey should be prosecuted for criminal conduct for allegedly lying to Congress.
“None of the President’s social-media posts express a desire for the defendant to be penalized for exercising his First Amendment rights. Far from it,” DOJ lawyers stated in the motion. “The President’s social-media posts are clear on why he thinks the defendant should be prosecuted: he thinks the defendant is ‘guilty as hell.’ That is not an expression of vindictiveness.”
Prosecutors also stated that Comey is asking the court to take the extraordinary step of dismissing his case before trial, which they argued should only be granted if there is a clear constitutional reason to do so.
“The societal interests in this prosecution are readily apparent and overwhelming. The defendant is a former FBI director who lied to Congress about his conduct while at the helm of the nation’s primary federal law-enforcement agency. His prosecution implicates societal interests of the highest order,” they stated.
“Nonetheless, he asks the Court to take the extraordinary step of dismissing his indictment because—he says—he is being vindictively and selectively prosecuted. Given the deep-seated separation-of-powers principles at stake, his request can be granted only if ‘the Constitution requires it.’”
The Epoch Times reached out to Comey’s lawyer for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Comey is accused of lying in 2020 when he told a Senate committee he stood by prior testimony that he had not authorized anyone at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about investigations into Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He has pleaded not guilty to false statements and obstruction charges brought against him.
Comey filed another motion on Oct. 30 requesting that the court dismiss his criminal case. His lawyers argued that Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) questions could not form the basis for his indictment because they were “fundamentally ambiguous,” and that Comey’s answers to his questions were “literally true” and therefore cannot sustain a conviction.
DOE And NRC Sign Addendum To Fast Track Commercial Reactor Licensing
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently signed Addendum No. 9 to their 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), paving the way for faster follow-on licensing of advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel technologies.
This agreement, signed Oct 24th and effective immediately, comes as major concerns have been raised by reactor development companies and industry observers regarding the double work that may be required of developers when they bring their tested products over to the NRC. Demand for clean, reliable energy by data centers and major industrial companies has created a stronger need for change in the path to reactor design commercialization, with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon signing long-term offtake agreements with reactor operators Constellation, NextEra, and Talen.
“Establish an expedited pathway to approve reactor designs that the DOD or the DOE have tested and that have demonstrated the ability to function safely. NRC review of such designs shall focus solely on risks that may arise from new applications permitted by NRC licensure, rather than revisiting risks that have already been addressed in the DOE or DOD processes.”
Surprisingly, the DOE and NRC took the executive order one step further and included a streamlined licensing process for nuclear fuel facilities as well. It becomes less surprising when we remember the current administration has highlighted multiple times the desire to reduce the reliance on foreign nuclear fuel supplies. Even with the Russian uranium import ban, the US is still importing over a fifth of the required enriched uranium from Russia through last year. The US government is looking to expand the domestic capacity of every step in the fuel chain as quickly as possible.
The new addendum will directly impact the companies already announced by the DOE as participants in their pilot reactor and fuel programs:
Reactor developers: Aalo Atomics, Antares Nuclear, Atomic Alchemy, Deep Fission, Last Energy, Oklo (two projects), Natura Resources, Radiant Industries, Terrestrial Energy, Valar Atomics
Fuel facilities: Standard Nuclear, Oklo, Terrestrial Energy, TRISO-X, Valar Atomics
Additional companies are expected to be announced for both of the programs in the near future, as the DOE still looks to expand the number of participants as an effort to increase the chance of success.
There are multiple companies currently involved that are worth highlighting. Oklo is the most involved company, with three reactor projects — Aurora, Pluto, and Atomic Alchemy — currently receiving high-speed treatment, and three nuclear fuel facilities on the fast track as well. Terrestrial Energy enjoys double involvement with their integrated molten salt reactor design and unique fuel. Valar Atomics has also earned a spot in both programs, alongside industry leadership on the reactor side from Aalo and Radiant, and on the fuel side with Standard Nuclear.
Part IV.C of the addendum discusses the new agreement between the NRC and DOE, with two separate statements for advanced reactor designs and nuclear fuel line facilities:
“NRC establishes an expedited pathway to approve advanced reactor designs [nuclear fuel line facilities] that have been authorized and tested by DOE and have demonstrated the ability to function safely that focuses on risks or safety issues identified during the NRC licensing review that may arise from, among other things, design changes in new applications to be licensed by the NRC, rather than revisiting risks that have already been addressed in the DOE review.”
This removes the previous risk of a company designing a reactor, getting the DOE to approve it, building an operating it for months or years to develop proficiency and improvements, only to have the NRC tear it apart to meet a different set of requirements that results in a loss of the work put in to the reactor up to that point. The NRC will now skip reviews regarding design features that are no different in the commercial product than they are with the design built under the DOE.
There are likely more MOUs to be released in the near future, specifically relating to coordination between the DOW and the NRC for all the same reasons. This will stem from the Army’s recently announced Janus Program, which looks to hyper-speed the development of microreactors, such as that recently launched by Nano Nuclear, and drive consolidation and standardization of the nuclear equipment/manufacturing supply chain.
US Homeownership Tenure Hits Highest Level In 25 Years
U.S. homeowners who sold their properties in the third quarter of 2025 had owned them for an average of 8.39 years, the longest tenure in at least 25 years, real estate analytics company ATTOM said in a statement released on Oct. 21.
The longer homeownership tenure reflects “a mix of factors shaping the 2025 housing market,” the company stated.
“Higher mortgage rates may have made homeowners less likely to move, as many remain locked into historically low rates from prior years,” the statement reads.
“Limited inventory and elevated home prices may have also made finding an affordable next home difficult, keeping potential sellers in place longer.”
The state with the longest average homeownership tenure in the third quarter was Massachusetts at 12.91 years.
This was closely followed by Connecticut at 12.66 years, California at 11.2 years, Rhode Island at 11 years, and Washington state at 10.74 years.
Maine had the shortest average homeownership tenure at 4.8 years, followed by Mississippi at 5.71 years, South Dakota at 5.79 years, West Virginia at 6.04 years, and Georgia at 6.11 years.
As Naveen Athrappully reports for The Epoch Times, according to ATTOM, all-cash sales continued to rise in the third quarter, with 38.9 percent of all homes sold nationwide during this period being all-cash deals, up from 37.6 percent in the third quarter of 2024.
“The increase in all‑cash sales suggests a larger share of buyers may be avoiding financing altogether, potentially investors or downsizing homeowners using accumulated equity, which continues to influence both mobility and overall market dynamics,” ATTOM stated.
Homeowners who sold off their properties in the third quarter made a 49.9 percent profit on a typical single-family home or condo, ATTOM said in an Oct. 16 statement.
While this is slightly lower than the 55.4 percent profit seen during the third quarter of 2024, it is still way higher than the roughly 30 percent profit margin home sellers saw before 2020, according to the company.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, home prices have surged, contributing to massive profits for owners willing to sell.
According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average sale price of homes sold in the United States in the second quarter was $512,800, up from $371,100 five years ago in the second quarter of 2020.
“Profit margins remained steady and high throughout the traditionally busier summer selling season,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said.
“While continuously rising prices could have chased away buyers and slackened demand, the recent dip in mortgage rates may be helping to keep more people in the market.”
Even though high home prices are giving large profits to sellers who have held on to their properties since the COVID-19 pandemic, selling has become more difficult.
New listings of homes for sale rose by 4.1 percent year over year for the four weeks ending Oct. 12, the largest increase in four months. This came amid buyers backing off from the market, real estate brokerage Redfin said in an Oct. 16 statement.
High sale prices and financial unease stemming from concerns about the ongoing federal government shutdown and tariffs have made many buyers wary of committing to property purchases, the brokerage stated.
Jo Chavez, a Redfin Premier agent in Kansas City, Missouri, cited elevated mortgage rates as another factor deterring buyers from the market.
“Even though rates have come down from their peak, a lot of people are waiting for sub-6 percent rates before they buy,” Chavez said.
Mortgage Rate Issues
The average weekly rate of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.27 percent for the week ending Oct. 16, according to data from Freddie Mac. Since June, the rates have been mostly in a downward trend.
While the current 6.27 percent rate is lower than the 7.04 percent yearly peak in January, rates are still well above the levels seen during the initial COVID-19 pandemic period. For instance, five years ago, the rate was 2.81 percent.
In an Oct. 16 commentary, Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at real estate data company Bright MLS, suggested that the recent dip in mortgage rates may trigger more competition among buyers, pushing up home prices.
“Looking ahead to the rest of the year, it is difficult to forecast where rates will go, but the likely bet is that they are not going to fall much further,“ she wrote. ”Buyers who think they want to wait for lower rates could find themselves facing higher prices but without an improvement in mortgage rates.
“It is actually possible that mortgage rates could increase in the coming weeks. The Federal Reserve has been rolling mortgage-backed securities off of the central bank’s balance sheet, which could lead to upward pressure on mortgage rates.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Nov. 4 that the U.S.–South Korean alliance will stay focused on deterring North Korea, but will also keep other regional threats in view.
After the annual security talks with his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Gyu-back, Hegseth told reporters, “There’s no doubt flexibility for regional contingencies is something we would take a look at, but we are focused on standing by our allies here and ensuring the threat of the DPRK is not a threat to the Republic of Korea and certainly continue to extend nuclear deterrence as we have before.”
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name for North Korea. The Republic of Korea (ROK) is the official name of South Korea.
Hegseth is in South Korea for a two-day visit. On Nov. 3, Ahn accompanied Hegseth to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The following day, he attended the 57th Security Consultative Meeting, the high-level defense meeting between the two allies.
“There was a reason why it was fitting that we went to the DMZ yesterday. It reminds you of the core of this alliance, that ultimately it’s holding the line and protecting our ally from the DPRK; it’s what we have been and continue to be oriented on,” Hegseth told reporters at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul on Nov. 4.
“There are also a lot of threats in the world which we’re prepared for, and we’ve had a lot of good faith conversations, but centered around ensuring that the ROK is able to, as we move forward, work with them, lead the conventional defense here on the peninsula against North Korea.”
‘Model Ally’
In a speech to parliament earlier on Nov. 4, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked lawmakers to approve an 8.2 percent increase in defense spending, which he said would help modernize the country’s military weapons systems and reduce its reliance on the United States.
In his speech before taking questions from the press, Hegseth praised South Korea for working to increase its defense spending, which he said was critical to preserving peace, and if need be, to prevail in war.
Hegseth said that while he and Ahn acknowledge a dangerous security environment, their alliance is “stronger than ever.”
“Minister Ahn and I agreed to remain clear-eyed about the threats that we face, and that’s why we have to continue as we do every single day, as we saw at the DMZ with Korean and U.S. troops standing shoulder to shoulder, working together,” Hegseth said.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (2nd L) and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back (C) visit the Observation Post Ouellette near the border village of Panmunjom, South Korea, on Nov. 3, 2025. South Korea Defense Ministry via AP
“We need to increase our defense cooperation by taking a common sense approach that is grounded in realism, building on the strong leadership of our presidents—President Trump and President Lee—and President Trump wants allies to be strong, and the Republic of Korea is a model ally.”
The Pentagon chief said that during talks, he and his counterpart agreed that defense funds would be used to increase South Korea’s capabilities to lead a conventional deterrence against North Korea.
He also highlighted the defense cooperation to repair and maintain U.S. warships in South Korea, and that the United States is planning on extending its cooperation to maintain ground equipment in the country.
Nuclear-Powered Submarines
Hegseth also addressed the issue of nuclear-powered submarines, saying that the Pentagon would be working with the Department of Energy and the Department of State to fulfill Trump’s commitment to share sensitive nuclear propulsion technology with South Korea.
While Hegseth said he was not in a position to comment on the details that Trump had approved, he said that the U.S. president “wants allies to be strong. He wants our allies to have the best capabilities, and because Korea has been a model ally, he’s open to opportunities like that that ensure they have the best capabilities in their own defense and alongside us as allies.”
South Korea has no nuclear weapons, and Ahn said Seoul remains committed to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
When asked on Nov. 4 about whether South Korea would develop nuclear weapons, Ahn said, via a translator, that Seoul’s commitment to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula “remains unwavering.”
He said that South Korea is a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and will not acquire or develop nuclear weapons.
In relation to whether Seoul would allow U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to be deployed from the peninsula, Ahn said, “As we are not going to develop our own nuclear weapon, there is a strong need for us to combine the use of Korea’s conventional forces and the United States’ nuclear capability, resulting in a conventional nuclear integration initiative.”
South Korea has committed $150 billion in U.S. shipbuilding investments, with a submarine slated for construction at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, which is owned by South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group.
Trump said in an Oct. 29 post on Truth Social that he had given Seoul approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine.
“South Korea will be building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. Shipbuilding in our Country will soon be making a BIG COMEBACK. Stay tuned!!!” Trump said in a follow-up post on Truth Social.
Update (1335ET): Bitcoin has broken below $100k for the first time since June…
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After its worst October performance in nearly a decade, and sentiment among traders already reeling from a historic liquidation event last month, Bitcoin has accelerated losses today, breaking back below its 200DMA and testing down to $101k for the first time since June…
This is the second worst day of the year for bitcoin…
According to updated Polymarket data, there’s now an 87% chance of the Bitcoin price falling below $100,000 before 2026…
According to market analyst Damian Chmiel, a sustained break below $100,000 could trigger a sharper sell-off toward the April lows near $74,000, implying a potential 30% downside from current levels.
Liquidations totaled over $1.2 billion on Monday, with long positions accounting for 90% of the losses, and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index slipped into ‘Extreme Fear‘…
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments last week walked back expectations of a December rate cut, reinforcing the “higher for longer” interest rate narrative.
That shift has boosted the U.S. dollar while simultaneously pressuring non-yielding assets such as Bitcoin.
Adding to the selling pressure, ETF investors have withdrawn more than $1.8 billion from Bitcoin and Ether products over the past four trading days, data shows, while open interest in BTC perpetual futures has fallen about 30% from its October peak, signaling a pullback in leveraged exposure.
Traders are eyeing $96,000 as the next significant support zone.
“The crypto market is facing multiple near-term headwinds,” said Derek Lim, head of research at Caladan, according to Bloomberg.
“It’s already fragile from October’s massive liquidation event and a string of protocol exploits.”
On the upside, bulls must reclaim the 21-day EMA and Point of Control around $111,000 to reestablish momentum, followed by resistance at $114,600 and $122,000.
Bitcoin has decoupled from global liquidity’s incessant rise (for now)…
Relative to Gold, Bitcoin is back at a key support level also…
Earlier today, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee remained bullish on Bitcoin, predicting it could still surge to $150,000–$200,000 by the end of 2025 despite recent market turbulence.
He noted that the mid-October liquidation event — the largest in crypto history, even bigger than FTX – occurred just weeks ago.
Earlier today, Strategy announced they reinforced its aggressive Bitcoin accumulation approach, purchasing 397 BTC for about $45.6 million at an average price of $114,771 per BTC.
According to a November 3, 2025 SEC Form 8-K filing, Strategy now holds a total of 641,205 BTC, with an aggregate purchase cost of $47.49 billion and an average price of $74,057 per BTC, including fees and expenses.
Bitcoin liquidity signals turning point
Data from CryptoQuant suggested that the Stablecoin Supply Ratio (SSR) has dropped back to the 13–14 range, the same zone seen before Bitcoin’s rebound earlier this year. Historically, this level has marked liquidity turning points, where increasing stablecoin balances signal rising “buying power” on the sidelines.
Currently, with Bitcoin trading at $101,800, the low SSR suggests that stablecoin liquidity is quietly building again, potentially setting the stage for a relief rally or the final bullish leg of this cycle.
However, each successive SSR rebound has grown weaker, suggesting that while another upside phase may still be possible, the market’s underlying liquidity momentum could be fading.
Voters Head To The Polls In The First Major Elections Of Trump’s Second Term
It’s election day – the first general election of Trump’s second term. All eyes will of course be on New York City’s mayoral race between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo – with Mamdani vowing to squeeze blood out of rich New Yorkers to fund communist unicorn fart promises, and Cuomo earning the support of President Trump, Elon Musk, and others simply because he’s the lesser evil.
As the Epoch Times notes, New York voters will be voting on a variety of local offices, though one among them—the mayoral election—has attracted outsized international attention. Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, since his upset victory in the Democratic Primary on June 24, has been leading the polls.
The latest major network poll by Fox News shows Mamdani with a 16 percentage point lead over Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate. In that poll, Mamdani garners 47 percent of the vote compared to Cuomo’s 31 percent, while Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa has 15 percent.
The RealClearPolitics polling average favors Mamdani by 14.3 percentage points. Unlike its primary contest, New York City uses the first past-the-post system for general elections, meaning that, should Mamdani perform as polls suggest, he would win the election.
Virginia
Meanwhile, voters in Virginia will decide a gubernatorial race between Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in a race favoring the Democrat.
Virginians will also elect an attorney general in a race between Republican Jason Miyares and Democrat Jay Jones – with Jones having wished death on Republicans in text messages, which several prominent Democrats defended.
New Jersey
In New Jersey, voters will decide between Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Ciattarelli was also the party’s nominee in the 2021 election and lost to incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, in a close contest.
Sherrill is ahead of Ciattarelli in the polls, but in recent weeks, the polling gap has significantly narrowed to the point where her lead is either close to or within the margin of error. The average of all major polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics shows Sherrill with a polling lead of 3.3 percentage points.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania voters will cast ballots for their state Supreme Court, where three Democrats facing recalls hope to retain their seats for 10 more years.
California
In California, voters will decide on Proposition 50, a measure which would ‘temporarily’ (lol) redraw the state’s congressional maps in response to changes made by Texas to its maps.
The referendum is backed by Democrats and seeks to temporarily bypass California’s independent redistricting committee and revise the state’s congressional district boundaries for elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, so as to win the party more seats in the next general elections to the House in 2026.
Due to the state’s heavy Democratic lean, the proposition appears likely to pass, with the “Yes” side garnering 56 percent in favor, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. It has a 13 percentage point lead over the “No” side of the vote.
The Lack Of All Econ Data Is Completely Irrelevant As Nobody Has Any Idea Where We Ultimately End Up
By Michael Every of Rabobank
Remember when it used to be about PMIs?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump officials torpedoed Nvidia’s push to export Blackwell AI chips to China, Secretary of State Rubio, USTR Greer, and Commerce Secretary Lutnick all opposing. On the other hand, the US will allow Microsoft to send Nvidia AI chips to the UAE for the first time as part of a vast ramp-up in data-centre and AI development there. It will find out if the UAE keeps hold of them or sells them on in time, as both the Philippines and the UAE apply to join the CPTPP, which China also wants in to.
The scale and speed of AI –and related energy– rollouts is staggering. OpenAI just agreed a $38bn deal with Amazon, for example. However, Europe remains almost entirely absent from this process: is that part of a ‘strategic autonomy’? Tellingly, ‘The EU can’t figure out what to do about ChatGPT’, says Politico – and they don’t mean creating one, just regulating the existing version.
This surge in capex is inflationary, as data centers eat up resources and gorge on electricity. Indeed, as US Secretary of the Interior Burgum, speaking in the UAE, stated, “Trillions of dollars are going to end up in the places that have low electricity prices,” the US has signed an $80bn nuclear reactor deal, Glencore plans to shut Canada’s largest copper metal operation over (electricity) costs, Australia’s Liberal-National political coalition, in place since 1923, may fracture over the Nats’ rejection of net zero or the Libs could follow, while China may have reached a “fission-based innovation poised to reshape clean, sustainable nuclear power” by ‘breeding’ uranium from thorium.
Yet AI is simultaneously deflationary if it means demand for workers –particularly younger ones already moving to the radical ends of the political spectrum– collapses. The Financial Times just carried an op-ed arguing for universal basic capital, where every citizen is given a financial stake in AI firms to ensure social stability. (Though if nobody needs to work, how this differs from universal basic income is unclear: and is this a Speenhamland bare minimum or a Judge Dredd higher income which still drives people insane from a lack of useful work?)
The same deflation is true if AI is a bubble. That’s as the WSJ argues ‘The Microchip Era Is About to End’ because “The future is in wafers. Data centres will be the size of a box, not vast energy-hogging structures,” and asks, ‘Is OpenAI Becoming Too Big to Fail?’ because “Sam Altman’s ability to intertwine the startup throughout major tech players puts it at the nexus of a vital part of the US economy.”
Whatever happens next, whether the PMI was 0.1 or 0.2 higher or lower than the consensus guess doesn’t matter much. The good old days when a career in macro strategy could boil down to iterations of that coincident-commentary game is over: AI is already capable of doing it better.
Indeed, the irrelevance of most data is not only underlined by the fact that we don’t have key US releases at the moment —and it doesn’t make any difference to our understanding of where we ultimately end up— but by developments in geopolitics and geoeconomics.
Trump said he doubts the US will go to war with Venezuela, but he thinks Maduro’s “days are numbered”. Why would that be the case if the US isn’t going to do anything? Meanwhile, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado was on social media underlining how juicy the resources in her country are, and how they will only be properly utilised under what sounds like US leadership. Try factoring that in to your forecasts.
At the same time, there are reports that the US is preparing troops for a ground invasion in Mexico to go after drug cartels: one would assume that this is in coordination with the Mexican government, where a local politician was just murdered by drug gangs.
In geoeconomics, all serious views of the recent ‘US-China deal are this is just a metaphorical ceasefire to (literally) rearm, not any ‘peace’, and it is when not if we get further escalation.
Supporting that view from one side, the White House just struck a $1.4bn deal with rare-earth magnet startups Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies. From the other, besides China introducing new export controls on silver, antimony, and tungsten, Nexperia’s China plant has told local firms that it can meet chip orders despite suspended supply from European fabs previously in the same group. Europe is only going to get its own chip supplies again as part of the deal that the US struck last week: the EU’s own statecraft failed to achieve anything. On which front, two pictures of the Trump-Xi meeting in progress have appeared on social media. In one, Trump is holding up a card to Xi, which we can only see the back of; in the second Xi is laughing. As somebody said yesterday, Trump may have written on it: “The EU will use their trade bazooka.”
The EU also thinks it may have been left out of China’s easing of export controls on rare earths. The US press release said last week’s one-year deal was global, but China hasn’t told Europe this is the case yet. If it isn’t then it will be easy to predict what the manufacturing PMI numbers will look like –like they did during Covid– and no monthly higher/lower or econometrics, just geoeconomics, could have told you that was a possible outcome.
In EU politics, as Czech billionaire Babiš inches closer to PM, the FT op-eds that ‘The far right can win in Europe but it struggles to govern’ –then again, who doesn’t?– and that, “The continent’s political future could be defined by a never-ending struggle between the centre and the radical right.” But what does that mean for the PMI, please?
In US politics, there are new signs that after today’s elections, more on which tomorrow, the government shutdown may finally end, with Congress eyeing a spending bill through January. Of course, that could have an impact on the ISM, but it isn’t economics or econometrics at work.
