US equity futures jumped and global stocks rose to record highs as crude oil fell after officials signaled – once again – that the US was nearing a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore oil flows. The dollar weakened while precious metals and crypto bounced from Friday’s drop. While the US and Iran closed in on a deal, Trump said he won’t “rush” into an agreement. The deal is still a work in progress and the US is going to give diplomacy every chance to succeed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. S&P 500 futures squeezed higher by 0.9%, in line with Goldman expectations, while Nasdaq futs were up 1.3%, both printing in record territory as the market just can’t get enough of news that “a deal is imminent.” US cash markets are shut Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. The dollar retreated against all of its Group-of-10 peers.  Crude oil slumps more than 5%: WTI crude futures fall to around $91 and Brent contracts drop below $98 a barrel. Aussie tops G-10 leaderboard; euro and pound both add about 0.3%. Nikkei surges more than 3% as Japanese equities hit record highs, and Taiex also jumps about 3%. Mainland China indexes are all in the green. Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for holidays. T-note futures jump 20/32 to near 109-28. Australian curve bull flattens with 10-year yield down 5 bps. JGB futures rally as Japan’s long-end yields slide. Gold rises more than $50 to near $4,560 and silver surges 3%.In short: global euphoria. 

Consistent The MSCI All Country World Index, the broadest measure of global equities, rose 0.4% to an all-time high closing level. Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 gained for a sixth straight session to the highest intraday level since the outbreak of the Iran war. Trading volumes were light, with a number of markets including the UK, Norway and Denmark closed for holidays. 

Brent tumbled almost 6% to below $100 a barrel amid optimism a deal will help restore the flow of oil through the vital Middle East artery.

Senior US officials said Sunday that the US and Iran were nearing an agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though final approval from both sides could still take several days. Iran said a deal isn’t imminent, though there is consensus on a number of issues. While the US and Iran closed in on a deal, President Donald Trump said he won’t “rush” into an agreement. The deal is still a work in progress and the US is going to give diplomacy every chance to succeed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Similarly, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson says they have reached a framework with the US but nobody can say that an agreement between the two sides is imminent, Reuters reports. he adds that Iran will not collect tolls on the Strait of Hormuz but it’s normal that services provided would require a price.

In other words, we don’t have a deal as the key sticking points remain unresolved (and unresolcable) but the market is acting as if there is a deal, as has been the case since April. 

“After today’s market moves, the most likely scenario already appears to be largely priced in,” said Roberto Scholtes Ruiz, head of strategy at Singular Bank. “Therefore, I would expect some ‘sell the news’ dynamics once a deal is finally reached, and I would refrain from adding exposure to equities until yield curves move lower.”

The improvement in risk sentiment follows weeks of stalemate between the US and Iran after several previous efforts to strike a deal. Global equities have since surged on optimism that Middle East tensions may ease and on renewed enthusiasm for the artificial intelligence trade, while elevated oil prices and higher inflation pushed bond yields to multi-year highs.

“A clear FOMO factor contributes to unexpectedly strong global risk appetite: investors don’t want to be left out if the Iran war comes to an end while the AI theme continues to lift the stock market,” said Dana Malas, a strategist at SEB.

Traders also remain focused on inflation. They have fully priced in a Federal Reserve rate hike by year-end, underscoring expectations that the US central bank chair Kevin Warsh will need to act swiftly. Later this week, US Personal Consumption Expenditures data and inflation readings across Europe will offer clues on price pressures and the direction of interest rates.

Warsh, who has promised the biggest shakeup in decades at the US central bank, was sworn into office Friday. Trump stressed that he wants Warsh to independently lead the Fed, as he looked to downplay investor concern that he would pressure the new central bank chief on policy decisions. The Fed may have enough reason to justify an interest rate cut rather than a hike under new chairman Warsh, according to BlackRock Inc. 

Europe is picking up where it left off last week after Trump talked up the prospects of a peace deal over the weekend. SocGen’s strategists reckon “muscle memory” built in previous crises is encouraging investors to buy dips and BofA’s say London’s buyside is “long and paranoid.”
Euro Stoxx 600 futures are 1.1% higher amid lower trade volume as markets including London are closed for a holiday, with Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, among others, also shut. Cash trading in the US will also be closed for Memorial Day. Among individual stock moves in Europe, Delivery Hero SE jumped more than 10% after it received a take-over offer from Uber Technologies Inc. in a deal that would value the German delivery company at about €10 billion ($11.6 billion).  Here are the biggest movers Monday:

• Delivery Hero shares rise 8.2% to €36.3 on Tradegate, above Uber’s indicative offer of €33 per share, signaling that some investors believe a higher takeover price is possible
• Nexi shares rose as much as 5.5% after Italy’s state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti said it plans to raise its stake in the payments company to as much as 29.9%, tightening its grip on the Italian payments group
• Kinnevik gains as much as 4.7% after the struggling Swedish investment group appointed the former finance boss of the Wallenberg family’s main holding company as its new chief executive officer
• Hexagon gains as much as 2.3% after being upgraded to buy from neutral at SB1 Markets, with the broker saying the Swedish industrial technology group is an attractive investment after its upcoming spin-off of subsidiary Octave
• Kambi shares advance as much as 10% after the Swedish sports betting services firm’s CEO Werner Becher bought 20,900 shares in the company at SEK156 per share, representing a 3% premium versus Friday’s close.
• The Stoxx 600 energy sector is the worst-performer on Monday after oil declined as senior US officials gave further, positive signals on progress toward a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while airline and travel stocks outperform

Earlier in the session,  Asian stocks rose for a third straight session as expectations over AI-driven revenue bolstered tech shares, while signs of a potential US-Iran deal buoyed risk appetite. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed as much as 1.5%, with TSMC, MediaTek and Delta Electronics providing the biggest support. A sub-gauge of information technology jumped to a record high. Taiwan and Japan led gains, though markets in Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for Buddha’s Birthday.

Sustained optimism around artificial intelligence and semiconductor demand continued to underpin sentiment across the region after upbeat earnings. Japan’s component makers including Taiyo Yuden surged, while Chinese semiconductor stocks also gained after Huawei Technologies touted a potential breakthrough in making advanced chips.

“The kind of near-term obsession with AI has really focused people much more heavily on Taiwan and South Korea,” Alison Shimada, senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, said on Bloomberg TV. At some point investors may take profit and rotate into markets like China and India selectively, she added.

China’s CSI 300 Index rose 1.6% amid expectations Beijing’s crackdown on cross-border trading would direct flows into domestic equities. Citic Securities said the move may hit as much as $32 billion of assets in Hong Kong, but said the impact is likely to be manageable.  Chinese coal mining stocks rose after a deadly accident in Shanxi province raised concerns about possible supply disruptions. 

Elsewhere, as reported last week, China launched an unprecedented campaign against illegal cross-border trading to stem capital outflows, threatening severe penalties against popular brokers and ordering non-compliant accounts to be liquidated within two years.

Top Overnight News

• Iran Talks Bog Down Over Nuclear Program, Sanctions Relief: WSJ
• US, Iran inch toward deal as gaps remain on uranium, sanctions: BBG
• Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson says they have reached a framework with the US but nobody can say that an agreement between the two sides is imminent; Iran will not collect tolls on the Strait of Hormuz but it’s normal that services provided would require a price: RTRS
• Secretary of State Rubio says Iran deal is still a work in progress: BBG
• Iran’s top envoys discussing potential peace deal with Qatar prime minister, official says: RTRS
• Oil Slides as Ships Move Toward Hormuz: WSJ
• Hassett says ending Iran war may create room for Fed rate cut: BBG
• Pope urges AI regulation, apologizes for transatlantic slavery: RTRS
• Pope Leo Compares AI Threat to Biblical ‘Tower of Babel’: WSJ
• ECB likely to revise its inflation outlook in June, Lagarde says: BBG
• Uganda confirms two more Ebola cases, taking total to seven: RTRS
• Huawei Says It Has Workaround to Match Leading Chips: WSJ
• Meet Mark Zuckerberg’s Right-Hand Man Who’s Unleashing AI at Meta: WSJ
• Strategists warn yields to stay high even if Iran war ends: BBG
• Former SNP chief pleads guilty to embezzling $540,000: RTRS
• Pakistan Shi’ites deported from UAE return to lost jobs, frozen savings: RTRS

Iran War News

• US President Trump posted on Saturday that an agreement has largely been negotiated, subject to finalisation between the US, Iran and various Middle Eastern countries, while the final aspects and details of the deal were being discussed, and will be announced shortly. Trump stated in addition to many other elements of the agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened.
• US President Trump posted on Sunday that negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, while he informed representatives not to rush into a deal and that time is on their side. Trump stated the blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed, and that both sides must take their time and get it right.
• US President Trump posted on Sunday “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon. Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”
• US President Trump convened a meeting with his senior national security team on Friday morning regarding the war with Iran, according to Axios’s Ravid citing two US officials, while the sources stated that Trump was seriously considering launching new strikes against Iran, barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations.
• US President Trump posted a generated image of a strike on Iranian-flagged vessels with the caption ‘Adios’.
• US Secretary of State Rubio said there may be “some good news” regarding the blocked Strait of Hormuz in the coming hours, but not final news, while he also commented that a nuclear deal cannot be reached with Iran in 72 hours and that nuclear negotiations are very technical issues that cannot be done in 72 hours ‘on the back of a napkin’. Rubio separately commented that President Trump is not going to make a bad deal and that it takes time as they have to wait to hear back from Iran, while he suggested that signing a deal with Iran is still possible on Monday and that they will either a good agreement with Iran or will deal with the matter in another way, but will give diplomacy every chance to succeed before exploring alternatives.
• US and Iran were reportedly close to signing an agreement involving a 60-day ceasefire extension, which could be extended by mutual consent, according to Axios. Furthermore, a US official said Trump’s key principle is “relief for performance”, while Iran wanted funds unfrozen immediately and permanent sanctions relief, but the US position is that this would only follow tangible concessions. It was also reported that US President Trump told leaders of Arab and Muslim countries during a Saturday conference call that if a deal to end the Iran war is achieved, he wants their nations to join the Abraham Accords and sign peace agreements with Israel, according to Axios’s Ravid.
• US senior official said the White House doesn’t expect an agreement to end the war with Iran on Sunday and believes it could take several days for the deal’s approval by Iran’s leadership, according to Axios.
• US senior officials said the naval blockade will only be lifted after Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz, and no funds will be released until enriched uranium is handed over, while it was stated that there is agreement on 95% of a deal, but it needs to be drafted. Furthermore, difficulties remained regarding issues, and it is estimated to take 5-6 days to receive approval from Supreme Leader Khamenei, with any further changes also requiring his consent, according to Jerusalem Post’s Amichai Stein.
• US and Iran are said to have agreed in principle to a preliminary deal aimed at ending the war, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and limit Iran’s uranium stockpile, but remains subject to final approval, which is expected to take several days, according to NYT. A separate report also noted that the US understands that Iran agrees in principle to dispose of uranium stockpile and that the Supreme Leader endorses the broad template, although there was no immediate confirmation from Iran or elaboration on what an “in principle” agreement meant, according to Sky News.
• US officials stated that Iranian negotiators are facing difficulty in communicating with Supreme Leader Khamenei, which is the reason for the delay in the agreement, according to CBS.
• Iranian President Pezeshkian said their negotiating team will not compromise when it comes to the country’s honour or dignity, while he said they are ready to reassure the world that they are not seeking nuclear weapons.
• Iranian source said Iran has no optimism towards the US and that there is no final deal yet, with challenges remaining. The source also stated that Iran rejects linking frozen assets to nuclear stockpiles and has not made any new nuclear commitments, while Iran demands the release of frozen assets as a condition for a deal and will monitor US actions if a deal is reached, according to Tasnim. Furthermore, it was reported that there is still the possibility an agreement may be cancelled.
• Iran said on Friday that ‘no deal’ will reach a conclusion if the US demands enriched uranium handover. It was also reported that an Iranian official source said that stopping the war on all fronts is the essential prerequisite for discussing any future negotiations, while the source stated there was no final agreement yet, and work is underway to narrow the gap between Tehran and Washington, according to Al Jazeera.
• IRGC advisor said their enemy knows that if it wants to make a mistake, it will receive an irreparable blow and that Iran would retaliate 10-fold against the US. It was separately reported that Iran shot down an Israeli surveillance drone, according to Mehr News Agency.
• Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran and Oman discussed Hormuz maritime rules amid ongoing US talks.
• Iranian officials said major disagreements remain, especially over the status of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear program and conflicts involving Tehran-backed groups in Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.
• Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the differences between Iran and the US are so deep and numerous that it cannot be said that they will definitely reach a conclusion with several visits or negotiations within a few weeks, according to Fars.
• Israeli PM Netanyahu told US President Trump that Israel will maintain the freedom to act in Lebanon, while Netanyahu said that Trump agrees that the Iran deal must remove the nuclear threat.
• Israel conducted a strike on Arzoun in the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon.
• Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said any attempt to disarm Hezbollah would lead to its elimination and the gradual Israeli occupation of Lebanon, while he added that Hezbollah will remain on the battlefield until an Israeli withdrawal.
• A drone attack targeted the Pehmerga command centre in Salaymaniyah, Iraq, according to IRNA.

Market Snapshot

Authored by Greg Marasca via AmericanThinker.com,

Memorial Day compels Americans to confront a word we avoid: debt.

Not the financial kind that Congress pretends will magically resolve itself, but the older, heavier meaning — the kind carved into headstones at Arlington and cemeteries across the country.

It is the debt paid in full by those who gave their lives, so the rest of us could live free.

No interest rate can measure it. No budget line can contain it. It is final, irrevocable, and sacred.

Every year, we pause, as we should, to acknowledge that liberty is no accident. Its purchase price is steep. Many stood a post, walked point, climbed into a cockpit, or sailed into hostile waters so that we could enjoy the ordinary luxuries of American life: arguing about politics, grilling in the backyard, complaining about work, raising families in relative peace. The fallen paid the ultimate debt, while the rest of us live on the dividends of their courage.

There remains another debt that all Americans must face, one far less noble and far more self-inflicted: the national debt that at $39 trillion is growing faster than the economy and its current path is unsustainable with interest payments amounting to $1 trillion a year — a figure most cannot comprehend.

Unlike the solemn debt honored on Memorial Day, this one grows not from sacrifice but from avoidance, avarice and unaccountability. It is the bill we keep pushing onto future generations because those elected lack the discipline and forbearance to make the difficult choices.

The contrast is stark.

On one side are the young Americans who never hesitated when their country asked for everything. On the other, a political culture that bemoans over the smallest act of fiscal restraint. The fallen gave their lives, while Washington can’t forego a spending increase.

Memorial Day reminds us that debts must be paid.

The laws of economics will not suspend themselves out of patriotic courtesy. We borrow to fund today’s comforts while expecting tomorrow’s citizens, many of whom are not yet born, to pay the bill.

Imagine explaining this to a Marine who never made it home from Fallujah or a soldier who fell in the Korengal Valley. They understood duty in its rawest form. They lived by the credo that you don’t hand your problems over to the next guy.  You handle them.  You carry your weight.  You complete the mission.

The contrast is telling and that is the point.

Memorial Day should not be reduced to a political talking point; rather it should remind us of the standards we once held. The men and women we honor this day lived with a clarity of purpose that our national budget sorely lacks. They understood that freedom requires responsibility. They knew that choices have consequences. They accepted that service is putting the country’s needs ahead of one’s personal initiatives.

If we truly want to honor their memory, we can start by adopting even a fraction of that discipline. We can demand leaders who treat the national debt as a real threat, not a distant abstraction. We can stop pretending that borrowing without limit is a harmless national pastime. And we can remember that the freedoms secured by the fallen are weakened when the nation they died for is weighed down by obligations it cannot meet.

The debt paid by America’s fallen is unpayable, but it is not unteachable. It is written in sacrifice, in folded flags, in names etched into stone.

One debt was paid in blood. The other is being charged to our children. 

And if we forget the difference, then we have learned nothing from those who paid the first.

In their first direct contact since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron telephoned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to warn him against increasing his country’s engagement in the war, according to sources who spoke to AFP.  

“[Macron] highlighted the risks Belarus will face if dragged into the war in Ukraine. He also called on Lukashenko to take necessary measures to improve relations between Belarus and Europe,” a source told AFP. Lukashenko let Russia use Belarus as a staging area for the 2022 invasion, and has continued to let Russia launch missile and drone strikes from Belarus over the more than three years of war. 

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia might be preparing to open a new front in the war, striking northern Ukraine and Kiev with heightened involvement of the Belarusian military. Zelensky’s warning came after Belarus announced its participation in three days of massive nuclear drills with Russia. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the exercise involved 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The drills focused on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression,” it said.

Ukraine’s Border Guard Service, however, said they haven’t observed signs of Russian or Belarusian troops massing on the frontier — yet. “If we talk about the line of our border, then, fortunately, as of this moment, we do not record any movement of equipment, weapons, or personnel in the immediate vicinity of our border or such accumulation,” said a spokesman. He did claim that intelligence shows Putin has been increasing pressure on Lukashenko to join the war.  

Amid the mounting tension, Lukashenko last week offered his availability for a meeting with Zelensky. “If (Zelensky) wants to discuss something, seek advice, or anything else, please do. We are open to it,” Lukashenka said. “I am ready to meet with him anywhere – in Ukraine, in Belarus – and discuss the problems of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations.” Lukashenko also dismissed the idea that Belarus would directly join Russia’s war, saying that wouldn’t happen unless “aggression is committed against (Belarusian) territory.”

🇺🇦🇷🇺 FIRST TIME RECORDED: Up-close sounds of Russian Oreshnik IRBM warheads falling down … eerie pic.twitter.com/ZfEblDeqy1

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) May 24, 2026

Russia’s Belarus-based arsenal includes the Oreshnik — Russia’s nuclear-capable, hypersonic, intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM). Over Saturday night, Russia made rare use of the cutting-edge Oreshnik missiles in a spectacular assault on Kiev and nearby territory. The attack made good on Putin’s vow to avenge a Ukrainian strike that hit a secondary-school dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk oblast, killing at least 18 people. Belarus announced the deployment of Oreshniks on its territory in late December.   

Macron initiated Sunday’s call. Their last phone conversation came on Feb 26, 2022, just two days after the Russian army launched its so-called “special military operation” aimed at cleaving Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region from the country. 

Asian and European equities climbed on Monday, while U.S. equity futures jumped and Brent crude fell, as signs of a possible U.S.-Iran deal boosted risk appetite. To note, the U.S. is on holiday.

Both sides appear to be moving closer to ending the three-month conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. However, overnight comments from senior Iranian officials suggest gaps remain, particularly over the future of Iran’s nuclear program and uranium enrichment.

“It is true that a consensus was reached on many of the topics discussed, but no one can claim that the signing of an agreement is imminent,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters in response to a question on the progress in negotiations.

According to Baghaei, “It is fair to say that we have reached understandings on many issues, but whether this means an agreement is imminent is something no one can claim at this stage.” #US #Iran https://t.co/sQhizVBYBl

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 25, 2026

Earlier today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump team had expected more details on progress in the US-Iran deal and may still have an update soon.

“We thought we might have some news last night. Maybe today,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi during his multi-day visit to India.

President Trump on Sunday said, “Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one. They must understand, however, that they cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb.”

Trump added that the US naval blockade of the Hormuz maritime chokepoint would remain in place until a peace deal is signed and that both sides must take their time to “get it right.”

Al Jazeera quoted Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, which said Iran will discuss its nuclear program with U.S. negotiators once the Trump team fulfills its commitments under a potential MOU being negotiated.

BREAKING: Iran says it would discuss its nuclear programme with the US if Washington fulfils its commitments under a potential MOU being negotiated, a senior diplomat told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

🔴 More on https://t.co/5H0QqpfIYw pic.twitter.com/5xAZohOx5W

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) May 25, 2026

Bloomberg noted that major gaps remain in the peace talks:

Still, the broad agreement described by US officials does not address Iran’s missile stockpile nor does it contain an explicit ban on uranium enrichment — two of Trump’s most important goals.

Latest headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

US-Iran Deal Progress

• The US and Iran are closing in on a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to senior US officials on Sunday

• Trump said on Truth Social that negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, but the US will not rush into a deal

• Iran’s Foreign Ministry said consensus was reached on many topics but no one can claim that signing an agreement is imminent

• Trump stated the deal will either be great and meaningful or there won’t be a deal, calling it the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster

• Pakistan has been serving as a mediator in the talks between the US and Iran over several weeks

Market Reaction

• Oil prices plunged more than 5% with WTI crude falling to around $91 and Brent dropping below $98 a barrel on deal optimism

• US stock futures rose with S&P 500 futures climbing 0.9% and Nasdaq 100 contracts jumping 1.4%

• Japan’s Topix hit an all-time high closing at 3,942.57 and the Nikkei advanced 2.9% to a record 65,158.19

• European natural gas dropped as much as 6.7% on optimism about the potential deal

Wall Street Commentary

• UBS analyst George Redman: Watch Out For Holiday-Thinned Liquidity And Exaggerated Moves

Eurostoxx is up 1% to start the week as markets lean into a tentative risk-on tone after weekend reports that a US-Iran MoU to end hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin a further negotiation window is now “largely negotiated”. It however feels more like relief than resolution since Tehran has yet to formally approve the deal and sticking points remain around the nuclear issue, Hormuz tolling and frozen assets. US President Donald Trump later said “time is on our side”.

Asia has broadly validated the positive tone, with Nikkei making all-time highs, led by AI, Taiwan, Australia, and mainland China higher. The SPX is firmer, oil down 5.6% with WTI at $91.1 and Brent $98 as crude risk premium unwinds, and FX shows a softer US dollar versus majors alongside gains in AUD, NZD and regional risk proxies. JGBs and Aussie bonds bull flattened in holiday impaired trade. The market is taking comfort from signs of improving tanker movement through Hormuz, but the full normalisation of shipping, insurance and physical crude flows will likely take time given bottlenecks, damaged infrastructure, and security concerns, so Europe should trade better but still with anticipation of delays / lagging effects.

With the US, UK, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland closed, liquidity will be thin and price action may be exaggerated, while the bigger macro constraint remains rates. Sticky US PCE, rising public and hyperscaler debt, AI-led capex inflation despite future deflation promises and increasingly hawkish ECB rhetoric mean rates may not fall as aggressively as hoped until the energy shock fades durably. US PCE, central bank commentary and mega-cap tech capex updates provide cleaner confirmation.

Strait of Hormuz

• Iran is charging ships fees for navigation services when transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei

• Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has been quietly ferrying oil and gas shipments through Hormuz using dark transits with transponders switched off

• A supertanker with Iraqi crude crossed the US blockade line into the Arabian Sea carrying about 2 million barrels to China

• Three LNG tankers from Qatar and UAE appear to have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in recent days to reach key buyers

Regional Impact

• Saudi Arabia is scoring billions in added oil revenue and building trading hub ambitions during the Iran war

• China’s Xi Jinping thanked Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif for mediating in the Iran conflict during their Monday meeting in Beijing

• Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei faces a momentous decision over whether to accept an interim peace deal with the US

Charting Markets Reactions 

Brent Crude Futs

S&P500 Futs

Global Equity Futs

Polymarket: Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of May?

Polymarket: US x Iran permanent peace deal by…?

Nothing says “no deal” quite like a future promise to keep talking. 

Authored by Micah Zimmerman via Bitcoin Magazine,

The Securities and Exchange Commission has pumped the brakes on its highly anticipated “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks, pushing back the release of the framework as it weighs input from traditional stock exchanges and other market participants wary of the plan’s sweeping implications, according to Bloomberg reporting.

The SEC, under Chair Paul Atkins, was preparing to release the so-called innovation exemption as soon as this week.

The framework would create a new regulatory pathway allowing digital tokens linked to publicly traded company shares to trade on decentralized crypto platforms — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — bypassing the constraints of traditional stock exchanges. 

The exemption is part of Atkins’ broader “Project Crypto” initiative, which aims to relax existing crypto restrictions in line with the Trump administration’s pro-crypto agenda.

The SEC was reportedly leaning toward permitting third-party tokens — digital representations of stocks like Apple, Nvidia, or Tesla — to be issued and traded without the consent of the underlying public companies. 

This means outside actors, not the issuers themselves, could create blockchain-based wrappers tracking a company’s share price and list them on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

These tokens may not carry traditional shareholder rights like voting or dividends, though the SEC is reportedly considering requiring platforms to provide those rights or risk delisting.

Why the SEC is delaying

The timing of the exemption’s release has been pushed back as the agency weighs feedback from stock-exchange officials and other market participants who met with SEC staff in recent days. 

The World Federation of Exchanges — whose members include Nasdaq, Cboe, and CME Group — previously warned the SEC in a November 2025 letter that such exemptions could “dilute” existing investor protections and “distort” competition by giving crypto exchanges a regulatory shortcut unavailable to traditional markets. 

The group cautioned that granting legitimacy to tokenized stocks before full compliance implementation would “undoubtedly have negative — potentially acute — consequences” for U.S. markets.

The tokenization debate is unfolding against a backdrop of competing visions for the future of U.S. equity markets. Nasdaq, which received SEC approval in March 2026 for its own tokenized securities proposal, is pursuing a different model: one that keeps all trades on-exchange with full shareholder rights intact, built on the DTCC’s enterprise blockchain. 

The innovation exemption, by contrast, would sanction a parallel, crypto-native market running alongside the existing system — potentially fragmenting liquidity across dozens of third-party token issuers for the same underlying stock.

In 1909, New York’s Metropolitan Life Tower became the tallest building in the world at 700 feet. Just over a century later, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa reached 2,717 feet, nearly four times taller.

This timeline, via Visual Capitalist’s Gabriel Cohen, shows every building to hold the title of world’s tallest since 1909, using the most recent data available from the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU).

Per CVU methodology, buildings must include floors, excluding structures such as Toronto’s CN Tower and the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Heights are measured to the architectural top, including spires but excluding detachable antennae, flagpoles, or signs.

New York’s Skyscraper Boom

For most of the 20th century, the U.S. housed the world’s tallest building. New York in particular held the crown, with the Big Apple producing back-to-back skyscraper marvels from 1909 to 1972.

The Metropolitan Life Tower, constructed in New York’s Flatiron District, topped out at 700 feet in 1909. Within a few years, it would be surpassed by Tribeca’s Woolworth Building (792 feet), which itself lost the title by the late 1920s with the arrival of the Art Deco icon known as the Chrysler Building (1,046 feet).

The table below lists the world’s tallest buildings between 1909 and 2026.

The Chrysler Building, found in East Midtown, opened in 1930 as the world’s first supertall skyscraper. At the time, developers were racing to build the world’s tallest building, and the Chrysler Building famously beat rival 40 Wall Street by secretly assembling a 125-foot spire inside the tower before raising it into place after 40 Wall Street was completed.

The Chrysler Building’s victory was short-lived. In 1931, the Empire State Building (1,250 feet) opened and promptly became the world’s tallest building by a significant margin. However, Depression-era economic slowdowns caused abysmal tenancy rates in the new supertall skyscraper, which was popularly derided as the “Empty State Building” in the mid-1930s.

The Twin Towers and Chicago’s Resurgence

The Empire State Building maintained its position until the completion of the Twin Towers in New York’s Financial District in 1972. At that time, One World Trade Center, commonly known as the North Tower, took the title at over 1,368 feet, standing a few feet taller than its South Tower counterpart. The two towers would eventually be destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001.

Chicago, the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, reemerged as a dominant player in tall buildings with the 1974 opening of the Sears Tower (1,451 feet), named for the retailer headquartered there. The building held the title of world’s tallest for nearly a quarter-century, although it was renamed in the 2000s after British insurance broker Willis Group Holdings.

In the late 1990s, the Petronas Towers opened in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur at 1,483 feet, marking the first time in decades that the world’s tallest building was not located in the United States. Similar to the Chrysler Building nearly 70 years earlier, the Petronas Towers’ spires made the difference, much to Chicagoans’ dismay.

How Asia Took Over the Skyscraper Race

Since the Petronas Towers, the world’s tallest building has remained in Asia, albeit in different regions. TAIPEI 101, in the Taiwanese capital, held the title following its completion in 2004 at 1,667 feet. A few years later, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa opened at a staggering 2,717 feet tall.

The Burj Khalifa is over 60% taller than TAIPEI 101 and nearly four times taller than the Metropolitan Life Tower, which opened a century earlier. Its long reign as the world’s tallest building could come to an end in the coming years, however, as another Middle Eastern tower nears completion in nearby Saudi Arabia.

The Jeddah Tower, which will be the world’s first building to surpass one kilometer in height, is projected to open as early as 2028. Construction began in 2013 but has been plagued by delays and pauses, only passing the 100th floor as of April 2026. When completed, this megatall skyscraper is expected to stand at 3,300 feet, making it over 500 feet taller than the Burj Khalifa.

Where are the world’s tallest buildings concentrated today? Find out with The World’s Tallest Buildings in 2024 on Voronoi.

Authored by Andrew Widburg via AmericanThinker.com,

Immediately before WWII, the biggest threat to Europe was Soviet socialism.

During WWII, the biggest threat was the open socialism (in the form of fascism) in Germany and Italy.

After WWII, during the Cold War, the biggest threat, once again, was Soviet socialism. Nevertheless, the post-war Europeans embraced socialism and touted its success, never realizing that it worked only because the U.S. paid their defense costs and absorbed the costs of wars around the world.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, and America’s defense spending waned, the true costs of socialism began to be clear: The economies became sluggish; the birthrates collapsed, necessitating importing third world, usually Muslim, labor; the social services started imploding, especially because those same third worlders drained the systems, despite never having contributed to them; soft on crime policies destroyed civilized society; and the brain rot of socialism saw Europe embrace the madcap, self-destructive idea of Net Zero carbon output, which has seen Europe retreat from the modern world into a cold, dark, pre-modern time.

All of this is what today’s Marxist Democrats want for America.

Democrats have always revered Europe. For decades, they’ve made nasty jokes about “flyover country,” referring to those parts of America that haven’t embraced European sophistication as parochial hicks. Obama summed it up with his “bitter clingers” remark, Hillary called the same people “a basket of deplorables,” and Joe Biden routinely berated Trump voters as dangerous idiots (a compliment the same voters would have returned to Biden himself).

When Democrats talk about socializing medicine, they point to Europe, a place where the cost of medical care is diffused through the tax base. England, with its National Healthcare System, shows that socialized medicine really isn’t what the Democrats think it is. In England, the patients get killed, the government endlessly debates ending medical care for old people, wait times are endless, and the patients and staff (see here, too) are at the mercy of government-mandated political correctness.

Overall, outcomes are not good. And as Canada shows, because the system has no innovation and no wealth incentives, euthanasia becomes not just one of many options, but a preferred option.

Democrats also look to Europe for its (in their view) admirable climate policies. But most of all, they love Europe’s open-border policies. Since 2015, Europe (including the UK) has thrown open its borders to the world’s Muslims.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Visegrád24 (@visegrad.24)

That chart, by the way, is accurate. I checked. Also, those immigrants are expensive, costing Germans around 40-50 billion Euros (around $45-57 billion) annually. The German economy is about 80-85 percent smaller than America’s.

In Belgium, “Great Replacement fears in Belgium: 56% of Flemings are afraid they are being slowly replaced by foreigners.” Considering that almost 73% of people under 18 in Belgium have immigrant backgrounds, I’d say the Flemings are correct. In one generation, Belgium will be a Muslim country.

Data show that Muslim immigration dramatically increases crime in once-low-crime European nations:

Denmark is one of the rare European countries to publish crime data by country of origin.

Somalis top the list when it comes to rapes, fraud, forgeries and grievous assaults.

Palestinians lead in burglaries, blackmail and theft.

Data: Statistics Denmark (STRAFNA4, FOLK1C),… pic.twitter.com/AJ91a2eL5p

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 23, 2026

The immigrants that commit the most crime are also the costliest for the taxpayers. pic.twitter.com/9RXuA4ELkk

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) May 23, 2026

If you want to see some of those criminal behaviors in action, there are a bazillion videos such as these available on X, everything from violent crime to revolting food hygiene:

Denmark is one of the rare European countries to publish crime data by country of origin.

Somalis top the list when it comes to rapes, fraud, forgeries and grievous assaults.

Palestinians lead in burglaries, blackmail and theft.

Data: Statistics Denmark (STRAFNA4, FOLK1C),… pic.twitter.com/AJ91a2eL5p

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 23, 2026

The immigrants that commit the most crime are also the costliest for the taxpayers. pic.twitter.com/9RXuA4ELkk

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) May 23, 2026

If you want to see some of those criminal behaviors in action, there are a bazillion videos such as these available on X, everything from violent crime to revolting food hygiene:

Meanwhile, in the UK, PM Starmer’s government has proudly announced that net migration decreased by 171,000 last year, besting the so-called “Conservatives”:

Net migration down 82%.

Net migration is now at 171,000, down from a high of 944,000 under the Conservatives.

This Government is restoring order and control to our borders. pic.twitter.com/ERo3QujQMD

— Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) May 21, 2026

That’s nice, except for what that boast doesn’t say:

In the year ending December 2025, the total number of people immigrating to Britain stood at 813,000. For comparison, this figure is around two-thirds of the population of the U.K.’s second-largest city, Birmingham.

That figure comprises 110,000 British nationals returning to the U.K., and 76,000 EU citizens. By far the largest contingent of immigrants was from non-EU countries, accounting for 627,000 arrivals.

The 171,000 figure is also largely offset by emigration — nearly a quarter of a million (246,000) British nationals left the country, while 118,000 EU nationals and 278,000 non-EU nationals also packed their bags.

Total emigration of 642,000 was marginally down on the 680,000 recorded the previous year.

So, while the headline figure looks impressive, that is still a considerable decline in British nationals — down a net figure of 136,000 — effectively being replaced by largely non-EU immigrants. A total of 138,000 Indians, 56,000 Pakistanis, 54,000 Chinese, and 47,000 Nigerian nationals arrived.

There’s one other quality-of-life problem with third-world, mostly-Muslim immigration, which is that doctors who arrive from Muslim-majority countries and are hired in their socialized medicine systems have problems adapting—and the patients suffer. In Britain, Muslims are over-represented as doctors relative to their numbers in the greater population, and there are problems as a result, especially around hygiene, males treating females and vice versa, moving beds to face Mecca, and all sorts of other things (and that’s an old report, before the energy really got behind accommodating Islam).

And of course, it’s not just in the UK; it’s everywhere:

The Perils of Foreign, Especially Muslim, Doctors in Europe
by Hugh Fitzgerald

In Germany, there is a shortage of doctors, and an influx of foreign doctors has not solved that problem but instead, has led to poorly trained doctors harming, and in some cases, killing, their… pic.twitter.com/H828BfnnT8

— Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) May 21, 2026

Here’s another example of the products of medical schools in the Muslim world.

My question for you is, do you want America to go down this road? If yes, vote Democrat. If no, even if you’re feeling piqued about this or that thing that Donald Trump has done, you’d still better vote MAGA.

About 70% of all wrench attacks, physical attacks against crypto holders and their families, carried out in an attempt to steal digital assets, occur in France, according to Bitcoin journalist Joe Nakamoto. 

There have been 41 crypto-related kidnappings in France so far in 2026, Nakamoto said, or about one attack every two and a half days, he added. 

As CoinTelegraph’s Vince Quill reports, Nakamoto attributed the rise in wrench attacks to know-your-customer data collection, which is stored in centralized servers that were compromised in several high-profile data leaks, including the 2020 leak of hardware wallet provider Ledger’s customer data.

That data leak disclosed the identities, home addresses and emails of more than 270,000 customers worldwide, he added. Jameson Lopp, the CEO of crypto wallet and key management company Casa, said:

“France is the canary in the coal mine, demonstrating how financial regulations create a surveillance apparatus that causes direct harm to bitcoin holders.”

An overview of wrench attacks in France so far in 2026. Source: Joe Nakamoto

Opposition to know-your-customer data collection is mounting inside the crypto and Bitcoin communities, as digital asset holders continue to be targeted with physical attacks and kidnappings, prompting a need for increased security measures.

Don’t become a target: Bitcoiners offer advice to safeguard against attacks

The attacks are typically orchestrated by criminals living abroad, who contract young people living in France to carry out the physical attacks, Nakamoto said.

Users can stay safe by using crypto custody services that offer security features like a pre-agreed-upon word or phrase that lets a custodial or key management company know the holder is being actively attacked.

A database of known wrench attacks. Source: GitHub

The company can then freeze the assets, making sure they are not accessed by the attackers, and can even alert law enforcement authorities, he said.

He also suggested keeping a “decoy” crypto wallet with a small amount of funds to hand over to criminals in the event of an attack. 

Finally, crypto holders should keep a low profile and not discuss crypto topics online or make it public knowledge that they hold digital assets, he added.

At least 88 individuals have been arrested in connection with crypto wrench attacks in France, according to Vanessa Perrée, the country’s national prosecutor for organized crime.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Foreign companies are continuing to shy away from investing in Germany, with the number of new projects falling last year to its lowest level since 2009, representing an eighth consecutive annual decline.

An analysis by the auditing and consulting firm EY, reported by the German Press Agency, found that foreign investors announced 548 new projects in Germany in 2025. That was 10 percent fewer than the year before.

Henrik Ahlers, the head of EY in Germany, said the figures were a “warning sign for Germany as a business location. Germany is falling behind, and other European locations are developing significantly better.”

He said Germany has talked for years about the need for reform, but has done too little, while other countries have made government services more digital, simplified their tax systems, and made it easier for companies to do business.

“In Germany, high taxes, high labor costs, expensive energy, and at the same time, paralyzing bureaucracy are stifling investment,” Ahlers noted.

“Germany’s inability to reform has now become known worldwide. Unfortunately, little remains of its image as a strong, high-quality location and an economic rock in turbulent times,” he added.

The fall in investment comes at a difficult time for the German economy. Last month, the Halle Institute for Economic Research said company bankruptcies in Germany had reached their highest level since 2005.

The institute recorded 4,573 bankruptcies among partnerships and corporations in the first three months of the year. That was higher than the level seen during the 2009 financial crisis.

The last time the figure was higher was in the third quarter of 2005, when 4,771 bankruptcies were recorded.

The rise was especially sharp in March, when bankruptcies were 71 percent above the average for the same month between 2016 and 2019.

Germany’s industrial sector is also under pressure. A Reuters report last August said 245,500 industrial jobs had been lost in Germany since 2019, before the coronavirus crisis.

Volkswagen has become one of the clearest examples of the problems facing German industry. The carmaker plans to cut around 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 after reporting a sharp fall in profits.

Its net profit fell 44 percent in 2025 to €6.9 billion, the lowest level since the fallout from the emissions scandal. Revenue was almost unchanged at just under €322 billion, while global deliveries slipped slightly to just under 9 million vehicles.

Volkswagen blamed the fall in profit on problems at Porsche AG, U.S. import tariffs, and the cost of restructuring the business. Porsche’s operating profit fell from more than €5 billion to just €90 million in a year.

Volkswagen finance chief Arno Antlitz said the company’s current level of profit was not good enough, explaining the drop had been “shaped by geopolitical tensions, tariffs, and intense competitive pressure” but noting that the company’s current operating margin was “not sufficient in the long run.”

Across wider Europe, EY said foreign investors announced 5,026 new projects last year, down 7 percent from the year before.

France remained in first place with 852 projects, followed by the United Kingdom with 730. Germany was third.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said the figures showed that international confidence in Germany was falling.

“The world is losing trust: Foreign companies are investing less and less in Germany,” she wrote on X. “In 2025, the number of investments fell by 10% to the lowest level since 2009. Germany can no longer afford the reform refusal of the Black-Red coalition!”

Read more here…

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Until then, it’s open season on all of us…

Reports last week confirmed that former special counsel Jack Smith “secretly arranged” to preserve evidence in his criminal cases against President Trump in order to maintain the threat of future prosecution once the president leaves office.  This is not a big surprise.  

Democrats have thrown every civic norm out the window in their ruthless efforts to target Trump’s businesses and send him to prison for life.

In his quest to imprison an American president, Jack Smith accused Trump of engaging in a conspiracy to “overthrow” the 2020 election, as well as retaining possession of classified documents after leaving the White House.  Both allegations are ridiculous, and Smith’s own words make him sound like a lawfare hitman and anti-MAGA zealot.  He told members of Congress in January, “Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, it was foreseeable to him, and that he sought to exploit the violence.” 

 Smith stated emphatically that Trump committed “serious crimes.”

Serious crimes?  You mean like using the FBI to spy on all the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2015 and 2016?  Oh right, that was President Obama.  Or fabricating intelligence in order to justify a counterintelligence operation against candidate Trump?  Oh, that was Obama’s corrupt CIA director, John Brennan.  Or paying British Intelligence operatives to manufacture a fake “Russia collusion” dossier implicating Trump?  Oh, that was Hillary Clinton.  Or using the FBI and CIA to frame President Trump as a Russian spy?  Oh, that was Obama and Clinton, too.  Or sabotaging President Trump’s administration by using a Democrat spy on the National Intelligence Council to construct a false story about an innocuous phone call in order to trigger a bogus impeachment?  Oh, that was Intelligence Community Democrats attempting to hide Joe Biden’s corruption in Ukraine by, again, framing President Trump for a quid-pro-quo “crime” he never committed.  Or submitting fraudulent documents to the FISA Court in order to maintain spying operations against President Trump?  Oh, that was corrupt James Comey, corrupt Robert Mueller, corrupt Andrew Weissmann, corrupt Norm Eisen, corrupt Mary McCord, and their Democrat accomplices in the FBI and DOJ who covered up Obama’s illegal spying operations while framing President Trump as a criminal, spy, and traitor.

Listening to Jack Smith call President Trump a “serious” criminal sounds ridiculous when serious criminals Obama, Clinton, Brennan, Comey, and legions of their Democrat colleagues, subordinates, and co-conspirators in the DOJ, FBI, CIA, D.C. courts, and FISA Court (see Judge James Boasberg’s impeachable offenses) have never been properly investigated or punished for undermining President Trump’s election, sabotaging his administration, and framing him for treason.  The most powerful Democrats in the country organized a coup d’état in broad daylight and dragged the country through a barbed-wire field of partisan propaganda for the last ten years, and Jack Smith wants Americans to be upset that President Trump retained documents that he was entitled to possess?  It’s just such lunacy.  The constant gaslighting from D.C. operatives is equally infuriating and exhausting.

Glossing over the Democrats’ monstrous Russia Collusion Hoax, their relentless efforts to subvert the Trump-led government, and their continuing obsession with tossing the president in prison for imaginary crimes is bad enough, but Jack Smith does what all Democrats do: He pretends that the January 6, 2021, protest for election integrity was an attempt by Trump and his supporters to overthrow the government.  This lie is so brazen that it’s astonishing how Democrats can keep telling it with straight faces.

The people who showed up at the Capitol that day had one objective: to express their strong belief that mail-in-ballot fraud, violations of multiple states’ electoral statutes, and numerous voting discrepancies had tainted the 2020 election.  Several senators intended to make these very arguments before the certification of the election’s results.  The people who gathered outside the Capitol were exercising their First Amendment right to assemble peaceably.  They were unarmed.  Most had no criminal records.  A large number had served their country in various capacities.  Most who entered the Capitol walked around as tourists, took pictures, interacted in a friendly manner with Capitol Police, and posed no threat to anyone.

Only after law enforcement officers chose to fire flash-bang grenades on the assembled crowd did a section of the protest turn into something that could be described as a riot.  Trump supporters — not police officers — died on January 6.  Ordinary Americans exercising their constitutional rights were thrown into a state of fear of being hurt or killed.

Nevertheless, Smith continues to propagate the lie that the three-hour event at the Capitol was somehow the greatest threat to the country since 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War (real comparisons that Democrat propagandists continue to make).  Smith and his fellow Democrats desperately wish for Americans to believe that a hot-chocolate-drinking gathering of grandparents, revelers, and veterans was somehow going to topple the government of the United States.  If a crowd of retirees is capable of overrunning Washington, what’s the point of a trillion-dollar military budget?

Smith’s perpetuation of the Democrats’ J6 propaganda is bad enough, but the fact that he treats that day as equivalent to the Civil War is all the more preposterous given that Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their fellow Democrats openly encouraged Black Lives Matter domestic terrorists to burn down neighborhoods, loot businesses, and murder civilians throughout the summer of 2020.  If President Trump “caused Jan. 6” and the events of that day were “foreseeable” to him, then the violence and mayhem of 2020’s so-called “summer of love” were certainly foreseeable to Democrats.  The BLM riots of 2020 were the most costly in American history, and Vice President Harris encouraged Democrats to donate money to a bail fund that put arsonists, rapists, and murderers back on the street.

Were the Democrat-organized riots of 2020 “foreseeable”?  

Of course.  

Did prominent Democrats “exploit the violence,” as Smith accuses Trump of doing with January 6?  

They absolutely did. 

Biden and Harris ran for the White House on the message that the violence would end once they were elected.  

Will preening, self-righteous Jack Smith investigate, harass, arrest, or prosecute any of these Democrats?  Of course not.  Will Democrat rioters be tossed into pre-trial solitary confinement and refused bail by partisan prosecutors and judges?  Definitely not.  To this day, Democrats celebrate BLM and Antifa domestic terrorists as champions for civil rights.  When Democrats burn cities to the ground, the arsonists get statues.  When MAGA Americans protest for free and fair voting, they are condemned for crimes they never committed.

Unfortunately, this is how leftists all over the world now operate.  

Brazil’s communist President Lula has imprisoned his predecessor, President Bolsonaro, for supposedly trying to overthrow the government.  French President Macron has permitted his political opposition, Marine Le Pen, to be prosecuted and convicted for similarly bogus “embezzlement” crimes.  Germany has flirted with designating the popular anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany, a “terrorist” organization and banning its candidates from running for office.  When the “wrong” candidate won Romania’s presidential election eighteen months ago, the country’s Constitutional Court annulled the outcome by blaming “Russian interference.”

If President Trump hadn’t possessed the financial resources and sheer grit to face down the onslaught of malicious and meritless prosecutions against him, he would likely be in a courtroom or a prison today.  If he hadn’t been re-elected a third time, January 6 defendants would still be awaiting trial or serving time in prison for an imaginary “insurrection.”

Screw Jack Smith.  He’s no lawman, and he has no principles.  He’s nothing but a corrupt propagandist, partisan hack, and lawfare assassin.

Nothing will change until prominent Democrats are prosecuted and convicted for their crimes.  Until then, it’s open season on all of us.

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