It also showcases the share of internal combustion engine (ICE) sales vs. hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) sales for each car brand.
Volkswagen Group Leads European Car Sales
Volkswagen Group remains Europe’s top car seller, with over 1.8 million units sold in the first half of 2025, as seen in the data table below.
While still heavily reliant on combustion engines (72% of sales), Volkswagen has steadily increased its electric offerings, which now represent 28% of sales.
Volkswagen maintains a significant lead over Stellantis, the second-largest car brand with 1.04 million units sold in H1 2025. Stellantis has the highest share of combustion cars sold among the top 10 car brands at 83%, with just 17% of sales coming from EVs or hybrid vehicles.
Europe’s Emerging Car Brand Competitors
Renault Group (704,023) and Hyundai Motor Group (540,917) were third and fourth respectively, with both of them having 43% of their sales coming from hybrids or EVs.
Premium brands like BMW group (40% electrified) and Mercedes-Benz (34%) are also rapidly transitioning towards more electric and hybrid offerings.
Meanwhile, Chinese-owned Geely Group (with 67% of sales EV or hybrid) is gaining ground in Europe with competitive EV offerings and ranked ninth in total sales with 202,230 just ahead of Nissan (165,645) and behind Ford (257,337).
Toyota’s Electrification Edge in Europe
Toyota ranks sixth with nearly 479,000 cars sold but stands out for its electrification strategy.
A remarkable 86% of its European sales were hybrids or EVs, the highest share of any top automaker. Toyota’s strong hybrid lineup and growing adoption of electrified models in Europe has helped it compete against larger-volume and domestic brands.
To learn more about EV adoption around the world, check out this chart on global EV adoption over time on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
Former MMA champion Conor McGregor has urged his online supporters to pressure local councillors into nominating him as a candidate for the Irish presidency.
In a video filmed outside Government Buildings in Dublin, McGregor attacked the government over homelessness, migration, and security.
“We have seen the homelessness of Irish children rise to levels unprecedented, proving this government’s refusal to abide by and respect our proclamation where all children of Irish are to be cherished. Instead, our children abandoned,” he said.
He also claimed tourism had declined and “danger on our streets has risen” as a result of mass immigration.
Citizens of Ireland, the time for real change is now!
As President, I will not sign any bill in law until it goes back to the people first!
If you want to see my name on the ballot for the Presidency, I urge you to contact your local county councillors today and ask them to… pic.twitter.com/LGDCSGN9vr
Describing himself as a “master of martial combat” and a “solution-driven man,” McGregor called on his followers to contact councillors.
“If you want to see my name on the ballot for the presidency, I urge you to contact your local county councillors today and ask them to nominate me,” he said.
“Our councillors are the backbone of our communities. They work harder and deliver more for the people than those in the Oireachtas, who continue to fail this country time and again.”
He told supporters he wanted to be “a president face to face with government officials with only one priority — to ensure that the country our founding fathers gave their lives for is strictly adhered to on behalf of its citizens.”
He tied his message to Ireland’s republican tradition, invoking the 1916 Proclamation.
“Ireland, under my tenure, the will of the people will be heard. Ireland under my tenure, we will return important articles of our constitution prior, and thus again aligning with Padraig Pearse’s proclamation,” he said, referring to the revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising.
To run, a candidate must secure the backing of either four of the State’s 31 local authorities or 20 members of the Irish bicameral parliament.
McGregor’s plea suggests he is not confident about securing the latter, and is thus seeking the people to lobby their local councillors to get him on the ballot.
The Irish presidential election is scheduled to be held on Oct. 24.
Trump’s escalatory signals in Ukraine, the Indo-US split that he induced, and the attendant alleviation of the Sino-Indo security dilemma freed Russia up to clinch the long-negotiated Power of Siberia 2 deal…
Trump’s Eurasian grand strategy has sought to preemptively avert Russia’s potentially disproportionate dependence on China in order to avoid having its natural resources turbocharge the superpower trajectory of the US’ only systemic rival. In pursuit of this, the US envisaged entering into a resource-centric strategic partnership with Russia upon the end of the Ukrainian Conflict, expecting that this shared goal would incentivize Putin into agreeing to significant territorial and/or security concessions.
Trump’s unwillingness or inability to coerce Zelensky into any of Putin’s demanded concessions paired with increasinglyconcerningreports about plans to deploy NATO to Ukraine to spook Putin into ditching his balancing act and pivoting to China. The successful clinching of their long-negotiated deal over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which will nearly double Russia’s gas exports to China to ~100 bcm a year and at a cheaper price than the EU receives, signifies the failure of Trump’s Eurasian grand strategy.
Putin might have held out for longer had Trump not inadvertently catalyzed the incipient Sino-Indo rapprochement via his hypocritically punitive tariffs that aim to derail India’s rise as a Great Power. That spooked India into patching up its ties with China, which alleviated their security dilemma that the US was exploiting to divide-and-rule them. This in turn reduced India’s worries about closer Russian-Chinese energy cooperation that it previously feared could lead to Russia becoming China’s junior partner.
It was never officially voiced, but astute observers and those who’ve talked to Indian thinkers know that India was worried that China might leverage its influence over Russia to get it to curtail or cut off military exports to India, therefore giving China a pivotal edge in their border dispute. The Trump-induced Indo-US split and attendant alleviation of the Sino-Indo security dilemma freed Russia up to clinch the Power of Siberia 2 deal without fear of spooking India into the US’ arms and thus dividing-and-ruling Eurasia.
The growing convergence between BRICS and the SCO, which aim to gradually reform global governance via their complementary efforts to accelerate multipolar processes, is due in no small part to India’s embrace of both in response to new strategic threats from the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years to attend the SCO Leaders’ Summit, during which time he held an important bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping, is expected to lead to a new normal in Sino-Indo ties.
The roots of their tensions haven’t been resolved, but Russia expects that they’ll now be better managed, ergo why it clinched its deal with China over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline right after also concluding that the US won’t try to help it obtain any of what it wants from Ukraine. To review, Trump signaled escalatory intent in Ukraine reportedly as the quid pro quo for the US-EU trade deal and then Sino-Indo ties improved as Indo-US ones worsened, thus making Power of Siberia 2 politically possible.
Trump’s foreign policy towards Eurasia has therefore indisputably failed. His team’s misguided approach towards Russia and India in demanding too much of them led to those two and China working out their differences, which exist amongst themselves bilaterally but also regarding their ties with the US, and consequently accelerated multipolar processes at the expense of the US’ unipolar interests. The Rubicon has clearly been crossed after this latest pipeline deal and it’s anyone’s guess how the US will respond.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
The Mexica people ruled the Aztec Empire in the Valley of Mexico for its roughly 90-year duration between the 15th and 16th centuries. Mexica mythology tells of an intoxicated deity, Ometochtli, whose drink of choice was pulque. White and viscous, with a strong, yeasty odor of slightly spoiled buttermilk, pulque is produced through fermenting a sugary sap known as aguamiel, extracted from certain species of Agave plant. According to myth, the goddess Mayehuatzin, Ometochtli’s sister, provided the aguamiel and plied him with his favorite fermented booze.
While pulque is today little known outside of Mexico, it has deep roots in human history, tracing back 2,000 years in Mesoamerica. Researchers at the Escuela Superior de Medicina del Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City recently explored its longstanding significance in a paper published to the journal histories.
The Mexica may have been most fond of pulque, but the Teotihuacanos, Otomies, Zapotecas, Mixtecas, and Maya also consumed it. “Anthropological evidence, including pottery, murals, codices, chronicles, and oral cosmological traditions, suggests that this… alcoholic beverage was already part of the diet of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan,” the authors wrote. “Pulque is therefore one of the oldest, if not the most important, fermented beverages in Mesoamerican history.”
One of the reasons pulque is relatively overlooked compared to other fermented beverages, such as kombucha (originating in ancient China) and kefir (hailing from the North Caucasus), is its exceedingly brief shelf life. Naturally fermented in an enclosed container over 12 to 24 hours, it reaches an alcohol concentration comparable to beer – roughly 4 percent to 6 percent – then rapidly spoils over the next 24 to 36 hours.
Its transience made it a sacred drink and divine gift in ancient Mesoamerican cultures. “It was highly esteemed and reserved for the nobility and priesthood, who consumed it during ceremonial and religious rituals,” the researchers described.
Today, pulque’s transience makes it difficult to export and sell. While the Spanish conquistadors enjoyed it (and its intoxicating effects) after conquering the Aztecs, pulque over time fell out of favor compared to longer-lasting beer, tequila, and wine. European rulers also carried out a coordinated smear campaign against pulque in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“This anti-pulque campaign, orchestrated by political elites, stigmatized the drink, its producers, and its consumers, depicting it as unsanitary and associated with poverty, indigeneity, and illiteracy,” the authors wrote.
Currently enjoyed by locals and tourists in Mexico, pulque hasn’t found widespread fandom anywhere else. Pasteurized versions – which last for months – do exist, but food writers express that the experience isn’t remotely the same.
“It’s the original active fermented beverage which will simply go bad after a few days so it’s truly a locavore phenomenon,” Max Garrone wrote for Flaviar.
As for the flavor, award-winning food writer Naomi Tomky calls it “intriguingly zingy.”
“Natural or plain, pulque is an opaque milky color but fizzy and bright on the tongue. Sweet, but not cloying, lightly viscous but not slimy, and just ever-so-subtly yeasty, like the whiff of freshly risen bread dough hitting the oven.”
India Doubles Down On Russian Oil Purchases, As Trump Declares Both Are ‘Lost’ To ‘Deepest, Darkest China’
President Trump on Friday said India and Russia seem to have been “lost” to China following Modi and Putin having met with President Xi Jinping this week, amid the leaders hailing the forging ahead of a new multi-polar order which seeks to thwart a purely Washington-centric global system.
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media, with an accompanying a photo of the three leaders together at Xi’s summit in China.
This has been followed on Friday with India confirming that it will double down on Russian oil purchases, in defiance of US tariffs and threats.
“Where do we buy our oil from, especially since it’s a very expensive commodity, we pay a very high price for it and it’s the highest import, so we’ll have to decide what suits us best,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview.
She then emphasized somewhat defiantly, “We will definitely buy it.” On the same day, this development reported in Reuters will only serve to exacerbate tensions:
Top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), opens new tab skipped the purchase of U.S. oil in its latest tender and instead bought 2 million barrels of West African and a million barrels of Middle Eastern grade, trade sources said on Friday.
The state refiner also bought one million barrels each of Nigerian oil grades Agbami and Usan from French oil major TotalEnergy, and another million barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Das crude from Shell, the people said. Nigerian oil has been bought on free-on-board basis and Das has been purchsed on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in late October-early November. In its previous tender last week, IOC bought 5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate.
This comes amid Trump’s escalating trade war with New Delhi, but he now seems resigned to simply admit India has been “lost” to China and Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week hailed that India, among the largest economies on the planet, has not given in to US demands to stop purchasing its oil and other products.
A combined population of almost 3 billion…
“Such tariffs have already been introduced, for example, against India – our particularly privileged strategic partner, a major consumer of Russian goods, in particular, hydrocarbon raw materials,” the top Russian diplomat explained.
“We appreciate the fact that New Delhi did not bend under pressure and remains committed to the principles of free trade,” Lavrov stated.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday criticized the Trump administration’s decision to bomb a boat near Venezuela over claims that it was carrying drugs, an action that was taken without providing any evidence.
“It’s hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country,” Paul said in an appearance on Newsmax. “But at the same time, I guess, you might ask the question, ‘Where does it end? Are we the world’s policemen?”
The Kentucky senator said that US authorities wouldn’t bomb a boat if it were off the coast of the US and suspected of running drugs. “We all assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat. If they don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them,” he said.
Paul said that the “reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator?”
He added that in the US, even the “worst people” accused of terrible crimes are entitled to a trial.
President Trump claimed that the strike on the boat killed 11 people who were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the US government has labeled “narcoterrorists.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other US officials have said more strikes are coming and are not ruling out the possibility of pursuing regime change in Venezuela, which may be the real purpose of the deployment of multiple US Navy warships to the Southern Caribbean.
Rand Paul: “The reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator? … off our coast it isn’t our policy just to blow people up … even the worst people in our country, if we… pic.twitter.com/UpKVFAy5XU
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied the US accusations that he’s involved in drug trafficking and is vowing to fight if the US attacks his country.
Other Venezuelan officials have downplayed the US strike on the boat, claiming that the video Trump released purporting to show the bombing may have been a fake, AI-made video.
Clear thinking and effective decision-making skills are two pillars of personal and professional success. But it can sometimes be hard to know if you’re making the right call amid a sea of options. Or maybe too much information causes you to forgo a decision, sometimes referred to as “analysis paralysis.” U.S. Air Force pilot Hasard Lee tackles these common problems and teaches us an easy-to-apply, well-rounded system full of effective solutions with his book, “The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions.” And as an experienced combat pilot and instructor, no one is better equipped to teach clear thinking and quick decision-making than Lee.
His book offers a contemporary approach to timeless wisdom. The nonfiction work incorporates practical tips and methods that are immediately applicable to a range of situations, from business decisions to everyday problems. But before Mr. Lee explains just how we can learn to think better, he first takes us into the high-speed professional life of a fighter pilot.
Author Hasard Lee. St. Martin’s Press
An Exhilarating Read
From dogfights during some of combat’s most hazardous conditions to training sessions as one of the Air Force’s most skilled pilots, Lee’s extensive experience flying the world’s most complex combat jets, including the F-16 and F-35, is highly impressive. Through his debut book, he helps readers see that the pressure and chaotic environments he’s lived through are highly relatable.
Several of the book’s chapters begin with anecdotes of some of Lee’s most high-stakes missions. These riveting, eye-opening stories offer a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like to be an Air Force fighter pilot in the U.S. military. And this unique author experience is what sets “The Art of Clear Thinking” apart from the rest.
He takes us back in time to some of history’s most historic battles, including the American military’s invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. As it turns out, this historic mission was supposed to happen the day before. However, Royal Air Force Captain and meteorologist James Stagg, who worked closely with President Eisenhower during the mission, noticed weather radar had picked up stormy conditions that would directly affect the operation. The high winds alone, making the sea especially choppy, would make it tough for landing craft to successfully reach Normandy’s coastline. Heavy cloud coverage would also make navigation difficult for aircraft. A tough call had to be made. Troops needed to be instructed to either go forward with the mission despite inclement weather or postpone it to June 6, when a possible break in the storm was forecast.
General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower circa December 1943. Public Domain
A little-known factor played a key role in the ultimate success of this foray: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s quick decision-making abilities and ability to prioritize a multitude of pressing tasks. His mental toughness and skill allowed his team to adapt to the situation and make the hard, risky decision to postpone the operation for 24 hours. It was met with much criticism. Any delay gave the Germans a chance to find out about the planned attack. Despite pushback, Eisenhower’s strategic thinking and ability to take vast amounts of information and prioritize what was necessary helped put American soldiers in an advantageous position.
A First-of-Its-Kind Program
With many combat missions and flight hours under his belt, Lee ultimately became an instructor. Instead of limiting his teaching solely to flight instruction, he became part of a group of fellow instructors who developed a “first-of-its-kind program” that treated mental toughness not as an innate character trait but as a skill that could be harnessed and learned.
During the program’s development, he drew on his years of experience as a fighter pilot. He also incorporated lessons learned during his time as a boxer while attending the Air Force Academy. While at the academy, he was introduced to the concepts behind sports psychology for the first time, which he continued to build upon throughout his professional career.
The visionary program he helped spearhead was such a success for the Air Force that it is now an integral part of every pilot’s training. The book features several of the program’s lessons that are easily adaptable to everyday life. Lee has spent time teaching the lessons included in “The Art of Clear Thinking” to people involved in many disciplines, from business executives to athletes on professional sports teams.
Lee understands why this type of wisdom is accessible to humans from all walks of life. In “The Art of Clear Thinking,” he states, “High performance isn’t something that can be turned on and off—to thrive in the cockpit, the pilots needed to thrive in their personal lives.”
This mentality built for success easily translates to anyone who wants to better themselves personally, accomplish goals professionally, and live all-around more fulfilling lives.
X-35B flying over Edwards Air Force Base. Public Domain
Inspiration for Every Reader
Athletes and other performance-based professionals can take advantage of Lee’s simple yet highly effective tactics to remain calm amid adversity. Tried-and-true breathing techniques and resetting one’s internal dialogue are included in the text, along with an easily digestible section on the science behind this type of sports psychology-based training. The book briefly delves into the science of the brain, its chemical reactions, and how that affects us physiologically.
Business professionals and goal-oriented individuals can particularly benefit from the author’s section on Humans as Decision-Makers, which highlights the importance of developing one’s critical thinking skills as opposed to only relying on technology to do all of the forecasting that often comes with trying to anticipate market conditions.
The core of this book revolves around conceptual thinking. Lee helps you understand how to apply an integrated system of ideas to a problem when information is sometimes either too abundant or too scarce and come up with a quick, effective solution. This is a big reason why it’s such a well-rounded work on mental fortitude. Man is only as good as his grasp of concepts, and Lee eloquently elaborates on this important point of reality in his chapter Fast-Forecasting:
“When we rashly turn over our decision-making to external aids, such as committees or computers, we lose the ability to bring the full power of our brain to bear on a problem. We, in essence, have carved out a hole in our understanding and replaced it with someone else’s solution. If we don’t learn the underlying concepts behind that new information, then we’re blindly trusting that it’s correct. We lose the ability to quickly reconfigure concepts into creative solutions, which is one of the great strengths of the human mind.”
Assess, Choose, Execute
Many more tips, tricks, and thought-provoking stories are discussed throughout this entertaining and helpful read. The book itself is laid out across three different overarching sections: Assess, Choose, and Execute, which make up a concept fighter pilots learn early on that is vital to their success: the Ace Helix. This method involves assessing the problem at hand, swiftly choosing the proper “course of action,” then prioritizing tasks that aid in the execution of decisions that will help reach the goal or solution efficiently.
The book’s readability and layout make it an easy read and one you can treat as a guide you can come back to over and over again. It’s a helpful reference tool that aids in navigating life’s complex situations that require quick, effective decisions.
Equal parts practical wisdom and philosophy, “The Art of Clear Thinking” is a great resource to have on hand for a calm mind and reasoned thinking.
* * * Patriots, these handmade flags are really cool. Made by ZH reader John O. Pick one up and support both ZeroHedge and John’s work.
Top Secret Seal Team Mission Into North Korea Ended With Massacre Of Civilians & Zero Intel Gained
On Friday The New York Times revealed what may go down in history as the single most ignominious fiasco of US special operations in years, or possibly even decades – a positively wild story which is going to cast a further spotlight on Trump and current and former intelligence officials and elite military commanders.
In early 2019 at a moment President Trump during his first term publicly engaged in high-profile diplomacy with Kim Jong Un, which included chummy summits at the DMZ border and the exchange of letters, a highly secretive operation by the US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 ended with a group of North Korean civilian fishermen massacred under mysterious circumstances.
Trump as Commander-in-Chief had ordered a high-risk mission, utilizing low-tech methods to avoid detection, to insert the Seal team on the North Korean coast where they would install a surveillance device capable of intercepting Kim Jong Un’s most sensitive communications. It would be hidden from Congress and the public, and even government officials based on need-to-know access. It’s one of those past covert ops which was never intended to see the light of public knowledge.
The Times report describes the mission’s purpose as likely to give the White House a huge leg up as Trump tried to engage Kim on the nuclear front, to achieve hoped-for historic denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. “The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump,” it says. But the report notes that the hidden surveillance objective may have had a broader purpose.
“The mission had the potential to provide the United States with a stream of valuable intelligence,” NY Times continues. “But it meant putting American commandos on North Korean soil — a move that, if detected, not only could sink negotiations but also could lead to a hostage crisis or an escalating conflict with a nuclear-armed foe.”
Essentially this would be a small-scale invasion and breach of one of the most militarized and paranoid countries in the region and on earth. It should be noted that it is covert operations like these which give autocrats like Kim Jong Un (or previously: Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, as well as the Iranians) valid reasons to be paranoid concerning Western spies and elite operatives.
The report details that under the cover of night, the Seal team landed on a North Korean shoreline after they swam through freezing waters with untraceable equipment, operating completely blind and with no typical drone, spy plane or overhead surveillance or real-time mapping. Even their weapons and bullets were selected so as to be ‘untraceable’.
Apparently there was precedent for this, something also long kept secret: “In 2005, SEALs used a mini-sub to go ashore in North Korea and leave unnoticed, according to people familiar with the mission,” NY Times discloses. “The 2005 operation, carried out during the presidency of George W. Bush, has never before been reported publicly.”
Every aspect to the 2019 infiltration was ultra high-risk, NYT continues:
The plan called for the Navy to sneak a nuclear-powered submarine, nearly two football fields long, into the waters off North Korea and then deploy a small team of SEALs in two mini-subs, each about the size of a killer whale,that would motor silently to the shore.
The mini-subs were wet subs, which meant the SEALs would ride immersed in 40-degree ocean water for about two hours to reach the shore, using scuba gear and heated suits to survive.
Eight Seals would swim to the target and plant the device, but the mission began to dramatically unravel from nearly the moment they surfaced in the dark of night.
Given the lack of real-time intelligence and communications black-out, intelligence analysts had studied and monitored the intended landing spot for months prior via satellite, to ensure no North Korean soldiers or bystanders could detect the operation. But it turns out there was a fishing boat very near the target zone:
Every few yards, the SEALs peeked above the black water to scan their surroundings. Everything seemed clear.
That might have been a second mistake. Bobbing in the darkness was a small boat. On board was a crew of North Koreans who were easy to miss because the sensors in the SEALs’ night-vision goggles were designed in part to detect heat, and the wet suits the Koreans wore were chilled by the cold seawater.
The SEALs reached shore thinking they were alone, and started to remove their diving gear. The target was only a few hundred yards away.
By that moment, one group of Seals had made it to the shore, while another had stayed with the underwater small subs. Thinking that the fishing boat had likely detected the subs, which may have been exposed due to wake-movement or bubbles at the surface, and possibly underwater lights – a Seal commander at the shore opened fire on the boat.
“As the shore team watched the North Korean in the water, the senior enlisted SEAL at the shore chose a course of action,” NY Times details. “He wordlessly centered his rifle and fired. The other SEALs instinctively did the same.”
Upon inspection of the shot-up boat, all the crew were dead. They had just been unarmed civilians diving for shellfish. But to conceal their presence, the Seals punctured the lungs of the corpses so the bodies would sink to the bottom of the ocean floor.
From that point, “The SEALs swam back to the mini-subs and sent a distress signal.” The report adds: “Believing the SEALs were in imminent danger of capture, the big nuclear submarine maneuvered into shallow water close to the shore, taking a significant risk to pick them up. It then sped toward the open ocean.”
The fact that this highly classified incident is being leaked to the press now is significant in its own right…
This is insane. Trump secretly deployed SEAL Team 6 into North Korea to plant a listening device but the mission collapsed when a fishing boat approached. SEAL Team 6 killed every civilian, sank the bodies by piercing their lungs, and escaped. Congress wasn’t told about it. pic.twitter.com/JnnZuSqibt
The Seal team made it back unharmed, and US officials told the NY Times that a flurry of intense North Korean military activity was later observed by satellites at that same shoreline. Pyongyang never made accusations or statements publicly acknowledging there was a deadly incident, and the US gained no intelligence from it – as the listening device was never planted – and there was apparently never accountability.
The whole episode suggests there may be many more such ‘secret failures’ involving special forces in recent history. Special operations tend to only be made public, and celebrated, when they are a success; however, such missions which end in futility and innocent civilians dying get covered up, often with mission overseers getting promoted. Pyongyang is certainly paying close attention to the Friday Times report.
* * *
Pasta lovers check this out, and sign up for our store’s no-spam ‘second channel’ email here…
People who received the azelastine nasal spray in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in Germany were less likely to test positive for COVID-19, researchers reported on Sept. 2.
Only 5 participants administered the spray had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, compared to 15 in the placebo group, they said.
Spray recipients also had a lower incidence of rhinovirus infections.
The single-center trial involved 450 people receiving the spray or a placebo three times a day for 56 days. The trial lasted from March 2023 to July 2024.
“Azelastine nasal spray could provide an additional easily accessible prophylactic to complement existing protective measures, especially for vulnerable groups, during periods of high infection rates, or before travelling,” Dr. Robert Bals, professor of internal medicine at Saarland University, who led the trial, said in a statement.
In a commentary article, also published by JAMA Internal Medicine, U.S. researchers Dr. Samuel Vidal and Dr. Dan Barouch said that the German scientists reported “promising data.”
Since the trial was carried out at one center and had a relatively modest size, further studies are needed to assess whether the spray is actually effective against COVID-19, Bals and his co-authors said.
“These findings support the potential of azelastine as a safe prophylactic approach warranting confirmation in larger, multicentric trials,” they wrote.
The trial was funded by URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH, which manufactures the spray, and some of the authors are employees of the company.
In the United States, azelastine was approved in 2012 to reduce symptoms of seasonal allergies. It is sold as Dymista and is also available generically. Side effects include drowsiness and headache.
Earlier Findings
Some earlier papers have also indicated that the spray works against seasonal viruses.
In a trial carried out in India that involved some of the same German researchers, neither arm had COVID-19-related hospitalizations, but recipients of azelastine had lower viral loads and improved symptoms, the researchers said in a 2024 paper.
People who tested positive for COVID-19 and received the antihistamine had lower viral loads than placebo recipients, researchers, including some of the authors of the new paper, said in a 2023 paper. The trial was conducted in Germany.
Both of those trials were funded by URSAPHARM.
Scientists said in 2022 that a study indicated that azelastine reduced the effects of COVID-19 in vitro, or in a laboratory setting. The study received funding from CEBINA GmbH, a partner of URSAPHARM.
Vietnam Replacing China As Key Link In Global Supply Chains
Vietnam is turning into a production powerhouse for the world as a result of the U.S. trade war, , according to Caixin.
For example, once a farming region, Bac Ninh has become northern Vietnam’s industrial hub, driven by Chinese manufacturers relocating operations south to avoid U.S. tariffs and diversify supply chains.
The shift began with the U.S.-China trade war and has accelerated as clients pressure suppliers to set up in Vietnam. “When the trade tensions began in 2018, one client suggested we look into Vietnam,” said Li Fangting of Mingjie, a Dongguan-based plastics maker. “After the pandemic, those suggestions turned into demands. Some clients said we wouldn’t be considered for new orders unless we had a presence in Vietnam.” Mingjie now produces in Bac Ninh for U.S. and European markets.
But costs are rising. Industrial land in Bac Ninh is pricier than in many Chinese regions, and wages are catching up. Some firms now produce goods costlier than their Chinese equivalents, relying on tariff gaps that could vanish overnight. In April, the U.S. slapped a 46% tariff on Vietnamese exports, later trimmed to 20%.
Despite these pressures, northern Vietnam is emerging as a “world assembler.” Samsung, which has invested over $23 billion since 2008, anchors a cluster of electronics producers, joined by Apple suppliers like Foxconn, Goertek, and Luxshare. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a surge in supply chain companies, logistics providers, and packaging firms entering Vietnam, following in the footsteps of their major clients,” said Anchalee Prasertchand of Thailand’s WHA Group.
Caixin writes that supply chains remain incomplete, forcing many manufacturers to import components from China. In textiles, 80% of yarn still comes from China, said Tian of Hechang Threads Dyeing. Furniture is more self-sufficient, with 90% of inputs sourced locally, though steel and panels remain scarce. As one factory owner put it: “In fact, the global center of furniture production shifted from Dongguan to Binh Duong by 2018. This industry won’t be going back to China.”
Even with higher costs, Vietnam’s tariff advantage sustains momentum. Executives estimate Vietnamese goods are 15% more expensive than Chinese ones, but with U.S. tariffs averaging 57.6% on Chinese products versus 20% on Vietnamese, the gap is decisive.
Chinese firms are also eyeing Vietnam’s domestic market of 100 million people. “Trade wars may be the spark, but going overseas is really about tapping global markets — not just the U.S., but also Europe and Southeast Asia,” said Niu Qiang of KCN Investment Consulting. “For Chinese companies, this is the true start of globalization.”
Automakers highlight the shift. Shineray Motors, which entered in 2018, adapted trucks for local roads and weather. Its mini-commercial vehicles now hold 30% of Vietnam’s market. “Now is a good time to lay the groundwork for the passenger car and new energy vehicle market,” said general manager Wang Lu. Giants like Geely and Great Wall are also investing, cementing Vietnam’s role as both a manufacturing hub and consumer battleground.
