An initial team of inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has returned to Iran and is preparing to begin its work, after inspectors were formally kicked out of the country by Tehran earlier this summer, in connection with the 12-day war and surprise attack by Israel.

“We have been discussing with them now,” said Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday in reference to the Iranians. “The first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart inspections,” he told Fox News.

Grossi indicated that talks with the Islamic Republic are currently focused on “practical modalities” to resume monitoring work at multiple facilities. Reports indicate that some of the facilities are the very ones struck during Israeli and US operations in June.

President Trump has touted that these three sites – the Fordo Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center – were completely destroyed. 

But now the IAEA inspectors might be able to assess the situation more accurately from on the ground, which will be a first for any outside observer. 

In Europe, Tuesday saw discussions between Iran and the E3 nations – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – at a moment the E3 countries have warned they may trigger the mechanism for reimposing international sanctions on Iran if it fails to either reach a new nuclear agreement by the end of August or agrees to extend UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which covers the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Axios’ Barak Ravid reports, “The leaders of France, Germany, and Britain are very close to deciding to activate the snapback mechanism to reimpose UN Security Council sanctions on Iran. It will take a diplomatic miracle to prevent this from happening.”

The Europeans are also pressing Iran to rejoin nuclear talks with Washington; however, the Iranians have made clear that the US can no longer be trusted – as it bombed the Islamic Republic in June at the very moment the sides were engaged in talks.

As we reported earlier, Grossi has meanwhile been given a comprehensive security detail by a specialized Austrian police unit, amid personal threats reportedly linked to Iran. He has had 24/7 protection for weeks at this point.

Authored by Stephen Green via PJMedia.com,

On top of growing Islamification and accompanying antisemitism, decaying national defense, poverty-inducing “net zero” policies, the ruination of Doctor Who, and a whole host of other issues, Britain has yet another crisis that the government just can’t seem to get a handle on. 

Britons who still love their country and want to turn it around.

Can you imagine the nerve?

You might have already seen in the last week or two, Britons defiantly flying the U.K. Union Jack or England’s St. George’s Cross — only to have officials who seem to have no problem with displays of Palestinian or Pakistani pride take them down.

In fact, those displays sometimes come with a government seal of approval.

This one is from the Birmingham City Council:

UK’s second largest city, Birmingham, lights up public Library in green and white to mark PAKISTAN’S Independence Day. pic.twitter.com/nUmzJMGOGf

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 14, 2025

The country’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office got in on the action, too, wishing a “very happy Independence Day to Pakistanis in the UK, in Pakistan and around the world.” The post on X included little emojis of the Pakistani and British flags, and can you guess without clicking through which one came first?

Flag order makes a statement…

Absolute state of this clown, going around with ladders taking down England flags!

Says putting up the St George’s Cross, in England, is “fascism”.pic.twitter.com/GoFlcLdvDm

— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 23, 2025

…and so does pulling them down.

And Another Thing: The world was a better place when Britain imposed British notions of justice on Third World nations instead of importing Third World notions into Britain. Discuss.

According to the city’s Wikipedia page, Birmingham, as of 2021, was 30% Islamic and 34% Christian, which might explain this BBC report on Friday:

Some residents have found the sudden appearance of St George’s and union flags ‘intimidating”, a council has said.

While many people were flying the flag to cheer on the Lionesses during the 2025 Euros, thousands more have appeared in towns and cities in England during August – many attached to lampposts.

Leader of Dorset Council, Liberal Democrat Councillor Nick Ireland, described the movement as an “explosion of patriotism”, but also said it was “naive” to suggest the emblems had not been “hijacked” by some far-right groups.

Want to take an ordinary, patriotic Briton and convince him he’s a fascist? That’s how you do it. 

Want to convince the local Muslim population that they can bully Britons into giving up flying their own flags in their own country? Same trick.

Some Britons have had enough, and are raising — or making — flags wherever they’re able.

Lads in Birmingham paint roundabouts with the St George’s Cross after the Labour council tore their flags down. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/FwBiPIJLu3

— Turning Point UK 🇬🇧 (@TPointUK) August 18, 2025

Then there are purely practical efforts like this one:

All we have to do is paint the St. George’s cross inside potholes, and the council will fix them within 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/uTmtpVdkwh

— We Stand United (@StandUnitedGB) August 19, 2025

Sorry, did I say “purely practical?” I meant to say, “half-practical, half-cheeky.”

The deadly epidemic of [checks notes] waving the flag comes hard on the heels of protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex — where “migrants” were housed at taxpayer expense, and not without some inconvenience.

First, there was the migrant “charged with three sexual offences, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.”

And then this:

Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, a Syrian national living in the same hotel, has been charged with sexual assault, two counts of common assault, and four counts of assault by beating.

A BBC report states that these offences are alleged to have occurred inside The Bell Hotel.

Mr Sharwarq denied the claim of sexual assault, but admitted the non-sexual offences at a court hearing, according to a Sky News report.

The High Court put at least a temporary halt to the hotel’s use as a migrant shelter.

Scenes like these are distressingly common in the postmodern United Kingdom — a country that could use a few more flag-waving patriots, and far fewer “migrants” acting like occupiers of a conquered nation. 

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

Earlier today we wrote an extensive preview of what to expect from Nvidia’s Q1 earnings (here), but for those who missed it here is the summary: if Nvidia beats and raises, revisions might restart, and high valuation could sustain. However, if the results are just in line or even lower, as what happened in the last two quarters, the market may assume margins have peaked, and the story will become less about hypergrowth and more about stabilization. 

Here are the bogeys: 

• The revenue consensus for fiscal Q3 revenue is $53.46 billion. But there’s a much wider range than usual going into that average.
  • For fiscal Q2 that target is $46.23 billion.
• Adj EPS for fiscal Q2 should be $1.01
• Nvidia’s data center division is expected to post $41.3 billion in fiscal Q2 revenue.

That’s the 30,000 foot snapshot. In reality, a lot more has happened, starting at the end of July, when President Trump put American chips and other infrastructure at the heart of his AI plan, even prompting a standing ovation for Jensen Huang during a grand speech in DC. Then news: Nvidia got a quid pro quo deal with the Administration to sell China-specific AI accelerators, if the US gets 15% of the sales. Then the President, quite skillfully, dropped a hint that Huang and Nvidia are pushing for a new China-specific chip based on Blackwell architecture. Still, a lot of questions remain on how much of this is real on Nvidia’s side and whether it has not changed the near term trajectory for Nvidia’s top line. Or is this still far from moving the needle for a company that already dominates the market for AI chips. In any case, one area to keep an eye on is any update around its H20 chips, which is a hot-button issue for investors

China aside, Nvidia – which is the world’s largest company and accounts for 8% of the S&P – is growing quickly and Wall Street, which has revenue estimates going as far out as 2030, projects steady increases in that time. The question is at what rate? Any hint of disappointing numbers and investors will once again raise concerns that the massive spending in AI infrastructure has to eventually slow down.

Those concerns will get even louder after the company’s earnings which just came out and leave quite a bit to be desired, especially since data centers missed. Here is what the company just reported for Q2:

• Adjusted EPS $1.05, beating estimates of $1.00 (NVIDIA benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, from approximately $650 million in unrestricted H20 sales to a customer outside of China.)
• Revenue $46.74 billion, +56% y/y, beating estimates of $46.23 billion 
  • Data center revenue $41.1 billion, +56% y/y, missing estimates of $41.29 billion; this was the second consecutive quarter in which data centers missed.
  • Gaming revenue $4.3 billion, +49% y/y, beating estimates of $3.82 billion
  • Professional Visualization revenue $601 million, +32% y/y, beating estimates of $532 million
  • Automotive revenue $586 million, +69% y/y, missing estimate $592.7 million

Going down the income statement:

• Adjusted gross margin 72.7%; beating est of 72.1%
  • Excluding the $180 million release, non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter would have been 72.3%.
• Adjusted operating expenses $3.80 billion, +36% y/y, below estimates of $4.02 billion
• Adjusted operating income $30.17 billion, +51% y/y, beating estimates of $29.36 billion
• R&D expenses $4.29 billion, +39% y/y, below the estimates of $4.44 billion
• Free cash flow $13.45 billion, -0.2% y/y

Addressing the elephant in the room, NVDA said that there were no H20 sales to China-based customers in the second quarter, and the question whether there will be any sales in the future will likely be discussed on the call. NVIDIA also said that it benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, from approximately $650 million in unrestricted H20 sales to a customer outside of China.

Of course, not assuming any H20 shipments to China in the 3Q outlook does leave room for upside. All of the above happened quickly in July and the report for 2Q is for the period ending July 27, exactly a month a go, so let’s see what happened in the month of August.

In his comments, tit-signing CEO Jensen Huang said that “Blackwell is the AI platform the world has been waiting for, delivering an exceptional generational leap — production of Blackwell Ultra is ramping at full speed, and demand is extraordinary.” He added that “NVIDIA NVLink rack-scale computing is revolutionary, arriving just in time as reasoning AI models drive orders-of-magnitude increases in training and inference performance. The AI race is on, and Blackwell is the platform at its center.”

NVDA also announced that while it returned $24.3 billion in stock repurchases and cash dividends in Q1, leaving it with $14.7 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization, on August 26, 2025, the Board of Directors approved an additional $60.0 billion to the Company’s share repurchase authorization.

While the Q2 results were generally ok if not stellar (and data center missed), the company’s guidance came slightly on the weak side of the buyside expectations we discussed in our premium preview.

• Revenue is expected to be $54.0 billion, plus or minus 2%; which was above the consensus est of $53.46 billion but keep in mind some had estimates as high as $60 billion. That said, the surge in revenue continues: for Q2, its guidance was $45.0 billion, so a $9 billion sequential increase!.
• Sees adjusted gross margins at 73.5%, plus or minus 50 basis points, just above the 73.4% median estimate. 
• Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $5.9 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively. Full year fiscal 2026 operating expense growth is expected to be in the high-30% range.
• Other income and expense are expected to be an income of approximately $500 million, excluding gains and losses from non-marketable and publicly-held equity securities.
• Tax rates are expected to be 16.5%, plus or minus 1%, excluding any discrete items.

Of note: the forecast excluded data center revenue from China, a market where it has struggled with US export restrictions and opposing pressure from Beijing. Expect China to buy a lot of NVDA chips as its own domestic AI chips are nowhere near good enough to power its latest LLMs. 

Commenting on the results, CEO Jensen Huang said that “Global demand for NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure is incredibly strong. AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate.”

Putting these results and forecasts in visual context, starting with revenue.

The thorn in today’s results: data center. It dipped sequentially. This was the second quarter in a row that data center revenues missed. 

Here’s some more detail on what did happen with the data center business and Blackwell products in quarter gone (2Q) from the CFO commentary:

“We continue to ramp our Blackwell architecture, which grew 17% sequentially, including our newest architecture, Blackwell Ultra. We recognized Blackwell revenue across all customer categories, led by large cloud service providers, which represented approximately 50% of Data Center revenue.”

A growth number for the latest generation architecture Nvidia has confirmation the hyperscalers are still half of Nvidia’s data center business and the fact they are packing it all up and selling it through various channels.

Somewhat concerning was the unexpected jump in inventories, although a more benign explanation is that the company is just stockpiling ahead of a Trump green light to sell to China. 

Receivables jumped too:

While NVDA’s results were fine, the tepid outlook adds to concern that pace of investment in artificial intelligence systems is unsustainable. Difficulties in China also have clouded Nvidia’s business. Though the Trump administration recently eased restrictions on exports of some AI chips to that country, the reprieve hasn’t yet translated into a rebound in revenue. 

As we noted in our preview, Nvidia has been dealing with the fallout from a growing US-China rivalry, where semiconductor technology has become a major flashpoint. In April, the Trump administration tightened restrictions on exports of data center processors to Chinese customers, effectively shutting Nvidia out of the market. Washington has subsequently rolled that back, saying that the US will allow some shipments in return for a 15% slice of the revenue. 

At the same time, Beijing has encouraged a move away from using US technology in AI systems accessed by the Chinese government. The shifting policies have made it difficult for Wall Street to predict how much revenue Nvidia might be able to recover in the market. Some analysts have made projections in the billions of dollars, while others have refused to predict any China sales until the company makes the situation clearer. 

Nvidia shares fell about 4% in extended trading following the announcement before recovering much of the loss. They had rallied 35% this year through the close, lifting the company’s market capitalization above $4 trillion. Shares of other AI-related hardware stocks are also falling in after-hours trading following Nvidia’s results. CoreWeave shares are down about 3%, SMCI is down about 2%, Palantir is down 0.8% and Dell is also slipping. 

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com,

A quarter of British adults polled said they’re open to crypto forming part of their retirement plans, suggesting that crypto could claim a larger share of the UK’s multitrillion-dollar pension fund market.

UK insurance company Aviva said on Tuesday that its poll of 2,000 UK adults found 27% were open to crypto in their retirement funds, with just over 40% of those open to crypto saying they were motivated by the higher potential returns.

The survey, which was conducted by Censuswide June 4-6, also found that 23% of all those polled said they would consider withdrawing part, or all, of their existing pension to invest in crypto.

Crypto investments in UK retirement plans could see significantly more capital flow into the space, with over four in five UK adults holding pensions worth a total of 3.8 trillion British pounds ($5.12 trillion). 

Still, UK adults have limited options for adding crypto to their retirement funds.

The poll came as US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month permitting US 401(k) retirement plans to include Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, opening access to more than $9 trillion in assets.

Source: Cointelegraph

A fifth of UK adults already dabbled in crypto

Aviva said that around one in five surveyed, equivalent to about 11.6 million people, said they hold, or have held, crypto. About two-thirds said they still own crypto in some capacity.

Nearly one-fifth of UK adults aged between 25 and 34 said they had already withdrawn pension funds to invest in crypto.

Brits still concerned about crypto risks

The respondents cited security risks, such as hacking and phishing attacks, and lack of regulation and protection of crypto as the biggest risk concerns at 41% and 37% respectively, while crypto volatility was flagged as the third-biggest worry at 30%.

Aviva’s managing director of wealth and advice, Michele Golunska, said it’s easy to see why crypto has become an appealing investment option in recent years, but pensions still offer significant advantages.

“We mustn’t forget the value of the good old pension. It comes with some powerful benefits, like employer contributions and tax relief, that can make a real difference to your long-term financial wellbeing.”

Many UK adults aware of the risks

Nearly one in three of the respondents said they’re interested in crypto but acknowledged that they don’t fully understand the benefits they may give up by cashing in their pensions, while 27% didn’t realize there were any risks involved.

The UK has cautiously progressed with crypto regulation, having unveiled a proposed framework in May that would see crypto exchanges, dealers, and agents treated similarly to TradFi firms, with strong compliance checks particularly focused on transparency and consumer protection.

UK banks appear to have slowed adoption, with 40% of 2,000 recently surveyed crypto investors saying that their banks had either blocked or delayed a payment to a crypto provider.

When global companies decide where to invest, the quality of a country’s tax code can be as important as market size or labor costs.

A simpler, more neutral code helps investors forecast returns and reduces compliance headaches.

The data for this visualization from Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, comes from the Tax Foundation’s 2024 International Tax Competitiveness Index.

It benchmarks Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members on how efficiently they raise revenue through individual, corporate, property, and consumption taxes, plus their rules on cross-border profits.

Estonia: Best Tax Code in the World?

Estonia tops the index for the 11th straight year, scoring a perfect 100.

Its 20% flat tax on both personal and corporate income is only due when profits are distributed, rewarding reinvestment and limiting double taxation.

The country also avoids wealth or inheritance taxes and keeps real-property levies local, reducing distortions.

Combined, these features create an easy-to-administer system that fuels the Baltic state’s startup scene and steady foreign investment.

The Baltic Cluster Outperforms Larger Peers

Latvia (2nd) and Lithuania (5th) join Estonia in the top five, underscoring a regional push for flat-rate, low-complexity regimes.

All three Baltic nations tax corporate profits only once and apply modest payroll charges, making cross-border hiring simpler.

Their high rankings contrast with many bigger EU economies—Germany (16th) and France (36th)—that rely on layered surcharges and targeted deductions, increasing compliance costs even as statutory rates fall.

Why Major Economies Lag Behind in the Tax Index

Size alone doesn’t guarantee a competitive tax code.

The U.S. ranks solidly middle-of-the-pack, weighed down by its citizenship tax system that can tax on overseas income and profits.

Meanwhile, France and Italy sit at the bottom of the table, burdened by high payroll taxes and narrow consumption-tax bases.

These choices are by design, in pursuit of broadening the social security net, but they also increase distortions and freeze cross-border capital flows.

The Other Side of “Tax Competitiveness”

Tax Competitiveness as measured by the Tax Foundation prioritizes business mobility and investment flows over other policy goals like:

• Reducing inequality

• Funding robust public services

• Long-term fiscal sustainability

• Democratic choice about the size of government

Estonia’s system works well for attracting capital and businesses, but may be sub-optimal for building a comprehensive welfare state or addressing inequality. And many would argue those are equally important measures of a good tax system.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Taxes Collected Relative to GDP Size in Every Major Economy on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

An Englishman walks into a pub… and the joke ends there because this one didn’t even get through the front door.

Why? Well because he was carrying a dangerous object that this establishment has deemed to be grounds for entry refusal.

No, it wasn’t a knife or any other weapon. It was the English flag. The Saint George’s Cross.

The flag of the nation where the pub is located.

The flag that adorns the kit of the England football and Rugby teams.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Only in England would an Englishman be refused entry into an English pub for displaying an English flag.pic.twitter.com/4czazpbr8U

— Jonathan Wong (@WGthink) August 24, 2025

The two…ahem security guards flanked the Karen running The Manor Farm Pub in Birmingham, telling the man and his friends that they couldn’t come into the pub for a drink because they were carrying “protest materials,” and the pub was not “taking any part in these protests.”

She is referring to the fact that English people all over the country are putting up English flags and Union Jack flags in protest of continuing mass migration, the use of hotels to house illegal immigrants at taxpayer expense, and the explosion in crime attributed to foreigners.

As the exchange became more heated, the men at the pub were asked to leave and accused of trespassing by the management.

The video of the incident has gone viral with over 10M views on X alone, and now the pub, operated by Greene King, is facing massive backlash.

People who think it should be ok to display the flag of England in England have review-bombed the pub on Google and Trip Advisor.

pic.twitter.com/3C7i0ra3uZ

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

pic.twitter.com/2tXvKO7vty

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

The pub management team have been deleting reviews to up their score again pic.twitter.com/c1GgcglAlC

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

They even got it edited to be listed as a “Mosque” on Google.

🚨 MANOR FARM PUB IN BIRMINGHAM, WHICH REFUSED ENTRY TO PATRIOTS WHO WERE CARRYING AN ENGLAND FLAG, IS LISTED AS A MOSQUE ON GOOGLE! https://t.co/zwwmf78fBm pic.twitter.com/lUKIwwjNqw

— BRITAIN IS BROKEN 🇬🇧 (@BROKENBRITAIN0) August 24, 2025

In response to the backlash, Greene King issued a statement doubling down, and asserting that their pubs are intended as welcoming spaces for socialising, not places to get caught up in protests.

They confirmed that managers have the right to refuse entry and do not permit materials linked to political protests, requiring customers to remove such items.

However, they emphasized that this is not a political stance on the ongoing debate about the St George’s flag, and wearing football kits like England shirts is still allowed.

The incident perfectly encapsulates why those raising the flag feel the need to do so.

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Ukraine is poised to lose yet more manpower, as every young man of ability or means will likely seek to flee instead of being forcibly recruited into the military when they become eligible.

Ukrainian media is confirming a major change in the country’s wartime martial law policies: “Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has revised travel rules and allowed men aged 18 to 22 to cross the border, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram on Aug. 26.”

Up until now, men who were aged 18 to 60 have been prohibited from leaving the war-ravaged nation since the start of the full invasion of February 2022, though with some rare exceptions.

While men aged 25 to 60 can be conscripted into the military and sent to the front lines, men 24 and under still cannot. This has been hugely controversial as even US members of Congress have complained that Washington is sinking billions into the war effort against Russia, and Kiev won’t even tap into its most eligible fighting-age demographic.

But if men aged 18 to 22 are now permitted to cross the border – they likely will and in droves, especially as they get closer to the age of conscription, and given the grinding war doesn’t look to abate anytime soon.

The New York Times has explained some of the reasoning for the change as follows:

Over the last three years, many families sent their teenage sons out of the country before they turned 18, to avoid having them eventually conscripted into what has become a grinding war of attrition with high casualty rates.

Announcing the change on Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the change would allow young men to travel and study abroad without feeling that they had to leave to avoid the draft. “We want Ukrainians to maintain as many ties with Ukraine as possible,” she said.

Looming heavy in the backdrop is that over in Donetsk and now Dnipropetrovsk region Russian forces have been making steady gains, forcing a slow Ukrainian retreat. Also, recruitment and conscription methods have continued to be harsh.

Recent Western media reports have begun picking up on the increasingly ineffective, wasteful tactics of Ukrainian military commanders.

For example, soldiers interviewed by the The Wall Street Journal earlier this month described large-scale meatgrinder type tactics of blindly being sent on suicidal frontal assaults while officers are being denied permission to withdraw from dangerous positions.

The consistent commentary on the war has long been that while Russia might have the manpower to do these old ‘war of attrition’ tactics, Ukraine certainly does not.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he felt vindicated in his economic strategy after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted in a landmark speech that Germany’s welfare state can no longer be financed at current levels.

“The German Chancellor’s speech confirms everything that we Hungarians have done in the economy over the past 15 years,” Orbán wrote in response to Merz’s address in Osnabrück on Saturday.

“The Western welfare state is bankrupt, so it was right for us to switch to a labor-based economy in 2010.”

Orbán argued that while Germany is only now waking up to the crisis, Hungary anticipated it and acted accordingly.

“It was right to stand on more legs and start the Eastern opening. It was right to embrace the most advanced Chinese technology, it was right to lead Europe in electromobility, it was right to maintain economic cooperation with Russia, it was right to stick to cheap Russian energy sources, and it was right to support Donald Trump against migration and for peace,” he said.

He contrasted Hungary’s “nation-building” approach with Germany’s belated “crisis management.”

“Our perspective is nation-building: tax revolution, own home, 10-year development plan. What a difference! We fight for the truth! We fight against lies!” Orbán declared.

In Osnabrück, Merz acknowledged the depth of Germany’s problems.

“The welfare state as we have it today is no longer financially viable with what we are achieving economically,” he said.

The warning follows growing concerns over bankruptcies, rising unemployment, and inflation risks.

Migration has become a central factor. Figures from the Federal Employment Agency last year showed that of the 4 million employable people on social benefits, more than 2.5 million have a migration background, nearly 64 percent.

Bild also reported that almost half of Germany’s €17.68 billion housing support budget for 2024 has gone to foreigners.

Yet despite the mounting strain, Remix News reported earlier this month that Germany’s Federal Employment Agency was continuing to promote the “citizen’s benefit” (Bürgergeld) welfare system to migrants.

A section of its website, written in English for “people from abroad,” featured smiling models — including a woman in a hijab — and promised financial support for migrants unable to cover living expenses.

Read more here…

Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times,

Look around at the stories we’re told about the future—on television, in movies, in books. Almost all of them are dystopian. Controlled cities, collapsing ecosystems, machines overtaking humans. Positive visions are so rare they feel almost radical. What if that’s not accidental? What if our thoughts, speech, beliefs, and actions—all of which shape the reality we live in—are being coached toward imagining collapse?

When we are constantly fed visions of destruction, it narrows the scope of what we think is possible.

And when we can’t imagine anything beyond dystopia, we stop building toward anything better.

When I first understood the power of regenerative agriculture, something shifted.

For the first time in years, I felt genuine hope.

That hope was strong enough to push me to change my entire life.

I left behind comfort and convenience and stepped into farming. It did not happen overnight, and I had no idea how difficult it would be. But here I am, living a life for a better future for my children—and doing it publicly so others can see it’s possible.

We do not have to allow our food supply to be consolidated into the hands of a few corporations.

We do not have to be corralled into “15-minute cities” or plugged into machines. And we do not have to worship efficiency when it leaves us with less family, higher costs, and no time.

We can choose another path.

But it starts with refusing to accept the stories of inevitable collapse we are being sold.

At my ranch, guests come to spend the night in one of our tiny homes, to enjoy a meal at the restaurant, or to walk the land with me on a farm tour. They look out on fields teeming with life in ways most modern farms are not. They see animals, soil, and people in right relationship. They taste food that was grown a few steps away, and they begin to understand the difference. They carry that vision home with them—the ripple effect of realizing something else is possible.

That is why I invite people to stop rehearsing dystopia and start imagining futures of abundance. A future where the American farm is restored. Where our soil and water are alive and clean. Where our food system nourishes our bodies instead of depleting them.

I see movies like “The Terminator” as a warning—but a warning nobody is heeding. Instead of paying attention, we rush to connect our minds to chips and automate every corner of life, pretending those stories were just fiction. And efficiency, which is constantly sold to us as salvation, has become its own trap. In a world where everything is more efficient than ever before, why are we busier, more stressed, and stretched thinner than ever—like rats in a wheel just trying to pay the bills? Shouldn’t efficiency bring costs down and free up more of our time? Instead, the opposite has happened. As machines and systems become more efficient, human life becomes more expensive. Families have less time together. Children are raised by screens. People are burned out, isolated, and exhausted. Efficiency without wisdom doesn’t free us; it enslaves us.

The question people always ask is, how do we do this? How do we actually build a different future?

There is no single answer.

But every one of us has the opportunity to co-create that future and take steps toward it. And all of those small steps, combined, can create a grand shift. Some will buy land and return to an agrarian lifestyle. Others will commit to buying only from local farms and eating the “small farm diet.” Some will use their influence to shift culture in that direction. Others will use their money to help entrepreneurs start businesses that move the needle. Every action has a reaction. Every reaction has a ripple effect. And we the people have the power—if we wield it with our dollars, with our minds, and with our words.

It is time to remember who we are—not controllers of the Earth, and not cogs in a machine, but caretakers of a garden.

We can choose a future that is abundant, human, and aligned with nature. Not a dystopia, but something more like the Garden of Eden. Let’s stop merely imagining futures of abundance—and start building them together.

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

Federal officials will take over the management of Washington’s Union Station, which Amtrak now runs.

Amtrak is a federally chartered corporation operating as a for-profit entity, with the U.S. government as its controlling shareholder.

As Jackson Richman reports for The Epoch Times, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the takeover during an event celebrating the launch of Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains.

“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again,” Duffy said of President Donald Trump.

“He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again.”

Duffy said that the move is not a power play, noting that the Department of Transportation has owned Union Station since the early 1980s.

“We’ve always had it, but we think that we can manage the property better, bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue,” he said.

“And that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building. It needs investments.

“It’s been, I think, neglected for decades, and it’s showing its age. And again, we want to make this place beautiful, and the premier train station, not just in America, but the premier train station in the world. And that takes money.”

Amtrak introduced its new line of Acela trains, which are high-speed and travel across the northeast United States.

“The launch of the new Acela is a critical starting point as we work to improve travel for millions of Americans,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Steve Bradbury said in a statement.

“Our nation’s capital should be putting our best foot forward.”

Amtrak President Roger Harris said,:

“Acela is synonymous with American high-speed trains, and today marks a new era of next-generation service,“ adding that ”the future of high-speed rail starts now.”

Likewise, Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia said in a statement:

“From the moment our guests step onboard, they’ll feel the difference of a NextGen Acela train thanks to a more modern, premium, and elevated experience.

“We are grateful for Secretary Duffy and Deputy Secretary Bradbury’s support on the project, and for helping it get over the finish line so Northeast Corridor residents and visitors can enjoy a whole new way to travel.”

National Guard troops have been stationed outside Union Station, which is close to the Capitol, as the Trump administration has looked to crack down on crime in the District of Columbia.

This has included a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Duffy said robberies are down 52 percent in the district, while carjackings are down 38 percent. Overall, he said, violent crime has decreased by 40 percent.