Authored by Pepe Escobar,

All eyes on Alaska. The Bear-Eagle face-off is part of an astonishing acceleration of history in the summer of 2025…

Two weeks after Alaska, there’s the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) annual summit in Tianjin, China. India’s Narendra Modi and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian will join, among others, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the same table. A BRICS/SCO table.

September 3, in Beijing, is the 80th anniversary of what is officially defined as the victory of “the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War”. Putin is the guest of honor. The rehearsal, with 22,000 participants, took place this past weekend in Tian’anmen Square.

On the same day, in Russia’s Vladivostok, it’s the start of the Eastern Economic Forum, which discusses everything about Russia’s drive to develop the Arctic and eastern Siberia – the equivalent of the Chinese “Go West” campaign started in the late 1990s. Key Eurasian players will be in the house. Putin addresses the plenary session on September 5.

Top BRICS leaders of China, Russia, Brazil and India, meanwhile, are actively involved in a flurry of phone calls coordinating a collective response to the tariff wars – part of the hybrid war by the Empire of Chaos against BRICS and the Global South.

How Trump is Aiming for a PR Win

Let’s see how Alaska is setting the stage for something much bigger.

The summit was announced following what Putin advisor Yuri Ushakov concisely defined as “a proposal from the American side which we think is quite acceptable.”

This sentence was as far as the Kremlin would comment – in contrast with the non-stop verbal onslaught emanating from Washington. That the Kremlin even considered the American offer means an implicit recognition of what Russia is achieving on the battlefield and in the geoeconomic sphere.

Timing. Why now? Especially after Trump had threatened buyers of Russian oil with tariffs? Essentially, because military intel in selected deep state silos have done the math and finally admitted that the long proxy war in Ukraine is lost.

Moreover, Trump personally wants to get over it so as to concentrate on the next chapters of the Forever Wars – including the one that really matters: against “existential threat” China.

From Moscow’s point of view, conditioned by the successful results of its calibrated war of attrition, the facts on the battlefield spell out the special military operation rollin’ on – and no ceasefire; at best a “humanitarian” pause of a few days. The Americans want a ceasefire of at least a few weeks.

Reconciling both sides’ optics will be a Sisyphean task. Still, Alaska is just the beginning: the next meeting is already in the works to take place in the Russian Federation, according to Ushakov.

Trump’s motives are easily identified: create the perception of the US extracting itself from the mess; some sort of truce; and back to doing business with Russia – especially in the Arctic.

In parallel, assuming any sort of deal, the deep state will never recognize the new Russian regions, even Donetsk and Lugansk; and will seek to re-weaponize Ukraine, “leading from behind”, for a NATO-led war replay further on down the road.

So the US-Russia abyss is mirrored by the domestic American abyss – and most of all the Trump-NATO/EU abyss. The toothless chihuahua European pack, trying to salvage its pitiful Kiev actor, is doing somersaults – complete with possible black swans – to derail the summit even before it happens.

There’s no way Trump can sell any sort of settlement to the rabid NATO/EU pack. But nothing would please him more than to transfer the war – in full – to them. With the benefit that the deep state in this case will not complain – because it will be reaping massive euro profits from the weapons sale racket. End result: a classic Trump PR win.

Exit Ukraine, Enter the Arctic

Ukraine, though, will not be the main theme in Alaska. The ever-perceptive Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov cut to the chase: what really matters is that “the first signs of common sense are appearing in Russia-US relations, which were absent for several years before.”

Ryabkov was quick to also highlight the dangers: the risk of nuclear conflict in the world “is not decreasing”; and Russia sees the risk that “after the expiration of the New START Treaty, nuclear arms control will be completely absent”.

Once again: Alaska is just the beginning of something much bigger – including, finally, a serious discussion about “indivisibility of security” (what Moscow wanted already in December 2021, rebuffed by the autopen administration).

And that brings us to the Arctic – and serious stuff that will certainly be debated in depth at the upcoming Vladivostok forum.

The Arctic holds at least 13% of global undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of undiscovered natural gas. Russia controls at least half of all these reserves. The Empire of Chaos badly wants to be part of the action.

Yet one thing is possible massive US investment in joint Arctic projects with Russia. Something entirely different is the US joining the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – which the Chinese call the Arctic Silk Road. The NSR reduces shipping time between Asia and Europe by up to 50%.

The Russian-Chinese rationale for the NSR – including the expansion of Russia’s unique nuclear icebreaker fleet – is exactly to bypass the Suez Canal and connectivity channels controlled by the US. The key question then is what would it take to swing Moscow to accept a Trump-Putin deal in the Arctic.

So on Ukraine, in principle, Russia has all the cards – as long as the special military operation goes on, now on overdrive. On hybrid war, the tariff chapter, the US ruling classes finally realized they have no cards – because blowback caused by secondary sanctions will badly damage the US. What’s left then is a commercial deal: the Arctic.

It’s quite intriguing that even the JPMorgan Center for Geopolitics admitted that the best solution for the Ukraine mess is a Georgia scenario: that would somewhat offset the optics of a total capitulation by the West. Only Ukraine would capitulate: no NATO, no EU, no money, no security guarantees.

Inestimable Prof. Michael Hudson has condensed how Alaska will proceed under two vectors: “Part I is whether the US will acknowledge that the trajectory of the current fighting is for a total Russian victory, on the terms that Putin has been explaining for two years: no NATO membership, no foreign arms supplies, Nuremberg-like trials of the Banderite leaders, and perhaps reparations by Ukraine and NATO for the rebuilding of formerly ‘Ukrainian’ Russia.”

Assuming Trump accepts it, and that’s a major “if”, then comes the real nitty gritty (remember Ryabkov), “starting with whether a new atomic missile and arms treaty will be put in place.”

Russia’s version of peace, writes Prof. Hudson, will flow along these lines: “We don’t want an atomic war with the United States. Let’s agree that if a German or other EU/NATO missile hits Russia, when we retaliate it will only be against Britain, Germany and France, not North America.”

Prof. Hudson is adamant that “America has only one thing to offer other countries: the (temporary) promise NOT to hurt them. There’s nothing positive to offer, given its de-industrialization and the world’s de-dollarization.”

As it stands, and also considering the multiple ramifications of the hybrid war against BRICS, Alaska carries the potential of offering Washington a way out of the debris of a massive strategic defeat.

Any analyst who tried to understand the special military operation from the beginning, in detail, could tell that Russia’s war involved something much bigger than Ukraine. It was always about the burial of the “rules-based international order”, in fact the whole old order architecture. That is happening as we speak in the black soil of Novorossiya. Strategic patience, in the end, does pay.

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

Nuclear has been a core investment theme since December 2020, followed by the launch of “The Next AI Trade” in April 2024 and the introduction of the “Powering Up America” theme shortly thereafter. 

We expanded our nuclear coverage yesterday as Goldman initiated bullish coverage on Uranium Energy Corp. As a reminder, we first flagged Cameco Corp. as a buy around $9 a share; it’s now trading above $78. 

Goldman’s latest nuclear reactor tracker, which charts out global project progress, underscores that a new era of atomic energy is set to come online to help power all things AI in the 2030s. 

New reactor progress and announcements:

North America

• 7/18/2025 – United States – At an energy summit in Pittsburgh PA, Westinghouse announced plans to start construction of the first of 10 new AP1000 reactors in the US by 2030 (here).

• 7/29/2025 – United States – The US NRC has approved licensing for the 800MW restart of Palisades Nuclear Plant. Holtec expects the plant to be restarted in the fourth quarter of 2025 (here).

• 8/7/2025 – United States – The DOE approved the 5th loan disbursement to Holtec to help fund the restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant. The 5th disbursement was for ~$82mn and the loan guarantee to Holtec is for “up to $1.52bn.” To date, ~$335mn has been disbursed (here).

Europe

• 7/7/2025 – Belgium – Restart and extended operation of Belgian reactors approved. The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control has approved the restart of unit 3 at Tihange nuclear power plant following a maintenance outage. Doel 4 is scheduled to restart by November 2025 at the latest. Doel 4 and Tihange 2 were the country’s last 2 reactors which were scheduled to close in 2025 (here).

• 7/18/2025 – Bulgaria – Bulgaria partners with Citi for financing of new Kozloduy units. The construction of Units 7 and 8 will be the first reactors in Europe using Westinghouse’s AP1000 technology. The goal is to have Unit 7 operational by 2035 and Unit 8 operational by 2038 (here).

• 7/22/2025 – United Kingdom – UK Energy Secretary signed a FID for Sizewell C nuclear power plant in England. The government confirmed it will take a 44.9% stake in the project. The plan for Sizewill C is to build 2 EPR reactors producing a total of 3.2GW of electricity for at least 60 years. This is set to be the first new nuclear construction project in the UK in decades (here).

• 7/29/2025 – Slovakia – Slovakia has moved forward with plans to build a nuclear plant (costs estimated at €13-15bn) in partnership with the US company Westinghouse. The intergovernmental deal signed with the US has already been finalized however the deal does not technically oblige Slovakia to choose Westinghouse. A construction contract is expected in 2027, pending feasibility studies (here).

Asia

• 7/22/2025 – Japan – Japan is reportedly conducting surveys for its first nuclear power plant location since Fukushima incident (here).

• 8/1/2025 – Kazakhstan – China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has now secured a contract to lead the construction of a third nuclear facility in Kazakhstan. Earlier in the year (June 2025) Russia’s Rosatom was selected to build the first nuclear facility in Kazakhstan while CNNC has been selected to build the second and third facility (here).

• 8/7/2025 – India – India laid out key features of its nuclear energy strategy with the goal of achieving 100GW of nuclear capacity by 2047. The government noted Gorakhpur 1 and 2 are expected to be completed by 2031-2032. The government describes these as under construction, however the PRIS database does not consider these as under construction until the first major placing of concrete (here).

• 8/8/2025 – China – The China National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a construction license on Friday, August 8th for units 1 and 2 at the Jinqimen nuclear power plant. The construction of the two, Hualong One reactors, was approved on December 29th, 2023 with the ground breaking ceremony held in February 2024. The current license now allows first concrete to be poured for the foundation of the reactor (here).

Latest reactors connected to power grids. 

China dominates the reactor pipeline. 

Global reactors under construction (years under construction). 

Chinese reactors under construction (years under construction). 

A separate Goldman note outlines that the coming uranium supply deficit is set to explode. 

Our most recent nuclear coverage:

• Trump’s “Nuclear” Order And How To Profit: All You Need To Know About The Coming Nuclear Energy Transition

• Goldman Names “Top Tactical Play” In Nuclear Theme Ahead Of Uranium Structural Deficit Explosion

• Inside The Nuclear Energy Ecosystem: Where Goldman Clients Are Parking Their Money

• Goldman Turns Bullish On This Uranium Firm With Largest Licensed U.S. Processing Capacity

And we’ll leave you with this…

Hey @grok how long does it take to build a new nuclear power plant https://t.co/iX4l8J6WiR

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025

.  .  . 

Via The Cradle

Iranian police arrested around 21,000 people on various charges during the 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s national police force reported on Tuesday. According to local media, more than 7,850 public tips were received during the fighting, leading to the arrests. 

The spokesperson of the Iranian police, Saed Montazer al-Mahdi, noted that the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA) handled 5,700 cybercrime cases, including internet fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and a cyber attack on the Nobitex exchange.

He said 2,774 “illegal citizens” were detained, with 261 people arrested on suspicion of espionage and 172 detained for unauthorized filming – some for filming “sensitive centers” around the country. Examinations of the suspects’ mobile phones led to the opening of 30 special security cases.

Speaking on the Evin Prison incident, Mahdi stated that police arrested 127 “security and political” inmates during an escape attempt, including two of whom were dressed in firefighter uniforms.

Fars News Agency reported on July 25 that more than 700 people had been detained over the previous 12 days on charges of “security cooperation with Israel.”

Separately, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on 22 July that 75 prisoners escaped during an Israeli missile strike on Evin Prison.

According to Shargh Media Group, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib said, “The intelligence and security organizations have the resources [personnel, assets, and operational capabilities] to mobilize them both internally and within the regime itself. During the imposed 12-day war, we witnessed seven million public reports.”

He added, “We hope that as this unity has been the axis of destroying all influence, hostility, conspiracy, and sedition, we will all be able to protect this unity and cohesion.”

During the June war, Israel launched coordinated attacks inside Iran, killing senior military and intelligence officials, nuclear scientists, and striking key military sites and administrative infrastructure.

Analysts speculate that the purpose of striking administrative buildings and infrastructure is to weaken the Iranian government’s grip and control over its border provinces with the hope of seeding unrest and separatist movements.

Both during and after the war, Iranian security forces seized large caches of explosives, drones, and weapons, along with workshops used for manufacturing unmanned systems from within the country itself.

Since then, the hunt for infiltrating agents has continued across the country, with leaders urging citizens to “maintain their vigilance, as they showed during the war.”

Authored by Josh Stylman via Substack,

One Chart. Three Generations. Total Extraction.

I saw this chart making the rounds on Twitter this week, and it stopped me cold. While the specific figures combine data from multiple sources, the trend is undeniable: in 1950, over half of 30-year-olds were married homeowners. By 2025, some analysts project that number as low as 13%.

That’s not a societal transformation. It’s not an economic fluke. It’s the visible outcome of an invisible strategy—one that extracted everything it could from a three-generation arc and left only illusions in its place.

They’ll tell you people just choose differently now—that marriage rates fell because of changing values. But people can’t choose what they can’t afford. When the economic foundation for family formation disappears, cultural changes follow inevitably. That chart doesn’t show us changing values or new priorities. It shows systemic breakdown, disguised for decades as freedom.

It maps the slow evaporation of the social contract. For one generation, adulthood was a starting point. For the next, a struggle. For the latest, an abstraction—marketed endlessly but almost never attained. What began as a rite of passage has become a paywalled simulation.

The post–World War II boom was never sustainable. In hindsight, this was obvious. It relied on conditions that were always time-limited: cheap energy from newly tapped oil fields, industrial monopolies before globalization kicked in, dollar hegemony that exported inflation globally, and a demographic pyramid with more workers than retirees. It was a golden window, not a golden age. And when the window closed, the illusion had to be maintained—through leverage, narrative, and ever-increasing sacrifice from the generations that followed.

The math quietly stopped working. Boomers bought homes for two or three times their annual income during an era when interest rates would fall for the next four decades—turning their mortgages into wealth-building machines as rates dropped from 15% to near-zero. Today’s buyers face five to six times their income—or more in major cities—while rates can only go up from historic lows. Where Boomers rode a 40-year tailwind of falling borrowing costs that inflated their assets while deflated their debt, current generations face headwinds at every turn. The Federal Reserve data confirms this unprecedented decline, showing rates falling from over 18% in the early 1980s to near 2.6% by 2021.

The housing market itself tells the story: recent data shows over 500,000 more sellers than buyers – not because homes are affordable, but because an entire generation has been systematically priced out.

The institutions that promised stability—education, government, media, finance—mutated into extraction machines. Still speaking the old language, they now served a different purpose: to keep people compliant inside a system that no longer offered a way out.

This wasn’t merely economic. It was existential. The foundations of meaning—family, ownership, stability—were quietly downgraded to lifestyle preferences, and then systematically priced out. People without homes are easier to relocate. People without families are easier to isolate. People without rootedness are easier to govern.

The Boomers didn’t design the con, but they lived in its payout phase. They received land, pensions, and a functional society. Many still believe they earned it, unable to recognize how thoroughly their reality was engineered from the start. Their children were left trying to replicate a model that no longer existed. Their grandchildren have grown up in the wreckage, wondering why their competence and effort never translate into traction.

This didn’t happen by accident. As I’ve documented in The Technocratic Blueprint, we’re witnessing the culmination of a century-long plan—a sophisticated pump and dump scheme where the bill is finally coming due. The architecture for this extraction has deep historical roots, dating back to systematic changes in how America was governed and how citizens were legally classified. What followed was a long, slow harvest of the population—one that disguised control as progress, debt as opportunity, and collapse as evolution. The postwar boom didn’t contradict that system—it lubricated it.

Now, the mirage is gone. What was once promised can no longer be afforded. The institutions that upheld the illusion are spent. They extract, but no longer inspire. They preach equity while enforcing dependence. They sell empowerment while removing agency.

And still, they insist the dream is alive.

But here’s where the extraction becomes truly sophisticated. As the traditional American Dream died, a new form of participation emerged: digital membership in what amounts to a global dollar club. As KF recently explained in his analysis of the GENIUS Act, stablecoins—digital bank accounts disguised as innovation—have exploded to serve 400 million users globally while generating massive profits for their issuers.

The trade-off is stark. Boomers got real assets with relative transactional privacy. The next generation gets digital “assets”—stablecoin wallets, app-based banking, algorithmic financial services—in exchange for comprehensive surveillance. What looks like financial inclusion is actually the infrastructure for total economic monitoring.

This represents the systematic replacement of real value with declared value across every domain. America has become a “club promoter” for the global dollar system, offering relaxed entry requirements that have drawn hundreds of billions into U.S. treasury-backed stablecoins. Users get access to “dollar-denominated wealth” through stablecoins that pay them no interest while the issuers pocket billions from the treasury yields. It’s the same extraction model that’s been systematically engineered through culture and media for decades, just scaled globally and digitized.

Experts in these systems, like Aaron Day, warn this represents a “backdoor CBDC”—applying existing financial surveillance laws to what was previously private money.

The surveillance trade-off is particularly insidious. In the short term, these systems offer less monitoring than traditional banks—no extensive paperwork, minimal identity verification. But once everyone is locked into the digital infrastructure, America can impose far stricter controls than ever before. Every transaction becomes trackable, every account becomes freezable, every economic participant becomes manageable.

We’re witnessing the replacement of physical ownership with digital access—and calling it progress. Where Boomers built equity in homes, the next generation builds balances in accounts that can be monitored, modified, or eliminated with keystrokes.

But charts don’t lie. That one chart—the brutal slope from 52% to 13%—says what no institution will admit: the old system is dead. It wasn’t lost. It was liquidated—and we were the product.

What gets built in its place remains an open question. The GENIUS Act’s full-reserve model could enable either unprecedented control—or the first real challenge to fractional-reserve banking in a century. But as Catherine Austin Fitts has pointed out, the Act contains no protections against programmable money, potentially creating private CBDCs with even less oversight than government-issued digital currency. As she explains, ‘the issuing is not centralized, it’s dispersed. But if you look at the control mechanism of a social credit system and we know the federal government is doing remarkable things to pull together all the data they need to do a social credit system controlled by private corporations, tech companies, essentially.’ The outcome isn’t predetermined—it’s being decided right now.

The good news is that once the spell breaks, you stop trying to win the rigged game. You stop competing for scraps and start building something real. Not a nostalgic replica of a world that’s gone—but a new structure, grounded in truth, agency, and actual sovereignty. The chart that documents the death of the old dream becomes the blueprint for something better—if we’re honest enough to read what it’s really telling us.

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Shipments of refined petroleum products out of Russia declined by 6.6% in July from the previous month, Reuters estimates showed on Wednesday, as domestic demand rose and capacity under planned maintenance increased.  

Russian seaborne fuel exports fell to 8.67 million metric tons last month, with shipments from the Baltic ports, the Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports, and the Arctic Murmansk and Arkhangelsk ports all down in July compared to June.   

Only the fuel shipments from the Far Eastern ports rose in July from a month earlier as most maintenance works at refineries in the area were completed, according to the data provided by industry sources and calculated by Reuters. 

Going forward, Russia’s refined product shipments could fall further in August, while crude oil exports could rise, as several refineries sustained damages during Ukrainian drone strikes earlier this month. 

A Sunday drone attack on the Saratov refinery, owned by Russia’s oil giant Rosneft, prompted the facility to halt the intake of crude oil, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Monday. 

The Saratov Refinery in the Volga region has the capacity to process 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, but it has now been forced offline due to Ukrainian drone strikes.   

The refinery has become the third Russian crude processing facility to have been damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes so far in August. 

The halt to three major refineries would mean that Russia will see lower domestic gasoline and diesel supply while it will have more crude available for export as it doesn’t have too much storage for the unprocessed crude.  

Last week, reports emerged that Russia is preparing to sharply increase crude oil exports this month after Ukrainian drone strikes disabled major refineries, prompting a shift toward western port shipments. 

Crude shipments from Russia’s western ports could increase to 2 million bpd in August, about 200,000 bpd more than previously planned, sources told Reuters last week.   

In July 2002, 24-year-old NASA intern Thad Roberts — a triple major in physics, geology, and geophysics at the University of Utah — carried out one of NASA’s most audacious thefts.

Struggling financially and supporting a wife back home, Roberts devised what he believed was a foolproof plan: steal a 600-pound safe from Houston’s Johnson Space Center containing lunar samples from every Apollo mission and a meteorite, together valued at $21 million, according to the NY Post.

His first step was finding a buyer. With help from friend Gordon McWhorter, Roberts connected online with a Belgian interested in paying $1,000–$5,000 per gram. The buyer, however, alerted the FBI, which told him to keep talking while agents investigated.

Around this time, Roberts began a whirlwind romance with 22-year-old NASA intern Tiffany Fowler. After just three weeks of dating, Roberts told her about the plan — and she agreed to help. They recruited another intern, Shae Saur, and one night used their NASA IDs to slip into the lab and wheel out the entire safe.

The NY Post writes that at a hotel, they sawed it open. On July 20, the 33rd anniversary of the first moon landing, Roberts and Fowler drove to Orlando to meet associates of the “buyer.” While waiting, Roberts hid moon rocks under the bed covers.

“I take some of the moon rocks and I put them underneath the blanket on the bed … I never said anything but I’m sure she could feel it,” he told CBS News in 2012. “It was more about the symbol of what we were doing, basically having sex on the moon. It’s more uncomfortable than not, but it wasn’t about the comfort at that point. It was about the expression. And no one had ever had sex on the moon before. I think we can safely say that.”

When the meeting came, it wasn’t buyers waiting — it was undercover FBI agents. The rocks were recovered, but the FBI said they were now “virtually useless to the scientific community,” and the theft also destroyed 30 years of a NASA scientist’s handwritten research notes.

After his arrest, Roberts admitted to also stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City. “We weren’t going to take this money we were getting from it to go buy a yacht or lots of cars or a big house,” he told CBS. “We were gonna live just the small kind of lifestyle we were, but fund science that might change the world, you know?”

Roberts, Fowler, and Saur pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property. Roberts got eight years in federal prison, serving six; Fowler and Saur each received 180 days of house arrest and 150 hours of community service. McWhorter, convicted at trial, was sentenced to six years. Roberts and Fowler never saw each other again.

Authored by Rachel Ann T. Melegrito via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Potatoes have long had a bad rap for being high in carbs. A new study backs that concern—at least in part.

That weekly french fry habit could be setting you up for diabetes decades down the road. Research found that eating french fries just three times a week may significantly raise Type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk—but, surprisingly, other potato preparations showed no increased risk at all.

“Our findings suggest it’s not fair to put all potatoes in the same basket,” lead author Seyed Mohammad Mousavi told The Epoch Times.

How You Like Your Potatoes Matters

The study, led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tracked more than 205,000 adults across three major U.S. observational health studies for 30 years. Participants regularly reported what they ate, along with details about their health and lifestyle.

The study found that every three extra servings of potatoes per week was associated with a 5 percent increase in T2D risk. For french fries, that jump was even higher—20 percent per three servings.

In contrast, eating baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes was not associated with an increased risk, suggesting that french fries are the main driver behind the link between potatoes and diabetes.

French fries are often loaded with salt, which can raise blood pressure and trigger inflammation, increasing the risk of T2D. However, it’s more than just the fat and salt content driving the diabetes risk.

“French fries are typically deep-fried at very high temperatures, which can produce harmful compounds,” Mousavi said. One such compound is acrylamide, formed during browning and linked to inflammation, insulin resistance, and blood vessel damage.

“Due to their deep-fried nature, they [fries] are also much higher in calories than baked or mashed potatoes,” said Melissa Mitri, a registered dietitian-nutritionist and owner of Melissa Mitri Nutrition, who was not involved in the study.

The large amounts of oil used in frying also introduce trans fats, which further increase insulin resistance and inflammation. Combined with the high-temperature cooking that breaks down resistant starches, french fries become a perfect storm for blood sugar chaos.

Potatoes and T2D

Even outside of french fries, people who ate seven or more servings of potatoes per week had a 12 percent higher risk of developing T2D. The risk rose with greater intake.

While preparation plays a key role in how potatoes affect diabetes risk, it’s worth noting they still have a high glycemic index, meaning they can rapidly raise blood sugar.

Potatoes are a common source of carbohydrates, especially starch, which the body quickly breaks down into sugar. Because of this, eating potatoes can cause a sharp rise in blood sugar levels soon after a meal.

Frequent blood sugar spikes force the pancreas to release more insulin repeatedly. Over time, this constant demand can cause insulin-producing cells to wear out or stop working properly. This contributes to insulin resistance and reduced insulin production—both key drivers of T2D.

A potato’s glycemic index, which ranks how quickly and how much foods raise blood sugar levels after eating,  depends on how they’re prepared. A higher glycemic diet is associated with an increased risk of developing T2D because the foods cause a rapid and significant rise in glucose levels.

Mashed and boiled potatoes have higher glycemic indexes because cooking breaks down their structure and makes the starch easier to digest, leading to faster spikes in blood sugar.

Deep frying also softens the starch inside, but the hot oil forms a crust with some resistant starch that slows digestion. The fat in fries also helps slow down how quickly sugar is absorbed, making their glycemic index a bit lower than mashed or instant potatoes.

Using different food preparation methods can reduce potatoes’ risks:

• Chill potatoes after cooking to increase their resistant starch content, slowing digestion and causing a more balanced rise in blood sugar.
• Bake or boil potatoes with the skin to retain more fiber and micronutrients.
• Boil, bake, or roast potatoes with minimal oil instead of frying to avoid added fats.
• Air fry potatoes to reduce the formation of harmful compounds produced by deep frying.

Replacing potatoes with other carbohydrates reduced T2D risk. Swapping mashed, boiled, or baked potatoes for whole grains like pasta, bread, or farro lowered diabetes risk by 4 percent, while replacing french fries cut it by 19 percent. Substituting fries with whole grains, legumes, brown rice, or vegetables also reduced risk by 19 percent.

The only swap that increased risk was white rice, which was linked to a 3 percent higher risk of T2D. This may be because white rice has a high glycemic index. “White rice is stripped of fiber and nutrients, digests quickly, and causes sharper spikes in blood sugar,” Mousavi said.

Whole grains have fiber that slows digestion and causes smaller blood sugar spikes.

Effects Surface Years Later

Perhaps most concerning, the study found that potato intake 12 to 20 years before diagnosis had the strongest association with diabetes risk—suggesting dietary choices in your 20s and 30s could determine your health in your 50s and 60s.

Type 2 diabetes develops gradually, with insulin resistance and inflammation starting decades before symptoms appear.

Who’s Most at Risk

Even after adjusting for genetics, diet, and lifestyle, the link between french fries and diabetes remained strong. It was especially pronounced in people with higher body mass index (BMI) and in white participants.

Mitri noted that excess weight is tied to inflammation. “Someone with a higher BMI may have more difficulty responding to insulin,” she said, which can worsen insulin resistance.

“So for people with higher BMI, the same amount of potatoes may have a bigger impact on diabetes risk,” Mousavi said.

The study also found that people who ate more potatoes often took in more calories, sugary drinks, and red meat, and were less physically active—factors that can raise diabetes risk.

Via The Libertarian Institute

The Pentagon activated a military intelligence unit in South Korea. The move comes after the US established a second fighter “super squadron” on the Korean Peninsula.

According to a statement from the US Army, the 528th Military Intelligence Company (MICO) is now operating in South Korea. The 528th will be part of the Second Infantry Division.

“2ID is the last remaining permanently forward-stationed division in the U.S. Army. Its purpose is to deter aggression and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, and if deterrence fails, ‘Fight Tonight’ in support of the U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance,” the Army’s statement explained.

The 528th was established during World War II and deployed to the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War. The 528th was disbanded in 2005, after deployments during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the statement, the MICO will be “utilized to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about enemy forces, terrain, and potential threats to support decision-making and ensure mission success.”

The reestablishment of the military intelligence company follows the Pentagon repositioning dozens of F-16s in South Korea closer to the demilitarized zone.

Additionally, Washington and Seoul are set to kick off large-scale war games that often lead to a spike in tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

However, the US and South Korea agreed to divide the war games, and will conduct half of the planned military exercises in September.

Last month, Pyongyang said it was not interested in bilateral talks with Seoul, but was open to talks with Washington so long as the US dropped its demand for North Korean denuclearization.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed fresh controversy and anger among Arab countries and leaders by suggesting a huge land expanse of Israel’s borders in an interview he gave to i24 News.

In the newly published interview he said he is on a “historic and spiritual mission” and expressed strong attachment to the vision of a Greater Israel, which is a longtime reference to Israel encompasing parts of Jordan, Egypt and Syria – along with the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It comes on the heels of some hardline Israeli officials and settler groups loudly proclaiming that soon Israeli forces will be in Damascus. This is all based on Biblical concepts of what God is said to have promised the Jews thousands of years ago.

The interviewer had presented Netanyahu with an amulet featuring what he described as a “map of the Promised Land” – with the image symbolically depicting the greatly expanded vision of Israel’s future.

Netanyahu when asked if he feels a connection with this concept of a Greater Israel, responded “Very much”. The interviewer himself is known to back radical settler ideologies which seek to take land by force from neighboring Arab communities.

Among the first regional governments to condemn the remarks has been Jordan.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry highlighed the ‘Greater Israel’ remarks, commenting that it constitutes “a dangerous and provocative escalation, a threat to the sovereignty of states, and a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.”

The ministry further emphasized “the need for the international community to act immediately to stop all provocative Israeli actions and statements that threaten the region’s stability and international peace and security.”

Netanyahu claims he is on a ‘historical and spiritual mission’ to realize ‘Greater Israel’ pic.twitter.com/T2z3L1mnQd

— HatsOff (@HatsOffff) August 12, 2025

Some war monitors fear that the Netanyahu government is in effect already trying to enact this – given that from the start of post-Assad Syria (last December), Israel’s military quickly expanded the Golan occupation far beyond, into southern Syria.

This is to the point where currently there are reports saying IDF ground forces are a mere dozen kilometers from the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

Warren Buffett once referred to derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction.”

He wasn’t being dramatic—he was warning that if things went wrong, these complex financial instruments could cause massive, far-reaching damage to the global economy. What Buffett feared most was how a sudden, unexpected market shock could set off a dangerous chain reaction through the financial system, fueled by the hidden risks and tangled interconnections that derivatives create.

These instruments link major banks, hedge funds, and corporations in an intricate web of bets on the future prices of oil, interest rates, currencies, and more.

For example, airlines and energy companies routinely use oil-linked derivatives to hedge or speculate. If oil prices were to surge unexpectedly, the counterparties on the losing end—often large financial institutions—would be on the hook for enormous payouts. That, in turn, would trigger margin calls, liquidity crunches, and potentially forced asset sales.

The fear spreads quickly, because many of these derivative contracts are opaque—no one really knows who is exposed or by how much. That uncertainty can lead to panic in the markets, as everyone starts pulling back at once.

Losses like these rarely stay contained. A default in one part of the system spreads risk outward. If a major player can’t cover its exposure, it endangers its counterparties. If one of those is a major bank, the problem quickly becomes systemic.

This is precisely the kind of domino effect Buffett was describing—a market shock lighting fuses in unexpected places, turning financial interconnectivity into financial fragility.

Because derivatives are so interconnected and can involve huge sums of money, the damage can grow quickly and unpredictably, much like a series of explosions. That’s why Buffett saw them not just as risky tools, but as potential threats to the entire financial system. In other words, financial WMD.

So why bring this up now?

Because the recent war between Israel, the US, and Iran is far from over. At some point, a far more serious confrontation between the US and Iran appears inevitable—and when it comes, it will almost certainly disrupt the flow of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf.

To call that a severe supply disruption would be an understatement.

Consider this.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow strip of water that links the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world.

It’s the world’s single-most important energy corridor, and there’s no alternative route.

Five of the world’s top 10 oil-producing countries—Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait—border the Persian Gulf, as does Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Strait of Hormuz is their only sea route to the open ocean… and world markets.

At its narrowest point, the space available for shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz is just 3.2 kilometers wide.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, around 20 million barrels of oil transit the Strait daily, accounting for roughly 20% of global oil production—worth about $1.4 billion per day at current prices. Another 20% of global LNG exports also move through the Strait.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Strait of Hormuz to the global economy. If someone were to disrupt the Strait, it would ignite a full-blown energy crisis, sending prices soaring and financial markets into chaos.

Thanks to its commanding geography and expertise in unconventional and asymmetric warfare, Iran can shut down the Strait, and there’s not much anyone can do about it. It’s Iran’s geopolitical trump card.

Analysts believe it could take weeks to reopen, if at all. Pentagon war games have shown that in a full-scale war, the US Navy would be unable to keep the Strait open. Faced with swarming missile attacks, American forces would either have to withdraw or risk total annihilation.

Worse still, Iran could target oil infrastructure across the Persian Gulf, destroying production facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Even if the Strait reopened, there could be nothing left to export.

Military strategists have known this for decades, yet no viable strategy has ever emerged to neutralize Iran’s leverage. Tehran has made it clear: if a full-scale war breaks out, it will close the Strait and destroy the Persian Gulf’s energy infrastructure.

In short, Iran holds a knife to the throat of the global economy.

Since the 1979 Revolution, the US has sought to overthrow Iran’s government. But Iran’s control over the Strait has long served as a powerful deterrent to regime change. That deterrence, however, may be breaking down.

We are now in the midst of World War 3—and Iran has become the decisive battleground. The US and Israel may be willing to risk global economic collapse to topple the Iranian government, a move that would dramatically shift the global balance of power in their favor.

If a war with Iran shuts down the Strait of Hormuz, the impact would dwarf every oil crisis in modern history.

During the first oil shock in 1973, about 5 million barrels were removed from the global oil market. At the time, daily global oil production was around 56 million barrels. That means roughly 9% of the world’s supply vanished.

Oil prices roughly quadrupled.

In the second oil shock of 1979, about 4 million barrels disappeared from the market. Daily production was around 67 million barrels—so about 6% of global supply was lost.

Oil prices nearly tripled.

Then, in 1990, during Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, about 4.3 million barrels were removed. With global production at roughly 66 million barrels per day, that was a 7% supply loss.

Oil prices more than doubled.

Now compare that to a Strait of Hormuz shutdown, which could instantly remove 20 million barrels from a global market producing about 100 million barrels per day—a staggering 20% of supply gone overnight.

This would be the largest supply shock in history. By far.

If war with Iran proceeds and Tehran closes the Strait of Hormuz, I think the effect on the price of oil will be at least as severe as it was during the 1973 oil shock, which saw oil prices go up 4x.

A similar move today could see oil prices above $275 a barrel.

However, I consider that a conservative estimate because closing the Strait of Hormuz would cause a much larger supply shock than the 1973 OPEC oil embargo.

And unlike financial crises of the past, this one can’t be fixed with printed money. Central banks can inject liquidity, but they can’t manufacture oil. Physical supply shortages aren’t solvable by monetary policy. Even the combined efforts of the US and Russia to increase oil production couldn’t replace the missing 20 million barrels per day quickly enough to prevent market chaos.

This kind of price shock would hit derivatives markets like a sledgehammer, where oil and gas are heavily traded via futures, options, and swaps. Any firm on the wrong side of the trade would face steep losses, triggering margin calls, liquidity demands, and potential defaults. Big banks that serve as counterparties or intermediaries would be directly exposed to the fallout.

This could set off a cascade of defaults and margin calls that ripple through the global financial system—and make 2008 look tame by comparison.

A closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a credible trigger for a catastrophic global economic depression.

Iran’s true nuclear option isn’t a warhead—it’s a financial WMD, setting off a chain reaction by shutting down the Strait and sending oil prices through the roof, detonating the derivatives bomb at the heart of the global financial system.

*  *  *

As tensions escalate and the risk of a full-scale conflict with Iran grows, so too does the potential for a financial chain reaction unlike anything we’ve seen before. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t just trigger an oil shock—it could ignite a global economic crisis that dwarfs 2008. That’s why we’ve put together a special report: The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… and the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Inside, you’ll discover how powerful political and economic forces are converging, what hidden risks may threaten your wealth, privacy, and personal freedom, and the three critical moves every individual should consider making today to prepare. Don’t wait for the headlines to confirm what’s already in motion. Click here to access the full report now for free.