Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has declared that a reinvigorated alliance of Central European nationalist leaders — including Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, and the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babiš — could collectively stop the European Union’s next long-term budget in its tracks.
In a televised interview with Polish journalist Michał Karnowski for Telewizja wPolsce24, Orbán stated that the Visegrád Group — made up of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Czechia — has the power to block the upcoming EU financial framework if they act together.
“The next European budget must be approved unanimously by EU member states,” Orbán said.
“We have elections in April next year. President Kaczyński and Prime Minister Morawiecki will return to power [in Poland]. Andrej Babiš will win in the Czech Republic in October, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is strong enough to stay. Then the four of us, as the Visegrád Group, will be able to stop the crazy ideas contained in this project.”
Orbán’s opposition to the EU’s proposed 2028–2034 budget is rooted in his fierce resistance to what he calls its “Ukraine-centered” focus. Nearly one third of the proposed spending, he argues, would either go directly to Ukraine or be used to service EU debt accumulated to support Kyiv. In a recent speech, Orbán described it as “not a European budget, but a Ukraine budget,” and warned that its approval would divert vital resources away from EU member states.
He also reiterated that Hungary will not support the new EU budget unless frozen funds owed to his country are released. Those funds have been held up by Brussels over concerns about alleged rule-of-law violations in Hungary, which Budapest insists are fabricated because the Orbán administration will not conform to Brussels’ liberal agenda.
“Hungary will block the European Union’s proposed seven‑year budget unless the EU releases suspended funds,” Orbán told reporters earlier this month.
The Hungarian premier also repeated his warning that EU efforts to bring Ukraine closer to membership could drag Central Europe into direct conflict.
“If we admit Ukraine, we admit the war,” he said, arguing that current foreign policy thinking in Brussels is a threat to Hungary’s survival.
Speaking about Poland, Orbán praised former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and expressed hope that he would soon return to power.
“During the Law and Justice government, you achieved fantastic economic results,” Orbán said. “Prime Minister Morawiecki was one of the best Polish prime ministers I’ve ever known, also an excellent financial expert. Therefore, the Polish government has all the tools to build the greatest era of Polish success in history. If I were Polish, thinking about the future, I would be optimistic.”
He added that Poland’s size and political strength under the Law and Justice Party had helped shield Hungary from EU pressure in previous years. “Poland is larger than Hungary. Its political strength during the rule of President Jarosław Kaczyński’s party and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s government helped, for a time, reduce pressure from Brussels on Hungary. I remember this very well.”
Orbán also spoke positively about Czech politics, predicting a return to power for Andrej Babiš and his ANO party. The Czech Republic will hold parliamentary elections on October 3 and 4, and polls currently show Babiš’s party well ahead of its rivals. ANO has consistently led national surveys by double-digit margins, and Babiš, a former prime minister, is expected by many analysts to regain the premiership after the vote.
With a Law and Justice revival in Poland, Fico maintaining power in Slovakia, and Babiš likely to win in the Czech Republic, Orbán believes the Visegrád alliance could be reborn. “This election opens up an opportunity to renew Central European cooperation,” he said. “We call it the Visegrád Group, but we can call it whatever we want. The key is the cooperation, which has been a great success.”
He added that past V4 cooperation had served as a counterweight to the dominance of France and Germany in EU affairs, and said he welcomed recent developments, including Karol Nawrocki’s presidential election victory in Poland, as signs that the regional alliance is on the brink of revival. “We’ve opened a huge, powerful bottle of champagne. This is a historic victory,” he said.
‘A Living Skeleton Buried Alive’: Hamas Releases Images Of Hostages In The Tunnels
After it became clear this past week that ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have totally collapsed once again, with little hope of getting the warring sides back to the negotiating table, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have released more proof of life videos showing they still have captives who are alive.
Hostage Evyatar David appeared very emaciated in a clip that his family approved for publication (in Israeli media) on Saturday, which his family says is evidence that he is being deliberately starved.
David was kidnapped Reim-area Nova music festival during the Hamas/PIJ terror onslaught of October 7, 2023. This means he’s been in captivity over 660 days.
Times of Israel describes, “In the new footage, David is seen in a tunnel with a ceiling roughly as high as he is tall, crossing off dates on a calendar on the tunnel’s wall. He is unkempt and unshaven, and appears skeletal even in comparison with the February video, which was filmed during the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas, as Israel increased the flow of aid into Gaza. That deal collapsed in March.”
The prior aforementioned video shows that in comparison to the newest images his health and nutrition has declined rapidely. Probably his captors are deliverately starving him in order to ‘make a point’ about the mass hunger currently gripping the Gaza Strip.
Hamas featured David in a propaganda video saying “They eat what we eat, they drink what we drink.”
⚡️BREAKING: Al-Qassam Brigades released footage of Israeli captive Evyatar David:
“He hoped to be released by a deal.
The occupation government has decided to starve them.
They eat what we eat, they drink what we drink. pic.twitter.com/OHo0K9GVWb
Separately, days ago Isalmic Jihad published a video of hostage Rom Braslavski, who has been held just as long as David, showing him looking pale and extremely thin while addressing the camera in an unknown location in Gaza.
Alarmingly, Islamic Jihad said the video was taken just before command leadership lost contact with those immediately in charge of Braslavski’s captivity. This suggests his fate is currently uknown, despite the proof of life video.
The same hostage was featured in an April video where he described experiencing “hell” – in which which he looked sickly.
Today, Palestinian Islamic Jihad released footage of Rom Braslavski.
Rom was kidnapped from the Nova music festival and has been held hostage in Gaza for close to 700 days.
Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Mark Carney would like to give Rom’s captors their own country. pic.twitter.com/4tBYtGuT3C
From the newest video released showing Braslavski lying down, appearing in pain:
These newly released videos, clearly intentionally timed for maximum political and psychological impact, have spurred new outrage among hostage victims’ families, who have been demanding meetings with PM Netanyahu and top Israeli leadership, in order to pressure the government to make a deal for an exchange.
While more and more people are becoming aware that masking healthy people is both ineffective and harmful – as illustrated by the current rarity of face coverings in community settings – pockets of pro-mask zealotry remain smouldering in certain sections of our society, constituting an ongoing risk of re-ignition in the future.
Health and social care is one such example – a hazard addressed in Smile Free’s recent film, Masking Humanity.
Another is our education system, where, for prolonged periods during the Covid event, headmasters and teachers cruelly muzzled our kids in schools.
Now, as a result of the sterling endeavours of the ‘Declaration of Dumfries’ (DoD) team – a fellowship of people promoting common law principles of truth, rights and sovereignty – a rare opportunity has arisen to land a telling blow against those in authority and thereby deter any future imposition of masks on our schoolchildren.
The Actions of the ‘Declaration of Dumfries’ Fellowship
In brief, what the ‘Declaration of Dumfries’ (DoD) people have accomplished is to force a local council to explicitly admit that they never had the authority to mask children, nor to punish pupils for non-compliance.
By doing so, there is now an opening for parents of children who were victims of the unlawful mask impositions during the Covid event to sue their local councils and, by doing so, land a blow that will ensure that those in positions of power within our education system think twice before ever pulling such a stunt on our nation’s children again.
To achieve this victory required 17 months of dogged determination and persistence.
The sequence of events is detailed in a DoD flowchart.
The timeline can be summarised as follows:
14th of February 2022: The DoD submit a Freedom of Information request to Dumfries & Galloway Council asking for, “documented evidence of their authority to mask children”
4th of March 2022: Dumfries & Galloway Council respond that they had “complied with… regulations and guidance from the Scottish Government… and refutes any contention to the contrary”
30th of March 2022: Following a DoD request for a review, the Council reiterate its position that “it has followed all appropriate guidance & regulation” and provide links to several government documents. Given that these publications did not address their questions, DoD request arbitration from the Scottish Information Commissioner
18th of October 2022: The Council deny that any “enforcement” of masks had taken place
10th of August 2023: The Council accept that they did not hold information confirming their authority “to impose masks on other people’s children” and also acknowledge there was “no policy/guidance that permitted (granted authority) to headmasters/teachers… to ask pupils to leave school if they did not wear a face mask”
11th of August 2023: Following prompts (from the DoD) for further clarity, the Council also accepts that they had no authority to impose any other kinds of punishment for non-compliance with their mask requirements
The Implications of This Admission by Dumfries & Galloway Council
The rising number of us who recognise that the generic masking of healthy people does far more harm than good have been increasingly frustrated by the failure of our political elite to openly acknowledge this fact, and to provide the general public with reassurance that this restriction will for ever be condemned to reside in that cupboard labelled, ‘Crazy public health restrictions, never to be repeated’.
Unfortunately, this admission has not been forthcoming; it seems that the Government and their ‘experts’ hope we will all forget about this shameful period in our history. But now – thanks to the tenacity of the DoD team – there is a unique opportunity to land a telling blow against the establishment.
The explicit recognition by Dumfries & Galloway Council that the imposition of masks onto other people’s children was an illegitimate act now renders every local authority in Scotland (and probably in the rest of the UK) vulnerable to being sued by the victims of this inhuman practice.
A legal precedent such as this would go a long way to ensuring that our children are never again bullied into wearing de-humanising masks by headmasters and teachers.
If you are a parent of a child who was harassed (or even harmed) by these policies, you may have the chance to prosecute your local council and – if successful – go a long way to protecting our future youngsters from this cruel restriction.
Is anyone out there willing to grasp the nettle?
Those interested in suing those culpable of muzzling our kids can find further details here, or they can email dod@declarationofdumfries.co.uk to discuss potential options.
The CIA’s infamous Cold War propaganda and psychological operation (PSYOP) program never died—it just turned inward…
The question isn’t whether the government is manipulating Americans, but how they’re doing it right now—through intelligence leaks, media collusion, psychological tactics, and taxpayer-funded propaganda.
That was the warning from U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during a searing July 31 interview, where she confirmed that intelligence insiders are actively using corporate media to manipulate the American people and sabotage President Donald Trump’s agenda—echoing the tactics of ‘Operation Mockingbird.’
Every major news organization or its parent companies, from FOX News to CNN, are owned by globalist-aligned asset managers like BlackRock, an offical partner of the anti-American-sovereignty World Economic Forum (WEF).
“There are people within the intelligence community who believe that their will is more important than the will of the American people,” Gabbard told conservative host Benny Johnson. “[They] will weaponize intelligence by leaking it to their friends within the mainstream media with the intent of undermining President Trump’s agenda.”
Mockingbird Reloaded: Intelligence Tools Aimed at Americans
Once a covert CIA program used to plant propaganda in foreign and domestic media, Operation Mockingbird infiltrated major U.S. newsrooms throughout the 1950s–1970s.
It was exposed during the Church Committee hearings, where Congress revealed that the agency maintained relationships with hundreds of journalists to shape public perception.
Today, Gabbard says, that same playbook is being deployed against Americans.
Only now, it’s fully digital, algorithmic, and taxpayer-funded.
“They are subverting the will of the people and therefore undermining the Constitution,” Gabbard warned.
From CIA to CDC: Government Propaganda Is Now a Domestic Industry
Gabbard’s warning comes as Congress continues to uncover a parallel propaganda apparatus inside U.S. health agencies.
“The Biden-Harris administration caused Americans to lose trust in the public health system,” said Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), accusing the CDC and NIH of using ads containing “erroneous or unproven information.”
The report revealed that:
The CDC exaggerated the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines beyond FDA authorization.
Messaging about mask effectiveness and COVID risk to children was “deeply flawed.”
Federal funds went to Big Tech companies to “track and monitor Americans,” prompting calls for stronger data privacy protections.
Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA) slammed the administration’s “Stop the Spread” campaign as scientifically baseless, saying it “misled the American public” and triggered a broader collapse in trust across all vaccine programs.
“American trust in the CDC is at an all-time low,” said Subcommittee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY).
Fear as a Weapon: Scientists Admit Psychological Manipulation
Further validating Gabbard’s claims, behavioral scientists who advised governments during the COVID crisis have since admitted to weaponizing fear to coerce compliance—describing their actions as “unethical,” “dystopian,” and “totalitarian.”
Members of the UK’s ‘Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour’ (SPI-B), who advised the government’s COVID response, revealed that officials deliberately ramped up fear to push lockdowns the public might otherwise reject.
“Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any modern government,” said SPI-B psychologist Gavin Morgan.
“[P]sychologists didn’t seem to notice when it stopped being altruistic and became manipulative. They have too much power and it intoxicates them,” another member confessed.
One warned that “people use the pandemic to grab power and drive through things that wouldn’t happen otherwise… We have to be very careful about the authoritarianism that is creeping in.”
Gabbard: ‘This Is Why Trump’s Mandate Is Critical’
Gabbard said her fight is not just about cleaning up rogue intelligence operators—it’s about reversing the normalization of psychological warfare on the American public.
“To be able to turn the light on in places that have been dark for far too long, expose the truth, and drive accountability—that’s the only way we can actually shift this,” she said.
She affirmed that Trump is fully aware of the deep-state sabotage being conducted through the media.
“President Trump is enacting the very thing he promised the American people he would do in this election.”
You can watch the segment posted on Benny Johnson’s Twitter/X account (@bennyjohnson) below:
SCARY: Tulsi Gabbard CONFIRMS That ‘Operation Mockingbird’ is STILL Ongoing inside the CIA and she is actively trying to Shut it Down.
Tulsi says Deep State intel agents are still actively colluding with left-wing media outlets to attack President Trump from within:
From Psy-Ops to Policy: The Full-Spectrum Control Grid
The Church Committee once warned that Mockingbird undermined the very idea of a free press.
The playbook didn’t end, it just upgraded.
Today’s propaganda apparatus now includes:
Leaked narratives from intel to legacy media
AI-powered censorship tools on social platforms
CDC-funded influencer campaigns targeting youth
Federal surveillance partnerships with tech giants
Coerced public health compliance through fear psychology
The same government that once planted editorials in The Washington Post now quietly curates your news feed, flags dissent as misinformation, and suppresses debate under the guise of “public health.”
Bottom Line
Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation is historic: the top U.S. intelligence official has publicly stated that agencies under her own leadership are using media to manipulate Americans.
Operation Mockingbird didn’t end.
It simply changed targets.
The American people are no longer just the audience of government propaganda.
‘No One Is Above The Law’: Jack Smith Under Investigation Over Hatch Act Violations
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has launched an investigation into Jack Smith, a DOJ lawyer who led two criminal investigations into President Donald Trump during the Biden administration – one, into Trump’s handling of classified documents, and the other, which sought to prove that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 were an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Both cases were ultimately tossed.
According to an email reviewed by the NY Post, Smith is being investigated by the Hatch Act Unit, which enforces a law that restricts government employees from engaging in political activities. The email was written by Senior Counsel Charles Baldis at OSC.
“I appreciate the Office of Special Counsel taking this seriously and launching an investigation into Jack Smith’s conduct. No one is above the law,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) said in a statement to The Post. “Jack Smith’s actions were clearly driven to hurt President Trump’s election, and Smith should be held fully accountable.”
OSC launched the investigation following a letter from Cotton which accused Smith of taking blatantly political actions to undermine President Trump during his 2024 White House run.
Smith notably resigned from his post as Special Counsel in January, after President Trump’s inauguration.
Smith’s actions as prosecutor have been widely criticized by Republicans who saw the prosecutions as an effort to weaponize the justice system against Trump and hobble his election chances in 2024.
In his letter to OSC, Cotton explains how Smith’s actions undermined Trump’s political efforts.
“Jack Smith’s legal actions were nothing more than a tool for the Biden and Harris campaigns. This isn’t just unethical, it is very likely illegal campaign activity from a public office,” Cotton said.
“Many of Smith’s legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results – actions that would violate federal law.”
“These actions were not standard, necessary, or justified,” Cotton wrote. “They were the actions of a political actor masquerading as a public official.”
Smith, meanwhile, has been mum on the allegations – though he has maintained that during his time as Special Counsel he followed legal protocols and was untainted by political influence (lol).
Indians & Nepalese Are The World’s Most Voracious Mobile Data Users
With smartphones now central tools in our daily lives, mobile data usage has surged globally – especially in rural and developing countries where mobile networks often serve as the primary way to access the internet.
Data comes from Ericsson’s June 2025 Mobility Report. India, Nepal, and Bhutan are not part of South East Asia and Oceania data.
Which Countries Have the Highest Mobile Data Usage Rates?
Below, we show mobile data traffic per smartphone in 2024 in GBs per month, by region.
The region of India, Nepal, and Bhutan leads globally, with the highest data traffic per smartphone at 32 GB per monthly, nearly 50% more than North America or Western Europe.
Additionally, in many rural areas, smartphones are the primary, if not only, way people access the internet. In Nepal, 96% of residents access the internet through mobile devices, while only about 15% of households have devices such as computers or laptops.
Advanced regions like North America, Western Europe, and North East Asia see similar monthly usage levels, around 20 to 22 GB per phone.
Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind, with the lowest data traffic at just 5 GB per month, highlighting a significant digital usage gap compared to other regions. The region faces higher internet and data costs relative to income, making internet access less affordable for many.
To learn more about mobile data usage trends, check out this graphic that visualizes the countries with the highest monthly mobile data usage per capita.
When asked how far the US government has plunged into the red, many fiscally-conscious Americans will tell you the national debt has reached $37 trillion. As distressing as that official number is, America’s true fiscal situation is even worse — far worse. According to a barely-publicized Treasury report, the actual grand total of Uncle Sam’s obligations is more than $151 trillion.
That huge discrepancy springs from the fact that the federal government doesn’t hold itself to the same accounting standards it imposes on businesses. Rather than using accrual accounting — which recognizes expenses when they’re incurred — our Washington overlords self-servingly use simple cash accounting, only recognizing expenses when they’re paid. As a result, discourse on federal obligations solely focuses on the national debt, comprising Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
Once a year, however, an obscure report delivers a more accurate version of Uncle Sam’s balance sheet. While it receives almost no attention from journalists or public officials, the Treasury Department is required to submit an annual report to Congress detailing the government’s financial condition. Critically, the 1994 law compelling this report mandates that it reflect “unfunded liabilities” — that is, commitments made without any dedicated assets or income streams to ensure they’ll be kept.
One of the larger categories of those unfunded liabilities is future federal employee and veterans benefits. At the end of the 2024 fiscal year, this alone represented a $15 trillion obligation. However, by leaps and bounds, the largest unfunded liabilities spring from America’s social insurance obligations — primarily Social Security and Medicare. At fiscal-year end, these liabilities totaled a towering $105.8 trillion.
Stacking these and other unfunded liabilities on top of the publicly-held national debt and other obligations, you arrive at a grand total of $151.3 trillion at the end of the 2024 fiscal year. Offsetting that by an estimated $7.9 trillion in US government commercial assets — including property, plant, equipment and purported gold holdings — a Just Facts analysis puts Uncle Sam at an overall net-negative $143 trillion.
Writing at the Heartland Institute, Just Facts president James Agresti put that nearly-incomprehensible total in perspective: “$143 trillion amounts to 85% of the net wealth Americans have accumulated since the nation’s founding, estimated by the Federal Reserve to be $169 trillion. This includes all of their assets in savings, real estate, corporate stocks, private businesses, and even consumer durable goods like automobiles and furniture.”
Those numbers reflected the government’s position on Sept 30, 2024. They’ve not only grown significantly worse in the intervening months, they’re deteriorating at a blistering pace even as you read this: Not even counting the unfunded liabilities that represent the biggest part of the problem, the national debt alone is increasing at something like $156 million per hour.
Wrangling over the budget isn’t going to save us. Congressional debates tend to center on discretionary spending — outlays that require a vote by Congress during the appropriations process. However, America’s steady march to insolvency is driven by so-called mandatory spending, which is hardwired by previously-enacted laws.
In what may be the most ominous indication that the government is on an autopilot-course for catastrophe, the proportion of total federal outlays driven by mandatory spending has more than doubled since 1965 — from 34% to 73% in 2024. It was at 71% just two years earlier, in 2022.
The two largest examples of mandatory spending are Social Security and Medicare. Those old-age programs are now well within sight of a crisis that’s been warned about for a generation: According to the latest report from their program trustees, Social Security and Medicare trust funds are now just seven years from insolvency.
While the federal government requires private-sector pension plans to maintain assets equal to the present value of future obligations, the federal government exempts itself from providing the same security to the citizens that it forces into the Social Security program. Contrary to the mythology that payroll taxes are placed in individual “accounts” held for our future benefit, that money is immediately being dished out to other people who’ve already reached the benefit-receiving phase — which is why Social Security can be reasonably compared to a Ponzi scheme.
Because the ratio of taxpaying-workers to beneficiaries is in steady decline — from 5.1 in 1960 to 2.7 in 2023 — Social Security payouts have exceeded revenues for the last 15 years. As a result, the Social Security and Medicare trust funds are set to run out in 2033. Under the law governing Social Security, payouts that year will be limited to program incomes — which will translate to a sudden 23% cut in payouts.
While that represents a political time bomb, don’t expect any urgency in defusing it. The eight-year countdown is short, but it’s still outside the next-election framing that drives elected officials’ actions. Those politicians know that anyone proposing a long-overdue rethinking of Social Security and Medicare will be opportunistically accused of “attacking” the programs. However, when the crisis is finally in their laps, don’t be surprised if part of their solution is to borrow money to prop up the payouts.
There’s another key component of mandatory spending that isn’t counted in the national debt: interest payments on debt issued to cover past and current spending. “In total, social programs and interest on the national debt—which mainly stems from social programs—account for 75% of all federal spending,” notes Agresti.
Interest payments also represent a steadily growing share of total outlays, and will total almost $1 trillion this year. Within 10 years, interest is projected to reach $2 trillion, roughly equal to the entire 2025 deficit. Last year saw a grim milestone, as interest expense surpassed spending on both defense and Medicare.
Current projections have interest surpassing Social Security to become the largest single expenditure by 2042, but don’t be surprised if that milestone doesn’t come sooner. The government is already descending into a vicious cycle in which mounting US debt has the buyers of that debt demanding higher interest rates in compensation for the growing risk of inflation and/or default — with those higher rates creating larger interest payouts and even more debt.
Beyond mandatory-vs-discretionary, and funded-vs-unfunded, there’s an even more important but far-less-discussed classification of spending that goes to the very heart of America’s march toward financial disaster: constitutional vs unconstitutional. As I noted in the most-read article at Stark Realities, “Americans Are Fighting For Control Of Federal Powers That Shouldn’t Exist”:
Today’s sprawling federal government, which involves itself in almost every aspect of daily American life, is almost entirely unconstitutional.
To rattle off just a random fistful of the federal government’s unauthorized undertakings and entities — brace yourself — there is zero constitutional authority for the Social Security, Medicare, federal drug prohibitions, the Small Business Administration, crop subsidies, the Department of Labor, automotive fuel efficiency standards, climate regulations, the Federal Reserve, union regulation, housing subsidies, the Department of Agriculture, workplace regulations, the Department of Education, federal student loans, the Food and Drug Administration, food stamps, unemployment insurance or light bulb regulations. Even that sampling doesn’t begin to fully account for the scope of the unsanctioned activity.
This Pandora’s box of unconstitutional endeavors was opened wide by unconscionably expansive Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution in the 1930s. It’s no coincidence that federal spending represented a mere 3% of GDP in 1930 but soared to an economy-warping 23% by 2024.
Now we find the federal government in a $143 trillion hole, a burden that comes out to $1,085,022 per US household. History suggests this will end with a government default. In the United States, that will likely occur not via an explicit repudiation of the debt, but through rampant price inflation as the Treasury and the Federal Reserve conspire to create new money out of thin air to make debt payments.
“They can’t pay the debt, so they have to liquidate the debt,” said Ron Paul in a June conversation with David Lin. “They [won’t] default — they’re always going to pay something for the Treasury bills. What they’re going to do is liquidate the debt by paying it off with counterfeit money.”
While the Fed-Treasury money creation scheme has been with us for a long time, the alarming trajectory of federal debt and spending point to future money-printing on a scale that will trigger hyperinflation and economic collapse. At that point, Americans will stand at a crossroads. Desperation and fear will make them susceptible to the siren song of even more authoritarianism and unconstitutional, centralized command of the economy and society than what put them in such dire straits to begin with.
“People will want to be taken care of,” Paul said. “I see it as an opportunity. If people are promoting the cause of liberty and there’s chaos in the streets, we better get out there and lead the charge and say you don’t need more of what caused this. You don’t need more authoritarianism. What you need is more liberty and more peace, and that means you ought to obey the Constitution.”
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Lula Threatens Response After Trump Slaps ‘Witch-Hunting’ Brazil With Highest Tariff-Rate Globally
On Friday President Trump imposed an unprecedented whopping 50% tariff on products imported into the US from Brazil, including nearly one-third of the coffee Americans consume daily.
This is despite the US having maintained a trade surplus with Brazil amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade, and it’s all tied to the political firestorm of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro’s trial, and Trump’s efforts to defend his friend known as the ‘Brazilian Donald Trump’.
The 50% tariff on select Brazilian imports is the highest rate currently applied to any nation globally, and with tiny Switzerland coming in second, having been shocked by its 39% tariff rate, which are the highest tariffs in Europe.
On Switzerland, the BBC writes, “It’s the one story dominating the news and the airwaves on Friday. One newspaper, Blick, described it as the country’s biggest defeat since French victory in the battle of Marignano in 1515.”
But on the Brazil front, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has slammed the Trump tariffs as blatant political interference and says the government is preparing a response.
“We have always been open for a dialogue,” President Lula wrote on X. “We are working now to respond to the US tariff measures,” Lula da Silva said.
“Only citizens and institutions of Brazil have the right to determine the country’s path, including the relations with the United States,” he added.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday slapped a 50% tariff on most Brazilian goods to fight what he has called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, but softened the blow by excluding sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice from heavier levies.
Trump announced the tariffs, some of the steepest levied on any economy in the U.S. trade war, as his administration also unveiled sanctions on the Brazilian supreme court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial on charges of plotting a coup.
Lula previously vowed to introduce tit-for-tat tariffs if Washington does not reconsider, while also expressing hope that his Brazilian delegation will be able to achieve the revision of tariffs through negotiations.
The US has sought to present this as more than just political and more than merely motivated by protection of Trump-ally Bolsonaro, however.
For example Wednesday’s US Treasury statement announcing sanctions on those who are going after Bolsonaro also cited Brazil’s “unusual and extraordinary” actions as harmful to American businesses, free speech, and economic interests.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president, has defended Trump’s actions, saying it’s not about revenge, but justice. Meanwhile Trump has said that President Lula can call him anytime.
Oil-Bull Andurand Got Too Greedy On Chocolate, Trims Cocoa Bets Amid “Extreme” Volatility
Oil trader Pierre Andurand ventured into the cocoa trade in March 2024, initiating a long position with an upside target of $20,000 per ton. He was banking on worsening adverse weather and disease across West Africa to crimp global supplies, but prices only breached $12,000 for a short time, and as of August, cocoa prices have slumped around $8,000, forcing Andurand to scale back his bullish bet.
Bloomberg cites a new letter from Andurand to investors, detailing how a series of mistimed trades led to significant losses, with his fund down 57% by the end of June.
“Recent performance has been very disappointing,” Andurand wrote, adding, “Pierre Andurand has further reduced long cocoa exposure in all Andurand funds.”
Andurand began trading cocoa futures around March 2024, after spending nearly a decade primarily focused on trading crude oil and related products.
By April 2024, Andurand told Bloomberg in an emailed statement: “We believe we could break $20,000 later this year … and the year will finish with the lowest stocks-to-grinding ratio ever, and potentially run out of inventories late in the year.”
Yet while global grindings did sink lower, supplies remained stable as the worst-case scenario did not play out for the famed oil trader.
Here’s more from Bloomberg:
Initially, the analyst’s assessment of the market proved to be correct. By the end of February 2024, cocoa futures were already up some 50% for the year. Andurand’s firm initiated a small position in cocoa the following month, according to a letter sent to investors. By the end of 2024, bets on cocoa helped drive a 50% gain in his flagship Andurand Commodities Discretionary Enhanced Fund.
Those profits were short-lived. The fund dropped some 17% in January 2025 and nearly 25% in February, with losses driven by falling cocoa prices due to worries about demand, according to information sent to investors. The less volatile Andurand Commodities Fund is also down 26% through June.
In April, Andurand increased the fund’s bullish cocoa position in expectation that figures on bean processing set to be published later that month would drive up prices. The prediction proved to be correct, but the trading strategy nevertheless foundered amid the chaos caused by Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement on April 2.
“In hindsight, if we had maintained the same positions throughout the month and not traded following Trump’s various announcements, the funds could have generated positive performance,” Andurand told investors. “At the time, it was extremely difficult not to react to Trump’s tariff announcement.”
Cocoa markets are thin and illiquid, unlike oil, something Andurand has likely learned the hard way, as large positions are difficult to manage.
Andurand has not totally cut his bullish exposure to cocoa. He explained in the letter: “Our top conviction today is that we will see higher cocoa prices. The majority of our risk remains in cocoa given our fundamentally bullish view.”
Ole Gjolberg, a professor at the School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, told Bloomberg, “Cocoa is not like the markets that Andurand has been in before, like oil and gas and metals. So that’s also part of the risk picture. If you’re going in big you can be stuck with your positions.“
Ukrainians aged 60 and older can now serve in non-combat roles thanks to new legislation. The elderly Ukrainians will need special approval and get medical clearance before enlisting.
The law was passed by the Ukrainian legislature earlier this month and signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, allowing people over the age of 60 to serve in limited roles until martial law in Ukraine is lifted.
While the current martial law authorization is set to lapse next month, Zelensky has requested that lawmakers extend it for an additional 90 days. Zelensky’s presidential term has already expired, and he has used martial law to remain in office.
Zelensky signed the law increasing the age limit as Ukraine continues to struggle with manpower in the war with Russia. Last year, Ukraine lowered its draft age from 27 to 25, but has resisted calls from the US to drop it to 18.
According to the Verkhovna Radawebsite, the law was returned with the president’s signature on Tuesday, July 29. Parliament had passed the legislation on Wednesday, July 16.
The law applies exclusively to volunteers – there is no provision for compulsory service in this age group.
Under the updated Law “On Military Duty and Military Service,” citizens aged 60+ can now enlist under contract during martial law, provided they are deemed medically fit by a military commission and have written consent from a unit commander.
Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod explained earlier this month that her country was facing a severe manpower shortage, saying, “Our main problem is people. Nobody is giving us people.”
The MP said that even if President Donald Trump sent more weapons to Ukraine, the “war cannot last forever.” Over the past years, older men have been spotted among military ranks, leading to questions over just how desperate Ukrainie’s military recruiters have become.
