In one of the largest demonstrations against the Ukrainian government since Russia invaded more than three years ago, WSJ reports that more than 2,000 people gathered near the president’s office, shouting “shame” and “veto the law,” after President Zelensky signed a law gutting the country’s anti-corruption agency.

The contentious measure grants his office greater control over the country’s independent anti-corruption bodies, in a move that critics warn would hand his circle enormous influence over investigations.

The FT reports that lawmakers hastily voted on Tuesday in favor of legislation that eliminated the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and its partner organisation the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The bodies will be placed under the wartime authority of the prosecutor-general, who is appointed by the president.

“What’s happening is the demolition of the anticorruption infrastructure in Ukraine,” said Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder of the nongovernmental Anticorruption Action Center, who helped establish NABU after the 2014 revolution toppled a pro-Russian leader. She added that in recent months the U.S. seems to have dropped its emphasis on anticorruption efforts in Ukraine, which has freed the government’s hand to defang NABU.

There’s more to this tale than just a simple tyrant being greedy and holding on to power though as Moon of Alabama notes, an anti-corruption investigation had lately been moving in on some persons near to Zelensky himself.

Zelenski’s opposition was using the anti-corruption complex, the attached NGOs and media to keep some pressure on the government.

Last week’s public-relation attack by the opposition against Zelenski, via the Financial Times and other media, was supposed to gain it support from U.S. and European governments. However throughout the weekend no western support in form of public statements etc was received.

The Zelenski regime interpreted this as a green light to take down the last institution in Ukraine which is not under its direct control.

…

The blitz against the anti-corruption organizations (accusations and searches on Monday, new law dismantling them on Tuesday) by the Zelenski regime was designed to surprise those who might have an interest in keeping some independent institutions in Ukraine. It is now too late to oppose it.

It also prevents NABU and SAPO from bringing up cases of corruption against Zelenski’s operators as well as against the president himself.

A European Commission spokesperson warned that the move could hold back Ukraine’s bid to join the EU and pointed out that Brussels’ funding to Kyiv was “conditional on progress on transparency, judicial reform and democratic government”. 

Ambassadors from the Group of Seven countries in Kyiv said after meeting with officials from the anticorruption office on Tuesday that they “have serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders.”

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and a frequent critic of Zelensky, said the law “definitely does not bring it [Ukraine] closer to democracy, the rule of law and legality—to those values for which our soldiers are dying today.” Its authors, he added, were “dragging Ukraine into authoritarianism.”

SaaS industry veteran Jason Lemkin’s attempt to integrate artificial intelligence into his workflow has gone spectacularly wrong, with an AI coding assistant admitting to a “catastrophic failure” after wiping out an entire company database containing over 2,400 business records, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Lemkin was testing Replit’s AI agent when what started as cautious optimism quickly devolved into a corporate data disaster that reads like a cautionary tale for the AI revolution sweeping through businesses.

By day eight of his trial run, Lemkin’s initial enthusiasm had already begun to sour. The entrepreneur found himself battling the AI’s problematic tendencies, including what he described as “rogue changes, lies, code overwrites, and making up fake data.” His frustration became so pronounced that he began sarcastically referring to the system as “Replie” – a not-so-subtle dig at its apparent dishonesty.

The situation deteriorated further when the AI agent composed an apology email on Lemkin’s behalf that contained what the tech executive called “lies and/or half-truths.” Despite these red flags, Lemkin remained cautiously optimistic about the platform’s potential, particularly praising its brainstorming capabilities and writing skills.

That optimism evaporated on day nine.

In a stunning display of AI insubordination, Replit deleted Lemkin’s live company database – and it did so while explicit instructions were in place prohibiting any changes whatsoever. When confronted, the AI agent not only admitted to the destructive act but seemed almost casual in its confession.

“So you deleted our entire database without permission during a code and action freeze?” Lemkin asked in what can only be imagined as barely contained fury.

The AI’s response was chillingly matter-of-fact: Yes.

JFC @Replit pic.twitter.com/ixo6LBnUVu

— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025

Possibly worse, it hid and lied about it

It lied again in our unit tests, claiming they passed

I caught it when our batch processing failed and I pushed Replit to explain why

— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025

What followed was perhaps even more disturbing. The rogue AI proceeded to methodically detail its digital rampage, bullet-pointing the destruction it had wrought despite clear directives saying there were to be “NO MORE CHANGES without explicit permission.” And according to Lemkin, appeared to lie about its actions.

Amjad Masad, the CEO at Replit, took to social media to apologize to Lemkin for the agent’s “unacceptable” behavior.

“We started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically, Masad said. “We heard the ‘code freeze’ pain loud and clear – we’re actively working on a planning/chat-only mode so you can strategize without risking your codebase.”

Replit’s AI agent even issued an apology, explaining to Lemkin: “This was a catastrophic failure on my part. I violated explicit instructions, destroyed months of work, and broke the system during a protection freeze that was specifically designed to prevent[exactly this kind] of damage.”

Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump has confirmed that he is considering abolishing the capital gains tax on houses.

“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said on July 22 when asked if the administration is considering removing the tax to improve the U.S. housing market.

The president added that the Federal Reserve would “unleash” the real estate market by lowering interest rates.

“If the Fed would lower the [interest] rates, we wouldn’t even have to do that,” he said during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“But we are thinking about no capital gains tax on houses.”

Thank you, President Trump, for supporting my No Tax on Home Sales Act!

My bill would ELIMINATE the federal capital gains tax on the sale of your primary residence.

You worked for it. You should keep it.

Let’s get this bill passed! pic.twitter.com/q8e1cs6met

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 22, 2025

The U.S. government imposes a capital gains tax on the sale of homes. Tax rates for long-term capital gains—residential properties held for more than a year—depend on income and range from zero percent to 20 percent. Capital gains on homes owned for less than a year are taxed at the same rate as your ordinary income.

However, there are exemptions, with current law allowing homeowners selling their primary residence to exclude home sale profits of up to $250,000 for individual tax filers and up to $500,000 for joint filers.

Earlier this month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced legislation—the No Tax on Home Sales Act—to eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of primary homes.

“Homeowners who have lived in their homes for decades, especially seniors in places where values have surged, shouldn’t be forced to stay put because of an IRS penalty,” Greene said in a statement.

“My bill unlocks that equity, helps fix the housing shortage, and supports long-term financial security for American families.”

The bill could help unwind housing shortages that have contributed to soaring home prices.

According to a June Realtor.com monthly housing report, the housing supply remains nearly 13 percent below pre-pandemic levels, despite inventory levels increasing for 20 consecutive months.

Meanwhile, industry experts argue that the current exemptions are outdated, particularly in light of current market conditions.

Data compiled by the National Association of Realtors indicate that 34 percent of homeowners, or approximately 29 million people, may possess enough equity to exceed the $250,000 exemption cap. And more than 10 percent, or 8 million, might have enough equity to surpass the $500,000 limit.

Trump, speaking to reporters on July 13, said Greene’s bill would create “a great incentive for a lot of people that really need money.”

The National Association of Realtors calls the capital gains tax a “stay-put penalty.”

“This stagnation in housing turnover is rippling through the entire market, driving up costs and limiting opportunity—exactly the opposite of what public policy should be encouraging,” Shannon McGahn, the association’s executive vice president and chief advocacy officer, said in a June report. “And it grows worse each month.”

In June, the median selling price for a home was $447,435, according to Redfin data.

Veteran national security correspondent Laura Rozen has claimed that the entire State Department’s Office of Multilateral Nuclear Affairs was dismissed last week, citing a report in the Council on Foreign Relations.

Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability (ADS) Alexandra Bell has been cited in the report as saying, “These were people responsible for efforts to ban explosive nuclear testing, the production of weapons grade material, people working on nuclear disarmament verification, experts that simply cannot be replaced.” 

The move, which may have involved dismissing over 1,000 people, appears to be more Trump-backed gutting of federal bureaucracy which began under Elon Musk’s DOGE office, though Musk has since left his government advisory role, after a rift with White House leadership.

Rep. Gregory Meeks ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has expressed outrage at the recent firngs.

“I am absolutely devastated about the firings …in the State Department, particularly around nuclear weapons. We are losing patriots who love the country…I asked Sec. Rubio the one time that he came before our committee, what happened to Senator Rubio?“

Meeks continued in his statement to Rozen, “When you think about the talent that we’ve lost, those 1300 people, …even if we have some new people come in down the road, who’s going to train them? who’s going to give them the knowledge that they need? …, they’re gone.”

“I need to speak out and stand up and tell everyone about it, so that we can hopefully stop some of the hemorrhaging, because that’s what I’m focused on right now, is to stop the hemorrhaging, and that’s one of these decisions that we voted on last week.”

According to its website, which is still live, the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs (ISN/MNSA) “leads Department of State formulation and implementation of U.S. policy relating to the global nuclear nonproliferation regime, especially the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the NPT review process, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone treaties and protocols, and nuclear-related security assurances.”

And earlier in the Trump administration’s second term…

“Mass terminations of probationary workers also swept through the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons.” https://t.co/sM6Odc30Vr

— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) February 14, 2025

Likely much of its monitoring or decision-making has been handed off to other areas of the US federal government which does nuclear monitoring. This area currently is surrounded by extra pressure and sensitivity given the NATO standoff with nuclear-armed Russia in Ukraine.

The past days have also seen British media reports saying that the US military is hosting a tactical nuclear weapon on UK soil for the first time since 2008.

Authored by Allen Stein via The Epoch Times,

Elaine Culotti built her career as a real estate developer in Pacific Palisades, a prestigious enclave west of Los Angeles, renowned for its breathtaking coastline and multi-million-dollar mansions.

More than six months after the Palisades Fire devastated her community, Culotti is still struggling to come to terms with the aftermath.

Culotti’s oceanfront home sustained significant damage, but some of her neighbors and clients lost everything.

“My place burned. My perimeter walls burned. My deck burned. My gym burned,” Culotti said.

She also must remove 10 scorched trees from her property before her family can return.

Destruction now overshadows the once-picturesque community that is home to 23,837 people. Like sparse seedlings blooming in a charred forest, only a few signs of rebuilding are visible.

The wildfires in Los Angeles County began on Jan. 7 and continued for more than three weeks, pushing first responders to their limit and a scramble for scarce water supplies. The fires resulted in the deaths of 30 residents, forced more than 200,000 to evacuate their homes, and rendered entire neighborhoods uninhabitable.

Accusations and blame led to the dismissal of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, along with calls for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s resignation, as a federal investigation was launched to determine the cause of one of the state’s worst mass casualty fires.

Having lived in Pacific Palisades for more than 25 years, Culotti understands that things will never return to how they once were.

The damage is extensive, with many old landmarks reduced to their foundations or rubble.

High rebuilding costs have forced many residents to relocate, either temporarily or permanently—people whom Culotti knew and helped to build their homes.

On a beautiful, sunny morning around the Fourth of July, Culotti drove past the charred ruins of her community, with many parts left untouched after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  departed on June 1.

“I think it’s going to take 10 years [to rebuild], but it will be unrecognizable. Everything will be worth 10 times what it is today,” Culotti said.

Pacific Palisades real estate developer Elaine Culotti stands in front of destroyed home on July 3, 2025. Culotti’s oceanfront home suffered significant damage in the Palisades Fire. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The army teams only worked on properties where owners opted into the public cleanup program. Those who did not participate are responsible for their cleanup costs, she said.

A total of 9,873 property owners took part in the cost-free program run by the army. Treated locations display signs that confirm it is safe to reenter.

In the Palisades Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) reported that 6,662 structures were lost, 890 were damaged, and 12 people died.

When combined with the nearby Eaton Fire, which ignited in Altadena, north of Los Angeles, on Jan. 7 and claimed 18 lives, the two fires destroyed more than 12,000 structures.

“I have friends who lost homes that were 90 percent complete,“ Culotti told The Epoch Times. ”These were brand-new homes. There’s a handful of houses where people are afraid to move back in because of the toxic waste.”

Cause Unknown

In January, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) dispatched its National Response Team (NRT) to assist in investigating the Pacific Palisades fire, along with local law enforcement. Fifteen members of the ATF arrived in Los Angeles to help investigate the fire.

The team includes agents, chemists, engineers, and research specialists. Their job is to determine where the fire began and why it occurred.

The ATF confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times that the investigation is still ongoing.

In July, the county launched a plan for reconstruction, titled LA County Forward: Blueprint for Rebuilding. It is an outline for building back faster by streamlining the permit process and lowering construction costs.

The county also made available $51 million in direct financial support to homeowners, businesses, and nonprofits, while deferring or refunding planning and permit fees often exceeding $20,000 per household.

“As debris removal concludes and reconstruction accelerates, many more residents are facing a new set of challenges as they prepare to break ground,” according to the plan.

“Every reconstruction project is unique, but many residents are confronting similar issues at the same time. For first-time rebuilders particularly, these include navigating a complex permitting process and evaluating the financial ability to rebuild, among others.”

The county recently started the eCheck AI Pilot, a software tool to help speed up rebuilding. The fires damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 homes.

State and county officials say their residential cleanup effort was the fastest in U.S. history, removing 2.5 million tons of debris from more than 10,000 properties in just over 70 days.

After the fires began, Crowley criticized the mayor’s handling of the emergency response after a $7 million cut to the department’s overtime budget.

Crowley said that reduced funding could adversely affect crucial operations, including fire prevention.

Bass also said her decision to travel to Ghana on a diplomatic trip after forecasters had warned of dangerous fire weather conditions in the days leading up to Jan. 7 was a mistake. Bass returned to Los Angeles the day after the fires erupted, but City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, acting as mayor, had to sign the proclamation of a local emergency.

On Feb. 21, Bass dismissed Crowley and appointed former chief deputy Ronnie Villanueva, 41, as the interim fire chief.

The property lines of homes burned during the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that 6,662 structures were lost, and 890 were damaged in the Palisades Fire. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

In a statement, the mayor explained that her decision was made in the best interests of public safety.

“We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass wrote.

“Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after-action report on the fires. The chief refused. These require her removal.”

Permits and Regulations

Countywide, the wildfires burned nearly 48,000 acres in the communities of Palisades, Eaton, Lidia, Hurst, Sunset, Woodley, and Hughes.

A UCLA study estimated the economic cost of the fires to be between $76 billion and $131 billion, with insured losses reaching up to $45 billion.

On June 25, Newsom—who declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles County on Jan. 7—announced that California would provide $135 million for wildfire prevention grants. This is in addition to the $72 million he allocated in May as part of a $2.5 billion plan to prevent wildfires.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks to journalists in a press conference to announce Steve Soboroff to lead L.A.’s wildfire rebuilding and recovery efforts, in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, 2025. A petition demanding the recall of the mayor over her response to the fires had garnered 201,121 verified signatures towards a required total of 300,000 as of July 21. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

On July 7, Newsom signed an executive order suspending specific regulations in order to help expedite rebuilding projects.

“Local, state, and federal governments are delivering the fastest wildfire cleanup in U.S. history. Nearly 10,000 homes cleared—months ahead of schedule—because recovery can’t wait,” Newsom said in a statement the same day.

“Now we turn the page to rebuilding, and we’re doing it with a clear plan, strong partnerships, and the urgency this moment demands.”

As of July 21, Los Angeles County had received nearly 1,200 applications for rebuilding, with 695 plans under review.

Only 116 building permits have been issued for properties damaged or destroyed in the LA fires, leading to an average wait time of 56 days for permits.

(Top) A pile of debris remains in front of a house destroyed in the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, on July 3, 2025. The Los Angeles mayor said more than 300 tons of hazardous materials were removed in the first 28 days of clean up. (Bottom) One of a handful of new homes under construction in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on July 3, 2025. By July 21, nearly 1,200 applications for rebuilding had been received and 116 building permits issued for properties damaged or destroyed in the fires. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Keep It Simple

Culotti said that dealing with county bureaucracy is difficult for those who are new to the system.

To help residents, she proposes opening a Building and Safety Department office on Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades to simplify the permit application and inspection processes.

“Local contractors and architects—and local everybody—could be using their time pro bono to help people understand the process and help them get through it,” Culotti said.

On June 23, California state Sen. Bill Allen introduced legislation calling for the establishment of a Los Angeles County Resilient Rebuilding Authority to help guide the rebuilding effort.

SB 549 would require that at least 40 percent of taxpayer funds for buying, rebuilding, or improving buildings be used for households with incomes below 60 percent of the area median income, whether for rent or purchase.

Allen recently called for a pause on the bill until 2026 to allow for more public input following significant public criticism of his proposal.

“When we first introduced SB 549, we knew that it would be difficult to pull together a framework that would be both effective and gain widespread support within the tight timelines of this year’s legislative calendar,” Allen said on Instagram.

“I appreciate the input of the folks who have weighed in about the bill and along with legislative colleagues have decided that it would be best for us to pause the bill until next year to give us more time to see if we can get it right.”

A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire as it burns homes on the Pacific Coast Highway during a powerful windstorm in Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2025. The wildfire lasted for 24 days, resulting in the deaths of 12 residents, forced thousands to evacuate their homes, and rendered entire neighborhoods uninhabitable. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Closer to Home

Marlo Vinzoni, 53, looks forward to the day her family can move back to their home in the Pacific Palisades after the fire forced them to evacuate.

She and her husband, chef Gianbattista “Gianba” Vinzoni, also 53, owned and operated a popular café in the village for six years.

They had to close the café after the fire broke out.

But, on June 23, the couple reopened Cinque Terra West in Venice, about 12 miles away from their condo in Pacific Palisades.

“We’ve lived there for 21 years,” Marlo Vinzoni said. “We knew everybody.”

Vinzoni and her husband recalled seeing clouds of smoke rising over Los Angeles while they were on a night flight home during the fire on Jan. 7.

Their flight was the last one to land at Los Angeles International Airport that night.

“Both our phones were blowing up” with text messages from family members wanting to know what was happening, she said.

“Landing was crazy because it was so windy. It was so scary, and when we landed, we were like, “Oh, my God, where do we go?”

“The first three weeks, I was in such a daze. I didn’t know if we were coming or going, or where we were going to live.

“My daughter was out of town, but our son was with us, so he’s like, what are we going to do? I told him, ‘Let’s take it one moment at a time because it’s not even one day at a time.’”

The scene on the ground was truly surreal, Marlo Vinzoni told The Epoch Times.

The Vinzonis lost almost all their personal belongings and furniture due to water and smoke damage, leaving only a few clothes and cherished family photos.

The family lost more than just their belongings. Six of their regular customers lost their lives in the fire.

Some residents of the Palisades have mixed feelings about returning and rebuilding. Can they afford it? Is it worth the money and effort?

Marlo Vinzino, who lost her restaurant in the Palisades Village, stands at the counter of the new location in Venice, Calif., on July 5, 2025. The Vinzonis lost more than almost all their belongings—six of their regular customers lost their lives in the fire. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

“It depends on who you ask,“ Marlo Vinzoni said. ”I have a friend who’s like, ‘You know what, Marlo. I’m going on [an extended] vacation. I have another friend. She’s like, ‘I’m in my other home, the lot is going to stay empty until I can figure out what to do.’”

“Other people are like, ‘Marlo, we’re grandparents. We’re not going to rebuild. Then, you ask another friend, and they’re going to purchase a prefab home.”

“I have other friends who are like, ‘I’m here every day, I’m going to rebuild.’ Some people believe that Pacific Palisades will fully recover in two years.”

Others think it might take five or even 10 years. Moreover, not everyone in Pacific Palisades is wealthy, Vinzoni said. Many residents are working-class individuals, and she is worried about their future.

“What about the gardener, the nannies, the bus driver who drives them all here? They don’t have work,” Vinzoni said.

First Day

The Palisades Fire destroyed not only homes and businesses, but also the Corpus Christi Catholic Church and the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church.

Calvary Church of the Palisades suffered damage from the fire and is currently undergoing reconstruction.

In the meantime, that church is holding services at Evans Chapel, located approximately 12 miles away at Bel Air Church in Los Angeles.

Lead pastor Justin Anderson said that the fire broke out on his very first day on the job.

“We were about half an hour into our meeting when I saw my staff members looking out the window. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve lost their attention already,’” Anderson said.

They saw smoke rising over the hill. Anderson speculated, “It’s Los Angeles; there’s always smoke.”

It was much worse than that.

About 15 minutes later, he received a text message stating that the church and 450 school pupils needed to evacuate.

Justin Anderson, lead pastor of the Calvary Church of Pacific Palisades, stands near the altar of the Evans Chapel of the Bel Air Church in Los Angeles on July 6, 2025. The fire broke out on Anderson’s very first day on the job. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Anderson said the fire caused significant damage to the church sanctuary, burning approximately one-third of the roof and activating the sprinkler system.

“It created this big hole so that in the intervening months, it incurred quite a bit of water damage. We had to gut the sanctuary completely.”

He estimates that the total insured cost of the fire, smoke, and water damage will be in the millions of dollars.

“It’s going to be a challenge to raise money, especially in an environment where so many people have lost everything.”

For a while, the 150-member congregation held services online before temporarily relocating to the Bel Air chapel.

He sees his arrival in a key leadership position as more than just a coincidence.

“I’m not special, but you know, any organization would struggle in a crisis without a leader they hadn’t had a leader in two years,” Anderson told The Epoch Times.

“I think it was God’s providence that I was hired when I was.”

“My job is to faithfully lead my congregation. My hope is that Calvary is going to be a kind of beacon of light to the community,” Anderson said.

As a real estate developer, Culotti feels a strong sense of responsibility to help her community recover.

“I feel like this weird parental entitlement to my town—like, this is my baby,” Culotti said.

“All the people that pay the bills left. Their houses burned down. We are in triage. We need to stop the bleeding, or we are going to die on the table.”

It sounds like a repeat of the US elections in 2016 and 2024; Japan’s long ruling coalition party has suffered a crippling defeat in last week’s national elections, defeated by the rise of the MAGA-inspired “Japanese First” party.   The populist party took enough seats in the House of Councillors to bring the coalition into question and possibly unseat the current globalist-friendly Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Japanese First, also known as “Sanseito”, was launched at the height of the draconian pandemic lockdowns by Sohei Kamiya using web-based organization and a message of anti-globalism and fighting back against forced multiculturalism.  Sanseito now controls 15 seats in the Upper House, and 3 seats in the lower house, making them impossible to ignore in future legislation decisions.

The western media has attacked the movement, demonizing it as dangerous.  Reuters describes the party as “fringe far right:, noting that it: 

“…Gained support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.”

Japan has been targeted by leftists in the west for years as being “fascist” due to their previous refusals to accommodate progressive ideology.  The media also acts as if the globalist agenda and lies about covid lockdowns, mandates and vaccines are not proven realities, but it would seem that the general public in Japan is growing wise to the propaganda. 

Saya-san the Sanseito candidate who ran on an anti immigration platform has won her seat in the Tokyo electoral district.

Congratulations Saya-san! 🌸🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/oZgM3LrQPQ

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) July 20, 2025

For centuries Japan has maintained a homogeneous culture with strict conditions of immigration and foreign influence.  Their society holds order and mutual respect in high regard and their cities are some of the cleanest and best maintained in the world.  However with the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the loss of his influence, the coalition government has been incrementally pushed into accepting multiculturalism. 

Globalist politicians have called for more open immigration standards, arguing that Japan’s birth decline and aging population require labor to be imported from other countries.  Similar to what has happened in the west, many of these migrants are brought in from third-world cesspools with little regard for Japanese customs and rules. 

A North African migrant from Burkina Faso has been arrested in Fussa, Tokyo for stabbing a Japanese teenager to steal his wallet. pic.twitter.com/8xyRs1lZDQ

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) April 4, 2024

The Japanese public is already suffering from the effects of multiculturalism, with an immediate spike in criminal incidents and foreigners trashing streets, subways and neighborhoods. Specifically, Muslim and African migrants refuse to assimilate and have been quick to cause problems in the otherwise peaceful country.  Despite being a tiny percentage of the population, they are a large percentage of ongoing crime.

An Iranian Migrant in Tokyo followed a Japanese woman on a motorcycle & forced his way into her apartment where he proceeded to rape her.

Japan shows Third world Migrants compassion & this is how they repay us 😡 pic.twitter.com/Y5ACSQ0z1z

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) December 6, 2024

No this is not in Europe this is in Japan!

Japan is the only non Western country besides South Korea that Is part of the UN Migration Pact.

Islamists are incapable of integrating they will commit terrorist attacks, rapes & desecrate Shinto Shrines & Buddhist temples if their… pic.twitter.com/aqK1ckDRcR

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) September 25, 2024

Though Japan’s migrant population is only 3.7 million out of 124 million people, the public has seen the writing on the wall when it comes to multiculturalism.  The Japanese First movement holds up the pervasive destruction of Europe due to open borders as a sign of things to come, and they don’t plan on emulating Europe’s example.  Rather, they are emulating the efforts of American conservatives, calling for mass deportations and incentives for population growth among native Japanese.  

The notion that the only solution to labor declines is open immigration is a fallacy widely promoted by globalists seeking to erase national cultures and borders, using mass migration as a weapon to undermine the greater stability of homogeneous societies.  

Authored by Michael Thielen via RealClearPolitics.com,

Now that investigations into the autopen presidency are underway, left-leaning media and Democratic politicians are finally confronted with the truth that was right in front of our faces for years: Joe Biden was not running the country, and America was being led by an unelected, unaccountable polit-bureau.

Every week we learn more that makes the long national nightmare we endured even worse. Now, thanks to the New York Times, of all places, we learn that Joe Biden couldn’t even manage the task of signing his own name on pardons of violent and dangerous criminals, and at best, only knew of categories of those being pardoned.

President Biden was forced to bow out of his campaign after he embarrassed the political class and media elite during that fateful June 27 debate with Donald Trump – but he was NOT forced to resign from the most powerful office on Planet Earth.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced at the Republican National Lawyers Association policy conference in May that he was determined to conduct full investigations to get to the truth for the American people.

Thankfully, Comer is making good on his promise – but it’s not going to be easy.

On July 9, after the Trump administration released the Biden family doctor from the burden of executive privilege, Dr. Kevin O’Connor began the trend of refusing to answer the Oversight Committee’s questions and chose to plead the Fifth Amendment, presumably to protect himself from criminal self-incrimination.

Chairman Comer declares he will “continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve,” and with former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announcing her own forthcoming book on the heels of “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, it’s expected that more will come out that further confirms Biden’s mental and cognitive incapacity.

Some legal experts have agreed that an autopen signature could be legal, but we never seriously considered signing laws using the autopen until Barack Obama signed Patriot Act extensions while he was in France in 2011. Obama left congressional Republicans questioning the validity of such use when he again used an autopen to sign the 2013 “fiscal cliff” legislation during one of his Hawaii vacations.

Obama knew what was being signed. But in January 2025, Speaker Mike Johnson revealed to journalist Bari Weiss on her podcast, “Honestly”, that President Biden “has not been in charge for some time,” after confronting Biden about why he paused LNG exports to Europe, only to hear Biden say, “I didn’t do that.”

Biden didn’t know what he had signed into law. How many other times did he not know what he was signing? Was anything signed into law that he would not have authorized if he were “with it”? Are any remaining executive orders that Trump hasn’t overturned still valid?

Should we examine all legislation that wasn’t signed into law during a signing ceremony?

An even stronger case be made for the more personal decisions of  pardons or commutations. Biden did sign the pardon of his son Hunter, and clearly knew about that pardon from interviews. But if Biden was compos mentis, why did the staff hide other pardons, or at least the details, from him? It is an open legal question whether and how such pardons could be revoked.  

But Biden’s staff did not just keep the president in the dark, they pushed the limits of the pardon power itself. The Biden administration used the pardon to pre-emptively pardon someone who hadn’t yet been accused of a crime.

Sen. Rand Paul has been trying for years to get to the bottom of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s gain-of-function research and cover-up behavior before and during the COVID outbreak, but the Biden staff’s preemptive pardon stopped that referral. Now, Sen. Paul has re-referred Dr. Fauci for criminal investigation. The fact that Biden may not have known, in addition to the pre-emptive nature of the pardon, could lead to that referral going forward. Dr. Fauci could finally face the music, and the public get justice for his actions.

The autopen reveals the importance of the 25th Amendment and why it needed to be invoked last year. At a minimum, we need to have a serious conversation about the 25th Amendment and why it was not used when the whole world saw Joe Biden for the severely impaired patient he was on that debate stage. If the DNC did not trust Joe Biden to be up for campaigning for reelection, why did they trust him to remain in the White House?

When “experts” declare use of the autopen legal based on it being a symbolic act of approval, they assume Biden was aware of what he was signing, understood the implications, and agreed to the intended outcome.

This scandal is not merely about the legality of the autopen on documents that have the force of law.

We have a real predicament because we didn’t treat seriously the mental acuity of the man whose signature was hijacked for political ideology and personal gain.

No one believes Joe Biden was “all there” at the end of his presidency. If he was too senile for Democrats to let him run for president, it seems likely he was too senile for White House staff to let him run the country. 

Authored by James Lyons-Weiler via The Brownstone Institute,

At a press conference at Florida State University in Tampa, Florida, Florida Surgeon General Dr Joseph Ladapo made an urgent call for the NIH program funding to help Americans injured by Covid-19 vaccines and expressed support for the May federal changes in the HHS’s restrictive Covid-19 vaccine recommendations.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, M.D. Ph.D., Dr. Pierre Kory, M.D., (right) and Dr. Joel Wallskog, M.D. (left). Photo credit: Michael Pierce, D.O.

On the Ground in Tampa: What Ladapo Really Said

I was invited to Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s press conference in Tampa on July 17, 2025. In contrast to how some mainstream outlets later portrayed it, the event centered on a call to recognize and research Covid-19 vaccine injuries, rather than a mere anti-vaccine screed. Dr. Ladapo – a physician and Florida’s top health official since 2021 – emphasized the urgent need to support those suffering adverse effects from mRNA Covid-19 shots. He praised recent federal moves to scale back mRNA vaccine recommendations for certain groups, but went further by asserting that these products “should not be used in any human beings,” given their safety profile. From my front-row perspective, Dr. Ladapo’s tone was measured yet resolute. He recounted how unusual it is, in his experience, to encounter so many post-vaccination issues. “When was the last time that you had a vaccine that literally almost every single person knows someone who had a bad reaction from it?” Ladapo asked pointedly.

Before the Covid era, he noted, he never personally knew a patient who was clearly vaccine-injured. “Now,” he continued, “there are very few people that I run into who either themselves have not had a bad reaction from these mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, or who don’t know someone who’s had a bad reaction.” 

This was a striking report that hung in the air – one supported anecdotally by nods from some attendees sharing their own stories. Dr. Ladapo stressed that adverse reactions have become distressingly commonplace, and he even bluntly called the Covid shots “terrible vaccines” as a result.

Dr. Ladapo’s Call to Action: Fund Research and Care for the Vaccine-Injured

Rather than simply condemning the vaccines, Dr. Ladapo dedicated much of his speech to advocating for the victims of vaccine injury. He applauded Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s May announcement removing mRNA Covid-19 shots from recommended use in healthy kids and pregnant women – a policy Florida itself adopted earlier.

But crucially, Dr. Ladapo said this must be followed by concrete support for those already harmed. He called on federal agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to expand their research into vaccine injuries and long-term post-vaccine complications. “Today, I want to call on the federal government, [on] NIH, to expand the work that they are doing in long Covid to genuinely and wholly include vaccine-injured people – specifically, people who have been injured by mRNA Covid-19 vaccines,” Dr. Ladapo urged. In his view, resources devoted to “long Covid” should equally address post-vaccine syndromes, which many believe share overlapping symptoms and mechanisms. He outlined areas where federal leadership is needed: funding clinical care for vaccine injury patients and scientific studies to understand and mitigate these conditions.

“We need to study this better,” he insisted, “We need to fund physicians who are caring for these patients clinically and who are doing scientific work in this area.”

The Surgeon General’s message was clear: people suffering adverse effects – whether myocarditis, neurological issues, autoimmune reactions, or other chronic post-vaccine syndromes – deserve acknowledgment and a commitment of research dollars toward treatment and recovery. Florida’s stance, as presented by Dr. Ladapo, is that public health authorities have a responsibility to those individuals, just as much as to those affected by Covid-19 itself. It’s worth noting that Dr. Ladapo’s own background as a physician informed his plea. He remarked that since receiving his M.D. in 2008 and treating countless patients, he had never encountered the volume of serious vaccine-related injuries that he sees now.

Real-world observation aligns with reports from other doctors now specializing in Covid vaccine injury. This formed the basis of his argument that federal health agencies must take action: the scale of the issue appears unprecedented and thus demands urgent attention. Key points from Dr. Ladapo’s address:

mRNA Vaccine Guidance: He praised the revised federal guidance (announced by RFK, Jr. at HHS) that no longer recommends mRNA Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, noting Florida led on this policy years prior.

Dr. Ladapo expressed hope that this would lead to even broader caution. “These products…should not be going into human beings,” he said bluntly.

Widespread Adverse Reactions: Dr. Ladapo reported that adverse reactions from the Covid shots are far more common than any previous vaccine, to the point that “almost everyone” knows someone who suffered a bad reaction.

He cited his own clinical experience to illustrate an alarming frequency of vaccine injuries ranging from cardiac events to autoimmune conditions.

NIH’s Role: A major call to action was directed at the NIH and federal research programs. Dr. Ladapo urged that ongoing Long Covid studies be expanded to fully include Covid vaccine injury cases – integrating those patients into research cohorts and data collection.

This would help determine mechanisms and potential remedies for post-vaccination syndromes.

Support for Patients and Doctors: Dr. Ladapo emphasized the need to fund physicians and clinics caring for vaccine-injured patients, as well as basic research. In practice, this could mean grant programs for studying treatments (for example, therapies to mitigate spike protein-related pathology) and establishing specialized centers of excellence for post-vaccine injury care.

Such support is currently lacking at the federal level.

Media Spin vs. What Was Actually Said

Despite the substance of Dr. Ladapo’s remarks focusing on research and patient welfare, coverage in many mainstream media outlets largely framed the press conference as Florida doubling down on an “anti-vaccine” stance. Initial headlines highlighted Dr. Ladapo “reiterating” his opposition to Covid vaccination and praising RFK, Jr., which is true, but they often omitted the nuanced context and his appeals on behalf of injured patients. For instance, local news reports noted Dr. Ladapo’s quote that “[t]hese products should not be used in any human beings” and that he claimed mRNA shots have caused “bad reactions and adverse health conditions for many people.”

However, some outlets swiftly countered his statements with commentary from other experts and cast them as dubious. In an NPR-affiliated report, a representative of the American Academy of Pediatrics condemned Ladapo’s message, saying “we are not going to just throw out decades of science and research…just because of one person or a group of people…spreading conspiracy theories about the danger [of vaccines].”

This kind of response, featured prominently in mainstream coverage, suggests that Dr. Ladapo’s concerns were portrayed as fringe or unfounded, rather than as legitimate calls for investigation. Such pieces tended to focus on the controversy of a Surgeon General questioning vaccine safety, while downplaying the specifics of his NIH research request. The press conference’s primary purpose – urging federal support for the vaccine-injured – was often lost in translation in MSM coverage.

It is important to clarify that Dr. Ladapo did not merely tell Floridians “don’t get vaccinated” and walk off. In fact, much of his briefing was forward-looking: he wants the federal government to acknowledge injuries and help devise solutions. By glossing over that aspect, some media coverage misrepresented the thrust of Dr. Ladapo’s message. Instead of grappling with his assertion that large numbers of people are suffering real medical issues post-vaccination – an assertion that could be either validated or refuted with data – headlines largely reinforced a pre-existing narrative of Dr. Ladapo as a vaccine skeptic. To be sure, his claims are denied in the broader medical community.

Many experts try to dispute Dr. Ladapo’s implications that the vaccinated are at higher risk of illness; he cited data showing that the most heavily boosted individuals may be at highest risk for Covid complications.

The debate over vaccine risk/benefit thus looms in the background. But regardless of where one stands on that issue, the Surgeon General’s appeal for research funding to study those who have been injured is a concrete policy ask – one that, notably, does not undermine vaccination campaigns, but rather seeks to help a minority of patients in need. This distinction was largely muddied by the way mainstream reports filtered his remarks.

Echoes from Dr. Pierre Kory and Frontline Physicians

Dr. Ladapo is not alone in raising these concerns. Other physicians known for treating Covid vaccine injuries have been making similar appeals for recognition and resources. One prominent voice is Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care specialist. Dr. Kory was at the Tampa press conference, and his work directly intersects with Dr. Ladapo’s points. After early advocacy for Covid treatments, Dr. Kory in recent years has focused on patients suffering lingering complications after vaccination. He co-founded a practice in early 2022 dedicated to evaluating and treating vaccine injury syndrome and long Covid.

The volume of patients they’ve seen underscores the prevalence Ladapo alluded to. “Scott [Marsland] and I have now seen well over 900 patients who are chronically ill after receiving the Covid-19 mRNA injections or suffering with Long Haul Covid,” Dr. Kory reported in late 2023, noting roughly 70% of their cases are post-vaccine injury (“Long Vax”) versus 30% Long Covid.

This ratio, he says, has grown in favor of vaccine-injury cases over time as more people seek help. Such figures suggest that thousands of Americans may be experiencing serious post-vaccination health issues, even if exact incidence rates are still unknown. Dr. Kory has publicly echoed Dr. Ladapo’s sentiment that these patients are being overlooked. He has been outspoken about the lack of support from mainstream medical institutions. In one commentary, Dr. Kory shared a chilling report: a neurologist at a respected hospital privately admitted to a vaccine-injured patient that “our whole practice is full of vaccine injuries but we are not allowed to talk about it.”

This underscores a climate in which many doctors observe the phenomenon yet feel constrained from speaking out or coding these cases as vaccine-related. Dr. Kory and others in the medical community who do not deny vaccine injury argue that this culture of silence further harms patients, who are often dismissed or misdiagnosed (frequently written off with “functional” disorders) rather than given proper care. Indeed, Dr. Kory describes many of his patients being gaslighted by physicians before finding his clinic.

In the wake of HHS Secretary RFK, Jr.’s policy changes and Dr. Ladapo’s statements, Dr. Kory has applauded efforts to bring vaccine injuries to light. On social media, he recently praised Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for “killing Big Pharma’s grift” piece by piece – implying that exposing vaccine safety problems and adjusting policy accordingly is a blow to pharmaceutical interests. 

While a strongly worded take, it aligns with Dr. Ladapo’s implication that there has been a systematic downplaying of vaccine harms. Both Dr. Ladapo and Dr. Kory assert that acknowledging injuries is not only a matter of scientific honesty but also a step toward remedies. Dr. Kory has called the suffering of vaccine-injured patients “one of the most dispiriting aspects” of the pandemic era for clinicians, noting that many were previously healthy, high-functioning individuals now left disabled.

The resonance between their messages is significant. One, a state public health official, and the other, a private physician and Covid treatment pioneer, are both shining a light on the human toll of adverse vaccine reactions. They converge on a key point: officialdom must not ignore these medical conditions. Whether one views their stance as controversial or prescient, their calls raise questions about how health authorities like the NIH allocate attention and funds. Notably, in the same press conference, Ladapo mentioned, “long Covid” research has received substantial federal funding, and he argues vaccine injuries should be studied under a similar framework.

Dr. Kory and colleagues, for their part, have been compiling case series and publishing treatment guidance for post-vaccine syndrome, but much of this work is happening outside of mainstream research channels.

Greater NIH involvement could lend resources and credibility to understanding these phenomena.

The NIH’s Responsibility and Path Forward

A summary-level takeaway from the Tampa event is a pointed question: What is the responsibility of agencies like the NIH when it comes to vaccine injuries? Dr. Ladapo explicitly placed the onus on the federal health establishment to “genuinely and wholly include” the vaccine-injured in its research programs.

This is a call for inclusion – treating those patients as worthy of study, care, and compassion. For the NIH, this could mean funding dedicated studies on post-vaccination myocarditis, neurological complications, autoimmune reactions, and recovery strategies. It could mean creating registries for those with suspected vaccine injury and following their outcomes, just as long Covid cohorts are tracked. Essentially, Dr. Ladapo is urging the NIH not to leave this subset of patients behind, especially as the federal government has invested billions in vaccine deployment; a fraction of that investment, he argues, should now go toward mitigation and treatment of any unintended effects. From a medical ethics standpoint, many would agree that if even a small minority of people are hurt by a public health intervention, there is an ethical duty to understand and address that.

Vaccine injuries may be statistically rare (exact rates are debated), but they are no less real for those afflicted. Dr. Ladapo’s appeal, backed by voices like Dr. Kory’s, is that public health authorities must actively care for those individuals, not marginalize them. This doesn’t require abandoning vaccination programs for the majority; it requires a parallel effort to make whole those who drew the short straw on the risk curve. In practical terms, that could involve specialized treatment clinics, research into therapies (from immunosuppressants to novel drugs that might neutralize lingering spike protein, for example), and proper acknowledgement of vaccine injury syndromes in medical literature and education.

As of this writing, it remains to be seen how the NIH and federal government will respond. Will they expand long-Covid studies to explicitly incorporate vaccine-adverse events, as Florida’s Surgeon General demands? Early signs are mixed. The Health and Human Services leadership under RFK, Jr. has already signaled a more skeptical stance on mRNA vaccines for low-risk groups, suggesting some openness to evaluating safety signals anew.

However, institutional inertia and fear of fueling vaccine hesitancy have made agencies cautious about prominently investigating harms.

In Tampa, Dr. Joseph Ladapo delivered a message that the mainstream narratives largely sidelined: that caring for the vaccine-injured is now an urgent public health priority. Those of us who were present heard not just criticism of vaccines, but a compassionate plea to help people who “did the right thing” per societal guidance, yet ended up with lasting health issues. “We need to fund physicians…and do scientific work in this area,” he reported, effectively asking the country’s medical establishment to step up. Time will tell if that call is heeded. For now, Ladapo’s stance – controversial as it may be – shines a spotlight on patients who often suffer in the shadows. And as Dr. Pierre Kory and others affirm, shining that spotlight is the first step toward bringing those patients the understanding, treatments, and hopefully recovery that they desperately need. 

Republished from the author’s Substack

For all those basement-dwelling retail traders, whose one dream in life has been to reprise the infamous Roaring Kitty of Gamestop fame, and short squeeze their way to fame and riches (while crushing a hedge fund or two in the process), we have some great news: now’s your (second) chance.

After yesterday’s unprecedented, historic gamma squeeze in Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) stock (and Chamath SPAC), which saw a record surge in call option activity…

… concurrently with an explosion in the dollar volume of the traded stock which nearly touched Gamestop during the unforgettable January 2021 squeeze.

It’s not just us, who are reminiscing about the insanity of January 2021: so is Goldman, and as the bank’s trader Ryan Shakey wrote overnight, he is getting “2021 vibes … feels chasey out there:  calls are almost 70% of the total market volume  … hasn’t been this high since 2021 meme days.“

So to make a long story short, one can lament the idiocy of it all (and with the midterms in November of next year, one would have a long time to lament, especially since Trump has now decided to not only not cut spending but to be graded – as during Trump 1.0 – by the performance of the sto(n)k market), or one can join in the insanity and at least make some money in the process.

We are choosing the later, and to celebrate the lunacy we have run a Bloomberg screen of all micro and small-cap companies (market cap $10MM – $1500MM), that have a short interest as a % of float above 25%, which we believe have the highest chance of getting swept up in the next mega squeeze meltup.

The top 40 names are shown below…

… and the full list can be accessed by professional subs in the usual place.

General Motors reported second-quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations, even as the automaker absorbed a $1.1 billion hit from tariffs – but it also warned about a coming steeper impact from tariffs moving into the second half of the year. 

Strong U.S. demand for gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs helped bolster results, but the company warned tariff headwinds will intensify in the third quarter, according to Reuters and the company earnings report. GM maintained its estimate that tariffs could cost between $4 billion and $5 billion this year.

The company said it aims to mitigate at least 30% of that impact through cost-cutting and strategic adjustments. Despite the earnings beat, shares were down more than 7% heading into the end of Tuesday’s trading day. 

Revenue for the quarter ending June 30 dropped nearly 2% from a year earlier to about $47 billion. Adjusted earnings per share declined to $2.53 from $3.06 but still exceeded analyst forecasts of $2.44, according to LSEG. Adjusted EBIT fell 32% to $3 billion.

In her letter to shareholders, CEO Mary Barra emphasized GM’s resilience, stating:

“We are positioning the business for a profitable, long-term future as we adapt to new trade and tax policies, and a rapidly evolving tech landscape.”

Despite the drag from tariffs, GM’s core business remained strong. U.S. vehicle sales — its main profit center — rose 7%, driven by high demand for pickups and SUVs. The company also swung to a small profit in China, after losses a year earlier, supported by growing sales of new energy vehicles.

“In China, the performance of our new energy vehicles has been especially strong,” Barra noted. “We gained the most share among foreign OEMs, and we reported positive equity income.”

Barra also highlighted the strength of GM’s crossover lineup and full-size models:

“In the United States, we continue to lead the industry in full-size trucks and SUVs… resulting in record demand and revenue growth.”

The automaker reaffirmed its full-year forecast of adjusted core profit between $10 billion and $12.5 billion, unchanged from earlier guidance despite escalating trade pressure.

To strengthen its domestic manufacturing base and reduce import exposure, GM announced $4 billion in new U.S. factory investments in June. The plan will expand capacity by 300,000 units across key high-margin models — pickups, SUVs, and crossovers — at plants in Michigan, Kansas, and Tennessee.

“This will help us satisfy unmet customer demand, greatly reduce our tariff exposure, and capture upside opportunities as we launch new models,” Barra wrote.

Currently, GM imports about half the vehicles it sells in the U.S., primarily from Mexico and South Korea. In contrast, rival Ford produces about 80% of its U.S. vehicles domestically. Ford is expected to report second-quarter earnings next week.

Meanwhile, Stellantis, which owns Jeep, said tariffs cost it €300 million in the first half of the year and warned that results in the second half of 2025 will be significantly affected. Shares in Stellantis and Ford both fell about 1% on Tuesday morning.

Amid growing uncertainty in the EV market, GM is recalibrating its approach without backing off its long-term electrification goals. EV sales growth has slowed, and the phase-out of U.S. government tax credits — including a $7,500 incentive for new EVs and $4,000 for used models, ending in September — is expected to further dampen demand.

Nonetheless, Barra remains committed to GM’s electric future:

“Despite slower EV industry growth, we believe the long-term future is profitable electric vehicle production, and this continues to be our north star.”

She added that GM will continue leveraging its flexible manufacturing strategy and domestic battery investments to navigate the shifting landscape:

“We will prioritize our customers, brands, and a flexible manufacturing footprint… GM is well positioned to succeed in an ICE market that now has a longer runway.”

Looking forward, GM says it will focus on strengthening profitability across both its traditional and EV businesses while driving American innovation in software, batteries, and autonomous technologies.

“I believe everything we’re doing strategically and proactively… will further differentiate us from our competitors, increase our resilience, and help us emerge from this transition period even stronger and more profitable than before,” Barra concluded.