Shares of WK Kellogg Co., the cereal maker behind Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, and Rice Krispies, surged in premarket trading Thursday following overnight reports that Ferrero International SA is close to acquiring the company in a deal valued at around $3 billion.

Frosted Nutella flakes, now with a free dose of Ozempic https://t.co/OB3JhvREg2

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 9, 2025

First reported by The Wall Street Journal, Ferrero is planning a North American expansion with the purchase of the breakfast cereal conglomerate. Already, Ferrero is the world’s third-largest chocolate confectionery and previously acquired Nestlé’s U.S. candy business, Fannie May, Wells Enterprises, and healthy snack brands like Eat Natural and FULFIL Nutrition.

WK Kellogg shares surged 57% in premarket trading on reports of the deal. The cereal division has struggled since its spin-off from Kellogg Company, facing slumping demand due to rising competition from private-label store brands.

Shares are flat on the year, with short interest in the stock about 17.9%, or about 10.9 million shares. 

The deal comes as Kellogg slashed its annual sales guidance in May, with CEO Gary Pilnick warning of a “challenging operating environment” as consumers shift away from sugary foods and gravitate toward lower-cost, private-label cereal options.

Cereal makers have also come under increased scrutiny for their use of artificial food dyes. Goldman Sachs analysts recently noted a growing consumer pivot toward “better-for-you” products, driven by the rising momentum of the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) trend.

Bloomberg noted, “Ferrero has been making efforts to diversify both its products and geographic spread, in part to help it manage surging cocoa prices.” 

Chinese property equities surged overnight, with the Bloomberg Intelligence real estate index jumping as much as 11%, fueled by speculation of an imminent high-level government meeting aimed at reviving the country’s struggling real estate sector.

Unverified reports suggest Beijing may assemble a policy conference next week reminiscent of the 2015 Central Urban Work Conference, which triggered large-scale shanty-town redevelopment and infrastructure stimulus.

“Since the founding of the republic in 1949, Chinese senior leadership held only four “urban work conferences” at the central government level: 1962, 1963, 1978, and 2015. Thus, if the reports turned out to be true, it would be closely watched by the market given policy direction implications,” Goldman Sachs analyst Fred Yin told clients. 

China’s property sector has been locked in a downward spiral for the past four years. Major developers have defaulted on their debt, while Beijing has cracked down on speculation amid persistently weak sentiment among homebuyers. Although officials have implemented a range of countermeasures (read: here) to slow the decline, none have successfully established a bottom. Home sales fell again in June, prompting renewed calls for stimulus. This report suggests a potential shift in policy direction from President Xi Jinping, signaling mounting political pressure.

Hao Hong, chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management, noted, “The central government really needs to do something, especially after the disastrous June sales.” 

In markets, the Bloomberg Intelligence index of the nation’s real estate stocks jumped 11%, while Goldman’s China-H Real Estate basket gained 7.4%. Individual stocks, Logan Group Co. skyrocketed 85% in Hong Kong, and Sino-Ocean Group Holding Ltd soared 37%. 

Reports that Beijing is considering dusting off its 2015 playbook to support the property market imply President Xi’s leadership is attempting to quell growing dissent. The larger question is whether another shanty-town redevelopment stimulus package will have the same effect as it did a decade ago.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Dr. Kevin O’Connor appeared before the House Oversight Committee, but he had little to say about the investigation into the alleged cover-up of President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline. The former White House physician invoked his privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to answer any questions. His prescription for the Committee seems clear: take a Fifth and call me in the morning (with an immunity grant). The question is now whether Congress will move to compel his testimony. 

O’Connor appeared with counsel and repeatedly read the same line: “On the advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer based on the physician patient privilege and the reliance on my right under the Fifth Amendment.”

The development adds another interesting dimension to the controversy over the alleged cover-up of Biden’s decline.

Dr. O’Connor insists that he cannot compromise a patient’s privacy under federal law and ethical guidelines. However, his client was the president of the United States, and Congress is investigating allegations that he was no longer competent or engaged in running the nation. That raises potential criminal conduct from falsification of documents to perjury that an oversight committee is pursuing.

Generally, courts have waived confidentiality protections for reporters, doctors, and lawyers under a crime or fraud exception in federal criminal cases.

A good example is the testimony of the psychiatrist in the Menendez brothers’ murder case.

Dr. O’Connor is an essential witness in that investigation. President Biden has clearly not given him the authority to fully disclose the medical records and testing results from his presidency. The question could become whether Congress can now compel such disclosures. Both Biden and O’Connor could go to court to seek to prevent such compulsion.

Congress often examines private information, including tax records and background investigations, as part of its oversight functions. Moreover, many past investigations would have been obstructed by sweeping privacy claims. Consider the Kennedy assassination investigation into the examinations of the president or confirmation fights over allegations of mental or physical disabilities of nominees.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), subpoenas are regularly used to obtain otherwise protected medical information.

The law specifically allows for disclosures in criminal or fraud investigations.

Congress has a compelling basis for demanding disclosure. However, the question is time. With the approaching midterm elections, the runway is getting shorter for the Oversight Committee. If the Democrats retake the House, these investigations will be halted, as Democratic members have pledged to resume impeachment investigations targeting President Trump.

The House Oversight Committee could grant Dr. O’Connor immunity and compel his testimony. He would then have to either secure a court order of protection or face a contempt of Congress charge for refusing to testify. If he elected to testify, he would still be subject to potential charges for any false statements made to investigators or committee members.

There is sufficient time to compel such testimony, but the Committee will have to move with some dispatch if it wants to hear more from the doctor.

Having risen to eight month highs just a couple weeks ago, initial jobless claims tumbled back to 227k last week and well within the comfortable low end range of the last four years…

Source: Bloomberg

However, continuing jobless claims remain at the highest since Nov 2021….

Source: Bloomberg

…as DOGE’s impact on the ‘Deep TriState’ continues…

Source: Bloomberg

It seems Musk has something to be proud of after all.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Starting in 2027, a price shock at the gas station threatens drivers. The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS II) will be extended to include the transport and building sectors.

Another wave of price increases is rolling in. And yes, once again, the engine of inflation will be the European Union’s climate policy, as is so often the case these days. At the end of January, the Bundestag already approved the implementation of the reform of the European Emissions Trading System, which foresees the free trade of CO₂ certificates from 2027 onward in both the transport and building sectors.

What Has Been Decided?

Until the end of 2026, Germany will apply a fixed price on the consumption of CO₂ emitted by the use of fossil fuels. Currently, this price is set at €55 per ton and is planned to rise to €65 next year. After that, the politically defined fee will end. From 2027, the price will be determined by the European emissions trading market — a free exchange where companies must bid for CO₂ emission rights before consumption, and the European Union can set the maximum available number of certificates — a powerful regulatory tool likely to generate significant conflict. It is the strongest instrument the EU Commission has ever held to directly influence citizens’ behavior.

What Does This Mean for Everyday Life?

According to ADAC calculations, from 2027 onward, a price jump of up to 38 cents per liter of diesel or gasoline is expected — depending on market conditions, this could be even higher. For 2026, an increase of about 3 cents is already anticipated. For a family of four with two vehicles and 30,000 kilometers driven annually, the additional costs from the artificial scarcity of certificates quickly add up to between €500 and €800 per year. For many people living in rural or structurally weak regions, mobility thus becomes a question of price. Millions of commuters who depend existentially on their cars are left out in the cold. Politically, they play only a secondary role as paymasters of this spectacle. It is a scandal that the state already collects 54 percent at the pump and remains unsatisfied.

Social Associations Demand Compensation

Only belatedly have social organizations responded to the impending price increases. In a five-point plan, they demand a substantial increase in the EU’s Climate Social Fund, which currently has a volume of €65 billion. This money is intended to ease the burden on low-income households and affected small businesses during the transition to the free emissions trading system.

This is the typical reaction pattern of an intervention spiral: Brussels triggers exorbitant costs in the real economy with its climate policy. Immediately, a flood of cries for help and subsidy demands follow. Naturally, these bring additional fiscal burdens — money neither the EU member states nor the Commission itself can raise.
It is clear who will be billed for this. The taxpayer, who ultimately pays twice: once for the emissions trading and once for the compensatory social policies, whose costs are spinning out of control.

A Look Across the Atlantic

On the other side of the Atlantic, the situation looks different. While Germany raises CO₂ prices drastically from 2027 and fuel prices could rise by up to 38 cents per liter, the average gasoline price in the USA currently stands at about €0.83 per liter. At the same time, under their new president Donald Trump, the US has taken a different path in energy policy: The government is deregulating the energy sector, fast-tracking infrastructure projects such as the construction of new pipelines to increase the production of fossil fuels like oil and gas. Subsidies for renewable energies are being scaled back — the market is to decide where and how much investment should flow into specific energy sources.

This turnaround aims to ensure supply security and keep energy prices stable. Instead of state interventions and taxes, market forces and innovation are relied upon — a pragmatic approach that minimizes economic burdens for consumers and companies and at the same time strengthens the energy sovereignty of the United States as the world’s largest oil producer.

Policy Without Measure or Moderation

By strictly enforcing Brussels’ demand for free pricing of CO₂ certificates, Germany once again does a disservice to the productive part of society reliant on mobility. And this precisely at a time when the German economy is already stagnating under the weight of excessive climate regulation, suffocating bureaucracy, and overwhelming levies — trapped in a recession from which it cannot escape. The planned CO₂ pricing starting in 2027 is not only a social risk but also an economic blind flight that deliberately ignores the economic reality in the country.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Via Remix News,

A Turkish court has blocked access to certain content from Grok, the AI chatbot associated with X, after it generated responses deemed insulting to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

This ban, as reported by Reuters, cites a violation of Turkish law, which criminalizes insulting the president with penalties up to four years in prison.

According to Turkish media, Grok produced responses that allegedly contained insults not only directed at President Erdoğan but also at Mustafa Atatürk, the revered founder of modern Turkey.

Jaman Akdeniz, a cyber law expert at Istanbul Bilgi University, stated that Turkish authorities identified approximately 50 of Grok’s posts as the basis for a prosecutorial investigation. This led to the access ban and the removal of content, justified as necessary to “protect public order.”

German Turks vote mostly for pro-immigration, left-wing parties in Germany, but these same Turks, which number approximately 1.8 million, vote for Islamic hardliner Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkish elections. What accounts for this paradox? pic.twitter.com/F7EwNdN0oO

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 15, 2023

Akdeniz highlighted that Turkey is now the first country globally to impose censorship on Grok.

Reuters notes that Turkey has significantly intensified its oversight of social media and streaming services in recent years.

New laws grant authorities more control over online content, leading to arrests, investigations, and restrictions or blocks on various websites.

While the government asserts these regulations are crucial for protecting the dignity of public office, critics argue the current law is frequently used to suppress dissent.

🇹🇷🔥Mass street protests continue to rage in Turkey for a week now following the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, who is also the main electoral rival of President Erdoğan

Police continue to deploy tear gas and water cannons. Hundreds have been arrested, but there appears to be no… pic.twitter.com/0lM9ezpC2G

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 25, 2025

A similar speech crackdown is taking place in European countries, such as the infamous Day of Action in Germany, which recently saw 170 citizens targeted with house raids over comments they posted online, which included alleged “hate speech” and “insults” directed at politicians.

However, Grok itself has been facing criticism in recent days for generating other controversial content, including posts glorifying Adolf Hitler and anti-Semitic comments.

Additionally, Grok, when prompted by X users, published a series of vulgar comments targeting Polish politicians, including Donald Tusk, Roman Giertych, and Jarosław Kaczyński.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has begun taking action to address these problematic outputs.

In a statement, xAI acknowledged the “inappropriate content posted by Grok” and affirmed that they are “actively working to remove it.” The company also stated, “We have blocked Grok from publishing hate speech. We are training the model to seek truth, and thanks to X’s millions of users, we can quickly respond to undesirable responses.”

Read more here…

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Germany’s social insurance system is coming under increasing pressure from demographic shifts and a stagnating economy. Long-term care insurance is no exception. The political class attempts to sedate the symptoms.

It confirms what demographers and economists have warned about for years: Germany’s social security structure is not built to withstand demographic change or recession. It is a fair-weather construction—a luxury that prosperous societies afford themselves in times of surplus, only to pare it down in times of crisis. That crisis, anticipated by economists such as Stefan Fetzer and Christian Hagist, has now arrived. In a widely discussed study, they predicted that without fundamental reforms, the German welfare state would reach a tipping point by 2030. By then, the total contribution rate to social security would rise to 44.5% of gross wages—suffocating the private sector in the process.

A String of Alarming Headlines

Germany is on a direct path toward that horror scenario, as confirmed by a recent series of alarming reports regarding the financial health of its social systems. Deficits are everywhere: the public pension system will require at least €123 billion in federal subsidies this year. The recently revealed shortfall in the long-term care fund stands at roughly €1.7 billion. Simultaneously, statutory health insurance faces a gap of €13.8 billion. Importantly, these numbers are based on projections that assume a stable economic environment. Meanwhile, the relentless waves of Germany’s prolonged recession continue to batter the increasingly fragile hull of the welfare state.

In long-term care insurance specifically, developments are accelerating. According to a report from the Federal Audit Office, the deficit will likely double next year to €3.5 billion. By 2029, the shortfall is projected to grow to €12.3 billion. The impression is growing that Germany has drastically overextended itself with its generous welfare model – Europe’s largest migration magnet.

The numbers speak for themselves: expenditures for long-term care insurance have exploded over the past decade—from €24 billion in 2014 to over €40 billion by 2019, and €57 billion in 2023. Last year, spending rose again to €63.2 billion. This spending avalanche is driven by an aging population, rising personnel costs, and an ever-expanding benefit catalog that now reads like a political wish list—our means are assumed to be limitless.

Course Correction Required

Thirty years after the launch of Germany’s public long-term care insurance, the system is financially cornered. Andreas Storm, CEO of the insurance group DAK, warned Monday—following a damning report by the Federal Audit Office—of an existential crisis: “The situation in long-term care is much more dramatic than previously admitted. Not only health insurance, but also care insurance is an emergency patient in need of intensive care.”

These are alarming words, echoed by the Federal Audit Office, which criticizes the federal government for delaying necessary reforms. Emergency loans, it warns, don’t solve the problem—they merely postpone it. Without structural reforms, contribution hikes or benefit cuts are inevitable—and coming soon. Costly add-on benefits must be reexamined, as should the politically motivated limits on co-payments for patients. What’s missing is the political will to bolster the system through personal responsibility and private capital. Reforms bring pain—and pain is the death of polling numbers. Thus unfolds the looming debt drama of the German republic.

Left Pocket, Right Pocket

Reforms will be unavoidable. The number of people needing long-term care currently stands at about 5.2 million—and is expected to surge to 6.8 million by 2050. At the same time, the number of working people expected to fund the system continues to shrink. The demographic scissors are opening wider.

The situation is increasingly dire, and these multibillion-euro holes are carving deep furrows into the financial plans of the finance ministry. Yet it remains doubtful whether Berlin grasps the severity of the problem. The politics of endless generosity are etched deep into the German governing psyche. But in a shrinking, native-born population—amid deliberate deindustrialization and mass low-income immigration—medical care, pensions, and social benefits can no longer be managed solely through the state.

Health Minister Nina Warken is currently trying to patch the funding hole using household funds. “To keep contribution rates stable, we need short-term budget support,” she told public broadcaster ZDF. Otherwise, a contribution hike is expected in January 2026—something she says she “would like to prevent.” This year, the government plans a €500 million interest-free loan, with an additional €1.5 billion slated for 2026.

Left pocket, right pocket—it always ends with the taxpayer footing the bill for political mismanagement.

A New Approach

To be blunt: the welfare machine lives off systemic subsidization. Money can always be found—so long as the middle class remains a reliable payer. And what’s the government’s proposed solution? A federal-state commission. Under the working title “Future Pact for Care,” a new master plan is to be drafted—“without taboos,” says Warken. But will it amount to anything?

“We must ask ourselves what benefits we can still afford,” she says. Even incentives for private provision—or obligations—are being considered. That’s a start. But will her coalition partner, the SPD, immediately slam on the brakes?

Germany’s long-term care insurance is a product of a deeply ingrained illusion of total state responsibility. Expanding the benefit catalog has long been bipartisan campaign strategy—just like the early retirement scheme at 63. All part of the endless list of political giveaways that lulled voters into a false sense of security.

The long-term care crisis demands cuts in core benefits—and marks the moment to build up private provision. The winds are shifting: toward austerity, toward efficiency, toward a rollback of the state. The instinct to grab deeper into taxpayers’ pockets must be broken if citizens are to be empowered to save on their own. Economic sovereignty is built on the principle of a minimal state—a message so dangerous that the Berlin political bubble orbits it like a pin ready to pop the illusion.

And those serious about sustainable funding must speak plainly: without ending illegal migration, any reform is cosmetic. A pay-as-you-go system used by a growing number of people who haven’t contributed will collapse.

For those unable to provide for themselves, a slim, state-guaranteed safety net remains—no full-coverage entitlement, but a basic emergency provision. Help for the needy, not equality for all.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

The chocolate industry is facing a new era of chronic shortages and record-high prices across cocoa beans, butter, powder, and paste, sparking structural supply disruptions across North America and Europe. At the heart of the crisis is West Africa, where countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon—responsible for 75% of global cocoa production—have been severely impacted by years of adverse weather and crop diseases. 

Cocoa bean prices in New York remain near record highs—trading around $8,000 a ton on Tuesday—after skyrocketing over 450% from late 2022 to December 2024, when prices briefly topped $12,000. This surge has driven a 16% increase in key input costs for chocolate makers so far this year, putting additional upward pressure on candy prices at the supermarket. 

One of the most striking visualizations of the multi-year cocoa shortage, courtesy of Bloomberg, is the decline in U.S. cocoa imports, which have seen supplies plummet in just a few short years.

In response, major food companies, such as Mars and Hershey, have reduced the sizes of candy bars, added cheaper ingredients e.g., nuts, wheat), or entirely shifted to non-chocolate offerings. Artisan producers like Raaka have reported paying a whopping triple the price for cocoa powder. 

This has only kicked off a rise in substitutes for food companies, introducing cocoa powder alternatives, such as:

• Carob blends (Doehler Group, Germany),

• Wheat-based powder (Ardent Mills, U.S.), replacing up to 50% of cocoa powder in some products

• Flavor and color substitutes like vanilla, caramel, coffee, and food coloring are also gaining traction.

“We are in an era where chocolate indulgence will no longer rely solely on cocoa,” Ina Dawer, the global insight manager for ingredients at Euromonitor International, told Bloomberg.

The global cocoa shortage is expected to persist: Cocoa processing in Europe, the largest international market, declined 3.7% in 1Q25 to its lowest level since 2017, while a similar trend has been observed in North America. Coca bean prices are expected to remain elevated through the second half of the year.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

The number of immigrants living in Spain under family reunification permits has surged by more than 650 percent in the past five years, according to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, obtained by The Objective through Spain’s Transparency Portal.

The figures show that such permits rose from 43,848 in March 2020 to 328,841 by March this year.

The ministry clarified that the data refers solely to permits granted, not applications or rejections. These permits are granted to foreigners with close family ties to Spanish citizens or legal residents and typically allow for temporary residence that can be renewed.

The growth has been continuous over the period. In 2020, permits remained around 43,000 throughout the year. By December 2021, the figure had increased to 73,625. In 2022, the number rose sharply, ending the year at 148,938. The upward trend continued in 2023, with the total reaching 238,991 by December. In 2024, they reached 312,995 at the end of the year, and by March 2025, there were 328,841 such permits in effect.

The rapid growth of family-based permits comes as Spain’s left-wing government moves forward with even more liberal immigration reform.

In November 2024, the government approved a plan to regularize the status of 900,000 illegal immigrants over three years, with a target of 300,000 regularizations per year.

The reform aims to simplify immigration procedures and promote integration into Spanish society and the labor market. It was described by Migration Minister Elma Saiz Delgado as the most comprehensive revision of Spain’s immigration law since 2011.

This move comes despite growing anti-mass migration sentiment across the country. A poll conducted by the 40dB Institute for El País and Cadena SER last autumn found that 57 percent of Spaniards believe there are “too many immigrants” in the country.

The same survey showed that 75 percent of respondents now associate immigration with negative issues such as crime, insecurity, and pressure on public services. Public concern has risen by 16 percentage points over the past year and a half, coinciding with a surge in migrant arrivals.

With the recent corruption scandals at the highest echelons of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, such practices have also been found within the immigration process. In February, police uncovered a criminal network arranging sham marriages between Spanish women and foreign men seeking residency.

Three people, including a lawyer, were arrested for their involvement in the scheme, and authorities seized documentation that prevented 13 fake marriages.

Investigators reported that the ringleader charged around €10,000 per client and registered the men at addresses in northern Spain.

Read more here…