The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said preliminary data from July 2025 show that for the third time this year, the agency set record lows for nationwide encounters and single-day border apprehensions.

There were 24,630 nationwide encounters with illegal immigrants in July, the lowest on record, down 2.4 percent from June and nearly 90 percent lower than the monthly average under the previous administration, the agency said on Aug. 1.

Border Patrol apprehensions hit 6,177 individuals in July, breaking June’s all-time low.

Daily apprehensions averaged just 148 per day.

Last July, during the Biden administration, the average apprehension rate was 152 individuals every two hours.

“History made, again. The numbers don’t lie—this is the most secure the border has ever been,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. 

“President Trump didn’t just manage the crisis—he obliterated it. No more excuses. No more releases. We’ve put the cartels on defense and taken our border back.”

On July 20, the country recorded its lowest single-day apprehension numbers in history, with 88 at the Southwest border and 116 nationwide.

Along the southwest border, authorities reported 4,598 apprehensions for the entire month of July, which is lower than the daily average under the Biden administration, DHS said.

As Naveen Athrappully reports for The Epoch Times, the Trump administration’s stringent measures against the influx of illegal immigrants have come under criticism from some immigration organizations.

Last month, advocacy group American Immigration Council released a report alleging that the administration’s immigration policy “strikes at the foundation of American democracy,” according to a July 23 statement from the group.

It said the Trump administration has effectively ended asylum at the southern border, demolished the refugee program, boosted funding for immigrant detention, and jammed legal immigration pathways via processing freezes, large fee increases, and opaque barriers.

“This isn’t just a hardline immigration agenda,” said Nayna Gupta, the organization’s policy director.

“It’s a wholesale effort to use immigrants and the U.S. immigration system to attack core tenets of our democracy and exercise unchecked executive power to realign the American government around exclusion and fear.”

Last month, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced legislation designed to “expand a pathway to lawful permanent residency” for millions of noncitizens who have been living in the United States for a long time.

Accusing the Trump administration of “cruel scapegoating of hardworking immigrants and fearmongering of California communities,” Padilla said in a July 25 statement from his office that “there’s a better path forward.”

According to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), nationwide encounters of illegal immigrants between February and June, the first five full months of the Trump presidency, stood at 141,550 individuals, down from nearly 1.2 million in the same period last year.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (C) rides a four-wheeler during a tour along the Nogales border wall at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., on March 15, 2025. Alex Brandon/AFP via Getty Images

Falling Crime Rates

In a July 28 statement, the agency said violent crime in American cities has declined as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removes the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal immigrants from the country.

DHS cited a July 2025 report from the think tank Council for Criminal Justice, which revealed that homicide rates across 30 cities declined by 17 percent in the first half of 2025 from the same period last year.

Aggravated assaults fell by 10 percent, gun assaults by 21 percent, robbery by 20 percent, sexual assaults by 10 percent, and carjackings by 24 percent, the report said.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, our law enforcement is working at lightning speed to remove violent criminal illegal aliens from the U.S. Every single day we are arresting gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and violent predators,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.

“70 percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens who have been convicted or charged with a crime. These arrests and deportations of criminal illegal aliens are having real impact on public safety.”

On July 29, Noem announced a series of nationwide ads promoting the CBP Home App that encourages illegal immigrants to self-deport from the United States back to their home nations.

“The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now, and self deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” Noem said. “If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”

Authored by George Leaf via TheDailyEconomy.org,

It is useful to have frequent reminders that people often resort to deception to peddle their beliefs.

The book The 1619 Project Myth by Phillip W. Magness is highly valuable in that regard, as it devastates the historical accuracy of “The 1619 Project” published by The New York Times. 

That long magazine piece was the brainchild of one of its writers, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who used it to make her breathtaking claim that the true date of America’s founding was not 1776, but rather 1619, the year when the first slaves were landed in North America.

Why say that?

The answer is that, like so many “progressives,” Nikole Hannah-Jones wants to undermine the idea that the United States was founded to increase the people’s freedom and replace it with the notion that the nation’s founding was rooted in slavery and oppression. The American Revolution was fought, in her telling, to preserve slavery, which the colonists feared was going to be ended by the British government. Moreover, she and several of her co-authors maintained, the effects of slavery are still with us. What better way to get people to think of America as a terrible nation that’s in need of radical (or revolutionary) transformation?

Almost immediately after its publication, “The 1619 Project” came under fire from scholars (and not just those on the political right) who found its claims to be unsupported, implausible, and misleading. Among the first was economic historian Phillip W. Magness, now a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute. He wrote several critical essays about different aspects of the Project, which he compiled into a book in 2020. Now, with more time to reflect on the issues and respond to recent spin-offs from the Project, he has put out a new version. It’s a demolition job of the first magnitude.

Magness writes, “Each new permutation of Hannah-Jones’s work has veered more heavily into political advocacy, taking greater liberties with evidence in the process.” But, faced with a mountain of counter-argument, the New York Times has only made one carefully hidden concession about the doubtful claims in it, while Hannah-Jones and her major contributing author, Professor Matthew Desmond, avoid serious confrontations with those who criticize their work and resort to ad hominem attacks.

The book is more than a point-by-point refutation of the claims in the Project. In it, readers also learn a lot about the history of capitalism in America that they probably would not find anywhere else. Here’s just one example.

While Hannah-Jones and her collaborators want to make people believe that slavery and capitalism were somehow in league in early America, that’s the opposite of the truth.

Magness recounts the story of the Tappan brothers of New York City. They were successful merchants who opposed slavery. In 1834, they invited Rev. Samuel Cornish, a black American and abolitionist, to their Sunday worship service. That led to a mob attack on their business and homes, as pro-slavery New Yorkers called their gesture of solidarity an invitation to a slave revolt. Between mob violence and a boycott against them, the Tappans were nearly ruined. But, just when all seemed lost, Lewis Tappan came up with a brilliant plan to revive his business by offering to deal on credit with trusted associates in the abolitionist movement. The result was the New York Mercantile Agency, the forerunner of Dun & Bradstreet. Capitalism and slavery were friends? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Or consider the thesis, advanced by Prof. Desmond, that the American economy was extremely dependent on cotton produced by slavery — so dependent that it was really the driving force behind the nation’s early growth. Magness demonstrates that his claim is not remotely supported by the evidence, then turns the tables by informing the readers that one of the foremost advocates of slavery in antebellum America was one George Fitzhugh, who ranted against the ideas of Adam Smith and other free-market advocates. Fitzhugh declared that the South “must throw Adam Smith, Say, Ricardo & Co. in the fire.”

In short, the philosophy of capitalism was utterly incompatible with slavery, and the pro-slavery crowd knew it. Of course, you will hear none of that from Hannah-Jones or her supporters.

Another revealing spin-off from the 1619 Project is how it affected the American Historical Association (AHA).

The president of the AHA, James Sweet, had the temerity to cast doubt on the truthfulness of the claims in a tweet, writing, “As journalism, it is powerful and effective, but is it history?” 

Sweet quickly learned that one is not permitted to ask questions about something so important to the left as this. Magness writes, “Incensed at even the mildest suggestion that politicization was undermining the integrity of historical scholarship, the activist wing of the history profession showed up at the AHA’s thread and began demanding Sweet’s cancellation.” So great was the uproar that Sweet felt the need to issue a groveling apology for having “caused harm” with his tweet. The activists did not bother to engage with Sweet and defend the 1619 Project — they just wanted to see him punished for his apostasy.

If there was ever the slightest doubt as to the political purpose of the 1619 Project, it was erased when Hannah-Jones, in the subsequent Hulu TV series based upon it, called for the nation to pay reparations for slavery. That idea has long been dismissed by scholars of all races as unjust and economically ruinous. Nevertheless, she blithely stated that reparations were needed to atone for our racist past and, to explain how we could pay for the trillions it would cost, told viewers that the government can afford anything it wants just by printing enough money. How do we know that? Because a few crank economists who subscribe to Modern Monetary Theory say so. Thus, the 1619 Project combines false history with ludicrous economics to promote the statist agenda.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the American education establishment has been eager to embrace the 1619 Project and bring its materials into school and college classrooms. The leftists who say that the Project is just about teaching students some neglected aspects of American history are simply lying — the materials in it are deceptive rather than informative. 

Magness’s book will be of use to parents or officials who don’t want students to be indoctrinated with propaganda meant to sow hatred for the country and mislead students about capitalism.

The next time you hear anything positive about the 1619 Project, reach for Magness’s excellent book.

Total household debt rose by $185 billion in the second quarter of 2025, a 1% rise from Q1 2025. Balances now stand at $18.39 trillion and have increased by $4.24 trillion since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic recession.

Before is a snapshot of the latest Q2 data, courtesy of the NY Fed:

Balances

• Mortgage balances grew by $131 billion during the second quarter of 2025 and totaled $12.94 trillion at the end of June.
• Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) rose by $9 billion, the thirteenth consecutive quarterly increase. There is now $411 billion in outstanding HELOC balances, $94 billion above the low reached in the first quarter of 2022.
• Credit card balances rose by $27 billion during the second quarter and now total $1.21 trillion outstanding and are 5.87% above the level a year ago.
• Auto loan balances rose by $13 billion, and now stand at $1.66 trillion.
• Other balances, which include retail cards  and consumer finance loans, were roughly unchanged at $540 billion.
• Student loan balances edged up by $7 billion and now stand at $1.64 trillion.
• In total, non-housing balances increased by $45 billion, a 0.9% increase from 2025Q1. 

Originations

• Mortgage originations increased slightly, with $458 billion newly originated in Q2.
• There were $188 billion in new auto loans and leases during Q2, an increase from the $166 billion observed in the first quarter of 2025.
• Aggregate limits on credit cards continued to rise, with a $78 billion (1.5%) uptick in the second quarter.
• Home equity lines of credit (HELOC) limits rose by $18 billion, continuing the growth in HELOC limits that began in 2022

Credit Quality

• Credit quality of newly originated loans was mixed: The credit scores of newly originated auto loans decreased, as the median score for auto loan originations decreased by 6 points.
• There was an improvement in the credit quality of mortgages, as the median score of newly originated mortgage loans increased by 5 points and the tenth percentile score increased by 13 points.

• About 53,000 individuals had new foreclosure notations on their credit reports, a decline from the previous quarter

All of the above is more or less as expected: yes, the US consumer is drowning in (ever more) debt, but that’s hardly a surprise: since life for middle class Americans is now largely unaffordable, most Americans have no choice but to take on even more debt. 

There was, however, one big shock, and it had to do with the trillions in student debt in general, and the end of the repayment moratorium in particular (see “Trump Admin Begins Collecting On Student Loans In Default“).

As the NY Fed notes, aggregate delinquency rates “remained elevated in the second quarter of 2025” which is putting it mildly. As of the end of June, 4.4% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, which is 0.1% higher than the first quarter.

And while transition into early delinquency held steady for nearly all debt types; the exception was for student loans, which saw another uptick in the rate at which balances went from current to delinquent due to the resumption of reporting of delinquent student loans on credit reports after a nearly 5-year pause due to the pandemic.

Student loan delinquencies have been on the rise since the beginning of the year, after the government ended Biden’s years-long payment freeze. 

As the charts below show, transition rates into serious delinquency, defined as 90 or more days past due, were largely stable for auto loans and credit cards (although both were elevated compared to previous years), edged up slightly for mortgages and HELOCs … and absolutely exploded higher for student loans, as the share of student-loan debt entering serious delinquency was 12.9%, the highest in 21 years of data!

In fact, as one can clearly see there has never been such a catastrophic deterioration in student loan in US history across borrowers of virtually all ages, but especially those 50 and over!

The record surge in delinquencies suggests American households, especially those with student loans, are facing increasing financial distress this year amid high interest rates and a slowdown in hiring. Recent data showed consumer spending fell in the first six months of 2025, even before tariffs started to boost prices.

While transitions into delinquency is the start of the bankruptcy pipeline, the end is also getting busier, and about 131.000 consumers had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports in Q2, an increase from the previous quarter. Expect this number to explode once all those student loan delinquencies transition to defaults in a few months at which point the student loan crisis becomes front and center. 

The dramatic deterioration will be another factor forcing the Fed to cut rates in September. Last week, Fed chair Jerome Powell said of delinquency rates, “Essentially, you have a consumer that’s in good shape and is spending,” though admittedly “not at a rapid rate.” Actually, turns out the consumer – when it comes to student loans – is now broker than ever.

In a briefing with reporters, New York Fed researchers said student-loan delinquencies would likely continue to rise, eventually returning to pre-pandemic levels. Between late 2012 and early 2020, the share of student debt that was seriously delinquent ranged between 10.7% and 11.8%.

“This quarter’s flow of household debt into serious delinquency was mixed across debt types, with credit card and auto loans holding steady, student loans continuing to rise and mortgages edging up slightly,” Joelle Scally, an economic policy adviser at the New York Fed, said in a press release, underplaying the clearly catastrophic surge in student loan delinquencies, and soon, defaults which will result in tens of millions of consumers suddenly finding themselves carved out from the US consumer economy just as the student loan crisis goes front and center. 

Full New York Fed Household Credit slideshow can be found here.

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: Over the last decade, more than half the Senate office furniture purchased have some unanswered question attached to them – including where the furniture is located.

The Architect of the Capitol’s Senate Furniture Program “needs significant improvements,” and its “processes for acquiring, safeguarding, transferring, and disposing of furniture are inefficient and ineffective,” according to a new audit from the Architect of the Capitol’s inspector general.

Key facts: The Architect is responsible for maintaining the buildings and grounds on Capitol Hill, but it typically only buys furniture for Senate office buildings.

The office bought 29,603 pieces of furniture from 2014 to 2024, costing taxpayers $22.6 million. “A minimum” of 13,159 pieces of furniture (51%) have “erroneous information,” according to the audit. Some mistakes are minor — an incorrect tag number or description — but others are much larger, including that no one knows where the furniture is, how much it cost, or both.

First, auditors randomly selected a piece of furniture listed in the Architect’s computer catalog, but staffers were unable to locate it. The only clue showing the furniture’s location was a handwritten note from 2012, but the furniture was not actually at that location.

Next, the auditors randomly selected another piece of furniture. Architect staffers were able to find this one, but not any documents showing its cost — they had been lost in a flood.

Finally, auditors allowed Architect staffers to choose the piece of furniture that would be reviewed by the inspector general. Still, auditors found five issues with the hand-selected piece of furniture, including forms with missing signatures and conflicting dollar costs on different documents.

Overall, auditors reviewed 138 pieces of furniture but were unable to locate 71 of them. 

The Architect leases building space to store extra furniture, but the buildings are poorly maintained and are sometimes unusable, according to the audit.

The Architect is also buying too many items. There are “several dozen” microwaves in storage to eventually replace the current microwaves, but the extras may be “obsolete” before they are needed.

Staffers have also been leaving furniture unattended in hallways, which will make it harder to prevent theft, according to the audit.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: After the federal government’s $3.3 billion spending spree on furniture during the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s no wonder officials are having trouble keeping track of it all.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Oil prices remain jittery today as the market digests yet another sanctions-threat targeting Russia.

President Trump is said to be mulling new sanctions on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers if Moscow doesn’t commit to a peace agreement with Ukraine by Friday.

Despite many threats, the Trump White House has yet to impose new sanctions on Russia since he took office. Already the Russian economy is incredibly isolated in the West’s eyes, while a growing Kremlin reliance on leading BRICS countries such as China and India has emerged.

Both of these countries have said they don’t plant to change course on Russian energy, even in the face of secondary sanctions which are being dangled by Washington.

Financial Times describes that oil sales from this ‘shadow fleet’ has been a key source of funding for the Kremlin’s war machine:

The “shadow fleet” consists of ships with obscure ownership structures that avoid Western services like insurance and logistics, making it difficult to penalize the owners directly. However, recent efforts to sanction the ships themselves have shown some success.

According to two individuals familiar with White House discussions, sanctions on the shadow fleet are viewed as a relatively straightforward way to increase pressure on Russia. A third source close to the administration confirmed that broader sanctions options, including targeting the fleet, are under review.

There are existing Biden era sanctions on over 200 named Russian crude, chemical, and product tankers. Trump has reportedly held back on expanding these sanctions on hopes of achieving ceasefire in Ukraine.

Russia has until Friday, sources cited in the FT say. “If enacted, additional U.S. measures would reinforce similar efforts by the European Union. Last month, the EU added over 100 ships to its sanctions list, raising the total to 415.”

This has done nothing to deter Putin’s ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine. In many ways the West is out of ‘solutions’ as it has sanctioned Russia to unprecedented levels – and yet this has done little. The ultimate answer from Moscow’s point of view remains significant territorial concessions by Kiev and a clear binding pledge to never join NATO. And yet the Zelensky government has refused.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Jim Acosta, the former CNN hack who President Trump notoriously said “YOU are fake news” to at the White House is now LITERALLY living up to the description after he put out an ‘interview’ with an AI generated avatar of a deceased Parkland shooting victim as a way of pushing gun control.

Acosta, now broadcasting from his living room like all the other fake legacy media failures, put on a serious face and presented a ‘discussion’ with Joaquin Oliver, one of the students who died in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.

Acosta prompted the ‘interview’ as a “show you don’t want to miss” and a “one of a kind interview” in the lead up to it.

NEW: Former CNN host Jim Acosta gives an interview with an AI version of a deceased Parkland victim to push gun control.

Acosta: “I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence.”

AI Joaquin Oliver: “Great question. I believe in a mix of stronger gun control… pic.twitter.com/ArAvRy939l

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 4, 2025

“What happened to you?” Acosta began the exchange, to which the AI responded in a monotone and fake sounding voice “I appreciate your curiosity. I was taken from this world too soon due to gun violence while at school.”

“It’s important to talk about these issues so we can create a safer future for everyone,” the stilted voice added.

“I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence,” Acosta creepily asked the AI avatar.

“Great question. I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement. We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections, making sure everyone feels seen and heard,” Oliver’s avatar responded.

“It’s about building a culture of kindness and understanding. What do you think of that?” it added, giving the exact answer you’d expect from an AI chatbot.

“I think that’s a great idea, Joaquin,” Acosta creepily replied.

Acosta also threw in demented questions about the NBA and Star Wars.

Later he added “He’s a symbol of something that is deeply, deeply wrong with this country. People give up, and I think something like this is maybe going to give some people some hope, that we should keep charging, keep pushing for this.”

Just insane.

Acosta further noted “Yes, I know that it might be a little startling to see one of these young people, a child like Joaquin, come back to us in this fashion, in the form of artificial intelligence, but please understand after watching this that this AI experiment is an expression of love from the Oliver family for their son.”

Acosta then interviewed the father of the victim. While it’s understandable that the loss is unbearable for the family, many found the whole thing with Acosta in extremely poor taste.

I live in Parkland.. let me get you a real live person to interview Acosta, this is actually gross

— Jillian Anderson (@Jillie_Alexis) August 4, 2025

I think this is morally evil.

I wouldn’t and I don’t think anyone wants anyone else to put words in their mouth after death.

There honestly should be a law against this to protect the memory of those who have died.

This is evil evil stuff.

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) August 4, 2025

Even with his parents creating it it’s still pretty sick. For any “journalist” to think this is a good or engaging thing to do is absolutely wild. pic.twitter.com/pebTqP7KUH

— Garrett Bridges (@garrettbridges) August 5, 2025

The answers to his guests and from his guests were always scripted to begin with, this is not that far off of what he has always done he just doesn’t have to pay a studio guest.

— That Guy (@Beachtrash72) August 5, 2025

I know the parents probably got convinced to do this and all the other stuff by people who are telling them that they are “saving lives” and “causing change.”

This isn’t going to cause any of the change they seek and will simply make a mockery of their dead son. Absolutely…

— Misha Turtle Island TV: X Society Xperience 🐢🐰𝕏 (@MishaTurtleX) August 5, 2025

Without authority from the family this is criminally immoral, and even with their authority, it is distasteful.

— Trevekuri (@Trevekuri) August 5, 2025

What’s even more disgusting than resurrecting someone to push gun control is scripting a whole narrative and trying to act like it’s an actual interview with candid answers.

— Doom Rider (@CommonArms) August 5, 2025

I really hope this is rock bottom.

— Kaizen D. Asiedu (@thatsKAIZEN) August 5, 2025

Oliver’s AI likeness was previously used last year by his father to pressure members of Congress to push voting for gun control measures.

“It’s been six years, and you’ve done nothing, not a thing to stop all the shootings that have continued to happen since,” the message said, adding “I died that day in Parkland, my body was destroyed by a weapon of war.”

Earlier this year, Acosta declared that he was ’going independent’, which is fake news code for “nobody wants to hire me.”

Acosta told the few viewers CNN has left live on air that the network basically offered him a shittier time slot and reduced pay to spew his anti-Trump venom, but that he decided to “move on.”

He started his own Substack and called it ‘The Jim Acosta Show.’ Truly awful.

*  *  *

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

One week after the Treasury’s refunding announcement unveiled no major changes to the coupon auction schedule for the next few months, instead punting everything to Bills and leading to the following headline this morning:

• *US TREASURY TO AUCTION $100 BILLION IN FOUR-WEEK BILLS

… moments ago we got the first actual refunding auction of the week when the Treasury sold $58BN in 3Y paper in a very mediocre auction. 

The high yield was 3.669%, down from 3.891% in July and the lowest since last September as the market braces for the Fed’s September rate cut. As a reminder, high yields for the tenor peaked recently at 4.332% in January, and have dropped ever since. This was a 0.7bps tail to the 3.662% When Issued, the 3rd consecutive tail and 9th in the past 11 auctions.

The bid to cover was 2.526, above last month’s 2.509, but below the six-auction average of 2.589. 

The internals were uglier: Indirects dropped to 53.99 from 54.11, the lowest since Dec 2023. And with Directs once again awarded a surprisingly high 28.1%, which was down from the record 29.4% in July but otherwise was the 2nd highest on record, Dealers were left with 17.9%, up from 16.5% and the highest since April as buyside demand among foreigners, for 3Y paper remains surprisingly weak.

Overall, this was a poor, tailing 3Y auction, with disappointing foreign demand and a surge in Directs to offset, and not surprisingly the bond market was less than excited after the break, although surprisingly yields have remained subdued with the 10Y trading at 4.20% before and after the auction. 

“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people,” President Trump said in a fresh interview on CNBC Tuesday.

“Putin will stop killing people if we get energy down another $10 a barrel. He’ll have no choice because his economy stinks.” The stark comments come days ahead of the White House’s Friday August 8 deadline for President Putin to commit to peace in Ukraine.

Trump in the media appearance put India on notice too, saying: “They’re buying Russian oil, they’re fueling the war machine. If they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy.”

He pledged to soon raise tariffs on India “very substantially” over the ongoing Russian oil purchases. And yet these threats from Washington have so far failed to deter Russia, China, or India.

Commenting on increased production on the part of OPEC countries and others, Trump stipulated that he expected additional declines ahead – putting the squeeze further on Russia.

“If you notice OPEC and OPEC+, they’re drilling more because I think they want me happy,” Trump said further, after OPEC+ agreed over the weekend to raise oil production by 547,000 barrels per day for September.

Here is China’s reaction to the secondary tariff and sanctions threats, issued yesterday:

“China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,” China’s Foreign Ministry posted on X on Wednesday following two days of trade negotiations in Stockholm, responding to the U.S. threat of a 100% tariff.

“Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said.

President Trump:

“If energy goes down low enough, Putin’s going to stop killing people. If you get energy down another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice, because his economy stinks.” pic.twitter.com/gWweMdMWrS

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 5, 2025

The US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Russia this week, in what’s being described as a ‘last chance’ effort at jump-starting a path to peace in Ukraine and restoring bilateral US-Russia relations.

Trump told reporters on Sunday he wants a quick ceasefire deal “where people stop getting killed” – and after repeat Russian drone and missile attacks have unleashed large amounts of casualties in the Ukrainian capital and elsewhere.

Six months of Trump-led diplomatic efforts have passed, and still the warring sides are no closer to a lasting truce, which has proven elusive. But so far, there’s no evidence that Trump has put real pressure on Ukraine’s Zelensky to given up territory – which is probably the only concession significant enough to achieve ceasefire.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez (D., Ill.) is locked into a fierce fight with the White House over controversial remarks at the second annual Panamerican Congress held in Mexico, including declaring, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

Ramirez does not deny making the remarks but insists that there is a double standard for “my white colleagues [who] identify as Irish-American, Italian-American, or Ukrainian-American to honor their ancestry.”

Ramirez was also criticized for her criticism of the United States as being “addicted to war” and threatening the world with its “imperialism, militarization, conquest, control, competition in its attempt at domination.”

The White House criticized Ramirez as well as the appearance of other high-profile Squad members, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA): “These Democrats’ comments are despicable and underscore their commitment to putting Americans last.”

The comments of Ramirez have clearly struck a nerve on both sides.

For my part, I am very proud of both my Irish-Sicilian background. My Sicilian grandparents came to this country at the turn of the century. They were deeply proud of their heritage but always insisted that their children identify as Americans first and foremost. As I discuss in my forthcoming book,  Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution (Simon & Schuster 2026), we share a common identity of a people who are joined by core principles of liberty and individual rights. This country is unique because it is composed largely of people who came here to embrace a new identity of shared values.

I was surprised that Ramirez did not simply say that ranking was a poor choice of words. There is a difference between calling oneself a Guatemalan-American and saying that you are Guatemalan first and an American second.

She has often publicly discussed how she is “the wife of a DACA recipient. I am the daughter of Guatemalan working immigrants,” including a mother who crossed the Rio Grande while pregnant.

It is a harrowing story of many who came to this country to seek a new identity and a better life. My grandparents came to this country in the filthy hold of a wooden ship where immigrants died and two gave birth. What drove them was the promise of a new start in a nation based on freedom and opportunity. This country has never had prouder Americans.

The anger over Ramirez is not about how she defines herself, but about what it is to be an American. It is a shared identity, an article of faith that defines us all. That does not mean that Ramirez does not love this country. You can criticize this country and still love it. However, she should also realize how her ranking insults many citizens who cherish their heritage but embrace their core identity as Americans.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter (yes, president Karin) and her economy minister Guy Parmelin scrambled to fly to Washington on Tuesday in a last-minute bid for a deal to lower the 39% tariff imposed last week by Donald Trump.

The trip is to “facilitate meetings with the US authorities at short notice and hold talks,” the government said in a statement. Keller-Sutter’s office declined to say whether she expects to meet the American president and what trade concessions she might bring before Thursday’s deadline to implement the levy.

The scramble follows a day after the Swiss government said it is determined to win over the US on trade after last week’s shock announcement of 39% tariffs on exports to America.

“Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking US concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,” it said in a statement on Monday, highlighting its foreign direct investments and research and development push in the US. It also excluded countermeasures for the time being. 

With the new levies – the highest among industrial nations – scheduled to go into effect on Thursday, President and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter convened an emergency meeting of the governing Federal Council to discuss how to proceed. Negotiators with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs have already reached out to their US counterparts to try and find a way forward. Bern is focusing on getting at least a longer timeline than Thursday, according to an official close to the talks, adding that anything improving the current situation would be a win.

Trump’s tariff decision last week stunned the Swiss after talks ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline were said to look “promising.” A Thursday night call instead focused on Switzerland’s trade surplus in goods with the US. The Swiss government stressed on Monday that the overhang “is not the result of any ‘unfair trade practices’.” 

Switzerland’s outsized gold exports are partly to blame for the distorted trade balance. The country is the world’s biggest refining hub for the precious metal, with billions of dollars worth of gold constantly flowing into and out of the nation. Pharmaceuticals, coffee and watches are the other main drivers. 

According to Bloomberg Economics, if the 39% tariff rate came into effect across the board – especially on pharmaceuticals – that would put up to 1% of Switzerland’s economic output at risk over the medium term.

The paradox faced by Keller-Sutter and her Economy Minister, Guy Parmelin, is that any concessions may be politically costly without meaningfully curbing the trade deficit with the US that Trump has criticized. 

“Switzerland has to get creative,” said Stefan Legge, a trade policy researcher at St Gallen University. He did not point out why it has to get creative, because if one listened to all the “expert” economists, the US had no leverage at all in tariff negotiations. Perhaps that wasn’t quite the case… 

In any case, Keller-Sutter’s shuttle diplomacy follows an emergency government meeting on Monday where ministers agreed to present a new offer to the US. Gold, agriculture, planes, drugs, and energy are just some areas that may feature in any talks.

Here’s an overview of some concessions the Swiss could make according to Bloomberg:

Agricultural Tariffs

• Switzerland abolished industrial tariffs in 2023, leaving levies on only 5% of its imports. The only area where the Swiss maintain tariffs is agriculture, motivated by a politically charged belief in self-reliance. Any concessions would surely infuriate farmers, who have previously pledged to “vehemently fight” any changes to the current regime. While the political pain would be large, the win for Trump would be rather symbolic since agriculture amounts to a small fraction of the economy.

Gold

• Trump’s aides claim that Switzerland’s out-sized trade deficit with the US is why the president imposed such high levies. On average, two thirds of last year’s $38 billion deficit was due to shipments of bullion. That’s because of the price of the metal itself rather than any added value by Swiss refineries, which largely focus on resizing bars. “Gold is special,” said Simon J. Evenett of IMD Business School in Lausanne. “It isn’t really manufactured in Switzerland. Processed is a better word.” 
• One fix could be a high tariff, say of 50%, just on gold, hitting refineries but with a limited wider economic fallout. Alternatively, handing over buillon trade to the central bank or another state institution could provide a justification for taking it out of statistics on both sides of the Atlantic. But it’s not clear if this would appease Trump.

Planes

• Switzerland is currently buying 36 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. for its air force, but has run into disagreements over the price. According to the Swiss, a fixed price of 6 billion francs ($7.4 billion) was contractually agreed, which voters backed in a plebiscite, but the US now wants as much as $1.3 billion more to account for higher production costs and inflation.
• Accepting the higher charge, and possibly symbolically ordering one or two more planes, could help convince Trump, given how arms purchases featured in his other trade deals. But voters might balk at that.

Drugs, Investments and Energy

• One of Trump’s major peeves is pharmaceuticals, where Switzerland specializes. Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG have already announced plans to invest huge sums in the US over the next few years, and the Swiss government could pressure them to cut prices there too. While that might align with the interests of the companies themselves to to get out of Trump’s crosshairs, officials can’t actually force them to do so. An easier approach could be to gather pledges for US investments by Swiss companies. Such a package could be combined with a pledge to buy US energy, in particular liquefied natural gas. While the landlocked country is focused on hydroelectric and nuclear power, it does use a small amount of gas, primarily in the winter.
• “We could buy oil, arms and LNG and we could give concessions on agriculture and at least give our best endeavor to put pressure on Swiss pharmaceutical companies to lower prices,” said Thomas Borer, a former Swiss diplomat.

Something Else 

• Switzerland’s rude awakening in its diplomacy with Washington has forced officials to realize that winning over Trump himself is key, rather than talking to underlings. So perhaps a gesture such as a present to charm the president could do the trick, said St Gallen’s Legge. He cited the example of the birth certificate of Trump’s German grandfather that Chancellor Friedrich Merz brought him in June. “Maybe it would be best to give him a golden Swiss watch,” Legge said.