A day after citing a Gallup poll showing collapsing patriotism among Democrats, we didn’t have to look far for proof: highly educated Boston leftists proudly proclaiming they’re “not proud to be American.” Yet, despite their anti-American rhetoric, they still choose to live here. Strange, isn’t it?

The Boston Globe—owned by Boston Globe Media Partners and run by John W. Henry, the billionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group, along with his wife, Linda Pizzuti Henry, the co-owner and CEO—shared a short-form video on Instagram featuring a series of interviews with residents about their patriotic views. 

Boston Globe journalists and editors somehow failed to find a single person proud to be an American. In fact, every interviewee was reading a script—authentic, right? Not one of these highly educated locals could speak off the cuff?

“The words “disgusted” and “embarrassed” appeared often, as did criticisms of the Trump administration,” the Boston Globe Opinion wrote on its Instagram. 

.@GlobeOpinion releases a brand new video interviewing locals on why they are not proud to be Americans on July 4th

“I’m not a proud American. I am in an America I no longer recognize” pic.twitter.com/Pvx3SfJGAA

— Bostonians Against Mayor Wu (@AntiWuCoalition) July 4, 2025

The scripted propaganda (or what appears to be) from the Boston Globe comes as a plunge in national pride has been led mainly by Democrats. 

Perhaps the Boston Globe’s scripted propaganda (or what appears to be) becomes more understandable when you consider that their CEO is prominently featured on the World Economic Forum’s website…

Right. 

Reading from scripts—it is no wonder trust in corporate media has collapsed. Nice try, Boston Globe, working-class folks are too smart for this leftist nonsense.

Via Headline USA,

Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees.

The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a “restricted area by authority of the commander.” It’s part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before.

The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering U.S. troops to detain people who enter the country illegally and sidestep a law prohibiting military involvement in civilian law enforcement. It is done under the authority of the national emergency on the border declared by President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

U.S. authorities say the zones are needed to close gaps in border enforcement and help in the wider fight against human smuggling networks and brutal drug cartels.

The militarization is being challenged in court, and has been criticized by civil rights advocates, humanitarian aid groups and outdoor enthusiasts who object to being blocked from public lands while troops have free rein.

Military expansion

Two militarized zones form a buffer along 230 miles of border, from Fort Hancock, Texas, through El Paso and westward across vast New Mexico ranchlands.

The Defense Department added an additional 250-mile (400-kilometer) zone last week in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and plans another near Yuma, Arizona. Combined, the zones will cover nearly one-third of the U.S. border with Mexico.

They are patrolled by at least 7,600 members of the armed forces, vastly expanding the U.S. government presence on the border.

Reaction to the military buffer has been mixed among residents of New Mexico’s rural Luna County, where a strong culture of individual liberty is tempered by the desire to squelch networks bringing migrants and contraband across the border.

“We as a family have always been very supportive of the mission, and very supportive of border security,” said James Johnson, a fourth-generation farmer overseeing seasonal laborers as they filled giant plastic crates with onions, earning $22 per container.

Military deployments under prior presidents put “eyes and ears” on the border, Johnson said. This version is “trying to give some teeth.”

But some hunters and hikers fear they’re being locked out of a rugged and cherished landscape.

“I don’t want to go down there with my hunting rifle and all of a sudden somebody rolls up on me and says that I’m in a military zone,” said Ray Trejo, a coordinator for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and a Luna County commissioner. “I don’t know if these folks have been taught to deescalate situations.”

Nicole Wieman, an Army command spokesperson, said the Army is negotiating possible public access for recreation and hunting, and will honor private rights to grazing and mining.

Increased punishment

More than 1,400 migrants have been charged with trespassing on military territory, facing a possible 18-month prison sentence for a first offense. That’s on top of an illegal entry charge that brings up to six months in custody. After that, most are turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for likely deportation. There have been no apparent arrests of U.S. citizens.

At a federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the banks of the Upper Rio Grande, migrants in drab county jail jumpsuits and chains filed before a magistrate judge on a recent weekday.

A 29-year-old Guatemalan woman struggled to understand instructions through a Spanish interpreter as she pleaded guilty to illegal entry. A judge set aside military trespassing charges for lack of evidence, but sentenced her to two weeks in jail before being transferred for likely deportation.

“She sells pottery, she’s a very simple woman with a sixth-grade education,” a public defense attorney told the judge. “She told me she’s going back and she’s going to stay there.”

Border crossings

Border Patrol arrests along the southern border this year have dropped to the lowest level in six decades, including a 30% decrease in June from the prior month as attempted crossings dwindle. On June 28, the Border Patrol made only 137 arrests, a stark contrast with late 2023, when arrests topped 10,000 on the busiest days.

The first militarized zones, introduced in April and May, extend west of El Paso past factories and cattle yards to partially encircle the New Mexico border village of Columbus, and its 1,450 residents. It was here that Mexican revolutionary forces led by Pancho Villa crossed into the U.S. in a deadly 1916 raid.

These days, a port of entry at Columbus is where hundreds of children with U.S. citizenship cross daily from a bedroom community in Mexico to board public school buses and attend classes nearby.

Columbus Mayor Philip Skinner, a Republican, says he’s seen the occasional military vehicle but no evidence of disruption in an area where illegal crossings have been rare.

“We’re kind of not tuned in to this national politics,” Skinner said.

Oversight is divided between U.S. Army commands in Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The militarized zones sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil.

Russell Johnson, a rancher and former Border Patrol agent, said he welcomes the new militarized zone where his ranch borders Mexico on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management.

“We have seen absolutely almost everything imaginable that can happen on the border, and most of it’s bad,” he said, recalling off-road vehicle chases on his ranch and lifeless bodies recovered by Border Patrol.

In late April, he said, five armored military vehicles spent several days at a gap in the border wall, where construction was suspended at the outset of the Biden presidency. But, he said, he hasn’t seen much of the military in recent weeks.

“The only thing that’s really changed is the little extra signage,” he said. “We’re not seeing the military presence out here like we kind of anticipated.”

Court challenges

Federal public defenders have challenged the military’s new oversight of public land in New Mexico, seizing on the arrest of a Mexican man for trespassing through remote terrain to test the legal waters.

They decried the designation of a new military zone without congressional authorization “for the sole purpose of enabling military action on American soil” as “a matter of staggering and unpreceded political significance.” A judge has not ruled on the issue.

In the meantime, court challenges to trespassing charges in the militarized zone have met with a mixture of convictions and acquittals at trial.

Ryan Ellison, the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, won trespassing convictions in June against two immigrants who entered a militarized zone again after an initial warning

“There’s not going to be an issue as to whether or not they were on notice,” he told a recent news conference.

Via VigilantFox.com

Yes, they were all wrong.

In spectacular fashion.

Victor Davis Hanson just DISMANTLED the so-called “experts” who’ve been wrong about Trump’s policies at every turn.

He dropped three brutal examples that leave no room for doubt—and ended with this warning to the media elites:

“You should try to shed your Trump Derangement Syndrome, because it’s really affecting your powers of judgment and analysis, and you’re going to lose readers.”

Victor Davis Hanson has a message for the media and the self-anointed “experts” who’ve spent years forecasting disaster under Trump: look at the record.

In his eyes, their failures weren’t honest miscalculations but an unwillingness to admit they simply didn’t understand the country, or the president that they were so eager to condemn.

“I want to talk about our so-called experts,” he began, setting the tone for his argument with a reference to the infamous letter signed by intelligence veterans.

“We know they’ve been wrong when they sign these collective letters, 51 intelligence authorities assured us Hunter’s laptop was pretty much made up in Russia.”

It wasn’t, he argued, an isolated misfire.

Hanson accused major outlets of embracing analyses that fell apart under the weight of real events.

“Recently, in some of the marquee newspaper sites, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, of course, the New York Times, they made a series of statements by so-called experts that are absolutely confounded by reality.”

He was setting the stage for a bigger argument: that these repeated failures weren’t simply about being wrong.

They were about refusing to see what was right in front of their own eyes.

Victor Davis Hanson has a message for the media and the self-anointed “experts” who’ve spent years forecasting disaster under Trump: look at the record.

In his eyes, their failures weren’t honest miscalculations but an unwillingness to admit they simply didn’t understand the… pic.twitter.com/YrRMEQIkpg

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

That stubbornness, Hanson argued, was especially obvious when it came to Iran.

The recent strikes on uranium enrichment facilities provided a textbook case of the media seizing on convenient narratives while ignoring evidence that didn’t fit.

“Let’s take Iran,” he said, describing how reports downplayed the strikes’ effectiveness.

“We get all of these stories that the combined Israel and the later United States strikes on the three key sites of uranium enrichment and around may not have done very much.”

Much of that spin, he claimed, came from a single Pentagon leak describing “marginal damage”—a version of events many outlets picked up without question.

But the reality, he insisted, was harder to deny for anyone who looked at the photos.

“Anybody who looked at the post operation panel, photographs could see that there was substantial damage.”

It wasn’t just his opinion.

“David Albright, one of the most prestigious, an analyst of nuclear proliferation. He said there was serious damage.”

He cited similar assessments from the IAEA’s Mr. Grossi and Israeli intelligence, while the press clung to the one leak that fit their angle.

And the real twist? Hanson highlighted what he saw as absurd hypocrisy in how the threat was framed before and after the strikes.

“The left told us before there was no need to strike Iran because they were months or years away from developing a bomb,” he said.

Yet once the facilities were hit, the same voices panicked about the danger of rapid enrichment.

“They said, oh my gosh, there might be uranium that could be quickly enriched.”

Even some of Trump’s own supporters, Hanson argued, weren’t immune to overreaction.

“The same thing, the same inexactitude, is true of the reaction to the, around war,” he said, recalling grim forecasts of “30,000 people killed, could cause World War Three.”

But the real story was anticlimactic in a way no one seemed eager to admit.

“We were in Iranian airspace for about 25 minutes. No Americans were killed. Probably very few if any Iranians were killed.”

Trump negotiated a ceasefire almost immediately.

And when Iran retaliated by launching missiles at a US base in Qatar, Hanson noted it was “22 year old, 23 year old skeleton crews” manning Patriot batteries who intercepted them without issue.

“Trump did not reply. End of story. No World War Three, no 30,000 killed, no endless wars.”

That stubbornness, Hanson argued, was especially obvious when it came to Iran.

The recent strikes on uranium enrichment facilities provided a textbook case of the media seizing on convenient narratives while ignoring evidence that didn’t fit.

“Let’s take Iran,” he said,… pic.twitter.com/Zk297pbPxm

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

If the coverage of Iran revealed one kind of expert failure, the border crisis showed another—one that was more about stubborn dogma than leaked intelligence.

“Then we get to the border, and, we were told that there’s only one solution for the border, and that was comprehensive immigration reform.”

For years, the refrain was the same: without sweeping new laws, nothing could change.

Even Trump, they argued, couldn’t hope to make a real dent in illegal crossings.

But Hanson said those dire predictions met an inconvenient reality.

“We were said even Donald Trump should come in and get everything he wants. There’s no way you can reduce 10,000 people a day to zero,” he noted.

Then, with understated finality: “He did that. He did that.”

He revisited the idea of “self-deportation,” mocked for years as unworkable or even offensive.

Trump’s team, Hanson said, turned it into a policy with clear rules and real consequences.

“If you self-deport and you go back and you ever want to come back, you can legally you can reapply. But if you’re apprehended in the United States illegally, you can’t come back at least for ten years.”

They didn’t just make threats. They offered practical incentives.

“We will give you $1,000 to go back, and we will pay your air ticket deep into your country.”

According to Hanson, it worked on a scale the experts refused to believe possible.

“Almost a million people have self-deported,” he said, arguing the real border crisis today is largely about those who entered under Biden.

“They’re not coming because of these deterrents.”

If the coverage of Iran revealed one kind of expert failure, the border crisis showed another—one that was more about stubborn dogma than leaked intelligence.

“Then we get to the border, and, we were told that there’s only one solution for the border, and that was comprehensive… pic.twitter.com/qAMZl2Rh9X

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

With that, Hanson turned to the final example where he felt the expert class had shown stunning overconfidence: the economy.

“Finally, the Wall Street Journal told us that the tariffs in March and April, they were going to crash the stock market. They were going to raise prices. We would have a hyperinflation. We were going to have a recession,” he recalled.

The predictions were dire, and they extended to fears that deporting hundreds of thousands of workers would gut industries and kill jobs.

But Hanson said the actual numbers tell a different story.

“Here we are in June and the stock market is at a record high. The Japanese, the Chinese, their prices for their products, despite the tariffs that they were paying, are the same, if not lower. Job creation is good.”

He argued Trump’s approach was less about ideology and more about pragmatism.

“Donald Trump is pretty common sensical.”

For Hanson, the logic was simple: remove the shadow workforce that suppressed wages and confront trade partners who benefited from asymmetric tariffs.

Instead of collapse, he said, the US economy proved resilient…and even thrived.

“You can have an economic renaissance,” he said, if you were willing to challenge the accepted wisdom.

With that, Hanson turned to the final example where he felt the expert class had shown stunning overconfidence: the economy.

“Finally, the Wall Street Journal told us that the tariffs in March and April, they were going to crash the stock market. They were going to raise prices.… pic.twitter.com/oFozR60FKC

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

In the end, Hanson’s critique was less about individual mistakes than a culture of certainty that refused to learn.

He closed by listing, point by point, the predictions he believed had been definitively disproven.

These cut like a dagger.

“So just to conclude,” he said, “on nuclear proliferation—WRONG.”

“On a forever war following the bombing of the uranium enrichment plants in Iran—WRONG.”

“Wrong on the border that couldn’t be defended, that you couldn’t stop illegal immigration, you couldn’t self-deport people.”

“Wrong on tariffs, wrong on the so-called trade war. No recession, no inflation, no sudden loss of jobs.”

But for Hanson, it wasn’t just about being wrong, it was about the refusal to admit it.

That’s when he dropped his BRUTAL warning to media elites:

“You should try to shed your Trump Derangement Syndrome, because it’s really affecting your powers of judgment and analysis, and you’re going to lose readers.”

He insisted that the real solutions were never complicated or extreme but rooted in common sense.

“Close the border. Tell people to leave who are here illegally. Tell countries not to put tariffs on our goods unless they want tariffs on theirs. And don’t ever underestimate the US Air Force when it flies into an undefended airspace.”

And while he didn’t expect the media to change course, he offered a final promise to his audience.

“Most of the criticism of Donald Trump was not based on reality. Is this going to stop that fraudulent reporting? No, it’s going to continue.”

“But we’re going to be astute and awake before their inconsistencies.”

In the end, Hanson’s critique was less about individual mistakes than a culture of certainty that refused to learn.

He closed by listing, point by point, the predictions he believed had been definitively disproven.

These cut like a dagger.

“So just to conclude,” he said, “on… pic.twitter.com/ORcFO8RGJy

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

Watch the full episode of the @DailySignal here: https://t.co/xkMD0qIVHB

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 2, 2025

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

Hamas announced on Friday that it had delivered a “positive” response to the latest US-backed ceasefire and hostage release proposal for Gaza, stating it was ready to begin proximity talks with Israel “immediately” to resolve outstanding issues.

But just like with prior instances of being near the “goal line” – a phrase often heard during the Biden administration – Hamas has put forth several key conditions which could prove serious obstacles toward finalizing a deal. Still, global media is saying this is the closest the warring parties have been to reaching an agreement in a long time.

Israeli media, citing one mediation source, has said that one of Hamas’s main demands is clearer assurances about what happens if negotiations on a permanent ceasefire are not concluded by the end of the proposed 60-day truce.

The militant group’s official statement said, “The movement has delivered its response to the brotherly mediators, which was characterized by a positive spirit.”

“Hamas is fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework,” it added.

The current draft presented to Hamas says the ceasefire could be extended as long as both sides are negotiating in good faith, but Hamas reportedly wants that clause removed, fearing it gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an opening to resume military action. This is precisely what ensued in March when a previous deal unraveled.

Instead, Hamas is pushing for language that guarantees negotiations on a permanent ceasefire will continue until a final agreement is reached, and this is something which Israel has resisted. 

Meanwhile, pressure on Netanyahu continues to grow domestically, as The Times of Israel details:

Tens of thousands of Israelis are set to join hostage families at mass rallies on Saturday night to urge the government to reach a deal that will free all the remaining captives held in Gaza after Israel and Hamas accepted the outlines of a US truce deal.

The rallies will be held as the security cabinet gathers to discuss Hamas’s response to the emerging ceasefire-hostage deal, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the White House on Monday.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded a comprehensive deal to end the war and release the remaining 50 hostages, at least 28 of whom are dead, even as Israeli officials are reportedly working to see which living hostages to prioritize in the partial, phased release under discussion.

Prior statements of Israeli leaders have presented a grim outlook, with the possibility that less than twenty captives taken on Oct.7, 2023 might still be alive.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 138 Palestinians have been killed in the past day – 63 of them while seeking humanitarian aid.

But many people are pinning their hopes on an imminent ceasefire.

Hamas officials say they are studying proposals for a 60-day halt to the… pic.twitter.com/NtdxI0IxzD

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 4, 2025

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in its official statement, “Amid reports of a partial deal, and the prime minister’s trip to the United States, hostage families invite Israelis of all stripes to come to Hostages Square and join them in a clear call: ‘This is the time to finish the job, reach a comprehensive deal and ensure full Israeli victory.‘“

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“I can negotiate with a man who wants to make money. I can’t negotiate with a communist who wants to kill me.” 

– Josh Lippincott on “X”

O, Norman Rockwell, where are you when we really need you?

Forgive us, Emma Lazarus, our second thoughts about those huddled masses yearning to breathe free. . . the wretched refuse of your teeming shore(s).

That was then and this is now. O, beautiful for spacious skies (but, why so many contrails criss-crossing overhead from the New York Island to the gulf stream waters?).

O, land of tattooed grandmas, hostages of the tiny screens, the sexually confounded, the illiterate and innumerate, the lawless and the feckless, brainwashed youth marinated in Marx, the deranged, befuddled, the bought-off, the bug-eyed and bewildered, the lame, the halt, the addicts, grifters, hustlers, porn-stars, drugstore cowboys, alpha dogs, beta boys, shrieking Karens, and sundry victims of future-shock — whither, this hallowed experiment in nationhood?

Wouldn’t you like to know? In the meantime, husk that corn and flip them burgers! Turn them wieners! Mash your guacamole, pop another frostie, pass the Jack, lock-and-load, and mind those hovering drones! It is the 249th birthday of what remains of our country! Respect and thanks, ye ancestors!

At least, there is Mr. Trump in command now, not Norman Bates’s mother (or whatever decrepitating thing pretended to rule from the White House those previous four years of anarchy and agony). Daddy’s in da house — finally! — and things are being put in order against all odds. Yeah, you’re gonna clean up your damn room, or else! For many, this is a yuge relief. The rest of you, with your “No Kings” fake revolution, your Antifa monkey business, your mean girl psychodramas, your trans psychosis, your childless despair, your occult Gramscian schemes of destruction — please report back to the margins, where you belong.

The struggle to get normal again is epic and harsh. And, of course, many will deny that there ever was such a state of being, of minding your business in the purest sense of the phrase, acting like responsible, self-respecting, autonomous adults. In the immortal words of Aimee Mann, better wise-up. Childhood ends; something else begins. Take yourself seriously for a change, but keep your heart light, ready for the jokes that travail always presents. After all, nothing is funnier than unhappiness.

To get back to normal, to shed the burden of absurdities we’ve been heaped with, requires an accounting. You know this. Matter of fact, the absence of such an accounting has been bugging you no end. A whole lot of pain and suffering was inflicted across this land in recent years and barely a soul has had to do any ‘splainin’. It rankles badly. When, if ever, will these vicious, seditionist goons who turned the nation inside-out and upside-down be compelled to sit at the defendant’s table in a court of law?

I have a theory. The right dawgs, you well-know, have been in position for months. They understand the conspiracy hatched ten years ago through-and-through. Mr. Patel, remember, ran Chairman Devon Nunes’ investigation of the nascent RussiaRussiaRussia hoax in 2017 as senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and helped draft the “Nunes Letter,” much abused by the perfidious news media, that laid out the plot by Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Obama & Company to smother Donald Trump’s newborn presidency in its crib.

Through some alchemy of mass political psychosis, that conspiracy has rolled on for a whole decade, one malice-driven prank after another. It continues to this day, an evermore rearguard action conducted by Deep State rogues and their public mouthpiece, Norm Eisen of Lawfare, Inc. Dan Bongino, now at Mr. Patel’s right-hand, chronicled that long march of treason in several books while he conducted daily podcast discourses on the workings of it all. “Remember the names,” he always said. Danny Boombatz remembers the names.

Normality, with all its own problems and hazards, demands that accounting for crimes and insults against the people of this sore-beset Republic. That fateful accounting is the one element missing in all of Mr. Trump’s implacable “winning” of the past five months. Those remembered names fester like an abscessed wound in America’s body politic. That wound must be cleaned, irrigated, debrided, and dressed in judicial process that restores the probity and honor of our much-abused law.

My theory is that a whole lot of other matters had to be cleared out of the way first. And now, that is pretty much where we’re at. Mr. Ratcliffe, formerly Director of National Intelligence (in Trump One) and now Director of the CIA, also knows all the names. He’s been as quiet as a tick on a wild hog lo these many months, but on Wednesday he issued quite a squawk, in the public arena of X, no less, along with a report by trusted agency colleagues titled (nontoxically) Tradecraft Review 2016 ICA on Election Interference 062625.

This fateful report, which lays out the originating crime, should commence the more general institutional accounting so overdue. It’s coming. Cases are being laid and made quietly in the background. Cases will be brought. The insults will be redressed. Derangement will slip away like that quicksilver mirage on a desert highway. The inordinate division of recent years will go with it. We will allow ourselves to be a people again, one nation under God, as the old chestnut goes. Next year, on our country’s 250th birthday, there will be a special reason to celebrate. For now, patience and fortitude.

Confirming earlier media leaks, OPEC+ agreed to increase oil production even more rapidly than expected next month, as the Saudi-led group seeks to capitalize on strong summer demand in its move to reclaim market share.

The eight core group members agreed to raise supply by 548,000 barrels a day at a video conference on Saturday, putting the group on pace to unwind its most recent layer of output cuts one year earlier than originally outlined. The countries had announced increases of 411,000 barrels for each of May, June and July, already three times faster than scheduled, and traders had expected the same amount for August.

Saturday’s decision was based on “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories,” the Vienna-based OPEC said in a statement.

Crude traders had widely expected OPEC+ to ratify another hike of 411,000 barrels day for August, according to a Bloomberg survey, and delegates’ initial discussions this week also focused on that level. 

The latest increase amplifies a dramatic strategy pivot by the OPEC+ that helped drive oil prices lower this year, one which many view as punishment for quota abusers and as targeting US shale production which recently peaked and has been unchanged for months. Since April, the group shifted from years of output restraint to reopening the taps, surprising crude traders and raising questions about its long-term strategy. Officials have said that Riyadh is especially eager to restart more idled capacity as quickly as possible in a drive for market share.

Saturday’s decision also provides the latest indication of how Riyadh has consolidated its control of the group’s decision-making process, as late as Friday evening, delegates from several member nations appeared unaware of the plan to accelerate.

Meanwhile, citing unnamed delegates Bloomberg added that the cartel will consider adding another roughly 548,000 barrels a day in September at the next meeting on Aug. 3, which would represent the final step in reviving the 2.2 million barrels a day of supply curbs announced in 2023. Beyond that, it’s not clear whether the group would turn its attention to the next 1.66 million-barrel tier of idle output.

With OPEC+ pushing barrels into a market that is widely expected to be oversupplied later in the year, Brent futures have retreated 8.5% in 2025 as crude production rises both across the alliance and globally, while the threat to economic growth from President Trump’s trade war has cast a shadow on future demand. 

Still, oil fundamentals look more robust in the immediate term, and some delegates said the group is accelerating supply increases in part to take advantage of stronger demand during the northern hemisphere summer. Refiners in the US are churning through the most crude for the time of year since 2019, and prices for some fuels like diesel have soared. 

The extra oil output will be welcomed by President Trump, who has repeatedly called for lower oil prices to bolster the US economy, and needs to stave off inflation while pushing the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

Yet they also threaten to swell a looming supply surplus. Global oil inventories have been accumulating at a pace of about 1 million barrels a day in recent months, as consumption in China cools while production climbs across the Americas, from the US to Guyana, Canada and Brazil.

A substantial surplus looms later this year, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs anticipate that prices will sink towards $60 a barrel or lower in the fourth quarter. Prices jumped during the conflict last month between Iran and Israel, but fell back quickly as it became clear that oil flows remained unaffected.

By pushing for faster supply increases, Saudi Arabia risks offsetting the benefits of higher sales volumes with the impact of falling oil prices. The kingdom is already grappling with a soaring budget deficit, and has been forced to slash spending on some of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship projects.

OPEC+ co-leader Russia is confronting a deteriorating economic outlook and potential banking crisis as President Vladimir Putin continues to wage a costly war against neighboring Ukraine.

The drop in prices is also spreading pain through the American shale industry. In a recent survey, US shale executives said they expect to drill significantly fewer wells this year than planned at the start of 2025, citing lower oil prices and uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs.

“OPEC+ is sending a clear message, for anyone still in doubt: the group is firmly shifting toward a market share strategy,” said Jorge Leon, an analyst at research firm Rystad Energy A/S who previously worked at the OPEC secretariat.

“Two big questions now hang over the market,” Leon added. “Will OPEC+ target the next tier of 1.66 million barrels? And second, is there enough demand to absorb it?”

There is a third question: with US wells plunging to 4 years low and US E&P companies now maximizing output from only on the most efficient Permian wells, how long until shale hits a major depletion air pocket and US production plunges, sending oil prices surging.

Via The Cradle

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday denied reports that Tehran and Washington were scheduled to resume indirect nuclear negotiations, rejecting the claims as baseless.

“Public opinion is currently so angry that no one even dares to talk about negotiations and diplomacy,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian media on Saturday.

His comments follow a report by Amwaj.media on 4 July, citing unnamed Iranian sources who claimed that backchannel discussions were being revived following last month’s 12-day Israeli–US war on Iran.

On 29 June, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi told reporters that no date had been set for further negotiations.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier said that a return to talks was “under consideration and based on national interests,” but stopped short of confirming any decision or timeline.

Baghaei emphasized that recent Israeli strikes on Iranian cities and civilian infrastructure made diplomacy politically impossible, pointing specifically to what he described as war crimes.

“With the passage of several days since the cessation of the Israeli aggression, new dimensions of the war crimes committed by Netanyahu in Tehran and other Iranian cities subjected to attacks by the Israeli entity are being revealed,” he said.

Baghaei cited the Israeli bombing of Evin Prison Hospital, which killed 79 people, as an example of the “brutal Israeli war crime” committed during the assault.

He called for international condemnation of the “aggressive entity,” saying it must be “held accountable and punished” for crimes against the Iranian people.

Iranian and US negotiators were set to meet in Oman on 15 June for a sixth round of indirect nuclear talks. The meeting was cancelled after Israeli warplanes bombed Tehran two days earlier, with Iranian and Omani sources confirming the talks were suspended indefinitely in response to the assault.

NATO’s largest and most well-protected ‘eastern flank’ country is angry over President Donald Trump’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski has called on Trump to restart military aid to Ukraine, and he highlighted recent Russian airstrike that damaged the Polish Embassy compound in Kiev.

Trump’s Thursday call with Putin yielded no fresh progress on ending the war, but it did result in anger and tensions among European allies, and certainly wasn’t received well by Zelensky.

In a message posted on X on Friday, Sikorski urged Trump to resume the supply of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine amid record-setting numbers of drones sent against the country this week. He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “mocking” US-led peace efforts.

Zelensky suggested something similar, painting a picture that Trump is still getting ‘played’ by the Russian leader, who has no authentic intent to end the war.

“Massive Russian attack last night has caused fires and much damage, including to the Polish consulate in Kyiv,” Sikorski wrote in the post. “President Trump, Putin is mocking your peace efforts. Please restore supplies of anti-aircraft ammunition to Ukraine and impose tough new sanctions on the aggressor.”

Sikorski, however, separately confirmed that no one was harmed in the embassy strike, also suggesting little damage.

Trump has described that he was “very disappointed” by the Putin call, while a Friday call with Zelensky centered on the Ukrainian leader urging new, tougher sanctions on Moscow.

But Trump has resisted this, also amid similar requests from European allies, given the likelihood of this ending a path toward negotiated settlement altogether.

Ukraine is the first country to stop 400+ Shahed drones per night using interceptor drones, the Telegraph.

The old model — shoot down $20k drones with $1M missiles — no longer works.

NATO is studying Ukraine’s model, but has no working equivalent yet. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ORvT8xjDz6

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) July 5, 2025

Trump is also busy trying to salvage bilateral US relations with Russia as part of the process. More sanctions would do little to impact Moscow’s decision-making in Ukraine at this point, and Trump knows this, as Moscow increasingly relies on China, India, and even North Korea and Iran for defense and energy-related trade.

By Philip Marey, Senior US strategist at Rabobank

Summary

• On Thursday, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that is supposed to include all Trump’s promises on fiscal policy in his second term. The bill includes tax cuts and additional spending on Republican priorities. The bill will extend the income tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, which were set to expire by the end of the year and would have caused a fiscal cliff. There will be tax deductions for taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. The bill includes additional spending on defense and immigration enforcement.
• To finance the tax cuts and additional spending, or at least some of it, there are tax increases for and spending cuts in Democratic priorities. The tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will be terminated. What’s more, new taxes on wind and solar energy projects will be imposed if they use too much foreign content. Federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be reduced and the slack should be picked up by the states. There will also be cuts in spending on Medicaid, the health care program for low-income people. Finally, at the request of Trump, and much to the dismay of the fiscal hawks, the debt limit will be raised by $5 trillion.
• On balance, budget deficits are projected to rise by $3.4 trillion over the 2025-2034 period according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. However, the bill front-loads tax cuts and delays spending cuts, causing a fiscal cliff at the end of 2028 that will create political pressure in 2028 to extend the tax cuts and kick the spending cuts further down the road. Therefore, the upward impact on budget deficits in the next 10 years could be even larger.
• Despite the large rise in the budget deficit, the upward impact on the growth trajectory of the US economy is likely to be limited. A large part of what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell as “tax cuts” are actually extensions of the TCJA, which have been widely anticipated.
• Meanwhile, the increase in defense spending is relatively modest and keeps it below what other NATO members have pledged (as percentage of GDP). Despite all the talk about Trump’s “grand strategy”, this means that US foreign policy ambitions will be severely limited in the coming decade: a victory for the isolationists.
• The One Big Beautiful Budget Act of 2025 underlines that two traditional wings of the Republican Party, the fiscal hawks and the foreign policy hawks, have been pushed aside by the MAGA movement.

Introduction 

The US Congress has passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that is supposed to include all Trump’s promises on fiscal policy in his second term. The self-imposed deadline was for the Senate and the House of Representatives to get a uniform bill to President Trump’s desk by July 4. On Tuesday, in the Senate, Vice President Vance had to step in as the tie breaker, because 50 senators voted in favor of the bill (50 Republicans) and 50 against (all 47 Democrats and 3 Republicans). Rand Paul voted “nay” because of the rise in the debt limit. In contrast, Susan Collins and Thom Tillis found the Medicaid cuts too deep to support the bill. Today, in the final vote of the House of Representatives, there were 218 votes in favor of the bill (218 Republicans) and 214 against (all 212 Democrats and 2 Republicans). Thomas Massie voted against the bill because he wanted more spending cuts, calling the bill a “debt bomb”, and at the other end of the Republican spectrum Brian Fitzpatrick – who supported the earlier House version of the bill – objected to the deeper cuts in Medicaid and SNAP.

What’s in the bill?

The One Big Beautiful Budget Act (OBBBA) of 2025 includes tax cuts and additional spending on Republican priorities. The bill will extend the income tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, the main fiscal policy package of Trump’s first term. These tax cuts were set to expire by the end of the year and would have caused a fiscal cliff. There will be tax deductions for taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security, in line with Trump’s promises of “no taxes” on these three sources of income during his 2024 campaign. There will also be a rise in child tax credits. The deduction cap on state and local taxes (SALT) will also be raised, at the request of Republican lawmakers in high tax states.

The bill includes additional spending on defense and immigration enforcement. The latter will be improved by extending the border wall, increased detention of migrants, and additional funds for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The largest items in defense spending are shipbuilding, the Golden Dome defense system against foreign missiles, and replenishing the stock of ammunition. However, this would still leave defense spending at about 2.7% of GDP by 2034, which is well below the target that other NATO members have pledged at the recent summit in The Hague. Of course, compared to these countries the US has spent much more in cumulative terms, but the more relevant benchmark is what is needed against enemy countries. To put this in a historical perspective: when the US tried to outrun the Soviet Union during the Reagan years the US spent more than 6% of GDP.

To finance the tax cuts and additional spending, or at least some of it, there are tax increases for and spending cuts in Democratic priorities. The tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will be terminated. This was one of Trump’s campaign pledges. What’s more, new taxes on wind and solar energy projects will be imposed if they use too much foreign content. Federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be reduced and the slack should be picked up by the states. There will also be cuts in spending on Medicaid, the health care program for low-income people. However, they have been eased to keep the so-called “Medicaid moderates” on board. The fiscal hawks wanted more spending cuts, but the Republican leadership needed to keep the centrists on board, given the small margins in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Finally, at the request of Trump, and much to the dismay of the fiscal hawks, the debt limit will be raised.

What’s not in the bill

To the relief of foreign investors, and spurred on by the US business sector, the proposed introduction of Section 899 to the Internal Revenue Code has been removed from the One Big Beautiful Bill because of a forthcoming international tax agreement announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Section 899 would have introduced retaliatory taxes on foreign companies from countries that impose “unfair taxes” on US companies, such as undertaxed profits rules, digital services taxes, and diverted profits taxes. However, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith have stated that the US Congress could still adopt Section 899 if the new international tax agreement is violated. What has never been in any version of the bill is a serious attempt to rein in spending on Social Security and Medicare. Consequently, US public debt remains on a trajectory that hardly seems sustainable in the long run.

The budget impact of the bill

On July 1, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill as passed by the Senate would decrease budget deficits by $0.4 trillion, relative to the budget enforcement baseline for consideration in the Senate. Of course this sounds great and is what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell to the public. However, this baseline – imposed by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham – already assumes an extension of the TCJA income tax provisions. On its own this is a choice that could be defended, however when the CBO scored the TCJA in 2017 they assumed that these tax provisions would expire, in line with then current law and with the common practice of budget scoring by the CBO. So taken together, the budget impact of these tax extensions has been deleted. This is truly One Big Beautiful Magic Act. As Lindsay Graham put it last week: “I’m the king of the numbers, I’m Zeus, the budget king.” With a simple shift-in-accounting trick1, $3.8 trillion has disappeared into a black hole of time inconsistency. In the same letter on July 1, the nonpartisan CBO stated that compared with their January 2025 baseline budget projections, it would increase deficits over the 2025-2034 period by $3.4 trillion. So in reality, the OBBBA has a significant upward impact on the budget deficit.

What’s more, the bill front-loads tax cuts in the next few years and delays spending cuts, causing a rise in the budget deficit in the short run and political pressure down the road to extend the tax cuts, further increasing annual budget deficits. Many deficit-increasing measures are scheduled to expire in 2028, while many deficit-reducing measures do not start until after 2028.

This would create a large fiscal cliff in 2028 that could force another extension of tax cuts, similar to the response that we are seeing this year in anticipation of a 2025 fiscal cliff that would emerge if the OBBBA had been rejected. Keep in mind that in November 2028 elections will take place for the presidency, the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate. In addition to extending tax cuts, there may be pressure to undo much of the deficit reduction scheduled by the OBBBA to take place after 2028. This could increase the upward impact of the bill on the budget deficit in the next ten years from $3.3 trillion to $4.8 trillion according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). In other words, the OBBBA of 2025 would repeat the same trick used in the TCJA of 2017 by keeping the projected upward impact on the federal deficit limited through sunsets that are very likely to cause extensions of deficit-increasing measures when the fiscal cliffs comes in sight. These measures are only temporary in name, in reality they are permanent.

The economic impact of the bill

Despite the large rise in the budget deficit, the upward impact on the growth trajectory of the US economy is likely to be limited. A large part of what the Republicans and their proxies are trying to sell as “tax cuts” are actually extensions of the income tax provisions in the TCJA. In fact, the One Big Beautiful Bill is removing the fiscal cliff that loomed at the end of this year. What’s more, the extension has been widely anticipated because the Republicans could not afford the fiscal cliff from an electoral perspective. So this should not change the growth projections of the US economy. The additional stimulus would come from the other tax cuts, which are considerably smaller.

No serious attempt has been made to improve the US public debt trajectory. Fiscal discipline has gone out of the window on Capitol Hill and the few remaining fiscal hawks are at best slowing down the upward trajectory of the debt. This leaves the enforcement of US fiscal discipline to the bond vigilantes. However, they are faced with limited alternatives to US treasuries. Nevertheless, as far as they are able and willing to diversify away from US treasuries, they could demand higher yields. In the long run, this is increasingly likely. Either through higher interest rates or through higher tax rates if US lawmakers are going to put their fiscal house in order, this budget explosion could slow down economic growth down the road. However for now, the low tax rates of the TCJA have been extended and some new tax cuts have been added. Just stop thinking about tomorrow.

The foreign policy impact of the bill

Despite all the talk about Trump’s “grand strategy”, defense spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill does not seem compatible with preserving US military dominance. Cutting taxes (or extending tax cuts) without touching Social Security and Medicare has left little room for increasing defense spending. This means that US foreign policy ambitions will be severely limited in the coming decade. In this sense the OBBBA is also a victory for the isolationists. While the recent US attack on Iran can be seen as a short-term victory for the foreign policy hawks in the Republican Party, the OBBBA will give the isolationists the upper hand in the long run.

Conclusion

In the end, this bill is essentially about extending the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and adding some new tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign of 2024. Despite spending cuts on clean energy programs and health care for low income Americans, the fiscal hawks saw their wings clipped again and the US public debt continues to rise. However, the foreign policy hawks are in for some big disappointments as well. They may be basking in the glory of the attack on Iran, but there is no budget for their future ambitions. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” underlines that these two traditional wings of the Republican Party, the fiscal hawks and the foreign policy hawks, have been pushed aside by the MAGA movement.

Over two dozen alleged members of an outlaw motorcycle gang have been arrested and charged in connection with a March shooting at a Florida gas station, the FBI’s Jacksonville office announced on Wednesday.

In total, 28 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang were arrested during a joint operation, dubbed “Operation Mongolian Beef,” which was done in coordination between the FBI Jacksonville Division, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, and the Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office, according to a statement, which added that arrest warrants were issued for three other members of the gang, whose arrests are pending.

As the Epoch Times notes further, the individuals have been charged with aggravated rioting in relation to the shooting at a gas station in New Smyrna Beach during Bike Week on March 8, 2025.

Aggravated rioting is when an individual participates in a riot of 25 or more other people, according to the statement. It is a second-degree felony and punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

As part of the operation, the FBI and its law enforcement partners carried out 14 search warrants at multiple properties, including at the Mongols Clubhouse in Edgewater, Florida; four homes in Volusia County; three homes in Brevard County; two homes in Miami-Dade County; one home in Chesterfield County, Virginia; one home in Palm Beach County; and two homes in Polk County.

“The FBI has made a commitment to all Americans that we will crush violent crime across the country,” FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley said in the statement.

“There is no doubt Volusia County and, in fact, the entire state of Florida is safer today with these violent offenders off the street.”

The Mongols motorcycle gang, also known as the Mongols Motorcycle Club, is an international organization that self-identifies as an “outlaw” motorcycle gang, meaning its members define themselves as within the “1 percent” of motorcycle clubs who do not abide by the law, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The group has slogans such as “Respect Few, Fear None” and “Live Mongol Die Mongol,” which the DOJ said illustrate the members’ “cut-throat attitude.”

Its members typically wear vests and patches, or have tattoos identifying their connection to the group, the DOJ said.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs are generally highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in a range of criminal activities, including violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking, according to the DOJ.

The Mongols gang is one of many such outlaw gangs that pose a “serious national domestic threat,” the department said.

Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the March 8 shooting took place at around 11.30 a.m, and involved members of the Mongols gang and a rival gang called the Warlocks.

He said the Mongols knew in advance that the Warlocks would be at the gas station and planned to “attack them.”

The Mongols arrived at the gas station and fired at the rival gang members, Chitwood said at a press conference, adding that “bullets were flying, innocent people were there, children were there.”

Two Warlocks were shot and sustained minor injuries, Chitwood said.

They declined to cooperate with law enforcement, but officials were able to use video footage from the shooting, including footage taken by bystanders, to identify at least 31 individuals allegedly involved in the incident, he said.

Chitwood said the Mongols are recognized as an organized crime domestic terror group in the United States, and internationally.

“They lit the fuse,” he said of the group. “It’s game on now. It’s game on because there’s going to be a treasure trove of evidence that’s going to lead to more and more indictments and arrests and put all the motorcycle gangers on notice.”