By Eurasianet courtesy of OilPrice.com

China has shifted from the world’s largest creditor nation to the globe’s biggest debt collector. Central Asian states owe billions to Chinese entities, but their geographic importance to Beijing is helping protect them from strong-arm repayment tactics.

A report issued by the Australia-based Lowy Institute, Peak repayment: China’s global lending, charts China’s transition from “lead bilateral banker to chief debt collector of the developing world.” It shows that China’s lavish loaning under the auspices of its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) from 2013-2018 is now set to inflict lots of fiscal pain on recipients.  Debtor nations, many of them described in the report as “the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries,” owe $22 billion to China in 2025.

“Beijing has transitioned from capital provider to net financial drain on developing country budgets as debt servicing costs on [BRI] projects from the 2010s now far outstrip new loan disbursements,” the report states. “In 2012, China was a net drain on the finances of 18 developing countries; by 2023, the count had risen to 60. In full, China’s net flows to developing countries dropped to negative $34 billion in 2024.”

At the start of 2024, Central Asian states collectively owed Chinese state entities roughly $20 billion, with Kazakhstan’s having the largest share at $9.2 billion. Kyrgyzstan’s and Uzbekistan’s debts totaled almost $4 billion each, while Tajikistan owed China about $3 billion. 

The debt amounts for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan appear manageable within the context of those nations’ overall GDP numbers, according to economic experts. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan can be considered prime candidates for falling into a Chinese debt trap. Turkmenistan’s debtor status, given the country’s opaque governing system, is murky, but Ashgabat at the same time is the only Central Asian state running a trade surplus with Beijing, due to its abundant natural gas exports.

A combination of factors is behind China’s transition from lender to debt collector, including the slowdown of China’s domestic economy. But the current surge in debt collection is also a natural outgrowth of the terms of many BRI loans, which included grace periods of up to five years followed by relatively compressed timelines for loan repayment. “Because China’s Belt and Road Initiative lending spree peaked in the mid-2010s, those grace periods began expiring in the early 2020s,” the report notes. “The early 2020s was always likely to be a crunch period for developing country repayments to China.”

Lowy Institute analysts seem to believe China is unlikely to turn the screws on Central Asian states. The report notes that Beijing is continuing to extend loans to “strategic and resource critical partners” including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The change in Chinese lending behavior could well hamper the ability of developing nations, including Central Asian states, to hit growth targets, reduce poverty rates and address global-warming related issues.

“The burden from Chinese debts coming due is also part of a broader set of severe headwinds, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable economies,” the report states. “An increasingly isolationist United States and a distracted Europe are withdrawing or sharply cutting their global aid support. Reliant on an open, rules-based global trading system, developing economies must also grapple with the impact of new trade-war shocks and the specter of punitive US tariffs being levelled against them.”

Beijing too faces tough geopolitical choices; Chinese officials will need to strike a delicate balance between pressing debtor nations to meet their obligations while not engendering hard feelings that could undermine the country’s geopolitical interests. “Pushing too hard for repayment could damage bilateral ties and undermine its diplomatic goals,” the report states. “At the same time, China’s lending arms, particularly its quasi-commercial institutions, face mounting pressure to recover outstanding debts.”

It’s not just Beijing’s debt-recovery actions that may pose an image problem for the country. An investigative report by the Uzbek outlet Anhor.uz published on June 4 indicated that Chinese entities are engaging in what appear to be predatory business practices in Uzbekistan. The report documents the influx of Chinese companies into the country’s construction sector resulting in a decrease in the price of cement to a point where local Uzbek cement-makers can’t compete and are being driven out of business. 

“Over the past two years, almost half of Uzbekistan’s cement plants have ceased operations — only 24 remain, nine of which belong to Chinese companies,” the Anhor report states.

In the latest court victory for President Trump, late on Tuesday a federal appellate court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to keep the president’s tariffs in effect for now but agreed to fast track its consideration of the case this summer. 

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit extended its earlier temporary pause of a trade court decision that found Trump exceeded his powers in imposing the tariffs.

Late last month, the U.S. Court of International Trade, which has national jurisdiction over trade disputes, halted the tariffs, siding with five small businesses and a group of Democratic state attorneys general who challenged Trump’s actions.

The three judges who just overturned Trump’s entire trade agenda pic.twitter.com/XPGKY8jsVs

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 29, 2025

The appeals court said it intends to hear arguments on July 31, which means the tariffs will remain in effect for at least the next two months.

All of the court’s active judges will participate in the case; the losing party is expected to seek review at the Supreme Court.

Since starting his second term, President Trump has announced a barrage of tariffs that has sparked a global trade war and threatened to upend the world economy. He asserted his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in imposing most of the levies, including duties on Canada, Mexico and China over fentanyl smuggling, and his worldwide “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. 

Breeauna Sagdal, Senior Policy Fellow at The Beef Initiative, sat down with author and journalist Dr. Naomi Wolf, a longtime liberty advocate, and her husband, counterintelligence specialist Brian O’Shea.

Discussing Brian and Naomi’s new podcast together “In the Lair,” the three launched into a hard-hitting conversation about what may be the most important—yet overlooked—battleground in modern warfare: the nation’s food supply chain.

The trio exposes how multinational corporations, global health bureaucracies, and hostile foreign interests have plagiarized and hijacked the fight for freedom and food.

The result? A rapidly vanishing Frontline. 

For starters, Wolf explains how a group of volunteer researchers who had spent three years laboriously exposing internal Pfizer documents that the FDA attempted to hide for seventy-five years, were not given proper accreditation for their efforts.

“At Steve Bannon’s kind of initiative, I spent the last three years of my life overseeing a very historic effort in which 3,250 doctors and scientists – who worked pro bono with the War Room and Dailyclout research team – read through the 450,000 pages of internal Pfizer documents that were released under a court order, subsequent to a successful lawsuit by attorney Aaron Siri against the FDA,” Wolf recaps.

Recap: Wolf and Bannon late last year.

HUGE: Renowned feminist and ex-Clinton advisor endorses Donald Trump for president!

“The people I voted for silenced my voice. They killed thousands of people and put the man [Steve Bannon] who tried to help me save the lives of thousands of people in prison. And at a certain… pic.twitter.com/HuyQjP1WRQ

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) October 30, 2024

Wolf, a former political consultant, was contacted by Senator Ron Johnson to ask about the most important findings, as hearings would be held after the inauguration of President Trump. 

Ed Burkovich and Amy Kelly, upon filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), built a timeline from emails and texts related to myocarditis. Wolf says this is the most significant finding, as it reveals a cover-up at the highest levels.

“White House staffers were being notified by the Israeli Ministry of Health and pediatrician organizations that they were seeing a signal of myocarditis in kids,” Wolf says. “And instead of these people coming clean and telling the parents of America, ‘Stop right away. Don’t inject your kids’ what you see in the emails is a cover-up.” 

While the information was presented in a Senate hearing, Wolf’s team was neither invited to share testimony nor even attend. An issue that boils down to safety for the academics who risked everything to get the truth out.

“In my latest essay about why credit matters, it’s not about me. It’s not about, you know, narcissism,” Wolf explains. “It’s about safety and protection.” Pointing to her husband, Wolf shares the security risks. 

“Brian spends maybe three-quarters of his time dealing with the death threats I get every month. He and other people with deep intelligence and you know, security backgrounds have warned me that the way to stay safest is to be loudest, right? And that’s true for these researchers as well. I mean, they took tremendous risks, you know, during the Biden administration.”

While every American can understand having credit taken for their work, from simple X posts to memes, most have no idea this is happening within their food supply. 

The USDA’s Labeling Scam Is IP Theft

Sagdal connects the dots by outlining what she calls “plagiarism”: the quiet removal of mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). In 2015, under pressure from the Big 4, and the World Trade Organization, Congress removed COOL. That move, Sagdal explains, let multinational meatpackers repackage foreign meat as “Product of USA”—so long as it was processed domestically.

“It’s not just deception. It’s intellectual property theft,” Sagdal says.

America didn’t just lose control of its food system. It was globalized, militarized, and labeled “safe.”

The USDA buried origin labels. Smithfield shipped high-protein pork to the PLA. The WHO made land use a health issue.

This isn’t regulation. It’s regime change via food.

— Beef Initiative ⚡️🥩🗝 (@beefinitiative) June 3, 2025

Similar to Wolf’s research team, it takes American ranchers 2-3 years to bring a product to market. Yet, without proper credit, farmers are being erased from their own supply chain, their labor, their genetics, their standards—it’s all being plagiarized. 

According to Sagdal, this has led to the hollowing out of rural America. 

Naomi Wolf responds bluntly: “That’s a betrayal of trust at the highest level” …

“So I can’t even know if I’m feeding my kids Chinese beef from subhuman conditions? That’s outrageous. I’m doing my best to source what I think is grass-fed, hormone-free beef from American producers. But I can’t even know if this came from Brazil or China and was just run through a conveyor belt in Nebraska? That’s a betrayal of trust at the highest level.”

Smithfield, the PLA, and Pork for the Party

Things get darker.

O’Shea reveals that Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods has begun genetically modifying pork with triple the protein—only to ship that meat back to China, earmarked for the People’s Liberation Army. The leftovers? Sold to the American public.

“They’re augmenting the meat for their military,” O’Shea says, “and offloading the rest on us. That’s not just bad policy—it’s national suicide.”

“Oh, I get it,” Wolf exclaims. “They’re selling it as if it’s American beef, but it’s not American beef. And all the resources that go into making American beef are being appropriated.” 

“That’s exactly the same as IP theft,” Wolf concludes, jaw on the floor. 

One Health: The WHO’s Trojan Horse

O’Shea warns that under the WHO’s One Health framework—now endorsed by 193 nations—global authorities are redefining disease control to include land use, water rights, and food production.

“But really if you look at One Health, it’s the same thing that Mao was doing,” O’Shea says. “As we learned from the pandemic, if they come to Breeauna’s ranch, and they say ‘hey you know what? We don’t really like the way you’re raising your cows. We’re going to send in some of our specialists.’ Which O’Shea says the Surgeon General has a uniformed army of. “This is how they seize your food.”

Wolf adds, “This is the most invasive tyranny ever devised. And it’s wrapped in the language of care.”

“It’s Maoism with a lab coat. One Health lets unelected bureaucrats in Geneva redefine anything they want as a biosecurity threat. If your ranch doesn’t meet their climate goals? That’s a health emergency. If your cattle don’t get the right injections? Another emergency. This is how they seize your food—by declaring war on your independence.” — Brian O’Shea

Unrestricted Siege Warfare

O’Shea, drawing from his counterintelligence background, explains how China’s unrestricted warfare doctrine is already playing out on U.S. soil.

“They’ve said it,” O’shea says of the Chinese Communist Party. “They have said they want to be the global hegemon by 2049, the 100-year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and they say they will get there by several means, all outlined in that 1999 document ‘Unrestricted Warfare.'”

Sagdal and O’Shea connect the dots between the mysterious destruction of hundreds of food processing facilities nationwide, and the rapid loss of the American family farm.

“If you wanted to destroy or greatly sideline the United States by 2049, how would you do it, and I think of siege warfare,” O’Shea explains. “If you kill all of our food, and you poison all of our water… it’s what happens in siege warfare. You surround them and run them out of food.”

“We’re losing 77 family farms per day,” Sagdal confirmed before adding “cattle volumes are at 70-year lows. We’re losing the ability to feed ourselves as a nation.”

The Solution: Radical Self-Reliance

The message is clear: liberty begins with taking back control of the food supply. 

• No MAHA Without The Heartland: Trump Must Forge Strong Ties With Farmers

There’s no better feeling this summer than waking up early in the AM, brewing a fresh cup of coffee, and stepping outside to gather eggs from the chicken coop and greens from the garden, without stepping one foot in the supermarket controlled by globalists.

* * *

Watch the Full Interview for Key Insights on Food Sovereignty… 

.  .  . 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

White House border czar Tom Homan said on Monday that he has “no intention to arrest” California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the Democratic governor dared him to arrest him as protests and riots persist in Los Angeles.

Homan told CBS News that talk about arresting Newsom has “been taken out of context” and that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “haven’t crossed a line yet.”

“If you cross that line, I don’t care who they are—the governor, the mayor, whatever—and when you commit a crime against ICE officers, we will seek prosecution,” Homan added, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In another interview with NewsNation, Homan said that “there is no threat to arrest Gov. Newsom” but that a previous comment about arresting anybody who impedes ICE efforts to enforce laws against illegal immigrants still stands.

“If he crosses that line of impeding ICE enforcement efforts, if he knowingly harbors and conceals an alien, that’s a crime,” he told the outlet.

“We would ask … the attorney general to seek prosecution,” he added. “My words were taken out of context, but it is what it is.”

At one point on Sunday, Newsom was asked by an NBC News reporter about the possibility of being arrested. “Come and get me, tough guy,” he replied.

And when a reporter at the White House asked President Donald Trump on Monday about Newsom being arrested by Homan, the president said, “I’d do it if I were Tom,” adding: “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”

The Trump administration and Newsom have been sharply critical of one another in the handling of unrest in Los Angeles over the past several days, which was sparked by protests against ICE efforts across the city. Trump and Homan have said that Newsom hasn’t been able to quell the violence, prompting the president to deploy the National Guard and Marines over the past several days.

In response, Newsom said that the troop deployments are a form of overreach and that Trump’s actions are an incitement to more violence. The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the deployment on Monday.

Newsom said that the deployment of Marines, which was confirmed by U.S. Northern Command on Monday, is a form of escalation that he described as “completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented.”

Homan has told media outlets that ICE agents were serving criminal search warrants at a Los Angeles worksite last week as part of a probe into customs fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering.

Speaking to the “Dr. Phil” show, Homan said that 41 people were arrested and that the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Internal Revenue Service were also involved.

“We took a lot of bad people off the street that day,” he told NewsNation in another interview, adding that those enforcement measures were “targeted” instead of being a random sweep.

In a directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

The Northern Command said in its Monday statement that the 700 or so Marines “will seamlessly integrate” with troops “who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.”

Meanwhile, Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex, which includes a detention center where some illegal immigrants are being held following workplace operations across the city.

After weeks of quiet, Trump’s trade deals are starting to take shape: first it is the ongoing negotiations with China which are “going well”, then we learned that an interim deal with India was largely completed, and now Bloomberg reports that in the third positive trade news of the day, the US and Mexico are closing in on a deal that would remove cut steel duties – including Trump’s 50% tariffs on steel imports up to a certain volume – in a revamp of a similar deal between the trade partners during his first term. 

The talks are being led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and since Trump hasn’t been directly involved in the negotiations he would need to sign off on any deal.

While the agreement hasn’t been finalized, under the current terms it would allow US buyers to import Mexican steel duty-free as long as they kept total shipments below a level based on historical trade volumes. The new cap would be higher than what was allowed under a similar deal during Trump’s first term, Bloomberg sources reported, which was never a fixed figure but designed to “prevent surges.”

Following the Bloomberg report, US steel stocks moved lower: Cleveland-Cliffs dropped more than 7%, and Nucor fell more than 4%. The Mexican peso trimmed losses.

At an event on Tuesday, Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he told US officials in meetings last week that steel tariffs are not justified in Mexico’s case because the US sends more steel to Mexico than vice versa. Last Friday, he posted a picture that showed him shaking hands with a smiling Lutnick in Washington.

“We are waiting for their response, because on Friday we gave them the details of Mexico’s argument and we are right,” Ebrard told reporters Tuesday. “So we are going to wait for their response which will probably be this very week.”

Last week Trump announced he would double steel duties to 50% after saying he would approve the purchase of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, a move he said would protect the domestic industry and national security. While domestic steelmakers welcome the move, end-users have urged the administration to ease the tariffs. 

The negotiations come as Sheinbaum seeks an accommodation with Trump over immigration and drug trafficking across their shared border, which the US leader has demanded Mexico halt. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Sheinbaum Tuesday of “encouraging” more anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, where the US has deployed troops. Sheinbaum has called Noem’s claim “absolutely false.”

The talks also come ahead of a Group of Seven leaders summit in Canada, where the two presidents are likely to meet.

Law-abiding Americans watched in disbelief as Marxist-aligned NGOs sparked chaos in downtown Los Angeles. Riots and looting raged overnight and entered the fourth day, with videos flooding X showing individuals—possibly illegal aliens, migrants, or even U.S. citizens—waving Mexican flags as they torched Waymo Jaguars. 

Waymo confirmed to CNBC on Monday that five of its vehicles were set on fire in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, prompting the company to suspend service across the metro area. 

Got this the other side of the Waymo fires pic.twitter.com/HVOXKZtI3V

— Los Angeles Alerts (@AlertLosAngeles) June 9, 2025

Multiple Waymo vehicles set ablaze here in LA pic.twitter.com/p2iVDUbEIL

— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) June 9, 2025

As of Tuesday, Waymo’s service remained suspended due to ongoing protests, with a company representative stating that “some areas are currently inaccessible because of the protest.”

“There’s no specific timeframe available at the moment; I recommend checking the app periodically for updates,” the company representative continued. 

A viral video posted Monday evening by an X user claimed, “Waymo is moving their cars out of LA.”

Waymo is moving their cars out of LA pic.twitter.com/lkpANPwmjx

— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) June 9, 2025

Viral images of Mexican flag-waving rioters torching vehicles and looting are spreading globally. The Democratic Party’s color revolution against Trump is now fueling chaos in the streets of Los Angeles — and the optics are disastrous for Democrats, as it only strengthens Trump’s case for a mass deportation mandate of criminal illegal aliens. 

A network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with known affiliations to Marxist-aligned political ideologies initiated coordinated protest activity across Los Angeles last Friday. Almost immediately, these protests escalated into widespread unrest, including acts of vandalism, arson, and looting, consistent with patterns observed in previous color revolution-style mobilizations by the Democratic Party. 

In response, President Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard units and Marines to secure high-risk areas and prevent further civil unrest, with looting and chaos continuing in the overnight hours…

Apple store in LA looted last night.

But don’t worry, Gavin Newsom has it under control and the media say it’s totally peaceful.pic.twitter.com/oarl25BmxJ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2025

They’re protesting ICE by looting Adidas pic.twitter.com/vjViwA9cmD

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 10, 2025

There is reason to believe that an early staging of a coordinated national mobilization effort is underway to unleash a color revolution across cities, similar to BLM-style protests that morphed into riots in 2020, spearheaded by a group identifying itself as “No Kings.” This organization appears to function as a front entity for broader far-left networks, with affiliated support from established rogue leftist NGOs, including Indivisible, a Soros-funded nonprofit previously linked to a failed color revolution targeting Elon Musk’s Tesla earlier this year. 

Leftist news outlet Common Dreams stated that Indivisible’s Leah Greenberg is one of the leading groups behind the “No Kings” movement.

This weekend’s planned protest is receiving organizational backing—or, at the very least, logistical support—from nearly 200 groups, including a wide range of NGOs (get ready for the bussing of professional protesters to cities near you).

Here’s a partial list of those groups…

Notably, the timing coincides with June 14, a symbolic convergence of Flag Day, President Trump’s birthday, a military parade in Washington, DC, and the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, suggesting deliberate political signaling behind the mobilization effort. 

Map: Nationwide Mobilization Effort 

FBI Director Kash Patel told media outlet Just the News, “The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots.” 

Patel might want to take a look at the funding Billionaire Walton Family Heir Christy Walton (one of the heirs to Walmart) could be involved in; the 50501 movement, the leftist group also partnered with No Kings, re-posted Walton’s protest mobilization ad in the New York Times. 

“Who had Christy Walton, Walmart Heiress, on your Bingo Card paying for ads in The New York Times to promote: “No Kings”, June 14, Nationwide Protests? Anyone?!?” 50501 movement wrote on Facebook. 

Hey @Walmart why are the Walton’s funding these riots? https://t.co/wLOjjacv7z

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) June 10, 2025

Riots and chaos in Los Angeles are creating terrible optics for the Democratic Party. The NGOs’ deployment of migrants and radical leftists as frontline actors—some of whom are burning vehicles, looting, and causing chaos while waving foreign flags—has strongly reinforced President Trump’s mandate from the American people regarding the urgent need to deport criminal illegal aliens.

They are demanding to stay in a country that they have no respect for pic.twitter.com/b8NE6U4d3N

— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) June 9, 2025

“The protests the Left is calling “No Kings” for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as “the Left’s Anti American Flag Day protests.” That’s what they are,” author and commentator James Lindsay wrote on X. 

The protests the Left is calling “No Kings” for next Saturday should be consistently messaged as “the Left’s Anti American Flag Day protests.” That’s what they are.

— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) June 10, 2025

All in all, early indications suggest staging efforts nationwide are underway with the Democratic Party’s color revolution operation against Trump, supported and funded by rogue NGOs, in an effort to shift public opinion polls. Democrats are using the same playbook from their 2020 BLM riots. 

There is growing public awareness of the Democratic Party’s deployment of dark NGO networks to orchestrate domestic unrest through tactics resembling the 2020 BLM riots. The ongoing unrest that could potentially spread nationwide by the weekend is best characterized as a hybrid war—cultural and informational against the sitting president of the U.S.  

The central unresolved question remains: To what extent are these leftist NGO-linked operations influenced or financed by foreign actors?

In the final years of President Biden’s term, as Elon Musk began publicly criticizing Democrats and shifted his support to Donald Trump, multiple federal agencies launched a quiet but sweeping inquiry into Musk’s foreign associates.  

The investigation, reported by the Wall Street Journal, involved the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and included briefings to officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It focused on foreign nationals — particularly from Eastern Europe and other sensitive geopolitical regions – who were seen traveling to and from Musk’s private properties in 2022 and 2023.

While the probe never led to formal charges and its current status remains unclear, it smacks of yet another politically motivated investigation, while government defenders may argue it was warranted given Musk’s proximity to America’s most closely guarded government secrets. The inquiry predated Trump’s return to power in January and was allegedly prompted in part by concerns that foreign actors could attempt to sway or compromise the influential CEO.

The timing, of course, makes that assertion highly suspect. 

Musk, who runs five companies including SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), has enjoyed privileged access to senior government officials and oversees ventures that contract directly with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. SpaceX, in particular, holds highly sensitive launch and satellite surveillance agreements with the Pentagon.

Trump administration officials, when asked about the prior investigation, said they had no knowledge of it. Since returning to office, the president has cracked down on foreign influence, issuing a series of executive orders restricting international travel and enrollment in American universities, and imposing new vetting requirements on political donors and campaign associates with ties abroad.

The irony, current and former officials note, is that one of Trump’s closest political allies had already been the subject of a counterintelligence review under his predecessor.

Musk’s relationship with Trump has unraveled dramatically in recent days following a public feud that erupted on social media and spilled into news conferences. Once described by insiders as the administration’s “shadow budget director,” Musk had briefly served as a special government employee tasked with streamlining federal expenditures. He was also the primary benefactor behind America PAC, a political action committee that poured more than $250 million into Trump’s reelection campaign, much of it from Musk’s own fortune.

According to the report, as Musk’s influence grew, so too did concern among his political and corporate peers about the people in his orbit.

Even as they worked together over the past few months, however, there had been signs of tension over Musk’s association with foreign nationals.

Musk traveled with foreigners to such an extent that the staff of his super PAC, which he started last year to help re-elect Trump, became concerned about who was joining him at meetings and events, two people familiar with the group’s operations said.

An official at the group, called America PAC, said they had to institute extensive vetting to keep foreigners out of their efforts. Two campaign staffers also said they were worried about Musk’s coterie of foreign nationals. -WSJ

Muh Russia…

And here we go again… the Journal of course goes into a report they broke in October – the peak of Trump-Musk campaigning before the election, that Musk had maintained direct contact with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin since late 2022, sparking internal alarm among national security officials and raising questions about the propriety of such outreach during an active conflict in Ukraine.

The Journal also claims that SpaceX attorneys advised Musk against pursuing a higher security clearance, fearing that formal disclosure of his foreign communications could either jeopardize the application or trigger its revocation.

Still, Musk remains a figure of enormous influence inside and outside government. His ventures span commercial spaceflight, artificial intelligence, transportation, and social media – sectors deeply entwined with U.S. national security and public discourse. His naturalized U.S. citizenship, obtained after emigrating from South Africa, does not exempt him from the types of scrutiny often applied to private individuals with sensitive access and overseas entanglements.

Ethereum surged to a four month high this morning, just shy of $2800 (a key resistance zone) as ETF inflows and Staking have reignited interest in the smart contracts ecosystem.

BlackRock’s ETH ETF has become a major focal point in Ethereum investment, and its recent activity is nothing short of impressive. For nine straight trading days, the fund has attracted over $490 million of fresh capital – a streak that has drawn attention from investors and analysts alike.

As themerkele.com’s Will Izuchukwu reports, a wider embrace of Ethereum by institutions is reflected in the inflows to Ethereum ETFs, which have notched up a 14-day winning streak— the longest streak yet in 2025.

These inflows are coming when Ethereum is returning to prominence among blockchain networks for fee generation, which is a really important indicator of network activity and demand.

CoinTelegraph’s Martin Young notes that staked Ethereum has clocked a new record as the asset’s price reclaimed a 12-day high amid major institutional accumulation. 

The amount of Ether staked on the Beacon Chain reached a record high of 34.65 million ETH on Sunday, eclipsing the previous high on Nov. 10, 2024. 

The amount of Ether staked has been relatively stable, above 33 million for the past year. However, it started to tick up again in June, according to the network explorer Beaconcha.in.

The higher staking level indicates that more holders are not prepared to sell at current levels, preferring a yield from staking instead. 

Almost 30% of supply staked 

A Dune Analytics dashboard confirmed the record figure, reporting that 34.8 million ETH was staked as of Monday, while Ultrasound.Money reports 34.7 million staked. 

The analytics platform also reports that the current amount staked is equivalent to 28.7% of the current circulating supply of Ether, which is 120.8 million, as issuance returned to inflationary in February. 

ETF staking coming soon?

The milestone also comes as the industry anticipates the approval of spot Ether ETF staking by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Analysts have suggested that staked Ether ETFs could debut “within the next few weeks,” following a recent filing by ETF provider REX Shares that used “regulatory workarounds.”

Finally, the last few weeks have seen Ethereum significantly outperform Bitcoin…

…after bouncing off the 2019/2020 ratio low support.

Authored by Emily Sturge via Campus Reform,

The Trump administration is investigating the University of Wyoming (UW) for allowing a male to join a women’s sorority, an alleged violation of Title IX. 

On June 2, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched the probe into UW regarding the incident, but the university asserts it was not involved in the decision to induct the male member and is therefore not in violation of federal law. 

“The university’s position has been that it doesn’t control decisions about sorority and fraternity membership … The university believes it has been and is in compliance with Title IX,” UW spokesperson Chad Baldwin told Campus Reform. 

In 2022, the Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) chapter at UW became the first women’s sorority to welcome a male member when it allowed 21-year-old Artemis Langford to join. 

Langford was permitted to access sorority housing, an alleged violation of Title IX protections for designated female-only intimate and communal spaces. 

He was accused by women of inappropriate behavior, such as silently sitting in common spaces in the sorority house and watching them while having “an erection visible through his leggings.” 

The incident spurred into a three-year-legal battle, ongoing today. 

Despite the university claiming it wasn’t involved in the decision to induct Langford, the Department of Education contends that the university is still ultimately responsible to uphold Title IX.

“A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy,” a press release from the department states. 

UW KKG members who previously sued the sorority are celebrating the administration’s investigation. 

“I am incredibly grateful that this administration will shed light on everything that has happened to me and my sisters. How lucky are we to have a president and administration that actually cares about women and girls,” UW alumna Allie Coghan, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and an Independent Women sorority ambassador, stated in a press release.

“We hope this case will bring clarity, accountability, and justice not only for us, but for all college sorority women going forward,” said UW senior Maddie Ramar, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit and an Independent Women sorority ambassador.

In 2023, six members of the chapter sued the sorority, but the case was dismissed by a federal judge. 

In a 41-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson stated that “the Court will not define ‘woman’ today” and therefore cannot obstruct how a “private, voluntary organization interpreted ‘woman” when making the decision to allow Langford into the sorority. 

The lawsuit named KKG, KKG President Mary Pat Rooney, the building corporation, and Artemis Langford as defendants. 

“Appropriately, the university has not been a participant in litigation in federal court regarding the legality of the sorority’s decision to admit the transgender student,” Baldwin stated. 

The university was not a defendant in the case and does not claim involvement in membership practices. 

“University Regulation 11-4 specifically states that the university ‘does not control or accept responsibility for the activities nor endorse the programs of student organizations,’ including sororities and fraternities,” Baldwin told Campus Reform. 

The Education Department announced the probe as one of its first initiatives for “Title IX Month” in recognition of the fifty-third anniversary of Title IX of the Educational Amendments (1972) being signed into law.

The Trump administration launched similar probes in California and Maine over alleged violations of Title IX in women’s sports. 

UW “intends to fully cooperate with the investigation and will work with the Office for Civil Rights to come into compliance [with Title IX] if needed,” Baldwin concluded.