Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge on July 2 ruled against a Trump administration directive that blocked foreign nationals who cross the U.S.–Mexico border illegally from seeking asylum. The White House has touted historically low border crossings in recent weeks.

In an order issued on July 2, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss found that the Trump administration overstepped its authority and bypassed immigration law.

The president cannot “adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted,” Moss wrote in the order.

Soon after taking office in January, Trump declared that an invasion exists along the U.S.–Mexico border and that individuals who are seeking to cross are “engaged in the invasion” along the border.

“Many of these aliens unlawfully within the United States present significant threats to national security and public safety, committing vile and heinous acts against innocent Americans,” the Jan. 20 proclamation stated.

Some of these individuals are also “engaged in hostile activities, including espionage, economic espionage, and preparations for terror-related activities,” the proclamation stated. “Many have abused the generosity of the American people, and their presence in the United States has cost taxpayers billions of dollars at the Federal, State, and local levels.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups in February sought to challenge Trump’s asylum ban, arguing it violated U.S. laws and international treaties.

Moss ruled that neither the Immigration and Nationality Act nor the Constitution allows the president and administration officials to have the “sweeping authority” that was claimed in the Jan. 20 invasion proclamation.

In the order, the judge wrote:

“Although the Court recognizes that the judiciary should not lightly intervene in the affairs of the Executive Branch and that implementing the immigration laws presents supreme challenges, the Court is unpersuaded that requiring Defendants to return to the processes that Congress required and that applied just a few months ago would cause Defendants irreparable harm.

“Although enjoining the President from exercising an exclusive constitutional prerogative might, standing alone, give rise to irreparable injury, requiring the Agency Defendants to comply with the law as Congress enacted … would not.”

Since taking office, Trump has made border security a priority and has sought to deport significant numbers of illegal immigrants, although portions of his agenda have faced some legal setbacks.

The judge said he would stay the effective date of his order for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal.

Moss’s decision was criticized by Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller in a post on social media platform X soon after it was handed down. Miller said the order is an attempt to supersede last week’s Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions in a separate case.

“To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions a marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global ”class“ entitled to admission into the United States,” Miller wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which encompasses U.S. immigration enforcement and border agencies, has said that border crossings are at an all time low.

Customs and Border Protection officials in June had the lowest number of apprehensions nationwide in the agency’s history, DHS said in a statement. About 25,000 illegal immigrants were arrested at the border, 12 percent fewer than the previous record set in February 2025, it said on July 2.

That figure is also 89 percent lower than the monthly average of apprehensions made between 2021 and 2024, under the prior administration, DHS said.-

Starting July 1, Delhi has enforced a strict ban on refueling older vehicles as part of a broader effort to reduce air pollution, according to the Economic Times. 

Under the new rule, petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles over 10 years are prohibited from buying fuel at any petrol pump in the capital. This measure is aimed at removing End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) from circulation, which are considered major contributors to Delhi’s worsening air quality.

To ensure compliance, the government has deployed surveillance systems and enforcement personnel across the city. Those caught violating the rule face heavy penalties: ₹10,000 for four-wheelers and ₹5,000 for two-wheelers. Authorities may also impound or scrap vehicles found flouting the ban.

Officials claim the step is necessary for public health and environmental sustainability. However, the policy has drawn criticism from residents and vehicle owners, who argue that the infrastructure and public alternatives are not yet sufficient to support such a drastic move.

Critics have taken to social media to express their frustration, with one user commenting, “No decent footpath but rules like Sweden,” highlighting the perceived gap between European-level regulations and India’s local infrastructure readiness.

The Economic Times writes that despite the backlash, the Delhi government maintains that the policy is essential to curb pollution from outdated, high-emission vehicles and says it is a step toward cleaner urban transport.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem related a bizarre event to the media during the press conference for the new “Alligator Alcatraz” deportee holding facility, telling reporters that an illegal alien, suspected to be a cannibal, attempted to eat himself during a recent deportation flight.

Noem claimed that US Marshals deputies reported to her that the flight had to be halted before take off as the man caused serious self harm and had to receive immediate medical treatment.

“They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home. And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself, and they had to get him off and get him medical attention,” Noem said during the briefing with President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

🚨 WTF?! Kristi Noem just revealed one of the illegals they arrested was a cannibal who began to EAT HIMSELF on a deportation flight

THIS is why we need mass roundups.

These people are ANIMALS.
pic.twitter.com/q77LNBIIjp

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 1, 2025

“These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we’re trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged they don’t belong here,” the DHS secretary further urged.

 “They shouldn’t be walking the streets with our children, and they shouldn’t be living in the communities with our families who just want to… raise their children to grow up and get a job, and to live the American dream,” she added.

Noem suggested that the new “Alligator Alcatraz” facility should be replicated in other states around the country.

“I hope my phone rings off the hook from governors calling and saying, ‘How can we do what Florida just did? How can we do exactly what they did?’” she emphasised.

Noem also urged that “President Trump is upholding freedom by what he is doing,” adding “I’m calling out you, CNN. I’m calling you out because you lie every single day about what these operations are.”

“We are going after murderers and rapists, and traffickers, and drug dealers and getting them off the streets and getting them out of this country because Joe Biden let the worst of the worst come in,” Noem asserted.

…why do Democrats want cannibal, criminal, illegal aliens living in American family’s neighborhoods?

Zero people, including Democrats, want to live next to someone like that.

They PRETEND they love everyone, while building walls around their own homes to keep criminals out.

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) July 1, 2025

He thought he would be allowed to stay if he injured himself. Nice try.

— Merika R (@AppleC648030) July 1, 2025

Sounds like demon possession to me.

— Sparrow (@jeanpartington3) July 1, 2025

ICE Agent: Hey, knock that off. Save it for the gators!

— Liberty Nerd (@Nerds4Liberty) July 1, 2025

*  *  *

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

A group of high-profile tech investors, including military tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, is preparing to launch a new bank designed to serve the niche left behind by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — and to do so with ambitions that extend deep into cryptocurrency, defense tech, and artificial intelligence.

The bank, to be called Erebor, has formally applied for a national banking charter in the United States, according to documents made public this week. Named after the “Lonely Mountain” in The Lord of the Rings, Erebor would aim to serve the “innovation economy” – start-ups and individuals in sectors often viewed as too risky for traditional lenders, including blockchain, AI, defense, and advanced manufacturing.

Erebor’s founders, who include backers of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, say their institution will fill a gap left by SVB’s 2023 collapse, which shook the tech sector’s financial infrastructure. That failure triggered panic among start-ups, many of which relied heavily on SVB’s tailored credit offerings. Though SVB’s remnants were absorbed by First Citizens and some staff migrated to HSBC, entrepreneurs and investors continue to complain of tightened credit access and fewer bank partners willing to underwrite emerging technologies, FT reports.

Erebor’s co-founders first discussed launching a bank after the collapse of SVB in 2023, according to a person close to the matter. SVB had been the main bank for US start-ups and their venture capital backers.

Its assets were sold to First Citizens, which has since relaunched SVB, and a number of its bankers moved to HSBC in the US. But investors and executives complain about a gap in banking services for fledgling tech companies since SVB’s demise — with some start-ups struggling to get the same access to capital. -FT

The application describes Erebor as “a national bank… providing traditional banking products, as well as virtual currency-related products and services, for businesses and individuals,” with a focus on customers underserved by both traditional and fintech institutions. It will also offer services to non-U.S. companies seeking access to the American banking system.

One of the bank’s major innovations, and potential regulatory flashpoints, is its plan to become a dominant player in stablecoin transactions, a controversial corner of the cryptocurrency world where digital tokens are pegged to traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar. Erebor’s filing describes its goal as becoming “the most regulated entity conducting and facilitating stablecoin transactions.”

Founders Luckey, best known for founding Anduril Industries, and Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir and managing partner of 8VC, are not expected to be involved in Erebor’s day-to-day operations. Instead, the bank will be led by co-CEOs Jacob Hirshman, a former adviser to crypto firm Circle, and Owen Rapaport, CEO of digital assets compliance company Aer. Mike Hagedorn, a longtime banking executive and former EVP at Valley National Bank, will serve as president.

Despite its tech-forward posture, Erebor will be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with a secondary office in New York City. In keeping with the start-up culture it hopes to serve, Erebor will be a digital-only bank, offering customer support and financial products exclusively through a smartphone app and website.

Much about Erebor remains under wraps. Portions of the application, including its equity structure, business plan, and shareholder identities, were submitted confidentially.

The Erebor venture underscores the ongoing realignment of financial services in the tech sector, as traditional banks grow more cautious and venture-backed firms look to build their own institutions. Whether Erebor succeeds where SVB fell — and whether its fusion of crypto, defense, and Silicon Valley politics finds regulatory favor — remains to be seen. For now, its founders are betting there’s a mountain of opportunity left to reclaim.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The vaccine advisory committee remade by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to look at multiple other vaccines, after it voted to advise officials to stop recommending influenza shots that contain mercury.

Martin Kulldorff, the new chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), said on June 26 that one proposal is to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make clear that young children should not receive the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) combination immunization.

Instead, the CDC would recommend that children under the age of 47 months receive two separate vaccines: the measles, mumps, rubella shot, and the varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine.

The change would reflect data that indicate the MMRV combination vaccine causes more febrile seizures, he said. The CDC said the same thing in a background paper on the subject dated June 25.

A vote on the matter could occur as early as the next meeting, which is expected to take place in August or September.

2 New Subcommittees

Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who was fired by Harvard Medical School for declining a COVID-19 vaccine, also announced two new work groups, or subcommittees.

One will examine the impact of vaccines on the childhood immunization schedules.

“It is important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,” Kulldorff said. “This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients, and the relative timing of different vaccines.”

Researchers with the CDC and other institutions said in a 2022 paper that exposure to aluminum in vaccines was associated with asthma, although they said that additional investigation was required to confirm a link.

The second subcommittee will examine vaccines that have not been reviewed in more than seven years, including the hepatitis B vaccine, the first dose of which the CDC recommends at birth for infants.

“Unless the mother is hepatitis B positive, an argument could be made to delay the vaccine for this infection, which is primarily spread by sexual activity and intravenous drug use,” Kulldorff said.

Kulldorff declined in an email to The Epoch Times to say whether he’d been directed by Kennedy to look at the measles vaccines, or to reveal any other proposals the committee plans to take up at its next meeting.

The Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC’s parent agency, did not respond to a request for comment, including on whether Kennedy directed the committee to vote on vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.

Kennedy, earlier in June, removed all 17 members of the ACIP and replaced them with Kulldorff and others.

Votes on RSV Antibody, Influenza Vaccines

During the committee’s first meeting since the replacements, it advised the CDC to add a second monoclonal antibody treatment against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for infants.

Dr. Robert Malone, a new ACIP member, told The Epoch Times that there was extensive discussion on the antibody at the subcommittee level and that one of the reasons he voted in favor was to provide another option against the virus, given how stock of the existing antibody ran low in the past.

Retsef Levi, another ACIP member, told The Epoch Times he voted against making the second antibody available to all infants because of concerns over a lack of granular data from clinical trials for both products. He would have supported letting high-risk infants receive the new antibody.

Kulldorff also voted in favor of the antibody. He participated despite being a paid witness in a legal case against Merck, which manufactures the new antibody, in January.

Dr. Joel Lexchin, a professor at the University of Toronto who has studied conflicts of interest, told The Epoch Times via email that Kulldorff “had a clear conflict and should not have voted.”

Kulldorff has not responded to requests for comment about potential conflicts of interest. He said during the meeting he did not have any conflicts related to the issues at hand.

Lexchin previously told The Epoch Times that some of the members ousted by Kennedy should have abstained from certain votes after they received money from pharmaceutical companies that stood to be affected.

The new advisers also voted to keep in place the CDC’s recommendation that virtually all individuals aged at least 6 months receive an influenza vaccine on an annual basis, before they advised the CDC to stop recommending thimerosal-containing flu shots.

About 5 percent of the flu shots administered in recent months contained thimerosal, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Members who voted in favor of removing thimerosal said they wanted to cut down on controllable sources of mercury exposure. Dr. Cody Meissner, the only no vote, said he didn’t see a safety issue with the amount of mercury in influenza vaccines and that he was concerned the vote would imperil influenza vaccine access for some.

The FDA and Sanofi, an influenza vaccine manufacturer, said that the supply would be sufficient without the thimerosal-containing vaccines.

The meeting did not involve much debate or discussion on general influenza vaccination, according to Malone.

“We were presented with essentially language that was already approved and and had to make a decision about whether or not to endorse … a universal influenza vaccine recommendation, as has been the case for decades. The decision was that this was not the time to fight on that hill about the universal influenza vaccine recommendation,” Malone told The Epoch Times.

Panel member Vicky Pebsworth abstained from the vote, citing a lack of discussion.

Immune Imprinting

Malone said at the close of the meeting that he would be part of a subcommittee focused on influenza and that he anticipated considering “the long-standing issue of immune imprinting and original antigenic sin, which may or may not be a concern in the case of routine annual influenza vaccination.”

Immune imprinting refers to when previous vaccinations or infections leave behind an immune memory, causing the body to produce antibodies targeting that memory, even if a new variant or vaccine is introduced.

Vaccinating people annually against influenza may be counterproductive due to imprinting, Malone told The Epoch Times.

Read the rest here…

India’s Hindustan Zinc is moving into rare earths, but commercial production could take up to five years, underscoring the hurdles of building a domestic supply chain to challenge China’s grip on the sector. “This (rare earth) is of strategic interest (to India),” said CEO Arun Misra in an interview, according to Nikkei Asia.

The company was the only private bidder to win a monazite mining block in Uttar Pradesh in a government auction in May. However, exploration and reserve analysis will take three to four years. “The first part is exploration and mining, and that itself could take about three or four years, because we have to evaluate (the quantity and quality) of the reserves,” said CEO Arun Misra.

Global supply of permanent magnets is tight after China restricted exports of rare earths like terbium and dysprosium, both used to boost neodymium magnets’ heat resistance. Auto manufacturers have been hit hard, though China claims it is still processing export applications.

India holds 6% of global rare earth reserves but accounts for only 1% of production, compared to China’s 69%. China benefits from large bastnaesite reserves with low thorium content, reducing processing costs—a “huge difference” in operating expenses, Misra noted.

India has 12.73 million metric tons of monazite reserves, mainly in southern beach sands. However, private firms are barred from mining these due to their thorium content, which is reserved for nuclear energy under the Atomic Energy Act. Only state-run Indian Rare Earth Ltd. can mine these areas. “If monazite is decontrolled and allowed to be mined with private participation, and companies like ours participate, it will help India make magnets,” Misra said. “What is known is the (monazite content) in sea beaches, because rare earth mining has happened there for the last so many years.”

EY estimates China holds 44 million tons of rare earth reserves—40% of the global total. In a recent report, EY India’s chief policy adviser D.K. Srivastava stressed the need for more R&D and global partnerships. “Any shortage will serve as a substantiative bottleneck in growth and employment,” he warned.

Nikkei Asia writes that India’s rare earth oxide imports dropped 22% year-on-year in FY 2022-23, but China’s share of those imports rose from 17.5% to 25%. The supply crunch has highlighted India’s broader reliance on imports of key minerals like cobalt, graphite, lithium, and copper—vital for EVs and energy storage. Despite large domestic reserves, India imports 60% of its graphite and does not refine cobalt locally.

According to IEEFA, this reliance will likely persist as demand for critical minerals could more than double by 2030, while domestic production will lag. “This situation (dependence on imports) is likely to continue,” it noted in a 2024 report.

In response, India launched the ₹163 billion ($1.9 billion) National Critical Mineral Mission and tasked the Geological Survey of India with 1,200 exploration projects by 2030-31. The country also aims to secure lithium and cobalt reserves abroad.

Hindustan Zinc is expanding accordingly, having acquired potash and tungsten blocks. It targets 30% of its revenue from critical minerals in five years. While Misra didn’t disclose funding details, he stated, “money was not an issue,” citing a 33% jump in profits to ₹103.5 billion in FY 2024-25. “We would like to work in sectors which are apparently difficult to operate and hence not attractive enough for other big players,” he added.

Authored by Conrad Black via RealClearPolitics.com,

The Democrats are now implacably self-destructive. They resemble nothing so much as a slowly capsizing ship, but show by their frenzied skullduggery that America is not in decline — the opposition is rotten and hopeless but it still fights savagely. I hope readers will pardon a recitation of the party’s gradual foundering. They pushed the nation into Vietnam, mismanaged the war, and deserted their own president (Lyndon Johnson), and when President Nixon saved their war, they crucified him on what can now be seen as the utterly absurd Watergate nonsense.

President Carter was earnest and altruistic, but he helped push out the Shah of Iran to bring on the ayatollahs, a horrifying strategic blunder, and his weakness induced the USSR into Afghanistan. President Reagan uplifted the country and let America be America, and the Soviet Union and international communism collapsed. The Bushes and Clintons coasted on Reagan’s coat-tails for as long as they could.

In 2016 as it became clear that Secretary Clinton’s campaign was running into difficulties against President Trump, then a candidate, at whose nomination the Democrats had rejoiced, they tested the guardrails of American constitutional democracy by notoriously politicizing the intelligence agencies and the FBI. The National Intelligence Director, James Clapper, declared that Mr. Trump was being handled by President Putin as if the American were an intelligence “asset” of Russia.

The FBI director, James Comey, facilitated the transmission of a pastiche of lies and defamations assembled by a former intelligence agent on behalf of the Clinton campaign, as legitimate intelligence which because of its provenance did not require substantiation by the press to be published. Mr. Comey answered an inquiry, under oath, 245 times that he did not remember events he had participated in two years before.

Mrs. Clinton’s 33,000 destroyed emails on an improperly used server were naturally found by Mr. Comey not to be an obstruction of justice, but there was immediately launched the unmitigated fraud about Russian collusion in Mr. Trump’s election, to the full knowledge of then President Obama and then Vice President Biden. When this immense smear job finally collapsed, it was followed by a spurious impeachment of Mr. Trump on the grounds that he asked President Zelensky of Ukraine for the truth about the Biden family’s financial activities in Ukraine. He did not attempt to direct the answer. We now know that it was a legitimate question. 

The ludicrous impeachment proceedings had just failed as the early indications of the Covid pandemic became known and the Democrats demanded the total shutdown of the country with the evident purpose of promoting an economic depression they could then blame on the president. He was denounced as a racist for shutting off direct flights from Communist China and was denounced as being an “anti-science” Neanderthal deliberately risking the lives of the entire population, to the extent that he did not stop everything and isolate everyone.

As the election year 2020 unfolded, the death of George Floyd at Minneapolis, apparently mainly from drug-related causes but following his apprehension by a policeman who put his knee on Floyd’s neck, was seized upon by radical anarchists and anti-white organizations for so-called “peaceful protests” around the country and throughout the summer of 2020 killing dozens of people and causing billions of dollars of damage. The Democrats informally merged with the radical left that was inciting the riots and successfully demanding defunding of police in many cities. The national political press was thoroughly complicit in blaming all of the violence on “Trump chaos.” 

The Democrats recognized that Sen. Sanders could not win because of his extreme leftist views, so the party elders promised Mr. Sanders his left-wing program and substituted the innocuous old wheelhorse, Mr. Biden.  Even after all of this, it was necessary for the Democrats to distribute tens of millions of unsolicited ballots according to inevitably partially obsolete voters lists, raising concerns about the collection and casting of some millions of unverifiable and harvested ballots.

There were window-rattling ululations of joy at the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. We now know that the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, declined Trump’s offer of national guardsmen to bolster security, and Mr. Trump contends that Speaker Pelosi turned down a similar offer of national guard reinforcements for the Capitol. Years of effort to wring evidence of Mr. Trump’s involvement have failed. 

As Mr. Trump refused to vanish like a dreadful meteor as had been predicted, and retained the support of scores of millions of Americans, the Democrats resorted to the final assault on the integrity of the system and deluged him with four ludicrous political criminal indictments. The perfidy of the prosecutors combined with the skepticism of the public; Mr. Trump was effectively acquitted by 78 million of his fellow citizens in a close but decisive election, despite a partisan stonewall in the national political media and a large Democratic advantage in fundraising.

Mr. Trump returned to office much more knowledgeable about Washington and how to adopt his comprehensive program to end the massive illegal invasion by mainly destitute and frequently criminal migrants, to strengthen the market economy, roll back the green terror, and define America’s national interests in the world and credibly provide for the defense of them.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s acceptance of sharp increases in defense spending and the American and Israeli destruction of the military and terrorism-supporting potential of Iran and moves to eliminate America’s trade deficit of over $1 trillion are important accomplishments. Last week’s rejection by the Supreme Court of the Democrats’ latest obstructionist wheeze of judge-shopping to notoriously liberal federal district judges and inducing them to purport to injunct federal policies, is another Trump victory.

The great Democratic party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and even up to a point Clinton, has given way to an unfeasible ragtag of superannuated tyros, influence peddlers, decayed servitors, and now completely unacceptable extremists personified by the likely nominee to be mayor of New York City, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, an economic Marxist who does not accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state and expresses sympathy for calls to globalize the intifada.

The Democrats have no plausible opponents to Mr. Trump, no policy except Trump-hate, and have carried to its logical extreme the great liberal death wish. Having failed by an unprecedented series of illegalities to defeat Mr. Trump, they have practically destroyed themselves.

The tiny South Pacific archipelago country of Fiji has come out firmly against China establishing a military base in the Pacific Islands, according to a statement of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka issued Wednesday.

He emphasized that China has no need for such a provocatively located base to demonstrate its military strength, citing its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test as evidence.

Rabuka provided clear acknowledgement that Pacific nations are grappling with how to respond to China’s growing efforts to expand its influence, in remarks given to the National Press Club in Canberra.

“Pacific leaders have consistently aimed for a diplomatic stance of being friendly with all and enemies to none — a challenging path, but one we believe is achievable,” Rabuka said.

The problem is that Pacific Islands have become a key area of geopolitical competition between US and Chinese naval power for regional security influence, especially over the last decade, and as tensions over Taiwan independence continue to boil.

Reuters reported the comments as follows:

Fiji opposes establishment of a military base by China, he said, in response to queries on Beijing’s security ambitions in a region where it already has a security pact with the Solomon Islands and a police presence in several nations.

“If they want to come, who would welcome them?” he said. “Not Fiji.”

Rabuka is proposing an “Ocean of Peace” treaty that would bind the region to unity, allow for common solutions to regional issues that arise, and which would reject coercion as a tool for for political dominance. But as Germany’s DW reviews:

Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing sports stadiums, government offices, hospitals and roads in Pacific countries such as Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The charm offensive has already borne fruit with Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Nauru severing longstanding diplomatic links with Taiwan in favor of China.

“We do not want superpower rivalries or big power rivalries to be played out in the Pacific,” Rabuka explained in his comments. He added, “China’s participation in our development should not affect how we interact with Australia, New Zealand and America.”

But these referenced countries have no only long been part of the ‘Five Eyes’ – English speaking nations which cooperate at the highest levels on intelligence – but there’s also the ‘AUKUS’ defense pact involving the US, Australia, and the UK. Beijing views that it is only legitimately reacting to this rising ‘Western threat’ in regional waters. China sees that Pacific as its own backyard.

Del Monte Foods, a major player in America’s canned food supply chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey as part of a broader strategic restructuring effort. The company does not anticipate that the bankruptcy process will cause any disruptions to the canned food market. 

The 138-year-old food company, a U.S. unit of Singapore-based Del Monte Pacific, best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, entered into a restructuring support agreement with a group holding some of its term loan debt. The company stated it’s “pursuing a value-maximizing sale process as part of an overall strategic balance-sheet restructuring.” 

A filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey states the company, whose brands include Del Monte, Contadina, College Inn, Kitchen Basics, JOYBA, Take Root Organics, and S&W, said it has both liabilities and assets estimated between $1 billion and $10 billion and secured $912.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing, including $165 million in new funding, from some of its current lenders. 

“This is a strategic step forward for Del Monte Foods. After a thorough evaluation of all available options, we determined a court-supervised sale process is the most effective way to accelerate our turnaround and create a stronger and enduring Del Monte Foods. With an improved capital structure, enhanced financial position and new ownership, we will be better positioned for long-term success,” said Greg Longstreet, President and CEO of Del Monte Foods.

Longstreet continued, “While we have faced challenges intensified by a dynamic macroeconomic environment, Del Monte Foods has nourished families for nearly 140 years, and we remain committed to our mission of expanding access to nutritious, great-tasting food for all. I am deeply grateful to our employees, growers, customers and vendors, as well as our lenders for their support in helping us achieve our long-term goals.”

Bloomberg noted, “The development ends a challenging year for the borrower that saw its parent company Del Monte Pacific Ltd. in June elect to skip a payment to the unit’s lenders as part of a lawsuit settlement tied to a controversial debt restructuring.”

Del Monte’s operations date back to the mid-1880s, when California-based merchants began using the name “Del Monte” to market high-quality coffee for the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. By 1892, it expanded to canned fruit and has since grown to control a sizeable portion of the U.S. canned food market. 

The good news is that Del Monte does not expect any supply shortages in the canned food market as a result of its bankruptcy proceedings.

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,

The US Senate worked through the weekend on the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The goal was to pass it quickly to ensure the House will then pass it and send it to President Trump’s desk before the July 4th holiday.

However, disagreements among Republican Senators over reductions in spending on programs including Medicaid and food stamps as well as language in the bill eliminating “clean energy” tax credits were preventing Senate Republican leadership from getting enough votes to pass the bill.

Also, some Republicans disagree with other Republicans in both the House and Senate on increasing the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. Many conservatives see this income tax deduction as encouraging states to maintain high taxes to fund big governments.

One item in the BBB that few Republicans are objecting to is the bill’s increase in military spending. The House version of the BBB added 150 billion dollars to the Pentagon’s already bloated budget. The Senate bill gave the military-industrial complex 156 billion dollars.

Increasing military spending contradicts President Trump’s promise to stop wasting money on endless wars that have nothing to do with ensuring the security of the American people.

Some of the BBB’s military spending will be used to put troops on the border. I support strengthening border security. However, I do not support using the military for domestic law enforcement, which includes enforcing immigration laws. Soldiers are trained to view people as potential enemies, not as innocent civilians to be protected. Introducing this mindset into domestic law enforcement will lead to abuses of liberty.

Increasing spending on militarism while cutting spending on programs that help low-income Americans is bad politics and bad policy. Polls show that the majority of Americans, including many Republicans, do not support overseas intervention.

The growing opposition to our hyper-interventionist foreign policy is easy to understand. The US has engaged in numerous military actions in many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria since the beginning of the 21st century. The American people pay for this militarism in several ways. One is the “inflation tax” imposed by the Federal Reserve in order to monetize the debt incurred by the US government for endless wars. President Trump has turned his back on his antiwar supporters by bombing Iran and by increasing military spending to over a trillion dollars.

The Republican insistence on increasing military spending is the main reason Congress cannot cut taxes without increasing the debt, making cuts in domestic welfare programs, or both. If the Republicans want to be the Make America Great Again party, they need to embrace a true America First foreign policy. This means no more regime change wars or US taxpayer supported “color revolutions.” Instead, America should return to the Founders’ vision of a country that, in the words of John Quincy Adams, does not go “abroad in search of monsters to destroy” and instead is “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” while “the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

A return to a noninterventionist foreign policy is the only way we will be able to begin to pay down the national debt and restore a government that adheres to the constitutional limits on its powers and respects all the people’s rights all the time.