The Kremlin and Russian state media sources have alleged a drone ‘targeted’ the Russian Embassy in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on Sunday.

However, the drone didn’t appear to be military in nature, and it dropped a container of paint near the main entrance, in what seems to be an extreme and provocative form of protest by an unknown entity. Some sources say multiple glass containers of paint were dropped during the ‘attack’.

Still, RT states that “the drone operators used a glass vessel which could have caused serious injuries had it struck anyone.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Sunday said that “Tomorrow, Stockholm will receive a note of protest. Sweden must tame its ultras, take control of the situation, and strictly observe the Vienna Convention,” as cited in TASS.

Moscow has complained of similar incidents at the embassy in the recent pasts, and has lodged several notes of protest with the Swedish government, pointing out that the host country has an obligation to investigate as well as protect.

The full foreign ministry statemen on this fresh incident reads as follows:

“On May 25, at about 03:40 in the morning, the Russian Embassy in Sweden was subjected to another attack using a drone,” the embassy explained. — Flying over the territory of the diplomatic mission, the drone dropped a container of paint on the platform in front of the main entrance. A special cynicism to the incident is given by the fact that the drone operators used a glass container, which, when dropped from a height, can cause serious injury to people.”

The Kremlin has said of this and the several security incidents before, that when it notifies Swedish police and security services “there are no results.”

Since the Ukraine war began, there have been tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and consulate shutters between Russia and several European states. For example, EU nations – most especially Poland – have accused Moscow of “intimidation, the instrumentalization of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference.” Moscow has in return charged Western capitals with similar dirty tactics.

Meanwhile, apart from this relatively minor paint incident, Sweden is actually developing new drone swarm technology, as the newest member of NATO…

Sweden will test new drone swarm technology developed by defence equipment group Saab in upcoming Arctic Strike 25 exercises.

New revolutional drone-technology & software allows drone swarms work independently without human operators. pic.twitter.com/fUwDpi3DBy

— Tomi 🇺🇦🇫🇮🇪🇺 (@TallbarFIN) January 14, 2025

But Moscow has alleged a conspiracy against it and its diplomatic facilities abroad, which have even at times come under fire bomb attacks, or other dangerous acts of vandalism, in protest of the war in Ukraine. More significantly, there have been apparent sabotage operations targeting industrial and military sites in both Russia and the West.

Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

Doug Burgum, the soft-spoken Interior secretary responsible for managing the more than 507 million acres of federally owned land, is haunted by a fear that seems, at first glance, outside his mandate. He worries the free world will lose dominance in the field of artificial intelligence, and with it, the future.

So does the president.

“When President Trump declared a national emergency on his first day in office it was, in large part, because of what we’re facing with our electrical grid and making sure that we’ve got enough power to be able to win the AI arms race with China,” Burgum said Wednesday in remarks first reported by RealClearPolitics. “That is absolutely critical.”

Thus the stated policy of this White House: “It’s called drill, baby, drill,” Trump said earlier this spring.

The immediate goal, the one touted at every campaign, is to bring down the average price of a gallon of gas. The concurrent and long-term mission that Burgum obsesses over: AI dominance. The former governor from fracking-friendly North Dakota and tech entrepreneur who sold his software to Microsoft, Burgum laid out an abbreviated formula on stage at the America First Policy Institute.

Electricity generation via fossil fuels, like natural gas and coal, powers data centers “filled with these amazing chips,” the secretary said, “and you know what comes out the other side? Intelligence. A data center is literally manufacturing intelligence.” He envisioned a new world that follows, where the best computer programmer, or the most brilliant lawyers, could “clone themselves” again and again to train AI models to do the work of thousands in a process “that can be repeated indefinitely.”

No longer science fiction, the process has been headline news for some time. AI models like ChatGPT and X’s Grok are already available in every home with an internet connection. And the U.S. was the undisputed leader. That is, until recently.

American tech companies enjoyed a clear edge with not just the most powerful AI models, the most funding, and top engineering talent, but also the easiest access to those “amazing chips” that Burgum referenced. Former President Biden banned the export of the most advanced semiconductors to China. And yet DeepSeek, an unknown Chinese startup with less money and allegedly less sophisticated chips, still managed to one-up Silicon Valley earlier this year with a more powerful AI model.

The latest development in the battle for tech supremacy, in what some likened to “a Sputnik moment,” the DeepSeek launch rattled both markets and geopolitics. A new kind of AI nationalism now consumes heads of state convinced that their nations must develop their own technology or fall behind in the future. Said Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017 of AI, “The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world.”

Burgum does not disagree. He would just prefer the West take on that role. “Trust me, you do not want to be getting your data from a Chinese data center,” he told the crowd, adding that “Whoever controls the manufacture of intelligence is going to control the world. The next five years is going to determine the next 50.”

This is the goal of the White House, including Vice President JD Vance, who once warned that falling behind on this front could mean that the U.S. meets China “on the battlefield of the future” with the equivalent of digital “muskets.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill are not thrilled. The day before, Maine Rep. Marie Pingree complained in the House Appropriations Committee that Burgum had gutted the department he leads and sought to slash Biden-era clean energy tax credits.

“In just four months, the department has been destabilized, and there’s been a stunning decline in its ability to meet its mission,” she told Burgum. “This disregards the climate change concerns that we have.”

The secretary replied that he was concerned with a more pressing order of operations. “The existential threats that this administration is focusing on are Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon, and we can’t lose the AI arms race to China,” Burgum said in committee. “That’s the number one and two. If we solve those two things, then we will have plenty of time to solve any issues related to potential temperature change.”

His immediate focus, then, is on how the U.S. can boost energy production. Burgum reported that industry leaders tell him electricity demand will soon outpace supply with astronomical numbers measured not in megawatts, but gigawatts. The power needed to run one data center, he said, would be equivalent to the electricity needs of Denver times 10.

Because AI has the potential to supercharge nearly every business, he said, “the demand for this product is like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lives.”

Concluded the Interior secretary, “The fundamental principles here again, as they say, we’re going to sell energy to our friends and allies, and we’re going to have enough energy here at home to be able to win the AI arms race. And this requires electricity.”

On this Burgum and Trump are simpatico. During the campaign, the president likened artificial intelligence to “the oil of the future.”

US equity futures surged and European stocks climbed after President Donald Trump extended a deadline on aggressive euro area tariffs, reinforcing the pattern of leaving markets guessing and flip-flopping by making trade threats before backtracking, all in keeping with the gamebook established during the Trump 1.0 trade wars.  With US cash markets closed for Memorial Day, US equity futures jumped 1.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures surged 1.4%, erasing all of Friday’s losses.

A gauge of the dollar hovered near its lowest level in almost two years. Cash Treasuries didn’t trade due to holidays in the UK and US but futures dipped, indicating a 10Y yield about 4.53%

Trump’s decision to extend the deadline came after a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said earlier Sunday in a post on X that “Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” but “a good deal” will need “time until July 9.” That’s the date on which Trump’s 90-day pause of his so-called reciprocal tariffs had originally been set to end. 

Trump’s tariff threats on Friday also included a 25% levy on smartphones if companies including Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. failed to move production to the US.

Even as the Big Beautiful Bill is now stuck in the Senate where any changes threaten to undo its razor thin passage in the House, the trade war has made a return as the major risk driver once again after concerns about Trump’s proposed tax cuts, and their impact on the US deficit, churned markets much of last week. Trump’s whiplash moves have increased uncertainty in markets and his broadside against Europe on Friday, followed by a backtrack, was a stark reminder of the president’s volatile policy making. 

“The stock market seems to dance to Trump’s tune: first a threat, then a pullback, quickly followed by a rebound as speculative investors anticipate a concession from the U.S. President,” said Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. “This morning’s confirmation of such expectations reinforces the so-called ‘Trump Pattern,’ which is increasingly seen as a successful strategy for risk-tolerant investors.”

“One thing that is starting to concern us a bit is the fact that the rebounds that follow these selloffs are losing strength as we go on,” said Frederic Rozier, a portfolio manager at Mirabaud France. “We can sense investor fatigue about this back-and-forth and there’s a risk sentiment will erode as markets run in circles on tariffs. The only thing we know is that even if there’s an agreement, there will be a cost for European stocks.”

Europe’s Stoxx 600 index also erased Friday’s losses sparked by Trump’s threat of 50% tariffs on the European Union. The US President later said he had agreed to delay the date for the levies to July 9 from June 1. Among individual movers in Europe, Thyssenkrupp AG jumped more than 7% after a report that the firms chief executive plans to turn it into a holding company, allowing it to cut overhead costs as it divests further units. Volvo Car AB climbed as much as 4.8% after announcing plans to eliminate around 7% of its global workforce to cut costs and protect profits.

Earlier in the session, Asian equities were steady as weakness in China offset gains in Japan and South Korea. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index traded little changed after rising as much as 0.4%. Japanese firms Sony Group and Tokyo Electron were the biggest boosts to the gauge, while Chinese shares including Tencent and BYD were among the biggest drags. A broad sense of optimism buoyed markets in the region after President Donald Trump delayed duties on EU imports. Benchmarks in Japan got a lift as the country’s chief tariff negotiator indicated plans to resolve talks with the US before a G-7 meeting in June. Trump’s nod of a partnership between Nippon Steel and US Steel also helped sentiment. Shares in Korea led gains in the region, while Indian gauges also gained. That’s helped the regional measure remain on pace for its best close since October.

The trade tensions and weak demand for US assets are showing up in the dollar. Bloomberg’s dollar spot index was track for its lowest close since July 2023, while the greenback is at or approaching key levels against a host of currencies including the euro, Britsh pound, yen and Swiss franc.
Enthusiasm has faded for the world’s reserve currency this year. Speculative traders remained bearish on the dollar but trimmed their positioning to $12.4 billion in the week ending May 20 from $16.5 billion in the week prior, according to CFTC data reported Friday. 

A key event this week will be Nvidia Corp.’s results on Wednesday. The chip-making giant is seen as a bellwether for so called growth stocks and the sustainability of the artificial intelligence boom. It’s outlook will be crucial given macro risks and tariff uncertainty.

Investors are also gearing up for the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the US personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy, which will be released Friday. The April reading is forecast to rise 0.1% based on consensus expectations.

Elsewhere, signs of port congestion in northern Europe and other hubs suggests trade wars could lead to maritime disruptions around the world, increasing shipping rates.

Trump on Friday announced a partnership between US Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp., shocking markets with an agreement he said would keep the once-iconic American firm in the US, but otherwise providing no specifics. Nippon Steel shares jumped as much as 7.4% in Tokyo, while shares in US Steel rose 21% Friday.

Authored by Lee Feng via RealClearInvestigations,

When Jeffrey Epstein purchased Little Saint James, the teardrop-shaped island south‑east of St. Thomas, in the late 1990s, he was seen as a mere oddity. A one-time math teacher who claimed to manage the fortunes of billionaires, he told U.S. Virgin Islands officials that he was seeking privacy. He also appears to have purchased impunity.

The alleged crimes that Epstein committed on that emerald island reachable only by helicopter or ferry would explode into an international scandal. Investigators accuse him of raping and sexually abusing girls as young as eleven at his island compound where he also hosted many A-list politicians, business leaders and celebrities. One 15-year-old, whom Epstein allegedly forced into sex acts, attempted to escape by swimming away from the island. She was caught and her passport was taken away.

While Epstein was alive, Virgin Islands officials appear to have shielded him from scrutiny – customs agents at the airport, for example, reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with girls between the ages of 11 and 17, yet there is no record that anyone checked on their safety.

After his death in 2019, other officials who aided Epstein began profiting from continued secrecy and a string of legal settlements associated with his behavior that put hundreds of millions of dollars under the government’s control. No one appears to have benefited more than Albert Bryan Jr., the governor of the territory. Court records show that Bryan had previously overseen the agency that granted nearly $300 million in illicit tax credits to Epstein’s company, which fraudulently claimed to provide “biomedical and financial informatics” services. Bryan, after securing a gubernatorial victory in 2018 with the support of Epstein and his aides, would later push for a waiver for Epstein to avoid compliance with the island’s sex offender laws.

Bryan fired the attorney general who led the island’s cases against Epstein’s estate, and his appointed successor ended an explosive case over J.P. Morgan Chase’s ties to the former financier before a new round of discovery.

Over the last few months, legislative records show, Bryan has tapped the Epstein settlement funds to pay for a variety of his domestic political agenda items. The money was secured from Epstein’s estate and his associates, including the case with J.P. Morgan Chase and a close financial supporter, private billionaire Leon Black, who was also accused of abusing women. The settlements, which collectively account for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, were championed as a measure of accountability, and the proceeds were promised to assist victims of sexual assault, human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and child sexual abuse.

In late April, Bryan, at his weekly briefing at the Government House on St. Thomas, announced the allocation of $22 million in retroactive wages to government workers, a move his office touted as strengthening public trust. “This is real money – money in the bank,” Bryan boasted. Left unmentioned was the source – the Epstein settlement money.

Earlier this year, Bryan applied the Epstein funds for vendor payments and sought to use the money for a variety of other earmarks, such as a $25 million makeover for the Justice Building on St. Croix. The lack of transparency around the funds has faced scrutiny from legislators and some Virgin Islands residents.

The total amount remaining in the Epstein settlement fund is not clear. Motley Rice, a private law firm that assisted the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Justice Department with the cases, is projected to receive about $23.35 million of the settlement as its share of the fees.

“We have a situation where some of the monies might have been spent, even though they were appropriated for specific purposes,” said USVI Senator Alma Francis Heyliger. “The legislature did not give approval for this.”

In a letter posted online last year, David Silverman, a retiree living in St. John, stated, “This money was promised to be used to protect vulnerable young women, among other things. But for reasons that nobody can explain, the money is nowhere to be found.”

The U.S. Department of Justice maintains oversight of the USVI, a jurisdiction that has been plagued by corruption. In recent years, FBI agents have raided territory agencies over the mismanagement of public money. In June 2024, several senior USVI officials were charged with defrauding $4 million in housing funds. The FBI declined to comment on whether it is investigating the USVI’s use of Epstein settlement funds.

The Bryan administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Questions continue to swirl over the Epstein secrets still buried in government vaults. The much-hyped Trump administration release of files related to the Epstein case quickly turned to disappointment in February as the government distributed binders with no new information. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in response to criticism of the fizzled press event, has said she is still pushing for the release of more files held by the FBI and her department.

While attention still focuses on the 256,000 square-foot warehouse in Winchester, Virginia, where unreleased FBI records, including CDs, hard drives, and recordings from Epstein’s homes, are still held, the Virgin Islands side of the story remains unresolved. The tropical territory remains one of the last redoubts of intrigue related to the scandal.

The island territory was the nexus for Epstein’s alleged human trafficking operation. It was there that Epstein entertained his VIP rolodex of guests and is believed to have engaged in some of his worst sexual crimes.

The abrupt settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase prevented the release of more disclosures about the nature of Epstein’s network, including documents and depositions from key figures who aided and abetted the former financier.

The U.S. Virgin Islands government and JPMorgan Chase both denied claims of complicity in Epstein’s abuses. In a previous statement to reporters, the bank claimed it “would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”

Nearly two years ago, Bryan shut off the valve of a smattering of unflattering documents released as part of the island territory’s lawsuit with J.P. Morgan. After initially seeking $190 million from the bank for its role in aiding Epstein’s operations, Bryan shocked observers by firing his own attorney general and reportedly pushed to end the lawsuit.

The initial 2022 lawsuit charged that J.P. Morgan had “turned a blind eye” to clear evidence that Epstein had used the bank to facilitate his sex trafficking operations. USVI claimed in court that it had uncovered evidence that J.P. Morgan officials had repeatedly raised red flags about Epstein, who maintained around 55 accounts and routinely referred his network to the bank’s wealth management services. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan executives joked over email about his interest in young girls.

But the bank hit back with a countersuit and filed hundreds of documents, exhibits, and emails alleging “a decades-long quid pro quo between Epstein and the USVI government.” The legal probe revealed the former financier’s extensive system of alleged bribes and influence payments to USVI officials – money, J.P. Morgan’s lawyers claimed, that “created a haven for Epstein’s criminal activity.”

These records show that Epstein placed the former first lady of the island, Cecile de Jongh, on his payroll. She suggested campaign donations and targeted gifts to universities, civic groups, and the families of powerful politicians. The gifts appear to have helped Epstein win special benefits, including visas to bring young girls to the island and $300 million in illicit tax exemptions for his fraudulently registered information technology company.

J.P. Morgan’s attorney filed documents with the court charging that de Jongh suggested Epstein pay monthly retainers to local politicians, including former USVI Senator Celestino White, to gain “loyalty and access.” The records showed he also gave free Thanksgiving turkeys to 78 federal customs agents at the St. Thomas airport after dealing with one “difficult” officer.

The ties extended to the governor and the territory’s representative in Congress, the incumbent lawmaker Stacey Plaskett. In his previous role as head of the economic development office, Bryan signed off on a string of tax exemptions for Epstein’s Southern Trust business entity. At the time, Plaskett served as counsel to the tax office. 

Plaskett went on to work at Kellerhals Ferguson Kroblin PLLC, a USVI law firm Epstein retained for tax and legal issues. In 2014, as Plaskett geared up to run for Congress, de Jongh advised Epstein to support her bid against a popular local politician, Shawn-Michael Malone. “Shawn is the one who came after you in the senate hearing last week. He is nasty and needs to be defeated and we have a friend in Stacey,” de Jongh wrote in an email uncovered by J.P. Morgan’s attorneys.

During the election, Epstein’s closest aides and advisers, including Darren Indyke, Lesley Groff, and Erica Kellerhals, donated to Plaskett, helping her defeat Malone by just 737 votes in what local press called “one of the biggest upsets in Virgin Island politics.” De Jongh wrote to Epstein to confirm that a $13,000 corporate donation planned for the Democratic Party would be made “for the benefit of Stacey Plaskett.”

Epstein repeatedly donated to Plaskett’s campaign committees until his suicide in a New York City prison cell in 2019. In an email made public by the litigation, Plaskett wrote to Kellerhals and Lesley Groff, another Epstein aide who reportedly helped him recruit young women, to request the financier’s fundraising assistance. She also met with him at his New York City home in a bid to request larger donations to the DCCC, the House Democrats’ campaign arm.

Plaskett did not respond to a request for comment. In March, a federal judge in New York ruled that Plaskett will continue to serve as the sole defendant in a case brought by multiple victims of Epstein. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case charges that USVI officials conspired with Epstein to sustain his sex-trafficking scheme.

The case relies on much of the evidence that the J.P. Morgan countersuit uncovered nearly two years ago. 

The Epstein network also helped to elect Bryan governor. Kellerhals, campaign finance disclosures exclusively obtained by RealClearInvestigations show, donated $1,000. Records from the J.P. Morgan litigation provide further evidence of support, including an email from de Jongh suggesting $25,000 to an inauguration party in Bryan’s honor and a reminder that Bryan had requested $30,000 in support for the USVI Little League.

Bryan, as governor, requested that the USVI Justice Department provide Epstein with a waiver for the territory’s sex offender registry. Epstein’s legal requests for special exemptions to the law, notably, were facilitated by Kellerhals.

“Not every sexual offender or any person, you know, are in the position to have the governor make the request to the attorney general … that by itself indicated to me that [Epstein] was flexing his political influence over or with the governor,” Denise George, a former USVI attorney general said in a deposition she gave as part of the JPMorgan lawsuit.

Bryan, in a deposition with J.P. Morgan’s attorneys, dismissed concerns about Epstein’s operations in the USVI. He said he was only aware that “he copped a plea to having sex with a hooker who was under age,” a reference to Epstein’s 2008 conviction over child prostitution.

On New Year’s Eve 2022, Bryan unexpectedly fired Denise George, the attorney general responsible for the J.P. Morgan lawsuit and the island’s landmark case against the Epstein estate. George had previously opposed Bryan’s requests for a waiver for Epstein to get around the island’s sex offender laws.

As the litigation continued to mount, J.P. Morgan’s attorneys threatened more discovery and depositions of USVI officials. In a filing to the court in September 2023, they argued that they planned greater investigations of a host of USVI’s elite, including Bryan and Plaskett.

A few weeks after the filing, USVI announced its settlement, agreeing to end its case in exchange for $75 million, an amount far below the initial amount sought by the lawsuit.

The sudden end to the case closed the rare window of disclosure into Epstein’s private power structure and the ways in which he carried out his political operation.

Some lawmakers and island residents believe secrets from the Epstein scandal are still hidden. The J.P. Morgan case proved too harmful for the USVI elite as it exposed embarrassing documents on all sides.

“Listen, as a community, I would rather these things come out so we can clean up our community instead of sticking our heads in the sand,” said Senator Francis Heyliger. “The more we clean up this territory, and more things are exposed, I think in the long run, it will be better for us and as a community and for the people.”

The senator was clear that President Trump should release new, unredacted Epstein files or pressure USVI officials to provide more clarity over the financier’s influence. “If this administration, on a national level, chooses to put out more information, I am never one that believes you should hide from the truth.” she said.

A dual US-German citizen accused of attempting to firebomb a US embassy building in Israel was arrested at New York’s JFK Airport on Sunday. According to the US Department of Justice, 28-year-old Joseph Neumeyer was apprehended by Israeli police, who deported him to the United States and handed him over to FBI agents. 

“As alleged, Neumeyer, armed with potentially lethal devices, sought to cause chaos and destruction at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella for the Eastern District of New York. “His arrest and prosecution clearly show that my Office and the Department of Justice will not tolerate violence in our homeland or violence targeting U.S. interests abroad.” He faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of using fire or an explosive to destroy US property, and has been denied bail.  

The DOJ says that, without provocation, Neumeyer spat on a US embassy guard in Tel Aviv on May 19. The guard tried to grab him, but Neumeyer squirmed away and fled, leaving behind a backpack that smelled of alcohol. When it was searched, the bag was found to contain three Molotov cocktails. Israeli police tracked him down to the hotel where he was staying. He confirmed his backpack had Molotov cocktails filled with vodka, and he was promptly apprehended. 

Authorities say Neumeyer had made his intention clear earlier that same day with a social media post that said, “Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America.” Other rants on social media believed to be Neumeyer’s threatened violence against President Trump and Elon Musk. “We are killing Trump and Musk now,” he’s believed to have posted on March 22. Another post that month addressed to the Justice Department said, “The former President has several hours to resign or certain death.” A May 19 entry said “Death to America. Death to the West.” 

According to the criminal complaint, Neumeyer was born in Colorado and lived in the United States all his life. He was registered to vote, but selected no party affiliation. A New York Post review of Neumeyer’s social media posts paints a vague picture of his ideology: 

His politics appear to be an incomprehensible grab-bag…He posted “From the River to the Sea,” a popular anti-Israel rallying cry, along with “long live the Fourth Reich,” but also appeared to support Israel’s Eurovision candidate. He also posted pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine propaganda, along with [support for] overturning British rule of Northern Ireland.

Vodka is a crummy choice for a Molotov cocktail: It typically must be warmed to about 130 degrees before it will ignite. Awarding the raving, harebrained goofball’s half-assed plot far more weight than it deserves, publicity hound, Epstein-file-tease and US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Neumeyer was “planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel.” 

While news of Neumeyer’s arrest broke after Wednesday’s double-murder of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington by a gunman who said “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” the incident in Tel Aviv took place two days earlier. He arrived in Israel on April 23, but it’s unclear what he was up to between his arrival and his bizarre spitting attack that vaporized his Molotov cocktail fantasies. His father told the Washington Post that his son has dealt with “deep mental health issues.” 

There’s a lot of that going around. 

Authored by Steve Stivers via RealClearEnergy,

Ohio is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance that’s transforming our economic landscape. Our state ranks third in the nation for manufacturing jobs, with more than 687,000 Ohioans employed in the sector, producing over $134 billion in manufactured goods annually. 

Ohio leaders have successfully attracted transformative industries and propelled the state as a national leader for innovation, economic growth, and high-tech infrastructure. Congress has a clear choice to make if we want to continue building on this success: support the 45X manufacturing tax credits and the jobs, economic and national security benefits that come with it. Here’s why.

The 45X manufacturing tax credit has been a catalyst for this revival. By providing targeted support for domestic production, these incentives make it economically viable for companies to manufacture in America rather than overseas. The result? Family-supporting jobs, stronger communities, and a brighter future for our state.

Illuminate USA in Pataskala is just one example. This solar manufacturing facility, majority owned by U.S.-based company Invenergy, created over 1,500 jobs in less than a year and is on track to produce enough solar panels annually to power 1 million homes. In Fayette County, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and Honda is investing $3.5 billion to build a lithium-ion battery plant that will create 2,200 jobs. These are just two examples among many in Ohio’s resurgent manufacturing sector.

The economic impact extends throughout our communities. Each manufacturing job supports an entire ecosystem in the local economy—restaurants, retailers, housing, and small businesses all benefit from manufacturing growth. Communities once facing economic uncertainty now see renewed vitality.

As a former federal policy maker and President of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, I’ve seen how smart policy combines with private sector innovation and Ohio’s pro-business tradition to deliver results. Ohio attracts investment because of our skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, diverse energy mix, and business-friendly environment. What’s exciting is that we’re just getting started. As more companies recognize the advantages of producing in America – from reduced supply chain risks to workforce talent – additional investment will flow into Ohio. But while Ohio will remain a good place for business, federal incentives like the 45X tax credits are essential to compete globally.

This momentum, however, depends entirely on policy certainty. Companies making significant capital investments need predictable conditions. The continuation of the 45X manufacturing credit is essential to maintain our competitive edge and establish American energy independence.

The choice is clear: build on this manufacturing renaissance, creating more opportunities and strengthening America’s economic security, or surrender our industrial leadership along with all the jobs and economic benefits that come with it.

Ohio’s example shows what’s possible when we get the policy right. Let’s ensure this growth continues by supporting the tax credits that make it possible.

Steve Stivers is President & CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the state’s leading business organization. He previously represented Ohio’s 15th Congressional District.

What makes a company a great place to work? In a competitive labor market, top employers stand out by offering strong compensation, a culture of purpose, and the opportunity for growth.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, highlights the 50 best places to work in America, based on Forbes annual employer ranking. For this analysis, only employers with over 5,000 employees were considered.

Data & Discussion

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below.

At an industry level, the most common was Healthcare, which represented 19 of the 50 best places to work in America for 2025.

• Healthcare: 19 employers

• Tech: 9 employers

• Finance & Insurance: 8 employers

• Consumer: 5 employers

• Education: 5 employers

• Government: 2 employers

• Transportation & Industrial: 2 employers

Let’s take a closer look at some of these industries.

🏥 Healthcare

Houston Methodist is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center and the highest ranked Healthcare employer for 2025. It recently received a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, ranking #18 overall and highest among healthcare employers, based on positive feedback from current and former employees.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital also has a strong reputation and has regularly been named a top 100 company to work for by Fortune magazine.

💻 Tech

Nvidia is the highest ranked Tech company and the fourth best employer in America. It stands out for its innovative culture and boasts a 97% approval rating according to Great Place to Work.

We’ve covered Nvidia in a number of other infographics, such as this one comparing the quarterly revenue of chip designers.

🛍️ Consumer

Trader Joe’s is the second best place to work in America according to Forbes, due to its positive atmosphere and engaging work environment. On Glassdoor, the company has a 4.1 star rating and a 80% recommendation rate.

In-N-Out is also highly ranked, claiming third in Glassdoor’s 2025 Best Places to Work ranking. Employees have praised their pay, benefits, and flexibility in positive reviews of the chain.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out the Top U.S. Corporations by Number of Employees on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Gun rights groups like Gun Owners of America celebrated late last week after the House narrowly passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” (BBB) in a 215–214 vote. A key reason for this celebration is the inclusion of the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act (CHPA), which would eliminate the federal registration requirement and the $200 tax stamp on suppressors. As the bill moves to the Senate, speculation is already mounting that demand for suppressors could erupt. 

The prospect of removing suppressors from the Al Capone–era National Firearms Act (NFA), eliminating the $200 tax stamp and lengthy ATF waiting period, has sparked a nationwide surge in interest among gun owners.

Google Search trends show that interest in “buy a suppressor” has reached its highest level in five years. The surge in interest is happening nationwide. This is because if the BBB reaches President Trump’s desk and is signed into law, the removal of suppressors from the NFA would mean these devices—used to muffle the noise of a fired round—would only require a standard FBI background check, known as a NICS check.

Industry insiders, including gun stores in the Mid-Atlantic region, report a noticeable uptick in foot traffic following Thursday’s news that CHPA was included in the BBB. Many customers are already asking to place deposits on suppressors in anticipation of the law’s passage later this year.

Other industry sources anticipate that if CHPA becomes law, a Covid-like buying spike could spark massive backlogs and wait times of 6-9 months, if not longer, to purchase a suppressor. 

We suspect industry leaders like SilencerCo are already ramping up suppressor production in anticipation of CHPA becoming law. This will ultimately mean these devices will become more affordable, and possibly, the era of $1,000 suppressors could be halved in just a few short years. 

Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

JOHANNESBURG—President Donald Trump’s decision to allow white Afrikaners to seek asylum in the United States from state-sponsored “racial discrimination,” “hateful rhetoric,” and “disproportionate violence” in South Africa has not gone down well in some quarters.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described them as “cowards,” according to the BBC.

On May 22, during a meeting with Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, Trump presented what he said was evidence of this.

Showing printouts of news articles and footage of South African extremists calling for white farmers to be killed, Trump repeated the allegation that the South African government is confiscating white-owned land.

When Ramaphosa denied this, Trump maintained: “You do allow them to take land—and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.

“You’re taking people’s land away from them, and those people, in many cases, are being executed. They’re being executed, and they happen to be white.”

Crushing. This is not only painful for the South African President but also for our mainstream media that desperately wants to cover up black-on-white violence in South Africa pic.twitter.com/e5NGJXmOb3

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) May 21, 2025

The U.S. State Department has said it will continue to welcome Afrikaners who are “victims of unjust racial discrimination” and “able to articulate a past experience of persecution or fear of future persecution.”

South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola, told The Epoch Times that Trump and his administration are “totally misguided” in offering asylum to Afrikaners.

“Who can provide proof of any persecution of a specific race in South Africa?” he asked. “There’s no proof. There’s no type of persecution or discrimination against any whites in South Africa.”

The Epoch Times has been told by a source connected to the U.S. Embassy in Johannesburg that many of the 8,000 Afrikaner applications for asylum reviewed so far contain “horrific details” of crimes committed against them or their close relatives.

“They believe these crimes happened to them because they are white,” said the source, requesting anonymity because he did not have permission to speak with the media.

“These crimes were documented in cases opened by the South African police, and in many cases the perpetrators have never been found. These people can’t get any information about what’s happened to their cases. It appears there have been no investigations.”

On May 13, the first group of 59 Afrikaners was welcomed in Washington by Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Troy Edgar.

“The deputy secretary and I just spoke to some of the folks who arrived on this flight, and they tell quite harrowing stories of the violence that they’ve faced in South Africa that was not addressed by the authorities, by the unjust application of the law,” Landau said in a statement.

He said “a fair number” of the asylum seekers that had arrived in the United States were farmers who had farmed their land for generations.

“Now, [they] face the threat—not only of expropriation—but also of direct violence … Many of these folks have experience with threatening invasions of their homes—their farms—and a real lack of interest or success of the government in doing anything about this situation,” Landau said.

Hours earlier, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there’s a genocide in South Africa, with the victims often white farmers.

“Whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me,” said Trump. “But white farmers are brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

In January, Ramaphosa signed an Expropriation Bill into law that gives his government the power to seize private property, including farms, without paying owners.

Pretoria says the “nil compensation” clause in the act will only be used when it is “equitable and in the public interest.”

At the moment, “there’s no state-supported confiscation of farms happening,” said Jaco Minnaar, who heads South Africa’s largest agricultural association, AgriSA.

But, he told The Epoch Times, white-owned farms are “frequently” invaded.

“These land invasions are often instigated by local politicians and radical groups. A farmer will wake up and there will be a large group of people occupying a section of his farm,” Minnaar said.

“In many cases the police are slow to act, or they don’t act at all, and the large group turns into a squatter camp, and the farm is rendered worthless.”

According to South African news agency Ground Up, several courts have found that criminal syndicates are perpetrating “land grabs,” with white landowners often the victims.

Bennie van Zyl, who leads the Transvaal Agricultural Union, which represents thousands of Afrikaner farmers, told The Epoch Times the murders of white farmers and their families are often “very brutal, with torture involved, but it can’t yet be defined as a white genocide … and there’s no evidence that the government is involved.”

Lamola said the murders of white farmers are “part of a normal crime trend.”

However, University of Stellenbosch criminologist Guy Lamb said there’s “nothing normal” about crime in South Africa.

“The country has one of the highest murder and rape rates in the world,” he told The Epoch Times. “There’s a sense that South Africans of all races are under siege from criminals, with the state unable to protect them. So the fact that Trump’s Afrikaners are telling the U.S. government horror stories about crime is not shocking at all. Most South Africans have similar stories to tell.”

Isolated in rural areas, white farmers in particular are “easy targets,” Lamb said.

“They’re attacked not because they’re white, but because they’re perceived to have money and firearms,” he said.

Max du Preez, a veteran South African journalist, described South Africa as “a country at war with itself.”

“Look, we aren’t Ukraine where cities are being bombed. But we are a country where a lot of men consider rape to be a sport,” he told The Epoch Times: “We are a country where murder is extremely common and very few are ever solved. Violent crime is everywhere.”

According to the latest government statistics, South Africa recorded 5,727 murders from January to March. In that same period, 10,688 rapes were reported.

The country’s official unemployment rate is almost 33 percent. An expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those who’ve given up looking for work, is more than 43 percent.

Du Preez said, “So we have millions of black people, especially jobless youth, with nothing to do all day. They’re angry. If there’s going to be a race revolution, this is where it’s coming from. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

He said Trump’s executive order and offer of asylum to Afrikaners “is part of a narrative of fear that’s been pervasive in white South Africa, and elsewhere, for generations: The fear of a black uprising that results in the mass killing of whites similar to the Rwandan genocide … The fear that blacks finally take revenge on whites for apartheid.”

Several leftist and extremist groups in South Africa have suggested exactly this.

The Black First Land First movement has repeatedly called for whites to be killed.

Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), South Africa’s fourth largest political party, often sings a song called “Kill the farmer,” and has said a “revolution” of poor black people is coming to drive whites out of South Africa.

“It’s a war between white supremacy and black consciousness. You must know the two will never meet. We are in a permanent war with white supremacists,” he said, according to South Africa’s Human Rights Commission, a government-funded organization. The agency has, on numerous occasions, found Malema not guilty of hate speech.

Professor Hein Willemse of the Afrikaans Department at the University of Pretoria, said many Afrikaners feel “besieged.”

“Land is very important to the Afrikaner. Most successful commercial farmers are Afrikaners,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Take their land away and take away their rights to mother tongue education—which we also see happening—and their rights to employment, through affirmative action, plus the fact that they’re often victims of crime, and they feel backed into a corner. They feel their culture is being erased.”

According to a government census taken in 2022, there are 4.5 million whites in South Africa, making up just over 7 percent of a population of 63.2 million.

“Must whites in South Africa continuously bend the knee in gratitude that we haven’t been exterminated yet?” asked Kallie Kriel, who leads Afrikaner rights organization AfriForum. “In this context, President Trump’s offer is a tremendous acknowledgement, they feel someone in power, the most powerful political leader on earth, is listening to them and recognizing their fear and suffering.”

He said South Africa is “a mix of privileged whites and privileged blacks.”

“Of course there will be millions more blacks in poverty. I mean, look at the population numbers,” said Kriel.

“These critics can come see for themselves what it’s like to live in so-called ‘white privilege.’ These Afrikaners now in America, I wish them all the best.”