US Warns Ally Oman That It Better Pick The ‘Right’ Side In Hormuz Standoff
The saga of rare Washington pressure on its longtime regional ally Oman continues, with on Tuesday The Wall Street Journalreporting that US officials are growing “increasingly frustrated” with Muscat’s neutral stance, which they now view as hostile to US interests.
Oman has stood accused of cooperating with Iran on a proposed toll collection scheme which would benefit Tehran and circumvent America’s aims for the region.
“In recent days, the Trump administration has threatened to sanction and even bomb Oman, after a new intelligence assessment concluded that Muscat was planning to join Iran in tolling vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to another U.S. official,” WSJ writes. “Oman has repeatedly denied that it plans to do so.”
Interestingly, Oman actually provided some level of military assistance to the US even as it launched an unprovoked attack on the Islamic Republic alongside Israel.
“Omani territory was used to provide some logistical supplies to the U.S. military at the start of the war, say Arab and U.S. officials,” notes the report. “But the U.S. official said the military assistance was small.”
During a cabinet meeting last week, President Trump made clear that Muscat must align with US-backed ‘international norms’ or face consequences, warning, “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up.”
Omani Information Minister Abdulla al-Harrasi has recently emphasized that the Sultanate remains “ready to work with the United States and all responsible partners to promote stability” and protect mutual interests.
The small strategically located Arabian peninsula country has sought to walk a fine line, but Washington is angered as it has yet to explicitly condemn Iran, even after weeks of attacks on Gulf states (at the height of Operation Epic Fury):
Since the war started, Oman has assisted ships, including from the U.S., by providing navigational guidance, search-and-rescue services and medical assistance to ship crews, said a person familiar with the matter.
Harrasi said the country remained committed to the free flow of commerce and energy through the strait. “Any threat to freedom of navigation in these waters would harm the interests of the entire international community, including the United States,” he said.
In May, Oman was the only Persian Gulf country that refused to sign an Emirati-led U.N. statement condemning Iran’s move to charge tolls in Hormuz.
Some have called Oman the “Switzerland of the Middle East” – a status that Omani diplomats are proud of. Likely they are also very wary of being seen as is America’s or Israel’s corners – especially before their domestic Arab population.
One analyst quoted in the WSJ has summarized where things stand: Oman’s approach to Tehran so far has “opened the door to criticism and unwelcome scrutiny of a country that has long prided itself on its impartial foreign policy.”
Meanwhile, via Financial Times on Tuesday: “Greek shipping tycoon Evangelos Marinakis ready to pay Strait of Hormuz transit fees.”
Marco Rubio on Iran:
We can’t have a world in which only Iranian ships get through the straits.
If they are going to shut down the straits for everybody, we are going to shut down the straits for them. pic.twitter.com/OU2unUVGum
If this trend of different shipping companies and nations approaching Tehran to do separate deal-making to transit the strait continues, we could see Iran placed in a stronger position globally than before the war began.
Reuters reported that Russian officials discussed influence operations aimed at weakening Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary election.
One alleged proposal involved temporarily bringing Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia to vote for opposition candidates.
Despite the reported efforts, polling suggests Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party remains the clear frontrunner as Armenia debates its future relationship with Russia and the West.
Russia has mulled an extraordinary measure of exporting humans to Armenia in an effort to undermine Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s chances of retaining power in the fast-approaching parliamentary elections on June 7, according to an investigative report published by the Reuters news agency.
Despite the Kremlin’s best efforts to manipulate the election’s outcome, recent polling data shows that Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party is pulling away from a collection of opposition forces and appears increasingly likely to have a majority in the next parliament.
According to Reuters, citing four sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Kremlin set up an agency in October called the Directorate for Strategic Cooperation and Partnership to run a wide array of influence operations in Armenia, including disinformation campaigns.
Another initiative reportedly considered involved transporting Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia temporarily so that they could vote for opposition candidates. Up to 2 million Armenian citizens are believed to be living and working in Russia. Election rules bar expats from voting.
Several Reuters sources said that Russian officials estimated that it would cost about $50 million to send 100,000 Armenians back to their homeland to cast ballots. Reuters could not confirm whether the repatriation-to-vote operation had been set in motion, and, if it had, how many Armenian citizens had actually returned for the elections.
Any such effort would appear to be a waste of time and money. A recent poll published by the International Republican Institute showed that Pashinyan’s public support is growing, the percentage moving from the low 20s to over 30 percent now.
Given the fragmented support for opposition forces, Pashinyan’s party should be able to retain a parliamentary majority if it can maintain 30 percent support on June 7.
Pashinyan has sought to break Armenia out of Russia’s geopolitical orbit over the past two years and steer the country towards greater integration with the United States and European Union. Russia, meanwhile, is keen to maintain its political hold on Yerevan.
The parliamentary vote is widely seen as a referendum on Armenia’s geopolitical future.
Early Returns Show Surprises In California As Other States Wrap Up
Update (0030ET): Voters in six states went to the polls today for key primaries. While many races followed expectations, California delivered notable early drama with slow-counting mail ballots still to come.
California Governor (Top-Two Primary)
The race to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom remains the biggest story. In a crowded nonpartisan jungle primary, early returns (approx. 45-50% counted) show:
Steve Hilton (R) leading at ~26.7%
Xavier Becerra (D) close behind at ~25.8%
Tom Steyer (D) trailing at ~19.6%
Chad Bianco (R) is further back. If trends hold, Hilton and Becerra are positioned to advance to November – setting up a potentially competitive general election in deep-blue California. Mail ballots could still shift the order.
Polymarket: Will Xavier Becerra advance? (Yes 93% · No 7%) View on Polymarket
Los Angeles Mayoral Primary
Incumbent Karen Bass (D) leads with ~36.5-38% (46%+ counted), followed by a strong surge from Spencer Pratt (R) at ~30%. Nithya Raman (D) trails at ~20%. Bass and Pratt are heavily favored to advance to the November runoff. Pratt’s performance reflects voter frustration with homelessness, crime, and city governance.
Pre-election Polymarket: Will Karen Bass win the 2026 LA mayoral election? (Yes 68% · No 33%) View on Polymarket
Iowa
U.S. Senate (open seat): Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) won the GOP nomination decisively. State Rep. Josh Turek (D) won the Democratic nod. This sets up a key battleground race in November.
Governor (open): Early leads for Republican Zach Lahn in the crowded GOP field; Democrat Rob Sand unopposed.
Other Notable Races
Montana Senate (open): Kurt Alme (R) secured the GOP nomination.
California’s 11th Congressional District (replacing Nancy Pelosi): Scott Wiener (D) won with a strong lead.
New Jersey: Rebecca Bennett advanced in NJ-7; progressive Adam Hamawy won the open NJ-12.
Overall Takeaway: A night of outsider energy and tight races, particularly in California. Full results may take days or weeks due to mail-in ballots. These outcomes will shape the November midterms.
Voters in six states will go to the polls today for a series of key races.
The biggest item of the night will be the litany of races in California, the nation’s largest state. Others will be held in Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey, and South Dakota.
Here are the most important races to watch.
California Governor
The race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of the most-watched in the nation.
California’s gubernatorial elections are designed to be nonpartisan. With about six candidates polling with at least 5 percent support, only the top two vote-getters will be on the general gubernatorial election ballot in November, even if both are of the same party.
In the final weeks leading into the primary, the election underwent a total shake-up when front-runner Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) left the race – and Congress – following multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Swalwell has denied the allegations.
Currently, the Democratic front-runners are former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and billionaire Tom Steyer. The two are polling close, although Becerra retains a slight advantage.
The main Republican candidates in the race are Steve Hilton, a British American TV show host and conservative commentator, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Polling leaves it unclear whether Hilton or Steyer is favored for second place.
Los Angeles Mayoral Primary
Residents of Los Angeles will also vote in the nonpartisan mayoral primary.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is facing off against 10 other contenders. She is expected to win the top spot in the primary.
Meanwhile, the top Democratic contender for the second-place spot – member of the Los Angeles City Council Nithya Raman – is seeking to hold off a challenge from former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, running as a Republican, and make it to the general election.
California’s 22nd Congressional District
In California’s 22nd Congressional District, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) will face off in a nonpartisan primary with state Rep. Jasmeet Bains and Randy Villegas, both Democrats.
Valadao is expected to win a place in the general election, although his final opponent will be decided by the outcome on June 2.
Polling in the district is sparse. A single poll conducted at the beginning of May by Data for Progress, a left-leaning pollster, showed Valadao with 44 percent support, Villegas with 25 percent, and Bains with 21 percent.
California’s 48th Congressional District
In California’s 48th Congressional District, a flurry of candidates have put their names into the ring.
Republican Jim Desmond leads in polls in the nonpartisan election, with fellow Republican Kevin O’Neil coming in second in some polls. Marni von Wilpert and Ammar Campa-Najjar are the Democratic front-runners.
The seat was one of five redrawn to favor Democrats last year – but that advantage only holds if a Democrat wins the nonpartisan primary.
California’s 11th Congressional District
In California’s 11th Congressional District, a slate of Democrats is competing to replace outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Most polls show a lead for candidate Scott Wiener, a Democrat, while Pelosi has endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. Chan has come in second in some polls, and Wiener enters the primary as the clear front-runner.
The two Republicans in the running – when they have made it into the polls at all – have pulled less than 5 percent support.
Iowa Senate
Although Iowa has long been a lock for Republicans, it is among Democrats’ targets this year, as there are indications that the party could flip Senate seats previously considered safe. This year, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) will not be seeking reelection, leaving the seat open.
Polls indicate that Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) is favored for the Republican nomination over her rival, state Sen. Jim Carlin.
Iowa’s gubernatorial race is open after Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, announced that she would not seek reelection in 2026.
Several Republicans are contending for the nomination to replace her. The polls show that candidates Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Zach Lahn, and Adam Steen are leading in that race. On the Democratic side, only state Auditor Rob Sand is running.
A general election poll conducted in April by Echelon Insights, a Republican-aligned pollster, found that Sand had 51 percent support against Feenstra, who was polling at 39 percent.
Montana Senate
In Montana, the last-minute exit of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) from the race left Republican challengers little opportunity to register against former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, who registered for the GOP nomination just as Daines exited the race.
On the Democratic side, no polls have been conducted, leaving it unclear who is in the lead for the nomination.
As recently as 2024, the state was represented by Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat. Some general election polls have shown 44 percent support for a generic Democrat.
New Mexico Governor
In New Mexico, Democrat and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland is highly favored to win the Democratic nomination in the blue-leaning state, which some Republican strategists had eyed as a potential target in 2024.
On the Republican side, Gregg Hull narrowly leads Doug Turner in polls for the nomination.
New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District
One of the two top targets for Democrats in New Jersey is the seat of Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.).
Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, is favored to win the nomination, leading in most polls. Her closest rival is Brian Varela.
New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District
In New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) is retiring, leaving open a safely Democratic seat in a district where the primary essentially is the general election.
The race has exposed ideological rifts in the Democratic Party.
Leading the progressive side in the race is Dr. Adam Hamawy, a Princeton trauma surgeon and Army veteran with endorsements from progressive heavyweights such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The main other contenders for the Democratic nomination include East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, state Rep. Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, and Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson.
The fall of the Roman Empire is often presented as symbolic of the slow but steady decline of the western world today, and it’s true, this comparison might be more accurate than many people realize. The disastrous collapse which escalated over the course of the 5th century was driven by economic crisis, a split of the empire into eastern and western halves, government reliance on foreign mercenaries for security, uncontrolled mass immigration, and ultimately, barbarian invasion.
When the western empire failed, Rome was plundered and centuries of human innovation and progress were lost in the flames. It’s an element that modern historians often gloss over – Each time the west has fallen, incredible knowledge that took generations to discover was dispersed into the ether. Each time, the human species was set back for centuries.
Many lives were sacrificed and ancient cities were destroyed, but the loss of time is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. It took another 400 years for the western world to reconstitute under Christian rule, but barbarians attacked again in the form of Muslim hordes in the 9th century. It’s almost as if the grasping, predatory hands of useless ravagers are always lurking in the shadows, waiting for the west to rise from the ashes.
History is, of course, nuanced and complex, but some patterns are patently obvious and the attempts to sack Rome, Europe and greater Christendom repeated regularly over the course of a thousand years. Western civilization endures, succeeds, creates wonders, creates wealth and advances human invention. Then, the third world invades in an effort to strip whatever wealth was amassed.
There have been other civilizations, or attempts at civilizations beyond the west which suffered similar fates. The fall of the Bronze Age empires is a perfect example; a calamity of human history very similar to the fall of Rome, if not more mysterious. There was the collapse of China’s Han Dynasty in the 3rd century due to corruption, rebellion and foreign invasion by Mongolian tribes. The collapse of the Gupta Empire in India, triggered by Hunnic barbarian incursions, etc.
However, only the west survived in the long run and only the west is still targeted for demolition in the modern era. I would break this pattern down into two distinct forms of human endeavor or states of existence…
The Tribes Of Order: People who build, invent, create, persevere, maintain and seek to survive through merit, self discipline and industry. (Ayn Rand might refer to this group as the “producers”).
The Tribes Of Chaos (Barbarians): People who survive through brutality, piracy and deceit; those who live by stealing from the tribes of order. They wait until wealth and abundance is accumulated by others and then strip it away when given an opportunity.
Why do barbarians do this? Well, because it’s far easier to smash and steal than it is to plan and innovate. Some might argue that the mentality is genetic. Some would argue it’s a product of culture. Others assert it’s a product of low IQ or low capacity for creative thinking. I’m inclined to believe that it’s a mix of all of these things.
How The West First Solved The Barbarian Problem
I believe there is a distinct and identifiable moment in history when the barbarian plunder of the west went into decline, and that was the First Christian Crusade in 1096 AD.
This was, in a way, the act of self defense through “colonization”. That is to say, the pattern of pillaging stops whenever the west takes forceful action to colonize the third world. In terms of the crusades, instead of allowing the barbarians to loiter on the doorstep of Europe and take territory whenever they pleased, the Holy Crusades sought to push them back and defeat them on their home turf.
Centuries later after the Muslims were mostly contained, European exploration led to colonies across Asia and Africa, civilizing cultures with the barbarian mindset. The insatiable desire to hijack the accomplishments of the Tribes of Order was countered by simply GIVING these people western accomplishments…and taking by away their ability to project power.
When the west expanded to take over management of the third world, the invasions ceased and the third world was introduced to the wealth of modernization without having to steal it. One could easily argue that western colonization was a net positive for the world. It’s not a coincidence that far-left ideologues and communists demonize it so frequently; they do this because they know colonization works. They use it themselves.
The Return Of The Barbarian Hordes
It is entirely predictable that, as the west embraces liberalism and socialism, the third world invasions have returned. We are the only culture that feels “shame” over our historic successes, so much so that many people are convinced we deserve punishment for the colonies of the past.
The biggest factor in this program of shame is the globalist agenda to erase national borders and identity through multiculturalism. However, I think it’s important to understand that the globalists are not forcing third worlders to immigrate to the west; these people WANT to come here and the globalists are simply opening the gates to let them in.
Why do they travel from countries where their culture is dominant? Why come to Europe or the US where their values are not aligned, their languages do not function and their tribal thinking is incongruent? Again, you can take the man out of barbarism, but you can’t take the barbarism out of the man. They come here because they see an opportunity to plunder the west after centuries of being thwarted. It’s a behavior that’s hard-wired into their gray matter.
I outlined this dynamic in my article “The Third World Is Forever Chasing The White Man”, in which I examined the habit of third world populations to constantly scratch for a piece of the first world instead of improving their own conditions at home. I also touched on the habit of leftist minorities to appropriate western culture and pretend they built it first (How often, for example, has Somalian Democrat Ilhan Omar falsely claimed that America was built by Muslims?).
These people do not want to develop their own accomplishments, their own stories, their own discoveries – they want ours. It’s the barbarian mindset.
I am reminded of a fascinating discussion by African commentator Franck Zanu, who presented his theory on why he believes African societies will “never develop” without the aid of western colonization. He noted that African languages have no word for “maintenance” – The concept simply does not exist in their vernacular.
It’s a deeply profound observation on the difference between the third-world and the west. The act of maintenance is a key element that defines the Tribes of Order. Without maintenance, no civilizational legacy can be constructed. Instead, human beings continue to clamor in the dirt, or wait around for someone else to build and maintain a system that they can latch onto and feed off of.
This problem is the underlying lesson in the documentary “Empire of Dust”, in which Chinese engineers travel to Africa to build roads and infrastructure, only to be consistently thwarted by a lazy population that seeks only to get paid for doing as little as possible. In many cases, they sabotage their own construction efforts to drag out the process. As a culture, they see no value in working to build something of lasting importance, and the Chinese engineers are left bewildered.
The evidence is endless within the very African nations that were once colonized. Billions upon billions of dollars in infrastructure was handed over to them, and in countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), they let it all rot instead of maintaining it. They don’t understand the riches that follow an ordered nation, they think only in terms of wealth that can be looted in the midst of chaos.
But what does any of this have to do with the leftist movements plaguing the west today?
Communism/Marxism Is Organized Chaos
It sounds contradictory, but the philosophy of communism is a form of “organized chaos”, or engineered chaos to achieve a particular agenda. I would attach globalism to this equation because globalism is, ultimately, a desire for a globally centralized form of communism that operates on similar mechanics.
And who does this philosophy most appeal to in the west? Usually it’s the aimless ideologues with little or no ability to survive in a world where merit and strength are valued (woke activists, feminists, DEI advocates, etc.). And, people who consider themselves the “have-nots”. Useful idiots and emotional spastics who have been convinced that all the failings of their miserable lives are the fault of a rigged system.
They’re convinced that society has stolen achievements away from them, that the cards are stacked against them, that the shining city on the hill is laughing at them. If only the system was forced to be “more equitable”, if only wealth was properly redistributed, they would be rich, famous and successful.
So, the political left taps into this narcissistic desire for unearned distinction. It tells people, for the good of humanity, they must burn everything to the ground to get what they want. They are barbarians in first-world clothing; born within the gates, but barbarians all the same.
This is where communists and third worlders seem to intersect. They are part of the same “Tribe of Chaos.” This is why leftists are so desperate to open borders to mass immigration. This is why the policies of far-left Democrats seem to aid plunder by migrants (like Somalian scammers in Minnesota or California). This is why leftists seem to be obsessed with enabling the Islamic invasion of Europe.
It’s all about chaos and the fleecing of societies that value order. The globalists are also members of the chaos tribe, but they think of themselves as straddling the line between. Their vision of a “new world order” can only be achieved through the destruction of the old world, the erasure of the past, the rewriting of history and memory and morality. They are grotesque pillagers of time.
If they get their way, the barbarian mindset will become the norm. People of order and merit (the producers) will be perpetually enslaved to the whims of parasites. It will be a never-ending cycle of struggling industry followed by collapse, back to the dark ages but condensed down to a terrible science. We will work to build and build again while the hands of the horde rush in to knock it all down and pick the bones clean.
Without aggressive action to safeguard our own tribe, nothing we create will ever belong to us.
China is undertaking a vast effort to reshape its western frontier, transforming Xinjiang and Tibet from remote borderlands into strategic hubs for industry, energy, tourism and trade, according to a new lengthy report from Financial Times.
Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing is pouring investment into highways, railways, renewable energy projects, manufacturing bases and tourism infrastructure across a region that covers nearly a third of China’s territory. Officials see the west not as a distant hinterland but as a frontline for economic growth, national security and connectivity with Eurasia.
The strategy serves several goals. It aims to integrate Xinjiang and Tibet more deeply into China’s economy, strengthen border security, expand access to critical resources and energy, and make western China a more important link in global supply chains. Analysts say this could also reduce the effectiveness of future Western sanctions by increasing the regions’ economic importance.
The transformation is most visible in Xinjiang. Tourism has surged, with record visitor numbers drawn to ski resorts, scenic villages and newly built infrastructure. International hotel chains are rapidly expanding in the region, while exports, manufacturing and state-backed investment continue to grow. For many Chinese visitors, Xinjiang is increasingly marketed as a safe and attractive destination rather than a politically sensitive region.
Yet the economic boom has not been accompanied by a rollback of state control. Human rights groups say the surveillance systems, security apparatus and policies that followed the mass detention of Uyghurs remain firmly in place. Critics argue Beijing is pairing economic incentives with continued social control and cultural assimilation.
The FT writes that Tibet is undergoing a similar transformation. Massive hydropower projects, transmission networks and mineral extraction plans are positioning the region as a future energy hub. The flagship Yarlung Tsangpo dam could become the world’s largest hydropower project, supplying electricity far beyond Tibet. Supporters see these developments as engines of growth; critics warn of environmental damage, pressure on local communities and risks to downstream countries.
At the same time, rights groups and researchers say policies promoting Mandarin-language education, migration and “ethnic integration” are accelerating the assimilation of Tibetans and Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese society. Beijing rejects such criticism, saying it protects minority cultures while promoting development and national unity.
Taken together, the projects signal a long-term effort to remake China’s west. Roads, railways, factories, power plants and tourist attractions are reshaping the region’s economy and its role within China. But the transformation is occurring alongside an extensive security system, raising questions about whether development is being used not only to modernise the frontier but also to cement Beijing’s political control over it.
Cliffwater Private Credit Fund Gates Investors For Second Straight Quarter After Redemption Requests Soar To 17%
The market may be in full-blown face-ripping bubble mode, and software stocks are now gripped in by a category 5 gamma squeeze hurricane, but not even that is helping the ongoing debacle that is private credit.
The flagship private credit fund of Cliffwater, a fund which has was slammed by redemption requests in the past quarter as the private credit crisis came to a fore, has again gated investors by capping redemptions at 5% in the second quarter after investors looked to pull more than three times that amount, or 17% of shares, Bloomberg reported, in a sign of relentless pressure on the $1.8 trillion market.
The $31 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund informed shareholders Tuesday that they’d get about one-third of their requested money back, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. The prior quarter, investors got back around half of the roughly 14% they asked for, with the vehicle choosing to cap withdrawals at 7%.
Shortly after Cliffwater’s decision in March, S&P Global Ratings lowered its outlook on the interval fund to negative from stable, warning that the 5% redemption threshold is “an important guardrail.”
“Our repurchase program is intentionally designed to provide shareholders with periodic liquidity that aligns with the fund’s long-term investment strategy and its underlying assets,” Cliffwater CEI Stephen Nesbitt said in the letter to investors. And by periodic liquidity he meant far less liquidity than investors hoped to recovery.
The firm previously said that the fund, which has delivered a roughly 9.4% annualized net return since it was formed in 2019, has enough liquidity to meet 5% redemptions for more than a year without selling a position or an asset. After a second straight quarter of gating that may be tested very soon.
Cliffwater has become something of an unlikely giant in the private credit market by raising money at a rapid clip and deploying it across both direct loans and funds that do such lending themselves. Other non-traded business development companies are set to report the results of their second-quarter tender offers in the coming weeks. In the previous period, some like Blackstone’s BCRED went to extraordinary lengths to let investors cash out (all for nothing as the looming redemption flood will overrun even the giant fund), while other funds at Apollo Global, BlackRock and Blue Owl enforced their 5% caps.
Authorities charged four suspects on June 1 with felony drug distribution violations after finding a hidden tunnel used by drug runners inside a retail store in San Diego County that led into Tijuana, Mexico.
Investigators also seized more than a ton of cocaine worth about $45 million in connection with the subterranean tunnel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Homeland Security’s Tunnel Task Force in charge of the operation.
“For these defendants, it wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It was lights and sirens,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.
Federal agents with the tunnel task force started surveilling a Buy 4 Less warehouse on the 2400 block of Roll Drive in San Diego in late December 2025 after they became alerted to suspicious activity at the location, according to prosecutors.
A group of seven or eight “employees” at the Buy 4 Less showed up regularly at the store, but very few customers were seen coming in and out of the location, investigators said.
The supposed employees were seen taking multiple suitcases out of the store and into vehicles or walking the suitcases, which appeared to be empty, across the border into Mexico, according to the court complaint.
Investigators say that on May 29, a man loaded three large, heavy items into a white van that left the warehouse and parked on a street near a mechanic shop. Another man on a bicycle was seen looking around and into parked cars, allegedly conducting counter-surveillance for the van, investigators said.
Federal agents watched as people removed three deep freezers from the first van and placed them into the bed of another truck, then load the deep freezers with packages, according to court documents.
After the vans were loaded onto a truck, the truck left and parked a short distance away. Another man took the truck keys and drove away.
San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies with a K9 police dog stopped the truck and were alerted to the presence of a controlled substance by the canine officer.
After the traffic stop, the agents watching the warehouse saw two other men take heavy boxes out of the Buy 4 Less and load them onto a second truck, which was then driven away. Another sheriff’s deputy with a police canine stopped the second truck.
The traffic stops led federal agents to discover 851 packages of cocaine with a combined weight of more than 1 ton inside the two trucks and van.
The subterranean passageway, stretching from Tijuana, Mexico, to the purported retail store near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry known as “Buy 4 Less,” shown in this photo, is estimated to be about 1,933 feet long, 55 feet deep, and 4.5 feet in height, with a ventilation system and electricity. U.S. Department of Justice
The drug seizures also allowed federal investigators to obtain a signed judicial warrant to search the Buy 4 Less, where they found the exit point of the subterranean tunnel hidden beneath the floor of a storage room inside the store, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego.
The tunnel is about 55 feet deep and extends about 1,064 feet from the Buy 4 Less to the U.S.–Mexico border. Agents estimate it continues another 800 feet to another entry point in Mexico.
The tunnel was accessed using a sophisticated hydraulic lift and was equipped with ventilation and electricity, and was up to 4.5 feet tall in some areas, according to investigators.
Trucks coming from Mexico enter the United States at an inspection station after crossing the border in Otay Mesa, Calif., on April 1, 2025. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images
The drug bust and tunnel discovery are expected to impact the cartel’s drug pipeline into California.
“This investigation and seizure represent a significant blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego Kevin Murphy.
Charged in the case were Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, 29, of San Diego; Brandon Escalante Sandoval, 26, of Mexico; Jose Jimenez, 32, of San Diego; and Antonio Cortez, 18, of Mexico.
Hernandez Lopez is charged with conspiracy to use a cross-border tunnel and conspiracy to import controlled substances. All defendants are charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego said the tunnel is one of 99 discovered in the Southern District of California since 1993 and the first since 2022.
Or do we only believe in freedom when it applies to people who agree with us?
Do we trust people we fundamentally disagree with to remain free citizens?
Or do we believe they must be controlled through laws, censorship, surveillance, or social pressure because they are too dangerous to be trusted with liberty?
That question sits at the center of what I am most interested in during this moment in history, the 250th year of the American experiment.
Because when I look around, it increasingly feels like both sides are drifting in the same direction while packaging it differently.
Each side frames the other as dangerous, radical, and incapable of self-governance. People on the left often believe the right is racist, authoritarian, anti-science, and driven by extremism. Many people on the right believe the left is hostile to faith, hostile to biology, hostile to free speech, and willing to use institutions to socially engineer society.
If you genuinely believe those things about your political opponents, then freedom starts to feel dangerous.
And once freedom feels dangerous, control starts to feel justified.
For me, the COVID-19 pandemic broke the illusion.
I suddenly realized I could no longer clearly see what the political left still offered someone like me. I watched censorship expand rapidly. I watched speech become conditional. I watched people lose jobs and platforms for asking questions. I watched mandates imposed alongside liability protections and dissent treated as danger.
I watched mandates destroy livelihoods.
I watched small businesses close while major corporations consolidated wealth and power. I watched people who had spent decades building restaurants, gyms, farms, salons, and family businesses suddenly deemed “nonessential.”
I wasn’t reading about these policies. I was living under them.
At the same time, I was living in a state that increasingly felt hostile to the practical realities of my life. Everything started feeling harder. More permits. More taxes. More hoops. More social pressure. It felt harder to make a living, harder to farm, harder to build, harder to protect my family, and harder to simply live outside institutional approval.
Socially, it also became harder to honestly say what I believed without risking professional or personal consequences.
This week, I heard arguments celebrating the fact that Democrats overwhelmingly voted against liability protections for chemical companies accused of poisoning Americans. Many people presented that as evidence that one side cares about ordinary people while the other protects corporations from accountability.
But that moral high ground becomes more complicated when you remember that many of those same political voices supported mandating a vaccine under an emergency authorization, with liability protections already built into the system. At the same time, dissent around those policies was aggressively silenced.
And the reality is that we are still learning about the long-term effects, trade-offs, and consequences years later.
That is not a conspiracy theory.
That is simply how medicine and biology work. Scientific understanding evolves over time.
The George Floyd era accelerated another version of this same instinct.
Suddenly, institutions across America were pressured to publicly demonstrate ideological “purity” around race, gender, identity, and social justice. Diversity, equity, Indigenous representation, and LGBTQ+ inclusion became not just social values but institutional litmus tests in many professional environments.
In some cases, executives, journalists, professors, and employees lost their positions not because they had committed crimes or acts of hatred, but because they failed to meet ideological expectations during a moment of intense cultural pressure.
And once again, people became afraid to say the wrong thing out loud.
But now I watch similar instincts emerge from the political right under different circumstances.
There are increasingly subjects people feel afraid to discuss openly because they fear losing jobs, reputations, platforms, or financial access. Concerns about extremism, hate speech, anti-Semitism, immigration, terrorism, and national security are all increasingly used to justify expanded speech restrictions and surveillance powers.
And to be fair, some of those fears are real.
But history shows that societies rarely surrender freedom all at once. Usually, it happens piece by piece, each side justifying control because they believe the other side is simply too dangerous to remain fully free.
Many people argued I should have stayed and fought politically where I was. But I didn’t.
I moved to Central Texas. Honestly, I needed to breathe a little.
And yet, even now, as I watch the country continue to fracture, I try very hard not to become tribal myself. I try to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
At the core of it, I still believe in freedom.
But that realization leads me to an uncomfortable conclusion: If I truly believe in freedom, then I have to believe the people around me deserve freedom, too—even when I deeply disagree with them.
Otherwise, what I’m actually asking for is not freedom, but power for my side and restriction for theirs.
Maybe the real test of a free society is not whether we support freedom for people we agree with.
Maybe the real test is whether we still support it when we don’t agree with each other.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Leftists Try To “Cancel” Giants Quarterback For His Appearance At Trump Rally
Leftists often claim that when someone of celebrity status appears with Donald Trump, it gives Trump “legitimacy.” This is the common rationale they use to justify their insane cult-like behavior – Their habit of using mobs of mindless activist zombies in order to frighten people with status away from openly identifying as conservative. The truth is, the political left is a paper tiger, an astroturf movement with no power, blustering with false bravado.
In reality, celebrities do not give Trump legitimacy. His landslide election victory gives him legitimacy.
The radical left is a one trick pony, constantly repeating the same lies and exaggerations in the belief that if they lie long enough those lies will eventually become part of the popular zeitgeist. For example, a white sports star has a positive interaction with Trump and the progressive media conjures a narrative that he is alienating his minority team mates because shaking hands with Trump is the same as shaking hands with “racism.”
This tiresome strategy is being used once again on New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart after he appeared on stage with Trump at a New York political rally. Leftist journalists assert that Dart shaking hands with Trump is the same as shaking hands with Hitler. The engineered controversy led to a couple of the QB’s teammates expressing discomfort over the event.
Thankfully, the opinions of Dart’s teammates are meaningless and he has every right to stand on stage with whoever he pleases. At present, it seems as though other Giants players understand that they don’t have to align politically in order to play a football game.
Linebacker Abdul Carter (a Muslim) initially voiced discomfort with the optics of the event, according to multiple reports. Dart said he discussed the issue directly with Carter and brushed off any rumors about beef between the two players. For those who don’t like Dart’s promotional appearances, frankly they can shut up and stew in their salty snowflake juices about it.
The media, though, is never going to shut up about it because their job is to create controversy out of thin air.
Some outlets think Dart needs to be cancelled (as if the political left has any power to cancel anyone anymore). Sports media site SB Nation claims that Dart’s freedom to meet publicly with Trump does not mean he has the freedom to avoid “criticism” (persecution). It’s the same incessant woke argument of “cancel culture vs consequence culture.”
Their version of events displays an insufferable seething; something that might have been more familiar back in 2020. One has to wonder, do these people ever grow out of their childish delusions of grandeur? And the answer is no, no they do not. But we still examine such left-wing crash-outs because they give us insight into the thought processes of progressive authoritarians. As SB Nation asserts:
“Freedom is pretty great, isn’t it? Here in the United States we love to talk about freedom. The people who love to talk about it the most, who bathe in the idea of American exceptionalism, tend to be those who rarely (if ever) travel abroad. They love to speak about the world in platitudes, always through the lens that the God-loving USA is free, and nowhere else is. It’s a refrain the majority of Western foreigners find hilarious. Folks in the U.K? They’re free. Europe? Free as well. Australia, Canada, New Zealand — yeah, they’re free.
There are 20 nations broadly recognized as having freedom of expression, with the USA ranking third behind Denmark and Norway. Sure, all those nations might not let you brandish a firearm in public or hurl hate speech at people — but denying that doesn’t make them “un-free.””
Yes, it does make those countries unfree. If any viewpoints including the truth can be labeled “hate speech”, then the populace does not have free speech. If the government can put people in prison over jokes and online memes, then those people are not free. In the UK, around 12,000 people each year are arrested for using restricted speech online. Most of these arrests are for basic and factual criticisms relating to mass immigration and migrant crime.
This is not freedom.
The US is the only country in the world with freedom of speech codified into constitutional law. It is the only country in the world where the government is restricted from making laws referencing public speech. SB Nation uses their false narrative of “speech vs hate speech” to launch into their attack on Jaxson Dart. This is how these people rationalize their totalitarian behavior. SB Nation continues:
“We’re having this discussion on a sports website because sports are, and always have been, inherently political. It’s impossible to divorce the two, as much as you might want them to be separate…”
For the political left, everything is political. From movies to TV shows to commercials to video games to comic books to beauty pageants to sports. Leftist activists believe they should control the platforms of famous people and exploit those platforms for propaganda. When a celebrity steps out of line, the struggle session begins.
During the Biden Administration normal people could not escape left-wing politics because they injected their woke ideology into everything. Sports are not political in the slightest, but progressive movements have tried to force wokeness into them at every turn.
“Dart made a choice by grinning on stage with the sitting president, one who happens to be historically unpopular, the most divisive in modern history, and largely reviled in both New York and New Jersey, the states the New York Giants represent.
Dart was absolutely free to introduce Trump, he’s free to support him – and personally, I don’t want to see him lose his job for exercising his freedom. That crucially doesn’t mean Dart should be free of any criticism or allowed to dance away from his decision…”
A classic woke deflection: “We don’t want to see this man cancelled, but he should be cancelled…” At no point do the people at SBN explain why it’s a bad thing for a Giants QB to meet with Donald Trump, other than leftists in New York “don’t like Trump” and they think Trump is vaguely racist, even though they can’t come up with a single legitimate example of racism.
“Dart has spoken as well, but limited his remarks on the appearance to a pre-written statement and has not taken any questions. Even in an instance where a white athlete started the drama, it’s become incumbent upon his black teammates to answer the lion’s share of questions about their teammate. Unfortunately, this is par for the course…”
Trump’s policies have nothing to do with Jaxson Dart. The man is not political and his views are not up for scrutiny simply because he likes a President that leftists hate. Jaxson Dart does not answer to The View. He does not answer to SB Nation. He does not have to answer to his teammates, and his teammates don’t have to answer to the media.
As much as the activist mob might want to make Dart pay for escaping the liberal plantation, none of them has the power to do anything to him. There comes a point when leftists need to accept that they are impotent. Their cancel culture heyday is long gone and the culture of sane normality is leaving them far behind.
Nearly 115 million Americans are on the road to diabetes. New research suggests an inexpensive, widely available supplement could slow that journey, but only for some of them.
A genetic quirk in roughly 70 percent of prediabetic adults may determine whether high-dose vitamin D can meaningfully lower their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
The research builds on the D2d trial. More than 2,000 U.S. adults living with prediabetes were randomized to either take 4,000 units of vitamin D or a placebo for up to 3.5 years. Initially, the trial did not find any significant changes across the participants. The recommended daily allowance is 600 to 800 units for average adults.
However, when scientists analyzed participants’ DNA, a more nuanced picture emerged: those carrying specific variations – known as AC or CC – in a gene called ApaI responded strongly to supplementation. Over the 3.5 years of the study, participants carrying the AC or CC variant had a 19 percent lower chance of developing diabetes. The roughly 30 percent with the AA variation saw no benefit at all.
“Diabetes has so many serious complications that develop slowly over years,” study lead researcher Bess Dawson-Hughes said in a statement. “If we can delay the time a person spends living with diabetes, we can reduce some of those harmful side effects or lessen their severity.”
The distinction matters because prediabetes – defined by higher-than-normal blood sugar that hasn’t yet crossed into diabetes territory – affects more than two in five U.S. adults, and often progresses silently. Identifying who stands to benefit from vitamin D intervention could allow clinicians to target supplementation far more precisely than current blanket guidelines allow.
1 Gene Affects How Your Body Responds To Vitamin D
Vitamin D in the blood is converted into its active form in the body. Vitamin D receptors are highly prevalent and present in many cells throughout the body.
When vitamin D binds to cell receptors, it helps cells do what they are supposed to do. In pancreatic cells, vitamin D facilitates the release of insulin to regulate blood sugar.
People with the AC and CC variations were responsive to vitamin D and, therefore, derived more benefits from supplementation.
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The findings could help develop a personalized approach to preventing Type 2 diabetes, senior author Anastassios Pittas, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, said in the statement. “Part of what makes vitamin D appealing as a potential preventive tool is that it is inexpensive, widely available, and easy for people to take.”
However, researchers emphasized that more research is needed to determine which individuals might benefit from higher doses of vitamin D, with Dawson-Hughes noting that future testing could involve a simple, affordable genetic test to identify those most likely to benefit from supplementation.
Recommendations For Vitamin D Levels
The first step is to have your 25-hydroxyvitamin D level tested, Diana Cusa, senior registered dietitian at Plainview Hospital in New York, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.
“If your levels are found to be deficient, you may consider supplementation and review your dietary intake and sun exposure habits,” she said.
Cusa recommended that those who choose supplements should take 600 to 800 international units (IU) daily of vitamin D3 for general health. “Higher doses may be needed if a deficiency is noted or for any targeted prevention trials,” she added.
Current guidelines recommend 600 IU per day for people up to 70 years of age and 800 IU for those older than 70. Excessive vitamin D intake can be harmful and has been linked to increased risks of falls and fractures among older adults.
Sunlight, Cusa pointed out, is one of the most effective natural sources of vitamin D, and spending time outdoors can help boost your levels. “However, it’s important to be cautious – not to spend too long in the sun without proper sunscreen, as excessive exposure increases the risk of skin cancer,” she cautioned.
While you cannot overdose on vitamin D from sun exposure, she added, taking high-dose supplements can lead to toxicity, “so supplementation should be approached carefully and ideally under medical guidance.”
Natural sources of vitamin D include fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and rainbow trout. Other good sources are beef liver, mushrooms, egg yolks, and cod liver oil. “These foods, which are rich in protein and healthy fats, can help support stable blood glucose levels when consumed in moderation,” Cusa said.
