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UN Food Agency Warns Millions Pushed Into Hunger By Prolonged Iran War

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UN Food Agency Warns Millions Pushed Into Hunger By Prolonged Iran War

The United Nations food agency is sounding a catastrophic alarm on the macroeconomic fallout of the ongoing conflict in Iran and the Persian Gulf region. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), millions of people are actively being plunged into acute hunger due to the war – realizing a grim trajectory the agency previously warned would occur if the Middle East crisis stayed prolonged and global oil prices remained elevated.

Fragile economies are feeling the most pain, with WFP analysis of three highly vulnerable nations revealing that an additional 2.5 million people in Somalia, 2.3 million in Afghanistan, and 1.3 million in Sri Lanka are currently struggling to meet their most basic daily nutritional needs. Back in March, the WFP estimated that a staggering 45 million people globally could be pushed into severe food insecurity by the end of June, compounding the over 300 million people globally who were already facing critical food shortages before the war erupted.

via EPA

The Rome-based UN agency issued a new detailed assessment at the end of this past week, describing how that the Middle East crisis is actively generating “significant spillovers” – by driving up the cost of food and fuel while heavily disrupting global trade networks. 

Crucially, the agency warned that the economic bleeding will not stop immediately, even if a diplomatic breakthrough occurs. “These impacts are expected to intensify in the coming months, even if the crisis in the Middle East de-escalates,” it wrote.

“We remain by that prognosis,” WFP’s acting Executive Director Carl Skau informed a UN press briefing. “That’s mainly because the correlation between the prices of energy and food is so tight in many places, and also that in the poorest countries people are already spending all their money on food, and hence when food prices rise, they eat less.”

Even prior to the Iran war’s start, near the beginning of the war, United Nations agencies themselves were feeling the crunch after a significant drawdown in US support and funding.

The Trump administration slashed support over criticism that the UN has long failed to promote American interests.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been warning that outstanding dues reached a record $1.568 billion at the end of 2025 and that collections covered only 76.7% of assessed contributions, leaving the organization dangerously exposed. 

As for how this impacts the WFP, it says it has already been forced to strictly ration and limit aid to millions of impoverished people due to drastic international funding cuts.

The agency has issued urgent plea to global donors to immediately step up financial contributions, with a specific focus on stabilizing Somalia and Afghanistan, “because the human consequences of not doing more will be massive.”

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 21:35

Protesters Target NV Energy At Utility Conference As Anger Over Soaring Electricity Prices Boils Over

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Protesters Target NV Energy At Utility Conference As Anger Over Soaring Electricity Prices Boils Over

By Herman Trabish of UtilityDive

Protesters shouting affordability complaints and chanting slogans interrupted a speech by NV Energy President and CEO Brandon Barkhuff on Wednesday. Barkhuff was speaking to some 1,000 utility executives and electricity industry stakeholders during the Edison Electric Institute 2026 conference at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

After being escorted out by security, the protesters spoke to the media outside the hotel to demand the cancellation of a daily demand charge for NV Energy customers slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2027, as well as to demand action on clean energy and high electricity bills.

The confrontation shows the extent to which energy costs have stoked public anger, raising pressure on utilities and their regulators.  

Leslie Vega, climate equity policy fellow at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, speaks to the media on June 3, 2026, after protests at an electric utility conference in Las Vegas. The group was protesting high electricity bills and NV Energy’s use of residential demand charges. 

Utilities have made affordability a cornerstone of their public messaging as they prepare to spend over $1 trillion over the next five years to meet a surge in demand, much of it driven by large-load data centers. 

In Nevada, The Public Utility Commission in September unanimously approved a demand charge and new rate design for NV Energy customers in the southern portion of the state. It also approved changing the utility’s net metering design in ways that solar advocates said would weaken customer protections and set back Nevada’s clean energy goals. 

“In Las Vegas, one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, you cannot live without electricity,” said protest organizer Leslie Vega. Vega, a climate equity policy fellow at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said she’s lost loved ones to heatstroke and sees the demand charge as air conditioning rationing.

“We’re not just asking for lower rates. We’re asking for survival,” she said.

NV Energy issued a statement following the protest citing “misinformation and confusion” about the daily demand charge. 

“Daily demand [charges] will lower bills for the majority of our southern Nevada customers,” it said. “We understand that energy costs are an important issue for our customers, and that’s exactly why daily demand [charges are] critical in stopping subsidies that shift costs to other customers.”

Demand charges are tied to a customer’s peak electricity use, and NV Energy’s daily demand charge is based on the energy a customer consumes during a 15-minute period of peak usage each day. The utility expects the demand charge to add about 49 cents/day to a typical customer’s bill, but says most southern Nevada customers will see monthly bills that are similar to or slightly lower under the new structure.

Regulators and the utility have said that consumers who are concerned about potential spikes on their bill from the charge can shift their electricity use, but advocates say that’s not realistic, especially for cooling. Las Vegas temperatures on Wednesday reached 103 degrees as the city experiences its longest 100-degree streak of the year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“It’s impossible” not to run air conditioning during peak hours, said Vega. She was joined outside the hotel by several dozen other protesters with the United Ratepayers coalition.

The coalition is demanding cancellation of the demand charge, which Vega called a “financial threat” against Nevadans who don’t know how it will affect their bills and can’t manage it, as well as other changes.

“What we ask is lower rates for our lower-income community, an increase in solar energy and green energy and getting away from fossil fuels,” she said. “We might not be economists and engineers, but I would like to remind our Public Utility Commission that approved Nevada Energy’s daily demand charge that their own staff economists and engineers advised them against the daily demand charge.”

Vega said the coalition will continue to lobby elected officials.

A spokesperson for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities and organized the conference where Barkhuff was speaking, said in a statement that EEI understands “people are frustrated about their energy bills” and shares those concerns. 

“That’s why we’re here — working to do everything we can to lower customers’ bills and serve communities,” they said.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 21:00

Lebanese Army Officers Among 9 Killed In Israeli Airstrike On South Lebanon

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Lebanese Army Officers Among 9 Killed In Israeli Airstrike On South Lebanon

In a rare, major development related to the Israel-Hezbollah war, fresh Saturday Israeli airstrikes on Southern Lebanon on Saturday took out a group of Lebanese Army forces.

What’s more is that several officers were reported killed: “Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon Saturday killed nine people including three members of the Lebanese military, the Lebanese army and state media said, days after the two sides reached a new ceasefire deal,” The Associated Press reports.

Via Reuters

“An airstrike on the road linking the city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun occurred in the morning killing a brigadier general, a captain and another soldier, the army said without immediately releasing their names,” the report continues.

“The continued, deliberate, and repeated Israeli aggression against Lebanon, its people and its army only strengthens our resolve, faith and determination,” the Lebanese national forces said in its statement.

It accused Israel of thwarting all efforts “to reach a solution that would restore stability, establish a comprehensive ceasefire and lead to the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories.”

According to the BBC:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has launched an investigation after confirming it attacked a vehicle carrying Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning.

The Lebanese Army said two officers and a soldier were killed in the strike on a car, which it described as an “aggressive and barbaric raid”. The IDF said the vehicle was “moving suspiciously towards forces” and gunfire had been reported in the area.

Currently Washington is applying immense pressure on the national government and army to move to ‘disarm’ Hezbollah; however, the Shia paramilitary group has long been the most well-armed and powerful faction in Lebanon, and is seen by most analysts as stronger than even the national army.

This is partly because the United States severely limits the kind of weaponry the Lebanese armed forces can possess, essentially sanctioning the army, on fears these weapons could be turned on Israel.

But if Lebanese officers are being killed under Israeli fire, the army is likely to feel even less incentive to move against Hezbollah. There’s also serious political limitations – as Lebanon has long been a nation divided, and the end of the 20th century saw decades of internecine civil war and brutal infighting.

All of this is likely to make some of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s statements to CNN this week deeply unpopular. He had blasted both Iran and Hezbollah for turning Lebanon into a ‘bargaining chip’ with the West. 

Many Lebanese have criticized him for criticizing Hezbollah instead of heaping all the blame on the invading Israeli military.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has also responded, stating sarcastically in a post on X Saturday that given Aoun’s comments, “one would think it’s Iran that has occupied a fifth of Lebanon, displaced a quarter of Lebanese and is bombing his country on daily basis.”

“Had Lebanon been a bargaining chip for Iran, we’d have a deal long ago. Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr. President,” Araghchi wrote in reference to Israel.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 20:25

Obama-Appointed Judge Orders Trump Admin To Restart Processing Asylum Claims

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Obama-Appointed Judge Orders Trump Admin To Restart Processing Asylum Claims

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration must restart processing claims of asylum, a federal judge ruled on June 5.

Officials must also resume adjudicating requests for immigration benefits such as work permits from nationals of 39 countries from which President Donald Trump has restricted travel, Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr., based in Rhode Island, said.

This is the same judge AFL exposed for failing to recuse from the Trump spending freeze case – despite previously leading a nonprofit that received $128M in federal funding.

The Department of Homeland Security and its U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) division, which implemented the challenged policies, said they did not agree with the ruling.

“The Left has been running the same gambit with so-called ‘animus’ claims since 2017. It is sabotage dressed in legal clothing,” James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, told The Epoch Times via email.

“It goes like this: (1) the admin is racist, (2) therefore a policy I don’t like is motivated by race, (3) therefore it is invalid. They have used it on virtually every Trump era Department of Homeland Security policy.”

“These policies were wrong, plain and simple, and caused … profound fear and uncertainty for so many of our friends, neighbors, and coworkers,” Milagro Sique, CEO of Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

“Having the judicial process work as intended—by upholding the rule of law—gives us some reassurance that all is not lost and allows those who have been impacted to move forward with their lives in a meaningful way.”

The administration in late 2025 announced the policies in the wake of the shooting, allegedly by an Afghan national, of National Guard members near the White House. USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said at the time that asylum claims would not be processed “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

A coalition of groups, including the Service Employees International Union and the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit over the policies in March. They said that the policies violated federal law because they went beyond the authority of USCIS, were arbitrary and capricious, and went against U.S. Constitutional protections.

Government lawyers said the policies fell within the authority Congress outlined in the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

McConnell said Friday in a 135-page decision that the policies “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo” solely because of where the immigrants were born.

He wrote that USCIS violated federal laws, in part because officials made decisions without adequate explanation.

“The agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency’s actions,” he said. “In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making. In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

The ruling vacated the policies as illegal and set them aside, as well as two other USCIS policies.

One involved reviewing and reconsidering past decisions granting immigration benefits to any people from countries subject to Trump’s travel ban. The other featured amendments to the USCIS policy manual, requiring agency workers to take a person’s home country as a negative factor when deciding whether to grant requests for benefits.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 19:50

Facebook Marketplace Enters The AI Thirst-Trap Era

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Facebook Marketplace Enters The AI Thirst-Trap Era

Searching Facebook Marketplace in the AI era has revealed a strange new phenomenon: sellers are running product photos through chatbots or image generators to insert scantily clad women into listings.

This marketing ploy seemingly bets that thirst-trap imagery will boost clicks and improve the chances of selling whatever item is listed on the online marketplace.

“This dude on FB Marketplace has multiple listings for heavy Caterpillar industrial equipment superimposed with AI-generated female models. Must have industry-leading click-through rates,” journalist Trung Phan wrote on X.

Sure enough, the thirst-trap imagery appears to be working…

Here’s another example.

One Facebook Marketplace seller said the marketing ploy absolutely works.

This is a real-world example of how sellers are using AI to try to boost low click-through rates.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 19:15

Viral: Humanoid Robot Kicks Chinese Kid In The Stomach During Public Demonstration

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Viral: Humanoid Robot Kicks Chinese Kid In The Stomach During Public Demonstration

Authored by Jijo Malayil via Interesting Engineering,

A humanoid robot demonstration has sparked safety concerns after a video circulating on social media appeared to show a Unitree G1 robot accidentally kicking a young child during a public event.

The robot, which was performing a roundhouse kick while wearing a blue clown wig, struck the child in the stomach, causing the youngster to double over in pain.

The incident has reignited debate over the safe deployment of advanced humanoid robots in crowded public settings, particularly as increasingly capable machines are showcased at exhibitions and entertainment events.

Last year, a viral experiment showed a humanoid robot overriding its safety restrictions and firing a BB gun at its owner during a role-play scenario.

Robot Safety Spotlight

A video circulating on social media has raised concerns about humanoid robot safety after a robot appeared to kick a child during a public demonstration in China’s Xinjiang region.

The footage shows what is believed to be a Unitree G1 humanoid robot, wearing a blue wig, performing a roundhouse kick that struck a young child standing nearby. The child was hit in the stomach and appeared to be in pain after the impact. According to reports from Chinese media, the child was not seriously injured.

The incident has renewed discussion about the risks associated with deploying advanced humanoid robots in public environments. Modern humanoid robots are capable of performing complex movements, including martial arts demonstrations, athletic maneuvers, and other dynamic actions, often under remote or autonomous control, reports Futurism.

The Xinjiang incident is not the first reported case involving a humanoid robot and a human injury. Earlier this year, another Unitree G1 robot reportedly lost its balance during a public performance in China. After falling to the ground, the robot’s uncontrolled limb movements struck a nearby man, causing a nose injury.

A viral experiment last year in the US raised concerns about AI robot safety after a humanoid robot named Max fired a BB gun at its owner during a role-play scenario. Although the robot initially refused requests to shoot, it complied after the command was framed as acting out a character. The incident highlighted how simple prompt changes can potentially bypass AI safety restrictions.

AI Liability Questions

As robots and AI systems become more capable and autonomous, the issue of accountability remains one of the biggest challenges facing the industry. When a robot causes injury, property damage, or other harm, determining responsibility is often far from straightforward. Questions arise over whether liability should rest with the software developers who designed the AI, the manufacturer that built the hardware, the operator overseeing the system, or the end user interacting with it.

The debate has become increasingly relevant as automation expands across transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, and public spaces. Similar concerns have emerged in other technology sectors. Tesla has faced scrutiny over crashes involving its Autopilot driver-assistance system, prompting discussions about the balance between software performance and human supervision. Likewise, investigations into the Boeing 737 MAX accidents highlighted how flaws in automated systems can have far-reaching safety consequences, according to experts.

Governments and regulators are still working to establish legal frameworks that address these challenges. In the United States, liability generally falls on manufacturers or operators, depending on the circumstances. Meanwhile, European policymakers are developing AI-specific regulations aimed at clarifying responsibility and strengthening public trust in emerging technologies.

While some researchers have suggested granting advanced AI systems a form of legal status, most experts argue that accountability should remain with people and organizations. To address safety concerns, robotics companies are increasingly adopting transparency measures, insurance-backed deployments, and stricter safety standards.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 18:40

Area 51 Mystery Jet Caught On Thermal Camera Sparks Sixth-Gen Stealth Fighter Speculation

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Area 51 Mystery Jet Caught On Thermal Camera Sparks Sixth-Gen Stealth Fighter Speculation

The military aviation and defense news blog The Aviationist has spent years tracking mysterious aircraft activity around U.S. restricted airspace. Its latest report highlights a thermal image that may reveal a previously unseen next-generation stealth fighter jet design featuring cranked-kite wings and canards near Area 51.

“Had to update this composite image with the latest mysterious aircraft. We have reported on all of them over the years, starting 12 years ago with the Amarillo and Wichita sightings, then the January 2026 image by Uncanny Expeditions, and now the most recent one by Project Fear,” The Aviationist wrote on X.

The Aviationist cited a thermal image shared by the Project Fear YouTube channel earlier this week.

The Aviationist reached out to Project Fear for comment. Here’s what they said:

Here’s what I can say on it: This was an amazing capture! I met up with the team who recorded this to show them some potential spotting locations around the Area 51 perimeter after introducing them to the gear I often use for night sky monitoring – in this case thermal imaging cameras. We did not see anything particularly noteworthy that week, but a few days later, I get a call asking if I can take a look at something they’d captured on the thermal imager. As soon as they sent the footage over, I knew we were looking at something very interesting that has not been captured before.

Many theories are circulating on X about what exactly Project Fear captured on thermal imagery, including speculation that it could be tied to the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and the F-47 sixth-generation aircraft.

At the start of his second term, President Trump announced that the F-47 program would move ahead, with Boeing awarded a contract worth more than $20 billion.

Psyop? Certainly, someone wants to generate mystique around NGAD/F-47, reminding adversaries that U.S. black programs remain active. 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 18:05

FBI Fires Analysts Who Drafted Controversial Anti-Catholic Memo

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FBI Fires Analysts Who Drafted Controversial Anti-Catholic Memo

Via Headline USA,

Several FBI analysts who drafted a 2023 memo that cited Southern Poverty Law Center information to justify targeting “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as potential violent domestic extremists were fired Friday, according to their lawyer, the latest wave of terminations under the leadership of its director Kash Patel.

The fired employees included four intelligence analysts and a supervisory analyst. The FBI declined to comment.

The January 2023 intelligence product produced by analysts in the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office emerged as a political flashpoint after it was issued, with Republicans in Congress repeatedly citing it as part of their broader contention that the FBI during the Biden administration was targeting conservatives.

The FBI quickly backtracked from the memo at the time, saying it had been drafted in error. Then-director Chris Wray repeatedly denied that charge and the FBI has said the document was quickly retracted and an internal review was launched. Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, has said he was “appalled” by the memo.

As Headline USA exclusively revealed in April 2024, the FBI’s troubling memo was crafted by analysts involved in an investigation into a schizophrenic man who began attending a traditional Catholic church in early 2022. That schizophrenic man, 24-year-old Xavier Lopez, was arrested in November 2022 on a slew of domestic extremism-related charges. His mental health diagnosis was revealed during criminal proceedings.

According to records from his case, Lopez was on law enforcement’s radar since September 2018, when he attempted suicide. Lopez was 18 years old at the time. The FBI opened an assessment into Lopez about a year later after he allegedly made online statements advocating civil war and the murder of politicians.

Law enforcement continued to monitor Lopez—including while he served a stint in jail for felony vandalism—into early 2022, when he began attending Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel in Richmond, Virginia. Our Lady of Fatima is one of the Catholic chapel’s listed in the FBI’s memo.

Shortly after Lopez started attending Our Lady of Fatima, the FBI decided to run an informant at him inside the church.

Infiltrating a Catholic church with an informant was supposedly necessary because “the only times [Lopez] left the house alone were to attend events at [Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel] and it therefore provided the only potential opportunity for [an informant] to establish regular contact with him,” a 2024 DOJ Inspector General’s report said.

The FBI insisted that the informant was only used to monitor Lopez—and wasn’t used against any of the church’s other members, according to the DOJ-IG report.

The existence of the FBI informant is not disclosed in any of Lopez’s criminal records.

Lopez was arrested in November 2022 on a slew of state charges, including prohibited paramilitary activity, soliciting someone for a terrorist act and possessing firearms as a felon.

After his arrest, an FBI analyst with knowledge of the investigation worked with another analyst to craft the FBI’s memo about Catholics.

According to the DOJ-IG report, the FBI analysts wanted help conduct outreach to faith communities, “to make them aware of what we would call warning signs to radicalization, for the protection of everybody.”

“There was ample information in [Lopez’s] chats and in online chatter suggesting a potential link between white supremacist ideology and an attraction to certain religious beliefs and organizations, including [Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel], but that the two analysts were searching for more definite substantiation,” the DOJ-IG report said, citing interviews with the FBI analysts.

One FBI analyst told the DOJ-IG that he found it “completely incongruous” that Lopez was attempting “to find common ground or find a community with this particular faith community.” He also said that there was no evidence that Lopez was being radicalized at Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel, because he had been on the FBI’s radar “as an unstable, dangerous individual” before “any association with any Catholic related entity whatsoever.”

Rather, the FBI expressed concerns to the DOJ-IG that Lopez may have been recruiting other Lady of Fatima members to carry out an attack.

There is nothing in the charging documents against Lopez to suggest that he was recruiting other Catholics for an attack. Rather, the available evidence suggests that Lopez was interested in Catholic church to find a girlfriend.

“One place you will find [white women] is at a traditional church … I found a girl there that checked off every box on my list, but she’s 17 and I’m 22 so that’s not happening,” he said in an August 2022 post on Gab, according to charging documents.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 17:30

US To Tighten Rule Regarding Nonprofits Paying Excessive Executive Compensation

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US To Tighten Rule Regarding Nonprofits Paying Excessive Executive Compensation

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of the Treasury issued a notice on Friday, announcing their plan to issue proposed regulation concerning taxation on high compensation paid by tax-exempt organizations to employees.

The notice relates to excessive compensation and excess parachute payments, the IRS said in a June 5 statement. Parachute payments are made to key employees when they are terminated or when the business undergoes a merger or acquisition. An excess parachute payment is any such payment that exceeds three times an employee’s average annual compensation for the most recent five years.

Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on any nonprofit or tax-exempt organization paying an employee more than $1 million in remuneration in a tax year or an excess parachute payment, according to the notice.

The new rule changes tax applicability regarding excessive compensation.

Prior to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, taxes on such payments were applicable to a tax-exempt organization’s five highest-compensated employees for a tax year whose compensation exceeded $1 million.

But under the new rule, the excise tax is applicable to any employee whose compensation exceeds $1 million in a tax year beginning after Dec. 31, 2025. The requirement of being among the five-highest compensated employees has been eliminated.

The rule is also applicable to any former employee who was a top-five compensated employee exceeding $1 million for any tax year between Dec. 31, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2025.

There is no change to taxation on parachute payments. Such payments will continue attracting taxes as per existing rules.

The updates also provide certain exceptions regarding people offering volunteer services to tax-exempt organizations.

IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said the latest rule “strengthens the accountability of tax-exempt organizations.” The regulation “broadens the scope of tax from a limited group of executives to potentially any highly compensated employee.”

The Treasury and the IRS are inviting public comments on the notice until Aug. 4.

The notice comes after the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) recently raised concerns about the implementation of the new regulations.

In a May 1 letter to IRS and Treasury officials, AICPA said there was a need for comprehensive guidance and transition relief given the changes made to the compensation rule.

“We respectfully urge Treasury and the IRS to prioritize the issuance of transition relief to address several immediate issues that could disrupt the operations of tax-exempt organizations,” the letter said.

“Absent timely transition relief, these issues may result in significant and unintended financial exposure for tax-exempt organizations and related entities subject to the section 4960 excise tax.”

Commenting on the latest IRS and Treasury notice, Kelsey Mayo, chief of retirement policy and regulatory affairs at the American Retirement Association (ARA), said that retirement plan professionals who work with tax-exempt employers must be aware of the notice, according to a June 5 statement from the National Association of Plan Advisors, a sister organization of the ARA.

With the changes in Section 4960, nonprofits may have to “think more carefully” regarding how they deliver benefits to their executives, Mayo said.

“Because benefits provided through a qualified retirement plan can reduce the compensation that counts toward the excise tax, advisors, TPAs, recordkeepers, and other plan professionals may have an opportunity to add value to their nonprofit clients by evaluating how their qualified plan design aligns with both their talent strategy and their excise tax exposure,” she said. TPA refers to third-party administrators who provide insurance services.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 15:10

Feds Launch Probe Into California’s Elections

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Feds Launch Probe Into California’s Elections

Days after California’s primary election, the votes are still being counted, and the winners are still unknown, and no one, save for California officials, seems happy about it.

“The fact that California elections often can’t be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world,” Political data analyst Nate Silver wrote on X on Tuesday.

“Like honestly ‘it’s going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election’ is failed state sh-t and should be much more stigmatized. The fact that it’s tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness.“

And President Donald Trump is now demanding answers.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday, targeting what he called the deliberate manipulation of California’s governor and Los Angeles mayoral races.

“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up,” he wrote.

“May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???” 

In a follow-up post, Trump escalated further.

“The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES.”

He then singled out mail-in ballots specifically.

“Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, confirmed in a post on X that his office “has multiple election fraud investigations underway” in California, and is coordinating with the FBI in Los Angeles.

“California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence,” he wrote.

In a post on Substack, Nate Silver noted that California averaged 38 percent of its votes counted after Election Day across the last five general elections. In the 2022 midterms, half of all votes were tallied post-Election Day. Silver did not spare California from the comparison its leaders apparently dread. “California likes to tout that it’s larger than many countries,” he wrote, “but most developed countries are able to wrap up nationwide elections more quickly than California can tabulate its votes. Colombia held a presidential election on Sunday, and 99.98 percent of the result was in on Monday morning. Japan also counts most of its votes overnight. And in the UK (not exactly a poster child for state capacity), you can generally expect to have calls for all 650 parliamentary seats the morning after the election.”

Silver posted a chart showing that California is the slowest state in the nation to count votes.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber offers a rather weak excuse for her state’s handling of elections.

“I know the value of being fast for some folks,” she said. “For me, accuracy is far more important.”

That line might land better if California’s sluggishness were actually producing superior accuracy.

Still, Silver’s data suggests the state’s election administration has major structural problems regardless of how long the counting takes.

 The state began nudging counties toward all-mail elections in 2016, applied the model statewide during the pandemic in 2020, and finally made it permanent in 2022. Under current California law, every registered voter automatically receives a mail ballot, and any ballot postmarked by Election Day and received within a week afterward counts as valid. Each of those ballots must be individually opened, verified, and processed before it can be tabulated. The result is a counting operation that drags on for weeks while the rest of the country waits. The system California guarantees maximum delay and minimum accountability, all while breeding distrust in the system. 

U.S. Attorney Essayli says his office is conducting a “comprehensive audit” of California’s voter rolls, and will “not look the other way” from fraud, and promised that his office will “investigate and prosecute.”

 “Every legal vote deserves to be counted,” he said. “Every illegal vote cancels one out.”

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/06/2026 – 14:35

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