Fears of a possible collapse at a condo tower under construction near Grand Central Terminal had abated by the end of the week, but the incident only signals the massive engineering challenges tied to Manhattan’s office-to-apartment conversion boom.

The former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street, being converted by David Werner and Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management into more than 1,600 residential units, has become a high-profile example of the risks of repurposing aging office towers into housing at scale to achieve socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s strategy to address the metro area’s housing shortage.

Engineer: “The concrete beams in our residential conversion of the Pfizer Building are buckling. The building could collapse! Did you correctly account for the weight of the additional floors we added?”

ChatGPT: “You’re absolutely right! I see the issue now—in using the Euler… pic.twitter.com/Wh3pABw84f

— tedfrank (@tedfrank) July 8, 2026

Metro Loft CEO Nathan Berman told Bloomberg in an interview that 15 stories were added to part of the building, and that two columns beneath were insufficiently reinforced, leading to a failure that caused some of the 15 cantilevered floors above to sag.

Via Bloomberg

Berman said Metro Loft now plans to replace the facade, slabs, and steel on those floors: “We are prepared to rebuild that portion of the building.”

“It will be reskinned, everything will be leveled, fixed in place, and it will be brand new,” he said.

Tuesday morning’s column failure prompted evaluations of the building and surrounding structures, as well as street closures for fear the building would collapse. Since then, crews have been working to install temporary supports.

New York City’s Department of Buildings has released a new image showing the emergency works to stablise the 37-storey tower at 235 East 42nd Street after structural beams were seen buckling on its 21st floor.

In a statement, the Department said: “Crews working through the night… pic.twitter.com/R1U5su2h2r

— The B1M (@TheB1M) July 8, 2026

James LaFave, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told the outlet, “Engineers rationally overestimate what they think the loads would be, underestimate how strong they think elements would be to simplify it, and therefore you would end up with a substantial margin of safety.”

LaFave noted, “For something to have caused the level of buckling seen in that column there, it’s not some small perturbation from expectation that would make that happen. It’s something substantial.”

Authored by José Niño via Headline USA,

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn, has thrown a fresh spotlight on one of Washington’s most stubborn cold cases. 

On July 7, 2026, the Tennessee Republican posted on X that he had formally pressed FBI Director Kash Patel to surrender every document the bureau holds on the 2016 killing of DNC staffer Seth Rich.

“I have called for @FBIDirectorKash to release all records related to the death of Seth Rich,” Burchett wrote.

His press office added, “Today, I sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel asking for the release of all records related to the death of Seth Rich. The American people deserve answers.”

I have called for @FBIDirectorKash to release all records related to the death of Seth Rich. pic.twitter.com/8Lt7Vm10Mk

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) July 7, 2026

The letter itself, dated on Tuesday, opens plainly.

“I write to request the release of all Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records related to the death of Seth Rich,” Burchett states.

He then leans on the White House, urging, “Given the Administration’s commitment to transparency, I strongly urge the full release of these records, as permitted by law.”

Rich, 27, was shot and killed while walking home in Washington during the early morning hours of July 10, 2016.

Police treated the case as a botched robbery, and it stays unsolved.

Rich’s death later fueled a viral theory that he leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks and was silenced for it. 

Burchett’s demand follows years of FOIA warfare waged by attorney Ty Clevenger on behalf of plaintiff Brian Huddleston. The FBI first claimed it held no relevant files, then conceded it possessed more than 20,000 pages of potentially relevant material, Rich’s work laptop, and an image of his personal one.

According to Radar, this week Clevenger said a government lawyer told him he would soon receive confirmation that several hundred more Rich pages had surfaced inside a previously concealed room at FBI headquarters—the same unmapped SCIF where “burn bags” of Russia-probe files marked for destruction were reportedly found. 

That connection remains Clevenger’s account.  The FBI has not confirmed it, and the separate burn-bags report never established that Rich records were among those files.

After an ugly Spring selling season, existing home sales have rebounded in Q2 (so far) with expectations for another 1.0% MoM increase in June.

However, that was not to be with US existing home sales tumbling 2.4% MoM in June (although May was revised up to a +3.7% MoM gain from +3.2%). That slowed the annual improvement in sales to +2.75% YoY…

Overall, existing home sales SAAR remains just off record lows…

“The back-and-forth in monthly home sales activity, driven by mild fluctuations in mortgage rates, shows how sensitive home buyers are to affordability conditions,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. But recent job gains will continue to provide support to the housing market, he added.

NAR’s Housing Affordability Index, which measures whether typical families can qualify for a mortgage for a median-priced home, has improved somewhat from a year ago but is at its lowest since August 2025.

Inventories of new homes for sale remain high (and are thus pressuring homebuilders to choke back on additional supply)…

But, the inventory of existing homes for sale climbed 1.3% from a year earlier to 1.56 million. From a month earlier, however, it fell slightly for the first time this year.

Yun called the annual gain “minuscule.”

“We need to see 30%, 40%,” he said. “We’re not seeing that.”

Last month, the median sales price of a previously owned home rose 1.8% from a year ago to a record high of $440,600, NAR data show.

While prices continue to climb, the advance is far smaller than the gains seen a couple years ago.

Weakness in the US South, the nation’s biggest home-selling region, helped drag down the national results, with sales there declining 3.6% to an annualized 1.89 million. Sales also slipped in the Midwest and West, though they gained in the Northeast.

First-time buyers accounted for 33% of sales in June, compared with 35% in May.

By Michael Every of Rabobank

“It ain’t over till it’s over, but…”

The US hit Iran for a second night along Hormuz, in southern cities, near a nuclear site, and a railway bridge in the northwest. The message from VP Vance was to stop striking ships in Hormuz or get hit back harder. From Trump, it was that Iran are “liars” and “scum” and the MOU is “over,” repeating threats to reimpose the US blockade of Iranian oil –showing why few (save China) were keen to buy it with a temporary sanctions waiver that lapsed before shipments arrived — and to hit electricity and desalination plants and/or take Kharg Island, it’s key oil facility.

Even Axios, purveyor of ‘world peace(fire)’ headlines, is reporting the US is preparing for an extended confrontation –from 1-2 days to a month– and that the ‘Battle of Hormuz’ may be about to begin.

Trump did add negotiators could keep talking if they wanted to; and on Air Force One (the old one: that just gifted by Qatar was left in the UK, speaking to a security problem) he stated Iranian officials “called a little while ago. They want to make a deal so badly.”

So, the immediate choice to go up or down the escalation ladder lies with Iran. If Tehran deescalates, they cede control of Hormuz. If they escalate, their options are to hit Hormuz more – triggering more US counter strikes; or GCC energy – triggering a larger war; to use (battered) proxies like Hezbollah – triggering wider war; or perhaps to rush for a nuclear weapon – which would mean far worse war. The New York Times reports Iran’s president and foreign minister were physically attacked this week by supporters of a hard-line faction that vehemently opposes any deal with the US: it remains to be seen if the streets, IRGC, clerics, or politicians will decide what happens next – but both the politicians and the IRGC benefit from talks going on and oil flowing.

The US would also have to decide if it can afford to cede Hormuz or will fight to keep it open when the SPR is seen near a tank bottom– was this discussed at the NATO summit, perhaps?

A tell for stepped up military statecraft would be a matching step-up in economic statecraft. Note the White House’s launch of ‘Freedom Fuel’ gas stations offering lower prices (via lower profit margins; or, at $3.67 a gallon, possible federal subsidies). If that scheme expands past an initial 25 sites it suggests more disruption in Hormuz ahead. However, that’s just a stepping stone to the NAPHTHA closed-loop energy system we’ve flagged the US might need to consider.

There are also longer term moves to avoid Hormuz. The UAE’s pipeline to Fujairah is underway; the Saudis may expand their East-West Red Sea pipeline by 2m barrels per day, allowing themselves and other GCC states to benefit; and Riyadh is exploring an IMEC route through Syria and Turkey – as Trump informed Congress of his intent to remove Syria from the state sponsor of terror list and was nice to Erdogan at the Ankara NATO summit; and following a state visit to Damascus by Macron and Erdogan literally giving the EU’s Von der Leyen and Costa guns.

For now, we stick with our base case that Hormuz tension blows over rather than blowing up. However, the odds of the latter happening sooner, rather than post-midterms as expected, have increased.

In energy markets, oil is up, but not hugely, with Brent at $79: but crack spreads are near record highs. Yes, lots of oil just flooded out of Hormuz, but global refineries already couldn’t process the backlog easily – add a new war there and things look far worse.

Crack spreads have also been driven by Russia banning exports of diesel until end-July in response to the devastating strikes against its oil refineries by Ukrainian drones: these are causing fuel shortages and have turned Russia from a net exporter to a net importer of refined products.

At the NATO summit — besides Trump threatening Spain with a trade boycott for being peaceniks — there was US backing for Ukraine‘s strikes deep into Russia and against energy facilities; Ukraine was also given permission to manufacture Patriot missiles itself to boost its air defences. Expect a lot more damage to Russian energy ahead, unless Russia comes to the table.

In related geoeconomic developments, the FT reports Trump-backed US rare earth mines are selling to Japan and South Korea – then again, South Korea and Japan might build US weapons and navy vessels in the near future.

In Europe, a leaked report has revealed France is seeking to widen Brussels’ Made-in-Europe policy: Paris wants such measures extended to shipbuilding and trains. Buy local schemes are even more effective economic statecraft than tariffs. The FT also carries an op-ed from former Italian PM Letta arguing ‘Europe must have the financial power to match its economic heft,’ and the continent’s savings should be used to invest in its own future, not someone else’s. Are we also going to see capital controls for the beating heart of the ‘liberal world order’?

Yet Rutte’s ‘Made in NATO’ weapons push collides with EU’s ‘Buy European’ drive, as Politico puts it, where “The NATO chief wants to build the transatlantic military industrial complex, but the EU is backing its own companies.” Who will win that battle given Europe still needs LNG, which the US has and where Turkey may soon play a key role too, and given the US holds the cards on tech and, relatively, on rare earths?

Spain, while making the peace sign, is also pushing the European Commission to borrow an additional €850bn per year on behalf of EU countries to get lower yields – which may not get a ‘Made in Europe’ response from northern member states. That’s as the UK government is warned by the OBR that another £120 of tax hikes are needed as debt is on an unsustainable trajectory.

Political news matches this geopolitical and geoeconomic drama: the Democratic Party Maine Senate candidate Platner has dropped out over allegations of sexual assault (not his Nazi tattoo); the Democratic Governor of Kentucky has, in so many words, requested that Republican Senator McConnell show that he’s still with us, when rumour is that he isn’t; and in the UK, Reform UK’s Farage is likely to contest a 6 August by-election solely against a man who wears a dustbin on his head, with the key policy pledge of building “at least one affordable home.”

Lastly, and deliberately last, the Fed minutes headline was that ‘a few’ members saw the case for a June hike. And?

• First, it may not be long until we don’t get much information about what the Fed is thinking under the Warsh Doctrine.
• Second, backwards-looking reports can’t keep up with the speed and scale of geopolitical developments.
• Third, the economic models of those who write those reports can’t predict geopolitical outcomes.

As this Global Daily’s title says, “It ain’t over till it’s over, but…” – and that covers the usefulness of central-bank ‘he said, she said’ just as much as it does the US-Iran ‘he said, he said’ MoU.  

Bloom Energy is responding forcefully against allegations made by short seller Hunterbrook Capital, rejecting the firm’s claims about its accounting, supply chain and growth prospects a day after a report sent shares sharply lower.

The clean energy company said Thursday that Hunterbrook’s assertions regarding its financial reporting and access to critical raw materials are “false and misleading,” according to a statement reported by Bloomberg.

The response comes after Hunterbrook published an investigation on July 8 that questioned Bloom’s independence from Chinese suppliers and argued that the company’s long-term manufacturing ambitions may be constrained by global scandium availability. Hunterbrook disclosed that it stands to benefit if Bloom’s shares decline through a short position.

Bloom specifically defended its financial reporting, saying allegations concerning its accounting are contradicted by its audited financial statements. The company also disputed Hunterbrook’s central thesis surrounding scandium oxide, the specialty material used in Bloom’s solid oxide fuel cells.

Bloom said it has sufficient scandium oxide supply to meet both current production needs and its existing customer backlog. It added that its scandium supply is not dependent on China, either for current operations or future demand growth. Looking further ahead, Bloom said it has visibility across its supply chain sufficient to support production capacity of 25 gigawatts of fuel cells annually, adding that it expects to continue expanding that capacity over time.

Hunterbrook’s report, published Wednesday under the title Bloom’s Big Lie, argued that Bloom’s public messaging about its supply chain conflicts with trade data and supplier relationships. According to the investigation, multiple international trade routes appear to connect Bloom’s supply chain to Chinese sources of scandium despite repeated statements from CEO K.R. Sridhar that the company has “no China supply chain.”

Hunterbrook said its research relied on global shipping records, corporate filings and satellite imagery. The report also cited a representative from Chinese producer Hunan Oriental Scandium who allegedly identified Bloom as one of its largest customers.

The report further argued that Bloom’s long-term manufacturing targets face a fundamental resource constraint. Hunterbrook estimated that producing five gigawatts of fuel cells annually would require roughly 220 tons of scandium oxide each year, nearly the entire projected global supply of approximately 240 tons, raising questions about whether the company’s expansion plans are feasible.

Hunterbrook also challenged Bloom’s reported order backlog. The firm argued that while Bloom has discussed an approximately $20 billion backlog, audited contractual performance obligations are substantially smaller, at roughly $492 million, suggesting investors may be overstating the visibility of future revenue.

The report helped send Bloom shares down roughly 6% on Wednesday. Bloom’s Thursday response marks its formal rebuttal to the allegations, with the company maintaining that its audited financial statements, supply chain and access to scandium fully support its current operations and future growth plans.

Recall, back in 2019 now-defunct short seller Hindenburg Research also took on Bloom, highlighting “trick accounting”, claiming “Bloom’s technology is not sustainable, clean, green, or remotely profitable” and raising a question to the company about how important the price and supply of scandium was to the company’s supply chain. 

Days after Germany’s top financial newspaper, Handelsblatt, reported that Porsche AG is planning more than 4,000 job cuts, the sports-car maker on Thursday revealed first-half sales figures that were the weakest in six years, with its China business falling off a cliff.

For the January to June period, Porsche reported 122,306 vehicle deliveries across global markets, a 16% decline from the same period a year earlier.

The first-half slump marked Porsche’s weakest sales performance since 2020, with its top market, North America, seeing a 13% decline in vehicle sales, while China suffered an outright 32% decline.

Softening luxury demand in the West and China’s deepening slowdown are increasingly concerning for the high-end automaker.

“With around 122,000 customer deliveries in the first half of 2026, we are below the same period last year but in line with our expectations,” Matthias Becker, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG, wrote in a statement.

Porsche blamed the slowdown in North America on several issues:

Among the sales regions, North America remains at the top with 37,712 deliveries. The decline of around 13 per cent can be attributed, among other factors, to the expiration of tax incentives for electric and hybrid vehicles as well as the end of production of the combustion-engined 718.

Dismal delivery figures follow a report by Handelsblatt that said Porsche was considering eliminating as many as 4,000.

Porsche’s profit eroded further in the first quarter as the automaker faced mounting pressure from tariffs, geopolitical turmoil, and gaps in its model lineup. The emergence of Chinese EV giants like BYD and Chery in Europe has been a troubling development not just for Porsche but other legacy EU automakers.

Porsche is part of the Volkswagen Group, where the VW CEO recently warned that more than 100,000 jobs could be eliminated as part of a massive overhaul.

Just as the US nighttime strikes were significantly bigger than prior rounds in June, so has Iran’s ‘retaliation’ been bigger – chiefly on Gulf states and American bases there.

In the overnight and Thursday daytime hours, Iranian ballistic missiles and drones have targeted Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and even faraway Jordan. The country is reporting that it has intercepted several missiles, which targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base – jointly operated by US and Jordanian forces. Oil prices have persisted above prewar levels on Thursday.

“Jordan has intercepted eight Iranian missiles in its airspace after sirens sounded across the country, according to the armed forces,” reports Al Jazeera. “Falling shrapnel did not cause any casualties or material damage, it added.”

Following the US bombing of the Islamic Republic for a second consecutive night, which came after Iranian forces sought to enforce its own shipping route and protocol on the Strait of Hormuz (which saw several international vessels attacked), Tehran has newly confirmed it in turn struck “US bases and strategic centers” in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.

In particular the IRGC has claimed that two US bases in Kuwait and two base in Bahrain were attacked – and the Iranian elite force is threatening more to come. US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the rate of its strikes have grown to about 14 times the number of targets hit in the last late June flare-up in fighting.

Sirens blared in several cities in Jordan as Iranian missiles were intercepted.

Jordanian Armed Forces confirmed at least eight missiles were intercepted. pic.twitter.com/2aRvPCsY2Q

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) July 9, 2026

According to the figures cites in the NY Times:

U.S. forces have struck more than 170 Iranian military targets in the past two days, including air defense systems, drone and missile storage sites, military speed boats, and logistics infrastructure along the coast near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the U.S. Central Command. 

CENTCOM released footage of some of the fresh strikes:

According to a release from U.S. Central Command, in the most recent wave of U.S. strikes against Iran in response to the Iranian targeting of commercial shipping, 90 military targets, including military logistics infrastructure, missile and drone storage sites, air defense… pic.twitter.com/c1sRyvbN5H

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 9, 2026

In some instances civilian infrastructure like rail lines and bridges have reportedly been hit, which marks a return to the opening months of Operation Epic Fury, when targets all across the country were damaged or obliterated.

Little that’s confirmable in the way of damage has come out of the Gulf states at this point: 

Kuwait said that it had intercepted three ballistic missiles, a cruise missile and 10 drones early Thursday morning and that falling debris had injured one person and caused material damage. Bahrain’s military said it had intercepted and destroyed several drones and missiles after Iran launched attacks on Thursday.

Iran also said that it had launched an attack in Qatar, a key mediator in Iran’s talks with the United States. The Qatari authorities did not confirm any strikes but did issue a public security alert early this morning that it later lifted.

Iranian state sources have said the two days of renewed American attacks have killed 14 people and wounded 78. The casualty count could be much higher given that strikes and counterstrikes could be extended as an offramp becomes more elusive. Explosions have been observed along the Iranian coast, including Bushehr, Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Sirik.

VIDEO | Footage shows the Chabahar maritime traffic control tower following last night’s US attack.

The tower was attacked in an attempt to disrupt Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/wM5KLRhgqN

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 9, 2026

As for potential offramp, President Trump is still claiming that Tehran wants to make a deal “badly” – and even specified to reporters aboard Air Force One that Iran “called a while ago” make just such a request. Most pundits and reporters, after hearing the same line literally dozens of times over the past months, are skeptical to say the least. 

While this remains Trump’s public-facing rhetoric, a fresh Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal offers a contrasting account. “Angered by the strikes, Trump pressed them on whether they believed Iran was serious about reaching a final deal,” WSJ writes. “In the end, after discussing it with his senior aides, the president decided they weren’t.”

Reports by Iranian state-run media of a cruise missile impact on the site of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Southern Iran. pic.twitter.com/T9hKKx80NJ

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 9, 2026

Trump had later (on Wednesday) said from Ankara at the NATO summit, “To me, I think it’s over.” He then emphasized: “I don’t want to deal with them…They’re liars, they’re cheats, they’re sick people.”

As for Tehran’s position, “An Iranian diplomat said Wednesday that the US had violated the peace deal by setting up a shipping lane that wasn’t coordinated with Tehran, contending that it justified the Islamic Republic’s decision to fire at traffic,” according to the same report.

⭕️ Axios, which has frequently published official U.S. and Israeli leaks throughout the war, reports that the White House is preparing for what could become a multi-day or even multi-week military campaign against Iran centered on the Strait of Hormuz after President Trump… https://t.co/s0A4M71boV

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 9, 2026

From there, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned alongside Trump that the United States would hit Iran “even more, and even deeper” – after that the Pentagon announced it would “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

A US official was also quoted in the WSJ as saying Iran had chosen “the path of violence” and so will face the consequences.

The US has once again bombed fishing boats under the pretext of hitting IRGC fast attack boats. pic.twitter.com/WYYEkOnaw1

— Arya Yadeghaar (Backup) (@AryJeayBackup) July 9, 2026

*  *  *

More overnight developments

via Newsquawk…

Overnight strikes:

• At the direction of the Commander in Chief, US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.
• US military base in Kuwait was hit in an Iranian retaliatory attack, while explosions heard at the US Fifth fleet HQ in Bahrain.
• Iranian missiles targeted the Azraq base in eastern Jordan, Fars reported.
• Iranian opposition sources report that maritime industries, shipyards, and the Revolutionary Guards’ naval base in Bandar Abbas were attacked, report Kan News.

US Commentary:

• US President Trump said Iran called a while ago, they want to make a deal.
• US President Trump’s frustration with Iran was due in part to his anger over the Strait not being fully open yet and that Iran hit ships transiting the Strait, CNN reported citing a US official. The official added that Trump is losing patience with the pace of negotiations, specifically Iran’s appearing to slow walk Washington on the nuclear talks.
• US President Trump posted “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!”.
• US President Trump said Iran was just hit very hard, we have many ways to win; do not know if Iran will honour a deal but Iran wants to make a deal badly. Europe wants to help on Iran.
• A US official said the ceasefire with Iran has been halted, at least temporarily, CNN reported.
• “Everything depends on Iran’s response – if they continue to shoot, the night’s events could become a daily, weekly event. We are prepared,” i24News reported citing a US source.
• The length and severity of the new campaign depends entirely on Tehran’s next moves, Axios reported citing a US official; The White House is preparing for a multi-day or multi-week exchange of fire with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
• Israel has no connection to the US strikes on Iran, Al Arabiya reported citing an Israeli military source. Any attempt to target Israel will be met with a swift, decisive and strong response.

Iran Commentary:

Iran’s Bushehr Governor said that US attacks on a nuclear plant in the region are not true.
Iran’s advisor to the Supreme Leader Rezaei said “martyr Khamenei taught us not to fear American and showed that falsehood will perish. Await the hard slap from the Iranians”.
Iran’s IRGC said they will respond to the targeting of a bridge in Aqqala, Al Arabiya reported.
Iran’s IRGC said two US bases in Kuwait and two base in Bahrain were attacked, response will be extended to other US bases in the region if the US repeats its attacks.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf said America has not yet learned that bullying and breach of promise are no longer free, adds the Strait of Hormuz will only open with Iranian arrangements, not American threats.
The US attack on Bushehr did not cause any damage to the nuclear power plant, Nour news reported citing a source.

Lebanon:

• “The US ambassador in Beirut: Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have moved to Rome for technical reasons”, via Al Arabiya. Preparations are underway regarding the start of work in the pilot areas.
• Israeli Defence Minister Katz said they will remain within the Lebanon security zone and will operate within it until Hezbollah is disarmed.
• Others

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of President Joe Biden’s most vocal defenders when the former president faced questions about his mental acuity, is now claiming President Donald Trump has dementia.

Pritzker made the remarks during a June 29 interview with CNN host Caitlin Collins while discussing Trump’s criticism of democratic socialism.

Trump had argued that socialism represents a similar threat to the country than historical crises.

“The man is continually suffering from dementia. I don’t think he really understands what he’s saying,” Pritzker stated, providing no evidence for his claim.

Gov. JB Pritzker says he thinks President Trump has dementia. “I really think that there’s something genuinely wrong with him,” he says, while adding, “I’m not a doctor.” pic.twitter.com/Y2vrFvScz8

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 1, 2026

Pritzker’s comments mark a stark contrast from how he defended Biden during the 2024 presidential campaign, when questions about the former president’s mental fitness intensified.

Pritzker served as one of Biden’s fiercest campaign surrogates and even sat on his national advisory board.

For instance, when Special Counsel Robert Hur raised concerns about Biden’s memory, Pritzker quickly went on the defensive, going as far as accusing Hur of being politically motivated.

“I’ve been with the President of the United States many times. He is on the ball. The man knows more than most of us have forgotten,” Pritzker claimed in February 2024.

“Joe Biden is on the ball. The man knows more than most of us have forgotten.”

– JB Pritzker in 2024. https://t.co/wBEn8sWFOP pic.twitter.com/pUCJRd0T2t

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 8, 2026

In 2023, ahead of the presidential election, Pritzker downplayed questions about Biden’s fitness for office, praising him as “a gem of a human” while describing Trump as “cruel, cowardly and small.”

Pritzker doubled down on his backing of Biden even after the former president’s disastrous performance in the 2024 presidential debate.

What do Illinois Democrats think of Joe Biden looking for a dead Congresswoman in a crowd yesterday?

JB Pritzker: “President Biden is doing the job that we asked him to do. He rescued us with the American Rescue Plan… I’m happy to support President Biden when he runs in 2024.” pic.twitter.com/0YP5cHfPg6

— Mark Maxwell (@MarkMaxwellTV) September 30, 2022

“Listen: Joe Biden is our nominee. I am for Joe Biden,” the Illinois governor claimed. “I’ve been campaigning for Joe Biden. I think you’ve seen I’ve got dates scheduled to go to Indiana, to Ohio for Joe Biden.”

Illinois Gov JB Pritzker told CNN’s Kasie Hunt this week that Joe Biden either needed to stay in the 2024 race or he should’ve dropped out a lot sooner to allow for a primary. I asked him why he didn’t say that when it mattered. pic.twitter.com/p2jqwDITtP

— Mark Maxwell (@MarkMaxwellTV) May 15, 2025

Pritzker’s attacks are in line with a broader Democratic strategy of weaponizing Trump’s age after years of dismissing concerns about Biden, despite mounting video evidence.

Self-driving cars may be involved in more crashes than human drivers on a per-mile basis, but the evidence suggests those accidents are generally far less likely to result in serious injuries or fatalities, according to Aulsbrook Car & Truck Lawyers.

A review of autonomous vehicle safety data found self-driving vehicles are involved in about 9.1 crashes per million miles traveled, compared with roughly 4.1 for human-driven vehicles. However, the report found autonomous vehicle crashes are typically much less severe, with significantly fewer injuries and no recorded fatalities in several major datasets.

The contrast is especially clear in Austin, Texas, where about 12,000 traffic crashes occurred in 2025. Just 85 involved autonomous vehicles, resulting in eight injuries and no deaths. By comparison, crashes involving human drivers caused roughly 8,000 injuries and 99 fatalities.

Several studies cited in the report reached similar conclusions. One analysis covering more than 7 million autonomous miles found self-driving systems reduced injury-related crashes by 85% compared with human drivers. Waymo separately reported major reductions in injury crashes, airbag deployments, and collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists when compared with human-operated vehicles traveling the same roads.

The study says that autonomous vehicles are rarely blamed for the crashes they are involved in. According to NHTSA data, automated driving systems were considered at fault in only about 4% of reported incidents, with fewer than 8% of those cases attributed to software or hardware failures. Most crashes instead involved human-driven vehicles striking robotaxis.

Still, the technology is far from perfect. Tesla’s driver-assistance systems have been linked to thousands of reported crashes and dozens of fatalities, while Waymo has faced regulatory scrutiny over incidents involving school buses, flooding, and other edge-case scenarios. The report also notes concerns about cybersecurity, battery fires, and the gap in safety performance between fully autonomous vehicles and partially automated driver-assistance systems.

Texas has become one of the nation’s largest testing grounds for autonomous vehicles, ranking among the states with the highest number of reported AV crashes because of its rapid robotaxi expansion and permissive regulatory environment. As autonomous fleets continue to grow, regulators will face increasing pressure to refine liability rules, improve emergency response procedures, and ensure the technology can safely coexist with human drivers.

Via Middle East Eye

US President Donald Trump lavished rare praise on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday, calling him “fantastic” and “highly respected”, as the two leaders met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. 

The meeting itself is a win for Sharaa, who was first introduced to Trump a little over a year ago in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before finding himself in the Oval Office exchanging gifts with the US president by November. No Syrian leader – and certainly not one with Sharaa’s past as a US-designated terrorist – had been in the White House in decades. 

Wednesday’s opportunity arose because the Turks have been at the helm of Sharaa’s rise to power since December 2024, as they are keen on a neighboring Syria that falls within their sphere of influence. 

Trump’s swift embrace of Sharaa has been one of the standout foreign policy moves of the past year. “He’s done a really fantastic job as president. He’s unified the country in a very short period of time. I’d say like a year and a half, about a year and a half, and right from the beginning it was a real mess, very disjointed place, and he’s brought it together,” Trump told reporters as he sat next to Sharaa.

“He’s a strong person. He’s a great leader. He’s respected by everybody, including me, and we’re proud to have him,” he added.

The sentiments are in stark contrast to how Trump has spoken about Washington’s traditional allies, most of whom form the very defensive alliance that this summit is about. He has repeatedly berated the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, and Spain as being weak on defence and immigration, attacked Denmark for asserting its sovereignty over Greenland, and is currently in an open feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. 

Since March, Trump has ramped up his rhetoric against those countries not joining his war on Iran.

Removing terror designation

Fourteen months ago, Sharaa, who previously had a $10m bounty on his head in the US, saw Trump announce the historic lifting of economic sanctions on Syria. The move was largely orchestrated by the Saudis, with much of the funding to rebuild Syria in a new image coming from Gulf nations. 

What remains now is to get Syria off the US State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) list and allow for investment in the country, which is the key agenda item for Sharaa.

“Any problems with that?” Trump said, as he turned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “I think we should. Yeah,” the president added. “We’re proud of the job he’s doing. Syria has become very stable.”

Trump Again Says Syria Could Help Israel Fight Hezbollah In Lebanon

This time he repeats the line in front of the new Syrian regime’s leader Ahmed al-Shara’a, who Trump brags about putting in power. pic.twitter.com/eckoW1KorA

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) July 8, 2026

Trump was asked by a reporter about his highly contentious suggestion last month of having Syria take on the role of disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon. “They could help. We’ll find out. I think we’re making a lot of progress,” he said.

Sharaa had previously indicated this was not a feasible option, but his foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, visited Lebanon last week and met with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah’s closest political ally.

A senior Lebanese official who met Shaibani during the visit told Middle East Eye that the trip was coordinated with the Lebanese side to send a clear message about Syria’s intentions.

Not if you were paying attention. pic.twitter.com/3z3q62Rr7s

— mark F (@mark_F3141) July 8, 2026

“The visit was very much needed to reassure Lebanon and ease concerns about the possibility of a military intervention pushed by the United States,” the official said.