By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Fast And Furious 47

The Fast and Furious franchise is on its 10th or 11th movie. The U.S. government is on its 47th President.

In an interesting “mash-up,” we have entered into the arena of Fast and Furious 47.

I don’t think we have ever seen the generation of so many headlines, on so many subjects, so quickly from any world leader, as we’ve seen since the start of this year!

Aside from the “obvious” headlines on Venezuela, which after Friday’s press conference looks more and more like colonization, we have a raft of geopolitical headlines.

• Seizing Russian-flagged crude carriers.
• Threats on Cuba, Iran, and Syria (U.S. strikes against ISIS targets once again on Saturday) to name a few. With the events that occurred in Venezuela, these need to be taken very seriously.
• Some sort of peace negotiations continue with Russia and Ukraine.
• Some sort of plans for rebuilding Gaza (hearing about a ski resort?).

If you missed this week’s Academy Webinar, I highly recommend watching it as Rachel Washburn does an amazing job moderating the conversation with General Ashley (Army), General Bellon (Marine Corps) who was in charge of U.S. Marine Corps Forces South (in South and Central America), Linda Weissgold (Former CIA Deputy Director for Analysis), and myself.

Then on the economic front, we had:

• Venezuela and its oil – there are a lot of potential economic outcomes from the intervention in Venezuela. It remains to be seen how this plays out, and even after the press conference with oil heavyweights on Friday, there seems to be some disagreement on how attractive the prospects of investing in Venezuelan oil are.
• The U.S. invested $2.7 billion in companies involved in uranium enrichment. The ProSec drumbeat continues to create investment opportunities.
• Defense stocks were hit when the President suggested restricting compensation and dividend payouts for companies that are behind their targets for delivery. Then they rose when the President suggested the military budget should be increased from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion (somehow bonds barely reacted).
• Housing had its own mixed bag of headlines. $200 billion to buy mortgages caused mortgage spreads to tighten. The President also tossed out the idea of restricting home purchases to individuals rather than entities designed to buy up housing.
• Closing out the week was the “announcement” that credit card interest rates should be capped at 10%. On one hand, I’ve never figured out how cutting rates by a few bps here and there moves the needle for people at the lowest income rungs, especially the ones struggling with debt. On the other hand (I can play “economist” periodically), the rates are designed so that the card issuers can provide credit to as many people as possible while compensating for their potential credit losses (capping rates will likely constrain credit issuance to the riskiest borrowers).

I’m sure I missed a bunch of other important and potentially market-moving events.

Midterm Elections are Driving Everything

The President is well aware of the importance of winning the midterm elections. He realized that a President without the House of Representatives and Senate on his side, is not in an enviable position.

Look for him to implement policy after policy after policy attempting to secure victory in the midterm elections for Republicans.

• Success in foreign policy will be a key element. From bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, to capturing Maduro, look for a lot more to occur on this front.
• Affordability is another key issue. The steps on credit cards, housing, and mortgage rates seem to try to address that. Look for more.
• Drugs and immigration will remain front and center. It seems impossible to envision a path that does not include turning our attention, and likely full might, on the Mexican cartels.
• Transactional. Being transactional is not necessarily bad, and in many cases can be good, and certainly more effective than the policy of admonishing and haranguing, which did seem to be how we treated many developing or emerging nations.

If you had “colonization” on your bingo card for the year, you can stop reading now. You were way more prepared than I was. Maybe it is a stretch to call the intentions with Venezuela a form of “colonization,” but at the moment, it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.

Even dialing it back, who really had a successful overnight raid to infiltrate Venezuela, to arrest Maduro, and then bring him (and his wife) to the U.S. to face charges as part of their January 2026 outlook? It is interesting to note that given the clear superiority of our military, in terms of equipment, training, and execution, the admin is keen to use it to our advantage, as demonstrated by the recent and effective actions in Iran and Venezuela.

The point we are trying to make is twofold:

1. Expect a LOT more announcements on many more subjects than you thought were possible even in your wildest imagination.
2. Let your imagination “run wild” with what could come up as potential policy, because for this admin, “out of the box” is the norm and not trying to get ahead of it could cost you.

Anticipating moves and preparing for them will help you make better investment and corporate decisions.

Out of the Box on Interest Rates

On Friday, in Jobs, Housing, and Tariffs, we tried to hammer home the need to take the government’s goals on short-term rates, the 10-year Treasury yield, and mortgage yields seriously.

Back in August, we “thought out loud” about some potential steps to Lowering Yields Across the Curve. At this stage, my only regret is that we didn’t think outside the box enough!

My view on rates is:

• We are not pricing in enough cuts quickly enough. 2 cuts by June rather than 1 is at least my “base” case if not my “worst” case. With Fed Funds effective sitting right around 3.65%, I don’t see how we get to the end of the summer (and the heart of the election campaign) with rates higher than 2.875%. This is not an “economist” view based on “economic” data. It is a view that the admin wants it there and fighting that desire seems to be a recipe for disaster.
  • Also, there is so much wiggle room around things like the Neutral rate. For all those arguing that 3 cuts wouldn’t make sense, let’s not pretend that setting rates is a science. It is as much guesswork as science.
• 10s will get below 4%. Sooner than later.
• Mortgage yields will grind lower as spreads tighten (and the 10-year Treasury yield moves lower). 3.75% as a target in Q1 seems high, but that is gradually where I think we will come out.
• On Friday we suggested we were finally ready for 2s vs 30s to flatten. It didn’t do much until about 10am when it went from 135 to close at 128. Look for more flattening, which might make 3.75% too high of a target on 10s.

This is not necessarily the monetary policy I would want to enact. A lot can happen in the economic data to change this outlook (certainly true with the Fast and Furious 47 theme). But at the moment, I’m fighting the market, not the admin (which I think includes the Fed, or will include the Fed more than it has historically).

A “Fun” Fast and Furious Story

I was having a conversation a few years ago with an extremely good financial journalist. We were talking about “trades we missed.” You know the sort of thing you had conviction in but took off too early, got stopped out, or just didn’t have the will to push management to put it on. It was a fun and cathartic conversation. 

But he had a story that outdid them all.

A journalist had been assigned by some paper/magazine (I want to say Vanity Fair or The NY Times) to explore “Street racing in Los Angeles.” It was outside the usual beat of this journalist but they went ahead and wrote a feature article about street racing in LA.

According to legend, this overworked and underpaid (only modestly successful) journalist was offered an “immense” amount of money (or what seemed like an immense amount of money at the time) to option the movie rights to their work. At the time, presumably the mid-1990s, $50k for an “option” to do movies about street racing in LA seemed like a great deal.

Fast forward to 2001, when Fast and Furious came out and became a surprise hit, that author had some serious regrets. As the franchise grew to a level very few franchises grow to (think James Bond, Star Wars, Friday the 13th), one can only imagine the thoughts going through that person’s mind.

Not sure this has much to do with today’s T-Report (other than that we all miss investments, in part because we don’t believe enough in them), but I did think it makes for an interesting interlude, before the final segment of today’s T-Report.

ProSec Needs You!

The title of this section should probably read You Need ProSec but that doesn’t go as well with the picture that we have included. We already included a “smattering” of ProSec related news in this report. Venezuela, oil, and the uranium investment. The scope of ProSec is broad enough that it encompasses so much more.

We were just discussing how difficult it was to get traction with our theme of National Production for National Security and Resiliency. After a year of trying to get traction with anything from “Refine, Baby, Refine” to National Production for National Security, we settled on ProSec as an easy way to capture our theme. It was back in August that we officially Launched ProSec.

Since August we have used ProSec in the title of 6 T-Reports and incorporated it into countless others. We have lost count of how many times we’ve used it in the media, but finally, Lisa Abramowitz at Bloomberg can keep a straight face when she mentions ProSec. It has been actually used in some reporting on how to invest under this administration. The grammar police say that I should remove “actually” but I think the use of “actually” connotates some level of surprise, which is relevant in this case. While JPM doesn’t officially call the $1.5 trillion earmarked for certain types of investments ProSec, it certainly seems to fit that quite well.

It also doesn’t hurt that two individual stock tickers we mentioned in ProSec 2026 have done extremely well. INTC is up 23% YTD, and BC is up 18% YTD. Pretty healthy increases. Across the board, many of the ProSec sectors and potential stocks (or ETFs) are outperforming the broad market (1.8% on the S&P 500 and 2.8% on the Nasdaq). Our “rotation” theme is also working out well, with the Russell 2000 up almost 6%.

Continuing to build out a portfolio of ProSec linked names should continue to work well.

• A mix of “National Champions” with smaller, very domestic-focused companies should do well. Also, companies integral to the build-out phase, will do very well.
• Processors, refiners, and finished goods manufacturers will likely outperform those further down the supply chain. Yes, the entire chain will do well, but expect benefits to accrue disproportionately to companies that reduce our dependency on China the most. While less dependency on everyone is part of the admin’s goal, those that can address China the best will do the best.
• While the following chart is almost embarrassingly bad, even by T-Report charting skills, I think it is a great way to filter companies in (or out of) the ProSec narrative.

You Need ProSec

Whether you are part of forming government policy (at any level of government, domestic or international), are an investor, or directing the future of your company, thinking about Production for Security and Resiliency is likely to become a large part of your analysis going forward. Might as well start embracing it now, if you haven’t already.

Holy Corporate Bond Market!

The corporate bond calendar started the year at a record setting pace. I’m not sure how people in the bond market had time to breathe this week – between the headlines and the onslaught of new issues!

Not only was the supply absorbed easily (deals were oversubscribed, came with little or no concession, and still traded tighter) but also spreads in the secondary market tightened (based on the CDX IG CDS Index and the Bloomberg Corporate Bond Option Adjusted Spread).

Look for credit to continue to be stable and maybe grind a bit tighter.

Still waiting to see how the year evolves for the funding needs of data centers, AI, and energy generation. I suspect for companies that explain their plans, and communicate that they will be cautious on spending if the results don’t warrant spending, the markets will be very receptive.

Those markets will likely include public credit in your own name, private credit (on a project finance basis), and possibly even some larger deals that fall squarely into the “traditional” realm of structured products.

Bottom Line

Two biggest threats to risk markets:

• China decides to respond to more aggressive U.S. actions across the globe by constraining shipments of rare earths and critical minerals. That is their primarily leverage. If they do use that leverage, it will come at the expense of their ability to legally procure U.S. AI and chip technology. I’m watching for any sign that China starts to “slow play” their approval of export licenses and/or the slowing of any contracted shipments.
• Our own politics become so divisive that things cannot get done. Seems like a low risk, but we have seen some movement across party lines in some votes this past week. Keep an eye on that as a risk to the current path, which has been benefitting ProSec.

The “surprise” that could propel risk markets much higher:

• The bond market drifts towards our outlook on rates.

Part of me wishes the current pace of headlines cannot continue, but:

1. I do think the current pace of headlines will continue as Fast and Furious 47 is a real thing.
2. I probably must admit that I enjoy the pace of headlines and the excitement and opportunities they bring to the markets.

Good luck and thanks again for all your help in 2025 and everything you have done to help us get 2026 going in the right direction for Academy!

CES, short for the Consumer Electronics Show, wrapped up late last week in Las Vegas. It is the world’s largest technology trade show, offering attendees a peek into the future. This year’s event marked a shift away from gimmicky uses of artificial intelligence toward products that deliver real-world productivity gains, alongside a series of key comments from industry leaders on the state of AI.

Consumer tech publication Tom’s Guide had journalists walking CES last week who focused on finding products with practical uses of AI, including a fridge that reads food labels and manages groceries, a wearable device that records and summarizes your day while tracking emotions, and Lenovo’s Qira, an AI companion that anticipates user needs.

Alongside increasingly smart software, CES also delivered notable hardware, including an ultra-thin TV, a gaming laptop with a rollable screen that expands, and a wild robot vacuum that can climb stairs and clean more intelligently.

Last Monday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a CES keynote on booming memory demand driven by AI. The comments sent memory stock prices like SanDisk’s through the roof.

Goldman analyst Peter Bartlett told clients on Saturday that “CES came and went (AI commentary still robust), global Memory stocks resumed their torrid moves higher.”

Bartlett noted:

Memory madness… The global memory complex took another violent leg higher last week. Ongoing positive supply/demand datapoints + comments from Jensen @ CES highlighting the massive “unserved” demand for memory in the AI industry fueled the explosive move higher. From a flows perspective, our institutional activity skewed better to buy across this group, but my suspicion is the global retail trading community has had a hand in this move as well.

After Tom’s Guide evaluated dozens of companies, we took it a step further and focused on just a few of the most promising concepts or new products:

Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable

If there’s one thing that’s inevitable, it’s Lenovo introducing a fun rollable display concept at CES. But what I didn’t expect was a rollable prototype that I actually pray that the company makes. And that’s exactly what we have in the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable. Simply put, it would be the perfect bridge between my home gaming setup of an ultrawide monitor and my gaming laptop — a display that can extend from the 16-inch 16:9 panel all the way up to 24:9 at a impressive 24 inches at a 240Hz refresh rate. Whatever genre of game you’re playing, you’ve got exactly the right screen aspect ratio to play it with. — Jason England

Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN

Upon first glance of the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN (it’s a mouthful, I know), I was immediately blown away by the visuals. I mean, there’s the clarity of the best gaming monitors, but then there’s this 34-inch QD-OLED display with next-gen RGB Stripe Pixel OLED technology boasting a 1800R WQHD (3440 x 1440) curved panel. The results? Crystal-clear visuals with draw-dropping colors and true blacks.

We’ve seen monitors reach well over a 360Hz refresh rate and a 0.03 response time, but Asus claims this is the world’s first RGB OLED gaming monitor on the market. It offers a 40% uplift in perceived blacks thanks to the ROG BlackShield film, along with richer colors, making the ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN a monitor for gamers and creatives to keep an eye on for 2026. — Darragh Murphy

Best 2-in-1 Laptop: Asus Zenbook Duo

The Asus Zenbook Duo finally did the thing I always wanted it to do. The redesign makes this 2-in-1 truly shine by eliminating the distracting lip between those two 14-inch OLED panels. On top of that, the battery is now shared between both sides for better weight distribution; the aluminum chassis is slimmer and sleeker; and this comes strapped with our best of show winner: Intel Core Ultra Series 3. That’s sure to bring the power efficiency this dual-screen beast needs.

For the past couple of years, the idea of a 2-in-1 has always been a convertible laptop. In 2026, dual-screen laptops have a real shot of breaking through thanks to the Zenbook Duo. — Jason England

Roborock Saros Rover

The ability to climb stairs is the final threshold — both literally and figuratively — for robot vacuums. At CES 2026, we saw a few companies try to tackle that problem, but the Roborock Saros Rover did it with the most elegance.

This robovac has two wheels at the end of extendable legs that can lift it up, one step at a time, to go from one floor of your house to the next. Even better, it can vacuum each tread of your stairs as it ascends. It’s also pretty agile. In our hands-on with the Saros Rover, we saw it lean back and forth on each leg, glide effortlessly down a ramp, and even jump up and down. When was the last time you saw a robot vacuum do that? — Mike Prospero

Hisense RGB MiniLED 116UXS

You can’t walk more than 15 feet in the Las Vegas Conference Center without seeing a sign for some brand’s Mini RGB technology. It’s everywhere. But of all the brands, Hisense has come away with the best model in my eyes — a 116-inch behemoth in the Hisense RGB Mini-LED 116UXS that not only uses RGB-subpixels but even throws in a new fourth color in the mix (cyan) to display 110% of BT2020’s coverage area.

In layman’s terms, this is the most colorful TV you’ve ever seen in your life. The tradeoff is that it’s not the slimmest, nor does it have the best anti-glare filter, but the picture is absolutely sublime. If Hisense manages to shrink this display technology and bring it to its award-winning mid-range models, it’s game over for the competition. — Nick Pino

Previous reporting on the tech show:

• At CES, A Chinese Two-Legged Vacuum Signals The Next Phase Of Home Robotics

• “Market That Never Existed”: Nvidia CEO Sparks Frenzy In Memory Stocks

What intrigued us most is that the rollable display concept is a game-changer for anyone tired of lugging external monitors while traveling

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

A review of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) granted in North Carolina found that 54 percent were issued illegally, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a statement on Jan. 8.

The review was conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and is part of its ongoing nationwide audit of trucking licensing systems, the department said.

DOT warned that if North Carolina does not “fix their serious failures” and revoke licenses issued illegally to foreign nationals, the department will withhold almost $50 million in federal funding.

“North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful—it’s dangerous. I’m calling on state leadership to immediately remove these dangerous drivers from our roads and clean up their system,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

According to audit findings, North Carolina illegally issued non-domiciled CDLs to drivers whose lawful presence in the United States had expired, and some of those drivers were found to be ineligible to hold a non-domiciled commercial license.

FMCSA sent a letter to North Carolina Department of Transportation Commissioner Paul Tine and Gov. Josh Stein, outlining audit results and the corrective actions that must be taken to prevent funding from being withheld.

The agency asked North Carolina authorities to “immediately” pause the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, identify unexpired CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations, and conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify errors, practices, quality assurance, and other issues that led to such CDLs being granted.

“The level of noncompliance in North Carolina is egregious,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said. “Under Secretary Duffy, we will not hesitate to hold states accountable and protect the American people.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Stein’s office for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

North Carolina is one of the latest states the DOT has warned regarding the illegal issuance of CDLs to foreign nationals.

Illegal Drivers in California

After a federal audit found that 17,000 trucking licenses were issued illegally in California, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles issued cancellation letters to these drivers, Duffy said in November 2025.

The move faced opposition, with the Sikh Coalition, which represents around 20,000 immigrant drivers and business owners in California, filing a lawsuit arguing the move would remove thousands of drivers from roads and disrupt supply chains and services.

“This action was taken as a result of pressure from the federal government; unfortunately, the CA-DMV has thus far failed to provide any recourse or means for drivers to correct these issues,” the Coalition said in a Dec. 23, 2025, statement, referring to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

“By ejecting these drivers from the workforce without allowing for any sort of solution, the CA-DMV is discriminating against them on the basis of their immigration status.”

On Dec. 30, California announced it would have to delay revoking the 17,000 CDLs.

In a Jan. 7 statement, Duffy announced that FMCSA will withhold roughly $160 million from California for failing to cancel those CDLs by the Jan. 5 deadline.

“Our demands were simple: follow the rules, revoke the unlawfully-issued licenses to dangerous foreign drivers, and fix the system so this never happens again,” Duffy said.

“[Gov.] Gavin Newsom has failed to do so—putting the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of the American people.”

Meanwhile, in December, Duffy threatened to withhold $24 million in funding from Colorado over “slow walking” the purge of illegally issued truck licenses.

Earlier that month, Duffy revealed that an audit had found over 50 percent of non-domiciled DCLs issued in New York were granted illegally. DOT ordered the state to revoke all such licenses and come into compliance, failing which roughly $73 million in federal funding would be withheld.

The multi-national “Will for Peace 2026” naval exercises began Saturday off the coast of Cape Town, hosted by South Africa, and is set to run for one week. It is widely being described as a BRICS and “BRICS+” naval drill and saw a Russian warship arrive off South Africa’s primary naval base on Friday.

The Russians joined Chinese and Iranian vessels for the drills, along with other BRICS members Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil – which participated as observers. The nation heading up the drill is China, and it’s being seen as an attempt of BRICS and Global South countries to flex their collective military might in the wake of the Trump-ordered ousting of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. The other members of the bloc – India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – are not represented at the drills.

Naturally it is especially Iran which could be a ripe target for the next Trump regime change action, as it’s not yet gone nuclear. But Tehran wants to showcase its much more powerful nuclear-armed friends China and Russia, which have defense and economic cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic.

South Africa’s defense force has described that the exercises will allow participating navies “to exchange best practices and improve joint operational capabilities, which contributes to the safety of shipping routes and overall regional maritime stability.”

This will make already somewhat strained relations with Washington even more delicate for Pretoria. With this US relationship in mind, a separate statement emphasized that the drills were organized and agreed to significantly before last weekend’s US strikes on Venezuela.

But tensions have ratcheted particularly after Washington expelled South Africa’s ambassador last year and slapped the country with 30% trade tariffs. The Trump administration has also long complained about violent persecution against South Africa’s minority White farmer population.

BBC provides some further background as follows:

Some commentators have questioned why Brics+ members are carrying out military exercises together, given the grouping is an economic alliance. “There are members of Brics+ that are diametrically opposed to each other politically and even have hot border skirmishes between them,” defence analyst Dean Wingrin told the BBC.

It is not the first time South Africa has had naval exercises with China and Russia. The first was called “Mosi”, which means “smoke” in South Africa’s Tswana language, and took place in 2019 with little fanfare.

🇿🇦⚓️ Multinational naval exercises “Will for Peace 2026” have begun in SA’s territorial waters.

Based in Simon’s Town, the drills involve navies of China and South Africa, with ships from Russia and Iran participating.

The exercises focus on maritime security & safe navigation. pic.twitter.com/LvRUNy5MQV

— Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) January 9, 2026

But as for wanting to distance itself from being seen as ‘too close’ to China and Russia, a South African Defense Ministry official has described to AFP, “Let us not press panic buttons because the USA has got a problem with countries,” and that “Those are not our enemies” – in vague reference to the US and Western alliance.

“Let’s focus on cooperating with the BRICS countries and make sure that our seas, especially the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, they are safe,” the official added.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In a chilling move, the UK government has rolled out a taxpayer-funded video game that paints every curious teenager as a potential far-right extremist. The “Pathways” game, backed by the Home Office’s Prevent counter-terrorism program, threatens young players with referrals to anti-terror experts simply for questioning unchecked mass migration or engaging with online debates about British identity.

This indoctrination tool assumes teens are one wrong click away from radicalisation, equating basic concerns over job competition or veteran housing with illegal hate groups. It’s a blatant assault on free thought, designed to stifle dissent and enforce globalist narratives in schools—exposing the state’s tightening grip on the next generation.

The game, developed by Shout Out UK with funding from Prevent, targets 11- to 18-year-olds. Players guide a character named Charlie—using “they” pronouns—through everyday scenarios that quickly spiral into warnings of extremism.

?INSIDIOUS: The UK government has developed a video game that INDOCTRINATES children by threatening to report them to counter-terrorism authorities for merely questioning mass migration or expressing concern about the erosion of British values. pic.twitter.com/YoEmqAOptd

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 10, 2026

For instance, after being outperformed by a black student, Charlie faces a choice: accept it or blame immigrants for “stealing jobs.” Opting for the latter ramps up an in-game extremism meter.

One scenario involves a video claiming “Muslim men are stealing the places of British veterans in emergency accommodation” and “the Government is betraying white British people and we need to take back control of our country.” Engaging with it leads to a flood of “harmful ideological messages,” with the game stating, “Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t realise that some of the groups they were engaging in were actually illegal.”

This is where the UK is at. https://t.co/ZdxCPDM5qI

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 9, 2026

Even researching immigration statistics online is portrayed as a gateway to danger, bombarding players with material on the “replacement” of white people. Joining a protest against “the changes that Britain has been through in the last few years and the erosion of British values” nearly ends in arrest, with the revelation that it “seemed to be more about racism and anti-immigration than British values and honouring fallen veterans.”

Pathways is an interactive game designed for 11- to 18-year-old pupils and funded by Prevent, a Home Office programme for tackling extremism.

Young players are directed to help their in-game characters – a white teenage boy and girl – to avoid being reported for “extreme… pic.twitter.com/fUkUdYRr4P

— Sick Of It Media…..???? (@SickOfItteo) January 9, 2026

As The Telegraph reports, bad choices within the game culminate in counseling for “ideological thoughts” or full Prevent referrals, complete with mentors to teach the “differences between right and wrong in expressing political beliefs.”

Matteo Bergamini, founder and CEO of Shout Out UK, defended the game, saying, “Teaching media literacy ensures that all those impacted by our programmes leave with life-long tools and skills to safeguard themselves from these threats. Our Pathways game is designed for the local threat picture in collaboration with the local authority and funded by the Home Office, to teach about the concept of extremism and radicalisation and illustrate the scope of online dangers and radicalisation routes.”

A Home Office spokesman added, “Prevent has diverted nearly 6,000 people away from violent ideologies, stopping terrorists and keeping our country safe. We provide funding to local authorities to tackle a range of threats, including Islamist extremism and Extreme Right Wing.”

Yet this comes amid growing scrutiny of Prevent’s overreach. GB News highlighted how the program now flags concerns about mass migration as a “terrorist ideology,” including “cultural nationalism” where Western culture faces threats from unchecked integration failures. Referrals for right-wing views hit 19% in 2024, outpacing Islamist cases despite MI5’s focus on the latter as 75% of threats.

This isn’t isolated. Recall our recent coverage where a teacher was branded a terrorist threat for showing Trump videos in a U.S. politics class. The educator recounted, “It was just terrifying; just mind-boggling. We were discussing the US election, Trump had just won and I showed a couple of videos from the Trump campaign. Next thing, I was accused of bias. One of the students said they were emotionally disturbed and claimed to have had nightmares.” The Local Authority Designated Officer warned his views “could constitute a hate crime” and risked “radicalisation.”

Such cases expose the left’s weaponization of Prevent against conservative ideas. Now, add in to this dystopian recipe the Labour government’s push to ban X entirely, with the frankly laughable excuse that images of people in bikinis can be created using Grok.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer raged, “This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated,” insisting “all options are on the table” over Grok AI’s image generation. Labour MP Lola McEvoy declared platforms like X “have no right to be accessed in this country” if non-compliant.

Leaked messages show MPs calling Elon Musk a “fascist” and urging abandonment of the platform. This aligns perfectly with “Pathways”—silencing online spaces where teens might encounter unfiltered views on migration or freedom.

There also exists a horrible double standard where schools freely indoctrinate kids with outright fabrications, such as pushing “non-fiction” books claiming Black people built Stonehenge, and were integral in other historical developments, part of a “decolonizing” push that insists Britain was “a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came.”

The hypocrisy deepens with radical gender ideology flooding classrooms. Trans lobbyists from Stonewall are demanding over 300 schools scrap terms like “boys and girls,” opting for neutral language, gender-neutral bathrooms, and identical uniforms—all under the guise of “inclusion.” Schools paying into Stonewall’s scheme must embed LGBTQ+ propaganda across the curriculum, ignoring government guidance against promoting “gender identity ideology.”

This teacher-shaming fits into a broader, sinister trend: the UK government’s push to teach children how to “spot extremist content and misinformation” in schools, embedding “critical thinking” that suspiciously aligns with establishment narratives.

Under the Labour government, kids are being indoctrinated to analyse articles and websites and weed out “putrid conspiracy theories,” grooming the next generation to police thought.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned: “If the parameters that are set are to say to every kid, if you read a post that questions net zero and global warming, it will be extreme content, and a lie, if you read a post that even dares to question levels of immigration, legal or illegal into Britain, that that’s extremist, then you start to set a narrative for a future generation that is fundamentally undemocratic.” Farage has labeled Prime Minister Keir Starmer the “biggest threat to free speech” in British history.

Keir Starmer poses the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history. pic.twitter.com/AB9cdiQtue

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 11, 2024

As X owner Elon Musk has warned, the British public simply have to come together and get on board with stopping this lurch toward tyranny dead in its tracks now, before it’s too late.

ELON MUSK: “All of the people of Britain have to fight for the future. If this doesn’t happen, there won’t be a future. You have to fight.” pic.twitter.com/yKC8T2Euph

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 9, 2026

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The Quality Learing Center is no more. 

The Minneapolis child care center thrust into the spotlight by a viral YouTube exposé on Minnesota’s rampant day care fraud scheme has officially shut down. State records confirm Quality Learning Center requested its license closure, effective Tuesday. 

Late last month, independent journalist Nick Shirley released a video in which he toured nearly a dozen centers, exposing them for pocketing public funds without delivering services. Quality Learning Center stood out for its sign bearing a glaring typo – “Learing” – that operators scrambled to fix after the clip went viral. The footage captured an empty-looking facade and zero activity, fueling suspicions in a state already reeling from massive welfare scams.

“Quality Learning Center closed on Tuesday, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ licensing records. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families [DCYF] said that the center requested closure of its license effective Tuesday,” CBS News reported. 

The center raked in $1.9 million from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program in fiscal 2025. DCYF got word on December 19 of a voluntary shutdown plan. Ten days later, an on-site check found operators reversing course, vowing to stay open. 

By January 6, records showed otherwise—closed tight.

“The provider is unable to reopen without reapplying for a license,” DCYF reported

Shirley’s clip reignited fury over Minnesota’s social programs grift. Federal prosecutors have already nailed dozens for ripping off kid meal initiatives, autism therapy, and senior housing aid. Schemes ran deep, due to what appears to be intentionally lax oversight in Somali immigrant-heavy enclaves. 

Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with allegedly defrauding state programs that offered meals to needy children, behavioral therapy for children with autism and assistance for seniors searching for housing. 

The Trump administration deployed about 2,000 Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities earlier this week, with the stated goal of cracking down on fraud and undocumented immigration. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joined the operation, which Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called a “ridiculous surge” and a “show” for the cameras that has not been coordinated with the state.

President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced late last month it would freeze all federal child care funding for Minnesota amid the fraud investigations. On Tuesday, the department said it planned to halt billions more in social services funding for Minnesota and four other states led by Democrats.

Walz, who abruptly ended his reelection bid earlier this week, lashed out at President Trump, accusing him of using fraud investigations as a pretext to target Minnesota. He claimed the state is “under assault like no other time in our state’s history,” blaming what he called a “petty, vile administration” that he said shows no concern for the well-being of Minnesotans.

The daycare’s closure follows a prior attempt to appear legitimate. Days after Nick Shirley’s video first went viral, the once-empty center suddenly filled up with a couple of dozen kids who appeared to have been bused in, while staff and the owner’s son offered unconvincing excuses and angrily rebuffed reporters, underscoring a likely cover‑up.

​Neighbors explained that the center’s parking lot is usually empty, and they had “never seen kids go in there” before the controversy, raising suspicions that the facility was effectively non-operational despite supposedly serving dozens of children. Staff angrily denied fraud, with one worker telling a reporter to “get the f–k out of here.” 

The Quality Learning Center is not the first daycare center under scrutiny for engaging in cover-ups since Shirley’s video went viral. Last month, a different Somali-run day care, suspected of fraud, conveniently claimed it had been burglarized. According to Nasrulah Mohamed, manager of the Nokomis Day Care Center, thieves broke into the center, ignored the cash and electronics, and instead made off with employee and child enrollment records.

Authored by Vijay Jayaraj via American Greatness,

Political powers in the United Nations and European Union have spent decades lecturing Africa on climate “virtue.” Net-zero pledges, renewable targets, ESG frameworks, and more make up the ever-growing list of prescriptions for “healing the planet.”

Having already industrialized through the use of fossil fuels and enjoying full bellies, stable power grids, and unprecedented luxury, the so-called elite of the developed world present a “low-carbon” economy as morally superior. African nations are pressured to use “sustainable” energy sources—mostly wind and solar technologies—to effectively prevent the development of the Dark Continent’s rich deposits of coal, oil, and natural gas and engender dependence on foreign governments.

Now, when an African entrepreneur moves decisively to break the chains of this dependency, the climate crusaders are revealed not as guardians of the planet, but as guardians of geopolitical control.

In November 2025, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest businessman, signed a $1 billion development agreement with Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to build a 1,300-mile fuel pipeline stretching from Walvis Bay in Namibia through Botswana to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Teams are working on routing, logistics, land procurement, and regulatory details.

The project is Zimbabwe’s government policy, and the pipeline has become the country’s moral imperative. To understand why, we must look at the catastrophe of the status quo.

Few modern economies have collapsed as swiftly as Zimbabwe’s did under the government of the late Robert Mugabe, which was known for corruption and disastrous land reforms. A nation that once fed Southern Africa became a cautionary tale.

Although Mugabe was forced from office in 2017, Zimbabwe still faces 18-hour daily power cuts, which cause the country to lose more than 6% of gross domestic product every year, according to World Bank estimates. Removing that economic drag would create space for actual growth.

Green activists want the government to rely on the Kariba Dam, a hydroelectric facility that environmentalists consider “renewable.” But nature is not reliable. An El Niño-induced drought has reduced Kariba to a pitiful 9% capacity. The dam is drying up, and with it, the economic future of a nation.

More promising is the pipeline. Its route—from the Atlantic coast of Namibia, through the stable democracy of Botswana, into Zimbabwe—creates a new strategic energy corridor for Southern Africa. It integrates the 10 economies of the Southern African Development Community in a way that decades of political summits failed to do.

There is an irony in the geopolitics of this pipeline deal. For years, the West has warned Africa of the dangers of “Chinese debt traps,” while offering no viable alternative for energy infrastructure. Now, a pipeline is creating Pan-African commercial cooperation that bypasses both Western climate lectures and Beijing’s loans.

Estimates of the project’s job opportunities range from 50,000 to 100,000 positions across the project’s construction phase and operational lifetime. In nations with unemployment exceeding 20%, these are transformative numbers.

The Dagonte pipeline offers attractive economics: Foreign contractors, anticipating the expenses of regulatory compliance and “green” tape, would likely quote tens of billions for a similar corridor. Dangote is delivering the pipeline, a cement plant, a fertilizer factory, and power infrastructure for a fraction of that cost.

The project will make Dangote’s refinery in Lagos one of the world’s largest single-site refining operations, growing from a current 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd by 2028.

These developments draw a new energy map in the region and threaten external interests. China and the West compete for influence over African resources. A regional fuel artery weakens their leverage. They cannot dictate terms to countries that supply their own energy.

For Zimbabwe, the implications are immediate. The economy pays punishing premiums for imported diesel delivered by truck. Every liter moves across multiple borders, each with tariffs and delays. Being landlocked leaves Zimbabwe exposed. The pipeline breaks that pattern. Once fuel flows from Walvis Bay to Bulawayo and onward to Zimbabwe’s capital at Harare, costs fall, and the manufacturing sector finally stops running on expensive fuel for running electricity generators.

This sends a terrifying signal to the climate czars that the developing world is waking up. Leaders like President Mnangagwa and industrialists like Dangote are realizing that the “Green Energy Transition” is a luxury good—likely a bogus one—they cannot afford. They are choosing the path of India and China—rapid industrialization fueled by whatever works. And what works, undeniably at this time, are fossil fuels.

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

China is uniquely unqualified to mediate between them since it has territorial disputes with India and arms Pakistan to the teeth.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently claimed that his country mediated between India and Pakistan during last spring’s clashes, but it’s very difficult to believe that this actually happened.

Trump has repeatedly claimed the same despite India’s denials, which greatly contributed to the deterioration of their ties over the past year. India’s half-century-long position since the 1972 Simla Agreement has been that its problems with Pakistan are bilateral, ergo why it’s always rejected mediation since then.

Nevertheless, India cannot prevent other countries’ representatives from talking to Pakistan during bilateral crises, nor will it decline their calls after they’ve done so. Rather, it considers each pair of calls to be purely bilateral, and it’s always eager to share its perspective with them amidst regional tensions. After all, it would be a dereliction of its officials’ duty to voluntary cede the narrative to Pakistan, ergo why they’ll always take the opportunity to advance their country’s national interests during these times.

This background helps to better understand what China might have actually done last spring. Wang did indeed call his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the same day, but as explained above, this wouldn’t have amounted to mediation. China is uniquely unqualified to mediate between them anyhow since it has territorial disputes with India and arms Pakistan to the teeth. Some of this equipment like the JF-17s was also used against India last spring.

That said, perhaps Wang truly believes that his talks with those two played a role in the ceasefire that followed, but it’s still curious that he waited over half a year to claim that China played a mediation role. He’d also know by now how furious Trump’s claim made India and the role that it played in the deterioration of their relation over the past year. It’s therefore unclear why he’d risk dealing damage to the nascent Sino-Indo rapprochement partially brought about by the US’ aforesaid problems with India.

The context within which he made this claim helps explain his possible motive. He was speaking at a symposium titled “International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations” and was listing off examples of the “Chinese approach to settling hotspots.” The other examples included “northern Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear issue…the issues between Palestine and Israel, and the recent conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.” The only one that it can indisputably claim credit for is northern Myanmar.

The other four are Trump’s claimed achievements, though China has veritably tried mediating between Cambodia and Thailand but failed to get them to agree to a deal. In any case, the only cogent reason why Wang would portray all the others as examples of Chinese mediation even though it arguably didn’t play any such role in those conflicts is to promote China’s Global Security Initiative, one of President Xi Jinping’s flagship initiatives. The others concern development, civilization, and governance.

Wang seemingly calculated, whether rightly or wrongly, that promoting China’s Global Security Initiative at this specific moment in the global systemic transition is so important that it’s worth offending India. That’s the only explanation that makes sense, especially since he waited over half a year to make this claim and did so during an end-of-the-year diplomatic review, but this doesn’t mean that India will be understanding about it and his boast could still needlessly complicate their nascent rapprochement.

A healthy diet is often discussed as a top public health issue, but affordability remains one of its biggest barriers.

Over the past decade, food prices have climbed due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and climate-related shocks. At the same time, incomes and food access have improved in many regions.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, highlights how these competing forces have shaped the global cost of eating well—and who is still being left behind.

The data for this visualization comes from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It tracks the average daily cost of a healthy diet worldwide.

Healthy Diet Costs Are Rising

A healthy diet is defined as providing 2,330 kilocalories per day, with nutritionally adequate proportions across six food groups. These include starchy staples, vegetables, fruits, animal-source foods, legumes, nuts and seeds, and oils and fats.

In 2017, the average global cost of a healthy diet was $3.14 per person per day. By 2024, that figure had climbed to $4.46. The sharpest increases occurred after 2020, coinciding with pandemic-related disruptions and global food price inflation.

Affordability Is Improving Despite Higher Prices

While costs have risen, affordability has steadily improved. In 2017, 38.4% of the global population—about 2.93 billion people—could not afford a healthy diet. By 2024, that share had fallen to 31.9%, representing roughly 2.6 billion people.

Despite global progress, affordability challenges remain concentrated in low-income and conflict-affected regions. Even small increases in food prices can have outsized effects where households already spend a large share of income on food.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out How Much Meat do We Eat? on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

So the Big Oil Picture in Venezuela is way more complex than the Trump 2.0 gang suspects…

Let’s start with neo-Caligula’s new edicts on the imperial satrapy he says he now owns; not exactly edicts but outright threats directed to interim President Delcy Rodriguez:

1. Crack down on “drug trafficking flows”. Well, this should actually be directed to Colombian and Mexican smugglers in cahoots with big American buyers.

2. Expel Iranian, Cuban, and other “operatives hostile to Washington” – before Caracas is allowed to increase oil production. Not happening.

3. Halt oil sales to “US adversaries”. Not happening.

Hence it becomes a near certainty that neo-Caligula may bomb Venezuela again.

Neo-Caligula, in a separate motormouth offensive, also clarified that he wants to somewhat overhaul the oil business in Venezuela via subsidies. It “could take less than 18 months”; then it morphed to “we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money”; and finally morphed to “a tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it.”

No, they won’t, as several proverbial “industry insiders” have advanced. US energy majors balk at the sight of investing fortunes in a nation that may be engulfed by total chaos if neo-Caligula forces a traitorous government over 28 million people.

According to Rystad Energy Analysis, it would take no less than 16 years and at least $183 billion for Venezuela to produce a mere 3 million barrels of oil a day.

Neo-Caligula’s ultimate dream is to reduce global oil prices to a maximum $50 a barrel. For this purpose, the Trump 2.0 imperial gig will, in thesis, totally control PDVSA, including acquisition and sale of virtually all of its oil production.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, at a Goldman Sachs energy conference, let the oily cat out of the bag:

“We are going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed up stored oil [up to 50 million barrels], and then infinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace.”

So essentially the neo-Caligula gig will capture, actually steal the sale of crude from PDVSA, with the money theoretically deposited in US-controlled offshore accounts to “benefit the Venezuelan people”.

There’s no way Delcy Rodriguez’s interim government will accept what amounts to de facto theft. Even as Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller is bragging that the US is using “military threat” to maintain control of Venezuela. If you are really in control, you don’t need to issue threats.

So what about China?

China was importing roughly 746,000 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela. That’s not much. Beijing is already working on replacing it with imports from Iran. China essentially is not dependent on Venezuelan oil. Apart from Iran, it may also source from Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Beijing clearly sees that the imperial overdrive in the Western Hemisphere and in West Asia is not just about oil, but also to force China to buy energy with petrodollars. Nonsense: with Russia, the Persian Gulf and beyond, the name of the game is already petroyuan.

China is 80% energy independent. Venezuela de facto was accounting for a mere 2% of the 20% China imports – and this according to the US government’s own numbers.

China’s energy relationship with Venezuela goes way beyond cheap American formulas. Here is essentially outlined how “Chinese oil agreements with Venezuela are de facto binding financial contracts, with repayment mechanisms, collateral structures, penalty clauses, and derivative linkages embedded deep into global finance (…) They are connected – directly and indirectly – to Western financial institutions, commodity traders, insurers, and clearing systems, including entities tied to Wall Street. If these contracts are broken, the consequence is not China ‘taking a loss’. It is a cascade event: defaults triggering counterparty exposure, derivatives being repriced, legal disputes crossing jurisdictions, and confidence shock spreading outward. At a certain point, this ceases to be a Venezuelan problem and becomes a systemic global one.”

Moreover, “over the past twenty years, China has become the operational core of Venezuela’s oil industry. Not merely as a buyer, but as a builder. China provided refinery technology, heavy crude upgrading systems, infrastructure design, control software, spare parts logistics (…) Remove the Chinese engineers. Remove the technicians who understand the control logic. Remove the maintenance supply chains. Remove the software support. What remains is not a functioning oil industry waiting to be ‘liberated’, but an inert shell.”

Conclusion: “Converting Venezuela’s Chinese-built oil sector into an American one would take three to five years, minimum.”

Financial analyst Lucas Ekwame hits the major points. Venezuela produces superheavy oil as thick as tar. It doesn’t just flow; it needs to be melted to reach the surface, and after extraction, it hardens again, requiring diluent: no less than 0.3 barrels of diluent need to be imported for each exported barrel.

Compound it with Venezuela’s energy infrastructure shaped by China and at the same time suffering years of American sanctions, even worse than over Iraq in the early 2000s, and neo-Caligula’s faulty oil “strategy” becomes obvious.

That of course does not alter the short-term feast of imperial hedge fund vultures over Venezuela’s carcass, starting with ghastly Paul Singer, the billionaire Zionist hedge fund manager and MAGA super PAC donor ($42 million in 2024) whose Elliott Management acquired the Houston-based subsidiary of CITGO for $5.9 billion in November, less than a third of its $18 billion market value, thanks to the embargo on Venezuelan oil imports.

The speculative money crowd is bound to cash in on up to $170 billion in the debt market; defaulted PDVSA bonds alone are worth over $60 billion.

So the Big Oil Picture in Venezuela is way more complex than the Trump 2.0 gang suspects. Of course on the road ahead we may come to a situation where the Viceroy of Venezuela, the gusano Marco Rubio, cuts off the oil flow from Caracas to Shanghai. Well, considering Rubio’s strategic “expertise”, better start regimenting battalions of lawyers right away.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.