US, Israel Set Firm 2-Month Deadline For Full Hamas Disarmament
Israeli media is reporting that Israel and the United States have reached an understanding to give Hamas a two-month ultimatum to finally and fully disarm. The reports say the agreement came immediately after an overnight meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago at the start of the week.
The move is being described as a fixed deadline rather than an opening for negotiations. Israeli and US teams are already reportedly working simultaneously to determine what they describe as “practical disarmament.” This after Hamas has effectively been defeated since it launched the brutal Oct.7, 2023 terror assault on southern Israel.
Another key focus is the dismantling of Hamas’s underground tunnel network throughout Gaza, which Israeli officials consider a core element of the group’s military strength.
Hamas has throughout the Gaza war proven itself effective in guerilla and insurgency tactics, utilizing small teams to maneuver quickly in and out of the tunnels, even at times taking out IDF tanks with IEDs. Sometimes bombs are even attached to Israeli armor vehicles by hand in these ambushes, after which a Hamas militant darts back into an underground tunnel, as has been demonstrated in various videos.
Sources quoted by Israel Hayom said Israeli officials doubt Hamas that would be willing or able to relinquish most of its weapons or military capabilities within the two-month window.
From the perspective of Hamas leadership, the moment it fully gives up its weapons means the group is effectively dead and will have no more influence to govern in the future.
But this is also exactly what the US-Israeli plan and the ceasefire calls for: the effective end of Hamas rule in governance in the Gaza Strip forever.
PM Netanyahu while giving media interviews during his December US trip described that Hamas still possesses “around 60,000” Kalashnikov rifles and “hundreds of kilometers” of tunnels.
He has vowed that Hamas disarmament can be achieved “the easy way” or the hard way – that is through military force. But as of last summer, Hamas was insistent that it will never give up its weapons.
There’s also the possibility that Hamas leadership won’t be able to induce all of its fighters and ‘ground troops’ to give up their weapons – again, as they would fear being tracked down and killed by Israeli forces.
2025 Greatest Hits: The Most Popular Articles Of The Past Year And A Look Ahead
One year ago, when looking at the 20 most popular stories of 2024, we said that “while 2024 had a seemingly endless variety of social, economic, political, geopolitical and of course, financial and market, drama, the unprecedented onslaught of 2022 and 2023 – which saw both the deadliest and most consequential global war since WWII and a historic inflationary onslaught – simply proved too great to beat…. although we are confident that’s only because the newsflow was merely resting ahead of 2025 when, thanks to the most consequential presidential election in modern US history, the coming avalanche of news and propaganda will be sheer insanity, especially since the Fed has made its long awaited dovish pivot without successfully stamping out inflation first. So in retrospect, 2024 being somewhat tame by recent standards may have been a good thing: it allowed everyone to rest ahead of the main event.“
Boy, were we right, and in retrospect we certainly hope everyone did rest ahead of the countless 2025 main events because while 2025 not only saw what was the closest event to a market crash in years, it was almost a sideshow to the most exciting and eventful rollercoaster of non-stop newsflow we have yet encountered (in large part thanks to the daily torrent of stream of consciousness unleashed by the occupant of the White House) one which not only saw the legacy political system finally crumble across “Western democracies” as country after country said “no more” to the four-headed globalist hydra of runaway inflation, corrupt establishment politicians, uncontrolled illegal immigration, and targeted assassination attempts, but one where the political economy and capital markets proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they are more inextricably welded together than ever before. Oh, and of course, it was also the year when the Fed’s apolitical facade crumbled, exposing the most important central bank in the world as nothing more than a puppet of shadowy establishment forces whose only task is to preserve the status quo.
But first, let’s first take a quick look at what happened in the past year through the lens of the masses, and as a quick 4-minute refresher, here is a highlight reel from Googles “year in search” of all the big, if mostly irrelevant, topics that people around the world obsessed over in 2025.
Of course, all of the stuff in the clip above is just fluff and distractions for and by the masses, meant to keep attention focused on trivial things and away from what really matters. What we tried to do with our reporting throughout the year was to minimize the noise and to bring you, our readers, the signal, and while there was a nonstop barrage of the former, the underlying newsflow largely boiled down to four main categories:
Political/Tariffs
Technological/AI
Financial/Central Bank Credibility
Geopolitical
Starting with the first, the shock from the result of the November 2024 election – which together with the Trump assassination attempt were the biggest political events of 2024 – quickly turned to awe from Trump’s decision to immediately implement his transformational trade policies in the form of massive tariffs on most US trade partners, which upended decades of conventional trade policy through significant action and led to a surge in the effective tariff rate and countless predictions of doom, gloom and recessions from such cartoon economists as Paul Krugman who said that “it’s not the size of the trade policy shift, but the uncertainty around it that could cause a recession…. and at this point, policy reversals may actually worsen the situation because they would enhance uncertainty.”
But what Krugman, and so many other “experts” failed to understand is that, in keeping with the pattern set by the first Trump admin the president was setting new precedent and aggressively negotiating, leading not to a recession, but many new trade deals – all at far more advantageous terms to the us – with little of the “imminent” inflation passing through to US consumers as it was exporters (such as Japanese car makers) who ended up footing the bill for Trump’s tariffs.
The result was that the initial surge in trade uncertainty, which was loudly cheered on by liberal economists as it confirmed their anti-Trump bias, promptly faded…
… and recession fears disappeared almost as fast as they had emerged.
And while the inflation from Trump’s tariffs has yet to emerge, the benefits in the form of almost $400BN in annualized tariff revenues are already here, and could have been used to lower the US budget deficit…
… largely due to the now recurring $100+ billion in monthly interest expense on US debt.
And while politics – and the constant daily declarations from Trump’s Truth Social account – certainly meant much less sleep for anyone in 2025, one can certainly argue that innovation, in a broad sense, and especially AI technology, was as important as politics this year and certainly helped lift the US economy from a far worse place.
To be sure, the year started off on the right foot, with names that have become synonymous with the AI boom like Nvidia soaring, as Wall Street was content that investment in AI would continue to grow exponentially, as the following charts show.
Optimism was also lifted amid reports that AI adoption was rising (even if as Goldman noted, it was due to a purposefully phrased question designed to give the impression that adoption was rising). The trade off to increased AI adoption – far more concerning in the short-run for politicians desperate for votes – is that both overall tech and especially youth unemployment, are rising dangerously fast, potentially leading to a sharp deterioration in the US labor market, assuming the AI cycle goes as planned… and the US wins the US-China AI war.
That outcome is far from certain, however, and it finally dawned on the market that the flurry of recent developments in the AI sector…
… was – as we first described it – one giant circle jerk, where little money actually changes hands yet the impression of top-line growth keeps pushing stock prices to record highs…
… resulting in a painful swoon for much of the AI sector in the second half amid renewed concerns about AI returns on investment, and the risk of a full-blown bubble which may burst any second
In any case, the reality is that we have seen chatbots come and go, and the world always moved on to a new, bigger and shinier fad. This time, however, prices may have pulled just a little bit too much from the future, as this breakdown of the Mag7 vs the S&P shows.
In any event, we don’t have that much new to add here: exactly two years ago we said that “we would be remiss not to mention the single biggest market narrative – and tech story – of 2023, namely the unprecedented AI mania, which manifested itself in an explosion in the “Magnificent 7” mega tech stocks which now make up a record 30% of the S&P’s market cap.” Two years later, AI is still the the biggest driver of financial assets, and that will continue… until it stops.
Maybe the biggest difference from two years ago is that “more of the same” means that never before has so much market influence and impact been concentrated in so few stocks, and at last check, the 10 largest stocks in the S&P now account for 38% of total market cap. Actually, one correction: it’s not “never before” –the last time so few stocks had such a big impact on the market was… just before the Great Depression.
Actually, we do want to highlight one pretty notable change, and this one could be critical for the 2026 midterms: after two years of coasting on available grid capacity, the rampant data center buildout means that energy has officially become the bottleneck, and as the following chart from Goldman shows, eight out of the 13 US regional power markets are already at or below critical spare capacity levels.
Add to this the stark reality that Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin/Rubin Ultra GPUs will be power hogs, raising the electricity demand for every rack from roughly 150kW to 300/600kW…
Artificial Intelligence aside, another major technological innovation that also came to the fore in 2025, but received far less attention – even though it is possible its contributions to society will be just as important as AI – were stablecoins, a tokenized digital alternative to fiat currency which use blockchain technology and unlike cryptocurrencies, are designed to maintain a stable value, traditionally pegged one-to-one with the dollar (and collateralized by T-Bills, i.e., the more demand for stablecoins, the more demand for Bills) . In 2025 the value of the stablecoin market rose above $300 billion (with Tether accounting for more than half), and which many project will rise to $2-3 trillion over the next several years…
… providing a natural buyer of short-term debt and serving as a Plan B to the Fed’s upcoming mega QE, because you didn’t think all that debt that will be needed to fund the AI cycle – over $5 trillion according to JPMorgan – would buy itself.
And speaking of the Fed, our nemesis since day one of this website when gold was $700 and bitcoin didn’t exist, it is gratifying to see that the US central bank is circling the drain ever faster, and is likely at most a few years away from losing its “independence” – which never actually existed – and merging with the Treasury. Until then, however, the question is when will it all fall apart, with both the debt and deficit hitting daily record highs, while the interest on public debt at unprecedented levels, and well over $1 trillion now, despite 10Y yields just over 4%.
The rapidly deteriorating US fiscal situation was not lost on the rating agencies, and in May, Moody’s became the 3rd and last of the big three (after S&P and Fitch) to downgrade the US from the pristine Aaa to Aa1 citing the increase in government debt owing to increased spending and reduced tax revenues, as well as the growing federal interest payments.
Downgraded or not, the dismal US fiscal picture got even worse in 2025 and despite some modest hopes that Elon Musk and DOGE would at least seek to slow down the relentless increase in US debt, that did not happen and on the contrary, total US debt rose by over $2 trillion this year to a new high of $38.4 trillion, more than tripling the debt load since 2010.
To be sure, this wasn’t just a US phenomenon, with debt ratios across the entire world already at nosebleed levels and expected to rise even higher to pay for unsustainable deficits across all economies but especially among emerging markets.
Yet the US was unique in that the status of the Fed is increasingly being challenged by Trump, who has made his displeasure with Fed Chair Powell quite public.
Ironically in the end Trump’s appeals for lower rates which saw much pushback by the Fed in early 2025 come to fruition when the Fed not only resumed its rate cuts in late 2025 (despite growing political opposition inside the Fed) but culminated in the Fed restarting QE Lite earlier this month, when Powell revealed that as part of the funding plans for 2026, the Fed would proceed to monetize $40 billion in T-Bills (to start), a number which will only grow.
None of this was lost on the market, and while stocks staged a dramatic rebound from their Liberation Day lows and closed out the year at all time highs (more on the below), that move was nothing compared to the historic eruption in precious metals – which are far more sensitive to the monetary and fiscal challenges facing the US – and which had their best year since 1979, with gold up 70% and silver almost tripling at one point!
The last major theme of 2025 was a familiar one: geopolitics remained on the front page of most daily updates, only this time in addition to the hot war in Ukraine which entered its 4th year with little progress in sight, despite repeated attempts by Trump to mediate…
… prompting Europe to rapidly rearms itself for the first time since WW2 (and spend hundreds of billions in newly issued debt in the process)…
… we got to witness a new cold war erupt between the US and China as the tech race to win the AGI trophy quickly became the 21st century version of the nuclear arms race…
… amid a push for semiconductor…
… and rare-earth self sufficiency.
But while the four macro themes list above defined the narrative, the economy and the stock market across 2025, the day-to-day gyrations were defined by what at time seemed like unabashedly chaotic newsflow; and as we take a stroll through memory lane, here is a detailed look at the micro events that shaped trading across the past 11 months, courtesy of Bobby Vedral’s Macro Eagle monthly email:
January:
Nvidia suffered the biggest single-day USD market cap drop ever when China launched a computational missile (“DeepSeek”) on US Inauguration Day, wiping out $1trn in market cap from Nvidia.
Fires raged; it was the costliest natural catastrophe in US history.
UK fiscal panic: 10 year government yields reached a high since the 2008 financial crisis, while 30 year government yields reached their highest since 1998.
Trump easily broke the record for Executive Orders issued per day in office.
A test aircraft by US start-up Boom broke the sound barrier, the first supersonic commercial travel since Concorde was grounded in 2003.
February:
Due of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine policy, the Russian Ruble rallied 20%+ YTD.
Bitcoin dropped 25% since it’s January highs, entering Bear Market – middle graph.
DOGE induced a fall in consumer sentiment.
The DAX hit new all-time-highs despite worrying German election results with significant gains for the hard-left and -right.
Gold reached a new all-time-high.
The US Conference Board consumer confidence recorded its biggest monthly drop in 4 years.
The US reported a record trade deficit in January, thanks to tariff expectations.
The biggest ever crypto hack of $1.5bn from Bybit.
Births in Japan fell to their lowest since records began 125 years ago.
March:
Daily stock market volatility picked up significantly.
US consumer long-term inflation expectations hit a 32 year high.
US consumer confidence fell to “the lowest level in 12 years, outside Covid – right graph.
US Small Business uncertainty index near highest since survey started in 1970.
Gold rose above $3,100 for the first time.
Private Equity AUM fell 2% to $4.7tn in 2024, the first decline since 2005 as investors faced a $3trn backlog of unsold deals.
Trump’s 100 minutes speech was the longest presidential address to Congress ever.
BYD shares reached a record high after it said it could now charge its EVs as quickly as it took to fill a car with petrol.
Germany’s Bundestag approved the biggest fiscal expansion in the country’s post-war history.
April:
Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.
US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.
This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.
University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.
Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.
Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.
The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.
Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.
Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.
May:
Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.
US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.
This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.
University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.
Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.
Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.
The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.
Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.
Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.
June:
Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, the biggest military assault on the Islamic Republic since the Iraq War of the 1980s – sending oil prices skyrocketing. The cost of a barrel of Brent Crude leapt by as much as 13.2% to hit $78.50.
The US joined the fight, dropping various GBU-57, the world’s largest conventional bomb.
Elon Musk, who was crucial in the re-election of Donald Trump had a high profile falling out with him.
Earlier, Ukraine released killer drones from trucks to hit strategic bombers deep inside Russia.
Despite the geopolitical turmoil, the S&P500 hit a new all-time-high.
The ECB reported that global central banks now hold as much gold as they did in 1965.
After riots in LA, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard despite the objections the governor – making it the first time since 1965 a US president deployed the National Guard without a governor’s consent.
In the Democratic mayoral primary race for New York City, Andrew Cuomo lost to the 33 year old ‘Democratic Socialist’ Zohran Mamdani, despite raising a record $25m for his PAC.
It was reported that UK vehicle production collapsed in May to the lowest level since 1949.
Dubbed “the world’s most expensive acquisition”, Meta bought 49% of Scale AI for $14.3bn, valuing it at more than 30x revenues.
July:
NVIDIA became the first $4 trillion company, followed by Microsoft.
The Cryptocurrency market broke $4trn in market cap following the passage of the Genius Act.
The Big Beautiful Bill was signed by President Trump.
CME copper prices recorded their biggest ever 1-day fall, after President Trump excluded refined metals from tariffs.
In the month of July, the US collected a monthly record of $29bn in tariffs.
In Japan the ruling LDP party lost its majority in the upper house. Fiscal worries sent 20 year JGB yields to their highest since 2000.
Global credit spreads hit a 2007 low.
London stock market had their slowest first half of a year for IPO’s since 1997.
Two governors dissented with the Federal Open Market Committee rate setting decision – a first such split in 30 years.
August:
Japanese equities hit new all-time-highs on trade optimism and fiscal stimulus expectations.
Chinese equities rallied, with the Shanghai Composite hitting a fresh 10 year high.
UK 30 year debt yields rose to a 28-year high amid inflation and fiscal sustainability concerns – higher than the levels they reached following Lizz Truss’s ‘Mini-Budget’.
Corporate credit spreads hit new record lows.
Trump federalized Washington DC’s police operations under the 1973 DC Home Rule Act.
First time a US president has tried to sack a governor of the Federal Reserve.
It was reported that global central bank holdings of gold overtook those of US Treasuries as % of foreign reserves.
Indian rupee tumbled to a new record low against the dollar, dragged by tariff concerns.
September:
China’s Shanghai Composite rose above 3,800 for the first time in ten years.
The $55bn leveraged buy-out of Electronic Arts is the largest leveraged buy-out ever.
NATO saw the most serious incursion into its territory since the start of the alliance.
Japan’s ruling LDP chose the country’s first female PM and, trying to beat the French, their fifth PM in five years.
Jair Bolsonaro became the first former president in Brazil’s to be sentenced to prison – 27 years.
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first ever French president to be sentenced to prison – 5 years.
Israel launched an airstrike against a Hamas leader meeting in Doha, it’s first ever attack on Qatar. This was followed by Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza – bringing two years of hostilities to an end.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, became the first Syrian head of state to address the UN General Assembly since 1967.
October:
Nvidia became the first company ever to cross $5trn in market cap.
The US stock market valuation vs US GDP ratio hit a record 225% vs an average of 85% since 1970.
Silver crossed $50 for the first time since the Hunt Brothers cornered the market in 1980 – middle graph.
China deployed rare earth restrictions.
OpenAI became the world’s most valuable startup raising $6.6bn at a price tag of $500bn.
The Nikkei rose 16% in October, its best monthly performance since 1990.
Takaichi Sanae became Japan’s 104th and first female PM.
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former French head of state to be jailed since Marshal Petain after WWII, and before that Louis XVI in 1792.
Hurricane Melissa became the first ever category-five hurricane to hit Jamaica.
The Dutch government took over Chinese-owned Nexperia by invoking a 73-year old Cold War national security law for the first time ever
November:
AI angst, crypto-crash and hawkish Fed speak made November look very shaky, only to be saved in the last week by (1) dovish talk from Fed Williams & Waller and (2) economic data misses, which brought a December Fed cut back on the table.
The longest ever US government which began on October 1, 2025, and lasted for 43 days ended on November 13th.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics cancelled the October Job data report, the first forgone monthly report ever.
Bitcoin lost 1/3 of its value between Oct 6th and November 22nd – it’s biggest market value loss ever.
US Consumer Sentiment fell to near lowest on record.
The Challenger layoff announcements surged to a 22 year high.
Silver hit a new all-time high
Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York, the first to win over a million votes since John Lindsay in 1969
Answering a question on Taiwan, Japan’s new PM made the country’s first overt threat of force in 80 years.
Hong Kong witnessed the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980, with 159 people killed
The G20 summit was held in South Africa, the first ever in an African country.
Next, let’s do a quick a recap of the main market events of 2025, where as Goldman’s top trader John Flood reminds us, positive momentum from 2024 carried into January as investors remained optimistic on everything AI and a pro-business administration squarely focused on deregulation. The first real test of the year came on January 27th, aka “DeepSeek Monday.” The Chinese AI company released its chatbot which led to a sharp drawdown in global technology stocks. Investors worried that the AI hardware and large-model business architype might be disrupted with significantly cheaper (yet still efficient) models like DeepSeek potentially having the ability to knock off some of the biggest players. However, these fears tuned out to be relatively short lived as the AI complex quickly regained its footing and soared higher over the course of the year (it still remains the case that China will be able to confront US technology with much cheaper and just as efficient tech of its own).
Due to a bout of extreme factor volatility, March 7 and March 10 will go down as one of the worst two-day stretches of hedge fund performance in years (multistrat-mageddon). The momentum factor experienced a 4+ standard deviation drawdown which led to forced derisking across various types of HF strategies. On the flip side, this episode also led to cleaner positioning as traders braced to enter the second quarter.
Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” will be remembered as the most impactful event on the US stock market in 2025. After the market close on April 2, the president announced sweeping new tariffs on imports and famously held up his big boards with startling rates for the world to digest. The S&P 500 promptly lost 13% in the next weeks, from April 3 through 8, and closed under 5k on April 8, which was also the low close of the year. However, on April 9, Trump announced a 90 day pause on tariffs causing the S&P 500 to experience it sharpest intraday reversal since 2008 (the index closed +952bps on the day). This set the stage for the S&P 500 to make 36 additional record closes in 2025 (there have been 39 total this year).
After Liberation Day, a majority of professional institutional investors remained skeptical of the market’s rally and stayed on the sidelines. The most common reasons cited for this skepticism were geopolitical/macro/policy uncertainty, rich valuations, and poor market breadth. As a result, fundamental long/short HF net exposure spent most of the year well below the 50th percentile rank. Mutual Funds also sat on a significant amount of cash until the 4th quarter (when it was too late). As a result, only 28% of large cap mutual funds are outperforming their benchmarks, the lowest share since 2019…
… while the average fundamental long/short hedge fund underperformed the S&P 500 by 200bps, which is yet another reason for the relentless rotation out of actively managed funds and into much cheaper, passive ones which deliver the same if not better results.
Goldman’s sentiment indicator spent most of the year in negative territory reflecting light institutional investor positioning, as the wall of worry has been extremely high this year and remains omnipresent. Furthermore, the stubbornly high short interest across the S&P suggests markets will likely continue to see bouts of short squeezes, pushing them above fair value.
As we have detailed extensively throughout 2025, three investor groups that have shown up as noteworthy buyers of US stocks this year are the retail community, corporates, and foreigners. Goldman data shows that the well informed retail community now only consistently sells stocks when there is significant job loss (as in March of 2020). The retail cohort’s most significant buy imbalances were in early April post liberation day, when retail got it right and professional investors were dead wrong.
Meanwhile, companies again repurchased over $1 trillion of their shares in 2025 making it a top 3 buyback year in the history of the stock market, and as authorizations continue to ramp, $1 trillion annual corporate bids will be the new norm on the go forward, unless the Mag 7 are forced to plow all their free cash flow into capex… capex which accounted for a material portion of US growth in 2025.
The combination of aggressive retail buying and corporate buybacks provided a higher floor for the market at the index level, continuing to frustrate the HF and MF communities which just can’t get a dip that’s big enough for them to feel safe to buy. Meanwhile, despite ongoing debates around US exceptionalism (which contrary to leftist narratives, did not end when Trump entered the White House), foreign investors were the single largest source of US equity demand in 2025. Foreign investors bought nearly $280 billion in May and June this year, continuing the usual pattern of elevated foreign investor demand after the US dollar weakened and US equities underperformed.
Turning to the Fed, after putting rate cuts on hold in December 2024 – just after Trump won the election – Jerome Powell, facing a daily barrage of insults from Trump virtually non stop in 2025, pivoted back to dovish and cut rates by 25bps in September, October, and in December; not only that, but as noted above, the Fed resumed QE Lite announcing it would purchase a minimum of $40BN in Treasury Bills every month.
Lower rates, a weaker dollar, a resilient consumer, solid earnings, 2% GDP growth, and cautious sentiment make Goldman – and most other banks all of which have an average S&P price target well in the 7000 range – believe the US stock market will be the best place to be in 2026.
And speaking of Goldman, its baseline economic forecast is that growth reaccelerates to 2 – 2.5% in 2026 because of reduced tariff drag, tax cuts, and easier financial conditions. Standard models suggest that this should boost job creation and stabilize the unemployment rate at a level only modestly above September’s 4.44%. Under this forecast, the bank’s core assumption is that the FOMC slows the pace of easing in the first half, pausing in January but still delivering two more cuts in March and June which push the funds rate down to a terminal level of 3 – 3.25%.
Finally, from John Flood’s seat, an average of 17.5 billion shares traded across the US equity market each day this year. For context, this number was 10.8 billion shares in 2020. However, trading has never been more difficult as liquidity is hard to come by as this volume growth is happening off-exchange which traders cannot access. Over 75% of off-exchange volume now trades in OTC market centers, which includes retail flow mostly inaccessible to institutional investors. Fragmentation in the US markets poses further challenges with 16 exchanges, over 30 ATSs and hundreds of OTC liquidity destinations. The average trade size has dropped both on and off exchange, reaching a 15-year low this year of 150 shares per trade. Incidentally, the Retail bid should remain very strong in 2026 as tax refunds spike in early 2026 (2025 were never adjusted to reflect OBBBA and therefore many will be due a large refund). As Flood concludes, “knowing where the bodies lie” has never been more important.
Of course, 2025 was about much more than just markets, and one of the tragic developments of the increasingly polarized US society was the surge in political assassinations, which started in the summer of 2024 with the unsuccessful attempt on Donald Trump’s life, escalated when a troubled young man murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December 2024 to make a political statement, and culminated in September 2025 when a radicalized and brainwashed 22-year-old assassinated Charlie Kirk in broad daylight. Unfortunately, with mental illness largely normalized by the liberal establishment, and with mainstream media brainwashing an entire generation into believing that “killing fascists is ok“, we are confident that this is only the beginning and there will be many more political assassinations in 2026 and beyond.
But while tragic and inexcusable, the sad reality is that there is an entire generation of young Americans who feel an unprecedented degree of anxiety that the American Dream is now hopelessly lost. And, to an extent, one can’t blame them: we started off this website in 2009 with a clear warning that the Fed is the single biggest enemy of American prosperity, the future of the American experiment, and the American way of life, because artificial growth boosted by trillions in budget deficits promptly monetized by the central bank, and culminating in a record $38+ trillion in debt (rising by $1 trillion every few months), which has to be inflated away sooner or later (and judging by the price of gold, it will be “sooner”), will inevitably lead to devastating consequences.
17 years later we have been proven right, as America’s conversion into a banana republic is nearly complete with the vast majority of wealth now held by a handful of corporate shareholders, oligarchs and others within the top 1% of the wealth pyramid, while the middle class is disappearing at an exponential pace, drowned by the tide of rising prices. And with little hope to live for, it is understandable why so many young American men and women (and they/thems) are now willing to suicide themselves at the altar of generational disillusionment, but not before first making a deadly political statement.
In 2025, some tried to nudge the US off its doomed course with the iceberg of fiscal inevitably, most notably Elon Musk who launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in hopes of streamlining and eliminating waste within the US government. We were skeptical, and in February we warned Musk that “what Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. And there things are as status quo as always.” A few months, and one very high profile feud with Donald Trump later, Musk agreed, saying that “the government is basically unfixable…. at the end of the day if you look at our national debt…if AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we’re toast.”
🚨ELON MUSK: “I haven’t been to DC since May. The government is basically unfixable. I applaud David (Sacks’) noble efforts…but at the end of the day if you look at our national debt…if AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we’re toast.” pic.twitter.com/XKSes4fBfq
The DOGE experiment was quietly snuffed out and the uniparty, which thrives on corruption, opacity and waste, won again. That, too, was not lost on either gold or silver, which enjoyed their best year in nearly half a century, as the days of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency draw to a close.
And speaking of Elon, he also deserves congratulations for continuing to convert X (f/k/a Twitter), from what was once the most corrupt and censored social media network in the world controlled by an army of woke, bluepilled Karens, into a bastion of free speech, one which many will agree was instrumental in Trump’s victory on in 2024. Many smirked two years ago this day when we said that “in less than a decade, Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter will seem like one of the century’s biggest bargains.” Fast forward to today when Elon Musk is not only the world’s richest man once more with a staggering net worth of over $600 billion, but he is that by a huge margin, worth some $350 billion more than Larry Page’s $270 billion, and he largely has X to thank for this, even as virtue-signaling corporations (who all work in conjunction with the deep state in hopes of getting some fast-track access to those very generous taxpayer-funded government contracts) continue to do everything in their power to isolate and blacklist both Musk and his various enterprises.
We say this as one of the very first media outlets that was dubbed “conspiracy theorists” by the authorities, leading to repeat attempts to demonetize and deplatform us, and ultimately put us out of business. Oh yes, we’ve been there: we were suspended for half a year on Twitter for telling the truth about Covid, and then we lost most of our advertisers after the Atlantic Council‘s weaponized “fact-checkers” such as Newsguard put us on every ad agency’s black list while anonymous CIA sources at the AP slandered us for being “Kremlin puppets” while – as we have since learned – the campaign to defund ZeroHedge, as well as The Federalist and Breitbart, could ultimately be traced to UK prime minister Kier Starmer. Which reminds us: for those with the means, desire and willingness to support us, please do so by becoming a premium member: we are now almost entirely reader-funded so your financial assistance will be instrumental to ensure our continued survival into 2025 and beyond.
That said, we did get a chuckle when, five years after he almost succeeded in shutting us down in collaboration with Google, Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was sanctioned by the Trump administration and barred from entering the US.
The bottom line, at least for us, is that the past five years have been a stark lesson in how quickly an ad-funded business can disintegrate in this world which makes the dystopian nightmare of 1984 seem more real each day, and we have since taken measures. Five years ago, we launched a paid version of our website, which is entirely ad and moderation free, and offers readers a variety of premium content. It wasn’t our intention to make this transformation but unfortunately we know which way the wind is blowing and it is only a matter of time before the gatekeepers of online ad spending return and block us – and those like us – as traditional media continues to melt away, losing more credibility and readers each and every day. As such, if we are to have any hope in continuing it will come directly from you, our readers. We will keep the free website running for as long as possible, but we are certain that it is only a matter of time before the hammer falls as the deep state retaliates to the shocking loss of 2025 and lashes out at all new media, as the deep state will stop at nothing to silence all independent voices in order to preserve mind control over the population.
As always, we thank all of our readers for making this website – which has never seen one dollar of outside funding (and despite amusing recurring allegations, has certainly never seen a ruble from either Putin or the KGB either, sorry CIA) and has never spent one dollar on marketing – a small (or not so small) part of your daily routine.
Which also brings us to another critical topic: that of fake news, and something we – and others who do not comply with the established narrative – have been accused of. While we find that narrative laughable, after all every single article in this website is backed by facts and links to outside sources, it is clearly a dangerous development, and a very slippery slope that the entire developed world is pushing for what is, when stripped of fancy jargon, internet censorship under the guise of protecting the average person from “dangerous information.” It’s also why we are preparing for the next onslaught against independent thought and why we had no choice but to roll out a premium version of this website.
In addition to the other themes noted above, we expect the crackdown on free speech by various deep state tentacles to accelerate in the coming years (although it will be mostly in the shadows, at least for the time being, until Trump gets bored or tired of fighting the infinitely more powerful octopus that is truly in control of the United States) especially as the following list of Top 20 articles for 2025 reveals, many of the most popular articles in the past year were precisely those which the conventional media would not touch with a ten foot pole, both out of fear of repercussions and because the MSM has now become a PR agency for either a political party or some unelected, deep state bureaucrat, which in turn allowed the alternative media to continue to flourish in an information vacuum and take significant market share from the established outlets by covering topics which established media outlets refuse to do, in the process earning itself the derogatory “fake news” condemnation.
We are also grateful that our readers have, for the 17th year in a row, realized that it is incumbent upon them to decide what is, and isn’t “fake news.”
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And so, before we get into the details of what has now become an annual tradition for the last day of the year, those who wish to jog down memory lane, can refresh our most popular articles for every year during our no longer that brief, 16-year existence, starting with 2009 and continuing with 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 , 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
So without further ado, here are the articles that you, our readers, found to be the most engaging, interesting and popular based on the number of hits, during the past year.
In 20th spot we had a stark reminder that 6 years after the death of Jeffrey Epstein, not a single person has gone to prison for pedophilia or, well, anything else for that matter. And although the left was desperate to distract from their latest, record government shutdown (which achieved nothing) by making a spectacle of the Epstein files hoping that something would emerge damning the president (sorry to break it to you, but if 4 years of Democrat rule led to no Trump-crushing leaks, there is just nothing there), as the number of Epstein-related documents released to the public grew, we did get our first casualty, and it couldn’t have happened to a more worthy public persona as “Larry Summers Goes Into Hiding; Messages Sought Epstein’s Advice On Cheating With Daughter Of CCP Official.” And while the public destruction of what little was left of Larry Summers’ reputation was certainly a step in the right direction, if not the one his liberal friends were hoping for, we can only hope that many more corrupt oligarchs will follow in his footsteps.
Number 19 was the story of one of the biggest home runs of Elon’s DOGE, which failed to slow down the rate at which the giant American budget deficit black hole swallowed trillions and pushed up govt debt by the same amount, but it did succeed in dismantling several openly evil government departments which for decades had been a front for even worse three-letter government agencies spreading deep state Pax American across the globe. That’s what happened in early 2025, when we learned that the notorious CIA spy cutout, “USAID Funded Massive ‘News’ Platform, Extending ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’ To Billions Worldwide.” Not surprisingly, just days later when Elon Musk’s DOGE was about to shut the door permanently on this particular deep state tentacle, we got the second, and more important part, of the story (which was also the 17th most popular article of 2025), namely that “USAID Staff Ordered To Destroy Evidence.“
The 18th most read article of the year was on the lighter side, metaphorically speaking, and was a reminder that while Democrats in power may try to impose their perverted DEI ideals on the population in a desperate attempt to root out society’s most basic instincts, the desires of warm-blooded males can never be wiped out, especially when they go hand in hand with meme stock mania, as we learned in “Sydney Sweeney’s Breasts Spark American Eagle Meme Stock Frenzy.” And whether it was the glorious mammaries of the unwoke actress, or just a return of animal spirits, American Eagle stock not only outperformed bitcoin, and many AI names this year, but it closed 2025 at the highest level in four years. We wonder what female body parts comparable copycat stocks will use to achieve the same effect…
Our 17th most read article of the year was written just days before the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, and it was the just as tragic cold-blooded murder of the unarmed and defenseless Iryna Zarutska, who was butchered by a deranged black person with a hatred for white people. The senseless attack and the even more gruesome aftermath of her lying in a pool of blood as she bled to death with barely anyone coming to her help is what we called “The Image That Killed The Democrats In 2026 And Beyond.” Although having since learned to what lengths democrats will go to rig and manipulate elections, we may have to revise that statement.
2025 was a year that mercifully saw the unwind of many fake narratives, and one of them, which also was the 16th most popular article of the year, was that Ukraine would somehow be able to oppose Russia in the ongoing war. Contrary to media reports that Ukraine was this close to ending the conflict any day now, and that Russia was suffering catastrophic losses, the reality was in fact just the opposite as we learned in March when “Thousands Of Ukraine Troops Were Suddenly Facing Encirclement In Russia’s Kursk.” Since then it has gone from bad to worse for Ukraine, which is suffering loss after loss in the Donbass region, while the noose around Zelensky is getting uncomfortably tight after his closest political aide was hounded out of Kiev for corruption that would make even career US politicians blush. The cherry on top, Trump’s now unyielding demands that Ukraine concede territory, hold presidential elections, and sign a peace treaty with Russia, indicate that the biggest military conflict of the 21st century may finally be drawing to a close.
The 15th most read article of the year saw the end of yet another fake news narrative, the one that defined much of the past decade ever since the first Trump administration, namely that the president was somehow beholden to Russia, a carefully fabricated story that consumed America for years. In the end, however, it turned out that Russiagate was nothing more than another carefully orchestrated Democrat propaganda masterpiece, and this time justice might even be served as “Barack Obama Is Now Squarely In Russiagate Crosshairs.” Whether or not Obama, who facilitated what was in retrospect a treasonous coup, ends up in prison is to be determined, but as we said in July, his actions were the “Betrayal Of Every American.”
Turning the page on sordid tales of political woe, we go to the 14th most popular post of 2025, in which we explained that “Something Extraordinary Is Taking Place In The Gold Vaults Below Manhattan” and showed how at the end of January amid fears of escalating trade tensions, the gold vaults that make up the CME system, those belonging to the likes of JPMorgan, Brinks and HSBC, had seen an blistering accumulation of physical gold to record levels, while vaulted gold elsewhere around the world quietly evaporated. This historic imbalance would lead to shocking reverberations for the physical metal for much of the rest of the year, and would culminate in the biggest increase in the price of gold since 1979.
The 13th most read article of the year was one that covered the year’s most tragic event: the death of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk, one which the president called a “Dark Moment for America” as “Trump Addresses The Nation After Kirk Assassination.” Taking place just over a year after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the increasing frequency of political assassinations in the US is a testament to the liberals’ aggressive pursuit to normalize murder (and mental disease) in the name of “fighting fascism”, when the only fascists in the US are those who brainwash their pathological supporters into believing that the killing of an adversary solves something. Which, unfortunately, is why we expect many more such senseless killings in 2026 and beyond.
In 12th spot was a vivid reminder that politics under Trump was anything but life as usual, when “Trump Stunned South Africa’s Ramaphosa, Played ‘Kill The Boer’ Clip In The Oval Office, Destroys NBC Reporter.” Whereas previous administrations would have bent over backwards due to faked white guilt to appease the South African regime, Trump played hard ball and encouraged by Elon Musk, who clearly laid out South Africa’s brutal, anti-white policies, the president made it clear that, at least when it came to racial matters, the new boss was anything but the old boss. There would be more, as the US further snubbed South Africa through boycotts and punitive actions related to the G20 summit, stemming from Trump’s claims about “white genocide” and land seizures, coupled with disagreements over climate/DEI priorities, leading the US to skip South Africa’s 2025 G20 and bar South Africa from the 2026 summit.
The 11th most popular article of 2025 was also a tragic preview of what has emerged as one of the biggest stories of corruption and fraud in 2025, as a “Fake Cop Assassinates Minnesota Democrat Who Blocked Health Care for Illegals.” With much of the independent media now focusing on waste and abuse of taxpayer money by the Somali population in Minnesota, the June shooting by Vance Luther Boelter – a Democrat activist and 2019 appointee of Gov. Tim Walz – of MN lawmakers democrats Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman, just didn’t make sense; why would Democrats kill other Democrats. Unless, of course, someone was desperate to hide just how deep the rabbit hole went. Well, when it comes to taxpayer abuse in Minnesota, we have since learned that rabbit hole indeed goes to unprecedented depths, and we are confident that we will only learn more as the full extent of
2025 was a year rife with geopolitical conflict, and it wasn’t just Ukraine: in June, the Middle East was roiled by the most serious military escalation in decades, when Iran and Israel started a shooting war, threatening to drag in the entire region with some even speculating that nukes could be exchanged. And while at first, “Trump Rejects Netanyahu’s Request To Join War, As Israel Needs Large US Bunker Buster Bombs,” ultimately Trump did as Israel demanded, and not only supported Israel in a move that has resulted in a dramatic schism across the conservative movement (pro vs anti Israel) but also provided US bunker buster bombs to take out Iran’s nuclear centrifuge facilities. After Iran lobbed several theatrical cruise missile waves at Tel Aviv, and suffered heavy losses, the conflict quickly faded but it is likely only a matter of time before Tehran (potentially a nuclear-armed Tehran) seeks vengeance, leading to an even more serious conflict in 2026 and beyond.
The 9th most read article of 2025 was a modest detour into levity, and one which caught many unaware when yet another company decided to go woke and quickly went broke, dragged into irrelevance – and bankruptcy – by years of imposed DEI standards: “Hooters Goes Tits-Up As Bankruptcy May Come Within Months.” Here’s to hoping that whoever acquires Hooters out of bankruptcy can recreate it as the cultural icon of middle Americana it deserves to be.
The 8th most read article of the past year dealt with something far more serious, and unfortunately proved yet again that the conspiracy theorists were right: Dr Patric Soon-Shiong, founder of ImmunityBio and owner of the Los Angeles Times, made major headlines in March when “Billionaire Cancer Researcher Says Covid & Vaccine Likely Causing Surge In Aggressive Cancers.” To be sure, speculation that covid vaccines were potentially deadly had emerged long before his startling confession, but at the time anyone who voices skepticism was promptly canceled and erased. We can only hope that the scientific establishment has at least learned something from that catastrophic episode in American history.
Earlier we said that Elon’s experiment in streamlining the US government was a failure after even he realized that it is hopeless to slowdown the pace of spending, but at least it was eye-opening: for the first time, thanks to DOGE, most Americans got a full view of how the sausage is made, and how pervasive corruption and waste are in the corridors of the Capitol. Needless to say, while everyone assumed as much, the confirmation was a shock, which is why so many were amazed to learn that “Musk Reveals Treasury Has Been Auto-Paying Everyone, ‘Even Known Terrorist Groups’“, the 7th most popular article of the year. Unfortunately, unless an impartial 3rd party continues policing US government spending, nothing will change and we will get more stories like this in the future.
Once upon a time, Democrats were the party of tolerance and peace, or so the legend goes. That all changed in recent years when after relentless media brainwashing and normalizing that “killing fascists is fine” and that pretty much anyone to the right of communists is a fascist, not to mention that mental illness is something to be proud of, many Democrats emerged as a radicalized, violent group intent on inflicting harm if not outright murder their ideological opponents. In retrospect, it should not have been a surprise but the news that “Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Is A “Radical Left ANTIFA-Adjacent Creep”, Wrote “Hey Fascist” On Bullet Casing” was big enough to make the 6th most read article of the year. Here too, we are confident that much more bloodshed lies in store as the seed of leftist violence are only just starting to bear fruit.
And speaking of catastrophic liberal policies, the very first major event of 2025 was a stark reminder of how bad things can get in the world of unbridled Democratic policies, when “Unprecedented Fires” Scorch 3,000 Acres In Los Angeles Area, Forcing 49,000 To Evacuate“ quickly became the 5th most read article of the year. The fires would never have been able to unleash that kind of destruction if local administrators had taken proactive measures and engaged in controlled burn ins, not to mention had given the local fire department access to water. Unfortunately, with California now a vibrant symbol of all that is broken in the US, the worst case scenario promptly emerged and it has only gotten worse since then, with many if not all of the burned down houses frozen in time, owners unable to rebuild and move on due to, you guessed it, suffocating liberal policies.
We are not done with DOGE and government corruption: the 4th most read article of the year was news that “DOGE Is Investigating Feds Whose Net Worths Have Exploded After Samantha Power Bombshell.” The announcement, which came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to work with DOGE, follows a bombshell report that Samantha Power, former head of USAID, saw her net worth explode to $30 million despite an annual salary under $250,000. Unfortunately, to this day the investigation has gone nowhere, meanwhile there are dozens if not hundreds of US politicians who have become multimillionaires with a salary that is barely enough for a family of four to live comfortably.
Going back to finance, our 3rd most read article of the year was an in depth analysis of what happened during the April meltdown, one which we correctly warned about ten days in advance, and which was precipitated by yet another blow up of the basis trade, the same trade which nearly brought the world to a halt in March 2020; we described all this in ““Absolutely Spectacular Meltdown”: The Basis Trade Is Blowing Up, Sparking Multi-Trillion Liquidation Panic.” More importantly, it was the massive surge in bond yields in the days following Trump’s Liberation Day that prompted the president to announce a reversal in his tariff policies and also set the market’s low for the year, translating into a nearly 2000 point ascent for the S&P since April.
The 2nd most popular post of the year is also the most topical as we close out the year: thanks to intrepid citizen journalism from Nick Shirley, America got a stark reminder that corruption across the US is vast not just at the federal level but also state as news emerged that hundreds of millions (if not more) had been embezzled by various immigrant groups in Minnesota and in other democrat states , as detailed in “Quality Learing Center” First Domino To Fall As Somali-Linked Minneapolis Daycare Scandal Shocks Nation.“Just like many of the other top stories in this list, America got a glimpse into the corruption, but since politicians on both sides benefit, don’t expect anything to change.
Finally, the most popular post of 2025 was a stark reminder that the US has not been a Democratic Republic in decades, and that those in control are unelected bureaucrats, unaccountable to anyone… or almost anyone because at the start of 2025, a brief shock rippled across the deep state as we described in the #1 most popular article of the year: “Eruption In “BleachBit,” “Wipe Hard Drive,” “Offshore Bank” Searches In DC Suggest Deep State Panic Mode.” Unfortunately, the panic was brief, and after a few months of pushback against Doge, and one high profile scandal between Trump and Musk later, things in DC quietly returned to normal, with the Deep State once again in control of everything and just biding its time until it can once again place a puppet of its own choosing in the White House.
And with all that behind us, and as we wave goodbye to another bizarre, exciting, surreal year, what lies in store for 2026, and the next half-decade?
We don’t know: as our frequent readers are aware, we do not pretend to be able to predict the future and we don’t try, despite repeat baseless allegations that we constantly forecast the collapse of civilization: we leave the predicting to the “smartest people in the room” who year after year have been consistently wrong about everything, and never more so than in 2025 when all the experts predicted soaring inflation as a result of Trump’s tariffs, alongside a sharp drop in the stock market… only to flip-flop and concede that not only is tariff inflation not coming but the market is set to close at fresh record highs…
Wall Street strategists’ year-end target on S&P 500 at different points throughout year…
… in the process adding strategists and analysts to the clueless ranks of economists, mainstream media and the professional polling class, not to mention all those “scientists” who made a mockery of both the scientific method and the “expert class” with their catastrophically bungled response to the covid pandemic, and then the response to the response, and so on… We merely observe, find what is unexpected, entertaining, amusing, surprising or grotesque in an increasingly bizarre, sad, and increasingly crazy world, and then just write about it.
We do know, however, that with the Fed having flip-flopped yet again, and re-pivoting dovishly just months after the latest hawkish pivot when Trump was elected, only to back off following a now all-out war of words between the White House and the Marriner Eccles building (located just a few hundred feet away) which led to the launch of QE Lite (ahead of a full-blown QE soon) with home prices and rents still refusing to drop despite mortgage rates peaking around 7%, and overall prices stuck at all time highs, it is not Trump’s trade war but year of catastrophic monetary and fiscal policy that will inevitably lead to another surge in inflation right around the time of the midterms (Trump will, of course, do everything in his power to delay the inevitable until at least 2027) and Jerome Powell becoming not the second coming of saint Paul Volcker but of satan Arthur Burns.
But even ignoring the impact on prices, one can’t just undo almost 20 years of central bank mistakes by willing them away (especially after Elon Musk and DOGE confirmed what we said at the start of the year, namely that the level of corruption and out of control spending is so embedded in every corridor of the US government that it will never be eradicated); after all it is the trillions and trillions in monetary stimulus, the helicopter money, the MMT idiocy, and the endless deficit funding by central banks that sent gold and silver into the clearest red alert warning yet that hyperinflation and a fiat collapse is looming, and that the current attempt to stuff 15 years of toothpaste back into the tube, will be a catastrophic disaster.
We are confident, however, that in the end it will be the very final backstoppers of the status quo regime, the central banking emperors of the New Normal, who will again be revealed as completely naked. When that happens and what happens after is anyone’s guess. But, as we have promised – and delivered – every year for the past 17, we will be there to document every aspect of it.
Finally, and as always, we wish all our readers the best of luck in 2026, with much success in trading and every other avenue of life. We bid farewell to 2025 with our traditional and unwavering year-end promise: ZeroHedge will be there each and every day – usually with a cynical smile (and with the CIA clearly on our ass now) – helping readers expose, unravel and comprehend the fallacy, fiction, fraud and farce that defines every aspect of our increasingly broken economic, political and financial system.
Former TSA agents are sounding the alarm on Somali men routinely flying out with suitcases crammed full of cash, undoubtedly linked to massive taxpayer-funded fraud schemes that could be funneling money to terrorist groups overseas.
A former agent from Minnesota described witnessing “Somali men flying out of Minnesota with suitcases filled with cash” amounting to “$1 billion over 5 years,” including one instance of a suitcase “filled with brand new passports.”
These groups were “always waived through,” with a clear “trail” leading back to implicated parties, the former agent claims.
WHAT
Former TSA agent says she saw Somali men flying out of Minnesota with suitcases filled with cash.
$1 billion over 5 years
They also once had a suitcase filled with brand new passports.
Recent reports from independent outlets like Alpha News highlight these claims, where a former TSA agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recalled seeing “suitcases filled with millions of dollars of cash, and the couriers were always Somali men traveling in pairs.”
I just received a message from a TSA agent in Phoenix who tells me a Somali man with a Minnesota DL flies through Pheonix every 7-10 days with a suitcase of around $250k cash. He told agents that families in Minnesota send cash back home to Sudan and Somalia through Dubai and he… https://t.co/UEV8y23LF6pic.twitter.com/NifyPpFsX6
She connected the dots to broader fraud, noting an “obvious connection to billions of dollars of fraud” in the state.
Another whistleblower from Phoenix reported a Somali man with a Minnesota driver’s license flying through every 7-10 days with around “$250k cash” in a suitcase.
He claimed to be a “registered courier” sending family remittances to Sudan and Somalia via Dubai. The agent even offered the passenger’s name for investigation by authorities like the FBI or USDOT.
These revelations tie directly into ongoing exposes of Somali-linked fraud in Minnesota, where citizen journalists have uncovered millions in questionable taxpayer payouts to seemingly inactive daycares and care facilities.
The FBI is treating these cases as the “tip of the iceberg,” networks of shell companies appear designed to siphon funds, with one investigation alone spotting $110 million in dubious payments.
But where does this money ultimately end up? A source told City Journal: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
Al-Shabaab, a Somali-based Islamic terrorist group affiliated with al-Qa’ida, has killed more U.S. citizens than any other affiliate and stands as its wealthiest branch.
This a real quote a source gave City Journal:
“The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
Al-Shabaab is a Somali based islamic t*rrorist group who has kiIIed more U.S. citizens than any other al-Qa’ida affiliate and is also al-Qa’ida’s wealthiest component. pic.twitter.com/kc87S00v43
Citizen journalists nationwide are now replicating these probes, visiting facilities in states like Washington to document empty or non-operational sites receiving hefty government funds.
Washington State Attorney General is now accusing journalists of “harassment” for investigating fraud and fake daycares
Democrats don’t want us uncovering fraud because they’re the ones committing it and benefiting from it pic.twitter.com/3ssudjHQa5
Yet, instead of gratitude, they’re facing backlash. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has accused these investigators of “harassment” for scrutinizing fraud in fake daycares, claiming Democrats “don’t want us uncovering fraud because they’re the ones committing it and benefiting from it.”
The pushback escalates further with outright cover-up attempts. Washington State Senator Lisa Wellman has pre-filed legislation to conceal information about daycares and their operators from public view, effectively shielding potential fraudsters from scrutiny.
Democrats are now using their positions of power to actively cover up their fraud schemes https://t.co/rRc8dtumhL
This pattern reeks of a system rigged to protect insiders while American taxpayers foot the bill for schemes that undermine national security.
With billions vanishing into thin air—or worse, into terrorist coffers—it’s high time for federal probes to dismantle these networks and restore accountability before more “waived through” suitcases slip away.
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Jack Smith Undermined Testimony Of J6 Committee’s Star Witness
Former special Counsel Jack Smith sat for a closed-door session on December 17 before the House Judiciary Committee and wound up undermining the January 6 Committee’s star witness.
During his eight-hour grilling by House lawmakers on his Trump probes – the 2020 election mess and the classified docs saga – he made a stunning admission about Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, conceding that it was nothing more than hearsay.
Hutchinson, a former senior aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, claimed that President Trump was aware that some of the Jan. 6 attendees were armed, and that Trump dramatically lunged to grab the wheel of the presidential SUV when he was told he couldn’t go to the Capitol – which has been utterly dispelled as bullshit by the rest of the passengers.
“If I were a defense attorney and Ms. Hutchinson were a witness, the first thing I would do was seek to preclude some of her testimony because it was hearsay, and I don’t have the full range of her testimony in front of me right now, but I do remember that that was a decent part of it,” Smith told the committee.
The transcript, which dropped on New Year’s Eve, proves that even Smith saw through the hype of the committee’s star witness.
Smith dissected her big claims head-on. He probed her story about Trump spotting armed rallygoers and shrugging it off. He zeroed in on the wild tale of Trump lunging for the presidential limo steering wheel. Hutchinson testified that after returning to the White House on January 6, 2021, she walked toward the chief of staff’s office and noticed then-Assistant Director of the United States Secret Service Office, Tony Ornato, waiting outside. He waved her into his nearby office, shut the door, and she saw Secret Service agent Bobby Engel sitting inside, looking shaken and confused.
According to Hutchinson’s testimony, Ornato asked, “Did you effing hear what happened in The Beast?” Hutchinson said she had just arrived and had no idea. Ornato then described what he claimed occurred inside the presidential vehicle. According to him, President Trump believed he was heading to the Capitol after being told the move was still possible. Engel informed the president that it was not secure and that they were returning to the West Wing.
Hutchinson testified that Ornato said Trump became enraged and yelled, “I’m the effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now.” She said Ornato claimed that Trump reached for the steering wheel, Engel grabbed his arm, and Trump then lunged at Engel, with Ornato gesturing toward Engel’s clavicles as he described it.
Cassidy Hutchinson testifies that she was told that as then-President Donald Trump was being driven back to the White House after the Jan. 6 rally that he demanded to be taken to the Capitol and tried to grab the steering wheel from a Secret Service agent. https://t.co/JefVhEsY0bpic.twitter.com/uUyQcnSlLG
Smith’s team, however, talked to her sources. They pulled in Secret Service officers from the scene. Hutchinson’s story simply didn’t add up.
“We interviewed, I think, the people she talked to, and we also interviewed, if my recollection is correct, officers who were there, including the officer who was in the car,” Smith explained. “And that officer, if my recollection is correct, and I want to make sure I’m right about this, said that President Trump was very angry and wanted to go to the Capitol, but the version of events that he explained was not the same as what Cassidy Hutchinson said she heard from somebody secondhand.”
Smith went on to explain that “a number of the things that she gave evidence on were secondhand hearsay, were things that she had heard from other people, and, as a result, that testimony may or may not be admissible, and it certainly wouldn’t be as powerful as firsthand testimony.”
And then there’s the fact that Hutchinson didn’t tell her steering wheel yarn during her early committee chats. For that, she blamed her former lawyer, Stefan Passantin. Instead, that fantasy story only surfaced during her public hearing in June 2022. Other witnesses quickly poked holes in it.
This revelation guts the January 6 narrative Democrats have peddled for years. That panel staged television hearings to nail Trump. Hutchinson was the star of their show. Her hearsay fueled the outrage machine. Now the guy who chased Trump admits her testimony was hearsay, contradicted, and wouldn’t have been admissible in a court of law.
Despite this huge revelation, the New York Times, which also reported on Smith’s testimony, did not address Smith’s comments on Hutchinson’s testimony in its own report. “Jack Smith, the former special counsel, defended his decision to twice indict President Trump, accusing him of ‘exploiting’ violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to a transcribed interview released by House Republicans Wednesday,” the report began.
Hutchinson’s name appears nowhere in the New York Times report, but it includes Smith’s testimony, doubling down on his belief in Trump’s guilt.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith told lawmakers.
I’ve been writing about the inherent fraud behind third-world immigration for many years now, including the rarely addressed issue of remittances flowing from migrants in the US back to their countries of origin. Third worlders tend to act like a nest of vampires, bleeding the US and giving indirect sustenance to their failing home economies. This process is heavily enabled by foreign governments that rely on this river of dollars to stay afloat. This is why political leaders in countries like Mexico and India lobby so hard to keep US borders open. They need that cash.
One problem I have consistently seen with mainstream coverage of this issue is that it often overlooks the fact that migrants who steal from American taxpayers almost always have help from people within our government.
To be sure, most Americans understand that the Biden Administration, for example, widely supported open borders and the mass invasion of foreigners. What they might not understand (until recently) is how deeply blue states and blue city governments have been involved in the scams. Minnesota is a prime test case.
The question needs to be asked: Who taught these third world migrants how to set up false business fronts to defraud taxpayer subsidies? Who has been hiding their blatantly illegal activities? How have they been getting away with the scam for so long despite incidents of high level whistleblowers calling out their criminality?
I often hear the argument (largely from migrants and leftists) that because these people are so clever in their racketeering they deserve to stay in the US. In other words, why would we want to kick out hundreds of thousand of people who are “so resourceful.”
First I would point out that it’s a common misconception that conmen are highly intelligent. You don’t have to be a polymath to rip innocent people off, you just have to be evil. Evil is often mistaken for genius because high trust societies have a hard time comprehending predatory behavior. They don’t catch it because they don’t expect it. Midwestern states like Minnesota used to be high trust, but that is quickly changing.
That said, a fraudster would at least need to have a comprehensive understanding of the system he intends to scam, not to mention the basic intelligence needed to enact the scam.
The majority of migrants from countries like Somalia are generally low IQ – They are not very smart, which means the only explanation for their success in fraud so far is that they have help from the very system they are defrauding.
This is not hyperbole meant to insult Somalis, it’s simply a statistical fact. Somalia has one of the lowest IQ populations in the world, with the average IQ of Somali refugees and migrants sitting at 67. The country also flounders near the bottom of every list of average IQ measurements among hundreds of nations.
To put this in perspective, the average IQ score of the US population is 100, along with around 34% of the global population. Less than 9% of the global populace has an IQ over 120. Less than 1% have an IQ over 135 (considered “gifted” level intelligence). But what about the low end of the spectrum? The number of people within the global population with an IQ lower than 70 is 2% – Meaning the average IQ in Somalia is rare because it’s so minuscule.
These people are not criminal masterminds; they are useful pawns in a bigger scheme.
In 2018, Minneapolis TV station KMSP-Fox 9 aired an investigative report alleging that over $100 million in CCAP funds had been fraudulently obtained, primarily by Somali-owned or operated daycare centers in the Twin Cities area. A whistleblower from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) claimed much of the money was leaving the country, potentially reaching Somalia and the Middle East.
Nearly 20% of Somalia’s total GDP comes from remittances from migrants in the US back to Somalia.
There were around 60 convictions at the conclusion of the case, however, a wider investigation into Somalian fraud networks was not pursued, at least not with much enthusiasm. The exposure of the fraud was met with an immediate spin campaign, asserting that the case was racially motivated.
Protests and propaganda efforts were organized by an NGO called CAIR-Minnesota (the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations). CAIR receives funding from a number of leftist NGOs and also garnered funds from the federal government under the Biden Administration.
Minnesota politicians closely associated with CAIR include State Rep. Ilhan Omar, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Governor Tim Walz.
In the case of YouTuber Nick Shirley’s recent exposure of Somali front businesses, Democrat leaders, the leftist media and NGOs have once again come to the rescue of the alleged fraudsters. Shirley has been accused of “white supremacy” merely for pointing out possible criminal activity, and anyone supporting him is accused of racism. There is a well-oiled machine protecting these people, helping them to escape scrutiny.
When Somali related fraud cases in Minnesota go before a judge, they are often dismissed despite ample evidence. The judges involved, including Sarah West, Amber Brennan, and Hilary Caligiurare, are ALL Democrat appointed.
Democrats in government have been integral to the continued survival of Somali fraud networks in the US. Minnesota under Tim Walz offers extensive state benefits for “refugees”, including ample welfare (over 81% of Somalis in Minnesota are on welfare).
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) provides low-interest loans (typically $5,000–$150,000) to startups and expanding businesses owned/operated by minorities, women, veterans, persons with disabilities, or low-income individuals. The institution does not provide public data on who is getting these loans, but Somali migrants seem to be enjoying special access.
The loans help Somalis to launch the very businesses at the center of the current fraud controversy.
James Clark, the Inspector General of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) as of late 2025, has publicly raised concerns about fraud in DHS-administered programs, including those implicated in cases involving Somali providers (e.g., Medicaid services like autism therapy and housing stabilization, as well as childcare-related issues tied to the ongoing scandals).
Clearly, nothing was done by Democrats from 2018 to today, at least nothing that would lead to actual arrests. But why?
The Somali motive is clear: They have established what is essentially a raider colony in the US designed to siphon billions of dollars from American taxpayers and transfer those funds overseas. They see an opportunity to plunder and they’ve taken it. And, with Democrat leaders running interference, the migrants are emboldened to expand.
The Democrats, however, have more complex and long term plans. Since the Obama era Somalis have received expedited immigration and citizen status because of the instability within their home country. As “refugees” they get fast-tracked. This helps us to answer the question “why use Somalis?”
They are also 99% Muslim, and around 80% of Muslims migrants vote Democrat. In states with tight elections, adding 100,000 migrant voters who represent a surefire demographic for progressive candidates can tip the majority of elections in the favor of Dems for decades. In Minnesota’s major elections, Democrats won all contested statewide executive offices, all U.S. Senate races, and the presidential vote in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
In most of these elections Dems won by 100,000 to 200,000 votes. In other words, Dems have secured a loyal majority edge through incentivized third world immigration. And in exchange, they allow migrants fast citizenship, easy access to subsidies and minimal scrutiny as they commit theft.
I would argue that the partnership goes well beyond incentives and suggest that Democrats and NGOs are training migrants on how to commit fraud. Investigations into Somali businesses need to extend to local Democrat leaders and any organizations that closely align with migrant operations.
I often hear the argument that the number of migrants involved in this criminal activity is small in comparison to the 100,000 plus migrants in Minnesota. I’m not going to explain per capita to these people yet again, but I would point out that I see no Somalis jumping at the chance to apologize for the behavior of their very tribal community.
None of them are coming forward to demand transparency. None of them are acting to police their own. There is absolutely no attempt at assimilation with America’s society or laws.
Instead, we see Somalis all over social media defending the criminals, dismissing the evidence and even bragging about the extent of the crimes. This is why Donald Trump referred to them as “garbage”; because that’s what they are. It is apparently a feature built into their culture – To justify theft as a means to assert dominance over other cultures they see as prey.
Much like a dog marking its territory, third world cultures tend to view criminal actions against foreigners as a way to “leave their scent” and send a message to the host population that they are in charge.
As I have argued over the years, immigrants see the US as a big fat cash cow waiting to be milked. They just didn’t have the mental capacity to take advantage on a large scale until our own bureaucrats and non-profits started helping them. Deporting these migrant groups is necessary, but it is also a temporary solution to a bigger problem.
In the end, the only way to stop the plunder is to punish the politicians and NGOs behind the curtain. Examples need to be made.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Socialist Mamdani Sworn In As NYC Mayor, Vows To Replace “Rugged Individualism With The Warmth Of Collectivism”
Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in at midnight as New York City’s 112th mayor, placing his left hand on the Quran as New York State Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath of office in a private ceremony at a former City Hall subway station that has been closed since the 1940s. It has become customary for NYC mayors to take the oath at midnight, ahead of a larger swearing-in celebration the next day.
Zohran Mamdani sworn in as NYC mayor on the Quran hours ago.
First Muslim in the role, leading the center of US finance.
In a second swearing-in Thursday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VA) administered the oath of office to Mamdani. According to The New York Times, Zohran used three Qurans throughout the day, including his grandfather’s and one dating to the late 18th or early 19th century, for last night’s ceremony.
MOMENTS AGO: Sen. Bernie Sanders swears in Zohran Mamdani as the next mayor of New York City. pic.twitter.com/rf8saXq3pC
Mamdani’s ascent has been nothing short of groundbreaking for progressives. His socialist platform for tackling affordability, from free bus rides to government-run supermarkets, amounts to parasitic redistribution policies intended to paper over the damage Democrats caused to the nation over decades, including out-of-control “green” spending which helped fuel the worst inflation shock in a generation and mass migration pushed rents higher.
Mamdani has blasted President Trump as a “fascist,” while the president has labeled him a Marxist. However, during a November meeting, the two agreed to work together to make NYC more affordable.
Spotted earlier at Zohran’s inauguration at City Hall…
🚨Domestic terrorist Mahmoud Khalil spotted at the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani at City Hall.
Shameful that he is still even on American soil, the world is laughing at us. pic.twitter.com/X2dQXk8u5k
The new mayor didn’t shirk from his socialist identity upon taking office, vowing to draw the city together by replacing “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
MAYOR MAMDANI: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” pic.twitter.com/3LIOVHdKSy
Speaking to GB News, Chairman of Republicans Overseas UK Greg Swenson noted, “And I think that’s the least of the problems with Comrade Mamdani. You know, this is a lot. He has a lot of similarities to Sadiq Khan in London, and I think we can sort of see this movie before. You know, same with Chicago where we’ve had Brandon Johnson, who’s a well-known Christian—allegedly very much a progressive left socialist. And so I think the similarities are vast between Mamdani and Sadiq Khan.”
Chairman of Republicans Overseas UK Greg Swenson reacts after Zohran Mamdani becomes the first New York mayor to be sworn in using a Koran.
Zohran Mamdani is set to be the first Mayor of New York City to be sworn in on the Quran.
Swearing on the Quran implies a commitment to Islamic law (Sharia) over U.S. laws. This erodes the separation of church and state, ignoring that the oath is to uphold the Constitution… pic.twitter.com/C1IKjn5lVN
2025 was an extraordinary year for precious metals. Gold, silver, and platinum each outperformed other asset classes, including equities, bitcoin (2024’s best performer), and even indexes tracking artificial intelligence (AI)—one of 2025’s most popular investment themes.
Silver and platinum rose by approximately 170 percent in 2025, while gold returned a highly respectable 73 percent.
Among AI stocks, only Palantir outperformed gold.
Why such stellar performance from assets once derided by governments as “barbarous relics” and shunned by investors as outdated?
The reason I wrote at the start of last year that we should “expect gold to shine in 2025” was because global conditions had fundamentally – and perhaps irreversibly – shifted.
I noted then that the primary factors driving gold prices included shifting geopolitics prompting central bank stockpiling, investor concerns over the creditworthiness of the U.S. government (and, by extension, the dollar), persistent inflation eroding the purchasing power of paper currencies, and widening supply-demand imbalances.
These forces are unlikely to abate in 2026.
As a result, we should expect precious metals—including gold, silver, and platinum—to continue performing well in the coming year. Indeed, deglobalization and the continued push toward resource nationalism and the protection of critical materials lend additional support not only to these metals but also to the broader commodities complex.
In recent years, central banks around the world have reduced their purchases of U.S. Treasury securities—formerly their largest reserve asset—and have instead been stockpiling gold. China, Russia, and India have all been significant buyers, as have many smaller, independent nations eager to remain outside the U.S.–China conflict.
Observing how the United States imposed financial sanctions on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, many countries have concluded that dependence on a dollar-dominated financial system is too risky. They fear that the U.S. government may weaponize the dollar system—via financial sanctions or trade policy—and they’re seeking alternatives. Shifting from Treasurys to gold and other metals offers a hedge. A prominent example of efforts to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar is the development of alternative currencies partially backed by gold reserves, such as those being pursued by BRICS nations.
Beyond geopolitics, foreign central banks are concerned about the deteriorating credit condition of the United States, which has been downgraded by all three major ratings agencies. The federal government holds more than $38 trillion in debt—growing by trillions each year—which cannot realistically be repaid except through issuing more debt.
Heavily indebted governments have few options other than allowing inflation to erode the real value of their obligations. The United States cannot default outright, as the dollar is the global reserve currency, and tax increases have political limits. Inflation, then, becomes a hidden tax, steadily undermining the dollar and diminishing household wealth.
A new generation of Americans has now experienced the painful effects of inflation firsthand. Since 2020, the dollar has lost more than 20 percent of its real value—and over 40 percent since 2000. The lesson of inflation, once internalized during the 1970s, had been largely forgotten after decades of relative price stability. But it’s once again relevant as people around the world lose confidence in government-issued money—paper IOUs that lose value annually.
Gold and silver, long regarded as hedges against inflation, are resuming their traditional role as stores of value amid geopolitical, monetary, and economic uncertainty.
Retail investors are also part of this trend, purchasing both gold-backed paper assets and physical bullion. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, tons of metal held by U.S.-based, publicly traded gold ETFs increased by 160 percent. In the first half of the year, 95 million ounces of silver flowed into silver-backed funds globally—surpassing the total for all of 2024. Costco and other retailers now offer gold and silver coins to a growing number of households, many of whom previously saw no need for anything beyond dollars in their pockets or savings accounts.
Gold supply remains constrained due to high production costs and limited new mine development. Meanwhile, silver and platinum have each faced multi-year supply shortages, though for different reasons. These imbalances are unlikely to ease anytime soon—except in the case of a global recession. With the United States and other nations designating these metals as strategic resources, pressure is mounting to develop new domestic sources—a multi-year process. In the meantime, stockpiling is accelerating.
I don’t expect the metals rally to end soon, as the underlying drivers remain intact. While price gains in 2026 may not match 2025’s dramatic surge, these commodities are still poised to advance. Assuming additional interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and other Western central banks—and ongoing government failure to rein in deficits and debt—investor concern about the inflationary effects of loose monetary and fiscal policy will likely persist. This will continue to support gold, silver, platinum, and other commodities and real assets that preserve value against fiat currencies.
Ethics Questions Swirl Around Somalia’s UN Ambassador Tied To Ohio Healthcare Company
Somalia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Abukar Dahir Osman, is facing growing scrutiny over his connections to the Ohio healthcare company Progressive Health Care Services Inc. This comes as federal investigations into suspected Somali-linked welfare fraud, stretching from Minnesota to Washington, Ohio, and Maine, continue to intensify, with allegations that some entities (daycares, healthcare, or transportation service companies) were merely front operations to extract taxpayer funds.
The most entertainingly ironic outcome is the most likely
The story surrounding Osman is certainly a strange one, with the news and analysis outlet Horn Diplomat publishing a report titled “Ethics Questions Surround Somalia’s UN Envoy, as U.S. Healthcare Fraud Scandals Heighten Scrutiny.”
Here’s the report:
Public corporate filings and professional records have raised questions about transparency and potential conflicts of interest involving Abukar Dahir Osman, Somalia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
The scrutiny comes as Somalia prepares to assume the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council on January 1, 2026, a role that places the country at the center of global diplomatic decision-making on peace, security and sanctions.
Ohio state corporate records show that Osman was listed as the statutory agent for Progressive Health Care Services Inc, a Cincinnati-based home healthcare company, while simultaneously serving as Somalia’s top diplomat at the United Nations.
Filings with the Ohio Secretary of State, electronically submitted on October 22, 2018, identify Osman as the company’s agent. He had been appointed Somalia’s UN ambassador in June 2017, creating an overlap of nearly two years between his diplomatic role and his involvement with a U.S. healthcare provider operating within Medicaid-funded systems supported by U.S. taxpayers.
Professional records, including publicly available LinkedIn information, indicate Osman served as Managing Director of Progressive Health Care Services Inc. from 2014 until May 2019, alongside his UN posting in New York.
The overlap has drawn attention because the U.S. home healthcare sector has repeatedly been identified by federal authorities as one of the areas most vulnerable to fraud, abuse and improper billing.
That vulnerability was highlighted by a sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota, one of the largest public-assistance fraud cases in U.S. history. In an investigation reported by The New York Times, federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program designed to keep children fed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to that reporting, law-enforcement officials said fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, where individuals established companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars in social services that were never provided. Federal prosecutors have said 59 people have been convicted so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds was stolen across three major investigations—an amount exceeding Minnesota’s annual corrections budget.
Prosecutors and state officials have emphasized that such crimes reflect the actions of specific individuals and organizations, not communities as a whole.
Against that broader backdrop, regulatory and compliance records show that Progressive Health Care Services Inc.was subject to billing and compliance scrutiny in 2019. No publicly available court records show that Osman has been charged or convicted of any crime, and no judgment has established criminal liability against him.
Transparency advocates say the timing of the revelations has intensified attention.
“When a country is about to assume the presidency of the Security Council, unresolved questions about financial disclosures and overlapping roles inevitably draw closer scrutiny,” said a governance expert familiar with UN ethics standards.
Somalia’s assumption of the council presidency will place its UN mission in charge of setting agendas, chairing meetings and representing the Security Council before the wider UN membership.
There was no immediate response from Osman or Somalia’s UN mission to requests for comment.
The United Nations maintains an internal ethics framework governing conflicts of interest among senior officials, though oversight of permanent representatives largely depends on disclosures made by member states themselves.
Observers say the case underscores a broader debate over whether diplomatic status should shield officials from scrutiny when regulated industries and taxpayer-funded programs are involved.
As one X user pointed out, “2026 is off to a great start: Somalia (most corrupt nation on Earth) chairs UN Security Council, WHO run by Ethiopia’s Tedros, WTO by Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala. Global governance brought to you by the bottom of the Corruption Index. Time to #DefundTheUN?”
A federal appeals court on New Year’s Eve blocked Hawaii from enforcing a new tax on cruise ship passengers, one day before it was set to go into effect.
Two judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit imposed an injunction on the law, reversing a lower court ruling.
The injunction against Hawaii’s tax is in place pending resolution of appeals, Circuit Judges Andrew Hurwitz and Daniel Bress stated in an order.
Cruise Lines International Association, which challenged the tax, and the Hawaii attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hawaii had taxed short-term accommodations such as hotels.
With Act 96, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, the state increased the tax to 14 percent and extended it to cruise ships.
The law states that Hawaii “is experiencing a climate emergency” due to “the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures,” and that the money garnered from the tax would go toward climate action.
Cruise Lines International Association said the tax violated the U.S. Constitution and a federal law called the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act (RHA) in its lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake, on Dec. 23, 2025, said that may or may not be true while declining to enter a preliminary injunction against the law.
“While the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have not established that they are likely to succeed on the merits because enjoining Act 96 would seemingly give cruise lines preferential treatment over land-based transient accommodations businesses, the Court acknowledges that the Tonnage Clause and the RHA are not litigated often and that the Court may ultimately come to a different conclusion about Act 96 later,” she wrote.
“Nevertheless, because of the ‘vital importance’ of taxes to the states, and because Congress has clearly expressed its intent ’to prevent federal-court interference with the assessment and collection of state taxes,’ the Court treads carefully and denies the extraordinary relief of a preliminary injunction.”
Cruise Lines International Association and the U.S. government then asked the Ninth Circuit to intervene.
The association said in its appeal that the court should block the law’s extension to cruise ships pending appeal.
Hurwitz and Bress, in their brief order, said that the standard for evaluating an injunction pending appeal was similar to that employed by district courts deciding whether to enter a preliminary injunction. That standard includes weighing whether plaintiffs have shown a strong likelihood of success, according to a 2008 ruling they cited.
MSM Panics After Nick Shirley Bombshell As CBS Pledges To Start Reporting Real News
CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil addressed viewers in what appeared to be a pre-recorded promotional segment aimed at repairing more than a decade of reputational damage and announcing changes to the program. He acknowledged that the corporate media outlet had “missed the story” too often and, in doing so, had lost the trust of Americans.
“On too many stories, the press has missed the story, because we’ve taken into account the perspectives of advocates rather than the average American. Or we’ve put too much weight on the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you,” Dokoupil said in the two-minute video published early on New Year’s Day.
Dokoupil continued, “So here’s my promise to you: You come first. Not advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS. I report for you, which means I tell you what I know. When I know it, and how I know it. And when I get it wrong… I’ll tell you that too.”
Dokoupil basically admitted that CBS and much of the MSM-industrial complex functioned as little more than PR firms for the highest bidder. We saw this with the Hunter Biden laptop story, Covid origins, Joe Biden’s mental health, and the list goes on. Quite frankly, the American people dumped MSM many years ago in favor of alternative outlets.
“On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.”
Dokoupil’s promise to viewers comes as CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss plans to overhaul the broadcaster as part of a broader review of standards and procedures, according to a recent Axios report.
Weiss’ overhaul of CBS is bold and noble, and so is Dokoupil’s promise to actually report the news, but we’ll believe it when we see it. CBS has gotten many of the top stories of the past decade wrong, often by design to protect politicians, special interests, or to allow advertisers to influence the news cycle.
We remain skeptical that MSM can be overhauled to report real news rather than function as a public relations firm. That skepticism was reinforced earlier this week, when MSM outlets rushed to Minneapolis to discredit citizen journalist Nick Shirley’s bombshell reporting on suspected Somali-linked fraud, coverage that appeared less like an investigation and more like protection of the Democratic Party and special interests that stand to benefit from the alleged schemes.
X users called out CBS’ reporting earlier this week…
🚨 JUST IN: CBS attempts to discredit Nick Shirley by showing there were actually *FOUR* children at ABC Learning Center the day he visited…
But what CBS ACTUALLY did was PROVE HIM RIGHT.
Babysitting 4 kids while the federal government pays you for 40 KIDS is FRAUD.
