Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge in Tennessee overseeing the criminal case involving El Salvador national and long-time Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia has canceled a trial date for the human smuggling case, pending a decision on whether to dismiss the case entirely over the defendant’s allegations of vindictive prosecution.

A trial date in the case had been set for Jan. 27, but U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw of Nashville, Tennessee, in a Dec. 23 filing ordered to change the proceedings to an evidentiary hearing for the government to make its case against the allegations at 9 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2026.

From the arguments and evidence made in the proceedings, which could span a few days, Crenshaw will determine whether the case will proceed to trial or be dismissed.

“The Court has already found that Abrego has made such a showing, entitling him to discovery and an evidentiary hearing on why the government is prosecuting him,” Crenshaw wrote in the order.

“Given this, the burden has shifted to the government to ’rebut [the presumption] ”with objective, on-the-record explanations“’ for charging Abrego.”

The indictment in Tennessee against Abrego Garcia came in May, which the defense noted was after a judge in Maryland—overseeing a separate civil case that will determine whether the government can deport the defendant—ordered his return from a prison in El Salvador to Maryland.

Abrego Garcia was indicted by a grand jury and charged with conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.

The alleged crimes happened during a 2022 traffic stop by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers, in which he is accused of having worked with co-conspirators to knowingly smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

However, an immigration judge in 2019 ordered that, while Abrego Garcia had entered the United States unlawfully in 2011, the government was not allowed to deport him to El Salvador over a credible fear of persecution by gangs in his home country.

While the order did not bar his removal to safe third countries, Abrego Garcia stayed in the United States with a deportation hold for El Salvador.

Despite this hold, the Trump administration did indeed deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s maximum security CECOT prison in March, which the administration later said was an “administrative error.” In April, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.

In its appeal, the defense argues that the government only started pursuing charges against Abrego Garcia after his deportation to El Salvador made national headlines. He pleaded not guilty in June, and in August, he rejected a plea deal to be deported to Uganda.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are attempting to have the case dismissed, arguing that the government is pursuing a vindictive and selective prosecution against their client for successfully fighting his removal to El Salvador in the other case.

The Department of Justice has denied the allegations and provided internal emails and an affidavit from acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert McGuire, who said he sought the indictment based on his belief that Abrego Garcia committed a federal crime.

“I received no direction from anyone at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, or any other source on the question of whether to seek or not to seek an indictment in this case,” he said.

The Trump administration maintains that Abrego Garcia is an illegal immigrant who should face the law if found guilty of human smuggling.

Crenshaw said in a ruling on Oct. 3 that there was a “realistic likelihood that the prosecution against [Abrego Garcia] may be vindictive.” The ruling allowed for the defense to seek discovery and testimony from government officials about their decision to bring the charges.

However, Crenshaw said in the Dec. 23 order that the subpoenas requested by the defense for three high-ranking Justice Department officials—Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General James McHenry, and Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh—will only be approved if the case is allowed to proceed to the next step.

The evidentiary hearing will focus on the government’s rebuttal of the defense’s motion to dismiss on grounds of vindictive prosecution.

The government has said it will call on testimony from Supervisory Special Agent John VanWie of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore, Special Agent Rana Saoud of HSI Nashville, and perhaps McGuire in the hearing.

In the Maryland case, the government continues pursuing the deportation of Abrego Garcia, now to Liberia.

Maryland Federal Judge Paula Xinis is overseeing that case. Xinis has expressed concern that the country to which Abrego Garcia is deported could eventually send him back to El Salvador. He has requested to be deported to Costa Rica, but the Trump administration is pursuing deportation to a list of countries in Africa.

“If the government were to say today, we’re going to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica,” a defense attorney told a court on Dec. 22, his client is prepared to go “as soon as this afternoon.”

Abrego Garcia remains out on bond in Maryland with his family after being released from the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, due to a temporary restraining order that prevents him from being taken into custody while Xinis considers the case.

America finally draws a line in the sand against foreign meddlers…

Modernity.news Steve Watson details below that the Trump administration has slapped visa bans on former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and four other ‘anti-disinformation’ activists, accusing them of coercing American social media companies to censor viewpoints they dislike.

The move signals a zero-tolerance policy toward extraterritorial censorship, especially after the EU’s recent assaults on Elon Musk’s X.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid it out clearly: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.

Today, @StateDept will take steps to…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) December 23, 2025

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Sarah B. Rogers stated “These sanctions are visa-related. We aren’t invoking severe Magnitsky-style financial measures, but our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.”

Today, the United States issued SANCTIONS reinforcing the “red line” I invoked on @GBNEWS. Namely: extraterritorial censorship of Americans.

Today’s sanctions target the censorship-NGO ecosystem.? https://t.co/kaefDo11uh

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

The list includes Thierry Breton, who notoriously threatened Elon Musk over hosting a 2024 interview with Donald Trump on X. Others barred are Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), who worked with Democrats like Amy Klobuchar to “kiII Musk’s Twitter”; Joan Donovan, founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute; Kate Starbird, co-founder of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public; and Jim Davey, co-founder of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Thierry Breton, a mastermind of the Digital Services Act. In August 2024, while serving as European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, he published a letter using the DSA to threaten @elonmusk ahead of his livestream interview with President…

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Clare Melford. She leads Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a UK-based organization that monitors websites for “hate speech” and “disinformation”. If you question Canadian blood libels about residential schools, you’re engaging in “hate speech” according to… pic.twitter.com/5F3fU4hf4R

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Josephine Ballon, co-leader of HateAid, who flags disfavored speech throughout Europe under the Digital Services Act. In addition to her running an official “trusted flagger” body under the DSA, she serves on Germany’s Advisory Council of the Digital Services…

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

Our targets are foreign, but you’ll notice that some collaborated with U.S. bureaucrats on Murthy-style speech suppression. Don’t worry: we’re pursuing transparency, truth, and reconciliation at the @StateDept, too.

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

As @SecRubio has noted, today’s list is illustrative not exhaustive. We stand “ready and willing to expand” it.https://t.co/eS65g6i8OP

— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) December 23, 2025

This retaliation comes amid escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the EU. As we previously detailed, Brussels hit X with a $140 million fine under the Digital Services Act for refusing to comply with their censorship demands, marking a blatant attack on free expression.

Musk fired back fiercely, declaring the “EU commissars are responsible for the murder of Europe” and calling to “Dissolve the EU and return power to the people.” He highlighted X’s surge in popularity across Europe despite the fine, noting it became the top news app in every EU country.

The broader feud intensified when EU Council President Antonio Costa warned Trump to “keep his hands off Europe” amid the free speech crackdown. Costa condemned U.S. “interference” in European affairs, ignoring the bloc’s own slide into authoritarian control over online content.

Trump himself has blasted Europe’s direction, urging citizens to confront unchecked migration and over-regulation that’s “endangering the continent as we know it.” In interviews, he stressed, “Europe has to be very careful… We want to keep Europe Europe,” and called the EU’s fine on X “nasty” and unjust.

Breton, who left the European Commission in 2024, has slammed the ban as a “witch hunt,” comparing the situation to the US McCarthy era when officials were chased out of government for alleged ties to communism.

“To our American friends: Censorship isn’t where you think it is,” he declared on X.

Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back? ?

As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament — our democratically elected body — and all 27 Member States unanimously voted the DSA ??

To our American friends: “Censorship isn’t where you think it is.”

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) December 23, 2025

France also condemned the visa ban on Breton, but the Trump team remains unmoved. This action underscores America’s commitment to protecting its tech giants from foreign regulatory harassment, prioritizing sovereignty and open discourse over globalist dictates.

As Brussels doubles down on surveillance tools like the DSA and proposed Chat Control laws, which threaten privacy by scanning private messages, the U.S. pushback exposes the hypocrisy of EU elites preaching democracy while building an Orwellian framework.

With Trump in charge, expect more defense of freedoms against such overreach. This ban on Breton and his allies is a clear message: Attempts to censor U.S. platforms from abroad will face consequences. The era of tolerating globalist bullying is over.

[ZH: To all of this we have one simple response: ]

Hey Imran, f**k you!

The number of Americans filing for first time jobless benefits tumbled to 214k (from 224k) in the week ending Dec 20th. This is the same level of claims seen back in Nov 2021 and shows absolutely no stress in the labor market (like ADP showed a rebound in hiring) while JOLTS, Payrolls, and surveys all suggest pain…

Source: Bloomberg

Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania are the states with the biggest decline in jobless claims while Rhode Island and Massachusetts saw a small rise in jobless claims…

Continuing jobless claims rebounded from the shutdown/Thanksgiving seasonal SNAFU but remain well off YTD highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Not exactly the kind of data that supports more rate-cuts…

And there it is: the Santa Rally which we predicted would begin a week ago after Abu Dhabi removed much of the AI capex fears festering the OpenAI ecosystem, the S&P has rocketed to a new record high on Tuesday, with stocks looking set for a quiet start to the abbreviated Christmas Eve session. As of 8:00am ET, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 contracts were little changed following four days of gains in US stocks which signal confidence among investors that 2026 will bring decent corporate earnings growth and easing inflation, not to mention the restart of the Fed’s QE Lite which has so far injected $40bn into the market. The result is relative calm in equities, with no down month since April and a VIX which is below 14. In premarket trading, Nike gained 2.1% after a filing shows that Apple CEO Tim Cook purchased $2.95 million worth of shares. Intel shares fall as much as 3.1% in premarket trading after Reuters reported that Nvidia halted a test that uses the chip manufacturer’s 18A technology to produce its chips, while a Commerce Department official said Intel is not “too strategic to fail.” Wednesday’s shortened cash trading session finishes at 1 p.m. ET. Most of the drama is playing out in commodities, with gold, silver and platinum all hitting fresh record highs. On today’s economic calendar we have the latest MBA Mortgage Applications (-5.0%) and the weekly Initial and continuing jobless claims.

In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks trade mixed after four straight days of gains (Alphabet +0.5%, Tesla +0.2%, Amazon +0.1%, Microsoft little changed, Apple -0.2%, Meta -0.3%, Nvidia -0.4%)

• AST SpaceMobile Inc. (ASTS) is up 2.7% after launching its largest-ever satellite from India, the first in a series of deployments to help the company compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX in delivering space-based connectivity to mobile phones.
• Dynavax (DVAX) jumps 38% after Sanofi says it will start a cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of the vaccine maker for $15.50 per share in cash, reflecting a total equity value of ~$2.2 billion.
• Intel (INTC) falls 3.2% after Reuters reported that Nvidia halted a test that uses the chip manufacturer’s 18A technology to produce its chips.
• Nike (NKE) gains 2.1% after a filing shows that Apple CEO Tim Cook purchased $2.95 million worth of shares on Dec. 22.
• Ramaco (METC) is up 7.7% after the coal mining company announced a share repurchase program of up to $100 million of the currently outstanding shares of its Class A common stock.

In other corporate news, Sanofi agreed to buy Dynavax Technologies for about $2.2 billion, as the French drugmaker tries to expand a vaccines business currently anchored by its flu shot franchise. Emeryville, California-based Dynavax soared 38% in premarket.

Investors are drawing optimism from a US economy that continues to outperform expectations, supporting earnings prospects in the year ahead. At the same time, money markets still see scope for at least two Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026, a backdrop that could lift a broader range of stocks even as valuation concerns linger around pace-setting tech shares.

“Recent sessions suggest Santa may still arrive,” wrote Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote. After that “reality may bite. Parts of the technology market probably look bubbly, and next year’s earnings season will be less about shiny numbers and more about where revenues actually come from.”

In commodities action, precious metals hit more record highs, buoyed by geopolitical concerns and expectations for more interest-rate cuts in 2026. Gold touches $4,500 an ounce for the first time, while silver and platinum also surge to all-time highs. The moves put gold and silver on track for their best yearly gains since 1979. Copper is also at a new record around $12,200 a ton, and is set for its biggest annual rise since 2009

Gold has climbed more than 70% this year and silver is up about 150%, putting both on track for their strongest performance since 1979. The gains have been underpinned by elevated central-bank purchases, the return of Fed QE and huge inflows into exchange-traded funds. Momentum was also boosted by President Donald Trump’s push to reshape global trade and his threats to the Fed’s independence.

“Even though equity markets are doing well, even though data points to a bit of a risk-on environment, I do think that, on the margins, that people want to be defensive against inflation and other risks as much as possible,” Geoff Yu, EMEA macro strategist at BNY, told Bloomberg TV. “Hence, gold is doing well.”

With most European markets either closed or on a half-day, the Stoxx 600 equity index is little changed after nothing a fresh record high Tuesday and is set for a third straight year of gains. The benchmark is also on track for one of its strongest quarters in two years amid lingering optimism around global economic growth and lower borrowing costs.  France’s CAC 40 Index gained 0.1% and the UK’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% as of 9:09 a.m. in London. Stock exchanges in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and Finland are shut through the day. The UK, France and Spain will be open for half-day of trading. 

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said stocks are still likely to rally in the final days of the year. “And after that? Reality may bite. Parts of the technology market probably look bubbly, and next year’s earnings season will be less about shiny numbers and more about where revenues actually come from.”

Among individual movers, Sanofi SA dipped after the French drugmaker said the US Food and Drug Administration has issued a complete response letter for its experimental multiple sclerosis drug. The French pharmaceutical firm also agreed to buy Dynavax Technologies for about $2.2 billion. BP Plc edged higher after agreeing to sell a majority stake in its Castrol division to US investment firm Stonepeak Partners in a deal valuing the business at $10.1 billion including debt.

Asian stocks eked out a small gain, as losses in Japan and South Korea were offset by gains in China and Vietnam. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose as much as 0.4% before paring slightly, on course to cap its fourth day of gains. Tech names including TSMC, SK Hynix and Advantest led the rise.  

In FX, the dollar fell for a third day, extending its decline for the year to 8.4% and marking the greenback’s biggest annual slide since 2017.The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%, adding to its 0.3% slip on Tuesday; USD/JPY dropped 0.4% to 155.84. The pair has been under pressure on increasing concerns about that Japan may intervene to support the yen

In rates, gilts reverse an early decline, and yields are now little changed, while other European bond markets are closed.  US yields richer by up to 1bp across the curve in a flattening move, tightening 2s7s and 7s30s spreads a touch on the day. Treasury 10-year yields trade around 4.155%, richer by 0.8bp on the day with gilts lagging in the sector. Treasury is selling $44 billion 7-year notes at 11:30 am New York. Ahead of today’s sale, the WI 7-year yield is about 3.934% which is ~15bp cheaper than the November stop-out of 3.781%

In commodities, precious metals hit more record highs, buoyed by geopolitical concerns and expectations for more interest-rate cuts in 2026. Gold touches $4,500 an ounce for the first time, while silver and platinum also surge to all-time highs. The moves put gold and silver on track for their best yearly gains since 1979. Copper is also at a new record around $12,200 a ton, and is set for its biggest annual rise since 2009. Oil prices are edging higher, with Brent trading around $62.50/barrel.

The US economic calendar includes weekly jobless claims at 8:30 am.

Market Snapshot

• S&P 500 mini little changed
• Nasdaq 100 mini little changed
• Russell 2000 mini little changed
• Stoxx Europe 600 little changed
• CAC 40 +0.1%
• 10-year Treasury yield little changed at 4.16%
• VIX +0.1 points at 14.13
• Bloomberg Dollar Index -0.2% at 1199.44
• euro little changed at $1.1798
• WTI crude +0.2% at $58.52/barrel

Top Overnight News

• American Economy Keeps Powering Ahead, Defying Dire Predictions: WSJ
• Trump posted “Growth is up and Inflation is down in President Trump’s first year”.
• NEC Director Kevin Hassett said President Trump has “a bunch of great Fed chair candidates”, via Fox Business; Precious metals are skyrocketing for good reason.
• Gold tops $4500 while silver, platinum surge to new peaks: RTRS
• China Is Worried AI Threatens Party Rule—and Is Trying to Tame It: WSJ
• Russia to Demand Changes to US Peace Plan Seen as Starting Point: BBG
• Ukrainian troops withdraw from eastern town of Siversk: RTRS
• Zelenskiy seeks meeting with Trump to hammer out issue of territory: RTRS
• Two police officers killed by bomb in Moscow near site of Russian general’s killing: RTRS
• Russia plans a nuclear power plant on the moon within a decade: RTRS
• Italy Orders Meta to Allow Competing AI Chatbots on Whatsapp: BBG
• Snowflake is reportedly in talks to purchase Observe for around USD 1bln, according to The Information.
• Apple CEO bought some USD 3mln of Nike stock: BBG
• Sanofi to acquire hepatitis B vaccine maker Dynavax for $2.2 billion: RTRS
• BP to sell 65% stake in Castrol to Stonepeak for $6 billion: RTRS
• Lockheed Martin awarded USD 10bln modification to previously awarded US Air Force contract: Pentagon
• Boeing awarded USD 2bln contract by US Air Force: Pentagon
• Whoever Trump Picks, the Next Fed Chair Won’t Be Independent: WSJ

Trade/Tariffs

• Chinese Commerce Ministry holds roundtable with foreign trade firms.
• China’s Foreign Ministry said we firmly opposes the indiscriminate use of chip tariffs and unreasonable suppression of China by the US. Urges the US to correct its wrong practices. Will take corresponding measures to safeguard rights and interests if the US persists.
• Japan and US agree to expedite the USD 550bln investment project, according to Bloomberg, citing a statement.

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks traded mixed and within narrow ranges following a largely positive lead from Wall Street. APAC lacked conviction amid light newsflow and anaemic volumes as markets wound down ahead of the holidays. ASX 200 edged lower, with weakness in Tech and Healthcare outweighing strength across the mining complex. Nikkei 225 held onto modest gains, oscillating around the 50.5k level despite JPY strength, supported by a calmer domestic bond market. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp varied, with little in the way of fresh domestic catalysts. Price action broadly reflected the indecisive regional risk tone.

Top Asian News

• Earthquake of magnitude 5.50 hits Taipei, via Reuters witnesses.

The FTSE 100 (-0.1%) is incrementally this morning, whilst the CAC 40 is posting marginal gains; cash trade for DAX 40, FTSE MIB and the SMI remain shut on account of Christmas Eve.

Top European News

• Italy Orders Meta to Allow Competing AI Chatbots on Whatsapp
• Belgium’s Central bank Says Will Appeal €300K FSMA Fine
• BNP Paribas’ Farber Sees Value in Single B European Credit

Central Banks

• BoJ Oct 29–30 meeting minutes (two meetings ago): Members agreed the BoJ will continue to raise rates if economic and price forecasts materialise. Many members said the likelihood of economic and price forecasts materialising has heightened, but must maintain policy to confirm whether positive wage-setting behaviour will not be disrupted. One member said the timing of a rate hike is approaching, but authorities should wait a bit longer to scrutinise the direction of the new administration’s policies.

FX

• DXY is essentially flat and trades within a narrow 97.74 to 97.96 range. Nothing really driving things for the index this morning, given the usual holiday-lull. Traders will await Jobless Claims later today, but aside from that the docket is void of anything pertinent from a Dollar perspective. G10s are also broadly little changed vs the USD, aside from the JPY which is the marginal outperformer this morning.
• JPY marginally strengthened against the USD in overnight trade, but without a specific catalyst. The strength likely a continuation of the more aggressive jawboning heard via Finance Minister Katayama earlier in the week, where she stated they had a “free hand” to take bold action in the FX market. Thereafter, in the European session, Reuters reported that Japan is to reduce its new issuance of super-long JGBs next fiscal year to around JPY 17tln. A source report which comes after PM Takaichi rejected any “irresponsible bond issuance or tax cuts”. USD/JPY currently trading at the lower end of a 155.57 to 156.28 range.
• South Korean Presidential office said they are closely watching FX.
• South Korea’s pension fund said to implement strategic foreign exchange hedging measures, according to Reuters sources.
• Brazilian Central Bank to offer USD 2bln in Dollar auction with repurchase agreements on 26th December.

Fixed Income

• EGBs closed.
• JGBs were firmer for much of the overnight session but spent it drifting lower, paring recent Takaichi-inspired gains. The main move came in the European morning as Reuters reported that Japan is set to cut 2026 ultra-long JGB issuance by around JPY 17tln, a report that in a somewhat delayed reaction, lifted JGBs by around 20 ticks to a test of 133.00 to the upside. Reminder, BoJ’s Ueda is tentatively scheduled to speak on Christmas Day.
• USTs in a thin 112-08 to 112-12+ band. Docket ahead features US weekly jobless claims and then a 7yr auction after the 5yr auction on Tuesday, a tap that was mixed overall with a better tail though the b/c was below the prior.
• Gilts opened flat just above 91.00 before dipping to a 90.80 trough and then rebounding back to the figure with specifics light.
• Japan is to reduce its new issuance of super-long JGBs next fiscal year to around JPY 17tln, according to Reuters sources. JGB Mar’26 lifted from 132.78 to a test of 133.00 to the upside in the 15-minutes from 09:10GMT following this report.

Commodities

• As Christmas Eve trade gets underway, WTI and Brent briefly pulled back to USD 58.25/bbl and USD 62.22/bbl before extending on Tuesday’s gains to peak at USD 58.76/bbl and USD 62.76/bbl as the European session continues.
• Spot XAU briefly extended above USD 4500/oz, continuing the gains made in the metal space this year, before a sharp pullback as traders take profit going into Christmas. XAU peaked at USD 4526/oz early in the APAC session before the sharp pullback to USD 4471/oz. Thus far, the yellow metal continues to hover just below USD 4500/oz as light European trade continues.
• 3M LME Copper is set for its best year since 2009, helped by the near 7% gains made in December. After setting a new ATH of USD 12.17k/t in Tuesday’s session, the red metal opened just shy of the ATH but pulled back to a trough of USD 12.06k/t, filling the price gap. Just as the European session got underway, 3M LME Copper surged higher to a new ATH of USD 12.28k/t and holds above USD 12.2k/t as the European morning continues.
• Naftogaz announces that Russia attacked Ukraine’s oil and gas infrastructure overnight.
• Shell’s (SHEL LN) manufacturing centre, Corunna, reported potential for increased flaring and noise for the next few hours due to process interruption.
• US Private Inventory (bbls): Crude +2.4mln (exp. -2.4mln), Distillate +0.7mln (exp. +0.4mln), Gasoline +1.1mln (exp. +1.1mln), Cushing +0.6mln.
• US Private Inventory Expectations (bbls): Crude (exp. -2.4mln), Distillate (exp. +0.4mln), Gasoline (exp. +1.1mln).

Geopolitics

• Russia’s Kremlin announces that Special Envoy Dmitriev has reported to Putin on the trip to the US; On peace deal, says Russia will now formulate its position and continue contacts in very near future.
• Naftogaz announces that Russia attacked Ukraine’s oil and gas infrastructure overnight.
• Ukrainian President Zelensky said we are significantly closer to finalising a plan with the US but mainly split on territorial issues. Ukraine expects an answer from Russia on Wednesday to end the war. Draft plan opens the way for ‘potential’ demilitarised zones and freeze combat on current lines. Plan does not require Kyiv to formally renounce NATO bid.
• Ukrainian drone attack sparks fire at industrial site in Russia’s Tula region, according to the regional governor.
• Russian President Putin said Russia “reject Israel’s repeated violations of Syrian territory”, via Al Arabiya.

US Event Calendar

• 7:00 am: US Dec. MBA Mortgage Applications, prior -3.8%
• 8:30 am: US Dec. 20 Initial Jobless Claims, est. 223,000, prior 224,000
• 8:30 am: US Dec. 13 Continuing Claims, est. 1.9m, prior 1.9m

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

As radical Islamist threats continue to plague Australia, politicians are pivoting to policing speech and tightening gun laws on law-abiding citizens—now openly admitting curbs on free expression are needed to shield their multicultural agenda.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has unveiled a sweeping plan to combat what she calls rising anti-Semitism, but the measures conveniently sidestep the core issue of unchecked radical Islamism behind recent attacks, focusing instead on doxxing anonymous social media users and reviewing gun laws.

In a joint news conference, Allan announced legislation that would force social media platforms to reveal identities behind anonymous accounts accused of spreading ‘hate’. “Under Victoria’s civil anti-vilification scheme which starts in 2026, the speaker of a vilifying statement generally needs to be identifiable and held accountable,” she stated.

?BREAKING: Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will push to legislate stronger hate speech laws by compelling social media platforms to identify people behind anonymous accounts used to ridicule another person or group, with a specially appointed jurist to make it legally possible. pic.twitter.com/EaeIwSM0TY

— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) December 22, 2025

She continued, “We recognise that this could protect cowards who hide behind anonymous profiles to spread hate and stoke fear.” emphasising, “That is why Victoria will spearhead new laws to hold social media companies and anonymous users to account and will appoint a respected jurist to unlock the legislative path forward.”

The move comes in the wake of the horrific Bondi Beach attack, where Pakistani radicals with ISIS ties slaughtered 16 people, including Jews celebrating Hanukkah. Yet, rather than addressing the importation of radical ideologies through porous borders, Allan’s response echoes the deflection seen from federal leaders.

Allan also announced a review of Victoria’s gun laws, appointing former police chief commissioner Ken Lay to examine ways to “toughen” them further. This aligns with a national push for stricter controls, even as Australia’s existing laws are among the world’s toughest—proving once again that disarming citizens does little to stop determined terrorists.

Allan’s government is also granting police new powers to ban protests in the aftermath of terror incidents, following New South Wales’ lead. While framed as a response to anti-Semitism, the timing—right after an Islamist massacre—highlights a pattern of Aussie politicians avoiding direct confrontation with radical Islam.

Instead, figures like Allan and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeatedly spotlight “right-wing extremists” and “neo-Nazis” as the supposed primary threats. In the days following Bondi, Albanese warned of the “rise of right-wing extremists,” despite the attackers’ clear Islamist motivations.

This unwillingness to name radical Islamism head-on persists. Clips from recent press conferences show leaders dodging questions on Islamist radicalization, pivoting to vague warnings about “extremism” from all sides—but with a heavy emphasis on the far-right. For instance, in a Sky News appearance, Albanese reiterated concerns over “neo-Nazis” infiltrating protests, even as intelligence agencies thwart Islamist plots weekly.

Reporter: “Is radical Islam the greatest domestic security threat Australia faces?”

Albanese: “Neo-Nazis” pic.twitter.com/qFWcJqNPVG

— chris mate ? (@ChrisLXXXVI) December 19, 2025

As we detailed previously, Albanese doubled down on the “diversity is our strength” mantra while cops smashed yet another Islamist terror cell en route to Sydney. That incident saw seven suspects from Victoria—Allan’s own state—rammed off the road, underscoring the real dangers festering under lax migration policies.

Victoria’s latest measures, including potential civil liability for social media giants if users can’t be identified, reek of a surveillance state expansion. Platforms could face lawsuits for “hate speech” posted anonymously, effectively ending online anonymity for critics of government policy.

In a stunning admission during a joint news conference, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns also defended Australia’s restrictive speech laws, explicitly linking them to preserving multiculturalism amid rising tensions.

Minns pushed back against calls to repeal vilification statutes, stating, “There’s been some that have been agitating in the Parliament to nullify The laws, To remove them off the statute books.”

He warned, “Think about what kind of toxic Message That would send to the New South Wales community.”

Challenging opponents, Minns demanded, “Advocates for those changes need to explain What do they want people to have the right to say? What kind of racist abuse do they want to see or be able Lawfully see on Streets of Sydney.”

Minns openly contrasted Australia with the U.S., declaring, “I recognise and I’ve fully said from beginning, we don’t have the same freedom of speech laws That they have in the United States. And the reason for that is we want to hold together our multicultural community and have people live In peace free from the kind of vilification and hatred that we do see around the world.”

Australia continues to respond to a massacre by Islamic terrorists by censoring the ability to say multiculturalism doesn’t work. https://t.co/u7ReOUnxiH

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 22, 2025

The clip, widely shared on X, exposes how leaders view free speech as a threat to their imported diversity model—preferring censorship over addressing the Islamist violence eroding public safety.

Australia’s slide toward authoritarianism accelerates as leaders exploit tragedies to muzzle dissent. From hate speech crackdowns to gun grabs, the focus remains on controlling citizens rather than securing borders against radicals.

If history teaches anything, it’s that sacrificing freedoms for “safety” never ends well. True security demands confronting the Islamist menace directly—not hiding behind laws that punish speech and disarm the innocent.

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President Trump’s reposturing of the U.S. military forces toward the Western Hemisphere – effectively Monroe Doctrine 2.0 – reinforced this week by the deployment of additional special-operations aircraft, troops, and equipment into the Caribbean, as U.S. forces apply gunboat diplomacy against Venezuela to disrupt crude oil flows routed through Cuba and onward to China, a campaign that, if successful, could spark regime instability in Caracas, and amplify economic and political stress in Cuba as well.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that a “large number of special-operations aircraft, troops, and equipment” arrived in the Caribbean region early this week – a movement of military assets and personnel confirmed by U.S. officials and flight-tracking data.

According to the WSJ:

At least 10 CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which are used by special-operations forces, flew into the region Monday night from Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, according to an official. C-17 cargo aircraft from Fort Stewart and Fort Campbell Army bases arrived Monday in Puerto Rico, according to flight-tracking data. A different U.S. official confirmed that military personnel and equipment were transported on planes.

It isn’t clear what types of troops and equipment the aircraft were transporting. Cannon is home to the 27th Special Operations Wing, while the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, an elite U.S. special operations unit, and the 101st Airborne Division are based at Fort Campbell. The first battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment is based at Hunter Army Airfield, at Fort Stewart.

The 27th Special Operations Wing and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment are trained to support high-risk infiltration and extraction missions and provide close air and combat support. Army Rangers are trained to seize airfields and provide security for specialized forces, such as SEAL Team Six or Delta Force, during a precise kill or capture mission.

In a separate report, defense and security media outlet Army Recognition, citing open-source intelligence accounts on X, indicated that the U.S. military is ramping up deployments of F-35A stealth fighter jets, intelligence aircraft, and electronic warfare platforms across the Caribbean.

David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, an aerospace think tank, told WSJ that the “prepositioning forces” in the region are “to take action.” He said the movement of such assets indicates that the administration has already decided on a course of action.

“The question that remains is to accomplish what?” Deptula said.

Trump’s gunboat diplomacy – seizing two sanctioned tankers and targeting a third earlier this week – should be viewed as a pressure campaign to disrupt Venezuela-Cuba-China oil flows. It’s always about following the money, and in this case, that oil money props up the Maduro regime.

Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island’s energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin, told WSJ earlier this week that once crude oil flows are cut, this would act as a domino effect and create regime instability in Caracas, warning that “it would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it.”

According to analytics firm Kpler, Caracas has shipped nearly 900,000 barrels per day this year and relies on 400 dark-fleet tankers to transport the crude, much of which is bound for China.

“Venezuela has been remarkably effective at masking both origin and ownership of crude and therefore at evading financial and trade-related controls,” Kpler analyst Dimitris Ampatzidis told Bloomberg. “That’s why Washington has increasingly moved from purely financial measures to physical disruption.”

The military buildup across the region and the use of gunboat diplomacy are clear signals of the U.S. intent to force regime change in Venezuela by disrupting Maduro’s funding lifelines; China responded earlier this week, and Beijing is not pleased about crude oil disruptions.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Vice President JD Vance has issued a stark warning that unchecked mass migration from Muslim-majority countries into Europe risks placing nuclear arsenals under the influence of Islamist politicians, posing a severe danger to American interests.

In an interview with Unherd, Vance urged that open borders policies are eroding Europe’s cultural foundations, potentially leading to catastrophic national security fallout for the U.S. and its allies.

Vance emphasized America’s deep-rooted connections to Europe, stating, “We have much greater cultural, religious, and economic ties with Europe than we do with anywhere else in the world. That is just the nature of things.”

“France and Britain have nuclear weapons. If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the US.”

JD Vance to me.https://t.co/4Jz5HXLh4G

— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) December 22, 2025

He directly tied moral and cultural decay to security risks, noting, “I think there are ways in which the moral conversation does absolutely bleed into America’s national-security interests.”

Highlighting the nuclear dimension, Vance pointed out, “France and the United Kingdom have nuclear weapons. If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the United States.”

He spotlighted existing gains by radical elements, saying, “I think there are, for example, Islamists-aligned or Islamist-adjacent people who hold office in European countries right now. Right now, maybe at an extremely low level, right? They’re winning mayoral elections, or they’re winning municipal elections.”

Vance projected a grim timeline, warning, “It’s not inconceivable to imagine a scenario where a person with Islamist-adjacent views could have very significant influence in a European nuclear power. In the next five years? No. But 15 years from now? Absolutely. And that is very much a very direct threat to the United States of America.”

Criticizing Europe’s current trajectory, he slammed their policies: “Their immigration policies have caused a significant backlash from the native population. I think that Europe doesn’t have a very good sense of itself right now, and you see that reflected in various measures of economic and cultural stagnation.”

Vance called for a revitalized Europe, declaring, “We’re not trying to destroy the European Alliance, we’re not trying to divide Europeans against one another. What we’re actually trying to do vis-à-vis Europe is to encourage them to be a little bit more self-sustaining. I think their economic policies have produced very broad-based continental stagnation.”

He added, “America sprang out of European civilization. We are fundamentally descended from a lot of European ideas. . . . That’s why we want a stronger Europe. We don’t want a weaker Europe.”

Envisioning a shared future, Vance said, “I just think that we want Europe to be strong and vibrant. I want Europe to be a place where Americans can go and visit, where there’s cultural sharing; Europeans are coming to American universities; Americans are going to European universities; where our militaries are fighting together, training together. That is impossible without some sense of a cultural foundation. The United States and Europe have that, but there’s a risk of losing it over the long term.”

This comes amid Vance’s broader push against globalist agendas undermining Western values. In the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, Europe was flagged for facing “civilizational erasure” through censorship and mass migration.

Vance has been vocal on these fronts since taking office, including a February speech at the Munich Security Conference where he blasted internal threats like free speech crackdowns in Britain and Germany.

His comments build on recent domestic wins, like dismantling DEI programs. As detailed in our previous coverage, Vance declared at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, “We have finally made it clear that in the United States, we believe in hard work and merit. Unlike the left… we don’t treat anybody different because of their race or their sex.”

He continued, “So we have relegated [DEI] to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it belongs. In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”

Vance added, “And if you’re an Asian, you don’t have to talk around your skin color when you’re applying for college, because we judge people based on who they are, not on ethnicity and things they can’t control.”

He stressed unity: “We don’t persecute you for being male, for being straight, for being gay, for being anything. The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American patriot. And if you’re that you’re very much on our team.”

On immigration at home, Vance echoed similar concerns in the Unherd interview, stating, “The problem with American immigration . . . over the four years of the Biden administration, [was] that we let in too many people, too quickly. And if the numbers were much smaller, and we had tried to select for people who were much better at assimilating into American culture, I don’t think that everybody would be looking around and saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

He warned of consequences: “If you overwhelm the country with too many new entrants, even if they believe the right things, even if they’re fundamentally good people, you do change the country in some profound way. And so, so much of the immigration debate, I think we try to create these very firm categories. And the reality is that America does pretty well assimilating people, so long as it’s a small number of people, and they’re given an amount of time to assimilate.”

Vance highlighted risks of division: “Ethnic rivalry and balkanisation is the inevitable consequence of these things. You don’t have to think it’s a good thing. I certainly don’t, but it’s a predictable consequence of what the Left has pushed for years.”

He tied it to protecting Americans: “I’m also trying to protect the wages of workers. I’m trying to protect the social cohesion of the United States of America. I’m trying to ensure that we don’t have the rise of balkanisation and ethnic hatred, which can happen when you have too much immigration too quickly.”

Vance’s warnings expose the folly of globalist open borders that prioritize ideology over security. As Europe grapples with rising Islamist influence in local politics, the Trump administration’s America First stance serves as a blueprint to safeguard civilization from self-inflicted collapse.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Earlier this month Ukraine’s President Zelensky said for the first time he’s ready and willing to hold national elections, after previously canceling them while citing martial law and the ongoing war by Russia.

This week he’s actually taken a practical step, telling the Verkhovna Rada – the country’s parliament – to establish a formal working group to study whether elections can be held safely and fairly during a state of martial law and wartime. 

Head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, issued the following statement on Monday: “According to a preliminary agreement, a working group is being formed in the Verkhovna Rada to quickly address the issue of holding a possible presidential election in Ukraine during martial law. The discussion will take place within the Rada’s relevant committee on state governance, local self-government, regional development, and urban planning.”

The Kremlin’s position is that after Ukraine canceled the 2024 election, Zelensky became illegitimate as a head of state, given that while Article 83 of the nation’s constitution allows for the extraordinary extension of the parliament’s powers during martial law, there is no specific clause for extending a presidential term.

President Putin himself has questioned Zelensky’s legal authority to ever sign a binding peace or ceasefire document. Interestingly, President Trump has lately ramped up pressure on Kiev to hold elections, saying that the country is backsliding in terms of the democratic process.

Ukraine is reaching “a point where it’s not a democracy any more,” Trump said in early December. According to more of the background of what led up to Zelensky finally conceding that elections should be considered:

• Oleksandr Korniienko, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and newly elected head of the Servant of the People party, said he may head a parliamentary working group on referendum and elections, the creation of which has been initiated by the head of the faction, Davyd Arakhamiia.

• On 11 December, Oleksandr Korniienko said that at present there are no “drafts” or legislative initiatives in parliament regarding holding elections under martial law.

• US President Donald Trump has said that he believes that “it’s time” for Ukraine to hold a presidential election. Zelenskyy responded that he is “always ready” for elections.

• He also stated that international partners must ensure security during the elections. Zelenskyy himself is ready for changes in election legislation during martial law.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with representatives of the Verkhovna Rada the possibility of holding presidential elections in wartime Ukraine and is now waiting for MPs to “present their perspective”.

But critics have said that Zelensky is more simply trying to buy time amid Washington pressure, presenting to the public that he’s ‘doing something’ about elections while not actually planning to hold them.

“We will announce the date and time of the meeting soon. Media representatives will also be invited,” Arakhamia has additionally said of the parliamentary working group. This could merely drag on as an endless bureaucratic exercise.

Authored by Clive Pinder via DailySceptic.org,

Immigration & Sexual Violence – Nothing to See Here!

Britain is now the sort of country where you can get an instant answer to ‘What is the carbon footprint of a sausage roll?’. Yet if you ask, ‘Are we importing risk to women along with importing people?’ our nation state stares at its shoes and starts muttering about ‘complexity’.

Let us begin with two official lines that any half-awake citizen can see are rising at the same time.

Line one, sexual violence.

The ONS crime bulletin for the year ending June 2025 reports 211,225 sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales are up 9% from the previous year. It also reports 72,804 rape offences, up 6% year on year, with rape making up around 34% of all recorded sexual offences.

The ONS, to be fair, sticks in a big asterisk. Part of the rise is not a sudden outbreak of more predators. It is a change in the bookkeeping. That means some of what now shows up as an ‘increase’ is simply behaviour that was previously recorded differently, or not cleanly separated at all, now being captured under a new label. In short, not every uptick is more men doing worse things in dark alleys.

Fine. Caveat accepted. The numbers are still brutal.

Line two, immigration.

The ONS estimates long term immigration at 898,000 in the year ending June 2025. Of those, non-EU nationals accounted for 670,000, about 75% of the total. Net migration in that year is estimated at 204,000.

If you want proof mass migration has changed Britain, bin the pamphlets, the marches and the sermons. Just open the ONS, click twice, then stick the kettle on and watch the country redraw itself in numbers.

When you have done that, do not stop at the headline ‘flow’ figure, those who arrived this year. That is only the annual intake. The canary in the coal mine is the cumulative influx. The stock, who is here now, how large it has become, and what that does over time to social norms, policing demand, and risk. On that, the official trend is not subtle.

According to the ONS the foreign-born stock in England and Wales has risen almost 150% in 22 years. From 4.6 million residents born outside the UK in 2001, to 11.4 million in 2023.  In that time the Commons Library, citing an ONS ad hoc estimate, shows the percentage has more than doubled from 8.9% to 19% of the population. That’s almost one in five. Of those roughly 8.0 million were born outside the EU, about 13% or one in eight.

That is not a marginal tweak, it is a demographic rewiring, delivered at motorway speed.

Even if net migration dips this year, the change does not politely stop at Passport Control. This is the ministerial dodge. Wave one year’s inflow figure, declare victory, move on. But if the mechanism is cumulative, a one-year wiggle tells you almost nothing about this year’s risk.

You can see the cumulative shift even in the baby name tables. Muhammad is now the top boys’ name in England and Wales, and it has been in the top ten since 2016.

More importantly, the engine is now domestic as well as imported. In 2023, 37.3% of live births in England and Wales were to parents where one or both were born outside the UK. On the mother only measure, births to non-UK born women rose from 31.8% in 2023 to 33.9% in 2024. That is the second-generation pipeline in plain numbers, large, growing, and largely indifferent to whatever headline flow figure ministers are waving around this week.

Put those lines next to the ONS crime line and you get a chart that reads like a warning label. The foreign-born share keeps rising. Recorded rape remains staggeringly high. And what once would have meant a ministerial resignation is now treated like a routine Tuesday briefing. Another awkward graph to be managed rather than a crisis to be answered.

That is correlation. It is not proof of causation, but it is not nothing either. If government wants the public to stop drawing conclusions, government needs to do the grown-up thing and test the hypothesis properly.

Instead, we get the dueling spreadsheets.

Here is the problem. We are arguing over scraps. Campaigners like Matt Goodwin point to FOI driven figures and claim foreign nationals, around 11% of the population, account for roughly 22% of rapes and 26% of sexual assaults. They ask why Britain will not publish this routinely. Meanwhile journalists like Fraser Nelson of The Times push back, arguing the ‘migrant crimewave’ story is overcooked, noting that violent crime is at multi decade lows, and even the headline MoJ claim that foreigners are convicted of up to 23% of sex crimes is disputed.

Which rather proves the point. When a country has to rely on complex FOI requests rather than publish one clear, repeatable annual bulletin, everyone ends up fighting with partial numbers and competing narratives. We have already seen where this ends with the grooming gangs’ scandal. Years of official denial and nervous statistical silence left unprotected and disbelieved girls to pay the price. It is exactly how we end up with pub verdicts and online lynch mobs.

We get endless official output on crime and immigration volumes. Charts, dashboards, glossy bulletins, the lot. Yet the moment you ask the state to connect them like adults. Who is offending? Where they were born? What their status was? How long they have been here etc? The information that actually matters to the public argument suddenly becomes curiously unavailable.

We can almost hear the civil service machine whirring.

If ministers published a clear annual table showing serious sexual offence charges and convictions by country of birth, nationality at time of offence, immigration status at time of offence, and time resident in the UK, one of two things would happen.

If the link is small or nonexistent, it would calm the debate and allow government to say, “Look, it is not that.”

If the link is meaningful in certain cohorts or settings, it would force government to do difficult things, such as tougher enforcement, tougher integration requirements and deportation where legally possible. All without hiding behind slogans.

Either way, proper measurement creates accountability. Shamefully, accountability is the one thing our politicians and the civil service we pay for avoids like an email from a Nigerian prince! (Before anyone faints, I can write that as I was born and raised there.)

This is not a statistical oversight. It is a political tradition. Inaugurated by Blair’s machine, refined by Campbell’s spin doctrine. Then inherited by every administration since like a family heirloom. Do not measure it properly. Do not publish it clearly and you can always claim the truth is ‘complex’.

Of course, the missing breakdown is not, by itself, proof of a criminal cover up. There are real problems. Patchy data, inconsistent force recording, privacy rules, shifting definitions, and plenty of scope for sloppy analysis. Fine. But a serious state fixes those problems. Our state uses them, year after year, as camouflage.

The outcome is clear. If you do not publish the table on immigration, demography and sexual violence, you cannot expect the public to trust your assurances. You create a vacuum and that vacuum fills with suspicion, anger, and increasingly nasty generalisations.

Meanwhile the same people who refused to publish the table hold a conference about ‘community cohesion’. It is like refusing to install smoke alarms and then complaining about the smell of smoke.

What a serious state would publish.

If the UK was run like a grown-up country, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice would stop faffing about with glossy platitudes and publish one annual bulletin. One. Not twenty PDFs. Not a ministerial tweet thread. Not a seminar on ‘complexity’. A single checkable set of numbers that addresses, clearly and reproducibly:

1. For rape and serious sexual offences, charges and convictions by offender country of birth and nationality, with proper population denominators.

2. The same by immigration status at time of offence, including asylum route categories where relevant, with proper denominators.

3. Rates adjusted for age and sex structure, because young men drive most violent and sexual offending everywhere.

4. Regional breakdowns, because patterns are never uniform.

5. Clear caveats on reporting and recording, including the impact of new offence codes and counting rules, so the public is not misled.

Then, and only then, can we have the argument that politicians keep demanding we do not have. A transparent and constructive debate based on facts instead of vibes.

Until that happens, the public will continue to do what humans do. They will take the ONS crime trend, take the ONS migration trend, notice that Britain has undergone an enormous non-European inflow, notice that recorded rape remains staggeringly high, and draw their own conclusions.

The state can either measure the relationship properly, or it can keep pretending that refusing to measure it is ‘responsible’. One of those choices builds trust. The other builds resentment.

And resentment, unlike spreadsheets, does not stay missing for long.

Italy’s version of the Federal Trade Commission fined Apple, Inc. nearly $116 million over what it says were overly-restrictive privacy rules that required third-party app developers to obtain user consent for data collection and tracking when it comes to delivering targeted advertising. 

Italy’s watchdog authority – the AGCM, said on Monday that Apple and its subsidiaries abused its “super-dominant” market position by requiring said consumer protections. 

The fine stems from a May 2023 joint investigation by the AGCM, European Commission, Italian Data Protection Authority (GPDP in Italian), and other national competition authorities into the restrictions from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. 

AGCM claims that in April 2021, Apple began requiring app developers to obtain user consent in addition to previously existing consent requirements that had been granted through Apple’s own consent prompt. This double-consent requirement violates article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

“Third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple’s ATT prompt,” said the AGCM. “However, such prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose.”

As the Epoch Times notes further, in an executive summary of the investigation’s findings, the Italian Competition Authority of Rome lauded Apple’s efforts to safeguard user privacy within its operating system.

However, the GPDP said, making developers obtain double user consent was “excessive” and “burdensome” and ultimately led to a reduction of opt-in rates by users for data tracking on third-party apps. That action, in turn, hampered app developers’ ability to compete with Apple and deliver targeted advertising, which resulted in higher commissions paid to Apple by developers, as well as additional revenue through a higher volume of targeted ads.

“Given that user data are a key input for personalized online advertising—since higher-quality and larger volumes of data improve the ability to identify users who may be genuinely interested in the advertised product, service or app—the restrictions imposed by the ATT policy on the collection, linking and use of such data are capable of harming developers whose business model relies on the sale of advertising space, as well as advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms,” the AGCM wrote.

The Epoch Times requested comment from Apple regarding the investigation’s finding and fine by the AGCM, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Earlier this year, Apple was fined 500 million euros ($588 million) by the European Union for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and not informing customers of potential alternatives outside of its App Store. Meta was also fined 200 million euros ($235 million) for breaching the DMA by failing to provide customers with options on how much of their data is used. Apple and Meta are appealing those fines, which were levied in April.