As the main opposition figurehead and rival to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, she’s reportedly been in hiding for many months. María Corina Machado hasn’t appeared in public for nearly a year, after she was briefly detained all the way back on Jan. 9 in Caracas.

Fearing another arrest where she could go away to prison for good, Machado has avoided public political or or protest events, even as her star was rising internationally with her being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But there are reports she was safely whisked out of the country while Caracas authorities were distracted and preoccupied with Wednesday’s US seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker.

After this, Machado popped up in Oslo, Norway – where she announced while appearing on a hotel balcony that many people had “risked their lives” to get her there. “I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said. The purported details sound straight out of a Hollywood movie:

The Wall Street Journal, though, said she wore a wig and a disguise when she began her journey on Monday. First, she left her hideout in a Caracas suburb where she had been living for nearly a year, heading for a coastal fishing village.

Two people helped her flee. The trio passed 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time, on a nerve-wracking 10-hour trip, before reaching the coast around midnight, the newspaper said. They then began a perilous trip across the open Caribbean Sea to Curacao in an open wooden fishing skiff.

According to the WSJ, the US military was informed of her crossing, to avoid the boat being targeted by airstrikes. Machado confirmed on Thursday that she had US support.

“Machado arrived in Curacao around 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Tuesday. She was met by a private contractor who specializes in extractions and was supplied by the Trump administration,” according to the WSJ account.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, had accepted the Nobel Prize in her place as she had missed the award ceremony – apparently by a mere hours. But Thursday’s appearance can be thought of as her post-award press conference.

To be expected, she used the opportunity to again call for regime change in her own country, calling it a “criminal hub”. She’s calling on the international community to intervene and “cut those sources.”

“The regime is using the resources — the cash flows that come from illegal activities, including the black market of oil — not to give food for hungry children, not for teachers who earn $1 a day, not to hospitals in Venezuela that do not have medicine or water, not for security. They use those resources to repress and persecute our people,” she said.

The 2025 peace laureate Maria Corina Machado arrived safely in Oslo, Norway in the early morning of 11 December.

It was the first time in two years that she was able to embrace her daughter Ana (depicted in the first image) and the rest of her family. She was welcomed by an… pic.twitter.com/YnDmgF6aQt

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 11, 2025

And the mainstream media is fawning over her, with the NY Times hailing her as the “de facto spokeswoman for democracy in Venezuela.” But given the US military is parked just off Venezuela’s coast, this all seems less some kind of organic democratic uprising and much more obviously a brazen Washington orchestrated regime change op.

As an example of her own regime change rhetoric, geared toward the overthrow of President Maduro:

Reporter: Would you welcome a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela? 

Machado: Venezuela has been already invaded. We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents. We have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime.

She’s of course giving the neocons and hawks what they want to hear, as this narrative of “Middle Easts terrorists” setting up shop in Venezuela has long been a talking point among Republicans especially. But evidence is thin to non-existent, and exists more in the imaginations of 24/7 Fox News consumers.

Machado also expressed support for the US military intercepting and seizing Venezuelan oil tankers, and sanctioning her country:

Mr. Maduro’s largest corporate partner is Chevron, the American energy company, which has continued to export Venezuelan oil to the United States despite Mr. Trump’s military escalation.

In response to questions about the seizure of the oil tanker, Ms. Machado said that she supported cutting the funds of Mr. Maduro’s government. She added that he finances himself with gold smuggling, human trafficking, drugs and illegal oil sales.

Just like the US-led regime change playbook says…

NOW – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado: “We will turn Venezuela into that energy, technological, and democracy hub of the Americas… we will host all of you in a bright, democratic, and free country, and it’s going to be soon.” pic.twitter.com/aRIP1psbLj

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 11, 2025

Machado outside her hotel in Oslo smiles while crowds chanted “President! President!” She declared, “I want you all back in Venezuela.” She may soon get her wish in the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Her daughter has promised that “she will be back in Venezuela very soon.” Machado has said it is her “duty” to return to Venezuela with her Nobel award, and she’s willing to do so whether or not Maduro remains in power.

Meanwhile, there has actually been some local opposition to the oppositionist evident on the streets of Norway…

Norwegian peace groups demonstrate in Oslo against the Nobel Prize award to rabid warmonger, coup plotter and corporate front woman Maria Corina Machado pic.twitter.com/JelS2HW69P

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 10, 2025

Indeed many are not buying this carefully curated narrative: “We know that our regime is supporting itself thanks to other authoritarian regimes. We need the support of all democracies in the world,” Machado said. “That’s why we are certainly asking the world to act.” Iraq, Libya, Syria 2.0 coming?

Adding to the growing mountain of commentators joining us in calling BS on the booming data center industry magically pulling dozens of gigawatts of energy per year out of thin air… 

has anybody done the math how many hundreds of new nuclear power plants the US will need by 2028 for all these AI daily circle jerk deals to be powered?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 14, 2025

… and as a reminder, the DOE recently forecast that data centers would need 100GW of new peak capacity by 2030 – the equivalent of about 100 new nuclear power plants – the FT has published a report highlighting the growing chasm between dreams and (artificial) reality.

They are catching on https://t.co/a18crhqZ4v pic.twitter.com/8ruZBeWSLn

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 9, 2025

Already accounting for about 51 GW of demand today, data centers look to add as much as 72 GW over just the next three years according to Morgan Stanley. There’s about 25 GW of new energy generation ready to come online in that same timeframe, mostly in the form of natural gas turbines, but this will leave a gaping hole 47 GW wide. It follows similar estimates from across the industry.

MS just upped their power shortfall estimate to 47 GW. Up by 1 nuclear power plant every week https://t.co/dXjHnKrIiH pic.twitter.com/yNxIlDOoZL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 2, 2025

An AP1000 from Cameco’s Westinghouse can provide just over 1.1 GW, which means from the perspective of nuclear energy, big tech is asking for over 17 new large reactors within the next 36 months. So, just some context: in the past few decades, the US has built only two, and they weren’t exactly cheap.

Oh, and as of this moment, the US isn’t building any, while China has 29 in process.

Needless to say, the US is horribly behind with construction proficiency of any type of energy generation infrastructure. OpenAI’s letter to the US government claimed they and their big tech peers need 100 GW per year of new power, while lamenting the US only added 51 GW in 2024 compared to China adding 429 GW. This is partly due to China’s skilled and proficient construction force.

But what happened to the army of nuclear construction workers trained for the reactors we built recently in Georgia, you ask? They quit nuclear to go build data centers… the same data centers which now have no power. As the chart from Goldman below indicates, the US is now short 300,000 engineers (and as much as 500,000) to meet US power demands by 2030. 

With the average time for connecting new demand to grids like PJM now exceeding eight years, where is all the power going to come from in the short term?

Why don’t we just take a supersonic jet engine and screw it into the ground? Thankfully, there’s a company for that. 

Boom Supersonic has unveiled their Superpower Natural Gas Turbine, capable of producing 42 MW of electricity each. The company was originally designing a supersonic jet turbine for use on next-gen airliners, but they quickly recognized the disturbing demand for new energy generation capacity and are now seizing their moment.

42MW per unit. 1.21GW launch order. 420MW min order size. Also 90 days from concept to $1.3B backlog = $69M/day.

The numerology is strong with this one💪 pic.twitter.com/4SnEYwNUMJ

— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) December 9, 2025

Furthermore, Boom turbines have the benefit of not requiring water cooling systems due to their advanced materials used in the turbine’s construction and specially designed air cooling systems. Given the strong opposition to water usage by environmental groups and smaller towns, this gives Boom a major leg up in dry areas.

Their capacity for producing the supersonic turbines is expected to reach roughly 100 per year by 2030, which is about 4 GW of new gas turbine energy. So no, it won’t plug the demand gap through 2030 – and it certainly won’t plug the massive gap with China – but at least it’s a step in the right direction. As for the bigger picture, either more gas turbine producers will need to step up over these next few critical years, or data centers are going to start stacking up as nothing more than order dots on GE Vernova’s backlog.

Meanwhile Boom’s core business – the pursuit of a 21st century Concorde – continues. 

US equity futures are lower, as lousy earnings and an ugly capex forecast by Oracle reversed the market euphoria following the “more dovish than expected” Fed rate cut. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 0.2% but well off session lows, having tumbled as much as 1% earlier; Nasdaq 100 is down 0.4%, reversing earlier losses of 1.5%. In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks underperform: NVDA -1.7%, META -1.0%, TSLA -1.0%. ORCL plunged 11.2% in premarket trading after cloud sales missed estimates with free cash flow concerns rising again amid a surge in capex at the worst possible time. Bond yields are mostly unchanged; the USD is lower. Commodities are mixed: oil is down -1.4%; base metals and Ags are lower. Bitcoin slipped nearly 2% as it approached $90,000. Today’s US economic calendar includes weekly jobless claims, September trade balance (8:30am) and September final wholesale inventories (10am)

In premarket trading, Nvidia leads Mag 7 names lower after Oracle’s report dampened risk appetite in the AI sector (Apple +0.4%, Alphabet -0.2%, Amazon -0.6%, Microsoft -0.5%, Tesla -0.6%, Meta -0.6%, Nvidia -1.4%)

• Ciena (CIEN) soars 11% after the maker of equipment used by telecom companies posted reported adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter that beat the average analyst estimate.
• Diamond Hill Investment Group Inc. (DHIL) shares are halted after Genstar Capital-backed First Eagle Investments agreed to buy the boutique asset-management firm for $473 million in cash.
• Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) gains 2% after a next-generation obesity shot helped patients lose almost a quarter of their body weight in 68 weeks.
• Gemini Space Station Inc. (GEMI) rises 15% after its application for a derivatives exchange was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in a move that will allow the company to join the fast-growing field of prediction markets.
• Oracle (ORCL) falls 11% after the company forecast 3Q cloud sales growth below analyst estimates, raising concerns that supply constraints are preventing the cloud-infrastructure provider from converting its large backlog to actual revenues.
• Oxford Industries (OXM) sinks 21% after the owner of the Tommy Bahama apparel brand cut its adjusted earnings per share forecast for the full year, missing the average analyst estimate. The fourth-quarter net sales outlook also missed consensus.
• Planet Labs (PL) gains 17% after the satellite-imaging firm raised its sales and margin outlook, boosted by new and expanded contracts. Recent wins included an expansion to a contract with NATO and a deal with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Caution toward the AI space returned with a vengeance, with Nvidia Corp. down 1.4% to lead Magnificent Seven losses as Oracle, once viewed as a bellwether of the AI investment boom, sank more than 12% in premarket trading after cloud sales missed estimates and the company lifted its 2026 capital spending outlook by $15 billion to $50 billion.

Oracle’s results pushed worries about tech valuations and whether heavy spending on AI infrastructure will pay off back into focus, reviving concerns that fueled weeks of volatility in November. While the sector has powered the S&P 500’s stunning rally this year, spending fears have prompted some investors to rotate into other areas as the US economic outlook remains robust.

“Markets have grown far more wary of AI-related spending, which is a sharp contrast with mid-2025 when anything hinting at higher capex sparked excitement,” said Susana Cruz, a strategist at Panmure Liberum. “Oracle has been the weakest link in all this, largely because it’s funding a big chunk of its investment with debt.” 

In an attempt to reboot excitement in the sector, Microsoft’s CEO said the company will unveil a new model on Friday that is “going to take agents to the next level.” 

Oracle’s earnings landed after the S&P 500 closed just shy of a record on Wednesday, lifted by a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut and Chair Jerome Powell’s sanguine economic outlook. Investors had taken comfort in Fed policymakers leaving the door open to more easing next year, even though the quarter-point cut drew three dissents. Traders stuck to bets on two cuts in 2026, even as the Fed’s new projections signaled only one such move.

“The Fed’s ‘hawkish-but-bullish’ cut last night reinforces this: stronger 2026 growth, faster disinflation,” said Florian Ielpo, head of macro at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. “Cuts are continuing, but they’re no longer automatic — and that’s usually a constructive backdrop for equities.”

“The effect of Oracle has been greater than the Fed. This already tells us everything as we’ve been witnessing a strong concentration and one theme — AI — leading the market,” said Alberto Tocchio, a portfolio manager at Kairos Partners. “This doesn’t mean that AI is gone or it’s a bubble, but we need to focus on a wider scale.”

In other assets, the IEA trimmed estimates for a global oil supply surplus this year and next for the first time in several months as demand strengthens and output growth slows. And tariffs are back in focus, with Mexican lawmakers giving final approval for new duties on Asian imports.

Technology stocks dragged Asian bourses lower overnight and looked set to do the same in Europe but the Stoxx 600 is now green. Construction, retail and industrial shares are leading gains. The construction and materials sector outperforms, while utilities lag. Software stocks including SAP SE and Sage Group Plc drop after US tech giant Oracle Corp. reported disappointing cloud sales and a jump in AI-related spending. Here are some of the biggest European movers on Thursday:

• Schneider Electric shares climb as much as 4.4%, the most since July, after the electrical power products manufacturer announced a share buyback program as it targets growing profitability over the next five years.
• Nilfisk shares surge as much as 35%, the most on record, after the cleaning products manufacturer received a takeover offer from Freudenberg Group.
• BNP Paribas Bank Polska shares rise as much as 3.5% to a record high, after the Polish unit of BNP targeted acceleration of loan growth and net income in its 2026-2030 strategy.
• Carl Zeiss Meditec shares gain as much as 8.6%, the most since April, after the German medical technology firm reported earnings which included a beat on quarterly revenues.
• Nordex  shares rise as much as 3.9%, on course to close at their highest level since 2007, after Kepler Cheuvreux upgraded its recommendation on the wind-turbine maker to buy from hold.
• RS Group shares rise as much as much as 5.5%, touching their highest levels since February, after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral, as it sees a better year for European business services in 2026.
• Entain shares slip as much as 4.1% after the gambling firm announced that Chief Financial Officer Rob Wood will step down after 13 years.
• Naturgy shares drop as much as 6.9%, to the lowest level since April, after BlackRock’s infrastructure arm sold a stake in the Spanish company at a 5.4% discount to Wednesday’s closing price.
• SAP shares drop as much as 4.3% to their lowest level since October 2024, after US peer Oracle reported disappointing cloud sales.
• Ceres Power shares sink as much as 15% after Grizzly Research discloses that it’s short the clean-energy technology stock.
• Delivery Hero shares falls as much as 6.6%, putting the firm among Thursday’s worst performers in the Stoxx 600 index, after Citi downgraded it to sell amid increasing competition in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Earlier,  Asian equities erased early advances and fell, dragged by a slide in technology shares as disappointing earnings from Oracle Corp. offset optimism over the Federal Reserve’s rate cut. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell as much as 0.7%, after rising 0.6% in morning trading Thursday. A gauge of the region’s technology shares dropped 1.7%. SK Hynix declined after Korea Exchange issued an alert on the stock and prohibited margin trading after big gains. Equity benchmarks in Taiwan dropped more than 1%, while those in Japan and South Korea also retreated. 

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is steady. The Aussie dollar is the weakest of the G-10 currencies, falling 0.3% against the greenback after soft jobs data. The Swiss franc is the best performer, rising 0.4% after the SNB left interest rates on hold.

In rates, treasuries are little changed, with US 10-year yields near flat at 4.14% broadly holding Wednesday’s curve-steepening rally that followed the FOMC rate decision. OIS contracts price in around 50% odds of another 25bp rate cut in March. Trading of short-term rate products remains in focus as the Fed’s plan, also announced Wednesday, to buy $40 billion of Treasury bills per month. Yields are 1bp-2bp richer on the day with belly outperforming, steepening 5s30s spread by around 1bp. 10-year yields is near 4.135% after peaking near 4.21% Wednesday, highest since Sept. 4. The week’s Treasury auction cycle concludes with $22 billion 30-year bond reopening at 1pm New York time, following good demand for 3- and 10-year note sales Monday and Tuesday. WI 30-year yield near 4.78% is ~9bp cheaper than last month’s auction, which tailed by 1bp.

In commodities, oil retreated toward the lowest since October, tracking wider losses in risk assets. WTI crude futures fall 1.3% to around $57.70 a barrel. Spot gold drops $15. Silver extended an all-time high past $62 an ounce. Bitcoin is down over 2% near $90,000.

Looking ahead, today’s US economic calendar includes weekly jobless claims, September trade balance (8:30am) and September final wholesale inventories (10am)

Market Snapshot

• S&P 500 mini -0.5%
• Nasdaq 100 mini -0.7%
• Russell 2000 mini little changed
• Stoxx Europe 600 +0.1%
• DAX little changed
• CAC 40 +0.4%
• 10-year Treasury yield -1 basis point at 4.14%
• VIX +0.3 points at 16.1
• Bloomberg Dollar Index little changed at 1209.7
• euro little changed at $1.1704
• WTI crude -1.6% at $57.54/barrel

Top Overnight News

• Trump said any deal for Warner Bros. Discovery must include the sale of CNN, a potential wrinkle for Netflix’s bid. As the takeover fight plays out, the political divide grows. BBG
• NEC Director Hassett said the Fed has plenty of room to cut rates and probably will need to do some more, while he added that data could support a 50bps cut and they could definitely get to 50, or even more. Hassett also said a 25bps cut would be a small step in the right direction and that President Trump will make the Fed Chair choice in a week or two.
• US House of Representatives voted 312-112 to pass the USD 901bln defence spending bill
• China now has the biggest power grid the world has ever seen. Between 2010 and 2024, its power production increased by more than the rest of the world combined. Last year, China generated more than twice as much electricity as the U.S. Some Chinese data centers are now paying less than half what American ones pay for electricity. WSJ
• China put rate cuts in play after pledging to adopt supportive monetary and fiscal policy to bolster the economy. It will “flexibly” use interest rate and RRR cuts. Policymakers also plan to step up efforts to stabilize the housing market. BBG
• The BoJ sees limited need for emergency intervention to restrain rising bond yields, a move that runs counter to its effort to roll back stimulus. RTRS
• The SNB kept its interest rate at zero, in line with expectations, judging that a weakened inflation outlook doesn’t yet justify a return to negative borrowing costs. BBG
• Mexico approved tariffs of up to 50% on Chinese and other Asian imports, broadly aligning itself with US efforts targeting Beijing. China urged Mexico to “correct” its unilateral and protectionist practices. BBG
• Mexico’s tariff hike will affect $1 billion worth of shipments from major Indian car exporters, including Volkswagen and Hyundai. BBG
• Rents for Manhattan apartments surged to a record high in November. New leases were signed at a median of $4,750 in the month, up 13% from a year earlier and 3.3% from October. RTRS
• The United States can use other measures to recreate the roughly $200 billion in revenues it is collecting under tariffs based on a 1977 law if the Supreme Court strikes down use of that law, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Wednesday. RTRS

Trade/Tariffs

• UK pledges an additional GBP 1.5bln for NHS medicines as part of Trump tariff deal, according to FT.
• Britain is to reform the system to speed up investigations into unfair trade practices and is to sharpen trade defences by giving the trade secretary power to direct investigations, according to draft government guidance.
• Mexico approves wide-ranging tariffs of up to 50% on China, according to Bloomberg. China’s Commerce Ministry later commented regarding Mexico’s tariffs that it will closely monitor the implementation and will further evaluate the impact, while it added that the measures harm the interests of relevant trade partners, including China.
• India’s CEA chief economic advisor said most trade issues with the US have been sorted out and will be surprised if there is no deal with the US by March.
• Mexico’s tariffs to hurt Indian-made car exports of Volkswagen (VOW3 GY), Hyundai (5380 KS), Nissan (7201 JT) and Maruti Suzuki (7269 JT), according to Reuters Sources. It was earlier reported by Bloomberg that Mexico approved wide-ranging tariffs of up to 50% on China.

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks were ultimately subdued after failing to sustain the early positive momentum from the dovishly perceived FOMC where the Fed lowered rates by 25bps to between 3.50-3.75%, as expected, but with a less hawkish tilt than what Wall Street had anticipated, although much of the gains were eventually wiped out as a slump in Oracle post-earnings stoked tech and AI-related concerns. ASX 200 eked mild gains but with upside limited by the latest jobs data, which showed a surprise contraction in jobs that was solely due to a drop in full-time work. Nikkei 225 reversed its opening gains and more amid pressure from a firmer currency and as AI-exposed stocks were hit, including SoftBank. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp gradually retreated with the mainland not helped by another liquidity drain by the PBoC, while trade-related uncertainty lingered, with China said to have held urgent discussions with major domestic tech firms on Wednesday about whether to permit purchases of NVIDIA’s H200 processors.

Top Asian News

• HKMA cut its base rate by 25bps to 4.00%, as expected, and in lockstep with the Fed.
• China’s Commerce Ministry said China has taken measures to grant exemptions on Nexperia chips for compliant exports intended for civilian use.
• China’s Foreign Ministry on tensions with Japan said Japanese PM Takaichi’s attitude makes it impossible to engage in dialogue.
• China’s Commerce Ministry said non-state import quota for fuel oil in 2026 set at 20mln metric tons.
• China holds annual central economic work conference on Dec 10-11th, according to Xinhua; said China is to make use of RRR rate cut flexibly. Will continue to expand domestic demand. Will build strong domestic market. Will consolidate, stabilise economy. Will implement appropriately loose monetary policy. Will implement more proactive fiscal policy. Will maintain yuan exchange rate basically stable. Will step up counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustment. Will optimise fiscal expenditure structure. Will emphasise resolving local fiscal difficulties. Will flexibly use policy tools including RRR, rate cuts. Will actively resolve local govt debt risks, prohibit new hidden debt. Will stabilise property market with city-specific measures. Encourages buying existing homes for social housing.
• Japan’s Lower House passes supplementary budget bill for FY2025 to fund new economic policy package under PM Takaichi, according to Jiji.

European bourses (STOXX 600 +0.2%) opened broadly lower, but managed to clamber off worst levels as the morning progressed, albeit marginally so. European sectors also held a negative bias as the open, but now display a mixed picture. Construction leads followed by Autos whilst Tech is weighed down by pressure seen in Oracle (-11% pre-market) after its earnings.

Top European News

• ECB’s Makhlouf said he is confident that medium-term inflation will be at 2%.
• SNB maintains its Policy Rate at 0.00% as expected; SNB reiterates it remains willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary. Inflation in recent months has been slightly lower than expected. In the medium term, however, inflationary pressure is virtually unchanged compared to the last monetary policy assessment. Sight deposits held at the SNB will be remunerated at the SNB policy rate up to a certain threshold. Although US tariffs and trade policy uncertainty weighed on the global economy, economic developments in many countries had thus far remained more resilient than had been assumed.
• SNB Chairman Schlegel said the Bank will continue to observe the situation and adjust monetary policy where necessary to keep price stability Banks’ sight deposits held at the SNB will be remunerated at the SNB policy rate up to a certain threshold. The low level of interest rates in Switzerland is having an effect via the exchange rate. Mid-term inflation pressure is practically unchanged since the previous quarter. Ready to intervene in the FX market if necessary. Policy continues to be expansionary, and supports inflation and the economy. Cannot say lower CPI outlook makes NIRP more likely.
• ECB proposes expanding the existing small banks regime to include more banks for supervision purposes. Recommends merging bank capital stack into 2 elements; a releasable and a non-releasable buffer. The non-binding pillar 2 guidance would be kept separate, on top of the releasable buffer. ECB design or role of additional tier 1 instruments could be adjusted to enhance loss absorption capacity.
• BoE’s Bailey said BoE should not have interest rate risk on its balance sheet, the question is how fast to remove it.

FX

• DXY attempted a recovery from the post-FOMC slump, which saw the index fall to a 98.592 low yesterday before extending lower to 98.537; though the index is now flat. A floor was found during APAC trade as risk began to wane. To recap, the Fed cut rates by 25bps to 3.5-3.75%, as expected, but in a dovish 9-3 vote split – Goolsbee and Schmid voted to leave rates unchanged, while Miran wanted a larger 50bps reduction. In terms of the session ahead stateside, weekly initial jobless claims (for the week of 6th December) are seen rising to 220k from 191k (last week’s low reading was largely due to seasonal adjustment factors); continuing claims (for the week of 29th November) are seen ticking up to 1.947mln from 1.939mln. Wholesale sales and inventory revisions are also due today.
• High beta FX (CAD, GBP, NZD, AUD) are all softer, with state-side sentiment also lower following the Fed and Oracle earnings. AUD is the laggard following the Aussie jobs report overnight, which showed a surprise contraction in jobs that was solely due to a drop in full-time work. Little move was seen on China’s Economic Work conference readout, which noted that China is to make use of RRR rate cut flexibly. EUR/USD is uneventful around the 1.1700 mark in a narrow 1.1683-1.1707 parameter.
• CHF was unmoved by the SNB rate decision, which was overall as expected with no fireworks (some expected a return to NIRP). SNB kept rates at 0.00% and reiterated its language on FX, that it “remains willing to be active in the foreign exchange market as necessary”. In terms of inflation projections, 2025 was unchanged, whilst 2026 and 2027 were revised a touch lower. The CHF, however, saw mild strength during the press conference, in which he said he cannot say whether a lower CPI outlook makes NIRP more likely. USD/CHF dipped as low as 0.7979 (vs high 0.8001).
• RBI likely selling USD to help INR avert a sharp fall, according to traders cited by Reuters

Fixed Income

• USTs continue to build on the post-FOMC upside; in brief, the FOMC cut rates by 25bps to 3.50-3.75%, as expected, while the vote split was a bit more dovish than expected. For US paper specifically, the Fed also said it will start technical buying of Treasury bills to manage market liquidity, in which the initial round will total around USD 40bln in Treasury bills per month to help manage market liquidity levels. Currently trading in a 112-11 to 112-18+ range, and another leg higher would see a retest of the high from 8th December at 112-19. From a yield perspective, the FOMC sparked a bull steepening, which has continued into today. Now attention turns to a number of US data points, incl. Jobless Claims, Wholesale Sales and then a 30-year auction, which follows on from a strong 3yr and mostly positive 10yr.
• Bunds follow USTs, and are now flat to trade in a current 127.36 to 127.77 range. Newsflow is incredibly light this morning, with price action essentially a paring of some of the upside seen following the FOMC. Elsewhere, UBS analysts recommend a long 10yr Bund trade, target 2.75% yield; said term premia priced by markets are too high – for reference, current 10yr yield is at 2.85%.
• Elsewhere, Gilts remain bid, as UK paper plays catch-up to peers – price action muted and within a narrow 91.22 to 91.38 range.
• Italy sells EUR 5bln vs exp. EUR 4.0-5.0bln 2.35% 2029, 3.00% 2029, 2.70% 2030 BTP

Commodities

• Crude benchmarks have sold off throughout the APAC session and into the European session as risk tone sours across equity markets despite an FOMC cut that was perceived dovish. After opening at USD 58.92/bbl and USD 62.43/bbl respectively, WTI and Brent trended c. USD 1.30/bbl lower to session lows of USD 57.57/bbl and USD 61.20/bbl as equities sold off. The selloff completely reversed Wednesday’s gains following the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
• Spot XAU peaked to USD 4248/oz early in the APAC session as the metal continued its gains following the dovish FOMC announcement. As the APAC session continued, however, XAU reversed lower as the dollar began to strengthen and equities sold off. In past sessions, XAU has been moving in-tandem with equities despite its safe haven characteristics, perhaps explaining the selloff in the APAC session.
• 3M LME Copper gapped higher and drove higher to a peak of USD 11.72k/t, USD 30/t shy of ATHs, before falling back lower as global risk tone soured. The red metal stabilised at USD 11.58k/t and has since remained in a tight USD 60/t band.
• Russia’s Energy Ministry expects oil refining and gas and coal production to remain at 2024 levels in 2025, via RIA.

Geopolitics: Middle East

• US officials discussed hitting the UN Palestinian refugee agency with terrorism-related sanctions, according to sources cited by Reuters.
• US State Department condemned the Houthis’ ongoing unlawful detention of current and former local staff of US missions to Yemen.

Geopolitics: Ukraine

• Ukrainian navy drones in the Black Sea struck the “Dashan” vessel that is part of Russia’s shadow fleet, while the attack led to the tanker being disabled.
• The EU is looking to reach an agreement by Friday to lengthen the freeze on Russian assets using emergency powers, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar.
• Russia’s Lavrov said Russia wants a package of documents on a long term sustainable peace for Ukraine. Should be security guarantees for all sides.
• Ukrainian drones struck Lukoil’s oil extraction platform in the Caspian sea, according to SBU source cited by Reuters; oil and gas production halted.
• Russia’s Lavrov said European peacekeepers in Ukraine “will Be A Target “, via Interfax.

Geopolitics: Other

• US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, while President Trump said the vessel was seized for a very good reason, and Attorney General Bondi said the oil tanker was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. Furthermore, Guyana’s government said the oil tanker seized by the US was falsely flying a Guyana flag and that it will take action against the unauthorised use of the Guyanese flag.
• Russia’s Kremlin said President Putin plans to meet Turkey’s President Erdogan during his visit to Turkmenistan.
• Russia’s Kremlin said Russia remains open to investment. It was reported by the WSJ that US companies could invest in strategic sectors from rare-earth extraction to drilling for oil in the Arctic and help restore Russian energy flows to Western Europe and rest of the world.

US Event Calendar

• 8:30 am: Dec 6 Initial Jobless Claims, est. 220k, prior 191k
• 8:30 am: Nov 29 Continuing Claims, est. 1938k, prior 1939k
• 8:30 am: Sep Trade Balance, est. -63.1b, prior -59.6b
• 10:00 am: Sep F Wholesale Inventories MoM, est. 0.1%

DB’s Jim Ried concludes the overnight wrap

Last night saw the market rally resume after the Fed cut rates by 25bps, which included enough dovish hints to pare back the hawkish repricing over recent days. So the S&P 500 (+0.67%) closed less than 0.1% beneath its record high, whilst 2yr Treasury yields (-7.7bps) saw their best day in two months. However, that momentum behind risk assets has been lost overnight, as disappointing results from Oracle after the US close pushed their shares down -11.52% in after-hours trading. And in turn, S&P 500 futures are down -0.90% this morning, with those on the NASDAQ 100 down -1.20%. So even as investors were reassured by the Fed’s latest rate cut, familiar concerns about AI are still very much top of mind right now. 

In terms of the Fed decision, the FOMC delivered a third consecutive cut that took the target range for the fed funds rate down to 3.50-3.75%. This was a 9-3 decision, with Governor Miran again advocating for a larger 50bp cut, whereas regional Fed presidents Goolsbee and Schmid favoured no change. The cut was accompanied by implicit signals that the Fed could remain on hold in early 2026. For instance, the dot plot showed the median participant only expecting one more rate cut in 2026, while new wording on “the extent and timing” of further rate adjustments signaled a possible pause ahead. Powell also emphasised that the FOMC was “well positioned to wait and see how the economy evolves” as recent easing had brought the policy stance “within a broad range of estimates of neutral”.

However, this cautious guidance was accompanied by several dovish-leaning elements. Notably, the updated economic projections struck a sanguine tone, with real GDP revised higher across the 2025-27 period, whilst 2026 headline and core PCE inflation were revised -0.1pp and -0.2pp lower to 2.4% and 2.5% respectively. The statement also dialed up the tone on the recent uptick in unemployment while Powell sounded a bit more sanguine on upside inflation risks, saying that “inflation has come in a touch lower” recently and that “most of the inflation overshoot is from tariffs”. Our US economists’ base case remains that Powell has now delivered the last rate cut of his tenure as chair, but continued labor market weakness could swing the FOMC to cut again in the next few months (see their full reaction note here).
Away from rates policy, the Fed also announced they’ll begin reserve-management purchases of Treasury bills. Those will start at $40bn a month from next week and are expected to “remain elevated for a few months” before slowing significantly after the April tax payment window. This will mark the first sustained increase in the size of the Fed balance sheet since the Fed ended QE in spring 2022. And it was a slight surprise this was announced at yesterday’s meeting, even if a shift towards more active liquidity management had been expected by early 2026.

After the decision, markets saw the FOMC’s signal as favourable to expectations of a 2026 rate cut. So even though a rate cut is only priced at 20% by the next meeting in late-January, futures currently signal a 52% chance of a cut by March as we go to press this morning. Moreover, there was a dovish shift in the futures curve, with the rate priced by the December meeting down -6.6bps on the day, meaning that 55bps of cuts were priced for next year by the close. In turn, that meant 2yr Treasury yields fell by 5 to 6bps intraday after the FOMC to register their biggest daily decline in two months (-7.7bps to 3.54%), and 10yr yields fell by -4.1bps on the day to 4.15%. That trend has continued overnight as well, with the 10yr yield down another -2.1bps to 4.13%. And this also weighed on the dollar index, which fell -0.44% yesterday to a six-week low.

Although the Fed’s decision helped to support equities, with the S&P 500 (+0.67%) closing just -0.06% below its all-time high, it’s been a very different story overnight following Oracle’s earnings. They reported after the US close, but their revenues fell short of analysts’ estimates, with their share price down -11.52% in after-hours trading. So that’s pushed US equity futures lower this morning, with those on the S&P 500 down -0.90%, whilst those on the NASDAQ 100 have fallen -1.20%.

That more negative trend has continued in Asia overnight, where there’ve been losses across the major indices. So the Nikkei (-0.97%), the Shanghai Comp (-0.75%), the CSI 300 (-0.52%), the Hang Seng (-0.22%) and the KOSPI (-0.20%) are all lower this morning. And those losses have been particularly sharp for tech stocks, with the Hang Seng Tech index down -1.12%. Bond yields have also moved lower, which partly reflects the Fed and the wider risk-off tone this morning, but we also saw Japan’s 20yr auction have its strongest demand since 2020. Moreover, the latest employment data from Australia showed an unexpected contraction of -21.3k in November (vs. +20.0k expected), which has raised doubts about the likelihood of a near-term rate hike by the RBA. Indeed, yields on 10yr Australian government bonds are down -8.9bps this morning, and the Australian dollar is the worst-performing G10 currency, down -0.59% against the US dollar.

Before the Fed and Oracle’s earnings, investors had priced in a growing chance of an ECB rate hike for 2026, which is now seen as a 40% chance. That gave the European bond selloff a fresh dose of momentum, which was particularly clear at the front end of the curve. For instance, the 2yr German yield (+2.2bps) rose to 2.17%, its highest level since the fiscal stimulus announcements were made in March. And that was echoed across the continent, with yields on 2yr French (+2.4bps) and Italian (+1.6bps) debt also at their highest in months. However, the long-end was more subdued, with yields on 10yr bunds (+0.1bps), OATs (+1.2bps) and BTPs (+0.3bps) seeing smaller increases that still left them beneath their closing level on Monday. In the meantime, equities saw a relatively stronger performance, with the STOXX 600 (+0.07%) inching up after three consecutive declines.

On the theme of central banks, yesterday also brought the Bank of Canada’s decision, who held their policy rate at 2.25% as expected. This followed rate cuts at the previous two meetings, but this time their statement said that if the economy and inflation evolved in line with their October projections, then they felt rates were “at about the right level”. In turn, Canadian government bond yields fell back, with the 2yr yield down -6.0bps on the day, whilst the 10yr fell -4.4bps.

Finally, there wasn’t too much data yesterday, although we did get the Employment Cost Index (ECI) from the US for Q3. That came in a bit softer than expected at +0.8% (vs. +0.9% expected), and it was also the slowest pace since Q3 last year. So that helped to ease fears about inflationary pressures, particularly with the year-on-year pace now down to +3.5%, the slowest since Q2 2021.

To the day ahead now, and data releases include the US weekly initial jobless claims, along with the trade balance for September. Otherwise from central banks, we’ll hear from BoE Governor Bailey.

After plunging near 60 year lows in the prior week (at 192k), initial jobless claims rebounded (as many expected) to 236k last week – back into the ‘normal’ range and nothing at all to worry about from a labor market perspective…

Source: Bloomberg

Sure enough it was California in large part that was responsible for the chaos…

Source: Bloomberg

But while initial claims rebounded back to ‘normal’, continuing jobless claims plummeted

Source: Bloomberg

We assume whatever screw-up that seasonal adjustments caused in initial claims the week before have rippled through to the continuing claims data this week, but still – taken at face value, it’s great news!

However, there could be an even more silver lining as we noted last week, before Trump sent out his ICE troops, California’s Continuing Claims were running ~400K per week. Beginning in the summer, however, these claims steadily dropped… and perhaps this week’s crash in continuing claims is the chopping block coming down on illegals claiming benefits in California?

We’ve highlighted a new theme: data centers in low Earth orbit, or at least the race to get these AI chips into space.

Week after week, the news flow shows a new space race taking shape, as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman appear to be the major players in the scramble to get chips into orbit – almost certainly joined by other billionaires quietly working behind the scenes.

The latest news on the AI chips-in-space theme comes from a Bloomberg report that Musk’s SpaceX is planning to raise $30 billion at a $1.5 trillion valuation, with some of the proceeds expected to be used for space-based data centers.

We must note that Musk has the only capable space program that could rapidly deploy space-based data centers at scale; neither China nor Russia, nor even Bezos’ Blue Origin, currently has this capability.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT founder Sam Altman attempted to buy rocket startup Stoke Space this past summer, with the intent of joining the space race to launch AI chips into orbit.

A new Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday afternoon added more color about the Musk-Bezos space-based data center race:

Bezos’ Blue Origin has had a team working for more than a year on technology needed for orbital AI data centers, a person familiar with the matter said. Musk’s SpaceX plans to use an upgraded version of its Starlink satellites to host AI computing payloads, pitching the technology as part of a share sale that could value the company at $800 billion, according to people involved in the discussions.

The push to move data centers into low Earth orbit is all about sidestepping Earth’s power constraints and soaking up precious resources, harnessing essentially limitless solar energy, and leveraging space’s near-zero thermal environment to keep advanced AI chips cool.

“Taking resource-intensive infrastructure off Earth has been an idea for years, but it has required launch and satellite costs to come down. We are nearing that point,” Will Marshall, CEO of satellite operator and builder Planet Labs, told WSJ.

Making spaceflight affordable has been SpaceX’s focus with its reusable rockets, and once Starship becomes commercialized, costs should drop even further.

Let’s remind readers that SpaceX is effectively America’s rocket program – and it leads the world by light-years.

This makes Musk and xAI uniquely positioned to scale data centers quickly.

SpaceX also leads in terms of spacecraft upmass…

WSJ noted that Google and Planet Labs plan to conduct a 2027 space test using satellites equipped with Google AI chips. Early tests aim to demonstrate feasibility, while full-scale systems will require thousands of satellites to match a single large terrestrial data center.

Latest from Musk about data centers in space. 

The lowest cost place for data centers is space when 300 GW of computer data center you can power and cool in space when you have continuous solar and no batteries needed. @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/J5EMJt8rRw

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) November 19, 2025

And Bezos. 

Jeff Bezos plans to build a data center in space within the next 10+ years.

Unlimited solar energy available 24/7, space is an ideal location for data centers.$AMZN AWS is set to make major moves out there. pic.twitter.com/KJCEO973eQ

— Bourbon Capital (@BourbonCap) October 3, 2025

Why stop with data centers in low Earth orbit? How about on the moon? We’re sure Starlink’s in-space mesh network can help with that… So crypto mining on the moon as well? All things space are about to kick off with SpaceX’s IPO slated for next year. 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In yet another chilling assault on free speech and cultural identity, a London primary school teacher has been dragged through the wringer for simply pointing out Britain’s Christian roots to a Muslim student.

This outrageous case exposes how woke bureaucrats are weaponizing child protection rules to silence anyone who dares affirm traditional values in a multicultural minefield.

Suspended, sacked, and slapped with a ban from working with kids, the educator’s only “crime” was enforcing school policy and delivering a dose of reality about the UK’s religious landscape. Backed by the Free Speech Union, he’s now fighting back against this blatant overreach that reeks of leftist intolerance for inconvenient truths.

Teacher banned after telling Muslim child that Britain is Christian country https://t.co/P4jEdY0irl

— The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) December 9, 2025

The incident kicked off when the teacher caught students washing their feet in the boys’ bathroom sinks—a clear violation at the non-faith school where prayers were confined to a designated room. According to reports, he addressed the group, explaining the rules and emphasizing British values of tolerance.

But one pupil took offense, claiming the teacher said the school wasn’t religious and suggested an alternative. Specifically, the child reported the teacher stating, “Britain is still a Christian state,” while noting the King’s role as head of the Church of England. The educator also allegedly remarked, “if you want that, there’s an Islamic school a mile away,” referring to accommodations for Islamic practices.

Police from the Metropolitan’s child abuse team got involved, probing a potential hate crime. Though that inquiry was dropped, the local safeguarding board branded the teacher’s comments as causing “emotional harm” to the child, leading to his ban from the profession.

The school wasted no time: suspended in March 2024, sacked for gross misconduct by February 2025 after nearly three years on the job.

With the aid of the Free Speech Union, the teacher is now suing the local authority. Lord Toby Young, the group’s director, remarked, “This teacher lost his job and almost ended up being barred from the profession for life just because he pointed out to a class of Muslim schoolchildren that the national religion of England is Anglicanism.”

He drove the point home: “Things have reached a pretty pass in this country if a teacher can be branded a safeguarding risk because he says something that’s incontestably true. If he’d claimed that Islam is the official religion of England, even though that’s not true, I doubt he would have got into any trouble.”

Young’s critique highlights the double standard plaguing Britain’s institutions, where affirming the majority culture invites punishment, but pushing minority agendas gets a free pass.

The teacher successfully appealed the ban and now works part-time at another school outside London. Yet the damage is done—his career derailed over a factual statement in a lesson on tolerance, no less.

This fiasco echoes broader concerns that safeguarding protocols are being hijacked to target conservative views. Just days prior, an ex-Royal Marine faced a similar ban for online posts criticizing illegal immigration, as noted in related coverage.

A jury took just 17 minutes to unanimously clear Royal Marine veteran, Jamie Michael, of stirring up racial hatred after he was arrested for a posting a video about illegal immigration.

Despite their verdict, Jamie has been banned from working with children. An official… pic.twitter.com/w1KoReHtRA

— The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) December 8, 2025

Leftist enforcers in education and government are stifling dissent under the guise of “protection.” It’s no secret that unchecked multiculturalism, fueled by open borders policies, has led to clashes like this, where schools become battlegrounds for identity politics.

The teacher’s legal team stressed the school’s non-faith status and the informal ban on playground prayers, extending to sink usage. But facts didn’t matter to the ideologues who prioritized feelings over reality.

In a nation where Christianity shaped laws, holidays, and institutions for centuries, stating the obvious now risks professional ruin.

Britain’s slide into this woke dystopia serves as a stark warning. If bureaucrats are allowed to redefine “harm” to include historical facts, then free expression crumbles. The teacher’s fightback offers hope, but it underscores the urgent need to dismantle these speech-suppressing mechanisms.

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.

Conservative and outspoken libertarian-leaning Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced legislation Tuesday for the United States for formally withdraw from NATO. Sen. Mike Lee is also helping lead the charge, introducing companion legislation in the Senate.

The bill argues that the US military cannot be seen as the police force of the world, and that given NATO was created to counter the long-gone Soviet Union, which no longer exists, American taxpayers’ money would be better spent elsewhere.

“We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries… US participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk US involvement in foreign wars… America should not be the world’s security blanket – especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense,” Massie said.

That latter part is likely designed to gain Trump’s attention and sympathy, given the president has been emphasizing this point all the way back to his first term.

The bill if passed would require the US government to formally notify NATO that it intends to end its membership and halt the use of American funds for shared budgets. Republican Senator Lee actually introduced similar legislation earlier this year, but it stalled in committee.

Of course, most Congress members have viewpoints which merely reflect the ‘pro-NATO’ established position of the vast majority of Western politicians generally, so it’s very unlikely to ever be passed.

Massie wrote on X, “NATO is a Cold War relic. The United States should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our country, not socialist countries. Today, I introduced HR 6508 to end our NATO membership.” 

“Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against,” he said additionally. 

The NATO Act:

• Requires the President to formally notify NATO of U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
• Concludes that NATO’s original Cold War purpose no longer aligns with current U.S. national security interests.
• Finds that European NATO members have adequate economic and military capacity to provide for their own defense.
• Prevents use of U.S. taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets, including its civil budget, military budget, and the Security Investment Program.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced companion legislation, S.2174, in the United States Senate. The text of the NATO Act is available at this link.

“If you could snap your fingers and get us out of NATO today, would you?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked in a post on X.

“Yes,” Massie replied.https://t.co/Nifjbtt7O1

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 29, 2025

Under pressure from Trump, NATO members agreed this year to gradually raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP, significantly above the old 2% guideline. European leaders were finally amenable to this, despite mocking it years ago during Trump’s first term, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the “threat” to Europe that they perceive.

Moscow has denied time and again that it has ‘expansionist’ ambitions – yet US and EU leaders continue to portray Putin as some who dreams of reestablishing an old empire, or else revive Soviet power and borders.

Authored by Niall McCrae via Off-Guardian.org,

British people are glum and grumbling after Rachel Reeves’ budget, but what did they expect? They should know by now that government is an extortion racket.

While many voters regret their decision in last year’s general election, die-hard Labour supporters continue to make excuses: Tory mismanagement and Brexit ruined the economy. Daily Mail readers, meanwhile, have been told that the budget has taken from hard-working families to give to benefit claimants.

This is exactly what the powers-that-be want people to believe, not only as the old divide-and-rule strategy, but because society needs to understand that jobs are disappearing rapidly, and the future is basic universal income and total dependence on the state.

The looming technocracy has no use for the majority of the workforce. Data and distribution centres will be run by robots. Artificial intelligence will rise through the occupational strata to replace professional practitioners such as lawyers and doctors.

Call it new technology
And they use it to burn
And they show no concern
Work for their prosperity
While the big wheels turn
Now it’s too late to learn
Don’t upset the teacher
Though we know he lied to you
Don’t upset the preacher
He’s gonna close his eyes for you

And it’s a shame
That you’re so afraid
Just a worker waiting in the pouring rain
Putting back the pieces of a broken dream

Father worked in industry
Now the work has moved on
And the factory’s gone
See them sell your history
Where once you were strong
And you used to belong
There was once a future
For a working man
There was once a lifetime
For a skillful hand – yesterday

Prophetic words by the band Erasure, back in 1986. But most people do not heed the warnings, preferring to shoot the messenger.

A talented OffGuardian writer, Todd Hayen, has decided to stop writing due to the abusive responses to his latest article on the persistent faith of citizens in government and in official narratives. He used the term ‘sheep’ for the easily herded folk who take the vaccines and believe in the scripted saviours and bogeymen.

Funny how the same people can be utterly convinced that their own pet catastrophes—Trump returning to power, climate change, systemic racism, white supremacy, overpopulation, or the rise of the far right—are existential threats that will end life as we know it unless we surrender every freedom immediately to stop them. But mention digital id, central bank digital currencies, vaccine passports, social credit systems, or the creeping transhumanist agenda, and suddenly you’re the paranoid one wearing a tinfoil hat.

The threats to humanity are – or at least should be – emphatically clear. A digital prison is being built around us, with the implicit consent of the ‘sheep’, who still think that technology will solve our problems. Convenience, security and efficiency are prized over meaningful social interaction, privacy and freedom. As Hayen explained, this delusion was primed long ago:

Most of them have been psychologically and educationally groomed for decades to believe that socialism, Marxism, or outright communism are not only benign but morally superior. ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ sounds noble when you’ve never watched the state decide what your needs actually are. They think communism is free healthcare, student-debt forgiveness, and government UBI cheques. They have no idea it’s secret police at 3 a.m., neighbours denouncing neighbours for extra bread rations, gulags, re-education camps, forced confessions, and a boot stamping on a human face—forever.

I am no less against global corporate capitalism and fascism as I am of leftist totalitarianism, but merely a minority of critical thinkers see through the Left versus Right paradigm. Ask a progressive liberal student whether she’d expect a fascist government to give free money to everyone in society, of whatever colour or creed, and she’d probably scoff at such a ridiculous notion. Welfare is a thing of the Left – that’s how younger generations are taught to love Big Brother.

Britons are led to believe that the government will always be there as a safety net, when the jobs are gone. Therefore, they don’t threaten aa uprising on the throwing of taxpayers’ money at Ukraine or on the perpetual influx – a million every year – of immigrants whose cheap labour will be a temporary pursuit.

The budget is misunderstood by the majority as a giveaway to the workshy. It is really setting the scene for digitally-controlled UBI, and everything else is a sideshow. Or as Erasure called it, ‘The Circus’.

Ukraine is desperately seeking more money, which has been a persistent reality of the war, and the European Union is scrambling to find solutions amid a general Western war weariness which has already seen hundreds of billions poured into Kiev’s coffers.

Currently EU member states are rapidly advancing a plan to permanently freeze as much as €210 billion ($244.38 billion) in Russian state assets to finance Ukraine for at least the next two years. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking to use a loophole to rush this through, based on invoking emergency powers to sanction the frozen assets on a permanent basis, instead of holding the funds based on current six-month renewals, which requires unanimous agreement from all member states.

The plan would see €90 billion (roughly $104.71 billion) released over the next two years. Von der Leyen’s scheme would allow for the plan to pass merely with a qualified majority, and so couldn’t be derailed by just a lone veto. Nations like Germany and Spain have already signaled their support. 

EU leadership is rushing it forward to circumvent holdout Hungary in getting what’s being dubbed a “reparations loan” to Ukraine, and there’s also the idea that it would bolster the EU’s negotiating position in US-led peace negotiations.

EU summits chairman Antonio Costa has vowed to deliver the desired outcome by any means. “The leaders are to decide at a summit on December 18 in Brussels how to deliver on their pledge and Costa told reporters in Dublin he would keep them talking for days, if necessary, until they reach an agreement,” Reuters reports.

It will involve more than just overcoming the hurdle of Hungarian objections, however, given Belgium is not onboard at this point, and the bulk of the Russian funds are kept in Belgian banks.

For starters, Brussels fears immediate negative repercussions from Russia, which could deeply hurt its economy, and so wants guarantees ahead of any EU vote that all members would help absorb the impact.

Von der Leyen has acknowledged the issue, posting on X: “Belgium’s particular situation regarding the use of the frozen Russian assets is undeniable and must be addressed in such a way that all European states bear the same risk.”  She added: “We agreed to continue our discussions with the aim of reaching a consensus at the European Council meeting on December 18.”

Belgium’s initial reaction was to call it “complete madness” – according to The Hungarian Conservative:

‘This is complete madness,’ [Belgian Prime Minister Bart] de Wever said of the proposal in October, according to POLITICO Brussels. The Belgian prime minister argued that the risk of legal and financial retaliation from Moscow is simply too great. He told his colleagues that if Russia were to win lawsuits against Belgium or Euroclear—which holds the frozen assets—the country would be forced to compensate the entire amount itself.

De Wever’s concerns are not unfounded. Reacting to the Commission’s proposal, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that any ‘illegal action’ involving frozen assets would provoke the ‘harshest reaction’, adding that Moscow is already preparing a package of countermeasures. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev described the plan as a ‘casus belli’, labelling the move tantamount to outright theft.

EU diplomats have been in back-and-forth negotiations with Belgium. Germany’s Chancellor Merz has also acknowledged, “What we decide now will determine Europe’s future: Belgium’s particular vulnerability in the issue of utilizing the frozen Russian assets is indisputable and must be addressed in such a way that all European states bear the same risk.”

💼 @PM_ViktorOrban: Brussels wants to seize frozen Russian assets, but we must first ask what countermeasures would follow. If Hungarian companies in Russia lose their assets, why should Hungary support such a move? pic.twitter.com/CBXd54f4PV

— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) October 16, 2025

The European Commission is working on ‘safeguards’. “The Belgian government, along with Euroclear, are looking for financial guarantees from fellow EU member states before committing to supporting the plan,” Fox News writes. “De Wever fears that Belgium will ultimately be held responsible and be forced to pay back the assets that are seized in the event a sanctions deal is negotiated with Russia as a way to end the war in Ukraine.” But without doubt, the Kremlin has been brainstorming the punitive actions it could in turn unleash to make Belgium and Europe feel the pain.

via Middle East Eye

Pakistan has reportedly offered to take back grooming gang leaders in exchange for Britain handing over Pakistani political dissidents living in the UK.

Pakistani media reported that the proposal was made in a private meeting last Thursday in Islamabad between Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Jane Marriott, the British high commissioner. Naqvi reportedly urged the UK to hand over anti-government figures Shahzad Akbar and Adil Raja.

Akbar, who was a minister in Imran Khan’s government, and Raja, a former army major, are both living in the UK. They have both strongly criticized the Pakistani government over its alleged human rights abuses and suppression of political dissent. 

The British government has previously requested that Pakistan extradite Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, who were jailed in 2012 as ringleaders of a grooming gang that sexually assaulted and abused 47 girls over two years in Rochdale.

Both Khan and Rauf, Pakistani immigrants, were stripped of their British citizenship after being convicted. But days before a judge ordered them to be deported to Pakistan, they renounced their Pakistani citizenship. Pakistan has since refused to accept them.

According to Pakistani media, the Pakistani government said it would accept Khan and Rauf if the UK hands over dissidents Akbar and Raja.

‘Unprecedented and deeply disturbing’

This comes as the Labor government is facing mounting pressure to take further action on child sexual exploitation. Its attempts to set up a nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs have faced repeated delays and debates about how wide its scope should be.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said on Monday the inquiry must “consider the role of ethnicity, religion and other cultural factors” and should “leave no stone unturned”.

It is thought that Britain is highly unlikely to agree to the reported Pakistani proposal, and the Home Office and Foreign Office have declined to comment on the reports.

Raja, now a freelance journalist, told The Telegraph that the report “is unprecedented and deeply disturbing. It shows the extent to which an authoritarian regime is willing to go to suppress dissent”.

“I have broken no UK law. My only ‘offence’ is practicing journalism and exercising free expression,” he said. “I trust that the UK, a country committed to the rule of law and press freedom, will not allow political critics to be traded away under pressure from a foreign government.”

The Beasts won and they’re still here !

A member of a Rochdale grooming gang who is fighting to remain in the UK has told a tribunal he “has not committed that big a crime”.
Adil Khan, 51 and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, have been told they are to be sent back to Pakistan for the… pic.twitter.com/ygHMs0vwft

— Deport Foreign Criminals (@peterstopcrime) February 16, 2025

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted from government in April 2022 through a parliamentary no-confidence vote following a fallout with the country’s influential military.

He has spent more than two years in prison. Last year a UN report concluded that his detention is arbitrary and in contravention of international law.