After Foreigners Banned From Swiss Pool, Season Ticket Sales Surge And Police Incidents Stop

Via Remix News,

After all foreigners were banned from a Swiss swimming pool in Porrentruy over violence, sexual harassment and constant disturbances, Swiss visitors to the pool and employees are generally expressing happiness with the move.

The ban, which came about after “French youths with a migration background” continuously caused problems at the pool and in pool bathrooms, including sexual harassment of young girls. The situation even sparked international headlines.

However, the Swiss paper 20 Minuten reported a surge in season ticket sales after the ban was put in place.

“It went very well. Citizens have rediscovered the bathing establishment with the peace and quiet that comes with it,“ said Lionel Maître, the municipal councilor for tourism and leisure in Porrentruy. “We have seen an increase in season ticket sales as citizens have finally regained the long-awaited sense of security. There have been no problems and no new bathing bans since then.”

Maître said that it had become increasingly noticeable that the perpetrators had Arabic names.

Apollo News also reported that the need for security has suddenly disappeared since the ban on foreigners.

“People were climbing over the fence. They didn’t respect us – not even the security guards,” said Luna Lando, a lifeguard at the Porrentruy outdoor pool. She said her daily routine is now transformed.

“It’s much quieter now,” said Luna in an interview. “There’s no need for security anymore.”

“We wouldn’t have been able to come here anymore if the measures hadn’t been introduced,” Vieira da Silva Aurelie, a swimming instructor from another pool in Switzerland, told German newspaper Welt.

According to Welt, there were repeated thefts at the location, women were whistled at, and boys and men touched girls inappropriately. One mother stated she had forbidden her daughter from visiting the pool due to safety fears.

Even Bild sent a reporter to the pool to cover the reaction to the ban, highlighting just how far-reaching the story has become.

Before the ban, the pool itself had already issued 20 “house bans” on specific individuals from entering the pool area, but this proved insufficient to keep the peace. The problem? The pool is located only a few kilometers from the French border and the city of Belfort. Although the town itself is described as a classic Swiss village, complete with rolling hills filled with grazing cows, the suburbs of Belfort feature troubled foreign youth who consistently cause problems in the neighboring Swiss village.

One 17-year-old student, Alexi, told Bild it is now quiet and thefts have ended.

“It’s better this way. Sometimes we Swiss couldn’t get in at all. Now, it’s quieter, you can swim and there are no more thefts, it couldn’t go on like this, that we Swiss couldn’t go into our own swimming pool anymore,” he said.

A 68-year-old pensioner, Chantalle, agreed, saying: “There were a lot of problems with 15-year-olds that caused stress. The police were there almost every day.“

Foreigners can still enter the pool, but only if they have a work permit in Switzerland or if they are guests at a local hotel that provides pool cards to its guests. However, they have to pay double the price as Swiss citizens, which also serves to restrict the number of foreign guests.

Although the ban targets all foreigners, Bild indicates the true target was the French youths who ruined the peaceful atmosphere at the pool and participated in various crimes.

A 51-year-old teacher, Melanie (51), told Bild: “The problem is that people are simply afraid of large groups that don’t follow the rules in the swimming pool. They come from the suburbs of Belfort in France. These are people who cause problems there, too. Of course, that’s a shame for everyone else who can’t get in anymore, who aren’t criminals.“

However, a cleaning specialist, 38-year-old Said, who has a migrant background, said: “This discriminates against our families. They’re stereotyping all the French now. This is a minority that has sometimes made a bit of a splash here. That’s not good. I’ve been here a lot, and I’ve never experienced much stress here.“

One Swiss woman, Marie, said she did not like the ban. “I go to the swimming pool every day and regret the decision. I saw a lot of French people here and never noticed any problems. I think the decision was made because it was often very crowded here. Maybe too crowded. But you shouldn’t solve this problem like that,” she told Bild.

However, the police in Porrentruy tell a different story, telling Bild that since the start of the season in mid-May, they have been called to the pool several times, including in instances where they had to come “sometimes two or three times an hour.”

There were no criminal complaints ever recorded, only oral complaints. But since the ban came into place, the police have not been called once, although it has only been in place for a short time.

The police would not comment on allegations from the community that French migrant youth were harassing girls. “We’re not allowed to talk about it.” He told the reporter that the media attention to the subject had grown too large, and there were efforts to “muzzle the community.”

Could this type of ban work elsewhere?

The reality is that German newspapers are so interested in this swimming ban due to the crisis at German swimming pools, which have seen young girls sexually assaulted and harassed in large numbers over the years. In addition, thefts, assaults, and general disorder have been prevalent, as Remix News has reported numerous times.

However, while some swimming pools with the unique issue seen in Porrentruy could implement such a ban on foreigners, the widespread issue seen in Germany will not vanish with such a ban. This is due to the fact that the crime and harassment problem presented by foreigners is coming from those who live in the cities and towns already, not from outsiders.

In many cases, these are youths born to foreign parents, and many of them already have German citizenship.

However, an end to the problems involving swimming pools would mean fewer security staff are required, which would lower ticket prices and contribute to a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere within swimming pools. In addition, the appearance of police crisis teams at swimming pools, such as seen in Berlin, would also disappear. Police would then be freed up to handle crime in other areas of the cities of Germany.

Only fundamental changes at the federal level in regards to immigration and crime enforcement will make European swimming pools peaceful and family-friendly places once again.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/18/2025 - 02:00

Why Iran Fears A Syria-Azerbaijan Axis

Authored by RFE/RL staff via OilPrice.com,

• Syria and Azerbaijan pledged to deepen ties, including a landmark Azerbaijani gas export deal via Turkey.

• Iranian media warned of a potential redeployment of Syrian fighters into the Caucasus, heightening regional tensions.

• Reports of Israeli-Syrian contacts in Baku added to Tehran’s suspicion of an anti-Iran alignment involving Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Israel.

Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s visit to Baku last weekend highlighted a dramatic shift in regional alliances, prompting a mix of concern, suspicion, and strategic recalculation across Iranian media.

Official statements following Sharaa’s meeting with President Ilham Aliyev emphasized a new era in Syrian-Azerbaijani relations. Both leaders acknowledged past stagnation, directly blaming ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s “unfriendly policy” and pledged to restore and deepen cooperation.

Notably, the visit yielded a deal to export Azerbaijani gas to Syria via Turkey, with officials hailing the agreement as a needed remedy for Syria’s chronic energy crisis.

Meanwhile, various outlets, including Israeli media, claimed that Syrian and Israeli officials met on the sidelines of the trip. It’s unclear whether Sharaa attended the meeting, but the mere occurrence of such a meeting -- facilitated by Azerbaijan, Israel’s key ally in the region -- has further fueled concerns in Tehran.

Sharaa, a former insurgent known under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, joined forces with Turkish-backed rebels and, in December 2024, led his Hayat Tahrir al?Sham (HTS) faction in a lightning offensive that ultimately toppled the Iran? and Russia?backed Assad government.

Security Challenges

A shared concern in Iranian media is what is seen as a shifting militant footprint from the Syrian battlefield to the Caucasus -- right on Iran’s doorstep.

Arman-e Melli, a pro-reform newspaper, argued that one aspect of the budding relationship between Damascus and Baku will involve the transfer of Syria-based fighters through Turkey into bases in Azerbaijan -- a potential development it described as a “mission” for Sharaa.

It is speculated that their presence is meant to destabilize areas along the borders of Iran and Russia and to carry out operations targeting the broader axis of China, Russia, and Iran.

The conservative newspaper Farhikhtegan struck a similar tone, arguing that Sharaa sees the redeployment of his fighters to meet a US demand to expel foreign fighters from Syria. Under such a plan, the paper said, Azerbaijan would emerge as a strategic hub; either a staging ground for further infiltration into the Caucasus and Russia or a site for settlement in areas such as Karabakh.

A ‘Message’ To Iran

Israel’s i24NEWS network, citing an unnamed Syrian source, claimed that Israel and the United States had made a decision for Baku to host a meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials to “send a message to Iran.”

Referencing the report, Iran’s state broadcaster-run Jam-e Jam newspaper charged that given Baku’s track record of alleged involvement in anti-Iranian operations over the years, and suspicions about its cooperation with Israel during last month’s war, this could well be taken as “clear evidence” that some neighboring countries are working with Israel against Iran.

Jam-e Jam specifically named Azerbaijan and its allies, Turkey and Israel, as the countries involved in “shaping new dynamics that work against Iran’s interests.”

The paper argued that ultimately Iran will need to safeguard its national interests with both diplomatic and security savvy, including strengthening ties with neighbors such as Armenia and Russia, and taking a firm stand against “Baku’s provocations.”

Tehran has watched with growing concern as Azerbaijan forges ever?closer links with Israel.

In recent years, the partnership has significantly expanded, highlighted by deepening defense collaboration and Baku’s decision to open an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2023 -- developments that have only heightened Iranian mistrust.

Iran’s president, Masud Pezeshkian, last month pressed Aliyev to “investigate and verify” reports that Israeli drones, including micro-drones, had crossed into Iranian airspace through Azerbaijani territory during the 12-day war that ended in a ceasefire on June 24.

Aliyev rejected the allegations, affirming that his government would never permit Azerbaijani territory to be used against Iran.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 23:25

At Sotheby's Auction, $30 Million Dinosaur Skeleton Stuns As Martian Meteorite Sets Record

A 54-pound fragment of Mars, dislodged by a cosmic collision and hurled 140 million miles to Earth, became the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction on Wednesday. But it was a rare young dinosaur skeleton that captured the spotlight - fetching more than $30 million in a frenzied bidding battle.

A Martian meteorite, weighing 54.388 pounds, said to be the largest piece of Mars on Earth, is displayed at Sotheby's in New York City on July 9, 2025. Richard Drew/AP Photo

The meteorite, named NWA 16788, sold for $5.3 million after fees at Sotheby’s auction of rare geological and archaeological objects. Described by Sotheby’s as the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, the rock was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter scouring the Sahara Desert in Niger. Pre-sale estimates had placed its value between $2 million and $4 million.

“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s vice chairman for science and natural history, ahead of the auction. Measuring nearly 15 inches long, the meteorite accounts for nearly 7 percent of all known Martian material on Earth.

But while bidding for the Martian rock unfolded in careful increments - often coaxed along by the auctioneer - the atmosphere shifted when a juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton took center stage.

Only four Ceratosaurus skeletons are known to exist, according to Sotheby’s, and this specimen—the only juvenile among them—was fiercely contested. After opening at $6 million, the bidding surged in $500,000 and then $1 million increments, drawing gasps from the audience as six bidders drove the price to $26 million before fees.

A mounted Juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton, of the Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian Stage, is displayed at Sotheby's in New York City on July 9, 2025. Richard Drew/AP Photo

The official sale price, with premiums included, came to $30.5 million, making it the third-most expensive dinosaur skeleton ever sold at auction. The buyer, whose identity was not disclosed, plans to loan the skeleton to a public institution.

Assembled from 140 fossilized bones unearthed in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, the juvenile Ceratosaurus stands more than six feet tall and stretches nearly 11 feet long. Its lineage dates back some 150 million years to the late Jurassic period. For comparison, adult Ceratosaurus specimens could grow up to 25 feet long—smaller than their more famous Tyrannosaurus rex cousins, which reached lengths of 40 feet.

The skeleton’s dramatic sale reflects a growing appetite among private collectors and institutions for rare paleontological specimens. Last year, Sotheby’s sold a Stegosaurus skeleton nicknamed “Apex” for a record-setting $44.6 million.

By contrast, the Martian meteorite’s record-breaking result unfolded with less spectacle. Two pre-auction offers, $1.9 million and $2 million, set the stage for a steady sequence of modest live bids. Final bidding stalled at $4.3 million, before fees lifted the total.

Scientific analysis confirmed that NWA 16788 is an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,” a type of volcanic rock formed from slowly cooling magma beneath Mars’s surface. Testing by a specialized lab matched its chemical composition to Martian samples first analyzed by NASA’s Viking landers in the 1970s.

The meteorite’s pitted glassy exterior - a result of superheating during atmospheric entry - offered the first clue that it was not, as Hatton said, “just some big rock on the ground.”

Both the meteorite and the dinosaur skeleton now stand as trophies of scientific and natural history, as well as reminders of the market’s growing fascination with relics from Earth’s past—and Mars’s distant terrain.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 23:00

House Committee Leaders Urge FBI To Halt Certifying Chinese Biometric Devices

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

The bipartisan leaders of a House committee are urging the FBI to halt the certification of biometric products manufactured by Chinese tech companies, citing risks to U.S. national security.

The ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) (L), and chairman of the committee, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), speak at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington on Sept. 25, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

In a letter dated July 15 to FBI Director Kash Patel, Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said that biometric products from 32 Chinese companies are currently on the agency’s Certified Products List.

The FBI should “put an end to its ongoing certification of products from Chinese military-linked and surveillance companies ... that could be used to spy on Americans, strengthen the repressive surveillance state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and otherwise threaten U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.

Among the 32 companies, the lawmakers highlighted Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, which was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 over its involvement in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) human rights violations in China’s far-western Xinjiang region. In 2021, Hikvision was designated as a company linked to China’s military-industrial complex in an executive order.

Currently on the FBI list is Hikvision’s HK300 PIV “single finger capture device,” which was certified on Jan. 15.

“Including these products on the Certified Products List grants these companies the FBI’s seal of approval, which they can leverage to market their products as FBI-approved to customers in the U.S. government, elsewhere in the United States, and around the globe,” the letter reads.

“This sends a dangerous signal to potential buyers that these companies’ products are trustworthy and heightens the risk that these products will be procured by U.S. government entities or contractors despite the security risks.

“It also sends conflicting messages about U.S. policy toward companies with ties to the PRC’s military-industrial complex.”

Among the 32 Chinese companies, the lawmakers said that at least 14 of them “maintain concerning ties to the Chinese military and intelligence services.”

One such company is Beijing Hisign Technology. According to the letter, Beijing Hisign “maintains partnerships” with Chinese technology companies Huawei and Inspur, both of which are identified by the Pentagon as “Chinese military companies.”

The FBI list includes several models of Beijing Hisign’s fingerprint scanner products, with the most recent one certified in January 2022.

On its website explaining its automatic fingerprint identification system, Beijing Hisign states that it is in “compliance with international standards set by ANSI/NIST and the FBI.”

Another company cited by the lawmakers, Shenzhen Cama Biometric, states that its fingerprint recognition technology is certified by China’s Ministry of Public Security and is advertised for use in government, military, and military industrial applications, according to the letter.

Cama Biometric’s fingerprint scanner, modeled CAMA-AFM360V3, is on the FBI list and was certified in June last year.

On its product page explaining that model, Cama Biometric describes it as “FBI certified.”

Beijing Eyecool Technology, formerly known as Techshino, is another company named in the letter. The lawmakers noted that its biometric systems “now underpin the CCP’s pervasive surveillance infrastructure, including ‘Skynet,’ where Eyecool’s platforms reportedly handle over two million daily facial captures in a single city, and continue tos support PLA programs.”

PLA is an acronym for China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army.

Skynet is widely known as a tool for spying on ordinary Chinese citizens and silencing dissidents. The CCP has promoted the surveillance system as a means of fighting crime.

The FBI’s most recent certification of a product from Beijing Eyecool occurred in June 2023.

Other Chinese companies named in the letter include Chongqing Huifan Technology, Miaxis Biometrics, Shenzhen Dotu Technology, Tlink Technology, and Zhejiang Wellcom Technology.

The two lawmakers asked the FBI to “immediately review all PRC-based companies whose products are on the Certified Products List and check them against existing U.S. government sanctions, entity lists, and security determinations.”

They requested a written response from the agency addressing their concerns within 30 days. 

When contacted by The Epoch Times, the FBI said it had received the letter but declined to comment on it.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 22:35

NATO Top Commander: Patriots Must Move From European Allies To Kyiv 'As Quickly As Possible'

NATO's top military commander, US Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, announced Thursday that efforts are underway to expedite the delivery of additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, amid nightly waves of drone and missile attacks which are regularly in the hundreds.

"We’re working closely with the Germans on transferring the Patriots," Grynkewich said during a major defense conference in Wiesbaden, Germany happening this week. "The directive I’ve received is to act as swiftly as possible."

Grynkewich emphasized that timing and logistics are key concerns in getting the systems delivered to Ukraine. "As Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed out, existing systems in Europe can be deployed faster than those coming off production lines," he explained. "Those new units can then replace the ones sent to Ukraine."

Source: Stars and Stripes

Last year controversy was unleashed among European allies when NATO command leaned hard on countries like Spain and Greece to give up their Patriot systems for the cause of Ukraine - and Greece immediately balked, given it sees itself as under constant threat from Turkey.

Grynkewich did admit that it's still unclear how many Patriot batteries can be made available. "There’s more to come -we’re moving as fast as we can," the commander added.

President Donald Trump has lately expressed disgust at the record numbers of suicide drones striking Ukrainian cities. While he has not approved long-range offensive weapons for Kiev, he has indicated readiness to ramp up anti-air defense systems.

On Tuesday, Trump did confirm that some Patriots sourced from Germany were already en route to Ukraine.

Following a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier in the week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signaled that a final decision on sending two additional US Patriot systems to Ukraine could be reached within days or weeks. Earlier in the conflict Berlin had already supplied three of its Patriot batteries to the Ukrainians.

The Raytheon-made system is seen by Ukraine's military as the most vital system in its arsenal to protect against ongoing Russian aerial attacks.

In another part of Grynkewich speech, he highlighted the possibility of a joint China-Russia attack meant to bog down European forces, as China takes Taiwan:

The U.S.-led NATO alliance must prepare for the possibility that Russia and China could launch wars in Europe and the Pacific simultaneously, with 2027 being a potential flashpoint year, the top American commander in Europe said Thursday.

“We’re going to need every bit of kit and equipment and munitions that we can in order to beat that,” Grynkewich said. If China’s President Xi Jinping makes a move on Taiwan, he likely would coordinate such an attack with Russian President Vladimir Putin, opening the possibility of a global conflict, he said. “That, to me, means that both of these things could happen together,” said Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO supreme allied commander.

But there's an obvious contradiction present in a speech where he's on the one hand saying the West needs to get Ukraine all the defensive systems it needs as fast as possible, and on the other the West must be prepared for conflict with both China and Russia within a few short years.

Despite the glaring policy contradictions, in the end, Raytheon and the major defense contractors will win again.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 22:10

'We Are Not For Sale' - Governor Blocks Chinese-Owned Company From Buying Land In Utah

Authored by James Xu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Tuesday that a Chinese-owned company has been blocked from purchasing state land as a result of legislation that bans land ownership from entities deemed adversarial.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks with reporters at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 10, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Speaking during a press conference in Palmyra, Utah, Cox said Cirrus Aircraft is majority owned by the Avian Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a company identified by the Pentagon as having ties to the Chinese communist regime’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), thereby posing national security risks.

Cox said AVIC makes “fighter jets, helicopters, and drones for the Chinese military“ and that they ”appear on multiple federal watch lists and are banned from federal contracts, assistance, and benefits due to serious national security concerns.”

“Their proposed investment in Utah was millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs,” Cox said. “And I don’t care. We are not for sale.”

This sentiment was cemented into law in 2024 through the efforts of Rep. Candice Pierucci and other sponsors, who passed HB516, a bill that restricts land purchases by companies backed by foreign adversaries, namely China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

Under the new state law, companies have one year to sell the land. If they miss the deadline, the Division of Facilities Construction and Management may seize the property and deposit any remaining post-sale proceeds into the General Fund.

“So we really gave them an opportunity to either play nice or do it the hard way,” Pierucci said at the briefing on Tuesday.

Utah was one of the first states to pass legislation on foreign land ownership.

“Protecting our defense infrastructure and our agriculture is not just about military readiness,” Cox said. “It’s also about economic strength. These missions contribute $23 billion to Utah’s economy, support over 177,000 jobs, and represent nearly 10 percent of our state’s GDP.”

Cox said he also wanted to set the record straight on the degree of foreign ownership in Utah, addressing some “really dumb maps that keep floating around the internet.”

“Sadly, everyone believes those dumb maps that get made up, showing that millions of acres in Utah are owned by the Chinese government. That is absolutely not true,” he said.

China held a relatively small amount of U.S. agricultural land in 2021, about 0.9 percent of all foreign-held land, or 349,442 acres nationwide, according to the National Association of Counties. Utah ranked as the fourth-largest state for Chinese land ownership, with 32,447 acres in 2022.

Cox said most estimates show that 35,000 to 37,000 acres were previously owned by Chinese entities. He said that “35,000 acres of that has been divested and is no longer owned by the Chinese government.”

The remaining land is a “very, very, very small percentage,” Cox said. “We continue to investigate, and we will continue to make sure that we are enforcing the law.”

Pierucci also pointed out the shutdown of CCP-funded Confucius Institutes at Utah universities in 2022. They are “identified by the State Department and the FBI as Chinese propaganda outlets,” she said.

Cox stressed that policies aimed at the Chinese communist regime are not an attack on Chinese citizens.

“We have nothing against the Chinese people. They are good people, many of them are Americans who live here, who are our neighbours,” Cox said. “They are not the problem. It is the Chinese government, and we want to make that clear.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 21:45

US To Build Fast Boat Base In The Philippines To Confront Chinese Vessels

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US will fund and construct a base for fast boats for the Philippine military on the South China Sea amid heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed rocks and reefs in the area.

The base will be built on the west coast of the Philippine island province of Palawan and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. According to USNI News, the base will house five boats, including both "assault boats" and rigid-hulled inflatable boats, which will be constructed by the US-based company ReconCraft.

US Marines Corps photo via DVIDS

The USNI report said that the base will be situated approximately 160 miles east of Second Thomas Shoal, a major source of tensions in the maritime dispute and the site of collisions and encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

Despite the distance, the Philippine military frequently deploys small boats to the disputed reefs, and the US project will give them a more effective way to do that.

It’s unclear how much the project will cost the US, but it’s the latest in a series of US-funded military construction projects in the Philippines.

In 2023, Washington and Manila signed a deal to expand the US military presence in the country, and the US has also been increasing military aid to the Southeast Asian nation.

The South China Sea has become a potential flashpoint for a conflict between the US and China since Washington has repeatedly affirmed that its mutual defense treaty with Manila applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the disputed waters.

Last year, it was revealed that US troops were secretly deployed to Palawa to assist the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China.

The US military has also been involved in military drills in the area and fired missiles using HIMARS rocket systems into the South China Sea from Palawan earlier this year as part of the US-Philippine Balikatan exercise.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 21:20

Democratic Socialism Is Totalitarianism

Authored by William Anderson via The Epoch Times,

After writing about the upset election win of socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, a reader sent me an angry email, telling me that Mamdani was a “democratic socialist,” and that Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez were “social democrats.” The sender apparently wanted me to believe that all they wanted was to make New York and the United States into Denmark.

After all, isn’t Denmark one of the world’s happiest countries? Doesn’t it have a $22 minimum wage? (Actually, it has no federal minimum wage). Doesn’t it have wonderful welfare benefits along with lots of personal freedom? So, if we can just elect the kind of politicians that want to turn the US into Denmark, then we should do it.

There are some issues, of course.

For one, Denmark is far from a socialist country and it certainly does not have a socialist planned economy. This is an important point, because AOC, Sanders, and Mamdani all have called for substantial government planning and ownership and Mamdani has gone even further. The socialist online magazine Jacobin recently praised Mamdani precisely because he does call for the full socialist economy:

No one should be surprised that Zohran Mamdani supports democratic control over the economy, the end goal of socialism. But he won because he combined socialist politics with practical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis facing working people.

At a 2021 conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Zohran Mamdani discussed various short-term reforms favored by the organization. But alongside offering his thoughts on the groups’ immediate aims, he also had something to say about “end goal” of socialist politics: “seizing the means of production.”

In the last week, the clip resurfaced on right-wing social media, where it’s been treated as a damning discovery about Mamdani, who just won a primary to become the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City.

National Review ran a brief item on the clip under the headline “Uh, That’s Literal Communism!” On CNN, Scott Jennings concurred, saying that Mamdani was “using the language of the Bolsheviks.” Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said that this was “the scariest thing Mamdani has said” and that it was “straight out of Karl Marx’s Communist playbook.”

It’s unclear why these remarks about the end goal of socialist politics are supposed to be shocking.

There is much to process in this short passage, and it speaks volumes about so-called democratic socialists. For that matter, that socialists would want to identify with the Jacobins speaks volumes to their intentions, given that the Jacobins were the first political party to organize and carry out political terror complete with mass executions during the French Revolution. Second, by claiming that “democratic control over the economy” means the state “seizing the means of production,” they speak to the totalitarian and violent nature of their “democratic” beliefs. One does not “seize” anything without coercion. As Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara bragged in a recent interview, “We were not trying to hide Marxism.”

Lest anyone doubt the coercive and violent nature of American socialists, the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago featured speaker after speaker calling for outright totalitarian control of all of American life. Among the proposals from speakers and delegates (all of whom were required to wear N-95 or K95 masks as part of the uniform) were taken from “democratic” socialist movements like the Bolshevik Revolution and Pol Pot’s Cambodian terror, and included:

• Replacing the family unit with communes (reminiscent of a scene from “The Killing Fields” in which the Khmer Rouge overseers show their subjects a drawing with a family X’d out);

• Using public schools to “radicalize” young people before they get to college;

• Continue to use higher education as a tool to undermine the universities and society;

• Dismantle the current United States but replace it with a “democratic socialist,” centralized entity where the state has complete control over everything.

As David Sypher, Jr., writes:

The overarching belief is clear: America’s systems – capitalism, policing, meritocracy, marriage – are all inherently oppressive and must be torn down and replaced with something “equitable.”

Although Mamdani has not publicly commented on the recent Socialism conference, he himself has called for ending private home ownership and replacing private dwellings with communal living. He also claims that private ownership of housing and profit-seeking by home builders is the main cause of homelessness. (One is reminded of the scene in the 1965 film “Dr. Zhivago” where Yuri comes home from the war after the Revolution to a house that has been divided up for different families).

Since Mamdani has openly called for the state to seize the methods of production along with private housing, there is little if any difference between his worldview and that of the most radical collectivists. That Bernie Sanders and AOC have endorsed him also speaks volumes about their own beliefs. We are supposed to believe that all they want to do is to make the US a little more like Denmark. One should wonder if the people cheering at their “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies understand just how their lives would change—and not for the better—if Sanders, Mamdani, and AOC get the “Democratic Socialism” that they want.

But what about the rest of the Democratic Party that doesn’t support Mamdani and so-called Democratic Socialism? To a certain extent, many of them are dependent upon a system of intervention that allows them to gain personal wealth from regulated capitalism and they realize that they would be left in the cold if the US really were to go fully socialist, as the left wing of the Democratic Party would like to do. Thus, we understand their resistance to the Mamdani campaign.

The Democrats were in this same place more than 90 years ago. The socialist writer Upton Sinclair in a huge electoral upset won the California Democratic Party primary for governor in 1934, running on a platform to “abolish poverty.” As Steven F. Hayward wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal:

Sinclair ran on a radical platform known by the acronym EPIC, for End Poverty in California. EPIC proposed universal old-age pensions (before Social Security), Soviet-style collective farms, state-run industries that would “produce for use, not for profit,” and perhaps property confiscation.

(Note that Mamdani has not called for the creation of collective farms in New York, which should not be surprising, given there are no farms in the city. However, in 1934, many Americans were enamored by the so-called Soviet Experiment in communism, which was much more highly regarded in the US than it would be later during the Cold War.)

President Franklin Roosevelt was not pleased with the result, as he worried that Sinclair’s radical campaign might turn people against his New Deal plans. While incumbent Republican Gov. Frank Merriam was unpopular, many Democrats and Republicans looked to run an “independent” candidate, Raymond Haight, as a foil to the other candidates.

Ultimately, Hollywood (which at that time had not been politically radicalized) turned up the rhetorical and broadcasting heat against Sinclair, and that proved to be the difference. Merriam won the election, and the socialists had to look elsewhere for electoral success.

Like the Mamdani platform and the socialist “vision” given in Chicago, Sinclair’s political promises could only be accomplished through coercion and propaganda. As Ludwig von Mises wrote more than a century ago in Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, socialism cannot work the way its promoters claim. As we have seen from the Bolshevik Revolution to modern times, socialists had absolute power to direct both labor and resources to whatever purposes they wished, yet their attempts failed miserably.

However, socialists continue to press on and now they seem to be enjoying political success. And while they throw in the word “democratic” to soften the blow, one cannot implement socialism without violence and threats of violence, since it requires confiscation of the property of others and seizes resources to change economic outcomes. In the end, it becomes yet another form of totalitarianism.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:55

Why Is Modern Society Obsessed With "Incels" And Controlling Masculinity?

Since ancient times and the rise of the first empires and monarchies political elites have sought to manage and control what they sometimes referred to as the "warrior class"; groups of men with the skill and ability to topple governments and ravage nations.

For the Vikings, warrior prowess was directly linked to one's ability to lead.  In other words, the Vikings simply stacked their governments with warriors rather than trying to suppress them.  At certain periods in Medieval societies kings were tasked with leading their soldiers into battle, thus requiring them to take the same risks as the men they sent to the front lines.  

However, in the vast majority of cases throughout history kings and politicians were not warriors.  They feared the power of masculinity and what might result if it is left to its own devices.  In other words, what they feared was the potential for rebellion and overthrow.

The most common solution was to send strong men to war (as often as possible) as a way to weaken the citizenry and keep them under the boot of the elitist class.  Other methods included codes of honor and conduct such as Chivalry or Bushido; standards of male ethics meant to prevent rogue warriors from wandering too far away from society and acting outside of the common order.  There was also marriage and family, which anchored men to the community and gave them something to lose should they step out of line. 

Finally, in modern times, feminism has stepped in as a useful tool for the state; focusing more on the psychological neutering of men from childhood rather than more blunt efforts to keep them distracted.  Feminism is far less about "empowering women" and far more about disenfranchising and controlling men.  

Under feminism, the very idea of masculinity has been targeted as a threat to civilization.  The natural, biological and inherent psychological framework of male behavior present since the beginning of humanity has been labeled "toxic".  The solution?  Feminists say that men must become "more feminine", more like women, otherwise their presence is like a nuclear bomb just waiting to go off. 

Every man is a prospective terrorist that needs to be kept locked up in his own personal GITMO.  Otherwise, men might one day organize around their own ideals (rather than the approved ideals of the elites) and change the world without the permission of oligarchs.

Over the past several years there has been a growing rallying cry among third-wave feminists and progressive governments to do more to keep men in line.  They warn that the "rise of the incels" is upon us. 

The Verge recently published a rambling diatribe trying to dissect the language of incel culture (which they argue started in the dark underbelly of anonymous 4chan forums) and uncover how it has "infected the mainstream".  As if male interactions and organizations can be analyzed like a disease in a Petri dish.

The article suggests that the spread of "incel language" needs to be studied as a means to better understand how such "extremist ideas" are able to proliferate despite being censored on a majority of mainstream platforms.  That is to say, leftists are angry that their efforts to stifle discussion have failed and they need to figure out why so they can better control the sharing of ideas in the future.

"We can, in fact, use the spread of incel ideas as a case study to examine how memes carry information across social media platforms. Real incels never had access to algorithmic recommendations, since their ideology was too unpalatable and subject to content moderation. So how did their concepts and language move from website to website until eventually arriving, in diluted form, on our social media feeds...?"

In reality, the term "incel" was started by feminists and left-wing activists, not young and isolated males on 4chan, as a way to pigeonhole men who dared to criticize the woke movement.  As is always the case with leftists, everything is about sex.  And, if a man is not having sex, it can only be because he has no options.  If he has no options, then he is a low-class man. 

Celibacy therefore becomes a brand of shame (Keep in mind that until the past 70 years the majority of westerners waited for marriage - now to be accused of celibacy is an insult).  And the only way to escape the shame and gain the affections of women (according to feminists) is to embrace their ideology and become more feminine (i.e. a man must give up on manhood and prostrate himself before the will of the establishment to prove he is no longer a threat).

Feminism has, in fact, created all the conditions that might inspire men to go rogue; they have created their own monster.  The movement has destroyed the concept of chivalry and honor codes, making it clear that men are unlikely to get any rewards or respect for serving their inherent roles as providers and protectors.  As The Verge admits:

"Incel slang is marked by its deeply negative views ­toward society, and these ideas frequently resonate with younger generations who are similarly pessimistic about the present. In the early 2020s, for instance, the catchphrase “it’s over” began making the rounds as a dejected reaction to an adverse situation. Partially a joke, partially a genuine expression of hopelessness, it was buoyed in popularity by incels, who had been using the phrase since it began making the rounds on 4chan..."

First world societies are fundamentally designed to coddle women, making women dependent on governments and corporations rather than reliant on husbands for their survival.  DEI quotas for women in education and the workplace have given women an artificial advantage in terms of access to the career market.

Surveys show the majority of women want to date men who make the same salary as them or greater (hypergamy).  Meaning, a man who works hard and builds up a modest living is no longer guaranteed a decent chance to be rewarded with companionship and family.  Marriage laws also lean heavily in favor of women, making marriage financially untenable.

Finally, feminists lied for years about women wanting "more feminine men".  Studies show that most women, including feminists, continue to be attracted to masculine men.  In other words, any men who jumped on the woke train and abandoned their masculinity have even less success with women than they might have otherwise.  In fact, feminists will often declare their disdain for feminine men as inferior or "creepy".   

It has dawned on western men in recent years that there are no longer any rules to follow -  The rules change according to whatever benefits feminists and the oligarchy at the moment.  So, why play the game at all? 

The systematic alienation of men has politicians and bureaucrats worried, with many governments across the west looking for ways to manipulate male psychology and further keep them on the plantation.  The Democrat Party recently invested millions into a project to study young men, much to the amusement of conservatives. 

Leftists claim their purpose is to determine why young men are walking away from the party, but the language of the project is revealing - Democrats are more interested in finding the "keys" to the male mind as a means to propagandize them.  They want the tools to con men back into the progressive fold; they don't care about helping men with their troubles.     

UK governments are increasingly determined to mold the minds of young men.  Propaganda about the "danger of incels" is rampant within their public school system and media.  The English government has called for secondary schools in the country to tackle "incel culture", with educators told to identify the signs early so that male students can be pacified before they take violent action.    

With men increasingly unfettered by traditional standards and facing a future without rewards for their efforts or merits, it's only a matter of time before western males organize to enact change without permission.  Governments know this is coming.  They created the conditions that make it inevitable.  This is why they can't seem to shut up about toxic masculinity; they're trying to defuse a time bomb after they started the clock.  

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:30

For National Security, We Need Uranium Mined In America

Authored by Ivan Maldonado via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.

Two miners push an ora cart as they emerge from an uranium mine in California, circa 1955. Tom Stimson/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.

In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would restart Three Mile Island Unit One in Pennsylvania and sell the power to Microsoft under a 20-year agreement. Google, too, has agreed to fund the development of small modular reactors, or SMRs, at three new nuclear sites in Oregon. TVA plans to build SMRs at its Clinch River site and Kairos Power has a blueprint for an advanced molten salt reactor. Moreover, Amazon, Google and Meta signed a pledge in March calling for nuclear energy worldwide to triple by 2050.

Elevating nuclear power on our list of energy options makes sense because it is the only way to generate large amounts of emission-free electricity reliably for AI-powered data centers, electric vehicles and industries. But surging demand for electricity and nuclear power underscores a serious issue: Who will provide the huge amounts of uranium needed to fuel nuclear plants?

Currently, 95 percent of the uranium used at US nuclear plants is imported from other countries, with Russia and former Soviet States flooding the global market and driving free-market companies out of business. China is also rapidly expanding its influence in the global uranium supply chain. But our dependence on uranium imports is not for lack of domestic resources.

In fact, in the mid-1970s the U.S. was the sole supplier of enriched uranium in the West, and business boomed. Since then, artificially low prices—and policy antagonism to domestic production—have forced U.S. customers into the hands of foreign competitors. Currently, there are only five uranium mines operating in the U.S. in contrast to several dozen in the 1970s and 20 as recently as 2009.

A uranium crisis may not be imminent, but the long-term implications of buying cheap foreign uranium instead of from US mining companies are ominous, particularly for national defense, including the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. Our nation’s fleet of 94 nuclear power plants also requires a dependable supply of uranium.

American industries, including our defense industrial base, are currently under immense pressure from China’s export restrictions on mineral exports—including rare earth metals. We know too well that the era of overreliance on mineral imports must come to an end. This is an economic, energy and national security vulnerability that has become untenable.

Given the risk of a cutoff of uranium imports or a huge spike in the price of uranium, we need a government policy to counter the threat to our national security and economy. President Trump recently said the Administration will draw up recommendations for reviving and expanding U.S. uranium production. That’s a good first step but we must match intent with action.

Our dependence on imported minerals, particularly from adversaries, poses a grave threat to national security. And it will cause serious trouble for key sectors of our economy if something isn’t done soon to boost domestic production. For these reasons, the U.S. now faces a monumental challenge: scaling up production of uranium, diversifying supply chains to protect national security and doing so in ways that are sustainable.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 20:05

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios.

Friday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, Housing Starts for June. The consensus is for 1.300 million SAAR, up from 1.256 million SAAR in May.

• At 10:00 AM, University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Preliminary for July).

• Also at 10:00 AM, State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) for June 2025

China Will Sentence Fentanyl Traffickers To Death, Trump Says

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a crowd at the White House, which included dozens of family members of fentanyl poisoning victims, that China will honor a deal he made with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his first term and sentence people to death for fentanyl manufacturing and distribution.

The president made the remarks during a signing ceremony for the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act.

“The death penalty is going to be imposed on people from China that make fentanyl and send it into our country,” Trump said. “I believe that is going to happen soon.”

After taking office again in 2025, Trump targeted China with punitive tariffs for failing to live up to the deal that would help address the U.S fentanyl crisis.

Manufacturers in China distribute the precursor chemicals needed to create the illicit drug to various criminal organizations around the world.

Altering the compounds can allow deliveries to go unnoticed at some inspection points, and criminals have begun creating alternative versions of the deadly drug, including carfentanil, which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“I imposed a 20 percent tariff on China because of the fentanyl ... it’s a penalty because China delivers much of the fentanyl, some people would say all of it, delivered into Mexico and even into our own country,” Trump said.

“We have a 20 percent [tariff], so they pay billions of dollars and billions of dollars in damages for what they’ve done.”

Following a meeting in June with U.S. Ambassador David Perdue, the Chinese communist regime added two fentanyl precursors to its list of banned substances, with enforcement beginning July 20.

More than 450,000 Americans have died of synthetic opioid overdoses over the past decade, with millions more addicted.

President Donald Trump holds up the "Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act," which strengthens prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers, after signing it in the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Before signing the HALT Fentanyl Act on Wednesday, Trump said: “This is a very special time because we’ve worked very hard to put ourselves in this position. Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers, and criminal cartels that we’ve heard about for so many years.”

The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support, reclassifies substances related to the synthetic opioids as Schedule 1 narcotics, the strictest designation established by the Controlled Substances Act.

The new law mandates a minimum 10-year prison sentence for those convicted of distributing at least 100 grams of any fentanyl-related substance, enough to kill approximately 50,000 people, based on DEA statistics.

Critics of the bill suggested that demand is fueling supply and argued that the new law could disproportionately impact marginalized communities by increasing incarceration rates.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in March that the bill would do little to solve the fentanyl crisis.

“[It] will make it harder to research addiction and overdose reversal medication, disrupt communities and families by incarcerating rather than treating addiction, and divert resources from methods that work to disrupt the flow of fentanyl in the United States to strategies from the outdated War-on-Drugs solutions that do not work,” Markey said. “Families are asking us to do something about the fentanyl crisis, and rather than do that, we are simply enabling a political stunt at the expense of real solutions.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:30

China Will Sentence Fentanyl Traffickers To Death, Trump Says

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a crowd at the White House, which included dozens of family members of fentanyl poisoning victims, that China will honor a deal he made with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his first term and sentence people to death for fentanyl manufacturing and distribution.

The president made the remarks during a signing ceremony for the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act.

“The death penalty is going to be imposed on people from China that make fentanyl and send it into our country,” Trump said. “I believe that is going to happen soon.”

After taking office again in 2025, Trump targeted China with punitive tariffs for failing to live up to the deal that would help address the U.S fentanyl crisis.

Manufacturers in China distribute the precursor chemicals needed to create the illicit drug to various criminal organizations around the world.

Altering the compounds can allow deliveries to go unnoticed at some inspection points, and criminals have begun creating alternative versions of the deadly drug, including carfentanil, which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“I imposed a 20 percent tariff on China because of the fentanyl ... it’s a penalty because China delivers much of the fentanyl, some people would say all of it, delivered into Mexico and even into our own country,” Trump said.

“We have a 20 percent [tariff], so they pay billions of dollars and billions of dollars in damages for what they’ve done.”

Following a meeting in June with U.S. Ambassador David Perdue, the Chinese communist regime added two fentanyl precursors to its list of banned substances, with enforcement beginning July 20.

More than 450,000 Americans have died of synthetic opioid overdoses over the past decade, with millions more addicted.

President Donald Trump holds up the "Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act," which strengthens prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers, after signing it in the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Before signing the HALT Fentanyl Act on Wednesday, Trump said: “This is a very special time because we’ve worked very hard to put ourselves in this position. Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers, and criminal cartels that we’ve heard about for so many years.”

The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support, reclassifies substances related to the synthetic opioids as Schedule 1 narcotics, the strictest designation established by the Controlled Substances Act.

The new law mandates a minimum 10-year prison sentence for those convicted of distributing at least 100 grams of any fentanyl-related substance, enough to kill approximately 50,000 people, based on DEA statistics.

Critics of the bill suggested that demand is fueling supply and argued that the new law could disproportionately impact marginalized communities by increasing incarceration rates.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in March that the bill would do little to solve the fentanyl crisis.

“[It] will make it harder to research addiction and overdose reversal medication, disrupt communities and families by incarcerating rather than treating addiction, and divert resources from methods that work to disrupt the flow of fentanyl in the United States to strategies from the outdated War-on-Drugs solutions that do not work,” Markey said. “Families are asking us to do something about the fentanyl crisis, and rather than do that, we are simply enabling a political stunt at the expense of real solutions.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:30

A Short History Of The Emoji

Emojis have become a staple of electronic communication since their inception in the 1990s and people of all ages and on all continents use them. While their number keeps on growing every year due to new releases by the Unicode Consortium, the pictograms are increasingly vying for users’ attention as other forms of visual communication – think gifs, stickers and avatars – are experiencing their heyday.

With myriads of emojis released over the previous years, new batches have become somewhat smaller.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, a recently suggested update that would grow the number of emojis to almost 4,000 next year contains 164 additional pictograms, but only nine completely new ones.

While 2022 had seen the release of 112 new emojis, that number was just 31 in 2023. The figure rose again to 118 in 2024 due to emojis that allow users to pick different skin colors or genders (which are counted individually), before falling to an all-time low of eight in 2025. The number of non-customizable emojis has meanwhile decreased with almost every release.

You will find more infographics at Statista

New 2025 icons included the beetroot, the shovel and the flag of British Channel Island Sark – showing how emoji makers are seemingly running out of ideas (despite taking submissions from the public). The Unicode Consortium has recommended the orca, the yeti, the landslide and the ballet dancer, among others, for release in 2026, but the final decision is still outstanding.

What emojis appear on people’s phones and on their social media platforms is not arbitrary but has been coordinated by the Unicode Consortium since 1995, when the first 76 pictograms were adapted by the U.S. nonprofit. The Consortium has been overseeing the character inventory of electronic text processing since 1991 and sets a standard for symbols, characters in different scripts and – last but not least – emojis, which are encoded uniformly across different platforms even though illustration styles may vary between providers.

Despite the first Unicode listings predating them, a 1999 set of 176 simple pictograms invented by interface designer Shigetaka Kurita for a Japanese phone operator is considered to be the precursor of modern-day emojis. The concept gained popularity in Japan and by 2010, Unicode rolled out a massive release of more than 1,000 emojis to get with the burgeoning trend - the rest is history.

Different skin colors have been available for emojis since 2015. The first regional flags came to the service in 2017. The first same-sex couples have been available since the major emoji release of 2010, but more versions were added in 2015. The 2017 release also included the rollout of the first non-binary options, while interracial couples first appeared in 2019.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 18:10

Netanyahu 'Regrets' Deadly Attack On Gaza Church After Terse Trump Call

Thursday witnessed another Israeli strike on a church in Gaza, which killed three people and injured at least six others. Among the wounded was the parish priest.

Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City when the church roof was hit around 10:10am local time, church officials describe. Shrapnel and debris came down through the roof and went flying, killing and wounding Christians inside.

Damage to the front of the Roman Catholic church in Gaza.

While most circulating reports say an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank directly fired on the church, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem initially said it was unclear whether the munition was launched from an airplane or a tank. The neighborhood and area were coming under heavy Israeli gunfire at the time.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who oversees the church, clarified in a statement to Vatican News, "What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church."

He indicated that more victims might succumb to their injuries: "There are four people seriously wounded, among these four, two are in very dramatic conditions and their lives are in serious danger," Pizzaballa said.

Pope Leo XIV has called for "an immediate cease-fire" in Gaza in a statement. His predecessor, Pope Francis, was known to have personally phoned Holy Family Catholic Church on a nightly basis to see how the community was faring, even when he was in the hospital.

Based on photos it looks like the Israeli tank operators were aiming for the cross, but missed hitting the roof leading to the debris to rain down and crush those sheltering inside.

There is no reason for an Israeli tank shell to be aimed this high.

Lord have mercy. pic.twitter.com/JnMzzB0cBj

— chunguskitten (@chunguskitten) July 17, 2025

Dozens of others had been killed in the Gaza City area on Thursday. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement specifically on the church attack, saying: "Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful."

Israel is calling it a 'mistake' - but this reportedly came only after President Trump phoned the Israeli Prime Minister and put pressure on him, according to Times of Israel and the NY Times:

President Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to express “not a positive reaction” to the attack on the church, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news briefing.

This comes after the October 2023 IDF attack on the Church of Saint Porphyrius, an ancient Orthodox church in Gaza City, which resulted in the deaths of at least 18 Palestinian Christian civilians.

Sources close to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem told The Pillar that they believe the Israeli bombing of the Catholic Church in Gaza may have been retaliation for the meeting of Christian leaders in Taybeh, the Christian West Bank town that's been under settler attack. pic.twitter.com/JBIG8hao3j

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) July 17, 2025

In the early 20th century, many villages and cities across what is now Israel and Palestinian territories were actually majority Christian (Bethlehem and Ramallah being prime examples), or at least had very sizeable Christian minorities. For example Jerusalem at one point was up to one-third Christian in identity. This goes back to Byzantine times, and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem remains a significant landholder in Israel.

Steady migration out of the region, as well as persecution by both Jewish and Muslim fanatics, and at times the Israeli government - has led Christian numbers to steadily decline. One regional Middle East Christian website, for example, summarizes, "historically a Christian town, Ramallah has seen mass migration to the West as a result of Israeli occupation. It retains a significant Christian minority, determined to maintain a Christian presence in the land of their ancestors."

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:50

Netanyahu 'Regrets' Deadly Attack On Gaza Church After Terse Trump Call

Thursday witnessed another Israeli strike on a church in Gaza, which killed three people and injured at least six others. Among the wounded was the parish priest.

Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City when the church roof was hit around 10:10am local time, church officials describe. Shrapnel and debris came down through the roof and went flying, killing and wounding Christians inside.

Damage to the front of the Roman Catholic church in Gaza.

While most circulating reports say an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank directly fired on the church, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem initially said it was unclear whether the munition was launched from an airplane or a tank. The neighborhood and area were coming under heavy Israeli gunfire at the time.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who oversees the church, clarified in a statement to Vatican News, "What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church."

He indicated that more victims might succumb to their injuries: "There are four people seriously wounded, among these four, two are in very dramatic conditions and their lives are in serious danger," Pizzaballa said.

Pope Leo XIV has called for "an immediate cease-fire" in Gaza in a statement. His predecessor, Pope Francis, was known to have personally phoned Holy Family Catholic Church on a nightly basis to see how the community was faring, even when he was in the hospital.

Based on photos it looks like the Israeli tank operators were aiming for the cross, but missed hitting the roof leading to the debris to rain down and crush those sheltering inside.

There is no reason for an Israeli tank shell to be aimed this high.

Lord have mercy. pic.twitter.com/JnMzzB0cBj

— chunguskitten (@chunguskitten) July 17, 2025

Dozens of others had been killed in the Gaza City area on Thursday. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement specifically on the church attack, saying: "Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful."

Israel is calling it a 'mistake' - but this reportedly came only after President Trump phoned the Israeli Prime Minister and put pressure on him, according to Times of Israel and the NY Times:

President Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to express “not a positive reaction” to the attack on the church, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news briefing.

This comes after the October 2023 IDF attack on the Church of Saint Porphyrius, an ancient Orthodox church in Gaza City, which resulted in the deaths of at least 18 Palestinian Christian civilians.

Sources close to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem told The Pillar that they believe the Israeli bombing of the Catholic Church in Gaza may have been retaliation for the meeting of Christian leaders in Taybeh, the Christian West Bank town that's been under settler attack. pic.twitter.com/JBIG8hao3j

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) July 17, 2025

In the early 20th century, many villages and cities across what is now Israel and Palestinian territories were actually majority Christian (Bethlehem and Ramallah being prime examples), or at least had very sizeable Christian minorities. For example Jerusalem at one point was up to one-third Christian in identity. This goes back to Byzantine times, and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem remains a significant landholder in Israel.

Steady migration out of the region, as well as persecution by both Jewish and Muslim fanatics, and at times the Israeli government - has led Christian numbers to steadily decline. One regional Middle East Christian website, for example, summarizes, "historically a Christian town, Ramallah has seen mass migration to the West as a result of Israeli occupation. It retains a significant Christian minority, determined to maintain a Christian presence in the land of their ancestors."

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:50

Secret Meeting Opens Document Floodgates On Trump/Russia Hoax: Sperry

Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClearInvestigations,

The floodgates holding back long-buried classified documents exposing government efforts to claim Donald Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election might finally be opening. 

Trump administration officials held an urgent meeting Sunday to discuss “new information on Russiagate,” which they might use to build a criminal conspiracy case against Obama and Biden administration political appointees who allegedly weaponized the government against Trump, two Trump administration officials told RealClearInvestigations.

The documents are said to contain long-classified information, including a secret 200-page congressional audit that reveals details about how an intelligence community assessment on Russia ordered by President Obama after the 2016 election was framed in a way that portrayed Trump as being beholden to the  Kremlin.

Sources told RCI that emails and other records tying the CIA’s controversial drafting of the Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA] to the FBI’s discredited “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation targeting Trump could be released as part of an Office of the Director of National Intelligence report as early as Thursday. The White House was briefed on the development Tuesday, the sources said.

Participants in the Sunday meeting involving intelligence officials and their Department of Justice counterparts also discussed declassifying investigative notes and depositions taken by Special Counsel John Durham during his probe of the CIA’s and FBI’s handling of the ICA, which relied in part on an anti-Trump dossier financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Strengthening Case for Conspiracy 

The information could strengthen a criminal case against Obama’s top intelligence officers, including former CIA Director John Brennan, who allegedly gave false testimony to Congress about their role in using the dossier in the ICA, according to the officials who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information. Although the five-year statute of limitations on perjury means much of the testimony given about the ICA cannot be prosecuted, officials could still be charged with a conspiracy to commit perjury.

Sources said the meeting, which was arranged by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was held in a secure room known as a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). The meeting also focused on the release of a highly restricted appendix to Durham’s final report that details intelligence Brennan intercepted exposing a plan by the Clinton campaign in July 2016 to stir up an election scandal involving Trump and Russia to distract from her email investigation. Instead of investigating the Clinton plot, the FBI opened an investigation into Trump and his campaign advisers for allegedly colluding with Russia.

Officials attending the meeting also discussed the need to declassify another classified annex, which was attached to an inspector general’s review of the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s unsecured email server. Sources say it details how then-Secretary of State Clinton’s improper email activity gave “foreign actors” access to classified material. Yet the FBI neglected to investigate the security breach, fitting a pattern of then-FBI Director James Comey letting Clinton off the hook while gunning for Trump.

Sources say the meeting was attended by senior staff of both ODNI and DOJ and also involved the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, but did not include Trump’s intelligence czar, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, or Attorney General Pam Bondi.

ODNI, which declined comment, has the authority to declassify documents across the intelligence community. Gabbard has tasked a group of analysts to comb through the explosive House Intelligence Committee’s 2019 review of the ICA and other still-secret documents to identify sensitive “sources and methods” and make redactions where necessary before declassifying them for possible use in court.

“They have a team working on that,” said an administration official familiar with the operation.

Weaponizing Russian Intelligence

A U.S. intelligence official alleged the outgoing administration weaponized the Russian intelligence to sabotage President-elect Trump in the weeks before he took office in January 2017.

“Obama ordered the ICA to set Trump up and knock him off balance before he could even get started,” said the senior official, who asked to remain anonymous. “This was an influence operation far more consequential than anything [Russian President Vladimir] Putin cooked up. Obama and Hillary [Clinton] schemed the op, and the CIA and FBI ran it.”

At the time they drafted the ICA in December 2016, this official noted, the CIA and FBI knew that Clinton had approved a plan by her then-foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan – who would later become President Biden’s National Security Advisor – to “stir up” a scandal on Trump about Russia. They also knew then that the dossier they referenced in the intelligence assessment was opposition research underwritten by the Clinton campaign.

Several months earlier, Brennan made a referral to the FBI to open a counterespionage case to find out how Russian intelligence intercepted information about Clinton’s plan to tie up Trump in a fake Kremlin scandal. 

Brennan appears to have been less concerned about the Clinton campaign’s disinformation campaign than the fact that Moscow knew about it. This so alarmed Brennan that he briefed Obama about it, according to a summary of his handwritten notes, declassified in 2020.

The referral, known as a counterintelligence operational lead (CIOL), was sent to Comey, who in turn forwarded it to then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok to investigate.

Strzok – who was fired by the FBI after his anti-Trump views became public – opened an investigation, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, not of Clinton but the Trump campaign. Brian Greer, a former Brennan aide, confirmed that the purpose of the counterintelligence operation was not to investigate the Clinton campaign’s dirty tricks, but to determine if the Russians had learned of the deceit by penetrating the Clinton camp. The concern, he said, was that Clinton “may have been spied on by a hostile intelligence service.”

Investigating Trump, Protecting Clinton

 So instead of investigating the Clinton campaign for providing knowingly false and/or misleading information to the FBI in the form of the transparently spurious Steele dossier, the bureau used the Clinton-funded dossier as evidence to obtain a wiretap to spy on the Trump campaign as part of a year-long counterintelligence investigation. The disparate treatment by investigators is something Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are focusing on in their conspiracy probe, sources say.

To that end, they are also seeking the declassification of all investigative records generated from the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe as well as its investigation of Clinton’s emails, codenamed “Midyear Exam.”

A Feb. 24, 2016, email between Strzok and then-deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s special assistant Lisa Page suggests the FBI investigators planned to treat Clinton with kid gloves during her interview.

Page: “One more thing: [Clinton] may be our next president. The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear.”

Strzok: “Agreed.”

Durham noted that the still-classified appendix to his final report contains “specific indications and additional facts that heightened the potential relevance of this [Clinton Plan] intelligence” to further investigations.

Some former FBI officials say federal prosecutors have sufficient grounds to charge Obama’s FBI and CIA officials with criminal conspiracy. 

“You look back at what was going on in the FBI starting in 2016 [with] these cases [and] the way they approached Gen. [Michael] Flynn; Crossfire Hurricane; the Russian ‘collusion’ case [prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller]; then moving to the raid on Mar-a-Lago [and] the [DOJ] lawfare that came after President Trump, this is outrageous. And then you had the arrogance of these two individuals  – Comey and Brennan – it was unbelievable,” former FBI special-agent-in-charge Jody P. Weis, a 22-year veteran of the bureau, said in a recent interview. “So I’m extremely happy that someone is looking into this.”

Paul Sperry is an investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations. He is also a longtime media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Sperry was previously the Washington bureau chief for Investor’s Business Daily, and his work has appeared in the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Houston Chronicle, among other major publications.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:30

Secret Meeting Opens Document Floodgates On Trump/Russia Hoax: Sperry

Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClearInvestigations,

The floodgates holding back long-buried classified documents exposing government efforts to claim Donald Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election might finally be opening. 

Trump administration officials held an urgent meeting Sunday to discuss “new information on Russiagate,” which they might use to build a criminal conspiracy case against Obama and Biden administration political appointees who allegedly weaponized the government against Trump, two Trump administration officials told RealClearInvestigations.

The documents are said to contain long-classified information, including a secret 200-page congressional audit that reveals details about how an intelligence community assessment on Russia ordered by President Obama after the 2016 election was framed in a way that portrayed Trump as being beholden to the  Kremlin.

Sources told RCI that emails and other records tying the CIA’s controversial drafting of the Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA] to the FBI’s discredited “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation targeting Trump could be released as part of an Office of the Director of National Intelligence report as early as Thursday. The White House was briefed on the development Tuesday, the sources said.

Participants in the Sunday meeting involving intelligence officials and their Department of Justice counterparts also discussed declassifying investigative notes and depositions taken by Special Counsel John Durham during his probe of the CIA’s and FBI’s handling of the ICA, which relied in part on an anti-Trump dossier financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Strengthening Case for Conspiracy 

The information could strengthen a criminal case against Obama’s top intelligence officers, including former CIA Director John Brennan, who allegedly gave false testimony to Congress about their role in using the dossier in the ICA, according to the officials who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information. Although the five-year statute of limitations on perjury means much of the testimony given about the ICA cannot be prosecuted, officials could still be charged with a conspiracy to commit perjury.

Sources said the meeting, which was arranged by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was held in a secure room known as a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). The meeting also focused on the release of a highly restricted appendix to Durham’s final report that details intelligence Brennan intercepted exposing a plan by the Clinton campaign in July 2016 to stir up an election scandal involving Trump and Russia to distract from her email investigation. Instead of investigating the Clinton plot, the FBI opened an investigation into Trump and his campaign advisers for allegedly colluding with Russia.

Officials attending the meeting also discussed the need to declassify another classified annex, which was attached to an inspector general’s review of the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s unsecured email server. Sources say it details how then-Secretary of State Clinton’s improper email activity gave “foreign actors” access to classified material. Yet the FBI neglected to investigate the security breach, fitting a pattern of then-FBI Director James Comey letting Clinton off the hook while gunning for Trump.

Sources say the meeting was attended by senior staff of both ODNI and DOJ and also involved the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, but did not include Trump’s intelligence czar, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, or Attorney General Pam Bondi.

ODNI, which declined comment, has the authority to declassify documents across the intelligence community. Gabbard has tasked a group of analysts to comb through the explosive House Intelligence Committee’s 2019 review of the ICA and other still-secret documents to identify sensitive “sources and methods” and make redactions where necessary before declassifying them for possible use in court.

“They have a team working on that,” said an administration official familiar with the operation.

Weaponizing Russian Intelligence

A U.S. intelligence official alleged the outgoing administration weaponized the Russian intelligence to sabotage President-elect Trump in the weeks before he took office in January 2017.

“Obama ordered the ICA to set Trump up and knock him off balance before he could even get started,” said the senior official, who asked to remain anonymous. “This was an influence operation far more consequential than anything [Russian President Vladimir] Putin cooked up. Obama and Hillary [Clinton] schemed the op, and the CIA and FBI ran it.”

At the time they drafted the ICA in December 2016, this official noted, the CIA and FBI knew that Clinton had approved a plan by her then-foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan – who would later become President Biden’s National Security Advisor – to “stir up” a scandal on Trump about Russia. They also knew then that the dossier they referenced in the intelligence assessment was opposition research underwritten by the Clinton campaign.

Several months earlier, Brennan made a referral to the FBI to open a counterespionage case to find out how Russian intelligence intercepted information about Clinton’s plan to tie up Trump in a fake Kremlin scandal. 

Brennan appears to have been less concerned about the Clinton campaign’s disinformation campaign than the fact that Moscow knew about it. This so alarmed Brennan that he briefed Obama about it, according to a summary of his handwritten notes, declassified in 2020.

The referral, known as a counterintelligence operational lead (CIOL), was sent to Comey, who in turn forwarded it to then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok to investigate.

Strzok – who was fired by the FBI after his anti-Trump views became public – opened an investigation, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, not of Clinton but the Trump campaign. Brian Greer, a former Brennan aide, confirmed that the purpose of the counterintelligence operation was not to investigate the Clinton campaign’s dirty tricks, but to determine if the Russians had learned of the deceit by penetrating the Clinton camp. The concern, he said, was that Clinton “may have been spied on by a hostile intelligence service.”

Investigating Trump, Protecting Clinton

 So instead of investigating the Clinton campaign for providing knowingly false and/or misleading information to the FBI in the form of the transparently spurious Steele dossier, the bureau used the Clinton-funded dossier as evidence to obtain a wiretap to spy on the Trump campaign as part of a year-long counterintelligence investigation. The disparate treatment by investigators is something Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are focusing on in their conspiracy probe, sources say.

To that end, they are also seeking the declassification of all investigative records generated from the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe as well as its investigation of Clinton’s emails, codenamed “Midyear Exam.”

A Feb. 24, 2016, email between Strzok and then-deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s special assistant Lisa Page suggests the FBI investigators planned to treat Clinton with kid gloves during her interview.

Page: “One more thing: [Clinton] may be our next president. The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear.”

Strzok: “Agreed.”

Durham noted that the still-classified appendix to his final report contains “specific indications and additional facts that heightened the potential relevance of this [Clinton Plan] intelligence” to further investigations.

Some former FBI officials say federal prosecutors have sufficient grounds to charge Obama’s FBI and CIA officials with criminal conspiracy. 

“You look back at what was going on in the FBI starting in 2016 [with] these cases [and] the way they approached Gen. [Michael] Flynn; Crossfire Hurricane; the Russian ‘collusion’ case [prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller]; then moving to the raid on Mar-a-Lago [and] the [DOJ] lawfare that came after President Trump, this is outrageous. And then you had the arrogance of these two individuals  – Comey and Brennan – it was unbelievable,” former FBI special-agent-in-charge Jody P. Weis, a 22-year veteran of the bureau, said in a recent interview. “So I’m extremely happy that someone is looking into this.”

Paul Sperry is an investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations. He is also a longtime media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Sperry was previously the Washington bureau chief for Investor’s Business Daily, and his work has appeared in the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Houston Chronicle, among other major publications.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:30

Netflix Dips Despite Top- & Bottom-Line Beat, Higher Guidance

With Netflix shares trading near their highest valuations going back to 2022, there was a lot riding on the streaming giant's earnings report tonight (and its outlook for the months ahead).

“Netflix shares are priced for perfection, there isn’t a lot of room for error,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co.

“Everybody is expecting the second half to be really strong.”

And they didn't disappoint with beats on the top- and bottom-line...

• *NETFLIX 2Q EPS $7.19, EST. $7.08

• *NETFLIX 2Q REV. $11.08B, EST. $11.06B

...and a higher guide too.

• *NETFLIX SEES 3Q EPS $6.87, EST. $6.70

• *NETFLIX SEES 3Q REV. $11.53B, EST. $11.28B

• *NETFLIX SEES FY REV. $44.8B TO $45.2B, SAW $43.5B TO $44.5B

Regionally, growth was solid with notable FX impacts with decent domestic growth of 15%, buoyed by recent price increase. The company is trying to draw in customers with a lower-cost, advertising-supported offering in a dozen markets. Its advertising sales are expected to double this year.

In their earnings statement, Netflix stated that:

Our business continues to perform well.

In Q2, we grew revenue 16% and our operating margin of 34% expanded seven points year over year. Both revenue and operating income were slightly above our guidance due primarily to F/X, net of hedging, and the timing of expenses.

We’re optimistic heading into the second half of the year, with a standout slate that includes Wednesday S2, the Stranger Things finale, the highly anticipated Canelo-Crawford live boxing match, Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.

As we previewed earlier this was a very crowded long and so, despite the beat and raise, NFLX shares are down after hours (after briefly spiking higher)...

While investors used to judge Netflix by the number of subscribers it added in any given quarter, the company has stopped disclosing how many customers pay for its service, directing them to focus on more traditional metrics such as sales and profit.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:17

Netflix Dips Despite Top- & Bottom-Line Beat, Higher Guidance

With Netflix shares trading near their highest valuations going back to 2022, there was a lot riding on the streaming giant's earnings report tonight (and its outlook for the months ahead).

“Netflix shares are priced for perfection, there isn’t a lot of room for error,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co.

“Everybody is expecting the second half to be really strong.”

And they didn't disappoint with beats on the top- and bottom-line...

• *NETFLIX 2Q EPS $7.19, EST. $7.08

• *NETFLIX 2Q REV. $11.08B, EST. $11.06B

...and a higher guide too.

• *NETFLIX SEES 3Q EPS $6.87, EST. $6.70

• *NETFLIX SEES 3Q REV. $11.53B, EST. $11.28B

• *NETFLIX SEES FY REV. $44.8B TO $45.2B, SAW $43.5B TO $44.5B

Regionally, growth was solid with notable FX impacts with decent domestic growth of 15%, buoyed by recent price increase. The company is trying to draw in customers with a lower-cost, advertising-supported offering in a dozen markets. Its advertising sales are expected to double this year.

In their earnings statement, Netflix stated that:

Our business continues to perform well.

In Q2, we grew revenue 16% and our operating margin of 34% expanded seven points year over year. Both revenue and operating income were slightly above our guidance due primarily to F/X, net of hedging, and the timing of expenses.

We’re optimistic heading into the second half of the year, with a standout slate that includes Wednesday S2, the Stranger Things finale, the highly anticipated Canelo-Crawford live boxing match, Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.

As we previewed earlier this was a very crowded long and so, despite the beat and raise, NFLX shares are down after hours (after briefly spiking higher)...

While investors used to judge Netflix by the number of subscribers it added in any given quarter, the company has stopped disclosing how many customers pay for its service, directing them to focus on more traditional metrics such as sales and profit.

Tyler Durden Thu, 07/17/2025 - 16:17