Visualizing America's Slide In 'Happiness Rankings' Since 2011

The United States has steadily slipped in the global happiness rankings over the past decade.

While it still ranks among the top 25 in the latest World Happiness Report, the U.S. is no longer close to the leading group of Nordic countries that consistently dominate the top spots.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, tracks the U.S. happiness ranking from 2011 to 2025, based on data from the World Happiness Report 2026.

Each annual ranking is based on a three-year average of life evaluation survey responses rather than a single year. For example, the 2025 ranking reflects responses from 2023–2025.

The U.S. Has Fallen Outside the Top 20 Happiest Countries

The United States has not always ranked outside the top 20 happiest countries.

It placed 11th in 2011, then generally ranked between 13th and 17th through 2016.

From there, its position weakened, landing at 18th or 19th in four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020.

The decline accelerated more recently.

The U.S. dropped eight spots to 23rd in 2023, reached a low of 24th in 2024, and edged back to 23rd in 2025.

Overall, the country now ranks more than a dozen places lower than it did in 2011.

Reasons Behind the Decline in America’s Happiness

The sharp drop in 2023 reflects more than a single-year change.

Because rankings are based on three-year averages, the 2023 result captures responses from 2021 to 2023—a period shaped by the post-pandemic aftermath, rising inflation, and growing cost of living pressures.

Recent editions of the report point to several contributing factors. The World Happiness Report 2024 found that declining wellbeing among Americans under 30 played a major role. The 2025 report highlighted weakening social connection, noting that just over a quarter of U.S. adults reported eating all of their meals alone in 2023—up more than 50% since 2003. Separate analysis also links lower happiness to declining social trust.

The 2026 report adds another possible factor, suggesting that heavy smartphone-based social media use may be contributing to weaker adolescent wellbeing across English-speaking countries and Western Europe.

Taken together, the U.S. decline appears tied to weaker social ties, lower trust, and a sharper deterioration in wellbeing among younger Americans.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Ranked: The World’s Happiest Countries Over Time (2019–2024) on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/11/2026 - 07:35

Who's Afraid Of Emmanuel Macron?

Authored by J.B.Shurk via AmericanThinker.com,

French President Emmanuel Macron is doing that peculiar French thing again…acting tough while looking weak.  

He gave a speech last Friday at Yonsei University in Seoul during which he demanded that nations not become “vassals” of China or the United States.  Macron wants South Korea to join Canada, Australia, and the European Union in forming what he calls a “coalition of independence” (because “coalition of the willing” was taken) united by shared love for “international order,” “democracy,” and wasting money on “climate change.”

What a tool.  I understand that “the powers that be” have so successfully co-opted the West’s political systems that they regularly install absolute nincompoops as nominal leaders (Biden, Starmer, Carney, Merz, and European Queen Ursula, just to name a few) and call it “democracy,” but Macron is such a doofus that his “leadership” is laughable.  

Remember when the little Rothschild banker came to power a few months after President Trump had taken office and he couldn’t stop talking about standing up to “bullies”?  After putting on some high-heeled loafers and taking some lessons on masculinity from his former-schoolteacher-turned-much-older-wife, Macron insisted on turning a handshake with Trump into a death grip meant to showcase French power.  In that effete style of speech that Gaulish-Roman aristocrats enjoy — in which words sound as if they’re dropping from lips suckling grapes and licking honey — le petit fromage told the world that his fierce handshake and determined stare were the perfect weapons for countering President Trump.  Trump just laughed and patted the little French boy on the shoulder as one does to help the weak feel strong.

Fast-forward a decade, and Macron hasn’t learned a thing about being tough.  He still prances around the world like a eunuch looking for long-lost cojones.  He says he wants countries to resist the “hegemonic powers” of China and the United States by clinging to the rules-based “international order.”  Okay.  Good luck, tiny dancer.  

What’s left of the international order without the two most powerful nations on the planet?  The United States has assumed the responsibilities of the globe’s police chief since WWII.  Through its naval fleet, it ensures the security of maritime trade.  Through its economic clout, it ensures the stability of the international financial system.  Through its military might, it decides which dictators get black-bagged in the middle of the night.  As China continues its geopolitical ascent, its tentacles have stretched further into international organizations such as the United Nations’ World Health Organization and across continents with its Belt and Road Initiative.  Mark Carney has spent his time as Canada’s prime minister practically groveling at the feet of China’s Xi Jinping and begging the communist dictator to save his wintry vassal state from the bad orange man down south.

France, on the other hand, continues to be ejected from former African colonies whose peoples have grown tired of French meddling.  The French military excels only at surrendering.  And France remains distinct from Germany only because of the United States.  When little Macron insists on restoring a French-led “international order,” he sounds a lot like little Napoleon, who insisted on being called “emperor” while imprisoned on Saint Helena.

As for urging all who hear his grating voice to unite in defense of “democracy,” that’s a lark!  Europe is where “democracy” goes to die.  Every time non-Establishment political parties win the most votes in former nations (now just multicultural zones of Islamic conquest within the federation of European nothingness) such as France, Germany, and the Netherlands, “the powers that be” proudly block the winners from exercising any power.  

Europe’s political class shamelessly calls this the “firewall” against “far-right” political parties.  Of course, if you believe that nations should have borders and that government powers should be limited, you are designated “far-right.”  Just as Democrats bastardize language in the United States by calling everyone who cares about the Bill of Rights a “fascist,” the European Establishment labels anyone who believes in self-determination and personal liberty a “Nazi sympathizer.”  Then they prosecute the members of those fake “far-right” parties for expressing opinions out loud.  

That’s right!  Europe’s little gang of dimwitted yet dangerous dictators — Macron, Starmer, Merz, and the ruling queen — insist on locking up the “fascists” for their speech in the name of “democracy”!  When the “firewall” fails — as it did in Romania a little over a year ago — the European oligarchy simply cancels the election and insists on a rigged do-over (or outright overthrows the government as it did, with the help of the U.S. State Department and CIA, in Ukraine in 2014).  

When little European tyrants such as Macron stand on footstools, puff out their chests, and shriek about “democracy,” they have no intention of supporting the decisions of the people.  What they mean is, let’s form a European Commission of aristocrats, have them choose a ruling monarch, and call that a “democratic” election.  That’s how the nations of Europe lost their sovereignty and why the people of Europe must now bow down to unelected Queen Ursula von der Leyen.  

Even if mini-mouse Macron’s calls for “international order” and “democracy” fail to rally a sufficient posse of vassal states willing to take on the United States and China, he’ll surely find ready volunteers who want to keep shooting their economies in the gonads over “climate change,” right?  Who doesn’t want to continue wasting taxpayer dollars on fighting the weather?  While Russia, China, and the United States continue spending more on their militaries than ever before, the soft-headed “leaders” of Europe have been pretending to wage war against nature.  “Tilting at windmills” was one of Cervantes’s best jokes in Don Quixote.  The Europeans — having jettisoned their civilization for that of their Islamic invaders — no longer understand why pretending to fight imaginary monsters is funny!

For decades, Europe’s quixotic “leaders” have spent their military budgets on wind and solar energy.  In the name of “fighting climate change,” Europe’s brilliant tacticians severely limited hydrocarbon exploration, extraction, and processing.  Germany ignored scientific reason after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and rid itself almost entirely of nuclear energy.  First, Europe’s braintrust made the sub-continent dependent upon the Russian Federation for energy.  Then, that same gaggle of Mensa geniuses sanctioned Russian energy in the name of Ukrainian “democracy.”  Now Europe is largely dependent on the United States, Russia, and the Middle East for energy.  Europe’s producers must spend more to make things.  Europe’s consumers must pay more to buy things.  Europe’s middle class keeps getting poorer.  How many times can Europe’s moronic “leaders” cripple their economies before Europe’s peoples raid the museums for functioning guillotines? 

If little-bitty Macron doesn’t want France to be a “vassal” of China or the United States, he should strive to deregulate his nation, protect private property, incentivize innovation, grow the economy, and encourage self-sufficiency.  Instead, France and the rest of Europe embrace bureaucratic rule-making, collective ownership, expansive welfare, centralized economic planning, and dependency upon U.S. military muscle.  If you spend your country’s wealth on fighting bad weather and providing Islamic invaders “free” food and housing, don’t complain when China and the United States refuse to take you seriously.  

To be fair to Europe’s retarded governing class, we’re fighting similar idiotic policies being promoted by the fifth-column Democrat Party in America, too.  

The difference is that Americans are actively trying to right the ship, and, as President Trump continues to demonstrate, our military can still blow things up.  

Reality is not kind to those who prefer handouts and fantasy to handwork and preparation.  Because Europe’s “leaders” have hollowed out their economies and militaries for decades, they are in no position to influence the future.  They will take what they get and be grateful…as all desperate vassals must.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/11/2026 - 07:00

The US Separation From Europe And NATO Is Long Overdue

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

As much as many centrists and libertarians are opposed to Donald Trump’s ongoing strikes against Iran, I have to say, the downstream result might end up becoming one of the most libertarian results I have ever seen. For decades, small government activists like those in the Ron Paul movement have been calling for a comprehensive US divorce from NATO and the shutdown of America’s military bases overseas. Trump has, either deliberately or inadvertently, set this very process in motion.

The refusal of most of Europe (and Australia) to provide support in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz might seem like geopolitical orbiting – In other words, getting involved could hurt them more than it would help them. Of course, these nations are far more exposed to the Hormuz closure and the slowdown in energy exports than the US. You would think their interests would demand a securing of the strait.

Europe is already struggling for energy resources due to the Ukraine war (a war they are deeply involved in), and this is where we stumble upon the ideological disconnect.

Europe’s Goal Is WWIII And They Expect America To Maintain The Status Quo

Europeans are perfectly willing to engage in war tensions with Russia while risking energy inflation and WWIII, all over a country that had minimal strategic or economic importance to them before the conflict. They have consistently called on the US to provide weapons and funding and intel to the Ukrainians, which we have obliged. And, they have called for American troops to stand at the forefront should a wider war erupt.

NATO and European governments love America…but only as a shield that benefits them. To be clear, it’s true that years ago NATO allies invested troops and equipment into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but one could also argue that, at that time, the establishment was in sync on both sides of the Atlantic.

There was no large scale movement to cut foreign aid scams (like Trump shutting down USAID). There was no movement to secure borders and prevent mass immigration. There was no movement against globalism beyond a handful of us in the alternative media working diligently to expose the truth. In the era of the early 2000s, the status quo was in full effect and Europe was happy to help in the Middle East.

Today? Not so much. The status quo has been disrupted.

Once The Cash Stopped Flowing Our “Friends” Became Scarce

It’s not surprising that once the cash stopped flowing so easily from American pockets, suddenly all of our “allies” went sour. Cuts to USAID and various foreign subsidy programs have created a shockwave in the global order. Even I have been stunned by the level of dependency of foreign nations on US monetary injections.

Once these programs started shutting down, the panic was palpable. And, once Trump demanded NATO countries start paying their fair share (5% of GDP), the breakdown in relations began. Many European social welfare programs exist exactly because they don’t have to pay for their own military defense.

The tariffs are another point of hypocrisy. Nearly ALL major European countries and economies have enforced tariffs and duties on US products for the past 60 years. When those same countries face tariffs imposed by the US, suddenly tariffs are an “act of aggression” and a line in the sand.

Trump is called an economic “bull in a china shop”, but he’s only doing to them what they’ve been doing to us for generations. Once again, the moment the status quo changes even a little and other nations are held to a similar standard, our friends no longer want to be our friends.

Europe’s Top Priority Is The Multicultural Agenda

And what about mass immigration? Ah, there’s the real divisive issue. Europe has become ground zero for a multicultural plague and EU governments are absolutely willing to sacrifice their own indigenous and largely white population to high crime, terrorism and cultural erasure in the name of a woke Utopia. The moment the US defied this ideological suicide and cracked down on open borders, the European elites turned hostile.

Europe is so enraged by any opposition to multiculturalism that they have implemented a series of Orwellian censorship laws. Tens-of-thousands of people are arrested and charged each year for “hate crimes”, which usually involve basic criticisms of open immigration. These are not governments we can break bread with.

I would point out that there are millions of people in the EU and the UK who are fighting against globalism on the political stage. Their movements are growing rapidly, from the “Restore” party in Britain to the National Rally in France and the AfD in Germany. They don’t necessarily agree with American conservatives an everything, but they are the only political groups worth aligning with in Europe today. All of them are gaining ground, but not fast enough.

Perhaps a separation from the US will actually help expedite the process? Because there is no possible way that Americans can remain in alliance with liberal European elites that want to see western culture and national borders destroyed. We’re not just at an impasse in principle, we are quickly becoming mortal enemies.

Trump’s recent call for NATO support in the Hormuz has exposed a level of hypocrisy within the organization that many libertarians and conservatives have been criticizing for years. NATO is only NATO so long as America is the rube making the bulk of the sacrifices.

Keep in mind that nothing liberal governments do is based on principle. War with Russia in Ukraine? Europe applauds and demands extensive US involvement. Send some ships to reopen a vital shipping lane in the Middle East? Suddenly they have moral qualms.

Why? There’s a lot of reasons, but I would argue that a great change is happening; an organized shift of the old world order into the “new world order”. There is a “multicultural alliance” (a globalist system) being built behind the scenes that is more important to the European elites than their relationship with the US. And, conservative movements are the enemy of this new multicultural system.

The Muslim population in Europe is currently 62 million – the stats have doubled in the past 20 years. There are 47 million third world migrants living in the region. Mass immigration has changed Europe irrevocably. At bottom, this social engineering experiment is designed to eradicate western civilization and it is THE HILL that leftists and globalists are willing to die on. Their entire vision for the future depends on it.

NATO governments are avoiding engagement in Iran, not because of some profound and principled moral stand, but because most European nations are saturated with third world immigrants who will turn on them if they enter the war in any way.

In my article “Britain Is Proof: Globalists Plan To Use Migrants As A Mercenary Army Against The West”, published in 2024, I outlined in detail the theory that European governments (and the Biden Administration in the US) were packing their borders with third world military age males to act as a covertly deployed, foreign mercenary army to subdue western populations should they rise up in revolt against the globalists.

European governments, and by extension most of NATO, are onboard with this plan. This is why war with Russia is fine, but war with Iran is not. This is also why I don’t buy into the conspiracy that the Israelis are at the top of the pyramid “controlling everything” from behind the scenes. If they were, then the European and NATO elites would have immediately joined the war effort against Iran.

There is an agenda afoot that is FAR bigger than the tiny nation of Israel or the marginal ideology of “Zionism”.

The Breakup Is Inevitable

The latest conflict is quickly leading to a breakup of NATO, with the Trump Administration broaching the topic on several occasions. After being denied use of airspace by a number of EU countries, it is possible that the US will seriously consider shutting down military bases in the region, remove nuclear weapons and leave Europe high and dry.

But, this international divorce is not about Iran, Israel, the Strait of Hormuz or even oil. It’s the result of a long running ideological clash that’s about to hit a crescendo.

One could argue that this will isolate the US from it’s allies and weaken our position in the world. I would argue that it’s our so-called “allies” that have been weakening us, and this separation is long overdue. The billions upon billions of dollars that the US spends annually to secure Europe could be used to reduce our debts here at home. Libertarians should rejoice if Trump carries out this policy.

Meanwhile, with US aid to NATO and the EU cut off, it will be much more difficult for progressive authoritarian leaders to maintain control of their respective populations (no more easy welfare programs). Their reliance on a third world invasion to subjugate western citizens might just be their undoing. It all depends on whether or not the nationalists fight back (I believe they will).

There is a potential end game here, in which European conservatives and American conservatives eventually join forces, but we’re not there yet. The geopolitical interdependency of the cold war model is going to have to die. NATO was supposedly established as a counterbalance to the hostile global ambitions of communism, but today, European and NATO governments ARE the hostile communists.

There is no reason for our alliance to continue any longer.

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

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 23:25

Court Documents Reveal Confession Note Hand Written By Alleged Kirk Assassin

In September of 2025, prosecutors in the Charlie Kirk murder case alleged that they had access to a hand-written note left by prime suspect Tyler Robinson for his trans boyfriend which contained a confession to the crime.  Tyler Robinson, 22, left a note under a keyboard for his roommate/romantic partner to discover, said Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray.  

According to Mr Gray, the note said: "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to take it." 

Newly unsealed court documents now reveal that this letter does indeed exist. 

An affidavit for a search warrant outlined a letter that Tyler Robinson allegedly wrote before Charlie Kirk's assassination.  Robinson is accused of shooting and killing the conservative political activist on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University.

Detectives seized ammunition, computers, a DNA sample, and a copy of a note that Robinson allegedly left for his roommate, with whom he had a romantic relationship.  The affidavit states that an FBI agent met with Robinson's partner, Lance Twiggs, whom Robinson sometimes referred to as "Luna." 

Twiggs showed the agent text messages between the two, which investigators photographed.  In one of the messages, Robinson instructed Twiggs to "drop what you are doing" and "look under my keyboard."  Twiggs told investigators he found the following handwritten letter:

"Luna,  If you are reading this per my text, then I am so sorry. I left the house this morning on a mission, and set an auto text. I am likely dead, or facing a lengthy prison sentence. I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it. I don’t know if I will/have succeeded, but I had hoped to make it home to you. I wish we could have lived in a world where this did not feel necessary. I wish I could have stayed for you and lived our lives together. I lack the words to express how much I love you, and how very much you mean to me. Please try and find joy in this life. I love you, always, -Tyler."

Twiggs took a photo of the note, which he gave to investigators.  The original had been partially burned according to reports, but was recovered and pieced together by forensics.  With the existence of this hand-written letter now confirmed, and with Tyler Robinson's family and romantic partner scheduled to take the stand as witnesses for the prosecution in a preliminary hearing, the case against the suspect is becoming substantial.  

This outcome should not be surprising given that Robinson's arrest report indicates he admitted to his parents that he committed the shooting of Charlie Kirk after they recognized him in surveillance photos. 

After being confronted by his father, he reportedly confessed, and his parents arranged for Tyler to turn himself in.

Conspiracy theories have been swirling ever since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, with narratives ranging from Israeli ninjas trained by Mossad to Kirk's own security team being involved. 

All of them seem to ignore the basic facts of the case including Robinson's own admissions to his family.  

A recent article by The Daily Mail also added confusion when they reported that the bullet recovered from the crime scene "did not match" the rifle allegedly used by Tyler Robinson. 

In reality, the bullet was fragmented and the tool marks damaged, making it impossible to match to any rifle, let alone Tyler Robinson's rifle. 

This kind of bullet damage and "inconclusive matches" occur in up to 50% of shooting cases. 

It is extremely common; in no way does the bullet data represent evidence that gun is not a match.  

As the trial moves forward it is likely that more evidence will accumulate that the public was not aware of, which means people jumping to extraordinary conclusions might be made to look foolish when the trial is over. 

Better to wait until all the facts are available. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 23:00

US Draft Registration Becomes 'Automatic' By Year-End: A Detailed Breakdown

Authored by Edward Hasbrouck via AntiWar.com,

On March 30th, the Selective Service System (SSS) sent the White House its proposed regulations for "automatic" [sic] draft registration for review and approval before they are made public. This is the first visible step in the transition from trying to get young men to sign themselves up for a military draft, to trying to sign them up “automatically” by aggregating data requisitioned from other Federal agencies.

This year-long process began with the enactment of the SSS proposal for “automatic” registration in December 2025. The new scheme is supposed to go into operation in December 2026.

The SSS has been keeping a low profile to avoid calling attention to its attempt to lay new groundwork for a draft in the middle of a major military escalation. The SSS hasn’t issued a press release in the four months since the enactment of the “automatic” registration law, has no details of its plans for “automatic” registration on its website, and has delayed responding to my FOIA request for those plans. This has led to hasty and credulous reports in the last few days by journalists who saw the notice of the proposed rules but hadn’t followed the legislation, didn’t know to expect this next step in the process, and weren’t aware of the widespread and increasingly organized opposition to this plan.

US Army file image

This isn’t a Trump 2.0 initiative. Documents released in response to one of my FOIA requests show that the legislative proposal for “automatic” draft registration was drafted during the Biden Administration by the former Trump 2016 Oregon state campaign director, Jacob Daniels. Still at the SSS today, Daniels is one of the Trump loyalists who got jobs at the SSS during Trump’s first administration. But both support and opposition to Selective Service has been and remains bipartisan.

Most of the latest news articles have said that all male U.S. citizens and residents “will be registered automatically” by the SS. What they should say is that the SSS will try to identify and locate all potential draftees. Whether that is possible, much less whether the SSS will succeed, is questionable.

In addition to the practical problems of determining who is subject to the draft (which is many cases depends on factors absent from existing Federal records) and their current postal mailing addresses (ditto), the switch to a new registration system requires jumping through many regulatory hoops. The eight months remaining before the new law takes effect aren’t much time to complete this process.

The law directing the SSS to try to register potential draftees “automatically” leaves most of the details to the SSS to establish through regulations. The SSS has completed the first step in this process by drafting proposed regulations and submitting them to the White House “Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs” (OIRA). OIRA has up to 90 days to review the proposed rules, approve them, or send them back to the agency for revision, but most OIRA reviews take significantly less time than this.

Once a proposed rule is approved by OIRA, the Administrative Procedure Act generally requires publication of the proposed regulations as a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” (NPRM) in the Federal Register, a window usually of at least 30 or 60 days for the public to submit comments on the proposal, and consideration of those comments by the agency before it publishes a final rule.

The NPRM for “automatic” draft registration could be published in a few weeks, or not for months.

The SSS is a tiny agency being given unprecedented authority to demand access to data from all other Federal agencies. The attempt to register potential draftees “automatically” will be a large, complex exercise in data collection, data sharing, and data matching between the SSS and other agencies.

Multiple elements of this process will require notice and comment and/or other approvals pursuant to the Privacy Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, and Computer Matching Act.

The SSS has a history of disregard for these requirements for notice, comment, and approval of its data collection, use, and sharing. If the SSS fails to promulgate the required notices or obtain the required approvals for “automatic” registration, those failings may provide a basis for lawsuits against the SSS.

The Privacy Act of 1974 requires each Federal agency to publish a notice in the Federal Register (with an opportunity for public comment) including specific information about each of system of records about U.S. citizens or residents. The notice must include the sources, recipients, and uses of the data. Maintaining such a system of records without first publishing a complete notice is a crime on the part of the responsible agency officials or employees. “Automatic” registration will require new sources of registration data from other agencies and therefore a revised Privacy Act notice.

Even before the start of “automatic” registration, the SSS gave DOGE access to the registration database in early 2025, and in late 2025 proposed sharing its registration data with more other agencies for immigration enforcement and other purposes.

Objections to that proposal were submitted by anti-militarist, civil liberties, and privacy organizations. It’s not clear whether those objections have been considered yet by the SSS.

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires an agency to publish first a 60-day notice and then a 30-day notice in the Federal Register and then get approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before collecting information from members of the public. The OMB approval number must be included on any form, Web site, or app through which information is collected.

The SSS has been collecting information for decades through its “Request for Status Information Letter” form, but has never requested or received approval from OMB for this form. The form does not display an OMB control number, making it flagrantly illegal.

The “automatic” registration law allows the SSS to demand information from a registrant if it is needed to complete their “automatic” registration. The new forms and/or Web pages to be used for this purpose will need to be published for comment and will then need OMB approval. Because of the two required notice-and-comment periods, this process takes at least three months.

The Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 requires advance notice in the Federal Register, a Privacy Impact Assessment, due-process procedures for individuals who are denied benefits on the basis of data matching, and an annual cost-benefit review and report to Congress for each data matching program by a Federal agency that is used to determine eligibility for, or compliance with, any Federal benefit program.

The SSS has argued that this law didn’t apply to any of its activities, at least prior to the attempt at “automatic” registration. None of the Computer Matching Act notices required annually for each daat matching program have been published by the SSS in the Federal Register since 2017.

New and expanded computer matching programs will be central to the attempt to register potential draftees “automatically”. These programs will be subject to the Computer Matching Act. It remains to be seen whether the SSS will continue to ignore this law even as it dramatically expands its computer matching programs.

Excerpt from Selective Service System FY 2026-2027 Annual Performance Plan

Meanwhile, there’s still a chance for Congress to recognize its mistake and avert this impending fiasco by repealing the Military Selective Service Act (MSSA) before the attempt at “automatic” registration begins. The Selective Service Repeal Act could be reintroduced as a standalone bill, and/or proposed as an amendment to the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2027. The NDAA will probably be enacted by the “lame-duck” Congress in late 2026, after the elections but before new members of Congress are seated.

“Automatic” registration was enacted with no public awareness, hearings, debate, or budget review. It’s a bad idea, and it won’t work. The chances for repeal of the MSSA may depend on how soon and how widely “automatic” draft registration is recognized as not only bound to fail but a data grab for DOGE and an enabler of more aggressive war planning and policies.

The task of anti-draft awareness-building, mobilization, and action is increasingly urgent and important in the face of new military escalations. Repeal of the MSSA should be on the agenda of all anti-war organizations and a demand raised at all anti-war actions.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 22:35

Zelensky's Interceptor Drones Deployed Across Eurasia, Now Shooting Down Iranian Shaheds

Three weeks after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukrainian drone specialists were helping five Gulf states counter Iranian Shahed drones and build low-cost interceptor-based air defenses, he revealed Friday that Ukrainian military personnel had just recently shot down Shaheds in the Gulf theater.

"Our teams are already working with five countries on countering (Iran's) 'Shahed' drones — we have provided expert assessments and are helping build a defense system," Zelensky stated on X in mid-March. 

By Friday, AP News quoted Zelensky as saying Ukrainian personnel helped partners build effective air defenses using interceptor drones to combat Iranian Shaheds.

"This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defense system that can actually work," Zelensky said.

Low-cost interceptor drones deployed by Ukraine are among the most effective ways to combat the inexpensive $20,000 Shaheds, as a war of attrition makes little economic sense when interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Ukraine has had four years to develop low-cost one-way attack drones and interceptors during its war with Russia. Now, this technology is clearly being exported across multiple theaters in Eurasia.

Zelensky did not identify the countries or the exact interceptor drones used, but it is possible that Octopus-100 autonomous interceptor drones were deployed.

He said Ukraine had deployed hundreds of experts to the Gulf area, and, in return, has received weapons to protect its energy assets as well as financial support.

We recently published a fascinating piece titled "Ukraine Becomes World's AI Weapons Laboratory" that delves into Ukraine's drone industry and offers more insight into the interceptor technology.

Here's an excerpt from the note:

General Cherry is one of two Ukrainian companies selected to compete in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, a $1.1 billion initiative to field large numbers of cheap, effective one-way attack drones for American forces. Both General Cherry and Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp. have demonstrated they can mass-produce drones on short notice. General Cherry is now in talks with several Persian Gulf states about supplying interceptor drones to the Iran war.

The conflict areas across Eurasia, from Russia-Ukraine to the U.S.-Iran war, have only reinforced that the warfare technology of the 2030s has been pulled forward. After four years of hyper-development in the Eastern European theater, low-cost drones are already transforming modern battlefields worldwide. The most alarming development is that this low-cost war tech is spreading across Eurasia as more countries work to design, develop, and manufacture at scale, with future stockpiles likely to be measured in the millions.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 22:10

US Nuclear Fusion Startup To Build Radioactive Batteries For Use In Space

Authored by Ameya Paleja via Interesting Engineering,

Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup, has won a $5.2 million contract to build radioactive batteries that can power a laptop-class system for months. The contract is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Rads to Watts Program, which aims to build next-generation, compact, resilient nuclear batteries with higher densities. 

An early prototype of Avalanche Energy’s radiovoltaic converter for the DARPA Rads to Watts program is exposed to high-energy ion-beam irradiation.Avalanche Fusion

Radioactive batteries aren’t an entirely new concept. They have been around for years and have made their way even to Mars on NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Another type of radioactive battery is used in medical implant devices and sensors, but all these devices face the same issue: low energy density. 

Lithium-ion batteries, which are used everywhere from wearables to grid-level storage facilities, have high energy densities, storing up to 300 watt-hours (Wh) per kilogram. In comparison, radioactive batteries generate only about 2 watt-hours per kilogram, which the Rads to Watts Program aims to address. 

What will Avalanche do? 

The contract awarded to Avalance aims to build a radioactive battery that can power a laptop-class system for months. However, the battery will weigh only a few kilograms and deliver more than 10 watts per kilogram of energy. This is a major jump in power output for radioactive batteries. 

However, given that DARPA projects typically have defense and space applications in mind, these batteries will also need to be resilient in challenging environments, such as extreme temperatures and radiation exposure in space, where conventional electronics degrade rapidly. 

Avalanche will work to build solid-state microfabricated cells that convert alpha particles emitted by radioactive isotopes into electricity (alphavoltaic cells). This is quite similar to how photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity. These cells will convert the kinetic energy of alpha particles into usable electricity, powering a laptop-class device. 

Avalanche will test the battery’s operational resilience using particle accelerators and active radioisotopes.  It will also lead a team of researchers from the universities of Utah, Caltech, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and McQuaide Microsystems. 

How will it advance fusion energy tech? 

Since Avalanche is a fusion energy startup, taking up a project that uses nuclear fission technology might seem counterintuitive to Avalanche’s core mission. Yet the underlying physics is relevant to Avalanche’s long-term plan of building a portable fusion energy device. 

During the project, Avalanche will build degradation-resistant microchips that will be used in alpha-voltaic cells and eventually in fusion devices. 

“The DARPA contract represents a critical milestone in our path to practical fusion power,” said Robin Langtry, co-founder and CEO of Avalanche Energy, in a press release. 

“The direct energy conversion technologies we’re developing under Rads to Watts will be essential for extracting power from fusion reactions efficiently. We’re building the capabilities today that will enable tomorrow’s fusion systems to deliver reliable, portable energy for defense, space, and commercial applications.”

“The very same fusion machines that produce high-energy alpha particles will also produce high-energy neutrons. The neutrons produced are also efficient at creating the same radioisotopes needed for the Rads to Watts program, creating a reinforcing supply-and-technology flywheel around Avalanche’s core fusion platform,” the company said in the press release. 

Avalanche has already built its technology demonstrators but has not yet achieved a net-positive energy gain. So, a compact fusion energy device that is portable is a little way in the future. We will keep you posted if there are updates in that direction.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 21:45

Immigration Board Denies Mahmoud Khalil's Appeal

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

An immigration appeals board on April 9 denied Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s final appeal seeking to keep him from being deported from the United States.

The former Columbia University student and leader of pro-Palestinian protests is now subject to an administrative final removal order, authorizing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove Khalil from the country.

Khalil, 31, said the board’s decision was based on politics.

“I am not surprised by this decision from the biased and politically motivated Board of Immigration Appeals,” Khalil said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.

“I have committed no crime. I have broken no law. The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine—and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it.”

A Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson told The Epoch Times the decision “speaks for itself.”

The DOJ oversees the Board of Immigration Appeals

Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and is a citizen of Algeria. He entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 and married an American citizen a year later, becoming a legal permanent resident following the marriage. He was arrested in March 2025 and spent 104 days in an immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.

Khalil’s detention has been criticized by progressive officials and organizations and politicians from the Democratic Party.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have all expressed support for Khalil.

In March 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that charged Khalil’s presence in the country as having “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in January 2026 during an appearance on the NewsNation show “Katie Pavlich Tonight” that Khalil may be removed to Algeria.

“It looks like he’ll go to Algeria. That’s what the thought is right now,” McLaughlin said.

“It’s a reminder for those who are in this country on a visa or on a green card. You are a guest in this country—act like it.”

Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, a San Francisco immigration attorney, claims his client was targeted for his speech.

“Federal courts have already agreed that Mahmoud was targeted for his speech, and there is likely much more evidence of the government’s unlawful retaliation that has yet to come to light,” Van Der Hout said in a statement.

“This is a clear continuation of the administration’s retaliation against Mahmoud for exercising his First Amendment rights.”

Khalil’s remaining federal court case is also on uncertain ground after suffering a setback earlier this year when a U.S. appeals panel ruled 2–1 that a New Jersey judge overstepped his authority by releasing him on bail and barring the government from detaining or deporting him.

Khalil’s legal team has asked the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals to consider a full rehearing of his case. His attorneys said they believe Khalil can’t be removed until his appeal is resolved. The board’s decisions are not public.

The government has asked for 14 days to file a response to the request.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 20:55

"Move To California": Nvidia CEO Becomes Unofficial Pitchman For Struggling Left-Wing State

The California exodus is a very simple byproduct of one-party Democratic rule, with unhinged progressive politicians abusing their tax base through high taxes, overregulation, and experiments with extreme progressive policies that have transformed parts of some metro areas into crime-ridden hellholes. Average people, billionaires, and businesses have all been voting with their feet, fleeing to red states in search of lower taxes, law and order, more affordable living conditions, fewer regulations, and an economic environment where they can actually thrive.

This brings us to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who may be a genius when it comes to AI and chipstacks, but on Thursday at Stanford, he delivered one of his most absurd remarks.

"I say to everybody, 'Move to California. Don't leave. It's the highest taxes in the world, but it's OK,'" Huang told the audience at an event hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business that also featured Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Huang continued trying to sell folks moving back: "The weather is great." He might not be wrong about that.

NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang (center) speaks with Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) (right) and General H.R. McMaster. (EVA WANEK/The Stanford Daily)

The event brought together Huang and Khanna, with former National Security Advisor and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Gen. H.R. McMaster moderating the discussion alongside host Sarah Soule, dean of Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Khanna has faced criticism for introducing the "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act," which would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America's 938 billionaires. California Democrats have floated similar ideas in recent months, which sparked an exodus among some of the state's wealthiest residents. The latest to leave was Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, who packed his bags for Texas.

And it is not just billionaires leaving. Alongside an alarming outbound migration of working- and middle-class residents, one recent study found that California lost 789 corporate headquarters on a net basis between 2011 and 2021, equal to about 1.9% of the state's more than 47,000 headquarters.

Jonathan Turley recently described the exodus as a "giant sucking sound" that can be heard in the Golden State, "which is virtually chasing taxpayers and companies out of the state with a massive state deficit, rising taxes, crippling regulations, and wasteful programs."

And while San Francisco and Los Angeles compete for the cesspool crown, Los Angeles County just won that title for population loss.

According to the latest US Census data, LA County lost over 53,000 residents, marking the largest decline in any US city between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, while the overall population loss from 2020 to today is roughly 300,000 people.

Why Huang chose to go against the grain and urge people to "move to California," even as smart money has already left or is still trying to leave, raises serious questions about his political judgment calls.

* * * Gonna pull the trigger?

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 18:50

Mainstream Media Claims Roger Stone Persuaded Trump Not To Fire Tulsi Gabbard

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

President Trump was reportedly on the verge of firing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — until longtime adviser Roger Stone stepped in at the last minute.

According to an Axios report citing ‘advisors’, Trump had grown frustrated with Gabbard’s congressional testimony on threats to the U.S., in which she stopped short of a full-throated endorsement of the ongoing Iran conflict. The sources described the president polling other advisers on her performance and whether she should be replaced.

The drama unfolded after the high-profile resignation of Gabbard’s former adviser and counterterrorism director, Joe Kent, who publicly accused Israel of misleading the administration into war with Iran. Gabbard’s decision not to forcefully condemn Kent during her testimony only added fuel to the fire.

How Roger Stone persuaded Trump not to fire Tulsi Gabbard https://t.co/MObT2trC2d

— Axios (@axios) April 10, 2026

In a private meeting, Trump “scolded” Gabbard and questioned her loyalty, according to two sources. Others described the exchange as sarcastic but ultimately friendly.

Yet it was Roger Stone — Trump’s friend and political confidant since 1979 — who ultimately changed the president’s mind, according to the report.

“Roger sealed the deal. He saved Tulsi,” a source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Axios.

Stone laid out four key arguments for keeping her, according to people who spoke with him. Gabbard had remained loyal, delivered her testimony in a professional manner, and never publicly disputed the president. Unlike Kent, she showed no signs of resigning and did not deserve to be fired preemptively. Dismissing her would trigger a damaging news cycle and turn her into a martyr among segments of the base uneasy about the war. And firing her could give her credibility with MAGA skeptics, potentially positioning her as a future GOP presidential contender — one who might challenge Vice President JD Vance in key early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Stone himself confirmed his intervention on X, writing: “Fortunately, I acted in time.”

Last Monday Loomer tried to convince the President that Tulsi Gabbard was about to resign- in an effort to get Trump to move preemptively to fire her. The whole thing was a hoax. Fortunately, I acted in time. When I called Loomer out on her lie is when she became unhinged pic.twitter.com/Qbg2GpI6C2

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 9, 2026

Stone’s comments come against a backdrop of a verbal feud with Laura Loomer.

.@LauraLoomet You planted the idea that Tulsi was about to resign in an effort to stampede the president Into firing her but you got out maneuvered . Tulsi had no intention of resigning and has done nothing to merit her termination .

I doubt that Tulsi will run in 2028 and I… https://t.co/XiHZABLA4y

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 10, 2026

.@LauraLoomer persuaded the president that Tulsi Gabbard was about to resign and should be preemptively fired. It was another one of her lies. The dirty trick didn't workhttps://t.co/TKqTjx7ezX

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 10, 2026

Loomer took to X to declare: “Tulsi is done. The White House wants zero drama so they gave her the option to resign, but … she will do a lot of damage if she is given the choice to resign because she will launch her 2028 presidential campaign.”

A Gabbard ally fired back, calling Loomer’s claim “absolutely false” and noting that Trump has repeatedly stood by his DNI.

The White House pushed back hard on any notion of discord. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “President Trump believes Tulsi Gabbard is doing an excellent job on behalf of the administration. She is a key member of his national security team.”

An ODNI spokesperson added that Gabbard “remains committed to fulfilling the responsibilities the President placed in her to protect the safety, security and freedom of the American people. She will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of President Trump’s agenda.”

The episode highlights the intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering inside the Trump administration as it navigates foreign policy challenges and internal loyalty tests. Gabbard, a combat veteran and longtime skeptic of endless Middle East entanglements, was brought on board for her outsider perspective and America First instincts. Yet her independent streak has created friction with hardliners who demand unwavering alignment on every national security issue.

Stone’s apparent intervention appears to have preserved stability — at least for now. In an administration that prizes loyalty above almost everything else, the veteran political operative reminded the president why keeping experienced voices who deliver results without grandstanding serves the country better than another round of public bloodletting.

This isn’t the first time Gabbard has faced scrutiny. Tensions surfaced last year over her decision to pull certain security clearances without full consultation and her public warnings about nuclear risks. She was also notably sidelined from some key pre-war discussions.

Still, the president’s ultimate decision to retain her — guided by Stone’s counsel — sends a clear signal: personnel moves will be deliberate, not reactive. In a high-stakes environment where every leak and resignation threatens to become a headline, avoiding unnecessary drama may prove the smarter long-term play.

The media’s breathless coverage of the near-firing only underscores how quickly internal deliberations become public fodder. Yet the outcome reinforces a core truth in this administration: seasoned advisers who understand Trump’s instincts can still shape decisions behind closed doors, protecting both the president’s agenda and the team executing it.

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.

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 17:40

Xi Hosts Taiwan Opposition Leader In Rare Meeting: 'We Will Not Become A Chessboard For External Intervention'

All eyes remain fixated on the impending US-Iran talks in Islamabad, but big things are also happening Friday in Beijing, and they have direct impact on another potential global flashpoint: Taiwan.

While Washington potentially gets bogged down in another Middle East quagmire (if talks don't go well and there's no offramp), Chinese leader Xi Jinping has welcomed the leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party for a rare direct meeting in the Chinese capital.

The symbolism of the timing can't be missed, as Xi invited Nationalist Party Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun to China ahead of the planned big mid-May summit with President Trump in which the Chinese leader could continue a push to dilute Washington's support for Taiwan.

This is all about steering self-ruled Taiwan into China's orbit, and Beijing asserting political power to do so in the face of the Trump administration, after China has long stated its official policy of reunification to the mainland through political means.

By hosting Cheng, Xi is also presenting himself as a force for stability who can be entrusted with ensuring peace - the WSJ has commented - and we might add with the image of 'Taiwan's willing participation' - at a moment the Middle East is on fire largely as a result of American policy and quickness to result to force and surprise attacks.

Xi and Cheng expressed a desire for a "peaceful" resolution to the many decades-long Taiwan crisis, and posed for photos at the Great Hall of the People. They engaged in public remarks but also held a private, closed-door meeting.

Cheng emphasized in words to reporters that Chinese and Taiwanese officials should work to "transcend political confrontation and mutual hostility." She stated, "Instead, it should become a strait that connects family ties, civilization and hope – a symbol of peace jointly safeguarded by Chinese people on both sides."

Her rhetoric was tinged with familiar Chinese Communist Party talking points as she heralded China's supposed eradicating of absolute poverty while seeking to achieve the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".

Among the more notable points were related to 'external intervention' - a not so stealthy reference to American power projection in southeast Asia:

"It is hoped that through the tireless efforts of our two parties, the Taiwan Strait will no longer be a focus of potential conflict, nor will it become a chessboard for external intervention," she said.

Xi and Cheng both agreed that her Kuomintang party is ready to work with Beijing to achieve peace across the Taiwan Strait.

According to a backgrounder:

Cheng is the highest-ranking Taiwanese leader to meet Xi since President Ma Ying-jeou talked with the Chinese leader in Singapore in 2015. They met again in China two years ago when Ma was a private citizen.

Both Cheng and Ma are members of the Kuomintang, the conservative-leaning Taiwanese political party that advocates for greater engagement with China by Taiwan’s self-ruled democratic government.

As for Xi, he held up Taiwan and China's shared history and culture, stating that "people of all ethnic groups, including Taiwanese compatriots," had "jointly written the glorious history of China."

Cheng Li-wun, Leader of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang, after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping today:

This is a choice between peace and war. pic.twitter.com/i33R9UWx3l

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 10, 2026

Xi stressed, "All sons and daughters of China share the same Chinese roots and the same Chinese spirit. This originates from blood ties and is deeply embedded in our history – it cannot be forgotten and cannot be erased."

Taiwan's ruling government and officials have meanwhile complained of the Friday meeting, "It basically gives China a chance to bully Taiwan behind closed doors."

And Taiwan Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi said Friday that China can send a clear message of peace but only if it "stops sending warplanes and ships around Taiwan now."

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 17:20

White House Warns Staff As Iran Bets Add To Growing Insider-Trading Concerns

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

The White House warned staff against improperly using confidential information to place bets in futures markets after suspicious oil trades ahead of President Donald Trump’s March 23 Iran announcement drew scrutiny, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the White House sent the internal email on March 24, a day after Trump ordered a five-day delay in attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.

The warning followed a roughly $500 million bet on Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures placed in a one-minute burst shortly before Trump’s March 23 announcement, according to Reuters calculations based on exchange data. Oil prices fell about 15% after the policy shift.

The episode has intensified scrutiny of whether officials or politically connected traders could profit from nonpublic information tied to military or policy decisions. It has also added momentum to a broader push in Washington to tighten rules around prediction-market trading.

The STOCK Act amendment in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) prohibits federal officials, congress members, executive staff and judicial officers from using non-public information derived from their positions to trade commodity, futures or options markets. The amendment was signed into law on April 4, 2012.

Cointelegraph has approached the White House for a copy of the internal email.

Lawmakers respond to prediction market insider trading concerns

Lawmakers have also stepped up scrutiny of prediction markets, where well-timed bets tied to military and political events have raised similar concerns about the misuse of privileged information.

Polymarket traders netted around $1 million by accurately betting when the US would strike Iran.

In response to the concerns, Congressman Adrian Smith and Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski introduced the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading Act (PREDICT Act) on March 25, a bipartisan bill seeking to ban members of Congress and federal officials from prediction market trading.

On March 26, US lawmakers Todd Young, Elissa Slotkin, John Curtis and Adam Schiff unveiled the bipartisan Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, a bill aimed at curbing prediction market insider trading by government officials.

End Prediction Market Corruption Act. Source: Merkley.senate.gov

The same day, Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the End Prediction Market Corruption Act, seeking to ban event contract trading by government officials with “material non-public information,” including the president, vice president and members of Congress.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 17:00

Half-Way Into Fiscal 2026, US Budget Deficit Is 11% Lower Than 2025, But It's About To Get Much Worse

While not as dire as previous years, the US budget deficit remains a ticking time bomb.

There was some good news and some not so good news, when the Treasury reported the monthly revenue and outlays for the month of March. 

First the good news: The US federal government reported that the March budget deficit rose $4 billion or 2% ​to $164.1 billion from $160.5 billion a year ago, and higher than the $153.3BN median estimate, as ‌new individual and corporate tax breaks pushed refunds sharply higher, while relief payments to farmers also grew.

March ​tax receipts totaled $385 billion, up $17 billion or 4.7% ​from ⁠March 2025...

... which translated into $413 billion on a 6 month moving average basis, roughly where it has been for the past few years.

Outlays totaled $549 billion, up $21 billion, or 3.9% higher from a year earlier.

Unlike tax revenues, outlays were at the high end of the 6 month moving average, at just over $608 billion.

One can see how the moving averages between revenue and spending diverge in the chart below.

On a cumulative basis, six months into fiscal 2026 (which ends in September), the US budget deficit was $1.169 trillion, down about 11% from the $1.307 trillion accrued through this point in 2025. Aside from the crisis 2021 year, this was the third biggest cumulative budget deficit in US history half-way into the fiscal year.

Another way of visualizing the deficit, here it is broken down by main sources of revenue and outlays.

Customs duty ​collections softened in the month following the US Supreme ‌Court's ⁠annulment of President Donald Trump's broadest global tariffs imposed under an emergency law. Customs receipts totaled $22.2 billion in March, down from $26.6 billion in February and monthly ​totals in ​the low $30 ⁠billion range late last year, but up from $8.2 billion in March 2025.

The drop in tariff collections is seen clearly on the next chart.

Now that bad news: the March total was an accounting gimmick. After accounting for calendar-related ⁠adjustments ​of benefit payments, the March ​deficit would have been $250 billion, substantially higher than the year ago number. 

Worse, the monthly budget ​data did not show a major increase in ⁠spending on the Iran war, with military ​and defense program outlays rising just $2 billion or ​3% to $65 billion during the conflict's first month. That means that the April (and onward) deficits will be sharply higher on the billions in war spending that will now have to go through the US income (technically loss) statement. 

Putting it all together, the big picture emerges, one where outlays on most categories continues to rise - certainly defense, social security and health - but as a result of the drop in rates in the past 1.5 years, the gross interest expense on US debt has been relatively flat in 2026, and in March it was $1.26 trillion, or where it started the year.

Still, at $1.3 trillion in gross interest expense, the amount of money the US spends on debt interest is now remains the 2nd highest spending category and will likely surpass Social Security spending, at just over $1.6 trillion, should either rates go up again or once total US debt surges as it certainly will in the next recession. 

Finally, while total deficit may be lower than it was in the prior year, it is probably safe to say that gross interest will keep rising every year until the end: indeed, as shown below, at $623 billion for the first six months of fiscal 2025, cumulative gross interest was 7% higher than the $582 billion for the same period in 2025. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 16:40

"We're Really In Uncharted Territory..."

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Games Nations Play

“I am sick of serving in Congress with immoral freaks who abuse their office and bring dishonor to the institution.”

- Rep Anna Paulina Luna

You have entered the season of chaos. Better get used to it. The center quit holding a long time ago, and now even the margins are quivering. Buckle up and batten down. It will probably get rougher and weirder. Struggle is everywhere.

Iran Declares Victory

Will Iran reopen Hormuz or not? They really only have days to stop playing games with the rest of the world. It will soon be clear whether they can negotiate in good faith. It doesn’t look good. Their theology of jihad contains a permission structure for lying to their enemies to accomplish their aim: which is, to annihilate the hated infidels (that’s us).

That is the reason for this conflict, by the way. They have promised over and over again to destroy us. Why not believe them? The thousand pounds of enriched uranium is still stashed somewhere in the country. It has only one purpose, to be made into bombs, and they’re not allowed to keep it. The message is pretty simple, but they don’t seem to get it. There are probably big fissures between the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), the secular government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, and the regular army (the Artesh). Are they even able to communicate with each other? You and I don’t know, though Mr. Trump and his people might know.

I doubt that Mr. Trump wanted to drop the hammer on Iran last Tuesday, as he vowed to do. But it might eventually be necessary to turn the lights off there if they don’t stop screwing around.

Does Iran have an inexhaustible supply of missiles and drones, as some observers seem to believe? I doubt it. We blew up their factories. We have the option and the ability to track down whatever they’ve got left in storage and destroy it. One way or another, we are going to end Iran’s ability to be a problem for the rest of the world.

The American Left (the Democratic Party) would like nothing better than for Iran to thumb its nose at the rest of the world (at us especially), because the American Left has launched its own sort of Jihad.

It has been waging war on the rest of us in America for ten years, and you can be sure that, as springtime blossoms over the land, they intend to ramp up the action.

Expect Act One on May Day.

That is the day that the Left customarily celebrates socialism. It started off decades ago as a holiday for industrial workers. There are few enough of those left in the USA these days that they constitute less than a critical mass of all American workers. They have been replaced by grifters, fraudsters, and other parasites looking to get money-for-nothing from the rest of us without working at all. That is the Democratic Party’s raison d’être. They are now strictly a racketeering operation.

The Left will stage widespread demonstrations around the country on May Day. The several No Kings demos in cold weather were rehearsals for the spring and summer fun. You can expect the May Day action to turn into riots. Antifa is still very much at the Party’s beck and call for sparking that sort of thing. The idea behind it is to provoke the president into reacting forcefully to the Left’s riots so they can brand him “a tyrant.” If May Day is insufficient to accomplish that, wait until the extravaganzas around the Fourth of July when the USA ostensibly gets to celebrate our 250th birthday as a republic.

Considering that the Republican majority in Congress was unwilling to pass an election reform bill, it is also a fairly sure thing that sometime between May Day and July Fourth the president will have to issue an executive order setting out requirements for a free and fair election: voter ID, citizens only, highly restricted and tightly regulated mail-in voting, no electronic ballot-counting machines, etc.

That alone will inflame the Left, who cannot win elections without ballot fraud.

Of course, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Mary McCord, and the lawfare ninjas will file lawsuits to negate any executive order on election procedures, and their select federal judges will issue injunctions against it. Which will provoke Mr. Trump, in turn, to go full Abe Lincoln on them and declare an insurgency requiring extraordinary executive powers to overcome the Left’s ploys — just as Mr. Lincoln had to overcome the traitorous Confederates of his time. That will get Mr. Trump branded “a super-tyrant.”

From that point, we’re really in uncharted territory. But, it being the nation’s 250th birthday and all, a great majority of US citizens may be in no mood by then for any further pranking and punking by the Left. They will be more than eager for trials, perhaps by military tribunals if the corrupt federal judiciary proves intractable.

This is the kind of thing we have to look forward to as 2026 keeps rolling out. But meanwhile, events might get even hotter over in Euroland. The joint is primed to blow. They’ve had enough jihad, too, and enough of the retarded political leadership that allowed it to be inflicted on the people of Europe. It’s already started. Ireland is about to go up in flames, a case of the government’s utter betrayal of the people. After Ireland, cue the United Kingdom. They’ve had enough of hostile Islam and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

They don’t call this the Fourth Turning for nothing.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 16:20

Hunter Biden Challenges Trump Brothers To Cage Match

As everyone knows by now, the first rule of fight club is... you don't talk about fight club...

But it appears Hunter Biden could not help himself as the son of former President Joe Biden, on April 9 publicly challenged Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump - the eldest sons of President Donald Trump - to a cage match.

        View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Channel Five (@channel5)

The challenge emerged in a video posted to the Instagram page of conservative social media commentator Andrew Callaghan’s Channel 5 account.

“I just got a call from Andrew Callaghan,” Biden said in the video.

“He asked me to come out on the Channel 5 Carnival Tour at the end of the month. I think we start in Phoenix, then we go to San Diego, and we end in Albuquerque. I think he’s trying to organize a cage match. Me versus Eric and Don Jr. I told him I'd do it—100 percent in if he can pull it off. And if he can’t, I’m still coming.”

As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, the challenge lands against the backdrop of the nation’s 250th independence celebrations, which already include an actual professional fight match at the White House.

The White House is set to host a UFC match on June 14, a White House official confirmed to The Epoch Times. Hunter Biden is not expected to participate in that event.

Trump first floated the idea of a White House UFC fight in July 2025, announcing plans at a “Salute to America” event in Des Moines, Iowa, that the administration intended to mark the country’s 250th anniversary with a year’s worth of events.

UFC CEO Dana White, a close friend of Trump, is overseeing the June event, which is headlined by professional fighters, though the competitors have yet to be announced.

The cage match proposal arrives roughly 16 months after former President Joe Biden issued his son a full and unconditional pardon on Dec. 1, 2024, covering any federal offenses between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.

Hunter Biden had been convicted on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to nine counts of federal tax evasion. He was facing up to 17 years in prison and $1.3 million in fines.

The elder Biden, who had previously said he would not pardon his son if convicted, argued that “raw politics” had corrupted the judicial process. Then-President-elect Donald Trump called the pardon a “miscarriage of justice.”

The proposed fight also echoes a 2023 cage match challenge between tech giants Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, though it ultimately never happened.

Neither the Trump Organization nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 15:40

Oil Price Shock Drives 140% Surge In China's EV Exports To Record High

By Michael Kern of OilPrice.com,

Chinese electric vehicle exports soared by 140% to a record high in March as the fuel price shock drove consumers back to EVs.

BYD electric vehicles bound for export in China.Source: AFP/Getty Images

China exported as many as 349,000 electric vehicles last month, a record high number of any month ever, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association cited by Bloomberg.

Drivers in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the United States started searching for EVs and hybrid options amid soaring fuel prices, following the war in the Middle East. The conflict has trapped more than 10 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude supply at the Strait of Hormuz and hiked international oil prices to $100 per barrel and above, up from $70 before the conflict began.

As a result of the rapidly rising fuel prices, consumers are increasingly exploring EV options.

Showrooms across Asia, where the fuel crisis was first felt, are bustling with interest from consumers willing to buy EVs.

In Australia, the wait times for EVs have soared to by several months, the Australian Financial Review reports.

BYD, China's biggest EV manufacturer and top exporter, has said that the average wait time for its top-selling Sealion 7 and Atto 2 models has blown out to between two and three months, up from two to three weeks.

Autotrader, the UK's largest automotive marketplace, reported a surge in EV interest since the first bombing on Iran on February 28.

“Our data shows a sharp rise in both new and used EV leads since the war began at the end of February, with used EV enquiries hitting record levels on the Autotrader marketplace,” Ian Plummer, Chief Customer Officer at Autotrader, said at the end of March.

“When people feel that traditional fuel is vulnerable to global events, the appeal of electric becomes far stronger so the conflict is acting as a significant catalyst for EV interest across the UK market.”

Interest in EVs in the United States is also rising, as gasoline prices topped $4 per gallon nationwide. Yet, Morgan Stanley expects that an actual increased demand for EVs and hybrids in the U.S. could take place after about six consecutive months of high gasoline prices.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 15:20

Kamala Harris Teases 2028 Presidential Run: "I'm Thinking About It"

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has openly teased the possibility of running for president again in 2028 - telling an audience at the National Action Network’s annual convention in New York City alongside Rev. Al Sharpton: "Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it. I’m thinking about it."

The crowd erupted into chants of "Run again!" as Harris spoke. "I served for four years being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States," she told the audience. "I spent countless hours in my West Wing office, footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room. I know what the job is. And I know what it requires.” She added that recent travels across the country, especially in the South, had reinforced her view that “the status quo is not working, and hasn’t been working for a lot of people for a long time."

This isn't her first hint...

• October 2025 (BBC Interview): In her first UK interview after the election, Harris gave her strongest early signal yet. Asked if she could envision herself as president one day—and whether America would soon elect a female president—she replied “possibly.” She declared, “I am not done. I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”
• October 2025 (Kara Swisher Interview): On stage with journalist Kara Swisher, Harris shrugged off a question about 2028 with “Maybe. Maybe not,” drawing cheers from the crowd.
• February 2026 (Sharon McMahon Interview): While promoting her memoir 107 Days—which chronicles the intense final stretch of her 2024 campaign—Harris told author Sharon McMahon she “hasn’t decided” on another run but admitted, “I might,” when pressed on whether she was still thinking about it. McMahon noted the book left the impression that Harris “wants” to run again.

Odds of another run currently sit at 11%... watch this one: 

//--> //--> Will Kamala Harris announce a 2028 run for President by June 30?
Yes 11% · No 89%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Harris’s 2024 bid as the Democratic nominee came after President Joe Biden stepped aside. She lost decisively to Trump but has remained an active voice in Democratic politics, criticizing the current administration’s foreign policy—particularly the war with Iran, which she has called a “choice” that “keeps me up at night.”

She is already scheduled to appear at Democratic events in multiple Southern states this month, keeping her profile high as the party looks ahead. While she leads many early 2028 primary polls among Democrats, the field is expected to be crowded, and some party insiders have expressed private concerns about a repeat candidacy.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 15:00

D.C. Economy "Under Strain," Faces Biggest Spending Cuts Since Great Recession

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released its state-level real gross domestic product data on Thursday, revealing a sharply uneven economic landscape in the fourth quarter of 2025, with boom times in North Dakota contrasting with a sharp slowdown spreading across the Mid-Atlantic, especially in Washington, D.C.

"From a regional perspective, real GDP increased in 35 states in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the percent change at an annual rate ranging from 3.8 percent in North Dakota to –8.3 percent in the District of Columbia and remaining unchanged in Indiana and Maine," BEA wrote in the report.

The fourth quarter coincided with a 43-day government shutdown from Oct. 1 through Nov. 12, a disruption that likely had an outsized effect on the Washington, D.C. economy given the metro area's heavy reliance on federal workers, procurement, contracting activity, and the broader consumer spending tied to government. 

But let's not forget that the D.C. economy is already dealing with a spending slowdown linked to the Trump administration's move to clean up waste, fraud, and abuse. To this day, DOGE units are still operating in agencies and trimming the DEI fat.

Yesim Sayin, executive director of the think tank D.C. Policy Center, was quoted by the Washington Post late in 2025 as warning about recession risks in the D.C. economy.

"Death by a thousand cuts," Sayin told WaPo. She said the significance of 2025 lies less in any single data point and more in the earthquake it has delivered to the very bedrock of the city's long-term outlook.

"This isn't just a blip," Sayin said. "What this year has done is change the trajectory of the District's economy."

According to the Cato Institute, the 2025 federal workforce reduction was the largest peacetime reduction ever. That drop was 9% of the total workforce. 

D.C. Policy Center's latest report warns that D.C. has entered a slower-growth era and can no longer rely on population gains, employment growth, and rising revenues to offset inefficiencies and soaring costs.

The think tank warned:

The city’s current fiscal framework was built during a period of steady growth, when rising population, expanding employment, and increasing property values supported reliable revenue gains. That environment has weakened but spending commitments have not adjusted at the same pace. Recent budgets reflect this tension clearly. In this fiscal year (FY 2026), roughly 10 percent of approved general fund spending—about $1.4 billion—is being financed with past savings rather than with recurring revenues. At the same time, the adopted financial plan assumes a reduction of $839 million in FY 2027 spending, a cut of more than six percent. [4] The District has not faced adjustments of this scale since the Great Recession.

This is a system under strain. Growth has not returned, as hoped, to ease these pressures, and as revenues flatten in real terms, the city faces increasingly constrained choices.

For years, the Mid-Atlantic economy rode a wave of federal spending that poured into local economies from Northern Virginia to Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland, and into Delaware, helping sustain an unbalanced economy heavily tilted toward government.

Now, as growth slows and residents and businesses leave, the region's political elites - ruled by Democratic Party queens and kings in their 'DEI Kingdoms' - are facing hard realities: higher taxes will only trigger a greater exodus and spark even more backlash from both sides of the political aisle. 

The road to political change in the Mid-Atlantic was accelerated by the Trump administration's DOGE, which sought to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across many agencies, including USAID.

We'll leave you with a message from Dean Woodley Ball, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, a Policy Fellow at Fathom, and Visiting Fellow at Heritage Foundation...

My plan is to leave DC for Virginia before the next mayor is sworn in, or shortly after at the very least.

DC is incredibly vulnerable. It has the following major defects:

1. An incompetent and corrupt government that does not provide basic services effectively

2. A… https://t.co/n3gXenwrZX

— Dean W. Ball (@deanwball) April 10, 2026

"My plan is to leave DC for Virginia before the next mayor is sworn in, or shortly after at the very least." 

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 14:40

CIA To Integrate AI 'Co-Workers' To Process Intelligence, Catch Spies

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com,

The US Central Intelligence Agency said it will embed “AI co-workers” directly into its analytics platforms to assist analysts with detecting spies and anticipating hostile moves by foreign adversaries.

“Within the next couple of years, we will have AI co-workers built into all of the agency’s analytic platforms — a kind of classified version of generative AI that will help our analysts with basic tasks,” CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis reportedly said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington, DC.

According to Politico, Ellis said the AI co-workers would assist intelligence officers with drafting key judgments, testing analytical conclusions and identifying trends in intelligence that the agency gathers from abroad.

However, he said humans would continue to make the “key decisions.”

Michael Ellis (right) speaking with Anthony Pompliano (left) about Bitcoin and AI’s role in US national security in May: Source: Anthony Pompliano

The CIA’s AI plans come amid a feud between the US Department of Defense and AI firm Anthropic. Despite having a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense, Anthropic prevented the use of its flagship AI product, Claude, for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

US President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic's technology in March, while the Department of Defense declared Anthropic a supply chain risk.

The parties remain locked in a legal dispute over the designation, with a US appeals court on Wednesday denying Anthropic’s emergency request to temporarily pause the label.

While Ellis didn’t point out Anthropic, he said the CIA “cannot allow the whims of a single company” to constrain its capabilities.

The CIA has already adopted AI for other intelligence tasks, having tested about 300 AI projects last year to “bring new capabilities to our mission,” such as processing large data sets and language translation, Ellis said.

Ellis also noted that the CIA recently created its first intelligence report with AI while predicting that AI’s role in the agency’s work would continue to grow.

A major motivation for the CIA is to stay ahead of China, Ellis said, noting that the once-large gap between the US and China has narrowed significantly.

“Five to ten years ago, China was nowhere near America, in terms of technological innovation,” Ellis said. “That’s just not true today.”

Ellis likes the transparency of Bitcoin, crypto

In May, Ellis said Bitcoin and crypto were matters of national security, adding that the agency reviews blockchain data to support its counterintelligence operations.

“It’s another area of technological competition where we need to make sure the United States is well-positioned against China and other adversaries.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 14:20

Contempt Of Court: Justice Sotomayor Suggests Justice Kavanaugh Is An Uninformed Elitist

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Justice Brett Kavanaugh is accustomed to unrelenting personal attacks from the left that began with his nomination to the Court. This week, however, the ad hominem insults came not from cable programs but a colleague. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor used an appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law to level a personal dig at Kavanaugh as an out-of-touch elitist.

I have long criticized the growing number of public statements by justices on controversial subjects and cases, including Justice Sotomayor. However, this appearance represented a new low in lashing out at a colleague as effectively blinded by his own privilege.

In her comments, Sotomayor raised Kavanaugh’s concurrence in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo:

“I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour… Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person. And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper…”

She then referred to her own background as giving her experience and knowledge that is apparently missing in colleagues such as Kavanaugh:

“Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and to see things others may not. And when I have a moment where I can express that on behalf of people who have no other voice, then I’m being given a very rare privilege.”

It was reminiscent of Sotomayor’s reference to being a “wise Latina” on the bench. While on the Second Circuit, then-judge Sotomayor explained that her life experiences offered a “difference” not shared by other colleagues. In a 2001 lecture at Berkeley law school titled “A Latina Judge’s Voice,” she heralded the difference that “our gender and national origins may and will make … in our judging.”

In her latest comments, she is suggesting that her interaction with hourly wage earners allows her to see things that Kavanaugh does not in these cases. The claim that she “sees things that others may not” suggests that the privileged, insulated existence of Kavanaugh blinds him to the true merits of cases before him.

Notably, Justice Sotomayor also told the students and faculty that she has a friendship with most, but apparently not all, of her colleagues:

“I dare say that with virtually all of them, I certainly have a civil relationship. And with many of them, I think I dare say that I have a friendship,”

After this speech, I would not expect a social media friend invite from Kavanaugh.

It is true that Kavanaugh went to elite schools, but so did Sotomayor, who graduated from Princeton and Yale.

Both of Kavanaugh’s parents were indeed lawyers, but it is odd that Sotomayor would miss the compelling story of his mother, Martha. She was a history professor who went to law school while raising a family and eventually became one of the minority of women on the state bench. That would also seem to be “gender origins” that Sotomayor previously cited as key in her view of impactful judging.

However, what was most striking was Sotomayor’s backhanded suggestion that Kavanaugh “doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” The suggestion is that he has avoided — and continues to avoid — interactions with people who get paid on an hourly basis — while she is more inclusive in her circle of friends. It is obviously false, but more importantly, petty and unfair.

The attack suggests that, while she is a “wise Latina,” Kavanaugh is a privileged prig on the Court. The fact is that many blue-collar (if not most) workers identify more with aspects of Kavanaugh’s jurisprudence. At a minimum, over half of the country is more likely to embrace his approach than that of Justice Sotomayor, who has been criticized for her comments in oral argument on issues ranging from abortion to puberty blockers to COVID restrictions.

Justice Kavanaugh has distinguished himself in public service, including work with the homeless.

Justice Sotomayor has repeatedly raised eyebrows with her comments off the bench, including seemingly calling on lawyers and students to join in a political campaign to change abortion laws.

In her favor, Justice Sotomayor has also defended colleagues like Justice Clarence Thomas, explained the reasonable disagreements among the justices, and opposed rationales on the left for packing the court. She is not someone who I view as gratuitously rude or cruel. I believe that she values collegiality and the Court as an institution. However, this was another injudicious moment during public events.

There is a wide chasm between the jurisprudence of these two justices. However, that difference is due to fundamental and principled differences in how courts should approach constitutional and statutory interpretation.

Yet, these comments were a disturbing departure from the tradition of collegiality and civility on the court. It was unfair and unwarranted. Hopefully, Justice Sotomayor will take an upcoming occasion during her speaking tour to withdraw the comment.

That would be the “wise” thing to do.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 13:40