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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military has secretly helped 200 commercial ships and more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. "This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost." Trump disclosed the operation earlier Wednesday during remarks to reporters in the Oval Office. He credited the clandestine exports with keeping oil prices around $90 per barrel instead of surging above $200. But ship traffic through Hormuz...

President Trump on Monday denied Iran’s claim that it dismantled an elaborate U.S. spy ring tasked with monitoring key military sites, dismissing the reports as a “totally false story” amid rising tensions between Tehran and the West. Iran said that its intelligence forces identified and arrested 17 Iranians suspected of spying for the CIA and that some of them have been sentenced to death. The announcement adds to concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program and its efforts to impede shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

In this episode, John and I got to do a real deep-dive with Elon. We discuss the economics of orbital data centers, the difficulties of scaling power on Earth, what it would take to manufacture humanoids at high-volume in America, xAI’s business and alignment plans, DOGE, and much more. Elon Musk -- "In 36 months, the cheapest place to put AI will be space" | 2:49:45 Dwarkesh Patel and Stripe | 1,628,229 views | February 5, 2026

The First Amendment forbids the government from forcing you to disclose the groups or organizations that you support. That is because the First Amendment guarantees our right to associate with others, and associational privacy is fundamental to that freedom. Nevertheless, in complete disregard for these associational rights, the Securities and Exchange Commission currently requires investors to disclose the businesses they support financially. No government agency has the authority to compel Americans to disclose the companies in which they invest. Yet for several years, the SEC has done exactly that through a surveillance program called the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). The...

A Chinese tracking device was discovered in the Prime Minister's official car, MPs were told yesterday. The bug is believed to have been found in a sealed part of the vehicle imported from China. Its discovery during a sweep first emerged in 2023, sparking fears that Beijing was aggressively spying on ministers in the then-Conservative government. Now it has been revealed that the device was in fact found in the Prime Minister's car the previous year. Charles Parton, of think-tank the Council on Geostrategy, told the Commons Business and Trade Committee yesterday: 'The prime minister's car in 2022 was emanating...

Pope Francis has accused Britain of placing greed over humanity by refusing to hand over a disputed island archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. In an unusually muscular foreign policy intervention, the pope suggested that Britain’s failure to heed a United Nations vote calling on it relinquish sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory was uncivilised. “Not all things that are right for humanity are right for our pocket, but international institutions must be obeyed,” the pope told journalists as he left Mauritius at the end of a three-nation tour of Africa. “If there is an internal dispute or...

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned the United Kingdom that it could damage its relationship with the United States if it threatens the future of the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia by ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Key excerpts of the speech are below: “Do you know who is loving all of this? China, because China has a close relationship with Mauritius. And do you know what? It is going to get a lot closer. “This is insane. This is cell-deep stupid. This is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid. Because the United Nations...

A recent report exposes the concerning ways in which the Chinese Communist Party has leveraged the University of California system to shape California’s climate and energy policies — prioritizing China’s strategic interests while undermining American economic independence, energy stability, and national security. Titled “Behind the Climate Curtain: China’s Hidden Role in California’s Energy Mandates and University Partnerships,” this report by Ian Oxnevad, senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars (NAS), examines how California’s aggressive climate agenda, facilitated through partnerships between the University of California (UC) and China’s Tsinghua University, has benefited Beijing’s economic and military ambitions at the expense...

While investors focus on artificial intelligence, data centers, and advanced manufacturing, a growing crisis is emerging behind the scenes. The U.S. is running short of the skilled workers needed to keep those industries operating. Major employers including Ford Motor Company, along with organizations backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, BlackRock, and Lowe’s, are now committing hundreds of millions of dollars to train the next generation of mechanics, electricians, and trade professionals.The spending surge highlights a growing reality: the future of America’s economy may depend as much on skilled tradespeople as it does on software engineers.Ford Says Technician Shortage Is Hurting CustomersEvery morning,...

... nations failed to establish or effectively enforce comprehensive legal prohibitions against importing goods produced wholly or partly through forced labour.While a subset of countries — including Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the European Union — will see 10% tariffs imposed due to specific enforcement failures, Australia has been grouped with jurisdictions like China and India under the higher 12.5% tariff bracket...

Australian beef exports to China could be hit with a 55 per cent tariff within days. Earlier this year, Beijing announced a quota on Australian beef of 205,000 tonnes a year...

The White House is considering a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, the Telegraph reported on ​Sunday. U.S. officials have drawn up a proposal to bypass the U.K. ‌and make their own deal to take control of Diego Garcia, the report said. The plan is among several options being drafted by the White House, in a paper aimed at providing alternatives ​to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ceding sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago ​to Mauritius, the report said. "President Trump has been consistent in his position ⁠that the United Kingdom should not give away the British Indian...

The Great Nicobar Island is part of an archipelago that lies deep in the Indian Ocean. It's governed by India but is so distant that it takes a flight from the mainland and a 30-hour ferry ride to arrive. The upcoming Great Nicobar Project is set to transform this sleepy island into a bustling township over the next three decades. Once complete, the island will have a civilian and military airport, a transshipment port that caters to container ships, a power plant and a new town equipped to host a million tourists a year... In a press release in May,...

France taking a leading role in applying Ukraine War pressure on Russia with another seizure of an oil tanker. The tanker "Tagor" taken in the Atlantic Ocean last Sunday more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the coast of Brittany. France and other European countries have seized 'shadow fleet' merchant vessels... In what could be called 'economic warfare' French authorities fining Chinese low-cost clothing maker Shein 22 million euros (25.342 million dollars). The fine linked to difficulty for buyers to return clothing and questions over materials used by Shein to make clothing... France's national counterterrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) probing Israeli...

Canada is calling on the United States and Mexico to renew the free trade agreement between the countries for another 16 years just as U.S. President Donald Trump revives talk of making Canada the 51st state. Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's minister for U.S. trade, sent a letter Tuesday to United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexico's Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard conveying Canada's recommendation. "The Agreement is highly beneficial to each of our countries and to the integrated North American economy," LeBlanc wrote. The letter comes ahead of the scheduled July review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the...

The political committee of Democratic Senator Chris Murphy — himself well versed in the "Resistance" talking points against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — is dedicated to resisting President Donald Trump and has funded a prominent left-wing nonprofit that has been at the center of highly organized, “mass mobilization” anti-ICE protests around the country. Murphy’s newly rebranded Political Action Committee, American Mobilization, donated $100,000 last year to Indivisible, a progressive movement and organization formed in the wake of Trump’s first election in 2016 and dedicated to resisting the Trump agenda, Federal Election Commission records for the PAC show. Indivisible says...

At the request of two domestic uranium producers, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has launched an investigation into whether “the present quantity and circumstances” of uranium imports threatens national security. However, the US nuclear energy industry has warned that a suggested quota on imports would have a significant financial impact on the country’s reactor operators........ In their petition, Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels noted that US uranium production met just 5% of domestic reactor requirements last year. This year, domestic producers are projected to fulfil about 2% of US reactor demand...... “In 2016, the combined uranium imports from three geopolitically...

At an amusement park in China, a humanoid robot demonstrating martial arts accidentally struck a kindergarten boy in the abdomen. According to Yonhap News on June 5, a martial arts performance featuring a humanoid robot was recently held at an amusement park in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. In China, events where various moves are programmed into humanoid robots and showcased have recently been gaining popularity. During the performance, as a large crowd gathered, a kindergarten boy leaned in close to the robot and was struck in the abdomen by the robot's foot while it was executing...

While we’re all focused on the Middle East, I would like to momentarily shift your attention to a remarkable political revolution that’s taking place across the Third World. As it turns out, these seismic changes are resulting in decisive positive implications for both Israel and for the United States. Today, a worldwide conservative political wave is underway. This movement seeks free markets, democratic rights - and new international alliances in support of Israel. Of course, if you read the Western press, it appears the world is firmly against Israel and the United States. However, if you look closely, you’l see...

Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved on Wednesday. No specific reason for their firing has been given. The commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of a Navy ship repair facility in Yokosuka, Japan, have been fired, service officials announced on Wednesday. Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved of their duties on Wednesday as commanding officer, executive officer, and command master chief, respectively, a Navy news release says. They were all assigned to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility...