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The atrocious assassination of Charlie Kirk last September has ignited numerous conspiracy theories, some of which involve the nation of Israel. Even though Charlie was publicly very pro-Israel for years, especially in light of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, rumors that the TPUSA founder was beginning to waver on his support for the Jewish nation have led some to speculate that Israel might have been involved in his murder.

So where did Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA really fall on the issue of Israel?

On a recent episode of “Rufo and Lomez,” co-host Jonathan Keeperman sat down with executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show” and TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, who addressed this question.

“This issue [of Israel] was probably the most difficult for Charlie to navigate in life,” says Kolvet.

He explains that for Charlie, there was one “bright line” when it came to Israel: “Jew-hate has no place in the conservative movement,” and “the scapegoating of an entire people group” is an “ancient evil” that cannot be tolerated.

However, that doesn’t mean that he was ever part of the hard-line, activist “pro-Israel” crowd who demand unconditional, unquestioning support for every Israeli policy. That’s why Charlie was sometimes “accused of being an anti-Semite,” Kolvet explains.

He notes that the “driving force” of the Trump-era conservative movement — which Charlie heavily shaped — has always been “non-interventionalism.”

“Charlie was certainly a driver of that and certainly a proponent of that. He wanted the government to focus more on domestic issues, but he also wasn’t willing to go to that point and blame, you know, a small nation in the Middle East for all the world’s ills,” Kolvet tells Keeperman.

This balanced stance became harder to maintain after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. Many on the right who already held non-interventionist views saw the war in Gaza as validation of their skepticism toward Israel.

“This is an instance of where our preconceived bias, confirmation bias was played into by geopolitical events,” Kolvet says.

The intense fighting reinforced the idea that U.S. ties to Israel drag America into foreign conflicts, creating a “perceived reality” that has grown since October 7 and put pressure on Charlie’s middle position. “It’s a tricky issue,” Kolvet acknowledges, “but we have to be able to say a couple things very, very clearly, I think, on our side if we’re going to keep the coalition together.”

“One, we are America first. Our interests are more important than Israel’s interests. If you are an American, that has got to be a bright line in the sand,” he adds, acknowledging that there are legitimate questions about Israel spying on the U.S., the recurring “$4 billion” in annual U.S. aid to Israel, and the sharing of intelligence and technology with the Israeli military.

“I think those are all valid questions, because we have to be about our own business first and foremost. We have to be about our own priorities first and foremost,” he adds.

However, if American interests “align with Israel,” Kolvet sees that as a positive.

“I certainly don’t think we should be asking that same question when it comes to Hamas, for example, right? … There’s no moral equivalency between the two,” he says. “But we also have to just be really up front that we have domestic issues that we need to get done and we need to accomplish or we’re going to lose this country and the West will fall if America does not get this right.”

He laments the reality that the conservative base’s division over Israel has “poured into the story of Charlie.”

Ultimately, TPUSA stands for two basic principles, says Kolvet: “Reject Jew-hate,” but “be about our own business first” and then address “geopolitics and foreign policy.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​Chris rufo, Jonathan keeperman, Andrew kolvet, Tpusa, America first agenda, Israel, Charlie kirk, Rufo & lomez, Blazetv show 

America’s AI debate is a hot mess. Policymakers, technologists, investors, and activists cannot agree on the destination, the strategy, the acceptable costs, or even what “winning” the artificial intelligence race means.

That confusion shuts ordinary Americans out of a debate that will shape their jobs, businesses, institutions, and way of life. Yet an America-first AI regime cannot be designed only by Washington policymakers, Silicon Valley moguls, or a priesthood of engineers. It must serve the people who build businesses, sign paychecks, raise families, and sustain the country.

America’s technological order should be built around productive citizens rather than a handful of companies pursuing a woo-woo race to turn the planet into a cyber-utopia.

My Independence Day forecast looks more accurate now than it did when I wrote it: No single political authority controls America’s technological future, and no shared moral authority guides it. We still have the Declaration, the Constitution, federalism, and one another. Almost everything else remains unsettled.

The Kimi shock

Since July 4, factional warfare among the AI elite has intensified after the release of Kimi, a Chinese open-source model that reportedly outperformed leading American closed-source systems on important benchmarks.

Kimi did not emerge from an isolated Chinese laboratory. Its engineers trained it by distilling capabilities from American proprietary models — the very systems OpenAI, Anthropic, and their allies argue must remain closed to preserve America’s lead.

The result presents a serious problem. America has poured immense financial, scientific, and political capital into closed frontier labs. If Chinese developers can cheaply reproduce much of their practical value, Washington faces a nightmarish choice: either cede global AI leadership and control to Beijing or allow the pursuit of AI dominance to transform our form of government into something we may not recognize as “American.”

America’s historic model combines private innovation, free markets, and strategic federal investment. That model has supported both prosperity and national power. But if massive collaboration between government and closed-source hyperscalers cannot sustain an AI edge, Americans deserve a debate about what comes next — not a panic-driven transfer of more power and money to the same institutions.

How can America face the future if its greatest strategic advantage has become a liability? Without public agreement on what should replace the old model — or even what kind of country a “refounded” United States should be — what can we do next?

RELATED: The question of the AI age: How much humanism is too much?

Moor Studio/iStock/Getty Images

Three rival factions

Right now, among the AI elite, three factions have emerged in response to this problem.

The first faction argues that Kimi changes less than it appears. Chinese engineers did not surpass American frontier models across the board; they optimized around the most expensive benchmarks and competed where open systems could win. Closed labs can adjust, Washington can revise its strategy, and American dominance can survive.

That may be partly right. Frontier labs still possess enormous resources, talent, and political support. They will not disappear simply because open models become more useful.

The second faction believes such economic and political concerns will soon become obsolete. Its members expect recursively self-improving artificial superintelligence to transform or absorb human civilization. Their task, as they see it, is to accelerate the transition and ensure that it occurs under acceptable management. If done right, we would enter a new age that would be pleasurable beyond comprehension.

The test of an America-first AI policy is whether advanced technology strengthens the constitutional nation and the people who give it life.

The left-coded version appears in Effective Altruism. The right-coded version insists that America, not China, must command the coming superintelligence. Both treat maximum acceleration as a moral imperative. From that perspective, open-source AI is dangerous because it disperses capability, slows the drive toward a single frontier breakthrough, and weakens the control of the institutions leading the race.

The third faction rejects the bargain behind closed-source supremacy. Its argument is that hyperscalers are frightening Americans into financing their rise as private governors of technological progress. The companies gain ungodly wealth and authority; Washington gains the hope of planetary AI dominance; citizens inherit the cost and the risk.

Kimi strengthens that argument because it competed by optimizing for what businesses actually need: efficient computing, useful workflows, enterprise deployment, and practical web applications. Open models can undercut closed systems precisely where American economic life is strongest — decentralized experimentation by workers, entrepreneurs, and firms.

This faction therefore urges America to embrace and encourage domestic open-source AI. The point is not that every model must be public or that frontier capabilities require no safeguards. It is that America’s technological order should be built around productive citizens rather than a handful of companies pursuing a woo-woo race to turn the planet into a cyber-utopia.

RELATED: America needs an artificial intelligence coalition, not an AI fortress

Burcu Demir/iStock/Getty Images

The real America-first path

Of the three positions, the third offers the clearest route to America-first AI because it begins with the right political subject: the American people. Technology should enlarge their capacity to create, compete, govern themselves, and live well. They should not be treated as raw material for a government-corporate project aimed at controlling the future.

The first faction is also correct that closed frontier labs will remain part of the system. Some Americans genuinely want to invest heavily in the most powerful possible models. The federal government also believes its military, financial, and geopolitical position may depend on sovereign access to frontier AI.

That belief creates the greatest danger.

Washington may conclude that preserving its global dominance requires technological control beyond civilian resistance. If officials decide they must choose between the survival of the federal regime and the survival of America’s constitutional order, “national security” will become the justification for hoarding data, compute, models, and authority on a scale the country has never seen.

China would then win without beating America at the frontier. By flooding the world with useful, inexpensive, business-friendly open models, Beijing could tempt Washington into becoming more centralized, secretive, and coercive — less recognizably American.

America should refuse that trap. It should protect genuinely dangerous capabilities, preserve a competitive frontier sector, and make room for open models that empower American businesses and citizens. The test of an America-first AI policy is not whether it produces the most powerful machine at any cost. The test is whether advanced technology strengthens the constitutional nation and the people who give it life.

If our AI strategy requires America to stop being America, China has already won.

​Artificial intelligence, Artificial superintelligence, Federal government, New age, National security, America first, Generative ai, China, Effective altruism, Open-source ai, Opinion & analysis, Tech 

Recess should be fun — unless a bully threatens to take your lunch money in exchange for “protection.”

When I became a teacher, I encountered the adult version of that schoolyard racket: the teachers’ union.

For educators tired of national union bullying, the answer is increasingly clear: Go local.

This is neither imaginary nor unusual. Teachers across the country face pressure from two dominant organizations, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Educators hand over hundreds of dollars in dues every year, only to watch the national unions spend their money on political causes and ideological campaigns that often have little to do with helping teachers in their classrooms.

Sometimes, the unions wander far beyond education altogether.

What happens when a teacher pushes back?

Kelley LaBedz, a client of the Center for Independent Employees, learned that questioning the union can invite retaliation. One California teacher wrote an entire book about the intimidation she faced from national teachers’ unions.

During my own teaching career, I endured several tense conversations with a union representative because I had not completed a membership form.

The message was obvious: Compliance was expected.

Why, then, do so many teachers remain members of the NEA and AFT?

Several reasons. The answer is not simple.

For more than half a century, teachers’ unions have taken credit for protecting health insurance, pensions, and other benefits. They offer liability coverage and representation in disputes with administrators. Many educators fear that their material security will disappear without union membership.

Many also do not know that alternatives exist.

The Supreme Court opened one escape route in 2018. In Janus v. AFSCME, the court held that compelling public employees to subsidize union speech raises serious First Amendment concerns.

Public school teachers may now opt out of paying dues or fees to the NEA and AFT. Thousands have done so.

At the Center for Independent Employees, however, we are pursuing another path: replacing national union affiliates with independent local unions.

Independent locals can serve teachers without sending money and authority to national organizations. They can negotiate pay, benefits, and working conditions while reflecting the values and priorities of the communities they represent.

They also give teachers the security they need without forcing them to support the NEA’s or AFT’s broader political agenda.

This model directly challenges the national unions’ fear-based strategy.

By going local, educators can eliminate layers of bureaucracy, reduce overhead, and keep dues close to home. They can also weaken the enormous political influence national unions wield in state capitals and Washington.

Independent locals often foster a more cooperative relationship with administrators and school boards. National organizations thrive on permanent conflict. Local associations have stronger incentives to solve problems inside the district.

The movement is growing.

RELATED: America’s classrooms are feeding the red wave — socialist red

Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu/Getty Images

In Kansas, teachers in 30 school districts have broken from the NEA through independent local unions. Educators in California, Ohio, and other states are exploring the same approach.

The NEA and AFT have shown little interest in changing course.

Their leaders continue accumulating political power even as teacher frustration rises and academic performance declines. They dismiss parents’ concerns while confidence in public education falls to all-time lows.

Organizations created to represent teachers have become increasingly detached from them.

The national unions are more consumed with ideology, institutional power, and political influence than with the day-to-day needs of educators. By claiming to speak for every teacher, they also damage the reputation of millions who do not share their agenda.

Teachers do not have to accept this arrangement.

They should not be forced to choose between professional representation and financial support for causes they oppose. They should not have to surrender local control to distant union executives. And they should not have to tolerate intimidation for asking where their dues go.

For educators tired of national union bullying, the answer is increasingly clear: Go local.

Teachers in Kansas and across the country are standing up for themselves, one district at a time.

​Teachers unions, Public schools, School lunch programs, Nea, Supreme court, Opinion & analysis 

I like to stay fit, which means I spend a fair share of my life dodging supplement ads that follow me across the internet like demented pigeons. Open YouTube and a square-jawed influencer explains why his morning requires 17 capsules, three powders, and something harvested from a mountain reachable only by yak.

Every week brings a new miracle molecule. Last week it sold longevity. This week, telepathy. Next week, immortality.

This is the tragic comedy of wellness culture. We obsess over optimization while ignoring the obvious.

Then there is the cult of optimization, embodied by Bryan Johnson, the man who turned his own body into the priciest science project in operation. Johnson’s regimen reportedly involves constant blood testing, endless biometric tracking, and enough pills to stock a pharmacy. He once had a liter of his teenage son’s plasma pumped into his veins and shipped his own down to his 70-year-old father. The biomarkers showed nothing, so he stopped.

Yet even Johnson recently revealed that he has autoimmune gastritis, a chronic disease in which, as he put it, “my stomach is eating itself.” After years of measuring almost everything measurable, biology still found a way to surprise him

Ordinary people may not have the means to go to the extremes Johnson does, but they have absorbed the same basic message: that health is something you buy rather than something you build.

Pill-pilled

You see it at any gym. A middle-aged accountant arrives with a supplement stack heavier than his dumbbells. A retiree keeps a cupboard that resembles a chemistry bench. Someone winded by a single staircase swallows enough capsules each morning to rattle when he walks.

Our ancestors built civilizations and survived brutal winters without starting each day on a fistful of tablets. Plenty of them died young, taken by infection or a tooth gone septic. But many of the chronic diseases now filling supplement advertisements were far less common than they are today. Their greatest threats came from outside the body. Ours are increasingly self-inflicted.

But some supplements still earn their place. A recent review of the evidence offers a useful reminder that health runs far simpler than the industry selling it wants us to believe.

The point isn’t that supplements never work. It’s that they work best when they correct an actual deficiency.

The review focuses on older adults, the group most likely to develop genuine nutritional shortfalls. Appetite fades with age. Medications interfere with absorption. Bad teeth turn eating into a chore, and illness complicates the rest.

In those cases, targeted supplementation helps.

B is for boring

Vitamin B12 is the clearest example. Deficiency becomes more common with age and can lead to fatigue, nerve damage, and even anemia. Vitamin D matters for people who rarely see the sun or face a higher risk of fractures. Folate has its uses. Calcium and magnesium help when the diet falls short. Omega-3 supplementation may also benefit some people, particularly those who consume little oily fish.

Notice the pattern. The supplements that earn their keep are the incredibly boring ones.

Nobody films a breathless video about correcting a documented B12 deficiency. No fjord-gazing influencer hawks a luxury magnesium subscription against a slow-motion sunrise. Common sense doesn’t trend.

RELATED: My new hack for a long, healthy life? Getting married

Universal/Getty Images

Meat is medicine

The most striking finding in the review involves protein.

For all the noise about exotic compounds and futuristic blends, many older adults simply don’t eat enough of it. That gap accelerates muscle loss and costs them their independence. A chicken breast and a good steak may do more for healthy aging than an entire shelf of capsules.

This is the tragic comedy of wellness culture. We obsess over optimization while ignoring the obvious.

Supplements promise something modern people desperately want: the feeling that health can be outsourced to a purchase rather than earned through habit.

No mystery

The body isn’t nearly as mysterious as the wellness industry pretends. Sleep still does the heavy lifting. Resistance training still preserves muscle. A sensible diet still outperforms most supplement stacks. Protein still matters more than almost anyone admits.

These points are rather dull. They flatline on a podcast and resist packaging into a $90 tub. Nobody gets rich selling a balanced breakfast. No influencer films a viral hit called “The Shocking Secret of Eating Enough Protein.”

The supplement market thrives because basics bore us and shortcuts seduce us. People would rather believe longevity hides inside a capsule pulled from a rare plant than accept that the answer involves lifting heavy things, eating enough protein, and getting to bed at a sensible hour.

So the market keeps ballooning on the promise that health can be bought instead of built.

Dig in

Sometimes a supplement is the right call. A confirmed deficiency deserves treatment. Certain medical conditions demand it. But the evidence keeps arriving at a conclusion that borders on anticlimactic.

For most people without a documented deficiency, more pills don’t buy better health.

The foundations stay stubbornly old-fashioned, which is exactly why nobody can sell them back to you at a markup.

After years of being told health demands endless powders and concoctions, the answer turns out to be almost insultingly plain.

The miracle formula was never in the bottle. It was on the dinner plate all along, quietly waiting while the wellness industry invented another miracle.

​Nutrition, Vitamins, Supplements, Wellness, Lifestyle, Sleep, Common sense, Make america healthy again 

Few surveillance products have ever been named more appropriately than Flock. A flock of sheep has no rights. It exists to be watched, counted, and managed by whoever owns the field. That increasingly resembles how government treats Americans as officials cover streets and neighborhoods with cameras under the familiar but false promise of public safety.

Flock’s automated license-plate readers are not ordinary security cameras. They record every passing vehicle, capturing plate numbers, makes, colors, damage, bumper stickers, and other identifiers. Those records enter a private cloud that participating local and federal agencies can search across a network of more than 116,000 devices.

Swapping freedom for security rarely delivers either. A government that refuses to control criminals should not receive limitless power to track everyone else.

The system can reveal patterns of life: who visits a church, clinic, protest, political meeting, or friend’s home. It can do so without individualized suspicion and often without a warrant.

Tracking plates means tracking people across time and space. These cameras do not sit only along highways. They appear in residential neighborhoods and on local streets. InvestigateTV demonstrated how Flock’s Condor cameras can move and follow an individual within view.

When asked whether he envisioned “a future with a Flock camera on every street corner,” Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said yes. He described an America where crime no longer exists.

The sales pitch is always safety. The practical result is a searchable record of ordinary people’s movements.

Local media in Windsor, Connecticut, reported that a resident’s public records request revealed more than 500,000 third-party searches of camera data in nine weeks. Officials may insist that systems like Flock exist only to recover stolen vehicles or locate dangerous suspects. A database this valuable will inevitably attract more agencies, more vendors, and more uses.

Government surveillance programs always begin with sympathetic cases: stolen cars, missing children, wandering dementia patients, and violent fugitives. Those benefits are real. They do not answer the central question. Should every citizen become continuously searchable because the technology sometimes helps police solve a crime?

After the COVID era, Americans have no excuse for assuming that every agency will use sweeping powers narrowly. Officials used emergency authorities, corporate data, and private platforms in ways the public was repeatedly assured would never happen. A permanent vehicle-tracking network deserves more skepticism, not less.

Flock’s defenders also evade the real cause of persistent crime. Police rarely lack the ability to identify repeat juvenile carjackers and other violent offenders. The deeper failure lies in prosecutors, judges, legislators, and “criminal justice reform” policies that return dangerous offenders to the street.

The Baltimore region illustrates the contradiction. Flock cameras dot the area, yet juvenile carjackings remain rampant because offenders often face little meaningful punishment. Cameras may help identify the same criminal again. They cannot supply the deterrence that prosecutors and courts refuse to impose.

RELATED: America’s newest jail has no walls

Blaze Media Illustration

We already know how to reduce violent crime: incapacitate repeat offenders and impose sentences severe enough to deter others. Government instead weakens punishment, tolerates disorder, and then asks the public to surrender more privacy to manage the consequences.

Resistance to automated plate readers is growing across liberal and conservative communities. Residents have vandalized or dismantled cameras, while local officials have voted to ban or remove them. In conservative counties, however, sheriffs often become the greatest obstacle to reform because state and federal grants subsidize the equipment and stretch cash-starved departmental budgets.

Programs such as the Homeland Security Grant Program, State Homeland Security Program, Urban Areas Security Initiative, Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, and COPS Office Technology and Equipment Program can finance systems that local departments could not otherwise afford. Counterterrorism and infrastructure protection become convenient justifications for constructing a domestic surveillance network.

The incentives are understandable. Sheriffs cannot control soft prosecutors, lenient judges, or lawmakers who empty jails. They can control front-end policing, and grants let them expand their technological reach. But frustration with failed criminal-justice policy does not justify treating every driver as a suspect.

RELATED: We’re winning the fight against Flock — but the surveillance isn’t going away that easily

Cindy Schultz/Washington Post/Getty Images

Nor should Americans assume that every officer with access will behave honorably. More than 20 documented cases of police misuse have surfaced since 2023. Officers have reportedly used the system to stalk romantic partners and rivals. One Idaho officer searched his wife’s movements more than 700 times, labeling the queries “test” to avoid suspicion.

That abuse is not an aberration from the system’s purpose. It is the predictable result of giving thousands of people effortless access to intimate location data with weak oversight.

Flock presents Americans with a false choice between crime and constant surveillance. We can enforce the law, incapacitate violent offenders, and protect communities without allowing government to reconstruct every citizen’s daily movements.

The answer to failed policing is better policing. The answer to lenient prosecution is accountability. The answer to repeat offenders is punishment. None requires a camera on every corner or a permanent cloud archive of where every American has been.

Swapping freedom for security rarely delivers either. A government that refuses to control criminals should not receive limitless power to track everyone else.

​Crime prevention, Federal agencies, Flock cameras, Government control, Government surveillance, Public safety, Law enforcement, Covid, Surveillance state, Opinion & analysis 

Maryland police say a teenager shot and killed a 15-year-old girl and her younger brother in their home days after he possibly celebrated the Fourth of July with the family.

Police have been investigating the lethal shooting that happened July 7 at the family’s home on Talles Road in Randallstown.

‘This is obviously an unspeakable tragedy.’

On Wednesday morning, police arrested Keith James Jr. at his West Baltimore home. He was charged with two murder counts and a gun charge, according to Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough.

Police believe James had some kind of relationship with Giovanna Myrie, the older victim, but did not say whether it was romantic in nature.

Charging documents indicate that Myrie sought help because James had threatened to kill her if she “messed around” with other males.

Police say James shot and killed Myrie, who was found in her bedroom, and her 9-year-old brother Steve Allen, who was found in a hallway.

Their mother found their bodies at about 7:20 a.m. and contacted police.

“This is obviously an unspeakable tragedy. Our hearts and sympathies are with the victims and their families,” defense attorney Brian Thompson said.

Investigators used witness accounts, surveillance video, and cellphone records to place James in the area of the shooting. They believe he used mass transit to get from his home to the victims’ home.

“He was on camera in several ways throughout the community,” McCullough said. “He had been in the area prior to the crime, and of course, he was in the area after the crime.”

Police say a friend of Myrie’s indicated that she saw James holding a handgun while on a FaceTime call with the girl at the home.

RELATED: Elderly couple hired 17-year-old to do odd jobs at their home — before he robbed and brutally murdered them, cops say

The suspect’s attorney requested that he be placed into a juvenile facility, but that was rejected by the judge. He is being held without bond.

“I would ask everyone to reserve judgment, afford my client his constitutional right to the presumption of innocence, and reserve judgment until the actual evidence is presented in a courtroom,” Thompson added.

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​Teen murder, Maryland, Surveillance, Gun violence, Crime 

The latest economic data suggests that the United States may finally be moving in the right direction.

Inflation is slowing. Production is expanding. Unemployment claims remain subdued. After years of punishing price increases, Americans may be entering the long process of rebuilding the purchasing power they lost during the Biden administration.

Repair will take time. But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.

That recovery will not happen quickly. Prices will not simply return to 2019 levels. But a more disciplined federal government, lighter regulation, and stronger private-sector production can gradually ease the affordability crisis.

June brought the largest monthly decline in headline consumer prices in six years. Overall prices fell 0.4%, led by a sharp drop in oil and gasoline prices.

That marked the largest monthly decrease since 2019 and moved inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Truflation’s private consumer price index recently placed inflation at 2.04%, almost exactly at the Fed’s stated goal.

The ideal inflation rate should be zero, and prices should sometimes fall as productivity improves. Still, the slowdown represents real progress.

Gasoline prices contributed heavily to the decline, falling 10% as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz increased oil supplies. The Wall Street Journal reported that the cooling extended broadly across the economy.

The response to lower oil prices should remind policymakers how essential fossil fuels remain to modern life. Energy prices shape transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and nearly every consumer good.

Interest rates also offer some encouraging signs.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes remains near 4.5%, slightly below its recent peak, economist Robert Genetski noted in his weekly report. Gold prices have also trended downward, suggesting greater confidence in the dollar.

Most important, the productive economy continues to expand.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reached 53.3% in June. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion, though growth slowed slightly from May.

RELATED: The housing bill from hell targets red America

Carlofranco/Getty Images

The services index registered 54%, marking the sector’s 24th consecutive month of expansion.

As production grew, unemployment data also beat expectations. Initial and continuing jobless claims both declined by thousands.

Taken together, the numbers point toward genuine economic improvement. Inflation and interest rates are moving closer to pre-pandemic norms. The economy is also benefiting from President Trump’s renewed regulatory relief and the tax cuts enacted through last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Much more work remains.

The federal policy reversal began only about 18 months ago and has faced resistance in Congress and the courts. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s promised monetary reforms have yet to take effect.

Housing remains the most serious obstacle.

June retail sales were mediocre, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New-home construction also remains badly depressed. Genetski noted that the July homebuilders’ confidence index came in at an anemic 34, far below the break-even level of 50.

Warsh has nevertheless said the right things about monetary discipline.

He has repudiated the artificially low interest-rate policies the Fed pursued after the 2008 financial crisis and has acknowledged the central bank’s responsibility for inflation.

“Inflation’s a choice,” Warsh told the House Financial Services Committee last week. Monetary policymakers, he said, must choose lower inflation instead of shifting blame elsewhere.

The Fed made disastrous choices during the Biden administration.

Consumer prices rose 21.17% from January 2021 through January 2025. The median price of a new home increased even faster, climbing 28.9%.

Those prices will not fall back to their pre-pandemic levels. The spending explosions of 2021 and 2022 permanently reduced the dollar’s purchasing power.

Affordability will therefore improve through a slower process. Wages and investment income must rise while businesses produce more goods and services. Government must stop suppressing that production through excessive spending, taxation, regulation, and monetary manipulation.

One encouraging sign is that after-tax, inflation-adjusted personal income per capita has begun rising again after collapsing during the Biden years.

Further tax and spending reforms would accelerate that recovery.

Millennials and Generation Z have suffered badly during the affordability crisis. They entered adulthood facing soaring housing costs, expensive credit, stagnant purchasing power, and a federal government that made nearly every basic milestone harder to reach.

RELATED: ‘Need a cop? Thank socialism’ is dumb — but dangerously effective

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Those conditions help explain young Americans’ growing attraction to socialism and even communism.

When people believe capitalism offers no path toward home ownership, family formation, or financial security, radical alternatives begin to look appealing. That does not make those alternatives sound. It shows how economic failure can erode political judgment.

A sustained recovery could reverse that trend.

Lower inflation, rising real income, greater housing production, and stronger private investment would reduce the despair that fuels radical politics. Economic reform could create a virtuous cycle in which greater prosperity lowers social tension and weakens support for destructive ideologies.

The federal government still spends far too much. Welfare programs remain riddled with fraud. Social Security faces a severe funding crisis within the next several years.

Yet policy has begun moving, however slowly, toward reducing the enormous burden federal spending and regulation place on American workers, entrepreneurs, and producers.

A favorable resolution to the Iran conflict would strengthen the economy further by lowering geopolitical risk and stabilizing energy markets.

The greatest danger now is impatience. The federal government, the central bank, businesses, workers, and investors are trying to turn the country away from an inefficient, government-dominated economy and back toward free-enterprise capitalism.

That repair will take time.

But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.

​Federal government, Housing prices, Inflation, Capitalism, Market inflation, Federal reserve, Kevin warsh, Monetary policy, Opinion & analysis 

Ben & Jerry’s may have built its brand on ice cream, but these days, you wouldn’t even know the company sells ice cream by looking at its social media feeds.

The Vermont-based company is releasing videos attacking ICE, criticizing immigration enforcement, and championing progressive causes — as if customers asked for a dousing of political lectures with their ice cream. And the messaging has become so incessant that even the parent company is pushing back on the brand’s aggressive activism.

“Now, a lot of companies have dialed back, but not the biggest culprit: Ben & Jerry’s. Ben & Jerry’s actually has been not just not dialing it down, but ramping it up lately,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, before playing a video the company posted attacking ICE.

– YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

“Let’s break the ice,” the video begins. “Congress just voted to spend 70 billion of our tax dollars to fully fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 with no oversight, no accountability, and no restrictions. At the same time, ICE continues to detain people at a staggering rate, holding at least 60,000 people in inhumane detention centers with plans to deport them to countries most of them have never stepped foot in before.”

“People from all walks of life — grandparents, kids, pregnant women — are being taken from their neighborhoods, locked up in awful conditions, and denied basic care. Almost 50 people have died since January 2025, and the administration has blocked members of Congress from visiting these facilities multiple times, despite Congress’ legal right to do so,” it continued.

“Our tax dollars are supporting this abuse of power. People are being stripped of their rights and denied their dignity. Federal agents hide behind masks and closed doors. We need eyes on ICE detention centers now.”

“First of all, I’m going to need you to show your work,” Gonzales scoffs. “Second of all, nobody follows Ben & Jerry’s for that.”

The company also used its Twitter account to “simp for the illegal who tried running ICE agents down with his car.”

“I could go on and on,” Gonzales says, adding that the company also has posted ads celebrating transgenders in women’s sports and has been encouraging No Kings protests.

“Apparently they even created a new flavor to imply that President Trump is an authoritarian,” she continues.

“Just sell the ice cream,” she adds.

And Gonzales might just get what she wants, as the company’s political activism may be coming to a screeching halt.

“Ben & Jerry’s is actually owned by Magnum. And years ago when the company was sold, Ben and Jerry put in a board to ensure that they could keep pushing their woke messaging, but Magnum is like, ‘Nah, no thanks. Pass,’” Gonzales explains, playing a video Ben of Ben & Jerry’s put out complaining about receiving pushback from the parent company for the messaging.

“Maybe instead of focusing on Donald Trump being a made-up king, it sounds like you guys have some kings in your midst,” she adds.

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​Ben & jerry’s, Donald trump, Illegal immigration, No kings protests, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk ripped into a media figure who was trying to characterize him as supporting “far right” political and media figures.

Musk was being challenged by Economist editor in chief Zanny Minton Beddoes when he took over the interview to lob accusations of unfair bias at members of the mainstream media.

‘I would just like to admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!’

“You support not just the populist right but the far right, in fact very fringe parties in some countries,” Beddoes said.

“No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely,” Musk replied.

“You think is the normal person?” she asked.

“Yes!” he responded.

“Literally you could go back 10 or 15 years, and these policies were completely normal. In fact, one of the tricks I think is quite funny is to take a speech from [former President Barack] Obama and Hillary [Clinton] and then go to someone who’s … on the sort of what I call the lunatic left and say, ‘What do you think of this speech by [President Donald] Trump?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh wow, he’s the worst person ever!'” he opined.

“Actually, that was a speech by Obama, or actually that was a speech by Hillary. Literally!” he added.

Beddoes appeared exasperated with the response.

“No, I agree that the center of gravity in this country has shifted. Certainly the Democratic Party has shifted to the left, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” she said.

“Not fringe right, please. It’s actually just normal people. … And here are the principles, and tell me which of these sound terrible: that we should have secure borders, that we should have safe cities, that we should have sensible spending. Which of those three are far-right fringe?” he responded.

“And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!” Musk added.

“Please keep this part in!” he joked.

“We’ll keep all of this in,” she replied.

“Don’t cut this part!” he laughed.

Video of the exchange was posted to social media by a United Kingdom Parliament member who had been called right-wing by Beddoes.

RELATED: Elon Musk wants ‘historically accurate’ ‘Odyssey’ movie — and may put his money where his mouth is

Elsewhere in the interview, Musk predicted that artificial intelligence may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years.

“There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” he said.

He said the most likely outcome is an age of “amazing abundance” when anyone can have “anything they can think of.”

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​Elon musk, Mainstream media, Artificial intelligence, Media bias, Politics 

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said there are a lot of people who are interested in what he and his colleagues have to say.

Kimmel boasted off the back of his best month of ratings ever, directly after his pal Stephen Colbert left the CBS airwaves.

‘It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show.’

Couch surfing

Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from host David Letterman, eventually nose-diving into a $40 million annual loss for his network before leaving in May.

When asked if Colbert’s viewership had made its way over to his show, Kimmel told Variety, “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”

It was later in the same interview that Kimmel explained he had a plan to get Colbert back behind the desk on his own network, ABC/Disney, and host for at least some period of time on his show.

For his summer break, which just started, Kimmel revealed he had asked Colbert if he would do him the honor of guest hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

However, Colbert reportedly declined on the grounds that it was too soon.

“Of course, I asked him, and I think it feels premature,” Kimmel told the outlet. “But I told him, ‘Anytime you want to host, it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer, I’ll gladly step aside.'”

RELATED: EMMY-BARRASSMENT: TV king Taylor Sheridan snubbed, while canceled Colbert cleans up

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Host with the most

The allegation that Colbert fans changed the dial over to ABC in June comes after Kimmel averaged 3.15 million viewers, his best monthly audience ever in the show’s 23 years.

Kimmel jabbed at CBS, thanking them “for their wisdom,” while adding, “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”

The viewership marks a 17% increase from May with a doubling of viewers in the 18-49 market.

The 58-year-old Kimmel took the chance to dump on the podcast market during the recent interview, saying his numbers blow them away.

“It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show,” Kimmel bragged.

“There’s still a lot of people watching late-night television, and I include the other shows in that,” he said. “And there are still a lot of people looking at our shows on YouTube the next day, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in what we have to say. They may … not necessarily be watching it on their TV, but it seems like a little bit of people are coming back to their old friend television.”

RELATED: Tan-splaining Colbert celebrates ‘scandal-free’ Obama at new presidential center opening

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images

Summer slots

Kimmel’s summer break is set to feature a revolving door of some of Hollywood’s most memorable cogs like Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, and Rosie O’Donnell.

Other hosts include actor Colman Domingo and musician Jelly Roll.

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​Television, Jimmy kimmel, Stephen colbert, Cbs, Abc, Entertainment 

Yes — a meat cleaver.

The tool typically used to chop animal bones and cut through thick pieces of meat was used as a weapon during a road rage attack in northeast Queens early Thursday morning, leaving a 47-year-old man with multiple wounds, the New York Post reported.

No arrests have been made at this time.

The violent confrontation unfolded around 5:35 a.m. near the intersection of 126th Street and 26th Avenue in the waterfront neighborhood of College Point after an apparent vehicle collision and argument.

According to police, the suspect was armed with a meat cleaver and stabbed the victim in the head, chest, and arm before fleeing the scene.

Emergency responders rushed the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

The victim had been driving a white Toyota Sienna minivan at the time of the attack.

Investigators recovered the meat cleaver allegedly used in the assault; it’s seen on the street as police taped off the area in the WABC-TV video below.

RELATED: Thug shoves elderly woman off NYC subway platform, onto tracks in reportedly random attack

The suspect is described as an Asian man wearing a white shirt and jeans. Police have not released any information about the vehicle he was driving.

No arrests have been made as the search for the suspect continues.

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​Assault, Police, Road rage, Meat cleaver, Queens, Suspect at large, Crime 

Democrat Bob Brooks is running for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District as the common man’s champion. The numbers tell a different story.

Since becoming Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association president in a 2021 special election, Brooks’ total compensation increased by roughly 10%, while funding for first responders’ representational activity fell by 18%. Department of Labor filings reveal that general overhead expenses increased by 38% during Brooks’ presidency, funded by a 14% hike in membership dues.

‘Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab.’

Representational activities, including collective bargaining and workplace dispute resolution, are a union’s core functions. General overhead includes salaries and administrative costs.

The PPFFA did not respond to a request for comment.

Brooks was paid $45,199 in the partial fiscal year ending August 2022, according to DOL filings. That climbed to $57,917 in 2023, $61,709 in 2024, and $63,715 by August 2025. Brooks retained his nearly $77,000 salary as a firefighter for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, through early 2025.

Brooks is running against one-term incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who unseated Democrat Susie Wild to secure his seat.

“Bob fought fires in Bethlehem for 20 years to keep his community safe, and as president of his union, he has delivered higher wages and better health care for his members. His salary was set by his membership, and he had no role in that vote,” a Brooks campaign spokesperson told Blaze News. “His opponent, Ryan Mackenzie, opposes collective bargaining and doesn’t understand the challenges working people face because he’s never worked a job outside of politics in his entire life.”

Most of the increase in Brooks’ total compensation came from allowances and disbursements, not salary increases. The Brooks campaign did not dispute the union’s Department of Labor filings.

RELATED: New Jersey’s noncitizen voter blame game doesn’t add up — literally

Joe Lamberti/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Union members’ monthly dues rose by 14% during that same period. In August 2022, members were expected to pay $14.30 a month. This rose to $14.94 in August 2023, rose again to $15.86 in 2024, and finally hit $16.26 in August 2025.

The PPFFA is a mid-sized statewide union representing over 6,000 members.

The dues weren’t put toward expanded collective bargaining activity or worker representation. Spending on collective bargaining and workplace advocacy under Brooks dropped 18%, from $110,174 in the fiscal year ending in August 2022 to $90,196 in 2025.

General overhead rose 38% over the same period, climbing from $81,722 to $112,397.

“Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab. While Bob sells himself as a champion for workers, he illegally skipped out on providing workers’ compensation coverage for his own employees and raided the pockets of the union workers he was supposed to represent,” Mackenzie campaign spokesperson Andrew Weller told Blaze News. “Bob’s campaign is just his latest con job — this time targeting the people of the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos.”

Brooks courted controversy in April when he referred to volunteer firefighters as “two hatter s**tbags” and “scabs,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. A two hatter is a unionized firefighter who volunteers in his off-duty time.

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​Department of labor, Ryan mackenzie, Pennsylvania, Politics 

A New Hampshire teacher who had been named an Amazon “teacher of the year” was charged with raping a child who was 14 years old at the time.

Tymond Tran, 38, of Hudson was arraigned on Wednesday for various charges related to the heinous allegations, according to the Essex District Attorney’s Office.

The school said he passed all background checks when he was hired for the position.

Tran was an eighth-grade teacher at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Lynn during the 2022-2023 school year when he allegedly raped the student.

He worked there from 2021 until 2024.

The student’s allegations led to Tran being indicted by a grand jury on July 15 on charges that included aggravated rape of a child, posing or exhibiting a child in the nude, and providing obscene matter to a minor.

Tran had been honored by Amazon for promoting “diversity and inclusion” and named a “Future Engineer Teacher of the Year” in 2022. Only 10 teachers were selected for the award related to computer science and robotics.

The school received $25,000 for the award, and Tran received $5,000.

His most recent employment was at Lowell Community Charter Public School, but the school fired him after learning about the charges.

“Mr. Tran’s employment with the school was immediately terminated last month after the DA’s Office informed us of the details of the criminal charges,” a statement from the school reads.

The school said he passed all background checks when he was hired for the position.

RELATED: Finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year withdraws after perverse photos unearthed

Tran pleaded not guilty and was released to home confinement with a GPS monitor. He’s also restricted from contacting his accuser or having any contact with someone under 18 years old.

The suspect is due back in court on Aug. 26.

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​Diversity equity inclusion, Teacher arrested, Child sex crimes, Rape, Politics 

An outrageous sports column in USA Today implies that a white WNBA player has put gay black women at risk of lynching by asking for foul calls when she has been assaulted on the court.

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s plight has become a racial battle in the culture wars, as some have accused her of white privilege for demanding attention when fouled by opponents who are often black.

‘Nancy Armour should be out in a straight jacket and locked up. We can’t have these types of smooth brains roaming freely in society.’

Nancy Armour ratcheted up the tension by typing up a screed linking the basketball fouls to the horrific racist lynching of black 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.

“It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of ‘defending’ white women,” she wrote.

“The irony of the WNBA’s All-Star Game is that it’s happening this weekend in Chicago, the hometown of Emmett Till, who became an icon of the civil rights movement after his tragic murder,” she added.

“While it’s incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the broader implications of her actions,” she continued.

Armour further emphasized the point by noting that “the WNBA is made up predominantly of Black women, many of them queer.” Clark’s heterosexuality has previously been a topic of conversation.

The bizarre opinion piece led to bewilderment and outrage online.

“Congrats to USA Today’s Nancy Armour! She has written the dumbest paragraph not only of my lifetime but in the history of sports,” Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports responded.

“Nancy Armour should be out in a straight jacket and locked up. We can’t have these types of smooth brains roaming freely in society,” he added.

The outrage led to a statement from Armour and a rewrite of the piece. She admitted only to an “inartful” comparison that needed more context.

“However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league,” she wrote. “Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously.”

RELATED: USA Today obliterated online over bizarre claim about transgender athletes

Armour also locked up her account on the X platform.

The same writer was mocked and ridiculed in June when she wrote another opinion piece claiming there was no physical advantage of biological males over females in sports. She protected her X account after that public clamor as well.

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​Wnba, Racism, Caitlin clark, Politics 

A Muslim Democrat running for Washington’s 9th Congressional District has admitted to obscuring her support for LGBTQ+ to appease her Muslim supporters.

Melissa Chaudhry, 34, is facing the ire of the LGBTQ+ mob over the comments, which she made in an interview with the Stranger.

‘LGBTQ+ rights are not optional. They are foundational to any candidate seeking Democratic support.’

She was asked why LGBTQ+ rights were not mentioned on her campaign website despite her claiming to support the issue.

“Because a lot of Muslims do not feel that way, unfortunately,” she responded.

Among the LGBTQ+ activist groups excoriating Chaudhry was Washington Stonewall Democrats Chair Andrew Ashiofu.

“Our community is not expendable. LGBTQ+ rights are not optional. They are foundational to any candidate seeking Democratic support,” wrote Ashiofu.

His group followed up with its own scathing statement.

“She avoids talking about LGBTQIA+ issues so as not to offend her Muslim supporters,” the group said. “What a privileged statement to make, creating misinformation to cause chaos between two oppressed demographics. One would think she would apologise and move on. Again, thinking rationally is not something all candidates possess, as proven by Melissa.”

Chaudhry responded to Ashiofu in a lengthy statement on social media.

“If you are queer, and you are wondering if you and your rights are safe with me, I assure you from the bottom of my heart, you are, you have always been, and you always will be,” she wrote.

RELATED: LGBTQ groups FURIOUS at CA county ending Pride Month display at library — over a bookmark

“I have supported full equality for LGBTQ+ people my entire life, not since this campaign started, my entire life,” she added.

Her campaign appeared to add LGBTQ+ issues to her website after the outrage ensued.

In a post on YouTube, she accused the Washington Stonewall Democrats of being bigoted against her because she wears the hijab.

Chaudhry also caused consternation among Democrats after indicating that she planned to switch to the Green Party once she got into office.

“I don’t want you to publish this,” she said during the explicitly on-the-record interview with the Stranger.

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​Islam, Washington, Democratic party, Politics, Lgbt 

While the meteoric rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has conservatives around the country concerned, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck sees a light at the end of the tunnel — as what’s happening now is a repetition of what has happened in the past.

And as Mamdani gets more radical, the end of the road for his movement gets closer.

Mamdani demonstrated this recently when, in direct defiance of the federal government, he called on the Trump administration to rejoin the International Criminal Court to enforce a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting New York City in the coming months.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said. “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”

“While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon. And we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people,” he added.

“The federal government just this week came out and said, ‘We’re out of the ICC. It is nothing but a sham of a court, and we’re not going to play this game anymore,’” Glenn comments.

“So, he is setting up, see, the big bad bogeyman, orange man bad, is letting this criminal, this war criminal, just walk the streets of New York,” he continues.

“He’s pouring gasoline all over the streets of New York, and he’s flicking matches, and it will catch fire in September. And it will be his fault,” Glenn adds.

Glenn predicts that those who supported Mamdani and helped him get into office “already have had plans to have uprisings in the streets this fall when Benjamin Netanyahu gets there.”

While Glenn is disturbed by Mamdani’s incendiary comments, he does note that this is simply history repeating itself.

“Now, we’ve never seen all of these things at the same time, but it rhymes so closely. We’ve been here before. Let me give you this example. It’s June 1969. It’s the largest radical student organization in American history. It’s about the same size as the DSA is now, and they had their national convention in the Chicago Coliseum. Students for a democratic society had somewhere near 100,000 members and chapters on hundreds of campuses exactly like the DSA,” he explains.

“They had a manifesto. … It was a document that opened not with rage but with unease. Students raised in modest comfort looking at the world their parents built and finding it hollow. That is exactly the same pattern,” he says.

Like the DSA of today, these students were chanting the names of foreign dictators.

“Within a year, the largest student movement in American history essentially no longer existed. That faction that walked out called themselves the Weathermen, and they announced that they would bring the war home,” he says. “Does that sound familiar?”

“Bring the intifada here,” Glenn mimics. “Same thing.”

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​Benjamin netanyahu, Glenn beck, Intifada, New york city, Zohran mamdani, International criminal court, Donald trump, The glenn beck program 

In 1975, Newsweek — citing the supposed wisdom of scientists — warned of a “cooling world” and alluded to proposed remedies such as intentionally “melting the arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers.”

This narrative, which was pushed in large part by the media, perished only to be replaced by another: global warming. According to failed presidential candidate Al Gore and others, warmer temps not only meant more T-shirt weather but polar bear drownings, rising sea levels, doom for coral reefs, and the melting of the North Polar ice cap.

‘The scattering has a local cooling effect on the surface below.’

Thankfully, New York City is not under water, polar bears are prospering, coral reefs are more resilient than previously imagined, and the North Pole is doing just fine.

But the expert class whose prophecies appear to fall flat on a perennial basis now have a new worry. They have determined that the heat waves gripping Europe are not the result of a failure to stop emissions but of too much success.

A new study published in the American Geophysical Union’s peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters links the dramatic increase in summer temperatures over Europe, especially in the past decade, to the continent’s successful reduction of air pollution as part of initiatives aimed at tackling acid rain and “global warming.”

After four decades of increases, there was a “strong decrease” of sulfate aerosol emissions over Europe between 1980 and 2000, said the study.

The main human-caused source of sulfate aerosol emissions, which are also known as sulfur dioxide, is the sulfur content of fossil fuels released through combustion.

RELATED: ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’: Trump dunks on climate alarmists over ridiculous doomsday scenario

“The contribution of aerosols has a turning point around 1980, coinciding with a reduction of sulfate aerosol emissions over Europe resulting from the Montreal protocol,” said the new study.

The Montreal Protocol was an international agreement focusing on globally phasing out allegedly ozone-depleting substances, namely those chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, air conditioning, foam blowing, various aerosols, and other applications. The treaty, which is the only universally ratified treaty in the United Nations’ history, went into force on Jan. 1, 1989.

While coinciding with the Montreal Protocol’s ratification, sulfate aerosol emissions were chiefly driven down in Europe — by an estimated 80% over the past three decades — as the result of other international protocols adopted across the continent, setting the stage for caps on industrial sulfur dioxide emissions, low-sulfur oil standards, new vehicle regulations, and the development of numerous desulfurization plants.

The study noted that “these changes have a direct impact on temperatures” — with temperatures negatively associated with aerosol levels.

Pedro Roldan-Gomez, an author of the paper who works as an earth sciences researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, told the Telegraph, “Now that the sulphates are disappearing over Europe we can see the full impact of the carbon dioxide emissions.”

“From 1980, Europe warmed around 1C more than the average of extratropical areas of the Northern Hemisphere, and around 1.5C more than the global average,” said Roldan-Gomez. “Most of this excess warming over Europe can be linked to the reduction of particle emissions.”

A separate study published last year in the journal NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science similarly found that anthropogenic aerosol emission decline was “the dominant contribution to the excess warming in summer.”

According to a 2016 study in Nature Geoscience, these air pollution reductions in Europe have amplified arctic warming in the fall and winter.

NASA’s Goddard Earth Sciences Division Projects notes that “aerosols scatter (reflect) a portion of the Sun’s incoming light, and, dependent on type, may also absorb some. These are known as ‘direct radiative effects’ of aerosols. The scattering has a local cooling effect on the surface below, while absorption has a local warming effect on the atmosphere where the aerosols are located.”

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​Global warming, Europe, Temperature, Combustion, Climate change, Politics 

Illegal alien activist groups have been protesting against a familiar banking company that had been providing lending services to companies running federal detention centers — and the pressure appears to have worked.

De-ICE Citizens Bank, a left-wing organization dedicated to protesting against Citizens Bank, took credit for the decision.

‘None of these virtues seem to matter to the activist groups, as they have tried to define us through a narrow lens inconsistent with who we are.’

“Citizens Bank has announced it will exit its lending agreements with CoreCivic and GEO Group. This is an incredible win for everyone who refused to let a major bank finance the human suffering caused by ICE detention! Community resistance matters,” the group said Friday on social media.

However, in an exhaustive statement dated Friday, Citizens Financial Group denied that the decision had anything to do with politics.

“Citizens has been disappointed that the activists have dragged it into what is largely a political matter,” the bank said.

“Public characterizations of Citizens by activist groups, including as it relates to our commitment to immigrants and to communities, do not reflect who we are or the record we have built,” it added. “Citizens is deeply committed to serving our customers, colleagues, and communities.”

Citizens Bank claimed that the two companies’ “capital needs and financing structures” changed after making deals with the federal government. “This is a business decision based on changed commercial circumstances and does not reflect any change in our view regarding these companies’ business models or operations,” it said.

The bank also touted its work with nonprofits serving immigrant communities and accused the activists of misrepresenting the character of the institution.

“None of these virtues seem to matter to the activist groups, as they have tried to define us through a narrow lens inconsistent with who we are,” Citizens said.

RELATED: ICE traffic stops will continue after lethal shootings — but only under certain conditions

De-ICE Citizens Bank activists said they would continue to seek concessions from the bank.

“This is a huge victory, but the fight isn’t over,” the group said. “We’re calling on Citizens to publicly commit in the next 10 days to ending any and all current and future banking relationships with CoreCivic, GEO Group, and every other private prison company. This is the standard their peer banks have already met.”

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​Immigration and customs enforcement, Debanking, Politics 

Mimes, at their best, are the most honest way of representing the absurdity of man — saying everything without a word, exaggerating every gesture until the absurdity can’t be missed.

A Massachusetts mime just stripped that idea bare, literally.

One woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.

Known around Boston’s suburbs for roaming public spaces in a black-and-white mime costume, Hernan Villagran Lux, 29, of Framingham, was arrested Sunday evening by Massachusetts State Police troopers who recognized him near the Cochituate Rail Trail — a popular site for boating, hiking, fishing, and swimming — and found he had an active warrant, according to a State Police spokesperson.

The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office says Lux is facing criminal harassment charges after three female state park employees said he terrorized them for months.

Lux frequently posts videos of himself in the full getup on his Facebook and Instagram pages — suit, top hat, cane, face powdered a stark white. Other posts show him wearing only underwear in outdoor settings; his captions are in Spanish.

The attorney’s office says the three women, all employees of the Department of Conservation and Preservation, knew Lux by name and appearance, and one woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.

RELATED: ‘Little f**king c***s!’ Democrat treasurer fired after video shows him spewing obscenities at women at anti-ICE protest

According to Boston 25 News, Framingham District Court Supervisor Andrew Mange said the women described an “extensive number of contacts” involving him staring at them and smiling in a way they found “really unnerving and frankly terrifying.”

Mange also told the court that the women said the encounters had grown increasingly brazen — including one instance in which Lux allegedly “stripped down to his underwear, slathered cooking oil all over his body, and began working out right by their staff area.”

As bizarre as the case may sound, the arraignment hearing took yet another unusual turn. As the allegations were read aloud by Mange, Lux fainted on the stand and had to be treated in court.

He pleaded not guilty, and the judge ordered a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. Lux is due back in court on August 6.

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​Arrested, Brazen, Massachusetts, Mental health, Crime 

After being laid off by ESPN, Cam Newton insists he never saw the exit coming. But BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t buying it — especially considering longtime nemesis of Whitlock, Stephen A. Smith, was involved.

“A few weeks ago, Cam Newton was one of Stephen A.’s brothers and … then Cam Newton made the mistake of interviewing me, and everybody seems to be blaming me for Cam Newton losing his position at ‘First Take,’” Whitlock says before playing a clip of Newton from his own podcast.

“Did you see it coming?” Newton was asked on “4th&1.”

“I didn’t, but that’s not the topic that I want to kind of belabor on. Only thing I can look at now, I will not be going back to ‘First Take,’” he answered.

“He’s totally surprised by this? I find that a tiny bit naive, and it was kind of what I was trying to communicate to Cam. You know, I think he thought that by letting Stephen A. come on Cam’s show and make a fool with Cam that he had paid a pittance that was going to protect him,” Whitlock says.

“But, you know, Stephen A. is so funny, so inauthentic that I’m shocked that Cam fell for it and didn’t see it coming. It’s a level of naivety that, maybe it shouldn’t shock me, but it does,” he adds.

However, Dre Baldwin isn’t surprised.

“This is corporate. ESPN’s corporate. And in corporate America, when you get the pink slip, it’s not like they tell you two weeks before. They tell you the day of. They don’t have to give you a reason, and that’s that. So, I actually can understand Cam having not seen it coming,” he explains.

“When they fire you, they fire you. I mean, did they tell you ahead of time they were going to fire you?” he asks Whitlock.

“No, but I could see it,” Whitlock says.

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​Cam newton, Espn, Jason whitlock, Stephen a smith, First take, Fearless with jason whitlock