Goldman Finds Consumer Trends Remain Solid Amid K-Shaped Economy Fears

Goldman analysts Scott Feiler and Eric Mihelc updated clients this week with the latest read on consumer health.

The key takeaway: spending trends remain resilient heading into spring, even as the K-shaped economy narrative dominates the news cycle and the Trump administration continues to push affordability measures.

"It seems like consumer trends are still solid. It's not a clean sweep, but we're seeing January growth as strong, or stronger than December for most companies we have heard from," Feiler said.

There was good news earlier this morning: University of Michigan consumer sentiment rose unexpectedly to a six-month high, driven largely by higher-income households benefiting from stock market gains. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a reading of 55, but the index came in at 57.3. The report also suggests that tariff-linked inflation fears have eased among Democratic-leaning respondents (read the report).

Back to Feiler's note, where the key takeaway is that consumption trends remain solid:

I wanted to briefly highlight the conversations we are having, inbounds we are getting from investors and stocks in focus on the back of these themes.

1. Health of the Consumer. Fine, Right?: It seems like consumer trends are still solid. It's not a clean sweep, but we're seeing January growth as strong, or stronger than December for most companies we have heard from.  Last night, COST beat January sales and saw a 50 bps acceleration vs December. BOOT guided last night and spoke to broad-based acceleration in January comp. CMG spoke to momentum in January. Importantly, Visa provided a table showing acceleration in January trends vs the last 3 months.  There are also expectations for very strong revenues later this morning from TPR, RL & EL.

Bottom-line, any challenges with the market are not a result of any change to consumption trends, which are generally strong.

2. Under The Hood: At this point, it's not a growth scare. Momentum trades & pockets of TMT are clearly the setter of price each day. Our generally US High Beta Momentum basket was -10% yesterday, its worst day since 2020 and 2nd worst day in the last 20 years. It's barely a blip on the long-term chart. The difference between this episode and others is most seem to be struggling to pinpoint the exact reason for why (i.e. positioning, technicals, capex surprises, commodities, software worries spreading, etc). It's not a consumer growth scare though.

3. Are Consumer Momentum Names Impacted?  The Consumer Momentum (high vs low) pair was "only" down -3.7% yesterday, so certainly an impact this week, but not as bad as at the TMT or market level.

4. Which Consumer Stocks Have Been Impacted to the Downside From the Momentum Factor?: The names that did come up in conversations as fitting this theme and seeing some relative weakness were CVNA, SN, ONON, AS, W, CELH, MNST & ROST (albeit small).

5. How are Consumer Investors Feeling?: Consumer Discretionary & Staples have both been substantial outperformers the last week and YTD (+600 bps), with the majority of that spread the last few days. Do investors seem happy about this? Feedback is not that positive, which is supported by outPB data. Why? A few of the pain points have been grocer outperformance, the move higher in WMT (shares short at 8 year highs), general staples strength, some underperformance in off-price and the choppiness in the cruise line pair trades.

6. GARP in Consumer? Expecting pushback here (given a debate about what's a "reasonable price"). There has been a clear move the last few days into GARP in the market. We can debate whether some of these valuations actually fit the theme but some of the names it has impacted the last few trading sessions are WMT, SBUX in consumer, while Pete Callahan (TMT) highlighted AAPL, DIS, MA, ADI in other sectors. Any good GARP ideas? Happy to discuss as that's where the search is for, based on feedback with all the other GS sector specialists.

7. Pressure Point Themes: Grocery outperformance, total staples outperformance vs most discretionary and cyclical pockets, momentum underperformance (of course), the lag (last week) in off-price and outperformance of Vegas-centric casinos.

8. Some Consumer Names in Focus:

• WMT to all-time highs TGT rally (covering or real buying?)

• SN weakness (just the momentum unwind? we think yes)

• SBUX small bounce back part of the hunt for GARP (many would disagree the valuation fits GARP)

• AS (part of the momentum factor, or something else?)

• CPRI (one of the most 2-way debated names and active trading stocks on our desk)

9. From PB – 1st Time Since Covid: Yesterday's moves severely impacted all equity strategies simultaneously, with more than two thirds of funds in each index down (GS PB data). The last time all three strategies were down more than 75 bps in a single day happened during the COVID sell-off.  Systematic L/S was down 76 bps yesterday, the worst day since 2nd October 2025 (still +2.5% YTD). Fundamental L/S down 84 bps (still +2.3% YTD).  Within this, TMT focused managers were down 278 bps on the day. Multi-Strats equity portfolios were down 190 bps, the worst day since 9th April 2025 (still +3.9% YTD).

10. This Table From Our Baskets Team Yesterday is Awesome, With Consumer a Standout:

Separate from Feiler's note, which presents no immediate alarm about the consumer, are the AI disruption risk and the software sell-off, which have dominated headlines this week.

Here's the latest from our market desk:

• What's Priced In? Goldman Says Tech Wreck Leaves Software 'Cheapest Since 2010'

• Goldman Calls The Bottom For The Historic Software Rout: Here's Why

• "Room For Relief": JPMorgan Traders See 'Rebound Possible' After Historic De-Grossing

Let's not forget that last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised consumers "substantial refunds" and bigger paychecks this spring as President Donald Trump's economic agenda begins to deliver results.

The looming threat for the consumer is still the K-shaped economy...

Professional subscribers can learn more about the consumer space on our new Marketdesk.ai portal​​​​.

Tyler Durden Sat, 02/07/2026 - 11:05

US Retains Right To 'Militarily Secure' Chagos Air Base, Trump Says

Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times,

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 5  he retained the right to “militarily secure” the U.S.–UK Diego Garcia air base in the Chagos Islands, if future arrangements threatened American access.

Trump has criticized the UK’s decision to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it an “act of total weakness” last month. Under the agreement, signed in October 2025, the Diego Garcia military base would remain under UK control for at least 99 years, ensuring continued access for U.S. forces.

Trump said in a Feb. 5 post on Truth Social that he held “productive discussions” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the issue.

“I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make,” he said. “However, if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart, or anyone threatens or endangers U.S. operations and forces at our base, I retain the right to militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia.”

The base is regarded by the United States as a critical hub for operations across the Middle East, East Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.

Trump cited its strategic location and “great importance” to the U.S. national security.

“We have the most powerful Military in the World. Our Military Operations, over the course of the last year, were successful because of the strength of our warfighters, modern capability of our equipment and, very importantly, the strategic location of our Military Bases for staging, and other reasons,” he said. “Let it be known that I will never allow our presence on a Base as important as this to ever be undermined or threatened by fake claims or environmental nonsense.”

A Downing Street spokesperson said in a Feb. 5 statement that Starmer and Trump “agreed on the importance of the deal to secure the joint UK-U.S. base on Diego Garcia, which remains vital to shared security interests.”

“The UK and US will continue to work closely on the implementation of the deal, they agreed,” the spokesperson added.

An undated photograph shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia. U.S. Navy via AP

Starmer said in January that the issue had been raised repeatedly with the White House and maintained that the Trump administration had already reviewed and supported the agreement at an agency level.

Legislation to implement the Chagos treaty is currently in the final stages of British parliamentary scrutiny, known as “ping pong,” as amendments are exchanged between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The deal, which includes 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) to be paid by the UK to Mauritius over the term of the agreement, with an option for a 50-year extension, is opposed by a number of Conservative Party lawmakers.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch last month told lawmakers in Parliament that Starmer is “giving away” UK territory and paying 35 billion pounds ($47.5 billion) “for the privilege.”

“Donald Trump is right: Labour are betraying Britain by giving away the Chagos Islands. Keir Starmer is *paying* Mauritius £34bn to seize our sovereignty and make us a tenant in our own military base. He needs to end this self-sabotage,” Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said in a Jan. 20 post on X.

Addressing lawmakers during a debate in Parliament on Jan. 28, British Foreign Office Minister Seema Malhotra said that the treaty protected British and allied interests.

She said that the deal “guarantees full UK operational control of Diego Garcia for generations to come.”

Malhotra also said that the opposition’s cost estimates were “wildly exaggerated” and that government figures had been independently verified.

Tyler Durden Sat, 02/07/2026 - 10:30

Guac Relief: Avocado Prices Tumble Ahead Of Super Bowl

Guacamole, wings, pizza, chips, and beer dominate the typical Super Bowl menu, as the weekend becomes one of the world's highest food-consumption sporting events.

We have good news for consumers. First, as we reported earlier, PepsiCo announced it will slash prices by 15% on snack brands such as Lay's and Doritos.

The second piece of good news is on the avocado front. Prices in Mexico have plunged, down more than 19% from a year earlier as of the end of December.

Bloomberg reports a bumper Mexican harvest after heavy rainfall has driven record US imports ahead of the Super Bowl, pushing supplies higher while driving prices lower, a perfect mix for millennials in the K-shaped economy.

The US sources nearly 90% of its avocados from Mexico, mostly Hass, with current retail prices ranging from 70 cents to $1.50 each, well below Covid-era highs.

"That has never happened before," said Alvaro Luque, president and chief executive officer of Avocados from Mexico.

"Last year we had great rain, so the fruit not only was abundant, but the sizing of the fruit was very good," Luque added.

Demand has spiked from millennials and Gen Z, he said, as there is no real substitute for avocados: "If you want guacamole, there's only one option."

Tyler Durden Sat, 02/07/2026 - 09:55



 

 

This week, I speak with Bob Moser, Owner, Principal and CEO at Prime Group. We discuss his early career in real estate,  and his current holdings. Our focus is on his investments in self-storage assets and why this non-traditional real estate was so essential to his investment strategy. We also discuss how interest rates and the change in homeowner age impact commercial real estate.

Moser’s initial commercial real estate investment experiences began in mobile and RV parks. During the Great Financial Crisis, he noticed that self-storage did not suffer the same declines the rest of the commercial real estate space went through. Soon after, he liquidated his non storage investments, and went all in on self-storage.

His favorite book is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Heather & Doug Bonaparthe, a married couple who work together and wrote a book on the financial challenges couples face: “Money Together: How to find fairness in your relationship and become an unstoppable financial team.” Our discussion sits somewhere in between financial planning and couples therapy, built around real stories that try to help couples find a healthier approach to money.

 

 

 

Favorite Books

 

The post MiB: Bob Moser, Prime Group Founder and CEO  appeared first on The Big Picture.

Soros Praises Spain's Sánchez For Mass Amnesty Of 500,000 Illegals

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Alex Soros, son of billionaire George Soros, has lavished praise on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for granting legal status to up to 500,000 illegal migrants, stating that Sánchez shows “what real leadership looks like” by confronting issues with policies that are “both principled and pragmatic.”

Soros added, “We need more elected leaders like him!” This endorsement comes amid widespread backlash against Sánchez’s open-borders agenda, which critics slam as a betrayal of Spanish citizens.

In a post on X, Alex Soros highlighted Sánchez’s approach, quoting the prime minister’s own words: “They care for aging parents, work in small and large companies, and harvest the food on our tables. On weekends, they walk in our parks and play on the local amateur soccer team….”

Soros praised the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, for granting legal status to 500,000 illegal aliens, says "we need more elected leaders like him" pic.twitter.com/5wHXPTJUHL

— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) February 6, 2026

The amnesty, implemented via a royal decree bypassing parliament, targets undocumented migrants who arrived before the end of 2025 and can prove at least five months of residence in Spain. 

As The New York Times reported , the Socialist-led government describes it as essential for Spain’s economy, where migrant labor supports agriculture and tourism.

Yet, this move has ignited fury across Spain, with opponents decrying it as an incentive for further illegal entries from North Africa and Latin America. 

As we detailed in our earlier coverage, Spaniards face the prospect of integrating another half-million migrants amid rising tensions and massive resource strains.

The timing of Soros’s praise is telling, as Sánchez’s regime grapples with corruption scandals and probes into his inner circle. 

Facing a firestorm of criticism on X, where users label the amnesty “treasonous,” the far-left government has threatened to “limit and likely ban” the platform entirely.

Sánchez himself, in addition to his underlings, has indicated a desire to ban X.

?? Spain's far-left PM Pedro Sánchez claims social media has become a “toxic, unpunished universe.”

“Do we want a technology that amplifies deception? A society in which a techno-oligarch can get into the phones of millions of citizens to tell them lies?” Sánchez said.

His… pic.twitter.com/RZDkJUcLbh

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 5, 2026

BREAKING: Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez is attacking Elon Musk for the crime of sharing news of his decision to legalize 500k illegals to win elections and change the face of Europe. He’s now calling for censorship of X to silence criticism of his policies. pic.twitter.com/0toFoav1vN

— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) February 3, 2026

?? Spain’s Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz is continuing the campaign launched by far-left PM Pedro Sánchez against ?, Musk, and Trump, saying:

“I have left ?. Those who stay there are feeding the politics of hatred. We are not vassals of Elon Musk or Trump, and I… pic.twitter.com/L65kgF24as

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 6, 2026

This crackdown mirrors broader European efforts to stifle dissent, from French raids on X’s offices to EU fines under the Digital Services Act. Musk himself fired back at Sánchez, dubbing him “dirty Sanchez” in response to the censorship push.

Soros’s intervention underscores the globalist playbook: push mass migration to reshape demographics, then silence opposition through free speech restrictions. 

With Spain’s amnesty poised to exacerbate border chaos—echoing Angela Merkel’s 2015 disaster—Sánchez’s policies prioritize foreign arrivals over native Spaniards, fueling demands for accountability.

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 Sat, 02/07/2026 - 09:20

The post Oren Cass Uses Good Economics in Attacking Finance in NYT appeared first on CEPR.

Year Two Of The Largest Ever Global LNG Supply Wave Is Hitting Markets

Roughly two and a half months after Goldman's head of Global Commodities Research, Samantha Dart, laid out a timeline for what she called the "largest ever" LNG supply wave to hit global markets, she published a new client note late this week reiterating that the "supply wave is still on track."

"2025 was year one of what we see as the largest ever global LNG supply wave, lasting seven years," Dart began the note, warning that "this wave is the main driver of a lengthy bearish cycle for European natural gas (TTF) and LNG (JKM), which we expect to bottom in 2028/29."

Dart forecasts that TTF and JKM will average below $5/mmBtu by the end of the decade, around 2028-29, compared with current TTF prices of around $41/mmBtu.

Here is Dart's update on the global LNG supply wave that is in year two, hitting markets:

We see realized 2025 and forecasted 2026 LNG supply largely in line with our previous expectations, despite the recent US disruptions and recent delays to liquefaction capacity starts. Specifically, 2025 global LNG supply averaged 431 mtpa, only marginally below our 433 mtpa expectation as of end-2024, as a large beat in the US (driven by larger-than-expected ramp up at Plaquemines) was ultimately offset by smaller misses across existing LNG producers. We see some of these misses, like for Algeria and Indonesia, as likely structural, owing partly to growing domestic energy demand, and we incorporate further supply losses (-1 mtpa in total initially, but building to -3 mtpa in 2028-2030[1]) in our forward balances.

Global LNG supply has started 2026 below our previous expectations driven by export capacity start delays in the US, Canada, Congo and Australia, though by 4Q26 we expect supply to largely catch up with our earlier numbers.

On net, we still expect 2025-to-2030 global LNG supply growth (+193 mtpa, 45% of 2025 global supply) to far exceed Asia demand growth (+144 mtpa), even taking into account our estimated demand response to low gas prices (>40 mtpa from China alone). We expect this oversupply to take European gas storage to congestion, particularly in 2028/29, leaving a temporary price-driven curtailment of US LNG exports as the likely solver of the imbalance in that period, in our view. We note that all but one of the supply projects in our balances through 2029 have already reached a Final Investment Decision (FID)[2].

The largest ever LNG supply wave is underway, and the early leadership is clear: U.S. capacity is ramping fastest and setting the tone for global balances.

Exhibit 18: The LNG supply wave has started.

Exhibit 12: Supply growth is being led by the U.S.

Exhibit 17: U.S. liquefaction start ups and ramp schedules, the core driver of incremental volumes.

Exhibit 3: Global LNG supply growth remains structurally above Asia demand growth, pushing the market toward a late decade pressure point. In 2028 to 2029, the implied balancing mechanism is supply curtailment, most likely via price driven reductions in US LNG exports as storage and logistics constraints tighten.

Professional subscribers can find out more about NatGas markets on our new Marketdesk.ai portal​​​​.

Tyler Durden Sat, 02/07/2026 - 07:35

Watch: Comedy Writer Testifies Before US Congress On UK's Chilling Free Speech Crackdown

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Graham Linehan, the Irish comedy writer, testified before the US House Judiciary Committee, detailing how Britain’s authorities hounded him over online posts challenging trans ideology—exposing the chilling grip of censorship under Keir Starmer’s government.

His appearance underscores America’s growing scrutiny of Europe’s speech-stifling laws, with Linehan urging lawmakers to push back against policies that silence women and crush free expression.

The hearing, titled “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation,” examined how regulations like the EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act enable government overreach, forcing platforms to censor content globally and punishing dissenters. Chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, it highlighted arrests for online speech, including Linehan’s own ordeal, as threats spilling over to US shores.

???British police arrested a non-UK citizen arriving from the United States for his online speech

Graham Linehan is an Irish comedy writer who tweeted jokes critical of transgender ideology while in the United States.

When he flew to London, Linehan was arrested at Heathrow… pic.twitter.com/p7vi5t7AOY

— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) February 4, 2026

Linehan opened his testimony by recounting his shift from comedy to activism. “I spent 30 years writing comedy for British television. It was a career that I loved but it ended when I began noticing that women were losing their livelihoods, their social circles and even their freedom for defending rights won over 100 years ago by the suffragette movement,” he said.

He explained his views aligned with those facing backlash: “They believed as I do that single sex spaces are essential for women’s privacy, dignity and safety. They believed that children should not undergo experimental medical treatment that ravages their health and shortens their lives. They believe women have a right to fair sport.”

These stances, Linehan testified, made him a target. “For holding them I became the target of a series of harassment campaigns that cost me my career, my marriage and eventually drawn from my homeland.”

He detailed police involvement: “For a decade the British police have harassed me for expressing views that I don’t think in ten years not one person—not the police who arrested me and not the colleagues who condemned me or friends who turned away—has told any of us what we did wrong.”

Linehan stressed the ideological clash: “I want everyone to understand that gender ideology and free speech cannot coexist. You can hear the lie in the very language: trans woman meaning man, man meaning woman, health care opposite of health care. Men’s demands, ideology that tells lesbians they are bigoted for not accepting male partners is not progressive—it is homophobic.”

Bringing it stateside, he cited a US case: “Right now a man named Hobby Bingham who calls himself Princess Zoe Andromeda Love is a registered sex offender in this country. He raped a 12 year old girl, was transferred to the Washington Corrections centre where he raped a developmentally disabled female inmate. This is not happening in Britain—it’s here.”

Linehan called for action: “First, use every diplomatic lever you have to pressure the British government to implement its own Supreme Court ruling… Women just won a landmark case confirming that sex means biological sex… Please make sure to make it clear that America is watching.”

He continued, “Second, put pressure on the Irish government to reopen the conversation it never had in 2015… The Gender Recognition Act was quietly passed—no public consultation, referendum, no women’s rights organizations consulted.”

“Third, recognize free speech is not preserved simply by declining to arrest people,” Linehan urged, adding “We need new whistleblower protections for the digital age. If government will not defend dissenters from institutional retaliation and mob rule then what is the First Amendment for?”

This testimony stems from Linehan’s September 2025 arrest at Heathrow, where five armed officers detained him over three gender-critical tweets posted from the US. 

The incident spiked his blood pressure to stroke levels, landing him in hospital amid what he called a “persistent harassment campaign” by trans activists and police.

The testimony arrives amid escalating revelations about Britain’s free speech erosion. As we previously highlighted, some 10,000 arrests were made in 2024 for “grossly offensive” social media posts—30 per day—under vague communications laws, outpacing even Russia’s crackdown while real crimes like knife attacks and burglaries fester unsolved.

As we have also detailed, the Trump administration has offered asylum to UK “thought criminals,” including gender-critical activists.

Sources indicated the White House eyed protections for those prosecuted over silent protests or online dissent, influenced by Elon Musk’s highlighting of such cases.

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 Sat, 02/07/2026 - 07:00

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• What happens when we admit we don’t know? Kelly Corrigan on why humility fuels curiosity — and how to cultivate these qualities in an age of certainty. Champion curiosity, and you risk sounding like a kindergarten teacher or a journalism professor. We treat it as a trait for the young and unformed — something adults either already mastered or no longer require. After all, if experience is supposed to deliver answers, what’s left to be curious about? (Big Think)

• Bubbles as a Feature Not a Bug: Drawing parallels to electrification and the internet, Jason Thomas considers how AI is reshaping corporate priorities around data, infrastructure, and productivity, and why early investment enthusiasm often centers on perceived bottlenecks, while much of the economic value ultimately accrues downstream. (Carlyle) see also The Startup Graveyard: 1100+ Failed Startup Case Studies: Where 1,402 startups and $202.6B+ in venture capital was burned to ashes. Loot the wreckage. (Loot Drop)

• Interstellar Space Travel Will Never, Ever Happen — It’s Basically Impossible: It turns out that the ships in Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune etc. are not based on some kind of hypothetical technology that could maybe exist someday with better energy sources and materials. In every case, their tech is the equivalent of just having Dumbledore in the engine room cast a teleportation spell. Their ships skip the vast distances of space entirely, arriving at their destinations many times faster than light itself could have made the trip. (Jason Pargin)

• Federal Reserve 101: What America’s central bank does and why it matters. (Paul Krugman)

• Computers can’t surprise: As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer. (Aeon)

• How To Become a Mathematical Genius: What many people experience as a “cognitive limit” or the edges of their own intelligence is actually just a representational limit: it’s when we use a specific way of thinking, but apply it to the wrong types of problems. This makes us think we’re stupid, when actually we’re not! And what that process tells us about how to solve the world’s biggest problems. (But This Time It’s Different) but see The Fall of the Nerds: The age of humans who could think like computers is drawing to a close. (Noahpinion)

• Daydreamers and Sleepwalkers: Crossing the Borderlands of the Unconscious: Scientists, novelists, and philosophers have spent centuries studying the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness. Each descent only deepens the mystery. (MIT Press Reader)

• How to build a girl in modern America: What can sororities, #RushTok and influencer-student megastars like the Darnell sisters tell us about US girlhood? We visit the University of Alabama to find out. (The Face)

• Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard? Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis. (Quanta Magazine)

• NFL & Fox: The $1.6B Deal That Changed Everything: In 1993, Rupert Murdoch vastly overpaid for NFC media rights. But the deal turned Fox into a major American TV network and completely changed the economics of the NFL. (SatPost by Trung Phan)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview  this weekend with Bob Moser, CEO and founder of Prime Group Holdings, a private investor in unique real estate holdings. They created Prime Storage, one of the largest, privately-held self-storage brands in the world, with over 19 million rentable square feet of space and 255 locations across 28 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The firm has acquired over $10 billion in real estate assets.

 

The $117 Trillion World Economy

Source: Visual Capitalist

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

 

The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Is Narrative Warfare Driving Washington's UN Pullback?

Authored by Charles Davis via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

On a gray morning in Geneva, a human-rights advocate walks into the Palais des Nations and scans the room the way you’d scan a street corner for gang members in a hard neighborhood. Not for gangbangers, though; for “civil society.” For the suited delegates with NGO badges who film speakers a little too closely, who echo embassy talking points a little too faithfully, who make the room feel—subtly, persistently—less safe for anyone bringing evidence that embarrasses Beijing. Investigators have documented this pattern: government-linked “NGOs” using U.N. access to disrupt, intimidate, and drown out criticism.

A bird flies above a flag of the United Nations at the 'Palais des Nations' (Palace of Nations), which houses the United Nations offices in Geneva on Dec. 9, 2024. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Cancel culture is alive and well in the groups and committees of the U.N. and that scene matters because it sits beneath the most consequential line in the White House’s new withdrawal memorandum: the United States will “take immediate steps” to exit a list of international organizations and U.N.-linked bodies “as soon as possible.”

The memo is anchored to an earlier directive—Executive Order 14199—which required a review of U.S. participation and support across international bodies.

The list itself is telling. It includes scientific and governance nodes like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and also the machinery that sets development narratives and convenes states—the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and multiple U.N. Economic and Social Council regional commissions.

Critics will frame this as isolationism. Supporters will call it sovereignty. But there is another lens worth an objective look: narrative influence by adversaries—especially China—nested inside institutions that were built for cooperation, not contest.

Winning by Wearing Out

Chinese strategists continue to laud a whole-of-capabilities approach called “dissipative warfare”—a strategy of exhausting an opponent through protraction, friction, and cumulative cost rather than a single decisive blow.

You don’t need to treat that concept as doctrine to see how it can map onto global institutions. If the fight is to shape what the world believes is “responsible,” “lawful,” “sustainable,” or “legitimate,” then bodies that write standards, bless language, convene negotiations, and credential “civil society” become key influence targets. The point isn’t open control of an organization. It’s to slow, dilute, redirect, and stigmatize—until your competitor either accommodates the narrative or exits the field.

Procedural Choke Points

Start with climate and science. The IPCC’s Summaries for Policymakers are, by design, negotiated line-by-line with governments. That’s not a conspiracy; it’s written into the IPCC’s own procedures.

That model can produce robust consensus—but it also creates leverage for states skilled at procedural delay and linguistic bargaining. In a dissipation frame, the goal is not to “win” the report; it’s to grind down clarity, introduce ambiguity, and turn scientific bottom lines into endlessly contestable phrasing. In this condition, the narrative is malleable.

Similarly, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change outcomes often hinge on consensus among nearly 200 parties. The Glasgow Climate Pact’s language calling for a “phase-down” of unabated coal power illustrates how hard-fought wording becomes the battlefield itself.

China's special climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua speaks during a joint China and U.S. statement on a declaration enhancing climate action in the 2020s on day 11 of the COP26 Climate Change Conference at the SEC in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 10, 2021. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The Development Narrative Machine

Then there is the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs—on the memo’s withdrawal list—because the department doesn’t merely “do development.” It frames the development story: what counts as progress, which financing models are celebrated, what language becomes standard in global planning.

Leadership and institutional emphasis matter here. The U.N. secretary-general appointed Li Junhua of China as undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs in 2022.

U.N. development publications have treated China’s Belt and Road initiative as compatible with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development goals. That’s not proof of control. It is, however, a form of normalization—turning a contested geopolitical initiative into familiar U.N. development vocabulary. It’s a form of socializing it into acceptability.

In a dissipation strategy, this is where you make the long game feel inevitable. You bind contested geopolitics to the moral vocabulary of “sustainable development,” and you force rivals to fight uphill—arguing not only against a project, but against the institutionally blessed framing around it.

The ‘Civil Society’ Channel

Finally: access. The U.N. system grants NGOs consultative privileges on the assumption they act independently of governments. But reporting and watchdog analysis describe a growing ecosystem of state-linked “government-organized” NGOs using that access to crowd out testimony, praise Beijing, and intimidate critics—especially in Geneva’s human-rights ecosystem.

This is dissipation in human form: make participation costly, make speaking risky, and make the room feel owned—until fewer credible witnesses show up.

Yalqun Yaqup, deputy director-general of the Xinjiang region public security department (L), next to Xu Guixiang, director of the information office of China's Xinjiang region, delivers a speech during a press conference against a long-delayed U.N. report that warns of possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, on the sidelines of the 51st Human Rights Council, in Geneva on Sept. 22, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/ AFP via Getty Images Why the Memo’s List ‘Hangs Together’

Read the White House memo as a map of where narrative influence is manufactured and laundered into global “common sense.” It targets bodies that, one, negotiate language under consensus rules; two, set development and climate frames that travel into national policy; and three, credential actors who then shape discourse as “independent stakeholders.”

That does not mean every named institution is adversary-controlled. It does mean adversaries—especially China, and in some domains Russia and Iran—can apply pressure through procedure, staffing, agenda framing, and access manipulation. In that sense, withdrawal is an attempt to stop paying to stand in a room where the rules can be used to exhaust you. No one wants to sit in the dunking booth when there’s a professional pitcher holding a bucket of balls.

But here’s the hard truth: if the United States exits without a replacement strategy, the vacuum becomes its own kind of dissipation—self-inflicted. Even Reuters’ early reporting on the memo notes the scale of the pullback and the risk that others fill the gap.

If the premise is adversarial narrative warfare, then the measure of success isn’t simply to “leave.” It’s whether Washington can deny manipulation and keep shaping outcomes—by rebuilding coalitions, hardening rules for NGO access, investing in standards bodies it stays in, and treating language battles as strategic terrain rather than diplomatic housekeeping.

The memo pulls America off one battlefield, but it doesn’t end the war over perception. It simply raises a hard question: why should the United States keep paying to staff, fund, and legitimize systems whose outputs so often harden into narratives that cut against U.S. strategy? You don’t have to believe in “capture” to see misalignment. The real test now is whether Washington replaces withdrawal with an influence strategy—one that protects openness, rewards transparency, and stops underwriting language that is later used to pressure American policy and partners.

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

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 23:25

These Are The World's 12 Largest Impact Craters

A single asteroid strike can reshape a planet, and Earth’s history is marked by several cataclysmic impacts.

This map by Julie Peasley for Visual Capitalist uses data from the Earth Impact Database to showcase the 12 largest confirmed impact craters on Earth, ranging from massive basin-forming events to relatively recent collisions.

The World’s Largest Craters by Diameter

The following table ranks the top 12 confirmed impact craters based on their estimated rim-to-rim diameter:

While Vredefort in South Africa ranks first at 99 miles (160 km), it formed over 2 billion years ago and has been significantly eroded. In contrast, the second-ranked Chicxulub crater in Mexico retains a clearer structure and is famous for its role in the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that wiped out most dinosaurs.

Extinction Events and Impact Size

Interestingly, larger crater size doesn’t always mean greater devastation. As scientists have noted, factors like impact velocity, angle, and composition can be just as important. The Chicxulub impactor likely released over 100 million megatons of TNT-equivalent energy, triggering firestorms, tsunamis, and a global winter.

In contrast, older impacts like Morokweng or Sudbury were equally massive but occurred long before complex life had evolved, so they did not cause any known mass extinction events.

Lasting Geological Signatures

Some craters, such as Sudbury in Ontario, have left behind unique geological formations and mineral deposits. The Sudbury Basin remains one of the most economically important mining regions in the world, rich in nickel and copper.

Others, like the Morokweng crater in South Africa, have even preserved fragments of the original meteorite thousands of meters beneath the surface.

Why So Few Ancient Craters Remain

Despite Earth’s long history, many early craters have vanished due to erosion and tectonic activity. Earth’s oldest impact scars are gradually being lost to time—unlike the Moon or Mars, which preserve theirs far better. This is why craters like Vredefort or Beaverhead are so valuable: they offer rare glimpses into planetary-scale violence from billions of years ago.

Curious about the cosmos? Explore Every Moon in the Solar System and dive deeper into the celestial bodies orbiting our planets.

 

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 23:00

How A Bad Night's Sleep Affects The Brain's Cleaning System

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Most of us have experienced this: You stayed up a bit too late the night before, and although your body turned up to work, your mind was elsewhere.

CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock

Blanking out during the day is common for the sleep-deprived, and now researchers have found out why it happens.

When people experience attention lapses after poor sleep, a wave of cerebrospinal fluid flows out of the brain.

During sleep, cerebrospinal fluid—part of the brain’s cleaning system—flushes away waste products, but sleep deprivation forces this process to activate during waking hours.

“If you don’t sleep, the [cerebrospinal fluid] CSF waves start to intrude into wakefulness where normally you wouldn’t see them,” senior study author Laura Lewis, an associate professor at MIT, said in a press statement. “They come with an attentional tradeoff, where attention fails during the moments that you have this wave of fluid flow.”

The Body Signals Before the Brain Crashes

The study, published in October 2025 in Nature Neuroscience, included 26 volunteers.

The volunteers were tested twice—once after a night of sleep deprivation and once when well rested.

During the tests, participants wore EEG caps that measured their brain activity while inside an MRI scanner, which measured the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. They were then asked to complete attention tasks.

In the first test, they listened to a brief tone and pressed a button as quickly as possible when they heard it. In the second test, participants looked at a screen showing a cross at all times. When the cross changed into a square, they pressed a button as quickly as possible.

Both tests measured how fast the person responded to different signals—one auditory and one visual.

Unsurprisingly, participants performed worse when they were sleep-deprived, with slower response times and missed stimuli.

When sleep-deprived people blanked out, researchers observed cerebrospinal fluid flowing out of the brain, followed by its return as attention recovered. Pupil constriction occurred about 12 seconds before cerebrospinal fluid flowed out, with dilation happening after the attention lapse.

“What’s interesting is it seems like this isn’t just a phenomenon in the brain, it’s also a body-wide event. It suggests that there’s a tight coordination of these systems,” Lewis noted.

The researchers suggest a single circuit may govern both attention and bodily functions such as fluid flow, heart rate, and arousal. One likely candidate is the noradrenergic system, which helps regulate thinking and body functions through the neurotransmitter norepinephrine and naturally rises and falls during sleep.

Why the Brain’s Cleaning System Matters

During deep, non-REM sleep, cerebrospinal fluid flows through the brain in rhythmic waves, clearing out waste products like beta-amyloid and tau proteins—the same ones that accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease.

“When you’re sleep-deprived, this cleaning system doesn’t work as well,” Leah Kaylor, author of “If Sleep Were A Drug” and a clinical psychologist not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times. “In simple terms, when you cut corners on sleep, you cut corners on brain maintenance.”

The consequences can extend beyond momentary attention lapses. Chronic disruption of the glymphatic system has been called “the final common pathway” to dementia, Dr. Hamid Djalilian, a professor of otolaryngology, neurosurgery, and biomedical engineering at the University of California, who was not involved with the study, told The Epoch Times.

“When there is inadequate clearance of waste proteins in the brain, they start to form the very plaques and tangles that are the hallmarks of dementia,” he added.

However, dentist and sleep expert Dr. Stephen Carstensen noted that occasional sleep deprivation shouldn’t result in permanent damage. “[The] human brain is capable of a great deal of response without serious permanent change, this allows us to function even while sleepy,” Carstensen told The Epoch Times. However, if sleep deprivation becomes chronic, this poor response could become “the new ‘normal,’” for that person’s brain.

Consistency Is Key to Good Sleep

You don’t need perfect sleep every night, but consistency is key, Kaylor said. She recommends aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep most nights, and keeping a regular bedtime and wake time—even on weekends.

She advises limiting screen time, caffeine, and alcohol before bed, since they can interfere with deep sleep.

“Create a cool, dark, quiet sleep space—and keep work, phones, and TVs out of the bedroom,” Kaylor said.

However, if sleep problems last more than a few weeks, or you feel exhausted despite enough hours in bed, she recommends seeing a sleep specialist. “Treating insomnia, sleep apnea, or circadian rhythm issues can make a major difference in long-term health,” Kaylor emphasized.

She added that sleep is not wasted time—it’s when the brain cleans itself, resets its chemistry, and helps the body repair and recover. “Protecting sleep is one of the most powerful things you can do to preserve mental sharpness, emotional stability, and long-term brain health.”

*  *  *

Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of IQ Sleep Formula, which actually works! 

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 22:35

This Is Where Birth Rates Are Highest In The US

Birth rates in the U.S. have been declining for decades, but that decline has hit some states faster than others.

The projections in this visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, are from SmartAsset, who analyzed results from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 1-Year American Community Survey.

The number shown for each state represents births per 1,000 people, and is based on most recent fertility rate data and state demographics.

Utah’s Demographic Advantage

Utah ranks first in the nation, with an estimated 9.7 babies born per 1,000 people each year.

The state’s relatively young population plays a major role, as younger adults are more likely to be in childbearing years. Cultural and religious influences also contribute, with larger family sizes remaining more common than in many other states.

Large States, Strong Numbers

Texas and California rank near the top both in absolute and relative terms. California is projected to see more than 340,000 births per year, while Texas exceeds 278,000. On a per-capita basis, both states are driven by younger populations and higher shares of immigrants.

Where Birth Rates Lag

States in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest tend to rank lower. Maine, Vermont, and West Virginia sit near the bottom, with fewer than eight babies born per 1,000 people annually. Older populations, higher living costs, and delayed family formation all play a role.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries With the Biggest Gains in Life Expectancy on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 22:10

Florida To Make Gold & Silver Official Means Of Payment

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The Florida legislature has begun to move legislation (HB 999) to enact their prior approval for gold and silver coins to be legal tender in Florida.

This legislation will exempt gold and silver coins from sales tax in Florida. It also means that within Florida, there will be a means of payment independent of digital money created by governments for the purpose of controlling the population, it’s behavior, and it’s expressed views, in order that governments can rule via official narratives.

It is possible that if circumstances develop the tyrants in Washington will establish martial law in Florida and dispense with the use of real money in place of digital money that has no physical existence.

Unless all states adopt the legalization of gold and silver as legal tender, Floridians would be unable to make out of state payments and would have to become an economy unto itself, producing all of its own needs. This is the safest and most preferable way to exist.

Throughout history, gold and silver have been the means of payments. The Roman legions were paid in silver coins, the denarius.  Estates were  purchased for gold.

Paper money appeared originally as a receipt on gold holdings.  If their gold was a large amount, people kept their gold in the vaults of goldsmiths and wrote notes to the goldsmiths to release the payment amount of the transaction to their business associates in order to pay their bills.

Goldsmiths learned that few ever claimed physical possession of their gold, instead using written notes, in effect checks, to transfer ownership. Thus goldsmiths became the first bankers, knowing that they could lend out the gold in their vaults that few ever came for. Moreover neither did those who borrowed the gold take possession physically. They merely wrote to the Goldsmith that they had made a payment that transferred ownership. Thus some percentage of their holding was transferred to the third-party.

This was the origin of fractional reserve banking.

When I was born gold was no longer a legal means of payment in the United States. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a liberal hero,  had confiscated all the goal in the hands of the American population.

Once he had it, he raised the price from $20 an ounce to $35 an ounce. Later, it was raised to $42 an ounce and stood there until Senator Jesse Helms in the 1970s got  legislation passed permitting Americans to again own gold coins, but gold was not made an official means of payment.

Following World War II, the Breton Woods agreement gave the US dollar the world reserve currency role. This meant that US debt in the form of Treasury bonds became the reserves of the world’s central banks. Thus, the US government was able to pay its bills by issuing debt as US Treasury debt was the reserves of the world’s central banks. Initially under the Brenton Woods system foreign central banks could redeem their holdings of US treasuries for gold. However, by demanding gold in exchange for France’s holdings of US debt, President Charles de Gaulle prompted the closing of the “gold window” in the 1970s, and US debt could no longer be exchanged for gold.

When I was born, silver was a means of payment. There were one dollar, two dollar, and five dollar Treasury Certificates, not federal reserve notes, that were exchangeable for silver at the price of one dollar per ounce of silver.

In my youth silver was used for transactions less than a dollar.The 10 cent piece known as the dime was silver. The 25 cent piece, or quarter dollar, was silver. So was the 50 cent piece. The penny was copper.

US one dollar bills, whether silver certificates or not, could be exchanged for a silver dollar at a bank, but silver dollars were not used in transactions. They existed to remind us that in the 19th century cowboys were paid 30 silver dollars per month and could survive on it.

For many years as my articles have documented, the US dollar has been able to maintain its value because gold and silver short-selling was able to hold down the rise in the dollar price of  gold and silver.

Unlike equities, it is possible to short the precious metals market without holding collateral against the short. The futures market for gold and silver permits the printing of paper gold and silver in the form of futures contracts that are dumped  in the futures market where the contracts drive down the prices of the precious metals. The peculiarity of the precious metals market is that the price of gold and silver has not been determined in the physical market where it is bought and sold, but in the futures market where it can be shorted by printing claims to gold and silver.

Recently in response to  uncertainty of the value of increasing amounts of paper dollars not backed by anything, the demand for real money in the form of precious metals has overwhelmed the ability to use short-selling to hold down the prices of gold and silver.

As gold and silver prices rose, speculators joined the rise.

Speculators simply see opportunities, and when they had accumulated sufficient gain, they cashed out of the rise, resulting in a sharp fall in gold and silver prices.

However, the underlying situation that raised the dollar prices of real money has not changed, and therefore once speculative profits are removed from gold and silver prices the rise in the value of precious metals will resume.

One possible reason for President Trump’s desire for Venezuela’s oil and other assets, Greenland, and assets in Ukraine is to prop up the dollar with real things.  

As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, the power of the United States rests on the dollar’s role as world reserve currency as this permits the US to pay its bills by issuing debt. China understands the value of having the role 0f being the reserve currency and has announced that it wants this role for the Chinese currency. As China is less indebted, more industrialized, and has a higher gross domestic product than the United States, it is possible that the continuation of the rapid growth of US national debt will result in the US losing the reserve currency role to China.

For several decades, the United States has had a destructive policy of offshoring its manufacturing, thereby weakening its own economy while the US government ran up massive amounts of debt. With the dollar already questionable Washington further undermined the dollar by weaponizing it, thus making it risky for central banks to hold US dollars in the form of Treasury debt as reserves. The seizure of Russian central bank reserves in the amount of $300 billion demonstrated the risk.

With no end of American wars and spending sprees in sight, the US dollar’s role as world reserve currency could well be in jeopardy.

Once this role is lost the dollar’s value in terms of other currencies will fall, and as the United States has become an import-dependent economy, US inflation would explode, further driving down the dollar.

Policy makers should take notice of this threat.

It is a more serious threat to America than is Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, or Russia in Ukraine and the Arctic.

It is far more important for the United States to protect the value of its currency than for the United States to spend another trillion dollars, clearing Israel’s opponents from the Middle East.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 21:45

Goldman: Local Resistance Against Data Centers "Are Not Slowing Development"

Fierce winter weather across the eastern half of the U.S. put the power grid, data centers, and electricity prices back in focus, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, where Washington, D.C., logged its longest freezing streak since 1989.

Our review of Facebook, X, media coverage, and local officials' comments suggests that the cold snap across the Mid-Atlantic has put data centers and power bills in the spotlight, especially given that PJM Interconnection is already operating in a very tight grid environment.

Even as residents in Mid-Atlantic states increasingly push back against data centers while watching their monthly power bills soar, local officials, some of whom are partly responsible for tightening grid spare capacity with backfiring "green" policies, are scrambling as public anger grows.

However, Goldman analysts led by Hongcen Wei have some disappointing news for residents in the Mid-Atlantic, and frankly elsewhere, who are trying to slow data center development: "U.S. Local Regulatory Pushbacks Against Data Centers Are Not Slowing Development."

Wei, Daan Struyven, and Samantha Dart explained:

Media coverage highlights growing local community pushbacks against data center developments, posing a slow-down risk to data center power demand growth, along with US power market tightness. While local regulatory reviews could pause data center approvals temporarily, we believe resulting regulations could lead to fewer pushbacks and streamlined development processes by enhancing power reliability and affordability and establishing clear requirements. Ultimately, we believe power tightness remains the primary risk that could slow the US in the AI race with China.

We note that these pushbacks mostly originated from local communities with little exposure to data centers. In such cases, we expect proposed data centers to relocate rather than be canceled in the extreme scenario of a ban, given elevated demand for data centers and AI. This suggests no significant impact on overall future data center power demand growth at the state or national level.

• We take Georgia as an example, where we estimate the power market is not tightening and power price increases were below the national average in 2025. There was wave of moratoriums enacted by at least six counties in the past year, putting a pause on new data centers for at least a few months (for example, in Coweta and DeKalb counties). However, most of these counties have no existing data centers, only proposed projects to start in a few years, so we do not expect these moratoriums to impact data center developments in the near future. Going forward, with no clustering advantage within these counties (to stay close to another data center with established data highways), we believe even permanent bans would only result in project relocation to a more welcoming area (potentially the neighboring county) rather than cancellations

In other communities with both regulatory actions and existing data centers, regulatory reviews are often followed by continued and even accelerated growth. Rather than creating red tape, we believe updated regulations could streamline development processes by clearly defining specific requirements for data centers which are easier to follow than addressing diverse local community concerns.

• Douglas County, the only one of the six Georgian counties with existing data centers (a top-10% county in the US), activated multiple new data centers in 2H2025 and more are scheduled for later following its 90-day moratorium on data centers starting from March 2025 (Exhibit 1).

• Nationally, Loudoun County, Virginia, the world's capital of data centers, started reviewing and updating its data center regulations in 2024 and approved them in 2025, with further regulations under consideration. However, the county continues to lead in data center capacity, with additions in the past year surpassing any other US county and its own previous records

Beyond local ordinances, we also see state-level legislation increasingly focusing on power affordability and reliability, which we do not expect to slow down data center developments. Specifically, we expect more regulations in the next few years aiming to shift more power costs from the public to data centers to incentivize additional power supply and to mitigate power bill increases. These regulations could take various formats, such as the President and several governors' plan for the PJM (Mid-Atlantic) power market, or reductions in data center tax exemption (as seen in bills introduced in Arizona and Maryland). Nevertheless, we expect higher power costs to have limited impact on future data center power demand growth, as power costs are not a primary driver for data center expansion

Conversely, we believe state-level regulations that enhance power affordability and reliability could lead to a more favorable environment for accelerated data center developments, as Texas has started to demonstrate (Exhibit 2).

• In June 2025, Texas passed its Senate Bill 6 (SB6) to regulate large electricity consumers, including data centers and cryptocurrency miners. The bill could be a bellwether for other states, with its new requirements for large-load customers to ensure power reliability, including backup generation and potential curtailments during emergencies. We do not expect these requirements to be a dealbreaker for new data centers, given our estimate that the Texas (mainly ERCOT) power market will be softer than other key regional power markets, resulting in a lower probability of curtailments, a key factor for data centers when choosing their location, while backup generation is always a standard component of data centers. In fact, Texas/ERCOT ranked second only to Virginia/PJM in data center capacity and additions across US states/power markets in 2025 (Exhibit 3). Going forward, we continue to consider Texas as one of the most competitive states for new data centers, with both high power availability and low time to client.

Professional subscribers can learn more about the data centers and power grids on our new Marketdesk.ai portal​​​​.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 21:20

Suicide Bomb Rocks Pakistan's Capital, Over 30 Dead & 169 Wounded

Via The Cradle

At least 31 people were killed and 169 others injured on Friday when a suicide bomber struck a Shia mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad during Friday prayers, Pakistani officials said, in one of the capital’s deadliest attacks in over a decade.

The blast happened in the Khadija al-Kubra Imambargah mosque in the outskirts of Islamabad, with police saying the attacker had been stopped at the mosque gate before opening fire and setting off explosives among worshipers, according to officials cited by Reuters.

EPA/Shutterstock

Footage and images from the site showed bodies and debris scattered across the mosque’s carpeted prayer hall, with the wounded lying in the compound gardens, as bystanders called for help and rushed victims to hospitals.

Islamabad deputy commissioner Irfan Memon said the death toll stood at 31, adding that 169 injured people had been brought in for treatment, some in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility yet; however, conflict monitor ACLED said the attack "bears the hallmarks of the Islamic State," while officials noted that Shia communities, a minority in Pakistan, have repeatedly been targeted in sectarian violence by extremist groups, including the Islamic State and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the bombing as "a crime against humanity," ordering full medical assistance to be provided for the wounded. 

Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said a thorough investigation is underway and that "those who are responsible must be identified and punished."

The attack unfolded as Islamabad was already under heightened security for a visiting foreign leader, with checkpoints and armed patrols deployed across the capital. 

While bombings are rare in the capital city, officials say militant violence has surged across the country in recent months.

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif accused India of sponsoring the attack without presenting evidence, a claim New Delhi did not immediately respond to and has repeatedly denied in the past.

The deadly mosque attack comes after Pakistani security forces launched large-scale operations in Balochistan – a vast, sparsely populated region in southwestern Pakistan – following a wave of coordinated gun and bomb attacks over the weekend that killed about 50 people.

A suicide blast in Shia mosque has killed more than 31 people in Islamabad, Pakistan. Jinnah made a country for Muslims but Muslims kill more Muslims than any other religion in Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/YQcVaY8bgs

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) February 6, 2026

Islamabad announced the killing of at least 145 separatist militants from the Balochistan Liberation Army, according to provincial officials. Authorities said the assaults targeted multiple districts, including Quetta and Gwadar, and included suicide bombings and gunfire at security installations.  

Pakistan’s provincial leadership accused Afghanistan and India of backing the militants – claims that New Delhi has denied – as Islamabad imposed sweeping security restrictions across the province amid a broader surge in militant violence.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 20:55

China Bans Stablecoin Issuance By Foreign And Domestic Companies

Submitted by Cointelegraph,

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, and seven Chinese regulatory agencies published a joint statement on Friday banning the unapproved issuance of Renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

The ban applies to both domestic and foreign stablecoin and tokenized RWA issuers, according to the statement, which was also signed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China’s Securities Regulatory Commission. A translation of the announcement said:

“Stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies perform some of the functions of fiat currencies in disguise during circulation and use. No unit or individual at home or abroad may issue RMB-linked stablecoins without the consent of relevant departments.”

Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at New York University (NYU) Law School and former Managing Director of CIC, China's sovereign wealth fund, told Cointelegraph that the ban extends to the onshore and offshore versions of China’s Renminbi, also called the yuan.  

“The Beijing crypto ban rule applies across all RMB-related markets, whether CNH or CNY,” he said. CNH is the offshore version of the Renminbi, designed to give the currency flexibility in foreign exchange markets, without sacrificing currency controls, Ma said.

“This is the latest step in a multi‑year project: Keep speculative crypto outside the formal financial system, while actively promoting the usage of e-CNY, the sovereign CBDC issued by China's central bank,” he said.

The announcement follows the Chinese government approving commercial banks to share interest with clients holding the country’s digital yuan, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) managed by state authorities

Chinese government briefly considered yuan-pegged stables, but focused on CBDC instead

In August 2025, reports began circulating that China’s government was considering allowing private companies to issue yuan-pegged stablecoins, a major reversal of long-standing policy. 

However, the Chinese government restricted stablecoin and digital asset issuance in September of that same year, instructing stablecoin issuers to pause or halt their stablecoin trials until further notice.

In January 2026, the PBOC approved commercial banks paying interest to digital yuan wallets in a push to make the CBDC more attractive to investors.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 20:05

Las Vegas Neighborhood Rocked By Suspected Illegal Biolab

Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

LAS VEGAS—Every morning, Raul Contreras rides his mountain bike along the quiet streets of northeast Las Vegas, passing tidy stucco homes and lawns that reflect a good quality of life.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Allan Stein/The Epoch Times, FBI, LVMPD via AP, Screenshots via The Epoch Times, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

To him, the area is a hidden gem, far from urban crime and congestion. Families thrive, kids play and go to school safely, and neighbors look out for each other.

He had no idea that one of these homes was hiding a secret that could threaten public health.

On Jan. 31, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and SWAT teams raided the house at 979 Sugar Springs Drive, a place Contreras passes every day.

Inside the garage, they discovered a suspected biological laboratory containing a freezer, several refrigerators, a centrifuge and other specialized equipment, and over 1,000 vials and gallon-sized containers of unknown red and brown liquids.

“That’s kind of scary,” Contreras, who lives about two blocks away, told The Epoch Times. “You don’t know what the hell is in that stuff.”

“Now, you know it can happen in any neighborhood—even the quietest,” he said.

The discovery has left residents feeling unsettled and unsure. Some are asking how this suspected biolab went unnoticed, possibly as long as three years, in an active crime watch community.

A crime watch community is one in which residents partner with local law enforcement to reduce crime through increased surveillance, reporting, and, in some cases, technology.

“I feel they shouldn’t have let it go on,” said Kathy, who gave only her first name, as she walked her dog near the now-empty home.

“It’s scary. It’s really easy to operate under the radar here.”

Cody Human, who owns a tree trimming service in Las Vegas, said he and his crew had planned to work at the house next door on the day of the raid.

However, when they arrived, they saw police officers and hazmat-suited personnel throughout the property.

“If I lived in this neighborhood, I would definitely be scared,” Human told The Epoch Times as he resumed work on Feb. 3.

Authorities discovered a freezer, several refrigerators, specialized lab equipment, and more than 1,000 vials and gallon-size containers of unknown red and brown liquids in the garage while searching a house on Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. FBI

“Anything like that is scary, especially for neighborhoods like this that have kids and families,” he said.

“I mean, this neighborhood is known as a family-oriented neighborhood. You’ve got churches. This is one of the better neighborhoods. It’s very clean, very quiet.”

Meanwhile, a team of local, state, and federal investigators is working to identify the materials seized from the suspected biolab and their purpose.

“We recognize that the public is seeking clarity,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Feb. 2. “What were they testing for? What possibilities are being considered?”

FBI scientists and specialized evidence teams entered the garage, where they opened the refrigerators and a freezer to inspect their contents.

Some items appeared to have been used to store biological and chemical materials, McMahill said.

The joint investigation involved multiple agencies and a “layered use of technology,” including Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department drones and a robotic dog, to assess environmental conditions at the residence to limit risk of exposure to potential pathogens.

Authorities search a house on Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. The discovery of the suspected illegal biolab left residents uneasy, with some asking how it went unnoticed in an active crime-watch community. FBI

McMahill said investigators collected more than 1,000 pieces of evidence and stored them temporarily at the Southern Nevada Health District building.

On Feb. 2, FBI agents transported the materials by aircraft to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland, according to Christopher Delzotto, special agent in charge of the investigation at the FBI’s Las Vegas office.

McMahill said the Sugar Springs Drive home is owned by David Destiny Discovery LLC, whose principal is David He, the same person connected to an illegal biolab shut down in Reedley, California, in 2023.

The Epoch Times previously reported that David He is the pseudonym used by Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese national.

The Justice Department releases a photo of Jia Bei Zhu, arrested in connection with an illegal Chinese biolab in Reedley, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2023. Department of Justice

The Justice Department releases a photo of Jia Bei Zhu, arrested in connection with an illegal Chinese biolab in Reedley, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2023. Department of Justice

Investigators at the Reedley biolab found materials possibly linked to infectious diseases, including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria, and other dangerous pathogens, McMahill said.

Police have named He as a suspect in the Las Vegas case, and said federal authorities were already holding him because of charges related to the 2023 investigation.

A second suspect, Ori Salomon, 55, a nonimmigrant foreign national, was also arrested in the Las Vegas investigation. Salomon, who also spells his surname as Solomon, manages the home on Sugar Springs Drive and a nearby house on Temple View Drive.

Police booked Salomon at the Clark County Detention Center for disposing of and releasing dangerous waste, and he was released on $3,000 bail. Salomon is also facing a federal felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

His next court appearance is scheduled for March 4.

The sheriff said the Reedley investigation raised significant concerns about what local authorities might encounter at the Sugar Springs Drive property.

“While it is unknown whether similar materials were present here at the Las Vegas residence, the possibility required us to proceed with extreme caution,” McMahill said.

On Jan. 31, the FBI also executed a search warrant at the property on Temple View Drive, where several people resided, but found no illegal biological materials inside.

When police went into the property on Sugar Springs Drive, they found three people living in different rooms they were renting. These people are not involved in the current investigation, McMahill said.

According to county documents obtained by The Epoch Times, David Destiny Discovery purchased the Sugar Springs Drive property in October 2022 from Wang Zhaoyan, who was connected to companies involved in the Reedley case.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 17:40

Cuba Ready To Negotiate With Trump, But Urges Dialing Down Of Pressure

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has offered to enter negotiations with Washington, but has made clear that this must happen "without pressure" - at a moment the Trump administration is seeking to economically strangle Cuba - even going so far as to openly tout the desire to see regime change.

"Cuba is willing to engage in dialogue with the United States," the Cuban leader announced Thursday. He made clear this can be a "dialogue on any topic... but without pressure or precondition."

via Associated Press

But his key caveat is that for dialogue to take place, it must happen "from a position of equals, with respect for our sovereignty, our independence and our self-determination" and without "interference in our internal affairs."

Díaz-Canel added that Cuba has long been subjected to "intense media campaigns of slander, hatred, and psychological warfare."

President Trump has been seeking to end oil imports to Cuba, and after the Maduro overthrow, this has become a real possibility, given that the United States can now demand that the interim government in Caracas end its oil exports to Havana. Venezuela has always been Cuba's number one supplier. 

Mexico too has recently halted oil sales to Cuba so that it can avoid coming under a White House pressure campaign.

But there's still a lifeline: "Russian oil has been supplied to Cuba on numerous occasions in recent years. We expect this practice to continue," Moscow's ambassador to Cuba, Viktor Koronelli, has explained. 

In the background, Cuban immigrants in the US dread the possibility of being sent back to Cuba, especially with its economy in a sanctions-induced tailspin:

“It’s been brutal,” said Estévez. “Imagine Dylan hugging his phone every night when he sees his dad. I wouldn’t wish this on any mother.”

As the US government heaps pressure on Cuba, cutting off access to its oil shipments, Donald Trump has framed the campaign as an effort to make the island safe for Cuban Americans.

“A lot of people that live in our country are treated very badly by Cuba,” Trump said recently. “They all voted for me, and we want them to be treated well. We’d like to be able to have them go back to a home in their country, where they haven’t seen their family, their country for many, many decades.”

Last weekend, Trump said "We’re starting to talk to Cuba" and explained his view that "It doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis. I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba would be free again."

But there's some clear regime change activity happening behind the scenes, with The Wall Street Journal reporting last week that the White House is "searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year."

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 17:20

If You're Free To Complain about Fascism, You Don't Live In A Fascist Country

Authored by Jenna McCarthy via Jenna's Side,

Many, many years ago—we’re talking decades—I got into a fight with a boy I’d been dating for (thankfully) not very long. I can’t even recall what the argument was about, but I’ll never forget his very last words to me:

“God, you’re so stupid.”

“There are plenty of insults you could fling at me that would be accurate,” I informed him by way of a breakup. “Hot-headed, demanding, defensive, defiant, opinionated, unfiltered, gets hangry if not fed every four hours—let me help you out—but make no mistake, stupid isn’t one of them.”

I think of that moment every once in a while, for instance when I hear celebrities, Facebook “friends,” or the coven of professional scolds over at The View whining about the “fascist dictator” in the White House. And not because my reaction is “God, you’re so stupid”—although it one hundred percent is—but because they’re obviously just reaching for the nastiest insult in the bag and hoping it sticks. It’s basically the “your mom is so ugly, she made an onion cry” of political attacks.

Trump is arguably bombastic. He is egomaniacal. He can be rude and misogynistic and childish. He fires off 3 A.M. Twitter tantrums like a drunk raccoon, insults world leaders to their faces, and was busted bragging about grabbing women by the… lady parts. If he were your uncle, no one would blame you for not inviting him to your wedding.

But a dictator he is not.

Let me prove it: In America, the worst thing that happens when you stream a boy band is that Spotify recommends more boy bands. Do you know what happens in North Korea? If you’re lucky, you’re sent to a labor camp. If you’re not so lucky, you could face the death penalty. That is not hyperbole.

According to a new Amnesty International report, North Koreans—including children—are being publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas or listening to music by groups like BTS. (Rich families can sometimes bribe officials to escape elimination, so apparently corruption is universal—although the price tag is often too high for many.) Thanks to Kim Jong Un’s 2020 Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture, consequences for consuming or distributing unapproved entertainment range from five to fifteen years of forced labor and a public shaming to being brutally unalived in front of an audience as a gruesome cautionary tale.

But please, Joy Behar, tell me again how you’re living under a fascist regime.

North Korean escapees describe being lined up and marched to public executions as part of their “ideological education,” designed expressly to terrorize citizens into compliance. Tens of thousands of people dragged to a field to watch someone die for enjoying an unapproved TV show. Meanwhile, over here, “ideological education” means attending a corporate DEI seminar with lukewarm coffee, sitting through a required HR video about tone in the workplace, or getting lectured by a celebrity who listened to one podcast and now identifies as a constitutional scholar.

You poor, tortured souls. Please reward yourselves with a matcha latte; your activism must be exhausting.

Here’s a little reality check: if your fascist dictator allows you to tweet “FASCIST DICTATOR!!!” in all caps directly from your couch while wearing pajama pants you bought from the TikTok shop, you are not, in fact, living under a fascist dictator. If your most humiliating public moment is the time you accidentally replied-all to an office-wide email and called your boss an insufferable twatwaffle, you are not a victim of political oppression. And if the most hazardous consequence of your entertainment consumption is Hulu finding out you’re logged into your ex’s account and booting you off the platform, you do not live in an authoritarian state. You live in America, where the biggest threats to your freedoms are TSA confiscating your tweezers or Trader Joe’s discontinuing your favorite spicy peanut salad dressing.

“This country is an authoritarian hellscape,” the liberal left loves to lament. I know, it feels cool to say. It’s dramatic. It gets likes and comments and retweets. But if your alleged authoritarian hellscape permits you to organize protests against it, pen songs decrying it, record podcasts objecting to it, and sell merch mocking it, then maybe “authoritarian hellscape” isn’t the right term. Maybe it’s more like “stable, open society with Wi-Fi and too many microphones.” (Also, if it’s so dystopian, feel free to expatriate yourself. No, really. Flights leave hourly.)

These are the same Defenders of Democracy™, I’ll remind the class, who cheered when the unvaccinated were barred from restaurants, fired from their jobs, and banished from polite society altogether. The same hall-monitor brigade that applauded mask mandates, school closures, travel bans, curfews, capacity limits, and the glorious era of “Show Me Your Papers” vaccine passports. And now they want to style themselves as freedom fighters living under an iron-fisted despot? Please. These people didn’t just tolerate tyranny—they demanded it. They celebrated it. They literally couldn’t get enough of it.

When Barack Obama was droning American citizens overseas without trial, the left went mute. When Bill Clinton endorsed the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, no celebrity declared we were living under a dictatorship. When Joe Biden tried to impose sweeping vaccine mandates through OSHA and attempted a massive student-loan bribery “forgiveness” plan via emergency powers—both slapped down as unconstitutional—the same people now screaming “authoritarian takeover!” were too busy knitting vagina beanies to notice. Funny how the outrage only kicks in when authoritarianism strolls in wearing a red hat.

So when the likes of Cher and Jim Carrey and John Legend and Bette Midler and George Clooney and Kathy Griffin and Bruce Springsteen use their public platforms to call out Trump’s fascist takeover of America, their claims collapse under their own weight. Because real authoritarianism doesn’t let you complain about authoritarianism. That’s sort of the whole point.

It would almost be funny if it weren’t so… stupid.

A dictatorship, for the record, is somewhere people cannot complain. Where they cannot consume outside media. Where the government can kill you for pressing play on the wrong USB drive. Where state power and fear control every aspect of life—not where a disliked political figure exercises lawful constitutional authority and triggers a tantrum.

And it’s not just North Korea. Zooming out even slightly reveals an entire planet of governments behaving in ways that make America’s “fascism” discourse look like a middle-school slam contest. (“Your mom’s so dumb, she studied for her Covid test!”). In China, people are disappeared for practicing the wrong religion, posting the wrong sentence, or attending the wrong protest; an entire ethnic minority has been shoved into “re-education” camps large enough to be visible from space. In Iran, teenagers are executed for chanting slogans, women are beaten for a strand of visible hair, and the government turns off the internet whenever it gets even a faint whiff of protest. In Russia, critics are jailed, poisoned, or randomly “fall out of windows.” In Afghanistan, girls are banned from school and public executions are a weekly event. These are governments that don’t merely dislike dissent—they annihilate it.

We, on the other hand, live in a country where we can march in the streets chanting “No Kings!” and not a single king will try to stop us.

Seeing the internet teeming with rants about America being one executive order away from total collapse feels like watching a Babylon Bee meme come to life. Because when people are free to say what they think, vocally dislike who they please, and watch anything they want without fear of a firing squad and somehow label that fascism, they’re not oppressed—they’re just spelling freedom wrong.

The next time a celebrity relaunches their “We are literally living under Mussolini” monologue while sipping an $8 iced coffee and documenting themselves flipping off their president, feel free to drop a reminder in the comments that there are places where people are dying because they downloaded the TV show those same celebrities binge-watched on their way to the Save Democracy Brunch.

Tyler Durden Fri, 02/06/2026 - 17:00