SpaceX IPO Update: New Filing Reveals Friends & Family Share Allocation, Anthropic AI Deal, And Water Risk

SpaceX has provided fresh details in an amended S-1 filing regarding its upcoming initial public offering, including a directed share program for employees and insiders, a major AI computing agreement with Anthropic, and new risk factors.

The company will reserve up to 5% of shares in its IPO for certain employees and friends and family of its executive officers. The company disclosed that participants on its "friends and family" list will not be subject to a lock-up restriction, allowing them to sell shares immediately upon listing.

While directed share programs are common in IPOs, the lack of lock-up for this group stands out. More than 60% of shares outstanding immediately prior to the offering remain subject to an extended lock-up period, including shares held by founder and CEO Elon Musk.

SpaceX stands as the preeminent launch provider globally, delivering unmatched reliability, cost-efficiency, and launch cadence. As of mid-2026, the company maintains a 100% success rate across dozens of Falcon launches this year and conducts the vast majority of U.S. orbital missions - carrying both commercial and government payloads, including NASA crew and cargo to the ISS as well as national security satellites. SpaceX's Falcon family commands over 80% of the U.S. launch market and the bulk of global mass-to-orbit capability thanks to proven reusability. 

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, meanwhile, suffered a significant setback last week, when its New Glenn rocket exploded during a static fire test at Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral. The incident destroyed the vehicle and caused extensive damage to the launch pad - including collapsed lightning towers and ground infrastructure - forcing months of repairs and further delaying the company's entry into heavy-lift competition.

Here's our video of the explosion at Launch Complex 36. It happened about 9 pm ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin was beginning a static fire test of its New Glenn rocket.

Watch live views: https://t.co/tm2wZQmAVD pic.twitter.com/PmbgQC6Qmq

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 29, 2026

Blue Origin now faces additional hurdles in catching up to SpaceX, particularly as it seeks NASA Artemis contracts and commercial missions for Amazon's Project Kuiper.

Major AI Computing Deal with Anthropic

The amended filing also discloses that SpaceX has an agreement to provide Anthropic PBC with artificial intelligence computing capacity consisting of approximately 325,000 Nvidia chips. The deal is valued at $1.25 billion per month and runs through May 2029. After an initial three-month period, either party can terminate with 90 days notice.

SpaceX noted in its risk factors that some compute service customers may rely on external capital to meet their payment obligations.

New Risk Factor: Water Scarcity?

SpaceX added water scarcity as a formal risk factor. Drought conditions, increased competition for water sources, and potential regulatory restrictions could raise costs or limit the company's ability to cool its data center infrastructure. This reflects growing scrutiny over the high water and power demands of AI data centers.

Bloomberg last week reported that SpaceX is now targeting a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion for the IPO vs. $2T - which Elon Musk said was "false" in response after we surfaced the claim. Either way, the IPO is more or less a major referendum on the AI-fueled bull market.

The company is targeting pricing on June 11 and a trading debut on June 12 under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 10:15

"Firing On All Cylinders, But..." US Manufacturing Surveys Send Mixed Signals In May

With US hard data taking a beating (relative to expectations) last week (red line below), analysts remain hopeful that US Manufacturing will hold up (durable goods orders were solid) with this morning's Manufacturing PMIs set to signal stability.

• The final May S&P Global US Manufacturing rose to 55.1 (down from the 55.3 flash print) but the strongest since April 2022

• ISM's Manufacturing PMI survey also signaled improvement, up from 52.7 to 54.0 (better than 53.0 expected).

"At first glance, the manufacturing sector seems to be firing on all cylinders but lift the hood and the picture is not so clear," says Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The headline PMI has hit a four-year high, with strong factory production growth for a second successive month in response to a further marked upturn in order books, but since the outbreak of war in the Middle East we have seen production and demand buoyed by stock building as companies worry over rising prices and supply difficulties.

This stockpiling was again widely evident in May and makes it hard to take an accurate reading on the underlying health of the manufacturing economy, as growth will cool once this stock build has run its course," Williamson noted.

"The incidence of supply chain delays is the highest since August 2022, with the buying of safety stocks not only adding to the supply squeeze from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz but also pushing prices higher for a wide variety of inputs.

Williamson ends on a more ominous - stagflationary - notes: warning that the resulting steep jump in producer costs sends a worrying signal that broader economy inflation has further to rise in the coming months.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 10:08

"Working Better": Saylor Teases BTC Buy After Strategy Sells For First Time Since 2022

Bitcoin is extending its recent weakness overnight (hurt by US-Iran tensions escalating again), trading back below its 100DMA after Strategy (MSTR) sold 32 bitcoin between May 26 and May 31 at an average net price of $77,135 a coin, totaling $2.5 million (disclosed in an 8-K filing on Monday).

Proceeds from the bitcoin sales are expected to be used to fund distributions on preferred stock, the firm said.

This is the first time Strategy has sold bitcoin since December 2022, when the company offloaded 704 BTC, according to onchain analyst Ai Yi.

However, the firm reportedly bought 810 BTC just two days after the sale at a lower price in a tax loss trade.

Strategy now holds a total of 843,706 BTC following the reduction - worth around $61 billion - bought at an average price of $75,699 per bitcoin for a total cost of around $63.9 billion, including fees and expenses.

In addition, for the week, Strategy raised $128.3 million through its at-the-market (ATM) common stock program and allocated a small portion of the proceeds to increase its U.S. dollar cash reserve from $871 million to $900 million.

Anticipated?

The Block.co reports that Strategy's bitcoin sale was anticipated.

Its executives previously said during its first-quarter 2026 earnings call that it may sell some of its holdings to fund dividends for STRC, Strategy's perpetual preferred stock designed to maintain a $100 par value and offer high yields to investors.

Saylor explained then that the sale would eventually help Strategy buy more bitcoin than it would sell to cover STRC's dividends.

He also noted that the firm's current position requires bitcoin to appreciate at 2.3% annually for its existing holdings to cover STRC dividend obligations indefinitely, without selling any common stock.

Today's sale announcement comes shortly after onchain data from Arkham Intelligence showed that Strategy moved roughly 411.6 BTC from its custody account on Coinbase Prime to a cold wallet address on the platform on May 28.

This prompted the odds of Strategy selling bitcoin before the end of 2026 to surge to 84%.

Strategy also noted it has purchased 2.6 times the amount of bitcoin mined in 2026 so far, describing MSTR as a "BitVac."

"Working Better"

But, as CoinTelegraph.com reports, before the 8-K filing was released (but after the actual sales), Strategy chairman Michael Saylor on Sunday signaled the Bitcoin treasury company would be announcing fresh purchases of the cryptocurrency in the coming days.

The social media post comes just days ahead of a proxy vote that depends in large part on retailer shareholders to enable semi-monthly dividend payouts on the company’s STRC perpetual preferred stock.

“Working Better” was Saylor's tweet late Sunday morning to accompany a bubble chart tracking Strategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) purchases over the past nearly six years.

“Working Better” tweet. Source: Michael Saylor

That chart, from Iceland-registered StrategyTracker.com, has been consistently posted by Saylor in the days ahead of news of a purchase by the biggest publicly traded Bitcoin holder.

To be sure, any purchases to be announced will likely reflect the company bought at or below the average cost of previous BTC purchases.

Retail investors pressed to vote on STRC dividend change

Strategy is proposing to pay semi-monthly dividends on STRC, instead of monthly. The company claims that if approved and adopted, it will lead to reduced reinvestment lag, enhanced liquidity, market efficiency and increased price stability.

Just days ahead of the June 7 proxy vote deadline, Saylor and Strategy are pressing retail shareholders to return their proxy votes. On an internal company channel, Strategy’s investor relations team posted a message to all employees concerning the company’s 2026 annual meeting and provided links to the proposals under consideration by shareholders.

Part of message to Strategy employees from internal website. Source: Company filing on Edgar

“The amendment for STRC to pay semi-monthly dividends, needs 50% of all 85M shares outstanding as of April 17, 2026, to pass, which means every single vote counts,” read a May 28 post on Strategy’s verified feed on X.com.

CEO Phong Le posted a video a day earlier thanking STRC shareholders for their trust.

“I wanted to personally walk you through the proposed amendment and what it means for you,” he said as an introduction to the minute-and-a-half video.

Retail investors have shown limited interest in casting proxy votes. A November research note from The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance revealed data that showed retail investors have consistently voted only about 29% of their owned shares during the past five proxy voting seasons. Institutional holders have voted about 77%.

A Cyclical Bottom?

Bloomberg's Andre de Silva writes that while a steep record daily capital drain in US Bitcoin ETFs exposes immediate fatigue, past precedent suggests that such severe capitulation frequently cleanses short-term positioning and signals a cyclical bottom for the digital asset.

AI infrastructure and semiconductor equities have attracted the most attention, but because Bitcoin typically retains its status as a high-beta proxy for broader risk appetite during macro expansions, this temporary diversion of capital suggests that a classic catch-up rally remains on the table.

The initial euphoria surrounding US Bitcoin ETFs has cooled, giving way to an unprecedented streak of redemptions. Investors pulled $2.96 billion from the funds over 10 consecutive trading sessions to close out May, according ETF providers. That culminated in $2.4 billion in total net outflows for the month. This sharp reversal stands in contrast to the preceding two months of healthy institutional demand, which saw combined inflows of over $3.3 billion across March and April. The late-May selling pressure spared no one, with BlackRock’s usually resilient IBIT hit by a near-record single-day redemption following a massive off-exchange block trade.

This capital flight highlights a stark divergence recently between digital and traditional risk assets.

While global stock benchmarks like the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Asia’s top indices such as the Kospi scale new heights, Bitcoin has decoupled from the broader market rally.

Even the prospects of supportive regulation have failed to arrest the slide. This includes the Senate Banking Committee recently advancing the landmark Clarity Act to establish a formal crypto market framework, an initiative that Polymarket prices with a 55% chance of being officially signed into law this year. Instead, capital is aggressively migrating toward memory chip and semiconductor companies and, as indicted by David Savage, including Asia, leaving Bitcoin looking sluggish by comparison.

Beneath the surface, this purge of the ETF channel acts as a reliable contrarian indicator.

Historically, when US Bitcoin ETF flows hit these types of extreme negative troughs, they frequently coincided with local market bottoms.

Similar washouts during early 2025 preceded sharp, multi-month recoveries once institutional selling hit exhaustion.

While crypto sentiment has dropped into ‘Fear’ territory according to the Alternative.me Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which is a multi-factor market sentiment tracker, this cleansing of overleveraged or short-term positions might be exactly what the digital asset needs to reset and build a sustainable floor.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 09:50

Key Events This Week: Jobs Report, JOLTS, ADP, ISMs And Fed Speakers

The key event for markets outside of Iran (which is once again front and center following news that Iran is halting all exchange of messages with the US in protest of Israeli crimes in Lebanon) will be Friday’s US May employment report. Economists forecast a notable moderation in payroll growth compared with the relatively strong pace seen earlier in the spring. Headline nonfarm payrolls are expected to rise by around consensus 89k, down from 115k in April, while private payrolls are forecast at roughly 89k after 123k previously. This slowing partly reflects expectations that hiring in sectors that have been particularly strong in recent months – notably transportation and warehousing, as well as retail trade – begins to cool. Unemployment is expected to remain steady at 4.3% (consensus also 4.3%). 

Ahead of Friday’s jobs report, the rest of the US labor market data flow should reinforce the Federal Reserve’s growing confidence that labor market conditions are stabilizing. Tomorrow, the April JOLTS report will shed light on the gross hiring and separation flows that underpinned last month’s solid net job gains. On Wednesday, the ADP private payrolls report is forecast to show a gain of around 118k, up from 109k previously, consistent with the strength seen in ADP’s high-frequency indicators. On Thursday, weekly initial jobless claims are expected to remain relatively low, although there is scope for a temporary uptick to around 220k, partly reflecting seasonal distortions associated with the Memorial Day holiday period. 

Beyond the labor market, the focus will also be on whether recent resilience in US economic activity is sustained. Today, the May manufacturing ISM survey is forecast to rise to around 53.0 from 52.7 in April, supported by encouraging signals from regional Fed surveys. Later in the week, Thursday’s services ISM is expected to edge higher to roughly 53.9 from 53.6. That said, the backdrop for consumer spending remains mixed. Elevated petrol prices and tariff-related increases in core goods inflation are emerging headwinds, and economists therefore expect tomorrow’s unit motor vehicle sales to remain broadly flat at around 16.0 million annualized.

Alongside the data, Federal Reserve communication will be closely watched. On Wednesday, the Fed will publish its Beige Book, offering anecdotal evidence on economic conditions across districts. Fed speak is scattered through the week but it's mostly from officials who have spoken recently so it shouldn't break new ground. 

Outside the US, Europe will see several important inflation releases. Today, the ECB publishes its consumer expectations survey, providing an update on household inflation views. Tomorrow, the Eurozone releases its flash CPI estimate for May, following national releases over recent days and today. Further inflation data are due on Thursday from Switzerland and Sweden, adding to the regional picture ahead of upcoming central bank meetings.

Central bank speakers are also in focus outside of the Fed. ECB President Lagarde is scheduled to speak on Thursday, while Bank of England Governor Bailey appears multiple times through the week, including tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. In Asia, Bank of Japan Governor Ueda is due to speak on Wednesday.

In China we've already had most of the PMIs over the weekend and this morning (see more above) but the private sector services PMI is out on Wednesday. In Japan, Friday brings labour cash earnings data. Our Chief Japan economist expects wage growth to slow to around 2.5% year on year, from 2.8% previously. Elsewhere in the region, Australia releases its Q1 GDP figures on Wednesday.

Finally, the corporate earnings calendar is also busy, with several high-profile releases. In the technology sector, results are due from Broadcom, Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike during the week, while consumer-focused names reporting include Inditex, Dollar General and Lululemon Athletica. See the day-by-day calendar at the end as usual for a fuller week ahead preview. 

Source: Earnings Whispers

Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day calendar of events

Monday June 1

• Data: US May ISM index, April construction spending, China RatingDog manufacturing PMI, Japan Q1 Ministry of Finance’s financial statements statistics of corporations, Italy May manufacturing PMI, new car registrations, budget balance, Eurozone April M3, unemployment rate, Canada May manufacturing PMI, Switzerland Q1 GDP
• Central banks: ECB’s consumer expectations survey, ECB’s Schnabel speaks, BoC’s Rogers speaks
• Earnings: Meituan, HPE

Tuesday June 2

• Data: US April JOLTS report, May total vehicle sales, UK April net consumer credit, M4, Japan May monetary base, France April budget balance, Eurozone May CPI
• Central banks: Fed's Kashkari and Hammack speak, BoE's Bailey and Greene speak
• Earnings: Palo Alto Networks, Dollar General

Wednesday June 3

• Data: US May ADP report, ISM services, April factory orders, China RatingDog services PMI, UK May official reserves changes, Italy May services PMI, Eurozone April PPI, Canada Q1 labor productivity, May services PMI, Australia Q1 GDP
• Central banks: Fed’s Beige Book, Fed’s Barr and Logan speak, ECB's Elderson and Cipollone speak, BoJ's Ueda speaks
• Earnings: Broadcom, Inditex, Crowdstrike, Medtronic 
• Other: OECD economic outlook

Thursday June 4

• Data: US initial jobless claims, UK May new car registrations, construction PMI, Eurozone April retail sales, Switzerland May CPI, Sweden May CPI
• Central banks: Fed's Daly speaks, ECB's Lagarde speaks, BoE's Bailey speaks
• Earnings: Ciena, Lululemon Athletica

Friday June 5

• Data: US May jobs report, April consumer credit, Japan April labor cash earnings, household spending, leading index, coincident index, France April current account balance, trade balance, industrial production, Italy April retail sales, Canada May labour force survey
• Central banks: BoE's Bailey and Dhingra speak, BoE’s DMP survey

Looking at just the US, Goldman writes that the key economic data release this week is the employment report on Friday. There are several speaking engagements with Fed officials this week, including events with Governor Barr and Presidents Kashkari, Hammack, Logan, Barkin, and Daly.

Monday, June 1 

• 09:45 AM S&P Global US manufacturing PMI, May final (consensus 55.3, last 55.3)
• 10:00 AM ISM manufacturing index, May (GS 53.5, consensus 53.0, last 52.7): We estimate that the ISM manufacturing index increased by 0.8pt to 53.5 in May, reflecting convergence to the level implied by regional manufacturing surveys—our manufacturing survey tracker increased by 0.2pt to 54.9 in May.
• 10:00 AM Construction spending, April (GS +0.3%, consensus +0.3%, last +0.6%)

Tuesday, June 2 

• 01:50 AM Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari (FOMC voter) speaks: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will participate in a panel discussion at the 2026 Bank of Korea International Conference. On May 29, President Kashkari—who dissented from the implicit easing bias in the April FOMC’s post-meeting statement along with Presidents Hammack and Logan—said that “it’s premature to conclude we need to be raising rates right away,” adding that “we need to keep watching the data and how the conflict in the Middle East unfolds before I want to make any adjustments.”
• 08:30 AM Cleveland Fed President Hammack (FOMC voter) speaks: Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack will speak on monetary policy in a moderated Q&A at the City Club of Cleveland. Speech text and audience Q&A are expected. On May 7, President Hammack said that “the statement we put out [at the April FOMC meeting] is that interest rates were on hold, but we have the signal in there that it’s more likely that the next move will be a move down,” adding that she thought “that was a little bit misleading given my view of where the economy is.” She also noted that in her baseline outlook, “interest rates will be on hold for quite some time.”
• 10:00 AM JOLTS job openings, April (GS 7,000k, consensus 6,857k, last 6,866k): We estimate that JOLTS job openings edged up to 7.0mn in April based on the signal from online measures of job postings from Indeed and LinkUp.
• 10:00 AM BLS releases 2025Q4 QCEW data: The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the 2025Q4 release of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). In the April release for personal income, the Bureau of Economic Analysis noted that downward revisions to compensation through the end of 2025 reflected the incorporation of wage and salary data from the 2025Q4 QCEW, suggesting that the employment numbers from the QCEW are likely to again suggest downward revisions to nonfarm payrolls in the next annual benchmarking.
• 05:00 PM Lightweight motor vehicle sales, May (GS 16.3mn, consensus 16.0mn, last 15.9mn)

Wednesday, June 3 

• 08:15 AM ADP employment change, May (GS +125k, consensus +118k, last +109k)
• 09:00 AM Fed Governor Barr speaks: Fed Governor Michael Barr will participate in a moderated discussion at the Community Developers Bankers Association 2026 Peer Forum in Washington, DC. On May 5, Governor Barr said that “the longer [the war in Iran] goes on, the greater the risk that the inflation we are seeing in these prices becomes embedded in the economy, and then we have to worry more.” He also noted that “we are in a situation right now where we really need to wait and see to understand what direction [the conflict] is going.”
• 09:45 AM S&P Global US services PMI, May final (consensus 50.9, last 50.9)
• 10:00 AM ISM services index, May (GS 54.0, consensus 53.9, last 53.6): We estimate that the ISM services index edged up to 54.0 in May. Our non-manufacturing survey tracker increased slightly in May but remained below the latest ISM services reading (+0.5pt to 52.8).
• 10:00 AM Factory orders, April (GS +5.3%, consensus +4.5%, last +1.5%)
• 02:00 PM Fed releases Beige book, June meeting period: The Fed’s Beige Book is a summary of regional economic anecdotes from the 12 Federal Reserve districts. The Beige Book for the April FOMC meeting period noted that overall economic activity increased at a slight to modest pace in eight of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts, with two Districts reporting little change and two reporting slight to modest declines. In this month’s Beige Book, we will mainly look for anecdotes related to how consumers and firms are responding to the increase in energy prices from the conflict in the Middle East.
• 04:00 PM Dallas Fed President Logan (FOMC voter) speaks: Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan will participate in a moderated conversation at the University of Texas at El Paso. Moderated Q&A is expected. On May 1, in a statement explaining her dissent from the implicit easing bias in the April FOMC’s post-meeting statement, President Logan said that she was “increasingly concerned about how long it will take inflation to return all the way to the FOMC’s 2% target.” She also noted that “the conflict in the Middle East raises the prospect of prolonged or repeated supply disruptions that could create further inflationary pressures.”

Thursday, June 4 

• 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended May 30 (GS 220k, consensus 211k, last 215k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended May 23 (consensus 1,778k, last 1,786k)
• 08:30 AM Nonfarm productivity, Q1 final (GS +0.6%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.8%): Unit labor costs, Q1 final (GS +1.7%, consensus +2.5%, last +2.3%): We estimate that nonfarm productivity growth will be revised down by 0.2pp to +0.6% quarterly annualized in the second release for 2026Q1. Since 2019Q4, labor productivity has grown at an annualized rate of 2.1%, a much stronger pace than the 1.5% average pace in the pre-pandemic cycle. We estimate that unit labor costs—compensation divided by output—will be revised down by 0.6pp to +1.7%.
• 08:30 AM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will speak in a fireside chat at the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn, Virginia. Moderated Q&A with audience is expected. On May 21, President Barkin noted that “with inflation above our 2% target for five years now, it’s worth asking whether the cumulative impact of so many waves risks loosening the anchor [for inflation expectations].” He added that he sees policy as “well positioned” to manage risks to both the labor market and inflation.
• 01:10 PM San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will speak in a conversation at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco. Moderated Q&A is expected. On May 29, President Daly said that “there is no urgency to make a [policy] adjustment,” as “policy is in a good place.” She added that “we need to know when the war ends and how oil prices behave afterwards” before considering further policy changes.

Friday, June 5 

• 08:30 AM Nonfarm payroll employment, May (GS +60k, consensus +89k, last +115k); Private payroll employment, May (GS +65k, consensus +89k, last +123k); Average hourly earnings (MoM), May (GS +0.4%, consensus +0.3%, last +0.2%); Unemployment rate, May (GS 4.3%, consensus 4.3%, last 4.3%): We estimate nonfarm payrolls increased 60k in May. On the positive side, layoffs remained low between survey weeks. On the negative side, the big data indicators of job growth we track slowed and we expect a 5k decline in government payrolls—reflecting a 10k decline in federal government payrolls that is partly offset by a 5k increase in state and local government payrolls. We estimate that the unemployment rate was unchanged on a rounded basis at 4.3% in May. On one hand, continuing claims declined further between survey weeks. But on the other hand, the May unemployment rate appears to suffer from modest positive residual seasonality (the unrounded unemployment rate has increased in each of the last three Mays by an average of 0.12pp) and the bar for rounding up to 4.4% is not high from an unrounded 4.34% in April. We estimate average hourly earnings rose 0.4% month-over-month in May, reflecting positive calendar effects.
• 12:00 PM Fed Governor Barr speaks: Fed Governor Michael Barr will speak on supervision and regulation at the Kogod School of Business in Washington, DC. Speech text and moderated Q&A with audience are expected.

Source: DB, Goldman

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 09:41

Moderna Snags $50 Million Ebola Vax Contract

Moderna is receiving up to $50 million to accelerate the development of an Ebola vaccine, as the virus continues to spread in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The funding is coming from global health organization ​CEPI, which told Reuters that it was possible to bring the vaccines to trial phase within a couple of months. 

CEPI said it would also invest up to $8.6 million for a shot developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and an initial $3.2 million for a vaccine developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. -Reuters

"Every day counts in the race against this deadly disease," said Richard Hatchett, head of CEPI, adding that the vaccines are on "a not infinitely distant horizon."

That said, Hatchett also cautioned that vaccine development can be unpredictable, plus there's a 'challenging security situation' in eastern Congo that might make trials complex - which, includes (most recently) locals setting fire to an Ebola treatment center after they were stopped from retrieving the body of a dead man. 

The crowd set fire to two tents fitted with eight beds run by a medical charity called The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), said Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean-Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province.

Mukendi said the youths had not understood the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim.

“His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear,” Mukendi said. “All bodies must be buried according to the regulations.”

So far there have been 282 confirmed cases and 42 deaths in the recent outbreak, and around 1,100 suspected cases, according to the African CDC and the World Health Organization.

Beyond the DRC, nine cases have been confirmed in Uganda, including one death.

Two weeks to stop the uncontrollable anal bleeding and 50% chance of death? 

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 09:30

IBM Soars On Resurfaced Trump Clip, Barclays Buy Rating As MoMo Rally Accelerates

IBM shares jumped as much as 15% in premarket trading after Bloomberg described a recirculated video of President Trump stating that the stock is "going to go up a lot more."

The clip, reposted by Polymarket Money on Saturday evening, appears to have fueled another leg higher in what has already been an eye-popping, multi-week rally.

In the clip, dated December 10, Trump boasted that IBM CEO Arvind Krishna had "taken the stock from a rather low price to a very nice price."

"I won't say high because I'm sure you're going to say it's going to go up a lot more," Trump added.

Trump says $IBM is “going to go up a lot more.”pic.twitter.com/KgzV0qy19j

— Polymarket Money (@PolymarketMoney) May 31, 2026

IBM logged the largest monthly gain in May since October 2002.

Another overnight catalyst was Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow, who initiated coverage of IBM with an Overweight rating and a $350 price target.

Lenschow said that IBM has built a more stable growth engine around its defensive software portfolio, adding that the bull case goes well beyond quantum computing hype.

Earlier today, UBS analyst Robert Ruple provided clients with a few reasons for the recent bounce in software stocks:

Persistent AI enthusiasm has driven one of the strongest two months of performance on record for the S&P with Tech/S5INFT up 14.3% m/m, shrugging off the US/Iran stalemate and stubborn inflation. While semiconductor stocks remain the clear leaders with SOX up 81% in 2026, a key question emerging late week is what's driving the rebound in software, which was up 9.9% w/w, which appears to be extending into Monday morning, tied to comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushing back on the "Saaspocalyse" concerns (Bloomberg).

Software flows on the desk were slightly better to buy late last week, albeit skewed towards those in the consumption bucket on limited supply but based on what the UBS prime brokerage desk has seen, most of the price action has leaned in favor of covering.

Clearly the solid beat/raise from Snowflake catalyzed the sector to an extent, but aside from a handful of disappointments, most of the results were largely inline to better than feared. That said, many of the recent software laggards have quietly outperformed of late, with presumably some level of rotational forces at play. Also, a couple of people Friday claimed there was heavy retail buying in software because social media caught on to President Trump's purchase of ServiceNow stock, which is bit odd because this was disclosed back on May 15. Additionally, part of the move in IBM on Monday is being attributed to a video of Trump praising the company's CEO (Bloomberg) and discussing the stock back in December that was recirculated via social media.

In a recent note, Citi analyst Fatima Boolani said that IBM's software and hardware remain deeply embedded "across the most critical points of the world's largest, most complex IT infrastructures."

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 09:15

Nvidia CEO Declares AI PC Reinvention A "New Beginning" On Par With Smartphone Shift

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered the keynote address on Monday at GTC Taipei 2026, outlining the next evolution of AI compute.

Huang's presentation included updates on the Vera Rubin platform, a new lineup of Windows PCs developed with Microsoft for AI workflows, the launch of an enterprise agent toolkit, and next-generation AI infrastructure systems to accelerate data-center and agentic AI adoption.

A team of Goldman analysts, led by James Schneider, attended GTC Taipei 2026 and shared the top takeaways with clients.

Schneider had three key investment takeaways:

First, Nvidia (with Microsoft) is pursuing its traditional PC TAM more aggressively, which we believe could help drive some momentum for Windows on ARM (which has been extremely slow to date) given a concerted push with software partners.

Second, Nvidia continues to push its advantage in datacenter-level performance and cost leadership as a key differentiator relative to competitors - which we think should allow it to maintain competitive dominance at all but the largest hyperscalers.

Third, Nvidia is aggressively investing to drive the adoption of agentic AI across developers and ecosystem partners, and its Vera Rubin revenue ramp remains on track.

Here's more color on those takeaways:

Vera Rubin update: Nvidia announced that it is now ramping full production of its Vera Rubin platform, with multiple rack-scale systems (NVL72 GPUs, Vera CPUs, Groq 3 LPUs, BlueField storage, Spectrum-X networking) contributing to AI factory designs. The company highlighted that Vera GPUs are purpose-built for agentic AI use cases, with up to 1.8X the performance of X86 systems and 10X agent throughput vs. Blackwell. We expect a materially steeper revenue ramp for Rubin (beginning in 3Q) relative to Blackwell given meaningful manufacturing efficiencies and greater total capacity. In addition, the company highlighted its DSX AI Factory reference platform, which helps customers optimize their AI datacenters to bring operations up faster, while optimzing power consumption and system uptime.

New lineup of Windows PCs with Microsoft targeting AI workflows: Nvidia, in collaboration with Microsoft and Mediatek, launched a new Windows-based PC platform targeting AI workflows. The RTX Spark product combines a Blackwell RTX GPU with a 20-core Grace GPU (co-designed with Mediatek) using NVLink to deliver a high-performance PC experience optimized for AI applications - which we expect to be targeted at the premium segment of the market. OEM partners will launch laptop, desktop, and workstations systems beginning this fall, with launch partners including ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, MSI, Acer and Gigabyte.

Launch of Enterprise Agent Toolkit. Nvidia announced a series of new software releases targeting agentic AI use cases in the enterprise, including NemoClaw, Nemotron 3 Ultra, OpenShell, and CUDA-X Agent Skills.

Physical AI announcements: Nvidia launched new versions of its open Cosmos (v3) frontier model targeting multi-modal reasoning, and Alpamayo (v2) which is targeted as a reference platform for self-driving cars. The company also announced its first open reference design for humanoid robots, based on its Isaac Gr00t and Jetson Thor hardware platform.

"The PC is being reinvented," Huang said. "For forty years, you launched apps. Click. Type. With RTX Spark and Microsoft Windows, you ask — and the PC does the work. RTX Spark brings everything NVIDIA has built — CUDA, RTX, our AI platform — into a single superchip. Local agents. Frontier models. Creative workflows. RTX games. All on a laptop. This is the new PC. The personal AI computer."

Jensen Huang says the AI PC reinvention is as big as the smartphone shift by calling it “a new line” and “a new beginning.”$NVDA and $MSFT unveiled RTX Spark which will be the world’s most powerful deskside AI supercomputer built to run next-gen AI agent workloads locally. https://t.co/aUTBmJ3a5G pic.twitter.com/oz21vosT5S

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) June 1, 2026

Nvidia shares rose 2.5% in premarket trading in New York after Huang's comments outlined that the company was entering the PC market with a new chip.

Arm ADRs soared 12% as traders viewed Nvidia's PC push as supportive of the Arm ecosystem. However, the announcement pressured incumbent processor stocks, with Intel sliding 6%, Qualcomm down 9.5%, and AMD falling 3.5%.

Schneider is "Buy" rated on NVDA with a 12-month price target of $285. This is based on a 30X P/E multiple applied to his team's normalized EPS estimate of $9.50. 

Meanwhile, overnight, Intel announced a new AI chip, code-named Crescent Island, expected to hit the consumer market by the end of the year, according to the Financial Times.

"We decided to start rebuilding our muscles in AI . . . [but] we are not particularly aiming for [the training market] based on past experience," said Kevork Kechichian, who leads Intel's data center group.

The AI chip race is accelerating, with today's biggest news being Nvidia's move to reinvent the PC market with a new AI chip.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 08:55

Aww... Look At The Cute Dancing-Robot Police-State Surveillance-Dog...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dogs are being deployed at designated World Cup venues in the US to perform perimeter security inspections, prompting concerns over the advance of surveillance tech.

The company has stated that the machines “will be used to assist security personnel with investigating things like suspicious packages or other potentially hazardous materials.”

These four-legged fiends are set to roam, and even dance (oh how cute) around AT&T Stadium in Dallas and other FIFA sites ahead of the 2026 tournament, sending live feeds back to human teams with their 360-degree cameras, thermal sensors, acoustic pickups, and AI anomaly detection.

These are the new Boston Dynamics Spot robots deployed in Dallas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

They are being used for security at World Cup venues in the Dallas area

Their jobs include:

- Perimeter security inspections
- Assisting with suspicious packages or hazardous materials… pic.twitter.com/rLsl2wnFuA

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 30, 2026

“The robots do not have facial recognition capabilities,” a Boston Dynamics spokesperson told WFAA, insisting they spot unauthorized people in restricted zones without utilising facial scans for now, after a viral TikTok video made the claim.

Hyundai, the South Korean owner of Boston Dynamics and major FIFA sponsor, added the bots “will support on-site security operations, helping contribute to a safer tournament environment.”

But peel back the puppy-like head tilts and choreographed spins and you see the real rollout: tireless mechanical sentries normalizing constant surveillance on American soil. They look fun today at the soccer spectacle expecting half a million visitors. Tomorrow the same platforms patrol streets, malls, and events nationwide, always watching, always recording.

This isn’t some isolated gimmick. It’s fast becoming commonplace in cities such as Atlanta, where robot security dogs prowl apartment complexes and parking lots issuing verbal commands to citizens.

Recent videos show residents greeting the units politely and complying instantly – only for the bot to still summon real police anyway. The voice responding through the speaker carries a clear foreign accent. Speculation is rife that the live operators controlling these machines and watching every feed sit thousands of miles away in India.

Another viral clip captured locals staring down the mechanical intruder with a classic line that perfectly summed it up.

These aren’t fully autonomous terminators yet. Real people – often overseas – sit at consoles staring at your every move through the robot’s eyes and ears, deciding when to hit the siren or dial American cops on you.

Your privacy, your neighborhood, your compliance all funneled through foreign call-center eyes. Data stored, analyzed, potentially shared who-knows-where. Ordinary citizens get lectured by a machine whose controller doesn’t even live in the country.

The same quadruped platform that dances cutely for World Cup selfies or patrols Atlanta lots is already being militarized abroad. Just weeks earlier, footage emerged of China unleashing machine-gun-toting robot wolves engineered with a shared “collective brain” that lets them hunt and coordinate in simulated street battles.

These pack-hunting death machines storm positions, clear entire urban blocks in minutes, and spare human troops the risk while turning dissent or resistance into target practice. Non-military versions are even for sale to civilians.

While American cities outsource low-level enforcement to remote foreign operators who record and report on citizens, China turns the same tech into lethal swarms ready for real conflict.

The cute dancing dog at the stadium today carries the same sensors and mobility as tomorrow’s enforcer. Denials about “no facial recognition” ring hollow when software upgrades and off-the-shelf AI can bolt it on. The hardware is already here. The willingness to expand its role grows every time the public shrugs and scrolls past another viral clip.

While this tech supposedly keeps big events “safe,” everyday Americans already endure open-border chaos, rising crime in blue cities, and government agencies that treat citizens as the threat. Surely the real priority should be securing the actual border, deporting criminals, and backing law enforcement that answers to voters – not handing patrol duties to remote-operated spy dogs whose operators answer to foreign paychecks.

Once these machines become commonplace, backed by endless camera grids and AI flags, the slide into a permission-based society accelerates. Move along when the robot says so. Stay out of the restricted zone it defines. Don’t question the system streaming your life overseas.

The dancing bots are a warning, not a toy. Freedom means rejecting the slow normalization of this dystopian show on American streets. Push back now, demand human accountability and constitutional limits, or watch the cute dancing routine quickly morph into a demand for compliance.

Yeah, I saw that episode of Black Mirror...

...it didn't go so well. pic.twitter.com/DYymNOLaBE

— Deaconbluezzz (@Deaconbluezzz66) April 12, 2026

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 Mon, 06/01/2026 - 08:35

SK Hynix Evacuates Thousands Of Workers At Chip Plant After Fire, Toxic Gas Leak

One week, unions are threatening labor action at memory giant Samsung. The next, SK Hynix suffers an industrial accident. Together, the events highlight just how fragile the global memory supply chain has become at a time when AI data center buildouts have already pushed memory chip supply into extraordinarily tight territory.

South Korea's main national wire service, Yonhap News Agency, reports that SK Hynix, the world's second-largest DRAM producer, evacuated about 3,600 workers from its Cheongju semiconductor factory in South Korea after a fire and toxic gas leak.

The fire erupted Monday mid-morning in a sixth-floor gas room connecting the M15 and M15X plants and was quickly extinguished by the factory's fire suppression system. Seven people were injured.

SK Hynix believes the incident may have originated from a gas pipeline, adding that production lines for critical memory chips were not impacted.

SK Hynix is one of the world's top three memory chip companies, alongside Samsung and Micron. It controlled about 32% of the DRAM market in 4Q25, behind Samsung at 36% but ahead of Micron at 22.4%, according to TrendForce data.

This means that if the industrial accident had been more severe, any real production disruption at SK Hynix could have sparked a surge in DRAM prices. In other words, SK Hynix is a bottleneck supplier for the AI trade.

Our report early last week added to optimism in the DRAM and NAND memory chip markets because there is new evidence that China is flooding the chip market.

The Amazon price-tracking website CamelCamelCamel shows that retail pricing for DDR5 64GB memory chips dropped from $925 to about $853 in late May. Prices were around $200 one year ago.

We first outlined that hoarded supplies would begin to hit the market in late March.

 

 

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 07:20

Millions Of Americans Are Giving Up On Buying New Cars

A growing number of Americans can no longer afford to buy new vehicles. Since 2020, roughly one million potential buyers have exited the market, and industry forecasts suggest they are unlikely to return soon, according to Wall Street Journal. 

Although automakers initially expected sales to recover to pre-pandemic levels, persistent economic pressures have kept demand below earlier expectations.

Before COVID-19, U.S. new-vehicle sales typically reached around 17 million units annually. Today, most forecasts place demand closer to 16 million vehicles or less, with little chance of a full recovery in the near future. One major reason is cost: the average new vehicle now sells for nearly $50,000, and many models exceed $55,000. As entry-level options disappear, new cars have become increasingly out of reach for middle-income households.

The WSJ writes that automakers recognize that affordability has become a major obstacle. While some companies have announced plans to introduce less expensive models, substantial price reductions are not expected anytime soon. Rather than competing through discounts, manufacturers have concentrated on producing higher-margin vehicles such as pickups, SUVs, and premium trims.

The industry's approach changed during the pandemic, when supply shortages limited production but allowed companies to maintain strong profits through higher prices. That experience convinced many automakers that selling fewer vehicles can be more profitable than chasing volume through aggressive incentives. As a result, manufacturers have become more cautious about discounting and more focused on protecting profit margins.

Consumers who are priced out of the new-car market often look to used vehicles instead, but prices there have also risen significantly. Many households have responded by delaying purchases altogether and keeping their current vehicles longer. This trend has pushed the average age of cars and light trucks on U.S. roads to a record level of roughly 13 years.

At the same time, automakers face mounting expenses from tariffs, supply-chain challenges, and large investments in electric vehicle development. These costs further reduce the incentive to prioritize low-priced vehicles. Companies such as GM and Ford continue to emphasize trucks, SUVs, and other profitable models that generate stronger returns than compact economy cars.

Some manufacturers, including Stellantis, have pledged to expand their lineup of lower-cost vehicles in the coming years. Meanwhile, brands such as Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai still offer some of the market's more affordable options, although they too have increasingly shifted toward SUVs and larger vehicles.

Industry analysts increasingly believe that annual U.S. vehicle sales may remain below the pre-pandemic norm for years to come. Returning to the 17-million-unit level would likely require a much larger supply of vehicles priced under $40,000. Until that happens, many consumers will continue postponing purchases and extending the life of the vehicles they already own.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 06:55

The Road To Hell Is Being Paved With Suicidal Empathy

Authored by Bronwyn Eyre via The Epoch Times,

In his book-cover endorsement of “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind,” author Bruce Bawer calls it “easily more important than any book in recent memory.” Elon Musk adds: “Western civilization is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken.”

They’re right. Professor Gad Saad’s newest book will jar your mindset and leave you with a degree of shock. You’ll want to tell others about it, and it will be a bestseller (in fact, it already is).

The book cover’s sketched lamb holding a sign reading “FREE THE WOLVES” delivers the book’s thesis in a nutshell—that the madness of misplaced empathy toward alien entities, cultures, and religions is suicidal. And the Western world—or at least a critical mass of its cultural and political influencers—is sold on the idea.

The book is freighted with stunning examples of lunatic policies that prioritize marginalized groups over cherished time-tested Judeo-Christian tenets, customs, and practices. In his chapter “Cultural Theory of Mind,” for instance, Saad discusses how both the British police and government declined “over several decades” to intervene in the “organized sexual exploitation of young white girls by ‘Asian’ grooming gangs across countless cities on an industrial-scale level … lest they might be accused of bigotry or, worse, Islamophobia.”

Some instances of suicidal empathy occur where you’d least suspect it. Traditionally, for example, merit and scientific aptitude have comprised the hallmark for entrance into medicine. But according to Saad, CanMEDS (which develops professional codes for physicians and surgeons in Canada) has devised a new model that “would seek to centre values such as anti-oppression, anti-racism, and social justice, rather than medical expertise.”

He then provides a 150-word statement elaborating on CanMEDS’ 2025 renewal guidelines—ones that address “ongoing structures of racism, white supremacy, settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and more.”

Suicidal empathy—a Saad coinage, by the way—has become well-implanted in Canadian universities.

The University of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science recently advertised for two positions—one in AI, the second in computer science. Position one “is open only to qualified individuals who self-identify as woman, transgender, gender-fluid, non-binary, or Two-spirit” while position two “is open only to qualified individuals who self-identify as a member of a racialized minority.”

Not to be outdone, the University of British Columbia recently advertised for a chair in oral cancer research. “The selection,” read the ad, “will be restricted to members of the following federally-designated groups: people with disabilities, Indigenous people, radicalized people, women, and people from minoritized gender identity groups.”

So that’s how the empathy cookie crumbles these days. Illegal immigrants are welcomed by the hundreds of thousands and often more accommodated than tax-paying citizens. Hamas terrorists are noble; Israel’s IDF “genocidal.” Squatters are prioritized over residents. Twerking drag queens entertain kindergartners during reading hour. Foreign aid is sluiced out with no strings attached. The “unhoused” occupy and despoil public parks. Free needles are handed out with little expectation they’ll be returned. Medical and fire department personnel are burned out by the coddling of street addicts.

Saad notes an academic movement that actually seeks to change the term “pedophile” to “minor-attracted people” (MAPS). In one of its papers entitled “Humanizing Pedophilia as Stigma Reduction,” the abstract begins: “The stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests is a topic of growing academic and professional consideration, owing to its potential role in moderating pedophiles’ emotional well-being. Thus, reducing stigmatization toward this group is of paramount importance.”

My favourite example of suicidal empathy? That’s a tough one, but I’ll go with the government grant awarded to researchers at Concordia University to de-colonize light. On their “Decolonizing Light” website, the researchers explain that the “website explores ways and approaches to decolonize science, such as revitalizing and restoring Indigenous knowledges, and capacity building. The project aims to develop a culture of critical reflection and investigation of the relation of science and colonialism.”

It’s somewhat reassuring that the phenomenon of suicidal empathy has existed, in some form, for centuries. Saad cites two Aesop’s Fables—in one case, a kindly farmer takes a freezing viper into his warm coat pocket but is fatally bitten when the viper warms. In another, a scorpion convinces a frog to carry him across the river on his back then fatally stings the frog, because it’s in his nature to do so.

How proud one could feel if our political leaders were wise to the folly of misplaced empathy. But as Saad puts it: “Two former Canadian prime ministers, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his son Justin Trudeau, are perfect exemplars of Western political leaders who have destroyed their nation’s cultural fabric via their empathetic commitment to cultural relativism.”

That might explain why, in 2017, Justin Trudeau authorized a $10.5 million payout to Omar Khadr for Canada’s alleged complicity with the United States in the violation of Khadr’s constitutional rights at Guantanamo Bay. He had killed an American soldier in the Afghan war and spent years in that prison, but was eventually handed over to Canadian authorities.

Saad, who fled the Lebanese civil war with his Jewish parents (who had earlier been kidnapped and ill-treated by the Palestine Liberation Organization), settled in Montreal and was taken on by Concordia University in 1994 as a marketing professor. He now terms himself an “evolutionary behavioural scientist.” He recently revealed on the Joe Rogan podcast that, amid repeated death threats, he’s leaving Canada to live in the United States.

Saad told the National Post: “I love Canada, but there comes a point where the abject antipathy that you experience from Canadian society forces you to look elsewhere to a place where you might be appreciated and allowed to flourish.” He’s now a scholar at the Center for the Study of American Freedom at the University of Mississippi.

A while back, I reviewed Piers Morgan’s latest book “Woke Is Dead” and wrote that it “might go a long way toward straightening out an age—as his subtitle states—‘of total madness’ for all of us.” Perhaps more than I realized at the time, Morgan’s optimism may involve too much wishful thinking. For, alas, Saad’s ominous outlook trumps Morgan’s auspicious one. Morgan himself revealed doubts in saying, for example, that “we must keep pounding” against wokeism and “woke is dead ... but we’re not totally in the clear.”

Saad tells how, in March of 2024, he posted some thoughts on his X feed regarding the “suicidal empathy” he felt is sending the West “into a death spiral.” He received an email from the publisher of Broadside Books with a link to the post and the comment, “Here’s your book idea.”

That idea is in sync with previous thinkers and writers. Arnold Toynbee argued that societies collapse when they fail to intelligently respond to new challenges. Thomas Sowell believed that the intelligentsia often espouse policies that make them feel virtuously compassionate, while being decoupled from the negative consequences of said policies. James Burnham, in his “Suicide of the West“ (1964), wrote that “suicide is probably more frequent than murder as the end phase of a civilization.”

So Saad is in good company in holding that the “West’s elitist progressive political class is infected by a mind parasite that causes its empathy module to misfire in every conceivable manner. Many of the policy decisions that are wreaking havoc in the West stem from this poor calibration of empathy, resulting in a society that is galloping toward the abyss of infinite lunacy.”

Hon. Bronwyn Eyre, LLB, is a Senior Fellow with the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy and Saskatchewan’s former Minister of Justice, Attorney General, and Minister of Energy.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 06:30

US Adult Cigarette Smoking Rate Hits Another All-Time Low

Via Headline USA,

The cigarette smoking rate among U.S. adults dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 11 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released this week.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it’s long been considered the leading cause of preventable death.

The preliminary findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were based on survey responses from more than 24,200 adults. In the survey, CDC officials defined current cigarette smoking as smoking at least 100 cigarettes in a lifetime and now smoking every day or some days.

In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans, public education campaigns and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

In 2024, the percentage of current adult smokers fell below 10% for the first time. Last year, it was 9%, according to the new survey.

The use of electronic cigarettes has been inching up among adults, but has held about steady in 2025, at about 7%.

“The continued decline in smoking is a monumental public health achievement that has saved millions of lives and billions in healthcare costs,” said Yolonda Richardson, president and chief executive of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and research organization.

Richardson said current smoking-prevention efforts have been set back by cuts President Donald Trump’s administration made that eliminated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health and its “Tips from Former Smokers” advertising campaign.

She cited estimates that the “Tips” campaign alone helped more than 1 million Americans quit smoking and saved over $7.3 billion in healthcare costs.

“This critical work must be restored and sustained to continue reducing smoking-related disease, death and healthcare costs nationwide,” Richardson said.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 05:45

German School Forces Teens To Design 'Inclusive Brothel'

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Parents across Germany are in uproar after a Catholic high school handed 13- to 15-year-olds the grotesque task of modernizing a brothel to make it “sexually inclusive” for every lifestyle and preference under the sun.

The assignment at Cardinal von Galen Gymnasium in Kevelaer, North Rhine-Westphalia, formed part of a “Sexual Education of Diversity” module. 

Students were told to simulate running an existing brothel in a big city, with a fixed floor plan they could only tweak by adding doors and staircases. 

Insane pic.twitter.com/hFYy379mQV

— Basil the Great (@BasilTheGreat) May 29, 2026

They had to detail which sexual preferences the spaces must cater to, what “services” to offer, target groups, advertising, and crucially “what skills and abilities” the workers would need “so that all kinds of people could be served and satisfied.”

In what world is it OK to ask children to do this?

The workbook, titled “Puff für alle” – slang for “Brothel for All” – framed the exercise as responding to “developments in our society with a diversity of lifestyles and gender roles.”

Headmistress Christina Diehr defended the material to WDR, stating it was “deliberately designed to be provocative in order to stimulate discussion.” 

She added that it “addresses the heavy use of social media channels by children and young people and the associated flood of information about various forms of sexuality.”

After the worksheets leaked and sparked widespread fury on social media, the school held what it called “constructive” talks with parents, the teacher, and the class parents’ committee. 

Officials confirmed they will not re-issue the assignment and are now preparing alternative lessons on “diversity of lifestyles and sexuality.”

One older student pushed back sharply in comments to WDR: “People should be questioning the acceptance surrounding the topic of sex work… 95 percent of all sex workers being women, and a significant number of them being girls, I believe it’s inappropriate to address brothels in sex education and, above all, to fail to differentiate and explore the topic in an assignment.”

This sanitized, taxpayer-funded fantasy of “inclusive” prostitution arrives at the exact moment German schools and kindergartens are reeling from real-world sexual horrors inflicted by migrants who never should have been let near children.

As we previously highlighted, an 18-year-old Afghan asylum seeker intern at Brehm School in Düsseldorf allegedly dropped his trousers and exposed his erect penis to two second-grade girls while a teacher was present in the room. 

He had also groped the class teacher’s buttocks days before. The intern admitted the groping to police. The school only banned him after the girls’ parents raised the alarm themselves, and authorities noted schools often try to “keep a low profile” on such crimes.

In a separate case, a 35-year-old Syrian intern molested two four-year-olds in a Neubrandenburg kindergarten – touching a sleeping girl’s genitals and buttocks with sexual intent, then assaulting a boy who reported it to his parents. Kindergarten staff initially handled the first incident internally without calling police.

German schools are descending into chaos precisely because of mass migration. One report detailed entire institutions “dealing with hell” from violence, language barriers, and cultural clashes driven by unchecked inflows. 

Another school required permanent police guards after 118 crimes in a single year, including knife attacks and threats. 

Parents have pulled kids from daycare out of fear of neighboring asylum centers, while in some towns planned kindergartens were quietly converted into asylum housing instead.

Globalist policies have flooded communities with unvetted individuals from incompatible cultures while authorities sexualize and confuse native children with literal brothel-planning homework. 

Innocence is stripped on two fronts: ideological grooming in the curriculum and physical predation enabled by open borders.

Germany’s leaders have chosen experiments in “diversity” over the basic duty to protect the young. The result is traumatized kids, furious parents, and a system that lectures about inclusion while failing to deliver safety.

This cannot continue. Only nations that secure their borders, prioritize their own citizens, and reject both woke indoctrination and demographic replacement will spare their children this nightmare.

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 Mon, 06/01/2026 - 05:00

How The FIFA World Cup Affects Short-Term Rental Markets

For international football fans traveling to North America to attend the FIFA World Cup this summer, the costs of doing so quickly add up.

As Statista's Felix Richter details below, between flights, accommodation, food, local transportation and tickets, a week-long trip to the tournament can easily set you back a couple of thousand dollars, which is why FIFA and local businesses in the United States have been accused of price gouging in the run-up to the multi-week event.

Fans put off by sky-high hotel prices in host cities may look elsewhere for cheaper accommodation, but the short-term rental market, i.e. Airbnb and similar platforms, is also heating up in anticipation of the World Cup and millions of international visitors. According to AirDNA, an analytics platform for the short-term rental industry, demand for short-term rentals has surged in many host cities, with Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey seeing particularly large spikes in bookings and nightly rates.

You will find more infographics at Statista

On group stage matchdays, the number of bookings in the three Mexican host cities rose by an average of 186 percent compared to the previous year, while the average nightly rate increased by 72 percent year-over-year.

Host cities in the U.S. and Canada have seen significantly smaller increases in demand and prices, indicating that baseline demand in these cities is higher compared to their Mexican counterparts.

For those still looking for accommodation, however, the report brings mixed news.

On the one hand, the average price increase for listings that were still available as of May 28 was roughly twice as high as the increase for bookings that had already been made.

On the other hand, with vacancy rates indicating that there are still plenty of options on the market and hoteliers reporting that demand has fallen short of expectations, last-minute bookers may still benefit from falling prices in the days leading up to the World Cup kickoff on June 11.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 04:15

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Cononavirus



In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about coronavirus and the impact that it is having on the markets. Earlier this month, Peter said he thought the virus was just an excuse for stock market woes. At the time he believed the market was poised to fall anyway. But as it turns out, coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system. All this means more liquidity — central banks easing. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.” Although the new money is primarily being created in China, it is flowing into dollars — the dollar index is up — and into US stocks. Last week, US stock markets once again made all-time record highs. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.” In the midst of all this, Peter raises a really good question. The primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down. Why would the Federal Reserve respond, or why would any central bank respond to that by printing money? How does printing more money solve that problem? It doesn’t. In fact, it actually exacerbates it. But you know, everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.” Sometimes the illusion inflation creates can look like a magic wand. Printing money can paper over problems. But none of this is going to fundamentally fix the economy. In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.” Peter explained how the Fed was originally intended to create an “elastic” money supply that would expand or contract along with economic output. Today, the money supply only goes in one direction — that’s up. The economy is strong, print money. The economy is weak, print even more money.” Of course, the asset that’s doing the best right now is gold. The yellow metal pushed above $1,600 yesterday. Gold is up 5.5% on the year in dollar terms and has set record highs in other currencies. Because gold is rising even in an environment where the dollar is strengthening against other fiat currencies, that shows you that there is an underlying weakness in the dollar that is right now not being reflected in the Forex markets, but is being reflected in the gold markets. Because after all, why are people buying gold more aggressively than they’re buying dollars or more aggressively than they’re buying US Treasuries? Because they know that things are not as good for the dollar or the US economy as everybody likes to believe. So, more people are seeking out refuge in a better safe-haven and that is gold.” Peter also talked about the debate between Trump and Obama over who gets credit for the booming economy – which of course, is not booming.

We are living in crazy times. I have a hard time believing that most of the general public is not awake, but in reality, they are. We've never seen anything like this; I mean not even under Obama during the worst part of the Great Recession." Now the Fed is desperately trying to keep interest rates from rising. The problem is that it's a much bigger debt bubble this time around , and the Fed is going to have to blow a lot more air into it to keep it inflated. The difference is this time it's not going to work." It looks like the Fed did another $104.15 billion of Not Q.E. in a single day. The Fed claims it's only temporary. But that is precisely what Bernanke claimed when the Fed started QE1. Milton Freedman once said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The same applies to Q.E., or whatever the Fed wants to pretend it's doing. Except this is not QE4, according to Powell. Right. Pumping so much money out, and they are accusing China of currency manipulation ? Wow! Seriously! Amazing! Dump the U.S. dollar while you still have a chance. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. And it is even worse than that, In addition to the $104.15 billion of "Not Q.E." this past Thursday; the FED added another $56.65 billion in liquidity to financial markets the next day on Friday. That's $160.8 billion in two days!!!! in just 48 hours. That is more than 2 TIMES the highest amount the FED has ever injected on a monthly basis under a Q.E. program (which was $80 billion per month) Since this isn't QE....it will be really scary on what they are going to call Q.E. Will it twice, three times, four times, five times what this injection per month ! It is going to be explosive since it takes about 60 to 90 days for prices to react to this, January should see significant inflation as prices soak up the excess liquidity. The question is, where will the inflation occur first . The spike in the repo rate might have a technical explanation: a misjudgment was made in the Fed's money market operations. Even so, two conclusions can be drawn: managing the money markets is becoming harder, and from now on, banks will be studying each other's creditworthiness to a greater degree than before. Those people, who struggle with the minutiae of money markets, and that includes most professionals, should focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Financial markets have recovered from each downturn since 1980 because interest rates have been cut to new lows. Post-2008, they were cut to near zero or below zero in all major economies. In response to a new financial crisis, they cannot go any lower. Central banks will look for new ways to replicate or broaden Q.E. (At some point, governments will simply see repression as an easier option). Then there is the problem of 'risk-free' assets becoming risky assets. Financial markets assume that the probability of major governments such as the U.S. or U.K. defaulting is zero. These governments are entering the next downturn with debt roughly twice the levels proportionate to GDP that was seen in 2008. The belief that the policy worked was completely predicated on the fact that it was temporary and that it was reversible, that the Fed was going to be able to normalize interest rates and shrink its balance sheet back down to pre-crisis levels. Well, when the balance sheet is five-trillion, six-trillion, seven-trillion when we're back at zero, when we're back in a recession, nobody is going to believe it is temporary. Nobody is going to believe that the Fed has this under control, that they can reverse this policy. And the dollar is going to crash. And when the dollar crashes, it's going to take the bond market with it, and we're going to have stagflation. We're going to have a deep recession with rising interest rates, and this whole thing is going to come imploding down. everything is temporary with the fed including remaining off the gold standard temporary in the Fed's eyes could mean at least 50 years This liquidity problem is a signal that trading desks are loaded up on inventory and can't get rid of it. Repo is done out of a need for cash. If you own all of your securities (i.e., a long-only, no leverage mutual fund) you have no need to "repo" your securities - you're earning interest every night so why would you want to 'repo' your securities where you are paying interest for that overnight loan (securities lending is another animal). So, it is those that 'lever-up' and need the cash for settlement purposes on securities they've bought with borrowed money that needs to utilize the repo desk. With this in mind, as we continue to see this need to obtain cash (again, needed to settle other securities purchases), it shows these firms don't have the capital to add more inventory to, what appears to be, a bloated inventory. Now comes the fun part: the Treasury is about to auction 3's, 10's, and 30-year bonds. If I am correct (again, I could be wrong), the Fed realizes securities firms don't have the shelf space to take down a good portion of these auctions. If there isn't enough retail/institutional demand, it will lead to not only a crappy sale but major concerns to the street that there is now no backstop, at all, to any sell-off. At which point, everyone will want to be the first one through the door and sell immediately, but to whom? If there isn't enough liquidity in the repo market to finance their positions, the firms would be unable to increase their inventory. We all saw repo shut down on the 2008 crisis. Wall St runs on money. . OVERNIGHT money. They lever up to inventory securities for trading. If they can't get overnight money, they can't purchase securities. And if they can't unload what they have, it means the buy-side isn't taking on more either. Accounts settle overnight. This includes things like payrolls and bill pay settlements. If a bank doesn't have enough cash to payout what its customers need to pay out, it borrows. At least one and probably more than one banks are insolvent. That's what's going on. First, it can't be one or two banks that are short. They'd simply call around until they found someone to lend. But they did that, and even at markedly elevated rates, still, NO ONE would lend them the money. That tells me that it's not a problem of a couple of borrowers, it's a problem of no lenders. And that means that there's no bank in the world left with any real liquidity. They are ALL maxed out. But as bad as that is, and that alone could be catastrophic, what it really signals is even worse. The lending rates are just the flip side of the coin of the value of the assets lent against. If the rates go up, the value goes down. And with rates spiking to 10%, how far does the value fall? Enormously! And if banks had to actually mark down the value of the assets to reflect 10% interest rates, then my god, every bank in the world is insolvent overnight. Everyone's capital ratios are in the toilet, and they'd have to liquidate. We're talking about the simultaneous insolvency of every bank on the planet. Bank runs. No money in ATMs, Branches closed. Safe deposit boxes confiscated. The whole nine yards, It's actually here. The scenario has tended to guide toward for years and years is actually happening RIGHT NOW! And people are still trying to say it's under control. Every bank in the world is currently insolvent. The only thing keeping it going is printing billions of dollars every day. Financial Armageddon isn't some far off future risk. It's here. Prepare accordingly. This fiat system has reached the end of the line, and it's not correct that fiat currencies fail by design. The problem is corruption and manipulation. It is corruption and cheating that erodes trust and faith until the entire system becomes a gigantic fraud. Banks and governments everywhere ARE the problem and simply have to be removed. They have lost all trust and respect, and all they have left is war and mayhem. As long as we continue to have a majority of braindead asleep imbeciles following orders from these psychopaths, nothing will change. Fiat currency is not just thievery. Fiat currency is SLAVERY. Ultimately the most harmful effect of using debt of undefined value as money (i.e., fiat currencies) is the de facto legalization of a caste system based on voluntary slavery. The bankers have a charter, or the legal *right*, to create money out of nothing. You, you don't. Therefore you and the bankers do not have the same standing before the law. The law of the land says that you will go to jail if you do the same thing (creating money out of thin air) that the banker does in full legality. You and the banker are not equal before the law. ALL the countries of the world; Islamic or secular, Jewish or Arab, democracy or dictatorship; all of them place the bankers ABOVE you. And all of you accept that only whining about fiat money going down in exchange value over time (price inflation which is not the same as monetary inflation). Actually, price inflation itself is mainly due to the greed and stupidity of the bankers who could keep fiat money's exchange value reasonably stable, only if they wanted to. Witness the crash of silver and gold prices which the bankers of the world; Russian, American, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Arab, all of them collaborated to engineer through the suppression and stagnation of precious metals' prices to levels around the metals' production costs, or what it costs to dig gold and silver out of the ground. The bankers of the world could also collaborate to keep nominal prices steady (as they do in the case of the suppression of precious metals prices). After all, the ability to create fiat money and force its usage is a far more excellent source of power and wealth than that which is afforded simply by stealing it through inflation. The bankers' greed and stupidity blind them to this fact. They want it all, and they want it now. In conclusion, The bankers can create money out of nothing and buy your goods and services with this worthless fiat money, effectively for free. You, you can't. You, you have to lead miserable existences for the most of you and WORK in order to obtain that effectively nonexistent, worthless credit money (whose purchasing/exchange value is not even DEFINED thus rendering all contracts based on the null and void!) that the banker effortlessly creates out of thin air with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, and which he doesn't even bother to print on paper anymore, electing to keep it in its pure quantum uncertain form instead, as electrons whizzing about inside computer chips which will become mute and turn silent refusing to tell you how many fiat dollars or euros there are in which account, in the absence of electricity. No electricity, no fiat, nor crypto money. It would appear that trust is deteriorating as it did when Lehman blew up . Something really big happened that set off this chain reaction in the repo markets. Whatever that something is, we aren't be informed. They're trying to cover it up, paper it over with conjured cash injections, play it cool in front of the cameras while sweating profusely under the 5 thousands dollar suits. I'm guessing that the final high-speed plunge into global economic collapse has begun. All we see here is the ripples and whitewater churning the surface, but beneath the surface, there is an enormous beast thrashing desperately in its death throws. Now is probably the time to start tying up loose ends with the long-running prep projects, just saying. In other words, prepare accordingly, and Get your money out of the banks. I don't care if you don't believe me about Bitcoin. Get your money out of the banks. Don't keep any more money in a bank than you need to pay your bills and can afford to lose.











The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more













The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more

The FBI released a summary of its file from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday, showing details of Clinton's explanation of her use of a private email server to handle classified communications. The release comes nearly two months after FBI Director James Comey announced that although Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless," it did not rise to the level of a prosecutable offense. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the next day that she would not pursue charges in the matter. "We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests," the FBI noted in a statement sent to reporters with links to the documents. The documents include notes from Clinton's July 2 interview with agents, as well as a "factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter," according to the FBI release. Throughout her interview with agents, Clinton repeatedly said she relied on the career professionals she worked with to handle classified information correctly. The agents asked about a series of specific emails, and in each case Clinton said she wasn't worried about the particular material being discussed on a nonclassified channel.