At The Money: When Should Do-It-Yourself Investors Fire Themselves? (July 15, 2026)

DIY investors have been a force in the market, pouring trillions into indexing and remaking asset management. But at a certain point in their lives, their needs become more complex and may require help. How can they tell when it’s time to bring in some professional assistance?

Full transcript below.

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About this week’s guest:

Dr. Jordan Grumet is a physician who works at the intersection of money, mortality, purpose, and regret. His work focuses on internal medicine and hospice care. His recent book is “Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life.”

For more info, see:

Personal Bio

Professional website

LinkedIn

Podcast

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TRANSCRIPT:

 

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears, without crying
Now I want to understand

Barry Ritholtz: Are you a do-it-yourself investor whose needs have become more complex? Is the world making you concerned about your portfolio? How do you know when it’s time to bring in some professional help?

To help us unpack all of this and what it might mean for your portfolio, let’s bring in Dr. Jordan Grumet, a physician whose specialty is the intersection of money, mortality, purpose, and regret. He’s trained and worked in both internal medicine and hospice care. His prior books include Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence and Living a Regret-Free Life, and The Purpose Code.

So, Doc G, let’s start very basically: what does it mean to fire yourself as a DIY investor?

Jordan Grumet: I grew up in the financial independence, retire early movement. These are the young, scrappy people who are trying to save enough so that they never have to work again. And so we were kind of cheap back in the day, right? This idea of, why pay someone else to do what you can do for yourself? That was good sense, because it made us deeply understand our investments. But as I get older, I realize that sometimes it makes sense to fire yourself. In other words, bring in the help when you need it, because you can’t know everything.

Barry Ritholtz: I know you’ve worked with other financial advisors. What has your own experience taught you about what financial advice should and should not address?

Jordan Grumet: I had Roger Whitney on my podcast, and he is one of the financial advisors I really respect. And we were talking about this idea of the balcony of your life — this idea that you want to stand on that balcony with your financial advisor, look out at your future, and start to plan.

This doesn’t look like, “Boy, I want my net worth to be this many millions of dollars.” It’s more a question of, how do I see the landscape of my life appearing in the future? That has to do with money, but that also has to do with family. It has to do with travel. It has to do with career. And so it’s really this holistic approach. As a doctor, we used to see people and we talked about the biopsychosocial model — the idea of not just seeing what’s hurting a patient, but how they fit in their environment and their needs. And I think with the financial advisor, it’s actually very similar.

Barry Ritholtz: What are the tasks that a smart do-it-yourself investor can probably handle by themselves – and what areas do they tend to run into trouble?

Jordan Grumet: So the truth of the matter is, when you’re young and you’re in the accumulation phase, it’s almost hard to mess up, right? You have to do it. Nick Maggiulli says, “Just keep buying.”

So when we’re young, there’s lots of room for error. Starting to understand the stock market, starting to understand index investing, writing out your investor statement or plan — basically, accumulation is really something that most people can manage.

The caveat is that you have to be able to control your emotions. Anyone who’s going to sell the minute the stock market drops on any given day probably needs financial advice right away. But assuming that you have the solidity of your character enough to be able to realize, okay, the market dropped, but I’m going to stay where I am and leave my money where it is — as long as you can pass that hurdle, a lot of accumulation and being young is quite possible to do it yourself.

Barry Ritholtz: How can a do-it-yourself investor recognize the difference between being reasonably capable and becoming overconfident? What are the red flags that they should pay attention to?

Jordan Grumet: Well, here’s something I think we don’t normally think about. When we’re talking about building wealth, what we’re really talking about is concentrating risk. For your average person, you’re going to be concentrating risk in your career, right? You’re going to be building and getting promotions and making more. You’re going to be concentrating risk in your business if you’re a founder or have a side hustle.

What you don’t want to be doing, unless you’re a professional, is concentrating risk in the stock market. Overconfident people seek alpha. They’re saying, boy, I don’t want to just take what the market has to give me — beta — but I’m going to seek alpha. And that’s exceedingly hard.

Some of the signs are: you’re zooming in and out of positions, you’re looking at lots of multiple stocks instead of thinking about index funds, you’re falling into the trap of FOMO, right? You’re starting to fear missing out. And so you’re making very reactive decisions.

If you’re setting it and forgetting it and maybe evaluating every six to 12 months, you’re probably on the right track. But if you’re looking at that stock market every day and buying and selling on a regular basis, you’re probably overconfident.

Barry Ritholtz: So this conversation is a giant exercise in confirmation bias for me. I’ve spent, I don’t know, three decades telling people you can do it yourself — but there’s an important caveat. You have to have a plan. You have to be disciplined. And when things start to head south, you must manage your own behavior.

Is that oversimplifying advice for do-it-yourselfers, or is it more or less a path to success you’ve seen in your career?

Jordan Grumet: No, I think it’s a beautiful assessment of how things should be.

Really, there are two things you need to watch out for as a young person. The first is your own behavior, which we just talked about. And the other is when you go from accumulation to decumulation — that’s a hard stop in my brain. That’s when you should really say, okay, do I need some professional help?

But when you’re a young person, those are really the two red flags. I think if you can keep those under control, doing it yourself is very reasonable.

Barry Ritholtz: We’ve built a firm over the past 13 years, and perhaps the biggest surprise to me has been how difficult it’s been to get people with plenty of money — lots of runway, they’ll never outlive their cash — to actually turn around and spend the money when they want. Whether it’s taking the whole family back to the old country to see where they came from, or buying a vacation property, or a boat. I got a phone call from somebody who wanted to buy a Ferrari, and I’m not exaggerating: he could buy a Ferrari every month for the rest of his life and never run out of money.

It’s shocking to me how challenging that is. Why is that decumulation phase — why is that spending the money that’s there to spend, even if it’s setting up a trust for your kids and grandkids, or giving it to philanthropy — why is that so challenging?

 Jordan Grumet:  I have this theory, and I call it escape velocity. If you listen to personal finance gurus, if you sit there and debate the 4% rule and talk about safe withdrawal rates and all those kinds of things, you’re under the assumption that the whole idea behind building a net worth is to have enough money so that you can decumulate during retirement.

I think that’s all false. Actually, all of our talk of safe withdrawal rates and net worth — all it is is the amount of money that gives you enough courage to walk away from the life you don’t want and start living the life you do want.  Believe it or not, I don’t even think that amount of money has anything to do with what you’re going to spend. It’s the amount of money that gives you the courage.

What we tend to find is, when people finally get the courage to leave the life that they’re living, that they don’t like, and then live the life they want to live, it’s actually just not that expensive. You can do a lot of the things you love without spending much money.

One thing is, it’s just not that expensive. The other thing is, we actually like having a safety net. People like having a lot of money in the bank — even to the extent that they’ll pass up on things they say they want to do — because that security and that good feeling, that identity of having a lot of money in the bank, actually serves them.

A lot of people see this as negative. And I agree, in a sense: this idea of working so hard and accumulating this much money and not spending it sounds bad at the forefront. But I’ll tell you, I know lots of happy people who are underspending, and yet they’re still happy. They’re still giving to charities. They’re still going on great vacations. They’re just not spending everything down. And one thing I think we need to come to peace with is, maybe that’s okay; maybe it’s fine if you die and you bequeath tons to either your kids or charity. And that just is what it is.

Barry Ritholtz: So I have a family member — I won’t mention their name, but they’re in their 50s, and, I don’t know, maybe the portfolio is $10 million. And I can’t get him — he’s constantly asking me about convertibles, and he sees the cars I drive, which are not crazy expensive but a lot of fun. I can’t get him to spend $25,000 or $50,000 on a convertible that he’s jonesing for and that will have no impact on his net worth. How do you advise a person like that?

Jordan Grumet: I just had a conversation with Jean Chatzky, who wrote a book that’s forthcoming soon called “The Forever Paycheck.” She makes a brilliant point with some of these people. What you have to do is set up a paycheck, so they feel like they have money that they either can spend or have to spend. You take someone with a net worth of $10 million or $11 million. The idea is to structure their assets in such a way that they feel like they’re getting a paycheck every year, and they have the freedom to spend that paycheck till it’s at zero.

Barry Ritholtz:  A muni bond portfolio or something like that, that just kicks out regular yield?

Jordan Grumet: You can do it in so many different ways. You can do it with annuities. You can do it with a mix of annuities, their Social Security, muni bonds, what have you.

Or you can even go the other way, which is have your adviser say, I’m just going to liquidate this much in equities every year, regardless of where the market is, and we’re going to call that your paycheck. It’s funny — this is not a math problem, this is a brain problem. And so the question is, how can you set these things up?

A good friend of mine made the joke. He said, well, I have something called the fun bucket, and I put as much money as I think I can spend every year in the fun bucket, and whatever is left, I either spend it or I have to donate it to a political candidate I hate. And that is the trick he plays on himself to make sure he spends it.

Barry Ritholtz: The fun bucket – I love that idea. So you mentioned the transition from accumulation to decumulation. What are the other big transitions — retirement, inheritance, selling a business, divorce — where the people who are doing it themselves might be most vulnerable?

Jordan Grumet: I think there are really two situations. One is where emotions play a big role. For some people, retirement — they just get very emotional, they don’t make great decisions. A family member dies and they get an inheritance, and you tend to make emotional decisions, especially at the beginning.

One is any place — whether it’s a divorce or a death or even retirement — where you feel exceedingly emotional. This is going to be different for each person.

The other time where I think it’s really important is when the room for error is small. And so, for instance — and this is why I always say, when we go from accumulation to decumulation, we have to be really thoughtful — because you might be depending on health care subsidies. If you decumulate incorrectly, you may find that those subsidies are no longer there.

Or you might be making complex Roth conversions, and if you do that wrong, it can really mess you up and put you in different tax brackets. Or if you have a disabled child, you’re starting to plan for the fact that you’re not going to have any income anymore. The room for error can be very small in those situations. And so that’s an indicator that a financial advisor, a professional — even if all they do is look over your work — is important.

We tend to forget: hiring a financial advisor doesn’t mean you hire them and they do everything for the rest of your life. It’s a continuum. You can hire a financial advisor to look over your work. You could pay them hourly. They can give you some recommendations, and then you can carry it all out yourself. There’s really a continuum of how we use a financial advisor in the first place.

Barry Ritholtz: You mentioned several behavioral mistakes. I’m curious: what do you see as the most common behavioral mistakes from young DIY investors? And what do you see amongst the more financially sophisticated investors?

Jordan Grumet: In the young investors, it’s definitely an overconfidence issue. We talked about this a little bit — it’s the seeking alpha when they should be concentrating on beta. It’s this idea that I know better than everyone else. And maybe they haven’t been around the block enough times to see a stock go to zero.

You see this all the time in alternative assets, too. We’re experiencing this right now with multifamily syndications. For years, people were telling me and everyone else, multifamily syndications are the way to go — very little work, very little risk. And what are we seeing now? We’re seeing some of these go to zero. Literally, people are losing everything. It’s overconfidence, and a lot of times it’s seeking alpha.

As you get older, believe it or not, I think the bigger problem in really mature DIY investors, is you get complacent. The world changes. For instance, I am a big believer in index funds, and I want to believe that index funds will be able to ride that wave for the next 50 or 75 years.

But I’m also open to the idea that we can become complacent, and we have to keep our eyes open, and we have to look for how the world is changing. Will index funds be the way to go in 50 years? I don’t know. I’m going to keep paying attention.

That doesn’t mean I’m changing things. That doesn’t mean reacting to little changes in the market. But I’m keeping my eyes open — especially as I get older and I’m in decumulation, we’re really talking about risk modification. So I’m not as worried about returns as I used to be; I’m worried about losses. I want to modify my risk in such a way that I don’t have those really deep losses anymore. Whereas if my money returns 4% one year, 8% one year, 6%, but the market does 7 or 7.5%, I might be okay with that.

Barry Ritholtz:  Last question. As a physician, you compare good advice to a diagnosis. What should the diagnostic process look like before someone either recommends a portfolio or recommends a change in course of financial behavior? Tell us what that looks like.

Jordan Grumet: So when a person comes into the office and has a medical problem, I can assess that medical problem, give them a quick treatment, and send them off. And that’s very transactional — it solves the problem for the moment, but doesn’t solve the greater problem.

I talked about this idea of the biopsychosocial model. We need to put a person in the context of who they are, who their family is, what their stressors are, and what their goals are.

When you walk into a financial advisor’s office and you’re trying to assess, is this the right financial advisor for you or not . . . One of the first questions they should be asking you is, “Tell me about your goals. What are your dreams?”

It shouldn’t be, “What is your goal net worth? It shouldn’t be, how many millions do you want to have by the age of 50 or 55?” Because that’s only one of many questions. The bigger questions are “What do you want to accomplish? What’s important to you? Who are the important people in your life? And what are the must-haves?”

Once you get past that, that’s when we can start looking at your specific financial goals. What are the trade-offs? Is retirement important to you? Or maybe you’re willing to work longer to enjoy life more now. All of those are bigger questions. It’s equivalent to the biopsychosocial model.

We really have to put people in context, and any good advisor is going to put you in the context of your life and try to stand on that balcony with you, look across the fields of your future, and try to help you plot out that best life — not just financially, but generally.

Barry Ritholtz: To wrap up: if you’re a do-it-yourself investor, there are a handful of mistakes you need to avoid. When you’re younger, you have to be aware of overconfidence and alpha chasing. When you’re older, complexity — changes in life, changes in the world — might lead you to seek additional help.

You can do it yourself if you’re disciplined, have a plan, and manage your own behavior. But there are times when you might need various types of help, and lots of it is available across all sorts of different price points. If you need assistance, go find it.

I’m Barry Ritholtz, and you’re listening to Bloomberg’s At The Money.

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The post At The Money: When Should Do-It-Yourself Investors Fire Themselves? appeared first on The Big Picture.

Standard Nuclear Slashes IPO Size As Nuclear Comps Collapse

Standard Nuclear reset its IPO terms sharply lower as recent nuclear peers have watched their stock price crater after debuting on the public market. 

The TRISO fuel manufacturing company originally targeted 18.25 million shares at $18-$21, for up to $383 million in proceeds and an implied valuation as high as $3.55 billion. It has now filed to sell 10 million shares at $15, raising $150 million with a fully diluted market value around $2.4-2.7 billion.

The adjustment reflects cooling sentiment toward newer nuclear public vehicles. While some established or better-capitalized names have held up, others that listed via SPAC or IPO have had their stock prices obliterated.

Terrestrial Energy (IMSR), which went public in late 2025, trades under $6 after falling more than 70% from its highs. 

Hadron Energy (HDRN), a micro-modular reactor play that listed earlier this year, has dropped roughly 80% from its post-deal peaks and now trades around $2 with a market cap near $140 million.

Standard Nuclear reported just $3 million in revenue for the twelve months ended March 31, 2026, against a net loss of approximately $15 million. At the original top-end valuation of $3.55 billion, that implied a price-to-sales multiple over 1000x. The revised valuation doesn't improve the multiple very much, but it's worth noting that the company at least has revenue compared to some of its other nuclear peers.

The company produces TRISO fuel for advanced reactors and claims the only privately funded industrial-scale line in the US after acquiring assets from the Ultra Safe Nuclear bankruptcy. 

BWXT already manufactures and has delivered TRISO fuel for Department of Defense programs such as Project Pele and continues expanding capacity. 

Newer players include Kairos Power, which uses TRISO in annular pebbles for its fluoride salt-cooled design and is collaborating with BWXT on commercial production scaling, and X-Energy with its TRISO-X fuel for the Xe-100.

Markets are applying greater scrutiny to nuclear valuation and timelines even as long-term demand tailwinds from AI power needs remain intact. Capital is clearly no longer flowing indiscriminately to every nuclear story that reaches the public tape.
 

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 12:00

Trump Says FBI Wasting Time If It Probes Conspiracy Theories About Graham's Death

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump said on July 14 that he was aware of the conspiracy theories surrounding Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C) sudden death but said that any FBI investigation into them would be a waste of time.

Trump was responding to a reporter’s question at the Oval Office about why FBI agents were at the senator’s residence and whether there were any updates on the possible probe into his death.

“Well, I don’t know why because I think he had a problem. His father had a very similar problem, as you know. It’s very unique,” the president said, referring to Graham’s health issues.

“I don’t see a lot of evil there. I know there’s all sorts of conspiracy theories going on and I think the FBI is wasting their time if they’re doing that.”

Graham passed away on July 11 after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.”

Preliminary findings by the medical examiner suggest that Graham died from an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which is considered an aorta rupture stemming from hardening of his arteries, according to his office.

Trump said that Graham’s condition was difficult to detect, although he noted that the late senator had previously complained about having a “bad back.”

“I wish he took better care of himself,” the president told reporters.

“What happened is actually something that’s very hard to detect. It was not related to any blockage. It was a totally different thing.

“I’ve watched all the medical reports. I’ve had the doctors from the White House come in and explain what happened. And this is something that is very, almost undetectable. And if it happens, there’s not much you can do about it.”

Trump: 'A part of Lindsey's body literally BLEW up' pic.twitter.com/5uwHasvYWQ

— RT (@RT_com) July 14, 2026

The Epoch Times reached out to the FBI for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference in Washington on April 27, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a July 12 post on X that the FBI was “assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available,” but did not elaborate.

Graham had just returned from a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he announced on July 10 that he and other senators had reached ​an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward with updated legislation on Russia sanctions.

The legislation, which Graham had been ​working on with fellow Republicans and Democrats for months, would impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia, including buyers of its ‌energy exports.

Graham, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on the same day, said the ​agreement meant the legislation could move forward, giving Trump fresh tools to help end the Ukraine–Russia war, which is now in its fifth year.

“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support. It means it’s ​going to become law,” he told reporters, wrapping up his 10th visit to Kyiv.

Following Graham’s passing, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced on July 13 that he had appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to serve the remainder of the late senator’s term, which is set to expire in January 2027.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 11:40

Wisconsin Panel Finds Elon Musk Likely Broke The Law With $1 Million Voter Checks

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

A bipartisan Wisconsin elections panel has determined there is probable cause that Elon Musk broke state law by offering two $1 million checks to voters during last year’s hotly contested Supreme Court race.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 last week to file two complaints against the billionaire with Brown County District Attorney David Lasee. Prosecutors have 40 days to decide whether to file criminal charges under the state’s election bribery statute. That law blocks offering anything of value to entice someone to vote.

The complaints arose from Musk’s actions in the days before the April 1, 2025, election. He posted on X promising $1 million prizes and gave out two oversized checks at a Green Bay rally to supporters who signed a petition against “activist judges.” The recipients were Nicholas Jacobs and Ekaterina Diestler.

The commission said Musk’s social media promise and the public giveaway were meant to induce individuals to vote in that Supreme Court contest. Musk donated and backed groups in the race to help conservative candidate Brad Schimel flip the court’s liberal majority.

Musk’s spokespeople did not immediately return a request for comment.

Democrat-backed Susan Crawford defeated Schimel by approximately 10 percentage points. The loss came despite Musk-connected efforts spending tens of millions. Total spending in the race broke records, surpassing $100 million and rendering it the most expensive judicial contest in American history.

On March 30, 2025, Musk hosted a town hall in Green Bay, donning a cheesehead hat, and made a show of awarding the prizes. He told the crowd the race could impact the future of the state, the House of Representatives, and even “Western civilization.”

“The Wisconsin Supreme Court is able to redraw the districts,” he said at the event.

“They will gerrymander the district and deprive Wisconsin of two seats on the Republican side.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, tried to prevent the payouts. He filed emergency lawsuits arguing they violated laws against using money to influence votes. Lower courts turned him down. The state Supreme Court itself, with its liberal majority, refused to hear the last-minute appeal without explanation.

Kaul’s office had said it was committed to “safe, secure, free and fair” elections. But the payments were made anyway.

Crawford’s victory maintained the 4-3 liberal sway on the court. Conservatives had hoped a new majority could help redraw congressional maps and bolster Republican influence in Washington. 

Musk later signaled he'd slow down political spending, and his side framed the checks as rewards for petition signers and publicity, not direct vote-buying. Similar complaints were lodged around Musk’s $100 offers for petition signatures in other states.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 11:05

WTI Dips As US Crude Production Hits Record High, SPR Draw Slows, Cushing Remains At 'Tank Bottoms'

Oil prices are marginally higher overnight after President Trump reinstated the blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping slowed to a crawl amid the renewed warfare in the critical waterway.

US Central Command said it completed a morning round of strikes on Iran that further degraded its ability to attack commercial shipping in Hormuz.

It comes a day after attacks on ships that had been participating in so-called shuttle runs that have helped get oil from inside the Persian Gulf through the strait.

Visible transit through the waterway has fallen sharply in recent days, but there remains a high level of uncertainty about what’s actually crossing because many ships have been doing so dark - without broadcasting their location.

“While crude has started to find some balance after rallying from around $70, it still takes a brave shipowner to transit the Strait of Hormuz with the threat of attacks from forces aligned with Tehran remaining very real,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group Ltd.

“The broader geopolitical backdrop continues to deteriorate, providing ongoing support for crude prices and keeping buyers prepared to step back in should prices push toward the $90 area.”

Overnight saw mixed data from API on crude/product supply, all eyes now on the official data.

API

• Crude -564k

• Cushing +200k

• Gasoline -1.664mm

• Distillates +2.3mm

DOE

• Crude -1.69mm (-900k exp)

• Cushing +430k

• Gasoline -1.53mm

• Distillates +4.56mm - biggest build since Jan 2026

After a build the prior week, crude stocks resumed their series of drawdowns last week (11 of last 12 weeks) and gasoline stocks also saw another draw while distillate stocks soared (amid record 3-2-1 crack spreads)...

Crack spreads remain at record highs...

The SPR saw yet another drawdown... but the smallest since the war-driven releases began (-2.985mm)...

Cushing stocks barely moved off 'tank bottoms'...

US crude production pushed back up to record highs as the rig count trends higher...

Interestingly, after reaching record highs in the prior week, US crude product exports plunged to pre-war norms last week (but bear in mind this data series is a week lagged)...

The rebound in crude... and more notably products... has started to drag pump prices higher in the US...

Not what President trump wants to see.

But oil prices are dipping after the report...

Finally, as The FT reports, oil traders are warning that the latest flare-up of tensions in the Strait of Hormuz marks a risky new phase for the market, which is facing fresh disruption without the stockpiles that helped avert a wider economic crisis earlier in the US-Iran war.

“We’ve burned through all of the buffers we had. Everything,” said one trader.

“All of that’s now gone,” he said.

Western powers released record volumes of strategic oil reserves, China cut its oil imports in half and made its state-backed companies pull fuel from inventories, while the White House even let it be known the US could, in theory at least, intervene in futures markets if prices got out of hand.

The result was that Brent crude peaked at $126 a barrel in April, well below its all-time high, despite the IEA warning that the world was experiencing the worst supply disruption in history.

But traders said that if the renewed closure of the strait lasts for months, with some suspecting Iran wants to keep the pressure on US President Donald Trump ahead of the November midterm elections, it is not clear this time where the oil to make up the shortfall would come from.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 10:40

"Going To Rock A Lot Of Things": Pentair Crashes After Guidance Cut And CFO Exit As Pool Boom Fades

Pentair shares crashed in early U.S. cash trading after the swimming pool equipment and water treatment systems company slashed its 2026 outlook. Preliminary second-quarter results also missed estimates, while the sudden departure of its CFO raises questions about the company's trajectory and whether the Covid-era pool boom has finally run its course.

Pentair now expects full-year adjusted earnings of $4.60 to $4.80 per share, down from prior estimates of $5.30 to $5.40, and well below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $5.33.

Preliminary second quarter sales were about $930 million, while adjusted earnings of roughly $1.12 per share missed the $1.47 consensus.

Goldman analysts told clients earlier:

Watching PNR down 18% pre-market – big guide down last night + CFO resigning. This is going to rock a lot of things consumer today – PNR sells equipment into the pool end market. POOL HAYW are the other names people will sell. But broad negative read.

The Covid-era pool boom boosted Pentair's revenues beginning in the second half of 2020, and quarterly revenues have since flatlined around $1 billion.

Here's what other Wall Street analysts are saying (courtesy of Bloomberg):

RBC Capital Markets (sector perform from outperform)

• Analyst Deane Dray downgrades to sector perform after a "negative preannouncement, full year guidance cut, and surprise CFO departure after just four months in the role"
• Says Pool channel destocking is "clearly proving far worse" than previously communicated by management; says lack of visibility of recovery makes it a "show-me story for now"

TD Cowen (sell)

• Analyst Joe Giordano sees a "significant" miss and that "magnitude of the reset highlights questions around market share dynamics and underlying market health into 2027"
• Says announcement suggests "more extreme" underperformance, "sizeable" change in market dynamics, or combination of both

Citi (buy)

• Analyst Andrew Kaplowitz says quarterly revenue miss was "meaningful," flagging company commentary that Pool channel inventory weighed on results
• Say that even with leadership and business changes "we acknowledge that remaining 3Q destocking actions and investor concern around PNR's Pool market share could keep shares pressured in the near-term"

It remains unclear how or when Pentair's pool business will recover. Perhaps lower interest rates and another pandemic-driven home improvement boom are what it will take to revive demand.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 10:35

We Have The Tools/Tolls To Do It

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Markets were delighted by US CPI data. Against a backdrop of oil up nearly double digits they instead got a number closer to a future trimmed mean measure without that nasty volatility, even if it was a fall in gasoline prices that resulted in the -0.4% m-o-m headline and 0.0% core prints.

Warsh modelled the New Model Army he wants to see central bankers being: he refused to say ‘mission accomplished’ on inflation: “We have the tools to do it” is perhaps being the new “Whatever it takes.” However, he didn’t want to talk about what he thought on rates: markets had to do that themselves, and they took CPI to mean less Fed tightening.

The Middle East’s new models of arms will get a big say on that. In Hormuz, the US naval blockade of Iranian ports is now back in effect, with enforcement of sanctions, and the two sides are trading blows across the strait, if not the deadliest they are capable of. Yet President Trump is again threatening to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week if no deal is reached; Axios reports that Trump just held a Situation Room meeting on massive new strikes that are wide enough in scope to force Tehran to back off in Hormuz; the Houthis might threaten the Red Sea after announcing Saudi airspace is not safe for overflight; and Israeli PM Netanyahu warned Iran if his country is attacked, the response will be a “decisive blow.”

There are more positive signs too. Israel-Lebanon talks continue in Rome, along with a surprise Trump press conference call for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and Syria that is unlikely to mean much on the ground. Trump also just hosted Iraq’s PM for talks on a final US troop withdrawal set for end-September, Iran, and oil - where the US is supporting efforts to revive an Iraq-Syria crude oil pipeline as another Hormuz workaround.

Trump also dropped his 20% Hormuz toll in favor of GCC FDI pledges into the US. Take Trump seriously (the US is not going to fight for free) not literally (the toll was impractical short of a full state-press vs the private sector); and will those who fight alongside the US see their FDI contribution commensurately lower? A more obvious carrot and stick is the Wall Street Journal underlining the UAE was rewarded with coveted US AI chips for supporting the war.

At a more meta level than the Financial Times -- opining Trump has no clear path to victory vs. Iran -- sees, stop to Hor-muse over this idea for a moment too:

1. The US national security strategy openly calls for control of maritime chokepoints.
2. That must include Hormuz and its energy flows.
3. That’s very expensive --and hard-- to achieve and maintain.
4. Yet someone else controlling Hormuz is even more expensive, geostrategically.
5. So, if the US starts a war to control Hormuz but can’t, even if it gains during fighting as an LNG and helium exporter, why not then ensure the strait is not a chokepoint?
6. How better to achieve that than to ensure Hormuz remains in on-off chaos long enough that friends’ pipelines and new oil supply eventually reduce it to more of a sideshow?
7. Seen that way, though the US went into this war wanting ‘Venezuela 2.0’, within limits, it has rolling optionality on other outcomes that suit its geostrategy - and it “has the tolls to do it.”

Brent is still stable at $85-86, in line with our energy analyst Joe Delaura’s expectations, following the aggressive short squeeze just seen. For more from him, and Florence Schmit on LNG, see here.

There is also more recognition of the incredible success of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s Sea of Azov fleet, which Moscow is calling terrorism. Imagine that transplanted elsewhere…

Meanwhile, President Macron used Bastille Day to showcase Europe's defense ambitions and will allow Ukraine to build French defense systems there; but the head of Germany’s Luftwaffe warned Europe has “no time” to counter Putin without US weapons. Somebody who should know thinks that Europe doesn’t have the tools to do it.

US Under Secretary of War Colby had a blunt social media message in a related regard, not just for Europe, but for Australia and Canada, among others: “There is a great deal of hubbub about a collective “middle powers” strategy these days. At the Department of War, we are not concerned that this is a serious possibility. Rather, we are more concerned that a few allies and partners will *think it is* and waste valuable time, money, and political capital on a distraction.”

Just before that, UK Chancellor Reeves gave an annual Mansion House speech which sounded like an interview to keep her job under PM Burnham by focusing on devolution, postcodes, “economic security is national security,” “securonomics,” and “industrial strategy.” Yet she didn’t mention tariffs as the tools to do it when statecraft logic, which she implies is being embraced, says this cannot happen without them. Then again, Reeves also sounded like she would like to rejoin the EU if possible, so that tariff decision hypothetically wouldn’t be any UK government’s to make anyway.

For its part, Europe will look at yesterday’s China-EU trade data, with the Chinese surplus surging yet again, and the report that China is targeting strategic sectors in the Netherlands as Dutch technology and companies offer Beijing outsize influence over value chains, and thinking about what it needs to do re: trade come October.

Likewise, Chinese Q2 GDP today was 4.3% y-o-y, lower than the 4.5% consensus, but 0.9% q-o-q expectations, and the y-o-y year-to-date (YTD) figure was 4.7% vs. 4.8%. Within that, retail sales for June were 1.0% y-o-y and 1.3% y-o-y YTD, while industrial production was 5.3% y-o-y vs. 4.6% consensus and 5.4% y-o-y YTD. Fixed asset investment was -5.7% y-o-y YTD, worse than -5.0% expected. In short, consumers are spending little, investment is declining (with property investment -18% y-o-y YTD and new house prices -0.3% m-o-m), yet industry is booming: that either means stockpiles are building or exports are flooding the world.

It’s the latter, clearly, as China’s economic statecraft has the tools to do it: for example, it now not only makes the tools Germany used to, but the tool-making machines it used to. Now let’s all say “securonomics” or “strategic autonomy” again and see what happens next.

Aside from tools and tolls, markets can also note that China just increased its holdings of US Treasuries, as Japan’s Finance Ministry is floating JGBs in tax-free accounts amid a GPIF portfolio review to incentivise its vast funds to keep more cash at home not abroad. What if (or when) other major economies follow suit to try to deal with the vast bills looming for a true “securonomics”?

In the meantime, enjoy headlines such as ‘Wall Street Traders Seize on Fervour and Fear to Set Records’ and ‘IBM Acting Like a Penny Stock Is a Sign of Times’ on your Bloomberg screen.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 10:00

The post Blocking the Paramount-Warner Merger: Keeping the Trumpers from Owning Everything appeared first on CEPR.

Why Central Banks Love A Gold Sell-Off

Via SchiffSovereign.com,

On July 7, Bloomberg published an article with the headline: “Gold’s Bull Market Has Ended and Now All Eyes Are on Bears,” explaining how many retail investors have headed for the exits.

That same day, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, reported its largest monthly gold purchase since 2023.

Of course, June marked its twentieth consecutive month of adding gold to its reserves. Central banks are relatively price insensitive. They buy gold as a long term hedge to preserve value, not to trade back for more paper.

But they aren’t stupid either, and this shows they are buying the dip.

Gold peaked at $5,589 per ounce on January 28 and trades around $4,000 today, roughly 28% below the high. The second quarter was gold’s worst since 2013. Investors have pulled about $18 billion out of gold ETFs since the peak, much of it late money that piled in during last year’s frenzy and bolted the moment momentum broke.

But the price is not the story. The story is what central banks are doing.

Central banks have been the dominant force in gold since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the US froze $300 billion of Russia’s central bank reserves, and every finance ministry on earth learned that dollar assets were not the safe havens they’d believed.

In 2024, central banks bought 1,090 tons of gold, close to an all-time record.

That massive demand made gold expensive. The price nearly doubled from its 2025 low, and central bank buying slowed to 863 tons. That was still higher than historical averages, but down 21% from the year before.

The slowdown was not fading interest; it was price discipline. Central banks are not traders chasing momentum. They are savers accumulating a reserve asset, and like any sensible saver, they buy less when the thing they are saving in gets expensive.

And they speed back up when it goes on sale. In the first quarter of this year central banks bought 244 tons, more than the previous quarter and above the five-year average. China alone has added about 40 tons in the first six months of 2026, compared to just 27 tons in all of 2025. The People’s Bank of China bought more gold last month, with the price down nearly 30% from its high, than in any single month of the entire run-up.

The reason is simple: nothing has changed about why they buy.

The World Gold Council, the industry group that tracks official gold demand, surveyed 76 central banks this year. Seventy-four percent said they expect the dollar’s share of global reserves to be lower five years from now.

These are the institutions that actually hold the world’s reserves, and they are telling you, on the record, that they plan to keep moving away from the dollar.

None of their reasons went away when the price fell. The US national debt keeps growing by trillions, Congress has no plan beyond borrowing more, and Washington keeps proving it will continue to weaponize the dollar.

A central bank holding dollars is holding the liability of a government that is both overextended and unpredictable. Gold sitting in its own vault carries neither risk.

That calculus was true at $5,589, and it is just as true at $4,000.

A trader who is down 28% has a problem if they are trying to quickly turn a profit, and accumulate more paper dollars.

But a saver who plans to accumulate gold for the next decade just got a better price. That is why the sell-off did not scare away the biggest buyers in the market.

It may be exactly what they were waiting for.

We made this argument to our subscribers of our investment research newsletter, Strategic Assets, in January.

With gold near its all-time high, we said that this was no longer the early stage of a bull market, that a major drawdown was a real possibility, and that it was time to take some profits.

In fact, subscribers who took action on our research locked in gains of more than 950% on a small silver producer and 540% on a gold and silver producer, both in under a year.

Now the sell-off has come for the miners too. Even solid, debt-free producers are trading as much as 50% below their highs from earlier this year.

But again, as nothing had changed about the long term gold thesis, little has changed about the profitability of these companies. They are still wildly profitable at $4,000 gold, which is far above projections they had planned for.

Some of these companies are still pulling gold out of the ground at a cost of just $1,000 an ounce, which is an amazing margin.

So we are starting to buy again.

It is the same discipline the central banks just demonstrated: slow down when the asset is expensive, step up when it gets cheap, and never confuse a price correction with a change in the story.

Nobody knows where gold trades next month. But the biggest buyers on earth just showed you what they do when gold gets cheaper. They buy more.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 09:20

Man Fleeing ICE Agents Struck, Killed By Semi-Truck In Florida

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

A 28-year-old man died early on July 14 after he ran into the path of a tractor-trailer on State Road 16 in St. Augustine, Florida, moments after running from federal immigration agents at a nearby gas station.

Florida Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan said the sequence of events started in the parking lot of a convenience store just before 7 a.m.

Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were at the scene when four people ran off.

One of them ran across the road straight into oncoming traffic when he was hit by a semi-truck.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver was uninjured.

State troopers are handling the investigation. The man’s name hasn’t been released.

Authorities have not shared much information about the four people who tried to flee on Tuesday morning or exactly why agents contacted them in the first place.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

It was the third death in a week during ICE incidents, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.

In Texas, an ICE officer fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico during a targeted enforcement operation in Houston after the man used his vehicle to try to run over an agent.

In Maine, an illegal immigrant with a final order of removal was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford after he attempted to flee in his vehicle during a traffic stop.

A day later, border czar Tom Homan told Fox News on Tuesday that ICE is temporarily suspending most vehicle stops nationwide.

“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan said.

“ICE leadership along with DHS believes they want to look at these last couple incidents and look: Is there something that could have been done better? Is there any training that can be improved? Or is it simply ICE doing a job, and bad things happen when people don’t comply with law enforcement officers?”

Homan stressed that the pause on most vehicle stops will not reduce the frequency of arrests ICE agents make of illegal immigrants. Officers can still apprehend individuals as they exit their homes before getting into a vehicle, or after they arrive at their destination, the border czar said. He cited a surge in vehicle assaults on federal agents since President Donald Trump returned to the White House as the reason for the change.

“If we can arrest that alien outside that vehicle and take that two-ton weapon away from them, that’s good in some instances,” Homan said. “Other instances, we’re still going to need to do vehicle stops for a significant criminal.”

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 08:45

July Rate-Hike Off The Table After Producer Price Inflation Drops Most Since COVID

Following yesterday's much cooler than expected, Goldman's Rich Privorotsky notes that today’s PPI print matters more for the core PCE read-through (Fed's favorite inflation indicator), particularly healthcare and financial services.

While May's headline PPI print was hot, core was cooler than expected, and June's data release today was expected to show no change in headline producer prices.

In fact, like with CPI, headline Producer prices actually saw deflation (-0.3% MoM), equaling the biggest monthly decline since April 2020. The annual pace of producer price gains slowed to 5.5% (well below the 6.2% expected) and May's big jump was revised notably lower also...

While Services remain with modest inflation, Goods are in significant deflation now...

Core PPI (ex Food and Energy) printed +0.2% MoM, cooler than the +0.3% MoM expected, and May's rise was revised notably lower leaving Core prices up 4.7% YoY (vs +54.1% YoY exp)...

Energy was the biggest driver of the headline deflation, but Food and Transportation also saw MoM price declines...

PPI MoM dropped -0.3%, below est of 0.0%, and down from a 0.6% increase in May (revised from +1.1%). PPI rose 5.5% for the 12 months ended in June. Core PPI rose 0.1% MoM in June, a drop from the 0.8% in May; On a YoY basis, core PPI rose 5.5%, a drop from 6.0% in May.

The June PPI decline can be attributed to prices for final demand goods, which fell 1.4%. In contrast, the index for final demand services moved up 0.2%.

Final demand goods: The index for final demand goods moved down 1.4%R in June, the largest decrease since falling 1.9% in July 2022. Leading the decline in June, prices for final demand energy dropped 6.4 percent. The index for final demand foods moved down 0.6 percent. Conversely, prices for final demand goods less foods and energy increased 0.2 percent.

• Product detail: Nearly two-thirds of the June decline in the index for final demand goods can be traced to prices for gasoline, which dropped 12.0 percent. The indexes for diesel fuel, jet fuel, fresh vegetables (except potatoes), crude petroleum, and thermoplastic resins and materials also fell. In contrast, prices for plastic products advanced 1.6 percent. The indexes for residential electric power and for potatoes also increased.

Final demand services: The index for final demand services rose 0.2% in June after falling 0.1% in May. Over 60 percent of the advance can be attributed to margins for final demand trade services, which moved up 0.4 percent. (Trade indexes measure changes in margins received by wholesalers and retailers.) Prices for final demand services less trade, transportation, and warehousing increased 0.1%. Conversely, the index for final demand transportation and warehousing services declined 0.1%.

• Product detail: Half of the June increase in the index for final demand services can be traced to margins for fuels and lubricants retailing, which jumped 13.0 percent. The indexes for securities brokerage, dealing, and investment advice; furniture retailing; apparel, jewelry, footwear, and accessories retailing; loan services (partial); and inpatient care also rose. In contrast, margins for machinery and vehicle wholesaling declined 8.4 percent. The indexes for food and alcohol wholesaling and for deposit services (partial) also fell.

And it appears, like with CPI, that Energy's impact on inflation has peaked with prices...

Services did pick up from May's deflation...

Additionally, according to the data, Memory prices also dipped...

Following this print's confirmation of easing inflation angst, July is effectively off the table (technically 9% chance still priced), while September remains live (45%)...

Unless core inflation reaccelerates, Goldman's Privorotsky says rate pricing should remain close to current levels.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 08:38

My mid-week morning train WFH reads:

•  Developers Are In On The Joke: Apologize Later: Jonathan Miller on developers who build first and beg forgiveness after. The oldest play in real estate. NYC Development Legend Harry Macklowe’s Midnight Demolitions (Housing Notes)

• Why recruiters can’t find workers and new grads can’t find jobs (it’s not AI): The Post digs into why recruiters can’t find workers while new grads can’t find jobs — and no, it’s not AI. A hiring market full of broken signals. Experts say a major labor shortage looms because of population shifts and a mismatch between new graduates’ skills and employers’ needs. (Washington Post) But See Remote Work Leaves Younger Workers Sidelined. Youth unemployment has risen dramatically since the pandemic—as has the prevalence of remote work.The New York Fed’s research shows early-career workers are being disproportionately harmed by remote arrangements — less mentoring, fewer network connections, slower skill development. Analysis suggests that these trends are related, with remote work making it more difficult for managers to train and mentor new employees The people who need the office most are the ones least likely to be in it. (Liberty Street Economics)

• You should be glad your boss is so well paid: Because it probably means you’re being paid well too.  (FT Alphaville free)

• What Are the Chances of Your Prediction Being Right? I have a question for you. If you take all of the hearts from a standard deck of 52 playing cards, and then lay them out one by one, in how many different orders can the 13 cards be dealt? Joe Wiggins on the odds your market prediction is actually right — and why the honest answer should keep forecasters humble. (Behavioural Investment)

• Why the Bipartisan Housing Bill Can Still Become Law – Despite Trump’s Refusal to Sign: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed easily through both chambers of Congress in a rare display of bipartisanship, would ban large institutional investors from purchasing additional single-family homes. US News on why the bipartisan housing bill can still become law despite Trump’s refusal to sign. Procedural arcana, meet housing crisis. (US News)

• One of sci-fi’s most difficult questions about AI is becoming real: The rapid spread of chatbots and AI agents is intensifying a debate over who should be held responsible when something goes wrong. (Washington Post)

• How Putin Turned Japan Into a Den of Spies: Operating out of a Tokyo high-rise, a military intelligence unit finds the high-tech equipment that Russia needs to wage war. How Putin turned Japan into a den of spies: Russian intelligence quietly mining Japanese tech and industry for the war effort. (New York Times) see also Japan Is Building a New Intelligence Agency With Help From the West: Facing threats from Russia and China, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is breaking with World War II-era limits on security. Japan is standing up a real intelligence agency with Western help — a big deal for a country that’s been allergic to spycraft since 1945. (New York Times)

• Aspiring to Regional Domination, Iran Is Ready to Escalate Over Hormuz: New outbreak of fighting over the strait comes as Tehran sees itself as a winner in the war that would establish a new Pax Iranica in the Middle East. Iran isn’t bluffing on the Strait. The Wall Street Journal reports on Tehran’s military posture and its willingness to escalate — with global energy markets as collateral. = (Wall Street Journal)

• The 35-year-old powering Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones: Andrew Watt listened obsessively to rock as a teenager. Now, he considers all of his heroes — from Elton John to Mick Jagger — to be friends. Meet Andrew Watt, the 35-year-old producer powering late-career McCartney and the Stones. The Post profiles rock’s favorite whisperer. Andrew Watt listened obsessively to rock as a teenager. Now, he considers all of his heroes — from Elton John to Mick Jagger — to be friends. (Washington Post)

• Norway turn World Cup heartbreak into celebration as huge crowds pack Oslo: Norway loses the World Cup final and Oslo throws a party anyway. Huge crowds, zero bitterness — imagine that. More than 100,000 fans flooded the streets of Oslo, Norway’s capital, to give their team a warm welcome, turning the heartbreak of their World Cup exit into ⁠a massive national celebration. (The Guardian) see also Why is tiny Norway so good at sports? It’s more than Erling Haaland.  A youth system built on joy and participation instead of early specialization. One answer is that, from the youngest ages, Norway thinks about sports in a radically different way. In Norway, teams do not keep score before children turn 11, and the players cannot be separated into ranks until they are 12 or 13. Sports begin not as a race to the top, but as a constitutionally guaranteed social benefit for all, a place to learn, grow, and – perhaps most importantly – have fun. (Christian Science Monitor)

Video of the day: Why Tesla Sales are Falling Short in the U.S.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with McKeel Hagerty, CEO and Chairman of Hagerty. We discuss how he transformed the family boat insurance business into a “sexy” driver-forward business. We also discuss our love of collectable cars and his love of his first car, a Porsche, that he bought at the age of 13.

 

How many Americans are using AI — and how?

Source: USA Facts

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

 

The post 10 Wednesday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Can Britain's Next Prime Minister Escape The Net-Zero Trap?

Authored by Diana Furchtgott-Roth via Civitas Outlook,

Andy Burnham has a chance to restore sanity to British politics by choosing domestic production over Chinese renewables.

Britain is suffering from disruptions in both weather and politics as a heat wave grips a country where only four percent of homes have air conditioning. Sir Keir Starmer has resigned as Labour Prime Minister, and former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, elected earlier this month as MP from Makerfield, is slated to replace him.

Since former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May signed Britain up to the amended Climate Change Act in 2019, a binding law requiring a 100 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, Britain has had five Prime Ministers. This outpaces Italy, which has had three, long the byword for political instability in the Western world.

After Mrs. May herself, Britain cycled through Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, and now Sir Keir—none of them popular, none of them successful, all of them departing under economic pressure and in failure. This general dissatisfaction is not a coincidence, but linked to higher energy prices, which reduce growth and employment.

But today’s disruptions could be useful if Sir Keir’s resignation opened a window for Britain to reset its energy policy. Mr. Burnham, dubbed the King of the North, has already signaled that he wants affordable power and British jobs, especially in Britain’s north.

In his victory speech after winning his return to Parliament, Mr. Burnham declared:

“We do need to bring down water bills, energy bills, rail fares, just as we brought down bus fares in Greater Manchester, to make life more affordable for people.”

If he means it, energy is the place to start.

Britain pays 42 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. Germany, Europe’s other great champion of the green transition, pays 43 cents. The United States, which has no national Net Zero law, pays 20 cents, less than half. Almost every EU country with binding emissions targets pays above 30 cents.

European policy choices have mandated expensive generation, loaded green levies onto bills, and prematurely wound down reliable conventional power. The Brits are paying a Net Zero surcharge on every unit of electricity they consume, every single day, with no measurable effect on global temperatures in 2100. And Britain’s wind and solar dependency funnels money to Chinese state-subsidized manufacturers and workers rather than British ones.

This means slower UK growth. Since the end of 2019, before the pandemic, the United States has recorded total GDP growth of 15.1 percent, compared to just 6 percent for the UK. Forecasts offer little comfort: the OECD projects UK growth of just 0.8 percent in 2026, against 2.3 percent for the United States. Countries with the highest electricity prices are growing the slowest.

And it’s not like Britain is getting top value for its money. Two weeks ago, temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) reduced the efficiency of UK solar panels, and a lack of wind stalled the wind turbines. With electricity demand running at about 36 gigawatts, Britain had to import 20 percent of its electricity from the European Union.

The good news is that Mr. Burnham, with his flexible views, can take a different path.

Britain is not a resource-poor nation forced to depend on foreign suppliers, but a resource-rich nation that has chosen dependency through planning rules, regulatory obstruction, and a Net Zero framework that treats domestic oil and gas production as a moral failing rather than a strategic necessity.

In the short run, Britain could produce more North Sea oil and gas and approve stalled domestic natural gas projects. In the long run, Britain could speed up permitting for nuclear power plants, including new technologies such as floating nuclear reactors in harbors, as proposed by the British company Core Power.

Britain now imports oil and gas from Norway rather than allowing British workers to be well paid to extract them from the same North Sea—and pay taxes on the earnings. While Britain sits on the sidelines, Norway’s Equinor is raising output projections for the Norwegian continental shelf due to technological improvements and rising demand.

Mr. Burnham can move forward with offshore projects in the North Sea and North Atlantic totaling between 157,000 and 162,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with combined lifetime recoverable reserves ranging from 560 million to 920 million barrels of oil equivalent. Ithaca Energy’s Cambo project and Adura’s Rosebank and Jackdaw fields are all currently awaiting approval.

Adura estimates that Rosebank and Jackdaw will generate almost $38 billion in gross value added over their lifespans, generate almost $2 billion in tax revenues before the end of the current Parliament in 2029, and support 3,500 jobs.

In addition, the Gainsborough Trough, a major sedimentary basin between Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, holds about 16 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, equivalent to 2,750 million barrels of oil. With hydrofracturing, it could power Britain for ten years and create a quarter of a million jobs. Egdon Resources has long wanted to develop it, and no government funds would be needed.

Using these domestic resources would create well-paying jobs in northern communities that have seen manufacturing and mining decline over decades—precisely the area that Mr. Burnham wants to win from Reform.

To achieve Mr. Burnham’s desired growth, the government must remove the planning restrictions, the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, and the regulatory framework that makes hydrocarbon investment impossible. Mr. Burnham needs to say plainly that Britain’s growth matters more than the approval of green lobbying groups.

The question is whether Mr. Burnham will move Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband to the coveted position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Miliband has been the defining force in Sir Keir’s Cabinet against developing a realistic energy policy.

Mr. Miliband now presides over the planning regime that blocks hydrocarbon development, and it is his ideology, the belief that Britain can lead the world to Net Zero by making itself dependent on foreign energy while foreigners burn their own, that keeps British electricity rates among the highest in the world.

If Mr. Miliband were promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer, he would oversee balancing the budget, or at least minimizing the deficit, and he might see energy production in an entirely different light. As current Chancellor Rachel Reeves has discovered, raising taxes and taking away senior citizens’ winter fuel credits are unpopular options (and may cost her her position).

Unfortunately, Mr. Burnham has floated the idea of nationalizing energy companies and other public infrastructure, even though money would have to be borrowed, taxed, or diverted from other priorities. Public ownership of expensive infrastructure would not achieve Mr. Burnham’s objective of lowering prices. The history of state-owned enterprises in Britain, reversed by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is a history of inefficiency, underinvestment, and costs ultimately borne by taxpayers. What Mr. Burnham needs is private investment in cheap domestic production.

Energy is foundational to economic growth and to the costs of manufacturing, transportation, heating, and food production and storage. When governments require shifts from cheaper to more expensive energy options (such as from fossil fuels to more expensive renewables), they raise energy costs across the entire economy. Higher energy costs result in higher prices for goods and services, squeezing household budgets and eroding real wages.

Businesses facing higher power bills invest less, hire fewer workers, and, in some cases, relocate to cheaper jurisdictions abroad. The result is an economy that grows more slowly than it should, generates fewer job opportunities than it could, and delivers lower living standards than voters expect. People pay more for electricity and gas, groceries, and gasoline. And they take it out on whoever is leading the country. In Britain, this is the Prime Minister.

For years, Britain has turned its back on its own hydrocarbon wealth in pursuit of wind and solar targets that have driven up bills, exported jobs, and left the country dependent on imported LNG priced by global markets. The paradox is glaring: Britain sits atop significant untapped gas reserves yet pays premium prices for fuel shipped from abroad.

The economics are straightforward. North Sea drilling and domestic gas development are cheaper than the combined cost of offshore wind, grid expansion, and the battery storage needed to cover the days the wind doesn’t blow. Every pound spent on domestic production is a pound that stays in Britain, is taxed in Britain, and is employed in Britain rather than enriching foreign exporters.

Burnham says he wants to be the voice of the North. Here is his chance to prove it. An energy policy built around private investment in domestic production, lower bills, and British jobs recognizes that the transition must work for working people, not just for the investment banks financing wind farms.

Reform is siphoning off votes from both Labour and the Conservatives because it speaks to the cost of living in terms voters recognize. Mr. Burnham can occupy that ground without abandoning Labour’s broader commitments, simply by insisting that British energy for British homes comes before imported energy at any price.

Partly due to the costs of its Net Zero laws, Britain has burned through five Prime Ministers and is paying some of the highest electricity prices in the world. The King of the North has a chance to change that if he chooses a different path.

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 06:30

"Deport Criminals Who Steal Or Kill": Spanish Model Blasts Barcelona's Immigration Crisis

Via Remix News,

Influencer and model Jessica Goicoechea has posted a video on her social media channels in which she openly criticizes the insecurity she believes plagues Barcelona and details the personal measures she has taken to protect herself. In the clip, Goicoechea displays several security items she recently bought in Andorra, including 4 bottles of pepper sprays and a taser gun, which she describes as her "new essentials."

The video ends with a direct message: "Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona."

??? JUST IN: Spanish model Jessica Goicoechea shows off her 4 bottles of pepper spray and a Taser gun while speaking out against immigration.

"Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona," she said.

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea wrote a statement explaining that... pic.twitter.com/ATZYvfkOaX

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 13, 2026

The publication quickly sparked intense debate across social platforms. While some users criticized her for publicly showcasing self-defense weapons, many others - particularly women - expressed support and inquired about where similar products could be purchased. In response, Goicoechea stated that she is receiving "infinite messages" from women seeking ways to protect themselves. She defended her actions by saying that, given the current situation, she believes "if you don't protect yourself, no one will."

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea followed up with a written statement. She explained that she had never wanted to enter debates about safety or immigration but felt compelled to speak out because conditions have deteriorated.

"I'm never going to shut up again," she declared. The model described living in fear while walking the streets of Barcelona and highlighted what she called a daily increase in stabbings and shootings that she becomes aware of almost constantly.

In the same statement, Goicoechea emphasized that her concerns are not aimed at immigration in general but specifically at individuals who commit crimes. She pointed to recidivism, impunity, and insufficient controls on people with serious criminal records as the core issues.

"The problem is not where someone comes from, but how they behave," she maintained.

Addressing comments under her video, Goicoechea responded to one follower who linked Barcelona's rising crime to immigration by saying she "100% agrees."

?? "They started hitting me in the stomach and in the face."

A Polish model, attacked by a group of migrants in Milan, spoke to Polish media about her experience.

The attack only ended abruptly thanks to the heroics of an Italian man who intervened.

The report links the attack... pic.twitter.com/ln1Rds6mTN

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 9, 2026

"It all stems from political mistakes, regardless of the party's political color, due to poor immigration planning," read the comment she agreed with.

She later clarified that this agreement applied only to those who engage in criminal activity. She argued that "if you come to steal or kill, I prefer you be deported."

Goicoechea reiterated that her goal is to call for improved street safety and a firmer response to crime. "I believe that demanding safe streets and firm laws against those who come to commit crimes is essential and common sense," she concluded in the statement shared on her profiles.

????Poland is much safer than the US, says Polish-American supermodel Joanna Krupa.

She directly refers to the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was killed by a career criminal with 14 convictions.

"I certainly feel more secure in Poland than in the States."... pic.twitter.com/eCGIieS5nG

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 23, 2025

Her comments arrive amid a series of violent incidents recorded across Catalonia in recent weeks, including approximately thirty firearms-related events, many concentrated in the Barcelona metropolitan area. These have been accompanied by frequent robberies and assaults that continue to affect both local residents and tourists, often generating significant public attention.

Other European models have delivered similar messages about crime concerns in the past, including Polish-American supermodel Joanna Krupa.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Wed, 07/15/2026 - 02:00

Iran War 3.0: Where Did This All Go Wrong?

Authored by Alastair Crooke

When the US Navy, in co-ordination with Qatar and Oman, tried to slip a convoy of four vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, via Omani waters, last Tuesday night – rather than pass via Iran’s officially approved route – Trump may have imagined (or been told) that with the massive funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei under way, that Iran would not react as the US Navy attempted to force open an American corridor. Trump however, misread the Iranian jibe – Hormuz is its “atomic weapon.” Iran will not relinquish it.

Trump insists – in clear contradiction to the terms set out in paragraph five of the MoU – that Iran has no right to interfere with any ship trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Iran nonetheless is acting within the terms of the agreed de-escalation framework, and has warned repeatedly that it would strike any vessel circumventing the Iranian control mechanism.

Iran responded directly to Trump’s challenge to Iranian control of the Strait by striking two vessels with missiles and a third with an armed drone. A forth Qatari-owned tanker, laden with liquefied natural gas, was set ablaze, forcing its crew to abandon the stricken vessel.

These Iranian ripostes provoked Trump to order American air strikes against Iranian targets; to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports; and to revoke the MoU framework he had signed with what he called the “Iranian scum” – thus ending the ceasefire. “We hit them hard last night,” Trump said at the NATO summit in Ankara. “We will probably hit them hard again tonight.”

Trump did hit Iran again Wednesday night – even though Iran had not attacked another vessel seeking to by-pass the Iranian corridor. In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Muwaffaq Al-Salti airbase in Jordan.

Vice-President Vance is saying to Iran, “If you try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the American military will respond. It’s that simple” – i.e. Iran either keeps the Strait fully open to all, or the US will keep hitting it, as it did on Tuesday night.

Iran insists that it is the US that has violated the MoU and (via the spokesman for Iran’s Parliamentary National Security Committee) warns that further attacks by the US on Iran will be met by a comprehensive all-out surprise offensive by Iran – and potentially by other options too, such as an Iranian withdrawal from the NPT, changing the country’s nuclear doctrine, and closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait alongside the Strait of Hormuz.

So, Vice-President Vance is saying if Iran restricts Hormuz (i.e. it stays open to friendly states’ vessels) the US will escalate. And Iran is responding to this threat by warning that it will escalate militarily – two strikes for every one American strike – and that they may also turn to new doctrines of warfare.

Essentially, Trump has plunged into an escalatory trap, seemingly in part out of pique at his collapsing polls at home. He did, however, directly put himself in this situation by trying to “act cute” during the Khamenei funeral pre-occupations in order to try to gain a “quick win.”

How long will this escalatory episode last? Certainly, it will not lead to the opening of the Strait; nor bring a return of the status quo ante that preceded the war. As long as Iran maintains its ability to exert control over Hormuz, there is no basis to assume that the situation will return to what it was.

On the contrary, and more likely, the crisis will accelerate the onset of looming global economic crisis that could last until the economic pain becomes acute, as the drawdown on sour crude continues – and as the effects on the real economy in the West become visible.

With shortages of munitions and the drawdown on air assets from the Middle East already beginning, Trump probably lacks the wherewithal to go full “Iran War 3.0.”

The timeline to this new bout of low-intensity tit-for-tat therefore, is likely dictated by refinery inventories in the US; but also by the extent of the “hurt” being experienced by Trump back home in the context of his fading political prospects, but also by his dislike for any personal humiliation.

Where did this all go wrong? Possibly the crux of it derives from the moment that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Sayyed Mojtaba, issued his statement that he had held a different view on the MoU to that of the negotiating team, but had agreed to proceed with it after receiving an assurance from the Iranian President that he would ensure and take into account Iran’s overarching principles in respect to relations with the US.

The Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei’s statement put on notice both the US – and the Iranian negotiators – that Iran’s approval of the MoU was no open mandate, but rather closely tied to the 10 principles originally enunciated by the new Supreme Leader.

At some point, the Iranian leadership seemingly came to the conclusion that Iran was being played by the US; that the MoU was a deception –

…and that the entirety of events since the announcement of the MoU reflected a US strategy based on the view that in the previous round of the war against Iran – [that the US and Israel] failed to achieve their objectives – necessitating a halt to the confrontation, albeit temporarily, in order to regroup and prepare “more thoroughly” for a new round when the right conditions arise.

This led to the Iranian reassessment that the Hormuz and Lebanon components constituted the vital leverage to engage in a new war as the West ramps up pressure as a holding strategy – whilst the US and Israel prepare for the next round of war.

The interim US strategy is no change to US-Israeli objectives, but rather an adjustment to their operational mechanisms to provide for certain compromises that Washington considers necessary (i.e. closer working with Turkey and via Erdogan to engage Syria’s Jolani) to reshuffle the Lebanon deck, and then to “assess how the cards lie,” as Vance outlined.

It is not certain that this new US policy will work. The world is changing rapidly. Their expected triumph of Israel over the Middle East has resulted in failure. Trump’s MoU ploy to open Hormuz likely will fail, too.

The connected war on Russia and the siege of China are faltering too – and Israel’s (until now unassailable) hold over the US is in question too. A senior US democrat, Rahm Emanuel, and potential 2028 US Democratic presidential candidate, spoke in Israel yesterday; he warned in no uncertain terms that Israel “has lost the world’s support, become a ‘regional pariah,’ [and that its] alliance with the US is ‘at a crossroads’.”

And finally, a “black swan” now can be observed swimming in increasingly sunlit waters – Eric Katz writing in Notus writes that, “a draft report inside the US Treasury Department is set to warn of the risks posed by the artificial intelligence market, likening key aspects of it to the dotcom bubble that upended the US economy when it burst in the early 2000s.”

Treasury analysts wrote –

Career Treasury analysts found that AI firms are more deeply entrenched in the US economy than their dotcom predecessors and pose significant risk to the entire system if financial conditions change, productivity goals are missed or various choke points stymie growth.

A downturn in the AI market would send shockwaves throughout the entire economic ecosystem.

A market downturn in the US – exacerbated by an energy crisis – could spell disaster for Trump’s midterm hopes.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 23:25

China's Mass Production Of Dual-Use Drone Engines Fuels A Global Proliferation Crisis

China's greatest military advantage may be its ability to convert its massive civilian manufacturing base into wartime production of low-cost, one-way attack drones modeled after Iran's Shahed-136.

This is especially alarming because the U.S. defense industrial base is only beginning (read here) to prepare for a transition to wartime output, even as a global drone procurement race accelerates. Nation-states are set to stockpile millions of autonomous, low-cost weapons in the years ahead.

We have already shown readers how Chinese firms appear to be ramping up production of Shahed-style drones, with open-source footage from social media increasingly pointing to expanding production capacity.

Some scary stats on China's militaro-industrail complex's capacity:
- China casts more metal products than the next nine countries combined and >5× the US.
- Its shipbuilding capacity is ~200× the US (a total-capacity figure, not per-ship speed).
- It makes ~90% of the world's… pic.twitter.com/RcxKN4SDZZ

— Léo (@LeoKharon) July 13, 2026

The latest finding centers on the drone's powerplant: the Iranian MADO MD-550 engine, which is used throughout the Shahed family and in Russia's Geran-2 variant. MD550-type engines are also being mass produced in China and widely advertised on Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba.

The problem is not that China manufactures small aviation engines; it is that commercially available, dual-use engines can be incorporated into Shahed-style drones with limited visibility into the final buyer or end use.

The United Nations has identified the Iranian MADO-550 as the engine used in the Shahed drone family, while the U.S. Treasury has said the sanctioned Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (commonly known as Mado company). 

Chinese vendors on Alibaba advertise MD550-type UAV engines in large quantities, although the listings alone do not show any connection to a Chinese state weapons program.

More importantly, the Alibaba listings are evidence of commercial availability, not proof that Beijing is deliberately supplying one-way attack drone programs. However, the listings only highlight the erosion of the boundary between civilian manufacturing and weapons production.

The real threat is that long-range strike drones can increasingly be assembled from commercially produced parts at a scale traditional export-control systems were never designed to contain. This means Shahed-style systems are likely to proliferate far beyond nation-states, spreading to proxies, criminal networks, and other threat actors.

Like this: 

• Fiber-Optic Kamikaze Drone Found In Mexico Signals New Drone Threat South Of Border

Latest evidence:

• Why Is China Advertising Insane War Drones On Facebook

The question is no longer whether these drones will reach the West, but when.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 23:00

Open Borders Are A Death Sentence To Western Nations

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

As simmering conflicts between Western citizens and Western governments boil over the next few years, we must never forget how we got to this point: Elected officials and irremovable bureaucrats occupying permanent administrative roles have refused to respect the wishes of the citizens whom they ostensibly represent and serve.

From the United States to the United Kingdom, citizens have demanded that their governments secure national borders and end the steady flow of illegal aliens into their communities.  From France, the Netherlands, and Germany to Australia and New Zealand, citizens have demanded that their governments arrest and remove Islamic immigrants who are guilty of rape, murder, or other violent crimes.  With the exception of President Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration law and deport illegal alien criminals (despite formidable resistance from the courts, leftist NGOs, and Establishment politicians from both the Democrat and Republican Parties) in the United States, no Western official has done anything to remedy the scourge of unlawful mass invasion in a deliberate, meaningful, and effective way.  Instead, Western governments hide from their citizens the true number of illegal immigrants living among them.  Western governments hide from their citizens a full accounting of the crimes committed by foreign nationals who should never have been permitted entry in the first place.

Mass illegal immigration is not a new problem.  In the United States, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law in 1986.  Defended by both political parties as a way of combating illegal immigration while providing long-term lawbreakers legal status, it effectively awarded millions of foreign nationals amnesty.  Politicians convinced the American people to support this trade-off: In return for citizens’ reluctantly permitting the government to reward the unlawful behavior of foreign immigrants who had no right to reside in the United States, the government would protect citizens by cracking down on future illegal immigration and punishing businesses that hired illegal immigrant workers.  The U.S. government never lived up to its side of the bargain.

Instead, U.S. officials have lied to their citizens for forty additional years.  Until President Trump entered office, U.S. borders were not secured.  Businesses were rarely punished for hiring illegal aliens.  Unbeknownst to most American citizens, State and federal welfare programs continued to add illegal aliens to their taxpayer-funded dole rolls.  School districts in both cities and small towns continued to enroll illegal alien children.  Hospital emergency rooms continued to overflow with illegal alien patients seeking “free” medical care.  American jobs — especially blue-collar jobs — continued to go to illegal aliens because employers could pay foreigners less, avoid state and federal taxes, and use the threat of deportation as exploitative leverage over their workforces.  Illegal alien workers continued to place downward pressure on hourly wages.  Illegal aliens continued to place upward pressure on the costs of housing, energy, and household necessities.  

Sometime in the ‘90s, American politicians and government bureaucrats began admitting to Americans that there were roughly eleven million illegal aliens inside the United States.  For the next thirty years, politicians and bureaucrats repeated the same “eleven million” figure as if no net-increase in immigration had occurred.  Anybody living in small-town America knew this to be a demonstrable lie.  In the nineties, local school classrooms were made up almost entirely of American kids who grew up speaking English in households whose families had been living in the United States for generations.  As each year passed, those same classrooms were increasingly filled with kids whose parents had come from all over the world, and even small school districts were forced to hire staff who could attend to the needs of an increasingly foreign student body unfamiliar with basic English.  

Former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has said repeatedly that there are more than one hundred million illegal aliens residing in the United States.  In other words, roughly one out of every three people living inside the borders of the U.S. is a foreign national unlawfully here.  If those foreign nationals are employed, then they are likely guilty of identity fraud and committing a number of additional state and federal crimes.  Of those committing identity fraud, many are using social security numbers stolen from American citizens.  Illegal aliens who steal Americans’ identities adversely affect citizens’ credit scores, tax obligations with the IRS, and background checks.  Illegal aliens who fraudulently vote by claiming to be American citizens steal votes from actual American citizens.  Foreign nationals who illegally vote in American elections deny American citizens legitimate representation and undermine Americans’ constitutional form of self-government.

In 1986, lawmakers from both parties promised an end to illegal immigration.  Instead, tens of millions of new illegal aliens have continued to arrive.  In return for grudgingly acceding to the government’s desire to provide a one-time gift of amnesty to those foreigners whose first act in the country was to break our immigration laws, Americans continued to lose jobs, pay more for everything, and be defrauded by identity theft.  Even worse, they were forced to watch as foreign cultures transformed their schools and towns.  They were forced to watch as foreigners successfully ran for political office and pushed foreign policies and beliefs upon American citizens.  

New York City has a Muslim mayor from Uganda who has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for only eight years.  Minneapolis has a Muslim member of Congress from Somalia who became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of seventeen.  Roughly 4% of Congress are foreign-born naturalized citizens, while 15% of Congress have at least one immigrant parent.  A third of the judges occupying prestigious and powerful positions on the D.C. District Courts were born in foreign nations.  

These numbers are going in one direction — up!

When President Barack Obama spoke enthusiastically about “fundamentally transforming” the United States, this is what he had in mind.  If you invite third-world communists to break into your country, pretty soon your government will be filled with third-world communists, too.  Americans were never consulted about this “fundamental transformation.”  Politicians and bureaucrats steamrolled American citizens with tall tales of foreign immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking safety in the United States.  Nobody tried to explain why all the foreigners fleeing persecution in their home countries still wave their national flags in American neighborhoods and at American sporting events.  Nobody tried to explain why foreigners from all over the world couldn’t obtain asylum in countries closer to home.  Nobody tried to explain why so many foreigners claiming asylum in the United States continue to visit their friends and families in their native countries. 

No American ever voted for this radical transformation.  No politician or government bureaucrat respected American citizens enough to seek their consent.  Nevertheless, politicians and bureaucrats continue to lie to the American people by pretending that foreign nationals are not taking over their society.  Because they despise American citizens, government officials tell obvious lies without shame.

Where is all this shameless and callous disregard for the will of American citizens headed?  It is headed toward the same dead end already appearing in other Western nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and France: Increasingly, Western peoples are electing political representatives who promise to end divisive and deadly mass immigration policies.  The more that government officials undermine their citizens’ electoral will, the more that citizens are turning to the streets to be heard.  

Peaceful forms of civil disobedience are evolving into violent altercations with police. 

Instead of listening to their citizens, Western governments call them racists and censor their online speech.  At some point, citizens will conclude that their governments have become threats to their security and way of life.  Governments will lose their legitimacy.  Western countries will become battlefields.  Open borders guarantee that Western nations will die.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 22:35

Fast Food Giant Under Investigation Over Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak: Report

Federal and state health officials are reportedly zeroing in on Taco Bell restaurants as a possible culprit in one of the biggest parasite outbreaks to slam the U.S. in years, a nasty bug that turns your guts into a nonstop disaster zone of explosive diarrhea and misery.

More than 4,000 people have already been sickened, the vast majority of them in Michigan, where victims are enduring days of gut-wrenching, bathroom-racing hell that has hospitalized at least 80 people so far.

The Washington Post reports that officials are probing whether contaminated fresh produce at the fast-food chain helped spread the Cyclospora parasite, which hitches a ride in feces-tainted veggies. No smoking gun has nailed Taco Bell or any single supplier yet, but the chain has yanked lettuce, cilantro, onions, pico de gallo, and guacamole from some Detroit-area locations after a nationwide recall notice surfaced last week.

Taco Bell insists it is playing it safe and putting customers first.

"The health and safety of our guests is our top priority," the company said in a statement obtained by the Post. "Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, so we have voluntarily pulled some items at select spots as a precaution while authorities continue their review."

Michigan is ground zero for the outbreak and is getting absolutely hammered, with a staggering 3,300-plus cases and hundreds more piling up daily as state health officials repeatedly flag leafy lettuce and salad greens as the leading suspect after interviewing more than 1,000 sick patients.

"Current results point to lettuce or salad greens as a potential source," Michigan's health department warned Monday. Meanwhile, federal officials at the CDC and FDA are being far more cautious, insisting there is no confirmed single multistate outbreak and that the numbers are not yet definitively unusual even as they log 145 cases across 17 states outside Michigan, along with 20 hospitalizations.

As we previously noted, Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite that loves hitching rides on fresh produce. Once it gets inside you it unleashes watery diarrhea, vicious cramps, vomiting, nausea, exhaustion, and fever that can drag on for days or even weeks if left untreated.

One victim, Cristy Cooper, recently spoke from her hospital bed to the New York Post about the nightmare that started June 25.

"This is worse than any flu I have ever gotten. It is just so miserable," she said. "I am worn out from it. I really am."

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 22:10

New Women's Athletics Guidelines Crack Down On 'Sexualizing' Camera Angles

Authored by Calum Patterson via Dexerto,

New broadcasting guidelines have been introduced in Europe to prevent women athletes from being sexualized through camera angles and slow-motion replays.

The European Broadcasting Union partnered with European Athletics to release new guidance for women's athletics coverage, with broadcasters urged to focus on performance and technical ability.

The guidelines warn against lingering shots of athletes' bodies, low camera angles that capture revealing views, and slow-motion replays that offer little technical or storytelling value.

"The sexualization of women athletes through selective camera angles and editing choices continues to be a significant concern across many sports broadcasts," said Glen Killane, Executive Director of EBU Sports.

"Lingering shots on bodies, low-angle cameras that capture revealing views, and excessive slow-motion replays that serve no technical or storytelling purpose are among the issues observed in the media coverage of women's athletics competitions today."

Broadcasters urged to avoid 'compromising' shots

The 23-page Raising the Bar document uses examples from real broadcasts to highlight potentially "compromising" shots across high jump, pole vault, long jump, and running events.

Broadcasters are advised to avoid tight shots from behind athletes, low cameras underneath competitors, and certain slow-motion replays. Instead, wider angles showing run-ups, take-offs, and technique are encouraged.

British Olympic pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw said some athletes have even become distracted by camera positions during competitions.

"Many athletes, myself included have been in competitive scenarios where they are more focused on the cameras instead of their own performance," she said.

Bradshaw also revealed she has received social media abuse and seen "inappropriate videos" of herself and fellow athletes created from slow-motion competition footage.

The guidelines are now available to broadcasters covering women's athletics, with the EBU saying coverage should focus on athletes' "technical ability and compelling storytelling."

Never forget. https://t.co/q5Fzz1gp6G pic.twitter.com/CPthfFWxBx

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 14, 2026

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 21:45

Israeli Officials Try To Push US Refueling Tankers Out Of Ben Gurion Airport Amid Disruptions

Immense controversy has remained centered on Ben Gurion International Airport as dozens of giant US Air Force refueling tankers have essentially taken over the main Israeli flight hub for many months, since the start of Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Reports also say it has cost the airport hundreds of millions of dollars at this point.

The Israeli government itself seems to be divided, and there's been outrage among the general public as the presence of the American tankers has blocked and slowed regular commercial flights, leading to the recent cancelations of many passengers' tickets, but with an expected tens of thousands more cancelations to come.

On Tuesday the simmering controversy erupted again, and has even raised the possibility of introducing fresh tensions with Washington, after Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that the government will not allow more than 20 US refueling tankers to be parked at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport at any given time.

Regev specifically addressed the domestic public's concerns over air travel. "Hundreds of thousands of plane tickets were bought by Israelis to fly and enjoy their summer vacation," the official said. "We promised that we will enable commercial flights and we will not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes."

Haaretz had already by June tallied that "Some 75 U.S. refueling planes occupy more than half of Ben-Gurion Airport's parking spots and fill up takeoff and landing slots" and cites airport officials who warn: "For lack of a solution, 1.5 million passengers may have their flights canceled this summer."

Anadolu Agency

"Therefore I have given instructions that we will not allow any US refueling tankers to land at Ben Gurion Airport beyond the agreed number of 20 planes and the remaining planes will land at Air Force bases," Regev adds.

Israeli media notes that the crisis has been building:

The directive comes after the Israel Airports Authority warned that unless more US aircraft are removed from the country’s main international air gateway, as many as 50,000 flight tickets could be at risk of cancellation in the coming weeks.

The monthslong presence of US military aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport amid the Iran war has been preventing a full return to normal commercial flight operations, while also driving up operational costs for local airlines.

It's a deep irony that Israelis are increasingly complaining the United States military has effectively taken over Israel's international travel hub.

Media reports have been going so far as to call Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport a "US military base" - as the prominent local newspaper Haaretz does:

The US refueling aircraft and other military assets, which have been stationed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for months, are causing congestion and may result in flight cancellations, Israeli officials and media reports have said, calling the facility a "US military base."

That prior report complained that "U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft have been stationed at Ben Gurion International Airport for three months, occupying parking spots, taking up takeoff and landing slots and worsening congestion at Israel's main international gateway since the war with Iran erupted in late February, officials say."

Again, a central irony here is that it has largely been US military assets protecting Israel the whole time, going all the way back from last year's June war, from Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The U.S. has reportedly paused the withdrawal of its aerial refueling aircraft from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.

The Times of Israel, citing the Israel Airports Authority, reports that the tankers continue to occupy parking space… pic.twitter.com/ag8FY7ETET

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 14, 2026

The Netanyahu government is perceived by many to be a prime reason the US and Iran are at war in the first place, and so the Pentagon might argue that it's only fair that Israel host its large fleet of military planes and refueling aircraft.

Iran's large retaliatory strikes on US airbases in the Gulf region during the opening weeks of the conflict essentially forced the Pentagon to move its expensive, large aerial assets much further back from the front lines of the war. Previously several parked tankers at Gulf facilities were destroyed or damaged.

It still remains unclear whether the Transportation Minister's directive is approved by Netanyahu's office. Likely all it will take is one angry phone call from President Trump and the order could be reversed.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 21:20