THE NEWS

Senate Republicans may need more convincing from the Trump administration that the “anti-weaponization” fund is officially dead, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spelled out its doom on Tuesday. Many Republicans demanded that the administration make it crystal clear that not only was the nearly $2 billion fund done, but that it would never come back. And at stake is a multibillion package to fund immigration enforcement operations. During a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Senate Republican leadership assured members that Blanche would lay out the fate of the fund, and hoped that it would be enough to quell dissent among the ranks. TRUMP ADMIN BACKS OFF CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND, CLEARING PATH FOR STALLED GOP IMMIGRATION BILLAnd he did during a hearing in the House, where he repeatedly said that the administration was not moving forward with the fund.”The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said. The fund was announced last month as part of a settlement between the Trump family and the Internal Revenue Service, and pitched as a mechanism for people who felt they were targeted by the government to get a financial kickback. Republicans were concerned that without proper guardrails, people convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill could access the taxpayer cash flow.Some in the GOP wanted President Donald Trump to come out and officially kill the fund. “I assume if Blanche is saying it, the president must agree,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said.GOP DEMANDS TRUMP KILL CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND BEFORE REVIVING ICE FUNDING PACKAGEBut some Republicans want an even more concrete show from the administration that it’s actually dead and gone. “I’m not sure that’s gonna be good enough for some people,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., contended that if the administration really meant it, it would support legislation to permanently prevent the fund from returning in any form. He planned to push an amendment to the broader, roughly $70 billion reconciliation package that would make sure of that.”I just feel like we just need to do a Wayback Machine and just pretend like this never existed and take whatever steps are necessary to make sure it can never exist or disperse,” Tillis said. “Not in the current environment.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that Blanche previewed his remarks on the fund to him, and hoped that it would be enough to unite the fractured Republicans to move forward with budget reconciliation this week. GOP’S PRIMED FOR PRIMARY SEASON PAYBACK ON TRUMP’S MOST AMBITIOUS, CONTROVERSIAL POLICY”I think, as I’ve conveyed to you before, everything comes down to a function of math,” Thune said. “It’s do we have the votes? Do we have 50 votes to execute on getting a bill like that across the floor? Because we have to have Republicans hanging together in order to do that.”Republican leadership hopes to launch the process on Wednesday in order to get the roughly $70 billion package to the House by the end of the week. Some Republicans are hopeful that it will be enough to get the process back on track. “If it goes like we’re told it will go, well, there’s a reasonable possibility, then we will move pretty quickly to the reconciliation,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. Part of the issue is that if Republicans aren’t on the same page, several Democratic amendments that would both tackle the fund and halt momentum for the package could pass.Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was one of several critics of the fund, and she hoped that Blanche would make it “crystal clear that the administration is not going to proceed” with the issue. Whether she or others in the same camp would vote against amendments remained an open question. “I’m not going to predict what’s gonna happen to a very fluid situation,” Collins said.

Morgan Wallen has country music fans in a frenzy after dropping a video Monday night.Wallen is the unquestioned face of country music at the moment, and I’m not sure there’s even a debate to be had among fans of the genre.He dominates the music charts and packs stadiums in every single city he tours in. The man is an unstoppable force.His latest victory is some awesome YouTube content.COUNTRY MUSIC SENSATIONS TEAM UP FOR NEW SONG, SET INTERNET ON FIRE: WATCHWallen shared a video Monday on YouTube from his April 18 performance in Tuscaloosa, and this one is popping off.ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!The video is of Wallen singing his hit song “Don’t We,” and it perfectly captures the spirit and energy that has made him a star.Give it a watch below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.Morgan Wallen is truly a rare talent, and that’s why he’s built an incredibly loyal and fierce following. Speaking of his fans, people sounded off in the comments on YouTube.One wrote, “Love it. Morgan never disappoints ever. Great job Morgan.”Another added, “Morgan for Super Bowl Halftime Show.”That’s an idea I’ve floated many times! Why hasn’t Morgan Wallen performed at the Super Bowl? That’s what the country wants, and I can guarantee the show would be fire.It should be fun to see whatever Wallen cooks up next as his unstoppable run continues. I have no doubt it will be incredibly entertaining for country music fans. Let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.

An American college student from Alabama disappeared in Japan during a family trip, leaving his parents pleading for help as they join dozens of police and K-9 units searching the region’s wooded trails.James “Weston” Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student, has not been heard from since May 29, according to his mother, Nancy Higginbotham.”We are in our own living hell,” Nancy Higginbotham wrote on social media. “He is not detained from a night out partying. The police have confirmed this. Please, I beg you, be kind. I’m already in so much pain.”Police reviewing CCTV footage determined that Weston’s last confirmed location was Yamashina Station, east of Kyoto. The area around Yamashina includes several popular hiking routes, temples and forested paths, including trails leading toward Mount Otowa and the Kyoto Trail network.ARIZONA STATE STUDENT VANISHES DURING GRAND CANYON TRIP JUST DAYS BEFORE GRADUATION, FAMILY PLEADS FOR HELPHis mother said his phone last showed activity shortly after he arrived at Kyoto Station around 8:15 p.m. before losing network service minutes later.Family members believe Weston may have boarded a local train heading east before getting off at Yamashina. An experienced hiker and environmental engineering student, he may have intentionally sought out nearby nature trails, his mother said.She added that Weston may have been emotionally distressed at the time he went missing.MISSING AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT SEEN IN NEW HOTEL SECURITY FOOTAGE BEFORE DISAPPEARANCE”If you see him, PLEASE DO NOT POST HIS EXACT LOCATION PUBLICLY. Please call local police immediately and then message me directly,” she wrote.Japanese police escalated the search on Wednesday, organizing 50 officers, K-9 teams and helicopters to scour heavily wooded terrain near the station.Nancy Higginbotham has praised local police in her social media posts as the officers continued to work despite severe weather sweeping through parts of the region.She said that she and her husband searched wooded areas around Yamashina with flashlights before a typhoon moved through, but were forced to turn back because of difficult terrain and wildlife.Weston is described as standing 6 feet 1 inch tall with long blond hair and blue eyes. His mother said he was last seen wearing a shirt with “Save the Bees” printed on the back, lavender corduroy pants and white Adidas sneakers with black stripes. He was carrying a shoulder bag featuring the outline of the state of Alabama.Despite days of searching, his family says they remain hopeful.”We will not lose hope,” Higginbotham wrote. “We feel all of the love that you are pouring out throughout the day.”

Former N.Y. Rep. George Santos is being investigated for insider trading after allegedly betting on himself on prediction market site Kalshi.

Oil Prices Hold Gains As Gasoline Stocks Hit 12 Year Lows, Cushing ‘Tank Bottoms’ Loom

Brent crude prices are rising back toward $100 per barrel this morning following the latest flare-up in fighting to threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire

Prices rose after the U.S. military said Iran fired missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, which failed to hit their targets.

The United States said it then struck an Iranian military ground control station on an island in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

API:

Crude: -6.8MM

Cushing: -279k

Gasoline: +3.5M

Distillate: -214k

DOE:

Crude: -7.97mm – biggest draw since Feb

Cushing: -583k

Gasoline: +3.36mm – biggest build since Jan

Distillate: +1.50mm

US crude stocks fell for the sixth straight week with Cushing inventories testing tank bottoms once again. The week saw an unexpected jump in product inventories with Gasoline’s biggest build since January…

Source: Bloomberg

Today’s rise in gasoline stocks lifts them off their lowest level for this time of year since 2014…

Source: Bloomberg

Cushing ‘tank bottoms’ are in sight once again…

Source: Bloomberg

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve saw another huge drawdown this week (down 58mm barrels since the start of the war)…

Source: Bloomberg

Rig counts are on the rise as US crude production drifts back towards record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

US crude and product exports jumped back towards record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was trading around $95 ahead of the official data…

Finally, economists at Macquarie wrote in a note this morning that crude oil’s muted reaction to the closure of Hormuz has mainly been a function of the oversupply seen before the war, .

The analysts suggested that “the market will be ok for another month or two, especially given commercial crude stocks have been cushioned by SPR/product draws.”

However, if the Strait remains closed at the end of the northern summer (Labor Day is Sept. 7), physical availability will tighten materially.

“If the Strait reopens soon, we expect prices to fall sharply. However, with stocks drawing rapidly, if the Strait remains closed, at some point prices will need to move much higher.”

‘Tank Bottoms’ are in sight around the world.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/03/2026 – 10:39

The Cleveland Browns sent shockwaves throughout the National Football League this week when they traded reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett fresh off becoming the league’s single-season sack record holder.Garrett was sent to the Los Angeles Rams for a large package that makes an already-stacked Rams squad even better, as the Browns now must adjust to life without Garrett for the first time since 2016.Garrett requested a trade from the Browns last year, but the Browns wound up signing him to a four-year extension worth $160 million, seemingly keeping him in Cleveland through his 14th NFL season in 2030.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMHowever, the return of 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-rounder and a 2029 third-rounder was “too great” to pass up, said Browns General Manager Andrew Berry.”Myles Garrett is a foundational player, Hall of Fame-worthy, and a homegrown talent who’s been here for a decade, and our intent was to have him be a one-helmet player for his career. That was the truth,” Berry told reporters on Tuesday.ANALYST SAYS JAXSON DART ‘PUNTED’ ON ‘MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION’ REGARDING TRUMP INTRODUCTION”But there are moments where opportunities come up that quite honestly are unexpected and they force you to stop and reevaluate and look at it and say, ‘Is this something that could be really beneficial to the team?’ And that was the case in this instance. The opportunity was too great.”Last season marked Garrett’s second in which he was tabbed the league’s Defensive Player of the Year after recording 23 sacks. Garrett has recorded double-digit sacks in each of his last eight seasons and at least 14.0 in five straight.Meanwhile, the push is on for the Rams, who extended Matthew Stafford for another season weeks after taking Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in the draft.Cleveland just had two first-round picks in April’s NFL Draft in which they took tackle Spencer Fano and wide receiver K.C. Concepcion — they now have two for next year as well.Verse has made the Pro Bowl twice in as many NFL seasons while recording 12.0 sacks and 22 tackles for loss as an outside linebacker.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Top NIH virologist and gain-of-function advocate, Vincent Munster, has been charged with allegedly smuggling undeclared pathogen samples into America from Africa.
For years, animal testing watchdog White Coat Waste has documented how Munster’s reckless, cruel experiments on primates and bats waste millions in taxpayer dollars while posing serious biosafety and national security risks.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that Munster, 53, a Dutch citizen and Chief of the Virus Ecology Section at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana, and his colleague Claude Kwe, 38, a Cameroonian research fellow in Munster’s lab, were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and making false statements to federal law enforcement.
According to the Justice Department complaint, Munster and Kwe flew into Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s McNamara Terminal on January 25 after traveling from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where a monkeypox outbreak was actively underway.
Customs and Border Protection officers noticed the pair carrying a large black plastic case. When questioned, both men falsely claimed it contained only “diagnostics and testing equipment.”
According to the DOJ, “subsequent investigation by CBP and FBI agents revealed that the case actually contained 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. As of the date of the complaint, the FBI has tested 20 of the 113 vials. Seventeen of them contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained the Chickenpox virus, and two contained only human DNA.”
The press release added, “the work of both men is focused on ’emerging viral pathogens’ and how those pathogens ‘cross the species barrier.’ They work at a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, which employs the highest level of biosafety precautions for scientific research of known and potential human pathogens.”
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. did not mince words: “These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo. Let that sink in.”
FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan added, “No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law… The allegations in this case are serious. They involve the dangerous and unlawful smuggling of deactivated Mpox virus into the United States and alleged efforts to mislead our federal agents.”
This is the exact smuggling incident White Coat Waste exposed weeks ago, as The Gateway Pundit previously reported.
BREAKING: FBI Has Reportedly Launched a Criminal Probe into Fauci’s Bat Virus Mad Scientist Vincent Munster for Smuggling Deadly Pathogen Samples from Africa

In May, we reported that the FBI had launched a criminal probe into Munster for attempting to bring back dozens of undeclared viral hemorrhagic fever samples, including monkeypox, from Africa without proper permits.
At the time, an NIH whistleblower told White Coat Waste Project that senior officials in Bethesda were in “full cover-up mode” to protect Munster. Both scientists were placed on administrative leave, their HHS directory profiles scrubbed, and the agency referred all questions to the FBI.
The same whistleblower alleged that a separate lab accident at RML, first exposed by White Coat Waste in January, involved a staffer being bitten by a macaque monkey infected with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a deadly foreign virus.
The monkey was being subjected to NIH’s notorious “maximum-pain” experiments with no pain mitigation whatsoever.
The bite reportedly penetrated the worker’s protective suit.

🚨NIH Biolab Whistleblower
Vincent Munster, an @NIH animal experimenter tied to Wuhan gain-of-function, “got caught trying to sneak VHF [viral hemorrhagic fever] samples into the United States from Africa”
And a NIH lab staffer was “bitten by an infected monkey…that was being… pic.twitter.com/iYlS9MeWLD
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 8, 2026

Instead of being transparent with RML employees, the incident was allegedly hidden from most of the campus, and the exposed staffer was quietly “flown out” to avoid drawing attention.
White Coat Waste, which has been hammering Munster’s taxpayer-funded animal experiments with billboards near the Montana lab for months, was the first to notice and report on his sudden removal from the official NIH employee directory.

.@WhiteCoatWaste is running billboards near NIH’s biolab in Montana targeting Fauci-era animal tests by Vincent Munster & other mad scientists.
We just noticed Munster, who was part of the project to create COVID-like viruses in Wuhan, has been removed from the HHS directory… pic.twitter.com/5DADu4a5c4
— Justin Goodman (@JustinRGoodman) May 4, 2026

Munster’s lab at RML is a high-containment BSL-4 facility focused on how “emerging viral pathogens” cross the species barrier, precisely the kind of gain-of-function-style work long associated with Fauci’s NIAID and the COVID pandemic.
The mad scientist was also the main author on a 2018 NIH experiment exposed by White Coat Waste that infected bats purchased from a Maryland zoo with a Chinese bat coronavirus strain cloned from a virus collected by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance.
WCW Senior Vice President Justin Goodman appeared on investigative journalist Laura Loomer’s show to discuss.
WATCH:

NIH @NIH researcher Vincent Munster was recently caught at the airport in Michigan smuggling vials of deadly African pathogens, raising serious questions about whether his reckless operations sparked the current EBOLA outbreak.
White Coat Waste @WhiteCoatWaste Senior VP Justin… pic.twitter.com/vyL1MStTKB
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 24, 2026

Loomer, who has been working with WCW to expose the deep corruption and pressure the administration to end these barbaric tests once and for all, wrote in a post on X, “White Coat Waste and I are totally vindicated after we broke this story several weeks ago about how NIH was covering up the fact that several foreign born virologists working at NIH under the Trump admin at Rocky Mountain Laboratory, a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, snuck lethal pathogens into the US. They work at the same lab where an Ebola-infected monkey bit an NIH researcher, and this was also covered up by @DrJBhattacharya and NIH.”

BREAKING:
Dr. Vincent Munster, a foreign born national virologist who works at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory under @NIH and Claude Kwe, one of his foreign born colleagues from Cameroon who also works at NIH in the same lab have officially been charged with smuggling… https://t.co/xHAkaTWL7j pic.twitter.com/IEutsbDPnM
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) June 3, 2026

WCW has repeatedly called on Congress and now, on the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to defund and decommission the Rocky Mountain Laboratory entirely.
The whistleblower’s letter to WCW reinforced those concerns, claiming the cover-up culture at NIH continues unchecked even after Fauci’s departure.
“RML needs to be defunded and decommissioned before Munster and his cronies cause another pandemic,” the letter warned.
In 2023, WCW teamed up with then-Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Montana Republican, in an attempt to slash Munster’s salary to $1 as part of an amendment to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The amendment read, “Reduces the salary of Vincent Munster, Chief, Virus Ecology Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to $1.”
Unfortunately, it ultimately failed.
If convicted, both researchers face up to five years in federal prison.
President and founder of White Coat Waste, Anthony Bellotti, said in a statement provided to The Gateway Pundit last month:
“For years, White Coat Waste investigations have exposed how Vincent Munster’s reckless, Fauci-funded animal experiments with Chinese coronaviruses, Ebola, and other foreign bioagents threaten public health and national security. Munster was even part of the original proposal to engineer COVID-like viruses at the Wuhan lab, where White Coat Waste first uncovered and ended Fauci’s funding for gain-of-function animal tests that almost certainly prompted the pandemic. White Coat Waste has led efforts to shut down Munster’s maximum-pain animal labs, and we are now calling out their continued funding with our ‘WTF, RFK?’ billboards near his NIH lab in Montana. Munster’s wasteful and dangerous animal experiments are a recipe for disaster, and if he is suspended—as our sources suggest—and finally held accountable, taxpayers and animals should celebrate.”
Special Agent in Charge Marcus L. Sykes of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said in a statement, “The arrest of these individuals on serious federal charges sends a clear and unmistakable message that no one—including HHS employees who have an obligation to safeguard our federal programs—is above the law. Any deliberate effort to conceal and smuggle biological materials into the United States without proper authorization is a breach of the public’s trust and could have placed the public at risk. HHS-OIG will continue to work alongside our law enforcement partners to ensure that anyone who is entrusted with protecting the health and well-being of the public is held fully accountable.”
The post Fauci’s Foreign National Bat Virus Mad Scientist Vincent Munster and His Researcher Charged with Smuggling Monkeypox into America from African Outbreak appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Public support for the LGBT lifestyle choices, and the accompanying activism, is plunging. It’s even down significantly among Democrats, who through the agenda of Barack Obama and Joe Biden had been active promoters of the ideology.
A polling from Gallup reveals that, “Currently, 5% of Republicans say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, compared with 42% of independents and 60% of Democrats. When Gallup first asked the question in 2021, those figures were 22%, 48% and 67%, respectively.
“Republicans’ acceptance has declined steadily since then, while views among independents and Democrats were generally stable until an apparent drop this year.”
Of course, transgenderism is a fable, as being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level and does not change.
Gallup explained, “After two decades of rising support for LGBTQ+ issues, U.S. attitudes have plateaued and begun to slide back modestly. Approval of same-sex marriage, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relations, and endorsement of gender changes are all down from peaks reached in the early 2020s.
“While most Americans still favor legal same-sex marriages, the 65% who do so today is down six percentage points from the peak in 2022 and 2023. Similarly, the percentage viewing gay or lesbian relations as morally acceptable, 62%, has not been lower since 2016. And the share of Americans who consider changing one’s gender morally acceptable has declined eight points over the past five years, to 38%.”
The polling said “pro-LGBTQ+ attitudes peaked about five years ago,” which would have been at the outset of Biden’s tenure in Washington, and his all-out, whole of government promotion of the ideology, especially transgenderism including body mutilating procedures on children.
“The change has come as conservative leaders have pushed back against diversity, equity and inclusion programs that were intended to foster greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and other historically disadvantaged groups,” Gallup said.
The results are from a Values and Beliefs survey, conducted May 1-17, 2026.
“Between 1996 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage increased by 44 points, from 27% to 71%. In 2024, the figure dipped to 69%, and it has shown a marginal decline each year since,” the polling confirmed.
“Gallup first asked about the morality of same-sex relations in 2001, when 40% said they were morally acceptable. By 2022, 71% held that view, before a sharp drop to 64% in 2023, holding at about that level during the past three years.”
And, it said, “When Gallup first asked about changing one’s gender in 2021, 46% found it morally acceptable, and 51% found it morally wrong. Today, those numbers stand at 38% and 57%, respectively.”
Gallup said at one point 55% of Republicans favored legal same-sex marriage, but that has plummeted now to 37%.
Independents on that issue were down six points to 67%.

“Next Month, Next Quarter, Next Year”

By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank

In a tense Congressional Hearing before the foreign relations committee, Marco Rubio defended the Trump Administration’s war in Iran, praising the success of US military operations destroying Iranian military and nuclear facilities. He also said that a deal with Iran could happen “today, tomorrow, or next week.” However, the recent military escalations between the US and Iran, the refusal of Israel and Hezbollah to cooperate, and reports of Pezeshkian’s resignation — leaving Iran in the hands of the IRGC — mean that a deal seems to lie more on the horizon of next month, next quarter, or maybe even next year.

Our base case that we see passage through the Strait disrupted for at least three more months still stands as we have yet to see any tangible headlines to suggest an accelerated timeline. The negotiations currently lie in Iran’s hands, as Bloomberg reports Iran’s Mehr news saying that “officials in Tehran are discussing their ‘final text’ to send to the US.” One might be hesitant to truly deem this text as “final” (if it even exists), as it may be more of a “final_v3.doc”, or a “final_FINAL_v6.doc”, or even a “final_FINAL_totallyforrealthistime.doc”.

The most promising resolution right now is that the IRGC remains in power, but enriched uranium is handed over to an executor, like China, though we have yet to see any confirmed updates that this is a feasible solution that Iran would actually agree to at this juncture. The extended 60-day ceasefire is still ongoing, while both the US and Iran are dedicated to keeping the Strait closed and exchanging fire. CENTCOM posted on X today to show off the USS Abraham Lincoln enforcing the US blockade, which has apparently redirected 122 vessels to “ensure compliance.”

Yesterday, Trump slammed Vulcan’s Hammer on the AI industry, signing an executive order, “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security.” The executive order lauds how the administration has “unleashed tremendous technological growth and economic investment in AI by slashing the bureaucratic constraints that the prior administration placed on America’s AI developers and researchers, and by instead encouraging AI innovation and accelerating responsible AI adoption across government and industry.”

Part of the executive order is intended to support the AI industry, seeking to utilize AI in federal cybersecurity programs, and utilize AI models (potentially Mythos?) to pinpoint vulnerabilities. However, the order also seeks to impose new restrictions, likely in response to the emergency meeting triggered by Mythos a few months ago. This includes lots of classified processes and frameworks to make sure that an evil AI model, the likes of that in a Philip K. Dick novel, doesn’t usurp the American government as the presiding force leading the world’s global hegemon (or more likely, making sure these models can’t be used to hack into sensitive government websites). The process is referred to as a “voluntary framework” so that AI developers can submit their new models to the government 30 days before release to the public. Though the order also clarifies that “nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models.”

While innovation in the US is so hot that the government is now pulling in the reins a bit, officials in Canada are turning a blind eye to sluggish growth. Last week it was announced that Canadian GDP shrunk by 0.1% in Q1 of 2026, marking the second consecutive quarter of contraction and signalling a technical recession. Worse yet, the Q1 GDP estimate missed expectations of seeing growth at 1.5%, suggesting that the health of the Canadian economy has been overestimated by economists for the past few months.

Prime Minister Carney partially attributed the contraction to “uneven data” as the Canadian government “has been in the process of laying the foundations for a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canadian economy.” But at the same time, this comes less than a week after Carney celebrated close US-Canadian economic ties when speaking to the Economic Club of New York, saying that “Canada Strong will help make America great again.”

Bank of Canada Deputy Governor, Carolyn Rogers, has also brushed off the technical recession, saying that we need to “look past technical recession indicators” in favor of more leading economic indicators. But for some, the technical recession is a flashing red light, screaming that the current trade situation with the US is unsustainable and it’s time to sit down at the negotiating table.

Canadian trade minister LeBlanc sat with USTR representative Greer yesterday in Washington to discuss the USMCA. Prior to their sitdown, LeBlanc sent a letter to both Greer, and Mexico’s economy secretary Ebrard, asking to see the USMCA renewed for another sixteen years, as the USMCA review is currently underway. While the likelihood of the USMCA being renewed in its current form is slim to none—which LeBlanc is likely painfully aware of—he highlighted that conversations pertaining to the sectoral tariffs (Section 232 hitting steel, aluminum, automobiles, etc.) will be “essential.”

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/03/2026 – 10:20

There were two events on Tuesday that offered more proof of a national Democratic Party establishment that has lost control: One was a meeting, one an election, and both are harbingers of real danger on the American left.The meeting took place in Washington, D.C., between presumptive Maine Democratic Senate nominee, the Nazi tattoed, serial sexter Graham Platner and members of his party in that body.Some, mostly through wishcasting, thought this would be the end of the alleged oysters farmer’s run. Instead, it was a coronation, as was predicted in this column last week.A decade ago, one phone call from a party leader could have ended Platner’s run, but those days are gone. Today, the Democratic Socialists of America will no longer allow it.MORNING GLORY: DEMS’ BERNIE-BACKED OYSTER FARMER HANDS SUSAN COLLINS A MASSIVE 2026 ADVANTAGEHere is what brave Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had to say about the scandal-ridden candidate: “I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”No, if, ands, or buts.This was echoed by almost every smiling Democrat leaving the meeting. There will be no last-minute coup to oust the socialist. Instead, the party is pretending to be one big happy family.DAVID MARCUS: DEMOCRATS ABANDON SCHUMER’S IMAGINARY COUPLE, JOE AND EILEEN BAILEYThat, as they say, is that, and the reason for it is clear. Schumer and grand poobahs of the party simply no longer have any leverage over the socialist candidates storming their keep.Platner doesn’t need establishment endorsements. He has Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and commie podcaster Hasan Pike. He doesn’t need establishment money, as there are progressive billionaires more than happy to donate. Even the left-leaning media, always in lockstep with the establishment, have little influence over voters these days.As in Maine, in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, the Democratic Party elites were unable to fend off the radical Muslim (and socialist) candidate Adam Hamawy, who not only testified on behalf of the terrorist behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but also volunteered for an Al Qaeda-linked group in Eastern Europe.PROGRESSIVES NOTCH ANOTHER WIN OVER DEMOCRATIC MODERATES AS SANDERS-AOC ALLY NEARS CONGRESSAt best here, the Democratic primary voters in the Garden State are trying to send a terrorist sympathizer to the halls of Congress. At worst, he is just a flat-out terrorist.At his point, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has been sounding the alarm about the craziness overtaking his party, isn’t just on an island. He’s on a whole different planet.Put bluntly, the far-left socialist extremists, with their Nazi and radical Islamic ties, are outflanking, often outspending, and absolutely outperforming the terrified geriatric leadership of the party.LEFT, LEFTER AND LEFTIST: DEMOCRATS COULD BE DEFINED BY RADICAL, BIG CITY MAYORSIt’s become such a party of lunatics that, among the only partial wins the establishment notched Tuesday, in the primary to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th district, was a weak first place finish for Scott Wiener, himself a leftist lunatic, now headed to a runoff.Wiener thinks that putting people on sex offender lists after sexual crimes is somehow anti-gay and would trans your toddler at the drop of a hat. But among his opponents was the former chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Democratic Socialists of America star Saikat Chakrabarti, who finished in third, failing to make the runoff.Even this seeming victory is hollow, though. Pelosi endorsed Wiener just two years after she wielded the power to tell then-President Joe Biden that his career was over. Today, she can’t get the candidate she endorsed in her own district over 50%.DEMOCRATS PAID THE PRICE FOR ABANDONING MODERATE CLINTON-ERA POLICIESThis realignment of Democratic Party power, away from the old-school, Ivy League establishment, into the hands of the socialists, the radical Muslims and the guys with Nazi tats, will have profound implications for the 2028 presidential race.In the last two competitive Democratic Party primary cycles, 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders was iced out by party leadership. Remember how, in 2020, after Biden’s surprise win in South Carolina, all the non-socialist candidates suddenly dropped out? That is how it used to work.A decade ago, the Republican Party was overtaken by Donald Trump, and the GOP establishment was left like Wile E. Coyote frantically running in the air, unaware it was already over the cliff.WILLIAM J. BENNETT, CHRIS BEACH: 5 WAYS TRUMP HAS TRANSFORMED THE REPUBLICAN PARTYBut Trump was part of something much bigger. In fact, he had been a member of the Reform Party, founded by H. Ross Perot in his historic 1992 third-party run and later championed by Pat Buchanan. This was a long-running populist ascendency.Today, it is the Democratic Party establishment losing touch and losing power, seeing their neoliberalism fade next to leftist populism, a populism of wealth redistribution, antisemitism and, to quote Trump, “Trans for everybody.”Biden was fond of saying that today’s GOP is not “the Republican Party of your grandfather.” Well, I have some news for you, Grandpa Joe: The socialist Democratic Party you left behind and the socialist barbarians you have left at the gates, don’t look a whole lot like the party that made Bill Clinton president, either.And likely, it never will again.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS