THE NEWS

Empty Forest via FreeImagesLive
In a verdict that has ignited righteous fury across Belgium and beyond, nine migrant minors from cultures alien to Western Civilization have been convicted of the repeated gang rape of a 14-year-old Belgian girl in Kortrijk will serve no prison time whatsoever.
Instead, according to reports from the Belgian press, youth court handed down slaps on the wrist—probation, community service, and counseling—exposing once again how globalist immigration policies and a broken justice system prioritize offenders over the safety of native, law-abiding citizens.
The attacks, which unfolded in a secluded forest during the 2024 Easter holidays, have left the victim’s life in ruins, while the perpetrators, many from North African and Somali backgrounds, face little more than a brief interruption to their routines.
The horror began in early April 2024 in Kabouterbos, a wooded patch squeezed between the E17 highway and a decaying social housing estate in Kortrijk. The girl’s then-16-year-old boyfriend lured her there under false pretenses, only for his group of migrant friends to ambush and gang rape her.
What followed was not a one-off crime but a calculated nightmare repeated over four days, with the victim being coerced into returning twice more for further violations by the same pack.
Court records confirm the assaults occurred between April 2 and April 6. The girl endured at least two rapes and multiple other sexual abuses during three separate incidents. Smartphones captured the depravity, with footage gleefully circulated on Snapchat among the group, turning the young teenage girl’s private trauma into public spectacle.
A source close to the investigation described the exploitation in stark terms: “The girl was loaned out and raped several times and in different ways.” This was no impulsive act but a systematic betrayal, enabled by the boyfriend’s repeated deceptions and the complicity of his circle.
After the third ordeal, the terrified 14-year-old finally summoned the courage to report the crimes to police. Investigators quickly identified 11 suspects, all male and aged 11 to 16 at the time. One boy, just 11 years old, was deemed too young for juvenile court proceedings. Another suspect was cleared after deeper scrutiny, leaving nine to face justice.
Those nine appeared before the juvenile court and were unanimously found guilty of rape, as reported by VRT on Friday. Seven received a mere 30 hours of mandatory community service each, a token penalty that mocks the severity of their brutal crimes.
The former boyfriend, identified as the instigator, received two years of strict conditional release. He must adhere to a guidance program focused on sexuality and relationships, maintain school attendance, and observe a complete contact ban with the victim.
Though briefly held in a closed institution after the initial complaint, he will not return there unless he violates his terms. Another youth was ordered into the identical sexuality and relationships program.
A third faces mandatory drug treatment as part of his lenient disposition. None will see the inside of a detention facility, despite the premeditated and repeated nature of the violence. The victim’s lawyer, Elise Standaert, painted a harrowing picture of the toll on her client during the marathon court session that stretched an entire day.
“It was extremely traumatic for her to see all the suspects again,” Standaert said. “Her daily life has been completely destroyed; she is no longer the same teenager she was back then.” Standaert continued, her voice underscoring the human cost: “She has gone through hell multiple times and will carry this trauma with her for the rest of her life.”
The girl has been provisionally awarded €15,000 in damages, a mere pittance, with a court-appointed expert tasked to assess further compensation for her shattered existence. Even the boyfriend’s own defense counsel, Thomas Vandemeulebroucke, acknowledged the gravity while attempting to soften his client’s role.
“He didn’t mean to lure her along, it originated from a certain group dynamic,” Vandemeulebroucke claimed. “My client deeply regrets what happened.”
Vandemeulebroucke also highlighted the family background, noting the parents were “wealthy people who have tried to give their son a good upbringing.”
He added a broader societal observation: “The parents don’t understand how this could happen. It also strikes me that suspects of such crimes are becoming younger and younger. That is very disturbing.”
One defense attorney for a suspect of Somali origin, Kelly Decaluwé, expressed unprecedented shock after 15 years in practice. “These are horrible facts,” she stated.
“The question is how it is possible that these children have lost all sense of norms. What should we do with this? How are we going to solve this?”Decaluwé framed the case as a challenge for the entire nation: “It is a question that should be asked not only to the juvenile judge but also to society as a whole. I have not yet experienced such facts in my 15-year career.”
Local authorities were quick to voice dismay when the allegations first surfaced. Kortrijk Mayor Vincent Van Quickenborne described the acts as “crappy” with “no words” to capture their horror.
Speaking both as a politician and “as a father of three young children,” he admitted awareness of the investigation but offered little beyond words of condemnation.The initial response to the crimes saw ten migrant minors arrested.
Four were placed under house arrest, while six were detained in a young offenders’ institution. Three of those detained were later released on conditional bail following early hearings, foreshadowing the ultimate leniency.
This case is not an isolated tragedy but a predictable outcome of unchecked mass immigration and multicultural experiments that have strained Belgian communities to the breaking point. Neighborhoods like the rundown social housing area near Kabouterbos have become flashpoints where cultural clashes erupt into violence against vulnerable locals.
Ordinary Belgians have long warned that open-border policies import wholly incompatible values and cultures, eroding the safety net that once protected daughters, sisters, and schoolgirls. Yet globalist elites in Brussels and beyond continue to push the same failed agenda, shielding offenders while native victims pay the price.
The lenient verdict underscores a deeper rot in Europe’s justice systems: juvenile courts, designed for minor mischief, now handle barbaric felonies with kid gloves. When perpetrators hail from migrant backgrounds, the instinct seems to be understanding and reintegration rather than decisive punishment.
Public outrage is mounting, fueled by the realization that Belgian sovereignty and cultural cohesion are being sacrificed at the altar of diversity and multiculturalism. Families in Kortrijk and across Flanders are asking the hard questions: How many more girls must suffer before immigration policies are reversed and borders are secured?
The victim’s ordeal, from ambush in the Gnome Forest to retraumatization in court, symbolizes the quiet desperation of a nation under demographic siege. Her trauma is permanent while the perpetrators’ minor inconvenience is temporary.
As details of the Snapchat videos and “loaned out” exploitation circulate, Belgians are confronting the uncomfortable truth: this is what unvetted migration from distant cultures looks like in practice.
Politicians like Mayor Van Quickenborne express shock, yet few dare link the crime wave to the very policies they champion.
This disconnect between rulers and the ruled is precisely why right-wing populist, immigration restrictionist voices, and those in favor of remigration are rising across the continent. For the 14-year-old girl and her family, justice remains elusive. A €15,000 payout and expert evaluation cannot restore innocence stolen in broad daylight by those who should never have been in Belgium to begin with.
The post Belgium: 9 Migrant Teens Walk Free After Being Found Guilty of Repeated Gang-Raping 14-Year-Old Belgian Schoolgirl appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

General Motors Korea said Monday that its domestic sales in May dropped by almost half from a year earlier, while its exports also declined.

Rescue workers in Laos said they heard a knocking sound while searching a cave system for villagers that went missing after a flash flood on May 19.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s our video of the explosion at Launch Complex 36. It happened about 9 pm ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin was beginning a static fire test of its New Glenn rocket.
Watch live views: https://t.co/tm2wZQmAVD pic.twitter.com/PmbgQC6Qmq
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 29, 2026
Blue Origin now faces additional hurdles in catching up to SpaceX, particularly as it seeks NASA Artemis contracts and commercial missions for Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

Major AI Computing Deal with Anthropic

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

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

New Risk Factor: Water Scarcity?

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

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

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

Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2026 – 10:15

“Firing On All Cylinders, But…” US Manufacturing Surveys Send Mixed Signals In May

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2026 – 10:08

Most Europeans earn less than Americans and pay higher taxes. Meanwhile, despite widespread social programs, a large percentage of the population remains poor by U.S. standards. Photo courtesy of Inside Europe / Vladan Lausevic.
 
Many people believe Europe has a higher standard of living than the United States. This belief is typically based on several commonly cited arguments, including crime, social welfare systems, healthcare, and transportation infrastructure.
Comparisons between Europe and the United States often focus heavily on government-provided benefits while paying less attention to differences in income, taxation, purchasing power, housing affordability, employment opportunities, and consumer choice. Europe is also frequently discussed as a single entity despite significant differences between countries.
Europe consists of between 44 and 50 countries, depending on the definition used. The most common geographic definition counts 44 sovereign states, while broader definitions that include microstates and transcontinental countries such as Russia and Turkey, as well as countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, place the total closer to 50.
As an example of how economically diverse Europe is, the richest country, Luxembourg, has a GDP per capita, or average income, of about $140,000 to $160,000 per year, while the poorest country, Moldova, has a GDP per capita of about $8,000 to $10,000.
Supporters of the European model point to universal healthcare, social welfare programs, public transportation, and lower crime rates as evidence of a superior standard of living. These comparisons often overlook higher wages in the United States, lower taxes, larger homes, higher rates of vehicle ownership, and the tradeoffs and advantages associated with different approaches to healthcare and transportation.
Crime is another frequent point of comparison. Many Europeans falsely believe school shootings are a major cause of death in the United States. At the same time, they ignore the fact that parts of Europe are extremely unsafe and that much of Europe has higher levels of theft, pickpocketing, muggings, home invasions, and other categories of crime. Furthermore, European cities that have allowed waves of migrants and asylum seekers from North Africa and Africa have seen sexual crimes and rape increase dramatically.
Healthcare is also central to the debate. Europe is often praised for universal coverage, but wait times in many countries are extremely long, and patients frequently require prior authorization before accessing specialists or advanced treatments. Quality also varies dramatically between countries. At the same time, the majority of Americans are covered through employer-sponsored plans, government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, or private insurance.
Social welfare systems and transportation infrastructure are also commonly cited as European advantages. Supporters highlight government benefits and extensive public transportation networks.
Europe, however, has created a welfare class of people, largely migrants, who live on government benefits. This has more or less bankrupted the welfare system in many countries, causing taxes to increase and benefits to decrease while also creating a generation of disgruntled migrants who are now responsible for much of the crime.
The highly touted public transportation system is better in most European cities than in U.S. cities, but for long-distance travel the United States still ranks higher. Europeans who claim transportation is cheaper in Europe are actually referring to the out-of-pocket cost per traveler, which is reduced through government subsidies funded by taxpayers.
Claims that the United States should have high-speed rail or more passenger rail often ignore the geographic reality of the country. The United States has a much lower population density than Europe, averaging approximately 98 people per square mile (38 people per square kilometer) compared to 186–194 people per square mile (72–75 people per square kilometer) in Europe. A train from New York to California would take days while passing through large areas with relatively small populations.
As an example, a round-trip plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles can cost as little as $200 on a discount travel site, whereas a train ticket from Paris to Moscow, roughly the same distance, would cost around $450. The flight to Los Angeles takes about 5 hours and 40 minutes, while the train journey takes approximately 38 to 40 hours.
The following sections examine crime, wages and taxes, healthcare, social welfare systems, and transportation infrastructure as measures of standard of living in Europe and the United States.
While the U.S. homicide rate is higher than Europe’s, the data across other crime categories produces a different comparison. School shootings killed 18 people in 2024 across 39 incidents. Homicides in 40 major American cities fell 44% from their 2021 peak, with robberies down 23% and residential burglaries down 17%.
The EU recorded 5.26 million theft offenses and 1.2 million burglaries in 2024, with rape up 150% since 2014 and sexual violence up 94% over the same period. Germany recorded 29,014 knife-related criminal offenses in 2024, an average of 79 per day, while knife crime in England and Wales rose 87% over a decade. In the UK, over 50% of home burglaries occur while occupants are inside, compared to 28% in the United States (This is the Second Amendment at work. Burglars are afraid of armed homeowners in the US).
Italy recorded 2.38 million total crimes in 2024, the fourth consecutive annual increase, with street robberies in Florence up 56% and Rome up 24% compared to pre-pandemic levels. The U.S. national burglary rate of 229 per 100,000 is below Denmark’s 602, Belgium’s 410, and Sweden’s 337.
The wage comparison consistently favors the United States. Among the seven largest developed economies, the United States had the highest average wage by a significant margin in 2024 at $82,933 per year, compared to Germany at $69,433, the UK at $63,691, France at $60,608, Spain $54,564, and Italy at $51,019.
The gap widens further at the low end. Bulgaria’s average monthly net salary stands at €850 (~$935), Romania at €945 (~$1,040), and Hungary at €980 (~$1,078), all below the U.S. federal poverty guideline of $15,060 annually for a single person. When Europeans make blanket claims about Europe having a higher standard of living, they often forget that Europe includes nearly twice as many countries as the European Union. Beyond the EU members, Moldova averages $507 per month, Albania $528, and Serbia $822.
Most consumer products are more expensive in Europe because of the value-added tax (VAT), which averages 21.9%. VAT differs from U.S. sales tax in that it is applied at every stage of production, while the average U.S. sales tax of 7.5% is a single tax applied at the point of sale. Across Europe, VAT rates range from 16% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary.
Across Europe, income tax rates are also high. The average American salary of $89,000, or approximately €75,000, would place a worker in a 40–50% tax bracket in most European countries.
Unemployment is much higher in Europe. As of early 2026, the EU unemployment rate stood at 5.9% and the euro area rate at 6.2%, compared to 4.4% in the United States as of February 2026. Italy’s unemployment rate was 6.5% in December 2024, while Spain’s stood at 11.4%. Youth unemployment among 25-to-29-year-olds was even higher, reaching 15.2% in Spain and 18.8% in Italy as of late 2025.
The housing situation in Europe reflects a combination of lower wages, higher taxes, and constrained land use. According to Eurostat, the average age at which Europeans left their parental home was 26.2 in 2024, compared to 30.1 in Italy and 30.0 in Spain. Across the EU, 49% of adults aged 18–34 still lived with their parents, including 50% in Italy, 54% in Greece, and 64% in Croatia. Spain’s housing affordability crisis has become so severe that Bankinter and Caixabank Research concluded that “renting is no longer a viable option for domestic demand,” with affordability ratios exceeding 50% of income in major cities.
Home prices are proportionally higher in Europe, where most people live in apartments and only the very wealthy own a multi-story home with a basement, attic, and a small amount of land, as many Americans do. Measured as the number of years of average salary required to purchase the average home, the ratio is approximately 5 years’ salary for the average home in the United States, compared to 8 years’ salary in England, 10 in Italy, and 14 in Portugal, rising to 23 in Lisbon.
As bad as Europe’s unemployment numbers are, the reality is even worse. Unemployment statistics count only working-age adults who are employed or actively seeking work. Anyone on welfare, disability, or who has stopped looking for a job is excluded, which is why a country can report low unemployment while supporting large numbers of non-working adults through the state. The employment-to-population ratio shows that across the EU, about 30% of working-age adults are not working, with the figure rising to around 40% in countries such as Italy and Spain.
The non-working population in Europe lives on government benefits, creating a larger dependency ratio for a population with a shrinking workforce and declining birth rates. By contrast, in the United States, 12.3% of the population received SNAP (food stamps) in fiscal year 2024, while about 21% received some form of welfare.
Despite a lifetime of paying higher taxes, Europeans receive less from state pensions than Americans receive from Social Security. The Social Security Administration reports the average monthly retirement benefit for January 2026 at $2,071. This is only one component of American retirement income, as most working Americans also accumulate private savings through 401(k) plans, IRAs, and employer pension plans. European state pensions, by contrast, are typically the primary or sole source of retirement income. As of 2023, the average gross annual old-age pension in the EU was €17,321 (about $19,050), equal to approximately €1,443 (about $1,587) per month, according to Eurostat.
The gap between American and European retirees widens sharply when private savings are included. According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, Americans aged 65–74 have average retirement savings of $609,230, with a median of $200,000. Empower’s March 2026 data places average U.S. retirement savings across all age groups at $547,840, with Americans in their 60s averaging more than $1.2 million. Retirees in wealthier European countries such as Switzerland and Germany typically hold private savings of €50,000–€150,000 (about $55,000–$165,000), while retirees in Spain and Portugal generally hold between €100,000 and €200,000 (about $110,000–$220,000).
Healthcare is another area where myths abound. The belief that Americans are broadly uninsured is not supported by federal data. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 92% of Americans, roughly 310 million people, had health insurance coverage in 2024, with employer-sponsored plans covering 53.8% of the population, Medicare 19.1%, and Medicaid 17.8%. The uninsured population is concentrated among working-age adults, particularly in states that did not expand Medicaid. While this represents a genuine policy gap, it falls far short of the widespread lack of coverage often portrayed in popular narratives.
Care quality can be poor and wait times long in much of Europe. The FDA typically approves new drugs faster than Europe’s EMA. For cancer drugs approved between 2010 and 2020, the median gap was 227 days, meaning European patients waited roughly seven and a half months longer to access the same treatments. OECD data show that Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia report wait times of six months to more than a year for elective procedures such as hip replacements.
Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland generally have specialist wait times competitive with the United States. European healthcare is not a single system, ranging from the relatively efficient German model to strained public systems in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Discussions comparing U.S. and European transportation infrastructure often ignore several crucial factors, including the fact that Americans, with higher incomes and lower taxes, can more easily afford cars. Given the geography and population density of the United States, private vehicle ownership is more practical than extending passenger rail into sparsely populated rural areas.
The United States has 860 vehicles per 1,000 people, compared to 600–700 per 1,000 in most Western European countries. Americans also travel substantially more, driving an average of 13,662 miles annually.
On infrastructure scale, the United States leads by every major measure. The U.S. road network totals 4.2 million miles, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Statista. The entire EU road network totals roughly 5.6 million kilometers (3.5 million miles), meaning the United States, with about 45% of Europe’s population, has more miles of road than Europe. The U.S. rail network totals 224,000 miles (360,000 kilometers), more than twice Europe’s 94,000 miles (151,000 kilometers).
Europe has roughly 12,000 airfields total including all airstrips and heliports, but only 500–600 airports handling scheduled commercial flights, per OurAirports via Voyeglobal. Against the US figure of 15,873.
Europe has extensive high-speed rail, while the United States has almost none, largely because high-speed passenger rail does not make economic sense given the country’s size and population density. The combination of private cars, buses, conventional rail, and air travel serves Americans without the billions of dollars that would be required to build high-speed rail systems with limited ridership.
Where America far outpaces Europe is in freight rail. The Association of American Railroads reports that freight rail accounts for roughly 40% of U.S. long-distance freight volume by ton-miles, more than any other mode of transportation, while producing just 0.5% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This more efficient transportation system is another reason many consumer goods are cheaper in the United States than in Europe.
One of the many reasons Americans prefer to drive is that it costs essentially the same for one person, two people, or an entire family to travel by car, whereas rail requires individual tickets for each passenger. Europeans often respond that discounted family rail tickets are available.
However, European passenger rail fares appear cheaper largely because of government subsidies. The cost is not lower; it is shifted to taxpayers. Low fares in countries such as Poland, Latvia, and Hungary are made possible through government support and public-service models in which ticket prices primarily cover operating costs rather than reflect the true market cost of travel.
The travel breadth data further undermines the claim of European superiority. According to European Commission and Eurostat data, 37% of EU citizens, nearly 190 million people, have never been outside their own country, with the trend most pronounced in Italy, Spain, and Poland.
Lower wages, higher taxes, higher prices, smaller homes, and less convenient travel undermine claims that the standard of living in Europe is higher than in the United States.
The post The Myth of Socialism: USA Standard of Living Higher Than Europe; Wages, Taxes, Crime, and Services appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Caitlin Clark Reality TV Is a Drama and a Comedy
As noted yesterday, this is the story of a young girl from Iowa who grows up to become the greatest female athlete of her generation and the greatest women’s basketball player ever.  She sets every possible scoring record and most assist records in NCAA history and takes her Iowa team singlehandedly to greatness.
Her fan base grew to unheard of heights.  According to Nielsen ratings and Grok, the most-watched women’s game ever was the 2024 National Championship – South Carolina def. Iowa (18.9 million viewers on ABC/ESPN). This remains the record and was the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019. It peaked at ~24 million.
This is what Clark brought with her to the failing WNBA, a women’s basketball league subsidized by the NBA.  How has the league welcomed her?
The worst league in sports history proved why no one watched their games before Caitlin Clark arrived and why they will never make a profit (they are funded by the NBA).
They had their golden goose, and they cooked it.  To date, rather than provide officiating that was fair and protected Clark, the league allowed women in the league to pull, push, hit, poke, hammer, and totally abuse Clark.  The beatings and abuse took their toll.  No one could have put up with what Clark endured.
Watching Clark’s games in the WNBA was not fun.  Fans found themselves yelling at the refs and the league throughout her games.  Clark was hammered and no foul.  Clark complained and she received a technical foul.  The WNBA is a bad joke.
Unfortunately, the WNBA has been horrible to her since her arrival, constantly trying to downplay her greatness and compare girls without her talent or records to her.
The feedback from Saturday’s game in Portland is amazing.  Up till then, Clark was in the top five in the league in scoring, assists, and 3’s.
Then in Saturday’s night in a game in Portland, Clark had 3 assists and one bucket early on, and her team was up 8 – 2 about 2 and a half minutes into the game.  Clark accounted for all of her team’s points.  So what did her coach do?  She benched Clark.
Clark only played half the game after that.  Her coach next put in 21 different lineups, and the team lost.  The other team beat them by nearly 20 points!

Indiana went thru 21 different line ups last night, and there are people that still defend Steph White pic.twitter.com/FnlHLFe0Xo
— Mily (@DayDreamThis) May 31, 2026

Before benching Clark, the coach yelled at her, then had another player replace her.  It was clear that Clark was complaining about the refs calling her for fouls that weren’t fouls.  Her coach wouldn’t complain with the refs for bogus calls; she bitched at Clark instead.

Is this clip real? pic.twitter.com/4Lbwo75rWm
— your final judge (@pierredisecto) May 31, 2026

The comedy continued as the replacement fouled out in 10 minutes.

Stephanie White was having none of Caitlin Clark’s fouls. Fever’s top rim protector, Makayla Timpson, agreed with CC yet White punted Clark for rookie Raven Johnson, who fouled out.
Is a furious coach effective? @IndianaFever | #CC22 #NowYouKnow #WNBA pic.twitter.com/5zPyeE1JqO
— Rob Sinclair (@iamrobsinclair) May 31, 2026

About this time, the biggest ball hog on the team, Kelcy Mitchell, drove for another bucket and missed (Mitchell never passes and always shoots).  The ball was stuck behind the backboard.

I should’ve turned the game off here https://t.co/aNPZAtNS71
— Kaitlyn (ZuluEditsAe) (@zulueditsae) May 31, 2026

Fans have had enough.

Caitlin does not have a future with the Fever. That relationship is irreparable. She needs to play for a coach who can leverage her talents in the same way Lisa Bluder did. As it is now, I can’t even watch a full game. pic.twitter.com/CFaEBO8TC9
— ohiowa (@TrabFire) May 31, 2026

What a mess this reality TV program has become.
The post The Caitlin Clark Reality TV Is Drama and Comedy appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Court of Arbitration in The Hague dismissed a lawsuit brought by Rwanda against Britain after it terminated a deal to deport asylum seekers there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anticipated?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Working Better”

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

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

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

“Working Better” tweet. Source: Michael Saylor

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

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

Retail investors pressed to vote on STRC dividend change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Cyclical Bottom?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2026 – 09:50

Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge was a bit sleepy, but then Russell Henley woke up in a rather aggressive mood. The 37-year-old flipped a switch down the stretch in Fort Worth to earn the sixth PGA Tour win of his career and pass quite a career milestone in the process.Where there is a winner, there are also many losers, and for Eric Cole, he’s essentially turned into the face of the latter group since earning his spot on the PGA Tour in 2023. His streak of not having the breaks fall his way earned another notch this week, but it’s not all bad for the former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.On the other side of the planet, Joaquin Niemann found the LIV Golf winner’s circle yet again in South Korea. He’s somewhat sneakily benefited the most from leaving the PGA Tour, and all he’s missing now is to show any semblance of a pulse at a major championship.This is Par Talk, a weekly read to get you caught up on all the happenings that took place in professional golf that you need to know. You can follow Mark on X @itismarkharris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com.The theme throughout the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday was that none of the half dozen or so players with a chance to win it wanted to go out and take it. But then, Russell Henley volunteered to do so when he stepped to the 16th tee while trailing by three shots.PGA TOUR EVENT AT TRUMP DORAL GETS HUGE BOOST WITH NEW SPOT ON RESTRUCTURED 2027 SCHEDULEDown three with three to play makes the approach straightforward. Extremely difficult, but straightforward, and Henley went out and executed by closing his round out with three consecutive birdies to earn a spot in a playoff with Eric Cole.Henley knocked his tee shot on the par-3 16th hole to 15 feet and drained the birdie putt to officially grab hold of the momentum. He hit his approach shot into the par-4 17th to 15 feet and his final approach on the par-4 18th to just outside the same range.For a player who has earned a bit of a reputation for lacking aggression down the stretch, the former Georgia Bulldog certainly had plenty of it on Sunday afternoon.As for the playoff, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise that all Henley needed was one hole to finish the job against Cole. A driver and a wedge inside of five feet, the job was done, and Henley was hugging his three children and his wife as a PGA Tour winner for the first time in 14 months.In recent years, Henley has become a player who clearly enjoys difficult tests, and winning at Colonial with a score of just 12-under checks that box.With his victory in Fort Worth, Henley passed the career earnings mark of $50 million. Notable players he’s surpassed on the career earnings list are Ernie Els, Bubba Watson, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau and Luke Donald.He may be the most unsuspecting $50 million winner in PGA Tour history, which is probably exactly the way he wants it.Eric Cole is a unique player. He’s 37 years old, is a journeyman in professional golf, has won a dozen times on mini tours, yet remains winless on the PGA Tour despite earning Rookie of the Year honors in 2023.With that resume as a guy nearing 40, he’s earned the reputation of being a perennial loser, and while he’s not a winner, the criticism he receives feels a bit harsh.Cole is in the middle of just his fourth season on the PGA Tour, and this past week’s Charles Schwab Challenge marked his 120th start on Tour. In that time, he’s made 84 cuts, finished runner-up three times, has 41 Top 25 finishes and has earned $13.5 million.It’s safe to assume he’d trade in a couple million bucks to turn one of his second-place finishes into a victory, but it’s not as if Cole is living in some sort of endless, unsuccessful hellscape inside the ropes.Sunday’s playoff loss to Henley was the second time in his young-ish Tour career that he’s had to witness his opponent birdie the first extra hole to slam the door shut. Chris Kirk gave him the same treatment at the 2023 Honda Classic.Cole didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday, hitting just 10 greens in regulation, but still carded an even-par round of 70 to give himself a chance to earn his first win on Tour. He’s more aware than anyone out there that even-par rounds on Sunday very rarely get the job done, and certainly understands he got beat by a guy who simply got scorching hot down the stretch.It won’t make the sting hurt less, but that’s golf sometimes.LIV Golf, or at least this version of LIV Golf, may not exist in just a few months, and out of all the players on the circuit, Joaquin Niemann may be the most upset about it.The Chilean beat Talor Gooch in a playoff to win LIV Korea over the weekend for his eighth individual title since joining the circuit in 2022. Those eight titles are two more than any other LIV player, and while he’s not the first, second, or maybe even fifth player fans think of when it comes to LIV, he certainly should be.BRYSON DECHAMBEAU ADMITS TO TURNING TO AI TO HELP FIX HIS SWING AFTER STRUGGLES AT LIV GOLF KOREAThe loudest LIV critics out there will try claiming that Niemann’s eight wins aren’t noteworthy, but winning professional golf tournaments, regardless of the fact that they are no-cut events, is not easy. Doing so eight times in less than five years is wildly impressive.Maybe the scariest, and definitely most alarming fact about Niemann, is that he’s still just 27 years old. If (when) LIV does officially go belly up, Niemann’s next move will be among the most intriguing to follow.As a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and former 15th-ranked player on the planet, there is no denying he has the game to make serious noise on the game’s biggest stages, but has shockingly failed to do so throughout his entire career.In his 28 major championship starts, he’s finished inside the top 10 only once, which was a T-8 at the 2025 PGA Championship. The sample size is large, the results are very poor, but he still has all the time in the world on his side, and what he does with it over the next decade will be an interesting watch.