THE NEWS

My youngest daughter Katie was killed when an intoxicated illegal immigrant slammed into the back of the vehicle she was riding in at nearly 80 miles an hour while it sat idle at a stoplight. Ever since, I have been trying to understand how reckless public policies allowed something so horrific, and so preventable, to happen.Katie’s death forced me to look beyond slogans and political talking points and ask harder questions about what America’s immigration system has become, who benefits from it and who ultimately bears the costs when governments refuse to enforce meaningful standards.The more I examined the data, the more I began to notice an aspect of the problem that often seemed ignored or dismissed in public debate. Perhaps because acknowledging it had become politically uncomfortable.According to recent data from the Center for Immigration Studies, newly arrived immigrants now possess significantly lower levels of educational attainment than earlier waves of immigration.OBAMA JUDGE USES ‘VINDICTIVE’ RULING TO RELEASE ALLEGED MS-13 HUMAN TRAFFICKERDuring the border-surge years engineered under the Biden-Harris administration and overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the composition of migration shifted heavily toward poorer regions of Latin America, bringing larger numbers of individuals with limited formal education and fewer workforce skills needed in a modern, technology-driven economy.That matters because advanced economies increasingly depend on productivity, skills and institutional capacity. Educational attainment strongly correlates with earnings, poverty rates, tax contribution and long-term dependence on public systems.America in 2026 is not the industrial America of 1920. Low-skill labor no longer guarantees upward mobility, even for many native-born Americans struggling under rising housing costs, inflation, healthcare expenses and stagnant wages. Yet policymakers continue expanding migration flows while insisting there will be no meaningful fiscal or social consequences.REFUGEE FLOOD ISN’T SMART POLICY, IT’S THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKINGBut consequences exist whether political leaders acknowledge them or not.Lower educational attainment is closely associated with lower earnings, higher poverty rates and greater demand on public systems. School districts shoulder the costs of language services and educational remediation, often straining already struggling districts. Hospitals provide emergency care that is frequently never fully reimbursed, with taxpayers ultimately covering much of the burden. Cities face mounting housing pressures, while welfare systems expand to accommodate growing needs.My own family has lived both versions of America’s immigration story. Decades ago, my parents came to the United States legally for the opportunity this country offered and not for benefits or special privileges that increasingly incentivize lawlessness surrounding immigration today.I’M AN ANGEL MOM WHO SAW AT THE WHITE HOUSE HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP IS RESTORING HOPE AND SAFETY FOR FAMILIESThis is personal for me.Katie’s killer, Julio Cucul-Bol, a Guatemalan national who used a Mexican alias while in Illinois, admitted through an interpreter in state court that he had no formal education and was unable to meaningfully communicate in either English or Spanish.So, I have to ask the question Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and many other politicians never will: What purpose did allowing Bol into this country actually serve? How did it strengthen America, improve our communities, or better the lives of American citizens?DAD OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DUI VICTIM ISSUES WARNING TO AMERICANS OVER LAX DRIVER’S LICENSE LAWSMy daughter is dead.Reasonable people can debate immigration levels and legal pathways. But no serious nation can maintain public trust while weakening enforcement and insisting there are no downstream consequences for public institutions, fiscal stability, or social cohesion.Many countries benefit enormously from large-scale emigration. Remittances from migrants working in the United States generate billions in foreign income while also relieving domestic political pressure.NOT COMING TO AMERICA: THE 60-YEAR IMMIGRATION BUBBLE FINALLY BURSTSIn effect, the United States increasingly subsidizes the consequences of governmental failure abroad. Rather than fixing conditions for their own citizens, struggling governments can export portions of their poverty to the United States while importing remittance dollars back home.That dynamic may benefit political elites on both sides of the border, but it does little to encourage long-term reform, self-sufficiency, or stable institutions. In many cases, mass unmanaged migration may actually delay the economic and civic improvements those societies ultimately need most.A truly moral and compassionate approach should not simply encourage people to flee struggling nations indefinitely. It should encourage the development of lawful, stable and prosperous societies where citizens can build meaningful lives in their own countries with dignity and opportunity.IRYNA ZARUTSKA FLED UKRAINE FOR SAFETY BUT DEMOCRATS’ SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES FAILED HERThe United States should be an example to be emulated; a nation built on lawful behavior, strong institutions, accountability and opportunity. Not one that increasingly allows itself to be taken advantage of by governments unwilling to fix conditions for their own people.Migrants should be drawn to America because of the opportunities created by economic freedom and social stability, not enticed by self-serving politicians offering taxpayer-funded benefits while refusing to address the consequences of weak enforcement.States like Illinois increasingly respond to the departure of productive citizens not by confronting the policies driving people away, but by attempting to replace those losses through mass migration encouraged by expansive benefits and weakened standards. Administrations like Biden-Harris accelerated that approach nationally during the border-surge years.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThat is not a serious long-term strategy for national prosperity or institutional stability.Every public policy carries tradeoffs, and citizens should not become collateral damage to reckless immigration policies pursued for short-term political gain.A serious immigration policy would begin with honesty: honesty that educational attainment matters in advanced economies; honesty that mass low-skill migration creates fiscal burdens; honesty that weak enforcement and sanctuary policies carry real-world consequences; and honesty that America cannot permanently function as the economic and social safety valve for the developing world without eventually weakening itself.Compassion without limits is not governance. And no nation can indefinitely absorb the unresolved economic and institutional failures of other countries while expecting its own stability, cohesion and prosperity to remain strong forever.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM JOE ABRAHAM

Yoga is known to boost relaxation, strength and flexibility – and now a new study has found the practice could improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.A randomized trial led by the University of Rochester Medical Center found that a four-week yoga program significantly reduced insomnia, fatigue, anxiety and mood disturbances after cancer treatment.The findings were presented last week at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.CANCER SURVIVORS MAY SEE SURPRISING BENEFITS FROM ONE SPECIFIC EXERCISE, STUDY SAYS The study was conducted across multiple U.S. community cancer care sites, including 410 adult cancer survivors averaging 54 years of age. Around 75% were breast cancer survivors, and none of them had practiced yoga regularly within the prior three months.The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Half of them received only standard survivorship care without the yoga, while the other half received standard care and were also enrolled in the Yoga for Cancer Survivors (YOCAS) program.As part of the YOCAS program, the survivors completed two instructor-led 75-minute yoga sessions each week, including 18 Gentle Hatha yoga and Restorative yoga poses, breathing exercises and mindfulness training.EATING MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES LINKED TO SURPRISING EFFECT ON SLEEPBased on questionnaires completed by the patients, the survivors in the yoga group experienced “moderate-to-large” reductions in overall mood disturbance, “small-to-medium” reductions in anxiety and “medium-to-large” reductions in fatigue, the study found.The improvements in mood and fatigue appeared to be linked to yoga’s beneficial effect on sleep quality, according to the researchers.”This indicates that cancer survivors have an option to alleviate these cancer-related side effects at the same time, without adding another drug,” lead investigator Yuri Choi, PhD, of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York, told Fox News Digital.The study did not reveal any major safety concerns or serious adverse events related to the yoga practice.The study did have some limitations, chiefly that the findings are preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed for a medical publication.CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES”The sample in our clinical trial was relatively homogeneous, with most participants being women (96%), breast cancer patients (75%), Caucasian (93%), and having some college or higher education (82%),” noted Choi.”We are adapting our intervention to reach all cancer patients and survivors, including the creation of a mobile app to reach people in rural communities.”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTERThe research also excluded patients with metastatic cancer (whose disease had spread to other parts of the body).The total study was only four weeks, so more research is needed to determine long-term benefits.If the findings are confirmed by peer-reviewed publications, this could lead to recommendations for structured yoga programs as a non-drug supportive therapy for cancer survivors, the researchers noted.Some yoga studios may use different names for Gentle Hatha and Restorative yoga, such as Foundations Yoga or Healing Yoga, Choi noted. “Survivors should also look for certified yoga instructors who have experience working with cancer patients/survivors or individuals with other challenging health conditions,” the researcher advised. “They should not be afraid to ask their oncology team for referrals to qualified instructors in their community.”TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZChoi also noted that the research did not reveal whether other types of yoga, such as heated-room or rigorous-flow yoga, are safe or beneficial for cancer survivors.The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse delivered a heartfelt reflection on his life, parenting, and politics to the Ruthless Podcast in an exclusive interview released Tuesday morning. “Death sucks, but I’m not really scared,” Sasse told the Fellas. “People are surprised by the answer. And I’m like, well, I guess I’ll talk for a little while.”Sasse was diagnosed with metastatic stage-four pancreatic cancer in December. Throughout the interview, Sasse emphasized the importance of being rooted.”We have funeral plots in Arlington, Nebraska, 14 miles east of our house along the river in Dodge County, Nebraska,” Sasse said. “I don’t want my family to ever give that up.”FORMER GOP SEN. BEN SASSE REVEALS STAGE-4 CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘IT’S A DEATH SENTENCE’Sasse’s career has taken him across the country and, at times, away from his family for extended periods of time. Receiving degrees from Harvard and Yale, he worked as a management consultant before coming back to academia. After serving as the president of Midland University, Sasse was first elected to the Senate in 2014.  Sasse resigned from his seat in 2023 to become the President of the University of Florida. In the interview, podcast co-host Comfortably Smug, himself a recent father, cited a recent op-ed by Sasse’s daughter and asked for parenting advice.VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE REVEALS HE HAS ‘SACRED TIME’ WITH HIS FAMILY FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS EVERY DAY”I recently just had a son,” Smug mentioned. “How did you manage to raise such self-actualized individuals? She said the line that opened with where instead of asking them, like, ‘how was your day?’ You asked them, ‘who did you serve?’ This makes an individual more outward-looking and trying to be a contributor to their community and their friends rather than being a consumer.”The Nebraskan responded by emphasizing the importance of unconditional love and the importance of teaching your children the values of hard work and service to others. “Your parental goal should be for them to know unconditional love, and then in response to live a life of gratitude, where there are some expectations around them,” Sasse responded. “And so she says in her piece that she knows she has unconditional love from us, and that we expect her to grit and grind through it and go and serve other people, not be narcissistically obsessed with herself.”FORMER NEBRASKA SENATOR BATTLING CANCER WARNS PEOPLE HAVE ‘STOPPED MAKING BABIES’The conversation also touched on how technology has changed family life, the economy, and American politics. “You’d be sitting in Republican Senate lunch, and dudes are scrolling through social media reading comments on Twitter, on their press releases,” Sasse said. “I’m like, you know, those are mostly Russian bots. They’re mostly not even real… Like if you’ve got eight digits that come at the end of your name, that’s not Cynthia from Norfolk, Nebraska. But now I just couldn’t care less about the tribal stupid [things] that people might yell about.”Podcast co-host Josh Holmes detailed how many of Sasse’s former colleagues in the body have appreciated his perspective over the last couple of months. “I talked to a number of your old colleagues in the Senate over the last couple of months who are just deeply appreciative of the time you’ve taken to share wisdom in this particular part of life,” Holmes told Sasse.Sasse has authored two books on this intersection of parenting and the future of the country: “Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal” and “The Vanishing American Adult.”Since his diagnosis, Sasse has also launched the Not Dead Yet Podcast.

The first day of jury selection in the case involving a Texas teenager accused of stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death following a confrontation at a high school track meet was ushered in by demonstrators from both sides taking to the streets outside the courthouse, raising concerns about a potential outside influence impacting the jury. Karmelo Anthony, 18, is charged with first-degree murder stemming from Metcalf’s death. The case sparked outrage both in the local community and nationwide, with conversations surrounding race and self-defense rights taking center stage. On Monday, as prospective jurors arrived at the courthouse to be considered for selection, a crowd of demonstrators descended outside the court-ordered perimeter to voice their support for both sides of the case.AMERICA STILL CAN’T PUT DOWN THE RACE CARD. AND IT’S THE SHAME OF OUR NATION Positioned on opposite sides of the street, video footage shows the groups chanting, playing instruments and carrying signs both in favor and against Anthony – with the crowd of counter-demonstrators also carrying a large sign with Metcalf’s photo. “We declare, we decree, Karmelo is free,” supporters of Anthony can be heard saying outside the courthouse. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON XThe presence of supporters from both sides presents a unique challenge for the attorneys seeking a fair trial in a case that has been marred by public perception and media attention, according to Texas defense attorney Larry Taylor.KAREN READ JUDGE SUED OVER ‘BUFFER ZONE’ KEEPING PROTESTERS AWAY FROM COURTHOUSE”It goes to reinforce potential negative biases, as well as potentially even create some new ones,” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “And so to walk by individuals who are angry or shouting, it could get into the mindset of a potential juror.” SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTERAs jury selection remains underway, Taylor noted that any indication that a potential juror has been impacted by the demonstrators could be grounds for removal. “If I see someone potentially nodding their head to the rhythm of a chant, it can be taken as something that they either agree with or have some kind of feeling toward,” Taylor said. “And that could potentially have that juror struck.”TRUE CRIME REPORTERS BLOCKED OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE WHERE KAREN READ IS ON TRIAL FILE FIRST AMENDMENT LAWSUITBefore the trial was set to be underway, a Texas judge issued a gag order in the case – effectively barring anyone involved in the trial from speaking to the media. Cameras, livestreams and video recordings are also banned from inside the courtroom, and demonstrators must stay outside of a specific perimeter surrounding the courthouse.LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST “[The judge] doesn’t want people coming up there in large numbers who feel that the case isn’t necessarily going their way, and they have some kind of reaction to that,” Taylor said. “You don’t want witnesses to be pointed out or to be harassed or threatened.” According to Taylor, the judge presiding over Anthony’s case must walk a fine line between protecting the demonstrators’ freedom of speech and the defendant’s right to a fair trial.TEXAS PRESS CONFERENCE IN AUSTIN METCALF KILLING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OVER TRACK MEET STABBING”You have the battle of the First Amendment versus the sanctity of the Seventh [Amendment],” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “Having access to the courts that is uninhibited and fair. So you have the judge weighing these constitutional rights and saying, ‘Okay, you have a right to protest, you have a right to be vocal, but I am going to set a distance away from my court so that I will have a fair and impartial jury.” LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUBThe possibility of allowing outside influences to impact the outcome of the trial could be monumental, as Taylor insists the judge must prioritize shielding the jurors from any potential biases. “If things go crazy, and demonstrators are threatening witnesses as they’re walking in, and people seem rattled, then the case just doesn’t flow,” Taylor said. “You’re setting yourself up for an appeal or a mistrial, and having to do this all over again.”AUSTIN METCALF’S SUSPECTED KILLER INDICTED ON FIRST-DEGREE MURDER CHARGE IN TRACK MEET STABBINGAnthony was indicted on the first-degree murder charge by a Collin County grand jury stemming from the alleged stabbing at a Frisco track meet on April 2, 2025.GOT A TIP?”For weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to the grand jury,” Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said after the indictment. “Today, I summarized that evidence, and I asked the Grand Jury to return a first-degree murder indictment against Karmelo Anthony — which they did.””With that indictment, the case now moves formally into the court system,” Willis added.FOLLOW US ON XAnthony is accused of fatally stabbing Metcalf inside a Memorial High School team tent during the sporting event, with investigators alleging Anthony told Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens,” before retrieving a knife from his bag. The alleged stabbing was due to a confrontation between the two teenagers, according to police.GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAILImmediately after the incident, authorities said Anthony told responding officers he acted in self-defense, telling officers, “I’m not alleged, I did it.”MOURNING MOTHER, TWIN BROTHER OF SLAIN TEXAS TEEN SPEAK OUT: ‘LOST MY BEST FRIEND IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE’Mike Howard, Anthony’s attorney, has insisted that the details surrounding what lead up to the confrontation have not been disclosed to the public, and will be released in court.CLICK HERE FOR MORE US NEWS”We expect that when the full story is heard, the prosecution will not be able to rule out the reasonable doubt that Karmelo Anthony may have acted in self-defense,” Howard said following the indictment.WATCH: Father speaks out after son was stabbed to death at track meetAs the court prepares to hear opening statements in the case, Taylor said the presence of the demonstrators outside the courthouse could bring a sense of peace and support for both families.”Both families in essence have lost sons,” Taylor said. “Karmelo Anthony will never be the same – he could potentially be imprisoned. And so seeing supporters of your child gives hope to the family that actually lost their son. Seeing people out there in support of their son gives them a hope that justice will fall their way.” Fox News Digital reached out to Anthony’s attorney and the Collin County District Attorney’s office for comment. Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price, Peter D’Abrosca and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

South Korea and the United States launched new high-profile talks Tuesday to discuss the implementation of security agreements, including Seoul’s push to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Trump Slashes Tractor Tariffs In Bid To Revive Ag Belt Optimism

The Trump administration appears to be trying to inject new optimism across the nation’s farm belt following the China meeting last month, during which Beijing committed to making billions of dollars of new purchases of U.S. agricultural goods. The White House’s latest move is to reduce tariffs on tractors and combines, a policy shift aimed at easing cost pressures on farmers already squeezed by diesel, fertilizer, and machinery costs.

Late Monday, President Trump signed a proclamation slashing tariffs on imported agricultural equipment, including combines and harvesters, from 25% to 15% to lower costs for US farmers and manufacturers.

More color from the White House:

The Proclamation adjusts the tariffs on agricultural equipment, like combines and harvesters, as well as certain other equipment, from 25% to 15%.  

The Proclamation also expands the existing category of industrial equipment subject to a 15% tariff to include mobile industrial equipment, like bulldozers and forklifts, when imported from trade deal countries that are entitled to such treatment.

The Proclamation encourages foreign companies to use more U.S. steel and aluminum by allowing them to qualify for a 10% duty rate, if their capital equipment include at least 85% U.S. melted and poured or smelted and cast steel or aluminum by weight.

These tariff changes are temporary, lasting until December 31, 2027, to spur near–term investments that will rebuild the Nation’s industrial base.

The move is a clear attempt by the Trump administration to spur optimism across the nation’s farm belt following China’s commitments last month to purchase $17 billion annually in additional U.S. agricultural goods.

The latest reading of the US ag economy via the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer has been fading from a summer 2025 peak as trade wars and, now, the Gulf-related energy shock hurt farmers’ incomes.

Trump’s directive sent shares of the Japanese agricultural and industrial machinery company Kubota up 5% in Tokyo trading.

Efforts to boost farmer sentiment come ahead of the midterm election cycle, which is gearing up and is only 154 days away.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 06/02/2026 – 06:55

The annual June 1 kickoff to Pride Month came and went on Monday and the NFL’s X account that serves over 36 million followers and its Instagram account that serves 32 million followers did not mention the event.Let that sink in for a moment.The league accounts that, in the past years, have told fans that “football is gay,” that “football is lesbian,” that football is queer, transgender, bisexual and, for everyone, were silent on the issue. The National Football League’s social media accounts this year stuck to, well, football.The league posted about the Myles Garrett trade to the Los Angeles Rams. About the A.J. Brown trade to the New England Patriots. About Odell Beckham signing with the New York Giants. And Raymond Berry dying.So, this may mean something.Or nothing.EX-NFL STAR DEZ BRYANT SLAMS LEAGUE’S PRIDE MONTH MESSAGING: ‘FAR FROM RIGHT’For conservatives, Christians and others, it is a small victory they hope extends throughout the entire month and eventually to the league’s individual teams, most of which embraced Pride Month on its first day. Nine of the 32 teams did not recognize Pride Month on Monday.For some gay activists, the NFL’s action (or inaction) on social media on Monday means they’re hoping some admin corrects an oversight as early as Tuesday morning. Otherwise, it’s a big loss for those activists that want their sexuality celebrated and amplified by the country’s most popular sports league.Whatever it means, this is where we are in 2026: Corporations, small businesses, universities, individuals, and yes, sports leagues are being watched on the first day of Pride Month to see how they handle the divisive issue.We say divisive because there are no winners amid the scrutiny. Recognizing the month or opting out sends a message that upsets somebody regardless of the choice.TENNESSEE GOVERNOR SIGNS NUCLEAR FAMILY MONTH RESOLUTION AS CRITICS PUSH BACK ON EXCLUSIONSMajor League Baseball, the NBA and even the NHL recognized the start of Pride Month on Monday. The professional hockey league did so by changing its logo to rainbow colors — a betrayal of its own corporate branding.So, the NFL was different than its professional sports counterparts for at least one day. It was also different than it has been in the past when it did salute Pride Month on its first day and even once came up with celebrating LGBTQ history month.This doesn’t mean the NFL is no longer supporting gay issues. It supports those all year long on its website and via other means, including fundraising events and promotions. But this messaging omission this time — intentional or otherwise — was notable.As to the league’s teams, the nine teams that declined to mention Pride Month are generally the same group that have done so in the past.The New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints did not recognize Pride Month on social media. Most of those did not last year, either.And this is where we remind you, this is a snapshot in time. The NFL may offer a Pride Month nod in the coming hours or days after publication of this piece. The teams that opted out might as easily opt in over the coming days.The Indianapolis Colts, for example, have been back and forth on the Pride Month celebration posts the past two years. But they were the NFL’s first team to post about Pride Month this year.And why do we count? Because we live in an increasingly populist society where one side insists it must celebrate its sexuality and wants others to join in, and the other side has increasingly resisted and, in the extreme, believes the celebration of one sexuality over an entire month is insufferable.All one has to do is read the replies to the teams to understand both of those are so.It is also interesting that Pride Month and the corporate pandering it encourages create some strange dynamics. Example:WASHINGTON COMMANDERS, WHO ADVOCATE FOR GAY PRIDE, CELEBRATE MUSLIM HOLY DAYThe Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings are among the teams that saluted Pride Month on Monday.But that seemingly makes those teams seem quite conflicted on social media because in March they also celebrated the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, with a shoutout to Eid al-Fitr.The Vikings celebrated the Muslim holiday on X while the Texans and Eagles did so on Facebook.The Muslim religion, like Christianity and Judaism, has strict teachings against homosexuality.But the Commanders, Vikings and Eagles were not the only ones presenting a paradox to the celebration of gays with the orthodoxy of the Muslim religion on Monday.New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a verbose (for X) post about how it would take more than a month to “honor the contributions of queer and transgender New Yorkers.”Mamdani was born in Uganda, is a Sharia Muslim and has consistently praised his home country while also publicly embracing his religious identity.Except that Uganda in 2023 enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act that imposes life imprisonment for same-sex acts and the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality. And traditional Sharia treats homosexual acts as punishable offenses.Yes, quite inconvenient for someone celebrating the start of Pride Month.FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un honored members of Naegohyang Women’s FC after the club won Asia’s top women’s club competition last month, state media reported Tuesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to face tough questions on Capitol Hill this week as Congress threatens to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers, while the administration pushes for an end to the conflict with Iran.Rubio will testify in four congressional hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday on the State Department’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But the Trump official is likely to be grilled on the ongoing negotiations to end the war and whether the U.S. military campaign should continue against Iranian forces and the country’s nuclear capabilities. The U.S. and Iran have yet to agree on terms to end sporadic fighting. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and potential sanctions relief have emerged as key sticking points in negotiations. President Donald Trump said Monday that he “couldn’t care less” if the stalled talks were over, in an interview with CNBC.TRUMP SAYS IRAN IS ‘NEGOTIATING ON FUMES,’ BELIEVES REGIME THOUGHT THEY COULD OUTWAIT HIM”I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,” Trump told the outlet. “If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring.”The president’s comments followed fresh rounds of fighting over the weekend that tested the fragile ceasefires in place since early April. The U.S. military has shown no signs of ending its blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran has continued to flex its hold over the Strait of Hormuz.Rubio’s Hill appearances come as both the House and Senate could advance legislation this week that would halt U.S. involvement in the war, absent congressional authorization.A successful war powers resolution would likely be a symbolic blow to the administration given an expected presidential veto and the lack of a veto-proof majority.GOP REP MASSIE JOINS DEMOCRATS IN OPPOSITION TO US IRAN STRIKESBut the president may suffer a political setback as a growing number of Republicans are souring on Trump’s handling of the war.In the House, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., have joined Democrats in voting to curtail the president’s war powers — and more GOP lawmakers could follow suit this week.The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that the 1973 War Powers Resolution requiring congressional oversight of military action infringes on the executive branch.Beyond the war powers debate, Rubio is also likely to face questions about Trump accepting a deal that stops short of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. The Trump administration has repeatedly said it would never agree to anything that allows Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Some Republicans with hawkish national security views have warned Trump against agreeing to a deal that would let Tehran continue to project power across the region.”Our commander in chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote on social media in late May. “Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness. We must finish what we started. It is past time for action.”Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.

Net Zero & Statism Deliver Stagnation: How Interventionism Undermined Growth In The UK & Canada

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

Governments are terrible at picking winners and even worse at choosing losers. Net zero and interventionist “Keynesian” policies in Canada and the UK have proven that government intervention has created a worse outcome than anyone would have expected. The result is higher costs, distorted incentives, and weakened productivity growth, with increased dependency on fossil fuels to attend to peak demand, exactly what Austrian economists predicted.

What has been sold as a recipe for prosperity and “green growth” has in practice eroded affordability while failing to deliver stronger, sustainable expansion.

It is not surprising to see that the world’s examples of green interventionism, the UK and Canada, have become economic failures. Years ago, some argued that these policies needed time to prove their success. Now, it is not even debatable that the stagnation and recession in the UK and Canada are self-inflicted.

Net zero in Canada and the UK is not a single policy but an entire regime of targets, regulations, limits, subsidies, and new bureaucratic requirements.

The Canadian federal plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 combines rising carbon taxes, prescriptive regulations, technology mandates, and public investment schemes intended to steer capital away from fossil fuels and into politically selected “green” projects.

In the UK, the government’s “Net Zero Growth Plan” is also built on regulatory limits, spending commitments, and industrial policy designed to phase out conventional energy and reshape entire sectors through top-down planning.

This is a classic example of interventionism. The state attempts to override market price signals and entrepreneurial judgment to engineer a politically preferred energy and industrial structure and achieves the opposite of what it wants to deliver. Rather than relying on decentralized knowledge, competition, technology, and creative destruction, dispersed among millions of consumers and firms, net zero regimes assume that politicians and regulators know exactly which technologies should win, what the “right” energy mix ought to be, and how fast the transition should occur.

In an open market, prices and profits coordinate production across time, and entrepreneurs interpret prices as signals about real scarcities and consumer preferences. However, net-zero policies deliberately tamper with these signals. Carbon taxes, subsidies, and regulatory mandates change relative prices not because underlying preferences or scarcities changed but because policymakers decided that certain activities should be penalized and others subsidized. All this is justified by a completely ideological and unreliable assumption of externality costs, where governments present themselves as the ones that know precisely what those alleged externality costs are and try to push a pricing signal imposed through ideology, creating enormous distortions that, ultimately, end benefiting the “old” and “loser” industries.

Governments are not worried about the failure of these policies. Bureaucrats always believe that interventionism did not work because there was not enough of it. Therefore, they impose additional burdens and regulations while portraying themselves as the solution to the inflation and stagnation problems they have caused.

In both Canada and the UK, this has pushed vast amounts of capital into projects that are unprofitable and can only subsist due to policy support rather than genuine market demand. “Green industrial strategies” crowd out investment in other sectors, especially in traditional energy and manufacturing, even when those sectors still deliver higher value at lower cost to consumers. Austrian theory predicts that politicized credit and subsidies will generate malinvestment: projects that look viable under distorted interest rates and prices but which fail to cover their costs once the policy support is withdrawn or the fiscal burden becomes unsustainable.

Canadian long-run productivity growth has fallen from annual rates above 3% in the postwar decades to less than 1% since 2000, despite repeated waves of policy activism and “pro-productivity” rhetoric. Chronic underinvestment in business capital and weak technological progress as key drivers of this decline, suggesting that the policy mix has not created an environment for genuine, bottom-up innovation. The more that investment decisions depend on regulatory favor and subsidy access, the less they depend on entrepreneurial assessment of consumer wants and long-term profitability.

Net zero has also harmed affordability in exactly the way Austrian economists would expect when governments interfere with relative prices. Carbon pricing, renewable mandates, and restrictions on fossil-fuel projects increase energy costs directly by making reliable sources of power more expensive or scarce. These higher input costs then cascade through the economy to transport, food, housing, and manufactured goods, eroding real wages and living standards.

In both Canada and the UK, affordability has become a central political issue. Households face higher utility bills, fuel costs, and housing expenses, while governments insist that the transition is “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs.” From an Austrian viewpoint, this contradiction is unsurprising: when the state deliberately raises the cost of dominant energy sources and limits investment in efficient, market-chosen technologies, the outcome is necessarily higher prices and reduced real income for consumers, especially for low- and middle-income households.

The C.D. Howe Institute has calculated the costs of justifying public “stimulus” projects based on their benefits, showing that a typical public-services stimulus in Canada needs to create at least 73 cents in benefits for every dollar spent, while many infrastructure projects must improve productivity by at least 61 cents per dollar just to be socially acceptable. This illustrates how difficult it is for discretionary fiscal programs to deliver genuine, net productivity gains, especially when they are designed around political objectives like net zero rather than around consumer demand.

Loose money, loose budgets, weak growth

Energy policy is just one aspect of the overall narrative. Canada and the UK have also pursued aggressively expansionary fiscal and monetary policies recently, justified in the language of Keynesian stabilization and “stimulus.” Central banks slashed interest rates and expanded their balance sheets, while governments ran large deficits to finance transfer programs, public investment packages, and targeted subsidies.

Such policies create an artificial boom by pushing interest rates below their market level, encouraging borrowing and investment that are not backed by genuine savings. When combined with interventionist climate and industrial policies, the result is a double distortion: not only is the cost of capital suppressed by central banks, but its allocation is further skewed by political targets and bureaucratic criteria.

The persistent weakness of productivity growth in both countries reflects the outcome. Despite waves of stimulus and intervention, neither Canada nor the UK has returned to the trend growth rates of earlier decades. Research on why productivity is stuck in advanced economies shows that slow business investment, poor use of resources, and uncertain policies are major problems—exactly what Austrian theory warns about when governments try to control demand and manage entire industries.

At the same time, the loose monetary and fiscal stance has fueled asset inflation and housing booms, worsening affordability while doing little to raise real wages in line with living expenses. For Austrians, this pattern is predictable: credit expansion inflates asset prices and encourages leverage, while deficit spending diverts resources from productive private activity toward politically selected uses, without solving underlying structural obstacles to innovation and entrepreneurship.

The “dynamics of interventionism” described by Austrian scholars such as Frank Shostak and Huerta de Soto captures what is now playing out in Canada and the UK. Initial interventions—carbon pricing, subsidies, ultra-loose money—create side effects such as higher energy costs, misallocated capital, and inflationary pressures. Rather than rolling back the original policies, governments respond with further interventions: price caps, windfall taxes, rent controls, targeted transfers, and new stimulus packages.

More layers mean more complexity, uncertainty, and lobbying, which sucks talent and capital out of productive activity and into regulatory arbitrage and rent-seeking. In the end, the private sector becomes less about serving consumers and more about navigating the policy maze, bidding for subsidies, and changing business models based on political risk, not market signals.

This process tends to push mixed economies toward either more radical intervention and taxation, because the accumulating distortions and contradictions become unsustainable. Rising public debt, chronic productivity stagnation, and growing discontent over affordability are all signs that the current policy mix in Canada and the UK is reaching such a breaking point.

An Austrian approach to the problems of growth, productivity, and affordability in Canada and the UK would start from the opposite principle: radically reduce the role of the state in credit allocation, industrial planning, and energy choices. The goal would be to restore genuine price discovery in interest rates, energy markets, and capital allocation, rather than using central banks and fiscal policy to engineer demand and support politically favored sectors.

That would require ending the “permanent emergency” stance in monetary policy and allowing interest rates to reflect real-time preferences and savings, rather than central-bank discretion; rolling back net zero mandates, technology bans, and targeted subsidies allow entrepreneurs and consumers to decide which energy sources and technologies best serve their needs at the lowest cost; and moving from government spending based on political choices to a system with clear rules and less government involvement that safeguards property rights, upholds contracts, and maintains low and steady taxes and regulations.

Under such a regime, capital would no longer be herded into fashionable, subsidy-dependent projects. Instead, entrepreneurs would once again be guided by undistorted profit and loss, discovering the production structures that genuinely align with consumer preferences and technological realities. Over time, such an approach is the only path consistent with higher productivity, faster real wage growth, and true improvements in affordability.

In short, the disappointing growth and deteriorating affordability in Canada and the UK are not market failures; they are the predictable result of layering net zero interventionism on top of already inflationary, deficit-driven macro policy. The solution is not more of the same but a decisive shift back toward sound money, fiscal restraint, and genuine economic freedom.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 06/02/2026 – 06:30