Zerohedge

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

The United States will withdraw from the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by the end of 2026, the State Department confirmed on July 22, citing ideological differences and what it described as an anti-Israel bias and “globalist” agenda out of step with U.S. foreign policy.

“Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

She said the agency advances “divisive social and cultural causes” and prioritizes the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals—an agenda she called “globalist” and at odds with the Trump administration’s America First foreign policy.

The United States delivered a formal notice of its withdrawal to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on July 22, according to Bruce.

The move, carried out under Article II(6) of the organization’s constitution, is set to take effect on Dec. 31, 2026. Until that date, the United States will continue to participate as a full member.

This marks the third time the United States has withdrawn from the Paris-based agency, and the second time under President Donald Trump. The United States last withdrew from UNESCO in 2017 during Trump’s first term, citing anti-Israel bias. It rejoined in 2023 under President Joe Biden, who argued the move was necessary to counter China’s growing influence in the organization.

However, a 2023 report from Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project found that UNESCO was “complicit” in the Chinese regime’s atrocities against Uyghurs and their culture by remaining silent and even providing cover for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly said that the decision to withdraw from UNESCO reflects Trump’s broader commitment to reevaluating international memberships through the lens of U.S. national interests.

“President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO – which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes,” Kelly stated in a post on X on July 22.

“The President will always put America First. Our membership in all international organizations must align with our national interests.”

In her statement, Bruce reiterated U.S. opposition to UNESCO’s 2011 decision to admit “Palestine” as a member state, calling it “highly problematic” and a contributor to “the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”

The Reagan administration first pulled the United States out of UNESCO in 1984 over concerns about mismanagement and pro-Soviet bias. The United States rejoined in 2003 under the Bush administration, only to suspend funding in 2011 following the “Palestine” vote.

The Biden administration had requested $150 million in the 2024 federal budget to resume dues and begin repaying more than $600 million in arrears. U.S. contributions once accounted for 22 percent of UNESCO’s operating budget.

Alex Newman, investigative journalist and Epoch Times contributor, reported in 2020 that multiple senior U.S. officials and analysts have expressed grave concerns about what they described as a CCP “takeover” of the United Nations and its agencies, including UNESCO.

“I don’t think UNESCO is fixable,” former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Kevin Moley told The Epoch Times at the time.

Moley said that the agency’s policymaking had “largely been taken over by the CCP and its allies,” while describing the CCP takeover of the U.N. as “the greatest existential threat to our republic since its founding.”

The total volume of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz stands around a staggering $600 billion.

While a blockade of the strait is considered a distant possibility, its closure could ripple across global supply chain networks. In particular, Japan, China, and India would be impacted the most. Furthermore, a shock to oil prices would likely affecting production costs, in turn raising the price of consumer goods.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the most vital oil transit chokepoints, based on data from MUFG.

The Strait of Hormuz and Oil Trade Flows

Below, we show how the Strait of Hormuz sees the second-highest volume of oil passing through its corridor globally:

In 2023, 20.9 million barrels of oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and Oman.

Iran largely controls this waterway, where 20% of global oil consumption is transported across this shipping route. In response to Israel-Iran conflicts, oil production surged by 950,000 barrels per day in June—largely driven by Saudi Arabian output.

While tensions have recently flared between Israel and Syria, it remains to be seen if conflict will resurface with Iran. Earlier in July, Israeli officials met with Trump to discuss certain scenarios that would justify a future attack on Iran—including the resumption of nuclear enrichment activities.

To learn more about industrial resources from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the top 25 countries by proven oil reserves.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

Chemotherapy can be a life-saving though sometimes toxic effort to eliminate lethal cancer cells before they kill the patient.

As such, it can serve as a bitter metaphor for the often-controversial efforts of the Trump administration to undo the metastasizing damage caused by the Biden administration.

The left and the media, however, wish to convince America that the remedy for four years of either catastrophe is worse than the catastrophe itself.

Take the border. It was literally destroyed over the last four years. After welcoming in some three million illegal aliens per year—none with legal permission, health audits, or criminal background checks—there was no sign that the then-current or a second Biden administration was ever going to stop radically altering the demography of the U.S.

It was apparently not enough for Biden and his puppeteers that there were a record 50-million-plus foreign-born U.S. residents, comprising nearly 16 percent of the population, among them likely more than 30 million illegal aliens. What number would have been sufficient for a putative eight-year Biden administration—40, 50, or 70 million illegal aliens?

How could any subsequent lawful administration ever undo such nihilism? Would anyone try to round up 500,000 likely criminal aliens, house by house?

Ferret out violent illegal aliens from sanctuary cities, our modern version of nullificationist Confederate states defying federal law?

How does one even find 12 million people illegally admitted under Biden?

Did the left assume that the optics of just letting in millions of impoverished illegal aliens were at least better than any later effort to round them up?

After all, fueling the lawlessness only required passivity, but restoring lawfulness mandated arrest and occasionally force.

The media did not cover the rapes, murders, and assaults of illegal aliens. Nor did it care about poor American citizens vying for swamped social services amid the illegal flood of illegal aliens. It fixated only on the unpopular chemotherapeutic task of belatedly enforcing the law, securing the border, and deporting the illegal entrants.

It was likewise easy to allow the cancer of appeasement and laxity to spread abroad. That was an effortless matter of dropping sanctions to beg theocratic and terrorist Iran to reenter the “Iran Deal.” Or asleep-at-the-wheel appeasement meant a quick skedaddle from Afghanistan, without worry about the mayhem, chaos, and billions of dollars of weapons abandoned to the Taliban—or the signals it sent to Vladimir Putin or communist China.

Joe Biden nonchalantly claimed the decision to resist a Putin invasion of Ukraine hinged only on whether it was a mere “minor” attack. And it was far easier to mouth a bombastic and empty “Don’t” to Putin’s planned aggressions than to craft a real strategy to deter him.

In contrast, the chemotherapy needed to kill the cancer of lost deterrence proved hard, painful, and dangerous. Sticking by democratic Israel as the world piled on against it was not easy. Bombing the Iranian nuclear infrastructure would incur domestic hysteria. Trying to engage, cajole, and threaten Putin to stop the killing in Ukraine might threaten a wider war amid nuclear threats.

DEI easily materialized throughout the U.S. After all, we were told the good racism of today was needed to fight the bad racism of yesteryear, with civil rights legislation, public opinion, and the Supreme Court be damned.

But what about the chemotherapy antidote needed for the cancer of a rapidly growing and institutionalized bias and prejudice cloaked with euphemisms and disguised as social justice?

To stop the new DEI racialism, we had to warn our elite universities, the multibillionaire corporate boardrooms, the woke-entrenched media, and the weaponized government commissariat that they, not their targets, were the real racists. It meant explaining that the DEI crowd, not their opponents, had violated the Constitution and a Supreme Court ruling, and that they were destroying a once meritocratic America. Four out of five Americans polled expressed their opposition to DEI. Yet the 20 percent who did not usually hold the greater institutional power, and so it was no easy task to stop them.

It was easy and popular to hire more employees and expand USAID, the State Department, or HHS—patronage without worry over the cost of bureaucratic bloat and stasis. But to economize, save the taxpayer money, streamline the government, and lay off workers? That was a controversial chemotherapy, damned as cruel, needless, and dangerous.

Likewise, it sounded virtuous, clean, and utopian to fast-track the Green New Deal. It sounded so virtuous in the abstract to save the planet, keep us healthy, and power us with renewable energy. As part of that lie, the media never covered the spiraling cost of electricity and gasoline and the catastrophic effect on the poor. They rarely reported that one in four Californians could not pay their electricity bills, fill up their tanks at $5.50 a gallon, and heat their homes as the price of propane and natural gas soared.

Few talked about how to power the essential power-guzzling AI industries on the horizon or the economic surcharge that came with unreliable and expensive green power.

Instead, the chemotherapy of providing affordable and plentiful energy—more nuclear, natural gas, petroleum, and clean coal power and fuel—was the only feasible way to transition to new energies without destroying the economy. Yet such traditional sources of power were cheaply damned as destroying the planet, shortening lives, and enriching the greedy.

Note: in all these cases, our progressive doctors never apprised us, the patients, that their policies were not only killing us but that they either did not care or had alternate solutions.

Again, at what number would Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas have stopped illegal alien entries? Until bankruptcy? Until the American poor could not find an appointment in any ER in their neighborhood?

When would the Biden administration have stopped its appeasement? Was $50 billion in US arms not enough for the Taliban? Did Iran’s henchmen in Syria and Iraq have to attack 200, 300, or 400 U.S. installations before it warranted retaliation?

How far did the Biden administration have to go to beg Iran to reenter the disastrous Iran deal? Another $400 million in cash bribes sent to Tehran on another nocturnal pallet.

By 2025, was the Biden administration planning to grant the terrorist Houthis the entire Red Sea? What would China have to do to warrant the Biden administration’s attention? Send over five more spy balloons, add another $100 billion to its trade surplus, or dress down American diplomats at two or three more Alaska mini-summits?

Perhaps send over 200,000 more students to appropriate more U.S. technology? Buy up land across from the White House?

What was the logical end of DEI in a multiracial democracy? DNA badges to verify special racial privileges? A separate dorm and graduation for each of 20 or more tribes? Another one million DEI commissars to monitor our minds? Still more Professors Kendis to lecture us on the good racism? Indoctrination camps for those unqualified for DEI status? Surgery teams chosen by demographic percentages?

Had the Green New Deal kept going, what was the eventual endgame? Two-hour power outages a day? $9 a gallon gas? Offshoring AI industries? Winter thermostats rigged to stop at 55 degrees? Not a natural gas stove in the U.S.?

Oncologists who must administer toxic chemotherapy are often seen as scary people.

But they are never as dangerous or deadly as the metastasis itself.

SaaS industry veteran Jason Lemkin’s attempt to integrate artificial intelligence into his workflow has gone spectacularly wrong, with an AI coding assistant admitting to a “catastrophic failure” after wiping out an entire company database containing over 2,400 business records, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Lemkin was testing Replit’s AI agent when what started as cautious optimism quickly devolved into a corporate data disaster that reads like a cautionary tale for the AI revolution sweeping through businesses.

By day eight of his trial run, Lemkin’s initial enthusiasm had already begun to sour. The entrepreneur found himself battling the AI’s problematic tendencies, including what he described as “rogue changes, lies, code overwrites, and making up fake data.” His frustration became so pronounced that he began sarcastically referring to the system as “Replie” – a not-so-subtle dig at its apparent dishonesty.

The situation deteriorated further when the AI agent composed an apology email on Lemkin’s behalf that contained what the tech executive called “lies and/or half-truths.” Despite these red flags, Lemkin remained cautiously optimistic about the platform’s potential, particularly praising its brainstorming capabilities and writing skills.

That optimism evaporated on day nine.

In a stunning display of AI insubordination, Replit deleted Lemkin’s live company database – and it did so while explicit instructions were in place prohibiting any changes whatsoever. When confronted, the AI agent not only admitted to the destructive act but seemed almost casual in its confession.

“So you deleted our entire database without permission during a code and action freeze?” Lemkin asked in what can only be imagined as barely contained fury.

The AI’s response was chillingly matter-of-fact: Yes.

JFC @Replit pic.twitter.com/ixo6LBnUVu

— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025

Possibly worse, it hid and lied about it

It lied again in our unit tests, claiming they passed

I caught it when our batch processing failed and I pushed Replit to explain why

— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025

What followed was perhaps even more disturbing. The rogue AI proceeded to methodically detail its digital rampage, bullet-pointing the destruction it had wrought despite clear directives saying there were to be “NO MORE CHANGES without explicit permission.” And according to Lemkin, appeared to lie about its actions.

Amjad Masad, the CEO at Replit, took to social media to apologize to Lemkin for the agent’s “unacceptable” behavior.

“We started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically, Masad said. “We heard the ‘code freeze’ pain loud and clear – we’re actively working on a planning/chat-only mode so you can strategize without risking your codebase.”

Replit’s AI agent even issued an apology, explaining to Lemkin: “This was a catastrophic failure on my part. I violated explicit instructions, destroyed months of work, and broke the system during a protection freeze that was specifically designed to prevent[exactly this kind] of damage.”

Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump has confirmed that he is considering abolishing the capital gains tax on houses.

“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said on July 22 when asked if the administration is considering removing the tax to improve the U.S. housing market.

The president added that the Federal Reserve would “unleash” the real estate market by lowering interest rates.

“If the Fed would lower the [interest] rates, we wouldn’t even have to do that,” he said during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“But we are thinking about no capital gains tax on houses.”

Thank you, President Trump, for supporting my No Tax on Home Sales Act!

My bill would ELIMINATE the federal capital gains tax on the sale of your primary residence.

You worked for it. You should keep it.

Let’s get this bill passed! pic.twitter.com/q8e1cs6met

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 22, 2025

The U.S. government imposes a capital gains tax on the sale of homes. Tax rates for long-term capital gains—residential properties held for more than a year—depend on income and range from zero percent to 20 percent. Capital gains on homes owned for less than a year are taxed at the same rate as your ordinary income.

However, there are exemptions, with current law allowing homeowners selling their primary residence to exclude home sale profits of up to $250,000 for individual tax filers and up to $500,000 for joint filers.

Earlier this month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced legislation—the No Tax on Home Sales Act—to eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of primary homes.

“Homeowners who have lived in their homes for decades, especially seniors in places where values have surged, shouldn’t be forced to stay put because of an IRS penalty,” Greene said in a statement.

“My bill unlocks that equity, helps fix the housing shortage, and supports long-term financial security for American families.”

The bill could help unwind housing shortages that have contributed to soaring home prices.

According to a June Realtor.com monthly housing report, the housing supply remains nearly 13 percent below pre-pandemic levels, despite inventory levels increasing for 20 consecutive months.

Meanwhile, industry experts argue that the current exemptions are outdated, particularly in light of current market conditions.

Data compiled by the National Association of Realtors indicate that 34 percent of homeowners, or approximately 29 million people, may possess enough equity to exceed the $250,000 exemption cap. And more than 10 percent, or 8 million, might have enough equity to surpass the $500,000 limit.

Trump, speaking to reporters on July 13, said Greene’s bill would create “a great incentive for a lot of people that really need money.”

The National Association of Realtors calls the capital gains tax a “stay-put penalty.”

“This stagnation in housing turnover is rippling through the entire market, driving up costs and limiting opportunity—exactly the opposite of what public policy should be encouraging,” Shannon McGahn, the association’s executive vice president and chief advocacy officer, said in a June report. “And it grows worse each month.”

In June, the median selling price for a home was $447,435, according to Redfin data.

Veteran national security correspondent Laura Rozen has claimed that the entire State Department’s Office of Multilateral Nuclear Affairs was dismissed last week, citing a report in the Council on Foreign Relations.

Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability (ADS) Alexandra Bell has been cited in the report as saying, “These were people responsible for efforts to ban explosive nuclear testing, the production of weapons grade material, people working on nuclear disarmament verification, experts that simply cannot be replaced.” 

The move, which may have involved dismissing over 1,000 people, appears to be more Trump-backed gutting of federal bureaucracy which began under Elon Musk’s DOGE office, though Musk has since left his government advisory role, after a rift with White House leadership.

Rep. Gregory Meeks ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has expressed outrage at the recent firngs.

“I am absolutely devastated about the firings …in the State Department, particularly around nuclear weapons. We are losing patriots who love the country…I asked Sec. Rubio the one time that he came before our committee, what happened to Senator Rubio?“

Meeks continued in his statement to Rozen, “When you think about the talent that we’ve lost, those 1300 people, …even if we have some new people come in down the road, who’s going to train them? who’s going to give them the knowledge that they need? …, they’re gone.”

“I need to speak out and stand up and tell everyone about it, so that we can hopefully stop some of the hemorrhaging, because that’s what I’m focused on right now, is to stop the hemorrhaging, and that’s one of these decisions that we voted on last week.”

According to its website, which is still live, the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs (ISN/MNSA) “leads Department of State formulation and implementation of U.S. policy relating to the global nuclear nonproliferation regime, especially the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the NPT review process, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone treaties and protocols, and nuclear-related security assurances.”

And earlier in the Trump administration’s second term…

“Mass terminations of probationary workers also swept through the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons.” https://t.co/sM6Odc30Vr

— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) February 14, 2025

Likely much of its monitoring or decision-making has been handed off to other areas of the US federal government which does nuclear monitoring. This area currently is surrounded by extra pressure and sensitivity given the NATO standoff with nuclear-armed Russia in Ukraine.

The past days have also seen British media reports saying that the US military is hosting a tactical nuclear weapon on UK soil for the first time since 2008.

Authored by Allen Stein via The Epoch Times,

Elaine Culotti built her career as a real estate developer in Pacific Palisades, a prestigious enclave west of Los Angeles, renowned for its breathtaking coastline and multi-million-dollar mansions.

More than six months after the Palisades Fire devastated her community, Culotti is still struggling to come to terms with the aftermath.

Culotti’s oceanfront home sustained significant damage, but some of her neighbors and clients lost everything.

“My place burned. My perimeter walls burned. My deck burned. My gym burned,” Culotti said.

She also must remove 10 scorched trees from her property before her family can return.

Destruction now overshadows the once-picturesque community that is home to 23,837 people. Like sparse seedlings blooming in a charred forest, only a few signs of rebuilding are visible.

The wildfires in Los Angeles County began on Jan. 7 and continued for more than three weeks, pushing first responders to their limit and a scramble for scarce water supplies. The fires resulted in the deaths of 30 residents, forced more than 200,000 to evacuate their homes, and rendered entire neighborhoods uninhabitable.

Accusations and blame led to the dismissal of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, along with calls for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s resignation, as a federal investigation was launched to determine the cause of one of the state’s worst mass casualty fires.

Having lived in Pacific Palisades for more than 25 years, Culotti understands that things will never return to how they once were.

The damage is extensive, with many old landmarks reduced to their foundations or rubble.

High rebuilding costs have forced many residents to relocate, either temporarily or permanently—people whom Culotti knew and helped to build their homes.

On a beautiful, sunny morning around the Fourth of July, Culotti drove past the charred ruins of her community, with many parts left untouched after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  departed on June 1.

“I think it’s going to take 10 years [to rebuild], but it will be unrecognizable. Everything will be worth 10 times what it is today,” Culotti said.

Pacific Palisades real estate developer Elaine Culotti stands in front of destroyed home on July 3, 2025. Culotti’s oceanfront home suffered significant damage in the Palisades Fire. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The army teams only worked on properties where owners opted into the public cleanup program. Those who did not participate are responsible for their cleanup costs, she said.

A total of 9,873 property owners took part in the cost-free program run by the army. Treated locations display signs that confirm it is safe to reenter.

In the Palisades Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) reported that 6,662 structures were lost, 890 were damaged, and 12 people died.

When combined with the nearby Eaton Fire, which ignited in Altadena, north of Los Angeles, on Jan. 7 and claimed 18 lives, the two fires destroyed more than 12,000 structures.

“I have friends who lost homes that were 90 percent complete,“ Culotti told The Epoch Times. ”These were brand-new homes. There’s a handful of houses where people are afraid to move back in because of the toxic waste.”

Cause Unknown

In January, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) dispatched its National Response Team (NRT) to assist in investigating the Pacific Palisades fire, along with local law enforcement. Fifteen members of the ATF arrived in Los Angeles to help investigate the fire.

The team includes agents, chemists, engineers, and research specialists. Their job is to determine where the fire began and why it occurred.

The ATF confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times that the investigation is still ongoing.

In July, the county launched a plan for reconstruction, titled LA County Forward: Blueprint for Rebuilding. It is an outline for building back faster by streamlining the permit process and lowering construction costs.

The county also made available $51 million in direct financial support to homeowners, businesses, and nonprofits, while deferring or refunding planning and permit fees often exceeding $20,000 per household.

“As debris removal concludes and reconstruction accelerates, many more residents are facing a new set of challenges as they prepare to break ground,” according to the plan.

“Every reconstruction project is unique, but many residents are confronting similar issues at the same time. For first-time rebuilders particularly, these include navigating a complex permitting process and evaluating the financial ability to rebuild, among others.”

The county recently started the eCheck AI Pilot, a software tool to help speed up rebuilding. The fires damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 homes.

State and county officials say their residential cleanup effort was the fastest in U.S. history, removing 2.5 million tons of debris from more than 10,000 properties in just over 70 days.

After the fires began, Crowley criticized the mayor’s handling of the emergency response after a $7 million cut to the department’s overtime budget.

Crowley said that reduced funding could adversely affect crucial operations, including fire prevention.

Bass also said her decision to travel to Ghana on a diplomatic trip after forecasters had warned of dangerous fire weather conditions in the days leading up to Jan. 7 was a mistake. Bass returned to Los Angeles the day after the fires erupted, but City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, acting as mayor, had to sign the proclamation of a local emergency.

On Feb. 21, Bass dismissed Crowley and appointed former chief deputy Ronnie Villanueva, 41, as the interim fire chief.

The property lines of homes burned during the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that 6,662 structures were lost, and 890 were damaged in the Palisades Fire. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

In a statement, the mayor explained that her decision was made in the best interests of public safety.

“We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass wrote.

“Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after-action report on the fires. The chief refused. These require her removal.”

Permits and Regulations

Countywide, the wildfires burned nearly 48,000 acres in the communities of Palisades, Eaton, Lidia, Hurst, Sunset, Woodley, and Hughes.

A UCLA study estimated the economic cost of the fires to be between $76 billion and $131 billion, with insured losses reaching up to $45 billion.

On June 25, Newsom—who declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles County on Jan. 7—announced that California would provide $135 million for wildfire prevention grants. This is in addition to the $72 million he allocated in May as part of a $2.5 billion plan to prevent wildfires.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks to journalists in a press conference to announce Steve Soboroff to lead L.A.’s wildfire rebuilding and recovery efforts, in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, 2025. A petition demanding the recall of the mayor over her response to the fires had garnered 201,121 verified signatures towards a required total of 300,000 as of July 21. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

On July 7, Newsom signed an executive order suspending specific regulations in order to help expedite rebuilding projects.

“Local, state, and federal governments are delivering the fastest wildfire cleanup in U.S. history. Nearly 10,000 homes cleared—months ahead of schedule—because recovery can’t wait,” Newsom said in a statement the same day.

“Now we turn the page to rebuilding, and we’re doing it with a clear plan, strong partnerships, and the urgency this moment demands.”

As of July 21, Los Angeles County had received nearly 1,200 applications for rebuilding, with 695 plans under review.

Only 116 building permits have been issued for properties damaged or destroyed in the LA fires, leading to an average wait time of 56 days for permits.

(Top) A pile of debris remains in front of a house destroyed in the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, on July 3, 2025. The Los Angeles mayor said more than 300 tons of hazardous materials were removed in the first 28 days of clean up. (Bottom) One of a handful of new homes under construction in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on July 3, 2025. By July 21, nearly 1,200 applications for rebuilding had been received and 116 building permits issued for properties damaged or destroyed in the fires. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Keep It Simple

Culotti said that dealing with county bureaucracy is difficult for those who are new to the system.

To help residents, she proposes opening a Building and Safety Department office on Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades to simplify the permit application and inspection processes.

“Local contractors and architects—and local everybody—could be using their time pro bono to help people understand the process and help them get through it,” Culotti said.

On June 23, California state Sen. Bill Allen introduced legislation calling for the establishment of a Los Angeles County Resilient Rebuilding Authority to help guide the rebuilding effort.

SB 549 would require that at least 40 percent of taxpayer funds for buying, rebuilding, or improving buildings be used for households with incomes below 60 percent of the area median income, whether for rent or purchase.

Allen recently called for a pause on the bill until 2026 to allow for more public input following significant public criticism of his proposal.

“When we first introduced SB 549, we knew that it would be difficult to pull together a framework that would be both effective and gain widespread support within the tight timelines of this year’s legislative calendar,” Allen said on Instagram.

“I appreciate the input of the folks who have weighed in about the bill and along with legislative colleagues have decided that it would be best for us to pause the bill until next year to give us more time to see if we can get it right.”

A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire as it burns homes on the Pacific Coast Highway during a powerful windstorm in Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2025. The wildfire lasted for 24 days, resulting in the deaths of 12 residents, forced thousands to evacuate their homes, and rendered entire neighborhoods uninhabitable. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Closer to Home

Marlo Vinzoni, 53, looks forward to the day her family can move back to their home in the Pacific Palisades after the fire forced them to evacuate.

She and her husband, chef Gianbattista “Gianba” Vinzoni, also 53, owned and operated a popular café in the village for six years.

They had to close the café after the fire broke out.

But, on June 23, the couple reopened Cinque Terra West in Venice, about 12 miles away from their condo in Pacific Palisades.

“We’ve lived there for 21 years,” Marlo Vinzoni said. “We knew everybody.”

Vinzoni and her husband recalled seeing clouds of smoke rising over Los Angeles while they were on a night flight home during the fire on Jan. 7.

Their flight was the last one to land at Los Angeles International Airport that night.

“Both our phones were blowing up” with text messages from family members wanting to know what was happening, she said.

“Landing was crazy because it was so windy. It was so scary, and when we landed, we were like, “Oh, my God, where do we go?”

“The first three weeks, I was in such a daze. I didn’t know if we were coming or going, or where we were going to live.

“My daughter was out of town, but our son was with us, so he’s like, what are we going to do? I told him, ‘Let’s take it one moment at a time because it’s not even one day at a time.’”

The scene on the ground was truly surreal, Marlo Vinzoni told The Epoch Times.

The Vinzonis lost almost all their personal belongings and furniture due to water and smoke damage, leaving only a few clothes and cherished family photos.

The family lost more than just their belongings. Six of their regular customers lost their lives in the fire.

Some residents of the Palisades have mixed feelings about returning and rebuilding. Can they afford it? Is it worth the money and effort?

Marlo Vinzino, who lost her restaurant in the Palisades Village, stands at the counter of the new location in Venice, Calif., on July 5, 2025. The Vinzonis lost more than almost all their belongings—six of their regular customers lost their lives in the fire. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

“It depends on who you ask,“ Marlo Vinzoni said. ”I have a friend who’s like, ‘You know what, Marlo. I’m going on [an extended] vacation. I have another friend. She’s like, ‘I’m in my other home, the lot is going to stay empty until I can figure out what to do.’”

“Other people are like, ‘Marlo, we’re grandparents. We’re not going to rebuild. Then, you ask another friend, and they’re going to purchase a prefab home.”

“I have other friends who are like, ‘I’m here every day, I’m going to rebuild.’ Some people believe that Pacific Palisades will fully recover in two years.”

Others think it might take five or even 10 years. Moreover, not everyone in Pacific Palisades is wealthy, Vinzoni said. Many residents are working-class individuals, and she is worried about their future.

“What about the gardener, the nannies, the bus driver who drives them all here? They don’t have work,” Vinzoni said.

First Day

The Palisades Fire destroyed not only homes and businesses, but also the Corpus Christi Catholic Church and the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church.

Calvary Church of the Palisades suffered damage from the fire and is currently undergoing reconstruction.

In the meantime, that church is holding services at Evans Chapel, located approximately 12 miles away at Bel Air Church in Los Angeles.

Lead pastor Justin Anderson said that the fire broke out on his very first day on the job.

“We were about half an hour into our meeting when I saw my staff members looking out the window. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve lost their attention already,’” Anderson said.

They saw smoke rising over the hill. Anderson speculated, “It’s Los Angeles; there’s always smoke.”

It was much worse than that.

About 15 minutes later, he received a text message stating that the church and 450 school pupils needed to evacuate.

Justin Anderson, lead pastor of the Calvary Church of Pacific Palisades, stands near the altar of the Evans Chapel of the Bel Air Church in Los Angeles on July 6, 2025. The fire broke out on Anderson’s very first day on the job. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Anderson said the fire caused significant damage to the church sanctuary, burning approximately one-third of the roof and activating the sprinkler system.

“It created this big hole so that in the intervening months, it incurred quite a bit of water damage. We had to gut the sanctuary completely.”

He estimates that the total insured cost of the fire, smoke, and water damage will be in the millions of dollars.

“It’s going to be a challenge to raise money, especially in an environment where so many people have lost everything.”

For a while, the 150-member congregation held services online before temporarily relocating to the Bel Air chapel.

He sees his arrival in a key leadership position as more than just a coincidence.

“I’m not special, but you know, any organization would struggle in a crisis without a leader they hadn’t had a leader in two years,” Anderson told The Epoch Times.

“I think it was God’s providence that I was hired when I was.”

“My job is to faithfully lead my congregation. My hope is that Calvary is going to be a kind of beacon of light to the community,” Anderson said.

As a real estate developer, Culotti feels a strong sense of responsibility to help her community recover.

“I feel like this weird parental entitlement to my town—like, this is my baby,” Culotti said.

“All the people that pay the bills left. Their houses burned down. We are in triage. We need to stop the bleeding, or we are going to die on the table.”

It sounds like a repeat of the US elections in 2016 and 2024; Japan’s long ruling coalition party has suffered a crippling defeat in last week’s national elections, defeated by the rise of the MAGA-inspired “Japanese First” party.   The populist party took enough seats in the House of Councillors to bring the coalition into question and possibly unseat the current globalist-friendly Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Japanese First, also known as “Sanseito”, was launched at the height of the draconian pandemic lockdowns by Sohei Kamiya using web-based organization and a message of anti-globalism and fighting back against forced multiculturalism.  Sanseito now controls 15 seats in the Upper House, and 3 seats in the lower house, making them impossible to ignore in future legislation decisions.

The western media has attacked the movement, demonizing it as dangerous.  Reuters describes the party as “fringe far right:, noting that it: 

“…Gained support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.”

Japan has been targeted by leftists in the west for years as being “fascist” due to their previous refusals to accommodate progressive ideology.  The media also acts as if the globalist agenda and lies about covid lockdowns, mandates and vaccines are not proven realities, but it would seem that the general public in Japan is growing wise to the propaganda. 

Saya-san the Sanseito candidate who ran on an anti immigration platform has won her seat in the Tokyo electoral district.

Congratulations Saya-san! 🌸🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/oZgM3LrQPQ

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) July 20, 2025

For centuries Japan has maintained a homogeneous culture with strict conditions of immigration and foreign influence.  Their society holds order and mutual respect in high regard and their cities are some of the cleanest and best maintained in the world.  However with the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the loss of his influence, the coalition government has been incrementally pushed into accepting multiculturalism. 

Globalist politicians have called for more open immigration standards, arguing that Japan’s birth decline and aging population require labor to be imported from other countries.  Similar to what has happened in the west, many of these migrants are brought in from third-world cesspools with little regard for Japanese customs and rules. 

A North African migrant from Burkina Faso has been arrested in Fussa, Tokyo for stabbing a Japanese teenager to steal his wallet. pic.twitter.com/8xyRs1lZDQ

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) April 4, 2024

The Japanese public is already suffering from the effects of multiculturalism, with an immediate spike in criminal incidents and foreigners trashing streets, subways and neighborhoods. Specifically, Muslim and African migrants refuse to assimilate and have been quick to cause problems in the otherwise peaceful country.  Despite being a tiny percentage of the population, they are a large percentage of ongoing crime.

An Iranian Migrant in Tokyo followed a Japanese woman on a motorcycle & forced his way into her apartment where he proceeded to rape her.

Japan shows Third world Migrants compassion & this is how they repay us 😡 pic.twitter.com/Y5ACSQ0z1z

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) December 6, 2024

No this is not in Europe this is in Japan!

Japan is the only non Western country besides South Korea that Is part of the UN Migration Pact.

Islamists are incapable of integrating they will commit terrorist attacks, rapes & desecrate Shinto Shrines & Buddhist temples if their… pic.twitter.com/aqK1ckDRcR

— 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) September 25, 2024

Though Japan’s migrant population is only 3.7 million out of 124 million people, the public has seen the writing on the wall when it comes to multiculturalism.  The Japanese First movement holds up the pervasive destruction of Europe due to open borders as a sign of things to come, and they don’t plan on emulating Europe’s example.  Rather, they are emulating the efforts of American conservatives, calling for mass deportations and incentives for population growth among native Japanese.  

The notion that the only solution to labor declines is open immigration is a fallacy widely promoted by globalists seeking to erase national cultures and borders, using mass migration as a weapon to undermine the greater stability of homogeneous societies.  

Authored by Bautista Vivanco via RealClearPolitics,

Democrats bemoaning the loss of Medicaid coverage are glossing over a critical fact: States could fund the program themselves if they wanted to. The truth is, Medicaid is not nearly as popular as the taxes needed to keep it afloat.

There is a lot to complain about Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), signed into law on the 4th of July. For example, it will add trillions to the deficit while allocating billions to be used for deporting hard-working immigrants and even American citizens. Yet Democrats are denouncing it not for its lack of fiscal responsibility, but rather for one of its only positive provisions: its reforms to Medicaid.

Original versions of the bill included various reforms to Medicaid, like work requirements for some able-bodied adults and provisions limiting funds for undocumented immigrants and gender transition procedures. To this, Democrats responded with instant outrage: “Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of kids, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities in our states and nationwide. Republicans’ proposed cuts would be disastrous.”

The final version of the bill eliminated some of the more thorny cost-saving provisions while keeping the work requirements in place. Yet Democrats are still dissatisfied with the bill, with California Gov. Newsom claiming that “the President and his MAGA enablers are ripping care from cancer patients, meals from children, and money from working families.”

You can tell this is nothing more than political posturing because there are no cuts to Medicaid to begin with. The OBBB only reduces the rate of growth of Medicaid spending, but the overall cost of the program to taxpayers will continue to increase. Cutting means getting rid of something, not reducing the rate at which you add stuff. 

Maybe we should not be too hard on the semantics. After all, Americans have very little experience with Medicaid cuts. Throughout its 60-year history, the only time Medicaid spending was truly cut was in 2006, by a mere 0.25%. This should come as no surprise since Medicaid promotes excessive spending by design.

Medicaid is structured in such a way that for every $1 that states spend on Medicaid, the Federal government matches it by up to $9. This design allows state politicians to grant their constituents $10 in political goodies (Medicaid) while only incurring $1 of political cost (higher taxes). Where does the rest of that money come from? Federal taxes and debt.

Now that Washington is cutting back its match rate, this windfall of benefits without costs to states will slow down. States must choose between filling the funding gap themselves (by raising taxes) or reducing coverage. State officials (many of whom will be facing reelection in the next few years) would rather do neither and keep this party going.

Why not increase taxes and keep current coverage levels? Medicaid is an incredibly expensive program. States are already spending around a third of their budgets on it, and with healthcare costs outpacing inflation, this figure is expected to increase. With tax rates already among the nation’s highest, blue states have little room to fill the gap.

In a free market, consumers only purchase a product if they perceive its value to be greater than its price. The reason voters in blue states would reject higher taxes to pay for Medicaid is simply because they value their incomes more than they value the program. Even if you offered the average Medicaid enrollee 20 to 50 cents on the dollar for the benefits they receive, they would rather take the cash.

The biggest winners from Medicaid might not be those receiving care, but rather those providing it. Research suggests that up to 60% of all Medicaid spending acts as a direct transfer to medical providers, like hospitals. With the health sector dominating the lobbying expenditures of the last 27 years, this outburst of outrage from Democrats might be fueled by more than good intentions.

The BBB falls short on almost every front, but reducing the growth rate of a wasteful and distortive government program like Medicaid is a step in the right direction. If it pulls blue states (kicking and screaming) into being more fiscally responsible with all of our tax dollars, all the better.

Investigative journalist Sue Pascoe of Circling The News dropped a bombshell: $100 million raised during the celebrity-packed FireAid benefit concert may have disappeared. The money was initially intended to support homeless residents of Pacific Palisades after a devastating wildfire destroyed thousands of homes. Instead, Pascoe reports the funds were funneled through a complex web of NGOs – potentially diverted toward unrelated causes. 

“So I looked at the initially they gave $50 million to about 120 nonprofits. And I looked at these nonprofits and one of them said, we help mobile home parks. And there are two mobile home parks in the Palisades. And so I contacted the people there. They had never received any money. They had never heard of that,” Pascoe told Fox 11 Los Angeles during the interview. 

🚨 Fire victims lost everything, but not a single dollar from the $100 MILLION raised ever reached them.

California Democrats funneled it to nonprofits instead.

This is what corruption looks like. Thank you @FOXLA, @MarlaTellez, and Sue Pascoe for exposing it. pic.twitter.com/FbYTzjdq8I

— California Republican Party (@CAGOP) July 21, 2025

Public records indicate that FireAid appears to be a pop-up NGO, created solely to assist the thousands of Pacific Palisades residents left homeless after the wildfire destroyed their community.

“Donate directly to FireAid today to help us start rebuilding our community,” Fire Aid states on its website, adding that the funds will be “immediate relief” channeled through “more than 120 nonprofit organizations, reaching over 150,000 Angelenos.” 

Yet according to Pascoe, she told Fox 11’s host, “I don’t think they’re helping the victims at all.” The newscaster told Pascoe that her team has reached out to Attorney General Rob Bonta about where the $100 million went. 

Where did the money go? We all know the answer: it disappeared into the Democratic Party’s NGO black hole.

 .   .   . 

 

Here is Circle The News’ full report: “FIREAID Concerts Net $100 Million: Fire Victims Ask Where’s the Money?”

What do El Nido, Home Grown, Vision y Compromiso and L.A.’s Home for Native People have in common? They all received FireAid Grants.

On April 21, this editor received a query from a reader, “Do you have any information as to where one can apply for the Fire Aid Concert Funds?  I never could figure out where to apply for those funds?”

To support those residents in Pacific Palisades and Eaton who had lost homes – and in some cases – all their earthly possessions in the January 7, 8 and 9 Fires, a Fire Aid Benefit Concert was held on January 30, 2025. FireAid raised an estimated $100 million – and, if they want, people can still donate at https://fireaidla.org.

The Annenberg Foundation was tasked with administering the funds. This editor emailed that organization after the reader’s inquiry and asked, “How much of the funds were spent specifically for the Palisades and which nonprofits in that community are receiving money?”

There was no reply. I sent several subsequent emails. Still no reply. CTN called the Annenberg on April 25, and repeated the request. The person answering the phone tried several extensions, but no one answered. She took down my information and said someone would call back.

No one did, so this editor called again. It was the same drill, someone thought it was Phillip I needed to talk, too, (no last name given), but he did not respond, nor did anyone at any of the other extensions. My information was once again taken down. No one called.

CTN phoned and emailed again, and on April 30, received the following email from Barbarra Chen, Annenberg Foundation Media Strategist.

“With apologies for the delayed reply – I want to provide you with details published previously by FireAid re: grantmaking. (See the screenshot included and button “See our grantees,” which will lead you to this: https://fireaidla.org/grants/)

“For further [stet], please contact Chris Wallace, Chief Communications Officer.”

CTN replied “Thank you for responding. I had gone to that website and saw the assortment of nonprofits that had received grants. It seemed like Pacific Palisades was mostly ignored or forgotten, which is why I reached out to the Annenberg and asked specifically for the grants awarded. Many of the nonprofits receiving money such as the People Concern or St. Joseph’s do not help Palisades families.

“I saw that the Chabad, KI, Metro YMCA, LAUSD and Palisades High received grants, but what about Palisadians who lived in apartments on rent control, or the nearly 700 people who lived in the mobile home parks, who received no aid?

“What about the middle class, who might have had high mortgages, lack of insurance coverage (due to no fault of their own – Fair plan), lost all of their belongings and have no money to rebuild on their property? And these people have either had to rent, borrow or buy furniture, and that includes dishes, pots/pans, bath rugs, towels–

“Of all the grants awarded, which ones targeted Pacific Palisades residents” and “Why were individuals not considered for fire aid?”

No response.

CTN asked Tim Campbell, who managed a municipal performance audit program and conducted an audit for the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights (homeless spending), if there was a way to see the amounts that nonprofit organizations (NPO) receive.

He responded “NPO’s don’t have the reporting requirements that government agencies do, but they should be able to give you a breakdown of how much went to each NPO for use in the Palisades.  That seems like a reasonable request, and if I were their auditor, I’d expect them to be able to produce the data.”

Campbell concluded “It would certainly be in the community’s best interest to know where donations went.”

The FireAid website explains that with nonprofits  “Our intention is to strike a balance, geographically and organizationally, assisting both large funds and organizations with longstanding experience navigating moments of crisis, and community groups with deep knowledge of impacted neighborhoods.”

The site noted that community nonprofits could apply for grants ranging from $10,000-$50,000.”

There are ten categories listed, and in each are the nonprofits that received grants. Below is a sample.

Children and Family:

El Nido continues to build healthy families by providing community-based social services in some of the most underserved communities in Los Angeles County, including; Pacoima and surrounding communities, South Los Angeles, Compton, and the Antelope Valley.

Home Grown – Our mission is to build a more inclusive childcare system that values and supports home-based childcare (HBCC) as a quality option for families and children.

Pathways LA – based in downtown “works to make sure that children in our most vulnerable communities have access to high-quality and affordable childcare services. And on that site, the NPO recommend reaching out to L.A. County Emergency Services, American Red Cross and 211 L.A. County for fire aid.

Health and Housing:

St. Josephs– In a 2022 Westside Current Story “Almost Half of $5M Venice Boardwalk ‘Encampment to Home’ Funding Used for Staffing, Operations” the money used by St. Josephs went to staffing, operations and indirect costs.

The People’s Concern also received a fire aid grant. People in Pacific Palisades had made donations to the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness. That group in turn gave the money to the People’s Concern to hire social workers to reach out to the homeless.

Another grant recipient was the L.A.’s Home for Native People, located at West Temple Street, whose mission is to promote and support the physical, behavioral, and spiritual well-being of American Indian/Alaska Natives in Los Angeles and Orange counties. If you go to the calendar of events, most are done Mondays and Thursdays on Zoom.

Pacific Clinics “offer a continuum of services for all ages, including behavioral health treatment and culturally responsive programs, such as the Asian Pacific Family Center, the Latina Youth Program and the Armenian Hye-Wap program,” and is at Western Avenue, New Hampshire Street and El Centro Ave. in Los Angeles and at three sites in Pasadena.

Visión y Compromiso “is committed to community well-being by supporting promotores and community health workers. And what is a promotore? Because they share the same language, culture, ethnicity, status and experiences of their communities, Promotores are able to reduce the barriers to health education and services that are common for native-born and immigrant communities.”

It appears that the FireAid concert was a boon to nonprofit organizations, but for the ordinary fire victim, they’re left to sift through the ashes.