Zerohedge

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

Elon Musk is partnering with the Dubai government to develop the “Dubai Loop,” an underground high-speed transportation system aimed at connecting the city’s most densely populated areas and reducing congestion.

Omar Sultan al Olama, the United Arab Emirates’s minister of state for artificial intelligence, digital economy, and remote work applications, announced the collaboration during the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Feb. 12.

Al Olama said the project will cover Dubai’s busiest areas and allow people to go from point to point seamlessly.

The Boring Company, owned by Elon Musk and headquartered in Bastrop, Texas, has created a similar underground transportation system called the Vegas Loop in Nevada, which serves the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It took two years to build and has been operational since 2021.

Musk, the world’s richest man, appeared at the Dubai summit via video link and explained that the new transportation system in the UAE would work like a “wormhole.”

“It’s going to be like a wormhole–you just wormhole from one part of the city—boom—and you’re out in another part of the city,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said.

“I think once people try it out, they’ll be like, ‘This is really cool.’ And it’s going to seem so obvious in retrospect, but until you actually do it, you don’t know.”

Details regarding the deal—such as how much it will cost to build or when development might begin—were sparse, but Musk said he was “looking forward” to working with the Dubai government.

Musk’s existing Vegas Loop uses Tesla Model 3 cars to shuttle passengers to four stations between the center complex and other transportation connections in the city.

The eventual plan is for the Vegas Loop to expand to 68 miles of tunnel featuring 104 stations, transporting more than 90,000 passengers per hour, according to The Boring Company’s official website.

While speaking via video at the summit in Dubai, Musk addressed safety concerns regarding the underground tunnels, telling the audience the transportation system would be safe even in the event of earthquakes or extreme weather.

“One of the safest places to be in an earthquake is an underground tunnel,” the tech mogul said. 

“Earthquakes are largely a surface phenomenon—so they’re like the waves of a surface [of an ocean]. Being in a tunnel, it’s like being in a submarine, even if there’s a storm above you, the waters are calm as a submarine.”

Musk also joked that the underground tunnels would be safe during global thermonuclear warfare.

“Of course, if there is global thermonuclear warfare, I think you’d really want some tunnels. Underground’s a good place to be in a worst-case scenario for global thermonuclear warfare,” the businessman said.

On a more everyday note, however, building such infrastructure underground is incredibly useful for alleviating traffic and congestion in cities, which is becoming a growing problem, Musk stated.

Former State Department official-turned-truthsayer Mike Benz sat down with Joe Rogan for three hours this week, where the two went down the USAID rabbit hole.

To review – over the past several weeks, Elon Musk’s team at DOGE have descended on several key levers of power within the US government – including the US Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, and of course, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – which was quickly revealed as a rogue, unaccountable ‘blob’ that used its vast funds not only to spread propaganda worldwide, it paid news organizations and ‘disinformation’ researchers to collude against outlets such as ZeroHedge, The Federalist, and others in order to strip us of ad revenues and damage our reputation. (Fortunately your subscriptions, and generous support of our new store, are keeping the lights on).

Rogan and Benz

“It must have been very exciting to have the vault opened and to get a peek into the machine, because you’ve been describing this,” Rogan told Benz – who’s spent the last several years dispensing redpills. “The last time you were on the podcast, you went into depth about usaid, and it’s very curious why they chose USAID as the first organization for DOGE to investigate.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the joke that I tell here is, it’s like what they tell you to do your first day of prison is you go in, you walk up to the meanest, baddest SOB and you punch them right in the mouth. I mean, that’s basically what’s happened here with the White House’s first target being USAID,” Benz replied.

Benz then went into how USAID funded NGOs, along with the deep state’s global propaganda news complex via ‘Internews.’

If you have 13 minutes – watch this:

Joe Rogan and Mike Benz expose how USAID-funded NGOs—Internews, CEPPS, and EcoHealth Alliance—financed the Wuhan lab, a global propaganda network, and the online censorship of American citizens.

“You sponsored your own state censorship.”@joerogan@MikeBenzCyber pic.twitter.com/BGx6fqVKei

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 12, 2025

How USAID Targets US Independent Media

Benz explained how USAID leaned on advertisers to boycott independent media outlets.

Benz: “For example, we just played internews and the internews CEO campaigning to governments and corporations and private sector civil society organizations around the world that they need to economically Blacklist news sites that operate on social media and those are U.S. news sites. This is the basis of lawsuits here in the US like Daily Wire and the Federalist suing the State Department. Because U.S. news sites are in these advertiser blacklists. And to that end, I want to note two things. First, if you go to my X feed and you type in the word advertiser or advertisers and if you need to, you can plug in the word USAID or CEPS in this.

And I want to show you that this is not internews gone wrong. This is not a half a billion dollar year grantee of USAID going rogue and being ideological about this. This is top down US government policy from the White House.“

…

“SEPS is a program that is basically a joint baby of USAID and the State Department and is implemented by USAID’s key operational arm, the National Endowment for Democracy. But this is a USAID program on countering disinformation. Internet censorship is what they do and we went over last time, remember we played that two minute video where they were openly saying that the plan is to get foreign governments to pass legal reform, pass laws and regulations to stop the spread of misinformation on US social media websites.”

Benz discussed how USAID has been used in the past to interfere in domestic politics – similar to how the CIA once targeted anti-Vietnam war activists in the 1960s and 1970s.

“This happened against the left, against the Democrats in the 1960s and 70s when the CIA and its sister orgs like USAID were pumping money into domestic politics to stop the anti-Vietnam War movement,” said Benz.

More on how USAID has been influencing international politics.

WOW. Mike Benz on Rogan lays out the entire USAID template that was used not just in Poland but here in the U.S.
When Poland elected a populist President that was not “Friendly to their influence”, NED began pressure to call for jailing of their political enemies AND to NOT… pic.twitter.com/SEVfaWdJlu

— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) February 13, 2025

Benz goes on to describe how every major institution in America, from media to universities, unions, NGOs, and even conceptions of public health, are instrumentalized by this system.

“What people are going to see on this is going to completely reorient their mental map of how they think the world works, how they think American power projects into the institutions.”

How Did We Get Here?

Benz delved into the history of how the government ‘breached the social contract’ with Americans.

Benz: You know, it was really set up in 1948 when George Kennan created this NSC 10 2, this National Security Council. We completely reoriented the structure of the American Empire in 1948, after World War II. In 1947 we passed something called the National Security Act. That’s what established the CIA. That’s what established the National Security Council, which coordinates all of our foreign, foreign facing empire management work. It renamed the Department of War to the Department of Defense so that it didn’t look like we were acquiring territory by military force which had just been banned under international law under the UN Declaration of Human Rights. So we moved from primarily kinetic warfare into what George Kennan called just two months before he created the plausible deniability doctrine that we live under. He called this organized political warfare.

…

So in 1948, when we established the secrecy doctrine, doctrine that we now live under, and all these NGOs work under this cover effectively because of their sponsoring organizations, USAID or CIA or State.

Turned On Our Own People

Benz then goes into a group called the OCCRP (Corruption Reporting Project).

Benz: “This is a group that half of its funding comes from USAID and the US State Department. OCCRP has to the USAID and the State Department have a veto right over the staff that it can hire. This is the largest consortium of investigative journalists on planet Earth. This is the group that broke the Panama Papers. They got all these hacked documents. They got special access to it. I don’t have any facts on this. I’m simply noting that it’s an oddity that a group funded by a major CIA funding conduit, usaid, while the CIA has the ability to hack any target around the world that’s authorized by the National Security Council, they’re getting these special access documents that are reportedly either hacked or leaked and they’re being sponsored by the group that’s connected to something with a hacking power.”

…

They’ve been around for almost 20 years. And they were sponsored in order to do. They do investigative hit piece journalism about corruption. And what they do is they go after all of the State Department and USAID and DOD’s opponents in the region.

Ukraine

Benz and Rogan then segued into the topic of Ukraine, where then-Vice President Joe Biden bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations about forcing them to fire prosecutor Victor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.

Benz: “So Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma. Joe Biden personally weaponized USAID in order to force a foreign country’s prosecutor to be fired in order to get that billion…”

Rogan: “Can I stop you for a second? What was the investigation of Burisma? What did it entail?”

Benz: “I believe it was a similar corruption probe that there was misuse of funding. Other stuff is. Is well documented in Miranda Devine’s book, the Big Guy. But if you. So if you open those four screenshots, I don’t know if you’re able to center it or zoom out a little bit … Remember when Hunter Biden’s permanent blanket pardon goes back to, it goes back to 2014. And so this directs USAID to guarantee loans. So it’s loan guarantees for every phase of development of oil and gas in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Now if you go to go to the next screenshot in this, this is from. This is a, you know, a foiaed or legally obtained internal document at the State Department which says despite his ruined name in Ukraine, Zlocheski is actively campaigning for. He’s been sending letters to Ambassadors Yannick, Yovanovitch and Pyatt. They note that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer are on the board. And they say even internally at State, USAID does have cooperation with Burisma. Says pre existing small scale, preexisting cooperations. They’re formally cooperating with Burisma in the region. They’re noting that. And then if you go to the next screenshot now this again is State Department email traffic that’s been unearthed. Okay, so they’re talking about doing co branding with USAID and Burisma and the public private partnership around USAID and Burisma, but then noting, quote, the very sticky wicket of the Hunter Biden connection on Burisma’s board.”

Watch the entire interview here.

*  *  *

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed or bought something from the ZeroHedge Store (our waxed canvas hats have been flying off the shelf!). With ad revenues in the toilet, we we couldn’t do it without you. 

As reported last night, Trump has officially signed an action on reciprocal tariffs, targeting all countries around the globe that have higher tariffs than the US. It appears that Trump has picked reciprocal in place of a inform tariff on all exports. That’s just the start however: what is more important is that as we cautioned earlier, the US also appears set to retaliate against Europe’s VAT buffer which could very well cripple the continent’s exporters.

Here are the details, as BBG notes, the president signed a measure directing the US Trade Representative and Commerce secretary to propose new levies on a country-by-country basis in an effort to rebalance trade relations, a sweeping process that could take weeks or months to complete, leaving doubt as to when the tarifffs would take effect.

“I’ve decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America,” Trump said in the Oval Office with Howard Lutnick standing by his side. “In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them but those days are over.”

President @realDonaldTrump announces RECIPROCAL TARRIFFS! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3gdw11RkC6

— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) February 13, 2025

Fresh import taxes would be customized for each country, and will be meant to offset not just their own tariffs on US goods but also non-tariff barriers the nations impose in the form of unfair subsidies, regulations, value-added taxes, exchange rates and other factors that act to limit US trade, said an official, who briefed reporters before the announcement.

The VAT response is notable because as we noted last night, the tariff differential for the EU, for example, with and without VAT is massive and rises from just 2% (without VAT) to a whopping 18% with! And judging by Trump’s comments, which said that the EU is “absolutely brutal” on trade, the inclusion of VAT is precisely meant to punish Europe.

As we discussed in greater depth last night, the chart below shows the amount that each country’s VAT exceeds the US sales tax. And so, if indeed Trump imposes a reciprocal tariff policy also accounted for foreign VATs, it could add another 10% to the average US effective tariff rate.

Needless to say, that is absolutely catastrophic to exporters.

Reciprocal tariffs amount to Trump’s broadest action to address US trade deficits and what he characterizes as unfair treatment of American exports around the globe. Trump has already imposed 10% tariffs on Chinese goods and plans to slap 25% duties on all US steel and aluminum imports next month.

There’s more: Trump told reporters that he would enact import taxes on cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals in addition to the reciprocal tariffs.

The text of Trump’s directive on tariffs was not immediately provided by the White House. Trump cited barriers in the EU, including a VAT, as an example of what the US is looking to respond to, while the official said Trump has also singled out Japan and South Korea as nations that he believes are taking advantage of the US, and thus could be targeted in his latest push.

The president said that he is hoping to have a discussion with other nations about how existing policies have created an imbalanced trade environment, the official said. And he’s more than happy to lower tariffs if countries want to pare their levies or remove other trade barriers, the official added.

Reciprocal tariffs are expected to hit hard in less-developed economies where average duties on US products are higher, according to Bloomberg Economics. It differs from a universal levy on all imports, as Trump proposed during the 2024 presidential campaign. The official said Trump could divert back to a global tariff strategy later on.

Trump announced his move just hours before he was set to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country stands to be affected by reciprocal tariffs more than many other major trading partners. Trump has repeatedly criticized India’s its high tariff barriers.

According to Bloomberg, “Trump’s brinkmanship has injected uncertainty into the global economy, with businesses and consumers waiting to see how Trump proceeds on decision that could disrupt the US’s trade relationships with the rest of the world.” According to others, Trump is merely responding to a world where all countries have higher tariffs than the US!

 

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has exposed what appears to be a massive Biden-Harris administration and NGO money laundering scheme, with upwards of $20 billion of taxpayer funds “tossed” into shady non-profits with “reduced oversight” under the guise of climate change. One Democratic EPA official described the laundering scheme as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic” in December. Zeldin confirmed that the $20 billion will be clawed back.

In a video posted to X on Wednesday night, Zeldin told taxpayers that his team at the EPA had found the $20 billion “parked at an outside financial institution,” calling the “scheme: the first of its kind – in EPA history.” 

“This $20 billion was awarded to just eight entities – responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others with far less transparency,” the EPA official said. 

Zeldin noted, “$7 billion was sent to one entity – called the Climate United Fund.” 

A public forensics analysis of the Climate United Fund comes up with this…

The EPA head asked if any former Biden-Harris administration staffers are now working at these NGOs. 

As for the bank where the $20 billion of taxpayer funds were dumped, he said there was “no wrongdoing by the bank.” But he noted, “The financial agreement with the bank must be terminated, and all the funds must returned.” 

Zeldin did not mention the bank by name. However, the Washington Post noted:

Citi had an agreement with the Biden administration to oversee the release of $20 billion under the program to nonprofit groups and states, according to publicly available documents.

Zeldin said the next step is to send the investigation to the Office of the Inspector General for review and to the Justice Department. 

“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” the official emphasized, adding, “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”

Zeldin’s full video: 

🚨The Biden EPA tossed $20 billion of “gold bars off the Titanic”.

BIG UPDATE! We found the gold bars and they are now being recovered for you, the hardworking American taxpayer.

Here are more of the details: pic.twitter.com/DM4C0TQcpj

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) February 13, 2025

Zeldin cited a Project Veritas report from early Decemeber that described Biden’s EPA official talking with an undercover reporter about “We’re Throwing Gold Bars off the Titanic” as an “insurance policy against Trump winning” that will be plowed into NGOs. 

BREAKING: @EPA Advisor Admits ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Trump is Funneling Billions to Climate Organizations, “We’re Throwing Gold Bars off the Titanic”

“It was an insurance policy against Trump winning.”

“Get the money out as fast as possible before they [Trump… pic.twitter.com/eaAihuNvAh

— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) December 3, 2024

X users responded to Zeldin’s video with disgust – many want accountability: 

Those actions by the outgoing administration are a misappropriation of tax dollars and are fully illegal. Those that took part in this deliberate waste MUST be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

— Daniel Harris (@DanielLHarrisUS) February 13, 2025

Just having the money returned isn’t nearly enough. People definitely need to go to jail for this.

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 13, 2025

How unsurprising to find the Biden administration trying to secretly funnel money to the secretive and shadowy world of NGOs.

— Biff Gruffly (@BitingNews) February 13, 2025

You found some of the money, but they still need to be held accountable for nearly distributing it fraudulently.
Americans want to know how so much taxpayer money was misused in the past. Who benefited? Who got rich?

— Riley (@riley1999) February 13, 2025

https://t.co/oYxVUdBkR4 https://t.co/6CLKpFSvQL

— The Cocaína (@MrNukemCocaine) February 13, 2025

Meanwhile, Google search terms in the DC swamp suggest panic has begun:

DC Internet Searches For “Criminal Defense Lawyer” & “RICO Law” Erupt As DOGE Drains Swamp https://t.co/4ytzi4YcgV

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 13, 2025

X user DataRepublican identified seven NGOs, partially funded by American taxpayers, that appear to be key players within the so-called Deep State Uniparty.

DC Swamp Uniparty “Unmasked” As These Seven NGOs https://t.co/bkM73WORX5

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 12, 2025

Let’s see what DOGE says about this latest money laundering scheme by corrupt globalist Democrats squandering taxpayer funds.  

Via SchiffGold.com,

Earlier this week, Peter Schiff went live on X Spaces to discuss both Bitcoin and gold’s recent price action and interact with his followers in a Q&A. He dissects the current state of the global economy, lambasts retail investors and Wall Street, and paints a dire picture of fiscal mismanagement. 

Peter argues that retail investors and Wall Street are consistently off the mark, with the latter systematically underpricing the value of gold stocks:

It’s very rare that retail investors are right about anything. Since they’ve never been this wrong about gold, then gold is probably on the verge of its biggest rally. The reason that gold’s gone up, despite the fact that the public is dumping whatever they have, is because the central banks are gobbling it up. The central banks aren’t buying silver. The central banks aren’t buying gold stocks. … All the Wall Street firms, when they rate these gold stocks, they assume the price of gold is going to be much lower in the future than it is now. They have no confidence in this rally. That’s why they don’t want to buy gold stocks because they expect the price of gold to fall, even though it’s going to continue to rise. 

Addressing the state of monetary policy in America, Peter argues that the Fed will soon be impotent against a combination of inflation and economic stagnation:

Another big thing I think is happening is I don’t think people are looking at the stagflation problem that’s starting to evolve in the United States. In real terms, stagflation is already here in the United States, but it’s all over the world. That’s why I pointed this out. That’s why Powell says the Fed has no plans for stagflation, and they’re just going to hope we don’t have it. That’s why in their stress tests, they don’t even stress test for stagflation because they know every major bank would fail. Stagflation is basically like kryptonite to Superman as far as the Fed is concerned. That’s exactly what we already have, and it’s going to get worse.

He recounts the origins of the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Even with the Fed failing to keep inflation below 2%, the target was contrived from the beginning:

When they’re talking about inflation of 2 percent, they’re not talking about inflation, they’re talking about prices. They’re talking about prices going up by 2 percent a year. Inflation is the rate at which the money supply is expanding. … To say that there’s some kind of ideal rate at which prices should rise every year is complete folly. It’s nonsense. It was just made up by central bankers. The only time they started talking about a 2 percent target was when they were below it. No central banks were talking about getting it down to 2 percent when it was 3 or 4 or 5. They only invented this concept when they were able to report inflation rates below 2 percent. The only reason they could report rates that low was because the governments were lying about it. They had these rigged indexes that purported to measure in prices and it was all rigged. 

Foreseeing turbulence in the futures markets, Peter predicts that deliveries will increase with silver as they have with gold this month:

I’ve been saying for years that I thought that eventually, you were going to see the long positions on futures exchanges delivered, that there’s going to be big buyers that are going to go into the COMEX or the London Metal Exchange, they’re going to buy these futures, and then they’re going to take delivery of the 100-ounce bars of gold, and that that’s going to ultimately blow up the market because they’re going to run out of metal. They’re going to have to rush to buy more, and the prices are just going to go through the roof. I think that that will happen with silver, too, that they’ll try to take delivery of these contracts.

Later in the space, Peter explains why Bitcoin needs to crash. Like a recession, it’s an unfortunate but necessary economic correction:

Bitcoin crashing would be a very good thing. And it’s not that, look, I’m going to be happy that people are losing money. I actually feel very badly that a lot of people are going to lose money, that it’s unfortunate, that people are going to lose money because they were misled. They got suckered into the mania. So I’m not happy that people are going to lose money, but the sooner people stop putting money into this Ponzi scheme, the better. I mean, it’s a major distraction. It’s a major misallocation of capital and resources and labor. I think the whole crypto industry is doing tremendous damage to the global economy and now to the US economy in particular. 

Be sure to check out more of Peter’s analysis  on the latest episode of the Peter Schiff Show.

A stellar 3Y auction, followed by a mediocre 10Y, we conclude the refunding week’s coupon offerings with an even more disappointing 30Y sale, which saw $25 billion in ultra long-dated paper sell to muted market response.

The auction stopped at a high yield of 4.748%, down from 4.913% last month, but tailing the 4.736% When Issued by 1.2bps, a reversal to last month’s 0.7bps stop through and the fifth tailing 30Y auction in the past 8 months.

The bid to cover dropped to 4.748 from 4.913 in January, but this was still above the six-auction average of 4.462.

The internals were also mediocre, with Indirects awarded 65.08%, down from 66.63% and the second lowest since July (with just November’s 62.7% lower); it was also notably below the 68.4% recent average. And with Directs awarded 18.6%, down from 20.7% and the lowest since October, Dealers were left with 16.3%, the highest since last August.

Overall this was a disappointing auction, although once again the market had other things to worry about (reciprocal tariffs, Ukraine ceasefire, zero liquidity) to pay too much attention to the results and 10Y yields barely budged after the 1PM break.

In an extraordinarily surprising development, the United Arab Emirates (UAE has signaled the possibility of removing all Palestinians from Gaza, in accordance with Trump’s controversial Gaza plan.

UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba in a fresh interview called the plan “difficult but inevitable” and said he’s sees “no alternative” but Trump’s plan to expel Gaza’s population and undertake massive economic redevelopment of the Strip. He had been asked by a reporter whether the UAE is working on a separate plan, to which he responded no, there’s no other plan.

The UAE ambassador to the US said on Wednesday that he saw “no alternative” to Trump’s plan to expel Gaza’s population and redevelop the strip.

Though the prospect of ethnic cleansing caused global outrage, the UAE called it “difficult” but pointed to a lack of other options. pic.twitter.com/Zsbg4yjJcZ

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 13, 2025

It was in September 2020 that the UAE announced the Trump-sponsored Abraham Accords for normalization with Israel. UAE has long been a close regional US-ally, but the ambassador’s words are still deeply surprising and might actually contradict the UAE’s official stance.

For example, regional media just yesterday reported:

The UAE, a key ally of both Israel and the United States in the Muslim world, has taken a firm stance against U.S. President Donald Trump’s reported plan for Gaza. In a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan strongly rejected any attempt to displace Palestinians or deny them their “inalienable rights.” 

The country’s leadership has just this week called for a two-state solution. And per Reuters:

It said the UAE, one of the few Arab countries that normalised relations with Israel, categorically rejected any attempt to displace the Palestinians and deny them “inalienable rights”.

It could be that in breaking from the official government position, Amb Otaiba is trying to curry favor in Washington, or else he could be signaling to the White House that the UAE is ready to jump on board the US plan if other regional governments to as well.

But Arab nations have been pretty lockstep on the issue, and Jordan and Egypt in particular are not budging in terms of their vehement rejection of the Trump plan. 

The White House itself appears to have moved the goal posts of late: “Right before walking away from the podium at the White House press briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had one more note to add: US President Donald Trump, she said, has tasked Arab nations to present him with a plan for the Gaza Strip,” Middle East Eye reports.

* * *

What happens next with the fragile Hamas-Israel truce deal?

Below are some reaction statements from retired top US Generals, offering their thoughts, via Peter Tchir’s Academy Securities:

“It took a year of negotiations to reach the current deal. Trump pressurized the negotiations to get to where we are now. The ceasefire will be difficult to continue with all that is in play on both sides. Hamas saying they will delay the release of more hostages until further notice brought Trump back into the middle of the problem. He re-pressurized the ceasefire again by saying that ‘all hell will break out’ if Hamas does not return the hostages on Saturday at noon. Complicating the ceasefire is the fact that neither side wants to end the war. Israel still wants to destroy Hamas, while Hamas wants the IDF out of Gaza so they can reassert governance and rebuild their military arm. Trump is trying to move the conversation to solving the larger ‘Gaza-next’ problem.” 

– General Robert Walsh

“There are a number of options as of Saturday noon, but what seems most likely is a resumption of combat operations in Gaza with the objective of forcibly rescuing the remaining hostages. Obviously, if this was a considered and evaluated course of action, it would have been executed earlier in the war. However, Trump may also encourage Israel to attack any number of high value targets in Iran, including nuclear research facilities, and military targets to include Iranian naval vessels. Albeit weakened, Tehran can influence the actions of Hamas and their decision with respect to the Israeli hostage release.” 

– General Spider Marks

“I suspect that this returns to violence soon. Six weeks was a stretch at best. Trump’s green light to Bibi without a regional or local strategy and end state is dangerous, but it is Trump’s preferred style. Certainly, Iran is one messaging target but the message to the GCC is not in line with what the Arab street can accept regarding the Palestinians. I don’t see them accepting the Gaza solution proposed. The messaging about the U.S. assuming control of Gaza is not feasible and probably not acceptable. This is pressurizing both sides in the region.” 

– General Frank Kearney

“Agree with all. I would add that the parties are as stubborn as ever, but the ordinary people impacted are completely fed up (both Israelis and Palestinians). Saudi Arabia has put a line in the sand that the Palestinians will not become regional refugees. Hamas’ line in the sand is they want to be seen as the liberators and continued power broker on the ground. Maybe Trump’s position brings about some new thinking about how to build something enduring. It could take advantage of popular needs/demands in Gaza, and push out Hamas as the decision maker.” 

– General Michael Groen

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Podcast king Joe Rogan had a message for Democrats, weaponised government agencies and swamp creatures alike: Elon Musk is “going to hunt you down.”

During a recent episode of his show, Rogan, who is personal friends with Elon, spoke about the continuing efforts to uncover government waste and corruption at the expense of the taxpayer through Musk’s DOGE.

Rogan specifically addressed Democrat assertions that Musk is some sort of robber baron evil billionaire after people’s social security money.

“People are worried that Elon is going to steal everyone’s money. He has $400B. Elon’s not going to steal your money. That’s not what he’s doing,” Rogan stated.

Mind-blowing that the Democrats have taken their stance as “the richest man in the world is coming for your grandma’s social security check.”

Bold strategy.

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 12, 2025

“He’s a super genius that has been f**ked with,” Rogan continued.

“When you’ve been f**ked with by these nitwits that hide behind 3-letter agencies, and you’re dealing with one of the smartest people alive helping Donald Trump get into office and find out what corruption is really going on, you f**ked up,” Rogan further warned.

He added, “You f**ked up and picked the wrong psychopath on the spectrum. He’s going to hunt you down and find out what’s going on, and that’s good for everybody.”

“That’s how you should be looking at this, like ‘Wow, we have a brilliant mind examining these really corrupt and goofy systems and bringing in a bunch of psychopath wizards,” Rogan urged, referring to the people Musk has hired to pour over government spending records.

🚨JOE ROGAN: “People are worried that Elon is going to steal everyone’s money. He has $400B. Elon’s not going to steal your money. That’s not what he’s doing. He’s a super genius that has been f**ked with. When you’ve been f**ked with by these nitwits that hide behind 3-letter… pic.twitter.com/GtFe8eLBEP

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) February 11, 2025

Musk himself responded, declaring “the party is just getting started.”

The party is just getting started 😎 https://t.co/Zi5P8cV9me

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2025

The clip has been viewed over 22.5 million times at time of writing.

Yup. They finally fucked with the wrong weirdo. They got cocky. They convinced people to castrate their own children and let men play in women’s sports so they thought they could do anything. They believed they were untouchable. God complex. Then here comes Big Balls 😂

— Stuart Sims (@SimsYStuart) February 11, 2025

The Dems never expected the onslaught.
They expected business as usual, campaign promises left languishing and unfilled.

It’s magnificent.

— Elon Made Me Join (@ElonJoin839) February 11, 2025

If you think Musk is after your money you’re looking at the wrong man he’s after corruption.

— Jacob (@jacob_w_palmer) February 11, 2025

No wonder they’re so riled up.

Blatant call for violence. https://t.co/eOp8Fxne6z

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) February 12, 2025

Rogan’s comments come after Musk joined Trump in the Oval Office and have joint comments to the media about an executive order Trump has signed mandating federal agencies work with DOGE.

During the exchange, Musk noted “We do find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have essentially a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position.”

“We’re just curious as to where it came from. Whether they have very good investing in which that case we should take their investment advice perhaps,” Musk added.

He continued, “They seem to be mysteriously getting wealthy and we don’t know why – where did it come from? I think the reality is that they are getting wealthier at the taxpayer expense.”

“There are massive amounts of blank checks that just go out…” Elon emphasised.

Elon Musk has said:

“Maybe Congress is really good at investing [because] we find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars.”

He adds:… pic.twitter.com/rcZItmMnhT

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) February 11, 2025

Musk earlier pointed to Senator Elizabeth Warren as an example of someone who has managed to accrue a net worth of $12 million, conservatively, on a $200,000 per year Senator’s salary.

Has anyone tracked how she got $12M from a $200k salary?

This is a real question.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2025

President Trump has urged that there is zero chance that no kickbacks are going on and that he’s going to name names today.

JUST IN: President Trump says he is completely certain his administration has discovered widespread kickbacks in the federal government.

Trump said he examined a list of 200 expenditures and found only three that looked reasonable.

“There’s no chance that there’s not kickbacks… pic.twitter.com/xEy4RPBwWb

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 12, 2025

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About a month after Blue Origin successfully launched its long-delayed flagship rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Jeff Bezos-backed rocket company reportedly prepares for its first round of layoffs. The move comes as Elon Musk’s SpaceX continues dominating the commercial space industry, raising questions about how far Blue Origin has fallen behind in the global space race. 

Bloomberg reports that Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp held an all-hands employee meeting on Thursday morning to address new cost-cutting measures, including terminating about 10% of the workforce. The report was based on insiders at the meeting. 

According to Bloomberg, Blue Origin has about 14,000 employees on payroll across its headquarters in Seattle and operation sites in Florida, Texas, and Alabama. The 10% cut would equate to about 1,400 employees and focus on “thinning out layers” of management.

On Jan. 16, Blue Origin’s New Glenn launched from Cape Canaveral, placing the company’s Blue Ring Pathfinder test satellite into orbit. 

pic.twitter.com/kIEqPxxwa7

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025

However, the rocket’s reusable first-stage booster failed to land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, something SpaceX’s reusable booster rockets do weekly, blasting Starlink satellites into orbit. 

Last August, Bloomberg noted that testing included a “factory mishap that damaged a portion of a future New Glenn rocket,” adding the rocket company has “grappled with development delays, a sluggish corporate culture and explosive setbacks.” 

Bezos and Musk have had a rocket-size competition. Who has the bigger rocket?

As previously noted, SpaceX leads the global rocket race, launching 86% of all upmass to space in the third quarter of 2024. Also, SpaceX’s Starlink is dominating the global space internet race. 

By Michael Every of Rabobank

The US CPI print for January was red hot at 0.5% m-o-m headline and 0.4% core, with the former rising to 3.0% y-o-y and the latter to 3.3%. Even if due to things like eggs it leaves egg on the face of the “Rate cuts!” crowd forced to crowd the next Fed into end- 2025. Worse, as yields jumped and Fed Chair Powell huffed and puffed in Congress, President Trump demanded lower US rates and said they would sit alongside higher US tariffs, making clear economic statecraft is in and economic policy is out.

However, that was far less important than the ice-cold realpolitik served up next. US Defence Secretary Hegseth announced the US, while backing NATO, was pivoting to Asia and Europe must defend itself better by spending 5% of GDP on it, not 2%. That’s been rumored for a while and most of Europe has treated it as a joke, not a reality. Nobody is laughing now.

Not when Hegseth added Ukraine won’t enter NATO or recover its lost territory, and no US troops will be in the no-man’s land guarding it from Russia, only Europeans, who will not be covered by NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence pact. Moreover, Europe will pay most to rearm and rebuild Ukraine, while the US gets access to its rare earth and mineral rights for any aid provided to Kyiv. Some still might have seen this all as a joke.

Until President Trump started ceasefire talks with President Putin, with no European representation, suggesting a possible rapprochement: @vtchakarova asks what if Trump agrees to join China’s Xi and attend May’s 80th anniversary of its WW2 victory in Red Square?

Europe’s response via the “Weimar+” group was: “We are ready to enhance our support for Ukraine. We are committed to its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s war of aggression. We share the goal to keep supporting Ukraine until a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace is reached. A peace that guarantees the interest of Ukraine and our own. We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies. Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations. Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security. We recall that the security of the European continent is our common responsibility. We are therefore working together to strengthen our collective defence capabilities.”

However, let’s be equally clear: this group’s unfortunate title is historically confrontational; its pledges are *highly* aspirational, as Europe has not been invited to attend peace talks, cannot force admittance, and is talking about pushing Russia out of occupied territories without US help; and it must be transformational if the stated goals are going to be achieved.

We are talking Covid-era fiscal deficits for decades if Europe (already flirting with an energy price cap) and the UK (close to selling off two naval vessels to Brazil and returning the key Chagos islands to Mauritius) stop LARPing and truly rearm and rebuild Ukraine. That also means guns-not-butter choices given Russia is spending $462bn on defence on a PPP basis, more than Europe combined, and its war political economy won’t shift back to “because markets” and “Rate cuts!” when it just delivered this victory. Such wishful thinking is almost entirely European.

If Europe opts not to rearm nor arm Ukraine and tries to talk markets, rate cuts, and butter, Moscow will happily agree – but it will want a weaker, divided, energy-dependent, Finlandized Europe. Which some critics would allege is already mirrored from the US side.

For Europe, the ice-cold realpolitik logic is that for many years it likely plays second fiddle to the US tune; or Russia’s; or both; or it has to change its political-economy music entirely. But talk is cheap, and war and preventing war isn’t; and freedom isn’t free, and neither is it free trade or free money, even if there are potential upsides here, for example see our recent paper on the positive long-run productivity benefits of higher military R&D spending, which Europe could do with. Markets are not yet grasping the scale of these shocks, which is perhaps understandable. But when they do, they will move.

Similarly, in Canada, Liberal Party leadership candidate Carney has pledged to use the government’s emergency powers to “accelerate the projects that we need.” Like spending 5% of GDP on defence?

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, far closer to the EU than the US, Israel is reportedly considering strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites later in the year, news that comes days ahead of a deadline that may see it restart its war with Hamas.

And Asia has to start thinking about the consequences of the US pivoting in that direction. What does that mean for US ally defence spending? Does Japan have to think about a 5% of GDP figure in short order too? What about Australia and New Zealand? Has Hegseth learned the names of any ASEAN members yet? The fiscal, rates, FX, and real economy implications are again enormous – and that’s before we get to the geopolitical tensions inherent in this strategy, which should be clear. The Trump – Modi meeting we are about to see is also of great importance in this and other regards.

Do recall that we had months ago dubbed 2025 as ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’!

On which note, today we may also get US reciprocal tariffs announced. On that, Yannis Varoufakis talks of ‘Donald Trump’s economic masterplan: He is plotting an anti-Nixon shock’, which doesn’t refer to his latest pivot to Moscow to try to isolate Beijing, but underlines a hypothesis I’ve been floating for some time: the US wants to retain global dollar hegemony while NOT running a large structural trade deficit.

There may be some odd cause-and-effect thinking on rates and FX ordering in his article, but that central point is key, and again has tectonic significance for markets – who again don’t yet see it for the most part. Indeed, most economists will tell you this cannot be done when economic history, and Yannis, show mercantilism can get you there quite easily – just not in a way that markets or trading partners will like.

Put all this together and red-hot US CPI is playing second fiddle: it’s ice-cold realpolitik which is the real story.