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https://zeteo.com/p/zohran-mamdani-bernie-sanders-inauguration-new-york-city-mayor

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GGqcpDSUJlE&list=RDGGqcpDSUJlE&start_radio=1&pp=ygUVYm9tYmEgbGF5byBib21iYSBsYXlhoAcB

https://www.youtube.com/live/y3ycuvMti44?si=0PO6tWLngi8AB90H

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpdPwdEAiE&si=LRHScHJqwaSIuFIj

https://x.com/wedoforgive/status/2006889077703065833?s=20

One year ago, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/2023-greatest-hits-most-popular-articles-past-year-and-look-ahead

, we said that "while 2024 had a seemingly endless variety of social, economic, political, geopolitical and of course, financial and market, drama, the unprecedented onslaught of 2022 and 2023 - which saw both the deadliest and most consequential global war since WWII and a historic inflationary onslaught - simply proved too great to beat.... although we are confident that's only because the newsflow was merely resting ahead of 2025 when, thanks to the most consequential presidential election in modern US history, the coming avalanche of news and propaganda will be sheer insanity, especially since the Fed has made its long awaited dovish pivot without successfully stamping out inflation first. So in retrospect, 2024 being somewhat tame by recent standards may have been a good thing: it allowed everyone to rest ahead of the main event."

Boy, were we right, and in retrospect we certainly hope everyone did rest ahead of the countless 2025 main events because while 2025 not only saw what was the closest event to a market crash in years, it was almost a sideshow to the most exciting and eventful rollercoaster of non-stop newsflow we have yet encountered (in large part thanks to the daily torrent of stream of consciousness unleashed by the occupant of the White House) one which not only saw the legacy political system finally crumble across "Western democracies" as country after country said "no more" to the four-headed globalist hydra of runaway inflation, corrupt establishment politicians, uncontrolled illegal immigration, and targeted assassination attempts, but one where the political economy and capital markets proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they are more inextricably welded together than ever before. Oh, and of course, it was also the year when the Fed's apolitical facade crumbled, exposing the most important central bank in the world as nothing more than a puppet of shadowy establishment forces whose only task is to preserve the status quo.

But first, let's first take a quick look at what happened in the past year through the lens of the masses, and as a quick 4-minute refresher, here is a highlight reel from Googles "year in search" of all the big, if mostly irrelevant, topics that people around the world obsessed over in 2025.

Of course, all of the stuff in the clip above is just fluff and distractions for and by the masses, meant to keep attention focused on trivial things and away from what really matters. What we tried to do with our reporting throughout the year was to minimize the noise and to bring you, our readers, the signal, and while there was a nonstop barrage of the former, the underlying newsflow largely boiled down to four main categories:

Political/Tariffs

Technological/AI

Financial/Central Bank Credibility

Geopolitical

Starting with the first, the shock from the result of the November 2024 election - which together with the Trump assassination attempt were the biggest political events of 2024 - quickly turned to awe from Trump's decision to immediately implement his transformational trade policies in the form of massive tariffs on most US trade partners, which upended decades of conventional trade policy through significant action and led to a surge in the effective tariff rate and countless predictions of doom, gloom and recessions from such cartoon economists as Paul Krugman who said that "it's not the size of the trade policy shift, but the uncertainty around it that could cause a recession.... and at this point, policy reversals may actually worsen the situation because they would enhance uncertainty."

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But what Krugman, and so many other "experts" failed to understand is that, in keeping with the pattern set by the first Trump admin the president was setting new precedent and aggressively negotiating, leading not to a recession, but many new trade deals - all at far more advantageous terms to the us - with little of the "imminent" inflation passing through to US consumers as it was exporters (https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/japan-finally-admits-its-carmakers-have-been-paying-all-trump-tariff-costs-trade-talks

) who ended up footing the bill for Trump's tariffs.

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The result was that the initial surge in trade uncertainty, which was loudly cheered on by liberal economists as it confirmed their anti-Trump bias, promptly faded...

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... and recession fears disappeared almost as fast as they had emerged.

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And while the inflation from Trump's tariffs has yet to emerge, the benefits in the form of almost $400BN in annualized tariff revenues are already here, and could have been used to lower the US budget deficit...

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... if there was any hope that the US could ever spend less, which unfortunately is no longer feasible with the US https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/game-over-doge-us-starts-fiscal-2025-record-budget-deficit-shocking-interest-expense

....

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... largely due to the now recurring $100+ billion in monthly interest expense on US debt.

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And while politics - and the constant daily declarations from Trump's Truth Social account - certainly meant much less sleep for anyone in 2025, one can certainly argue that innovation, in a broad sense, and especially AI technology, was as important as politics this year and certainly helped lift the US economy from a far worse place.

To be sure, the year started off on the right foot, with names that have become synonymous with the AI boom like Nvidia soaring, as Wall Street was content that investment in AI would continue to grow exponentially, as the following charts show.

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Optimism was also lifted amid reports that AI adoption was rising (even if as Goldman noted, it was due to a purposefully phrased question designed to give the impression that adoption was rising). The trade off to increased AI adoption - far more concerning in the short-run for politicians desperate for votes - is that both overall tech and especially youth unemployment, are rising dangerously fast, potentially leading to a sharp deterioration in the US labor market, assuming the AI cycle goes as planned... and the US wins the US-China AI war.

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That outcome is far from certain, however, and it finally dawned on the market that the flurry of recent developments in the AI sector...

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... was - as https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stunning-math-behind-ai-vendor-financing-circle-jerk

- one giant circle jerk, where little money actually changes hands yet the impression of top-line growth keeps pushing stock prices to record highs...

?itok=zrQDPzVB

... resulting in a painful swoon for much of the AI sector in the second half amid renewed concerns about AI returns on investment, and the risk of a full-blown bubble which may burst any second

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In any case, the reality is that we have seen chatbots come and go, and the world always moved on to a new, bigger and shinier fad. This time, however, prices may have pulled just a little bit too much from the future, as this breakdown of the Mag7 vs the S&P shows.

?itok=v7Wp50-3

In any event, we don't have that much new to add here: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/2023-greatest-hits-most-popular-articles-past-year-and-look-ahead

we said that "we would be remiss not to mention the single biggest market narrative - and tech story - of 2023, namely the unprecedented AI mania, which manifested itself in an explosion in the "Magnificent 7" mega tech stocks which now make up a record 30% of the S&P's market cap." Two years later, AI is still the the biggest driver of financial assets, and that will continue... until it stops.

Maybe the biggest difference from two years ago is that "more of the same" means that never before has so much market influence and impact been concentrated in so few stocks, and at last check, the 10 largest stocks in the S&P now account for 38% of total market cap. Actually, one correction: it's not "never before" - the last time so few stocks had such a big impact on the market was... just before the Great Depression.

?itok=PsjYKAQS

Actually, we do want to highlight one pretty notable change, and this one could be critical for the 2026 midterms: after two years of coasting on available grid capacity, the rampant data center buildout means that energy has officially become the bottleneck, and as the following chart from Goldman shows, eight out of the 13 US regional power markets are already at or below critical spare capacity levels.

?itok=Oe8p4UV3

Add to this the stark reality that Nvidia's upcoming Rubin/Rubin Ultra GPUs will be power hogs, raising the electricity demand for every rack from roughly 150kW to 300/600kW...

?itok=iXWsrhVt

... and we stand by our claim made this summer that this chart of US electricity inflation - https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/states-facing-largest-electricity-bill-increases

- will soon be the biggest political and economic talking point.

In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site https://t.co/h93gWXMoNL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1954980347030163526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Artificial Intelligence aside, another major technological innovation that also came to the fore in 2025, but received far less attention - even though it is possible its contributions to society will be just as important as AI -  were stablecoins, a tokenized digital alternative to fiat currency which use blockchain technology and unlike cryptocurrencies, are designed to maintain a stable value, traditionally pegged one-to-one with the dollar (and collateralized by T-Bills, i.e., the more demand for stablecoins, the more demand for Bills) . In 2025 the value of the stablecoin market rose above $300 billion (with Tether accounting for more than half), and which many project will rise to $2-3 trillion over the next several years...

?itok=D653xLU3

... providing a natural buyer of short-term debt and serving as a Plan B to the Fed's upcoming mega QE, because you didn't think all that debt that will be needed to fund the AI cycle - https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/astonishingly-large-numbers-it-will-take-5-trillion-fund-ai-cycle-and-us-government-hook

- would buy itself.

?itok=oWx7Vypm

And speaking of the Fed, our nemesis since day one of this website when gold was $700 and bitcoin didn't exist, it is gratifying to see that the US central bank is circling the drain ever faster, and is likely at most a few years away from losing its "independence" - which never actually existed - and merging with the Treasury. Until then, however, the question is when will it all fall apart, with both the debt and deficit hitting daily record highs, while the interest on public debt at unprecedented levels, and well over $1 trillion now, despite 10Y yields just over 4%.

?itok=q7LP35rP

The rapidly deteriorating US fiscal situation was not lost on the rating agencies, and in May, Moody's became the 3rd and last of the big three (after S&P and Fitch) to downgrade the US from the pristine Aaa to Aa1 citing the increase in government debt owing to increased spending and reduced tax revenues, as well as the growing federal interest payments.

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Downgraded or not, the dismal US fiscal picture got even worse in 2025 and despite some modest hopes that Elon Musk and DOGE would at least seek to slow down the relentless increase in US debt,  that did not happen and on the contrary, total US debt rose by over $2 trillion this year to a new high of $38.4 trillion, more than tripling the debt load since 2010.

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To be sure, this wasn't just a US phenomenon, with debt ratios across the entire world already at nosebleed levels and expected to rise even higher to pay for unsustainable deficits across all economies but especially among emerging markets.

?itok=Je5wbzVo

Yet the US was unique in that the status of the Fed is increasingly being challenged by Trump, who has made his displeasure with Fed Chair Powell quite public.

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Ironically in the end Trump's appeals for lower rates which saw much pushback by the Fed in early 2025 come to fruition when the Fed not only resumed its rate cuts in late 2025 (despite growing political opposition inside the Fed) but culminated in the Fed restarting QE Lite earlier this month, when Powell revealed that as part of the funding plans for 2026, the Fed would proceed to monetize $40 billion in T-Bills (to start), a number which will only grow.

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None of this was lost on the market, and while stocks staged a dramatic rebound from their Liberation Day lows and closed out the year at all time highs (more on the below), that move was nothing compared to the historic eruption in precious metals - which are far more sensitive to the monetary and fiscal challenges facing the US - and which had their best year since 1979, with gold up 70% and silver almost tripling at one point!

?itok=Rnu21ls9

The last major theme of 2025 was a familiar one: geopolitics remained on the front page of most daily updates, only this time in addition to the hot war in Ukraine which entered its 4th year with little progress in sight, despite repeated attempts by Trump to mediate...

?itok=fbRmbU8J

... prompting Europe to rapidly rearms itself for the first time since WW2 (and spend hundreds of billions in newly issued debt in the process)...

?itok=OtanHBoh

... we got to witness a new cold war erupt between the US and China as the tech race to win the AGI trophy quickly became the 21st century version of the nuclear arms race...

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... amid a push for semiconductor...

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... and rare-earth self sufficiency.

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But while the four macro themes list above defined the narrative, the economy and the stock market across 2025, the day-to-day gyrations were defined by what at time seemed like unabashedly chaotic newsflow; and as we take a stroll through memory lane, here is a detailed look at the micro events that shaped trading across the past 11 months, courtesy of Bobby Vedral's Macro Eagle monthly email:

January:

Nvidia suffered the biggest single-day USD market cap drop ever when China launched a computational missile (“DeepSeek”) on US Inauguration Day, wiping out $1trn in market cap from Nvidia.

Fires raged; it was the costliest natural catastrophe in US history.

UK fiscal panic: 10 year government yields reached a high since the 2008 financial crisis, while 30 year government yields reached their highest since 1998.

Trump easily broke the record for Executive Orders issued per day in office.

A test aircraft by US start-up Boom broke the sound barrier, the first supersonic commercial travel since Concorde was grounded in 2003.

?itok=6YLgB7vW

February:

Due of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine policy, the Russian Ruble rallied 20%+ YTD.

Bitcoin dropped 25% since it’s January highs, entering Bear Market – middle graph.

DOGE induced a fall in consumer sentiment.

The DAX hit new all-time-highs despite worrying German election results with significant gains for the hard-left and -right.

Gold reached a new all-time-high.

The US Conference Board consumer confidence recorded its biggest monthly drop in 4 years.

The US reported a record trade deficit in January, thanks to tariff expectations.

The biggest ever crypto hack of $1.5bn from Bybit.

Births in Japan fell to their lowest since records began 125 years ago.

?itok=_vKAaB2g

March:

Daily stock market volatility picked up significantly.

US consumer long-term inflation expectations hit a 32 year high.

US consumer confidence fell to “the lowest level in 12 years, outside Covid – right graph.

US Small Business uncertainty index near highest since survey started in 1970.

Gold rose above $3,100 for the first time.

Private Equity AUM fell 2% to $4.7tn in 2024, the first decline since 2005 as investors faced a $3trn backlog of unsold deals.

Trump’s 100 minutes speech was the longest presidential address to Congress ever.

BYD shares reached a record high after it said it could now charge its EVs as quickly as it took to fill a car with petrol.

Germany’s Bundestag approved the biggest fiscal expansion in the country’s post-war history.

?itok=i00AHwPZ

April:

Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.

US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.

This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.

University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.

Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.

Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.

The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.

Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.

Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.

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May:

Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.

US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.

This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.

University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.

Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.

Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.

The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.

Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.

Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.

?itok=pMbUmljm

June:

Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, the biggest military assault on the Islamic Republic since the Iraq War of the 1980s – sending oil prices skyrocketing. The cost of a barrel of Brent Crude leapt by as much as 13.2% to hit $78.50.

The US joined the fight, dropping various GBU-57, the world’s largest conventional bomb.

Elon Musk, who was crucial in the re-election of Donald Trump had a high profile falling out with him.

Earlier, Ukraine released killer drones from trucks to hit strategic bombers deep inside Russia.

Despite the geopolitical turmoil, the S&P500 hit a new all-time-high.

The ECB reported that global central banks now hold as much gold as they did in 1965.

After riots in LA, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard despite the objections the governor – making it the first time since 1965 a US president deployed the National Guard without a governor’s consent.

In the Democratic mayoral primary race for New York City, Andrew Cuomo lost to  the 33 year old ‘Democratic Socialist’ Zohran Mamdani, despite raising a record $25m for his PAC.

It was reported that UK vehicle production collapsed in May to the lowest level since 1949.

Dubbed “the world’s most expensive acquisition”, Meta bought 49% of Scale AI for $14.3bn, valuing it at more than 30x revenues.

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July:

NVIDIA became the first $4 trillion company, followed by Microsoft.

The Cryptocurrency market broke $4trn in market cap following the passage of the Genius Act.

The Big Beautiful Bill was signed by President Trump.

CME copper prices recorded their biggest ever 1-day fall, after President Trump excluded refined metals from tariffs.

In the month of July, the US collected a monthly record of $29bn in tariffs.

In Japan the ruling LDP party lost its majority in the upper house. Fiscal worries sent 20 year JGB yields to their highest since 2000.

Global credit spreads hit a 2007 low.

London stock market had their slowest first half of a year for IPO’s since 1997.

Two governors dissented with the Federal Open Market Committee rate setting decision – a first such split in 30 years.

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August:

Japanese equities hit new all-time-highs on trade optimism and fiscal stimulus expectations.

Chinese equities rallied, with the Shanghai Composite hitting a fresh 10 year high.

UK 30 year debt yields rose to a 28-year high amid inflation and fiscal sustainability concerns – higher than the levels they reached following Lizz Truss’s ‘Mini-Budget’.

Corporate credit spreads hit new record lows.

Trump federalized Washington DC’s police operations under the 1973 DC Home Rule Act.

First time a US president has tried to sack a governor of the Federal Reserve.

It was reported that global central bank holdings of gold overtook those of US Treasuries as % of foreign reserves.

Indian rupee tumbled to a new record low against the dollar, dragged by tariff concerns.

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September:

China’s Shanghai Composite rose above 3,800 for the first time in ten years.

The $55bn leveraged buy-out of Electronic Arts is the largest leveraged buy-out ever.

NATO saw the most serious incursion into its territory since the start of the alliance.

Japan’s ruling LDP chose the country’s first female PM and, trying to beat the French, their fifth PM in five years.

Jair Bolsonaro became the first former president in Brazil’s to be sentenced to prison – 27 years.

Nicolas Sarkozy became the first ever French president to be sentenced to prison – 5 years.

Israel launched an airstrike against a Hamas leader meeting in Doha, it’s first ever attack on Qatar. This was followed by Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza – bringing two years of hostilities to an end.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, became the first Syrian head of state to address the UN General Assembly since 1967.

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October:

Nvidia became the first company ever to cross $5trn in market cap.

The US stock market valuation vs US GDP ratio hit a record 225% vs an average of 85% since 1970.

Silver crossed $50 for the first time since the Hunt Brothers cornered the market in 1980 – middle graph.

China deployed rare earth restrictions.

OpenAI became the world’s most valuable startup raising $6.6bn at a price tag of $500bn.

The Nikkei rose 16% in October, its best monthly performance since 1990.

Takaichi Sanae became Japan’s 104th and first female PM.

Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former French head of state to be jailed since Marshal Petain after WWII, and before that Louis XVI in 1792.

Hurricane Melissa became the first ever category-five hurricane to hit Jamaica.

The Dutch government took over Chinese-owned Nexperia by invoking a 73-year old Cold War national security law for the first time ever

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November:

AI angst, crypto-crash and hawkish Fed speak made November look very shaky, only to be saved in the last week by (1) dovish talk from Fed Williams & Waller and (2) economic data misses, which brought a December Fed cut back on the table.

The longest ever US government which began on October 1, 2025, and lasted for 43 days ended on November 13th.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics cancelled the October Job data report, the first forgone monthly report ever.

Bitcoin lost 1/3 of its value between Oct 6th and November 22nd – it’s biggest market value loss ever.

US Consumer Sentiment fell to near lowest on record.

The Challenger layoff announcements surged to a 22 year high.

Silver hit a new all-time high

Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York, the first to win over a million votes since John Lindsay in 1969

Answering a question on Taiwan, Japan’s new PM made the country’s first overt threat of force in 80 years.

Hong Kong witnessed the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980, with 159 people killed

The G20 summit was held in South Africa, the first ever in an African country.

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Next, let's do a quick a recap of the main market events of 2025, where as Goldman's top trader John Flood reminds us, positive momentum from 2024 carried into January as investors remained optimistic on everything AI and a pro-business administration squarely focused on deregulation. The first real test of the year came on January 27th, aka "DeepSeek Monday." The Chinese AI company released its chatbot which led to a sharp drawdown in global technology stocks. Investors worried that the AI hardware and large-model business architype might be disrupted with significantly cheaper (yet still efficient) models like DeepSeek potentially having the ability to knock off some of the biggest players. However, these fears tuned out to be relatively short lived as the AI complex quickly regained its footing and soared higher over the course of the year (it still remains the case that China will be able to confront US technology with much cheaper and just as efficient tech of its own).

Due to a bout of extreme factor volatility, March 7 and March 10 will go down as one of the worst two-day stretches of hedge fund performance in years (multistrat-mageddon). The momentum factor experienced a 4+ standard deviation drawdown which led to forced derisking across various types of HF strategies. On the flip side, this episode also led to cleaner positioning as traders braced to enter the second quarter.

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Donald Trump’s "Liberation Day" will be remembered as the most impactful event on the US stock market in 2025. After the market close on April 2, the president announced sweeping new tariffs on imports and famously held up his big boards with startling rates for the world to digest. The S&P 500 promptly lost 13% in the next weeks, from April 3 through 8, and closed under 5k on April 8, which was also the low close of the year. However, on April 9, Trump announced a 90 day pause on tariffs causing the S&P 500 to experience it sharpest intraday reversal since 2008 (the index closed +952bps on the day). This set the stage for the S&P 500 to make 36 additional record closes in 2025 (there have been 39 total this year).

After Liberation Day, a majority of professional institutional investors remained skeptical of the market’s rally and stayed on the sidelines. The most common reasons cited for this skepticism were geopolitical/macro/policy uncertainty, rich valuations, and poor market breadth. As a result, fundamental long/short HF net exposure spent most of the year well below the 50th percentile rank. Mutual Funds also sat on a significant amount of cash until the 4th quarter (when it was too late). As a result, only 28% of large cap mutual funds are outperforming their benchmarks, the lowest share since 2019...

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... while the average fundamental long/short hedge fund underperformed the S&P 500 by 200bps, which is yet another reason for the relentless rotation out of actively managed funds and into much cheaper, passive ones which deliver the same if not better results.

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Goldman's sentiment indicator spent most of the year in negative territory reflecting light institutional investor positioning, as the wall of worry has been extremely high this year and remains omnipresent. Furthermore, the stubbornly high short interest across the S&P suggests markets will likely continue to see bouts of short squeezes, pushing them above fair value.

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As we have detailed extensively throughout 2025, three investor groups that have shown up as noteworthy buyers of US stocks this year are the retail community, corporates, and foreigners. Goldman data shows that the well informed retail community now only consistently sells stocks when there is significant job loss (as in March of 2020). The retail cohort’s most significant buy imbalances were in early April post liberation day, when retail got it right and professional investors were dead wrong.

Meanwhile, companies again repurchased over $1 trillion of their shares in 2025 making it a top 3 buyback year in the history of the stock market, and as authorizations continue to ramp, $1 trillion annual corporate bids will be the new norm on the go forward, unless the Mag 7 are forced to plow all their free cash flow into capex... capex which accounted for a material portion of US growth in 2025.

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The combination of aggressive retail buying and corporate buybacks provided a higher floor for the market at the index level, continuing to frustrate the HF and MF communities which just can't get a dip that's big enough for them to feel safe to buy. Meanwhile, despite ongoing debates around US exceptionalism (which contrary to leftist narratives, did not end when Trump entered the White House), foreign investors were the single largest source of US equity demand in 2025. Foreign investors bought nearly $280 billion in May and June this year, continuing the usual pattern of elevated foreign investor demand after the US dollar weakened and US equities underperformed.

Turning to the Fed, after putting rate cuts on hold in December 2024 - just after Trump won the election - Jerome Powell, facing a daily barrage of insults from Trump virtually non stop in 2025, pivoted back to dovish and cut rates by 25bps in September, October, and in December; not only that, but as noted above, the Fed resumed QE Lite announcing it would purchase a minimum of $40BN in Treasury Bills every month.

Lower rates, a weaker dollar, a resilient consumer, solid earnings, 2% GDP growth, and cautious sentiment make Goldman - and most other banks all of which have an average S&P price target well in the 7000 range - believe the US stock market will be the best place to be in 2026.

And speaking of Goldman, its baseline economic forecast is that growth reaccelerates to 2 - 2.5% in 2026 because of reduced tariff drag, tax cuts, and easier financial conditions. Standard models suggest that this should boost job creation and stabilize the unemployment rate at a level only modestly above September’s 4.44%. Under this forecast, the bank's core assumption is that the FOMC slows the pace of easing in the first half, pausing in January but still delivering two more cuts in March and June which push the funds rate down to a terminal level of 3 - 3.25%.

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Finally, from John Flood's seat, an average of 17.5 billion shares traded across the US equity market each day this year. For context, this number was 10.8 billion shares in 2020. However, trading has never been more difficult as liquidity is hard to come by as this volume growth is happening off-exchange which traders cannot access. Over 75% of off-exchange volume now trades in OTC market centers, which includes retail flow mostly inaccessible to institutional investors. Fragmentation in the US markets poses further challenges with 16 exchanges, over 30 ATSs and hundreds of OTC liquidity destinations. The average trade size has dropped both on and off exchange, reaching a 15-year low this year of 150 shares per trade. Incidentally, the Retail bid should remain very strong in 2026 as tax refunds spike in early 2026 (2025 were never adjusted to reflect OBBBA and therefore many will be due a large refund). As Flood concludes, "knowing where the bodies lie" has never been more important.

Of course, 2025 was about much more than just markets, and one of the tragic developments of the increasingly polarized US society was the surge in political assassinations, which started in the summer of 2024 with the unsuccessful attempt on Donald Trump's life, escalated when a troubled young man murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December 2024 to make a political statement, and culminated in September 2025 when a radicalized and brainwashed 22-year-old assassinated Charlie Kirk in broad daylight. Unfortunately, with mental illness largely normalized by the liberal establishment, and with mainstream media brainwashing an entire generation into believing that "killing fascists is ok", we are confident that this is only the beginning and there will be many more political assassinations in 2026 and beyond.

But while tragic and inexcusable, the sad reality is that there is an entire generation of young Americans who feel an unprecedented degree of anxiety that the American Dream is now hopelessly lost. And, to an extent, one can't blame them: we started off this website in 2009 with a clear warning that the Fed is the single biggest enemy of American prosperity, the future of the American experiment, and the American way of life, because artificial growth boosted by trillions in budget deficits promptly monetized by the central bank, and culminating in a record $38+ trillion in debt (rising by $1 trillion every few months), which has to be inflated away sooner or later (and judging by the price of gold, it will be "sooner"), will inevitably lead to devastating consequences.

17 years later we have been proven right, as America's conversion into a banana republic is nearly complete with the vast majority of wealth now held by a handful of corporate shareholders, oligarchs and others within the top 1% of the wealth pyramid, while the middle class is disappearing at an exponential pace, drowned by the tide of rising prices. And with little hope to live for, it is understandable why so many young American men and women (and they/thems) are now willing to suicide themselves at the altar of generational disillusionment, but not before first making a deadly political statement.

In 2025, some tried to nudge the US off its doomed course with the iceberg of fiscal inevitably, most notably Elon Musk who launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in hopes of streamlining and eliminating waste within the US government. We were skeptical, and in https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1888351368785604870

that "what Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. And there things are as status quo as always." A few months, and one very high profile feud with Donald Trump later, Musk agreed, saying that "the government is basically unfixable.... at the end of the day if you look at our national debt...if AI and robots don't solve our national debt, we're toast."

🚨ELON MUSK: "I haven't been to DC since May. The government is basically unfixable. I applaud David (Sacks') noble efforts...but at the end of the day if you look at our national debt...if AI and robots don't solve our national debt, we're toast." https://t.co/XKSes4fBfq

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1965634225073483988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The DOGE experiment was quietly snuffed out and the uniparty, which thrives on corruption, opacity and waste, won again. That, too, was not lost on either gold or silver, which enjoyed their best year in nearly half a century, as the days of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency draw to a close.

And speaking of Elon, he also deserves congratulations for continuing to convert X (f/k/a Twitter), from what was once the most corrupt and censored social media network in the world controlled by an army of woke, bluepilled Karens, into a bastion of free speech, one which many will agree was instrumental in Trump's victory on in 2024. Many smirked https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/2023-greatest-hits-most-popular-articles-past-year-and-look-ahead

when we said that "in less than a decade, Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter will seem like one of the century's biggest bargains." Fast forward to today when Elon Musk is not only the world's richest man once more with a staggering net worth of over $600 billion, but he is that by a huge margin, worth some $350 billion more than Larry Page's $270 billion, and he largely has X to thank for this, even as virtue-signaling corporations (who all work in conjunction with the deep state in hopes of getting some fast-track access to those very generous taxpayer-funded government contracts) continue to do everything in their power to isolate and blacklist both Musk and his various enterprises.

?itok=Wi-iddyR

We say this as one of the very first media outlets that was dubbed "conspiracy theorists" by the authorities, leading to repeat attempts to demonetize and deplatform us, and ultimately put us out of business. Oh yes, we've been there: we were suspended for half a year on Twitter for telling the truth about Covid, and then we lost most of our advertisers after the https://twitter.com/jbruce218/status/1608502639875997700

: we are now almost entirely reader-funded so your financial assistance will be instrumental to ensure our continued survival into 2025 and beyond.

That said, we did get a chuckle when, five years after he almost succeeded in shutting us down in collaboration with Google, Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-admin-bans-anti-free-speech-eu-globalists-entering-us

and barred from entering the US.

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The bottom line, at least for us, is that the past five years have been a stark lesson in how quickly an ad-funded business can disintegrate in this world which makes the dystopian nightmare of 1984 seem more real each day, and we have since taken measures. Five years ago, https://www.zerohedge.com/premium

, which is entirely ad and moderation free, and offers readers a variety of premium content. It wasn't our intention to make this transformation but unfortunately we know which way the wind is blowing and it is only a matter of time before the gatekeepers of online ad spending return and block us - and those like us - as traditional media continues to melt away, losing more credibility and readers each and every day. As such, if we are to have any hope in continuing it will come directly from you, our readers. We will keep the free website running for as long as possible, but we are certain that it is only a matter of time before the hammer falls as the deep state retaliates to the shocking loss of 2025 and lashes out at all new media, as the deep state will stop at nothing to silence all independent voices in order to preserve mind control over the population.

As always, we thank all of our readers for making this website - which has never seen one dollar of outside funding (and despite amusing recurring allegations, has certainly never seen a ruble from either Putin or the KGB either, sorry CIA) and has never spent one dollar on marketing - a small (or not so small) part of your daily routine.

Which also brings us to another critical topic: that of fake news, and something we - and others who do not comply with the established narrative - have been accused of. While we find that narrative laughable, after all every single article in this website is backed by facts and links to outside sources, it is clearly a dangerous development, and a very slippery slope that the entire developed world is pushing for what is, when stripped of fancy jargon, internet censorship under the guise of protecting the average person from "dangerous information." It's also why we are preparing for the next onslaught against independent thought and why we had no choice but to roll out a https://www.zerohedge.com/premium

In addition to the other themes noted above, we expect the crackdown on free speech by various deep state tentacles to accelerate in the coming years (although it will be mostly in the shadows, at least for the time being, until Trump gets bored or tired of fighting the infinitely more powerful octopus that is truly in control of the United States) especially as the following list of Top 20 articles for 2025 reveals, many of the most popular articles in the past year were precisely those which the conventional media would not touch with a ten foot pole, both out of fear of repercussions and because the MSM has now become a PR agency for either a political party or some unelected, deep state bureaucrat, which in turn allowed the alternative media to continue to flourish in an information vacuum and take significant market share from the established outlets by covering topics which established media outlets refuse to do, in the process earning itself the derogatory "fake news" condemnation.

We are also grateful that our readers have, for the 17th year in a row, realized that it is incumbent upon them to decide what is, and isn't "fake news."

* * *

And so, before we get into the details of what has now become an annual tradition for the last day of the year, those who wish to jog down memory lane, can refresh our most popular articles for every year during our no longer that brief, 16-year existence, starting with 2009 and continuing with 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-31/2016-greatest-hits-presenting-most-popular-articles-past-year

.

So without further ado, here are the articles that you, our readers, found to be the most engaging, interesting and popular based on the number of hits, during the past year.

In 20th spot we had a stark reminder that 6 years after the death of Jeffrey Epstein, not a single person has gone to prison for pedophilia or, well, anything else for that matter. And although the left was desperate to distract from their latest, record government shutdown (which achieved nothing) by making a spectacle of the Epstein files hoping that something would emerge damning the president (sorry to break it to you, but if 4 years of Democrat rule led to no Trump-crushing leaks, there is just nothing there), as the number of Epstein-related documents released to the public grew, we did get our first casualty, and it couldn't have happened to a more worthy public persona as "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/larry-summers-goes-hiding-messages-sought-epsteins-advice-cheating-daughter-ccp-official

." And while the public destruction of what little was left of Larry Summers' reputation was certainly a step in the right direction, if not the one his liberal friends were hoping for, we can only hope that many more corrupt oligarchs will follow in his footsteps.

Number 19 was the story of one of the biggest home runs of Elon's DOGE, which failed to slow down the rate at which the giant American budget deficit black hole swallowed trillions and pushed up govt debt by the same amount, but it did succeed in dismantling several openly evil government departments which for decades had been a front for even worse three-letter government agencies spreading deep state Pax American across the globe. That's what happened in early 2025, when we learned that the notorious CIA spy cutout, "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/usaid-funded-massive-global-state-propaganda-news-matrix-nearly-billion-people-reach

"

The 18th most read article of the year was on the lighter side, metaphorically speaking, and was a reminder that while Democrats in power may try to impose their perverted DEI ideals on the population in a desperate attempt to root out society's most basic instincts, the desires of warm-blooded males can never be wiped out, especially when they go hand in hand with meme stock mania, as we learned in "https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sydney-sweeney-sparks-american-eagle-meme-stock-frenzy

." And whether it was the glorious mammaries of the unwoke actress, or just a return of animal spirits, American Eagle stock not only outperformed bitcoin, and many AI names this year, but it closed 2025 at the highest level in four years. We wonder what female body parts comparable copycat stocks will use to achieve the same effect...

Our 17th most read article of the year was written just days before the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, and it was the just as tragic cold-blooded murder of the unarmed and defenseless Iryna Zarutska, who was butchered by a deranged black person with a hatred for white people. The senseless attack and the even more gruesome aftermath of her lying in a pool of blood as she bled to death with barely anyone coming to her help is what we called "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/image-killed-democrats-2026-and-beyond

." Although having since learned to what lengths democrats will go to rig and manipulate elections, we may have to revise that statement.

2025 was a year that mercifully saw the unwind of many fake narratives, and one of them, which also was the 16th most popular article of the year, was that Ukraine would somehow be able to oppose Russia in the ongoing war. Contrary to media reports that Ukraine was this close to ending the conflict any day now, and that Russia was suffering catastrophic losses, the reality was in fact just the opposite as we learned in March when "https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/we-cant-stop-them-thousands-ukraine-troops-suddenly-face-encirclement-russias-kursk

" Since then it has gone from bad to worse for Ukraine, which is suffering loss after loss in the Donbass region, while the noose around Zelensky is getting uncomfortably tight after his closest political aide was hounded out of Kiev for corruption that would make even career US politicians blush. The cherry on top, Trump's now unyielding demands that Ukraine concede territory, hold presidential elections, and sign a peace treaty with Russia, indicate that the biggest military conflict of the 21st century may finally be drawing to a close.

The 15th most read article of the year saw the end of yet another fake news narrative, the one that defined much of the past decade ever since the first Trump administration, namely that the president was somehow beholden to Russia, a carefully fabricated story that consumed America for years. In the end, however, it turned out that Russiagate was nothing more than another carefully orchestrated Democrat propaganda masterpiece, and this time justice might even be served as "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treasonous-conspiracy-dni-gabbard-exposes-obama-center-trump-russia-hoax

." Whether or not Obama, who facilitated what was in retrospect a treasonous coup, ends up in prison is to be determined, but as we said in July, his actions were the "Betrayal Of Every American."

Turning the page on sordid tales of political woe, we go to the 14th most popular post of 2025, in which we explained that "https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/something-extraordinary-taking-place-gold-vaults-below-manhattan

" and showed how at the end of January amid fears of escalating trade tensions, the gold vaults that make up the CME system, those belonging to the likes of JPMorgan, Brinks and HSBC, had seen an blistering accumulation of physical gold to record levels, while vaulted gold elsewhere around the world quietly evaporated. This historic imbalance would lead to shocking reverberations for the physical metal for much of the rest of the year, and would culminate in the biggest increase in the price of gold since 1979.

The 13th most read article of the year was one that covered the year's most tragic event: the death of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk, one which the president called a "Dark Moment for America" as "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/shots-reportedly-fired-charlie-kirk-event-utah-valley-university

." Taking place just over a year after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the increasing frequency of political assassinations in the US is a testament to the liberals' aggressive pursuit to normalize murder (and mental disease) in the name of "fighting fascism", when the only fascists in the US are those who brainwash their pathological supporters into believing that the killing of an adversary solves something. Which, unfortunately, is why we expect many more such senseless killings in 2026 and beyond.

In 12th spot was a vivid reminder that politics under Trump was anything but life as usual, when "https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/leftist-plantation-south-african-officials-say-white-refugees-are-committing-treason

." Whereas previous administrations would have bent over backwards due to faked white guilt to appease the South African regime, Trump played hard ball and encouraged by Elon Musk, who clearly laid out South Africa's brutal, anti-white policies, the president made it clear that, at least when it came to racial matters, the new boss was anything but the old boss. There would be more, as the US further snubbed South Africa through boycotts and punitive actions related to the G20 summit, stemming from Trump's claims about "white genocide" and land seizures, coupled with disagreements over climate/DEI priorities, leading the US to skip South Africa's 2025 G20 and bar South Africa from the 2026 summit.

The 11th most popular article of 2025 was also a tragic preview of what has emerged as one of the biggest stories of corruption and fraud in 2025, as a "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fake-cop-assassinates-minnesota-lawmaker-targeted-political-violence

" With much of the independent media now focusing on waste and abuse of taxpayer money by the Somali population in Minnesota, the June shooting by Vance Luther Boelter - a Democrat activist and 2019 appointee of Gov. Tim Walz - of MN lawmakers democrats Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman, just didn't make sense; why would Democrats kill other Democrats. Unless, of course, someone was desperate to hide just how deep the rabbit hole went. Well, when it comes to taxpayer abuse in Minnesota, we have since learned that rabbit hole indeed goes to unprecedented depths, and we are confident that we will only learn more as the full extent of

2025 was a year rife with geopolitical conflict, and it wasn't just Ukraine: in June, the Middle East was roiled by the most serious military escalation in decades, when Iran and Israel started a shooting war, threatening to drag in the entire region with some even speculating that nukes could be exchanged. And while at first, "https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-proclaims-total-air-superiority-over-iranian-capital-area-war-intensifies

," ultimately Trump did as Israel demanded, and not only supported Israel in a move that has resulted in a dramatic schism across the conservative movement  (pro vs anti Israel) but also provided US bunker buster bombs to take out Iran's nuclear centrifuge facilities. After Iran lobbed several theatrical cruise missile waves at Tel Aviv, and suffered heavy losses, the conflict quickly faded but it is likely only a matter of time before Tehran (potentially a nuclear-armed Tehran) seeks vengeance, leading to an even more serious conflict in 2026 and beyond.

The 9th most read article of 2025 was a modest detour into levity, and one which caught many unaware when yet another company decided to go woke and quickly went broke, dragged into irrelevance - and bankruptcy - by years of imposed DEI standards: "https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/hooters-goes-tits-bankruptcy-may-come-within-months

." Here's to hoping that whoever acquires Hooters out of bankruptcy can recreate it as the cultural icon of middle Americana it deserves to be.

The 8th most read article of the past year dealt with something far more serious, and unfortunately proved yet again that the conspiracy theorists were right: Dr Patric Soon-Shiong, founder of ImmunityBio and owner of the Los Angeles Times, made major headlines in March when "https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/existential-billionaire-cancer-researcher-says-covid-vaccine-likely-causing-surge

." To be sure, speculation that covid vaccines were potentially deadly had emerged long before his startling confession, but at the time anyone who voices skepticism was promptly canceled and erased. We can only hope that the scientific establishment has at least learned something from that catastrophic episode in American history.

Earlier we said that Elon's experiment in streamlining the US government was a failure after even he realized that it is hopeless to slowdown the pace of spending, but at least it was eye-opening: for the first time, thanks to DOGE, most Americans got a full view of how the sausage is made, and how pervasive corruption and waste are in the corridors of the Capitol. Needless to say, while everyone assumed as much, the confirmation was a shock, which is why so many were amazed to learn that "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treasury-depts-highest-ranking-career-official-rage-quits-after-musks-doge-team-probes

", the 7th most popular article of the year. Unfortunately, unless an impartial 3rd party continues policing US government spending, nothing will change and we will get more stories like this in the future.

Once upon a time, Democrats were the party of tolerance and peace, or so the legend goes. That all changed in recent years when after relentless media brainwashing and normalizing that "killing fascists is fine" and that pretty much anyone to the right of communists is a fascist, not to mention that mental illness is something to be proud of, many Democrats emerged as a radicalized, violent group intent on inflicting harm if not outright murder their ideological opponents. In retrospect, it should not have been a surprise but the news that https://www.zerohedge.com/political/day-3-charlie-kirks-assassin-still-large-new-footage-released-gop-demanding-probe-radical

" was big enough to make the 6th most read article of the year. Here too, we are confident that much more bloodshed lies in store as the seed of leftist violence are only just starting to bear fruit.

And speaking of catastrophic liberal policies, the very first major event of 2025 was a stark reminder of how bad things can get in the world of unbridled Democratic policies, when "https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/evacuate-now-fire-tears-through-upscale-pacific-palisades-los-angeles

" quickly became the 5th most read article of the year. The fires would never have been able to unleash that kind of destruction if local administrators had taken proactive measures and engaged in controlled burn ins, not to mention had given the local fire department access to water. Unfortunately, with California now a vibrant symbol of all that is broken in the US, the worst case scenario promptly emerged and it has only gotten worse since then, with many if not all of the burned down houses frozen in time, owners unable to rebuild and move on due to, you guessed it, suffocating liberal policies.

We are not done with DOGE and government corruption: the 4th most read article of the year was news that "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-investigating-feds-whose-net-worths-have-exploded-after-samantha-power-bombshell

." The announcement, which came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to work with DOGE, follows a bombshell report that Samantha Power, former head of USAID, saw her net worth explode to $30 million despite an annual salary under $250,000. Unfortunately, to this day the investigation has gone nowhere, meanwhile there are dozens if not hundreds of US politicians who have become multimillionaires with a salary that is barely enough for a family of four to live comfortably.

Going back to finance, our 3rd most read article of the year was an in depth analysis of what happened during the April meltdown, one which we correctly warned about https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1905354559469605343

." More importantly, it was the massive surge in bond yields in the days following Trump's Liberation Day that prompted the president to announce a reversal in his tariff policies and also set the market's low for the year, translating into a nearly 2000 point ascent for the S&P since April.

The 2nd most popular post of the year is also the most topical as we close out the year: thanks to intrepid citizen journalism from Nick Shirley, America got a stark reminder that corruption across the US is vast not just at the federal level but also state as news emerged that hundreds of millions (if not more) had been embezzled by various immigrant groups in Minnesota and in other democrat states , as detailed in "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/network-mapping-nick-shirleys-empty-minnesota-daycares

" Just like many of the other top stories in this list, America got a glimpse into the corruption, but since politicians on both sides benefit, don't expect anything to change.

Finally, the most popular post of 2025 was a stark reminder that the US has not been a Democratic Republic in decades, and that those in control are unelected bureaucrats, unaccountable to anyone... or almost anyone because at the start of 2025, a brief shock rippled across the deep state as we described in the #1 most popular article of the year: "https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eruption-bleachbit-wipe-hard-drive-offshore-bank-searches-dc-suggest-deep-state-panic

." Unfortunately, the panic was brief, and after a few months of pushback against Doge, and one high profile scandal between Trump and Musk later, things in DC quietly returned to normal, with the Deep State once again in control of everything and just biding its time until it can once again place a puppet of its own choosing in the White House.

And with all that behind us, and as we wave goodbye to another bizarre, exciting, surreal year, what lies in store for 2026, and the next half-decade?

We don't know: as our frequent readers are aware, we do not pretend to be able to predict the future and we don't try, despite repeat baseless allegations that we constantly forecast the collapse of civilization: we leave the predicting to the "smartest people in the room" who year after year have been consistently wrong about everything, and never more so than in 2025 when all the experts predicted soaring inflation as a result of Trump's tariffs, alongside a sharp drop in the stock market... only to flip-flop and concede that not only is tariff inflation not coming but the market is set to close at fresh record highs...

Wall Street strategists’ year-end target on S&P 500 at different points throughout year…

What a complete joke.

Nobody. Knows. Anything.

via https://twitter.com/geoffreymorgan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) https://twitter.com/NateGeraci/status/2002763060658995579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

... in the process adding strategists and analysts to the clueless ranks of economists, mainstream media and the professional polling class, not to mention all those "scientists" who made a mockery of both the scientific method and the "expert class" with their catastrophically bungled response to the covid pandemic, and then the response to the response, and so on... We merely observe, find what is unexpected, entertaining, amusing, surprising or grotesque in an increasingly bizarre, sad, and increasingly crazy world, and then just write about it.

We do know, however, that with the Fed having flip-flopped yet again, and re-pivoting dovishly just months after the latest hawkish pivot when Trump was elected, only to back off following a now all-out war of words between the White House and the Marriner Eccles building (located just a few hundred feet away) which led to the launch of QE Lite (ahead of a full-blown QE soon) with home prices and rents still refusing to drop despite mortgage rates peaking around 7%, and overall prices stuck at all time highs, it is not Trump's trade war but year of catastrophic monetary and fiscal policy that will inevitably lead to https://www.apolloacademy.com/is-inflation-coming-back/

right around the time of the midterms (Trump will, of course, do everything in his power to delay the inevitable until at least 2027) and Jerome Powell becoming not the second coming of saint Paul Volcker but of satan Arthur Burns.

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But even ignoring the impact on prices, one can't just undo almost 20 years of central bank mistakes by willing them away (especially after Elon Musk and DOGE confirmed what we said at the start of the year, namely that the level of corruption and out of control spending is so embedded in every corridor of the US government that it will never be eradicated); after all it is the trillions and trillions in monetary stimulus, the helicopter money, the MMT idiocy, and the endless deficit funding by central banks that sent gold and silver into the clearest red alert warning yet that hyperinflation and a fiat collapse is looming, and that the current attempt to stuff 15 years of toothpaste back into the tube, will be a catastrophic disaster.

We are confident, however, that in the end it will be the very final backstoppers of the status quo regime, the central banking emperors of the New Normal, who will again be revealed as completely naked. When that happens and what happens after is anyone's guess. But, as we have promised - and delivered - every year for the past 17, we will be there to document every aspect of it.

Finally, and as always, we wish all our readers the best of luck in 2026, with much success in trading and every other avenue of life. We bid farewell to 2025 with our traditional and unwavering year-end promise: ZeroHedge will be there each and every day - usually with a cynical smile (and with the https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-coronavirus-pandemic-health-moscow-media-ff4a56b7b08bcdc6adaf02313a85edd9

) - helping readers expose, unravel and comprehend the fallacy, fiction, fraud and farce that defines every aspect of our increasingly broken economic, political and financial system.

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https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 19:40

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/2025-greatest-hits-most-popular-articles-past-year-and-look-ahead

https://modernity.news/2025/12/31/watch-tsa-whistleblowers-expose-somali-cash-smuggling-operations-at-us-airports/

Former TSA agents are sounding the alarm on Somali men routinely flying out with suitcases crammed full of cash, undoubtedly linked to massive taxpayer-funded fraud schemes that could be funneling money to terrorist groups overseas.

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A former agent from Minnesota described witnessing “Somali men flying out of Minnesota with suitcases filled with cash” amounting to “$1 billion over 5 years,” including one instance of a suitcase “filled with brand new passports.”

These groups were “always waived through,” with a clear “trail” leading back to implicated parties, the former agent claims.

WHAT

Former TSA agent says she saw Somali men flying out of Minnesota with suitcases filled with cash.

$1 billion over 5 years

They also once had a suitcase filled with brand new passports.

They were always waived through.

There’s a trail https://twitter.com/SecDuffy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006192432463970780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Recent reports from independent outlets like Alpha News highlight these claims, where a former TSA agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recalled seeing “suitcases filled with millions of dollars of cash, and the couriers were always Somali men traveling in pairs.”

I just received a message from a TSA agent in Phoenix who tells me a Somali man with a Minnesota DL flies through Pheonix every 7-10 days with a suitcase of around $250k cash. He told agents that families in Minnesota send cash back home to Sudan and Somalia through Dubai and he… https://t.co/UEV8y23LF6

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006293915561775175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

She connected the dots to broader fraud, noting an “obvious connection to billions of dollars of fraud” in the state.

Another whistleblower from Phoenix reported a Somali man with a Minnesota driver’s license flying through every 7-10 days with around “$250k cash” in a suitcase.

He claimed to be a “registered courier” sending family remittances to Sudan and Somalia via Dubai. The agent even offered the passenger’s name for investigation by authorities like the FBI or USDOT.

These revelations tie directly into ongoing exposes of Somali-linked fraud in Minnesota, where citizen journalists have uncovered millions in questionable taxpayer payouts to seemingly inactive daycares and care facilities.

The FBI is treating these cases as the “tip of the iceberg,” networks of shell companies appear designed to siphon funds, with one investigation alone spotting $110 million in dubious payments.

But where does this money ultimately end up? A source told City Journal: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”

Al-Shabaab, a Somali-based Islamic terrorist group affiliated with al-Qa’ida, has killed more U.S. citizens than any other affiliate and stands as its wealthiest branch.

This a real quote a source gave City Journal:

“The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”

Al-Shabaab is a Somali based islamic t*rrorist group who has kiIIed more U.S. citizens than any other al-Qa’ida affiliate and is also al-Qa’ida’s wealthiest component. https://t.co/kc87S00v43

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006195226143006823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Citizen journalists nationwide are now replicating these probes, visiting facilities in states like Washington to document empty or non-operational sites receiving hefty government funds.

Washington State Attorney General is now accusing journalists of “harassment” for investigating fraud and fake daycares

Democrats don’t want us uncovering fraud because they’re the ones committing it and benefiting from it https://t.co/3ssudjHQa5

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006269611294220658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Yet, instead of gratitude, they’re facing backlash. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has accused these investigators of “harassment” for scrutinizing fraud in fake daycares, claiming Democrats “don’t want us uncovering fraud because they’re the ones committing it and benefiting from it.”

Source: https://t.co/idrONh42Ud

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006206051985584206?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The pushback escalates further with outright cover-up attempts. Washington State Senator Lisa Wellman has pre-filed legislation to conceal information about daycares and their operators from public view, effectively shielding potential fraudsters from scrutiny.

Democrats are now using their positions of power to actively cover up their fraud schemes https://t.co/rRc8dtumhL

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2006262778516943188?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

This pattern reeks of a system rigged to protect insiders while American taxpayers foot the bill for schemes that undermine national security.

With billions vanishing into thin air—or worse, into terrorist coffers—it’s high time for federal probes to dismantle these networks and restore accountability before more “waived through” suitcases slip away.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via https://pauljosephwatson.locals.com/support

.

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 19:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-tsa-whistleblowers-expose-somali-cash-smuggling-operations-us-airports

https://youtu.be/OMOGaugKpzs?si=9qAqO1r7CU5yAoWW

https://open.substack.com/pub/brucemageetheweatherdsoul/p/why-dont-you-like-me-anymore?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=1uq4od

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XNOB9tcCcPA&list=RDXNOB9tcCcPA&start_radio=1&pp=ygUPc21pbGUgYXp0ZWMgc3VuoAcB

That changes now. The new CBS Evening News… https://t.co/NKdvRJjYCS

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/2006696909235171821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Nothing new here.

?itok=D60K7GSz

Dokoupil's promise to viewers comes as CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss plans to overhaul the broadcaster as part of a broader review of standards and procedures, according to a recent Axios report.

Weiss' overhaul of CBS is bold and noble, and so is Dokoupil's promise to actually report the news, but we'll believe it when we see it. CBS has gotten many of the top stories of the past decade wrong, often by design to protect politicians, special interests, or to allow advertisers to influence the news cycle.

We remain skeptical that MSM can be overhauled to report real news rather than function as a public relations firm. That skepticism was reinforced earlier this week, when MSM outlets rushed to Minneapolis to discredit citizen journalist Nick Shirley's bombshell reporting on suspected Somali-linked fraud, coverage that appeared less like an investigation and more like protection of the Democratic Party and special interests that stand to benefit from the alleged schemes.

X users called out CBS' reporting earlier this week...

🚨 JUST IN: CBS attempts to discredit Nick Shirley by showing there were actually *FOUR* children at ABC Learning Center the day he visited…

But what CBS ACTUALLY did was PROVE HIM RIGHT.

Babysitting 4 kids while the federal government pays you for 40 KIDS is FRAUD.

This… https://t.co/EHocIPOdxC

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2006440082488623431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Ratioed.

?itok=gEHMfTnD

MSM was radio silent...

The biggest news story in the world…

These “news” outlets still have not covered Nick Shirley and his Somalia fraud bombshell on the biggest Media platform on the planet..

WaPo

NBC News

MSNBC

CBS News

NYT

CNN

PBS

NPR

ABC News

The Legacy Media is the enemy of the people. https://t.co/0Vv5l5jDAG

— C3 (@C_3C_3) https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2005823782083051963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

To rebuild trust, Weiss should host a segment about everything CBS has gotten wrong over the past decade.

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 14:35

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/msm-panics-after-nick-shirley-bombshell-cbs-pledges-start-reporting-real-news

The U.S. State Department received a request from Russia on New Year's Eve to stop pursuing an oil tanker in the Atlantic Basin linked to a dark-fleet network that ships Venezuelan crude, according to a https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/us/politics/russia-oil-tanker-venezuela-us-pursuit.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BFA.WhIR.EHamARWX9BfE&smid=tw-share

report citing sources familiar with the matter.

Ship FLEEING US military paints ‘RUSSIAN flag’ on its hull — NYT

Allegedly seeking Russian ‘protection’ as US tries to SEIZE Bella 1

Bella 1 has been pursued for OVER A WEEK since sailing near Venezuela https://t.co/Y5KVhJie1A

— RT (@RT_com) https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/2006082888257921385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Late Wednesday evening, the State Department and the White House's Homeland Security Council received a request from Russia to halt the pursuit of the Bella-1 tanker, which is now flying a Russian flag after the https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/crew-paints-russian-flag-iran-linked-tanker-avoid-us-seizure

.

?itok=9JIXlNch

Bella-1 has evaded U.S. Coast Guard boarding attempts for 10 days after refusing to comply with an interception order near Venezuela on December 21. The crux of the issue is that the Trump administration views the tanker as "stateless" because it was flying a false flag when the Coast Guard first approached it.

The New York Times noted:

In the days since, the ship has tried to claim the protection of Russia, with its crew painting a Russian flag on the side and radioing the Coast Guard to say they were sailing under Russian authority. The Bella-1 recently appeared in Russia's official register of ships, under a new name, the Marinera, with a home port of Sochi on the Black Sea.

. . .

Although securing Russian protection may be a long shot for Bella-1 under international law, Russia's diplomatic intervention could complicate the U.S. effort to seize the tanker, which stems from an ongoing conflict with Venezuela. David Tannenbaum, a former sanctions compliance officer at the Treasury Department, said earlier this week that it was "unclear" whether Russia's provision of "overnight flag registration" to the ship would prove valid.

More color on the situation from maritime expert Sal Mercogliano:

Bella 1 used the exception in Art 92 to re-register.

The renamed Marinera went under the Russian registry and did this while in international waters.

However, it appears that she is now classified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (she was previously under Lloyds)… https://t.co/jyvFOGkadK

— Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴‍☠️ (@mercoglianos) https://twitter.com/mercoglianos/status/2006760443897905235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Russia's request that the Coast Guard stop chasing Bella-1 in the Atlantic Basin certainly adds another dimension to peace deal negotiations in the four-year-long war in Ukraine. It also complicates President Trump’s https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/white-house-orders-venezuelan-oil-quarantine-gunboat-diplomacy-drives-tanker-atlantic

aimed at toppling the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 14:10

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-requests-trump-admin-stop-pursuit-oil-tanker-atlantic-basin

https://amgreatness.com/2025/12/31/washington-state-ag-warns-citizen-journalists-to-stop-investigating-somali-daycares-or-face-potential-hate-crime-charges/

The Washington state attorney general released https://x.com/AGOWA/status/2006167557888454933?s=20

Tuesday evening warning independent journalists to stop investigating fraudulent Somali daycare centers or they could be charged with a hate crime.

“My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking,” State AG Nick Brown stated.

“We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers. Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

?itok=BEXDQsE8

Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights, issued a warning of her own in reaction to the Washington state AG’s post.

“ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist’s 1A rights will have some ‘splainin to do,” she https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/2006382864565162029?s=20

Wednesday morning.

“[The DOJ Civil Rights Division] takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously!” Dhillon added.

This statute, known as the Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, makes it a crime for any person acting under the pretense of law to willfully deprive another individual of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

The clash of the AGs came after Youtuber Nick Shirley exposed about a dozen Somali-owned, state-funded childcare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that appeared to be completely deserted.

Shirley produced https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2004642794862961123?s=20

which has been viewed over 131 million times on X since it was posted on December 26,  alleging that Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) “knew about the fraud but never reported it.”

Inspired by Shirley’s bombshell report, citizen journalists in multiple states with large Somali populations have launched their own investigations in recent days.

In the Kent, Washington area Tuesday, YouTuber Chris Sims, a self-described “gonzo journalist,” visited seven suspicious Somali childcare sites and reported that they were “very unhappy” to see him.

Sims https://x.com/ChrisxSims/status/2006184711119593477?s=20

of him approaching a private home listed as a childcare facility that appeared to be not as advertised.

“There was no sign of kids or being a Daycare facility,” Sims wrote.

“I was told by a few they weren’t Daycares despite receiving tax payer dollars. One yelled ‘Call the police’ behind the door.”

https://x.com/camhigby/status/2006098414660980899?s=20

independent journalists Jonathan Choe and Cam Higby visited an alleged Somali daycare facility in Seattle that receives hundreds of thousands in taxpayers funds and the person who answered the door said there was no daycare there in the past or present.

Higby said “Dhagash Childcare” has received over $210,000 just this year alone.

Another listed childcare facility, a house in a residential neighborhood in Kent, Washington, has received over $863,000 since 2023, https://x.com/camhigby/status/2006211983457309015?s=20

“Residents say there IS NO DAYCARE HERE,” the journalist said.

Another reporter reporting on potential fraud in the Rainier Vista neighborhood of Seattle on December 29th, faced hostile reactions from the Somali residents, who called the police on him.

In his statement, the Washington State AG encouraged members of the Somali community “experiencing threats or harassment” to call the police or his office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline or report it to the state’s hate crime website.

Addressing the independent journalists, Brown added: “If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate. Go to DCYF’s website to learn more. And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.”

The Post Millennial’s Andy Ngo responded to Brown’s threat https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2006407987217248286?s=20

saying: “It is the duty of journalists to visit taxpayer-funded nonprofits and businesses to investigate where you have failed. The journalists have documented their visits on camera and there is no harassing or threatening behavior. You are trying to threaten journalists by telling people to call police with false allegations of a hate crime.”

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 12:50

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/washington-state-ag-warns-citizen-journalists-stop-investigating-somali-daycares-or-face

"The semi-official Fars news agency and rights group Hengaw reported deaths in Lordegan, a city in western Iran," https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/one-person-killed-iran-protests-over-economic-woes-2026-01-01/

writes. "Authorities confirmed one death in the western city of Kuhdasht, and Hengaw reported another death in the central province of Isfahan."

?itok=iP0976T7

At least one among the dead is reported to be a government security force member, as demonstrators clash with police, and amid some reports of possible live fire being used to quell the unrest.

"A member of Iran's security forces was killed during a fourth day of protests in the country, which have been sparked by a currency collapse, officials have said," https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2d7g8krj2po

reports.

"Citing regional chief justice Saeed Shahvari, Iran's judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency said Amir Hessam Khodayari Fard was killed in the city of Kouhdasht, in the western Lorestan province, on Wednesday," it added, stating that several more police and security members were injured, mostly as a result of stone-throwing.

He was said to be a member of the Basij - a paramilitary force linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). In several locales Basij members have been observed supporting local police forces, as is typical whenever major anti-government protests flare up.

"Footage verified by BBC Persian appears to show security forces firing at protesters in the city on the same day," the report also notes.

But the government's counter-narrative has quickly emerged, with state-linked Fars News Agency https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rj85xzevzx

an "informed source" to say that "armed protesters" have stirred up anti-police violence.

Fox: "Footage shows protesters tearing down a government gate in southern Iran. Businesses shut. Universities closed. Offices locked down."

🚨Footage shows protesters tearing down a government gate in southern Iran.

Businesses shut. Universities closed. Offices locked down. When a government has to shut everything down to survive, it’s already losing.https://t.co/7irRs5kXyt

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) https://twitter.com/DerrickEvans4WV/status/2006714713259102547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

What started Sunday as shopkeepers in a prominent Tehran market shuttering their doors in protest of a collapsing currency and soaring prices has now spread to the youth and the universities.

Schools and public buildings have been closed across the country on Thursday in order to control the spread of the protests, in what's being widely reported as a last-minute, possibly desperate decision of the central government.

This after crowds have sought to break into government buildings - for example, groups broke the gate of the governor's office in the city of Fasa in the southern province of Fars. Security are seen shooting to try and drive them back, and dispersing tear gas.

Fifth day of protests in Iran.

Some peaceful, some violent.

One can be sure that Israel and the CIA are trying to take advantage of the discontent. https://t.co/7JFMieENw9

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) https://twitter.com/Kanthan2030/status/2006727236926489030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The economy has been hammered by 40% inflation and coming off the 12-day June war, which left the leadership and populace in a new state of angst, paranoia, and even despair. The country is on a backfoot economically, militarily, its nuclear program decimated or at least set back by years, and there's eroding trust - especially as authorities have tried and executed dozens for alleged Israeli-links.

This is perhaps why President Masoud Pezeshkian has urged calm, and taken the rare step of saying the government will listen to the "legitimate demands" of the protesters.

As with prior years' protests, including the so-called 'anti-hijab' protests sparked by women, there's much that's hard to verify in terms of reporting, as activists outside the country seek to amplify hard to prove claims amid the fast-moving events on the ground. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-tried-turn-iranian-generals-against-ayatollah-just-bombs-fell

(whether MEK, pre-1979 monarchists, the US, or Israel) will no doubt seek to hijack the protests, and there could be intelligence infiltration. But there is clear evidence of many chanting in some places slogans calling for the overthrow of the government in Tehran.

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 12:15

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-grinds-halt-several-killed-wounded-including-irgc-member-amid-raging-protests

URL: https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/the-global-resource-war-is-going?publication_id=2821180&post_id=183141289

Collected: 2026-01-01 16:34:11 +0000

Analyzed: 2026-01-01 16:43:58 +0000

## Overall takeaway

The U.S. is shifting from economic trade conflicts to military confrontations over natural resources, particularly oil, in a multipolar world.

## Conceptual model

- Shift from economic to kinetic conflicts over resources.

- U.S. Navy's strategic repositioning for oil security.

- Emerging multipolar world with U.S., China, and Russia.

- Potential for naval skirmishes in resource-rich areas.

- Resource wars may escalate as global tensions rise.

## Next steps (optional)

- Monitor U.S. military movements in resource-rich regions.

- Analyze implications of U.S. strategies on global stability.

- Engage in discussions on resource management and conflict prevention.

## Short summary

The article discusses the shift from economic trade conflicts to kinetic confrontations over natural resources among superpowers, particularly focusing on the U.S.'s new Monroe Doctrine aimed at securing oil reserves in Nigeria and strategically challenging China. It highlights the U.S. Navy's repositioning and challenges posed by adversaries in a multipolar world.

## Comprehensive summary

- • The global landscape is shifting from economic trade wars to a quasi-kinetic conflict over critical natural resources among major powers in a multipolar world.

- • The transition from a unipolar world post-Cold War to a tri-polar or bipolar world is emphasized, highlighting the roles of the USA, Russia, China, and the BRICS bloc.

- • The U.S. naval presence in the Caribbean and Pacific is suggested to be focused on securing oil reserves rather than combating drug trafficking, signaling a new economic Monroe Doctrine.

- • Recent U.S. military actions in Nigeria appear to be a strategic effort to secure high-grade offshore oil reserves and could involve stirring ethnic conflicts to gain control.

- • The U.S. Navy is positioned to control oil transport routes from Nigeria to Texas, which are logistically favorable compared to the Persian Gulf.

- • Current vulnerabilities in maintaining choke points for shipping (like the Strait of Malacca) could be exploited by adversaries using modern weaponry.

- • The Island Chain Strategy to contain China is under strain, with American bases now within range of Chinese missiles, challenging U.S. naval power.

- • A potential Chinese blockade of Taiwan is anticipated, as China conducts military drills around the island while avoiding outright kinetic warfare.

- • Naval skirmishes against Russian shipping outside the Ukraine conflict suggest that covert military actions will escalate in various conflict zones.

- • The strategic interest in Greenland is highlighted, with its mineral wealth and location being crucial for U.S. national security against Russian and Chinese threats.

- • The emerging conflict over silver, with the U.S. potentially redirecting shipments from Mexico and Peru, indicates a shift in resource wars from economic to kinetic confrontations as 2026 begins.

## Entities

- keyword: chinese, u.s., trump, greenland, nigeria, china, kinetic, world, taiwan, silver

- location: United States, Guam, Pacific, Nigeria, Venezuela, U.S., Greenland, Red Sea, US Navy, Taiwan

- organization: U.S. Navy, PayPal, Strait of Malacca

- person: Trump, Monroe Doctrine, Jeff Bezos, Biafra, Sam Hill

## Related content

1. (3) Beware the coming false-flag or green-flag operation

Why: similarity 0.91

Summary: • The author warns of potential false-flag or green-flag operations that could trigger World War 3, specifically involving the deliberate sacrifice of a U.S. aircraft carrier and 5,000 Navy sailors

• Iran may close the Strait of Hormuz, blocking 20% of global oil shipping, causing oil prices to soar and crashing the global economy, particularly impacting China, Japan, and South Korea

• The U.S. Navy would be forced to intervene to reopen the strait, likely losing ships to Iran's mobile anti-ship missiles hidden across thousands of square miles

• Historical naval losses are cited: USS Stark (1987) lost 37 crew to Iraqi missile; British lost 6 ships including HMS Sheffield during Falklands War

• Ground invasion of Iran is deemed unrealistic due to the massive scale compared to historical operations like Okinawa, which took 3 months with a vastly stronger 1945 military

• Historical examples of false/green flag operations are provided: Lusitania (WWI), USS Liberty attack by Israel (1967), Pearl Harbor, October 7, possibly 9/11, and Gulf of Tonkin (1964)

• The author distinguishes between false-flag operations (blamed on others) and green-flag operations (allowing known attacks to happen to generate public support for war)

• Neocon warmongers are accused of potentially orchestrating such operations to justify full-scale war with Iran despite catastrophic consequences

URL: https://substack.com/home/post/p-166063612

2. How Trump's grand design for the Middle East could leave Israel in the dust - TheAltWorld

Why: similarity 0.91

Summary: • **Trump's Gulf trip had dual purposes**: Rebranding "America First" as a global vision and relaunching "Pax Americana" in the Middle East, targeting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE for massive investments in the US economy

• **US brand rehabilitation efforts**: After decades of reputational damage from endless Middle East wars, sanctions policies, financial crises, and internal polarization, Trump seeks to make America attractive again amid rising multipolar alternatives like BRICS and China

• **Economic concerns driving policy**: US national debt has reached $36 trillion, Treasury bond rates approach dangerous 5% ceiling, and Trump's advisers now view the dollar's reserve currency status as a liability rather than an asset

• **Strategic Middle East importance**: Region remains crucial for energy resources, trade routes, migration leverage against Europe, pressure points against Russia's Muslim minorities, and potential to divide OPEC+ while pressuring China's oil dependence

• **Gulf states' massive investment pledges**: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE competed with $3 trillion in forward investments, including UAE's seemingly unrealistic $1.4 trillion 10-year deal (annual GDP only $500bn)

• **Israel's diminishing role**: Trump bypassed Tel Aviv to negotiate directly with Hamas, made separate Yemen deal without protecting Israel, re-engaged Iran on nuclear talks, and pursued Saudi deals without requiring Israeli normalization

• **Breaking diplomatic traditions**: Trump meets Syria's interim leader, lifts Damascus sanctions without guarantees, partners with Gulf rulers and Turkey, hoping eventually to include China and Russia in his business-focused grand design

URL: https://thealtworld.com/marco_carnelos/how-trumps-grand-design-for-the-middle-east-could-leave-israel-in-the-dust

3. The Rutherford Institute :: The Real National Emergency: Endless Wars, Failing Infrastructure, and a Dying Republic | By John & Nisha Whitehead |

Why: similarity 0.91

Summary: • **The U.S. continues to expand military operations globally while neglecting domestic needs** - In 2025, America launched airstrikes in Yemen, bombed Houthi-controlled areas killing civilians, deployed more troops to the Middle East, and moved closer to war with Iran, all while infrastructure crumbles at home

• **Military spending represents empire maintenance, not national defense** - The military-industrial complex profits from endless wars and global policing while veterans sleep on streets, schools deteriorate, and bridges collapse

• **America maintains a vast military presence worldwide** - With 1.3 million active troops and over 200,000 stationed overseas across nearly 800 bases in 160 countries, costing $156+ billion annually to protect oil fields and corporate interests rather than American freedoms

• **War spending is bankrupting the nation** - The U.S. spends almost 50% of global military expenditure, more than the next 19 nations combined, having spent over $10 trillion on wars since 2001 at a rate of $32 million per hour

• **Military contractors engage in massive fraud** - Boeing overcharged taxpayers by up to 177,000% for basic parts, with the Pentagon unable to account for hundreds of millions in spending

• **U.S. military actions create dangerous blowback** - The military drops a bomb every 12 minutes globally, has contributed to 500,000 deaths since 9/11, with attacks like 9/11 and Boston Marathon representing blowback from foreign interventions

URL: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_real_national_emergency_endless_wars_failing_infrastructure_and_a_dying_republic

4. (3) Is the UAE and the Islamic World Already the New Host of the Financialists?

Why: similarity 0.90

Summary: Here is a summary of the document:

• **The UAE is emerging as a potential new global financial center**, following a historical pattern where financial power shifts from declining centers (Venice → Amsterdam → London → Wall Street) to new hosts

• **The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)** has grown rapidly since 2004, hosting over 3,000 international firms by 2022 with 19% annual growth, offering zero corporate taxes for 50 years and a unique legal system

• **The "Financialist Kill Chain"** is described as a seven-step process (influence, debt, asset targeting, destabilization, swaps, extraction, collapse) that has historically hollowed out empires and is now potentially targeting the Islamic world

• **The Global War on Terror (GWOT)** is suggested to have been a strategic setup, laying groundwork for financial control over the Middle East region and its resources, particularly young men for future conflicts

• **The UAE serves as a bridge** between Sharia-compliant finance and global standards, positioning itself as neutral while channeling resources into post-conflict states like Syria (requiring $250-400 billion reconstruction)

• **A potential 300-year cycle** is proposed where the Islamic world becomes the new base for financialist operations, with UAE as the new "City of London" and Qatar as the intelligence hub

• **Resistance exists** from the Russia-China-Iran axis through de-dollarization efforts, with the possibility that the U.S. might join BRICS to escape the financialist system

URL: https://emburlingame.substack.com/p/is-the-uae-and-the-islamic-world?publication_id=858260&post_id=168073640&isFreemail=true&r=133f0v&triedRedirect=true

5. No, the War Isn't Over - by Lau Vegys

Why: similarity 0.90

Summary: • **Ceasefire claims and reality**: Despite a technical ceasefire after two weeks of strikes between Israel, Iran, and the U.S., all sides claim victory while remaining unsatisfied; Netanyahu was furious about terms, and U.S. intelligence shows strikes only delayed Iran's nuclear program by months, not years

• **Iran's strategic threat**: During peak tensions, Iran's parliament voted to authorize shutting down the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for nuclear strikes, causing panic among U.S. officials who even asked China for help to prevent it

• **Critical oil chokepoint**: The Strait of Hormuz, just 21 miles at its narrowest point, carries one-third of global seaborne oil trade from five major Persian Gulf producers (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait), making it the world's most critical oil passage

• **Historical context and current risk**: This parliamentary vote marks only the second time Iran has taken formal legislative action to close the Strait (first was 2012), but current active warfare makes the threat more credible than previous rhetoric

• **Potential economic impact**: A blockade would remove 20 million barrels daily (20% of global supply) from markets, far exceeding the 4-5% disruptions of the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks that quadrupled and doubled prices respectively

• **U.S. vulnerability**: Despite being the largest oil producer, America still imports 6 million barrels daily and indirectly imports oil through manufactured goods, meaning closure would significantly impact U.S. oil prices and economy

URL: https://www.crisisinvesting.com/p/no-the-war-isnt-over?publication_id=87095&post_id=166918143&isFreemail=true&r=133f0v&triedRedirect=true

6. Netanyahu’s New Slant to Lure Trump into War with Iran - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity

Why: similarity 0.90

Summary: - • The document discusses recent aggressive actions by the Trump Administration, including the seizure of tankers linked to Venezuela, which are deemed acts of war and indicative of a lawless foreign policy.

- • These actions are primarily aimed at undermining China and Russia, with the U.S. sending significant military support to Taiwan, escalating tensions further with China.

- • There is a divide within the Trump Administration, highlighted by conflicting narratives from intelligence officials, with Tulsi Gabbard asserting that the U.S. intelligence community believes Russia does not intend to invade Europe.

- • The document raises questions about Trump’s motivations for potentially escalating conflict with China and why he would engage in discussions with Netanyahu regarding Iran.

- • Netanyahu's upcoming meeting with Trump is suggested to focus on Iran, shifting away from the previously emphasized threats from Hamas and Gaza.

- • Israeli commentary indicates a new narrative prioritizing the Iranian ballistic missile program, which poses a strategic threat to Israel beyond just nuclear capabilities.

- • Netanyahu is expected to convey to Trump that the reconstruction of Iran’s missile defenses must be curbed, framing it as an urgent threat to regional stability.

- • The document concludes by noting that while Trump may seek a new regional order without war, Netanyahu will likely push for immediate action against Iran, leveraging Trump's past support for Israel.

URL: https://ronpaulinstitute.org/netanyahus-new-slant-to-lure-trump-into-war-with-iran/

## Pointed questions for discussion

- How might the shift to kinetic conflicts reshape global alliances?

- What are the potential consequences of U.S. actions in Nigeria?

- In what ways can nations collaborate to prevent resource wars?

## Sentiment

Score: -0.30

## Provider

OpenRouter / openai/gpt-4o-mini

Shared via https://contex.st

“It's going to be even crazier because now the Somalis were after me. They were coming, and people were stopping in the middle of intersections … I had to get security for this video coming out.” https://t.co/IgFAbVB6G7

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2006418306740154378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"It's going to be even crazier because now the Somalis were after me. They were coming, and people were stopping in the middle of intersections, hoping out of there cars,” the citizen journalist added. "I had to get security for this video coming out, literally trying to attack me.”

In a single day, Shirley and a private investigator visited Somali-linked businesses in the child daycare, adult and autism care, home healthcare, and non-emergency medical transportation sectors. The pair documented what they describe as $110 million in highly questionable payments, noting that many facilities appeared deserted or minimally operational during normal business hours.

Shirley's video prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-admin-freezes-all-childcare-payments-minnesota-amid-fraud-splosion

, pointing to mounting evidence of widespread fraud. Effective immediately, HHS payments to the state "will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state,” Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O'Neill announced Tuesday evening.

And now, Shirley is getting death threats:

This is not a joke, they actually want to kill me

In all seriousness please include me in your prayers 🙏🏼 https://t.co/L0RpeikVHd

— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) https://twitter.com/nickshirleyy/status/2006444700249764045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Minnesota receives hundreds of millions in federal dollars annually for its Child Care Assistance Program, which subsidizes daycare for some 23,000 children from low-income families. Federal contributions were projected at $218 million for 2026, supplemented by $155 million from the state.

In addition to HHS, Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/sba-freezes-funding-minnesota-fraud-allegations/

the agency is pausing annual funding to Minnesota while it investigates $430 million in suspected PPP fraud across the state.

“This Admin will not continue to hand out blank checks to fraudsters – and we will not rest until we clean up the criminal networks that have been stealing from American taxpayers,” Loeffler said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Tim Walz (D) has https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-slams-walz-newsom-crooked-governors-asserting-states-awash-fraud

a laughable defense against the growing allegations of fraud.

"The governor has been combatting fraud for years while the President has been letting fraudsters out of jail. Fraud is a serious issue. But this is a transparent attempt to politicize the issue to hurt Minnesotans and defund government programs that help people,” Walz's office said in a tepid statement.

A few hours ago, President Donald Trump appeared to reference the growing scandal, taking to Truth Social to slam Walz as a “crooked governor.”

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Thu, 01/01/2026 - 11:05

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nick-shirley-teases-new-crazier-video-its-going-be-masterpiece

“ME MUERO POR JUGAR EN BOCA…” 🔵🟡Lucas Torreira volvió a ser contundente en FIX RADIO 📻 no deja de pensar en vestir la camiseta xeneize 🇦🇷https://twitter.com/AnaInesMartinez?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“Sé que no es fácil ese mundo, hace un tiempo tuvimos una charla con Edi muy importante”, señaló el volante, subrayando que su llegada no sería por una cuestión económica, sino puramente sentimental.

Con el pase en su poder a partir de enero para negociar como jugador libre, la ilusión de la hinchada se renueva. Torreira lo tiene decidido: su última parada antes del retiro de la alta competencia europea será, sin escalas, la Bombonera.

https://bolavip.com/ar/boca/el-mensaje-de-lucas-torreira-a-juan-roman-riquelme-jugar-en-boca-es-el-sueno-mas-grande-que-tengo

https://ipfs.girino.org/ipfs/QmPFEVBSCXFXgBVpuau7sRbEUeQbwoAUSzeW9rZUtgXvqM?filename=file.mp4

Source: https://www.instagram.com/stories/esthershibatta/3800103932672961427?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MWV1NTdsb2ZtY3N6OQ==