War Back On? Stocks Sell Off. More Weaponised US Dollar?

Baltic Dry Index. 2981 -56       Brent Crude 96.73

Spot Gold 4344                           Spot Silver 68.00

US 2 Year Yield 4.17 +0.12.

US Federal Debt. 39.223 trillion

US GDP 32.193 trillion.

Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.

George Orwell

If the Israeli/USA war on Iran isn’t back on again, all the belligerents are doing a great job of faking it.

The Asian stock casinos have sold off on the latest war developments.

With no end in sight to Trump’s six day war on Iran, crude oil prices are up two to three dollars a barrel.

With America’s 250 year anniversary coming up on July 4^th, Brent crude followers are wondering, will Brent crude oil soon be trading at 250 dollars a barrel?

If it does, expect a major contraction in the global economy.

Asia tech stocks extend sell-off with SoftBank down over 7% as investors sour on AI-linked names

Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 11:24 PM EDT

Asian tech stocks extended their sell-off Monday, as investors sour on global AI-linked plays with the U.S. tech-heavy Nasdaq declining more than 4.5% last week.

Memory chip behemoths and heavyweights on South Korea’s Kospi Index Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 5% and 2%, respectively. The Kospi plunged as much as 8% as the two companies make up over 40% of the index.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, or TSMC, was down 2.1%, while Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn, fell 5.1%.

Japanese tech investor Softbank Group plunged 7.5%, while Tokyo Electron and Advantest were down 6.7% and 5%, respectively.

The share price declines follow a recent rally in Asia tech stocks that was supported by investor optimism on AI demand. Last month, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each crossed a $1 trillion market valuation, while SoftBank recently became the most valuable company in Japan.

The sell-off in tech names was triggered after Broadcom’s revenue for fiscal second quarter missed market estimates last week, plunging its shares and causing a cascading impact on the tech sector.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost over 9% Friday; Softbank’s British chip firm Arm Holdings had dropped nearly 13%, while Micron Technology declined more than 13%.

“The tech-led rout erased approximately $1.8 trillion in S&P 500 market cap,” according to a UOB note on June 8.

UOB, however, said that tech and software companies will remain in focus with “the debut of a space exploration/AI/tech company on the Nasdaq on Fri (12 Jun), in what may be the largest IPO ever.”

Broader Asia markets were also lower Monday, as a fresh escalation in Iran war signals that the conflict is far from over.

Asia tech stocks extend sell-off as investors sour on AI-linked names

U.S. stock futures mixed as Mideast tensions rise; South Korea’s Kospi plunges 7%: Live updates

Updated Mon, Jun 8 2026 12:09 AM EDT

Dow futures slipped Monday after Iran reportedly fired missiles at Israel, jeopardizing a fragile ceasefire and heightening uncertainty following last week’s sharp Nasdaq sell-off.

Israel retaliated, striking western and central Iran, stoking concerns that the Mideast war was taking a turn for the worst.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Average fell 75 points, or 0.15%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.24% and 0.67%, respectively.

Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday, with South Korea’s benchmark Kospi leading declines, falling more than 8% before paring losses to trade 4% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.8%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 1.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.7%.

The reported strike by Iran on Sunday raised fresh concerns about the stability of the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. The reported missile attack followed a post on X by Iranian Parliament Speaker MB Ghalibaf, who argued that the U.S. naval blockade and alleged breaches of agreements related to Lebanon constitute violations of the ceasefire.

On Friday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.18% to 25,709.43 — its biggest drop since April 2025. The S&P 500 sank 2.64% to close at 7,383.74, and the Dow lost 695 points to end the week at 50,866.78, a day after hitting a new high. For the week, the S&P 500 dropped more than 2%, the Nasdaq fell 4.7%, and the Dow edged lower.

The slide on Friday followed a stronger-than-expected May jobs report that lifted Treasury yields and intensified worries that higher financing costs could weigh on companies investing heavily in AI expansion.

“The stock market may be becoming a victim of its own success,” said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management. “The job market has turned around, yet the threat of persistently high inflation seems to be the risk looming on everyone’s minds.”

“Growth and momentum have outpaced almost everything since the March lows,” she added. “That’s not what you’d expect in a high-rate, high-inflation environment, and these strategies may be vulnerable to disappointment if cost pressures stay elevated.”

In the week ahead, investors will be focused on inflation data and the public debut of Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday. The offering is expected to be one of the largest in Wall Street history and could be the market’s biggest test yet of the AI valuation narrative.

“Blockbuster offerings have marked the peak of excess in past market cycles, so there seems to be an awkward silence around what this could signal for sentiment,” Cox said. “Many investors seem restrained and skeptical, but can that temperament exist when the biggest IPO of all time is on deck?”

Investors will also be watching for the May Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index reports — released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively — which are expected to indicate ongoing inflationary pressures.

Stock futures mixed as Iran attack on Israel shakes fragile ceasefire

Oil prices spike over 3% as Iran and Israel trade strikes, escalating regional tensions

Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 8:43 PM EDT

Oil prices rose Monday amid heightened tensions in the Middle East as Iran and Israel traded strikes, raising concerns over a fragile ceasefire and an extended conflict.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for July advanced 3.18% to $96.05 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for August gained 3.46% to $93.67 a barrel.

The Israeli Air Force hit military targets in western and central Iran, Monday local time, Israel Defense Forces said in post on X.

President Donald Trump was briefed after Israel was hit by an Iranian missile for the first time since the start of the ceasefire, the White House confirmed to MS NOW. The missile attacks are “certainly not going to help negotiations.” Trump told Fox News on Sunday.

“A deal with President Trump is no longer feasible at this stage,” an Iranian official involved in the talks between Tehran and Washington told MS NOW.

In a post on X, MB Ghalibaf, Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, said that the U.S. “naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon” would be violations of the ceasefire. The region’s U.S. and regime bases and assets are now “legitimate targets” due to the current U.S. blockade as well as military action in Lebanon, he added.

Meanwhile, OPEC+ agreed to increase targets by 188,000 bpd from July, according to an OPEC statement, making this the fourth oil output quota hike approval since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This increase is on par with June’s, which was lowered from monthly increases of 206,000 bpd in May and April due to the exit of the UAE from the organization.

Oil prices today: U.S., Iran, missile, Middle East, Israel, OPEC

Global week ahead: Soccer isn’t the only thing that’s kicking off

Published Sun, Jun 7 2026 1:00 AM EDT

There is a special type of fever around a men’s soccer World Cup. And the 2026 edition of the tournament is causing even more excitement, with 48 teams instead of the usual 32, and three host nations instead of the usual one.

Matches will stretch from Vancouver to Mexico City from June 11 to July 19, marking the first time the games are being hosted in North America since 1994.

There will be winners and losers on and off the pitch. Goldman Sachs predicts the main sector beneficiaries will include European and U.S. consumer staples, U.S. retail, and hospitality firms. But the investment bank also warns that “while the World Cup is undoubtedly a major commercial event, it does not necessarily follow that the macroeconomic impact on the host nations will be substantial or long-lasting.”

----AI offside

Investors will be carefully watching AI stocks after a volatile set of trading days. U.S. semiconductor giant Broadcom sparked a sell-off across the global chip space after issuing a disappointing forecast for its AI chip sales.

Expect more headlines from London Tech Week, which gets underway on Monday. Anthropic’s announcement of its highly anticipated IPO, as well as any updates from OpenAI on its plans to go public, will top the agenda.

Private market own goal

Also in focus next week — private markets.

One of the biggest events of the year gets underway in Berlin, with the annual SuperReturn conference. This year, headlines around capping fund withdrawals and redemption limits look set to dominate the conversations.

Swiss fund manager Partners Group warned investors it could limit withdrawals across more of its funds, after limiting withdrawals from one fund sparked a sell-off in U.S. stocks exposed to private markets. Blackstone then announced it had restricted its flagship fund withdrawals, as private asset fears have reemerged.

Partners Group warns it could cap more fund withdrawals after triggering private equity rout

CNCB will be live from SuperReturn on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a host of big names from private markets.

Shooting for the stars

As billions watch the soccer, all eyes will also be on the market as one of the most anticipated IPOs of all time takes off on Friday.

SpaceX will hope to shoot for the stars on Friday when it lists in what is set to be the largest-ever public sale of shares.

----Monday: London Tech Week

Tuesday: SuperReturn Berlin

Wednesday: SuperReturn Berlin

Thursday: ECB monetary policy decision

Friday: SpaceX IPO

What investors are watching this week: World Cup, AI stocks, SpaceX IPO

America’s crude inventories are getting perilously low. But that’s not the full story.

‘You have a buffer getting close to not being a buffer anymore,’ analyst says

By Claudia Assis Published: June 6, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET

There are growing worries that U.S. commercial oil inventories are too low for comfort as the war with Iran enters its fourth month far from a clear resolution — and a lot hinges on how much longer the conflict drags on.

Inventories are the shock absorbers of the energy world: They smooth out the tension between the ups and downs of supply and the usually steady pace of demand. To be an efficient cushion for countries and companies, however, stockpiles need to be at “Goldilocks” levels: not too much, not too little.

The on-again, off-again negotiations to end or pause the conflict have upended such calculations, as the uncertainty has made it difficult to determine ideal inventories. Instead, there’s nuance: U.S. commercial inventories may be adequate for now, but if the bulk of Middle Eastern oil supplies remains out of global reach for longer, then they could prove inadequate.

“It’s not an immediate concern, but that being said, I think the real concern is how and when this war is going to end. I don’t think anyone has a clear answer for that,” said Kevin Liu, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Currently, you have a buffer getting close to not being a buffer anymore.”

More

America’s crude inventories are getting perilously low. But that’s not the full story. - MarketWatch

In other news.

Bill Ackman warns investors are repeating costly 2000s mistake: Chasing the 'new new thing'

June 5, 2026

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is known for making highly profitable trades. For instance, he turned $27 million into $2.5 billion in 10 days at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After closing a $5 billion initial public offering (IPO) in April to take his firm Pershing Square public, billionaire investor Ackman recently said in an All In podcast interview that history is repeating itself in a not-so-good way as investors flock to white-hot stocks just like they did during the 2000 dot-com bubble.

'What's interesting about markets is people always bring their eye to the new new thing, and the new thing is chips and semiconductors and energy, and that's where the short-term capital is going. What tends to happen is really high-quality things get left behind,' Ackman had said in the interview published on Wednesday.

Ackman said parallels between today's markets and the dot-com bubble have to do with market psychology. 'And the analogies are that people got excited about internet stocks, and Berkshire Hathaway traded at the lowest valuation I think it ever traded in its history,' he had stated.

Back then, investors had described Berkshire Hathaway as 'old stuff', and Ackman sees investors with the same attitude when it comes to companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, which he believes are still undervalued.

In May, Ackman revealed that his hedge fund opened a new position in Microsoft in February after the stock price fell post earnings results. Ackman believes the company is an AI winner.

We Are All Invested in AI in Some Way

Ackman believes investors are indirectly or directly invested in AI today, which 'could be a threat', because as a long-term investor, one must assess the disruption risks to a business, the likelihood of which has 'enormously' increased recently.

Ackman had urged investors to pile on US stocks due to the COVID-19-induced crash earlier this decade. He was also predicting in May that stocks are now cheap but would soon go higher. 'Stocks just got crazy cheap, just incredibly cheap, really high-quality companies,' he had mentioned earlier.

However, Ackman had cautioned that a very 'careful analysis' of companies is imperative amid the ongoing software stocks selloff, adding that he would be concerned about companies like Salesforce.

'If you're a software company today, you have to be as AI-enabled as you can. I think there has been some monopolistic-type profit taking off of customers, when someone had a niche software product, they're charging $30,000 a year or something like this. I think those companies are really at risk.'

Regarding the upcoming blockbuster IPOs, like SpaceX and OpenAI's, Ackman remains interested to see how the company turns out to be five years from now. 'SpaceX is near monopoly in terms of low-cost space launch. That's going to become increasingly important,' he had mentioned.

Lastly, Ackman concluded that OpenAI has an intriguing business model but needs to provide investors with more clarity about its capital commitments.

Bill Ackman warns investors are repeating costly 2000s mistake: Chasing the 'new new thing'

This economic indicator called 2 of the worst bear markets in history -- and it's flashing red again

June 4, 2026

The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has reached yet another record high, surging by nearly 20% from its low point in late March, as of this writing.

All of this explosive growth has a hidden downside, however: It could mean that the market is overvalued right now. If that's the case, a pullback could be on the horizon.

While nobody can say exactly where stocks are headed in the near term, this economic indicator soared just ahead of the Great Depression and the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s -- and it's nearing yet another peak. Here's what that might mean for your investments.

The stock market could be sounding a warning

The S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio is a popular metric that compares the current price of the S&P 500 to its 10-year inflation-adjusted earnings, and it attempts to predict how future stock prices will fare.

A higher ratio suggests a higher valuation, and historically, stock prices tend to fall in the years after the CAPE ratio reaches a new peak. The metric surged dramatically in the late 1920s, surpassing 30 just before the market sank into the Great Depression. Then, in 1999, it reached an all-time high of 44 before the dot-com bubble burst, leading to one of the longest bear markets in S&P 500 history.

In recent months, the S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio has been hovering around 40 -- the second highest level this metric has ever been.

What should investors do right now?

Regardless of how normal higher valuations may be, it's an incredibly expensive time to invest in the stock market. One year ago, for example, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF cost around $542 per share. As of this writing, it's close to $700 per share. And high-flying stock Micron Technology has soared from around $94 per share one year ago to a staggering $1,034 today.

More

This economic indicator called 2 of the worst bear markets in history -- and it's flashing red again

Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.

Yet Another reason for most of the rest of the world to shun US Treasuries. The increasingly weaponised dollar. After attempting to steal Russia’s assets, the USA  wants to steal Iran’s assets.

U.S. eyes Iranian assets for Gulf allies’ reconstruction, source says

Published Sat, Jun 6 2026 7:09 AM EDT

The U.S. government will attempt to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, as Tehran followed up a wave of strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain with further drone launches.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess the costs of damages already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran, the source said, adding that the U.S. will also consider using Iranian assets to repair any future destruction.

The disclosure came a day after Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that a peace deal to end the three-month war hinged on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the United States.

The source on Saturday did not specify what kind of assets the Treasury was examining. The language used to describe the new measures did not appear limited to frozen assets.

The threatened redirection of Iranian assets could create a new irritant to a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran, which was tested again this weekend with strikes by the U.S. and Iran.

Peace negotiations appear to have stalled, although a minister from the mediating Pakistan traveled to Tehran on Saturday with a letter for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the Strait of Hormuz, early Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran that U.S. Central Command says posed a threat to maritime traffic. A further two Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were also shot down, the U.S. military said late on Saturday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it retaliated against U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and Kuwait’s army said on Saturday it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.

In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter. Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes.

More

U.S. strikes Iranian sites after Iran launches drones

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this section Updates as they get reported.

Another week and another EV battery fire to cover. But the footage shows just how fast and dangerous an EV battery fire is. A problem that is only going to get worse the more EVs come into service and the older ones age. Approx. 5 minutes.

EV Fire in an Auto Shop: Wrong Tool. Wrong Fire

EV Fire in an Auto Shop: Wrong Tool. Wrong Fire - YouTube

Next, the world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.

World Debt Clocks (usdebtclock.org)   

Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have ever plundered people's savings on a scale comparable to the plunder perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments.

Ayn Rand

Special Update 06/06/2026 US Jobs Rout Stocks. An ECB/Fed Rate Hike?

Baltic Dry Index. 2981 -56      Brent Crude 93.09

Spot Gold 4354                           Spot Silver 70.00

U S 2 Year Yield 4.17 +0.12

US Federal Debt. 39.215 trillion

US GDP 32.187 trillion

June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord: D-Day begins as the 156,000-strong Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France, during World War II

The US employment report on Friday was surprisingly strong, unexpected and routed way over priced stocks.

Adding to technology stock misery, the S&P will not follow NASDAQ and fast track SpaceX and other tech IPO stocks into the S&P indexes.

Look away from US Treasury yields now.

U.S. payrolls rose by 172,000 in May, much more than expected; unemployment at 4.3%

Published Fri, Jun 5 2026 8:31 AM EDT Updated Fri, Jun 5 2026 2:51 PM EDT

Job growth unexpectedly surged in May as the U.S. labor market continued a solid year of expansion, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped a seasonally adjusted 172,000 for the period, down slightly from the upwardly revised 179,000 in April and far above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 80,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%, as expected.

“This is a labor market that is stronger than it was last year and is looking pretty darn solid, despite high energy prices and higher inflation generally,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC. “There’s no indication that the labor market needs support.”

Breadth of job gains improved in May, with multiple sectors seeing solid advances.

Leisure and hospitality led all sectors with 70,000 jobs, well above the 14,000 per month average over the past year and a possible reaction to hiring needed for the World Cup. [My emphasis.]

Local government added 55,000.

Health care, which has been the leading sector, contributed 35,000 new hires, about in line with its average. Social assistance added 12,000.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month and were up 3.4% over the past year, both in line with the Wall Street consensus.

The report came against a background of muted expectations as employers have held their ground in a low-hire, low-fire environment. While job gains have been largely concentrated in just a few sectors, layoffs also have been moderate, though some signs are building that artificial intelligence is having an impact on labor rolls.

In addition to the strong jobs numbers for May, revisions for prior months also presented an even better picture. The April tally represented an upward revision of 64,000, while March got a boost up to 214,000, a gain of 29,000.

Last summer, President Donald Trump, angered by weak jobs numbers and high downward revisions, fired the BLS commissioner and installed William J. Wiatrowski as the acting chief.

“The hiring recession is over. American firms are hiring again,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “This is a strong jobs report from every angle.”

More

Jobs report May 2026:

Nasdaq falls 4% and suffers worst day since April 2025 as traders flee chip stocks: Live updates

Updated Fri, Jun 5 2026 4:23 PM EDT

The iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped 10% for its worst day since March 2020. Shares in Broadcom were nearly 8% lower after tumbling more than 12% on Thursday. Marvell Technology dropped more than 16% Friday. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices fell around 11%.

Micron Technology, the memory chipmaker that’s been the latest star of the bull market, was down 13% after dropping 8% on Thursday.

“Investors had been kind of hovering with their finger over this sell button,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. “Not necessarily to get out. But if you’ve owned some of these semiconductor names through the last two months, you’re very out of whack with your long term positioning goal. You need to take profits at some point.”

In another sign of speculation coming out of the market, bitcoin tumbled below $60,000 for the first time since late 2024.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF is still up 79% on the year even after the recent declines. This rout comes as tech investors get ready for the largest IPO ever in SpaceX next week. Already set to go public at a valuation of $1.77 trillion, Elon Musk’s space and AI venture has boosted enthusiasm for the sector, while also stoking concern among some that its debut could mark some kind of top in what they think is an investing bubble. Others believe part of this chip and bitcoin decline is investors making room in their portfolio for the IPO.

“People looking to get into the SpaceX IPO next week, it’s unlikely they’re going to use Procter & Gamble funds to fund it,” said Nationwide’s Hackett. “It’s going to be some of these AI trades, the semis, the momentum names, or at least tech in general. ... Once the boulder starts rolling down the hill, like we saw yesterday, you can see fairly disorderly sell-offs.”

Friday’s tech drop came after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 172,000 in May, well above the 80,000 jobs that economists polled by Dow Jones had expected to be added. The 10-year yield jumped above 4.5%, while the 30-year yield advanced above 5%, key levels that revived concerns about a slowing economy and raising borrowing costs for companies helping to fuel the AI buildout.

Investors rotated into healthcare and staples stocks on Friday as they dumped tech shares. Colgate-Palmolive added 4%, and Coca-Cola was up more than 3%. Johnson & Johnson was up 2%.

Stock market today: Live updates

Wall Street panics as stock markets crash deep into the red despite the excellent May jobs report

Updated: 22:10, 5 June 2026

Stock markets crashed on Friday afternoon as big technology companies melted down after a strong jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates sooner rather than later.

The benchmark S&P 500 sank 2.6 percent, its biggest one-day decline since the early days of the Iran war in March, and closed out its first losing week in the last ten. 

But it was the Nasdaq Composite that really stank, plummeting 4.7 percent, its worst decline in nearly four years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.3 percent.

Tech stocks dragged the market lower as companies that had powered record highs over recent months saw sharp losses: Nvidia fell 5.5 percent, Broadcom dropped almost 7 percent and Micron Technology slid more than 11 percent. 

Stocks within the S&P 500 were close to evenly split between gainers and losers, but many of the bigger tech stocks have pricey valuations that tend to have an outsized influence on the broader market. 

The Fed has been holding interest rates steady as it tries to gauge the ongoing impact of rising inflation, but investors were still clinging to hope for a rate cut - at least until today. 

'Any hopes of a Fed rate cut have effectively been eliminated with this morning's strong jobs report,' wrote Lazard chief market strategist Ronald Temple in a research note. 

In a sign of the panic on Wall Street, the so-called fear gauge soared by more than 34 percent to 21 in late-day trading, the biggest one-day gain in two years.

The price of Brent crude fell 2.2 percent to $92.97 - it was about $70 per barrel before the Iran war. 

The surge in oil prices prompted a jump in gasoline prices, which has in turn fueled a broader rise in inflation as prices for anything being shipped move higher and threaten to slow economic growth.

A measure of inflation preferred by the Fed showed that prices rose 3.8 percent overall in April, the biggest increase in two years.

More

Wall Street panics as stock markets crash deep into the red despite the excellent May jobs report | Daily Mail Online

In other news, Trump’s war on the global poor without a casus belli.

Defense expert: 'The stupidity of the war has become impossible to ignore'

June 4, 2026

Former U.S. Army major and former executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency Harrison Mann made it clear that President Donald Trump's war against Iran has become so stupid that even Republicans are backing away.

It was reported on Wednesday that Trump had reached an agreement a month ago but didn't like it being compared to the previous Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated, in part, by President Barack Obama's administration.

Mann explained that the "so-called sticking point was a demand from before the war ... When Trump did the surprise attack with Israel in February, what the U.S. and Iran were discussing was some kind of sanctions relief, which would be a de facto release of funds in exchange for a freeze on Iran's nuclear enrichment. And so I think it's, in my mind, a little misleading to say that this thing that we've known has always been an Iranian demand is a sticking point. I think really the principal sticking point remains Trump's lack of interest in pushing for it."

Indeed, for the past several weeks, reports have revealed that Trump is growing "bored" with the Iran War.

Mann fears that Trump is alone in believing the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is working and sustainable in the long term.

"The Iranians don't believe either. I think they're pretty confident in their ability to withstand, you know, some loss of oil sales. And they really don't like the status quo," he said. "It seems like Trump kind of thinks he basically ended the war and, you know, occasional tit-for-tat strikes can go on really forever. The Iranians don't want that. They think they've got an advantage and they want to press it."

Also on Wednesday, four GOP members of the House of Representatives voted to block further Iran War, delivering enough votes for the Democrats to reassert congressional authority over the president.

Mann thinks that this bill passed as a result of two major reasons.

"One, the costs of the war, and the ... stupidity of the war have become impossible to ignore," he said. "We're three months in. You can't pretend Trump's got a plan. You can't ignore the very visible and tangible economic effects."

It isn't merely the gas prices, it's also the cost of fertilizer that has dramatically increased, all of which is putting pressure on American farmers.

Defense expert: 'The stupidity of the war has become impossible to ignore'

Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

Rising EU inflation clears the way for an ECB interest rate hike next week

4 June 2026

Energy is the component showing the highest rate in May, but the most significant acceleration is in the rise of service prices.

Inflation in the Eurozone climbed to 3.2% in May from 3% in April, driven by price increases in countries like Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Greece, where the index exceeds 5%, making it easier for the European Central Bank (ECB) to decide to raise interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting scheduled for June 11.

The European Consumer Price Index (CPI) has now increased for four consecutive months and has risen by 1.5 points during this period, reaching its highest level since September 2023, when the continent was beginning to recover from the inflationary wave triggered by the invasion of Ukraine a year earlier.

Energy is the component with the highest rate in May (10.9% compared to the same month last year, only a tenth higher than in April), followed by services (3.5%, half a percentage point higher than in April), food, alcohol, and tobacco (2%), and non-energy industrial goods (0.9%), as detailed by Eurostat on Tuesday. Services showed the biggest jump in inflation, which could indicate the price increase typical of Easter or an initial sign of the impact of rising energy costs.

"The additional increase in overall inflation and, in particular, in services in May reinforces the need for the ECB to raise interest rates and suggests that the upside risks to underlying inflation could be greater than we anticipated. Eurozone general inflation - which had already risen from 1.9% in February to 3.0% in April - increased to 3.2% in May. Although it aligns with the consensus forecast, it was slightly higher than expected since we learned last week that inflation had fallen in Germany (...) Energy inflation is likely to decrease for the rest of this year, even if crude oil and natural gas prices do not fall. However, food inflation is likely to rebound, and underlying inflation could also trend upwards in the coming months. We have only forecasted two 25 basis points rate hikes by the ECB this year, but the risks to this forecast seem to be skewed to the upside," evaluated the British consultancy Capital Economics on Tuesday.

Carsten Brzeski, Global Head of Macroeconomics at ING, agrees that this data "strengthens the case" for the ECB to raise rates next week. "With the Middle East war entering its fourth month, the energy price shock has become more permanent, although oil prices are actually lower than many had imagined for a more adverse scenario regarding the duration of the war. Therefore, there will also be no automatic change in inflation and growth scenarios at the ECB meeting next week. However, for inflation in the eurozone, the only way is currently up. It will not be a sharp increase, but a moderate and gradual one. Although the side effects of higher energy prices on other prices, such as transportation and food, will be difficult to avoid, the latest inflation expectations based on surveys have decreased slightly. Price expectations in both industry and services, as well as the ECB's own long-term consumer inflation expectations, fell slightly in May (...) Enough to support our view of only a gradual and limited increase in inflation in the coming months."

The reason experts are cautious about the expected evolution of inflation in the coming months is mainly the absence of substantial fiscal support, as there was four years ago, and the fact that household savings ratios are much lower than they were then, which could limit consumption capacity and curb the inflationary spiral.

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Rising EU inflation clears the way for an ECB interest rate hike next week

Nobel laureate economist tears into 'sneeringly bogus' lie behind Trump's new tariff plot

June 4, 2026

Nobel Prize-winning economist turned political commentator Paul Krugman had a scathing review of President Donald Trump's latest attempt to impose sweeping global tariffs.

Trump has already lost multiple court battles over his tariffs. He first tried to enact a worldwide "reciprocal" import tax scheme under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), only for the Supreme Court to invalidate this. He then pushed a 10 percent global tariff under a different law, only for the Court of International Trade to rule that illegal too.

Now, he's trying again, imposing tariffs on 60 countries under Section 301 "Relief from Unfair Trade Practices" law, asserting that several of America's closest trading partners, including Canada, the U.K., the European Union, and Japan, are complicit in slave labor practices.

This is absurd, wrote Krugman, who has extensively torn apart Trump's other tariff schemes previously.

"Everyone, and I mean everyone, understands that the alleged justification for these tariffs is a lie," wrote Krugman. "There is absolutely no reason to believe that the EU is less diligent about opposing the use of slave labor than the US. For that matter, there is no reason to believe that Trump and his minions have any particular objection to slave labor. This is nothing but a transparently, one might say sneeringly, bogus rationale for continuing to flout both US law and international agreements."

It's particularly bizarre that Trump wants to die on this hill, Krugman noted, because data make clear that not only are the tariffs wildly unpopular with voters, they are failing in their basic goal of increasing domestic manufacturing, with a steady decline in manufacturing investment ever since he took office.

Unfortunately, he concluded, Trump reversing his tariff policies "would amount to admitting failure. And if you believe he’s going to do that, I have a quick, easy victory over Iran you might want to buy."

Nobel laureate economist tears into 'sneeringly bogus' lie behind Trump's new tariff plot

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.

Meet the Brit trying to make battery fires a thing of the past

3 June 2026

Battery fires are one of those subjects that make people sit up a bit straighter. We’ve all seen the videos: an e-bike battery smoking in a hallway, an e-scooter going up in flames, or the occasional scary headline about an electric car fire.

The reality is more balanced than the social media clips might suggest, especially when it comes to properly engineered electric cars from established manufacturers. But lithium-ion battery fires are a real and growing concern, particularly around cheaper, modified or poorly managed batteries in e-bikes and scooters.

That is where Nick Bailey comes in. Bailey is the founder and CEO of Battery IQ, a British technology company that wants to give batteries something approaching a safety passport, with live monitoring that can flag up problems long before they become dangerous.

The company’s first focus is on e-bikes and e-scooters, where the fire risk has made the most headlines. But Bailey believes the same thinking could eventually stretch from power tools all the way up to electric cars, including the batteries removed from older EVs and moved around the world for second-life energy storage.

“Fundamentally we’re looking at everything from power tools up to electric vehicles – they’re all things that have caught fire and that’s our scope to try and solve,” Bailey tells The Independent. “And I think we’re on that journey. We’re at a specific point of the journey which we’re having success in a particular area, but I think it will grow over time.”

Bailey’s route into batteries started with bikes. He founded Boost during Covid, building technology to convert bicycles to electric power. He says the idea was to create a UK business that could design and build its own technology, rather than simply rely on off-the-shelf systems.

“I was an engineer before I was anything else,” he says. “I went to university in the workshop rather than studying. I started Boost about five years ago during Covid, which was focused around converting bikes to electric – a UK business that could create that technology. I’m a fan of trying to actually build things in the UK and design things in the UK rather than just relying on the Chinese to do all the design and all the manufacturing.”

Battery IQ came out of that work. Bailey says he became concerned that some generic battery safety systems were not doing everything they should. A project to develop Boost’s own battery management system was paused when the company found a better system from China, but the wider issue did not go away.

“At the beginning of last year it became clear that this battery fire problem wasn’t going away and it was rearing its head in electric vehicles catching fire as well as scooters and e-bikes,” says Bailey.

New figures from business insurer QBE put the scale of the problem in context. UK fire brigades attended 1,760 lithium-ion battery fires in 2025, equivalent to 4.8 a day, and up 147 per cent since 2022. E-bikes accounted for 520 of those fires in 2025, close to a third of the total.

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Meet the Brit trying to make battery fires a thing of the past

Finally, after that stock rout, a summer bonus. Time for a G & T.

The Gin and Tonic Is a Cocktail With a Storied History. Don’t Overlook Scotland’s Connection to the Classic

The country’s scientists, doctors, merchants and distillers all played significant roles in transforming the simple combination that packs a complicated mythology

June 2, 2026 10:23 a.m.

Historians debate who first combined gin and tonic water—and where. The now-classic cocktail is often tied to the story of British colonial India: officers and soldiers stationed abroad during the second half of the 19th century mixed bitter quinine tonics with gin to make the malaria medicine more drinkable. But Scotland also frequently appears in that history, for good reason.

Early days for the ingredients

Long before tonic water existed, Scotland was closely tied to the European trade routes that shaped early gin culture. Philip Kingscott, the “gin experiential ambassador” for the distiller traces that relationship back to the 15th century, when Scotland strengthened commercial and cultural ties with the Low Countries (present-day Netherlands and Belgium) following the marriage of Mary of Guelders to King James II of Scotland in 1449. “The Low Countries are considered to be the birthplace of the juniper-based spirit genever, the forerunner to gin,” Kingscott says. Scotland, he explains, maintained centuries-long trade and cultural relationships with the region. Over time, imported genever became common in Scottish ports and taverns, and Edinburgh became “a major center in the trade and eventual production of ‘Dutch gin.’”

By the 18th century, Edinburgh had emerged not only as a major trading hub, but also as one of Europe’s intellectual capitals during the Scottish Enlightenment. The city’s universities attracted students from across Britain and continental Europe, and physicians and scientists in Scotland were making discoveries that would later impact mixology.

Two Edinburgh doctors in particular—George Cleghorn and James Lind—helped shape medical understandings of ingredients now synonymous with the gin and tonic. “George Cleghorn was the first to scientifically prove the medicinal benefits of cinchona bark [the source of quinine] in preventing malaria,” Kingscott says, “while Lind conducted the first-ever medical trial to prove that citrus fruit could be used to combat scurvy.”

Those discoveries helped establish quinine and citrus as important parts of Britain’s broader medical and naval culture. Quinine would eventually become tonic water’s defining ingredient, while citrus became closely associated with British maritime health practices.

Another Scottish figure, merchant Lachlan Rose of Leith, would later commercialize preserved lime juice through Rose’s Lime Cordial, further connecting Scotland to the citrus side of the drink’s flavor profile.

Still, the gin and tonic as we know it could not exist until another scientific breakthrough arrived: carbonation.

During the late 18th century, European scientists began experimenting with artificially carbonated water. Swedish chemistry professor Torbern Bergman and English chemist Joseph Priestley independently developed methods for infusing water with carbon dioxide during the 1770s. At the time, carbonated water was not considered recreational so much as medicinal. Sparkling mineral waters were thought to aid digestion and improve health, and scientists hoped to recreate them artificially.

German-born entrepreneur Johann Jacob Schweppe refined the carbonation process in the 1780s and commercialized bottled soda water in London. Schweppe initially marketed the product as a therapeutic beverage rather than a cocktail mixer, selling different strengths of carbonation intended for various digestive ailments.

Meanwhile, quinine was becoming increasingly important in European medicine. Derived from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, quinine had long been used to treat fever-related illnesses.

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The Gin and Tonic Is a Cocktail With a Storied History. Don't Overlook Scotland's Connection to the Classic

Next, the world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.

World Debt Clocks (usdebtclock.org)

Exponent Calculator

Enter values into any two of the input fields to solve for the third.

Exponent Calculator

This weekend’ s music diversion. Handel again. Approx. 3 minutes.

May no rash intruder disturb their soft hours; To form fragrant pillows, arise, oh ye flow'rs! Ye zephirs, soft-breathing, their slumbers prolong, While nightingales lull them to sleep with their song.

Handel: Solomon-Nightingale chorus

Handel: Solomon-Nightingale chorus

Next, more on the 432 Park Avenue calamity. Approx. 22 minutes.

They Knew 432 Park Avenue Would Crack Before They Built It

They Knew 432 Park Avenue Would Crack Before They Built It

Finally, the longest battleship hit ever. Approx. 13 minutes.  

The 'Tired' British Battleship That Killed Mussolini's Pride In Six Minutes At Punta Stilo

The 'Tired' British Battleship That Killed Mussolini's Pride In Six Minutes At Punta Stilo

June 6, 1859.  Queensland, Australia, is established as a separate colony from New South Wales, celebrated as Queensland Day