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Edition 1,420
Quite a week for President Trump, just as he likes it. We learned over the weekend and Monday that he had called his “good friend” Gianni Infantino, head of FIFA, to complain about the World Cup and U.S. star Folarin Balogun receiving a red card, while the president admitted he didn’t know what a red card was.
Infantino duly made sure Balogun’s suspension from the USMNT’s knockout stage game against Belgium was reversed, though Infantino said it was a committee that made the decision not him.
The U.S. for days had prepared to play without Balogun, and as a sports fan, let’s just say I did not like Trump’s interference, nor did any one in Europe. We got our butt kicked in the end.
On to the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, went the president, where he immediately declared, again, that the U.S. should control Greenland, he blasted our NATO allies, especially Spain, said the ceasefire with Iran was over, called them scum, oil spiked, the market fell, and the two sides exchanged military strikes on each other’s interests.
But by week’s end, Trump (aka TFF, “The Flip-Flopper”) posted that while the ceasefire is indeed over, talks will continue at Iran’s request.
Trump also gave Ukraine a bit of good news, though the benefits of it won’t be felt for potentially years, when he told Ukrainian President Zelensky the U.S. would give the Ukrainians the license to build their own Patriot missile systems, which does nothing for Ukraine now against Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Trump said he talks to Putin all the time, but he still has yet to criticize Vlad the Impaler since his first term. Remember Helsinki? We still don’t know what happened there.
For much of the week, Putin was reveling in President Trump’s one-man attempt to sow divisions in NATO, which Putin has sought all along to do himself, only he just didn’t know what a compliant partner he had in Washington.
But, alas, as Trump was leaving Ankara, at his final press conference, he was in great spirits and talked about how much “love” there was in the room when all the NATO leaders gave little speeches before wrapping things up.
We then learned that we have one person to thank for restoring some semblance of sanity…NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who clearly is a master at pushing the right buttons and bringing all sides together…at least for a day or two.
To paraphrase the late Walter Cronkite: ‘And that’s the way it went, the week of July 4-10.’
—
Tale of the Tape
Oil / West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
Friday, Feb. 27…$67.30
Friday, July 10…$71.55
Nationwide averages at the Gas Pump [Source: AAA]
Friday, Feb. 27…regular $2.98; diesel $3.75
Friday, July 10…regular $3.88; diesel $4.85
As it went down, day by day, in the Iran War and negotiations….
And, initially, it was all about slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral, which has gone on for days and will conclude with his burial on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of mourners, including senior Iranian officials, packed Tehran on Sunday for funeral prayers, as crowds changed calls for revenge.
Among those in attendance for the second day of mourning for his death, according to footage broadcast on state media, were the brothers of the country’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. But the leader himself has not been seen in public since succeeding his father, who was killed at the onset of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February.
Ahmad Vahidi, the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also attended the prayers.
“Revenge, revenge,” the mourners chanted. Vahidi did not remain in public long before security personnel whisked him away.
Monday, hundreds of thousands were in the streets of Tehran as the funeral procession made its way through the capital.
It was heavily choreographed, as threatening anti-Trump messages were seen, and mourners were seen throwing rocks at a poster displaying the U.S. president’s face.
The procession was seen as one of the most significant moments of the seven-day funeral.
The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran held, while talks on a permanent peace deal continue…though they were on pause since funeral events began on Friday, according to President Trump.
He told Axios on Saturday that the Iranians were “begging to make a deal,” but said both sides had decided to take a week off from the talks until Khamenei’s funeral events end.
Talking about senior regime figures being present at the funeral, Trump said: “They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.”
The burial was scheduled for Thursday in the north-eastern city of Mashhad – Iranian authorities say millions are expected to attend the “funeral of the century.”
Late Monday, Eastern time, we learned Iranian missiles hit two ships in the Strait, but there were no casualties, a U.S. official said.
According to a notice issued early on Tuesday by United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a monitoring center led by the British navy, the crew of a tanker off the coast of Oman reported a strike by an unidentified projectile, which caused a fire on the vessel.
The Trump administration then revoked a license allowing Iran to sell oil on the open market on Tuesday, following Iran’s attacks on the ships, eliminating the primary economic benefit for Tehran as part of an interim peace deal.
Wednesday, Iran’s armed forces then said that they had attacked U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, after the United States carried out airstrikes against several targets in Iran and reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
The Pentagon said its strikes were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The renewed hostilities put extreme pressure on negotiations between Washington and Tehran for a broader end to the fighting, and again threatened to disrupt the resumption of energy supplies transiting the strategic waterway.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, part of the Iranian military, called the U.S. strikes in Iran’s south an “overt act of aggression” and warned that Iran would “deliver a crushing response.” In remarks carried on Iranian state media on Wednesday, it also warned the United States against interfering in Tehran’s management of the Strait.
Hours later, the IRGC said that it had targeted 85 U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. The Iranian military also shot down an American MQ-9 drone in the attack, the Guard Corps said in a statement published on state media.
U.S. Central Command had earlier said on social media that it had hit more than 80 targets in Iran, including air defense systems, command and control networks and anti-ship missile capabilities.
The U.S. military said it had also targeted more than 60 IRGC small boats in and near the Strait “to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the latest U.S. attacks on Iran, Washington’s decision to revoke the oil sales waiver, the “violation of Iranian arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz” and Israeli strikes in Lebanon had rendered ineffective “important and essential parts” of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the United States and Iran signed last month. The statement was published by IRNA, Iran’s state news agency.
And then at about 4:00 AM ET Wednesday, President Trump, sitting alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Ankara, Turkey, said the ceasefire with Iran was over.
“For me, I think it’s over. As far as I’m concerned it’s just a waste of time.”
“I don’t want to deal with them, but they’re scum,” Trump said. “You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people, they’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.”
Oil surged on the statements.
Later, during a sit down with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, Trump said of Iran, “We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight, because they deserve it.”
“We may put it back,” the president also said of the U.S. blockade of the Strait.
“We attacked Kharg Island last night,” Trump confirmed about Tuesday’s attacks. “I said don’t touch the oil because maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island.”
“There’s not a thing they can do about it,” he added.
And then the U.S. did hit essentially the same type targets as the night before, Wednesday night, and Iran retaliated again against U.S. bases in the region, with no reported casualties or significant damage, as yet.
By Thursday, traffic through the Strait had come to a near standstill.
But later in the day there was traffic getting through routes preapproved by Iran, and not on the U.S. controlled Omani said of the Strait.
And the U.S. said it was still committed to finding a diplomatic solution with Iran, as talks between the two over a permanent peace deal are continuing, though officials described the ongoing discussions as technical talks.
Friday morning, Trump then posted on Truth Social:
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
—Most U.S. voters say Donald Trump’s war in Iran has not been worth the cost, according to a new poll that underscores how the conflict in the Middle East is weighing on the Republican president’s approval ratings.
The White House has asked Congress to sign off on $67 billion in new federal spending to cover the expenses of the war to date.
The nationwide poll, conducted for the Financial Times last week by Focaldata, found 58 percent of registered voters said the war had not been worth the cost.
Forty-four percent of voters said the war had left the U.S. in a weaker position with Iran, compared with 31 percent who said the conflict had left Washington on a stronger footing.
On the eve of this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, the FT poll also found that 53 percent of voters think the U.S. should remain a member of the alliance, compared with 23 percent who said it should leave.
—After decades of reliable bipartisan backing for Israel, a new AP-NORC poll reveals a dramatic erosion of support for the longtime U.S. ally, with rising opposition from Democrats and signs of division among Republicans. About one in three U.S. adults – including roughly half of Democrats – believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza. It’s an accusation that’s been leveled by some human rights organizations and vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government.
About 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Israelis, up from 45% in an AP-NORC poll from January 2024 when former President Joe Biden was in office. That includes 51% of Jewish Democrats in the new poll. Only about 2 in 10 Republicans say that the United States is “too supportive” of the Israelis, although Republicans under 45 are more likely to say this.
—
Wall Street and the Economy
The minutes from Kevin Warsh’s first Federal Reserve policy meeting contained few surprises, but underscored how divided policymakers remained over the future direction of interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) had left the key funds rate unchanged, but delivered a more hawkish outlook than expected. The minutes, released Wednesday, revealed the divisions, though we knew earlier that nine policymakers penciled in at least one rate hike by the end of the year, according to the Summary of Economic Projections. Eight officials expected no changes to the benchmark rates, while only one official forecast a rate cut by the end of the year. Warsh did not provide his own projections.
The minutes showed that inflation remained top of mind for Fed officials – and was too high for comfort.
Separately, Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller defended the central bank’s practice of providing forward guidance – a stance somewhat at odds with Chair Warsh.
On Monday, Waller told a monetary policy conference in Rome that he believes “forward guidance can be a valuable tool that has, at times, significantly strengthened policymaking and will continue to be useful.”
Warsh dropped forward guidance from the FOMC’s June policy statement and his public remarks after the rate announcement. “My view is that financial markets and the real economy work best when you look at what’s happening in the real economy, you make your own judgments,” he told European central bankers last week in Portugal.
But Waller said he isn’t ready to throw out the practice of forward guidance completely, noting it can be useful but not in all circumstances. It was a hindrance, for example, in 2021 when inflation surged. The Fed had signaled that rate increases were on hold, even though prices were on the rise. “In the end, this restrictive guidance…unnecessarily delayed rate increases.”
Just one economic data bit for the week: Existing-home sales in June rose 2.8% from a year ago, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million homes sold, the National Association of Realtors reported, but they fell 2.4% in June from May, well below expectations for 4.2 million.
In June, the median existing-home sales price rose 1.8% from a year earlier to $440,000 – the highest ever recorded.
Rising mortgage rates impacted affordability, and any significant improvement in the housing market seems unlikely in the second half of the year with rates solidly above 6%.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate for second-quarter growth is 1.3%.
Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.49%.
The International Monetary Fund, in its latest World Economic Outlook, said the global economy is set to slow in 2026 owing to the war with Iran and disruptions in energy and commodity supply chains that triggered a fresh bout of inflation…global output now poised to fall to 3% in 2026 from 3.5% last year.
The IMF left its U.S. outlook unchanged at 2.3%. Output in China is projected to decline to 4.6% from 5% last year.
Next week, we have key inflation updates on consumer and producer prices, as well as retail sales for June, with the next Fed meeting two weeks away.
Europe and Asia
Eurostat reported industrial producer prices in the eurozone for the month of May were up by 0.2% over April; 5.9% from a year ago.
May retail sales rose 0.2% from the month prior, and 1.6% year-over-year.
France: We had a big political development Tuesday, when Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader and a front-runner to win next year’s presidential election, lost her appeal of an embezzlement conviction, prolonging more than a year of suspense over whether she will run for the presidency.
But, while the court upheld the conviction, it shortened a ban on Le Pen running for office, which reopened the door to a potential campaign. The decision meant that she will have to wear an electronic bracelet that limits her movements – something she has previously said would make a candidacy impossible.
The verdict reverberated through French politics, scrambling the race to replace President Emmanuel Macron and shaking up one of Europe’s largest far-right parties, the National Rally, which is closer to gaining power than at any time in its half-century history.
If Le Pen had been ruled ineligible to run, she would have immediately ceded her spot to Jordan Bardella, her 30-year-old protégé and the president of the party.
The court case was over whether Le Pen, 57, oversaw a scheme to use European funds – intended to subsidize the salaries of the party’s aides at the European Parliament – to pay for other party activities. She denied involvement but acknowledged some of the aides may have unwittingly undertaken work unrelated to their jobs in Brussels.
Previously, Le Pen called the charges a witch hunt. A three-time candidate for president, Le Pen won more than 41% of the vote in 2022, even as she lost to Macron.
Le Pen then announced in a television interview that she would run for the presidency, which means her movements could be subject to the monitoring and a judge’s determination of how, and for how long, the punishment is applied.
Le Pen said she is appealing the ruling to France’s highest court and that the process will suspend the sentence that she wear the monitor for a year.
“I will therefore campaign without an electronic bracelet,” she said in the interview. “Tonight, I am a candidate for the presidential election.”
Britain: Andy Burnham is on the brink of becoming Britain’s next prime minister after an overwhelming show of support from Labour lawmakers that has left him all but certain to replace Keir Starmer.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist right-wing Reform U.K. party, on Tuesday said he would resign his seat in Parliament and run for re-election in his Clacton seat to answer criticism of his financial affairs.
The unexpected move came after recent revelations about gifts and financial support received by Farage, both from a cryptocurrency billionaire and from a political ally who was once convicted of fraud in the United States.
Farage and his anti-immigration party have led in opinion polls for more than a year, and he was instrumental in destabilizing Keir Starmer’s government, Starmer announcing his resignation last month.
The charges against Farage are serious, including his failure to disclose a gift of 5 million pounds (about $6.7 billion) from a cryptocurrency billionaire, Christopher Harborne, a Briton who lives in Thailand. Farage argues the gift was unconditional, and was made before he won a seat in Parliament in the general election in 2024.
This particular case is being investigated by Parliament’s standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg. If he finds the gift should have been declared, Farage could have been suspended under British parliamentary rules and forced to fight for re-election in his parliament constituency of Clacton, but Farage’s announcement pre-empted that possible outcome, although the findings can still be published.
China: June inflation came in at 1%, while producer prices rose 4.1% in the month, year-over-year.
Japan: May household spending rose 3.7% month-over-month, much better than expected.
June producer prices rose 0.4% over May, 7.1% from a year ago.
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield fell sharply Friday from a 30-year high earlier in the week, after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said the government would encourage domestic pension funds to increase their holdings of Japanese financial assets.
Street Bytes
–The week was largely about the memory chip kings, namely Samsung, which issued spectacular earnings guidance, SK Hynix, which went public in the U.S. with a Friday IPO, and U.S. rival Micron Technology.
But it was also about Iran and the tit-for-tat action, and in the end, stocks finished mixed on the week…the Dow Jones finishing down 0.5% to 52637, though it hit a new high on Monday of 53055, the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and Nasdaq 1.7%.
—U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 3.95% 2-yr. 4.20% 10-yr. 4.56% 30-yr. 5.06%
Bonds spiked in yield after renewed military activity in the Persian Gulf, then they dropped, but at week’s end were up a bit…8 basis points on the 10-year, not good for the mortgage rate.
—Oil prices had been falling prior to the resumption of military activity in the Persian Gulf this week, as the tentative ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran unleashed a wave of supply, overwhelming demand from buyers and prompting talk of a glut of crude, a staggering turnaround in sentiment. Only a few weeks ago, oil executives were warning that global inventories were reaching critically low levels.
Prior to this week, suppliers inside the Persian Gulf had been ramping up shipments. But in the weeks since, there has been a flood of more than 60 million trapped barrels that were frozen in place when the war began.
Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been at or close to the level of exports they were shipping prior to the Iran war, helped by U.S. military protection while sailing through the Strait, together with pipelines they’ve been using to bypass the waterway.
And at the same time, China, the world’s largest importer, has not been buying oil, though there were signs this week that was beginning to change.
Analysts also believe governments will rapidly look to rebuild their stockpiles, after drawing from their reserves.
As for OPEC+, its members agreed to another modest increase to their collective oil-production quotas for next month, adding to the prospect of more supply eventually hitting the market if the U.S.-Iran ‘ceasefire’ can stick….
Seven nations, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed at a video conference on Sunday to add 188,000 barrels a day to their output target, OPEC said in a statement on its website. It’s in keeping with the group’s plan to finish reversing output curbs made a few years ago, and means that since the war began, they’ve added 940,000 barrels a day to quotas – equivalent to almost 1% of global demand.
OPEC is facing a challenge to its unity, after founding member Iraq last month suggested it could ultimately exit if denied a higher production limit.
The UAE quit the organization in May over similar frustrations with OPEC’s managed output limits. Abu Dhabi has significant production capacity idled by the war to restart, and with ambitions to add more, over time, could add pressure to prices and its former alliance counterparts.
[The International Energy Agency said in its monthly report that the UAE pumped 4.1 million barrels a day on average in June, an all-time high.]
Russia, which jointly leads OPEC+ with the Saudis, is contending with its own issues. The country’s crude exports have climbed to record highs, but the surge comes as Ukrainian drone strikes take a toll on its refineries, potentially diverting supplies that would have been processed domestically for sale overseas.
One more on the global oil market and America’s crude inventories, as the Wall Street Journal put it in an extensive story in today’s paper:
“America’s oil supplies are far from prepared for the U.S.-Iran ceasefire to end.”
While commercial inventories in the U.S. rose in the latest weekly update from the Energy Department, the first uptick after 10 consecutive weeks of drawdowns:
“Stockpiles are still so low that the central U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Okla., has reached operational limits that would make withdrawing more crude challenging. Meanwhile, inventories in the government-run Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a system of salt caverns on the Gulf Coast, keep falling and sit at the lowest level since 1983.”
Should the ceasefire end and military activity resume in earnest in the Persian Gulf, the situation would become rather dire.
Granted, as I noted above, the UAE is now pumping at record levels, and the Gulf oil-producing states have done a good job finding alternatives to the Persian Gulf in terms of exporting their product, but reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t be good, once what’s already on the water finds a home and is refined.
Meanwhile, the tightness in diesel is growing, with the likes of Russia suspending exports of the product to maintain their own domestic reserves as Ukraine picks apart its refineries.
–South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips.
The company forecast that it made $58.4 billion between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row.
Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors.
Samsung’s latest forecast, released on Tuesday ahead of its full results due later in July, comes as demand for semiconductors continues to outstrip supplies – which has pushed up prices.
Samsung is one of the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturers, making chips for firms like Nvidia and Google along with its range of electronic devices.
–Meanwhile, South Korean rival SK Hynix is targeting a $28 billion U.S. stock market listing on Friday* that may be the biggest-ever first-time share sale by a foreign company.
Until now, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for American investors to bet on the company, which makes memory chips used in AI computing. The stock, coming into the week, has soared more than 760% in the past year, its big U.S. rival, Micron up about 700% in the same period.
But now, U.S. investors will be able to simply buy shares on the Nasdaq.
Back in June South Korea unveiled plans for at least $880 billion of investments in projects led by Samsung and SK Hynix to build out the country’s chip manufacturing in the coming years.
Rival Asian firms in Japan, China and Taiwan are also investing heavily in chip factories to meet soaring demand.
*The company raised $26.5 billion, the shares priced at $149, and were at about $170, up 14%, at 3:00 PM.
—Walmart is cutting prices on thousands of items to help customers with affordability after years of inflation.
The largest U.S. grocer said Monday it is lowering the price of ground beef by 12%. The price of cherries is being halved. A 24-pack of Coca-Cola is falling by one-third to $9.97. The company also said it is cutting prices on household products, toys, apparel and other products.
The effort drew praise from President Trump, who hailed it in a social-media post as “a huge deal.”
“Walmart is stepping up in a big and bold way, and other Retailers should follow the lead of these absolute Patriots,” Trump wrote on Truth Social minutes before the retailer issued a news release announcing the cuts.
Walmart has long emphasized lower prices as part of its marketing, but in recent months, affordability has become a hot-button issue in American politics. Behind the scenes, Walmart has emphasized to federal officials that policies that help the retailer control costs and keep consumers spending, such as lower tariffs and gasoline prices, will help improve affordability for American shoppers because of Walmart’s scale, said a person familiar with the situation.
Walmart’s actions follow a number of attempts by the Trump administration to rein in record-high beef prices, which have become the poster child of food inflation in the U.S. over the past year. Ground-beef prices were up 12% in May from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.
—Delta Air Lines reported second quarter results that topped estimates on Friday morning and reinstated full-year guidance, as growth in the premium business continues to blunt issues like rising fuel costs and capacity cuts stemming from those expenses.
Delta reported Q2 adjusted revenue of $17.67 billion vs. $17.53 billion the Street expected, up 14% year-over-year, and a record for the airline. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.56 were vs. the $1.51 expected, with adjusted net income of $1.027bn vs. $985.2 million.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in a statement, said: “We are affirming the guidance we set at the start of the year to grow earnings by 20%, overcoming a multi-billion fuel headwind.”
Delta’s fuel cost was substantial, some $4.4 billion, up 77% compared to a year ago. CFO Erik Snell said Delta’s fuel bill for the year will be $4 billion higher than a year ago, directly eating into profits.
The third quarter looks strong on the revenue side.
The premium business performance blunted the added costs, with revenue growing 17% year-over-year.
—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2025….
7/9…106 percent of 2025 levels
7/8…102
7/7…89
7/6…95
7/5…119
7/4…87
7/3…88
7/2…107
—Microsoft has announced it has cut 4,800 jobs – roughly 2.1% of its workforce – with Xbox to bear a large number of its latest layoffs, some 1,600.
In a memo to employees, the tech giant said it needed to focus on areas that can deliver for customers amid a “fast-changing industry.”
In 2024, Xbox culled more than 2,000 staff and shuttered four studios bought prior to its bumper acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision-Blizzard.
Little more than a year later, Microsoft said it would lay off as many as 9,000 workers after setting out plans to double down on its multi-billion-dollar AI spending.
—Pepsico shares fell after quarterly results showed that North American consumers remain under pressure as they focus on essentials and budget for higher gas prices.
The soda and snack giant beat Wall Street’s expectations on both the top and bottom lines, but its North American results weighed on the quarter. Additionally, Americans didn’t stock up on snacks following price cuts of roughly 15% in February on Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.20 in the fiscal second quarter, beating consensus by a penny, on revenue of $24.2 billion, above expectations of $23.9 billion.
But revenue growth and pricing for PepsiCo’s snack brands in North America fell by 2% in the quarter, while volume growth was flat in the region.
A bright spot in the quarter was portion-control multipacks, which increased in both volume and net revenue.
Zero sugar options in PepsiCo’s beverage business, such as Pepsi Zero Sugar and Mountain Dew Zero Sugar, were also strong.
The company reiterated its full-year outlook and said it expects the consumer landscape to improve in the second half of the year.
–A good friend of mine is the long-time sales manager of a major hotel in my area and we were exchanging notes on the lead-up to the World Cup, with MetLife Stadium (the Meadowlands) hosting so many of the games and how the hotels were looking to cash in.
But now that the World Cup is nearing an end, the finale at MetLife, LT tells me that in their case (as was no doubt the situation at every major hotel near the World Cup sites), they priced themselves “WAY TOO HIGH – in the $600s per night,” and had to scramble at the last minute to find people who would pay in the high $300s.
—The United States Postal Service is raising the price of “Forever stamps” within weeks, so if you plan on mailing anything out, you may want to buy a book before the new rates go into effect.
Starting July 12, the price of a First-Class Forever stamp is going up 4 cents – from 78 cents to 82 cents, now approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.
That means a book of 20 stamps is currently sitting at $15.60 – but come July, that rate increases to $16.40.
–According to an analysis by cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen, looking at 988,905 accounts publicly visible on the blockchain, nearly 1 million people have lost a total of $3.8 billion after buying President Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin, which as of today was $1.60, down from its high of $75.35.
In Trump’s financial disclosure from last week, he revealed he made $636 million from the $TRUMP memecoin, accounting for nearly half of the $1.4 billion that the president made from the crypto industry last year.
–Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times had an extensive piece on Wikipedia, which “is in peril.”
I see that from the notes I’m receiving from Wiki myself recently on the need for funds.
“In a world where trust in truth is crumbling, the grande dame of collective online fact-gathering is under threat on every front. The MAGA right, with Elon Musk at the fore, is slinging accusations of political bias and antisemitism and has even questioned the site’s nonprofit status. Artificial intelligence is raiding the encyclopedia’s resources and draining attention. Repressive governments have hauled its volunteer editors into penal colonies.
“In Wikipedia’s 25-year history, it has never had to fight this hard….
“It is charging companies like Google and Meta that gobble up the encyclopedia’s 65 million articles, and throttling access for certain scrapers. And it is expanding its human rights team to better protect volunteers against rising harassment, surveillance and retaliation.”
Tiffany Hsu also adds: “Last year, a Trump administration official made inquiries into the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status. A Republican-led congressional oversight committee initiated an investigation in August, demanding that Wikimedia identify certain editors and produce any evidence of influence from foreign operatives or academic institutions. The foundation said it responded to both requests last year and had no updates.”
Personally, I love Wiki, and as I told my Bar Chat readers the other day, it is invaluable in double-checking stats on various sports. Because the fact is, on many topics, AI is just not accurate.
Statistics and historic dates…that what I mostly use Wiki for. The rest that riles so many up is meaningless to me. I form my own opinions. I don’t rely on Wiki for that.
—“Minions and Monsters,” despite being critically lauded, performed the worst at the box office for the series, at least on its opening weekend, when it generated $36.4 million in sales in North America for the three-day holiday weekend and $61.4 million for the five days since its July 1 opening, according to Universal Pictures. That was a 62 percent decline from 2024, the last time a “Minions” movie was in theaters.
The PG-rated animated film was still No. 1 for the weekend. But its opening ticket sales came in far lower than the earlier movies in the franchise.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” from 2022 hit a high point with a $123 million domestic opening weekend.
Warner Bros.’ “Supergirl,” from its DC Studios, dropped a staggering 74 percent in its second weekend of release, earning $9.6 million. Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” took in $6 million in its fourth weekend of release. Its total gross stands at $105 million.
But now it’s all about “Ulysses,” opening July 17. It looks spectacular.
—At pubs in England, on World Cup match days, sales triple during an England match.
Actually, demand spikes not just at pubs, but supermarkets, delivery apps and living rooms across the country. Saturday’s quarterfinal against Norway will mean the busiest night of the year for many of the country’s 35,000-odd pubs; a much-needed lift for an industry ground down by rising costs and higher taxes, and consumers who increasingly prefer to drink at home or not at all.
England’s previous games in the tournament have attracted as many as 16 million viewers each. Four years ago, the team’s quarterfinal against France drew a peak audience of 23 million, about a third of the UK’s population.
Foreign Affairs
Russia/Ukraine: Russian President Putin and President Trump held a phone call on Saturday, discussing Ukraine and the upcoming NATO summit, while Trump also spoke to Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Putin congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in the call that lasted 85 minutes, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Yushakov said in an audio message to reporters.
“The presidents naturally touched on the topic of a Ukrainian settlement, including in light of Trump’s upcoming participation in the NATO summit in Turkey on July 7-8,” Ushakov said. “The American president reaffirmed his readiness to facilitate a swift end to hostilities and the search for solutions to overcome the crisis.”
Ushakov said U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would continue their efforts at mediating a settlement and were ready to travel to Moscow when convenient. “The Russian side emphasized the preference for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict, while taking into account fundamental Russian approaches,” he said.
Zelensky said in a post on X that both leaders discussed the situation on the front line as well as diplomatic efforts.
–And then overnight Sunday, at least 28 were killed in the second large-scale Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital in a week, officials said, including six killed in the wider Kyiv region.
The Ukrainian Air Force said a “serious shortage” of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia at Kyiv were shot down.
President Zelensky has appealed for allies to take “strong decisions” at this week’s NATO summit to provide Kyiv with air defenses.
After the strikes, he said the Ukrainian military had been successful in intercepting cruise missiles and drones – but not ballistic missiles.
Sunday’s “massive Russian attack” consisted of 68 missiles and 351 strike drones, Zelensky said in a post on X. The air force shot down or suppressed 37 missiles and 326 drones, it said.
Zelensky warned that Moscow would continue to hit residential buildings as long as defensive Patriot missiles “remain in our allies’ stockpiles.”
Three large blocks of flats in the city had partially collapsed, with some hit by missiles.
Helicopters were shuttling back and forth in the sky, carrying water from the river to douse fires in the city.
Kyiv’s top military administrator, Tymur Tkachenko, said 56 were people were injured in the capital, with Zelensky saying there were 16 injuries in the wider region.
Sunday night’s attack came days after last Thursday’s strikes on Kyiv left at least 31 dead.
—Kyiv has kept up its drone attacks on critical Russian energy facilities, with power being cut off temporarily in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Kyiv had launched 625 long-range strike drones and that its forces had shot down 613 of them.
In his post on X on Monday, Zelensky said that it was “critically important” that the U.S. and Ukraine’s European partners come to the summit “with strong decisions in support of our air defense, and thus the protection of ordinary people’s lives.”
“The United States and Europe have enough power to stop this terror,” he said.
President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine’s “urgent” need for more air defense would be discussed at the summit.
But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte cautioned that allies don’t have an endless supply of missile interceptors.
“There is a limit to the amount of interceptors that are in NATO territory,” Rutte said, speaking a day before NATO leaders gathered in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, for their annual summit.
He stressed, however, that the alliance is “working from every angle” to produce more of the Ukraine-requested air defense systems.
“Everybody’s involved in this,” he said.
But on Wednesday at the NATO summit, President Trump offered to give Ukraine the right to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, which cold help Kyiv defend against Russia’s ballistic missile attacks.
“We are gonna give you a license to make Patriots,” Trump told President Zelensky. “I think they can produce them very quickly once we explain it.”
This is a shot in the arm for Ukraine’s confidence, but in reality, it could be years for Ukraine to produce Patriots on their own, especially given existing supply chain issues for the components, and it doesn’t address the immediate need for interceptors.
The U.S. is reluctant to part with any, given that it used more than half of its stockpile during its war with Iran, according to the U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We have Patriots, but we don’t have that many. We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said.
And the Gulf allies need them.
On the issue of Vladimir Putin, Trump has drawn criticism from European allies and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers over some of his past efforts to broker an end to the war with proposals that were seen as heavily favoring Moscow.
But Trump said in Ankara the U.S. is maintaining pressure on Russia and he is in talks with Putin to try to end the war.
“We have a lot of pressure on President Putin. I don’t think he likes what’s going on,” Trump said. “But I talk to President Putin a lot. He wants to end the war.”
Senior European officials said Putin hasn’t altered his ambitions of subjugating Ukraine despite Russia suffering deep battlefield losses and significant economic woes as a result of the war.
Zelensky told U.S. lawmakers attending the NATO summit that Russia is suffering more than 30,000 casualties per month and suggested the Russian people were increasingly turning against Putin as the war dragged on and casualties and economic losses mounted.
—Overnight Saturday, Kyiv attacked an oil terminal in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, with drones, while Ukraine said a gas production facility was struck by Russia.
St. Petersburg previously faced a massive drone attack in early June, when the city hosted Vladimir Putin’s flagship annual economic forum.
Ukraine’s intensive attacks on Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure in recent months have resulted in widespread fuel shortages. In recent days, some 90% of Russian regions have faced gasoline-supply issues.
—Last Friday, President Putin appeared in fatigues in a rare frontline visit to a support post, where he touted battlefield progress and threatened to take more of Ukraine outside the Donbas region.
The appearance was designed to show the Russian public that the heightened Ukrainian strikes in recent weeks would receive a response and won’t derail the Russian leader’s battlefield aims.
Putin warned that the more Ukraine attacked Russia’s civilian infrastructure, the more territory he would take as a “security zone” in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
“This, like other territories we are discussing today, is historically Russian land,” Putin said in response to a presentation from one of his commanders about Russian operations in those Ukrainian regions.
Putin called Ukrainian leaders play actors who “don’t really know how to do anything else and haven’t been trained to do anything else,” a pointed dig at President Zelensky, a former comedian.
Putin also said late Friday that Russian forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, a strategic logistics center in Ukraine’s fortified eastern Donetsk region.
President Zelensky dismissed the Russian claim as untrue on Saturday, calling it “another Russia lie to generate some kind of news,” in a post on X. He said the heavily bombarded city remained under Ukraine’s command.
—Poland’s prime minister has said the country was preparing for “various” scenarios and that the coming months could be “critical” concerning the threat from Russia.
Donald Tusk was responding to reports, citing U.S. intelligence, that Moscow was planning an armed “provocation” in Poland to test NATO’s resolve.
“I don’t mean to scare anyone but the coming months may truly be critical, also due to the changing nature of the war. These concerns are particularly palpable in the Baltic states,” Tusk told reporters last weekend.
Polish news outlet Onet reported that sources close to President Karol Nawrocki had said the U.S. had issued several warnings to Warsaw about a plot to attack the country.
The White House and State Department did not respond to request for comment.
Under the purported plans, also published by the Telegraph in the UK on Friday, Polish infrastructure could be targeted by missiles or drones, or soldiers could be sent into the NATO state.
The reports suggest the aim would be to place pressure on Ukraine’s western allies to suspend aid to the country as it continues to fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Asked about the reports, Tusk said: “Let’s not be afraid, we are preparing for various situations, but we cannot ignore them… We are aware of the threats, also thanks to information from our allies.”
Editorial / Wall Street Journal, Sunday PM….
“President Trump has been gearing up for this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit by complaining that the alliance is a ripoff. But the real question at the meeting is about the United States, as the Administration yanks troops from Europe without owning up to the risks to U.S. security.
“ ‘The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from doing so,’ the President vented on social media (last) Thursday. This ignores that peace in Europe is a core U.S. interest and not charity work, as those who survived the 20th century can attest.
“The President deserves credit for demanding that Europeans spend on defense, and this is a heavy political lift in complacent democracies that will take persuasion and compromise. Yet NATO allies increased spending 20% last year alone, and an influx of cash is now chasing too little manufacturing capacity after decades of neglect.
“ ‘You’re really at the max absorption capacity because you have to hire the men and women in uniform, you have to make sure the defense industrial output is there,’ as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte put it during his visit to Washington recently. ‘So there’s a max on what you can do year on year.’
“The irony is that U.S. leadership in NATO is essential to make sure that money is spent to produce combat power. Some allies will be tempted to squander money on their own national vanity fighter jet projects or bet on unproven technology to avoid a real military expansion….
“The Pentagon has also been leaking that it’s telling NATO to count on less U.S. air and naval power in force planning for a crisis. But where’s the evidence that threats to the U.S. are lower than in 2022, when Vladimir Putin rolled tanks into Ukraine?
“The direction U.S. troops in Europe should move is east to the front – Poland and the Baltics. Yet that doesn’t seem to be what the Administration has in mind as it threatens a six-month review of its European posture.
“Pulling troops is a message of American ambivalence that Mr. Putin will hear, which brings us to Ukraine. The President may repeat his refrain that Ukraine isn’t America’s problem, but that would miss a strategic opportunity. Ukraine is hurting Mr. Putin with precision strikes on targets in Russia, and the President likes to ride a winner.
“An infusion of U.S. long-range missiles would compound Ukraine’s gains and give Mr. Trump more leverage to force Mr. Putin to cut a deal….
“Yet even if Mr. Trump won’t help Ukraine, the Western alliance still has to deter a wounded Russian dictator who is spending 40% of his budget on the military. The Kremlin has been probing NATO defenses with drone incursions and spying on undersea cables.
“Mr. Putin’s appetite for risk-taking is all the more reason not to pull conventional forces from the continent. Cuts to conventional assets mean Mr. Trump will have to rely more on U.S. nuclear deterrence. The President professes to hate nuclear weapons, and Mr. Putin may figure Mr. Trump would never use them, say, to defend the Baltic states.
“The NATO meeting will be mostly photos of European diplomats smiling nervously and hoping it ends without a blowup. But for a man who prides himself on understanding that hard power governs the world, the President is getting bad advice that will produce weaker deterrence in Europe.”
Gerard Baker / Wall Street Journal
“Beyond the familiar human melodrama that will unfold as President Trump meets European leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week, a question looms: Is Vladimir Putin about to attack a NATO member state?
“On its face the idea seems preposterous. In his disastrous war on Ukraine, the Russian military has suffered 1.4 million casualties, a third of them killed in action. His economy is faltering, as fuel and labor shortages and higher prices eat into his people’s living standards. Enemy drones are reaching deeper into his territory, causing damage and fear in similar proportions.
“He is mired in a struggle against a country with a population and a military a fraction the size of his own. Since the decision to launch that war has worked out so well, are we seriously being asked to believe that he would attack an alliance with an economy and military many times the size of his own?
“A month ago I would have scoffed at the idea. But conversations with multiple senior European political, military and intelligence figures in the past few weeks suggest to me the possibility is real and rising.
“For some Americans, including perhaps the president, the idea that Russia may take a shot at some feckless Europeans who have been notably unhelpful with America’s military preoccupations in recent months might induce a yawn of indifference or even a smirk of schadenfreude. But the risks of any Russian provocation in Europe for America’s global security are profound. Ukraine, a non-NATO member, is one thing. If we failed to respond to Russian aggression against a member of the alliance, NATO would become a dead letter.
“Which is why Mr. Putin might attack. As one intelligence analyst put it to me last week: His inspiration may be Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the general who commanded French forces at the Battle of the Marne in 1914. He famously reported: ‘My center is yielding. My right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking.’
“A sudden show of unexpected force just as he appears to be reeling from his ill-advised Ukraine war could be to Mr. Putin’s advantage. Although Mr. Trump’s verbal shock treatment has jolted European NATO members into finally doing more in their own defense, they are still nowhere near ready for a defensive war. Government officials say it will be at least five years before their militaries are close to being capable of replacing U.S. capabilities in Europe….
“(Whether) we want it or not, we are in a cold-to-simmering war with an axis of resistance that runs from Beijing through Tehran to Moscow. The U.S. is still dealing with the fallout of an inconclusive war with Iran that has left us militarily depleted. As we scramble to manage potential opportunistic moves by China’s Xi Jinping in the Asia-Pacific, Mr. Putin could deal a timely and fatal blow to an already weakened trans-Atlantic alliance. That would be another hammer to the head of Western security and hegemony, and a dramatic enhancement of the power of Russia’s alliance with China and our other adversaries.
“Perhaps all the talk of an imminent Russian attack is merely disinformation from European officials, trying to keep President Trump from further weakening NATO. But if you were the American president, would you want to take that risk?”
China: Beijing test-fired a long-range ballistic missile with a dummy warhead in the Pacific Ocean on Monday, the first such launch in two years.
The missile was launched from a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine and sent a “mock warhead” into the Pacific Ocean, according to a report from Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
“The missile landed accurately in the designated area,” the report said. The test launch, Xinhua said, was “not directed against any specific country or target.”
It was not immediately clear where the missile landed, but the launch came as the leaders of Australia and Fiji announced a mutual defense treaty and a regional security alliance, the latest in a string of agreements Canberra has been striking with Pacific Island nations widely viewed as efforts to push back against China’s encroachment in the region.
Governments in the region were warned of the launch shortly beforehand.
Back in September 2024, China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead across the Pacific Ocean into waters near French Polynesia, which drew alarm from countries in the region. It marked the first time in more than four decades that China had publicly announced testing an ICBM in the Pacific region.
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, said in a statement the country was “deeply concerned” and that the test seemed to be part of “a recurring pattern by China.”
“New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development. We, like our neighbors in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability,” he said.
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, called the test “destabilizing to the region” and that it was “in the context of a rapid military buildup by China, which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects.”
Separately, China’s space program took an important step on Friday toward its elusive goal of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in the race to dominate the satellite industry.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a government entity, launched a Long March 10B rocket and recovered its bottom part, called the first stage, a few minutes later. This essential step toward reusing the rocket’s parts for future missions could signal a long-awaited a long-awaited breakthrough for Chinese satellite companies.
SpaceX revolutionized the industry with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, whose first stage returns to the launchpad upright after launch. Falcon 9 can send satellites into orbit in rapid succession, which has given SpaceX a significant edge.
Chinese companies have been launching satellites with single-use rockets, letting their parts tumble back to Earth or become space debris after every launch.
North Korea: Kim Jong Un supervised tests of a nuclear-capable cruise missile and other weapons aboard a new 5,000-ton destroyer, the Kang Kon, repaired after being damaged in a failed launch ceremony last year, state media said Sunday, in the latest military display marking Kim’s push to build a nuclear-armed navy.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Friday’s event included test-firings of a strategic cruise missile and of the Kang Kon’s main gun and automatic cannons, as well as trials of its electronic warfare systems and assessments of its target-detection and information-processing capabilities.
After observing the tests from shore, Kim ordered officials to complete the destroyer’s trials and place the vessel in active duty within two months, the state news agency said.
The tests came after North Korea in late June commissioned its first 5,000-ton destroyer, the Choe Hyon, a milestone Kim marked with a lavish ceremony where he declared that the nuclear armament of his navy was proceeding as planned.
Greenland: President Trump kicked off the second day of the NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday by restating his “need” to control Greenland, blasting European allies as “hopeless” and threatening countries that did not support the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
But by the end of the day, Trump said “there was a lot of love in the room.”
Earlier, though, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “Greenland is of course not for sale.
“We hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenland people’s right for self-determination,” she said. “And we are sovereign states and we need everybody to respect our territorial integrity and our sovereignty.”
She said Denmark is “ready to defend every inch of NATO including our own territory” in the event of an attack and would rely on NATO allies to honor their commitment to defend each other.
Trump said Wednesday: “Greenland is very important to the United States, but it’s not important to Denmark. We need it for protection of the world, not just the United States.”
Earlier in his term, he would not rule out taking the island by military force.
But the U.S. had a large military presence on the island before and Denmark (and Greenland) have said they are willing to negotiate over a renewed U.S. military footprint, which serves all parties.
A deal is still expected by year-end.
Random Musings
–Presidential approval ratings….
Rasmussen: 45% approve of President Trump’s job performance, 54% disapprove (July 10). Rebound from last week’s 40-58 split.
—Going back to last Friday night, President Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore to characterize his political opponents as “godless,” “evil” communists.
“We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish stupid and unwise,” he said, demanding that Congress pass his so-called SAVE America Act, which would impose stricter voter ID rules that would make it harder to vote. He called for terminating the filibuster.
Trump said communism “is the enemy of July 4, 1776,” while calling it a bigger threat than Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
He did start the speech on an upbeat note, painting a proud and optimistic portrait of America, describing it as nothing short of the greatest society in the history of civilization.
But then he warned of “newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success.”
I’ve been to Mount Rushmore four times and just love the place…love the entire Black Hills region. And the fireworks there looked spectacular (a better show than what we had on The Mall the next day, as well as the Macy’s display in New York Harbor).
But if you haven’t been to Mount Rushmore, the last thing I’d want to do is drive out of the place at night. The roads are dangerous in spots.
—President Trump on Truth Social, Sunday PM:
“There is nothing Americans can’t do except get Voter ID (Identification), Proof of Citizenship or, most importantly of all, TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER (which the Democrats will do immediately upon gaining Office, and add 2 more States, 4 more Senators, 8 more Congressmen, at least 20 Electoral Votes, and it will be impossible for a Republican to ever be elected President again. I don’t want to be the last Republican President!) GET SMART REPUBLICANS, IF YOU DON’T, YOU WON’T BE IN OFFICE FOR LONG! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
President Trump on Truth Social, Friday AM:
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats. The Act states, quite simply, that to Vote a person must show PHOTO VOTER I.D., PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP, AND THAT THERE WILL BE NO MORE CROOKED, CORRUPT, & DESTABILIZING MAIL-IN BALLOTS (EXCEPTIONS for Military, Disabled, Illness, and Travel!). THE SAVE AMERICA ACT’S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it! If the Dumocrats, or any RINO (or worse!) working with them, do not allow a positive Vote on SAVE AMERICA, TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and pass this, and every other Bill that true Republicans have ever dreamt of (In addition to the upcoming Budget BOMB and the 1929 catastrophic style DEBT CEILING BILL!). The Dumocrats will TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, if and when they get the chance to do so, in their very first hour – And I will no longer be able to call them Dumocrats again! The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
But if the president doesn’t veto the bill by midnight tonight (Friday), it becomes law.
—Maine Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner said his campaign would be reflecting on the “best path forward” after a woman he was romantically involved with publicly alleged that he sexually assaulted her, an allegation he denied.
The allegation is the latest controversy to emerge about Platner’s past and calls his political future into question.
In a video he released Monday afternoon, Platner said “any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.” He also said he was “mindful” of the political impact it could have on his race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
I wrote on June 5 in this space that Democrats in Maine had made a big mistake in going with Platner over Governor Janet Mills. And now they are paying the price.
Every leading Democrat, basically, from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to New York Sen. Kristin Gillibrand (head of Senate Democrats’ midterm operation), to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, told Platner to immediately withdraw his candidacy. Funds from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, were shut off, a financial death knell for his campaign.
Wednesday night, Platner then released an angry, bitter video saying he was suspending his campaign, ending his run. He blamed the media and political establishment for acting as “judge, jury and executioner” and continued to fiercely deny the allegations against him.
Maine’s Democratic Party has until July 27 to name a different nominee to face Collins.
If Democrats lose Maine, their path to the majority is far more difficult. Gov. Mills, by the way, is not deemed a candidate for the new nomination. The Dems will try to find another progressive.
But regarding Platner, one of my favorite political commentators is Jonah Goldberg, who said of the guy that “he’s a narcissistic jackass.” Yup, that he is, sports fans.
—New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said to be the “happy warrior,” gave a dark Fourth of July speech.
“American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little more free; is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West; is why children in faraway lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here,” Mamdani said.
“And yet the irony,” he concluded, “is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional.”
He critiqued what he regards as an intrinsic bias some Americans hold against immigrants – a reaction he said was rooted in a belief that “when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best.”
“The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal,” Mamdani said, in reference to discriminatory attitudes toward people of color. “How small they are. How weak. How unoriginal.”
He also said to America’s fiercest defenders, “Patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws.”
In an interview with the New York Times, J.C. Polanco, an independent political commentator and son of Dominican immigrants who often disagrees with Mamdani, called the mayor “a very gifted speaker” while taking issue with the tone of his remarks.
“The speech was more a critique of American patriotism – a passive-aggressive critique of American exceptionalism and capitalism – than a celebration,” said Polanco, who is also a professor at the University of Mount St. Vincent.
He said the mayor had “found a way to blame those he disagrees with politically for all that is wrong,” and suggested he should have focused more on “Native Americans, Chicanos and foundational Black Americans.”
—The new Air Force One, which President Trump flew this week to Turkey, lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities, according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.
Experts say the absence of those capabilities on the Boeing 747-B aircraft, which was donated by Qatar, creates potential risk in using the jet abroad, which we saw firsthand with the abrupt decision on Wednesday for President Trump to leave Turkey on the old Air Force One at the urging of the Secret Service, and reported threats from Israeli intelligence that Iran was targeting Trump, not that they haven’t been all along, as the president himself admitted.
—President Trump has terminated two of the federal Election Assistance Commission’s three members, eliminating the panel’s ability to help local election officials prepare for the 2026 midterms.
The two commissioners selected by congressional Democrats, Chairman Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, each received an email dismissing them on July 9.
Christy McCormick, the commission’s vice chair who was elected by congressional Republicans, resigned June 9.
A fourth position on the commission became vacant earlier this year when Republican Donald Palmer voluntarily left the agency.
The White House issued a statement saying the president “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
State and local election officials have already complained about a significant drop in assistance ahead of the midterms from some of the other federal agencies tasked with helping them provide safe and secure elections. They have also said they don’t expect federal agencies to reliably share election threats.
—States across the country saw steep drops in the number of people covered by the Affordable Care Act over the past year, with Ohio and Oklahoma each losing nearly one-third of enrollees, according to new federal data that provides the first complete 50-state breakdown of sharp enrollment declines following the January expiration of enhanced subsidies.
The data, posted in late June by the Trump administration and first reported on by the Associated Press, reveals how changes in each state’s insured population led to around 2.6 million fewer Americans having Obamacare plans in February compared with the same time last year.
With the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, monthly health insurance fees for some doubled and tripled, forcing folks to forgo coverage entirely. The subsidies had been at the center of a bitter fight in Congress last fall, with Democrats and some Republicans calling for their renewal.
Health insurance costs have been rising across ACA and other health insurance programs as the midterm elections come up, with affordability a top concern.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggested the significant drop in enrollment this year could be attributed to a federal crackdown on fraudulent or “phantom” enrollment.
This is a campaign issue for sure come the midterms, in some states more than others. Democrats have repeatedly rebuked Republicans for letting the tax credits expire, but the latest analysis could reignite the national conversation around the cost of healthcare and create an opening for Democrats looking to attack their opponents on affordability.
Just an example:
“Donald Trump and his puppet [Rep.] Mike Collins, they doubled health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians and threw 300,000 Georgians off their insurance altogether,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) said at a recent rally, referring to the Republican opponent in his bid for reelection. “I never want to hear these two pretend they give a damn about working people again.”
This is one of the major races in November.
—Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“When news broke Sunday that FIFA had suspended the red-card disqualification for American soccer striker Folarin Balogun, our first thought was whether President Trump had played a role. Well, of course he did.
“It later emerged that Mr. Trump had called his fried, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, to request a review of the red card given for a foul in Wednesday’s U.S. victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. There is not controversy that this President won’t throw himself into the middle of, for better or worse.
“Count us among those who think the red card was excessive; a yellow card would have sufficed. But Mr. Trump called on his experience as a TV sports viewer to declare that he didn’t think Mr. Balogun’s infraction ‘was a foul’ at all, and ‘I’m good at this stuff.’….
“The shame is that this is easily the best U.S. men’s national team in World Cup history. It can compete well against Belgium even without Mr. Balogun, and Americans have been supporting the team with inspiring patriotic spirit. This World Cup has also shown the world’s visiting soccer fans the friendly, down-to-earth side of Americans they don’t hear about from the global press. It has been an encouraging demonstration of U.S. ‘soft power.’
“Alas, Mr. Trump’s intervention made the story all about him. Whether the U.S. team won or lost Monday evening (this went to press before the game), the players didn’t need Mr. Trump’s intervention.”
—We really had an historic heatwave across the Midwest, South and Mid-Atlantic/New England regions last week.
I can’t recall a hotter 4-day period than we had in my town of Summit, N.J. Like these were the air temps starting a week-ago Wed.
Wed. 99
Thurs. 103
Fri. 101
Sat. 97
The heat index was 105-110 each day. By early this week, New Jersey officials said there were 29 heat-related deaths, including people who died in their non-airconditioned homes, and some were found dead in their cars. I saw a bit on the Weather Channel that if it’s 95 and sunny outside, within a half-hour the temperature inside your car can exceed 130!
It’s not just seniors dying, but believe me, now that I’m a senior, I’m far more careful myself.
But what was really shocking was last Friday, when I posted this column early, like 2:30 PM ET, because the stock market was closed. The weather forecast was for maybe a thunderstorm later that day, but that the real threat in my area was going to be Saturday night, from the weather system you all saw that disrupted Fourth of July activities in D.C. and forced Macy’s to start their fireworks show early.
But that Friday, we had a wicked storm with massive winds, up to 80 mph. It didn’t last long, but my neighbor in the building, who looks directly at the Bristol-Myers property across the street, said he saw the trees bow to where the limbs were touching the ground!
Our building didn’t lose power, but I didn’t know until the next day when I went out to do errands what a freakin’ s—show it was in my area…not only thousands of homes and businesses without power in the towns surrounding me, but on into this week, as various roads opened up, the tree damage rivaled that of Superstorm Sandy. Local officials were shocked at the cleanups they were suddenly undertaking, let alone the utilities.
Overseas, I’ve been thinking of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands that got a severe beating from Super Typhoon Bavi, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, which made a direct hit on the island of Rota, just north of Guam, with peak winds near 180 mph. Guam International Airport had winds of 100 mph+, with over a foot of rain (15+ at the airport). There were widespread reports of damage.
Just a few months ago I wrote of this area, which includes the islands of Tinian and Saipan, after they were hit by Super Typhoon Sinlaku, with people on Tinian and Saipan still without power before Bavi hit.
Saipan’s airport had wind gusts of 111 mph during Bavi, Tinian 94.
And then Bavi set off for Taiwan, posing a serious danger to that island and eastern China.
Taiwan’s northern region could receive 3-feet of rain, hitting the mountains and Taipei, with 29,000 soldiers placed on standby; landslides a major concern.
But southern China was already dealing with catastrophic damage from the remnants of Typhoon Maysak, with at least 50 reported dead in the flooding, most impacted areas receiving 4-16 inches of rain, but some parts as much as 39 inches!
Many of you saw the video from a flooded snake farm, that released 900 snakes into the water, including cobras. Yikes.
And now Bavi is hitting a different part of China on Saturday.
[China was hit by another tragedy…a fire at a shoe factory in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian on Thursday, killing 28 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said. President Xi demanded a swift investigation of the incident and “strictly hold those responsible accountable.”]
—Wildfires in Spain have killed 12 people.
—Meteorologists at Colorado State University issued a revised hurricane forecast for this season, lowering their prediction to nine named storms, down from their earlier forecast of 13, with a normal season being 14.
“We’ve knocked down our numbers more given the increased likelihood for a strong El Nino,” said CSU researcher Phil Klotzbach in an email to USA TODAY.
El Nino leads to wind shear in the Atlantic, but as you see above, it can also lead to a devasting Pacific storm season.
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Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
Slava Ukraini!
God bless America.
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Gold $4105…Silver $59.65
Oil $71.55
Bitcoin: $63,867 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]
Regular Gas: $3.88; Diesel: $4.85 [$3.17 – $3.70 yr. ago]
Returns for the week 7/6-7/10
Dow Jones -0.5% [52637]
S&P 500 +1.2% [7575]
S&P MidCap -0.6%
Russell 2000 -0.5%
Nasdaq +1.7% [26281]
Returns for the period 1/1/26-7/10/26
Dow Jones +9.5%
S&P 500 +10.7%
S&P MidCap +14.4%
Russell 2000 +20.1%
Nasdaq +13.1%
Hang in there.
Brian Trumbore
