Stocks sinking, Bond yields soaring increasing YOUR cost for credit cards, mortgages and car loans. It comes as the U.S. and Iran trade fresh strikes near the Strait of Hormuz. This latest escalation has renewed fears about entrenched inflation, while Wall Streetincreasingly expects interest rate hikes this month.
On Main Street: Consumers are hurting — still paying more for food and gas.
President Trump’s war against Iran is costing more and more of YOUR TAX MONEY. The war has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles to troubling levels, according to senior officials. The military is asking companies to ramp up production.
Brandon Daniels, CEO of AI-supply chain company Exiger, a GISERMANGroup client, says U.S. factories producing weapons to restock the military could eventually help the sagging economy:
U.S. debt has surpassed $40 trillion, despite President Trump’s election promise to bring it down. At a total national debt of $40 trillion, the share amounts to approximately $300,000 per American household , and roughly $119,000 per individual person.
Trump’s investment accounts have continued to purchase and sell stock holdings in oil and natural gas companies while he oversees the U.S. war with Iran. Trump made up to $260 Million in stock trades, in June alone. The President claims his portfolio is in a blind trust. Democrats are expected to investigate Trump’s stock trading if they retake either chamber of Congress in the November midterm elections.
President Trump earlier rang the opening bells for the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq from the Oval Office, reflecting how he has increasingly tied his presidency to the stock market.
📊By The Numbers At The Close 📊
Dow 🔻400 points
Nasdaq 🔻1.00%
S&P 500 🔻0.75%
Gold 🔻$4300
Bitcoin 🔻 $77K
Gas ⬆️ $4.12/gal
⛽️Pain at the Pump - 🛒Pain in the Grocery Aisle
Oil prices pumping higher, Food prices soaring after the U.S. and Iran exchanged attacks for the first time in a month, pushing crude back above $90 a barrel. Bond yield moved to a 18-year high increasing YOUR cost for credit cards, mortgages and car loans.
President Trump says the U.S. has reached a deal with Venezuela to secure control of a big chunk of the country’s oil reserves. Trump claims the agreement will substantially lower gas prices for all Americans, but not so fast! Any meaningful new production from Venezuela will take years to materialize. As a result, the effort will have little immediate impact on what YOU now pay at the pump. The U.S. government is essentially getting in bed with a foreign dictator.
Trump is facing increasing pressure as midterm elections loom and gas prices have spiked to the highest price ever at this time of year, because of the war with Iran.
⛽️GAS PRICE IN YOUR STATE⛽️
The national Gas average is up to over $4.12 a gallon. The average price is now at its highest ever level this late in the calendar year, according to GasBuddy data.
Today’s National Average: $4.12
One Year Ago: $3.17
🛒Grocery Prices Soar
Your trip to the supermarket costs more.
The average grocery cost per month for a U.S. household is $695 up 31% from $515 in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Trump campaigned heavily on bringing down food costs. But the Iran war has added to food costs by increasing fuel prices and bringing transportation costs higher.
Grocery spending varies by household size and location, and those factors help explain the difference between the national average and an individual’s own bill.
Grocery spending by household size: One-person households spend $283 a month on groceries
The average grocery cost for a one-person household was $283 per month in 2024, compared to $856 for a household of five or more people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, which is the only federal source that provides grocery spending by household size.
‼️Vance to El-Sayed: ‘Keep My Wife’s Name the Hell Out of Your Mouth’
Vice President JD Vance had a message for Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate.
“Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth because she’s way out of your league,” Vance said Monday at a political rally hosted by super PAC MAGA, Inc., where he boosted El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
It was Vance’s harshest and most direct attack yet on El-Sayed, who is Muslim, and who has previously brought up Second Lady Usha Vance, who is Hindu and the daughter of immigrants from India, in comments about the vice-president.
Earlier this month, Vance criticized El-Sayed’s previous comments that efforts to ban Shariah law stemmed from white supremacy. Vance said he would love to go back in time to tell his grandfather, who he called Papaw. “That’s not my Papaw’s Democratic Party, my friends,” he said.
El-Sayed then responded on X: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…”
🏛️Senator Ed Markey, 80, Beats Younger Challenger
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who has spent nearly half a century in Congress, easily beat back a Democratic primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton in a generational fight that focused on Markey’s age and the future of the party.
Markey, an 80-year-old liberal who has focused on climate change, defeated Moulton, a 47-year-old congressman who has frequently tangled with establishment figures within the party.
But while several aging Democratic lawmakers lost their primaries to younger challengers this year, Markey managed to prevail, saying he was energized by serving as a bulwark against President Trump in one of the nation’s most reliably Democratic states.
🧑🏭Army Secretary Resigns: Blames Hegseth
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump following months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers.
With Driscoll’s departure, the Army will lack top Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders. Gen. Christopher LaNeve has served as acting chief of the service since Hegseth fired his predecessor, Gen. Randy George. Mike Obadal, the Army undersecretary, would be the highest ranking civilian after Driscoll departs.
Driscoll is a former law school classmate of Vice President JD Vance. A former Army officer, he forged a close relationship with George, the former Army chief of staff who was fired by Hegseth in April. The two pushed soldiers to adopt new technology and become more adaptable to battlefield threats.
🚨Warning: Imminent A.I. Cyberattack
Warning: YOU now only have months to prepare for AI-enabled cyberattacks. The red flag comes from OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft and more than 100 other firms.
Hospitals, water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure will face a swarm of hacking threats as AI makes sophisticated cyber capabilities cheaper and more accessible to attackers, the group write in an open letter.
“We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses,” the letter says.
The group is calling for “collective action” and urges organizations to use their shrinking window to secure critical infrastructure and make it more expensive and difficult for hackers using AI tools to break in.
🤖Bill Gates Warns A.I. Threatens Jobs & Lives
Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, is warning that artificial intelligence poses a grave threat to jobs and human life, and that urgently addressing the risks should be “the world’s top priority.”
Gates suggests ways to respond to AI’s risks, including setting aside some jobs for humans. “In private, people who understand how good this stuff is, and how much better it’s getting, they’re very worried,” he said. But few tech executives, Gates said, are willing to publicly admit that. “They’re now saying to each other: ‘Hey, man, don’t say that. It’s bad for us — the next trillion dollars we’re trying to raise.”
Gates published an essay on his website laying out his concerns about A.I. and offering solutions, such as new taxes and bans. He said he was motivated to speak now because recent improvements in A.I. had far surpassed his expectations and because the industry had ignored technology milestones — like A.I.’s escaping the control of its creators or making recipes for bioweapons — that it once said would warrant more caution.
July jobs numbers were disappointing, and many are worried A.I. will make it worse.
The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July
So called ‘experts’ expected payrolls to increase by 83000.
More Americans quit the labor market entirely, according to the Labor Department’s separate monthly survey of households. What’s more, the share of young, unemployed men who are not looking for work at all has doubled since the 1990s to 8%, according to Ben Smith, head of research at the American Institute for Boys and Men.
As a result, the unemployment rate eased to 4.1%, from 4.2% in June, even though fewer people were working.
Main Street fears employment losses with A.I. taking jobs. The Class of 2026 is the first to compete for jobs with Artificial Intelligence. North American companies ordered nearly 18,000 robots valued at about $1.2 billion in the first half of this year, according to a recent report from the Association for Advancing Automation. That was up 2% from the same period last year in terms of units ordered and about 7% in value.
Unemployment among 22-to-27-year-old college graduates is at 5.6%, the highest rate since 2013.
A survey of nearly 1,500 employers published by Strada Education Foundation reflects an ambivalence about hiring college grads.
Commencement speakers, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, were met with boos when they invoked AI at graduation ceremonies.
Meta — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp —layed off 8,000 people in a day.
Cisco eliminate 4,000 jobs as it shifted more resources to
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the Wall Street giant will likely hire more AI specialists and fewer traditional bankers as the adoption of the technology accelerates.
Apple has followed Google Maps in renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”
President Trump signed an executive order hanging the name I. His tariff war with Canada. It’s unclear whether he has the authority to rename a body of water shared between countries, as he did last year when he signed a similar order changing the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”
On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, referred to himself as a “big dude,” and said of Trump, “I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass.”
Trump is increasing the pressure saying the U.S. will add 50% tariffs on cars from Canada starting in January.
The President imposed a 50% tariff on other Canadian goods this weekend as trade talks collapsed.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney followed by imposing the same tariff on U.S. goods beginning in September.
Carney said he decided to suspend the trade talks because the American side had introduced last-minute terms that were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that Canada had walked away from the negotiating table, minutes before a deadline ushering in the new 50% tariffs by the Trump administration on a broad range of Canadian goods.🌊Grand Canyon Flood: 2 Dead, 1 Missing
Two people died and 1 person is missing or unaccounted for at the Grand Canyon in Arizona after dangerous flash flooding over the weekend, according to officials.
Air evacuations continued on Sunday afternoon, a day after a “significant flash flood” swept through campgrounds and hiking trails at the bottom of the national park, authorities said.
The Grand Canyon National Park Service said in an update Sunday evening that one person was recovered from the river in the park. The identity of the deceased individual has not been released.
NPS said there are at least 14 other individuals “who may be missing or unaccounted” following Saturday’s flash flood.
“The National Park Service is asking anyone who knows of hikers or backpackers who were in the inner canyon along the Bright Angel Creek corridor on August 29, as well as anyone who had a campground reservation in the affected corridor, to provide information to the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB),” the statement said.
🌊Hundreds Dead In Nepal Flooding-Video
Catastrophic flash flooding in Nepal has killed at least 900 people and left 4500 more missing — including over 40 Americans — as harrowing footage shows a massive surge of water descending from the mountains, sending dozens of terrified people running for their lives.
The deadly flooding was likely set off at least in part by an enormous chunk of ice snapping off a glacier and cascading thousands of feet to the valley below.
China has deployed over 570 emergency personnel and rescue equipment to Gyirong County to assist search efforts, per China’s state broadcast CGTN.
There were “significant” casualties in Gyirong at Tibet’s border with Nepal, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
At least 19 bridges and nearly 25 miles of road were all swept away by the floodwaters, with several villages and hydropower projects also decimated, locals officials said.
📺Trump: NBC’s Kristen Welker ‘FCC Rebuke’
In his latest diversion, President Trump raged at “Meet the Press” anchor Kristen Welker Sunday for casting aspersions on his endorsement record — saying she should be reprimanded by the FCC.
Welker said Trump had “mixed results” with his highly coveted endorsement in GOP primary elections this cycle, but Trump lashed out at the claim and urged FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to take the “Threat to our Country very seriously.”
“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” Trump bristled on Truth Social. “Unfortunately, she is not the only one.”
💵Economic ‘D-Day’ For Iran Gets An ‘F’ Grade
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched what President Trump calls an ‘economic D-Day’ against Iran. But Bessent’s announcement was just a bunch of threats: Without naming names, he said countries that continue to do business with Tehran would face U.S. sanctions.
It was not clear what the U.S. could do to further disrupt Iran’s flailing economy without inflaming tensions with China, the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil. Trump, he said, is making phone calls to world leaders requesting they stop doing business with Iran.
Beijing has warned the US that it will retaliate if Chinese companies are included in any significant expansion of the Trump administration’s new secondary sanctions relating to Iran.
Seemingly to make matters worse Trump earlier posted this on Truth Social taunting Iran:
Gas is well over $4 a gallon, Diesel is more than $5 a gallon, as the war reignited, halting most shipping and hitting hard at already-depleted refineries. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war averaged around 130 vessels each day, has collapsed to an average of 15 every day in August, according to ship trackers, under Iranian attacks and a U.S. blockade on Iran’s ports.
🚢Trump Flip-Flops On Hormuz Ship Toll Scheme
President Trump is walking back his demand for collecting a 20% toll from ships that transit through the strait of Hormuz — and instead said the U.S. would guarantee safe passage to vessels from Persian Gulf states that agree to invest in the United States.
GISERMANGroup Client Brandon Daniels, Exiger CEO, tells the NY Post:
“I don’t think that there is a real mechanism for us to charge that toll at this moment, and how we would charge that toll is still an open question of both economic policy and international law.”
“The only way to actually have the Strait of Hormuz operable in a contested environment is to have United States military capacity and presence.”
He adds, “All major shipping line CEOs, including those from the US, EU, Middle East and Asia, have said this to me personally as we have seen the Middle East become a disruption hot spot over the last five years.”
The fight against Flock cameras is getting louder as the company’s AI-enabled, license plate-reading cameras continue to spread across America.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is raising red flags about the widespread use of automated license plate readers across the state, saying the technology has expanded far beyond its original purpose and needs legislative guardrails.
“I think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it’s out of control,” DeSantis said during a press event at Florida International University in Miami.
A Kentucky police officer was arrested after authorities said he used the Flock Safety license plate reader camera system to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times, marking the latest in a string of recent law enforcement officer resignations or arrests for alleged abuses of the controversial technology.
A Florida man is facing three felony charges over the vandalism of a decoy plastic reproduction of one of the automated license plate readers authorities said.
Many cities are barring the cameras entirely with worries the U.S. is turning into a surveillance state.
💻Facebook Pays Billions In Chid Safety Suit
Facebook-parent company Meta has reached a landmark deal to pay up to $17 billion in penalties and make major changes to its products over claims its platforms endangered children. Meta will enforce a two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook for children as part of the record settlement.
In a dramatic capitulation, the owner of Facebook and Instagram agreed to the penalties for violating federal child privacy and states’ consumer protection laws.
Meta also agreed to bans on features that stoke mental health issues,striking at the heart of the company’s business of engagement for advertising.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company still faces numerous other lawsuits from school districts and individuals, some of which are scheduled for trial in the coming months.
🎤Dolly Parton Flags At Half-Staff
Singer-songwriter-actress Dolly Parton, whose glittering country music stardom was matched by her pop fame and popular parallel careers in film and TV, is dead.
The death was announced in a video posted on social media by her nephew, Bryan Seaver. No cause was provided. Concerns about Ms. Parton’s health, which began last year as she postponed and later canceled a Las Vegas residency, grew to the point that she took to social media last fall to confirm that “I ain’t dead yet.” In May, she said she had responded well to treatment after, as she put it, her immune and digestive systems “got all out of whack” in recent years.
Parton’s life, as depicted in autobiographical songs like “Coat of Many Colors” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was the stuff of make-believe, from her hardscrabble beginnings in Appalachia to her glittering stardom in Nashville and beyond.
Parton was one of the most prolific songwriters who ever lived. By her estimation, she wrote more than 3,000 songs—more than 1,000 of which were recorded and released.
President Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for a week in Parton’s honor.
Dolly Parton was 80 years old.
🏈1-in-4 N.F.L. Players Gets Brain Disease
At least one in four N.F.L. players might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period. C.T.E. is a progressive neurological disease caused by repeated impacts to the head. It can be definitively diagnosed only by examining the brain after death.
Studies have shown that the rate of C.T.E. in people who have not sustained repeated impacts to the head is nearly zero.
Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between.
The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.
The actual prevalence could be far higher. The roughly 25 percent rate does not consider the 643 brains that were not examined. Some of those, maybe many of them, likely had C.T.E. too.
💊Weight-Loss Drugs Take Bite Out Of Crime
Do GLP-1’s take a bite out of crime?
Violence across the US has seen a historic decline in the last two years, and criminologists are still trying to figure out why exactly.
But one study has offered a new theory: The new class of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could be partially responsible.
“One possible explanation comes from research suggesting that GLP-1 medications affect parts of the brain involved in reward processing and self-regulation,” Semenza told The Post.
Semenza’s research compared current GLP-1 users and found that common risk factors for violence — namely impulsivity and alcohol use — were notably lower in people currently on the drugs.
“In simple terms, they may reduce how strongly people respond to certain rewards or urges. Our findings suggest that someone may still have impulsive tendencies, but those tendencies may be less likely to translate into violent behavior,” he explained.
And with 15% of the adult population reported that they have taken a GLP-1 — tens of millions of Americans could find themselves newly restrained.
Research on the drugs’ long-term effects is still in its infancy, and therefore, it is too soon to say whether they could reduce crime over time.
📺 California Cancels Paramount/Warner Merger Talks
California’s attorney general has canceled a Monday meeting with representatives of Paramount to begin discussing a settlement of the state’s lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CBS News and CNN.
Rob Bonta, the attorney general, called off the meeting accusing Paramount of acting in bad faith. Bonta accused Paramount of leaking details of a meeting the parties held on Friday.
Bonta is expected to ask Paramount to divest some cable channels and commit to keeping its movie studio separate from Warner Bros. before he signs off on the $81 billion merger.
📝Natalie Harp’s Intimate Letters to Donald Trump
Natalie Harp’s intimate letters to Donald Trump are being revealed in full for the first time—showing her spilling her heart, and saying she is “unworthy” of him. “You are all that matters to me,” Harp writes to Trump, “I don’t want to ever let you down.”
The Daily Beast publishing the letters amid swirling questions over the national security implications of 35-year-old Harp’s status as 80-year-old Trump’s most significant gatekeeper, even being used as a conduit to the president by foreign leaders.
Harp was one of the small number of people who accompanied Trump when he fled Air Force One in a catering truck in Turkey, leaving behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio, staff, and journalists, as flying decoys, while he flew in a secret plane, to avoid an apparent Iranian plot to target Air Force One.
‼️Ossoff Calls Trump ‘Draft-Dodging Crook’
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D GA) marking the latest round in an escalating feud with the White House attacking President Trump:
“I don’t think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man, who embodies American heroism,” Ossoff said, referring to Sen Mark Kelly’s clash with the administration over his involvement in a video calling on military members to reject illegal orders.
For months, Ossoff has followed a consistent pattern: hold one large campaign rally each month, tear into President Donald Trump and his GOP opponent with easily digestible soundbites, and let those barbs ricochet around the internet.
🗳️Democratic-Socialist Wins In Florida Primary
Democratic-Socialist State Representative Angie Nixon, who ran such an underdog campaign that she could not afford a single television ad, won the Democratic Senate nomination in Florida on Tuesday in a shocking upset.
Nixon continued the left’s winning streak this year in Democratic primaries.
Florida had appeared impervious to the prevailing political winds in recent election cycles, with Republicans doing exceptionally well in the state in 2022, in what was otherwise a strong year for Democrats. Nixon’s breakthrough victory, and losses by Republicans endorsed by President Trump in several Florida congressional primaries, suggested that maybe Florida is no longer quite as immune to national trends.
David Crowley, the moderate Milwaukee County executive, won an upset victory for the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin early Wednesday, prevailing over Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who had led in opinion polls but faced questions about whether she could win the swing state in the general election. Hung has been the bane of jokes on late-night shows for saying she hates holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Crowley will face Representative Tom Tiffany, a Trump-endorsed Republican, in November.
But another progressive, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, won the high-profile Democratic Senate primary there, giving the party’s left wing a mixed showing on a busy night of primaries in six states.
In an earlier primary, Michigan progressive Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination. The fight between El-Sayed, a former local public-health official, and four-term Rep. Haley Stevens was widely seen as a referendum on the party’s identity and how it can win more competitive elections.
El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, clung to a narrow lead over Rep. Stevens — 48.6%–47.3% with 95% of the vote counted. The two are fighting to take on Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat, a must-win for Democrats to gain Senate control.
A robot named Lightning has run the 100m in 9.32 seconds, beating the human world record, China’s state broadcaster has reported.
The humanoid, developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during a test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which began on Saturday. The performance surpassed the 9.58sec men’s 100m world record set by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
China has been promoting humanoid robots as an emerging industry, with policymakers and companies betting that advances in AI and hardware will accelerate their deployment in manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.
👑 Harry & Meghan Moving Back to UK
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are moving back to the United Kingdom with their children, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are relocating with Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, but will continue to live as private citizens, the Palace said.
There was no confirmation of when the couple would be back in Britain, but media reports said it would be in time for the children to start school in September.
Harry and Meghan stepped down from full-time royal life and left the UK in March 2020. They moved to California later that month after a brief stay in Canada.
There will be no change in Harry and Meghan’s status as non-working royals, and they will remain as private individuals while they reside in Britain.
📺ABC Sues FCC—Broadcast License Challenge
Disney’s ABC has sued the FCC alleging the agency’s efforts to challenge its broadcast licenses and regulate its talk show “The View” are illegal and an effort to quash speech the Trump administration finds objectionable.
In a suit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. ABC said, “Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech—the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air. Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
ABC is asking the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the FCC’s license renewal process and requested a hearing from the D.C. Circuit Court.
The battle between ABC and the FCC began last year when FCC Chairman Brendan Carr launched a probe into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to determine whether they violated the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.
Inside ABC, executives felt that the DEI probe was really a response to commentary on some of the network’s shows, including its late night program “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and daytime show “The View,” both of which have been harsh critics of the Trump administration.
🔫Luigi Mangione Pleads Guilty to CEO Killing
Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to stalking charges tied to the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, per multiple reports.
Mangione was facing a potential life sentence if convicted in a federal trial, and the guilty plea could mean his lawyers ask to dismiss separate state charges, including second-degree murder.
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Thompson in midtown Manhattan in December 2024. The attack, which occurred in the broad daylight outside a large hotel, sparked intense media coverage and a days-long manhunt for a suspect.
Mangione was ultimately arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was charged with five counts unrelated to Thompson’s killing.
✈️Trump Ridiculed-Catering Container Escape
President Trump was secretly whisked off Air Force One in an airport catering container last month and departed Turkey on a separate military flight in response to a threat from Iran, according to reports.
The secret mission left journalists and even White House staff believing that they were on the same plane as the president when they departed the annual NATO Summit in Ankara on July 8, but in reality they served as a decoys while Trump traveled in a smaller, Air Force C-32A. The Secret Service often uses decoys to protect the president and confuse possible attackers, although not involving civilians without their knowledge.
The elaborate ruse saw Trump publicly board an older model of Air Force One before being smuggled out in a catering container that had been lifted up to a door on the opposite side of the entrance to the presidential plane.
The administration has claimed that Trump departed Turkey on July 8 on the former Air Force One. Trump announced on social media that he would use the “former Air Force One” rather than the plane that flew him there, a newer Boeing 747-8 gifted to the United States by Qatar. The security of the Qatar-provided aircraft has been called into question, and Trump said last month after the trip that it would undergo additional upgrades.
In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras. He was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane — an Air Force C-32A — via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, according to the U.S. official and corroborating material reviewed by The Post. That made Air Force One a “decoy” with media and some White House staff aboard, the official said.
Late-Night comedians couldn’t let this pass without a joke or two:
💧Iran CyberAttack On YOUR Drinking Water
A cyberattack on water systems in Minnesota was probably the work of Iranian hackers, the FBI is investigating. Cyberattacks targeting municipal water systems have been reported in at least seven states this week, prompting the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency to warn utilities nationwide that hackers are trying to disrupt critical water infrastructure.
The well and treatment plant in at least one Minnesota city was temporarily offline, while other cities in the state had to use manual workarounds to cope with attempted attacks on operations.
Is your water and electric supply vulnerable to cyberattack? GISERMANGroup client, Exiger’s Bob Kolasky, formerly with the Dept. of Homeland Security, says YES:
A group led by former Disney boss Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner, brother to Jarred Kushner, have agreed to buy a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter, the billionaire who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and whose financial empire is the subject of a federal probe for a record $12.5 Billion. It’s the highest-ever valuation for any sports team.
Walter bought the Lakers last year from the Buss family, which had owned the team since 1979 and maintained a minority stake. That deal valued the storied NBA team at $10 billion, a record price tag at the time.
💻Meta Fined $942M: Social Media Harm to Kids
Meta ordered to pay another $567 Million by a US judge in New Mexico for its failure to warn the public about dangers its platforms poses to children, marking the largest ruling against the company, which owns Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, over child safety.
The ruling is in addition to $375 million in fines Meta was already ordered to pay in the case, for a total of $942 million.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the social media giant is a “public nuisance” akin to air pollution and that it must put the money in a fund aimed at reducing future harms.
The judge compared Meta to a factory, with advertising and content as its product and “the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated”.
A Meta spokesman says, “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal.”
🛜YOUR Hotel WiFi Hacked - Microsoft Warns
Microsoft issued a warning about Russian hackers infiltrating devices on hotel WiFi networks.
“Organizations should assume that public and hospitality network infrastructure might not be trustworthy and should adopt controls that limit exposure to traffic manipulation, credential theft, and device code phishing,” Microsoft said in its warning.
Microsoft issued the warning after discovering CaptiveCrunch, a global campaign that the company attributed to Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of Russia’s Midnight Blizzard. CaptiveCrunch targets corporate travelers with credential theft and malware delivered through compromised guest networks.
The tech company has been aware of the campaign since May, and it has impacted hospitality networks and other guest networks served by captive portals worldwide.
A report from ReliaQuest found that hackers were targeting Microsoft 365 users through compromised WiFi gateways. The hackers would redirect guests to fake sign-in pages, but without first sending a phishing email or compromising the PC.
A Senate committee has voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times at the hearing, accusing Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of trying to put him “behind bars” over his handing of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But now there’s talk of using Faucci’s personal diary for a movie script.
Fauci’s personal COVID-19 pandemic diaries—totaling over 1,100 pages of typewritten daily notes spanning late 2019 through 2022—were retrieved from government servers and made public by Sen. Rand Paul ahead of a congressional hearing. The documents reveal his private thoughts on virus origins, heavy friction with the Trump administration, and his surreal experience with global fame
Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stunned the panel and millions of watching Americans when he claimed during his opening statement that “given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’”
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci added. “Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
Fauci went on to give the same response dozens of times as senators proceeded with their planned questions: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the 🏛️Blanche Reaches Deal To Become A.G.
We finally hear and see Senator Mitch McConnell. McConnell has been released from a nursing home, saying he is continuing to recover after a recent fall and a mild case of pneumonia, assuring Kentuckians he remains engaged in Senate business despite being able to return to the floor to vote.
In a statement addressed to Kentuckians, the Republican senator thanked supporters for their well wishes and acknowledged questions about his absence from the Senate.
McConnell said he was hospitalized in June after suffering a fall last month leaving him briefly unconscious. He said doctors determined he did not sustain any broken bones or a concussion and ruled out more serious conditions, including a heart attack, stroke, tumors and hemorrhages.
“While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia,” the letter stated.
The senator said he has since been transferred from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, where he is continuing to regain his strength under the guidance of his medical team.
EMS dispatch audio from the morning of June 14 suggests that emergency medical personnel were sent to McConnell’s home to attend to an unconscious person in cardiac arrest.
According to the dispatch audio, a call went out at 8:36 a.m. for an “unconscious” person at McConnell’s address, and an ambulance was sent with an advanced life support crew. Six minutes later a medic radioed that CPR was “in progress.” At 8:43 a.m., a dispatcher relayed the emergency as a “cardiac arrest.” McConnell is named nowhere in the recording, though the address is his.
On June 22, eight days after McConnell was hospitalized, his office said that he wouldn’t be voting that week “as he continues his recovery.”
📁Epstein Files: White House “Freakout
The president’s top advisers gathered in a series of Situation Room meetings as they struggled to contain a scandal engulfing Donald Trump himself, according to a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
Vice President Vance took a seat at the head of the table in the John F. Kennedy Conference Room of the Situation Room complex. “This is a huge problem,” he told the group. Arrayed around him were the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles; the White House counsel, David Warrington; the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt; the deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich; the communications director, Steven Cheung; the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche; the associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward Jr.; and the deputy chief of staff James Blair. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, joined on speakerphone.
The vice president appeared panicked to others in the room about the way the subject of Epstein was already dividing the MAGA coalition. Some senior officials had the impression that Vance had bought into the darkest theories about Epstein and a cabal of predators hidden within the country’s ruling class. Wiles would tell others that the vice president had proved himself to be a major conspiracy theorist. Another top official said later that Vance had been pounding on the Epstein issue since the release of the memo. He was privately pressing for the administration to release all the Epstein files, everything in the Justice Department’s possession, even encouraging a congressional investigation.
A federal judge has released a suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epsteinthat was sealed for years as part of the criminal case of his cellmate.
“They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!!” the note begins, adding that the result were charges going back many years.
“It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye,” the note continued.
“Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!” the note reads.
“NO FUN,” it concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”
A cellmate said he discovered the note in July 2019, after Mr. Epstein was found unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. Mr. Epstein survived that incident but weeks later was found dead in the jail.
The note was eventually sealed by a federal judge as part of the cellmate’s own criminal case, according to documents and interviews. That means investigators scrutinizing Mr. Epstein’s high-profile death lacked what could have been a key piece of evidence.
A newly-released FBI document details disturbing allegations that President Trump struck a teen girl after she “bit the sh*t out of” his penis in an assault facilitated by Jeffrey Epstein. The woman, who is not identified in the documents, described the language Trump and Epstein allegedly used when referring to girls: “fresh meat”, “untainted,” and “not jaded.” The Justice Department released F.B.I. documents describing several interviews with the woman who said she was sexually assaulted by President Trump.
The typewritten notes recounted multiple interviews the F.B.I. conducted in 2019 with the woman, who said she had been sexually assaulted by both Epstein and Trump. Her accusations against Trump date back to the 1980s, when she was a teenager. Her description of being assaulted by Trump is among a number of uncorroborated accusations against well-known men, including the president, contained in the millions of documents released by Justice.
The pages had been previously withheld from the vast trove of documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because of what officials called a mistaken determination that they were duplicates.
👶Designer Babies: Scientists Edit Embryo DNA
In a first, scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the technology might one day enable parents to safely repair disease-causing mutations in embryos. But it might also be used to select desired traits — a practice that some ethicists have argued is nothing short of eugenics.
Dieter Egli, a geneticist at Columbia University who led the research, called for a public conversation about the pros and cons of altering embryonic DNA. “As a scientist, you can provide the data for discussion, but then essentially there you stop and let others take over,” he said.
🏠MORTGAGES: Surging
The average 30-year fixed mortgage is up again close to 7%.
➡️Housing Expert Rick Sharga says the American dream is turning into the American nightmare:
FedEx has filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s government, seeking a full refund plus interest for what it paid in trade duties stemming from tariffs enacted last year. Others filing suit include Costco, Revlon, Bumble Bee Foods and Kawasaki Motors. Many other company bosses WANT THEIR MONEY BACK.
💸WHAT’S NEXT? Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels on NewsNation:
🛍️Buy Now Pay Later -or is it-Buy Now Regret Later❓
Cyber Monday spending grew more slowly in the U.S. then Europe, a new phenomenon that partly reflects the impact of President Trump’s trade war on tariff-stung shoppers. Global online spending increased about 5%, while US spending rose by 2.6%, according to Salesforce.
Bargain-hunters clicked their way online to spend $12 Billion on Black Friday weekend, 5% more than last year.
But many consumers are financing their purchases with Buy-Now-Pay-Later plans. The Consumer Guy with warnings from Mark Scribner of Wealth Enhancement Group:
➡️GisermanGroup Gets YOU Noticed
🚬SMOKIN’: Trump Orders Pot Rules Relaxed
Cannabis stocks HIGHER as President Trump eases restrictions on marijuana.
Trump has ordered marijuana reclassified as a less dangerous drug, a move that represents one of the biggest shifts in US policy toward cannabis in decades.
Trump has discussed the idea with marijuana industry executives, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
Listening to music in your senior years could cut your dementia risk by 40%.
Older adults who listened to music at least once a week had a significantly lower risk of dementia, according to a new study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.:
Always listening to music was associated with a 39% reduced dementia risk and better global cognition and memory scores.
Playing an instrument was associated with a 35% reduced dementia risk, but no significant association with changes in cognitive test scores over time.
Regularly engaging in both music listening and playing was associated with a 33% decreased risk of dementia and 22% decreased risk of cognitive impairment no dementia.
So rock on!
🛫Airplane Safety Worries For Your Next Trip
Two people were found dead in the wheel well of a JetBlue plane from New York City after it landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said Tuesday. It’s the latest in a string of incidents that have raised concerns over airline security.
A Jeju Airlines plane burst into a deadly fireball during a failed belly landing in South Korea, killing 179 people.
If your fear of flying has ramped up in recent months you’re not alone. More than half of travelers say recent news of aircraft and airline incidents has affected the way they book travel.
The latest problem: turns out new Boeing and Airbus jets have parts made from titanium, sold using fake documentation.
Exiger President Carrie Wibben tells NewsNation it raises concerns about the structural integrity of those planes.
Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance says that shiny-new iPhone you want to buy may be made by Chinese slave labor. Vance named China the biggest threat to the U.S. & Democratic VP Candidate Tim Walz agrees.
While Apple denies it uses slave labor, China and Supply Chain expert, Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels tells NewsNation many US companies unknowingly use Chinese slave labor, and that needs to stop now.
