China Sues Sen. Schmitt And Others For Defamation Over COVID-19 Lawsuit

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Years ago, I called the pandemic arguably the greatest case of negligence in the history of torts. However, with millions dead and hundreds of billions expended, it was unlikely that China would ever be truly held accountable for its actions. Those failures include not only the alleged release of the virus from the Wuhan lab but also China’s concealment of the release until it had spread globally. A $24 billion judgment was secured in Missouri earlier this year, but China defied the verdict.

Now, it has countersued, naming former Missouri Attorney General and now Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., among others as defendants. Even by the standards of the Chinese legal system, this action is legally absurd. However, in the CCP-controlled court system, the verdict is little in doubt.

China posted a notice of the lawsuit in Wuhan, naming the state of Missouri and Andrew T. Bailey, in addition to Schmitt. Bailey is listed in the notice as the current Missouri Attorney General, but he recently left that job to become the FBI’s co-deputy director.

After international service under the International Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, the defendants are called to appear before the Intermediate People’s Court of Wuhan Municipality of Hubei Province, Jianghan District in Wuhan. They are being sued for $356.4 billion Chinese Yuan, or $50.5 billion — just over twice the amount awarded in Missouri.

The complaint demands “public apologies on New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, YouTube and other American media or internet platforms, and People’s Daily, Xinhuanet and other Chinese media or internet platforms…”

The filing is premised on their bringing a successful action against China in United States courts and effectively defaming Wuhan, Chinese officials, and the government generally. I have taught torts for over 30 years and would be hard pressed to come up with a more meritless claim, but law means little in the Chinese court system.

The Missouri action named the Chinese government, various ministries, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences as defendants. They were found to have withheld information about the COVID-19 virus, failed to contain the outbreak, and actively hoarded high-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) while producing and selling lower-quality PPE to the rest of the world.

After securing the largest damage award in that state’s history, the current Attorney General filed with the U.S. State Department for diplomatic provided service to China in November 2025. Once service is confirmed, Missouri can return to the district court to obtain certification of compliance with service and seek to seize Chinese-owned assets, including real property, financial interests, and other holdings tied to the defendants.

That is what clearly prompted this tit-for-tat litigation in Wuhan.

The Chinese lawsuit names the defendants as an economic and reputational threat to the People’s Republic of China. It argues that their actions have had “negative effects on the soft power” of Wuhan and have “belittled the social evaluation” as well as adversely affected the “productivity and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

It cites the defendants as having engaged in “vexatious litigation” that “defamed Plaintiffs’ reputation, resulting in huge economic losses of the Plaintiffs, and deeply endangering sovereignty, security and development interests of China.”

Obviously, this is not vexatious litigation in any actual legal sense. The Missouri litigation was based on long-established legal precedent, even if the judgment itself against a foreign nation was unprecedented in size.

The notion that these allegations constitute defamation is absurd. First, these allegations are well-established by various countries. China enlisted the World Health Organization (WHO) and others to echo its denials about the virus’s origin. Even after the Biden Administration sought to suppress evidence and views implicating China, federal agencies and experts ultimately refuted those denials.

Even under the more demanding standard that applies to public officials and public figures (known as the “actual malice” standard), China would fall short. There is ample and credible evidence to support these statements, including findings from other countries.

There is also a type of group libel element to the Chinese action.

Such lawsuits are very difficult to maintain.  In Neiman-Marcus v. Lait (1952), a New York federal district court addressed a defamation claim arising from the publication of the book “U.S.A. Confidential.” The author wrote that “some” models and “all” saleswomen at the Neiman-Marcus department store in Dallas were “call girls.” It also claimed that “most” of the salesmen in the men’s store were “faggots.” The store had nine models, 382 saleswomen and 25 salesmen. The court found the size of the group of women was too big to satisfy a group libel standard. However, the size of the group of salesmen was viewed as sufficiently small to go to trial.

Here, China is suggesting that not only was the entire Wuhan staff but the entire nation was effectively defamed. That absurd claim was actually tried by a Chinese American group in the United States over Trump’s reference to COVID-19 as Kung Flu. The Chinese American Civil Rights Coalition brought that meritless case, which was quickly dismissed.

China is clearly hoping to engineer a verdict and then somehow use it to counterbalance or negate the Missouri judgment. It will still be tough for Missouri to ever collect on this judgment. However, the verdict was an important effort to secure a judgment on China’s conduct leading to a worldwide pandemic.

One has to assume that the Wuhan court will dutifully render a verdict to counter Missouri.

It will do little beyond confirming in the mind of many that China is as nimble at manipulating the legal system as it is at allegedly manipulating spike proteins.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 20:05

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios.

Friday:
• At 10:00 AM ET, Existing Home Sales for November from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 4.15 million SAAR, up from 4.10 million.

• Also at 10:00 AM, University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Final for December).

Peak Wokeism & More: Doug Casey On 2025's Defining Events And What Comes Next

Via InternationalMan.com,

International Man: As we step back and look at 2025—politically, economically, technologically, and culturally—which developments mattered the most?

Doug Casey: Politically, and in every other way, it’s all about Trump. As Shakespeare said of Julius Caesar, “he doth bestride the narrow world. Like a Colossus, and we petty men. Walk under his huge legs and peep about. To find ourselves dishonorable graves.”

Trump has his finger in everything, in all countries, all spheres of enterprise, everywhere. He’s a political phenomenon with authoritarian tendencies. Which is a natural consequence of an unstable “democracy.” In fact, Caesar rose to power because of the late Roman Republic’s chronic political instability—much of which he caused. Trump could be America’s answer to Caesar.

I made that observation to a friend who, like me, is prone to classical references. He countered that perhaps Trump sees himself as a Cincinnatus lookalike. Cincinnatus, you’ll recall, was a patrician citizen appointed dictator in about 458 BC to deal with a military emergency. He quickly did so. Instead of serving out the rest of his six-month term, he handed back his power and returned to his farm.

Trump sees that the US is on the cusp of a cultural crisis, and wants to avert it. He’s certainly a cultural conservative who wants to return the country to the halcyon days of yesteryear, the way it was in “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best.” But he’s also a narcissist and a megalomaniac, trying to reorder the world by signing hundreds of Executive Orders, creating chaos with his tariffs, subsidies, threats, attacks, and arbitrary blustering. At heart, Trump is a Caesar, not a Cincinnatus,

Economically, the U.S. is imitating Argentina. His actions are pretty much those of Perón, who was responsible for the destruction of the Argentine economy: tariffs to protect domestic industries, lots of arbitrary regulations, and government “partnerships” with corporations. Both Peron and Trump are reminiscent of Mussolini. It’s a slippery slope.

He’s surrounded himself with sycophants and lickspittles. His tariffs have an excellent chance of upending both the domestic and world economies. He claims that he will replace the income tax with tariffs, which sounds great. It’s true that tariffs paid for over 75% of government expenditures up to 1916. But that was when Federal spending was tiny, about 1.5% of GDP. Today, the only way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending—but Trump loves spending. DOGE is long forgotten. I predict he’ll outdo FDR by every measure in spending.

He claims to have ended eight wars around the world: Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the DRC and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Gaza. In each and every case, there’s been zero change in the fundamentals. Any ceasefires were the result of threats and bribery. By intervening, the US is likely to involve itself militarily in these places. Not to mention that he’s at the point of starting a war with Venezuela. Trump loves hyperbole, prevarication, and half-truths. His word is approaching zero value, both inside and outside the US.

There’s so much more. Will ICE ever be disbanded? Will it deport 30 million illegal aliens? Will tourism from advanced countries, worth about $250 billion a year, collapse with Trump’s new demands for vast amounts of personal data? Even though Zelensky can be shown to have personally looted several billion dollars, will he be reinstated as Ukraine’s president? What will the consequences be of Trump’s promiscuously granting pardons to friendly billionaires? Will he get away with the billion-dollar rug pull on his and Melania’s worthless cryptocoins?

We’re in a state of political chaos.

Financially, the destruction of the currency can only accelerate when Trump gets his new Fed chairman.

Technologically, we’re in an AI bubble. I don’t doubt that AI will enable huge scientific advances, but I wonder if the hundreds of billions going into AI will ever show an economic return. If not, the losses could result in real upset. The amounts are so large that—apart from the deleterious ways it can be used—they might cause a real drop in the general standard of living. Or at least catalyze a stock market collapse. The old saying “high-tech, big wreck” will likely once again prove true, even if AI changes the world for the better—which is not a certainty.

On the bright side, SpaceX can build giant rockets with large payloads and reuse them multiple times, cutting costs by a factor of 10 or 100. Bezos’ Blue Origin is doing the same. As are the Chinese. Technologically, 2025 was a great year, and in the long run, technology is what drives civilization. Loads of civilizations, governments, religions, and ideologies have risen and fallen in the 12,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age. The one thing that’s progressed on an accelerating curve, bringing mankind out of the mud, is technology.

There’s cause for long-term optimism, even if some bad things happen. However, technology needs more capital than ever. And if the economic, financial, political, and cultural problems—including Wokism and the resurgence of Islam—make it impossible to accumulate adequate capital, even the great flywheel of technology could slow down.

The biggest problem is cultural Wokeism.

Maybe the election of Trump signals peak Wokeism; many sensible people are reacting against it. But its underlying causes in the educational system, and the hive mind of Boobus americanus, are still there.

The optimist in me says that 2025 probably signals a turning point.

International Man: 2025 seemed to accelerate the delegitimization of major institutions—the media, academia, government, and even central banks.

Has the loss of trust reached the point of no return? What does that imply for the stability of the US and other countries going forward?

Doug Casey: Not so long ago, the electronic media meant CBS, NBC, and ABC. I’m not saying they were particularly truthful, but newsmen like Huntley and Brinkley, Edward R Murrow, and Walter Cronkite were thoughtful and independent. Their spoken words had more credibility than the writing in manipulative newspaper behemoths like those of Pulitzer and Hearst. Print publishers were replaced by electronic networks. Now, blow-dried lookalike corporate newscasters have lost credibility. They’ve been replaced by independent media, podcasts, and blogs. It’s true that the old institutions have been delegitimized. It’s much as Buckminster Fuller said: “You don’t change things by destroying the old order; you change the old order by making it irrelevant.”

The same thing is happening with academia. It’s become obvious to almost everybody that college is a negative value. Parents are aware that, starting in grade school, their kids are subjected to standardized indoctrination. Schools have become corrupt babysitters that enrich administrators while impoverishing their customers.

Let me draw your attention to a current series called The Chair about a totally woke mid-level Ivy League university on the edge of chaos. I mention it because I had trouble figuring out whether it was a spoof of the educational system or a semi-documentary description of it.

As for government, I suppose people are genetically programmed to want leaders. Just in my lifetime, governments have become vastly more powerful and coercive. On the other hand, the concepts of libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism have gone from things that nobody had even heard of to being widely discussed. And people are even starting to understand how central banks create fiat money, and that an increase in the money supply is what causes inflation. Even that meme is getting traction.

So there’s some cause for optimism regarding the delegitimization of corrupt old institutions. But if trust collapses too far, and everywhere, that implies bad things for the stability of society.

The U.S. used to be a high-trust culture with shared values and long-term time preferences. But now, with the mass immigration of vastly different cultures with conflicting values and very short-term time preferences, that’s changing—and not for the better. The new migrants sense that traditional American institutions in the U.S. are washing away, and they’re taking advantage of it.

International Man: Economically, 2025 was a paradox: financial markets hit new highs while the average household struggled under rising debt and falling real wages.

What does this divergence tell you about the underlying state of the economy—and where does it lead from here?

Doug Casey: The health and direction of the stock market and the economy are two different things. The massive money creation that’s gone on in the U.S. for decades, but especially over the last 10 years, has found its way into the stock market as a place to hide, out of self-preservation. I think both the stock market and the economy are riding for a fall.

International Man: It seems to many that the US is approaching a period of major political, social, and institutional upheaval. Do you think the country is at the beginning of a broader historical shift?

Doug Casey: Strauss and Howe’s book, The Fourth Turning, predicted a major upset would occur about now. But they didn’t predict who would win. I agree. My only prediction is that the US will be a different place in 10 years. Whether it will be “better” or “worse” is an open question.

*  *   *

Doug Casey’s candid assessment of 2025 makes one thing clear: we’re living through a historic inflection point—politically, economically, and culturally. But this conversation only scratches the surface. In a new free special report, Doug Casey’s Top 7 Predictions, Doug goes a step further, laying out the key trends he believes will define the decade—and what they mean for your wealth, freedom, and future. Learn how to position yourself to not just survive, but thrive, in today’s volatile economic and political environment. Click here to get it now.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 19:15

Tether CEO Warns AI Bubble Is Bitcoin's Biggest Risk In 2026

Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, has raised concerns about how a potential AI bubble could affect Bitcoin by 2026.

Ardoino shared his outlook on Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry on Thursday during the Bitcoin Capital podcast, co-hosted by Bitfinex Securities and Blockstream.

The executive said he sees Bitcoin “still too much correlated” to capital markets, thus potentially being impacted by the AI bubble, or a theorized stock market bubble growing amid the current AI boom.

“That is the so-called AI bubble, this concern about the fact that AI companies are spending too much money in AI infrastructure and data centers and trying to build a gazillion gigawatts of power and installing GPUs,” Ardoino said.

Ardoino predicts no sharp BTC corrections as seen in 2022 anymore

In a potential scenario where AI sentiment shifts in 2026, the associated stock market turmoil in the US could affect the price of Bitcoin, Tether CEO predicted.

Apart from AI bubble-associated risks, Ardoino sees no other major risks to Bitcoin performance in 2026 due to growing adoption by pension funds and governments.

Bitcoin (BTC) price chart since 2018. Source: Bloomberg

“So I would imagine that sharp corrections of 80%, like we saw in 2022 or early 2018, might not be the case anymore,” Ardoino predicted.

Ardoino also expressed bullishness on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, saying that tokenized securities and commodities are “going to be massive.”

“The only downside I see is like. Bitcoin is for Bitcoin, right? You don’t want 99% of Bitcoin being institutionalized,” he said.

Ardoino bearish on Europe and “just treasury companies”

While remaining bullish on Bitcoin and tokenization in 2026, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed a far less optimistic view on crypto adoption in Europe and on certain developments in digital asset treasuries in the year ahead.

“I’m very bearish on Europe,” Ardoino said in the interview, arguing that the region continues to lag behind on innovation.

Source: Bitfinex

“Europe will always remain the last wheel of the cart whenever we talk about innovation. Europe is trying to regulate something that it doesn’t understand yet. That is very sad,” he added.

Ardoino pointed to the implications of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which has intensified debate over centralized versus local oversight in the crypto sector.

Tether has been among the most prominent companies to openly refuse compliance with MiCA, a stance that has led many European crypto asset service providers to delist the Tether USDt stablecoin.

Addressing DATs, Ardoino said he’s “not very bullish” on crypto treasury companies that are “just treasury companies.”

“I think that you want a treasury company to have an amazing operational business,” Ardoino said, adding remarks about the Tether-backed Bitcoin company Twenty One:

“The aim for Twenty One is for Twenty One to be an amazing Bitcoin company that provides Bitcoin services and also has a Bitcoin treasury, a very important, big Bitcoin treasury.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 17:00

Tether CEO Warns AI Bubble Is Bitcoin's Biggest Risk In 2026

Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, has raised concerns about how a potential AI bubble could affect Bitcoin by 2026.

Ardoino shared his outlook on Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry on Thursday during the Bitcoin Capital podcast, co-hosted by Bitfinex Securities and Blockstream.

The executive said he sees Bitcoin “still too much correlated” to capital markets, thus potentially being impacted by the AI bubble, or a theorized stock market bubble growing amid the current AI boom.

“That is the so-called AI bubble, this concern about the fact that AI companies are spending too much money in AI infrastructure and data centers and trying to build a gazillion gigawatts of power and installing GPUs,” Ardoino said.

Ardoino predicts no sharp BTC corrections as seen in 2022 anymore

In a potential scenario where AI sentiment shifts in 2026, the associated stock market turmoil in the US could affect the price of Bitcoin, Tether CEO predicted.

Apart from AI bubble-associated risks, Ardoino sees no other major risks to Bitcoin performance in 2026 due to growing adoption by pension funds and governments.

Bitcoin (BTC) price chart since 2018. Source: Bloomberg

“So I would imagine that sharp corrections of 80%, like we saw in 2022 or early 2018, might not be the case anymore,” Ardoino predicted.

Ardoino also expressed bullishness on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, saying that tokenized securities and commodities are “going to be massive.”

“The only downside I see is like. Bitcoin is for Bitcoin, right? You don’t want 99% of Bitcoin being institutionalized,” he said.

Ardoino bearish on Europe and “just treasury companies”

While remaining bullish on Bitcoin and tokenization in 2026, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed a far less optimistic view on crypto adoption in Europe and on certain developments in digital asset treasuries in the year ahead.

“I’m very bearish on Europe,” Ardoino said in the interview, arguing that the region continues to lag behind on innovation.

Source: Bitfinex

“Europe will always remain the last wheel of the cart whenever we talk about innovation. Europe is trying to regulate something that it doesn’t understand yet. That is very sad,” he added.

Ardoino pointed to the implications of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which has intensified debate over centralized versus local oversight in the crypto sector.

Tether has been among the most prominent companies to openly refuse compliance with MiCA, a stance that has led many European crypto asset service providers to delist the Tether USDt stablecoin.

Addressing DATs, Ardoino said he’s “not very bullish” on crypto treasury companies that are “just treasury companies.”

“I think that you want a treasury company to have an amazing operational business,” Ardoino said, adding remarks about the Tether-backed Bitcoin company Twenty One:

“The aim for Twenty One is for Twenty One to be an amazing Bitcoin company that provides Bitcoin services and also has a Bitcoin treasury, a very important, big Bitcoin treasury.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 17:00

Court Axes Trevor Milton Lawsuit, Awards Attorney's Fees To CNBC And Hindenburg

A New Jersey appellate court on Monday threw out Trevor Milton’s lawsuit against CNBC and short-seller Hindenburg Research, ruling that the case was time-barred and improperly framed.

In a unanimous opinion, the Appellate Division held that Milton’s claims—styled as “trade libel”—were, in substance, ordinary defamation claims subject to New Jersey’s one-year statute of limitations. Because Milton filed suit well after that deadline, the court ordered the case dismissed with prejudice and directed the trial court to award attorneys’ fees and costs to the defendants under the state’s anti-SLAPP law.

The panel rejected Milton’s attempt to recharacterize his allegations as trade libel to avoid dismissal, concluding that the complained-of statements targeted Milton personally and concerned his credibility and conduct, not any product he sold. Since the underlying claim against CNBC failed, the court also dismissed Milton’s related allegation that Hindenburg aided and abetted the network’s reporting. At oral argument, Milton’s counsel conceded that the Hindenburg claim could not survive independently. The court emphasized that New Jersey’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act exists to deter lawsuits aimed at punishing or chilling reporting on matters of public concern.

The lawsuit stemmed from CNBC coverage and Hindenburg Research reports in 2020 that scrutinized Milton and his electric-truck startup Nikola Corp. The reporting alleged that Milton had exaggerated Nikola’s technological capabilities, including claims about proprietary battery systems and a prototype truck that was later shown to have rolled downhill rather than driven under its own power.

Milton argued that the coverage destroyed his reputation and future business prospects, asserting that CNBC knowingly broadcast falsehoods and that Hindenburg coordinated with the network to amplify them.

Both defendants countered that their reporting was accurate, newsworthy, and protected speech. Lower courts initially dismissed portions of Milton’s complaint, and the Appellate Division’s decision effectively ends the case entirely, while opening the door for CNBC and Hindenburg to recover significant legal fees. The ruling marks one of the more forceful recent applications of New Jersey’s anti-SLAPP protections to high-profile media defendants.

The decision arrives as Milton continues efforts to rebuild his business career after his dramatic fall from Nikola, which he founded in 2014 and led until his resignation in the wake of the 2020 allegations. Since then, Milton has publicly promoted new entrepreneurial ventures and investments outside Nikola, positioning himself as an innovator once again despite ongoing controversy surrounding his past claims.

After Hindenburg Research published its September 2020 report, Nikola itself publicly acknowledged that several of Trevor Milton’s prior statements were inaccurate or misleading. The company admitted that a promotional video showing a Nikola One truck “in motion” had been filmed by rolling the vehicle downhill rather than driving it under its own power, contradicting earlier impressions that the truck was fully functional.

Nikola also walked back claims that it had developed proprietary battery technology in-house, conceding that it had relied on third-party suppliers rather than owning breakthrough battery innovations as Milton had suggested. In subsequent disclosures, Nikola stated that Milton had made statements about the company’s technology and readiness that were not always supported by facts, and it emphasized that those statements were not authorized by the company—an acknowledgment that helped cement the core factual basis of the scrutiny triggered by the Hindenburg report.

Milton was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2021 on wire fraud and securities fraud charges, went to trial in 2022, and was convicted for misleading investors about Nikola’s technology and readiness. He was later spared further punishment after receiving a presidential pardon by President Trump, which wiped out the conviction.

Hindenburg Research closed up its shop at the beginning of 2025, and Milton has since moved on to his new venture, SyberJet. You can read the NJ court's opinion here. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 16:40

Court Axes Trevor Milton Lawsuit, Awards Attorney's Fees To CNBC And Hindenburg

A New Jersey appellate court on Monday threw out Trevor Milton’s lawsuit against CNBC and short-seller Hindenburg Research, ruling that the case was time-barred and improperly framed.

In a unanimous opinion, the Appellate Division held that Milton’s claims—styled as “trade libel”—were, in substance, ordinary defamation claims subject to New Jersey’s one-year statute of limitations. Because Milton filed suit well after that deadline, the court ordered the case dismissed with prejudice and directed the trial court to award attorneys’ fees and costs to the defendants under the state’s anti-SLAPP law.

The panel rejected Milton’s attempt to recharacterize his allegations as trade libel to avoid dismissal, concluding that the complained-of statements targeted Milton personally and concerned his credibility and conduct, not any product he sold. Since the underlying claim against CNBC failed, the court also dismissed Milton’s related allegation that Hindenburg aided and abetted the network’s reporting. At oral argument, Milton’s counsel conceded that the Hindenburg claim could not survive independently. The court emphasized that New Jersey’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act exists to deter lawsuits aimed at punishing or chilling reporting on matters of public concern.

The lawsuit stemmed from CNBC coverage and Hindenburg Research reports in 2020 that scrutinized Milton and his electric-truck startup Nikola Corp. The reporting alleged that Milton had exaggerated Nikola’s technological capabilities, including claims about proprietary battery systems and a prototype truck that was later shown to have rolled downhill rather than driven under its own power.

Milton argued that the coverage destroyed his reputation and future business prospects, asserting that CNBC knowingly broadcast falsehoods and that Hindenburg coordinated with the network to amplify them.

Both defendants countered that their reporting was accurate, newsworthy, and protected speech. Lower courts initially dismissed portions of Milton’s complaint, and the Appellate Division’s decision effectively ends the case entirely, while opening the door for CNBC and Hindenburg to recover significant legal fees. The ruling marks one of the more forceful recent applications of New Jersey’s anti-SLAPP protections to high-profile media defendants.

The decision arrives as Milton continues efforts to rebuild his business career after his dramatic fall from Nikola, which he founded in 2014 and led until his resignation in the wake of the 2020 allegations. Since then, Milton has publicly promoted new entrepreneurial ventures and investments outside Nikola, positioning himself as an innovator once again despite ongoing controversy surrounding his past claims.

After Hindenburg Research published its September 2020 report, Nikola itself publicly acknowledged that several of Trevor Milton’s prior statements were inaccurate or misleading. The company admitted that a promotional video showing a Nikola One truck “in motion” had been filmed by rolling the vehicle downhill rather than driving it under its own power, contradicting earlier impressions that the truck was fully functional.

Nikola also walked back claims that it had developed proprietary battery technology in-house, conceding that it had relied on third-party suppliers rather than owning breakthrough battery innovations as Milton had suggested. In subsequent disclosures, Nikola stated that Milton had made statements about the company’s technology and readiness that were not always supported by facts, and it emphasized that those statements were not authorized by the company—an acknowledgment that helped cement the core factual basis of the scrutiny triggered by the Hindenburg report.

Milton was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2021 on wire fraud and securities fraud charges, went to trial in 2022, and was convicted for misleading investors about Nikola’s technology and readiness. He was later spared further punishment after receiving a presidential pardon by President Trump, which wiped out the conviction.

Hindenburg Research closed up its shop at the beginning of 2025, and Milton has since moved on to his new venture, SyberJet. You can read the NJ court's opinion here. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 16:40

Has Orwell's 1984 Become Reality?

Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute,

To some readers it may seem like a rhetorical question to ask whether the narrative of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), first published in Britain in 1949, has somehow left its pages and settled, like an ominous miasma, over the contours of social reality. Yet, closer inspection – which means avoiding compromised mainstream news outlets – discloses a disquieting state of affairs. 

Everywhere we look in Western countries, from the United Kingdom, through Europe to America (and even India, whose ‘Orwellian digital ID system’ was lavishly praised by British prime minister Keir Starmer recently), what meets the eye is a set of social conditions exhibiting varying stages of precisely the no-longer-fictional totalitarian state depicted by Orwell in 1984. Needless to stress, this constitutes a warning against totalitarianism with its unapologetic manipulation of information and mass surveillance. 

I am by no means the first person to perceive the ominous contours of Orwell’s nightmarish vision taking shape before our very eyes. Back in 2023 Jack Watson did, too, when he wrote (among other things):

Thoughtcrime is another of Orwell’s conjectures that has come true. When I first read 1984, I would never have thought that this made up word would be taken seriously; nobody should have the right to ask what you are thinking. Obviously, nobody can read your mind and surely you could not be arrested simply for thinking? However, I was dead wrong. A woman was arrested recently for silently praying in her head and, extraordinarily, prosecutors were asked to provide evidence of her ‘thoughtcrime.’ Needless to say, they did not have any. But knowing that we can now be accused of, essentially, thinking the wrong thoughts is a worrying development. Freedom of speech is already under threat, but this goes beyond free speech. This is about free thought. Everybody should have a right to think what they want, and they should not feel obliged or forced to express certain beliefs or only think certain thoughts. 

Most people would know that totalitarianism is not a desirable social or political set of circumstances. Even the word sounds ominous, but that is probably only to those who already know what it denotes. I have written on it before, in different contexts, but it is now more relevant than ever. We should remind ourselves what Orwell wrote in that uncannily premonitory novel. 

Considering the rapidly expanding and intensifying, electronically mediated strategies of surveillance being implemented globally – no doubt aimed at inculcating in citizens a subliminal awareness that privacy is fast becoming but a distant memory – the following excerpt from Orwell’s text strikes one as disturbingly prophetic, considering the time it was written (1984, Free Planet e-book, p.5): 

Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. 

Before adducing compelling instances of the contemporary, real-world surveillance equivalents of 1984’s ‘telescreen,’ which have become sufficiently ‘normal’ to be accepted without much in the form of protest, and to refresh your memory further, here’s Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (New edition, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich 1979, p. 438): 

Total domination, which strives to organize the infinite plurality and differentiation of human beings as if all of humanity were just one individual, is possible only if each and every person can be reduced to a never-changing identity of reactions, so that each of these bundles of reactions can be exchanged at random for any other. The problem is to fabricate something that does not exist, namely, a kind of human species resembling other animal species whose only ‘freedom’ would consist in ‘preserving the species.’ 

As Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben would say: totalitarianism reduces every singular human being to ‘bare life;’ nothing more, and after having been subjected to its mind-numbing techniques for a certain time, people start acting accordingly, as if they lack the capacity to manifest their natality (unique, singular birth) and plurality (the fact that all people are singular and irreplaceable). The final blow to our humanity comes when totalitarian rule’s coup de grȃce is delivered (Arendt 1979, quoting David Rousseton conditions in Nazi concentration camps,m p. 451):

The next decisive step in the preparation of living corpses is the murder of the moral person in man. This is done in the main by making martyrdom, for the first time in history, impossible: ‘How many people here still believe that a protest has even historic importance? This skepticism is the real masterpiece of the SS. Their great accomplishment. They have corrupted all human solidarity. Here the night has fallen on the future. When no witnesses are left, there can be no testimony. To demonstrate when death can no longer be postponed is an attempt to give death a meaning, to act beyond one’s own death. In order to be successful, a gesture must have social meaning…’

Surveying the present social scene globally against this backdrop yields interesting, albeit disturbing results. For example, Niamh Harris reports that German MEP Christine Anderson and British politician Nigel Farage have both warned that globalists are frantically trying to establish a fully fledged surveillance state ‘before too many people wake up’ to this state of affairs. Anderson – whose caution is echoed by Farage – points to the irony that people are waking up precisely because globalist efforts to hasten the installation of a totalitarian surveillance state are accelerating and becoming conspicuous. Hence, the more the process is ramped up, the louder critical voices become (and protests are likely to occur), and correlatively, the more anxious the neo-fascists become, to close the net around citizens of the world. She warns that:

‘Digital identity [is] not so your life is easier. It’s so government has total control over you.’

‘Digital currency [is] the crème de la crème of all control mechanisms…What do you think is going to happen the next time you refuse to take an mRNA shot? With the flip of a switch, they just cancel your account. You cannot buy food anymore. You cannot do anything anymore.’

Given these warnings, a case in point concerns well-known globalist Tony Blair’s recent attempt to assuage people’s fears about digital ID-systems. Needless to point out, his commendation of the system (because of its ‘amazing benefits’), in conjunction with AI and facial recognition capacity, is disingenuous in the extreme, as is palpably evident from his words (quoted from Wide Awake Media on X):

‘Facial recognition can now spot suspects in real time from live video…[It] helps identify suspects quickly in busy places like train stations and events.’ ‘AI will go even further—spotting crime patterns, guiding patrols and streamlining decisions…This is where technology, like digital ID, becomes critical.’ 

Wide Awake Media’s laconic comment on Blair’s words (alluding to the already dystopian surveillance practices in the United Kingdom) says it all: ‘Imagine this kind of system in the hands of a government that imprisons people for memes and jokes.’ 

It requires no genius to grasp that these examples of attempts at furthering the totalitarian agenda of complete surveillance, coupled with inescapable control mechanisms such as CBDCs, are rooted in the structural dynamics of the (no-longer-fictional) society of Big Brother, as evocatively depicted by Orwell more than 75 years ago. Except that – given the advent of the network society of electronically mediated actions and behaviour – such surveillance and control are at a level of efficiency and pervasiveness that Big Brother could only dream of. This is unmistakable when one peruses reports such as this one, which alerts one to the fact that, in Britain today, surveillance technology enables the neo-fascist authorities to identify, arrest, and imprison individuals for so-called ‘crimes’ which echo the thoughtcrimes of Orwell’s 1984, except that, by comparison, they seem trivial to the nth degree. As the article in question states,

Following a number of high-profile arrests for speech-related crimes, Britain is seen as far as the White House as a realm of tinpot, two-tier woke tyranny, where authors of errant tweets can expect to spend more time in prison than sex pests and paedophiles and which commentators and comedians should avoid — lest they be whisked straight from arrivals to a holding cell having offended Left-wing orthodoxies.

Lucy Connolly, a mother and childminder who received a 31-month prison sentence for ‘inciting racial hatred’ over a single (quickly deleted) tweet posted in the wake of the Southport Murders, is just one of many Brits that the state has pursued for such crimes in recent years. British police presently make 30 arrests per day for online speech offences, with many of these treated far more seriously than violent, sexual, or acquisitive crimes. Connolly’s was one of 44 convictions for ‘stirring up racial hatred’ last year…

Those, like Tony Blair, who are trying their best to justify surveillance as being ‘beneficial,’ even go as far as employing Orwell’s terminology to assuage the fears of the public who would be at the receiving end of such vaunted ‘protection.’ In this vein, in 2022 outgoing mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, was reported as claiming that: 

Americans will learn to love the Chinese-style surveillance state, according to New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams who responded to criticism over increasing the use of facial recognition technology by declaring, ‘Big Brother is protecting you!’

Adams made the disturbing comments in response to elected officials who expressed concerns that using such technology is turning society into an authoritarian surveillance state.

Not everyone was enamoured of the mayor’s reassurance, however:

Albert Fox Cahn, the head of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, responded by warning that facial recognition technology would be weaponized to crack down on ‘every aspect of dissent’ in the city.

‘These are technologies that would be chilling in anyone’s hands. But to give an agency with such a horrifying record of surveillance abuse even more power, at a time when they face dwindling oversight, is a recipe for disaster,’ he said.

Part of the problem faced by freedom-loving citizens everywhere is the uncritical acceptance by many – although by no means all – people, that constantly changing technology is somehow self-justifying. It is not, as a simple thought-experiment confirms. If someone tells you that, compared to its 18th-century French Revolution precursor, today there is a much more efficient, ‘electronic guillotine’ available, which terminates a person’s life quickly, humanely, and painlessly, and could solve the overpopulation problem by euthanising people over 60 years of age, should you agree?

Of course not. For one thing, older people have the same right to life as anyone else, and many of one’s most productive, and enjoyable years come after 60. Hence, there is absolutely no ground for accepting or justifying new technology as ‘beneficial,’ simply because it is supposedly ‘more efficient.’ 

Yet, everyone of globalist persuasion seems to believe that, to persuade the ‘sheeple’ to enter the corral of digital imprisonment, all they need to do is to glorify the technology involved – lying through their teeth, of course. But lest I forget, according to the 1984 playbook, which all and sundry among the globalist neo-fascists seem to have adopted (stupidly believing that no one would notice), everything we have been taught in the world that preceded the attempt to establish their vaunted New World Order, has been turned on its head, so that ‘falsehood’ (lying) has now become ‘truth.’ If this sounds far-fetched, take a look at the globalists’ disingenuous pronouncements through the lens of 1984 (p. 6):

The Ministry of Truth—Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: 

WAR IS PEACE 

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY 

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The ‘Newspeak’ of today does exactly the same thing, as anyone who frequents the alternative media easily discovers.

Hence, if those among us who cherish our freedoms wish to preserve them, we had better be wide awake to any and all the continuing attempts to impose terminal limitations, or should I say, permanent termination, on them, all in the name of putative ‘benefits, safety, and convenience.’

If we don’t, we shall have only ourselves to blame if legislators of various stripes succeed in imposing them on us by stealth.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 16:20

Has Orwell's 1984 Become Reality?

Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute,

To some readers it may seem like a rhetorical question to ask whether the narrative of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), first published in Britain in 1949, has somehow left its pages and settled, like an ominous miasma, over the contours of social reality. Yet, closer inspection – which means avoiding compromised mainstream news outlets – discloses a disquieting state of affairs. 

Everywhere we look in Western countries, from the United Kingdom, through Europe to America (and even India, whose ‘Orwellian digital ID system’ was lavishly praised by British prime minister Keir Starmer recently), what meets the eye is a set of social conditions exhibiting varying stages of precisely the no-longer-fictional totalitarian state depicted by Orwell in 1984. Needless to stress, this constitutes a warning against totalitarianism with its unapologetic manipulation of information and mass surveillance. 

I am by no means the first person to perceive the ominous contours of Orwell’s nightmarish vision taking shape before our very eyes. Back in 2023 Jack Watson did, too, when he wrote (among other things):

Thoughtcrime is another of Orwell’s conjectures that has come true. When I first read 1984, I would never have thought that this made up word would be taken seriously; nobody should have the right to ask what you are thinking. Obviously, nobody can read your mind and surely you could not be arrested simply for thinking? However, I was dead wrong. A woman was arrested recently for silently praying in her head and, extraordinarily, prosecutors were asked to provide evidence of her ‘thoughtcrime.’ Needless to say, they did not have any. But knowing that we can now be accused of, essentially, thinking the wrong thoughts is a worrying development. Freedom of speech is already under threat, but this goes beyond free speech. This is about free thought. Everybody should have a right to think what they want, and they should not feel obliged or forced to express certain beliefs or only think certain thoughts. 

Most people would know that totalitarianism is not a desirable social or political set of circumstances. Even the word sounds ominous, but that is probably only to those who already know what it denotes. I have written on it before, in different contexts, but it is now more relevant than ever. We should remind ourselves what Orwell wrote in that uncannily premonitory novel. 

Considering the rapidly expanding and intensifying, electronically mediated strategies of surveillance being implemented globally – no doubt aimed at inculcating in citizens a subliminal awareness that privacy is fast becoming but a distant memory – the following excerpt from Orwell’s text strikes one as disturbingly prophetic, considering the time it was written (1984, Free Planet e-book, p.5): 

Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. 

Before adducing compelling instances of the contemporary, real-world surveillance equivalents of 1984’s ‘telescreen,’ which have become sufficiently ‘normal’ to be accepted without much in the form of protest, and to refresh your memory further, here’s Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (New edition, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich 1979, p. 438): 

Total domination, which strives to organize the infinite plurality and differentiation of human beings as if all of humanity were just one individual, is possible only if each and every person can be reduced to a never-changing identity of reactions, so that each of these bundles of reactions can be exchanged at random for any other. The problem is to fabricate something that does not exist, namely, a kind of human species resembling other animal species whose only ‘freedom’ would consist in ‘preserving the species.’ 

As Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben would say: totalitarianism reduces every singular human being to ‘bare life;’ nothing more, and after having been subjected to its mind-numbing techniques for a certain time, people start acting accordingly, as if they lack the capacity to manifest their natality (unique, singular birth) and plurality (the fact that all people are singular and irreplaceable). The final blow to our humanity comes when totalitarian rule’s coup de grȃce is delivered (Arendt 1979, quoting David Rousseton conditions in Nazi concentration camps,m p. 451):

The next decisive step in the preparation of living corpses is the murder of the moral person in man. This is done in the main by making martyrdom, for the first time in history, impossible: ‘How many people here still believe that a protest has even historic importance? This skepticism is the real masterpiece of the SS. Their great accomplishment. They have corrupted all human solidarity. Here the night has fallen on the future. When no witnesses are left, there can be no testimony. To demonstrate when death can no longer be postponed is an attempt to give death a meaning, to act beyond one’s own death. In order to be successful, a gesture must have social meaning…’

Surveying the present social scene globally against this backdrop yields interesting, albeit disturbing results. For example, Niamh Harris reports that German MEP Christine Anderson and British politician Nigel Farage have both warned that globalists are frantically trying to establish a fully fledged surveillance state ‘before too many people wake up’ to this state of affairs. Anderson – whose caution is echoed by Farage – points to the irony that people are waking up precisely because globalist efforts to hasten the installation of a totalitarian surveillance state are accelerating and becoming conspicuous. Hence, the more the process is ramped up, the louder critical voices become (and protests are likely to occur), and correlatively, the more anxious the neo-fascists become, to close the net around citizens of the world. She warns that:

‘Digital identity [is] not so your life is easier. It’s so government has total control over you.’

‘Digital currency [is] the crème de la crème of all control mechanisms…What do you think is going to happen the next time you refuse to take an mRNA shot? With the flip of a switch, they just cancel your account. You cannot buy food anymore. You cannot do anything anymore.’

Given these warnings, a case in point concerns well-known globalist Tony Blair’s recent attempt to assuage people’s fears about digital ID-systems. Needless to point out, his commendation of the system (because of its ‘amazing benefits’), in conjunction with AI and facial recognition capacity, is disingenuous in the extreme, as is palpably evident from his words (quoted from Wide Awake Media on X):

‘Facial recognition can now spot suspects in real time from live video…[It] helps identify suspects quickly in busy places like train stations and events.’ ‘AI will go even further—spotting crime patterns, guiding patrols and streamlining decisions…This is where technology, like digital ID, becomes critical.’ 

Wide Awake Media’s laconic comment on Blair’s words (alluding to the already dystopian surveillance practices in the United Kingdom) says it all: ‘Imagine this kind of system in the hands of a government that imprisons people for memes and jokes.’ 

It requires no genius to grasp that these examples of attempts at furthering the totalitarian agenda of complete surveillance, coupled with inescapable control mechanisms such as CBDCs, are rooted in the structural dynamics of the (no-longer-fictional) society of Big Brother, as evocatively depicted by Orwell more than 75 years ago. Except that – given the advent of the network society of electronically mediated actions and behaviour – such surveillance and control are at a level of efficiency and pervasiveness that Big Brother could only dream of. This is unmistakable when one peruses reports such as this one, which alerts one to the fact that, in Britain today, surveillance technology enables the neo-fascist authorities to identify, arrest, and imprison individuals for so-called ‘crimes’ which echo the thoughtcrimes of Orwell’s 1984, except that, by comparison, they seem trivial to the nth degree. As the article in question states,

Following a number of high-profile arrests for speech-related crimes, Britain is seen as far as the White House as a realm of tinpot, two-tier woke tyranny, where authors of errant tweets can expect to spend more time in prison than sex pests and paedophiles and which commentators and comedians should avoid — lest they be whisked straight from arrivals to a holding cell having offended Left-wing orthodoxies.

Lucy Connolly, a mother and childminder who received a 31-month prison sentence for ‘inciting racial hatred’ over a single (quickly deleted) tweet posted in the wake of the Southport Murders, is just one of many Brits that the state has pursued for such crimes in recent years. British police presently make 30 arrests per day for online speech offences, with many of these treated far more seriously than violent, sexual, or acquisitive crimes. Connolly’s was one of 44 convictions for ‘stirring up racial hatred’ last year…

Those, like Tony Blair, who are trying their best to justify surveillance as being ‘beneficial,’ even go as far as employing Orwell’s terminology to assuage the fears of the public who would be at the receiving end of such vaunted ‘protection.’ In this vein, in 2022 outgoing mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, was reported as claiming that: 

Americans will learn to love the Chinese-style surveillance state, according to New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams who responded to criticism over increasing the use of facial recognition technology by declaring, ‘Big Brother is protecting you!’

Adams made the disturbing comments in response to elected officials who expressed concerns that using such technology is turning society into an authoritarian surveillance state.

Not everyone was enamoured of the mayor’s reassurance, however:

Albert Fox Cahn, the head of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, responded by warning that facial recognition technology would be weaponized to crack down on ‘every aspect of dissent’ in the city.

‘These are technologies that would be chilling in anyone’s hands. But to give an agency with such a horrifying record of surveillance abuse even more power, at a time when they face dwindling oversight, is a recipe for disaster,’ he said.

Part of the problem faced by freedom-loving citizens everywhere is the uncritical acceptance by many – although by no means all – people, that constantly changing technology is somehow self-justifying. It is not, as a simple thought-experiment confirms. If someone tells you that, compared to its 18th-century French Revolution precursor, today there is a much more efficient, ‘electronic guillotine’ available, which terminates a person’s life quickly, humanely, and painlessly, and could solve the overpopulation problem by euthanising people over 60 years of age, should you agree?

Of course not. For one thing, older people have the same right to life as anyone else, and many of one’s most productive, and enjoyable years come after 60. Hence, there is absolutely no ground for accepting or justifying new technology as ‘beneficial,’ simply because it is supposedly ‘more efficient.’ 

Yet, everyone of globalist persuasion seems to believe that, to persuade the ‘sheeple’ to enter the corral of digital imprisonment, all they need to do is to glorify the technology involved – lying through their teeth, of course. But lest I forget, according to the 1984 playbook, which all and sundry among the globalist neo-fascists seem to have adopted (stupidly believing that no one would notice), everything we have been taught in the world that preceded the attempt to establish their vaunted New World Order, has been turned on its head, so that ‘falsehood’ (lying) has now become ‘truth.’ If this sounds far-fetched, take a look at the globalists’ disingenuous pronouncements through the lens of 1984 (p. 6):

The Ministry of Truth—Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: 

WAR IS PEACE 

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY 

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The ‘Newspeak’ of today does exactly the same thing, as anyone who frequents the alternative media easily discovers.

Hence, if those among us who cherish our freedoms wish to preserve them, we had better be wide awake to any and all the continuing attempts to impose terminal limitations, or should I say, permanent termination, on them, all in the name of putative ‘benefits, safety, and convenience.’

If we don’t, we shall have only ourselves to blame if legislators of various stripes succeed in imposing them on us by stealth.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 16:20

The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in November. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index increased 0.1%. "The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI are measures of core inflation calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on data released in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly CPI report".

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the year-over-year change for these four key measures of inflation. 
On a year-over-year basis, the median CPI rose 3.1% (down from 3.5% YoY in September), the trimmed-mean CPI rose 2.9% (down from 3.3%), and the CPI less food and energy rose 3.0% (down from 3.2%). 
Core PCE is for September was up 2.8% YoY, down from 2.9% in August.  

Watch: Presidential 'Wall Of Fame' Gets A Savage Upgrade...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

President Trump has seemingly taken his trolling to new heights by installing brutal plaques beneath key presidential portraits at the White House, exposing the failures of his leftist predecessors.

The inscriptions lay waste to the deep state’s darlings—detailing Obama’s foreign policy debacles, Clinton’s globalist sellouts, and Biden’s total mental collapse—while also celebrating Reagan’s conservative triumphs that paved the way for Trump’s landslide victory.

Building on the initial autopen stunt, fresh images reveal expanded plaques that deliver unfiltered truth about how radical policies wrecked American sovereignty and prosperity.

The new additions, spotted near the Rose Garden, align with Trump’s promise to rewrite the narrative on failed administrations that prioritized open borders, endless wars, and economic surrender over putting America First.

Analysis of the photos suggests they are genuine, with natural lighting, shadows, and reflections on the frames and glass showing no signs of AI manipulation such as distorted text or unnatural elements. 

The White House has added text to the Wall of Fame next to the Rose Garden. ? @PenguinSix pic.twitter.com/3mVNI21LDo

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 17, 2025

The images are credited to X user @PenguinSix—a D.C.-based freelancer and live streamer known for real-time coverage of White House developments.

Starting with the autopen standing in for Biden, the top plaque reads:

“Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction. His Policies caused the highest Inflation ever recorded, leading the U.S. Dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in 4 years. His Green New Scam surrendered American Energy Dominance and, by abolishing the Southern Border, Biden let 21 million people from all over the World pour into the United States, including from prisons, jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums. His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History, and resulted in the murder of 13 brave American Servicemembers, with many others gravely wounded. Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.”

The bottom plaque for Biden continues:

“Nicknamed both ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crooked,’ Joe Biden was dominated by his Radical Left handlers. They and their allies in the Fake News Media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen. Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace. Biden weaponized Law Enforcement against his political opponents, while also persecuting many other innocent people. He left office issuing blanket pardons to Radical Democrat criminals and the guilty as well as members of the Biden Crime Family — But despite it all, President Trump would get Re-Elected in a Landslide, and SAVE AMERICA!”

Moving to Barack Obama, the plaques are forthright on his divisive tenure. The top one states:

“Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History. As President, he passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable Care’ Act, resulting in his party losing control of both Houses of Congress, and the Election of the largest House Republican majority since 1946. He presided over a stagnant Economy, approved the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, and signed the one-sided Paris Climate Accords, both of which were later terminated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The bottom Obama plaque adds:

“Under Obama, the ISIS Caliphate spread across the Middle East, Libya collapsed into chaos, and Russia invaded and took Crimea, in Ukraine. He crippled small businesses with crushing regulation and environmental red tape, devastated American coal miners, and weaponized the IRS and Federal bureaucracies against his political opponents. Obama also spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia political scandal in American History. His handpicked successor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, would then lose the Presidency to Donald J. Trump.”

For Bill Clinton, the single plaque highlights his globalist betrayals:

“Bill Clinton served as Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas before winning the Presidency in what was called a major upset over President George H. W. Bush. As President, Clinton signed crime and welfare legislation, which was passed with the leadership of Republicans in Congress. He approved NAFTA, which President Donald J. Trump would later terminate as being bad for the United States, welcomed China into the World Trade Organization, and oversaw NATO’s Military intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. Despite the scandals that plagued his Presidency, the tech boom of the late 1990s resulted in excellent Economic growth, which helped him and Republicans in Congress deliver balanced budgets for the first time in decades. In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!”

Finally, Ronald Reagan gets a glowing tribute that ties directly to Trump’s movement:

“Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and transformed American politics and the Conservative Movement. Before entering the White House, Reagan was a Hollywood actor, President of the Screen Actors Guild, Governor of California and, for decades, a leading voice in American Conservatism. As President, he enacted Tax Cuts, presided over a thriving Economy, and rebuilt the American Military. He survived being shot by an assassin, and confronted the Soviet Union with striking moral clarity, labeling it an ‘evil empire,’ and putting unprecedented pressure on the Communist menace. Known as ‘The Great Communicator,’ he was re-elected in a Landslide in 1984, and left office with high approval, having restored National Confidence, Spirit, and Will. He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!”

Responses have been mixed, with some praising the additions and some suggesting they are a waste of time.

Quiet little move, but it matters. History is written by whoever gets the wall space, and the bureaucracy knows it. Who decided these additions, and what else is getting rewritten behind the scenes?

— rowdyamerican (@rowdyamerican69) December 17, 2025

Hahaha. Sign a bill saying these can never be removed. ??

— C_Ross_++ (@C_Ross_tt) December 17, 2025

This is what we get instead of deep state arrests and economic advancement. Peak boomer-IQ level.

— Im Just Here For The Chaos. (@MashedPotatoJK) December 17, 2025

All this time and effort spent on ‘owning the libs’ when we just want a thriving country.

Like haha yes this is funny, but not too funny because White people are being replaced and we can’t fucking afford anything.

This administration is a joke, I can’t believe I voted for…

— Mr. White (@MrWhiteGroyper) December 17, 2025

This administration needs to stop doing petty bullshit and actually start cracking down.

— I. Williams (@TedWilliam97) December 17, 2025

Pointless performative distractions. Where are the arrests? Where are the Epstein files? On and on…

— Puke (@Puke1260) December 17, 2025

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 15:30

Watch: Presidential 'Wall Of Fame' Gets A Savage Upgrade...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

President Trump has seemingly taken his trolling to new heights by installing brutal plaques beneath key presidential portraits at the White House, exposing the failures of his leftist predecessors.

The inscriptions lay waste to the deep state’s darlings—detailing Obama’s foreign policy debacles, Clinton’s globalist sellouts, and Biden’s total mental collapse—while also celebrating Reagan’s conservative triumphs that paved the way for Trump’s landslide victory.

Building on the initial autopen stunt, fresh images reveal expanded plaques that deliver unfiltered truth about how radical policies wrecked American sovereignty and prosperity.

The new additions, spotted near the Rose Garden, align with Trump’s promise to rewrite the narrative on failed administrations that prioritized open borders, endless wars, and economic surrender over putting America First.

Analysis of the photos suggests they are genuine, with natural lighting, shadows, and reflections on the frames and glass showing no signs of AI manipulation such as distorted text or unnatural elements. 

The White House has added text to the Wall of Fame next to the Rose Garden. ? @PenguinSix pic.twitter.com/3mVNI21LDo

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 17, 2025

The images are credited to X user @PenguinSix—a D.C.-based freelancer and live streamer known for real-time coverage of White House developments.

Starting with the autopen standing in for Biden, the top plaque reads:

“Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction. His Policies caused the highest Inflation ever recorded, leading the U.S. Dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in 4 years. His Green New Scam surrendered American Energy Dominance and, by abolishing the Southern Border, Biden let 21 million people from all over the World pour into the United States, including from prisons, jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums. His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History, and resulted in the murder of 13 brave American Servicemembers, with many others gravely wounded. Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.”

The bottom plaque for Biden continues:

“Nicknamed both ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crooked,’ Joe Biden was dominated by his Radical Left handlers. They and their allies in the Fake News Media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen. Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace. Biden weaponized Law Enforcement against his political opponents, while also persecuting many other innocent people. He left office issuing blanket pardons to Radical Democrat criminals and the guilty as well as members of the Biden Crime Family — But despite it all, President Trump would get Re-Elected in a Landslide, and SAVE AMERICA!”

Moving to Barack Obama, the plaques are forthright on his divisive tenure. The top one states:

“Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History. As President, he passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable Care’ Act, resulting in his party losing control of both Houses of Congress, and the Election of the largest House Republican majority since 1946. He presided over a stagnant Economy, approved the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, and signed the one-sided Paris Climate Accords, both of which were later terminated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The bottom Obama plaque adds:

“Under Obama, the ISIS Caliphate spread across the Middle East, Libya collapsed into chaos, and Russia invaded and took Crimea, in Ukraine. He crippled small businesses with crushing regulation and environmental red tape, devastated American coal miners, and weaponized the IRS and Federal bureaucracies against his political opponents. Obama also spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia political scandal in American History. His handpicked successor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, would then lose the Presidency to Donald J. Trump.”

For Bill Clinton, the single plaque highlights his globalist betrayals:

“Bill Clinton served as Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas before winning the Presidency in what was called a major upset over President George H. W. Bush. As President, Clinton signed crime and welfare legislation, which was passed with the leadership of Republicans in Congress. He approved NAFTA, which President Donald J. Trump would later terminate as being bad for the United States, welcomed China into the World Trade Organization, and oversaw NATO’s Military intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. Despite the scandals that plagued his Presidency, the tech boom of the late 1990s resulted in excellent Economic growth, which helped him and Republicans in Congress deliver balanced budgets for the first time in decades. In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Hillary, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!”

Finally, Ronald Reagan gets a glowing tribute that ties directly to Trump’s movement:

“Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and transformed American politics and the Conservative Movement. Before entering the White House, Reagan was a Hollywood actor, President of the Screen Actors Guild, Governor of California and, for decades, a leading voice in American Conservatism. As President, he enacted Tax Cuts, presided over a thriving Economy, and rebuilt the American Military. He survived being shot by an assassin, and confronted the Soviet Union with striking moral clarity, labeling it an ‘evil empire,’ and putting unprecedented pressure on the Communist menace. Known as ‘The Great Communicator,’ he was re-elected in a Landslide in 1984, and left office with high approval, having restored National Confidence, Spirit, and Will. He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!”

Responses have been mixed, with some praising the additions and some suggesting they are a waste of time.

Quiet little move, but it matters. History is written by whoever gets the wall space, and the bureaucracy knows it. Who decided these additions, and what else is getting rewritten behind the scenes?

— rowdyamerican (@rowdyamerican69) December 17, 2025

Hahaha. Sign a bill saying these can never be removed. ??

— C_Ross_++ (@C_Ross_tt) December 17, 2025

This is what we get instead of deep state arrests and economic advancement. Peak boomer-IQ level.

— Im Just Here For The Chaos. (@MashedPotatoJK) December 17, 2025

All this time and effort spent on ‘owning the libs’ when we just want a thriving country.

Like haha yes this is funny, but not too funny because White people are being replaced and we can’t fucking afford anything.

This administration is a joke, I can’t believe I voted for…

— Mr. White (@MrWhiteGroyper) December 17, 2025

This administration needs to stop doing petty bullshit and actually start cracking down.

— I. Williams (@TedWilliam97) December 17, 2025

Pointless performative distractions. Where are the arrests? Where are the Epstein files? On and on…

— Puke (@Puke1260) December 17, 2025

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 15:30

Nicolas Van Praet of the Globe and Mail reports WSP Global to buy TRC Companies in continued push to build capability

Canadian engineering firm WSP Global Inc. is bulking up once again, announcing a deal to buy U.S. power and energy service consultancy TRC Companies as it continues a relentless drive to build capability and consolidate the industry.

WSP will pay US$3.3-billion in cash for TRC and take on its 8,000 employees, becoming the largest engineering and design firm by revenue in the United States when the transaction closes, the Montreal-based company said in a statement Monday. TRC, based in Windsor, Conn., is currently owned by funds managed by private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.

“Joining forces will position our business for accelerated organic growth and create an integrated platform with industry-leading capabilities in advisory, engineering, and program management,” WSP chief executive officer Alexandre L’Heureux said in a statement. “Together, we are poised to deliver more complex projects and offer expanded end-to-end services to help solve our clients’ critical needs, from aging infrastructure to grid modernization and electrification.”

The acquisition is the latest in a wave of deals by WSP, as Mr. L’Heureux reshapes what was once a boutique engineering business into a company with a global reputation. Barely six months ago, WSP struck an agreement to take over British transport and energy firm Ricardo PLC and in October, 2024, finalized a deal to buy U.S. energy specialist Power Engineers for US$1.8-billion.

WSP said it expects the purchase to be accretive to its adjusted net earnings per share by a low- to mid-single percentage to start, with benefits climbing once cost savings are achieved. The company said adding TRC will drive scale across several strategic high-growth areas, including bolstering its digital offering.

WSP will sell stock to help fund the deal and take on new debt. It will raise at least $850-million in the share sale, including $732-million in a bought deal public offering run by a banking syndicate led by CIBC Capital Markets.

The company has also struck a private placement agreement with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for proceeds of about $118-million. The pension fund, which is already WSP’s single biggest shareholder, would increase its stake to about 14 per cent with the transaction.

TRC began in 1969 as The Research Corporation of New England, a meteorological and air quality analysis firm. Today, its work includes designing automation systems for energy company Avangrid Inc., and advising Eversource Energy, an electric utility, on the development of a utility-scale battery energy storage system for Cape Cod, Mass.

WSP is benefiting from several major trends in its business. Governments in the United States and other Western countries plan to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure over the next few years, tapping the kind of expertise WSP has sharpened over time. Those same countries are also trying to figure out how to decarbonize their economies in part through renewable energy, electricity system revamps and other projects – and WSP is booking that type of work as well.

The company, perhaps best known for its transportation projects and superskinny skyscrapers, recently won the largest contract in its history. WSP will provide its expertise for Britain’s Great Grid Upgrade, the biggest overhaul of the electricity network in England and Wales in decades.

The Environment Journal also reports WSP to super charge energy services with TRC acquisition for $4.5B:

Montreal-based WSP Global Inc., one of the world’s leading professional service firms, has agreed to acquire TRC Companies, a U.S.-based engineering and construction firm.

The proposed acquisition, for a total cash purchase price of US$3.3 billion (approximately $4.5 billion based on the current exchange rate), marks a significant step on WSP’s journey to achieve its 2025-2027 Global Strategic Action Plan. The proposed acquisition will position WSP as the largest engineering and design firm in the U.S., supercharging its power and energy offering and enhancing its capabilities across the water, infrastructure, and environment sectors.

Based in Windsor, Connecticut, TRC has been a pioneer in adaptability and innovation for more than 55 years. TRC has established itself as a leader and recognized strategic advisor in the engineering and consulting industry, maintaining relationships with blue-chip utilities. Its team of approximately 8,000 employees offers an integrated approach that delivers long-term value for clients facing complex infrastructure and energy challenges.

The proposed Acquisition complements WSP’s offering in attractive market sectors, will expand its client relationships, and enhance its capabilities throughout the project lifecycle, notably with a portfolio of advisory practices tailored to utilities and program management expertise. It will also create potential cross-selling opportunities across power engineering, environmental solutions, and advisory services. At the same time, TRC will bring a shared commitment to innovation and operational excellence, with investments in digital solutions and a highly skilled workforce—further amplifying WSP’s ability to deliver integrated, future-forward solutions.

“The proposed Acquisition of TRC is a defining moment in the execution of WSP’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. Building on our track record of excellence and compounding financial performance, this strategic move will cement WSP as the Power & Energy consulting leader in the U.S. and globally. Joining forces will position our business for accelerated organic growth and create an integrated platform with industry-leading capabilities in advisory, engineering, and program management,” stated Alexandre L’Heureux, President and Chief Executive Officer of WSP.

“With TRC’s highly complementary expertise in power delivery, transmission, distribution, and advisory services, our combined offering will cover the entire utility and infrastructure value chain. Together, we are poised to deliver more complex projects and offer expanded end-to-end services to help solve our clients’ critical needs, from aging infrastructure to grid modernization and electrification.”

Also commenting on the acquisition, Christopher P. Vincze, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TRC, said: “The joining of our two firms will create significant and exciting opportunities for our people, our clients and the communities in which we live and work. With TRC’s innovative, technology-oriented power business, underscored by an advanced use of digital, we will significantly strengthen WSP’s Power & Energy offering. Additionally, TRC’s globally recognized Environmental & Infrastructure business, which is the seed from which TRC grew, will enhance WSP’s capabilities across Water, Infrastructure and Environment. Our combined skill sets will elevate us to better support, over the next decade and beyond, our people and planet as we face unprecedented growth of power needs on the back of ongoing electrification, the re-emergence of domestic manufacturing in the U.S. and the continued growth of infrastructure.”

Reflecting on their investment, Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice President and Head of Québec at La Caisse said: “With this investment, La Caisse once again demonstrates its ongoing commitment to WSP, helping to position the company as a leader in engineering and design in the United States and globally, while accelerating the development of its Energy offering, a sector with strong potential. This transaction is at the core of our strategy to support the international expansion of companies firmly rooted in Québec and to give them the means to achieve sustainable growth.”

The deal is expected to close in Q1 2026 pending regulatory approvals.  

On Monday, La Caisse issued WSP's press release on its website:

• Milestone transaction: Welcoming a U.S. premier Power & Energy brand of approximately 8,000 people to create the #1 Power & Energy platform in the U.S.1 for a total cash purchase price of US$3.3 billion.
• Highly accretive: Expected to be low- to mid-single digit percentage accretive to WSP’s adjusted net earnings per share  and high-single digit percentage accretive once cost synergies are fully realized2,3.
• Highly complementary: Expands our offering in the Power & Energy sector and provides potential cross-selling opportunities similar to our POWER Engineers experience.
• Drives scale across strategic high-growth areas fuelled by strong fundamentals:
  • Grows Advisory capabilities
  • Expands Program Management expertise
  • Adds to Digital offering with innovative solutions
  • Enhances service offering across Water, Infrastructure and Environment
• Elevates leading position in the U.S.: Combined with TRC, WSP will become the largest engineering and design firm in the U.S. by revenue4, with approximately 27,000 employees.
• Provides further diversification: 34% of U.S. net revenues to be derived from the Power & Energy sector5.
• Accelerates WSP’s organic growth rate profile globally: Approximately two-thirds of WSP’s global net revenues to be derived from Canada and the Americas, and approximately 20% from Power & Energy—a double-digit organic growth rate sector6.
• Fully aligned with WSP’s 2025-2027 Global Strategic Action Plan: Pioneering change for empowered growth.
• Equity Offering: ~$850 million equity offering composed of $732 million bought deal and approximately $118 million concurrent private placement with La Caisse.

WSP Global Inc. (TSX: WSP) (“WSP” or the “Corporation”), one of the world’s leading professional services firms, proudly announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire TRC Companies (“TRC”), a premier U.S. Power & Energy brand delivering end-to-end solutions that support the full infrastructure lifecycle (the “Acquisition”), currently majority-owned by funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC. The proposed Acquisition, for a total cash purchase price of US$3.3 billion (approximately $4.5 billion based on the exchange rate of $1.3762 USD/CAD as of December 15, 2025), marks a significant step on WSP’s journey to achieve its 2025-2027 Global Strategic Action Plan. The proposed Acquisition will position WSP as the largest engineering and design firm in the U.S., supercharging its Power & Energy offering and enhancing its capabilities across Water, Infrastructure, and Environment.

Based in Windsor, Connecticut, TRC has been a pioneer in adaptability and innovation for more than 55 years. TRC has established itself as a leader and recognized strategic advisor in the engineering and consulting industry, maintaining deep, long-term relationships with blue-chip utilities. Its team of approximately 8,000 employees offers an integrated approach that delivers long-term value for clients facing complex infrastructure and energy challenges.

The proposed Acquisition complements WSP’s offering in attractive market sectors, will expand its client relationships, and enhance its capabilities throughout the project lifecycle, notably with a portfolio of advisory practices tailored to utilities and program management expertise. It will also create potential cross-selling opportunities across power engineering, environmental solutions, and advisory services. At the same time, TRC will bring a shared commitment to innovation and operational excellence, with investments in digital solutions and a highly skilled workforce—further amplifying WSP’s ability to deliver integrated, future-forward solutions.

“The proposed Acquisition of TRC is a defining moment in the execution of WSP’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. Building on our track record of excellence and compounding financial performance, this strategic move will cement WSP as the Power & Energy consulting leader in the U.S. and globally. Joining forces will position our business for accelerated organic growth and create an integrated platform with industry-leading capabilities in advisory, engineering, and program management. With TRC's highly complementary expertise in power delivery, transmission, distribution, and advisory services, our combined offering will cover the entire utility and infrastructure value chain. Together, we are poised to deliver more complex projects and offer expanded end-to-end services to help solve our clients’ critical needs, from aging infrastructure to grid modernization and electrification,” commented Alexandre L’Heureux, President and Chief Executive Officer of WSP.

Also commenting on the Acquisition, Christopher P. Vincze, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TRC, said: “The joining of our two firms will create significant and exciting opportunities for our people, our clients and the communities in which we live and work. With TRC’s innovative, technology-oriented power business, underscored by an advanced use of digital, we will significantly strengthen WSP’s Power & Energy offering. Additionally, TRC’s globally recognized Environmental & Infrastructure business, which is the seed from which TRC grew, will enhance WSP’s capabilities across Water, Infrastructure and Environment. Our combined skill sets will elevate us to better support, over the next decade and beyond, our people and planet as we face unprecedented growth of power needs on the back of ongoing electrification, the re-emergence of domestic manufacturing in the U.S. and the continued growth of infrastructure. We were an early pioneer in the utility sector and continue to be a trusted thought partner, working to create, implement and manage complex strategies and programs to meet the country’s power needs. TRC’s people continue to be passionate about making the world a better place, and this next chapter will allow us to come together with WSP in a very exciting way to further that goal.”

Reflecting on their investment, Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice President and Head of Québec at La Caisse said: “With this investment, La Caisse once again demonstrates its ongoing commitment to WSP, helping to position the company as a leader in engineering and design in the United States and globally, while accelerating the development of its Energy offering, a sector with strong potential. This transaction is at the core of our strategy to support the international expansion of companies firmly rooted in Québec and to give them the means to achieve sustainable growth.”

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Proposed Acquisition of TRC for a total cash purchase price of US$3.3 billion (approximately $4.5 billion based on the exchange rate of $1.3762 USD/CAD as of December 15, 2025).
• Acquisition price represents 14.5x TRC’s Pre-IFRS 16 CY2026E Adjusted EBITDA  pre-synergies and 12.5x after including run-rate synergies.  (TRC’s Pre-IFRS 16 Adjusted EBITDA and earnings before net interest and income tax for the financial year ended June 30, 2025 were approximately US$192.3 million ($268.5 million) and US$87.5 million ($122.1 million), respectively).
• Expected to be low-to-mid single-digit percentage accretive to WSP’s adjusted net earnings per share before synergies. WSP expects 2027 Accretion (as defined below) to be high single-digit percentage accretive once cost synergies are fully realized (WSP’s basic net earnings per share attributable to shareholders and adjusted net earnings per share were $5.40 and $8.05 respectively, for the financial year ended December 31, 2024).2,9
• Expected cost synergies to exceed 3% of TRC’s net revenues for the financial year ended June 30, 20257, plus potential cross-selling revenue synergy opportunities in alignment with our POWER Engineers experience (TRC's net revenues and revenues for the financial year ended June 30, 2025 were approximately US$1,192.2 million and US$1,498.9 million, respectively).8
• Transaction to be financed with US$3.3 billion of Committed Acquisition Financing (as defined below).
• Estimated pro forma Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio6 of ~2.4x upon closing of the Acquisition with the expectation to return to below 2.0x within 12 months6 (WSP's net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio for the trailing twelve-month period ended September 27, 2025 was 1.4x and adjusted EBITDA and earnings before net financing expense and income taxes for the same period were approximately $2,501.4 million and $1,481.0 million, respectively).
• Equity raise of approximately $850 million: $732 million bought deal public offering and approximately $118 million private placement of common shares of WSP (“Common Shares”) expected to close on or about December 22, 2025, with a corresponding reduction of the amounts drawn from the Committed Acquisition Financing. WSP may also opportunistically access debt capital markets to repay a further portion of the Committed Acquisition Financing should market conditions be favourable.

Take the time to read full press release here as it's long.  

So, La Caisse struck a private placement agreement with WSP for $118-million to help it acquire TRC, a recognized power and energy leader and strategic advisor in the engineering and consulting industry, maintaining relationships with blue-chip utilities.

With this private placement, La Caisse which is already WSP’s single biggest shareholder, will increase its stake to about 14%.

It's fair to say WSP is one of the biggest and best investments in La Caisse's massive Quebec portfolio.

Led by CEO Alexandre L’Heureux, WSP is Quebec's most prolific acquirer, making a series of strategic acquisitions to cement its position as a Canadian and now global leader. 

This acquisition of TRC Companies is by far its biggest acquisition, it's highly complementary and catapults WSP into a leading global advisory and engineering firm, helping them expand end-to-end services to address their clients’ critical needs, from aging infrastructure to grid modernization and electrification.

It will also create potential cross-selling opportunities across power engineering, environmental solutions, and advisory services. 

Just a smart strategy for an engineering powerhouse and I'm certain the merger will benefit WSP, TRC, its clients and its investors over the long run.

Over the past 5 years, shares of WSP have doubled and while they will need to sell shares and raise debt to make this acquisition happen, I'm quite confident this will remain a great long-term investment:

Having La Caisse as a backer helps but the company has delivered on its strategic plan and investors have rewarded it. 

Lastly, Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice President and Head of Québec at La Caisse posted something on LinkedIn going over how her team once again helped deliver the organization's dual mandate over the past year (I translated it on LinkedIn for my readers):

Take the time to go over the post here as it's interactive and contains key highlights.

Let me also take the time to wish Kim and the entire team at La Caisse happy holidays and much success in the new year. 

Below, Alexandre J. L'Heureux, CEO of WSP Global, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the company's acquisition of TRC Companies. Take the time to listen to this interview, he's excellent and explains very well why this is a great acquisition for the company.

"There's a lot of work (in the electrical area) and we expect a lot of work over the next decade."  

House Kills Bill On Blocking War With Venezuela

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

The House on Wednesday voted down a War Powers Resolution meant to block President Trump from launching a war with Venezuela without congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.

The bill failed in a vote of 211-213, with nine representatives not voting. Just three Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the bill: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), and Don Bacon (NE). One Democrat, Henry Cuellar (TX), voted against the legislation.

Source: Spectrum News 1

The legislation would have directed the president to remove "United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress."

Before the Venezuela bill, another War Powers Resolution aimed at stopping President Trump’s bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean also failed. That bill failed in a vote of 210-216, with two Republicans (Massie and Bacon) voting in favor and two Democrats (Ceullar and Vicente Gonzalez (TX) voting against.

The votes came a day after President Trump declared a "complete and total blockade" on "sanctioned" tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, an action that’s widely considered an act of war under international law. President Trump and his top officials have also been clear that their goal is regime change.

"Do we want a miniature Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere?" Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, asked on the House floor before the vote.

"If that cost is acceptable to this Congress, then we should vote on it as a voice of the people and in accordance with our Constitution," Massie continued.

Massie: Previous presidents told us to go to war over WMDs that did not exist. Now it's the same playbook. Except we're told that drugs are the WMDs. If it were about drugs, we'd bomb Mexico or China or Colombia. And the president would not have pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez.… pic.twitter.com/5h296rYnPJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 17, 2025

"And yet today, here we aren’t even voting on whether to declare war or authorize the use of military force. All we’re voting on is a War Powers Resolution that strengthens the fabric of our Republic by reasserting the plain and simple language in the Constitution that Congress must decide questions of war."

Several polls in recent months have found that the idea of the US going to war with Venezuela is extremely unpopular among Americans.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 15:00

House Kills Bill On Blocking War With Venezuela

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

The House on Wednesday voted down a War Powers Resolution meant to block President Trump from launching a war with Venezuela without congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.

The bill failed in a vote of 211-213, with nine representatives not voting. Just three Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the bill: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), and Don Bacon (NE). One Democrat, Henry Cuellar (TX), voted against the legislation.

Source: Spectrum News 1

The legislation would have directed the president to remove "United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress."

Before the Venezuela bill, another War Powers Resolution aimed at stopping President Trump’s bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean also failed. That bill failed in a vote of 210-216, with two Republicans (Massie and Bacon) voting in favor and two Democrats (Ceullar and Vicente Gonzalez (TX) voting against.

The votes came a day after President Trump declared a "complete and total blockade" on "sanctioned" tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, an action that’s widely considered an act of war under international law. President Trump and his top officials have also been clear that their goal is regime change.

"Do we want a miniature Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere?" Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, asked on the House floor before the vote.

"If that cost is acceptable to this Congress, then we should vote on it as a voice of the people and in accordance with our Constitution," Massie continued.

Massie: Previous presidents told us to go to war over WMDs that did not exist. Now it's the same playbook. Except we're told that drugs are the WMDs. If it were about drugs, we'd bomb Mexico or China or Colombia. And the president would not have pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez.… pic.twitter.com/5h296rYnPJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 17, 2025

"And yet today, here we aren’t even voting on whether to declare war or authorize the use of military force. All we’re voting on is a War Powers Resolution that strengthens the fabric of our Republic by reasserting the plain and simple language in the Constitution that Congress must decide questions of war."

Several polls in recent months have found that the idea of the US going to war with Venezuela is extremely unpopular among Americans.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 15:00

Apocalyptic Environmentalism Collides With Data Center Boom, Fuels Sky-High Mid-Atlantic Power Prices

A combination of "apocalyptic environmentalism" and an explosion in data center power demand has left power markets in the Mid-Atlantic heavily strained, triggering a surge in power bills that is roiling working-poor families, middle-income households, and mom-and-pop businesses.

Democratic kings, operating under one-party rule in crisis-ridden Maryland, spent the week pushing ahead with a slavery reparations study instead of tackling the power bill crisis that is inflicting tremendous financial pain on working poor households across the central part of the state.

Maryland's "apocalyptic environmentalism" - something we warned about 17 months ago - has helped create a fragile power grid that consumes roughly 40% more electricity than it generates, leaving consumers exposed to soaring power costs amid the rise of data centers being hooked up to the grid.

Left-wing lawmakers in Annapolis, fixated on a green globalist framework, ignored basic reliability planning for years. Utilities such as Exelon are now attempting to correct the power crisis by building new power plants, something that should've happened years ago. But the effort comes too late to close the power supply gap and to prevent skyrocketing regional power prices.

The latest power capacity auction run by PJM Interconnection, which operates the 13-state grid serving nearly one-fifth of Americans, particularly across the Mid-Atlantic, shows how sharply power generation capacity prices have exploded in recent years. Payments to generators active on the grid have surged to about $333.44 per megawatt day, up from a sub-$50 level in 2023.

Much of America's data center power demand is coming from the Mid-Atlantic region, specifically from Data Center Alley in Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland.

Meanwhile nationwide... 

"The amount of pressure on PJM is enormous," Daniel Palken, director of infrastructure for energy and permitting at philanthropy Arnold Ventures, told Bloomberg.

Fixing Maryland's power grid could have been done years ago and under the Biden-Harris admin, but Mid-Atlantic Democrats instead focused on implementing a globalist agenda centered on woke politics, illegal aliens, and green policies that stripped the grid of stable fossil fuel generation.

Now, Democrats in Maryland have spent this week more focused on slavery reparations than on power bills. This is what happens when far-left activists take control: their intent is not to fix problems but to advance ideology, regardless of the economic damage.

We've outlined the competing narratives at play from both political parties.

• Electric Bill Crisis Blame Game Begins: Democrats Slam Data Centers, GOP Faults "Climate-Cult Ideology"

Let's not forget the power bill crisis is mainly happening in Democrat-run states... 

And as we've noted, Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud has entered the picture that will use SpaceX's Starship rocket to blast data centers into low-Earth orbit to "bypass Earth-Based constriants." 

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 14:40

Apocalyptic Environmentalism Collides With Data Center Boom, Fuels Sky-High Mid-Atlantic Power Prices

A combination of "apocalyptic environmentalism" and an explosion in data center power demand has left power markets in the Mid-Atlantic heavily strained, triggering a surge in power bills that is roiling working-poor families, middle-income households, and mom-and-pop businesses.

Democratic kings, operating under one-party rule in crisis-ridden Maryland, spent the week pushing ahead with a slavery reparations study instead of tackling the power bill crisis that is inflicting tremendous financial pain on working poor households across the central part of the state.

Maryland's "apocalyptic environmentalism" - something we warned about 17 months ago - has helped create a fragile power grid that consumes roughly 40% more electricity than it generates, leaving consumers exposed to soaring power costs amid the rise of data centers being hooked up to the grid.

Left-wing lawmakers in Annapolis, fixated on a green globalist framework, ignored basic reliability planning for years. Utilities such as Exelon are now attempting to correct the power crisis by building new power plants, something that should've happened years ago. But the effort comes too late to close the power supply gap and to prevent skyrocketing regional power prices.

The latest power capacity auction run by PJM Interconnection, which operates the 13-state grid serving nearly one-fifth of Americans, particularly across the Mid-Atlantic, shows how sharply power generation capacity prices have exploded in recent years. Payments to generators active on the grid have surged to about $333.44 per megawatt day, up from a sub-$50 level in 2023.

Much of America's data center power demand is coming from the Mid-Atlantic region, specifically from Data Center Alley in Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland.

Meanwhile nationwide... 

"The amount of pressure on PJM is enormous," Daniel Palken, director of infrastructure for energy and permitting at philanthropy Arnold Ventures, told Bloomberg.

Fixing Maryland's power grid could have been done years ago and under the Biden-Harris admin, but Mid-Atlantic Democrats instead focused on implementing a globalist agenda centered on woke politics, illegal aliens, and green policies that stripped the grid of stable fossil fuel generation.

Now, Democrats in Maryland have spent this week more focused on slavery reparations than on power bills. This is what happens when far-left activists take control: their intent is not to fix problems but to advance ideology, regardless of the economic damage.

We've outlined the competing narratives at play from both political parties.

• Electric Bill Crisis Blame Game Begins: Democrats Slam Data Centers, GOP Faults "Climate-Cult Ideology"

Let's not forget the power bill crisis is mainly happening in Democrat-run states... 

And as we've noted, Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud has entered the picture that will use SpaceX's Starship rocket to blast data centers into low-Earth orbit to "bypass Earth-Based constriants." 

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 14:40

Trump Promises New Evidence Showing 2020 Election Fraud

Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump has in recent interviews repeatedly foreshadowed new revelations about improprieties in the 2020 election. He has suggested the evidence to be both voluminous and clear.

“The election was rigged in 2020. We have all the ammunition, all the stuff, and you'll see it come out. It’s coming out in truckloads,” Trump said during remarks at the White House Christmas reception this week.

He took particular aim at California, suggesting the state’s system of mailing ballots to all active registered voters is not secure.

“They mail out 38 million ballots, and they come in. Where ... do they go and where do they come from?” he said.

He said that because in 2024 he was able to win a number of heavily Hispanic districts in Florida and along the southern portion of Texas, he would also have been able to win the votes of Hispanic communities in California to the point of carrying the state. The fact that he did not, he suggested, indicated improprieties in the election process.

“It’s a rigged election in California, because we would win California by a lot,” he said. “And again, they feel they have the advantage with Hispanic. They don’t, because I won [the] Hispanic vote.”

Trump also promised evidence of 2020 election rigging several days earlier during a Dec. 9 interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns.

“It was a rigged election. Now everyone knows it. It’s going to come out over the next couple of months too. Loud and clear. Because we have all the information there,” Trump said.

The 2020 election, conducted under the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, was marred by allegations of fraud and other illegalities. The Trump campaign attempted to litigate the claims, but was not able to overturn the results in any state as many of the lawsuits were dismissed on procedural grounds.

An FBI investigation brought during the Biden administration and taken over by special counsel Jack Smith resulted in charges against Trump in 2023 over his efforts to challenge the official results of the election, including the appointment of several slates of alternative electors.

The prosecutors in that case filed secret subpoenas directed at more than 400 conservative organizations and individuals, including lawmakers, according to documents provided through whistleblower disclosures to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which he released in October.

Smith dropped the case after Trump won the 2024 election, citing the inability to prosecute a sitting president.

Before the 2020 election, the FBI suppressed the issuance of intelligence from an informant alleging that the Chinese communist regime shipped tens of thousands of fake drivers licenses to the United States to be used by ineligible voters to cast ballots for Trump’s then-opponent Joe Biden, according to internal FBI communications released in July by Grassley.

The intelligence was reported internally by the Albany field office in September 2020, but FBI headquarters then asked the field office to recall it and collect more information. A field agent did so, but the report was never reissued, with the explanation that it would “contradict” congressional testimony of then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to released emails.

In March, Trump issued an executive order tasking the administration with ensuring that states properly check voter eligibility, including citizenship. It also tasked the Department of Justice with collecting voter fraud information from states and focusing voter fraud investigations on those states that refuse to cooperate.

The department is to use “all necessary action” to enforce laws that bar counting ballots received after Election Day.

Since May, the DOJ has been sending letters to states asking for voter registration data with the stated purpose of inspecting voter rolls to make sure they are accurate and up to date.

The department is now suing at least 18 states that have refused to provide the data.

Besides election fraud, the Trump camp has pointed to other issues that affected the 2020 election, such as some states using the pandemic as a justification to change election rules, as well as a letter signed by more than 50 former intelligence officials suggesting inaccurately that revelations from the Hunter Biden laptop were “Russian disinformation.”

Some polling has indicated that a determinative minority of voters might have changed their vote if they had been aware of the laptop story.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 14:20

Trump Promises New Evidence Showing 2020 Election Fraud

Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump has in recent interviews repeatedly foreshadowed new revelations about improprieties in the 2020 election. He has suggested the evidence to be both voluminous and clear.

“The election was rigged in 2020. We have all the ammunition, all the stuff, and you'll see it come out. It’s coming out in truckloads,” Trump said during remarks at the White House Christmas reception this week.

He took particular aim at California, suggesting the state’s system of mailing ballots to all active registered voters is not secure.

“They mail out 38 million ballots, and they come in. Where ... do they go and where do they come from?” he said.

He said that because in 2024 he was able to win a number of heavily Hispanic districts in Florida and along the southern portion of Texas, he would also have been able to win the votes of Hispanic communities in California to the point of carrying the state. The fact that he did not, he suggested, indicated improprieties in the election process.

“It’s a rigged election in California, because we would win California by a lot,” he said. “And again, they feel they have the advantage with Hispanic. They don’t, because I won [the] Hispanic vote.”

Trump also promised evidence of 2020 election rigging several days earlier during a Dec. 9 interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns.

“It was a rigged election. Now everyone knows it. It’s going to come out over the next couple of months too. Loud and clear. Because we have all the information there,” Trump said.

The 2020 election, conducted under the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, was marred by allegations of fraud and other illegalities. The Trump campaign attempted to litigate the claims, but was not able to overturn the results in any state as many of the lawsuits were dismissed on procedural grounds.

An FBI investigation brought during the Biden administration and taken over by special counsel Jack Smith resulted in charges against Trump in 2023 over his efforts to challenge the official results of the election, including the appointment of several slates of alternative electors.

The prosecutors in that case filed secret subpoenas directed at more than 400 conservative organizations and individuals, including lawmakers, according to documents provided through whistleblower disclosures to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which he released in October.

Smith dropped the case after Trump won the 2024 election, citing the inability to prosecute a sitting president.

Before the 2020 election, the FBI suppressed the issuance of intelligence from an informant alleging that the Chinese communist regime shipped tens of thousands of fake drivers licenses to the United States to be used by ineligible voters to cast ballots for Trump’s then-opponent Joe Biden, according to internal FBI communications released in July by Grassley.

The intelligence was reported internally by the Albany field office in September 2020, but FBI headquarters then asked the field office to recall it and collect more information. A field agent did so, but the report was never reissued, with the explanation that it would “contradict” congressional testimony of then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to released emails.

In March, Trump issued an executive order tasking the administration with ensuring that states properly check voter eligibility, including citizenship. It also tasked the Department of Justice with collecting voter fraud information from states and focusing voter fraud investigations on those states that refuse to cooperate.

The department is to use “all necessary action” to enforce laws that bar counting ballots received after Election Day.

Since May, the DOJ has been sending letters to states asking for voter registration data with the stated purpose of inspecting voter rolls to make sure they are accurate and up to date.

The department is now suing at least 18 states that have refused to provide the data.

Besides election fraud, the Trump camp has pointed to other issues that affected the 2020 election, such as some states using the pandemic as a justification to change election rules, as well as a letter signed by more than 50 former intelligence officials suggesting inaccurately that revelations from the Hunter Biden laptop were “Russian disinformation.”

Some polling has indicated that a determinative minority of voters might have changed their vote if they had been aware of the laptop story.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 14:20

Former Harvard Morgue Manager, Wife Sentenced For Stealing And Selling Body Parts

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

A former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling human body parts donated for scientific research, the Department of Justice said.

Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced on Dec. 16 during a hearing in federal court in Pennsylvania. His wife, Denise Lodge, 65, received a sentence of 12 months and one day in prison.

The couple previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the interstate transportation of stolen goods. Cedric Lodge admitted to stealing body parts from cadavers donated to Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program and selling them to buyers across the country.

Prosecutors said that between 2018 and March 2020, Cedric Lodge stole and trafficked “heads, brains, skin, bones, and other human remains” after the donated bodies had been used for teaching and research. Under agreements between donors and Harvard, those bodies were supposed to be cremated or returned to their families.

According to the federal indictment, Cedric Lodge transported the stolen remains from Harvard Medical School in Boston to his home in New Hampshire, where he stored and sold them. Prosecutors said Denise Lodge assisted in the scheme by communicating with buyers, accepting payments, and arranging shipments of the stolen remains. Payments were often made online through her PayPal account.

The remains were sold to Katrina MacLean, Joshua Taylor, and others, prosecutors said. MacLean allegedly resold the remains to buyers across the country, including through her curiosities store, and Taylor has been accused of purchasing body parts from Lodge for resale. Lodge also allowed MacLean, Taylor, and others to enter the morgue to select which remains they wished to buy, according to the indictment.

MacLean, of Massachusetts, and Taylor, of Pennsylvania, have both pleaded guilty this year for their roles in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing. Several other buyers have already been sentenced to prison time.

The case has drawn widespread attention since federal authorities announced charges in 2023. Prosecutors brought the case in Pennsylvania because key elements of the crimes, including the shipping, receipt, and resale of stolen remains, took place in that jurisdiction.

“Today’s sentencing is another step forward in ensuring those who orchestrated and executed this heinous crime are brought to justice,” Wayne Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI Philadelphia Field Office, said in a statement.

Harvard Medical School officials said they were unaware of Cedric Lodge’s activities until notified by the FBI. The school placed him on leave in March 2023 after learning of the federal investigation and “immediately” suspended his campus access. He was fired in May of that year after investigators provided what the school said was “adequate information” to justify his termination.

Harvard, which hired Cedric Lodge in 1995, condemned his actions as an “abhorrent betrayal.”

“We owe it to ourselves, our community, our profession, and our patients and their loved ones to ensure that [Harvard Medical School] is worthy of the donors who have entrusted their bodies to us for the advancement of medical education and research,” Medical School Dean George Daley and Dean of Medical Education Edward Hundert wrote in a campuswide message following the indictment.

Although federal investigators did not find any criminal wrongdoing on Harvard’s part, the university is facing a class-action lawsuit brought by families affected by the scandal.

In February 2024, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit from family members of donors whose remains were stolen and sold. However, in October, a four-judge panel of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the case, saying that the families had presented sufficient evidence to claim that Harvard failed to act in good faith in overseeing its morgue.

Harvard has maintained that Cedric Lodge’s conduct was “inconsistent with the standards and values of Harvard” and expressed “deep sorrow for the families of donors who may have been impacted,” according to student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.

An attorney representing Cedric Lodge did not respond to a request for comment.

Tyler Durden Thu, 12/18/2025 - 13:00