Arson Suspicions, Conspiracy Theories Grow as Newsom–Bass Fires Destroy Hollywood

Ben Sellers
-
0
Arson Suspicions, Conspiracy Theories Grow as Newsom–Bass Fires Destroy Hollywood

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) As the death toll from a series of uncontrolled fires in Los Angeles rose to at least five on Wednesday, reports indicated that celebrities such as James Woods, John Goodman, Anthony Hopkins, Miles Teller and Paris Hilton were among those who had seen their homes burned to the ground, the Daily Mail reported.

A shocking viral image even showed the Hollywood sign ablaze.

A Community Note on X claiming to debunk the photo referred back to a live webcam that appeared to be offline, leaving it unclear as to whether the photo was legitimate or not.

Regardless, confirmed reports indicated that with no functioning fire hydrants available, the fire had spread, with five separate blazes engulfing the San Fernando Valley and surrounding Hollywood Hills.

Many blamed the negligence of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for allowing the fires to spread.

Newsom himself maintained that so-called climate change was responsible.

However, experts familiar with the topography of the region, including actor John Schneider, star of the Dukes of Hazzard, who spent years traversing the area, said the pattern made wildfire seem increasingly implausible.

“I’m going on record as saying there is no way in hell that this is not a planned burn,” wrote Schneider, who now lives in Louisiana. “I know the geography too well to believe that these are fires caused by ’embers.'”

At least one video, posted by Stanford University professor Andrew Huberman, also appeared to show actual arsonists caught on camera.

The idea of arson was further amplified by multiple conservative influencers, including billionaire X owner Elon Musk.

Even left-leaning celebrities, such as “Fonzie” actor Henry Winkler, were getting behind the growing arson theory, Newsweek reported.

It would not be an uncommon phenomenon for the region. During the 2020 riots, several fires that spread throughout northern California and the Pacific Northwest were subsequently linked to members of Antifa and other far-left extremist ideologies.

With an uptick in recent acts of apparent domestic terrorism involving suspicious or unexplained circumstances—including the two New Year’s Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas—the possibility that radical leftists were once again making their presence known ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration could not be ruled out.

However, the open border policies of Newsom and President Joe Biden make it equally probable that foreign terrorists could be behind such an act.

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray previously warned that China, in particular, might be interested in committing acts of soft terrorism that would wreak havoc on infrastructure without linking it to a specific social or political statement, to leave Americans in a state of disorientation and chaos.

“They’re not focused just on political and military targets,” Wray said during congressional testimony last year.

“We can see from where they position themselves across civilian infrastructure that low blows aren’t just a possibility,” he continued. “The amount of conflict low blows against civilians are part of China’s plan.”

On a few sites, conspiracy theories spread about another possible motive—that New World Order globalists might be behind the conflagrations as part of a broader land-grab to acquire prime real estate at bargain prices.

Similar theories spread following the 2023 fire in Lahaina, Hawaii, where leftist water-access restrictions were likewise an issue.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green aroused suspicions by acknowledging that he was hoping for a literal fire sale that would allow the state to buy up the beach-front property.

Meanwhile, during a panel at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos that subsequently went viral, globalist elites discussed their desire to use a water crisis as a control mechanism following the failure to do so with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-change alarmism.

The Los Angeles fires come just weeks after William de Rothschild—who neighbors said was a prominent member of the European banking family at the center of many conspiracy theories—reportedly perished in a massive blaze in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon that took 45 firefighters roughly a half-hour to extinguish, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Adding further to the mystery were reports that the wealthy victim inside may not have been a member of the Rothschild family at all.

Reports also indicated that the Malibu property being used by recently pardoned Hunter Biden may have been among those destroyed by the fires.

While President Joe Biden’s controversial clemency for his son stretched back to the start of 2014, just months before Hunter became involved on the board of the Burisma energy company, it would free up the first son to testify in the event of other criminal indictments—including those of his father and uncle—if they do not receive a similar pardon.

Other controversial figures—including Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, the presumptive culprit of last week’s Las Vegas car-bombing outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, and Ryan Routh, who attempted to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump—have also been linked to Ukraine.

Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Global ETF Gold Holdings Rise in December for 1st Time Since 2019

Money Metals News Service
-
0
Global ETF Gold Holdings Rise in December for 1st Time Since 2019

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals Exchange) For the first December since 2019, gold-backed ETFs globally reported net inflows of gold.

Asian funds drove the global increase in ETF gold holdings to close out 2024.

On the year, ETF gold holdings dropped modestly by 6.8 tons, but assets under management (AUM) rose by 26 percent to a record high of $271 billion thanks to the skyrocketing price of gold.

December Gold ETF Data

Asian funds added 8.7 tons of gold last month after reporting decreased gold holdings in October and November. AUM rose by $748 million.

China led the charge as plunging government bond yields and the expectation of further interest rate cuts boosted demand for gold. Investors also worried that an impending trade war could further weaken the yuan. The return to positive gold flows into Chinese ETFs reflected a broader boost in Chinese gold demand.

Indian-based funds reported their eighth consecutive month of inflows. Rising equity market volatility and bullish sentiment towards gold continued to attract Indian investors to the yellow metal.

For the first time in five months, North American gold-backed funds reported outflows of gold in December. ETF gold holdings dipped by 4.7 tons. AUM fell by $342 million.

In the U.S., hawkish messaging coming out of the December Federal Reserve meeting tempered expectations for interest rate cuts next year.  Rising bond yields and a strengthening dollar created headwinds for gold in the U.S. According to the World Gold Council, a decline in market activity during the holiday season also contributed to the outflow of gold.

European fund gold holdings were practically unchanged, dropping by 0.3 tons. AUM increased by $337 million.

Increased gold demand in France helped ETF gold holdings remain steady. Ongoing political turmoil drove French investors to seek a safe haven.

Swiss outflows offset French demand. According to the World Gold Council, this was primarily due to FX-hedging products amid a weakening franc against the dollar.

A sharp rise in government bond yields created some headwinds for gold in Germany.

ETF gold holdings in funds from other regions were unchanged in December. AUM rose modestly by $35 million. Australia and South Africa drove the modest dollar inflows.

Annual Gold ETF Data

Every region except Europe reported increases in physical gold holdings in 2024. However, the outflow from European funds was significant, driving global gold holdings negative on the year with total outflows of 6.8 tons.

In dollar terms, AUM by gold-backed funds globally increased by $3.4 billion.

North American funds reported a modest 8-ton increase in 2024. It was the first annual positive gold flow since 2020. AUM increased by $2.3 billion.

Asian funds accumulated an additional 78.4 tons of gold, increasing AUM by $6.4 billion.

Funds in other regions increased gold holdings by 4.7 tons. AUM rose by $500 million.

European funds shed 97.9 tons of gold. Even with the large outflow of gold, it was a significant improvement over 2023 when European funds reported outflows of 180.4 tons of gold. AUM fell by $5.8 billion.

Gold Trading Volumes

Gold trading volumes averaged $221 billion per day across global markets in December. This was a 24 percent month-on-month decline. According to the World Gold Council, lower price volatility discouraged tactical investors at the COMEX and the Shanghai Futures exchange.

Annually, gold trading volumes rose to $226.3 billion per day, a 39 percent increase over 2023.

According to the World Gold Council, almost all markets saw peak volumes in value terms.

  • Over-the-counter (OTC) activities increased by 37 percent.
  • Exchange-traded volumes soared by 40 percent.
  • Global gold ETF trading rose by 32 percent. 

These increases weren’t merely a function of the rising gold price. Volumes rose both in dollar and tonnage terms.

Volumes at the Shanghai Futures Exchange charted the biggest increase and rose to a record high.

COMEX net longs dropped in December, ticking down by 5 percent.

On an annual basis, net longs averaged 555 tonnes last year, a significant increase from a 289-tonne average in 2023. It was the highest average level of net longs since 2011.

Big Picture

Inflows of gold into ETFs can have a significant impact on the global gold market by pushing overall demand higher.

ETFs are a convenient way for investors to play the gold market, but owning ETF shares is not the same as holding physical gold.

A gold ETF is backed by a trust company that holds metal owned and stored by the trust. In most cases, investing in an ETF does not entitle you to any amount of physical gold. You own a share of the ETF, not gold itself.

ETFs are relatively liquid. You can buy or sell an ETF with a couple of mouse clicks. You don’t have to worry about transporting or storing metal. In a nutshell, it allows investors to play the gold market without buying full ounces of metal at the spot price.

Since you are just buying a number in a computer, you can easily trade your ETF shares for another stock or cash whenever you want, even multiple times on the same day. Many speculative investors take advantage of this liquidity.

But while a gold ETF is a convenient way to play the price of gold on the market, you don’t actually possess any gold. You have paper. And you don’t know for sure that the fund has all the gold either, especially when the fund sees inflows. In such a scenario, there have been difficulties or delays in obtaining physical metal.

Continue

Gold and Silver Shined in 2024

Money Metals News Service
-
0
Gold and Silver Shined in 2024

(Money Metals News Service) The first episode of the Money Metals Midweek Memo for 2025 recapped an extraordinary year for gold and silver. Host Mike Maharrey detailed how these precious metals thrived amidst challenging economic conditions, outperforming most traditional assets.

This article provides a breakdown of the episode’s key points.

Gold’s Record-Setting Performance

Gold achieved remarkable gains in 2024, rising 26.5%, its best annual performance since 2010. Along the way, it set 40 new all-time highs, peaking at $2,780 per ounce on October 30. Inflation-adjusted, this price broke the previous record of $2,689 per ounce, set in 1980.

Gold’s gains were especially impressive in comparison to other assets:

  • Outperformed U.S. stocks, bonds, global treasuries, and commodities.
  • Only Bitcoin surpassed gold, with an 11.5% surge post-election, although Bitcoin is much more speculative and volatile than gold.

The Role of Central Bank Buying

A significant driver of gold’s success was central bank demand, with over 800 tons purchased by November 2024. This marked the third consecutive year of substantial gold accumulation as countries reduced their reliance on the U.S. dollar. Maharrey highlighted the global trend of de-dollarization, spurred by concerns over U.S. sanctions and fiscal instability.

Silver’s Solid Showing

Silver, while trailing gold, posted a respectable 20.5% gain in 2024, ending the year at $28.91 per ounce. Despite lagging behind gold’s records, silver outperformed emerging market stocks, bonds, and commodities.

Maharrey emphasized that silver’s potential remains strong:

  • Record industrial demand in 2024.
  • A projected supply deficit of 182 million ounces, marking the fourth consecutive year of shortfalls.
  • A gold-to-silver ratio exceeding 88:1, well above the historical average of 40:1 to 60:1, signaling silver’s relative undervaluation.

Key Factors Behind Precious Metals’ Success

Gold and silver’s stellar performance in 2024 was driven by a combination of economic, geopolitical, and market dynamics. These factors collectively created an environment where investors sought safe-haven assets to preserve wealth and hedge against uncertainties.

Maharrey highlighted several key drivers that explain the precious metals’ impressive gains:

  1. Monetary Policy
    The Federal Reserve’s gradual shift towards monetary easing in late 2024 bolstered gold. Lower interest rates make non-yielding assets like gold more attractive.
  2. Inflation Hedge
    Persistent inflation concerns drove investors toward gold as a store of value. Even amid “sticky” inflation, many investors anticipate the Fed will cut rates further in 2025.
  3. Geopolitical Tensions
    The ongoing war in Ukraine, unrest in the Middle East, and a contentious U.S. election cycle created uncertainty, increasing demand for safe-haven assets like gold.
  4. De-dollarization
    Central banks’ moves to reduce reliance on the dollar reinforced gold’s role as a global reserve asset.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Maharrey predicted that many of the factors supporting gold and silver in 2024 would continue into 2025. Analysts expect gold to gain 7% this year, with some, like JP Morgan, projecting prices as high as $3,000 per ounce. Goldman Sachs is still predicting gold to reach $3,000 per ounce by mid-2026.

However, Maharrey warned that any major economic disruptions—such as a recession, banking crisis, or monetary policy pivot—could propel gold prices much higher. Silver also has significant upside potential, with its historical tendency to outperform gold in the later stages of a bull market.

Advice for Investors

For those looking to start or expand their investment in precious metals, Maharrey recommended considering Money Metals Exchange’s monthly purchase plan, which allows investors to accumulate gold and silver incrementally.

As inflation erodes the purchasing power of fiat currencies, Maharrey stressed the importance of holding real assets like gold and silver to preserve wealth.

This engaging episode provided a detailed recap of gold and silver’s exceptional year and insights into the economic factors shaping their trajectories.

To stay updated, subscribe to the Money Metals Midweek Memo or explore more resources at MoneyMetals.com.

WATCH: Rising GOP Star Calls Out CNN’s Selective Outrage over Warmongering 

Luis Cornelio
-
0
WATCH: Rising GOP Star Calls Out CNN’s Selective Outrage over Warmongering 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Brandon Gill, the youngest Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been in office for less than a week but is already giving the legacy media a run for their money.

On Wednesday, Gill lectured CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on News Central after she unsuccessfully tried to corner him over a hypothetical scenario involving U.S. troops dying if President-elect Donald Trump ordered them to take over Greenland. 

The Republican lawmaker swiftly called out Keilar’s newfound concern about U.S. servicemen dying, considering President Joe Biden’s foreign policy has repeatedly put the military in harm’s way, as reported first by the Daily Caller.

Keilar had specifically asked, “You were born on a military base, you know you were a military kid … do you support Americans fighting, which always means potentially dying, for the U.S. to acquire Greenland or the Panama Canal?” 

In response, Gill shot back, “It’s really funny that you bring that up, I’m gonna leave the methodology to President Trump and follow his lead here, but Democrats have made the world a much less safer place over the past four years.” 

He continued, “We’ve had over half a million people die in the war in Ukraine that never would have happened if President Trump was in the White House. It’s amazing to me, that all of a sudden you’re concerned about people dying in wars when a weak foreign policy under President Joe Biden is the reason that the entire world has erupted in chaos.” 

Ouch. 

Gill was elected to represent Texas’s 26th Congressional District on Nov. 3, 2024, taking over former Rep. Michael Burgess’s seat after his retirement following 11 terms in office. 

A journalist and investment banker, Gill received endorsements from Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the crowded primary, ultimately winning the safely red district. 

Gill is married to conservative activist and author Danielle D’Souza Gill, daughter of renowned author, filmmaker and conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. 

Babylon Bee Mocks Fact-Checkers’ Idiocy After Zuckerberg’s Announcement

Luis Cornelio
-
0
Babylon Bee Mocks Fact-Checkers’ Idiocy After Zuckerberg’s Announcement

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Satirical news site Babylon Bee is mocking left-wing fact-checkers after Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would no longer use fact-checks to police speech. 

To celebrate this free speech victory, the Bee shared a series of posts on X Tuesday, recalling some of the most laughable attempts to censor their satire on Facebook.

“In honor of Facebook ending its fact-checking partnerships, here are the funniest fact-checks of Babylon Bee jokes,” the Bee wrote. 

The Bee garnered over 6.2 million views, exposing the lunacy of leftist fact-checkers like Snopes and USA Today. 

One of the most baffling fact-checks came when Snopes aimed at a Bee headline: “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication.” 

Facebook users attempting to share the post were met with a Facebook warning that the article contained “info disputed” by Snopes. “Repeat offenders will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertise removed,” the warning read. 

Another fact-check targeted a satirical headline: “Trump: ‘I Have Done More For Christianity Than Jesus.’” Snopes slapped the article with a fact-check.  

“This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events,” Snopes noted. “The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows…” 

The Bee also poked fun at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and her democratic-socialist ideology with the headline: “Ocasio-Cortez Appears On ‘The Price Is Right,’ Guesses Everything Is Free.” 

The article featured a photoshopped image of Ocasio-Cortez playing the game. However, Snopes felt the need to fact-check the piece, clarifying, “This is not a genuine photograph of Ocasio-Cortez on the show. This image was created for a satirical article that was originally published by The Babylon Bee.” 

USA Today joined in the absurdity by fact-checking a Bee article about late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

The article’s headline read, “Ninth Circuit Court Overturns Death Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” mocking the court’s leftist reputation.

USA Today stepped in to respond that there was “no record” of the court mentioning Ginsburg’s death.

The Bee is no stranger to censorship, having been targeted itself.

According to the Media Research Center’s censorship database, CensorTrack, the Bee has been censored 21 times, with 13 of those instances occurring on Facebook.

Check the Bee’s posts below.

The Joke Writes Itself: Death Row Inmates Reject Biden’s Clemency in Humiliating Blow

Luis Cornelio
-
0
The Joke Writes Itself: Death Row Inmates Reject Biden’s Clemency in Humiliating Blow

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Two death row inmates have formally rejected President Joe Biden’s controversial commutation delivering yet another stunning blow to the scandal-plagued president’s legacy. 

Len Davis and Shannon W. Agofsky—both convicted felons sentenced to death who maintain their innocence—argued in separate court filings that Biden’s commutation jeopardizes their appeals. 

The two men are among 37 inmates whose death sentences Biden commuted on Dec. 23, 2024. This left the victims’ families and friends disappointed, affirming that Biden did not consult them. Davis and Agofsky ironically share their sentiments, according to NBC News and The New York Times. 

Agofsky, convicted of killing a prisoner while serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of bank president Dan Short, argued that the commutation hinders his appeal process. 

“He is not seeking favors” the Agofsky filing claimed. “He merely wishes for his case to play out in court as it was meant to, within the protection of heightened scrutiny, and without the interference of partisan politics.” 

Agofsky claimed that Biden’s action would “strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny.”  

He continued, “This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.” 

Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was sentenced to death for plotting the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, a woman who had accused him of beating a teenager in a police complaint. 

Federal investigators revealed that Davis hired a drug dealer to kill Groves. His sentence was reinstated in 2005 after being temporarily tossed years earlier. 

Davis “has always maintained his innocence and argued that federal court had no jurisdiction to try him for civil rights offenses,” his filing read. 

Leaked Memo Requesting Paramedics at Inauguration Sparks Alarm

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
-
0
Leaked Memo Requesting Paramedics at Inauguration Sparks Alarm

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The Department of Veterans Affairs insider shared a Department of Health and Human Services memo with James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) that requested “presidential inauguration [medical personnel] support deployment.”

“What concerned me was that this has never been requested before, especially not from HHS,” the VA insider said.

The revealed internal memo requested medical personnel before the 2025 presidential inauguration and detailed a formal appeal for paramedics, emergency nurses and doctors.

Derrick Jaastad, the Executive Director for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Emergency Management, told O’Keefe that he “was not with the organization, so [he] can’t speak” about whether it was typical for the Office of Emergency Management to administer this kind of memorandum for previous inaugurations.

An OMG journalist also contacted Public Affairs Specialist Kurt M. Rauschenberg, asking him whether the deployment of medical personnel by HHS was typical for a presidential inauguration. Rauschenberg also avoided answering the question by stating that he “can’t speak to previous inaugurations.”

OMG also stated that it didn’t receive an explanation after requesting additional information from the HHS via the Freedom of Information Act.

“The Citizen Journalism Foundation (CJF) supports whistleblowers, including federal government sources, by covering legal fees, offering advocacy, and helping ensure their stories are heard,” O’Keefe wrote on Twitter, including the organization’s website, as well as OMG’s Signal phone number and email address.

O’Keefe also attached the screenshots of the memo to one of his posts.

Conservatives on Twitter responded on Twitter, suggesting that the reason why the memo was released was because the Left allegedly plans to organize a terrorist attack.

“We need people independent of the Trump campaign, & the government to watch over DC on inauguration day. Supposedly, he saw a truck with explosive fertilizer & a suicide bomber inside,” @A9000D wrote.

Others also pointed out that the government would try to make it look either like Iran or Russia to find an excuse to start the Third World War.

N.C. Supreme Court Blocks Certification of One of Its Own Amid Suspected Vote Fraud

Editor 3
-
0
N.C. Supreme Court Blocks Certification of One of Its Own Amid Suspected Vote Fraud

(Headline USA) North Carolina’s highest court blocked on Tuesday the certification of a November election result for one of its own seats so it can review legal arguments by GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin.

Democrat ballot “curing” reversed Griffin’s 10,000 vote lead over Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs to a deficit of 734 votes.

The ultimate winner gets an eight-year term on a Supreme Court where five of the seven current justices are registered Republicans.

The State Board of Elections dismissed last month Griffin’s written protests challenging the ballots.

That initiated a timeline in which the board would issue a certificate confirming Riggs’s election this Friday—ending the litigation—unless a court stepped in.

Tuesday’s order stops such certification and tells Griffin and the board to file legal briefs with the justices over the next two weeks.

Lawyers for Griffin, who is a judge on the intermediate-level state Court of Appeals, initially asked the state Supreme Court to intervene three weeks ago.

But the elections board quickly moved the matter to federal court, saying Griffin’s appeals involved matters of federal voting and voting rights laws.

Griffin disagreed, and so did U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who on Monday returned the case to the state Supreme Court.

Myers wrote that Griffin’s protests raised “unsettled questions of state law” and had tenuous connections to federal law.

Hours later, Griffin’s attorneys asked the state Supreme Court for the temporary stay, which the court granted.

“In the absence of a stay from federal court, this matter should be addressed expeditiously because it concerns certification of an election,” Tuesday’s order read.

The order said that Riggs recused herself from the matter and that Associate Justice Anita Earls, the other Democrat on the court, opposed the stay in part because the “public interest requires that the Court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution.”

Attorneys for the State Board of Elections and Riggs quickly filed appeals of Myers’s decision with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which could potentially order the case be maintained under federal legal jurisdiction.

Barring intervention by federal appeals judges, the state Supreme Court would essentially be asked to decide the winner for one of its own seats.

A Griffin legal brief said that he would anticipate winning the race if the ballots he contends are unlawful are excluded from the tally.

The state GOP has said that Griffin and the party are seeking to ensure every lawfully cast vote is counted.

Most of the ballots that Griffin is challenging came from voters whose registration records lacked either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number—which a state law has required be sought in registration applications since 2004.

Other large categories of votes that Griffin is challenging were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents; and by military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Lawsuit: Alleged Insurance CEO Assassin Obtained His Gun Via ‘Black-Market Operator’

Ken Silva
-
0
Lawsuit: Alleged Insurance CEO Assassin Obtained His Gun Via ‘Black-Market Operator’

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A recently filed lawsuit alleges that Luigi Mangione, the suspected murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, obtained his murder weapon via a “black-market operator.”

Mangione reportedly used a 3D-printed “ghost gun” for his murder—specifically,  a Chairmanwon V1, which is a variation of a partially 3D-printed Glock-style design known as the FMDA 19.2, according to the tech publication Wired.

The accusation that Mangione obtained the weapon from a “black-market operator” comes from 3D gun group Defense Distributed, which is in a copyright dispute with another entity called Gatalog, which deals in digital firearms information.

According to Defense Distributed, Gatalog has illegally trafficked in the digital firearms information that Defense Distributed handles legally.

“The Gatalog is a black-market operator in the worst sense,” Defense Distributed alleged in a Dec. 27 counterclaim against Gatalog, which is also suing over copyright issues.

“Just days after Defense Distributed filed its original pleading, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer used 3D-printed weaponry (a pistol and suppressor) that The Gatalog provided 3D printing files for in violation of the Commerce Department’s EAR regime (the pistol) and the State Department’s ITAR regime (the suppressor),” the counterclaim stated.

“While at first The Gatalog members’ social media posts foolishly touted The Gatalog’s role in this tragedy, they soon thought better and pivoted to a full-scale coverup. Pertinent internet accounts are being deleted left and right by the very same individuals that Defense Distributed originally accused of spoliation.”

Gatalog has strongly denied Defense Distributed’s allegations. An attorney for the group told the Florida Bulldog that Defense Distributed’s counterclaim was a “harassment lawsuit” intended to divert attention away from his copyright lawsuit. He also reportedly said the assertion that The Gatalog is a criminal organization “is completely unfounded.”

Meanwhile, Mangione is charged with murder as an act of terrorism over the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said last month that Thompson’s death on a midtown Manhattan street “was a killing that was intended to evoke terror. And we’ve seen that reaction.”

Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Top Fed Official Backs New Rate Cuts Even If Trump Tariffs Materialize

Editor 1
-
0
Top Fed Official Backs New Rate Cuts Even If Trump Tariffs Materialize

(Headline USA) A top policymaker at the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday that he still supported cutting interest rates this year—despite persistent inflation from the lame-duck Biden administration’s ongoing spending sprees and the prospect of that tariffs under the incoming Trump administration might also exacerbate it.

Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s board of governors, said he expected inflation to move closer to the Fed’s 2% target in the coming months. And in some of the first comments by a Fed official specifically about tariffs, he said that greater import duties likely would not push up inflation this year.

“My bottom-line message is that I believe more cuts will be appropriate,” Waller said in Paris at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“If, as I expect, tariffs do not have a significant or persistent effect on inflation, they are unlikely to affect my view,” Waller added.

His remarks were noteworthy because the impact of tariffs is a wild card this year for the U.S. economy.

Financial markets have weighed down in recent months partly on fears that inflation may continue to be an issue, and that tariffs could make it worse.

According to some economists, producers may raise prices for customers to offset the increased costs of tariffs on imported materials and goods.

Yet, President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to promote American goods by incentivizing domestic industry with tax cuts, as well as his planned reductions in wasteful government spending might instead help drive up the dollar’s value once more, provided he can ensure an adequate supply of domestic goods to offset the increased cost of imports.

Waller suggested that he was more optimistic about inflation than many Wall Street investors.

“I believe that inflation will continue to make progress toward our 2% goal over the medium term and that further [rate] reductions will be appropriate,” Waller said.

While inflation has been persistent in recent months—it ticked up to 2.4% in November, according to the Fed’s preferred measure—Waller argued that outside of housing, which is difficult to measure, prices were cooling.

Waller’s remarks run counter to increasing expectations on Wall Street that the Fed may not cut its key rate much, if at all, this year with high prices lingering. The rate is currently about 4.3% after several reductions last year from a two-decade high of 5.3%. Financial markets are expecting just one rate cut in 2025, according to futures pricing tracked by CME Fedwatch.

Waller did not say how many cuts he specifically supports. Instead he said that Fed officials projected two reductions this year, as a group, in December.

But he also noted that policymakers supported a wide range of outcomes, from no cuts to as many as five. The number of reductions will depend on progress toward reducing inflation, he added.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that the impact of tariffs on Fed policy and inflation is difficult to gauge in advance, until it’s clearer which imports are hit with tariffs and whether other nations retaliate with their own.

But at the Fed’s last press conference in December, Powell acknowledged that some of the central bank’s 19 policymakers were starting to incorporate the potential impact of Trump’s policies on the economy.

Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s governing board, said Monday that the central bank can “proceed more cautiously” with rate reductions.

Waller said one reason longer-term rates have risen is due to concern that the federal government’s budget deficit, already massive, could remain so or even increase.

Despite Trump’s regular vows to drain the Swamp, including his recruitment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to oversee the semi-public Department of Government Efficiency, his ambitious policy agenda also includes tax cuts and mass deportations that could add more to the $36 trillion national debt.

Trump’s first term added to it, although much of that occurred during the final year, when the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting government shutdowns required several rounds of economic stimulus to help citizens and small businesses to stay afloat.

Nonetheless, the inflation rate when Trump left office remained below the healthy 2% mark and only began to rise about a month into Biden’s presidency, nearly reaching double digits before the Fed began to address it in earnest, raising rates to stablize spending after the influx of new money sent prices spiraling out of control.

Still, the Fed cannot keep interest rates high indefinitely, or it risks an overcorrection with a critical mass of consumers defaulting on their existing loans due to the excessive borrowing fees.

“At some point the markets are going to demand a premium to accept the risk of financing” such increased borrowing, he said.

On Wednesday, the Fed was due to release minutes from its December meeting, which were expected to shed more light on what policymakers were thinking about inflation and the potential impact of tariffs.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

1...837838839...3,838Page 838 of 3,838