The extra investments pledged under the trade deal would come from private companies, which Brussels conceded it has no power to control.
The European Union has admitted it doesn't have the power to deliver on a promise to invest $600 billion in the United States economy, only hours after making the pledge at landmark trade talks in Scotland.

That's because the cash would come entirely from private sector investment over which Brussels has no authority, two EU officials said.

On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid an all-out EU-U.S. trade war. The deal included a pledge to invest an extra $600 billion of EU money into the U.S. over the coming years.

Gerald Celente was slightly but forgivably off when he quoted Mussolini on the definition of fascism to the effect that it denotes the fusion of state and corporate power. That is technically correct, except that the "corporations" Mussolini referred to originally are not the exactly same as the corporations that Celente has in mind. Mussolini was referring to collective entities representing the various sectors of society. In the system he proposed the state would play a central role in controlling these corporations and mediating their disputes. In theory at least, Mussolini's system was intended to create a unified, harmonious society where class conflict would be eliminated through the integration of workers, employers, and the state.

When Celente refers to corporate power, he does not mean entities representing and acting on behalf of a cross section of major professional, craft, trade, cultural, and economic segments of society. He is referring to an essentially different type of "corporation," as found in Western capitalist societies, with a specific relationship to state structures. Such corporations are disinterested in social harmony since they are business enterprises engaged in the predatory pursuit of material gain and frequently they transcend state boundaries.

The definitional nuance is significant for at least two reasons. Firstly, much as in practice the Corporatist system advocated by Mussolini diverges from its theoretical model, its postulated objective was to achieve a measure of social harmony and cooperation. That objective is completely foreign to the agenda of corporations which operate within the liberal capitalist system today. Secondly, corporations as the term is currently used manifestly are not subordinate to the state, as would have been the case under classical fascism, but increasingly assert their dominance over it. If comparisons may be drawn between the contemporary state and its interaction with corporate entities, on the one hand, and the classical scheme of fascism as described by Mussolini on the other, the picture we get today is of a reversal. The state has lost its attribute of controller and referee and is no longer empowered or asked to mediate between conflicting social interests. It is instead marginalised and replaced by private corporate interests and their agenda as the predominant power.

If such a role reversal may still be regarded as "fascism," so be it.

The US president previously said he would impose new sanctions against Moscow if no deal was reached before early September.

US President Donald Trump has sharply reduced the time frame he set for Russia and Ukraine to agree on a ceasefire, warning that Moscow now has just 10 to 12 days to reach a deal or face sweeping new sanctions.

"I'm going to set a new deadline... about 10 or 12 days from today. There's no reason to wait. I wanted to be generous, but we're just not seeing any progress," Trump told reporters on Monday in Scotland. He was sitting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The US president had originally given the two sides 50 days to negotiate an end to the conflict, threatening to impose 100% tariffs on Russian imports and secondary sanctions on countries and companies that continue to trade with Russia. That initial deadline was due to expire in early September.

The former Russian president told the US senator that the conflict will be resolved only when Moscow's goals are achieved.

It is not up to Washington to dictate when Moscow should negotiate a peace deal with Kiev, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told US Senator Lindsey Graham, urging him to focus on domestic issues instead.

Medvedev's comments follow US President Donald Trump's decision on Monday to shorten his 50-day deadline for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine to just 10-12 days. Trump has threatened to impose additional sanctions on Moscow and 100% tariffs on its trading partners if no deal is reached.

Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, had cautioned Trump against issuing ultimatums.

"Russia isn't Israel or even Iran," he wrote on X, warning that each threat marks "a step towards war" between the US and Russia.

"Now by coming in and being part of the cover-up, the Trump administration has become part of it. I mean, it's just you cannot see it any other way." — Alex Jones, InfoWars

Once again, the American police state is choosing to protect predators, not victims.

Jeffrey Epstein — the hedge fund billionaire/convicted serial pedophile and sex trafficker — may be dead, but the machinery that empowered and protected him is still very much alive.

You see, the Epstein case was never just about Epstein — it was about the entire edifice of power that shields the ruling class, silences victims, and erases accountability.

Thus, the latest about-face declarations from the Trump administration — that Epstein had no client list, that he did in fact kill himself, and that there's nothing more to discuss or investigate so we should just move on — have only reinforced what many have suspected all along: the system is rigged in order to protect the power elite because the power elite are the system.

In this age of partisan politics and a deeply polarized populace, corruption — especially when it involves sexual debauchery, depravity and predatory behavior — has become the great equalizer.

With the reemergence of Jeffrey Epstein's ghost in the public discourse, we are once again reminded of just how deep the rot goes.

Politics, religion, entertainment, business, law enforcement, the military — it doesn't matter the arena or affiliation: all are riddled with the kind of seedy, depraved behavior that gets a free pass when it involves the powerful.

For years, the Epstein case has stood as a grotesque emblem of the depravity within America's power elite: billionaires, politicians, and celebrities who allegedly trafficked in sex with young girls while insulated from accountability.

It is believed that Epstein, who died in jail after being arrested on charges of molesting, raping and sex trafficking dozens of young girls, operated a sex trafficking ring not only for his own personal pleasure but also for that of his friends and business associates.

According to The Washington Post, "several of the young women...say they were offered to the rich and famous as sex partners at Epstein's parties."

The Epstein cloud is metastasizing and becoming a rallying point for deep-seated popular alienation from certain ruling strata. The public begrudgingly has become resigned to accept that their 'rulers' routinely lie and steal, but nonetheless they (particularly within the MAGA faction) have dimly come to understand that there may be vice within the body public which they regard as too detestable to imagine. People have caught on that Trump was in one way or another (even as a by-stander) linked to that whole degraded culture.

This is not likely to pass easily - or perhaps pass at all. Trump was elected to drain all such tangled webs of interlinked oligarchy, power structures and of intelligence services acting to unseen interests. That's what he promised: America First.

Distraction from Epstein likely won't work. The exploitation, abuse and destruction of the lives of untold numbers of children in the pursuit of power, wealth and diabolical debauchery cuts to the deepest quick of moral being. It cannot be distracted away by pointing to other élite vile monetary and power-plays. The abuse (and worse) inflicted on children stands apart in its own hellish category.

Trump may say that he's done nothing legally wrong. But the point is that he's now tainted - very seriously. He may consequently be entering Presidential lame-duck territory, barring some deus ex machina occurrence sufficient to deflect public attention.

Just to be clear, it is in Trump's character to mightily resist becoming a 'lame-duck' President. And here lies the geo-political danger. Trump needs headline distractions and he needs 'wins'.

However, he is at a weakened point now where the Security State and its Congressional allies are seizing more control. Equally, many in the nexus that links politicians and officials in the U.S., UK and Israel to deep business and intelligence ties will be extremely adverse to their exposure. Individuals, including the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell may prove dangerous, like a drowning man, who in his panic seizes on the nearest person only to drown the both of them.

A lawyer who worked closely with Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder now works in President Donald Trump's administration as an ostensibly nonpolitical staffer at the Justice Department.

While presidents appoint more than 3,000 people for political positions, the federal government directly employs roughly 2.3 million people, most of whom serve in purportedly nonpolitical, career positions. The Office of Personnel Management tracks when political appointees transition to career positions — a process often referred to as "burrowing in" to the bureaucracy — and Tina Thomas did so in August 2024.

Biden appointed Thomas as a political appointee in September 2021 to serve as senior counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department. She transitioned to a career role as assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., also in the Justice Department. OPM approved the transition on Aug. 11. Thomas went from an annual salary of $110,460 to $121,435.

Six months since Israel's expanded military assault on the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, over 42,000 Palestinian refugees remain forcibly displaced and have no stable access to food, water, or shelter.

Abdelsalam Odeh and his wife have been living in a bus for the past three months. The couple had nowhere to go and no means to pay rent after being expelled at gunpoint from their lifelong home in the Tulkarem refugee camp by the Israeli army earlier this year.

But desperation has a way of unlocking ingenuity — and for 71-year-old Odeh, that meant repurposing an old vehicle, piece by piece, and turning it into a home.

He converted the inside of the small bus into a bedroom and attached a small kitchen extension using corrugated steel sheets.

"It is our duty to be patient and persevere. Our expulsion will not last, no matter how long it persists," Odeh told Mondoweiss from the bus.

The corporate media ignores the scale of the horror. It's the rough equivalent of 70 million people in the USA. Official data grossly underestimates the death toll.

(Chevron might have taken my law license, but I can still use my voice to battle injustice. This platform is one of the few ways I can generate income since Chevron wiped out my bank accounts in retaliation for our victory in the landmark pollution case in Ecuador. Please consider a paid subscription. If not, read on. — Steven)

Most informed observers know that the actual death count in Gaza due to Israel's attacks on the territory is far worse than the large media outlets are reporting. Last February, my colleague Coll McCail — an astute college student in Glasgow — worked out a basic mathematical calculation that the corporate media refuses to do. The result of this calculation back then was chilling; now it is much worse.

Here is the latest data, updated as of yesterday (July 21): based on a statistical model developed by a prestigious medical journal called The Lancet, Israel has killed roughly 434,800 people in Gaza since the country's military started to attack the territory on 8 October 2023. That's 20.7% of Gaza's entire pre-conflict population dead. Over half are women and children.

If the same level of killing and indirect death that took place in Gaza during the 594 days of the conflict happened in the United States proportional to population, roughly 70 million Americans would have been killed.

I repeat: It is likely that the number of deaths in Gaza is the rough equivalent of 70 million Americans in proportion to current population. That's the equivalent of every person in the 28 least populous states in the United States. Or roughly every person in the entire states of California and New York.

Brussels has agreed to sweeping trade tariffs on European exports to the US and other concessions to avoid even higher duties.

The new trade agreement between the US and the EU is "completely humiliating for the Europeans," former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

The deal, announced on Sunday by US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, includes a requirement for EU member states to increase imports of American energy and defense products. It also imposes a blanket 15% tariff on EU exports to the US - terms accepted by Brussels to avoid even steeper trade penalties.

In a social media post on Monday, Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, claimed that the terms of the deal meant Trump had "wiped the floor with Europe."

"One can only feel sorry for ordinary Europeans," Medvedev wrote. He asserted that where Trump is seeking economic benefits for American businesses, EU leaders are motivated by an ideological anti-Russian sentiment, as the deal further cements Brussels' intention to terminate all purchases of Russian oil and gas.