China's New AI Agent Risks Trapping Western Tech In Rights Abuses: Analysts

American Consumers Have Never Been Less Confident Despite Inflation Fears Easing; UMich With the "mini war" still ongoing (albeit with a 'ceasefire' in place), expectations were for a continued slide (already at record lows) in the American consumer's sentiment in preliminary UMich data for May released today. And while the expectations were correct in direction, once again they underestimated just how bad things are as the headline UMich print fell from 49.8 to 48.2 (a new record low and below the 49.5 expectation). Under the hood was more mixed with Current Conditions tumbling...

'Cautious Optimism' Amid Stalemated Pakistan Talks, Even As Iran FM Insists No Meeting Planned With US Side Summary Iran denies that FM Abbas Araghchi's trip to Pakistan will include new talks with US, rejecting reports that Trump is sent his negotiating team to restart negotiations. 24/7 shuttle diplomacy (via Al Jazeera): There’' been shuttle diplomacy, and as one diplomat said, it's been relentless diplomacy that has been put forward by Pakistan from all sides. Iran's military says finger on the trigger: "greater power & readiness than before." Pakistani mediators are "cautiously optimistic" despite it being clear...

Slouching Toward Peace With Washington In Good-Cop/Bad-Cop Mode Authored by James Howard Kunstler, ". . .They are running the Accords logic to its conclusion: every adversary becomes a counterparty, every conflict becomes a deal, every closed economy becomes an investable market." - Patrick Wood That squawking you hear is Iran getting dragged kicking and screaming out of its jihad delirium into something that might look like reality-based relations with the rest of the world. They have to loudly declare that it’s not happening, even as it’s happening, to gaslight their own home...