Month: August 2024

Another day, another way the government is trying to micromanage businesses and the economy.

This time its restaurants that are fighting back against government regulation of “junk fees”, defined as surcharges or fees added on to bills to cover anything from credit card processing, to taxes, to inflation to tips. 

According to the National Restaurant Association, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges last year due to rising costs, according to CNBC. 

And a recent Square report shows that 3.7% of restaurant transactions in the second quarter included a service fee, more than twice the rate at the start of 2022.

Critics argue these fees can catch customers off guard, making them pay more at a time when budgets are tight. Frustrated diners have even created spreadsheets on Reddit listing restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago, and D.C. that charge hidden fees.

The CNBC report says the Biden administration is targeting “junk fees,” such as hidden charges on concert tickets and unexpected hotel resort fees. The Federal Trade Commission is expected to introduce a rule banning deceptive fees this fall.

Additionally, the U.S. Labor Department is proposing a rule to prevent financial advisors from recommending investments that benefit them more than their clients.

Meanwhile, restaurants are pushing back, arguing that surcharges are essential for their survival and fair employee compensation.

Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the National Restaurant Association said: “The challenge for the restaurants is that not all fees are junk fees … People know what they’re paying for when it comes to most fees that are on a restaurant bill.”

While some customers may disagree, restaurants like Galit, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Chicago, opened in 2019 with an optional 2% fee for workers’ health care, which has since increased to 4%. Additionally, a 20% service charge is added to each bill to support hourly staff. These fees are clearly listed on the restaurant’s website, Resy page, and menu.

Co-owner and general manager Andres Clavero, who has an accounting background told CNBC: “We can dictate where it all goes, so some of our service charge of 20% goes to the back of house.” 

Even restaurant operators acknowledge that some fees aren’t justified, the report concludes. Clavero, for example, opposes the use of Covid surcharges by restaurants more than four years after the pandemic closed dining rooms.

“What we have really been instilling in or membership is to be as open and transparent and public about it as possible, so customers know exactly what they’re getting into when they sit down to dine at their favorite restaurant,” Kennedy concluded. 

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

Have you noticed an unusual number of vehicles in the parking lots of major retailers in your area at night?  If you look closely enough, you will see that many of those vehicles actually have people sleeping in them.  At this point, millions of Americans are sleeping in their vehicles every night.  This is happening even though we are being told that the economy is just fine.  But of course the truth is that the system is failing all around us.  So if you get to sleep in a very warm bed in a very warm home, you should consider yourself to be very blessed, because vast numbers of people are really struggling right now.

The primary reason why so many people are living in their vehicles is because the cost of living has soared to unprecedented heights.

In particular, the cost of housing has become extremely oppressive.  In fact, housing in the United States has become more unaffordable than it has ever been before.

This week, I was stunned to read about a 33-year-old man named Ishan Abeysekera that is paying $2,100 a month to share a house with 23 other people…

In a city as notoriously expensive as New York, it’s common to see people in their late 20s and early 30s living with roommates to help manage the high cost of living.

But Ishan Abeysekera has taken that to the next level with his current living situation in Brooklyn: a communal building that he shares with a whopping 23 other people.

“When I say I have 23 housemates, people are like ‘What? That sounds wild,’” Abeysekera tells CNBC Make It. “But actually, it’s quite nice.”

That is nuts!

Who would pay that much to live with 23 total strangers?

Of course most Americans can’t afford to pay $2,100 a month for housing.

For example, it is being reported that some flight attendants that work for American Airlines are “sleeping in their cars” because the pay is so low…

Most new flight attendant hires are required to live in cities like Dallas, Miami, and New York, which have high costs of living that they cannot afford, Hedrick noted.

American flight attendants are sleeping in their cars, she said. Some of them fight for trips just for the chance to eat the plane meals, if the pilots don’t take their meals first.

“Our new hire flight attendants are struggling,” Hedrick said, adding that new hires most strongly rejected the 17% hike.

When I was growing up, I always thought that those that were selected as flight attendants had very good jobs.

But those days are long gone.

In this economy, many flight attendants can’t even afford a place to live.

Of course there are millions of others in a similar position.  In recent years, “van life” has become quite trendy, and more than 3 million Americans now fall into this category…

“Van life” or “van living” is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states.

According to Yahoo Finance, the number of American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022.

In the old days, if you lived in a van down by the river you were considered to be a bum.

But in this economy, living in a van down by the river is just considered to be normal.

Needless to say, there are some “van lifers” that choose the lifestyle because of the freedom it offers.

But there are many others that have been forced into this lifestyle.  A woman named Michelle Rose that used to own a home in Montana is one of them…

Three and a half years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Michelle Rose was about to lose her Montana home, was having issues with her job, lost her mother, and put everything she owned into a van to live in it permanently.

“I was like let’s just do this, let’s just sell the house and get on the road and we will figure out things as we go. It has sort of been a by the seat of my pants kind of life,” said Rose.

Michelle says that finances are the hardest part of van life for her, it is a constant worry and finding work is also challenging.

Another woman named Katie that “works as a manifestation coach and at a local coffee shop” admits that it was a tough mental adjustment when she started to live out of her vehicle…

Katie J., who works as a manifestation coach and at a local coffee shop, spoke about the mental legwork she had to work through in order to reach a sense of belonging in the community.

“Van life is fun and cool and saves money and it’s flashy on Instagram and stuff,” Katie J. said, “but it will bring up a lot for you to work through when it comes to not having roots somewhere … I’m a black woman and I’m already rare in Truckee as is, so to be also living in a van, I had so much stuff around that, so much shadow work to do around the limiting beliefs and feeling like I’m not supposed to be here, and I shouldn’t be parking here and I’m gonna get in trouble.”

A lot of these people have jobs, and a lot of these people would not be officially classified as “homeless”.

But the cost of living crisis has driven them to the brink of losing everything.

Unfortunately, our leaders never seem to learn.  They keep borrowing and spending money at an unprecedented rate, and this continues to create even more inflation.

If you can believe it, our government is even spending “up to a quarter million taxpayer dollars” to teach Iraqi kids how to be climate activists…

The State Department is offering up to a quarter million taxpayer dollars to an eligible nonprofit to teach Iraqi teenagers about climate activism.

Iraqi high schoolers could receive “Eco Action Clubs” bankrolled by taxpayers that will teach them how to advocate for environmental reform in their home country, according to a grant solicitation posted by the State Department earlier this month. The clubs will have several objectives, ranging from developing an “eco-agenda and action plan” which will generate “climate change solutions” to running a social media campaign to increase awareness of the climate crisis.

We are literally committing national suicide, but most of the population doesn’t seem to care.

Every election cycle, the big spenders are sent back to Washington over and over again.

Meanwhile, more Americans are being forced to sleep in their vehicles with each passing day.

Please do not look down on those that have been forced to sleep in a vehicle, because with a bit of bad luck just about anyone could end up in the same situation.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

SpaceX scrubbed a rocket launch this morning that would carry four private astronauts to space, part of a historic mission dubbed “Polaris Dawn,” which would perform the world’s first commercial spacewalk. 

“Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical. Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission to low-Earth orbit,” SpaceX wrote on X late Monday night. 

Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical. Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission to low-Earth orbit.

Next launch opportunity is no earlier than Wednesday, August 28 →…

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 27, 2024

SpaceX is now targeting Falcon 9’s launch of Polaris Dawn to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 0338 ET Wednesday morning. There are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window at 0523 ET and 0709 ET. A further backup launch window is available on Thursday. 

During the five-day mission in LEO, the four-person crew led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is also personally funding the mission, “will reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown since the Apollo program and participate in the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by commercial astronauts wearing SpaceX-developed EVA suits,” Elon Musk’s space company said. 

“They will also conduct 36 research studies and experiments from 31 partner institutions designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight, and test Starlink laser-based communications in space,” the private space company noted. 

Meanwhile, NASA publicly called up SpaceX on Saturday to bring home the two-person crew of Boeing Starliner stranded on the International Space Station for more than two months. The return flight on SpaceX’s Dragon will occur sometime in early 2025. 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

After a data protection company confirmed that numerous Social Security numbers were hacked, several websites have appeared this week allowing people to check if they’ve been compromised in the data breach.

A lawsuit filed in a Florida court against National Public Data alleged that cybercrime organization USDoD hacked the firm and that hackers then put the database for sale on the dark web for $3.5 million. The suit claimed that about 2.9 billion records, including names and Social Security numbers, span at least the last three decades.

The plaintiff, listed as Christopher Hoffman on behalf of others affected, has accused National Public Data of failing to “properly secure and safeguard the personally identifiable information that it collected and maintained as part of its regular business practices.”

National Public Data, in a letter and in an online statement, confirmed a data breach, although it did not say that 2.9 billion records were compromised. In a filing with the Maine Attorney General’s office, the firm said that 1.3 million people were potentially exposed.

“The incident is believed to have involved a third-party bad actor that was trying to hack into data in late December 2023, with potential leaks of certain data in April 2024 and summer 2024,” stated the letter from National Public Data, a background check company.

It further confirmed that personal information such as Social Security numbers, mailing addresses, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and other data were compromised in the incident.

And in an undated statement published last week on its website, the firm confirmed the data breach and advised consumers that they should try to mitigate any potential harm associated with Social Security numbers being used for nefarious purposes. That included contacting the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, to get a credit report.

How to Check

Since details of the incident surfaced this month, at least two third-party websites have been established to tell whether one’s Social Security number has been compromised in the breach.

One is operated by Pentester, a cybersecurity testing service, which allows a person to type their first name, last name, state, and date of birth.

A spokesman for the company, Richard Glaser, told The Epoch Times on Friday that “this data was originally for sale months ago” on the dark web.

“We are displaying a redacted version for people to know if they were affected, and if so, is the information correct that was shown about them. Many times it is not. Also, we do not store their searches on npd.pentester.com,” he said.

He also urged people whose Social Security numbers have been compromised to “protect themselves” and “be prepared” for future data breaches, adding that some websites have appeared in the wake of the data breach that may be scams.

“Use a trusted source such as pentester.com where we display information about our company and give real advice on next steps. There are some other ‘fully redacted’ sites out there storing data, compiling lists, and don’t even have a service in place. Be careful where you search. We are transparent about who exactly we are,” Glaser stated.

Another site that appeared in the past week or so is www.npdbreach.com, operated by Atlas Privacy, another cybersecurity company. The Epoch Times contacted Atlas for comment earlier this week but received no response by publication time.

That site allows a person to search via his or her first name, last name, and ZIP code. Or, it allows one to search using his or her Social Security number or phone number.

“To help keep you anonymous, your search query is hashed locally and then sent to our servers to search against the NationalPublicData.com. We do not store any search data,” the site states.

The site also highlights on the page that some media outlets have made reference to it.

In a statement after the breach, National Public Data said it is cooperating with law enforcement and government officials. The company said it will try to notify users “if there are further significant developments applicable” to them and recommends people monitor their financial accounts for unusual activity.

Tensions are soaring between NATO-member Poland and Russia amid allegations of another airspace violation. Poland’s military says it is currently hunting for a potential downed Russian drone within its sovereign borders.

Poland’s Armed Forces announced a ‘likely’ airspace violation during Monday’s major Russian air assault which targeted 15 out of 24 Ukrainian oblasts, and which chiefly took out energy and electrical infrastructure. The attack included cruise missiles, drones, and Kinzhal hypersonics and is being widely acknowledged as one of the biggest nationwide aerial assaults of the war.

“We are probably dealing with the entry of an object on Polish territory. The object was confirmed by at least three radiolocation stations,” Major General Maciej Klisz told reporters, describing that it was probably a drone. “It is clear from its characteristics that the object is not a missile, it is not a hypersonic, ballistic or guided missile.”

The Polish military described an ongoing search for what is “probably an unmanned aerial vehicle” that is some 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. “There was full readiness to neutralize this object,” a statement said further.

“The object disappeared from the radars around 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) deep into Polish territory early in the morning,” Gen. Klisz specified. 

Since the war in neighboring Ukraine began, there have been several instances of reported Polish airspace violations, with the most serious being the November 2022 incident which saw an errant Ukrainian air-defense missile falling on the Polish village of Przewodow, killing two Polish citizens.

And in December 2023, a Russian cruise missile spent several minutes inside Polish airspace before entering back into Ukraine.

President Zelensky has since claimed that Poland is now committed to shooting down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian territory if the inbound projectiles are deemed a threat to Poland’s defense.

Ukrainian media reported in July:

Ukraine and Poland agreed to further develop political, military, and economic cooperation, and “cooperate closely in the reconstruction of Ukraine as a sovereign and democratic state.”

During the joint press conference with Tusk, Zelensky thanked Poland for the “special agreements” in the document.

The president added that the security agreement includes a provision to develop “a mechanism” for intercepting Russian missiles and drones in Ukraine’s airspace aimed at Poland.

However, Polish leadership never explicitly backed these statements, but only said such a defense posture is under review and discussion.

Thus far, NATO states have not fired directly on Russian forces or assets operating inside Ukraine, on fears that this could ignite nuclear-armed war between Moscow and NATO.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Its Foreign Ministry’s ominously implied ultimatum to Minsk and reaffirmation of Ukraine’s right to self-defense suggest that Kiev might invade Belarus’ Gomel Region and/or Russia’s Bryansk Region.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement on Sunday warning about what it described as the “threat” posed by Belarus’ military buildup along the border, the motivations of which were analyzed here in early August. Belarusian President Lukashenko also drew attention last week to the whopping 120,000 Ukrainian troops that he claims were the first to deploy there. For reference, Belarus only has around 65,000 active soldiers, one-third of whom are stationed along the Ukrainian border.

Less than a week ago, a small Ukrainian force unsuccessfully tried to invade a tiny village in Russia’s Bryansk Region that’s only 30 kilometers from the Belarusian border. It was likely a probing attempt in hindsight, but any Kursk-like invasion along that front could risk impeding or even cutting off Russia’s military logistics to Belarus’ southeastern city of Gomel. That’s because there’s a nearby highway running between there and Bryansk’s eponymous capital just 30-50 kilometers inside of Russia from the border.

Ukraine might be gearing up to either attack Gomel (which is just 30 kilometers from the border) or at least threaten Russia’s military logistics to there from Bryansk judging by its Foreign Ministry’s statement, which the “Kyiv Independent” noted was the first about Belarus since last September. They ominously implied an ultimatum by writing that “we urge its armed forces to cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”

This was backed up by them reminding Belarus that “We warn that in case of a violation of Ukraine’s state border by Belarus, our state will take all necessary measures to exercise the right to self-defense guaranteed by the UN Charter. Consequently, all troop concentrations, military facilities, and supply routes in Belarus will become legitimate targets for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

The stage is therefore set for opening up another front on this false pretext if Kiev has the political will to do so.

There are arguments for and against the five most likely scenarios.

The first one is that Ukraine doesn’t invade either Gomel or Bryansk Regions, instead remaining content to continue sending drones across the former’s border and possibly continuing to carry out small-scale raids in the second.

The advantage is that Ukraine wouldn’t further extend itself, but the disadvantage is that also wouldn’t further extend its adversaries either. This is the least risky scenario of the five.

As for the second scenario, Ukraine might provoke Belarus into initiating conventional hostilities or orchestrate a false flag to that end.

Either could pressure the West into conventionally intervening like Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported that it would do if Belarus formally got involved in this conflict. Ukraine might desperately need the pressure relief that such an intervention could bring, but it might either be hung out to dry or the intervention could lead to tensions spiraling out of control.

The third, fourth, and fifth scenarios are similar in that Ukraine could either attack Gomel, Bryansk, or both.

This would pose the same risks that the first one would avert with regards to either further extending its own forces and/or its adversaries’. It’s the most dramatic set of scenarios due to how much it would worsen the conflict, but that might be precisely what Ukraine wants if it believes that this could get the West to conventionally intervene in its support, thus implying that it’ll soon lose if they won’t.

Out of these five, while the first would arguably be the best, it appears to be the least likely.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry wouldn’t have made its first statement about Belarus in almost a year if it didn’t believe that this would bring it some sort of benefit, let alone ominously imply an ultimatum and then reaffirm its right to self-defense, which would be twisted to justify aggression in the event that it decides to attack Gomel and/or Bryansk.

Something is cooking, and it doesn’t bode well for Belarus.

The West faces dire consequences if the Iran-backed Houthi aggression in the southern Red Sea persists. Beyond the intermediate inflation threat caused by shipping disruptions and skyrocketing container rates due to rerouted merchant ships around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, the long-term game is even more troubling: America’s “credibility and deterrence” is quickly eroding. This perceived weakness could embolden China to escalate disputes in the South China Sea, sensing a weakening West becoming increasingly entangled in multiple conflicts, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Former Navy Seal and Blackwater founder Erik Prince wrote on X this weekend about the Houthi rebel missile attack on Greek-flagged oil tanker MV Sounion about 77 nautical miles west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah last week that eventually led to a massive explosion and potential environmental disaster. 

“Where is the rightful outrage from environmentalists? Thousands of tons of crude oil will now pour into the Red Sea,” Prince wrote on X, adding, “Thousands of tons of crude oil will now pour into the Red Sea.” 

Where is the rightful outrage from environmentalists? Thousands of tons of crude oil will now pour into the Red Sea.
This is a clear sign of the collapse of American credibility and deterrence. Letting the Iranian proxy Houthis shut off a major maritime seaway is an epic fail.… https://t.co/ThmzZ5FAED

— ErikDPrince (@realErikDPrince) August 24, 2024

To put things in perspective, Sounion is hauling 150,000 tons of crude—a little more than four times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. 

Ten months after Houthi forces in Yemen started disrupting maritime traffic in the Red Sea, global shipping companies have had to reroute merchant ships around the Cape of Good Hope. This has resulted in delays and higher container costs that will only worsen as capacity stretches thin. 

• Supply Shock: Shipping Container Costs Top $10,000 Amid Red Sea Turmoil Thinning Global Capacity

Meanwhile, the US and EU have launched numerous military operations committed to ensuring freedom of navigation and maritime security in the highly contested region but have failed repeatedly.

Prince said, “This is a clear sign of the collapse of American credibility and deterrence. Letting the Iranian proxy Houthis shut off a major maritime seaway is an epic fail.” 

He noted, “America can and must do better! Leadership matters.” 

3/3 Some keep asking why the Houthis are attacking those commercial vessels. The Yemeni group has an agenda, and they have divided their maritime campaign into five phases so far, and they’ve been following it. I summarize below the phases based on statements from the group, and… pic.twitter.com/kCBnmHknUN

— Noam Raydan (@NoamRaydan) August 23, 2024

Why is the Biden-Harris administration’s failed freedom of navigation military operation in the Red Sea significant?

Because it projects extreme weakness for the world’s top superpower, embroiled in conflicts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Red Sea. This all exposes Biden and other far-left Western leaders who are extraordinarily weak. This perceived vulnerability could now accelerate the possibility of a major US-China confrontation in the South China Sea.

The focus in recent months by military officials and experts on heightening WW3 risks in the South China Sea has been on clashes between Chinese and Filipino ships. We have detailed this extensively: 

• US, Allies Condemn China’s Actions Against Philippine Vessels In South China Sea
• Watch: Filipino Soldiers Fought Off Axe-Wielding Chinese Coast Guard ‘With Bare Hands’
• US, Philippines Working On Intel Sharing Deal Amid Clashes With Chinese Vessels

With the US obligated to defend the Philippines if China attacks the Filipino military, Beijing is observing the West being bogged down in multiple conflicts as a sign of major weakness. As a result, the chances of armed conflict in the South China Sea are rising. 

Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

As Kiev attempts to bask in triumph over its territorial gains inside of Russia, its forces are losing territory along the Eastern front lines in Ukraine. Ukrainian military commanders say the reason for the losses is poorly trained soldiers; many are even afraid to fire their weapons. 

Speaking with the Associated Press, a battalion commander in Ukraine’s 47th Brigade said, “Some people don’t want to shoot. They see the enemy in the firing position in trenches but don’t open fire. … That is why our men are dying. When they don’t use the weapon, they are ineffective.”

After pushing Kiev to forego a diplomatic settlement with Moscow in April 2022, Western leaders pledged that they would arm, equip, and train Ukrainian soldiers to fight off the Russian invaders.

However, two and a half years into the conflict, it has turned into a war of attrition, and Kiev’s backers are struggling to sustain Ukraine’s military amid massive losses. 

While Kiev has not made an official statement regarding its casualties, they are estimated to be well into the hundreds of thousands. Support for the war has also been dipped in Ukraine, leading Kiev to draft more Ukrainians, including increasingly younger citizens, into the military. 

Many of the recruits and conscripts receive training in NATO countries, but their commanders say they are not performing routine operations.

“From the command point, I would like to issue orders to small (infantry) groups, but I am not sure if they are capable of executing these orders because they lack coordination and communication,” the officer told the AP. “Sometimes, I want to shoot myself.”

One soldier said the lack of experience is leading to territorial losses. “The main problem is the survival instinct of newcomers. Before, people could stand until the last moment to hold the position. Now, even when there is light shelling of firing positions, they are retreating,” said one soldier. 

NEW: Russian milbloggers claimed that Russian forces recently regained lost positions in Kursk Oblast amid reports of continued Ukrainian attacks in the area on Aug. 25.

Russian forces recently advanced near and within Toretsk and southwest of Donetsk City.

More key takeaways⬇️ pic.twitter.com/fuxFhGrIo7

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) August 26, 2024

“This fear creates panic and chaos,” said the battalion commander in the 47th Brigade. “This is also the reason we have lost.”

The modern skyscraper: born in America, adopted by China, and now a key part of iconic city skylines around the world.

But how tall have they become in the 150 years that humans have been building them?

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, ranks the world’s tallest skyscrapers as of August 2024.

Data was accessed from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The Eight Tallest Buildings in the World

Standing a towering 828 meters (2,717 feet) tall, the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s iconic building is named after a former UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Completed in 2010, this steel and glass edifice took six years to build and cost $1.5 billion.

Over 28 kilometers of tiny LED lights on the facade create stunning media displays; most famously lighting up for New Year’s Eve. This also, effectively, makes it the world’s largest LED screen.

Constructed a decade later, Malaysia’s Merdeka 118 is the newest skyscraper in the rankings. Finished in 2023, the building ranks second, standing at 679 m (2,228 ft) tall.

Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Tower ranks third at 632 m and and the country has two more buildings amongst the tallest list. They are: Shenzhen’s Ping An Finance Center (#5) and Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre (#8). Both between 500–600m (1,600–1,900 ft).

Of course, New York City’s One World Trade Center, rebuilt and completed in 2014, also makes it to the list. The skyscraper’s height in feet (1,776 ft) is a deliberate reference to the year the U.S. became independent.

Most skyscrapers are chock-filled with offices. But the commercial real estate sector in the U.S. is struggling. Check out this chart that tracks how commercial real estate prices are affected by tightening monetary policy.

Authored by Adam Starzynski via ReMix,

People who have been following international news closely in recent years might have noticed that Qatar keeps appearing in the headlines and clearly punches well above its weight in world affairs for a country with only 300,000 citizens. 

Lately, Qatar has been in the spotlight for housing the Hamas leadership while at the same time playing the role of the main negotiator, together with Egypt, for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Qatar also served as a safe haven for the Taliban for many years, and in 2020, facilitated a peace agreement between the United States and the Islamist group.

In between, Doha has also managed to organize the World Cup in football and was behind the largest corruption scandal in the history of the European Parliament, known as “Qatargate.”

However, Qatar’s main influence operation is its decades-long campaign to sponsor the spread of radical Islamist movements and mosques in the Middle East and Europe. Apart from sponsoring the construction of huge mosques and associations, Qatar is running an advanced media and PR campaign, creating fertile ground for these foreign Islamist movements to take root in their new countries.

We all know about the violent Jihadist organizations such as al-Qaida, ISIS and Hamas. However, most people know very little about the most influential Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Even fewer know that it has a patron state, and one that is broadcasting Muslim Brotherhood propaganda to hundreds of millions of homes across the world.

Qatar has been using the immense wealth it has accumulated through its oil and gas to turn Al Jazeera into an international media conglomerate, spreading Muslim Brotherhood propaganda on a global scale.

In order to fully comprehend the role played by this prominent Islamist organization, it is necessary to take a closer look at its roots. 

The Muslim Brotherhood is strongly linked to three players: Egypt, Palestine and Qatar. It was founded in Egypt in 1928 by the cleric Hassan al-Banna as a reaction to how weak the Muslim world had become in relation to the West since the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Al-Banna and other Muslim Islamists and modernists argued that the Muslim community was weak due to having become corrupted over the centuries and had to go back to practicing the pure Islam of Mohammed and the first Caliphs. 

The movement spread like wildfire in Egypt and one of its most notable early accomplishments was its involvement in the Arab revolt in Palestine, which lasted from 1936 to 1939. The revolt failed, but the Brotherhood succeeded in making the issue of Palestine a widespread Muslim concern. After the Second World War, they lobbied for granting asylum in Egypt to Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who had collaborated with Nazi Germany during the war.

After the 1952 military coup against the Egyptian monarchy, the military started treating the Brotherhood as a rival and a threat to their rule. Due to increasing pressure, many of their most important ideological leaders were forced to move to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Yusuf al-Qaradawi was the most important of these leaders. He was sent from the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1962 to head the Qatari Secondary Institute of Religious Studies. In 1977, he laid the foundation for the faculty dedicated to Shariah and Islamic Studies at the University of Qatar. Later, he became the host of a show on Al-Jazeera called “Sharia and Life” which had a viewership of around 80 million per episode, making him one of the most influential Muslim voices in the world.

The royal family of Qatar, the House of Al-Thani, has since been using the Muslim Brotherhood as a tool to minimize political opposition against them. In exchange for allowing the Brotherhood to use the country as a base for its international operations, the Brotherhood makes sure that there is no political threat based on organized religion against the Qatari monarchy.

Unfortunately, other countries are on the losing side of this deal. Qatar, Al-Jazeera and the Brotherhood cooperated in bringing the Muslim Brotherhood briefly into power in Egypt in 2011 and have sowed Islamist chaos throughout the Middle East since the Arab Spring, which started in 2011. It went so far that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan cut ties with Qatar in 2017 and started a blockade against the country.

Countries in Europe have also suffered, with Qatar being the main sponsor of mosques in which Brotherhood propaganda is taught and spread. In these same mosques, many Muslims have become radicalized and some are even convinced to join violent Jihadist organizations. Much of the money comes from the Qatar Charity, which has provided funding for at least 140 mosques, cultural centers, and Islamic schools in Europe. One of the most famous examples is the mega-mosque in Poitiers, which sits in the vicinity of the site of the Battle of Tours and Battle of Poitiers where Charles Martel, ruler of the Franks, stopped the advancing Muslim army of Abdul al-Rahman in the year of 732. 

Today, the largest Muslim umbrella group in Europe is the Council of European Muslims, formerly known as the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), and is widely seen as a front organization of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. In 1997, it created the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), a private foundation composed of Islamic clerics and scholars that issues fatwas for Muslims living in Europe, with the intention of dictating to them how they must live their lives.

It is worth asking who presided over this influential organization for the past decades. The answer? Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who operated from his headquarters in Qatar until his death in 2022. 

The growth of radical Islam in Europe has been accelerating for the past 50 years. When will Qatar, Al Jazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Council of European Muslims and the ECFR meet their “Poitiers” on the European continent?