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Authored by Fred Fleitz via American Greatness,

Earlier this week, I walked around the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Despite the heavy negative press coverage, I thought it was impressive and inspiring.

The event boldly portrays American patriotism and exceptionalism across our great nation to celebrate our country’s 250th birthday. It runs from June 25 through July 10, featuring more than 150 exhibits from all 56 U.S. states and territories, along with businesses, innovators, and civic organizations. There is a towering Ferris wheel, a stage with live music and performances, family-friendly attractions, military ensembles, flyovers, and daily cultural programming. An innovation center showcases booths from SpaceX and NASA.

A notable contrast: while the people of France and several other European countries are suffering from the summer heat because of their leaders’ environmental extremism, which hates air conditioners, all 150 exhibits at the Great American State Fair are air-conditioned.

On July 4th, the celebration will culminate in an epic Independence Day event featuring the world’s largest fireworks show over the nation’s capital.

This is just one part of President Trump’s bold America 250 initiative. He also hosted the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn—a high-energy night of championship fights watched cage-side by the president himself alongside his family and UFC CEO Dana White. And in August, the Freedom 250 Grand Prix will bring IndyCar racing to the streets of Washington, near the National Mall—the first motor race of its kind in the nation’s capital, showcasing American speed, ingenuity, and the thrill of competition around our iconic monuments.

These large-scale, energetic spectacles are classic Trump. That is why his many unhinged critics have viciously attacked these patriotic events saluting our nation’s 250th birthday.

At its core, much of the backlash reflects a deeper disagreement.

Trump’s events celebrate love of country, national pride, and American achievement—ideas that directly challenge the strain of anti-American sentiment common on the political left. Many critics view the United States not as history’s greatest force for peace, prosperity, and liberty, but as a flawed or villainous power. They tend to see patriotism itself as problematic.

This perspective was evident in prior administrations.

Under President Biden, aggressive DEI initiatives reshaped military policies, contributing to a recruitment crisis. Trump reversed those policies and restored merit-based standards, and military enlistment has rebounded strongly. Similarly, President Obama’s “apology tour,” when he traveled the globe to apologize for America’s supposed history of arrogance and immoral policies, and Obama’s public skepticism toward American exceptionalism treated our nation’s founding principles and achievements as sources of shame rather than of pride.

In education, many parents grew concerned about curricula that emphasized America’s flaws while downplaying the nation’s founders, the sacrifices of its military, and the principles that have made the country exceptional. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is now advancing reforms aimed at closing the federal Department of Education, returning more authority to states and localities, and promoting curricula that focus on America’s heritage and accomplishments.

President Trump is restoring patriotism and traditional values. His America 250 celebration and the Great American State Fair are central parts of this ambitious effort to reconnect Americans with the story of our nation’s greatness. The fair does not lecture or divide—it invites families to celebrate the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.

Despite the left’s predictable whining and the media’s relentless negativity, the vast majority of the American people are with Trump. They want to see their country honored, not torn down. They want their children to grow up proud of the United States, not ashamed of it.

Take your family to the Great American State Fair in DC this week. Bring your children. Ride the Ferris wheel. Explore the pavilions. Watch the performances. On the Fourth of July, stand together and witness the historic fireworks that will light up the sky over the National Mall.

This is what a confident, unapologetic America looks like. This is Trump and America 250—and it is exactly what our country needs right now.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Secret Service missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, including missing more than 102 radio transmissions warning of a suspicious person, a Department of Homeland Security report concluded.

The report, released on July 2 by the department’s Office of Inspector General, chronicles a series of communication failures, inadequate planning, limited intelligence sharing, and security lapses that combined to create the conditions that allowed gunman Thomas Crooks to open fire from the roof of a nearby building during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler. Crooks was fatally shot by a Secret Service agent.

Among the report’s most significant findings was that Secret Service members did not receive 102 radio transmissions “that local law enforcement officers in a separate communications room received concerning an increasingly intense search for a suspicious person. Instead, we found that the Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks. As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”

The Secret Service would have delayed Trump’s speech or removed him from the stage had they been aware of the search for Crooks, the report stated.

The report also said the Secret Service failed to detect a drone that Crooks flew over the rally site about two hours before the shooting. Investigators said the agency’s counter-drone system was inoperable because of a malfunction, and the lone operator assigned to the event lacked sufficient training to repair the equipment. The system remained offline while Crooks flew the drone for nearly nine minutes, allowing him to survey both the stage and the rooftop he later used to carry out the attack.

The report also found serious communication breakdowns between the Secret Service and local law enforcement. The Secret Service never received three radio reports from law enforcement that Crooks had climbed onto a roof with a rifle.

The inspector general also found that classified intelligence concerning a long-range threat to Trump was not shared with the Pittsburgh field office or agents responsible for planning security at the rally. The report said broader dissemination of that intelligence likely would have resulted in additional security personnel being assigned to the event.

Investigators further concluded that the Secret Service failed to ensure the American Glass Research complex, where Crooks launched the attack, was secured by state and local law enforcement. In addition, the agency did not use available resources to block the rooftop’s line of sight to the stage, despite recognizing it as a potential vulnerability.

The inspector general issued seven recommendations to improve protective operations. The Secret Service agreed with all of them, and the report said some have already been implemented while others remain in progress.

Following up from the announcement earlier this year when the Department of Energy (DOE) chose multiple companies to receive grant money for restoring domestic uranium enrichment capacity, Centrus Energy has now finalized a contract valued over $1 billion (including options).

“Centrus is competing for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand U.S. enrichment capacity.”

Competing with whom?
How much you need? $5BN? $10BN? $20BN? Done https://t.co/i1t7vf3bdl

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 25, 2025

Centrus will transition the existing cascade at their Ohio plant from a government-supply production line to commercial operations. 

The centrifuges in the current cascade can produce about 900 kg of high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) per year. The company has produced about 1,900 kg for the DOE since initial production began in 2023. 

The transition to full scale commercial operations has been dragged out through multiple phases over the past decade:

2019 DOE demonstration contract: Centrus’ earlier HALEU work began as a technology demonstration. DOE contracted with Centrus to license, build, and operate a small centrifuge cascade at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The goal was to prove US enrichment technology could produce HALEU domestically.

2022 Production contract: DOE moved the project from demonstration to limited production. This allowed Centrus to begin producing HALEU for DOE using the Piketon cascade.

2023 HALEU production milestone: Centrus delivered the initial 20 kilograms of HALEU to the DOE.

2025 Contract extension: DOE extended Centrus’ production work through June 30, 2026. This kept the demonstration cascade operating and allowed Centrus to finish producing the initial 900 kg of HALEU.

January 2026 DOE award: DOE selected Centrus for a $900 million HALEU enrichment capacity award. Additional awards were announced for General Matter, Orano, and Global Laser Enrichment.

Power prices soared on Thursday across PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states, as a brutal multi-day heat dome pushed electricity demand toward critically high levels and raised the risk of rolling blackouts.

Ahead of triple-digit temperatures today across the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York, PJM has declared a level 2 grid emergency and ordered emergency load reductions.

The alert, one step below a warning of imminent rolling blackouts, applied across PJM’s territory from Illinois to Washington, DC.

Under North American Electric Reliability Corp. definitions, an Energy Emergency Alert 2 means the grid operator can no longer meet expected requirements but is still maintaining minimum contingency reserves.

GridStatus data shows the PJM grid was kept afloat Thursday almost entirely by natural gas, nuclear, and coal. As of Friday morning, the three fuel sources were supplying more than 94% of the grid’s total power.

Wind and solar power generation were largely in the single digits when the grid needed reliable dispatchable power. This is an uncomfortable reality for the Democratic Party, which has become little more than a band of climate socialists hellbent on destabilizing the grid with an unreliable power mix. 

Average power prices across PJM are set to soar from late morning into late afternoon.

Current power prices (as of Friday morning):

Today’s load forecast will crest around 160.85 GW by late afternoon – the moment when everyone will have their ACs cranking.

So far, the PJM grid has held. But with a few more days of triple-digit heat ahead, the takeaway is clear: fossil fuels and nuclear power are keeping the lights on, AC units humming, and preventing rolling blackouts.

Do not let the Democratic Party, now unhinged climate socialists, claim otherwise. The real question is why these socialists, who project anti-American rhetoric daily, remain so committed to destabilizing the grid with de-growth climate policies when fossil fuel dispatchable power is what saves the grid during peak-demand crisis hours.

While US cash markets are closed for the July 4th holiday, stocks around the world rebounded from yesterday’s momentum rout as the latest round of jitters about the AI trade subsided, with Europe’s benchmark rising to an all-time high. S&P futures rose 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rebounded 1.2% in thin holiday trading after South Korean memory giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics recovered, helping to drive a 2% rally in Asian shares after earlier tumbling with SK Hynix plunging as much as 30% from its all time high. Europe’s utility and technology sectors outperformed to set the Stoxx 600 up for a second straight record close. The dollar touched a two-week low amid another mjni flash crash in the USDJPY overnight while gold extended gains.

Friday’s gains marked the latest turn in a stretch of choppy trading as markets grapple with whether the second quarter’s AI-driven rally has gone too far. With stocks recovering after a two-day rout in chipmakers, investors are waiting for the upcoming earnings season as the next signal of whether massive spending on AI infrastructure can translate into profits.

“The fundamentals are still very, very strong and the market is still underpricing them,” Tim Moe, Goldman equity strategist told Bloomberg TV. “There still is a lot longer to go in the overall positive profit environment for memory stocks and the AI hardware supply chain space overall.” 

With momentum crashing, its funding counterparties in the momentum pair trades, bitcoin and gold, jumped. Gold rose 1.2% to around $4,170 an ounce, the highest level in nearly two weeks, after money markets dialed back expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes this year. Bitcoin also moved sharply higher, reversing from its recent rout and rising above $62. Having previously dislocated dramatically, gold and bitcoin are back to trading as the same asset class. 

The outlook for easier monetary policy also weighed on the dollar, which headed for its worst weekly performance since May. Meanwhile, the yen swung between gains and losses as speculation grew that Japanese authorities may be less predictable in how they intervene to support the currency.

Worries that persistent inflation pressures would leave the Fed little choice but to tighten policy have subsided in recent days, with oil prices easing and an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in US labor market growth. The first fully priced-in quarter-point Fed hike has moved back to December, from October.

“Unless and until we see clearer signs that the energy spike has filtered its way through to underlying inflation, we think that the Fed will opt for a cautious approach to policy tightening,” noted Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at Ebury.

European stocks were little changed in early Friday trading, but still set to wrap up their fourth straight week of gains, as investors remained optimistic that the Federal Reserve will hold off on rate hikes for now.The Stoxx 600 traded little changed at to 648.41, with utilities outperforming while consumer and personal good firms underperform. Here are the biggest movers Friday:

• Genfit shares jump as much as 15%, with the French biopharmaceutical company saying it’s set to benefit from US Medicare coverage for a diagnostic blood test for liver disease, known as NASHnext, which is powered by Genfit’s technology
• Pluxee gains as much as 8.6%, to the highest in almost two months, after the employee benefits provider delivered a slight beat in the third quarter and maintained its full-year guidance
• MIPS gains as much as 19%, the most in nearly two years, after the Swedish helmet technology firm announced it settled a patent infringement lawsuit initiated by BrainGuard. Pareto Securities says the news removes a key overhang
• AFRY gains as much as 6.4%, the most since April, after the Swedish engineering consultancy’s recommendation was raised to buy from hold at Pareto Securities, expecting its upcoming second-quarter report to “mark a turn in AFRY’s earnings trajectory”
• Maersk gains as much as 4.6% after being raised to neutral from sell at Goldman Sachs, with the bank turning “less negative” on the 2027 supply-demand outlook, seeing a “slightly later and shallower acceleration in new capacity growth in 2027”
• Craneware shares tumble as much as 31%, the most in seven years, after the software company warned that FY26 financial performance is likely to be below market expectations
• Stellantis shares fall as much as 1.7% after the carmaker was downgraded to reduce at HSBC, which says it’s concerned about cash outflows and the potential need for de-stocking

Asian stocks rose at the end of a volatile week as shares of heavyweight South Korean semiconductor makers bounced back following a two-day slide. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied as much as 2.2%, erasing early losses. Samsung, SK Hynix and Japan’s Kioxia each jumped more than 8%. Anthropic is in talks with Samsung to be a manufacturing partner for a custom AI chip, according to a report. However, TSMC’s shares slipped, tracking declines in US chip stocks. Friday’s rebound in Asia was also aided by improved risk sentiment after weaker than expected US June employment data and lower oil prices challenged expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes this year. The MXAP index lost 1.4% in the previous session, when chipmakers plunged on concerns over excess AI capacity and intensifying competition. It is up 1.5% for the week. This week’s price action has served as another reminder that the fortunes of Asia’s benchmark remain closely tied to a handful of tech names. The two Korean chipmakers and Kioxia carry a combined more than 12% weighting in the regional gauge. TSMC alone holds close to 11% — the most for a single stock.

“We’re looking much more forward now in terms of expectations, in terms of growth, what 2027 will look like,” said Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X Management, in a Bloomberg TV interview. “The AI trade’s really got breadth now,” with infrastructure and energy supply names also offering opportunities beyond memory chips, he added.

Looking ahead, Samsung is expected to announce its preliminary quarterly earnings on July 7 while SK Hynix will list ADRs on the Nasdaq next Friday. Traders will be watching for monetary policy decisions from New Zealand and Malaysia’s central banks next week. Several other companies in the region are due to report earnings, including Fast Retailing, Seven & i and Tata Consultancy Services.

Brent steadied below $72 a barrel as traders weighed the outlook for increased supply through the Strait of Hormuz and continuing talks between the US and Iran.

Meanwhile, nervousness about AI valuations has seen investors turning away from US stocks at the fastest pace since March, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists. The country’s stock funds had $17.2 billion in outflows in the week through July 1, the team led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note, citing EPFR Global Data. Investors turned to some international stocks instead, with Japanese equities seeing their biggest inflows in seven weeks at $1.9 billion.

Market Wrap

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% as of 9:26 a.m. New York time
• Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.2%
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5%
• The MSCI World Index rose 0.2%
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1444
• The British pound was little changed at $1.3354
• The Japanese yen was little changed at 161.22 per dollar
• Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $61,973.66
• Ether rose 2.1% to $1,739.81
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.93%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.80%
• West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
• Spot gold rose 1.2% to $4,170.41 an ounce

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Happy Independence Day to our US readers as they celebrate 250 years of AMEXIT. A reminder of our piece on the US quarter millennium success story and the prospects of that continuing in the decades ahead can be found at the Deutsche Bank Research Institute here.
As we reach the end of the week, the biggest dilemma facing those of us in England is whether to stay up—or get up—for a 1am kick-off against Mexico in their home stadium on Monday morning. Given the game is being played at 2,240 metres above sea level, where there’s around 23% less air than we’re used to breathing on English football grounds, it’s fair to say expectations are being kept at a sensible altitude.  

I learned yesterday that the human body tends to perform worst between two and five days after arriving at high altitude. Apparently, the optimal strategies are either to fly in just before the event or about two weeks beforehand. The latter was clearly impossible, but do bear it in mind for your next ski trip.  

Some pubs are reportedly opening at 1am on Monday morning for the occasion. The last time I was in a pub at 1am on a Monday, some members of my team had yet to be born. I’m not expecting to break that streak. If anything, it’ll be a cup of hot chocolate on the sofa while writing the EMR. 

The tech altitude sickness of late is reversing a bit this morning with the KOSPI (+4.60%) back up after a difficult week. The rally has been led by Samsung Electronics, which has surged +8.2% on reports that Anthropic PBC is in discussions with the company to produce a customised AI chip. Chinese equities are also rebounding, with the CSI 300 (+1.15%) recovering after two consecutive losses, while the Shanghai Composite (+0.69%) is posting moderate gains. The Hang Seng (+1.57%) is extending its weekly gain to around +4.0%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 (+1.38%) is trading notably higher, supported by stronger-than-expected services sector activity. S&P 500 (+0.35%) and Nasdaq (+0.83%) futures are also higher.

Economic data released earlier this morning showed that China’s services sector expanded more than anticipated in June, driven by robust domestic and international demand. The RatingDog Services PMI eased slightly to 54.1 from 54.4 in May but beat the 53.0 expected. There was continued growth in new business, with both domestic and overseas orders increasing. Notably, services exports rose at their fastest pace since October 2024. Meanwhile, the S&P Global Australia Services PMI improved to 50.5 from 48.7 in May, signaling a modest recovery in activity.

It’s also worth noting that Bloomberg are carrying a story this morning that the Trump administration and its allies are actively exploring ways to reshape the Federal Reserve by removing or replacing key officials. Despite a recent Supreme Court decision allowing Fed Governor Lisa Cook to remain in her role for now, efforts to challenge her position are continuing, with a renewed focus on following procedural grounds for potential removal. Former Chair Jerome Powell is also under scrutiny, according to the story, with ongoing political and legal pressure potentially creating an avenue for his departure.

At the same time, the administration is seeking to influence the central bank through upcoming appointments, including the presidency of the Atlanta Fed, a role seen as strategically important for its economic analysis and future voting power on interest rates. So one to watch.  
Ahead of that, markets put in another strong performance yesterday, as an underwhelming US jobs report led to mounting hopes that the Fed wouldn’t hike rates this year. Indeed, the newsflow was pretty dovish in general, as we saw Brent crude trade within touching distance of $70/bbl for the first time since February, though it ultimately settled +0.32% higher on the day at $71.80/bbl. This backdrop helped spark a decent rally across the board, including record highs for Europe’s STOXX 600 (+1.41%) and the German DAX (+2.16%). Germany has started to announce some serious reforms in recent weeks and over the last 36 hours we saw another that we’ll detail later which helped the domestic mood. The main exception to the global positivity was chip stocks once again, which saw another slump. This left the S&P 500 (+0.0001%) remarkably flat on the day even as most individual stocks were relieved by the dovish repricing, with the equal-weighted S&P 500 (+0.76%) surging to another all-time high as well.  

This strong performance came as the US jobs report hit the sweet spot for markets in several respects. It was still in positive territory, with payrolls up +57k in June, whilst the unemployment rate hit a one-year low of 4.2%. So it meant investors were still pretty optimistic on the near-term outlook. But because payrolls grew by less than the +113k reading expected, the print also helped to push back against the prospect of an imminent rate hike. Indeed, the details included downward revisions to the April and May prints of -74k in total, which took the 3-month average for payrolls down to +111k, so relative to expectations it generally underwhelmed.  

With the jobs report in hand, the speculation about an imminent July rate hike continued to ebb. Indeed, market pricing has shifted a lot in the last 48 hours, as we also had the comments from Fed Chair Warsh at Sintra on Wednesday that inflation risks had come down. So market pricing for a July rate hike has fallen from 34% on Tuesday, to 27% on Wednesday after Warsh’s comments, and just 18% by last night’s close after the jobs report. Moreover, just 30bps of hikes are now priced in by the December meeting, the fewest since the Fed meeting a couple of weeks ago when the dot plot surprised in a hawkish direction.  

In light of that, US Treasuries rallied yesterday, particularly at the front-end of the curve. So the 2yr yield (-3.9bps) fell back to 4.14%, whilst the 10yr yield (+0.5bps) was little changed at 4.48%. And notably, it wasn’t just Fed rate hikes being cast into doubt, as there were growing question marks about whether the ECB would deliver another rate hike as well. In fact, the probability of another rate hike by September fell beneath 50%, and even the probability of a hike by December was down to just 70%. That was partly down to the oil price decline during the European session. The moves also came as ECB President Lagarde said in an interview that the ECB were “convinced we made the right decision” with the June hike but that second-round effects “have not materialized so far”. The ECB repricing meant the 2yr German yield was down another -1.4bps to 2.49%. Nevertheless, long-end yields in Europe still moved higher, with those on 10yr bunds (+2.5bps), OATs (+2.6bps) and BTPs (+2.0bps) all rising.  

This backdrop of lower oil prices and a dovish repricing was generally a very strong one for equities. That was particularly clear in Europe given its exposure to the energy shock, and the STOXX 600 (+1.41%) hit a new record high, as did the DAX (+2.16%). In the US, equities also did very well for the most part, though the S&P 500 index rose by a mere hundredth of a point to 7483.24 (+0.0001%) as its advance was curtailed by another slump in chip stocks. Indeed, the Philly semiconductor index was down -5.44% yesterday, building on its -6.27% decline on Wednesday, with all 30 companies in the index losing ground. So given that semiconductor stocks make up around a sixth of the S&P 500, it was tough for the index to gain much traction, even though 70% of its constituents still advanced on the day. 

Elsewhere yesterday, Bloomberg reported that several European countries accepted that ships going through the Strait of Hormuz would have to pay fees to Iran and Oman. What might happen is still very unclear, but it spoke to concerns that the Strait of Hormuz won’t be going back to the status quo that prevailed before the conflict began.  

Speaking of Europe, as highlighted earlier, Wednesday saw the German government announce a big reform package, which includes income tax relief, pension reforms, and reductions in red tape. Our German economists have more details on the package (link here), and they write how it demonstrates the willingness of both coalition partners to compromise. In terms of next steps, the coalition partners have set themselves a clear deadline to implement these reforms by year-end, which should bode well for sentiment and dovetails with our economists’ forecast that growth will pick up in the second half of the year.  

Looking at the day ahead now, it’s a fairly quiet one with US markets closed for the Independence Day holiday. Otherwise, data releases include the final services and composite PMIs for June from several countries. Then from central banks, we’ll hear from ECB President Lagarde, the ECB’s Nagel and Makhlouf, and BoE Governor Bailey.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A Tibetan activist died on Thursday after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, according to the New York City Police Department.

Police responded to an emergency call at around 6.30 p.m. ET on July 2 and found the man with severe burns, a police department spokesperson said in a statement to multiple news outlets.

The man, who was an Uber driver, was carrying a Tibetan flag during the incident. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the spokesperson.

Police are still investigating the incident and have not disclosed the man’s identity or potential motive for him to self-immolate.

The Tibetan National Congress of New York and New Jersey said in a July 3 statement posted to Instagram that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who has “dedistatement that the man was a 52-year-old Tibetan activist named Lobsang Palden, also known as Lobga Rangzen, who had “dedicated his life to participating in peaceful, non-violent demonstrations to expose China’s human rights abuses in Tibet.”

The organization said Rangzen broadcast a livestream on Facebook before self-immolating near the U.N. headquarters, in which he called for Tibetan independence and spoke about the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The activist attributed his actions to his commitment to Tibet and emphasized that they were not driven by any personal circumstances, the Tibetan National Congress added.

In his final message, he said: “I don’t want you to mourn for me, I want you to continue the struggle for Tibetan independence, because the lack of independence is the root of all our problems,” according to the Tibetan National Congress.

“We must recognize and remember that Lobga Rangzen committed this act for the political freedom of Tibet,” Jamyang Norbu, founder of the Tibetan National Congress, said in the statement.

“It is a tragedy that he passed away, but his commitment to the independence of Tibet will not be forgotten.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the United Nations for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

According to nonprofit group Free Tibet, more than 150 people have self-immolated inside Tibet since 2009 in protest against the Chinese occupation in 1950. Rangzen’s death marked the first known case of a Tibetan self-immolation in the United States, the Tibetan National Congress said.

Free Tibet said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified security forces’ activity in response to the protests, punishing protesters and their families. Some self-immolators who survived were detained, and their whereabouts remain unknown, according to the group.

During Human Rights Day in December 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Chinese officials over their roles in the CCP’s human rights abuses in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

The department said at the time that Tibetans have been subject to serious human rights abuses in the region, including ”arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and physical abuse,” as part of the CCP’s efforts to “severely restrict religious freedoms.”