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Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

These dynamics and the incentives they generate lead to systemic crisis and collapse.

As I noted in What Once Explained Everything Now Explains Nothing, the simplicity of either-or ideologies appeal to us. Identifying with an ideology is like having a favorite sports team: yea for our team! Our team good, other team bad.

The roots of this simplistic either-or are obvious: our tribe good, other tribe bad. The problems with this simplistic loyalty arise when we attempt to explain complex real-world dynamics with the comic-book simplicities of ideology, which extend from politics to culture to finance.

Rather than explain everything, they add a layer of mud rather than illuminate. The emotions of tribal / ideological identity and loyalty bypass our rational processes in favor of fight-or-flight limbic responses. Needless to say, these hormonal floods of emotions are the equivalent of smashing a rock on a machine to “problem-solve” what’s broken in the device.

Fortunately, we have conceptual tools that bypass this smash-it-with-a-rock approach to making sense of a complex, increasingly chaotic world. These tools show up in all my work, stretching back 20 years.

1. The problem-solving power of self-organization. Humans are social animals because the ability to cooperate with others opens vast vistas of problem-solving power via self-organization: we self-organize to pursue mutual / shared interests in ways that benefit us all. This is the core function of tribes, i.e. self-organizing social structures in which our self-interest is advanced by advancing our mutual interests.

Both markets and society are self-organizing structures that arise to benefit individual self-interests by benefiting shared interests. In other words, both capitalist and socialist structures arise to serve shared interests. They are not either-or, they’re both manifestations of the same dynamic. This is why the ideological either-or is such a misleading false choice.

Markets only function to everyone’s benefit within a high-trust society. If there is no social structure that serves everyone’s shared interests by limiting predation and exploitation, then you end up with the extractive “market forces” of totalitarianism, i.e. rackets, in which the few impoverish and immiserate the many to the exclusive benefit of the small cadre of insiders.

As I have taken pains to explain, private-sector totalitarianism is the “market” manifestation of totalitarianism, a privately owned version of political totalitarianism. The core dynamic is the same: the system exploits and immiserates the many to benefit the few.

When private equity snaps up the only manufacturers of fire engines and then jacks up prices without adding any value, this impoverishes and immiserates the many who must collectively pay more money for no added value to enrich the few who own / control the racket. There is no functional difference between a totalitarian state structure that enriches party insiders at the expense of the many and “markets” in which private equity enriches insiders at the expense of the many.

This leads to the second dynamic:

2. Diffusion and Concentration. Control–i.e. power–self-organizes around the dynamics of Diffusion and Concentration. Consider the power of a monopoly that can raise prices for all customers, customers who have no alternative because the monopoly controls the “market” / political structure. The gains of the price increases (value is unchanged but the cost rises) are concentrated in the hands of the monopoly’s managers and owners while the impoverishment and immiseration is diffused across a vast spectrum of customers / taxpayers.

The incentives to raise prices is extremely high for insiders, as they will reap enormous personal gains. The incentives to resist a relatively small increase in price among the millions of customers / taxpayers is low, because life is already demanding, and what’s the potential gain of fighting a losing battle against a powerful opponent over a small sum of money? The cost in time and effort is far more significant than the relatively modest financial benefit of winning the battle.

Diffusion and Concentration establish incentives which then organize the system. Consider a local government which sells bonds for a project that benefits only a small sector of the populace. The costs of this borrowing from future income to pay for benefits the few will enjoy today is spread not just over the entire current populace but over future taxpayers who weren’t old enough to vote on the decisions they will pay for.

3. Benefits, Risks, Costs and Incentives. Those seeking to reduce their private risks and increase their private gains seek to concentrate the gains generated by control structures and distribute the risks and costs to others. Pull the strings that diffuse the costs and risks over a large populace and gather the gains into the hands of the insiders that manage the control structure, typically some form of monopoly, either public or private, or a fusion of public-private rackets.

So corporations that engage in blatantly illegal skimming and scamming face low risks–managers or owners are never imprisoned, and the fines paid when caught are modest compared to the profits skimmed–while the gains are extremely enticing. This diffusion of risk and concentration of potential gains establishes perverse incentives to increase extractive, exploitive, well-hidden rackets that impoverish and immiserate the many, but in doses small enough to avoid triggering push-back.

In a system that concentrates gains and diffuses risk, the “rational actor” seeks to maximize rackets that distribute impoverishment and immiseration to the many in small doses over time that attract little attention and are not significant enough to trigger an emotionally potent resistance. This leads to:

4. The Ratchet Effect. Costs ratchet up, value ratchets down, but in increments too small to change the risk-reward equation and over time so the pain of this impoverishment and immiseration is normalized as the populace herded into the corral habituates to the decay of value and the rise in costs.

So the parking ticket that once cost $15 is now $60, but exactly how does the individual citizen push back against the monopoly powers of the city government? Yes, the citizen can file a complaint with their representative, but the odds that this will lead to reduced parking fines is zero. The same is true should the citizen attend a public meeting and get 30 seconds to speak at the end of a long meeting when everyone just wants to go home.

Bureaucracies optimize The Ratchet Effect by their very nature. Regulators and administrators must “do something” to justify the high costs of their employment and benefits, and so they “serve the public” by incrementally adding to regulatory thickets that over time strip out self-organizing functionality and replace it with control structures that are impervious to reform.

Reformers seeking to reduce bureaucratic regulations and costs run into Diffusion and Concentration. Those whose jobs are threatened by cost-cutting are extremely motivated to spend every waking second resisting any cost-cutting, while those who stand to benefit–the citizens paying fines or business license fees–will only see a modest reduction in costs, too small to motivate them to self-organize in support of the reforms / cost cutting.

So these control structures, public and private, run on automatic, concentrating benefits in the hands of insiders and owners and distributing the risks and costs to the diffused many. The result is institutional sclerosis, and self-reinforcing resistance to any adaptation that benefits the many at the expense of the few insiders / managers / owners.

5. Semi-chaotic tests of the system’s stability. Benoit Mandelbrot’s book The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward explains how self-organizing structures such as markets–and by extension, all of life, which is also self-organizing–are prone to unpredictable cascades that operate outside the “normal, predictable” rules we’ve identified as “the way things work.”

In terms of selective pressures and adaptation, these unpredictable crises test the system’s adaptability and stability. In this way, they are essential to maintaining the adaptive “muscles” and coherence of the system which boil down to the dynamics of self-organization–precisely what all the control structures running on automatic have stripped out in the “rational actor” incentives to optimize concentrating gains and diffusing costs and risks.

These dynamics led to a rising wedge of asymmetric distributions of power, control, wealth and income that strip out self-organizing adaptation and the system’s ability to survive unpredictable but inevitable crises. These dynamics and the incentives they generate lead to systemic crisis and collapse.

The only structures capable of re-organizing the post-collapse world are islands of coherence that managed to retain self-organizing capacities that escaped the control and predation of “rational actors” maximizing self-interest at the expense of the system’s adaptive capacity and stability.

As noted above, these dynamics inform all my work. You can review all my books here.

My book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free). Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free

“The Strait of Hormuz will return to its pre-war operating conditions within 30 days under a management framework implemented by Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned during a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein. 

The timing behind his visit to Baghdad is interesting, right at the moment a widening corruption sweep conducted by elements of the Iraqi government, which has unleashed mass protests and unrest outside Baghdad’s Green Zone. The symbolism of defiance and readiness to fight was on display too, given Araghchi’s corresponding visit to the site of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s assassination outside Baghdad Airport.

Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that several political figures were arrested in a corruption probe tied to testimony from former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili, who was detained last month.

As we reported earlier, security forces locked down Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and carried out raids inside the government and embassy district that sits on the west bank of the Tigris River. It contains key Iraqi state institutions, including parliament and government offices, as well as foreign embassies, most notably the US Embassy.

As for Aragchi, he also also called on “all parties to refrain from interfering in Iran’s management of the strait and to allow the memorandum to proceed as agreed.“

This also as a separate statement out of the Iranian government condemned what it called severe violations of the ceasefire and agreed-to Memorandum of Understanding by the US.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi vowed harsher retaliation in the scenario of any new US attacks.

“We have responded, and will continue to respond, to every action the enemy takes in this regard. We reiterate: if the enemy breaks its commitments and violates the ceasefire, we will respond more forcefully than before,” said Mohebbi.

Crucially while in Iraq Sunday the top Iranian diplomat FM Araghchi visited the site where Qasem Soleimani, the former IRGC Quds Force commander, was killed in a US strike during the first Trump term:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in Iraq today and visited the site where Qasem Soleimani, the former IRGC Quds Force commander, was killed in a U.S. strike during the first Trump administration. pic.twitter.com/p1jRdroKtD

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 28, 2026

The aforementioned major Baghdad protests triggered by the ongoing anti-corruption sweep appears aimed at Iraq’s political class aligned with Iran. The US has long sought to peel away this influence, which ironically became solidified only in wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Baathist secular Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein. 

The timing is also critical, coming just after Iran targeted Bahrain and Kuwait with drones and missiles in response to US strikes. That suggests Baghdad, with US influence, may be moving to eliminate Iran-linked networks inside Iraq before they can become a more worrisome pressure point.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The London mayor who once insisted there was “no indication” of grooming gangs now faces explosive new scrutiny after a police review uncovered thousands of previously sidelined child sexual exploitation files.

The Metropolitan Police has identified more than 4,000 potential child sexual exploitation cases across London that may require reopening.

These stem from roughly 12,000 reports dating back to 2010, with about one in three previously closed after police or prosecutors took no further action.

Met Police uncovers 4,000 potential grooming gang cases as Sadiq Khan faces fresh scrutiny over London claimshttps://t.co/c2Wpx1MwOL

— GB News (@GBNEWS) June 28, 2026

The cases have now been referred to the National Crime Agency under Operation Beaconport for urgent assessment.

‘What on Earth are we doing? Why are we allowing this to happen?’

Journalist Andy Jones reacts to the horrifying news that a Met Police review has identified more than 4,000 grooming gang cases that may need reopening. pic.twitter.com/zaAyo6V7s1

— GB News (@GBNEWS) June 28, 2026

This development directly contradicts Sadiq Khan’s past public statements. In January 2025, appearing before the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, Khan repeatedly dodged questions from Conservative member Susan Hall about the scale of grooming gangs in the capital.

He claimed his understanding from regular police briefings was that there were “no reported cases and also no indication of the grooming gangs” she was concerned about.

When pressed on how many such gangs operated in London, he asked her to clarify what she meant by the term.

Scotland Yard has identified more than 4,000 rape gang cases that may need to be reinvestigated in London alone!

Here’s Pakistani mayor Sadiq Khan pretending he doesn’t know what a rape gang is.

4,000 rape gangs who are predominantly Pakistani and the Pakistani didn’t see it? pic.twitter.com/Xd8Ewg38dW

— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) June 28, 2026

Critics now describe the position as gaslighting. Hall called the scale “utterly disgraceful,” noting it represents 4,000 young girls raped and sexually abused while authorities looked the other way or actively resisted scrutiny.

Khan’s team now claims he has always supported leaving “no stone unturned.” The gap between that line and his earlier blanket denials has not gone unnoticed.

This London revelation fits a wider, years-long scandal of institutional failure and political cowardice. Earlier this year we detailed how even the BBC exposed the scale of grooming activity in the capital under Khan’s watch.

Separate investigations laid bare mini-mart operations where vulnerable children were plied with alcohol and cigarettes in exchange for sexual abuse. Illegal shops were caught handing out free vapes to kids in return for sexual favours. And the weary response from parts of the establishment often boiled down to telling victims and the public to simply “get over it.”

The common thread remains the same: authorities slow-walked or buried evidence, prioritised community relations over child safety, and treated any mention of ethnic or cultural patterns as radioactive.

None of this emerged in a vacuum. Long before the current review, the machinery of denial was already well oiled. Official files had ethnicity redacted. In two-thirds of cases, perpetrator background went unrecorded.

Police in some areas told victims the Asian men who abused them were “probably not going to catch them.”

A 2020 Home Office report, relying on hopelessly incomplete data, pushed the false narrative that most grooming perpetrators were white – a claim parroted in Parliament and by broadcasters even after it was exposed as statistical sleight-of-hand.

The motivation was always the same: fear of “racism” accusations, dread of community tension, and the overriding imperative to protect the narrative that mass immigration and multiculturalism have been an unalloyed success.

Working-class girls, often from broken homes or care systems, paid the price while officials and media looked the other way or actively smeared whistleblowers.

London’s current review notes a broader mix of offender backgrounds than the classic Pakistani-heritage networks documented in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford and elsewhere. That distinction does not erase the scale of what was ignored or the political class that spent years insisting the problem did not exist in the capital.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has already warned that reopening cases will require extra officers and resources on top of the force’s existing load of around 2,000 sexual offences a month. Victims are being urged to come forward again, with promises they will be listened to this time.

The public is entitled to ask harder questions. What did Khan know and when? Why did the Met and CPS close so many files prematurely? Who decided that protecting certain community sensitivities outweighed protecting British children?

And why has the political class that championed open borders and diversity dogma shown such consistent reluctance to confront the specific cultural and integration failures that allowed these networks to operate for so long in plain sight?

This London revelation drops just days after the release of Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report, which documented a coordinated national campaign of rape, torture and abuse against up to 250,000 British girls by predominantly Muslim grooming gangs operating across 149 local authority districts.

Lowe’s findings laid bare the same pattern of police warnings to rapists, political interference and deliberate suppression of evidence that protected predators for decades while treating working-class girls as disposable.

Sadiq Khan remains in office. The same establishment voices that spent years minimising or denying the problem now urge calm and more reviews. The British public has watched this movie before. The ending is always the same: more victims, more excuses, more demands that everyone just move on.

The only thing that has changed is the number – now over 4,000 in London alone – and the growing realisation that the denial was never accidental.

Real justice requires more than another inquiry. It requires consequences for those who chose political expediency over the safety of the vulnerable. British girls deserve better than gaslighting from City Hall. They still do. The denial only ends when enough people refuse to look away.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

One week after a mysterious explosion – attributed to a “technical incident” – at Qatar’s massive Ras Laffan industrial city killed dozens and set back restoration and recovery efforts at the giant LNG production facility by weeks if not months, a helicopter belonging to Saudi ​oil giant Aramco crashed on Sunday ‌in Ras Tanura on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast on the Gulf, west of the Strait of ​Hormuz, killing 14 nationals, the state ​news agency reported, adding that the ⁠cause was unknown.

Aramco had resumed crude oil loadings ​on Friday at its Ras Tanura terminal ​in the Gulf after they were halted for nearly four months.

“The relevant authorities have launched a ​full investigation to determine the cause ​of the crash,” the state news agency added.

Aramco did ‌not ⁠respond immediately to an emailed request for comment.

Reuters: Helicopter belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco, crashed on Sunday in Ras ‌Tanura on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast west of the Strait of Hormuz, ​killing 14 nationals#SaudiArabia #SaudiAramco #BreakingNews #HelicopterCrash #RasTanura #StraitOfHormuz #Aviation #NewsAlert pic.twitter.com/DxHTtsigXt

— VIRAL VOLT (@ViralVolT1) June 28, 2026

The incident took place at 6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT), the state agency ​said, without providing ​further ⁠details.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, had joined a rush ​to move cargoes after Middle ​East ⁠producers ramped up oil and gas output and exports ahead of an interim deal ⁠to ​halt the war between the ​United States and Iran.

While immigration often dominates discussions about Europe’s changing population, another migration trend receives far less attention: many countries are also losing their own native-born citizens.

This visualization, created by DataPulse using Eurostat data via Visual Capitalist, ranks selected European countries by the net migration of native-born residents in 2024. Only Lithuania and Bulgaria recorded net gains, while Germany, Italy, Sweden, and several other major economies saw more locally born citizens leave than return.

The pattern reflects a mix of economic opportunity, housing affordability, demographic change, and labor mobility within Europe, all of which are reshaping where people choose to build their careers and lives.

The Countries Seeing the Biggest Losses

The table below shows net migration of native-born citizens per 1,000 inhabitants across selected European countries.

Lithuania stands out with a positive rate of 2.67 per 1,000 inhabitants, while Bulgaria also records a modest gain. At the opposite end, Luxembourg posted the largest net loss, followed by Belgium, Sweden, Estonia, and Romania.

Notably, several of Europe’s largest economies, including Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, also show negative balances, indicating that more native-born residents are leaving than returning.

Why Are Native Europeans Leaving?

For many workers, especially younger and highly educated professionals, migration is driven by the search for better wages, stronger career prospects, and improved quality of life. Countries in Eastern and Southern Europe have long experienced outward migration toward larger labor markets in Western Europe.

At the same time, rising housing costs, labor shortages, and demographic pressures are encouraging some workers to look beyond their home countries. Similar dynamics can be seen globally, where migration increasingly plays a role in population growth and workforce sustainability.

A Growing Demographic Challenge

Population researchers increasingly warn that migration alone cannot fully offset Europe’s broader demographic headwinds. Fertility rates remain below replacement levels across much of the continent, while populations continue to age.

When highly skilled workers leave and do not return, the effects can extend beyond population figures. Regions may face slower economic growth, labor shortages, and reduced innovation capacity. As Europe navigates demographic decline, retaining talent may become just as important as attracting newcomers.

Migration patterns continue to reshape economies and societies around the world. Explore Visualizing the World’s Busiest Migration Corridors on the Voronoi app to see how people move between countries at a global scale.

While it looks like OpenAI’s IPO has been put on ice as they try to paint SpaceX as the scapegoat, there’s still one sector that simply can’t launch the IPOs and SPACs fast enough. 

After an announcement earlier this year that saw nuclear industrial company Holtec file privately for an IPO, one of the leading reactor developers X-energy debuted on the public market at an almost $10 billion valuation.

Since then, microreactor developer Hadron Energy has completed their SPAC merger and has subsequently been digging itself deeper into a hole every passing day…

There’s now another reactor developer, NuCube, finding its way to the public market through a SPAC merger. This follows a similar announcement from European reactor developer newcleo that we detailed last month.

The company is joining a rapidly growing pool of startups looking to capitalize on the national energy security theme, with the added bonus of the AI revolution demanding a nuclear renaissance. Adding NuCube to the list, the number of public reactor development companies has now reached double digits:

• SMR – NuScale Power
• OKLO – Oklo Inc
• NNE – NANO Nuclear Energy 
• IMSR – Terrestrial Energy
• NKLR – Terra Innovatum
• HDRN – Hadron Energy
• XE – X-energy
• FISN – Deep Fission
• NHIC (NWCL) – Newcleo
• LPBB (tbd) – NuCube Energy

In the press release, the company highlights their current relationship with Halliburton as cause for differentiation from other reactor developers still working on their supply chain. Outside of recent acceptance for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad program, the company doesn’t appear to have any MOUs or LOIs lined up with potential off-takers. 

The reactor design is unique, but shares similarities with designs from Westinghouse and Antares. Their “solid-state microreactors” are not designed to utilize traditional coolants or pumps, but instead will rely on advanced heat wicking methods similar to what’s used in electronics. 

With respect to historical precedence, this type of reactor design has some of the least operational experience in the nuclear industry’s history. 

Some of the nuclear names have found themselves trading well above their entry price from going public, including Oklo and NANO Nuclear. But some of the other names have fared far more miserably…
 

Authored by Gary Abernathy via The Empowerment Alliance,

When it comes to scientific theories, even some of history’s most respected and renowned people and institutions have graciously admitted when they were wrong when confronted with irrefutable evidence.

It took 359 years, but eventually the Catholic Church conceded in 1992 that the church was wrong and Galileo Galilei was right – the Earth revolves around the sun.

Throughout the 18th century, chemists widely believed that a substance called phlogiston was released when materials were burned. But when Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated that many metals often became heavier when burned – the opposite of the phlogiston theory – his contemporaries humbly admitted their error and praised his experiments.

And when scientists, including Edwin Hubble in 1929, demonstrated that the universe is expanding rather than remaining static, as Albert Einstein had theorized, even the revered Einstein readily admitted he was wrong, calling it “my biggest blunder.”

Twenty years ago, in 2006, former Vice President Al Gore released his film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which included ominous and even hysterical warnings about a coming climate apocalypse if mankind did not dramatically change its ways. In the two decades since its release, the film’s most dire warnings have proven to be inaccurate.

Examining Gore’s film on the anniversary of its release, several writers have pointed out its most glaring errors. For instance, writing for Newsweek, Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus, notes several calamitous predictions in the film that time has proven wrong: deaths from climate-related disasters have actually plummeted; hurricane frequency and intensity have declined; globally, areas burned by wildfires have decreased over the past quarter century; and the supposedly endangered polar bear population – a memorable visual from the Gore film – has more than doubled from the 1960s to today.

“Gore’s apocalyptic climate predictions have aged poorly,” Lomborg concludes.

Over the years, countless critics have pointed out the errors both in Gore’s film and in his ensuing personal crusade as, like Don Quixote, he continues tilting at windmills (while ironically advocating for their proliferation).

Faced with the overwhelming preponderance of evidence refuting his original hypotheses, one might assume that Gore – like the Catholic Church, the chemists of the 18 th century, and even the great Albert Einstein – would humbly concede his mistakes.

One would be wrong.

In a recent interview marking the anniversary of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore found an uncritical partner in the form of ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee, who couldn’t have presented the former vice president in a more heartwarming light if she had somehow commissioned the late Norman Rockwell to paint his portrait.

Despite the obvious numerous mistakes and shortcomings in his film, Gore insisted that he and the scientists he relied upon have been right all along – while simultaneously demonstrating that his penchant for hyperbole remains unabated.

“The scientists were dead right on all the important elements of it,” Gore insisted, adding that “it really is insane that we are continuing to use the sky as an open sewer and we’re trapping so much heat every day it’s equal to the amount that would be released by 800,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every day on the earth.”

Huh? Would you repeat that please?

It’s “equal to the amount that would be released by 800,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every day on the earth.”

Thanks.

It is little wonder that Gore finds himself so easily mocked. Gore’s atomic bomb analogy originated from climate alarmists who have been using it for years, adding a few hundred thousand to the estimate of bombs every so often.

But for anyone remotely familiar with history, the claim conjures images of people dropping like flies every day because of global warming, since the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 instantly killed more than 100,000 people. Such over-the-top depictions are why so many find it so hard to take seriously the kind of climate change threats that come from the radical left.

Unfortunately for the average citizen – both in the U.S. and worldwide – the far-left (formerly mainstream) media’s enthusiasm for propping up Gore and the climate craze have real-world consequences. Despite mountains of conflicting evidence, the media provides cover for leftwing government types who, when in power, throw billions of dollars toward scientifically unsupported efforts to replace our most affordable and reliable energy resources with defective “alternatives” made feasible only because of taxpayer subsidies.

That’s why Americans deserve the Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Security Act either passed into law by Congress, put into effect by presidential executive order, or at the very least embedded into policy by agency rule. While some states are enacting their own versions of ARC-ES, U.S. citizens from coast to coast deserve to be protected from the whims of the climate cult and their self-styled prophets.

We apparently can’t expect Al Gore to show the class of Albert Einstein and admit he was wrong. But it’s entirely realistic to expect our government to protect us from ever again implementing energy policies based on his mistakes. Doing so has already cost us far too much.

Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing opinion columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation.

Drivers reported more vehicle problems this year than ever before, but some automakers continue to stand out for reliability.

This graphic, created by Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, ranks the car brands with the fewest reported problems in 2026 based on J.D. Power’s Problems Per 100 Vehicles (PP100) metric. Lower scores indicate fewer owner-reported issues and better long-term dependability.

The data comes from the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, which measures problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old vehicles.

While Lexus once again topped the rankings, the broader industry moved in the opposite direction. Owners reported a record 204 problems per 100 vehicles on average, driven largely by infotainment, smartphone connectivity, and software-related issues.

Lexus Extends Its Reliability Lead

Lexus ranked first for the fourth consecutive year, recording just 151 problems per 100 vehicles.

Buick placed second at 160 PP100, while MINI rounded out the top three with 168.

Several Japanese automakers performed well throughout the rankings.

Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda all finished above the industry average, reinforcing Japan’s long-standing reputation for dependable vehicle manufacturing.

Luxury brands also demonstrated strong reliability. Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, and Genesis all ranked in the upper half of the study.

Software Problems Are Becoming the Biggest Headache

Although mechanical reliability has improved in many areas, technology-related issues continue to worsen.

J.D. Power found that infotainment systems were the most problematic of the nine categories measured, making software a larger concern than traditional mechanical components.

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity problems remained the industry’s single most-reported issue for a third consecutive year.

Powertrain Differences Continue to Emerge

The study also highlighted significant differences between vehicle powertrains.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles were the least dependable category, recording 281 problems per 100 vehicles, a sharp increase from the previous year.

By contrast, gasoline-powered vehicles were the only powertrain type to show improvement, averaging 198 PP100.

At the bottom of the rankings, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Land Rover recorded the highest problem rates. Volkswagen posted 301 PP100.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out One in Four Cars Sold in 2025 Was Electric on Voronoi.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

While schools have been given the green light to socially transition four-year-olds and exam boards slip pro-trans propaganda into Spanish GCSE materials, the government has published a draft bill that threatens parents, teachers and doctors with up to five years in prison for so-called conversion practices.

The new legislation, unveiled by Equalities Minister Olivia Bailey, targets efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Penalties include unlimited fines, five-year prison sentences, or both. The government frames it as protection against abuse, citing reports of beatings, rape, threats, manipulation and even exorcisms.

Parents, teachers and doctors risk up to five years in jail if they try to talk their children out of irreversible trans treatments under a “dangerous” new law, campaigners have warned. https://t.co/ENCm6forXg

— Toby Young (@toadmeister) June 25, 2026

Bailey stated: “Conversion practices are driven by the false belief that being LGBT+ is shameful and can be forcibly changed. No-one should face abuse just because of who they are. That’s why we are delivering on our manifesto commitment to ban abusive conversion practices. Legal loopholes have left LGBT+ people vulnerable to these harmful acts which is why we must legislate.”

?Unbelievable! British Parliament is currently drafting a bill that would criminalize any parents interfering in the gender transitioning of their own child.

The bill would make the offense punishable with fines and up to 5 years in prison.

The bill includes the key quote… pic.twitter.com/SSlONX3gpd

— Don Keith (@RealDonKeith) June 26, 2026

Critics warn the wording is dangerously vague. Normal parental concern, exploratory conversations, or even citing the weak evidence base for youth transitions could be twisted into criminal “conversion practices.”

WARNING UK ??

The UK Government has brought in new laws for child gender transition ?

Parents that deny transgenderism, tell their child that they do not have a transgender identity or try to stop their child from transitioning gender could face 5 years jail in the UK.

So,… pic.twitter.com/bRCB3ED1Og

— Lozzy B ??? (@TruthFairy131) June 26, 2026

Recent approval of an NHS puberty blocker trial for children under 16 has only heightened fears that the bill arrives amid a broader push to lock in affirmation-only approaches.

9,000 children were treated by GIDS. NHS Gender Clinics have consistently refused to provide data about their outcomes.

On @GBNEWS asking why we’re starting yet another puberty blocker trial, with no information about what happened to previous children on the drugs? pic.twitter.com/dQSc2b5tcY

— Lara Brown (@lara_e_brown) June 25, 2026

Official guidance for schools makes clear that primary-age children, including those as young as four, can socially transition at school by changing pronouns and names.

The document claims such steps “should happen very rarely” and that parents should be involved in the “vast majority” of cases. In practice, campaigners say activist influence on teachers has already created a culture where affirmation is the default and caution is suspect.

Helen Joyce of Sex Matters described schools as having “indoctrinated children” for a decade under pressure from groups like Stonewall and Mermaids. She said the government “has started a de-radicalisation programme but we actually need to de-radicalise a whole generation of teachers” and that “only total clarity will stop it.”

Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, called the notion that a child can start school as a girl and graduate as a boy “a dangerous fairytale.” This guidance persists even after the Cass Review found the evidence for puberty blockers and medical pathways “remarkably weak” and led to restrictions on routine use for under-18s.

In a related revelation, campaigners have exposed how Pearson’s GCSE Spanish revision guide inserts pro-trans messaging into language learning.

Students are taught phrases expressing that they “follow/admire” someone who “fights/fought” for transgender causes, turning vocabulary exercises into vehicles for ideological approval.

Pro-trans messaging shoehorned into GCSE Spanish lessons.

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The exam board’s own specification adds vocabulary for “trans” and “non-binary,” instructs assessors to recognise gender-neutral pronouns and invented adjectival endings, and effectively rewards ideological conformity in speaking and writing tasks.

Parents and campaigners argue this is not language education. It is political indoctrination delivered through compulsory schooling, normalising contested ideas about identity while children are still mastering basic grammar.

As we have previously highlighted, more than 650 families represented by the Bayswater Support Group have complained to Ofcom about the BBC’s systematic promotion of transgender ideology in children’s output over nearly a decade.

Shows aimed at pre-schoolers and primary ages have featured non-binary characters, storylines presenting young children as transgender based on stereotypical play, and uncritical portrayals of medical transition.

A Bayswater Support Group spokesman said: “For the past decade, the constant stream of propaganda about gender and trans activism the BBC has transmitted has played a significant role in creating a dangerous culture for children. Specifically, non-conforming children who have been led to believe simplistic identity labels and extreme medical interventions can resolve complex feelings of adolescent and neurodevelopmental distress. The end result of this is a generation of teens and young adults who have come to severe harm, frequently self-diagnosed and self-medicated, estranged from families.”

The group accused the BBC of breaching Ofcom rules on impartiality, accuracy and child protection, and of smearing concerned parents rather than examining its own output.

Meanwhile, children’s poet and author Rachel Rooney saw her career destroyed after publishing My Body is Me!, a short book encouraging young children to accept their natural bodies. Trans activists branded it “terrorist propaganda” and “transphobic.” She faced death threats, professional blacklisting, publisher distancing and event cancellations.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Rooney said: “This is the book that ended my career.” She added: “You can’t tell a child their body is wonderful while also encouraging them to believe they are the opposite sex. It’s not rocket science.” Rooney noted she expected activist attacks but was shocked by the response from industry colleagues who suddenly blocked her or apologised internally for her views. She has since announced she has given up writing children’s books.

Her experience illustrates the chilling effect on anyone who states the obvious: no child can change sex.

In April 2025 the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological women and biological sex. Delivering the judgment, Lord Hodge stated: “The terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ refer to a biological woman and biological sex in the Equality Act 2010.”

The case, brought by For Women Scotland, clarified that individuals holding Gender Recognition Certificates are not legally women for the purposes of single-sex protections, quotas or spaces. J.K. Rowling praised the “three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women” who secured the victory, noting they had “protected the rights of women and girls across the UK.”

That clear legal affirmation of biological reality has not slowed the institutional drive to embed gender ideology in schools, media, exam materials and now criminal law.

The through-line is unmistakable. While evidence of harm from social and medical transition of minors mounts, while the highest court has reaffirmed biological sex, and while ordinary parents simply want to protect their children from experimental pathways, the state is preparing to criminalise resistance. Exploratory talk or even polite disagreement risks being recast as abuse punishable by years behind bars.

Parents have the primary duty and right to safeguard their children’s bodies and minds. Biology is not bigotry. Dissent is not conversion therapy. The government’s approach inverts reality: it threatens jail for those defending children while actively enabling the spread of contested ideology to the youngest ages. That is not protection. It is state-backed ideological enforcement.

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