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Palantir, endless war, and the global Zionist surveillance state

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In the previous article in this series, we stated that the Palantir company was a product of the “counter-terrorism” concept that followed September 11th.

The Dissident blog points out that Palantir’s system is based on the “Total Information Awareness” idea of John Poindexter, a former Reagan-era official who proposed the creation of a massive database containing all information on American citizens after the 9/11 attacks.

Poindexter and Richard Perle, one of the neocon architects of the Iraq War, met with Palantir’s founders, Alex Karp and Peter Thiel, because their new company, Palantir, “had a similar purpose to what Poindexter was trying to create at the Pentagon.”

Palantir soon incorporated and received millions of dollars in funding from In-Q-Tel, the venture capital investment arm of the CIA.

Palantir’s software allowed intelligence agencies to create a massive database on Americans. Bloomberg wrote, “Using Palantir technology, the FBI can now create comprehensive files on U.S. citizens in an instant, combining security camera footage from outside a pharmacy with credit card transactions, cell phone records, emails, flight records, and internet search histories.”


Within the framework of Palantir’s mission to “save Western civilization,” its bond with Israel, which operates as the spearhead [a translation of uç beyi, a historical term for a frontier lord or vanguard] of this civilization, deserves special attention.

The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Karp is unwavering in his support for Israel. The company took out a full-page ad in The New York Times last year declaring, ‘Palantir stands with Israel.'”

The company’s official social media accounts openly supported Israel’s attacks in Gaza, which have amounted to genocide. On October 11, 2023, the company tweeted, “Certain kinds of evil can only be fought with force. Palantir stands with Israel.”

On October 7, 2024, exactly one year after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, the company’s official X account once again reiterated its support for the genocide in Gaza, tweeting, “Palantir remembers October 7th. We stand with Israel.”

Alex Karp openly expressed his pro-war and pro-Israel views. The CEO told The New York Times that Israel should “turn [Gaza] into a parking lot.”

In the same New York Times article, Karp described protests against providing weapons to Israel as “an infection within society,” stating that he supported stopping these protests.

Karp also boasted to the newspaper that he uses his technology to sustain the war in Ukraine and the occupation in Gaza, saying, “I am not going to apologize for giving our product to Ukraine, to Israel or to many other places.”(1)

In an interview to Time, Karp said he saw an opportunity in Ukraine for Palantir to fulfill its mission to “defend the West” and “make our enemies tremble with fear.”

Government officials were trained to use Palantir’s tool called MetaConstellation, which provides a near-real-time picture of a specific battlefield using commercial data, including satellite imagery.

Palantir’s software integrates this information with commercial and classified government data, including from allies, allowing military officials to relay enemy positions to commanders on the ground or to decide to strike a target. This is part of what Karp calls the digital “kill chain.”

At a Palantir earnings call in 2024, Karp boasted, “I am exceedingly proud that after October 7th, within a couple of weeks, we were on the ground in Israel and involved in operationally crucial operations.”

When Karp was protested by a Palestinian activist at a conference for Palantir’s role in aiding the genocide in Gaza, he said, “I believe he [the protester] is a product of an evil force of Hamas that he is not aware of. He is part of their strategy, their product, without being aware of it.”

In a 2024 interview with CNBC, Karp said that supporting Israel was the most important issue for him, asking, “The most important issue of our day is war and peace, and the most important metaphor for that is: What do you think about what’s happening in Israel?”

Karp also called for an end to pro-Palestinian protests. At a conference, Karp said, “What’s happening on university campuses [referring to pro-Palestinian protests] is some sort of sideshow—no, they are the main show, because if we lose the intellectual debate, you can’t deploy any army in the West.”

Palantir’s mastermind, Peter Thiel, shares similar views. When asked about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence in Gaza, Thiel said, “I don’t know all the details of what’s going on in Israel, because my bias is to defer to Israel.”

Thiel continued, saying he believed that “in general” the Israeli army has the right to decide what it wants to do and that “in general” it is in the right.


This commitment to Israel does not end there.

The company is so intertwined with Israel that it boasted on social media about holding its first board meeting of 2024 in Tel Aviv.

Before the board meeting, Karp and Thiel met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and shared the meeting on social media, writing, “We are proud to stand with Israel, supporting its culture of innovation, technology, and democracy.”

Following the board meeting, CTECH reported that Palantir announced it had signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to “provide Palantir technology to aid the country’s war efforts.”

The agreement was signed after a meeting between Israeli defense officials and Thiel and Karp.

After signing the deal, Karp told Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi:

“There are many people in the (tech) industry who are not as pro-Israel as I am, but they too see Israel as a very special place and generally understand Israel’s position better and appreciate the success of building a country out of the desert.”

Globes, an Israeli business news site, reported that during this trip, Karp “participated in a public event at Tel Aviv University” and “showered praise on Israel.”

Globes wrote that Israel was preparing to purchase from Palantir “an AI-based system called AIP, designed to assist in intelligence-based decision-making and to analyze enemy targets and recommend combat moves.”

The same report also included the claim that Palantir expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the deal with Israel.


Journalist Antony Loewenstein writes, “Israel’s military-industrial complex sees its occupation as a vital testing ground for trying out the latest methods of killing and surveillance.”

Loewenstein points out that Palestinians are seen as “guinea pigs,” but this activity is not limited to Palestine (Karp told Time, “There are things we can do on the battlefield that we can’t do at home”). According to him, “Silicon Valley has taken notice,” and the new Trump era “heralds an even tighter alliance between big tech, Israel, and the defense sector.”

William Hartung, evaluating Palantir and American foreign policy for Responsible Statecraft, states that Palantir’s goal is “to shape overall U.S. national security policy, which in turn can determine what military technologies the U.S. will invest in for the next generation.”

After starting his new role as Palantir’s head of defense, former Republican Representative Mike Gallagher promised to use his connections within the government to facilitate the growth of emerging military technology companies, largely by securing a larger share of tax revenues.

Another characteristic of Gallagher is that he stood out as a leading “China hawk” during his time in Congress. Gallagher is the co-author of a recent article in Foreign Affairs titled “No Substitute for Victory: America’s Competition With China Must Be Won, Not Managed.”

In the article, Gallagher and his co-author Matthew Pottinger argue that the U.S. “must implement a better policy” and call for action to rearm the U.S. military, reduce China’s economic influence, and build a broader coalition against China.

Judging by his stance as chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, Gallagher’s views are quite close to those of Palantir’s executives.

Close, because Palantir CEO Alex Karp has said that the U.S. will “probably” go to war with China and that the best policy is to “scare the shit out of your enemy.”

In a moment of striking candor, Karp admitted, “Our product is sometimes used to kill people”: “If I were younger in college, would I be protesting myself?”

Palantir’s advisor, Jacob Helberg, described the company as “the AI arms dealer of the 21st century.”


Karp has long rejected the widespread criticism that Palantir’s products enable governments to conduct warrantless surveillance of their citizens.

When I say he rejects them, don’t think he denies the reality. It’s more of a, “Yes, I do it, but you should ask why I do it.”

The CEO says he sees a “moral imperative” to provide Western governments with the best new technologies, calling for “closer collaboration between the state and the tech sector,” which he believes will allow the West to maintain its superiority over its global rivals.

For years, the U.S. has imposed strict regulations on the export of weapons systems to foreign countries due to the lack of accountability once they are in the hands of users and the possibility of serious war crimes being committed. At least, that’s how it is on paper.

But Karp legitimizes his own products by saying, “The power of advanced algorithmic warfare systems is now so great that it is equivalent to having tactical nuclear weapons against an enemy that only has conventional weapons.”

If the West didn’t have “real enemies,” Karp told Bloomberg, he would be one of those trying to limit the use of artificial intelligence in the military: “But the reality we live in now, as Israel knows, is that our enemies are real and dangerous and operate far beyond the norms of behavior.”

Karp stated in 2023 that Palantir was in talks with “hundreds” of potential partners about its AIP platform, but details like pricing and terms were still being determined.

Karp told analysts that Palantir was refocusing its engineering teams and other resources on artificial intelligence to meet demand, stating that it was “aggressively pursuing” this opportunity.


“How Big Tech Captured the Army”

This was the headline of a June 17 report in The Bulwark.

The recent entry of officials from high-tech companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Palantir into the military has raised concerns that Silicon Valley is taking control.

But is it just the American military? NATO announced it will use Palantir’s artificial intelligence platform for “faster military decision-making.” The MSS NATO system aims to automate data analysis that previously required large teams.

Berliner Zeitung reported that in the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition negotiations, it was agreed that the CSU would take over the Federal Ministry of the Interior in the future. This means Palantir will have more opportunities at the federal level, as in Bavaria, where the CSU is in power, the state police have been using the company’s software since August of last year.

According to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, the cross-procedural research and analysis platform VeRA makes it possible to “quickly and reliably analyze and process large amounts of data from a wide variety of sources and to generate important findings at high speed.”

Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia are also currently using Palantir. According to information from Bayerischer Rundfunk, Berlin and Baden-Württemberg are also currently considering collaborating with the company.(2)

In the United Kingdom, Palantir already has a £330 million National Health Service (NHS) data contract. In May, to encourage hospitals to adopt this technology, the government signed an £8 million deal with consulting giant KPMG to “promote the adoption” of Palantir’s technology in the NHS. London also used Palantir systems to monitor its military.


Until now, the Pentagon’s known “Gang of Five” consisted of the following companies: Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.

A recent report from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft reveals that the share of private companies in the Pentagon’s defense spending is steadily increasing.

Over the last 35 years, the Pentagon has allocated a growing portion of its budget to private sector contracts. In the fiscal years 1990-1999, the Pentagon’s average annual spending on contracts amounted to 41% of its total spending. This ratio has increased every decade: in the first five years of this decade, the share of private companies in the Pentagon budget reached a record high of 54%.

For the 2020-2024 period, $2.4 trillion of the total $4.4 trillion in defense spending was awarded to private companies.

However, the overwhelming majority of this share went to five large companies. Between 2020 and 2024, the Pentagon’s top five arms suppliers received contracts totaling $771 billion. This amount committed to the top five companies constitutes one-third of the total $2.4 trillion in contracts awarded by the Pentagon between 2020 and 2024.

Lockheed Martin was the clear leader with $313 billion in contracts between 2020 and 2024, while its closest competitor, Raytheon (now RTX), received $145 billion in contracts.

However, the report’s findings point to something else: this dominance is increasingly under threat from a new generation of military technology companies.

While the big five companies continue to hold a large portion of the Pentagon’s defense spending budget, there has been an increase in new contracts with tech firms specializing in artificial intelligence for military applications such as drones, unmanned ships, and armored vehicles.

The rise of these new military technology firms marks the biggest shift in the arms industry in the last five years.

The report states, “Companies like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril have received billions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon for communications, targeting, unmanned vehicles, drone defense systems, and hypersonic weapons. The funds from these contracts will be transferred to the companies over time, which will place them among the Pentagon’s largest contractors in terms of contract value in the next few years.”

According to the report, Palantir signed a $618 million contract with the army for a data platform using artificial intelligence, a $480 million contract to continue work on the Project Maven targeting system, and a five-year, $463 million contract with the U.S. Special Operations Command to integrate advanced commercial software into its operations.

The report notes, “As the Pentagon moves toward AI-powered weapons systems, including swarms of drones, ships, and combat vehicles, the dominance of the Big Five companies may diminish.”

In the first quarter of 2025, Palantir’s revenue grew by 39% year-over-year, while its U.S. sales increased by 55%. The commercial division now generates $1 billion in annual revenue, indicating long-term demand in sectors such as energy, finance, and logistics.

“This diversity is vital,” writes AInvest. Palantir’s AI platforms are being adopted by critical infrastructure operators to mitigate risks such as cyberattacks, a significant security vulnerability due to “Iran’s asymmetric warfare tactics.” Partnerships with cybersecurity firms like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike further strengthen defense capabilities against state-sponsored threats.(3)

“AI self-confidence” is coming to the fore. In a brochure/article titled “Rebooting the Arsenal of Democracy” published on Anduril’s blog, the Gang of Five are described as “relics of the Cold War” that must be eliminated if America wants to take the lead in developing and producing the weapons of the future:

“Why can’t the existing defense companies do better? The largest defense companies are staffed by patriots, but they lack the software expertise or business model to build the technology we need. Tomorrow’s weapons—autonomous systems, cyber weapons and defenses, networked systems, and more—run on software, while these companies specialize in hardware. These companies work slowly, while the best engineers enjoy working fast… These companies built the tools that kept us safe in the past, but they are not the future of our defense.”

Palantir’s stock price more than quadrupled last year, making it more valuable than RTX and Lockheed Martin at the beginning of this year. Behind these shadowy companies is a new breed of predators known as “venture capital” (VC). Leading VC firms like Thiel’s Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Lux Capital are among the rising stars of the defense sector, such as Anduril, Hadrian, and Rebellion Defense.

Furthermore, new defense monopolies are forming. A consortium led by Anduril and Palantir plans to join with other defense technology companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI to bid jointly on military contracts.

In this process, venture capitalists are not only achieving high returns on investment but also gaining increasing influence over U.S. foreign policy. Michael Kratsios, Thiel’s former chief advisor, and other Thiel-connected individuals, including Jacob Helberg, a senior advisor at Palantir, are being appointed to positions such as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, respectively.

“Working for the Pentagon doesn’t seem like a bad thing anymore,” says William Hartung, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Many of these new companies seem to want it very much, and venture capital firms are facilitating it.”

Palmer Luckey of Anduril describes venture capitalists who want to protect their current investments as “hawkish,” saying, “Anyone who cares about Ukraine is also watching Taiwan, because… a slide south for Taiwan poses a real existential threat to many of their investments [there]. For this reason, we see a hawkish stance in most venture capitalists.”(4)

A representative of the VC group America’s Frontier Fund (AFF) is more blunt, not hesitating to say, referring to Taiwan: “If there is a kinetic event in the Pacific, some of our investments will increase 10-fold overnight.”

Under the heading “geopolitical impact risks,” AInvest implies that Palantir is comfortable: “Rising tensions in the Middle East, the South China Sea, and Eastern Europe ensure that the demand for analytical services in this area remains stable.”

The most carrion-like version of capitalism wants endless war, a global Zionist surveillance empire.


(1) Time magazine writes that Palantir CEO Alex Karp was “the first major Western corporate leader to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion.” The article admits that in the year and a half since Karp’s first meeting with Zelensky, Palantir has become “unprecedentedly involved” in the daily affairs of a foreign government at war: “More than half a dozen Ukrainian institutions, including the Ministries of Defense, Economy, and Education, use the company’s products. According to Karp, Palantir’s software, which analyzes satellite imagery, open-source data, drone footage, and reports from the ground using artificial intelligence to present military options to commanders, is ‘responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine.’ Ukrainian officials said they use the company’s data analysis for projects that go far beyond battlefield intelligence, including collecting evidence of war crimes, clearing landmines, resettling displaced refugees, and rooting out corruption.” More interestingly, Time notes that Palantir offered its services to Ukraine for free to use the bloody war as a testing ground, claiming, “Palantir was so eager to showcase its capabilities that it provided them to Ukraine for free.”

(2) The Germany-Palantir relationship requires separate examination. Mathias Döpfner, CEO and co-owner of the German media giant Axel Springer, which owns POLITICO, has very close ties with Palantir founder Peter Thiel. His son, Moritz Döpfner, previously served as managing director at the billionaire’s family office, Thiel Capital. According to the German press, the younger Döpfner had established a new venture capital fund with a $50 million investment from Thiel. From a podcast Mathias Döpfner did with Karp in 2019, we also learn that the Palantir executive was on Axel Springer’s supervisory board at the time. It was leaked to the media that Axel Springer requires its employees to sign a contract demanding commitment to the free market, support for the US-Europe alliance, and “support for Israel’s right to exist.” From a 2019 report in Business Insider, which is majority-owned by Axel Springer, we learn that Palantir had passed data to police forces in the country about Anis Amri, who carried out an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016.

(3) One of the secrets to Palantir’s commercial success is its creation of an “ecosystem.” The Pentagon’s Maven user base has doubled since the beginning of 2024, reaching 20,000 users across 35 vehicles. AInvest writes: “The global defense AI market is projected to reach $40 billion by 2030, with governments prioritizing ‘information dominance’ over traditional hardware. Palantir’s AI infrastructure is not just a tool, but an ecosystem platform. Its ability to integrate data from different domains (e.g., the all-domain command and control system of CJADC2) creates high switching costs and recurring revenue streams.”

(4) Let’s not forget the Middle East: The Pentagon, which uses Palantir’s Maven Smart System (MSS), increased the MSS contract by $795 million in 2024, bringing the total amount to $1.3 billion by 2029. This system, managed by Aberdeen Proving Ground, currently serves five major combatant commands, including Central Command (CENTCOM), the center of operations in the Middle East. MSS uses artificial intelligence to analyze surveillance data (satellite images, video streams) in real-time, enabling intelligence fusion, target identification, and battlefield decision-making. This capability is vital in scenarios such as tracking the movements of the Iranian military near the Strait of Hormuz or monitoring nuclear facilities. NATO’s adoption of the MSS-NATO variant in 2025 further underscores Palantir’s global role: the alliance is using generative AI and machine learning tools to enhance allied command operations, with integration completed in just six months.

America

Trump nominates federal prosecutor Jay Clayton to lead national intelligence agency

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US President Donald Trump, following controversies over experience in Congress, has nominated Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the nation’s most senior intelligence post.

The selection, which will fill the vacancy left by incumbent Director Tulsi Gabbard when she departs on June 30, comes after turbulent weeks following Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director.

“There are very few people in the legal community who are as highly respected as Jay,” Trump said in a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling on the US Senate to confirm Clayton’s nomination as quickly as possible.

A political independent, Clayton has served since August 2025 as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York—a position legal experts describe as the most powerful post within the Department of Justice.

Trump had nominated Clayton to this post shortly after winning the 2024 presidential election, describing him as “a tough fighter for the facts.”

From Wall Street lawyer to federal prosecutor

Born in West Virginia, Clayton began his legal career from 1993 to 1995 as a law clerk to Judge Marvin Katz of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

He then worked at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm from 1995 to 2017, first as an associate and later as a partner. During this period, Clayton represented major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, building a multi-million dollar fortune during his time as a Wall Street lawyer.

In 2017, at the beginning of his first presidential term, Trump nominated Clayton to chair the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his confirmation process, Clayton pledged to fully sever ties with his law firm and his Wall Street clients, which included Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Deutsche Bank AG.

After the Office of Government Ethics determined that there was no conflict of interest, Clayton was confirmed by the Senate in May 2017 by a 61-37 vote and assumed office.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, praised the nomination and said he looked forward to Clayton’s leadership, while Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, voted against him due to his Wall Street ties.

During his tenure as SEC chairman, Clayton frequently testified before Congress on issues such as market integrity, digital asset regulation, cybersecurity, and US-China economic interdependence. After leaving office, he returned to Sullivan & Cromwell while also taking on executive roles at Apollo Global Management and American Express.

He also continued his academic work, serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School since 2009 and at the Wharton School since 2021.

Between 2022 and 2025, he co-chaired the university’s Institute for Law and Economics.

New York prosecution

In June 2020, Trump announced he would appoint Clayton to the post of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York after dismissing then-US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

Clayton expressed interest in the position but did not comment on whether he was aware that Berman would be dismissed.

The appointment did not materialize at the time, and Audrey Strauss was appointed to the role.

Clayton was nominated again for the US Attorney post for the Southern District of New York in 2025, at the beginning of Trump’s second term.

Clayton sought the office to replace an interim judge who had refused to assist the Department of Justice in dropping charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Clayton’s appointment, which was not directly confirmed by the Senate, was finalized by the court’s own approval. At the time, The Wall Street Journal commented that Clayton, who typically avoided political controversies, found himself in the midst of a “partisan battle” with this move.

The most notable process conducted by Clayton’s prosecution office was the indictment and litigation process initiated in January against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges of “narco-terrorism” and other offenses.

Clayton’s team also played critical roles in reviewing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and in the case of an Iraqi citizen accused of plotting attacks on US soil on behalf of Iran.

Recently, The New York Times claimed that Clayton spent frequent time with Trump, played golf, and was “often absent” from his office.

Like Bill Pulte, Jay Clayton has no prior experience in the intelligence world. Trump’s previous choice, Bill Pulte, had been accused of targeting Trump’s political opponents by filing criminal complaints over mortgage fraud allegations during his tenure as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

While none of these cases resulted in convictions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched an investigation into how the FHFA conducted its investigative processes.

Pulte’s lack of intelligence-gathering experience and the politically charged investigations he initiated drew intense criticism in Congress.

In this new phase, however, members of Congress have reacted more positively to Clayton’s nomination. Republican Senator John Thune said of Clayton, “I think he is a highly qualified professional with great skills to manage complex problems.”

Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee that will vote on the nomination, also described Clayton as “very qualified.” According to The New York Times, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also supported Clayton’s appointment to the post.

Statements on election security

Days before being nominated as Director of National Intelligence, Clayton appeared as a guest on CNBC, where he addressed the possibility of irregularities in California’s elections.

Speaking about election security during the June 8 broadcast, Clayton said, “We are doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it.”

Arguing that the state’s laws—which allow mail-in ballots to be sent to all voters and allow votes to arrive after Election Day—”create opportunities for irregularities,” Clayton’s claims came at a time when Trump was asserting, without providing any evidence, that the elections were “rigged.”

Jay Clayton, who holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, completed his graduate studies at King’s College, Cambridge. He received his law degree in 1993, also from the University of Pennsylvania.

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US inflation climbs to three-year high as energy prices surge

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US inflation accelerated to 4.2% in May, the highest level since April 2023, driven by a surge in energy prices linked to the Iran war.

Inflation rose above 4% for the first time in three years, though the increase was broadly in line with expectations amid concerns over how far higher energy costs would ripple through the economy.

The reading marked the highest level since April 2023 and exceeded April’s 3.8% rate.

On a monthly basis, inflation increased at a slower pace than in April, potentially signaling that the worst of the recent price pressures may have passed.

Another encouraging sign was a slight decline in gasoline prices.

Asked about the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, “I love inflation,” and argued that oil prices had fallen because “we destroyed 22 ships last night.”

According to the report, much of the increase in inflation stemmed from a 3.9% rise in energy prices, which pushed the 12-month increase in that category to 23.5%.

Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy components and is widely viewed by analysts as a better indicator of future inflation trends, offered some grounds for optimism.

Core prices rose 0.2% in May, down from a 0.4% increase in April and below analysts’ expectations for a 0.3% gain.

Core goods prices fell 0.1% on a monthly basis, suggesting underlying price pressures remained contained.

On an annual basis, CPI increased 2.9%, in line with economists’ expectations.

Ground beef, roast beef and steak prices declined last month, although the parasitic fly outbreak reported in the United States last week could complicate logistics for farmers and contribute to higher prices.

Food prices rose just 0.2%, while shelter costs — a key component for Federal Reserve policy decisions — increased 0.3%, half the pace recorded in April.

Shelter, which accounts for more than one-third of the CPI basket, rose 3.4% from a year earlier.

Government and industry officials stressed that the insect, whose name has attracted widespread attention, does not pose an immediate threat to food supplies.

Meanwhile, transportation services prices fell 0.6%, potentially indicating that higher energy costs have not yet spread broadly across other sectors.

Similarly, services excluding energy services — another measure closely watched for signs of oil-price pass-through effects — rose 0.3% after increasing 0.5% in April.

New vehicle prices fell 0.3%, while used car and truck prices edged up 0.1%.

However, airline fares, a clearer indicator of energy costs feeding through to consumer prices, rose 2.7%, while motor vehicle insurance prices fell 1.7%.

As for interest rates, few observers expect the Federal Reserve to cut rates when it delivers its first policy statement under new Chair Kevin Warsh next Wednesday.

Market expectations point to just one rate move this year: an increase in December.

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US nuclear weapons spending jumps 22% to $69.2 billion, ICAN says

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US spending on nuclear weapons rose by 22% in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a report published by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Washington spent $69.2 billion on its nuclear arsenal during the year, a figure that exceeded the combined nuclear weapons expenditures of all other nuclear-armed states.

The world’s nine nuclear powers — the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — increased total spending on their arsenals by 19%, reaching a record $119 billion.

China ranked second in spending with $13.5 billion. The United Kingdom spent $12.6 billion, overtaking Russia to become the third-largest spender. France’s nuclear weapons expenditure reached $7.7 billion.

According to data cited in the ICAN report, nuclear-armed states have spent a combined $471 billion on their arsenals over the past five years.

The report emphasized that the amount spent on nuclear weapons in a single day during 2025 would have been sufficient to provide food for 2 million people for a year, while total annual spending could fund the United Nations’ regular budget for 32 years.

Before those developments, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Andrey Belousov commented on the issue.

Belousov said Russia continues to insist on the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe and the dismantling of all infrastructure established in the region to support their deployment.

Under its nuclear-sharing programme, the United States has stationed nuclear weapons in NATO countries across Europe since the 1950s.

Today, US-made B61 nuclear bombs are stored at military bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye.

Although NATO does not possess its own nuclear weapons, operational control over those weapons remains with Washington.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that the United States was considering expanding its nuclear presence in Europe beyond the countries currently participating in the nuclear-sharing programme.

According to the newspaper, Poland and the Baltic states had expressed interest in hosting US nuclear weapons.

Sources cited by the Financial Times linked those discussions to concerns among European allies that the United States could reduce its military presence in the region.

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