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Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:30:00 +0000 Gov't Report Exposes Astronomical Crime-Rates For Young Foreigners Compared To German Youth
Gov't Report Exposes Astronomical Crime-Rates For Young Foreigners Compared To German Youth
Gov't Report Exposes Astronomical Crime-Rates For Young Foreigners Compared To German Youth
Via Remix news,
New German federal government statistics indicate that young foreigners are disproportionately represented as suspects in numerous crimes, with particularly significant differences in street crime and shoplifting.
The suspect burden figure (TVBZ) has been compiled by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) and published in the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) starting this year. This ratio shows the total number of identified suspects over the age of eight, and is calculated per 100,000 inhabitants per population group. It examines all crimes except for immigration law violations, and the data presents a concerning trend.
For German suspects across all age groups, the TVBZ is 1,878.
In contrast, Syrian suspects have a TVBZ of 8,236, and Afghan suspects are at 8,753 — more than four times higher.
However, when the data is compared among young people, the disparity is even more pronounced. Syrians between 14 and 18 years old are five times more likely to commit a crime than Germans in the same age bracket.
However, in regard to other groups of young people from North Africa, the difference is even more astronomical. Algerian youth feature a TVBZ rate that is a tremendous 56 times higher than Germans.
For Moroccans, it is 19 times higher.
Differences are also notable across specific offense categories. In street crime , which includes offenses like bodily harm, robbery, sexual harassment, and pickpocketing, the TVBZ for German suspects is 168. For Syrians, this figure jumps to 1,291, and for Afghans, it’s 1,218—nearly eight times as high.
The data was released after a parliamentary inquiry from AfD domestic policy spokesperson Martin Hess, who criticized the findings, stating, “This is the predictable result of a migration policy that has been completely failed for decades and has given up all control since 2015 at the latest.”
Hess had previously requested detailed data on crime rates among foreigners, broken down by nationality and age group, in a small inquiry in June.
This data also needs to be considered from another perspective. Many of these German citizen suspects have a foreign background; however, there is often no way of knowing how many of these suspects have a foreign background because Germany does not record this information.
There are some ways around this. As data from North Rhine-Westphalia showed, when the first names of gang rape suspects are analyzed, it shows that at least half of the German citizens clearly had names from a foreign background, such as Mohammad .
During the Berlin riots on New Year’s, a list of the names of suspects was leaked to the press, which showed a huge number of the “German” suspects actually had foreign names .
A top Berlin prosecutor has indicated that up to three out of four clan members have German citizenship.
Any time any of these suspects commit a crime, it is recorded as a German suspect. If Germany kept data on the crime rate of German citizens with a foreign background, as Denmark does, it would likely reveal an incredibly high crime rate among this group of German citizens. This policy has been promoted by the AfD, also to help measure the integration rates of foreigners even after generations have resided in Germany.
The new TVBZ data will also pop a myth from the left, which is that foreigners are committing such high rates of violence because they are mostly young men. However, as the data shows, German suspects, when compared to foreign suspects from the same exact age group, often feature dramatically lower crime rates. Germany also has an extremely strong welfare state, which means these foreign youths have access to food, shelter, and consumer goods.
This data comes after crime data showed that German men actually feature lower violence rates than women from a number of different foreign groups .
Read more here...
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/09/2025 - 03:30 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 06:45:00 +0000 Vestas Wind Power CEO Urges EU To Sharpen Its "Fragmented" Energy Policy
Vestas Wind Power CEO Urges EU To Sharpen Its "Fragmented" Energy Policy
Henrik Andersen, CEO of Danish wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems A/S, has issued a stark warning to European policymakers:
Read more.....
Vestas Wind Power CEO Urges EU To Sharpen Its "Fragmented" Energy Policy
Henrik Andersen, CEO of Danish wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems A/S, has issued a stark warning to European policymakers: without stronger and more cohesive industrial strategies, Europe may lose its edge in renewable energy manufacturing to the U.S. and other regions.
“Wind is largely a European creation — born in our universities, tested on our sites,” Andersen told Bloomberg News . “If we don’t protect and support what we’ve built, companies like ours will eventually move out of Europe. It’s that simple.”
Andersen’s remarks come amid growing concerns over Europe's competitiveness, weak economic growth, and its ability to meet carbon reduction goals. These challenges were spotlighted in a 2023 report by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Geopolitical tensions — such as Iran's recent threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, and ongoing instability from the war in Ukraine — have also underscored the urgency of achieving energy independence.
“When you’re self-sufficient, energy prices fall. So if Europe wants any of this, then energy and industrial policy need to be very closely linked,” Andersen emphasized. “We need an industrial policy that allows European companies to be both global and big.”
Bloomberg writes that despite its leadership in wind technology, Europe’s fragmented regulatory landscape, high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain issues have created headwinds for companies like Vestas. Competition from Chinese turbine manufacturers — including recent deals in Germany — has added to the pressure, although some of these arrangements face scrutiny on national security grounds.
Andersen criticized the EU’s long-standing aversion to industrial consolidation, arguing it has left European companies at a disadvantage globally. “For decades, we’ve said no to mergers and consolidation in the name of competition,” he said. “Now it’s that very fragmentation that’s making Europe uncompetitive.”
He pointed to U.S. policy as a model for Europe, citing the American approach to energy independence and industrial scale. Even with political threats to renewable subsidies, Andersen acknowledged the U.S. has followed through on consistent long-term strategy.
“I’m going to be a little bold and say it: Europe should look at what the US has done,” he said. “Over the past decades, America has built a level of energy independence that now allows them to export energy to Europe. That didn’t happen overnight. It took two or three decades of consistent policy, but it shows that it can be done.”
Vestas, headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, has installed over 56,000 turbines in 71 countries since its founding in 1979. Recently, the company has significantly expanded in the U.S., doubling its American workforce to over 5,000 in the past three years. Its U.S. factories are currently running at full capacity to meet demand.
“We’re not afraid to invest in the US,” Andersen said. “And we don’t expect any administration — current or future — to de-prioritize energy. In fact, we’re confident they’ll keep pushing forward.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/09/2025 - 02:45 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000 BRICS' Condemnation Of The Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Proves That China Politicized The SCO
BRICS' Condemnation Of The Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Proves That China Politicized The SCO
BRICS' Condemnation Of The Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Proves That China Politicized The SCO
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,
The Rio Declaration that followed the latest BRICS Summit in that coastal Brazilian city saw all members, including China, condemn late April’s Pahalgam terrorist attack in paragraph 34:
“We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025”.
This sharply contrasts with the draft SCO Defense Ministers’ joint statement in late June, which included no condemnation of that attack, hence why India’s Defense Minister refused to sign it.
That scandal was analyzed here at the time.
It was assessed that this was a deliberate provocation by this year’s Chinese chair.
The triple purpose was to do a favor for its Pakistani ally, craft the optics for lending false credence to the perception that India is the “weak link” in the SCO, and thus strengthen the influence of Russia’s pro-BRI policymaking faction. China was able to pull this off due to its chairmanship giving it extra influence over the group’s workings. No joint declaration was agreed to because China refused to amend the text to satisfy India.
China ironically found itself in the same position during the latest BRICS Summit as the one into which it had just placed India, however, except Beijing decided to condemn Pahalgam this time around in order to avoid the optics of a BRICS founder torpedoing this year’s declaration. Brazilian President Lula da Silva just hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a state visit, which was analyzed here to be part of his new balancing act, so he wasn’t going to disrespect him by not including Pahalgam in the declaration.
The aforesaid analysis also argues that it was this state visit and associated state dinner which influenced Xi’s unprecedented decision to decline participating in this year’s summit for the first time ever (implausibly citing scheduling conflicts) since he didn’t want to play second fiddle to Modi there. In light of the declaration condemning Pahalgam, which was predictable in retrospect given Lula’s hosting of Modi on a state visit, Xi couldn’t oppose it without discrediting himself personally and rupturing BRICS.
Another reason behind his unprecedented absence could have therefore been to “save face” after tasking his Prime Minister to agree to the declaration despite its condemnation of Pahalgam for the reasons explained above. Having his Defense Minister refuse to amend the joint statement from the SCO meeting that he just chaired two weeks ago so that it condemns Pahalgam to having his Prime Minister inexplicably agree to condemn Pahalgam in the Rio Declaration is a textbook example of flip-flopping.
Even worse, it tacitly draws attention to how China politicized the SCO during its last meeting as touched upon in the analysis that was cited at the end of the introduction, which goes against the spirit of the group. The favor that it did for Pakistan thus backfired since the optics have now been inadvertently crafted for lending credence to Indian suspicions that China has ulterior motives within the SCO and Russia’s pro-BRI policymaking faction might now be discredited by association.
In hindsight, China should have included a condemnation of Pahalgam in the draft SCO Defense Ministers’ joint statement during the group’s latest meeting that it chaired since it wasn’t realistically going to oppose this predictable inclusion in the then-upcoming BRICS Rio Declaration.
The fact that it didn’t do so suggests that it either clumsily overlooked this or took for granted that it could convince Brazil not to include it.
In any case, China’s reputation just took a hit, and it was entirely avoidable.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/09/2025 - 02:00 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 03:50:00 +0000 Israel Defense Minister Unveils Plan For 'Concentration Camp' In Gaza
Israel Defense Minister Unveils Plan For 'Concentration Camp' In Gaza
With Gaza ceasefire negotiations under way and President Trump raising hopes of a deal being reached by week's end, Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday Read more.....
Israel Defense Minister Unveils Plan For 'Concentration Camp' In Gaza
With Gaza ceasefire negotiations under way and President Trump raising hopes of a deal being reached by week's end, Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday revealed that the IDF will create what it calls a "humanitarian city" in the wasteland that is Rafah, and then forcibly concentrate Gaza's entire population of nearly 2 million people inside it .
Though the Israeli government and its advocates will likely to condemn already-widespread usage of the term "concentration camp" to describe this undertaking -- likely claiming it's somehow antisemitic given the parallels to Nazi Germany -- it's unambiguously applicable under the Merriam-Webster definition of the term:
concentration camp (noun) a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard
In the first phase, the IDF plans to round up 600,000 displaced Palestinians who are living in the coastal Mawasi area and move them to Rafah, a city in southernmost Gaza that borders Egypt and Israel. Eventually, every Gaza resident will be moved. After security screening, Palestinians will be ushered inside the camp, with IDF guards ensuring that none are able to leave , Katz said.
Like the rest of Gaza, Rafah has been devastated with US-supplied weapons used by the IDF (AFP )
While the Israeli military will secure the perimeter, the Netanyahu government is looking for some type of international organization(s) to take charge of the interior, to include overseeing the distribution of aid, an enterprise currently managed by the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with the IDF dishing out mass killings of Palestinians approaching the aid points; more than 600 are reported dead around the aid stations since late May. Whistleblowing soldiers have told reporters that lethal weapons are being used against unarmed people as brute-force crowd control.
Katz's announcement contradicts what the IDF Chief of Staff's office told Israel's High Court on the very same day . In response to a petition filed by IDF reserve soldiers asking the court to determine if Israel was violating international law by forcibly displacing Palestinians with perhaps the ultimate goal of expelling them, the Chief of Staff's office said there was no plan to move masses of Gaza residents or to concentrate them somewhere in the territory. However, that assurance is itself seemingly contradicted by the operations order for "Gideon's Chariots," the IDF's latest operation launched in May, which says one objective is "managing and mobilizing the civilian population ," Haaretz reports.
On Monday, Katz also reiterated Israel's intention to subsequently facilitate Palestinians' departures to other countries, telling reporters that Israel will implement "the emigration plan, which will happen." Separately, however, an official told Haaretz that Israel's overtures to various countries have all been refused. While Israel's champions commonly claim such refusals prove that Palestinians are dangerously undesirable people, Middle East governments are intensely wary of being perceived by their own populations as facilitating ethnic cleansing by Israel , for fear of domestic backlash up to and including insurrections.
For somewhat similar reasons, Israel is likely to struggle to find what Katz called "international partners" to run the interior of the Rafah concentration camp. Human-rights-oriented groups and foreign governments will recoil at an invitation to serve as a key component of a scheme that most objective observers would characterize as a war crime. Given that, we could see the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation fill the void, which would only compound the controversy.
Meeting with President Trump at the White House on Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck an optimistic tone about the prospect of mass Palestinian emigration , and characterized the idea as voluntary in nature:
"If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. We're working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say, that they wanted to give the Palestinians a better future. I think we're getting close to finding several countries. "
Trump echoed Netanyahu's optimism, saying, "We've had great cooperation from ... surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them. So something good will happen."
"Citizens will be concentrated in the south...understanding there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza," Bezalel Smotrich said in May (Amir Levy - Getty via NYTimes )
Though the implementation phase is apparently now imminent, the idea of corralling all of Gaza's population into Rafah and then moving them out has been circulating since the very beginning of Israel's response to the Hamas invasion of Oct 7 2023. A Ministry of Intelligence policy paper dated Oct 10 2023 and obtained by +972 Magazine that same month recommended herding Gaza's entire 2.2 million residents south and then forcing them into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
More recently, as Dave DeCamp notes at Antiwar.com , Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich outlined a forcible displacement scheme in candid and grim terms that belie Netanyahu's characterization of coming emigration as "voluntary." In May, he boasted to attendees of a West Bank settlement conference that Palestinians will have no choice but to abandon a land rendered uninhabitable by the IDF:
“Within a few months...Gaza will be totally destroyed. The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza , and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.”
Where, exactly, will those "other places" be?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 23:50 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 03:25:00 +0000 Do They Deserve It? Mexico Is Collapsing As The US Deports Illegals Back Home
Do They Deserve It? Mexico Is Collapsing As The US Deports Illegals Back Home
Do They Deserve It? Mexico Is Collapsing As The US Deports Illegals Back Home
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us
Oh, the delicious irony. For many years I’ve been writing about the southern US border and the many ways in which Mexico has used it as a “steam valve” to get rid of people in perpetual poverty, as well as malcontents, violent criminals and political revolutionaries. Who could have foreseen a time when the conundrum would be reversed and Mexico would be crushed by an avalanche of its own unwanted citizens?
But weren’t we told that migrants are an “economic boon” to any country lucky enough to have them?
The argument among progressives and open border activists has always been that migrants are average law abiding people (just like us) who slip across the border simply to integrate into our society and live the American dream. They claim that Mexican leaders are not in control of the situation and that people are desperate to escape crime and social decline.
In reality, government officials have long encouraged migrant caravans to traverse their territories and they have allowed illegal immigration into the US as a means to divert their failures into the laps of American taxpayers. Migrants aren’t trying to escape problems in Mexico, they ARE the problem in Mexico. The more of these caravans the Mexican authorities can get rid of, the better their economic situation appears.
I wrote about this dynamic in detail in my recent article ‘Illegal Alien Economy: How Foreign Nations Exploit U.S. Borders For Profit’ . Specifically, I examined threats made by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum over the possible taxation of remittances (US dollars) sent by migrants from the US into the coffers of Mexican banks and households.
She asserted that her government would “mobilize” against the US should conservative politicians continue their campaign to stop illegals from transferring money back home. Remittances are the single largest source of revenue Mexico receives from foreign countries. Their economy loses significantly without this cash flow.
Beyond the issue of easy money, though, is a singular reality which I have reiterated for a long time: Central and South American nations cannot survive the influx of returning migrants. They will be suffocated by the very same illegals they originally foisted upon the US.
The purging of millions of undesirables reduces Mexico’s poverty stats, homeless stats, unemployment stats and crime stats. I have to laugh every time I hear smug Europeans criticize the US for our violent crime rates – Only now are they beginning to understand what happens when you overwhelm a western nation with a third world demographic and a third world mentality. We certainly have our own home brewed fatigue-ers, but taking on millions of fatigue-ers from other nations does not help.
It’s difficult to keep crime low when other countries offload their problem children onto your front lawn.
Furthermore, labor data proves that illegals have been stealing American jobs and driving down American wages. It’s no coincidence that employment numbers for native born Americans have spiked in recent months as migrant jobs have decreased in tandem with deportations.
There’s a lot more proof in the pudding when we examine what is currently happening in Mexico, though.
Riots in Mexico city are breaking out and they are growing more violent by the day. Residents blame “gringo immigrants” and “digital nomads” for moving into the country and driving up food and housing costs. They also complain that white visitors are allowed to stay on their visas for far too long and that they refuse to “learn their language or respect Mexican culture”. Gee, that sure sounds familiar. Has Mexico gone MAGA?
VIDEO
The irony is, of course, that conservative Americans have been warning about the same issues caused by migrants from Mexico and we have been called “racists” and “fascists” for doing so.
There are approximately 700,000 US citizens residing in Mexico today, a tiny number compared to the tens of millions of Mexican migrants in the US illegally. But somehow, gringos are to blame for rising prices?
Realty experts in the Mexican market say that the cause of the shortages is a slowdown in housing development (Didn’t they tell us we needed illegals to help build more houses to counter the housing shortage in the US? Why don’t they put all these returning construction supermen to work in Mexico?). This explanation doesn’t account for inflation in other areas of the economy such as food and energy. So, are white tourists and ex-pats making things more expensive south of the border?
No, this is nonsense. Perhaps in a handful of resort towns the case might be made, but the truth is that Mexicans are being propagandized into thinking US migrants are the cause of their woes when it is actually the mass return of their OWN CITIZENS from the US.
Some of these people have been deported by force, but armies of them are self deporting and the Mexican economy simply can’t handle the strain. The surge started in 2024, even before Trump took office, with many illegals leaving the US because of inflation as well as the expectation of a conservative election win.
The riots, though, are probably starting now because of the mass deportations. Mexico City in particular has been inundated with migrants, many of them from other countries in Central and South America, as they look for a new place to settle outside the US.
VIDEO
I’ll say it again – I believe the Mexican population is being agitated into violence against American visitors by false claims that they are driving up prices when it is returning illegals that are the real cause. Mexican leaders are trying to distract their population from the bigger picture.
To be sure, there is obviously the NGO issue to consider. Central and South American leaders have not been acting unilaterally as they push for open US borders. Globalist organizations have been expediting matters by feeding cash into programs that guide illegals into the US. They do this to further their vision of a borderless multicultural world, but also to destabilize western societies and displace groups of people they see as likely threats in the future (namely white Christian conservatives).
However, globalist non-profits only smooth the way; its governments like the variety in Mexico that have been providing the human bodies for the NGOs to work with.
Now that Mexico is witnessing the pure Karma of their actions, what is likely to happen? First, the Mexican economy is going to go into a tailspin in a very short period of time. Prices will skyrocket due to crushing demand as illegals come home (just as they helped to trigger rising prices in the US during the Biden border bonanza).
Second, unemployment will rise exponentially along with a saturated labor market. High competition for limited jobs will force government intervention. But in Mexico the government has far less means at its disposal to adapt to the chaos of mass immigration. They will seek to establish social programs to gloss over the damage, but this will fail. Not only are they taking on millions of citizens that they tried to get rid of, they are losing access to the billions of US dollars those migrants were injecting into the Mexican economy. It’s a double whammy.
Third, Mexican officials will demonize the US for the deportations, as if it’s our fault they sent so many foreigners into our country without our permission. As we have seen, this is already leading to animosity across the border and Americans will remain at risk when they travel.
Fourth, if the current trend continues, Mexico will face economic collapse. They simply won’t be able to mitigate the instability caused by the sudden surge in inflation, housing shortages and the unemployed feeding on their social welfare programs.
What would this means for the US? Riots and violence in Mexico could bleed over into border states. Near zero infrastructure on the Mexican side of the border and even less restrictions on migrant movements, which means even tighter controls will be needed on the US side to keep illegals in check. Cartels may end up being the least of our worries when it comes to threats from Central America.
Keep in mind that a large contingent of Central Americans believe that the southern US belongs to them by historical right. The “La Raza” movement has long called for the retaking of large swaths of US territory in the name of “decolonization” (even though they are also descended from Spanish colonists). I believe they will once again assume that they can solve most of their problems of incompetent governance and economic decline by blaming the US and pressing citizens to invade.
They will double down on the same actions that got them in trouble in the first place. When Claudia Sheinbaum talks about “mobilizing” Mexico against the US, this is most likely what she means – A renewed march on the US border in the hopes that Mexico can reopen the steam valve and alleviate their economic troubles.
The result will not be peaceful as she seems to suppose; it could even mean war. It would be a disaster for the Mexicans, but they’ve been relying on the US for so long that they simply don’t understand any other way. That is to say, they are about to get what they deserve; a taste of their own medicine. The destabilization they tried to export to us is now on its way to blow up their own country.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 23:25 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:35:00 +0000 New 'Mind-Reading' AI Predicts What Humans Will Do Next
New 'Mind-Reading' AI Predicts What Humans Will Do Next
New 'Mind-Reading' AI Predicts What Humans Will Do Next
Via StudyFinds ,
MUNICH — An artificial intelligence system can now predict your next move before you make it. We’re not just talking about whether you’ll click “buy now” on that Amazon cart, but rather how you’ll navigate complex decisions, learn new skills, or explore uncharted territory.
(Image by metamorworks via Shutterstock)
Researchers have developed an AI called Centaur that accurately predicts human behavior across virtually any psychological experiment. It even outperforms the specialized computer models scientists have been using for decades. Trained on data from more than 60,000 people making over 10 million decisions, Centaur captures the underlying patterns of how we think, learn, and make choices .
“The human mind is remarkably general,” the researchers write in their paper, published in Nature . “Not only do we routinely make mundane decisions, such as choosing a breakfast cereal or selecting an outfit, but we also tackle complex challenges, such as figuring out how to cure cancer or explore outer space.”
An AI that truly understands human cognition could revolutionize marketing, education, mental health treatment, and product design. But it also raises uncomfortable questions about privacy and manipulation when our digital footprints reveal more about us than ever before.
How Scientists Built a Digital Mind Reader AI
The research team started with an ambitious goal: create a single AI model that could predict human behavior in any psychological experiment. Their approach was surprisingly straightforward but required massive scale.
Scientists assembled a dataset called Psych-101 containing 160 experiments covering memory tests, learning games, risk-taking scenarios, and moral dilemmas. Each experiment was converted into plain English descriptions that an AI could understand.
Rather than building from scratch, researchers took Meta’s Llama 3.1 language model (the same type powering ChatGPT ) and gave it specialized training on human behavior. They used a technique that allows them to modify only a tiny fraction of the AI’s programming while keeping most of it unchanged. The entire training process took only five days on a high-end computer processor.
Centaur could mark a new turning point in AI in its unprecedented ability to understand the human mind. (Image by Shutterstock AI Generator)
Centaur Dominates Traditional Cognitive Models
When tested, Centaur completely crushed the competition. In head-to-head comparisons with specialized cognitive models that scientists spent decades perfecting, Centaur won in almost every single experiment.
The real breakthrough came when researchers tested Centaur on completely new scenarios. The AI successfully predicted human behavior even when the experiment’s story changed (turning a space treasure hunt into a magic carpet adventure), when the structure was modified (adding a third option to a two-choice task), and when entirely new domains were introduced (logical reasoning tests that weren’t in its training data).
Centaur could also generate realistic human-like behavior when running simulations. In one test involving exploration strategies, the AI achieved performance comparable to actual human participants and showed the same type of uncertainty-guided decision-making that characterizes how people behave.
Neural Alignment: Centaur Mimics Human Brain Activity
In a surprising discovery, Centaur’s internal workings had become more aligned with human brain activity , even though it was never explicitly trained to match neural data. When researchers compared the AI’s internal states to brain scans of people performing the same tasks, they found stronger correlations than with the original, untrained model.
Learning to predict human behavior apparently forced the AI to develop internal representations that mirror how our brains actually process information. The AI essentially reverse-engineered aspects of human cognition just by studying our choices.
The team also demonstrated how Centaur could accelerate scientific discovery. They used the AI to analyze human behavior patterns, leading to the discovery of a new decision-making strategy that outperformed existing psychological theories.
“We’ve created a tool that allows us to predict human behavior in any situation described in natural language – like a virtual laboratory ,” says lead author Marcel Binz in a statement.
What’s Next for Human Behavior AI?
While impressive, this research represents just the beginning. The current version focuses primarily on learning and decision-making , with limited coverage of areas like social psychology or cross-cultural differences. The dataset also skews toward Western, educated populations, a common limitation in psychological research.
The team plans to expand their dataset to include more diverse domains and populations, envisioning a comprehensive model that could serve as a unified theory of human cognition. They’ve made both their dataset and AI model publicly available for other researchers to build upon.
“We combine AI research with psychological theory – and with a clear ethical commitment ,” adds Binz. “In a public research environment, we have the freedom to pursue fundamental cognitive questions that are often not the focus in industry.”
For the first time, we have an artificial system that can predict human behavior across the full spectrum of psychological research with unprecedented accuracy. Whether that development excites or concerns you may depend on how confidently we can ensure such tools are used responsibly.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers created Centaur by fine-tuning Meta’s Llama 3.1 70B language model on a dataset called Psych-101, which contains trial-by-trial behavioral data from 160 psychological experiments involving over 60,000 participants making more than 10 million choices. They converted all experiments into natural language format and used a parameter-efficient training technique called QLoRA that modified only 0.15% of the model’s parameters. The training focused specifically on predicting human responses while masking out other parts of the experimental instructions.
Results
Centaur outperformed existing domain-specific cognitive models in almost every experiment when predicting behavior of held-out participants. The AI also successfully generalized to modified cover stories, structural task changes, and entirely new domains like logical reasoning. In open-loop simulations, Centaur generated realistic human-like behavior patterns and achieved comparable performance to actual humans in exploration tasks. Additionally, the model’s internal representations became more aligned with human neural activity compared to the base model.
Limitations
The current dataset focuses primarily on learning and decision-making domains, with limited coverage of social psychology, cross-cultural studies, and individual differences. The participant pool skews toward Western, educated populations typical of psychological research. The natural language format also introduces selection bias against experiments that cannot be easily expressed in text, and the researchers note the need for eventual expansion to multimodal data formats.
Funding and Disclosures
Research was supported by the Max Planck Society, the Humboldt Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation, and the NOMIS Foundation. One author has consulting relationships and ownership interests in several biotech companies. The researchers have made their dataset and model publicly available for scientific use.
“A foundation model to predict and capture human cognition ” was published in Nature on July 2, 2025. The study was led by Marcel Binz at the Institute for Human-Centered AI, Helmholtz Center Munich, with collaborators from institutions including Princeton University, University of Tübingen, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, and others.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 22:35 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:10:00 +0000 Syria's Sharaa Met With Top Israeli Officials In 'Quiet' Normalization Effort: Reports
Syria's Sharaa Met With Top Israeli Officials In 'Quiet' Normalization Effort: Reports
A Syrian newspaper as well as several Israeli media sources are reporting that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously went by Abu Moham
Read more.....
Syria's Sharaa Met With Top Israeli Officials In 'Quiet' Normalization Effort: Reports
A Syrian newspaper as well as several Israeli media sources are reporting that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously went by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani and is the founder of Syrian al-Qaeda , has met with Israel's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
While the reports remain unconfirmed by Damascus, The Jerusalem Post says that this was not "the first such meeting" to take place , citing a Syrian source. But Israel quickly denied the reports : "Israel issued a statement denying the claim, noting that Hanegbi is in Washington as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delegation visiting the US."
via Tehran Times
The sources are calling the alleged meeting "a significant step in the Syrian-Israeli negotiations" as part of potentially moving closer to achieving normalization base on the Abraham Accords.
This could also be part of publicly known efforts to advance "quiet" talk with Israel in order to reach a security status quo. At the moment Israel's military still occupies a large portion of southern Syria, going well beyond the Golan Heights.
Israel's YNet writes that "The expected agreement could include security guarantees, a pledge to counter terrorist activity, measures to curb Iranian influence , and a restriction of terror operatives near the border."
"According to foreign reports, Israel has already used Syrian airspace to strike Iranian targets —suggesting informal coordination between the two nations, even if not official," the outlet adds.
Damascus has continued to claim busting up 'Iranian terror' cells in various parts of the country. It is not expected to prioritize counter-ISIS operations given that many of the Sharaa/HTS government's own members are ISIS or former ISIS.
The prior Assad government had lone been Israel's most formidable regional enemy, given it possessed Russian anti-aircraft systems and hosted Iranian forces. Israel, for its part, was part of the West's covert war to oust Assad.
The timing of these reported Sharaa meetings with top Israeli officials is interesting given that it was only on Monday that the US formally lifted the longtime terror designation against his group , Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Meanwhile, an interesting new revelation on Monday...
As we highlighted , the fact that Sharaa was a formally designated terrorist didn't stop President Trump from meeting with him during his Saudi visit months ago. Trump even praised him as a "young, attractive guy" who has a "real shot at doing a good job"
Sadly, the message from the White House seems to be that Syria should prioritize ending the long-running state of conflict with Israel, but there's been barely a peep about the massacres being conducted against Syria's ancient Christian, Alawite, and Druze populations .
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 22:10 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 01:45:00 +0000 'Green' China Runs On Dirty Coal
'Green' China Runs On Dirty Coal
'Green' China Runs On Dirty Coal
Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,
In 2020, China announced its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, with peak emissions expected to occur in 2030 and then decline thereafter.
According to Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based project leader quoted by Greenpeace last month, it could be sooner than that. He said that “2025 is a critical year for China to make overall emissions from its power sector stop increasing.”
When it comes to so-called green energy, Chinese authorities talk a good game, but do they walk the walk when it comes to reducing the use of highly polluting coal?
Not really.
What’s more, the entire green argument is deeply flawed in multiple areas. More on that later.
Green Technology
China is indeed a global leader in developing, manufacturing, and installing green technology. No other nation can match its output of solar panels, wind-powered generators, batteries, and other renewable energy technology. Within the first five months of 2025, China added enough solar and wind-powered energy infrastructure to generate as much electricity as Poland, Indonesia, or Turkey. As of this year, China’s solar power generation capacity comprises about 50 percent of the world’s current solar power generation capacity.
With direction from Beijing, that trajectory is likely to continue. China is not only at the forefront of deploying renewable resources, but it also dominates the world market. No other nation can compete with China’s low pricing of renewable energy technology.
Pricing is a touchy subject for the rest of the world, though, because China’s dominance is accomplished through state subsidies and below-cost pricing in foreign markets. That’s called “dumping , and it’s against the trading rules, as it is highly destructive of other countries’ renewable energy manufacturing sectors. But that’s a different conversation for a different post.
China’s Energy Paradox
But in terms of renewable energy use and its reliance on coal for energy generation, China’s energy story is rather paradoxical. On the one hand, China is indeed the world’s leader in deploying renewable energy; on the other hand, it is also the world’s leader in coal use, dependency, and air pollution.
In short, China is not only the world’s biggest producer of renewable energy , but it’s also the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal and carbon emissions.
How does that align with its image as a global leader in clean energy? Not very well. Furthermore, neither of those statistics is likely to change in the near future, despite official claims to the contrary regarding coal consumption.
Energy Security Is Top Priority
The reason for China’s schizophrenic energy policy is apparent: the future of China’s energy supply is anything but certain or secure. That’s a huge concern for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because the reliability of renewable solar- and wind-powered energy is much lower than coal. Weather is a huge factor, and energy uncertainty is something that no developed nation can afford.
The CCP is painfully aware of its energy vulnerability, which explains why, in 2024, China approved 66.7 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power plant capacity and began construction on 94.5 GW of new coal power plants, a 10-year high . To get an idea of the scale of China’s coal-powered plant construction plans, 93 percent of global construction starts for coal power in 2024 were in China. What’s more, 1 GW is the output of a single, large coal-power energy plant.
That fact also helps explain why China is the world’s top coal producer and importer in terms of volume. Although coal imports meet only a small fraction of its massive energy needs, in 2023, China imported 442 million tons, and in 2024, a record amount of 542.7 million tons.
Although projections for China’s coal consumption indicate a slight decrease in 2025, the trend in coal usage and energy reliance is undeniable. China is not only sprinting to build more coal-powered energy plants, but has resumed construction on 3.3 GW of suspended coal-fired power plant projects. With a global historical lifespan of coal-fired power plants of about 46 years , and the possibility of lasting up to 60 years, it’s clear that Beijing has no intention of transitioning to renewable energy sources as its main source of energy anytime soon.
The Green Delusion of ‘Renewables’
Green energy itself is a delusion.
First, the materials used in wind turbines and solar panels, and the batteries needed to store the energy, must all be mined from the earth , just like nuclear material, coal, oil, and natural gas. Once used up, more must be produced, so they’re actually non-renewable factors of production that are conveniently left out of the green calculus and are hardly carbon-neutral or environment-friendly.
Second, given the unreliability of wind and solar power, both are dependent upon the weather and other variables.
Third, the low energy density of wind and solar power (see Spain’s recent blackout , or Germany’s energy crisis in 2022), means that the amount of materials needed to be mined from the earth, such as rare earth minerals, oil for plastics, and various metals to create the infrastructure, is enormous and ongoing. And when they’re no longer viable, many of these materials can’t be recycled economically .
How green does that sound?
Fourth, a study at the University of Texas at Austin comparing renewables to natural gas concluded that “wind and solar are respectively 33 and 23 times worse than natural gas in terms of mineral resource scarcity,“ and that ”when battery storage is considered, their impact increased by orders of magnitude, making them 421 and 412 times worse, respectively.”
Fifth, even pro-renewable think tanks like the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania see a huge, unresolved problem looming ahead, stating that “the clean energy transition will require economic mobilization on a scale not seen since the industrial revolution, and will strain the global production of silicon, cobalt, lithium, manganese, and a host of other critical elements.”
In light of these facts, China’s ongoing use of coal-fired power plants makes perfect sense, the weather, the environment, and propaganda notwithstanding.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 21:45 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 01:20:00 +0000 Deep Staters On Edge As DOGE's DoD Strike Team Hits Pentagon With Sweeping Contract Cuts
Deep Staters On Edge As DOGE's DoD Strike Team Hits Pentagon With Sweeping Contract Cuts
The U.S. Department of Defense has failed every single financial audit since audits began in fiscal year 2018. Despite commanding the largest b
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Deep Staters On Edge As DOGE's DoD Strike Team Hits Pentagon With Sweeping Contract Cuts
The U.S. Department of Defense has failed every single financial audit since audits began in fiscal year 2018. Despite commanding the largest budget of any federal agency—nearly $850 billion annually—the Pentagon still can't account for large swaths of its spending. Over the years, trillions have been flagged as "unaccounted for," fueling speculation around off-the-books operations that taxpayers are kept in the dark about. Even the Government Accountability Office recently warned that the DoD may not meet its target for a clean audit until at least 2028.
On Monday, a team of Goldman analysts led by Noah Poponak told clients that the team of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at DoD is quietly ramping up contract cancellations. Yes, the DoD—the mecca for bloated budgets and opaque spending—is now the target of DOGE's slash-and-burn operations. That news alone might have Deep Staters and their Beltway contractor buddies on edge through summer.
Poponak pointed out that contract cancellations at the DoD now rank second in total canceled IT contract value among federal agencies, just behind Health and Human Services.
Notably impacted are consulting firms Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) and Leidos (LDOS), with several high-value contracts terminated, including a $310 million hypersonic ISR project for LDOS and multiple contracts for BAH totaling over $130 million.
Poponak pointed out, "These DoD contract cancellations may have been impacted by recently passed DoD memos that raise the threshold for contracting IT and services work at the department."
"We also view this to mean DOGE activity is continuing across the government despite leadership personnel changes. We reiterate our cautious view of the Gov't IT & Services sector, and are Sell rated on BAH, CACI, SAIC, and VVX; Neutral on LDOS and AMTM; Buy rated on PSN. We continue to think the group will face contracting, backlog, revenue, and margin headwinds over the medium-term."
Cleaning up the DoD will be the most challenging task yet in rooting out waste and fraud. According to the GAO, the Pentagon is unlikely to pass a full audit by 2028. For decades, the GAO has issued more than 100 recommendations to help the DoD address its financial management failures—most of which remain unresolved.
Related:
As for DOGE more broadly, President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the cost-cutting theatrics were just that—a circus act (hence Elon Musk's public frustrations ).
The new playbook? Ignore austerity (for now). It's all about juicing revenue—and yes, piling on more debt —in a massive, multi-trillion-dollar bet to grow the nation out of its debt mess.
So if the so-called cost-cutting was little more than political theater, at least DOGE managed to neuter agency-captured USAID and gut key DEI initiatives funding Marxist activists, thus slowing the spread of wokeism, sabotaging the nation from within across government agencies, the military, and corporations.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 21:20 Close
Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:55:00 +0000 White House Report Reveals Top Earners, Staffers Working For No Salary
White House Report Reveals Top Earners, Staffers Working For No Salary
White House Report Reveals Top Earners, Staffers Working For No Salary
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Trump administration on Thursday released its yearly report that shows the salaries for White House staffers, also revealing officials who aren’t accepting salaries at all.
The White House on July 1, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
The report shows that the top earner in the White House is Jacalynne B. Klopp, a senior adviser who is earning $225,700 per year . She is followed by an associate counsel, Edgar Mkrtchian, who is earning $203,645 annually.
About 33 senior White House staffers, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles, border czar Tom Homan, trade adviser Peter Navarro, adviser Stephen Miller, and Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor, are each earning $195,200 per year, according to the disclosure.
There is a handful of officials listed in the report, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his capacity as national security adviser, who are being paid nothing. The current cryptocurrency czar, David Sachs, as well as U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Paula White, are also being paid $0.00 each, it shows.
President Donald Trump’s compensation isn’t listed in Thursday’s salary disclosure, and neither is Vice President JD Vance’s compensation.
The pay scheme for a president is provided under federal law. A president is to earn a base salary of $400,000 along with a $50,000 expense allowance.
During his first term, Trump donated his salary to government agencies. In May, he indicated he would do the same during his second term.
“I do something that no other president has done, they think maybe George Washington has done. I contribute my entire salary to the government, back to the government. And I’m doing it again, ” Trump said during remarks on May 4.
“It’s a substantial salary. It’s a half a million dollars a year or $550,000 a year, four years—a couple of million dollars,” he said, making reference to the salary and expense allowances.
An archived White House page shows that Trump, during his first year in office, donated his salary to initiatives that he deemed as having “national significance,” including to the National Park Service and the Department of Education.
In May, Trump said that media outlets are refusing to cover his salary donations.
“I never got a story saying I gave it ,“ he said at the time. ”Nobody cared if I gave it. I guarantee if I didn’t give it, there’d be a big story. ”
Throughout his second term, Trump has vowed to slash fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government, establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in January. That task force was headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who had worked under the Trump administration for several months before departing within 130 days, when his special government employee status expired.
In June, Trump reported more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf clubs, licensing, and other ventures in a public financial disclosure report. The annual financial disclosure form, which covered the 2024 calendar year, showed that his push into cryptocurrency added substantially to his wealth. He also reported large fees from developments and revenue from his other businesses.
Forbes magazine has estimated that Trump is worth around $5.3 billion as of Thursday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/08/2025 - 20:55 Close