PayPal Soars On Reported $53 Billion Buyout Bid From Stripe And Advent

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/paypal-soars-reported-53-billion-buyout-bid-stripe-and-advent

PayPal shares surged the most on record in premarket trading in New York after Reuters reported that payment company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have offered more than $53 billion to acquire the struggling payments platform.

PYPL shares are up 20% premarket…

It's the biggest single-day jump since at least 2015 (which is near the lows where it is currently trading)…

Bloomberg noted call option volume surged ahead of the Reuters report:

Call option volume and implied volatility for Paypal surged ahead of a report that Stripe and Advent had made a bid for the ​digital payments firm, indicating some traders were well-positioned ahead of the news.

The proposed $60.50-a-share bid represents a roughly 28% premium to PayPal's Tuesday close, though it remains 80% below the $308 peak recorded in July 2021.

Here's more from the report:

The offer, submitted earlier ‌this month, is backed by about $50 billion in committed financing from banks, said one of the people. The offer represents around a 28% premium to PayPal's closing share price on Tuesday.

Rumors of a potential acquisition first surfaced in late February when Bloomberg reported that Stripe had expressed interest in PayPal.

Related:

PayPal Suffers Worst Drop In Four Years After Profit Miss, CEO Set To Exit

PayPal was one of the early pioneers of digital payments, but the company has quickly lost ground as consumers shifted to alternatives such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

New CEO Enrique Lores has framed his turnaround around cutting costs, simplifying the organization and refocusing the company's strategy. But with competitive pressures mounting and the shares trading at near all-time lows, an outright sale may offer a more credible exit strategy.

US Gov't Set To Expose Far-Left Radicalization Pipeline Leading Back To Communist Cuba

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-govt-set-expose-far-left-radicalization-pipeline-leading-back-communist-cuba

Watching the Democratic Socialists of America tighten their grip on the Democratic Party while far-left activists grow louder and bolder in their calls for revolution, "killing capitalists," and destroying the U.S. "from within" set off alarm bells.

Even the left-wing outlet The Atlantic acknowledged the troubling rise of "left-wing terrorism" following a wave of riots, political violence, assassinations and attempted assassinations, foiled terror plots, and firebombings targeting private companies.

That raised an important question: Are these efforts by far-left activist networks and NGOs to sow chaos organic, or are they part of, or linked to, foreign subversion networks that are helping fuel the unrest?

That prompted us in December 2025 to ask this question: "Is There a 'Cuba Connection' Behind the Radicalization of America's Nonprofit Left?"

Six and a half months later, a State Department official speaking to Breitbart News appears to be answering the very question we raised months ago.

"The State Department will be issuing a report detailing the Cuban regime's longstanding campaign to foment left-wing extremism in the United States and internationally," the official said, adding, "The report finds that for nearly seven decades, the Cuban regime has played an indispensable role in nearly every notable far-left insurgency, revolution, and militant movement across the Western Hemisphere and beyond." Continue…

"Deport Criminals Who Steal Or Kill": Spanish Model Blasts Barcelona's Immigration Crisis

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/deport-criminals-who-steal-or-kill-spanish-model-blasts-barcelonas-immigration-crisis

Influencer and model Jessica Goicoechea has posted a video on her social media channels in which she openly criticizes the insecurity she believes plagues Barcelona and details the personal measures she has taken to protect herself. In the clip, Goicoechea displays several security items she recently bought in Andorra, including 4 bottles of pepper sprays and a taser gun, which she describes as her "new essentials."

The video ends with a direct message: "Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona."

??? JUST IN: Spanish model Jessica Goicoechea shows off her 4 bottles of pepper spray and a Taser gun while speaking out against immigration.

"Now, I can go calmly through Barcelona," she said.

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea wrote a statement explaining that… pic.twitter.com/ATZYvfkOaX

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 13, 2026

The publication quickly sparked intense debate across social platforms. While some users criticized her for publicly showcasing self-defense weapons, many others - particularly women - expressed support and inquired about where similar products could be purchased. In response, Goicoechea stated that she is receiving "infinite messages" from women seeking ways to protect themselves. She defended her actions by saying that, given the current situation, she believes "if you don't protect yourself, no one will."

Following the video's viral spread, Goicoechea followed up with a written statement. She explained that she had never wanted to enter debates about safety or immigration but felt compelled to speak out because conditions have deteriorated. Continue…

Israeli Officials Try To Push US Refueling Tankers Out Of Ben Gurion Airport Amid Disruptions

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-officials-try-push-us-refueling-tankers-out-ben-gurion-airport-amid

Immense controversy has remained centered on Ben Gurion International Airport as dozens of giant US Air Force refueling tankers have essentially taken over the main Israeli flight hub for many months, since the start of Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Reports also say it has cost the airport hundreds of millions of dollars at this point.

The Israeli government itself seems to be divided, and there's been outrage among the general public as the presence of the American tankers has blocked and slowed regular commercial flights, leading to the recent cancelations of many passengers' tickets, but with an expected tens of thousands more cancelations to come.

On Tuesday the simmering controversy erupted again, and has even raised the possibility of introducing fresh tensions with Washington, after Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that the government will not allow more than 20 US refueling tankers to be parked at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport at any given time.

Regev specifically addressed the domestic public's concerns over air travel. "Hundreds of thousands of plane tickets were bought by Israelis to fly and enjoy their summer vacation," the official said. "We promised that we will enable commercial flights and we will not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes." Continue…

The Lockdown Disaster Must Not Be Forgiven

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/lockdown-disaster-must-not-be-forgiven

Six years since “15 Days to Slow the Spread", data shows why our policies didn't work…

That policy has to have been one of the most disastrous in world history, created by “experts” who took all established pre-pandemic planning documents and tossed them out the window at the first opportunity.

It was a policy based on inaccurate reports out of China, which claimed that their lockdowns effectively stamped out transmission of Covid-19 within a matter of days.

It was a policy that ignored solid research – from established epidemiologists like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya – which found that the coronavirus had already spread much more widely than previously realized.

It must be noted forever that lockdowns and the associated mask mandates, vaccine passports, and school closures continued in some places for several years. The ramifications of those wretched policies will be quite literally endless. It’s not an exaggeration to say that lockdowns, our policies, and responses have quite literally changed the course of world history.

One would think that there would definitely be a concerted effort to understand whether such policies were effective or not. Whether approaching respiratory viruses with authoritarian crackdowns on businesses and schools was necessary to save lives.

Yet six years later, there’s unfortunately very little interest in examining those questions. And when you understand the data from Sweden, you will see exactly why. Continue…

Jack Smith's Team Spied On 44 Lawmakers' Texts, Built A Case On Them, And Misled Congress: Grassley

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jack-smiths-team-spied-44-lawmakers-texts-built-case-them-and-misled-congress-grassley

Former special counsel Jack Smith's investigators blew past the Justice Department's own privilege safeguards to directly access text messages between Trump White House officials and 44 members of Congress - then had the FBI match the phone numbers to lawmakers' names, according to DOJ records released Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a letter accompanying the records that Smith's team "bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages." The FBI then worked out which senators and House members had sent or received them, Davis wrote.

The filter unit existed for one purpose: to screen messages pulled from the National Archives for privileged material before line investigators ever laid eyes on them.

"All communication to/from the Filter Team must go through the Coordinator," one internal protocol document states - adding that nothing was to reach the investigative team without a filter attorney's sign-off.

The messages, sent between October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021, ran between a bipartisan roster of lawmakers and Trump White House figures including chief of staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, now-CIA Director John Ratcliffe and now-FBI Director Kash Patel, the records show.

I received records frm DOJ confirming Jack Smith's investigative team reviewed the contents of text msgs sent by 44 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Im 1 of the 44

Im alerting my colleagues who were impacted and will release the records w Sen Johnson so American ppl can see the evidence

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 14, 2026

Among the 44 lawmakers: Continue…

‘They don’t want you there’: Trump tells Netanyahu to leave Syria and Lebanon – Axios

https://www.rt.com/news/643080-trump-tells-netanyahu-leave-syria-lebanon/

US President Donald Trump has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw Israeli troops from Syria and begin redeploying forces from southern Lebanon, Axios has reported, citing US and Israeli officials.

The reported appeal is the latest sign of a widening rift between the two leaders, with Trump pressing Israel to scale back its military deployments while Netanyahu’s government continues to insist on maintaining them indefinitely.

According to Axios, Trump warned Netanyahu during a phone call on Thursday that Israel’s military presence in southern Syria risked further escalation.

“They don’t want you there. You should redeploy,” Trump reportedly told the Israeli leader. The president delivered a similar message regarding southern Lebanon, the outlet said. Continue…

Bulgaria pulls out of coalition of Ukraine backers

https://www.rt.com/news/643041-radev-bulgaria-out-coalition-ukraine/

Bulgaria has no place in the coalition of Western nations pushing for continued military aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has told Bulgarian broadcaster bTV.

The France and UK-led “coalition of the willing” has long pushed to deploy troops into Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, despite Moscow’s repeated warnings that any NATO troops on Ukrainian territory would become legitimate military targets.

“We’re not part of a coalition pushing for continued financial and military aid to Ukraine,” Radev told bTV during a press conference in France on Tuesday.

“We don’t provide aid of that kind, because I believe the way to resolve this conflict is through a strong diplomatic effort to end the escalation rather than by prolonging it by military means,” he added.

Last week, Radev, a Euroskeptic elected after the previous pro-EU government collapsed last year following massive anti-corruption protests, announced that Bulgaria has exhausted its capacity to support Kiev militarily.

“We provided 13 packages; we don’t have anything else to supply to Ukraine,” he said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara. Continue…

France licenses missile production in Ukraine

https://www.rt.com/news/643053-france-licenses-missile-production-ukraine/

France will grant Ukraine licenses to produce missiles and bombs on its soil, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday.

Speaking at a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ summit in Paris, Macron said the agreements would allow Ukraine to manufacture Aster 30 interceptor missiles, AASM glide bombs and SCALP-EG cruise missiles under license.

“We have agreed on licensing agreements for new capabilities,” he told reporters, adding that the move “will allow us to produce these capabilities much more quickly with our Ukrainian partners and on Ukrainian soil.”

The AASM and SCALP-EG have already been supplied to Kiev and have been widely used by Ukrainian forces, including in strikes on Russian civilian targets, according to Moscow.

Macron also said additional Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense batteries and Aster interceptors would be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks. He added that 16 Rafale fighter jets are expected to arrive in 2028-2029. Continue…