Most Americans Don't Believe NATO Would Assist If The Country Were Attacked

 Via The Libertarian Institute

Most Americans do not believe that European members of the North Atlantic Alliance would come to the United States' aid if attacked. 

Politico reported that a NATO poll found that just 43% of Americans believe the bloc would assist the US if needed. While Politico was unable to view survey results from previous years, a NATO official said that American confidence in the bloc was down about eight percent. 

via Associated Press

The foundation of NATO is Article 5 of the bloc’s charter. Article 5 is viewed as a mutual defense pact that calls on each member to come to the aid of any state that is attacked. 

In recent years, Americans have begun to question the United States' membership in the bloc. Americans have long pointed to the US footing the majority of the alliance's military spending. 

The drift away from supporting NATO intensified when the bloc backed Ukraine in the war against Russia. Many Americans argued that NATO providing billions of dollars of assistance to non-member Ukraine unnecessarily created tensions with Russia. 

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently criticized the alliance over Europe's lack of assistance in the war against Iran:

President Donald Trump declined Tuesday to say whether he plans to announce additional US troop reductions in Europe, telling reporters, "we’re going to see," during a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.

“Well, we’re going to see,” Trump said when asked whether he is likely to announce further drawdowns of US forces in Europe.

The US president also renewed his criticism of NATO, suggesting he had considered skipping the summit altogether.

Trump is meeting other NATO leaders in Turkey this week, where he is expected to push member states to increase military spending. 

Ahead of the summit, NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker downplayed the tensions between Washington and the bloc as growing pains. "The target is that Europe takes over the conventional defense of the European continent. We’re not going away, we’re just doing less." He added, "I see these as just the challenges that we’ve worked through before."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/most-americans-dont-believe-nato-would-assist-if-country-were-attacked

South Korea Falls Into Bear Market As Memory Euphoria Fizzles

 It started off with the usual morning rush by retail momentum chasers into the handful of massive, market-moving names (read Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix), but as has been the case over the past two weeks, the initial euphoria quickly reversed and the Kospi rolled over, closing down 5.4%, 9.99% over the past two days, and down 22% from the all time high of 9385 hit just over 2 weeks ago on Jun 18.

... officially entering a technical bear market as investors express growing concerns about the long-term prospects of the AI chipmakers that have driven a world-beating rally.

To be sure, the Kospi is still the world’s top-performing major stock index this year, having returned more than 70% in local currency terms. but the momentum is clearly to the downside, and finding dip buyers who are willing to hold more than just a few minutes is becoming especially difficult. 

On Wednesday, the market’s two largest constituents, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, fell 6.3% and 5.7%, respectively. Shares of the two companies have surged as a result of demand for their memory chips, although attention is increasingly turning to cheaper Chinese-made memory alternatives made by such companies as CXMT (DRAM) and YMTC (NAND).

Sure enough, sentiment has started to turn. Samsung’s shares tumbled as much as 10% on Tuesday, even though the company projected a third straight quarter of record operating profit.

According to the FT, analysts attributed the recent declines to a lack of clarity on how South Korean chipmakers would enforce long-term agreements with customers over chip purchases, echoing a joke we first made just a few days ago. 

Expect a surge in AI tokens for contract breach research https://t.co/G1qolxhkVr

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 1, 2026

US competitors such as Micron have shifted their business model to include longer-term purchasing agreements, but it remains unclear whether Samsung and SK Hynix have been able to secure similar contracts.

“At the moment we have not heard officially from the Korean peers how they plan on executing on these long-term contracts,” said Jason Lui, head of Asia-Pacific equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas. Lui said South Korean chipmakers could see their price-to-earnings ratio rise “if they can move to longer-term contracts”.

“Given the fundamentals of how strong the Korean market has been over the past two years it’s challenging to call it a bear market,” he said.

Volatility in the South Korean market is being exacerbated by the proliferation of leveraged exchange traded funds that magnify gains and losses. On Tuesday the head of South Korea’s financial regulator warned of “excessive” leveraged stock investments among retail investors.

S. Korea's Deputy PM Koo Yun-Cheol said at the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee plenary meeting that he is discussing supplementary measures in response to concerns that single-stock leveraged ETFs are amplifying stock-market volatilityhttps://t.co/1O4dXYuPVF

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 8, 2026

Some fund managers welcomed the move downwards, saying it was inevitable.

“This is a necessary correction because the rise was too steep and fast,” said Chan Lee of Petra Capital Management. “There are possible buying opportunities outside of AI as well.”

Jongmin Shim, Korea equity strategist at CLSA, said: “I don’t think this story is over. It’s just a bit of a correction on the way up. Nothing goes up forever.”

The correction comes just days before SK Hynix plans to list shares on US exchanges for the first time in a $29bn offering that is expected to be the largest-ever share issuance by an Asian company.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/south-korea-falls-bear-market-memory-euphoria-fizzles

Amgen recalls almost 1 million bottles of heart failure drug over quality issue

 

The discovery of a foreign substance prompted Amgen to voluntarily recall batches of the medicine Corlanor made in Italy.

Amgen has recalled almost 1 million bottles of its chronic heart failure drug Corlanor in response to a contamination concern.

The FDA attributed Amgen’s action to the presence of a foreign substance. Amgen began the voluntary recall of 934,577 bottles of the 5-mg Corlanor tablets last month. The recalled products are a mix of 14- and 60-tablet bottles of Corlanor. Amgen also recalled an undisclosed number of bottles of 7.5-mg tablets. Expiry dates for the recalled 5- and 7.5-mg tablets range from July 2026 to December 2028.

California-based Amgen listed Italy as the country where the medicines were made. The company has international manufacturing facilities in Ireland, the Netherlands and Singapore, but it also works with third-party contract manufacturers.

The FDA categorized the action as a Class II recall, indicating that the drug may cause temporary health consequences but the probability of a serious health issue is small. The recall notice lacks information about whether adverse events are linked to the recalled products.

Amgen won FDA approval for Corlanor in 2015. The drug, which Amgen licensed from Servier, reduces the spontaneous pacemaker activity of the cardiac sinus node to slow the patient’s heart rate. In doing so, Corlanor cuts the risk of hospitalization for worsening heart failure.

Corlanor represents a minor revenue stream for Amgen. In its first-quarter results, Amgen grouped the medicine with 12 other drugs that generated sales of $315 million collectively. Corlanor was too small a product even early in its lifecycle to have its own line on Amgen’s financial results.

The FDA shared details of the Corlanor recall alongside information about issues with another Amgen drug, Sensipar. Amgen has recalled 9,565 bottles of the chronic kidney disease (CKD) drug made in Japan over deviations from current good manufacturing practices. The FDA approved Sensipar in 2004, clearing the drug for use in treating secondary hyperparathyroidism in CKD patients on dialysis.

Sensipar is among the products that Amgen grouped with Corlanor in its first-quarter results. The drug, which Amgen sells as Mimpara in Europe, was once among the company’s best-selling products. Sensipar sales exceeded $1 billion in 2013 and peaked close to $1.8 billion in 2018, only to decline significantly after generic copies came to market.

https://www.biospace.com/business/amgen-recalls-almost-1-million-bottles-of-heart-failure-drug-over-quality-issue

US to give Ukraine license to make Patriot systems

 United States President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday during a bilateral meeting alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara that the US will give Ukraine a license to manufacture its own Patriot defense missiles.

"One of the things we're going to be talking about is we're going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That's pretty cool, right? This way, he can't complain that we are not giving him enough," Trump told Zelensky.

The Patriot system, formally known as the MIM-104 Patriot, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile (SAM) system designed to detect, track, and intercept a variety of aerial threats, including aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/US-to-give-Ukraine-license-to-make-Patriot-systems/66656363

Trump to Iran: We have a score to settle

 US President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that Washington has a "score to settle" with Tehran following 74 years of Iran "killing people," including American soldiers.

Following up on his comments in Ankara that the ceasefire has ended, the US leader commented that peace may be achieved in other ways as well. "We might just do it without a deal," he said, without further clarification.

He accused Iran of deception, saying it routinely breaches agreements and does not deliver on its promise to halt its nuclear program.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Trump-to-Iran:-We-have-a-score-to-settle/66656409

Trump: We'll probably strike Iran again tonight

 United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his country plans to strike Iran again tonight, because of Tehran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

"They launched a couple of drones and one rocket, one missile, at ships, because they were in the strait, which they have every right to be. So, we hit them very hard last night. We'll probably hit them hard tonight. I'll give them a little warning, we're gonna hit them hard tonight. But we'll see how it all turns out. No, I'm not happy with them," Trump said during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara.

The US president previously claimed that Washington's ceasefire with Iran is "over" as far as he is concerned, because he does not want to "waste his time" anymore.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Trump:-We'll-probably-strike-Iran-again-tonight/66656262

Rutte: Turkey's S-400 system not a NATO issue

 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte deflected two of the sharpest questions at the Ankara summit on Wednesday, framing both as matters beyond the alliance's remit.

On Turkey's Russian-made S-400 air defense system, which remains a longstanding point of contention that led to Ankara's ejection from the F-35 program, Rutte called it a bilateral issue between Turkey and the United States.

On Greenland, Rutte repeated that Trump "absolutely has a point" about countering the Russian and Chinese threat in the Arctic, but refused to address sovereignty, calling it a trilateral matter between Denmark, the United States, and Greenland.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Rutte:-Turkey's-S-400-system-not-a-NATO-issue/66656554