THE SHOW NOTES: Epstein Emails, Consumer Debt, Chatbot Jesus, H1B Visas, & Venezuela

Welcome! The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia.

❌ NO NO NO: Meet chatbot Jesus: Churches tap AI to save souls — and time - Axios

🔥 NEWS: ‘Operation Dirtbag’ sees over 150 illegal migrant sexual predators nabbed in Florida - NY Post

↗️ DATA: Prices are steadying and wages are climbing, new DoorDash report shows - Fox Business

📺 MUST WATCH: Voters blame Trump, not Biden for the state of the economy. - Harry Enten

‼️ PROBLEM: The Iranian President warned that the water crisis is so severe that “we may have to evacuate Tehran.“

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NYT: Epstein Alleged in Emails That Trump Knew of His Conduct

In an attempt to distract the base from the failed shutdown, House Democrats have released emails in which Jeffrey Epstein claimed that Trump “spent hours at my house” with Epstein’s victims present. Other messages suggested that Epstein believed Trump knew more about his abuse than he had acknowledged. This is from NYT (paywall) or ABC (free).

Mr. Trump has emphatically denied any involvement in or knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. He has said that he and Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019, were once friendly but had a falling out.

But Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the emails, which they selected from thousands of pages of documents received by their panel, raised new questions about the relationship between the two men. In one of the messages, Mr. Epstein flatly asserted that Mr. Trump “knew about the girls,” many of whom were later found by investigators to have been underage. In another, Mr. Epstein pondered how to address questions from the news media about their relationship as Mr. Trump was becoming a national political figure.

However, House Democrats intentionally redacted the name of the “victim” in the Epstein emails they released. The unreacted version shows that the victim was Virginia Guiffre. According to Greg Price on Twitter, Guiffre had testified multiple times that President Trump did nothing and that she never even saw him at Epstein’s house.

H1B Visas

Donald Trump defended the H1B Visa program on Fox News last night, claiming that the US lacks certain types of “talented people.”

MAGA world is not handling this clip well.

But Trump never misses a chance to bash Biden:

🚨 The Consumer Debt Problem

More Americans than ever before are falling behind on their auto payments, according to new data from Bloomberg (paywall).

The share of subprime borrowers at least 60 days past due on their auto loans rose to 6.65% in October, the highest in data going back to 1994, according to Fitch Ratings.

As the average price of a new vehicle has surged past $50,000, a growing number of buyers are extending the terms of their loans to lower their monthly payments.

According to data from automotive research firm Edmunds, the average car loan now spans 69 months, and a record 22% of new loans stretch to 84 months. More concerning is that a record 20% of new vehicle loans are more than $1000 per month.

The data matches a report from NewsNation claiming that total household debt climbed to a record $18.6 trillion last quarter, with young people disproportionately impacted.

WSJ: Arrival of U.S.’s Largest Warship Ratchets Up Pressure on Venezuela

The U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier arrived in waters near Latin America on Tuesday, expanding the American military’s buildup as the Trump administration seeks to ratchet up the pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

President Trump has expressed reservations about taking military action against Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.But the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, with several destroyers equipped with Tomahawk missiles, will boost the U.S. military’s capability to attack targets in the country, including Venezuela’s air defenses.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the carrier strike group “will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations.” The strike group’s firepower, however, goes beyond what is required to strike the small boats that the Trump administration says are being used to smuggle drugs.

Full story at WSJ (free).

This is CNN

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Tweets that caught my eye:

Trending news:

• Bessent says “substantial” relief imminent on coffee, fruit prices - Axios

• Marriott guests left ‘homeless’ as rental company Sonder abruptly goes out of business, deal with hotel terminated - NY Post

• China’s EV Market Is Imploding - The Atlantic

• Chinese Developers’ Losses Mount, Assets Shrink - CAIX

• DR Congo suspends Chinese cobalt miner after chemical spill - SEMAFOR

• ‘The global data centre and AI build-out will be an extraordinary and sustained capital markets event’ - FT

• Chinese regulators force Apple to remove popular gay dating apps from local iOS store - CNBC

• A Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million and apologize over a raid on a small-town newspaper - AP

• Wendy’s To Close Hundreds Of US Restaurants - ZeroHedge

• Rich ‘sniper tourists’ allegedly paid $90K to shoot civilians — including kids — during ‘human safari’ trips to Sarajevo - NY Post

Market snapshot:

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