When the Senate voted against a January 6th commission back in 2021, we kept hearing from large chunks of the media and pundit class about how there would be no congressional January 6th investigation, even though it was obvious at the time that Speaker Nancy Pelosi would end up appointing a committee.

Once that committee was appointed, we kept hearing about how it would never subpoena anyone. When that proved false, we then started hearing about how it would never refer anyone for contempt. Then we had to hear about how it would never find any key cooperating witnesses, because Trump’s people would remain loyal to him “no matter what.” And when that proved false, we then had to hear about how the committee was supposedly going to run out of time to finish the job – as if the committee members were somehow too stupid to look at a calendar and figure out when the midterms were.

Now that the January 6th Committee has made criminal referrals today against Donald Trump and others, along with a lengthy report that would ensure their indictment even if the DOJ didn’t already have a grand jury in the process of indicting Trump for these kinds of crimes, it seems obvious in hindsight that we were always going to get to this point. And it was in fact obvious all along. The committee’s relentless approach was always going to chip away at the coverup, and get enough witnesses to talk about what Trump really did. There wasn’t going to be an outcome that was much different than the one we saw today.

But it is worth taking a moment to look back at just how incredibly wrong most of the media and pundit class was about the January 6th Committee, every step of the way, from start to finish. It’s also worth asking how much damage these doomsday pundits did to the January 6th Committee’s public standing, as they tried to chip away at the committee’s credibility every step of the way.

In the end, all the committee had to do was follow good old fashioned investigative techniques like targeting lower level witnesses first, and using their testimony to pressure higher level witnesses into giving their own accounts, eventually leaving the fingers all pointed at Trump himself. It takes a lot of time and work, but it’s the only way these things succeed.

In fact, the January 6th Committee succeeded specifically by not doing any of the things that the doomsday pundits demanded they do. The committee didn’t cut corners and rush the process. The committee didn’t target the highest level witnesses first. These would have been foolish mistakes. But the committee proved too smart and savvy to listen to the gibberish demands of the folks on Twitter who were only ever pandering to audiences’ sense of outrage. The committee got the job done by doing the job right.

The post How the January 6th Committee got the job done appeared first on Palmer Report.

Sam Bankman-Fried has decided to agree to be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday, just hours after the FTX founder’s lawyer told a Bahamas judge he was not ready to consent.

The about-face paves the way for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul to face charges in New York over accusations he stole billions from FTX customers to plug losses at Alameda Research, his hedge fund, before the exchange abruptly collapsed in November.

It was not immediately clear when Bankman-Fried would depart the Bahamas, where he was arrested on Dec. 12 per a U.S. extradition request. No further court date was set at the conclusion of Monday’s hearing.

His U.S.-based defense lawyer, Mark Cohen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bankman-Fried’s abrupt decision came after a tumultuous appearance on Monday morning before Magistrate Shaka Serville at a court in capital Nassau, following reports by Reuters and other outlets over the weekend that he had decided to reverse his decision to contest extradition.

At the hearing, his local criminal defense attorney, Jerone Roberts, told Serville initially that he did not know why Bankman-Fried was brought to court on Monday morning.

Following a recess, the lawyer said Bankman-Fried had seen an affidavit laying out the charges against him, but wanted to see the indictment filed against him last week in federal court in New York before consenting to extradition.

Serville said at the hearing that he could not take any action on Bankman-Fried’s extradition without the former billionaire’s consent.

“I can only be moved by Mr. Bankman-Fried, and he has not moved me,” Serville said.

Bankman-Fried was given the chance to speak to his U.S. counsel over the phone and then remanded back to the Caribbean nation’s Fox Hill prison. He departed the courthouse in a black van marked “Corrections,” carrying a manila folder containing papers, a Reuters witness said.

Franklyn Williams – the Bahamas’ deputy director of legal affairs, who is representing the United States in its push to extradite Bankman-Fried – called the day’s proceedings “incredible” and appeared frustrated by the delay.

The 30-year-old crypto mogul rode a boom in the value of bitcoin and other digital assets to become a billionaire several times over and an influential political donor in the United States, until FTX collapsed in early November after a wave of withdrawals. The exchange declared bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability.

During Monday’s hearing, Bankman-Fried wore a dark blue jacket and an untucked white shirt – a departure from the casual attire he had sported during frequent public appearances in the United States and while running FTX from a ritzy corner of Nassau.

He spoke only to greet Serville and to confirm he would speak with his U.S. counsel. At one point during the hearing, Bankman-Fried leaned back with his eyes closed and appeared to be awakened by a court official.

On Dec. 13, a day after his arrest, Bankman-Fried was taken to a Bahamas correctional facility. A 2021 U.S. State Department report of the facility said detainees faced rodents and a lack of toilets, though local authorities said conditions have since improved. At his Dec. 13 hearing, he referred to the night of his arrest as “hectic”. read more read more read more read more

After Monday’s hearing, his criminal defense lawyer in the Bahamas, Roberts, told the New York Times that his client had agreed to be voluntarily extradited and that he hoped Bankman-Fried would be back in court later this week.

“We as counsel will prepare the necessary documents to trigger the court,” the newspaper quoted Roberts as saying. “Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision.”

Roberts could not immediately be reached for comment.

Krystal Rolle, a lawyer who has represented Bankman-Fried on non-criminal matters in the Bahamas, also confirmed comments that Roberts had made earlier to local broadcaster Eyewitness News Bahamas that Bankman-Fried would voluntarily waive his right to an extradition hearing.

Related Galleries:

Six people, including the suspect, died and one person was wounded in a shooting at a high-rise condominium building near Toronto on Sunday when a 73-year-old gunman is alleged to have killed his neighbors before being shot dead by police.

Police said three of the victims were members of the condominium’s board. The suspect, Francesco Villi, had been involved in ongoing litigation with the board, according to Canadian media, citing court documents.

Police received a call about an active shooter in the Ontario city of Vaughan, a Toronto suburb, at about 7:20 p.m. ET on Sunday (0020 GMT on Monday), York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween told reporters.

MacSween said police fatally shot the suspect in a hallway of the 16-story building after he allegedly killed three men and two women. A 66-year-old woman is in hospital with serious injuries. The victims were shot in separate units on different floors, police said.

“Three victims were members of the condominium board but the motive for the shooting remains part of this very complicated and very fluid investigation which is still ongoing at this time,” he said.

Citing court documents, the Globe and Mail newspaper said there had been a years-long long history of confrontations between Villi and his neighbors. The newspaper said that a 2019 court order prohibited Villi from communicating with the condo board or condo employees.

In a Facebook video posted before the incident, an elderly man who identified himself as Villi and gave his address as the building where the shootings took place, spoke about his dispute with the condo’s board, saying they and court officials were conspiring against him and “working to destroy me”.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. A police spokesperson declined to comment on the video.

Authorities recovered a semi-automatic handgun that they believe was used in the shootings, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) told reporters.

SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette could not confirm whether the weapon was obtained legally.

The SIU said the suspect’s post-mortem examination was scheduled for Tuesday.

Canada has much stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians are allowed to own firearms providing they have a license. Restricted or prohibited firearms, like handguns, must also be registered.

“Everybody is horrified … to wake up to this news this morning, to hear it last night. People are just in absolute shock,” Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said on Monday.

Canada’s gun homicide rate is a fraction of the United States’ rate, 2020 data showed, but is still higher than other wealthy countries and has been rising. Handguns were the main weapon used in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has been trying to tackle gun violence through measures including a ban on the sale, purchase or transfer of handguns that took effect in October.

“To the families and friends of the victims of yesterday’s shooting in Vaughan: I’m keeping you in my thoughts,” Trudeau said on Twitter.

Related Galleries:

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Monday asked a judge to allow him to take a $1.3 million annual salary from the bankrupt parent company of his Infowars’ website.

Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, both went bankrupt in recent months as they owe families of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting a total of $1.5 billion in damages for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax. Jones has said he cannot pay those judgments, which came after back-to-back defamation trials in Texas and Connecticut.

Jones drew a $1.3 million salary from Free Speech Systems before its bankruptcy, and his attorney asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to restore his salary to that level at a hearing Monday.

Jones has been paid a reduced biweekly salary of $20,000 since his company filed for bankruptcy on July 29, just over a third of what he had been paid before, according to his court filing.

Free Speech System’s monthly revenue has dropped to $1.9 million from pre-bankruptcy levels of $6 million to $7 million, attorneys from the company said, adding that it currently has about $1.8 million in cash.

“We’ve really got to get back to that level of production to make this a profitable company and try to pay back our creditors,” Jones’ attorney Vickie Driver said.

Marty Brimmage, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, opposed Jones’ request for an increased salary.

Lopez said he is “open to increasing” Jones’ pay but did not have enough evidence to make a ruling yet.

Jones claimed for years that the 2012 killing of 20 students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was staged as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. He has since acknowledged the shooting occurred, but plaintiffs said Jones cashed in for years off his lies about the massacre and subjected them to harassment and stalking by his followers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart extolled ever-closer ties on Monday as Putin visited Minsk for the first time since 2019, hardly mentioning the war raging in nearby Ukraine at a joint news conference.

Russian forces used Belarus as a launch pad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in February, and there has been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.

Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev had said he believed the Minsk talks would address “further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground”.

But none of the journalists invited to speak asked Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko – who has repeatedly said his country will not be drawn into Ukraine – about the war.

They in turn devoted their answers to ever-closer economic, industrial and defense alignment between their two former Soviet states – already formally allied in a somewhat nebulous “Union” – and to the excitement of Sunday’s World Cup soccer final in Qatar.

Belarus’ political opposition, largely driven into jail, exile or silence, fears a creeping Russian annexation or “absorption” of its much smaller Slavic neighbor which, like Russia, has been hurt by sweeping Western economic sanctions.

Both Putin and Lukashenko dismissed the idea.

“Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone,” Putin said. “There is simply no expediency in this … It’s not a takeover, it’s a matter of policy alignment.”

Asked about this comment, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said it should be treated as the “height of irony”, given it was “coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment, right now, to violently absorb his other peaceful next door neighbor.”

He added that Washington would continue to watch very closely whether or not Belarus would provide additional support to Putin and would respond “appropriately” if it does.

Lukashenko, at one point calling Putin an “older brother”, praised Russia as a friend that had “held out its hand to us”, providing Belarus with oil and gas at discounted prices.

“Russia can manage without us, but we can’t (manage) without Russia,” he said.

Although Putin and Lukashenko have met numerous times this year, it was Putin’s first trip to Minsk since before the COVID pandemic and a wave of pro-democracy protests in 2020 that Lukashenko crushed with strong support from the Kremlin.

The perception that Lukashenko, a pariah in the West, depends on Putin for his survival had fanned fears in Kyiv that Putin would pressure him to join a fresh ground offensive and open a new front in Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhniy, told the Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring.

Moscow and Minsk have set up a joint military unit in Belarus and held numerous exercises. Three Russian warplanes and an airborne early warning and control aircraft were deployed to Belarus last week.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to Russian news agencies before the meeting, called suggestions that Moscow wanted to draw Minsk into the conflict “stupid and unfounded fabrications”.

The one-on-one meeting between Putin and Lukashenko followed a broader meeting that also included the countries’ foreign and defense ministers, among others.

Belarus’ veteran leader said there had been agreement on a new price for supplies of Russian gas, but declined to provide details before his government had discussed it.

He thanked Putin for fulfilling a promise to upgrade Belarus’ Russian-built military jets and supply Belarus with nuclear-capable Iskander-M tactical missile systems to defend itself against what he called the threat from the West.

“You’ve made a decisive and important step towards Belarus’ security,” he said.

Related Galleries:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors reached a verdict Monday at the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein.

Weinstein and lawyers for both sides are headed to the courtroom, where the verdict will be read.

Jurors got the case Dec. 2 and deliberated for nine days over a span of more than two weeks. After a monthlong trial, they had to make decisions on two rape counts and five other sexual assault counts against the 70-year-old former movie mogul.

The allegations involved four women and dated from 2005 to 2013.

If convicted on all counts, Weinstein could get a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.

Whatever the result, he won’t be walking free. He still has more than 20 years left on a New York prison sentence after a rape and sexual assault conviction there.

Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the accounts of the four women, each of whom gave dramatic and emotional testimony about the allegations.

Weinstein’s attorneys emphasized the shortage of physical evidence in the case, and asked jurors to set aside the emotional impact of the testimony to focus on the changes several of the women’s stories had gone through in their conversations with authorities.

Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.

The trial came just after the fifth anniversary of the blockbuster stories about Weinstein that made him a lightning rod for the #MeToo movement.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

___

For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

Gaston De Cardenas, File/AP Photo

• DeSantis proposed changes that would make it harder for teachers to join and remain in unions.
• He also proposed coupling that with higher teacher pay. 
• The proposal was part of his forthcoming “Freedom Blueprint” education plan. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida promised Monday to sign a bill into law that would increase teacher pay by a record amount — but he also wants to clamp down on teachers’ unions.  

The plan DeSantis outlined at a school board retreat in Orlando would have teachers send a check to their unions every month rather than automatically deduct the dues from their paychecks.

DeSantis’ latest so-called “Freedom Blueprint” proposal appears similar to a measure the Florida legislature considered in 2021 and 2022 that the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Florida Education Association, called “anti-freedom” and “anti-educator.”

“It puts big government between educators and their constitutionally guaranteed right to join in union to advocate for their students and profession,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said in 2021. 

Teachers’ unions have been one of the governor’s top foes, particularly starting in the fall of 2020 after they resisted his push to reopen schools during the pandemic, and after DeSantis banned mask mandates in the classroom.

Even Charlie Crist, a former congressman and DeSantis’ failed 2022 challenger, picked Miami-Dade’s teachers’ union boss, Karla Hernández-Mats, as his running mate. 

DeSantis’ plan would create a new hurdle for organized labor in Florida, whose “Right to Work” status is already enshrined in the state constitution. Under current law, Florida workers can opt out of joining a union, which in turn restricts unions from collecting dues from employees who benefit from negotiated worker protections. 

The anti-union bills the legislature considered in previous years would have extended not just to teachers but other public employees. Aside from gutting automatic deductions, they would have obligated workers to reaffirm their union membership annually, and obligated unions with fewer than half of workers in their ranks to recertify with the state. 

DeSantis is framing his plan on union dues as “paycheck protection” for teachers and said it would “be a more accurate reflection of who wants to be a part of this or not.” In his remarks, he coupled the union changes with what he called “the biggest increase” in teacher pay the state has ever done. 

“It’s more of a guarantee that the money is actually going to go to teachers,” he said at the retreat, “and not be frittered away by interest groups who get involved in the school system.”

The Florida Education Association told Insider that coupling the two proposals together wouldn’t be possible because the teacher pay would be in the state budget, whereas changes to unions would be a piece of legislation “though the governor may link them rhetorically.”

The governor’s budget will be due 30 days before the legislative session begins in April 2023.  

The governor’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said the office would share more details when they become available. 

Florida comes in at No. 48 in the nation for average teacher salaries, according to the National Education Association. State lawmakers and the governor gave teachers bonuses this past year and increased pay — though largely among new teachers, according to the Florida Education Association. 

DeSantis acknowledged during his speech that changes to union dues might emaciate the labor groups, but said if teachers aren’t paying dues then they should be decertified.

“You shouldn’t be able to continue as a zombie organization that doesn’t have the support of the people you’re supposedly negotiating for,” he said. 

The last two versions of the anti-union died in committee under opposition from Florida AFL-CIO and the Florida Education Association. GOP Sen. Kathleen Passidomo of Naples, who chaired the Rules Committee during the 2022 legislative session — and now holds even higher ranking as president of the Florida Senate — declined to take it up.

Passidomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment over whether she’d be receptive to the governor’s proposal. 

Florida voters reelected DeSantis by a historic 20-point margin in November, and also gave him a GOP supermajority in the state House and Senate. The Florida legislature was largely deferential to DeSantis’ priorities during his first term, and that trend is expected to continue after he is inaugurated a second time in Tallahassee on January 3, 2023. 

DeSantis is considered to be the most formidable challenger for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, should he choose to run. 

During the November elections DeSantis made reshaping school boards one of his top priorities, and said Monday that he would continue that fight into the election cycles ahead. Roughly 250 people were in the audience on Monday, including school board members DeSantis endorsed, as well as parent groups, the DeSantis campaign said. 

Jared Tye

• Jared Tye converted his long-term rental in Cross Roads, Texas, to an Airbnb in 2021.
• In 2021, his property made $62,000 with 181 nights booked, but revenue dropped over $5,000 in 2022.
• He talked to Insider about the increased competition he’s observing and his outlook for next year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jared Tye, 41, about his short-term-rental property in Cross Roads, Texas, a town about 45 miles north of Dallas. 

Tye’s four-bedroom house made him over $62,000 in revenue in 2021, but he has found it harder to stay booked at the same prices in 2022. He is just one of many hosts who have experienced a slowdown in bookings in 2022 as the number of Airbnbs has outpaced the growth in demand for travel to them. Tye provided booking documents to verify his nights booked and revenue. 

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

We already owned the house and had previously lived in it. When we moved out, rather than selling it, we just converted it to a long-term rental.

The house is on three acres in a rural area. The suburbs probably wouldn’t be the best way to put it — it’s a non-destination, non-vacation area.

Tenants would move out there to live in the country, and then after a year, they would want to go back to more suburban areas. It was turning over pretty much every year, and I was tired of dealing with that.

Tye’s four-bedroom property.

Jared Tye

We had a friend who had an Airbnb in McKinney, Texas — a suburban area outside of Dallas — and I thought about it and said, “Let’s try out the short-term-rental thing.” So far, it’s been about two years.

We’d probably get $3,500 a month as a 12-month rental. As a short-term rental this past year, it’s probably been a little over $5,000 a month.

2021 was probably our easiest year to book it. 2022 has been comparable with 2021, although we’re seeing a slowdown in new bookings. We’ve had an overall decline. This period last year, we were booked pretty far in advance, and now we probably have one vacant weekend every month.

[Editor’s note: According to documents provided by Tye, nights booked in 2022 were only seven less than 2021. But revenue numbers were down more than $5,000 from the previous year.]

Cross Roads, Texas, is a rural town more than 40 miles north of Dallas. The porch has the Texas state flag.

Jared Tye

Our bread and butter tends to be extended families uniting for a wedding or something in the area. What I find really interesting is that last year we didn’t really have competition on that house.

And what I’ve noticed this year is quite a few homes — even more expensive homes — have been coming up on the market.

Our nightly rate varies between $220 up to $400. If there’s a home that looks a lot fancier and it’s the same price as mine, I’m going to lower mine. I do it fairly often.

I adjust my prices depending on my booking levels. If I look at my schedule and I’ve got a vacancy 10 days out, I’ll go on there and search as if I were a guest and I’ll lower my price for that weekend to stand out. 

The living room of Tye’s Airbnb.

Jared Tye

I kind of scratch my head about the competition: Are they people buying $1.2 million homes to rent out for $300 a night, or are these people that perhaps bought these homes for themselves at the peak of the real-estate market to try to offset their buyer’s remorse?

I think there are a lot of owners who are stuck on getting a certain rate per night. They feel like if they get below that, they would be getting cheated. They’re really stubborn with their rates, and they may have a 50% vacancy rate because of that.

Clearly I don’t want to give the farm away, but at the same time, I’d much rather be flexible on my rates than not book.

Are you an Airbnb host whose bookings have slowed this year? Email reporter Jordan Pandy at jpandy@insider.com to share your story.

KCNA via REUTERS

• In October, North Korea claimed that it had launched an underwater ballistic missile from a lake.
• It may have been a stunt, but it reflects Pyongyang’s long history of subterranean activity.
• That underground focus is meant to hide North Korea’s military advances from the US and its allies.

North Korea’s recent missile tests could have borrowed from the plot of a James Bond film.

In October, North Korea claimed that it had launched an underwater ballistic missile from a lake. Photos released by North Korea appeared to show a missile rising from a lake or reservoir.

State media reported that North Korea leader Kim Jong Un was personally supervising a series of missile tests, including of a missile reportedly launched from an inland body of water in the northwestern part of the country.

The utility of an underwater-launched ICBM is questionable, but whether it was a test of an actual technology or a propaganda stunt, it is the latest in North Korea’s long obsession with hiding its weapons underground — or, in this case, under water.

Bruce Bennett, an expert on North Korea at the RAND Corporation think tank, believes that rather some kind of underwater missile silo, Pyongyang might actually have used a barge.

A missile launch from a North Korean lake in a photo released on October 10.

KCNA via REUTERS

“For a long time, North Korea has had a barge used for ballistic-missile test launches at sea when an appropriate submarine was not available and the North wanted to test a submarine-launched ballistic missile,” Bennett told Insider. “While we do not know for sure what the North did to launch a missile from a lake, I suspect that they built a similar barge and used it for the lake launch.”

An underwater missile launcher in an inland lake does offer advantages. It would complicate planning for any US and South Korean strike. The exact location of the launcher must be pinpointed and then the attacker “would need a warhead that could penetrate through the atmosphere and then into the water, which would be another difficult task,” Bennett said.

But the challenges of building an underwater missile base “would be a difficult and costly effort,” Bennett added. North Korea would have to build the site and a launcher and send a ship to lower the missile into it, all without being detected.

Maintenance would also be a nightmare. “The North would need to be able to make electrical and communications connections in the water and maintain the missile in the water, unless the North developed some procedure for pumping the silo dry,” Bennett said.

The entrance to an “intrusion tunnel” under the DMZ between South and North Korea in September 2006.

ERIC WISHART/AFP via Getty Images

Underwater missile sites may be a boondoggle and may not exist outside of North Korean propaganda, but Pyongyang has a history of underground projects, from subterranean factories for building missiles and nuclear bombs to tunnels under the Demilitarized Zone wide enough to send tanks to pop up behind South Korean lines.

The North Koreans have good reason for turning into moles. During the Korean War, UN forces used airpower to relentlessly pound North Korean troops, emplacements, and supply lines.

Should war erupt today, US and South Korean forces would hammer the North with precision-guided munitions, including huge bunker-buster bombs. While the North does have an enormous, if old, arsenal of Cold War-era artillery and tanks, it can’t win a straight-up firepower battle with its much more technologically advanced foes.

But what North Korea can do is dig … and dig.

Its artillery is concealed in caves, from which it emerges to fire and then ducks back under cover. Its ballistic missiles, perhaps armed with nuclear warheads, are protected inside mountain tunnels from which their mobile launchers can roll out and fire. Its nuclear weapons development and test sites are shielded behind thick rock.

A North Korean soldier outside a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May 2018.

News1-Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images

Add in tunnels for troops and civil defense and the nation of North Korea seems to be one big underground facility, or UGF, as the Pentagon calls them.

Their size and sophistication range from small tunnels only large enough for people or a few vehicles to large, complex UGFs for command and control, missiles, and other strategic assets, according to the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2021 report on North Korean military power.

Bennett suspects Pyongyang is bluffing about underwater missile bases: “We know from the past that the North will occasionally falsely claim some new capability, trying to appear to be more capable or less vulnerable than it really is.”

But such bluffing has worked before. North Korea — which is so poor and so isolated that its people have eaten grass to avoid starvation and its regime survives on peddling narcotics overseas and on cybertheft — continues to threaten its neighbors, vowing to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” with artillery and launching scores of missiles into nearby waters, including 23 on a single day in November.

One reason the Kim regime is still around, unlike despots in Iraq or Libya, is that the world doesn’t quite know how many weapons of mass destruction it has or where it keeps them. That makes an invasion or preemptive strike chancy, which is exactly what Pyongyang wants. It may be a crazy dictatorship, but it’s not totally irrational.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master’s in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Owen Hoffmann/Getty Images

• Real-estate agents Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes said luxury homebuyers want wellness perks at home.
• More than gyms and swimming pools, they’re seeking out extras like infrared saunas and plunge pools.
• On-demand perks like “spiritual concierges” and IV treatments are becoming more popular.

The sought-after self-care perks and extras that come with a house or condo were once limited to swimming pools and gyms. 

But today’s wellness-focused add-ons need to be comprehensive and on-demand, said Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes, the luxury real-estate brokers who run the top-producing team at New York-based brokerage Douglas Elliman, where they’ve sold $4 billion in real estate so far in 2022.

Eklund, who took a star-making turn playing an over-top-version of himself on Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Listing” reality show, and Gomes, who often appeared on the show, have had a big year. 

On top of selling a $70.5 million condo in New York, a $17 million mansion in the Hampton’s enclave of Sag Harbor, and a $17.5 million condo in Beverly Hills — to name a few — the duo just resigned to stay on with Douglas Elliman for five more years.

Speaking about the year ahead alongside Eklund Gomes Team CEO Julia Spillman, they said wellness perks remain at the top of the list of must-haves for luxury homebuyers of both condos and single-family residences. 

And while the more traditional self-care extras like pools, hot tubs, and home gyms are still desirable, perks like spiritual concierges and IV drips that can be accessed on-demand with a call, text, or email are really what buyers are turning towards now.

Wellness offerings now include on-call treatments and experiences

“Wellness is not necessarily a new trend,” Eklund said, “but it’s increasing in strength.” 

Self-care has moved beyond the basic amenities that serve physical wellness to include amenities that cater to mental and spiritual wellbeing, he added. 

Take the offerings at 40 Bleecker, a luxury 61-condo building in New York City’s Noho neighborhood, where prices started at $1.9 million for a one-bedroom and surpassed $10 million for a four-bedroom penthouse. (The Eklund-Gomes team sold and marketed the units for sale.) The building, which opened last year, offers its residents in-room cryotherapy and IV therapy in partnership with its retail tenant Clean Market. The treatments help residents snap back from long nights out or from intense workouts. 

Residents of 40 Bleecker, whose lobby is pictured here, have access to on-demand IV drips and cryotherapy.

Evan Jospeh

The duo also led the charge on selling Maverick, an 87-residence building in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood where currently available condos range from $1.49 million for a one-bedroom to $7.5 million for a three-bedroom with a terrace. The building offers a “spiritual concierge” who helps set residents up with practitioners of hypnotherapy, transcendental yoga, and leaders of other psychic experiences. 

Maverick’s spiritual concierge is available via text or phone call, and that ease-of-use is something that today’s buyer expects. Having these kinds of decentralized perks is both more affordable for homeowners and an easy way to get more out of less space, Eklund noted. “With the technology of our phones today, there’s so much you can do even if you can’t afford to build it into your home,” Eklund said. But, of course, having dedicated spaces for wellness is an added plus.

Gomes said he also sees clients prioritizing wellness experiences within their square footage. 

“An extra room to have a home gym is increasingly popular, even in cities like New York, where there’s not a lot of space,” he said. 

Even in Eklund’s own home in Beverly Hills, California, he has an infrared sauna and a cold plunge pool, though, he admitted, he’s “not the average buyer.”

“Life is a marathon, not a sprint, especially in this industry,” Eklund said. “The more you can invest in yourself, the better.”

The Eklund Gomes Team has big plans for the year ahead

The Eklund Gomes Team plans to grow, even as the real-estate market at large is slowing down. 

Eklund said they want to bring on 50 new agents as well as a national marketing director and an agent concierge, who will aid agents in everything from troubleshooting tech issues to answering questions about the biz.

The pool at Maverick Chelsea.

Williams NY

“We were never interested in size. It’s not about that,” Eklund said, “It’s about becoming the top team not only nationally, which we already are, but within each market and then moving up in price point, moving up in price per square foot, moving up in number of transactions.” 

In 2022 the Eklund Gomes Team expanded into Las Vegas, Nevada, putting it in 13 markets across the country including Texas, where they’re selling the Four Seasons Private Residences Lake Austin and Florida, where they’re selling the condos of Miami’s forthcoming Waldorf Astoria Residences. Now, it wants to hire up. 

“We’re looking to continue to grow our agent count in each of those cities and continue to boost our market share,” said Spillman.

Fans of Eklund’s television antics should rest assured that he’ll return to the spotlight soon enough. 

While he isn’t ready to disclose what he’s working on, he did offer this: “There’s more TV coming, and I’ll just leave it at that for us.”