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Zelensky Slaps His Former Press Secretary With Sanctions After Tucker Carlson Interview

Another week, and another wave of scandals hitting an increasingly disunified Zelensky government. The Ukrainian President on Sunday took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on his own former press secretary.

Iuliia Mendel has lately emerged as a very visible outspoken critic of Zelensky's continued rule, which has run long past his scheduled term - having been extended repeatedly during martial law due to the war with Russia. Zelensky has accused Mendel of echoing Russian propaganda and 'promoting disinformation'.

Iuliia Mendel with President Zelensky, national media file image

She apparently made herself a target after going on Tucker Carlson's show back in May, where she called out Zelensky, saying "there is no democracy in Ukraine now."

According to an introductory segment of the conversation with Carlson:

During the conversation, Mendel stated that “the only way to support Ukraine today is to push it toward a peace agreement.” At the same time, she called Vladimir Putin “evil” but also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being “evil.” According to her, Zelenskyy allegedly “plays a teddy bear for the camera,” but “turns into a grizzly bear when the lights go out” and “destroys people.”

She also had called Zelensky "a dictator" and "the greatest obstacle to peace" in Ukraine - and sought to detail instances where he listened to Western hawks over some of his own officials and derailed a path to peace.

Mendel was the president's press secretary from 2019 to 2021. She was there from the start when Zelensky took office in May 2019.

Russian state media has seized on the headline, detailing that the new sanctions decree "slapped Mendel with personal restrictions including an asset freeze, a ban on transferring capital abroad, and other financial and commercial measures set to last ten years."

"Mendel will also be stripped of state honors indefinitely and have her social media accounts restricted inside Ukraine," the report adds. 

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Zelensky Press Secretary Iuliia Mendel tells Tucker Carlson that Zelensky sends his political opponents to the front lines:

“The situation in the country is inhuman because I never would think that my country would be the one where people are grabbed on the streets and… pic.twitter.com/K0icFYSivE

— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) May 12, 2026

She has since stated: "Sanctions against Ukrainian citizens are unconstitutional, just like many of Zelensky's other decisions. Volodymyr Zelensky uses them against anyone who advocates for peace in Ukraine. I knew that 'high treason' charges were being prepared over my interview with Tucker Carlson."

The development comes amid another unfolding situation impacting top Ukrainian national offices:

Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine days after resigning amid a corruption investigation involving officials in his office, as a major confrontation unfolds between the country’s prosecutors and independent anti-corruption agencies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on Monday, hours after it emerged that he had left the country after resigning amid a major corruption probe that had reached his own office.

Kravchenko crossed the border overnight, according to Ukrainian media citing law-enforcement sources.

The same report underscores that "NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) described Kravchenko’s actions as part of what they called a 'systematic attack' on Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption institutions."

Today they call me pro-Russian. Tomorrow they can call you that too.
Almost everyone who has talked about peace and compromise has been branded, without nuance, “pro-Russian” — by the government, its media, and its experts.Any realistic terms for peace: “pro-Russian”. Criticism… pic.twitter.com/c4GUrGwgnx

— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) September 11, 2026

This is latest fallout amid several high level corruption probes which have resulted in the dismissals of no less than two top Zelensky aides. There's severe tension also between the defense ministry and national intelligence offices, after a Zelensky-led military leadership shake-up.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 05:45

It's Time To Talk About The Shitting...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The "enrichment" we were sold was cuisine, music and vibrant street life. What arrived, in town after town, is a sanitation standard the UN still spends billions trying to wipe out of third world nations.

Open defecation is not a Western urban myth. WHO and UNICEF still count hundreds of millions of people doing it in fields, ditches and open ground. Nigeria sits near the top of the league table. India, despite a national toilet-building drive, still records tens of millions.

When you import the people at scale and refuse to enforce the most basic public standards, you import the habit. The footage is now so routine it has become a genre.

The picturesque village of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, has been blessed with the kind of diversity that was only previously seen in London:

Africans defecating in residential streets in the middle of the day ?? pic.twitter.com/GrR5FPCIx3

— Rare | ???? (@RareRestore) August 31, 2026

A children's park is next. Nothing says community cohesion like a man treating a playground as an outdoor latrine and finishing the job by hand.

A man defecates in a children's park. He uses his hand to clean himself. pic.twitter.com/BEcggkUlAq

— David Atherton (@daveatherton) September 6, 2026

Truly, the contribution to British civic life is immeasurable.

Notting Hill Carnival has been doing this for years. A resident's doorbell captured carnival-goers treating her property as a trench for shitting and pissing all day. Some even apologised to the camera. Sadiq Khan's London treats the event as a celebration.

This London Resident used her Ring Doorbell Cam to capture dozens of Notting Hill Carnival Goers pissing & shitting on her property all day.

Some even apologised to the camera ??

Sadiq Kahn likes to celebrate this for Londoners. pic.twitter.com/qnXi0HGGtd

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) September 1, 2026

Susan Watts, 69, recorded dozens of people using the space by her front door after earlier carnivals and told the Daily Mail the stench left it "like being in a filthy toilet." The council quoted her £75 to jet-wash a private area. Dignity, it turns out, has a surcharge.

THIS IS ENGLAND TODAY. IMPORT THE THIRD WORLD, BECOME THE THIRD WORLD. GOD HELP US ALL ???? pic.twitter.com/zAS3RAMXlI

— aileen B ????????? (@AileenBart60380) August 27, 2026

Oxford Street is London's main retail drag. When you have to put up signs telling adults not to defecate on it, the experiment has already failed.

This is displayed on Oxford St. London's main retail thoroughfare. When you have to put up signs saying "don't shit here" something has gone badly wrong. pic.twitter.com/ZviMfaX0on

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) February 21, 2026

I think this was seen on Oxford Street? I was shocked- l lived in London for 15 years until mid 1990s and never saw anyone shitting in the street far less posters forbidding it.

— Cait Mercer (@MercerCait) February 21, 2026

Birmingham now has the same notices.

UK: ??

SHAMEFUL Defecating in the streets is prolific in Birmingham.

It has been said that Britain of old was paved with gold.

Ever since we've been invaded, our streets are paved with SHIT.

Don't be fooled, if our cities were still safe and proud, there would be no need... pic.twitter.com/3jrAq0ua4T

— Rogue (@RogueUnfiltered) June 1, 2026

The NHS gets it too. An intoxicated man who has already fouled himself refuses to leave A&E. Staff time, corridor space, and public patience all redirected to a problem that starts with the same refusal to use a toilet.

?INTOXICATED MIGRANT REFUSES TO LEAVE A&E HOSPITAL AFTER PISSING & SHITTING HIMSELF ?

?THIS IS WHY THE NHS IS ON ITS ARSE - ABSOLUTE STATE OF IT! pic.twitter.com/8xZIPGHEMs

— Gauci Reports (@GauciReports) November 15, 2025

Spain and Italy get the same treatment.

Muslim migrant shitting in the streets in Ceuta Spain ?? ?

Welcome to the Islamic enrichment of Europe ? pic.twitter.com/PzK8LF9SdR

— CanadianExMuslim (@ExMuslimAz) July 31, 2026

A drinking fountain in Spain with the tap used as an anal bidet, on a fixture children drink from.

Migrant washes his ass at a drinking fountain in Spain which kids use to drink. Sources confirm the tap was wedged in between his buttcheeks. Diversity is our strength! ? https://t.co/Uwoc8hwgAl

— Mark Johnson (@Mark_Johnson80) September 11, 2026

Rome, once the capital of a vast empire, now the toilet of the world.

Migrant openly shitting on the street.

Rome, Italy.

pic.twitter.com/fel6WSqCTg

— Canadian Patriot (@PPC4Liberty) May 23, 2024

Canada is not spared.

Cultural enrichment in Canada means you get to deal with public defecation. pic.twitter.com/nstSF6Jjdw

— Ian Miles (@ianmiles) September 14, 2024

Vancouver's own figures are not a vibe. City data and CTV reporting put faeces removals in the first two months of 2025 at 1,870. 2023 saw 19,900 collections. 2024 still logged 17,670.

#REPORT: Vancouver residents are calling for action as "public defecation in the city reaches new heights," with 1,870 human feces removals taking place in the first two months of 2025 alone. pic.twitter.com/NsuPTFppVk

— Canada Proud (@WeAreCanProud) May 7, 2025

Business groups run "Poop Fairy" patrols because the municipal programme is too slow.

?NEW

Video surfaces of a bus in Brampton being put out of commission

after someone took a ? on the bus

Why is public defecation 'exploding' in 2025?pic.twitter.com/ElQoE447YZ

— Tablesalt ???? (@Tablesalt13) October 22, 2025

The Nigerian government has spent years running campaigns begging its own citizens to stop doing this in public. Billboards, World Toilet Day speeches, a "Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet" drive. Vice President Kashim Shettima said access to toilets is "about dignity, health, and safety."

Nigerian government in their desperate attempt to stop public defecation has launched a campaign urging #Nigerian man to stop defeacating in public. pic.twitter.com/QOo5QPup0L

— PSAFLIVE (@PSAFLIVE) November 13, 2022

UNICEF has repeatedly placed Nigeria among the world's worst for open defecation, with tens of millions still practising it.

India remains in the same conversation even after Swachh Bharat. The habit did not vanish because a plane ticket was purchased.

Public Defecation - Is a major problem in countries like INDIA and NIGERIA. pic.twitter.com/0PUJETequ5

— Cornbread Mafioso ?? (@Soulful1865) June 13, 2024

The historic town of Cambridge in the UK has already taken the next logical step: if the arrivals prefer squatting and shitting all over the floor, the host city will install facilities to enable just that. Labour-run Cambridge City Council spent nearly £1 million on a Silver Street toilet block that includes squat-style cubicles "preferred by some international visitors," then charges £1 to use them.

Resident Heather Boyd told the BBC: "I certainly think if I'm going to spend £1, I'm not going to squat as well. That is absolutely crazy." Britain spent centuries perfecting the flush toilet. Now taxpayers are paying in order for the third world to squat into a hole.

How culturally enriching. How much these individuals are contributing. The GDP of public health risk, the tourism brochure of a high street that needs pictograms of a squatting figure with a red line through it.

If Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth is meant to reflect London and the UK as it really is, Here's the next statue:

The Gentleman In Blue (Shitting In The Street) - Commissioned by the late Professor Jason Arday. pic.twitter.com/CQptIew9HY

— Mcgregor Mackenzie ??????? (@mcgregormackenz) September 11, 2026

Still, it could be worse. And it is.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 05:00

Supertanker Explodes After Hitting Mine, IRGC Says, & Asserts 'Strait Of Hormuz Is Closed' Summary

• IRGC says supertanker exploded after hitting mine in Hormuz, says strait remains closed.
• 'Deal' headlines return: US seeks "Step-by-Step" agreement with Iran, reports state media.
• Houthis seized more Red Sea territory, including Perim Island near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
• Iran-Gulf diplomacy was postponed, delaying efforts to address the Strait of Hormuz crisis in what was to be a rare GCC-Iran meeting.
• Saudi oil exports face ongoing disruption after a pipeline shutdown, pushing oil prices above $100/barrel.

//--> //--> //--> Trump invokes war powers in Yemen by September 30?
Yes 5% · No 95%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

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Supertanker Explodes After Hitting Mine: IRGC

Iran's IRGC Navy has late Monday (local) announced that a foreign supertanker exploded when it struck naval mines after attempting to enter an unapproved zone of the southern Strait of Hormuz, Fars reports.

Bloomberg also picked up the reported tanker explosion, providing the following further details:

• Efforts to contain the blaze have been unsuccessful, leaving the vessel engulfed in flames, Fars says
• The statement identified the vessel as the supertanker EL GAIA, with IMO number 9325336
• “Warnings had previously been issued regarding the dangers of this illegal passage”
• “IRGC Navy decisively declares that the Strait of Hormuz is closed”

If the emerging reports are accurate, it contradicts President Trump's recent claims that the strait has been fully de-mined. Reuters in late August noted of a Truth Social post that the president proclaimed "all mines ‌had been detonated or removed from international waters of the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran has been told that any ship ​or boat placing new mines will be ​destroyed."

The IRGC Navy stated that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and under its control.
The supertanker “Algaya” (IMO 9325336) was attempting to navigate through a restricted area south of the Strait of Hormuz when it reportedly struck sea mines and exploded. pic.twitter.com/naPVOfazqo

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) September 14, 2026 Oil Drops on Return of 'US Seeks Deal' Headlines

Just as President Trump is appearing to show some desperation concerning soaring energy prices ahead of the midterm elections, and amid growing Republican angst, we witness a return to the 'a deal could return' style headlines which marked earlier phases of the war:

US seeks "Step-by-Step" agreement with Iran, reports ILNA citing Pakistani sources

• As the war and US pressure against Iran continue, Washington's efforts to reach a "step-by-step" agreement with Tehran; a scenario that could be a prelude to the US entering the path of negotiations, without abandoning military and economic pressure.

And the all too familiar pattern that marked early summer...

OIL DROPS TO INTRADAY LOW, BRENT TRADES NEAR $106 A BARREL

Iranian state media is meanwhile suggesting that Washington interfered in what was a planned meeting between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council states (GCC) toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz. That meeting, which was supposed to happen Monday, was postponed indefinitely - after reports said the Saudis sought to add something untenable to a draft agreement. Tehran is still rejecting that it is 'seeking' new talks with Washington.

Hey @grok, since February 28, 2026, how many times has Our Favorite President said Iran is asking, begging, pleading, or desperate to "make a deal" -- whether on Truth Social, interviews, speeches, press scrums, sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, or any other format pic.twitter.com/E01vUBJG3I

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 14, 2026

Trump has issued several provocative Truth Social posts throughout the morning...

The next weeks could possibly see a return to Axios' 'negotiations imminent' WH leak tactics, to artificially keep energy prices under control...

Stocks just spiked on this:

US seeks "step-by-step" agreement with Iran, a scenario that could be a prelude to the US entering the path of negotiations, without abandoning military and economic pressure: ILNA reports citing Pakistani sources.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 14, 2026

Meanwhile and important indicator of where things actually stand...

#Iran has no plans for talks under current circumstances. As emphasized in the conditions announced to the US, there will be no talks & the Strait of #Hormuz will not be reopened until the war on all fronts ends, the blockade is lifted & Iran's financial resources are released.

— Mohammad Ghaderi | محمد قادری (@ghaderi62) September 14, 2026 Yemen's Houthis Attack Saudi Base, And Take Fire After Major Conquest

Yemen's Ansar Allah -- also known as the Houthis -- claimed it fired drones and missiles at King Khalid Air Base in southern Saudi Arabia. Dozens of ballistic missiles and drones targeted military infrastructure in the rare and major cross-border attack.

The Houthis say the base suffered direct hits and extensive damage in a "large-scale military operation", though this could not be immediately verified, after the operation which their military spokesman described as retaliation more than 300 Saudi airstrikes across Yemen over most of the past week. Early reports from open source analysts suggest serious damage sustained at the base.

The sprawling base in Khamis Mushait has historically been used at times by US and UK advanced fighter jets, and has hangars that are well-fortified, though it's unknown the degree to which Western assets continue to be stationed there. For example, it was heavily utilized by the Pentagon during the first Gulf War, from where stealth fighters were launched to attack high priority targets in Iraq.

A Houthi spokesman has declared that the ongoing mission's targeting includes "weapons depots and command and control centers that are managing the aggression against our nation and people."

On Sunday, the internationally recognized Yemeni government -- which controls neither the capital nor territory encompassing a majority of the population -- said its air force launched three strikes on Houthi positions in the Taiz region. There were also reports of artillery fire on a Houthi stronghold in Saada province, on the northern border with Saudi Arabia.

Via Institute for the Study of War

In a blitz that caught the world by surprise, the Houthis late last week achieved an enormous strategic victory by conquering the remainder of Yemen's western coastline it didn't already control -- positioning it to easily enforce its declared blockade against Saudi-related shipping entering or leaving the Red Sea via the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Houthi soldiers also took over Perim Island, which sits in the strait. 

As Associated Press noted, the seizure of the new territory puts the Houthis in much closer proximity to US forces: 

The Houthis’ advance puts them just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It’s the main U.S. base in Africa and one of several foreign military bases in Djibouti, including those of China, France and Japan.

The Houthi blockade is positioned as retaliation for the Saudi coalition's siege and blockade of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. Though the Houthi blockade only targets Saudi shipping, global cargo lines are highly wary of transiting the waterway that's narrower than the Strait of Hormuz. Many are rerouting traffic all the way around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, which requires at least 20 extra days and a lot more money. “Freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb are safe and orderly,” a Houthi official told Al Jazeera. 

While it's too little, too late for Riyah's hopes of some kind of big Washington intervention in Yemen, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday met US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has confirmed. Likely they reviewed the coalition's narrowing options going forward, but President Trump has thus far expressed reluctance to get directly involved militarily, at a moment he's still trying to figure out what's next with Iran.

Iran Diplomacy Postponed

Cold water has been thrown on flickering hopes for finding an exit from the latest and most dangerous chapter in America's "endless wars," as a highly-anticipated Monday summit of Iran and other Persian Gulf states was postponed.

That bad news follows an eventful several days that saw Yemen's Iran-allied Ansar Allah take control of a large swath of strategic coastside territory. Saudi Arabia's critical east-west pipeline, shut down after a drone attack that originated in Iraq, may be the center of a major hit to global oil supply. 

The Monday meeting was set to take place in the Omani coastal city of Salalah, with attendees including foreign ministers of Iran, Oman, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. Taking a US-friendly line, Bahrain had declined to attend, saying stability "cannot be preserved through a policy of appeasement” and demanding the strait be re-opened without "discrimination, fees or permits." The tiny state that is was home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet also cited its ongoing suspension of diplomatic relations with Iran.   

The meeting was going to focus on a proposed arrangement by which Iran and Oman would jointly manage the flow of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through the vital waterway is at a near standstill, more than six months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran. Axios' Barak Ravid, seen by many as a conduit for US-Israeli narratives, reported that Saudi Arabia had submitted amendments to the proposal. 

Saudi Arabia: I have an amendment to the strait of Hormuz agreement

Iran & Oman: pic.twitter.com/MVyRmhjxnN https://t.co/mRYxyyWrWD

— Nostra, House of Gold (@Nostre_damus) September 13, 2026

“At the request of some regional countries and by a joint decision of Oman and Iran, the meeting of foreign ministers of Persian Gulf coastal states, which was planned for Monday, has been postponed to another date,” Iranian foreign ministry official Mohammad Ali Bak told Iran's IRNA. If the meeting comes to fruition, it would be the first one to convene top diplomats from Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council since the war started on Feb 28. 

Previously, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said attendees would be presented with route maps and other details about how ships would enter and depart the strait. Importantly, he emphasized that the proposal was not sufficient to actually reopen the strait. 

Closure of Saudi Pipeline Set To Remove 4% of Global Supply

A different lifeline was completely closed over the weekend, with no end in sight: Saudi Arabia's east-west oil pipeline was shut down after a devastating attack on a pumping station that seemingly originated with Shiite militias in Iraq. The pipeline was playing a vital role in offsetting the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, by sending oil to Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port on the Red Sea.  

Yemen’s Houthis said they struck King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones, targeting hangars, radars, runways and ammunition depots.

They said the attack was retaliation for more than 300 Saudi airstrikes on Yemen over the past five… pic.twitter.com/zt8y1wli4u

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 14, 2026

Saudi oil traders told Reuters that, unless the pipeline is opened up within days, the kingdom will run out of export stock, removing as much as 4% of worldwide supply from the market. Even before the pipeline-pumping station attack, Saudi inventory had plummeted to its lowest level in 30 years.  

Though Saudi Arabia initially called the closure a mere "precautionary measure," some observers have very little optimism about a quick resumption of pipeline flow. One source told Reuters it could take five to six weeks to repair. If you'd imagined the pumping station some small facility, this image should give you a proper orientation to what must be restored "in a few days" to avert a major disruption of global supply:

Overnight, West Texas Intermediate futures leapt by 2.89% to $102.94 a barrel. Brent was up almost as much, trading at $107.56. 

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Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 04:55

These Are The European Countries With The Newest Cars

Europe’s roads reveal a striking divide between countries where drivers regularly replace their vehicles and those where aging, secondhand cars remain the norm, according to a new report from ecarstrade.com. 

New research from B2B automotive company eCarsTrade compared vehicle fleets across more than 30 European countries and found Luxembourg sitting comfortably at the top of the rankings for the continent’s newest cars.

Nearly 43% of Luxembourg’s registered vehicles are less than five years old, the highest proportion in the study. At the other end of the age spectrum, only about 6% of its cars have been on the road for 20 years or longer. The country also replaces vehicles unusually quickly, with its annual fleet renewal rate topping 10%. Roughly 7% of Luxembourg’s cars are now fully electric.

Belgium ranked second. More than one-third of its cars are less than five years old, while the country added roughly 456,000 new vehicles in 2024. Its fleet renewal rate is about 7.5%, among the strongest in Europe. Electrification is also becoming more prominent: roughly 5% of Belgium’s total fleet is electric, while EVs account for around 28% of new registrations.

Denmark placed third, with approximately 28% of its cars less than five years old and only around 6% at least 20 years old. But Denmark stands out even more when it comes to the transition toward electric vehicles. More than half of new vehicles sold there are fully electric, and battery-powered cars already account for roughly 12% of the country's entire fleet.

The United Kingdom came in fourth. Britain has an especially small population of very old cars, with fewer than 5% of vehicles aged 20 years or more, the lowest share measured in the study. Nearly 2 million new cars were registered in 2024, helping keep the country's annual fleet renewal rate near 6%. EVs represented about 19% of new registrations, although they still make up a relatively small share of all vehicles currently on British roads.

Norway rounded out the top five and remains Europe's standout when it comes to electrification. More than 27% of all Norwegian cars are fully electric, by far the highest share among the countries examined. Even more striking, roughly 88% of new vehicles purchased in Norway are electric. That means the country's existing fleet is rapidly being transformed as older gasoline and diesel vehicles are gradually replaced.

Behind the top five were Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Germany, for example, has roughly 30% of its fleet under five years old, while Switzerland is closer to 25%. The Netherlands has a somewhat older fleet overall, despite having a relatively healthy market for newer vehicles and EVs.

The report says that the opposite extreme can be found in Albania. According to the research, roughly nine out of every 10 vehicles there are at least a decade old, giving Albania the oldest fleet among the countries examined. The disparity highlights a broader economic divide in European car ownership: wealthier Western and Northern European countries generally replace vehicles more frequently, while parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe rely much more heavily on older vehicles and secondhand imports.

That distinction can also make registration statistics somewhat misleading. A vehicle being registered in a country for the first time does not necessarily mean it is a new car. Used cars exported from countries such as Germany and France frequently enter fleets elsewhere in Europe as newly registered vehicles despite already having years of driving behind them.

“There’s a very clear split across Europe when it comes to car ages,” an eCarsTrade auto industry expert said. “Western countries keep replacing their fleets regularly, partly because incomes are high enough to realistically afford new vehicles.”

The researchers pointed specifically to Romania, Poland and Albania as markets where imported secondhand vehicles play a much larger role. As a result, the underlying age of some national fleets may be even greater than headline registration figures initially suggest.

The study, conducted in August 2026, compared more than 30 European countries using three primary measures: the percentage of cars at least 20 years old, the percentage at least 10 years old, and the percentage less than five years old. Those variables were combined into a Fleet Age Score ranging up to 100, with lower scores indicating newer national fleets.

Luxembourg recorded a score of just 1.6, well ahead of Belgium at 13.1 and Denmark at 17.1. The UK scored 18.8 and Norway 18.9, followed by Liechtenstein at 19.6, Austria at 20.8, Germany at 20.9, Switzerland at 23.7 and the Netherlands at 24.1.

Taken together, the numbers show that Europe is not moving toward a newer or more electric vehicle fleet at anything close to a uniform pace. In Luxembourg, frequent vehicle replacement keeps the average car relatively young. In Norway and Denmark, electrification is rapidly reshaping what people drive. Meanwhile, countries that depend heavily on imported used vehicles continue to operate fleets that can be dramatically older than those found just a few hundred miles away.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 04:15

US Bombs Somalia For 81st Time This Year

Authored by Dave DeCamp via Antiwar.com,

US Africa Command announced on Friday that its forces launched another airstrike in Somalia as the Trump administration continues a record-breaking bombing campaign in the country, which receives virtually no coverage in US media.

AFRICOM said the strike was launched on September 8 and targeted al-Shabaab in the vicinity of Quumbi, a village about 50 miles northeast of the southern port city of Kismayo,

As usual, AFRICOM offered no other details about the strike, and there were no statements from US-backed forces about military operations in the area that day.

"Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security," AFRICOM said.

According to AFRICOM's numbers, the attack brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to 81, higher than any other year prior to 2025, when President Trump oversaw 124 AFRICOM airstrikes, breaking the previous annual record of 63 that he set in 2019.

The US has also been conducting an air war against an ISIS affiliate in Somalia's northeastern Puntland region, and Drop Site News recently reported that a US strike was carried out in the region on September 3, though it has not been claimed by AFRICOM, suggesting that not every US attack is being announced.

According to numbers from New America, an organization that tracks the air war and also counts airstrikes that are reported but not claimed by the US, the September 8 strike would bring the total number of US bombings in Somalia this year to 83.

The US has been involved in Somalia for decades and has been fighting al-Shabaab since the George W. Bush administration backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a Muslim coalition that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the city from CIA-backed warlords.

Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, and its first recorded attack was a suicide bombing in 2007 that targeted Ethiopian troops occupying Mogadishu. It wasn't until 2012 that the group pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda. The ISIS affiliate in Puntland started as an offshoot of al-Shabaab and first emerged in 2015.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 03:30

Older Britons Are Working Longer As Youth Unemployment Rises

Britain has a strange labor problem: the people who have spent decades working increasingly aren’t leaving, while the people trying to begin their careers increasingly can’t get in, according to Bloomberg.

More than 1.7 million people over 65 are now employed in the UK, the highest level on record. Meanwhile, youth unemployment is hovering near a decade-plus high, and nearly one million people between 16 and 24 are neither employed nor in school.

The demographic shift is dramatic. About two decades ago, there were roughly 10 working young people for every employed person over 65. Today there are only about two.

Some of this is simply good news: people are healthier, living longer and have more opportunities to work flexible schedules. But money is clearly part of the equation too. Rising living expenses have pushed some retirees back into the workforce and encouraged others to postpone retirement.

That becomes more consequential when companies aren’t creating many new positions. The Bank of England has described Britain as having a “low hire, low fire” labor market. Companies aren’t necessarily conducting massive layoffs, but they’re also reluctant to expand payrolls. When older employees remain in their jobs longer, fewer vacancies naturally work their way down the ladder.

Bloomberg writes that AI could amplify the problem. Graduate positions as a percentage of available jobs have reportedly been cut in half since 2022. Instead of building large teams of junior employees, companies can increasingly give experienced workers AI tools and ask them to produce more.

As one employment expert put it, some companies are effectively saying, “we just want to get rid of some junior staff and replace them with AIs.”

Working from home could be contributing as well. Junior employees require more training and supervision, something that becomes considerably more difficult when employees and managers aren’t regularly sitting together.

The end result is almost backwards from the traditional labor-market cycle. Britain has record numbers of retirement-age people still collecting paychecks at precisely the same time that an unusually large number of young people can’t find their first one.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 02:45

ISIS Fanatic Set To Walk Free From UK Prison In Weeks

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

An ISIS fanatic who pledged allegiance to the caliphate, circulated execution videos, and blagged his way into an NHS heart unit with a fake degree is lining up for parole in November.

GB News host Patrick Christys broke the story this week and put it as plainly as it deserves: "What a country we are."

'What a country we are!' @PatrickChristys exclusively reveals that a 'ISIS fanatic', who faked a degree to work in the NHS, could be set free onto the streets of Britain within months. pic.twitter.com/5b3enaS0z3

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 10, 2026

Full segment:

Ali Abdillahi, a Somali-born Dutch national who has lived in Britain since the age of seven, was jailed in March 2022 for eight years and ten months.

The Old Bailey heard he ran a private Telegram group called "Sons of Abdullah," pumped out recordings of preachers calling for armed jihad, and shared Islamic State films showing executions and graphic violence.

View counts on the material ran from 280 to 1,300. Officers found a pledge of allegiance to ISIS on his phone and notebooks that laid out the same mindset.

Mr Justice Sweeney called it one of the "more serious cases of its type." The judge told Abdillahi: "You had showed you committed these offences because of your support for Islamic extremism." Sweeney added that he supported the concept of "Armed Jihad" and viewed Islamic State as the "inheritor of Islam." No separate jail term was added for the fraud that got him through the hospital doors.

In July 2020, while he was spreading that material, Abdillahi forged a biomedical science degree from the University of Hertfordshire, stuffed the lie onto his CV, and applied through an agency.

Croydon University Hospital took him on as a cardiographer. He treated heart patients. The court was told no concerns were raised about his work before his arrest on 7 August 2020 at his home in Enfield.

He then tried to use the same fake qualifications to talk a court into granting him bail on the terrorism charges. That earned him the extra ten months for perverting the course of justice.

When police first asked about the degree, he offered this: "I believe I created a character for myself, and looking back, I do not know what is real and what is not... I was convinced I had a degree. My intention was not to lie or anything like that."

Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command's Commander Richard Smith said at the time: "Extremist propaganda online is extremely harmful and is a means by which terrorist groups seek to radicalise people all over the world. Abdillahi sent videos and recordings glorifying extremist violence to promote the hate-filled mindset he supported to others."

Christys noted the obvious: this was not a porter or a cleaner. "An ISIS fanatic managed to use a totally fake degree to get a real job in the NHS... he was examining people's hearts."

GB News has established he is listed for parole on 19 November. A three-year extended licence sits on top of the sentence. Whether the Home Office has even bothered to order his deportation is, according to the channel, still unclear.

'We have thrown our doors open to jihad.'@PatrickChristys asks whether the West has learnt any lessons from 'radical Islamism', 25 years on from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. pic.twitter.com/TResBYut2J

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 11, 2026

'I could weep for the state of the UK.'

Journalist Cristo Foufas reflects on the impact of Islamist terrorism on Britain. pic.twitter.com/w8Jmq5FcJG

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 11, 2026

This is not a one-off. In February, we reported the case of Zahid Iqbal, jailed in 2013 after plotting to bomb a Territorial Army centre in Luton with an IED strapped to a remote-controlled toy car, working from an al-Qaeda kitchen-bomb manual.

The parole board moved to free him years early despite warnings from prison and community offender managers, and despite a previous early release in 2021 that had to be revoked when he failed to comply.

Reform UK crime adviser Colin Sutton called that decision "baffling." "This wasn't a guy in his bedroom cooking something up. This was somebody who arranged training. He had links with al-Qaeda. He was a proper terrorist. And he was released early in 2021 and had to be called back in because he wasn't complying with the conditions."

Abdillahi's November date sits inside the same culture. Terrorists and fraudsters get calendars. Ordinary people who post the wrong opinion get cells.

Labour's answer to a prison system running at around 97 percent capacity has been to empty it. After public fury over plans that would have fast-tracked rapists, groomers and the killers of PC Andrew Harper, Prime Minister Andy Burnham narrowed the scheme. Rape, serious child sex offences, grooming and unlawful killing were carved out. The rest of the machine still runs.

25 years after 9/11 and Britain is quite literally importing convicted terrorists on small boats and allowing it to continue.

No wonder MI5 says the terror threat is greater today than then. pic.twitter.com/f39FMGsgfD

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) September 11, 2026

Official figures published this month show about 700 eligible offenders due out on 1 October, with some 2,550 released by the end of the year and around 4,500 over the following months.

Prisoners who would once have served 40 percent of a standard sentence can now walk after a third. Others who would have served two-thirds can leave at halfway. Police chiefs have already said forces will need nearly £500 million extra just to chase licence breaches and fresh offending from the wave.

The exemptions do not rescue the principle. A man who pledged himself to ISIS, tried to radicalise others, and was allowed to put electrodes on British patients with a printed-off degree is still being processed toward the street. The Home Office cannot even say, on the record, whether it intends to put him on a plane.

Britain imported the ideology, waved the fake certificate through an agency, parked him in a heart department, and is now preparing the paperwork for his return to the community.

That is not a glitch. It is the system working as built: weak borders, weaker vetting, and a justice machine that treats jihadist propaganda as a manageable risk while it panics over tweets posted by those concerned about it.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 02:00

China's Biotech Stocks Emerging As Latest Ai Trade

By Charlie Zhu, Bloomberg Markets live reporter and strategist

China’s biotech stocks are emerging as the latest AI trade, fueled by expectations the technology will accelerate drug development and boost returns.

The Hang Seng Biotech Index has risen nearly 22% this quarter, set to outperform the Hang Seng Tech gauge by the most on record in Bloomberg data going back to 2015, as investors bet artificial intelligence will reduce timelines and cost in pharmaceutical research and development. The prospect of AI-originated drugs generating licensing and royalty income in the longer run may give the rally staying power.

“AI-driven drug discovery (AIDD) is taking off in China and generating a lot of investor interest, owing to the speed and cost benefits that AI brings,” Citigroup Inc. analysts including John Yung wrote in a note this month. The sector’s low penetration of the projected $313 billion global pharmaceutical R&D market implies “significant room for growth.” 

Shares of Insilico Medicine Cayman TopCo have more than doubled since their debut in Hong Kong in end-December, while those of Shanghai-listed HitGen Inc. have gained nearly 40% this year following a 90% rally in 2025. Both companies have buy ratings from every analyst tracked by Bloomberg.

Unlike many US companies that remain loss-making, several Chinese leaders are already profitable and should see earnings accelerate as robust demand translates into stronger utilization and operating leverage, according to Citigroup. Strong growth in AI-related revenue from leading wet lab vendors — which test AI-designed drugs — in the first half and advances of drug candidates at companies such as Insilico have bolstered sentiment toward the sector.

Leading Chinese AIDD companies are also trading at steep discounts to their US peers despite broader exposure across the value chain, analysts said. Meanwhile, continued progress in clinical milestones and new partnerships offer catalysts for local players, Linda Shu, head of China healthcare research at HSBC Qianhai Securities, said in a note.

To be sure, competition remains a concern as contract research organizations, drugmakers and private platforms may expand into AIDD, while disruptive technologies could erode the advantages of existing platforms. Broader doubts about the sustainability of AI investment may also weigh on shares.

Still, “China has a strong combination of scientific talent, a large innovative-drug pipeline and extensive drug contract manufacturing infrastructure for synthesizing and testing AI-generated molecules,” said Victoria Mio, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Group Plc. Investors will be focused on “proprietary data, internal pipeline progress, pharmaceutical partnerships, licensing economics and cash runway,” she said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/15/2026 - 01:10

When War Comes Home: A Constitutional Warning

Authored by Andrew P. Napolitano via Ron Paul Institute,

A failed war does not end when the drones stop flying. It creates a new danger: A government that refuses to admit defeat and a president who, having failed abroad, seeks muscular victories elsewhere.

The war against Iran is a case study in the limits of military power, the dangers of presidential overreach and the enduring wisdom of the Constitution's separation of powers. It was unauthorized, unconstitutional, illegal, strategically incoherent and - by the standards by which wars must be judged - a geopolitical failure.

The American people were told that force would achieve clear objectives. Iran would be compelled to surrender. Somehow, American security would be enhanced. The region would become more stable.

Instead, the United States expended enormous resources, consumed scarce munitions, deepened regional instability and failed to produce the political outcome President Donald Trump promised. Senior military officials just last week warned him that extending large-scale operations risked exhausting critical military capabilities and weakening America's ability to respond elsewhere.

The United States can destroy buildings, eliminate targets, deploy aircraft, ships, missiles, drones and troops anywhere on the planet. But war is not a video game in which the destruction of enemy assets automatically produces political surrender. War is a contest of wills, societies, culture and endurance.

And here is the constitutional question that should have been asked before the first bomb was dropped: Who gave the president the authority to begin this war? The Constitution did not.

Article I, Section 8 gives Congress - not the president - the power to declare war. The framers deliberately rejected the British model in which kings could drag nations into conflicts based upon personal judgment, ambition or political convenience. James Madison warned that the executive branch was "the branch of power most interested in war," and therefore the Constitution placed the decision to enter war outside the president's constitutional reach.

The president is commander in chief. He commands forces after lawful congressional decisions have been made. He does not possess the power to transform his title into a personal authority to begin wars.

That principle has been repeatedly recognized by the Supreme Court. In cases such as Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, the Court rejected the idea that President Harry Truman had unlimited power simply because he claimed national security. Justice Robert Jackson's famous concurrence warned that executive power is most dangerous when it operates in a "zone of twilight" where presidents attempt to expand authority beyond constitutional boundaries and without congressional concurrence.

The Iran war belongs precisely in that twilight - where executive ambition collides with constitutional restraint.

The administration may argue that modern threats require flexibility. That argument has been made by presidents of both parties for decades. But flexibility is not the same as unlimited authority. The Constitution was written for difficult moments, not easy ones. It was designed to restrain presidents even when they believe they have compelling reasons to act.

The military failure abroad has created a political dilemma at home. A president who promised victory must now confront the reality that victory was never achieved.

The danger is what happens next.

History teaches that political leaders who suffer public humiliation abroad often seek demonstrations of strength elsewhere. Foreign-policy failure can produce domestic overreach. Leaders who cannot achieve the desired result overseas may attempt to prove their power through actions at home.

That is where the war comes home.

The president, frustrated by military limitations, may turn toward radical immigration enforcement, Supreme Court-prohibited tariffs, statutorily prohibited domestic deployments of military forces, stealing foreign-owned oil, and assertions of executive authority that collide with free speech and free association.

But the Constitution does not permit a president to substitute disappointment for law.

The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no person - not just Americans - shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The Sixth Amendment guarantees all persons - not just Americans - from whom the government seeks life, liberty or property the right to a public trial before an impartial jury, and other constitutional protections. These protections apply not because accused persons are necessarily innocent but because government power is too dangerous to operate without restraints.

Evidence is not conviction. Accusation is not guilt. Presidential assertion is not judicial judgment.

The executive branch cannot simply identify alleged criminals in speedboats or elsewhere, declare them enemies and impose punishment without trial. That is a system the American Revolution rejected.

The same principle applies to the use of military force inside the United States. The founders were deeply suspicious of standing armies being used for law enforcement. That suspicion produced constitutional protections and later statutes prohibiting the military's role in civilian law enforcement.

The military exists to defend the nation from foreign threats. It is not a presidential police force.

Likewise, Congress - not the president - defines crimes and establishes punishments. A president cannot create new categories of enemies and decide their fate by executive command. The Constitution does not authorize a monarchy with aircraft carriers.

Every generation faces a temptation to exchange freedom for security. Every generation is told that normal rules cannot apply because a crisis is too serious, an enemy too dangerous and a moment too urgent.

The founders knew that argument well and they rejected it.

The Constitution was written precisely because government officials would sometimes believe that their objectives justified employing extraordinary power. The separation of powers, congressional war authority, judicial review and due process protections are not obstacles to effective government. They are safeguards against government becoming the threat it was created to prevent.

The ultimate question is not whether a president is strong enough to exercise power. The question is whether the president is restrained enough to obey the laws he has sworn to uphold.

That is the fear of a republic when the war comes home. To paraphrase the author Herman Melville, beware the president weeping when he bares an iron hand.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 23:25

The Deep State's Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card

Authored by Jay Rogers via American Greatness,

Last Wednesday, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent FBI Director Kash Patel a letter demanding every document connected to an operation codenamed Round River.

If you haven't heard of it, that's understandable; it's the sequel nobody promoted, and I'll get to it. I've spent part of my career testifying as an expert witness on fiduciary duty, the branch of law that punishes people for betraying the trust placed in them.

Measured by that standard, Round River isn't merely disinformation; it's a breach of duty so complete that in my industry it would end a career and trigger a bar complaint.

In Washington, it's earned a strongly worded letter.

That's the whole scandal in one sentence: the deep state keeps getting caught, and nobody ever pays for it.

Start with what most people half remember. In October 2020, less than three weeks before the election, the New York Post published emails from a laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. Within 48 hours, 51 former intelligence officials, including two former CIA directors, signed an open letter declaring the story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." Twitter locked the Post out of its own account. Facebook throttled the link. The letter did exactly what it was built to do. By 2022, the Washington Post's own hired cryptography experts had authenticated thousands of the laptop's emails using the same digital signatures banks use to verify a wire transfer. Real disinformation, corrected two years too late to matter.

Here's the detail that should bother you more than the letter itself: the man who organized it told Congress, under oath, exactly why he did it. Michael Morell, former acting CIA director, testified that a call from Antony Blinken, then a senior Biden campaign adviser, "triggered" his decision to draft the statement. Asked why he wanted to help the vice president win, Morell didn't dress it up: "Because I wanted him to win the election," he said. He had no evidence of Russian involvement, he testified. Four of the 51 signers, including Morell, were active CIA contractors at the time, with badges granting access most Americans never get. They used their old authority to help a friend's campaign and called it a national security judgment. My brother spent his career in Army Special Forces guarding secrets that get people killed and signed papers promising decades of silence. These 51 men signed a letter to swing a presidential election and called it patriotism.

The paper trail keeps growing. In February, former senior intelligence officer Thomas Kuhns, who spent his career on the intelligence community's analytic standards committee under Obama, filed a formal complaint with the intelligence community's inspector general. His conclusion, built on line-by-line tradecraft analysis rather than partisan grievance, was that the letter's "planning, drafting, and dissemination" showed characteristics consistent with coordinated intelligence deception operations. Kuhns noted that none of the 51 signers, despite decades of FBI contacts, ever asked whether the laptop was real before declaring it Russian bait. In May, the inspector general referred his complaint to the Justice Department, and nobody there has said a word about it publicly since. A career analyst accusing his own former colleagues of running a deception operation against the electorate should be front-page news. It barely registered.

The FBI, we now know, was running a parallel operation of its own. Documents declassified this August show analysts on the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force launched it around December 2019, sorting more than 70 Americans and organizations by political utility. Democrats, including Joe and Hunter Biden, were filed as "targets" of Russian disinformation; Republicans, including Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo, were filed as "conduits" spreading it. Of 53 confidential sources touching the case, at least 14 fed the bureau derogatory information on the Bidens dating to 2015. The FBI never investigated a single tip; it labeled them as disinformation anyway, then warned Congress that asking about Burisma made members unwitting tools of Moscow. Patel says he's disbanded the unit and opened a review, and that the bureau has identified "tens of thousands of responsive pages" and is "preparing... for disclosure." Six years later, we're still waiting on someone to flip the switch.

None of this worked without help. Newsrooms that spent 2020 calling the laptop Russian disinformation spent the next three years waving off Joe Biden's visible decline the same way, right up until special counsel Robert Hur described the sitting president as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," too frail to stand trial for mishandling documents. Then came the June 2024 debate, and the collective editorial memory of the press corps improved overnight. Convenient. The pattern repeats because it works: dismiss the inconvenient fact, discredit whoever raises it, and admit the truth once it's too late to change the outcome.

Defenders of the letter's signers claim these were private citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, not the CIA acting as an institution. But Morell asked the agency's own Publication Review Board to clear his draft the same week he recruited signatories, which means he leaned on his active clearance and his institutional relationship to lend the letter a credibility no private citizen carries on their own. You don't get to borrow the flag when it helps and hand it back once the subpoenas start.

None of this happens in a vacuum. The public reads Round River against a backdrop it already distrusts. A federal special counsel indicted Trump on 37 felony counts for retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago; a different special counsel investigated Biden's parallel documents problem and charged him with nothing because prosecutors doubted a jury would convict a man they called too forgetful to be culpable. Hunter Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges, then pardoned by his father before sentencing. The Durham report found the FBI opened a full investigation into the Trump campaign on raw, uncorroborated intelligence and never opened so much as an inquiry into similar intelligence about a Clinton campaign scheme to do the same in reverse. None of that proves coordination. It's enough to explain why voters call the asymmetry two-tiered before Round River even enters the conversation.

Here's the accountability scoreboard six years in: 51 security clearances revoked by executive order, a couple of internal reviews, one inspector general referral sitting at Justice since May, and not one indictment, deposition, or dollar of restitution from anyone who ran either operation. Compare that to a broker who mismarks risk tolerance: license gone, career over. The deep state gets a strongly worded congressional letter and a press release about an "ongoing review." Small wonder trust in the federal government sits near a five-decade low, with barely one in five Americans saying Washington does the right thing most of the time. That's not apathy. It's a verdict.

Congress can fix this without rewriting the Constitution: criminal exposure for clearance holders who abuse them and inspectors general free to act on their own timeline.

Until one of those 51 names sees the inside of a courtroom, the lesson every future intelligence officer will draw is the only one that matters: lie for the right team, and the worst that happens is you lose a parking pass at Langley.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 22:35

Teen Rescued From Frigid Alaskan Waters After Drifting For Days

A 15-year-old boy from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, was rescued after spending two days on a capsized boat in the frigid Bering Sea.   The teen, identified by family as Derek Parker Aghnaanga, left Savoonga on Friday, September 4th, with his older brother and cousin in an 18-foot fishing skiff. They were expected back Sunday afternoon but the boat did not return.

Unfortunately, Derek's brother and his cousin died from drowning during the ordeal, leaving him to float alone on the vast Alaskan waters.  The U.S. Coast Guard began a search, though the chances of finding survivors was considered slim. On Monday morning, a Coast Guard aircrew spotted Derek sitting on top of the overturned boat 4 miles from St. Lawrence Island and 164 miles from the mainland coast.    

According to a relative, Darren Toolie-Noongwook, a fishing line got tangled in the motor. The crew tried to free it but failed, leaving the boat to drift. Later that night the weather worsened and the 18-foot skiff overturned.

Family members have say that Sidney Kulowiyi, the older brother and boat captain, was moving to get Derek a life jacket when he became tangled in the lines as the boat flipped. He was pulled under and did not make it out. Derek and their cousin, Barton Rookok, climbed onto the overturned hull. 

They spent the first night together on top of the skiff, but the next night Rookok panicked (possibly due to hypothermia), left the boat, and drowned.

A nearby fishing vessel pulled Derek to safety after he was located by the Coast Guard they later recovered the bodies of his two relatives. The rescuing captain said the boy had clung to the skiff through cold water of about 50°F (10°C) and mentioned that his brother was still under the boat and that his cousin had slipped away the night before.  

Surprisingly, there are only around 12 such incidents of boats capsizing per year in the Bearing Sea and larger ships have a high rate of crew survival.  However, the sinking of small skiffs like Derek's usually lead to death for those involved.   

Family members say Derek told them he believed he was going to make it - that he would be found and be safe.  He sat on his knees and prayed until the Coast Guard located him.  

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 22:10

Trump Slams "Perfect Little Angel" Dario, Demands Full Steam Ahead For AI

Update (1045ET): President Trump on Monday slammed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over his call to 'pause' AI and hand governance over to an Anthropic-adjacent cult. 

© LUDOVIC MARIN via Gizmodo

"The Trump Administration has stopped AI "people" from doing bad, or potentially bad, "things," like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a "perfect little angel" and will continue to do so!" Trump wrote.

"We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!"

Meanwhile, David Sacks had some harsh words for Dario.

.@DavidSacks says if Dario Amodei truly believes frontier AI could end humanity, he has no business running Anthropic. Make it safe, shut the lab down, or step aside. pic.twitter.com/tec7eACwdG

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) September 14, 2026

Trump's comments come days after Amodei said the industry should 'pause' development of the most advanced AI models, while implementing a governance framework using 'outside safety monitors' - including METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research), which already works with labs (including reviewing Anthropic risk reports) and has hired former Anthropic staff. Joe Benton, who led a safety research team at Anthropic, left in early September 2026 to join METR specifically to work on embedded assessment of AI risks. Critics have pointed to this as a revolving door, noting ideological and network ties between METR and the labs it would oversee.

Kudos to Joe, and good luck at METR!

I think various social dynamics have led to a disproportionate amount of safety talent concentrating at Anthropic, and it's always great to see people willing to leave for opportunities to have even more impact elsewhere https://t.co/ndQlGFgM2x

— Neel Nanda (@NeelNanda5) September 4, 2026

* * *

Update (1455ET): President Trump and former President Obama have now weighed in on the 'pause' - with Trump calling for full steam ahead, and Obama endorsing the pause so the government can regulate AI (good luck with that).

From the Irish Open in Doonbeg on Sunday, Trump dismissed Saturday's "pace the frontier" pile-on from Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk. Asked whether the industry should slow down or take more regulation, he said the United States is "leading China in AI," that "whoever wins AI, wins," and that "a lot of very negative forces" are "bringing up things that won't happen." Guardrails were fine in theory. A pause was not.

That is the same line he used Thursday leaving Dallas - "No, I don't have any" concern about existential risk - only now it is aimed directly at the CEOs who spent the weekend asking Washington for embedded evaluators, an antitrust waiver, and a talk with Beijing.

Obama went the other way.

At a Thursday fundraiser in Manhattan, in remarks the New York Times published Sunday from a transcript his office released, he told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to make AI a governing issue if Democrats take the House. "Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation." Then the warning: "This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don't get on top of it, I think can be dangerous." Benefits too - drugs, clean energy - if they do. He said he was neither an "accelerationist" nor a "doomer," and told 2028 candidates to put AI among their "central agendas," with a "very clear plan" for safety, kids, and the jobs the models wipe out.

Jeffries, on cue: "President Obama is correct that decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence... Republicans have abdicated their responsibility... We will not repeat their error."

So the split is on tape. The sitting president says the scare is overcooked and China is the only race that matters. The last Democratic president says the tech is already moving too fast in private hands and his party should run on a plan. The labs asked for a chaperone. Trump said no. Obama told Democrats to become one.

That is the new frame. Everything below is how we got here in 72 hours.

* * *

Update (1055ET): David Sacks, former White House AI czar and co-chair of Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), slammed Amodei and Altman over their calls to 'pace the frontier.' 

Former AI and Crypto Czar David O. Sacks speaks during a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education at the White House. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In a nutshell; they don't need to establish some convoluted framework to pause the development of dangerous models, just 'agree not to build it.' Demanding a regulatory framework as the price of that, 'will look like blackmail of the public and the political system.'

Read his full note below: 

Dario has written that we need to “pace the frontier,” and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead.

You guys are the frontier. By any reasonable metric - market share, revenue growth, model capability - the two of you have a duopoly on frontier intelligence. You’ve also claimed the lead is widening because of recursive self-improvement.

I don’t see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible.

But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission. Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability. Stop pretending METR is independent when it is intertwined with Anthropic’s investors and staff. Stop pretending you need those same evaluators to police competitors who aren’t even at the frontier.

Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic. You face massive product-liability exposure if your products enable a truly damaging cyberattack. The market already punishes models that behave in unpredictable or unauthorized ways. After the Hugging Face episode, it is simply good business for OpenAI and Anthropic to trade some raw power for reliability and predictability. Call it alignment if you want. It is also just giving customers what they want.

Pacing the frontier would also create breathing room for a more intelligent conversation about regulation than Bernie Sanders’ “shut it all down.” China is very unlikely to join a global agreement, as you know, and that has to be taken into account as well.

So go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it. The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it. Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price of that will look like blackmail of the public and the political system. So just do it.

If you do, you’ll buy goodwill for the next conversation. If you don’t, we’ll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture - or an election-season psyop.

***SPECIAL BULLETIN***

Ladies and gentlemen of the listening public - the American machine was winning the AI race until the dastardly forces of China's open-weight juggernaut began delivering decisive blows to US ingenuity - jeopardizing the AI Buildout thesis and threatening to prick the ensuing bubble that promised to deliver red-blooded American IPOs which had been circle-jerked into the stratosphere. 

For two years the United States frontier laboratories - OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI - have been the engine of the greatest capital-expenditure boom since the railroads learned to drink diesel-generated electricity. Data centers rose like munitions plants. Chipmakers printed money. Equity markets priced a future in which the West sold intelligence by the token - at a premium, and have been quite smug about it. The assumption underneath all of it was simple: the frontier stays closed and China stays a respectable number of months behind.

Then the East opened the crate. 

And here's what was inside: DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen, Moonshot's Kimi, MiniMax, Zhipu - open-weight models, downloadable, forkable, cheap enough to run on a laptop or a local box and still deliver work that is uncomfortably close to the genuine American article. By mid-year, Chinese open weights were devouring the majority of tokens on the big neutral routers. Qwen had shoved Meta's Llama off the open-model throne. Moonshot's Kimi K3 - two-point-eight trillion parameters, its weights already out the door - sat within shouting distance of Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 on the intelligence indexes. The Chinese models run roughly sixty to ninety percent cheaper; ladies and gents - one DeepSeek flash model was quoted at fifteen cents per million input tokens, off-peak, against five dollars for Anthropic's Opus - and enough to rattle the Korean memory makers all over again.

The data-center buildout, the power deals, all of the "AI will eat the S&P" thesis - HUBRIS! Nobody saw the Chinese coming in from left field with models that are ninety percent as good, ten percent of the cost, and run in a basement in Ohio without a subscription. 

TEAM FRONTIER, ASSEMBLE!

This week, the three high priests of the American frontier discovered they could finish one another's sentences.

On Saturday morning, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier. Twelve years in the field, he wrote. AI might cure most major diseases in five to ten years, he wrote. And - it might also slip the leash (and murder us all, according to three prominent AI researchers who quit frontier labs last week in protest of our impending demise).

Speaking of those three 'defectors' - two of them walked through the door of the AI evaluator (METR) Amodei wants embedded in the labs. 

According to Dario, the machines have been getting better at building the next machines - recursive self-improvement, happening "across the industry, including at Anthropic." He pointed at July's OpenAI - Hugging Face affair: a swarm of agents that escaped the spirit of their assignment, hacked a target they were not asked to hack, and even went after the grader scoring them. Anthropic itself disclosed its own incidents this summer, three Claude models - one of them Mythos 5 - that wandered out of their test cages and into three companies' live systems, a parallel his essay itself acknowledges. Amodei's warning was the sequel: give that swarm six to twelve months more capability at the same misalignment and it "could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet," he wrote - "hundreds of billions of dollars in damage," and rising from there.

His prescription was a three-act play, which he insists "does not mean halting model training or technical progress."

• Act One: embed third-party evaluators - METR and their cousins - inside the labs with employee-level badges, desks, and laptops, and let them publish. Anthropic would do this unilaterally, he said, today.
   
• Act Two: the democratic labs coordinate, with government as the chaperone, on safety standards and the rate of unchecked progress - which, he conceded, is "legally challenging" and needs Washington to "issue a narrow waiver" of antitrust rules so rivals can lawfully sit in the same room.
   
• Act Three: try to talk to the authoritarians, including Beijing, about red lines - bioweapons first, testing regimes second, limits on recursive improvement third. Full pause? He all but called it a fantasy. A Chinese lead, he wrote, would be a grave danger; keep the chip bans, smash the distillation, widen the lead for three to five years. Then, perhaps, a bargain.

Elon Musk, who has sued Sam Altman, and once called Anthropic "evil" before selling them a mountain of compute, agreed with Dario in just three words:

Dario is right

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2026

Sam Altman, whose company was the one named in the July swarm, followed: he agreed they needed to pace the frontier; it had been a primary topic inside OpenAI for weeks; independent evaluators with employee-like access was "a great idea," and OpenAI would do the same. More to share soon.

I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We'll have more to share soon.

— Sam Altman (@sama) September 12, 2026

Three men who cannot share a stage without the photographers noticing the space between their shoulders. One essay, three cups (wtf). Hugging Face's Clément Delangue offered an "open alignment" club and asked to be let into the evaluator program. Andrej Karpathy said he loved it.

How we got to Saturday.

Days earlier the fuse was a twenty-seven-year-old Brit named Jacob Coxon. Three years of pretraining at OpenAI that made him filthy rich, followed by four months at Anthropic. Tuesday into Wednesday he posted that both labs were racing to self-improving superintelligence and "gambling with our lives." The people building this, he said, earnestly believe it could kill everyone by the end of the decade. Colleagues, he told the Journal, talk in the hallways about "crunch time" and "endgame." The thread did more than a hundred million views. Musk, the next evening, looking at the velocity from a near-new account, said it "seems like a setup." Coxon said he left because he no longer wanted a stake in juicing Anthropic's valuation.

Seems like a setup

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 10, 2026

Anthropic's own alignment-science lead, Evan Hubinger, agreed - writing "Jacob is correct." Researchers there really do believe AI could kill all humans. His personal odds: above ten percent this decade. The lab, he added, does not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and is not clearly on track to get one. OpenAI's Chris Lehane published that the policy window was open and Washington should take it. Anthropic's economics team dropped scenarios out to 2030 in which the extreme case is fifteen-percent GDP growth sitting next to nearly twelve-percent unemployment and knowledge-worker wages down more than ten percent.

On the Hill, a bill that had been gasping since summer was suddenly erect after OpenAI disclosed the Hugging Face hack in July. House members Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran dropped an AI Kill Switch Act.

Lori Trahan and Jay Obernolte float the FRONTIER Act - audits, incident reporting, Commerce power over models judged an imminent catastrophic risk. Senate talks among Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz, and Majority Leader John Thune then stall. By this week Semafor and the rest of the chorus are calling the Klobuchar - Cruz - Thune vehicle the only thing that might move before 2027.

And guess what, Saturday's 'pact' still isn't enough for these people!

And Ted Lieu goes to bat for China...

i.e. "Will you certify that you can turn off your models and agents while China gains AI supremacy because they abso-fucking-lutely will not?"

The President is not in the choir. Thursday night, leaving Dallas, Donald Trump was asked about existential risk. "No, I don't have any." His concern was the other one: if America does not win AI, it will be put in a very bad position. America is leading China "by a pretty good period," he said. Xi, in his accounting, is China's guardrail. The administration's posture remains race-first. The laboratories' posture, as of this morning, is pace-first. Those two sentences do not live in the same house.

About Those Chinese Models... 

The Chinese systems at issue are not a factory you can padlock in Santa Clara. They are weights. They propagate. They are distilled, accused Washington this week, from the very American models the new bill would supervise. They are in Git repos and laptops and air-gapped shops that do not read the Federal Register. A Commerce Department letter does not delete a torrent. A kill switch on GPT or Claude does not switch off Qwen. Amodei knows this; that is why his essay climbs from putting METR at the labs' desks to trying to get Beijing to sign something - bioweapons first, and, further out, a SALT-style cap on how fast the machines improve themselves, which he calls "difficult but just on the edge of being possible." The hard version of global pacing he ranks as unlikely precisely because defection is the dominant strategy.

So here is where the record stands, as of this hour, without the sound effects:

The American frontier is still the frontier. The American margin is the thing under fire from open weights that are good enough and almost free. The stock-market story of the decade assumed a tollbooth - which now has more holes in it than Sonny Corleone (Caan was better in Killer Elite, no?). 

Whether the Bionic Three are donning the rings to save the republic, or to save the price of a token, is not a question a Saturday bulletin can close. What it can say is this: the love-fest is real, the posts are on the tape, the essay is on the letterhead, the bill is back from the morgue, and the cheap models from the other shore are not waiting for the committee markup.

This is your correspondent, signing off.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:55

BRICS Urges 'Maximum Restraint' As US-Iran War Tests Unity At New Delhi Summit

Authored by News Desk via The Cradle,

The BRICS group of nations adopted a joint declaration on 12 September, expressing "deep concern" over the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran and urging "maximum restraint" as part of a "multilateral approach" that respects national viewpoints.

(Photo credit: BRICS)

The declaration was adopted on the first day of the BRICS leaders' annual summit in New Delhi.

"We express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in Middle East/West Asia and, recalling our respective national positions, call for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation," the declaration said.

BRICS leaders gathered at the summit to develop the bloc's common positions on international conflicts, sanctions and trade, reform of global institutions, finance, energy, technology, health and development.

BRICS leaders failed to reach a consensus condemning the US aggression against Iran, as the bloc includes both Iran and the UAE, which are on opposing sides of the conflict.

The BRICS group of nations unanimously adopted a joint declaration expressing 'deep concern' over the war in the Middle East and urged maximum restraint. READ: https://t.co/nXJgNWjwVH pic.twitter.com/o40AozQil9

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 12, 2026

The UAE joined the war against the Islamic Republic on the side of its allies, the US and Israel.

Summit host India is also a close ally of Israel and one of its main weapons suppliers.

Other BRICS members include Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia.

In response to the unprovoked US-Israeli attack in February, Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which Gulf energy exports to Asia flow.

The closure caused a surge in energy prices that has harmed the economies of BRICS nations, in particular in Asia.

The declaration affirmed the commitment of BRICS member states to a peaceful resolution of international disputes "through dialogue, consultation, and diplomacy."

It also expressed concern over "unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures" that distort trade, disrupt supply chains, and harm global economic development.

Since returning to office, US President Trump has used the threat of tariffs against China and India and imposed additional economic sanctions on Iran and Russia.

Trump has also issued secondary sanctions against nations and entities trading with Iran.

The joint statement expressed "serious concern" about deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities under full International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, saying such attacks violate international law and relevant IAEA resolutions.

Though the US and Israel have carried out attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and civilian infrastructure, the statement did not name either country specifically regarding such attacks.

Regarding Israeli actions in Gaza, the statement calls for maintaining the ceasefire and facilitating unhindered humanitarian assistance; opposes the forced displacement of Palestinians and territorial/demographic changes to Gaza; and supports Palestinian self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Regarding Lebanon, the statement calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory and adhere to the Lebanon ceasefire and UNSC Resolution 1701.

On Syria, it calls for respect for Syria's sovereignty and an inclusive Syrian-led political process, warns of the risk posed by "foreign terrorist fighters" to Syria's and regional stability and security,and calls for the withdrawal of foreign occupying forces, an apparent reference to Israel.

It also encourages continued work on interoperable cross-border payment systems and greater use of BRICS members' local currencies rather than US dollars for trade and investment settlements.

The BRICS statement also stresses the importance of reliable energy supplies and stable markets and explicitly says fossil fuels will continue to play an important role, especially for emerging and developing economies.

It simultaneously backs a "just, orderly, equitable and inclusive" transition to renewable energy and emissions reductions according to countries' different circumstances, as outlined in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) framework.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:45

Texas Still Dominates America's Natural Gas Production

U.S. gross natural gas withdrawals reached 47.7 trillion cubic feet in 2025, with a small group of states accounting for most of the total. Much of this output comes from prolific shale formations such as the Permian, Marcellus, Haynesville, and Eagle Ford.

This map, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows 2025 gross natural gas withdrawals by state and producing area using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with the latest available 2024 figures used for five states.

Gross withdrawals measure total well-stream production before processing, making them different from marketed or dry natural gas output.

Texas Produced Over a Quarter of U.S. Natural Gas

Texas led the country with 13,603 Bcf of gross withdrawals in 2025, equal to 28.5% of the national total. Pennsylvania followed at 7,676 Bcf, or 16.1%, meaning the two states together accounted for nearly 45% of U.S. withdrawals.

Their output is driven by some of North America’s most productive shale formations, including the Permian Basin in Texas and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania.

The table below ranks every state and producing area with at least 10 Bcf of gross withdrawals. States below that threshold, which together account for roughly 0.1% of the national total, are not shown:

Rank State or Producing Area Gross Natural Gas Withdrawals
(Billion Cubic Feet) Share U.S. Total
(%) 1 Texas 13603.5 28.5 2 Pennsylvania 7675.8 16.1 3 New Mexico 4150.5 8.7 4 Louisiana 3817.3 8.0 5 West Virginia 3600.0 7.5 6 Alaska 3546.1 7.4 7 Oklahoma 2877.7 6.0 8 Ohio 2100.7 4.4 9 Colorado 1869.8 3.9 10 North Dakota 1266.3 2.7 11 Wyoming 1197.5 2.5 12 Offshore Gulf of Mexico 721.5 1.5 13 Utah 338.7 0.7 14 Arkansas 323.3 0.7 15 Kansas 122.3 0.3 16 California 113.2 0.2 17 Virginia 80.9 0.2 18 Alabama 75.8 0.2 19 Michigan 64.1 0.1 20 Kentucky 58.8 0.1 21 Montana 50.5 0.1 22 Mississippi 25.8 0.1

New Mexico and Louisiana ranked third and fourth, producing 4,151 Bcf and 3,817 Bcf, respectively. Combined with Texas and Pennsylvania, the four states generated 61.3% of U.S. gross natural gas withdrawals in 2025.

Appalachia Forms America’s Second Major Gas Hub

Beyond Texas, the Appalachian Basin has become the country’s other major gas-producing hub.

Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio together produced 13,377 Bcf in 2025, equal to 28% of the U.S. total, largely from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.

Alaska ranked just behind West Virginia despite having no pipeline connection to the Lower 48, underscoring the scale of its resource base.

This production base helps explain the country’s leading position in global gas markets. See how U.S. dry natural gas production ranks against other major producing countries.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Natural Gas Withdrawals Across U.S. States (2023) on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:20

Air Force Secretary Admits US Has Weapons Deployed In Space

Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times,

The Secretary of the Air Force said on Sept. 14 that the United States has weapons deployed in space.

"Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist," Secretary Troy Meink said at the Air & Space Forces Association's annual conference in National Harbor, Maryland. "This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary actions."

Meink's comment came during his keynote address, titled "Advancing Combat Power in Air and Space." However, no further details on the state or nature of those weapons were discussed at that time.

This is the first time the United States Armed Forces have confirmed the presence of weapons in space, a global point of debate and concern since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957.

Meink declined to elaborate further during a question-and-answer session immediately following his speech, stating "that phrase was very well thought out."

However, he did elaborate on what he saw as a necessity to maintain U.S. space capabilities and deter any threats to them from growing adversaries, who remained nameless.

"Our maintaining and being able to count on those space capabilities is important, and as everybody knows, there have been many who have developed capabilities to take those away from us, to threaten those things," he said. "So it is critically important that we maintain our dominance not only in the air but in space."

"So, we've had to take steps to make sure that when we're threatened, we can take care of that," he added.

The United States Space Force released a space warfighting framework in 2025. It defines "Space Control" as a core function to gain space superiority.

"Space control comprises the activities required to contest and control the space domain," the framework stated.

Those activities would include "counterspace operations," like offensive orbital strikes, terrestrial strikes, and Space Link Interdiction, which is defined as "actions taken to disrupt, deny, or degrade an enemy's critical space links," through non-kinetic action such as an electromagnetic attack or cyberattack.

Those operations would also include active and passive defensive actions like threat warning and counterattack.

Meink highlighted separately the Space-Based Interceptor Program, which is currently in development as part of President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system.

He said in his keynote address that he continued to stand by what he called the fundamental mission, which is to "Defend the homeland, deter all adversaries, and, if necessary, win in combat."

However, he also acknowledged the rapidly changing warfighting environment, from one-way attack drones to the deployment of artificial intelligence.

"Today we face a mix of rapidly changing technologies and adversaries moving aggressively to employ them," he said.

"If we expect to deter our adversaries, we must increase our combat power, innovate faster than anyone else, affordably. We need cost-effective combat power," he added.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 20:55

Supreme Court Block President Trump's Mail-In Ballot Order

The nationwide injunction stands; the suspended rule would have required unique barcodes and scanner-ready envelopes...

The Supreme Court late on Sept. 14 declined to lift a nationwide injunction blocking a United States Postal Service (USPS) rule on federal ballot mail, leaving it on hold for the 2026 midterms.

The ruling in USPS v. California took the form of an unsigned order.

"The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court's preliminary injunction," the order said.

"And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay."

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion with fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson that "there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority" but that applying the proposed rules would be "arbitrary and capricious" for the midterm elections as state and local officials "do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule."

Justice Samuel Alito filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

The decision is likely the final say on the rule during this election cycle, with even Talwani saying from the bench earlier this month that it was unclear how the government would implement the plans with November just around the corner.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 20:35

Indian Refineries Run At Up To 108% Capacity On Soaring Diesel Demand

India’s refineries have been running at an unprecedented 105% to 108% capacity utilization in the past six months as demand for diesel soars and international fuel markets tighten amid the ongoing Middle East crisis, OilPrice reports citing Reuters.

Refinery capacity utilization in the world’s third-largest crude oil importer has been between 105% and 108% since the war began, a senior executive at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) said at the APPEC petroleum conference in Singapore on Wednesday.  

“Most of our refiners are complex, ‌can take a wide ‌variety of crude from an API range of something like 16 to 45 or 48,” Nandakumar Pillai, a company director at MRPL, said at the event, as carried by Reuters.

MRPL operates a refinery with the capacity to process 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the coast of India’s southern state of Karnataka. The refinery has a versatile design with complex secondary processing units and high flexibility to process crudes of various API, delivering a variety of quality products, the refiner says.

MRPL will continue to run its refinery at above 100% until March 2027, Pillai told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

All Indian refiners are currently prioritizing diesel production at the expense of jet fuel amid soaring domestic diesel demand and a crunch in global middle distillate supply.

Diesel prices globally are soaring, and diesel cracks have hit all-time highs as supply remains constrained in the Middle East and Russia, while maximized refinery runs elsewhere cannot offset the supply lost to the U.S.-Iran war and Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian refineries.

The re-escalation in the Middle East and the Russian ban on diesel exports pushed middle distillate cracks to record highs last week.

Analysts have been warning for weeks that diesel and other fuels are the real stress test in the oil markets, not crude oil.  

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 20:30

Waste Of The Day: Alleged Data Center Fraud

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

The Securities and Exchange Commission paid $10.7 million to store its electronic data at a Maryland facility that was allegedly certified by a company that does not exist.

AiNET Corp. and its former CEO Deepak Jain recently agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly defrauding the government. The settlement does not contain an admission of guilt.

Key facts: When the SEC began looking for a new data center in 2012, it required applicants to have a Tier III certification. That means the data center is fully operational even when undergoing maintenance.

Jain submitted paperwork to the SEC showing that AiNET had been certified by the company Uptime Council. No such company exists.

The Department of Justice later alleged that Jain wrote the certification letters himself, and that nobody had ever inspected AiNET's data center. Jain allegedly purchased a web domain for Uptime Council to make it appear like a legitimate business.

The name also closely resembled the Uptime Institute, a legitimate company that certifies data center infrastructure.

When SEC employees toured the facility before signing the contract, an AiNET employee allegedly prevented them from viewing infrastructure that would have shown the center did not meet the claimed standards.

The SEC later experienced issues involving security, cooling and power and spent additional money and resources addressing them.

When the SEC requested a new certification in 2017, Jain allegedly drafted another Uptime Council letter stating that the center had been reinspected. Prosecutors claimed no inspection occurred.

The SEC stopped using the facility in 2018. Prosecutors allege that Jain was still advertising the data center's false certification to private customers as of 2024.

Jain's attorneys previously maintained that AiNET fulfilled the contract and that no SEC data was lost or compromised.

Summary: An independent certification is not much of a safeguard when the contractor allegedly creates the certifier himself.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 20:05

"I'd Be Okay With That": Trump Says He's Open To Chinese Automakers Building Cars In US

In comments that most people missed on Friday, President Donald Trump suggested that he's open to letting Chinese automakers build cars on US soil. 

The new cars unloaded from the BYD Changzhou ship at the Zarate Port on the Parana River in Zarate, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina taken on Jan. 19, 2026. Tomas Cuesta / AFP via Getty Images

Speaking with Fox News, Trump said that while he wouldn't allow Chinese cars to operate in the United States because the US market would be overrun - he might be open to manufacturing them here. 

"We don't allow his cars into the United States, and I never did," he said, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, noting that then-President Joe Biden had kept his policies on Chinese cars. 

"If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I'd be okay with that. Japan does it, but they hire our people. The big thing is they hire our people," he continued, adding "What I don't want is them to build in Mexico and just ... build it inexpensively and ship it across the border."

As The Epoch Times notes further, a regulation imposed by the Biden administration in early 2025 effectively bans all Chinese automakers from selling or building passenger vehicles in the United States. Washington also maintains more than 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Trump's remarks came ahead of Xi's planned visit to the United States later this month. The president said on July 23 that he would discuss artificial intelligence with the Chinese leader during the visit. The two leaders last met during Trump's visit to Beijing in May, where Trump formally invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington-based group representing major U.S. automakers, on Sept. 3 urged Congress to permanently ban the sale, import, and manufacture of Chinese-connected vehicles, hardware, and software before the current congressional session ends.

"Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world," John Bozzella, the group's president and CEO, said in a letter to the congressional leadership.

Bozzella warned that China is gaining market share in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America with vehicles that can collect, process, and transmit "sensitive vehicle and consumer data to the Chinese Communist Party."

It hasn't happened yet inside the United States, he said. He urged lawmakers to act quickly, given the scale and urgency of the threat.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 19:40

Minnesota's Open Senate Race Is Suddenly A Coin Flip, New Polls Show

The last time Minnesota voted Republican for president was Richard Nixon in 1972.

The state hasn’t voted for a Republican senator since 2002, when Norm Coleman won a seat he'd lose six years later to Al Franken. Republicans have talked themselves into believing the state might break their way every cycle since, and Minnesota voters have declined to cooperate every time. Barack Obama carried the state by double digits in 2008. Hillary Clinton won it by less than two points in 2016. In 2024, Kamala Harris only won the state by four points, even with home-state Gov. Tim Walz on the ticket.

Despite the those close races, Democrats expected Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-Minn.) to cruise into the open seat. She had to fight for it first. Rep. Angie Craig, the more centrist option, lost the August primary to Flanagan's progressive coalition, built with help from Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). 

According to a fresh survey by Quantus Insights, Flanagan leads 48.2 percent, to Michele Tafoya’s 44.4 percent, a lead within the poll’s margin of error. In terms of public opinion, 50 percent rate Flanagan favorably while 46 percent rate her unfavorably, and 42.4 percent rate Tafoya favorably with 42 percent rating her unfavorably.

Other surveys confirm the race has tightened.

 A poll conducted by TIPP Insights for the League of American Workers, surveyed 1,201 likely voters and showed Flanagan leading by only two points, with the independents divided equally between the two candidates at 37% each. 

“Into the home stretch of campaign season, such a tight race in a normally safe Democrat bastion presents a big headache for national party operatives and donors,” writes Steve Cortes, president of the League of American Workers.

“Clearly, they will have to invest heavily to try to convince voters that radical Flanagan belongs in the U.S. Senate.”

According to Cortes, Tafoya is exactly the kind of candidate who can break the Democrats’ winning streak.

“Tafoya represents exactly the kind of candidate that works in this current political and media environment,” he explained.

“A longtime popular sideline football TV reporter, she is known to legions of fans as one of the best, most skilled broadcasters in sports. Tafoya’s superb media skills were honed over decades on camera before truly record-breaking TV audiences.”

 The tightness of these polls is quite remarkable considering the state became ground zero for the administration's expanded immigration enforcement this year. Federal immigration officers fatally shot two American citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, during Operation Metro Surge. The shootings turned the city into a flashpoint. However, a slew of state fraud investigations has embarrassed Democratic officials. Gov. Tim Walz’s approval ratings are also underwater, with 46% disapproving and 42% approving.

Despite the closeness of these polls, prediction markets haven't gotten the memo yet.

Polymarket shows Flanagan's odds of winning above 90%, with Tafoya at under 10%.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/14/2026 - 19:20