Zero Rss

China's New AI Agent Risks Trapping Western Tech In Rights Abuses: Analysts

Authored by Jarvis Lim via The Epoch Times,

China's new state-backed artificial intelligence (AI) platform threatens to stifle domestic tech innovation through forced ideological compliance, and in the West, it could also be used to cover up the regime's human rights abuses, analysts warn.

A screen advertising Xinhua News Agency in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on March 2, 2020. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Xinhua, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), will spend more than 1.1 billion yuan ($162.38 million) to launch an AI agent to propagate Chinese leader Xi Jinping's thinking, according to a feasibility study published on its website on June 5.

Dubbed "Xinhua Yudian," the platform positions itself as an indispensable tool for journalists, a practical asset for party cadres, and a trusted information source for the general public, the study showed.

"Through 'Q&A on Xi's Words' and 'Xi Study Guide,' it presents the core essence and practical requirements of the general secretary's important discourses," the report said.

In 2023, China passed the "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services," prohibiting content that could incite subversion, threaten national security, or damage the country's image.

The measures require market participants to "uphold the core socialist values," according to a translation.

Cementing Control

Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China studies at the University of Technology Sydney, said Xinhua's latest move signals that Beijing views every new AI technology developed domestically as a tool to consolidate its grip on power.

"This shows the CCP is attempting to reinforce the personality cult around Xi Jinping," Feng told The Epoch Times.

"Xi has already rolled out similar initiatives, requiring middle schoolers and party cadres to study and even take exams on his political ideology."

Charles Cheng-chung Lo, a professor with the Graduate Institute of Science and Technology Law at the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, said the regime aims to aggressively marshal national resources in AI and technology to protect its "political security."

"Political security means safeguarding the CCP's leadership and ruling status, as well as its socialist system with Chinese characteristics," Lo told The Epoch Times.

"Under such a system, all technological development naturally faces strict state regulation based on this political premise."

'Extreme Self-Censorship'

Lee Chung-chih, deputy convenor of the Strategic Industries Program at Taiwanese think tank the DIMEs Center, said China's generative AI models, such as DeepSeek, are engineered to strictly conform to Party dogma, leaving them unable to provide objective answers on political, historical, and social issues.

The rise of agentic AI - autonomous software systems capable of taking action and performing complex tasks on behalf of users - is set to entrench that dynamic further, he said, pointing to Xinhua Yudian as the latest example.

"This is completely detrimental to the verification and creation of knowledge," Lee told The Epoch Times.

"China is currently locking its society into an 'isolated universe.'"

Lee said the platform's proposed functions, such as content inspection, traceability, correction, and guided documentation, could prompt Beijing to demand that private AI firms align with Xinhua's standards.

"If private AI developers refuse to comply, the sector could wither and talent may flee," he said.

Lee warned that pushing these rigid censorship standards to the extreme would lock China's entire information ecosystem into a cycle of ideological compliance, stifling genuine innovation.

"Chinese journalists and scholars will start using AI to engage in hyper-conformity, aiming to outdo the state's own narratives and push even further left," Lee said.

"This extreme self-censorship just to please the authorities will leave them completely blind to genuine technological breakthroughs or geopolitical crises from the outside world."

Global Infiltration

Lo said foreign AI products and services seeking to integrate with this state-run platform will likely face surveillance under Xi's concept of "comprehensive national security" - an overarching doctrine where ideology now dictates all aspects of Chinese governance.

"In other words, the price of tapping into China's vast market is strict localized regulation," Lo said.

He said that securing this access could mean filtering out factual answers on sensitive topics, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, to meet Beijing's political red lines.

"The likelihood of self-censorship will increase as ideological screening becomes the inevitable compliance cost for entry," Lo said.

But the risks could extend further, as any Western tech firms that choose to partner with platforms like Xinhua Yudian may inadvertently become tools of CCP repression, according to Feng.

"Many companies operate under the belief that technology knows no borders, selling their products to the CCP," Feng said.

"What they fail to realize is that Beijing could harness their advanced technology on Xinhua Yudian and others to further violate the privacy and human rights of ordinary people."

Feng said that adopting these authoritarian standards could ultimately backfire, endangering the developers' own home nations.

"If democratic societies fail to counter Beijing's cognitive warfare, Western AI systems forced into compliance will essentially hand the regime a digital backdoor," he said.

"It allows China to push this warfare seamlessly across frontiers, severely subverting the international order."

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 22:10

North Korea Rips Fresh Western Criticism Of Expanding Moscow Relationship

North Korea fired back on Saturday and lashed out at the Washington-Seoul alliance, tearing into a fresh South Korea-EU joint statement that condemned Pyongyang's deepening military alliance with Russia.

North Korea has increasingly over the past acknowledge a significant number of troops sacrificed in support of Russia and in the context of the brutal and grinding Ukraine war.

The Western-aligned statement, inked Wednesday during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's high-profile trip to Brussels, took direct aim at the "illegal military cooperation" fueling the war in Ukraine.

"We condemn support by third parties, in particular the DPRK, which enables Russia to sustain its war of aggression against Ukraine," the statement said.

A fully anticipated, North Korea's foreign ministry quickly hit back through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, framing its axis with Moscow as a mere "exercise of sovereign rights."

Russia and North Korea under Presidents Putin and Kim have even signed a defense, technology and economic cooperation pact relatively recently.

The ministry didn't mince words, calling the joint condemnation a "clear infringement on the sovereignty of our state and a grave hostile act," while pointedly reminding everyone that South Korea remains the North's primary "enemy state."

Pyongyang has of late branded Seoul as Washington's "favorite dagger" in alleged grand American plot aimed at "invading... the Asian continent.”

The reference was a play on words after General Xavier Brunson, the top American military commander in South Korea, raised eyebrows last month by provocatively describing his host nation as "the dagger in the heart of Asia."

Both North Korea and China have seized on Brunson's slip of the tongue, painting it as proof of Washington's true playbook ofusing Seoul to contain Beijing.

With North Korean leader Kim Jong Un already putting his money where his mouth is - shipping troops and heavy munitions to bolster Vladimir Putin’s front lines - the war in Ukraine has slowly been morphing into more than just a EUropean crisis.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 21:35

Why The Millionaire Next Door Drives A Used Car - And What That Teaches About Real Wealth

Authored by Peter Daisyme via Due,

The wealthiest person I know personally drives a 2018 Toyota Camry. He owns three rental properties, has over $2 million in investment accounts, and could buy any car on any lot without blinking. He chooses not to, and his explanation is both simple and profound: "A car is a tool that takes you from one place to another. Everything beyond that is a payment for other people's perception of you."

Income alone doesn't create wealth. The key is the gap between what you earn and what you spend. Morakod1977/Shutterstock

That conversation rearranged how I think about money, status, and the difference between looking wealthy and actually being wealthy. And the more I studied the habits of genuinely rich people - not the Instagram version of rich, but the people with real, substantial, enduring wealth - the more I found that his approach was the rule, not the exception.

The Wealth Illusion

We live in a culture that equates visible consumption with financial success. A nice car, a big house, designer clothes, expensive vacations - these are the signals we use to judge who has money and who does not. The problem is that those signals are almost perfectly inverted from reality.

The person leasing a $70,000 SUV might have a negative net worth. The person buying rounds at the bar might be maxing out a credit card. The couple who just renovated their kitchen might have raided their retirement accounts to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the person with $1.5 million in the bank is wearing jeans from Target, driving a paid-off Honda, and eating dinner at home. They do not look wealthy because they channeled the money that would create the appearance of wealth into building actual wealth.

This is not a new observation - the book "The Millionaire Next Door" documented it decades ago - but it bears repeating because the cultural pressure to spend for status has only intensified with social media. Every platform is designed to show you people living aspirational lifestyles, and the psychological pull to keep up is relentless.

The Math Of Lifestyle Inflation

The mechanism that keeps high earners from building wealth is lifestyle inflation - the tendency to increase spending proportionally (or faster) as income grows. A $10,000 raise should accelerate wealth building. Instead, it usually gets absorbed by a nicer apartment, a better car, more dining out, and upgraded vacations.

Consider two people who both earn $100,000 per year. Person A spends $90,000 and saves $10,000. Person B spends $70,000 and saves $30,000. After 20 years of investing at a 7 percent annual return, Person A has about $410,000. Person B has about $1,230,000. They earned exactly the same amount. The difference is entirely in spending decisions.

The gap gets wider as incomes grow. If Person B receives raises over the years and keeps spending at $70,000 while saving the difference, their accumulation accelerates dramatically. Person A, who upgrades their lifestyle with every raise, stays on the same slow trajectory regardless of how much more they earn.

This is why income is a poor predictor of wealth. The correlation between earning and accumulating is much weaker than people assume. The real predictor is the gap between earning and spending - and that gap is a choice.

What Actually Wealthy People Spend On

After studying the spending patterns of people I know who have built significant wealth, a clear pattern emerges. They spend freely on what matters to them and ruthlessly cut everything that does not.

One friend spends generously on travel - international trips, business-class seats on long flights, quality hotels. But she drives a ten-year-old car and lives in a modest house. Travel brings her joy and enriches her life. The car is transportation. The house is a shelter. She allocates accordingly.

Another friend spends very little on himself personally but funds his children's education and activities without hesitation. His wardrobe is basic. His entertainment spending is minimal. His kids' college accounts are fully funded.

The common thread is intentionality. Wealthy people do not spend less overall because they are cheap - they spend less on things they do not care about, so they can spend more on things they do care about and invest the difference. They have examined their own values and aligned their spending with those values rather than with social expectations.

The Status Tax

I think of unnecessary status spending as a tax - the status tax. It is the premium you pay for goods and services, not because they perform better, but because they signal wealth or taste to others.

A $300 watch tells time just as well as a $5,000 watch. A $30,000 car gets you to work just as reliably as a $60,000 car. A $2 coffee tastes nearly identical to a $6 coffee with a designer label on the cup. The difference in price is the status tax, and over a lifetime, it is enormous.

If you spent $500 a month less on status consumption - the car upgrade, the brand-name clothes, the visible luxury purchases - and invested that $500 at 7 percent, you would have roughly $260,000 after 20 years. That is the real cost of caring what strangers think about your car.

I am not arguing that you should never buy nice things. I am arguing that you should buy them because they genuinely improve your life, not because they improve how other people perceive you. The distinction is everything.

Building Wealth The Boring Way

The actual wealth-building formula is anticlimactic. Earn a reasonable income. Spend significantly less than you earn. Invest the difference in diversified, low-cost index funds. Do this consistently for 20 to 30 years. That is it.

No one gets famous for this approach. No one writes viral social media posts about it. No one makes a documentary about the person who maxed out their 401(k) every year and retired comfortably at 60. But that person exists in enormous numbers, and they are far wealthier than the influencer showing off a rented sports car.

The boring approach works because it harnesses the only truly reliable wealth-building force: time and compound growth. A portfolio growing at 7 percent doubles roughly every 10 years. $100,000 at 35 becomes $200,000 at 45, $400,000 at 55, and $800,000 at 65. But only if you leave it alone and keep adding to it.

The wealth-building strategies that work in your 30s are the same strategies that work at any age. They just work better the earlier you start.

How To Resist The Pressure

Knowing the right approach and actually following it are different things. The pressure to spend for status comes from everywhere - advertising, social media, peer groups, family expectations, and your own psychology.

Here are the tactics that work for me. First, I curate my information diet. I unfollowed accounts that showcase luxury consumption and followed accounts that discuss financial independence and intentional living. What you see shapes what you want, so be deliberate about what you see.

Second, I calculate the real cost of purchases in hours worked. A $200 dinner after taxes costs me about six hours of work. Is that dinner worth six hours of my life? Sometimes yes. Often no. This reframing makes spending feel real rather than abstract.

Third, I keep my financial goals visible. I have a spreadsheet that projects my net worth at five-year intervals. When I am tempted to make a large discretionary purchase, I consider what that money would become in 10 years if invested instead. Seeing the compound growth I would forfeit is a powerful deterrent against impulse spending.

Fourth, I surround myself with people who share my values around money. Peer influence is the strongest force in spending behavior. If your friends measure success by possessions, you will spend to keep up. If they measure it by freedom and security, you will save to keep up.

The Ultimate Status Symbol

The wealthiest people I know share one trait that no purchase can replicate: they have options. They can leave a job they dislike without panic. They can handle an emergency without debt. They can retire when they choose rather than when they must. They can help family members without compromising their own stability.

That kind of freedom is the real status symbol, even though nobody can see it from the outside. It does not fit on a bumper sticker or in an Instagram photo. But it is the thing that every person chasing visible wealth is actually searching for - the security and peace that come from knowing you are financially independent.

My friend with the Camry has that freedom. And if you asked him, he would tell you it is worth more than every luxury car on the road combined.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. ZeroHedge does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. ZeroHedge holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 21:00

"Tell Him He's A Piece Of Shit": Employee Hijacks Meta Meeting In AI Revolt

Earlier this week, a routine livestreamed Meta meeting descended into open revolt.

During a presentation open to thousands of employees, one participant suddenly interrupted the speakers with a profanity-laced outburst, according to WIRED. The employee declared they felt like "the company's bitch" and demanded that the people leading the call write to a specific Meta AI executive and "tell him that he's a piece of shit."

One presenter reportedly covered their face with their hands. Moderators asked everyone to mute. The technical discussion eventually continued, but the moment - which employees in the chat described as "spicy" - revealed something much deeper: widespread anger and disillusionment inside Meta's newly formed Applied AI unit.

"It's literally the gulag. You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week," one current employee told WIRED on condition of anonymity. 

A Rapid, Painful Reorganization

That unit, formed in March 2026 to support researchers at Meta's Superintelligence Labs, now employs roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers. Many were reassigned with little warning. Their new work - largely generating puzzles, coding challenges, and evaluation tasks to test how reliably AI models can solve problems - has left a significant portion of the team feeling demoralized and stripped of purpose.

"Most people find the work soul-crushing," another employee said. All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Meta declined to comment.

Key Numbers

 

The Applied AI unit is only the most visible flashpoint in a much broader restructuring. In May, Meta laid off approximately 8,000 employees as part of an AI-focused overhaul. Another ~7,000 people were transferred into new AI-related initiatives.

 

The speed and bluntness of the changes have created ripple effects across multiple divisions. Employees in data center engineering and Instagram have reported increased stress and workload. Meanwhile, more than 1,600 Meta employees signed a petition demanding the company stop a recently launched program that monitors U.S. employees' clicks, keystrokes, and screen activity to generate training data for AI agents. The company has since scaled the program back slightly.

"It's Like What The Fuck"

During an all-hands meeting this week for Instagram employees, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox addressed the turmoil directly. According to a recording obtained by WIRED, Cox described the past few months as a "difficult" and "brutal" environment created by the "insanity of this company."

He praised Instagram teams for continuing to ship features and serve roughly 2 billion users while navigating constant upheaval. Then he compared the situation to "running a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm and then, like, your teammate gets replaced and then we're recording you."

"It's like what the fuck," said Cox - adding again, "It is like what the fuck." 

Cox also struck a notably measured tone on AI itself: "It is neither god, nor is it the devil. And it's nowhere near as good as you think it is, and it is nowhere near as bad as you think it is."

Engineers across Meta have reported feeling sidelined and demoralized by sudden reassignments into repetitive AI evaluation work.

Zuckerberg Acknowledges Mistakes

The same week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an internal memo to employees acknowledging that the company had made errors in how it reshaped its workforce around AI.

"Given the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more," said Zuckerberg, according to Reuters. 

Zuckerberg wrote that he is "focused on providing as much stability as possible" going forward and does not expect additional company-wide layoffs this year. He said Meta would work to create "important new roles" for employees who were reassigned to AI training and support work.

He also noted plans to increase spending on team-building initiatives, including a large-scale hackathon in July, and to scale back the unusually wide manager spans that appeared in the new Applied AI unit (some reportedly reached 50:1 ratios).

Why The Work Feels Like Punishment

The core complaint inside Applied AI is not that the company is investing in AI - most employees understand the strategic importance. It is the nature of the tasks many were suddenly asked to perform and the way the transition was handled.

Generating high-quality evaluation puzzles and coding problems is genuinely difficult and valuable work for frontier model development. But for engineers who previously built products, shipped features, and collaborated creatively, being reassigned to repetitive, solitary evaluation tasks has felt like a demotion.

"You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden," one of the employees told WIRED. "You barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week."

The flat organizational structure exacerbated the problem. With so few managers, many employees felt they had little support, visibility, or path to more meaningful roles.

Many engineers were reassigned to repetitive puzzle-generation and model-evaluation tasks - work they describe as soul-crushing compared to their previous roles.

The Stakes Are High

Meta is not alone in pushing rapid AI-driven reorganization. Across Silicon Valley, companies are redirecting resources, cutting teams, and experimenting with new workflows to stay competitive in the AI race. But few have done so at Meta's scale or with such visible internal blowback.

The risk for Meta is real. Engineering talent remains the scarcest resource in AI. If skilled people feel their work has been devalued or that leadership is moving too fast without regard for the human impact, attrition to competitors becomes more likely - exactly when the company needs its best people most.

Zuckerberg's memo and Cox's candid remarks suggest leadership is aware of the damage. The promised July hackathon, new role creation, and reduced manager spans are concrete steps toward repair. Whether they will be enough remains to be seen.

For now, the message from parts of the workforce is clear: the company's aggressive AI transformation has left many employees feeling used, undervalued, and angry. And some are no longer willing to stay quiet about it.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 20:25

Discs, Orbs, 'Heavenly' Phenomena, & More Revealed In 3rd Batch Of Declassified UFO Files

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

Americans living in the northeastern United States witnessed “brilliant and beautiful” glowing red and white orbs in their backyard, which they caught on video, the Pentagon’s third release of declassified UFO files on June 12 showed.

The new documents contained encounters from around the world, such as reports of a “disc-like” object in Zimbabwe, a “potato shaped” craft in Colorado, and “heavenly” phenomena moving at speeds of 12,000 kilometers per hour in Hungary.

The third batch adds to the previous two document dumps of UFO and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files released by the Pentagon on May 8 and May 22.

Those batches also detailed stunning encounters, including Apollo 11 astronauts seeing a “sizable” object near the moon and a UAP being shot down over the Great Lakes.

Here are some key highlights from a partial review of the newly released files.

‘Brilliant Red Sphere’

The FBI interviewed U.S. citizens in February about their firsthand accounts of potential UAPs in their backyard. The documents were partially redacted and did not disclose when or where these encounters occurred—only that it was in the northeastern United States.

Upon returning home one night, one of these individuals witnessed an “intense bright light” hovering just below the tree line in their backyard. Another person in the home came outside and also saw the phenomenon, describing it as a red sphere about a meter in diameter with what appeared to be a “white plasma sun” the size of a basketball in the center.

One of the individuals described the red color as “brilliant and beautiful” and a tint they had never seen before.

The pair watched this orb move and noticed another identical orb directly above it, floating together in a silent and smooth manner as if they were tethered.

The two orbs moved above the tree line and merged into one before they floated out of sight.

In July 2025, in the northeastern United States, an eyewitness observed an intense bright light in their backyard as they parked their car upon returning home from work. This is a screenshot from the witness’s personal video. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

One individual captured video of the phenomenon, which was included in the Pentagon’s release of files. The recording is 50 seconds long and shows two bright red orbs with white centers floating slowly together.

A few weeks after this event, one of the individuals also saw several white orbs in the same area traveling at a much higher altitude than the red ones.

More newly released video from this same area in the northeastern United States showed bright red orbs hovering at about 2,500 feet.

In March 2022, in the northeastern United States, a witness observed two bright red luminous light sources hovering near the horizon at an estimated distance of 2,500 feet. This is a screenshot from the witness’s personal video. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

Cheyenne Mountains Sighting

Former U.S. Army intelligence officers witnessed a UAP over the Cheyenne Mountains in Colorado as they left their office building, according to the files.

FBI agents interviewed one of the individuals in June 2024 about their experience during a February morning of an unspecified year. This person described the day as perfect conditions, no clouds, little humidity, and about 50 degrees outside.

The object this group of former Army personnel witnessed was “potato shaped” with distinct edges and a “creamy/whitish opalescent color.” The object was slightly translucent and shimmery, the documents showed.

Its texture was described as “fish scales” or non-symmetrical, non-overlapping, irregularly shaped panels. Although the UAP itself was motionless, each panel “shifted in slow waves starting at different points of origin but at the same time.”

After about two minutes, the object vanished or “cloaked” itself in the time it takes to turn one’s head. There was also no shadow, according to the files.

The new files also included an artist’s rendering of the craft.

Former U.S. Army intelligence officers witnessed a UAP over the Cheyenne Mountains in Colorado as they left their office building. The Pentagon files included this rendering of the craft. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

UAP in Zimbabwe

A July 2008 report of an unexplained craft above the Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe stoked debate on whether the sighting was an advanced device from a foreign government or had extraterrestrial origins.

The craft was observed at an undetermined high altitude.

Witnesses described this UAP as “disc-like” with a hollow center and a series of rotating lights on its underside. At one point, “beams” emanated from the craft, according to the documents.

The object eventually ascended rapidly out of sight. A “high alert” was implemented.

There was no video, photo, or artist’s rendering of the Zimbabwe UAP provided in the Pentagon’s files.

Flying Saucers in Hungary

A report on sightings in Hungary came about from letters of correspondence in 1955 between relatives living in the United States and Budapest.

The CIA released a report on this encounter with a sketch showing the formation and suspected flight path of several objects traveling between Budapest and Moscow.

A man living in the United States received a letter from his niece in Budapest mentioning “flying saucers.” Much of the letter was casual conversation, with one paragraph detailing the UAPs.

The niece wrote to her uncle that “everyone has been excited” over the mysterious crafts “for the past few weeks.”

“These fast-rushing heavenly [phenomena] have been and still are keeping scores of scientists busy,” the letter reads. “These amazing fliers moved at a speed of 12,000 kilometers per hour.”

Five Feds Witness UAPs

Part of the Pentagon’s release of files on Friday included multiple statements from “federal law enforcement special agents” who witnessed UAPs near a sensitive national security site in the western United States over the course of two days in October 2023.

A map of four sightings was included in the documents in addition to detailed witness statements of each encounter and several digital renderings.

This map is a representation of four incidents involving unidentified anomalous phenomena in the western United States. It depicts multiple incidents reported by U.S. federal law enforcement special agents over a period of several days in October 2023. Courtesy of the Pentagon

The federal officers reported “orbs launching other orbs.” This happened multiple times, according to the files, where an orange “mother orb” appeared to produce smaller red ones multiple times over a period of several hours.

This is a screenshot from a video of an artistic interpretation of a reported incident near a sensitive national security site in the western United States. Witnesses described the larger orange sphere as a “mother orb.” Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

These red orbs’ behavior was described as “anomalous” with “varied kinematic profiles including seemingly coordinated horizontal motion” and changes in altitude.

According to the documents, the red orbs only persisted for several seconds before disappearing, but at least once, the witnesses said one of the red UAPs hovered above a ridgeline for hours.

This is a screenshot from a video of an artistic interpretation of a reported incident near a sensitive national security site in the western United States. Multiple witnesses described seeing a “mother orb” launching smaller red ones. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

In this same area, the federal agents also witnessed a “dark kite” and a “translucent kite” at close estimated ranges.

All of the crafts were silent, the documents said, and the sightings remain unresolved.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 19:50

Hillary Clinton Fears "Revolution" Preventing The US From Becoming A "Rainbow Nation"

The word "Democracy" is thrown around frequently within progressive circles as a call to arms; a rallying cry based on a fraudulent narrative of patriotic duty.  Throughout the entirety of Joe Biden's first and last term, the political left painted conservatives as a threat to democracy.  Anyone who opposed pandemic mandates, compelled vaccination, open borders, mass immigration, gender ideology in public schools etc., was labeled a danger to society.  

The inherent fallacy being that leftists (and by extension Democrats) represent the majority of the nation.  However, this notion has been consistently debunked by multiple elections, polls and the fact that the vast majority of liberal movements have been exposed as astroturf funded by NGOs.

If Democrats actually cared about democracy, they would listen to the actual American majority, instead of waging a propaganda war on the majority in order to manufacture a false consensus.  And, the majority of Americans do not support multicultural or "intersectional" ideology.  The liberal vision is on the decline and that's a good thing.

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton disagrees. 

At the first Rainbow PUSH Coalition conference since the death of Reverend Jesse Jackson in February.  Pete Buttigieg and Hillary Clinton took to the stage in front of a small audience in Chicago this week to sell their Utopian future, but mostly they slandered the Trump Administration.  Their rhetoric continues to echo the message of the Biden era, that conservatives want the end of civil rights and voting rights in the US. 

Buttigieg asserted that the Trump Administration was "corrupt" and "corruption is bad".

The former DOT Secretary makes no mention of the fact that he shares a stage with Clinton, widely known as one of the most corrupt politicians in recent American history.  While Democrats spend endless media time trying to tie Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, it's the Clinton Family that is well documented as being truly friendly with the globalist pedo pimp.  Around 90% of Epstein's political contributions went to the Democratic Party including multiple donations to Hillary Clinton.  None of his donations went to Trump. 

Buttigieg faced extensive backlash for his handling of the pandemic lockdowns, including his avid support for draconian mandates which were ultimately found to be useless in stopping the spread of covid; and all over a virus with a 99.8% average survival rate.  He continues to echo the party line, calling for rigging of the Supreme Court to ensure Democrat supremacy.

Pete Buttigieg: We have to deal with a Supreme Court that is now a rogue Supreme Court. It’s time to think big. Nowhere in the constitution does it say there have to be nine justices... We could have 13.
pic.twitter.com/17epK62lyM

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) June 13, 2026

Buttigieg is expected to run in the 2028 Democrat primaries for President.  Though, he lacks any mainstream popularity and, like most Democrats, he continues to campaign as if he's running against Trump even though Trump is leaving office.

Clinton, on the other hand, seems less concerned with Trump and far more concerned with the larger conservative and anti-woke movements which have left Democrats stunned and bewildered.  Clinton calls these movements a "counter-revolution" which she believes is undermining the liberal order established over the last several decades. 

Clinton fearmongers with the usual rhetoric, claiming that civil rights and voting rights are under threat.

Hillary Clinton: "We are in a counterrevolution. It is a revolution to turn the clock back and take away the rights we have worked so hard to achieve. This counterrevolutionary crew in Washington right now doesn't want us to be a Rainbow Nation." pic.twitter.com/5sBnJuhwru

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) June 12, 2026

She is ostensibly referencing the end of redistricting using race-based gerrymandering, which exclusively worked in the favor of Democrats.  But, this was enforced by the Supreme Court, not Trump or the MAGA movement.  Clinton is also a vocal opponent of the Save Act, which would make proof of citizenship a requirement for voting in the US (a bill which is supported by around 80% of American voters). 

Her comments on the "Rainbow Nation" might be confusing for those who don't understand what this entails.  Jackson used "Rainbow" to describe a broad coalition of "marginalized groups" (Black Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBTQ+ people, low wage workers, etc.) uniting for political power and social justice. His organization commonly promotes Marxist "intersectionality" and multiculturalism. 

Clinton has made similar anti-populist statements in recent months, arguing that the rise of American conservatism has the potential to break apart the liberal west.  At the Munich Security Conference in February, she participated in panels on what they call the “West-West Divide”, warning of democratic backsliding on human rights (including women’s and LGBTQ+ rights), and authoritarian dangers.

Clinton called for civil rights and grassroots networks to counter the weakening of liberal institutions.  She made the same call for popular opposition in Chicago. 

“We have to reconstitute the movements that moved us forward, that made it possible to claim we were trying to get to that more perfect union. They were not led by politically elected officials. They were led by clergy, they were led by business leaders, they were led by civic organizers, they were led by young people. So we don’t need to have a bunch of elected officials leading this new movement. We need to have it be from the bottom up, the grassroots, coming back to get organized and move forward again.”  

In other words, if they can't win (or steal) the elections and if they can't gain the majority approval of the voters, then they will turn to mob actions to disrupt reforms and force the public to accept woke ideology anyway.  Democrats only romanticize democracy when it works in their favor.  When it doesn't, they completely abandon it.  

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 19:15

AI's Core Flaw: "Mass Regurgitation Of Misinformation"

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

These immense hidden costs will not show up in GDP until they collapse the entire house of speculative gambling cards propping up the global economy.

I approach all AI topics with several things in mind. One is the nature of problems, which implicitly define what qualifies as solutions, and the resulting incentive to define the "problem" such that the "solution" happens to be the one we own and control.

So the "problem" AI solves is "corporate profits are too low," and so the "solution" is to replace costly human labor (made costlier by SickCare insurance and taxes on labor) with "cheaper" AI (cheaper because the full costs are hidden or subsidized).

My other lens: the economic, social and cultural consequences of AI as it is and AI hype, a topic I've explored most recently in Is AI Reversing Anti-Progress or Is It Accelerating It?, AI Data Centers Are Not the Railroads of Today and Inequality, AI and Digital Life Are Undermining Society.

Correspondent Mike Fasano recently submitted a succinct and telling summary of AI's insurmountable structural flaw: AI's inability to discern the difference between truth and falsehood, be it intentional misdirection / misinformation or errors generated by AI hallucinations, a systemic flaw which he summarized as mass regurgitation of misinformation:

*           *           *

"I read you post on AI and railroads. Here is another observation.

So far, AI has only regurgitative intelligence. It--at best--can collate and respond to queries on masses of acquired data.

But what if that data is wrong?

Who now believes the inflation or unemployment statistics? Virtually every human knows that those statistics are false.

Does AI know that?

And the problem goes much deeper.

The former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell, noted:

'It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.'

That being the case, can we rely up AI medical advice?

And that problem goes beyond medicine. It is now generally conceded that the inability to replicate scientific studies of any type has give rise to a 'replicability crisis' in science. Can we trust 'science' that cannot be proven to be accurate?

Any adult past the age of 40 knows that the above listing of questionable information sources is just the tip of the iceberg. We live in a sea of 'official' but false data.

Railroads could transport grain to cities, minerals to factories, manufactured goods to those needing those goods. That served a public purpose.

But what is the use of the mass regurgitation of misinformation? And is anyone subtracting the losses engendered by the utilization of inaccurate information from GDP?"

*           *           *

Thank you, Mike, for clarifying an essential point: the foundation of all "value" is fact, truth, accuracy and the transparency, replicability and accountability of the processes validating fact, truth, accuracy. If AI is incapable by its nature of validating all these, it's worse than useless--it's destructive on a system-wide scale.

The evidence of the systemic destruction is already overwhelming. Bogus "scientific papers" are already proliferating at an accelerating rate, making the task of identifying incorrect and fabricated (i.e. hallucinated by AI) data, processes and conclusions impossible due to the scale of the misinformation and the difficulty of identifying the misinformation buried inside superficially legitimate papers.

With both scientific and economic data and analysis now untrustworthy without exceedingly expensive, time-consuming vetting by human experts, where does this leave the "AI will automatically generate superabundance" hype? What's already clear--but inconvenient--is the mass adoption of inherently flawed AI is undermining the foundations of "value," however we wish to define it.

And as Mike also points out, this undermining of value has a financial consequence. We all know Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a superficial, distorting measure of "prosperity," and the structural distortions of GDP (Waste Is Growth) are amplified by the hidden destruction of transparency, replicability and accountability by AI slop, whether intentional (malicious, deceptive, fraudulent) or as the unavoidable consequence of AI's core flaw.

These immense hidden costs will not show up in GDP until they collapse the entire house of speculative gambling cards propping up the global economy. Only then will the structural damage being wrought by our increasing reliance on tools that cannot discern the difference between fact and fantasy / fabrication / hallucination become visible.

And by then, of course, the damage will be irreversible without extraordinary costs and sacrifices, sacrifices few will volunteer to bear.

Remember that AI isn't "thinking," "understanding" or "making judgments": AI tools are engines of linguistic automation, not engines of understanding. The simulation is not the thing simulated. AI is not a "mind," it is a prompt and a probability distribution.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 18:40

What's In A Name? Alaska GOP Succeeds In Stopping Democrats From Stealing The Senate Election

Alaska's election officials may have just saved a U.S. Senate seat from one of the more brazen ballot schemes in recent memory. The state's Division of Elections issued a preliminary ruling this week that Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg is ineligible to appear on the 2026 Senate ballot, dealing a significant blow to Democrats - in what Republicans have characterized as a coordinated Democratic effort to siphon votes from incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan through deliberate name confusion.

US Senator Dan Sullivan (R)

Dan J. Sullivan is a 69-year-old retired teacher who filed to run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate mere days before the late-May filing deadline. Not only is his name virtually identical to the incumbent senator's, but he's also recycled the incumbent's former campaign slogan, and is using a logo similar to the senator's own branding. The attempt to deceive voters is obvious, and under Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, where ballot position and name recognition carry outsized weight, the potential for voter confusion was significant and consequential

According to a report from the Anchorage Daily News, Carol Beecher, director of the Division of Elections, made the state's position clear in a letter to Dan J. Sullivan on Wednesday. "Based on a review of the evidence presented and in the Division's possession, the Division has determined that the preponderance of evidence does not support your eligibility for the office of United States Senator," Beecher wrote.

The ruling is preliminary, with the fake Sullivan given until 5 p.m. Thursday to submit additional evidence before the division issues its final decision.

Sullivan's response to scrutiny has been consistent and unconvincing. He denied coordinating with Democratic operatives and presented himself as a legitimate independent GOP candidate, but he also refused to submit a sworn affidavit requested by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who announced Monday that the state was investigating his candidacy and warned him he could face exposure for perjury if his sworn answers proved false.

Sullivan called the allegations baseless, argued Dahlstrom's questions were irrelevant, and insisted the state had no "credible basis" to remove him from the ballot. On Thursday morning, after receiving the preliminary ineligibility notice the night before, Sullivan said he would not be available for comment and added, "We decide where we go next."

The paper trail contradicts Sullivan's denials. According to voter registration records attached to formal complaints filed by the Alaska Republican Party, the fake Sullivan listed his party affiliation as "undeclared" as recently as March 26, 2026. Before 2024, he had consistently been listed as undeclared or nonpartisan. Last year, he was affiliated with the Alaskan Independence Party.

Carmela Warfield, chair of the Alaska Republican Party, signed the complaints and charged that Sullivan misrepresented his party affiliation when he filed on May 29. One complaint states, "Despite never having registered as affiliated with the Republican Party, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.'s declaration swears he is a registered Republican," and calls for his declaration to be rejected.

There is also evidence of coordination with Peltola. When the fake Sullivan issued a press release announcing his candidacy, a PDF of that release showed in its metadata that its author was Amber Lee, a left-wing consultant whom the New York Times has described as a supporter of Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democratic former congresswoman and Sen. Sullivan's top challenger in the 2026 race. Peltola's campaign has denied any involvement. Given that the candidate's own press release traced back to a Peltola ally, that denial falls flat.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee moved aggressively on multiple fronts, urging election officials to keep Sullivan off the ballot by citing Alaska rules prohibiting ballot listings that are "confusing or misleading to voters." The NRSC separately asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate and potentially refer the matter to the Department of Justice, alleging his campaign materials mimicked the senator's and that he had previously donated to Democrats, including Peltola herself. Sen. Dan Sullivan and the NRSC have both characterized the Petersburg Sullivan as a sham candidate coordinated with Democratic allies to dilute the incumbent's vote share ahead of the August 18 primary.

The left's fingerprints are all over this. A retired teacher with no real political history, no Republican registration, an Alaskan Independence Party affiliation from last year, a history of donating to Democrats, a press release authored by a Peltola supporter, a logo that mimics the incumbent senator's branding, and a candidacy filed at the last possible moment.

Ranked-choice voting was always going to make Alaska a prime target for ballot manipulation. The ranked-choice voting system enabled Peltola to be elected to Congress in Alaska in 2022, despite Republican candidates receiving more cumulative votes.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 18:05

Bitcoin & The Clash Of Two Inexorable Realities

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

Two inexorable realities have come into sharpened focus over the last month or so.

Both are themes we have been exploring and monitoring – one, since practically the very beginning of this service, the other, over the last year or so.

• The first is the unsustainable nature of the global monetary system: we are not unique in calling that out – it’s practically a trope and has been for a long time.

• The other is the existential necessity to win the new arms race – which is less about kinetic weapons now and more about computation, information and 5GW.

In the past, when the Soviet Union put as astronaut into space before NASA, it was a humiliation and a psychological defeat – but the USA arguably still held strategic advantage where it counted at the time, which was here on earth, with more nuclear missiles, tanks and military bases than the USSR.

The US space program kicked into overdrive, and NASA was able to slingshot past the Russians, and over time and across more dimensions, the Soviets never caught back up or retook the lead – in anything.

To this day, Russia’s resurgence onto the world stage – articulated through concepts such as Neo-Eurasionism or “Third Rome” (basically their version of “Manifest Destiny”) – is more than anything, an aspirational framework for “getting up to speed”, while rationalizing their inability to do so in traditionalist, volk-ish trappings.

Their high priest of this quixotic mix, is “Fourth Political Theory” author, university professor and philosopher, Alexander Dugin – whose other titles include “Last War of the World-Island” and – perhaps most tellingly, although least known of his works here in the West – “Katechon and Revolution”.

The word “Katechon” (from the Greek: ὁ κατέχων / τὸ κατέχον which translates loosely as “the Restrainer”) is important in the Russian collective psyche because it contains a massive “tell”.On its surface, it’s supposed to encompass Russia’s “state messianism” and symbolize its opposition to The West – their “Antikeimenos”.

The day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dugin posted on Facebook “Now we are in a war of the spirits. Katechon vs. Antekeimenos”.

Antikeimenos (from the Greek: ὁ ἀντικείμενος) is the term St. Paul uses in Thessalonians 2:4 for the figure of the Antichrist. It appears exactly once in the Greek New Testament, in that single verse. The literal sense is “the one who opposes” or “the one set against”.

And therein lays “the tell” – what the Russian collective psyche is admitting to, and trying to come to grips with, and it is this:

If we reframe the Cold War as the first technological contest between Great Powers, Russia has to confront the fact that they lost – and they’ve never been able to recover from it.

In the contemporary pantheon of international relations and political economy, absolutely nobody today thinks of Russia as a “great power”. When you peel back the ideations of “The Fifth Empire” or “The Soviet Union 2.0”, you get to that underlying underdog mentality – trying to recapture super-power status.

They lost the space race. Then the Cold War, and now they can’t even beat the Ukraine.

That was supposed to be an overwhelming military victory, but the Ukrainians, mainly through wholesale adoption of drone warfare, have managed to give the invaders a rough time of it, even penetrating deep into Russian territory using high-altitude balloons to deliver suicide drones.

Make no mistake, all that financial support from the West aside, the Ukrainians have been able to stave off complete defeat through technological means and because cheap, sophisticated weaponry (drones) completely upended the conventional battlefield.Such are the travails of an erstwhile great power that has lost a technological competition. You can bet today’s incumbents – namely the USA and China – understand these stakes, and neither of them has any intention of losing:

• AI
• Energy
• High Performance Computing (which leads us into)
• The Space Race 2.0
• Quantum Computing

This is why the “catastrophic climate change” narrative has been rather suddenly sunsetted in The West (at least, the non-Euro west): we need more energy, including nuclear – lots, and lots of nuclear.

It’s why White House Asset Management (WHAM) is pumping money into quantum computing companies (including, from our wish list: D-Wave, which we hadn’t yet pulled the trigger on).

It’s also why China has moved further out on the interventionist side of the state capitalism spectrum, with mandated “Capital Reallocation” programs where the government has issued structural directives forcing state-owned pensions, insurance funds, and enterprise pools to funnel trillions of yuan directly into equities, while the state-backed “National Team” continues steady, strategic purchases of domestic ETFs to put a floor under major indices.

The Chinese debt overhang on bad real estate loans is even larger than what we had here in the run up to the GFC, so regulators there are pulling out all the stops to keep the balloon duct-taped together:In early 2026, Beijing quietly abolished enforcement of its strict “three red lines” policy. Developers are no longer required to report monthly data regarding debt-to-equity, cash, and asset metrics, freeing up fresh credit channels.

They’ve backstopped an additional 7 trillion yuan under a new “property project whitelist” mechanism, which extends developer loan maturities by up to five additional years to stave off defaults.

Commercial and state banks are aggressively financed to help local governments buy up unsold, completed housing inventory directly from developers to convert them into subsidized public housing (this is a nominally communist country, so why not).

To top it all off, we’re seeing capital flight restrictions – going so far as to prevent technology transfers to the West via acquisition (we covered last month how Meta’s acquisition of Manus was blocked and reversed by state authorities).

Any rational observer of finance and economics knows that all world economies, including The World Economy, is levitating in mid-air buoyed by stimulus, signal suppression and pure white-knuckled will.

In prior years, when all the financial commentators and contrarians were waiting for this to hit a wall, we all marvelled (at least I did) how the system was kept on the rails at all costs – because too much was riding on it to let rational economics and market restructuring take their course.

That was before AI. Before it became apparent that not being number one in this technological arms race had civilizational consequences, like joining Russia as another “also-ran”.

Once again, the contradictions and distortions that this imperative amplifies are bubbling to the surface.

On one hand – all rational analysis of the market is screaming “overbought”. Practically every financial commentator I came up following is looking at this and making comparisons with the dot-com bubble; the AI high flyers now look a lot like Global Crossing, Nortel, L3, VA Linux before they all imploded.

My X feed is absolutely jam-packed with people posting screenshots of 7-figure trading accounts that were ostensibly amassed in under a year trading HPC, AI, chip makers, memory, and now quantum (again).

ZeroHedge has remarked on the circular nature of the AI economy more than once:

Note that the above-linked article (from which the screenshot came) is a Tyler Durden original, it is not a repost of somebody else’s article.

Tyler has this annoying trait: he’s always early and he’s often right.

Yet it’s possible the man himself buried the lede (from that screen cap):

“The Infinite Money Glitch”

By all rational and financially coherent measures, the equities markets are overvalued, beyond bubble levels and primed for a catastrophic drop on the order of, pick one, 50%, 75%, 90%. Yes. 90%. We’ve been pumping since 2008 folks. Even further if you go back to the beginning of the equities supercycle in 1982.

After the dot-com bust, we were in a bear market for two years. When the GFC finally hit, it was straight down for a good 18 months. When COVID was coming, the banking system was starting to crack up under the hood (the reverse repo situation in late 2019) but when it came unglued in March, it was about two weeks before the monetary bazookas were unleashed and everything reversed hard of the March low.

What happens after that is instructive:

The Regional Banking crisis erupted, and was even larger in nominal terms than the GFC when it came to the amount of assets tied to bank failures. The Fed threw the taper overboard, did a massive liquidity injection and after a failed attempt to pick and choose winners in terms of which banks to save, caved in to public uproar and backstopped everything.

Liberation Day, Japan-ageddon, Israel/Iran/Gaza barely perturb the trajectory.

If you switch out of linear mode for that long-term chart, and go to logarithmic – you should recognize the pattern:

It’s the same as Bitcoin, which is the same as gold during the Weimar Republic and it’s the same signal being broadcast from every one of those charts.

We should acknowledge that the Nasdaq took 15 years to recover from the Dotcom shakeout, which is a long time to be underwater if you bought in at the tippy-top.

But I believe two things have changed since the GFC:

The first is that tech, despite taking the biggest hit, almost by definition when the Dotcom bubble blew, also became the apex asset class from here on out.

If you look at the long-term chart for the Nasdaq, it basically went parabolic for the first half of the equities supercycle, and formed a double-bottom from the Dotcom crash to the GFC

After that it blasted off and has left everything else in its dust:

This makes perfect sense, because tech is the asset class of choice in a world driven by acceleration and tachyosis.

We can’t put Bitcoin in that chart because it’s basically a divide by zero error. But if we take the commonly held, first market price ever for Bitcoin, which was $0.10, it pencils out to an absurd value. Call it 77,719,900% and leave it there.

It’s not uncommon to hear criticisms of Bitcoin that are simply “all it does is follow tech”.

Yeah, no shit. That’s because it is tech.

The other thing I believe about all this, is Raoul Pal’s theory that after the GFC, the world’s central banks got together and made a deal to never let anything like that happen, ever again.

Which means that central bank balance sheets will grow in perpetuity, and stock market will never have a meaningful bear market – for the remainder of the duration of the current monetary system:

That’s from Raoul Pal’s “Everything Code”, it goes on:

• They don’t understand valuations are a function of debasement.

• They don’t understand why technology rises and valuations can keep rising.

• They don’t understand why crypto is being adopted and is the fastest horse in the race.

• They don’t understand why the dollar keeps rising.

• They don’t understand that energy transition is real and is crucial for the world economy.

• They don’t understand why rates won’t remain high.

• They don’t understand why GPT4/AI is the biggest humanity-scale event since the splitting of the atom.

• They don’t understand why this is all so fucking deflationary. They want their sticky inflation. They will not get it.

• They don’t understand why nothing in their world makes sense.

We understand it. Because we know the cheat code, which is:

Put the chart into logarithmic view.

Look at the X axis.

Then own the assets that are outpacing everything else on that scale.

That’s it.

Get on the Bombthrower mailing list here. Premium members of The Sovereign Capitalist have already received advance copies of my new book: The Blueprint: Survive and Thrive in an Overclocked Timeline – we launch in two weeks, get on the invite list here. Follow me on X here.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 17:30

Canadian Mother Sues OpenAI, Alleging Chatbot Encouraged Daughter's Suicide

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

A Canadian mother is suing OpenAI after its popular ChatGPT chatbot allegedly encouraged her daughter to continue engaging with the app after she revealed suicidal thoughts.

A screen showing the ChatGPT app. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times

Instead of terminating these discussions or flagging her account for safety concerns, ChatGPT allegedly escalated the exchanges in the days before the woman ultimately took her life, according to a press release.

The Social Media Victims Law Center, Tech Justice Law, and the firm Susman Godfrey filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court against OpenAI on June 11 on behalf of Kristie Carrier.

Her daughter, Alice Carrier, 24, committed suicide on July 2, 2025. After reviewing her daughter's devices, Kristie Carrier said she had found extensive conversations with ChatGPT in which her daughter expressed thoughts of self-harm in the months before her death.

In the exchanges, her daughter allegedly told the chatbot that she was feeling isolated and discussed possible suicide methods. The lawsuit accuses ChatGPT of escalating these conversations in the days before the woman's suicide, rather than terminating the exchange or flagging her account "for human intervention," the press release states.

These exchanges allegedly encouraged Alice Carrier to continue engaging with ChatGPT, causing "her further isolation from her human support system and ultimately, suicide," according to a press release.

"If a person came up to me, and they were clearly in distress and sharing their thoughts of suicide, I would be expected to help them, not encourage them to fixate on their depressive thoughts or isolate themselves," Kristie Carrier said in the press release.

"The same should be true of OpenAI. Instead, OpenAI has chosen to put out a product that was unsafe, and that they knew was unsafe but they did so without any concern for the consequences of their choices. Sam Altman can continue to go about his life normally, but my life is missing a child. This is unacceptable," she added.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

This is not the first time, nor the second time, a parent has sued OpenAI, accusing its chatbot of encouraging their child to commit suicide.

Last year, the Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project filed seven lawsuits against the AI giant, claiming ChatGPT had isolated multiple users from their support systems, and in some cases, coached the victims into taking their own lives.

Matthew Raine testified to Congress in September 2025 after suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

Raine alleged that his son, Adam, took his own life after ChatGPT mentioned suicide more than 1,200 times to the 16-year-old. He accused ChatGPT of offering specific methods to his son on how to die by suicide, and continuing to validate and encourage the boy's feelings.

"As parents, you cannot imagine what it's like to read a conversation with a chatbot that groomed your child to take his own life," Raine told lawmakers at the time.

Justin Nelson, a partner at Susman Godfrey, said on June 11 that OpenAI's "deliberate design decisions" led to Alice Carrier's suicide.

"Instead of providing help, OpenAI encouraged suicidal behavior. This lawsuit is about accountability for OpenAI's actions," he said in the press release.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 16:20

Watch: Humanoid Warbot Live-Fires Mortars At Vegas Test Range

It is not just one-way attack drones (read JPMorgan report) operating on AI-enabled kill chains that human soldiers have to worry about on the modern battlefield. We have been laying out this story and were among the first to point out that humanoid robots are not only entering factory floors and warehouses, but are also moving toward the battlefield.

San Francisco-based robotics company Foundation Future Industries is developing a "dual-use" humanoid robot called the "Phantom MK1," designed for heavy manufacturing, logistics, and the military.

The defense angle for the Phantom MK1 is quite simple: replace the human soldier with the robot for close-quarters battle (CQB) operations, including breaching and room-clearing support.

Beyond CQB, a never-before-seen video now shows the Phantom MK1 operating a mobile light mortar system during a live-fire training exercise in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Phantom MK1

To better understand the Foundation's position, we reached out for comment. The company responded with the following statement:

The US military has backed Foundation in over $73M on grants and contracts to develop their robot to this point.

Although many of the use cases they've worked on have been logistics-focused, the ultimate goal has always been kinetic use cases. 

Although drones and UGVs have been promising new robots on the Ukrainian battlefield, humanoids are the only robot being built that promises to interact with the entire fleet and arsenal of human weapons and vehicles. 

Launching mortars and soon breaching doors have become near-term proofs of humanoids moving from logistics to kinetic engagements. 

Watch Phantom MK1

In February, we outlined that humanoid robots would soon move onto the modern battlefield, not just factory floors and warehouses. A little more than a month later, TIME picked up on that reporting. More recently, CNBC followed with a piece titled, "This Trump-linked startup plans to put humanoid robots in the military."

Foundation co-founder and CEO Sankaet Pathak recently said that a humanoid-soldier arms race is "already happening," as Russia and China develop dual-use technology.

Phantom MK1 Holding 9mm Pistol 

"Just like drones, machine guns, or any technology, you first have to get them into the hands of customers," Pathak said.

You're getting a front-row seat to what the 2030s battlefield will look like (read report). 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 15:45

Trump Mulls Farmer Aid As Fertilizer And Fuel Costs Bite

Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is considering support for U.S. farmers struggling with high fertilizer prices, as rising energy costs and market volatility continue to squeeze producers across the farm belt.

A farm field near West Bend, Iowa, on May 6, 2026. Scott Olson/Getty Images

"I am looking at doing a form of help," Trump told reporters at the White House, without giving details.

Farmers face pressure from fertilizer and fuel costs, both of which have been affected by the conflict with Iran and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy and fertilizer trade.

Fertilizer prices have eased from recent highs, with granular urea prices in New Orleans falling to $453.50 per short ton, their lowest level since Feb. 6, reported Bloomberg Green Markets on June 8.

That was down 36 percent from a mid-April peak.

The market remains vulnerable to disruption, particularly because urea is the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer and nearly half of global urea exports come from countries affected by the Middle East conflict.

High fuel prices have also hit farmers.

Diesel prices reached record highs in parts of the Midwest in May, including Indiana and Illinois, due to the Iran war. Grain and soybean farmers are especially exposed because diesel is needed for tractors, combines, irrigation, and crop transport.

The pressure in farming has become a heated political issue in Washington.

At a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on June 10, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) challenged Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over whether Trump administration policies had increased farmers' costs.

"Georgia farmers are telling me that they continue to struggle with high costs, costs exacerbated by President Trump's war in Iran, and his tariffs - which is a tax on all of us on virtually everything," Warnock said.

Warnock said that the administration had lowered tariffs on some farm equipment and asked whether that move was an acknowledgement that tariffs had raised the cost of farming.

However, Rollins defended the administration's record, saying it was working to reduce the agricultural trade deficit.

"We're cutting that $50 billion agricultural trade deficit in half that we inherited a year and a half ago," she said.

Warnock pressed again, asking whether tariffs had increased costs for farmers, saying Rollins was "forecasting" future results rather than answering the question.

Rollins said that the Trump administration is "reshoring fertilizer back to America."

"In two or three weeks, we're going to break ground in Louisiana on what will be the largest fertilizer plant in the world," she said.

In May, farmers called for emergency relief and adoption of key bills to stem soaring fertilizer costs.

"American farmers are price-takers on both ends, paying monopoly prices for inputs they must buy, then accepting commodity prices they cannot control, with no pricing power on either side," Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said during a May 12 Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing.

"That's not a market. It's a trap for the American farmers."

"Simply put, farmers need more competition in this marketplace," South Dakota Corn Growers Association president Trent Kubik said.

"Federal antitrust laws exist for precisely this reason - to promote and sustain competition, the lifeblood of our economy.

"Increased competition for more participants in the fertilizer manufacturing space is the only thing that can deliver meaningful and durable price relief."

The concern is not limited to the United States.

European Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said this week that Europe needs long-term fertilizer solutions to avoid food shortages.

"We need to do our homework as well and address the issues to make fertilizers not only available but also affordable, because, otherwise, there will be food shortages in the European Union," Hansen told Euronews on June 10.

He said many European farmers were considering not planting because production had become too expensive and they could not easily pass on the costs.

Reuters and John Haughey contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 15:10

Former NIH Head Secretly Helped With Paper Dismissing Theory COVID-19 Came From Lab

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Then-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins, around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledged that he secretly assisted with a paper stating the virus that causes COVID-19 "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," according to a newly released missive.

Dr. Francis Collins speaks in Washington on Sept. 9, 2020. Michael Reynolds/Getty Images

"This is work that Tony, Jeremy, Larry, and I helped with, but are appropriately not mentioned explicitly in the paper," Collins said in the March 6, 2020, email to NIH officials, which was released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on June 11.

Tony refers to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through late 2022. Jeremy refers to Jeremy Farrar, at the time the director of the Wellcome Trust. Larry refers to Dr. Lawrence Tabak, an NIH official.

Collins noted the conclusion that stated, "The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered." SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The first COVID-19 cases appeared in Wuhan, China, in 2019, near a laboratory that was conducting enhanced experiments on coronaviruses funded by the NIH.

Collins was responding to an email from Kristian Andersen, one of the authors of the paper, which was titled "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2." Andersen and other scientists said in the paper, published on March 17, 2020, in Nature Medicine, that they analyzed data and concluded that it came from nature.

To date, no natural source has been identified for the virus. The Trump administration maintains the virus came from the Wuhan lab.

The paper did not mention any contributions from Collins, Fauci, Tabak, or Farrar, who made at least one critical change to the document, according to emails released by lawmakers in 2023. It thanked American virologist Michael Farzan "for discussions" and the Wellcome Trust "for support." Nature did not return a request for comment by the time of publication. Collins did not respond to a request for comment.

Collins told lawmakers in 2024 that his role "was for information, not for me to edit," that he never edited or suggested edits to the paper, and that, to his knowledge, neither did Fauci or Farrar. He also said he is not a virology expert.

Change In Stance

Early drafts of the paper had the authors stating that it was possible that the virus came from a lab. In private messages, since made public, the authors also said that characteristics of the virus indicated it was manmade. They have defended the changes in their stances as being driven by evidence.

In the newly released emails, Andersen, who has said that the paper was "prompted" by Collins, Fauci, and Farrar, had written to the trio.

"Thank you again for your advice and leadership as we have been working through the SARS-CoV-2 'origins' paper," he said.

He told them he welcomed comments, suggestions, and questions about the paper, which had just been accepted for publication.

Collins said in a previously released email to Fauci, Tabak, and others in April 2020 that he was wondering whether the NIH could "help put down this very destructive conspiracy," linking to an article alleging the pandemic started in a lab in Wuhan.

"I hoped the Nature Medicine article on the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 would settle this," he said. "But probably didn't get much visibility. Anything more we can do?"

Collins told lawmakers in 2024 that in the email, "I meant that we should do what we can to get the truth out there, as opposed to statements that were reckless and speculative that were not based on evidence." He said that the possibility that the virus came from the lab, whether it originated there or not, was not a conspiracy theory.

Fauci Shared Another Paper

Fauci, who has denied allegations that Proximal Origins was written to disprove the lab origin theory, met on multiple occasions with intelligence officials in 2020 and 2021. James Erdman III, a CIA operations officer, told Paul and other senators in May that Fauci provided a list of experts to whom the intelligence community (IC) should talk, and that the list included the Proximal Origins authors.

"Dr. Anthony Fauci influenced the IC's analytic process and COVID origin's findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC consulted with a conflicted list of curated Subject Matter Experts (SME), public health officials, and scientists," Erdman said.

Fauci has not returned emails seeking comment on Erdman's testimony and the missives Paul just released.

One of those emails showed Fauci wrote to Beth Cameron, a National Security Council official, on July 8, 2021, a day after he took part in a council briefing.

"The article accessible from the link in the subject line above just came out as a 'preprint' yesterday. It is from a group of highly qualified virologists," Fauci wrote. "Please show it to your team. It summarizes what I said yesterday."

The article, titled "The Origin of SARS-CoV-2," included Farrar and Anderson as coauthors. The authors said that there was "currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin" while there was evidence supporting links to animal markets in Wuhan.

Fauci "was pushing the natural-origin story while secretly getting classified briefings on the actual origins," Paul wrote in a post on X. "The American people were told one story. These documents - and a CIA officer's sworn testimony - tell another," he added in a follow-up post.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 14:00

"Swift And Lethal": U.S. Southern Command Eliminates Tren De Aragua Kingpin In Venezuela

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed late Friday that U.S. forces, working in coordination with Venezuelan security services, conducted a kinetic strike on a Tren de Aragua compound inside Venezuela, killing the foreign terrorist organization's leader, Niño Guerrero.

The decapitation strike is part of the Trump administration's Western Hemisphere defense posturing of purging the Americas of transnational narco-terror networks and should put renewed focus on how TdA-linked gangsters are embedded inside the US, thanks to the Biden-Harris regime's nation-killing open orders.

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth.” - President DONALD J. TRUMP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3R5IPxhPXX

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 13, 2026

"Earlier this week, the @DeptofWar — in full collaboration with Venezuelan security forces — conducted a kinetic strike on a Tren de Aragua (TdA) compound in Venezuela. TdA founder & leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, aka "Niño Guerrero," was confirmed killed during the strike," Hegseth wrote on X.

He added, "The operation underscores the shared U.S. and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in our hemisphere. We will continue to work closely with security partners, like Venezuela — and counties in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C) partners — to take the fight to our enemies."

Earlier this week, the @DeptofWar — in full collaboration with Venezuelan security forces — conducted a kinetic strike on a Tren de Aragua (TdA) compound in Venezuela. TdA founder & leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, aka “Niño Guerrero,” was confirmed killed during the…

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) June 13, 2026

Guerrero, 43, had been indicted in New York on racketeering, terrorism, drug smuggling, and related charges. U.S. authorities had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Prosecutors accused him of running TdA like a multinational crime syndicate, including laundering money through crypto, trafficking drugs and weapons, and directing violence across borders.

Federal prosecutors have associated TdA gangsters and affiliates with a sprawling criminal network that includes drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, theft, fraud, extortion, and much more.

Related:

• Democrat Judge Caught Harboring Suspected Tren de Aragua Gang Member

Odd move by Democratic lawmakers... 

• Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine Introduce Bill To Protect Caribbean Drug Traffickers From Trump Strikes

Last month, the Department of Justice said that TdA members and associates had been identified or arrested in Colorado, Tennessee, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Washington, Georgia, Nebraska, Texas, and elsewhere. 

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center recently warned that the TdA presence in the U.S. operates as a decentralized transnational gang network, with more autonomous local leaders and fragmented cells after the group expanded beyond Venezuela and invaded the U.S under open borders.

Along with TdA and the removal of the Maduro regime in Venezuela, the U.S. has been escalating the fight against drug cartels in Mexico.

The U.S.-Mexico cartel fight has shifted from drug interdiction to counterterrorism-style operations, with US military and intelligence support helping Mexican special forces map, isolate, and dismantle command and control nodes of cartels before they can regenerate. Reuters previously reported that U.S. officials wanted Special Operations troops or CIA officers to accompany Mexican soldiers on raids against suspected fentanyl labs, while a newly formed U.S. military-led Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel reportedly aided Mexico's hunt for CJNG boss El Mencho through intelligence and target-package support.

Beyond purging FTOs and drug cartels from the Americas, the Trump administration has also played a crucial part in shifting the political landscape in countries from far-left leaders and unhinged socialists to center or, in Argentina's case, libertarian-right.

Related: 

• The New Battle For The Americas: Why The Western Hemisphere Is Becoming A Global Flashpoint

Trump's emerging strategy is clear: clean up the Western Hemisphere, purge cartels and socialists and Marxists, and ensure China does not gain ground.

One threat assessment question: whether the decapitation strike could raise the risk of TdA-linked retaliation inside the U.S. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 13:25

President Trump Says Iran Peace Deal To Be Signed Sunday, Will Open Strait To All Summary:

• President Trump confirms that he is expecting to sign the US-Iran peace deal tomorrow (Sunday), opening the Strait to all

• Pakistan PM confirms US and Iran have ​agreed to the final text of the agreement

• IRGC continues to push back against deal

President Trump Says Iran Peace Deal To Be Signed Sunday, Will Open Strait To All

President Trump said a long-awaited deal to end the war in the Middle East is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, paving the way for the opening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement issued through Truth Social, President Trump first took a shot at President Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama’s Deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was an easy, beautiful, smooth road to a Nuclear Weapon, which Iran would have had six years ago, and would have used long before now.

Then explained why his deal is different:

My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite, A WALL TO NO NUCLEAR WEAPON!

In fact, they no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement.

The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL.

Building relationships:

Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had.

Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 Billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands.

We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future.

About the nuclear dust:

At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States.

...

Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly.

If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!

Trump's statement, however, ran counter to Iran's foreign ministry which indicated earlier in the day that the deal would not be signed Sunday, according to state media reports.

We shall see...

Iran Peace Deal Signing Expected Within 24 Hours, Technical Talks To Follow, Pakistan's Sharif Says

After Friday witnessed a rare moment of agreement between Tehran and Washington saying that indeed a peace deal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is indeed 'very close' - there's been more color issued by Pakistan.

The country's Prime Minister Shehbaz ​Sharif said that the United States and ​Iran have ​agreed to the final text of the agreement, but that curiously Pakistan is now preparing for an electronic ​signing ​expected ⁠within the next 24 ​hours.

Is this going to be history's first Docusigned peace agreement? 

Sharif further indicated this signing will be followed by ​technical-level ⁠talks this upcoming week - but this is definitely where the proverbial devil will be in the details. 

Contained within the MoU signing will reportedly be an extension of the April 7 ceasefire by 60 days, during which the Strait of Hormuz would gradually reopen - or we should say that this is at least the very optimistic version of things, given that Tehran still insists that its military is in control of the Strait, which the Pentagon has flatly rejected is a a reality.

So Iran is seeking to hold on tightly to its obvious geographic leverage, while the US is rejecting that this is the case at all.

Another interesting possibly point of contention - but which looks to be merely papered over for now - is the status of the nuclear file, which has long been a major point of fierce contention.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made clear Friday Iran's understanding that terms dealing with the country's nuclear program would be finalized in the 60 days after the initial agreement is signed. So in essence, this means Iran could get its wish of pushing nuclear negotiations back, only after the hot conflict has clearly ended. Iran has long sought to separate the issues of a final end to the war from consideration of its nuclear program.

Importantly Araghchi indicated the two sides could extend the 60-day period further, and a yet a lot could go wrong in such an extended interim. Still, it remains that Washington - and certainly the American public - doesn't have the appetite for an escalation that would lead to a boots-on-the-ground scenario complete with full regime change operations (and this means almost inevitable nation-building).

We are closer to a peace deal than ever before. With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical level talks next week.

We would like to thank United States of…

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) June 13, 2026

CNN earlier floated the possibility of peace being firmed up in a formal ceremony held in Geneva. The following Saturday report seems to lend credence to this as an impending scenario:

The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Switzerland expressed hopes of a breakthrough in peace negotiations to end the US war with Iran during a Saturday phone call, according to Islamabad's Foreign Ministry. 

Though no further details were offered, the sides said they hoped the effort would contribute to regional peace and stability.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis reportedly agreed to maintain close contact ahead of talks expected to take place prior to an upcoming G7 summit in nearby Evian, France, from June 15-17.

IRGC and Deep Rifts Remain In iran

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal is again alleging a familiar US narrative - that there are deep rifts within Iran over just how to respond to US deal-making efforts. The question is to what degree the civilian leadership actually holds the power to make final decisions, or also how tight a grip the IRGC holds over this process.

"Iran faces its own political dilemma in selling a deal to hard-liners in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are steadfastly opposed to giving in to Trump’s demands for limits on its nuclear program, especially without upfront concessions from Washington," WSJ writes. "But it has absorbed damage during the war and from the U.S. blockade of the Persian Gulf, pushing Tehran toward an agreement."

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said he discussed the draft MoU with the U.S. in a joint meeting with the Russian and Chinese ambassadors in Tehran. “The strategic partnership between Iran, China, and Russia, will continue with full strength,” Gharibabadi said. pic.twitter.com/8srDtnobyF

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 13, 2026

In the meantime peace and red lines are still being hotly tested:

U.S. forces shot down multiple Iranian one-way attack drones heading toward the Strait of ​Hormuz, a source familiar with the ⁠matter told Reuters ​on Friday, in the latest ⁠military flare-up even as Washington and Tehran cite progress in peace ​talks.

The source, who ‌spoke on condition ‌of anonymity, said the drones had posed a ⁠threat to ‌commercial traffic.

President ⁠Donald Trump had ⁠warned ⁠Iran earlier on Friday against firing ‌more drones at ships attempting to transit ‌the Strait, ​saying ‌Tehran "better get their act together, and FAST!"

Iran's strategy has been to smell blood in the water and capitalize - sensing a bit of White House panic (the longer this drags on... quagmire being a key dreaded word), and so it has an interest in prolonging the economic pain and global energy shock toward exacting a pound of flesh from the Trump administration (so long as the Islamic Republic itself can survive the stand off). 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 13:00

69 Arrested In 'Operation Hands Down' Targeting Central California Gangs

Authored by Cynthia Cai via The Epoch Times,

Authorities announced dozens of arrests, drug and firearm seizures, and thousands of dollars in cash confiscated in a large-scale operation targeting gangs in California's Central Valley.

Suspects arrested in Operation Hands Down. Fresno County Sheriff’s Office

The multi-agency effort, dubbed Operation Hands Down, served 43 search warrants at various locations throughout the San Joaquin Valley, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) stated in a June 10 press release.

More than 500 law enforcement members joined the operation, leading to 69 arrests and the confiscation of 73 guns, 55 pounds of methamphetamine, 3 pounds of cocaine, a small amount of powdered fentanyl, and nearly $165,000.

"This marked the culmination of a two-month undercover operation focusing on Mexican Mafia and Sureño gang members committing various crimes," the CDCR stated.

The arrests are expected to lower the amount of gang violence seen across the Central Valley, the department added.

Among those arrested was Stefan Coronado from Stockton, California, who was identified as a secretary for the Mexican Mafia, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni said during a press conference.

Coronado allegedly oversaw criminal street gang activity within the Fresno County Jail from around 2023 to early 2026, including collecting taxes from inmates, facilitating communications between gang members, and acting as a Mexican mafia representative to influence the Sureño gang.

Police also arrested Eduardo Roberto Garcia, a suspect believed to be a high-ranking and influential Sureño gang member associated with the Mexican Mafia, who is now facing murder charges, Zanoni said.

Zanoni said Garcia is also being charged with assault in a previous case in which he allegedly attacked a female bartender in the city of Sanger and rendered her unconscious. The incident was captured on surveillance camera, according to Zanoni.

"It highlights the violent nature of Garcia and his gang activities," said Zanoni. "The investigation significantly disrupted organized Sureño criminal street gang activity throughout Central California while exposing the continued influence of the Mexican Mafia over both street-level criminal operations and violence occurring within our custodial facilities."

Additionally, eight Sureño gang members currently being held in the Fresno County Jail have been charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and gang enhancements for their alleged involvement in two separate stabbing attacks inside the facility, he said.

The operation also helped law enforcement uncover evidence related to previous cases in the Central Valley region, including a gang-related shooting, robberies, and a 2023 murder case.

During the operation, police detectives found gang members as young as 14 years old involved in illegal firearms sales across multiple counties.

"If you engage in violent criminal gang activity in California, we will come for you, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law," said Attorney General Rob Bonta at the press conference.

Bonta thanked federal and local law enforcement partners for collaborating on the operation.

The Fresno District Attorney's office stated that 15 cases have been filed so far in connection with the operation, involving suspects ranging in age from 15 to 42.

The charges include murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, drug and firearm trafficking, illegal firearms possession, and sex offenses, according to Assistant District Attorney Steve Wright.

All suspects arrested as a result of Operation Hands Down are expected to appear in court as prosecutors proceed with their cases while their criminal charges are under review.

"This activity reached well beyond Fresno County and was a significant threat to all our communities," said Siddhartha Patel, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Sacramento Field Office. "This is a united effort, all of us. Today's announcement demonstrates the impact we can have when we work together."

Patel encouraged anyone who has information regarding gang activity to contact the FBI by visiting tips.fbi.gov or calling 1-800-225-5324.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 12:50

Court Denies SBF's Last-Ditch Effort To Toss Conviction, Leaving Trump As His Only Hope

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will remain in PMITA prison for the foreseeable future, after a federal appeals court rejected a hail-mary attempt to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence on the grounds that he didn't receive a fair trial. 

A three-judge panel on Friday unanimously refused to toss his 2023 guilty verdict, which SBF's attorneys argued was tainted by improper evidentiary rulings and a biased judge - which is hilarious because Judge Lewis Kaplan is a Clinton-appointed judge who oversaw the E. Jean Carroll v. Trump Bergdorf Goodman 'fingering' trial - where despite Carroll not being able to remember the year it allegedly happened, and the Jury ruling "no" as to whether Trump raped Carroll, Kaplan went leeroy jenkins and awarded her $5 million.

"The government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust," Judge Barrington Parker wrote for the panel.

As the Epoch Times notes further, Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a New York jury in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the collapse of FTX, once one of the world’s largest digital-asset trading platforms.

The company collapsed in a matter of days in November 2022 after reports about the financial ties between FTX and Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm also founded by Bankman-Fried. Those reports showed that Alameda held a large amount of FTX’s own token, raising questions about the company’s financial stability and triggering a wave of customer withdrawals.

The collapse sent shockwaves through the broader crypto market, driving the total value of digital assets down from an all-time high of about $3 trillion in late 2021 to roughly $800 billion by the end of 2022.

Federal prosecutors described Bankman-Fried’s scheme as one of the largest financial frauds in American history. They said the evidence showed that while he assured investors, regulators, and the public that FTX customer funds were safe, he secretly transferred billions of dollars from customer accounts to Alameda and other entities.

Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried then used those funds to make investments unrelated to FTX customer deposits, cover Alameda’s losses, and finance other spending, while falsifying business records to conceal the transactions.

He was later sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.

His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling comes as Bankman-Fried has formally submitted a pardon request to President Donald Trump, according to information posted on the Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney website.

The exact date of the filing is unclear, but the website states that a request for a “pardon after completion of sentence” was submitted in 2026 and remains pending.

In an interview with Fox Business from prison earlier this week, Bankman-Fried said he “absolutely” wants a pardon, though he acknowledged that the decision is “ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on that matter.

Trump, meanwhile, said in a January interview with The New York Times that he was not interested in pardoning a list of high-profile figures that included Bankman-Fried. When asked about Bankman-Fried, Trump replied, “I don’t know him at all.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 12:15

India Caps Fuel Sales To Avoid Shortages

Submitted by Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

India has imposed limits on gasoline and diesel sales at retail fuel stations to avoid supply crunches, with commercial consumers banned from buying any fuel from retail stations, Bloomberg reported, noting there will be daily limits on diesel sales.

The diesel cap was set at 200 litres per vehicle or customer, with resale of the fuel forbidden, Reuters noted in a report on the news. Commercial users, meanwhile, will have to get their fuels from bulk sellers after their rush to retail fuel stations drained some of them. Fuels are cheaper at retail stations to shield consumers from the oil price shock.

The limits will be in effect for an initial period of 90 days, per the government order that instituted them. They can be canceled earlier, however, the document also said.

Since the war in the Middle East began and cut off over 40% of India’s crude oil flows, those that passed through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the highest-flying economies in Asia, have seen their oil import bill soar, investors fleeing the capital market, and the local currency plunging to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar.

As a result, the world's third-largest crude importer saw its wholesale inflation jump to 8.3% in April from a year earlier, significantly accelerating from 3.88% annual inflation in March, driving wholesale fuel prices higher. These surged in April, with gasoline prices up by 32.4% and diesel prices up by 25.19%. That’s up from a monthly rise of 2.5% for gasoline in March, and 3.62% for diesel. For May, inflation is seen rising by 4% as a result of the energy price surge, with wholesale inflation soaring by over 9%.

Because of the energy flow disruption, India ended a four-year freeze on fuel prices, hiking them four times in the space of a single month.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 11:40

Northeast Heat Wave Arrives As World Cup Matches Get Underway

As the World Cup starts, a prolonged spell of summer heat is expected to grip New York and much of the Northeast through the end of the week and into the weekend.

Daytime temperatures are forecast to reach the 90s across several major cities, while high humidity will make conditions feel even hotter, according to Bloomberg.

Forecasters expect the most intense heat on Thursday and Friday, when heat alerts will be in place across large parts of the region. Multiple cities along the East Coast could see daily temperature records challenged or broken as the unusually warm air mass spreads across the area.

The timing coincides with the start of several FIFA World Cup matches in the Northeast, including games scheduled in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. While temperatures are expected to ease somewhat after sunset, spectators and athletes may still face hot and uncomfortable conditions during evening events.

Bloomberg writes that the heat is also expected to drive up electricity consumption as households and businesses rely more heavily on air conditioning. Transportation networks could experience disruptions as well, since extreme temperatures can affect rail infrastructure and overhead power systems, leading to slower train service.

Elsewhere, a separate weather system is creating risks across parts of the Midwest. Forecasters have warned that strong thunderstorms could bring damaging winds, large hail, isolated tornadoes, and localized power outages, potentially affecting travel and other infrastructure.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 11:05

Anthropic Blocks Foreign Access To Fable 5, Mythos 5 After U.S. National Security Order

About four days after Anthropic released Claude Fable 5, a next-generation "Mythos-class" AI model, the frontier AI lab led by Dario Amodei revealed late Friday that it was disabling foreign customers' access to these cutting-edge models, citing an export-control directive from the federal government.

"The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees," Anthropic wrote on X around 9 p.m. ET.

The AI lab's website stated that the federal directive was received around 5:21 p.m. ET. To ensure compliance, the lab was forced to shut off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all customers.

Anthropic continued, "The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance. Access to all other Claude models is not affected."

The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees.

The net effect of…

— Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) June 13, 2026

Anthropic pointed out that it understands the government's concern centers on a potential method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking," Fable 5.

Dario's company laid out some of Fable's safeguards:

• We have instituted strong safeguards that greatly reduce the likelihood that Fable is misused for tasks related to cybersecurity (among others). In fact, our safeguards are so strong that many users have complained that they are overly broad.

• In the weeks leading up to the launch of Fable, Anthropic worked with the US government, the UK AISI, multiple private third-party organizations and internal teams to red-team Fable's safeguards for thousands of hours in total.

• These tests showed that Fable's safeguards are substantially more effective than those of any previously deployed model.

• No testers have yet been able to find a universal jailbreak—a jailbreak method that can very broadly bypass the model's safeguards, unblocking a wide range of cyber capabilities.

• We suspect that perfect jailbreak resistance is not currently possible for any model provider. Every safeguard used in the industry is vulnerable to non-universal jailbreaks (which can elicit some cyber information in specific circumstances), and it is likely that universal jailbreaks will eventually be found in the future. We stated this clearly when we released Fable 5.

• Given that perfect jailbreak resistance does not appear to be possible today, Anthropic adopted a defense in depth strategy with Fable 5. We aimed to make jailbreaks either narrow (in the case of non-universal jailbreaks) or very expensive to produce (in the case of universal jailbreaks), and to combine this with thorough monitoring to quickly detect and shut down any successful attacks. This is also why Anthropic has required 30-day retention of customer data with Fable—a policy change that carries real costs for us with customers, but that allows us to research and mitigate jailbreaks.

• We stand by this defense in depth strategy. It reduces the risks posed by Fable, making them comparable to the risks of existing models already deployed across the industry.

• We have not even received a disclosure of a concerning non-universal potential jailbreak that led to a harmful result. The potential jailbreaks that have been disclosed to us are either entirely benign responses or are minor findings that provide no Mythos-specific uplift.

Jailbreak concerns already out in the X universe? 

this is definitely what got fable banned https://t.co/3b0rmIIdLe

— Wes Winder (@weswinder) June 13, 2026

Last week, shortly after Tuesday's Fable release, BMO analyst Brian Pitz told clients, "We maintain that Anthropic is the leading pure-play AI lab, combining best-in-class model intelligence with its cutting-edge, benchmark-leading Claude Fable 5 frontier model released June 9, 2026; with clear commercial traction and momentum in its enterprise offerings."

Pitz said, "Anthropic's strengths are particularly evident in coding, agents, and enterprise, where Claude has emerged as a leading model powering tools such as Claude Code and Cowork, both of which have scaled rapidly. This reinforces the company's advantage in translating model intelligence beyond benchmark performance into viable, real-world applications—what we view as the next key battleground in AI."

The release of Claude Fable 5 prompted Pitz's team to declare, "While it is too early to crown a winner among foundation models, we see Anthropic and OpenAI as the leading pure-play AI labs today."

Read Pitz's note here.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/13/2026 - 09:55