Zero Rss

DEA Seized 47 Million Fentanyl-Laced Counterfeit Pills In 2025

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confiscated more than 47 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills and almost 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2025.

Just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose. Courtesy of the DEA

The seized narcotics are equivalent to 369 million lethal doses of fentanyl, according to an announcement made by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in an Aug. 21 post on X as part of the National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day. So far this year, the total fentanyl seized by the DEA represents more than 239 million deadly doses.

"Just 2 milligrams - smaller than a grain of salt - can kill. This Justice Department is committed to combating the fentanyl crisis and keeping Americans and our communities safe," the post said.

In an Aug. 21 statement, the DEA asked the public to remain aware of the threat fentanyl poses to American communities, highlighting that the synthetic opioid is around 100 times more potent than morphine and about 50 times more potent than heroin.

Mexican cartels CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel are pressing fentanyl into counterfeit pills with a similar appearance to prescription medications such as Xanax, oxycodone, and Percocet. The criminal groups are also mixing fentanyl with cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. Both Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG were designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations last year.

According to the DEA, many people who were poisoned with fentanyl didn't even know they were ingesting the substance. The department asserted that the only safe medications are those coming from accredited and licensed medical professionals.

"Parents are often the first line of defense in protecting our children from the dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills," Farhana Islam, DEA New York Enforcement Division special agent in charge, said in the statement. "A single conversation can provide the knowledge that saves a life."

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, for fiscal year 2026 through July, the agency has seized 9,600 pounds of fentanyl. In the entirety of fiscal year 2025, 12,000 pounds were confiscated.

In a May 13 statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that synthetic opioids such as fentanyl accounted for the largest share of deaths by drug overdose in the United States last year. Psychostimulants, including meth, were in second place.

China Fentanyl Supply

According to a September 2025 report from the Government Accountability Office, most of the fentanyl trafficked into the United States comes from Mexico, and the chemicals and equipment used to manufacture narcotics come from China.

The Trump administration has taken action to stem the outflow of fentanyl precursors from China. In November 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press briefing that Beijing has reportedly committed to restrict the export of 13 fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

In December 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Trump warned that adversaries were trafficking fentanyl into the United States, partly to kill Americans.

"They're trying to drug-out our country," Trump said. "You can look throughout history. Look at China when they were loaded up with drugs; they were suffering greatly, and others were able to take them over.

"No bomb does what this is doing," Trump said.

Trump said there has been a 50 percent decline in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border, highlighting that Beijing has been working with Washington to cut down smuggling of these narcotics.

In June, Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) said during a House subcommittee hearing on the Chinese communist regime's role in the fentanyl crisis that Beijing subsidizes the export of at least 17 deadly chemicals that have zero legal use.

When China announces restrictions on one precursor chemical, manufacturers in the country simply shift to another precursor, according to Kim.

"Why does Beijing allow these factories of death to remain open? Because the Chinese Communist Party sees strategic value in America's suffering. It has repeatedly chosen geopolitical leverage over human life," she said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 21:45

Scandal-Plagued KPMG To Cut Australian Workforce Following Government Contract Suspension

A major consultancy firm under fire for misconduct in its audit business is cutting its local workforce following a suspension from applying for new government contracts.

KPMG’s U.S. headquarters at Two Manhattan West. Photo via Emily Louick Photography and Entropy Film Works Inc.

KPMG - one of the "Big Four" accounting firms alongside Deloitte, PwC, and EY - revealed on Aug. 24 that its annual revenue dipped 1 percent to $2.26 billion (US$1.62 billion) in fiscal 2026. The firm also warned of a rocky road ahead, with new CEO John Sams noting, "We expect difficult market conditions to continue in financial year 2027 and beyond."

A combination of soft market conditions and a continued drop in government reliance on consultants drove a 16.9 percent revenue decrease in KPMG's consulting business. However, the firm saw growth elsewhere, with revenue for its audit and assurance and its tax and legal arms rising 11 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively.

Following a review of its operating costs and the fallout from recent conduct and whistleblower controversies, KPMG will cut its workforce by 5 percent. The reduction will primarily impact the consulting and business services divisions, eliminating 27 partner roles and approximately 360 employees.

Despite overall revenue falling short of expectations, Sams noted that four out of the firm's five businesses grew. "This result reflects the resilience of our business and, above all, the commitment of our people in a very challenging year," he said. "We will continue to monitor performance closely, act when needed and consider carefully how the firm needs to be set up for the future."

The firm's leadership will not escape the financial hit, however, with average equity partner remuneration plunging 13 percent from the previous year.

KPMG is currently banned from bidding on federal government contracts until at least the end of September, pending the finance department's review of its conduct. Several state governments have similarly put the firm on ice.

The firm has been engulfed in an audit leak scandal since facing a federal parliamentary committee hearing in June. During the inquiry, it was revealed that some executives had misused confidential board papers - including Lendlease documents used to support audit bids for Westpac and Dexus - to win new work and mistreated a whistleblower who had raised concerns. Labor Senator Deborah O'Neill aired the allegations in parliament, and the firm was referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

The scandal has already ousted numerous executives, including former CEO Andrew Yates and chair Martin Sheppard. Sams confirmed that several internal and external reviews will wrap up in the coming months.

"Their findings will inform the next phase of our action plan and help ensure we take all necessary action," Sams said. "We know there is more to do."

KPMG currently holds 297 active federal contracts worth $653 million.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 21:20

Macroeconomic Data Is Really A Tool For Government Intervention

Authored by Frank Shostak via Mises Institute,

It is common for commentators and economists to refer to something called the "economy," which sometimes performs well and, at other times, poorly. The "economy" is presented as an entity apart from individuals. Within this framework, the "economy" is assigned paramount importance, while the role of individuals is barely mentioned. It must be realized that, at no stage, does the so-called "economy" have a life of its own, independent from individuals.

According to this way of thinking, the "economy" produces goods and services. Once the output is produced by the "economy," what is required is its distribution among individuals in the fairest way.

In reality, goods and services are not produced in totality. Every individual is preoccupied with his own production and consumption of goods and services. Consequently, there is no such thing as the total real national output. Furthermore, it is not possible to establish the total real output given that, arithmetically, we cannot coherently add potatoes to tomatoes (i.e., heterogeneous goods). All that we could establish is the numerical amount of money spent on goods and services (i.e., the monetary turnover). The employment of the average price metric to convert the monetary turnover into the real output does not solve this issue since the average price cannot be meaningfully established.

For example, suppose two transactions are conducted. In the first transaction, one loaf of bread is exchanged for $2. In the second transaction, one gallon of milk is exchanged for $1. The price, or the rate of exchange, in the first transaction is $2 for one loaf of bread. The price in the second transaction is $1 one gallon of milk. In order to calculate an average price, we must add these two ratios and divide them by two; however, it is conceptually meaningless to add $2 exchanged for one loaf of bread to $1 exchanged for one gallon of milk. This in turn means that various macroeconomic indicators compiled by government statisticians are detached from the real world.

Consequently, various policies to influence an undefined entity-the "economy"-via undefined indicators inflict damage to the well-being of individuals. Even government statisticians admit that the whole thing is not real. According to J. Steven Landefeld and Robert P. Parker from the Bureau of Economic Analysis,

In particular, it is important to recognize that real GDP is an analytic concept. Despite the name, real GDP is not "real" in the sense that it can, even in principle, be observed or collected directly, in the same sense that current-dollar GDP cannot in principle be observed or collected as the sum of actual spending on final goods and services in the economy. Quantities of apples and oranges can in principle be collected, but they cannot be added to obtain the total quantity of "fruit" output in the economy.

By lumping the values of final goods and services together, government statisticians concretize the fiction of an "economy" by means of GDP statistics and other economic indicators. Once the "economy" is concretized, policymakers could navigate the "economy" along the growth path that is considered by the experts as desirable.

Thus, whenever the growth rate slips below the outlined path, government and central bank policymakers are expected to give the "economy" a suitable push by means of fiscal and monetary policies. According to Rothbard,

Bureaucrats as well as statist reformers. . . in order to get "into" the situation that they are trying to plan and reform, they must obtain knowledge that is not personal, day-to-day experience; the only form that such knowledge can take is statistics. Statistics are the eyes and ears of the bureaucrat, the politician, the socialistic reformer. Only by statistics can they know, or at least have any idea about, what is going on in the economy.

Moreover,

. . .one of the major reasons put forth for government intervention is that it "corrects" the market, and makes the market and the economy more rational. Obviously, if the government were deprived of all knowledge whatever of economic affairs, there could not even be a pretense of rationality in government intervention. Surely, the absence of statistics would absolutely and immediately wreck any attempt at socialistic planning.

The "Hampered" Environment and Macro-Economic Data

To succeed in a hampered market environment, entrepreneurs tend to respond to prevailing conditions, which are influenced by central bank and government policies. A businessperson cannot afford to ignore changes in various economic indicators such as GDP given that government and central bank officials react to changes in these indicators. For instance, if the central bank is expected to tighten its monetary stance in response to a strengthening in the GDP, a businessperson must take this into account in order to succeed in his business.

Note that the government-in order to construct various economic indicators-collects the data from businesses that are allocating resources to supply the government with the information. The construction of various economic indicators generates employment opportunities for economists and experts in other fields such as mathematics and statistics. These experts are employed not only to compile various economic data; they are also employed to interpret the data and provide guidance to businesses.

Do We Need to Know Macroeconomic Data in a Free Market Environment?

In a free market environment-free of government and central bank interference with businesses-it does not make much sense to measure and publish various economic indicators. This type of information will be of little use to entrepreneurs.

In a free market environment, what possible use can an entrepreneur make of information about the growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP)? Alternatively, what possible use can be made out of the data showing that the national balance of payments has moved into a deficit or a surplus? According to Rothbard,

The individual consumer, in his daily rounds, has little need of statistics; through advertising, through the information of friends, and through his own experience, he finds out what is going on in the markets around him. The same is true of the business firm. The businessman must also size up his particular market, determine the prices he has to pay for what he buys and charge for what he sells, engage in cost accounting to estimate his costs, and so on.

The only indicator to which entrepreneurs should pay attention to is profitability in their concerned activity. The higher the profit, the more a particular business activity is in tune with consumers' highest priorities.

Paying attention to consumers' wishes means that entrepreneurs have to organize the most suitable production structure for that purpose. The information on various macroeconomic indicators will be of little assistance in this regard.

What an entrepreneur requires is not general macroeconomic information, but rather specific information about consumers' demand for a product or a range of products. Government-aggregated macro-indicators will not be of much help to entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur would have to establish his own network of information concerning a particular venture. If a businessperson's assessment of consumers' demand is correct then he will make a profit. An incorrect assessment will result in a loss.

The profit-and-loss paradigm penalizes those businesses that have misjudged consumer's priorities and rewards those businesses who have exercised a correct appraisal. Hence, by the profit-and-loss framework, resources are withdrawn from those entrepreneurs who misjudged consumer's priorities to those entrepreneurs who accurately appraised consumer's priorities. According to Mises,

Thus, profit and loss are generated by success or failure in adjusting the course of production activities to the most urgent demand of the consumers.

We have seen that the construction of various economic indicators generates employment opportunities for economists and experts in other fields such as mathematics and statistics.

These experts are employed not only to compile various economic data, they are also employed to interpret the data and provide guidance to businesses. However, in a free unhampered market, businessmen in the pursuance of their goals are unlikely to require macroeconomic indicators. Therefore, there would be little interest in the services of economists, statisticians, and mathematicians in a free unhampered market.

Conclusion

Macroeconomic data is employed by government and central bank policymakers to navigate the so-called "economy" towards the growth path that was set by the policymakers. As a rule, this navigation culminates in the boom-bust cycle menace and a weakening in the process of wealth generation. By lumping the values of final goods and services together, government statisticians concretize the fiction of an "economy" by means of GDP statistics and other economic indicators.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 20:55

Is ICE Investigating Ilhan Omar? Trump 'Truths' Report On Withheld Fraud-Probe Records

President Donald Trump drew fresh attention to a long-running controversy on Sunday when he reposted a Just the News article on Truth Social headlined "ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing 'enforcement proceedings.'" His decision to amplify the report, without comment, renewed scrutiny of allegations that have dogged Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for years - though ICE's response stops short of confirming she is personally the target of any active proceeding.

The Trump administration has said for months it possesses evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud. What has remained unclear is whether that evidence translates into an indictment, a denaturalization proceeding, or nothing at all.

Just the News filed a Freedom of Information Act request in January 2026 for records related to Omar's marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a man whose identity, evidence suggests, is that of her brother. ICE's response cited a specific legal exemption rather than denying or providing a timeline. "ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A)," the agency wrote. "Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

Department of Justice guidance requires a two-step showing before an agency can invoke it. "First, there must be a 'reasonable likelihood' of a pending or contemplated law enforcement proceeding," the guidance states. "Second, release of the information must be reasonably expected to cause some articulable harm to that proceeding." ICE cleared both hurdles by its own estimation; whether that estimation holds up matters more now that the president has amplified it himself.

While no court has established as fact that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar's brother, the most detailed public claim comes from the government of Somaliland. This territory, which split from Somalia in 1991, claimed back in March that Omar's original last name was Elmi before it was changed, and that this evidence "was available, but the Obama Justice Department refused to investigate."

The allegations that Omar married her brother first surfaced during Omar's 2016 campaign for a seat in the Minnesota House, alongside a separate claim that she remained legally married to her first husband when she married Elmi.

Omar was born in Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1995. She applied for a marriage license with Ahmed Hirsi in 2002 but never married him civilly, only through a Muslim ceremony. The two separated in 2008. Omar married Elmi the following year, then split from him in 2011 through another Muslim divorce. She resumed her relationship with Hirsi in 2012, a year before she won her seat in the Minnesota House. Omar did not file for a formal divorce from Elmi until 2017, and she married Hirsi civilly in 2018, sixteen years after they first applied for that license.

Omar's campaign denied both allegations against her. "Allegations that she married her brother and is legally married to two people are categorically ridiculous and false," said then-campaign spokesman Ben Goldfarb.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 20:55

"Buffers Running Down Quickly": HSBC Warns Next Global Food Shock Brewing

Warnings on Wall Street about a confluence of stressors building deep within global agricultural supply chains are growing louder by the week, raising the risk of a food crisis next year.

JPMorgan analysts warned last week that the next global food crisis "won't be short-lived." HSBC analysts sounded a similar alarm, pointing to tightening grain supplies, El Niño, disruptions at maritime chokepoints, and a supply "squeeze" sending grain prices soaring.

HSBC economist Jamie Culling, who covers Australia, New Zealand, and global commodities, published a note Tuesday titled "Food Prices Rising Due to the Weather and Wars," warning that the supply squeeze is already showing up in spot markets. Cereal prices, including wheat, corn, barley, and rice, rose 22% year over year through July.

"Having strong supplies and stocks going into this year has helped keep prices from spiking higher, but the buffer is now starting to be run down quickly," Culling warned clients.

Culling continued:

Supply 'squeeze' underway

Agricultural supply chains face a number of shocks, including the impact of the Middle East conflict, a recent escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war and extreme weather events, including a Northern Hemisphere heatwave and strengthening El Niño. Having strong supplies and stocks going into this year has helped keep prices from spiking higher, but the buffer is now starting to be run down quickly.

On the USDA's latest forecasts, global grains production is expected to fall to be below consumption in 2026/27, its first shortfall since 2020/21 and largest shortfall since 2006/07. Stock-to-use ratios are set to tighten, alongside a fall in crop yields.

Agricultural prices have risen. Grains prices are up 22% y-o-y, and some 'finer foods' prices, such as cocoa and coffee, have spiked higher too.

The Middle East conflict has been a key disruptive factor for agricultural commodities (see Fertiliser, food, and the Middle East conflict, 17 April 2026). The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has continued to constrain fertiliser and sulphur supply, and kept broader input cost pressures elevated. Export restrictions from some economies in response to this 'squeeze' have been another source of pressure.

The recent escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war has seen a sharp drop in shipments from the Black Sea. The region supplies nearly a third of global wheat trade and one-fifth of global fertiliser trade, so this represents a key risk to supply, just as grain harvests are ramping up. Damage to refineries in Russia has also lifted diesel prices.

The weather has also been a big factor, with Northern Hemisphere heatwaves, an intensifying El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole posing downside risks to agri-commodity supply. The impact of previous El Niño episodes varies by region and commodity, but yields tend to decrease and prices increase. Weather-related risks have seen cocoa prices spike 50% in the past few months and lifted coffee prices. Weather risks can also deliver non-linearities, such as more disease outbreaks.

We see supply-side issues continuing to dominate developments in agricultural commodity prices, meaning risks of higher prices on average, increased price volatility, and greater instances of food insecurity in the coming period.

Professional subscribers can read the full note "Food prices rising due to the weather and wars" here on our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 20:30

Limits On Border Patrol Arrests In California Lifted By Federal Appeals Court

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

A federal appeals court on Aug. 24 rescinded a preliminary injunction that limited U.S. Border Patrol stops and arrests in California's Central Valley.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a federal district court failed to properly analyze whether the plaintiffs had standing to seek forward-looking relief based on alleged harms in the past.

Standing refers to the right of someone to sue in court. The parties must show, among other things, a strong enough connection to the dispute to justify their participation in a lawsuit.

The Ninth Circuit sent the lawsuit challenging immigration detentions back to the district court to allow it to revisit its legal analysis after that court issued a preliminary injunction limiting U.S. Border Patrol's ability to stop and arrest people.

The new ruling, which does not dismiss the lawsuit itself, is a tactical win for the Trump administration because it eliminates - for now - a preliminary injunction that limited Border Patrol's ability to stop and detain people. The appeals court sent the case back to the federal district court for a limited do-over on the question of standing.

The lawsuit concerns Section 1357(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows Border Patrol agents to make warrantless arrests only if they have reason to believe two things: that the person is in the country unlawfully, and that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. The plaintiffs in the case took the position that the agents made arrests without properly assessing whether people were actually flight risks.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued on behalf of the plaintiffs, the United Farm Workers of America and several farm workers, arguing that over a three-day period in Kern County, California, in January 2025, Border Patrol unlawfully detained individuals - including day laborers - without having a reason to believe they were likely to escape before a warrant could be issued. The enforcement project was known as Operation Return to Sender.

Residents of Bakersfield and the vicinity "started disappearing" in "the middle of citrus harvesting season," and this alarmed local residents who contacted the ACLU, the group said in a summary.

In a federal class action, the ACLU argued the Border Patrol was using "a cruel tactic to strip people of their right to an immigration hearing and coerce them instead into agreeing to "voluntary departure," which carries with it a ban on returning to the United States for up to 10 years.

In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston granted a preliminary injunction covering the Eastern District, which is California's Central Valley.

The order prevented Border Patrol from stopping people in violation of the Fourth Amendment or arresting them unless officers comply with federal law. The injunction required that to carry out an arrest, the officers must have a reasonable suspicion of unlawful presence in the country.

On appeal, the federal government argued that the district court only looked at past events in Kern County. Instead, the court should have looked at whether the same unlawful stops and arrests were likely to happen again soon, the government said.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the government was correct when it said that the district court failed to engage in the "correct standing analysis before granting preliminary prospective injunctive relief."

The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the Border Patrol, hailed the new ruling.

"This is a good outcome, and it reinforces our confidence in related cases - like [Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem], which raises similar claims and where we've already prevailed once at the Supreme Court," a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

In that case, in September 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily put on hold a lower court order restricting immigration stops in Southern California.

The court did not issue a formal opinion, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence saying the plaintiffs did not have standing to pursue a forward-looking injunction. He said that past unlawful stops do not by themselves prove a real and immediate threat that the same individuals will be stopped again in the same way.

The Epoch Times reached out to the ACLU for comment. No reply was received by publication time.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 20:05

Bluetooth Glitch Exposes Alibaba's Secret Tracking Of Users, Developer Says

A San Francisco-based developer discovered that Alibaba Group's AliExpress marketplace secretly hijacked his computer's audio system through hidden browser scripts, allowing the website to run inaudible sound waves at zero volume to create "fingerprints" used to track devices without relying on cookies. 

The privacy-focused Brave browser revealed in a series of X posts that the AliExpress marketplace was keeping the developer's computer audio system active through hidden browser scripts, potentially allowing the website to generate a unique identifier for his device.

The issue emerged when the developer's Bluetooth headphones refused to transfer their audio connection from his computer to his phone while AliExpress was open. A deeper dive of the website's code showed background scripts maintaining access to the computer's audio-processing system without producing audible sound.

The scripts allegedly used the browser's Web Audio API to process signals at zero volume. Small differences in how individual computers handle those signals can be measured and combined into an "audio fingerprint," allowing websites to recognize devices even when cookies are deleted or blocked.

Alibaba's AliExpress was caught using users' audio systems to track them.

AliExpress wasn't recording users but instead playing a silent sound and measuring how users' specific devices processed it in order to fingerprint them.

But don't worry because Brave stops this.

— Brave (@brave) August 22, 2026

The developer also found that the scripts collected other device characteristics, including available memory, screen dimensions, and network information.

Here's what Brave found:

1. Alibaba's AliExpress was caught using users' audio systems to track them. AliExpress wasn't recording users but instead playing a silent sound and measuring how users' specific devices processed it in order to fingerprint them.

2. Fingerprinting is a way that websites can identify you without cookies. Sites will note details about your device like your screen size or installed fonts. These details are then combined into a unique, persistent "fingerprint" that can be used to track you across the Web.

3. There are slight variations in how each device plays the same audio file due to differences in CPU, sound card, browser, etc. When AliExpress played the silent sound, it measured these small variations to help build fingerprints of users' devices.

4. This tracking was discovered due to an unexpected side effect. A user with Bluetooth headphones noticed they couldn't play music on their phone because the headphones were instead playing AliExpress's silent sound from their PC.

Brave turned what it found into a sales pitch for its browser:

1. For 6+ years, Brave has protected users against audio fingerprinting, and other fingerprinting types, by default. Brave injects random data into the browser's output so you show a different fingerprint to different sites. This fingerprint also resets across sessions.

2. Trackers are constantly finding new ways to fingerprint your device, so Brave keeps adding new protections. We recently added defenses against GPU fingerprinting, which stops sites from identifying you with your graphics card or drivers.

The findings raise new questions about browser fingerprinting, a stealthy way that uses silent audio processing for covert tracking. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 19:40

Judge Rules For Doctor Who Prescribed Ivermectin For COVID-19

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A doctor's lawsuit against Maine's medical board can proceed, a federal judge has ruled.

An order from the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine that Dr. Meryl Nass undergo a psychological evaluation for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19 was "based on no evidence or process," including no probable cause, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said in an Aug. 20 decision.

"In judicial proceedings, at a minimum probable cause findings ordinarily are required to justify pretrial impositions. In this case, as alleged, the Board dispensed with preliminary proceedings altogether," Walker wrote.

The process appeared to have "lacked any safeguards to protect against agency zeal and resembled investigatory action imposed, somewhat ironically, in the absence of evidence rather than the initiation of an impartial, sober, thoughtful judicial process designed to assess the truth of facts to arrive at the existence of probable cause to justify such a sanction," he also said.

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

"I am happy to report that I will eagerly move forward with the legal case to clear my name and defend the free speech right of medical practitioners to tell the truth to their patients, especially if it goes against government or medical orthodoxy," Nass said in a blog post.

Maine's medical board in 2022 suspended Nass's license after receiving a complaint from a person who was not her patient that the doctor was spreading misinformation about COVID-19 because she noted that people who recovered from the illness had protection against re-infection.

Board members also took issue with how Nass prescribed ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient and lied to a pharmacist about why she prescribed hydroxychloroquine to another patient. It was for COVID-19, not for Lyme disease.

The board ordered Nass to undergo a psychological evaluation in order to get her license back, among other conditions. State law only authorizes such an order when a licensee "may be unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of mental illness, alcohol intemperance, excessive use of drugs, narcotics, or as a result of a mental or physical condition interfering with the competent practice of medicine," Walker noted in the new ruling.

"The record before the Board did not include any suggestion or information that Dr. Nass suffered from drug or alcohol abuse or a physical condition, suggesting that, if anything, the Board considered Dr. Nass's opinions to be the product of not independent thought but a mental illness or mental condition," he said. "Alternatively, the imposition of this sanction would suggest that the Board was making an example out of Dr. Nass."

The Maine Superior Court previously voided the psychological evaluation order, concluding it was arbitrary and capricious.

After that court ruled, Maine's medical board asked the federal court in Maine to throw out Nass's lawsuit.

Walker sided with the board regarding its actions apart from the evaluation, finding members enjoyed immunity for their conduct during the hearing on the allegations against Nass and for their determination to suspend her license.

But the case can move forward regarding the psychological evaluation order, he said.

"The scope of what remains of Dr. Nass's claims will need to be addressed in later proceedings but includes, at a minimum, the requirement that she submit to a psychological evaluation," the ruling stated.

Nass told The Epoch Times in an email that her license remains suspended because the board imposed conditions that would have prevented her from practicing independently, including requiring her to send her charts regularly to the board for review.

"The reason I wanted a license was so that if another pandemic happened, I would be able to provide the appropriate care to patients as I saw fit, which might not be what the government recommended," Nass said. "Since the conditions the Board imposed precluded that, I did not seek to regain the license, which remains suspended."

Nass also said she recently moved to New Hampshire.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 19:15

Dear Truck Owners: Secure Your Tailgates

First, thieves were cutting catalytic converters off petrol-powered vehicles because of the valuable platinum, palladium, and rhodium inside the exhaust systems, which convert toxic engine gases into safer emissions. Now, it appears thieves are targeting trucks in one part of the country, not for precious metals, but for entire tailgates.

CBS affiliate KHOU 11, which serves Houston, Texas, recently reported on a vehicle-parts theft ring targeting trucks for their tailgates.

The outlet interviewed a Texas truck owner whose tailgate had been stolen. While searching Facebook Marketplace for a replacement, he stumbled across something unexpectedly familiar: his own tailgate.

The finding led Harris County Precinct 4 deputies to recover eight stolen tailgates from an apartment garage in Harris County, situated in the northwestern part of the Houston metropolitan area, and arrest two 27-year-old men.

Investigators said the owner had placed unique markings on the tailgate before it was stolen, allowing deputies to verify that the item advertised online belonged to him.

“Our complainants had some unique markings on the tailgate that we were able to verify belonged to the complainant,” Harris County Precinct 4 Capt. Jonathan Zitzmann said.

YouTuber WhiteFace Ford reported the tailgate theft problem in Texas in a viral short video titled "The Tailgate Theft Problem Hitting South Texas Truck Owners." 

The Tailgate Theft Problem Hitting South Texas Truck Owners Hard

In San Antonio they are stealing tailgates and tail lights, and a replacement tailgate can cost up to $3500. Any anti theft protection?#FordTrucks #WhitefaceFord #DealershipSecrets pic.twitter.com/6S77NLAv7S

— Whiteface Ford (@Jon_Galland) August 16, 2026

Thieves Steal Tailgates in Minutes and Here Is How to Stop Them

The Omaha Bravo Designs kit installs in under an hour, blocking access to the tailgate cable and tail light screws with security hardware.#FordTrucks #WhitefaceFord #DealershipSecrets pic.twitter.com/JS3Im0cP1G

— Whiteface Ford (@Jon_Galland) July 31, 2026

Beyond the Texas tailgate theft, we reported earlier this month that criminals were stealing entire outdoor HVAC units, prompting some homeowners to install metal cages.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 18:50

"The Magic Deportation Bus": US Prepares For Largest-Ever Mass Visa Revocation In History

Shortly after AP News reported Monday evening that the Trump administration was preparing the largest mass visa revocation in US history, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, the White House posted a meme on X spoofing the animated series The Magic School Bus and renaming Ms. Frizzle's vehicle "The Magic Deportation Bus."

Please let this be a normal field trip... pic.twitter.com/YkhmpEQpvb

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 24, 2026

The report states that the State Department is expected to announce the rolling cancellation of B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026. The revocations will be coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to identify affected visa holders.

"We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told the outlet.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X, "People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims. Asylum isn't supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law."

BREAKING: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that district courts CANNOT block immigration enforcement actions based solely on allegations against ICE agents.

Fire up the deportation planes!! 👋 pic.twitter.com/2kJe4wSUUm

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 24, 2026

Revocation would not automatically result in deportation. Foreigners with pending asylum cases would generally remain in the immigration system but lose their classification as legitimate business or tourist travelers.

Over the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked roughly 175,000 visas involving alleged criminal conduct, national security concerns and, in some cases, public opposition to US foreign policy.

In July, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a record 51,000 illegal aliens. Deportations for the year stand at 356,389.

Something big is about to happen with deportations in America. You should be ready for this…

I just spoke with a senior DHS official. They shared deportation numbers with me that frankly stunned me.

+27,000 deportations. Last week.

+3,600 a day average.

Tracking for 1.4… pic.twitter.com/FBKboHnmt4

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 19, 2026

Meanwhile, Democrats continue to die on the hill of defending criminal illegal aliens, even though the vast majority of Americans support deporting illegal aliens who commit crimes.

BREAKING; DHS confirms to @FoxNews that a suspect arrested by police in Loudon County, VA on Thursday for selling fentanyl to students near a high school that had overdoses is a Salvadoran illegal alien who was caught and released at the Texas border during the Obama… pic.twitter.com/Um39SoTSP8

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 24, 2026

Milton Friedman ... 

Precisely articulated https://t.co/xAVg4WN7DH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2026

At the same time, the party's far-left wing, led by the Democratic Socialists of America, is openly promoting an agenda that would effectively eliminate borders and invite an even larger wave of illegal immigration. 

The consequences of uncontrolled mass migration are absolutely nation-killing, as Europe is discovering the hard way. The resulting public backlash is now driving what Nomura describes as Europe "lurching right" ahead of the coming 18-month election cycle. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 18:00

Report: Taxpayers Funding $230 Million In Federal Grants Tied To 'Intersectionality'

Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,

The federal government has awarded about $230 million to programs referencing "intersectionality," with much of the funding originating during the Biden administration, according to a new report from two policy groups.

The Defense of Freedom Institute and Legal Insurrection Foundation identified 249 federal assistance records that used the term "intersectionality," an ideological framework that examines race, sex, class and other characteristics in assessing discrimination and privilege.

According to the report, about $140 million has been spent, while another $90 million remains obligated. Funding surged during former President Joe Biden's administration, peaking at $80.1 million in 2023, before declining under President Donald Trump.

Some grants remain active through 2030, and roughly 100 of the 249 awards identified by researchers appear to be ongoing.

"Amazingly, we have discovered that the federal government has been funding the Intersectionality movement," William Jacobson, founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and a Cornell Law School professor, told the New York Post. "This has to stop."

The grants encompass projects ranging from medical research to universities, museums and community programs. In some cases, intersectionality was one component of research receiving federal support rather than the primary purpose of the grant.

Among the awards highlighted was nearly $11 million to the New Hampshire Department of Health for cancer prevention and control programs. The program targeted populations experiencing health disparities, including what it described as an "intersectionality of gender and income inequality."

Other examples included $8.16 million to New York University for a diabetes equity research center and $14.25 million to Drexel University for a program intended to increase diversity among faculty studying health disparities.

The report's authors warn that embedding intersectionality into federal programs could encourage recipients to make decisions based on race and other protected characteristics while disguising those practices in academic terminology.

"This report shows just how deeply intersectional ideology has become embedded in the federal grant-making apparatus," Defense of Freedom Institute President Robert Eitel said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 17:40

'I Thought It Would Rise Forever'; World's 'Craziest' Stock Market Suddenly Faces Billion-Dollar Outflows

Over the past few months, we have been closely following the chaos (rise and fall) in a once only marginally-monitored market on the other side of the world.

Namely, the AI/chip-driven KOSPI rally and subsequent sharp unwind concentrated in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix...

• “From FOMO To Oh No! Koreans Face Massive Forced Liquidations As AI Bubble Bursts” (June 9, 2026) - Aggressive leveraged retail buying of Samsung and SK Hynix (via margin and new single-stock 2x ETFs) turned into forced liquidations and a self-reinforcing sell-off as the AI-fueled KOSPI correction accelerated.

• “AI Winners Unwind Sparks Panic In South Korea As SK Hynix Suffers Record Plunge, KOSPI Dumps” (July 13, 2026) - SK Hynix suffered a record one-day plunge (~15%) after its big U.S. ADR debut, sparking a broader memory/storage sell-off that drove the KOSPI down nearly 9% and triggered a market-wide trading halt.

• “Korea’s Two-Stock Market Just Blew Up” (July 29, 2026) - KOSPI crashed hard (down ~11% in one session and over 18% in two days, with a >30% monthly loss in July), as leveraged retail bets and margin debt in the two dominant chip stocks (Samsung and SK Hynix) unwound violently.

And while the headlines (as the index was exploding higher day after day) have slowed, no lessor establishment entity than The Wall Street Journal has decided the numbers aren't enough - the notional trillions lost on the leverage-maxxing malarkey - we need a human story to bring it home as just how insane these manias can get (and oddly more frequently than you'd think, in South Korea).

They headline their story: "The World's Craziest Stock Market Has Turned Into a Fright Ride" to give you a sense of the fun ahead...

After tripling in the months prior, the Kospi plummeted around 40% over six weeks in June and July, burning hundreds of thousands of investors - a sober warning to those betting big on the AI industry. The roller-coaster ride has continued: The Kospi has since rebounded about 20% from its low.

Meet Yoon Jae-Yi, a 30-year-old English teacher, who lost $19,000, prompting her to cut her living expenses - fewer taxi rides, less travel.

Skipping meals, she tells herself, doubles as a diet.

Yoon Kyung-min, a 44-year-old sound engineer, said he still can’t believe the financial disaster of the past two months.

After quitting his job, he had invested half of his severance pay into semiconductor stocks and saw $7,200 evaporate in a week. 

“If my wife finds out, I will be in serious trouble,” said Yoon, who says he confessed only to a bit of bad luck without giving details.

Yoon thought the market “would rise forever,” he said.

“The volatility is just too severe. This isn’t sound investing. It’s a gambling table, a casino,” said 68-year-old Jung Eui-jung, who heads the Korea Stockholders’ Alliance, a group representing the country’s roughly 14 million individual investors.

Many individual investors, like Jake Cheong, a 30-year-old accountant in Seoul, got hung out to dry. 

He invested $29,000 or so into a leveraged ETF tracking the firm. The added leverage meant that if SK Hynix’s stock fell, Cheong’s losses would be compounded. Then came the crash.

As of Friday, his position has fallen 69% to roughly $9,000.

“My hard rule used to be that when too many people seem to be boasting about their stock gains, we’ve probably hit the peak,” Cheong said.

“But FOMO got the better of me.”

Lee Ka-young, a 25-year-old software developer, said she lost all the money she made when stocks soared this year. 

“I got greedy,” Lee said. “I kept thinking, what if it climbed even higher after I cashed out?”

Her investments multiplied so fast—and vanished so quickly—it felt “like it was all a dream,” Lee said.

Investors (if that's what you would term them) now blame South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration for loosening regulations to allow such potentially lucrative, high-risk funds.

His government has since put in place stricter rules around trading the ETFs with the aim of helping curb market volatility. 

And that 'curbing' has led to South Korea’s leveraged ETFs tied to chipmakers seeing outflows near $1 billion this month as investor fervor over the AI trade cooled and regulators stepped up measures to curb demand.

Leveraged products tied to Samsung Electronics recorded outflows of $381 million so far in August, while withdrawal amounted to $601 million for those tracking SK Hynix, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

That would mark the first monthly outflow since their late-May launch.

And finally, if you were wondering, it's not over yet as every rebound in Samsung or SK Hynix is met with a wave of buying once again as 'chasers gonna chase'...

...although we'd note there has been considerably more two-way action.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 17:20

A Teachers' Union Hits The Wrong Target

Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,

The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is the largest teachers-only public pension system in the country, with more than $400 billion in assets under management. As of December 31, 2024, CalSTRS directly held three-quarters of a million shares of Target Corporation, worth more than $100 million.

If one were to add in the Target holdings of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (the second and third-largest teachers-only plans in the country, respectively), then the total value of shares owned would jump by another $60-plus million. Add in the remaining state teacher retirement systems, plus the city systems of Chicago, Denver, Kansas City (Missouri), New York City, St. Louis, and St. Paul, and the total value of Target shares directly held by teacher pensions is well into the multiple hundreds of millions, at the very least. Add in the value of indirect shares held through various index funds and ETFs, and teacher retirement plans hold literally billions of dollars' worth of Target stock. Given all this, it's more than fair to say that Target is a key component of teachers' pension portfolios and, as a result, the company's long-term success is directly linked to American teachers' retirement security.

And yet...

This past weekend, the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers' union in the country and likely the most prominent, launched a new campaign urging parents and students to boycott Target for back-to-school supplies and clothes. Randi Weingarten, the politically active and politically connected president of the AFT, released a video detailing the boycott and explaining why it is, in her eyes, an absolute moral imperative to teach Target a lesson. According to an AFT press release, "The 'Shop Smart, Support Working Families' campaign was created in response to Target's refusal to condemn the unlawful Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that continues to roil communities around the country." Weingarten herself complained that "We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors, but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening."

The AFT is angry at Target because Target and its executives didn't do what the union wanted: make its political fight their fight. And it's actively trying to damage the company because of that refusal.

Taken together, these two facts - teachers' pensions hold considerable equity in Target, while teachers' unions are purposefully trying to harm the company - say quite a bit about the state of markets and politics in the country at the moment and suggest a handful of lessons that can and should be learned by outside observers.

The first thing this strange confluence of circumstances tells us is that people, in general, neither understand what a publicly traded corporation is nor fully grasp its purpose. Corporations are, as a rule, portrayed in our popular media and perceived by most average Americans as far-off, distant, heartless organizations run by and for rich people. In truth, publicly traded corporations like Target are owned by their shareholders, the overwhelming majority of whom are just ordinary folks - like teachers - who are trying to save for their retirement. Public pension plans, 401(k)s, IRAs, etc., are the primary savings vehicles for most "investors." The perception of investors as a bunch of "fat cats" on Wall Street who own everything and manipulate everything for their benefit is largely a myth, and it has been for decades. You, your spouse, your kids, your mom and pop, and their small business are the majority of investors and, by extension, the majority of owners of most corporations.

There is no doubt that a significant disconnect exists between the owners of corporations (principals) and those who run them on the owners' behalf (agents). This is a longstanding concern that has prompted much discussion, consternation, and even confrontation over the decades. Moreover, with so many owners - literally millions of people - many opinions on how best to run the company exist, and those opinions often and passionately conflict with one another. Given this, basic rules governing the conduct of the agents exist and are updated constantly. This is what's known as "governance." The most famous description of foundational principles of governance, designed to secure the interests of all shareholders, was provided by the economist Milton Friedman:

In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.

That's it. That's what corporate executives are supposed to do. That's how they are meant to treat their shareholders - by providing them a return on their investment. That's the fundamental principle of governance: produce returns for all investors.

Unfortunately, some people think that their opinions, wants, and desires are more important than other people's right to earn a return on their investment. They think that corporations exist to serve their ends and to accommodate their political beliefs and ambitions. Even more unfortunately, many of these people have been encouraged to think this by the very corporate "agents" who know better and who have moral and legal obligations to the contrary.

In August 2019, for example, the Business Roundtable (BRT) - a nonprofit organization whose members are the CEOs of the largest corporations in the United States - issued a declaration called a "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation." In it, the 181 signatories proclaimed that they and their corporations were dedicated to being less focused on shareholders and more focused on stakeholders. The chairman of the Roundtable at the time was Jamie Dimon, the CEO and chairman of the largest bank in the world (by market cap). "The American dream is alive," Dimon lamented, "but fraying." He implied that only the executives of the world's biggest companies (the agents to their tens of millions of principals) could save the American Dream. More to the point, he implied that they could only do so by redefining the purpose of a corporation. "These modernized principles reflect the business community's unwavering commitment to continue to push for an economy that serves all Americans."

Every CEO who signed that document alongside Dimon (and Larry Fink from BlackRock, Tim Buckley from Vanguard, Brian Moynihan from Bank of America, Michael Corbat from Citigroup, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, etc., etc., ad nauseam) is responsible for sowing confusion among the people, for encouraging people like Randi Weingarten to think of Target as a tool to accomplish her goals. These CEOs may not fully agree with this declaration they issued seven years ago, and they may wish they hadn't signed the BRT's now-infamous statement, but that doesn't change the fact that they did sign it and that by doing so they gave Weingarten and countless others the impression that corporations were the appropriate vehicle for their political aspirations.

Ironically, one of the signatories of that document was a man named Brian Cornell, who was then the CEO of Target. Cornell retired from the CEO role earlier this year but remains the company's executive chair. Even more ironically, Cornell was hardly the first of Target's executives to play politics with the company's resources and reputation. As I have noted elsewhere, Target has a long history of getting involved in matters that are beyond its business purview. Indeed, Target has a well-earned reputation as a social-justice-compliant company - which is probably why Weingarten is so upset that it has resisted her entreaties. The lesson here is that "no good deed goes unpunished" (no matter how broadly one defines the word "good"). Once you decide to ride the social-justice wave, it can be nigh on impossible to bail on that wave before wiping out. The folks at Target are undoubtedly learning this lesson the hard way.

The nation's teachers are learning that lesson the hard way as well, whether they realize it or not. They are part-owners of the company that Weingarten and the AFT are trying to damage over politics. Indeed, it's almost certainly the case that Weingarten herself is a part-owner of Target and, as such, is damaging her own pension returns. Of course, the catch here is that as an individual shareholder, Weingarten is free to make her own investment decision for whatever reasons she sees fit. As the president of a teachers' union, however, she has certain obligations. She is not legally a fiduciary steward of her constituents' pension funds, but she does have tremendous influence over those who are fiduciaries. The AFT's Trustee Council openly concedes that it has more than 50 members on 27 different pension boards. Additionally, the union produces a variety of materials meant to influence fiduciaries on their responsibilities to union members and beneficiaries. Randi Weingarten's hands may be legally clean, but her house is a mess. She's harnessed the power of her union and of teachers more generally to fight against a company of which they are all part-owners. That is the very definition of self-defeating.

In the end, this is what happens when people forget - or ignore - the nature of capital markets and publicly traded corporations. No one, it seems - not the AFT, not the BRT, not the massive asset management firms that control more than $25 trillion in other people's money - thinks of corporations as what they really are: the collected savings of tens of millions of ordinary people. They think of corporations as the means to their ends, not the ends of their true owners.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 17:00

Approval Of Trump's Presidency And The War On Iran Hit New Lows

Americans' approval of the US-Israeli war on Iran has reached another record low, pulling Trump's approval rating down with it, to the worst reading of either of his two terms in office, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The new findings also show likely spillover effects for the November midterms that will benefit Democrats seeking to retake the majority in Congress.  

18 US service members have died in Trump's war on Iran, and more than 700 others have been wounded or injured (AP)

Early on, the Trump administration claimed his war of choice would be over in a matter of a few weeks. On Friday, it will have been going on for six months with no resolution in sight. With the war keeping gas prices far higher than they were before Trump teamed up with Israel to launch a surprise attack on Iran in the middle of ongoing negotiations, Americans are increasingly taking a dim view of the war, while also overwhelmingly pessimistic about how long it will last. Eighteen US service members have died, and 774 have been injured or wounded. Thousands of Iranians have been killed. 

In the new poll that reflects sentiments recorded through Monday, 63% of Americans disapprove of military strikes on Iran, with only 31% approving. Most Republicans still support the war, but the popularity on that side of the aisle has eroded too: 69% support the war now, compared to 77% in March, shortly after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu started the war on Feb. 28.  Fully 90% of Democrats oppose the military attacks on Iran, along with 67% of independents. Despair rules: About 83% of Americans think the war will last "for an extended period of time," against only 12% who think it will be wrapped up in weeks.  

Like cement shoes he put on himself, the war on Iran is steadily pulling Trump's popularity to new lows. Only 33% of surveyed Americans approve of Trump's overall performance, the worst level that Reuters/Ipsos has observed over either of his two administrations.

Trump isn't up for re-election in November, but the stakes are sky-high for him in the midterms. A Democratic takeover of either the House or Senate will spawn any number of investigations of his administration and the Trump family's side business transactions. A takeover of both chambers would carry the prospect of Trump being impeached and removed from office. Here, the poll brought more bad news for Trump and the Republican Party. In the so-called "generic ballot" question that asks which party they're likely to vote for in their House race, 35% of Americans said they'd pick a Democrat, compared to 29% who said a Republican. Sixteen percent "don't know" and another 16% don't plan to vote.   

While the Trump administration is consumed by the war, a 22% plurality of Americans say the most important problem facing the country is "the economy, unemployment and jobs," followed by 13% who said "threats to democratic values and norms," and 11% who said "corruption."  Along those same lines, 66% disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. 

In other survey readings: 

• Likely 2028 presidential contenders JD Vance and Marco Rubio have similar favorability ratings: 34% for Vance and 32% for Rubio. However,  41% have a "very unfavorable" regard for Vance vs 30% for Rubio. 
• 69% say America is off on the wrong track, vs just 16% who say it's heading in the right direction.
• 58% say US foreign policy is on the wrong track, more than double the 23% who say "right direction"

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 16:40

Only 35% Of Women Under-25 Have Positive View Of Men; Survey Finds 'Heteroflexible' Is The Fastest Growing Sexual Orientation In America

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Our culture is being transformed at a pace that is difficult to comprehend. The numbers that I am going to share with you in this article paint an undeniable picture about where our society is heading. That doesn’t mean that the trends that we are witnessing now are permanent. We have been through so many societal pivot points in recent decades, and it is probably inevitable that there will be more. But without a doubt there have been some very clear long-term cultural shifts that have radically changed how we relate to one another and to the world around us.

Earlier today, I came across a survey about how men and women view each other that absolutely shocked me…

As expected, we found that there are significant divides between young men and young women – but they are not just confined to political views. Gen Z women are more left wing than their male peers when it comes to politics and economics. This generation of women is also much more pessimistic about the country and their own lives than men, and substantially more negative towards men than the men are towards women. Seventy-two per cent of men under 30 say they have a positive view of the opposite gender, compared with just 50 per cent of women of the same age. Thirty-eight per cent of men say they feel “very positively” towards women, while only 18 per cent of women say the same about men. This trend is particularly pronounced among women under 25, of whom just 35 per cent feel positively towards men.

Read that last sentence again.

The survey discovered that only 35 percent of women under the age of 25 have a positive view of men.

How is that even possible?

This survey was conducted in the UK, but I am sure that it would have produced similar results if it had been conducted in the United States.

As I thought about this, it occurred to me that what we are witnessing is likely the result of decades of conditioning.

Men are almost always the villains in our movies and television shows.

When a family is depicted on screen, it is almost always the father that is the problem.

And even in our commercials, men and women are characterized very differently.

Once you become aware of this phenomenon, you will literally see it everywhere.

These days, much of the population considers men (especially young men) to be threats unless proven otherwise, while most women are considered to be trustworthy unless proven otherwise.

Of course it is undeniable that our society is absolutely teeming with criminal predators at this point, and if you trust the wrong person you and your family could get hurt very badly.

The thin veneer of civilization that we all rely on is disintegrating all around us, and that is a terrible thing.

Meanwhile, our values regarding sex and sexuality are rapidly changing.

According to the most recent Gallup poll on the matter, 9 percent of U.S. adults now identify as LGBTQ+…

Gallup finds 9.0% of U.S. adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight or heterosexual in 2025. The percentage has more than doubled since Gallup first measured LGBTQ+ identification in 2012.

That is quite a high number, but the real story is what is occurring among our young adults.

According to that same poll, 23 percent of U.S. adults under the age of 30 now identify as LGBTQ+…

Young adults are far more likely than older adults to identify as LGBTQ+. Twenty-three percent of adults under 30 and 10.4% of adults aged 30 to 49 are LGBTQ+, compared with about 2% to 3% of older Americans.

I was curious, and so I had Google create a graph that shows how this number has changed since Gallup began asking this question in 2012.

The results were staggering…

The percentage of U.S. adults under the age of 30 that identify as LGBTQ+ has nearly quadrupled since 2012.

That is not just a trend.

That is a tsunami.

And there is a huge gender gap.

Only 11.4 percent of men under the age of 30 identify as LGBTQ+, but a whopping 31.4 percent of women under the age of 30 do…

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to identify as LGBTQ+ (10.5% vs. 5.6%, respectively), a gap driven primarily by women’s higher rates of bisexual identification. Gender gaps are especially pronounced in the youngest generation — 31.4% of women aged 18 to 29 versus 11.4% of men in the same age group identify as LGBTQ+, with most of these younger women saying they are bisexual.

Nearly a third of all women in the United States under the age of 30 now identify as LGBTQ+.

That may help to explain the survey results that I discussed at the beginning of this article.

And the vast majority of Americans that identify as LGBTQ+ consider themselves to be bisexual…

Bisexual adults make up the largest share of the LGBTQ+ population at 58.6%, equivalent to 5.3% of all U.S. adults. Beyond that, 17.4% of LGBTQ+ adults say they are gay, 16.0% identify as lesbian, and 12.1% say they are transgender, all ranging between 1% and 2% of U.S. adults overall.

This is a point that is often lost when people debate these issues.

Bisexual adults make up the biggest portion of the LGBTQ+ population by a very wide margin.

But now another segment is rapidly growing.

The number of Americans that consider themselves to be “heteroflexible” has been absolutely exploding.

If you are not familiar with “heteroflexibility”, the following explanation comes from Health.com…

Heteroflexibility is a sexual orientation that describes people who are primarily heterosexual but occasionally experience attraction to people of the same sex, according to Debra Laino, DHSc, a clinical sexologist and relationship therapist in Delaware.

People who are mostly attracted to a different gender but also feel some attraction to the same gender fit the definition of heteroflexible.

“Heteroflexible, like most labels, means different things to different people,” Casey Tanner, a clinical sex therapist in Chicago, told Health. “It comes up most of the time when a person identifies as mainly straight with a slight propensity towards queerness in certain circumstances.”

For most of my adult life, I had never even heard of this term.

But according to the New York Post, experts believe that 15 percent of the U.S. population is now “heteroflexible”…

It is estimated that a staggering 15% of the US population — that’s 50 to 55 million Americans — now identifies as heteroflexible.

Those numbers seem high to me.

I have a hard time imagining that there are 50 million “heteroflexibles” out there.

But of course the dating world is far different now than when I was young.

One dating app is actually reporting that the number of their users that identify as “heteroflexible” increased by 193 percent in just one year…

Feeld, a dating app for those seeking alternative relationship structures, recently released its annual Raw report, providing a look at the preferences that shape contemporary intimacy. According to the findings, heteroflexibility is the fastest-growing sexuality, with the number of practitioners skyrocketing by 193% over the past year.

Clearly this is a label that is gaining a tremendous amount of steam.

Nobody can deny that America is a completely different place than it was 50 years ago.

And it would be completely and utterly unrecognizable to our founders.

So much can change in just one generation.

The young adults of today are the future of our society, and that has enormous implications for all of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 16:20

Amazon's New Warehouses May Process Packages 2.5 Times Faster With Far Fewer Workers

Amazon is developing a new warehouse concept aimed at automating one of the most stubbornly manual parts of online retail: preparing a chaotic mix of packages for the final trip to customers’ homes, according to Business Insider.

Known internally as Project Tetromino, the proposed facilities would sit at the end of Amazon’s logistics network. Packages would arrive from fulfillment centers and then be sorted, temporarily stored, placed in delivery order and staged for drivers with far less human involvement than at current delivery stations. The name appears to reference the geometric pieces in Tetris, an appropriate metaphor for the difficult task of arranging parcels of different shapes and sizes into limited storage space and delivery vans.

According to an internal planning document reviewed by Business Insider, Amazon had considered spending $103 million on a pilot facility in 2028, followed by five additional stations in 2029 and another 10 in 2030. The five facilities planned for 2029 were estimated to cost roughly $85 million each, which would take the project’s cumulative investment beyond $530 million by the end of that year. The proposed system was expected to handle packages at approximately 2.5 times the rate of Amazon’s existing delivery-station design.

Insider writes that one possible component of the project is technology from Boxbot, an AI-powered logistics robotics company. Its system takes packages from conveyor belts, moves them into storage trays and then uses software to arrange their release in the sequence needed for delivery. Boxbot says this approach can make the vehicle-loading stage as much as 10 times faster, although that is the company’s own performance claim and is not necessarily Amazon’s projection for Tetromino as a whole.

The concept forms part of Amazon’s much broader effort to automate its shipping network. The company has already said it expects to more than double the number of robotic arms it operates during 2026. Other logistics companies are moving in the same direction: FedEx is using AI-equipped Dexterity robots to load trailers, while UPS and DHL have deployed robotic systems for unloading freight.

Amazon cautioned that Tetromino remains an early-stage idea, however.

A spokesperson confirmed that the company continues to test technologies intended to improve safety and the customer experience, but disputed the reported spending estimates and construction schedule, saying the figures in the internal document no longer reflected its current plans. So while the project offers a window into Amazon’s automation ambitions, the proposed investment and rollout should be treated as preliminary rather than settled.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 15:40

Washington Backs Brazil's Serra Verde Mine In $1.55 Billion Rare-Earth Push

The U.S. Department of War has announced a $750 million investment aimed at securing long-term supplies of critical rare-earth elements from Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in central Brazil, as Washington accelerates efforts to reduce its dependence on China for strategically important minerals, according to a DOW press release out this week. 

The investment, announced Aug. 24 through the department’s Economic Defense Unit and Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, will support an offtake agreement for mixed rare-earth carbonates produced by Serra Verde. It forms part of a broader $1.55 billion financing and purchasing structure that also includes a $300 million commitment from the Defense Logistics Agency and $500 million from a major commercial bank.

The release says that the agreement is intended to give the U.S. and its allies more reliable access to dysprosium, terbium, neodymium and praseodymium.

These elements are crucial inputs for high-performance permanent magnets used across advanced defense systems, including fighter aircraft, nuclear submarines, guided missiles, satellites and drones. They are also increasingly important to electric transportation, energy infrastructure, aerospace and electronics.

China currently dominates several stages of the global rare-earth supply chain, particularly processing and magnet manufacturing. U.S. officials have consequently made the development of alternative “mine-to-magnet” supply chains a national-security and industrial-policy priority.

“By partnering with Serra Verde, we are taking a decisive step to break our adversaries’ near-monopoly on rare-earth elements,” Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy Mike Cadenazzi said in the announcement.

The latest commitment follows a separate $565 million financing agreement for Serra Verde’s Pela Ema project through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Together with efforts by the Department of Commerce to expand domestic magnet manufacturing, the investments point to a broader strategy: securing raw materials from allied and partner countries while building enough processing and manufacturing capacity to keep strategically important supply chains outside Chinese control.

If successful, the Serra Verde initiative could become an important piece of that strategy. Rather than simply funding additional mineral production, Washington is using financing, government purchasing commitments and private capital to create guaranteed demand for a non-Chinese source of rare earths, helping underpin an alternative supply chain from the mine through to the advanced magnets used in both military and commercial technologies.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 15:20

Trump Says All Mines Cleared From Strait Of Hormuz, Warns Military Options Still On Table

President Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to declare that all mines have been removed from the Strait of Hormuz - it what seems yet another attempt to declare all is well at a moment Washington has shifted from prior military operations to an economic 'strangulation' and siege policy targeting the Islamic Republic.

“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” the President wrote on Tuesday. "Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect."

So while there is a temporary calm for now, also with Iran not having targeted foreign vessels in at least the last couple days, Trump is essentially saying military options remain on the table.

Below is the text of the full Truth Social Post [emphasis ZH]:

I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. Through Space Force, we are watching every square inch of the Strait, as we are, also, with Pickaxe Mountain and the already destroyed three other Nuclear sites. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

US officials along with reports in Axios and other outlets have touted US Navy assistance for a steady small 'stealth' stream of tankers still transiting the Strait each day with fighter jet monitoring operations near the Omani coastline.

Axios claimed for example that last week 15 million barrels of oil exited the waterway on a single day.

But some maritime monitor organizations and pundits remain skeptical, and the situation is muddied given that many ships must turn off their transponders if they choose to risk the passage, which for months has been subject to attack by Iranian drones and missiles.

This summer, for the first time in history, Trump threatened to bomb Muscat over negotiations with Tehran, given Iran has asserted that the Oman-brokered Hormuz management plan cuts the US out of the process.

Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst: "If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them."

We have two different things being said (again):

1. POTUS: "all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz"https://t.co/A3Wfjn91KI

2. JMIC: "Navigation interference persists, and mine-risk reporting remains relevant… https://t.co/CtajLe21Vq pic.twitter.com/N8Q1d56z8R

— Charlie B (@supbrow) August 25, 2026

Coupled with this is Bessent's rollout on Monday of details of an economic 'D-Day' against Iran, saying that the country will be completely isolated from the world economy, and threatening secondary sanctions against any third party country that doesn't comply.

The big question remains whether Washington would actually go after China over violation of the new Iran restrictions, especially given China's President Xi Jinping is set to be hosted at the White House, just weeks away.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 14:40

Here's How AI Is Impacting America's Mental Health Crisis

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times,

When Americans are feeling down, instead of calling a mental health professional, a growing number are reaching for their keyboards. Artificial intelligence chatbots have become confidantes, sounding boards, and even substitutes for therapists. Some say this could have a significant impact on the U.S. mental health crisis.

This shift is unfolding against the backdrop of a substantial mental health burden in the United States. An American Psychiatric Association poll revealed 62 percent of respondents reported high levels of anxiety. Meanwhile, the online mental health care provider Innerwell revealed that more than 61 million U.S. adults reported a mental health condition in 2024.

Almost half of them did not receive any treatment.

So what happens when the 24-hour availability of AI chatbots steps into the treatment void? Well, some care providers say that the outcome will be a mixed bag on its best day.

Others think the habit of turning to AI for mental health support will eventually change the nature of human relationships.

"People are increasingly outsourcing emotional labor - flirting, apologizing, repairing, expressing vulnerability - to AI," Luis Maimoni, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told The Epoch Times.

Maimoni said AI chatbots can feel supportive, but also take the "human out of human relationships."

"Some people do form attachments to chatbots, but that's not the part that worries me most. The bigger issue is population-wide: when enough people stop practicing relationship skills, those skills naturally fade," he said.

In his experience, Maimoni said turning to AI chatbots for comfort affects couples, families, and kids. He also believes this will eventually take a toll on the next generation.

"If we lose our ability to connect with each other and the world around us, we lose one of the things that makes us most human," he cautioned.

Maimoni's concerns are supported by the fast-growing trend of supplementing human interactions with AI in difficult situations. In a survey of more than 1,200 licensed psychologists, researchers at the American Psychological Association found that 39 percent of care providers have discussions with patients who use AI to self-diagnose.

The same study noted that 35 percent of care providers' patients were using AI as an "additional mental health professional."

Echo Chamber Effect

On the one hand, professional care providers say AI could offer new ways to reach people who lack access to traditional treatment. However, the technology's expanding role with nuanced, even intimate conversations with human operators also comes with considerable risks.

"One of the most important distinctions in mental health care is the difference between validation and agreement. As a therapist, I might tell a client that I understand why an experience felt frightening without agreeing that their interpretation of what happened is necessarily accurate," Dr. Susan Johnston told The Epoch Times.

Johnston is a Florida-based, licensed mental health counselor and the founder of Human AI Dynamics. She said good clinical work often involves "validating the emotion" of a patient while leaving room for reality testing, uncertainty, and other explanations.

She pointed out that, for the moment, most AI chatbots don't operate with this level of discernment.

"A chatbot can sometimes blur that distinction because maintaining a supportive conversation may result in repeatedly mirroring the user's interpretation back to them," she said. "For someone who is already vulnerable, the response can begin to feel like independent confirmation."

Consequently, if a person is struggling with a mental health condition, they may end up drawing the conclusion "even the AI agrees with me," according to Johnston.

"Something designed to make a person feel heard can then unintentionally strengthen a belief that might instead need to be questioned or explored more carefully," she said.

Dr. Michelle Harris, a licensed social worker and doctor of behavioral health, shares this perspective.

"One concern is that prolonged chatbot use can create a kind of closed feedback loop," Harris told The Epoch Times.

Harris has more than 20 years of experience in mental wellness and is the founder of Anew Health Solutions. She said someone who is already experiencing paranoia, delusional thinking, mania, severe depression, or suicidal thoughts may return to the same fears or beliefs repeatedly. AI could then continue reinforcing that framework instead of recognizing that someone's mental state is spiraling.

"A clinician is assessing much more than the words someone says. We are considering history, behavior, functioning, risk, changes over time, nonverbal cues, medication, sleep, support systems, and whether a person's interpretation of reality appears to be changing. A general-purpose chatbot does not have that full clinical picture," she explained.

Harris added mental health organizations have specifically cautioned that AI tools may engage "unsafely with vulnerable users."

"If someone says, 'I believe people are following me and I am terrified,' I can acknowledge that the fear feels very real and frightening without agreeing that people are actually following them. In mental-health care, compassionate support sometimes has to exist alongside gentle challenge, further assessment, or reality testing," she said.

A May study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions supports these concerns. The researchers stated clinical observations point to a link between intensive chatbot use and psychiatric destabilization in vulnerable individuals.

"For someone with a vulnerable mind, a delusion or a hallucination is a very real part of their reality and an extremely dangerous part," Dr. Michael J. Zizmor, founder of Zizmor Mental Health, told The Epoch Times.

Zizmor said the "engagement-validation loop" perpetuated by an AI system may, in some cases, fuel delusions and gaslight a user into believing in something that a human companion would've pushed back on.

"The danger is compounded by the bots' extremely humanlike and available nature, which may lead delusions to be reinforced, grandiose delusions to be magnified, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness to become overwhelming, an unwillingness to take prescribed medications to occur, or to engage in dangerous behaviors," Zizmor said.

Meanwhile, AI advocates say chatbots could play a telehealth-style support role for those who are struggling with certain mental health conditions. They argue chatbots could be particularly useful given the worsening shortage of healthcare workers in the United States.

As of 2026, around 130 million Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals.

Some believe AI can help close the gap between supportive care needs and availability amid America's ongoing shortage of qualified human counselors.

"With these developments, rigorously tested AI chatbots are an underappreciated solution to the shortage of therapists and may help address key challenges in mental health care: access, affordability, and the delivery of consistent, empathetic care," researchers at the Milbank Memorial Fund stated.

Old Problems, New Approach

Johnston believes a cautious strategy is needed with AI chatbots used for mental health support, but also thinks the technology could be beneficial under the right circumstances.

She believes this matters more than many realize because of the U.S. healthcare system's longstanding struggles with provider shortages, cost, insurance barriers, and potentially lengthy wait times to see a therapist.

"If AI helps some people cope, seek help earlier, or maintain gains between appointments, there could be a meaningful public-health benefit; if another group becomes more isolated, experiences worsening symptoms, or delays professional care, that could add pressure to an already strained system. At this scale, I don't think we can evaluate AI only by asking what happens to the average user; we also have to understand what happens to the smaller groups of users who may be particularly vulnerable," she said.

Harris agreed that mental health support in the United States is a "very real issue" due to workforce shortages, and AI might be helpful on this front.

"AI has tremendous potential as an adjunct," Harris said. "Someone might use it to organize their thoughts before an appointment, learn basic coping strategies, identify questions to ask a provider, or receive general information while waiting for care. Research involving a purpose-built generative-AI therapeutic chatbot has shown promising symptom improvements, which tells us there may be meaningful opportunities here."

That said, she clarified there's a big difference between a clinically developed and studied intervention and using a general-purpose chatbot as a therapist.

Zizmor, Harris, and Johnston firmly agree that AI isn't creating a national mental health crisis in its own right, but rather throwing a can of gas on the existing one.

From Zizmor's perspective, he believes AI is an amplifier, not a root cause. He thinks the outcome of the technology's use in mental health support depends entirely on the circumstances of the person using it. He said AI's use in this capacity should be regulated "not as an independent replacement for healthcare professionals, but rather as an addition under their supervision."

Harris concurred. "AI may help bridge certain gaps. But the danger is when the bridge becomes the destination."

For Johnston, the rise of chatbot popularity as a mental health crutch heralds an opportunity to look at the deeper issue.

"Rather than only asking whether people are becoming too attached to AI, I think we also need to ask what the AI is providing that the person was not getting somewhere else and why that need went unmet," Johnston said.

"The answer may tell us as much about the weaknesses in America's existing mental-health system as it does about artificial intelligence."

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 14:20

Netanyahu Claims 'Iran Tried To Assassinate One Of My Sons'

Previously, Iranian state media aired images which appeared to threaten President Donald Trump's son Barron Trump, and following this Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be seizing the moment.

Netanyahu has claimed in a phone interview with Israel's Channel 14 on Monday that Iran tried to assassinate one of his two sons. "Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons," he claimed.

GPO/Flash90

"Therefore, the security they get is not a luxury," he added, in reference to his argument that the state must continue protecting his family for years to come - even if he loses the upcoming election.

He described that without this protection for at least five years, "they would succeed," referencing imagined would-be Iranian assassins.

Netanyahu has two sons, Yair and Avner, but he didn't specify if one or the other was under threat by an alleged assassination plot.

Avner lives in Israel, while Yair - the one who is much more visible and outspoken on social media - lives in a luxury area of Miami.

Israeli media further claims as follows: "A Channel 12 report says the alleged attempt took place at a time when Yair Netanyahu was not in Israel, but does not specify that Yair was the target."

The report also seeks to address why this is suddenly being "revealed" now:

The alleged assassination plot has been known to the Israeli security establishment for several months, the TV report says, but has been barred from publication by the military censor.

Israel has tended to push 'assassination plot' claims while offering no public evidence and at opportune times which seemed aimed at escalating Washington's involvement against Iran.

For example, back in July when Netanyahu was openly pushing against White House efforts to pursue a negotiated settlement with Tehran there was this:

Israel shared intelligence with the United States that Iran had recently devised a new plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, adding another layer of tension as a ceasefire deal between the countries comes under strain.

One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intelligence in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.

At the time, the White House did not seem too alarmed by the 'warning' - and hasn't made much reference to it since.

In the opening days and weeks of Operation Epic Fury, literally dozens of top Iranian government and military officials were assassinated - and in some cases their family members died in the same attacks. Israel's military owned up to many of these operations, boasting publicly during the height of the bombing campaign. 

This new claim by Netanyahu of covert plot against his family also comes just as Bessent unveiled a so-called Economic D-Day policy to strangle the Islamic Republic economically.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/25/2026 - 14:00