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Jet Fuel Shortage Deepens Pressure On Global Airlines

Via City AM,

• Heathrow’s April passenger numbers fell 5% to 6.7 million, with Middle East traffic down 50%.

• Transfer traffic rose 10% as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to Asia and Oceania.

• Airlines are facing mounting pressure from jet fuel shortages and higher oil prices.

Fewer passengers were heading to Heathrow Airport in April as the war in the Middle East keeps travellers grounded.

Passenger numbers at Europe’s biggest airport fell by five per cent in April to 6.7m with the blame being attributed to the “ongoing impact of the Middle East conflict”.

For those heading to that particular region, Heathrow saw a whopping 50 per cent drop in volumes.

Still, in the year-to-date (Jan–Apr) traffic maintained modest growth at 1.2 per cent.

Transfer demand grew ten per cent in April, as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to reach Asia and Oceania, helping offset losses in direct Middle Eastern travel.

Travel to Asia remained a major growth driver, with a 5.6 per cent increase in April and a 10.6 per cent increase year-to-date.

“We know passengers want certainty when planning their hard-earned summer holidays, so we are supporting Government and airlines as they work through their plans to get passengers on their journeys,” Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s top boss, said. 

Jet fuel crisis ‘worse’ than Covid

Growing anxieties around the jet fuel shortage caused by the Iran war have rocked the travel industry.

Tony Fernandes, chief executive of Air Asia, said last week: “I thought I’d seen it all with Covid […] but having seen jet fuel go up almost three times — this is much worse.”

It comes after supplies for jet fuel have tumbled to their lowest level since records began, as the war blocks crucial shipping lanes for fuel.

Spirit Airlines – a US-based low-cost airline – last week collapsed under mounting pressure caused by surging oil prices. The firm had failed to secure a $500m lifeline from the Trump administration, leaving it to go out of business and cancel all flights.

Researchers at Allianz Trade warned the UK is among the most “structurally exposed” to jet fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has loosened “use it or lose it” rules in a bid to soften the pressures facing airlines.

Woldbye said: “While we have seen some short-term disruption linked to the Middle East conflict, demand for travel remains strong with current fuel supplies stable.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 07:20

'Mediator' Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Aircraft To Insulate Them From US Attacks, Graham Fumes At Islamabad Summary

• CBS reports Pakistan sheltered Iranian military planes, Sen. Graham outraged, calls for 'reevaluation'.

• US President blasts 'piece of garbage' Iran response, says ceasefire on 'life support', reportedly mulls renewed military action; US Treasury imposes yet more sanctions.

• Trump mulls restarting Project Freedom in Hormuz and says forcibly retrieving 'nuclear dust' is still on the table, oil jumps on headline.

• Iran Foreign Ministry: "Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous." However, US officials insist on their "unreasonable demands."

• Saudi Arabia condemns Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday.

• Qatari LNG tanker abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz chokepoint after earlier in weekend an initial one made it through - an unprecedented first for a Qatari tanker of the war.

//--> //--> US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026?
Yes 40% · No 61%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Planes To Insulate Them From US Attacks

There's been some outrage in D.C. and among the pundit class over a late in the day Monday CBS News report alleging that US-ally Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft at its airfields, and thus outside the US-Israeli strike zone during Operation Epic Fury:

As Pakistan positioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. 

Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan. It was not clear if military aircraft were among those flights, two of the officials told CBS News. 

President Trump and admin officials have repeatedly declared the utter and total destruction of Iran's air force and navy, but apparently some planes were missed. According to more from CBS: 

Together, the movements reflected an apparent effort to insulate some of Iran's remaining military and aviation assets from the expanding conflict, even as officials publicly served as brokers for de-escalation. 

The U.S. officials, who all spoke only under condition of anonymity to discuss national security issues, told CBS News that days after President Trump announced the ceasefire with Iran in early April, Tehran sent multiple aircraft to Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan, a strategically important military installation located just outside the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi. 

Among the first to very angrily vent outrage is you know who from South Carolina...

If this reporting is accurate, it would require a complete reevaluation of the role Pakistan is playing as mediator between Iran, the United States and other parties.

Given some of the prior statements by Pakistani defense officials towards Israel, I would not be shocked if… https://t.co/OqJ1cdVLFX

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 11, 2026 US Rolls Out Yet More Sanctions, & Connected to China

Per Reuters on Monday afternoon: "The U.S. government on Monday announced sanctions against three people and nine companies, including four based ​in Hong Kong and four in the ‌United Arab Emirates, for aiding Iran's shipment of oil to China. The ninth company is based in Oman."

"The Treasury move follows ​sanctions announced on Friday on individuals and companies aiding Iranian ​purchases of weapons and components used to make ⁠drones and ballistic missiles," the report adds. These new measures target some Iran-linked entities in Hong Kong/China.

As there's not a whole lot to still sanction inside Iran, it looks like the US Treasury is focused on taking aim on external entities, though this is sure to increase Washington tensions with Beijing...

As Iran’s military desperately tries to regroup, Economic Fury will continue to deprive the regime of funding for its weapons programs, terrorist proxies, and nuclear ambitions. Treasury will continue to cut the Iranian regime off from the financial networks it uses to carry out… https://t.co/nenSlWtW8T

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) May 11, 2026 Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On "Life Support"

President Trump is meeting with his national security team Monday to discuss the way forward in the Iran war, including possibly resuming military action, after negotiations with the country deadlocked on Sunday, three U.S. officials told Axios.

U.S. officials say Trump wants a deal to end the war, but Iran's rejection of many of his demands and refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program puts the military option back on the table.

This sent oil prices back to the highs of the day...

President Trump also told Fox, that he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of "the weakest, on life support":

President Donald Trump called out the "piece of garbage" peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only "stupid people" in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium.

None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.

Trump Might Fully Restart Project Freedom

Fox News is reporting that President Trump is considering renewing Project Freedom, pushing oil up. According to the developing story:

President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Fox News that he is considering renewing Project Freedom, a military operation originally launched to secure the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This operation, involving significant U.S. naval assets, had been paused amid diplomatic efforts with Iran. The initial pause was influenced by diplomatic progress mediated by Pakistan, although recent developments suggest a potential escalation.

However, the reality is that the de facto US naval blockade has remained in place. The Iranians last week fired on US warships which were escorting foreign vessels through the strait. Since then there's been an uneasy calm amid stalled negotiations. There's really no movement on either side. Trump indicated in the fresh comments that all of this could be part of a larger operation, and strangely a bit of a contradictory stance: he said of Iran's "hardline leaders" that "they are going to fold" and that "I will deal with them until they make a deal". Of course, the very label of 'hardline' would suggest the opposite. 

The same Fox correspondent was told by Trump that forcibly retrieving Iran's 'nuclear dust' is still on the table:

.@realDonaldTrump Also told me that Iranian negotiators told him the US will have to retrieve the "nuclear dust" at Iran's destroyed facilities as Iran does not have the technology to do it. pic.twitter.com/2GgLVdQQoL

— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 11, 2026 'Unreasonable Demands'

It is clear there remains a huge gap between the positions of Washington and Tehran, after the past days saw proposal and counterproposal submitted via Pakistan, with the White House issuing its final response over the weekend, as President Trump called it 'unacceptable'.

According to new Monday words from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, "Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous." However, US officials continue to insist on their "unreasonable demands," Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate. Further, Tehran is demanding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with establishing security in the region and in Lebanon.

Senior Iranian military official Mohsen Rezaee to Tasnim: There Is No Clear Prospect for a Political Agreement With the United States

"Unfortunately, the US continues to insist on its one-sided view," Baghaei added of the "reasonable, generous offer" built around Iran’s national interests. Iran has strongly suggested that the US is actually too influenced by driving Israeli interests, not American priorities. 

But per WSJ, Washington's focus remains on the nuclear issue, which Iran considers a non-starter in negotiations: "The president on Sunday said a multipage response that Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn’t include commitments about Tehran’s nuclear program, was unacceptable," the publication writes.

Iran's FM Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei:

Iran has proven to be a responsible power in the region, and at the same time, we are not bullies — rather, we are anti-bullies. Just look at our conduct.

Were we the ones who launched a military campaign against America thousands of miles… pic.twitter.com/q6fz3fi75A

— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 11, 2026 KSA Condemns Sunday Drone Attacks

Saudi Arabia has condemned and blasted Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday, according to a new Foreign Ministry statement. The UAE had intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar said a drone attack hit a cargo ‌ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters. Kuwait in turn also said its air defenses had engaged hostile drones that entered its airspace. Kuwait, which borders Iran, has become a kind of front line for Iranian attacks and drone activity.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry reiterated its support and backing of all measures taken by Gulf states to protect their security and stability, saying, "The Kingdom demands an immediate halt to the blatant attacks on the territories and territorial waters of Gulf states, and to any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz or disrupt international waterways."

"It emphasizes the importance of adhering to the protection of international maritime routes in accordance with relevant international laws," the ministry added.

Qatari LNG Tanker Abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz Chokepoint After Weekend Transit Breakthrough

Sunday's response by Trump to Iran's counterproposal pushed WTI crude futures nearly 3% higher to $98 a barrel as traders raised the war-risk premium tied to a prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s counterproposal dominated attention over the weekend, but shipping activity in the region also drew focus after Bloomberg reporter Stephen Stapczynski cited vessel-tracking data showing that an LNG tanker successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident.

The shipment marked the first time Qatar exported LNG through the strait since the war began ten weeks earlier. The tanker later docked in Pakistan. By Monday morning, Stapczynski reported that another fully loaded LNG tanker, “Mihzem,” was approaching the waterway. "Another Qatar LNG shipment is nearing the Strait of Hormuz, bound for Pakistan," Stapczynski wrote on X. He added, "Pakistan is dealing with a gas shortage, and has negotiated with Iran for several LNG shipments. If successful, this would be the second LNG cargo to transit Hormuz for Pakistan in a few days." 

Stapczynski's X post and report about the second Qatar LNG tanker attempting to transit the maritime chokepoint came early Monday. By 0700 ET, new ship-tracking data showed that the Mihzem abruptly reversed course roughly 20 miles before reaching Hormuz Island.

Tanker Leaking

There is a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz spotted leaking a trail of oil, after a potential hostile strike. The incident, picked up by satellite monitoring, comes also amid reports of a large oil slick near Kharg Island; however, the Iranians have denied that the Kharg incident is a large-scale leak or oil slick.

Here's what Tanker Trackers has commented on the below open sources satellite data and imagery (first struck on May 4):

The VLCC supertanker you see in the video below is BARAKAH (9902615). She is owned by UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC); the country’s state-owned oil & gas producer. BARAKAH was struck by Iranian drones on 2026-05-04, which is when we found her in this state on satellite imagery for clients. She’s empty of oil cargo following a secret transfer she had to conduct east of UAE to another tanker. She was struck once heading back west to fetch more oil. ADNOC condemned the attacks.

Satellite imagery appears to show a large oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz leaking a trail of oil following a possible strike. Intense small speedboat activity can also be seen nearby.

Explore and Compare: https://t.co/BFXDgfBrjK#StraitofHormuz #Iran #MiddleEast pic.twitter.com/UDizD4Lejn

— Soar (@SoarAtlas) May 11, 2026 Netanyahu Holds Security Meeting, Amid Lebanon Escalation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening a high level security meeting in his office in Jerusalem on Monday, according to The Times of Israel. The meeting comes after President Trump rejected Iran’s response to his ceasefire proposal, and ahead of direct Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington later this week. The Lebanon front has intensified, and IDF warplanes have heavily bombed not only southern Lebanon but the Beirut suburbs over the last days. Hezbollah drone attacks have become increasingly deadly in the meantime, with many serious injuries but also this latest:

An IDF reservist was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday. The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer (res.) Alexander Glovanyov, 47, a driver in the Transport Center’s 6924th Battalion, from Petah Tikva.

The attack took place around 4 p.m. on Sunday, when several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah struck in Israeli territory near Manara, close to the border with Lebanon. One of the drones killed Glovanyov, according to an IDF probe.

Iran Still Wants Comprehensive Deal to Include Lebanon

Responsible Statecraft writes, "No new developments on the Lebanese front give reason for optimism that this round will yield an agreement that two prior rounds did not. The Trump administration, however, has an incentive to push for an agreement because of President Trump’s need to extract himself and the United States from the impasse involving the Strait of Hormuz."

"The fighting on the Lebanese front since then has been as one-sided in the resulting death and destruction as Israeli combat with Palestinians," the publication observes. "The Israeli assault has killed 2,700 people in Lebanon, while Israeli fatalities have been 18 military personnel and two civilians. At the height of the offensive, more than a million people — about a fifth of Lebanon’s population — were displaced, and most remain so. Israeli forces have destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon."

⚡️Hezbollah drone strike on Israel soldiers near southern Lebanon pic.twitter.com/OD8dZndMry

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) May 10, 2026

Iran continues to insist that any broader Iran war truce must encompass Lebanon as the conflict there flows out of the one in the Persian Gulf region. Al Jazeera meanwhile reports of the latest Monday: "Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continues as Hezbollah claims more attacks on Israeli troops. The Lebanese Health Ministry says Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours have killed 51 people, including two medical workers."

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 07:02

"Neither Credible Nor Attractive": eBay Rejects GameStop's Takeover Bid

eBay's board released a statement on Tuesday morning, rejecting GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen's unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposal, calling it "neither credible nor attractive."

"We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive," Paul S. Pressler, eBay's chairman of the board of directors, wrote in a statement.

Pressler cited concerns over GameStop's financing, the risks of a combined business, leadership and governance questions, and the potential impact on eBay's valuation and long-term growth.

Pressler laid out the concerns:

1. eBay's standalone prospects,

2. the uncertainty regarding your financing proposal,

3. the impact of your proposal on eBay's long-term growth and profitability,

4. the leverage, operational risks, and leadership structure of a combined entity,

5. the resulting implications of these factors on valuation,

6. and GameStop's governance and executive incentives.

Recall that Cohen's $56 billion bid for eBay was, in his own words, funded by "half cash and half stock." Yet, when Cohen joined CNBC's Andrew Sorkin for an interview early last week, he struggled to explain the deal math, given that GameStop's market capitalization is only a fraction of eBay's.

Here's the most contentious part of Ryan Cohen's CNBC Squawk Box interview about the GameStop-EBAY acquisition.

This is a HEATED back and forth, uncommon for financial news. $GME

Sorkin, at one point is in disbelief at RC's repetitive answering to his question. pic.twitter.com/MWAbYWStlp

— Reese Politics (@ReesePolitics) May 4, 2026

Even Michael Burry exited his GameStop long position, saying the $56 billion cash-and-stock acquisition would likely require too much debt and would no longer align with his original thesis for the stock.

Burry wrote on X: "Wall Street does indeed mistake debt for creativity, and does so constantly. I, of all people, should have known."

Why yes they did: "GameStop's Highly Confident Letter from TD is contingent on the GME/Ebay combination being investment grade... and Moody's said it won't be": David Faber, CNBC https://t.co/uhZbUF72qn

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 7, 2026

GameStop's 13D filing shows that derivatives, or call options, represent 99.89% of its $EBAY position, equivalent to 22,176,000 shares. The actual common stock owned by GameStop amounts to about 25,000 shares, or 0.11% of the total position.

Polymarket odds of a GME-eBay marriage...

//--> Will GameStop acquire eBay?
Yes 21% · No 80%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

GameStop shares are down 4% in premarket trading, while eBay is down around 1%.

Related:

• eBay Nukes GameStop CEO's Account After Buyout Stunt

The conversation on institutional desks has centered on what Morgan Stanley analyst Nathan Feather noted last week: the key question in any hypothetical acquisition scenario is financing, as eBay's market cap is roughly four times GameStop's. He added, "We are also initially skeptical of potential synergies."

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 06:55

Senate's Rush To Regulate AI Chatbots Is Bad For Everybody

Authored by John Coleman via RealClearPolitics,

The dawn of the AI era has sparked a wide range of reactions, from exhilaration over the technology’s capabilities to deep distress. 

Such responses to a new communicative tool are nothing new, and indeed, AI presents new and unique challenges that will require deep thought and sensitivity.

But a heavy-handed congressional response that erodes longstanding American freedoms isn’t the answer. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup and passage last week of SB 3062, the GUARD Act, shows the substantial risk that Congress’s “do something” energy poses to the speech rights of everyone. 

The bill regulates AI chatbots – especially so-called “AI companion” systems – through access limits, design mandates, and disclosure requirements, backed by civil and criminal penalties of up to $100,000 per violation. If enacted, it puts the federal officials squarely in the position of deciding how this technology is built and used, limiting engagement with information and compelling speech along the way.

Growing calls for a federal solution, including from the White House, to fix the fragmented landscape of state regulations reflect a clear political appetite for legislative action. And a single national standard has obvious appeal for an industry seeking consistency across jurisdictions. But consistency isn’t the same as constitutionality. If federal proposals like the GUARD Act replicate the speech restrictions found in state laws, they just hardwire those problems into federal law. 

Take the bill’s age verification requirements. The GUARD Act forces Americans to create accounts and prove their age, with minors barred from some “AI companion” systems. Existing accounts are frozen until verified, and companies are required to recheck users’ ages periodically. 

Age-verification mandates like this one force individuals to disclose their identity to seek answers and thus give up anonymity, a right the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized as central to free expression. Faced with mandatory identity disclosure, many think twice before asking sensitive questions. Would someone trapped in an abusive relationship be more, or less, willing to seek advice from a chatbot if they had to surrender their privacy? Or how about the employee who is consistently harassed at work but is worried about asking for advice? There’s a reason that the Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym “Publius” – even public debate sometimes requires distance from the speaker’s identity. That protection still matters today, allowing people to seek information, test ideas, and ask sensitive questions without fear of legally required exposure.

Then there are rules about content. The bill makes it unlawful to design, deploy, or make available chatbots that, in the government’s view, “encourage” or “promote” certain categories of constitutionally protected speech. Who do we want to be in charge of determining that? Those restrictions violate the First Amendment by regulating the protected editorial decisions of developers and by infringing on individuals’ rights to create and receive lawful expression.

Proposals like the GUARD Act dictate how chatbots respond and intrude on editorial judgment by putting Congress’s thumb on the scale of what’s acceptable speech. This means control over who can speak, what can be said, and how ideas are expressed.

Those choices shape the substance of speech and risk reducing a chorus of voices to a single, government-shaped note. Grok is loosely modeled on “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Claude operates under its own internal “constitution.” Standardizing those philosophical differences flattens distinct approaches, and when fewer questions are asked, fewer answers follow.

Finally, disclaimer mandates can cross constitutional lines by compelling speech. The GUARD Act requires chatbots to deliver federally imposed messages in every interaction. While informing users, its application in every circumstance alters the content and flow of communication itself, overriding both user and developer choices with what the officials want the public to see.

All of this points to a deeper reality that AI systems cannot perfectly predict or control every output. That’s not a defect. It’s a core feature of how these models generate responses from probabilistic patterns. Developers will be forced to filter even more speech than the bill directly targets to ensure the offending content is not generated. Combined with the GUARD Act’s vague and sweeping restrictions, the result is blunter tools that sand down the rough edges of debate and offer less of what makes them useful in the first place.

Treating chatbots as expressive tools keeps the focus on the people, not the machine. Many who’ve used them – which is now well more than half of Americans – know about its potential. It lets people test arguments, explore unfamiliar ideas, and tackle everyday challenges. 

Yet artificial intelligence, particularly chatbots, has become Washington’s latest political punching bag. Accusations of manipulation and harm are driving a slew of legislative proposals to censor this emerging technology. The GUARD Act isn’t alone. The recently introduced CHATBOT Act presents many of the same threats.

The same impulse to move quickly in Congress is playing out nationwide, with proposals in states like Minnesota, Florida, and Washington targeting chatbots through access restrictions, disclosure mandates, and content-related rules. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing an AI package that effectively requires everyone – adults and minors alike – to identify themselves before using these systems. 

But the Constitution doesn’t permit any government to address concerns about AI by broadly restricting protected expression. The First Amendment demands solutions that target illegal conduct without burdening the exchange of ideas.

John Coleman is the legislative counsel for AI and free expression for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 06:30

UAE Secretly Carried Out Attacks On Iran, Making It An Active Combatant

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become an active combatant in the Iran war, according to fresh reporting in The Wall Street Journal.

Last week saw the US-Iran ceasefire briefly break down, during which time the US struck some Iranian coastal sites and the Iranians sent drones and missiles on several Gulf states once again. Iran also reportedly tried to attack three American warships carrying out Trump's 'Project Freedom' operations.

But even before this, during the intense missile exchanges of early April (before the ceasefire), the UAE also 'secretly' attacked Iran: "The United Arab Emirates has carried out military strikes on Iran, people familiar with the matter said, casting the Gulf monarchy as an active combatant in a war in which it has been Iran’s biggest target," WSJ writes.

UAE military file image

As for whether the UAE was active in hitting Iran last week, this remains unknown. There's much that may yet be revealed in the future, amid the current fog of war.

At this moment, however, the UAE has yet to publicly disclose these prior alleged offensive attacks on the Islamic Republic. But WSJ reports:

The strikes, which the U.A.E. hasn’t publicly acknowledged, have included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, the people familiar with the matter said. That attack took place in early April around the time President Trump was announcing a cease-fire in the war after a five-week air campaign and sparked a large fire and knocked much of its capacity off line for months.

Disclosures of sites that came under attack from the Iranian side are consistent with this reporting, however. "Iran said at the time that the refinery had been struck in an enemy attack and launched a barrage of missile and drone strikes against the U.A.E. and Kuwait in response," continues WSJ.

The publication further says Washington issued no objection upon the UAE's getting directly involved. In fact, US officials have been calling on regional allies to step up to the fight, so the United States is not shouldering the burden alone.

By and large the Gulf allies relied solely on the US and Israel to pummel Iran during the prior 38 days of heavy bombing which marked the peak of Operation Epic Fury.

This as the Gulf absorbed the bulk of Iran's retaliation. Iran sent hundreds if not thousands of ballistic missiles and drones on Gulf energy, infrastructure, and even central areas of cities.

Prior online open-source murmurings turning out true...

BREAKING: 🇦🇪🇮🇷 Iranian military sources claim UAE Mirage-2000‑9 jets were involved in an attack on the Lavan Island refinery today.

Reports say the U.S. informed Iran that the strikes were not linked to the U.S. or Israel. pic.twitter.com/8gnfYjt5kq

— War Radar (@War_Radar2) April 8, 2026

Iranian officials declared they were primarily targeting US assets and military bases, and further vowed to 'punish' these countries for ever hosting American bases in the first place.

The UAE in effect joining the US military campaign marks yet another escalation. If the Saudis join too then the potential for further runaway escalation only grows. The ceasefire meanwhile seems effectively dead at this stage.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 05:45

UK Summons Chinese Ambassador Over Spying Allegation

Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times,

The British Foreign Ministry on May 9 stated that it had summoned the Chinese ambassador after a London court convicted two men, including a former British immigration officer, of spying for the Chinese communist regime.

Bill Yuen Chung Biu (L) and Peter Wai Chi Leung (R), both charged with assisting Hong Kong intelligence service, arrive separately ahead of their trial at the Old Bailey in central London, on March 2, 2026. Carlos Jasso/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, was called to the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office on May 8 for an official reprimand, according to a British government statement.

The UK Foreign Office stated that it had made clear that “any attempts by foreign states to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities” on British soil will not be tolerated and that such activities constitute “a serious breach of the UK’s sovereignty.”

“We will continue to use the full range of tools available to protect our security and hold China to account for actions which undermine our safety and democratic values,” it stated.

The British government’s move came just a day after a jury found Wai Chi-leung and Yuen Chung-biu guilty under the National Security Act 2023 of assisting a foreign intelligence service, following a weeks-long trial at the Central Criminal Court in London.

Wai was also convicted of misconduct in a public office in relation to misusing the UK Interior Ministry’s systems to track targets while working for the British Border Force at London Heathrow airport. Prosecutors said Wai used his access to the UK government’s databases to conduct unauthorized searches while off duty and improperly shared the personal information obtained.

Helen Flanagan, head of counterterrorism policing in London, which led the investigation into the high-profile case, called the pair’s activists “both sinister and chilling.”

“Our investigation found they were spying for the Hong Kong authorities, targeting UK-based pro-democracy campaigners,” Flanagan said in a May 7 statement following the conviction.

The pair—both dual Chinese and British nationals—were described by local media as the first in UK history to be convicted of spying for Beijing. They face up to 14 years in prison.

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London on July 21, 2020. Luke Dray/Getty Images

Investigators found that Yuen was in contact with individuals linked to the Hong Kong government while working at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in London. He then tasked Wai with conducting spying and surveillance of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

Messages on Yuen’s phone indicated that their surveillance of Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong lawmaker and a prominent pro-democracy advocate, had begun as early as 2021, according to prosecutors.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK confirmed its ambassador met with a British Foreign Office official on May 8. According to a Chinese summary of the meeting, Zheng protested the London court’s ruling and called on the UK side to stop what he called “anti-China political manipulation.”

The case has cast a renewed spotlight on HKETO, a Hong Kong government overseas outpost that was designed to promote trade relations between the UK and the Asian financial hub. Critics have long argued that its resources and privileges were used for intelligence gathering and targeting overseas Hong Kong activists.

In response to the May 7 ruling, the London-based Hong Kong Labor Rights Monitor called on the UK government to urgently review the status and privileges granted to HKETO, including whether its current diplomatic privileges remain appropriate.

“We cannot allow the Hong Kong authorities to disguise political repression as trade promotion, nor permit authoritarian ‘long-arm repression’ to extend into free societies,” the group said in a May 7 statement.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 05:00

Media Spreads Hantavirus Hysteria In Attempt To Save Disgraced WHO

The establishment media has been drumming up fear after a recent outbreak of Hantavirus on a cruise liner traveling from Argentina to West Africa.  The Guardian has used the opportunity to assert that the US is currently ill equipped to deal with future pandemic threats, largely because of Donald Trump (of course) and the dramatic US exit from the now disgraced World Health Organization. 

Is Hantavirus a serious danger to the world, or, is it another hyped up virus like Covid being used to trigger public hysteria?  And if it is being hyped, who (or WHO) stands to benefit? 

For decades the WHO constructed its image as a global angel of benevolence; the primary line of defense against what they said was the inevitable invasion of a population rending plague.  However, when the time finally came in the form of a mutated Coronavirus (Covid), they dropped the ball, and evidence suggests they may have done it deliberately.

During the initial outbreak in China, the WHO echoed CCP propaganda suggesting that human-to-human contact was unlikely and, knowingly or unknowingly, aided China in hiding details behind the outbreak.  Details surrounding the involvement of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the largest dangerous disease lab in Asia, were actively dismissed (or suppressed).  Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even praised China's "transparency". 

The WHO then set up a joint task force to determine the origins of Covid, only to let the Chinese dominate the investigation and lead it away from the activities at the Level 4 lab in Wuhan.  The Chinese wanted to push the theory of animal-to-animal mutation instead of the gain of function research that was ongoing at the lab (partially funded by US interests in the Obama Administration). 

Today, evidence overwhelmingly suggests that Covid originated in the Wuhan Lab.  In January 2025, the CIA assessed that a lab-related origin is more likely than natural spillover.  This determination matched with similar FBI assessments. 

In 2025, German Intelligence also reported their findings, indicating a 90% likelihood that Covid was engineered and originated at the Wuhan Lab in China.   

Of course, anyone who made this claim online during the pandemic response was called a dangerous "conspiracy theorist" and was deplatformed (much like Zero Hedge).

The WHO would go on to exaggerate the death rate of the virus, claiming an initial Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 3.4%.  This data was based on studies which ignored mild cases as well as asymptomatic cases, thus artificially pumping up the death rate.    

Dozens of studies as early as May 2020 showed that the median Infection Fatality Rate (a more accurate number) was only 0.27% (later adjusted to 0.23%).  The WHO continued to spread disinformation and hysteria surrounding covid while ignoring the true IFR data.  That is to say, all the lockdowns, the mandates, the social media censorship, the arrests, the push for vaccine passports, etc. - all of it was over a virus that 99.8% of the population would easily survive. 

The WHO has been exposed as a perpetrator of pandemic disinformation and is no longer trusted by the public.  The US under the Trump Administration has exited the organization on these grounds, and as a result the WHO has lost at least 20% of its total funding.  It is now facing dire financial conditions.  In response, the UN and the establishment media have been running a spin campaign to present the WHO as indispensable.  

It is therefore not surprising that the WHO and the media are suddenly jumping on the cruise line Hantavirus story as if it is significant, while at the same time arguing that Trump is putting the public at risk by not participating in the WHO's antics.  They need the money badly, and so they've decided to remind the public why we should be afraid. 

For those who are unaware, Hantavirus is a common virus around the world and in the US.  Estimates show around 100,000 cases of the disease occur annually.  In 2023, there were 40 cases in the US.  The virus is most often contracted when humans are exposed to dried rodent feces and urine, floating as particulates in the air which are then inhaled into the lungs. 

The spread from human to human is rare and only occurs with the South American strain.  Contraction is difficult, with the virus passing from one person to another through "prolonged contact with bodily fluids".  It makes you wonder what kind of pleasure cruise these people were on when the most recent outbreak started?  The point is, the story is being inflated from a normal event into a crisis event.  

This is probably why the Spanish Government set up an elaborate bus transfer of supposedly highly infectious cruise passengers, only to drop off a psychiatrist with the Ministry of Health down the road without protective gear like he's going home after school. 

Las imágenes que está dejando toda la "Operación Hantavirus" son de película de Berlanga.

Contagiados quitándose la mascarilla, personal bajando de los autobuses con el EPI en la mano, otros que ni lo llevan puesto, etc.

Menudo cachondeo.pic.twitter.com/bYo01wA2RN pic.twitter.com/kiBnBAiBp0

— Elyon (@ElyonMan) May 10, 2026

The bottom line?  Hantavirus is all over the world and it's not a threat to the vast majority of people.  The artificial media panic and the opportunism of the WHO may be an effort to test the waters for another fraudulent pandemic scare, but the majority of the propaganda seems to be aimed at restoring the WHO's reputation and saving it from financial ruin.       

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 04:15

Ideological Insanity Has Gotten Way Way Worse In The UK...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A major exam board has now signed off on gender-neutral language in GCSE French, Spanish and German exams – despite the terms being completely alien to how those languages are actually spoken in their home countries.

The move, buried in new specifications for 2026 exams, hands students the green light to ditch standard masculine and feminine forms in favour of made-up “inclusive” pronouns, nouns and adjectives.

Yes, you read that right. They’re letting students make up their own parts of foreign languages in exams.

'Absurd!' British exam board allows GCSE French students to use gender-neutral language despite terms not being used in Francehttps://t.co/IjXsL9J8ZK

— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 10, 2026

Staff at Pearson Edexcel have explicitly permitted teens to use “inclusive” pronouns, nouns and adjectives in both written and oral GCSEs. Yet as the article linked above makes clear, “the French do not pander to the same bid for inclusivity, with all their grammatical concepts being strictly categorised into gendered variants.”

Adjectives must match the noun in masculine or feminine endings. Gender-neutral terms simply do not exist in grammatically correct French or Spanish.

French, by its very nature, is a gendered language. Words are denoted as being "le" or "la," depending on whether they are masculine or feminine. This is silly and culturally ignorant. https://t.co/pj2TmzTdGQ

— Alex (@Admalez) May 9, 2026

Former French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer blasted the move as “absurd”. He stated: “French grammar has not changed in this regard. And the use of ‘iel’ does not correspond to any widespread usage among the French population.”

Some French universities and socialist councils have tried pushing “iel” and “iels” as neutral replacements for “il” and “elle”, but Blanquer made it clear this is not mainstream French. The exam board’s decision flies in the face of actual language as used by native speakers.

The new specs include a dedicated section on “gendered language”, backed by the usual LGBT activists at Stonewall. Pearson claims gendered language “can present specific challenges for trans and non-binary students”. As a result, they’ve added vocabulary for “trans” and “non-binary” to the list and vowed to “recognise students’ use of non-binary or gender-neutral pronouns when describing themselves or others” in exams.

Absolute insanity. When these people go out into the real world, only then will they discover that no one has a clue what it is they’re saying.

Students can even deploy new adjectival endings “according to their preferred way of identifying”, along with special spellings using full stops, “x’s”, asterisks and underscores. This isn’t teaching French – it’s turning language exams into an identity politics playground.

The move comes just weeks after the government’s new trans guidance for schools, a framework that openly allows primary school children – some as young as four – to socially transition at school, complete with different pronouns, as long as teachers show “caution” and consult parents.

What started with pronoun policies in the classroom has now leaked into the actual curriculum and assessment system.

Director of Advocacy at Sex Matters, Helen Joyce, nailed the bigger picture, noting “It may seem baffling how quickly schools have been captured by gender ideology in recent years.” Joyce pointed to Stonewall-linked external providers pushing a “pro-trans agenda” and warned: “The next challenge for the Department for Education will be to tackle the pernicious creep of gender ideology throughout the curriculum, and the role of external providers in driving this.”

Pearson tried to walk it back in a statement, insisting: “Gender-neutral pronouns are not required as part of Pearson Edexcel GCSE French, German, or Spanish. The specifications require students to learn and be assessed only on the standard masculine and feminine forms used in these languages.” They added that the vocabulary list reflects “everyday life, including references to men and women, him and her, boys and girls, mothers and fathers,” and claimed their Stonewall membership ended over two years ago.

The Department for Education itself sounded a note of caution, stating: “Our expectations are clear: gender identity is an area of significant debate. Schools should not endorse any particular view or teach it as fact – including the idea that all people have a gender identity.”

Yet the guidance still permits the very practices critics say undermine real education. Allowing fantasy spellings and pronouns in a French GCSE doesn’t prepare kids for the real world – it prepares them for ideological conformity. French speakers in France won’t understand “iel” any more than they’ll understand a British teen demanding to be called “they” in Paris.

 

This is the inevitable next step after the trans guidance fiasco. Once you accept that feelings trump biology in the classroom, it was only a matter of time before the same logic infected subjects like languages, history and science. Stonewall’s influence may be officially over at Pearson, but the damage lingers in the specs they helped shape.

Parents and common-sense voices have every right to be furious. Education should teach facts, grammar and reality – not indulge every passing social trend. The UK already lags behind in basic skills; turning GCSEs into optional pronoun workshops only accelerates the decline.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 03:30

Merz Promises Fico A Spanking For Slovak Leader's Moscow V-Day Trip

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was once again this year the only EU leader to visit Moscow for Russia's Victory Day commemorative WW2 celebrations on Saturday, which has drawn a predictable and fierce rebuke from Germany and European officials.

This was the second time Fico attended V-Day celebrations, after a similar controversial visit last year. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in particular chastised Fico with scolding words, as if Fico was being called to the principal's office. "We will talk with him about this day in Moscow today," he said. "We are celebrating Europe Day here in Stockholm today. And this is something completely different."

picture alliance/Getty Images

One apt and hilariously sarcastic headline said that "Merz promised Fico a spanking for a trip to Moscow on May 9."

Merz also said he "deeply regretted" Fico's trip while asserting it did not reflect the EU's "common view". Fico has not only been intensely skeptical of European aid to Ukraine, but Slovakia has also remained heavily dependent on Russian energy.

As for President Putin, he received Fico and said: "I know there were some difficulties with your trip to Moscow. But the important thing is that you're here." These 'difficulties' included several European states having refused to let let the Slovak leader's plane use their airspace on his way to Moscow.

"We welcome the gradual resumption of bilateral cooperation, which had effectively been put on hold by the previous Slovak authorities," said Putin. "We will do everything we can to meet the Slovak Republic’s energy needs."

Still, Fico didn't attend the full array of V-Day events. He met with Putin, but skipped the main military parade events at Red Square, and instead solemnly laid flowers on Friday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is Russia's central memorial to millions of Soviet soldiers who died fighting against Nazi Germany.

Fico deflected ongoing EU criticism, saying his visit was "a manifestation of respect for the victims of the Second World War" and that he and Putin must necessarily discuss "fundamental questions" of bilateral relations.

"I am opposed to creating any kind of new Iron Curtain between Europe, the European Union, and the Russian Federation," Fico said. "I support normal, standard, friendly, and mutually beneficial relations."

But one irony is that Slovakia has been a member of the NATO alliance since 2004, and in President Putin's keynote V-Day speech, he again blasted NATO expansion and its role in Ukraine.

Brussels Pressure Failed, Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico Arrives To Meet Putin pic.twitter.com/7yroI79VJr

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 9, 2026

"The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today," Putin had declared. "They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward," he said. "I firmly believe that our cause is just," he later emphasized.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 02:45

Europe Fails To React To Ukrainian Drone Incidents

Authored by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida via Global Research,

Recent drone incidents in European countries, especially in the Baltic states, are generating controversy among those who support the war with Russia. Some argue that Ukraine is merely defending itself against “Russian aggression,” with these “accidental” occurrences being an inevitable side effect of hostilities. Others believe that Kiev should act more cautiously to avoid harming partner countries. Meanwhile, drones continue to crash in Europe without a definitive solution being presented for this issue.

Recently, a kamikaze drone launched by Ukraine struck a fuel storage tank in Latvia. At the time of the incident, the tank was empty, which prevented a major tragedy. Had the drone hit a full tank, the result would have been a large explosion, followed by a massive fire, generating serious economic and environmental damage – as has happened in several recent cases in Russian border regions, with drones hitting energy facilities and causing serious fires.

Obviously, the expected attitude of any country hit by a foreign drone – even from an allied country – is at least to condemn the action and demand financial compensation for the damage caused. But apparently, this is not the Latvian stance regarding Ukrainian drones falling in the country. Recently, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds stated that Kiev should not be held responsible for these incidents. According to him, these are merely accidental collateral damages, with the real blame for the occurrence lying with Russia – which he believes “started the war”.

Spruds stated that “Ukraine has every right to defend itself,” admitting that even incidents affecting Latvian territory should be tolerated, since Kiev is only acting in “legitimate self-defense.”

In practice, he prioritized the supposed Ukrainian “right” to attack Russia over the national security of Latvian territory and people.

Not only that, the Latvian government also summoned Russian diplomats and demanded explanations about the case.

Even though the drones are known to be of Ukrainian origin, the Latvian government maintains a firm stance of holding Russia responsible for any event related to the conflict.

Furthermore, Moscow has also presented reports to the Latvian side showing that drones have crashed in the country due to failed Ukrainian attempts to attack the St. Petersburg region, but the Latvian government ignores these circumstances and simply blames Moscow.

Unfortunately, this attitude is not unique to the defense sector. Tolerance towards incidents involving Ukrainian drones is also widely endorsed by the country’s government and parliament, with most local politicians and bureaucrats being mere representatives of European elites interested in spreading Russophobia and pro-war sentiments. Commenting on the case, Latvian PM Evika Silina herself stated that, regardless of the origin of the drones that hit the country, it is always necessary to blame Russia – which she considers the “actual culprit”.

“It doesn’t matter whose drones hit the oil depot in Latvia, the main thing is to remember Russia’s responsibility for it. Russia is the aggressor,” she said.

It is important to remember that the incident at the fuel depot was just one in a recent wave of frustrated Ukrainian attacks resulting in drone crashes in Europe. Previously, on March 23, Ukrainian drones exploded near Lake Lavysas in Lithuania; two days later, in Latvia itself, drones crashed in the Kraslava region, and on the same day a similar incident occurred at the Auvere Power Plant in Estonia. On March 29, the city of Kouvola in Finland was hit by Ukrainian drones. Furthermore, several other related incidents have been reported in different countries in recent months.

In none of these cases was there an effective European response to the crimes committed by Ukraine. Justifying these occurrences with the unfounded narrative of “self-defense,” European countries are tolerating threats to their own territories and abdicating their right to demand reparations from the Ukrainian regime.

In practice, this only strengthens Ukraine’s position and gives even more freedom to the local military to act irresponsibly, launching swarms of drones indiscriminately, aware that some of them will likely fall on civilian areas of allied countries – but simply not caring, since these countries will ultimately blame Russia.

At some point, these Ukrainian drones will begin to cause more serious damage than merely destroying empty depots. If the incidents do not cease, there will inevitably be deaths in Europe in the near future. And then it will not be enough for local governments to say “it’s Russia’s fault,” because the victims’ relatives, knowing that the drones are Ukrainian, will demand more concrete answers and harsh measures against those responsible. As a result, the support given by these countries to Ukraine will become even more unpopular, generating an internal legitimacy crisis.

To prevent the worst-case scenario, the best thing Europeans can do now is to openly condemn Kiev and demand financial reparations for the damage caused.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 02:00

What Decades Of Academic Literature, Military Doctrine Says About Effectiveness Of 'Decapitation Strikes'

Authored by José Niño via The Libertarian Institute

The United States has long operated under a seductive strategic fantasy. Remove the leader of an adversary organization, whether a drug cartel, a terrorist group, or a sovereign state, and that organization will collapse, enabling American interests to fill the resulting vacuum.

However, decades of academic literature, hard empirical data from Mexico’s drug war, and the lived consequences of America’s post 9/11 targeted killing campaigns all tell a damning story many in the DC ruling class refuse to acknowledge. Decapitation strategies are, at best, tactically satisfying and strategically hollow. At worst, they escalate violence, radicalize successors, and produce precisely the instability they were designed to prevent. The ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran represents the most ambitious test of this doctrine in history. The results so far are deeply troubling.

US Navy/Reuters

The poor results should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the academic literature on leadership targeting. The scholarly consensus against decapitation has been building for decades. Jenna Jordan’s landmark research, first published in Security Studies in 2009 and later expanded into her book Leadership Decapitation, examined 298 incidents of leadership targeting from 1945 through 2004. She concluded that “decapitation is not an effective counterterrorism strategy” and that it tends to extend the life of terrorist organizations.

Jordan identifies three structural factors that make organizations resilient to leadership decapitation: bureaucratic depth, popular support, and ideological coherence. The more institutionalized and ideologically rooted an organization is, the more it absorbs the loss of leaders. Martyrdom replaces individuals with myth.

Through analysis of over 1,000 decapitation events against 180 terrorist groups, Jordan found that decapitation “does not increase the mortality rate of terrorist groups and, in some cases, even leads to more terrorist activity,” as War on the Rocks reported. The University of Pretoria’s Emmanuel Ofuasia confirmed that "the decapitation tactic has served as a basis for escalation and proliferation of terrorist groups rather than serving as deterrence against the possibility of recurrence."

The fixation with decapitation strategies is part and parcel of the DC mindset, which puts regime change on a pedestal—consequences be damned. Alexander Downes of George Washington University, whose book Catastrophic Success surveys roughly 90 instances of foreign-imposed regime change, finds that more than 40% of states that experience foreign-imposed regime change have a civil war within the next ten years. Ben Denison of the Cato Institute concurs that “even after high-profile failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, some in the policy community still call for ousting illiberal regimes,” and the empirical record “clearly reveals that a regime-change operation is more likely to fail than to succeed.”

The academic literature is damning enough, but the real-world laboratory of Mexico’s drug war offers even starker evidence of decapitation’s failure. By January 2011, Mexican authorities had captured or killed 20 of their 37 priority cartel targets. Violence did not recede. More than 66,000 drug-related deaths occurred in Mexico between 2007 and 2012.

The landmark 2015 study in the Journal of Conflict Resolution—by Calderón, Robles, Díaz-Cayeros, and Magaloni—found that “captures or killings of drug cartel leaders have exacerbating effects not only on DTO-related violence, but also on homicides that affect the general population.”

The mechanisms are clear: “When drug capos are eliminated, other cartels possess incentives to fight turf wars…Moreover, as the elimination of drug capos weakens existing chains of command, criminal cells begin operating with less restraint.”

The lessons from Mexico have gone unheeded. Today, the same flawed logic drives American policy toward Iran, where prominent voices in the foreign policy establishment have begun sounding the alarm. Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has been the most prominent institutional voice of skepticism about the Iran campaign.

In March 2026, he wrote that “Killing Iran’s top leaders may feel like a decisive blow, but history shows that decapitation rarely produces the political outcomes the United States hopes for, and often exacerbates instability.” He points to Israel’s repeated targeting of Hamas leaders since 1987 as definitive refutation. Instead of changing political direction, Hamas simply “absorbed its martyrs and lives to fight another day.”

Iran is not a hollow dictatorship held together by one man’s terror. It is an institutionalized revolutionary state that has operated under sanctions, sabotage, covert operations, and assassination campaigns for decades. Its architecture was consciously engineered for continuity under stress.

As Al Jazeera’s analysis notes, “Iran is not a single pyramid with one man at the apex. It is a heterarchical, networked state: Overlapping hubs of power around the Supreme Leader’s office, the Revolutionary Guards, intelligence organs, clerical gatekeepers, and a patronage economy. In such a system, removing one node, even the most symbolic one, does not reliably collapse the structure; redundancy and substitute chains of command are a design feature.”

The evidence is overwhelming, yet Washington refuses to learn. Decapitation strategies represent a cartoon, video game style approach to foreign policy, rooted in the fantasy that eliminating a single leader will cause an entire regime to crumble. DC desperately needs a wakeup call.

The United States cannot kill its way to a more favorable world order. America must abandon the interventionist impulse and embrace strategic retrenchment and accept the harsh realities that not all countries want to be remade in Washington’s image. Restraint, not assassination nor quixotic regime change ventures, is the foundation of a sustainable grand strategy.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 23:25

Marsha Blackburn To Secret Service: 'Root Out The Rot'

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

Sen. Marsha Blackburn sent a sharply worded letter Wednesday to Secret Service Director Sean Curran demanding an immediate, top-to-bottom review of the Secret Service, a move that comes nearly two weeks after an armed gunman sprinted past a checkpoint leading to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in a third assassination attempt on President Trump.

As part of the review, Blackburn called for a “full, thorough audit of every single employee on your payroll.”

“It is blatantly clear that the Secret Service needs to be cleaned up,” the Tennessee Republican wrote. “Unless you root out the rot, our nation will suffer the consequences.”

Blackburn’s letter also comes just days after a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was arrested in Miami after being found naked and masturbating in a hallway in yet another embarrassing spectacle.

The senator drew an explicit connection between the misconduct pattern and the agency’s core protective mission: “At a time when President Trump faces increasing threats to his safety, including yet another assassination attempt, the Secret Service cannot afford to have individuals who engage in this kind of embarrassing, disgraceful conduct on its payroll.”

Blackburn stopped short of calling for Curran’s resignation, but her demand for a full personnel audit – along with the blunt warning about consequences – signals mounting congressional pressure on an agency that has faced repeated public scrutiny since the July 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, that nearly killed him. An attempt on Trump’s life two months later at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, was another close call.

Blackburn cited the recent arrest of the agent for indecent exposure at the Miami hotel and framed the personnel issues as symptomatic of deeper structural problems – including what she described as persistent difficulties in vetting, hiring, and maintaining agent morale.

“There are broader questions about your agency’s ability to properly vet and hire agents," she wrote, “which has resulted in continued manpower and morale issues.”

Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect charged with multiple felonies for his aborted attack on the White House Correspondents’ dinner, managed to sprint through a checkpoint while allegedly exchanging fire with a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer. Federal prosecutors and Curran have said the officer was shot but was protected from harm by his ballistics vest.

The agents pursued Allen, who fell and then was apprehended 45 yards from the stairs to the ballroom. If the “brave” officers and agents hadn’t acted swiftly, Blackburn wrote, many attendees – including the president – “could have been seriously harmed.”

Just hours after the arrest of the naked officer on Monday, the Secret Service made headlines again – this time for engaging in a gunfight with an armed man that injured a juvenile bystander with a stray bullet near the Washington Monument, which is not far from the White House complex.

Law enforcement experts, including Fox News contributor Paul Mauro, who served 24 years with the new York Police Department, have questioned why the Secret Service didn’t provide more details sooner about Monday’s exchange of fire and the suspect’s injuries. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged 45-year-old Michael Marx of Midland, Texas, with assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, among other crimes.

“A press conference over this recent mysterious shooting in D.C. wouldn’t be a bad idea either,” Mauro remarked in an X.com post. “USSS involved in more shooting incidents than NYPD these days. And that’s…new.”

Curran has also drawn fire for telling Fox News last week that the security for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “set-up perfectly.”

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who led multiple investigations into the Secret Service when he was Oversight Committee chairman, strongly questioned that characterization. “Perfect? Are you kidding?” he told RealClearPolitics. “What if there were 12 guys with guns that decided to rush that point?  “And Curran’s talking about how great the training was. Are you kidding me?” he added.

Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who previously served as a Secret Service agent, also expressed concern about the possibility of multiple assailants bombarding Secret Service checkpoints and argued that agents with elite training should help fortify that layer of security.

“What worries me is not the first guy going through who charges the checkpoint. It’s the second, third, and possibly tenth guy after that,” he said in an interview this week with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “You get a counter-assault team there, you got a real force to hit back.”

The dinner incident was not the only recent security lapse Blackburn highlighted. Just 19 days before the correspondents’ dinner, sometime between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. April 6, a gunman fired shots near the White House grounds. In an RCP report cited by the senator, multiple sources said Secret Service investigators were unable to identify any information about the shooter – who, as of the letter’s writing, remains unidentified. Trump also was pressing the agency for more information, the sources said.

Blackburn cited other personnel incidents RCP reported, including a junior Secret Service agent faulted for the security planning and execution failures at the Butler rally marrying a foreign national without promptly notifying her superiors; another in which the FBI raided an agent’s home in an investigation of an alleged massive tax fraud scheme; and an agent charged for murdering his brother on New Year’s Eve.

“These are just a few of the many examples of personnel concerns that demonstrate a clear pattern of incompetence at the Secret Service that must be promptly addressed,” Blackburn wrote Curran.

The spate of such incidents has fueled bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have questioned whether the agency is structurally equipped to protect its principals at a moment when threats against the president are, by Blackburn’s account, escalating.

A bipartisan push began this week to place the Secret Service under direct White House supervision. Led by Reps. Russell Fry and Jared Moskowitz, the move would transfer the Secret Service away from the Department of Homeland Security oversight and make the agency report directly to the White House. After the WHCA scare, RCP reported that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had blocked efforts by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s team to impose a layer of oversight at the Secret Service aimed at ensuring deeper reforms under Curran’s leadership.

After the WHCA dinner shooting, Wiles convened a meeting with Secret Service and DHS leaders to discuss “protocol and practices” for major events involving Trump. A senior White House official said the meeting was convened to plan for upcoming events commemorating America 250. Trump also has expressed interest in attending the World Cup, which kicks off June 11.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 22:35

Netanyahu Insists Iran War To Continue Until Uranium Is 'Physically' Removed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a 60 Minutes interview which aired Sunday that President Trump still wants Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium removed. Trump on Monday warned that the Iran ceasefire is on 'massive life support'.

Netanyahu told CBS show host Major Garrett that the military campaign had achieved "a great deal" but insisted additional operations remain necessary.  That's when he described, "There’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran. There's still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled."

Trump on Iran:

Iran told me, “You are getting the nuclear dust, but you will have to get it.”

They said, “You and China are the only ones that can get it because the sites were obliterated.” pic.twitter.com/bpyRXcNTtw

— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 11, 2026

"There are still proxies that Iran supports," Netanyahu added. "There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there, and there's work to be done."

Clearly the Israeli prime minister is trying to hold the line of maximalist demands on Iran, even as it seems Washington is trying to extricate itself from the conflict while still seeking to present a narrative of 'victory'.

It is true that Trump has still not let up on insisting that what he calls all the "nuclear dust" must be removed from Iran, amid Tehran's repeat objections to this. This lone issue is primarily what has collapsed peace negotiations at this point.

Garrett pressed Netanyahu on just how the removal of Iranian nuclear material would be accomplished, given such a gambit would be obvious recipe for prolonging and even escalating the war.

"With what?" Garrett posed. “Special Forces from Israel, Special Forces from the United States working in tandem under international supervision? How?”

Netanyahu dodged the question, amid growing criticism among the American public that Washington is doing the bidding of Israel in starting and prolonging Operation Epic Fury:

"Well, I’m not gonna talk about military means, but what President Trump has said to me, 'I want to go in there,' I mean, he’s said that publicly. He’s said it and I think he’s right. He's very committed to this. And I think it can be done physically," Netanyahu responded. "That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement, and you go in, and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way."

"What if there isn’t an agreement? Can it be taken out by force?" Garrett asked.

The below segment has raised some serious questions: Bibi trying to dictate US foreign policy?...

🚨 HOLY CRAP. A FOREIGN PRIME MINISTER just told American media YOUR war isn't over, and casually floated sending YOUR sons into Iran to grab uranium.

NETANYAHU: "It's not over."

"You go in and you take it out."

REPORTER: With what? Special forces from Israel? From the United… pic.twitter.com/pcvTwJ80Xo

— Space Ape (@EatDaBugs) May 10, 2026

"Well, you’re gonna ask me these questions. I'm gonna dodge them, so you can ask me that second time, third time, and I’ll dodge it second time, third time," the prime minister replied.

At one point Netanyahu had said: "I think it can be done physically."

While there remains the distinct possibility that this conflict could morph into an eventual ground war, US officials have downplayed the potential of Israeli boots on the ground. And yet Washington hasn't discounted putting American soldiers in harm's way. This is has resulted in anger and frustration among some sectors of the Right in the US.

*  *  *

Below is the full interview:

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 22:10

India Rejects Russian LNG Under Sanctions

India rejected Russia’s offer ​to sell it liquefied natural gas subject to US sanctions, despite a huge shortfall driven by Middle East tensions, leaving a tanker bound for India in limbo as talks continue on permitted cargoes, Reuters reports.

The stance highlights the fine balance the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer is seeking to strike between securing energy supplies and avoiding LNG cargoes on which the U.S. has ​placed sanctions, which are harder to disguise and carry greater compliance risk. It also underscores the limits of Moscow’s ability ​to pivot its LNG exports to new markets.

India's reluctance has left an LNG cargo from Russia's U.S.-sanctioned Portovaya ⁠plant in the Baltic Sea unable to discharge, despite indicating India as its destination in mid-April, one of the sources said. The ​vessel was tracked despite documentation suggesting the cargo was non-Russian, the source added.

Reuters had reported in mid-April, citing LSEG shipping data, that the ​138,200-cubic-metre tanker Kunpeng was heading to the Dahej LNG import terminal in western India. The vessel is now near Singaporean waters with no destination broadcast, according to LSEG.

India, the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne crude, conveyed its decision not to buy LNG that was under sanction to Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Pavel ​Sorokin during his April 30 visit, when he met Indian officials including Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, one of ​the sources said. It was their second meeting in as many months, and Sorokin could return in June for further talks, said the source.

India’s purchases of Russian crude have meanwhile continued unabated, aided by a temporary waiver of U.S. sanctions introduced to help countries cope with an energy crisis resulting from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28.

Arctic LNG 2 is Russia's other export plant subject to U.S. sanctions. Washington stepped ​up sanctions on the LNG ​plants in early 2025 over ⁠Russia's war on Ukraine.  

While crude oil cargoes can be hidden through ship-to-ship transfers at sea, LNG shipments are far harder to conceal from satellite tracking. 

While India is open to buying authorised ​Russian LNG, most of those volumes are committed to Europe, Reuters notes. Meanwhile, China remains ⁠a major buyer of both sanctioned and unsanctioned Russian LNG. Moscow is also seeking long-term deals to supply India with LNG and fertilizers such as potash, phosphorus and urea, the source added.

Before the Iran conflict disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, India was meeting half of its ⁠gas consumption ​through imports, about 60% of which had come through the waterway. More than ​half of its crude supplies came the same way.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to conserve fuel and foreign exchange by working from home, limiting foreign ​travel and reducing imports of gold and edible oil.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 21:45

Iran Deploys Combat-Ready Mini Subs In Hormuz As US Flexes Nuclear Submarine En Route

Rival submarine threats have emerged Monday amid the ongoing Strait of Hormuz showdown and as President Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is on "massive life support".

A US Navy nuclear-armed submarine has arrived in Gibraltar while en route into the Mediterranean Sea and likely Central Command or Middle East regional waters, in a very rare Pentagon admission of the whereabouts of one of America's most secretive weapons.

Source: GBC News

"The port visit demonstrates U.S. capability, flexibility, and continuing commitment to its NATO allies," the Navy announced, confirming that the submarine arrived in Gibraltar on Sunday. "Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are undetectable launch platforms for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the U.S. with its most survivable leg of the nuclear triad."

The Wall Street Journal has emphasized, "The Pentagon almost never acknowledges the locations of its boomers [US naval slang], which are highly classified. The Navy didn’t provide the name of the submarine in Gibraltar."

The revelation of the nuclear sub's movements comes just atter President Trump blasted Iran's latest counterproposal to a US peace plan as "totally unacceptable" and even called it "garbage" while threatening renewed anti-Tehran military action. It also comes as Trump is about to travel to China for a highly anticipated summit with Xi Jinping.

There's current some rival 'sub flexing' going on among the two rival and warring powers, given also the following from Bloomberg on the same day: "The Islamic Republic has at least 16 of the Ghadir-class midget submarines, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies."

USS Alaska (SSBN 732) (tentatively identified) Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine coming into Gibraltar - May 10, 2026 SRC: X-@PeterFerrary pic.twitter.com/aU7V53tS3V

— WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) May 11, 2026

"Each has a crew of fewer than 10 people and can carry either two torpedoes or two Chinese-designed C-704 anti-ship cruise missiles," the report described.

Iranian Rear Admiral Shahram Irani said the domestically built submarines, known as the "Persian Gulf Dolphins," are deployed in active operational positions calibrated to confront evolving threats.

Tehran is in essence warning it still possesses the capability to take out American destroyers and warships patrolling the area, as the deployment reinforces Tehran's broader asymmetric warfare strategy across the Persian Gulf.

State-linked Iranian outlets have characterized the submarines as "trigger-ready" - but also say they are capable of prolonged seabed-resting surveillance operations.

All of this suggests intense submarine warfare could soon come to the Hormuz Strait and Persian Gulf waters. Already most of the Iranian Navy's surface vessels were obliterated in over a month of intense US-Israeli airstrikes.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 21:20

Jeffries Calls On Half-Dozen Democratic States To Start 'Aggressive' Redistricting

Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Friday named six Democratic states he wants to join New York in pursuing mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2028 election—a longer-term play as both parties have raced to redraw maps before the November 2026 midterms.

“It’s going to be incredibly important that states like New York, New Jersey, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Maryland and Illinois are aggressive in moving forward to ensure that there’s a fair national map, particularly in light of what the Supreme Court’s attack on the Voting Rights Act has unleashed,” Jeffries said in an interview with CNN published on May 8.

Congressional maps are slated to be redrawn after the next census in 2030.

 

The comments came the same day that the Virginia Supreme Court voided an April referendum that would have allowed state Democrats to redraw Virginia’s congressional map ahead of the November midterms. Democrats had said the new Virginia map could result in their having 10 congressional seats to only one for Republicans. Virginia now has six Democratic members of Congress and five Republicans.

 

Jeffries called the Virginia ruling “unprecedented” and “undemocratic” in a statement released by his office on Friday.

“Over three million Virginia citizens cast their votes in a free and fair election, yet the State Supreme Court has chosen to invalidate their voice, disenfranchise them and violate their due process rights,” Jeffries said in the statement.

He added, “We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision. No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.”

Despite the setback, Jeffries told CNN that Democrats could still flip “at least two” GOP-held seats in Virginia under the existing congressional map.

“If the current map holds in Virginia, we will at minimum flip two seats. And we’re exploring other options given how unpopular the policies of the Republican party have been,” Jeffries told CNN.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 29 ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana’s congressional map was unconstitutional because race was the predominant factor in drawing the lines, a decision that limits redistricting based on race. Democrats and voting rights advocates say the decision guts the Voting Rights Act and gives Republican-led states grounds to revisit majority-minority districts.

Republicans hailed the ruling. Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said on May 6 that the Supreme Court had “opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind.” He noted that the court had also indicated that “states can redistrict based off partisan politics” as the state began redrawing its districts.

Republican-led states have moved quickly.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on May 7 signed a new congressional map that splits Memphis into three districts and will probably eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held congressional seat. The Tennessee General Assembly first passed a measure repealing a state law that had previously prohibited mid-decade redistricting.

Republicans have also moved this year to redraw congressional maps in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri, and Florida. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 4 signed a new map that could add up to four Republican-leaning seats to that state’s congressional delegation.

Democrats have countered with their own mid-decade redraws in California and the now-voided Virginia attempt. On May 4, Jeffries launched what he calls the New York Democracy Project, an effort to recruit New York into the mid-decade redistricting fight.

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), dispatched to Albany by Jeffries, pressed New York Democratic leaders to advance a constitutional amendment enabling mid-decade redistricting before the legislature adjourns the first week of June. A New York constitutional change would require passage by two consecutive legislative sessions before going to voters for ratification.

Jeffries on Monday told House Democrats in a Dear Colleague letter that he will host a caucus-wide briefing on Thursday with Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, to discuss what he called “the largest voter protection effort in modern American history.”

National Republican Redistricting Trust Executive Director Adam Kincaid told The Epoch Times this past week that the broader push amounted to “Hochul and Jeffries’s annual attempt to illegally gerrymander New York and roll back the state’s twice-voter-approved redistricting commission.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 20:55

"No More Nakedness": Spencer Pratt's L.A. Mayoral Plan To Restore Order 'In Weeks' Has Democrats In Panic Mode

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, whose social media team has been running circles around far-left incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and socialist Councilmember Nithya Raman in recent weeks, appears to be gaining momentum. Whether from his strong performance at last week's mayoral debate or his viral social media ads, the former reality TV star, made famous on MTV's The Hills, has reached an inflection point as a serious challenger to the Democratic queens and kings who rule L.A. City Hall.

Pratt joined David Friedberg on the All-In podcast in an interview that premiered Sunday. Titled "Wildfires, Homelessness, Corruption & the Fight to Take It Back," the conversation outlined how Pratt would quickly work to restore law and order in violence-plagued Los Angeles in the first several weeks of office, if he were elected.

The interview comes days after Pratt defeated Mayor Bass and Councilmember Raman in a debate last Wednesday, in which a local poll by NBC Los Angeles showed that 88% of respondents said he won.

🚨 LA MAYOR POLL: A whopping 88% say that @spencerpratt WON the Mayoral debate last night.

Spencer Pratt: 88%
Karen Bass: 7%
Nithya Rama: 5%

It wasn’t even close. pic.twitter.com/EMUmw9sDDs

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) May 7, 2026

Pratt told Friedberg:

"If you start putting handcuffs on people, watch how many people leave. 100%.

"This idea that if you let everyone do drugs and do whatever they want and let the criminals make the outside an asylum with no guards... If you let them do that, they're gonna do that."

Pratt then laid out his plan for the first few weeks if he is elected mayor:

"But when I'm mayor, my plan is: First three weeks, signs up across the city. 'No more nakedness, no more drug use, no more robbing, no more dog abuse.' Very prominently on every sign, in every part of the city.

"And we're going to warn everybody: 'Hey, you've got three more weeks of this. Clock's ticking.' Just keep telling everyone so people are aware. They're like, 'Oh wow, there is a new mayor in town.' They may start leaving.

"And then, when the three weeks are up, or maybe we'll even do two weeks, maybe people want it faster, once we start enforcing the law, boom, the streets will be back.

"You know who I'm also going to bring in? The CDC is concerned because there are medieval diseases in these encampments. They're not swabbing the streets. People are just living in feces, drug use, and dogs burning bodies. We need these streets cleaned."

NEW: Spencer Pratt says he will be implementing a three-week 'grace period' in Los Angeles before he unleashes on criminals.

Pratt says he will also be bringing in the CDC to combat the "medieval diseases" his city has.

"My plan is: First three weeks, signs up across the city.… pic.twitter.com/eKqMMQRtQv

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 10, 2026

Pratt's rise in the polls is based largely on common-sense policies to enforce law and order, which have alarmed the Democratic Party. Bass had to cancel an appearance this week after her poor performance in last week's debate.

Democrats' only counter to Pratt last week at the debate was to call him a "MAGA Republican." If that is their rebuttal to a basic law-and-order agenda, it speaks volumes about how little they have left to offer voters watching Los Angeles spiral over the last ten years. 

Spencer Pratt’s PRICELESS reaction when Nithya Raman dismisses him as a ‘MAGA Republican’ pic.twitter.com/1CEeVTDr4q

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 7, 2026

Polymarket odds show Pratt rising after last week's debate, while Raman's odds declined. Bass remains the frontrunner.

//--> Will Spencer Pratt win the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election?
Yes 29% · No 71%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Pratt's rise also comes after years of left-wing control over the metro area, which has allowed homelessness, open-air drug use, violent crime, corruption, and social dysfunction to spiral out of control.

Pratt accuses Bass of being a communist and possibly linked to a Cuban spy operation. Rubio also received the memo.

I’m sorry I am now a broken record but oh my God I did not have Spencer Pratt, exposing Karen Bass’s entire communist, revolution history during the race for mayor in Los Angeles.

I mean the best part about this is everything he’s saying is completely 100% true.

So if you… pic.twitter.com/iyoR93WOFh

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) May 7, 2026

We laid out to readers late last year:

• Is There A "Cuba Connection" Behind The Radicalization Of America's Nonprofit Left

Democrats are absolutely terrified about Pratt's rise.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 20:30

California Mayor Indicted, Will Plead Guilty To Being CCP Agent

In a significant development announced today by the U.S. Department of Justice, Arcadia, California Mayor Eileen Wang has been charged with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government - the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Wang, 58, has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. She resigned from her position as mayor and Arcadia City Council member this afternoon following the unsealing of the case.

According to court filings and the DOJ’s Central District of California announcement, Wang and her former fiancé, Yaoning "Mike" Sun, operated the U.S. News Center, a website that presented itself as a news source for the local Chinese-American community. From late 2020 through 2022, they received and executed directives from PRC government officials - primarily via WeChat - to post pro-PRC propaganda. Examples include publishing pre-written articles denying forced labor or genocide in Xinjiang, editing content at the direction of Chinese officials, and sharing view counts and links in coordinated group chats. PRC officials reportedly praised the speed and effectiveness of the posts, with messages such as "So fast, thank you everyone" and "Great!"

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang has been charged with violating 18 USC 951, acting in the United States as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China.

Wang appeared in federal court this afternoon for her arraignment. She agreed to plead guilty and resign from public office.… pic.twitter.com/toYWJ7htvG

— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) May 11, 2026

Wang did not register as a foreign agent with the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law, and failed to disclose on the website that certain content originated from or was directed by the PRC government. She was elected to the Arcadia City Council in November 2022 (later becoming mayor on a rotating basis) with assistance from Sun, who worked on her campaign.

Linked to Previously Convicted Chinese Agent

Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, was sentenced in February 2026 to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to the same charge of acting as an illegal agent of the PRC. Prosecutors said Sun monitored the 2023 visit of Taiwan’s president to California, corresponded with Chinese officials, and helped promote PRC interests while supporting Wang’s political rise. A related figure, John Chen - a high-level PRC intelligence operative who had met Xi Jinping - was sentenced in November 2024 to 20 months in prison for acting as an illegal agent and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

DOJ officials framed the case as part of broader efforts to counter Chinese influence operations. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated: "Individuals in our country who covertly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine our democracy." FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky added that Wang "secretly served the interests of the Chinese government," warning that such actors "will be identified, investigated, and brought to justice."

🚨 Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang in California has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China in the United States.

Mayor Wang admitted to acting as a foreign agent from at least 2020 through 2022 - promoting PRC propaganda in the U.S. and acting…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) May 11, 2026 Pattern of CCP Links to Democratic Politicians

Wang’s case fits into a documented series of instances where Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence or influence operations have intersected with Democratic elected officials, particularly in California. While no widespread conspiracy has been proven, federal investigators and counterintelligence experts have repeatedly flagged "united front" work by the PRC targeting politicians, diaspora communities, and institutions.

Dianne Feinstein’s Longtime Staffer (2018 revelations): For nearly 20 years, a Chinese national served as Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) personal driver, office gofer, and liaison to the Asian-American community in her San Francisco office. The staffer reported local political information to China’s Ministry of State Security through the San Francisco consulate. The FBI alerted Feinstein around 2013 (while she chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee). She immediately fired the individual, who had no access to classified material according to her office. No criminal charges were filed against him or the senator. The story surfaced publicly in 2018 via the San Francisco Chronicle and Politico.

Rep. Eric Swalwell and Christine "Fang Fang" Fang (2020 reporting): Axios revealed that suspected Chinese MSS operative Christine Fang cultivated relationships with several rising California Democratic politicians, most notably Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Fang raised campaign funds for Swalwell’s 2014 reelection (acting as a bundler), helped place at least one intern in his congressional office, and interacted with him socially over several years. Reports indicated a possible romantic or sexual relationship, though Swalwell has neither confirmed nor denied it in detail.

Fang abruptly left the U.S. in 2015 around the time an FBI counterintelligence investigation into her intensified. Swalwell, who later joined the House Intelligence Committee, cooperated with the FBI, received a defensive briefing, and has stated he cut off all contact upon learning of concerns. No wrongdoing was attributed to him, but the episode drew intense scrutiny given his national security role.

Other historical cases include the 1990s "Chinagate" fundraising scandals involving Democratic National Committee figures and alleged PRC-linked donors during the Clinton administration, though those centered more on illegal campaign contributions than direct agent activity.

Implications and Context

While we can't imagine there are any American mayors of Chinese cities - U.S. intelligence agencies have long warned that the CCP employs sophisticated, long-term influence operations to shape narratives, gather political intelligence, and cultivate relationships with American elites - especially in states with large Chinese-American populations such as California. These efforts often involve ostensibly independent media, community organizations, and political operatives who do not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Wang’s guilty plea - following Sun’s conviction - represents one of the most direct recent examples of an elected U.S. official admitting to covertly advancing PRC interests while in or seeking public office. Her resignation and the DOJ’s swift action underscore federal prosecutors’ focus on holding accountable those who "act only for the people of the United States," as Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg put it.

Critics argue these cases reveal insufficient vetting of political aides, campaign staff, and even romantic partners in an era of aggressive CCP espionage. Supporters of the implicated politicians emphasize that most relationships began innocently and that no classified information was compromised in the Feinstein or Swalwell matters.

As of this writing, Wang is expected to formally enter her guilty plea in the coming weeks. The case will likely fuel renewed debate in Washington and Sacramento about foreign influence transparency laws, campaign finance rules, and counterintelligence screening for candidates and staffers.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 20:05

Iran Executes Top Young Aerospace Scientist, Alleging CIA & Mossad Ties

Iran has executed 29-year-old aerospace engineer Erfan Shakourzadeh on Monday on espionage charges despite his protestations that authorities tortured him into giving a false confession, according to a prison note published before his execution, as recounted in Western press reports.

Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website announced and confirmed the execution, describing that he was hanged after being convicted for allegedly collaborating with the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Various human rights organizations have rejected the validity of the charges, and have decried his execution, having for weeks raised the alarm that he was on death row.

Shakourzadeh studied electrical engineering at the University of Tabriz before graduating top of his class in the master's program in Aerospace Engineering and Satellite Technology at Iran University of Science and Technology.

He was a leading young specialist in the field and worked at a scientific organization focused on satellite technology before intelligence agents from the elite IRGC arrested him in February 2025. So the case predates the current war, but is highly significant amid the US pressure campaign.

State Mizan agency went on to allege that Shakourzadeh was "a joint CIA and Mossad spy," stating that he had been recruited "as a project and due to his expertise."

CBS has said he's the latest death in a growing list of espionage cases:

He is the fifth person to be executed on espionage charges since the beginning of the war in late February.

Authorities have also since then executed 13 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 10 accused of links to banned opposition groups, according to IHR.

President Trump had weeks ago personally highlighted that eight women protesters were also set to be executed, but that he intervened with Iranian officials and threatened more military action, effectively stopping it.

However, Trump's claims have been largely debunked. It has been confirmed that at least one among the eight is real and is likely in prison, but other details concerning the group of women have not been established or else outright disproven.

Iran executed Erfan Shakourzadeh, a 29-year-old aerospace engineering master's student at Iran University of Science and Technology who worked on satellite projects.

He was convicted of espionage for the CIA and Mossad, accused of sharing classified satellite data, employee… pic.twitter.com/q1C1kFHl0g

— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 11, 2026

But it does remain clear that Iran has been busy hunting down alleged collaborators, also after Mossad and Israeli officials have time and again openly boasted that they are working with individuals and networks on the ground inside Iran.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 19:40

China's Car Sales Slump As Gasoline Demand Craters

Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

Chinese car sales in China fell by 21.5% in April, driven by lower demand for gasoline-powered vehicles amid higher fuel prices. EV demand failed to offset the drop in internal combustion engine vehicle sales, as well.

According to Bloomberg data, total car sales in China last month hit 1.4 million. This was the lowest since 2022, when China was still in the grip of Covid lockdowns. Internal combustion engine car sales suffered a decline of over 30%, while EV and hybrid car sales fell by a more modest 6.8%. EV sales suffered as a result of a rollback of subsidies and the reintroduction of a tax on what China calls new energy vehicles.

As a result of the slump in gasoline car sales, new energy vehicles came to account for 60% of new car sales last month. This is the highest monthly portion of EVs and hybrids of total new car sales.

In addition to the fuel prices, subsidy removal, and the return of taxes on EVs, China’s car sales declined as a result of weaker purchasing power - another consequence of the war in the Middle East.

The energy crisis has slowed down China’s economic growth, prompting job cuts and lower wages, which have in turn affected consumers’ spending appetite, Bloomberg noted in its report.

China has the world’s largest crude oil stockpiles, estimated at between 1 billion barrels and up to 1.3 billion barrels. This provides the country with quite solid insulation against supply shocks - even though it has not prevented retail fuel prices from moving higher.

Thanks to this reserve cushion and its diversification policies, despite being the top crude importer in the world, China is less exposed to the Hormuz crisis than many other buyers in Asia, including India and the developed economies of Japan and South Korea. India relies on the Middle East for about 60% of its crude supply, while Japan’s dependence is a massive 90%.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 19:15