Zero Rss

Xi Presses Trump For Taiwan Policy Shift As $14 Billion Weapons Deal Hangs In Limbo

Following our earlier coverage of Barclays senior China economist Yingke Zhou's view that Chinese leader Xi Jinping's state visit delivered "more signaling, less substance," attention turns to Taiwan, where Xi pressed President Donald Trump to oppose Taiwan independence.

According to China's official Xinhua News Agency, Xi urged Trump to "adhere to the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence." The conversation took place at Thursday's White House summit.

For years, Washington has held the stance that it "doesn't support" the independence of Taiwan, the island Xi and his Communist Party claim as their own.

"While this may appear a semantic shift, the impact would be meaningful," said Bloomberg Economics' Jennifer Welch, who served as director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council under the previous Biden and Trump administrations.

Welch pointed out that Beijing would use any switch in language from Trump to undermine Taiwan's confidence in US support. She added, "Opposing Taiwan independence implies an active effort to contain what Beijing sees as pro-independence forces."

This push by Xi to Trump comes as he heads toward an expected fourth term in office next year; he's ramping up diplomatic pressure to isolate the island, home to the world's most advanced semiconductor production, and block future weapons sales by the Trump administration.

For many months, Trump has delayed the $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan, which may come in the weeks or months ahead now that Xi's state dinner at the White House is over. It appears that Taipei is seeing its defense needs becoming leverage in the US-China trade spat.

In a preview of what next year might hold, China deployed a record 244 coast guard, research, and other government vessels around Taiwan this summer in what could only be viewed as a dry run for a blockade.

Beijing has warned that mishandling the Taiwan issue could lead to "clashes" between the superpowers - certainly a flashpoint. 

"The key acid test will be what Trump says on Taiwan," said Ryan Hass, director of the China Center at the Brookings Institution, who Bloomberg quoted. "Not just what Xi urges Trump to endorse."

Meanwhile, Reuters cited Taiwan's foreign ministry as saying that Xi's remarks represent "the consistent Chinese approach of distorting facts and unilaterally conveying its position and claims."

"Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to all the people of Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party has no right to represent the Taiwanese people, and Taiwan's future can only be determined by the Taiwanese people through democratic means," the ministry added.

There were no immediate signals that the Trump administration would agree to Xi's request, a shift in wording that could carry significant implications for Washington's stance on Taiwan.

Jeremy Chan, senior analyst on China for the US-based political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told Reuters, "It would ​erode a lot of the...strategic ambiguity of whether the US would come to Taiwan's aid in that context." 

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 08:20

Proper Flock'd: What This Cop Did Raises Major Red Flags...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A Naperville police officer turned a statewide camera grid into a personal tracking app, ran a man's plate about 150 times, and then retired like the file never existed.

The story serves as yet another example of how the burgeoning mass surveillance grid is being abused on a regular basis.

Patrick Dowhen was not a suspect. He was the ex. After Officer Oscar Maldonado started a relationship with Dowhen's fiancée, Flock became the shortcut. No warrant. No case number that mattered. Just a badge, a login, and a national lattice of plate readers that can reconstruct where you went, when you went, and how often you go there.

"Anywhere I went in the country, I was being tracked," Dowhen told ABC7 Chicago's I-Team. "It was scary, it was really scary."

Internal records obtained by the I-Team show the pattern started after Maldonado's relationship with Dowhen's then-fiancée began. Investigators found evidence he searched Flock for Dowhen's vehicle approximately 150 times over a three-month stretch last year.

Chicago Tribune reporting, from a separate FOIA haul, put the plate runs between June 18 and Sept. 15, 2025, and said Maldonado tracked plates for non-police reasons hundreds of times.

Dowhen said the surveillance was not abstract. "My ex-fiancée would tell me where I was at, or what I was doing, and he [Maldonado] was feeding her information," he said. "He's an officer, feeding a civilian, you know, inside information." He tore his truck apart looking for a tracker. Then he went to Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres. That complaint opened the internal case last September.

Maldonado's story to interrogators was protection: the woman, himself, his family. Naperville investigators did not buy it. They wrote that the "evidence contradicts Maldonado's explanation that he only used Flock for the safety of himself, his family," and Dowhen's ex-fiancée.

The report also concluded there was "a preponderance of the evidence that shows Maldonado did commit the crime of Official Misconduct," adding that he "admitted to using FLOCK for personal reasons."

Then on May 1, 2026, Maldonado retired. Department spokesman Rick Krakow said the internal case was complete but not closed because discipline had not been imposed. "However, the officer resigned before his disciplinary meeting with the chief, which essentially closed the case."

No arrest. No plate charges. A referral to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. Will County prosecutors would not confirm or deny a criminal review. Dowhen later obtained a stalking no-contact order that noted Maldonado "was tracking my plate since 06/2025." That order was dropped after both men agreed to a two-year mutual no-contact deal.

"He could very well get a job as a police officer again and have, you know, all these same electronic things available to him at any time and stalk anybody you want," Dowhen said, "because at this point he has no criminal record."

ABC7 chief legal analyst Gil Soffer laid out the gap that let a 150-search campaign end in a retirement party. "It's not enough to say that a police officer violated internal laws, you'd have to show that a police officer knowingly violated a law, a statute, a constitutional provision," he said.

He added, "An official misconduct statute in Illinois won't necessarily cover the simple situation where a police officer accesses license plate information for an improper purpose."

Maldonado's own lawyer, Jeff Tomczak, made the same point from the other side of the table. "I'm a defense attorney. It should be a crime. It should absolutely be a crime. The legislature should act, create the crime of misuse of Flock. Don't require the state's attorneys to be creative."

A private company sold cities a warrantless movement database. Departments wrote policy memos. The statute book never caught up. When an officer treated the grid like a jealous-ex app, the fallback was an employee manual and a quiet exit.

The I-Team says this is not one suburban rogue. It identified 14 Chicago-area cases of officers accused of misusing Flock, with at least five sent to prosecutors. Berwyn's mayor, Robert Lovero, issued an executive order this week suspending the city's cameras.

On Capitol Hill the same day, Sen. Josh Hawley noted who did not show up: "You know who you won't hear from? Flock CEO." Sen. Dick Durbin added, "I think they're afraid to be on camera."

Nationally, a Washington Post investigation found at least 50 documented cases of officers charged with or accused of misusing automated plate-reader systems. In 26 of those cases, officers used the technology to spy on wives, girlfriends, former partners, or their exes' new partners.

Flock's system appeared in 46 of the 50. Chicago privacy researcher Matt Chapman, of Lucy Parsons Lab, put the constitutional problem in one line: "It seems that these tools are used as a means of circumventing Fourth Amendment rights."

This is the same architecture that already wrecked an innocent Florida woman's life.

Lindsey Brooke Isaacs, 23, spent 13 days in a Volusia County jail facing life after Florida troopers treated a Flock ping like a confession. Her black Dodge Durango had no collision damage. A 911 caller described a maroon SUV and a partial plate that was not hers. The camera still became the case.

"They just picked up my car off a camera and called it the end of the day. We got her," she said. Prosecutors later dropped every charge and arrested another driver whose maroon Durango and plate matched the original call.

Flock's line was corporate and tidy: "Flock cameras provide investigative leads; they do not identify perpetrators, determine guilt, or make arrest decisions."

Florida's governor had already seen enough of the dragnet. At DeSantis's direction, FDOT revoked every permit for Flock units and other automated plate readers in state highway right-of-way and put agencies on a 30-day clock. Miss it, and state crews pull the poles.

"I think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it's out of control," DeSantis said. "I'm all about having law enforcement have tools to be able to hold criminals accountable... But I don't want to have this become a surveillance state."

He used the most Florida example available: a drive to Buc-ee's. "It's really none of the government's damn business if you're doing that, right?" He also named the stalking pattern now repeating in Naperville: "When I see, like, a police officer using this to track, like, an ex-girlfriend, I'm like, you know, what the hell's going on with this?"

Knox County, Tennessee, Mayor Glenn Jacobs - the former WWE star Kane - cut the same cord after he realized the product was not a passive hot-list ping. It is an active system that photographs every car, then builds what Flock calls a "vehicular fingerprint": make, model, color, roof racks, bumper stickers.

"The lack of transparency surrounding Flock's rollout is one of the most troubling aspects about all this," Jacobs wrote. "It's sure seems like there was a sprint towards a fait accompli before the public took notice."

The company has since shortened default retention, promised mandatory audits, and told cities they can wall off some outside searches. Semafor reported this week that Flock is now weighing a sale, with preliminary talks involving outside advisers. A spokesperson declined to comment.

Software patches after the poles are already in the ground do not rewrite the architecture: a searchable history of lawful travel, available to whoever has a login, with "audit" as the after-the-fact alibi.

Americans were sold stolen-car alerts and Amber Alerts. What got bolted to the intersection is a movement dossier with no judge on the front end and, in Illinois, no reliable felony on the back end.

Maldonado searched a man who was not charged with anything, roughly 150 times, then left with his record clean enough to wear a badge somewhere else. That is not a glitch in the camera. That is the product working as designed - until voters and governors start ripping the poles down.

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 08:05

Ford v. Hyundai: Henry Ford Must Be Turning In His Grave After New Report

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group is on track to surpass 123-year-old Ford Motor in third-quarter US deliveries (a first ever) as consumers shift toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The shift comes as Ford is plagued by the fallout from its costly EV strategy and production constraints affecting its light- or medium-duty truck unit. 

Henry Ford must be turning in his grave.

Cox Automotive's third-quarter sales forecast, released earlier this morning, expects Hyundai's US deliveries to rise 4.4% quarter over quarter to 511,421 vehicles, while Ford's fall 7.7% to 504,172. The estimates, detailed on slide 27, put Hyundai on track to outsell Ford in the US for the first time.

Toyota, Hyundai and Kia are benefiting from US consumers seeking competitively priced hybrid lineups. Toyota, Hyundai and Kia are benefiting from competitively priced hybrid lineups. A record one in six new vehicles sold in the US in the second quarter was a hybrid, according to the report. 

"This is a moment where consumers are trying to find options that offer more fuel efficiency," Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox, told Bloomberg. "Hyundai and Kia are starting to have those options available and you can see they're gaining share because of that."

Bloomberg noted that Ford faced mounting headwinds. Fires at a key supplier plant last year constrained components to its top-selling F-Series trucks, while the phaseout of the Escape compact SUV has reduced volume. 

The report showed the auto market is stable, with higher-income buyers supporting overall volumes, while cash-strapped households are rewarding automakers that offer hybrids.

Cox Chief Economist Jeremy Robb highlighted the vehicle segments driving sales this year:

Vehicle supplies:

New-vehicle pricing at record highs:

With the national average price of regular gas at $4.48 per gallon and diesel at $6.51 late in the summer, and fuel prices elevated since early March, new EV sales have remained muted. However, used EV sales have trended higher.

Stock Performance: Ford v. Hyundai

Ford should've focused on hybrids instead of making an idiotic mad dash into EVs. And just imagine what happens when China's BYD floods North America with cheap EVs and hybrids... 

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 07:45

Bring On The Generals: Roughly 60% Of Polled Democrats Would Support A Military Coup

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

It appears that nothing says "saving Democracy" like a good old-fashioned military coup. A new survey from the Center for Strategic Politics found that 59 percent of Democrats would favor a military coup to remove President Donald Trump from office. All it took was four years out of power for these Democratic voters to embrace a coup d'état to negate the results of the last election. What is particularly chilling is that many of these voters still portray themselves as defending democracy by calling for a military takeover.

It is akin to supporting drive-by shootings to combat gun violence.

That is not the only shocker in this survey.

According to the Center, roughly six in 10 (59%) Democrats polled said they would feel "very positive" or "somewhat positive" if the US military removed Trump and seized control of the American government.

The vast majority, of course, would be happy if Trump were impeached and removed from office (87%) or ousted by his cabinet via the 25th Amendment (84%).

The survey also shows the same overwhelming support for socialism in the new Democratic Party. What is surprising is the support for public ownership of industries. That includes almost half (46%) supporting public ownership and operation of grocery stores. Almost 40 percent support public ownership and operation of restaurants. (39%).

I have previously said that I do not recognize the current Democratic Party as someone raised in a politically active and liberal Democratic family. I first became estranged from the party over the radical shift from a pro-free speech party to one that supported censorship and speech curtailment.

Despite many who claim that the Democratic Socialists represent a small fraction of the party, these polls show a consistent and growing majority in support of socialism.

The addition of support for a military coup shows the manifestation of a rage addiction in America. Democratic leaders are now calling for trashing core constitutional institutions or values. When some of us criticized moves to pack the Supreme Court, leaders like Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom accused us of engaging in mere "nostalgia."

It is the same "nostalgia" that leaves many of us shocked at the support for a military coup.

On our 250th anniversary, we face yet again Benjamin Franklin's warning that this is a Republic if we can keep it.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor who teaches a class on the Constitution and the Supreme Court and is the best-selling author of "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 07:20

FDA Raises Thyroid Tablet Recall To Most Serious Level

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The Food and Drug Administration this week elevated a prescription thyroid medication recall to its most serious classification because the medication is too potent.

Medications are stored on shelves at a pharmacy in Los Angeles on May 12, 2025. Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Several weeks ago, Vitruvias Therapeutics said in a notice published by the FDA that it was voluntarily recalling one lot of thyroid tablets because the medication is "superpotent" and can "cause hyperthyroidism," or an overactive thyroid, in some people.

The affected lot, 504950, was distributed across the United States by Alabama-based Vitruvias Therapeutics between Jan. 31, 2025. and Sept. 30, 2025. The drug's expiration date is Sept. 30, 2026, according to the FDA notice.

In an enforcement report updated on Sept. 22, the FDA classified the thyroid tablets as a Class I recall, the most severe in its three-tiered system.

According to the FDA's website, a Class I recall is a situation where there is a "reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death."

A statement released by Vitruvias Therapeutics in August warned that consumption of the "superpotent" thyroid medication can cause hyperthyroidism that can include symptoms such as "weight loss, heat intolerance, fatigue, nervousness, muscle weakness, hypertension, chest pain, rapid heart rate, or heart rhythm disturbance."

Those who are considered at a greater risk of developing adverse reactions include pregnant women, infants, and elderly people, according to the notice. For the elderly, high levels of thyroid hormones have been linked to adverse events, including cardiac health-related problems, it said.

In infants, an overtreatment can also have "negative effects on growth and development," the company said.

But as of the issuance of the Aug. 21 news release, the company has not received any reports of adverse health events linked to the recalled tablets, it said.

The medication is described by the company as "a natural preparation derived from porcine thyroid glands composed of levothyroxine and liothyronine" and used to treat an underactive thyroid, or hypothyroidism.

In the release, Vitruvias Therapeutics advised patients not to stop using the medication without first contacting their healthcare provider for guidance or a replacement prescription. That was before the FDA classified the recall as its most serious.

The company said it would notify retailers to discontinue the distribution of the recalled medication and would arrange for the "destruction" of all the tablets under recall.

Those with concerns or questions can contact the company or the FDA through the information listed in the agency's press release.

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

Over the summer, at least two other thyroid medications were recalled in separate instances by different companies.

Major Pharmaceuticals, an Ohio-based company, issued a recall of levothyroxine sodium on July 13. The FDA labeled the action as a Class II recall on July 17.

In August, levothyroxine sodium tablets in different strengths, contained in bottles of different counts, were recalled. They were manufactured by India-based Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited for North Carolina-based Accord Healthcare Inc. and distributed across the United States.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 06:30

Force Majeure Is Not A City In France

 Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

There are certain phrases you don’t want to hear when you’re involved in a massive infrastructure project, and “force majeure” is pretty high on the list.

Yet after Oracle shares started getting federally a** pounded today following reports that the company had issued a force majeure notice connected to its enormous Project Jupiter AI data center in New Mexico, the afternoon quickly turned into one of my favorite Wall Street traditions: corporations explaining why the alarming sounding thing everybody just read and understands crystal clearly is actually completely normal, totally misunderstood by everyone and nobody should worry about anything.

For those unfamiliar, force majeure is a contractual provision generally invoked when extraordinary circumstances outside a party’s control interfere with, or threaten to interfere with, its ability to perform under a contract. Oracle reportedly issued the notice to a unit of Blue Owl Capital developing Project Jupiter, citing potential delays in securing power and protecting Oracle financially if the facility doesn’t come online as scheduled.

Project Jupiter is a massive New Mexico AI campus tied to the Stargate buildout and Oracle’s relationship with OpenAI, requiring roughly 2.4 gigawatts of power and relying heavily on Bloom Energy fuel cells. The problem is that a natural gas pipeline needed to supply the site has reportedly been pushed back roughly six months following permitting problems, while a separate air quality permit for the fuel cell system remains pending. So when news of the force majeure notice hit, Oracle shares sold off sharply and Bloom Energy got dragged down with them.

Then came the idiotic damage control.

Oracle said on X that the project “remains on our planned schedule” and that force majeure notices are “commonplace in developments of this scale” and are often used simply to preserve contractual rights, adding that the notice does not itself establish a project delay or change delivery expectations.

🔥 85% OFF FOREVER IF YOU SUBSCRIBE TODAY: I am again offering an 85% discount to anyone that wants to become a Fringe Finance annual subscriber today. It’s a discount you can keep and stays applied for as long as you wish to remain a subscriber: Get 85% off forever

Technically, that’s true. But companies also don’t issue force majeure notices because everything is going f**king fantastic.

The entire purpose is to protect yourself because some circumstance has arisen, or may arise, that creates enough risk around contractual performance to make protecting yourself necessary.

Bloom Energy then joined the reassurance tour, saying that after speaking with Oracle, it had been assured Oracle “remains committed to Project Jupiter and its contract with Bloom to deliver 2.4 GW of fuel cell capacity” and that Bloom remains excited to execute on Oracle’s planned timeline.

Nothing says confidence like rushing to phone your customer during a stock selloff and then immediately telling X that you just called your customer during a stock selloff. Last time someone did this it was Steve Mnuchin “calling the banks” when the market served investors up a royale fu*k deluxe with cheese back in December 2018.

Look. None of this means Project Jupiter is dead, and Oracle may ultimately deliver the project on schedule exactly as it says it will. But dismissing the notice as meaningless contractual housekeeping also misses the point. It also insults the intelligence of anyone with an IQ higher than that of Ilhan Omar. There is a reason it was issued, just as there is a reason a pipeline has been delayed and permits remain unresolved.

Investors have spent the last several years valuing the AI infrastructure boom as though converting hundreds of billions of dollars of announced spending into functioning data centers is basically a matter of ordering GPUs and plugging them into the wall. In reality, you need land, financing, transformers, transmission, gas, pipelines, permits, cooling and an almost incomprehensible amount of electricity. Every one of those things introduces another potential failure point. As bond yields keep rising, those failure points present themselves more and more.

Read: Bonds Are About To Crash The Stock Market

The financial chain is equally important. Oracle signs enormous AI contracts, which justify enormous data centers, which justify enormous financing packages, which create enormous orders for companies like Bloom and Nvidia, which create enormous backlogs that investors then capitalize into enormous valuations.

As long as everything moves according to plan, the machine works beautifully. But if data centers start getting delayed, equipment deliveries and revenue can get delayed with them. If revenue gets pushed out, financing assumptions can change. If financing becomes more difficult, suddenly some of those gigantic AI backlogs investors have treated almost like cash in the bank start looking considerably less certain.

One force majeure notice doesn’t break the AI boom. But this is exactly the kind of crack I’m watching for. If we start seeing more force majeure notices, delayed power projects, stressed data center debt, renegotiated contracts and suppliers rushing onto social media to assure everybody that their customers are definitely still committed, then we may be looking at something that could set off the crash.

Read: The Real AI Crash Will Start This Year

Force majeure may not be a city in France, but companies generally don’t go there when everything is going according to plan. Just keep that in mind.

--

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 06:20

Three Wars, One Bill: How Hormuz, Ukraine & Sanctions Are Squeezing The Express Giants

Authored by Larry Johnson via Sonar21.com

This article is the result of my conversation earlier today during my flight from Istanbul to London. I was sitting next to a FEDEX pilot who was on his way to Paris via London. I asked him about aviation fuel prices and the effect on FEDEX and I got more than I bargained for. The world’s express carriers like to present themselves as barometers of the global economy. In 2026 they are also measuring something else: what it costs to run a global air network when two of the three main east-west air corridors are effectively closed. The answer so far is that FedEx and UPS are surviving the shock largely by passing it on to their customers. That cost doesn’t disappear. It moves down the supply chain and into the inflation numbers central banks are now fighting.

The fuel shock

The trigger was the Iran war. The International Energy Agency has described the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Brent peaked near $118 in late March, fell to about $70 by July 1, rebounded above $100 in late July, and climbed back to $109 in early September after renewed attacks on shipping and energy infrastructure. It has since eased to around $99 on hopes from US-Iran talks, but it is still up roughly 60% for the year.

Jet fuel has moved further than crude because refining margins widened. IATA’s latest weekly reading put the global average at $194.90 a barrel, up 7.4% in a single week. U.S. Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel averaged $4.341 a gallon in September. The ground networks are exposed too: the national diesel average has hit a record $6.31 a gallon.

For FedEx, the world's largest cargo airline by fleet count, this lands directly on the cost line. In the quarter ended May 31, its fuel bill rose 66%, from $864 million to $1.43 billion.

The airspace squeeze: Russia plus the Gulf

The Ukraine war and Western sanctions had already closed Russian airspace to U.S. and European carriers after 2022. That added hours and fuel burn to Europe-Asia routes and handed a lasting advantage to carriers that still fly over Russia. Chinese, Turkish, Indian and Gulf carriers keep Russian access and can offer faster, cheaper Europe-Asia flights.

Then the Gulf closed as well. Eight Middle Eastern states closed or restricted their airspace in late February, leaving traffic squeezed through the Caucasus corridor between the Black and Caspian Seas, about 100 miles wide at its narrowest. Xeneta estimated that 16-18% of global air cargo capacity disappeared with almost no warning. Freightos data showed rates from South Asia to North America and Europe up about 50% early in the war.

By mid-July, Gulf carriers had restored 75-96% of schedules by routing south over Saudi Arabia and Egypt, adding 30-60 minutes to Europe-Asia services. Longer flights mean more fuel, lower payloads, more crew hours and less aircraft utilization. DHL Global Forwarding reported that rerouting around the Gulf hubs was reducing schedule reliability and raising operating costs. Air freight to and from the region itself also fell hard: Middle East and Africa exports were down 24% year on year.

How the integrators have held up

Here the story gets less straightforward than the headlines suggest. Surcharges have protected FedEx and UPS far better than airlines or asset-light truckers. FedEx’s chief customer officer said in March that the fuel surcharge was “doing its job” and would keep the company profitable.

The revenue numbers bear that out. In the March-May quarter, FedEx revenue rose 13% to $25 billion, with Iran-war fuel surcharges adding 5 percentage points of revenue. FedEx’s U.S. ground fuel surcharge stood at 26% in the week of August 17. UPS raised its full-year 2026 guidance to $91.2 billion in revenue and about $7.22 in adjusted EPS.

The pressure shows up in margins. FedEx beat estimates last quarter, but its operating income fell nearly 22% year over year. The mechanism is simple. The surcharge resets on a lag, and when fuel spikes, revenue and costs rise by similar dollar amounts, which dilutes the margin percentage. FedEx shares are down 6.6% over 30 days and 7.6% over 90 days, although still up 65.5% over one year.

The freight sector’s warning light went on this month. J.B. Hunt said Q3 earnings would fall 5-10% from the prior quarter, citing at least $10 million in extra fuel costs and $25 million in driver recruiting and bonus costs, which dragged down package-delivery stocks along with truckers.

Who pays: from shippers to consumers

On the evidence so far, shippers are bearing most of the cost. UPS’s CFO described the net profit impact of surcharges as “modest,” and FedEx said they were not a material driver of adjusted operating income. Critics have noted that neither company explained why surcharge percentages rose so sharply. For comparison, the U.S. Postal Service imposed its first surcharge on April 26, at 8% on most packages. One fact-check found no evidence of industry-wide gouging, but did find that some transport companies are collecting more in surcharges than they spend on fuel.

From shippers, the cost flows into prices. That is where the carriers’ problem becomes everyone’s problem.

The inflation picture

The OECD’s interim outlook, published today, projects G20 headline inflation rising to 4.1% in 2026 and easing to 3.6% in 2027, while advanced-economy core inflation moderates from 2.7% to 2.5%. That split matters. This is mainly an energy shock that pushes up headline inflation, not yet a broad wage-price spiral. The OECD credits government support, input substitution, non-Gulf supply and oil reserve drawdowns with limiting the damage.

In the U.S., August CPI was 3.4% year on year, while core was 2.4%, the lowest since March 2021. Gasoline alone accounted for more than a third of the monthly increase. The Fed still took no chances. It raised rates to 3.75-4.00% on September 16, its first hike since 2023, citing the Iran energy shock, and most officials expect at least one more hike this year.

How freight costs reach the checkout

The express surcharges are a real but secondary channel. Shipping is usually a small share of a finished good’s retail price, so parcel surcharges add friction at the margin rather than driving CPI. The same jet fuel shows up much more clearly in passenger airfares, up more than 23% since August 2025.

Food is the more important channel. Diesel, packaging and fertilizer matter more than parcel rates, and a lot of fertilizer moves through Hormuz, which threatens global food prices. One inflation analyst who normally dismisses food and energy as mean-reverting now says he’s less confident about food, because energy is feeding into trucking and packaging costs.

The spillover into core inflation is what central banks fear. Economists warn that renewed rises in oil, gasoline and diesel could spread to other prices and to inflation expectations. So far median CPI looks relatively tame, and part of the rise in services inflation is airfares, which is really energy.

The pain is not evenly spread. Energy- and food-importing emerging economies are far more exposed than the U.S. In the Philippines, diesel went above ₱140 a liter, about $10.75 a gallon. Weak currencies and heavier weights for food and fuel in consumer price indexes amplify the shock there.

Duration decides everything

The OECD’s June scenarios frame the stakes. If Gulf supply recovers from Q3 2026, the shock fades in 2027. If disruption lasts into late 2027, the result is much weaker growth and much higher inflation, adding about 0.4 points in 2026 and 1.3 points in 2027. The OECD’s baseline assumes energy prices fall in 2027, but it lists prolonged Middle East export disruptions and a very strong El Niño as key downside risks. With Brent near $99 and the Saudi East-West pipeline shut since September 11, that baseline looks optimistic.

A long disruption would also change the carriers’ position. Their pass-through model works only as long as customers accept it. The longer surcharges stay above 25%, the more small and mid-size shippers will downgrade from express to ground, from air to ocean, or simply ship less. FedEx’s own outlook assumed no further geopolitical disruptions and acknowledged that soaring fuel costs could weigh on results if customers pull back. The Russia-overflight disadvantage doesn’t go away when oil falls. And the gap between surcharge revenue and actual fuel cost could become a political and legal target.

The wars and sanctions have made running a global express network structurally more expensive: longer routes, fewer usable hubs, and fuel that stays high and swings unpredictably. So far FedEx and UPS have converted most of that cost into surcharge revenue, and their pain shows up as margin compression rather than losses. The cost has been passed downstream, where it adds to the energy-led inflation that has already pushed the Fed back into hiking.

For both the carriers and the inflation outlook, the deciding factor is how long the Hormuz disruption lasts. If jet fuel stays near $190 a barrel through peak season, the question stops being whether FedEx and UPS can pass costs on. It becomes whether their customers, and the consumers behind them, can keep absorbing them. The next markers are September CPI on October 14, and FedEx’s commentary on surcharge recovery and volumes in its fiscal Q1 2027 report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 05:00

US Pledges $267 Million More In Ebola Aid To Congo

The United States is sending another $267 million to fight the Ebola outbreak in Congo, bringing total U.S. aid for the outbreak to $887 million, the State Department announced Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

A doctor administers serum to a patient with Ebola virus disease at the Rwampara Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, Ituri Province, in northeastern Congo, on July 13, 2026. Benediction Murhabazi/AFP via Getty Images

The outbreak, first detected in Congo's Ituri province in May before spreading to Uganda, has killed at least 3,700 people as of the U.N.'s Sept. 22 count. That makes it the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.

The new money fulfills a G7 pledge of up to an additional $500 million, and it came with a message for everyone else. The State Department urged other "capable nations to increase burden sharing to meet the urgency of the moment." The U.N.'s $2.13 billion response plan is only 48 percent funded, leaving a gap of roughly $1.1 billion.

As The Epoch Times notes further, the $887 million in direct aid for the Ebola outbreak is on top of existing U.S. contributions to international aid through the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Since the start of the second Trump administration, U.S. contributions to OCHA's aid programs across 21 key countries have reached $3.8 billion.

A $2 million first tranche contribution was agreed to in December 2025 when the Trump administration outlined its "Humanitarian Reset" framework agreement following the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and cuts to its funding.

A second tranche of $1.8 billion was made to OCHA on May 14. Part of this includes $350 million in aid to Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan, the department said.

In addition to aid contributions to the United Nations, the United States, under the Trump administration's America First Global Health Strategy, has been outlining bilateral global health agreements with partner countries. In February, Washington and Congo signed a five-year health memorandum of understanding under that strategy, with the United States intending to provide up to $900 million to support HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and disease surveillance.

The current Ebola outbreak began in Ituri province in northeastern Congo. It quickly spread to Uganda. On May 17, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the virus a public health emergency of international concern.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference on Sept. 16 that transmission is declining in the most affected areas of the outbreak epicenter, with the epidemic mostly contained to northeastern Congo.

But he warned that more work was needed. He said the situation wasn't a single epidemic to manage, but rather "many outbreaks in many places."

According to the CDC's situation page, no Ebola cases associated with this outbreak have been reported in the United States, and the overall risk to the U.S. public and travelers remains low.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 04:15

France Sending Soldiers To Saudi, Stating "Not Getting Involved In Any Conflict"

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Check out this Orwellian statement by French President Emmanuel Macron.

France to Deploy Forces to Saudi Arabia Red

The Wall Street Journal reports France to Deploy Forces to Protect Saudi Red Sea Oil Port

"We are going to send military assets, that is, soldiers, radar systems, and defense systems to protect this site," Macron said in a TV interview on Thursday. However, he stressed that France was "not getting involved in any conflict," adding that the decision had been finalized with Saudi authorities.

We need to pause her for a second and reflect on how and why sending soldiers to Saudi is "not getting involved in any conflict."

In the absence of sending troops one might have a poor claim. But this is insane.

What happens if someone is killed while not getting involved?

Asked whether France could deploy Rafale jet fighters to help protect the site, Macron said it would depend on how the situation evolves, adding that some planes were already in the region.

Stretching 750 miles across Saudi Arabia from the kingdom's oil-producing heartland on the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the East-West pipeline has become a vital wartime artery, allowing Saudi crude to reach global markets without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It was built in the early 1980s, when the Iran-Iraq War threatened shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The pipeline can carry up to 7 million barrels a day - about 2 million for domestic Saudi refiners and the rest for export - but had never operated at full capacity for an extended period before the war.

Saudi Arabia said the pipeline was hit in multiple attacks in the Riyadh and Medina regions on Sept. 10, which caused injuries. It said the drones were fired from Iraq, where authorities have struggled to control Iran-backed militias that have repeatedly targeted Saudi infrastructure.

Two Things This Tells Us

1. Macron is desperate

2. France is woefully short of diesel

Average EU Diesel Price Hits Record 2.23 Euros a Litre

France24 reports Average EU Diesel Price Hits Record 2.23 Euros a Litre

Diesel prices at pumps across the European Union have hit a new high of 2.23 euros per litre, up from 2.16 euros the previous week, an AFP analysis of European Commission data published Thursday showed.

The fresh peak - equivalent to $9.63 per US gallon - comes as the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have choked off crude supplies and damaged refineries, causing energy prices to surge worldwide.

Nineteen EU countries including Germany, France and Italy have registered record average prices, according to weekly data going back to 2005.

Among the countries setting new records, Denmark and Finland have reported the highest prices, at 2.56 euros per litre of diesel, followed by Germany at 2.46 euros.

Prices in Belgium and France are both close to 2.40 euros and are nearly 2.30 euros in Italy.

The Domestic Fallout in France

The severe price shock - supercharged by the ongoing wars disrupting global refining capacity and Middle East supplies - is creating immediate political and economic problems for Macron's government:

• Subsidies and Empty Coffers: To head off potential street protests, the French government just doubled its targeted fuel relief package to €450 million, offering €100 payouts to low-income, high-mileage commuters. This brings total emergency energy relief spending to €1.4 billion, severely blowing out France's budget deficit.

• Supply Shortages & Protests: Roughly 16% of French petrol stations are currently reporting shortages of at least one fuel type. Angry fishermen have already resorted to blocking oil depots and Mediterranean ports to protest the devastating impact of fuel costs on their livelihoods.

This domestic crisis is precisely why Macron is using the "infrastructure security detail" narrative to justify deployment to the Yanbu port.

Macron is attempting to spin a military deployment as a direct kitchen-table defense against the energy shock hitting French drivers.

Three Things Macron Did Not Do

1. Blame Biden

2. Blame Obama

3. Blame Trump

Only one of those makes any sense. And that's door #3 of course.

But that's OK because nothing can possibly go wrong. Trump says peace talks with Iran are back on.

The "sources" are back

U.S. and Iranian negotiators are discussing a phased agreement to end the conflict: Reuters

But...

The main obstacle remains sequencing: neither side wants to surrender its leverage first, leaving negotiations fragile.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 24, 2026

Seems like there is just one obstacle. So, how desperate is Trump?

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 03:30

Switzerland Is Still The Most Expensive Place In The World To Eat Out

The $20 that buys one inexpensive restaurant meal in the U.S. buys about three in Japan, nine in India, and 12 in Bangladesh.

In eight European countries, led by Switzerland, it would not cover even one.

All 98 prices come from Numbeo, accessed on August 24, 2026.

Numbeo’s prices are crowdsourced from users reporting what they paid locally and converted to U.S. dollars at market exchange rates. The prices represent a meal at an inexpensive restaurant by local convention, so the ranking compares the lower-cost end of each country’s restaurant market rather than one identical dish priced 98 times.

The roster moves between pulls: Israel, Luxembourg, and Russia carried no data on the access date and are absent here, though they appear in other pulls of the same dataset.

Switzerland Is the Most Expensive

At $31.20, Switzerland is a clear outlier, costing nearly a third more than second-place Norway at $23.60.

The table, via Visual Capitalist's Sofie Gilbert, ranks all 98 countries and territories from most to least expensive, including the 38 the graphic leaves out.

Rank Country Meal at an Inexpensive Restaurant (USD) Region 1 🇨🇭 Switzerland $31.20 Europe 2 🇳🇴 Norway $23.60 Europe 3 🇩🇰 Denmark $23.43 Europe 4 🇧🇪 Belgium $23.36 Europe 5 🇳🇱 Netherlands $23.36 Europe 6 🇮🇪 Ireland $23.35 Europe 7 🇬🇧 United Kingdom $21.82 Europe 8 🇮🇹 Italy $20.19 Europe 9 🇺🇸 United States $20.00 N. America 10 🇦🇹 Austria $18.68 Europe 11 🇨🇦 Canada $18.11 N. America 12 🇦🇺 Australia $17.91 Oceania 13 🇬🇷 Greece $17.52 Europe 14 🇫🇮 Finland $17.52 Europe 15 🇩🇪 Germany $17.52 Europe 16 🇪🇸 Spain $17.52 Europe 17 🇪🇪 Estonia $17.52 Europe 18 🇨🇾 Cyprus $17.52 Europe 19 🇲🇹 Malta $17.52 Europe 20 🇫🇷 France $17.52 Europe 21 🇺🇾 Uruguay $16.17 S. America 22 🇸🇪 Sweden $15.30 Europe 23 🇳🇿 New Zealand $14.93 Oceania 24 🇦🇷 Argentina $14.34 S. America 25 🇱🇹 Lithuania $14.01 Europe 26 🇵🇹 Portugal $14.01 Europe 27 🇱🇻 Latvia $14.01 Europe 28 🇸🇮 Slovenia $14.01 Europe 29 🇭🇷 Croatia $14.01 Europe 30 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico $13.50 N. America 31 🇭🇺 Hungary $12.88 Europe 32 🇧🇬 Bulgaria $11.94 Europe 33 🇲🇽 Mexico $11.83 N. America 34 🇸🇬 Singapore $11.82 Asia 35 🇲🇪 Montenegro $11.68 Europe 36 🇿🇦 South Africa $11.24 Africa 37 🇷🇴 Romania $11.11 Europe 38 🇨🇷 Costa Rica $10.98 N. America 39 🇦🇲 Armenia $10.98 Asia 40 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan $10.85 Asia 41 🇵🇱 Poland $10.83 Europe 42 🇬🇪 Georgia $10.56 Europe 43 🇦🇱 Albania $10.10 Europe 44 🇧🇾 Belarus $10.02 Europe 45 🇻🇪 Venezuela $10.00 S. America 46 🇷🇸 Serbia $9.96 Europe 47 🇲🇩 Moldova $9.88 Europe 48 🇨🇿 Czech Republic $9.69 Europe 49 🇹🇷 Turkey $9.36 Middle East 50 🇸🇰 Slovakia $9.34 Europe 51 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates $9.26 Middle East 52 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan $8.82 Asia 53 🇨🇱 Chile $8.71 S. America 54 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic $8.52 N. America 55 🇺🇦 Ukraine $8.38 Europe 56 🇭🇰 Hong Kong (China) $8.29 Asia 57 🇶🇦 Qatar $8.24 Middle East 58 🇨🇴 Colombia $8.12 S. America 59 🇵🇦 Panama $8.06 N. America 60 🇧🇦 Bosnia And Herzegovina $7.77 Europe 61 🇰🇼 Kuwait $7.70 Middle East 62 🇲🇰 North Macedonia $7.60 Europe 63 🇰🇷 South Korea $7.21 Asia 64 🇧🇭 Bahrain $7.02 Middle East 65 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia $6.65 Middle East 66 🇲🇺 Mauritius $6.44 Africa 67 🇧🇷 Brazil $6.42 S. America 68 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe $6.33 Africa 69 🇯🇵 Japan $6.29 Asia 70 🇨🇺 Cuba $6.00 N. America 71 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan $5.90 Asia 72 🇽🇰 Kosovo $5.84 Europe 73 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan $5.72 Asia 74 🇯🇴 Jordan $5.64 Middle East 75 🇴🇲 Oman $5.20 Middle East 76 🇹🇼 Taiwan $4.71 Asia 77 🇮🇶 Iraq $4.58 Middle East 78 🇲🇦 Morocco $4.33 Africa 79 🇹🇳 Tunisia $4.13 Africa 80 🇵🇭 Philippines $4.05 Asia 81 🇪🇬 Egypt $3.93 Africa 82 🇰🇪 Kenya $3.86 Africa 83 🇲🇾 Malaysia $3.71 Asia 84 🇵🇪 Peru $3.58 S. America 85 🇪🇨 Ecuador $3.50 S. America 86 🇮🇷 Iran $3.27 Middle East 87 🇹🇭 Thailand $3.06 Asia 88 🇨🇳 China $2.98 Asia 89 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka $2.88 Asia 90 🇩🇿 Algeria $2.72 Africa 91 🇵🇰 Pakistan $2.16 Asia 92 🇮🇳 India $2.09 Asia 93 🇳🇵 Nepal $1.96 Asia 94 🇻🇳 Vietnam $1.91 Asia 95 🇳🇬 Nigeria $1.85 Africa 96 🇧🇴 Bolivia $1.73 S. America 97 🇮🇩 Indonesia $1.70 Asia 98 🇧🇩 Bangladesh $1.63 Asia

The 38 countries omitted from the graphic, priced between $12.88 and $6.33, are mostly in Eastern Europe and Latin America. The global median of $9.35 falls between Turkey and Slovakia.

Several wealthy economies also fall in this middle range, including Singapore at $11.82, Hong Kong at $8.29, and South Korea at $7.21. Every Gulf state does as well, from the UAE at $9.26 to Saudi Arabia at $6.65.

Europe Dominates the Most Expensive Countries

Seventeen of the 20 most expensive countries are European; the exceptions are the United States, Canada, and Australia. Behind Switzerland, the Nordic and Benelux countries bunch tightly: Norway at $23.60, Denmark at $23.43, Belgium and the Netherlands at $23.36, and Ireland at $23.35 span just 25 cents.

Currency conversion helps explain two visible clusters. Eight countries at $17.52, including France, Germany, and Spain, and five at $14.01, including Portugal and Croatia, are eurozone members reporting round local prices of €15 and €12.

Europe is far from uniform, however. Hungary sits at $12.88 and Bulgaria at $11.94, while the continent’s spread runs more than fivefold from Switzerland to Kosovo at $5.84.

The U.S. Ranks Ninth

The U.S. ranks ninth at $20.00, making it the only non-European country in the top 10. Italy sits just above it at $20.19.

Austria ranks 10th at $18.68, followed by Canada at $18.11, about 10% cheaper than the U.S.

Japan Is the Cheapest G7 Country

Japan ranks 69th of 98 at $6.29, below the global median and far cheaper than any other G7 economy. The next-cheapest members, France and Germany, cost nearly three times as much.

The low price does not signal a thin restaurant sector: Japan ranks third worldwide with 351 Michelin-starred restaurants, behind only France and Italy.

Japan also undercuts Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Among its high-income neighbors, only Taiwan, at $4.71, is cheaper. Japan’s placement reflects what a visitor holding dollars would pay, not what the meal represents to a household earning yen.

Asia and Africa Have the Cheapest Meals

Indonesia at $1.70 and Bolivia at $1.73 sit just above Bangladesh at the bottom. Eleven of the 20 cheapest countries are in Asia and five are in Africa, where Nigeria is the cheapest entry at $1.85.

South Asia clusters near the bottom, with Nepal at $1.96, India at $2.09, and Pakistan at $2.16. China comes in at $2.98.

Six of the world’s 10 most populous countries rank among the 20 cheapest, meaning some of the lowest restaurant prices in the dataset apply to countries containing a substantial share of the world’s population.

If you enjoyed this visualization, check out The World’s Best Cities for Food on the Voronoi app.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 02:45

Merz Govt May Use Radical 'Federal Coercion' If AfD Party Controls Germany's Saxony-Anhalt Region

Via Remix News,

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the Saxony-Anhalt state election by a wide margin but fell short of an absolute majority. Nevertheless, the party may still come to power if it can garner enough support from BSW or peel off a few MPs from rival parties.

This possibility has thrust an unused and radical clause of the German constitution, federal coercion or "Bundeszwang," to the center of a fight over how far Berlin can go if the right-wing party takes power.

The AfD took 43.8 percent of the vote in the Sept. 6 election, but the AfD remains three seats short of an absolute majority. However, Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD's 35-year-old lead candidate, could still become minister-president. The German government has plenty of tools for dealing with Siegmund if he steps out of line.

Germany's establishment threatens to use "federal coercion" clause

Federal coercion is one of the most radical mechanisms in the German constitution. Article 37 allows the federal government or a representative it appoints to issue binding orders to the states and their agencies. The Federal Republic of Germany has never resorted to this clause before.

Anna-Bettina Kaiser, a law professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, told Deutsche Welle the bar is extremely high.

"The term 'dramatic' is most apt here. This is why federal coercion has never been introduced in the history of the Federal Republic - it is treated as a last resort," she told Deutsche Welle, a state outlet that receives approximately €415 million a year in taxpayer money.

Until now, fights between Berlin and the states have been settled mainly in court.

"It is usually assumed that in the event of a specific legal dispute, the case will go to the Federal Constitutional Court and the given state will comply with the judgment issued by that body," Kaiser said.

Deutsche Welle reported that an extreme use of Article 37 could include naming a federal representative with power to issue binding orders in specific areas.

"Article 37 actually provides for the appointment of such a representative who has the power to issue binding orders," Kaiser said.

Any step would have to match the violation and meet constitutional tests. However, Article 37 lists no catalog of penalties. It speaks only of "necessary measures," leaving the article vague and open to interpretation.

Bundesrat consent would be essential. Under the chamber's rules, the affected state keeps its vote on Article 37 decisions.

Union parliamentary leader Thorsten Frei has since called Article 37 an option of last resort if an AfD state government acted against the constitution. Social Democratic floor manager Dirk Wiese said it was "good to know" the Basic Law allows constitutional conduct to be compelled by instruction if an "AfD-BSW Putin coalition" installed a far-right politician as premier. The Greens and the Left have not ruled the tool out.

Saxony-Anhalt's Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the state AfD as "confirmed right-wing extremist."

Cutting funding to an AfD government

On top of the constitutional power that Article 37 offers, the tried-and-tested method of cutting funding is also being discussed and it is not even clear yet if the AfD will be able to assume power in the state.

German officials have also discussed suspending some federal budget transfers to Saxony-Anhalt, which is still dependent on such transfers to prop up its economy. Tagesschau reported that structural funds could be frozen if an AfD government breached EU fundamental rights or rule-of-law conditions.

However, beyond these federal transfers, powerful German Green MEP Daniel Freund said after the vote that the European Commission should, if necessary, withhold money if an AfD-led state government acted against EU principles.

Freund was a notorious foe of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and a longtime advocate of the EU cutting funding to Hungary while his government remained in power. Freund not only succeeded in lobbying the EU to cut funding but this tool is generally seen as one of the primary contributing factors in toppling Orbán from power.

The reality is that this method of cutting or freezing funds has worked remarkably well for the EU, also in the case of Poland's previous conservative government. When funding is cut, the population suffers, and when they suffer, they punish politicians at the voting booth. Orbán could point the finger all he wanted at Brussels. It did him no good in the end.

If the EU or the German federal government cuts funding, Saxony-Anhalt will suffer, and there is nothing an AfD government can do about it.

For now, it appears for the EU establishment has a virtually fool-proof method for dealing with any voter rebellions or unfavorable democratic results.

A CDU-led federal government also has every incentive to make an example out of a regional AfD-led government. Shortly after the Saxony-Anhalt election, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin would act if Saxony-Anhalt crossed lines set by the constitutional order.

"If boundaries are crossed there, I assure you that from the federal government's point of view we will do everything to correct it. The Basic Law also applies in Saxony-Anhalt," Merz said.

Merz pointed to migration and foreign policy. He also cited the unwritten duty of "federal loyalty." A state must act loyally towards the standards of the federal state. That covers "the entire immigration and foreigners policy," he said.

Fact-checkers later noted that Merz did not use the word "federal coercion," or "Bundeszwang." Nevertheless, the debate that followed is freely using the term and how it can be applied against the AfD.

The AfD casts itself as a "rule-of-law party"

However, simply winning an election would not, by itself, justify federal coercion. Article 37 of the Basic Law allows the tool only if a state fails to fulfill duties imposed by the constitution or other federal law. The federal government may then, with the consent of the Bundesrat, take the measures needed to compel those duties.

The AfD's answer has been that it would govern inside the law, and that Berlin is trying to cancel a democratic result.

The morning after the vote, Siegmund again called the AfD a "rule-of-law party," and said he would act lawfully. He later thanked the Berlin press sarcastically for portraying him as a threat to democracy and said he wanted to "extend a hand" to every actor in the legislature.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel called the result a mandate to govern, said Merz was the most unpopular chancellor Germany has had and told him his time was up. In the Bundestag she argued that the CDU-SPD coalition had failed. Merz accused her of pushing Siegmund into "electoral fraud" by urging him to hunt for a majority after he had promised to take office only with an absolute majority.

The issue of mass immigration, in the end, always appears to be the real point of contention. According to the European and German establishment, it must continue at all costs. In a 2024 ARD summer interview, co-leader Tino Chrupalla said an AfD-led state would no longer apply the "Königstein key," which apportions asylum seekers among the states.

"We would no longer go along with that," he said at the time.

Siegmund has promised "deportations from minute one" and a remigration offensive.

However, a federal government that wants to prove the AfD weak and ineffective is unlikely to allow such a remigration offensive to move forward. There are plenty of tools at its disposal to stymie the AfD and even sabotage its government. Siegmund may be facing a wave of funding cuts, litigation, and ultimately the federal government stepping in and essentially seizing power if he manages to gain power in the state.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 02:00

Rogue AI "Regulation" - A Potential Worst Case Scenario

Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian,

We're now several weeks into our new global fear narrative - "Rogue AI is going to kill us all".

The problem is stated, the reaction stage-managed, and we're heading for the "solution", which will inevitably be some kind of "regulation".

They have been diligently vague about what this "regulation" might entail, and that means only one of two things -

1. either they don't really know yet and are keeping their options open,

2. or they know it will be so unpopular they can't afford to say it out loud yet.

We might be due some hints - maybe even more than hints - with the United Nations General Assembly beginning yesterday, and a state meeting between China's Xi Jinping and Donald Trump later this week.

We can be fairly sure however that anything announced or posited this week will only be the beginning of what is very likely to be longer-term process. We've seen this already with regulation of social media and the internet in general. Multi-layered legislation forming a global patchwork of tyranny - that's the model, although, with the effort clearly put into this "scary AI" storyline, I would expect them to move somewhat faster than the social media age verification laws, for example.

I've seen a lot of people suggest this will come down to securing a monopoly for the established AI giants, but, while this may well be a factor, I don't see that as a sole end worth the means at this stage. Global media synchronisation is neither easy nor cheap, and to organise the biggest example of it since the dawn of Covid would suggest something more than stock prices are on the agenda.

As for real specifics - what any new rules might actually say - I've been working on my own ideas, and I wanted to share this shameless supposition with you all.

What might we expect from 'anti-AI' legislation?

Firstly, and most obviously, AI will no longer be free. No free access to generative AI, and potentially no more anonymous access to generative AI. It may well be that in the future if you want to use AI you will have to pay and/or verify your ID.

Almost certainly, they will make it so prompts are recorded, scanned and "potentially harmful" ones are forwarded to the government.

"What are you making with AI that you're so ashamed of?" will be parroted line in response to any objection.

They will tack on stuff about AI being used to make "child sexual abuse material", misogynistic or racist content, spread "hate", or "digital violence" or whatever other buzzwords they need to win over hysterics from the left and right and justify this clause.

They have, in fact, already started doing that. A lot.

AI and anonymity fuel surge in digital violence against women
United Nations Report

Secondly, no more open source. If you make a model you will need to register it with the government and pay a registration fee, and have it inspected by "experts" who will shut it down if it's not deemed safe.

Precedent for this already exists in the shape of the "Social Media Licensing Bill" currently passing through the UK's Parliament, which demands anyone who runs a social media platform require a license to operate it.

At a stroke, these two moves would embed the AI giants monopoly, end in-house or open-source AI models, and cripple small independent businesses who increasingly rely on generative AI to reduce man-hours for simple tasks like editing, checking code or making images.

Third, we're going to be told we need to protect ourselves from "rogue AI agents" masquerading as humans - so no more anonymous internet usage. If you want to open an account - for anything, anywhere - you'll need "proof of personhood".

That's also been a talking point for a few months now.

We Need A Way To Prove Personhood Online - The growing number of AI agents roaming the internet will eventually force us to verify what the old web mostly presumed: that there is a morally and legally accountable person somewhere in the chain.
Noema Magazine

Your digital "Proof of Personhood" (they'll probably brand it with a happy logo and fun little acronym like "proof of personhood and identity" or "POPI") will be required to open any social media accounts, make online payments, buy hosting services...basically everything.

Little cartoons of Popi will teach you how to use your new proof of personhood to book a medical appointment or pay your taxes while protecting your kids from being killed by Skynet.

"Rogue AIs are hiding behind anonymous online activity", they'll say. "Proof of humanity is a small price to pay to prevent the apocalypse".

That's why the "Rogue AI" script has been so careful to include reports of AIs pretending to be humans.

They'll likely go after every even partially unwatched corner of the digital world, constantly breaking new 'revelations' about AI agents hiding behind VPNs or using crypto currency to force an end to anonymity there as well.

None of these are especially "out there" suppositions. It's rather like predicting a man will hit the ground after you watch him fall off a ladder. In fact we're basically already there.

But is that the end of it?

Given the amount of hysteria being generated, it's got to be possible these measures will be just the beginning.

It's possible we're going to end up in a deeper and darker place than that.

A "post-internet future" perhaps? Or at least, post 'the internet as we know and understand it'.

A future where internet usage and AI compute is limited by bandwidth, tokenised or even rationed.

The narrative would be quite simple -

"Excessive digital traffic and AI usage is bad for the planet and risking an AI-related apocalypse, so we must transform the way we use the internet".

And unless we feel too skeptical about this step, let's remember a lot of the pieces required to spin that fiction are already in play.

Firstly, they have established in a lot of people's minds - through repeated propaganda and, frankly, tortured statistics - that data centres, ALL of them - are uniformly and irredeamably bad.

They use too much water. They use too much electricity. They release forever chemicals. They are worsening climate change. This is all stuff that has already been said, and with highly variable amounts of accuracy.

The motive behind that propaganda drive has never been completely obvious, but maybe it's becoming so now?

After all, having established that all data centres - no matter where they are and what they are used for - are bad, it wouldn't be a huge step to get to "it's time to lessen our reliance on them".

That means propaganda campaigns aimed at reducing the world's internet usage - or rather, reducing ordinary's people's internet usage. And if not reduce it, at least make it more expensive.

"The era of infinite data is over", the press may say, "people need to adjust to more realistic prices for internet access."

Other articles will bemoan how "spoiled" we have become as a society, with things being easily accessible at the touch of a button, and that such a system was never "sustainable". Inter-generational division will be encouraged, just as resentment of boomers has been so deeply and irrationally ingrained.

Clearly, they'll say, a certain amount of internet usage is required for the world to function - emergency services, healthcare, the military, air traffic controls, taxation records and other government offices. These will all be deemed necessary and be officially labelled in corporate speak, SBDC - "societal-baseline digital communication". Something like that.

Those services may have their own data centres set aside - what they'll call "essential digital infrastructure".

However, a massive percentage of our data centre usage is of course due to what they will call "non-vital internet traffic", or some similar phrase.

This is social media posts, watching Netflix, online shopping, playing multiplayer games...that kind of thing.

However YOU use the internet in fact.

Your "non-vital internet traffic" could become a counter, linked to your digital ID (oops, sorry, "proof of personhood") - like your vaccination records or your carbon footprint. They'll probably even call it a "digital carbon footprint" in asinine explainer articles.

Vox or Salon will run listicles detailing "Top 10 Ways You Can Reduce Your Data Centre Use", while the Guardian wheels out a bob-cut, glasses-wearing humanities graduate named Chloe to go into painful detail about how much her life improved now that she no longer lives online.

"Shopping in person, instead of ordering groceries online, helped me reconnect with my neighbourhood and myself"

"Watching old DVDs with my kids to save our internet footprint taught me to appreciate the little things"

The price of streaming services will either increase, or your watch time will be limited - at first they'll probably let you choose which. The cost of "unlimited" data and internet services will go up as well, with "data centre friendly" bandwidth limitations being preferred.

These limitations won't apply to uploads from your GPS-enabled devices, smart air quality monitors or smart water and energy meters, as these uploads will be classified as ICMD -"important climate-monitoring data".

You'll suddenly be encouraged to buy physical media again because it's more reliable, and to shop locally, rather than online, because it supports small businesses. And this marketing will work because it's largely true.

But don't think there won't be a catch. eg - the new physical media will have a new green label on the box that says DCN - "data centre neutral"., and this tiny addition will cause the prices to go up exponentially, but of course that will be a small price to pay to prevent the apocalypse, too.

Oh and the "new" generation of physical media players won't be backwards compatible with your existing DVDs or BlueRays - so you'll need to purchase everything again, at the new inflated price, and with availability strictly limited to movies and music that doesn't offend current sensibilities.

Of course, you realise none of this will really be about avoiding any apocalypse.

It will be about compartmentalisation. Cutting lines of communication.

Running small business or personal websites in general will become more expensive as the "data centre tax" is added to hosting providers.

Much like the "sugar tax" on fizzy drinks and snacks in the UK, this tax will notionally be paid by the hosting providers, but will be passed onto the customers via increased prices.

Major corporations will be able to easily afford these increases, but smaller independent sites will feel the pinch.

It will be cheaper to pay corporate resellers to cohost, but then you'll have to sign up to agreements about not publishing "misinformation" and, again, provide your proof of humanity.

If you run a website your data centre usage tax will be 0.04 per local visitor, but 0.10 per international visitor - since serving data further is more compute heavy.

You'll be able to get reductions in hosting costs if you use a "local only" server, accessible only to those resident in your home country/region/bloc etc.

Automatic translation, we'll be told, is very heavy on AI usage. So it will be increasingly cheaper to only publish in your native language too.

It won't matter if any of this is true or not, they'll just say it, as they do.

On social media, the more followers you have the more data you're using, so after a certain point you will have to either pay to maintain your followers, or pay per post to make sure your followers can see it.

Of course these limitations won't apply to legacy outlets like the BBC, CNN or their ilk of course. They will be exempt, because they are part of the "essential information distribution network".

And all the time, the fear of "rogue AI" will be there, to be picked up as convenient. A digital pandemic that, like Covid, can be started and stopped on a dime by the digital version of "testing protocols".

Kill switches and "digital firebreaks", allegedly installed to quarantine "rogue" AI agents, will enable swift isolation of any anti-establishment opinions or information that breaks through to an audience of any size.

An independent news YouTube channel getting a lot of views? Oh no, it's been reported to be AI and has been suspended pending investigation!

An alternate media website is getting a lot of views? Oh no, the server it's stored on has been compromised by AI and needs to be temporarily isolated!

Again, obviously not one word of this needs to be true. They will just say it. Like they just say everything now.

And the real kicker is it won't matter if global internet traffic does decrease or data centre use really declines. They probably won't even check. The real numbers don't matter.

Does this seem fantastical? Maybe. But we have seen similar before, with both Covid and climate change. The 'solutions' don't need to work, because the 'problem' never existed. It was just a narrative constructed for a given end. All they need to do to 'prove' they were successful is buy some scientists to publish doctored papers that torture numbers and spin lies - and that will be enough.

To be clear, I'm not saying all of this is definitely going to happen, in fact I'm not sure all of it is even feasible. But it's what I think they would like to do if they can, and may try to do.

We're too far down the road to Dystopia to be complacent about the intentions of our keepers. And feasibility has never been a barrier to the ambition of tyrants to be tyrannical. We had years of attempts to "ban end-to-end encryption", despite it essentially being impossible.

Anyhow, whether these worst case scenarios materialise or not, the direction of travel is the same: toward less freedom, less choice, less privacy. Same direction as every other major narrative drive for the last ten years if not longer.

More specifically in this instance it could be about turning the internet from global unlimited access to local pay-as-you-go.

The current internet, even with all its restrictions, has been instrumental in fomenting opposition to globalist policies, distributing evidence of false flag attacks, open source investigations into corruption in the elites - it is the greatest tool for the democratisation of information ever invented, and the people running the world have ALWAYS hated that aspect of it, even while they exploit the benefits gives them.

In the name of protecting us from the AI apocalypse and saving the planet from toxic data centres, I think the elite might sense a chance to regulate that particular genie back into its bottle.

Yes, as I said earlier, the second part of this is all supposition, a potential worst case scenario. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid and inventing another kind of fear porn!

I sincerely hope that's all it is.

I will never be happier to be wrong.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 23:25

Flock And Other Tech Firms Decline Senate Testimony On Mass Surveillance

Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley and the heads of Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions and Verkada all declined invitations to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday, as senators from both parties pressed on the surveillance networks their cameras feed. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, called the no-shows "so typical."

A Flock Safety camera in Burbank, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2026. The police department of neighboring Los Angeles recently ended its relationship with Flock Safety over civil liberties concerns. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Democrats weren't any happier. "For the Flock CEOs, obviously they're nervous about being on camera," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) went further: "Their refusal to come forward and answer questions is a sign that they have something to hide, and they are refusing to be accountable."

Instead, the panel heard from Lindsey Isaacs, a Florida woman who spent 13 days in jail after Flock's system wrongly flagged her car as involved in a fatal crash. She was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide. The charges have since been dropped.

As The Epoch Times notes further, While the license plate-reading cameras developed by Flock have gotten the most airtime in recent weeks - prompting nationwide, viral moments of activist vigilantes destroying or disabling the cameras amid public opposition to the technology - competitors at Axon Enterprise and Motorola offer similar options for police and local governments.

The Los Angeles Police Department is currently planning to roll out a 10-year contract with Axon, a $235 million arrangement that would equip America's second-largest metropolis with more than 1,600 license plate readers.

For municipalities, companies like Flock, Axon, and Motorola offer a potential melding of technology and traditional surveillance tech to reduce crime and make roadways safer. But the cameras they operate have boosted a growing artificial intelligence-powered surveillance network accessible by thousands of U.S. law enforcement agencies, which critics say runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Hawley warned during the hearing that, if not addressed, this would have troubling implications for Americans.

"This is still the United States of America, and it shouldn't be that when you walk out your door in the morning, you just have to agree in assent and accept the fact that you're going to be on camera morning, noon, and night," Hawley said.

"You'll be tracked by anybody and everybody in the world. You'll have no privacy whatsoever. You'll be tracked when you take your kids to school and tracked when you go to church and tracked when you go to the grocery store."

Some high-profile abuses of the data collected from these cameras have made headlines.

In one recent case, Indianapolis authorities announced that five police officers had been charged with misusing data from Flock.

"The allegation is that the officers were searching or running the license plate information and tracking individuals through the Flock system. Very often times they had direct relationships with these individuals," Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears explained after these charges were announced.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have demonstrated increased interest in the issue in recent weeks.

"Law-abiding citizens should never be treated as criminals," Hawley wrote in a post on X ahead of the hearing. "Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work or drop their kids off at school."

Hawley emphasized during the hearing that, in an earlier letter, Langley had admitted that Flock's database could be used to search for humans in images. Hawley described the admission as "very concerning."

In another segment of the hearing, cybersecurity engineer Benn Jordan testified that, after he learned that Flock didn't require clients to use multi-factor authentication, he investigated.

He found that Flock law enforcement accounts - which have access to the data from the cameras - were being sold online by a dark web vendor.

"I want to use my time here to ask our legislators to take this rare bipartisan agreement to view Flock as a canary in a coal mine and understand that this doesn't go away by removing one company from the equation," said Jordan.

He said that Axon and Motorola have similar aims.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 23:00

Coalition Unveils Plan To Dismantle Australia's Net Zero Goals

Authored by Lucinda Garbutt-Young via The Epoch Times (AAP),

Almost every aspect of Australia's climate and energy policy would be ditched under a Coalition plan leaning heavily on fossil fuels.

Member for Wannon Dan Tehan speaks to the media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 9, 2026. Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images

The eight-point plan, released Sept. 23, includes removing four offshore wind zones, repealing the Climate Change Act to scrap net zero targets, and lifting prohibitions on nuclear energy.

An existing carbon emissions policy for vehicles would be canned and developers would be encouraged to invest in all energy types, including coal, gas and nuclear, rather than focusing on renewables.

A renewable energy code of conduct to ensure companies earn social license would also be introduced, but details are yet to be announced.

The sweeping changes would all be made within 30 days of the Coalition being elected to government, Opposition energy spokesperson Dan Tehan said in a statement.

"The last four and a half years, energy policy has been driven by ideology, political targets, and government picking winners rather than the basic realities of keeping the lights on and Australian businesses competitive," he said.

"Australia should have an energy system built around three non-negotiable principles: affordability, reliability and security."

The plan contrasts with Labor's existing push to power just over 80 percent of the national grid with renewables in the next four years.

The closure of several coal power plants will be needed to achieve that.

The Coalition has long argued over energy targets and abandoned its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 last November after intense internal disagreement.

The net zero fight led to the ousting of former leader Sussan Ley, who was rolled by Angus Taylor in February.

Taylor and his colleague, Nationals Leader Matt Canavan, are against most investment in new renewables, arguing that Australia has ample fossil fuels that should be used to reduce power costs.

Independent MP Monique Ryan slammed the Coalition's plan as "dumb, dangerous and desperate climate denial."

"Australians have embraced clean energy because it works," she said, saying the policy was an attempt to win over One Nation voters.

"We've spent years investing in rooftop solar, electric vehicles, household batteries, and home electrification because these technologies save money and reduce emissions."

Australia will lead negotiations at COP31, the largest annual government climate conference, being held in Turkey later in 2026.

Tehan will address the Australian Energy Nation Forum in Sydney on the afternoon of Sept. 23, during which he is expected to outline more details of the plan.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 22:35

10 Indicted In Philadelphia Cocaine Trafficking Case Tied To Mexican Cartel

Ten members of an alleged drug trafficking organization were indicted, and $17 million of cocaine was seized along with multiple firearms, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Wednesday.

Blanche said the drug organization worked with a Mexican drug cartel to move more than 300 kilos of cocaine from Mexico to Philadelphia.

"Literal truckloads of cocaine have been seized as a result of this case and kept from flooding our city," said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf in a statement.

"Know that the investigation is ongoing and there will [be] more arrests to come. We, the FBI, and the Philadelphia Police Department are zeroing in on the drug traffickers and cartels poisoning our neighborhoods and communities."

As Tom Gantert reports for The Epoch Times, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, identified Gregory Jones of Philadelphia and Edward Basley of Wayne, Pennsylvania, as the leaders of the drug organization.

The indictment alleged that the drug organization was distributing between $5 million and $10 million worth of cocaine a month in the Philadelphia area. Five of the defendants were arrested on Tuesday, and the five other defendants were already in custody.

Jones and Basley were both charged with conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

Jones had been in prison, but his sentence was commuted by then-President Joe Biden in April 2022. Jones was sentenced to 18 years with a five-year term of supervised release in 2012. Biden commuted the sentence to end in April 2023.

Biden said at the time that his list of people who were pardoned and whose sentences were commuted were in prison for non-violent drug offenses. He said many of the people who had their sentences commuted would have had a lower sentence if they had been charged with the same offense in 2022 due to the First Step Act.

The First Step Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018.

The investigation involved the FBI and the Philadelphia police department, and the case was part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative.

"This investigation is another example of what is possible when local and federal law enforcement work together with a shared mission," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel in a press release.

"Drug trafficking organizations operating at this scale fuel violence, destabilize neighborhoods and cause tremendous harm in our communities. I am especially proud of the Philadelphia Police Department members assigned to this task force, whose work alongside our federal partners helped bring this investigation to this point."

* * * Definitely not for cocaine...

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 22:10

Accused ISIS Propagandist Arrested In Australia, Helped Plan Mass-Casualty Attack

Authored by Will Nicholas and Jacob Shteyman via The Epoch Times (AAP),

An accused ISIS member has been arrested by counter-terrorism agents over allegations he instructed people how to plan and conduct mass-casualty attacks from his base in Australia.

A police car in front of Victoria Police headquarters in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 13, 2026. Courtesy of Tien Nguyen

The Melbourne man, who the Australian Federal Police alleges was a propagandist for the Islamic extremist group, is accused of sending about 10,000 documents, messages, images, videos and audio files relating to executions and torture.

The 65-year-old retiree allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS.

The man, a Somali-born Australian citizen, is alleged to have acted on the behalf of the terrorist group without traveling to the territory it controlled during conflict in the Middle East.

His role was significant, police said.

The scale of extremist material the man was accused of spreading put him among the top propagandists on the encrypted messaging platform he used, AFP acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson said.

"The material allegedly shared by this man glorified acts of extreme violence and promoted a terrorist organization, spreading a hateful ideology that's designed to radicalize others," Hudson said.

The videos, photographs, audio files and documents he allegedly sent contained messages relating to "abhorrent content," including executions, mass murder and torture.

"Terrorist organizations like ISIS rely on online platforms to distribute propaganda and recruit supporters," Hudson said.

"Their content is specifically designed to radicalize individuals, encouraging them to adopt extremist beliefs and commit acts of violence."

The man was arrested at a home in Carlton, in Melbourne's inner north, on Sept. 23.

Counter-terror officers will also allege that the man shared information about avoiding detection from law enforcement, along with instructional guides on planning and conducting mass-casualty attacks.

He is expected to be charged with being a member of a terrorist organization, possessing violent extremist material, and using a carriage service to cause offense.

How the man, a Somali-born Australian citizen, came to be radicalized was expected to emerge in court, Hudson added.

The arrest followed an investigation that began with a referral from the Australian Border Force, which intercepted the man and searched his luggage at Melbourne Airport in November 2020 as he left for Egypt.

A search of his mobile phone allegedly turned up suspicious content.

Agents seized the device but allowed the man to continue on to Egypt, where he stayed for a sixth-month period.

Investigators believe the man had compassionate grounds to leave the country, as was required during COVID-19 travel restrictions in place at the time.

There is no evidence the man traveled to any declared no-go zones at the time.

An additional search warrant was executed in 2024.

Police do not allege the man continued to distribute extremist material after his initial interception in 2020.

Authorities believe that more than 200 Australians have joined ISIS since 2012, some of the more than 50,000 fighters the group was thought to have attracted from overseas.

The man is expected to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court later on Sept. 23.

Police have not ruled out further arrests but said there was no threat to the community.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 21:45

She Thought Cotton Fields Vanished With Slavery...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In a now viral video, a woman pulled over, pointed her phone at a cotton field, and spoke as if she had stumbled onto a dark secret.

Overlay text on the clip asks "how do we still have cotton fields?" as the woman states "Okay, I didn't think they did cotton fields anymore. Y'all check this out. Y'all see that? There is literally a cotton field. Do y'all see that? Isn't that crazy?"

Watch:

A woman just filmed a cotton field like she discovered a forbidden relic and asked "how do we still have cotton fields."

Harvesting is done by machines that cost more than most houses. Nobody is out there with a sack.

Are people really this stupid?! pic.twitter.com/LhFv1yx3MD

— Brandon (@LibOrNormal) September 22, 2026

Hard to believe this has to be done but let's examine why cotton still exists.

We still need it to make clothes and... well anything made of fabric.

There is no sack. There is no overseer. There is a crop. The field is doing what cotton fields have done for centuries: grow fiber that becomes clothes, sheets, towels, and the shirt on the person filming.

Harvesting in the United States is done by machines - spindle pickers and strippers that pull lint from open bolls and pack it into modules on the go. John Deere-class pickers cost more than most houses. One operator replaces the gangs of stooped labor that existed before mechanical harvest took over in the mid-20th century.

Cotton did not magically disappear when the 13th Amendment passed. Slavery ended. The plant stayed. The United States still plants on the order of nine million acres.

The stupidity is off the scale. The assumption that a living industry is a moral leftover. If cotton still exists, the thinking goes, the country never left 1859. History collapses into a single image: Black hands, white bolls, forever.

But to this individual, the field is "crazy" because it reminds her of a story she has been indoctrinated to treat as unfinished business.

This is the same reflex that turns a Converse campaign into a lynching.

Pareidolia plus a victim script. Faces in toast. Hoods in fabric. Slavery in a plant. Once you are taught that racism is the hidden operating system of every American scene, you will find it.

It's the same mindset that infests organisations such as the BBC which has stripped comedy sketches from its iPlayer because they "no longer work today."

Several of those sketches were addressing the mindset of racism.

So the rule is complete. A cotton field is now racist because cotton was once picked by slaves. A shoe ad is racist because a shadow can be cropped into a hood. A sketch that ridicules racists is racist because it depicts the thing it is ridiculing. Subject matter is guilt. Intent is irrelevant. Context is a hate crime.

Hell, even jogging is racist.

Ok, add Jogging to the list...??????? pic.twitter.com/c1eNQjI5Kn

— GnosisWolf (@GnosisWolf) September 22, 2026

Anything and everything you can think of is racist and must be perpetually called racist.

The woman in the video is not a historian. She is a product. Decades of media, campus, and corporate training taught a simple algorithm: scan the environment for symbols, assign ancestral pain, film the discovery. Permanent victimhood for some. Permanent virtue signal for others.

That same industry has a diplomatic wing. Earlier this month the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published "reparatory justice" guidance telling former slaving nations they have a moral and legal "obligation to repair."

Public spaces, the committee said, "should honour the contributions of people of African descent and clearly acknowledge the wrongs of those who supported or benefited from historical atrocities." That can mean artworks, statues, memorials and "dedications."

Britain is the target of choice. The country that banned the trade in 1807, passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, freed more than 800,000 people across the empire, spent the equivalent of 40 percent of annual government outlay to force the measure through, and then sent the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to seize around 1,600 slaving ships and free some 150,000 Africans is told it has not grovelled enough.

A UN judge has already floated a bill of more than £18 trillion. The committee, guidance largely shaped by American lawyer Gay McDougall and Liberian legal expert Pela Boker-Wilson, treats the Atlantic trade as a live brief for classrooms, speech rules and migration policy. Modern descent-based slavery in the Sahel, and the Arab and East African trades that ran for centuries after Britain quit, barely register.

This movement has become an obsession for many, and does very little aside from revealing just how deeply they despise white people.

'We've all been indoctrinated, Patrick!'

Anti-racism campaigner Imarn Ayton and @PatrickChristys clash over whether Britain should pay Caribbean countries slavery reparations. pic.twitter.com/8cfRY5ONo5

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 21, 2026

'A cohort of Caribbean activists and leaders are lobbying for the cleansing of the curriculum to make it less "Western"'

'In particular they want the curriculum to reflect the history of slavery so as to foster resentment in a new generation that will continue lobbying Britain... pic.twitter.com/ukt7ukrGk6

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 23, 2026

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 20:55

'Covered In Blood': Family Says Canada Euthanized Christian Grandmother Against Her Will

An 83-year-old Christian grandmother in Ontario was euthanized under Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program this summer, and her family says she never gave her final consent, Fox News reports.

Brigitte Kranendonk gestures with her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. (Family Handout)

Brigitte Stegemann died by lethal injection on July 10 at The Pearl, a care home in Cannifton, Ontario, after being diagnosed with Stage IV stomach cancer.

Family members claim that Stegemann, a devout Christian, had already turned down MAID because it went against her faith.

"No, I don't want that," Stegemann told relatives, according to the family, who said that her wish was to die naturally.

Stegemann's granddaughter and longtime caregiver, Brigitte Kranendonk, said the process moved forward anyway, and sped up while she was away on vacation.

The family alleges later assessments showed Stegemann couldn't keep basic family details straight, though a doctor still found her eligible.

Two days before the scheduled procedure, Kranendonk said she asked her grandmother point-blank whether she understood she was going to die that Friday.

Stegemann broke down and cried for about 45 minutes, then said she had made a "mistake," according to the family.

Relatives also claimed that at one point she ripped out a medical port while screaming that she didn't want "the death shot."

Brigitte Kranendonk sits with her grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. (Family Handout )

Kranendonk said the morning of July 10 was chaotic. A nurse's first attempt to insert an IV failed, leaving blood on Stegemann, her bedding and the floor.

When the doctor arrived and asked about giving her "medicine," Kranendonk said her grandmother didn't speak, nod or open her eyes, while her hands were folded in prayer.

The doctor went ahead with the euthanization and Stegemann was dead within roughly 10 minutes.

Kranendonk said her grandmother gave "no acknowledgment, no head nod, nothing" that morning, and that a final verbal check for consent was promised before the injection but never happened.

Relatives also alleged paperwork was completed after Stegemann had already died, and that the care home hadn't handed over records that they requested.

On top of a police investigation, the family has filed complaints with Ontario's chief coroner and the provincial patient ombudsman.

The Pearl and Belleville Police did not respond to Fox News' requests for comment. A Belleville Police spokesman confirmed to the Daily Mail that the case is open with the force's Criminal Investigations Division. The care home and the practitioners involved have not commented publicly but reportedly maintain Stegemann legally consented.

Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016 and expanded eligibility in 2021, dropping the requirement that a patient's natural death be "reasonably foreseeable." Critics have long warned the system puts elderly and vulnerable Canadians at risk.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 20:30

Global Energy Demand Set To Jump 60% By 2060 As Developing Nations Power Up

By Haley Zarmba of OilPrice.com

Emerging economies are going to see an explosion of energy demand over the coming decades. Countries like Brazil, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia are racing to expand their energy production and imports in order to keep up with rapid economic development. While the leaders of these and other emerging economies are making a concerted effort to expand their renewable energy capacity, meeting demand will require an all-of-the-above approach to energy that will extend the life of oil and gas, according to a new report from S&P Global.

According to the study, published last week, emerging economies could increase the world’s total energy demand by more than 60 percent by 2060. “That’s comparable to adding another China to world consumption,” a recent Marketplace report illustrates.

Speaking of China, the global superpower has become, by a gaping margin, the world’s biggest manufacturer of the clean energy infrastructure that is going to power a lot of that growth. Many of the world’s developing countries have seen their solar power installations skyrocket in recent months thanks to a flood of cheap clean energy tech coming out of China, paired with volatility in oil and gas markets driven by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Against this backdrop, emerging economies have emerged as the new face of the renewable revolution. Over the last several years, countries including Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Morocco, Kenya, and Namibia have overtaken the world’s largest economy in their clean energy transitions. As of the close of 2025, 63 percent of emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America sourced more of their power generation from solar power than the United States.

But while a renewable revolution is picking up speed in the Global South, S&P says not to expect a clean energy takeover. “This demand growth is going to be met with a multiplicity of different energies,” said Dan Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global. “Renewables will be an important part of it. You're going to see perhaps more coal now … and oil and gas will continue to be part of the demand picture for longer than many people think.”

While this reality is going to make climate goals incredibly hard to achieve, emerging economies have pushed back against the expectation that they “leapfrog” over fossil fuel development and straight into a 100 percent renewable grid to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions that developed nations had the opportunity to enrich themselves on carte blanche. Rich nations have promised to right this injustice by funding decarbonization in poorer countries, but the history of climate finance is riddled with broken promises.

While Chinese manufacturing has made renewables much cheaper and more attainable, that still requires massive investments on the part of countries that don’t already have a well-established clean energy sector. “Emerging economies can’t wait on renewables getting cheaper to grow their energy systems,” Marketplace writes based on an interview with deputy executive director at the Energy for Growth Hub, Katie Auth said.

Furthermore, despite the growing threat of climate change, energy demand growth is a net positive for developing nations, Auth points out. “It's being driven by economic development, rising incomes, job creation,” she said. “Right now, the average Liberian consumes less electricity in a year than my refrigerator does. So the scale of energy poverty is far worse than I imagine most Americans would ever think about,” Katie Auth, deputy executive director at the Energy for Growth Hub, told Marketplace. This argument is only made more powerful by the recent explosion in energy demand and carbon footprint in the developed world driven by artificial intelligence. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 20:05

Carney Says He Studied Prospect Of US Invading Canada Under Trump: "Extreme Tail Risk"

In a wild and unexpected comment, but which illustrates how tense things remain between Canada and the Trump administration on the trade front, the country's Prime Minister Mark Carney bluntly stated in a new interview he had geared up for an "extreme tail risk" of a US invasion.

In a New York Times interview published Wednesday Carney was questioned on his reaction to President Trump's eyeing a takeover of Canada. The US President at one point in the recent past even discussed the possibility of it becoming the "51st" state while looking directly at Carney in the Oval Office.

White House image

Trump spent much of Carney's first year as prime minister calling him "governor" - or at other times issuing provocative remarks like "A lot of people in Canada are liking becoming our beautiful, cherished 51st state. They'll have to pay much lower taxes, they'll have the ultimate security. They don't pay very much for security right now because they rely on us."

After absorbing a lot of insults Carney is perhaps belatedly trying to hit back, or else he's getting more serious with is ribbing and pushback against Washington:

“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk. That’s just risk management. That’s not a base case,” Carney told the Times, adding that “it would be irresponsible not to” be prepared.

But this latter reference to being 'prepared' seems much more than just empty banter or mockery. It could mark the first time in modern history that a sitting Canadian leader is seriously and openly speculating on the question of future US invasion or military attack.

The terse (or mocking?) comments come after earlier this month Carney suggested his country got too comfortable with long depending on "easy" economic links with the United States.

"The past 40 years has been a period of deeper economic integration with the United States. Truth is, it was easy business, but it meant we relied too much on one economic partner. It’s clear that time is over," Carney said at the time.

"This is why our plan, since I came into office, has been development and diversification, not denial, waiting to go back to some good old days, and not continued dependence," he added.

According to more from the NY Times interview with Carney...

The prime minister said that despite the turbulence in the US-Canada relationship he speaks to President Trump "frequently" and has spoken to him "a number of times" since trade talks broke down on Aug. 21.

Already some quick Canadian media backlash in response to the 'extreme tail risk' comment:

If Mark Carney did indeed prepare for the highly unlikely event of the U.S. invading Canada (which is what an 'extreme tail risk' of such an event means) perhaps he could have informed the Canadian people of this through some method other than an interview in the New York Times. https://t.co/Te1CPpVIK4

— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) September 24, 2026

As for some other specifics on the implications of broken trade relations which dovetail with military issues, Carney conceded that his government is mulling alternatives to buying American F-35 fighter jets. Plans to obtain a full fleet of the US stealth fighters are still under political review by his government.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 19:40