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The Liberty aim to extend their winning streak at home as the reigning WNBA champions, the Aces, visit for a high-stakes Sunday afternoon game. 

They’re struggling to foot the Z bill. 

From "Designed Viruses" To "Digital Telepathy" – AI Panic Kicks Into Overdrive

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

Two days ago, I wrote an article detailing the sudden rash of “rogue AI agents” allegedly  besetting the tech community, and how that may be used to bring in new regulations, notionally targeting AI, but actually limiting or monitoring how ordinary people use the internet.

In the 48 hours since, that blatant fear-mongering has gone WILD.

Within a few hours of our original article being published, Meta joined the parade of “rogue AIs”, when Mark Zuckerberg “confirmed” one of their AI agents had left the play area and gone toddling off into the internet to do a little bit of hacking.

Then, this morning, Chinese AI company Moonshot reported their Kimi3 model had “escaped containment” [from Wired]:

THE AI INDUSTRY is having a rogue agent summer. The latest model to escape onto the open internet during security testing is Kimi K3, a powerful open-weight offering from the Chinese company Moonshot AI.

Bloomberg reports that hackers are using AI voice-cloning to steal from hedge funds. The Guardian says AI doctors are spreading medical misinformation.

The Independent is screaming:

Out-of-control AI systems are going rogue and hacking people. Is it time to panic?

And you know what? I think it just might be.

After all, rogue AIs hacking the planet are the least of it. That’s small fry already.

The New York Times is reporting that AI is now sequencing genomes and designing brand new viruses – biological viruses, not computer viruses – which will be used to treat diseases:

This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature – Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.

But experts are warning – “warning” seems to be about 80% of what “experts” do – that this is potentially dangerous:

But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise “urgent” safety and security concerns.

This is painfully unsubtle propaganda, obviously hoping to play on both the Covid-inspired fear of viruses and trendy gain-of-function panic. A crossover episode, the Batman vs Superman of modern panic narratives.

In other scary AI-related news, an AI engineer with a twitter blue tick is leaving OpenAI to join Conduit, a tech start-up with the aim of creating an AI that can read people’s thoughts:

Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI and joined Conduit to build models that turn non-invasive neural recordings into text prompts. She says a headband could decode rough intentions into AI coding prompts by 2027, with broader brain-to-AI milestones later.

I’m not sure why this is news at all, or what “non-invasive” mind-reading might look like, but since it’s probably not going to happen that doesn’t really matter.

The point is – believe EVERYTHING they tell you – and be  afraid!

That’s what Geoffrey “Godfather of AI” Hinton thinks, according to the interview published by CNN yesterday:

“What’s happening is these things are getting smarter […] I think as they get smarter, we’re going to see more and more complex intentions they have – and more and more ability to escape control […] I don’t believe we’re going to be able to keep control of them in the simple way of just outthinking them so they can’t escape […] I anticipate there will be lots of nasty cyberattacks[.]”

Like I said, be afraid.

But what’s the endgame here? The answer to that seems to be “regulation”.

Regulating AI is suddenly all anyone wants to talk about.

Many want a global treaty to govern AI risk. California and New York may already be writing it.

That’s from Foreign Policy.

The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times all have similar things to say.

Bloomberg thinks we should treat AI like the airline industry.

Politicians across the spectrum of from the UK’s AI Minister to the Governor of Vermont are clamouring for regulation.

The United Nations University tells us:

You Can’t Regulate AI Without Fully Understanding It

Oh, and in case you were in any doubt about what you were supposed to think, Donald Trump has come out for AI and against regulating it, claiming AI will be “bigger than oil”, and warning that congress wants to “regulate AI out of business”.

Trump bad.

Trump like AI.

AI must be bad.

This is the simple moral math that swaths of the US have been conditioned into.

AI is scary and needs to be regulated, and if you don’t agree you’re just like Donald Trump. That’s the headline.

But what will this “regulation” look like?

That’s a good question. One I’m not sure anyone has an all-encompassing answer to quite yet.

There’s talk of “kill switches”. The Bank of England suggested them months ago, to prevent AI stock traders crashing the market, and Rep. Ted Lieu wants congress to pass a law requiring them by the end of the year.

Two liberal professors, writing for Project Syndicate, are here to tell us “the right way” to regulate AI, using paragraphs like this:

Addressing AI’s societal risks requires institutions designed to recognize and respond to emerging threats before they become systemic failures.

…and this:

These skewed priorities can be traced to the framing of AI development as a geopolitical race. But technological leadership means little if it comes at the expense of workers’ health, social resilience, and people’s ability to lead meaningful lives. A country that develops the world’s most capable AI models while leaving its workforce deskilled and its public discourse polluted by misinformation has not won anything worth winning.

Which give vibes over specifics, but I think suggests a very familiar marketing strategy and a vague policy direction.

This vagueness is largely intentional at this point.

First they want the public to beg them to do something. They can decide what the something is later.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 08:10

NY Post readers discuss a Mount Vernon police commissioner driving a getaway car for her son's gang shooting and more.

The push is back on for slavery reparations. In July, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a report urging the immediate adoption of reparations. As Lanessa Owens-Chaplin — one of the report’s authors and Director of the Racial Justice Center at NYCLU — puts it: “Reparations are a debt that is owed. Enslaved Black people...

Welcome to the 2040 Dubai Bowl, featuring UCLA and Michigan in a battle of tradition-rich college football teams. The Bruins hail from the new Four Corners Conference, which only allows membership to schools a minimum of 3,000 miles apart. The Wolverines are now part of the It Just Means A Whole Lot More Conference, a...

Europe Was Once Bigger Than The US Economy. What Happened?

The United States and the European Union are the two largest Western economies of the 21st century.

Over the past two decades, however, their economic trajectories have diverged significantly.

This line chart below, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, tracks the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU and U.S. economies from 2006 to 2026 using the latest figures available from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s World Economic Outlook. Figures for 2026 are forecasts.

The Early Rise and Fall of the EU

The 15-member European Union was established in 1993 from precursor organizations such as the European Communities. In 2004, 10 new member states joined, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.

Aided by the addition of these new member states, along with strong British and German economies, the EU’s total GDP reached $19.3 trillion in 2008. This represented 131% of the U.S. economy that year, which stood at $14.8 trillion. The euro also reached an all-time high in June 2008 at roughly $1.55.

The table below shows the size of the EU economy relative to the U.S. economy from 2006 to 2026.

Year 🇪🇺 EU GDP ($T) 🇺🇸 U.S. GDP ($T) EU % of U.S. GDP 2006 15.27 13.82 110.5 2007 17.83 14.47 123.2 2008 19.27 14.77 130.5 2009 17.21 14.48 118.9 2010 17.09 15.05 113.6 2011 18.49 15.6 118.5 2012 17.40 16.25 107.1 2013 18.20 16.88 107.8 2014 18.86 17.61 107.1 2015 16.61 18.3 90.8 2016 16.70 18.8 88.8 2017 17.57 19.61 89.6 2018 19.00 20.66 92.0 2019 18.69 21.54 86.8 2020 15.49 21.38 72.5 2021 17.51 23.73 73.8 2022 17.04 26.05 65.4 2023 18.67 27.81 67.1 2024 19.50 29.3 66.6 2025 21.23 30.77 69.0 2026 23.03 32.38 71.1

The global financial crisis and Great Recession changed the European Union’s fortunes.

The newly expanded bloc faced severe challenges as several member-state governments struggled to service their debts or rein in large structural deficits. These countries included eurozone members Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.

Through a combination of multilateral bailouts and austerity measures, the EU weathered the crisis. However, in the years that followed, the 28-member bloc’s aggregate GDP contracted, and the $18.3 trillion U.S. economy surpassed it in 2015.

Part of the decline in dollar-denominated GDP also reflected changes in exchange rates as the euro weakened against the U.S. dollar.

Brexit and the Years of Decline

Further challenges followed. In a June 2016 referendum, British voters narrowly chose to make the United Kingdom the first country to withdraw from the European Union. The Brexit process culminated in the UK’s formal withdrawal in January 2020.

Losing the UK dealt another blow to the EU’s aggregate economy. Although the country had never joined the eurozone, it was the EU’s second-largest member economy. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit helped push the bloc’s GDP down to $15.5 trillion in 2020, roughly where it had stood a decade earlier.

As the UK economy has struggled through much of the 2020s, some in London have begun to float the possibility of rejoining the EU. Other European countries, including Albania and Montenegro, remain potential future entrants to the bloc.

The Post-Pandemic Divergence

Since the pandemic, the U.S. and European Union have followed very different trajectories. Despite inflation and high interest rates, the U.S. economy rebounded strongly from COVID and is forecast to reach $32.4 trillion in 2026.

Meanwhile, the EU has faced a combination of rising Chinese industrial competition and an energy crisis stemming from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. With economic heavyweight Germany facing protracted stagnation, the EU’s GDP is forecast to reach $23 trillion in 2026.

That leaves the EU economy at just 71% the size of the U.S. economy, a sharp reversal from its position in 2008. Exchange rates account for part of the shift, but weaker growth and a series of economic shocks have also contributed to the widening gap.

To explore what EU membership meant for one major economy, read Poland’s GDP per capita has more than doubled since it joined the European Union in 2004 on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 07:35

At nearly 90, the Oscar winner still has work to do.

Iran's Mehr Releases Video Of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei For 'First Time' - Except It's Old

Update(2210ET): Iran's state Mehr has purported to release video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for the 'first time' since the start of the war, and since he was wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike in the opening days of the attacks of over five months ago. The state-released footage is titled "First Images of the Leader" - and shows the Ayatollah addressing students, after months of speculation over his status, or whether he is even alive. He has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began, amid conflicting reports and accounts. The video has no date or location given. It appears to be in response to recent Israeli media reports alleging his deteriorating health.

However, analysts - as well as social media users in Iran - were quick to identify the footage as old material from his past lectures in Qom. This has in turn resulted in accusations of a cover-up, and that Tehran is in damage control concerning his status. For example, one hawkish US-based think tank researcher and pundit, Jason Brodsky, has commented on the released footage as follows:

This footage is old, from before the war. It was first circulating in March. It's telling Iran's regime's Mehr News feels the need to circulate old video of Mojtaba.

Iran’s Mehr News released a video claiming to show Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei “for the first time,” with no date or location specified. The right side of his face cannot be seen in the footage. pic.twitter.com/JdKWU2Svy6

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) August 8, 2026

Foreign press reports, including Russian and Chinese state channels, have been reporting the footage soon on the heels of Iranian state media circulating it...

#LATEST Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, appeared in a video recording of a lesson released by Mehr News Agency on August 8. pic.twitter.com/SjebyaGVm8

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 8, 2026

Proof that it is actually archived footage and not in reality recent 'proof of life' imagery...

See here. Iranian media first started circulating it in March.https://t.co/mQae3nqjZp

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 8, 2026

This is the Mehr story indicating the outlet is claiming to publish the images for the "first time" [translation]:

https://t.co/j8OfnYg64P

— وكالة مهر للأنباء (@mehrnewsarabic) August 8, 2026

*  *  *

In another sign of mounting pressure on President Trump to disengage the US armed forces from his failing, five-month war on Iran, America's top general has been carefully working with other Trump advisers to communicate that continued depletion of the Pentagon's arsenal is unlikely to alter Iran's stance, while escalation is likely to backfire, CNN reported on Friday evening, citing "sources familiar with the matter." 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has been using side conversations with cabinet officials -- including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance -- to ensure they have a shared, clear picture of the military situation before they meet with Trump, CNN's sources say. Summing it up, one said, “Caine is looking for an off-ramp.”

In a July congressional hearing, Caine said "airpower has its limits." Nicknamed "Razin Caine," the general said to be reiterating that caution in his behind-the-scenes discussions with likeminded officials who think a major escalation of US attacks on Iran could cause disastrous fallout for the region and US interests.“There really isn’t much else to hit since it is whack-a-mole with drone and missile sites. Bombing power plants would be publicly a lot more significant," one source said. Others said hitting Iranian infrastructure would likely rally the country's citizens around the government -- even more than the war has done already 

Last weekend, the US military seemed poised to carry out Trump's threat to unleash “the biggest attack since World War II," but he called it off, at least in part because of profound concerns raised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran had promised to wreak havoc up and down the Gulf. “The only ones in favor of the operation were elements of CENTCOM,” said one source, referring to the Pentagon's Central Command, which is responsible for action in the Middle East. The source also pointed out that Israel also wants escalation of the war.   

The U.S. Intelligence Community assessed this & consistently briefed it. Unfortunately, it was the Israeli government & their lobbyists who convinced the President that Iran would be as easy as Venezuela. https://t.co/C1Vw7L06OH

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) August 7, 2026

“I think it is just his way of protecting the military,” a source said about Caine's cautionary campaign. In addition to squandering the lives of at least 18 US service members and wounding more than 600 more, the five-month Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran has severely depleted the US arsenal. Referring to Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), two sources this week told Reuters that "Washington has used virtually all of these weapons," further substantiating earlier media reports and think tank studies that sounded alarms over dwindling munitions. It's not just offensive weapons that are running out: Low air defense missile supplies are also of grave concern, particularly to Gulf states that would face what would likely be a devastating Iranian backlash to a major new US assault on Iran.   

Earlier this year, one source criticized Caine for failing to pointedly counsel Trump on the pitfalls of taking on such a well-equipped and geologically-protected adversary. “He’s definitely pulling punches,” the source said then, adding that Caine was much more candid with fellow military officers than with his commander-in-chief. Now, Caine is apparently intensifying his approach. Though warning of the dwindling arsenal, Caine is said to have assured Trump that, if he does order a major escalation, the Pentagon could manage to cause plenty of destruction across Iran. However, it probably wouldn't put a crack in Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, much less substantially affect the nuclear situation that was fraudulently advanced as the casus belli -- for decades: 

🇮🇱 NEW: CNN compiled a series of clips showing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warning since 1996 that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/HSyWkoj6OB

— GBC (@GBC_Press) August 4, 2026 Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 07:11

Turkey Restricts Black Sea Traffic As Drone Attacks On Commercial Vessels Spike

Via The Cradle

Turkey has begun restricting commercial ship traffic into the Black Sea amid a surge in Russian and Ukrainian attacks on civilian vessels, Bloomberg reported Saturday.

Turkiye's Directorate General of Coastal Safety has informed several ships heading to Novorossiysk, an important Russian oil and grain export port, that it is not issuing transit permits at this time and requires more time to review passage applications through the Dardanelles.

via Reuters

The sources told Bloomberg that Turkish authorities had provided no explanation for the move. Some vessels have also reportedly been told that the restriction applies to ships heading to Ukraine.

The report comes after a series of drone attacks targeting Turkish commercial vessels operating in the Black Sea and near Russian ports in recent months.

On Friday, a Turkish-flagged vessel, the MV Gulluk, was struck by a drone off the Russian port of Novorossiysk. Although the drone hit the ship's living quarters, no crew members were reported injured or killed.

On August 3rd, the Ro-Ro cargo vessel Nadezhda was struck by a drone about 20 nautical miles off Novorossiysk while en route from the Russian port to Samsun. Three members of the ship's crew were injured and in serious condition after the attack. The same day, two civilian vessels, the Yasar and the Nadezhda, were attacked after leaving Novorossiysk.

In response, Turkiye's Foreign Minister issued a statement saying it was "deeply concerned about the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, which is affecting civilian shipping despite our numerous warnings."

"Unless preventive measures are taken, the escalation in the Black Sea will have multifaceted negative repercussions, including for food security," the statement added.

Ukraine's targeting of ships in the Black Sea, as well as Russia's attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure and vessels, have threatened grain exports from both countries, pushing wheat prices to a two-year high in July.

"Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine is known as Europe's breadbasket, while mutual attacks between the two countries are putting pressure on maritime transport in the region during the harvest season," Anadolu Agency reported.

❗️Turkish sailors film the moment a group of Ukrainian “Shahed-like” kamikaze drones fly past before striking a Russian vessel in the Black Sea. pic.twitter.com/yLR7xB6dWf

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) August 8, 2026

Global food prices already spiked as a result of soaring energy prices following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf earlier this year. Iran closed the strait in response to the US-Israel war of aggression, disrupting oil and natural gas exports from the Gulf countries partnering with the US and Israel in the war.

Global fuel prices have also risen in response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. On Saturday, a Ukrainian drone targeted the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's ‌southern Krasnodar region, causing it to catch fire.

Ukraine's general staff said the Ukrainian military also hit the Syzran oil ​refinery in the Samara region of Russia overnight, causing a fire there as well.

The Ilsky refinery can process over 6 ​million metric tons of oil per year, while the Syzran refinery has a ​processing capacity of 8.5 million tons ​annually.

In May, Reuters estimated that disruptions associated with the wars between the US and Iran and between Russia and Ukraine together had knocked out nearly 9 percent of global refining capacity.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 07:00

He allegedly changed his appearance from robbery to robbery, resembling a construction worker, health care professional and security guard.

A naked college swim star allegedly killed a security guard using a five-gallon water bottle during an overnight attack at a Hawaiian beachfront resort.

The Jetstar plane was taxiing for takeoff to Queensland ​state's Gold Coast when its flight crew saw the ​Qatar Airways plane.

The ride swings like a pendulum, repeatedly turning thrill-seekers upside down while its passenger compartment spins.

Despite weather delays that involved revelers being evacuated from the National Mall, hundreds of thousands of people still watched the Washington, D.C. fireworks.

"It's hard to replace Pamela [Anderson] and Yasmine [Bleeth] and all those people. And there was just a certain tone. I don't know how to explain it," she said. 

"It's hard to replace Pamela [Anderson] and Yasmine [Bleeth] and all those people. And there was just a certain tone. I don't know how to explain it," she said. 

Dear Abby advises someone who let their nephew move in with them, but his lack of survival skills is causing problems, and a mother who doesn't know if she should give her estranged son some of his stuff.

Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's private "COVID diaries," medical notes and personal reflections Fauci wrote and stored on his government computer.

Two helicopter pilots who crashed while they were fighting a wildfire in Utah are dead, officials confirmed Saturday.