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Dramatic moment police gun down spear-wielding maniac on California street

NY Post
2 days 1 hour ago
A tense Oakland police standoff ended in a hail of gunfire when two officers shot and killed a 43-year-old man authorities said was armed with a pair of makeshift spears. The Oakland Police Department released bodycam footage Wednesday showing the July 13 confrontation involving Jose Angel Castillo near a homeless encampment at 40th Avenue and...
Pierce Sharpe

​​​​​​​"Abolish NYSE Stock Exchange," Says China-Based Hasan Piker Producer, Mamdani Campaign Alum

Zero Rss
2 days 1 hour ago
​​​​​​​"Abolish NYSE Stock Exchange," Says China-Based Hasan Piker Producer, Mamdani Campaign Alum

Far-left influencer Hasan Piker's China-based producer, Eric Hovagim, who also worked on socialist Zohran Mamdani's campaign, has said on recent podcasts and streams that he wants to "ban the American stock market" and has boasted about his relationship with a known Beijing-based propagandist waging an informational war on the US. 

Hovagim discussed his close friendship with China-based Marxist billionaire Roy Singham, whose network of revolutionary NGOs has been accused of promoting pro-Beijing and communist propaganda through what some describe as a possible foreign subversion network.

Via Free Press:

Taken together, these revolutionary comments from Hovagim merely point to a far-left agenda, suggesting that the Democratic Socialists of America are not truly focused on affordability, Palestine, climate change, opposition to data centers, or whatever the hottest issue of the day may be. Instead, they appear more focused on dismantling the foundations of America's capitalist system.

 

Stu Smith of the Manhattan Institute wrote on X:

Hasan Piker's China-Based Producer Wants to "Communize the United States"

I don't think it has fully sunk in that Hasan Piker employs a China-based producer who helps make his content and produce his interviews, is an open China apologist, worked on Zohran Mamdani campaign videos, and says he wants to "communize the United States of America."

He says Chinese surveillance has made his life materially better, calls much criticism of Beijing American propaganda, says there has never been a good U.S. president, wants the New York Stock Exchange abolished, and openly wonders whether America needs "a whole new system."

🚨 Hasan Piker’s China-Based Producer Wants to “Communize the United States”

I don’t think it has fully sunk in that Hasan Piker employs a China-based producer who helps make his content and produce his interviews, is an open China apologist, worked on Zohran Mamdani campaign… pic.twitter.com/QT8drxVUks

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 11, 2026

On another stream, Hovagim told his followers: "I'm friends with Roy Singham. He's dope."

Hovagim laughed off the idea that Singham has secret ties to the Communist Party of China, before acknowledging that Singham "is friends with a lot of them."

Hovagim boasted about his ties with Singham's wife, Code Pink cofounder Jodie Evans. He called her "f**king dope." 

"Texted her when the Treasury subpoenas arrived… She told me not to worry because they do this shit to us literally all the time," Hovagim said, referring to Jodie Evans, Code Pink cofounder, getting subpoenaed for a trip to Cuba to visit the communist in Havana. 

Hovagim continued to boast about his Singham ties, saying, "The whole squad out here, we all know him." 

He then praises Evans as "the real deal," citing her relationships with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Nicolás Maduro's son.

Manhattan Institute analyst Smith commented, "The most revealing part may be how ordinary all of this appears within Hovagim's social and political world. Singham is not described as a distant donor or shadowy figure. He is a friend whom "the whole squad" knows, while Evans is someone Hovagim can text directly when subpoenas arrive." 

🚨 Hasan Piker’s Producer Says “The Whole Squad” Knows Roy Singham, Admits Singham Is “Friends With a Lot” of Chinese Communist Party Members

This is Eric Hovagim, a producer and researcher for Hasan Piker, discussing his personal friendship with billionaire activist funder Roy… pic.twitter.com/S312gpMpei

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) July 30, 2026

Foreign policy investigator Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon revealed earlier this week that Arc of Justice, a nonprofit operated by Code Pink cofounder Medea Benjamin, was ordered to cease operations after years of missing tax filings and unanswered questions about what happened to $51 million in reported assets.  

"The silence from Arc of Justice raises unanswered questions about a foundation that has long served as the financial backbone for a network of radical advocacy groups tied to Benjamin and her Code Pink cofounder, Jodie Evans," Kredo wrote in the report. 

Far-left extremist Hasan Piker & Jodie Evans in Cuba: It's all one big network of radicals ... 

Fox News' Asra Nomani recently broke the story that Singham is at the center of a Justice Department criminal probe: A federal grand jury is investigating China-based tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham over alleged financial improprieties involving $278 million that investigators say moved through his financial network over the past decade.

FIRST ON FOX: A federal grand jury is investigating China-based tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham over alleged financial improprieties involving $278 million that investigators say moved through his financial network over the past decade.

Federal investigators are examining… pic.twitter.com/cqqt9QthU6

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 29, 2026

Interesting https://t.co/HHh8RcM3gI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 29, 2026

Risk intelligence platform Sayari shows Evan is Arc of Justice's registered agent and serves as the bridge to a broader network of entities, including:

  • Codepink Action Fund
  • Codepink: Women for Peace
  • Environmentalism Through Inspiration and Nonviolent Action
  • The MEP Foundation
  • MP & JK, LLC
  • Gateways and Passages, LLC
  • Agrarian Land Trust
  • Schumacher Center for a New Economics

The chart's main takeaway is that Arc of Justice is connected through Evans to several far-left Code Pink-related and other nonprofit or corporate entities.

According to investigative reports (e.g., New York Times, 2023), Singham has worked closely with pro-CCP propaganda networks targeting the US.

From NYT:

What is less known, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Mr. Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.

From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.

Bitcoin Policy Institute documented one of those alleged Singham foreign influence operations: 

The takeaway is that the socialist movement in America wants to destroy the nation from within, which could be linked to foreign subversion networks operating within the nonprofit sphere:

Related:

...and Bernie Sanders and much of the Democratic Party have welcomed these socialists and Marxists into the party's coalition. That embrace has become an absolute gold mine for opposition-research teams on the GOP side, which can draw on a steady stream of inflammatory statements from socialists and other far-left revolutionaries whose views remain far outside mainstream American opinion.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:40
Tyler Durden

Tehran's Houthi Proxies Attack Saudi Aramco Again, Crude Spikes, As Iran's Military Command To Be 'More Aggressive'

Zero Rss
2 days 1 hour ago
Tehran's Houthi Proxies Attack Saudi Aramco Again, Crude Spikes, As Iran's Military Command To Be 'More Aggressive' Summary
  • Saudi Aramco attacked again: Houthi drone strikes on a Saudi refinery sent oil prices higher.
  • Hormuz stalemate & standoff: US says it can sustain the Iranian port blockade indefinitely.
  • Iran digs in: Tehran appears prepared for a prolonged war of attrition.
  • Hard-liners rise: Iran reshuffled senior security leadership toward a more aggressive posture.
  • Diplomacy dead-end: Iran says the U.S. has miscalculated, while talks remain deadlocked.

*  *  *

Attack on Saudi Aramco Facility Sees Crude Spike

Oil prices have spiked Thursday on emerging reports that the Houthis have freshly targeted an Aramco refinery in Saudi Arabia's Jizan with two drones, according to regional Saba News Agency.

It seems this is part of Iran's 'counter-pressure' playing book against Washington and its Gulf allies, given the Houthis have long been a proxy arm of Iran. The Houthi group is in the midst of a 'siege for siege' war on Saudi shipping and energy. 

The Hormuz stalemate is meanwhile continuing, given War Secretary Pete Hegseth now says that the US military can maintain a blockade on Iranian ports for as long as needed.

“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters. But Iran is also vowing to outlast and keep up the military pressure, enforcing its own strait management protocol based on the Oman deal.

Attrition Game Outlasting US Politics

Top adviser to the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has been signaling Iran's more aggressive stance in media appearances this week, also following a significant reshuffling of top military leadership.

"Look, we have to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security," Naqdi said in an interview with PBS. "One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost."

Alluding to the recent military reorganization, he described: "Whenever the conditions are favorable and the order is issued, we must be able to take the operation into enemy territory" - while contrasting the approach with a pre-war doctrine "primarily based on defense and the preservation of the country."

via The Australian

Military.com underscores that "Iran has reorganized its military to be more aggressive abroad as talks on ending the war with the U.S. remain mired in stalemate, a sign that Tehran is preparing for a protracted era of regional conflict."

As a reminder, this is after Tehran's obvious pivot away from negotiations, and toward a more permanent state of military resistance. The Wall Street Journal previously pointed out: "Now, the new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, is putting his own stamp on the country’s national-security policy amid a confrontation with the U.S. that could last months or even years."

"Seasoned Hardliners" in Command

According to more of the analysis:

In a sweeping overhaul of the government’s top echelon on Sunday and Monday, Iran named seasoned hard-liners to run the country’s security policies and institutions of repression.

It marked the most significant government reshuffle under Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since the war began. U.S. intelligence agencies say he is alive but severely injured, and top Iranian cabinet members say they have never met him since he took office. Iranian officials say he was injured but in good health.

Analysts said the appointments signaled Khamenei’s determination to hold fast in a showdown with President Trump, who is seeking concessions on Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz. 

“The regime is preparing for a more confrontational posture at home and abroad,” said Kasra Aarabi, an expert on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful paramilitary force, at United Against Nuclear Iran, a policy organization that opposes Iran’s government.  

And some fresh insight from Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI):

Nearly six months since the beginning of the war, Iran is now convinced that the US is not willing to conduct a ground invasion. “That existential threat is gone,” Stephens said. “So they want to up the tempo and maybe make the pain a little bit more acute for President Trump. And the best way to do that is to drag this out.”

Prior to the US-Israeli attack on February 28, the widely held belief was that the Iranian government would readily collapse, after enduring months of civil disobedience and unrest during major demonstrations in late December and January.

“That doesn’t seem to be the case now, and I’m not really sure the US has any tools in the bag to force the regime to do what they want,” the analyst said. Iranians can “live in this stalemate at the moment – it hurts them, but it’s not existential, and I think that’s the problem the US has now”.

Iranian leadership continues boasting of squaring up against the much larger American foe...

❗️ Iran says the US military is weaker than expected

“The longer this war continues, the more experience we gain.

We have never had a war like this to gain real experience and learn how to fight America.

Over these five months, we have learned this. We have also seen that the… pic.twitter.com/Yfz5T2pIkj

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 12, 2026 Iran: US Has "Long Miscalculated"

In follow-up, and as if confirming all of the above, Iranian Brigadier General Rasoul Sanaei-Rad has on Thursday said Iran will act more aggressively in the future, the Fars news agency reported.

"We stood firm in the recent war and, God willing, we will stand firmer and more aggressively in a possible future war," said Sanaei-Rad, a political adviser in the office of the supreme leader. He noted that Iran’s "enemy" is seeking to fracture the country through economic pressure, but that its plan did not succeed.

Below: Mohsen Rezaei, one of the longest-serving figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has returned to the heart of Tehran’s national security establishment, after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appointed him secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mohsen Rezaei, via Reuters

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also chimed on in on Thursday with a similar theme of Washington miscalculation. He asserted that the United States has "has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures," especially when launching its war on Iran.

American military actions in the Strait of Hormuz were "an even bigger miscalculation," Araghchi stated on X. "Worse than fake news is fake intelligence," the foreign minister said, perhaps in mockery of Trump.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:40
Tyler Durden

Small-town gas station that sold $1B lottery ticket inching closer to ID’ing jackpot winner: ‘Like a murder mystery’

NY Post
2 days 1 hour ago
It won’t take a billion guesses. The manager of the Illinois gas station that sold Wednesday night’s $1.04 billion winning Powerball lottery ticket is confident he’ll soon work out who the lucky winner is, even though they could try to remain secret. “I’d say probably 15% of our customers are traveling through town. The majority...
Anthony Blair

Private Credit's Problems Just Got Real

Zero Rss
2 days 2 hours ago
Private Credit's Problems Just Got Real

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

For most of this year, the private credit story I’ve written about (and warned about) has been about investors trying to get their money out. Now the loans themselves appear to be cracking.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that defaults across several of the largest publicly traded private credit funds have climbed to their highest levels in at least five years, while watchlists of troubled borrowers are simultaneously expanding and investor returns are deteriorating. In other words, the private credit mess I’ve been documenting since last year is entering what could be a far more important phase.

Until now, defenders of the industry could make a relatively straightforward argument. Yes, investors were requesting redemptions, and yes, some funds were limiting withdrawals, but the underlying credit portfolios were supposedly fine. That argument is getting considerably harder to make.

According to the Journal’s analysis, the percentage of nonaccruing loans at funds overseen by Ares, Golub Capital, Blue Owl and Blackstone has reached its highest level since at least 2021. At Blue Owl Capital Corp., nonaccruals reached 2.8% during the second quarter, the highest level in at least five years.

Nonperforming loans at the other three funds examined by the Journal also reached five year highs, surpassing even the levels seen in 2023, when the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes were putting enormous pressure on leveraged borrowers.

And it isn’t just defaults. Private credit funds managed by Ares, Golub and KKR have also reported increases this year in the number of borrowers showing deteriorating performance. Their watchlists are now at their highest levels since roughly 2022 and 2023.

That matters because watchlists are effectively the waiting room for future credit problems. Not every company on one will default, and different managers use different criteria, but when nonaccruals are already rising at the same time the pipeline of potentially troubled borrowers is expanding, it becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss the deterioration as a handful of isolated accidents.

Even Golub Capital co CEO David Golub acknowledged the obvious, telling the Journal, “We are clearly in a credit cycle.”

No shit. And in my opinion, the defaults aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

This is important because it adds another leg to a story I have been following for almost a year. I started warning about private credit last October, when I listed it as one of ten areas of the market I wanted absolutely nothing to do with heading into 2026. Since then, the warning signs have arrived with almost comical regularity.

For months I’ve been arguing that investors are ignoring a growing list of warning signs across the economy and financial markets. Stocks remain in what I believe is a historic bubble. The Federal Reserve remains trapped between stubborn inflation and an equity market that still looks significantly overvalued. Consumers are exhausted and buried under debt, while the bond market continues calling bullshit on the broader narrative.

Private credit fits neatly into that picture because while public markets have spent much of 2026 behaving as though risk has been abolished, underneath the surface investors have been trying to pull billions of dollars out of private credit funds.

I’ve spent much of this year documenting that process. Blue Owl restricted redemptions. Blackstone faced record withdrawal requests. BlackRock limited withdrawals. Morgan Stanley and Cliffwater capped redemptions. Stone Ridge gated investors. Apollo and Ares restricted withdrawals. Barings followed. By June, redemption requests at Cliffwater had climbed to roughly 17%, while Apollo once again limited withdrawals from its $25 billion Apollo Debt Solutions fund after investors requested redemptions equal to 16.8% of outstanding shares.

So we already knew there was a liquidity problem. What the latest data suggests is that we increasingly have a credit problem sitting underneath it. And those two problems can feed each other.

Private credit works particularly well when investors are content to leave their money alone. The basic mismatch is not complicated. Investors want periodic liquidity while funds own loans to private companies that don’t trade continuously and may be difficult to sell at anything resembling their stated valuation during periods of stress.

As long as relatively few investors request their money back, everything works. When everybody heads for the door, redemption caps kick in. That’s what they’re designed to do. The uncomfortable question is what happens if investors keep asking for their money back quarter after quarter while the underlying loans simultaneously deteriorate.

As defaults rise, funds have to recognize losses or mark down loans. Returns deteriorate. Investors have less reason to tolerate illiquidity, more of them request redemptions and fundraising becomes more difficult. That matters because private credit has become an important refinancing mechanism for leveraged companies. If less capital enters precisely when borrowers need to refinance, weak companies face higher borrowing costs, worse terms or potentially no refinancing at all.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the Journal’s reporting is not simply that defaults are rising. It’s when they’re rising. The U.S. economy has not fallen into some catastrophic recession. Economic activity remains relatively robust, yet private credit stress is already increasing.

If borrowers are increasingly landing on watchlists and loans are increasingly going nonaccrual while the economy is still holding together, what happens if economic growth rolls over? What happens if inflation prevents the Fed from delivering the kind of rate cuts heavily indebted borrowers want?

Then there is software. The Journal notes that software companies make up 20% or more of the loans in many private credit funds. This is something I’ve been writing about since March, when the Journal previously reported that private credit’s exposure to struggling software companies was significantly larger than advertised.

So far, many of the bad loans showing up are concentrated elsewhere, including healthcare businesses and companies affected by higher oil prices. But software remains the elephant in the room. Private equity spent years buying software companies because recurring revenue, high margins and predictable growth supposedly made them ideal leveraged assets. Private credit financed a lot of those transactions. Then AI showed up.

🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever

The concern isn’t that every software company suddenly disappears. It is that the growth rates and valuations underpinning years of leveraged transactions may have been based on assumptions that no longer hold. If AI compresses margins, reduces pricing power or forces investors to assign lower multiples to software businesses, lenders don’t need every borrower to collapse. They merely need enough companies to start missing the projections upon which their leverage was based.

Meanwhile, the economics that attracted investors to private credit are becoming less compelling. Private credit funds routinely produced annual returns of 10% or better in previous years, according to the Journal. Today, even stronger funds are struggling to produce 7%. One troubled KKR managed fund lost 6.55% during the 12 months through June after losing 9.17% in the previous period.

That creates an obvious question. Why exactly should investors accept limited liquidity, opaque marks and growing credit risk if the return premium they receive for doing so keeps shrinking?

This is why I think looking at the latest default figures in isolation misses the larger story. I’ve been tracking this deterioration since October 2025. Since then we’ve watched markdowns appear, redemption requests surge, funds cap withdrawals, investors return the following quarter asking for even more of their money and concerns emerge about the industry’s enormous software exposure.

Now defaults across several major private credit funds have reached five year highs while watchlists of troubled borrowers are expanding. Any one of these things can be explained away. Taken together, they constitute a trend, and the trend isn’t improving.

Private credit hasn’t really been stress tested at its current scale. The asset class exploded during an extraordinary period of cheap money, enormous private equity activity and relentless investor demand for yield. Now dealmaking has slowed, portfolio companies are missing expectations, defaults are rising, watchlists are expanding, returns are declining and investors are simultaneously asking for billions of dollars back.

For nearly a year, every new crack in private credit has been dismissed as isolated. First it was markdowns. Then record redemption requests. Then redemption caps and repeated redemption caps. Now nonaccruals are reaching five year highs.

I don’t think the defaults are done. And if they continue rising while redemption requests remain elevated, private credit could find itself confronting both sides of the problem at exactly the wrong time, with investors wanting their money back while borrowers increasingly can’t pay theirs.

That’s when this story gets considerably uglier.

Tracking the private credit meltdown:

 

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all facts and figures included in this article though I made my best effort to get them right. I have been wrong before and will be wrong again, and encourage you to always double check, do your own research and speak to a licensed financial professional.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions.

As of May 20, 2026 I am attempting to no longer actively trade as much as I once did (read my story here). My eventual goal is for investing/saving to be mostly done by recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs and a few select equities, trusted third parties who oversee my accounts, and advisors. Such advisors or funds, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in, exposure to, or holdings of names mentioned herein that I know nothing about. Basically, via index funds, ETFs and individual equities it is possible I could own, have exposure to, or not own anything at any point. As of the same date, May 20, 2026, in an attempt to lead a healthier lifestyle, I’ve also excluded myself from fantasy sports, sports betting, online and in-person casinos and prediction markets.

And all positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:20
Tyler Durden

Massive Blast Rocks Italian Munitions Plant At Heart Of Europe's Ammo Supply Chain

Zero Rss
2 days 2 hours ago
Massive Blast Rocks Italian Munitions Plant At Heart Of Europe's Ammo Supply Chain

A massive explosion has been reported at a major Italian manufacturer of medium- and large-caliber ammunition, formerly known as Simmel Difesa. The plant operates in Colleferro and Anagni, near Rome.

Local Italian outlet Sky TG24 reports: 

Fire and explosion at Colleferro, in the facility of the former Simmel Difesa, currently owned by KNDS Ammo Italy. The company, located in the Quarto Chilometro area, along via Latina, between Colleferro and Artena, produces medium- and large-caliber ammunition for land and naval defense, as well as solid fuels for aerospace launch vehicles. 

The incident is said to have occurred in the powder pressing department. A loud boom was distinctly heard by residents in the area, triggering the alarm.

Incendio ed esplosione a Colleferro, nello stabilimento dell'ex Simmel Difesa, attualmente di proprietà della KNDS Ammo Italy. L'azienda, che si trova nell'area del Quarto Chilometro, lungo via Latina, tra Colleferro e Artena, produce munizioni di medio e grosso calibro per la… pic.twitter.com/fa7NaSFFtA

— Sky tg24 (@SkyTG24) August 13, 2026

Separately, local media outlet Italia 24H Live posted footage on X that appears to capture the moment the explosion rocked KNDS Ammo Italy. 

Incendio ed esplosione a Colleferro, nello stabilimento dell'ex Simmel Difesa, attualmente di proprietà della KNDS Ammo Italy. L'azienda, che si trova nell'area del Quarto Chilometro, lungo via Latina, tra Colleferro e Artena, produce munizioni di medio e grosso calibro per la… pic.twitter.com/fa7NaSFFtA

— Sky tg24 (@SkyTG24) August 13, 2026

For context, KNDS Ammo Italy produces: 

  • Complete ammunition ranging from 25mm to 155mm
  • Naval rounds, particularly 76mm and 127mm ammunition for Leonardo/Oto Melara guns
  • Medium-caliber ammunition for land, naval and air-defense applications
  • Artillery ammunition, including 155mm shells
  • Propellant powders and charges
  • Explosives and warheads
  • Proximity and programmable fuzes
  • Combustible cartridge cases and metal components
  • Missile components
  • Ammunition inspection, refurbishment and demilitarization services

 

Developments remain scant, and officials have yet to disclose the cause of the explosion, the extent of the damage or which production lines, if any, were affected. Against a backdrop of elevated concern over the Russia-Ukraine conflict's expanding geographic footprint, the explosion warrants scrutiny. Officials have yet to disclose whether the blast was linked to sabotage or hostile action. 

Ending the streak? 

KNDS Ammo Italy is also Italy's largest producer of medium- and large-caliber ammunition and a preferred supplier for Leonardo/Oto Melara naval guns.

Any supply disruption would have great exposure to: 

  • 76mm and 127mm naval ammunition, including programmable and proximity-fuzed rounds used for air and missile defense
  • Specialized anti-air and anti-drone ammunition
  • 155mm ammunition and modular propellant charges
  • Fuzes, explosives and missile components supplied to other weapons manufacturers

Let's get back to the US, where, in late 2025, Accurate Energetic Systems, a key defense contractor and manufacturer of high explosives for the military, suffered a massive explosion.  

Stockpiles and potentially other KNDS plants could cover any outage at KNDS Ammo Italy. A prolonged disruption affecting explosives, propellant or fuze production would be more serious because alternative ammunition must be qualified for specific guns and fire-control systems. That process can take many months. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 11:00
Tyler Durden

zero rss