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Navy Awards Boeing $20 Billion Contract For Next-Generation Fighter
Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,
Boeing has secured a contract worth more than $20 billion to develop the U.S. Navy's next-generation carrier-based fighter.
The Boeing Co. logo is displayed outside of company offices near Los Angeles International Airport in El Segundo, Calif., on Jan. 18, 2024. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Navy contract covers full-scale development of the sixth-generation F/A-XX Strike Fighter, including testing units for ground, airworthiness, systems and weapons.
The aircraft is expected to supplement and eventually replace the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers in the 2030s, the Department of War said in its Tuesday announcement. It will operate alongside the F-35C.
Sixth-generation fighter technology would make aircraft harder to detect, with improved stealth capabilities, while being equipped with artificial intelligence-assisted sensors, hypersonic weapons, and directed-energy weapons such as lasers.
F/A-18E/F Super Hornets are used for air combat and attacks on ground targets, while EA-18G Growlers are jets used to jam enemy radar and communications.
"The F/A-XX is a critical pillar in our commitment to maintaining peace through strength," Michael P. Duffey, under secretary of war for acquisition and sustainment, said in the announcement.
"F/A-XX will dominate contested airspace, extend operational reach, and deliver a decisive combat advantage for the warfighter."
The fighter is being developed under the Navy's Next Generation Air Dominance program. The department said the upgrade will extend the reach of U.S. aircraft carriers.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the contract marks "a new era for the U.S. Navy."
"The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority and will provide the world's best aviators with unparalleled capabilities to fight, win, and come home safe," Cao said in a statement.
The contract is Boeing's second selection for sixth-generation fighter work, following the company's 2025 award to develop the U.S. Air Force's F-47.
"Delivering two advanced fighters in parallel was always our plan, and we invested accordingly," Steve Parker, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said. "We are ready and able to build multiple concurrent future combat aircraft franchise programs."
Boeing said construction continues on a secure manufacturing facility in St. Louis that it describes as the largest of its kind in the United States. The facility will be part of an all-digital aerospace design and manufacturing system.
"Investment in facilities is just one part of the story; we're also investing in technology and people so that we can deliver for our customers," Parker said.
Boeing said technical and program details remain classified under U.S. national security and export laws.
Other advanced fighter programs have faced substantial cost increases and delays.
The Government Accountability Office reported in 2025 that the original F-35 development program finished more than a decade behind schedule, with estimated acquisition costs $250 billion above original projections.
Production, which began in 2006, continues and has delivered more than 1,100 aircraft to the U.S. military, international partners and foreign military sales customers.
Tyler Durden Wed, 09/30/2026 - 14:40Off-duty police officer found dead hours after wakeboarding accident at Colorado state park
"Seek Higher Ground Now": A Near Dam Failure In New Mexico Was Just The Warm-Up For A Record El Niño
A flood-control dam in southern New Mexico came close enough to failing Tuesday that the National Weather Service ordered people downstream to get out of the way.
Forecasters issued a flash flood emergency for McLeod Dam near Garfield in Doña Ana County, after dam operators and county officials reported that failure was imminent:
"This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!"
The county ordered evacuations for Hatch, Garfield, Salem, Rincon and Placitas. AccuWeather reported floodwaters pouring over the top of a 20-foot earthen dam in Garfield and breaching its wall. The county described something smaller: at 8:30 p.m., spokesperson Ariana Parra told the Albuquerque Journal that crews had mitigated "a very small piping failure," that no water was exiting the dam, and that pumps were on the way to relieve pressure.
Orders for four of the five communities were lifted late Tuesday. Rincon remained evacuated as of late Tuesday because of standing floodwater.
Watch: KOAT footage of flooding near McLeod Dam in Garfield.
The dam's record was already bad before the rain. KRWG, citing the National Inventory of Dams, reported that McLeod's last inspection, in 2023, rated it "poor," classified it high-hazard, and found no emergency action plan in place.
The high-hazard label rates what a failure would cost, including lives. The "poor" rating is the one that speaks to the structure itself. None of the county's public statements this week addressed what has been repaired, re-inspected or planned since 2023.
🚨DAM FAILURE 🚨
The McLeod Dam near Garfield, New Mexico, is facing potential failure after being overtopped. Immediate evacuations are underway, while a #FlashFloodEmergency remains in effect north of Las Cruces. More rain is expected through late week, adding to the ongoing… pic.twitter.com/oEB8Si9P2q
The water that pushed McLeod to the edge came from the remnants of Hurricane Polo, which Fox Weather ranks as the second-most intense Eastern Pacific hurricane on record. Hurricane Rachel, now strengthening off Mexico, is the basin's 20th named storm and 10th hurricane of the season, and forecasters are crediting a strengthening El Niño with supercharging the Pacific. The same pattern had left the Atlantic with its least active start since 1941 as of early September.
The winter phase, when El Niño does most of its work on the southern US, hasn't started. In its September update, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center put the odds of a very strong El Niño this fall and winter at more than 90%, with a 75% chance the key Niño-3.4 temperature anomaly tops +2.5°C in October-December. It already hit +1.8°C in August. The WMO's projection would make this the strongest El Niño since records began in 1950, as we detailed.
For New Mexico, that typically means a wetter, cooler winter. Forecasters told the Journal in June that the biggest precipitation increases are expected in the southern part of the state, which includes the Hatch Valley. Next door, California isn't waiting: Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Sept. 21 to prepare for heavy rain, debris flows and flooding.
CPC cautions that impacts from an event this size are more likely but not guaranteed. The dam that came within hours of failing Tuesday will face that winter carrying a 2023 "poor" rating, with no public account yet of what has been fixed.
Tyler Durden Wed, 09/30/2026 - 14:20Trump's $200BN Korean "Investment" Is A Gas Plant With No Customers, Eight Reactors With No Sites, And A Pipeline Seoul Calls A "Future Discussion"
A week ago, we wrote that South Korea had finally found a home for the first slice of the $350 billion it promised Trump: a $22.3 billion, 6.3GW gas plant in Encinal, Texas, with no customers, no PPA, and turbines that may not show up this decade. That left, as we put it then, "$328 billion to go."
That number is about to get a lot smaller, if only on paper. According to Bloomberg, at 3pm ET, Trump will announce from the Oval Office that Korea is committing $200 billion to US energy projects: eight large nuclear reactors, the Encinal plant, and the long-suffering Alaska LNG export venture, which Bloomberg earlier reported would get $54 billion of Korean backing. A White House official described it as the first tranche of projects to win approval under last year's trade deal.
One small detail: Seoul hasn't publicly confirmed any of it. And according to Korean press, it doesn't entirely agree.
The math adds up... a little too wellRecall how the deal is structured. Of the $350 billion, $200 billion is upfront capital for "strategic industries," capped at $20 billion a year, with a separate $150 billion for shipbuilding. Now add up the three projects that have been floated:
- Eight reactors: about $120 billion, per Korea's own government briefing (six Westinghouse AP1000s and two Korean APR1400s, per Kyunghyang Shinmun)
- Alaska LNG: $54 billion
- Encinal, Texas: $22.3 billion
Total: $196.3 billion. In other words, today's announcement would use up about 98% of Korea's entire strategic-investment tranche in one go, with $3.7 billion left over for bubble tea or whatever. At the $20 billion annual cap, just funding these three would take roughly a decade, which is convenient for a program that runs well past the next two elections.
Here is where it gets awkward. In its National Assembly briefings, the Korean government listed Encinal as the only approved first project. The eight reactors and Alaska LNG were both classified as "items for future negotiation," according to SBS and Seoul Economic Daily. The latter notes that Commerce Secretary Lutnick is leading the announcement, flanked by Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, while Korea's own trade minister, Kim Jung-kwan, who actually negotiated the thing, is not expected to be there.
Kim was even more explicit on the nuclear piece, telling reporters that the plan "does not mean that the nuclear power projects will immediately proceed" until final arrangements and government reviews are done. So the $200 billion headline is roughly $22 billion that Seoul has signed off on and $174 billion that Seoul is still arguing about.
The midterm pipelineBloomberg flagged the timing, noting that the announcement comes amid deep voter dissatisfaction with the cost of living and the risk that Republicans lose Congress in November. Goldman's Alec Phillips relaunched the bank's US Election Monitor this morning (full note available to pro subs) and his numbers are not great for the GOP: Democrats lead the generic ballot by 8.5 points, prediction markets give them a greater than 90% chance of winning the House, and better than 60% odds of taking the Senate. Phillips does caution that Senate polling has historically overstated Democratic performance at this stage, especially in red-leaning states.
Which brings us to Alaska. Per Seoul Economic Daily, Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Sullivan 46.5% to 45%, with local fuel prices a big issue. Korean commentators are openly calling the Alaska LNG announcement a "midterm card." As for whether a 740-mile pipeline that hasn't reached FID will lower anyone's gas bill before November 3, we had a thought on that last night:
*TRUMP TO UNVEIL $54 BILLION ALASKA LNG PLAN AMID MIDTERM WOES
Surely the LNG will be used to help US consumers and not be exported to Japan and Korea, right?
Recall that the whole point of Alaska LNG is to ship North Slope gas to Asian buyers, with some diverted for in-state power. When we last covered the project in October 2025, it was a $44 billion venture, and Asian buyers were quietly worried the costs were too high. Korea's reported $54 billion commitment alone is now bigger than the whole project's price tag was a year ago. That is some impressive cost inflation, even by pipeline standards. Glenfarne has signed preliminary deals with importers but still hasn't taken FID; Korea's money is supposed to unlock it.
To be fair to Seoul, the timing isn't crazy from an energy-security perspective. Goldman's Samantha Dart wrote after Gastech last week that corporates across the LNG chain expect the Iran status quo to persist, and that without a meaningful recovery in Persian Gulf exports this winter, JKM will likely reach $35/mmBtu by year-end, versus a $24.85 base case. A supply source that doesn't pass through Hormuz has obvious appeal for Asian importers. It's also telling that KOGAS just approved roughly $1.26 billion for LNG Canada Phase 2, which is a project that actually exists. Meanwhile Goldman's John Mackay listed "higher costs for new US greenfield capacity" among the key debates heading into Gastech, and few greenfield projects are more greenfield than a 740-mile trench across the Arctic permafrost.
Eight reactors, zero sitesThe nuclear piece is the biggest part of the package and the least developed. What we know:
- Structure: $120 billion for eight units in three phases: two AP1000s first, then two APR1400s plus two more AP1000s, then two final AP1000s. A six-month gap is targeted between the Phase 1 and Phase 2 EPC contracts, and both sides agreed only to make "reasonable efforts" to keep to it (UPI).
- Sites: None yet, though talks favor federal land.
- Lead times: 54 months for reactor vessels, 57 months for steam generators and 65 months for coolant pumps. Seoul has floated up to $10 billion by year-end for advance equipment purchases, pending National Assembly approval, and DOE has separately authorized $17.5 billion in conditional loans for long-lead AP1000 gear.
- Per-unit cost: $15 billion per reactor. That's ambitious given Vogtle's two AP1000s came in north of $30 billion, but at least it's within shouting distance.
The real fight has been over who gets to design and own what. Goldman's Seoul trading desk flagged on September 16 that the core disagreement delaying the talks was the nuclear leg, with the US "reportedly showing reluctance toward constructing Korean-designed reactors on its soil," and not keen on handing Korea voting rights in Westinghouse. That friction shows up in the numbers: a day earlier the same desk reported Seoul wanted at least a 15% stake in Westinghouse plus board seats. By last week, KED had it at about 7%, and Kyunghyang reported a 5–10% target, with the government insisting voting rights "could be obtained even at" that level. We'll see.
This is a saga we've been tracking for a while. Back in November 2025 the administration declared it a "national emergency" and said it would buy 10 large new reactors. By March, slow progress had pushed the administration to start talking with Westinghouse's rivals. In August, the plan became a Korean problem:
According to reports, The U.S. govt has proposed that S. Korea acquire a stake in Westinghouse Electric Company as Washington pursues an $80 bn partnership aimed at breaking ground on 10 large-scale nuclear reactors by 2030. KEPCO(015760) is being considered as the acquisition…
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 24, 2026And by Labor Day, "up to eight" reactors with a price tag of $120–130 billion. So in about ten months we went from 10 reactors for $80 billion to eight for $120 billion, which is the most nuclear thing about this whole story.
Longer term, the more interesting action may be in smaller units. Goldman's Yuichiro Isayama noted this month that Japan's third tranche under its own $550 billion pledge is likely to focus on SMRs (after about 10 units were already assumed in the second), and flagged Japan Steel Works (Buy) as the big winner because SMR primary components still need the same large forgings as full-size reactors. As we've argued for a while, modular reactors are the only long-term solution to the AI power crunch; Tokyo seems to agree, while Seoul is betting on the gigawatt-scale designs that made Vogtle famous for all the wrong reasons.
Who buys all this power?As a reminder, Korea's own case for Encinal assumes the power "can be sold to Big Tech at premium prices," per a local report flagged by Goldman's Seoul desk. The demand is certainly there. Goldman's Power Up America team projects AI infrastructure capex of $1.3 trillion in 2027 and $2 trillion in 2028, which it says corresponds to 35GW and 57GW of new data center deployments, adding that "the physical grid could emerge as the ultimate constraint." Against that, Encinal's 6.3GW plus roughly 9.5GW of reactors that won't be online until well into the 2030s is a rounding error... if it gets built at all.
And then there's the behind-the-meter question. As we noted last week, Goldman's Carbonomics team raised its outlook for BTM generation at data centers from 40GW to 67GW by 2030. If hyperscalers increasingly build their own on-site power (which we have long argued should be mandatory), then grid-scale plants that were financed on the premise of selling premium power to Big Tech may find Big Tech has already left the room. And with large gas turbines effectively sold out through 2030, Encinal and the BTM crowd are fighting over the same equipment anyway.
Bottom lineJapan went first in February with a $36 billion opening tranche, led by an Ohio gas plant whose sponsor, SB Energy, has since delayed its IPO. Korea is now doing the same thing, just bigger and faster: one gas plant Seoul has agreed to, $174 billion of projects it still calls "future discussion," and a headline number that will do a lot of work between now and November 3.
Last week we said there was $328 billion to go. After today, Trump will say $150 billion. Seoul will probably say it's still $328 billion. For once, both may be right.
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Congress Keeps The Trading Desk Open: Senate Dems Sink Lawmaker Trading Ban 53-47
A midterm messaging bill that was never going to become law just confirmed the only bipartisan consensus that matters: members of Congress still get to play the tape.
Senate Democrats just blocked cloture on a bill that would have stopped lawmakers from buying new publicly traded stocks. The vote was 53-47. Sixty were required. But guess what happened? Republicans dropped Voter ID into it so the Dems would nuke it.
The measure was H.R. 7008, the Stop Insider Trading Act. House Republicans shoved it through on July 22 by 232-198, with 13 Democrats peeling off. Senate Majority Leader John Thune teed it up this week as a pre-recess vote for vulnerable incumbents, with Nebraska Republican Pete Ricketts as the face of the Senate version.
🇺🇸 BREAKING: Senate Democrats voted 53-47 against a bill that would have mandated photo voter ID and prohibited stock trading by members of Congress, with all Democrats voting against it.
The proposal would have restricted certain stock purchases by lawmakers, their spouses and… pic.twitter.com/CFLVlbf05v
It was not a vote on final passage. It was a vote on whether the Senate would even begin debate. Every Democrat lined up against it. Republicans got their campaign tape. The public got another press release about "integrity."
What The Bill Actually DidThis was not a ban on congressional stock ownership. It was a ban on new purchases of publicly listed names by members, spouses, and dependent children, plus a 7-to-14-day public notice before a sale.
Stop Insider Trading Act - the fine print
- Banned: new buys of publicly traded stocks and equivalent economic exposure.
- Allowed: keeping existing portfolios; selling after advance notice; widely held funds/ETFs.
- Penalty: greater of $2,000 or 10% of the trade, plus forfeiture of profits.
- Not covered: the president and vice president; private companies; commodities; forced divestiture.
- Bolted on: national photo-ID language lifted from the SAVE America Act.
Ricketts has been selling the companion as commonsense. In a July op-ed he said members could keep existing stock but had to telegraph sales so "the market" could get ahead of them. Violating a $1 million sale without notice would cost $100,000 plus profits. That is a parking ticket in a town where a well-timed options lot can clear that before lunch.
The 2012 STOCK Act already pretends to police this. It does not ban trades. It requires delayed disclosure and affirms that insider-trading law applies to Congress. The new bill would have gone further on purchases. It still left the core conflict intact: lawmakers can hold the names they regulate, vote the names they hold, and sell when the calendar is convenient.
The "Poison Pill" Was The PointSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not hide the strategy. On Tuesday, in floor remarks his office billed as exposing a "theatrical farce," he accused Republicans of "skullduggery" for wiring a voter-ID mandate into an ethics bill.
There’s been a real effort to ban members of Congress from trading stocks and profiting off insider information—which I’ve supported for years.
This Republican bill, however, has no reform, no accountability, and no substance, and STILL allows members to own and sell stocks. pic.twitter.com/NL9i0ybWrK
He is not wrong about the mechanics. Democrats have already killed standalone voter-ID vehicles. Attach the same language to a popular ethics bill and you force the minority to vote against "banning insider trading" on camera. That is a super PAC ad in search of a roll call.
Schumer's other complaint echoes the one House Democrats have made since January: the bill is "not a ban." Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called it "weak sauce." House Democrats spent the January markup trying to force full divestiture and to rope in the executive branch. Republicans voted those amendments down.
The GOP bill was thinner than the bipartisan drafts that have been rotting in committee for years. And Democrats just used that gap, plus a voting rider they were never going to accept, to keep the status quo.
A Lifeline Vote, Not A LawThune scheduled this next to a data-center ratepayer bill as a political life raft for three incumbents getting worked over on affordability and self-dealing: Ricketts in Nebraska, Jon Husted in Ohio, Dan Sullivan in Alaska. The Hill reported Thune's theory in plain English: it becomes "pretty hard" for Democrats to hammer those senators for trading or data-center politics if Democrats are the ones who killed the bills.
Ricketts needs the tape. He is running for a full term against independent Dan Osborn, who has hit him over an estimated $10 million stock-market haul around last year's tariff chaos. A failed 60-vote test lets Ricketts say he tried. It lets Osborn say Congress protected itself.
Bloomberg Government flagged the outcome a day early. Democrats said a stock bill with voter ID would "never pass." The Washington Examiner called the whole exercise "built to fail" before the first vote was cast. CNBC framed it as a vote before the election recess.
The Real Ban Is Still In Committee HellA stricter bipartisan model - full divestiture of individual names, sometimes covering the executive branch, sometimes not - polls through the roof and dies in the cloakroom. House Democrats wanted Trump and Vance in the net. Republicans would not put a sitting Republican president in a trading cage while leaving Congress a blind-trust fig leaf. The coalition that could pass a real ban split on who had to sell.
So leadership reached for the version that lets members keep their books. Then they stapled on photo ID. The STOCK Act's 30-to-45-day disclosure lag remains the law of the land.
If Congress wanted this fixed, the fix is not complicated: no individual names, no sector toys dressed up as "diversified" products, no spouse carve-outs for people who sit in the room, and the same rule for anyone who can move a sector with a speech. That bill does not get 60 votes because too many people in the chamber like the current return profile.
Tyler Durden Wed, 09/30/2026 - 13:40