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China's Mass Production Of Dual-Use Drone Engines Fuels A Global Proliferation Crisis
China's greatest military advantage may be its ability to convert its massive civilian manufacturing base into wartime production of low-cost, one-way attack drones modeled after Iran's Shahed-136.
This is especially alarming because the U.S. defense industrial base is only beginning (read here) to prepare for a transition to wartime output, even as a global drone procurement race accelerates. Nation-states are set to stockpile millions of autonomous, low-cost weapons in the years ahead.
We have already shown readers how Chinese firms appear to be ramping up production of Shahed-style drones, with open-source footage from social media increasingly pointing to expanding production capacity.
Some scary stats on China's militaro-industrail complex's capacity:
- China casts more metal products than the next nine countries combined and >5× the US.
- Its shipbuilding capacity is ~200× the US (a total-capacity figure, not per-ship speed).
- It makes ~90% of the world's… pic.twitter.com/RcxKN4SDZZ
The latest finding centers on the drone's powerplant: the Iranian MADO MD-550 engine, which is used throughout the Shahed family and in Russia's Geran-2 variant. MD550-type engines are also being mass produced in China and widely advertised on Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba.
The problem is not that China manufactures small aviation engines; it is that commercially available, dual-use engines can be incorporated into Shahed-style drones with limited visibility into the final buyer or end use.
The United Nations has identified the Iranian MADO-550 as the engine used in the Shahed drone family, while the U.S. Treasury has said the sanctioned Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (commonly known as Mado company).
Chinese vendors on Alibaba advertise MD550-type UAV engines in large quantities, although the listings alone do not show any connection to a Chinese state weapons program.
More importantly, the Alibaba listings are evidence of commercial availability, not proof that Beijing is deliberately supplying one-way attack drone programs. However, the listings only highlight the erosion of the boundary between civilian manufacturing and weapons production.
The real threat is that long-range strike drones can increasingly be assembled from commercially produced parts at a scale traditional export-control systems were never designed to contain. This means Shahed-style systems are likely to proliferate far beyond nation-states, spreading to proxies, criminal networks, and other threat actors.
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Latest evidence:
The question is no longer whether these drones will reach the West, but when.
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Open Borders Are A Death Sentence To Western Nations
Authored by J.B.Shurk via AmericanThinker.com,
As simmering conflicts between Western citizens and Western governments boil over the next few years, we must never forget how we got to this point: Elected officials and irremovable bureaucrats occupying permanent administrative roles have refused to respect the wishes of the citizens whom they ostensibly represent and serve.
From the United States to the United Kingdom, citizens have demanded that their governments secure national borders and end the steady flow of illegal aliens into their communities. From France, the Netherlands, and Germany to Australia and New Zealand, citizens have demanded that their governments arrest and remove Islamic immigrants who are guilty of rape, murder, or other violent crimes. With the exception of President Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration law and deport illegal alien criminals (despite formidable resistance from the courts, leftist NGOs, and Establishment politicians from both the Democrat and Republican Parties) in the United States, no Western official has done anything to remedy the scourge of unlawful mass invasion in a deliberate, meaningful, and effective way. Instead, Western governments hide from their citizens the true number of illegal immigrants living among them. Western governments hide from their citizens a full accounting of the crimes committed by foreign nationals who should never have been permitted entry in the first place.
Mass illegal immigration is not a new problem. In the United States, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law in 1986. Defended by both political parties as a way of combating illegal immigration while providing long-term lawbreakers legal status, it effectively awarded millions of foreign nationals amnesty. Politicians convinced the American people to support this trade-off: In return for citizens’ reluctantly permitting the government to reward the unlawful behavior of foreign immigrants who had no right to reside in the United States, the government would protect citizens by cracking down on future illegal immigration and punishing businesses that hired illegal immigrant workers. The U.S. government never lived up to its side of the bargain.
Instead, U.S. officials have lied to their citizens for forty additional years. Until President Trump entered office, U.S. borders were not secured. Businesses were rarely punished for hiring illegal aliens. Unbeknownst to most American citizens, State and federal welfare programs continued to add illegal aliens to their taxpayer-funded dole rolls. School districts in both cities and small towns continued to enroll illegal alien children. Hospital emergency rooms continued to overflow with illegal alien patients seeking “free” medical care. American jobs — especially blue-collar jobs — continued to go to illegal aliens because employers could pay foreigners less, avoid state and federal taxes, and use the threat of deportation as exploitative leverage over their workforces. Illegal alien workers continued to place downward pressure on hourly wages. Illegal aliens continued to place upward pressure on the costs of housing, energy, and household necessities.
Sometime in the ‘90s, American politicians and government bureaucrats began admitting to Americans that there were roughly eleven million illegal aliens inside the United States. For the next thirty years, politicians and bureaucrats repeated the same “eleven million” figure as if no net-increase in immigration had occurred. Anybody living in small-town America knew this to be a demonstrable lie. In the nineties, local school classrooms were made up almost entirely of American kids who grew up speaking English in households whose families had been living in the United States for generations. As each year passed, those same classrooms were increasingly filled with kids whose parents had come from all over the world, and even small school districts were forced to hire staff who could attend to the needs of an increasingly foreign student body unfamiliar with basic English.
Former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has said repeatedly that there are more than one hundred million illegal aliens residing in the United States. In other words, roughly one out of every three people living inside the borders of the U.S. is a foreign national unlawfully here. If those foreign nationals are employed, then they are likely guilty of identity fraud and committing a number of additional state and federal crimes. Of those committing identity fraud, many are using social security numbers stolen from American citizens. Illegal aliens who steal Americans’ identities adversely affect citizens’ credit scores, tax obligations with the IRS, and background checks. Illegal aliens who fraudulently vote by claiming to be American citizens steal votes from actual American citizens. Foreign nationals who illegally vote in American elections deny American citizens legitimate representation and undermine Americans’ constitutional form of self-government.
In 1986, lawmakers from both parties promised an end to illegal immigration. Instead, tens of millions of new illegal aliens have continued to arrive. In return for grudgingly acceding to the government’s desire to provide a one-time gift of amnesty to those foreigners whose first act in the country was to break our immigration laws, Americans continued to lose jobs, pay more for everything, and be defrauded by identity theft. Even worse, they were forced to watch as foreign cultures transformed their schools and towns. They were forced to watch as foreigners successfully ran for political office and pushed foreign policies and beliefs upon American citizens.
New York City has a Muslim mayor from Uganda who has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for only eight years. Minneapolis has a Muslim member of Congress from Somalia who became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of seventeen. Roughly 4% of Congress are foreign-born naturalized citizens, while 15% of Congress have at least one immigrant parent. A third of the judges occupying prestigious and powerful positions on the D.C. District Courts were born in foreign nations.
These numbers are going in one direction — up!
When President Barack Obama spoke enthusiastically about “fundamentally transforming” the United States, this is what he had in mind. If you invite third-world communists to break into your country, pretty soon your government will be filled with third-world communists, too. Americans were never consulted about this “fundamental transformation.” Politicians and bureaucrats steamrolled American citizens with tall tales of foreign immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking safety in the United States. Nobody tried to explain why all the foreigners fleeing persecution in their home countries still wave their national flags in American neighborhoods and at American sporting events. Nobody tried to explain why foreigners from all over the world couldn’t obtain asylum in countries closer to home. Nobody tried to explain why so many foreigners claiming asylum in the United States continue to visit their friends and families in their native countries.
No American ever voted for this radical transformation. No politician or government bureaucrat respected American citizens enough to seek their consent. Nevertheless, politicians and bureaucrats continue to lie to the American people by pretending that foreign nationals are not taking over their society. Because they despise American citizens, government officials tell obvious lies without shame.
Where is all this shameless and callous disregard for the will of American citizens headed? It is headed toward the same dead end already appearing in other Western nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and France: Increasingly, Western peoples are electing political representatives who promise to end divisive and deadly mass immigration policies. The more that government officials undermine their citizens’ electoral will, the more that citizens are turning to the streets to be heard.
Peaceful forms of civil disobedience are evolving into violent altercations with police.
Instead of listening to their citizens, Western governments call them racists and censor their online speech. At some point, citizens will conclude that their governments have become threats to their security and way of life. Governments will lose their legitimacy. Western countries will become battlefields. Open borders guarantee that Western nations will die.
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Fast Food Giant Under Investigation Over Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak: Report
Federal and state health officials are reportedly zeroing in on Taco Bell restaurants as a possible culprit in one of the biggest parasite outbreaks to slam the U.S. in years, a nasty bug that turns your guts into a nonstop disaster zone of explosive diarrhea and misery.
More than 4,000 people have already been sickened, the vast majority of them in Michigan, where victims are enduring days of gut-wrenching, bathroom-racing hell that has hospitalized at least 80 people so far.
The Washington Post reports that officials are probing whether contaminated fresh produce at the fast-food chain helped spread the Cyclospora parasite, which hitches a ride in feces-tainted veggies. No smoking gun has nailed Taco Bell or any single supplier yet, but the chain has yanked lettuce, cilantro, onions, pico de gallo, and guacamole from some Detroit-area locations after a nationwide recall notice surfaced last week.
Taco Bell insists it is playing it safe and putting customers first.
"The health and safety of our guests is our top priority," the company said in a statement obtained by the Post. "Public health officials have not confirmed a link to Taco Bell or any specific ingredient, so we have voluntarily pulled some items at select spots as a precaution while authorities continue their review."
Michigan is ground zero for the outbreak and is getting absolutely hammered, with a staggering 3,300-plus cases and hundreds more piling up daily as state health officials repeatedly flag leafy lettuce and salad greens as the leading suspect after interviewing more than 1,000 sick patients.
"Current results point to lettuce or salad greens as a potential source," Michigan's health department warned Monday. Meanwhile, federal officials at the CDC and FDA are being far more cautious, insisting there is no confirmed single multistate outbreak and that the numbers are not yet definitively unusual even as they log 145 cases across 17 states outside Michigan, along with 20 hospitalizations.
As we previously noted, Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite that loves hitching rides on fresh produce. Once it gets inside you it unleashes watery diarrhea, vicious cramps, vomiting, nausea, exhaustion, and fever that can drag on for days or even weeks if left untreated.
One victim, Cristy Cooper, recently spoke from her hospital bed to the New York Post about the nightmare that started June 25.
"This is worse than any flu I have ever gotten. It is just so miserable," she said. "I am worn out from it. I really am."
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New Women's Athletics Guidelines Crack Down On 'Sexualizing' Camera Angles
Authored by Calum Patterson via Dexerto,
New broadcasting guidelines have been introduced in Europe to prevent women athletes from being sexualized through camera angles and slow-motion replays.
The European Broadcasting Union partnered with European Athletics to release new guidance for women's athletics coverage, with broadcasters urged to focus on performance and technical ability.
The guidelines warn against lingering shots of athletes' bodies, low camera angles that capture revealing views, and slow-motion replays that offer little technical or storytelling value.
"The sexualization of women athletes through selective camera angles and editing choices continues to be a significant concern across many sports broadcasts," said Glen Killane, Executive Director of EBU Sports.
"Lingering shots on bodies, low-angle cameras that capture revealing views, and excessive slow-motion replays that serve no technical or storytelling purpose are among the issues observed in the media coverage of women's athletics competitions today."
Broadcasters urged to avoid 'compromising' shotsThe 23-page Raising the Bar document uses examples from real broadcasts to highlight potentially "compromising" shots across high jump, pole vault, long jump, and running events.
Broadcasters are advised to avoid tight shots from behind athletes, low cameras underneath competitors, and certain slow-motion replays. Instead, wider angles showing run-ups, take-offs, and technique are encouraged.
British Olympic pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw said some athletes have even become distracted by camera positions during competitions.
"Many athletes, myself included have been in competitive scenarios where they are more focused on the cameras instead of their own performance," she said.
Bradshaw also revealed she has received social media abuse and seen "inappropriate videos" of herself and fellow athletes created from slow-motion competition footage.
The guidelines are now available to broadcasters covering women's athletics, with the EBU saying coverage should focus on athletes' "technical ability and compelling storytelling."
Never forget. https://t.co/q5Fzz1gp6G pic.twitter.com/CPthfFWxBx
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 14, 2026 Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 21:45