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This whole scheme is nuts: The problems at Rikers stem from mismanagement and forgone maintenance — not from the location, which in fact is ideal.

One Every Minute: These Numbers Are Unsustainable...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

One migrant is now being granted settlement or citizenship in Britain every single minute, according to newly released Home Office figures.

In the three months to June 2026, 140,122 foreign nationals were given indefinite leave to remain or British citizenship - 1.07 people every 60 seconds. Across the full year, nearly 200,000 were handed indefinite leave to remain (ILR), a 16-year record and a 24 per cent jump on the year before. Another 245,520 were granted citizenship. Applications to become British hit an all-time high of 315,224.

This is the so called "Boriswave" arriving at the welfare office. The people waved in when salary and skills thresholds were slashed are now converting temporary visas into a permanent claim on housing, the NHS, benefits and, in time, the state pension.

'The numbers we see now are a huge increase on where they have been in the last few years.'

Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control reacts to Home Office data showing one migrant is being granted settlement or citizenship in Britain every minute. pic.twitter.com/k1PRUEofoH

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 30, 2026

Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, put it without decoration: the numbers are unsustainable, and the damage will have to be undone.

ILR is not a courtesy stamp. It is the right to remain for life, to access the same welfare entitlements as a citizen, to apply for social housing, and, after a further year, to apply for a passport. Once that status is issued, reversing it is a political fight the Home Office has spent years refusing to have.

Bates told GB News the latest settlement totals are "a huge increase on where they have been in the last few years." In the year to June, he noted, Britain issued around 200,000 grants of settlement - a 243 per cent increase on 2017. Every one of those people, he said, can claim benefits, social housing and NHS care, "and they will all end up being pensioners drawing money from the state."

Full segment:

"Just one in five of those individuals are actually work main applicants," Bates said. "Over half are family members and dependants, and actually one in seven are refugees. So this idea that they're all going to be economic dynamite and aren't going to make use of Britain's welfare state is pie in the sky thinking."

Indian nationals led settlement grants, with Chinese grants quadrupling. The pipeline behind them is larger still. The Home Office's own earned-settlement consultation estimated that between 1.3 million and 2.2 million people will settle in the UK between 2026 and 2030, with a central forecast of 1.6 million and a peak year around 450,000 in 2028.

Health and care visa holders who arrived in the post-2021 surge become eligible in a cluster from 2027. That is not a trickle. It is a second population event, baked in before Shabana Mahmood's promised 10-year wait even takes effect.

Bates's warning was blunt. "If the Labour Government continues to drag its heels on its reforms to indefinite leave to remain, then we could be facing a catastrophe." Even "the Home Office's conservative estimates suggest a £10billion, or up to several hundred billion pounds." "This is something that simply a country's books cannot afford."

While the settlement machine stamps papers, the asylum machine prints invoices.

The asylum system cost the British taxpayer £4.3 billion in 2025/26. Official Home Office spending on asylum stood at £4.36 billion in that year. Centre for Migration Control toted up the last ten years at £25 billion spent accommodating, supporting and processing illegal arrivals and asylum claimants. Bates calculated that as £150 a year from every household, an eightfold rise on the bill a decade ago.

The asylum system cost the British taxpayer £4.3bn in 2025/26.

In the last decade a total of £25bn has been spent on accommodating, supporting and processing illegal migrants/ 'asylum seekers'.

This money should have been spent on British priorities. https://t.co/yXA9tSj3hf

— Centre for Migration Control (@migrationCtrl) August 28, 2026

Labour's answer is a press release about hotels. Hotel numbers have been cut. At the end of June there were 16,021 people in hotels, half the 32,041 of a year earlier and well below the 56,000 peak of 2023. Fewer than 160 hotels remain in use, against around 400 at the height of the Conservative mess. Thirteen more sites were handed back in August, with ministers advertising £51 million in savings from that batch and £224 million from this year's closures.

What they do not advertise is the relocation. 69,038 asylum seekers are now in houses, flats and bedsits - up 4 per cent in a year and double a decade ago. The North West, including Manchester, holds the largest share: 16,349 in dispersed private rentals, almost a quarter of the supported total. Bates wrote that some 73,000 people are now in non-hotel accommodation, up since the election. They are not going into detention. The detention estate has fewer than 2,500 beds. They are going into the street behind yours.

Andy Burnham's instruction to the country was that middle-class areas should "play their part" so the "poorest communities" do not take "the lion's share." In practice that means villages such as Piddington - population 350 - being lined up to host hundreds of unvetted arrivals. Hotels were a visible scandal. Houses in multiple occupation are a quieter one. The bill does not shrink because the sign on the door changes from "Holiday Inn" to "dispersal."

Mahmood's line is that control is being "restored." "A little over two years into office and the asylum backlog is down, the number of asylum seekers in hotels is falling, illegal working arrests are at record levels, and deportations and returns are up markedly," she said. "Small boats numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent."

The small print tells a different story. 86,000 people claimed asylum in the year to June - down 21 per cent, but still far above the pre-2021 normal. 33,000 came on small boats. Detected illegal arrivals totalled 38,000. Returns of people with no right to be here rose to 41,000, including 6,000 foreign offenders. That sounds like movement until it is set against the stock. More than 210,000 people have crossed the Channel since 2018. Analysis of Home Office figures found 9,694 of those dinghy arrivals had been deported between 2018 and the first half of 2026. Fewer than 10,000 removed in eight years.

Bates's assessment of Labour's record on the only number that matters - removal - was savage. "Less than eight per cent of small boat migrants who have arrived under Labour have actually been removed, and this includes, of course, those who were sent to France before sneaking back into the country." He added, that "Since Labour took power, the Home Office has deported more Poles than it has individuals from the top five small boat nationalities combined."

The backlog at initial decision has been cut to around 40,000, the lowest since 2019. Appeals have exploded the other way. In March 2023 there were roughly 8,000 cases in the First-tier Immigration Tribunal. By March 2026 the figure was well over 87,000. Applications are being "waved through," Bates wrote, while the courts fill up with a second queue. Failed claimants stay. The boats keep coming because the people in northern France can see the same statistics. "Even if their asylum application is eventually rejected, the human rights framework of this country, along with the Refugee Convention, means they will never be removed."

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused ministers of shifting the problem, not ending it: "Labour are moving illegal immigrants out of hotels and into flats in your building, and now they are telling them to go and disappear without a trace." The Conservative offer is to leave the ECHR and "deport every illegal immigrant." Reform has gone further and talked about abolishing ILR as a category. Labour's offer is a longer wait, a £10,000 repayment levy for those who later earn, and another round of former barracks.

None of that touches the people already being stamped through at one a minute.

Settlement and the asylum bill are only half the ledger. The other half is what happens after arrival - and that is the file the government is in court to keep shut.

Ministers are spending public money to block the release of conviction data by nationality for England and Wales, the dataset the Centre for Migration Control requested under FOI and the Information Commissioner ordered out. Justice Secretary David Lammy sanctioned an appeal. Families of the dead and the raped asked him to drop it.

Alex Whyte, whose sister Rhiannon was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by Sudanese small-boat arrival Deng Chol Majek at the asylum hotel where she worked, told GB News she felt "sick, disgusted and completely let down." Anger, she said, "doesn't even cover what I feel, and it never will." Labour, she added, is "too afraid to admit" what open borders have done. "Open your eyes. You are so aware of what is happening, but you are too afraid to admit it."

The families' letter to the Justice Secretary stated "Imagine if someone you loved had been attacked, abused, or killed by a person who had entered Britain from abroad." Victims and the public "deserve transparency about the people who enter our country and the crimes they subsequently commit." Withholding the data "damages trust" and blocks "meaningful action."

Partial figures already out explain the panic. Foreign nationals accounted for 14.1 per cent of sexual offence convictions in 2025. They made up about 9 per cent of the population and 26.1 per cent of sexual-offence arrests - 3.5 times the British rate. On the railways, CMC's British Transport Police data showed foreigners were 79 per cent of theft arrests in 2025, 40 per cent of drug-offence arrests, 37 per cent of sexual-offence arrests and 36 per cent of violent-crime arrests. Across England and Wales, foreign nationals were arrested 172,889 times in the year to March 2025 - one every 183 seconds.

That is why the Ministry of Justice is in a tribunal instead of a press conference. They know a nationality breakdown, published in full, would not produce a seminar. It would produce a reckoning. They know it would trigger mass unrest. So they fight the Information Commissioner with the same Treasury that cannot find an extra nurse and can find £4.3 billion for a system Bates described as "perma-chaos."

Net migration has come off the 2023 peak of 944,000. The year to December 2025 was estimated at 171,000. Work visas are down. Study visas are down. Labour waves those charts as proof the fever has broken.

Settlement is the delayed charge on the same account. You can slow the inflow and still lock in the stock. You can close a hotel and open a house. You can cut the initial backlog and watch the appeals list triple. You can talk about "earned settlement" while stamping 140,000 grants in a single quarter.

Bates's line on the student route captures the wider fraud. Around three-quarters of a million visas are still being issued, with students the largest slice. "We are seeing an increasing trend now of the student visa route being increasingly used not just actually to come and study at a world-beating university, but as a back door into Britain and a long-term migration route."

He further noted that more than 60 per cent of people arriving on student visas were still here more than three years after their courses ended. "So there is huge, huge pressure that is being piled already on the British welfare state."

That pressure is not an accident of weather in the Channel. It is a policy choice repeated by two governments: admit first, process later, settle always, remove almost never, and treat the public's demand for numbers by nationality as a public-order risk rather than a democratic right.

Mahmood says fairness is being restored. Burnham says nicer postcodes must take their share. The Home Office says the hotels are emptying. The stopwatch says otherwise. One grant a minute. Two hundred thousand settlements in a year. A quarter of a million new citizens. A record citizenship queue.

A forecast of up to 2.2 million more settlers before the decade is out. Four billion and more on asylum this year, twenty-five billion across ten. Nine thousand-odd Channel arrivals removed from more than two hundred thousand who came.

These numbers are unsustainable. The people running the system know it. That is why the crime file stays in the vault, why the hotels become HMOs, and why settlement is being issued faster than the country can absorb, house, police or afford it.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 05:00

He would never dream of saying so himself, but Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is an American hero and the nation's most inspiring man.

"For months afterward, you could taste the fuel in the air in the back of your throat and mouth. They kept telling us the air was safe. I don't think it was."

Rescuers were trying to find trapped workers in at least a dozen hydroelectric plant sites Monday after catastrophic flooding in Nepal and Tibet killed at least 900 people and left more than 4,000 missing.

The 'Elijah Peel' actor challenges other conservatives in the industry to stop hiding after his own experiences.

The 'Elijah Peel' actor challenges other conservatives in the industry to stop hiding after his own experiences.

Google Retreats On 'Parasite SEO' Crackdown In Europe To Head Off EU Antitrust Fine

Alphabet's Google said on Friday that it has changed how it enforces its spam rules in Europe, following concerns from EU regulators that the policy could unfairly hurt news publishers and other websites that carry content from commercial partners.

The Google logo outside the company's offices in London on June 24, 2025. Carlos Jasso/Reuters

The dispute centers on Google's policy against "site reputation abuse," a practice often called "parasite SEO." It occurs when a third party publishes content on a well-established website primarily to benefit from that site's strong reputation in Google Search and gain higher rankings than the content might receive on its own.

Google introduced the policy to target arrangements in which outside companies use trusted websites mainly as vehicles for boosting their search visibility.

European regulators, however, raised concerns that Google's enforcement was too broad. They found that the policy was also reducing the search rankings of legitimate publishers simply because their websites contained material produced with, or supplied by, commercial partners.

Google said that from August 30, manual actions taken under the policy will no longer apply to users in the European Economic Area - the 27 EU states plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. The policy remains unchanged everywhere else. The policy does not apply to ZeroHedge, as Google explicitly distinguishes editorial syndication from “site reputation abuse.” This is different from "parasite SEO" where an outside company places unrelated content on a trusted domain in order to exploit that site's Google ranking strength. And - since Google search algos still hate us with the white hot passion of 1,000 suns, the 'ranking strength' aspect would be moot anyway. 

Google has now adjusted its approach in Europe in an effort to address those concerns and avoid a potential antitrust penalty. DMA breaches carry fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

The two sides are describing the same climbdown differently. "We welcome the repeal of this policy, which unfairly penalised publishers and other business users of Google Search," Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said, adding that "thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content." Google, for its part, called it an adjustment to "our enforcement approach" - and warned that "an overbroad application of the DMA could prevent us from addressing real threats to the integrity of our search results."

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 04:15

Pentagon Strikes Iranian Island Target, In First US Military Action In Weeks

Update(1615ET): Things have been quiet for many days and weeks on the military front when it comes to the Iran war, but on Sunday there are some emerging reports of new but limited US strikes. According to the latest late Sunday from Axios:

Senior American official: Earlier today, American forces attacked two Iranian launchers on Larzac Island. Revolutionary Guard forces were observed preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines toward the Strait of Hormuz.

So despite the White House signaling a move away from military action and toward the economic warfare front, it's also clear that more sporadic tit-for-tat blows could follow. But Trump has lately made clear that military options are still on the table, and strikes will be utilized as needed.

CENTCOM says that they attacked two Iranian missile launchers on Larak island. This is the first time that they have struck an Iranian target in weeks.

— barry with the NED (@bonzerbarry) August 30, 2026

*  *  *

Propaganda has always been a problem when it comes to the fog of war.  The internet and social media add a new dimension to the confusion as conflicting information is allowed to spread like wildfire using civilians and media outlets as tools for propagation.

The lack of confirmation is exploited, often by both sides, and the truth becomes lost in the mire.  That said, the facts on the ground will eventually see the light regardless of spin.  In the case of the war in Iran, the facts on the ground do not bode well for the Islamic Regime. 

Iranian leaders now openly admit that the US blockade has crippled around 35% of the nation's exports and imports while domestic prices continue to skyrocket by 60% or more.  This, however, is not the most immediate problem for the regime.  

It would appear that initial reports of gasoline shortages across Iran did not convey the true scope of the crisis.  In the past week alone more evidence from within Iran has hit social media, showing mass lines at gas stations and panic among citizens as rationing is introduced. 

Energy officials have acknowledged a gasoline deficit of roughly 15 million liters every day, warning that strategic reserves have reached “dark red” territory.

Iran has ten main operating oil refineries plus the large Persian Gulf Star condensate refinery, which is the country’s biggest gasoline producer, meaning, they do have the capability to produce their own domestic gasoline supply.  So, why the shortages? 

 

Some refined products are shipped into Iran from foreign sources and the US blockade is stifling that supply.  However, there is also the possibility that the blockade has forced Iran to shut down a number of oil wells due to lack of storage.  Depending on the type of well, a shutdown can cause extensive damage and prevent new production for years to come.  It's likely that Iran's crisis is rooted in an oil supply problem as much as a refining problem. 

The Iranians have recently called for a return to the standards set by the MOU agreement with the US, and they have also accused the US of committing "war crimes", arguing that the blockade is causing a humanitarian crisis.

The recent admissions of economic damage, the fuel shortages and the assertions of humanitarian crisis are a sharp tone shift from Iran's posture only a month ago.  Couple this with the 400% surge in ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz and it would seem that Iran is losing the war outright.  If the blockade continues for another few months the financial damage could be irreversible and repairing resource flows could take years.    

It's not enough for the regime to survive if the economy they oversee dies.  

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 04:15

A 49-year-old rider was airlifted with fractures to both legs after an incident on the Batman Gotham City Escape coaster at Spain's Parque Warner.

US Debt Matters, But The Euro Area May Create The Next Crisis

Authored by Daniel Lacalle via dlacalle.com,

The US $40 trillion debt has dominated global headlines. However, although the US fiscal challenges are relevant, we must remember an important lesson. Fiscal policy is not about who wins but who loses first.

According to official 2026 estimates, the present value of U.S. Social Security and Medicare financing gaps is about $95 trillion over 75 years, roughly 5% of the cumulative present value of projected GDP over that period, on top of federal debt held by the public, which is already projected at 101% of annual GDP in 2026.

However, the euro area's hidden fiscal burden is at least as large as its recorded debt. Official European Commission estimates put net accrued public-pension liabilities at around 150% of GDP, after future contributions are considered, while gross pension promises amount to roughly 371% of GDP. Importantly, this excludes much of the future pressure from health and long-term care spending.

What does this all mean? The next debt crisis may not come from the U.S. but from the eurozone.

First, the U.S. dollar remains the world reserve currency and treasuries are the most important asset for central banks globally, even with the recent gold purchases and rebalancing.

Second, the political landscape in most large European Union economies is one of fiscal denial. France's sovereign bond yields are now higher than Italy's. No eurozone government is willing to cut spending or limit future liabilities. Unfinanced committed liabilities (debt already assumed but not issued) exceed 300% of GDP in key euro area nations.

Third, euro area sovereign assets have generated negative real economic returns since 2021, leading to a declining appetite from global investors. U.S. debt is a challenge, but euro area debt is significantly more problematic because the reported debt is only the "excessive deficit protocol" figure, not the total liabilities of public administrations.

Euro-area Maastricht debt captures only consolidated currency and deposits, loans, and debt securities at face value. It is therefore materially smaller than the full balance-sheet liabilities of public administration and narrower still than the euro area's implicit pension and public sector-related commitments.

The key lesson is that investors should be rightly concerned about issued debt, but they should be even more scared of expanding government size added to unfunded liabilities in a region crippled by economic stagnation.

All of this tells us that the recent global bond sell-off is not a temporary issue. Markets are telling governments that no central bank is going to hide their irresponsibility anymore.

Developed economies' governments have pushed all the limits of debt-funded policies and surpassed their fiscal, economic, and inflationary limits.

• Fiscal limit: More spending creates persistent deficits, and tax hikes never solve the issue. Government spending is a burden on taxpayers and the economy.

• Economic limit: More government spending and bloating GDP with debt-fueled public sector outlays only weakens the economy and productive investment, leading to stagnation.

• Inflationary limit: Government spending leads to persistent inflation and markets discount higher-for-longer consumer prices, eroding the economy while the combination of higher taxes and consumer prices demolishes the middle class.

The United States creates headlines because Treasury yields remain the global benchmark for the price of money and collateral, but the euro area may generate the next big sovereign shock because its member states borrow in a currency they do not control and governments refuse to reduce spending, resorting constantly to tax hikes and regulatory burdens that make the economy weaker.

As of 21 August 2026, the U.S. 30-year Treasury yield traded at 5.27% and the 10-year Treasury yield around 4.73% after a week of sharp moves that briefly pushed long-dated yields to their highest levels since 2007. However, if the world saw the U.S. as a risk and other nations as safe havens, German bond yields would be falling, as happened in other periods of risk aversion. That is not the case. Germany's 10-year Bund has soared to 3.26%, the UK 10-year yield is at a record 5.1%, and Japan's 10-year yield is near 2.89%, confirming that the repricing is global rather than U.S.-centric.

This is what matters for investors and governments. Long-term sovereign bonds are no longer the unquestioned safe assets. That is why gold is soaring too.

Long-term bonds are being repriced for inflation risk, fiscal deterioration, high debt supply, and the inability of central banks to disguise fiscal irresponsibility.

When the U.S. 10-year and 30-year yields rise, financing conditions tighten globally through mortgages, corporate credit, bank funding, and emerging-market borrowing costs. In this environment, the market is not moving to euro area debt for protection; it is moving away from it.

The United States retains the world reserve currency and has the deepest and most liquid sovereign bond market in the world. This does not eliminate the debt problem, but it changes its transmission. Furthermore, at least the United States government is keeping federal spending under control, although not cutting it as fast as desired. That is not the case in the euro area, where none of the large economies seem to have any intention to control spending; rather, the opposite. Thus, this adds to the pressure of unfunded liabilities.

The euro is the only global currency that faces re-denomination risk, and the fiscal policy of the euro area has opted for interventionism and government control rather than free markets. The ECB centralizes monetary policy in the euro area, yet governments spend and borrow as if they possess unlimited monetary credibility. Their only fiscal tool is higher taxes. This creates the risk that what begins as a liquidity event quickly becomes a solvency concern, especially when markets doubt whether Brussels, Frankfurt, and national governments will respond with a coherent strategy. We saw it in 2011.

Now, the euro area has added more risks. The "savings and banking union" and central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects do not provide relief for global investors; rather, they raise concerns that the euro area may have opted for interventionism and government control by imposing the use of the currency instead of enhancing its appeal as a global hub for free markets and capital attraction.

The savings and banking union project will not avoid a debt crisis in the euro area. With governments that do not accept spending cuts, the digital currency may only lead to surveillance, control, and, ultimately, higher inflation.

This is why the next crisis may come from Europe, not despite the U.S. debt problem but because the euro area lacks institutional flexibility, discipline, and an open market approach. Thus, if the euro area accelerates its interventionist plans to force investment and promote the use of the currency through repression, the problem may become more significant. If monetary policy cannot be a limit to fiscal irresponsibility and governments refuse to reduce their spending, the currency and the financial system are at risk. Resolving the United States' debt problem requires implementing spending cuts and fostering higher productive growth. Unfortunately, euro area governments are not generating economic growth and are instead increasing government intervention. As such, when confidence in a large member state disappears, the consequences are systemic for the entire monetary union.

The world is seeing the German spending experiment fail in real time, and that is why German bonds are falling as fast as others, instead of strengthening.

Recent data from France and Germany show that the problem extends beyond a small country within the union. The core of the euro area is weakening while the peripheral countries are either disguising stagnation with immigration and political spending (Spain) or are still in post-crisis mode.

France's 10-year yield has soared to levels not seen since 2008. German bonds, once viewed as a safe haven, weakened alongside other euro area issuers. The ECB anti-fragmentation tool disguised imbalances for a while and now has transferred the risk to all sovereign issuers.

France matters because it is the core euro-area economy alongside Germany. French public debt is expected to be about 118% of GDP in 2026 and could rise toward 130% of GDP by 2030. Markets now understand that no new prime minister is going to cut spending. They will repeat the same failed approach of the past three decades: raising taxes and postponing necessary spending cuts.

As markets begin to reprice France as a fiscal weak link rather than a core strength, the euro area's internal problems become impossible to ignore. This European project has made rising government spending and a large public sector the focus of policy, treating the private sector as a cash machine for an ever-expanding bureaucracy.

The real problem is not simply the absolute level of debt. The combination of high borrowing, big government, high taxes, and a lack of real growth capacity leads to rising interest costs, and it is now evident that central banks can no longer disguise this problem.

When U.S. borrowing costs rise, global financial conditions tighten. It is a significant problem that requires spending cuts, government shutdowns, and higher private sector growth. When euro area borrowing costs soar, they show evidence of the unsustainability of a European project based on expanding the size of government at any cost. When governments reject short-term pain, they pass it to citizens.

The solution is not more government, monetization, intervention, or more taxes on productive capital. The answer is credible spending cuts, lower structural deficits, stronger incentives for private investment, and reforms that eliminate regulatory burdens and lift productivity as well as economic growth. If nothing changes, U.S. debt will continue to tighten global financial conditions, but the euro area may still be the place where the next sovereign crisis erupts.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 03:30

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Sunday teased an upcoming announcement about the Trump administration's fraud crackdown.

Venus Williams got ousted from the U.S. Open, losing to fellow American wild card Sofia Kenin 6-2, 7-6 (6) after not getting on Arthur Ashe until midnight.

Dear Abby responds after viewers tell her that she repsonse was wrong from a recent column about a couple getting married and their two meddling mothers.

Canadian Leftists Want To Use Great Lakes Seaway As A Weapon Against The US

If anyone had any doubt that Canada is a predominantly far-left country, one only need look at polls in support of Market Carney's trade war rhetoric against the US.  Over 70% of the Canadian population is currently in support of Carney's decision to dismiss trade negotiations with the Trump Administration. 

Much of the rhetoric online repeats leftist talking points, including the claim that America is now a "fascist" state and cutting a deal with Trump would be the same as "cutting a deal with the Third Reich".      

Keep in mind, Carney was so close to a deal with the US that Trump had paused new tariffs and Carney asked premiers to put American liquor back on provincial shelves.  The was two days before he abruptly backed out and abandoned any future talks.  Why?  Theories abound. 

The most prominent theory being that Carney has been talking with US Democrats and was convinced to avoid cutting a deal with Trump before the midterm elections in November.  Any deal would be seen as a win for Trump that might boost Republicans. 

Other theories cite potential foreign influence from the EU.  Carney was on vacation in Italy just before the negotiations were to finalize and he engaged in a flurry of meetings and calls with European officials just after his trade war decision.  Leftists governments in Europe and communists in China have much to gain by continued tensions between Canada and the US. 

It should be noted that the full text of the deal still has not been released to the Canadian public for review.  Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the Prime Minister to release details of the failed trade deal with the United States and reconvene parliament. 

“We need to see the deal that we rejected. Canadians have not seen it,” said Poilievre.       

Whatever may have happened to convince Carney to walk away from the best tariff deal that was offered to any country, the aftermath has stirred plenty of Canadian citizens into a hostile frenzy.  One is reminded of Scrappy Doo, yipping and yapping and nipping at the heals of a much larger opponent in the delusion that this will accomplish something. 

In the meantime, 33% of Canada's GDP relies on exports and 78% of those exports rely on US markets.  Furthermore, there are no practical alternatives.  Without a near-term deal with the US, Canada faces severe recession, or worse.  Canadian officials and the public have not yet come to accept this reality.  They have been busy conjuring ways to "hurt" the US, but these tactics are based on an ignorance of the bigger picture. 

For example, Canadian officials recommended shutting off electric supplies to the US eastern seaboard.  However, Canada provides less than 1% of all US electricity.  Meaning, they have no leverage. 

They also called for a shutdown of oil exports to the US, but the US is a net exporter of oil and the largest oil producer in the world.  Going without Canadian oil would cause prices to rise, but it would not do the kind of damage they are hoping for.  Trump's latest landmark deal with Venezuela will mitigate any potential supply disruptions from Canada.    

Plus, 70% of Canadian oil traveling from Alberta to Ontario uses pipelines that cross into US territory (the Enbridge Mainline).  It would be a disaster for them to escalate. 

This brings us to the newest ingenious idea from Canadian leftists, which is to shut down US access to the St. Lawrence Seaway from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.  Or, increase tolls to crippling levels at the various Canadian controlled locks. 

Canada is now considering charging a toll for US ships travelling the Straight Of Ontario. pic.twitter.com/jNjLYVaUsA

— Dean Blundell🇨🇦 (@ItsDeanBlundell) August 28, 2026

There is a problem with this plan, though.  First, Canada already charges tolls at these locks and has done so for decades.  

Every ship entering the Great Lakes goes through the Welland Canal, located fully in Canada. There’s no other option. $26.3 billion of US trade depends on it. Would be a shame if tolls skyrocketed or it was transit-taxed heavily…

Thank you for your attention to this matter. pic.twitter.com/CmAfXiToOR

— Stephano🍁Barberis (@HelloStephano) August 28, 2026

On the other hand, the US also controls at least two locks on the same waterway which Canadian ships use regularly.  The US government waived collection of tolls on the seaway back in 1986.  Meaning Canada is the only country that collects tolls, but this could be easily changed.  If Canada tried to charge higher tolls or block access, the US could to do the same, and the US has the actual military resources to enforce such measures.  

By extension, if Canada tried to initiate a wider resource war against the US, their oil pipelines going through the US could be cut off.  Once again, Canada simply has no economic leverage.  The sooner they accept this, the sooner they can avoid a painful economic decline.     

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 02:45

Pegula couldn’t see herself making the same type of return as the one Alcaraz is making Monday at the U.S. Open after not playing a competitive match for more than four months.

No Whites Allowed, Britain's MI5 Tells Applicants

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Britain's domestic intelligence service is once again telling White university students they are not wanted.

For the 2027 Summer Intelligence Internship, MI5 has confined applications to people from a "black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority background" who also come from a "socially or economically disadvantaged background."

White British candidates - including those from the poorest homes - cannot even submit an application. The agency calls this a response to "underrepresentation." Critics call it what it is: racial exclusion.

The rule sits on the official careers page in plain English. Final and penultimate-year students may apply for the 2026/27 academic year only if they tick the approved ethnic boxes.

MI5's own wording is blunt: "We're confining the applications for this internship to those within this demographic due to a current underrepresentation in our workforce."

This is not a fringe outreach day. The placement is billed as a serious introduction to national security work. Interns are promised "unique insight" into operations and "meaningful contributions to real projects," not a seat on the sidelines.

The MI5 stint is expected to run from Monday 28 June to Friday 20 August 2027 across sites in Central and West London. Successful candidates are paid £4,849, with accommodation covered if they cannot reasonably commute. GCHQ is running a parallel scheme on similar racial terms.

MI5 accused of 'flagrant racism' as white candidates told not to bother applying for summer internshiphttps://t.co/wqPUXiNKrn

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 27, 2026

Applicants must be British nationals, normally resident in the UK for seven of the last ten years, and able to survive the usual vetting. They still face a competitive sift. The racial gate comes first.

The listed groups include Asian or Asian British, Black or Black British, mixed-heritage combinations, "other ethnic minority," and a narrow "White other" category covering Romany Gypsy, Scottish Travellers or Irish Travellers. White British is not on the list.

The socio-economic test is equally specific. At age 14 the main household earner must have been in technical, craft, routine or semi-routine work, or unemployed and seeking work - or the applicant must have been eligible for free school meals. A White student who meets that poverty test is still barred. An ethnic-minority student who meets it is invited in.

What happened to getting a job on merit?

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp called it "flagrant racism from MI5 & GCHQ." He wrote: "White applicants for summer 2027 internships - including from disadvantaged backgrounds - can't apply. The scheme must be scrapped. Applications should be merit-based and colour blind. Working class white boys are among the most disadvantaged - yet are ignored."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage put the charge in institutional terms. "Yet again, taxpayer funds are being used to fuel a culture of anti-white prejudice across the public sector. It's racism. It's wrong. Only Reform will bring meritocracy back to our institutions. We'll ensure that nobody is discriminated against based on the colour of their skin."

This is not a one-off. The Summer Intelligence Internship has been running across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ since 2023. Every cycle has produced the same argument and the same official shrug. The agencies say the programme exists to "increase diversity within our organisations." Ministers treat the Equality Act 2010 as cover.

In July, Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked the Cabinet Office why White candidates were ineligible. Dan Jarvis, minister of state for security, answered that the internships are "designed to provide insight" to people "from demographics and backgrounds under-represented within UKIC," and that "this is a lawful measure (as set out in the Equality Act 2010) used to encourage people from under-represented demographics to consider national security careers."

He added that anyone later applying for a proper job would face "fair and open competition, with selection based on merit."

That last line is doing a lot of work. The paid summer placement is itself the pipeline: mentors, projects, a foot in the door, a chance to apply afterwards with the agency already knowing your name. Excluding the country's majority from that pipeline is not a neutral "encouragement." It is a racial filter on the first rung.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's own guidance on positive action is narrower than the agencies pretend. Employers may encourage under-represented groups to apply. The Commission says that if they do so, "the advert should clearly state the employer is seeking applications from everyone but wishes to encourage applications from people with a particular protected characteristic."

Confining applications - telling one racial group not to bother - is a different creature. "Positive action" was sold as outreach. This is a closed shop.

Claire Coutinho has been making that point for years. When the scheme returned in 2025 she said: "Deciding who can do a summer internship scheme based on the colour of their skin is bad enough. To bar patriotic white Britons who want to serve their country, but allow white Irish people, is utterly mad."

She added: "To make matters worse, the security services will also shut you out if you're a child of a nurse, a cabbie or your dad ran a corner shop, while the child of an £80,000-a-year train driver is eligible. This is state-sponsored discrimination. We should just choose the best people for the job."

In the Commons she asked the obvious question: "What message does it send to our young people when they are told there are some job opportunities they cannot apply to solely based on the colour of their skin?" Equality, she said, "must mean equality of opportunity, not putting some people in society on a pedestal above others."

Jacob Rees-Mogg charged that "MI5 is institutionally, publicly racist against white people." He noted that the policy "discriminates against 92.6% of my constituents in Somerset."

Toby Young of the Free Speech Union gave the thought experiment that every defender of these schemes refuses to answer. "Imagine if it was the other way around, and the intelligence services were saying only white people can apply for our summer internships. There would be absolute uproar."

There would. If the advert had said "no Blacks," the building would be surrounded by cameras before lunch. Because it says, in effect, no ordinary White British applicants, the official class calls it inclusion.

The security services are not improvising. They are copying a model that British policing has already normalised.

West Yorkshire Police, one of the country's largest forces, has run a two-track application system for police constable roles. Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates have been able to apply year-round. White applicants from British, Irish and Eastern European backgrounds have been told to wait for specific recruitment windows.

An internal whistleblower told The Telegraph that minority applicants were treated as "gold" and White candidates as "bronze." The whistleblower said: "The process restricts progression opportunities for White British candidates, while individuals from other backgrounds are swiftly advanced through recruitment stages."

Ethnic minority candidates, the same source said, were regularly "shortlisted, sifted, assessed and invited to an interview before White candidates can even apply."

The force's own website made the hierarchy official: "We are currently accepting applications for the two police constable entry programmes (uniform and detective) from people from our under-represented groups... If you are not from one of these groups, please keep checking this page for future recruitment opportunities."

West Yorkshire dressed this up as Positive Action under the Equality Act. A spokesman said ethnic minority representation among officers was around 9 percent against a local minority population of 23 percent, and that early applications were merely "held on file" until a window opened for everyone.

The whistleblower's account was that the holding file was a fiction: the favoured group moved while everyone else waited outside.

At Thames Valley Police the ideology went further than the application form. Officers were put through mandatory "equity training" on "white privilege," "micro-aggressions" and the difference between being "non-racist versus anti-racist."

This followed an employment tribunal finding that the force had positively discriminated against White officers by appointing an Asian detective inspector without considering White candidates who had served 19 to 26 years.

Former assistant chief constable Kerrin Wilson, who led an independent review, recorded "strong feelings of frustration." "As white males they felt disadvantaged and ... they had the perception that unfairness was allowed for minority groups but not for majority populations," she wrote.

The review warned that the training "can often be seen as demonising white people and therefore building barriers to the learning." White officers' response was "very strong, at times bordering on aggressive." They felt "they have no support within the force." There was "a tangible feeling of being overlooked."

Minority staff were not grateful either. Some said they would not seek promotion because "even if they did succeed in securing promotions their efforts would not be accepted by some as genuine." Some described the force as a "hostile environment."

Former government adviser and ex-officer Rory Geoghegan said officers "deserve far better from their leaders than to be crudely categorised by skin colour and subjected to reductive, divisive ideologies." The review, he argued, failed to confront "the unthinking acceptance of critical race theory - a deeply political framework that has no place in an impartial police service."

That is the culture now being imported into the agencies that handle terrorism, hostile states and domestic subversion. First the police. Then the Bar. Now MI5.

The legal profession built the same wall and called it progress. A paid internship linked to the Bar Council and the 10,000 Interns Foundation offered London Living Wage work experience while restricting eligibility to specified ethnic minority backgrounds. White applicants were excluded outright.

Sophie Corcoran applied anyway. She is now suing. In her own account of the case she wrote that the central issue is simple: "should organisations operating in Britain be permitted to deny opportunities to people purely because they are white? I believe the answer must be no."

She draws the distinction the agencies keep blurring. Encouraging under-represented people to apply is one thing. "Outright excluding others from opportunities on racial grounds" is another.

She further noted, "The Equality Act was never intended to create a hierarchy of races where some groups are protected from discrimination while others are expected to tolerate it, but this is exactly what these schemes do."

The schemes also flatten every other kind of hardship into a racial cartoon. "A wealthy privately educated applicant from an affluent background can qualify for some race-based schemes, while a working-class white applicant from a struggling town cannot."

White working-class pupils have been the lowest-attaining major ethnic group at GCSE level for more than a decade. Corcoran herself grew up with epilepsy, hearing difficulties and dyslexia and attended a failing state school. None of that counted. "Just because someone is black does not automatically mean he or she is disadvantaged. Equally, just because someone is white does not mean he or she is not disadvantaged."

Rupert Lowe called the Bar scheme "vile, anti-white racism." Corcoran urged "everyone knows that if the races were reversed, such policies would never be considered acceptable. Equality cannot operate on a double standard."

The intelligence agencies' own socio-economic test makes the double standard sharper. They admit class exists. They even try to measure it by the parent's job when the applicant was 14, and by free school meals. Then they add a racial veto.

National Audit Office internships have run on a similar exclusionary logic, limiting places by sex, "black heritage" or lower socio-economic status and shutting middle-class White men out of a taxpayer-funded programme.

Transport for London has run placements reserved for BAME, disabled or disadvantaged candidates. The pattern is no longer a few over-eager HR departments. It is how the British public sector now allocates opportunity.

Intelligence work is not a diversity seminar. It is judgment, languages, technical skill, nerve and loyalty. The agencies' public line is that "a diverse organisation is vital to ensure diverse insights." That sentence has become a mantra. It is used to justify shutting the country's largest ethnic group out of the training ground.

A security service that filters the next generation by race is telling the public something larger than a recruitment statistic. It is saying the majority population is surplus to the pipeline. It is saying competence will be balanced against a demographic target. It is saying the Equality Act now functions as a permission slip for the one form of racial discrimination institutions are eager to practise.

The other way around remains the test. A Home Office page that read "no Blacks" would end careers by nightfall. A police force that labelled White applicants "gold" and everyone else "bronze" would be in special measures. A Bar scheme that barred African and Asian students would be treated as a national scandal. MI5's page does the reverse, year after year, with ministerial cover and a press office that talks about underrepresentation.

Merit is not a right-wing hobby. It is the only honest way to staff an intelligence service. Britain's problem is not that too many White working-class students are bursting through the gates of Thames House. It is that the people who run the gates have decided some citizens are the wrong colour to knock.

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Tyler Durden Mon, 08/31/2026 - 02:00

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