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DOJ Charges 16 Individuals For Election Crimes

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sept. 18 announced charges against 16 people across seven states, alleging various election-related crimes.

A voter at a polling site during the redistricting referendum in Alexandria, Va., on April 21, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The individuals are being accused of "unlawful voting by non-citizens in federal elections, false claims of citizenship to register or vote, and related offenses including wire fraud, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, and unlawful firearm purchases," the DOJ said in a statement.

Eight individuals, all of them immigrants, have been charged in Texas. This includes seven lawful permanent residents and an illegal immigrant.

The illegal immigrant, Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, 36, from Mexico, is facing two charges of allegedly making a false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote and voting by an alien in a federal election.

Under Title 18 of U.S. Code Section 611, it is unlawful for an immigrant to vote in any federal or mixed election to select candidates for the posts of president, vice president, member of the Senate, member of the House of Representatives, presidential elector, resident commissioner, or delegate from the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, Title 18 of U.S. Code Section 1015 criminalizes knowingly making false statements regarding citizenship in registering to vote or actually casting votes.

Other charged individuals are three Mexicans, two Nigerians, and one person each from Congo and India.

In Idaho, Avila Gomez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, allegedly claimed to be a U.S. citizen and voted in the May 2022 and November 2024 elections, according to the DOJ. In addition, Gomez is accused of procuring Idaho identification cards through fraud. Title 18 of the U.S. Code Section 1028 makes it a crime to knowingly produce an identification document without lawful authority.

In Georgia, three people have been charged - an illegal immigrant and two suspected of being illegal immigrants.

The illegal immigrant, Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 44, from Venezuela, allegedly voted nine times between 2008 and 2024, the DOJ said.

In Massachusetts, a lawful permanent resident who is a Nigerian national was apprehended and subsequently charged with voting illegally in the 2022 elections and allegedly casting votes in the 2024 general election.

In Wisconsin, a Colombian national and lawful permanent resident is being accused of falsely claiming to be an American citizen while registering to vote for the November 2022 federal elections. And in New Jersey and Michigan, one person each has been charged for election-related crimes.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach the legal representatives for Arellano-Alba, Gomez, and Eccles.

In August, the Census Bureau released a report analyzing noncitizen voting in the November 2020 general election.

Out of almost 160 million voters who cast ballots in the election, the bureau "determined with high confidence that over 128 million of these voter records represented citizens, and that over 24,000 of these voter records represented noncitizens at the time of the election," the report said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration's push to further regulate mail-in voting is facing challenges.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to enhance election integrity with regard to U.S. mail. The order called for the use of secure ballot envelope identifiers and other voter eligibility verification measures. The United States Postal Service issued a rule last month to implement the executive order.

On Sept. 4, a U.S. District Judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the USPS from implementing regulations tightening mail-in voting. The injunction applied to the Nov. 3 midterm elections and any other federal election prior to the date.

The Trump administration then filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court to pause the injunction. On Sept. 14, the Supreme Court refused to lift the nationwide injunction, saying that the government was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the injunction.

Trump criticized the decision in a Sept. 15 post on Truth Social.

"Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally corrupt and out of control Mail-In voting 'disaster,' which is a laughing stock all over the World," he wrote.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 17:00

12 People Arrested After Stealing $250,000 Truckload Of Frozen Chicken

Stolen chicken used to pay off a drug debt?  It's a true barter market in action.  Memphis police serving a warrant at an Economy Inn discovered 12 people (some reports cite 13 people) behind the hotel unloading pallets of frozen chicken from a hijacked Koch Foods 18-wheeler.  The suspects fled the scene but were all captured.

Memphis police arrested 13 people after catching them unloading more than $250,000 worth of stolen fried chicken from an 18-wheeler behind a motel. Officers also recovered guns, fentanyl and cocaine. pic.twitter.com/fvVDUGB3C1

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 18, 2026

According to a press release, Javunte Johnson, 33, was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm.  An arrest warrant was also executed for Johnson for aggravated robbery.  Authorities found the man, along with 12 other people, unloading stolen pallets of chicken valued at $250,000.

Quantrivious Shavers, 25, and Jessie Moore, 37, members of the group, were charged with felony possession of a handgun. Officers recovered three handguns from the incident as well as fentanyl and cocaine.

The driver of the truck, Robert Wilson, reportedly stated that he had brought the massive chicken haul as payment to Johnson to cover a drug debt.

Memphis cargo theft incidents have spiked by 27% since 2025.  The city is one of the few U.S. freight hubs where cargo theft continues to rise while the national total drops.   

According to MPD, twelve people were taken into custody and charged:     

Javunte Johnson, 33, aggravated robbery, theft of property $60,000-$250,000, and convicted felon in possession of a handgun.     

Robert Wilson, 56, theft of property $60,000-$250,000 and evading arrest.     

Quantrivious Shavers, 25, theft of property $60,000-$250,000, convicted felon in possession of a handgun, and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to manufacture/deliver/sell, to wit: fentanyl.     

Samuel Jackson, 38, theft of property $60,000-$250,000 and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to manufacture/deliver/sell, to wit: cocaine.     

John Shipp, 47, theft of property $60,000-$250,000.     

Rico Jackson, 36, theft of property $60,000-$250,000.     

Devean Hoyle, 45, theft of property $60,000-$250,000.     

Trashawn Featherson, 35, theft of property $60,000-$250,000.     

Robert Dishmon, 40, theft of property $60,000-$250,000.     

Marcellous McKinney, 38, theft of property $60,000-$250,000 and Evading Arrest.     

Jessie Moore, 37, was arrested and charged with convicted felon in possession of a handgun and evading arrest, to wit: foot pursuit.     

Alexis Pike, 21, was arrested and charged with evading arrest, to wit: foot pursuit, and theft of property less than $ 1,000 (X2).  

The theft highlights stubborn criminal activity within certain enclaves of the US (largely Democrat run cities) despite the overall trend of falling crime rates nationally.  The details of the criminals aside, it's good to know that chicken has such a lucrative street value if one is ever deep in drug debt.    

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 16:40

US Shipment Of F-35s Goes MIA In Shocking Detour To Hong Kong

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Lawmakers and the Trump administration are investigating the odd disappearance of a U.S.-bound shipment of F-35 fighter jet components from Australia, which were originally meant to be repaired on U.S. soil, according to new reporting by Politico.

The report, published Friday and citing three anonymous sources, noted that an intermediary was transporting the equipment on behalf of American defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin through the Pacific Ocean before it was diverted to Hong Kong.

The three unnamed sources suggested that neither the Pentagon nor Lockheed Martin knows why the shipment ended up in Hong Kong.

The current whereabouts of the components remain unknown, triggering concerns over whether China may have gotten its hands on them.

China, which has tightened its control of Hong Kong in recent years, has long sought to gather intelligence on the F-35 program.

The missing components were part of the F-35 Lightning II, which Lockheed Martin describes on its website as the "most lethal, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft" for America and its allies.

Specifically, among the missing items is an F-35 canopy, a major part of the fighter jet that contains sensitive technology, according to Politico.

🚨🚨SCOOP: A shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts was rerouted to Hong Kong this summer - then vanished.

Congress and DOD are investigating, amid the possibility that China may now have access to the highly-classified program.

W/ @audrey_decker9https://t.co/u5Ip309Ke9

— Mark Satter (@marksatter) September 18, 2026

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has called the F-35 the "most costly weapon system" in the U.S. military, and the Pentagon has already spent between $200 billion and $250 billion on the program, according to estimates.

The State Department and the Pentagon reportedly briefed lawmakers on the matter in June, the report added.

In a statement, the Pentagon office responsible for the F-35 jets said it was "aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components."

The military office said an investigation is underway to retrieve the missing components and determine what happened.

Headline USA reached out to the office for further clarification but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Lockheed Martin, for its part, declined to provide information on the matter, citing security reasons, Politico noted.

"Our teams handle every shipment with the utmost diligence and safeguards to ensure the integrity of the F-35 program and the security of our allied partners," the company said.

We asked an F-35 pilot to describe the jet in one word.

His answer: sneaky. 👀

But behind that word is a lot of 5th Gen capability: stealth, advanced sensors and the information pilots need to stay ahead when the mission demands it. pic.twitter.com/QrmfBunlwt

— F-35 Lightning II (@thef35) July 9, 2026 Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 16:30

Kunstler: Suburban Sprawl Is A 'Death Trap' For America's National Spirit

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Clusterfuck Nation,

The Late, Great Debate About Suburbia, An Apologia

"It is difficult to design a place that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished."

- William H Whyte

Greenland, yes, yes, okay ! Smooth move. . . !

But. . . today we put aside the vagaries of national and geo-politics to return to a longstanding affliction in American life that is evermore absent from the public discourse and deserves an airing: the quandary of our suburban sprawl living arrangement, and what can be done about it.

First, get this: the demolition derby we live in day-by-day is responsible for as much misery, injustice, economic failure, and ill-health as anything else in our collective doings.

Its sheer ugliness - the horror of the six-lane highway with its ensembles of strip-malls, burger shacks, muffler shops, topless bars, Big Box stops, screaming signage, and the vast wastelands of parking. . . the suicide-inducing housing pods marching out remorselessly through forest, prairie, upland, lowland, basin and range. . . the depressing freeways with their monster entanglements of on-and-off-ramps. . . this epic mutilation of our continental landscape - is an evil quite beyond our ordinary imaginings. This inescapable, immersive ugliness, I remind you, is entropy-made-visible. And entropy, of course, is the force in nature that you really don't want to mess around with because it is the agent of death.

I do not exaggerate. It's a death trap, the way we live in this country, for the mind, the body, the family, the community, and the national spirit. Until fairly recently this was widely apprehended (or at least suspected). But the politicization of everything has wrecked what had been a growing and pretty robust national discussion about it.

To re-cap briefly: this is a big country. It had once been composed of cities, towns, farmlands, and wilderness, a coherent transect of human habitation. The invention of the motor car changed all that, starting in the 1920s.

The ambiguous territory outside these cities and towns represented vast potential fortunes in property development. . . and the race was on.

The Great Depression and World War 2 interrupted the suburban expansion, but it resumed on steroids afterward when the rest of the world was a smoldering ruin and we could sell them anything (and lend them money to buy it). The construction of all the new suburban infrastructure alone was a major component of the late 20th century US economy, and then it became the scaffold for our so-called consumer economy, comprised of furnishing that scaffold with so much stuff that it overflowed into thousands of self-storage sheds.

The decanting of our cities that ensued - the steady dribble of the middle-classes moving out, along with the commerce that served them - left most of those cities ruined. Eventually even the small towns got whacked, the farms paved-over, too. What we're left with is a weird hybrid landscape that is neither town nor country, has few of the civic amenities that add-up to a genuine sense of community, and none of the rural charm formerly found in the countryside. It became painfully obvious that a suburban house was a cartoon of a house in the country, and living in a cartoon is just not spiritually rewarding. Cue the Prozac. . . .

The whole kit, aided by the dogmas of zoning and government lending schemes, became easily reproducible from one locale to the next. For the development industry, the template became a habit. . . and so it boogied on through the decades. By the 1990s, the generation coming into power (yeah, the Boomers) started a revolt against all that. It crystalized in the New Urbanism movement and its signature org, the Congress for the New Urbanism, CNU. We can do better than this, this. . . this. . . national clusterfuck, they declared.

I was excited by this movement, wrote a couple of books about it, got to know the excellent people behind it - architects, urban planners, civic officials, property developers. They were smart, skilled, visionary. They believed that walkable communities and disciplining the automobile would produce places worth caring about and worth living in - and it seemed to me that such an effort would go a long way to curing the desperate anomie of American life. Over the next several decades, the New Urbanists produced scores of great projects. Some were actual new towns, some projects were renovations of existing towns, neighborhoods, business districts, and small town Main Streets. The results of their work are visible all over the country now.

But then, the political crack-up of the country commenced around 2009 with the Great Financial Crash and the ascent of Obama-inspired Wokeness, and really accelerated with the reaction to the advent of Mr. Trump in 2016. From that point on, as a nation, we've been arguing about everything but the disastrous arrangement of daily life on-the-ground in America. Some new twists in the spin of history have made matters worse.

One is that suburban sprawl is, by default, the favorite pattern of MAGA (and I happen to be a Trump voter). To them, suburbia is all tied up with ideas about economic liberty, as is the whole apparatus of Happy Motoring. They are still mentally stuck in the imagery of the TV car commercial - the lone sedan gliding through the sine-cosine curves of the empty seacoast highway, the romantic epitome of freedom! It's a lie, pretty much, because the more universal experience of motoring these days is getting stuck at a crawl in freeway traffic with a thousand other motorists per mile, half of whom desperately need to take a pee and can't do a darn thing about it.

And then there's the fallacy of the suburban housing development being a "community" - bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! See: I don't even have to explain that. But, MAGA tends to see it this way, along with all the activity that enables it - the mortgage system, the production home-builders ("it's more than a house, you understand, it's a home!"), all of which is so central to a booming economy. So, you don't dare inveigh against suburbia - except I will, because it is making America worse, not great again, and somebody's got to say it.

Yet another thing has come along to wreck the New Urbanist dream of reconstituting the American city and small town, and that thing is the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) proposal they call the "15-minute City." Superficially, it seems to resemble the traditional neighborhood model that the NU's espouse. But deeper down the 15-Minute City is much more about a surveillance and tracking apparatus - and this has caused many conservatives (especially them) to reject anything that looks like traditional urban design.

It's a most unfortunate situation, but that's where things stand, and it's one reason that the debate over suburban sprawl has stopped. A final and equally unfortunate development is that the CNU org came to be taken over the past decade by political Wokesters more interested in Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity BS than in their original mission of providing workable remedies for the tragic fiasco of American suburbia.

And now you know why it is so hard to talk about this geography of nowhere anymore.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 16:20

Judge Rules EPA Must Reinstate $7 Billion Biden-Era Subsidies For Solar Promotion

Authored by Jeremy Lott via The Epoch Times,

A $7 billion federal government grant program for solar promotion, authorized during the Biden administration, was reinstated by a federal judge on Sept. 18 in a ruling that rebuffed the Trump administration's efforts to cancel it.

Solar panel array at a solar farm near Lancaster, Calif., on June 17, 2026. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island wrote in her ruling that the current Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) "termination of the Solar for All program is declared unlawful."

Money was appropriated in 2022 for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under the Inflation Reduction Act that later spawned the $7 billion Solar for All grant program in June 2023. Congress at the time dedicated billions of dollars to the program and a separate smaller amount in the millions of dollars for its administration by the EPA.

Funds for the grant program would be used to "create and expand low-income solar programs that provide financing and technical assistance, such as workforce development, to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from residential solar," the Biden-era EPA wrote.

Current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin criticized the program on Sept. 7, 2025, saying that canceling it would save taxpayers billions of dollars.

"The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which included a $7 billion pot called 'Solar for All,'" he said in a statement announcing the program's cancellation.

"EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive."

An audit of the program found that as of early August 2025, the program's 60 grant recipients had "drawn down approximately $71 million, or 1.02 percent, of the obligated funds for various aspects of project planning and implementation."

The Trump-era EPA canceled the program. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the current Congress canceled some funds for administering the program and rescinded Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund money that was not already obligated.

The EPA noted that none of the plaintiffs suing the government were actually grant recipients. Instead, they were prospective subrecipients or third-order beneficiaries, such as unions. The government argued that they lacked standing to sue.

McElroy disagreed on the standing question. She also interpreted the text of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to mean that "existing grants were not to be rescinded" and that only minor "unobligated" funds could be clawed back.

Practically, all of the funds were spoken for by designated recipient organizations. What that means is that, unless reversed on appeal, the current EPA may find itself obligated to give out the remaining nearly $7 billion in solar promotion subsidies from the Biden era.

Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, one of the parties that brought suit, told The Epoch Times that he was "very pleased with the ruling."

The union president said he did not "think the federal government should appeal," as the ruling makes "very clear that this program should never have been stopped by the EPA in the first place."

Carolyn Holran, a spokesperson for the EPA, indicated that Crowley might be disappointed by her agency's next steps.

"EPA is reviewing the decision and considering options for appeal," she told The Epoch Times.

Crowley said the total Rhode Island slice of federal funding should come to $49 million, which would provide "thousands of good-paying union jobs."

Unions and the Trump administration have often been at loggerheads over green projects. Crowley said that they had notched up legal victories on offshore wind projects and solar grants, and promised more.

"We won't back down in our efforts to protect our members' jobs while we build a new carbon-free economy," he said.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 15:45

Verizon Says Cut Cable Behind FAA Ground-Stops East Coast Airports, Not Their Fault

(Update 1540ET): Verizon confirmed the "unknown equipment issue" behind the massive ground stop in the tri-state area was a cut fiber cable in New Jersey. The company says construction contractors working near an Amtrak rail line dug it up, that Verizon's facilities were fully functional until that happened, and that the carrier bears no responsibility for the incident. Technicians are on site, and the company says it is working to repair the damaged cable and restore connectivity.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters an older circuit serving Philadelphia TRACON failed this morning. Controllers tried to flip to the backup fiber the agency had installed as part of its modernization push, and the backup was already dead. The agency did not know the fiber was cut until the primary circuit went down, Bedford said. The damaged stretch is roughly 600 feet between New Brunswick and Newark. Repairing that line, he said, could take about 13 hours. "It's massive, I'm told."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put it more bluntly: an Amtrak construction crew cut into the fiber and forced the FAA to pause Northeast traffic.

By mid-afternoon LaGuardia had resumed in some form, and Philadelphia and JFK were being walked back from full ground stops toward delay programs. Newark and Teterboro were still the problem children. That is the airspace Philadelphia TRACON was handed in 2024, the same facility that had radio-frequency trouble last August and a string of radar and comms failures through 2025.

The FAA is trying to stand up a replacement circuit rather than wait out a 13-hour splice. Until the data is flowing again, inbound traffic into the remaining restricted fields stays on the ground at origin, which is still a ground stop, still the most restrictive tool the agency has. World leaders are landing in New York this week for the UN General Assembly.

* * *

The FAA has issued ground-stop orders to arrivals into every major New York-area airport: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. Teterboro, Westchester, and Philadelphia are in the same pile. Official reason: equipment outage.

What happened

The first restrictions hit Newark, Teterboro, and Philadelphia after problems with radio frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON, the terminal radar facility that handles arrivals and departures in that airspace. The FAA later added JFK, LaGuardia, and Westchester.

The agency has not publicly detailed which systems failed, how long repairs will take, or whether New York TRACON (N90) is separately affected. That lack of specifics is why the disruption is being described as an "unknown equipment issue."

92 cancellations and nearly 70 diversions at Newark so far today as an FAA equipment outage continues to hold flights bound for Newark, Philadelphia, and Teterboro at their origin airports. Traffic comparison between last week and today. pic.twitter.com/6mMwzi4mrG

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 21, 2026

A ground stop holds aircraft destined for the listed airports on the ground at their origin. It is one of the FAA's most restrictive tools and is used when controllers cannot safely accept more inbound traffic.

What actually broke? Frequencies, per the first FAA statement. Then just "equipment / outage" on the national status board. No system named, no timeline, no "we kicked the rack and it came back."

Philadelphia TRACON is not a random facility: it is the same one that took over Newark approach control in 2024 and then suffered repeated radar and radio failures through 2025, severe enough that controllers went out on trauma leave. On Aug. 28 of last year, the FAA ground-stopped Newark for roughly two hours over what it called equipment issues affecting "some radio frequencies in the Philadelphia TRACON area," with arrival delays averaging about 90 minutes - the same facility and the same stated cause as today. 

Impact

Newark saw the earliest and heaviest effects. As of 11:07 a.m. ET, FAA data showed average departure delays out of Newark running about 90 minutes and increasing, with the ground stop set to expire at 11:15 a.m. and a 30-60% chance of extension. Flight-tracking data showed dozens of jets queued on the pavement, along with dozens of cancellations and diversions. Teterboro departure delays were steeper.

Via @Bogs4NY

Boston Logan also has restrictions, though those are listed as volume and weather rather than the same equipment problem.

Because JFK, LGA, and EWR sit on one of the busiest corridors in the country, the stops ripple nationally: crews and aircraft get out of position, later banks get late, and connecting passengers miss onward flights.

Maybe another rogue AI escaped a sandbox? 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 15:40

Bessent Declares All Iran Airlines To Be 'Shut Down Around The World' Wednesday

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared on Monday that by Wednesday Sept. 23, "all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world."

"If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system," he described.

Bessent on Iran:

On September 23, all Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world.

How do we do that? If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar… pic.twitter.com/pX5wfEobV3

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 21, 2026

The new warning and 'promise' was issued after the US earlier this month imposed sanctions on "all remaining Iranian airlines" which had yet to face such penalties - thus Bessent's new declaration is that these entities are about to collapse under the weight of Washington actions, which now is to include secondary targeting.

The Treasury Department has also lately targeted Iranian companies and industries supporting Iran's aviation sector.

Some 27 airlines have already been sanctioned - also most recently the major Mahan Air has faced expanded sanctions (after first being targeted by Washington all the way back in 2011).

The Treasury has famed all of this as part of efforts to deny the Iranian government the ability to move "weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo".

Bessent stated to CNBC that all Iranian airlines will be shut down globally on Sept. 23 - given that any fuel, landing, and ticket providers involved with the companies risk dollar-system exclusion.

Ironically, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and his delegation is expected to fly into New York City just the day prior, on Tuesday - to attend the UN General Assembly. He is set to give a formal address to the UN body on Wednesday.

This will provide rare opportunity for potential White House diplomacy to take place on the sidelines, which could happen as early as Tuesday.

As for the heavily sanctioned aviation industry, in recent years the Islamic Republic has suffered some significant aerial disasters, which included the May 19, 2024 death of President Ebrahim Raisi. His military helicopter went down in a rugged, mountainous area of northwestern Iran.

via Reuters

Some speculate that lack of airline parts and aging aircraft, due to the long-standing US targeting of the industry, has only served to increase the chances of aviation disasters.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 15:30

US Opens Foreign Funding Investigations Into Duke, University Of North Dakota

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The State Department and the Department of Education are investigating Duke University and the University of North Dakota over allegedly violating foreign funding disclosure rules.

The statue of Washington Duke on Duke University's East Campus with Baldwin Auditorium is shown in Durham, N.C., on April 11, 2006. Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial assistance to disclose the source of foreign gifts and contracts with an annual value of $250,000 or more, according to a Sept. 16 statement.

The law aims to counter undue foreign influence in America's higher education sector. Both universities receive taxpayer support to develop crucial technologies.

However, a review of records submitted by the universities "indicated the submission of incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely disclosures," the Department of Education said in the statement.

In a Sept. 15 letter to Duke University president Vincent E. Price, the department raised concerns about the institution's research collaboration with China's Wuhan University. This agreement between the universities has led to the establishment of Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu, China, in 2013.

Wuhan University is overseen by China's Ministry of Education and another state entity that oversees China's nuclear weapons and military research programs. The institution plays an important role in the country's national defense science and tech innovation.

China's Ministry of Education requires joint-venture universities, such as Duke Kunshan University, to have a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) unit to monitor their operations. These units can also influence administrative tasks. Moreover, Duke Kunshan University's Board of Trustees appears to include key Chinese regime officials, according to the letter.

The Education Department's review of Sec. 117 disclosure reports from Duke shows that the university has reported 1,266 qualifying foreign funding transactions since July 2020, totaling roughly $1.01 billion. The institution allegedly engages in "systemic reporting errors related to timely disclosure of contracts with foreign sources," the department said in the letter.

As for the University of North Dakota (UND), the department's Sept. 15 letter to the institution's president Andrew Armacost highlighted the university's critical role in America's national security efforts.

Specifically, UND's School of Aerospace partners with the North Dakota Army and Air National Guard, the U.S. Air Force, and private sector defense contractors. UND also provides a training environment to support U.S. drone dominance in uncrewed air systems.

Since July 2020, the university has reported 71 transactions that would qualify under Section 117, valued at around $98 million. Many of these transactions "appear to have involved Chinese aviation companies," the letter said.

The Department of Education instructed both universities to submit records of tax compliance; Section 117 compliance structure; international research collaborations; foreign government talent program compliance; foreign gifts, grants, and contracts; and international faculty, research personnel, and student agreements.

"Unfortunately, it appears that both Duke and UND have provided untimely and incomplete foreign funding disclosures, which include erroneously identifying certain governmental partners as 'non-governmental,'" Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in the statement.

"We expect these universities will cooperate fully. The Department of Education and the Department of State will continue to work together to vigorously ensure the integrity and accountability of our nation's colleges and universities in reporting their foreign gifts and contracts," Kent said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Duke University and the University of North Dakota for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

In an email to The Chronicle, Duke's student-run news organization, a spokesperson from the institution said they were "reviewing the letter carefully." The university is "committed to complying with the law and will continue to do so in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission," the spokesperson said.

The recent investigations come after the Education Department announced its partnership with the State Department in February, aimed at improving transparency of foreign contracts and gift reporting in higher education institutions.

According to a fact sheet published at the time, the partnership aligns with President Donald Trump's April 2025 executive order, Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities.

In the order, Trump wrote that it is the administration's policy to "end the secrecy" regarding foreign funds flowing into the country's educational institutions.

Last month, the Pentagon announced it had asked 30 academic institutions to audit their research, academic, and financial collaborations with foreign entities that are deemed to threaten national security.

The Pentagon's notices were sent to universities linked to certain research facilities or foreign schools in China, Iran, or Russia.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 15:00

Big Tech's Next AI Battleground Is Your Face, Loop Capital Says

Smartglasses are set to be the "next major computing platform," according to Loop Capital analysts, as Meta currently leads the space, with Google, Samsung, Apple, and SNAP preparing their own AI-powered eyewear.

Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson wrote in a note on Sunday that an "inflection point" has arrived for smart glasses, which are "transitioning from wearable camera accessories to what is becoming a primary hardware interface for conversational AI."

Sanderson and analyst Anthony Chukumba spoke with wearable-tech executive Jon Li about the smart glasses industry and where it's headed into the new year.

Li shared our view that Meta dominates the smart glasses industry with its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, while Google is building an ecosystem around Android XR and Snap holds an advantage in more advanced augmented reality. He said Apple could remain on the sidelines until 2028 or 2029 before introducing its own smart glasses.

Here are the key points from the conversation between Loop Capital analysts and Li:

Jon Li is a seasoned technology executive with extensive product management, user experience design, and business development experience. Mr. Li is currently Managing Partner of strategic consultancy Asentio where he advises companies on product strategy, commercialization, and human-AI collaboration. He previously served as US General Manager for XREAL, where he was instrumental in driving the company's expansion into the US market through the development of strategic and retail distribution partnerships. Earlier in his career he held senior product and program management positions with Indigo Technologies, SERES EV, and YouSpace and senior design positions with Motorola, Philips, and FLIR Systems.

Bullish on Android XR broadly... Mr. Li is bullish on the Android XR smartglasses operating system (OS), which Google has developed in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm. He noted Android XR leverages Google's existing Android OS, large developer base, and mature developer framework and tools. In addition, Mr. Li views Android XR as a "true digital assistant" with the ability to utilize users’ calendars, tasks, documents, location, etc. to provide contextual assistance in real time. He noted one significant difference between Android OS and Android XR is Google plans to more tightly control distribution of the latter by working with a limited number of partners (e.g., Samsung, XREAL). Mr. Li expects Android XR and Gemini AI features to be updated every few months, while hardware changes would occur at most once a year.

...and Warby Parker's Intelligent Eyewear more specifically. Mr. Li is also fairly upbeat about Warby Parker's forthcoming Intelligent Eyewear launch, which he views as a key component of mass market smartglasses adoption. Mr. Li believes Warby Parker is a compelling Android XR partner given the optical retailers' history of transforming the eyeglass purchase process (i.e., online and in store) as well as ability to educate first-time buyers and provide initial fittings and post-purchase support. All that said, Mr. Li questioned the strength of Warby Parker's post-purchase customer relationships given the fact Google, not Warby Parker, controls the digital assistant consumers will be interfacing with.

Views Snap as having a multi-year lead on full AR. While previous versions were not released for commercial distribution, Snap's recently introduced SPECS are the company's 5th generation hardware design. Mr. Li believes Snap's long-term focus and extensive experience with augmented reality on smartphones gives it a multi-year lead over competitors and expects the cadence of multiple iterations will shrink and cost-reduce its offering. Mr. Li sees enterprise suitability and highlights the base of customers in industrial production, manufacturing, healthcare and other verticals left stranded by Microsoft's discontinued HoloLens platform as an area of obvious interest. Mr. Li believes it will ultimately be the developer community and partner ecosystem that drives category adoption and sees Snap's ~450K developers using Lens Studio as a meaningful advantage.

Apple launch probably later than sooner, will lift overall market. Mr. Li believes Apple is unlikely to enter the smartglasses market until 2028/2029 given the company's long history of learning from competitors' earlier products to introduce a superior version later (e.g., iPod, iPhone, AirPods). Mr. Li believes Apple will initially introduce a premium, higher priced product (i.e., ~$800 as compared to $499 for the top-of-the-line Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Optics) and focus on user experience as opposed to hardware specifications; ultimately, he thinks Apple's success will hinge on the strength of the AI assistant and level of integration with the broader iOS ecosystem, stating Siri AI is not yet where it needs to be. Mr. Li thinks an Apple entry will be a net positive for existing industry players by drawing more attention to and legitimizing smartglasses, pointing to the impact the company's recent introduction of the iPhone Duo is having on foldable smartphones. 

Beyond Loop Capital and their insights into the smart glasses industry via an insider, Luca Solca, Bernstein's senior equity analyst and global luxury-goods sector head, covering companies including EssilorLuxottica, LVMH, Hermès and Richemont, and recently pointed out emerging backlash in the public domain of these glasses, with some trends on social media going viral, such as "pervert glasses," and such. 

We suspect Meta, Snap, Google, and other players will eventually need to confront the "pervert glasses" narrative with a counter narrative of their own. Good luck solving that with a marketing campaign.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 14:45

Trump's 48-Hour Houthi Strike Whiplash Was Triggered By Desire To 'Help His Friend' MbS

President Trump's abrupt Saturday return to the White House from Camp David, where he had been slated to spend the whole weekend, had set off an avalanche of speculation on potential military escalation in the Middle East.

The NY Times and Axios are reporting that the Commander-in-Chief was close to a ordering new anti-Houthi intervention but that he backed out, TACOing once again but this time in pretty rapid order.

Source: White House

"President Trump over the weekend considered ordering a strike against the Houthis in Yemen before deciding to hold off for now, two U.S. officials said," Axios writes Monday. "Trump was caught between wanting to help his friend and ally, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and avoiding getting entangled on a new front in the Middle East."

So now the nation stands on the brink of yet a separate Mideast adventure while the Iran conflict has yet to end, this time in Yemen, because Trump desires to "help his friend". But in the end he did not pull the trigger, for now at least.

The NY Times on Sunday laid out a wild, whiplash of a fast-paced timeline in terms of decision-making:

Mr. Trump had met with advisers just the day before and told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with the Saudi crown prince, he reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis.

But by midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis — at least not for the time being, according to administration officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss military planning.

One wonders if Congress might ever be consulted, instead of going to war after a single phone call with 'friends' in Saudi Arabia and Israel?

Trump has reportedly been mulling what to do about the Yemen crisis for the last two weeks, especially as the Shia group backed by Tehran has ramped up attacks on Aramco facilities in the kingdom.

So far, the White House is only said to have authorized intelligence and targeting assistance. Still, the Houthis keep advancing, regional reports say, after having conquered Yemen's Red Sea coast. To review of some of our Monday morning coverage:

Brent crude oil prices are also lower despite news that Donald Trump had cut short a trip to Camp David to return to Washington, reports that Iran had activated its highest military readiness alert amid claims that the US is preparing to resume attacks, Houthi attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh, and Pentagon Pizza Report activity suggestive of something afoot.

All of this was accompanied by fresh alerts for American travelers issued by US embassies across the whole Mideast region.

For a little trip down memory lane...

Trump mocked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) for Saudi Arabia's security dependence on the US: "He didn't think this was going to happen. He didn't think he'd be kissing my ass. He really didn't." pic.twitter.com/q9vJK76O6X

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) March 28, 2026

Even if Trump were to authorize new direct strikes on Yemen, any purely aerial campaign would be very unlikely to dislodge the Houthis. It could also serve to further divide already stretched-thin US forces and assets in the region. US assets operating over the Gulf area might have to be diverted.

The Houthi rebels have already endured literally dozens of major air raids from the US and Israelis stretching back through the Gaza war. The attacks seemed to only embolden them, and now they can put the chokehold on Red Sea shipping at any time they want.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 14:30

Critical Metals Shares Soar On Trump's Greenland Deal As Mining Stocks Eye Rebound After Summer Slump

Critical Metals jumped 37.5% to $9.22, while Greenland Energy surged 126% and Greenland Mines soared 136% on news this past weekend that President Trump had announced a security deal with Denmark and Greenland. This is fueling Wall Street's expectations of greater US access to the territory's mineral resources.

Trump said Friday in a lengthy Truth Social post that the US had reached a deal with Denmark and Greenland granting it control over Greenland's security. Danish and Greenlandic officials said the agreement preserves Greenland's sovereignty.

"At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America," Trump stated.

Critical Metals' Tanbreez project offers the West conflict-free (meaning ex-China) rare earth supplies. The company says heavy rare earths make up about 27% of the deposit's total rare-earth content. These materials are critical for magnets, defense systems and precision electronics. 

Based on Critical Metals' latest disclosures, Tanbreez is not yet in commercial production. The company describes it as an advanced, permitted development project that will supply rare earths "once operational."

What's notable about the Tanbreez project in southern Greenland is that it contains about 45 million metric tons of resources. 

According to Critical Metals' March 2026 slide deck, Tanbreez is targeting first ore production in late 2028 or early 2029, with concentrate exports beginning by the third quarter of 2029. That is a major problem for the West, and the market is getting ahead of itself because these critical metals were needed yesterday, as China's quasi-monopolistic position in critical metals is currently choking the West.

That's why we're focused on producers that can deliver today rather than junior miners, as highlighted by the Bloomberg news earlier this morning that South Korea gave Almonty Industries the green light to begin shipping tungsten ore from its Sangdong mine to overseas customers. 

The VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) is a fund that holds shares of lithium, tungsten, and other materials miners. 

Its positions include:

• SQM: 7.89%
• Albemarle: 7.74%
• MP Materials: 6.22%
• Lynas Rare Earths: 5.93%
• Almonty Industries: 4.15%

REMX saw a massive run-up beginning in mid-2025 and peaked around June before retracing about 40%. Now the mining ETF is stabilizing with a higher low and could be due for an upside move.

With China choking off critical metal supplies to the West, the market should focus on miners that are producing today and can deliver to fill the West's supply gap. Early movers will win. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 14:15

Wall Street Turns Its Back On Consumer Stocks As Fuel Costs Soar And Yields Surge

US gasoline prices near $4.44 a gallon at the pump, record diesel prices of $6.40 a gallon, and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hike this week, its first since July 2023, are compounding pressure on household budgets and borrowing costs. Against that troubling backdrop, UBS warns that Wall Street is "turning more skeptical on consumer recovery."

UBS equity trader Mark Paski wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday about the gloomy environment for consumers that has placed renewed selling pressure on consumer stocks as Wall Street grows increasingly skeptical of a second-half earnings recovery, with recent management commentary pointing to persistent cost pressures and limited evidence of a meaningful rebound in demand.

"While part of the recent weakness can be attributed to higher crude prices and rates, the sharp sell-off across apparel, retail and restaurant names suggests investors are looking beyond those factors. Feedback from the conference circuit pointed to a common theme: persistent macro uncertainty, ongoing cost pressures and little evidence of a near-term demand inflection. Management teams broadly flagged pressure from inflation, transportation costs, fuel prices and cautious consumer behavior, reinforcing the view that earnings recovery may take longer than previously expected," Paski said.

He noted that consumer companies' share of S&P market capitalization has tumbled to just 13.5%, a record low, from about 31% in 1992. That decline shows the sector is becoming less relevant to investors.

S&P restaurant stocks are weakening more sharply than the broader consumer discretionary sector, signaling this growing concern ahead of midterm elections.

The hoped-for consumer rebound in the second half is running into a familiar problem: businesses face rising costs while customers remain reluctant to spend.

Speaking at Goldman Sachs' 33rd Annual Global Retailing Conference on Tuesday morning, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos offered a downbeat assessment of its customer base, warning that "even that middle to upper middle is acting more like a lower income shopper these days."

At the start of the week, Jefferies food analyst Scott Marks flagged new pressure on convenience store customers as gasoline and diesel prices soared in August.

Professional subscribers can read a lot more about consumer stocks here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 13:40

Powerful Explosion Rocks Aleppo Ammo Depot In Latest Mystery Blast

A terrifying blast erupted outside the major northern Syrian city of Aleppo overnight, which caused area residents to evacuate their homes, and with sustained explosions visible for miles around.

The explosion happened at an army base in an outlying town, injuring at least four people, after which a series of blasts persisted, which unleashed shrapnel across the area.

State media outlet SANA later cited Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management which indicated an ammunition depot was detonated.

Amid local evacuations, emergency crews were on "high alert... due to the continued explosions" - after being initially unable to get close given persisting and follow-on explosions.

An eyewitness in Aleppo's Hamdaniyeh neighborhood told AFP of a "huge explosion" and that people in the area could see "large flames in the distance".

Typically the first fear that Syrians have is that they are once again under attack by Israeli fighter jets, given this is a scenario which has played out literally hundreds of times over the past several years of conflict. There have been no initial statements describing what caused the disaster.

But several munitions and military warehouse accidents have occurred under the new Jolani government of late.

An ammunition depot exploded in Aleppo, northwestern Syria.

Follow: https://t.co/Ez42KDda7X pic.twitter.com/f0ZGtnNUIH

— PressTV Extra (@PresstvExtra) September 20, 2026

For example, in earlier September a Ministry of Defense weapons depot ignited and 14 people were killed.

Lately the country has been suffering extreme fuel prices amid efforts to get inflation under control, and amid stagnant wages and efforts to get the post-war economy back on track. Washington's recent dropping of Assad-era sanctions have yet to bear any immediate fruit, however.

Several days of protests across various cities have persisted, after the new rulers in Damascus abruptly removed fuel subsidies for the population. 

On September 13 the government decision saw diesel prices shoot up 40% and petrol prices by 28%, after not just years but decades of government regulated price controls and subsidies. 

Is there a covert sabotage campaign afoot? The Israelis have of late occupied southern Syria, and have engaged in operations to ensure Syria has no advanced or heavy weapons or munitions...

Three #Syria Defense Ministry arms depots have exploded in 11 days — in #Idlib (Sep 9), Deir ez Zour (Sep 18) & tonight in #Aleppo.

It’s still summer weather in #Syria, and storage practices could be better — but 3 in 11 days seems too much to be coincidence.

Big questions. pic.twitter.com/BkaZ0A2lZS

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) September 20, 2026

Already the country was smashed by proxy war and sweeping US-led sanctions, not to mention a decade-long US troop occupation of Syria's oil and gas fields in the northeast, which strangled the population, as part of efforts to overthrow secular Ba'ath leader Bashar al-Assad. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 13:20

What Do You See Here?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A K-pop star holding a pair of Chuck Taylors was enough. Crop the frame, squint at a star-shaped spotlight, and a Nike subsidiary is suddenly in the business of hoods and hangings, according to disturbed leftists who see racism everywhere.

Instead of ignoring the demented behaviour, Converse pulled the image, apologised on cue, and promised to "do better." The people filming themselves crying and torching sneakers got the ritual they wanted.

The still came from Converse's Chuck 70 X campaign with Aespa singer Karina, rolled out internationally from late August. She stands inside the brand's five-pointed star, in a long white skirt, holding black high-tops.

A few black activists online (like actress Yvette Nicole Brown and U.S. Rep. Troy Carter) said that this ad was "White Supremacy", so Converse apologized & took it down.
It's a Korean K-Pop girl.
Never apologize to the woke mob.
They're crazy. pic.twitter.com/gkmCwUPYfp

— Mr Reagan (@MrReaganUSA) September 21, 2026

Online, the crop did the work. Lighting on the fabric became a pointed hood. The shoes became dangling feet. The full picture - an Asian pop star in a logo spotlight - was conveniently left out.

Louisiana Democrat (experts on the KKK) Rep. Troy Carter fumed "Nike and Converse, what the hell were you thinking?Your campaign shows what looks like a hooded Klansman, framed by what appears to be the dangling feet of a lynching victim. There is nothing creative or artistic about it. It is racist, reckless and deeply offensive."

He went further: "Black pain is not a marketing prop. Lynching is not a creative concept. The Ku Klux Klan is not an aesthetic." He also said repairing the alleged harm would take "more than an apology written by your public relations department."

Converse delivered that apology anyway. "We're sorry," the company said. "We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better."

Converse apologizes for shoe ads that critics blasted as evoking the KKK https://t.co/fpi8ITThA7 pic.twitter.com/rhYhu4niYg

— New York Post (@nypost) September 19, 2026

A second campaign - Converse x Palmes, with figures on a ladder reaching shoes near a tree - was dragged into the same pile-on. Two different shoots, one moral script.

How any American who is remotely educated can look at this horrifying ad & not see a klan hood and the feet of a hanging body...makes me speechless.

I cannot fathom why @Converse would green light something so abhorrent. Lynchings of Black people in the US is NOT ancient history pic.twitter.com/t0fou2Ct4Q

— NanaSue ? ?????? (@NanaSueSpeaks) September 19, 2026

Chicago photographer Stephanie Schwartz claimed on Threads: "Shadow, light, and composition. Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew EXACTLY what they were doing."

Replies called it a Rorschach test. One user wrote that an Asian woman holding sneakers "tells nothing about the picture" and "everything about you."

One X respondent put the optical-illusion case in the open. "People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over 'blatant racism' in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers." The account added: "Look at the photo....It's an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing in a star-shaped spotlight, holding shoes. Some people squint and see a Klan hood and a lynching. That's pareidolia the same thing that makes you see faces in outlets and Jesus in toast."

Treating an accidental shadow as a "coordinated hate ritual," the post argued, is not justice. It is assuming the worst and then demanding the company prove a negative.

People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over "blatant racism" in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers.

The problem is...most of the people who approved this ad ARE LIKELY BLACK!

Look at the photo....It's an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing... https://t.co/tAnKQOcbWv pic.twitter.com/sdjJATulQx

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 19, 2026

Once the crop went viral, the content shifted from captions to performance. People cut logos, painted over stars, dumped new pairs in bins and set them alight.

NEW: Boycott of Converse has spread among the left-wing woke mob, with some people burning, cutting up, painting over the logo and throwing away the brand's shoes after the company released a new ad for its iconic sneakers.

The campaign featured a female model holding a pair of... pic.twitter.com/N2tDlHQXq9

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 19, 2026

I found even more desperate people manufacturing outrage over Converse, virtue-signaling for clout, and proudly burning and throwing away their shoes. https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/KdoBZX99qB

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 21, 2026

Lindsay Clancy fan burns her Converse over an ad TikTok decided is a "coded message" from white supremacists

We have a serious mental health crisis pic.twitter.com/dbYVrM9nml

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 20, 2026

Another user circulated clips of lunatics weeping over the still, then a follow-up of a woman binning brand-new Chucks. "When normal people look at the ad all they see is a girl holding a pair of shoes," the account wrote.

"When woke black people who have a constant need to play victim about something look at the ad they see a Klan member lynching a black a man." A later update noted "woke whites have joined the party."

WOW ?

Black Liberals are filming themselves crying over the new converse ad that they have now deemed as racist??

In their never ending quest to be victims of nonexistent racism they've now resorted to flipping through ads looking for something to be offended by.

When normal... pic.twitter.com/G7K7tPvbgp

— Cinema Shogun (@CinemaShogun) September 19, 2026

Not every Black voice played along. One woman said the fatigue was real and the boycott was theatre. "When will this nonsense stop? It's out of control. We are tired. So burn your Converse, cancel Converse, cancel Nike. Nobody cares." She praised the ad and said the company should not have apologised.

Black woman slams the woke mob over the backlash against Converse, saying the fatigue is real and nobody cares about their boycott.

She praises the ad and says the company shouldn't have apologized. She adds that people can boycott the brand all they want, but companies will... https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/OlQIufGZWF

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 20, 2026

Has anyone checked on this K-pop star Karina after she has been dragged all over the internet for the Converse ad???

She probably thought she booked an adorable Converse campaign that would open doors and bring her more money...

Instead, the American left has cropped her ad,... pic.twitter.com/woGUOot8xG

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 20, 2026

If you looked at that Converse ad and saw a KKK hood, you need to log off and touch grass https://t.co/yAuaCYjMSE

— Clown World ™ ? (@ClownWorld) September 20, 2026

Karina did nothing wrong with this Converse ad.

If you looked at this and saw a KKK ad, you're psychotic and need to be checked into a mental asylum. pic.twitter.com/1moVP3flzI

— Kangmin Lee | ??? (@kangminlee) September 20, 2026

Karina and SM Entertainment did not immediately respond to press queries. The singer is now attached to a controversy designed in social media feeds, not Seoul studios.

Bloomberg later obtained an internal memo from Converse CEO Aaron Cain. "The images should not have been used, and we began removing them from all channels as soon as the concern was raised," he told staff. "The leadership team and I are taking a hard look at our internal review process and the critical lens we apply to our work." Cain did not spell out the changes.

The timing is ugly for a reason that has nothing to do with hoods. Converse has been one of Nike's stubborn weak spots through a long run of falling sales. A brand that cannot ship growth now cannot ship a star-shaped light without a struggle session. Calls for firings and boycotts filled the replies.

There is a difference between historical memory and a bizarre hunt for racist shapes in fabric. One is serious. The other is manufactured content. Converse chose the audience that treats every shadow as a manifesto. The rest of the country still sees a girl holding sneakers.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 13:00

SoftBank To Sell $11 Billion In Junk Bonds At Soaring Yields To Fund OpenAI Investments

It's only appropriate that just hours after we published an extensive report looking at the trillions in debt funding the AI supercycle - which just this year stands at $568bn, of which $259bn issued in IG, followed by $256bn across Private Credit, Direct Lending, and other bilateral/non-syndicated lending (for SPVs and infrastructure finance), another $40bn for HY and $11bn for institutional loans...

... that SotBank launched what Bloomberg dubbed "one of the biggest junk bond deals ever", as the Japanese conglomerate seeks the equivalent of more than $11 billion in high  yield debt as Masayoshi Son’s conglomerate ramps up its investments in ChatGPT creator OpenAI. 

If SoftBank sells about $11 billion in debt it would be one of the largest junk bond sales ever by a single firm, excluding distressed debt exchanges. The near-record offering would come in 5 tranches: the company is looking to issue $10 billion of dollar securities across three tenors, and €1 billion ($1.1 billion) of euro debt across two maturities, according to BBG sources.

The proceeds from the debt sale will be used to fund a follow-on investment in OpenAI expected to close next month as well as general corporate purposes; the deal is expected to price as soon as Thursday, depending on demand. 

One of the world’s largest investors in AI, SoftBank’s fortunes have become increasingly intertwined with its ability to monetize its holding in OpenAI after committing close to $65 billion to the tech pioneer. That’s put Son’s firm at the epicenter of debt-fueled bets on artificial intelligence, at a time when safety concerns about the industry have flared.

SoftBank and its lead banks are sounding out investors on potential pricing for the proposed junk bond sale, offering an early glimpse of roughly how much the conglomerate may pay for the deal. All discussions are early stage and figures could change.

The table below shows the indicative prices that SoftBank is feeling out with investors, though such initial price guidance has yet to be discussed and could wind up differing from these earlier discussions based on investor feedback:

Those yields would all be records for SoftBank in those specific currencies and tenors if priced at those levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, though details in corporate note offerings often change before they are actually priced.

As Bloomberg notes, the latest deal adds to a flurry of recent activity by SoftBank, as it builds out its artificial intelligence financing capacity. The conglomerate entered into a $40 billion bridge loan in March to fund an additional investment in OpenAI, and recently repaid the outstanding balance of $25.9 billion on that facility.

SoftBank closed out last week with nearly $21 billion in potential fresh borrowings. The group increased a margin loan backed by shares of its chip unit Arm Holdings by $5 billion to $25 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. And it recently secured an additional $450 million to an existing credit line, bringing the total to $6.5 billion.

In short, if OpenAi goes down it is absolutely dragging SoftBank with it. 

Apollo Global is also in talks to boost the size of a loan to SoftBank by $3.6 billion to $9 billion to help it finance its investment in AI giant OpenAI. On top of that, the firm founded and led by billionaire Masayoshi Son secured an $11.87 billion loan, also to support its OpenAI investment. 

As part of its funding campaign this year, SoftBank has sold almost $15 billion of notes across currencies, making it the biggest junk-rated borrower in bond markets so far in 2026, Bloomberg-compiled data show. There was also a $10 billion loan earlier this year backed by its OpenAI stake.

The deals come amid a broader increase across markets in borrowing costs, as most major economies grapple with inflation. The yield on SoftBank’s dollar bond maturing in 2031 climbed to 8.2% earlier this month, up from as low as 6.7% in January, as spreads have blown out and underlying Treasury yields have risen.

Recent calls by heads of some of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence platforms, including OpenAI, to slow AI advances on safety concerns, have introduced another layer of uncertainty. That contributed recently to an increase in the cost to insure SoftBank’s debt against default to the highest in three years. 

In another hit to SoftBank, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s remarked that the company won’t go public this year - a move that would increase the liquidity of SoftBank’s investments - have been closely watched by investors.   

Citigroup Inc. is acting as the lead bookrunner and a joint global coordinator, alongside Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for dollar tranches. JPMorgan is the lead bookrunner for the euro-denominated notes and among the joint global coordinators, together with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:40

Fertilizer Stocks Tumble As Trump Says "Working On Massive" Belarus Potash Deal

"The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus," President Trump wrote on Truth Social just before 11 a.m. ET.

Trump continued, "The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers."

The immediate market impact: Intrepid Potash, CF Industries, and Mosaic shares fell to session lows.

Intrepid Potash: -4.6%

CF Industries: -3.5%

Mosaic: -4.5%

The move follows Trump slapping 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods last month after the US and Canada failed to reach a last-minute trade deal. However, the levies included significant exemptions for major Canadian imports such as oil, gas, and potash. 

However, earlier, Russian news agency Interfax quoted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying his country lacks the capacity to supply potash fertlizer to the West. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:20

Qatar's Energy Minister Says Bessent's "Worthless" Hormuz Claim Is "Completely Wrong"

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi blasted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday, saying he was "wrong" to claim the Strait of Hormuz would become "worthless" to the oil industry in two years.

"I think this is completely wrong," Saad Al-Kaabi said Sunday at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York.

Speaking to Fox Business's Larry Kudlow on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers' summit in North Carolina earlier this month, Bessent said the Hormuz maritime chokepoint, in about "two years will be… a worthless piece of water," adding that oil "will be going on pipelines across land."

🚨𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗜𝗡: 🇺🇸 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says

“In 2 years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water.” pic.twitter.com/B94NIWtews

— DustyBC Crypto (@DustyBC) September 1, 2026

Al-Kaabi, who also heads QatarEnergy, argued that rewiring the Hormuz area with pipelines to bypass the critical maritime chokepoint, as Bessent described, would not eliminate the broader trade flowing through the strait.

"I don't think this is ever going to be obsolete," he said.

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi responds to Secretary Bessent’s remark that “in two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water.” pic.twitter.com/rFKewRONIR

— Annmarie Hordern (@annmarie) September 20, 2026

Bessent's comments come as a generational rewiring of energy flows in the Gulf, and really the world, is underway, and allies in the Gulf have already announced plans for new pipeline exits out of the region that bypass the strait.

New routes through the UAE and Iraq could eventually carry roughly 4 million additional barrels a day. Combined with increased flows through Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, that could replace around 40% of the 20 million barrels a day that previously transited Hormuz.

The rewiring is all part of meaningful diversification but carries risks, as demonstrated by the recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline that has rendered it useless in the short term.

Alternative pipelines can reduce dependence on Hormuz. But warfare has forever changed, with low-cost one-way attack drones putting every critical infrastructure asset in the region in the crosshairs.

Beyond the Gulf, the Trump administration is diversifying oil supply chains by signing a mega deal with Venezuela and allowing US energy giants to begin investments to ramp up oil production. The aim is to bring energy and critical materials supply chains closer to home, a key pillar of Trump's Western Hemisphere revival.

Making Hormuz worthless is a long game for the Trump administration while it builds out energy assets in the West.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:15

Bessent Hails "Very Successful" China Talks As Trump-Xi Summit Puts AI, Rare Earths And Energy On The Table

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emerged from roughly eight hours of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday calling the meeting "very successful," with Washington and Beijing agreeing to new mechanisms covering trade and artificial intelligence just days before President Donald Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, shakes hands with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sept. 20, 2026. Bai Xueqi/ | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

The talks, held at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, were intended to lay the groundwork for the Trump-Xi summit later this week. Working-level discussions are continuing as the two sides try to lock down whatever can be agreed before the leaders meet.

On paper, the immediate deliverables were relatively modest. In practice, the timing is anything but.

The two sides agreed to establish a U.S.-China AI dialogue, with Washington proposing a notification mechanism for AI incidents serious enough to reach the national-security level. Bessent framed the concept as an effort to move the world's two leading AI powers from opacity toward greater transparency and establish some common understanding of threats.

As we noted Friday, artificial intelligence was already emerging as one of the summit's most consequential issues, sitting alongside trade, semiconductors, Taiwan and rare earths. The two governments also moved to operationalize the previously proposed Board of Trade. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said negotiators are looking for baskets of "non-sensitive" goods that could potentially be treated separately from future trade restrictions. Washington is considering lower-tech Chinese consumer goods, while Beijing is looking at U.S. energy, agricultural products and potentially medical devices.

There was no announced breakthrough, however, on some of the much larger outstanding disputes, including Chinese rare-earth flows, additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods or Boeing aircraft. Advanced AI-chip export restrictions were also not part of Sunday's AI discussion.

Perhaps more revealing was how little Beijing itself said about AI. Xinhua described the talks as "candid, in-depth and constructive" before relegating the subject to the final sentence of its brief readout: "They also held dialogues on AI-related issues."

Chinese state media Xinhua has a very brief report on the Bessent and He Lifeng meeting in New York.

AI only mentioned in last line: “They also held dialogues on AI-related issues.” pic.twitter.com/HsUQmdujJ3

— Kyle Chan (@kyleichan) September 21, 2026

But Xi is also heading to Washington against a considerably different geopolitical backdrop than the one surrounding Trump's May visit to Beijing.

For starters, two of China's most attractive sources of discounted crude have been sharply constrained. Venezuela had become an important supplier of cheap heavy crude to Chinese refiners, but those flows fell dramatically after Washington's intervention in the country's oil trade earlier this year. As we noted at the time, Chinese refiners initially compensated by increasing purchases of heavily discounted Iranian barrels.

Meanwhile, the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran's oil exports disrupted shipments to Asia and left tens of millions of barrels in transit or floating storage. As we reported in July, roughly 63 million barrels of Iranian crude were at one point either moving or idling aboard tankers as sanctions pressure intensified. That does not mean China is running out of oil. Beijing accumulated large inventories and can source replacement barrels elsewhere, but the combination of reduced Venezuelan flows and disrupted Iranian supply has diminished some of the cheap-energy advantage Chinese refiners previously enjoyed.

Russia can fill part of that gap, but its own energy infrastructure remains under pressure from Ukrainian long-range attacks on refineries, export terminals and storage facilities. Earlier this month, Goldman estimated that the attacks had taken roughly 300,000 barrels per day of Russian refining capacity offline during August and early September. China has also encountered setbacks around another strategic chokepoint. Panama's Supreme Court voided Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison's concessions to operate the Balboa and Cristobal ports at opposite ends of the Panama Canal. As we noted in January, the ruling stripped the legal basis from a China-linked operator at two port facilities adjoining one of the world's most important shipping routes.

Then there is Greenland. Washington announced Friday that it had reached a security agreement intended to guarantee a long-term U.S. role on the island while preventing Russia, China and other non-NATO countries from establishing military bases there. The arrangement would strengthen the U.S. position in an Arctic region that both Washington and Beijing increasingly view as strategically important. On Monday, Denmark confirmed that the Trump-Greenland deal would boost arctic security. 

The political landscape across parts of Latin America has shifted as well. Reuters described Colombia's June election of Abelardo De La Espriella as part of a broader regional movement to the right that has also included Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.

Brazil is now the major unresolved contest. As we noted last week, Polymarket pricing recently moved in favor of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Prediction-market prices are not opinion polls, however, and Monday's BTG Pactual/Nexus survey showed Lula at 46% and Bolsonaro at 45% in a hypothetical runoff, within the survey's margin of error.

Markets, meanwhile, entered the weekend already showing signs of pressure. According to Newsquawk, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield closed Friday 6.5bps higher at 5.004%, while the two-year rose 7.5bps to 4.745%, producing a modest bear flattening of the curve.

Yet Xi is hardly arriving in Washington without leverage of his own.

China still controls roughly 70% of global rare-earth mining and more than 85% of refining capacity, leaving Beijing with substantial influence over supply chains critical to U.S. autos, semiconductors, aerospace and defense. As we noted this weekend, disrupted Chinese yttrium shipments alone have already forced Western aerospace, energy and semiconductor companies to scramble for alternatives. Beijing also retains enormous manufacturing capacity, large accumulated energy inventories and considerable purchasing power over everything from American agricultural commodities to aircraft.

In other words, Thursday's summit is taking shape less as a grand reconciliation than an attempt by two heavily intertwined rivals to fence off portions of the relationship before the next confrontation.

Washington arrives with greater influence over Venezuelan oil flows, intensified pressure on Iran's exports, a strengthened strategic position around Greenland and reduced China-linked influence around the Panama Canal, while the political map across portions of Latin America has changed considerably.

Beijing arrives with its own formidable counters: dominant critical-mineral supply chains, a resilient manufacturing and export base, substantial energy reserves and enormous leverage as a buyer of U.S. goods. Oh, and let's not forget - open-weight AI models that have completely upended the frontier AI model. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 12:00

Bitcoin Soars Above $85k (Jan Highs) As Saylor Sees Clarity Act Collapse 'A Win'

Bitcoin has surged above $85,000 this morning for the first time since late-January...

The rally comes alongside advances in stocks and bonds, as falling oil prices and optimism ahead of a summit between US President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are buoying markets more broadly. Rival digital assets have also bounced.

Ether, the second-largest token, has spiked up to almost $2750, while other cryptocurrencies including XRP, Solana and Monero also posted gains...

Bitcoin’s gains build upon a recovery that began late last week, when crypto absorbed the failure of the landmark Clarity Act (up around 14% since) to establish a clearer understanding of industry regulation as well the Fed's first interest-rate increase in more than three years.

“Financial markets have rediscovered a risk-on frame of mind after being consumed with worry about government bond yields, debt piles and the prospect of a return to tighter policy at the world’s most powerful central bank,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at investing and trading platform IG.

A green light on Thursday from the Securities and Exchange Commission for digital versions of securities to start trading in the US helped to brighten the mood. 

Interestingly, Bitcoin treasury founder and pioneer Michael Saylor has said that the blockage of the Clarity Act is actually good for the digital asset space. 

Writing on X on Saturday, the Strategy founder and chair said that legislation can make restrictions permanent just as easily as rights. 

The Digital Assets industry is better off moving forward with supportive rules from the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and banking regulators than accepting the restrictions in the final CLARITY compromise. We have an administration willing to modernize financial markets. We should use the next two years to put better financial products into people’s hands.

Our safest path forward is to create products that delight customers and deploy them broadly. Lower costs, easier access, useful services, and greater control over money give people a direct interest in preserving innovation. The strongest constituency we can build is a public that benefits from what we create.

Legal certainty matters. So does the freedom to compete. A law can make a restriction durable just as easily as it can make a right durable. Before celebrating permanence, we should examine what we are making permanent.

The September CLARITY compromise would have restricted covered providers from paying customers simply for holding payment stablecoins, while allowing qualifying activity rewards. It also would have directed Treasury to restrict certain rewards upon specified findings of substantial, detrimental deposit transfers from community banks.

Protecting a bank from a liquidity crisis and protecting it from a better competitor are different objectives. Financial stability requires sound oversight. Competition requires that customers be free to choose a better service. When technology reduces the cost of delivering financial services, consumers should share in the savings.

Read more here...

Additionally, Saylor’s Strategy purchased Bitcoin for the first time in three weeks, acquiring $75.7 million of the original cryptocurrency after seeking to rebuild investor confidence by reshaping its balance sheet and building out reserves.

The original Bitcoin treasury company - co-founded and run by Saylor - also repurchased $174 million of its STRC perpetual preferred shares, part of its effort to lift the price above par so that the securities can be used again to finance future Bitcoin purchases. Cash was used to fund both transactions, Strategy said in a filing on Monday. The preferred trade just below $99.

Strategy is now (846,002) just 1363 BTC below its all time high holdings from June 22 when it was 847,365...

“The crypto market capitalization has risen to $2.8T, its highest level since the end of January this year,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro chief market analyst.

“Although Friday’s rally was followed by increased selling pressure, buyers have once again been dominating the cryptocurrency market since Sunday.”

Bloomberg reports that bitcoin open interest on the options trading platform Deribit was heavily dominated by calls, signaling bullish sentiment. The platform showed more than 272,000 contracts for the right to buy the token compared with over 154,000 for puts, or the right to sell.

“Bitcoin options market is positioned to capture the upside,” said Pratik Kala, a portfolio manager at digital-asset hedge fund Apollo Crypto.

“People are repositioning from downside protection to wanting to capture the upside.”

But not all traders are convinced the momentum can last given the difficult macroeconomic headwinds, with crude oil still above $100 a barrel and US Treasury yields elevated.

Bitcoin is well off its 2026 high of over $97,000 in mid-January, and even further from its October record. Retail enthusiasm has also proven hard to rekindle as artificial intelligence stocks and other AI-linked trades compete for the same pool of speculative capital.

“For this week, there aren’t any big catalysts to watch out for per se, but any hawkish or dovish remarks by Fed officials could impact the market,” said Jeff Mei, chief operating officer of BTSE.

 Finally, we note that ETF inflows have re-accelerated...

Various investor cohorts also returned to aggregate profit, including Bitcoin corporate treasuries, holdings of which have a cost basis of around $80,500. Now, price is approaching its cost basis for investors in US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Per data by onchain analytics platform Glassnode, this cost basis currently sits at $85,638...

In a departure from the norm, the largest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), did not account for the lion’s share of inflows. Instead, most investors piled into Fidelity Investments’ Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which accounted for $310 million of the total. In their analysis of recent market developments, the onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant discussed this change in ETF netflow composition. 

“The key change is therefore not simply positive ETF activity, but a clear redistribution of flow leadership: IBIT went from dominating FBTC by nearly six times on September 3 to FBTC recording almost three times IBIT’s holdings netflow on September 18,” CryptoQuant stated in a blog post.

After reacting positively to the announcement of US bond-market interventions in August, Bitcoin market participants continue to monitor any events surrounding yields. In a report for CME on Sept. 16, Jim Iuorio, CEO of JI Financial Strategies, argued that interventions may represent a liquidity tailwind for Bitcoin and crypto markets.

“Perhaps markets viewed these actions as being dollar-negative, pushing money back into dollar hedges like gold and Bitcoin,” he said.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 11:45

Denmark Confirms Trump-Greenland Deal Would Boost Arctic Security

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A top Danish official said on Sept. 19 that an agreement announced by U.S. President Donald Trump for the United States to handle security for Greenland would lead to a better outcome in the region.

Both Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous island that is Danish territory, expressed hope that the deal would end any uncertainty regarding the island's security.

On Sept. 19, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that the deal between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States could be signed this week, which comes as foreign delegations head to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.

"Next week could be a good week - for Greenland, Denmark, and the USA alike," he said in a statement posted to social media.

"A time of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic - and thereby our shared security within NATO and Europe - while respecting the Kingdom's red lines.

"This is important at a time when the security landscape, including in the Arctic, has changed."

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement last week that the proposed deal "recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination."

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen indicated that the deal would provide a favorable outcome for Greenland's residents.

"[It is] an agreement that at the same time recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination," Frederiksen said in a statement.

Trump on Sept. 18 wrote on Truth Social that the United States, under the deal, would be responsible for security over Greenland, an Arctic island in the North Atlantic, on a permanent basis.

"At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America," Trump said.

As part of the deal, no U.S. adversary such as China or Russia would be able to have a base in Greenland, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Fox News interview.

Trump also wrote that the United States will now start the process of implementing a military presence around Greenland and will work with residents of the island on its development. Previous U.S. presidents were aware of Greenland's strategic importance, he added.

With his return to the White House in 2025, Trump initially called on Denmark to sell the island to the United States and said Greenland is crucial to U.S. security, which prompted criticism from European Union leaders and individual nations. At one point, Trump warned that Denmark could face a 25 percent import tax on goods unless it ceded the island to U.S. control.

Denmark and Greenland repeatedly stated that the island is not for sale, even as Trump said the island is needed to deal with military threats posed by Russia and China.

Last March, Vice President JD Vance visited American troops at the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, where he argued that Denmark was failing to protect and invest in the island amid Russian and Chinese threats.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/21/2026 - 11:40