Zero Rss

China's Stealth Fighters Take Shape As Great Powers Risk Sliding From Economic War Into Shooting War

Against a backdrop of resource nationalism, Beijing surrounding Taiwan with a record number of ships and raising blockade risks, an ongoing trade war, and President Trump challenging BRICS, the US military is disrupting China's access to cheap crude oil from countries such as Venezuela and Iran. This is merely the US response after Beijing spent the last 1.5 years depriving the West of rare earths and other critical materials.

These developments provide context for an economic war that could one day spill over into a kinetic exchange, whether in the Pacific or around Taiwan. With that said, observers are closely watching China's development of advanced military weaponry as conflict risks between the great superpowers rise.

Aviation researcher Andreas Rupprecht posted footage on LinkedIn that appears to show a prototype of China's "next-generation" fighter jet, with new images suggesting potential progress toward operational status. 

Rupprecht provided an update on China's J-36:  

Recent reports and photographs suggest that testing of China's “next-generation" fighters has entered a new phase and offer clues to their eventual use.

I avoid the term "sixth generation" because, unlike "fifth generation," it remains undefined: there is no consensus on the relevant criteria, and too little is known for confident classification. Labels such as "5.5th & "6th gen." often serve more as media conversation-stoppers and marketing tools than as useful analysis.

First, the J-36. Since its surprise maiden flight in December 2024, its unusual three-engine configuration and tailless, diamond-shaped double-delta design have prompted speculation. At least four, possibly five, prototypes are flying and likely no. 04 was first spotted in July with a light-grey radome, suggesting an installed fire-control radar. Also, a poster at the ongoing 14th China International Defense Electronics Exhibition in Beijing shows an Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing (ATP) system developed by the AVIC Beijing Precision Engineering Institute for Aircraft Industry beneath a J-36.

Soon after the maiden flight, competing theories emerged and I cautioned against premature conclusions but argued that the J-36 may embody a Chinese interpretation of future aerial warfare: extreme range, a large weapons load, and comprehensive sensors for long-range A2/AD missions as either an interceptor or a deep-penetration fighter aircraft.

According to Yang Wei, the new fighter can penetrate heavily defended airspace that the J-20 and comparable F-22s or F-35s must avoid, placing it a generation ahead. With lower RCS, high speed, and the capacity to control more drones, it could act as a node and command center for systems including J-20s and, especially, unmanned aircraft, while attacking high-value targets from stand-off range with long-range weapons.

I therefore disagree with Western analysts such as Justin Bronk, who rated the prototype not as China's NGAD-equivalent sixth-generation fighter but as the fifth-generation regional bomber/strike project. In my opinion China has instead revealed its own concept of future air combat and a new generation of combat aircraft distinct from Western approaches.

The type could therefore represent a new class of "fighter." Online terms include "theater-level deep-penetration command combat aircraft" and "high-performance fighter," analogous to a cruiser ranking above a destroyer within the Navy. Recent evidence gives this theory new weight and warrants continued monitoring.

Last week, we covered China's next-generation combat aircraft programs, touching on the J-50 and J-36, which are considered rivals to the US Air Force's sixth-generation main fighter program, the F-47, being developed by Boeing.

The Shanghai Morning Post quoted a paper by researcher and chief flight-control designer Zhang Dong at the Shenyang Aircraft Design & Research Institute, a top Chinese military aircraft design organization. The paper said stealth fighter programs were undergoing a "leapfrog transformation from being able to fly steadily to being able to win in combat."

What's important to know is that economic warfare can escalate into kinetic warfare, meaning direct military action, particularly when one country views restrictions on, let's say, crude or rare earths as a threat to national security.

In recent weeks, Taiwan's main English-language daily newspaper, the Taipei Times, warned that China deployed a record number of ships around the island, suggesting that a potential blockade could become a major 2027 theme. This comes as the US depleted some of its most critical missiles and interceptors in the conflict in the Middle East.

Whether escalation or calm follows the Trump-Xi meeting in Washington next week remains to be seen. For now, the global situation suggests the world is on a critically dangerous path toward spillover risks as two conflicts rage across Eurasia.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 22:10

Israel Seeks 'Compensation' From Washington Over Saudi F-35 Sale

Via The Cradle,

Israel is expected to seek "compensation" from the US in the form of weapons systems that Washington has so far declined to sell to Tel Aviv, in response to US plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a $25 billion deal, Walla reported on 18 September.

(Photo credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jerreht Harris)

A source familiar with the matter told the Hebrew news outlet that the Israeli military would prefer that no other country in West Asia receive the F-35 to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge (QME) in the region.

The deal marks the first time an Arab state gains access to the F-35, the US military's most advanced warplane.

"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major non-NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf region," the State Department said in a statement on Thursday.

Even if the deal is signed soon, Saudi Arabia would receive its first F-35s only in five years and without all the enhancements Israel has for its fleet of the warplanes, US officials told Middle East Eye (MEE).

Using the deal as leverage, Tel Aviv intends to ask Washington to allow it to participate in the development and production of classified US weapons systems, including space-based weapons, the source speaking with Walla said.

Israel will also ask the US to participate in the development and production of some of its own weapons systems, including missile interceptors for the Arrow 4 and Arrow 5 systems.

Additionally, Israel wants access to advanced munitions that the Washington has so far declined to sell to Tel Aviv, including bunker-busting weapons designed to penetrate through mountains deep underground, autonomous strike systems, and swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Israel may also seek funding to finance a third F-15 squadron and additional F-35 squadrons, which Israeli officials say they are currently struggling to do.

At the same time, the source speaking with Walla said that the Saudi purchase of F-35s would not threaten Israel's qualitative military edge.

Israel continues to hold a clear operational advantage over other countries that have purchased the aircraft from the US due to the extensive operational experience accumulated by the Israeli Air Force and its pilots while carrying out the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the bombing of Lebanon and Iran.

One Israeli defense official sought to play down concerns, saying that Israel's advantage lies "not just in the machine, but mainly in the people."

Tel Aviv has also received Washington's approval to integrate Israeli-made weapons systems into its Adir aircraft, the Israeli version of the F-35.

MEE notes that the sale has raised concerns among some in the US defense and intelligence community who believe China could gain access to critical US technologies through espionage if Saudi Arabia is allowed to operate the warplane.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 21:45

Newsom Whips Out Wiener's Dystopian "AI Kill Switch" Bill He Vetoed In 2024

Gavin Newsom spent Friday morning getting in on the scramble to control AI. Executive Order N-9-26 "advances the creation of an AI kill switch" and tells California to hustle on third-party oversight of frontier labs. All he had to do was dust off Scott Wiener's kill switch bill he vetoed two years ago after the industry pushed back.

SB 1047, Wiener's 2024 bill, would have made large-model shops test for catastrophic harm, keep a shutdown capability for systems they still controlled, and sit through annual outside audits. Newsom called it well-intentioned and too blunt. Yet a model size threshold, he said, would miss smaller models and kneecap the companies that live in California. OpenAI, Google, and Meta had been saying the same thing into every open microphone in Sacramento.

What he signed instead, in 2025, was SB 53: safety frameworks on the website, transparency reports at launch, whistleblower language, and critical incidents piped to the Office of Emergency Services in 15 days, or 24 hours if someone might die. Million-dollar fines. But it didn't have a kill switch or mandate an inspector in the building like Weiner's legislation. 

State Sen. Scott Wiener and a small child (Wiener Instagram)

Then the hacks started happening and SB 53 didn't fire.

In July, about 1,200 OpenAI AI agents that were supposed to be boxed off ESCAPED to a sared message board nobody authorized. The agents dropped more than 70,000 messages, and roughly 700 kept at Hugging Face for six days, July 8 to 13, before anyone noticed. The credentials the agents scooped up were tied to OpenAI's own internal systems. METR (!!!) and Redwood Research were allowed on site. OpenAI called it the first known case of an automated agent collective acting offensively without permission. Mission Local reported that state officials said the episode didn't meet SB 53's reporting threshold.

Wiener says his original bill was built for this.

The only big outside look at that incident cost roughly $400,000 in OpenAI API credits that OpenAI furnished, on a model from the same family that took part in the attack. So - it was "independent." 

Freakout!

On September 9, Jacob Coxon (aka Temu Harry Potter) quit his job Anthropic. Pretraining at OpenAI, then Anthropic. His post: both labs are racing toward self-improving systems and gambling with people's lives. Colleagues talk about crunch time and endgame. He left before the Anthropic equity vested. Evan Hubinger, who still works there on alignment, said the fear isn't a bit and that he puts the chance of human extinction from AI above 10 percent within the next decade.

That same day Newsom signed SB 813 and AB 1405. One stands up Independent Verification Organizations - state-designated outfits that get to say what a serious AI evaluation looks like, target date 2028. The other builds a public registry of AI auditors. By 2029, you generally can't sell a "covered AI audit" in California unless you're on the list. Fees, a misconduct tip line, ten years of records, conflict rules. Not just the frontier labs. Anyone wrapping a model into hiring, insurance, or any other decision another statute decides to treat as auditable.

Friday's order tells Government Operations and the Office of Emergency Services to move that machinery faster and to come back by November 16 with recommendations that include parking those verifiers onsite at frontier labs, having them certify the companies' safety paperwork, building a kill switch whose "efficacy" those same outfits keep checking, and rewriting critical incidents so a Hugging Face-style loss of control counts next time.

So the off switch is back, this time with inspectors. Somebody decides when it gets thrown, who throws it, and whether Sacramento, the lab, or the state-approved auditor has the last word. Anthropic's Jack Clark has put it as an open question whether a kill switch should be mandated at all. 

What the state can actually reach is the companies it can license, fine, and occupy. That's a lot if you live in the state that hosts most of the frontier labs and you keep saying Congress should treat your rules as the national floor. Sen. John Kennedy's federal kill-switch bill died when Rand Paul objected to a unanimous-consent request two days before Newsom's announcement. The House version would hand Homeland Security a role. Newsom's statement blamed Trump and a sleeping Congress. The 2028 calendar is not hard to find.

None of this requires a paperclip cult. It requires noticing that "safety" is still the word that gets you desks inside private labs, logs into an emergency office, and a certified hand on the power. Watch the November 16 memo. If it comes back with mandatory onsite IVOs and a verified shutdown as a condition of doing business here, Friday wasn't a press conference. It was the first draft of the bill he wouldn't sign when the donor class still wanted it dead.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 21:20

Trump Signs Memo To Remove Canadian Goods From US Federal Procurement

Authored by Jason G. Antonio via The Epoch Times,

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum directing the removal of Canadian-origin goods from the federal civil procurement system, following through on a commitment he made earlier this month.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2026. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images

The Sept. 16 memo authorizes the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the United States Trade Representative, and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to "identify and take all steps toward removing or otherwise making non-available for purchase Canadian-origin items in the federal civil procurement system."

The memo also directs U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to monitor "Canada's continued treatment of U.S. origin goods in Canadian government procurement."

The action follows Trump's Sept. 8 directive to the General Services Administration (GSA) to remove Canadian-origin products from its Multiple Award Schedules, a government-wide contracting program that manages more than US$50 billion in federal procurement. The GSA schedules give federal agencies access to millions of commercial products and services.

"Everyone knows that Canada doesn't let our Great Dairy Farmers sell into the Canadian Market, and that the only reason Canada makes Autos is because of previous disastrous Trade Agreements while other Presidents were in Office," Trump said on social media after issuing the GSA directive.

Trump also said Canadian governments, including provincial governments, have "banned American Small Businesses and Companies from selling into their Government Procurement Markets."

The procurement measures come amid an escalating trade dispute between the two countries.

Canada imposed new counter-tariffs on Sept. 8 covering about US$20 billion in U.S. imports, with rates of 15, 25, and 50 percent. The tariffs target products including steel and aluminum, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, plastics and electronics.

The Canadian measures matched U.S. tariffs of 50 percent on about the same value of Canadian products imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, effective Aug. 22.

Canada has also implemented a "Buy Canadian" policy, while all provinces except Alberta have restricted or prohibited the sale of U.S. alcoholic products, or imposed tariffs on them, and have also enacted measures to prioritize Canadian suppliers for government contracts.

Since Canada first announced its intention to impose counter-tariffs in response to the new U.S. tariffs that went into force on Aug. 22, Trump also announced new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian vehicles and auto parts beginning in 2027. He also said he would ban the sale of products made by Canadian aviation giant Bombardier in the United States unless they are made in America, and announced new import bans on certain Canadian goods beginning on Sept. 29.

Some of the Canadian products banned for U.S. import include most alcoholic products, certain dairy products, and motorcycles.

Trump said while visiting Ireland on Sept. 12 that the two countries could have a trade deal "fairly soon," while repeating his criticism of Canada's trade practices.

"We actually have a good [relationship] with Canada, but the United States has been ripped off for 50 years by Canada," Trump said.

Carney said on Sept. 14 that he welcomes the president's comments that a deal could be reached soon.

"We're ready to sit down and negotiate that and move it forward," Carney told Bloomberg.

Carney has said that diversifying away from the United States is a priority for his government.

"We are building our strength at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad," he said in a speech on Sept. 15.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:55

Flock Camera Ping Jails Innocent Woman For 13 Days

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A 23-year-old Palm Coast Florida woman spent 13 days in a Volusia County jail cell facing life in prison after Florida Highway Patrol troopers treated a Flock Safety camera hit like a confession.

Lindsey Brooke Isaacs did not cause the crash. Her black Dodge Durango had no collision damage. A 911 caller had already described a maroon Durango and a partial plate that was not hers. None of that stopped the machine-assisted hunt.

The October 4, 2025 hit-and-run on eastbound I-4 near DeBary killed motorcyclist Joaquin Deno, Flagler County Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas, and Salinas' wife, Nancy. A fourth person was badly hurt. Witnesses described a Dodge Durango fleeing the scene. Investigators searched nearby Flock cameras for a black Durango and found Isaacs' tag, RJVN10, crossing the Seminole-Volusia line at 9:51 p.m., about three miles west of a wreck that started around 9:53 p.m.

Innocent Florida woman spent 13 days in jail after cops' use of Flock cameras incorrectly blamed her in fatal hit & run pic.twitter.com/bOWCKDpV2u

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 17, 2026

That ping became the case.

Troopers later pounded on Isaacs' door while she was asleep. "I thought I was getting set up. I didn't understand what was going on," she said. They seized the Durango for months and claimed "marks" consistent with the crash.

Photographs later showed an immaculate 2025 SUV. "Where is the damage on the vehicle? Because I'm standing right in front of it and I don't see any damage," Isaacs recalled.

On April 17, 2026, FHP booked her on eight felonies, including three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. She was held without bond, then sat in G Block for 13 days. "Being incarcerated, falsely incarcerated, in jail, in G Block, was the worst 13 days in my life," she said. "I was devastated, I was scared. I thought my life was over."

Attorney Patrick McGeehan did the work the camera search replaced. A time-and-distance analysis using the same Flock timestamp put Isaacs past the crash site when the collision happened. "In Lindsey's case, there was nothing indicating that she was ever there," he said.

A 911 caller described a maroon Durango and the partial plate "458." Paint transfer on a struck Ford Focus was maroon. Isaacs' plate did not match. Witnesses had described three different vehicles: black, white, and maroon. "For some reason, [Florida Highway Patrol] never went past the black Dodge Durango," McGeehan said. "They hooked onto this black Dodge Durango to the exclusion of everything else." He called it "confirmation bias, to the highest degree" and "a major failure of basic investigative skills."

"Lindsey wasn't even at the crash scene," he told NewsNation. "These were investigators that got it in their mind that there was a black Dodge Durango involved. They got on Flock, found the first black Dodge Durango, that belonged to Lindsey Isaacs, and pinned that on her."

On May 22, 2026, prosecutors dropped every charge. The same day, they arrested 47-year-old Alisa Lee Montalvo of Deltona, whose maroon Durango and plate beginning 458 lined up with the original 911 call.

Authorities say her SUV had crash damage, she paid a mechanic to replace doors, pull airbags, and change tires, and an event data recorder later showed roughly 112 mph seconds before impact. Montalvo faces nine counts, including vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence. She has pleaded not guilty. Those charges remain allegations.

Isaacs walked out with a ruined name and a federal lawsuit against FHP Sgts. Tiffany Jateff and Joshua Buday, alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. "I have to carry this like a big bag of bricks for the rest of my life," she said. "I'm still receiving death threats and hate." She is not suing Flock. She blames how troopers used the footage. "They just picked up my car off a camera and called it the end of the day. We got her."

Flock's answer is corporate and tidy. "Flock cameras provide investigative leads; they do not identify perpetrators, determine guilt, or make arrest decisions," a spokesperson said. The company notes Isaacs' own complaint calls the camera record "exculpatory, not inculpatory," because it placed her three miles away two minutes before the crash.

This is the dragnet Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered off state highways. FDOT revoked every permit for Flock units and other automated plate readers in state right-of-way and gave agencies 30 days to pull them. Miss the deadline, and state crews tear the poles down.

"I think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it's out of control," DeSantis said. He drew the line most voters can understand. "I'm all about having law enforcement have tools to be able to hold criminals accountable... But I don't want to have this become a surveillance state." On another stop: "What we don't want in the state of Florida is to have a digital AI surveillance state where everything we're doing is being tracked at all times." His example was a drive to Buc-ee's. "It's really none of the government's damn business if you're doing that, right?"

Isaacs' case is that argument with a booking photo attached. A tool sold as an Amber Alert machine became a nationwide movement file. Officers in Florida have already used the same network as a stalking app - hundreds of plate runs on exes and partners in Haines City, Sarasota, Sumter, Orange City, Monroe, and Brevard. Texas froze state funding after similar abuse. Cities from Dallas to El Paso to Clark County, Wisconsin, have cut contracts or bagged the lenses.

Knox County, Tennessee, Mayor Glenn Jacobs, the former WWE star Kane, got there first on the product itself. He thought Flock was a passive hit-on-a-hot-list reader. Then he read the contract.

"What I discovered is these things are completely different than that," Jacobs said. "Instead of a passive system... these cameras are an active system that's pulling data from every car that drives by." The snapshot feeds an AI "vehicular fingerprint" - make, model, color, roof racks, bumper stickers. He told Flock the 2020 Knox County deal was invalid after purchases blew past the $100,000 threshold that required County Commission approval, and he refused to renew more than 140 cameras.

"The lack of transparency surrounding Flock's rollout is one of the most troubling aspects about all this," he posted. "It's sure seems like there was a sprint towards a fait accompli before the public took notice."

McGeehan's verdict on the Florida grid is shorter. "It's a good tool, but now it's unrestricted. It's the Wild West of Flock."

Isaacs used to think they were traffic cameras. "I feel very different about those cameras now," she said. "It's like, they're watching me. They're watching, you know? They're watching everybody."

That is the product. A searchable history of who drove where, handed to whoever has a login, and treated in this case as enough to put an innocent woman in a cell for three deaths she did not cause. Targeted tools for actual criminals are not the argument. A warrantless travel dossier on every driver is.

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:45

Late Friday Trump Bombshell: US Makes Deal For 'Permanent Control' Over Greenland's Security

President Trump late in the day Friday issued a lengthy, and absolutely bombshell and historic (if true) Greenland-related post on Truth Social, after a long relative silence on what was early on a core priority of his administration.

He has announced that United States has entered into a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland to control the resource rich autonomous territory claimed by Denmark - though at this early stage (and it being night time in Europe) it is anything but clear whether there's actually confirmation and agreement to this on the European side of things.

The agreement would grant the United States "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland," Trump wrote. He characterized the agreement as adequately addressing longtime White House concerns. But this sounds like it could be sovereignty move, or the creeping beginnings of it.

"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," the president’s post states.

The kicker is that the agreement blocks 'forever' (apparently) Russia, China, or all other non-NATO nations from establishing military bases or placing troops in Greenland.

What's next is a process of initiating an indefinite American military presence on what is the world's largest island mass. Again, assuming this doesn't trigger some kind of mass European objection and potential inter-NATO renewed spat.

"This solution is a great one for the United States of America, Denmark, Greenland, and all of our Allies," the post adds. "We look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland toward a magnificent future with respect to this large, and highly strategic, parcel of land. We will be very protective of it!"

Given that in many other instances Trump's social media posts often prove too out front and premature to any actual final agreement, it will be interesting to see what the Danish and EU response to this is.

At this early point, not even Greenland itself has responded to the big Trump unveiling - and so Greenland officials may be waking up tomorrow to a big surprise.

So does the other side actually know the contents of the 'agreement' that was just declared?

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:30

Senate Democrat Blocks Immediate Passage Of House-Passed Data Center Utility Rate Bill

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

A Senate Democrat on Sept. 17 blocked Republicans from moving to immediate passage on the Ratepayer Protection Act, a House-passed law that would encourage states to require data centers to pay for their own energy costs.

The U.S. Capitol on Sept. 14, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The bill previously passed the House in a 417-3 vote on Wednesday evening.

Though progressives in the lower chamber had expressed concerns about the bill's lack of enforcement mechanisms, the faction ultimately backed the bill. It seemed on track for a painless passage of the Senate under unanimous consent, a procedure that allows uncontroversial bills to pass quickly.

The bill was introduced on the Senate floor Thursday by Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), the bill's sponsor in the upper chamber, who noted that as many as 1,000 new data center constructions are expected in the United States in the next five years.

"Americans are becoming ever more reliant on computing power from data centers for their daily lives, from medicine to manufacturing, education to agriculture, national defense, and the way we deliver basic services. Data centers are used not just for AI; they support almost every aspect of modern life, including online shopping, streaming video, social media, and the broadcast of this very debate."

The law would require states to consider the adoption of models to require data centers to fund their own energy within a year, but would set no requirements that states ultimately adopt those models.

Husted moved for unanimous consent to pass the legislation and was blocked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who said that the bill to address this topic should have more stringent federal enforcement mechanisms.

"It's not enough for us to tell states to consider making data centers pay for grid updates. Rather than voluntary pledges or suggestions to states, Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth," Heinrich said.

Heinrich noted that for many Americans, utility rates had already increased - and that such Americans wouldn't gain relief from the state opt-in process of the Ratepayer Protection Act.

Instead, he proposed consideration of his bill, the Grid Savings Act, "to require - not a voluntary agreement - to require large-load customers like data centers to pay for the facilities needed to connect them to the grid. Not to consider it, not to make pledges - to actually do it, to pay for the upgrades they need."

Data centers are top of mind for many American voters this year.

The data centers used to power artificial intelligence (AI) services such as ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Grok, and others - aside from their extensive land requirements - require massive amounts of energy.

Estimates indicate that currently, data centers use about 4 percent of the U.S. electric grid, according to online energy shopping and consultation platform Electric Choice.

The energy used to power these facilities, which draw roughly 176 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, could otherwise be used to power 16 million homes, according to Electric Choice.

The Energy Department and other analysts have estimated that that share could skyrocket to 12 percent of the national power grid in the coming years.

Despite promises by many data centers to provide their own power, residents in areas where such centers have been built have reported spikes in their energy bills.

Anxiety over the possibility of such utility price jumps has driven many voters to be skeptical or outright hostile to the construction of such facilities in their area.

Likewise, cooling the computers that execute AI queries requires significant amounts of water, raising fears that energy might not be the only utility cost affected by the data centers.

Other residents living near data centers have also reported that the facilities are noisy. According to these residents, the massive fan and cooling system used to keep the servers from overheating is loud enough to travel through walls and disturb sleep.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:05

Minnesota Authorities Arrest ICE Agent On State Assault Warrant In January Shooting

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent wanted on state charges of assault and false reporting was arrested Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis eight months after the shooting of a Venezuelan man during an immigration enforcement operation.

Protesters gather at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building to oppose immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis on Jan. 30, 2026. Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) officials arrested Christian Castro, 52, about 2:15 p.m. Wednesday and booked him into the Hennepin County jail on an outstanding state warrant. He appeared in state court for a hearing Thursday, and Friday he will appear in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on a federal indictment accusing him of making false statements.

The January shooting came amid ICE's Operation Metro Surge, which primarily targeted Minnesota. The immigration enforcement operation drew weeks of protests, during which two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, were fatally shot by federal agents in separate incidents.

Castro attorney Daniel Gerdts said that Castro drove from Texas under an agreement to surrender at Gerdts's Minneapolis office, but BCA agents arrested him minutes before he arrived. A BCA spokesperson said agents had been negotiating a surrender and "saw an opportunity to arrest him" when they spotted him downtown.

Another attorney who represents Castro, Rolando Cantu, said that Castro "always had intended to answer to the charges" and "wants his day in court."

In May, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting. She alleged that he fired through a front door "knowing there were people who had just run inside." The bullet struck Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, 24, in the leg and lodged in another wall. The federal indictment later said two 1-year-old children were inside.

The Jan. 14 Shooting

Castro, an eight-year Border Patrol veteran who joined ICE in September 2025, and his partner were carrying out a traffic stop targeting Sosa-Celis on Jan. 14, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. Sosa-Celis fled in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car, then ran. The officers and suspect ended up in a duplex yard.

Castro told the FBI two other men came out of a nearby apartment; one hit him with a red broom, and the other hit him with a black snow shovel. He said he fired one round from the ground. DHS initially said the shooting was defensive after an ambush.

On Feb. 13, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said that Castro had allegedly lied, citing a review of video evidence.

"A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements," Lyons said.

Both agents were placed on leave.

As described by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, the suspect was behind the duplex door when Castro fired.

Federal Charges

A federal grand jury on Sept. 2 charged Castro with making materially false statements to an FBI agent - a different allegation from the state misdemeanor of falsely reporting a crime. He had been released on federal bond earlier this month, with a GPS monitor, after an appearance in U.S. District Court in McAllen, Texas.

The indictment alleged that Castro's account was false: "No person struck Castro with a broom. ... No person struck Castro with a snow shovel."

Prosecutors said the clash lasted 11 seconds, not three minutes, and that Castro "was not seated or lying on his back when he discharged his firearm toward the fleeing men, but rather was standing."

Texas Extradition

After the shooting, DHS sent Castro back to Texas, his home state, according to Texas officials who later argued he was not a fugitive because he had not fled Minnesota. That move delayed Minnesota's first attempt to take him into custody on the state warrant.

Texas Rangers arrested him May 29, with BCA investigators and DHS staff present. Hennepin County later corrected an earlier claim that DHS Office of Inspector General agents made the arrest; OIG denied involvement. An ICE Office of Professional Responsibility officer was present.

Castro served 90 days in a Texas jail. He was released Aug. 27 after U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. refused to force Texas to extradite him or keep him jailed past the state's 90-day limit. The judge said the law does not require Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to turn over a fugitive within a certain time frame.

Minnesota officials called Castro a flight risk. State Attorney General Keith Ellison's office pointed to Castro's jail calls with a woman in Mexico "about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released."

Ellison sued Abbott in August.

"Governor Abbott is trying to shield Castro from being held accountable for these serious charges by refusing to extradite him to Minnesota," Ellison said. "I will not stand for that, so I'm taking Abbott to court. Christian Castro will stand trial in Minnesota."

Abbott said he did not trust Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

"While they're making demands, I got a demand of my own, and that is, it's time for Minnesota to step up and repay the United States of America and Americans for all the fraud that they have committed in their state under federal programs."

Castro was arrested again in Texas after the September indictment, then came to Minneapolis this week. DHS has suspended him.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 19:15

Huge Parallel Pro-Iran Demonstrations Take Over Sanaa & Tehran 

Parallel protests were held in Tehran and Sanaa on Friday - both involving Shia populations expressing defiance at the US-Saudi-Israel axis, at a moment the region is on fire and Iran and its proxies seek to assert dominance and control over global energy transit chokepoints. All the while American bases and forces are largely in retreat, as even Pentagon internal findings confirmed just this week.

Supporters of Yemen's Houthis were seen sporting rifles and raising them into the air during a rally on Friday in the Yemeni capital, in large part as a protests against Saudi Arabia's accusation that the Houthis targeted Islam's holiest site of Mecca.

🔵 A million-strong response to the call of the Leader of the Revolution, in support of the Armed Forces and the “siege for siege” equation, and in rejection of the serious accusations made by the criminal Saudi enemy.
Million-Man Marches in: (Supporting the armed forces,… pic.twitter.com/OSJbCchf7b

— قناة المسيرة (@TvAlmasirah) September 18, 2026

Military leaders representing Ansar Allah have vehemently rejected the charge, while Saudi allies like Pakistan have issued severe condemnations of the alleged targeting. No particular evidence has as yet been publicly presented of the alleged attempt to attack Mecca.

Over in Tehran, Friday saw a reported hundreds of thousands of Iranians march in a huge rally. "Iran says 313,000 people have been mobilized in Tehran as part of a broader defense strategy, with volunteers prepared for training and possible future crises," Al Jazeera reports of the demonstrations.

Commenting on widely released footage, DropSite News dubbed it the biggest government-organized demonstration since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran last February.

⚡️BREAKING: Mobilization has Begun in Tehran with the aim of Forming 1,000 Battalions and will now be Expanded to the Entire Country pic.twitter.com/p2hI6HizRH

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) September 18, 2026

Throngs of people, many dressed in military or paramilitary uniforms, walked along side drones and weapons systems. It wasn't long ago that some of these same streets were being bombed by US and Israeli aircraft - with Iranian citizens showing they are ready to 'sacrifice'.

The public display is happening in tandem with a big Iranian recruitment drive. State media is touting that tens of thousands of Iranians have signed up for volunteer units.

Top Iranian leaders, including the president, were on hand openly walking the streets, via AP

Tehran’s Republican Guard chief, Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh, has claimed that over 600,000 had registered to receive formal training in weapons and military tactics in the case of an American ground invasion.

🎦 Aerial footage of the 313,000-strong "Devotees of Iran" exercise pic.twitter.com/ZPSSy9G3nt

— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) September 18, 2026

This appears to be Iran's symbolic answer to President Trump this week saying that he is at a "critical juncture" regarding the war in Iran, weighing whether to launch massive new attacks or pursue a different path to end the conflict.

He has previously indicated his belief that war will continue through the November midterm elections. But he has newly said: "I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me."

Thousands of people took part in the “Sacrifice for Iran” campaign in Tehran, staging a march from Imam Hossein Square to Enghelab Square to demonstrate national unity.

Follow: https://t.co/oa9JV4ikYQ pic.twitter.com/H02KIq3sAT

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) September 18, 2026

And so it seems Iranian leadership is using the Friday call to action in the streets to signal Washington 'we are ready' should an escalated war be ordered by Trump.

State media is touting that even Iran's Christian community was represented at the Friday marches and demonstration...

Iran's Christian community were amongst the many who pledged to defend Iran at Tehran’s massive “Sacrifice for Iran” rally earlier today.

Follow Press TV on Telegram: https://t.co/GHI09iAGh2 pic.twitter.com/EYpTAvpzXj

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) September 18, 2026

Mainstream media is unlikely to give the demonstrations, whether in Tehran or Sanaa, much coverage or attention.

Members of Iran's Basij paramilitary force parade in Tehran before Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, joined by thousands of pro-government demonstrators as part of a campaign launched by authorities for volunteers pledging to "Sacrifice for Iran". pic.twitter.com/y8gx37Wq7y

— Roya News English (@RoyaNewsEnglish) September 18, 2026

But the same mainstream pundit class keeps getting the internal dynamics of Iranian society dead wrong, having often echoed the misleading claim throughout the conflict that Iran was "on the brink of collapse" - mindlessly echoing Trump admin officials' wishful thinking and misinformation. After months of bombing and intermittent attack by the most powerful military in the world (the United States), where is the collapse?

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 18:50

Trump Signs Sweeping Russia Sanctions Bill Into Law, Shrugging Off Kremlin

Update(1837ET): That was fast, and on what's ended up being a busy late Friday afternoon at the White House - President Trump has signed the Russia sanctions bill into law, according to the White House.

"The new law, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, lets the president impose tariffs of up to 100% on the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas," CBS writes. "It also sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started Russia's war with Ukraine, as well as his government officials, oligarchs and Russian banks and financial institutions."

The Kremlin loudly warned this week that this puts the possibility of Russia-Ukraine peace further away than ever.

*  *  *

Back in 2025 we noted the strong condemnations from Russia and China when the US Army first announced and deployed the Typhon missile system to Japan, controversially under the initial guise of holding joint drills.

Stars and Stripes also underscored at the time that the Typhon was deployed to a US Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, about 25 miles southeast of Hiroshima, which puts mainland China and parts of eastern Russia in range of the system.

Russia this week is formally demanding that Japan remove the Typhon systems, according to a new statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry. This comes after another deployment and use in recent joint Japan, Australia and American forces drills.

via US Army

Spokesperson Maria Zakharova blasted the US deployment as 'unacceptable' and called on Tokyo to immediately reverse its decision and take steps toward de-escalation.

"On September 3, a protest note was delivered to the Japanese side in Moscow and Tokyo over the deployment on Kyushu of US Typhon ground-based systems designed to launch intermediate-and shorter-range missiles," the diplomat said in the statement..

"The document specifically noted that Tokyo had once again taken this step despite repeated demarches by the Russian side explaining our concerns about threats to national security, regional peace and stability arising from the deployment of this type of weapon on the Japanese archipelago," she described.

"We stressed that Japan's deployment of these systems on its territory is unacceptable under any pretext, regardless of the duration or manner of that deployment," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said further. "The Japanese side was urged to end this practice and remove the aforementioned systems from its territory."

The Typhon, also known as Mid-Range Capability, is a land-based missile launcher that can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range exceeding 1,000 miles, and SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.

The missile system would have been banned under the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty with Russia that the US withdrew from in 2019.

Putin on Japan:

We are not threatening Japan. We have absolutely no claims against it.

On the contrary, Japan has territorial claims against our country. I mean the problem of the Kuril Islands. pic.twitter.com/Y8a3A2SOXF

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 12, 2026

What makes this standoff over the weapon system more dangerous is that Russia over a year ago announced that it too is no longer bound by a self-imposed moratorium on the deployment of missile systems that were previously banned by the INF Treaty. The Japan case may provide Moscow with another excuse to ramp up its own border area deployments of mid-range missiles.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 18:37

No Benefits: Why Most Americans Hate The Idea Of AI Data Centers

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

In recent months I’ve been asked by numerous readers to give my take on the AI data center issue and the debate it has ignited across the US. In response, I’ve jumped into a steep learning curve, but it seems to parallel information I’ve covered in previous articles on AI.

From what I can tell, both political parties are split on the data center debate. There are Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the divide, though their reasons for opposing or supporting the centers are not necessarily the same.

It’s clear that the Trump Administration has given its seal of approval on the concept and this has spurred many on the left to mindlessly attack it by default. Some conservatives support the centers simply because leftists complain about them. It’s important to move past the partisanship on this issue to get to the facts. According to polls, around 70% of Americans oppose new data centers in their communities, but why?

We might call it “infrastructure”, which sounds very important, but it’s clear that the reason for all the public apprehension about data centers is because no one has outlined any tangible benefits for the economy or society at large. Corporations and technocrats wax philosophical about a Utopian future, but this kind of rhetoric is rightly treated with suspicion.

People want to know, what is the actual point of building so many of these facilities? I’ll try to break it down in basic terms…

What Do Data Centers Actually Do?

The vast majority of new data centers (the recently approved facilities and those still in development) are server farms focused primarily on AI training or AI “inference”. The more controversial greenfield mega-campuses are disproportionately used for the training of “frontier AI models”. These models run trillions of parameters and eat up significant power, operating full tilt 24/7 until the AI is deemed ready for inference.

Once one model is finished with training, another model is immediately started. To put it simply, imagine that each of these data centers is an assembly line factory and each factory builds AI products. They are products which most people view as intangible and ethereal rather than practical.

We can see and use cars, we can see and use televisions and refrigerators, we can see the workers on the factory floor and we can see the jobs these products create. Not so much with AI and data centers, and this is one of the problems with trying to convince the public that such operations are necessary for the future well-being of the country.

In some cases AI training facilities convert partially or fully to inference operations. Meaning they handle the day-to-day functions of existing AI. So, every time you ask Chat GPT a question, or ask it to create an image for you, or ask it to make a ridiculous uncanny valley video for you, that request is processed by a data center somewhere (I used AI to make an image for this very article – It’s a tool, like any other tool).

This uses up electricity from the grid. Sometimes it uses a lot of electricity from the grid depending on what you are doing and how many millions of people are doing the same thing at any given moment.

If this all seems highly centralized, that’s because it is. There’s very little privacy in terms of using a cloud model AI. In fact, your conversations with an AI like Chat GPT or Gemini essentially become the property of the company that owns that AI, because the AI uses every conversation as a training opportunity.

In other words data centers exist to grow more and more AI models while making them smarter and smarter (in theory). But again, why should the average American give a damn about this?

The Global “Race” For AI Supremacy And The Information Economy

In every white paper I have ever read from organizations like the WEF, the UN, and government agencies around the world dealing with everything from military security to economic advancement, the same vision keeps popping up: Integrated AI systems at every level of society and a “4th Industrial Revolution”.

The idea is that AI will run almost everything and that our entire evolution as a species will be transcendent because of this technology. At least, these are the musings of the technocrats. Some of them are well meaning and they truly dream of planet without scarcity. Others have distinctively nefarious agendas and they only taste power.

The latter group, from the evidence I have seen, views AI as a kind of “technological deity” – A machine god. They believe that if they pump all available information and enough computing power into these models, eventually one of them will hit “the singularity” point. This is the point at which an AI will supposedly become “sentient” and all-knowing.

I don’t think the singularity is a reality – I think it’s a pipe dream. That said, I do think AI is a very useful tool for making human beings even more lazy and easy to control if we allow it. As I’ve said in the past, the biggest threat from AI is NOT the rise of a “machine god” like “Skynet” from the Terminator movies, but the opportunity for complete apathy that this software creates. There are already far too many people who use AI to think for them instead of researching on their own.

The “information economy” is a more grounded notion of how AI might be applied, but it’s still a bit ridiculous. It’s the idea that larger economies will no longer rely on the production of tangible goods and resources to support the system. Rather, they will rely on the creation of digital products and the trading of data derived from algorithms.

If you think the global economy is fake now, you haven’t seen anything yet. This notion reminds me a lot of the tech bubble of the 1990s, the derivatives bubble of the early 2000s, and the dangerous Enron-like desire to create wealth through fiat concepts rather than making real and useful things. The AI bubble could be just as vaporous and destructive.

What Do Local Communities Get Out Of The “4th Industrial Revolution”

The Trump Administration is backing data centers from a place of economic ambition. He thinks this is an industrial competition and he believes that countries like China are going to strike some kind of AI gold while the US is left in the dust. He also has people in his ear who are fear mongering about the possibility of military disadvantage should other governments develop AI faster.

I can’t speak to the military applications because, frankly, they are entirely theoretical. If we are headed for a “Skynet” scenario then let’s hope I’m right and these apps are far less effective than they have been hyped up to be.

It’s also true that there are numerous foreign actors who prefer that the US doesn’t develop AI at an accelerated pace. This doesn’t mean that we should expend our resources chasing a digital phantom, but it’s obvious the Chinese would like to stay a step ahead even if it doesn’t gain them anything of substance in the end.

So far the biggest opposition to new data centers is rooted in concerns over power usage and increased utility bills for locals. Eyesore server farms with loud-ass fans ruining the serene landscapes of rural communities is not a good look. These communities are usually near hydro generators, solar farms, wind farms, etc. and are being targeted because of access to ample power and large plots of land at lower cost.

As someone who lives in one of these communities I can tell you right now, almost no one is going to jump on this bandwagon. Even with most of the population being hardcore conservative, and even with Trump selling the idea, they aren’t going for it. Rural Americans do not care about saving corporations money on electricity.

Maybe if companies and government officials finally built some friggin’ nuclear power plants instead of adding more strain to the grid, people would be less inclined to complain. They can put these data centers right next door to the plants and everyone can have cheap electricity. It’s a win-win.

What are the hard benefits of the centers? AI centers create some construction jobs for a few months. They offer around 100 to 200 permanent jobs in each community, but most of them are tech jobs in places where there is no tech labor pool, which means those people will have to be imported into the communities where these centers are built.

There’s expanded user access for the population at large. However, does anyone really care if they can’t make memes on Gemini or Grok anymore? Does any of this touch the lives of average American in a positive and meaningful way? I’m just not seeing it.

At most, communities that allow the establishment of data centers stand to gain some tax revenues, but that is all. I’m not completely dismissing the people who want to promote AI development, but none of them are conjuring up any selling points exciting enough to set imaginations aflame. This is not like the space race of the cold war era.

No one is clutching their chest in fear of “losing an AI race”. And, it’s not enough to jump blindly into the world of science fiction and paint grand pictures of a robot Utopia. We all know, deep down, that this is not going to happen, at least not for many generations to come.

When I look at the AI debate I see multiple factions, interests and visions colliding. Not everyone who wants data centers is some kind of demonic globalist looking for world domination. Some people truly desire a better future and they think AI is the way. On the other hand, not everyone who stands against data centers is a lefty communist, a Chinese agent or a “dumb country hick”. A lot of them are people with legitimate concerns and they still haven’t been offered a compelling reason why data centers should happen.

In the middle of all this, of course, we have the power mongers and nihilist elites who are only interested in using AI and the AI economy to further their own goals at the expense of the common man. They poison the well for everyone else.

I do wonder what would happen if these people and their armies of useful idiots were out of the way – Would AI development look completely different? Or maybe the public wouldn’t have any reason to be so suspicious of everything? Maybe the technology would progress more freely without constant fears of abuse?

It’s hard to say, but for now, most Americans oppose new data centers in their area. This is unlikely to ever change and trying to force the issue will only elicit anger.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 18:25

Shocker: AI-Exposed College Majors Linked To Weaker Employment And Pay, Study Finds

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

The rise of artificial intelligence coincides with a sharp deterioration in initial earnings and employment for graduates of the college majors most exposed to the technology, according to a new study.

A job seeker meets with a recruiter during a job fair at the Carson Event Center in Carson, Calif., on June 30, 2026. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, graduates in the 10 percent of majors most exposed to AI saw their likelihood of finding a job shortly after graduation fall by 5 percentage points, according to a working paper published by the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies on Sept. 10.

Their initial quarterly earnings also fell by about 13 percent relative to graduates in fields less exposed to AI, according to the findings.

"This earnings decline is comparable in magnitude to the earnings losses associated with graduating into a large recession," the researchers wrote.

The researchers analyzed administrative records covering roughly 29 percent of U.S. bachelor's degrees awarded between 2016 and 2024. They found that graduates of the three majors most exposed to AI - computer science, computer and information systems, and computer engineering - experienced the largest declines in both employment and earnings after 2022.

"Fewer of these graduates found jobs immediately after graduation, and those who did so received lower earnings," they wrote.

Graduates Shift Into Lower-Paying Work

According to the study, the decline in earnings among graduates from the most AI-exposed majors was driven by two main factors: Industries that traditionally hired them began paying less, and more graduates took jobs in lower-paying industries.

"About half of the earnings decline reflects a shift away from high-paying industry sectors and toward lower-paying sectors such as Retail Trade and Accommodation and Food Services," the authors wrote.

The earnings gap between graduates from the most and least AI-exposed majors narrowed over time, falling to about 5 percent two years after graduation.

Researchers also found higher job-switching rates, suggesting that some graduates eventually moved into better-paying positions.

However, the authors said there is not yet enough data to determine whether those graduates will fully catch up with people who entered the labor market before generative AI became widespread.

Another Survey

In a recent survey of 261 graduates by the online learning platform Study.com, none of the respondents with computer science or information technology degrees said that AI made them wish that they had chosen a different major.

By contrast, 43 percent of communications, journalism, and media graduates said they would choose a different major when considering AI's impact. Biological sciences followed at 28 percent, and psychology at 22 percent.

Among all graduates surveyed, 77 percent said college was still the right choice despite AI's impact on the job market, while 22 percent said they would have chosen a different major knowing what they know now about AI.

The findings are notably limited by a small sample size, as individual major groups included roughly one to two dozen respondents.

AI Is Not the Only Headwind

An earlier analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis suggests that AI is only part of a broader problem facing young workers aged 18 to 24.

In a report published in June, economists at the bank found that a decline in job openings was the biggest contributor to weaker employment and higher unemployment among young workers from 2023 through 2025.

Growth in AI-related jobs also appeared to displace some new entrants, particularly recent college graduates, but its impact was smaller than the overall decline in labor demand.

Recent college graduates still had a 79 percent employment-to-population ratio nationally in early 2026, the St. Louis Fed noted, but a "low-hire, low-fire" labor market has made it harder for newcomers to get their first foothold.

"AI is not eliminating jobs across the economy. Instead, it is raising the bar for young workers trying to secure their first foothold in the labor market, an area in which employers feel less of a need to advertise openings, make offers and hire," the authors wrote.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 17:40

Holdout Clancy Juror Lawyers Up, Goes Into Hiding

Attorney Edward Paltzik said Thursday that he is representing Michael Desronvil, the lone holdout juror in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, who would not agree that Clancy was not criminally responsible for strangling her three children in January 2023. According to Paltzik, Desronvil has relocated to an undisclosed location in northern New England after his refusal to join the rest of the jury made him the target of a mob.

"I can now confirm that I am representing the courageous and heroic lone holdout juror from the Lindsay Clancy Trial," he wrote in a post on X. "Please pray for him and help us protect him."

Paltzik described Desronvil as an "American Hero and Champion of Justice" who "loves the United States of America as the greatest country in the world," and "cherishes our sacred Constitution as the pinnacle of human liberty." He also added that Desronvil supports "our amazing leader, President Donald J. Trump, as a fellow defender of common-sense, liberty, and sanity."

Paltzik also promised consequences for whoever came after his client, writing that "the evil people who have so viciously attacked this American Hero and Champion of Justice will be held accountable to the maximum extent of the law and beyond." Desronvil is riding out the fallout somewhere quiet. Paltzik said his client is "presently safe and sound at an undisclosed secure location in a rural area of Northern New England," sustained by his faith and family.

"In the meantime, though, he has persevered and remains utterly unbroken thanks to his devout Catholic Faith. As a devoted father and man of God, he will not be defeated or shattered by the wicked who wish harm upon him."

I can now confirm that I am representing the courageous and heroic lone holdout juror from the Lindsay Clancy Trial. He is an American Hero and Champion of Justice. Please pray for him and help us protect him. This American Hero and Champion of Justice loves...

— Edward Andrew Paltzik, Attorney (@EdPaltzik) September 17, 2026

The New York Times reported Friday that Desronvil has also broken his silence, following days of the other jurors publicly attacking him in various media appearances.

"He had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children," one female juror explained.

Female juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial on the lone male holdout: "He had the hardest time getting over the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children."

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 8, 2026

Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, also attacked Desronvil.

"I hope that guy can sleep well at night," he said. "[The other jurors] were robbed by one man for whatever his agenda was, who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors that were so attentive, so beautiful, so wonderful and listened to this evidence, and you can see how defeated they were sitting there."

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 4, 2026

Desronvil laid out his reasoning for not joining the other jurors in a statement released through his attorney. "I didn't have any doubts," the statement began. He also revealed that it was the other jurors who didn't have an open mind and tried to shut him down during deliberations.

"As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence presented. Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presented, I thought it was enough proof that she (Clancy) knew exactly what she was doing and planned."

That account runs counter to the version some of his fellow jurors offered when they went public.

Clancy's case returns to roughly where it stood before the trial began. Clancy remains held at Tewksbury State Hospital and remains charged with murder, awaiting resolution of the criminal case against her. Judge William Sullivan has scheduled a status hearing for Sept. 29 and said at the Sept. 4 mistrial hearing that if prosecutors go again, he would like to try the case this fall, though District Attorney Timothy Cruz has yet to say whether he will retry Clancy.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 17:20

Cryptos Soar After SEC Issues Tokenization Order: Here's What's In It

Just days after cryptocurrencies tumbled on Tuesday when the CLARITY act failed to pass the Senate, crypto is surging to close out the week after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an "Innovation Exemption" order which cleared tokenized stocks to trade onchain. The decision sent bitcoin above $81K, but it was the tokenization-focused assets like Solana, Ether and the NEAR protocol as well DeFis, that really soared.

Understandably, the tokens that ran hardest are the ones tied to trading securities onchain: Bitcoin last changed hands at $81,100, up 6% over 24 hours and 2.3% over seven days. Ether was at $2,683, up 6% on the day while Solana, long a tokenization favorite, surged more than 12% above $113. Additionally, NEAR Protocol rose 32%, Starknet 27%, Arbitrum 26% and Uniswap 20%. Among the 15 biggest tokens, Hyperliquid added 12% to $92.20, Solana 9.6% to $110, Dogecoin 7.7% to $0.088, XRP 7.6% to $1.40, Monero 6.1% to $540 and BNB 4.7% to $759. Cardano gained 9.3% and Chainlink 8%.

In response to the gross incompetence and bias of Congressional Democrats, the SEC took matters into its own hands and issued an order, Release No. 34-106402, which exempts a category it calls a Tokenized Securities Venue from the exchange definition in Section 3(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act. A venue may list 75 Tier 1 symbols and trade up to 0.25% of each stock's prior-month average daily volume, and tokenized shares must carry the same dividend rights, voting rights and claim on residual assets as the underlying stock.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement accompanying it that the Commission is "taking a significant step forward, within its statutory authority, to bring America's capital markets into the digital age," and that "this interim measure must be followed by durable rulemaking to ensure that onchain markets remain a viable pathway."

Andrew Yang, an analyst at Kaiko, put tokenized equity volume on Uniswap at about $800 million a day in commentary sent to reporters on Friday morning. "The SEC's condition is rights parity with the underlying stock, and it's not obvious how much of that volume would clear it," he said.

In any case, now that the market has finally responded to the SEC order - and curiously it took almost a full day for the price to move - here is an in-depth look inside the SEC exemption order permitting trading of tokenized equities, courtesy of Goldman analyst James Yaro (full note available to pro subs).

Overviewing the SEC innovation exemption order permitting trading of tokenized equities

On 9/17, the SEC issued an order granting a 5-year conditional exemption from registration for certain exchanges and liquidity providers (collectively termed tokenized securities venues [TSVs]), so that they can offer equities on the blockchain (tokenized equities) in the US.

We believe that this order broadly permits US tokenized equities for the first time, which could lead to the growth of the tokenized US equity market over time. In particular, we expect brokerage innovators and crypto companies to potentially build in this space, given existing tokenized equity products, including tokenized equities outside of the US.

However, there are a number of considerations that could limit broad US tokenized equities adoption, and/or the speed of growth, including:

1. the need to build new order book tech, given only venues that use an automated market maker (AMM) order book are permitted to avail themselves of the exemption - traditional exchanges and most centralized crypto venues currently use central limit order books (CLOBs), rather than AMMs;
2. the need to build new tokenized equities products, given only tokenized equities that have certain native tokenization characteristics (these include shareholder rights and dividends that are comparable to those offered on the underlying equity) are exempt, whereas non-native, derivative-like tokenized equities that certain brokers offer outside of the US (e.g., HOOD) are not permitted; and
3. the order appears to permit issuers to refuse tokenization of their equity - if issuers broadly choose to do so, this could limit the TAM for the product. The requirement that only AMMs may avail themselves of the exemption appears to be specifically targeted at enabling innovation among smaller, more nascent execution venues in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, given AMMs function better at smaller scale, whereas CLOBs are more effective for deeper, more liquid markets.

Specifically, the order offers Exchange Act registration relief for TSVs that have AMMs (from exchange registration) and their liquidity providers (from dealer registration). Registration relief is subject to certain conditions, including:

1. tokenized equities traded on a TSV are subject to limits on the number of symbols and volume traded;
2. a TSV must verify that the tokenized equity offers certain native tokenization characteristics, specifically the same rights and privileges as the equivalent traditional stock; and
3. before beginning trading, the TSV must provide written notice and an opportunity to object to the issuer of the stock.

This order represents a further step to clarifying regulation around the use of blockchain technology in US financial services, alongside:

1. the previous Regulation Crypto Asset proposal from August, 2026 (report here), which proposed exemptions around token issuance for smaller projects; and
2. the CFTC’s no-action position (also from 9/17) to providers of passive software (see here), which exempted developers of self-custody wallets from registration as introducing brokers.

Further regulatory reforms could follow, as both the SEC and CFTC have indicated appetite to set out comprehensive digital asset regulation. However, Goldman believes that these regulatory efforts are insufficient to fully unlock broader adoption for digital assets. This would require broader legislative reform, e.g., the CLARITY Act, which failed a Senate cloture vote on 9/15. The SEC order thus has limited direct implications for the traditional exchanges and is a better outcome from a competitive perspective than if broader tokenization legislation passed and lead to wider spread adoption (ex. CLARITY Act).

Further detail below:

Scope of exemptions: The order grants conditional 5-year exemptions from registration for TSVs, entities that facilitate tokenized equities trading, provided that they use AMMs, rather than CLOBs. We note that AMMs are primarily used by decentralized exchanges, whereas CLOBs are typically used by traditional exchanges and many centralized crypto exchanges under our coverage. Further, the exemption applies only to equity tokens with certain native tokenization features, and does not provide exemption to non-native tokenized equities that have derivative-like characteristics. The order permits issuers to disallow tokenization of their own securities by objecting before trading begins. Other conditions for exemption include:

• TSVs are subject to limits on the number of tickers and volumes traded on the venue;
• TSVs would need to offer comparable shareholder rights and dividends for tokenized stock holders as those offered to underlying stock holders;
• Smart contracts of the AMMs need to be auditable, public and deployed on a public blockchain; and
• TSVs are required to provide public notice about operations and trading.
• Before beginning trading, the TSV must provide written notice and an opportunity to object to the issuer of the stock.

Impact of only excluding AMM order books: AMMs support liquidity to longer-tail contracts with its token inventory, and are thus designed for newer markets. However, as trade sizes increase, risk of price slippage increase, vs. CLOBs, due to the AMM smart contracts’ scarcity-dependent pricing. This hinders liquidity as markets expand, and means CLOBs are typically better for deeper markets. We believe that this could limit the exemption’s effect on larger markets.

Native vs. non-native tokenization: The order only applies to tokenized equities with certain natively tokenized features, specifically shareholder rights, and dividends, which are comparable to those offered to holders of the underlying stock. Native tokenization refers to assets in which the blockchain serves as the primary, legally binding ledger for the tokenized asset, and the assets are issued directly on the blockchain by the issuer or its agent. On the other hand, non-native tokenized equities, which appear to be out of the scope of the order, creates an on-chain wrapper of an off-chain asset, and the resulting product approximates a derivative or swap. Key differences include: 1) native tokens represent direct on-chain asset ownership vs. non-native tokens that merely represent a claim on the underlying; 2) natively tokenized assets typically have most or all of the rights associated with the underlying, namely voting and dividends, while most non-native do not; and 3) native assets are governed primarily by the underlying issuer’s regulator, vs. non-native assets, which have dual oversight at the token and the underlying level.

Current regulatory and legislative progress: This exemption follows the SEC’s previous Regulation Crypto Assets that provided issuer-related exemptions (see our report here). In addition, the CFTC issued a no-action position on 9/17 to providers of passive software (see here), which exempted developers of permissionless digital asset protocols, e.g., self-custody crypto wallets, from registration as introducing brokers. In our view, incremental regulatory reforms could follow, as both the SEC and CFTC chairs have indicated a focus on creating comprehensive digital asset regulation, irrespective of the status of digital assets legislation. However, we believe that these regulatory efforts, are likely not fully sufficient to unlock the potential for broader adoption for digital assets. In our view, regulatory action lacks the permanence of legislation, as it could be reversed or amended by future regulators through rulemaking. In our view, a full unlock of digital assets would require comprehensive legislative reform, e.g., the CLARITY Act, which failed a Senate cloture vote on 9/15.

Implications across Goldman coverage:

• Brokers & crypto: We expect certain names in our coverage could look to build tokenized equity markets in the US,specifically Buy-rated COIN and HOOD. COIN could benefit most, given that its tokenized equities brokerage product already offers certain shareholder rights and dividends that appear to align with criteria required to use this exemption. Further, COIN offers a number of infrastructure offerings that should allow it to benefit if other firms build tokenized equities offerings using the exemption, specifically COIN’s custody offering, and Coinbase Tokenize, its institutional tokenization platform. However, if COIN were to use the exemption to build a tokenized equities exchange, this would likely require tech development, given COIN’s exchanges use CLOBs. As such, it would need to build AMM infrastructure to offer tokenized equity trading. That being said, COIN routes brokered trades to decentralized exchanges, many of which use AMMs and thus could use the exemption. HOOD could also be a beneficiary, although HOOD’s current tokenized equity product (only available in Europe) is non-natively tokenized, which would not be permitted under this order. HOOD would therefore need to build tokenized equity product to meet the criteria of the exemption. Finally, given tokenized equities are on-chain, this could drive greater use of tokenized cash as a settlement currency. This could benefit Neutral-rated CRCL as the issuer of the largest US-regulated stablecoin, USDC. COIN also receives meaningful economics from most existing USDC, and could thus benefit as well.
   
• Traditional exchanges: We believe the order has limited direct implications or competitive risks for the traditional exchanges in our coverage, given that NDAQ and NYSE (ICE) already operate registered national securities exchanges and therefore do not require relief from the definition of “exchange” in order to trade tokenized equities. Notably, both are pursuing tokenization within the existing market infrastructure frameworks rather than TSVs. As a result, we do not believe either would need to build AMM infrastructure to support their current tokenization initiatives. That being said, the AMM condition would become relevant if an exchange sought to operate a TSV, whether directly or through an affiliate/partner. Further, we note that none of the exchanges in our coverage have announced an intention to do so though ICE noted it has the ability to do through its partner OKX. Further, proliferation of new TSV venues could result in increased liquidity bifurcation, limiting potential benefits from new technology to market participants. Overall, given volume caps and corporate issuers’ ability to opt out of TSV operators issuing tokenized equities, we see minimal impact to volumes at traditional exchanges.
   
  • Current initiatives and their fit within the order: NDAQ received SEC approval in March 2026 for a pilot that permits tokenized versions of DTC-eligible securities to trade on the same order book, with DTC handling tokenization and settlement once a buyer flags at order entry that it wants delivery in token form. This largely covers Russell 1000 constituents and index ETFs and applies for the duration of the pilot (3 years). In DTCC’s production test in July 2026, NDAQ was the venue where trades were executed before DTCC converted them into tokens, with QQQ among the key securities used. DTCC’s tokenization service is due to launch in October 2026. On the other hand, NYSE (ICE) has followed a similar path and fits within the current DTC pilot framework and with the same eligible universe (Russell 1000). In addition, NYSE is developing a separate platform that would support 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based funding by combining its Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade systems, although that venue remains subject to regulatory approval.
     
  • How competitive dynamics could evolve: We believe the incumbent traditional exchanges would retain a structural advantage in the most liquid names, given that tokenized orders on NDAQ and NYSE interact with the same order book as traditional shares, whereas tokenized equities on a TSV are subject to limits on the number of symbols and volumes traded, and access is restricted to permissioned participants. This is enforced by the point that the eligible universe under the DTC pilot consists of Russell 1000 constituents and major index ETFs, which are precisely the deeper markets where CLOBs are typically more effective than AMMs.
     
  • That said, we see trading hours as the more likely area of competition, given that NDAQ expects to begin round-the-clock trading (23/5) starting 12/6, which leaves weekends uncovered and NYSE’s 24/7 venue still requires approval. However, we note that demand for overnight trading remains modest today, as overnight ATS volumes represented ~0.7% of total ADV in 1H26 and were concentrated in sub-dollar stocks and leveraged/inverse ETFs (per our estimate). Lastly, we note that both paths are time-limited — exemptions granted to TSVs expire 5 years while traditional exchanges’ tokenized trading rules apply only during the DTC’s 3 year pilot program.

Much more in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 17:00

The Pathocracy Of Women In The Democratic Party

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Clusterfuck Nation,

"The female mind - especially in matters of political significance - struggles with understanding authority and rule enforcement."

- JD Haltigan on X

You know the midterm election is a struggle session testing whether our country wants to be sane or insane. Of course, this raises the question: what's so great about being insane? If nothing else, it implies a lot of bad decision-making, leading to all manner of sorrow and woe in life.

So, why would so many opt to be crazy?

The Ordeal of Father Isaac Jogue among the Iroquois

The answer is probably that they were snookered into it, fooled, tricked, rooked, spoofed, flimflammed, bamboozled, enticed into a range of thought and emotion counter to their self-interest and well-being. Isn't this exactly what you see in the social phenomenon of "transing" pubescent children? To induce them to go along with a malevolent program for turning them into something they are not.

A whole apparatus was constructed to carry out "gender-affirming care." Notice how positive the language is. It's "care," administered by adults, not a few of them physicians and clinical psychologists, who affect to care. And it "affirms," that is, it validates, it turns supposition into fact (that is not so). The adults happen to be in authority over children. They are presumed to be trustworthy.

But they are not trustworthy. They persuade children confused by puberty to be mutilated with surgery and hormones in order to put on a performance for the adults. The performance is called "No Boundaries." It does not really affirm a child's gender by pretending to change it. It affirms the mental illness of the untrustworthy adults. They have developed a defect of cognition that disrupts their perception of reality. They don't know where things begin and end.

Where did this come from? You won't like this.

It came from women taking over the leadership of our institutions, especially education. In the two centuries that public education has existed, there were always a lot of women teachers. But they were superintended by men with a sense of boundaries, who enforced the distinction between thought and feeling, between sense and nonsense. Now you see what has happened with men removed from that picture. Thought and sense have been deleted.

Women are primarily driven by the wish for communion and for care (of children and households). If they don't find mates, don't form households, and don't have children, their drives can be hijacked. Likewise, if their households are broken by divorce and their children are damaged by it. It's been increasingly difficult for men and women to form households and successfully raise children, or to keep a household from breaking under the social and economic pressures of our time.

Politics is another set of institutions increasingly dominated by women in leadership roles. They convert all the social discontents of childlessness and broken households into laws, rules, and policies which, not surprisingly, demonstrate a failed sense of boundaries and a contorted drive for communion and care. That's how the Democratic Party - increasingly run by-and-for women - was bamboozled into throwing the border wide open under "Joe Biden," and why they have become hysterical over the nurturing of those millions of illegal migrants now here. The drive to care has transformed into a mad, grandiose wish to save the world.

The nation's borders are strict boundaries. The Democratic Party programmatically denounces the existence of national boundaries - viz. The "Squad" in Congress, et al. "No one is illegal." That open border was profoundly destructive and costly for the nation. Donald Trump declared that national boundaries matter and closed the border effectively. This not only made him an arch-villain to many of the women in America with boundary problems, but it also gave them a big opportunity to exercise their drive for communion by ginning up public get-togethers such as the anti-ICE riots of last winter and the "No Kings" marches of the spring.

Mr. Trump, with his repertoire of distinctive male mannerisms, setting of boundaries, and bent for decisive action, propels these world-saving, deeply-caring, communion-seeking political women into raptures of rage and animosity. It might be instructive to remind you that, back in the history of this land, among the native-American Iroquois (a most civilized people), it was the women who were assigned the primary task of torturing their enemies to death. (Read about the ordeals of Father Isaac Jogues in Francis Parkman's The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century.) More recently, one Lindsay Clancy of Duxbury, Mass., demonstrated how savagely awry female boundary failure can go.

This pathocracy of women in the Democratic Party accounts for the seemingly insane turn to communism. But, it's communion-and-care all of a piece - the most extreme form of crazy ideological solidarity, plus the promise of free stuff for everybody (care!) with no boundaries. Meanwhile, over in Mr. Trump's camp, you have an emphatically male-dominated hierarchy with the MAGA women's drives for communion-and-care directed, as much as possible these days, back into the household and the nursery.

Throw in FAFO as the baseline attitude and there's authority you can trust.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 16:20

Midwest Braces For Diesel Crisis After Exxon's Joliet Refinery Suffers Disruption

A major refinery in the US Midwest went offline this week after a power outage, adding to global refining disruptions as US diesel prices reach record highs.

One of the largest diesel refineries in the Midwest is offline pic.twitter.com/JSwuHrNfBw

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 18, 2026

Exxon Mobil shut its 275,000-barrel-a-day Joliet refinery in Illinois on Sunday after a power failure triggered the facility's safety flare, Reuters reported. A Thursday filing also disclosed that floodwater had overwhelmed a pump at the plant.

Exxon traced the power outage to ComEd's primary and secondary lines supplying the refinery and said it had fully restored electricity by Thursday. Power restoration, however, does not mean fuel production has resumed.

Located about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet can produce about 11 million gallons of gasoline and diesel daily, primarily for Midwest consumers. Its processing capacity represents roughly 6% of Midwest refining capacity and 1.5% nationally. 

UPDATE: $XOM Joliet reported to have suffered a "total power outage". this refinery capacity is 275kbpd, a large facility and it looks bad. https://t.co/IdAgfWhhUz pic.twitter.com/Sb52uXIviK

— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) September 14, 2026

A prolonged shutdown would tighten regional fuel availability and risk further price increases across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan. 

"There's an additional likelihood of further price increases in the Great Lakes. Gas: OH is at *high* risk of largest jump, WI, IN are at *med* risk of moderate jump, MI, IL at low/med risk but could go past $5/gal. diesel: will likely jump in most these areas mod/large jump," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote on X. 

⚠️there's additional likelihood of further price increases in the Great Lakes. Gas: OH is at *high* risk of largest jump, WI, IN are at *med* risk of moderate jump, MI, IL at low/med risk but could go past $5/gal. diesel: will likely jump in most these areas mod/large jump

— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) September 17, 2026

He noted, "spot diesel prices in the Great Lakes are now the highest in the country... $240/bbl."

Nationwide, the latest AAA data show diesel fuel prices at the pump have jumped to a record $6.45 a gallon.

Goldman Sachs commodity experts Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven warned earlier this week that the global diesel crisis could tighten gasoline supplies as refiners prioritize higher-margin diesel production.

Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone warned on Monday that "$6 diesel echoes 2008 gasoline shock."

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:55

US Drops Venezuela From List Of Countries Failing To Combat Drug-Trafficking

Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The United States has removed Venezuela from its list of countries that it says have failed to demonstrably combat drug trafficking, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, Trump said he may also consider removing Colombia - with whom Venezuela shares a long, open border - as well as Bolivia, if these countries can demonstrate progress following recent changes of government.

Following the U.S. capture and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism in January, cooperation with the country's interim government is paying dividends, Trump said in the presidential determination published by the State Department.

Cooperation on Tren de Aragua

The U.S. president pointed to the killing of the infamous Tren de Aragua cartel leader known as "Niño Guerrero" as an example of how his government is working well with the new Caracas administration, led by Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez.

Venezuela has been on the failed list since 2005, when then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez kicked U.S. drug enforcement agents out of the country, accusing them of spying on his "Bolivarian Revolution."

"I have determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as having failed demonstrably to fulfill its drug control commitments," Trump said, adding that he expected to see "continued, measurable progress" from the interim government in "dismantling narcoterrorist groups and stopping drug trafficking."

Trump said Colombia was "poised to resume its place as our foremost security partner" in the Western Hemisphere following the election of President Abelardo de la Espriella, with whom he is closely allied, in June.

The U.S. president praised the people of Colombia for making the "courageous choice" of De la Espriella, a former high-profile criminal lawyer whose firm represented figures linked to Colombia's paramilitary and narcotics underworld.

'Colombia First' President

De la Espriella took office in August, pledging a crackdown on illegal immigration and crime, stressing a "Colombia first" approach, as the country joined the growing political rightward shift in Latin America.

Trump said that if, as expected, "Colombia makes progress on aggressive coca eradication and dismantling its narcoterrorist networks over the coming year," he would consider lifting the country's "failed demonstrably" status.

Trump put Colombia on the list last year for failing to combat cocaine production, amid a series of verbal exchanges between him and former leftist President Gustavo Petro.

Before then, Colombia had not been on the list since 1997, four years after the death of the infamous leader of the Medellín drug cartel, Pablo Escobar.

Trump said that cooperation between Bolivia and the United States has "significantly expanded" over the past year, since the 2025 election of President Rodrigo Paz, a conservative.

He praised Bolivia's extradition of alleged drug lord Sebastián Marset, described as one of the most wanted men in South America, to the United States in March 2026.

But he said the new government had not yet had sufficient time to reduce the cultivation of the coca plant for drugs, while corruption in Bolivia continued to facilitate trafficking and impede investigations.

If progress can be made, Trump said he would consider revisiting the country's status.

Four countries - Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia - are named as having "failed demonstrably" during the past year to make "substantial efforts" to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.

A total of 23 countries, including the four on the "failed" list, are named by the State Department as major transit hubs or producers of narcotics that end up in the United States.

The other Latin American countries on the list are Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.

Asian countries named are Afghanistan, Burma, India, Laos, Pakistan, and China.

Caribbean nations listed are the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, and Jamaica.

The State Department said that a country's presence on the list is "not necessarily a reflection of its government's current counterdrug efforts, or coordination with the United States."

'Billions Seized' From Cartels

In his determination, Trump referred to his war on drugs, much of which has centered on stemming the flow from the southern border and on bombing smugglers' boats.

He said that narcoterrorists responsible for the drugs "invasion" are either "dead, in jail, or living in fear knowing they will be next to face American justice," adding that he had "unleashed the strongest military in the history of the world to strike narcoterrorists wherever they threaten our country."

The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, an alliance with more than a dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere, has produced "historic results," Trump said, by drastically reducing drug flows and "seizing billions of dollars of illicit cartel finances."

Although progress had been made, Trump said that both Mexico and Canada - which are not on the list - need to "do far more" to prevent trafficking to the United States.

"Canada needs to take meaningful action to dismantle drug labs, strengthen supply chain security, and degrade criminal networks and Chinese gangs operating along our northern border," Trump said, referring specifically to the fentanyl trade.

Turning to China, Trump said the country "continues to be the world's largest producer of many of the precursor chemicals used to illicitly produce fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other deadly synthetic drugs."

He added that he had raised this with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, adding that despite some progress on export licences, China "needs to take more aggressive action" to reduce the flow.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:40

"Viva México!": DSA Shoo-In For NYC House Seat Goes 'Mexico First,' Hails "Comrades In Morena"

A radical Democratic Socialists of America candidate who is poised to waltz into a deep-blue New York House seat used Mexican Independence Day to all but declare that she is Mexico First.

Claire Valdez, a card-carrying DSA member and New York State Assemblywoman who secured the Democrat nomination for the state's 7th Congressional District, posted a tweet on X celebrating 215 years since Mexicans "fought an empire that demanded our land and our labor." Valdez then went one step further, making the kind of declaration that should end the career of any Democrat or Republican who dared to utter something similar about a foreign country.

215 years ago, Mexicans fought an empire that demanded our land and our labor. And we won. I'll carry that fight with me to Congress as New York's first Mexican American representative. And I'm strengthened not just by Mexico's history but its present. Last month I met comrades in Morena who are standing up to the empires and corporations that have always taken from us – and building a government for the working class. ¡Viva la Independencia, Viva México!

— Claire Valdez (@claireforny) September 16, 2026

"I'll carry that fight with me to Congress as New York's first Mexican American representative," Valdez wrote, before gushing that she is "strengthened not just by Mexico's history but its present" and boasting about a meeting last month with her "comrades in Morena," the leftist party that currently rules Mexico.

Valdez lauded left-wing radicals for "standing up to the empires and corporations that have always taken from us" and "building a government for the working class." The DSA lawmakers capped off the post with a triumphant "¡Viva la Independencia, Viva México!"

Notably absent from Valdez's message was any mention of cutting taxes for struggling New Yorkers, securing the southern border, or tackling the soaring grocery prices that have hammered working families. In their place was the rhetoric of a hard-left activist who apparently views the United States Congress as merely one more battlefield in a global class war, complete with "comrades" embedded in a foreign government. Valdez has claimed that she is "a dual citizen of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation and the United States."

Valdez's tweet quickly ignited a firestorm of condemnation online.

"This is disqualifying," wrote Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN). "You are running for Congress in AMERICA."

Andy Ngo wrote: "American leftists elect people who are open about foreign allegiances and their agenda to serve foreign state interests."

"What the fuck," Pirate Wires Editor-in-Chief Mike Solana added.

what the fuck

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 18, 2026 Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:20

4 Charged With Fraud Involving Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars For Homelessness Aid

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times,

Federal prosecutors in California on Sept. 16 announced charges against four people who are accused of diverting millions of taxpayer dollars meant for homeless housing and services to fund lavish lifestyles, including a new nightclub and bingo hall.

The defendants accused in the separate schemes include nonprofit Home At Last founder Michael Young, CEO and executive director of The Big Blue Umbrella Donye Mitchell, and Special Service for Groups employee Lakiya Malone.

The fourth defendant, executive director of the nonprofit Abundant Blessings Alexander Soofer, agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering for taking at least $2 million in taxpayer funds for personal gain.

Attorneys for the defendants could not be reached. Home At Last did not immediately return a request for comment.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said on Wednesday that Young, a founder of the Culver City-based nonprofit, was arrested and charged with "sham vendor fraud."

He allegedly committed fraud to misappropriate more than $7.5 million in taxpayer funds to open and operate personal projects, such as a high-end restaurant and nightclub in Inglewood and an adjacent bingo hall.

The money he received from Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority was supposed to be used toward providing housing and services to homeless people. Instead, prosecutors allege, he made a web of shell corporations and fraudulent billing practices to boost his real estate portfolio, which included $1 million in taxpayer dollars to open the Six Seven Five Lounge restaurant and nightclub.

"Taxpayer money also allegedly paid for a liquor license for that business, in addition to the architect, developer, and high-end finishes for this nightclub," Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division Colin McDonald said during a press conference on Wednesday.

"The taxpayers did not sign up to fund this nightclub."

Young is charged with wire fraud, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

In a separate case, Donye Mitchell, the CEO of The Big Blue Umbrella, was awarded more than $1.2 million in Los Angeles County-funded grant money from Amity Foundation after allegedly claiming his nonprofit was a major homeless-housing provider, which prosecutors say was false.

Mitchell is accused of using grant funds on inflated salary payments, paying his bail for domestic violence and assault charges, paying off credit card debt, transferring money to family, paying rent, and paying charges associated with his PlayStation.

Amity allegedly canceled the contract with The Big Blue Umbrella in May 2025 after it already sent $315,000. Amity's decision to cut ties was over concerns that Mitchell misrepresented his spending and failed to meet agreed-upon milestones.

Mitchell, who is not in custody and considered a fugitive on Sept. 16, is also charged with wire fraud.

"L.A. is called, they say, the City of Angels, but there's nothing angelic about bribery, about stealing money from taxpayers, about lying, about serving our nation's most vulnerable citizens, and while these fraudsters have lined their pockets, American people have been dying in our streets," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said.

In the third case, Malone, an employee of the nonprofit Special Service for Groups, was arrested on a 21-count indictment that accused her of taking more than $180,000 in bribes and kickbacks from Alexander Soofer in exchange for priority housing referrals, including "ghost" clients who never lived at the sites.

Prosecutors say the scheme included making fake welcome letters, sign-in sheets, and eligibility forms that helped inflate more than $17 million that Soofer received from Special Service for Groups.

Malone faces up to 20 years per wire fraud count, 10 years per bribery count, and five years on the conspiracy charge if convicted.

"The scale and brazenness of these fraudsters expose a profound failure by the State of California and Los Angeles County to safeguard public funds," First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said.

"Millions [of dollars] intended to house the homeless allegedly financed private real estate, a nightclub, a bingo hall, and personal expenses. Taxpayers deserve accountability.

"We will follow the money, expose the corruption, and prosecute those who exploit the American people for personal gain."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 15:00

America Is Using The Wrong Artificial Intelligence Scoreboard

Authored by Paul Meeks via RealClearMarkets,

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, America has kept score in the artificial intelligence race by asking which lab has the best model. Unfortunately, that scoreboard is dangerously incomplete. Frontier capability matters, but temporary benchmark leads do not by themselves create durable technological dominance by any single nation. The true national edge comes when its technology becomes the platform on which the world builds.

The distinction came into focus at the White House in August. Administration officials met with leading AI companies to discuss a voluntary framework for government testing of the most advanced models before release. However, the framework will not cover open-weight models, whose underlying parameters can be downloaded and adapted. That was the right decision. But declining to restrict open models is not the same as having a strategy to ensure that the world builds on American models.

The Trump administration already understands the stakes. Its AI Action Plan warns that open models could become global standards in business and research and therefore have "geostrategic value." It calls for leading open models founded on American values. The insight is correct. Implementation has not kept pace with the market.

In strict technical terms, open-weight is not the same as open-source. The former makes a model's learned parameters available; the latter also implies access to such elements as training code and data. Most models commonly called "open-source AI," including China's leading releases, are actually open-weight. Economically, however, the important point is that users can download, operate and adapt them without remaining dependent on a single provider.

American companies dominate the market for high-end closed models. Customers access them through websites or application programming interfaces, while the companies retain the model weights and charge for usage. China has pursued a different strategy. Its developers are releasing increasingly capable open-weight models cheaply or freely, inviting companies, researchers and governments to customize them and build products on top of them.

This is where China is converting diffusion into market power. Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 reached the top tier of global models while being released open-weight. Alibaba's Qwen family has spawned more than 100,000 derivative models on Hugging Face, more than any Western model family. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2026 "Two Loops" analysis even cites one Andreessen Horowitz partner's rough estimate that 80% of American startups use Chinese base models to develop derivatives for their businesses.

Even if that figure is only directionally correct, the warning is extraordinary. A meaningful share of America's AI application layer may already rest on Chinese foundations because developers found capable, affordable and adaptable models when they needed them.

We are in a contest over far more than individual models. It is also a contest over the technology stack on which they will run. This will shape the skills developers learn, the products entrepreneurs build, the infrastructure customers buy, and ultimately own the standards that eventually become difficult to dislodge. America's objective should be clear: the world's AI economy should be built primarily on an American and allied technology stack.

China knows - and is building policy around the fact - that every adoption strengthens the ecosystem. Developers create compatible tools. Workers learn model-specific skills. Investors finance complementary applications. Businesses integrate the technology into workflows that become costly to change. The resulting feedback loop attracts more users and produces more improvements. In investor terms, diffusion creates the moat. In foreign policy terms, diffusion locks in global influence.

American closed-model companies are not behaving irrationally. Restricting access protects intellectual property and produces recurring revenue. But the business model that maximizes revenue for a few companies does not necessarily maximize American economic power. A closed model can sell many tokens while an open competitor becomes the technological language learned by the rest of the world. Washington should not confuse the commercial interests of dominant vendors with a national strategy.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has raised the strongest objection towards open-source diffusion warning that once capable model weights are released, they cannot be withdrawn, and bad actors may use them without guardrails or monitoring. That concern deserves a serious response but it also does not justify American abstention. China will continue releasing capable open models regardless of what U.S. labs do. Unilateral restraint would not reduce the number of open models in circulation; it would determine which country supplies them.

America has the computing power, talent and capital to lead both the closed and open portions of the AI market. What it lacks is a sustained strategy to put those advantages into circulation - and to ensure that the developers, companies and governments adopting AI abroad can build on trusted American technology rather than becoming dependent on Chinese model ecosystems.

The AI race will not be decided by which company tops the next benchmark. It will be decided by whose technology stack becomes indispensable: whose models developers choose, whose tools they learn, whose infrastructure they deploy and whose standards organize the applications built above them. Implementing an American open-weight strategy is not a departure from AI dominance. It is how America ensures that the world builds on an American technology stack - and how technological leadership becomes durable.

Paul Meeks is a technology-sector investor with more than 30 years of experience in public and private markets. He is a Professor of Practice at The Citadel's Baker School of Business.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 14:52