Zero Rss

"The Netherlands Also Has Islamic Grooming Gangs"; Dutch MP Warns After 18-Year-Old Girl Raped By 10 Men

Via Remix News,

An 18-year-old woman has been gang raped and beaten by up to ten different men, many of them with a Syrian background, in the Dutch city of Dordrecht. Although the rape occurred in May 2025, the suspects are only now being arrested. In response to the rape, political leader Geert Wilders wrote that the Netherlands also has Islamic grooming gangs and called for all the perpetrators to be removed from the country along with their families.

Six suspects have now been arrested, aged 20 to 23. During the incident, the girl, who lived in a residential group home, was driven to two different parking lots and raped by several men, some of whom filmed the assault and shared it on Snapchat. Police say the woman was humiliated and beaten.

"A bruise on the cheek, a tooth through the lip and a swelling on the knee," described one source.

"It is a very serious criminal offense where all boundaries have been crossed and the victim has been treated very disrespectfully. As if she were an object that everyone could use."

The incident has already attracted attention from politicians in the Netherlands, including PVV leader Geert Wilders.

"Teen victim of gang rape by Syrians. Raped by ten boys at different parking lots. The Netherlands also has Islamic grooming gangs. The Netherlands needs an unprecedented cleanup. All that scum out. With their families. No mercy," he wrote on X.

Tiener slachtoffer groepsverkrachting Syriërs. Verkracht door tien jongens op verschillende parkeerplaatsen.

Ook Nederland heeft islamitische grooming gangs.
Nederland heeft een ongekend grote schoonmaak nodig. Al dat tuig eruit. Met hun familie.

Geen genade. #PVV #Wilders https://t.co/qNVmRZHmcF

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) September 24, 2026

The first introductory court hearing took place on Sept. 23, 2026. Only 23-year-old S.S., described by the prosecutor as having played a leading role, and identified in court reporting as Syrian-born, was required to appear. Of the other five suspects, two of them are S.S.'s brother and cousin, who were arrested that Wednesday morning.

The investigation by the Rotterdam police Sexual Offences Team is still open, and prosecutors believe as many as ten men were involved.

According to the prosecution, the young woman accepted a lift to a train station from three strangers but they never brought her there. She was taken first to one parking lot, where S.S. raped her, and then to a second parking lot where, prosecutors say other men also raped her.

The Public Prosecution Service also told the court that the suspects "discussed and coordinated their statements in detail." Even so, the accounts given by S.S. diverge from those of the others. His lawyer said that was because he did not want to inform against his brother and cousin.

S.S. himself told the judges the girl got into the car of her own accord.

"We didn't force her to do anything," he told police.

He is requesting to be released while his court trial is pending.

"I don't want to ruin my future. If I stay stuck, all I'm going to be in debt," he said.

The court refused. Judges said the images, the statements, and conversations overheard by police were enough to keep him in custody for now. He is due back for another introductory hearing in early December.

Remarkably, there was already a case in 2025 involving gang rape in the Netherlands involving ten suspects and a 15-year-old girl, mostly Syrians. Geert Wilders had also called attention to the case, writing: "50 percent of all suspects of sexual offenses are of foreign origin. Only the PVV will throw that criminal scum out of the country and immediately implement an asylum stop."

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/26/2026 - 08:20

Saudi, Turkish, Pakistani Military Chiefs To Hold Urgent Meeting Over Yemen War

Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani army heads are set to urgent talks on the Yemen crisis. Crucially, these countries represent signatories to the Mecca Defense Pact, which vows mutual defense in the instance that any member is attacked.

Of course, the Iran-aligned Houthis have been semi-frequently targeting the Saudi kingdom's territory, gong after oil export infrastructure as well as fuel storage sites, with ballistic missiles even targeting the capital of Riyadh this month, which marked a first.

Anadolu/Getty Images

Ahead of the meeting of defense chiefs, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Turkish Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar gathered in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss developments.

They have been closely monitoring developments in Yemen, after the Saudi-backed coalition based out of Sanaa has lost the Red Sea coast area.

"The three ministers strongly condemned recent attacks targeting Mecca, as well as civilian and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia, and reaffirmed the Kingdom’s right to take appropriate measures to defend its security under Article 51 of the UN Charter," Al Arabiya reports.

"They also discussed arrangements for the urgent meeting of their countries’ chiefs of staff, which will examine ways to support Saudi Arabia under the defense pact," the report adds.

As for the Houthis, who now have an even tighter grip on the fate of Red Sea shipping, as of Friday they are vowing not to attack European vessels.

However, the Yemeni rebels will still fire on Saudi ships or any Israeli-linked vessels, in accord with the ongoing 'siege for siege' strategy which has already been on for months.

Earlier this month, Pakistan threatened to trigger the young Mecca Defense Pact, but so far this has stopped at mere words. A regional analyst has explained to Al Jazeera why the Yemen crisis is 'tricky' and controversial for the alliance:

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement’s first real test, being framed around the Houthis rather than Israel, sits awkwardly with the Islamic-solidarity language the pact was sold on, says Betul Dogan Akkas, assistant professor of international relations at Ankara University.

“The Mecca Defence Pact might be used, for the first time, to frame itself as defending the lands of Islam, rather than being framed around the Israeli threat in Gaza or Palestine, which would have been the more obvious framing,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Using the Houthi threat as that first framing isn’t necessarily good for the pact’s long-term branding and perception,” she said.

“Even though you’re not targeting Israel or Western countries, you’re still ultimately targeting a Muslim country, a Muslim nation. That makes it a bit controversial and tricky.”

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said previously that attacks on the kingdom "could trigger" the defense agreement.

"Under the trilateral agreement, any aggression against any of the three [countries] is regarded as an aggression against all. There is no ambiguity about that," the Pakistani minister told Geo News weeks ago.

The pact between Riyadh, Islamabad, and Ankara has been likened to NATO Article 5, where an attack on one is an 'attack on all'. These countries' own officials have in many cases advanced this interpretation.

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/26/2026 - 07:55

Diesel Export Ban Off The Table? Ted Cruz Relays White House Assurances To Refinery Heads

As of early Saturday morning, AAA data put the national average retail diesel price at about $6.48 a gallon, slightly below its recent record high, while Brent crude settled on Friday around $104.30 a barrel. The modest pullback leaves fuel costs elevated and maintains pressure on the White House to deliver relief before the midterms.

The Trump administration's messaging on a potential diesel export ban has exposed differing views over how to address the global refining crisis that could soon morph into an economic shock (Read Apollo's warning). President Donald Trump has been for a diesel export ban, while Energy Secretary Chris Wright has opposed a blanket ban and instead encouraged industry measures to increase domestic supply.

Politico reported midweek that the administration was preparing a potential 90-day export ban. By late Friday, however, Senator Ted Cruz told refinery heads he had received White House assurances that a ban would not move forward.

Bloomberg reports that Cruz relayed those White House assurances to refinery heads during a call by the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association.

Here's more color from the outlet:

The president wants to see pump prices fall and is evaluating all options on the table, a White House official said. Representatives for Cruz and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association, which conducted the call, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

To be sure, the counsel is consistent with a message that's been delivered for months by some of Trump's top deputies, who've consistently warned that diesel export curbs would ultimately cause more harm than good.

. . .

Cruz, a Republican from Texas, described having received assurances from the White House, not specifically from the president. He did not provide more specifics on who had ruled out an export ban, the people said.

Other tools in the Trump administration's toolkit could target taxes and regulatory costs. Officials have discussed allowing dyed red diesel, normally reserved for off-road use, on highways. Such a change could suspend some diesel taxes, including the federal levy of roughly 24 cents a gallon.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the former chairman and CEO of Liberty Energy, has warned about the dire ramifications of a diesel export ban and instead emphasized voluntary industry changes to increase domestic diesel supply.

"We will not cease exports of US diesel," Wright said Wednesday, while leaving room for adjustments to where fuel from US refineries flows.

Last week, Barclays refining and midstream analyst Theresa Chen warned clients that a proposed U.S. diesel export ban would be "detrimental to the US refining complex and unlikely to provide the intended price relief."

Chen pointed out one major problem: keeping diesel inside the country does not guarantee it can reach gas pumps.

Goldman Sachs energy analyst Nikhil Bhandari warned clients early last week that the global refining system will be stretched through 2027, with diesel and gas prices expected to remain elevated.

Read: Goldman Warns Diesel Crisis Is Setting Up The Next Gasoline Squeeze: Here's How

On March 10, JPMorgan's head of commodity research, Natasha Kaneva, laid out the six options the Trump administration has to combat higher oil prices (read here, as the administration's next move could be to reduce fuel taxes).

 

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/26/2026 - 07:30

Should Europeans Overthrow Their 'Ruling Class'

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

War fever is ramping up again across Europe. This has happened several times in the four and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, usually coinciding with important national elections - particularly those in Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, and Germany - when certain domestic political parties have been demonized as "pro-Putin" and "security threats" to the rest of Europe. The war drums also get loud whenever increased military budgets are being debated within the governments of the Scandinavian and Baltic states, Finland, Germany, and Poland, as well as the European Commission. The ebb and flow of political battle cries against the Russian Federation track closely with Europe's electoral and parliamentary calendars.

It is no coincidence that the German government decided to announce five days before Saxony-Anhalt's September 6 elections that Russia was responsible for a small drone discovered at the Leipzig/Halle Airport over a month earlier. Although the drone carried an explosive charge, the device caused no damage and sat at the airport unnoticed for many hours on August 4. When Germany accused Russia of perpetrating the "attack" four weeks later, Berlin presented no real evidence for its conclusions.

Nevertheless, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and national leaders across Europe immediately declared solidarity with Germany and condemned Russia's "hybrid war" on "European Union soil." To many observers, Berlin's finger-pointing appeared timed to dampen momentum for the "Alternative for Deutschland" political party, which German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Establishment have defamed as "Nazis" and "Russian puppets." If that was Merz's goal - to stave off election defeat for his political allies by falsely accusing his opponents of being Russian tools and spies - it did not work. The AfD decisively won the September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, and support for the pro-national sovereignty political party continues to surge across Germany.

Similarly contrived "national security" incidents arose before elections in Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Moldova. Pro-European Union parties accused Russia of election interference, economic sabotage, or even imminent attack, while framing opposing parties as Russian assets. In the case of Romania, the E.U.-aligned courts annulled the 2024 presidential election due to spurious allegations of "Russian meddling."

While European politicians predictably drag out the Russian bogeyman before every election, they seem to be ratcheting up their scaremongering in anticipation of the midterm elections in the United States. President Trump has made no secret of his belief that the Russia-Ukraine War is a stupid and unnecessary conflict that would have never happened had he been in office in 2022. For two years, he has attempted to end it. With the exception of Slovakia (and Hungary before former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's electoral defeat), European governments appear committed to an expanded war with Russia in the near future.

Just last week, President Trump asked Ukraine's holdover-president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to refrain from attacking Russian oil refineries in an effort to stabilize global markets. After agreeing to do so, Zelenskyy did just the opposite and announced Ukraine's use of NATO-supplied missile systems to target Russian facilities, an action presumably meant to provoke Russia into targeting NATO members directly. Ominously, Ukrainian "journalist" and Zelenskyy confidant Dmytro Gordon recently announced, "Literally within days, something will happen that will give us great hope....I can't say what it is - it's a military secret. But I know that in the coming days...something will happen that will give the nation wings. I know this."

Gordon's promise that "something will happen" seems to be an open secret throughout Europe. European Commission officials are encouraging all four-hundred-fifty million European citizens to stockpile water, food, and medicine in preparation for war. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has told the Bundestag that war is coming, and Chancellor Merz has successfully worked around prior legal limits on - and substantially increased - defense spending, while acknowledging that Germany is "already in conflict with Russia." Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are expanding the size of their respective militaries and implementing broader conscription programs. French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly informed political leaders that war with Russia has arrived, and the British government is furiously revising its war manuals, organizing civil defense exercises, and preparing for large-scale military conscription, including the activation of retired servicemembers up to the age of sixty-five. In the last week, the United Kingdom's top ten newspapers have published over two-hundred-fifty articles about the likelihood of war with Russia.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former cabinet minister and one-time Conservative Party favorite for prime minister, says that the British people must fight and die for their country: "In the next few years we may face a war, and if we face a war, we will need people who will join the armed services and who will go out and do their duty. We may even face circumstances where people have to die to save their country, as they did in the First and Second World Wars....That is something that makes a country survive. If people are not willing to do their duty, then the country will be taken over by another country."

Rees-Mogg is a poncy toff with an aloof style of speech. While in Parliament, he was often ridiculed as the "Honourable Member for the 18th century." So his insistence that ordinary Brits give up their lives for the sake of their country sounds remarkably out-of-touch.

According to Home Office records, an illegal alien is granted settlement or citizenship in Britain every single minute. British taxpayers are forking over more welfare payments to migrant households than ever before. Open defecation on public streets is so common that the U.K. must post signs warning the growing number of third-world immigrants that such behavior is inappropriate. The British government hands out a nine-page booklet to illegal aliens informing them that raping women and children is wrong. One British village has already voted to secede from the U.K. after the government insisted on housing a migrant camp ten times the size of the town right next door. The former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, recently warned the public that the government's "climate change" and "green energy" obsessions have rendered the country weak and practically defenseless against its enemies. And instead of tackling any of these national security threats, the government has used its dwindling resources to arrest nearly 65,000 Brits for "speech-related offenses" over the last five years.

When ordinary people hear Rees-Mogg say that they must be willing to "do their duty" and "die" or Britain "will be taken over by another country," they shake their heads in disbelief. One commenter asked, "So the UK government expects our young to die for them repelling Russian landing craft when it rolls out the benefits carpet for often dangerous invaders?" Another remarked, "A rich bloke who couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding, says we should do our duty and die, to protect a status quo that delivers him fine wine, and the rest of the country bills they can't afford to pay." And another insisted, "Kit him up and send him to the Donbas."

An online pundit instructed, "Go and ask the migrants you brought in. Let's see how British they are then. Because none of us are fighting for you." One young man wondered, "[W]hat's left to die for? Football? A home you can't afford? A job you won't get? A school that will teach your kids to hate you for fighting in the first place?" And another commenter concluded, "A country without borders is not a country, nobody is dying for a country that does not exist."

Europe's "ruling class" want to sacrifice citizens in a senseless war against Russia. Citizens should overthrow their "ruling class" instead.

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/26/2026 - 07:00

The Fog Bezmenov Warned About Has An American Address

Authored by Jay Rogers via American Greatness,

Sunday, June 14, 2026. UFC Freedom 250 on the White House lawn. Five men, coordinating over Signal, planned to send explosives-rigged drones over the arena, force a panicked evacuation, and then use sniper positions to cut down fleeing "high-value targets." One plotter typed the plan out like a game plan: "Position your teams in the purple dots, counter sniper and drones." A mother in Ohio noticed her son's behavior had turned dark and made the call authorities wish every parent would make. The FBI got there first, and the indictments later expanded to eight.

That plot makes a good headline. It is not, on its own, the story. The story is what that arrest represents: one save, pulled from a haystack that grows bigger and messier every week.

My thesis is simple. The real danger to this country right now is not any single plot. It is that we no longer reliably know who is inside our borders, and the men and women tasked with finding out are stretched thin, doxxed, and increasingly obstructed by their own countrymen while they try.

Start with the scale of the job. According to DHS's own tally, assaults on ICE officers rose 1,300 percent and vehicular attacks on agents rose 3,200 percent over the past year, with more than 180 vehicle attacks recorded since January 2025 alone. In Minneapolis this January, a woman used her car to wedge federal agents between two vehicles while a crowd threw rocks and pulled agents from their cars. Protesters in New York City barricaded streets with garbage to keep agents from making an arrest. None of that is civil disobedience in the Thoreau sense. It is a bet, made by ordinary Americans who should know better, that following an ICE agent's car carries no real cost, placed against people doing a legally authorized job under conditions most of us would not last a week inside.

None of that fog assembles itself for free. Following the money is a due diligence habit from thirty years of vetting where capital comes from, not a conspiracy theory. A federal grand jury is examining Neville Roy Singham, an American businessman tied to Chinese state media, for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The House Ways and Means Committee says Singham and his wife, CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans, ran more than $20 million through shell companies and donor-advised funds to a single activist hub, The People's Forum, from 2017 to 2022, and says the money reaches allied causes overseas as well as at home. CodePink is one of hundreds of organizations that turned out for this year's "No Kings" demonstrations alongside Indivisible, a group that has drawn long-running grants from George Soros's Open Society Foundations. None of that proves a dollar of foreign or billionaire money bought a single blockade outside an ICE vehicle in Minneapolis, and a fair-minded columnist has to say so plainly.

Cartels do not need to fund a protest movement to profit from the fog. Their financing model already runs on it. Drug and human trafficking pay for the cartel's guns, boats, and sicarios, and every hour an ICE agent spends negotiating a mob instead of working a smuggling lead is an hour that revenue stream stays open. That is a domestic financial interest as real as any foreign one, and an unresolved financing trail running through the picture, foreign and criminal alike, is exactly the kind of ambiguity a subversion campaign is built to exploit. You do not need proof of a tidy conspiracy for the fog to work. You only need enough real, unanswered questions that nobody can say with confidence who benefits.

ICE agents are not a separate category from the intelligence and law enforcement community. They are the street-level end of the same chain that produced the UFC arrests, the officers who verify the name and make the call on who gets detained. That job has gotten harder because the population they are screening got much larger before anyone finished sorting it. Homeland Security's own counterterrorism guide has tracked Tren de Aragua cells operating in at least nineteen states, running armed home invasions, kidnapping, extortion, and human trafficking, with one member of Congress calling it "MS-13 on steroids." Cartel sicarios move through the same smuggling corridors as the men, women, and children being trafficked for labor and sex. None of that requires a foreign spy service. It only requires a country that has lost the capacity to tell friend from enemy inside its own borders, because it stopped bothering to check.

If you want to see that fog dramatized, watch Season 3 of Lioness. The show buries a Russian intelligence operation under Ukrainian double agents, Belarusian contractors, an Iran-aligned militia, and finally a private revenge plot, until nobody, not the CIA, not the audience, can say with confidence who is actually running things. That confusion is the point. Yuri Bezmenov, the Soviet defector who spent the 1980s warning American audiences about ideological subversion, argued that an adversary rarely needs an army when it can flood a country with enough contradictory information that its own institutions cannot agree on what is happening or who is responsible. Analysts call the Lioness version of this the attribution trap: enough true fragments, pointing in enough directions, to make a wrong conclusion look reasonable. Trade the show's Moscow handlers for a Tren de Aragua cell, a trafficking network, and a mother's 911 call, and you have the exact same trap playing out in Minneapolis, Ohio, and every city where a crowd calls an ICE team the enemy.

I want to be fair to the other side of this, because a fiduciary who only argues one direction is not doing his job. Most people who crossed the border illegally came for work, not to join a cartel cell, and treating every landscaper or line cook as a suspected sicario is both wrong and beneath us. But risk management has never worked by assuming the best case. My thirty years advising clients on risk exposure taught me the same lesson: you do not get to ignore a tail risk because it is a small allocation of your portfolio. When millions of people entered the country without so much as a name check, the honest answer to "who is here" became "we do not fully know," and that uncertainty is the actual product Bezmenov's model sells to an adversary, whether the adversary is a foreign state, a cartel, or a gang.

So here is the uncomfortable ask. Praise the FBI agents who stopped a massacre at the White House, absolutely. Then extend that respect down the chain to the ICE officers doing the dangerous work of finding out who is here, and stop pretending that following their vehicles, publishing their names, or surrounding them is a form of protest rather than an assist to the fog Bezmenov described.

A country that cannot agree that its own law enforcement deserves to do its job without being ambushed has already done half of an adversary's work for it. The rest gets finished by every sicario, trafficker, and sleeper cell that slips through while we argue about who the real threat is.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 23:25

Is California Running A Shadow Welfare System For Illegal Immigrants

The state of California spends billions of state and local tax dollars each year on welfare benefits for illegal immigrants through programs built to sidestep federal restrictions on public assistance, according to a new report from City Journal.

The report estimates that California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants during the last fiscal year. Federal law prohibits states from spending federal money on illegal immigrants, so Sacramento built a shadow welfare system financed with state and local funds and opened it to anyone who walks in. Residents paying the nation’s highest tax rates cover the tab. The pool of potential beneficiaries keeps growing, with more than a quarter of California's residents today foreign-born.

Reporters for the outlet visited four public-services offices across Southern California to see how the system works on the ground. Officials at every stop confirmed that illegal immigrants can sign up for benefits themselves or collect them through their children. Nobody seemed concerned about who might be asking.

The authors described the reception they got from caseworkers in Glendale and Los Angeles, where staff walked them through the eligibility rules for noncitizens.

Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.

 “If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI,” he said. “I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”

 In Los Angeles, we heard more of the same. We asked another welfare officer about the benefits available to illegal immigrants and their children. While some state programs are closed to illegals, we learned, they are open to those aliens’ U.S.-born children.

For the children, the key program is CalWORKs, California's counterpart to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Illegal immigrant parents remain ineligible themselves, yet they can draw payments on behalf of any child born in the United States.

"If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two," the welfare officer told the reporters. "Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her."

It all adds up quickly. Illegal immigrants can qualify for CAPI, public health coverage, and a range of tax credits, while their American-born children can tap CalWORKs and Section 8 housing vouchers on their own. A hypothetical household of five, with two illegal-immigrant parents, an illegal-immigrant grandparent, and two U.S.-born children could collect more than $100,000 a year in combined public benefits, a sum that exceeds the pretax income of plenty of working California families.

Health care accounts for the largest share. California carved out a state-only funding stream inside Medi-Cal to offer "full-scope" coverage to illegal immigrants, and about 1.7 million people signed up. The cost runs near $10 billion a year, more than double what the state's own legislative analyst projected. Gov. Gavin Newsom shows little embarrassment over the overrun. On a podcast, he boasted about his "controversial" decision to extend full Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants.

Eligibility rules add another layer. The report details a legal designation state officials apply to certain migrants who would otherwise fall outside the programs.

California also uses a distinct legal category that enables certain migrants to qualify for state programs. The state deems certain aliens to be “permanently residing under color of law”—living in California with the “knowledge and permission” of immigration enforcement—and allows them to use this designation to enroll in Medi-Cal, CAPI, and other government programs. In practice, because aged or disabled individuals are typically not deported, this means elderly foreign retirees can arrive in California and receive extensive benefits.

In effect, California has built a retirement plan for foreigners and handed the bill to citizens struggling to fund their own.

BenefitsCal, the state's welfare application portal, tells CalWORKs applicants it will accept a "statement" that they "intend[s] to file or [is] taking steps to become federally eligible." A declaration of intent now doubles as documentation.

Of course, the gravy train for illegal immigrants extends beyond health care. In 2022, Newsom signed legislation opening taxpayer-funded food assistance to low-income illegal immigrants, and starting in October 2027, residents 55 and older will qualify regardless of immigration status, at an estimated added cost of up to $400 million a year.

California's Low Cost Auto Insurance Program advertises subsidized coverage "regardless of immigration status." In 2025, Newsom signed a law barring California LifeLine, a program that provides free phones and cell service, from requiring a Social Security number, essentially inviting illegals to use it. Meanwhile, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor's wife, has promoted the California Earned Income Tax Credit, whose materials assure applicants that having "no Social Security number" is "no problem." 

All this is happening while ordinary Californians drain their savings, work longer hours, and go into debt to cover rent, groceries, and one of the country's heaviest tax burdens, all to fund benefits for people who entered the country illegally.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 23:00

Will We See Western Capitals Fall?

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Consider these recent news headlines:

(1) "NYC Turns Back to Gas Buses After Finding Out the Hard Way That the Electric Versions Have Big Problems,"

(2) "As a Former Head of MI6 it's Clear That Britain's Climate Policy is Leaving Us Dangerously Exposed to Our Enemies," and

(3) "Spain: 74% of sex-crime suspects are foreigners in Basque Country."

They come from three different Western nations and involve three dissimilar subjects - public transportation, national security, and violent crime - yet each news story exposes the real-world consequences of government failure:

(1) In order to pursue "Net Zero" carbon goals, New York dumped a ton of money into electric buses that are too expensive and entirely unreliable for the city's needs.

(2) Britain's former top spy is finally ready to admit publicly that his country's delusional obsession with "climate change" has devastated the United Kingdom's capacity for industrial and energy self-sufficiency, rendering the former superpower dependent on foreign adversaries for future survival.

(3) Even though foreigners make up only 10% of the Basque region's population, they account for 74% of rape arrests, 73% of homicide arrests, 95% of drunk-driving arrests, 80% of theft arrests, and 78% of violent robberies.

What's so striking about these news stories is their "well, duh!" factor. An ordinary, rational person would have no problem predicting the failures of a citywide electric bus fleet, the offshoring of a nation's critical industries, or open border policies that invite foreign invasion. Yet mayors, governors, and prime ministers have pursued these catastrophic programs anyway, while heads of espionage agencies and millions of government bureaucrats either support their harmful decisions or shamefully stay silent.

The middle article links to the transcript of a speech that Sir Richard Dearlove delivered to the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London last week. It was a good speech concerning an important subject, and Dearlove deserves some credit for articulating a point of view that goes against the powerful flow of "politically correct" Western orthodoxy. But he gave this speech from the comfortable perch of quasi-retirement with little to lose aside from a few honorary board positions. Where was his voice when he was in a position to actually do something about the U.K.'s suicidal energy policies?

In his speech, Dearlove explained how his Cold War experiences taught him "that the country's war-fighting potential resided in its industry, that our most vulnerable link was the fuel chain...and that our industrial base could be rebuilt and repaired." Now, however, there is "very little industry left to protect, and we cannot rebuild non-existent industries which lie in foreign jurisdictions beyond our reach." Dearlove concluded that the U.K. must "rebuild the strategic industries we require to ensure that we can defend our island fortress and be a reliable ally to friendly democracies around the world."

These are absolutely true statements. Blue-collar workers throughout the West have been making these arguments for fifty years. Had an ordinary Brit with few credentials been in charge of MI6, that person would have been screaming profanities and ringing alarm bells long before the U.K. closed its last coal mines and steel factories. Shouldn't that embarrass Britain's "ruling elites"? And if it doesn't, shouldn't "ruling elites" be considered a danger to the public's prosperity and security?

Long-overdue, post-career wake-up calls bring to my mind President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address during which he warned Americans against the growing dangers from an emerging "military-industrial complex."

Although his turn of phrase continues to be used sixty-five years later, it would have been nice if the former Supreme Allied Commander and five-star general had used his two terms as president of the United States to tackle that problem before it got completely out of hand. Eisenhower certainly had the expertise to see its destructive potential more clearly than most, but he chose to outline the threat on his way out the door and leave it for others to solve. Some historians believe that parts of the MIC had a hand in President Kennedy's assassination, and if that is true, then Eisenhower's failure to promptly act had extraordinarily far-reaching consequences that included the death of his successor.

The generations of Americans who were born after Eisenhower's tenure have given him much credit for recognizing that the symbiotic relationship between Big Government and Big Business was evolving into an unconstitutional and anti-American oligarchy that we know today as the "permanent bureaucracy," the "ruling class," or the "Deep State."

Perhaps if the American general-turned-president had neutralized the Deep State in the first decade after WWII, we would not have endured some of the worst chapters in recent American history, including the Vietnam War, the debasement of the U.S. dollar, the FBI's soft coup d'état against President Nixon, fifty years of "global warming" con games, sixty years of mass immigration from third-world nations, NAFTA's industry-killing bloodbath, China's entry into the WTO, the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks, the Global War on Terrorism, Obamacare's government takeover of medicine, the Russia Collusion Hoax, the COVID information war against the Bill of Rights, numerous rigged elections decided by unlawful voters and mail-in-ballot fraud, multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, leftist-inspired violence against conservatives, and the Democrats' manufactured AI fearmongering going on today.

Diagnosing problems without taking concrete steps to solve those problems produces a perverse phenomenon:

The worse unsolved problems become, the more prescient the person warning about them appears.

Toward the end of Dearlove's speech, Britain's former top spy argued that the government of which he was an integral part had monumentally failed:

"The first responsibility of government is the safety of the nation. However, successive governments have forgotten this, and Britain is now caught in an energy trap of its own making. As with rebuilding our armed forces, it will take a significant national effort to extract us and bring us back to a position of safety. The task is urgent."

This is certainly true.

The question is why so many successive governments in the U.K. and across the West have betrayed their own citizens and made their nations much less safe.

Because normal citizens would never have offshored their own industrial and manufacturing jobs to adversarial nations such as communist China.

Normal citizens would not have conspired with transnational human trafficking gangs to import tens of millions of unassimilable illegal aliens.

Normal citizens would not have imposed "green energy" regulations that make it harder for farmers to grow food and for businesses to pay their bills.

Normal citizens would not mandate that unreliable electric vehicles replace internal combustion engines while power grids crash due to insufficient supplies of wind and solar energies.

These kinds of policies are so obviously foolish and suicidal that only our credentialed "ruling class" could justify them.

Does that tell us that our bureaucrats are too stupid to keep our nations safe, as Dearlove rightly recognizes as the first responsibility of government? Or are these self-destructive national policies proof that Western bureaucracies are waging war against Western citizens?

Certainly Western governments are guilty of failing their peoples. The only question remaining is whether their failures stem from a combination of incompetence and hubris or treason and malice.

As Western citizens ponder that question, they are quickly taking matters into their own hands.

Spaniards in Ceuta are destroying government shelters built for foreign invaders.

A British village has voted to secede from the U.K. after the government announced plans to house an army of foreign immigrants next door.

The price of government betrayal might soon be the fall of a Western capital.

Recognizing problems is not good enough. Governments that cause more problems than they fix do not deserve to survive.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 22:35

Inside Russia's New Jet-Powered Attack Drone: Teardown Reveals Texas Instruments Chips

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a US government-funded international news organization, has released a new report on the teardown of a mostly intact Russian Geran-4 “Seeker” turbojet drone, revealing what makes these new one-way attack drones deadlier than the older piston-powered Geran-2s.

We first detailed the new 300 mph Geran-4 in a report earlier this summer titled "Drone War Enters Terrifying New Phase As Russia Deploys 300-MPH Jet-Powered Shahed."

Drone warfare is evolving so quickly, and it is truly terrifying, as these new drones are much faster, fly at higher altitudes, and can evade conventional air defense systems, as demonstrated in Ukraine right now.

RFE/RL analysts got their hands on one of these new drones, conducted a complete teardown, and inspected its components. They found many foreign-made components, much of which came from China.

The teardown also revealed that the jet's brain used Texas Instruments chips (markings scraped off, logos still readable).

Here's what they found:

• Chinese mesh modem: radio + live video out to ~300 km, and it can relay so one Geran hands the link to the next.
• Operators can sit in Bryansk, Oryol, or Crimea and fly it all the way in if the mesh is up.
• Two GSM modems with SIMs (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and some EU carriers have shown up on these drones) to ping location over the cellular network.
• A 16-channel CRPA antenna to blunt Ukrainian jamming.

Watch:

RFE/RL takes apart a Russian Geran-4 drone to uncover what makes the jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) faster, harder to intercept, and capable of operating deep inside Ukraine -- from its turbojet engine and advanced camera to foreign-made communications and navigation… pic.twitter.com/WGNdlpS9w1

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) September 25, 2026

We warned in May: "And just wait until micro jet engines become standard on suicide drones ..."

Read: Logic Of Violence: We Are Nowhere Near The Endgame In Drone Wars

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 22:10

Trump Rejects Iran 7-Day Ceasefire Plan, Likely To Renew Bombing After Midterms Summary

• Trump rejects Iran proposal: WSJ

• Tehran denes reports of 'technical talks' after it proposed 7-day roadmap to end the war and (eventually) restart nuclear talks.

• Hormuz reopening discussed in exchange for US concessions in NY, including lifting the blockade. 

• Tehran seeks sanctions relief, declares will hold to conditions, including restored oil exports and access to frozen funds.

• US-Iran talks reportedly show progress, with Qatar helping bridge differences.

• Escalation risk remains: Iran threatens a broader response - to 'spread war to Indian Ocean' if attacked again.

//--> //--> Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by December 31?
Yes 27% · No 74%
View full market & trade on Polymarket Trump Rejects Iran's 7-Day Ceasefire Proposal

That was fast--huge late Friday night bombshell via The Wall Street Journal:

President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms, U.S. officials said.

Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and resumed nuclear talks in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trump says openly that Tehran is begging for a deal after the midterms that dismantles its nuclear program.

But privately Trump is skeptical Iran would meet his demands and has told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely, the officials said. 

Where do we go from here? So much for oil prices being artificially kept down, as the entire Friday drop is set to be erased.

Trump is reportedly expected to resume bombing Iran after the midterm elections, WSJ says.

OR, is this a classic Trump 'tough' negotiating ploy? The hardliners in the IRGC are unlikely to play ball.

The Friday Afternoon Denial

Via state media Fars:

Axios and Al Jazeera's claim about Iran-US talks denied, reports Fars; News regarding another round of talks is false, and claims technical experts from Iran were sent to NY to join the talks, is untrue

This was either the result of more premature or false Axios reporting, or else there's a possible in strategy divergence between IRGC vs. presidential delegation in New York. More from Fars:

IRGC Spokesperson says we will not stop punishing the US until Iran's seven conditions are met; our missiles are capable of destroying America's multi-layered defenses, Fars reports

'Technical Talks'

Are we back to headline ping-pong pushing down oil prices?

Latest: Iran-US negotiations in New York have moved beyond initial diplomatic contacts into a more detailed technical phase, with sources in Tehran describing the atmosphere as increasingly positive, CBS reports, citing Al Jazeera.

And an official Iranian caution, or possibly even brush off, in reaction... Tehran signaling it intends to stick by its original conditions:

Senior Iranian official says Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, no nuclear talks with US until Iran's conditions are met, Reuters reports, citing sources; Iran will make no concessions on its nuclear program

AJ: A US official told Al Jazeera says Washington is in a strong position and controls the Strait of Hormuz, therefore we are not in a hurry to reach an agreement with Iran

For a rehash of what's played out over the last 24 hours on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting:

• Iran's proposed seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US drops its blockade is being discussed as an accelerated version of a previously discussed 60-day process, and would include urgent measures to get both countries back into direct negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.
• The key Iranian demands under discussion include sanctions relief, the lifting of restrictions on oil exports and access to frozen Iranian funds.
• The two sides also continue to discuss arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, including whether Iran and Oman could return to a form of joint management under an agreed framework involving regional countries and the United States, as well as arrangements governing the passage of US vessels.
• Despite the outstanding issues, sources in Tehran characterised the negotiations as making some progress, with talks continuing and Qatar working to bridge differences between the two sides.

Also, President Trump has just said he discussed the Iran conflict with China's Xi.

And crude tumbles...

BUT...

Independent Iranian Journliast Ghaderi reiterates that the narrative presented by some US media is incomplete

A few key points about the latest status of negotiations between #Iran and #America, that show the window for diplomacy is closing. I reiterate that the narrative presented by some US media is incomplete.👇 pic.twitter.com/zWriFfoorf

— Mohammad Ghaderi | محمد قادری (@ghaderi62) September 25, 2026 7-Day Roadmap Proposed

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has newly proposed to the US side a seven-day roadmap aimed at ending the war, while the top Iranian delegation is still in New York City engaged in deep diplomacy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Aragchi is said to be planning to stay through the weekend while waiting on a US response to the plan. So far it seems Tehran hasn't backed down from its core conditions, and its roadmap proposal is said to closely parallel the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by President Trump back in June, but which has since completely collapsed. The plan is new but is still being largely seen as just repackaged.

Q: Will you give up the 60% enriched uranium?

Pezeshkian: Yes, within the framework of international law, based on the Nonproliferation Treaty. Whatever we are supposed to adhere to, we will. pic.twitter.com/6v9WqG9AMP

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 24, 2026

"Araghchi stressed that Iran was ready to begin putting the plan into effect as soon as Washington agreed to it," Al Jazeera reports.

Interestingly, also last night Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told journalists, "We don't want it to get to the midterm elections." He added: "We wish Americans to return to the MoU before the midterms." Here's where things stand in terms of Iran's position being represented in New York:

• Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz can reopen if certain conditions are met by the US and that it would be better to implement before the Midterms, according to a Sky reporter.
• IRGC spokesperson warned in the event of another attack, Iran's method of defence will change including geography of the confrontation, the type of equipment and weapons used, and targets in defensive operations in line with new conditions.

This contradicted Trump's words given to the UN General Assembly during his speech. He said "They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election."

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly had in follow-up to Trump's address said, "The President is courageously ensuring that such an evil country never possesses a nuclear weapon, which will make the entire world safer and more stable."

Iran has said it will not be 'bullied' - but Pezeshkian appears to be offering something on the nuclear front alongside this seven-day roadmap overture, or at least according to a future timeline assuming a ceasefire is agreed to.

He explained in a Fox interview that in accord the framework of international law, Iran could give eventually up highly enriched uranium. But he was also fundamentally using the moment to highlight who is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - Israel.

Packaging is new but what's inside is basically the offer that's been on the table for weeks: It's a return to the MOU, just on a compressed timetable

But the message from both Washington and diplomats in the region has been that Trump isn't interested in returning to the MOU…

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) September 25, 2026

Pezeshkian further said it was up to the United States to choose when the war would end. "It's America that must choose whether it wants to end this or not," Pezeshkian said in response to a question by Fox's Bret Baier.

Tehran has meanwhile said it is ready to escalate, and even spread the war beyond the Persian Gulf region, into the Indian Ocean for example (where the UK-US have the Diego Garcia base).

Further UNGA Highlights

Recap of some of the highlights from the UN this week, via Middle East Eye:

• The US-Israeli war on Iran and the Israel-Palestine conflict continued to occupy prime positions on the fourth day of the UN General Assembly. Somali President Mohamed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said his country was "suffering" as a result of the US-Israeli war, which has driven up the price of energy and food. Meanwhile, European Union Council president said the EU supports efforts to “find a solution to the conflict". He added that "freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be preserved without conditions and without hindrance".

• Crown Prince of Kuwait Sabah Al Khaled condemned the "illegal Iranian aggression" in his address to the UN Security Council on Thursday. Kuwait was one of the Gulf states hardest hit by Iran in retaliation for the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic. Kuwait is home to tens of thousands of US troops and military bases. US facilities in Kuwait were attacked along with civilian sites like Kuwait airport and energy infrastructure.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a pugnacious speech at the United Nations General Assembly, attacking everyone from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Western Europe, as he tried to counter Israel’s growing international isolation. 

• Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters took up positions around the UN headquarters before Netanyahu's arrival and continued protesting while he spoke inside. Support for Palestinian statehood and disappointment over the ongoing attacks on Gaza were repeatedly brought up during the event.

• Vice President of Yemen Abdullah Abdulkader al-Alimi-Bawzer condemned the Houthis in his address to the UN General Assembly and tried to rally the global community to help fight the group. He said the government of Yemen had supported a peace initiative backed by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Oman, while the Houthis rejected it and "instead escalated their actions in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb to serve an Iranian agenda".

via Associated PressOvernight Developments Recap

via Newsquawk

• Iran Foreign Minister Araghchi said Iran presented a proposal to US through mediators this week to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart negotiations towards a final deal, while it called for US to meet certain conditions within 7 days, according to CNN.
• Iranian President Pezeshkian said in Fox News interview that Iran does not want a nuclear bomb. They reached an agreement with the US President that was signed, and are still ready to move forward based on the same principles, adds it wasn't Iran that closed the Strait of Hormuz and it was open. They didn't seek war and that it was imposed on them, while they don't seek war but will defend themselves. They didn't start the war but will respond decisively.
• Iranian President Pezeshkian said Iran is ready for an agreement with the US and makes demands only within the framework of international law and could give up highly enriched uranium if it reaches an agreement with the US, according to TASS.
• Iran's President Pezeshkian said Tehran wants to revive its ceasefire memorandum of understanding with the US before the November midterm elections, saying Iran does not want talks delayed until after the vote. said:. Iran is open to inspections of its nuclear facilities and denies that Tehran is seeking to assassinate President Trump or his family.
• Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz can reopen if certain conditions are met by the US and that it would be better to implement before the Midterms, according to a Sky reporter.
• IRGC spokesperson warned in the event of another attack, Iran's method of defence will change including geography of the confrontation, the type of equipment and weapons used, and targets in defensive operations in line with new conditions.
• Iranian Brigadier General Sheikh said "we seek to expand our capabilities and reconsider our tactics and technologies", via Al Mayadeen.
• Sources say a return to the June 18 memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US is no longer sought by either side, with both seeking amendments to some clauses, further complicating negotiations, Al-Akhbar reported.
• Pakistan's Defence Minister said intensive efforts are underway to establish a mechanism for ending the conflict as quickly as possible and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to Tasnim.

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 22:00

China's Newest Power Plant Swaps Steam For Supercritical CO2

Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,

China just broke ground on a revolutionary new hybridized energy production and storage facility. The power plant will store excess energy in the form of molten salt, and then produce electricity during peak demand times through a supercritical carbon dioxide system. The goal of the project is to limit energy waste while also stabilizing the local power grid. The project could also inform future next-gen energy and energy storage systems, including for application in the nuclear power sector and even on the moon.

Construction of the Ruitan demonstration project began last week in Shandong province in eastern China. The facility is expected to be up and running by next year, at which point it will be the first of its kind to operate on the planet. The first phase of the project will involve a supercritical unit with a capacity of 50 megawatts, and a molten salt energy storage system with a 100 megawatt capacity.

The facility is being built on the site of an existing coal-fired plant, the Bajiao power station in Yantai. The new system will capture surplus energy from the coal plant when demand is low and store it in the form of thermal energy within a molten salt reactor. Then, at peak demand hours, that thermal energy will be used to power a supercritical unit that uses carbon dioxide to spin a turbine to create electricity, instead of using steam like a traditional power plant. The carbon dioxide is held under very specific temperature and pressure ranges, at which point the molecules behave like both a liquid and a gas and can power a closed-loop system.

Supercritical carbon dioxide units offer several critical advantages. "These plants are smaller than traditional units, do not require water, have higher power generation efficiency and produce fewer carbon emissions," reports the South China Morning Post. Moreover, they are highly adjustable and more agile than traditional power plants.

The experimental site is just one of a huge number of cutting edge and next-gen clean energy technologies being developed and deployed across China. The country is currently home to the biggest and fastest-growing clean energy tech sector on the planet, with research and development of new methods on the rise at an astonishing pace. In 2000, Chinese companies filed approximately 5 percent of the world's clean energy patent applications. By 2022, that figure was 75 percent.

"Accused for years of copying the technologies of other countries, China now dominates the renewable energy landscape not just in terms of patent filings and research papers, but in what analysts say are major contributions that will help to move the world away from fossil fuels," the New York Times wrote in an August 2025 report.

This assertive approach has helped China to rapidly establish itself as the world's first electrostate. Between the years 2019 and 2025, China outspent the rest of the world combined on energy energy investing, contributing more than half of the $1.1 trillion invested globally. By comparison, the United States, the world's largest economy, saw a relatively paltry $236 billion in clean energy investing. This has given China unprecedented reach and leverage in global clean energy markets. Thanks to the extreme concentration of clean energy manufacturing and development in China, the rest of the world is reliant on Chinese technologies to enable their own clean energy buildout.

And when it comes to energy storage, the United States is moving backward. In an attempt to wean U.S. markets off of Chinese clean energy supply chains, the Trump administration recently ordered a ban on using Chinese-made batteries in utility-scale energy storage systems. However, the vague wording of the executive order has left developers in limbo, while barring U.S. companies from buying affordable Chinese-made batteries may kneecap capacity additions in the short term.

While the technology being developed at Ruitan cannot directly compete with battery storage and will likely never make up a huge segment of the energy storage system, it is one piece of an all-of-the-above approach to energy tech that has allowed Beijing to establish what will likely be lasting energy dominance on a global scale.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 21:45

Yemen's Saudi-Backed President Calls On Citizens To Mobilize, In Sign Of Desperation

The Ansar Allah movement, commonly called the Houthis, have remained the most recognizable name and force in Yemen of late, but lesser known among many headline consumers is the country's internationally recognized government, which is directly backed by the Saudis and recognized by the United Nations.

Rashid Al-Alimi, ​president of the 'legitimate' government based out of Sanaa, ‌on Friday called ​on ‌all Yemenis to ⁠mobilize and join the armed ⁠forces against the Houthi rebels' onslaught.

Source: Iranian presidency's office

The general call to arms, coupled with a declaration of ​future ‌general ‌amnesty to any Houthi fighters who decide to lay down their weapons and defect - suggests that the Saudi-backed coalition seeks desperate measures.

"I call upon the sons of our great people to engage in general mobilization and national mobilization, to rally around their armed and security forces," Al-Alimi, who is also Supreme Commander of the Yemeni Armed Forces, said in a speech.

Things quickly went from bad to worse for Riyadh on the Yemen front this month, especially after Houthi rapid gains along the Red Sea coast.

After some direct drone or missile hits on the East-West pipeline earlier in September (which may have been Iraqi Shia militias, per US officials), Saudi Aramco told European refineries that it would cancel crude shipments in October. But Reuters has since reported that the pipeline has restarted.

The Saudis are currently trying to rally support from Mecca Defense Pact allies Pakistan and Turkey, though its anything but clear how much support these will actually commit.

In the midst of all this, somewhat unexpectedly, French President Emmanuel Macron declared he would send "military means" to help shield the vital Yanbu oil terminal from Houthi attacks - though it's unclear what precise difference a handful of ground units might make.

More Houthi ballistic missiles were launched on Saudi Arabia this week:

🇫🇷🇸🇦🇾🇪 L'Arabie saoudite a dit avoir intercepté une attaque de missiles tirés du #Yémen voisin par les Houthis pro-iraniens. Les défenses aériennes ont abattu six missiles visant les régions de Taïf et de Yanbu.

👉 Emmanuel #Macron a déclaré y envoyer des "moyens militaires"… pic.twitter.com/P76NzF7RIy

— FRANCE 24 Français (@France24_fr) September 25, 2026

"We are going to send military resources, that is to say, soldiers, radar systems and defense systems, to protect this site," but "not to get us involved in any conflicts," Macron informed French media.

But instead they could just find themselves in the direct line of fire for Houthi projectiles.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 21:20

China Sent Over 1,000 Shipments Of Missile, Drone Parts To Iran In 2026

Authored by News Desk via The Cradle,

China has sent Iran around 1,300 shipments of missile and drone parts this year through the end of June, as the Islamic Republic faced a brutal US-Israeli campaign against it, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on 23 September.

(Photo credit: NurPhoto/Getty Images)

One of the shipments arrived the same day the April ceasefire was announced, according to Iranian customs data cited by the outlet.

It carried a shipment for the Iranian Defense Ministry that included electronic components used to make parts for drones and missile guidance systems.

Another Chinese shipment two days later carried drone parts for Iran, worth more than $6 million, according to WSJ.

WSJ writes that there has been a surge in Chinese cargo flights to Iran over the past year, coinciding with several new Iranian warnings.

Tehran's military recently said it received intelligence of upcoming US attacks.

After the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025, Hebrew media began expressing concern over Chinese military support for Iran.

The concern lay with Chinese-Iranian cooperation on the manufacture of surface-to-surface missiles, Yedioth Ahronoth said in August last year.

Since the start of the latest illegal war by Washington and Tel Aviv, Iran has inflicted unprecedented damage on US military installations across the region.

Israel, which uses heavy military censorship to cover up losses, was also heavily targeted.

The Islamic Republic recently warned that new weapons will be used in the event of a renewed escalation by the US or Israel.

"Iran is prepared for a prolonged war," said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi this week.

He added that "If a new aggression takes place, there will definitely be significant changes in our defense and our counteroffensive."

"We will definitely bring new weapons with new capabilities into the battlefield, and the world will be surprised," Mohebbi went on to say. "We will definitely change the geography of the war."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 20:55

Mystery Deepens As Spy Aircraft Disappears From US Air Base Without Explanation

An SR-71 Blackbird parked for years on an outdoor display at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is no longer visible in commercial satellite imagery, and the agency has offered no public explanation of where it went.

The spy aircraft, the NASA 844, has been absent from its pad since at least May 17, according to Aviation Week.

Sources told the publication that the plane was moved into a hangar earlier this year for an inspection, though NASA has not described what that inspection involves, why it is taking place, or how long it will last.

The Serial 61-7980 was the last SR-71 built and the last to fly, completing its final flight in 1999 after the Air Force had already retired the type and NASA had retained a few surviving airframes for high-speed research.

Lockheed Martin produced 32 of the reconnaissance aircraft, 12 of which were lost in accidents and none to enemy action.

Questions about the disappearance of the SR-71 come a week after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman discussed plans for a new high-altitude, high-speed X-plane and displayed images of silhouette that closely resembled a Blackbird at annual the All-In Summit in Los Angeles. 

“In the service of the first A [aeronautics] in NASA, we are rebuilding our X-plane fleet. The X-59 is researching quiet supersonic flight, but it’s just the beginning,” the NASA head told attendees.

“As NASA recommits to flight test and works alongside industry to push the boundaries of airframe and propulsion design, it will not be long before NASA once again is flying as high and as fast as we had in decades past, and then even more.”

Asked whether the image was an SR-71, Isaacman quiped, “You sure that’s a Blackbird?” and declined to elaborate. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 20:30

Federal Judge Blocks Oklahoma Religious Ban On Jewish Charter School Bid

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge in Oklahoma on Sept. 24 blocked the state from using religion as an automatic bar to a charter application, allowing a proposed Jewish virtual school to keep seeking approval after officials rejected it because of its faith.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court in Oklahoma City on May 19, 2014. Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

U.S. District Judge David Russell granted a preliminary injunction to the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, after the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, citing state law and the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s 2024 Drummond decision, denied the application because the school would be religious. The order does not approve the school or allow it to open. It only stops the board from treating religious character as a disqualifier while the case proceeds.

The ruling in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond involved a different school. In June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the board to cancel its contract with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The state court held that the Catholic school was effectively a governmental entity and that the contract violated the Oklahoma Constitution’s ban on “using public money for the benefit or support of any religious institution.”

Because it treated the charter school as a state actor, the court also said denying it charter status did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s free exercise clause.

The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4–4 in the Drummond case last year. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. The tie left the state decision in place but did not establish a national precedent. How the individual justices voted was not disclosed.

The new ruling is the first federal court order to treat Oklahoma’s nonsectarian charter rule as a free exercise violation after that deadlock.

Ben Gamla is a separate applicant. It never received a contract. The foundation applied for a virtual Jewish charter; the board rejected the application. Board attorneys from First Liberty Institute said the board wanted to follow the First Amendment but believed Oklahoma law and the Drummond state court ruling forbade approval. The board did not oppose the injunction and argued in favor of it. Two groups of intervening taxpayers and charter school families did oppose it.

Russell held that once Oklahoma opens a generally available charter program, it cannot exclude applicants because they are religious.

The nonsectarian requirement in the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act “expressly discriminates against otherwise eligible recipients by disqualifying them from a public benefit solely because of their religious character and in doing so, violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” the judge said.

Russell held that Carson v. Makin (2022) governs the dispute.

In both that case and this one, “the state created a generally available benefit: the opportunity to apply for and contract with a sponsor to establish a charter school. But the state categorically excludes religious institutions from participating. As Carson plainly stated, ‘[t]hat is discrimination against religion.’”

The injunction is temporary. Ben Gamla still needs the board to approve a charter on the remaining statutory criteria. Intervenors have said they will keep fighting the claim that a public charter may be religious.

Counsel at First Liberty, Holly Randall, hailed the new court ruling.

“We’re grateful the court answered this important question of the law and agreed that enforcing a religious prohibition is a violation of the United States Constitution,” Randall said in a statement.

Daniel Chen, an attorney for Ben Gamla at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said the ruling makes sure his client “now gets what it should have had from the start: a fair shot to serve Oklahoma families.”

“The Constitution doesn’t permit the state to welcome every kind of charter school except a religious one,” he said.

Attorneys for the intervenors at groups including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment over the ruling, saying it marked “a dangerous sea change for our democracy.”

“We will continue ⁠to fight for all Oklahomans, who deserve public schools that are secular and open to all students,” they said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 20:05

Energy Secretary Announces $2 Billion For Improving Electric Grid With Smart Technology

The U.S. Department of Energy has committed $2 billion for smart technology improvements to the nation's electric grid, aiming to address concerns about artificial intelligence power usage, blackouts, and higher utility bills heading into the colder seasons.

During a press conference on Sept. 24, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the investment would affect around 100 million Americans. Nationally, the spending would be distributed across 31 projects in 26 states and is expected to produce more than 23 gigawatts of electricity annually, enough to power about 16 million homes.

"This is a quick way to lower electricity prices and increase reliability: using fibers that are already in the transmission lines to analyze what's the temperature out, what's the wind out, how can we use this transmission line to distribute more power, but safely and only in the right conditions," Wright said, speaking at a PPL Corp. facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

As Jeremy Lott reports further for The Epoch Times, PPL owns one of those projects at the local level. It's a $71.5 million effort to modernize an existing high-voltage transmission line across roughly 30 miles in northern Pennsylvania.

The state has a few data centers now online and a half-dozen more under construction, with grid improvements that could help facilitate them.

Future data center construction in the state has been slowed by an executive order issued by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in August, which affects the construction of all data centers that will use 25 megawatts or more, or enough energy to power about 18,000 homes.

Shapiro said the order was about "implementing the strictest standards in the nation for AI data centers - because I will not allow Pennsylvanians to be bullied by greedy developers and bulldozed by the lawyers working for these big tech companies."

Manufacturing Grid Components

AI has been in the spotlight in much of the recent electricity news, from the latest grid upgrades to a recent executive order by President Donald Trump.

The "bulk-power system" executive order, issued in late August, aimed to ensure that key components of the grid are not manufactured in nations under arms embargoes or other U.S. sanctions, particularly China, but are instead manufactured domestically whenever possible.

The text of the order said that the new restrictions were necessary because AI and AI-related production, including defense technology, has increased America's "dependence on abundant, reliable electricity."

Smart technology improvements to the grid can help reduce electricity waste and thereby free up more supply, but those improvements also increase vulnerability to hackers.

America's energy needs have heightened the consequences of a "successful attack or supply disruption on the bulk-power system," the order warned.

The concern is that components manufactured in regimes hostile to certain U.S. interests might contain "backdoors" or other features that make it easier to sabotage the grid, the order stated.

Ryan Norris, a senior fellow for energy policy at the Abundance Institute, said the threat is real.

"The administration is right to recognize that America's bulk-power system is both critical infrastructure and a potential national-security vulnerability," he told The Epoch Times.

"Our goal should not simply be to restrict potentially vulnerable foreign equipment, but to make the United States the best place in the world to design and build transformers, turbines, batteries, inverters, control systems, and other critical energy infrastructure," he said.

Norris also called for wider measures, more electricity generation and capacity, and allowing more power from industrial concerns themselves, including "islanded microgrids, and 'bring your own power' arrangements that protect critical facilities while reducing pressure on the broader grid."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 19:40

Border Czar Says Illegal Immigrant In Austin Was Shot While Fleeing From Agents

Authored by Jacki Thrapp and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,

White House border czar Tom Homan said in an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times that a Venezuelan illegal immigrant attempted to evade arrest before he was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20.

"We were trying to arrest him in deportment," Homan told The Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek in an "American Thought Leaders" interview airing on Sept. 26.

"He fled. We had lights and sirens. ... And, you know, he was shot."

 

Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, who had a final order from a judge to be deported, was taken to a hospital in stable condition after the shooting.

Perez's attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said that he was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice. She said that after he was hospitalized, he was released into ICE custody with a bullet still lodged in his back.

Days after Perez's arrest, his deportation was temporarily blocked by a federal judge as the court considers his attorney's request for emergency relief in a hearing set for Sept. 30.

Homan also denounced Democratic Party lawmakers who have criticized the work of ICE agents and called to abolish the agency.

In response to the Perez shooting, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) commented on social media and accused ICE officers of "terrorizing our country," demanded an independent investigation into the shooting, and asked for "immediate release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law."

Homan, who ran ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations from 2013 under Obama and was acting ICE director in Trump's first term, said the hostility toward the agency from elected officials needs to stop.

"I blame a lot of this on the hateful rhetoric being pushed by not only mayors and governors but members of Congress, and you know, and I'll keep calling that out," Homan added.

Homan suggested that more incidents involving ICE agents will likely happen if this continues.

The Epoch Times contacted House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for comment.

"It's unfortunate," Homan said. "I don't want to see anybody hurt. I don't want to see the officers hurt. I don't want to see the alien targets hurt. I just want to enforce the law. But until this hateful rhetoric stops, it isn't over when it comes to violence."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 19:15

In Big Blow To Tehran, Major Iraqi Airports Halt All Iranian Flights

Either everyone flies or no one flies. That's Iran's warning issued Friday in the face of sweeping US sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's airlines and aviation sector.

"If Iran cannot fly and receive airport services, no country in the region will have that possibility either," Mohammad Mokhber, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, wrote on X.

via AFP

Wednesday saw a Bessent-announced deadline for foreign companies to stop doing business with 27 sanctioned Iranian airlines go into effect. Upon this, all Iranian flights to the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan were canceled - with more destinations being added to the list.

But newly announced flight blockages for Baghdad and other airports in Iraq is going to hurt. Al Jazeera details on Friday:

Four Iraqi airports have suspended all flights to and from Iran days after the United States announced new aviation sanctions on any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines.

It is the latest ramping up of sanctions since the US launched Operation Economic Outcast in August in an effort to isolate Iran from the global economy.

Iraq has been a top destination for Iranian airlines, also especially given all of the important Shia religious shrines in the country.

The canceled transit will impact Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports, Iraqi state media has indicated.

"Iraq was one of the top destinations for Iranian airlines, especially after Iraqi airlines stopped flying to Iran at the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in February," Al Jazeera notes. "Passengers travelling between Iran and Iraq will now be forced to make a land journey of at least 12 hours, depending on the destination."

Iraq has remained a US regional ally but in a relationship that's been fraught with tensions, given Washington has in the post-Saddam era constantly tried to ensure it 'approves' of the prime minister.

After the 2003 invasion, one key 'unintended consequence' was the rise of an Iran-friendly Shia-dominated government. Ever since then the US has tried to manage and pressure Baghdad, using as leverage the fact that the country's oil revenue is held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Iranian flights to China are still going strong, at least for now.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 18:50

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Revive Third-Country Deportations

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 24 to revive its third-country deportation program that sends deportees to countries that were not named in their removal orders.

A person is detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents near a hardware store in New Orleans on Dec. 3, 2025. Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration has said it removes individuals to third countries when it cannot quickly return them to their home countries. However, critics say the policy is used to bypass legal restrictions and deter illegal immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, adopted in March 2025, allows immigration officials to deport foreign nationals in as little as six hours.

The Supreme Court has already ruled in favor of the program twice on its emergency docket.

Following Supreme Court rules, the application is addressed to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson because she oversees emergency appeals from decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

However, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer took the unusual step of asking Jackson to refer the stay request to the full court instead of ruling on it herself if she will not freeze the lower court’s order.

Jackson voted against the government both times when the litigation previously came before the high court.

Sauer said lower court decisions were throwing into chaos the delicate arrangements the government has negotiated with other nations to take in deportees who are not their citizens.

“Third-country removals require careful negotiation with foreign governments, which are rarely enthusiastic about accepting foreign citizens (especially criminals), and often requires obtaining travel documents and devoting significant manpower to the staging of flights to protect government officers and flight crews,” he said.

Disrupting those plans “imposes massive costs on the government,” and forces it to engage in new instances of diplomatic engagement with countries “who may be all the more skeptical of our removal efforts given the disruption.”

The filing concerns a First Circuit ruling from Sept. 18 that struck down DHS guidance allowing removal based on diplomatic assurances that receiving countries will not persecute or torture people sent to them.

The three-judge panel raised concerns about “blanket assurances” from third countries that promise U.S. deportees won’t be tortured or persecuted, saying this promise is not sufficient and does not properly allow foreign nationals to raise persecution or torture concerns.

The panel affirmed the final judgment U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued Feb. 25 vacating the DHS guidance. In its Sept. 18 decision, it affirmed the striking down of the policy.

Murphy previously certified the respondents, who are people with final removal orders, as a nationwide class.

The respondents argue that the government may deport a removable noncitizen to a willing third country, but not without inquiring about whether the person would be persecuted or tortured in that country.

The case is known as DHS v. D.V.D.

On Sept. 24, Jackson did not respond to Sauer’s request. Instead, she directed the other side to file a response to the application by 4 p.m. on Sept. 28.

Troy Myers contributed to this report.

* * *

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

Jacob Coxon Reportedly Worked With AI Doom-Maxxing PR Firm To Spread Psyop

An Anthropic researcher's very quick transition from six weeks on the job at the frontier lab to an "AI doomerism" media blitz increasingly resembles a well-coordinated information-operation campaign we flagged from the start. Despite the researcher assuring Fox News' Bret Baier that no third parties were involved in the media campaign, Pirate Wires reports that a PR firm linked to AI safety helped arrange his media roadshow.

This was such a smart question from @BretBaier tonight: "Did you work with any third parties as far as this whistleblowing and coming out?"

Jacob Coxon: "Not at all."

See below for research from @ParkerThayer of @capitalresearch questioning whether there was coordination… https://t.co/y1Oy1dCPZl pic.twitter.com/USZUuuP9fS

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) September 9, 2026

Blake Dodge, formerly a reporter at Business Insider and now with Pirate Wires, commented on X last night after her outlet released the report "Jacob Coxon Worked With Doomer PR Firm." 

"Exclusive in Pirate Wires: Jacob has been working with DEY., the PR firm that represents Eliezer Yudkowsky and other famous AI doomers. We also heard that DEY. was preemptively looking to book Nate Soares (MIRI founder) for interviews timed with Jacob's debut," Dodge said. 

Exclusive in @PirateWires: Jacob has been working with DEY., the PR firm that represents Eliezer Yudkowsky and other famous AI doomers.

We also heard that DEY. was preemptively looking to book Nate Soares (MIRI founder) for interviews timed with Jacob's debut. pic.twitter.com/d53FbyDt9f

— Blake Dodge (@dodgeblake) September 24, 2026

On September 8, Coxon announced his resignation in an X thread that received 173 million views; shortly after, an exclusive Wall Street Journal report was blasted nationwide, raising suspicions about behind-the-scenes coordination of the information campaign. 

That's what led Pirate Wires reporters to dig deeper and uncover, according to two sources: 

DEY. Ideas + Influence, a communications firm associated with prominent AI safetyists, has been working for Jacob, according to two people familiar with the matter as well as an email seen by Pirate Wires in which DEY. was looking to book Jacob for an interview on September 9.

According to one of the sources, who had direct knowledge, DEY. also preemptively booked Nate Soares, a prominent AI safety figure, for interviews that directly overlapped with Jacob going public.

If Jacob is working with DEY., that's interesting for two reasons: 

First, he said he wasn't working with third parties. 

Second, we are in the middle of a national conversation about the future of AI that is actively determining how we regulate the most powerful technology in the world, largely thanks to the panic stirred up by Jacob — and it's in the public's interest to know who, exactly, is behind it.

Jacob is not publicly listed as one of DEY's clients and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firm also did not immediately respond.

🔥🔥Let’s combine all of my breaking info on Jacob Coxon and “Dey Ideas”! And I’ll add a bit more too!

The man, Nate Soares, who supposedly referred Jacob Coxon to Dey Ideas is president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). MIRI is advised by Dey.

Also advised… https://t.co/OPE16AHM2I pic.twitter.com/JQioQyFmYU

— Bad Kitty Unleashed 🦁 💪🏻 (@pepesgrandma) September 25, 2026

The sequencing of the viral X post that received 174 million views, immediately followed by the WSJ exclusive piece, may only suggest and is consistent with advance PR planning. 

The broader issue is transparency, as AI warnings, just like climate doomerism, are really meant to shape the debate and push regulatory action.

Blake Dodge at Pirate Wires noted, "Yes, he can obviously believe in what he is saying AND work with a PR firm/coordinate media appearances. The more interesting question is how extensively these doomer folks are working together."

According to public records, Rimjhim Dey is the founder and CEO of DEY. Ideas + Influence. She previously worked at Edelman, Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dey also sits "on the boards of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project," according to her bio on the DEY website.

After reviewing the names linked to the corporate structure of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project (all found in the public domain), we found that Dey is the clearest direct link to PR promotion of catastrophic AI warnings. Alissa Quart has a documented role in publishing critical AI commentary. The other names have journalism, nonprofit, or governance connections, without direct linkages to the AI doomerism campaign.

As we pointed out, the AI doomerism narrative was blasted out just as a stalled bipartisan AI safety bill suddenly found new life on Capitol Hill.

And, of course, this guy- once a climate doomer- is now an AI doomer:

• Bill Gates Calls For Globalist Crackdown On AI

This is how the PR game works.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 18:00

The Pentagon Flocked Itself. Should Big Brother Be Worried?

Authored by Brett Heinz via Responsible Statecraft,

As the headquarters to the U.S. military, the Pentagon is surrounded by billions of dollars worth of surveillance and security technology.

These systems provide multiple layers of protection for the building but they also carry a risk of backfiring: any surveillance system that is vulnerable to intruders could potentially provide unauthorized users with details about the activities of the Defense Department (DOD) and its employees. This risk is higher than usual right now because of the decision to install a controversial piece of equipment all over the Pentagon grounds: Flock cameras.

There are at least nine Flock automated license plate readers (ALPRs) currently monitoring the traffic lanes used by drivers entering the Pentagon's parking lots, including many of the DOD's own employees. The purpose of these cameras is to give the Pentagon's security forces the ability to automatically record information about incoming vehicles that may pose a security risk. But if the alleged vulnerabilities of Flock cameras are as serious as the company's critics allege, then this equipment could be exploited to obtain a detailed list of the national security officials seen entering the Pentagon each day. In this way, the Pentagon's rush to obtain security equipment from private contractors may pose a national security risk of its own.

Concerns about the ability of Flock products to track people alongside cars has produced backlash from privacy-minded citizens, resulting in both protests and contract cancellations. Others have criticized Flock's devices for security vulnerabilities that expose them to unauthorized users, flaws which could be especially dangerous in the context of military facilities. Flock Safety has sought to downplay these issues, insisting that they have "never been hacked." Critics dispute this claim, pointing to multiple different ways that Flock's devices can be accessed by unauthorized users.

These concerns prompted two members of Congress' Intelligence committees - Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) - to write a letter last year asking for an investigation into Flock's "negligent cybersecurity practices." The duo alleged that the company "needlessly exposes Americans to the threat of hackers and foreign spies tapping this data." When asked about the Pentagon's Flock cameras, Sen. Wyden said that "Installing internet-connected cameras in the Pentagon parking lot is obviously a dumb idea. In particular, given Flock's troubling cybersecurity track record, the Pentagon might as well send the data from those cameras directly to China, Russia and Iran."

Under the radar

In late 2021, the Defense Department issued a contract to the Virginia-based company M.C. Dean Inc. to improve the Pentagon's "electronic and physical security systems." This agreement is an "Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity" contract, which allows the DOD to issue mini-contracts known as "delivery orders" directly to their chosen contractor whenever new needs arise. While the DOD has no direct relationship with Flock Safety, it acquired the company's products through these delivery orders.

The desire for additional security is understandable. The Pentagon has been subject to numerous attempted attacks in the years since the tragic destruction of September 11, 2001. Almost a year into M.C. Dean's contract, a Virginia man tried to drive his vehicle through the Pentagon's multiple checkpoints before being stopped by officers from the building's dedicated security force, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA). The culprit later admitted that he was "trying to kill people." Sure enough, installing an "active vehicle barrier and traffic arm" was one of the many tasks that M.C. Dean had been assigned to work on in the coming years. Yet other parts of the contract raise doubts about the idea that more spending necessarily produces more security.

In May 2023, the DOD issued a delivery order to M.C. Dean indicating its interest in a "license plate recognition system." A later update specified that it was "for the entire Pentagon reservation parking facilities." The PFPA already operates several license plate readers on the Pentagon grounds, but applying such a system to the parking lot entrances expanded their reach to capture most of the vehicles that drive within a certain distance of the building. In September, a new order was issued to "procure Flock perimeter license plate reader systems." Because this decision came through the order of a pre-existing contract, neither Flock Safety nor its resellers had to participate in a competitive bidding process to prove that their products were the best prepared to meet the Pentagon's needs - or that they had the most secure system available.

This was not the first time that Flock benefited from government contracts without full competition. Last year, the U.S. Park Police issued a non-competitive contract for "a Flock safety... system in the greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area." Many local police departments use similarly non-competitive agreements to acquire their own Flock equipment.

It is unclear who decided that the Pentagon should acquire its system from Flock. The Defense Department requested Flock products in its September order, but it may have done so under advisement from M.C. Dean or the various subcontractors that it worked with. Neither the DOD, M.C. Dean, nor any of the subcontractors involved in this process responded to a request for comment. Once the decision to go with Flock had been made, M.C. Dean installed its devices with the help of ThunderCat Technology, a subcontractor described by the Brennan Center as "an intermediary selling technology or software produced by other companies." ThunderCat was recently named alongside Flock in a Maryland legal complaint alleging that these and other companies have sold data to third-party customers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Contract information and Google Maps Street View imagery suggest that most of the devices were installed in late 2024 and early 2025.

It is unclear exactly how much the Pentagon spent on this system. The two delivery orders executed by ThunderCat are worth a total of $112,000, while the earlier order that first mentioned the idea is worth an additional $404,000. Several other orders in M.C. Dean's contract discussed license plate readers, though some dealt with systems purchased from other companies.

The Flock spreads

Flock Safety's license plate readers have come under fire from multiple cybersecurity experts. One such critic, hacker and researcher Jon Gaines, has argued that some of the company's technology can be breached in "about 30 seconds." Reached for comment, Gaines said that he "absolutely" considers the Pentagon's Flock cameras to be a potential security risk. Asked whether it was possible for the DOD to have modified the devices to address their security flaws, he replied: "No, by design the customer, in this case the Pentagon, have no control or insight into the security posture or control of the physical devices deployed by Flock."

The DOD distributes parking permits to employees working at the Pentagon, meaning that it already knows who uses its parking lots. The real value of the ALPR system is its ability to document unknown drivers, which could be helpful in identifying threats like the attacker that tried to ram the Pentagon's checkpoints. But if this data were accessed by an authorized user, they could use it to compile a list of active DOD employees and their daily schedules. The PFPA considers it a priority to prevent the public from accessing this type of information. Photography of the Pentagon is illegal, and the building is surrounded by warning signs reminding visitors of this "No Photography" rule. A PFPA spokesperson once stated that preventing someone from taking "pictures of certain people entering the building" was one of the reasons why this rule exists. Yet by engaging in this exact behavior with cameras that allegedly suffer from serious vulnerabilities, the Pentagon's security force could potentially be creating one of their own worst-case scenarios.

Data-sharing poses yet another risk to the security of the data captured by the Pentagon's Flock devices. Technically, the Flock system would not even need to be "hacked" for its data to be dangerous: all it would take is for one person with access to the system to misuse it or share it with others in an unauthorized way. The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm which is critical of Flock cameras, maintains a growing database of more than 200 incidents in which they have been used for reasons other than their intended purpose.

The DOD has not disclosed everyone who has access to the data gathered by its license plate readers. Many local law enforcement agencies that share their data with other agencies provide the public with a list of those agencies, but the Pentagon provides no such list. It is even possible that Flock Safety itself has some level of access to the Pentagon's data: previous versions of the company's standard Terms of Service stated that it reserved the right to collect "anonymized and/or aggregated data" from its users that could be used for anything from technical improvements to marketing. Flock Safety did not respond to a request for comment.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/25/2026 - 17:40