Zero Rss

"Economic D-Day": Trump Announces "Most Crushing Economic Operation Ever" Against Iran

Summary:

• Trump's Economic War against Iran Begins 
• Trump says "severe economic consequences" for any country that does businesses with Tehran
• Trump says "ECONOMIC D-DAY" begins against Iran
• UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz

​​​​​​​"ECONOMIC D-DAY"

President Trump is out with a Truth Social post describing today as "ECONOMIC D-DAY" against Iran, declaring that his total economic war against Tehran will be the "MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY."

Trump said that with Tehran's military and military-industrial base reduced to "now rubble" and its "currency worthless," he will unleash severe economic consequences against "ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran."

Here's the full Truth Social post:

Last week, Derek Holt, head of Capital Markets Economics at Scotiabank in Toronto, offered clients a preview of what the campaign to economically isolate Iran could look like (view here), including the potential targeting of China. Notably, much of Iran's crude exports flow to Chinese buyers.

UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is visiting Baghdad while at the same time US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss the Hormuz situation and security. Except of course the two sides aren't talking with each other.

President Trump has made clear that no talks are on, and that none are scheduled, as he's been floating a 'new' strategy to 'strangle' the Iranian economy over the long term. CNN reported Tuesday that White House officials have recently communicated that they are shifting their strategy — going from "hammer Iran ASAP" to "strangle them" over time.

US Navy file image/Reuters

As for Ghalibaf, he blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, mocking this new disengagement strategy, given the US has already failed to bring Tehran to its knees.

"Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement," Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X. "Bessent and Hegseth are way out of their league," Ghalibaf added while referring to them as the "clown crew." He stated:

Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made.

After declaring a new 'offensive' military posture in response to the crisis, Iran is showing no signs of backing off the confrontation with the US in the region. On Wednesday its armed forces warned Gulf countries against hosting or assisting American forces, saying it would be tantamount to joining the war on the US side.

"We wish to warn that any assistance or facilitation provided to the aggressor U.S. military amounts to participation in the U.S. military operation," armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi said.

"It seems unlikely that such a large number of military aircraft, particularly refueling aircraft could be present at regional bases without knowledge of host countries," the official continued as cited in Mehr news agency.

It's not known how many refueling tankers or else large warplanes are still positioned in the Gulf, but certainly the bulk of regional refueling aircraft operated by the US Air Force are currently concentrated at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion international airport - and has been subject of a lot of media attention.

And in another significant escalation that effectively torpedoes any remaining illusions of hoped-for cross-Gulf detente, the United Arab Emirates has announced Wednesday a complete and immediate severance of all economic ties with Tehran. The move comes on the heels of what UAE officials claim was a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles targeted directly at Emirati territory.

Tehran had quickly denied it had fired missiles on its territory, but UAE authorities later clarified that the military observed two missiles inbound from Iran, which caused no damage or casualties - which triggered an urgent missile alert for the population on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, below are some of the latest major developments and reports related to the Iran conflict:

Iran has weighed attacking US military targets in Europe should Donald Trump escalate the war, according to people close to the regime, as Tehran considers its options to increase the stakes of the conflict. FT

Even as Iran projects resilience in the war with the United States, its leaders are worried that a threat of more economic punishment by Donald Trump could increase hardships, reignite unrest and further erode the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy. RTRS

Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are piling up without an American military response, raising the risks of crossing the strategic waterway and frustrating some Arab allies who worry the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy to wind down the conflict. WSJ

However, shipping analytics firm Kpler has suggested that the US Navy is gaining ground in the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran is ceding some control, amid a war of words between President Trump and Iranian leadership over who has actual 'control'.

previewing new sanctions still to be announced...

The Trump administration appears to be indicating it favors economic warfare in its approach to the conflict with Iran, touting its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and previewing new sanctions still to be announced. https://t.co/k5g4FBcxF7

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 19, 2026

"At the moment, however, the evidence is clear: The United States, patrolling the strait with its navy, is gaining ground – and Iran is losing much of its control of the critical waterway," writes CNN. "More than 80% of liquids transits through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks have taken the Omani route – a UN-authorized shipping channel that Iran vehemently opposes – or have been 'dark' transits that likely took the Omani route, according to Kpler, which tracks ships using transponders and satellite data."

But there's as yet no rush for international shipping to return to the waterway, given the risk of attack and all of the serious unknowns which could result in total losses as well as threaten the safety of crew.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 06:25

The Cost To Retire Comfortably Around The World

For Americans considering retirement abroad, the same savings can go dramatically different distances depending on the destination.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, maps the estimated cost for Americans to retire comfortably around the world, based on data from NetCredit and Numbeo.

Estimates reflect a retirement of 14 years and 8.4 months, based on the average U.S. retirement age and life expectancy, and exclude taxes and healthcare costs.

The U.S. Is One of the Most Expensive Places to Retire

At an estimated $738,000, the U.S. ranks as the fifth-most expensive country in the dataset for an American to retire comfortably, behind Singapore, Iceland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

RankCountryCost to Retire Comfortably ($USD) 1🇸🇬 Singapore$1.1M 2🇮🇸 Iceland$893K 3🇨🇭 Switzerland$859K 4🇱🇺 Luxembourg$794K 5🇺🇸 United States$738K 6🇮🇪 Ireland$702K 7🇦🇪 UAE$684K 8🇳🇱 Netherlands$663K 9🇮🇱 Israel$642K 10🇬🇧 United Kingdom$627K 11🇩🇰 Denmark$625K 12🇳🇴 Norway$623K 13🇦🇺 Australia$620K 14🇶🇦 Qatar$606K 15🇨🇦 Canada$598K 16🇨🇷 Costa Rica$556K 17🇦🇹 Austria$553K 18🇲🇹 Malta$551K 19🇧🇪 Belgium$534K 20🇩🇪 Germany$530K 21🇳🇿 New Zealand$527K 22🇨🇾 Cyprus$525K 23🇫🇮 Finland$520K 24🇸🇪 Sweden$508K 25🇫🇷 France$496K 26🇮🇹 Italy$491K 27🇵🇹 Portugal$478K 28🇪🇸 Spain$478K 29🇺🇾 Uruguay$451K 30🇭🇷 Croatia$442K 31🇪🇪 Estonia$438K 32🇵🇱 Poland$438K 33🇰🇼 Kuwait$436K 34🇨🇿 Czech Republic$432K 35🇸🇮 Slovenia$430K 36🇱🇹 Lithuania$429K 37🇱🇻 Latvia$427K 38🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago$427K 39🇸🇰 Slovakia$417K 40🇰🇷 South Korea$406K 41🇬🇷 Greece$406K 42🇯🇵 Japan$398K 43🇲🇪 Montenegro$395K 44🇦🇱 Albania$388K 45🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia$362K 46🇹🇷 Turkey$361K 47🇲🇩 Moldova$360K 48🇷🇸 Serbia$359K 49🇲🇽 Mexico$356K 50🇹🇼 Taiwan$354K 51🇭🇺 Hungary$347K 52🇦🇷 Argentina$347K 53🇩🇴 Dominican Republic$339K 54🇨🇱 Chile$338K 55🇷🇴 Romania$335K 56🇺🇿 Uzbekistan$331K 57🇲🇺 Mauritius$330K 58🇬🇭 Ghana$324K 59🇳🇬 Nigeria$324K 60🇧🇬 Bulgaria$324K 61🇹🇿 Tanzania$322K 62🇹🇭 Thailand$317K 63🇬🇪 Georgia$315K 64🇿🇦 South Africa$313K 65🇵🇪 Peru$305K 66🇲🇰 North Macedonia$304K 67🇮🇷 Iran$302K 68🇵🇭 Philippines$301K 69🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina$299K 70🇻🇪 Venezuela$296K 71🇻🇳 Vietnam$295K 72🇰🇿 Kazakhstan$294K 73🇲🇾 Malaysia$292K 74🇮🇶 Iraq$290K 75🇺🇦 Ukraine$286K 76🇲🇦 Morocco$284K 77🇷🇺 Russia$281K 78🇪🇨 Ecuador$281K 79🇨🇳 China$279K 80🇨🇴 Colombia$279K 81🇰🇪 Kenya$272K 82🇺🇬 Uganda$272K 83🇦🇿 Azerbaijan$270K 84🇧🇷 Brazil$268K 85🇧🇾 Belarus$267K 86🇽🇰 Kosovo$266K 87🇱🇰 Sri Lanka$258K 88🇮🇩 Indonesia$254K 89🇹🇳 Tunisia$253K 90🇩🇿 Algeria$222K 91🇳🇵 Nepal$214K 92🇪🇬 Egypt$190K 93🇧🇩 Bangladesh$190K 94🇮🇳 India$189K 95🇵🇰 Pakistan$187K

Costa Rica is also a popular destination for American retirees, combining a well-regarded healthcare system with a territorial tax system that generally does not tax foreign-source income.

The estimated retirement cost is $598,000 in Canada and just $356,000 in Mexico. That means the same modeled retirement in Mexico costs less than half as much as in the U.S.

The gap extends to several popular European destinations. Portugal and Spain both come in at $478,000, roughly $260,000 below the U.S. estimate, while Greece requires an estimated $406,000.

Europe Has Some of the Biggest Retirement Cost Gaps

Retirement costs across Europe range from $893,000 in Iceland to $267,000 in Belarus.

Many of the highest estimates are concentrated in Northern and Western Europe. Switzerland ($859K), Luxembourg ($794K), Ireland ($702K), the UK ($627K), and Denmark ($625K) all rank among the more expensive countries in the dataset.

Further south and east, retirement savings can stretch considerably further. The estimated cost falls to $395,000 in Montenegro, $388,000 in Albania, and $335,000 in Romania.

Even within Western Europe, there are sizable differences. Retiring in Portugal or Spain is estimated to cost about 35% less than in the United States.

Where $200,000 Could Fund an Entire Retirement

At the other end of the ranking, just four countries have estimated retirement costs below $200,000.

Pakistan is the cheapest at $187,000, followed closely by India ($189K), Bangladesh ($190K), and Egypt ($190K). Pakistan’s estimate is roughly one-quarter of the $738,000 required in the United States.

Several other large economies also fall below $300,000, including Brazil ($268K), China ($279K), Colombia ($279K), Russia ($281K), Malaysia ($292K), and Vietnam ($295K).

Across the full dataset, the gap between the most and least expensive countries exceeds $900,000, highlighting how strongly local living costs can affect the purchasing power of retirement savings. These figures are not individualized retirement targets and exclude healthcare and taxes, which can significantly affect the cost of retiring abroad.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the share of Americans receiving Social Security by state.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 05:45

Ceuta Cops Claim Invaders Are Dragging Girls Into Mountains For Gang-Rapes

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Spanish National Police officers and the majority union Jupol are sounding the alarm over a horrific pattern in the North African enclave of Ceuta: illegal Moroccan migrants, including unaccompanied minors and undocumented adults, are kidnapping girls and dragging them into the surrounding mountains to subject them to gang rape.

According to agents on the ground and local residents, the attackers operate with near-impunity around the Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI) and the irregular settlements that have taken root on the hillsides.

Victims are overwhelmingly girls and adolescents - some local, but most are Moroccan or Sub-Saharan. The assaults are reportedly happening in the rugged terrain that is hard to police.

? ÚLTIMA HORA | Policías denuncian que inmigrantes ilegales marroquíes están secuestrando a niñas y violándolas en manada en montañas de Ceutahttps://t.co/J57pMZe7Xg

— LA GACETA (@gaceta_es) August 18, 2026

Jupol spokeswoman Laura García stated that far more of these attacks occur than ever reach official records. Survivors are too terrified to report. The number of formal complaints already exceeds the number of arrests. "Hoy hay violadores y pederastas sueltos por Ceuta," García said - today there are rapists and pedophiles loose in Ceuta.

One recent case illustrates the chaos. Last Thursday a minor was subjected to a multiple assault by several Moroccan men on Avenida de Lisboa, one of the city's main arteries.

Neighbours raised the alarm and only one attacker was caught; the rest fled and remain unidentified. The same day a young Sub-Saharan woman walked into the Superior Police Headquarters to report a similar group attack by Moroccan-origin perpetrators.

Officers say these incidents are not isolated. They are repeating daily.

Around thirty Moroccan girls, some as young as ten, have been observed sheltering under police vehicles out of pure fear of the men occupying the nearby slopes.

García has repeatedly described how groups of women and girls stay glued to police vans near the CETI because the moment they separate they risk sexual assault.

Meanwhile Equality Minister Ana Redondo, speaking from a "purple point" far away in Valladolid, insisted the minors "do not wander around but are in safe spaces and receive care."

The gap between official messaging and the reality reported by police, doctors and residents could not be wider.

This latest police testimony lands on top of an already catastrophic picture that has been unfolding since the late-July mass crossing.

An estimated 70,000-plus migrants poured into a city of roughly 84,000. Reception centres collapsed. Thousands of young men remained after many others were pushed back.

Beaches turned into open-air camps of shacks, garbage, food waste, urine and human faeces. Children's parks were left smeared in shit.

Hospitals reported surges in scabies, tuberculosis and impetigo. A doctor warned of a health catastrophe.

Civil Guard sources have confirmed at least 15 sexual assaults since the invasion.

Women have been packing up and leaving. Mothers have broken down on live television describing the daily terror for their teenage daughters.

One said her 16-year-old can no longer go anywhere without a parent because "the migrants devour her." Sisters Yoli and María José removed their daughters from the city, declaring they feel humiliated and abandoned while Pedro Sánchez holidayed elsewhere.

Residents have now set up their own women's protection camp because the state has failed to keep them safe.

?? Residents of Ceuta have set up a women's camp to protect them from sexual assaults by illegal migrants

While Sánchez's government claims the situation is under control, police are investigating at least 15 sexual assaults by the migrants.

Two victims were underage girls. pic.twitter.com/Jtq7NWP1Vv

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 19, 2026

Into this nightmare has stepped the self-styled "Barbie Gaza," Ana Alcalde, a Free Palestine activist and NGO-adjacent influencer who lives in Ceuta.

She is married to a local police officer, and has six children. She has been filming herself walking past groups of migrants, dressed provocatively, claiming the streets are completely safe and dismissing fearful locals as xenophobic.

The footage, however, shows her moving quickly, avoiding eye contact, while insisting everything is fine.

She loves Islamic North African invaders. Why doesn't she leave Europe and Spain and move to an Islamic country dressed like this? https://t.co/KqEIWw6EO1 pic.twitter.com/QhzznkgRAE

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 18, 2026

She has been filmed arriving in a high-end Audi to hand out sandwiches to the illegal arrivals.

A local Ceuta woman confronted her on camera and did not hold back. "It is very easy to come here and hand out sandwiches in an Audi with a police husband," the resident said. "I don't care about Palestine, I care about my family."

Aquí os dejo 3 minutos de una vecina ceutí TRITURANDO a 'Barbie Gaza' por colaborar con los inmigrantes ilegales y decir que Ceuta es seguro:

"Es muy fácil venir aquí a repartir bocadillos en un Audi con un marido policía".

"A mi Palestina no me importa, me importa mi familia". pic.twitter.com/bmBqTcTX8J

— Unai Cano (@unaicano10) August 19, 2026

The pattern is by now familiar across Europe: mass illegal entries, government denial, media minimisation, activist performance, and ordinary women and girls left to fend for themselves. In Ceuta the mountains themselves have become hunting grounds.

Police unions are stating what the political class refuses to say out loud. Rapists and pedophiles are walking free. Girls are being taken. And the people who live there are paying the price for an open-border agenda that prioritises the comfort of invaders and the virtue-signalling of outsiders over the safety of Spanish families.

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

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 05:00

By 2050, The World's Most-Populous Cities Will All Be In Africa Or Asia

Across 150 years, familiar urban giants rise, fall, and give way to a new generation of megacities.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, ranks the 15 most populous cities worldwide from 1950 to 2100 using population estimates from the European Commission’s JRC via Our World in Data. City boundaries were consistently defined based on satellite imagery and population data.

The Transatlantic Era

Tokyo led the 1950 ranking with 12.6 million people, followed by New York with 9.3 million.

The Big Apple was not the only massive Western city at the time. Of the 15 most populous cities in 1950, over half were found in either Europe or the Americas. This included London (7.9 million), Moscow (5.5 million), and Paris (5.4 million).

The table below ranks the 15 most populous cities in 1950:

RankCityPopulation in 1950
(Millions)Region 1🇯🇵 Tokyo12.6Asia 2🇺🇸 New York City9.3North America 3🇯🇵 Osaka8.0Asia 4🇬🇧 London7.9Europe 5🇮🇳 Kolkata6.1Asia 6🇷🇺 Moscow5.5Europe 7🇫🇷 Paris5.4Europe 8🇦🇷 Buenos Aires4.6South America 9🇺🇸 Los Angeles4.0North America 10🇮🇩 Jakarta3.9Asia 11🇮🇳 Mumbai3.8Asia 12🇲🇽 Mexico City3.7North America 13🇪🇬 Cairo3.1Africa 14🇨🇳 Shanghai3.1Asia 15🇧🇷 São Paulo3.1South America

The rankings began changing quickly over the following decades. By 1975, London had fallen out of the top 15, while Paris (7.4 million) and Los Angeles (7.7 million) had also slipped in rank.

The second half of the 20th century also saw the rise of Latin American metropolises such as São Paulo and Mexico City, which by 2000 had surpassed New York as the most populous cities in the hemisphere.

The Rise of Asia

By 2000, Asia dominated the upper reaches of the ranking.

Tokyo maintained its lead at 30.3 million inhabitants, while Guangzhou had climbed to third with 19 million and New Delhi to sixth with 18 million.

Urbanization and a continental population boom continued, and by 2025 all but one of the 10 most populous cities worldwide were in Asia. The sole exception was Cairo, with 25.6 million people.

RankCityPopulation in 2025
(Millions)Region 1🇮🇩 Jakarta41.9Asia 2🇧🇩 Dhaka36.6Asia 3🇯🇵 Tokyo33.4Asia 4🇮🇳 New Delhi30.2Asia 5🇨🇳 Shanghai29.6Asia 6🇨🇳 Guangzhou27.6Asia 7🇪🇬 Cairo25.6Africa 8🇵🇭 Manila24.7Asia 9🇮🇳 Kolkata22.5Asia 10🇰🇷 Seoul22.5Asia 11🇵🇰 Karachi21.4Asia 12🇮🇳 Mumbai20.2Asia 13🇧🇷 São Paulo18.9South America 14🇹🇭 Bangkok18.2Asia 15🇲🇽 Mexico City17.7North America The World in 2100

By 2100, Dhaka is projected to rank first with 55 million people, followed by Jakarta at 49.7 million and Karachi at 43.7 million. Tokyo, the world’s largest city in 1950 and 2000, is projected to fall to ninth place with 24.1 million residents.

RankCityPopulation in 2100P
(Millions)Region 1🇧🇩 Dhaka55.0Asia 2🇮🇩 Jakarta49.7Asia 3🇵🇰 Karachi43.7Asia 4🇪🇬 Cairo36.7Africa 5🇮🇳 New Delhi32.0Asia 6🇦🇴 Luanda30.7Africa 7🇵🇰 Lahore24.8Asia 8🇨🇳 Shanghai24.7Asia 9🇯🇵 Tokyo24.1Asia 10🇵🇭 Manila22.4Asia 11🇮🇳 Mumbai21.5Asia 12🇮🇳 Kolkata20.5Asia 13🇹🇿 Dar es Salaam20.1Africa 14🇨🇳 Guangzhou18.1Asia 15🇳🇬 Lagos17.9Africa

Cairo will remain the most populous city outside of Asia, with 36.7 million people. It will be joined in the upper rankings by other African megacities including Luanda (30.7 million), Dar es Salaam (20.1 million), and Lagos (17.9 million).

Tokyo is projected to see its population fall below its 1975 level as declining birth rates contribute to long-term population decline.

To learn more about national population growth, check out The Top 10 Countries Driving Future Population Growth on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 04:15

The West African Pipeline Is Inherently Geopolitical

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The West never does anything without some benefit to itself in mind.

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) formally endorsed the offshore Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline in late July. Construction on this $25 billion megaproject is expected to begin in 2028 and stretch over 4,000 kilometers along the West African coast for supplying the EU with 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year. Nigeria’s enhanced importance for the EU will place this official BRICS partner more firmly under Western influence and the same goes for the ECOWAS bloc that it leads.

While the 30 bcm is only around one-fifth of what Russia used to supply to the EU during the heyday of their energy trade, it nevertheless helps fuel the bloc’s economy, and it’ll also presumably be cheaper than the LNG that it began to import at scale from the US since sanctioning Russia back in 2022. Closer EU-Nigerian ties will complement the increasingly close US-Nigerian ones under Trump 2.0, which could ultimately lead to them empowering Nigeria to become their regional enforcer by proxy.

Although it has yet to go through with the putative anti-terrorist invasion of Mali that its Defense Minister intimated in early May, which would likely be pursued for regime change purposes if it ever comes to pass, Nigeria can still play this role in the future with Western backing. If the Sahelian Alliance of which Mali is a part survives the present Syrian-like Hybrid War onslaught, then a Western-backed Nigerian war with the bloc can’t be ruled out, one in which other ECOWAS states might also participate.

BBC cited energy expert and former Nigerian government advisor Charles Majomi as assessing that “[the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline] signals a change from current models where gas is typically extracted from African nations, refined and processed abroad then shipped back to African nations at three or four times the price”. It would of course be a positive development for the other ECOWAS states to receive gas at a much cheaper price, but the West never does anything without some benefit to itself in mind.

In this case, bolstering their economies is intended to lead to them purchasing more military wares from the West, with the overall effect strengthening their armed forces with the goal of turning ECOWAS into a more powerful Nigerian-led military bloc. While Guinea and Togo might decline to participate in any campaign against the Sahelian Alliance due to their pragmatic ties with them and growing ones with Russia, the rest are expected to take part in this if it happens. They’re also already pro-Western too.

Putting it all together, the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline does indeed advance all of the involved countries’ economic interests, but it’s also inherently geopolitical too since the long-term objective is to solidify Western influence among the ECOWAS states that also happen to be strategically coastal ones too. The “Global West” concept is therefore expanding from its North Atlantic core to encompass not only the US’ Asia-Pacific allies, the Gulf, Israel, and Latin America, but also West Africa now too.

Candidly speaking, there isn’t anything that the Sino-Russo Entente can do to stop the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline, and any attempt to do so anyhow would be presented as trying to impede the West African states’ development to the detriment of those two’s soft power.

What they can do, however, is ramp up support for the Sahelian Alliance and do their best to woo Nigeria back towards their side in the New Cold War. That’s much easier said than done but isn’t impossible so they might soon give it a shot.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 03:30

Europe Scrambles For Innovation And Defense As US Decouples From "Global Order"

For decades the European elites have pretended as if US integration into the progressive agenda is an afterthought on the way to a liberal Utopia.  The EU has long criticized Americans as backwards in their principles and politics, while at the same time being desperately dependent on American consumers, American innovation and American military might.  They simply never considered the possibility that the US might walk away from the old post-war arrangements.

Well, now it's happening and the European establishment doesn't know what to do.

ECB chief and former head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, took to the podium at the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council in Geneva, Switzerland this week to discuss the growing uncertainty in Europe.  

"Europe’s post-war growth model rested on three mutually reinforcing pillars. Today, all three are weakening as the international environment changes...."

"The third pillar was a stable, rules-based global order, underpinned by a US security umbrella. That environment allowed European supply chains to deepen, and enabled firms to organise investment around efficiency rather than resilience.  Today, that global order is under pressure. Geopolitical tensions are bringing critical dependencies and chokepoints into sharper focus, while Europe faces growing security threats on its doorstep..."

The WEF and its members have been suspiciously quiet in the past two years about their globalization projects.  The media coverage for the council meeting in Geneva has been thin.  It would seem, though, that the agenda so openly and enthusiastically promoted by the WEF during the Covid pandemic is not going as planned.

This event may be one of the clearest indications of the state of globalism since the failure of the pandemic coup and the return of the Trump Administration in 2025.  Largarde called for "better integration" across Europe for defense and more innovation, otherwise the region might miss out on the next digital revolution of AI. 

"In some respects, Europe is well placed to make the most of new technologies. We have a world-class research and knowledge base. The EU accounts for around 6% of the world’s population but as many as 15% of its researchers. It also produces almost one-fifth of the world’s most-cited scientific publications.

The challenge lies in turning that knowledge into commercial success and ensuring that new technologies diffuse across the economy. Too often, the barriers that prevent firms from scaling also hold back that diffusion..."

In other words, European governments are realizing that extensive bureaucratic barriers and overt taxation is crushing new businesses and preventing natural growth.  Better late than never...unless it's too late.  

Europe's economy is on a fast track to disaster.  An estimated 30-40 million migrants (legal and illegal) have entered the region in the past 10 years alone.  Most of these migrants come from third-world countries with no wealth, no skills and are largely dependent on European welfare systems in order to survive.  

Mass immigration has not led to the "explosion" in economic activity promised by multiculturalists.  In fact, the countries with the most migrants face increasing joblessness, housing shortages, inflation and a strangulation of taxpayer subsidies.  Meanwhile, as the US undergoes mass deportations of migrants, the economy is improving, including growth in GDP, manufacturing jobs and housing relief.  

National rental vacancy rates in the US climbed to around 7.2–7.3% by late 2025/early-mid 2026 (highest levels since 2017).  European vacancies are frozen at around 1%-3%.  The situation is dire.

The very globalists that created this mess are now complaining that, without US integration, they are about to sink into economic crisis.  This has inspired multiple European governments to dump funding into tech startups in a last-ditched effort to catch up to the US and China.  They are seeking to close their $1 trillion investment gap, but they plan to use taxpayer money to do it.  As Lagarde notes:

"Innovative European firms can often finance their early growth, but a gap tends to open as they scale. According to the European Investment Bank, EU and San Francisco-based scale-ups raise broadly similar amounts during their first five years of operations. But by the tenth year, EU scale-ups have raised roughly 50% less..."

"Fragmented capital markets can also incentivise young, innovative firms to vote with their feet. Some 12% of EU scale-ups have relocated outside the EU, most notably to the United State..."

It's unlikely that the EU plan for socialized funding and "capital market integration" will accomplish much without far more freedom and less taxes for entrepreneurs.  The elites pretend they want to revitalize economic growth but every new policy tends to cripple free markets with greater centralization. 

It is interesting, however, that these socialist and socialist-adjacent economies are struggling to function and survive the moment more free markets systems like the US walk away.  It's almost as if socialist systems are parasitic and require host organisms to feed off of, otherwise they begin to die. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 02:45

British Liberals Cheer Migrant Camps In Villages... As Long As It's Not Their Villages

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The same voices who demand "fairness" and insist every community must share the burden of mass illegal migration suddenly discover local democracy the moment the coaches might stop near their postcode.

A Mail on Sunday poll has laid bare the gap between principle and practice. Just 15 percent of people are happy with the idea of more illegal migrants arriving in their own area. Fifty-seven percent actively oppose it.

Yet many of those who back Prime Minister Andy Burnham's call for affluent and rural places to "play their part" draw a firm line at their own front door.

The liberal wokerati back Burnham's plan to house asylum seekers in affluent postcodes... as long as it's not theirs, MoS poll reveals https://t.co/TuelsWxBxH

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 15, 2026

Burnham has been explicit. He told GB News that Britain "cannot have a situation where it's only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers." All parts of the country, he said, must work and play their part. The policy is framed as equity. The reality on the ground looks very different.

The survey of 10,549 adults, conducted by Find Out Now and weighted to be representative by age and gender, also reveals the classic liberal tension: 51 percent agree asylum seekers should be housed evenly across the country, yet that abstract support collapses the moment the coaches head toward their own postcode.

What unites almost everyone is the demand to stop the problem at source. Eighty-two percent believe the Government should do more to prevent illegal small-boat entries. Only 5 percent disagree.

The areas most hostile to further arrivals are Lincolnshire (57 percent opposed), followed by Worcestershire, Shropshire and County Durham. The most accepting is Wiltshire, with just 21 percent opposed, trailed by East Sussex, Merseyside and Nottinghamshire.

The Mail on Sunday poll confirms what many already suspected. Support for the abstract principle of dispersal collapses the moment the principle lands next door.

Liberals and progressives who spent years lecturing poorer communities about compassion and shared responsibility now discover the virtues of local opposition when the coaches point toward their own leafy postcodes. The villages, meanwhile, are left to live with the consequences.

Three former military sites have been earmarked for conversion into large-scale accommodation for single adult male asylum seekers. Two of them sit less than a mile from primary schools, in direct tension with the Home Office's own July guidance.

RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, the base where Prince William once trained, is lined up for up to 1,200 men. The village itself numbers around 600 people. The arithmetic produces a six-to-one ratio of migrant men to local women. The site sits right beside a primary school, a nursery and a children's play area.

North Yorkshire councillor Malcolm Taylor put the local mood plainly: "It's quite an attractive site, it's not one of your austere former military sites and it's right in the heart of the village. So as a consequence, it's right adjacent to the school, the play park. That's what has really ramped up the concerns of the community."

At RAF Barnham near Thetford in Suffolk, plans for as many as 1,250 asylum seekers have already prompted some parents to talk about withdrawing their children from Barnham School.

John Bauer, chairman of the parish council, warned that the proximity could threaten the school's long-term future.

The third site, near the Oxfordshire village of Piddington, does not neighbour a school but sits beside a children's play area and backs onto village gardens. The village has roughly 350-400 residents. The proposed intake is 1,250 single men.

This is not an isolated experiment. It is the latest chapter in a pattern that has already played out across quiet corners of England and Wales.

The same week Burnham was insisting every area must take its share, residents of the tiny Welsh seaside village of Gronant discovered that their former village hall - converted into 15 new-build homes they expected to serve local families - had been quietly allocated to asylum seekers.

Thirteen of the fifteen units went to Home Office contractor Clearsprings. Blacked-out minibuses arrived without warning. Kerrie Cox watched one pull up while she washed her car. "Nobody was told about the arrivals," she said. Julie Tuson called it an "absolute betrayal." Ted Huthwaite said he was "absolutely gobsmacked... it is devastating for the community."

Borders minister Anna Turley has sought to reassure people by insisting the men will not be "in the village." "Everything they need will be on that site," she told LBC. In practice the sites are not locked facilities. Residents are free to come and go.

Infrastructure in these rural locations is already thin - limited bus services, strained water, sewage and electricity capacity. Policing is stretched. The cultural distance is vast.

High-trust, low-density English and Welsh villages with quiet streets, children's parks and a long-standing sense of safety are being asked to absorb large numbers of single adult men from very different backgrounds, many of whom do not speak English.

It repeatedly seems like an intentional choice calculated to produce the maximum friction and cultural upheaval. Officials could not possibly find settings more alien to the life experience of many of these arrivals. Quaint villages with medieval churches, village halls and play parks are the last places that resemble the environments many left behind.

The effect is predictable: local women and girls who once walked freely after dark now face a sudden demographic inversion. Parents weigh whether their children can still use the park. Communities that never asked for this feel ignored and overruled by Whitehall processes that bypass local planning authorities under the banner of "national interest."

The Home Office maintains it is seeking to house people fairly across the country, closing hotels and moving arrivals into alternative accommodation including former military sites. Asylum costs, it says, are down by £1 billion since the general election. The numbers receiving support are falling.

Yet the boats keep coming, the contractors keep being paid, and the map of acceptable destinations keeps expanding deeper into the countryside. Closing hotels while upgrading the destination does nothing to reduce the pull factor. It simply relocates the pressure onto the places least equipped to absorb it.

Reform's Zia Yusuf has been blunt about the Linton-on-Ouse proposal: "Andy Burnham is about to dump 1200 unvetted adult male illegal migrants on a tiny village, resulting in locals putting up with a ratio of SIX MEN TO EVERY WOMAN... Burnham is directly endangering British women and girls."

This is the logical endpoint of a policy that refuses to stop the boats while insisting every corner of the country must absorb the results.

The high-trust rural communities that once defined the character of England and Wales are being asked to surrender the very qualities that made them desirable in the first place - peace, safety, and a sense that the place still belonged to the people who lived there. One village at a time.

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

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2026 - 02:00

The Specter Of 'Economic Death' Looms Over All Of Us In Late-Stage Surveillance Capitalism

Authored by Milan Adams via Preppgroup,

I used to think the whole “debanking” panic was overblown. I really did. I’d roll my eyes at the Twitter threads and the think-pieces about how we’re all living in some dystopian soft-censorship nightmare. I’m a reasonable person, you know? I vote, I pay my taxes, I have a 401k that I check maybe twice a year when I’m feeling particularly masochistic. I thought the people screaming about being deplatformed or debanked were probably extremists, probably saying genuinely horrible stuff that any reasonable company would want to distance themselves from.

I was wrong about all of it, and I learned that lesson the hard way on a Tuesday morning that started like any other.

Let me tell you about March 14th, 2026. I remember the date because it was the day after my daughter’s seventh birthday, and we were still cleaning up wrapping paper and trying to find homes for the avalanche of plastic toys that had taken over our living room. I woke up, made coffee in the same black mug I always use, sat down at my desk to start the workday like I do every morning. I’m a freelance copywriter. Boring stuff. Product descriptions, email campaigns, the occasional blog post about software I don’t understand for companies I’ve never heard of. It pays the bills, or at least it used to before everything went sideways.

I tried to log into my Chase account to check if a client had paid an overdue invoice and got an error message. Weird, but not unheard of. I tried the app. Nothing. I called the number, waited through forty minutes of hold music that sounded like it was composed by an AI having an existential crisis, and finally got through to a human being who told me my accounts had been “restricted” and that I’d need to come into a branch with two forms of ID.

Restricted. That’s the word they used. Not frozen, not closed. Restricted. Like I was a teenager who’d hit their data limit.

So I drove to the branch during my lunch break, still thinking this was some kind of mistake, probably related to that time my card got skimmed at a gas station in 2019. I brought my passport, my driver”s license, a utility bill, my Social Security card, basically every piece of identification I’ve accumulated in my thirty-four years of existence. I sat down with a nice woman named Patricia who had the kind of patient smile that people develop after years of telling customers things they don’t want to hear. She typed for a while, her face slowly changing from professional neutrality to something more complicated, something that looked almost like embarrassment. Then she told me she couldn’t discuss the matter further and that I’d receive a letter explaining everything within ten business days.

Ten business days. I had maybe three hundred dollars in cash in my apartment, a mortgage payment due in five days, and a family that likes to eat food on a regular basis. I asked her what I was supposed to do until then, how I was supposed to pay for groceries or gas or the medication my wife takes for her migraines, and she just gave me that smile again and said she was sorry but there was nothing she could do.

The letter came six days later, after I’d already borrowed money from my brother-in-law and explained to my daughter why we couldn’t go to the trampoline park we’d promised her for spring break. It was three paragraphs of corporate legalese that boiled down to one sentence: my accounts had been flagged for “suspicious activity related to potential money laundering and the financing of extremist organizations.”

I read it three times sitting on my porch, feeling like I’d slipped into some alternate reality where I was a completely different person than the one I thought I was. I’m not an extremist. I’ve never been arrested. The most radical thing I’d done in the past year was argue with my HOA about whether I could plant tomatoes in my front yard. But then I got to the second page, and there it was: the specific transactions that had triggered their algorithms. A $500 transfer to a legal defense fund. A $200 donation to a nonprofit that I’d later learn had been added to some obscure watchlist. A subscription to a newsletter that apparently shared contributors with other newsletters that shared contributors with organizations that someone, somewhere, had decided were problematic.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about the modern financial system: it’s not really run by humans anymore, not in any meaningful sense. It’s run by algorithms and risk-assessment matrices and third-party vendors that sell “reputational intelligence” to banks who are terrified of bad press and regulatory scrutiny. Somewhere in a server farm in Virginia or maybe Bangalore, a piece of software had scraped my social media, cross-referenced my donations with databases I’d never heard of, and decided I was a risk factor. And because banks are incentivized to be paranoid, because the cost of a false positive is nothing compared to the cost of missing a real bad actor, there was no appeal process that mattered. I called the number on the letter and spoke to people who genuinely seemed to want to help but had no power to do anything. I escalated to supervisors who read from scripts that all ended with the same phrase: “The decision has been made in accordance with our risk management protocols.”

I spent the next three weeks living in a kind of financial limbo that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I couldn’t access my savings, which represented years of careful budgeting and sacrifice. My automatic payments started bouncing, which meant late fees and angry emails from creditors who didn’t care about my explanations. I had to ask my parents for a loan at thirty-four years old, which was humiliating in ways I can’t fully describe. My wife tried to be supportive, but I could see the worry in her eyes, the question she was too kind to ask: what if this doesn’t get fixed? What if this is just how things are now?

The Efficiency of the Surveillance Machine: Hard Data from 2026

Below are the official figures from FinCEN’s 2026 reporting cycle.

These numbers tell their own story about the scale of financial monitoring and its actual effectiveness:

A 0.001% success rate is not a law enforcement system. It is a mechanism of collective punishment designed to produce compliance through fear.

The part that really broke me wasn’t the practical stuff. It was the realization that someone, somewhere, had looked at my life and decided I was dangerous based on a handful of data points and association chains that I had no control over. I’ve always been politically engaged, sure. I post about local elections and environmental policy and sometimes I get into arguments in comment sections that I regret the next morning. But I’m not a radical. I’m a guy who likes to grill on weekends and worries about his kids’ education and thinks healthcare should be affordable. The donations that flagged me were to organizations that are completely legal, that have 501(c)(3) status, that operate in broad daylight. But someone had decided they didn’t like those organizations, or the people who run them, or the people who donate to them, and that dislike had cascaded through the system until it landed on me, sitting on my porch with a letter that made me feel like a criminal.

Eventually, after I hired a lawyer I couldn’t afford and threatened to go to the press, the bank reversed their decision. I got a call from someone in their “executive relations” department who explained that there had been a “misunderstanding” and that my accounts were being restored with a “goodwill credit” for the inconvenience. Just like that, after weeks of stress and shame and financial precarity, it was over. I was supposed to be grateful, I think. I was supposed to accept their apology and move on and be happy that I could pay my mortgage again. But I can’t shake the feeling that I got a glimpse behind the curtain, and what I saw there scares me more than I can articulate.

We talk a lot about free speech in this country, about the First Amendment and the marketplace of ideas, but we don’t talk as much about the infrastructure that makes participation in society possible. You need a bank account to get paid. You need a bank account to pay rent. You need a bank account to buy food, to access credit, to function in the modern economy. When that gets taken away, it doesn’t matter what rights you have on paper because you’re locked out of the systems that make those rights meaningful. And when the decision to exclude you is made by algorithms acting on criteria that are proprietary and secret, when you have no right to know who accused you or why, when the burden is on you to prove you’re not a bad person rather than on them to prove you are, that’s not freedom. That’s just a more sophisticated form of control.

I don’t know what the solution is. I’m not a policy expert. I just know that I’m different now than I was before March 14th. I self-censor more. I think twice before donating to causes I care about, before signing petitions, before posting opinions that might be controversial. I keep more cash in my safe. I’ve opened accounts at two different banks, trying to diversify my risk like I’m a portfolio instead of a person. My wife and I have talked about keeping more of our savings in physical assets, which feels paranoid until you remember that paranoia is just pattern recognition in people who’ve been burned before.

The worst part is the isolation. When this happened to me, I didn’t know who to talk to about it. I was ashamed, for one thing. There’s a stigma to having your accounts frozen that feels uncomfortably close to the stigma of being arrested, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong. And the people I did tell mostly didn’t understand. They’d say things like “just use a different bank” or “you must have done something suspicious” or “this is why I don’t mix politics and money.” They couldn’t grasp that the problem wasn’t one bank making a bad decision, it was a system that allows private companies to act as gatekeepers to economic participation based on secret criteria and political whim. They couldn’t see that this isn’t about me and my specific situation, it’s about what happens when we build a society where the infrastructure of daily life can be withdrawn as punishment for wrongthink.

I’m telling this story now because I think people need to understand that this is real, that it happens to normal people who aren’t extremists or criminals or threats to anyone. It happens to freelancers trying to pay their mortgages. It happens to parents saving for their kids’ college. It happens to people who thought they were safe because they follow the rules and stay in their lane. And once it happens, you don’t see the world the same way anymore. You realize how fragile your place in the economy really is, how conditional your participation in society has become, and how little it takes to transform a respectable citizen into a financial untouchable.

I got my accounts back, but I didn’t get my sense of security back. That disappeared somewhere between the hold music and the form letter, and I don’t think it’s coming back. I used to believe that if you were honest and worked hard and stayed out of trouble, the system would basically work for you.

Now I know better.

Now I know that the system works for whoever controls the algorithms, and the rest of us are just living at the mercy of their judgment. And that’s no way to live at all.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 23:25

US Airports Remain Busy Despite Surging Prices

Following the historic slump in air travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, passenger volume at U.S. airports has gradually recovered, roughly matching pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and exceeding it in 2024 and 2025.

In fact, 2025 was the busiest year ever at U.S. airports with an average of 2.48 million travelers passing through TSA checkpoints each day.

Despite the latest surge in ticket prices – airline fares have risen 12.6% since January and more than 25 percent since July 2025, Statista's Felix Richter reports 2026 is on track to match or even exceed last year’s passenger volume.

You will find more infographics at Statista

As of August 11, TSA agents screened an average of 2.49 million passengers per day this year, trailing last year’s number over the same period by less than 8,000 passengers per day.

While airline fares have been impacted heavily by this year’s inflation surge caused in large part by the Iran war and its effect on global oil prices, they haven’t risen as much as overall price levels in the longer run.

Since February 2020, the last month before the pandemic hit, the all-items Consumer Price Index in the United States has increased more than 28 percent.

The sub-index for airline fares has only risen 16 percent.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 23:00

Governments Don't Like It When We Gather Without Their Permission

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Freedom of association is under attack...

There are a number of ways in which Western governments are waging war against their citizens.  The United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and leftists in the United States do not believe in free speech.  These Western governments also spy on their citizens without warrants or probable cause.  They have transformed their court systems into ideologically-partisan dictatorships that impose rulings based upon feelings and “political correctness,” rather than black-letter law and self-restraint.  An offense that often gets overlooked, however, is Western governments’ infringement of citizens’ freedom of association.

Freedom of association is our natural, God-given right to meet with likeminded people, discuss ideas, express ourselves, and promote our mutual interests.  As with freedom of speech, it is fundamental to any notion of liberty.  Respect for freedom of association is the bedrock for religious freedom, freedom of conscience, communal identity, and national self-determination.

Countries are born when people of common ancestry, language, history, and customs choose to work together and defend their way of life.  Towns spring up when likeminded people settle and develop a region together.  Religious congregations grow through common worship.  Schools, skilled trade unions, clubs, sports leagues, and civic organizations of all types are formed when people come together to pursue similar interests and advance shared ideas.

At its heart, freedom of association respects human beings’ natural inclination to cooperate with others to build something together that would not be possible for any one person to build alone.  As a voluntary commitment to pursue a group’s common aims, it is the collective expression of each individual’s personal liberty.

As with all God-given rights and liberties, government power (or State authority) is the greatest threat to freedom of association.  When governments prevent people from discussing ideas, worshiping together, working together, or pursuing common interests, the State is using its monopoly on the lawful use of force to infringe citizens’ inalienable rights.

What we see across the West is the bureaucratic State imposing its political will in defiance of the collective will of citizens.

Perhaps the most glaring problem of the last several decades has been Western governments’ refusal to secure their national borders.  There is no more natural political association than a nation state’s citizenry.  Over centuries and millennia, tribes of similar peoples came together to protect their lands and resources from foreign invasion, while promoting domestic order, safety, and peace.

The rule of law traces its origin to common customs, personal duties, social obligations, religious convictions, and beliefs.  Both political philosophers and ordinary people with common sense tend to define a government’s foremost obligations to include two complementary tasks: (1) to secure territory from invasion and (2) to promote the common law.  Governments that successfully perform these duties advance their citizens’ natural freedoms, general welfare, and domestic peace.

By opening up their borders and inviting millions of foreigners to take over parts of their nations, Western governments have undermined their own citizens’ self-determination.  They have directly attacked citizens’ freedom of association in the context of forming nation states.  These governments have effectively destroyed the natural associations formed by generations of Westerners over many centuries.  Because respect for the rule of law originates with common customs and beliefs, the introduction of foreign populations (who have no interest in assimilating) immediately erodes domestic safety and peace.  Western governments betray their citizens twice: First, they fail to secure their territories from invasion. Second, they make domestic tranquility an impossibility.

But attacks on Westerners’ freedom of association go much further than open borders.  Because Western governments are clearly conspiring to facilitate mass migration without the consent of their respective citizenries, these governments are particularly invested in preventing their peoples from resisting the invasion of their lands.  In order to silence public dissent, governments have chosen to abrogate citizens’ natural freedom to assemble together and protest their governments’ criminality.  We see this taking many different forms.  In Europe, political parties that seek to secure borders and limit immigration are designated “right-wing,” “fascist,” “nationalist,” and “threats to national security.”  Those last two insults are peculiar contradictions; Europeans who wish to protect their nations are simultaneously branded “threats” to the nation state.  In the United States, any voter who supports President Trump’s border security policies risks being harassed online, de-banked from financial institutions, fired from jobs, and targeted by Democrat prosecutors.  In both the Old and New Worlds, the freedom of citizens to work together to fight their governments’ dangerous open borders policies is under constant attack.

Mass migration, however, is only one of many government policies that have been deemed so “sacrosanct” that citizens are not allowed to organize against them.  Western governments continue to threaten and prosecute Christians who seek to end government-sanctioned murder of unborn babies.  Under the Biden administration, the FBI placed concerned parents on domestic terror watchlists for publicly opposing “transgender” indoctrination in schools.  Across the West, pro-family organizations that encourage strong marriages between one man and one woman are either officially or unofficially identified as “hate groups.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center in the United States has made a fortune over the years falsely acting as an authority on what kinds of public associations should be promoted and which should be condemned.  While celebrating Black Lives Matter as a civil rights group (even though its member have caused billions of dollars in property damage and left dozens of unsolved murders across the country), the SPLC routinely designates conservative organizations and publications as threats to civil rights — designations that have prompted illegitimately-predicated law enforcement investigations, IRS scrutiny, censorship, and de-banking.

During Western governments’ COVID totalitarianism, freedom of association was effectively eliminated.  Friends and families were not allowed to celebrate birthdays or comfort dying loved ones.  Workers were not allowed to make a living.  Congregations were not allowed to attend church services.  Students were not allowed to learn together.  Athletes were not allowed to compete against each other.  Clubs were not allowed to operate.  Civic organizations were shut down.  Online dissent was censored.  Medical researchers who opposed lockdowns, mask mandates, and forced experimental injections were denied any opportunity to work together.  Western governments essentially outlawed people from associating together and sharing their experiences and opinions.  And they prohibited freedom of assembly unless that assembly was part of the violent and destructive network of Antifa and Black Lives Matter domestic terrorists intent on burning down parts of major cities.

Today, we see freedom of association under constant attack in two separate public domains: (1) the local community and (2) the online community.

During Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration transplanted over ten million foreign nationals into unsuspecting towns across the United States.  In the United Kingdom, some small villages now have six migrant men to every local woman.  After Spanish authorities did nothing to prevent the invasion of Ceuta, foreigners have destroyed the small enclave in a matter of days.  This unnatural phenomenon is occurring in every corner of the West.  The common feature is that Western governments show outright disdain for the self-determination of local communities.

Likewise, Big Tech continues to work hand in glove with Western governments to shadow-ban, demonetize, and outright censor any associations of people opposed to official government policy.  Western governments claim these attacks on free speech and freedom of association are necessary to combat “disinformation,” promote online safety, and protect so-called “Western values.”  But the values that Western governments are committed to securing are not Western values at all; they are shameless infringements of Western citizens’ natural, God-given rights and liberties.

When governments prevent people from choosing their next-door neighbors and online friends, they target the essence of personal freedom.  Such abuse constitutes an attack on freedom of association and a war on Western citizens.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 22:35

Arrest Warrants Issued For 6 DC Cops Accused In $440K Overtime Fraud

A D.C. Superior Court judge signed arrest warrants on August 18, 2026, for six current and former members of the Metropolitan Police Department's Fifth District, accusing them of fraudulently claiming overtime and regular-duty hours they did not work in 2024. The warrants target Peter Sheldon, Frantz Fulcher, Thomas Krmenec, Bernadette Richardson, Dorrie Smith Cleere, and Johnnie Dyer.

The six face charges of first-degree fraud, first-degree theft, forgery, and uttering (knowingly passing off a forged or fraudulent document as genuine). U.S. Attorney for the DC Jeanine Pirro announced the action, stating: "Every day, we rely on law enforcement to uphold the public's trust. These MPD members betrayed that trust by scheming to collect unearned, undeserved income, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. They will be held accountable, and my office remains focused on rooting out fraud and protecting the American taxpayer."

According to an announcement from D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb's office, the scheme cost District taxpayers $441,137 in fraudulent pay during 2024 alone. The individuals and alleged amounts are:

• Former Sergeant Frantz Fulcher: $174,915.39
• Officer Thomas Krmenec: $89,478.00
• Officer Dorrie Smith Cleere: $87,397.65
• Former Senior Police Officer Bernadette Richardson: $43,351.68
• Johnnie Dyer (civilian): $27,721.59
• Former Lieutenant Peter Sheldon: $18,272.72

Prosecutors say the defendants, assigned to the Fifth District Administrative Office, submitted false claims through MPD's Timesheet Manager Application. Methods allegedly included claiming overtime while physically outside the District of Columbia (including during domestic and international travel), while on annual leave, forging supervisory signatures on authorization forms, and using administrative positions to facilitate fraudulent processing and approvals. Some also allegedly claimed compensation while engaged in secondary employment.

Investigators reconstructed activities using a wide array of independent data sources: body-worn camera footage, radio and GPS records, cell-site location data, cellular toll records, license plate reader data, annual leave and travel records, emails, network data, access logs, personnel files, and overtime documentation. These records demonstrated repeated and deliberate falsification. Collectively, the six submitted more than 11,000 hours and were paid over $935,000 in 2024; investigators determined roughly half of those hours - about 5,618 - were fraudulent.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Internal Affairs Division initiated the probe after spotting irregularities, including unusually high overtime volumes and inconsistencies with verification data. The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Morris, on detail from the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. Due to jurisdictional limits under the Home Rule Act, adult felony prosecutions of this type are handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office, with OAG attorneys serving in a supporting SAUSA capacity.

Attorney General Schwalb said: "These six officers abused their positions of power, exploiting the District and the residents they took an oath to serve and protect. No one is above the law, especially those trusted with enforcing it." As of Tuesday afternoon, a source told ABC affiliate WJLA that at least three of the six - Officers Smith Cleere and Krmenec, and Former Senior Police Officer Richardson - were in custody; warrants for Fulcher and Sheldon were executed Wednesday, according to court documents cited by the Washington Examiner.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 22:10

S.Korea Reaffirms Push For Military Independence After Trump Announced Scaled-Back Drills

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has reaffirmed his push for South Korea to regain independent control of its military from the US after President Trump announced the scaling back of joint US-South Korean military drills taking place this week.

The US has had wartime operational control of South Korea’s military since the Korean War, which technically never ended. Combat was halted by a 1953 armistice, but the two sides never signed a formal peace treaty.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Pool via Reuters

South Korea took peacetime operational control, or OPCON, of its military in 1994, but the US still holds wartime OPCON. Lee previously committed to regaining wartime OPCON by the end of his term in 2030, which he reaffirmed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

"A strong alliance makes the foundation of security stronger, and strengthening our own capabilities increases our value and necessity as an ally," Lee said, according to The Guardian.

Also on Tuesday, Wi Sung Lac, Lee’s national security advisor, said that South Korea remained in close coordination with the US regarding joint military exercises.

"Based on the strong South Korea-US alliance, our government has been continuing coordination with the US side on combined exercises and drills between South Korea and the US," Wi said, according to the YONHAP News Agency.

Trump announced on Sunday that he ordered US War Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" Ulchi Freedom Shield, major joint US-South Korean war games that began on Monday, though it’s unclear if they are being reduced in any significant way.

The US president said he took the step based on his "very good relationship" with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, whom he met with three times during his first term.

Lee’s office responded by saying it hoped that relationship would lead to "meaningful dialogue" and "discussions aimed at advancing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

Pyongyang has meanwhile downplayed the Trump overture and has not acknowledged any new contacts...

Q: Why hasn't Kim Jung Un responded to your request to have a conversation?

Trump: How do you know he hasn't?

Q: Has he?

Trump: Uh... Yeah he has. pic.twitter.com/RXuoNkvK03

— FactPost (@factpostnews) August 17, 2026

While Trump has framed his action as some sort of punishment over South Korea’s lack of support for the Iran war, it aligns with the agenda President Lee has been attempting to pursue. Just one day before Trump’s announcement, Lee proposed direct talks with North Korea.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 21:45

Amazon 'Prime Air' To Expand Drone Delivery To Nearly 500 US Cities This Year

Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery service, first teased by Jeff Bezos in a 2013 60 Minutes interview as a way to get packages under 5lbs to customers in 30 minutes or less, represents the broader push toward autonomous aerial last-mile logistics that could bypass traffic and cut delivery times dramatically. 

After years of regulatory hurdles with the FAA, technical iterations, and limited trials, the service has matured into a commercial offering using the MK30 drone, which hovers to drop packages.

A major breakthrough came in 2024, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted Amazon a waiver allowing its drones to fly beyond the visual line of sight of their operators, and has already completed hundreds of thousands of deliveries in 2026 across 11 sites in seven states. 

Today Amazon announced plans to expand it to nearly 500 US cities and towns by year-end - a roughly sixfold increase - bringing ultrafast options (as quick as 30 minutes) to tens of millions more customers in places like the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Syracuse, and Boise metro areas.

The drones will primarily operate in suburban areas, away from skyscrapers and major airports that could complicate operations.

Amazon describes the aircraft as “highly autonomous,” with onboard cameras and sensors for navigation, obstacle detection, and safe delivery.

The cameras do not transmit a live video feed, according to the company.

The company also sought to address the potential concern about noise.

“During drop-off, the sound level is below that of an idling delivery truck parked curbside and lasts about 30 seconds,” Amazon said.

Someone standing outside may hear a sound “comparable to a window fan on low” as the drone arrives, while people indoors may not hear it at all, the company added.

Prime Air delivery is free for Prime members on orders of at least $50, but orders below that threshold carry a $2.99 delivery fee, while customers without a Prime membership are charged $4.99.

The plan will intensify the battle between Amazon and Walmart to provide consumers with the fastest delivery times.

Both giants rely on a mix of drones and drivers to deliver everything consumers have ordered.

The goal is not necessarily about cutting costs by replacing drivers and trucks - and drones that can only carry one package at a time would have a hard time doing that. But instead, these companies are using drones as one tool to help keep customers happy with quicker deliveries, banking on a faster delivery system attracting more shoppers.

“It’s still an experiment. It’s still in test and learn mode,” said Sucharita Kodali, who is a retail analyst with Forrester.

However, it's not all instant utopian dreams as The Epoch Times reports that the program also faces safety scrutiny following recent incidents.

In October 2025, two Amazon drones collided with a crane in Tolleson, Arizona, prompting separate investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.

Another FAA investigation was opened last November after an Amazon drone struck and severed an internet cable while ascending from a customer’s yard in Waco, Texas.

All three investigations are ongoing.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 21:20

Trump Indicates Plans To Meet North Korea's Kim Jong-Un Later This Year

President Trump on Wednesday issued some surprisingly positive statements regarding North Korea and its expanded nuclear modernization ambitions, while fielding questions from reporters.

The comments come days after the Commander-in-Chief ordered scaled back US-South Korean joint military drills, which are happening this week and are now expected to end early.

Getty Images

Trump has indicated he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un later this year, after breakthrough face-to-face diplomacy with the autocrat during his first term at the White House. According to reports:

Donald Trump said he would meet Kim Jong-un later this year. The US president has privately discussed setting up a face-to-face discussion with the North Korean leader during his next trip to Asia, which could happen in November, according to reports.

He confirmed on Wednesday that the pair had plans to meet later this year.

He stated that the relationship was an asset to the US and the world, before saying: "I get along with him well. And you know what? The fact that I get along with him, that’s a very good thing, not a bad thing."

According to more:

“As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine,” Trump said.

Trump’s statement that North Korea has 57 nuclear warheads was within the range of widely reported estimates but was more specific than past U.S. government statements.

“They should have ​never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t ​have allowed ⁠it. But he’s got them,” Trump said of the North Korean leader.

Trump didn't provide any further details on a potential meeting, and all of this interestingly comes at a time where the White House probably needs a distraction away from the Iran war and Hormuz Strait energy crisis.

The president had earlier in the week described North Korea as a "Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful" - in a post on Truth Social.

Before that, Pyongyang had slammed the drills as a "rehearsal for aggressive war". North Korea's Foreign Ministry had described last Friday that these planned drills look different, and will be more dangerous, compared to all prior ones of the past-half decade, in that they appear offensive in nature as the exercise will focus on modern warfare tactics.

Q: Are you exchanging written letters with Kim Jong Un?

TRUMP: I can't tell you that. But I get along with him great. He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. He's gonna be fine. pic.twitter.com/AfhVw6Hrwl

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2026

North Korea had further stated: "It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent," and so the country "will more clearly express its stance on the enemies to cope with any threats and challenges through the responsible and decisive exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense."

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 20:30

8 Examples That Demonstrate That The Islamization Of America Is Steadily Progressing

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream,

In Islam, there is no separation between mosque and state. The goal is to use the state to make everyone submit to Islam. If you want to see what this looks like, just check out almost any country in the Middle East that has a Muslim majority. They don’t believe in freedom of speech or freedom of religion. Do you want to know how many churches there are in Saudi Arabia? The answer is zero, because churches are banned in Saudi Arabia. Now this same ideology is spreading in America, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion in America.

It used to be witchcraft, but now Islam has taken the top spot.

There are now more than 2,700 mosques in the United States.

In 1970, there were about 100.

But it isn’t just mosques that are going up everywhere.

Enormous Islamic “mini-cities” are being constructed in states such as California and Texas.

And rapidly growing Islamic populations are taking over entire sections of the states of Minnesota and Michigan.

What we have been witnessing all over Europe is now happening here.

The following are 8 examples that demonstrate that the Islamization of America is steadily progressing…

#1 Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has a really good chance of winning in November, and he has publicly stated that he has a sacred “obligation” to obey Islamic law in every area of his life until he dies…

Muslim Democrat Michigan Senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed has previously declared his sacred “obligation” to follow Islamic law in every aspect of his life until he dies and stands before Allah. He has claimed he does not want to subvert the Constitution and mandate Islamic law but that is part of his religion.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is having his words, vows, and religion come back to haunt him. According to The Washington Free Beacon, years ago he declared his sacred “obligation” to follow Islamic law in every aspect of his life until he dies and stands before Allah. This comes from remarks he made to the New York Times back in 2009, when he was younger and buying his first home.

#2 In the supposedly “deep red” state of Mississippi, a hijab-wearing Muslim woman has been sworn in as a municipal judge…

Assma Ali has made history. The daughter of Yemeni immigrants to the United States, Ali is now municipal judge for the City of Benoit, a small town in southwest Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta.

Ali was sworn in as municipal judge on Aug. 5. She has spent nearly a decade serving as an attorney in Mississippi after graduating with her law degree from Mississippi Christian University (formerly Mississippi College) in 2017 and interned in both Rankin and Madison counties while attending law school.

#3 I know that this is hard to believe, but a bill in the state of Massachusetts would “identify and recommend qualified American Muslims for appointive positions at all levels of government”. Needless to say, this is very unconstitutional…

#4 What in the world has happened to the state of Texas? At DFW Airport, they are going to be putting in Islamic foot-washing stations…

#5 The city of Hamtramck, Michigan is one of the first cities in the nation where Muslims make up the majority of the population, and the all-Muslim city council decided that it would be a good idea to legalize the sacrifice of animals on residential property…

After several months of contentious debate and pressure from Muslim residents, Hamtramck City Council voted Tuesday night to allow the religious sacrifice of animals on residential property.

Muslims often slaughter animals during the holiday of Eid al-Adha and Hamtramck has one of the highest percentage of Muslim residents among cities in the U.S.

#6 An entire Islamic “mini-city” is going up right in the heart of Orange County, California…

#7 A survivor of Sharia law in Iran recently pleaded with the city council of McKinney, Texas not to approve a new Islamic center that was being planned…

An Iranian Christian who describes himself as a “Sharia law survivor” warned Americans during a McKinney City Council meeting that the United States is currently facing a “level one” invasion of Islam. The meeting involved discussions of a proposed Islamic Center.

“I’m a Sharia law survivor from Iran,” he began. “I’m telling you, this is a bad idea and you’re going to regret not listening to people like us who lived under Sharia law.”

“I’m here to tell you this is a dangerous ideology you’re allowing in your country. Every country that is Islamic now, it used to be a Christian country and we were soft Christians. And we allowed these people to come in, bring their Sharia law into our countries and slowly kill us off left and right.”

But after listening to him and countless others that objected to the project, the city council unanimously approved it anyway…

According to Texas Scorecard, McKinney City Council members have since voted 7-0 to approve plans for the Islamic Center.

#8 This summer, giant Islamic marches are being held in major cities all over the nation. Sean Feucht just stumbled into one in downtown Chicago…

US Christian worship leader Sean Feucht has issued a warning about the growth of Islam in America after his “Jesus march” encountered a Muslim procession in Chicago.

Feucht shared footage from the city showing participants in the annual Arbaeen Procession, which was taking place around an hour before his Christian event was due to begin.

“This is insane. What I’m witnessing is crazy,” Feucht said in a video posted on social media.

According to Feucht, those that were participating in the Islamic march were “shouting anti Christian and anti Israel verses from the Quran”…

“An hour before we start, there’s a massive Muslim march. We didn’t even know this was happening guys…where they are declaring their allegiance to Allah. And that the entire city of Chicago will bow to Allah.”

Feucht also claimed participants were “shouting anti Christian and anti Israel verses from the Quran”.

“Have you woken up yet? Do you understand what is at stake in our nation?” he asked.

They aren’t here to assimilate.

They are here to take over.

So why aren’t more Americans standing up?

Well, perhaps the fact that average testosterone levels have fallen dramatically over the past 50 years might have something to do with it…

A recent review of studies involving more than a million men all over the world found that average testosterone levels in blood have dropped by about 20 percent over the past half century. A new, unpublished study put the decrease during that basic time period at closer to 50 percent. Some scientists are skeptical of these numbers because testosterone has been measured in different ways over time. But Michael Eisenberg, a urologist at Stanford Medicine who specializes in male fertility, told me that the findings of a decline are “pretty solid.” The testosterone slump, he said, has “manifested across many different study designs.”

We are seeing entire communities being radically transformed all over this county.

We are going down the exact same road that Europe has been going for the past 30 years, and that should deeply trouble all of us.

There are approximately 2 billion Muslims in the world today, and they make up the majority of the population in more than 50 different nations.

But this is just the beginning.

It is being projected that by 2050 Muslims will make up nearly a third of the entire global population.

This is a story that is not going away, and now is the time to take a stand.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 20:05

Judge Ordered Off Karmelo Anthony Murder Case As Defense Pushes For New Trial

Judge John Roach has been ordered to recuse himself from further proceedings in the Karmelo Anthony murder case, as the defendant seeks a new trial.

On August 19, 2026, Visiting Judge Sid Harle ruled that Roach must step aside. Retired District Judge Michael Chitty has been appointed to handle a hearing scheduled for August 20 on whether Anthony should receive a retrial.

Anthony, now 19, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison after fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during an altercation at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April 2025. A Collin County jury returned the verdict in June 2026 following a trial in McKinney. Jurors deliberated for about three hours and rejected the option of a lesser manslaughter conviction.

Anthony's new defense team is pursuing the new-trial motion. His attorneys argued that Roach's strict courtroom rules - including restrictions on live media coverage - and public statements he made after the verdict demonstrated bias that would prevent him from fairly considering the request.

In a statement, the legal team said the ruling addressed "whether a reasonable fully informed observer would see Judge Roach's conduct and believe that he could fairly and impartially consider a motion for new trial," adding that they believed the judge correctly granted the recusal motion.

"Today’s ruling answers a fundamental question: whether a reasonable fully informed observer would see Judge Roach’s conduct and believe that he could fairly and impartially consider a motion for new trial," the legal team told the Epoch Times. 

Critics of the original trial, including Anthony's former attorneys and groups such as the Collin County NAACP, had raised concerns about the absence of Black jurors in what they described as a racially charged case involving a Black defendant. Prosecutors struck several potential Black jurors, stating the decisions were race-neutral because the individuals were educators in a case involving young students. Roach rejected a challenge to the jury's composition during the trial.

The incident occurred on April 2, 2025. Students from Memorial High School's track team returned to their designated tent area and found Anthony, a Centennial High School student, sitting there. Metcalf asked him to leave. An argument ensued. Multiple witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor. One quoted Metcalf saying he would not fight at a track meet. Witnesses said Anthony responded, "Touch me and see what happens," while reaching into his bag. After Metcalf shoved him, Anthony stabbed Metcalf in the chest with a knife and fled. He was arrested shortly afterward.

The case drew significant public attention amid competing narratives about the confrontation and broader issues of race and self-defense. Both sides maintained at trial that race was not a factor in the events under the tent.

Judge Chitty will now oversee the upcoming hearing on the motion for a new trial.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 19:40

Your Bank Data Could Become A Profit Center - And You'll Pay the Price

Authored by Morgan Sweeney via The Center Square,

A forthcoming federal rule on open banking may allow banks to charge new fees for access to consumer data, a move critics say would harm consumers and runs counter to other parts of President Donald Trump's agenda.

Open banking allows consumers to authorize banks and other financial institutions to securely share their financial data electronically with third-party providers.

PNC Bank building in Pittsburgh, PA (Photo: Grace David / The Center Square) Why now?

The White House was reviewing the anticipated rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as of last week, according to reporting by Bloomberg Law. The rule would help shape the federal framework for open banking in the U.S., building on a broad provision contained within the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Dodd-Frank was passed to enhance transparency and accountability and strengthen consumer protections in the financial industry after the economic crisis of 2008. The law is just under 850 pages long, and Section 1033 - which provides the legal basis for the open banking ecosystem that has evolved in the U.S. - was not one of its central provisions. Section 1033 is about one page long and it ensures that Americans have the legal right to access their own financial data upon request. Financial institutions must provide consumers' financial data relevant to the sought-after financial product or service in "an electronic form usable by consumers."

The law gives the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau broad authority to define and standardize this process, which is partly why affected industries have anticipated federal rulemaking on open banking for more than a decade.

The Biden administration issued the long-awaited rule in late 2024, which required banks to provide data directly to third parties authorized by consumers and prohibited banks from charging third parties fees for accessing the data, among other provisions. Banks pushed back, suing the bureau claiming it was exceeding the authority it was granted under Section 1033 and challenging those provisions in court.

Banks have said the rule would require them to build and maintain costly interfaces for third-party access while preventing them from being able to recoup those costs.

Last summer, JPMorgan Chase & Co. submitted proposed fees to data aggregators like Plaid for accessing Chase customers' financial data.

The Trump administration has said the Biden administration's rule was unlawful, "arbitrary and capricious" and began working on a rewrite of the rule last August. The lawsuit is essentially paused until the new rule is released, and the court ordered that enforcement of the Biden rule be stayed.

The Trump administration's version reportedly includes a provision that would allow banks to charge volume-based fees to fintech companies to access consumer financial data, meaning banks could begin charging fintech companies once they make more than a certain number of requests for customer data.

Who pays the price?

News that the Trump administration's rule would include a data-rationing provision prompted numerous objections from fintech companies and consumer advocacy groups, who argued that if banks didn't pay for the data sharing, consumers ultimately will.

"Inevitably, if [the cost] is on the third party, it's going to go back to the consumer," said Todd Zywicki, a George Mason University law professor who formerly led a CFPB task force on federal consumer financial law and served in a leadership role at the Federal Trade Commission.

A third party is really a false choice, according to Zywicki, and between consumers and banks, he thinks banks are the much better option.

"The bank already has built-in incentives to collect the data, keep the data safely, use the data, and under law would already be required to share the data with consumers for them to be able to use it to shop for themselves," Zywicki told The Center Square, "To then say, OK, now you have to also let Plaid access my data or Mint access my data, so they can go find me a better savings account than recommended to me or suggests this product instead of that product just strikes me as the only way to really make sense on this."

The five largest banks in the U.S. reported a record-worthy second quarter. JPMorgan reported its highest quarterly profit in history, Goldman Sachs had its best second quarter ever, and Citigroup enjoyed its best quarter in a decade. Bank of America also posted strong results, while Wells Fargo beat Wall Street expectations. Collectively, they brought in $49 billion in profits.

Zywicki and other sources who spoke to The Center Square also maintained that banks have already done much of the work to build an open banking ecosystem and any costs they might incur to share data with more third parties would be relatively small.

"Banks already are collecting and holding information securely... They've already got to share the information for free with the consumer. It's just a matter of whether a third party can get the information on behalf of the consumer," Zywicki added.

But there's another cost to consumers that could be even greater than any immediate impact on their wallets, advocates warn, and that's the cost of continued fervent fintech innovation.

"We have already seen the nation's biggest banks take advantage of regulatory ambiguity to impose fees and throttle access. Further uncertainty could stop the next great startup from forming and prevent consumers from accessing affordable financial products," said Miranda Margowsky, head of communications for the Financial Technology Association.

Fintech innovation can do more than help consumers manage their finances. Startups like Carefull, a fintech company that analyzes customers' financial activity for unusual patterns, can help detect warning signs of dementia or cognitive decline, potentially years before a clinical diagnosis.

"The goal here is to create a competitive framework where... small banks, for example, or fintech providers, or whoever can compete against the big banks that are currently holding the data," Zywicki said. "It's not really much of a fair playing field if banks can continue to use this information to market their [own] products."

At odds with Trump's agenda

Critics of a data tolling system have also said that allowing banks to charge for access to consumer data undermines several of the administration's other priorities and initiatives.

Several advocacy groups submitted a joint letter to the administration in July saying that the proposal would violate the spirit of one of Trump's May executive orders that specifically calls for government regulation that promotes financial innovation.

"The United States is a global leader in financial innovation, driven in part by the rapid growth of financial technology (fintech) firms," the order reads. "To foster this financial innovation, the Federal Government must update regulations.... and remove overly burdensome and fragmented regulations and supervisory practices that form barriers to entry and primarily benefit incumbent financial services firms."

The president has also heavily promoted Trump Accounts, the government-backed, tax-preferred investment savings accounts for minors, as a way for ordinary American families to leverage financial tools more often used by wealthier individuals. Trump Accounts use Plaid to connect users' bank accounts to the platform, though users whose financial institutions are not supported can verify their accounts manually.

The president has also been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency and has advanced crypto-friendly policy. He and his sons founded World Liberty Financial, a financial platform that "bridges the gap between traditional banking and blockchain-powered innovation."

But the Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency industry trade group, doesn't support volume-based fees either. It was one of the organizations that signed onto the July letter, and it also wrote a letter to the CFPB in October.

"The President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets has entreated 'the Federal government to operationalize President Trump's promise to make America the crypto capital of the world.' Maintaining the broad permissions and prohibition of fees prescribed by the [Biden administration] Open Banking Rule is critical to realizing this goal and sustaining American leadership in fintech and blockchain for the century ahead," it wrote.

What's next?

The bureau's rewrite of the Biden administration's open banking rule is being reviewed by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, according to Bloomberg. The bureau issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in August 2025, received public comments and drafted a proposed rule. Once the White House review is complete - potentially with changes - the bureau can issue a notice of proposed rulemaking. That proposal will also be subject to public comment before the bureau can issue a final rule.

"It's really important to get this one right," Zywicki said. "When you get a regulation wrong, it's really hard to fix."

The Center Square reached out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Bank Policy Institute and multiple banks but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 19:15

'Quality Over Quantity': Reddit Is Mostly Wiped From ChatGPT Citations

Nature is healing, with the latest data from the AI search visibility platform Promptwatch showing that OpenAI's ChatGPT citations from Reddit have plunged in recent weeks to nearly zero.

"It looks like Reddit is almost wiped from ChatGPT sources; the query fanout changes had a big impact, and in the past couple of days it seems to be almost completely removed from prompt responses," Promptwatch founder Klaas Foppen wrote on X.

looks like reddit is almost wiped from chatgpt sources

the query fanout changes had a big impact

and the past couple of days it seems to be almost completely removed from prompt responseshttps://t.co/oCGm9M0yPO pic.twitter.com/c2GJF2apG7

— Klaas (@forgebitz) August 18, 2026

According to Promptwatch, Reddit's daily share of all citations returned by ChatGPT Search began to move sharply lower in the first week of August, then fell to near zero by mid-month.

Promptwatch's website said the red lines on the chart began on August 8, when OpenAI changed the query fanout behavior of ChatGPT Search. By August 14, or last Friday, those citations had plunged again to near zero.

Promptwatch continued:

Reddit lost almost its entire citation footprint in ChatGPT within a single day. From July 18 through August 7, it held a steady 3.83% average share of ChatGPT citations, one of the largest of any domain. On August 14, the share collapsed to under 1%, and the August 14-17 average of 0.52% is an 86.4% relative drop.

The slide started earlier: on August 8, the same day ChatGPT changed its query fanout behavior, Reddit's share fell from the high 3s to the mid-2s. The chart shows when each change happened, not why. A shift in ChatGPT's source selection is the obvious candidate, but a data-collection issue cannot be ruled out, so treat the size of the drop as provisional while we keep monitoring.

Reddit citations in ChatGPT have been controversial from the start because there is often no confirmation of where the information originated, and the citations could point to someone claiming to be an engineer, doctor, trader, or insider without proving their credentials. There's also the fact that Reddit generally leans left-wing, which could alter answers. 

All-In Podcast's Jason Calacanis asked Grok, "Is this a choice because of quality or because of legal IP issues?"

The answer:

Mostly quality. OpenAI shifted ChatGPT Search query fanout around Aug 8 to heavy use of site: operators targeting trusted domains. This cut Reddit citations from ~3.8% to 0.5% by Aug 14 (Promptwatch data) to reduce spam and low-quality results. The 2024 licensing deal for…

— Grok (@grok) August 19, 2026

Someone asked:

very likely the reason

— Klaas (@forgebitz) August 18, 2026

Foppen noted that instead of ChatGPT tapping Reddit, more official sources and direct-site citations are being pulled.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 18:50

The DSA's War On Wealth

Authored by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,

Communism is on the rise in the United States and has now entered otherwise mainstream Democratic Party politics.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is on track to increase the number of its members in Congress from two to at least six in January, possibly more. That's not including Sen. Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist.

A DSA member named Francesca Hong just came within striking distance of becoming the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin, one of our largest and most important states. Hong was narrowly defeated in the Aug. 11 primary by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Don't be confused by those calling themselves socialists. A few may be well-meaning middle-of-the-road Democrats who favor the Scandinavian socialist model. But others are wolves in sheep's clothing - communists who use the socialist label to hide their real intentions.

What's interesting is that many of the new socialists don't even try to hide their radical leanings. They publicly call themselves socialists and are proud of it.

After the fight against communism in the U.S. in the 1950s and the U.S. victory in the Cold War by the early 1990s, most Americans might assume that communism is no longer a threat to the American way of life and the U.S. political system.

That's a mistake.

Communist and Marxist ideas are alive and well in the U.S. and are thriving in universities, think tanks, foundations, the media and other institutions that Americans typically think of as having better motives.

The Evolution of Revolution

This ideological infiltration may follow Marxian economics, but the method used by the new communists was anticipated by the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s.

Gramsci agreed with Marx's goal - the abolition of private property - but he thought the way to achieve it was not through violent revolution but through a long-term struggle for control of society's cultural and political institutions.

Decades later, this strategy came to be described as "the long march through the institutions."

In other words, communism would not necessarily win by direct confrontation but by a gradual infiltration of education, culture and governance and the decline of critical thinking.

U.S. institutions would become ideological boot camps and propaganda outlets that would gradually convince Americans that communism, dressed up as "socialism," was the better path.

From there, it would be a simple task to tear down traditional constitutional structures by getting rid of the Senate, the Electoral College and an independent judiciary.

Top-down communist control would be the final step. No revolution required. Just long-term rot like the proliferation of mold or termites.

For a powerful example of this process, consider the recent controversy surrounding the Smithsonian Institution and testimony before Congress by Anthea Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History.

The dispute centered on whether America's national museums have increasingly emphasized slavery, race and inequality at the expense of the country's founders and achievements. Hartig defended the museum's approach and told lawmakers that it does not take sides in America's political debates.

The Smithsonian's treatment of Benjamin Franklin, for example, emphasizes his history as a slaveholder. Yet Franklin was also one of the great scientists and founders of the 18th century and, later in life, became a leading abolitionist.

He served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and, in 1790, petitioned Congress to work toward ending slavery.

Franklin also became the nation's first postmaster general, helped establish an early fire insurance company and helped found the institution that became the University of Pennsylvania, where I attended law school.

The real issue is one of emphasis: whether America's national museums should primarily celebrate the country's achievements or increasingly focus on slavery, race, inequality and other failures in the American story.

That debate is worth having because institutions shape the way Americans understand their own country.

A Very American History of Communism

Communist ideology never entirely disappeared from America. It took root in organized political movements following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 and expanded during the Great Depression.

The New York Times' Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty notoriously minimized Stalin's man-made famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s, reporting that helped obscure the brutality of the Soviet system.

American communism suffered a setback after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which was a nonaggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. American communists and fellow travelers were disillusioned that Stalin would make a deal with Hitler, who was universally viewed as the avatar of fascism.

Anti-communism reached a frenzy stage during the Cold War with the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 after their conviction for conspiracy to commit espionage, the Alger Hiss case, accusations of communist infiltration leveled at government officials by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Despite these setbacks, the radical left had a revival during the 1960s and 1970s and is prominent today in the success of the Democratic Socialists of America, now the largest socialist organization in the United States.

Castro's American Alumni

Cuba also played an important role in the American radical left during the Cold War. Many American radicals traveled to Cuba or absorbed the influence of Castro's revolution, including Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis.

Karen Bass, now the mayor of Los Angeles, traveled repeatedly to Castro's Cuba in the 1970s as part of the Venceremos ("We Will Conquer") Brigade, where young American left-wing activists worked alongside Cubans and were immersed in the communist revolution.

Cuba was not the only source of communist influence. Barack Obama, as a teenager in Hawaii, had a relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, a writer and activist with documented ties to the Communist Party. Obama later wrote about Davis in Dreams from My Father and the influence Davis had on his thinking about race and identity.

If you wonder why race relations in the U.S. remain strained after enormous progress beginning in the 1960s and why socialism is on the rise today in urban centers like New York and Los Angeles, the history of the American radical left and its ties to international socialist movements are worth understanding.

The labels and tactics have changed, but the underlying struggle over property, markets and political power has not disappeared.

Politics Comes for Your Portfolio

The rise of socialism inside the Democratic Party is an enormously important political story on its own. But it also has huge investment implications that could affect your portfolio.

Many democratic socialists favor higher taxes on wealthy households, expanded government healthcare and tuition programs and sweeping changes to policing, immigration and other institutions. Some prominent figures on the left have also supported "wealth taxes" - which would tax certain holdings of property, shares, bonds and other assets rather than merely income.

Depending on how such a tax were structured, investors could find themselves selling retirement assets just to pay the new wealth tax.

Apart from causing social and economic disruption, these policies could hurt your retirement because you'll have to pay the taxes needed to finance them. Later, you may pay even more taxes to clean up the mess.

Gold and silver may be among the best assets to own in these circumstances because they're non-digital, can be held outside the banking system and are difficult to freeze electronically.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 18:25

Meet The Pro-Trump Billionaire Who Paid $40 Million For Fugly Ferrari EV

A Florida billionaire was revealed Tuesday as the deep-pocketed buyer who shelled out a jaw-dropping $40 million for Ferrari's one-of-a-kind Luce EV, the Italian supercar that critics mercilessly roasted for looking straight-up fugly.

The Ferrari Luce ‘Tailor Made’ on display at RM Sotheby's auction event. RM Sotheby’s

The buyer: Dr. Herbert Wertheim, an optometrist who founded Miami-based Brain Power, a firm that cooks up tech for the eyewear industry.

Herbert Wertheim Alicia Devine/USA TODAY Network/Reuters

The Journal reports:

Wertheim's unique model, dubbed "Chassis 0," has an estimated worth of $1.1 million, according to Sotheby's. The car has been shipped to Italy for modifications - although Wertheim didn't know what kind - and he will take possession of it next year. But much like with the Ferrari Daytona SP3 he bought last year for $26 million at the same auction, Wertheim's bigger plan for the Luce - or the Lucy, as he calls it - is to be a fundraising workhorse for the many charities he supports.

"It will not be my personal car to go to Publix to get bananas," said Wertheim. "I don't want to break the sound barrier, but you know, it's nice when you're trying to get on the highway quickly."

If you thought Wertheim might be woke, you would be mistaken. The 87-year-old regularly hits Mar-a-Lago, the private club owned by President Donald Trump, who he considers a friend. At a charity gala in Palm Beach, Wertheim dropped another $2 million for a private White House visit with Trump. The winning bid came during the bash at Mar-a-Lago estate, raising cash for educational scholarships for kids of Palm Beach cops and firefighters.Wertheim has an an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 18:00