Via The Cradle

Syria’s government has asked factions within the military to prepare for operations against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported Monday.

According to SOHR, Turkish-aligned factions in the Syrian army were asked to “prepare for operations” against the SDF in Deir Hafer and the Tishreen Dam area. SOHR added that officials in Damascus have requested that a campaign against the SDF not take more than a week. 

The operation would aim to pressure the Kurdish group into accepting the agreement signed with Damascus in March this year. Recent days have seen a significant buildup of both Syrian army forces and SDF troops in eastern Aleppo. 

On Monday, SOHR reported escalating clashes in eastern Aleppo. More than 10 artillery shells struck areas around the Tishreen Dam following exchanges between the SDF and Turkish-backed Syrian factions. 

Earlier in the day, SOHR sources confirmed that orders were issued to deploy “show-of-force” units with heavy vehicles, tanks, and artillery to the Deir Hafer frontline in anticipation of possible SDF operations. 

There are also reports that the SDF has stationed kamikaze drones, rocket launchers, and long-range artillery near the local sugar factory.

Military reinforcements from Turkey also arrived at Kuweires Airport, while the Aleppo–Raqqa Road in Deir Hafer remained closed for a third consecutive day. Additional forces from both the SDF and Turkish-backed Syrian units have gathered around the Tishreen Dam, heightening concerns over an escalation. 

SOHR added that an SDF drone strike destroyed two positions of Turkish-backed Syrian factions in Qashla village on Sunday. 

There has been tension between the SDF and the government over a deal signed in March calling for the Kurdish group’s integration into Damascus’s forces. The two sides disagree about the deal’s implementation, particularly the SDF’s wish to remain under Kurdish command and enter the army as a bloc rather than dissolve and conscript. 

Skirmishes between the SDF and the Syrian army have broken out several times since last month. 

Ankara’s proxy, the Syrian National Army (SNA) coalition, was incorporated into Syria’s military after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government last year. These Turkish-backed forces have been at odds with the SDF for years and are responsible for war crimes against Kurdish civilians in northern Syria. 

The SDF is made up predominantly of People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces. The YPG is the Syrian branch of Turkiye’s enemy, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 

While Jolani basked in praise at the UNGA, his forces in Syria continued persecuting minorities and attacking the SDF.

We went SDF frontlines in Deir Ezzor and talked to Syrians about the ongoing violence under Jolani’s rule. Please watch the full video: https://t.co/2pF0OZDzFX pic.twitter.com/Yu7i7hPtHn

— Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) September 25, 2025

The Turkish army, which occupies Syria and has operated against the SDF in the past, may be gearing up for a new campaign, self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said earlier this month. Turkey “may act militarily if full integration is not achieved by December,” Sharaa warned. In late May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the SDF to “quit stalling” and integrate with the Syrian army. 

Turkey is currently training Syria’s new extremist-dominated military. The National reported on August 17 that Damascus is assembling a force of 50,000 to capture Deir Ezzor and Raqqa from the SDF. 

By Michael Every of Rabobank

In classic The Economist-style timing, Foreign Affairs just ran a lead ‘China Goes on Offence’ which underlined “Beijing’s Plans to Exploit American Retreat.” Subsequent developments in the Middle East underlined the complete opposite.

With wild headlines such as ‘Trump to run Gaza with Blair’, a Trump-Netanyahu joint White House press conference officially unveiled the former’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war and move towards a resolution of that issue – which Netanyahu has signed up to alongside the Gulf Cooperation Council and a slew of leading Muslim countries.

The deal is basically this: Hamas releases all remaining hostages in 72 hours; disarms; and its members who wish to will be given safe passage to third countries; a new US and Arab-backed security force will step in as Israel pulls back in stages; Trump will act as head of a new body called the Board of Peace alongside Blair and other global technocrats; no Gazans will be forced to leave; Israel will not annex any land; and massive deradicalisation efforts will proceed in tandem with reconstruction. The issue of a Palestinian state is kicked into the long grass until the foundations are literally placed for a stable polity and economy. There will also be a US-Qatar-Israel trilateral forum to try to find ways to cooperate.

Of course, Netanyahu has his far-right government coalition parties to deal with – but he has the support of opposition parties if he needs them. That leaves Hamas. There, the crucial point is that, following an official apology to Qatar from Netanyahu for his recent strike in it, even Doha is pushing it to agree – it looks like it is feeling US pressure as much as Israel is. Indeed, if Hamas don’t agree, the US and other Muslim countries behind the deal will allow Israel to crush it and then hand over those territories it liberates to be run and rebuilt as above one by one. In short, this looks like it is going to be done, as was said, “either the easy way, or the hard way.”

If so, the implications are profound. Trump would have helped resolve a key global conflict; the Abraham Accords could rapidly expand, and even to places like Indonesia; and the Middle East would be even more clearly under the US umbrella. Where were China and Russia as this happened? Nowhere. Equally, where was Europe? Where it has been for decades now.

China is instead mentioned in foreign affairs via the Australia’s ABC, which claims classified US intelligence is warning of China’s preparation for a Taiwan invasion. That’s as the Wall Street Journal reports the Pentagon is pushing to double US missile production for a potential China conflict, where suppliers have been asked how they can hit 2.5 times higher output in just 6–24 months, with private capital and licensing options therefore on the table.

Moreover, the Nikkei Asia reports the China-focused AUKUS defence pact has apparently survived an internal Pentagon review, and the planned US nuclear submarine sale to Canberra is to proceed – but will that mean the US making even greater reforms to speed up military production and/or Australia spending 5% of GDP on defence like NATO? To say there are major market implications in these dramatic geopolitical headlines is an understatement.

Russia is mentioned as Medvedev warned Europe of the danger of nuclear danger ahead and Germany’s Chancellor Merz said Europe is “no longer at peace” with Moscow. As one global front may cool down, will another then heat up?

Which one though? Colombia’s President Petro is seeking to revise the US-Colombia trade deal following his recent expulsion from the US after his visa was withdrawn for participating in a political protest, and Venezuela’s President Maduro signed a decree granting himself additional security powers, including the ability to mobilize armed forces nationally, as well as placing public firms under military control, obviously in response to US military statecraft nearby. So, the US has Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia –and Panama and Greenland– to focus on under the Monroe Doctrine. That’s on top of Ukraine-Russia, and the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific.

In geoeconomics, we see a slew of related news. A Saudi real estate developer is to build a $1bn Trump plaza in a Red Sea port; the Saudis also acquired Electronic Arts for $55bn as part of a plan to build a gaming hub; and Riyadh is “Losing its appetite for oil”, says Bloomberg, arguing it’s becoming Solar Arabia.

The US tightened export controls on Chinese companies where subsidiaries of blacklisted firms now are too, as China’s US ambassador chided it for “closing doors” and enacting tariffs, and Huawei announced it will double its output of top AI chips. The US also put tariffs on lumber to prop up that sector.

In politics, with no deal reached, a US government shutdown seems to loom; the UK’s PM Starmer is to tell his party conference that GDP growth is the ‘antidote to division’ – as Chancellor Reeves warns against ditching the fiscal rules that don’t allow for more fiscal stimulus; and France’s socialists are threatening to topple Macron’s new PM Lecornu for his “unreasonable” deficit-reduction plans. Can you spot a pattern there?

In markets, “The US and Switzerland reconfirmed they have undertaken under the IMF Articles of Agreement to avoid manipulating exchange rates or the international monetary system to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage,” in a joint official statement. Ironically, here it took geopolitical pressure to get a country to say, “OK, because markets!” rather than the opposite, which is the general economic statecraft trend.

Moreover, the key Swift system pledged to build a blockchain-based ledger for banks and financial firms, literally to make it swifter, as the geopolitical, geoeconomic, and global financial architecture all goes into joint flux.

Meanwhile, Aussie building approvals -6.0% m-o-m vs. +2.6% expected and China’s manufacturing PMI at 49.8 vs. 49.6 consensus, and non-manufacturing at 50.0 vs 50.2 are the kind of market minutiae that some might want to focus on instead.

The RBA left rates on hold at 3.60%, as expected and said growth in unit labour costs was too high, there are uncertainties over the domestic economic outlook (only the domestic?), and for now it was judged as better to “remain cautious.” Growth risks to the downside and inflation risks to the upside? This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Then again, neither were all of the foreign affairs developments we now see – which seem to have surprised some experts in Foreign Affairs.

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SMR startup Oklo said in a release today that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted for review its Principal Design Criteria (PDC) topical report under an accelerated timeline, with regulators also proposing a reduced review schedule. The move signals the NRC’s push to modernize licensing for next-generation reactors while keeping safety standards intact.

The PDC report sets the safety, reliability, and performance criteria that will guide Oklo’s future reactor designs and licensing applications. Once approved, it can be referenced across future filings, avoiding duplicate reviews and streamlining regulatory steps — a key factor for Oklo’s plan to deploy its reactors rapidly and at scale.

Oklo noted it received acceptance just 15 days after filing, compared to the standard 30–60 days. The NRC told the company it expects to issue a draft evaluation in early 2026, less than half the traditional timeline.

“This is a reflection of the work by the Oklo team, and the NRC’s commitment to timely oversight,” said co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte. “Recent legislation and executive orders have called for the delivery of more nuclear power for clean, reliable energy on accelerated timelines, and this is how it’s done. Modernized, non-duplicative processes are key enablers for how advanced nuclear can scale rapidly and safely.”

The NRC’s acceptance dovetails with broader federal efforts. Executive orders issued in May 2025 direct agencies to streamline licensing, while the ADVANCE Act establishes a clearer path for advanced nuclear deployment. Together, they highlight Washington’s interest in accelerating clean energy innovation.

Recall days ago, Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Oklo with a Neutral rating and a $117 price target. Meanwhile, shares have already surged nearly 20x from when Jim Cramer dismissed the stock in the high single digits…

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Russia expects to sell natural gas to China at significantly lower prices than it charges in Europe and Turkey, according to a draft outlook from the Economy Ministry tied to the 2026 budget. The document, seen by Bloomberg, projects that Chinese deliveries will be priced at least 27 percent below European and Turkish levels over the next three years, with the gap widening to 38 percent in 2025.

The numbers lay bare the price Moscow is paying for its eastward pivot. With Europe largely off the table, Russia has funneled volumes into the Power of Siberia line and is pushing to seal the long-delayed Power of Siberia-2, a 50-billion-cubic-meter conduit into northern China. The pipelines guarantee an outlet for Siberian gas, but they also cement steep discounts compared with what Europe once paid.

Statements by Russian officials have echoed this direction. 

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller has publicly acknowledged that gas sales t China would come at lower prices than to Europe, while President Vladimir Putin described the arrangement as giving China a “competitive advantage.” Chinese commentary has used more guarded language, referring to “reasonable market prices” and “competitive terms,” but reports in outlets such as Guancha and Cnyes confirm that Russia has offered Beijing a cheaper deal than its Western customers.

The strategy reflects Beijing’s leverage as the dominant buyer willing to absorb large Russian volumes. For Moscow, it ensures long-term outlets for gas even if it means reduced revenue per unit. 

The spread between Chinese and European prices could have significant implications for Gazprom’s finances and for regional LNG dynamics, as discounted pipeline gas strengthens China’s hand in negotiating spot cargoes from other suppliers.

Authored by Peter Reagan,

Politicians celebrate GDP gains as proof of a strong economy. But if “growth” just means paying more for groceries, gas, and utilities, are we really better off? Here’s why GDP is a mirage – and why what happens to “the economy” may not apply to you…

Growing up, illusions were a wonderful thing. Watching David Copperfield fool the audience on television was amazing, even magical.

As you get older, though, you realize that there are really two different types of illusions, one magical and wonderful. The other, a sort of con game to distract us from paying attention to what really matters.

I’m not going to get political today. Instead, I’ll simply say that every presidential administration I can remember talked about our nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the top measurement that we should all use to evaluate overall economic health.

So, the higher the GDP, the better the White House says the economy is doing. Thanks to their own policies and decisions, of course.

But is that true? Today we’ll explore the concept of a GDP and I’ll let you decide for yourself how relevant this number is for you…

What is included in that GDP figure?

GDP is a measure of economic activity. It’s calculated by adding up every dollar that was spent in the U.S. (Here’s a more technical definition for the curious, but honestly you don’t need to know everything about it.)

Here’s the formula for calculating GDP:

(Consumer spending) + (Government spending) + (Investment spending) + (Exports – Imports) = GDP

Here’s the breakdown (2024 numbers):

• 68%: Consumer spending is the biggest component, like I mentioned previously. Everything you spend money on, from haircuts to homes to Hawaiian vacations, increases GDP.

• 18%: Domestic investment is a business category that includes construction, capital investment like machinery purchases and business inventory (including, for example, unsold cars on a dealer’s parking lot. This is the most important category overall, in terms of boosting overall economic productivity.

• 17%: Government spending is also a significant component. Government spending on infrastructure, defense and payroll for both federal employees and contractors.

• -3%: Net exports of goods and services is negative because the U.S. imports more than we export.

First, you can see that “consumption” is by far the biggest category – and that’s troublesome, because most consumption is not economically productive. Necessary (food and fuel for example) but not productive.

Domestic investment includes building new factories, setting up or modernizing existing assembly lines and so on. This is by far the most important category for future economic growth.

Here’s the most worrisome thing about GDP calculations though – there’s no offset for debt! None!

Debt-financed purchases like a new home or a new federal construction program add to GDP. Paying off the debt incurred does not subtract from GDP. No matter when you pay it off.

In other words, GDP only tells you how much you spent on the shopping spree – and ignores the credit card bill that follows. ‘

Now that you know what GDP really means, let’s take another look at the current GDP report.

What current GDP figures are really saying

The most recent figures tell us GDP is growing. As Reuters informs us, “The U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter.” GDP grew 3.8% (annualized).

What changed? Well, imports dropped about 9% while exports fell a lot less, about -1%.

In other words, overall we shopped less and sold less internationally – which nets out as a win for GDP!

This seems so amazingly backwards to me… How can doing less business work out as a win?

Imagine you’re running a car dealership, for example. You bought 5,000 cars from the factory. You only sold 4,500 of them.

• For you, these unsold cars are a headache and a red flag about demand

• To the GDP statisticians, they’re a sign of “production,” so they count as growth!

How does this make any sense at all?

As confusing as it is, it helps you understand the difference between GDP reports and our personal experience with the economy…

What does this GDP surprise look like to American families?

What GDP isn’t telling you, though, is how the higher GDP is affecting the average family. See, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the price of ground beef increased by nearly 65% over the last five years.

Other necessities, like electricity, only went up 36% since 2020.

Here’s the astonishing thing: As your cost of living increases, GDP increases too! That’s right – higher bills means “increased economic activity” which is often interpreted as a booming economy. 

Do you feel wealthier at the grocery store, when your trip costs you 25% more than it would’ve in 2020?

I seriously doubt it. (I know I sure don’t!)

Here’s the reality: Higher GDP has nearly no correlation to prosperity. When you look at real-world changes in cost of living, we simply aren’t more prosperous than we were five years ago.

Period.

(No matter how much GDP increased over those years.)

The GDP illusion

Now do you understand how GDP is as much a measure of higher costs of living as it is a measure of real economic activity? 

Every time an elected official says, “The economy is doing great,” that’s not the whole story.

Again, I’m not trying to be political here. I understand that all politicians, the best and the worst of them, need to paint a rosy picture of how great the economy is doing. And, frankly, “the economy” is an abstract concept. “The economy” doesn’t really exist! That’s just the word we use to describe the one billion transactions that happen across the nation every single day. 

Obviously it’s completely impossible to say anything meaningful about a billion separate transactions. So lumping them all together and calling them “the economy” is a useful metaphor.

But metaphors aren’t reality. And when official GDP reports are contradicted by our actual experience in the real world?

It’s like my grandpa used to say: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

The closer you look at abstractions like “the economy” or “GDP,” the less useful they are. 

This is why it’s a mistake to take these numbers at face value.

Economists tell a nerdy joke about this: “An economic downturn is when your neighbor loses his job. A recession is when you lose yours.”

So what does this mean for you? Simply this: No matter how well (or poorly) “the economy” is doing, your experience is what matters. Your personal economic success is far more relevant than the second quarter’s GDP report.

Everyday Americans who’ve figured this out, who understand that their experience just isn’t accurately reflected by GDP reports or CPI updates – those are usually the folks who reach out to Birch Gold Group. When you understand that official numbers don’t always translate into stability or financial security for your family, you start looking for stability.

That’s where physical precious metals come in. Why precious metals? They aren’t an abstraction or a metaphor or a statistic. They’re real, tangible assets you can hold in your hand. And for thousands of different families all across the nation, physical gold and silver have become an anchor in uncertain times.

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Pacific Gas and Electric has unveiled a $73-billion spending program through 2030 to overhaul California’s grid as electricity demand from artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure explodes, Reuters reported on Monday. The utility said the plan will support as much as 10 gigawatts of new load from data centers slated for development in its service territory over the next decade.

Brent crude and copper traders aren’t the only ones recalibrating supply-demand curves. U.S. utilities are now staring down a structural load shock driven by AI. PG&E’s multibillion-dollar commitment indicates that AI has shifted from a niche workload to a dominant driver of electricity consumption. The scale is staggering, with a single hyperscale AI campus capable of drawing as much power as a small city, overwhelming systems already balancing renewable intermittency and wildfire risks.

California’s grid operator, CAISO, projects peak demand climbing from about 46,094 megawatts in 2025 to nearly 52,940 MW by 2030, which represents a 15% increase before counting speculative AI loads. Its 2025 assessment shows only 2,163 MW of new capacity coming online by mid-year, mostly batteries (1,654 MW) and solar (354 MW). That buildout won’t keep pace if AI data centers scale at current trajectories. 

California’s regulators estimate the state will need more than $30 billion in transmission and distribution upgrades over the next two decades just to stay level.

PG&E’s plan folds wildfire-hardening and undergrounding projects into a broader grid expansion blueprint, but the headline number is being read as a direct response to the “energy monster AI is creating.” Utilities from Virginia to Texas are reporting similar strains, and California’s tight reserve margins leave less room to maneuver.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Australian outdoor retailer KMD Brands wanted to be hip, to follow the zeitgeist, and launched a transgender campaign. Now the company is in trouble. Once again, it shows: those who bed down with state ideology often find their final resting place there.

The Australian outdoor giant KMD Brands, known for functional clothing, backpacks, camping gear, and surf products, teeters on the edge of the financial abyss after a transgender advertising campaign.

For over a decade, the company posted steady profits, grew vigorously, and carved out a clear identity: masculine, cool, independent, nature-oriented. KMD Brands sold lifestyle products that embodied exactly what young men and family-oriented customers sought – tangible, authentic, identity-defining.

Arriving in the Red Zone

But the engine of the successful company has started to sputter. After a loss of 48.3 million New Zealand dollars (NZD) last year, KMD Brands reported for fiscal 2024/2025 a doubled loss of 92.06 million NZD, roughly 47.5 million euros.
The driver of the loss was none other than the lifestyle surf brand “Rip Curl,” whose sales dropped by 27 percent.

The catastrophic result has consequences. KMD Brands operates around 300 stores worldwide. In light of rising costs and falling sales, the first 21 stores are set to close this year, with 16 more likely to follow next year. The company is trying to restructure, regain control of costs, and launch six new premium stores to refresh its image.

Transgender Campaign Flopped

So what happened? Just a few months ago, KMD Brands launched a transgender campaign for the Rip Curl surf brand, featuring a trans person presenting products for female surfers. As expected, customers called for a boycott, giving management a severe reality check. A lesson in how marketing messages that ignore the core customer base can become expensive – woke-minded, revenue forgotten.

The collapse at the surf brand has a name: Brent Scrimshaw. After 18 years at the helm of Nike, with senior roles in Australia, Europe, and the U.S., Scrimshaw was a global brand strategist. Vice President, CEO Western Europe, Chief Marketing Officer EMEA, General Manager East Coast USA – he ranked among the 30 top executives worldwide and shaped Nike’s global brand and sales strategy.

On March 25, Scrimshaw took over as CEO of KMD Brands. His approach, as they call it: inclusive, zeitgeist-oriented. Owners trusted him to open new markets in a climate of rising costs and declining sales. The Rip Curl transgender campaign was an expression of this strategy – brutally ideological, aligned with the politically dictated, supposedly modern zeitgeist. The boycott was the logical consequence: they overshot the mark by miles.

Out of Touch and Politically Compliant

At its core, it’s almost incomprehensible. One wonders in what world the management of such companies lives – have they not heard from the United States that the woke wave has ebbed with the new administration in Washington?
Anyone who doesn’t understand by now that political eccentricity in brand marketing no longer wins hearts and minds is truly beyond help. It’s playing with fire and the capital of the owners – in KMD Brands’ case, the shareholders.

The ideological entanglement of leftist identity politics – gendered language, transgenderism, woke absurdities – with brand strategy and corporate decisions is more than problematic. It’s a dangerously misaligned development if executive suites have no counterweight or resistance to ideological decay.

At the same time, the boycott of KMD Brands’ transgender campaign shows that customers are responsive, that in many cases reason still prevails, and that the vast majority do not fall into the woke trap conjured by the leftist mainstream. The customer boycott thus becomes a socio-political corrective, a slap in the face to those who overstep their competence and try to implement divisive ideologies through the market.

In Bad Company

“Go Woke, Go Broke” has become the mantra of marketing catastrophes in recent years. 

As early as 2019, Gillette’s management and marketing team demonstrated, with a classic masculine core product, how willing they were – perhaps in a kind of reaction to Donald Trump’s presidency – to submit to the leftist zeitgeist. The “woke” #MyBestSelf campaign featured transgender teenager Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, whose father guided him through his first shave. Part of the overarching “The Best Men Can Be” campaign, it aimed to address toxic masculinity and promote a supposedly “positive image” of men – including transgender men.

While conservative groups criticized and called for boycotts, #MyBestSelf was celebrated by the leftist mainstream for its inclusive, positive portrayal. Gillette wanted to show that masculinity is not rigid but dynamic and responsible, that the “best self” is measured not by gender but by attitude. Attitude – that residue that remains when civic values, ethics, and morality have already eroded.

The issue of politicized advertising hit the public consciousness in 2023 with Budweiser and Bud Light as a textbook example of management failure. The beer brand ran a “woke” campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. For her “365 Days of Being a Woman” anniversary, Mulvaney received a personalized Bud Light can with her face.
The reaction: a full-blown culture war. Conservatives called for boycotts, online hate spread, celebrities like Kid Rock spoke out, political actors such as Ron DeSantis intervened.

The result: revenue dropped by up to a quarter, market share fell, Bud Light likely lost forever its status as America’s most popular beer. Budweiser tried to reach Millennials and Gen Z with this derailed strategy but failed with a now-sensitive audience. Two marketing managers were suspended, criticism came from all directions – the European executive later called it a “misstep”: the audience wanted fun, sports, and music, not a political statement – what a revelation.

Disney as Ideological Spearhead

The madness doesn’t end. Disney has been setting off an ideological fireworks display for years. In its series and films, unclear gender roles, transgender hysteria, and woke babble often take center stage – in short: the destruction of traditional roles. A targeted, leftist diffusion campaign flopped at the box office while management stubbornly clung to what it believed was the zeitgeist.

Credit goes to every participant in boycotts against this unethical corporate policy. They erect a protective wall against the politically forced degeneracy of a bourgeois-destroying ideology, multiplied by compliant corporate collaborators, and they show the co-opted management teams the red card.

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About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

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Shares of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sprinted higher in early trade Tuesday after reports that later today, President Trump and CEO Albert Bourla, will announce that the company will sell drugs at lower prices to the US Medicaid insurance program as part of a deal to advance the Trump administration’s “most favored nations” agenda. 

The program is an effort to link US drug prices to the lowest cost of drugs paid by the wealthiest countries – and is linked to a May executive order that laid out the initiative, WaPo reports. Administration officials have been in negotiations with big pharma to get them to voluntarily lower their prices, which had a Monday deadline. 

Bourla is also expected to announce a $70 billion investment on manufacturing medications in the USA, according to Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose and a White House official. 

“It’s a win for American patients, a win for American leadership, and it’s a win for Pfizer because it provides the certainty and stability we need to continue advancing new breakthrough medicines for patients,” Rose said in a statement.

The move coincides with a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRX – which would allow people to pay cash for certain drugs directly from a government website at a discounted price negotiated by the government. 

“We pay much higher for drugs than the rest of the world. We subsidize the rest of the world,” Trump said last week. “We’re not doing that anymore and that’s a big thing.”

Trump has long argued that the United States government spends too much on medications and pursued a similar drug-pricing plan during his first term. His administration has sought to pressure the pharmaceutical industry through a mix of tariffs and new initiatives, such as several pilot programs being developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that could impose new drug-pricing controls in the Medicare program, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail those pilot programs. -WaPo

And according to the Wall Street Journal, other companies are expected to follow suit. 

“President Trump is leveraging the power of the federal government to drastically cut drug prices for everyday Americans,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “Democrats talked the talk for decades about drug prices, but only President Trump is actually walking the walk.”

The pharmaceutical industry has sought to make concessions – with their main lobbying group – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Monday announcing a series of voluntary steps to support Trump’s goals. 

Developing…

As previously reported, Pete Hegseth’s big Tuesday speech at Quantico, for which some 800 Generals and Admirals from their bases around the world were summoned, focused on the ‘warrior ethos’ and tightening up discipline among all branches of the military. He also laid out his vision for the armed forces at a moment that two major conflicts rage across the seas: Ukraine and Gaza.

He took the opportunity to declare a reversal of the woke culture which had for too long reigned at the Pentagon during the Biden administration. “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before, and will say again – we are done with this shit,” the Pentagon chief emphasized.

“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this, war fighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit,” he said.

He at one point used the old slogan that goes well back into the Reagan administration and beyond of presenting a national posture of “peace through strength” by the military.

Apart from issuing what has long been the articulated stance of the administration on battling woke trends in the military, one substantive moment came when Hegseth vowed no more nation-building:

“They said ‘never again’ to mission creep or nebulous end states,” Hegseth said. “The same holds true today. Our civilian and military leadership is chock-full of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who say ‘never again’ to nation building and nebulous end states.”

He said “this clear-eyed view — all the way to the White House” and Mr. Trump’s “military buildup” would posture the U.S. for future victories.

“To our enemies: F A F O.”

He pauses for dramatic effect. One or two guys cheer, the rest remain silent.

There’s a cultural clash here, where the generals see themselves as serious people doing serious things and are largely disgusted by Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/LX4eiBpsO6

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) September 30, 2025

While this is a positive development and vision, it remains that the American arms and cash pipeline to Ukraine is ongoing. To some degree, there is nation-building, happening in Ukraine, and provoking Russia right on its doorstep. 

Hegseth talked more on military standards, at another point saying that “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is… It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify — because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death.”

Likely, there were a lot of unhappy generals and admirals sitting there for a speech which would have been captured in a standard weekly chain-of-command email. After all, some flew from far-flung bases across the seas for a pep talk on PT standards, which is actually typical boilerplate stuff for pretty much every enlisted Friday briefing and muster at most military bases and units across the DoD:

🚨 BREAKING: SecWar Pete Hegseth NUKES fat generals and announces a new twice-yearly PT test for top brass.

“It’s unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world. It’s a BAD LOOK, and it’s not who we are!”

“You need… pic.twitter.com/xcX0PXDj0J

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 30, 2025

As for President Trump, he sounded similar themes as he spoke from the podium for about 70-minutes. It dealt with military culture, but also political issues facing the nation. He disclosed for one that his administration is mulling making the military “larger”.

“We’re thinking about making it larger because we have so many people, and it’s nice to be able to cut people because of merit that aren’t really qualified for any reason, a physical reason, a mental reason, you don’t have to take them anymore, because you have, you have the pick of the litter, and they all want to be with you,” Trump said.

“They all want your job. They want to be with you. They want to work with you. They’ll even take your job.”

Trump’s speech started off a bit awkwardly…

JUST IN – President Trump addresses military leaders in Quantico, VA: “I’ve never walked in a room so silent before… if you want to applaud, you applaud… and if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room — because there goes your rank, there goes your future.” pic.twitter.com/XOC9xBjgf5

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 30, 2025

Suggesting more top level firings and reshuffling, he also said: “And, we got many of them out of here too. I’ll be honest with you, didn’t like doing it, but we got many of you out of here because we weren’t satisfied we have we know everything about everybody,” Trump.

Apparently there was a lengthy, awkward wait for the speeches to begin…

BREAKING
The U.S. military’s top brass sits waiting.

Trump was scheduled to take the stage at Quantico at 9 a.m., directly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrapped.

Twenty-five minutes later, the generals still sit in place.

Hegseth called it an unprecedented gathering.… pic.twitter.com/jM62mRRV3o

— Amber Speaks Up (@AmberWoods100) September 30, 2025

“I can say that, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when I was talking to rooms where they were desperate to get people and they couldn’t get them, what a difference a presidential election can make,” he added while noting a strong reversal of low recruiting numbers due to his administration.

Another interesting moment was when he said Department of Defense should use “dangerous cities as training grounds for the military and National Guard. Common enlisted ranks might not feel to thrilled about that one.

“I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” Trump continued from Quantico.

President Trump to the Generals assembled in Quantico: “We were a little bit threatened by Russia recently. And I sent a nuclear submarine, the most lethal weapon ever made…number one: you can’t detect it. We’re 25 years ahead of Russia and China in Submarines…we’re WAY AHEAD… pic.twitter.com/ugPpznvdkd

— MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) September 30, 2025

And on the issue of unruly crowds or demonstrators disrespecting law enforcement and the military, he quipped “they spit, we hit.”

“People are standing, their mouth is this far away from their mouth, and they’re spitting at them and they’re screaming at them. And that soldier standing there, he wants to knock the hell out of the person, but he’s not allowed to do anything,” Trump said. “I say they spit, we hit. Is that okay? I think so, they spit it’s a new thing. They spit, we hit.”

And when rioting crowds throw bricks or rocks at officers, he said: “You get out of that car, and you can do whatever the hell you want to do, because those people are, you now can die from that.”

Hegseth had 800 Generals from around the world fly to Quantico for Trump’s message: Bro you too fat.

Hogseethe had 800 Generals from around the world fly to Quantico for Trump’s message: Bro you too fat.#moostache pic.twitter.com/zKuf7VRB47

— Dennis Consorte (@dennisconsorte) September 30, 2025

Again, the generals didn’t seem too impressed by all this, after having been pulled from their command bases and deployment theatres – all at a huge US taxpayer expense no doubt. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent,” Trump had said at the start of his speech, eliciting some restrained laughs.

*  *  *

The plot surrounding the mystery of the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage explosions and secret op continues to thicken, as Poland has on Tuesday issued a surprise announcement saying it has arrested a suspected connected with it.

“A Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Poland, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said Tuesday,” The Associated Press reports.

Without irony or satire, the AP identifies further that “Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, central Poland, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his capture” – based on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities. 

The man in custody has elsewhere been described, including in Reuters, as a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany… and his name is Volodymr Z… though the reporting is not based on The Onion.

This is the second recent arrest related to the Nord Stream sabotage investigation, as last month another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy in connection.

The mainstream media narrative on this major event which came early in the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically several times. In the opening months, the MSM was lockstep in collectively assuming Russia must have bombed its own key pipelines, effectively economically sabotaging itself and a (at the time) leading European energy export partner.

Then, as we highlighted, there was in 2024 the “bombshell” WSJ Nord Stream report which was a shift, but yet another attempt by mainstream gatekeepers to put official distance between President Zelensky and his supposedly ‘rogue’ top general at the time who ‘oversaw’ the covert op.

The WSJ report with the lengthy title: “A Drunken Evening, a Rented Yacht: The Real Story of the Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage: Private businessmen funded the shoestring operation, which was overseen by a top general; President Zelensky approved the plan, then tried unsuccessfully to call it off,”… has for the most part become the official accepted narrative.

But legendary US journalist Seymour Hersh has maintained the whole time that it was the CIA and a special elite diving branch of the US Navy behind it, in “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline”.

Ultimately, the following is now crystal clear and fully established at this point, as even mainstream media now fully admits: Yes, Ukraine was likely involved. No, Russia did not do it. And yes it probably had the involvement or at least foreknowledge of the CIA or other Western intelligence groups.

As for the newly arrested suspect, the ongoing investigation is unlikely to produce anything ‘new’ which might embarrass the Ukrainians or Western intelligence – or at least nothing which will readily be made public.