Oil Prices Set For Sharpest Weekly Jump Since Israel-Iran War
By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com
Crude oil prices today were set for their sharpest weekly rise since early June, when Israel launched a missile strike on Iran. This time, the jump was triggered by the news that Russia would introduce curbs on diesel exports, suggesting supply tightness.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $70.74 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $66.36 per barrel.
Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said an already operating ban on gasoline exports would be extended until the end of the year, and a ban on exports of diesel by parties other than producers would be added to the gasoline restrictions. The ban would exclude deliveries under existing international supply contracts. The aim is to secure fuel supply for the domestic market, Novak told the media.
The news sent Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate higher as observers and traders took it to mean that Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries have done enough damage to prompt a squeeze on fuel production. This squeeze might in turn lead to oil production curbs if the attacks continue.
“Gains were supported by ongoing Ukrainian drone strikes targeting Russian oil infrastructure, NATO’s warning to Russia it is ready to respond to future violations of its airspace, and Russia’s move to halt key fuel exports,” IG analyst Tony Sycamore told Reuters.
Meanwhile, President Trump has pressed Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, to stop buying oil from Russia, adding to the upward pressure on international benchmarks. Trump has also discussed oil with Hungary’s Viktor Orban, whose foreign minister earlier this week reiterated the Hungarian government’s stance that it would not compromise its energy security focus by budging to pressure to stop importing Russian crude.
On the bearish side, exports of crude from Iraq’s Kurdistan region are set to be restarted over the weekend, adding 230,000 bpd to international flows.
Florida Teen Reported Shot, Kidnapped By ‘4 Hispanics’ – May Have Been Wearing MAGA Hat
A story is developing out of Marion County, North Central Florida, where a 17-year-old boy named Caden Speight, who was allegedly wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, went missing Thursday after reportedly being shot and abducted by “Hispanics in a light-colored van,” according to local media.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a statewide Amber Alert on Thursday for Speight, who was reportedly shot and abducted by “four unknown males, possibly Hispanic” in Dunnellon, Marion County, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando. Police have found Speight’s truck but have not yet located him.
🚨BREAKING: Amber Alert issued for a
17-year-old boy that has reportedly been shot and kidnapped by 4 Hispanic males in Florida.
Investigators say he may be traveling with four unknown males, possibly Hispanic, in a light-colored van. Local reporting adds he may have been wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat at the time of disappearance.
The Independent…
Another local outlet, WCJB, cited a Facebook post from Speight’s family that included a message from Caden: “I need help. Four Hispanics in a white van, one driver. I’m shot.”
Images of Caden’s truck.
The question becomes whether this is a cartel-style abduction… Remember, certain cartels have been designated foreign terrorist organizations.
The chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is demanding that Philadelphia cancel an official flag-raising of the People’s Republic of China scheduled for next Tuesday, citing Beijing’s repression of diaspora communities and its role in fentanyl trafficking that has “killed or harmed millions of Americans.”
In a letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker, Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan warned the city not to allow itself “to be exploited as a tool for CCP propaganda,” arguing that raising the Five-Star Red Flag “sends the wrong message” in the birthplace of American independence. He cited Beijing’s persecution of minorities, the genocide of Uyghur Muslims, and subsidization of fentanyl precursor chemicals as reasons the ceremony should be scrapped.
“I am deeply concerned that the city government of Philadelphia is partnering with local organizations that appear to be civic associations in name only and, more troubling, have ties to the CCP,” Moolenaar wrote. He singled out the Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition and Greater Philadelphia Fujian Hometown Association as entities of concern for their links to Beijing’s United Front system.
Canada has been here before, and Moolenaar’s concerns are not abstract, according to The Bureau’s investigations. The Fujian business and hometown associations flagged in Philadelphia connect with the types of organizations at the center of flag-raising controversies in Vancouver, Toronto, and Markham, and they overlap with RCMP probes into so-called CCP police stations in these Canadian cities.
In 2016, Vancouver’s City Hall hosted a PRC National Day flag-raising organized by Chinese community leaders with overt links to the consulate and the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, its foreign interference and espionage arm. The event ignited backlash when Canadian officials appeared in bright red neck scarves that some diaspora residents associated with communist youth movements and the Cultural Revolution. Then–Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido apologized for wearing what critics called a “communist scarf,” after some Canadians said the symbolism was painful. But access-to-information records later showed the flag-raising request and invitations were routed through the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations, an umbrella for over 100 community groups that former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin—who defected to Australia and testified before the U.S. Congress—has described as a “controlling-level” United Front organization.
Leaders from the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA), which liaised with Vancouver city officials to arrange the 2016 flag-raising according to records reviewed by The Bureau, were later questioned in RCMP probes into so-called “CCP police stations” in the city. Canadian police and intelligence sources link the group to a nexus of foreign interference operations, including suspected support for Beijing’s election-interference activities in British Columbia at all levels of government. That includes Vancouver municipal politics, provincial races, and federal contests—most notably the 2021 targeting of former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who faced orchestrated disinformation attacks after proposing a foreign-agent registry.
As part of this investigation, The Bureau has obtained photographs showing senior CACA leaders in recent years meeting with known associates of the Sam Gor syndicate, the transnational fentanyl trafficking and money-laundering organization led by Toronto-area man Tse Chi Lop, a notorious leader of the Big Circle Gang. The images document links between CACA figures and several high-level crime actors, including a Toronto-based Sam Gor leader and Paul King Jin, a notorious Vancouver suspect tied to casino money laundering and synthetic narcotics trafficking probes.
Jin has also been tied to alleged fentanyl traffickers in British Columbia court records, and was a target of RCMP’s high-profile E-Pirate case, which alleged an underground banking network moving billions through casino VIP rooms, Latin American cash pools, and hundreds of Chinese accounts. The case collapsed in 2018 after disclosure failures, with charges against Jin and others dropped.
Three years after Vancouver’s flag-raising, Markham, Ontario, became a flashpoint. A PRC National Day flag-raising sponsored by the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham provoked large protests and calls to end foreign flag ceremonies at civic sites. Markham’s mayor faced criticism after participating, and a contemporaneous timeline maintained by local media chronicled how the ceremony moved forward amid public pushback across the Greater Toronto Area.
At the provincial level, Ontario has wrestled with the same questions. On October 1, 2014, then-premier Kathleen Wynne joined China’s consul general to raise the PRC flag on the lawn at Queen’s Park, an image widely distributed by wire services. The ceremony involved leaders from the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO), an umbrella body for dozens of Chinese associations that appears to mirror CACA in Vancouver as a controlling-level organization. CTCCO’s top leaders have repeatedly traveled to Beijing and met directly with President Xi Jinping.
The CTCCO leader present with Wynne has been referenced in intelligence and RCMP investigations on numerous occasions, and a little-noticed legislative aspect of his Fujian group’s engagement in Ontario included pressing and sponsoring, along with Toronto Chinese Freemason groups, a provincial bill creating a Nanjing Massacre memorial—an initiative critics in the diaspora warned supported Beijing’s agenda and United Front messaging in Canada.
Probes involving a Fujian community association in the Toronto area and alleged CCP “police stations” have not resulted in charges, but parallel U.S. Department of Justice filings in New York reveal that a Fujian community leader from Toronto was documented meeting with groups later tied to a CCP police station case that led to charges against Lu “Harry” Jianwang, a New York–based Fujian community leader.
Global News reported that the FBI recovered a photograph from Lu Jianwang’s phone showing the official opening ceremonies for overseas police stations in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Canada. As alleged in the indictment, Lu and co-defendant Chen Jinping conspired to act as illegal agents of the PRC government. Chen has since pleaded guilty, while Lu maintains his plea of not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Separately, Chinese government records show that directors of CTCCO in Toronto attended the 2022 “Belt and Road” Symposium for Fujian Overseas Chinese Leaders, hosted by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the CCP’s United Front Work Department, alongside Lu Jianwang—later charged by the FBI for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Beijing.
Meanwhile, documents released under Vancouver’s freedom-of-information law show that leaders of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations arranged the 2016 flag-raising through then–Mayor Gregor Robertson’s community liaison. Robertson himself is now at the center of a political storm as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal housing minister, responsible for Canada’s Infrastructure Investment Bank, after reports of a $1-billion low-interest loan to British Columbia to purchase ferries from a Chinese civil–military fusion enterprise.
These municipal and provincial episodes intersect with Canada’s broader national-security picture. CSIS and the RCMP have warned for years that United Front bodies cultivated by Beijing act as influence proxies, surrounding Canadian political leaders and election candidates. According to the evidence set out in Moolenaar’s letter, and The Bureau’s investigations into United Front associations in cities such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and now Philadelphia, Americans are facing the same intensive infiltration operations long directed at Canada, which has a much higher proportion of Asian diaspora communities than the United States.
The question front and center for next week, however, is whether Philadelphia’s mayor will proceed with a political event red-flagged by the powerful Congressional Select Committee on the CCP.
The US and Turkey have signed an agreement to begin cooperation on strategic civil nuclear energy development, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced after leaving the White House on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump had earlier teased a “major announcement” after meeting with his Turkish counterpart. The move is a win for Ankara, given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not a popular figure in Washington under the previous Democratic administration.
Two former US officials told Middle East Eye earlier this week that Trump planned to discuss nuclear power and mineral deals with Erdogan. “We have started a new process that will further deepen the deep-rooted and multidimensional partnership between Türkiye and the United States in the field of nuclear energy. With the US Secretary of State, Mr. Marco Rubio, in the presence of the leaders after the meeting, we signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation,” Bayraktar wrote on X.
“I wish that the work to be carried out within the scope of the agreement will produce mutual benefits for both countries in the coming period.”
The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, confirmed to reporters outside the White House that “the deal is done”. But there was more than one.
Shortly after Erdogan departed the Oval Office, the US State Department announced that it had facilitated the reopening of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to resume Kurdish oil exports to Turkey.
That flow had been suspended since March 2023 because of disagreement over whether Iraq or theKurdistan Regional Government ought to be collecting the revenue. “We welcome the announcement that the Government of Iraq has reached agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and international companies,” the statement said.
“This agreement will strengthen the mutually beneficial economic partnership between the United States and Iraq, encourage a more stable investment environment throughout Iraq for US companies, enhance regional energy security, and reinforce Iraq’s sovereignty”.
Friendship
When Erdogan returned to the White House for the first time since 2019 on Thursday, Trump wasted no time in doling out his praise, including a demand that Erdogan take credit for his “surrogates” who now lead a post-Assad Syria. “I have great respect for this man,” Trump told reporters.
“When I was exiled [because] of a rigged election – he knows about rigged elections better than anybody – when I was in exile, we were still friends. That’s always a good way to test a friendship,” Trump added of his 2020 election loss.
The two leaders have a litany of global issues before them. Turkey has been playing a mediating role between Russia and Ukraine, given its strategic location on the Black Sea, and has secured prisoner swaps between them in the past. Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin regard themselves as regional partners, and Trump has recently also reinvigorated his own connection to the Russian leader, although that has been tested in recent weeks.
Within NATO, Turkey’s military is only second in size to that of the US, but it is aggressively lobbying to get F-35s, one of the world’s most elite fighter jets. It it also in talks over F-16s or, at the very least, their engines, which can only come from the US.
Erdogan told Fox News this week that he does not perceive Hamas as a terrorist organization, but as a resistance group. He also said Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration wholly disagrees on both points.
And in Syria, where US-backed Kurdish forces in the north are still a thorn in Turkey’s side, Erdogan’s backing of rebel forces led by now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa has reshaped the country and its trajectory, leading critics to warn Ankara may have too much control over Damascus.
“They’re your surrogates. I think you should take the credit for it,” Trump told Erdogan with dozens of reporters gathered around them in the Oval Office on Thursday. “Take the credit. For 2,000 years you’ve been trying to take over Syria,” Trump said, turning to the members of his cabinet and advisers in the room.
“He took over Syria, and he doesn’t want to take the credit… it was a victory for Turkey,” he added in the more brazen style of public diplomacy the world has come to expect from this US president. Trump said it was Erdogan – alongside the leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia – who asked him to lift decades-long US sanctions on Syria to allow a broken state to start anew.
“I don’t think they couldn’t have lived with those sanctions. I took them off to give them a chance to breathe, but the president was one of the people that was responsible for that. He asked me to do it,” Trump said.
Will Todman, a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told MEE that the Trump Administration “has dedicated considerable diplomatic and political capital to the Syria issue, but it continues to signal that it will not fund Syria’s stabilization and does not want to play a large role in Syria in the longer term”.
Trump, he added, “wants regional actors, including Turkey and Arab Gulf states to fund Syria’s recovery”. But Erdogan remains nervous about clashing with Israel in Syria, Todman added, and “lacks the resources to be able to dedicate significant funds to Syria’s reconstruction and stabilization”.
When asked by a reporter how Trump feels about Erdogan’s opposing position to the US on Israel’s actions in Gaza, Trump said, “Well, I don’t know his stance. I can’t tell you about that.”
“I’ll just say that we want to get Gaza over,” he added. “I think we’re close to getting some kind of a deal done… we want to get the hostages back”.
Prior to his US trip, Erdogan described Trump as a “valued friend”. On Thursday, in brief remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, he said the two of them have “managed to elevate the level of our relationship to a new horizon”.
“We discussed so many topics, particularly the F-16 and other issues. We will deal with them… We are always ready to do whatever we need to, and to be up to our responsibilities,” Erdogan said.
It’s no secret that the former Biden administration – and the Democratic Party on the whole – wasn’t as fond of Turkey’s record on what it described as undemocratic practices and human rights violations.
Trump: Rigged election. *points to Erdogan* He knows about rigged elections better than anybody. pic.twitter.com/aEMYYckJYp
Trump, on the other hand, has long seen Erdogan as an openly transactional partner like himself, and has often expressed admiration for leaders that embody what the Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer described as “the character of strongman“. Trump said of Erdogan, “Usually I don’t like opinionated people, but I always like this one. He’s a tough one, and he does an amazing job in his country.”
Teasing F-35s
Turkey had been one of the main partners in the F-35 consortium and was responsible for producing certain components. The US currently holds six F-35s in storage that were built for Turkey and fully paid for, but have been in limbo since 2019. That’s because it was expelled from a co-production program after it purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system.
“He’s built a tremendous military, a powerful military [which] uses a lot of our equipment,” Trump added. “They wanna buy F-16s and F-35s and some other things, we’re gonna talk to them about that.”
Before the White House meeting, Turkey announced it was dropping some tariffs on US imports and leaked that it was planning to purchase hundreds of Boeing airliners and Lockheed Martin jets. “I think he’ll be successful with buying the things he’d like to buy,” Trump said, again appearing to tease a potential announcement.
“We’re going to be discussing the Patriot [missiles] system, which is the best system… We’re going to discuss the F-35,” was all Trump would give away to reporters on what the closed-door discussion would entail.
“We do a lot of business with Turkey. They build great products. They build beautiful, great products, really fantastic manufacturers, and we buy a lot from them, and they buy a lot from us”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally lobbied US Secretary of State Marco Rubio against the sale of F-35s to Turkey earlier this year. Dozens of US lawmakers have also said they oppose the sale, partly because of Turkey’s rivalry with Greece. Greece has already signed a deal to purchase 20 F-35s and has the option to purchase 20 more. Turkey is also looking to purchase 40.
Trump Directs Task Force To Counter Rogue NGOs, Leftist Groups Sowing Chaos
Civil terrorism is spreading like cancer across the nation, fueled by radical democrats, left-wing extremist groups, and … let’s not forget … dark-money, billionaire-funded NGOs.
Taken together, this toxic mix has brought us a bloody September with a series of shocking events: from the transgender shooter who stormed a church in Minneapolis, to the furry-loving leftist with a transgender boyfriend suspected in the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, to Wednesday’s ICE attack in Texas by a far-left radical. These incidents have finally pushed the Trump administration to get very serious about radical leftist violence at a time when the Democratic Party and its allied NGOs have normalized assassination culture by calling everyone they disagree with “fascists” and “Nazis”.
The White House now understands that nuking USAID and issuing executive orders won’t entirely “disrupt” or “dismantle” the funding networks of radical leftist groups and rogue nonprofits. What is emerging is a fully empowered intergovernmental task force, something we pointed out was bound to form, because at the highest levels of government, war has been declared on the leftist groups (Marxists) sowing chaos and subverting the nation with one goal and one goal only: to collapse capitalism and implode the West.
On Thursday evening, the White House released a new presidential directive called “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” that includes a whole-of-government crackdown on domestic political violence, treating it as organized terrorism.
“The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts. Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society,” President Trump wrote in the directive.
The directive states that a National Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) will be set up to “coordinate and supervise a comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.”
Here’s the task force’s strategy:
Investigations (led by JTTFs)
Probe recruitment, radicalization, conspiracies against rights, and politically motivated violence.
NGOs, foreign-linked entities violating FARA or engaging in illicit financing. Coordinate across DOJ, DHS, Treasury, and law enforcement.
Prosecution
DOJ to prosecute all related federal crimes to fullest extent, incl.: Assaulting federal officers, conspiracy, solicitation, money laundering, terrorism financing, arson, RICO, and fraud.
Prioritize crimes like organized doxing, swatting, rioting, looting, and intimidation.
Financial Disruption
Treasury to trace and block funding streams via TFI office.
IRS to ensure no tax-exempt groups finance political violence.
Financial institutions to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).
Law Enforcement Strategy
Use organized crime disruption tactics to dismantle violent networks.
Mandate interrogation of suspects about organizational and funding ties.
Designations
DOJ empowered to recommend designating groups as domestic terrorist organizations under 18 U.S.C. 2331(5).
National Priority
DOJ and DHS to designate domestic terrorism as a national priority area with funding and grants to support law enforcement.
What the Trump administration is up against, as explained by civil terrorism expert Jason Curtis Anderson, is the alarming rise in far-left militancy as “nihilistic accelerationism,” only suggesting that “Far-left extremism extends far beyond groups like Antifa. There is an entire revolutionary (marxist) ecosystem of interconnected entities: billion-dollar progressive NGOs, anarchist networks, political organizations such as the DSA, foreign influence operations like the Singham network, gaming platforms, Discord servers and reddit threads, the dark web, and even civil-rights organizations staffed with “movement lawyers” fully dedicated to waging war against the West until it collapses.”
The NGO world is absolutely terrified. Their ability to sow chaos, subvert the nation, and attempt a collapse of capitalism for a socialist reconstruction is being disrupted. The only problem is that their woke warriors – like the one we saw earlier this week at the ICE facility in Texas – will only become even more activated by the “fascist” and “Nazi” rhetoric pumped out by Democratic Party leaders, suggesting the violence is far from over.
Soros Foundation Fires Back At NYT Report: We “Don’t Fund Terrorism”
Update:
Shortly after the New York Times debuted its piece, “Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation,” Open Society Foundations (OSF) published a statement on X, and the best their PR team could write in response is this:
The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law.
These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech. When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk.
Our work in the United States is dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms. We stand by the work we do to improve lives in the United States and across the world.
NYT’s report on Thursday afternoon cited Capital Research Center’s report that connected the most crucial dots, finding that OSF “poured over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence.”
Separate from NYT’s story, and the actual report written by CRC’s Ryan Mauro. He responded to OSF’s statement on X, saying, “That’s the best you could say about my nearly 100 pages of evidence that triggered the Trump Administration’s investigation? Your rebuttal is just, “Nah, we don’t do that?”
That’s the best you could say about my nearly 100 pages of evidence that triggered the Trump Administration’s investigation?
The report is damning and hardly surprising for readers. Radical left violence is spiraling out of control.
* * *
The news cycle for dark-money, billionaire-funded NGOs is about to get optically displeasing for the Democratic Party and its elitist donor class, who have bankrolled what we consider the “protest-industrial complex.”
For years, these leftist billionaire-backed nonprofits have waged an all-out war against President Trump and his MAGA base, funding and facilitating nonstop leftist “color revolution” operations, propping up extremist movements, indoctrinating kids with toxic woke ideology and turning them into revolutionaries, and amplifying a decade of dangerous rhetoric that smeared MAGA as “fascists” and “Nazis.” These leftist, or Marxists, also fueled nation-killing agendas like DEI and criminal and social-justice reforms, which have proven disastrous for the longevity of the country.
A new report from The New York Times shows the Trump administration is preparing to investigate dark-money-funded NGOs that operate in the shadows, with the ultimate goal of not only destroying President Trump and MAGA, but also driving capitalism to collapse and ensuring the nation as we know it today no longer exists in the next decade.
NYT said a senior Justice Department official directed at least six U.S. attorneys’ offices to prepare investigative plans targeting the Open Society Foundations (OSF), bankrolled by radical leftist billionaire Democratic donor George Soros – now his leftist son, Alex, runs operations.
NYT’s report comes after the Capital Research Center, a think tank that tracks foundations, charities, and other nonprofits, released a report last week detailing an explosive revelation: OSF “gave $80 million to pro-terror groups.”
Let’s take a step back to understand that cracks were already rapidly forming across the NGO world shortly after the Trump administration nuked the United States Agency for International Development. Then came domestic terrorist operations by far-left groups that burned Tesla showrooms and vehicles nationwide. At the time, we focused on the Gates Foundation that funded the Arabella network that plowed millions into ‘No Kings’ protests (read report). These protests ultimately failed but were color revolution-style operations aimed at influencing public opinion polls and promoting regime change in Washington. This is the same bullshit strategy U.S. intelligence agencies use overseas.
💰 $114.8 Million Dark Money Infusion: The Arabella Advisors network has funneled at least $114.8 million to “No Kings” protest organizers and affiliates
according to most recent (’19-’23) financial disclosures analyzed by GAI. pic.twitter.com/qWHyuAa7Tg
Then came revelations late in the summer, via a NYT report, that the Gates Foundation had severed ties with the Arabella dark-money network. And for good reason: the foundation likely realized that money funneled into the Arabella network would only strengthen Trump’s push to launch investigations into the NGO world (deep state/parallel government). And that’s precisely what might have happened.
Late summer arrived when Trump, out of the blue, began blasting Soros on Truth Social: he “should be charged with RICO because they support violent protests.” Trump was likely referring to anti-ICE and Tesla takedown protests earlier in the year.
Shortly after, a series of leftist violence erupted – from the transgender shooter who stormed a church in Minneapolis, to the leftist with a transgender boyfriend suspected in the Kirk political assassination, to Wednesday’s ICE attack in Texas by a far-left radical, which merely activated the Trump administration into launching war against the radical left that has been fueling this chaos and the rise in far-left militancy for years, something even the The Atlantic admitted this week as major problem.
Civil terrorism expert Jason Curtis Anderson describes the rise in far militancy as “nihilistic accelerationism” suggesting that “Far-left extremism extends far beyond groups like Antifa. There is an entire revolutionary (marxist) ecosystem of interconnected entities: billion-dollar progressive NGOs, anarchist networks, political organizations such as the DSA, foreign influence operations like the Singham network, gaming platforms, Discord servers and reddit threads, the dark web, and even civil-rights organizations staffed with “movement lawyers” fully dedicated to waging war against the West until it collapses.”
Marxist-aligned groups operating across America to subvert the nation and collapse capitalism are already “planning war against fascists.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving full steam ahead to neutralize radical leftists and their NGOs that sow chaos – a crackdown that will extend well beyond Soros and likely include Roy Singham in China, as well as PFLP, Samidoun, and leftist American dynasty families and their nonprofits. Americans remember who funded the BLM riots that destroyed their businesses and cities. Accountability is coming.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in workplaces is resulting in lower productivity due to employees using them to create substandard output, according to a Sept. 22 analysis published in the Harvard Business Review.
“A confusing contradiction is unfolding in companies embracing generative AI tools: while workers are largely following mandates to embrace the technology, few are seeing it create real value,” the report said.
The analysis, conducted by researchers from Stanford Social Media Lab and behavioral research lab BetterUp, identified a possible reason why this was happening.
Employees were using the AI tools to create “low-effort, passable looking work” that ended up generating more work for other employees.
Researchers term such content “workslop” defined as “AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.”
The “insidious effect” of workslop is that the receiver of such content is burdened with interpreting, correcting, and redoing the work, according to the report.
In a survey of 1,150 U.S.-based full-time employees conducted by researchers, 40 percent said they had received inferior quality work in the past month.
“The phenomenon occurs mostly between peers (40 percent), but workslop is also sent to managers by direct reports (18 percent),” it said.
“Sixteen percent of the time workslop flows down the ladder, from managers to their teams, or even from higher up than that. Workslop occurs across industries, but we found that professional services and technology are disproportionately impacted.”
Employees in the survey said they had to spend one hour and 56 minutes on average to deal with a single instance of workslop.
Researchers calculated that unsatisfactory work results in an “invisible tax” of $186 per month, which for an organization with 10,000 workers translates into more than $9 million in lost productivity annually, it said.
“When we asked participants in our study how it feels to receive workslop, 53 percent report being annoyed, 38 percent confused, and 22 percent offended,” the report states.
“Approximately half of the people we surveyed viewed colleagues who sent workslop as less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output. Forty-two percent saw them as less trustworthy, and 37 percent saw that colleague as less intelligent.”
While Stanford Social Media Lab and BetterUp research show that AI is negatively affecting productivity, a Sept. 8 report by Penn Wharton projects artificial intelligence to boost productivity and GDP by 1.5 percent by 2035, rising to 3.7 percent by 2075.
“AI’s boost to annual productivity growth is strongest in the early 2030s but eventually fades, with a permanent effect of less than 0.04 percentage points due to sectoral shifts,” Penn Wharton said in the report.
The top occupations exposed to AI automation were identified to be office and administrative support, business and finance operations, computer and mathematical, and sales and related jobs.
In contrast, occupations least exposed to AI automation were building and grounds cleaning and maintenance operations; construction and extraction sectors; farming, fishing, and forestry jobs; and installation, maintenance, and repair works.
Sophie, a robot using artificial intelligence from Hanson Robotics, shares a high five with a visitor during the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on July 8, 2025. Valentin Flauraud/AFP via Getty Images
In an Aug. 13 report, Goldman Sachs said that AI-related innovation could displace 6–7 percent of America’s workforce if the technology is adopted widely.
Goldman sees such an impact as “transitory,” since jobs created via such technologies are expected to employ people in other roles.
“Despite concerns about widespread job losses, AI adoption is expected to have only a modest and relatively temporary impact on employment levels,” the report said. “Goldman Sachs Research estimates that unemployment will increase by half a percentage point during the AI transition period as displaced workers seek new positions.”
An Aug. 26 research paper from Stanford University estimated that early-career employees, those in the age group of 22–25, faced a disproportionate threat of job loss from widespread generative AI adoption.
These workers have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment in most occupations exposed to AI, the authors wrote.
“In contrast, employment for workers in less exposed fields and more experienced workers in the same occupations has remained stable or continued to grow,” it said.
A report from Anthropic reveals AI to possess a more deceptive attitude when it faced scenarios where the tech was assigned to be updated to the latest version or when the AI’s assigned goal conflicted with the company’s changing direction.
Fed’s Favorite Inflation Indicator Shows No Sign Of Runaway Tariff Costs, As Savings Rate Slides
After a modest increase two months ago, and a steady print in July, analysts expected headline PCE to be steady at +2.6% YoY in August and Core PCE – the Fed’s favorite indicator – to also be unchanged at 2.9% YoY… and the numbers all came in right in line with expectations.
Indeed, “as expected” is the them of this morning’s data with headline and Core PCE both matching expectations and staying in the same range they have been in for two years… not exactly the Trump Tariff terror future that every “respected” economist predicted.
PCE 0.3% MoM, Exp. 0.3%, in line
PCE 2.7% YoY, Exp. 2.7%, in line
PCE Core 0.2% MoM, Exp. 0.2%, in line
PCE Core 2.9% YoY, Exp. 2.9%, in line
On an annual basis headline PCE was flat at 2.741%, while core PCE actually dipped modestly to 2.905 in August.
All those expecting a bounce in Durable Goods inflation will have to wait another month: in August it actually declined again, as did Nondurable Goods, while Services costs increased the most.
Headline PCE rose 0.2% MoM (as expected) and +2.6% YoY (as expected)…
Core PCE rose 0.3% MoM (as expected) and +2.9% YoY (as expected)…
For the second month in a row, Financial Services costs (i.e., soaring stock market and associated services) dominated SuperCore prices (and certainly have nothing to do with tariffs at all). Food services and transportation costs also boosted Supercore.
While prices are rising but in their recent normal range, income and spending both came in a fraction hotter than expected, up 0.4% MoM (above exp. 0.3%) and 0.6% MoM (above exp. 0.5%) respectively…
The historical change in personal income and spending in nominal dollars is shown below. The Covid breach is still brutally clear.
On the income side, there was more good news: after outpacing the private sector for nearly three years, wage growth of private workers (5.0% YoY) is once again rising faster than government workers. In fact, government worker wage growth of 4.2% was the lowest since August 2021.
With spending growth outpacing income, it naturally meant that consumer had to dig into their savings, and sure enough the personal savings rate dropped to a new 2025 low of 4.6% from 4.8%, which in turns follows the comprehensive data revision published yesterday, and which lifted the savings rate by about 1% across the board historically (the various data revisions are shown below).
Yet while it dipped, it is isn’t exactly screaming that the US consumer is struggling with a savings rate at 4.6% of disposable personal income.
Visualizing America’s Wealth Distribution By Generation
The Baby Boomer generation is arguably the richest in history, averaging $1 million in wealth per person in America.
Thanks to decades of strong economic growth and falling interest rates, America’s Boomer generation holds more than half of all of the country’s wealth. Notably, they make up only a fifth of the population.
Breaking Down Wealth Distribution by Generation in 2025
Below, we show the distribution of assets owned, net of mortgage debt in 2025:
In 2025, Americans hold a combined $163.1 trillion in wealth, with Baby Boomers accounting for $83.3 trillion.
For Boomers, the largest share comes from financial assets (29.3%), followed by real estate net of debt (23.3%). Today, the youngest Boomers are turning 60 or 61, with the generation approaching peak wealth accumulation as they exit the workforce.
Generation X—now ages 45 to 60—holds $42.6 trillion, roughly half the wealth of Boomers. This gap reflects slower income growth compounded by weaker stock market performance in the years following the dot-com bust.
Importantly, these years overlapped with Gen X’s prime earning period. In comparison, Boomers benefited from a fourfold surge in financial markets during their 30s, accelerating their wealth growth.
For Millennials and Gen Z—those born after 1981—total wealth stands at $17.1 trillion. Interestingly, private business assets (10.8%) makes up a bigger part of their wealth than other generations, suggesting an entrepreneurial edge relative to older generations today.
To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on global population projections by generation in 2035.
Apple urged the European Union on Sept. 24 to revise the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), saying the legislation is hindering its ability to serve customers.
The company stated that users in the EU are experiencing delays in new features and facing increased privacy and security risks as a result of the legislation.
“It’s been more than a year since the Digital Markets Act was implemented,” Apple said in a statement. “Over that time, it’s become clear that the DMA is leading to a worse experience for Apple users in the EU.
“It’s exposing them to new risks, and disrupting the simple, seamless way their Apple products work together. And as new technologies come out, our European users’ Apple products will only fall further behind.”
Apple submitted its comments as the European Commission reviews the law, the first time the DMA has been assessed for its effectiveness. The commission, which acts as the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch, invited stakeholder feedback until Sept. 24 to help with the assessment.
According to the EU, the DMA is focused on regulating the gatekeeping power of the largest digital companies and ensuring fair and open digital markets, whether they are established within or outside the EU.
Companies can be fined by up to 10 percent of their annual worldwide revenue
for a first offense and up to 20 percent for repeat violations.
Apple called on the commission to reassess how the law was affecting EU citizens who use the company’s devices and services, saying it will continue to work to bring new features to market while still meeting the legal requirements placed upon it.
Among the issues the tech giant based in Cupertino, California, said the DMA had thrown up was the forced postponement of several features within the bloc, including iPhone mirroring to Mac and live translation with AirPods.
Apple also said location-based features in Apple Maps had to be delayed in the EU because the DMA requires certain features to work with non-Apple products and third-party developers before they are put on the market.
The company stated that it has still not found a way to comply with the act’s requirements without compromising user data, and that its proposed safeguards had been rejected by the commission.
“It’s become clear that we can’t solve every problem the DMA creates,” Apple stated. “Over time, it’s become clear that the DMA isn’t helping markets. It’s making it harder to do business in Europe.”
In June, Apple changed rules and fees in its EU App Store to comply with the bloc’s antitrust order, which requires large tech companies to open up their platforms to competitors.
Apple said this has led to a “riskier, less intuitive” experience for users and has introduced new threats such as scams and malware.
The company also said it has led to pornography apps appearing on the App Store, something Apple had previously banned.
Apple’s submission to the commission came the same day that the U.S. ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, also criticized both the DMA and its sister legislation, the Digital Services Act, in comments to The Epoch Times.
“The way the law is written, it looks facially neutral because it says it applies to companies with over a certain level of revenue,“ Puzder said. ”But the reality is that those are primarily American companies, and so the regulations hit American companies hard.
“When a company like Facebook or Twitter or X has to change its algorithm, and that algorithm might impact the free speech rights of Americans, that’s something that we really can’t tolerate. I know [U.S. President Donald Trump] is not going to allow a foreign government to restrict the free speech rights of American citizens in ways that even our own government couldn’t restrict them.”
Earlier in September, Trump threatened to initiate a trade investigation to “nullify” fines imposed by the EU against U.S. tech giants, including Apple and Google.
He said the trade bloc was “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American investments and jobs.”
The Epoch Times contacted the European Commission for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
