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X Busts Suspected Chinese Bot Farm That Could ‘Manipulate Legitimate Debate’ Over America’s AI Boom

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X Busts Suspected Chinese Bot Farm That Could ‘Manipulate Legitimate Debate’ Over America’s AI Boom

Social media giant X said on Thursday that it identified a bot farm of roughly 200,000 suspected Chinese accounts – 200 of which were “posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.” In short: the bots were amplifying pitchfork grievances Americans already hold against data centers.

Dec. 1, 2025: Rural Michigan residents rally against the $7 billion Stargate data center planned on southeast Michigan farm land. (Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

X’s Global Government Affairs team wrote:

The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations: We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts.

Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.

The team said the flagged accounts leaned on price and grid fears – and on AI-generated political cartoons:

These posts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense.

Working The Angles

About those claims: they aren’t fringe. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid, serving some 67 million people across 13 states, has an independent market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, whose president Joseph Bowring concluded the last three capacity auctions “were not competitive, primarily as a result of the inclusion of forecast demand for data centers.” His firm attributes $29.4 billion – 46% of all capacity charges across the last four auctions – to data center load, and wholesale power costs in the region jumped 76% year-over-year in the first quarter. Among the material X’s flagged accounts reportedly shared: news coverage of that same 76% figure.

According to a Gallup poll published in May, 71% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their local area, including 48% ‘strongly opposed’ – and only about a quarter in favor. Opposition crosses party lines: Gallup’s breakdowns showed 63% of Republicans strongly or somewhat opposed to a data center where they live, while a July Fox News poll found that 60% of Republicans and 53% of self-described “MAGA Republicans” oppose data centers where they live.  

So while China clearly benefits from added friction to America’s AI buildout, the opposition is real. Now, techbros and X are suggesting that bad actors may be using that to their advantage. 

Earlier this summer, Y Combinator founder Garry Tan, who also founded the civic engagement organization Garry’s List, cited a Bitcoin Policy Institute report detailing a “coordinated foreign influence campaign against American AI, running through CCP state media, a Shanghai-based Marxist’s nonprofit network, and foreign billionaire dark money that has funneled $2B+ into US advocacy infrastructure.”

Garry’s List noted, “AI doomerism isn’t as organic as it looks.“

At the center of the nonprofit network is China-based Marxist Neville Roy Singham, who has reportedly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into left-wing nonprofits, media operations, and activist networks – which critics say are built to disrupt, sow chaos, and spread communism inside the US.

In June, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, with authorization from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, moved forward with an investigation to examine whether Singham, NGOs he funded, or their leaders committed wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, or other financial crimes.

With federal investigators circling the revolutionary Singham NGO sphere, Garry’s List noted that Singham’s Party for Socialism and Liberation has “run 21 campaigns across 14 states that delayed, scaled back, or blocked $23.6 billion in AI infrastructure investment.”

The maximalist version of this case has been made before. Nearly one year ago, we cited a book titled China’s Total War Strategy: Next-Generation Weapons of Mass Destruction, published by the CCP BioThreats Initiative and authored by Dr. Ryan Clarke, LJ Eads, Dr. Robert McCreight, and Dr. Xiaoxu Sean Lin. The book argues the CCP has been pursuing an aggressive, multifaceted “total war” against the US that leverages next-generation weapons, including synthetic narcotics, such as fentanyl and cannabinoids; bioweapons, such as COVID-19; psychological manipulation and influence, such as TikTok; and a broad arsenal of irregular warfare tools.

In a similar vein, the State Department has released a new 100-page report, “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” which details Cuba’s foreign subversion apparatus and its deep reach into America’s left wing – which, the report argues, seeks nothing less than to destroy the nation from within.

Public Policy Solutions pointed out on X, “More than $2 billion in foreign money is fueling the war on American data centers,” adding, “Bernie & AOC’s data center ban is China’s dream come true. While Beijing builds AI infrastructure at record speed, they’re funding the movement to kill ours.” 

Both things can be true: Beijing would love more friction in America’s AI buildout, and 71% of Americans – including a majority of self-described MAGA Republicans – didn’t need Beijing’s help to read their own electric bills. Whether 200 accounts ever moved a single vote is unknowable, while the capacity costs they were amplifying land on 67 million ratepayers every month. Heading into November, the question is which opposition the buildout’s defenders would rather run against – 200 bots, or 67 million utility bills?

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 16:55

Have We Really Learnt The Lessons Of The GFC?

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Have We Really Learnt The Lessons Of The GFC?

Authored by Richard Ryan via BondVigilantes.com,

It is 20 years ago this month that I sat in a pitch and listened to an investment bank describe their latest stroke of genius.

In 2006, the Constant Proportion Debt Obligation (CPDO) was hailed as a financial innovation that appeared to offer something for nothing: a AAA-rated security paying a meaningful premium over cash.

It was a structure that increased leverage as credit markets weakened. Investors embraced it because the future seemed visible.

Credit spreads had been stable for years, liquidity was abundant, and sophisticated models suggested that extreme market moves were so unlikely as to be almost impossible. 

Sound familiar?

Today’s market shares many of the same ingredients.

Liquidity remains plentiful, credit spreads are tight, expected returns are compressed, leverage is rising, and a new generation of financial innovation is attracting capital. As investors search for return whilst yields remain relatively compelling, the temptation is the same as it was twenty years ago: to assume that recent experience provides a reliable guide to the future.

Source: Bloomberg, ICE BoA Indices, 31 July 2026. Investment Grade: Yield components – 5 year treasuries and credit spread (%)

That same mindset sat at the heart of the CPDO story. The problem was not that investors ignored risk. It was that years of benign conditions narrowed the range of risks considered plausible. That narrowing became embedded in the models themselves. Severe spread widening was assigned vanishingly small probabilities, not because it was impossible, but because it was considered too unlikely to matter. When spreads eventually widened, reality exposed the difference between a risk that is unlikely and a risk that is merely inconvenient to consider. A product whose success depended on stable spreads was judged using assumptions that effectively ruled out the possibility of meaningful spread widening. These structures suffered catastrophic failures and led to significant investor losses. One such structure, focused on the financial sector was launched in March 2007, rated AAA at issuance, defaulted in November of the same year. 

Perhaps the most important lesson is how investors framed the question. Rather than asking, “What is the likely return on this investment, and is it sufficient compensation for the risks?”, many inverted the problem: “This investment does not return enough. How do I increase the return to an acceptable level?” 

The distinction is crucial. Returns are visible and enticing.

Risks are often hidden, nonlinear and revealed only under stress.

To quote a blog my colleague published in 2025, while investors may recognise the risk correctly – no cognitive failure – but acting on that view can be commercially painful. This contributes to expensive markets remaining expensive for longer than they should, and finally repricing with extreme volatility -because, at that point, everybody suddenly finds the courage to shout ‘the king has no clothes!’

We have seen this pattern repeatedly. Abundant liquidity and the search for yield led high yield investors to abandon covenants designed to protect bondholders, only for subsequent default cycles to remind everyone why those protections existed. We have repeatedly witnessed enthusiasm for investment strategies become dependence on them. The yen carry trade is a good example: a strategy celebrated for years until leverage and crowded positioning turned a seemingly manageable risk into a violent unwind. Today we see the continuing rise of leveraged ETFs, single-stock ETFs and leveraged single-stock ETFs. Different structures, same instinct: use innovation and leverage to manufacture returns in an environment where underlying assets offer less and less.

We are often told that the financial system is stronger than it was in 2008.

That is undoubtedly true. Banks are better capitalized, balance sheets are cleaner and many of the vulnerabilities that defined the GFC have been reduced.

But investors often focus on the transmission mechanism they fixed and overlook the ones they did not.

Risk is ultimately transmitted through the owners of that risk. If a leveraged investment falls in value and additional collateral must be raised, investors rarely sell the asset that has already collapsed. They sell what they can. Assets that have not yet fallen become sources of liquidity. Distress spreads not because securities are directly linked, but because investors are.

The CPDO experience reminds us that markets are often most vulnerable when confidence is highest. When liquidity is abundant, spreads are tight and innovation is flourishing, risk can appear smaller than it really is. Perhaps we should spend less time asking what might cause credit spreads to widen and more time accepting that they can. From today’s historically tight valuations, is that really a risk worth betting against?

Gordon Brown once claimed to have ended the economic cycle. Events proved otherwise. Are today’s investors equally confident that the credit cycle has finally been defeated?

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 15:10

Watch: Russian Military Conducts Test Of Huge Mobile ICBM

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Watch: Russian Military Conducts Test Of Huge Mobile ICBM

Russia on Friday unveiled that it conducted a successful combat training launch of a mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region – host to a key missile defense and aeronautical testing base in the Arctic region.

“A training-combat launch of a mobile-based solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile was carried out at the Plesetsk State Testing Cosmodrome,” a defense ministry statement said, citing the work of the Strategic Missile Forces. “The training warheads arrived in the designated area at the Kura test range (Kamchatka Peninsula).”

The Kura test range lies about 4,160 miles to the east of where the Arkhangelsk region launch occurred, making for an impressively distant flight across Russia.

The military confirmed that the “tactical, technical and flight characteristics of the missile system” were monitored and analyzed, and that the flight went off flawlessly.

“All assigned tasks were completed in full,” the ministry said, stating that the ICBM maintained a “flawless trajectory.” However, the ministry didn’t identified the specific missile type used.

Regional outlet Meduza notes that “In May 2026, Russia launched a Yars ICBM from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome toward the Kura test range on Kamchatka” – suggesting that this latest test could be of the same Yars missile type.

A mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile such as the one newly launched, is something which could eventually be used to directly target Ukraine, or else possibly Kiev’s NATO backers if a broader conflict were to break out.

Separately, it’s being reported this week that another ballistic missile was actually used in combat. “Russia has reportedly used a newly upgraded ballistic missile, provisionally known as the Iskander-1000, for the first time in combat, with Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence reporting that it struck a target in the capital Kiev on August 27,” Military Watch Magazine reports.

“The 9M723-2 ballistic missile used is reportedly an upgraded derivative of the 9M723-1 missile used by the older Iskander-M system, and can achieve a 1,000 kilometre range, where the Iskander-M system was previously limited to a 500 kilometre range,” the publication continues.

Flexing at the West? Russian military publishes footage of an impressively large rocket launched…

“According to Ukrainian sources, the principal change involves the missile’s propulsion system, as the 9M723-2 reportedly incorporates a larger engine, requiring a corresponding enlargement of the launch tube used by the missile’s launcher,” the report also describes.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 14:35

Mamdani Begs Capitalists At The Adult Table For Help

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Mamdani Begs Capitalists At The Adult Table For Help

 Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

There is something genuinely entertaining about watching a socialist discover the private sector. For years, Zohran Mamdani has treated capitalism less like the engine that keeps New York City alive and more like an unfortunate infestation to be taxed, regulated and occasionally yelled at from the sidewalk outside a billionaire’s apartment.

Now, eight months into running the city, Mamdani appears to have made an ironic discovery: He needs people who know how an economy actually works to help him.

On Thursday, the mayor announced a 15 member Business Advisory Council, declaring that “the doors of City Hall are always open to New York’s business leaders.” How gracious. Apparently someone finally explained to the mayor that the people who build companies, employ New Yorkers, invest billions of dollars and generate enormous amounts of tax revenue might be worth having a chat with before he finishes chasing them out of town.

The problem, of course, is that Mamdani has spent much of his political career giving those same people reasons to wonder whether they should walk through City Hall’s newly opened doors or simply leave New York as quickly as possible in favor of tax and business friendly states like Texas and Florida.

This is the mayor who embraced the standard progressive fantasy that rich people and successful businesses are basically permanent pieces of municipal furniture, put there only for the good of the elected officials in charge to carry out whatever circus of an agenda they can fantasize while wearing a beret and typing out a PowerPoint slide titled “My Version of Utopia” at a Brooklyn coffee shop. The prevailing sentiment was that the rich can be taxed, squeezed and insulted indefinitely and, for some mysterious reason, will never change their behavior.

In just 8 months, Mamdani met reality: New York Told Ken Griffin To Leave…And He Listened

Capital moves. Wealthy taxpayers move. Businesses reconsider investments. Entrepreneurs decide that perhaps their next store, office or headquarters would be easier to open somewhere that does not regard their success as evidence of a crime. Every dollar of investment that leaves New York is a dollar Mamdani cannot tax to pay for the enormous pile of shit he made back when governing consisted mostly of speeches, slogans and finding new things to declare “free.”

Even his government grocery store fantasy has encountered the annoying problem of actual grocery stores. Local operators have objected to the prospect of competing against stores backed by the city government and taxpayer money.

Who could possibly have anticipated that businesses might dislike being forced to finance their own government subsidized competition?

And so, like a college freshman majoring in Economics who has instead spent half the semester smoking pot, writing poetry and playing “Lesbian Seagull” on acoustic guitar in the park, Mamdani is now in a rush…looking for people who actually know the material.

Enter the Business Advisory Council. According to New York magazine, the council includes figures such as former Blackstone COO Tony James, tech investor Kevin Ryan, RXR’s Scott Rechler and former UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, along with entrepreneurs and executives from several other industries. These are, in other words, people familiar with the obscure concepts of investment, payrolls, risk, revenue and making sure more money comes into an enterprise than goes out.

Former Partnership for New York City CEO Kathryn Wylde called the council an important “sounding board” that could give Mamdani advance warning when concerns are developing in the business community. She also suggested that better communication could prevent “a repeat of the Ken Griffin video,” referring to Mamdani’s stunt outside the hedge fund billionaire’s penthouse announcing his proposed pied à terre tax. No shit.

(Read: Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need)

That is an extraordinary recommendation when you think about it. One purpose of the mayor’s shiny new council is apparently to have successful adults nearby who can tell him when he is about to do something stupid.

This is sad. But this is progress.

Successful cities do not merely need businesses after politicians finish writing policy. They need politicians who understand how businesses will react before writing it. People respond to incentives. Investors respond to risk. Businesses respond to costs. Taxpayers respond to taxes. This is not some dark Koch brothers conspiracy or secret lesson taught at Davos. It is Economics 101.

Raise the cost of doing something and eventually people do less of it. Make New York dramatically more expensive or hostile to investment and some investment will go somewhere else. Treat affluent residents primarily as stationary revenue sources and eventually some of them discover that airplanes exist and land in Miami occasionally.

A government is perfectly entitled to dislike those reactions. It just cannot repeal them.

There is also evidence that Mamdani’s sudden friendship offensive is not exactly causing titans of industry to stampede toward City Hall. New York magazine reports that the council includes no active executives from household name technology companies or top financial firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup or BlackRock. One business leader told the magazine that five major CEOs declined invitations.

“I know of five major CEOs who said ‘no,’ so this was not the group that they initially targeted,” the source said.

Apparently the doors of City Hall are open. The problem is getting people to come inside.

Even some of Mamdani’s most prominent critics welcomed the outreach. Billionaire John Catsimatidis called the council “a step in the right direction.” Partnership for New York City CEO Steven Fulop said any attempt by the mayor to solicit input from business leaders is positive, although he also dismissed a council that meets quarterly as a “performative board.”

They are right that reaching out is a good idea. In fact, it is such an obviously good idea that it raises an awkward question for Mamdani: Why did a politician whose entire agenda depends upon extracting gigantic amounts of money from New York’s economy need eight months in office to discover that perhaps he should listen to the people responsible for producing much of it?

That question gets to the larger problem with Mamdani’s politics. His worldview tends to treat economic outcomes as political choices. Housing is expensive? Government can make it cheap. Groceries are expensive? Government can open stores. Child care is expensive? Government can provide it. Taxes are not producing enough money? Find somebody richer and tax him more. Apparently somewhere beneath City Hall is a giant money faucet that previous mayors were simply too cowardly to turn on.

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Every problem has a government solution, every government solution requires more money and the answer to where that money comes from is always some variation of “rich people.”

But governing has a nasty habit of introducing politicians to the second half of every policy proposal: Then what?

Tax wealthy residents and then what happens when some of them leave? Raise the cost of doing business and then what happens when businesses invest elsewhere? Open government grocery stores and then what happens to the private grocers expected to compete against City Hall? Promise billions of dollars in new spending and then what happens when the tax revenue required to pay for it fails to materialize?

Campaigns are wonderful places for fairy tales because consequences have not arrived yet. Governments are where the invoice shows up.

Mamdani may finally be beginning to understand that. If so, good. New Yorkers should hope the council succeeds because a mayor capable of learning from reality is considerably better than one determined to lose an argument with it.

But nobody should confuse the correction with vindication of the original course. The creation of this council is, in its own small and hilarious way, an admission. The capitalist class Mamdani spent years treating as something between a nuisance and an ATM turns out to possess something City Hall desperately needs besides money.

Knowledge. They know what makes businesses expand and what makes them leave. They understand investment, costs, incentives and risk. They know that wages ultimately have to be paid by something, that revenue must exist before government can tax it and that wealth must be created before politicians can redistribute it.

These are apparently startling revelations at Mamdani City Hall. The socialist mayor came into office promising to remake New York’s economy. Eight months later, he is assembling a room full of capitalists to explain to him how that economy actually works.

Call it the Business Advisory Council if you want. It looks a lot more like Mamdani begging any adults in the room for help.

—

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all facts and figures included in this article though I made my best effort to get them right. I have been wrong before and will be wrong again, and encourage you to always double check, do your own research and speak to a licensed financial professional.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions.

As of May 20, 2026 I am attempting to no longer actively trade as much as I once did (read my story here). My eventual goal is for investing/saving to be mostly done by recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs and a few select equities, trusted third parties who oversee my accounts, and advisors. Such advisors or funds, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in, exposure to, or holdings of names mentioned herein that I know nothing about. Basically, via index funds, ETFs and individual equities it is possible I could own, have exposure to, or not own anything at any point. As of the same date, May 20, 2026, in an attempt to lead a healthier lifestyle, I’ve also excluded myself from fantasy sports, sports betting, online and in-person casinos and prediction markets.

And all positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 14:00

Russia Hits Kiev Ammo Dump Next To Homes; Ukraine Admits 90% Of Retail Food Logistics Wrecked

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Russia Hits Kiev Ammo Dump Next To Homes; Ukraine Admits 90% Of Retail Food Logistics Wrecked

A Russian drone struck a Ukrainian Defense Forces ammunition storage site in the village of Myla Friday evening, just west of Kiev. The resulting fire and hours of secondary detonations killed at least 37 people, injured dozens more, damaged around 50 residential buildings and a care home for the elderly and disabled, and forced the evacuation of hundreds. Among the dead was the local community head who had gone to help.

Smoke rising after a Russian air attack on Kyiv on August 29, 2026.
Serhii Okunev/AFP/Getty Images

In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the placement of a weapons depot next to civilians was “terrible negligence.” The first impact, he said, hit a depot storing shells, mines, other munitions, and drones that “definitely shouldn’t have been there” – while prosecutors in Kiev opened a criminal investigation into the legality of storing explosives next to civilian housing. This is the second such incident in two months. A July strike on a depot in nearby Vyshneve produced similar secondary blasts, deaths, and later detentions of state defense-company executives.  

Residents pass by the site of a Russian drone strike as smoke rises, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, August 29, 2026. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Myla site held components and launch boosters for long-range drones. It also claimed strikes on Flamingo cruise-missile related facilities in the Kiev region and on the ports of Mykolaiv and Izmail. Social-media claims that Patriots were stored there remain unconfirmed by official Ukrainian statements.

Friday night’s blast came amid a multi-day Russian campaign of jet-powered drones and missiles that has produced near-continuous air-raid alerts over Kiev and hit warehouses belonging to supermarket chains, postal operators, retailers, and logistics firms. Ukraine Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi told reporters that, “roughly speaking,” about 90% of the food-logistics infrastructure used by major retail chains (large distribution centers serving networks such as Fora, Silpo, NOVUS, and Varus) has been destroyed. That said, Vysotskyi insists this won’t result in famine – as chains are switching to more expensive direct-from-producer “on wheels” deliveries. Yet, stores in Kiev are reporting empty shelves for produce, dairy, and staples.

Via CNN

The last operating Epicentr hypermarket in Zaporizhzhia was also hit Friday morning, hours before the Myla blast. 

Both sides have been systematically striking each other’s logistics and dual-use commercial infrastructure. Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries, energy sites, and online-retailer warehouses. Russia has answered by going after the warehouses that keep Ukrainian shops stocked. Kiev’s air defenses remain constrained by a well-documented shortage of Patriot interceptors – the only system that reliably stops ballistic missiles. Jet-powered drones have added another layer of pressure.

Zelensky’s government has framed its own long-range strikes as a way to force Russia to negotiate. The immediate result is visible in the suburbs of Kiev: another poorly sited ammo dump cooking off next to civilians, a retail logistics network that Ukraine’s own minister says is 90% gone, and winter approaching. The investigation into who decided to store explosives next to homes will tell one part of the story. The empty shelves and the sirens will tell the rest.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 13:25

Trump Establishes Space Academy, Awards Medals Of Honor To Artemis II Astronauts

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Trump Establishes Space Academy, Awards Medals Of Honor To Artemis II Astronauts

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching the U.S. Space Academy on Friday during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to four astronauts who crewed the Artemis II mission.

Administration officials are directed to submit a proposal within 120 days to establish the Space Academy, under NASA’s leadership, to provide technical education and degree programs needed to train the next generation of leaders to help guide NASA, Space Force, and businesses in the private sector.

“It will attract, train, graduate the very best of our nation, that our nation really has to offer,” Trump said. “But first, we have to honor the heroes who are inspiring the next generation of astronauts and pioneers.”

The president applauded the dozens of individuals in NASA’s astronaut corps on the stage behind him before recognizing the Artemis II crew.

“We gather here on these historic grounds to celebrate the immense courage and service of four intrepid space heroes whose sense of daring and adventure led them further from Earth than anyone who’s ever traveled before,” Trump said during the event.

NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch were joined by Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen for the flight, as the astronauts traveled 252,758 miles from Earth and covered nearly 700,000 miles on the trip, according to NASA.

“This is a very rare thing,” Trump said of the medal. “It’s for courageous people, brilliant people, bestowed on astronauts who have distinguished themselves with exceptional service to the nation and all of mankind.”

The crew took off on its 10-day lunar flyby mission April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the Orion spacecraft named Integrity.

Trump spoke to the astronauts over the phone while they were on their mission before hosting them at the White House for an Oval Office ceremony on April 29 shortly after they returned to Earth.

Congress established the space-themed Medal of Honor in 1969 to recognize astronauts for their “exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and of mankind.”

Six space pioneers, Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, and Alan Shepard, were the first to receive the medal in 1978, awarded by President Jimmy Carter.

Awardees are selected based on recommendations from NASA’s administrator, with the Artemis II crew joining a short list of 30 prior recipients.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 12:50

Falklands Emerge As US Leverage Tool Against Britain To Ramp Defense Spending

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Falklands Emerge As US Leverage Tool Against Britain To Ramp Defense Spending

A new report from The Telegraph says the Trump administration is using Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as leverage to pressure the country into meeting NATO’s new defense-spending target. 

What sounds like an “Art of the Deal” tactic by Trump has been described by a senior US official as a plan to push the UK toward NATO’s pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defense.

Here’s more from the outlet:

A senior US official told The Telegraph that Britain was likely to receive “special attention” in Washington’s review of its allies’ commitment to Nato, which will examine whether member nations have credible paths toward the target.

Officials in Washington believe that while Britain has the potential to be a leading defence partner, the defence investment plan, announced by Sir Keir Starmer in June, was not enough of a “step in the right direction”.

“I would expect the UK to receive special attention because it has so much potential,” the official said of the review. “We will therefore continue efforts to incentivize and enable the UK to step up in a major way.”

Asked about the prospect of the US changing its position on the Falklands, they added: “I can say that they [conversations] are candid and nothing is being ruled out as far as options for encouraging the sort of burden-sharing that we seek.”

The UK has currently budgeted to spend 2.6% of GDP on defense in fiscal 2026-27, rising to 2.7% from 2027-28 onward, according to the government’s June plan. Actual defense spending this year topped 2.33%. That leaves Britain well short of NATO’s new 5% target by 2035. 

The outlet continued:

Donald Trump’s administration is pushing NATO into what officials are describing as a new era of the alliance, dubbed NATO 3.0. This would require European countries and Canada to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe.

“We’ve seen the defense investment plan, and it is a step in the right direction. But a step in the right direction isn’t enough. Given the scale of challenges facing us and our allies, we need allies like the United Kingdom to step up in major, fundamental ways. Fortunately, some already are. We strongly encourage the UK to do likewise,” the official added.

The Falklands remain a unique pressure point for Britain, which fought a war over the islands, while Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over them. Trump’s move to reconsider the US’ position on the Falklands appears to be a big lever over London. Timing is also notable: Trump’s alignment with Argentine President Javier Milei is tighter than ever. 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 12:15

DC Jury Nullification Even Protects International Gang Lords

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DC Jury Nullification Even Protects International Gang Lords

Authored by Julie Kelly via Declassified with Julie Kelly,

“I’ve done this a long time and haven’t seen one quite like this one, I have to say.”

So said U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who has sat on the D.C. federal court bench since Ronald Reagan appointed him in 1987, last April.

What exactly stumped the senior judge that day? Another pending mistrial in the government’s prosecution of two of MS-13’s most notorious gang leaders.

For the second time in five months, a D.C. jury refused to convict Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Ramirez on two racketeering conspiracy counts originating from a 2011 federal indictment (read: brought by the Obama DOJ, not Trump’s) for criminal gang activity in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas. It appears from the official court docket that the pair became fugitives before the case could go to trial back then.

But in March 2025, the Trump administration extradited Rivera-Luna from Guatemala to finally face his day in court; Ramirez had been extradited from Honduras in 2022.

“Rivera-Luna is alleged to be an international leader of MS-13 who was sending orders and advice to an MS-13 clique operating in the Washington area via cellular telephone calls from his prison cell in El Salvador,” a March 2025 DOJ press release stated. “The indictment alleges that he and another alleged MS-13 leader… also incarcerated in El Salvador directed a coalition of MS-13 cliques to be formed in the Washington area. They advised local clique members that the coalition’s aim was to seek and kill MS-13 members who were found to be cooperating with law enforcement officials.” The indictment also accused the defendants of “narcotics distribution, extortion, [and] robberies.”

Both men pleaded not guilty; the first trial began on December 2, 2025, just a few weeks after the shooting of two D.C. National Guardsmen, which resulted in the death of one, amid strong public opposition of the Guard’s presence in the nation’s capital. The start of the trial also coincided with nationwide anti-ICE protests including in Washington. And a group called “Free DC” at the time was hosting online seminars as part of its Trump 2.0 resistance operation, advising D.C. residents how to serve on juries to “influence outcomes and help create a more equitable legal process.”

Free MS-13 to Show Trump!

Jury deliberations in the Rivera/Ramirez case began December 15, 2025. In a note to Judge Lamberth the following day, the foreperson informed the judge that despite “robust debate,” the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. “One juror has expressed an inability to be impartial in their review of the facts and an unwillingness to continue deliberations in a productive manner,” the foreperson disclosed.

Lamberth declared a mistrial on December 17, 2025. Vive la résistance!

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, immediately sought to retry the pair. The second trial started on April; jury deliberations began on April 15. History, however, would repeat itself with a note from the jury foreperson just a few hours later, disclosing that the panel was “divided and unable to come to a consensus.” They continued to debate but the situation worsened in the jury room:

Lamberth responded with bewilderment, admitting the situation raised profound legal questions. “It’s an odd note because their disclosure of the split, assuming that’s what it is, is disclosing jury misconduct that would entitle an inquiry into the misconduct of the juror and possible replacement and restart of jury deliberations,” he told prosecutors and defense attorneys during an April 17 hearing. “A juror who says at the outset they will not have any problem with never agreeing on a verdict has a problem with me.”

The judge released the jury for the weekend and asked both sides to research how to handle such an impasse. But the jury came back with another blow to the government on April 20:

Lamberth called the foreperson into the courtroom to ask what was going on. “For one of the counts, we were in agreement and then this morning, we weren’t,” the foreperson disclosed. “And then I know we have one juror who is very firm on their stance and doesn’t really want to deliberate further on the others. But there are two different jurors, if that makes sense.”

Lamberth declared another mistrial that day.

Pirro v Graves: Not Even Close…and Lamberth Knows Exactly Why

So despite breathless headlines declaring Pirro a loser in court once again, it appears the jury in both cases was prepared to convict but prevented from doing so by activist jurors who unabashedly declared their intention to sabotage a guilty verdict. (It is unclear why Lamberth, seeing this happen yet again in the case, did not make an Allen charge to the jury or open an investigation into the rogue jurors. But as part of the ongoing judicial coup against the president, Lamberth possibly wanted to hand the Trump administration another loss.)

Further, Lamberth knows exactly why he hasn’t seen “one quite like this.” Because it never happened prior to Trump winning the 2024 election and proceeding to use his DOJ, rather than being hijacked by saboteurs like the first time around, to pursue his policy agenda and round up bad guys, white collar and otherwise.

Compare the outcome of Pirro’s cases before DC juries to the track record of Matthew Graves, her predecessor in the Biden administration. Not only did Graves secure a 100 percent conviction rate of January 6 defendants before DC juries, those guilty verdicts were returned in record time. Graves won easy convictions in the misdemeanor cases against Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, resulting in prison time for both.

But the same office now struggles to win convictions in those same courtrooms-and the only thing that has changed is the name on the letterhead. Not only have DC juries acquitted or declared a hung jury in at least seven federal cases since her tenure began (not including this one), the DC grand jury has rejected Pirro’s pursuit of several indictments including charges against the so-called “Seditious Six.”

And no one knows this massive disparity more than Judge Lamberth, who presided over dozens of J6 cases and sent many to federal prison. His feigned shock as to why juries–both grand and petit–are letting criminals off the hook is nothing more than a hollow attempt to pretend the judicial system in Washington, DC resembles anything close to fair, apolitical proceedings.

Lamberth, and Pirro, will get another chance to convict the dangerous gang lords next month. Is the third time a charm? Inside the grotesquely partisan courthouse sitting in the heart of the nation’s capital, the answer is probably, no.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 11:40

Pezeshkian Says Iran To Increase Gasoline Prices, Coupled With Rare Admission About US Sanctions

survivalnomics
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Pezeshkian Says Iran To Increase Gasoline Prices, Coupled With Rare Admission About US Sanctions

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday issued a rare admission, describing that after six months of war initiated by the United States and Israel, the country’s economy is feeling significant pain.

The statement came days after on Monday US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled Trump’s “Economic D-Day” plan against Iran, noting that while military operations have ceased, a far-reaching and sustained economic warfare campaign is in full effect.

via Reuters

“Some say sanctions have no effect at all; to those people, I really don’t know what to say,” Pezeshkian told state TV in an interview late on Friday. “We are in a war situation, and we must accept these wartime conditions.”

He appeared to be pushing back against some Iranian hardline officials who have asserted that the sanctions basically have not impacted the government or population whatsoever.

As evidence of the early and ongoing impact, lines at gas stations have gotten longer and more frustrating for consumers of late. Pezeshkian openly acknowledged this, and indicated for the first time the country is raising gasoline prices:

The president said the price of petrol should be increased in Iran to account for the fall in trade. “We should raise the price of the third-tier quota… For example, from 5,000 tomans to 10,000 tomans,” he added.

That quota refers to one of several consumption rates that determine the price an Iranian consumer is charged. Iran, a major oil producer with some of the world’s cheapest fuel, has for years heavily subsidized petrol, making any changes to pricing politically sensitive.

This represents a 100 percent increase from the current 5,000 tomans ($0.025) per liter, and comes as a result of the ongoing US naval blockade, which has prevented regular imports from covering the shortfall of domestic production, amid an overall import fall of 25 to 35 percent. But clearly some shipments are still getting in.

However, in what was perhaps Pezeshkian’s more long view, wishful, and also defiant assessment – days prior to the Friday comment, he had asserted that latest US sanctions “will not achieve anything.”

“We will stand firm against economic pressures, as we have done so far and will continue to do,“ Pezeshkian told state media.

Meanwhile, President Trump had reaffirmed there are currently no talks happening with Tehran. “We’re not looking to meet or anything,” he said Thursday.

Curiously, other Iranian sources have been painting a picture which downplays potential petrol shortages, saying instead that gas station delays are but the result of a sudden surge in demand…

Last week, a top Iranian official in charge of domestic energy supply said the gasoline market had a daily deficit of 14-15 million liters due to record demand, damage incurred in the war and “changes in the national budget’s priorities.”

“We have to do something to bring consumption down to domestic production levels,” Esmaeil Saqab Esfahani, head of the Energy Optimization and Strategic Management Organization, had stated, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 11:05

They Know It Would Trigger Mass Unrest…

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They Know It Would Trigger Mass Unrest…

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The sister of a young British mother butchered by a small-boat arrival has torn into the Labour government for going to court to keep the public from seeing who is committing what crime in this country.

Alex Whyte told GB News she feels “sick, disgusted and completely let down.” Anger, she said, “doesn’t even cover what I feel, and it never will.”

Labour, she added, is “too afraid to admit” what open borders have done to Britain.

Rhiannon Whyte was a 27-year-old mother. Her son was five when she was murdered by a Sudanese migrant being housed at the hotel wage worked in.

Deng Chol Majek stabbed her 23 times with a crosshead screwdriver. Nineteen blows were to the head. Eleven penetrated her skull. One went so deep it pierced her brain stem. She never regained consciousness and died in hospital three days later.

Majek had arrived in Britain on a small boat, and claimed asylum. He had already been refused in Germany and Italy. He lied about his age, claiming to be 19. The court put him between 25 and 28.

After the killing he threw Rhiannon’s phone in the River Tame, bought a beer, changed his clothes and was caught on CCTV dancing and laughing. He showed no remorse, and in January of this year he was given life with a minimum of 29 years.

Alex Whyte now helps raise that little boy. She has described the scream he made when he was told his mother was gone as something that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Rhiannon, she said, “never saw danger.” She “wanted people to be happy and safe. Hence why she worked at the hotel.”

“But we’re not safe. She wasn’t safe,” she urges.

She is among relatives who have now written to Justice Secretary Alex Norris. Reporting has put the group at 11 families, with 18 relatives of victims signing. They want publication of conviction data by nationality for England and Wales from 2018 to 2024 – the dataset the Centre for Migration Control requested under Freedom of Information law.

The Information Commissioner ordered the Ministry of Justice to release it. The MoJ’s cost and “identification” arguments were rejected. Then Justice Secretary David Lammy sanctioned an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Taxpayers are now funding a legal fight to keep the figures sealed.

The families’ letter put it plainly: “Imagine if someone you loved had been attacked, abused, or killed by a person who had entered Britain from abroad.” They wrote that victims and the public “deserve transparency about the people who enter our country and the crimes they subsequently commit.” Withholding the data, they said, damages trust and blocks “meaningful action.” They urged ministers to “stop spending public money on this attempted cover-up.”

Among them: eight members of Rhiannon’s family; relatives of a 14-year-old girl sexually assaulted by an Ethiopian asylum seeker housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping; Ann Newman, partner of dog walker Wayne Broadhurst, stabbed to death by Afghan national Dawood Safi in Uxbridge; Fiona Goddard, a Bradford grooming gang victim; and Sammy Woodhouse, raped in the Rotherham scandal.

Alex Whyte cannot see why British sex offenders can be checked on a register while foreign offenders are wrapped in official silence.

“If you have a sex offender who’s from this country, you can go on a register and find out who they are. Why is that not for everyone who’s a part of this country? They want to be treated the same as everyone else. They want to be entitled to everything that we are entitled to here. We should know who they are and what they’re doing.”

Asked what her sister would make of the block, she did not hesitate. “She would be outraged. Completely outraged.”

“She no longer has a voice, but I do. And I will never stop until there is real justice.”

“Open your eyes. You are so aware of what is happening, but you are too afraid to admit it. We as a country deserve better. My sister deserved better. Her little boy deserves better, and we will never stop until we’ve got real justice.”

Rhiannon’s mother Siobhan Whyte called the refusal “diabolical.” Labour, she said, is “constantly denying what’s going on.” She pointed to Home Office leaflets telling asylum seekers that rape is illegal and what the age of consent is – documents that exist only because officials already know the risk.

“They know they’re a danger, and that’s the sad reality of it. Instead of stopping, detaining, deporting, they’d rather spend thousands on publishing stupid documents that mean nothing,” she urged.

She aded, “I think our Government should be protecting women and children and the men of this country, and there is definitely something there, definitely something very weird going on that they seem too scared to protect us.”

The MoJ’s stock line is that public protection is “our priority,” that there is a “record £550 million” victim-support package, and that it will not comment on live proceedings. It denies a cover-up. The appeal itself is the comment.

Partial releases and earlier FOI work have already sketched the picture ministers would rather not print in full.

Foreign nationals accounted for 14.1 per cent of sexual offence convictions in 2025, according to Police National Computer figures the MoJ has allowed out. That lump sum does not break out rape, child sexual abuse or grooming.

Earlier analysis comparing prison numbers with census figures found foreigners overall 27 per cent more likely to be imprisoned than British citizens. Albanians sat at 232.33 imprisonments per 10,000 against 14 for Britons. Kosovars, Vietnamese, Algerians, Jamaicans, Eritreans, Iraqis and Somalis all ran well above the British baseline.

On the railways the imbalance is starker. British Transport Police data obtained by the Centre for Migration Control showed foreign nationals made up 79 per cent of theft arrests on trains in 2025, 40 per cent of drug-offence arrests, 37 per cent of sexual-offence arrests and 36 per cent of violent-crime arrests.

Of 9,771 arrests across England, Wales and Scotland, nearly 3,700 were foreign nationals. CMC research director Robert Bates said the government had “made our trains unsafe” and that any sane government would end the inflow and start deportations.

Across England and Wales, foreign nationals were arrested 172,889 times in the year ending March 2025 – one every 183 seconds. That included 51,212 violence arrests and 11,264 sexual-offence arrests.

Separate CMC work using police, Home Office and ONS figures found foreigners 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for sex crimes than British citizens: nearly 165 arrests per 100,000 against 48 per 100,000 for Britons.

They formed 26.1 per cent of sexual-offence arrests while making up around 9 per cent of the population. In the City of London the foreign share of sex-crime arrests hit 66.9 per cent. In Derbyshire it was 44.8 per cent. Nationalities with the highest rates included Afghans, Iraqis, Algerians and Somalis.

CMC’s Robert Bates has called the legal fight “astonishing” and an “attack on transparency and accountability.” If some nationalities offend at far higher rates, visa policy can be tightened and, where needed, whole source countries shut off.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick charged that successive Tory and Labour justice secretaries have refused to publish “this basic information.” A Reform government, he said, “would immediately blow the lid on what’s really happening and begin deporting these dangerous criminals.”

Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy asked the obvious question: “Labour has consistently refused to publish sex crime data by nationality. Why are they trying to appeal against releasing the data? Do Labour just want to cover up the truth about foreign national offenders?”

Reform’s Zia Yusuf stated “It is a cover-up, and let’s call a spade a spade. Tory and Labour Governments now for years have sacrificed their own people, sacrificed their own women and children’s safety.”

Yusuf further charged that they allowed British women and girls “to be raped and murdered by men who should never have been allowed into the country at all because they worship at the altar of diversity.” If Reform wins and Nigel Farage is prime minister, Yusuf said, releasing “all of this data so the British people learn the truth” would be among the first acts of a Reform home secretary.

The same instinct to manage the public rather than inform it runs through the hotel system that employed Rhiannon and housed her killer.

Police Scotland has refused Freedom of Information requests for aggregated call-outs, crimes and arrests at five asylum hotels, including sites in Erskine, Glasgow, Paisley, East Kilbride and Falkirk. The force cited “heightened community tensions” and a risk of physical harm to officers, residents and the public. Even anonymised totals were withheld on the grounds that changing numbers might allow “inferences” about residents, or that incidents might be blamed on protests rather than people living there.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr called it another case of public bodies following an SNP “culture of secrecy.”

Former Cladhan Hotel occupant Sadeq Nikzad, from Afghanistan, was jailed in June 2025 for raping a 15-year-old local girl. Another resident, Muhammad Sheikhi, 22, later faced sexual-assault charges. Locals who protested have been arrested, and the data stays locked.

In Epping, an Ethiopian small-boat arrival housed at the Bell Hotel sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman who tried to intervene. He received 12 months. Some locals who protested the hotel later drew longer sentences than the attacker.

That is the two-tier reality families in the Norris letter are living with: the state will spend years and legal fees protecting a spreadsheet, then come down hard on the people who object when the spreadsheet’s contents walk out of a hotel and onto a platform.

Siobhan Whyte has said police encouraged the family to soften public remarks after Rhiannon’s life support was withdrawn, with officers talking about avoiding “another Southport.” She has also said the Prime Minister has “blood on his hands.” Majek would have been among the first cohort eligible for Rwanda removals. Labour cancelled the scheme. He stayed. She is dead.

While ministers litigate against sunlight, ordinary Brits have been unwittingly underwriting the activist layer that treats borders as the problem.

A GB News investigation found the National Lottery has channelled more than £140 million toward refugee and migrant projects. A five-year Community Fund audit identified £114.7 million between July 2021 and June 2026 alone, jumping to £43.3 million in 2024/25.

Large recipients included Refugee Action (£3.21 million), the British Refugee Council (£2.97 million) and the Scottish Refugee Council (£1.75 million). Refugee Action has talked of a future “rooted in the fundamental right to move, underpinned by a commitment to anti-racism.”

Commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo called it “the capture of these institutions by far-left ideology that should have no place in the charitable world.”

So the public funds the hotels, funds the legal aid, funds the leaflets explaining that rape is illegal, funds the charities campaigning to keep the boats coming – and then funds the lawyers trying to stop anyone seeing the conviction table.

Alex Whyte and those supporting her are asking for the same honesty the state already applies to British sex offenders, and for a government that will say out loud what it already knows. Labour would rather fight the Information Commissioner than fight the people who should never have been here. That is not public protection. It is self-protection.

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
Sat, 08/29/2026 – 10:30

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