Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Syrian media has confirmed that Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, will be attending the UN General Assembly in New York City this month, where he may land a meeting with President Trump.

Syrian diplomatic sources told The Media Line that the US has granted an entry visa to Sharaa for the General Assembly, which he will be attending from September 21 to September 25, a step the US is taking while denying visas to Palestinian Authority officials as an effort to impede Western countries from recognizing a Palestinian state.

The Media Line report also said that preparations are underway for a bilateral meeting between Trump and Sharaa on the sidelines of the General Assembly. The two leaders met in Saudi Arabia back in May, and Trump praised Sharaa as a “young, attractive guy” with a “strong past.”

Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, got his start with al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he fought an insurgency against US troops before being imprisoned from 2006 to 2011. In 2012, he travelled to Syria and formed al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.

In 2016, Sharaa claimed the al-Nusra Front was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. At the time, he thanked the “commanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties.” In 2017, Julani merged his group with several other Islamist factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the offensive that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

According to The New Arab, Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, who will also be traveling to New York, was also a founding member of the al-Nusra Front and oversaw its transition into HTS.

The US will be welcoming the two former al-Qaeda leaders to New York less than two weeks after the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which killed  2,606 people at the Twin Towers in New York City.

Reports say the US may be placing travel restrictions on Iranian officials who are attending the General Assembly, but there’s no sign that travel will be limited for Sharaa and his delegation. The Media Line report said Sharaa may also visit New York’s Turkish House, the headquarters of several Turkish diplomatic missions, together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of HTS’s major backers.

While Sharaa now presents himself as a moderate, Syrian government forces have been responsible for the massacre of thousands of Alawites and other minorities since he took power. Since Assad was ousted, there have been over 3,000 extrajudicial executions in Syria.

Jolani | the West’s new face of ‘Syrian democracy,’ 24 years after 9/11 pic.twitter.com/VSr03bfOQa

— HQ (@HKX37) September 12, 2025

Despite the violence, the US has embraced the new Syrian government by lifting sanctions and removing HTS from its list of terror organizations. Israel, which supported and celebrated the overthrow of Assad, has used the HTS takeover as a pretext to invade and occupy more territory in southwest Syria.

America’s great cities once symbolized prosperity and culture. Now, many are paying a steep financial price as crime surges and businesses flee. As one line in a new op-ed piece put it, “Crime has a balance sheet. In poorly led cities, that balance sheet is bleeding red ink by the day.”

Retail is bearing the brunt, according to an op-ed by Ted Jenkin at Fox News. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion in 2021. Between 2019 and 2023, shoplifting incidents rose 93% and dollar losses climbed 90%. Major chains are pulling back: Target projected $500 million in additional losses this year, Walgreens has shut stores across San Francisco, and Nordstrom left downtown entirely.

“Does it seem insane to you that so many of these retail stores have to lock up much of the merchandise…knowing that they will never be arrested?” the piece asked. The fallout is visible in empty storefronts and shrinking city budgets. San Francisco’s downtown vacancy rate has hit 34.8%, erasing jobs, tax revenue, and foot traffic.

The damage extends beyond retail. In Chicago, violent crime and open-air drug markets are dragging down high-end condo values, reducing property tax revenue that funds schools and infrastructure. In New York, incarceration costs $925 per day, or $337,000 annually, per inmate, while NYPD overtime bills soar. Yet, critics argue leadership continues to recycle a costly “arrest, release, repeat” cycle.

The column says that tourism is also slipping. Roughly 2 million fewer international visitors are expected in New York this year, a shortfall that could cost the city $4 billion in 2025. Conventions and vacationers are steering clear of destinations perceived as unsafe, draining hotels, restaurants, and local economies.

The bottom line: the cost of crime is far more than what’s stolen off a shelf. It shows up in lost jobs, falling property values, higher taxes, and weakened reputations. As the piece concludes, “the real crime isn’t just happening on the streets – it’s in the budgets of poorly led blue cities, where the cost of chaos is measured in billions.”

*  *  *
YOU SHOULD BE ORDERING ONLINE ANYWAY

The Kremlin confirmed Friday what most observers should consider obvious at this point – Ukraine peace talks are not happening. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Friday press briefing that talks to end the war in Ukraine are on “pause”.

“Negotiators remain in contact, but for now it is probably more accurate to speak of a pause,” Peskov said, after the sides met twice so far this year, which resulted from President Trump’s efforts to mediate.

“You shouldn’t wear rose-tinted glasses and expect lightning-fast results,” Peskov added, which seemed an indirect criticism of Trump’s earlier claims of being able to achieve peace quickly.

Interestingly, Peskov took a swipe at European leaders, describing the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ as actively “impeding” negotiations. He sill emphasized that Moscow is committed to the “path of peaceful dialogue.”

The Western allies have been pushing ‘security guarantees’ which include troops from NATO countries which are to make up a ‘reassurance force’ – a prospect which Russia has condemned as an impossibility. 

As for President Trump’s assessment of where things stand, he offered this in a Friday Fox News appearance: 

🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺 President Trump on Fox and Friends on the state of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine:

“It’s amazing. When Putin wants to do it, Zelensky didn’t. When Zelensky wanted to do it, Putin didn’t. Now Zelensky wants to do it and Putin is a question mark.” pic.twitter.com/MMIOfx0wbh

— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) September 12, 2025

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelensky has again ruled out giving up “the east”, saying it cannot be a “bargaining chip” – in fresh comments. This stance is nothing new, but territorial concessions will be key in any future permanent peace deal.

Despite slow but steady Russian gains on the ground, Zelensky is still holding out hope of gaining the military momentum, despite being outgunned and outmanned.

Politico writes, “Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump and U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Steve Witkoff that he intends to occupy Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in a few months, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview published Tuesday.”

Zelensky told ABC News, “That is, he [Putin] says that in three to four months, and this is what he told the Americans, the White House, and President Trump’s representative Witkoff, he said that he would take Donbas in two to three months, maximum four months.”

*ZELENSKIY: UKRAINE’S EAST CANNOT BE A BARGAINING CHIP

*ZELENSKIY: RUSSIA WON’T BE ABLE TO SEIZE WHOLE EAST OF UKRAINE

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 12, 2025

Ukraine war headlines have largely receded to the background this week, in wake of the horrific assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Yet fighting and the intensified cross-border attacks, particularly targeting each’s energy sites, continue on with no end in sight.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“The point I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was. . . right before he got shot.”

– Hunter Kozak, Question-Asker at Charlie Kirk Utah Event, Sept 10

“It’s been obvious for some time that the Left has been hijacked by the modern equivalent of the Manson Family.”

– Sasha Stone

It’s been a tough week for our demon-haunted nation. First, video surfaces of the young Ukrainian woman, 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, slaughtered by a homeless psychopath, one Decarlos Brown, Jr., on the Charlotte, NC, light rail — weeks after the crime happened, because Charlotte police suppressed the CC video and the legacy news media barely reported the story. Suddenly, the country is shocked by what they see: wanton murder witnessed at the scene by a half-dozen other transit riders, who don’t even react to the woman spurting blood as she topples to the floor and bleeds out.

Already stabbed, minutes to live

“Progressives” hasten to cover for the psycho. He was mentally unwell and did not get the treatment he needed. Uh-huh. . . . Yet anyone with functioning brain knew the score at once. Decarlos Brown, Jr., was “justice involved” (arrested and convicted of crimes) more than a dozen times in recent years, including a five-year stretch for armed robbery. He was on-the-loose because of how the Democratic Party manages public safety, which is not at all. It allows the criminally insane to run free, but especially if they can be sorted into the “marginalized” minority basket to be presented as sob stories (George Floyd).

The Democratic Party has this affinity for the criminally insane because the party as a whole is insane. It peddles insane policies and ideas, such as cashless bail and defunding the police. It can’t tell the truth about anything. For instance, that black people account for 37-percent of violent felonies committed in the USA, according the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, though they comprise about 13-percent of the population. And that only includes the “solved” cases, for which the “clearance rate” is a low 50- 60-percent of violent crimes — that is, more than half of violent crimes discovered go unsolved.

The Iryna Zarutska slaying set off a fury that ranged from intimations of race-war to declaring the Democratic Party a “domestic terrorist organization.” Of course, this was only days after disgruntled transgenderite Robert Westman — another product of Democratic Party ideology — shot up a catholic school in Minneapolis. Westman declared in his diaries that he’d learned to his disappointment that it is not really possible to change sexes and pretending was not good enough. That was perhaps the sole sane expression among his otherwise violently deranged writings. Westman was but one in a growing line of transgenders shooting up places, but his deed marked the end of the Democratic sex hustle, inflicting LGBTQ ideology on the schools and coercing the public to play along.

And then, Wednesday, a marksman murdered Charlie Kirk, 31-year-old rising conservative media star, whose main activity was traveling to college campuses to discuss and debate the great public issues of our time with students. Charlie Kirk was an exemplary young man, on a mission to rescue our country from bad ideas and help young adults beset by the depraved Jacobin faculty discern the difference between good ideas and bad ideas. He’d barely got going in life. I won’t belabor the encomiums to Charlie’s excellence that you can read elsewhere all over the web. He was the real deal, a man in full.

The Left has its martyr, the degenerate George Floyd, and now the right has its martyr, the righteous Charlie Kirk. Choose your hero.

The murder sickened at least half the nation to a degree we haven’t seen since the Kennedys and MLK were gunned down half a century ago, but the country is much more fragile now than it was then. Nobody knows what comes next, but you can sense it is going to be harsh. All that’s known about the shooter so far is that he might be the scraggly figure captured in a CC camera in a stairway on the Utah campus, that he might have used the Mauser 30.06 rifle found ditched in the woods nearby, that he was a darn good shot, and that the brass cartridges in the rifle’s chamber and magazine were engraved with “transgender and Antifa” slogans. Uh-oh. . . . (I wouldn’t want to be them on that dreadful day.)

Headline from The New York Times, of course

The question on everybody’s minds — those not still paralyzed by grief and rage — is what will the political Right do now, especially those currently holding the levers of power, led by President Trump? What we have lived through is an astounding cavalcade of gross insults against our country, against our history, and against common decency. The ten-year-long seditious conspiracy against Mr. Trump was a kind of self-compounding criminal cover-up for even more long-running illegality carried on routinely in the so-called Deep State or DC blob, which has been laying trips on the people of this land for decades.

It’s all coming apart now in one climactic maelstrom of discovery and retribution. Of course, there are the anticipated indictments of many well-known Deep State figures, but the captured agencies and regions of the judiciary remain infested with either ideologues determined to wreck the country (CIA, DOJ, DOD, State) or grifters making fortunes (FSA, CDC, NIH, HUD) or the simply power-crazed who have long forgotten even why they seek to be in charge of anything. And that’s just the government, not higher ed, or medicine, or the news business, or banking and finance, or Big Business, or the lively arts. What the demon-haunted country needs is an exorcism.

Good thing America elected an exorcist in 2024. I don’t know if Mr. Trump ever thought of himself that way, but it’s come to that. I suppose he will start by dismantling altogether the skein of NGOs beyond the already-demolished USAID umbrella — and there are thousands more of them — that keep money flowing into the Democratic Party, a thoroughly corrupt and treasonous faction. Start with George and Alex Soros’s operation, please, Mr T.

The Democratic Party might not survive all that especially since it has turned itself into a mere infernal machine manufacturing hoaxes and hustles against the public interest. That’s all it does, all it stands for. Americans are about to re-learn that the reason we have laws is to state clearly what sort of human behavior is okay and what is not okay. It’s not okay to be a demon and do the Devil’s work — a metaphor, admittedly, but take it as you will.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

A Gallup poll shows the percentage of Americans saying college is “very important” has fallen to 35%

Please note The Perceived Importance of College Hits New Low

 Americans have been placing less importance on the value of a college education over the past 15 years, to the point that about a third (35%) now rate it as “very important.” Forty percent think it is “fairly important,” while 24% say it is “not too important.”

When last asked to rate the importance of college in 2019, just over half of U.S. adults, 53%, said it was very important, but that was already lower than the 70% found in 2013 and 75% in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage viewing college as not too important has more than doubled since 2019 and compares with just 4% in 2010.

Perceived Importance Down Among All Societal Groups

Notably, the percentage of Democrats rating college as very important has fallen almost as steeply as that of Republicans since 2013. However, most Democrats who do not view college as very important now describe it as fairly important, while few say it’s not too important (49% and 9% of Democrats, respectively). By contrast, Republicans are equally likely to rate it as fairly important (39%) as not too important (39%). In fact, Republicans are about twice as likely to say college is not too important as to say it is very important (20%).

Similarly, just four in 10 college graduates say college is very important, but few (12%) dismiss it as not too important, while 46% say it’s fairly important. This contrasts with non-college graduates, who are just as likely to say college is not too important (32%) as very important (31%), with the plurality (37%) calling it fairly important.

Bottom Line

Confidence in higher education has declined much more among Republicans than Democrats over the past decade, with criticism of it for having left-leaning political agendas leading the reasons higher ed skeptics point to. Specifically, the latest Lumina Foundation-Gallup research finds that 38% of Americans who lack confidence in higher education cite politics, with another 32% saying college doesn’t teach the right things.

By contrast, the dwindling perception that college is very important has occurred equally among both major parties, suggesting a broader explanation is required. While the new survey didn’t explore the reasons directly, the high cost of college, recent attention to the benefits of trade schools, the growth of online learning and microcredentials, and the potential for revolutionary changes in the labor market presented by recent advancements in AI are all possibilities.

Useless Degrees

Most college degrees are nearly useless.

What exactly is one supposed to do with a degree in English literature, psychology, art, religion, or dozens of other nearly worthless options?

Students graduate with tens-of thousands of dollars (or more) in debt that is not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Many end up getting a job that will not leave them dreaming of buying a house, while struggling to pay rent.

The cost of education has soared hundreds of times more than overall inflation and salaries to pay back the debt.

1971 Flashback

When I started college in 1971, the cost per semester for an engineering degree at the University of Illinois was $250 per semester.

For the UI 2024-25 academic year, the annual tuition and fees for in-state students were approximately $16,004, while out-of-state students faced around $35,124 in tuition and fees.

In 1971, the average hourly wage was $3.53. It’s now $31.46, up 8.9 times.

The cost of tuition has gone up 64 times.

Yet, a college education then was far more valuable than it is today.

You deserve more for your trades

Nuclear startup Deep Fission has received funding to bury its mini reactors a mile underground. 

The company has taken an unusual path to raise money, completing an alternative public offering (APO) that brought in $30 million at $3 per share — well below the $10 price typical of traditional IPOs. The company will retain its name and list shares on the OTCQB market, according to Interesting Engineering.

“This is a unique moment for the nuclear industry,” said Liz Muller, Co-Founder and CEO of Deep Fission. “Deep Fission has the right technology, at the right time, and in the right place. With this funding, we can begin building our pilot reactor, with the goal of completion in 2026.” She added the company aims to scale “rapidly and profitably to address the massive energy demand from AI data centers and other customers worldwide.”

Deep Fission’s design uses small cylindrical reactors lowered into mile-deep, 30-inch boreholes. Each generates 15 megawatts, cooled by proven pressurized water systems. Burying the reactors in bedrock provides shielding, containment, and a minimal surface footprint. The company says it can deliver power for 5–7 cents per kilowatt-hour using low-enriched uranium and off-the-shelf parts.

“By burying the reactors, the company hopes to solve several problems that plague current reactors, including concerns over meltdowns and potential terrorist attacks,” TechCrunch wrote.

The Interesting Engineering article says that the startup has already signed a deal with data center developer Endeavor for two gigawatts of capacity and was selected for the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program, which targets first criticality by July 4, 2026.

Last year Deep Fission raised only $4 million and was seeking a $15 million seed round as recently as April. The reverse merger provides fresh capital but comes with higher regulatory costs that could weigh on the young company.

Even so, Deep Fission calls this a turning point as it prepares to build its first underground reactor by mid-2026.

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

MSNBC found itself in crisis this week after political analyst Matthew Dowd suggested that Charlie Kirk — the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who was assassinated on Wednesday — had somehow “brought it on himself.”

Dowd told anchor Katy Tur that Kirk has “been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.”

He continued, suggesting somehow Kirk brought the killing on himself and had contributed to a climate where violence was inevitable: “And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”

The backlash was swift. MSNBC’s own president, Rebecca Kutler, apologized on air and on social media, calling Dowd’s remarks “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.” Even Dowd himself walked them back. And rightly so. Because here’s the irony: if anyone in this story was being divisive, it was Dowd. Dowd was fired later in the week.

But to set the record straight: Charlie Kirk wasn’t divisive. He was the opposite. And it’s more important to make sure that message — also known as the truth — is conveyed now, more than ever.

Kirk’s life work was built on the idea that violence happens when people stop talking.

He was relentless about creating spaces for conversation — not just with those who agreed with him, but with those who disagreed most fiercely. He gave everyone a chance to speak: all ideas, all faiths, all backgrounds were welcome. While so many voices in politics thrive on shutting opponents down, Kirk insisted on the opposite: sit down and talk it through. Debate. Challenge. Use words, not fists.

From reading accounts today, it’s clear that anyone who traveled with Kirk saw it firsthand. He was not just a media figure; he was a husband, a father, a man of faith, and an entrepreneur who took his convictions seriously. He debated students on campuses across America in good faith, and he often repeated his personal motto: “Prove me wrong.” That’s not division. That’s democracy manifest via freedom of speech.

Kirk knew the risks of speaking boldly in an increasingly hostile environment and had the courage to continue doing so.

He often warned of the dangers of rising political violence, and yet he pressed forward — because he felt a responsibility to future generations. He was willing to stand on stage, extend olive branches, and engage his opponents, even knowing that violence could one day come. And tragically, it did.

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Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not just an attack on one man. It is an attack on everything Western civilization depends on: open discourse, robust debate, peaceful dissent. He represented the idea that the way to resolve disputes is through words, persuasion, and reason — not through silencing and bloodshed.

That is why it is so shameful to suggest that Kirk “had it coming.” The man who was killed was the one most dedicated to keeping dialogue alive when others abandoned it. He should not have died for practicing peaceful debate.

We cannot allow his murder to scare us into silence. Nor can we let voices like Dowd’s twist his legacy into something it was not. If we want to honor Charlie Kirk, we must carry his legacy of peaceful dialogue forward.

We must meet ideas with arguments and truth. We must choose courage over fear, debate over division, and speech over violence. Charlie Kirk showed America what it means to argue without hate, to disagree without destroying, to stand firm without turning to bloodshed. That is not divisive. That is unifying.

And it’s exactly what this country needs now more than ever.

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.

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. 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.

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Education has stopped awarding grants to colleges based on the share of minority students they enroll, saying it is unconstitutional to use taxpayer dollars to promote “racial or ethnic quotas” at those schools.

The decision, announced on Sept. 10, affects hundreds of schools nationwide classified as Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). Department officials said these programs amount to discrimination, as they require colleges to maintain a minimum percentage of students from certain racial or ethnic backgrounds in order to qualify for grants.

For instance, a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) must enroll at least 25 percent Hispanic students, among other criteria, to earn the designation. A Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) must enroll at least 1,000 undergraduates and make sure that at least 40 percent of them are black to unlock the corresponding grant.

Ending those grants is consistent with the Trump administration’s goal of ending all forms of discrimination across all federally funded programs, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” the secretary said.

“The Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”

“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color,” she continued.

“Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit.”

Several grant programs are set to be eliminated, including those for HSIs, PBIs, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions, Native American and Pacific Islander-serving institutions, and Native American-serving non-tribal institutions.

The change does not affect Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which are defined by their history of educating African Americans before the end of segregation in 1964, rather than by the current racial composition of their student body. Nor does it affect tribal colleges, which derive their status from being chartered by tribal governments and located on or near reservations.

For fiscal 2025, Congress had appropriated about $350 million in discretionary funds for MSI programs across the nation. The Education Department said it will still distribute roughly $132 million in mandatory funds that “cannot be reprogrammed on a statutory basis,” while redirecting the remainder toward “programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance administration priorities.”

Looking ahead, McMahon said she wants to transform MSI programs so that they still support colleges with large minority student populations but are no longer tied to racial thresholds.

“The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas, and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership in a racial group,” she said.

Part of the reasoning behind the policy shift is a lawsuit filed in June by the State of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions, the advocacy group that fought and won a Supreme Court case challenging so-called “race-conscious” admissions decisions at public and private universities. The lawsuit targets the HSI program, stating that some Tennessee colleges would otherwise qualify for grants based on neutral factors like high numbers of low-income students but are excluded because their Hispanic enrollment falls below 25 percent.

The Department of Justice then declined to defend the HSI program in court, citing an opinion from Solicitor General D. John Sauer that its funding structure not only violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantees, but also conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that barred consideration of race in admissions.

Several university administrators and lawmakers have voiced concerns about the change. University of Hawaii, a recipient of two now-terminated MSI grants, said it will have to adjust how it allocates resources.

“It will affect all of our students, the programs that support them and the dedicated staff who carry out this work,” University of Hawaii President Wendy Hensel said in a campus-wide message. “I am deeply saddened by this development.”

Chairs of three House caucuses—Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) of Asian Pacific American Caucus, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) of Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) of Black Caucus—condemned the decision, saying it would undercut educational opportunities for students across the nation.

“Higher education is a critical pathway to economic opportunity, and Minority-Serving Institutions have opened doors for millions of students from all backgrounds to pursue a college degree,” the trio said in a statement on Sept. 11.

“By terminating grants for certain MSIs, the Trump administration is sowing division and denying students of color the opportunities they need to succeed.”

Authored by Will Izuchukwu via TheMerkle.com,

Stablecoin liquidity on centralized exchanges just broke into uncharted territory.

According to CryptoQuant, reserves have surged to $68 billion, marking the highest level ever recorded.

The surge signals deeper markets, smoother execution, and resilience during volatility. For traders, it means the crypto market is quietly arming itself for its next big move.

Binance Dominates the Field

No surprise at the top. Binance holds $44.2 billion, capturing 67% of all stablecoins parked on exchanges.

That’s more than all other major exchanges combined.

Binance’s stablecoin dominance gives it unmatched liquidity depth. Order books are thicker, spreads are tighter, and execution is reliable even during heavy volatility.

Why It Matters

Stablecoins aren’t just “digital dollars.” They are the oil of the crypto engine.

Deeper order books mean big players can move size without wrecking the chart.

• Liquidity smooths out volatility shocks.

• Execution is reliable even during fast-moving selloffs or pumps.

The big takeaway: with this much stablecoin firepower, the market is primed for the next leg up.

Tether (USDT): The Giant

@Tether_to continues to dwarf the sector.

With ~59% market share, Tether remains the undisputed heavyweight.

In July alone, Tether processed almost $2 trillion in settlement volume. Over the past 30 days, it raked in $637 million in fees, underscoring its utility.

Tether’s dominance isn’t just about size. It’s the preferred settlement layer for global crypto trade.

Circle (USDC): The Compliant Leader

@circle has carved a reputation as the most regulatory-friendly stablecoin.

Backed by NYDFS oversight and public-company grade disclosures, USDC is trusted by institutions.

On Base, USDC is king, controlling ~89% dominance of the monetary base.

It’s also gaining traction on Solana, where speed and compliance go hand in hand.

For builders, Circle’s transparency and trust make USDC the go-to fiat-backed token.

Ethena Labs (USDe): The Upstart

@ethena_labs has exploded into the stablecoin arena.

Its supply now sits around $12.8 billion, with strong traction across DeFi.

Unlike fiat-backed rivals, USDe is synthetic. It uses a delta-neutral structure to hold stability, making it structurally different, and riskier, than traditional stables.

Still, growth has been staggering, and liquidity pools show it’s gaining serious adoption.

Sky Ecosystem: DAI + USDS

@SkyEcosystem combines crypto-native stablecoins with scale.

DAI and USDS together hold $9–10 billion supply, integrated across lending, routing, and savings apps.

These stables are DeFi-first. They’re deeply embedded across EVM chains and continue to see steady growth.

In the race for decentralized stability, Sky remains one of the strongest contenders.

Paxos (PYUSD): The Compliance Play

@Paxos has long prioritized regulatory-grade compliance.

Its PYUSD stablecoin has recently crossed $1 billion supply and expanded into multiple chains.

Still, Paxos lags behind the giants. Its aggregate stablecoin supply sits mid-tier compared to market leaders like Tether, Circle, and Ethena.

Adoption is growing, but scaling remains the challenge.

FalconStable: Strong but Trapped

@FalconStable shows promise with growth and key partnerships.

But adoption is heavily skewed. 93% of supply is locked on Ethereum, limiting its cross-chain reach.

While its fundamentals suggest potential, the lack of multi-chain adoption keeps it stuck in “Crab Mode.”

Ripple (RLUSD): Early Steps

@Ripple launched RLUSD, a NYDFS-approved stable live on XRPL and Ethereum.

Current supply sits at around $730 million.

Despite regulatory strength, adoption remains thin. RLUSD is mostly confined to Ripple’s ecosystem and lacks DeFi integration compared to rivals.

Aave (GHO): Governance-First

@aavehas rolled out GHO, an over-collateralized stablecoin.

Supply is modest at $350 million, but governance is tight and adoption is methodical.

For now, usage is niche, centered inside the Aave ecosystem. Growth is slower, but the foundation is solid.

FDLabs (FDUSD): Shady Reputation

@FDLabsHQ issues FDUSD, but its reputation is murky.

Accusations of insolvency and regulatory red flags have dogged it.

Its only meaningful use case? Trading on Binance.

For most investors, caution is the better play here.

Usual Money (USD0++): Trust Broken

@usualmoney fumbled badly.

USD0++ depegged, triggering liquidations and a painful drawdown in its native token, USUAL.

While it has since rebounded, the lack of communication and shady recovery tactics left a lasting scar. Trust, once broken, is hard to rebuild.

A7A5: The Sanction Escape Play

@A7A5official runs a ruble-backed stable that exists mainly to sidestep sanctions.

It has depegged multiple times, though some traders still chase its APY rewards.

Your stablecoins are only as good as the entity issuing them.

My Tier List of Stablecoin Issuers 🧵

⸻

➣ Bull 🐂@Tether_to: Biggest stablecoin by market share in crypto: ~59%. Almost $2 trillion in settlement volume was completed in July alone, and $637 million in fees… pic.twitter.com/qlDBSRko7A

— DeFi Warhol (@Defi_Warhol) September 8, 2025

The stablecoin market has never looked this strong.

With $68B in exchange reserves, deep liquidity across majors, and fast-growing newcomers, stablecoins are more central than ever to crypto’s infrastructure.

Whether fiat-backed, synthetic, or decentralized, stables drive settlement, lending, and trading.

The surge tells us one thing: the market is locked, loaded, and waiting for its next major breakout.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended a recent airstrike on what Israel says was a Hamas headquarters in Doha, comparing the October 7 attacks to the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. The speech was given in the middle of this week, just before the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, warning that Hamas leaders will be hunted down wherever they are located, and putting countries like Qatar and even Turkey on notice.

Turkey has long expressed support to Hamas leadership. Though Netanyahu did not directly name Turkey, observers interpreted his remarks as a veiled threat to Ankara, which has long hosted senior Hamas officials.

Calling October 7 “our 9/11,” Netanyahu warned that any country offering safe haven to “Islamist terrorists” could become targets of Israeli intelligence operations. He urged governments to expel or prosecute such individuals, or potentially face the wrath of unilateral Israeli action.

He laid out: “Well, yesterday, we acted in the same manner. We pursued the masterminds of terror who perpetrated the massacre of October 7. And we did this. In Qatar, which provides a safe haven, harbors terrorists, funds Hamas, gives its terrorist leaders luxurious villas, and provides them with everything.”

Netanyahu continued: “We did exactly what America did when it pursued Al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and after they went and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.”

He added: “Now, various countries around the world condemn Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves. What did they do after America eliminated Osama bin Laden? Did they say: What a terrible thing happened in Afghanistan or Pakistan? No, they applauded. They should commend Israel for adhering to the same principles and applying them.”

The prime minister invoked a UN Security Council resolution that called on governments to deny safe haven to terrorists, arguing that Israel is acting on the same principles. 

In recent weeks, Netanyahu stunned the region by recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915 in an interview in an unprecedented first for the Israeli government.

The Erdogan government seems this as a calculated provocation aimed at embarrassing Turkey, as Turks have long considered this issue a red line. Within Turkey, individuals can be thrown in jail if they publicly advocate for Armenian genocide recognition, especially journalists.

NEW: Israel considered attacking Hamas’ top leadership in Turkey, Egyptians told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, but changed mind because of Ankara’s Nato membership and political and economic costs.

Netanyahu thought Trump could handle Qatar consequences

— Kann

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) September 11, 2025

Interestingly, just on Thursday Israel’s Haaretz newspaper wrote that Turkey Could Be Next in Israel’s Cross-hairs After Qatar in a headline.

“The Shin Bet security service announced last week that it thwarted a Turkey-based Hamas cell’s plot to assassinate National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ankara quickly denied involvement,” the newspaper said. “But the revelation raised an explosive question: Could Turkey have a hand in helping Hamas assassinate an Israeli minister?”

Any Israeli operation on Turkish soil akin to the Qatari one would be viewed by Ankara as an act of war. Turkey has vigorously denounced Israel for its Doha strike, after long condemning Israel for its actions in Gaza.