As federal courts evaluate the propriety of President Trump’s attempts to deploy National Guard troops to Portland to protect federal assets and agents from radical leftists, those very same Antifa miscreants are openly promoting a coordinated laser attack on federal aircraft on Saturday night — a plot that promises to put lives in danger, but may also bolster Trump’s case that federal intervention is warranted. 

Menacingly describing the scheme as “Laser Tag,” a post on the Rose City Counter-Info website invites readers to deploy themselves around Portland on Saturday night, and to start aiming laser beams at law enforcement helicopters at 9pm: 

“Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us…This Saturday, October 11th, at 9pm you are invited to fight back. All you need is a laser. Leave home — they can see where the laser is coming from. Go to a park, a field, or some other public place, and once the clock strikes 9 unleash your beam at the cop copter.

Mask up. Coordinate with friends to throw a laser party! Let’s take back the night together! It won’t take many of us to ground the helicopters!” 

Images circulating on social media also appear to show the Laser Tag event being promoted with physical posters affixed to walls. The goal of “grounding” a helicopter could potentially be realized with a deadly crash. Here’s how San Antonio Police Department pilot Natalie Hernandez recently described what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a laser beam at night: 

“Seven miles from where our helicopter was, somebody was shining a blue laser at the helicopter. And so with that, the whole cockpit just lit up. We’ve got windows everywhere, so once a laser hits it, and that light refracts on this plexiglass. It just makes it so bright in here.”

The conspiratorial invitation posted at Rose City Counter-Info also includes guidance on how to avoid leaving an evidence trail that could lead police to perpetrators, Daily Caller reports. Specifically, helicopter assailants are urged to use gloves and to use alcohol to wash the lasers, just in case they have to ditch them under pursuit. A link leads to guidance on how to keep one’s DNA from sticking to objects. 

Last week, the Department of Justice announced the court appearance of 35-year-old Hector Miranda-Mendoza, an illegal alien from Mexico who’s been charged with lasering two Portland police Cessna Skylane 182’s and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Airbus H125 helicopter. He’s one of four illegals facing federal charges for lasering law enforcement aircraft in and around Portland. Investigators were able to trace the laser to Miranda-Mendoza’s front porch, which was five miles from where the aircraft were flying. 

Portland (Oct. 9) — Antifa and far-left extremists tell a man he can’t walk on their sidewalk near the ICE facility. He refuses to comply with their unlawful orders. pic.twitter.com/EIY8L7CeUU

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 10, 2025

“The laser strike on a CBP helicopter over the skies of Portland put our community at risk and endangered the lives of federal law enforcement officers,” said Douglas A. Olson, FBI Portland Special Agent in Charge. “This activity is unacceptable, and FBI Portland will aggressively pursue anyone anywhere targeting federal agents, especially those currently holding the line at the Portland ICE facility.” Offenders face fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years. 

🚨 BREAKING: DHS Secretary Noem just met with Portland’s mayor, and gave him an ultimatum:

If the city does NOT clamp down on Antifa militants outside the ICE facility, she will send FOUR TIMES the amount of federal agents out here

DO IT, @Sec_Noem! pic.twitter.com/QxP7SSKATn

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 8, 2025

Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is poised to rule on an appeal of a lower-court ruling that found Trump likely overstepped his constitutional authority by declaring a “rebellion” was underway in Portland, in justifying his ordering of National Guard troops to the city where ICE agents and facilities have come under siege. Over the course of a hearing on Thursday, the judges left observers with the impression that the court would lift the lower-court injunction and thus allow the troop deployment to proceed. 

Antifa was formally designated as a domestic terrorist organization last month. On Wednesday, Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute, told President Trump during a public briefing on Antifa that efforts should focus on dismantling the dark-money NGOs and activist groups fueling unrest nationwide through the permanent protest-industrial complex.

Also, notice how the operation flyer was deliberately styled to resemble a harmless children’s game. Think of it as next-generation informational warfare designed to activate younger recruits to commit terror by making it seem as though pointing lasers at helicopters is just a harmless game (or video game).

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine would nominate President Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize if he provides the country with Tomahawk missiles, a step that would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war and risk a major response from Russia. There’s already anticipation for the 2026 prize.

Zelensky told reporters that he and Trump discussed the possibility of the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, which are nuclear-capable and have a range of over 1,000 miles, during their recent meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“During our most recent meeting, I didn’t hear a ‘no.’ What I did hear was that work will continue at the technical level and that this possibility will be considered,” Zelensky said, according to POLITICO.

“The plan for ending the war won’t be easy, but it is certainly the way forward. And if Trump gives the world — above all, the Ukrainian people — the chance for such a ceasefire, then yes, he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We will nominate him on behalf of Ukraine,” he added.

Vice President JD Vance recently confirmed that the Trump administration is considering supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks by selling them to European countries, though it remains unclear if it’s a realistic option since the Ukrainian military lacks a way to fire them.

Tomahawks are designed to be fired by US Navy warships and submarines, and the US has only recently developed and deployed ground-based launchers after withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019.

Russia has issued strong warnings against the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, saying that it will be detrimental to US-Russia relations.

Below: Nobel Committee was not interested in Zelensky’s opinion while choosing Peace Prize winner — Putin on Zelensky’s ‘RIDICULOUS’ Tomahawks-for-Nobel suggestion for Trump…

Nobel Committee was not interested in Zelensky’s opinion while choosing Peace Prize winner — Putin on Zelensky’s ‘RIDICULOUS’ Tomahawks-for-Nobel suggestion for Trump https://t.co/tTUmVGk6Ro pic.twitter.com/bW9ClBU8ug

— RT (@RT_com) October 10, 2025

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that if the US sends Tomahawks to Ukraine, it will “not just send the confrontation into a downward spiral, but also do irreparable damage to Russian-US relations, which have just begun to display certain elements indicating the resumption of a bilateral dialogue.”

The Iran-linked Houthis of Yemen appear to have halted their missile and drone attacks on Israel as the US-backed Gaza ceasefire has gone into effect Friday.

There have not been any recent observable attacks since both sides agreed to accept Trump’s 20-point peace plan, with the Houthis now saying they are ‘monitoring’ the ceasefire and Israel’s compliance, suggesting no more attacks while it is pending. Maritime industry sources in Europe are signaling optimism after a vital global transit route has been effectively blocked for much of the last two years.

Leader of the Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, declared Thursday, “We must be at the highest levels of caution and readiness, and continue the massive popular momentum with the Palestinian people, until we determine whether the agreement will be achieved, or whether we will continue our path of support and assistance to the Palestinian people.”

“We will remain vigilant, prepared, and monitor the progress of the agreement. Will it lead to an end to the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid, food, medicine, and humanitarian needs to the Palestinian people? Will the Americans and Israelis stop their genocide against the Palestinian people and commit to a ceasefire? This is what we hope for, and it was our goal in the support operations and confronting the attack on the Palestinian people and the nation in general,” al-Houthi added.

While last spring President Trump declared a bilateral US-Houthi ceasefire and withdrew US naval forces from the Red Sea, the Shia group’s war on Israeli shipping and also foreign vessels headed to Israeli ports continued, and even ramped up. But Trump successfully ended America’s direct involvement in the anti-Houthi campaign.

But if the new ceasefire holds – which took official effect Friday – and if the Houthis permanently halt their attacks in turn, this means the Trump deal will have resolved the long-running crisis of global shipping through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. According to Reuters:

Shares of Danish shipping giant Maersk fell two percent in Copenhagen on Thursday, reflecting investor expectations that safer passage through the Red Sea could eventually restore capacity and reduce freight rates. Analysts cautioned, however, that shipping companies would likely wait months for assurances that attacks would not resume.

Diplomats and analysts said the ceasefire in Gaza could have broader geopolitical implications, potentially easing tensions in the region and fostering conditions for the eventual normalization of maritime security in the Red Sea corridor.

However industry insider and maritime shipping monitor TradeWinds offers a more cautious assessment: 

War risks rates for shipping in the Red Sea have remained steady following the Middle East ceasefire deal as underwriters seek to claw back losses from the deadly Houthi campaign, according to market sources.

Underwriters will wait for evidence that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will hold before easing rates for ships travelling through high-risk areas in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, said one source.

Insurers are preparing for the return of Greek tanker owners to the region as tensions decline. Longer-term war-risk rates are also likely to fall, with new insurers preparing to join the market.

Since 2023, literally hundreds of missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels have occurred in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis have also downed several MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by the Pentagon.

Below: A reminder of the kinds of major attacks and explosions which have been occurring in waters off Yemen over the last two years…

Video allegedly showing the MT Sounion exploding and on fire in the Red Sea. The tanker is carrying 150,000 metric tons of oil. A full release of the cargo would make it one of the worst tanker oil spills in history pic.twitter.com/470pc3OQjj

— Mike Schuler (@MikeSchuler) August 23, 2024

It was the Biden administration which first put together an international naval coalition patrolling regional waters, and led by the United States. But after several waves of airstrikes on Yemen, it did nothing to lessen Houthi resolve.

Could Trump’s big Gaza peace plan have the spillover effect of solving the Houthi and Red Sea shipping crisis as well? Time will soon tell.

Submitted by Jason Curtis Anderson of One City Rising, 

President Trump’s latest roundtable on ANTIFA wasn’t just a political statement — it was a long-overdue reckoning against rising far-left political violence. For years, journalists and citizens alike have watched America’s streets burn, our cities vandalized, and our law enforcement vilified under banners of “resistance.” But as the President’s meeting revealed, ANTIFA is only one mask worn by a much larger monster — a transnational network of NGOs, foreign financiers, and ideological operatives quietly fueling what Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute called “Riot Inc.”

🚨My Full Statement to @POTUS and @WhiteHouse Roundtable on Antifa.🚨 https://t.co/DSL9QcKBPw pic.twitter.com/3x5Bl6JgNx

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 8, 2025

Bruner, GAI’s Director of Research, broke down the mechanics of this sprawling protest industrial complex. He traced the money, the messaging, and the movements, exposing how left-wing extremism has evolved from decentralized networks of anarchist collectives into a well-funded infrastructure with global ambitions. Among the various nodes and financiers, he named Neville Roy Singham — a tech billionaire currently under multiple congressional investigations for allegedly funneling money to American-based protest groups doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.

🚨 @elonmusk is RIGHT! @seamusbruner and our team is still following the money and the numbers keep getting bigger. SHUT IT DOWN! Must read @zerohedge. pic.twitter.com/TFALe4HH5z

— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) October 9, 2025

Jonathan Choe, a journalist at the Discovery Institute, added another dimension, one that hits close to home for anyone living on the West Coast. He described how ANTIFA’s organizing hubs are increasingly intertwined with what he called the “homeless industrial complex,” a web of taxpayer-funded nonprofits that profit off permanent social decay. Cities like Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles, all suffering the twin crises of homelessness and anarchist violence, have quietly become laboratories for this merger of chaos and cash flow.

One of the Antifa riot arrestees in Portland, Ore. pic.twitter.com/ZjNvckjHmS

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 9, 2025

Choe also revealed deep connections between ANTIFA networks and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — the same group now running Zohran Mamdani for New York City Mayor. In 2019, the DSA’s national convention voted to formally adopt ANTIFA into its organization — a vote that passed with full approval. And according to new reports, ANTIFA’s latest project, “Stop Cop City”, has been holding meetings at the DSA headquarters in New York City.

Within hours of being named at Trump’s roundtable, Mark Bray, the self-proclaimed ANTIFA historian and Rutgers professor, announced he was leaving the country. Bray’s panic was revealing — because just after his name came up, Stop Cop City posted an official response on a well-known anarchist website, calling on supporters to join new “No Kings” protests nationwide.

🚨 Rutgers Professor Calls for “Militant Resistance,” Then Flees to Europe

For years, Rutgers professor Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, has openly defended political violence as part of “anti-fascist resistance.” In a recent interview, he even admitted… pic.twitter.com/tMbTr1zCfu

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) October 9, 2025

Those protests, while marketed as peaceful resistance, have become a predictable cocktail of violence and political theater. In Los Angeles, “No Kings Day” descended into chaos when protesters hurled rocks, bricks, and fireworks at police. Federal buildings were vandalized, hundreds arrested, and at least one deputy hospitalized after a motorcyclist deployed tear gas at law enforcement. In Salt Lake City, a protester was shot and critically injured. In Portland, an ICE facility became the scene of a multi-hour riot. And in Minnesota, a targeted attack on state lawmakers connected to “No Kings” propaganda left two dead and two critically wounded.

All of this, it turns out, was not spontaneous. As ZeroHedge previously reported, the “No Kings” protests were funded by Arabella Advisors, the same dark-money network behind some of the most powerful progressive operations in Washington. Arabella’s fingerprints confirm Bruner’s central thesis: that “Riot Inc.” is a product not of grassroots passion, but of elite engineering — managed, funded, and protected by a nonprofit industrial complex that answers to no voters and fears no audits.

The scale of coordination here should disturb every American. ANTIFA isn’t simply a group of masked agitators smashing Starbucks windows — it’s one visible node of the growing revolution against the West. And while it might be decentralized and loose in structure, the rest of the revolution is not. The permanent protest industry has thousands of nonprofit entities, shell companies, fiscal sponsorships, alternative media arms, an army of lawyers, bail funds, foreign influences, and a multi-billion-dollar network of backers. 

Bruner told Trump earlier this week, “We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors.” 

It even has political allies running for major office in America’s biggest cities.

President Trump deserves credit for forcing this conversation into the open. But as Bruner warned, dismantling ANTIFA’s street operations will only address the symptoms. To truly stop the bleeding, America must go after the bloodstream — the NGO networks and offshore foundations that bankroll domestic destabilization.

A “bottom-up” crackdown targets the foot soldiers; a “top-down” strategy targets the financiers, the academics, and the nonprofit executives turning activism into industry.

Riot Inc. is real. It’s organized. And it’s finally being exposed.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Oct. 9 recognizing Oct. 13 as Columbus Day in honor of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.

“Columbus Day, we’re back, Italians. We love the Italians,” Trump said after signing the proclamation at the White House.

As The Epoch Times’ Aldgra Fredly reports, this marks a departure from President Joe Biden’s practice since 2021 of issuing dual proclamations that observed both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 13.

In his proclamation, Trump hailed Columbus—whose 1492 expedition from Spain reached the Caribbean and marked the beginning of sustained European exploration and colonization of the Americas—as “the original American hero” and “a giant of Western civilization.”

“As we celebrate his legacy, we also acknowledge the contributions of the countless Italian-Americans who, like him, have endlessly contributed to our culture and our way of life,” the president stated in his proclamation.

Trump denounced who he called “left-wing radicals” who attempted to “erase our history” and “attack our heritage” by toppling Columbus statues and tarnishing the explorer’s character.

“Under my leadership, those days are finally over—and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination,” he stated.

Trump called on U.S. citizens to observe Columbus Day with “appropriate ceremonies and activities,” and directed that the U.S. flag be displayed on all public buildings on that day.

The proclamation follows Trump’s earlier post on social media in which he vowed to commemorate Columbus Day “under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before.”

Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the United States, which is celebrated on the second Monday of October to honor Italian Americans and Christopher Columbus.

The federal holiday was still known as Columbus Day during Biden’s term, but also as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Activists had long wanted to shift the focus from commemorating Columbus’s navigation to the Americas to his and his successors’ exploitation of the indigenous people he encountered there.

Biden’s 2021 Columbus Day proclamation acknowledged “the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.”

During his first term, Trump stated in a 2020 proclamation that “radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy,” amid reports of vandalism targeting statues of the Italian explorer in some states. In October 2019, vandals threw red paint and sprayed graffiti on two Columbus statues in Rhode Island and California.

Whether you read institutional commentary from the desks at Goldman, UBS, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, or others, all indications are that the growing power demand from AI chips in server racks has rendered air cooling obsolete, with liquid cooling now the premier choice. But the broader concern is that soaring power loads from data centers are straining already fragile grids, tightening supply, driving up electricity prices, and raising the risk of blackouts.

With nuclear power restarts and new buildouts years away. We pointed out on Thursday night, “Each 1GW of AI computing capacity costs $50bn to deploy in today’s prices, according to OpenAI execs. By 2028, Morgan Stanley projects at least 65 GW of new data center demand. Do the math…” 

We were referring to our previous X post about power blackout risks due to the surging new power demand from AI data centers and those that will be brought online in the near-term, colliding with a fragile grid with limited spare capacity.

Each 1GW of AI computing capacity costs $50bn to deploy in today’s prices, according to OpenAI execs. By 2028, Morgan Stanley projects at least 65 GW of new data center demand.

Do the math https://t.co/EMMQtMc4up

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 10, 2025

“There is no way the current US grid can support this,” we mentioned on X, commenting on our report for ZeroHedge Pro Subs, titled “Behind The $500 Billion Data Center Boom: Here’s Who Makes All The Key Components.” 

Last night, Elon Musk commented on our data center power X post, explaining how large-scale industrial batteries, such as the one Tesla offers, can be a winning solution to stabilize the grid. 

“Batteries. US grid is capable of 1TW steady state, but average usage is ~0.5TW. Run the power plants at night to charge up the packs and then discharge packs during the day to power AI,” Musk said, adding, “That would double US electrical energy output per year.” 

That would double US electrical energy output per year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2025

With nuclear power still years away, and with Goldman already warning of “price spikes and power blackouts“, the federal government or power grid operators must figure out a cost-effective, scalable energy solution to ensure power prices don’t continue spiraling out of control and proper grid stabilization occurs to ensure grid stability amid the AI arms race with China. Also, Goldman labeled the “vulnerable link” at the center of energy security as power grids.

At the rate AI is pushing up electricity prices, Tesla Energy will be more valuable than the car company

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 21, 2025

We cited Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas in June of 2024… 

• Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas Says Tesla “May Hold Important Cards” In The Next AI Trade

And batteries it is?

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” — Thomas Sowell

Once upon a time, Greta Thunberg lectured a bunch of people who think they are important at a climate conference and the world declared her the Joan of Arc of climate change.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she barked at a room full of people she had never met before at age 16. “How dare you?”

Self-loathing liberals loved it. A 16 year old that had likely endured little, if any, actual discomfort in her life, berating them and all but telling them they were actual pieces of shit for not acting on climate change fast enough.

Whereas I would have chuckled, grabbed another free martini, and walked out, a room full of adults instead decided to canonize a teenager as the patron saint of planetary guilt.

After all, nothing says “serious policymaking” like outsourcing your conscience to a 16-year-old with a hand-painted sign and the emotional range of an fire truck siren.

Fast forward 6 years and now Thunberg has pivoted from carbon footprints to geopolitical flashpoints, weighing in on the Israel–Palestine conflict as though taking on new causes was trying to catch every Pokemon.

For someone who once demanded we “listen to the science,” Greta seems very comfortable being a roving generalist.

Her newest chapter? A “kidnapping” by Israeli forces while attempting to deliver aid, complete with dramatic details of mistreatment that sound as if they were storyboarded for viral video.

According to The Guardian, some detainees said people were left “hours without food or water.” Also known as a trip to the dentist, a flight on Spirit airlines from New York to Orlando, or the Easter Mass at Catholic Churches when there’s too many baptisms — all harsh conditioned “kidnappings” we voluntarily endure daily.

In statements after her release, Thunberg said she could talk “very, very long time” about her own abuse but preferred to focus on what she calls the systemic abuses against people in Gaza. In fact, the focus was so on the people of Gaza, Thunberg enjoyed herself a “coming home” party, complete with crowds of adoring automatons, flowers, and smiles. She’s so brave!

Maybe it’s just me, but this all feels oddly staged — and that may be the point. And how can she smile after her “dreams were stolen” from her over the past decade?

Thunberg has always understood the power of spectacle. Whether sailing across the Atlantic to lecture the U.N. or live-streaming her arrests, the activism is never just about the cause — it’s about making sure the cause is photogenic. Her latest “capture” fits neatly into that pattern: a made-for-media moment that reinforces her identity as the world’s most recognizable [insert cause of the day here] activist.

As my readers already know, when talking activism, I have a litmus test. I always like to reference “brave” instances against the activist I admire most. In 1963, Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức sat cross-legged in silence on a Saigon street, doused himself in gasoline, lit a match and set himself ablaze.

The New York Times journalist who witnessed the act said: “I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”

Now think of how he’d feel if he was forced not to eat for hours!

But seriously, he didn’t wave a banner, didn’t call for cameras, didn’t narrate his suffering. He didn’t put himself at the center of a cause; he erased himself for it. His immolation stunned the world and forced change, not because it was optimized for social media, but because it was an act of genuine, irreversible sacrifice.

🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever

Thunberg, in contrast, has mastered the art of the recurring headline whilst sacrificing nothing. In fact, her entire theater is one giant PR stunt to further her own status. The cause? Less important. One week it’s climate strikes, another it’s trade summits, and now it’s Middle Eastern geopolitics. The shift doesn’t necessarily reveal depth, but it does ensure that Greta stays on the news ticker.

Where Quảng Đức gave everything without saying a word, Thunberg’s activism depends on saying everything as loudly and as often as possible — with maximum camera coverage. If her activism was a t-shirt, it would be the one with the coffee mug on it that says: “Coffee! Do stupid things faster!”

And this isn’t to dismiss the seriousness of the conflict she’s chosen to enter. But it does beg the question: when protest becomes indistinguishable from performance, what’s the real priority — the cause, or the spotlight?

The uncomfortable truth is that Greta has never risked more than her comfort. She has not sacrificed her safety, her health, or her future. Instead, she has repeatedly placed herself in situations designed to look dangerous enough to inspire sympathy, but not dangerous enough to demand irreversible cost. The result is a kind of protest theater: gripping to watch, but ultimately more about the performer than the issue.

Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire and said nothing. Greta Thunberg sets herself in front of cameras and says everything. History will know the difference.

Sign up to receive my column via email weekly, for free, here. 

Endnotes

1. “Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of kidnapping Gaza flotilla crew,” The Guardian, June 2025.

2. “Greta Thunberg alleges torture in Israeli detention; Israel rejects claims,” Reuters, Oct. 2025.

3. “Greta Thunberg mistreated by Israeli forces in detention, activists say,” Al Jazeera, Oct. 2025.

4. “Greta Thunberg’s detention in Israel: bedbugs, dehydration and forced posing,” The Guardian, Oct. 2025.

5. On Thích Quảng Đức’s protest: David Halberstam, “The Burning Monk,” The New York Times, June 1963.

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The data drought is about to end (with some footnotes).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which we reminded our followers some time ago is not just behind the monthly jobs report but also the various inflation updates…

As a reminder, PPI and CPI (reporting next two days) are also under the BLS umbrella

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 9, 2025

… said it will publish the September consumer price index on Oct. 24, marking a rare exception to release data during the government shutdown.

The report will come out that day at 8:30 a.m. in Washington, compared to the original publication date of Oct. 15, the agency said Friday.

“No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services,” BLS said in a statement. “This release allows the Social Security Administration to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

Yesterday, Bloomberg News reported that the agency had recalled staff to prepare the report by the end of the month. The government uses third-quarter CPI data to determine the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients for the following year. The COLA announcement is typically made shortly after the BLS releases the September CPI. A BLS spokesman said that the SSA will make the COLA announcement on Oct. 24 as well. 

So why Oct 24? because the next FOMC decision is on Oct 29, which means Trump is working overtime to assure another cut, and maybe even going for a jump. It also means that the CPI report will be “nudged” just enough to come (notably) below Wall Street estimates.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said in an interview earlier Friday that having the CPI report for that meeting will help “a lot.” However, he’s more concerned about the labor market, and the BLS still hasn’t released the September employment report that was due Oct. 3.

The BLS had suspended all operations, including data collection and the production of economic statistics, as a result of the government shutdown. In its latest contingency plan, the Labor Department said scheduled BLS releases wouldn’t come out during a shutdown, nor would the agency’s website be updated. Out of the BLS’s roughly 2,000 employees, the plan only prescribed the commissioner to work during a lapse in funding.

It also said that a delay of the CPI report released in October “might have an impact” on the COLA announcement.
The recalled staff have only been tasked with preparing the September CPI, according to Friday’s notice. That suggests staff are not collecting data for the October CPI due next month, nor are they working on the jobs report that was scheduled to be released last week.

When the government reopens, agencies like the BLS, as well as the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis, will typically put out an updated schedule of publication dates for key economic reports.

For the September CPI report, which was originally scheduled for Oct 15, estimates are for a 0.3% MoM increase in headline CPI and 0.4% MoM increase in Core CPI, translating into 3.1% YoY increase for both metrics. 

The BLS collects prices for the CPI throughout the entire reference month, meaning all data collection for the September report would have been complete by the time the government shut down on Oct. 1. Once the data is collected, it usually takes about eight to 10 business days to produce the report. Dozens of economists and IT specialists are typically involved in preparing and disseminating it.

The White House has begun laying off a “substantial” number of government employees, OMB Director Russ Vought announced Friday on X. 

“The RIFs have begun,” Vought wrote, referring to reduction-in-force plans. 

The RIFs have begun.

— Russ Vought (@russvought) October 10, 2025

“Can confirm RIFs have begun and they are substantial,” an OMB spokesperson told POLITICO, adding “These are RIFs not furloughs.” 

The news comes on the 10th day of the government shutdown after Senate Democrats insisted on maintaining Obama-era benefits that include illegal immigrants, and both sides of the aisle have repeatedly failed to pass subsequent packages to fund the government. 

According to the report, the layoffs have hit agencies including: Interior, Homeland Security, Treasury, EPA, Commerce, Education, Energy, HHS and HUD.

On Thursday, Trump said his administration would target programs backed by Democrats – saying during a cabinet meeting: “We’re only cutting Democrat programs, I hate to tell you, but we are cutting Democrat programs,” adding “We will be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly.”

The move follows an OMB memo leaked two weeks ago which ordered Trump administration officials to prepare to carry out reduction-in-force (RIF) plans during the shutdown, targeting employees that aren’t legally required – OR, those which conflict with Trump’s priorities. 

Democrats are of course freaking out.

“We believe that they are not only unethical and immoral but illegal for him to be RIFing people in a shutdown,” said Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) on Friday. 

The cuts also come hours ahead of a court deadline for the DOJ to file a report detailing any plans to terminate workers during the shutdown – ahead of an Oct. 16 hearing on a request by federal worker unions to block layoffs.

Over 2/3 of civilian federal employees have remained on the job during the shutdown, between essential workers or jobs that receive longer-term funding. The vast majority of employees are going without pay. 

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US equity markets are tumbling following comments from President Trump threatening “a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products” being imported into the US, accusing China of becoming “hostile” due to their export controls

Additionally, Trump said he saw “no reason” to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping

This immediately prompted a wave of selling pressure across all equity indices with Nasdaq down over 2%…

But, US rare earth companies popped…

Treasuries are bid…

VIX spiked above 21…

Trump took to social media and penned a lengthy, angry note (emphasis ours):

Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China. Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would “clog” the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China.

We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere. Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one. I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!

There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World “captive,” but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the “Magnets” and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least.

But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so — UNTIL NOW! The letter they sent is many pages long, and details, with great specificity, each and every Element that they want to withhold from other Nations. Things that were routine are no longer routine at all.

I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World.

I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so.

The Chinese letters were especially inappropriate in that this was the Day that, after three thousand years of bedlam and fighting, there is PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. I wonder if that timing was coincidental? Dependent on what China says about the hostile “order” that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come.

Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A.

One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America. There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Trump’s comments come after China slapped new port fees on US ships and started an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm, following fresh moves to restrict the flow of rare earths needed for numerous consumer products.

How long before the TACO trade kicks in?