A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump to temporarily restore White House access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico while they challenge the revocation of their press passes in court.
Federal Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a temporary restraining order against the White House ban, reinstating hard pass access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in the early hours of Sept. 24.
Trump announced on Sept. 18 that he was banning the three news outlets from White House premises over their “constant ‘reporting’ fake news.”
The White House revoked their access the following day.
In letters to the outlets dated Sept. 22, the White House said the organizations had violated “the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”
The outlets subsequently filed for a temporary restraining order, and a remote hearing was held on Sept. 23.
The judge issued the order hours after the hearing, saying the court’s decision was “dictated by the application of well-known D.C. Circuit precedent that this Court must faithfully apply.”
Kelly pointed to two prior court decisions. A 2019 decision sided with reporter Brian Karem, whose White House press pass was restored because the government failed to provide prior notice.
The other decision was the landmark 1977 Sherrill v. Knight case, which held that once the White House makes press facilities available to bona fide journalists, it cannot deny access arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons. Denied applicants are entitled to notice of the factual basis for the decision, a chance to respond, and a written statement of reasons.
The Trump administration has argued that these precedent cases were wrongly decided.
Kelly said the media outlets and the three journalists listed as plaintiffs had shown that without the court’s relief, they were likely to suffer irreparable harm, and that at a minimum, their procedural due process claim under the Fifth Amendment had a “likelihood of success.”
Plaintiffs are also likely to succeed in showing that their hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process.
They did not “receive fair notice” of either the “conduct” that would lead to a sanction or of “the magnitude of the sanction that the White House might impose,” Kelly said.
Balance-of-hardships and public-interest arguments also favor the plaintiffs, Kelly said.
In a filing after the hearing, the government submitted an MS NOW report dated Sept. 23 to support its case. The article claimed that unnamed administration officials were considering attaching Trump’s name to Ford’s Theatre in Washington.
Trump dismissed the report as “a ridiculous lie” in a Sept. 24 post on Truth Social.
Poland Suspects “Hybrid Warfare” After Starlink Station Fire As War Spillover Fears Mount
A fire erupted at a ground-based Starlink communications station in central Poland, raising new concerns about sabotage as spillover risks from the Russia-Ukraine war mount.
Reuters reports that the fire broke out overnight Wednesday at the ground station’s power equipment and generator. The report cited Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski.
“The fire engulfed the power station and the generator; it is clear that this act of sabotage was deliberately designed to disable the station, effectively cutting off the internet connection… and disrupting internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian military,” Gawkowski said.
Gawkowski added, “While everything is operational today, we must recognise, as Prime Minister Tusk recently noted, that this is an element of hybrid warfare.”
NEW: A fire broke out at Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska, Poland, with firefighters treating it as possible arson.
The fire damaged power infrastructure and a generator. Security agencies are investigating.
Bad actors could’ve targeted the ground station because Ukraine’s military relies heavily on Starlink for battlefield communications, coordinating units and supporting one-way attack drone operations. The internet service, which is repeated from Poland and elsewhere and then beamed down into Ukraine through a network of low Earth orbit satellites, has been critical to Kiev’s war effort.
Beyond Ukraine, US intelligence services warned this week of potential spillover risks from possible Russian operations using Geran long-range attack drones against targets in Spain, France or Italy, according to Euronews.
There were numerous drone incidents targeting Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport early last month, with a drone laden with explosives found on the tarmac.
When Bari Weiss was hired to lead CBS News last year, many of the network’s star reporters feared the centrist founder of The Free Press news site would turn the network into a mouthpiece for the Trump administration. Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley was fired after he accused Weiss of “murdering the show.”
If the season premiere of “60 Minutes” is any indication, progressives have little to complain about. In a segment titled “The Pardon Economy,” veteran CBS reporter Lesley Stahl alleges that Trump has upended the way U.S. presidents have dispensed pardons for “100 years or more” by creating a “new system” that involves lobbyists and high-priced “pardon brokers.”
Stahl’s report suggests that Trump has replaced the normal order – in which pardons typically go through an apolitical review by the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney – with a scheme that looks like “pay-to-play.” It has already led Democrats to vow they will investigate the issue if they retake the House in the November mid-term elections.
To situate Trump in this “pardon lobbyists” narrative, Stahl links the White House to two convicted con artists who claim close ties to Trump without disclosing one critical detail: There is no evidence the two have ever succeeded in getting anyone a pardon. While their efforts suggest that some in Washington may be trying to capitalize on the narrative about Trump’s alleged corruption – inspired, in part, by questionable pardons he has issued previously – “60 Minutes” offers no concrete proof connecting the administration to these money-making schemes.
Stahl’s report also ignored the long history of wrongdoers paying exorbitant fees for lobbyists to get their pardons viewed by the Oval Office – most famously Bill Clinton’s brother, Roger, and Hillary’s brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham.
Although Stahl’s report quotes Trump officials denying her claims, a DOJ official who was outraged by her “misleading” report provided RealClearInvestigations with documents showing that well-connected D.C. insiders are routinely involved in the pardon process.
Leaked Documents
The DOJ documents shared with RCI involve the high-profile and controversial pre-emptive pardons issued by President Biden to Trump antagonists on his final day in office in 2025 – specifically top NIH official Anthony Fauci, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
The release of pardon documents is highly unusual. Pardon documents are zealously guarded by the White House, in part because they can reveal lobbying and political considerations – the very matter Stahl’s report insinuates is novel under Trump. The official shared them under the condition that screenshots of the documents not be made public out of concern they might anger Trump, who has pushed for criminal investigations of document leaks.
The official noted that there is no evidence that “pardon brokers” put on camera by CBS have influenced the president and said that the documents were being released specifically to show that many pardon recipients retain expensive legal counsel to represent them. And despite the assertion in the “60 Minutes” report that pardons under prior administrations normally required admitting guilt, none of the three – or any of those pardoned by Biden, including his family members – has expressed the slightest contrition.
What the leaked documents – the letters Milley, Cheney and Fauci sent accepting the pardons – do show is that Fauci, Milley, and Cheney were all using the services of high-priced attorneys at politically connected law firms. They do not, however, provide any insight into how the pardons came about. Milley and Cheney’s letters to Biden were sent through attorneys at Williams & Connolly, a top-tier, white-shoe law firm based in Washington, D.C., that has long represented a wide range of powerful Democrats and Republicans.
Now a retired congressional investigator, Jason Foster helped to lead the House investigation of the Clinton pardon scandal. He said the Fauci, Milley, and Cheney pardon papers raise questions about when their attorneys first contacted the Justice Department and the Biden White House about the pardons.
“Based on my experience leading these investigations in the past, this is clearly not a first interaction their attorneys are having with the administration,” Foster said. “This doesn’t mean they’ve done anything wrong, but there’s no constitutional requirement that anyone go through the pardon attorney office.”
First Contact?
Williams & Connolly attorneys did not respond to RCI’s questions asking when they first contacted the Biden administration about pardons for retired General Milley and former Congresswoman Cheney. Nor did they answer questions regarding how much they charged for this work.
Records show that Fauci also had an attorney, David Schertler, send the letter accepting the pardon. That letter, however, was addressed not to the Justice Department, but to Biden’s White House Counsel.
“On behalf of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, we appreciate the President’s consideration and his action this morning on Dr. Fauci’s behalf,” reads the letter Schertler sent to Edward Siskel, Biden’s top legal advisor. “Dr. Fauci accepts the President’s pardon.”
Fauci emailed the Hill and contacted reporters at Reuters and other outlets that same day, claiming that the White House approached him about the pardon a month prior and that he did not ask for one. He added, “I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me.”
At a July Senate hearing, Senator Ashley Moody asked Fauci whether he spoke with President Biden and asked for the pardon. “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,”Fauci replied. When asked multiple follow-up questions about how he got his pardon, Fauci again asserted his Fifth Amendment rights – as he did to every other question he was asked on a wide range of topics, including the color of his tie.
RCI emailed David Schertler extensive questions, asking when he first contacted the Justice Department and the White House about Fauci’s pardon. RCI also asked about his communications with attorneys in the pardon office and how much his firm charged Fauci for help with the pardon.
Schertler did not respond to RCI’s questions asking when he first contacted the Biden administration about Fauci’s pardon and how much his firm charged the former NIH official for pardon work.
Hidden Cameras
The centerpiece of the “60 Minutes” “pardon lobbyist” segment was an undercover investigation of Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, two characters offering to secure pardons for $300,000. But almost every fact detailed by “60 Minutes” on Burkman and Wohl had already been reported six months earlier by The New York Times.
Burkman and Wohl are conservative activists who were convicted of felonies for a robocall scheme to frighten black people against voting by mail in the 2020 presidential election, the Times reported. The two now work as lobbyists who allege special access to Trump and influencers such as Laura Loomer. The Times reporting established that Burkman and Wohl were selling their alleged access to secure pardons. The newspaper, for example, reported on an audio recording in which Burkman said that he and Wohl “use a combination of influencers and members of Congress,” as well as going “direct to the president, and I think that’s a very good approach.”
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis emailed RCI that the Trump administration has a “robust pardon review process,” and President Trump makes the final decision. “Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money and the President doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are.”
“60 Minutes” also regurgitated details first reported last March in the Times of Burkman’s lobbying for pardons on behalf of nursing home owner Joseph Schwartz, who paid Burkman’s firm almost $1 million, and the rapper Torrence Ivy Hatch Jr., known as Boosie BadAzz, who paid the pair $600,000.
To create TV drama, “60 Minutes” worked with convicted felon Ammon Covino, who met with Burkman and Wohl at the Ritz-Carlton. “60 Minutes” recorded the interaction with hidden cameras. To make Burkman and Wohl look good, Stahl introduced them to listeners as purported accomplished “pardon brokers.”
Although he reportedly paid $600,000 to convicted felons, the rapper known as Boosie BadAzz has not received a presidential pardon.
“They claim they got one for this owner of a nursing home chain convicted of massive tax fraud,” Stahl said. “He paid them nearly a million dollars for their promise to reach the president.”
This is misleading. The Times reported that nursing home owner Joseph Schwartz stopped paying Burkman and Wohl after they failed to get him a pardon, a detail “60 Minutes” seems to have ignored. In fact, there is no evidence that Burkman and Wohl have gotten a pardon for anyone. Instead, Burkman and Wohl make money off felons by promising pardons that never seem to materialize.
RCI sent CBS News an extensive list of questions, noting apparent contradictions in their reporting, such as failing to note that two felons they recorded by hidden camera claiming they can get pardons have never actually gotten anyone a pardon. CBS News did not respond to these questions. A spokesperson sent this statement: “60 MINUTES stands behind our reporting and the investigative work our team did to shed light on the pardons process.”
Instead of advancing a narrative about a “new system” of “pardon lobbyists,” “60 Minutes” seems to have recycled key findings from the Clinton pardon scandal of 2001, while claiming their reporting has uncovered something new and unique about pardons in the Trump administration.
Clinton Pardon Scandals
During his final hours in office, President Bill Clinton signed a flurry of pardons that led to a years-long scandal that found his own brother, Roger Clinton, had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for pardons, as did brothers of first lady Hillary Clinton and an attorney who worked on her Senate campaign that year.
“Pardon for Felon Considered After Kin Paid Roger Clinton,” reported the New York Times in 2001 regarding a $50,000 payment to Roger by the family of Rosario Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker and reputed organized crime figure. Just as Burkman and Wohl make wild claims of pardon success but never seem to deliver, the Gambino family told the Times that Roger Clinton led them to believe that a pardon for Rosario was a “lock.”
While Roger Clinton failed to get anyone a pardon, House investigators released a 2002 report that found that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for pardons. However, one person who did succeed in lobbying the Clinton administration for a pardon was Hillary Clinton’s brother, Hugh Rodham.
Two felons – a convicted drug dealer and a businessman who marketed a bogus baldness cure – paid Hugh Rodham a combined $400,000 to get them pardons, which included lobbying White House staff. House investigators found that Rodham’s lobbying efforts also involved telling White House staff that one of the pardons was “very important” to First Lady Clinton.
The House investigation also detailed similar actions by Hillary’s other brother, Tony Rodham, who secured pardons over the objection of the Justice Department by lobbying his brother-in-law, President Bill Clinton: “Tony Rodham lobbied President Clinton to grant pardons to Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory while he was receiving substantial sums of money from the Gregorys.”
The findings that felons had hired both Bill and Hillary’s family members to lobby the Clinton White House for pardons were widely covered by news outlets, including reporters at CBS News. Stahl joined the CBS News Washington bureau in the early 1970s and moved to “60 Minutes” in 1991, almost a decade before the Clinton scandal became national news. So it’s hard to understand how she missed these details of the Clinton pardon scandal to now claim the Trump administration has created a new “pardon economy,” as “60 Minutes” calls its news segment.
More Trump Probes
Although Stahl’s “60 Minutes” segment did not support its claim that Trump has created a unique new system for pardons, it is already prompting fresh partisan attacks against the president. In an online story that followed the “60 Minutes” piece, CBS News reported that Democrats were alarmed by the undercover video: “Senior Democratic lawmakers vowed Monday to investigate the new market that has sprung up around President Trump’s pardons, citing CBS News video of lobbyists offering to ‘put pressure on the president’ in exchange for a hefty fee from a convicted felon.”
Now the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin will likely lead these investigations. Raskin told CBS News that pardons are “kind of an underground market because not everybody knows how to get to it.”
CBS News failed to report, however, that one of the people who benefited from this underground market was Raskin himself, who Biden pardoned along with Liz Cheney on his final day in office.
The only art that the Prince must totally master it’s the art of war
– Machiavelli
The Supreme Warrior Wins Without Fighting
-Sun Tzu
This was supposed to be the calm before the storm. Where the Epstein Syndicate would schmooze the Global South gathered in New York for the – comatose – UN General Assembly and seduce them with assorted “gifts”, wooing them away from the impending Great Debacle and deflecting attention from the breathtaking speed of the collapse of Pax Americana.
Cut to Wednesday, when we have Day One of the UN General Assembly Debate, with Neo-Crassus/Neo-Caligula/Goldfinger/Psycho Toddler supposed to deliver a speech.
On the same day, he meets with the Gulf petro-sheiks for what could become some sort of suicidal pact.
And then on Friday, Xi Dada in person comes to the U.S. on an official state visit. (Invisible) sparks are guaranteed to fly.
All that would guarantee that the nearly inevitable New Demented Offensive on Iran and the Axis of Resistance might be postponed for a few days.
But then hysteria re-reigned all over again, as panicked imperial stakeholders were faced with some startling facts on the ground, from zero Saudi oil exports and to “burn, baby burn” at Riyadh airport.
Cue to the thundering sound of scurrying bling bling cockroaches. They seem to realize that hitting Iran again, now, is beyond dangerous, as the escalation ladder will go totally out of control – complete with Tehran finishing off the scared-to-death petro-sheikhs.
So the cockroaches did find out, the hard way, that whatever happens Iran is bound to become the oil hegemon of the Persian Gulf.
Cue to Pakistan and Turkiye – the other two members of the dodgy as hell Mecca Defense Alliance – freaking out in tandem, promising to defend Saudi Arabia even physically.
For context, cut to Ansarallah spokesman Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti:
“By God, if Turkey or Pakistan get involved, we will strike them with an iron fist. And just as we are disciplining Saudi Arabia today, we will discipline them as well.”
That was the polite advice from the elder al-Bukhaiti. The younger, Hussain, a journalist, was way more heavy metal: if Pakistan attacks Yemen, Yemen will not allow any Pakistani commercial ship to pass through the Red Sea; will launch a direct attack on Pakistan; and will consider Pakistan a Zionist partner.
How the House of Saud is going down
It’s now Escalation Ladder A-Go-Go. The Energy Shock’n Awe is at hand. All buffers are gone; the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR); the Saudi East-West pipeline (for at least a month, maybe more); and China’s methodical, hefty cut on oil imports.
What’s left is the UAE’s Fujairah – moving only 2 million barrels a day. But if the U.S. attacks the Axis of Resistance, that will also be gone in a flash.
Saudi Arabia cannot export oil and/or gas. So there’s only one way out to Clumsy Lone Decider MbS; to surrender. Accept Yemen’s terms. And expect the bill to include the 3 southern provinces stolen by the Brits and given to the Saudis in 1934.
No surrender means the very slim possibility of the House of Saud surviving at all.
Alastair Crooke, in fine form, nailed it to perfection. The Ansarallah/Yemeni Armed Forces lightning-fast campaign had been planned for as long as 7 years. Sana’a takes a very long view. This represents total Yemen ownership of the process; but with an outcome completely aligned with Tehran.
There’s a stunning parallel with Afghanistan 5 years ago – a story I followed in detail. The then Ghani puppet government collapsed in only 10 days because of patient Pashtun tribal interconnection conducted under the aegis of Gen. Soleimani.
Now it’s the same process, involving tribal Arabian leaders. It’s an easy sell. The mongrel “Saudi” state was built around an ultra-sectarian Wahhabi nucleus, a bunch of illiterate camel-herding Bedouins, with a single family monopolizing the money, political power and all decisions.
Many of roughly 100 tribes will have no trouble to become part of a process of folding the Kingdom into what could be called the Iran-Ansarallah compound. They will take back their oil; Arabia then will no longer be reduced to an American replacement of Persian power; and that will be the end of the free lunch for U.S. oil companies. China cannot but approve this vision.
The petro-sheiks have chosen their table
Sana’a did send a clear message to the U.S. via Oman. Yemen would only attack Saudi shipping – and not American or international shipping. That stands as long as Washington does not attack Yemen. Yet if that happens, Yemen obliterates the American base in Djibouti, essential for surveillance of the whole Horn of Africa.
The key question now is whether the U.S. – and the Mecca pact – really dumped Saudi Arabia. Or if this is just a realignment fog before a concerted attack – GCC included – on Ansarallah.
If that happens, Tehran has made it crystal clear it will strike U.S. military and commercial assets all across the Gulf, especially in the UAE and Saudi, and all the way to Iraq.
Major General Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in Iran, and Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s personal representative, provided the context with a single sentence:
“We invited them [GCC nations] to the Salalah meeting [in Oman]…and they reciprocated with a secret meeting in Germany with the U.S. Central Command and Israel.”
It’s all here. Iran invited the GCC petro-sheiks to a common regional table. The GCC instead chose the Washington/Tel Aviv table.
Rezaee has also outlined how Iran upgraded supersonic missiles from Mach 6 to Mach 10; expanded electronic warfare and air defenses; and is now able to hit U.S. vessels anywhere in the – distant – Indian Ocean.
Then there’s that ship-targeting missile that splits into 80 projectiles tested – successfully – on a U.S. aircraft carrier. The Pentagon is mum on the subject.
Rezaee, in more ways than one, has gently advised the U.S. Navy to get out of Dodge – as in the Indian Ocean – before sparks fly again.
Cue once again to the young al-Bukhaiti:
“A major escalation by Saudi Arabia is expected in the coming day or days… It will be met with a surprise retaliatory response that will make Saudi Arabia and its allies forget that they lost Mocha and Bab al-Mandab.”
So the Epstein Syndicate may have planned for a solo op on Yemen, just to find out that Iran and Yemen come as a package.
Respect Iran’s terms. Or else.
Tehran conveyed its new terms to the U.S. through Qatar, even as Rezaee continues to define “the respected Pakistani government” as a steady consultation partner.
The terms include the release of frozen assets and the end of the Trump naval blockade. Rezaee said there are 7 conditions, but he disclosed only 6. The list did not include “removal of economic sanctions”. The public first item is “an end to the war on all fronts.”
That is exactly what was written at the start of the dead cat MoU.
The June memorandum of understanding already contained crude-export waivers and a no-new-sanctions clause.
Then there’s the Strait of Hormuz reciprocation. That is part of Tehran’s bargaining structure. Rezaee said Iran is “a short step” from announcing a Hormuz management deal with Oman that may need regional endorsement.
A Tasnim-sourced description calls the arrangement “a step towards Iran exercising sovereignty over the Strait”. In parallel, Foreign Minister Araghchi told his counterpart and friend Wang Yi in Beijing that Iran “has reached a plan with Oman to open the Strait.” Then Ghalibaf repeated on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz stays closed until Iran’s conditions are met.
Washington’s answer, on Sunday, was demented rhetoric – as usual. Neo-Crassus/Psycho Toddler told Fox News he is in “deciding mode”. And then he came up with an intergallactic howler: he’s deciding “if and when do I blow the entire nation up”.
No comments necessary.
He has essentially three options.
1. Renewed strikes.
2. Let Iran “rot” economically (that’s the plan for now).
3. A deal.
In an access of common sense, he also said he would “probably be open” to meeting President Pezeshkian at the UN General Assembly.
Iran’s Armed Forces, for their part, claimed they have intel that Washington has decided “with the green light from certain regional countries” to resume action and threatened “continuous, effective and painful strikes.”
When it comes to the Big Picture, Pakistan insisted there is no military response under discussion regarding Yemen. Türkiye “does not want to enter the fray”. Still, Pakistan’s military spokesman has pledged to go “to any extent”, and the Foreign Office confirmed “some deployments” under the Mecca Defense Alliance. Insiders in Islamabad swear this is only for show: Pakistan cannot afford to be dragged into a war against Ansarallah.
The heart of the matter is that the Epstein Syndicate simply cannot afford not (italics mine) to make a move. Consider the dire circumstances: they already connot control currency collapse, food supply chain elimination and widespread lack of oil/diesel. They need massive diversionist tactics.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s revolutionary surge accelerates the timetable to the showdown. While Iran concentrates on ensuring a definitive neo-Crassus/Goldfinger/Psycho toddler mid-term debacle, in tandem with honing its new offensive doctrine: as in being ready to preemptively strike at any sign of U.S. rumblings.
It’s nearly impossible to draw reason out of an illogical geopolitical universe where nothing matters and the Hegemon is totally out of control. Yet we persist.
We are all riders on the (coming) storm.
Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties. He’s been politically canceled from Facebook and Twitter. Follow him on Telegram.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.
The eyes of the world have been fixated on the war in Iran for the past six months, meanwhile, the single-most dangerous flashpoint on the planet has gone mostly ignored. Until, that is, waves of Ukrainian drone strikes activated a run on global diesel markets. Suddenly, everyone is paying attention again…
Russia is the second largest diesel exporter in the world next to the United States, supplying around 12% of total global exports (the US supplies 22% of exports). To put this in perspective, only 10% of global diesel exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz under normal conditions – And that supply is coming from seven different oil producing nations including Iran.
After western sanctions, Russian diesel shipments have gone primarily to Turkey, Brazil, India and China. However, because Russian supplies continued to circulate on global markets, these countries did not have to draw fuel from alternative sources.
Conditions have now changed, and not for the better. Constant Ukrainianian drone strikes on Russian refineries have forced the Kremlin to stop all diesel exports and retain their existing supply for the population and the war effort.
If you want to know why diesel prices have been hit hard since July, Russian export cuts are the reason. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has steadily climbed since July according to independent satellite tracking confirmation (anyone using AIS transponder data alone will have a low and inaccurate count). It’s the Russian refinery issue that has inflated diesel prices in recent months.
With Russian sources completely cut off, multiple nations will have to draw from other producers. Meaning, the pie is shrinking, but everyone still wants the same size slice they’ve always had. If the US also stops diesel exports in response, it would be a disaster for foreign markets and result in true supply shortages (Europe would be hard hit; half of their diesel imports come from the US).
In 2024 I questioned why the Ukrainians kept going after odd targets such as nuclear early warning radar stations rather than key resources like oil refineries in order to stop Russia’s attrition strategy. Well, it looks like the Ukrainians finally figured it out.
Russia’s attrition strategy has been highly effective in grinding down Ukraine’s troop strength (to the point that they were recruiting mostly men over 40), but the key flaw of a slow moving front line and a protracted offensive is that it requires a large stockpile of resources. Ukraine’s drone attacks have a low success rate, but if they send a thousand UAVs to attack a refinery and a couple get through, then that’s still a win in the long run because it drags down Russia’s lumbering attrition-based operation.
The Trump Administration has asked Ukraine to stop hitting Russian refineries due to the instability to global markets, but Zelensky has ignored the request. It’s not surprising; they’ve finally found a tactic that works.
Of course, now the rest of the world is being affected by diesel supply shortages when this was not the case a year ago. One would think the Europeans, who have been particularly throttled by price hikes on fuel and energy, would be in a rush to end the war. And maybe they are about to intervene, but not in the way we might hope…
I think it’s fair to say that the Ukraine war would have ended a long time ago had it not been for the interference of European governments propping up Ukraine and encouraging them to NOT make a deal. Ultimately, Russia is going to keep the Donbas region whether Ukraine likes it or not. But Zelensky refuses to accept this outcome, so, the war rages on much longer than it needs to.
The situation gets much more dangerous, though,with the push by European elites to put boots on the ground. They seem to want to start a world war. Beyond the diesel resource problem which puts a timetable on the war for both sides, European governments have increased troop movements to eastern borders and it’s starting to look like they’re getting ready for something big.
Poland has been building extensive trenches and fortifications using German combat engineers on the border of Belarus. Germany has established a 5000-man armored brigade in Lithuania, the first time the Germans have stationed permanent combat troops abroad since 1945. NATO has launched a 9th multinational battle group with regular exercises in Finland near the Russian border. Multiple nations are sending rotating brigades to Latvia, Romania and Estonia. Even the Canadians are sending troops.
Recent weeks have seen repeated Polish and Baltic fighter activations due to alleged drone or aircraft activity near alliance airspace. Allies are pre-positioning equipment and planning much larger stockpiles of ammunition and resources in frontline states. NATO has also published extensive contingency planning for the eastern flank.
There has been a surge in political and civil-preparedness messaging for civilians. Polish warnings about possible disguised drone/missile incidents. French measures to protect critical infrastructure after hybrid-attack briefings. German military-hospital capacity planning. Lithuanian plans for evacuation routes. UK public preparedness bulletins including recommendations for civilians to stock up on food and supplies..
Even Switzerland has been posting security and preparedness messages for citizens, indicating a “deteriorating security situation” in relation to the military build up.
All of this could be viewed as a defensive posture and not necessarily planning for direct engagement with the Russians; but consider for a moment that Russia has not once threatened to attack European or NATO targets and has consistently said that their only interest is Ukraine. Yet, Europe has removed their “trip wire” defense strategy and replaced it with a permanent front. It sure does seem like they are getting ready for an event which might provoke the Russians to strike targets outside of Ukraine.
What would that event be?
To be clear, I’m not a big fan of the Russian government. Evidence suggests that they engage in regular psy-ops in the US and there are far too many conservative influencers who kiss Putin’s ass. That said, I’m not a fan of Ukraine or the Europeans either, and I suspect the EU elites would LOVE to trigger a world war if they thought they could get away with it.
Why? Well, here’s my theory…
Europe has been the primary target of a decade long cultural replacement operation. Mass immigration has been utilized to undermine the stability of economic and social structures. For years I have been warning that these third world migrants are being imported as a mercenary army to control the locals and prevent rebellion against future leftist agendas.
We are already seeing confirmation of this in the UK, where migrants are being integrated into police forces to subdue conservative protesters.
The thing is, this invasion plan has sparked an enormous counter-movement of European patriots in countries like Britain and Germany. Anti-immigration and conservative parties like Restore in the UK and the AFD in Germany are seeing wild success in membership and elections. Meaning, time for leftists/globalists is running out and they need to do something quick before they lose direct governmental power.
A world war sure would come in handy, right? All kinds of restrictions on the populace can be put in place, along with a perfect excuse to delay or eliminate normal elections. Would the progressives actually go that far just to prevent conservatives from taking government? We all know that they would.
So, we have two running clocks that did not exist at the beginning of the Ukraine war: We have a diesel shortage clock, specifically for the Europeans. And, we have an avalanche of conservative movements with major elections happening from 2026 through 2029.
My concern is that the leftists are about to go for broke in an effort to keep power. I don’t think they’re crazy enough to want a nuclear war, and perhaps the Russians want to avoid this as well. If that’s the case, then the result would be a large multi-region conflict that MIGHT turn nuclear if either side feels like they are losing. The main goal of the EU elites at that stage would be to lure the US into the fray.
In any case the aftershocks would be disastrous. Let’s hope that conservative and populist movements in Europe can pull the rug out from under their far-left governments before the situation on the eastern front escalates any further.
Korea Picks A $22 Billion Texas Gas Plant As First Down Payment On Its $350 Billion Pledge To Trump
Ten months, one tariff threat and several “sleepless nights” later, South Korea has finally found somewhere to put the first piece of the $350 billion it promised to invest in America. The winner is a gas-fired power complex in Encinal, Texas (population 540, where real estate is about to ballistic), and it is built to feed the one thing Washington can never get enough of: electricity for data centers and chip fabs.
According to the FT, Seoul this week chose the proposed $22.3 billion, 6.3-gigawatt complex. The White House could announce it as soon as Wednesday, possibly with Trump announcing it himself, depending on how preparations for Xi Jinping’s arrival in Washington go. Trump and President Lee Jae Myung met for 30 minutes on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The deal still needs final US approval.
Yonhap reported that the plant will be built in stages: an initial 1.4GW of simple-cycle gas turbines, followed by roughly 4.9GW of more efficient combined-cycle generation. However, in the first whiff of even more vaporware, no customers have been confirmed. Korea’s KED Global adds that there is no power purchase agreement yet, with signing targeted for 2027. It also reports that the Trump administration asked for a roughly 25% increase in the project’s size, which would take it to about $25 billion.
How the money works
Under the November 2025 agreement, Seoul supplies $200 billion in upfront capital for projects in “strategic industries,” capped at $20 billion a year, plus a separate $150 billion for shipbuilding. Project cash flow is split 50/50 with Washington until Korea recovers its principal and interest. After that, Korea’s share drops to 10% and the US takes 90%. It is a generous arrangement, just not for the side putting up the money.
Korean officials told the National Assembly that Encinal could generate $43 billion to $45 billion of revenue over 20 years, which they say is enough to recover principal and interest. Those numbers deserve a closer look:
$43 billion to $45 billion works out to roughly $2.2 billion a year, or about twice the upfront capital. That is gross revenue. It comes before fuel, operations, maintenance and financing costs, and pretty much everything else… and gas is the main input cost of a gas plant.
Korea receives only half of the project’s cash flow until it is repaid. On a plain reading, recovering $22 billion plus interest from a 50% share would take distributable cash flow well above the capital invested. Seoul has not yet published a breakdown showing how revenue of about 2x capex achieves that.
The official line is that every project must be “commercially reasonable.” But as Haeyoon Kim of Korea Tech and Trade Watch told the FT, the US-led Investment Committee decides what counts as commercially reasonable, and Trump makes the final call. Seoul can object, but objecting risks higher tariffs.
Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the government had “been negotiating intensely with the U.S. in order to pursue commercially viable projects,” and that the goal was to expand Korean companies’ entry into the US market. Lee said last week the talks had given him “sleepless nights.”
Following Japan’s lead
Tokyo went first. As we reported in February, the opening $36 billion tranche of Japan’s $550 billion pledge was led by SB Energy’s 9.2GW gas plant in Ohio (which as we reported last night is suddenly having major issues, having delayed its IPO), which Commerce Secretary Lutnick called “the largest natural gas generation facility in history.” Japan has since added up to $40 billion of small modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama.
If Seoul was looking for a template, it found one. The cost per unit of capacity is almost identical. At $22.3 billion for 6.3GW, Encinal comes to about $3,540 per kilowatt. At about $33 billion for 9.2GW, the Ohio plant comes to about $3,590 per kilowatt. Both are well above what US combined-cycle plants cost before the AI boom, which is what happens when every hyperscaler on earth wants the same megawatts at the same time.
The real constraint: turbines
Money, it turns out, is the easy part. As we detailed earlier this month, large gas turbines are effectively sold out through 2030. Applied Digital’s CEO warned that orders placed today may not arrive until 2032. Some developers are so desperate they are going back to 19th-century technology, boilers and steam, just to get power online sooner. Encinal’s plan, 1.4GW of fast-to-deploy turbines first and then 4.9GW of combined-cycle capacity, means getting in line for the same heavy-duty equipment every hyperscaler is already chasing.
Goldman’s latest research on the power problem (available to pro subscribers) published just hours before the FT story, shows why Washington wants these megawatts. In a Carbonomics note on Wednesday, Michele Della Vigna’s team said that with power availability “emerging as a key constraint on AI infrastructure deployment” and grid connection times in the US and Europe expected to lengthen, they “raise our outlook for BTM [behind-the-meter] power generation from 40GW to 67GW by 2030.”
Goldman now expects on-site gas generation to meet about 28% of US data center power demand by 2030. Its preferred beneficiaries of conventional gas generation are GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy and INNIO. Not a Korean name among them, which leaves an awkward question for Seoul: how much of the equipment spending on a Korean-funded plant will actually end up with Korean suppliers.
The competition for that equipment is not only American. The same Goldman research flags that Alibaba Cloud is targeting 20GW of data-center power by 2032, which is more than three Encinals for one Chinese cloud provider alone.
Then there is the question of who ends up buying the electricity. The obvious candidates are the hyperscalers, and they are not short of cash to spend. Goldman credit strategist Amanda Lynam last week raised her forecast for hyperscaler investment-grade bond issuance to $420 billion in 2027, “more than a 60% increase vs our full-year 2026 estimate of $250 billion,” with 65% to 75% expected to be placed in the dollar IG market.
In other words, the would-be customers for Encinal’s power are borrowing record sums to build data centers that need exactly this kind of plant. The bull case for Seoul is that one of them signs a PPA by 2027. The bear case is that Korea has fronted $22 billion on the assumption that someone will, while the AI capex cycle that Goldman’s own economists say has companies “over-earning” is nearing its peak.
The bigger picture
The project comes as the US-Korea relationship is under strain on several fronts:
Iran: Trump has pressed Seoul for help in the war against Iran, and Lee has ruled out sending forces in a combat role.
Submarines: Seoul wants US help building nuclear-powered submarines. Washington agreed last year to cooperate on technical requirements and fuel, but there has been almost no progress since.
Linkage: One Korean official told the FT that US counterparts had signaled further progress on the submarines would come only after Seoul announced some of its promised investments. Pay first, then we talk.
Nuclear projects and a scaled-down Alaska LNG project are expected to follow Encinal. Korea is also negotiating a stake of about 7% in Westinghouse, down from the 15% it originally sought, according to KED. For now, the first check is going to a Texas gas plant with no customers, no power purchase agreement, turbines that may not show up this decade, and revenue projections that still have to be squared with a 50/50 cash-flow split. That leaves $328 billion to go.
Hurricane Polo Disrupts Mexican Ports, Puts Key Asia Trade Gateways At Risk
Hurricane Polo weakened to a Category 4 storm early Wednesday after strengthening into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm and churning 210 miles south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean. The storm risks disrupting critical maritime shipping lanes along Mexico’s Pacific coast.
FreightWaves reports that Mexico’s Navy restricted major container port Manzanillo to ships of at least 500 gross tonnage beginning Tuesday morning, allowing container ships to continue operating while barring smaller craft. Ships already docked at the container port were advised to reinforce mooring lines as winds, rainfall and waves intensified.
Polo’s slow track up the western Mexican coast is complicating complex global maritime supply chains as navigation restrictions continue to broaden.
According to local outlet La Jornada, smaller vessels have so far been restricted at Acapulco, Puerto Marqués, Zihuatanejo and Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán.
Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas are two major cargo ports on Mexico’s Pacific coast and are considered major maritime gateways into North American markets. Both connect ocean shipping with inland road and rail networks. Disruptions can delay imported manufacturing components and consumer goods.
Bloomberg forecast data shows Polo tracking north toward Cabo San Lucas early next week, potentially adding further supply chain complications at ports such as nearby Puerto San Carlos, where disruptions could affect regional fuel deliveries, seafood operations and agricultural shipments.
Supply chain risk hinges on how long restrictions last and whether they expand to larger vessels. With Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas connecting Asian cargo flows to Mexico’s industrial base, a prolonged shutdown could delay components, slow factory output, and raise logistics costs for the region.
China has added more chemicals to its export control list for drug precursor substances ahead of a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington.
Fentanyl precursors are displayed at Reuters’ office in Mexico City on Oct. 4, 2023. Claudia Daut/Reuters
The Chinese commerce ministry announced on Sept. 22 that it added two new substances to the list of chemicals subject to export controls, requiring exporters to obtain licenses to ship to the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The move comes ahead of Xi’s state visit to the United States. Xi is due to meet with Trump at the White House on Sept. 24, marking their second meeting this year.
The two leaders last met during Trump’s visit to Beijing in May, when they agreed to build a “constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of fairness and reciprocity,” according to the White House.
Following the meeting in Beijing, China expanded its drug precursor export control list by adding three more chemical substances. Its National Narcotics Control Commission also issued a notice warning of eight chemicals that could be used to make synthetic drugs.
The Trump administration has repeatedly urged Beijing to do more to stem the flow of precursor chemicals for synthesizing the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States.
China is a major source of precursor chemicals used to produce illicit fentanyl. After returning to the White House for a second term last year, Trump imposed fentanyl-related tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada over their alleged failure to stem the flow of illicit drugs into the United States. The tariffs were subsequently struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February.
Fentanyl deaths in the United States rose steeply around 2016. Then deaths skyrocketed from 2021 to 2023 along with a record surge of border crossings, and at its peak, the fentanyl crisis was linked to 76,226 deaths in 2022, more than quadruple the figure from 2016. The United States started seeing a reversal in 2024, coinciding with changed border policies, and fentanyl-linked deaths in 2024 were estimated to be 48,422.
The United States has also been engaging Chinese officials to counter the fentanyl crisis since the mid-2010s, resulting in the restriction of several chemicals over the years.
Notably, Beijing broke off all major engagement with the United States in 2022, citing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan, including ceasing cooperation on curbing fentanyl-related exports. It resumed engagement in November 2023 after the United States removed sanctions on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
In November 2025, Beijing imposed export restrictions on 13 fentanyl precursor chemicals to the United States, Mexico, and Canada after Trump met with Xi on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea.
It remains unclear whether the upcoming meeting in Washington will address the flow of precursor chemicals into the United States, as neither Beijing nor Washington has specified which issues will be on the leaders’ agenda.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila, Philippines, on July 22 that he expects Xi to have a positive visit.
Rubio acknowledged the major differences between Washington and Beijing and emphasized that it is their job to manage them to ensure “they never get out of control.”
“We’re, obviously, always going to defend our national interest,” he said at the time. “And I expect they’ll do the same, as they define it. But I think there are some areas of potential cooperation.”
Michael Zhuang, Catherine Yang, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Marxist-Maxxing: Hasan Piker Calls For “Literal Communist Revolution” Inside Dem Party
The Democratic Socialists of America’s unofficial cheerleader, far-left streamer Hasan Piker, has stated an inconvenient truth for the Democratic Party: its far-left fringe will eat the party alive, quite literally.
Listen to Piker in his own words: “I will throw you in prison. I want Chinese-style communism to happen inside of the Democratic Party right now. I want to do cultural revolution shit.”
Anti-communist Spencer Pratt, who really should be the anti-communist czar for the Trump administration if Trump’s team sets up a messaging task force, wrote on X, “Hamas Piker just flat out admits he wants to imprison and kill Democrats in a literal communist revolution. These are animals.”
“I will throw you in prison. I want Chinese style communism to happen inside of the democratic party right now. I want to do cultural revolution shit.”
Hamas Piker just flat out admits he wants to imprison and kill democrats in a literal communist revolution. These are animals. pic.twitter.com/izogonoalg
Fox News reports that a majority of registered voters view the DSA unfavorably, as Republicans have unleashed an information operation to outline to voters that this far-left group – really reformist socialists – in fact, are hellbent on demolishing the nation from within.
The beauty of the GOP’s messaging is that DSA leaders state their destructive intentions in their own words.
The national survey found 55% held an unfavorable opinion of the DSA, compared with 30% who viewed it favorably. Another 13% had never heard of the DSA, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The findings were little changed from July, when favorable and unfavorable views stood at 31% and 56%, respectively.
One major problem for Democrats is that they can’t disband the DSA and start a civil war within the party before the midterms, as was shown by Democratic Party leaders using talking points that describe their party as a “big tent party.”
On Tuesday, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Trump said that Cuba spent decades coordinating activities with far-left revolutionaries and subversion networks in the U.S. Trump said the State Department has worked to uncover Havana’s ties to subversive and radical groups such as the Communist Party USA, Antifa, and the DSA.
.@POTUS: The Cuban regime has also spent decades coordinating with left-wing radicals and Communist networks here in the United States. As our State Department has detailed, they have cultivated ties to subversive and radical groups such as the Communist Party USA, Antifa, and… pic.twitter.com/Bopz3W6sXz
Hasan’s comments offer what can only be seen as a preview of what awaits Democratic Party leaders when they try to disband their radicals. It won’t be pretty.
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a 2006 sex crime.
The Sept. 23 sentencing was for the sexual assault of then-TV production assistant Miriam Haley, and comes after Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned.
A jury found Weinstein guilty at last year’s retrial.
In 2024, Weinstein’s conviction for this same crime, which was handed down in 2020, was erased due to a judge’s determination that the jury had heard testimony that should not have been admitted.
The judge ruled that the now-convicted assailant was denied a fair trial due to the admission of testimony from women whose allegations weren’t a part of the Haley case.
The 74-year-old faced up to 25 years in prison for the assault of Haley, and he has already served six years.
Haley testified about the 2006 assault, which took place at Weinstein’s Manhattan apartment, three times: at two trials and again in court just before the sentencing.
The former Hollywood insider has been embroiled in legal troubles for almost 10 years, starting in 2017, and has been a centerpiece in the cultural #MeToo movement that prompted victims to speak out about sexual assault.
Once a powerful figure in the entertainment industry and a major political donor, Weinstein took part in the production of award-winning movies such as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “Chocolat.”
Weinstein has been accused by more than 100 women of sexual assault, misconduct, and harassment. He has denied the charges.
Among his accusers are Hollywood actresses and others in the film industry.
The producer and one-time influential political donor was found guilty of sexual assault while simultaneously being acquitted of a rape charge from 2013.
Weinstein, who cofounded the Miramax studio, was initially convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Two years later, he was also convicted of raping and sexually assaulting an Italian actress in 2013, for which he was sentenced to 16 years.
The second sentencing, which took place in California, required that he serve that term separately from the New York sentence.
While in jail, Weinstein was treated for a type of slow-growing blood cancer – chronic myeloid leukemia – as well as heart issues, diabetes, and other issues.
