P’Nut The Squirrel’s Owners Sue New York For $10M After Raid, Decapitation
The owners P’Nut – a beloved squirrel that was seized and euthanized by the state of New York are suing for $10 million in damages over the death of their pets, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York Court of Claims.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation staged a five-hour raid on the home of Mark Luongo after an anonymous complaint was lodged against the P’nuts Freedom Farm, where internet sensation Peanut the squirrel was taken into custody along with his sidekick, Fred the raccoon – before the state euthanized both animals ‘in order to test for rabies.’
DEC officials claimed that P’Nut but an agent through thick leather gloves during the raid, necessitating both the squirrel and raccoon be decapitated and tested for rabies. The state later admitted that both tests were negative, and have never apologized nor returned the bodies of the pets.
According to court documents, P’Nut and Fred’s execution were “not due to a fear of rabies,” but a “senseless act of violence” and “obscene demonstration of government abuse.”
This lawsuit comes on top of a previous suit filed by Longo and Bittner on June 27 in Chemung County Supreme Court against the City of Elmira and 36 individuals from various levels of state and local office – and seeks unspecified damages via jury trial.
The couple claims they’ve suffered emotional trauma and financial losses since losing their star squirrel – who had appeared all over social media (including OnlyFans !?), according to both lawsuits.
NEW: The owner of Peanut the squirrel explains how New York officials raided his house, took Peanut and his raccoon, and k*lled them.
7-year-old Peanut and Fred the raccoon were euthanized after anonymous complaints.
“RIP MY BEST FRIEND. Thank you for the best 7 years of my life. Thank you for bringing so much joy to us and the world. I’m sorry I failed you but thank you for everything,” Longo wrote in a post announcing Peanut’s death.
A Connecticut native, Longo moved to Elmira, NY in 2023 to start the Freedom Farm, a 501.C.3 approved nonprofit.
“Last year we moved to NY in hopes of starting a NONPROFIT animal rescue in PNUT’s Name. [P’Nuts Freedom Farm] will forever live in PNUT’s memory,” Longo wrote in a post announcing the seizure late last year.
“With over 350 rescues, we’ve relied heavily on PNUT and his internet family to father donations to help more animals. I don’t even know how will [sic] continue to fundraise for this nonprofit.”
The organization is made up of veterinarians and caregivers who rescue animals from abusive or dire situations.
There will be no changes to individual information returns or withholding tables for the 2025 tax year while the IRS implements the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) in a phased manner, the agency said in an Aug. 7 statement.
Information returns are documents that businesses must file with the IRS, reporting transactions such as wages paid to employees. The IRS’s withholding tables describe how much an employer must withhold from an employee’s paycheck for taxes, Social Security, and Medicare.
The OBBB was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4 and included certain provisions related to taxes.
The IRS clarified that information return forms such as forms W-2, 1099, and 941 “will remain unchanged” for tax year 2025. The federal income tax withholding tables will not be updated with OBBB provisions, the agency said.
“These decisions are intended to avoid disruptions during the tax filing season and to give the IRS, business, and tax professionals enough time to implement the changes effectively,” the agency said.
The IRS asked employers and payroll providers to continue using existing procedures when it comes to reporting and withholding taxes.
As for tax year 2026, the IRS said it was working to update forms and develop new guidance.
The new changes will include how overtime pay and tips are reported. The IRS said it plans to coordinate with payroll providers, tax professionals, and employers to ensure a smooth transition to the new rules.
Although there is no change in information returns or withholding tables, the OBBB has multiple provisions providing tax relief for Americans effective this year.
For one, the OBBB eliminates taxes on tips, according to a July 14 statement from the IRS.
Employees and self-employed individuals can deduct tips from their tax returns, provided their occupations are listed by the IRS as customarily receiving tips. The IRS must publish a list of these occupations by Oct. 2.
The maximum annual deduction allowed in this case is $25,000, which phases out for taxpayers whose modified adjusted gross income is more than $150,000.
Secondly, the OBBB eliminates taxes on overtime.
“Individuals who receive qualified overtime compensation may deduct the pay that exceeds their regular rate of pay,” the IRS said.
The maximum overtime deduction for a taxpayer is $12,500 per annum, which is phased out as income rises.
To claim the deduction, taxpayers are required to include their Social Security numbers on their tax returns. Married individuals must file jointly to claim the deduction. For joint filers, it goes up to $25,000.
Third, the car loan interest tax has been canceled by the OBBB.
“Individuals may deduct interest paid on a loan used to purchase a qualified vehicle, provided the vehicle is purchased for personal use and meets other eligibility criteria,” the IRS said, adding that lease payments do not qualify for this benefit.
To be considered a qualified deduction, the interest must be on a loan that originated after Dec. 31, 2024. The vehicle must have undergone final assembly in the United States.
Fourth, Americans aged 65 and older can claim a tax deduction of $6,000, which is in addition to the existing standard deduction for this demographic. The deduction phases out for seniors with a modified adjusted gross income of more than $75,000.
These four tax relief provisions are effective from 2025 through 2028.
Rising Tax Collections, New Commissioner
For fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, the IRS collected more than $5.1 trillion in revenues, a roughly 9 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.
This was the first time that the agency’s collections crossed the $5 trillion mark.
“The IRS processed more than 266 million returns and other forms from individuals, businesses, and tax-exempt organizations; received almost 4.6 billion information returns; and issued close to $553 billion in refunds to individual and business taxpayers during FY 2024,” the agency said.
The IRS is slated to get a new chief after Trump replaced commissioner Billy Long, a White House official told The Epoch Times. Long was confirmed to the post less than two months ago.
Long said he will now act as U.S. ambassador to Iceland.
“It is [an] honor to serve my friend President Trump and I am excited to take on my new role as the ambassador to Iceland,” Long said in an Aug. 8 post on social media platform X.
“I am thrilled to answer his call to service and deeply committed to advancing his bold agenda. Exciting times ahead!”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner of the IRS.
Security Expert Reveals Hacker Could Remote Control Cars Through Major Automaker’s ‘Dealership Portal’
In a shocking cyber security incident that should terrify every American, a top security researcher has revealed how he gained “unfettered access” to a major carmaker’s dealership portal – potentially allowing hackers to remotely hijack any customer vehicle from anywhere in the world.
Eaton Zveare, a security researcher at software delivery company Harness, made the alarming disclosure to TechCrunch, explaining how the devastating flaw could have enabled cybercriminals to access victims’ personal and financial data, track their vehicles in real-time, and even seize complete control of vehicles from any location globally.
While Zveare refused to name the vulnerable automaker, he confirmed it’s a popular car company operating multiple brands under its corporate umbrella, meaning millions of Americans could have been at risk.
He said while the security flaws in the portal’s login system was a challenge to find, once he found it, the bugs let him bypass the login mechanism altogether by permitting him to create a new “national admin” account.
The flaws were problematic because the buggy code loaded in the user’s browser when opening the portal’s login page, allowing the user — in this case, Zveare — to modify the code to bypass the login security checks.
“No one even knows that you’re just silently looking at all of these dealers’ data, all their financials, all their private stuff, all their leads,” Zveare told the news outlet in his explosive interview.
The researcher demonstrated the hack’s terrifying potential, explaining: “For my purposes, I just got a friend who consented to me taking over their car, and I ran with that. But [the portal] could basically do that to anyone just by knowing their name — which kind-of freaks me out a bit — or I could just look up a car in the parking lots.”
“They’re just security nightmares waiting to happen,” he added, highlighting the industry-wide vulnerabilities that could leave American families exposed to cyber attacks.
Fortunately, the carmaker acted swiftly after being notified, with Zveare confirming that the critical vulnerabilities were patched within one week in February 2025.
“The takeaway is that only two simple API vulnerabilities blasted the doors open, and it’s always related to authentication,” said Zveare. “If you’re going to get those wrong, then everything just falls down.”
The revelation underscores the growing threat of cyber warfare targeting America’s critical infrastructure, raising serious questions about whether our automotive industry is doing enough to protect Americans from hackers.
Chinese tech giant Ant Group has denied online rumors that it is working with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) to launch a rare earth-backed RMB stablecoin.
The company said over the weekend that several articles had misled investors by suggesting the project was in development.
“Ant Group has never had such plans with relevant institutions. The public is advised to pay attention and beware of being deceived,” it wrote on Weibo Sunday night.
The denial comes amid a wave of interest from Chinese companies in stablecoin technology as other countries shore up their regulations.
The interest, for now, is strictly international and not targeting domestic audiences.
Chinese regulators sent out guidance to brokerages last month to cool off on publishing research and making public comments related to stablecoins amid concerns it was renewing domestic interest in cryptocurrencies.
Crypto trading is banned in China due to fears about financial regulation and economic stability.
Edwin Cheung, CEO of Gate Dubai and a former executive at Gate HK, told Decrypt he has seen strong enthusiasm from mainland Chinese companies with international arms for Hong Kong’s stablecoin regime.
“A lot of e-commerce firms, they’re super energetic about the Hong Kong regime,” he said.
“They want to leverage on this regime, either to do their own stablecoin or use stablecoin technology or blockchain technology in their own payment network within their business.”
Ant Group and blockchain
Ant Group itself has active blockchain projects, including plans to integrate Circle’s USDC stablecoin into its blockchain platform once the token achieves full compliance in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act.
It was also considering launching stablecoins backed by the Hong Kong dollar.
Other major Chinese firms are moving in the same direction.
JD.com said in June it plans to seek stablecoin licenses in multiple countries to reduce the cost and time of cross-border payments.
The e-commerce giant aims to start with business-to-business transactions before expanding to consumer use.
At Whale Hunting, we investigate the hidden engines of global finance. Our latest story goes far beyond the headlines to reveal how one of the world’s most powerful and secretive trading firms is at the center of a mounting scandal in India.
Yes, we’re talking about Jane Street – the same firm that trained disgraced crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried and, by some estimates, accounts for over 10% of all North American equity market activity. Now, as Indian regulators probe allegations of market manipulation and privileged access to trading data, the firm’s extraordinary profits are under the microscope.
This is a battle for the soul of a nation’s fast-growing financial system, pitting the technological might of foreign firms against the millions of local investors who are consistently losing out. Can India protect its markets from a new kind of “predatory” capital, or is this a global game of whack-a-mole that regulators are destined to lose?
Indian regulators are widening a probe into secretive U.S. trading firm Jane Street, launching an investigation into allegations the firm and other foreign high-frequency traders (HFTs) gained an unfair advantage through privileged access to proprietary trading data, according to two sources with knowledge of the action.
This latest front adds to a mounting pile of allegations, including a sophisticated market manipulation scheme and a tax probe. The focus of the investigations is a handful of foreign firms that have made billions of dollars in profit from a distance, with a minimal local presence. The victims, regulators argue, are the millions of regular Indian retail investors who are overwhelmingly losing money in the very market the foreign firms are allegedly gaming.
At its core, this is a story of a new kind of economic hegemony, where a handful of global firms, operating from hubs in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, are allegedly extracting immense wealth from India’s markets. The sheer scale of the operation is staggering: while a recent Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) study found that 9 out of 10 individual traders lost money in the options market last year, the regulator’s own filings revealed Jane Street alone amassed $4.3 billion in profits from January 2023 to March 2025.
This raises a critical question: can India protect its fast-growing financial markets and the small-time investors who fuel them from what SEBI has referred to as “predatory” capital? The firm’s profit from India, with a single day allegedly yielding over $81 million, is a vivid illustration of the lopsided nature of the market. This is a far cry from helping India’s financial development, as the bulk of these profits are moved offshore through a web of entities designed to take advantage of tax treaties.
Why India Became an HFT Magnet
Foreign HFT firms were particularly drawn to India’s burgeoning financial landscape for several key reasons. India’s economy has been a story of remarkable growth, with real GDP expanding at a brisk pace and capital markets deepening significantly. This robust performance, despite some recent stock market weakness, has made India a prime destination for global capital.
Furthermore, profits for HFT firms (featured in Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys) have been under pressure in more mature markets like the U.S. and Europe, where regulatory scrutiny is tight and competition is fierce. India, with the world’s biggest derivatives market by contracts traded, presented a lucrative new frontier. The National Stock Exchange of India, or NSE, in its aggressive push to become a global powerhouse, first allowed algorithmic trading in 2010. This paved the way for foreign HFT firms to enter the market and leverage their technological superiority to capitalize on the country’s rising fortunes. Jane Street officially entered the Indian market in 2020, with other firms following suit, choosing to operate from overseas hubs with only a skeleton staff on the ground, allowing them to extract massive profits without building a substantial local presence.
This drive to attract big players was particularly intense as the NSE prepared for a long-awaited and highly anticipated public stock listing, where higher trading volumes would translate directly into a higher valuation. This pursuit of global dominance, however, may have inadvertently – or intentionally – created a system with built-in advantages for a select few. The alleged data access being probed is reminiscent of the “co-location scam,” a separate historical scandal from the 2010s where local brokers were given preferential access to the exchange’s servers, highlighting a broader, persistent concern about market fairness and a systemic vulnerability at the exchange itself.
The Allegations and the Defense
The Jane Street saga offers a powerful case study of this dynamic. The firm, known for its brilliant math whizzes who are trained to be market gamblers, gained notoriety as the training ground for Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the disgraced crypto kingpins whose careers began at the firm. (Jane Street features prominently in Brazen’s Crypto Kingpins podcast, available here.)
Jane Street is accused by SEBI of using a “banging the close” strategy to manipulate the Bank Nifty index. This scheme, which allegedly made billions of dollars in profit, involves placing a large number of orders at the end of the trading day to artificially move prices and make the firm’s other bets in options markets more profitable. In July, the regulator temporarily banned Jane Street from trading in Indian equities and put a freeze on $567 million of its funds.
In response, Jane Street has pushed back hard, calling the allegations “erroneous.” Legal experts note that proving market manipulation is a high bar for regulators, who must not only show that a firm benefited from market movements but also prove intent to manipulate. The firm’s likely rebuttal is that its trades are simply exploiting market inefficiencies – a standard, and legal, practice in markets globally – and that profiting from market misalignment is not the same as illegal manipulation.
In a parallel tax probe, the firm is also being investigated for allegedly using a web of offshore units to move profits out of India, with tax authorities reporting a lack of cooperation. This investigation addresses the concern that while HFT firms extract immense wealth from India’s markets, they are not contributing their fair share of taxes locally. The tax probe and the public disclosure of high profits were key factors that led to wider scrutiny of the firm’s operations.
The ruthless competition among foreign firms became public in a New York court case where Jane Street sued rival Millennium Management over allegations that a profitable, India-focused trading algorithm was stolen by former employees, further highlighting the immense value these firms place on their Indian strategies. This court case, where Jane Street proudly disclosed that its India options market strategy had made $1 billion in profits in 2023 – around 9% of its estimated global profits of $10.6 billion for that year – is what first put the firm on SEBI’s radar.
The new probe into data access adds another layer of complexity. According to two people with knowledge of SEBI’s actions, regulators are examining whether Jane Street, along with rival firms Citadel, Millennium, Susquehanna and others had an unfair advantage from enriched data sets sold by an NSE subsidiary. The regulator is looking into the use of this data, which included confidential details on client-type identification, hidden order quantities, and even the specific price levels of stop-loss orders. This level of detail could allow a firm to not only predict market movements with extreme accuracy but also to execute manipulative strategies, such as triggering a cascade of stop-loss orders to drive down prices.
If the NSE made the data available for sale, it’s not immediately clear that there was any wrongdoing on the part of the firms who legally purchased and used it. Such granular data sets are not available in the U.S. due to a stringent regulatory framework that protects trader anonymity and market fairness. U.S. exchanges and the SEC have strict rules preventing the dissemination of confidential information like client identities, hidden order quantities, or stop-loss levels. Providing this data would be considered a severe violation, enabling market manipulation and leading to swift enforcement action.
The Stakes: A Game of Whack-a-Mole?
The outcome of this probe will not only determine Jane Street’s future in India but will set a precedent for how global high-frequency trading firms are regulated in emerging markets for years to come. SEBI’s actions signal a clear intent to level the playing field, with the regulator’s chairman stating they “have PhDs from our side” and are not intimidated by the firms’ technological prowess.
Yet, the broader question looms: will sophisticated traders simply find the next poorly regulated market to exploit? This dynamic is not new; it was a central theme in Michael Lewis’s Flash Boys, which chronicled the early days of HFT in the U.S. While many of the most egregious strategies, like those tied to latency arbitrage, have been largely mitigated in mature markets, the core of HFT – leveraging speed and informational advantages to exploit market structure – remains a powerful and profitable engine.
As regulators in one country close loopholes, these firms have a proven history of moving their operations to the next frontier, raising the possibility that this is a global game of whack-a-mole with local regulators constantly playing catch-up.
Goldman Finds “Inflection Point” With Humanoid Robots; We Tested Unitree’s Robodog
Goldman analyst Jacqueline Du attended the 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC) in Beijing, China, this past weekend and spoke with executives from some of the top humanoid robot companies to gauge the state of the industry, with the overall consensus that the “ChatGPT moment” for these robots is not far away.
Chinese humanoids game is insane! 🥡
At the 2025 World Robot Conference in Beijing, @UBTECHRobotics unveiled the Walker S2, the world’s first humanoid robot with autonomous battery swapping, completing the process in just three minutes.
Du spoke with CEOs, CFOs, COOs, research heads, product VPs, and capital market managers from nine major humanoid robot companies, including Astribot, Booster Robotics, Galbot, Kepler, LimX, Paxini, RobotEra, Spirit.ai, and UBTech.
The World Robot Conference 2025 opened in Beijing on Friday, as a robotic host invited attendees to jointly inaugurate the event. The expo of the World Robot Conference features over 1,500 exhibits from more than 200 leading domestic and international robotics companies,… pic.twitter.com/4ABzwuZ9YX
What she found is that consumer interest in humanoid robots is beginning to rise. Her view is that the tech inflection point for these bots entering the real world is still 2 to 3 years away – certainly less than ten. At least 20 new humanoid robots were launched at the event.
Here are Du’s top takeaways from WRC:
1. Very strong family/consumer visitor traffic that we observed at the event as compared to 2025 WAIC in Shanghai. While the latter was more focused on broad AI academic and industry development topics with humanoid robot as a subset, and thus had more professional visitors, WRC is completely dedicated to robot technologies and product demos. This in our view suggests that near-term educational, companion and entertainment demand potential could be strong (aside from scientific study, AI model training, government, developers and stage performance demand etc). In the long term, we see this as an early indicator that as long as robot products are useful, affordable and safe enough, consumer demand potential could be very significant aside from manufacturing demand. Recently Unitree launched its new product R1 that is priced at Rmb39,900 (121cm/25kg/26 DOF) and Engine.ai announced plans to launch SA02 (125cm/25kg/26+2 DOF) soon at Rmb38,500, both of which could be targeting these demands with product specs that are also much more simplified.
2. Regarding the technology inflection point, the most positive comments we heard suggest that at least 1-2 years are still required to scale up data and enhance models for reinforcement learning (RL), or to transition to end-to-end operations after 1-2 years of rule-based operation. This is primarily because industrial settings are difficult to simulate, potentially requiring up to 70-80% of high-quality real-world data for effective training, per some comments. We also heard about practices such as multi-modal remote operation by humans as a bridge solution, provided low latency can be ensured (with two companies citing Tesla’s new diner in Los Angeles where Optimus robots were observed serving popcorn). During his speech at the opening ceremony, Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing defined the robot’s “ChatGPT moment” as actually being able to complete tasks with generalized skillsets in a completely new environment, which he said is at least 2-3 years away, but not more than 10 years away.
That said, Google’s new AI video generation model, Veo3, introduced in May 2025, which notably creates and incorporates audio (including dialogue, sound effects, and background music) and excels from text and image prompting to real-world physics and accurate lip-syncing, presents an interesting discussion point among robot companies. Its capabilities have raised the question of whether its underlying AI architecture could be even more optimal than Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models combined with Reinforcement Learning (RL), which some have regarded as a primary AI solution for robotics and embodied AI since early this year. Therefore, we highlight that investors should be aware of potential product redesign risk given the ongoing, rapid co-evolution between software and hardware structures, as these two elements remain intrinsically linked in AI development. However, we are encouraged to see the industry’s swift progress, with new advancements emerging every couple of months.
A side note is that Nvidia has been very proactive at WRC, delivering keynote speech/seminars and showcasing its strategic initiatives in Physical AI and General-purpose Robotics, with its full-stack suite that encompasses cloud-scale model training, physics-based simulation (e.g., Isaac Sim/Lab) for synthetic data generation, and real-time edge AI deployment (e.g., Jetson AGX Thor). They have also recently newly introduced Cosmos Reason, an advanced Vision Language Model (VLM) designed to imbue robots with common sense and the ability to understand real-world scenarios. It is worth noting that almost every robot product is still using Jetson AGX Thor or the broader Jetson platform, per our checks.
3. There have been 20+ new products launched around this event (in July/Aug) out of total ~50 humanoid robot exhibitors (alongside another ~120 industrial robots and component companies). We saw variations across wheel-based and bipedal robots (with full rotary actuators or combination of rotary+linear). Overall product performance (WBC or whole body control) has improved quite significantly vs our visits in Feb/May in terms of speed and smoothness. All live demos functioned well from those companies that we saw and we came away positively surprised on this front.
4. In terms of applications, there were four major directions that we perceived: a) for education, show-room guide and stage performance purposes; b) standard platform for developers and scientific study/AI training purposes; c) manufacturing & logistics; and d) consumer/elderly care/companion. a) and b) are currently contributing the bulk of the volumes while for c), we were informed by companies we met that success rates for selective tasks such as pick and place, sorting, assembly and inspection has now reached 80-99.5% with further improvement mainly to address long tail and abnormal situations; while regarding whether robot operation speed (reasoning & execution) can match that of customers’ product line, it seems that non-production line tasks are where those robot players are currently targeting in a pragmatic way to ramp up initial volumes, and also to adapt to future flexible manufacturing system (FMS) needs. We also learned that manufacturers value whole system efficiency (e.g. multi-robot collaboration) more than single robot efficiency against single human labor on the same task. An 18-month payback is considered reasonable by customers to place orders, per one company’s comment.
5. On cost reduction, we perceived that among those robot players, domestic component ratio appears quite high (possibly ~80% already). They have also worked on the design optimization aspect this year to further lower cost with some hardware specs being lowered, we noticed. Going forward, volume leverage remains the key to bring the cost curve down.
6. In terms of recent government subsidies news, media reports suggest consumer purchase subsidies at Rmb1,500 per unit (on a single purchase exceeding Rmb10,000) and corporate purchase subsidies at Rmb250k per unit (on a single purchase exceeding Rmb5mn). These discounts are for in-store purchases at the “E-Town Robot Consumption Festival” in Beijing, which will run from Aug 2 to Aug 17. Online discounts are also available on JD.com: consumers and enterprises alike can get Rmb 600 off orders greater than Rmb 6,000, and Rmb 50 off orders greater than Rmb 500. (news link, link).
In markets, the Solactive China Humanoid Robotics Index – a thematic equity index tracking Chinese companies involved in the commercialization of humanoid and robotics technologies – is up 27.5% on the year.
The index jumped last week on news of Chinese robotics firm Unitree’s new robotic dog called “A2 Stellar Hunter.”
Unitree Introducing | Unitree A2 Stellar Hunter 🤩
Total weight: ~37kg | Unloaded range: ~20km
Lighter, Stronger and Faster. Engineered for Industrial Applications. pic.twitter.com/Rqpa7EkU0B
“The largest demand for one of our victims was $70 million,” said Lance, a ransomware negotiator with Virginia-based Guidepoint Security.
Failure to pay is under the threat that the company’s information will be made public.
“The earlier we get engaged, the better,” Lance told The Epoch Times.
“In most circumstances … a client has already recognized that they’ve been a victim—they’ve been informed via ransom notes,” he said.
“We help people recognize that even if there’s no intent on paying a ransom, there’s a tremendous amount of value in engaging the cyber criminals, because … you can still do things like delay the inevitable release of their information, which will allow for more time for the forensics and incident response work stream to make sure that they are patched.”
Cyber attacks, usually involving ransomware, are being perpetrated against corporations and state-owned agencies in the United States every day.
In the first half of 2025, a Comparitech report shows 208 ransomware attacks on government agencies globally, a 65 percent increase from the same period of 2024.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software—or malware—that prevents a user from accessing his or her computer files, systems, or networks and demands that he or she pay a ransom for their return,according to the FBI.
The average cost to the victim of a ransomware attack has risen from $761,106 in 2019 to an estimated $5.13 million in 2025, according toPurpleSec, a U.S.-based cybersecurity company.
That includes the ransom payment itself, the recovery costs, and various indirect costs such as reputational damage.
Lance, who has worked in cybersecurity for 25 years, said when he is called in at the early stage of an attack, the victim is usually still performing a business impact analysis.
“They’re not necessarily sure what has fully transpired or has occurred within their environment, to know what they potentially need to do as next steps,” he said.
By “environment,” Lance means all the hardware, software, and networks that support an organization’s operating systems.
He said a ransomware negotiator can manage expectations and give the victim an idea of their options.
He said he can buy valuable time, and also allow the victim to work with legal counsel to determine what sort of disclosure they are going to have to make to the public, to stockholders, to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other regulators.
Lance said the threat actors also have to provide some sort of evidence that they have accessed the victim’s data, and will have to provide a file tree, which is a map of directories leading to the files they have accessed.
“We can gather and glean information from those communications that can be shared, that they might not have otherwise. But yeah, the earlier [we are brought in], the better,” he said.
Lance said at an early stage he tries to figure out what the client wants from the communication with the ransomware gang, “and then we develop a strategy around that.”
He said the initial strategy might be simply to delay while they find out more about the attack and how serious it is in terms of consequences.
He said the victim might later decide they are willing to make a ransom payment, and he said, “Then our strategy changes into how we’re negotiating terms, like, do they need it quickly? Or do we have time? So our strategy will change based on the needs of the client and what they’re trying to get out of it.”
Cyber Ransom Notes
Most often, the ransom note is left as a message on an individual system, Lance said. The note will usually advise the victim not to try to touch any of the IT systems and to download a Tor browser, go to a website on the darknet, and initiate communications with the ransomware attackers.
Man’s Private Plane Repeatedly Stolen For Joyrides, Then Repaired, By Unknown Stranger
Here’s one you don’t see every day. A baffling aviation mystery has left 75-year-old Jason Hong both confused and frustrated: an unknown stranger has repeatedly stolen his plane, flown it without incident, landed it flawlessly — and even repaired it, according to Local 12.
Hong told the Los Angeles Times the saga began when he first noticed the plane was gone. “I got confused,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘did I park it somewhere else, did the airport manager move it?’ But I looked all over.” Two days later, the aircraft turned up about 25 miles away, unscathed except for some cigarette butts in the cabin.
The Local 12 report says that, determined to prevent a repeat theft, Hong removed the battery and planned to check back the following weekend.
But when he returned, the plane was missing again — this time found 18 miles from the thief’s first landing spot. Even stranger, the battery had been replaced with a new one.
Using a flight-tracking app, Hong discovered that both joyrides occurred on his 75th birthday. With no security cameras at the airports, authorities have been unable to identify the culprit.
Hong suspects the thief has significant flying experience, noting that “landing is not easy” and replacing a plane’s battery requires specialized tools and knowledge. He estimates the intruder spent hundreds of dollars on the new battery, tools, and even a headset found in the cockpit.
“Someone breaks into your house, they’re looking for jewelry or cash right?” Hong said. “But in this case, what’s the purpose? It’s like someone breaks my window, and then they put a new one up.”
One pilot at the second airport claimed to have seen a woman in her 40s or 50s sitting in the cockpit rather than in the lounge. Hong has now chained the aircraft in place until a full inspection can be completed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Aug. 6 commemorated the victims of fatalities and serious crimes committed this year by illegal immigrants in the United States.
“For too long, politicians turned a blind eye to the suffering of American citizens while protecting criminal illegal aliens. That ended on January 20,” the department’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an Aug. 6 statement.
“Under President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS is standing with the victims—not depraved criminal illegal aliens,” she added.
DHS honored “the strength and resilience” of the victims and their families affected by crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
“Behind every one of these crimes is a victim and their family left to rebuild their lives after unimaginable loss, suffering, and brutality,” McLaughlin said.
Among the victims remembered in the statement are girls, adolescents, women, and men, including officials and ICE officers.
Luis Jocsan Nanez López, 15, was shot and killed on July 20 while trying to protect his mother from an attempted rape, allegedly by Mexican national Gildardo Amandor-Martínez in Kentucky. Amandor-Martínez also allegedly assaulted Luis’s sister with a firearm. Martinez made two failed attempts to enter the United States, but on the third attempt, he was able to enter at an unknown date and location.
Megan Bos, 37, was found decapitated in a bleach-filled container in Illinois in April, after being reported missing on March 9. The alleged perpetrator was identified as Luis Mendoza-González, from Mexico.
Santiago López Morales, 48, was murdered at a Motel 6 in Garland, Texas, in June 2025. DHS confirmed that the suspects in the crime are three Venezuelan men identified as Yosguar Aponte-Jiménez, José Trivino-Cruz, and Jesús Bellorín-Guzmán.
Hallie Helgeson, 18, and Brady Heiling, 19, died in a car crash in Wisconsin in 2025, caused by a suspected drunk driver, Noelia Saray Martínez-Avila, from Honduras.
Maria Pleitez, 42, and her 11-year-old daughter, Dayanara, died in a car crash in New Jersey in 2025. Mexican national Raúl Luna-Pérez is suspected of driving under the influence and causing the deaths.
An unnamed woman was sexually assaulted on July 2, allegedly by José Maldonado-Zavala, a native of Honduras, at an apartment complex in Houston, Texas. According to records, Maldonado-Zavala falsely claimed the victim’s air conditioning was leaking into his apartment. He then forcibly grabbed her arm, dragged her into his residence against her will, and sexually assaulted her; she fought off the attacker and managed to flee.
A 17-year-old girl was harassed and raped, allegedly by a transgender illegal immigrant from Colombia who presents as a woman, Nicol Alexandra Contreras-Suarez. Contreras-Suarez was charged with rape of a minor and harassment in Columbia, New York, in 2025.
A man suffered life-threatening stab wounds after being attacked during a public soccer game, allegedly by Jefferson Javier López-Tinoco of Honduras, in Maryland in 2025.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in the arm and cheek during an attempted armed robbery in New York in 2025, allegedly by Cristian Aybar Berroa and Miguel Francisco Mora Núñez from the Dominican Republic.
A U.S. government official was harassed in Virginia in 2025, allegedly by José Madrid Reyes of El Salvador.
In 2018, a woman was sexually assaulted in Oregon while walking on Independence Day by Kevin Contreras-Mendoza of Mexico.
DHS said it reinforced its commitment to restoring security in the country and sent a message of support to all victims and families affected by crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
The last decade has seen a 578 percent rise in deaths due to nitrous oxide poisoning, a new research letter shows, revealing a sharp rise in U.S. fatalities linked to the gas—often called “laughing gas”—over the past 13 years.
The colorless, odorless gas is used recreationally as a euphoric and hallucinogenic drug.
The same drug used as anesthesia in dentists’ offices is now easily purchased by teenagers at corner stores and inhaled for a quick high—and it’s proving increasingly deadly.
“On the streets, the slang term for nitrous oxide is ‘whippits,’” Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times. “The gas comes from canisters, typically released into balloons before the user inhales it. This gives them a brief euphoric feeling or ‘high.’”
Fatalities have climbed from 23 in 2010 to 156 in 2023, with researchers linking the increase to the spread of whippits among American youth.
A Steep Increase
In the letter, recently published in JAMA, researchers examined death records from 2010 to 2023 using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database. The study focused on fatalities among Americans ages 15 to 74, where nitrous oxide poisoning was identified as the cause of death.
They found a mortality rate of 0.01 per 100,000 population in 2010, which climbed to 0.0622 per 100,000 by 2023.
While deaths showed a consistent upward trend, researchers noted a particularly sharp increase after 2016, when fatalities jumped from 120 to 149.
“At that continued rate, we could be looking at a much larger problem,” Andrew Yockey, University of Mississippi assistant professor of public health and author of the research letter, stated in a press release.
“We have evidence that nitrous oxide poisoning is a very real danger, but this is very often ignored or trivialized,” said letter co-author Rachel Hoopsick, assistant professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Illinois. “Sellers of nitrous oxide rarely, if ever, provide health warnings. I think the public sees it as a party drug.”
The findings also highlight a growing public health concern related to the misuse of nitrous oxide, with researchers emphasizing the importance of increased awareness and prevention strategies to reduce these preventable deaths—especially as recreational use appears to be rising.
Researchers also noted that young people were the most common users of nitrous oxide, with eighth graders making up a large portion of those misusing inhalants.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory warning consumers not to inhale nitrous oxide products, which are not federally controlled, due to the potential for severe adverse health events if used recreationally.
Flying Under the Radar
Nitrous oxide is readily sold in canisters from smoke shops.
Researchers and addiction specialists point to concerning marketing practices that may target young people. Nitrous oxide products come in flavored varieties with names like bubblegum and mango. “There is no age limit, and this is available online and in gas stations across the country,” Yockey stated in another press release.
Townsend said homeless people with substance use disorders often use nitrous oxide because it’s inexpensive and easy to get.
Nitrous oxide is one of those substances that “flies under the radar” because it seems harmless, said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, quadruple-board certified in pulmonary, sleep, internal, and critical care medicine and chief medical advisor for Sleepopolis.
“This study highlights a problem that’s quietly gotten worse over the years,” Dasgupta said.
Serious Health Risks
Recreational use can deprive the brain of oxygen, leading to short-term effects like dizziness or unconsciousness and long-term issues like nerve damage or even paralysis. “There’s also a serious risk of addiction and mental health decline when use becomes habitual,” said Sarah Grado, chief programs officer at notMYkid, a nonprofit dedicated to helping youth overcome addiction challenges.
It is unclear how nitrous oxide causes side effects, but inhaling large amounts of it can cause asphyxiation, and heavy use can cause vitamin B12 deficiency over time, which can cause nervous system issues like lasting nerve damage or difficulty walking.
Inhaling large amounts of the gas in a short period can cause nitrous oxide poisoning, Grado said.
Symptoms of nitrous oxide overdose include seizures, psychosis, rapid heartbeat, and tightness in the chest.
Prolonged inhalation of nitrous oxide recreationally can also lead to weakness in the limbs, problems with bowel and bladder control, and psychiatric problems such as dissociation, delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and depression.
Recreational nitrous oxide is unregulated and used without medical supervision, said Jessica Tate, chief clinical officer at Milton Recovery Center. In medical settings, the drug is mixed with oxygen, but recreational users often inhale it in its pure form, making it far more potent and dangerous.
Social media exposure showing people using nitrous oxide is also driving increased use, according to Michele Bowers, clinical director and therapist at Sophros Recovery.
“Think back to big tobacco; they deliberately targeted young people with cartoons, fun flavors, and flashy colors,” Hoopsick said. “That is a parallel we’re seeing now with nitrous oxide.”
Bowers noted that many health care providers lack sufficient training to recognize nitrous oxide abuse and often do not screen for it.
