Federal and local authorities have been bombarded with a series of hoax active-shooter incidents at a dozen U.S. universities in recent weeks, even as a horrific shooting unfolded in Minneapolis yesterday, where a crazed transgender shooter, with “kill Trump” on his weapon, killed two children and injured 17 others at a Catholic school.

A new report from Wired claims that one of its journalists made contact with the self-proclaimed leader of an extremist online hacker group called Purgatory, which operates on a Telegram channel and is responsible for the surge in swatting hoaxes at major universities nationwide.

Wired’s David Gilbert said Purgatory is linked with extremist network The Com and subgroup 764 that markets a menue of harassment services on its Telegram channel, including swatting schools for $20 (now $95), attacking hospitals, businesses, and airports for up to $50, and even offering “slashings” or “brickings” for as little as $10–$35. 

Transgender shooter linked to 764?

The Minnesota shooter wrote satanic symbolism on his firearms and magazines that are very similar to the symbolism used by violent global satanic cults called Order of 9 Angles and 764. There are thousands of members worldwide bent on hastening the collapse of the western world. pic.twitter.com/J9DLrTTXkx

— Yoshi The Patriot (@yoshithepatriot) August 27, 2025

The swatting spree has already impacted a dozen universities, including the University of Colorado Boulder, Villanova, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, leading to lockdowns and widespread chaos. 

Gilbert spoke with Gores, an anonymous online person who co-leads Purgatory. Gores explained that since offering its menu of chaos on Telegram, his group has generated substantial revenue, upwards of $100,000 in just a few weeks. The journalist cautions readers, however: “WIRED has not independently confirmed that figure.”

“In recent days, however, as the incidents were reported in the media, the prices have skyrocketed, with a school swatting now costing $95 and brickings costing $35,” Gilbert noted. 

The FBI confirmed a surge in swatting incidents nationwide, warning that false reports drain resources and put innocent lives at risk.

So far, there has been no indication from the federal government that this rogue group is working on behalf of a foreign terror organization or nation-state to sow chaos in the U.S.

Or perhaps there is “Nihilistic Accelerationism”… 

I was at an FBI briefing just 6 months ago where “Nihilistic Accelerationism” was a hot topic as an emerging threat. That meant groups like The Com, 764, O9A…

Not sure what happened to that priority but they were very much surveilled at the time. We failed w/ Robin Westman. pic.twitter.com/QHmhCnXYIA

— Brad Maloney 🌿 (@br4dm4l0n3y) August 28, 2025

. . . 

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

What nobody seems to notice is all the incentives for deploying AI are perverse…

The real story of the US economy isn’t about AI, it’s about an economy that’s run out of rope. AI is being hyped not just by promoters reaping billions of dollars in stock market gains, it’s being hyped by the entire status quo because it’s understood to be the last chance of saving an economy doomed by the consequences of decades of artifice.

The real story of the US economy is that decades of “financial innovations” finally caught up with us in 2008, when the subprime mortgage scam–a classic example of “financial innovations” being the cover story for greed and fraud running amok–pulled a block from the global financial Jenga Tower that nearly collapsed the entire rickety, rotten structure.

Our political leadership had a choice: clean house or save the scam. They chose to save the scam, and that required not just institutionalizing moral hazard (transferring the risks of fraud and leveraged speculation from the gamblers to the public / Federal Reserve) but pursuing policies–zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), quantitative easing, increasing the money supply, and so on–that had only one possible outcome:

An economy permanently dependent on inflating asset-bubbles that enriched the top 10% while the bottom 90% who depend on earned income fell behind.

The desired goal of permanent asset-bubbles is the “wealth effect,” the cover story for transferring all the gains into the hands of the top 10%, who can then go on a spending spree which ‘trickles down” to the bottom 90%, who are now a neofeudal class of workers serving the top 10% who account for 50% of all consumer spending and collect 90% of the unearned income and capital gains.

This arrangement is inherently unstable, as “financial innovations” suffer from diminishing returns. Eventually the debt-serfs can no longer borrow more or service the debt they already have, and every bubble being bigger than the previous bubble guarantees the next implosion will be larger and more devastating than the previous bubble-pop.

So what does a system that’s run out of rope do? Seek a savior. The rope has frayed, and the rocks are far below. The impact is going to be life-changing, and not for the better.

The choice remains: clean house, end the bubble-dependent frauds and scams, or find a way to inflate yet another credit-asset bubble. Clean house and lose all our bubble-wealth? You’re joking. The solution is to blow an even bigger bubble. Hey, it’s worked great for 17 years.

Never mind that the precarity of the bottom 90% is accelerating as both the state and Corporate America have offloaded risks onto households and workers; they have OnlyFans, 24% interest credit cards, zero-day-expiration options and side hustles to get by. Never mind that for many Americans, basic services are on the same level as impoverished developing-world economies. What matters is maintaining the wealth of the few at the expense of the many, by any means available.

Enter the savior of our asset-bubble-dependent elites: AI. AI is going to change the world, we’ll all be watched over by machines of loving grace, profits and capital gains will be in the trillions of dollars, yowza, because we’ll fire half of you and give you enough Universal Basic Income (UBI) to scrape by, and some of you can join our security teams protecting us from the impoverished rabble.

There’s just one teeny little problem: AI is a false savior. It doesn’t work as advertised, it has multiple inherent limits that can’t be overcome by scaling up processors, and the dystopian consequences of even this first wave are already uncontrollably destructive:

AI psychosis and addiction to AI chatbots is making users even lonelier and more isolated than they were before embracing AI, AI Slop is overwhelming legitimate content, AI agents are just good enough to degrade already pathetically deficient corporate services, LLM models are Swiss-cheese security risks, and 95% of all corporate AI projects founder.

What nobody seems to notice is all the incentives for deploying AI are perverse. Those seeking nickels from Big Tech platform engagement / views win big by flooding the web with AI slop, scammers and fraudsters now have much more powerful tools to deceive and defraud (deepfake videos and voiceovers), and rather than watch over us with loving grace, the AI systems are scraping their own inaccuracies and hallucinations and deceptively presenting this slop as accurate.

The status quo is counting on AI to be the savior of a hollowed-out economy, but it’s a false savior. The frenzy has inflated another credit-asset bubble as planned, but another bubble that enriches the few isn’t going to fix what’s broken. Rather, unleashing AI tools in a system of perverse incentives is accelerating the decay and collapse of the entire system by replacing authentic value with illusions of value–what I call Ultra-Processed Life.

I hate to be the bearer of unwelcome news, but enriching the few at the expense of the many is the problem, not the solution. So the AI bubble mints more billionaires, well that’s swell, but the process of inflating bubbles that enrich the few is what’s destabilizing our economy and society.

This chart presents the consequences of 17 years of bubble-inflation “wealth effect”: wealth for the few and “effects” for the many:

Asset bubbles have been good to the top .01%:

And it’s been good for the top 10%, too: $107 trillion in net worth, and of course, “I earned every penny of it.” The bottom 50% with $4 trillion–well, better launch your OnlyFans site, even though there are already millions of other desperate people hoping to scrape up a few bucks by selling themselves online.

Contrary to the hype, AI isn’t the savior of the bubble economy–it’s the hype-heavy straw that breaks it for good.

Before we bow down and worship a false savior, it’s probably a good idea to learn about the limits of our AI savior and the self-serving hype, and the banquet of consequences being laid for true believers.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Two weeks ago an illegal alien truck driver of Indian origin reportedly killed three people after making an illegal U-turn on a Florida turnpike.  It’s not the first time such negligence has occurred on the part of migrant drivers but this particular event struck a nerve, causing a public uproar and bringing all foreign trucker visas into question.

After the incident the United States is immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio said. The Trump Administration has taken a series of steps to address concerns about foreign truck drivers, specifically those who do not speak English.

Harjinder Singh, 28, faces three charges of vehicular homicide and up to 45 years in prison.  Since his arrest, 2.2 million people have signed a Change.org petition calling for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute Singh’s sentence if he gets convicted.  The majority of the signatures appear to come from Indian nationals.  There are approximately 3.2 million Indian migrants in the US today.

In response to the federal halt on trucker visas, political officials in India have suddenly taken great interest in the situation.  Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday appealed to Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to challenge the visa issue.  They took particular offense to the requirement that migrant truck drivers be required to speak English.

Indian politician Harsimrat Kaur Badal asks the country’s foreign minister to intervene in U.S. politics to protect Sikh truck drivers in America after Harjinder Singh’s arrest. She is particularly incensed by the requirement that truckers speak English pic.twitter.com/xizAhf1zou

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 26, 2025

Writing to the external affairs minister, Harsimrat said due to this decision, there was an apprehension that a large number of Punjabis, who were in the trucking industry, may be forced to leave the United States.

“Around 1.5 lakh Punjabi and Sikh drivers make up 20% of the US trucking industry. Any mass level action against them would have a detrimental effect on trucking families and would be discriminatory in nature, considering the fact that Punjabis have built and sustained trucking logistics and trucking networks over decades.” 

The politician appears to greatly overestimate her country’s migrant contributions to the US trucking industry.  All foreign born drivers together make up around 18% of the US trucking fleet.  Only 4% of drivers are from India.  The situation changes in California, where mass immigration is subsidized and migrant truckers make up nearly half of all those employed in the state.  

The claim is that California is suffering from a labor shortage.  In reality, California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the US with over 1.07 million people looking for jobs. The reason trucking companies search for migrant workers is because they take up to 20%- 30% less pay, not because the companies can’t find native born drivers. 

Why are Indian migrants willing to work for less?  Because US dollars are a purchasing powerhouse back in India.  For $600 US per month an Indian can live the high life anywhere outside of Mumbai or Delhi.  A “luxury lifestyle” costs upwards of $1000 per month.

Just as we have seen with illegal migrants coming from south of the border, a vast amount of cash is transferred by workers back to their home countries.  Remember when Mexico’s socialist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, made threats over a possible increase in US taxes on remittances?  Remittances in US dollars are the largest source of foreign income pouring into Mexico. 

It’s a scam that has been running for decades, with numerous foreign governments encouraging illegal immigration as a means to siphon money from the US and transfer it into third world economies.  India, for example, is the largest recipient of remittances from the US in the world.  Without feeding on remittances from America, India loses out on over $140 billion (around 30% of their annual tax revenues).  Without this cash, India’s economy would implode. 

This is the real reason why foreign governments are so insistent when intruding on US immigration policy.

In the case of US work visas, all American jobs should be offered to Americans first.  Only when it is confirmed that there aren’t enough unemployed native born workers to support a particular industry should those jobs be offered to foreigners.  And, speaking English should be a bare minimum requirement.

There is simply no point in taking a risk on a single migrant if these jobs can be filled by Americans.

Via American Greatness,

President Donald Trump, has sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution and other museums, requesting a “comprehensive internal review” and calling for the removal of divisive or partisan narratives ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is applauding the president’s call to remove divisive and ideologically-driven content at taxpayer-funded institutions, saying, “The reforms Trump is instituting at the Smithsonian can’t come soon enough.”

Racist & anti-American messages—whether on the Smithsonian’s website or as part of a physical exhibit at a museum—have no place in a U.S. taxpayer-funded institution

Indefensible

The reforms Trump is instituting at the Smithsonian can’t come soon enough https://t.co/2vg5c5hrWn pic.twitter.com/XKgVBC2VV7

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) August 20, 2025

Lee, in a post on X, said that there is no place for racist and anti-American messages “whether on the Smithsonian’s website or as part of a physical exhibit at a museum” at institutions funded by U.S. taxpayers.

The president, in a post Tuesday on his Truth Social platform, called the Smithsonian and other institutions “the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE’” and is directing them to replace divisive language with “unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, wall didactics, digital displays, and other public-facing materials.”

Trump specifically mentioned anti-American propaganda at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum, saying, “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”

In a statement released in June, the Smithsonian claimed that it is committed to remaining “free from political or partisan influence.”

The “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order signed by Trump in March, accused the Smithsonian of being “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and of promoting “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

The letter sent by the White House to the Smithsonian Institution, explains, “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Museums currently facing review include the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to be doubling down on crazy in Minneapolis this week with calls to pack the Supreme Court and other extremist priorities.

For voters who have repeatedly shown that they want to move to a more moderate center, you are left like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets when his character, Melvin Udall, who declared, “Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.”

As many know, I was raised in a politically active, liberal, Democratic family in Chicago and worked much of my life for Democratic candidates and campaigns. This week again reminded many of us how far the party has moved from its more centrist history. That includes another call to pack the Supreme Court with liberals to force or ratify sweeping political and social changes.

The meeting started in a signature fashion.

Lindy Sowmick, treasurer of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) spoke to the delegates after DNC Chairman Ken Martin asked her to recite the land acknowledgment. Sowmick asked the delegates to think about her works:

“As Democrats, I ask of every one of you to not allow land acknowledgments like these to simply be the checking of a box – be curious, ask questions, ensure our native neighbors are heard and work in partnership with your Indigenous communities.”

Sowmick then declared:

“The DNC acknowledges and honors the Dakota Oyate – the Dakota people – who are the original stewards of the lands and waters of Minneapolis. The Dakota cared for the lands, lakes and the Wakpa Tanka – the ‘Great River,’ the Mississippi River – for thousands of years before colonization. This land was not claimed, or traded – it’s a part of a history of broken treaties and promises. And, in many ways, we still live in a system built to suppress Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual history.”

From there, it was a free-for-all, including a fierce fight over a resolution to condemn Israel.

Martin strangely forced a divisive debate, where he and others pushed through a resolution that only called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, which was denounced by others. After passing the resolution, he then moved to rescind it as an act of unity. It left many wondering what the purpose of the exercise was in forcing a debate and then withdrawing the passed resolution.

Delegates continued to show how out of touch the party has become, including one assuring delegates that the public really does not care about carjackings and migrant crimes despite the polls. Another insisted that today the nation is worse to live in than during the pandemic.

Laurence S. Zakson is a DNC member from California and a partner at Reich Adell & Cvitan in Beverly Hills.

He and others called for Congress to act on changing the size of the Supreme Court due to the alleged partisan agenda of the majority and the failure to reach correct decisions.

It is the same playbook that Democrats have used in the last two elections to pack the Court with liberals.

Some on the left have even called for the Supreme Court to be “dissolved.” That rhetoric has been matched by Democratic leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previously declared in front of the Supreme Court, “I want to tell you, [Neil] Gorsuch, I want to tell you, [Brett] Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stated that she wants to impeach all six of the conservative justices. She was immediately joined by other Democratic members. Previously, she admitted that she does not understand why we even have a Supreme Court. She asked, “How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don’t think it does.”

Other members, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have called for packing the Court with additional members to immediately secure a liberal majority to rule as she desires. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., RI) has assured voters that Vice President Kamala Harris will support the packing of the Court with a liberal majority.

Polls show the public understands that such moves are madness. Some of us have discussed the expansion of the Supreme Court for years, but there is a difference between expanding and packing. This is court packing in its rawest and most dangerous form.

It is one last pitch for crazy in an already over-stocked nation.

(Update: 1532ET): A Biden-appointed federal judge who defied a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month has been ‘randomly’ assigned to the (Biden-appointed) Lisa Cobb case, after the Federal Reserve Governor filed a lawsuit challenging her Monday firing by President Trump. Her complaint doesn’t deny the underlying allegations of mortgage fraud – and instead argues that she couldn’t have been fired ‘for cause’ over something that happened before she was confirmed to the Fed. 

Cook also argues that claiming two houses as her ‘primary residence’ at the same time may have been a simple ‘clerical error.’

Doesn’t look like any “clerical error” a @Harvard grad and qualified Fed Governor would/should make!

Maybe a 3rd grader, but certainly not someone of her stature. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/279U8joxqS

— G. Buckman (@g_buckman) August 28, 2025

So, we’re supposed to believe that a Harvard graduate and ‘Top leading economist’ – who’s tasked with setting Fed policy – simply missed the ‘primary residence’ designation plastered all over the mortgage papers she signed? 

Anyway, here’s the new judge, Jia Cobb, who will weigh in on the case. 

Cobb recently defied the Supreme Court according to the Trump administration – after she continued to block the “expedited removal” of migrants despite a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of such removals. 

“Will they be summarily removed from a country that — as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges — may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?” Cobb wrote in an 84-page decision against the deportation effort.

Cobb was also the judge in Jan. 6th defendant Ryan Samsel’s case. Samsel was notably the first rioter to charge across police lines. After he was found guilty, prosecutors wanted him to go away for 20 years, however his February sentencing was called off after President Trump issued a blanket pardon to all J6ers. 

Now, the activist judge will decide at least the first step in Cook’s fate – which is sure to be appealed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals by the losing party, after which we’re guessing it’s headed to the Supreme Court. 

*  *  *

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has sued the Trump administration, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and the Board of Governors itself – after President Donald Trump fired her on Monday over claims that she lied on mortgage applications – allowing her to double-dip on tax and lending advantages. 

The lawsuit – which doesn’t deny mortgage fraud!! – seeks “A declaration that President Trump’s August 25, 2025 purported firing … is unlawful and void and that Governor Cook remains an active member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve,” and a declaration from the court that “an unsubstantiated allegation of mortgage fraud prior to a Governor’s confirmation is not cause for removal.”

Update: In a statement to CNBC, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte said: “In her filing, Ms. Cook does not deny that these are her mortgage documents, so one has to wonder why she, or Jerome Powell, would want this to be a part of the Federal Reserve, which is supposed to have preeminent integrity and which is critical to the safety and soundness of the U.S. Mortgage Market.”

Cook’s lawsuit claims that Trump violated the Federal Reserve Act, the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, and other statutory rights – and that Trump’s action lacks “cause” as required by the FRA. 

Represented by former Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell – who also represents NY Attorney General Letitia James, former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, and a whistleblower – James filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington DC – where we’re sure the Jury will be interested to hear, per her complaint, that she is the first black woman on the Board. 

And while former members of the Fed have stepped down over alleged improprieties, Cook is digging in.

2021: Dallas Fed president Kaplan busted for suspicious stock trades, resigns

2021: Boston Fed president Rosengren busted for suspicious stock trades, resigns

2022: Fed vice chair Richard Clarida busted for suspicious trades, resigns

2025: Lisa Cook vows to stay on

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 26, 2025

We’re sure Cook’s legal team is counting on a DC jury being sympathetic to Cook’s claims in response to her firing, in which Trump accused her of “deceitful and potentially criminal  conduct in a financial matter.”

The Trump-Cook clash erupted after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte dropped receipts showing that Cook lied on 2021 loan applications for two properties in Michigan and Georgia – claiming that each was her primary residence. 

Read the complaint below:

Cook Trump Comp 082825 by Zerohedge Janitor

Developing…

Leftist Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s refusal to accept National Guard assistance from the federal government has left many Baltimore residents baffled, given the city’s multi-decade violent crime crisis under failed Democratic Party leadership. 

While Moore recently took a victory lap touting a supposedly “record low” homicide rate, everyone who lives in the metro area knows the truth: large swaths of the city remain ‘no-go zones’, controlled by vicious drug gangs. Years of “defund the police” policies pushed by social justice warriors in City Hall have hollowed out the police to the core. 

Remember the riots? 

Now, residents are taking note of the president’s efforts to clean up the violent crime mess in Washington, D.C. In just over two weeks, violent crime has subsided. Many are left wondering why Democratic leadership in Baltimore never had the same seriousness to clean up their city; instead, Democrats chose to defund the police and allow the metro area to descend into what Trump calls a “hellhole.”

Shocking reversal in DC crime data… 

“In the 17 days since the Guard was deployed in Washington, D.C., Baltimore has recorded more than 2,500 crimes—including six homicides, nine rapes, over 400 assaults, 252 auto thefts, 155 burglaries, and nearly 440 acts of vandalism,” local media Fox Baltimore wrote earlier this week, adding, “This crime rate is nine times higher than D.C.’s during the same period.” 

There was a time when folks in the Baltimore area would go to restaurants and bars across Inner Harbor, Harbor East, Fells Point, Canton, and even Federal Hill. But many have since fled the crime-ridden metro area for surrounding counties, as conditions became so terrible that raising a family there was no longer a suitable option. Now, folks mostly avoid the city because Democratic leadership has failed residents with a population crash to 100-year lows. 

Here’s more from the local news outlet:

Residents and business owners have expressed concern over the escalating violence. “Just brutally attacking somebody is off the case crazy,” one victim said. Betsy Smith of the National Police Association commented, “I’d think residents would welcome help for their very short-staffed police department.”

The discrepancy between the governor’s statements and the reality on the ground has left many questioning whether crime in Baltimore is truly under control. “We need to stop acting tough and start getting tough in Baltimore City,” a local resident said.

Smith added, “If the people in Baltimore City want to truly be free they need to embrace not only their local law enforcement but state and federal partners as well.” As the city grapples with its crime wave, the call for additional support continues to grow.

The most damning chart Democrats don’t want folks to see is the latest exodus from Baltimore City, starting around 2015, mainly driven by failed progressives that unleashed a manufactured crime tsunami of their own doing, making any gang scene from HBO’s The Wire look like child’s play.

Trump is giving parts of the country a taste of law and order, something that might prove contagious, given how the Democratic Party has subjected millions nationwide (btw, nobody voted for violent crime) to more than a decade of backfiring social-justice policies that transformed quiet communities into violent crime zones.

Oh, btw, the way, after Trump called out Moore.

Sigh…

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

El Salvador native Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the target of numerous deportation efforts by the Trump administration, cannot be deported until at least early October, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, at a hearing on Wednesday, extended an Aug. 25 order that blocked his deportation while courts consider his renewed asylum claims.

Later that day, she issued a brief order, clarifying that Abrego Garcia must remain within 200 miles of the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Abrego Garcia had filed suit, alleging that the government was planning to deport him to Uganda.

Xinis has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 6, and said she will try to issue a ruling within the subsequent 30 days.

Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant, previously applied for asylum in 2019 but was denied.

However, the judge in that case ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador, since there was concern that he faced a “clear probability of future persecution” in his native country.

He has lived in the country since age 16, is married to an American citizen, and was a construction worker.

The government stated that Abrego Garcia is a member of the transnational criminal gang MS-13, which he denied.

He was set to be deported earlier this year, but was sent to El Salvador’s maximum security prison Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), along with a plane full of other deportees.

A district judge in Maryland ordered his return in April while the Trump administration said the Salvadoran was no longer under U.S. jurisdiction.

Abrego Garcia’s case drew public attention, and he gained support from some members of Congress who pressured the administration for his return.

Following a Supreme Court order on April 10, he was eventually returned to the United States and held in custody in Tennessee on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.

Authorities freed Abrego Garcia last week to await trial at home. His attorneys said that before he was released, the government offered to deport him to Costa Rica, where he would be a free man if he pleaded guilty to the human smuggling charges. After he refused, according to his lawyers, the government said he could be deported to Uganda.

Abrego Garcia was again detained after checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Aug. 25, and is asking the judge to reconsider his asylum case, according to his lawyers.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration will eventually deport him.

France, Germany, and the UK have submitted a letter to members of the UN Security Council announcing they are triggering the “snapback” mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran, Axios and others are reporting Thursday.

These are past sanctions which had been suspended under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, which the US unilaterally pulled out of in April 2018 under the first Trump administration.

Axios writes that “In the letter, the three European powers emphasized that during the next 30 days – before the sanctions take effect – they are open to negotiations with Iran on a nuclear agreement that could halt the process.”

Tuesday saw tense discussions between Iran and the E3 nations – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They warned at the meeting the E3 is preparing trigger the mechanism for reimposing international sanctions on Iran if it fails to either reach a new nuclear agreement by the end of August or agrees to extend UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which covers the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Axios’ Barak Ravid had earlier acknowledged that “It will take a diplomatic miracle to prevent this from happening.”

The Europeans are also pressing Iran to rejoin nuclear talks with Washington; however, the Iranians have made clear that the US can no longer be trusted – as it bombed the Islamic Republic in June at the very moment the sides were engaged in talks.

The Associated Press has explained how ‘snapback’ works in the following:

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached between world powers and Iran in 2015, Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment to levels necessary for civilian nuclear power in exchange for lifted economic sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency was tasked with monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.

The snapback mechanism’s purpose is to swiftly reimpose all pre-deal sanctions without being vetoed by U.N. Security Council members, including permanent members Russia and China.

The process began Thursday, when the E3 formally notified the U.N. secretary-general and Security Council president about Iran’s “significant nonperformance of commitments.”

Iran’s alleged uranium stockpiles are believed to be significantly beyond the limits set by the original deal, in both purity and quantity.

“In May, the IAEA said Iran had amassed 408.6 kilograms (900.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity. If it is enriched to 90%, it would be enough to make nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick, though a weapon would require other expertise, such as a detonation device,” the AP noted.

The joint Israel and US surprise assault of the 12-day June war might have actually done much to hasten Iran’s nuclear development and Tehran leaders now believe – not without good reason – that past and future negotiations with Washington are based on deception by the US side.

Spot Ether exchange-traded funds are selling like hot cakes in the US, attracting more than 10 times the inflows of their spot Bitcoin counterparts over the past five trading days. 

Since Aug. 21, spot Ether ETFs have seen a whopping $1.83 billion in inflows, while Bitcoin funds took only a 10th of that with $171 million, according to CoinGlass. 

The latest trading day on Wednesday continued the trend, with nine Ether funds reaching $310.3 million in inflows, while the 11 spot Bitcoin funds saw just $81.1 million. 

Ether has recovered faster than Bitcoin this week, with ETH prices climbing 5% from their Tuesday low, whereas Bitcoin only managed to gain 2.8% over the same period. 

As CoinTelegraph’s Martin Young reports, the massive shift to Ether was not missed by industry observers such as Ethereum educator and investor Anthony Sassano, who described it as “brutal.” 

Source: Anthony Sassano

Meanwhile, NovaDius Wealth Management president Nate Geraci added that spot Ether ETFs are now close to $10 billion in inflows since the start of July.

Spot Ether ETFs have been trading for 13 months and have seen $13.6 billion in total aggregate inflows, the majority of which has come in the last couple of months.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been around longer, trading for 20 months with an aggregate AUM of $54BN. However, just looking at the largest BTC ETF (IBIT), we can see it is rapidly catching up with the total AUM of the Gold ETF GLD…

The Wall Street token

The momentum has seemingly been shifting to Ethereum following the passing of the GENIUS Act stablecoin legislation in July, as the network has the largest market share of stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. 

“It’s very much what I call the Wall Street token,” said VanEck CEO Jan van Eck, speaking on Fox Business this week. 

Meanwhile, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart reported that investment advisers were the top holders of Ether ETFs with $1.3 billion in exposure.

According to SEC filings, Goldman Sachs is the top holder with $712 million in exposure.