Global Diesel Crunch Deepens As Record US Distillate Exports Race To Supply-Starved Europe
US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia’s energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America.
To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, “The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot.”
Dart warned, “I’d say on the oil side, as I mentioned before, diesel, I think is the oil product that is most vulnerable right now, not just because you have your seasonal demand strength ahead just in the winter, but on the supply side. And to your point in the beginning, it’s not just that you run war, it’s what’s happening to the Russian refineries as well. And Russia is usually a pretty big exporter of diesel. And now they have restricted it.”
Last month, Goldman analyst Daan Struyven warned that “Diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze.”
As global supplies dwindle, US energy exporters on the Gulf of America emerged as the winners, shipping a record 1.9 million barrels to overseas customers last week.
Shipments have exceeded 1.5 million barrels a day for five consecutive weeks, with recent cargoes heading to northwestern European ports – the epicenter of a global diesel shortage caused by Gulf area refinery disruptions through Hormuz and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining capacity.
The trade-off from surging diesel exports is that US distillate stockpiles have fallen to their lowest seasonal level since 1996, raising the risk of a tighter domestic market heading into the fall demand surge.
Let’s not forget that Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser warned that even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened today, it could take up to 18 months to replenish global inventories.
All told, America is once again rescuing Europe from a deepening energy crunch – first LNG – this time diesel. You’re welcome.
New Mexico is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over unredacted Epstein files, accusing the federal agency of stonewalling the state’s own investigation into alleged crimes at deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.
The legal action, filed Aug. 5, intensifies a politically charged fight over the DOJ’s Epstein files, which have been accumulating since investigations into Epstein began in the mid-2000s.
New Mexico reopened its investigation in February and is seeking access to files relating to who worked at and visited Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, and may have participated in or witnessed crimes.
The DOJ said it has handed over some of the files but is prevented by law from releasing others due to privacy protections.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times of its reasons for opposing the lawsuit.
The 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to Epstein and his alleged sex trafficking network. The department was allowed to make redactions to safeguard the privacy of alleged victims or to shield ongoing investigations.
“Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority for the Department, and neither Touhy requests nor a desire to cooperate outweighs that privacy,“ the spokesperson said. ”DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”
According to the complaint, the federal government has acknowledged that “Epstein and his criminal network subjected over 1,000 survivors to egregious and predatory conduct, including vulnerable young girls in New Mexico.”
New Mexico initially made informal requests to the DOJ for unredacted files. The federal agency had promised cooperation, including information sharing on alleged survivors and crimes, and told the state to formally file Touhy requests, used for accessing official information, testimony, or documents from a federal entity for use in a legal proceeding in which the U.S. government is not a party.
The complaint said the DOJ rejected the Touhy requests earlier this year. By failing to cooperate, DOJ officials are harming “victims and [undermining] the public interest” by holding up the state’s investigation of the conduct of Epstein and his co-conspirators at Zorro Ranch, it argued.
In 1993, Epstein bought Zorro Ranch and visited the state many times before he died in 2019.
According to state prosecutors, the Epstein files contain more than 13,000 references to the ranch, along with 5,000 references to locations in the state where victims were allegedly trafficked, assaulted, and groomed.
New Mexico alleges the DOJ has failed to properly handle its Touhy requests and violated the Administrative Procedure Act governing administrative law procedures, citing the agency’s refusal to honor its 2019 agreement in which federal prosecutors promised to cooperate with the state after it put its Epstein probe on hold.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez has “marched through every bureaucratic hoop USDOJ has demanded, only to have years of promised federal cooperation turned into bureaucratic defiance,” the complaint said.
In a call with reporters, Torrez said of the state’s investigation, “We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before we charge someone.” He said the probe faces considerable obstacles, noting the decades since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the change of ownership of the ranch in 2023, and jurisdictional issues.
New Mexico’s lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the nation’s capital.
By Bas van Geffen, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank
Brent prices held steady just below the $80-level, as Iran said it reached an agreement with Oman on a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s not the Iran-US deal that Trump had been eyeing, but this agreement raises the prospect of more energy flows resuming through the critical waterway.
However, Iran has also said that the deal does not work until the US stops blocking traffic. We are yet to hear when the US lifts its blockade on Iranian ships – if Trump does not revert to threats of air strikes instead. The course of events once again underlines Iran’s relatively strong negotiating position.
Days after the Japanese Ministry of Finance –and the US Treasury– intervened in FX markets to prop up the yen, the cabinet approved a plan to cut the sales tax on food for two years. On top of that, the government is planning handouts to lower-income households. High costs of living are weighing on PM Takaichi’s popularity. So, she wants to lessen the price pressure on households, but these tax measures may shift those pressures elsewhere.
The tax cut costs JPY 4 trillion (around 0.6% of GDP) in lost revenues annually, and the government did not specify how it would fund this shortfall. The prime minister tried to reassure investors that the measures are temporary, and Finance Minister Katayama pledged to refrain from financing this tax cut through Japan’s deficit.
The unfunded tax plan has drawn criticism from both the opposition and people within the ruling LDP, as well as market participants – although today’s 30-year bond auction showed little sign of concern or investor fatigue. Having said that, the real litmus test may be the currency.
Over the past couple of days, the yen has been gradually depreciating again after the joint US-Japan intervention briefly pushed USD/JPY below 156 on Friday. The FX market is probably watching for signs of new interventions, or signs of more structural support for the currency.
Yet, these tax cuts do not lead to investments that could structurally improve Japan’s economic growth – which could have lent JPY some of the necessary support. But, paradoxically, the cost of effective growth-enhancing policies would probably eclipse the budgetary implications of Takaichi’s food tax cuts.
Former prime minister, and advisor to the current PM, Kishida warns of this as well. He advocates a JPY 370 trillion long-term growth strategy, which he believes could largely be funded by Japan’s large amounts of private financial assets: “If we limit our thinking to the government’s own fiscal resources, then that’s the end of it.” He argues the government should merely function as a catalyst for these investments, rather than pony up all the funds.
If the government manages to convince Japanese households, companies, and pension funds, the plans could see Japan clash with allies. These funds are currently invested elsewhere, and the structure of the recent JPY intervention suggests that Washington does not like the idea that Japan could start selling its Treasury holdings. The US Treasury sold euros, rather than dollars, for yens, and it also suggested Japan make use of the Fed’s FIMA (repo) accounts, instead of selling dollar assets outright.
Besides that, the growth strategy itself could also lead to conflicts: Kishida suggests the Japanese economy could benefit from investments in semiconductor and AI industries. Even if these sectors continue to grow in the coming decade, that strategy competes directly with the direction of, say, US, EU, and Chinese policies targeting homegrown chips and AI.
Elsewhere, Fed Chair Warsh is reportedly still in close contact with Trump. The US president discussed the economic implications of various matters, such as the Iran war or AI. It is an unusually close connection between the White House and the Eccles Building compared to their predecessors.
The Wall Street Journal’s sources suggest that these informal calls were mainly Trump seeking council from the Fed chair. Whether that’s true or not, it confirms what our US strategist has been saying: the FOMC will probably be more aligned with the White House going forward.
The Dutch government has endorsed Klaas Knot’s candidacy for ECB president. The Spanish government had already put forward his former colleague De Cos. So, with two candidates in the running, the race to find Lagarde’s replacement is now officially on.
Deal Details: US-Israeli vessels Banned from Hormuz (Fars)
Iranian state media (Fars) has issued details of the Iran-Omani draft plan for transit rules through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The country’s parliament is said to currently be reviewing it, while Tehran still insists that the US has been sidelined, saying that the Oman-Iran contacts are bilateral.
As cited in Bloomberg from state media, key proposals include:
Ban vessels linked to the U.S., Israel, and other hostile states
Block military and civilian cargo tied to Israel
Restrict ships linked to actions against the “Axis of Resistance”
Deny passage to parties owing compensation to Iran
Impose fines of up to 20% of cargo value for violations
The first note about banning US-linked vessels could alone serve to restart the war. The White House has appeared to genuinely be searching for an exit strategy, but this may be too hard a pill to swallow, if accurate.
Fars has spelled out that “The passage of vessels belonging to the US, the Israelis, and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.” Below are is the fuller outline of the proposed plan as featured by Fars [machine translation]:
The passage of vessels belonging to the United States, Israelis and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.
Ships related to Israel, whether military or civilian, will not have the right to transit through this area.
Vessels or cargoes that play a role in actions against the Resistance Front will also be subject to the ban.
Countries and individuals that have caused damage to Iran will not receive permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf until compensation is paid.
Heavy fines, including up to 20% of the value of the goods, will be imposed on violators. The cargo is anticipated.
The government will be required, in cooperation with the armed forces, to assume responsibilities such as guiding navigation, monitoring vessel traffic, and protecting the security and environment of the Persian Gulf.
This plan is still in the expert review stage, and the parliament has asked experts to submit their suggestions for completing it.
Oil spikes on the headlines of a very clearly ‘Iran-favorable’ ‘deal’ – which Washington is unlikely to simply accept.
Does this portend a return to active conflict?
Yemeni ‘Blockade for Blockade’ Could Threaten Delicate Hormuz Negotiations
Yesterday witnessed at least the eighth Saudi oil tanker attacked by the Houthis since the maritime blockade began on July 22, which is being followed by reports the Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran could be preparing for all-out war with Saudi Arabia.
The group struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday and coupled the action with a threat to intensify attacks in order to close “all access routes” to Saudi oil shipments. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree confirmed that ballistic missiles were launched at a Saudi tanker called Wafa near the Saudi port city of Yanbu.
A second oil tanker identified as Daisy was subsequently hit in the Gulf of Aden with a ballistic missile and “forced to turn back” – the spokesman said in a social media post. The Houthis are dubbing it a “blockade for blockade” strategy.
But it seems the Saudis aren’t ready to take this laying down, even if the ratcheting Red Sea region conflict threatens fragile Oman-sponsored talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as on Thursday its proxy the Yemeni Armed Forces – representing the official government whose seat is in Aden in the south – announcedpreparations for a large new military operation.
This as Al Arabiya reports a fresh outbreak of ground fighting, in a renewal and intensification of the civil war that goes back to at least 2015 (and has an international proxy war aspect to it). The Arab publication says that a Houthi attack killed 45 government forces in Hadramawt and Marib in Yemen, areas which also happen to be home to the vast majority of the country’s oil and gas fields.
Separately Al Jazeera describes of the same event:
The Yemeni Emergency Forces of the internationally-recognised government, have said that there have been material and human losses following attacks on its camps.
Several causalities have been reported after a suspected Houthi rocket and drone attack targeted bases hosting the forces in Marib and Hadramaut.
So now it seems that even if a grand Hormuz deal to reopen energy transit can be pulled off with some level of sticking power, there will have to be a separate ceasefire to contain the Yemen and Bab al-Mandab Strait crisis.
To some degree, the Houthi closure of the Red Sea to Saudi shipping represents a good cop, bad cop approach to the United States and its Gulf allies. It is a way for Tehran to still maintain some serious tangential leverage over global energy, even as ships in Hormuz could finally get moving again.
The Houthis launched ballistic missile and drone strikes on Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in Marib Governorate, targeting several military sites.
According to preliminary reports, at least 45 personnel were killed and dozens wounded, with Saudi-aligned media confirming the attacks… pic.twitter.com/uThIgebcfe
As a reminder, the Houthis have been part of what Iran sees as the “axis of resistance” going back to when the Shia rebel group first seized power in September 2014:
Saudi Arabia is now being squeezed from three directions in the widening U.S.-Iran war — Iraq to its northeast, Yemen to its southwest, and Iran to its east. (On July 18, Tehran struck Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, its first direct hit on Saudi soil in nearly four months.)
To understand why this matters beyond the price of oil, it helps to picture the crises as a set of nesting dolls.
The innermost doll is Yemen’s own civil war: a decade-old fight between the Houthis (officially known as Ansar Allah), who rule the populous north from Sana’a, and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, formally led by a body called the Presidential Leadership Council. The roots of this war trace to the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, which toppled Yemen’s long-serving president and left a power vacuum the Houthis moved to fill, seizing Sana’a in 2014. Saudi Arabia and a coalition of partners intervened in 2015 with the explicit aim of reversing that takeover and restoring the internationally recognized government, and the war has continued in one form or another ever since.
The middle doll is Saudi Arabia’s broader rivalry with Iran, a contest for regional leadership that has run since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Tehran’s new theocratic government began exporting a revolutionary, Shia-inflected challenge to the Gulf’s Sunni monarchies.
In the meantime, Al Jazeera is reporting Thursday that the Saudi-backed government shot down a drone operated by the Houthis over the city of Marib.
The country’s official SABA news agency said the Houthi targeting of Marib “embodies their escalatory approach and their insistence on continuing their terrorist acts” and that “the air defenses engaged the drone as soon as it entered the city’s airspace and successfully shot it down.”
Over in the Persian Gulf region, Iran officials have said a deal with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalized” which entry and exit routes and protocols having been established. Iran continues to say that Washington has nothing to do with this, and warns against US military interference.
The White House seems to be quite serious about ensuring an offramp from the conflict this time, as the bombs have fallen silent for several days now…
🇺🇸 US Vice President JD Vance said diplomatic negotiations with Iran are “going to be messy” and will “take some time,” in an interview on Fox News, a more cautious tone than President Donald Trump, who claimed earlier this week that “a lot of progress” had been made.
But lots of unknowns and variables remain, as some international reports suggest a final deal could be signed as early as the close of Thursday, or at least by week’s end. Al Jazeera notes: “For Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US must abide by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed with Iran in mid-June, although that would not be enough on its own, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in comments carried by Iran’s IRNA news agency.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has newly warned that “We’re ready to retaliate, but finding a diplomatic solution is the best way to avoid wider escalation and destruction across the region.“
Perhaps its indicative of general Iran war fatigue, but the US appears poised to agree to a deal that recognizes Iran’s claim to control over the Strait of Hormuz–an unthinkable concession even a few weeks ago–and I’m seeing very little discussion of it among the commentariat.
“Threat Against American Interests”: US Halts Michoacán Avocado Inspections, Putting Critical Supplies At Risk
The US suspended avocado inspections in Mexico’s Michoacán state after the US Embassy cited a “threat against American interests.” Because Michoacán is Mexico’s largest avocado-producing region and a top supplier to the US market, any prolonged suspension risks disrupting imports and driving supermarket prices sharply higher.
Michoacán Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said on social media that the temporary halt to inspections was intended to safeguard workers following recent arrests linked to extortion, according to AP News.
Michoacán supplies about 75% to 80% of Mexico’s avocados, while Mexico accounted for more than 80% of US avocado imports in 2025, valued at over $3 billion.
Supplies from Peru, California, and Mexico’s Jalisco state could limit shortages and price increases if the suspension is brief, Rabobank analyst David Magana said.
Wholesale prices for first-quality Michoacán Hass avocados sold at Mexico City’s Central de Abasto have nearly doubled in recent months, signaling tightening conditions in Mexico’s domestic supply chain even before the latest inspection disruption.
“These alternative sources should help mitigate supply shortages and limit upward pressure on prices, particularly if the suspension is temporary,” Magana noted.
AP said that the western state of Michoacán is home to four narcoterrorist cartels that make money through drug trafficking, extortion, and even the avocado industry.
The duration of the disruption will determine the extent of upward pressure on US wholesale avocado prices and how quickly those increases filter through to supermarket shelves.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna’s flu shot for over-50s, marking the first time the agency has licensed a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine for seasonal influenza.
The shot, known as mFlusiva, was given a traditional approval for adults aged 50 to 64, and an accelerated approval for the over-65s, the pharmaceutical giant said on Wednesday.
Moderna has agreed to run an additional study and submit further data on the over-65s in a bid to demonstrate the vaccine’s benefit for that age group.
The approval was based on data from a late-stage trial involving more than 40,000 adults aged 50 and older, which found the shot was 26.5 percent more effective than a licensed standard-dose flu vaccine.
Moderna had to submit separate late-stage data showing the shot generated stronger antibody responses than Sanofi’s high-dose flu vaccine in the over-65s after problems with the methodology in its phase 3 trial.
The vaccine uses mRNA technology, intended to prompt the body to produce influenza antigens and trigger an immune response. Scientists say this approach could potentially allow faster updates of the shot to match the ever-shifting circulating strains.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the FDA, announced in August 2025 that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was winding down mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He said that funding would be redirected away from developing mRNA vaccines toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
Several FDA officials who had voiced opposition to mRNA vaccines have recently departed the agency.
Flu vaccines can range in effectiveness depending on the season, peaking at 60 percent and dropping to as low as 10 percent in the 2004-2005 season, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC and the FDA both recommend annual vaccines for everyone in the United States, including babies once they are 6 months old.
‘Important New Option’
“Flu remains a significant public health challenge, and mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America’s seniors,” Moderna said in an Aug. 5 statement.
MFlusiva will compete with existing flu vaccines from Sanofi, GSK, CSL Seqirus, and AstraZeneca. Conventional flu shots are largely egg-based and contain viral proteins.
Officials in the spring try to predict which strain of flu will be circulating in the following virus season, primarily in the fall and winter, giving manufacturers about six months to produce shots with updated formulations.
This process can result in a mismatch between targeted and circulating strains, an issue that the FDA and Moderna said the mRNA shot could address.
Higher Rates of Adverse Events
The trial foundthe Moderna flu shot caused higher rates of adverse events in recipients than the already available vaccines, with side effects including fatigue, headaches, and muscle pain. Serious adverse events were reported in 2.2 percent of the recipients of the mRNA vaccines – with three events considered by the investigator to be vaccine-related – and in 1.9 percent of those who received the standard-dose comparator vaccine.
Vaccines containing mRNA are cleared in the United States for COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus.
The FDA in 2025 narrowed the approval for Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, known as Spikevax, and for Pfizer-BioNTech’s rival shot, known as Comirnaty, both of which use mRNA technology.
A French peer-reviewed study published in 2022 concluded that mRNA COVID-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna were found to increase the risk of both myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in adolescent and young adult males after the second dose.
Moderna withdrew its application for a COVID-flu combination shot last year after the FDA sought additional evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of its flu component. European regulators in April approved the combination shot.
Lost Revenue
Moderna had been counting on the combined shot and the flu vaccine to replace some of the lost COVID vaccine revenue and to prove the long-term commercial potential of mRNA technology.
Jefferies analysts had forecast $750 million generated from U.S. sales of Moderna’s flu shot and its combination COVID-flu vaccine by 2030.
FDA reviewers said on June 16 that uncertainties remained about the efficacy of mFLUSIVA, then known as mRNA-1010 before its approval, due to an issue with trial methodology.
The phase 3 trial compared the immunogenicity and clinical results in a group that received Moderna’s vaccine with the results from a group that received an authorized, standard flu vaccine.
The U.S. government, though, recommends a higher-dose flu vaccine than a standard shot for adults aged 65 and older.
In a 92-page document, FDA reviewers said, “This limitation affects interpretation of the net clinical benefit in the 65 and older population and is a key issue for Advisory Committee deliberation.”
Other lingering questions included vaccine safety, given that adverse reactions were more common among mRNA-1010 recipients, the report said.
Moderna Connections
Multiple FDA committee members who voted in favor of the approval have connections to Moderna, including El Sahly and Dr. Flor Munoz, who was a Moderna adviser from 2022 to 2024 and played a role in recommending that pregnant women should receive COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna’s withdrawal of its combined Flu and COVID-19 shot came amid heightened FDA scrutiny of vaccines under the agency’s previous leadership.
Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and former vaccine chief Vinay Prasad departed the agency earlier this year.
Makary had faced criticism from companies, lobbyists, and others for agency officials declining to approve certain drugs, including a cancer drug made by Replimune. Makary had defended the decisions in television interviews as following the evidence.
Camp David Clash: Trump Hammered Hegseth For Misleading Him On Arms Supply, WaPo Reports
Following reports that US forces have “used up virtually all” of their precision, long-range missiles in futile attempts to first trigger an Iranian regime change and then to compel Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, now comes reporting that an angry President Trump confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in recent days, accusing the Pentagon of misleading him on critical munitions shortages that leave Trump increasingly powerless in the five-month-old fiasco of a war.
According to sources cited by the Washington Post, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concern about retaliation, Trump’s ire erupted alongside a cabinet meeting held Friday at Camp David. Trump expressed consternation that he’d been assured that the weapon shortage “had been fixed” when that is apparently far from true.
According to “multiple officials” who — reading between the lines — clearly seem to have had it with Fox News talking-head-suddenly-turned-Defense-secretary, Hegseth defended his own actions and tried redirecting the blame to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, a billionaire GOP donor whom Trump plucked out of his role as co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management to give him the number-two job at the Pentagon. Hegseth was said to have thrown Feinberg under the bus for both the shortages and failing to keep Trump fully informed.
The officials characterized Trump as increasingly exasperated by Hegseth, whom they describe as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of launching a war on Iran, saying he persuaded Trump that victory would come quickly and easily. The war that the administration once projected to last three or four weeks is now in its sixth month. Iran has used both its sophisticated missile technology and its inexpensive but huge arsenal of drones to wreak havoc on US and allied forces around the Gulf. Hammered by a shock and awe campaign peppered with the multiple incidents involving mass casualties among innocents — including scores of elementary schoolgirls — the Iranian people have rallied around the Islamic regime, for all its faults. At least 18 US service members lay dead, several hundred have been wounded, and some estimates of the war’s cost to date exceed $100 billion.
The White House and Pentagon denied the account given by the Washington Post’s sources. “This is 100% fake news. Literally neverhappened. And President Trump has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Post. Speaking more broadly, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said “claims about depleted stockpiles, internal disagreements, [and] the Secretary’s position on Iran” are “fictional.” As for Hegseth’s job security, Parnell said he “isn’t going anywhere.”
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the US munitions crisis is even worse than previously understood. In particular, the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) are said to be running critically low. “Washington has used virtually all of these weapons,” two sources told Reuters, after several media reports and think tank studies had already sounded the alarm over dwindling missiles amid both the Iran war and in the years-long process of supplying Ukraine. Low Patriot defense missile supplies have also been a persisting issue in the headlines.
Over the weekend, Trump’s backtracking on his threat to launch “the biggest attack since World War II” was widely attributed to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urging Trump to refrain, fearing a large attack would accomplish little more than triggering massive and devastating retaliation against the kingdom and other Gulf states. Trump’s calculus also likely reflected Pentagon warnings about its shrinking capacity to attack. On Saturday, the Post reported that the commander of US European Command told superiors, in writing, that his forces were stretched thin, and that he might be put in a position where he’d have to choose between defending his “homeland” or the State of Israel.
His candor was praiseworthy, but it may have put a dent in his prospects for advancement.
Anti-Trump GOP Governors Plot To Undermine President’s Immigration Crackdown With Work-Visa Scheme
Two Republican governors with a long history of clashing with Donald Trump are working with Democrats on a plan to hand migrant workers state-issued work permits instead of deportation notices, a direct challenge to the president’s immigration crackdown that the four laid out on camera. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt joined Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Matt Meyer of Delaware for a joint interview with Bloomberg, describing a shared position that has far more in common with the Democratic Party and the labor lobby than with the Trump administration’s approach to the border.
The vehicle for that position is the National Governors Association’s Task Force on Immigration Policy, which Stitt built after noticing a pattern among his colleagues. “The reason I set this task force up is because I realized by talking to my colleagues that they’re having the same issues,” Stitt toldBloomberg reporter Christina Ruffini. “Let’s actually have the governors issue workforce permits.”
That last line is the whole ballgame. The task force wants Congress to hand governors the discretion to issue migrant work permits at the state level, a proposal that treats illegal immigration less as a legal violation and more as a labor supply problem for agriculture, construction and hospitality. It resembles former President George W. Bush’s immigration reform approach, which sent the message to illegal immigrants, “If you’re doing a job an American won’t do, you’re welcome here, for a period of time, to do that job.”
Cox framed the alliance as a breakthrough four decades in the making. “For 40 years, we’ve been trying to do immigration reform and nobody’s ever been able to get it done,” he said. “But what’s different this time is that we have a secure border.” He credited that border security to the current administration while working, in the same breath, to carve states out from under its enforcement arm. “We all care – Republicans and Democrats – about a secure border,” Cox said, a sentiment that gets considerably murkier once the conversation turns to what happens to people already inside it.
Cox described a February meeting among the governors as almost startling in its unity. “We were together in February and having a conversation about immigration, and we were all shocked at the level of bipartisanship, cooperation, and agreement,” he said. “We were really stunned that everybody had kind of the same opinions on what needed to be done.” Bipartisan agreement among governors on loosening enforcement is not the reassurance Cox seems to think it is.
Ruffini asked the group for a show of hands on whether ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have been effective. Neither Cox nor Stitt raised one. Cox pointed to enforcement actions in Minnesota as a specific concern, citing “the violence and the deaths that we’ve seen” and calling the incidents “deeply problematic.” Stitt was even more blunt about his overall assessment. “We’re not using common sense right now,” he said.
Stitt’s example centered on a green card holder from Vietnam who has lived in Oklahoma City for 25 years. “We had a person from Vietnam that’s been in Oklahoma City for 25 years, legally in the United States, with a green card, working at Hobby Lobby,” he said. The man had self-deported after a marijuana arrest then returned to the country legally. “They’ve been a great citizen chasing the American dream, but they’ve been picked up for deportation now,” Stitt said. Gov. Moore added an economic gloss to the argument, saying a deportation agenda focused on criminals ought to travel alongside pro-growth policy rather than replace it.
Neither Republican governor has a great relationship with Trump, and both have clashed with him politically in recent years, which explains their break with him on immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration clearly isn’t on board. Trump won a second term in 2024 in part by promising to close a border that sat wide open for four years under Biden. Immigration has generally been the strongest issue for him, outperforming his approval numbers on the economy and foreign policy.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin set the tone from inside the administration at the same NGA gathering, sitting beside Stitt and offering his own verdict on the odds of any of this actually happening. “Is immigration reform possible? No,” Mullin told the assembled governors. “Do you really need immigration reform? Yes, you do, but can we work with the system we have? Yes.”
Senate Panel Holds Fauci In Contempt For Refusing To Answer Questions
Anthony Fauci has been held in contempt of Congress by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after he repeatedly refused to answer lawmakers’ questions about funding risky research to genetically manipulate bat coronavirus in Wuhan China, and his role in the ensuing lockdown quagmire that cratered the economy after he was put in charge of leading the COVID-19 response.
In an 8-5 vote brought by Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the contempt vote seeks to refer the case directly to the DOJ for prosecution – bypassing a full vote from the Senate.
“Seeking the truth is not a witch hunt,” Paul said be fore the vote, per the WSJ. “Accountability is not vengeance. Accountability is what stands between the American people and a repeat of the mistakes and the very real consequences of the past.”
The Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, called the investigation “one-sided from the beginning,” claiming that “Information has been selectively released to support conclusions that the chairman reached years ago.”
The minority keeps trying to hijack the Fauci hearings with the lie that we haven’t shared the records from this investigation with them. This is a cop-out lie. This has been an intentionally open and transparent investigation. Not one Democrat on the committee cared enough to… pic.twitter.com/hHGtQDV5Ez
Which of course is complete bullshit. Fauci funded the research, botched the response after COVID-19 broke out, lied about it under oath, and then pleaded the 5th when receipts came out.
Or, as Paul wrote prior to the vote: “Dr. Fauci appeared under subpoena and invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse answering questions. During the hearing, I ruled that the Fifth Amendment did not apply because of the pardon, and that Fauci had waived any remaining privilege by giving opening testimony. I ordered him to answer and warned him about contempt, yet he still refused. That is obstruction of a congressional investigation. The Committee will act accordingly.”
PASSED BY REPUBLICANS ON BEHALF OF THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS AND THEIR FAMILIES STILL AFFECTED YEARS AFTER THE COVID PANDEMIC, THE RESOLUTION TO HOLD ANTHONY FAUCI IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS HAS PASSED OUT OF THE SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE BY A VOTE… https://t.co/9wgO1KeMd2
The subpoena, issued in July, directed Fauci to testify on the committee’s investigation into “risky life sciences research and the origins of the COVID-19 virus,” according to the Epoch Times.
The July 29 hearing itself was a prolonged exercise in refusal. Fauci opened by accusing Paul of an “unhinged obsession” with him and claiming the sole purpose of the session was to trap him into saying something that would land him “behind bars.”
From that point forward he answered nothing of consequence. Senators pressed him on gain-of-function research funding, the lab-leak evidence he had privately acknowledged while publicly promoting a natural-origin narrative, lockdown policies, school closures, personal financial awards solicited with federal employees on taxpayer time, and contradictions between his public statements and private diary entries. He declined them all.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed Tuesday that federal investigators have found widespread irregularities in Maine’s support services for adults with autism.
Speaking Tuesday during a Department of Justice anti-fraud press conference in Philadelphia, Oz said investigators have found that 90 percent of autism services provided by the blue state lacked justification.
“Yesterday I was in Maine,” Oz said. “We’re investigating home support services, just like you’re seeing here, for adults, in that case, who have autism.”
“We have massive increases that have grown to the kinds of numbers you could not imagine being able to show on a clipboard, with 90 percent of services billed and paid for—in Maine in particular—where there is no justifiable backup for it,” Oz said. “Nine out of ten services, you can’t justify they should have happened. It’s the opposite of what you’d normally expect.”
The Trump administration has been urging states to increase oversight of Medicaid autism services, and examine whether a massive surge of spending on a new therapy called “applied behavior analysis” is medically appropriate, Axios reported.
During the press conference Tuesday, state and federal prosecutors announced charges of 19 defendants in connection with a $4 million scheme to defraud government-run Medicare and Medicaid system in Pennsylvania.
Federal officials detailed several new anti-fraud initiatives, including “expanded Medicaid Strike Forces, new investigative toolkits for states and enhanced data analytics designed to identify suspicious billing patterns before taxpayer money is paid,” Maine Wire reported.
Oz did not identify the providers under review, specify the total amount of claims being examined or announce any criminal charges connected to Maine. He also did not allege that every unsupported claim constituted fraud. Instead, he said the findings demonstrate the need for significantly greater oversight of Medicaid-funded home support programs.
Nevertheless, his remarks represent a major escalation in the Trump administration’s examination of MaineCare spending.
Federal officials have spent months reviewing Maine’s administration of Medicaid-funded autism and developmental disability services. Earlier this year, federal auditors questioned tens of millions of dollars in payments involving rehabilitative and community support services while requesting additional records from the Mills administration concerning providers and billing practices.
Far-left Maine Democrat Senate candidate Troy Jackson’s health care platform is focused on passing a government run “Medicare for All” insurance system to replace the current system.
Oz said programs that were originally designed to help disabled Americans have increasingly become vehicles for fraud.
“We have no tolerance for anyone who invents hours, invents a disability, invents a workforce at the expense of people who depend on these programs,” Oz said. “And if you love these most vulnerable Americans, you should care as well.”
The CMS administrator told reporters that the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for the explosion of fraudulent Medicaid schemes currently plaguing the country.
“What happened in 2020 that has catalyzed this?” Oz asked. “COVID appears to have unleashed massive fraud because criminals knew the federal government would not follow up on the money that was being sent out.”
The Trump administration, he said, has adopted an “all-of-government” strategy deploying the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and state attorneys general to identify and prosecute Medicaid fraud.
“They’re not just stealing money, they’re stealing our trust,” Oz said of the fraudsters. “And that’s a much more difficult thing to replace.”
At the close of the nearly two-hour long presser, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald delivered a stern warning to those defrauding government health care programs.
“The era of getting rich off the backs of our programs for our sick, elderly and disabled is over,” McDonald said. “Your time is up.”
