52.8 F
Chicago
Monday, May 4, 2026
Home Blog Page 250

Trump Admin Can End Protected Status For Nationals Of 3 More Countries: Appeals Court

0
Trump Admin Can End Protected Status For Nationals Of 3 More Countries: Appeals Court

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Trump administration can move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday.

Illegal immigrants from Nicaragua, Ecuador and other nationalities at a door on the border wall waiting to be picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 4, 2023. Paul Ratje/Reuters

It was a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel, ruling to temporarily lift a previous federal judge’s ruling that blocked the termination of the status for immigrants of the three countries and accused the federal government of possibly being racially motivated in its actions.

There are nearly 89,000 immigrants from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua who have been granted temporary status to live in the United States.

“TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Feb. 9 post on X.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in California blocked Noem’s attempt to end TPS for nationals of the three countries in December, citing comments about immigrants from the Homeland Security secretary and President Donald Trump as her reasoning.

The judge also said the Trump administration did not consider the conditions of the nations that might prevent immigrants from returning.

The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in California on Monday paused Thompson’s ruling for the duration of the appeal, stating the federal government could likely prove there are legitimate reasons to terminate Nepali, Honduran, and Nicaraguan protection.

A win for the rule of law and vindication for the U.S. Constitution. Under the previous administration, Temporary Protected Status was abused to allow violent terrorists, criminals, and national security threats into our nation,” Noem said.

In contrast to the previous federal judge ruling to block the terminations, the appeals court found the federal government could likely prove that Noem did consider the conditions of Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua before ending the roughly 89,000 immigrants’ protected status.

The TPS statute allows the secretary of Homeland Security to declare a foreign state for protected status when “nationals of that state cannot return there safely due to armed conflict, natural disaster, or other ‘extraordinary and temporary conditions,’” the appeals court wrote Monday.

TPS holders are eligible for work and protection from deportation while their home country remains designated. The Homeland Security secretary can periodically review conditions in a foreign nation and decide whether a protected status allowing stay in the United States is still warranted for its citizens. If conditions aren’t met, Noem has the authority to terminate the TPS by giving notice in the Federal Register, a daily journal for the U.S. government.

“Given the improved situation in each of these countries [Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua], we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation,” Noem said on X.

Nepal came under TPS designation after a devastating 2015 earthquake, killing nearly 9,000 people across multiple countries, including Nepal.

Honduras and Nicaragua received their designation after Hurricane Mitch in 1999, resulting in at least 10,000 deaths in Central America.

The appeals court’s decision is a big win for the Trump administration as it continues immigration law enforcement in cities across America.

The federal government has also tried to end TPS for an estimated 300,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States. A federal judge ruled last week that the termination for nationals of the Caribbean nation violated federal law.

The Trump administration is appealing the case.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 17:40

Watch: Bondi Explodes Over Epstein During Shouting Match With Massie And Top Dems

0
Watch: Bondi Explodes Over Epstein During Shouting Match With Massie And Top Dems

The Trump admin couldn’t hand Democrats a fatter pitch than how they’ve handled the Epstein release… 

On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed repeatedly with Democrats during a tense House Judiciary Committee hearing, deflecting pointed questions about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files before the session devolved into a shouting match with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) over redactions, co-conspirators and DOJ accountability.

The fireworks began when Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) pressed Bondi on whether DOJ has indicted or is investigating any of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators, citing what he called “concrete evidence of disgusting criminality” in recently released files. Bondi attempted to sidestep the question; when Nadler repeated it, she raised her voice and insisted she would “answer the question the way I want to answer the question,” talking over Nadler as colleagues tried to intercede. As the exchange escalated, Bondi pivoted away from Epstein entirely – invoking the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq and touting retirement accounts. 

Democrats kept the pressure on. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) accused Bondi of lying under oath after she cited a July 2025 DOJ memo asserting there was no evidence warranting investigations of “uncharged third parties.” Lieu pointed to images of former Prince Andrew and then played a clip of Donald Trump with Epstein, asking whether there were underage girls present. Bondi responded by attacking Democrats and praising Trump, saying there was “no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime.” When Lieu cited an FBI tip and witness statement and urged DOJ to interview the witness, Bondi snapped, “Don’t you ever accuse me of a crime,” then turned to a large white binder as she accused Lieu of deflecting from crime in his district.

Similar exchanges followed with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), with Bondi repeatedly veering into personal attacks and unrelated topics rather than answering the questions posed. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) ultimately moved the hearing along.

Rep. Jayapal (D-WA) brought Epstein accusers…

And when asked again to face them…

The hearing’s most explosive moment came when Massie, a co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, confronted Bondi with DOJ and FBI documents he said showed victims’ names disclosed while alleged abusers’ names were blacked out – and a 2019 FBI file that listed Epstein confidant Les Wexner as a “co-conspirator,” a designation Massie said was redacted in DOJ’s release. As Massie asked who authorized the redactions and why, Bondi interrupted repeatedly, insisting the issue had been “corrected within 40 minutes” and accusing Massie of acting as if there were a cover-up. When Massie noted the change came only after he flagged it, the exchange turned heated, with Bondi laughing off the criticism and attacking Massie personally.

Who’s responsible?” asked Massie. “Are you able to track who in the organization made this massive failure and released the victims’ names?”

Bondi shot back that Massie was a “failed politician” and a “hypocrite.” 

Massie then played testimony from FBI Director Kash Patel, who told Congress there was “no credible information” that anyone besides Ghislaine Maxwell assisted Epstein in trafficking women and girls, and asked Bondi whether that was her position. Bondi did not answer directly, instead urging victims to call the FBI and attempting to redirect blame to prior administrations, including former Attorney General Merrick Garland. When Massie reclaimed his time and framed the matter as a decades-long failure spanning multiple administrations, Bondi shouted that he did not “get to reclaim time” and again declined to address the substance.

By the end of the exchange, Bondi had not answered whether DOJ agrees there is “no credible information” about co-conspirators, why a document listing Wexner as a co-conspirator was redacted, or who approved releasing victims’ names while obscuring alleged abusers. The hearing closed with unanswered questions—and a stark contrast between Democrats’ early sparring over evasions and a later, bipartisan rupture that put the department’s handling of the Epstein files squarely at the center of the controversy.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 17:20

NYU Prof: Trump’s Whole Milk Push Is ‘Dog Whistle To Far-Right’

0
NYU Prof: Trump’s Whole Milk Push Is ‘Dog Whistle To Far-Right’

Authored by Matt Lamb via The College Fix,

When President Donald Trump signed a law that allowed for the National School Lunch Program to distribute whole milk again, he was actually sending out a signal to neo-Nazis, so says a New York University professor.

In January, President Trump celebrated the bipartisan “Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025,” which will allow the federally subsidized school lunch program to offer the higher-fat content dairy once against.

President Obama removed the option in 2010 over fears it was contributing to childhood obesity.

The legislation passed by a voice vote in the U.S. House and unanimously in the U.S. Senate, according to Roll Call.

While many would see this as a triumph of partisan gridlock, Professor Arthur Caplan sees something much darker.

“As a student of and writer on the history of science and public health under fascist regimes, I am suspicious,” he said.

“Milk drinking is political. Drinking whole white milk has played a big role in racist and far-right thinking.”

Here we go.

“Fascists have used the beverage as a rallying cry for white supremacy since the days of Il Duce’s (Benito Mussolini’s) public health campaigns in Italy,” Caplan wrote in The American Journal of Bioethics.

“The Nazis were enamored of whole milk as well…In America, drinking whole milk has for years been a part of alt-right, white nationalist messaging in tweets, memes, and videos.”

“Alt-right?” 2018 called, it wants its boogeyman back.

(Also, whenever Caplan accuses someone else of being authoritarian, remember he supported barring individuals from flying on planes and eating in restaurants unless they showed their vaccine papers).

Caplan cited examples, now nearly a decade old, and from the anti-Trump website The Conversation, to justify his argument. Instead of saying “for years,” Caplan should have said, “for a year.”

He concluded:

Racism and eugenics, sadly, may be playing a role in the sudden drive to fetishize drinking whole milk. Drinking whole milk is a dog whistle to far right, white nationalists. The campaign to promote whole milk may have many factors behind it, but at a time when eugenics, racism, and white nationalism fuel too much of our political rhetoric, the whole milk campaign must be swallowed with care.

Caplan’s argument is a shift from some sage advice he offered in 2005, when he warned people against being quick to invoke the “Nazi analogy” in debates.

“Sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich, we owe it to those who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis to insist that those who invoke the Nazi analogy do so with care,” he warned.

Meanwhile, well-respected bioethicist Wesley Smith called Caplan’s argument “idiotic.”

He wrote in National Review:

One of the honored guests at the Oval Office signing ceremony of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act — mentioned in passing by Caplan, which put whole milk back on school menus — was that notorious white supremacist Dr. Ben Carson. One of the early sponsors was Senator John Fetterman, a famous KKK sympathizer.

As Smith said, drinking milk is about health, not “bigotry.”

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 17:00

Epstein’s Island And The Gateway To The Psychology Of Evil

0
Epstein’s Island And The Gateway To The Psychology Of Evil

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

Conspiracy theorists are almost always right. We have been proved right time and time again and we will continue to be right about many things that the corporate media used to call “fringe.” For those out there who are like me; people who have been trying to warn the public about these threats for 20 years or more, I just want to say: We have won a resounding victory. We brought the dark secrets of the elites into the mainstream and there’s nothing that can stop this train now.

However, the fight is far from over and don’t expect anyone to give you any awards or even recognition. It’s the nature of our work, and frankly, the best thing that can happen in the long run is that researchers and analysts like us eventually become obsolete. In the meantime, the infowar to save civilization continues.

One issue I have spearheaded in my career (along with a handful of other liberty writers) is delving into the psychology and ideology of the globalists. I find their existence to be fascinating. Revolting to be sure, but also fascinating.

The theory which I have held for two decades is that the globalists are first and foremost an occult network of organized psychopaths. Meaning, they seek out people with psychopathic traits (latent or otherwise) in order to recruit and grow their numbers. The common assumption in the general public is that psychopaths are supposed to operate in isolation; that they do not work together because they are too self absorbed to organize.

History shows us that this is simply not so.

From the Mafia, to violent drug cartels, to religious cults, to authoritarian governments, we have seen psychopaths congregate together and cooperate in the worst moments of our timeline.

They do it for mutual gain, but I believe there is an agenda that goes well beyond that.

It’s a far reaching conspiracy which the recent release of the Epstein Files seems to support.

To be clear, I think the information presented so far in the files barely scratches the surface of the evil we are dealing with. I also think it’s important to point out that people being “named” in the Epstein Files is meaningless without context.

Some public figures like Donald Trump or Elon Musk are “named” as interacting with Epstein but there is zero evidence that they participated in anything nefarious (Epstein approached ANYONE with power or influence and tried to recruit them). Furthermore, anonymous FBI tips from random weirdos do not make a criminal case. Others are named in the files and the context suggests that they have done some pretty disgusting things.

The files represent enough evidence to justify a massive international investigation, they do not represent proof of crimes that would hold up in a court of law (at least, not so far).

We may actually never see indictments of any Epstein Island regulars. As I noted in my article “Governmental Self-Preservation: Why We’ll Never See The Real Epstein List”, published last year, I do think there are many people in the Trump Administration that want to see the Epstein case lead to arrests. However, I also predicted that the revelations within the files could trigger even darker discoveries that might cause total collapse.

The people handling this info are faced with a conundrum: Pursue the light of truth, dump it all on the internet and risk full blown societal chaos, or, drip feed info to the public and try to keep the system from imploding. Forget about aliens from outer space – The disclosure of concrete proof that a luciferian cult of baby eating bankers, CEOs, politicians and bureaucrats controls the planet is the real Black Swan event.

One cannot have a meaningful discussion about the nature of power in modern civilization (post-industrial revolution) without accepting the cold hard reality that most of the key events in our recent history have been manipulated by a hidden consortium of elites. We also can’t have any legitimate debate about how to solve the problem without accepting the fact that “evil” is an undeniable constant.

It’s the common denominator, the key to the equation.

Evil is a tangible and autonomous entity that the wields influence over human society, often using people with inherent weaknesses of the soul as vessels for achieving its machinations. Yes, that sounds rather biblical, but I would argue that our religious ancestors might have had a much better grasp on the nature of evil than we do today given our futurist propensity to deny anything we can’t immediately explain with science.

The Epstein Files suggests an evil that’s beyond reckoning for many people who have never been exposed to research on globalism, and even those who have been exposed might find themselves shocked by the discoveries.

To summarize, Jeffery Epstein was not the top of the pyramid. He was also not some self serving flim-flam man selling sex and depravity just to gain access to the halls of power. Rather, Epstein was a middle-man, a drug dealer selling dopamine experiences as a reward for members of the cabal (while collecting blackmail materials). But the cabal is far bigger than what we see in the Epstein files and it supersedes any one nation or government.

There are strange mentions of “cloning”, baby farming for black market sales, and the creation of a “superior race” in the files. In other words, the interests of Epstein and his associates went well beyond sexual fetishes.

Some of the Epstein emails openly discuss sexual abuse and torture of victims brought to the island. The victimization of teens is less protected and easier to prove. Then, there’s the creepier elements of the files. Coded language is rampant within the Epstein emails, using food as symbols for clearly illicit contraband.

From the Pizzagate information (the John Podesta emails) released by Wikileaks in 2016, we can see that food code words are common for the globalists and seem to be tied to the abuse of young children. Pizza symbolism has been common within pedophilia networks for many years leading up to the exposure of Pizzagate, and it’s also common within the pages of the Epstein Files (the word “pizza” is used as code at least 900 times in the emails).

The use of “beef jerky” in the Epstein emails (also mentioned hundreds of times) is specifically disconcerting, including talk of keeping the “jerky on ice”, a strange obsession with jerky portion weights, lab testing of “jerky” to prevent sickness, etc. Whatever they are talking about, it’s not beef jerky. You have to ask yourself, what kind of edible product would be so criminal that it has to be hidden behind elaborate code-speak?

The obvious conclusion would be that “jerky” is code for human meat. Some might argue that there’s no benefits to eating human meat so why would the elites do it? These critics are operating from a logical perspective and not an occultist perspective. One cannot separate Epstein Island from occultism and still understand what happened there.

For the elites who link themselves back to the pagan practices of ancient Babylonian times, from the era of Molech worshipers (Bohemian Grove) and beyond, the ritual of cannibalism is integral to their religion. They believe that human sacrifice gives them power and this is a common thread within most pagan systems including satanism.

Luciferianism/satanism is an integral element of globalism. The evidence of its practice within globalist circles is immense and cannot be ignored. Some skeptics would denote a separation between “satanism” and “luciferianism”, but for all intents and purposes they are intertwined belief systems.

Satanists are occupied with the pursuit of pleasure at the expense of morality, while luciferians are occupied with the pursuit of power and godhood at the expense of morality. For adherents of both practices, their motto is “Do What Thou Wilt.”

As I outlined in my article “Luciferianism: A Secular Look At A Destructive Globalist Belief System”, published in 2019, global elitists derive their spiritual ecstasy from the worship of the material and the corruption of the pure. They seek to deconstruct creation and human nature, to prove that all people are as depraved as they are and that morality is an artificial limitation on power and pleasure.

Their system is rife with psychopathic indicators and I assert that luciferienism is a religion designed specifically to affirm the destructive tendencies of psychopaths and narcopaths. But what are these tendencies?

Psychopaths lack any sense of empathy and function only as parasites who feed on the rest of humanity. This is actually one of the reasons I’m fascinated by them. Not because they are particularly interesting as individuals, but because their existence seems to be a dangerous anomaly. They are less than 1% of the total human population but they cause the vast majority of human tragedies.

The average person has the capacity for evil, there’s no doubt.

People can be driven to all kinds of horrors depending on their circumstances.

But, the majority of us have a mechanism called “conscience” which stops us from committing evil most of the time. It also causes us to feel guilt when we know we have acted in a destructive manner.

If the majority of the population did not have a universal experience of conscience and morality, we would have gone extinct as a species thousands of years ago.

Globalists (psychopaths) do not have this mechanism. In fact, they view conscience as a hindrance, a trait of the weak and the easily victimized. They are a predatory class of human. I would even suggest that they are not human at all, but a mutation or a cancerous intrusion.

When psychopaths achieve overt material wealth they then have easy access to the resources they need to satisfy their impulses at will. At this stage in the evolution of a psychopath they have a tendency to become bored. They begin to chase increasing depravity and darkness in search of a greater dopamine fix. The more degenerate and taboo the activity, the more exciting it is.

But these are nothing but individual motivations and personal addictions. What are the ambitions and drives of the organized cabal?

Part of the allure of occultism is the glee some people feel when they believe they are “superior” to their common man. Occult groups sell their members on the notion that they will be set apart as “elite” when they join with the keepers of secrets.

When we read the numerous emails tied to Epstein as well as his island and his ranch in New Mexico, the people who correspond with him seem childish and giddy. They snicker like adolescent brats when they engage in codes and riddles. They’re committing atrocities beyond the comprehension of the average man, and they feel joy because they’re basking in the “cloak and dagger” of it all.

I think this might be a hard thing to reconcile for many people in the conspiracy field, but the cabal is not made up of darkly brilliant minds imposing cold and calculating will. Rather, it is mostly made up of egomaniacal narcissists giggling like retards as they revel in their delusions of grandeur. If you saw how these people behave behind the scenes, you would probably feel embarrassed for them and feel like an idiot for imagining them to be cunning or untouchable masterminds.

Without their money and the collective protection of their coven, they are tiny people without merit living a meaningless existence. That said, make no mistake – It’s the putrid sociopathy of their childishness that makes them exceedingly dangerous. To be infantile while rejoicing in the blood of innocence requires a diabolical and demonic mind.

From my research Epstein’s Island might have been tame in comparison to some of the other meeting places of the elites. His island was not the end destination but a gateway for initiates. I believe the island was a test, a venue where evil is concentrated and people with apprehensions are filtered away.

The worst of the worst likely moved on to even more vile nesting grounds hidden in plain site around the world. The reason the Epstein Files matter is because they open the door to a wider investigation of the globalist networks and their horrific playgrounds.

I suggest that we need to bring back the concept of “witch hunters”; people who are able to think like occultists while using modern investigative methods in order to track down these networks and erase them from the Earth. If government officials refuse to do this, then vigilantism is inevitable.

Unfortunately, it’s no mistake that globalist NGOs have flooded the west with third world migrants and mobilized armies of far left insurgents in the past few years. After the pandemic they know that the public is reaching information saturation and that their agenda is coming to light. They will seek to overthrow conservative movements, exploit useful idiots to destroy their enemies and cause general mayhem in order to sabotage any organized resistance.

If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

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

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 16:20

Historic Negative Jobs Revisions: 1 Million Fewer Jobs Added In 2025, Only 15,000 Avg Jobs Monthly

0
Historic Negative Jobs Revisions: 1 Million Fewer Jobs Added In 2025, Only 15,000 Avg Jobs Monthly

Ahead of today’s jobs report, we warned that (another) massive negative revision was coming to the US labor market, predicting it would be “1 million plus.” We were right.

Recall that alongside today’s jobs report, the BLS would release its annual benchmark revision to the establishment survey and a methodological update to the birth-death model (as a reminder, the BLS’s preliminary estimate of the benchmark payrolls revision indicated that cumulative payroll growth between April 2024 and March 2025 would be revised 911k lower).

More importantly, the BLS would also update the net birth-death forecasts in the post-benchmark period (April 2025-December 2025) to incorporate information from the QCEW and the monthly payrolls survey. We said that a sharp downward revision to the post-benchmark period “appears likely”, reflecting the continued slowdown in the job growth measured by the QCEW and weak private payroll growth measured by the establishment survey during post-benchmark period, something we had been warning about for years. 

Sure enough, in its report today, the BLS announced that “the establishment survey data released today have been benchmarked to reflect comprehensive counts of payroll jobs for March 2025. These counts are derived principally from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which counts jobs covered by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax system. The benchmark process results in revisions to not seasonally adjusted data from April 2024 forward. Seasonally adjusted data from January 2021 forward are subject to revision. In addition, data for some series prior to 2021, both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, incorporate other revisions.”

And here is the summary table the BLS published to adjust for the revised Birth-Death model (there is much more data to today’s revisions which we summarize below).

With that introduction aside, this is how the revised payrolls numbers looked. 

Starting at the top, total US payrolls were revised dramatically lower starting with the Jan 2021 data and every month since, and net of the cumulative changes December 31, 2025 total nonfarm employment was revised lower by 1.029 million from 159.546 million to 158.497 million.

As expected, the bulk of the negative revisions took place in 2025, with negative revisions to 2024 amounting to -413K, 2023 was just -73K while 2021 and 2021 were revised modestly higher. 

Focusing on 2025, the negative revisions to both the year and previous years, meant that the change in total jobs for 2025 was revised from an already low +584,000 to a shockingly low +181,000. 

Finally, net of the aggressive revisions to 2025 monthly payrolls, what was previously an average increase of 48.7K jobs in 2025, has now been revised to just 15.1K!

Of course, this is not the first time the Dept of Labor confirmed it has massively revised jobs lower due to erroneous adjustment factors and birth-death additions. Recall, it was last September when we first warned the April 2024 – March 2025 period would be revised massively lower (we now know it was). But it followed another huge revision for 2024 which subtracted 818K jobs and also a 306K revision to 2023.

Putting it all together, we now know with certainty that the flawed Birth-Death model (as well as other smaller seasonal adjustments), led to 2.5 million jobs being revised away since 2019, with negative revisions in 6 of the past 7 years (only 2022 saw a modest positive adjustment)

Last but not least, more revisions are coming: while the January jobs report usually incorporates new population estimates from the Census Bureau into the household survey, those figures were delayed by one month due to last year’s record-long government shutdown. Officials from the Trump administration in recent days have tried to reset expectations for upcoming jobs numbers due to deportations and slower population growth. As a result, expect even more negative revisions next month.

Appendix: 

Those curious how the BLS changed its entire birth-death model methodology to incorporate current sample information each month (which follows the same methodology applied to the April through October 2024 forecasts during the 2024 post-benchmark period) should read question 9 in the CES Birth-Death Model Frequently Asked Questions

Additionally, a BLS article that discusses the benchmark and post-benchmark revisions and other technical issues is available here.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 16:15

FDA Refuses To Review Moderna’s Application For Experimental Flu Shot

0
FDA Refuses To Review Moderna’s Application For Experimental Flu Shot

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to review Moderna’s experimental flu shot, the company announced Tuesday.

Already submitted and accepted for review in the European Union, Canada, and Australia, the experimental shot’s application being denied by the FDA is another sign of President Donald Trump’s administration’s impact on U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Director Vinayak Prasad signed the refusal to review letter, objecting to Moderna’s study design and its lack of an “adequate and well-controlled” study.

Moderna’s CEO refuted to Prasad’s assessment.

“It should not be controversial to conduct a comprehensive review of a flu vaccine submission that uses an FDA-approved vaccine as a comparator in a study that was discussed and agreed on with CBER prior to starting,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the news release.

According to the pharmaceutical company, the FDA did not identify any specific safety or efficacy concerns with the experimental flu shot, called mRNA-1010.

Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced its plan in August 2025 to begin winding down mRNA vaccine development, including the cancellation and de-scoping of contracts and solicitations. The decision came after a review of mRNA-related investments started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in the news release.

The HHS secretary added that his agency will be investing in better solutions.

In the latest setback with Moderna’s experimental mRNA shot, the company called the move by the FDA “inconsistent” with prior feedback it has received from the agency.

In April 2024, Moderna submitted its phase three study to the FDA’s CBER for review. The agency sent written guidance back, which did not raise any objections about the phase three trial, Moderna said.

Following the completion of the experimental shot’s phase three efficacy trial in August 2025, Moderna held another meeting with the FDA agency for feedback. The Moderna news release said that at no time during the meeting or in written feedback did CBER hint that it would refuse to review the shot’s application.

“This decision by CBER, which did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product, does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines,” Bancel said.

With mRNA-1010’s acceptance for review in the European Union, Canada, and Australia, Moderna said it plans to file more submissions in additional countries this year.

Meanwhile, the drug company has requested a meeting with the FDA agency to understand the path forward.

“We look forward to engaging with CBER to understand the path forward as quickly as possible so that America’s seniors, and those with underlying conditions, continue to have access to American-made innovations,” the CEO said.

The refusal to review Moderna’s experimental flu vaccine comes as the Trump administration is making sweeping changes to the U.S. health complex, like inverting the food pyramid, narrowing the childhood vaccine schedule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitting vaccines may cause autism, and more.

RFK Jr. helped launch the Make America Healthy Again movement, which is advocating for healthier diets, safer farming practices, more awareness of store-bought foods laden with chemicals, and trying to identify the root causes of chronic disease.

The FDA refusing to review Moderna’s experimental flu shot becomes the latest setback for big pharmaceutical companies under the Trump administration.

The pharmaceutical company said it does not expect impacts to its 2026 financial guidance and forecasts the earliest approvals for its experimental flu shot to begin late 2026 or early 2027.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 15:45

Real Estate Services Stocks Crash In Latest “AI Scare Trade”

0
Real Estate Services Stocks Crash In Latest “AI Scare Trade”

FIrst it was SaaS (in particular, and Software in general), then Private Credit, then Insurance Brokers, then it was financials/brokers that were hammered yesterday… and today’s it’s the turn of real estate service stocks to tumble as investors followed the bouncing AI disruption ball and freaked out over the sector’s vulnerability to the newest crop of artificial intelligence applications and tools that can disrupt countless industries.

As the latest daily AI scare – this time focusing on real estate – hit the market, shares of CBRE Group Inc. plunged as much as 15%, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. slid 13% and Cushman & Wakefield Ltd. fell 15%. For all three firms, the moves mark the biggest drop since March 2020 in the midst of the Covid-driven market selloff.   

“We believe investors are rotating out of high-fee, labor-intensive business models viewed as potentially vulnerable to AI-driven disruption,” Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Jade Rahmani writes in a note on Wednesday adding that the selloff is “due to ‘AI Scare Trade’,” the analyst wrote.

Still, the analyst also noted that “while the threat of technology disintermediation is not new to the industry” the current sell-off “may overstate the immediate risk to complex deal-making, even as the long-term AI impact remains a ‘wait-and-see’.” 

According to Goldman trader Christian deGrasse “while rates are up modestly post NFPs, price action in lower rated sensitive sectors (CRE Brokers; Mortgage originators & brokerages) are suggesting a more dramatic shift in positioning here.”

The group is the latest to get caught up in what Rahmani calls the “AI scare trade,” after investors rushed to dump shares of software firms, private credit companies, wealth managers and insurance brokers within the span of just over a week. 

The fears emerged last week after AI startup Anthropic released tools aimed at automating work tasks in areas ranging from legal services to financial research to real estate. At the same time, analysts and investors have warned that some of this steep selling reflects a knee-jerk reaction and the market is wildly overestimating the risk inherent in hallucinating chatbots taking away millions of jobs.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 15:35

Apple Slides On Report Latest Attempt To Re-Launch Siri Runs Into “Snags”

0
Apple Slides On Report Latest Attempt To Re-Launch Siri Runs Into “Snags”

Apple is sliding on a Bloomberg report that its long-planned upgrade to the Siri virtual assistant has run into new snags during testing in recent weeks, potentially pushing back the release of several highly anticipated functions.

After planning to include the new capabilities in iOS 26.4, an OS update slated for March, Apple is now working to spread them out over future versions. That would mean postponing at least some features until at least iOS 26.5, due in May, and iOS 27, which comes out in September. It wasn’t immediately clear what the snags in question are. 

The latest hitches are part of a long saga for Apple, which first announced plans for the revamped Siri in June 2024. That year, the iPhone maker showed off capabilities that would let the assistant tap into personal data and on-screen content to better fulfill requests. The upgraded Siri also would let users precisely control apps from Apple and third parties via their voice. All the new features were due by early 2025.

In the spring of last year, Apple delayed the rollout, saying the new Siri would instead arrive in 2026. It never announced more specific timing. Internally, though, Apple settled on the March 2026 target – tying it to iOS 26.4 – a goal that remained in place as recently as last month. 

But testing has uncovered fresh problems with the software, prompting the latest postponements, Bloomberg reported citing sources. Siri doesn’t always properly process queries or can take too long to handle requests, they said.

In recent days, Apple instructed engineers to use the upcoming iOS 26.5 in order to test new Siri features, implying that the functionality may have been moved back by at least one release. Internal versions of that update now include a notice describing the addition of some Siri enhancements. 

One feature is especially likely to slip: the expanded ability for Siri to tap into personal data. That technology would let users ask the assistant to, say, search old text messages to locate a podcast shared by a friend and immediately play it.

Other features running behind include the most advanced commands for voice-based control of in-app actions, a system known as app intents. It would let people ask Siri to find an image, edit it and send it to a contact, all in a single command. Apple employees testing iOS 26.5 say early support for these features exists, but they don’t function reliably in all cases.

Another challenge: The new Siri sometimes falls back on its existing integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT instead of using Apple’s own technology. That can happen even when Siri should be capable of handling the request. 

Apple shares pared their gains on the news Wednesday. The stock was up 1.1% to $276.71 as of 2:52 p.m. in New York after earlier climbing as high as 2.4%.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 15:20

Public Trust In US Government Nears Historic Lows

0
Public Trust In US Government Nears Historic Lows

The United States has fallen to its lowest-ever rank in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a leading global index that measures perception of corruption in the public sector among independent experts and business people.

In 2025, the U.S. fell down one spot to 29th place (out of 182) with a score of 64/100 on a 0 to 100 scale, where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 completely clean.

This ranking puts the country on the same level as the Bahamas, and below Uruguay (17th place), Bhutan (18th) and the United Arab Emirates (21st). The United States had been on a slow decline in the index since 2017, when the country scored 75/100.

Several factors are blamed for the U.S.’ poor score, including measures put in place last year by the Trump administration that have severely hindered the federal government’s ability to fight public corruption, such as pausing investigations into corporate foreign bribery, weakening institutions or curtailing enforcement of a foreign agent registration law.

In a statement published yesterday, Transparency International wrote:

“Our data show that democracies, typically stronger on anti-corruption than autocracies or flawed democracies, are experiencing a worrying decline in performance. This trend spans countries such as the United States (64), Canada (75) and New Zealand (81), to various parts of Europe, like the United Kingdom (70), France (66) and Sweden (80). Another concerning pattern is increasing restrictions by many states on freedoms of expression, association and assembly.”

On the United States, the anti-curruption coalition added: “Although 2025 developments are not yet fully reflected, actions targeting independent voices and undermining judicial independence raise serious concerns. Beyond the CPI findings, the temporary freeze and weakening of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act signal tolerance for corrupt business practices, while cuts to US aid for overseas civil society have weakened global anti-corruption efforts. Political leaders elsewhere have taken this as a cue to further restrict NGOs, journalists and other independent voices.”

According to recent aggregated data from the Pew Research Center based on series of national polls, trust in the government was nearing historic lows at the end of 2025, with only 17 percent of Americans trusting the government to do what is right just about always or most of the time.

As Statista’s Valentine Fourreau shows in the infographic below, trust in the government has been on a slow decline since it peaked at 54 percent in October 2001, during George W. Bush’s first term (such a high level of approval hadn’t been recorded since the early 1970s, under President Nixon).

Infographic: Public Trust in U.S. Government Nears Historic Lows | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

The lowest level recorded since 2000 was in October 2011, under President Obama.

Trust in the government hit a low of 15 percent, which coincided with the announcement of the official withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year and the expansion of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 15:00

Hours-Long Netanyahu Meeting Concludes Away From Cameras, Trump Committed To Iran Talks

0
Hours-Long Netanyahu Meeting Concludes Away From Cameras, Trump Committed To Iran Talks

Update(1443ET): President Trump met with Netanyahu for a reported 3-hours at the White on Wednesday, away from the cameras and with no press briefings either before or after. Trump later indicated that nothing definitive was reached on the Iran matter other than “I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue.”

“If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” he stated in a Truth Social post. “Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”

It was expected that Netanyahu would seek a muscular US approach to Tehran, and Israel has essentially been against even holding negotiations, charging that Tehran is using the process to stall and development nuclear weapons, and to expand its missile arsenal. Israeli leadership has time and again complained it’s a waste of time. But it seems Trump is ready to give the negotiations route a serious try. There are also indicators that the Commander-in-Chief is not ready to order another US aircraft carrier group to Middle East waters. All of this will come as good news to those wishing to see climb-down and de-escalation on threats of military strike. However, everything could change on a dime:

The Pentagon has told a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare to deploy to the Middle East as the U.S. military readies for a potential attack on Iran, according to three U.S. officials. 

President Trump said Tuesday that he was weighing sending a second carrier to the Middle East to prepare for military action if negotiations with Iran failed. The order to deploy could be issued in a matter of hours, one of the officials said.

The officials cautioned that Trump hadn’t yet given an official order to deploy the second carrier, and that plans could change. The carrier would join aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln that is already in the region.

* * *

“I am now leaving for the United States for my seventh trip to meet with President Trump since he was elected for a second term,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said prior to his departure to Washington. “This, of course, does not include his unforgettable visit to Israel and his speech in the Knesset.” (Seven since Trump took office again!)

He and President Trump are expected to begin their meeting at the White House, focused on Iran negotiations and the possibility of military action, by late-morning (11 eastern). Netanyahu’s ‘welcome’ in D.C. last night raised some eyebrows, given an entire major freeway into the beltway area was shut down for security reasons…

Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu told reporters that Iran is the “first and foremost” issue he will raise with Trump. He was originally scheduled to travel to the US for a February 18 meeting, but Israel asked to move it up after the US-Iran talks in Oman.

“I will present the president with our views regarding the essential principles of the negotiations – principles that, in our eyes, are vital not only for Israel but for anyone in the world who desires peace and security in the Middle East,” the Israeli leader previewed.

Israel is pressing the US to require that any agreement with Iran include zero nuclear enrichment and limits on its ballistic missile program. Iranian officials have rejected those terms, signaling they would block any deal. On Tuesday, Trump indicated that Iran’s missiles should be part of the agreement. 

But if Tehran were to agree with this it would essentially be self-destructing, as it would have no deterrent and be defenseless against any future Israeli attack – or any other enemy aggression for that matter.

One Israeli source told CNN that Tel Aviv is “worried about Iran’s progress in restoring its ballistic missile stockpiles and capabilities to its status before the 12-Day War.”

Iranian leaders are meanwhile fully aware of what Netanyahu’s D.C. trip represents, and the timing:

Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.

On Wednesday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program, though he said the country is not seeking an atomic weapon.

Just after Netanyahu’s arrival Tuesday evening, he met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner to discuss “regional issues”. He was also briefed on how Oman-mediated talks are going, ahead of the proposed second round expected next week.

Tuesday evening meeting at Blair House, via GPO/JNS

President Trump is still threatening to send a second carrier group to the Central Command (CENTCOM) area, which would be a clear signal he intends major military action. He could still order some kind of limited action, also as Congress is once again missing in action on reigning in war powers.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 02/11/2026 – 14:43