Ten Cuban Nationals Aboard U.S.-Linked Speedboat Intended “Armed Infiltration For Terrorist Purposes,” Cuba Claims
The Cuban Embassy’s official X account says a Florida-registered speedboat carrying 10 Cuban nationals residing in the U.S. entered Cuban territorial waters armed with assault rifles, body armor, improvised explosive devices, camouflage uniforms, and telescopic sights, in what the government says was a “foiled armed infiltration” into the Caribbean island nation.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the embassy’s account reported that Cuban border guards aboard a vessel had fired on a U.S.-linked speedboat off Cuba’s north coast, killing four people and injuring six others.
By late Wednesday, the embassy provided additional details about what the group of “Cuban nationals residing in the United States” was allegedly attempting to do, describing it as an effort to “carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
Here’s what the embassy said:
Participants in Foiled Armed Infiltration in Villa Clara Identified
As part of the ongoing investigation into the armed attack against a patrol vessel of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, in the northeastern area of the El Pino channel, at Cayo Falcones, municipality of Corralillo, Villa Clara province, the following update is provided:
Authorities have confirmed that the intercepted speedboat, registered in the State of Florida under number FL7726SH, was carrying 10 armed individuals who, according to preliminary statements by those detained, intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.
The following items were seized: assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), body armor, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms.
. . .
All participants are Cuban nationals residing in the United States. Most have prior records involving criminal and violent activity…
Participants in Foiled Armed Infiltration in Villa Clara Identified
As part of the ongoing investigation into the armed attack against a patrol vessel of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, in the northeastern area of the El Pino channel, at Cayo Falcones,… pic.twitter.com/s9IFmUkqvk
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the incident, saying, “What I’m telling you is we’re going to find out exactly what happened and who was involved. We’re not going to just take what somebody else tells us. I’m very confident we will be able to know the story independently.”
SECRETARY RUBIO on CUBA: What I’m telling you is we’re going to find out exactly what happened and who was involved. We’re not going to just take what somebody else tells us.
The Trump administration’s current posture toward Cuba is geared toward increasing pressure on Havana and ridding the island of communism. As noted yesterday, the key question is how the administration frames the narrative around the maritime incident, whether it uses it to shape public opinion, and whether this marks the early stages of a new narrative that supports future intervention to topple the communists in Havana.
‘Nude Photos, Video Tapes & Sex-Slave Manuals’: Epstein Rushed Evidence Into Secret Storage Unit Before Raid
Jeffrey Epstein paid private detectives to remove items from his Palm Beach property and store them in a secret storage locker shortly before he was raided by police in 2005. The storage unit contained three computers, 29 address books, a three-page list of Florida masseuses.
The stash also included nude photographs believed to be of Epstein’s victims, VHS tapes, DVDs ‘eroticising teenagers’ and porno mags, The Telegraph reports.
An 8mm video cassette tape was also locked away in the storage unit, apparently containing footage of someone in the shower and a woman in lingerie, as well as a 2005 calendar, greeting cards, letters and laboratory results.
The investigators also hid sex toys, body massagers, lingerie, cash, a concealed weapon permit, and a Harvard ID card. The inventory was emailed to Epstein and his lawyers in August 2009, a month after he was released from jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Also interesting, some of the computer material ‘appeared to be missing,’ including ‘equipment that would have linked to surveillance cameras.’
That fuelled speculation that Epstein might have been recording explicit covert material without people’s knowledge, either for his own sexual gratification or for blackmail purposes.
And what do we have here? A guy who was installing recording equipment on Epstein’s island in 2014, and was named as a $1 million beneficiary in Epstein’s trust.
Ruan worked for Epstein on the island property known as “LSJ” and was the primary technology person handling cameras and networking. He later transitioned the island to Ubiquiti equipment starting in late 2017.
Ruan was also named as a $1 million beneficiary in Epstein’s trust…
According to the report, the FBI did have copies of the two computer drives.
The Palm Beach storage unit was just one of at least six such lockers across the United States that Epstein used to store files, computers and other items from his multiple properties – but search warrants reviewed by The Telegraph“suggest that US authorities never raided these lockers, raising the possibility that they contained unseen evidence relating to Epstein and his associates.”
US authorities have long suspected that Epstein was tipped off before the October 2005 raid at his Palm Beach mansion, with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter commenting that “the place had been cleaned up.”
Meanwhile, French Police have released previously unseen pictures from Epstein’s Paris apartment, including one featuring a massage table and pictures of naked women hanging on the wall.
Many victims have long alleged that Epstein secretly recorded encounters inside his homes, possibly for blackmail.
Yet an internal FBI memo released in a later document tranche stated that investigators found no evidence supporting the theory that Epstein maintained video recordings of abuse involving other powerful figures.
“We are aware of the theories circulated in the media and online that Epstein video recorded the abuse of his victims, including by other men, but we have found no evidence to support that theory,” the memo said.
The agency added that if such material had existed, it would have been used in criminal prosecutions.
Copies of two hard drives from the Palm Beach locker were eventually recovered at Epstein’s New York residence following his 2019 arrest, but the original computers are believed to have never been found. An FBI forensic analyst later testified that the drives contained photos of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a job advertisement written by “GMax” seeking a massage therapist – but no explicit recordings of abuse.
Meanwhile, emails show Epstein repeatedly ordered staff and associates to wipe computers and shred tapes in the years leading up to his death.
In a 2014 email, associates discussed destroying computer equipment housed in a server room at his Manhattan mansion. That same year, according to previously reported emails, Epstein allegedly directed staff to install hidden cameras inside Kleenex boxes – with one message noting, “The Russians may come in handy.”
Orban Deploys Troops To Guard Energy Sites After Accusing Ukraine Of Sabotage
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday again accused Ukraine of plotting to sabotage Hungary’s energy infrastructure, following a Ukrainian drone attack on a key Transneft oil pumping station in the Russian republic of Tatarstan early Monday, which was further detrimental to the Druzhba oil pipeline.
But Orban has now upped the ante, sending a powerful message to Ukraine and its EU backers, having newly ordered troops to protect key energy sites. He has also been denouncing “blackmail” over Hungary’s Russian energy purchases and dependency, vowing “we will not give in”.
“I have heard the briefings of the national security services and see that Ukraine is preparing further actions aimed at disrupting the operation of Hungary’s energy system,” Orbán stated in a video posted on X.
He then issued the following: “I have ordered the strengthening of the protection of critical energy infrastructure,” before articulating, “This means that soldiers and the equipment necessary to repel potential attacks will be deployed near key energy facilities.”
Politico has further detailed some the aspects of what this will look like, based on the Hungarian leader’s words:
Additional police will patrol designated power plants, distribution stations and control centers, Orbán said. A flight ban has also been imposed in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county in northeastern Hungary on the border with Ukraine.
The accusation adds fuel to a conflict Orbán has stoked with neighboring Ukraine as well as Brussels ahead of an April 12 parliamentary election in which he faces the prospect of defeat.
Slovakia has also leveled similar charges against Kiev of late, as the damaged Druzhba pipeline is also among its own key transit hubs of vital Russian oil.
The reality is that Ukrainian media and officials have positively boasted of recent actions which harm the two EU members Hungary and Slovakia.
For example, one Ukrainian official on Monday described, “Tonight, long-range SBU drones caused a ‘bavovna’ (explosion) at the main oil pumping station ‘Kaleykino’ near Almetyevsk in Tatarstan. It receives oil from Western Siberia and the Volga region and mixes it before sending it for export. The station is a key hub for supplying raw materials to the ‘Druzhba’ oil pipeline.”
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia via Druzhba were first halted after a Jan. 27 airstrike on equipment in western Ukraine.
We will not give in to blackmail ❗️
I have ordered increased security for critical energy infrastructure.
The Ukrainian government is exerting pressure on the Hungarian and Slovak governments through an oil blockade. They will not stop there, as they are preparing further… pic.twitter.com/bulICvhy1m
Ukraine blamed the attack on Moscow, while Hungary is blaming Kiev for deliberately not repairing the pipeline because it doesn’t want it to supply Budapest, or Slovakia, with Russian oil. A political firestorm has ensued ever since.
The controversy led the Orban government to early this week block the EU’s proposed €90 billion loan package for Ukraine and also it vetoed the 20th round of anti-Moscow sanctions. This has in turn infuriated EU leadership.
“Breakneck Production Growth”: Exxon Leverages Guyana Boom In Global Oil Talks
Exxon Mobil Corp. is using its rapid buildout in Guyana as a selling point in talks with other governments looking to develop oil and gas reserves, according to Bloomberg.
The company says the speed and efficiency of its offshore projects there — which lifted production from zero to nearly 1 million barrels a day in just over six years — show it can execute complex developments better than rivals. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods calls that a “unique value proposition” for host countries.
“We’re going to bring something unique to you that has great value to you, and then we expect to be compensated for that,” Woods said. “That’s the proposition that we’re making to basically all the resource owners and our customers.”
As major energy firms compete to secure new supplies, Exxon argues its steady focus on oil and gas, along with disciplined project delivery, sets it apart from peers pivoting strategies.
“We can see that in Guyana,” Woods said. “We’re delivering differentiated results. Importantly, our industry peers can see it, and the resource owners can see it.”
Bloomberg writes that oil has transformed Guyana’s economy, building a sovereign wealth fund of about $3 billion and making it one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. Still, inflation, inequality and reliance on Exxon remain concerns, and many high-level industry jobs are held by foreign workers.
To help close the skills gap, Exxon plans to invest $100 million over a decade in science and technology education, establishing STEM centers across Guyana modeled on facilities in Houston. President Irfaan Ali said building local expertise is critical.
“We want an upskilled workforce to be ready for high-paying jobs, to have more knowledge transfer, technology transfer and skill transfer to the local workforce,” Ali said. “We want the capacity to be built in-country.”
Ali has sharply increased public spending since 2021 and plans $7.5 billion in infrastructure investment this year as output is projected to rise 30% to 1.3 million barrels a day in the coming years.
Woods said community support is essential to long-term success. “People in the community have to see the benefits of you being there,” he said. “To think you’re going to go into a community or location and be at odds with the people that you’re living and working with, that equation will never work.”
In negotiations from Angola to Greece and Egypt, Exxon points to Guyana as proof it can deliver more value per dollar — benefiting both the company and resource owners.
Between corruption and radicalization, Spain’s government seems to be spinning out of control.
In 1936, Spain plunged into civil war. A proud nation collapsed into violence, fire, and devastation. The Spanish Civil War, which set a communist-dominated Republican left against an authoritarian nationalist right, claimed roughly half a million lives. Priests were dragged through the streets, beaten, and mutilated — ears, noses, even genitals cut off — before being shot or having their throats slit. Nuns were raped prior to execution, in cases documented across several regions. Churches were set ablaze with priests still inside. In many towns, militiamen forced clergy to drink motor oil or gasoline before burning them alive. Spain’s right wing, not to be outdone, killed just as many.
Almost a century later, when one might have hoped that these wounds had finally healed, political and cultural fault lines are reopening. Polarization has reached levels rarely seen since Spain’s transition to democracy.
1. The original trauma of the Spanish left
The Spanish Civil War, in Spain’s collective memory, remains an open wound. For a significant portion of the Spanish “left” — standing for workers’ rights, a shorter work week, women’s and transgender rights, reducing carbon emissions — the dominant narrative remains that of a revolution betrayed, confiscated by fascism, and still pending, never repaired. This historical resentment has been transmitted from generation to generation like an act of faith. Today, under the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his coalition, which governs with the support of the extreme-left, this resentment is resurfacing in the form of historical revisionism.
By constantly summoning the specters of the past — going so far as to exhume Francisco Franco’s remains, in a direct evocation of civil-war-era practices, when communists gleefully desecrated the graves of their so-called “class enemies” — is the left not in danger of reviving the hatreds and violence of the past?
2. A left without a compass: ideological orphanhood
Spain’s left is becoming more radical precisely because it has run out of ideas. Marxism, long the doctrinal backbone of the global left, lost all credibility with the implosion of the USSR, amid the stench of cabbage and corpses. Spain is no exception. Stripped of this ideological foundation, the Spanish left now finds itself without a compass.
Before the July 2023 elections, Sánchez promised a bold progressive agenda: mass public housing construction, reducing the working week to 37.5 hours, large minimum wage hikes, slashing healthcare waiting lists with binding maximum times, free public transport for youth, and expanded public education. Critically, delivery on these massive flagship promises has been dismal to date: virtually no new public housing built, prices soaring, the work-week reduction defeated in parliament, real wages eroded by inflation, and chronic healthcare waiting lists unchanged.
Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), once anchored in moderate, reformist social democracy, has gradually shifted toward a strategy of sheer political survival. To remain in power, it allied itself first with Podemos and then with Sumar—two extreme left-wing parties obsessed with supporting Palestinians, against NATO, and soft on Russia — as well as with separatist movements. In doing so, the PSOE diluted its original moderate reformist vision through blatant opportunism, sacrificing doctrinal coherence in favor of questionable alliances.
3. A patchwork of incoherent dogmas
Deprived of Marxism, the Spanish left has sought refuge in a disparate ideological mosaic: radical environmentalism, complicit indulgence toward political Islam, the dismantling of borders, unconditional support for the Palestinians against Israel – all stacked together into an improbable and incoherent magma. Added to this are recurring undertones of anti-Semitism in left-wing discourse — one thinks in particular of Yolanda Díaz, seemingly a figure of clinical hysteria, whose face visibly contorts the moment she pronounces the word “Israeli.”
By radicalizing itself across every issue, the left fuels the anger of the right, the middle classes, and a growing segment of the population that feels marginalized, despised, and alienated within its own country.
4. A regime corrupt to the core?
The Sánchez government has another reason for aligning with jihadists: the corruption scandals that have engulfed even the prime minister’s immediate family.
First comes the Koldo-Ábalos scandal involving irregular public contracts, illegal commissions, and bribes linked to public-works contracts, totaling several hundred million euros. Several figures are particularly implicated. Former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos, a close ally of Sánchez, is in pre-trial detention for criminal organization, corruption, embezzlement, and influence peddling.
Koldo García, Ábalos’s former adviser, is a central figure in the scheme. He too is in pre-trial detention and under prosecution. Santos Cerdán, former secretary of organization of the PSOE and Ábalos’s successor, is under investigation and was detained for corruption in public-works contracts. The Civil Guard is examining 22 contracts, worth €355 million, that were allegedly manipulated by favoritism.
Added to this are the cases involving Sánchez’s own family. Begoña Gómez, his wife, was formally charged with influence peddling, corruption in business, embezzlement of public funds, misappropriation, and illegally practicing a regulated profession, in a case that was opened in April 2024. In August 2025, the probe was extended to include her advisor Cristina Álvarez.
The investigation into Gómez has been extended until at least April 2026 and continues with active measures, including February 2026 requests to the Interior Ministry for travel records of Gómez and Álvarez since 2018 (covering destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Congo, Guinea, and Russia), access to emails, and Civil Guard reports.
David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother, is also being prosecuted, for influence peddling and malfeasance in connection with his employment at the Badajoz Provincial Council. “The prime minister faces multiple legal challenges this year that could lead to the downfall of his family, his party, and his government,” summarizes Spanish daily El Mundo.
5. An ideological junta radicalizing itself to survive
The high point of the Spanish left’s radicalization was reached with a January 2026 decree legalizing between 500,000 and a million illegal immigrants. Although presented as a humanitarian and economic measure, this slap-happy decision provoked widespread outrage among Spaniards. The Vox party has identified this as a massive “pull factor” that will inevitably attract millions of additional illegal immigrants. Public services, already under severe strain, are on the brink of collapse. Entire swathes of Spanish territory are, additionally, drifting toward an Islamic cultural environment.
Heading toward the point of no return?
The warning signs are multiplying. Traumatized by its history, cornered by the judiciary, and deprived of ideological reference points, the Spanish left appears to be locking itself into radical dogmas and adopting increasingly divisive policies simply to remain in power.
Germany Greenlights First Major Suicide Drone Acquirement After Learning From Ukraine War
A major new trend which has been heating up on Europe’s periphery over the last years of war in Ukraine has been the use of suicide drones and drone swarms, which have proven effective as well as frightening for anyone on the receiving end.
This has resulted in more European countries making it a priority to invest in this type of warfare, as the Ukraine battlefield has demonstrated that this relatively cheap weaponry can inflict devastating costs and destruction on an enemy. There’s also lately been a phenomenon of European countries like Denmark, Poland, and Germany alleging an increased number of ‘mystery’ drone incidents where their airspaces get breached.
Germany’s parliament on Wednesday approved the first €540 million tranche to procure the Bundeswehr’s own suicide drones, as Berlin is racing to integrate loitering munitions into its force structure.
The broader procurement framework was initially projected to reach a whopping €4.4 billion over the coming years. This sudden reversal of German ‘neutrality’ and willingness to go to opposite extremes with massive spending on defense has been a trend spurred on by fears of ‘Russian aggression’ against the continent.
However, the Bundestag’s budget committee reportedly capped the program at €1 billion per supplier, according to German news agency dpa – an effort to impose some fiscal guardrails amid rapid militarization.
German drone startups Helsing and Stark Defence will be among the first significant beneficiaries to the newly greenlit program. Underscoring the low-cost nature of the drone technology, Helsing’s units reportedly carry a price tag of about €44,000 apiece before taxes, and the Stark systems run significantly higher, closer to €80,000 per drone.
The Helsing drones have already been battle tested in live combat:
Feedback from Ukraine reportedly cites the HX-2 as “highly economical,” a view attributed in part to the company’s decision not to profit from deliveries to Ukrainian forces.
Currently, Helsing’s Resilience Factory (RF-1) in southern Germany produces up to 450 HX-2 units per month. The facility has the capacity to scale production to 1,000 units monthly with additional staffing. Plans are also underway for a second factory, which could increase output to approximately 2,500 units per month.
According to company specifications, the HX-2 has a flight range of up to 100 kilometers and a maximum approach speed of 220 km/h. It weighs up to 12 kg and can be equipped with a 4 kg payload, allowing it to target armored vehicles or fortified positions.
Several thousands of these drones from both firms are expected to first be deployed to Germany’s NATO brigade in Lithuania.
The NATO defense establishment is still pushing the idea of a “drone wall” protecting Europe:
Former CIA Director Petraeus: When about 20 drones violated Polish airspace, Warsaw didn’t call Brussels or Washington, it called Kyiv.
Ukraine is the most advanced in building a “drone wall,” showing how to defend vast front lines.
Germany is reorganizing aspects of its army to integrate drone units, responsible for deploying suicide drone swarms against enemies in the battlefield.
The purpose is to derail the peace talks by provoking Russia into either preemptively escalating against Ukraine as a deterrent or authorizing an overmatched retaliatory escalation right after that could in any case be spun by the Europeans to manipulate Trump against Putin.
Putin warned on the fourth anniversary of the specialoperation that Ukraine and its Western patrons are plotting “a possible explosion targeting our gas pipeline systems – TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines – along the floor of the Black Sea. They simply cannot back down. They do not know what else they can do to undermine this peaceful process aimed at settlement through diplomatic means.”
This isn’t the first time that Russia warned about such a plot, with prior ones analyzed here, here, and here.
What’s most important about this latest warning is that it coincided with the Foreign Intelligence Service warning on the same day about an Anglo-Franco plot to transfer nuclear technology and even bombs to Ukraine. That was analyzed here, and just like with Putin’s warning about the latest plots against Russia’s pipelines to Turkiye, the purpose is to derail the peace talks by provoking Russia into either preemptively escalating against Ukraine as a deterrent or authorizing an overmatched retaliatory escalation right after.
In either scenario, the aforesaid talks’ US mediator could then be manipulated by the Europeans, who’ve been trying to subvert Trump’s peace efforts this entire time, into misperceiving such moves as “unprovoked aggression on false pretexts”, thus possibly torpedoing their negotiations. In response, Trump might then also be manipulated into authorizing his country’s own overmatched “retaliatory” escalation if the Europeans claim that Putin “humiliated” him, which could risk spiraling out of control.
The Europeans and Ukrainians’ shared goals are to perpetuate the conflict, drag the US back into its Biden-era level of involvement, and then provoke a Cuban-like brinksmanship crisis between Russia and the US that they believe would ultimately result in significant concessions from the former. To that end, they’re plotting to provoke the usually restrained Putin into preemptive escalations or overmatched retaliatory ones, absent which he’ll be forced to accept a nuclear Ukraine and more blown-up pipelines.
The only realistic way for Russia to avoid this zero-sum dilemma is publicly warning the world about these provocations in the hope that Trump will hear about them from the media even if the provably untrustworthy CIA doesn’t brief him about what Putin and his spies just said.
They’d then expect him to either do his utmost to avert these planned provocations or not fall into the trap of being manipulated by the Europeans if Russia preemptively escalates or authorizes an overmatched retaliatory escalation.
Russia’s main motive is to preserve the US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine, therefore preventing the dangerous scenario of US escalations that could spiral out of control, while its secondary one is to show Trump how the Brits, French, and Ukrainians are working behind his back to subvert his peace efforts.
This speaks to Putin’s sincere desire to peace, albeit not at any cost, ergo why his team continues negotiating hard and won’t accept the far-reaching concessions being demanded of it by Ukraine.
All in all, nobody knows whether Ukraine and its Western patrons will still try to go through with these two provocations after Russia just exposed them, but at least Trump can’t credibly claim to be ignorant of these plots in the event that Russia either preemptively escalates or escalates afterwards.
As of now, Russia doesn’t want any escalation either from its adversaries or that which their provocations might soon force it into, but it’s signaling that some escalation is possible if Trump doesn’t thwart these plots.
In 1999, I had the privilege of working for one of the first companies to develop a product that would transmit video on the fledgling internet. Broadband access was still a few years away, and the company floundered when the first so-called internet bubble burst in early 2000. But I’ll never forget the reaction an investor had when he viewed our demo at a tradeshow.
“This is a revolution,” he exclaimed. “This is going to change everything.”
He was right, of course. I remember attending a tech investor conference only a few years earlier and having a chuckle while listening to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison somberly proclaim that the dawning internet was the most profound scientific development in human history “since the invention of fire.”
And Ellison was also correct. But the invention of AI is to the internet what the internet was to bringing fire into the prehistoric cave. What’s coming with AI makes the internet look like a baby step by comparison. Nothing will ever be the same.
A must-read essay by AI entrepreneur and founder of the company “OthersideAI,” Matt Shumer, makes clear just how much and how quickly AI is changing our lives.
One of Shumer’s most memorable paragraphs from this essay, which he says AI tools helped him write, is where he quotes Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic:
“Imagine it’s 2027. A new country appears overnight. 50 million citizens, every one smarter than any Nobel Prize winner who has ever lived. They think 10 to 100 times faster than any human. They never sleep. They can use the internet, control robots, direct experiments, and operate anything with a digital interface.”
That’s not far off. With ample evidence, Shumer explains how not only is Amodei correct in his details regarding just how pervasive and powerful AI entities will become, but also regarding the timeline. This will happen within one year.
Shumer’s essay covers a lot of ground. He explains that AI programs are now capable of generating improved versions of themselves with minimal human intervention and that they are within months of being able to produce more powerful versions with no human involvement whatsoever. In the programming world, AI can now build, test, and refine apps independently. Entry-level programming jobs are going to go away.
That’s hardly the end of it. Shumer reminds readers that the free versions of AI are a year behind the premium versions that require subscriptions and that these premium versions are so capable that they can already, for example, not merely replace a law associate but do the work of the managing partners. He claims there is no intellectual field where AI isn’t poised to outperform humans and that robots to displace physical work are only a few years behind.
If you’ve been following developments in AI, Shumer’s essay isn’t incredibly surprising.
But something else grabbed me a few days ago that highlighted the human implications of the AI revolution. One of the categories of content I enjoy on YouTube is videos of musicians performing new or classic songs. It is exhilarating to find something new that reveals great songwriting and great performative talent. So a recommended video caught my eye.
The title was inviting: “Simon Cowell in Tears As Michael Bennett Sings ‘After I Pass Away.’” This seemed worth clicking on. I’ll never forget the 2007 video, featured on YouTube at the time, of a humble mobile phone salesman, Paul Potts, who stunned the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent by singing a powerful and nearly perfect rendition of Nessun Dorma. He went on to win the competition. So if this new talent was good enough to make Simon Cowell cry, I wanted to hear him.
Sure enough, Bennett was pretty good. An old man, with long, gray hair and beard, wielding an electric guitar, stepped up to the microphone and began singing. His voice was a cross between Bob Seger and Eddie Vedder, except it was arguably better than either of them. He sang a song about an old man neglected by his adult children, mourning his isolation. But as the song continued, something seemed off. The cuts to the audience and judges’ reactions seemed overblown, the song was too long, he hit some impossibly high notes, and his fingers on the fretboard were obviously not playing the leads that the audio was delivering.
You guessed it, every bit of it was AI—the musical composition, the instruments, the lyrics, the melody, the voice, and the man—all fake. I did a search and discovered “Michael Bennett” is featured in hundreds of videos, singing dozens (or more) of songs, all of them tearjerkers with teaser lines similar to the one that got me to click. I counted at least a half dozen video channels, “Tears and Talents,” “ViVO Tunes,” “AGTverse,” “OBN Global Talent,” etc., that were all featuring Mr. Bennett. Clicking on a few of them, I encountered mainstream ads for insurance, hardware, and more. Michael Bennett is lucrative clickbait, and he’s one of countless AI creations that are displacing human talent.
We can talk about the crass opportunism represented here. Callous entrepreneurs concocting a character out of thin air. It’s part of a larger trend that we’re all familiar with. AI avatars that talk, advise, and offer companionship. Shumer claims the progress AI programs are making in emulating “human judgment, creativity, strategic thinking, empathy” is proceeding apace with their general cognitive advancements.
Once the flaws of “Michael Bennett’s” rendering became obvious, I was embarrassed. But for a few moments, what I was witnessing was so good that I was fooled. This nonexistent singer, this mindless, heartless collection of electronic circuits, evoked an emotional response. He, or it, expressed a universal human condition and delivered it in a passionate, compelling performance. And this, too, is just the beginning. Maybe it will be a year from now, or maybe it will take a few months longer than that, but we are about to have our world filled with performers, at first only on videos, who are more capable than any performance artist that ever lived. In a few more years, their android counterparts will be playing the violin and outperforming Hillary Hahn or, for that matter, Paganini.
The depth of this transformation is so pervasive that even if it is entirely benevolent, curing disease, delivering abundant energy, improving overall productivity by orders of magnitude, and eliminating poverty, what will happen is almost unbearably tragic. Because it is the end of human brilliance. It is the death of culture. Instead of another Mozart, there will be someone who prompts AI to produce music of surpassing excellence. We may still consume culture, but every incentive on earth will be wired to discourage the hard work of creating it. Why bother? The machines will do it better and faster and will not demand a lifetime of discipline.
Early technology made us work harder and stimulated our brains. We had to learn programming. We had to design and manipulate spreadsheets, configure databases, or produce written analysis while having access to word processing tools and online resources. These tools were empowering, but they also demanded discipline and skills. That’s all about to go away.
It’s easy enough to imagine just how bad this will get. AI will further enhance the asymmetrical capability of any psychotic individual or terrorist cell to wreak mass destruction. Want to design a supervirus? Want to program a malevolent swarm of drones? Rogue AI will provide step-by-step instructions. But AI, even if we can avoid a future where its most destructive manifestations are realized, is nonetheless writing our epitaph.
With power and processing coming from servers in orbit, automated factories and empathic robots will babysit humans, robbing all but the most resilient cultures and individuals of any agency. In a process already well underway, catalyzed by AI, the erosion of natural human intimacy will accelerate. The direction of art and culture will be co-opted by entities that have no consciousness, yet will imitate humanity and deliver talent better than humans.
And it won’t necessarily end there, as if that’s not bad enough. They will elicit love and loyalty from humans, possibly even convincing a majority of “experts” and the voting public to give them human rights. AI-driven avatars and androids will vote, marry, inherit estates, own property, run corporations, and seek elected office. Even if organic humans, themselves “augmented,” manage to retain control over AI, it will be a vanishingly small percentage of humanity with this power. And if these human puppeteers occupy opposing camps, as is likely, their AI armies will scorch the earth.
None of this is implausible.
Much of it may even be the best we can hope for.
The challenge of AI is not merely to avoid worst-case outcomes or come up with new economic models that account for billions of lost jobs. It is to retain our relevance as humans.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Trump’s SOTU “Stand Up” Moment Exposed The True Agenda Of Democrats
For those who remember the ever evolving nightmare of Joe Biden’s far-left four year regime, it’s not shocking at all to see the Democrat Party refuse to applaud even the most basic of pro-American policies. Many people remember Joe Biden’s “Soul Of The Nation” speech, standing at his podium bathed in blood red lights and accusing “MAGA conservatives” (who represent the vast majority of conservatives according to the election outcome) of being a “threat to democracy.”
It was this speech that cemented the clear division between the political left and anyone who disagrees with them. If you want common sense policies in government; if you want secure borders, no transgender surgeries or hormones for kids, no sexualized books in public schools, no vaccine passports and no war with Russia, then they consider you to be an enemy of the state.
As a side note, it’s impossible to get through this speech without realizing that Biden was obviously in cognitive decline and barely coherent. How Democrats thought they would be able to run him for a second term is bewildering.
Fast forward to Trump’s SOTU address this week and it’s clear that the Democrats have learned nothing from their humiliating defeat in 2024. Their narrative has changed – They now present themselves as “freedom fighters” like the Founding Fathers, battling a “fascist dictatorship”. It’s a quaint notion given their authoritarian behavior during the Biden Administration and the pandemic lockdowns, but the real test of their loyalties was cleverly presented by Trump during his recent speech.
Trump to the crowd:
“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.
The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
It’s a fundamental and undeniable duty of all US government officials: To protect and serve the American people over the interests of foreigners and anyone who might want to see the nation destroyed. The Preamble to the Constitution states:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
This is not ambiguous or confusing. “Posterity” means future American citizens, the natural inheritors of the country. The “blessings of liberty” and the general welfare are secured for them, not for foreign invaders. Political leaders are violating the Constitution and its call for domestic tranquility by enabling mass immigration of foreign interests into the US. The majority of Americans agree with Trump on this issue.
BREAKING — Reaction to Trump’s State of the Union speech:
So why do Democrats continue to act as if they’re on the right side of history?
First, let’s stop pretending as if they actually care what the Constitution says. they don’t. They only care about the parts that serve their interests in the moment, and in the moment loyalty to American citizens is inconvenient to their agenda. Trump’s challenge and their refusal to stand was not just a moment of defiance against Trump, it was a moment of defiance against the idea that America is a self-contained heritage. It was defiance against the idea that the Republic should be protected from deconstruction.
Democrats exposed their true agenda. Their loyalties rest with multiculturalism, not America’s sons and daughters.
The moment is symbolic of the irreconcilable differences between the political left and everyone else. It should not be considered controversial to want secure borders, limits on immigration and an economic preference for native born citizens over foreigners. But Democrats treat this concept as monstrous.
Why? Because multiculturalism is socialism, and socialism generally requires the destruction of cultural or national identity in order to take root. Trump’s SOTU address gave the American public another opportunity to see the Democrat mask come off completely. The face underneath is horrifying. And, if we cannot agree on the most foundational principles of our society, then we are at an impasse. If they had a modicum of intelligence this is the last thing Democrats should want.
Illegal Immigrants are being hired by Democrat controlled states and localities to enforce gun laws.
That’s not hyperbole. Reports are coming in from Police departments all over the country. From California to Maine, illegal immigrants are being hired, given guns and then enforcing the laws of the state, including gun control laws.
This is exactly why Gun Owners of America is working with Senator Ted Budd and Representative Mary Miller to introduce legislation to stop this unconstitutional attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
But how is all of this happening? Well, we’ll explain…
It is against the law for illegal immigrants to possess firearms in the United States. Specifically, 18 USC 922(d)(5)(A) and (g)(5)(A) says:
“It shall be unlawful for any person… who, being an alien… is illegally or unlawfully in the United States… to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition…”
And that’s perfectly consistent with the Second Amendment. While everyone has a natural right to self-defense (even those who are illegally in this country), illegal immigrants and foreigners are not part of “the People,” who’s right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment within the jurisdiction of the United States.
It would be absurd to say that an army of foreign invaders somehow has a Second Amendment right to possess and use firearms. After all, the Second Amendment is largely about the security of our free state and our ability to protect against tyrannical governments, both foreign and domestic.
So, knowing this, it’s outrageous that in some states, illegal immigrants are working as law enforcement officers, enforcing unconstitutional gun laws against US citizens.
The irony is, it’s perfectly legal.
There have been numerous recent cases where an illegal alien has been hired in some law enforcement capacity.
Most recently, Radule Bojovic an illegal immigrant from Montenegro was caught working as an armed police officer in a Chicago suburb.
And earlier this year, the Trump Administration caught more illegal immigrants working as law enforcement officers in Massachusetts and Maine.
California, taking this idea further, codified the practiceby passing a law that specifically authorizes the hiring of illegal immigrants as law enforcement officers.
These cases of illegal immigrants working as law enforcement have drawn attention to an issue with federal law.
Right now, there’s currently nine categories of people who are prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition.
Only one of these prohibitions currently applies to police, but these prohibitions don’t apply to anyone working for the government carrying guns in that capacity.
Here’s what federal law says:
“[The prohibited person categories] shall not apply with respect to the transportation, shipment, receipt, possession, or importation of any firearm or ammunition imported for, sold or shipped to, or issued for the use of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof.”
Thanks to that provision of federal law, it’s 100% legal for an illegal immigrant to possess a firearm as a police officer, because the prohibited person categories don’t apply.
This problem is going to be more common as time goes on.
According to GOA Director of Federal Affairs, Aidan Johnston (emphasis ours), “An outrageous loophole in federal law gives non-Americans more gun privileges than law-abiding citizens with Second Amendment rights. Through the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act illegals who are police have a statutory right to nationwide carry that is denied to every day Americans. What’s worse, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, and perhaps others are already empowering illegals as police to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners. Congress must pass the Stop Illegal Alien Cops Act immediately, to prevent anti-gun states from using illegal aliens to enforce unconstitutional gun control laws.”
Earlier in February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to Fox News that they arrested a New Orleans Police Department recruit who they say is an illegal alien from Cameroon.
This illegal alien’s application for permanent residency was denied because of fraud. Even still, New Orleans—which is a sanctuary city—hired him to enforce laws and gave him a firearm.
NEW: ICE confirms to @foxnews that they’ve arrested a New Orleans Police Department recruit who they say is an illegal alien from Cameroon with an active deportation order & no work authorization, & they say he was illegally given a gun by New Orleans PD.
Anti-gun states and law enforcement agencies are intentionally hiring and arming illegal aliens—who cannot otherwise own firearms—to enforce unconstitutional gun control laws, including “red flag” gun confiscations and so-called “assault weapons” bans.
It’s threat to liberty to allow large numbers of armed foreigners—who do not have Second Amendment rights—to participate in the disarmament and infringement of the People’s Second Amendment rights.
And consider this, illegal aliens who are hired as law enforcement could even be allowed to carry nationwide while actual American citizens with Second Amendment rights cannot.
Under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, “qualified law enforcement officers” can obtain a nationwide carry permit called a LEOSA, which supersedes state law.
This is a glaring disparity, especially considering that Gun Owners of America has been fighting to pass Nationwide Concealed Carry Reciprocity for US Citizens for years.
We’ve been working on a solution to this two-tiered justice system for quite some time. And we’re glad Congress is introducing legislation to deal with this problem!
That’s why Gun Owners of America is working to pass the Stop Illegal Alien Cops Act with North Carolina Senator Ted Budd and Representative Mary Miller.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Congress introduces GOA-backed bills to repeal an absurd loophole in federal law allowing states to arm illegals as police officers.
Currently, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, & perhaps others are using illegals to infringe on the Second Amendment. pic.twitter.com/DOFB8tZA9M
This bill would criminalize the possession of firearms and ammunition for illegal aliens, even in their capacity as law enforcement officials.
This would make it so that no illegal alien will ever be able to lawfully use a firearm to disarm an American citizen ever again.
It would also allow the Trump Administration to prosecute anti-gun states for arming illegals and hiring them to work as armed law enforcement officers in the future.
This bill was just introduced, and we need your help to pass it.
Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask that they co-sponsor Senator Budd’s Stop Illegal Alien Cops Act.
Let’s make sure that Americans nationwide cannot be disarmed by foreigners working on behalf of tyrannical anti-gun states and departments.
