A major consultancy firm under fire for misconduct in its audit business is cutting its local workforce following a suspension from applying for new government contracts.

KPMG – one of the “Big Four” accounting firms alongside Deloitte, PwC, and EY – revealed on Aug. 24 that its annual revenue dipped 1 percent to $2.26 billion (US$1.62 billion) in fiscal 2026. The firm also warned of a rocky road ahead, with new CEO John Sams noting, “We expect difficult market conditions to continue in financial year 2027 and beyond.”

A combination of soft market conditions and a continued drop in government reliance on consultants drove a 16.9 percent revenue decrease in KPMG’s consulting business. However, the firm saw growth elsewhere, with revenue for its audit and assurance and its tax and legal arms rising 11 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively.

Following a review of its operating costs and the fallout from recent conduct and whistleblower controversies, KPMG will cut its workforce by 5 percent. The reduction will primarily impact the consulting and business services divisions, eliminating 27 partner roles and approximately 360 employees.

Despite overall revenue falling short of expectations, Sams noted that four out of the firm’s five businesses grew. “This result reflects the resilience of our business and, above all, the commitment of our people in a very challenging year,” he said. “We will continue to monitor performance closely, act when needed and consider carefully how the firm needs to be set up for the future.”

The firm’s leadership will not escape the financial hit, however, with average equity partner remuneration plunging 13 percent from the previous year.

KPMG is currently banned from bidding on federal government contracts until at least the end of September, pending the finance department’s review of its conduct. Several state governments have similarly put the firm on ice.

The firm has been engulfed in an audit leak scandal since facing a federal parliamentary committee hearing in June. During the inquiry, it was revealed that some executives had misused confidential board papers – including Lendlease documents used to support audit bids for Westpac and Dexus – to win new work and mistreated a whistleblower who had raised concerns. Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill aired the allegations in parliament, and the firm was referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

The scandal has already ousted numerous executives, including former CEO Andrew Yates and chair Martin Sheppard. Sams confirmed that several internal and external reviews will wrap up in the coming months.

“Their findings will inform the next phase of our action plan and help ensure we take all necessary action,” Sams said. “We know there is more to do.”

KPMG currently holds 297 active federal contracts worth $653 million.

Authored by Frank Shostak via Mises Institute,

It is common for commentators and economists to refer to something called the “economy,” which sometimes performs well and, at other times, poorly. The “economy” is presented as an entity apart from individuals. Within this framework, the “economy” is assigned paramount importance, while the role of individuals is barely mentioned. It must be realized that, at no stage, does the so-called “economy” have a life of its own, independent from individuals.

According to this way of thinking, the “economy” produces goods and services. Once the output is produced by the “economy,” what is required is its distribution among individuals in the fairest way.

In reality, goods and services are not produced in totality. Every individual is preoccupied with his own production and consumption of goods and services. Consequently, there is no such thing as the total real national output. Furthermore, it is not possible to establish the total real output given that, arithmetically, we cannot coherently add potatoes to tomatoes (i.e., heterogeneous goods). All that we could establish is the numerical amount of money spent on goods and services (i.e., the monetary turnover). The employment of the average price metric to convert the monetary turnover into the real output does not solve this issue since the average price cannot be meaningfully established.

For example, suppose two transactions are conducted. In the first transaction, one loaf of bread is exchanged for $2. In the second transaction, one gallon of milk is exchanged for $1. The price, or the rate of exchange, in the first transaction is $2 for one loaf of bread. The price in the second transaction is $1 one gallon of milk. In order to calculate an average price, we must add these two ratios and divide them by two; however, it is conceptually meaningless to add $2 exchanged for one loaf of bread to $1 exchanged for one gallon of milk. This in turn means that various macroeconomic indicators compiled by government statisticians are detached from the real world.

Consequently, various policies to influence an undefined entity-the “economy”-via undefined indicators inflict damage to the well-being of individuals. Even government statisticians admit that the whole thing is not real. According to J. Steven Landefeld and Robert P. Parker from the Bureau of Economic Analysis,

In particular, it is important to recognize that real GDP is an analytic concept. Despite the name, real GDP is not “real” in the sense that it can, even in principle, be observed or collected directly, in the same sense that current-dollar GDP cannot in principle be observed or collected as the sum of actual spending on final goods and services in the economy. Quantities of apples and oranges can in principle be collected, but they cannot be added to obtain the total quantity of “fruit” output in the economy.

By lumping the values of final goods and services together, government statisticians concretize the fiction of an “economy” by means of GDP statistics and other economic indicators. Once the “economy” is concretized, policymakers could navigate the “economy” along the growth path that is considered by the experts as desirable.

Thus, whenever the growth rate slips below the outlined path, government and central bank policymakers are expected to give the “economy” a suitable push by means of fiscal and monetary policies. According to Rothbard,

Bureaucrats as well as statist reformers. . . in order to get “into” the situation that they are trying to plan and reform, they must obtain knowledge that is not personal, day-to-day experience; the only form that such knowledge can take is statistics. Statistics are the eyes and ears of the bureaucrat, the politician, the socialistic reformer. Only by statistics can they know, or at least have any idea about, what is going on in the economy.

Moreover,

. . .one of the major reasons put forth for government intervention is that it “corrects” the market, and makes the market and the economy more rational. Obviously, if the government were deprived of all knowledge whatever of economic affairs, there could not even be a pretense of rationality in government intervention. Surely, the absence of statistics would absolutely and immediately wreck any attempt at socialistic planning.

The “Hampered” Environment and Macro-Economic Data

To succeed in a hampered market environment, entrepreneurs tend to respond to prevailing conditions, which are influenced by central bank and government policies. A businessperson cannot afford to ignore changes in various economic indicators such as GDP given that government and central bank officials react to changes in these indicators. For instance, if the central bank is expected to tighten its monetary stance in response to a strengthening in the GDP, a businessperson must take this into account in order to succeed in his business.

Note that the government-in order to construct various economic indicators-collects the data from businesses that are allocating resources to supply the government with the information. The construction of various economic indicators generates employment opportunities for economists and experts in other fields such as mathematics and statistics. These experts are employed not only to compile various economic data; they are also employed to interpret the data and provide guidance to businesses.

Do We Need to Know Macroeconomic Data in a Free Market Environment?

In a free market environment-free of government and central bank interference with businesses-it does not make much sense to measure and publish various economic indicators. This type of information will be of little use to entrepreneurs.

In a free market environment, what possible use can an entrepreneur make of information about the growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP)? Alternatively, what possible use can be made out of the data showing that the national balance of payments has moved into a deficit or a surplus? According to Rothbard,

The individual consumer, in his daily rounds, has little need of statistics; through advertising, through the information of friends, and through his own experience, he finds out what is going on in the markets around him. The same is true of the business firm. The businessman must also size up his particular market, determine the prices he has to pay for what he buys and charge for what he sells, engage in cost accounting to estimate his costs, and so on.

The only indicator to which entrepreneurs should pay attention to is profitability in their concerned activity. The higher the profit, the more a particular business activity is in tune with consumers’ highest priorities.

Paying attention to consumers’ wishes means that entrepreneurs have to organize the most suitable production structure for that purpose. The information on various macroeconomic indicators will be of little assistance in this regard.

What an entrepreneur requires is not general macroeconomic information, but rather specific information about consumers’ demand for a product or a range of products. Government-aggregated macro-indicators will not be of much help to entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur would have to establish his own network of information concerning a particular venture. If a businessperson’s assessment of consumers’ demand is correct then he will make a profit. An incorrect assessment will result in a loss.

The profit-and-loss paradigm penalizes those businesses that have misjudged consumer’s priorities and rewards those businesses who have exercised a correct appraisal. Hence, by the profit-and-loss framework, resources are withdrawn from those entrepreneurs who misjudged consumer’s priorities to those entrepreneurs who accurately appraised consumer’s priorities. According to Mises,

Thus, profit and loss are generated by success or failure in adjusting the course of production activities to the most urgent demand of the consumers.

We have seen that the construction of various economic indicators generates employment opportunities for economists and experts in other fields such as mathematics and statistics.

These experts are employed not only to compile various economic data, they are also employed to interpret the data and provide guidance to businesses. However, in a free unhampered market, businessmen in the pursuance of their goals are unlikely to require macroeconomic indicators. Therefore, there would be little interest in the services of economists, statisticians, and mathematicians in a free unhampered market.

Conclusion

Macroeconomic data is employed by government and central bank policymakers to navigate the so-called “economy” towards the growth path that was set by the policymakers. As a rule, this navigation culminates in the boom-bust cycle menace and a weakening in the process of wealth generation. By lumping the values of final goods and services together, government statisticians concretize the fiction of an “economy” by means of GDP statistics and other economic indicators.

A San Francisco-based developer discovered that Alibaba Group’s AliExpress marketplace secretly hijacked his computer’s audio system through hidden browser scripts, allowing the website to run inaudible sound waves at zero volume to create “fingerprints” used to track devices without relying on cookies. 

The privacy-focused Brave browser revealed in a series of X posts that the AliExpress marketplace was keeping the developer’s computer audio system active through hidden browser scripts, potentially allowing the website to generate a unique identifier for his device.

The issue emerged when the developer’s Bluetooth headphones refused to transfer their audio connection from his computer to his phone while AliExpress was open. A deeper dive of the website’s code showed background scripts maintaining access to the computer’s audio-processing system without producing audible sound.

The scripts allegedly used the browser’s Web Audio API to process signals at zero volume. Small differences in how individual computers handle those signals can be measured and combined into an “audio fingerprint,” allowing websites to recognize devices even when cookies are deleted or blocked.

Alibaba’s AliExpress was caught using users’ audio systems to track them.

AliExpress wasn’t recording users but instead playing a silent sound and measuring how users’ specific devices processed it in order to fingerprint them.

But don’t worry because Brave stops this.

— Brave (@brave) August 22, 2026

The developer also found that the scripts collected other device characteristics, including available memory, screen dimensions, and network information.

Here’s what Brave found:

1. Alibaba’s AliExpress was caught using users’ audio systems to track them. AliExpress wasn’t recording users but instead playing a silent sound and measuring how users’ specific devices processed it in order to fingerprint them.

2. Fingerprinting is a way that websites can identify you without cookies. Sites will note details about your device like your screen size or installed fonts. These details are then combined into a unique, persistent “fingerprint” that can be used to track you across the Web.

3. There are slight variations in how each device plays the same audio file due to differences in CPU, sound card, browser, etc. When AliExpress played the silent sound, it measured these small variations to help build fingerprints of users’ devices.

4. This tracking was discovered due to an unexpected side effect. A user with Bluetooth headphones noticed they couldn’t play music on their phone because the headphones were instead playing AliExpress’s silent sound from their PC.

Brave turned what it found into a sales pitch for its browser:

1. For 6+ years, Brave has protected users against audio fingerprinting, and other fingerprinting types, by default. Brave injects random data into the browser’s output so you show a different fingerprint to different sites. This fingerprint also resets across sessions.

2. Trackers are constantly finding new ways to fingerprint your device, so Brave keeps adding new protections. We recently added defenses against GPU fingerprinting, which stops sites from identifying you with your graphics card or drivers.

The findings raise new questions about browser fingerprinting, a stealthy way that uses silent audio processing for covert tracking. 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A doctor’s lawsuit against Maine’s medical board can proceed, a federal judge has ruled.

An order from the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine that Dr. Meryl Nass undergo a psychological evaluation for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19 was “based on no evidence or process,” including no probable cause, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said in an Aug. 20 decision.

“In judicial proceedings, at a minimum probable cause findings ordinarily are required to justify pretrial impositions. In this case, as alleged, the Board dispensed with preliminary proceedings altogether,” Walker wrote.

The process appeared to have “lacked any safeguards to protect against agency zeal and resembled investigatory action imposed, somewhat ironically, in the absence of evidence rather than the initiation of an impartial, sober, thoughtful judicial process designed to assess the truth of facts to arrive at the existence of probable cause to justify such a sanction,” he also said.

The board did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

“I am happy to report that I will eagerly move forward with the legal case to clear my name and defend the free speech right of medical practitioners to tell the truth to their patients, especially if it goes against government or medical orthodoxy,” Nass said in a blog post.

Maine’s medical board in 2022 suspended Nass’s license after receiving a complaint from a person who was not her patient that the doctor was spreading misinformation about COVID-19 because she noted that people who recovered from the illness had protection against re-infection.

Board members also took issue with how Nass prescribed ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient and lied to a pharmacist about why she prescribed hydroxychloroquine to another patient. It was for COVID-19, not for Lyme disease.

The board ordered Nass to undergo a psychological evaluation in order to get her license back, among other conditions. State law only authorizes such an order when a licensee “may be unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of mental illness, alcohol intemperance, excessive use of drugs, narcotics, or as a result of a mental or physical condition interfering with the competent practice of medicine,” Walker noted in the new ruling.

“The record before the Board did not include any suggestion or information that Dr. Nass suffered from drug or alcohol abuse or a physical condition, suggesting that, if anything, the Board considered Dr. Nass’s opinions to be the product of not independent thought but a mental illness or mental condition,” he said. “Alternatively, the imposition of this sanction would suggest that the Board was making an example out of Dr. Nass.”

The Maine Superior Court previously voided the psychological evaluation order, concluding it was arbitrary and capricious.

After that court ruled, Maine’s medical board asked the federal court in Maine to throw out Nass’s lawsuit.

Walker sided with the board regarding its actions apart from the evaluation, finding members enjoyed immunity for their conduct during the hearing on the allegations against Nass and for their determination to suspend her license.

But the case can move forward regarding the psychological evaluation order, he said.

“The scope of what remains of Dr. Nass’s claims will need to be addressed in later proceedings but includes, at a minimum, the requirement that she submit to a psychological evaluation,” the ruling stated.

Nass told The Epoch Times in an email that her license remains suspended because the board imposed conditions that would have prevented her from practicing independently, including requiring her to send her charts regularly to the board for review.

“The reason I wanted a license was so that if another pandemic happened, I would be able to provide the appropriate care to patients as I saw fit, which might not be what the government recommended,” Nass said. “Since the conditions the Board imposed precluded that, I did not seek to regain the license, which remains suspended.”

Nass also said she recently moved to New Hampshire.

First, thieves were cutting catalytic converters off petrol-powered vehicles because of the valuable platinum, palladium, and rhodium inside the exhaust systems, which convert toxic engine gases into safer emissions. Now, it appears thieves are targeting trucks in one part of the country, not for precious metals, but for entire tailgates.

CBS affiliate KHOU 11, which serves Houston, Texas, recently reported on a vehicle-parts theft ring targeting trucks for their tailgates.

The outlet interviewed a Texas truck owner whose tailgate had been stolen. While searching Facebook Marketplace for a replacement, he stumbled across something unexpectedly familiar: his own tailgate.

The finding led Harris County Precinct 4 deputies to recover eight stolen tailgates from an apartment garage in Harris County, situated in the northwestern part of the Houston metropolitan area, and arrest two 27-year-old men.

Investigators said the owner had placed unique markings on the tailgate before it was stolen, allowing deputies to verify that the item advertised online belonged to him.

“Our complainants had some unique markings on the tailgate that we were able to verify belonged to the complainant,” Harris County Precinct 4 Capt. Jonathan Zitzmann said.

YouTuber WhiteFace Ford reported the tailgate theft problem in Texas in a viral short video titled “The Tailgate Theft Problem Hitting South Texas Truck Owners.” 

The Tailgate Theft Problem Hitting South Texas Truck Owners Hard

In San Antonio they are stealing tailgates and tail lights, and a replacement tailgate can cost up to $3500. Any anti theft protection?#FordTrucks #WhitefaceFord #DealershipSecrets pic.twitter.com/6S77NLAv7S

— Whiteface Ford (@Jon_Galland) August 16, 2026

Thieves Steal Tailgates in Minutes and Here Is How to Stop Them

The Omaha Bravo Designs kit installs in under an hour, blocking access to the tailgate cable and tail light screws with security hardware.#FordTrucks #WhitefaceFord #DealershipSecrets pic.twitter.com/JS3Im0cP1G

— Whiteface Ford (@Jon_Galland) July 31, 2026

Beyond the Texas tailgate theft, we reported earlier this month that criminals were stealing entire outdoor HVAC units, prompting some homeowners to install metal cages.

Shortly after AP News reported Monday evening that the Trump administration was preparing the largest mass visa revocation in US history, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, the White House posted a meme on X spoofing the animated series The Magic School Bus and renaming Ms. Frizzle’s vehicle “The Magic Deportation Bus.”

Please let this be a normal field trip… pic.twitter.com/YkhmpEQpvb

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 24, 2026

The report states that the State Department is expected to announce the rolling cancellation of B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026. The revocations will be coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to identify affected visa holders.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told the outlet.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X, “People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims. Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.”

BREAKING: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that district courts CANNOT block immigration enforcement actions based solely on allegations against ICE agents.

Fire up the deportation planes!! 👋 pic.twitter.com/2kJe4wSUUm

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 24, 2026

Revocation would not automatically result in deportation. Foreigners with pending asylum cases would generally remain in the immigration system but lose their classification as legitimate business or tourist travelers.

Over the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked roughly 175,000 visas involving alleged criminal conduct, national security concerns and, in some cases, public opposition to US foreign policy.

In July, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a record 51,000 illegal aliens. Deportations for the year stand at 356,389.

Something big is about to happen with deportations in America. You should be ready for this…

I just spoke with a senior DHS official. They shared deportation numbers with me that frankly stunned me.

+27,000 deportations. Last week.

+3,600 a day average.

Tracking for 1.4… pic.twitter.com/FBKboHnmt4

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 19, 2026

Meanwhile, Democrats continue to die on the hill of defending criminal illegal aliens, even though the vast majority of Americans support deporting illegal aliens who commit crimes.

BREAKING; DHS confirms to @FoxNews that a suspect arrested by police in Loudon County, VA on Thursday for selling fentanyl to students near a high school that had overdoses is a Salvadoran illegal alien who was caught and released at the Texas border during the Obama… pic.twitter.com/Um39SoTSP8

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 24, 2026

Milton Friedman … 

Precisely articulated https://t.co/xAVg4WN7DH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2026

At the same time, the party’s far-left wing, led by the Democratic Socialists of America, is openly promoting an agenda that would effectively eliminate borders and invite an even larger wave of illegal immigration. 

The consequences of uncontrolled mass migration are absolutely nation-killing, as Europe is discovering the hard way. The resulting public backlash is now driving what Nomura describes as Europe “lurching right” ahead of the coming 18-month election cycle. 

Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,

The federal government has awarded about $230 million to programs referencing “intersectionality,” with much of the funding originating during the Biden administration, according to a new report from two policy groups.

The Defense of Freedom Institute and Legal Insurrection Foundation identified 249 federal assistance records that used the term “intersectionality,” an ideological framework that examines race, sex, class and other characteristics in assessing discrimination and privilege.

According to the report, about $140 million has been spent, while another $90 million remains obligated. Funding surged during former President Joe Biden’s administration, peaking at $80.1 million in 2023, before declining under President Donald Trump.

Some grants remain active through 2030, and roughly 100 of the 249 awards identified by researchers appear to be ongoing.

“Amazingly, we have discovered that the federal government has been funding the Intersectionality movement,” William Jacobson, founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and a Cornell Law School professor, told the New York Post. “This has to stop.”

The grants encompass projects ranging from medical research to universities, museums and community programs. In some cases, intersectionality was one component of research receiving federal support rather than the primary purpose of the grant.

Among the awards highlighted was nearly $11 million to the New Hampshire Department of Health for cancer prevention and control programs. The program targeted populations experiencing health disparities, including what it described as an “intersectionality of gender and income inequality.”

Other examples included $8.16 million to New York University for a diabetes equity research center and $14.25 million to Drexel University for a program intended to increase diversity among faculty studying health disparities.

The report’s authors warn that embedding intersectionality into federal programs could encourage recipients to make decisions based on race and other protected characteristics while disguising those practices in academic terminology.

“This report shows just how deeply intersectional ideology has become embedded in the federal grant-making apparatus,” Defense of Freedom Institute President Robert Eitel said.

President Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to declare that all mines have been removed from the Strait of Hormuz – it what seems yet another attempt to declare all is well at a moment Washington has shifted from prior military operations to an economic ‘strangulation’ and siege policy targeting the Islamic Republic.

“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” the President wrote on Tuesday. “Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect.”

So while there is a temporary calm for now, also with Iran not having targeted foreign vessels in at least the last couple days, Trump is essentially saying military options remain on the table.

Below is the text of the full Truth Social Post [emphasis ZH]:

I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. Through Space Force, we are watching every square inch of the Strait, as we are, also, with Pickaxe Mountain and the already destroyed three other Nuclear sites. There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

US officials along with reports in Axios and other outlets have touted US Navy assistance for a steady small ‘stealth’ stream of tankers still transiting the Strait each day with fighter jet monitoring operations near the Omani coastline.

Axios claimed for example that last week 15 million barrels of oil exited the waterway on a single day.

But some maritime monitor organizations and pundits remain skeptical, and the situation is muddied given that many ships must turn off their transponders if they choose to risk the passage, which for months has been subject to attack by Iranian drones and missiles.

This summer, for the first time in history, Trump threatened to bomb Muscat over negotiations with Tehran, given Iran has asserted that the Oman-brokered Hormuz management plan cuts the US out of the process.

Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them.”

We have two different things being said (again):

1. POTUS: “all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz”https://t.co/A3Wfjn91KI

2. JMIC: “Navigation interference persists, and mine-risk reporting remains relevant… https://t.co/CtajLe21Vq pic.twitter.com/N8Q1d56z8R

— Charlie B (@supbrow) August 25, 2026

Coupled with this is Bessent’s rollout on Monday of details of an economic ‘D-Day’ against Iran, saying that the country will be completely isolated from the world economy, and threatening secondary sanctions against any third party country that doesn’t comply.

The big question remains whether Washington would actually go after China over violation of the new Iran restrictions, especially given China’s President Xi Jinping is set to be hosted at the White House, just weeks away.

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times,

When Americans are feeling down, instead of calling a mental health professional, a growing number are reaching for their keyboards. Artificial intelligence chatbots have become confidantes, sounding boards, and even substitutes for therapists. Some say this could have a significant impact on the U.S. mental health crisis.

This shift is unfolding against the backdrop of a substantial mental health burden in the United States. An American Psychiatric Association poll revealed 62 percent of respondents reported high levels of anxiety. Meanwhile, the online mental health care provider Innerwell revealed that more than 61 million U.S. adults reported a mental health condition in 2024.

Almost half of them did not receive any treatment.

So what happens when the 24-hour availability of AI chatbots steps into the treatment void? Well, some care providers say that the outcome will be a mixed bag on its best day.

Others think the habit of turning to AI for mental health support will eventually change the nature of human relationships.

“People are increasingly outsourcing emotional labor – flirting, apologizing, repairing, expressing vulnerability – to AI,” Luis Maimoni, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told The Epoch Times.

Maimoni said AI chatbots can feel supportive, but also take the “human out of human relationships.”

“Some people do form attachments to chatbots, but that’s not the part that worries me most. The bigger issue is population-wide: when enough people stop practicing relationship skills, those skills naturally fade,” he said.

In his experience, Maimoni said turning to AI chatbots for comfort affects couples, families, and kids. He also believes this will eventually take a toll on the next generation.

“If we lose our ability to connect with each other and the world around us, we lose one of the things that makes us most human,” he cautioned.

Maimoni’s concerns are supported by the fast-growing trend of supplementing human interactions with AI in difficult situations. In a survey of more than 1,200 licensed psychologists, researchers at the American Psychological Association found that 39 percent of care providers have discussions with patients who use AI to self-diagnose.

The same study noted that 35 percent of care providers’ patients were using AI as an “additional mental health professional.”

Echo Chamber Effect

On the one hand, professional care providers say AI could offer new ways to reach people who lack access to traditional treatment. However, the technology’s expanding role with nuanced, even intimate conversations with human operators also comes with considerable risks.

“One of the most important distinctions in mental health care is the difference between validation and agreement. As a therapist, I might tell a client that I understand why an experience felt frightening without agreeing that their interpretation of what happened is necessarily accurate,” Dr. Susan Johnston told The Epoch Times.

Johnston is a Florida-based, licensed mental health counselor and the founder of Human AI Dynamics. She said good clinical work often involves “validating the emotion” of a patient while leaving room for reality testing, uncertainty, and other explanations.

She pointed out that, for the moment, most AI chatbots don’t operate with this level of discernment.

“A chatbot can sometimes blur that distinction because maintaining a supportive conversation may result in repeatedly mirroring the user’s interpretation back to them,” she said. “For someone who is already vulnerable, the response can begin to feel like independent confirmation.”

Consequently, if a person is struggling with a mental health condition, they may end up drawing the conclusion “even the AI agrees with me,” according to Johnston.

“Something designed to make a person feel heard can then unintentionally strengthen a belief that might instead need to be questioned or explored more carefully,” she said.

Dr. Michelle Harris, a licensed social worker and doctor of behavioral health, shares this perspective.

“One concern is that prolonged chatbot use can create a kind of closed feedback loop,” Harris told The Epoch Times.

Harris has more than 20 years of experience in mental wellness and is the founder of Anew Health Solutions. She said someone who is already experiencing paranoia, delusional thinking, mania, severe depression, or suicidal thoughts may return to the same fears or beliefs repeatedly. AI could then continue reinforcing that framework instead of recognizing that someone’s mental state is spiraling.

“A clinician is assessing much more than the words someone says. We are considering history, behavior, functioning, risk, changes over time, nonverbal cues, medication, sleep, support systems, and whether a person’s interpretation of reality appears to be changing. A general-purpose chatbot does not have that full clinical picture,” she explained.

Harris added mental health organizations have specifically cautioned that AI tools may engage “unsafely with vulnerable users.”

“If someone says, ‘I believe people are following me and I am terrified,’ I can acknowledge that the fear feels very real and frightening without agreeing that people are actually following them. In mental-health care, compassionate support sometimes has to exist alongside gentle challenge, further assessment, or reality testing,” she said.

A May study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions supports these concerns. The researchers stated clinical observations point to a link between intensive chatbot use and psychiatric destabilization in vulnerable individuals.

“For someone with a vulnerable mind, a delusion or a hallucination is a very real part of their reality and an extremely dangerous part,” Dr. Michael J. Zizmor, founder of Zizmor Mental Health, told The Epoch Times.

Zizmor said the “engagement-validation loop” perpetuated by an AI system may, in some cases, fuel delusions and gaslight a user into believing in something that a human companion would’ve pushed back on.

“The danger is compounded by the bots’ extremely humanlike and available nature, which may lead delusions to be reinforced, grandiose delusions to be magnified, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness to become overwhelming, an unwillingness to take prescribed medications to occur, or to engage in dangerous behaviors,” Zizmor said.

Meanwhile, AI advocates say chatbots could play a telehealth-style support role for those who are struggling with certain mental health conditions. They argue chatbots could be particularly useful given the worsening shortage of healthcare workers in the United States.

As of 2026, around 130 million Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals.

Some believe AI can help close the gap between supportive care needs and availability amid America’s ongoing shortage of qualified human counselors.

“With these developments, rigorously tested AI chatbots are an underappreciated solution to the shortage of therapists and may help address key challenges in mental health care: access, affordability, and the delivery of consistent, empathetic care,” researchers at the Milbank Memorial Fund stated.

Old Problems, New Approach

Johnston believes a cautious strategy is needed with AI chatbots used for mental health support, but also thinks the technology could be beneficial under the right circumstances.

She believes this matters more than many realize because of the U.S. healthcare system’s longstanding struggles with provider shortages, cost, insurance barriers, and potentially lengthy wait times to see a therapist.

“If AI helps some people cope, seek help earlier, or maintain gains between appointments, there could be a meaningful public-health benefit; if another group becomes more isolated, experiences worsening symptoms, or delays professional care, that could add pressure to an already strained system. At this scale, I don’t think we can evaluate AI only by asking what happens to the average user; we also have to understand what happens to the smaller groups of users who may be particularly vulnerable,” she said.

Harris agreed that mental health support in the United States is a “very real issue” due to workforce shortages, and AI might be helpful on this front.

“AI has tremendous potential as an adjunct,” Harris said. “Someone might use it to organize their thoughts before an appointment, learn basic coping strategies, identify questions to ask a provider, or receive general information while waiting for care. Research involving a purpose-built generative-AI therapeutic chatbot has shown promising symptom improvements, which tells us there may be meaningful opportunities here.”

That said, she clarified there’s a big difference between a clinically developed and studied intervention and using a general-purpose chatbot as a therapist.

Zizmor, Harris, and Johnston firmly agree that AI isn’t creating a national mental health crisis in its own right, but rather throwing a can of gas on the existing one.

From Zizmor’s perspective, he believes AI is an amplifier, not a root cause. He thinks the outcome of the technology’s use in mental health support depends entirely on the circumstances of the person using it. He said AI’s use in this capacity should be regulated “not as an independent replacement for healthcare professionals, but rather as an addition under their supervision.”

Harris concurred. “AI may help bridge certain gaps. But the danger is when the bridge becomes the destination.“

For Johnston, the rise of chatbot popularity as a mental health crutch heralds an opportunity to look at the deeper issue.

“Rather than only asking whether people are becoming too attached to AI, I think we also need to ask what the AI is providing that the person was not getting somewhere else and why that need went unmet,” Johnston said.

“The answer may tell us as much about the weaknesses in America’s existing mental-health system as it does about artificial intelligence.”

Previously, Iranian state media aired images which appeared to threaten President Donald Trump’s son Barron Trump, and following this Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be seizing the moment.

Netanyahu has claimed in a phone interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday that Iran tried to assassinate one of his two sons. “Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons,” he claimed.

“Therefore, the security they get is not a luxury,” he added, in reference to his argument that the state must continue protecting his family for years to come – even if he loses the upcoming election.

He described that without this protection for at least five years, “they would succeed,” referencing imagined would-be Iranian assassins.

Netanyahu has two sons, Yair and Avner, but he didn’t specify if one or the other was under threat by an alleged assassination plot.

Avner lives in Israel, while Yair – the one who is much more visible and outspoken on social media – lives in a luxury area of Miami.

Israeli media further claims as follows: “A Channel 12 report says the alleged attempt took place at a time when Yair Netanyahu was not in Israel, but does not specify that Yair was the target.”

The report also seeks to address why this is suddenly being “revealed” now:

The alleged assassination plot has been known to the Israeli security establishment for several months, the TV report says, but has been barred from publication by the military censor.

Israel has tended to push ‘assassination plot’ claims while offering no public evidence and at opportune times which seemed aimed at escalating Washington’s involvement against Iran.

For example, back in July when Netanyahu was openly pushing against White House efforts to pursue a negotiated settlement with Tehran there was this:

Israel shared intelligence with the United States that Iran had recently devised a new plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, adding another layer of tension as a ceasefire deal between the countries comes under strain.

One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intelligence in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.

At the time, the White House did not seem too alarmed by the ‘warning’ – and hasn’t made much reference to it since.

In the opening days and weeks of Operation Epic Fury, literally dozens of top Iranian government and military officials were assassinated – and in some cases their family members died in the same attacks. Israel’s military owned up to many of these operations, boasting publicly during the height of the bombing campaign. 

This new claim by Netanyahu of covert plot against his family also comes just as Bessent unveiled a so-called Economic D-Day policy to strangle the Islamic Republic economically.