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LSAT Suspends Online-Testing In China After Alleged Data-Theft Tied To Chinese Prep Companies

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LSAT Suspends Online-Testing In China After Alleged Data-Theft Tied To Chinese Prep Companies

Authored by Eric Mathemeier via CampusReform.org,

Chinese companies preparing students for the American Law School Admission Test (LSAT) have gained unauthorized access to U.S.-based LSAT preparation companies and stolen information, according to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the organization that administers the American LSAT.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, LSAC began permitting remote LSAT administration. In China, that shift fueled a lucrative market of firms exploiting loopholes in LSAC’s online security—enabling hired test-takers, armed with fake identification, to impersonate students and complete the exam from abroad.

LSAC announced in August that it had suspended online testing from mainland China. The suspension came amid concerns that Chinese actors compromised and penetrated remote testing systems and services.

New reports, including one by Dave Killoran, the CEO of PowerScore, an American LSAT prep company, reveal just how these Chinese companies are scamming the LSAT. 

Killoran said that a Chinese whistleblower, told him last May that he had access to what appeared to be stolen LSAT questions. The whistleblower was frustrated how easy it was to gain access to cheat materials. 

Killoran told The Washington Free Beacon that screenshots of the test questions are “compiled into PDFs and sold to students who can’t pay the high fees for a proxy test taker.”

Chinese companies have been charging up to $8,000 for the stolen information. These firms advertise “guaranteed results” through encrypted social media channels and claim to have access to upcoming LSAT questions weeks before the exam.

Actors reportedly stole this information through a variety of means, one of the most prominent being hiding high-definition cameras to photograph in-person and remote exam questions.

This is not the first time that Chinese influence has penetrated American higher education. The Hudson Institute conducted a report on Harvard University published in June, that highlighted how Harvard was training Chinese government officials.

The report said that Harvard provided training to Chinese state officials linked to the repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang—potentially breaching U.S. sanctions laws.

The Hudson Institute said of its report that it “barely scratches the surface of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Harvard and US higher education broadly.”

Americans for Public Trust released a report earlier this year detailing how China and other foreign governments have funneled billions of dollars into U.S. colleges and universities.

According to the findings, New York University has received nearly $350 million in Chinese funding, making it the largest known recipient of such contributions over the past several decades.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 21:00

US Army Prepares Million Drone Acquisition To Secure Domain Dominance On Modern Battlefield

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US Army Prepares Million Drone Acquisition To Secure Domain Dominance On Modern Battlefield

Nearly four months after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced sweeping reforms aimed at achieving “drone domain dominance” by 2027, including a Pentagon-wide procurement overhaul led by the DOGE, Reuters reports that the U.S. Army is preparing to acquire at least one million drones over the next few years, marking one of the largest drone procurement cycles in the military service’s history. 

Learning from the modern battlefield in Ukraine, the Army plans a massive ramp-up in drones: purchasing at least a million drones over the next 2-3 years, with potential purchases of half a million or more per year thereafter.

This is a significant jump from today’s 50,000 drones per year procurement cycle, and comes as Russia and China have ramped up production of their own. 

U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told Reuters that this new drone acquisition plan is a “big lift. But it is a lift we’re very capable of doing.” 

Here’s more from the report:

He spoke by phone during a visit to Picatinny Arsenal, where he described learning about experimentation with “net rounds,” defenses that capture a drone in nets, as well as new explosives and electromagnetic tools synched into weapon systems.

Driscoll and Picatinny’s top commander, Major General John Reim, spoke to Reuters about how the United States was taking lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has been characterized by drone deployments on an unprecedented scale.

Tiny, inexpensive drones have proven to be one of the most potent weapons in the Russia-Ukraine war, where conventional warplanes are relatively rare because of a dense concentration of anti-aircraft systems near front lines.

Ukraine and Russia each produce roughly 4 million drones a year, but China is probably able to produce more than double that number, Driscoll said.

Driscoll said his priority is getting the United States into a position where it can produce enough drones for any future war, stimulating domestic production of everything from brushless motors and sensors to batteries and circuit boards.

. . . 

“We expect to purchase at least a million drones within the next two to three years,” Driscoll said.

President Trump’s June executive order to “unleash American drone dominance” calls for scaling up domestic production. However, the challenge lies in the fact that supply chains for critical components, such as brushless motors, sensors, batteries, and chips, remain concentrated in China and other Southeast Asian countries.

“Drones are the future of warfare and America will come from behind to lead the way,” Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire stated over the summer on X. 

Maguire is right. Listen to Erik Prince’s conversations from earlier this year about the future of warfighting, small drones equipped with shaped charges are beginning to eliminate the need for snipers on the battlefield. The operational range is shifting from 1,000 yards with a scoped battle rifle to several miles with a drone controller.

As we noted last month, the Pentagon’s DOGE unit is overseeing the complete overhaul of America’s lagging drone program. 

Drone stocks, including Red Cat, AeroVironment, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, have soared since Trump’s early June EO on drones.

In the private markets, Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries has drawn significant attention for its cutting-edge drone technology. 

And next comes humanoid robots.  

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 20:25

GOP Secures 60 Votes As Bill To Reopen Government Advances

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GOP Secures 60 Votes As Bill To Reopen Government Advances

Update (2100ET): The GOP bill to reopen the government has received 60 votes, after at least eight Democrats crossed the aisle to support it. 

As noted earlier, this begins the long and drawn-out process of Majority Leader John Thune presenting the original House-passed continuing resolution for a vote, which will then have the minibus and updated CR attached. There will then be two more votes before the package goes back to the House. If they pass it, it will head to President Trump’s desk. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin…

*  *  *

Update (2005ET): Senate Republicans have secured enough Senate Democrats to back a new plan to reopen the government. 

Details:

  • The core would be a continuing resolution to reopen the government until Jan. 30, 2026 
  • It will reverse the Trump administration’s firings of furloughed workers and ensure they receive back pay.
  • A three-bill spending package known as a ‘minibus’ that would fund military construction, the VA, the legislative branch, agriculture, and the FDA. 
  • Food stamps (SNAP) will be funded through fiscal year 2026.
  • The package does not extend expiring pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies, but Democrats have been promised a vote on it after the government reopens. 

The bipartisan deal was hammered out by Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), while a trio of Democratic caucus members; Sens. Angus King (I-ME), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) provided critical support, Fox News reports. 

Of note, this is essentially what Republicans had offered weeks ago – with Sen. King explaining that the ‘length of the shutdown’ was the deciding factor.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has made clear over the past few days that he won’t put a bill forth for a vote that doesn’t have the votes to pass. 

“There’s going to be something to vote on, let’s put it that way,” said Thune. 

A vote is expected later Sunday evening – which will begin a long and drawn-out process of Thune presenting the original House-passed continuing resolution for a vote, which will then have the minibus and updated CR attached. There will then be two more votes before the package goes back to the House. If they pass it, it will head to President Trump’s desk. 

And of course, Democrats are already bitching.

*  *  *

With the government shutdown having ground airline travel to a standstill – and Thanksgiving right around the corner, Senate Democrats on Sunday say they’re ready to advance a package of bills that could end the impasse, multiple sources have told Axios. 

Chuck Schumer and John Thune (Francis Chung/POLITICO) 

“At least 10 Senate Democrats are expected to support a procedural motion to advance a package of spending bills and a short term funding measure,” according to the report. 

What’s notable about this offer is that Democrats appear willing to accept a promised vote to extend the temporary pandemic-era Obamacare credits in December. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), meanwhile, said on Sunday that if Democrats cross the aisle to get this done, he will offer another stopgap spending measure with a later expiration date combined with three full-year appropriations bills (aka a ‘minibus‘). 

If passed, this should hopefully unsnarl air travel in time for Thanksgiving…

While Bitcoin traders appeared to welcome the news:

 

Are we there yet?

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 20:11

When An Ideologue Says Capitalism Is Theft, Expect Years Of Hardship For His Constituency

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When An Ideologue Says Capitalism Is Theft, Expect Years Of Hardship For His Constituency

By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

“When @NYGovCuomo refuses to tax the rich, he’s refusing to let workers enjoy the wealth they created,” wrote Zohran Mamdani in the lead up to his election.

“When he says low taxes foster a ‘business-friendly environment,’ he means an environment where it’s easy for bosses to steal from workers,” continued the candidate.

“Taxation isn’t theft. Capitalism is.”

It’s a rather extraordinary statement. Particularly so for the Mayor of New York, which for a century has been capitalism’s capital city.

Mamdani’s quote falls comfortably within the Karl Marx genre, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” Or George Orwell’s, “Four legs good, two legs bad.”

Mamdani won the youth vote by the kind of electoral margin that would’ve made Saddam Hussein blush. And when an ideologue says capitalism is theft, you should (1) believe that he means what he says, and (2) expect it to take years of economic hardship for his constituency to come to their senses.

Argentina’s chronic decline started sometime after Peron came to power in the 1940s. Milei chain sawed his way to economic sanity 80 years later.

Anyhow, 1500 miles southwest of New York City, in Austin Texas, 75% of Tesla shareholders voted to award Elon a $1 trillion incentive package. It is contingent on a variety of milestones being met, the most ambitious of which is a 6x rise in Tesla market capitalization to $8.5 trillion.

It was an Ayn Randian sort of result, and sure to attract more NYC refugees to the Lone Star state.

Progressives naturally erupted. Which kicked off a furious but healthy philosophical exchange on X about the makers in society versus the takers.

And whether we should think of economic spoils as a fixed pool to be divided by politicians, or something to be inexorably expanded by free market capitalism.

It is a debate Orwell hoped to settle in Animal Farm’s final chapter, when the pigs replaced their seven idealistic founding principles with one simple line, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 19:50

Russia Will Only Break Nuclear Test Ban If US Does First: Kremlin

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Russia Will Only Break Nuclear Test Ban If US Does First: Kremlin

Moscow is still waiting for clarity on the US nuclear testing issue, after President Trump late last month wrote on Truth Social, “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”

This immediately sparked confusion and speculation over whether this would just involve testing nuclear delivery systems, like long-range ballistic missiles, or whether there would be an actual return to atomic detonations – which the US has not done since 1992 at the close of the Cold War.

On Sunday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made clear that Russia will hold firm to its obligations under international treaties prohibiting nuclear tests. However, he indicated that Russia will resume explosives tests only if other nations do first, in a clear reference to the United States under the Trump administration.

AFP/Getty images: A French nuclear test in the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia in 1971.

“Putin has consistently made clear that Russia respects its nuclear test ban commitments and has no plans to violate them,” Peskov said in a new interview by Russian media.

“If another country resumes testing, we will be forced to follow suit to preserve strategic parity,” Peskov explained,

And according to more from the interview, “He clarified that Putin merely asked officials to evaluate whether nuclear tests might be necessary — not to restart them — but warned that Russia would mirror any such actions taken by others.”

Moscow has been complaining that Trump was reacting to mere tests of weapons which are nuclear-powered, and not actual nuclear detonations. RT writes of Peskov’s latest remarks:

He also dismissed Western alarm over recent trials of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater drone, stressing that these tests did not involve nuclear detonations. Peskov accused Western analysts of drawing “shallow and inaccurate” conclusions by conflating nuclear-powered system trials with nuclear tests. He added that Moscow expects clarification from Washington regarding Trump’s statements, calling the issue “too serious to overlook.”

In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin had touted a successful test of his military’s new “invincible” nuclear-capable cruise missile, the Burevestnik. Trump quickly in response called it “not appropriate” and reminded Moscow that a US nuclear submarine is “right off their shores.”

The new Russian missile completed a multi-hour flight that covered 14,000km, and is touted as able to evade any modern anti-air defense system. The test took place on October 21 according to the Kremlin announcement.

Needless to say, if each side began detonating nuclear warheads it would be a highly escalatory and dangerous step not seen since the height of the Cold War. Already plenty of nuclear rhetoric has accompanied the proxy war in Ukraine, but so far this has just been confined to words and occasional Telegram and Truth Social ‘threats’.

But Trump’s wording from the start has left things somewhat ambiguous – and maybe that was his intent – with the words “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis…”. The wording doesn’t itself necessitate explosive testing, also given there’s been no evidence that other countries have been engaged in detonating nukes.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 19:15

“Grift To Enrich Herself”: Ways And Means Committee Responds To Stacey Abrams Dissolving Shady Nonprofit

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“Grift To Enrich Herself”: Ways And Means Committee Responds To Stacey Abrams Dissolving Shady Nonprofit

Radical leftist and twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has officially shuttered her dark-money-funded nonprofit network, including the New Georgia Project and its affiliate, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, a pair of organizations used to drive voter registration and turnouts across the state.

Last week, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) released a statement that said the move to dissolve Stacey Abrams-founded New Georgia Project comes after the committee launched an investigation into whether the nonprofit illegally funneled millions into Abrams’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Smith urged the IRS to revoke its tax-exempt status. 

Smith continued:

“The entire world watched Stacey Abrams turn her twice-failed gubernatorial campaign into a grift to enrich herself in the name of Democrat ‘Get Out the Vote’ and ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ efforts. The New Georgia Project’s decision to dissolve further confirms the Ways and Means Committee and Georgia State Ethics Commission’s findings that the organization broke the law when it failed to disclose more than $7 million in illegal contributions and expenditures designed to prop up Abrams’s failed 2018 campaign.

“This decision also raises further questions about whether Abrams or other organizations she is linked to have engaged in illegal activity. The Department of Justice should take a close look at every Abrams-linked nonprofit, especially given recent discoveries that Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency awarded $2 billion to a group with ties to Abrams.”

The rags-to-riches story of Abrams is fascinating. By 2023, amid the so-called climate crisis, Democrats used the Inflation Reduction Act, better known as the Green New Scam, to funnel billions in green subsidies into their dark web of nonprofits. Abrams, hired as senior counsel, helped secure nearly $2 billion in federal funding for Rewiring America.

Related:

Abrams’ grifting in the nonprofit world is a broader symptom of deep-staters siphoning taxpayer funds to bankroll their own political operations. Attention has now turned to Democrats who’ve weaponized public and private money as force multipliers through a sprawling nonprofit network, fueling a decade-long assault on President Trump that increasingly resembles a color revolution–style campaign.

Great news so far:

If the Trump administration fails to confront the corruption festering within the NGO universe, it risks being consumed by the Democratic Party’s decade-long color revolution machine. Some conservative nonprofits have privately opposed investigations, fearing that future Democratic administrations could retaliate by slashing their funding. Ultimately, if the GOP doesn’t rein in the sprawling dark web of nonprofit corruption Democrats have built, the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles earlier this year, marked by burning cars and street chaos, will be just a preview of what’s to come during the 2026 midterm election cycle.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 18:05

Syria Puts On Show Of ‘Major ISIS Crackdown’ As Sharaa Arrives In D.C. For Trump Talks

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Syria Puts On Show Of ‘Major ISIS Crackdown’ As Sharaa Arrives In D.C. For Trump Talks

Via The Cradle

Self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in Washington on Sunday, following the completion of what Syrian security officials claimed was a large security operation targeting ISIS cells in the country. Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and ISIS commander, will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for talks regarding a security deal with Israel and the lifting of the Caesar sanctions.

On Saturday, Syria’s Interior Ministry claimed it had launched a major operation against ISIS cells, including 61 raids and 71 arrests in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, and Damascus countryside, as part of “ongoing national efforts to combat terrorism and protect public safety,” state media SANA claimed.

Some nice staging complete with printed ISIS logo carefully placed on top of explosives & weapons. via SANA

“The operation, based on intelligence gathered through weeks of surveillance, led to the dismantling of several networks, the arrest of multiple suspects, and the seizure of materials linked to terrorist activity,” SANA added.

The ministry released photos and videos claiming to show multiple raids targeting ISIS cells on Saturday.

However, several photos and videos showed clear signs of staging, indicating the raids are fake and part of a public relations push to improve the image of Syria’s extremist-led government and promote the lifting of sanctions ahead of Sharaa’s visit to the White House.

Photos from the raids published on the SANA website show printed papers showing the ISIS logo carefully placed on top of explosives and weapons allegedly seized in the raids, as well as action shots of security force members running in the street.

State TV Alekhbariah broadcast videos showing journalists casually filming Syrian security forces as they approach the entrance of homes in which members of ISIS the cells are allegedly hiding. In one video, security forces are shown knocking on the front door of a home, as if they are paying a visit to residents. 

The faces of the ISIS members allegedly detained in the raids are carefully concealed by pulling their shirts over their heads as they are taken to the security forces’ vehicles.

The Syrian government has carried out several fake raids against ISIS cells since coming to power in December, including after allegedly foiling an ISIS attack on the Sayyida Zaynab Shrine in southern Damascus in January, and following a suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June.

It was later revealed that it was likely members of Sharaa’s General Security Service (GSS) who carried out the suicide attack that killed 25 worshipers and injured 52 more at the church in the Duweila district of Damascus.  

The logic behind targeting Christians and blaming the attack on ISIS was explained by a former founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria (Nusra Front), Saleh al‑Hamwi.

While promoting the narrative that ISIS was responsible for the Mar Elias attack, he stated on the social media site X that, as a result, “The international community will rally around [the Syrian government], it will receive significant support, and it will join the international coalition against ISIS.”

He added that the government was releasing ISIS leaders from prisons in Idlib and exploiting “the ISIS file internationally in exchange for lifting sanctions.”

The US and Israel have a long history of supporting Al-Qaeda linked groups such as the Sharaa’s Nusra Front and ISIS in Syria as part of the CIA-led operation known as Timber Sycamore. While claiming to oppose ISIS publicly and carry out airstrikes against the group, the US military was covertly arming ISIS to help it take over territory in Iraq and Syria, including in Mosul in June 2014.

Within weeks after Assad’s fall, US mainstream journalists were advising ‘rebels’ who fought on behalf of Jolani/Sharaa that ISIS patches are not palatable for Western audiences…

Washington’s Kurdish ally in Iraq, Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), covertly helped ISIS carry out the genocide of Yezidis in Sinjar in western Iraq two months later.

The US military also protected convoys of ISIS trucks transporting oil from Syria across the border to areas of Iraqi Kurdistan under Barzani’s control, for eventual transport to Turkiye.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 17:30

DHS Weighs Private Bounty Hunters To Locate Illegal Immigrants

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DHS Weighs Private Bounty Hunters To Locate Illegal Immigrants

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration is exploring a program to hire bounty hunters who would track down illegal immigrants and receive bonuses for successful captures, according to a government contracting site.

​The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a request for information on Oct. 31 through the federal government’s central online portal for federal contracting opportunities to gauge interest from private bounty-hunting services.

​“DHS ICE has an immediate need for Skip Tracing and Process Serving Services using government furnished case data with identifiable information, commercial data verification, and physical observation services, to verify alien address information, investigate alternative alien address information, confirm the new location of aliens, and deliver materials/documents to aliens as appropriate,” the request stated.

​While the information gathering process isn’t the same as the government seeking a contract for services, it could lead to an opportunity in the foreseeable future.

​The idea is for ICE to provide skip-tracing companies—businesses specializing in locating individuals—with information on 10,000 immigrants at a time to locate over an initial 12-month period.

Extra assignments would be given in increments of 10,000, up to 1,000,000, over additional periods of time.

​Under the plan, skip-trace vendors would be paid to find illegal immigrants and serve them with documents.

​Such companies would verify address information for non-citizens provided by the government, research additional possible addresses for these individuals, confirm their current residence locations, and deliver required documents to them as needed.

​Bounty hunters would provide ICE with documented home and work addresses, phone numbers, vehicle information, and social media information.

​The proposed pay structure includes “monetary bonuses” based on three criteria: performance, volume, and quality of information provided by companies.

​Performance bonuses were proposed for vendors who verify an illegal immigrant’s residence or employment location on the first attempt.

Other factors include timely verification reports, the vendor’s success in document delivery, and obtaining signatures.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, a DHS spokesperson didn’t comment directly on using bounty hunters to help ICE.

“President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem are supporting our state and local law enforcement officers who are risking their lives to help locate the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” the spokesman said.

“We are providing our law enforcement agencies with the tools, training, and resources they need to enforce immigration laws while performing routine police duties.”

​This information request follows a September $1.9 million contract with Carahsoft Technology Corp. for AI-powered social media surveillance.

The Carahsoft contract detailed on UASpending.gov has a potential value of $5.7 million. The contract was for “Zignal Licenses for ICE Homeland Security Investigations” to provide real-time data analysis for criminal investigations.

The same system is currently used by the United States and Israeli militaries.

Earlier this year, states attempted similar bounty hunter programs.

​A Missouri bounty-hunter bill introduced in January targeted violent illegal immigrants but failed to move out of committee and died in the state legislature. The bill called for life without parole for dangerous illegal immigrants convicted of felony trespassing charges in Missouri.

​It would have allowed Missourians to earn $1,000 for reporting illegal immigrants who were arrested.

Lawmakers in Mississippi attempted to duplicate the Missouri bounty hunter bill, but it also failed to move out of committee.

In Arizona, state Republicans proposed a bill that would have incentivized police departments to target people believed to be in the country illegally by awarding them a $2,500 bounty for each arrest that ended in a deportation.

Like the others, Arizona’s Senate Bill 1111 failed to become law.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 16:20

“Terrible Thing For Democracy”: BBC Top Brass Out After Misleading Trump Documentary

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“Terrible Thing For Democracy”: BBC Top Brass Out After Misleading Trump Documentary

Update (1600ET): President Trump was quick to notice the ‘resignations’ and didn’t hold back in a post on his Truth Social media feed:

The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th.

Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.”

These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.

On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally.

What a terrible thing for Democracy!

We think the smile on his face below says it all.

*  *  *

As we detailed earlier, two top BBC executives are out amid a scandal over deceptive editing of a speech President Donald Trump gave on January 6th, 2021. 

Director General Tim Davie and the outlet’s news CEO, Deborah Turness, have resigned amid the controversy. 

“I wanted to let you know that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years,” Davie said in a statement, adding “This is entirely my decision, and I remain very thankful to the Chair and Board for their unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure, including during recent days.” 

Davie’s claim that “I have decided” is undoubtedly more fake news. These people can’t seem to stop lying.

According to the misleading clip, Trump said to supporters: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”

The comments were in fact made roughly 54 minutes apart, and meant to make it look like Trump incited the Jan. 6 capitol riot. Footage of protesters shown marching toward the Capitol immediately after the clip was in fact from before Trump began addressing supporters. 

The BBC is “100% fake news,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Telegraph on Friday, adding that UK taxpayers are being “forced to foot the bill for a Leftist propaganda machine.”

“Every time I travel to the United Kingdom with President Trump and am forced to watch the BBC in our hotel rooms, it ruins my day listening to their blatant propaganda and lies about the president of the United States and all that he’s doing to make America better and the world a safer place.” -Karoline Leavitt

On Saturday, it was reported that the BBC is expected to apologize for the deceptive edit, with a spokesperson telling The Guardian that the organization’s chair would provide a “full response to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Monday.”

The newspaper said its reporting was based on a memo written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. Prescott left his role earlier this year and has not commented on the document, understood to have been leaked by a whistleblower.

It published an extract that read: “It was completely misleading to edit the clip in the way Panorama aired it. The fact that he did not explicitly exhort supporters to go down and fight at Capitol Hill was one of the reasons there were no federal charges for incitement to riot.”

The memo reportedly added that Prescott, a communications consultant and former political journalist, had raised concerns about the way BBC Arabic covered the war in Gaza. -Guardian

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 15:45

pAIn Ahead?

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pAIn Ahead?

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

pAIn Ahead

We are barely off the record highs for the market, but the market has been acting peculiarly lately.

Maybe it is the lack of “official” data (we didn’t get NFP on Friday), or maybe it is because of the data that we have been getting. I honestly cannot remember the last time “Challenger, Gray, and Christmas” was mentioned as much as it was this week.

Let’s quickly run through a few things that have seemed peculiar, or even downright weird.

Bitcoin

I think it is safe to say that everyone keeps an eye on Bitcoin as a barometer for risk assets, especially on weekends, when markets are closed, but the news flow doesn’t stop.

Like most other risk assets, Bitcoin struggled as the admin focused on tariffs, culminating in the Liberation Day launch. Ultimately, little of the Liberation Day announcement came to pass, and risk assets responded strongly to backing off on tariffs, and a slew of other policies designed to support markets and the economy. The AI spending has played a major role in the economy and markets.

Over the years, the T-Report has used ARKK as a measure of performance for “disruption.” Year to date, it has crushed even the mighty QQQ (up 42% versus 20%). But since the morning of October 31st, it is down 10%, and was down 13% at the lows on Friday.

These moves “suggest” there could be a shift in tone and sentiment out there. Or at least in risk tolerance.

Retail Dip Buying?

So far this year (and possibly last year, and the year before that, and even the year before that), retail has stepped in to buy the dip.

Most noticeable was the dip buying as the admin changed their tune on tariffs, and pivoted to other policies.

We certainly saw some dip buyers this week. We will continue to see that. Wednesday had a shaky start but ground higher (at least until near the close, when there was a decent sell-off). On Thursday, the dip buyers tried, but failed, as we closed near the lows. On Friday, we finally saw a successful response to dip buyers. Was that the “all-clear” sign or a feeble attempt that won’t hold?

I’m not sure, but TQQQ (a triple leveraged QQQ ETF), is one of the first places I look for evidence that retail was driving this bounce.

Since the end of August, the Nasdaq 100 is up almost 6%, despite only brief, and relatively small, inflows into TQQQ.
Is the narrative that “retail” is chasing/driving this market real?

Or have “professional” investors latched on to that as an excuse/reason to be fully invested despite questions about “valuations”?

Was Friday retail buying the dip or pros covering shorts? I saw multiple comments late on Friday that the “most shorted” stocks were leading the charge higher, which seems more like a “pro” move than a retail move?

Volatility

VIX got as high as 22 on Friday. That wasn’t as high as it hit the Friday when it looked like China was cutting the U.S. off from rare earths and critical minerals and we were going to retaliate with 100% tariffs, but it caught my attention.

VIX has been creeping higher for the past two weeks, even when stocks were hitting new highs.

Yes, it could be that VIX was rising as everyone was loading up on bullish bets into year-end via options (we have seen that behavior before), but it didn’t have that feel.

In fact, I’ve been intrigued by realized vol.

10-Day realized vol has risen to about 20. It is worth pointing that out because:

  • VIX, if there is real “fear” being priced in, can trade well above realized vol, an indication of people paying up to get protection.
  • Rising volatility (and just as important, shifting cross-asset correlations) can cause any sort of “risk parity” strategy to de-risk.

Not sure we are at the point where we see any meaningful de-grossing of risk, but it is certainly worth watching, especially if it was professional investors (with stop losses) getting long on Friday rather than retail (which tends not to be forced into stop loss “discipline”).

More on “Sentiment”

There are only two things I looked at in Friday’s CONsumer CONfidence.

I want to know how Republicans are viewing the economy and how independent voters are viewing the economy.

Republicans are still more positive than they were in April. That is positive, though the direction is not great.

Independents are below where they were during peak tariff concerns.

That seems worth mentioning. It meshes with something I think I’m seeing in my social media streams.

I am not naïve and fully understand that Twitter tries to feed you stories it thinks you want, or wants you to want. Even trying to stick to people you follow is fraught with the risk that your stream is biased. I’m aware of that, hence why I’m tentative to even mention this.

But I’ve been noticing (in the comments) a change in support/pushback on the admin. Comments are subject to heavy “bot” usage. Really easy to program a bot to respond to tweets. It is more difficult to tell bots from real people as AI has made the bots sound more real. So, take this assessment with a grain of salt, but I’m seeing a lot more pushback, especially when it comes to inflation.

On “Twitter” inflation, I think you get a real reflection of what people think inflation is, rather than what the BLS tries to tell us it is. People know what they spend money on, and how much it costs (a sentiment that seems to be showing up in some recent fast/casual dining announcements).

This is why so many people have been pounding the table about alternative measures of inflation. Truflation was way ahead of spotting inflation while the Fed actually continued with QE. We were doing QE even as were discussing possible hikes. Still seems bizarre to me.

Truflation is also why so many people thought the Fed could cut sooner and more.

Truflation is creeping back above 2.5%. CPI is coming down (in no small part that it is finally capturing rent declines well after the fact, and so many other calculations remain dubious at best).

If you are worried about inflation going back up, Truflation seems to be reflecting that possibility.

Also, with over $200 billion of tariff revenue collected, we are starting to get more evidence (still sparse and still small) of tariffs impacting prices. In a world where no one wants to attract attention to their company on anything related to tariffs, expect more to come (regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on some emergency powers and tariffs).

Inflation and Electricity Inflation are already topical and may have influenced last Tuesday’s elections – these issues, especially electricity inflation, are likely to grow in importance.

Which Brings Us To Bonds

The Challenger layoff announcement “saved” Treasuries on Thursday.

I’ve been very comfortable with rate cuts and longer dated yields, but for now, I think the next move is to higher yields.

The Fed will not cut because of Challenger (I have yet to see a study showing it is a reliable indicator of much). ADP, on the other hand, came in at 42k. Disappointing, but in line with some estimates of “replacement” rate (the number of hires required to keep the unemployment rate stable).

There is some concern amongst some Fed officials, which I agree with, that inflation is very stubborn here.

While the admin will not allow 10s to “get out of control,” 4.3% (the 200-day moving average) seems like a reasonable short-term target.

Rising yields also fit with my concerns about risk parity potentially being forced to de-gross.

While generally I’m comfortable with credit spreads, I could see the next 10 bps in spread (CDX or Bloomberg Corporate Bond Index OAS) being wider rather than tighter.

Bottom Line

Sticking to our ProSec™ (Production for Security) themes. See any of our recent reports at Academy Macro. In case you missed it, here is a replay of Investing in a Pre-War World. It is relevant to governments, corporations, and investors. Secretary of War Hegseth had some recent comments that fit this “Pre-War” concept very well.

With seasonality favoring a push higher in stocks it is difficult to be too bearish, but the combination of things is making me cautious, even on some ProSec™ names, which have become part of the “momentum” trade:

  • Realized volatility is rising and cross-asset correlations seem to be shifting – creating the potential for a de-grossing/de-risking event.
  • Yields seem at risk of a reasonably large (25 bp) move higher on 10s.
  • The “retail is buying the dip” narrative doesn’t seem to hold water when looking at flows and/or sentiment indicators.

The potential for pAIn seems real and we didn’t even discuss many signs that the deal with China, much celebrated and rewarded by the market, doesn’t seem to be as good in the real world as it sounded on paper (or in media posts).

Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/09/2025 – 15:10

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