Take-Two Interactive, whose Rockstar Games studio is developing Grand Theft Auto VI, was hit by a series of leaks last month ahead of the fall release. Bank of America analysts described the leaked footage as “impressive, but unlikely to surprise,” while TTWO shares have tumbled into a correction since the leaks surfaced online.

The leaked clips reportedly expose plot details, character scenes, and gameplay mechanics, prompting Rockstar Games to call the leaks “gut-wrenching” and warn that some of the game’s surprises may have been spoiled.

According to the Dutch news publication TorrentFreak, TTWO has intensified its search for the person who leaked GTA VI, asking a federal court to seal its latest demand for Discord user data, as the company describes its investigation as “rapidly evolving.”

The new filing came Friday, one day after Rockstar Games streamed an extended GTA 6 preview on Netflix and months before the blockbuster title’s planned November 19 release.

In mid-August, an account named “Cyberleek” began circulating the leaks. TTWO responded with takedown notices and a series of Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoenas targeting Discord, Microsoft, X, and YouTube.

Unlike a conventional lawsuit, a DMCA subpoena allows a copyright holder to seek identifying information from an online platform before suing the alleged infringer.

In the new subpoena, filed Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, TTWO said its “investigation of the infringement at issue is rapidly evolving and ongoing,” adding, “Take-Two has identified one additional Discord user and obtained additional identifying information for a previously identified Discord user, as well as additional information concerning the community servers identified in its prior subpoena for which it now seeks more targeted information.”

On Monday, the SDNY granted the subpoena request. Last month, Take-Two requested four subpoenas seeking information from Discord, Microsoft, Google, and X as the GTA VI leaks went viral on social media.

TorrentFreak pointed out that TTWO withdrew its YouTube request after facing pushback from a judge.

US technology publication PCMag reported that the leaker, CyberLeek, “has gone silent after posting what appears to be the prologue to GTA 6.”

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

OpenAI has pushed back against Apple’s accusations that it stole the iPhone maker’s hardware secrets, blaming the dispute on Apple’s own handling of departing employees.

In a court filing on Monday, OpenAI asked a federal judge to deny Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees from accessing, using, or disclosing alleged trade secrets while the case proceeds.

“This dispute is a mess of Apple’s own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else,” OpenAI said in the filing.

Apple sued OpenAI in July in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The company accused OpenAI and former Apple employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu of misusing confidential information related to hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain operations.

Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and previously served as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, is now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer.

Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer at Apple, now serves on OpenAI’s technical staff.

In its complaint, Apple alleged that Tan used confidential project code names during interviews. It also claimed he asked at least one candidate to bring “actual parts” they had worked on at Apple for a “show and tell” session.

Apple further alleged that Liu continued to access company files after leaving by exploiting what it described as a “rare, previously unknown authentication bug.”

OpenAI has denied those allegations.

In Tan’s case, OpenAI said he returned Apple prototypes before leaving and kept only nonconfidential material.

It also said any components brought to interviews were either old or publicly available and were used only as “demonstration aids.”

OpenAI also defended Liu, saying any Apple files he accessed after leaving were retrieved at the request of former colleagues.

According to OpenAI, those employees contacted him for help locating documents or answering questions about his previous work.

The Epoch Times has requested comment from Apple regarding OpenAI’s latest filing.

Apple Cites New Evidence

Earlier on Monday, Apple submitted what it described as new evidence against Liu as it sought expedited discovery in the case.

Apple alleged that Liu accessed Apple’s confidential “power-converter circuit” schematic while working at OpenAI, and that he used proprietary Apple information to train an AI agent in March.

Apple said the evidence emerged from a MacBook that OpenAI provided to the company on Aug. 21 as part of the legal proceedings. Much of the underlying evidence remains redacted from public view.

“The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed,” the filing states.

OpenAI, however, said the episode only shows Apple’s own shortcomings when it comes to offboarding.

According to OpenAI, Apple encourages employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, making it more difficult to separate personal and company files when they leave.

The company also argued that Apple’s practice of immediately escorting some departing employees from its offices can leave little time to return devices, transfer files, or hand over responsibilities.

“Apple blames employees who left the company for taking their personal accounts with them – even though Apple encouraged them to use personal accounts for work,” OpenAI said.

The competing filings mark the latest escalation in a lawsuit that could provide an unusual look inside the two tech giants.

As the case moves deeper into the discovery phase, both sides could be required to disclose more details about how they recruit talent, develop hardware, and control who has access to what level of secrets.

From AI Partners to Hardware Rivals

There have been days when Apple and OpenAI enjoyed a less contentious relationship.

The two announced a partnership in June 2024 that brought ChatGPT into Apple products, allowing Siri and other Apple Intelligence features to tap into OpenAI’s chatbot for some requests.

But OpenAI has since expanded aggressively into consumer hardware.

In May 2025, OpenAI acquired io Products, a hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.

The deal, valued at $6.5 billion, brought Ive and his team into a close partnership with OpenAI as the company sought to develop a new generation of AI-powered devices.

Tan left Apple before joining io and later became OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. Apple’s lawsuit does not name Ive individually as a defendant.

Apple, meanwhile, has broadened its own AI partnerships.

In January, the company struck a multiyear deal to use Google’s Gemini models as the foundation for future Apple Intelligence features, including its revamped Siri.

The legal fight erupted in July, when Apple accused OpenAI of using former Apple employees to obtain confidential information that could help it develop competing consumer hardware.

Apple has also alleged that OpenAI approached some of Apple’s business partners using confidential information.

OpenAI has denied wrongdoing and portrayed the lawsuit as Apple’s attempt to slow a potential competitor and discourage employees from leaving.

It said in Monday’s filing that roughly 400 former Apple employees have joined its hardware efforts.

The ChatGPT maker argued that California law allows workers to move freely between competing companies, and that Apple cannot characterize ordinary employee departures as unlawful just because they join a rival.

“Apple cannot stop the next 400 employees from leaving by filing baseless lawsuits,” OpenAI said.

“They can leave a company like Apple that has struggled to adopt AI and move to an exciting startup that builds innovative products,” it continued.

“Apple may not like those choices. But it cannot claim those choices are unlawful.”

Yet another major allegation against Russia has emerged this week in the pages of the London-based Financial Times, which says that Moscow has been helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, in a clandestine program that has been ongoing throughout the war with the US and Israel.

Early in the conflict, it was widely reported that advanced and ultra-fast weapons were used against Israel, which might help explain why the small Mediterranean country suffered so much damage.

The FT cited as part of its journalistic investigation internal Russian evidence it has uncovered including correspondence, travel records and military patents.

The secretive program is being described as “one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran.“

At the center of the new reporting is Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, overseeing a project codenamed “C430L” – and also involving the US-sanctioned NPO Mashinostroyenia, a rocket design company.

Officials from both entities reportedly started frequently traveling to Iran in 2023, with the program having continued into June 2026 – though it’s unclear whether the war with the United States has paused or halted it.

The missile reportedly under development would fly at multiple times the speed of sound, and could be an ‘aircraft killer’. It should be noted there are entire Reddit threads focused on questions like: Is there any realistic way for a carrier to destroy a super-sonic “carrier killer” cruise missile?

Jim Lamson, a former CIA military analyst focused on Iran, issued a statement to FT explaining, “For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US Navy vessels.”

Another interesting insight is from Fabian Hinz, a senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research. “This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades,” he told the FT.

“A program like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia,” he added.

There of course remains the looming question of whether this is all propaganda, designed to put even more Western pressure on so-called ‘rogue’ actors Moscow and Tehran. It could be, but sharing such technology would also be consistent with recent defense and economic pacts the two sides have inked. This part has been no secret. They are also already deeply involved in drone transfers.

Bessent on Iran:

Iran gets some supplies from Russia, but if we shut down the Iranian airlines, which we will, then much less coming in.

They don’t really get direct financial support from Russia. pic.twitter.com/yFssQLF71Y

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 2, 2026

Already Russia witnessed a many years-long push to topple the Assad government in Syria, leading to a broad Russian troop withdrawal from the Levant, and certainly the Kremlin doesn’t want to see US-imposed regime change in Tehran as well.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The police department in Dallas has announced it will shut down hundreds of Flock cameras due to a funding pause, making it another U.S. city to remove the controversial camera system.

The department said in a social media post on Sept. 1 that it received a notice that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive ending funding for Flock camera use.

Flock cameras are artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, automated license plate reader systems that capture vehicle details and license plates, with more than 120,000 cameras found throughout the United States. They have drawn online controversy over concerns regarding data privacy, surveillance overreach, and their potential misuse.

“These cameras remain an important investigative tool and are used daily by detectives and officers to develop leads, identify vehicles associated with criminal activity, and assist in solving crimes,” the Dallas Police Department said on X.

It added that it will “continue evaluating available resources and technology to ensure our officers and detectives have effective tools to support investigations and enhance public safety.”

Dallas Police officials said that 321 Flock cameras supported by grant funding will no longer be eligible, meaning they will be canceled effective Sept. 15. After the move, the department “will continue to have more than 300 Flock cameras operating throughout Dallas,” according to its X post.

Last week, Abbott’s office ordered all state agencies to pause funding to Flock camera systems, his spokesperson confirmed to the Texas Tribune.

“To the extent that cities get any funding for those cameras, most of it comes from the federal government. To the extent any funding comes from Texas agencies, those agencies are clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris told the outlet.

Aside from Texas, Florida said on Monday that it would stop allowing Flock cameras on state highways. Meanwhile, two Arizona cities, Tempe and Cave Creek, said days before that they were canceling their Flock contracts.

Will Watts, chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, sent a memo on Aug. 31 stating that the state agency would revoke approvals for license plate readers, including Flock cameras.

Watts noted there was a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of law enforcement cameras and “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” associated with those systems, according to the one-page memo.

Regarding the decision in Tempe, a Flock spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a statement last week that the company respects “the City’s decision, even though Tempe has acknowledged that Flock helped officers do their jobs and found no improper use by its own police department.”

“Flock has built the most accountable tool in police technology, and our technology gives communities control over how their systems are used, including the ability to adopt shorter data retention periods, strong access and auditing policies, and safeguards specifically designed to catch potential misuse,” the spokesperson added.

More than 100 jurisdictions have canceled contracts with Flock and other automated license plate reader providers, according to a database from the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that says it aims to end government abuse of power.

The Epoch Times contacted Flock Safety for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley,

Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas.

In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an “oppressive system” linked with white supremacy and that it must be “dismantled” to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the “fundamental evil of the capitalist system” and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called “to dismantle the capitalist state.”

As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club with other Texas House candidates. However, it was Talarico that roused the crowd with an attack on capitalism:

“I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country … And I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we gonna be able to begin the process of dismantling them.“

Talarico added criticism of Texas’s oil and gas industry, which he mocked as a dying industry “like being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s.” He predicted with obvious satisfaction, “That industry is not gonna last.”

Ironically, given his earlier promise of running a meatless, Vegan campaign, opposing both beef and energy markets in Texas could well achieve the dismantling of the economy by default in Texas.

Talarico’s views closely parallel socialist and communist talking points online. Democratic Socialists of America has challenged people to “Imagine the end of capitalism.” Those words in the Democratic Socialists of America manifesto offer Americans a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and “food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation… are common goods and utilities.”

The DSA is premised on the same stated objective of Talarico, declaring that there has to be “a revolutionary transformation to replace the capitalist social order based on exploitation and oppression.”

Other candidates have sought to pander to this radical mob. Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled the mob by declaring that “nostalgia is not working,” adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.”

In “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the rise of socialism and the coalition of politicians, pundits, and professors in attacking capitalism as well as core institutions such as the Supreme Court. It is a crisis of faith on the 250th anniversary of the oldest and most successful republic in history.

It is the 250th anniversary not only of the Declaration of Independence but of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith’s free market theories were immediately embraced by the founders as the perfect economic theory to match their political theory. They had declared the first Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments.

However, those rights mean little without economic freedom. Capitalism offered citizens the ability to transcend class and social barriers, to advance as far as their skills and labor would take them.

Together, those political and economic theories created the most prosperous and stable democratic system in the world. That system is now under attack on both sides. Radicals are calling for the trashing of the U.S. Constitution and the discarding of our core constitutional values.

Even establishment figures from former Vice President Kamala Harris to California Governor Gavin Newsom now dismiss faith in core institutions as mere “nostalgia.” Those of us who support the Madisonian democracy are derisively called “institutionalists” and constitutional “cultists.”

The New York Times ran a column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” by Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale, calling upon citizens to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

As these attacks on our constitutional system mount, a similar attack on capitalism is unfolding. In New York, Zohran Mamdani promised to show citizens the “warmth of collectivism” from free child care to free buses to state-run grocery stores. Across the country, Mamdani allies are joining him in calling for the de-commodification of private property and the seizing of the means of production.

Polls show that these candidates are being propelled not by the working class, but by young, college-educated voters fresh out of the ideological echo chamber of higher education. They are armchair revolutionaries like Talarico, repeating socialist slogans with the same robotic rote delivery of a Young Pioneer camp.

As these videos surface, radical candidates from Abdul El-Sayed to Talarico brush off their earlier comments as media allies attack any reporting on prior statements. Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is considering a run for president, recently called her own extremist statements as “Woke 1.”

The transparent insincerity does not matter to their base. These figures have already shown their bona fides with extremist statements in the past. Talarico’s desire to dismantle capitalism was not some slip of the tongue but a planned speech to fellow activists. To pivot now is considered to be mere packaging for uneducated and malleable dupes.

Accordingly, when asked about past radical positions, these figures immediately deny or dismiss them. If you want to dismantle the constitutional or economic systems of the United States, a few white lies hardly seem of much consequence. After all, as Trotsky explained, “The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.” For these radicals, there is no greater justification than their own election.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is once again deadlocked over whether the former mother of three should be given a pass due to hysteria and hormones. 

The indecision followed five days of deliberations and two notes from jurors saying they could not agree. On Wednesday, Judge William Sullivan gave the panel a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, Massachusetts’ last-resort charge telling a deadlocked jury to reach a verdict or else it’s an automatic mistrial.

Clancy, 36, a former labor-and-delivery nurse, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the January 24, 2023, deaths of her children – Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months – at the family’s home in Duxbury. She has not disputed that she killed them. The question for the jury of nine women and three men was whether she was criminally responsible.

The killings

Evidence at trial showed Clancy spent part of that morning on ordinary errands of motherhood, including a pediatrician visit for Cora and playing in the snow. She then asked her husband, Patrick Clancy, to leave for takeout and a pharmacy run. While he was gone, she strangled the three children with exercise bands in the basement. She cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window. The fall left her paralyzed from the waist down; she has appeared in court in a wheelchair.

Patrick found her injured in the yard, then found the children. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that day. Callan died days later. All three deaths were ruled ligature strangulation. Clancy later said a voice told her it was her last chance: kill the children so she could kill herself.

What the jury was asked to decide

Prosecutors conceded she was mentally ill, but is still responsible for the killings. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague told jurors Clancy planned the killings, sent her husband out of the house, and checked how long the errands would take. They pointed to her functioning that day as proof she could form intent. Sprague called the killings “a choice.” First-degree murder in Massachusetts can rest on deliberate premeditation, extreme atrocity or cruelty, or both. That conviction is life without parole.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued she lacked criminal responsibility because of postpartum psychosis and bipolar illness, worsened by psychiatric medications and missed warning signs. Under Massachusetts law, the Commonwealth has to prove criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. Clancy had been hospitalized and discharged about three weeks before the killings.

Jurors heard more than 80 witnesses and saw more than 300 exhibits. For each child’s death they could choose first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. Second-degree murder is life with the possibility of parole. A lack-of-responsibility finding typically means commitment to a state psychiatric hospital with periodic reviews and no fixed release date. As noted above, a hung jury would be a mistrial.

Lindsay Clancy’s attorney says Clancy would not be able to “emotionally handle” another trial.

— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) September 2, 2026

Arrest outside the courthouse

The deliberations themselves became part of the story. On Tuesday afternoon, as the jury left after reporting it could not agree, Massachusetts State Police arrested Dawn Light, 56, of Sutton, outside the Plymouth courthouse. She was charged with aggravated intimidation of a witness, juror, or person furnishing information in a criminal proceeding, and was arraigned Wednesday in Plymouth District Court, where she pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance. Her attorney, Jennifer White, called the episode a complete misunderstanding and said Light had only wanted to see Clancy. The judge ordered Light to stay away from the courthouse, have no contact with jurors or witnesses, and release no photographs connected to the case.

Dawn Light, the retired nurse who is facing 20 years in prison for allegedly intimidating Clancy jurors, giggles when asked how she feels now that she’s a celebrity.

Reporter: How do you feel that you’re a celebrity now?

Light: *Giggles*

Zero remorse.pic.twitter.com/vdnvrQvO0R

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 2, 2026

Prosecutors said troopers were told someone may have been filming jurors in the courthouse parking lot. They found Light in a car parked in a restricted area and asked whether she was photographing anyone. “She was adamant she was not,” Assistant District Attorney Nicole Piacentini said, according to NBC Boston. “She stated she was waiting to see if Lindsay Clancy would come out of the building.” An initial search of Light’s phone turned up nothing, investigators said, but the deleted folder held images of people later confirmed to be jurors, taken from her vantage point in the car.

Light told CT Insider she had been trying to record Clancy and lowered her phone when she realized the person on camera was not the defendant. She said a court employee asked for her license and phone; she handed over the license and refused the phone, and troopers were called. “That’s the long and the short of it,” she said. “I don’t know how I intimidated anyone.”

BREAKING: The woman accused of filming jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial is in serious legal trouble.

Prosecutors say 56-year-old Dawn Light filmed jurors outside the courthouse and entered a restricted area despite a court order prohibiting jurors from being photographed or… pic.twitter.com/Pz0yx2sQ22

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 2, 2026

Light is a retired nurse with no prior criminal history. Before deliberations resumed Wednesday, Sullivan questioned each juror individually at sidebar about whether they had seen or heard anything that would affect their ability to decide the case fairly.

A bizarre mini civil war of sorts has erupted among rival Ukrainian security agencies, complete with a wild street shootout and police standoff which has threatened to create more political scandal for President Zelensky – whose office has issued a statement – in an unprecedented saga which seems straight from the plot of a Lioness episode.

Details of the fresh incident, aspects of which may still be unfolding, are murky but widespread videos and local reports say the overnight firefight left wounded in the streets of Kiev. It appears to have started when authorities were investigating an alleged Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) plot against a Russian opposition figure fighting alongside Ukraine forces. But the investigators came upon uncooperative Ukrainian agents among Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office indicates that SBU officers (Security Service of Ukraine, which is also sometimes referred to as SSU) came under armed attack by “one of the units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine” while carrying out investigative actions at 10 Shumskoho Street. Some pundits have suggested that a “Russian terror cell” was involved, but so far Ukrainian official statements and media have described what appears a Ukrainian on Ukrainian assault.

Officials said a search at the location turned chaotic when “a group of individuals launched an armed attack on an SSU investigative and operational team.”

Another regional media source further details that the “SBU said its officers were conducting urgent investigative measures to collect and document evidence in a pre-trial investigation into a terrorist attack allegedly being prepared by Russian intelligence services.” 

Were they looking for a Russian ‘double agent’? It seems that’s what is being described in the emerging media accounts.

Some sources say a standoff ensued for many hours in the capital’s Dniprovskyi district, during which time the SBU dispatched its elite ” Special Operations Center Alpha”. The situation appears to have resolved only once all armed entities jointly agreed to lay down their weapons.

Reports that Officers from the Security Bureau of Ukraine (SBU) opened fire against officers from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR). Some sources say that possibly at least 10 officers are receiving treatment for bullet wounds…

IN UKRAINE 🇺🇦 a shootout occurred between 2 law enforcement agencies.

Officers from the Security Bureau of Ukraine (SBU) opened fire against officers from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR). At least 10 officers are receiving treatment for bullet wounds.

The conflict… pic.twitter.com/Me6vZetSlv

— Joel The Dane 🇩🇰🇺🇦 Данський Козак #NAFO (@JoelTheDane) September 2, 2026

It seems that the SBU has taken control of the situation, and has the upper hand over the military intelligence side at this time:

Some of those who resisted were injured in the incident. The attackers have been detained.

Initial investigative actions have established that the detainees belong to a unit from Ukraine’s defence forces. Weapons and documents have been seized from them.

Thus far, Western mainstream media has paid scant attention to it, and typically ignores or at least under-reports such internal scandals in Ukraine.

Local Ukrayinska Pravda has issued the following timeline and outline of events, via Yahoo News:

•  On 1 September, the Russian Volunteer Corps said that its deputy commander for combat operations, Stepan Kaplunov, had been abducted by unknown individuals in the courtyard of a residential building. [The Russian Volunteer Corps is a military and political organisation established in 2022 that consists of Russian volunteers who have been fighting for Ukraine since 2014] 

•  On 2 September, the SSU said that, jointly with DIU, it had foiled a terrorist attack against a leader of a Russian opposition political nationalist movement who had arrived in Ukraine. DIU released a similar statement, but it was later deleted. 

•  Police cordoned off Shumskoho Street in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, where the standoff between the SSU and DIU took place. 

•  Ukrainska Pravda learned that representatives of the State Bureau of Investigation and the head of the SSU’s Special Group Alpha had arrived at the scene. 

•  The SSU said that its officers came under armed attack while conducting investigative actions in a case concerning a terrorist attack being plotted by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). 

•  The Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a pre-trial investigation. 

Unconfirmed reports of a fatality…

It’s 10 hours later and the standoff in Kiev between SBU (Ukrainian secret police, internal security agency) and GUR (military intelligence/JSOC) is still hot. There have been multiple firefights throughout the night and morning. At least one dead and two injured are being… https://t.co/GzlFY8bEcZ pic.twitter.com/I58XM0vleP

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) September 2, 2026

Meanwhile, Zelensky’s office has directly acknowledged and addressed the episode. Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the President’s Office and former head of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, vowed that a transparent investigation is urgently taking place.

“The State Bureau of Investigation will now deal with the situation. It is important to ensure a thorough and impartial investigation, but no one has the right to abduct servicemen with impunity, open fire in the streets of our cities, or issue or carry out criminal orders,” he stated.

Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The S&P 500’s Shiller CAPE ratio just hit 41. Since 1881, the market valuation has been more expensive under CAPE only once. That was during the final months of the dot-com bubble. At the same time the CAPE is ringing warning bells, the PEG ratio, which measures price relative to expected earnings growth, is at its lowest level in at least three decades, possibly its cheapest reading ever.

One market valuation says run for cover while another says bargain. Both market valuation tools use data from the same 500 S&P companies but interpret the market completely differently.

Confusing, yes, but the disagreement between the two charts comes down to one question: Is the past a better predictor of the future than the wisdom of Wall Street?

To answer our question, we’ll first summarize what each ratio measures, then dig into expected growth versus historical growth, the culprit behind the big difference in the two graphs.  

CAPE Isn’t Perfect

The P/E ratio is one of the most quoted market valuation gauges for stocks and stock indexes. While valuable, it rests on one bold and often wrong assumption: future earnings will match past earnings. In other words, it doesn’t capture how earnings may change.

For the CAPE valuation, the assumption is similar, but instead of using the most recent one year of earnings to assess value, it uses ten years of earnings. This better smooths earnings, reducing the impact of short periods of economic volatility.  But it has the same vulnerability, assuming the future will be just like the past.

P/E tends to be most useful for comparing companies with similar earnings growth, but it is less useful when analyzing high-growth companies or those with the potential to change their growth trajectory.

Despite its flaws, the CAPE valuation strongly correlates with future market returns, as shown in the graph below comparing CAPE valuations and forward ten-year S&P 500 returns. While the CAPE provides a good indicator of expected returns over the full next ten years, it doesn’t provide a roadmap for the monthly and annual returns that make up the period.

The PEG Ratio

The PEG ratio builds on the P/E ratio framework but uses future earnings growth estimates instead of prior realized earnings. Because it uses estimates, it can change rapidly.  

The PEG ratio calculation is the forward P/E divided by the expected 3–5-year earnings growth.

To better appreciate today’s PEG ratio, we break down the numerator, forward P/E, and the denominator, G (3-5-year growth estimates).

Forward P/E

The numerator in the PEG ratio is the forward P/E. Instead of using the trailing twelve months of earnings as in the traditional P/E ratio, the forward P/E uses earnings estimates for the coming twelve months. Thus, its value depends heavily on how well Wall Street can predict earnings for the coming 12 months.  

We can analyze the effectiveness of one-year earnings forecasts in a couple of different ways.

First, we can compare the trailing 12-month P/E to the forward P/E and imply expected earnings for the next year. We can then compare the implied earnings with actual earnings. Using this method, the top two charts below show that Wall Street almost always overestimates earnings and by a wide margin at times.

The second way to grade Wall Street’s forecasting ability is to compare final one-year forecasts with those made at the start of the period. The graph below reinforces the graphs above: Wall Street tends to overestimate earnings.  EPS estimates were reduced in nine of the ten years spanning 2016 through 2025.  However, the trend has changed with 2026 and 2027 estimates trending higher than original forecasts.

G: 3- 5 Year Expected Earnings Growth

Forecasting earnings for just 12 months forward is extremely difficult for Wall Street professionals. Accordingly, forecasting three- to five-years of earnings growth (G in the PEG ratio) is much trickier and more error-prone.

(Note: for this article, we use four-year expected earnings growth to balance out the three-to-five-year range of estimates.)

To assess the effectiveness of longer term forecasts, we can use historical PEG and forward P/E ratios to back out an implied four-year growth rate. As we did with one-year estimates, we then compare that to the actual four-year growth that ensued.

The graph below shows there is very little correlation between four-year earnings growth estimates and actual growth. As we saw with one-year estimates, the market overestimated earnings far more often than it underestimated them.

Deciphering Today’s PEG Ratio

The graph below shows the market PEG valuation and its two components- forward P/E and 3-5 year earnings estimates.

The middle graph shows the forward P/E (the numerator) is stretched, indicating a relatively expensive valuation. Despite the forward P/E, the PEG ratio in the top graph is cheap because the longer-term earnings growth estimate shown in the bottom graph is at its highest level since at least 1995. The takeaway is that the PEG ratio is cheap entirely because of strong earnings-growth forecasts.

The G Is Concentrated

The hardest part of analyzing the “G” in the PEG ratio is the abnormal divergence in recent earnings trends and earnings expectations between a few large tech companies and the large majority of other S&P 500 companies.

Second-quarter earnings results exemplify this problem. In a mid-July summary of the quarter, with roughly a third of the stocks in the index still to report, FactSet reported the Magnificent 7 was growing earnings 31.1% year over year versus a blended rate near 25% for the index. Only a few weeks later, on August 7, the quarter’s growth rate more than doubled to 50.4%.

Most of that acceleration traced back to two companies. Alphabet and Amazon, both large earnings contributors, reported significant non-operating gains. Alphabet reported a $98 billion mark-up in its equity portfolio primarily due to SpaceX, and Amazon added a $53 billion gain largely from Anthropic. Strip out those gains, and FactSet’s blended growth rate for the S&P 500 falls from 50.4% to 32.0%. Two companies, out of five hundred, are worth eighteen full percentage points of index earnings growth.

This leads to a big question. Can ten or so large-cap technology companies carry earnings growth for a 500-company index? Hyperscalers are on pace to spend roughly $700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 and are projected to top $1 trillion in 2027. That spending shows up today as reported capex and, eventually, as revenue for a small number of companies selling the chips, the cloud capacity, and the construction and power systems supporting it. It does not contribute much to the earnings growth for the other companies in the index.

Is The Market Rich Or Cheap?

Think of this market valuation conundrum between PEG and CAPE like your favorite sports team that’s been mediocre for a decade. Ten years of results argue that your expectations for next season should be minimal.  But during the offseason, the team signed a few all-stars, and a reasonable fan would bump up their expectations regardless of the last ten years.

The historical losing record is real, and so is the upgraded roster. The substantial growth estimates are making a big bet that the new players will significantly help the team. The question investors need to ask is whether they will help generate more wins than the market expects.

So, how should investors think about today’s stock market valuations? The answer likely sits between rich and cheap. If earnings keep growing rapidly alongside AI spending, the market, in aggregate, may be fairly priced despite CAPE’s warning. But a recession, or a slowdown in planned AI spending, is a real risk to that outcome.

That said, while the optimism embedded in the PEG ratio carries downside risks, we must also consider that AI’s productivity gains will eventually spread to other S&P 500 companies. The open questions are when, how much, and most importantly for pricing today’s market, how that eventual payoff compares to what’s already priced in.

Summary

CAPE uses historical realized data to value stocks.  You can debate whether the past decade is a fair guide for valuing stocks, but you can’t debate whether the earnings in CAPE’s denominator are real; they are.

PEG asks you to rely on one-year and three-to-five-year earnings estimates.  This leaves the obvious question of how much current forecasts deserve to be trusted. The historical answer, as we showed, is not very much.

Nine of the last ten annual EPS estimates were revised lower before they were finished. Thirty years’ worth of four-year growth estimates show no statistical relationship to the growth that followed.

However, today’s outlook is trickier than in the past, as the expected growth making today’s PEG ratio look so cheap is disproportionately concentrated in a small handful of companies. That earnings growth concentration hinges on AI, a powerful innovation that could be an economic game changer.

PEG says market valuations are cheap while CAPE says they are expensive. CAPE is a report card on what already happened. PEG is a bet on what happens next. Keep that distinction in mind, and the two market valuation charts stop contradicting each other.

Hackers were able to gain access to approximately 5,000 Dropbox accounts last month after exploiting a flaw in Lenovo’s email verification process to register fraudulent Lenovo IDs. 

According to a notification sent to the affected users, “an issue with Lenovo’s email verification process allowed an unauthorized party to register a Lenovo ID using your email address” – in some cases, users didn’t even have Lenovo accounts. The hackers then used the fraudulent Lenovo ID to access the Dropbox account associated with the same email address without needing the login password, BleepingComputer notes. 

The accounts were accessed August 4th through the 21st. 

so dropbox got hacked (never had a Lenovo account, haven’t been to UK) pic.twitter.com/UoYRaJFuEC

— yoni | parser.eth (@yonilevy) August 31, 2026

Users reported receiving strange notifications “about two weeks ago,” urging them to change their password and activate two-factor authentication (2FA). 

“One odd thing at the time: the Dropbox login page had started offering ‘Continue with SSO’ for my email even though I never created a Lenovo ID,” according to one person. 

Lenovo told BleepingComputer that the issue was connected to a legacy integration between Lenovo ID and Dropbox, which was used “to improperly authenticate certain Dropbox accounts.”

“Upon identifying the issue, Dropbox and Lenovo worked collaboratively to promptly mitigate the risk,” the spokesperson continued. 

Dropbox forced all sessions authenticated via Lenovo ID to expire, and added a new login requirement forcing users to use their Dropbox account password instead. 

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested nearly 2,200 illegal immigrants during an enforcement sweep in New York dubbed “Operation Rotten Apple,” officials announced Sept. 1.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers participated in the operation from from July 27 to Aug. 29, arresting 2,197 illegal aliens across the state, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and violent assailants, according to DHS.

“Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE and our federal partners, Operation Rotten Apple did what sanctuary politicians in New York City and the state of New York refuse to do: made the Empire State safer,” said Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.

New York Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo said federal immigration officers were harassed, threatened, targeted, and terrorized during the operation by local residents and community members.

The state’s sanctuary policies allow criminals to be released back into the community instead of being handed over to federal immigration agencies, Genalo said during a press conference on Sept. 1. This forces federal immigration officers to locate the immigrants in their neighborhoods, at work, or in public spaces, he said.

“Local and state politicians continue to stand at podiums like this one and mislead the public about what these policies do,” Genalo said. “And when elected officials excuse, minimize, or even celebrate the behavior, as they did in this case, they place a target on the back of the officers doing their jobs. ICE officers will not be intimidated by political rhetoric, sanctuary policies or street-level threats. Public safety is not optional. It is our duty.”

New York’s sanctuary policies have resulted in the release of 13,621 criminal illegal immigrants back onto the streets of New York, according to DHS.

Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected the accusations made by federal officials.

“New York works with federal law enforcement every day to take dangerous criminals off the streets,” Hochul posted on X. “So spare us the theatrics.”

Hochul also accused the federal government of not fully funding law enforcement in the state.

The illegal immigrants arrested included Bogdan Detrovich Gren from Ukraine. Gren was convicted of kidnapping, abduction resulting in death, criminal possession of a weapon, and murder.

Columbia national Andreas Bernal Chiquito was also arrested. His criminal history includes arrests for sexual conduct against a child and injury to a child less than 17.

Noel Celestino Lopez Martinez, an illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested. Martinez’s history includes an arrest for first-degree rape and forcible compulsion.

Palvinder Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, was arrested during the operation as well. His criminal past includes a rape conviction in Germany.

Carlos Mendez-Acosta, an illegal alien from Venezuela, was arrested. His has been convicted of rape in the past.

Also arrested was Chhun Kim Pril, a Cambodia national who has a past conviction for drug trafficking.