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Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS To Step In On Military Trans Ban

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Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS To Step In On Military Trans Ban

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold its ban on transgender troops serving in the military, appealing a lower court ruling that has, for now, blocked enforcement against service members already in uniform.

Vin Testa waves a LGBTQ pride flag in front of the Supreme Court building on June 26, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Getty Images

The petition targets a June decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals finding the ban probably violates the constitutional rights of transgender troops already serving. The decision claimed that the ban “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender.” That ruling barred the Pentagon from enforcing the policy against those specific plaintiffs while their case works through the courts. The administration maintains the policy regulates a medical condition – gender dysphoria – rather than transgender status, and therefore needs only a rational connection to military readiness to survive review.

The June ruling was 2-1 and split the baby: it blocked the Pentagon from discharging the currently serving plaintiffs while leaving the ban on new transgender recruits fully in place. Judges Robert Wilkins (an Obama appointee) and Judith Rogers (a Clinton appointee) formed the majority. Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee and the panel’s lone Republican nominee, dissented: “because the plaintiffs are service members not civilians, and because we are judges not generals, I respectfully dissent.” The Constitution, Walker wrote, assigns that authority to Congress and the Commander in Chief. Notably, a different D.C. Circuit motions panel had ruled the opposite way in December – letting the Pentagon enforce the ban, 2-1 – meaning the same courthouse has now gone both directions depending on which three judges drew the case. Hegseth’s response to the June loss was four words: “See you at SCOTUS.”

The administration wants the justices to take the case now, before trial – its petition calls the June ruling “gravely erroneous” – rather than let a preliminary injunction, in place in some form since March 2025, run all the way to a two-week trial set for January. That posture has become familiar this year, with the Department of War repeatedly asking the high court to let its personnel decisions stand while litigation over their legality plays out.

The Justice Department’s Supreme Court filing describes the Pentagon’s authority to decide who serves as a “matter of exceptional importance,” language that puts military judgment, not the lower courts’ read of the evidence, at the center of the case.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, claimed the administration “wants the Supreme Court to rush in and bless the expulsion of proven, decorated soldiers before a single court has issued a final judgment.”

The policy traces back to an executive order Trump signed shortly after taking office. It states that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”

“We will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military. It’s going to be gone,” Trump told House Republicans the day he signed the executive order during a retreat at his Doral golf resort in Miami.

Pete Hegseth turned that order into policy in February 2025.

Hegseth’s memo reasoned that troops who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for Military Service.” He has since folded the ban into a broader push to strip “woke” policy out of the armed forces.

The population at issue is small but not trivial: the Pentagon’s own estimate put roughly 4,240 troops with a gender dysphoria diagnosis among a force of about two million, and around 1,000 self-identified for voluntary separation when Hegseth’s 2025 deadline hit.

NCLR and GLAD Law filed the underlying case, Talbott v. United States, in January 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that the Department of War’s transgender policy violates the Constitution and discriminates against transgender troops.

The court has scheduled a trial for January 2027, but the Department of War wants the ban enforced against the plaintiffs before then. The justices already weighed in on this policy once before. They allowed the ban to take effect last year in a separate challenge, while that earlier litigation proceeded, a result that suggests a majority already leans toward giving the Pentagon the ability to set its own military readiness standards.

The ruling under appeal covers narrower ground – for now. It protects only the troops who brought this specific suit. But on June 30, District Judge Ana Reyes – whose original injunction called the ban “soaked with animus and dripping with pretext” – certified the case as a class action covering every transgender person serving or seeking to enlist since January 2025, a maneuver designed to route around the Supreme Court’s ruling last year curtailing nationwide injunctions. Two months later, the administration was at the high court’s door. If the plaintiffs win at the January trial, the remedy no longer stops at 29 names.

“Joe Biden allowed trans insanity to run rampant in our military,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement. “President Trump restored lethality and readiness to our warfighters.” She added, “The United States military is the greatest in the world, and President Trump is keeping it that way by focusing on elite readiness standards – not DEI or woke gender ideology.”

Whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case will determine how long the lower courts’ preliminary read of the Constitution can override the Pentagon’s own judgment about who meets its strict standards of military readiness.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 16:40

How Capitalism Reduces Poverty And Creates Wealth

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How Capitalism Reduces Poverty And Creates Wealth

Authored by James T. Moodey via American Thinker,

The word capitalism was coined in the 1700s. The definition was vague. It generally meant “private property traded freely” or “free markets.” However, most non-totalitarian countries had free markets, and these countries in Europe and elsewhere were not particularly wealthy. Their rural people were paupers living off the land, even in England, France, and the U.S. at our founding.

We generally regard capitalism as creating wealth, but free markets are not what created the enormous wealth that occurred in the United States. I knew that and studied our economic history to find out: If it was not free markets, what was it? What specifically were the mechanics of “our capitalism” that created such wealth?

I found the answer. However, I also learned that capitalism cannot be taught without properly defining wealth.

Wealth of a nation is its amount of usable goods. I use the term usable goods to exclude paintings and other speculative items. Poverty is a lack of usable goods, such as clothes or food. A large supply of usable goods brings prices down and reduces poverty. We became wealthy because we produced an enormous amount of usable goods. But how did that happen?

Usable goods are created by factories. It is not the amount we pay factory workers that is important; it is the millions of hammers, shoes, and vehicles they produce that create wealth. Farmers and utility workers can be included with factory workers who produce usable goods for millions of people.

Cyrus McCormick’s reaper would supply a large amount of food, but sales were difficult and slow. The reaper would break down on farms far away. McCormick had difficulty traversing the country making repairs and sales. He solved these problems by inventing a unique idea of setting up distributors. He shared significant profit with the distributors. They stocked the product locally, performed repairs, and made sales. Sales grew rapidly, and McCormick Reapers were supplied throughout the country. The United States became an exporter of food.

Here is the key to capitalism’s success: When farmers tried to buy direct from McCormick, he refused and made them buy from their respective distributor.

Other manufactures, of home goods, saw McCormick’s success and not only set up distributors, but added another discount to include retailers. Again, customers were sent back to the retailers. Retailing became a very profitable business. In the 1850s, general stores appeared in nearly every town.

It was not greed that made capitalism successful; it was nearly the opposite. It was the sharing of profits with all who sold the product.

Prior to this, women made their own soap, household goods, and clothes and tended their own crops. Men planted crops, hand-forged steel tools, and built what they needed. Rather than make their own goods, people began to buy them at a local store. Rural couples were unshackled from the centuries-old life of paupers.

Rural couples had been purchasing limited goods from peddlers who occasionally passed through their valley. Or they bought goods from catalogues. Returns of goods was an enormous problem, and single sales limited mass production at the factories, which kept prices high.

When couples found they could buy any goods they wanted at a general store, demand for home goods exploded. Prices for household goods and farm equipment fell due to the resulting mass production. Farm families soon found buyers for their excess farm produce, and those profits were spent on fast-declining prices of home goods. Men could afford farm equipment, and women bought dresses rather than made them. Rural people and the merchants became wealthy. America soon became known as the “land of opportunity.”

Incomes were rising while prices steadily fell for decades, up to and including the Roaring Twenties. Introduction of the income tax reversed the trend. In the 1930s, the lowest income tax bracket was raised to 24 percent and the highest income bracket to 94 percent.

Capitalism is not simply free markets. We are not free to bargain for the price of milk in a store. We are not free to bargain with the factory. The epitome of free markets are barter societies in the Middle East. They are free to bargain with the retailer and the factory. High-volume factories cannot survive in a barter society, and those societies are mired in poverty as a result.

Capitalism is a self-perpetuating economic system designed to increase sales using a structure of profits for all who sell the product, and those profits are protected by the factories. That is what created millions of usable goods, reduced prices, reduced poverty, and created our great wealth.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 16:20

As Diesel Crack Explodes Higher, DNB Warns Beijing Has “Little Reason” To Rescue The West

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As Diesel Crack Explodes Higher, DNB Warns Beijing Has “Little Reason” To Rescue The West

Bloomberg’s NYMEX one-month heating-oil/crude spread, tracked on the Terminal as the HOCL1 Index, breached $100 per barrel early Tuesday before surging to nearly $106 by late morning.

The historic blowout is a major warning that refinery outages in Russia (read Goldman’s latest diesel warning), restrictions on industrial fuel exports, and continued disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz are deepening a crisis concentrated in finished fuels rather than in crude availability.

Larger time frame:

We first warned:

The latest snapshot of the worldwide refined-products squeeze came Tuesday morning from Kelly Chen, a senior economist at DNB Carnegie specializing in China, emerging markets, and energy markets.

Chen noted that China is one of the few countries with enough spare refining capacity to provide meaningful relief to the increasingly strained global market.

However, Chen pointed out that Beijing appears to have little economic or strategic incentive to rescue Western fuel markets.

“Some clients ask us if China can be a potential source of relief for the product markets,” the senior economist wrote in the note.

She continued, “As product exports through the Strait of Hormuz remain heavily disrupted and Ukrainian attacks have constrained Russian refining, China is one of the few regions with room to materially raise refinery throughput and exports quickly.”

“Beijing did increase its refined product export quotas in July, but they remain well below 2025 levels. The question is whether the authorities have an incentive to raise product exports further,” she said.

Chen argued that China is unlikely to rescue global diesel markets, writing, “If US pressure forces China to reduce or halt purchases of Iranian oil, China would have to either compete more aggressively for scarce crude oil barrels or draw further on its own strategic inventories. Either option would weaken China’s own energy security to ease a shortage elsewhere. China has already tapped its own buffers to absorb the disruption to crude oil and may not have appetite to do much more. Furthermore, high road-fuel prices could boost global demand for Chinese electric vehicles/energy technologies. Thus, until crude oil supplies become less disrupted, we suspect Chinese authorities have little reason to significantly raise product exports.”

Professional subscribers can read the full note here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 14:00

Republican Campaign Arms Ask Supreme Court To Restore Cheapest TV Ad Rates Ahead Of Midterms

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Republican Campaign Arms Ask Supreme Court To Restore Cheapest TV Ad Rates Ahead Of Midterms

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

Republican committees have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them access to lowest-rate television ads before the November midterms after a federal appeals court ruled that only candidates are entitled to the special campaign rate required by law.

The Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 31, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The emergency application by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which was docketed on Aug. 31, has been presented to Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts may act on it by himself, or he may refer it to the full court.

Roberts has directed the respondents – former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.); former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat; and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.) – to file a response to the application by midday on Sept. 3. Brown, Ossoff, and Cooper are currently running for the Senate; Rivet is seeking reelection to the House.

The NRCC and NRSC view the matter as urgent because Sept. 4 is the first day of the 60-day period before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when federal law requires broadcasters to sell candidates airtime at their cheapest rate. They are asking the Supreme Court to put the appeals court ruling on hold before that window opens. If the high court does not do so, they say they will have to pay full freight for the rest of the campaign cycle, and that stations have already begun to cancel the cheaper reservations they previously made.

The federal Communications Act provides that in the 45 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election, broadcasters must charge legally qualified candidates no more than the lowest rate offered to their most favored customers. This is known as the Lowest Unit Rate rule. The rule does not apply to streaming and social media ads.

In March of this year, the staff of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Media Bureau issued an interpretive guidance reminding both television and radio broadcasters about the rule. The public notice reiterated that favorable rates must be provided to “authorized committees that engage in joint fundraising with legally qualified candidates” and to “advertisements that qualify as coordinated expenditures.”

The respondents appealed the notice to the full FCC, and when it failed to rule, they argued that it amounted to constructive denial of the appeal and took the matter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

They argued that the Communications Act requires the cheap airtime rate be given to candidates, not political parties. They also said that when a party buys an ad that a candidate approves, it is the party spending its own money – not the candidate, and if the candidate rate still applied, it would constitute an illegal gift to the candidate’s campaign.

A panel of the appeals court agreed with the respondents, voting 2-1 to vacate the notice.

The panel held that the lowest unit charge applies only to a legally qualified candidate, not to party-coordinated ads and joint fundraising committee ads with non-candidate members. The panel also determined it had jurisdiction, or authority, to hear the case even though the full FCC had not yet completed reviewing the notice.

A dissenting judge said the court should not have reviewed the guidance while it was pending at the FCC and that barring parties from the discount rate restricted political speech on the eve of an election.

The NRCC and NRSC said in the application that the Fourth Circuit erred and that its decision is hurting the two committees.

“In the midst of election season, a divided Fourth Circuit panel just rewrote longstanding rules about preferential broadcast rates for political ads,” at the behest of Democratic candidates “who said those rules favor their electoral opponents,” the Republican committees said.

The panel’s decision violates two jurisdictional principles and splits with multiple federal courts of appeals, while it “restrict[s] political speech in the sensitive period leading up to an election,” they said.

The Fourth Circuit ruling also ignores the Supreme Court’s recent instruction that courts should not treat incomplete agency work as final for purposes of filing an appeal, they added.

The two committees have budgeted tens of millions of dollars for ad purchases based on the rules that were in effect before the panel ruled, “but because of the Fourth Circuit’s decision, broadcast stations are already rescinding those rates,” they said.

The circuit court denied a request to pause its order on Aug. 27 and allowed its ruling to take effect the same day.

The NRCC and NRSC asked the Supreme Court justices to act before Sept. 4. The Trump administration weighed in to support the application.

Justice Department Solicitor General D. John Sauer is arguing that the respondents are appealing prematurely, lack standing to challenge the FCC notice, and have mischaracterized it, according to his brief.

The notice “does not grant favored treatment to one side or the other; instead, the notice’s interpretation offers the same benefit to all sides, including the challengers themselves,” he said.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 13:40

Trump: ‘Large & Powerful Strikes’ In Iran Ongoing As ‘Retaliation’ For Mining Hormuz Strait

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Trump: ‘Large & Powerful Strikes’ In Iran Ongoing As ‘Retaliation’ For Mining Hormuz Strait

Summary

  • Reports of fresh US strike wave on southern Iran, oil soars
  • Bessent Says Hormuz Will Be “Worthless Piece of Water” In Two Years
  • Iran offers conditional ceasefire: Pezeshkian says Iran will return to talks if the US honors prior commitments, which Tehran says it has violated.
  • Tankers hit in Strait of Hormuz: Two supertankers struck exiting Hormuz, escalating energy-market risks.
  • Oil prices surge: Brent crude rose above $92/barrel.
  • Diesel supply squeezed: Refinery disruptions are driving diesel prices and margins sharply higher.

Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by October 31?
Yes 12% · No 89%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

Trump: ‘Large & Powerful Strikes’ in ‘Retaliation’ For Mining Hormuz Strait

Confirmation from the President, describing these new airstrikes as ongoing and “large and powerful”… He added that this is retaliation for the Iranians mining the Strait of Hormuz. The full Truth Social post:

Notably he is warning the Iranians will get hit again “much harder” if they don’t cooperate with Washington demands.

Early reports of US Strikes on Southern Iran Send Oil Soaring

Rare US strikes against Iran in the middle of US trading hours? Bold move if so. Some breaking headlines:

  • REPORTS OF BLASTS ACROSS IRAN’S SOUTHERN REGIONS: STATE TV
  • PENTAGON UNLEASHES FRESH ATTACKS On SOUTHERN IRAN
  • Al Arabiya: ‘DEFENSIVE’ BOMBING — source to Faytuks
  • EXPLOSIONS REPORTED IN KONARAK IN SOUTHEASTERN IRAN: FARS
    US FORCES BEGAN STRIKING IRGC TARGETS IN IRAN AT 12PM ET TODAY

And from Al Hadath: “Explosions heard east of Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island; Five explosions heard in Qeshm and four near the Strait of Hormuz.” CENTCOM has confirmed:

Today at 12 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.

Confirmation of the attacks also from the Iranians:

The Deputy Governor for Security and Law Enforcement of Sistan and Baluchestan Province says four projectiles hit the counties of Chabahar and Konarak, Iranian news agency, IRNA, reports.

General Ali Khalil Abadi confirmed the attacks stating: “Expert investigations are underway to determine the details of the incident, potential damages, and further information.”

Oil prices shooting up on the new apparent ‘shoot-up’, which has been previewed in various reports this week. Trump is now pulling the trigger on Hegseth’s plan, it seems:

WTI nears $90…

US attacks on Iran have almost always come in nighttime and overnight hours – and typically only after US market hours close, so a daytime attack is very rare indeed…

Bessent Says Hormuz Will Be “Worthless Piece of Water” In Two Years

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the audience at the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, that Iran’s ability to weaponize the Strait of Hormuz will be reduced to zero because “oil will be going through pipelines across the land.”

“Iranians are trying to use the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint. It’s not a chokepoint for the US, but it is for many other countries. That will be bypassed in 2 years. In 2 years, the Strait of Hormuz will be a worthless piece of water. The oil will be going through pipelines across the land,” Bessent said.

Bessent’s comments this morning should come as no surprise to readers, since we’ve detailed the existing pipelines that bypass Hormuz and the new pipeline projects planned by allied Gulf producers.

However, these new ‘alternative energy route’ initiatives are wrought with an array of unknowns – especially in terms of security and infrastructure/construction protection in an obviously volatile region, cooperation among transit states (in overland routes), as well as immense cost notwithstanding. For but one recent headline example:

Iraq-Syria Pipeline To ‘Bypass’ Hormuz Likely To Take Four Years, $15BN To Build

And with both these named countries coming out of recent decades-long ‘forever wars’, and with especially Syria still being largely destroyed and fragmented, efforts to bring to fruition Bessent’s anticipated bypass system “across the land” – as he says – will more likely be something that drags on far longer than the Trump administration itself is in power. 

Read the full note here.

Also read Goldman’s latest energy flow data through the Hormuz (here).  

Pezeshkian: We’ll Return to Ceasefire if US Does

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday reiterated his country’s willingness to return to talks with the US, but made clear that Washington must return to its prior commitments made.

“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the … memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 

It is significant that he’s there at the Kyrgyzstan-hosted summit in person, receiving a welcome from the likes of Putin, Xi, Erdogan, the UN’s Guterres, and others.

Pezeshkian still blasted the US for “reneging on its commitments” under the agreement, which unraveled in June – leading to various weeks of sporadic tit-for-tat attacks – the latest which occurred just at the start of this week.

President Trump yesterday told reporters in the Oval Office that there will be a “response” to the Iranian attacks, but also cautioned that this would not mean a return to full-scale war.

US officials have talked about “mowing the grass” with a series of indefinite strikes, while ironically having an aversion to anyone applying the label “forever war”. 

Two Supertankers Hit

Two oil supertankers were struck by unknown projectiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday, signaling yet another sharp escalation in hostilities along the world’s most critical energy chokepoint.

The attacks follow President Trump’s warning Monday that additional strikes against Iran remain possible. Traders are pricing in a further war risk premium, pushing Brent crude futures above $92 a barrel, while US diesel crack spreads have breached the critical $100-a-barrel threshold.

Maritime security consultant Marisks reports that Saudi shipping giant Bahri’s VLCC Sidr was hit northeast of Khasab, Oman. The Sinokor-operated Senegal Prosperity was reportedly struck by three projectiles farther east. Both tankers were exiting the maritime chokepoint. 

UK Maritime Trade Operations separately confirmed that a tanker completing an outbound transit of Hormuz reported three projectile strikes but did not identify the vessel.

Brent crude futures ripped higher during Asian and European trading on the news, with the benchmark firmly above $92 as of 0600 ET.

More US Strikes on Table, Trump Warns

“President Donald Trump warned Monday that further strikes are possible, pushing Brent back above $91/bbl and driving another bear-steepening move across global bond markets,” UBS analyst George Redman wrote earlier. 

US diesel crack spreads were above $100 as of 0600 ET.

As we’ve extensively detailed, the energy crisis is not necessarily in crude itself but in refined products. Gulf diesel and gasoline shipments have declined amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, while damage to Russian energy infrastructure from Ukrainian one-way attack drones has created a perfect storm in global refining markets in late summer.

‘Diesel at Epicenter of Supply Squeeze’

Goldman’s energy expert Daan Struyven warned in his most recent note that “diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze.”

“Rising strikes on refineries in the Middle East and Russia have further constrained already-stretched global refining capacity, pushing refined-products margins to new highs,” Struyven and Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby wrote in the note, adding, “Diesel remains at the epicenter of the rally.”

Struyven and his team estimate that global refinery runs are down 7 million barrels per day from last year and have averaged nearly 6 million barrels per day below seasonal norms since March, around the time the US launched Operation Epic Fury and Ukraine ramped up one-way drone attacks against Russia’s energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, there may be some diplomatic traction in the Gulf area, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian saying on state TV: “I state unequivocally that should the US return to its commitments under the aforementioned Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will also take reciprocal action immediately.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s “Operation Economic Outcast” is also ramping up as the Trump administration deploys sanctions to pressure Tehran into submission.

More Latest Developments

via Newsquawk…

  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei said Europe cannot claim strategic autonomy while following Washington’s orders, stressing that true autonomy means making independent decisions.
  • Pakistan’s Deputy PM and Foreign Minister met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi in an informal manner in Bishek at the holding room of the SCO Council of Head of States, according to journalist Anas Mallick.
  • Gulf Corporation Council condemned Iran’s attacks on Jordan, saying they pose a direct threat to the security and stability of the region, according to Al Jazeera.
  • Yemeni armed forces targeted early on Tuesday the bases of Saudi and Emirati mercenaries in Al Makha and Al Khuwakh located in the southwest of the country, according to IRIB.
  • Hapag-Lloyd’s (HLAG GY) CEO said it is reasonable to expect the Strait of Hormuz will remain blocked for the foreseeable future.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 13:35

‘Barbaric’: Children Under Five Being Subjected To Forced Marriage In Britain

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‘Barbaric’: Children Under Five Being Subjected To Forced Marriage In Britain

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Britain now has children aged five and under on the books of the Forced Marriage Unit. Home Office figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests show at least 27 children five or younger were referred between 2021 and 2025.

They sit inside a wider total of more than 100 children aged 12 or under. A referral is not a completed marriage. It is information about an actual, potential or suspected forced marriage. Campaigners say the real number is far higher because so many cases never reach statutory services.

The legal age of marriage in England and Wales was raised to 18 in 2023. Forcing anyone to marry is already a criminal offence. The practice continues anyway. And it’s quite clearly an imported problem.

Patrick Christys was blunt. “This is barbaric, medieval and, crucially, we’ve imported this problem.” He noted that Pakistanis account for 41 percent of Forced Marriage Unit cases, Bangladeshis 9 percent and Afghans 7 percent.

A large share of those cases involve children. The idea that people arrive, kiss British soil and instantly absorb British norms does not survive contact with the data.

Shockingly, some cases even have no overseas element at all. In 2022 there were nine referrals of children aged 12 or under where the suspected or actual forced marriage would have taken place entirely on British soil. Separate 2025 figures show cases with no overseas link rising to 58, or 14 percent of the total.

Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who fled a forced marriage at 14 and later received a damehood for her work with victims, called the numbers “deeply disturbing.”

She said some children are “promised to somebody from birth,” with the ceremony years later. She warned that when schools reopen in September there will be missing children. “Is somebody going to ask where they are, or are they simply just going to go off school roll? Or children will come back engaged or even married.”

Sanghera also described the tactic used to shut down scrutiny. Perpetrators “will try and put you on the back foot. ‘This is our culture. This is our religion. You’re being racist’ or whatever, to put you on the back foot, to make you look the other way.”

She added that professionals still lack confidence to report. “Cultural acceptance does not mean accepting the unacceptable.”

Journalist Khadija Khan told GB News the published figures are “likely just the tip of the iceberg, because many cases remain unreported.” She said the 27 children under five made the statistics “horrifying.”

“One child being robbed of her childhood and forced into marriage is one too many and it is unimaginable how this has been allowed to happen,” Khan said, adding Britain can “no longer pretend that we have been sleepwalking through this nightmare.” The practice has been happening “under the nose of the authorities.”

She named the communities where it is most common: “The Pakistani community, Bangladeshi community and Afghan community, in many cases the practice of forced marriage has been euphemistic for arranged marriage.” Families do it for honour, to keep wealth inside the family, or in exchange for money. Some make promises at birth.

Dr Taj Hargey, founder of the Oxford Institute for British Islam, said forced marriage involving children should be “condemned without fear of upsetting anyone.” “This should be totally condemned by the Muslim society up and down the UK.”

Reform UK home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf tied the rise directly to scale. “This sudden rise in forced marriages tracks almost perfectly with the Boriswave, which saw the Tories import four million new people into the UK. The Conservatives will never be forgiven for this complete and utter betrayal.”

The same institutional reflex that treated child sexual exploitation as a community-relations problem now treats child marriage the same way.

Mayor Sadiq Khan told the London Assembly in January 2025 there were “no reported cases and also no indication of the grooming gangs” in London. The Metropolitan Police later identified more than 4,000 potential child sexual exploitation cases that may need reopening, drawn from around 12,000 reports dating back to 2010.

Many had been closed with no further action. Conservative assembly member Susan Hall called the scale “utterly disgraceful.”

The pattern is familiar. Ethnicity and culture were treated as too sensitive to record properly. Victims were told the men who abused them were “probably not going to catch them.” A 2020 Home Office report that claimed most perpetrators were white was built on incomplete data and used to shut down discussion.

Working-class girls paid the price. The same fear of being called racist now sits over teachers, social workers and neighbours who might otherwise report a five-year-old being prepared for marriage.

This is not happening in a vacuum. In the three months to June 2026, 140,122 foreign nationals were granted indefinite leave to remain or citizenship – more than one every minute. Nearly 200,000 received ILR across the full year, a 16-year high.

Citizenship grants hit 245,520. Home Office forecasts suggest 1.3 to 2.2 million more settlements between 2026 and 2030. The asylum system alone cost £4.3 billion in 2025/26 and £25 billion over the last decade.

You cannot import large numbers of people from societies where cousin marriage, honour codes and child betrothal are normal and then act shocked when those practices travel with them.

The Home Office still recites that forced marriage is “not a problem specific to one country, religion or culture.” The 2025 country breakdown tells a different story. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan dominate the caseload.

Britain raised the marriage age and made forced marriage a crime. It then spent years importing the very cultures that treat those laws as optional.

Professionals who notice a child missing after the summer holidays or returning “engaged” are still expected to worry first about whether the report will be labelled racist. That is not multiculturalism. It is the abandonment of the most basic duty a country has to its children.

The numbers are public. The quotes are on the record. The schools open again this week. The question is whether anyone in authority is still allowed to say what is happening.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 13:00

Shein IPO Flops As Fast-Fashion Empire Sees Growth Slowdown

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Shein IPO Flops As Fast-Fashion Empire Sees Growth Slowdown

Chinese online fast-fashion retailer Shein made its long-awaited Hong Kong market debut Tuesday, only to fall flat in what can only be viewed as a disappointing IPO plagued by investor concerns about slowing growth, rising costs and an increasingly challenged international business model.

“Shein’s many challenges are well known to investors and likely behind the sharp share-price fall on IPO day,” Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privée, wrote in a note. “Growth is slowing and losses rising amid stiff competition from both e-commerce and fast-fashion players. More critically, its business model continues to be disrupted by evolving international regulations.”

Shen Meng, director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co., said, “With investors favoring AI and technology-related plays in Hong Kong, Shein’s appeal is relatively limited as a traditional e-commerce company that relies heavily on price competition,” adding, “Rising costs linked to US-China trade tensions and a less compelling growth story than Alibaba or PDD are likely to keep its valuation at a discount.”

Shein raised $1.7 billion in the offering, giving the  Singapore-based retailer a market capitalization of around $26 billion. That represents a stunning $74 billion collapse from Shein’s nearly $100 billion valuation during the COVID boom of 2022.

The IPO valued the company at more than 15 times estimated forward earnings, according to Bloomberg data. That is roughly double PDD Holdings’ 7.4 multiple and above the Hang Seng Index’s 10.7 multiple.

Shein shares initially plunged 10% during their debut earlier Tuesday before recovering most of those losses and ending the session flat.

In recent weeks, a Chinese robotics firm debuted in Shanghai with a blockbuster IPO, only to slide in subsequent sessions.

The stock is now down about 38% from its post-IPO peak.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 12:40

Reports Of US Unleashing New Attacks On Southern Iran Sends Oil Soaring

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Reports Of US Unleashing New Attacks On Southern Iran Sends Oil Soaring

Summary

  • Reports of fresh US strike wave on southern Iran, oil soars
  • Bessent Says Hormuz Will Be “Worthless Piece of Water” In Two Years
  • Iran offers conditional ceasefire: Pezeshkian says Iran will return to talks if the US honors prior commitments, which Tehran says it has violated.
  • Tankers hit in Strait of Hormuz: Two supertankers struck exiting Hormuz, escalating energy-market risks.
  • Oil prices surge: Brent crude rose above $92/barrel.
  • Diesel supply squeezed: Refinery disruptions are driving diesel prices and margins sharply higher.

Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by October 31?
Yes 12% · No 89%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

Early reports of US Strikes on Southern Iran Send Oil Soaring

Rare US strikes against Iran in the middle of US trading hours? Bold move if so. Some breaking headlines:

  • REPORTS OF BLASTS ACROSS IRAN’S SOUTHERN REGIONS: STATE TV
  • PENTAGON UNLEASHES FRESH ATTACKS On SOUTHERN IRAN
  • Al Arabiya: ‘DEFENSIVE’ BOMBING — source to Faytuks
  • EXPLOSIONS REPORTED IN KONARAK IN SOUTHEASTERN IRAN: FARS

Oil prices shooting up on the new apparent ‘shoot-up’, which has been previewed in various reports this week. Trump is now pulling the trigger on Hegseth’s plan, it seems:

WTI nears $90…

US attacks on Iran have almost always come in nighttime and overnight hours – and typically only after US market hours close, so a daytime attack is very rare indeed…

Bessent Says Hormuz Will Be “Worthless Piece of Water” In Two Years

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the audience at the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, that Iran’s ability to weaponize the Strait of Hormuz will be reduced to zero because “oil will be going through pipelines across the land.”

“Iranians are trying to use the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint. It’s not a chokepoint for the US, but it is for many other countries. That will be bypassed in 2 years. In 2 years, the Strait of Hormuz will be a worthless piece of water. The oil will be going through pipelines across the land,” Bessent said.

Bessent’s comments this morning should come as no surprise to readers, since we’ve detailed the existing pipelines that bypass Hormuz and the new pipeline projects planned by allied Gulf producers.

However, these new ‘alternative energy route’ initiatives are wrought with an array of unknowns – especially in terms of security and infrastructure/construction protection in an obviously volatile region, cooperation among transit states (in overland routes), as well as immense cost notwithstanding. For but one recent headline example:

Iraq-Syria Pipeline To ‘Bypass’ Hormuz Likely To Take Four Years, $15BN To Build

And with both these named countries coming out of recent decades-long ‘forever wars’, and with especially Syria still being largely destroyed and fragmented, efforts to bring to fruition Bessent’s anticipated bypass system “across the land” – as he says – will more likely be something that drags on far longer than the Trump administration itself is in power. 

Read the full note here.

Also read Goldman’s latest energy flow data through the Hormuz (here).  

Pezeshkian: We’ll Return to Ceasefire if US Does

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday reiterated his country’s willingness to return to talks with the US, but made clear that Washington must return to its prior commitments made.

“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the … memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 

It is significant that he’s there at the Kyrgyzstan-hosted summit in person, receiving a welcome from the likes of Putin, Xi, Erdogan, the UN’s Guterres, and others.

Pezeshkian still blasted the US for “reneging on its commitments” under the agreement, which unraveled in June – leading to various weeks of sporadic tit-for-tat attacks – the latest which occurred just at the start of this week.

President Trump yesterday told reporters in the Oval Office that there will be a “response” to the Iranian attacks, but also cautioned that this would not mean a return to full-scale war.

US officials have talked about “mowing the grass” with a series of indefinite strikes, while ironically having an aversion to anyone applying the label “forever war”. 

Two Supertankers Hit

Two oil supertankers were struck by unknown projectiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday, signaling yet another sharp escalation in hostilities along the world’s most critical energy chokepoint.

The attacks follow President Trump’s warning Monday that additional strikes against Iran remain possible. Traders are pricing in a further war risk premium, pushing Brent crude futures above $92 a barrel, while US diesel crack spreads have breached the critical $100-a-barrel threshold.

Maritime security consultant Marisks reports that Saudi shipping giant Bahri’s VLCC Sidr was hit northeast of Khasab, Oman. The Sinokor-operated Senegal Prosperity was reportedly struck by three projectiles farther east. Both tankers were exiting the maritime chokepoint. 

UK Maritime Trade Operations separately confirmed that a tanker completing an outbound transit of Hormuz reported three projectile strikes but did not identify the vessel.

Brent crude futures ripped higher during Asian and European trading on the news, with the benchmark firmly above $92 as of 0600 ET.

More US Strikes on Table, Trump Warns

“President Donald Trump warned Monday that further strikes are possible, pushing Brent back above $91/bbl and driving another bear-steepening move across global bond markets,” UBS analyst George Redman wrote earlier. 

US diesel crack spreads were above $100 as of 0600 ET.

As we’ve extensively detailed, the energy crisis is not necessarily in crude itself but in refined products. Gulf diesel and gasoline shipments have declined amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, while damage to Russian energy infrastructure from Ukrainian one-way attack drones has created a perfect storm in global refining markets in late summer.

‘Diesel at Epicenter of Supply Squeeze’

Goldman’s energy expert Daan Struyven warned in his most recent note that “diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze.”

“Rising strikes on refineries in the Middle East and Russia have further constrained already-stretched global refining capacity, pushing refined-products margins to new highs,” Struyven and Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby wrote in the note, adding, “Diesel remains at the epicenter of the rally.”

Struyven and his team estimate that global refinery runs are down 7 million barrels per day from last year and have averaged nearly 6 million barrels per day below seasonal norms since March, around the time the US launched Operation Epic Fury and Ukraine ramped up one-way drone attacks against Russia’s energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, there may be some diplomatic traction in the Gulf area, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian saying on state TV: “I state unequivocally that should the US return to its commitments under the aforementioned Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will also take reciprocal action immediately.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s “Operation Economic Outcast” is also ramping up as the Trump administration deploys sanctions to pressure Tehran into submission.

More Latest Developments

via Newsquawk…

  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei said Europe cannot claim strategic autonomy while following Washington’s orders, stressing that true autonomy means making independent decisions.
  • Pakistan’s Deputy PM and Foreign Minister met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi in an informal manner in Bishek at the holding room of the SCO Council of Head of States, according to journalist Anas Mallick.
  • Gulf Corporation Council condemned Iran’s attacks on Jordan, saying they pose a direct threat to the security and stability of the region, according to Al Jazeera.
  • Yemeni armed forces targeted early on Tuesday the bases of Saudi and Emirati mercenaries in Al Makha and Al Khuwakh located in the southwest of the country, according to IRIB.
  • Hapag-Lloyd’s (HLAG GY) CEO said it is reasonable to expect the Strait of Hormuz will remain blocked for the foreseeable future.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 12:30

Trump Admin Asks Appeals Court To Halt Block On USPS Mail-In Ballot Rule

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Trump Admin Asks Appeals Court To Halt Block On USPS Mail-In Ballot Rule

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration filed an emergency motion on Aug. 31 seeking a stay of a judge’s ruling that blocked the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing its requirements to tighten rules around mail-in voting.

The motion was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit shortly after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Aug. 31 declined to pause her temporary restraining order. That order was issued on Aug. 28 in response to lawsuits from some states and voting rights groups challenging USPS’s final rule on mail-in ballots.

At the time, Talwani said the rule was likely unlawful and violated the U.S. Constitution, which gives states the authority to administer elections.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) disputed the finding in its motion, noting that the final rule is “ultimately a regulation of the U.S. mail, and a modest one at that – not a federal takeover of election administration by the Postal Service.”

“The rule’s improvements and modernizations of USPS’s infrastructure for supporting this particularly sensitive category of mail are fully consistent with USPS’s statutory and constitutional authority,” the DOJ stated.

The DOJ also said that keeping the temporary restraining order in place would cause the administration irreparable harm because some states are set to begin sending ballots during the two weeks the order is in effect.

“Because federal defendants face imminent irreparable harm as soon as states begin to mail ballots – as early as September 4 – the government also requests an administrative stay while this court considers this motion,” the department said.

Talwani on Aug. 31 rejected the DOJ’s request to lift the restraining order, saying the “late timing” of the changes to state election practices is contrary to the public’s need for “clear and settled” rules ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, which are now just two months away.

The temporary restraining order, effective for 14 days, prevents the enforcement of certain sections of USPS’s final rule for elections before or on Nov. 3.

The Postal Service issued the final rule on Aug. 21 to implement an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March. In the order, Trump wrote that the federal government has a duty to maintain public confidence in election outcomes and that additional measures are needed to enhance election integrity through U.S. mail.

Under the agency’s rule, states must supply the agency with lists of mail ballot recipients, and all outbound and return ballot envelopes must bear unique barcodes.

The Postal Service, under the rule, may refuse to deliver ballots that do not comply with the new standards or are associated with voters who do not appear on the lists.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 12:20

Times Square Stabbing Victim Was Bank of America VP

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Times Square Stabbing Victim Was Bank of America VP

One of the two victims of a Midtown Manhattan stabbing yesterday has been identified as a vice president in Bank of America’s global corporate and investment bank division, the WSJ reports. 

Erin Piacenti, 32, of New Jersey was in Times Square when an unhinged woman armed with knives attacked both Piacenti and a man shortly after 4:20 p.m.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed,” a BofA spokesman said. “Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones.”

The 68-year-old man who was also stabbed was in stable condition at Bellevue hospital. 

The attacker was identified as Pamela Cisneros, 49. She was shot while walking towards the police brandishing two larger knives, taken to Bellevue, and died. 

* * *

Unhinged middle-aged women are hitting the news feeds hard this month.  NYC police were forced to shoot a woman dead this week after she pulled two knives from a shopping bag in the middle of Times Square and went on a random stabbing spree. 

At least one 68-year-old man was severely injured and another 32-year-old female victim was killed after being stabbed in the abdomen. 

The shooting happened just before 4:30 p.m. next to a New York Police Department substation, just outside One Times Square, the building that hosts the city’s annual New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration. It is one of the most heavily trafficked and policed spots in all of New York. 

Police first deployed tasers, but they were ineffective.  The women, who remains unnamed by city authorities, charged at officers while swinging the knives wildly.  No possible motive for the attack has been given, though, these days, it’s often the case that there is no coherent motive. 

The attacker’s name has not been officially released, though some sources identify her as Pamela Cisneros.  Such info could be withheld for 48 hours or more if authorities have trouble finding and informing family members.  Confirmation of identity could also be delayed due to the woman’s immigration status.

Police did not say if the stabbing victims were tourists or residents.  Videos posted on social media show a group of at least 10 officers gathered around the woman. Officers tried to convince her to drop the knives for several minutes before using a Taser.

The woman told them: “I’m not dropping anything, I would rather kill both of you…”

A similar incident occurred in July in the Upper West Side when Raul Morales, 51, was charged with randomly stabbing two men.  Witnesses said he yelled “Allahu Akbar” during the attack. Mental health was cited and the event was swept under the rug by the media.  

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/01/2026 – 12:18

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