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Singer Engelbert Humperdinck, 90, revealed he faced 'casting couch' advances from male talent agents early in his career, calling it 'hell.'

Trump's Diesel Threat Worked: G7 Dumps 100 Million Barrels As Europe's Energy Dependence Laid Bare

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

In the end, Donald Trump’s threat to prohibit diesel exports apparently proved credible after all.

Faced with rapidly rising prices at the pump and an emerging acute shortage of middle distillates, from diesel and heating oil to aviation kerosene, the G7 heads of government decided on Friday, under pressure from the US president, to release their own oil reserves.

For the EU, the perfect storm is brewing: a rising dollar price, the visible control of the Strait of Hormuz by the US military, as well as rising interest rates in the bond markets amid the threat of a sovereign debt crisis, have made the pressure particularly tangible for the EU states: further rising energy prices will hit the fragile eurozone industrial economy considerably harder than the essentially energy-autonomous United States.

The problems of the EU Europeans are homegrown and not the result of American special interests: completely overstretched welfare states, a self-inflicted migration crisis that can no longer simply be wished away, an economy in an atmosphere of departure – though not at home, but fleeing EU regulation, excessive energy costs and the political raid of the Green Deal. They have laid a fuse to the fragile structure of the EU, lit it and are no longer willing to recognize that this powder keg could explode at any moment.

One miscalculation is piling on top of another. In Brussels, Berlin and Paris, they had counted on the Americans shouldering the lion’s share of forcing a regime change in Moscow – cheap access to the country’s energy and resources, possibly bargaining and pricing power, have by now become indispensable to keeping the EU’s economic model alive. Energy costs have to come down, as quickly as possible. From Washington to Brussels, from Moscow to Beijing, they all understand the EU Europeans’ strategic hopelessness. In the case of Russia, instead of a triumph, the result has recently been the destruction of Russian refinery capacity, ironically by partner Ukraine – the next setback in view of the EU’s energy problems.

So now comes the first step toward alleviating the energy price crisis, merely a fight against symptoms that will solve none of the EU’s structural problems.

French President Emmanuel Macron explained the strategy, which essentially consists of three steps:

1. First, 100 million barrels will be released from strategic reserves in a coordinated manner over a period of four months. A substantial quantity of diesel is supposed to reach the market within the first 20 days.
2. Second, the maintenance schedules of the refineries in the participating states are to be better coordinated. The aim is to prevent several facilities from being shut down at the same time – the throughput is above all intended to help reduce the diesel shortage. Where possible, refineries are to temporarily increase their utilization rates. Obviously, this does not resolve the contradiction of how, in the face of destructive climate policy, new refinery capacity could possibly be conjured up in Europe. These projects take long periods of time and, given CO2 certificates and climate regulation, are simply no longer profitable. In the CO2 frenzy, more than 20 percent of refinery capacity had already been destroyed in recent years. This madness is now coming back to haunt them.
3. As a third measure, the G7 states committed themselves not to impose any export restrictions on energy and petroleum products among themselves. This is precisely where the geopolitical background to the release of these reserves becomes apparent: the conflict between Washington and the EU had recently shifted from trade policy issues to the energy market and has now reached a temporary climax with the release of the reserves.

In addition to the measures mentioned above, the International Energy Agency is to monitor their implementation and propose a further package of measures within 20 days.

All in all, the action was an act of desperation that is likely to lose its effect in the markets after a few weeks.

These weeks are exposing the economic-policy sins of a policy that was, on the one hand, driven by the understandable desire to achieve an energy-autonomous situation – Europe still obtains around 60 percent of its energy requirements from abroad. Added to the desire for autonomy were eco-socialist forces that saw their opportunity in the fight against fossil fuels not only to eliminate parts of refinery capacity and fossil energy production, but also to establish their own political center of power with the help of climate policy.

With overregulation, a CO2 extraction economy and a green patronage economy designed to enrich political friends, greater damage is being left behind than anyone is currently willing to admit.

Ultimately, it was trillions spent on the green transformation, on von der Leyen’s Green Deal, that were simply burned and produced no positive effect whatsoever.

A few have made themselves rich, while what remains are industrial wastelands and a slowly rotting continent in unchecked decline.

What awaits the EU Europeans who are still dreaming green is a brutally hard emptiness, delivered straight to their door by reality: The global economy still operates to 87 percent on the rails of fossil fuels and the resurgent power of nuclear energy. Everything else is propaganda.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/05/2026 - 03:30

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How Crowded Has Mount Everest Become?

Mount Everest is seeing more human traffic than at any point in the last three decades of available data, according to Visual Capitalist's Sofie Gilbert.

Successful climbs are now overwhelmingly concentrated in the spring, when favorable weather can funnel hundreds of climbers toward the summit within a matter of days. Meanwhile, the workforce supporting expeditions has grown alongside the number of people attempting the mountain.

The data comes from The Himalayan Database, which tracks registered expeditions across the Nepal Himalaya. It shows how the scale, timing, and composition of Everest climbing have transformed since the 1990s.

Everest's Climbing Boom

The number of people recorded on Everest has surged alongside the number reaching the summit.

In 2025, The Himalayan Database recorded 585 visitors and 934 hired workers on the mountain, for a total of 1,519 people. That's nearly four times the 395 people recorded in 1995.

Year Visitors on the mountain Workers on the mountain Total 1995 247 148 395 1996 338 194 532 1997 337 198 535 1998 271 160 431 1999 221 131 352 2000 406 247 653 2001 371 230 601 2002 237 192 429 2003 491 352 843 2004 394 269 663 2005 480 394 874 2006 492 392 884 2007 595 505 1,100 2008 402 314 716 2009 492 404 896 2010 466 444 910 2011 458 491 949 2012 521 513 1,034 2013 492 554 1,046 2014 403 300 703 2015 519 444 963 2016 454 481 935 2017 545 557 1,102 2018 573 664 1,237 2019 584 682 1,266 2020 32 28 60 2021 458 588 1,046 2022 395 636 1,031 2023 513 737 1,250 2024 493 789 1,282 2025 585 934 1,519

Visitors include clients and independent climbers, while workers are hired expedition staff, most of whom are Nepali Sherpas.

Of those on the mountain in 2025, 878 reached the summit. Across 2021-2025, Everest averaged about 720 summits per year, more than seven times the annual average of roughly 100 in 1995-1999.

Everest Has Become a Spring Mountain

Decades ago, successful Everest climbs were spread much more widely across the calendar. In the 1980s, The Himalayan Database recorded 87 spring summits and 77 autumn summits, along with successful climbs in both winter and summer. That pattern has almost completely disappeared.

Period Spring Autumn Winter Summer 1980-1989 87 77 9 9 1990-1999 739 135 6 0 2000-2009 3,346 30 0 0 2010-2019 5,561 6 0 0 2020-2025 3,634 14 0 0

From 2000 through 2009, more than 99% of recorded summits occurred in spring. The concentration became even more extreme in the 2010s, when the database recorded 5,561 spring summits compared with just six in autumn and none in winter or summer.

Since 2020, the pattern has remained virtually unchanged.

Hundreds Can Summit on the Same Day

Even within the spring season, summit attempts cluster around short periods of favorable weather, particularly in May.

This can create extraordinary spikes in traffic near the top of the mountain.

Year Total summits 1995 82 1996 98 1997 85 1998 119 1999 116 2000 145 2001 182 2002 158 2003 264 2004 335 2005 307 2006 483 2007 611 2008 428 2009 463 2010 532 2011 541 2012 574 2013 680 2014 133 2015 0 2016 678 2017 680 2018 850 2019 899 2020 49 2021 462 2022 704 2023 685 2024 870 2025 878

On May 23, 2019, 354 people reached Everest's summit from Nepal and Tibet combined, the highest single-day total in the dataset.

These traffic spikes are largely driven by Everest's extreme weather. Summit attempts typically occur when the jet stream shifts away from the mountain, creating periods of lower winds before the summer monsoon arrives.

As a result, hundreds of climbers who have spent weeks acclimatizing can converge on the upper mountain during the same handful of favorable days.

The Workforce Behind Everest's Climbing Boom

The growth of Everest climbing has also transformed who is on the mountain. In 1995, The Himalayan Database recorded about three hired workers for every five visitors.

By 2025, there were roughly eight hired workers for every five visitors, with hired workers accounting for more than 60% of all people recorded on Everest that year.

Long before most clients attempt the summit, high-altitude workers carry supplies, stock camps, and help prepare the route. Commercial expeditions also rely on guides and other staff to support climbers during weeks of acclimatization and the final summit push.

The risks faced by that workforce became especially visible during two catastrophic seasons. In 2014, all 17 deaths recorded in the database were hired workers. In 2015, when the Nepal earthquake triggered a deadly avalanche at Everest Base Camp, workers accounted for 11 of the 14 deaths recorded on registered expeditions.

Year Total deaths Visitor deaths Worker deaths 1995 4 1 3 1996 15 12 3 1997 9 6 3 1998 4 4 0 1999 4 4 0 2000 2 2 0 2001 5 4 1 2002 3 3 0 2003 4 3 1 2004 7 7 0 2005 6 6 0 2006 11 7 4 2007 7 6 1 2008 1 1 0 2009 5 3 2 2010 3 3 0 2011 4 4 0 2012 10 7 3 2013 8 4 4 2014 17 0 17 2015 14 3 11 2016 5 5 0 2017 6 5 1 2018 5 2 3 2019 11 10 1 2020 0 0 0 2021 5 2 3 2022 3 2 1 2023 18 12 6 2024 8 6 2 2025 4 2 2

These were exceptional disaster years rather than typical seasons, but they underscore the occupational hazards faced by the workforce supporting Everest expeditions.

The Growing Human Footprint

More people on Everest also means more waste to manage. Nepal requires expeditions to remove waste, but doing so at extreme altitude is difficult and expensive.

In spring 2024, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee collected 85 tonnes of waste from Everest Base Camp and higher camps, including 27.53 tonnes of human waste.

Everest's Crowds Are Also Big Business

Everest is also a major source of income for Nepal. In 2025, the country increased the spring climbing permit fee for foreign climbers from $11,000 to $15,000, with the new rate taking effect in September.

Climbers also support guides, porters, lodges, and other local businesses, making Everest an important source of income alongside the pressures created by growing traffic.

As the highest mountain on Earth, Everest remains uniquely appealing to climbers. Three decades of data show just how much the human presence surrounding that pursuit has grown.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/05/2026 - 02:45

UK Taxpayers (Unknowingly) Funding Free Hijabs For Illegal Immigrants

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The British government has been handing out thousands of hijabs to illegal migrants washing up on the shores of the country in boats, while Home Office staff have been spending time in Calais cooking meals for them.

Internal figures show 974 hijabs issued to small-boat arrivals between January and June, at a rate of 162 a month. Run that rate forward and the year's total is already past 1,000 and heading for 1,500.

The same clothing data also proves that the vast majority of those arriving are fighting age males, with more than 10,000 male packs being provided against 2,670 for women, while children's packs number just 773 for boys and 829 for girls.

'Don't act surprised when Britain no longer looks like the Britain you grew up in.'

GB News' @Benleo reveals that 1000 hijabs have been handed out to small-boat migrants using taxpayers' money, arguing that Britain needs to stop looking like it 'comes with a welcome pack'. pic.twitter.com/d3e8M4gtQK

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 3, 2026

This isn't a deterrent, it's an open armed welcome.

Home Office documents show the scarves are part of the dry-clothing pack issued at short-term holding sites such as Manston in Kent. A Home Office source told the Mail the department has a legal duty, under the Short-term Holding Facility Rules, to provide basic clothing, including cultural and religious items, and that migrants' cultural and religious needs "must be catered for so far as is practicable."

A spokesman added: "All arrivals receive a basic dry clothing pack where required. The items available form part of standard welfare arrangements."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Mail: "The Government must stop handing out hijabs to illegal immigrants immediately. It's an insult to hard-working British taxpayers that they're funding religious items for people who have broken into our country. It should not be for us to fund someone else's religious practices."

He went on: "Many illegal immigrants actually hate our values. Many come here for free accommodation and a life on benefits at our expense. Illegal immigrants crossing the channel are breaking into our country. They have no legitimate reason to flee France, which is clearly safe. That's why we must leave the European Convention on Human Rights so we can deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival."

Reform UK MP Andrew Rosindell told GB News: "I don't know why we should be giving these people anything. They're coming in illegally, and if they're coming in illegally, we shouldn't be incentivising people by making them feel like they're getting everything given to them on a plate. You couldn't make it up."

'Couldn't make it up!' Britain 'dishes out 1,000 hijabs to illegal migrants' - and YOU have to pay
https://t.co/z6lz99h2mB

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 4, 2026

GB News presenter Ben Leo put the same point in plainer language: "Don't act surprised when Britain no longer looks like the Britain you grew up in." His argument was that the country has to stop looking like it "comes with a welcome pack."

Campaigning journalist David Atherton also asked the question, "what is the Home Office doing in promoting a backward practice that suppresses women?"

Britain ?? has this year given 1,000 hijabs to women and girls who are illegal migrants.

Welcome mat aside, what is the Home Office doing in promoting a backward practice that suppresses women?
pic.twitter.com/F1p6mSLuhF

— David Atherton (@daveatherton) October 4, 2026

Nearly 20,000 people have reached Britain by dinghy this year alone. The Home Office is keen to note that is down 42 per cent on the same point in 2025, and that summer 2026 produced the fewest summer arrivals since 2020.

A spokesman said: "We have made progress tackling the small boats. Crossings are down significantly." GB News reported that Sunday morning alone had already put more than 200 arrivals into Dover, with close to 500 since Friday, and a further dinghy heading north from a beach near Cherbourg, part of a westward shift in launch points away from Dunkirk and Calais. A bit lower than last year's chaos is not the same thing as a border.

'As long as the UK makes itself attractive, people are going to continue to come in the hundreds of thousands.'

Border Control Security Expert Henry Bolton discusses reports that 1,000 free hijabs, funded by the taxpayer, have been given to small-boat migrants. pic.twitter.com/uehuGzZef0

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 3, 2026

The hijab figures landed on the same weekend as a Telegraph investigation into who, inside the system, is spending their spare time on the French side of the water.

Around eight members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, including Home Office staff, spent two days in February at a migrant camp in Calais with Care4Calais. They cooked meals and handed out fleeces. The trip was organised by PCS, which has worked with the charity since about 2022, including joint opposition to the Rwanda plan.

'It will be confronting an entire ecosystem.'

GB News Presenter @WillKingston questions whether activists have infiltrated the Home Office after a report revealed that civil servants have been volunteering with Care4Calais. pic.twitter.com/YLvGUksVWU

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 3, 2026

Full-time union officials on the visit included general secretary Fran Heathcote and Mike Jones, group secretary for Home Office members. Among the Home Office contingent were Passport Office worker and union representative Karen Alderson, Keith Hannant and Jordan David.

Alderson said: "It's important that we have a presence here. A lot of our members work in asylum and the way we hear it reported in the media, it's all about numbers [but these are] people." Hannant said: "And then you come and see [Calais], and they're just people like you and me." David said they talk about the asylum situation in meetings "but none of us have that real hands-on experience of what it's like to work with refugees."

We've got Home Office civil servants volunteering to work for Care4Calais and now this.

This government has absolutely no intention whatsoever of stopping the boats, unless it's a by-product of opening the borders.

It makes my blood boil. pic.twitter.com/0pw8WUzPKn

— Henry Bolton OBE ?? (@_HenryBolton) October 3, 2026

Care4Calais's Charlotte Khan was open about the point of the relationship: "We have people who work in the Home Office." Jones's remedy was not removal. It was "proper plans that can deal with the safe crossing to make sure that people can come to the country safely."

A PCS spokesman said the visit was so representatives "working within the Home Office, including those representing PCS members working in the asylum and immigration system," could "gain a better understanding of the realities facing refugees." The Home Office, asked about its own staff, said only that it expected "all employees to meet the highest standards expected of them."

The charity is not a neutral soup kitchen in this story. A separate Telegraph investigation found Care4Calais had backed asylum seekers disputing official age assessments, including a Sudanese man in his 20s placed in children's accommodation after the charity referred him to a council. Immigration courts later rejected the claim.

Home Office figures for the year ending March show 6,255 age-dispute cases closed, with 43 per cent found to be adults despite claiming to be children. The charity's response was that "the real scandal" was children wrongly judged to be adults, and that it is "a humanitarian charity that distributes aid to people who have fled war, torture and persecution."

I have come to the conclusion that it is a deliberate, state-sponsored invasion of Britain. pic.twitter.com/GDg8TVFrCG

— Patrick Christys (@PatrickChristys) October 3, 2026

Home Office figures put small-boat arrivals since Labour took office on 4 July 2024 at 83,279.

That figure is more than the regular British Army of about 83,000. Since records began in December 2018 the cumulative total is past 200,000, larger than the Army, Navy and RAF combined. About 90 per cent have been male. Two-thirds have been aged 18 to 39.

Meanwhile, this weekend Kent Police ran what Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Brookes called a "substantial" operation around a planned anti-migrant protest in Dover, after masked demonstrators previously blocked the port on 5 September. A face-covering ban was in force from 8am to 9pm under the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Protesters who reached the port were dispersed under a Section 14 notice. Processing of arrivals has repeatedly been linked to the cruise terminal.

Accounts on the ground went further. UK Dispatch reported that Kent Police had put signal blockers near the cruise terminal to stop people live-streaming.

They make me sick ? https://t.co/XlRn35ZNnI

— Angel Of England (@AngelUKxx) October 3, 2026

A state that issues religious clothing to illegal arrivals, sends its own immigration staff to volunteer with NGOs on the beach, and polices the cameras at the terminal is not failing to stop the boats.

It is managing the intake, dressing it, and telling the public the numbers are down. France is a safe country. The dinghies are still launching from Normandy. The welcome pack is still waiting at Manston.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/05/2026 - 02:00

There were no Jets silver linings to be had after a dismal performance in a loss to the Bears that the scoreboard said was 23-12, but anyone who watched it knows it was much, much worse than that.

Gray appeared to injure her pinky and ring fingers on her shooting hand on a deflection in the first quarter. She went down to the locker room while holding her hand.

This was back in the spring of 1994, the beginning of a playoff march that would carry the Knicks to the very brink of ending a 21-year championship drought that would instead reach 53 years before being quashed.

The Blueshirts might have to confront that possibility after Joe Veleno suffered a lower-body injury early in the first period of their 4-2 win over the Mammoth on Sunday night.

Max Muncy's wife might just be good luck

The Jets actually appeared to have three other INTs in the game, but those three were nullified by Jets penalties. 

The two Giants -- both out for the rest of the regular season with knee injuries -- both posted videos on social media of themselves celebrating the final play.

The Dodgers blew a massive opportunity and are now in trouble.

Investigators uncovered "concerning behaviors and statements" before the incident, including an interest in hazardous chemicals, explosives and violence, cops said.

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"There are no words to fully describe the heartbreak of watching our daughter being hurt by someone entrusted to protect and serve our community," the family said.

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