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The Democrats' Hasan Piker Problem Is Getting Worse

The Democratic Party has so much going for it in the 2026 midterm election season, yet it looks like one man in particular might blow it for them. Hasan Piker, the 35-year-old left-wing influencer, is becoming a genuine electoral liability that could extend well beyond the races he's personally gotten involved in, and according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Democrats are trying to do something about it.

In Michigan, Piker has been campaigning alongside Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed despite warnings from party operatives who would rather he didn't. The two have continued campaigning together even as Democratic officials worry the association could bleed into contests in Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin and Maine, states where Piker hasn't lifted a finger for any candidate. That's the nature of viral notoriety. A candidate doesn't need Piker in the room to become an issue because of him.

Piker built his following on livestreams that pull in an audience of millions, a platform he has used to deliver commentary that ranges from standard progressive fare to remarks widely considered to be antisemitic, particularly his treatment of Israel and its supporters. Piker rejects the antisemitism charge, saying his quarrel is with Israel and its defenders rather than with Jews.

In addition to his criticism of Israel, one of his most controversial remarks was that America "deserved 9/11," a line he later claimed he should have phrased more carefully.

Even as his rhetoric becomes a liability for the party he's trying to help, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have aligned themselves with him, while others are drawing a line in the sand. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and strategist James Carville both threatened to walk away from the party over Piker's rising influence within it, though Carville later softened the threat.

Two primaries in two weeks offered the first real test. Even though El-Sayed won his Michigan Senate primary on Aug. 4, his margin of victory was smaller than polls predicted. A week later in Wisconsin, DSA-aligned Francesca Hong lost the gubernatorial primary despite polls showing her with a commanding lead. Notably, neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders endorsed Hong, even as both went to bat for El-Sayed.

Piker rejects the idea that he's dragging down Democratic candidates. "I don't think that progressives have a harder time beating Republicans," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I think that logic is flawed. It's just somewhat untested."

Despite his claim, the record on progressive and socialist candidates winning outside deep blue turf is thin to nonexistent. Progressive mayors run Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and New York City under Karen Bass, Brandon Johnson, Katie Wilson and Zohran Mamdani, and Democrats hold every governorship on the West Coast plus Massachusetts and Illinois. Every one of those wins happened on turf Democrats were always going to carry. The candidates who actually flipped competitive ground, Barack Obama and Joe Biden among them, ran as moderates first and only governed further left once in power. Piker's theory requires competitive states to behave like safe ones. They haven't yet, and nothing in this cycle suggests they're about to start.

Republicans have been playing both sides of this. In Wisconsin, GOP-aligned super PACs spent millions on ads calling Hong "too liberal" - an attempt to hand her the nomination and an easier general election to their own candidate. Their opposition researchers have been just as busy with Piker. They've resurfaced a hostile exchange Piker had with a woman who identified herself as a refugee from a Marxist regime, along with his reaction to Hong's primary loss, and both clips are now doing steady rotation in attack ads across multiple states. The combative instincts that built Piker's audience are proving just as useful to the people trying to end Democratic careers as they were to the people who wanted him amplifying their own.

Carville's walk-back and Fetterman's hedge suggest party leadership understands the risk even if it can't agree on what to do about it. AOC and Sanders embracing Piker points to a faction that either doesn't see that risk or has decided it's worth the trade. Both camps are operating inside the same party, running in the same midterms, sharing the same brand and trying to pull it in opposite directions.

The Democrat Party isn't shaking Hasan Piker loose anytime soon, and the longer leadership avoids confronting that, the more permanent the association becomes. Every week they stay silent, Republicans bank another data point for their general election messaging. Democrats keep telling themselves this is a manageable problem, but it clearly isn't.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 21:35

Oh, So This Is Why Luigi Mangione Pleaded Guilty...

Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,

Luigi Mangione, the man whose assassination of a health insurance executive turned him into a folk hero to many on the left, shocked the country on Friday when he finally admitted to the killing and changed his plea to guilty.

"I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan. I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death of bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal," Mangione told the judge.

He admitted to stalking his victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in the weeks before he gunned him down. The guilty plea locks in a consequence few outside the courtroom seemed to notice at first: a state court can no longer try Mangione for murder.

Mangione had spent more than a year cultivating an image as a martyr willing to fight the system to the end.

So why did he suddenly fold and admit everything?

According to Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, the answer has nothing to do with a guilty conscience. Turley discussed the plea with host Charlie Hurt on Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday, and argued the move was a calculated legal gamble aimed at avoiding a life sentence rather than any sign of remorse.

Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges connected to Thompson's murder. He still faces a separate state trial in New York scheduled for September. That's where things get interesting, because the two cases carry sharply different stakes. The federal charge carries a possible sentence of life without parole. New York's state system has no such option available.

"The New York case is the case that involves the murder charges, but it is also the case that has a lower potential ceiling for the sentencing," Turley said.

Turley described the plea as "something of a Hail Mary throw," suggesting Mangione is hoping a judge eventually reduces his sentence enough to allow release at an advanced age rather than locking him away for life without parole. The real target, Turley explained, is the state murder case itself. The defense wants it dismissed entirely on double jeopardy grounds, and New York's double jeopardy standard is easier for a defense to clear than in most other jurisdictions.

"The odds are in his favor, if you look at past cases, that that may in fact be dismissed," Turley said.

If Turley is right, a man who executed a father of two on a Manhattan sidewalk in broad daylight could walk away from the murder charge entirely on a technicality, having already secured the lighter of his two possible sentencing outcomes.

Turley also had sharp words for Mangione's attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who stood outside the Manhattan courthouse after the plea and told reporters the system had treated her client unfairly, pointing to his chronic back pain and laying blame on the healthcare industry.

Turley noted that the judge overseeing the case has already faced heavy criticism for dismissing key charges against Mangione before trial. Grandstanding to the cameras, he suggested, made little strategic sense.

"I don't think it helps to go in front of her courthouse and say, 'My client's a victim and has been unfairly treated in the system,'" Turley said.

A guilty plea usually means accountability. In Mangione's case, it looks more like a legal chess move by a defendant hoping the math works out in his favor.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 21:00

Military Contractor's Spy Aircraft Quietly Flying Southern Border On Mysterious Mission

The Pentagon says it does not discuss contractor support to particular missions. The gear aboard mimics cell towers.

Private military contractor Metrea has spent months quietly operating two surveillance-equipped aircraft along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the Arizona Mirror.

Via the Arizona Mirror

The planes have traversed Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, circling at high altitude over border cities including Bisbee and Douglas in Arizona, and Laredo and El Paso in Texas.

Metrea holds multiple contracts with the U.S. military, including a $5.7 million award to support training for U.S. Special Operations Command. The company also conducts simulated training missions for the Marine Corps.

It performs comparable border work overseas, providing what it describes as advanced aerial surveillance to the Australian government for monitoring that country's border regions.

Arizona Mirror reports:

One of the major pieces of equipment installed on the aircraft is a DRT 3300, also sometimes referred to as a "dirtbox." A dirtbox is a piece of equipment that mimics a cell phone tower and acts in a similar manner to "stingray" devices that track cell phones and reportedly can even intercept messages.

It isn't the only equipment on the aircraft meant for "signals intelligence" either. Signals intelligence refers to the collection of information that is transmitted through the airwaves such as radio, wifi or other electronic means. One of the aircraft lists a "Windjammer System" as a piece of equipment that has been installed.

The Trump administration declined to say what the aircraft are doing over the border, or which agency they are working for.

A DHS spokesperson told the Mirror that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection were not flying with Metrea along the southern border. The department did not answer whether the flights support a DHS or a Defense Department mission.

"The Department of War contracts with a number of companies, including Metrea, to provide capabilities in support of military operations across the globe. For operations security reasons, we do not discuss specific contractor support to particular missions or operations," a Defense Department spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. "These activities are governed by Attorney General approved procedures that ensure the activities are conducted in a manner that protects the constitutional and legal rights and the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. citizens."

Metrea did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Meanwhile, Metrea's are not the only contractor aircraft working the border. The Mirror reports that a jet belonging to Tenax Aerospace, equipped with high-end mapping technology and previously spotted over the South China Sea and Nigeria, has flown the same route since July.

Civil liberties advocates contend that the secrecy itself is the problem.

"Whatever security rationales are used to justify mass surveillance, whether it is patrolling the border or pursuing the war on drugs, if you're intent on pursuing those policies you have to do it in a way that respects the privacy and constitutional rights of Americans," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, in a statement to the Arizona Mirror.

"Number one, you need policies that ensure transparency so we know what government agencies are doing with the brand new powers that technology is giving them that humans have never had in history," Stanley added. "No matter what your position is, you should agree that it is done in the democratic process and not done by government officials behind closed doors."

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 20:25

'Dems Don't Give A Crap About The Country': Martin Armstrong Sees Very, Very Tight Midterm Election

Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is out with a new report (more than 100 pages) that takes a deep dive on the “2026 Midterm Elections” in November. 

Armstrong says, “The computer is showing this is going to be a very, very tight election..."

"It’s a 50/50 deal where we didn’t see either party coming in with a landslide. 

The bottom line looks like the Democrats can take the House, but not the Senate. 

So, you will have a 50/50 divided government.  You are going to get a lot of the crazies on the Democrat side.  Even the conservative Democrats are getting very nervous. 

You recently had (Democrat) James Carville talking about how the party is going to split, which was our forecast in 2024.  So, this is where we are heading. 

By the Dems taking the House, you will see all kinds of investigations, there will be another impeachment of Trump, etc. 

They will be real obstructionists.  They don’t give a crap about the country. 

If Trump says the sky is blue, they have to say it’s red.  This is the way politics degenerated.”

The implications for the Democrats will be long lasting and not in a good way. 

Armstrong says, “If the Democrats take the House, they will basically make this a real shit fight..."

"Our computers show for 2028 something very, very interesting.  I have never seen it do this, and it’s showing the Democrats will lose dramatically. 

On the Republican side, it shows they win even slightly above 70%.  You take the two favorites from both sides, which would be Vice President Vance against AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Vance would blow her out, yes.  I think the Democrats need to take the House to show the world how screwed up they really are.  There will be a check against them from Trump and the Senate. 

They can do an impeachment, but the trial has to be in the Senate, and it’s not going to go anywhere.

...

It’s going to get much worse before the Midterms.  As I said, these people don’t care about the country.  This has turned into a bloodsport.  This is part of what the computer has been projecting. 

By 2032, we are looking at the collapse of Republican forms of government.”

On the war in Ukraine, Armstrong says,

“I am not optimistic.  It looks like it goes off the boards by 2030 or so. 

Even the EU looks like it’s going to collapse after 2029 and break up again.”

With the Iran war, Armstrong says, “China is using Iran to drain our resources, which has happened..."

"  It takes two to three years to replace the missiles.  Taiwan is up in arms saying to the US, you don’t have the fire power to protect us. . .. You see the same thing with Russia and Ukraine.  They say Russia is weak.  They can’t take Ukraine, and Ukraine has seriously weakened Russia.  That is what Ukraine is doing.  That’s the whole purpose of this, and that was to drain Russia.  Iran is doing the same thing to America.”

Armstrong says don’t expect the stock market to crash anytime soon as money is flowing into and not out of America. 

Armstrong also is forecasting a new gold bull market in 2027.

There is much more in the 48-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog as he goes one-on-one with Martin Armstrong to talk about Iran, Ukraine, gold, oil and the 2026 Midterm Elections for 8.15.26.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 19:50

Apple Trains Custom AI Model For China With Alibaba's Help

Apple has trained a custom large language model specifically for the Chinese market, utilizing technical support from Alibaba Group, according to Reuters. 

Chinese flags hang from a lamp post in front of an Apple Inc. store in Shanghai. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

This arrangement would make Apple the first foreign company cleared by Beijing to offer a proprietary AI model in China.

The custom model is expected to power portions of Apple Intelligence when the AI suite rolls out to mainland China via an upcoming iOS update.

This marks a strategic shift from Apple's earlier plan to rely solely on third-party Chinese models for its regional generative AI features. According to the report, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude - which Apple pairs with its own technology in Western markets - are unavailable in China.

In July, China's Cyberspace Administration officially registered Apple's generative AI service, clearing the primary regulatory hurdle that had kept Apple Intelligence off local devices.

Under this approved framework, Alibaba's Qwen model will integrate into Apple Intelligence across compatible iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Vision Pro headsets sold in China, while Baidu's technology will separately support search-related features.

It remains unclear exactly how Apple's proprietary model will divide tasks with Qwen and Baidu, as the technical breakdown between the systems has not yet been disclosed.

China remains one of Apple's most crucial markets. Until now, the lack of native AI capabilities on Chinese iPhones has put Apple at a distinct competitive disadvantage against domestic rivals like Huawei, which have aggressively marketed AI-equipped handsets.

Apple Intelligence began rolling out globally in October 2024, but Apple said at the iPhone 16 launch that September that mainland China availability was "subject to regulatory approval." The CAC's July 15 registration came roughly 22 months later, clearing Apple alongside six other on-device generative AI services from Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.

The wait proved costly in a market Apple has been winning back. IDC put Apple's China smartphone share at 18.1 percent in the second quarter, up from 13.9 percent a year earlier on 24.4 percent shipment growth - the strongest gain of any major brand, and enough to move Apple from fifth place to second. Huawei held the lead at 22.6 percent. They were the only two vendors to grow at all as overall shipments fell 4.3 percent to roughly 66 million units, a fifth straight quarterly decline driven by rising memory costs and fading government subsidies.

Apple's gains came from holding iPhone 17 pricing steady while Android rivals raised theirs, and from signaling second-half price increases that pulled demand forward - mechanics that flatter one quarter rather than establishing a trend. Domestic rivals shipped on-device generative AI features throughout the wait.

Reporting has indicated Apple evaluated Baidu, ByteDance's Doubao and DeepSeek before settling on Alibaba as its primary model provider. Apple has said nothing publicly about the arrangement - every confirmation to date has come from Alibaba and Baidu, or from the regulator's own filing. No mainland launch date has been announced.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 19:15

Warsh's Mark Antony Moment

Submitted by Peter Tchir, Academy Securities — Macro Strategy

Warsh's Mark Antony Moment

I really wanted to go with Warsh is “puttin’ on the foil” as the title for our Jackson Hole preview, but I’m told the Hanson Brothers might not be as iconic as I thought. In any case, of all my failings as a parent, getting my kids to finally watch Slapshot is one of the easier ones to correct. I felt the “vibe” of Warsh “puttin’ on the foil” in the green room as he gets ready to speak to the Jackson Hole crowd was good, but today we’ll go a little more “highbrow.”

Friends, economists, central bankers, lend me your ears;
I come to bury inflation, not to praise it.

As you know we have been on the side of No Cuts:

• We discussed this along with the danger of Cheap Chinese Compute on Thursday on CNBC.
• On Friday, we discussed Iran, ProSec, and the Fed on Bloomberg TV (starts at the 2:19:40 mark, with Lisa giving her best Seinfeld impersonation of No Hikes For You (last weekend’s T-Report)). The segment before discusses why the Fed is still going to hike 75 bps, so the combination of the two segments makes for some interesting viewing.
• The Path to a September Rate Cut (Despite AI Inflation). Restarting the conflict in Iran has not been good for this timeline, and the data task force is likely to take longer to come back with recommendations than I’d like, but the points, I believe, are still valid.

Arguing about what data the Fed uses and how they interpret the data is not new for the T-Report:

• A few “oldies but goodies”:
  • You're So Vain — July 2022.
  • Not that Anyone Cares, but OER seems Crazy — October 2022.
  • Inflation Dumpster Dive — October 2022.
  • More Inflation Dumpster Diving — November 2022.
  • Threading the Needle — December 2021. “Pointing out the risk that CPI is understated due to the shelter component.”
  • Inflation – Yes. Hikes – No. Taper – Maybe. August 2021.
    The Fed has a script and will follow that script:
    • Act 1: Say it is Transitory.
    • Act 2: Question how it is measured.
    • Act 3: Say it is Transitory.
    • Act 4: Say it is Transitory but talk about multi-year averages…

The role of a strategist is to determine what is likely to happen, not what one wants to happen. This report may skew a little to the “want” rather than “expect” side of the equation, but sometimes it is healthy to vent (and possibly influence policy).

The Warsh Reaction Function is Clear

Okay, that is probably an overstatement, but I think worrying about the reaction function is missing the main point. The main point is to figure out what data Warsh is going to react to. The “reaction function” consists of two parts:

• The data that feeds into the equation.
• The equation that processes the data to get an answer.

Why do so many people still think PCE or some other data point (that has likely led to bad policy decisions in the past) is what Warsh will use? I suspect his “reaction function” will be more or less “normal,” but what will be unusual is what data he uses to input into that function.

That is a key premise to my view on how he should attack his Jackson Hole Speech.

The Speech I Would Give

This is definitely a mix of what I’d say, what he may say, with a bit too much Shakespeare to keep the report aligned with the title. Mark Antony’s speech starts with one thing and ends with pretty much the exact opposite, which hopefully I’m able to replicate here (and I was tempted to put on the foil to help write this).

Friends, economists, central bankers, lend me your ears;
I come to bury inflation, not to praise it.

Inflation is Bad, But…

Step 1 — Argue inflation is bad, but it is at least a little unclear that this is always true, or if there is some scientific method to determine what level of inflation is bad.

Is inflation bad? Yes, some level of inflation, historically, has hurt a segment of the population. Do we know that exact level? No. Well, some say 2%, but why not 0%? Why not 4%? 2% seems like an awfully convenient round number. If we had rigorous scientific backing it would be one thing, but unlike “hard sciences” much of what we do in economics is conjecture. [Step 1a — inflation is bad, but how do we know 2% is the “right” target?]

Is inflation bad? Yes, but don’t we need to look at income growth as well? Inflation erodes purchasing power, but if wages are rising at or near the pace of inflation, should we be that concerned? If we had 4% wage growth, 1% real yields, and inflation running at 3%, should we try to stop it? Nominal is important but real numbers are important too. [Step 1b — inflation may be bad, but it needs to be thought of in an overall context.]

Is inflation bad? Yes, and Powell was an honorable man, but…

We’ve all agreed that inflation is bad, but yet, my honorable predecessor left rates unchanged even as inflation soared. Did this inflation in 2021 not seem bad? Surely the Fed must have been afraid of inflation above 4% using the auspices of the BLS data. While relying on the high priests to examine the entrails, could they have not looked for other signs that inflation was there? [Step 1c — hint at better ways to measure].

Then in 2024, just before an election, my predecessors were able to cut rates. Inflation must have been below 2%, no? No, inflation was above 3%, but we cut rates. Yes, I understand why everybody says inflation is bad, but did they act on it? [Step 1d — point out recent examples that don’t match the current angst on inflation].

Rate Hikes Quell Inflation, Except…

Step 2 — Argue that rate hikes are not always an effective tool against inflation.

Rate hikes will quell inflation. Yes, we have a conflict in the Middle East where the U.S., under the guidance of President Trump, is trying to make the world safe (I’m writing what he as an appointee might say). One offshoot of that conflict has been higher energy prices across the globe. The U.S. as a net exporter has weathered this better than other regions. Energy prices (including gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel) have risen, along with products reliant on oil and LNG as their feedstock. Will hiking rates cause oil prices to come down? Will people drive less because of a hike? How does raising the cost of funding help our great energy companies explore and produce more energy? Shouldn’t we be making it easier for companies to invest in energy production rather than the other way around? If we had a “natural” supply and demand imbalance, hiking rates might be effective. However, hiking rates due to a conflict, which could ultimately lead to lower energy prices, seems like the bigger mistake. [Step 2a — argue that hiking to offset inflation due to Iran is counterproductive].

Rate hikes will quell inflation. Yes, we have one of the largest capital investments this nation has ever seen! We are building data centers and AI processing power across the country! It is a “revolution” that is “transforming” the country. There are strong arguments that over time, this build out will increase productivity, thereby dampening inflation. Assuming that we think it is good policy to dampen future productivity gains (over today’s concerns), would it even work? Will a single “compute” project be put on hold because we raise rates by 50 bps? Given the profit potential being priced into the market, a 50 bp hike would be a mere blip for these companies regarding their willingness to proceed with projects. Yet every other part of the economy would be hurt. [Step 2b — argue that hiking to slow the “compute” spend is bad public policy and would not work anyways].

We will hike rates when inflation is too high (if we believe that hiking rates will not only act to lower inflation, but also serve the longer-term interests of the nation). The key sources of inflation that we are experiencing will not be impacted by hikes and it would be bad public policy, at the national level, to slow the “compute build.”

Task Forces Are Ambitious, Or Just Common Sense?

Step 3 — Changing the Fed is “ambitious” but necessary.

Is a Balance Sheet Policy Task Force ambitious? Yes, but how did something that was once considered “extraordinary” become a basic part of the tool kit? The most recent Quantitative Easing ended in March 2022. We continued to buy bonds up until the day we first hiked? It is unclear why we waited so long to hike with inflation spiking, but to still be buying bonds right up until that moment in time seems wrong. If QE is “extraordinary,” that makes no sense. The 10-year Treasury was 1.5% in December 2021, with inflation soaring, and the Fed kept buying bonds?

Going back to COVID, we saw “near panic” in corporate bond markets. The need to raise money was overwhelming the ability to support prices. The “carnage” in ETFs attracted the Fed’s attention. A short-dated corporate bond ETF was trading at an extremely large discount relative to NAV, which was causing the ETF Spiral™ to play out (according to the T-Report at Academy Securities (wishful thinking plug on my part)). On a Sunday night, in conjunction with Treasury, the Federal Reserve announced programs to not only purchase corporate debt in the secondary market and to buy corporate debt new issues, but also to buy corporate bond ETFs. The result was instantaneous and markets recovered before the announced programs ever bought a single corporate bond or ETF. It in fact took weeks, or longer, to develop the protocols and piping to execute the plan, but we went ahead with the purchases, even though the announcement had done the heavy lifting. [Step 3a — is it ambitious to question how we use the balance sheet? Yes, but it seems like an extremely useful exercise].

Is having an Inflation Frameworks Task Force ambitious? Yes. Why weren’t we hiking earlier? Why were we cutting when inflation was well above target? Why would we hike (or cut) when many entities (including every person and corporation locking in long-term low yields during ZIRP) would not respond to that simple decision?

Is having a Data Sources Task Force ambitious? Actually, no, it is not ambitious, it is common sense! It has been a long time since anyone at the Fed used a slide rule, so why would we not reassess what data we look at? Businesses have been built around processing, analyzing, and procuring data in a timely fashion. These businesses only survive if they are useful. The Fed itself publishes a swathe of data that seems to be largely ignored by the Fed (at least at FOMC meetings — Cleveland Fed Tenant Repeat Rent). Let’s examine what we already have at the Fed and BLS that can be used. Let’s examine other outside sources. Let’s create a “best of breed” dashboard. I cannot even fathom why some view this as “ambitious” instead of standard operating procedure!

Bottom Line

If I were Warsh, I’d take the gloves off and come out swinging!

Hammer home the point that while “inflation is bad,” the exact level that is “bad” is difficult to determine. There have been inconsistencies in the application of interest rate policy with inflation readings. Get people to question the status quo on what data is useful or not.

Argue that not all sources of inflation would be impacted by raising rates. That understanding the drivers of inflation is key to effective policy — not a “knee jerk” reaction to a number.

Highlight how we have an opportunity to rethink much of the Fed policy making process from the ground up with these task forces, and that these task forces should be the “norm” and should have been in existence already.

I wouldn’t weigh in on jobs (recent data supports the cuts, but this is already getting too long).

I wouldn’t weigh in on the neutral rate — far too wonky and will let Miran or someone else champion that part of the argument on why policy is too restrictive.

Probably far too aggressive on my take (and use of Mark Antony), but I expect that by the end of Jackson Hole, we will see rate hike expectations continue to drop.

I’m not as bullish on rates out the curve, as global sovereign bond issuance (to support defense spending and infrastructure spending) and ongoing corporate debt issuance are likely to keep pressure on the longer end of the yield curve. It doesn’t help, at least for now, that traditional buyers like Japan and the Middle East are likely not buying as much of our debt as they once did (for different reasons).

Rising bond yields and a “hawkish” Fed are something that should not be a concern for equity markets!

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

That seems like a good quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as it is the approach I’d like to see Warsh take (he will emerge victorious, if this is done well).

Have a great weekend, and at least now I won’t have to write about Jackson Hole next weekend.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 18:40

The 10 States Losing Public School Students The Fastest

Public school enrollment is shrinking across much of the United States, but nowhere faster than West Virginia. An August 2026 study by family location-tracking app iSharing found that the state lost more than 10,500 public school students between 2021 and 2024, a decline of 4.2%, the steepest in the country, according to family location-tracking app iSharing,

The trend reflects a broader demographic shift. Births have fallen in 44 of the 50 states, meaning many schools are receiving smaller incoming classes. In West Virginia, births dropped 18.3% between 2005 and 2024. New Mexico experienced an even larger 26% decline. Migration can offset some of these losses, but in many states it has not been enough to reverse the trend.

The  iSharing study compared public school enrollment across all 50 states over three years and examined changes in births and migration. It also considered federal projections for 2031 to identify where enrollment could fall further.

West Virginia ranked first, with enrollment falling from about 252,000 students in 2021 to 242,000 in 2024. Although the state recorded slightly positive net migration, declining births continue to reduce the number of school-age children. Enrollment is projected to fall to roughly 217,000 by 2031, another 13.5% decline.

Hawaii ranked second after losing more than 6,000 students, or 3.5%, in three years. Unlike West Virginia, Hawaii faces pressure from both declining births and population loss. Births are down 16.8% since 2005, while net migration was negative. By 2031, Hawaii could lose another 16% of its public school enrollment, the largest projected decline among the states highlighted in the study.

New Hampshire followed with a 3.4% decline and nearly 6,000 fewer students. Although the state continues to attract new residents, births have fallen 18.4% since 2005. With about 11 students per teacher, shrinking enrollment also means increasingly small classrooms. Enrollment is projected to decline another 7.3% by 2031.

Wyoming experienced a similar 3.4% drop, losing more than 3,000 students. Births have fallen 15.9% since 2005, though migration remains slightly positive. Unlike some other states, Wyoming's decline may soon stabilize. Enrollment is projected at about 89,300 students in 2031, close to its current level.

Maine completed the top five, losing nearly 6,000 students in three years. The state had the strongest positive migration among the leading states, yet that growth could not overcome a 17.8% decline in births. Maine also averages only about 11 students per teacher, and enrollment is expected to fall another 6.3% by 2031.

The consequences extend beyond smaller classrooms. Because public school funding is often tied to enrollment, fewer students can mean fewer resources. An iSharing spokesperson noted that declining enrollment can contribute to cuts in programs such as arts, sports, counseling and teaching support. School closures can also force remaining students to travel farther each day.

Research cited by the company found that 98 schools across 15 states closed during a single school year because of declining enrollment. For families, that can mean longer bus rides, changing districts and greater distances between children, schools and parents.

The numbers point to a challenge that is likely to outlast short-term population shifts. With birth rates falling across most states, many school systems are preparing for a future with fewer students, tighter budgets and difficult decisions about which schools and programs they can continue to support.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 18:05

How Socialism Gains Popularity

Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times,

More than 80% agreed economic hardship can make socialist policies attractive even to people who oppose socialism.

Most Americans see communism in an unfavorable light, and a strong majority of Epoch readers say it’s incompatible with the United States’ founding principles. Yet socialism, an early stage of communism, continues to attract people by promising equal wages, low costs, and public benefits.

The goal sounds appealing, but the means have historically included higher taxes and extensive state control.

When asked about a movement in the United States to embrace socialism, Vice President JD Vance said in an Aug. 13 Fox News interview, “Our response to that can’t be to just ignore the economic concerns that I think are feeding this rising interest in socialism.”

American citizens deserve a good life in this country and a good government to make that happen, said Vance.

The Trump administration is rebuilding the industrial base and the heartland, making streets safer, and making it possible for young people to afford a home, Vance said.

“This is how you stop socialism.”

“You don’t stop socialism by throwing slogans at people about the free market—as much as I love the free market—you stop socialism by making people’s lives better, and that’s what we’re trying to do every single day,” Vance said.

Here is a look at Epoch readers’ attitudes towards socialist ideology and a government-controlled economy.

Socialism and Cost

The majority of survey respondents are against the socialist ideology of high taxes and income redistribution.

Ninety percent of readers opposed substantially higher taxes on high-income Americans to fund benefits for working- and middle-class families.

A whopping 97 percent opposed using the tax system not only to fund the government, but also to make incomes more equal, with 92 percent strongly against.

The same 97 percent agreed that the public ultimately absorbs the cost of free government benefits.

Additionally, more than 90 percent of readers would not consider voting for a democratic socialist candidate even if they supported the candidate’s economic policies.

Government Control

Around 96 percent of survey takers oppose greater government economic control in exchange for greater economic security.

Nearly all those polled (98 percent) were against government determining wages and prices rather than leaving them to the free market.

Ninety-three percent opposed allowing extensive government intervention in wages, prices, and social benefits, even if private ownership were preserved.

When it comes to life and affordability, readers’ attitudes softened toward government intervention.

Just over 80 percent of respondents opposed government limits on prices (85 percent), a higher mandated minimum wage (83 percent), and limits on rent increases (81 percent).

Public Benefits

Almost all of those surveyed (97 percent) opposed government providing more basic needs if it weakens individual initiative and productivity.

While 90 percent opposed fare-free public transportation, there was a modest drop to 80 percent who were against taxpayer-funded child care for needy families.

When asked about homeowners funding public schools through property taxes even if they do not use public schools, 67 percent of survey takers opposed, 16 percent were unsure, and 17 percent supported the idea.

How Socialism Gains Popularity

A majority of respondents (94 percent) agreed socialism can expand gradually by eroding private control of property while retaining the label of capitalism.

A similar majority of readers (93 percent) agreed that socialist policies can gain support when presented as benefits rather than as government control.

Eighty-seven percent agreed that people may reject socialism by name while accepting its policies one at a time.

Meanwhile, 82 percent agreed economic hardship can make socialist policies attractive even to people who oppose socialism.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 17:30

San Mateo County Passes Resolution To Regulate Commercial Humanoid Robots

Authored by Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times,

San Mateo County may become the first in California to regulate humanoid robots used for commercial purposes.

The county board of supervisors on Aug. 11 passed a resolution sponsored by Supervisor Ray Mueller to direct county legal and administrative staff to draft an ordinance regulating the use of untethered autonomous or semi-autonomous humanoid robots, or “mobile humanoid robots,” in restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses.

State law already regulates autonomous vehicles but not the commercial use of humanoid robots, according to a county memo. The resolution aims to create a “comprehensive permitting process governing the commercial deployment and operation” of such robots within the county.

Several companies have already started humanoid robot pilot projects.

Tau Robotics, for instance, offers cleaning services to invited San Francisco residents at $30 per hour in a pilot program launched on July 28. The robots are operated by humans and artificial intelligence, according to the company’s website.

According to the county memo, having a permitting framework in place before these robots are widely implemented would “encourage the responsible integration of emerging technologies in a manner that serves the public interest.”

The resolution directs county staff to consider having businesses pay an annual fee dedicated to HazMat and fire equipment for local first responders to handle risks from the lithium-ion batteries the robots use.

“In recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in lithium-ion battery fires due to thermal runaway,” Rich Seguine, vice president of Local 2400, which represents firefighters in San Mateo County, said in a public comment at the county board meeting. “A funding source like this in the resolution can be used to purchase necessary specialized equipment.”

The resolution also aims to require the robots to have accessible emergency “kill switches,” have clean manufacturer safety records, and be supervised by a trained human onsite.

Technological progress and protecting working people aren’t competing goals, said Julie Lind, a member of the San Mateo Labor Council, in a virtual public comment.

“Businesses should understand and account for the human consequences of deploying this technology, including potential job losses,” Lind said.

Non-humanoid robots have already been deployed in a few commercial uses in the area, including Cafe X, a robotic coffee bar in San Francisco International Airport; Artly Coffee in Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco; and autonomous sidewalk delivery company Coco Robotics.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 16:20

Autopsy Bombshell: Los Alamos Lab Worker's Death Looks Like Murder

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Fresh autopsy findings on the skeletal remains of a Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative assistant have delivered a direct challenge to any suggestion of suicide.

Melissa Casias was found propped against a tree in a remote stretch of New Mexico forest nearly a year after she vanished.

The gunshot path through the base of her skull has left investigators and family members pointing to foul play - and the case now sits inside a much larger cluster of dead and missing scientists tied to nuclear programs and UFO secrets.

Autopsy reveals chilling new details in mysterious death of missing scientist found skeletonized in the woods https://t.co/NPsCxGijLF

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 15, 2026

Casias, 53, disappeared from her Ranchos de Taos home on June 26, 2025. She left without keys, wallet, or identification. Both her work and personal phones were found factory-reset. Surveillance caught her walking alone on State Road 518.

Her remains were discovered May 28, 2026, in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest, a handgun nearby that her family says did not belong to her. Wildlife had scattered parts of the body.

Family-hired searchers later recovered additional evidence the initial police sweep had missed: bones, bloody clothing, orange peels, possible horse hair, shredded paper, and a tobacco pouch - items Casias did not use.

Attorney David Adams noted the rugged terrain and possible need for a horse to move a body. He also flagged chain-of-custody problems.

The Office of the Medical Investigator listed the cause of death as undetermined. The gunshot was perimortem, meaning it occurred around the time of death, entering near the spinal cord-brain junction damaging the C1 vertebra before exiting through the thin bone of the left temple.

Advanced decomposition prevented examiners from determining whether the gunshot was the actual cause of death or how close the weapon was held.

An anonymous law enforcement source told the Daily Mail the angle made suicide physically improbable: "There's no way this was suicide, not from that angle... The kickback would have made the gun go straight up. That's ridiculous. She was murdered."

Earlier reporting established she left home with her toothbrush and thyroid medication - "things that might indicate you're planning to stay alive."

Former FBI agent Ben Hansen has assessed the case as roughly 80 percent foul play and raised the possibility of directed-energy weapons or voice-to-skull technology that could compel unusual behavior without conventional ballistic evidence. Initial CT scans showed no projectile in the skull.

Casias worked as an administrative assistant at Los Alamos, a facility with deep nuclear and historical Manhattan Project roots. Administrative staff in such environments often have broad awareness of sensitive operations. Her case is one of several involving New Mexico personnel linked to nuclear facilities.

The wider pattern stretches further. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory and long described as a UFO gatekeeper, vanished from his Albuquerque home on February 27, 2026 - days after President Trump ordered full disclosure of all UAP and UFO records. He left with hiking boots, a wallet, and a revolver. No phone. No glasses. No trace.

Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials engineer who co-invented a nickel-based superalloy for rocket engines and held ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, disappeared while hiking in the Angeles National Forest on June 22, 2025. Extensive searches turned up nothing.

Joshua LeBlanc, a NASA nuclear thermal propulsion team lead working on projects aimed at faster Mars transit, vanished from his Huntsville home in July 2025. His Tesla later crashed and burned; he was found charred inside.

James "Tony" Moffatt, a NASA-linked aerospace engineer and veteran pilot, died with his wife and two sons in a plane crash in South Carolina in April 2026.

Other cases in the same period include anti-gravity researcher Amy Eskridge (ruled suicide amid prior claims of directed-energy harassment), JPL scientist Michael David Hicks, nuclear contractor Steven Garcia, and additional researchers whose deaths or disappearances pushed the documented total past eleven by mid-April 2026.

President Trump ordered the FBI and relevant agencies to examine the cases for any commonalities. He has since stated that so far the administration is finding "not much of a connection," describing many as individual tragedies while promising a full report. Two sets of previously classified UFO and UAP files have been released under his disclosure directive, with additional batches following.

Trump says string of missing and dead scientists are not connected: "There's not much of a connection." Join Share: pic.twitter.com/0VCnDSep14

— Jonathan Turley (@JohnTurleyQ) May 21, 2026

The official posture remains that no coordinated plot has been established. Families, private investigators, and some former federal agents continue to flag behavioral anomalies, missing evidence, and professional overlaps that refuse to sit quietly.

In an era of forced transparency on UAP records, the accumulation of unexplained deaths and vanishings among those with proximity to nuclear and advanced aerospace work keeps the questions alive.

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 Sun, 08/16/2026 - 15:10

Tokenization Of H₂O: Elites Are Claiming The World's Water Supply & Plan To Trade It

Submitted by Patti Johnson,

Yep, you heard me right. This is not a joke or exaggeration. The facts are out there for all to see. I wrote about the tokenization of nature in my article “From Blockchain to Ball and Chain: Are We Being Borged?”

This article will deal primarily with the tokenization of the world’s water supply.

Tokenization: Turning Life Itself into a Tradeable Chip

For those who do not understand tokenization, here is a short and simple explanation: Tokenization means turning something real, like a share of water rights, a measured volume of water from a river or aquifer, or even credits for water that was “saved” or recycled, into a digital token (a unique digital certificate) that lives on a blockchain.

A blockchain is simply a shared digital notebook that many computers keep identical copies of at the same time, so the records of who owns what cannot be secretly changed by any one person or company.

That token can then be bought, sold, or traded on markets the same way people trade stocks or other assets. Instead of water simply belonging to the land, the local community, or the people who rely on it, it becomes a financial product that large investors, corporations, and institutions can own fractions of and exchange for profit. The right to use, claim, offset, or trade that water becomes the commodity.

Offset means making up for the water you use by helping save or restore the same amount somewhere else. A farmer switches to drip irrigation, a project restores a wetland, or a company reuses treated wastewater. That saved or restored water is measured and turned into credit. You buy or claim the credit. On paper your water use is balanced.

How Dare They Profit from Stealing Our Water

How dare they make money off this corrupt plan to steal, control, measure and meter the world’s water supply. Yes, I sound like Greta. The irony is thick: the same girl who made “How dare you” famous has been thoroughly programmed to cheer for Agenda 2030 and the very control grid she should be screaming against. Since she refuses to use her catchphrase where it actually belongs, then I will.

Water is the foundation of life itself. Every human, every animal, every plant depends on it. Yet the same elites who lecture the public about scarcity and climate are building the machinery to turn every last drop into a tradable asset they can profit from while ordinary people face rationing and surveillance.

This is exactly the process already described and promoted in official reports. Goldman Sachs itself published “Securing and Financing the Future of Water” in 2026, openly stating that tokenization can turn water rights into traceable tokens that track use across markets and deliver credits for companies that conserve or recycle water through connections to flow meters. Read it yourself: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/securing-and-financing-the-future-of-water

The United Nations has declared the world has entered an era of “Global Water Bankruptcy.” Their report argues that the old system of local rights is finished and that new enforceable limits, transparent accounting, and centralized management are required. See the official collection: https://unu.edu/inweh/collection/global-water-bankruptcy

The Mapping Machines Are Already Flying Over Your Head

Look at how they are already doing it.

Across the United States, helicopters now fly low over farms and aquifers towing giant electromagnetic loops that map the groundwater beneath our feet like an MRI of the earth. California’s Department of Water Resources runs statewide Airborne Electromagnetic Surveys for exactly this purpose. Click here to read how the water mapping technology works: https://water.ca.gov/programs/sgma/aem

More detail and images of the surveys: https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2024/Mar-24/Understanding-the-Underground-DWR-Completes-First-Phase-of-Innovative-Groundwater-Mapping-Program

USGS examples of the same helicopter-based technology used for aquifer mapping: https://www.usgs.gov/news/state-news-release/media-alert-low-level-helicopter-flights-image-geology-over-wyoming-and

These surveys create detailed maps of every major water source so that usage can later be tracked and limited.

The The All-Seeing Eye of Oracle Returns: Now It Watches Every Drop You Use

Oracle Utilities already processes data from more than 100 million meters worldwide with AI systems that detect irrigation, leaks, and individual household use in real time. Their customer platform is designed for exactly this level of precise control: https://www.oracle.com/utilities/customer-platform/

Larry Ellison didn’t just dream of a panopticon. He said the quiet part out loud: “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” That wasn’t a warning. That was a sales pitch from the man who still owns roughly 40% of Oracle, the company now quietly embedding itself into the pipes that deliver the most basic resource on Earth: water.

Once you own the real-time ledger of every drop that enters every home, every farm, every factory, you don’t need jackboots. You just need a dashboard. Throttle the water, and compliance follows. The same technocratic elite that spent decades consolidating data, finance, and surveillance is now moving on the last ungoverned commons, water itself, under the soothing branding of “customer platforms” and “smart utilities.”

And Ellison isn’t some lone eccentric billionaire operating in a vacuum. He’s a Trump donor who poured roughly $45 million into supporting the 2024 campaign and has since enjoyed the kind of access that turns political proximity into regulatory profit. The same circle that lectures about freedom while building the tools to score, monitor, and ration everyday life now has one of its most unapologetic surveillance advocates sitting in their inner circle.

The water meters are just the latest sensor in a system that already knows when you open the fridge, when and where you drive, when you yawn, drink, text or speak and soon, how long you shower and how many times you flush your toilet.

This is not innovation. This is the elite’s operating system for managed scarcity and behavioral compliance, dressed up as progress and sold by a man who openly celebrated the idea that constant recording would keep the public “on their best behavior.” Oracle isn’t managing utilities. It’s helping construct the choke points. What’s next Larry? Are you going to regulate and tokenize oxygen?

The infrastructure for control is already being paired with the financial machinery. Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network that feeds real-world data such as meter readings and conservation verification into blockchain systems, has published detailed guides on digitizing water rights and conservation credits into tokens so companies can buy offsets just like carbon credits: https://chain.link/article/tokenized-water-rights-credits

In Dubai, the DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre), a government-backed free zone and major international trading hub, has signed agreements to launch the world’s first digital token backed by verified freshwater reserves, positioning water itself as a tradable commodity on global markets: https://mediaoffice.ae/en/news/2025/june/17-06/dmcc-signs-strategic-mou

They Already Seized the Food and Are Playing God with the Weather

The elites have been systematically taking control of the world’s food supply for years. Bill Gates, through Cascade Investment, has become the largest private owner of U.S. farmland, holding hundreds of thousands of acres across nearly twenty states. At the same time, major asset managers like BlackRock hold massive stakes in the dominant agribusiness corporations that control seeds, fertilizers, processing, and distribution.

Simultaneously, cloud seeding programs and solar geoengineering research, backed by Silicon Valley money and governments, are rapidly expanding. These efforts claim to manage rainfall and cool the planet, yet they place the power to influence weather patterns in the hands of the very institutions already pushing centralized control over water and food.

In other words, they are running the classic Hegelian dialectic to consolidate power:

1. Create the droughts through weather geoengineering/modification

2. Declare an emergency and frighten the public.

3. Arrive with the “solution,” water tokenization that will supposedly save the planet but in reality just make them richer.

The pattern is unmistakable. Connect the dots. First, they buy the land that grows the food. Then they experiment with altering the weather that waters the crops. Now they are mapping, metering, and tokenizing the water itself so that every drop can be tracked, rationed, and sold.

This Is Not Theory. This Is the Takeover in Progress. Technocracy 101

They tell us water is too important to leave in local hands. They declare bankruptcy on systems that have sustained communities for generations. Then they create the digital and physical infrastructure to measure every use, enforce every limit, and profit from every token. The shared nature of water is being rewritten into a system of permission slips owned by the elite few who say that they, the experts, the financiers, the scientists, know best how to manage nature and humanity. It is all part and parcel of the plan of Technocracy Inc.

And make no mistake, this entire scheme sits squarely inside the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 6 pretends to be about “clean water and sanitation for all,” yet the real machinery being built is the global accounting, metering, and financialization of every drop. The same institutions that wrote the goals now promote water “bankruptcy,” enforceable limits, transparent tracking, and market-based solutions that turn a basic necessity of life into a tradable asset class. What is sold to the public as sustainability and equity is in practice the transfer of control from communities and nations to the very financial and bureaucratic elites who drafted the blueprint. Agenda 2030 is the framework being used to justify seizing, measuring, and selling the world’s water under the banner of saving it.

This is the plan. It is already in motion. And the people pushing it expect the public to accept it as inevitable.

It is NOT inevitable.

Resistance is NOT futile.

Expose the plan. Shout if from the rooftops, news sites, podcasts and council meetings.

Don’t let the elites complete their takeover plan. They have the money but we have the numbers.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 14:00

Beijing Wants Nvidia Out But China's AI Developers Aren't Ready

China has spent years pouring money and political capital into building a homegrown semiconductor industry. Yet when its AI companies need to train their most sophisticated models, many still turn to Nvidia, according to South China Morning Post.

The biggest obstacle may no longer be the chips themselves. It is everything developers have built around them.

Nvidia’s CUDA software has become deeply woven into the way AI labs operate. Models, training tools and internal workflows have been designed around the platform, meaning switching to Chinese hardware can resemble rebuilding part of the factory rather than simply swapping out a machine.

SCMP writes that Huawei’s Ascend processors are among the leading domestic alternatives, but moving an established operation onto them can require substantial engineering work. One researcher estimated that doing so could increase the time and expense of a project by at least 50%.

How painful that transition becomes depends heavily on the model. Widely available open-source models such as DeepSeek are easier because engineers can modify the code and lean on work already done by others. In those cases, migration might require only a few developers and several additional weeks.

Closed systems are another matter. Without access to the underlying source code, engineers may have to spend months rebuilding and optimizing parts of the training process. One industry estimate suggested a difficult migration could occupy roughly 10 engineers for more than half a year.

China has had more success moving the finished products onto domestic infrastructure. Once a model has already been trained, running it for everyday queries — known as inference — is generally much easier to adapt to different hardware.

And domestic chips are beginning to handle training as well. Meituan said its enormous LongCat-2.0 model was developed using a 50,000-chip Chinese computing cluster.

So China’s Nvidia problem is increasingly about inertia as much as technology. Domestic processors may continue closing the performance gap, but Nvidia has something much harder to manufacture quickly: years of software, developer familiarity and infrastructure built around its ecosystem.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 13:25

'Wolves In White Coats': 5 Key Takeaways From HHS Report On Alleged Pediatric Gender-Treatment Fraud

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

A report released Aug. 13 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shined a light on alleged fraud by health providers who performed pediatric gender procedures.

The report, titled “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine’,” examined the actions and motives of 225 healthcare institutions and found they allegedly put profits and gender ideology ahead of patient needs.

Here are five key takeaways from that study.

HHS Alleges Insurance Coding Fraud

The HHS report laid out an alleged pattern of deception, encouraged by groups promoting gender procedures in children, where hospitals and healthcare providers utilized incorrect insurance codes to ensure they got paid.

Rather than use already-existing, specific codes related to gender identity disorders, HHS alleged they used what the study called “proxy diagnosis codes” that were vague, or outright false.

One common diagnosis was “endocrine disorder—unspecified,” which allowed doctors to bill for cross-sex hormones. HHS data showed that between 2015 and 2025, more than $42 million was billed to insurance companies under the unspecified disorder diagnosis.

A 2023 study by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics found that out of 1,480 patients diagnosed with unspecified endocrine disorder, only 71 actually had such an illness. An analysis by the Manhattan Institute also found a 30 percent rise in such diagnoses between 2020 and 2022, HHS said.

Another common miscoding was for “precocious puberty,” which allowed the doctors to prescribe and bill insurers for puberty blockers. The study found that between 2015 and 2025, insurers were billed more than $11 million under this diagnosis for patients aged 13 to 17.

But that can’t be accurate, the report said, because 13 to 17 is the natural age for puberty.

Advocates Encouraged ‘Alternative Diagnosis Codes’

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health, Planned Parenthood, and other groups encouraged healthcare providers to use “alternative diagnosis codes” not related to gender dysphoria, the HHS report stated.

The Epoch Times reached out to these organizations for comment.

In one instance, a Harvard-affiliated gender clinic called Fenway Health advocated using “more vague” diagnosis codes, but also warned that using inaccurate coding is illegal.

Another organization, the Campaign for Southern Equality, put together a toolkit called “Insurance Coding Alternatives For Trans Healthcare” that outlined workarounds for patients with gender dysphoria.

Most insurers exclude gender procedures unless state law requires coverage, the document states. The toolkit shows which coding is frequently rejected by insurers, and which commonly accepted codes to use instead.

If the insurer denies coverage, the toolkit suggests appealing repeatedly. After the third appeal, the case “goes to an outside agency, and is often accepted.”

For example, a patient can claim orchialgia—persistent pain in the testicles—to justify surgical castration, according to the report.

“How do you do a mastectomy, but then bill an insurance company and not raise any red flags? … You bill it as breast reduction instead of a mastectomy,” said Dr. Eithan Haim, an author of the report.

“This guide is essentially a template for how to commit medical fraud. We should all remember that this is something that people go to prison for. This is a major deal.”

In 2024, Haim was indicted by the DOJ for allegedly exposing private information on patients after he accused a Texas hospital of secretly providing gender surgeries on minors in violation of state law. His case was dismissed with prejudice the next year.

Lifelong ‘Captive Patients’ and Revenue

So-called gender affirming care is lucrative as the “captive patients,” as the report called them, require continual medical maintenance that can last decades—or a lifetime.

“You take a little girl and put her on testosterone, or a little boy and put them on estrogen. Well, they’re going to be on that forever and ever, right?” Assistant HHS Secretary Adm. Brian Christine said in an interview with NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.

The surgeries and hormone treatments can also result in severe side effects, requiring more doctor visits and racking up hospital fees, the report noted. Mental therapy is often needed, too.

Citing data from the Human Rights Campaign—an organization that supports these procedures in minors—the report said the costs can range from $25,000 to $75,000 per patient.

If the client chooses to have surgeries, the total can skyrocket as high as $170,000 and beyond. Those numbers don’t include peripheral costs, such as hair removal, voice therapy, or reversal procedures.

The report included testimony from one young man who was told that “facial feminization” surgery would cost him $200,000.

“This new patient cohort—young, insured, or Medicaid-eligible, and requiring perpetual follow-ups—represented a strategic area of growth,” the report stated.

“Endocrinology and surgery departments gained volume and prestige, while hospital administrators gained a reliable revenue line that helps subsidize lower-margin services.”

The industry has brought in an estimated $120 million since 2019, the report stated.

Biden Administration

According to the report, President Joe Biden’s administration facilitated youth gender procedures, putting pressure on hospital systems by threatening to go after institutions that refused to perform them.

The Biden administration said healthcare workers were bound by the rules of the Affordable Care Act, and refusing gender treatments was “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“Attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize this potentially lifesaving care as abuse is dangerous,” a Biden-era HHS document stated.

The approach was multi-faceted. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told employers that their insurance couldn’t exclude such procedures. HHS, the DOJ, and the Department of Education also “took the position in guidance, regulations, and litigation that prohibitions on disability-based discrimination … may apply to individuals with gender dysphoria.”

The Office of Personnel Management also mandated that federal insurance carriers cover the procedures. The National Institute of Health also conducted a $10 million study to probe the impact of gender procedures on children, the HHS report said.

The Biden administration’s gender initiatives were overturned by President Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term in office. The Federal Trade Commission has also sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, alleging youth gender interventions are offered under false pretenses since they don’t resolve patients’ mental distress.

WPATH, in a June statement, said the suit was a product of “a relentless and targeted campaign to undermine gender-affirming care.”

Vance Calls for Investigation

In the wake of the report’s publication, Vice President JD Vance asked the Justice Department to look into the fraud accusations.

“These allegations are crazy, and they demand investigation,” Vance said in a video posted to social media Aug. 13.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ to learn if the department would do so but received no response by time of publication.

As Fenway Health noted in one of its guidance documents, deliberately miscoding to deceive insurers is illegal, and the liability risk increases when Medicaid is involved because such fraud can run afoul of the  Federal False Claims Act.

That law allows the government to recoup triple damages and impose other financial penalties, and opens the door for private citizens to file civil suits on its behalf.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 12:50

The Decline Of Higher Education Continues

Authored by Mike McDaniel via AmericanThinker.com,

During my second career teaching high school English, I noticed several darkly funny but disturbing trends in “higher” education.  They were fueled by three primary drivers: abandoning merit, the federal government taking over the student loan industry, and DEI hysteria.

It was Barack Obama who federalized the student loan industry, pushing the idea that everyone should go to college.

To make that idea a reality, it was necessary for the government to guarantee student loans.

That had plenty of unfortunate and foreseeable effects. Because Colleges no longer had any financial skin in the game, they went on a mad administrator-hiring binge, which required enormous amounts of money, which required unprecedented numbers of students. 

Combined with a faux-religious devotion to DEI, colleges admitted all manner of people who in past years would have reasonably been found to be poorly suited to do college-level work. To cover this, it was necessary to do away with any sort of predictive testing like the SAT. All that was required for college admission was a student loan, unless one was a white male applying at an Ivy League school. Those guys, regardless of academic qualification, were often denied.

Enormous DEI departments with all manner of administrators and functionaries were established, and hundreds of millions were wasted on DEI gurus imported to inspire them.

So unprepared were so many, colleges were forced to establish remedial high schools on campus. It was a great scam. Full tuition for no credit, and blame students’ lack of ability on high school teachers like me, who could have told them who wasn’t academically capable if anyone had bothered to ask.

Grade inflation was a direct result of these disasters. It was necessary to hide the scams, so professors were required not only to dumb down the content of their classes and to require far less work, but to award unearned grades. An entire generation of college students was conditioned to expect maximum grades for minimum and poor work. And God help any professor who gave a minority student the grade their lack of work deserved.

As a result, innumerable students took 6-7 years to get a 4-year degree at enormous cost, but many simply dropped out without a degree, bearing enormous debt they had no credentials or ability to pay off.

I’m certainly not arguing college should be denied to anyone. I’ve known many people who struggled greatly but managed to earn a degree and were better and more productive people for it. I am arguing for rational decision-making and fiscally sound, ethical colleges.

The second Trump Administration has seen substantial success in forcing higher education to do away with DEI and to restore some degree of credibility to college degrees, which in recent years have come to mean little or nothing. But as the University of Michigan has recently demonstrated, there remains much to be done:

Graphic: X Post

So, students get a semester off to “acclimate to the demands of a University of Michigan education?” Not terribly long ago, students were expected to be ready for that when they first set foot on campus, and if they weren’t, academic probation was ready to encourage them.

And there’s a “mental health crisis” at the University of Michigan caused by expecting college students to do college-level work? Graduating people who lack the mental stability to be sufficiently responsible to do college assignments tends not to give employers faith in University of Michigan degrees, particularly in science-related fields.

The misadventures of Jason Arday at Cambridge, one of the Western world’s storied universities, are instructive. Without question an outrageously DEI hire, Arday didn’t show up to teach classes, had no teaching ability, was a blatant plagiarist, and, when challenged, cried “racism,” and so did Cambridge in defending his indefensible conduct and manifest lack of ability. How he managed to obtain a doctorate remains unanswered, perhaps unanswerable. In the aftermath of Arday’s forced resignation, a Cambridge faculty member felt the need to remain anonymous:

Graphic: X Post

That academic’s conclusions are remarkable mainly because circa 2026, it would be necessary for anyone to publicly state such obvious understandings about the nature of higher education. Arday, whose supposed qualifications and accomplishments should have set off every alarm at Cambridge, was instead praised and defended despite being far more of a charlatan than Professor Harold Hill, but without the roguish charm.

Those lies apparently cost Arday far more than an academic reputation.

Replacing merit with identity/sexual politics and eternal grievance has been a disaster for higher education and for America.

College has been, and ever must be, a proving ground, a place where one not only learns a body of useful knowledge but demonstrates the character necessary to apply it.

Hard work, determination, reliability, sincerity, honesty, and more must be forged in that crucible, just as it still is in the professional trades where one produces or walks.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 11:40

'Delusional': Iran Fires Back At Trump's Make 'Hormuz Strait A Territory Of The US' Ambitions

Predictably, Iran has on Saturday issued a full-throated rejection of President Trump's Friday evening words related to the status on the conflict and energy transit in the region.

In a speech on New York's Long Island, Trump introduced the idea of declaring the Strait of Hormuz a US territory. "After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon, I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States," Trump told a crowd of law enforcement officers.

Trump on declaring the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory post the conflict with Iran 👇 pic.twitter.com/BjgW8pNKIQ

— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbWSJ) August 14, 2026

"Essentially, that's what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to," he added. He claimed oil prices were coming "way down".

Some pundits pointed to what seemed like classic hyperbole and his penchant for floating extreme scenarios in off-the-cuff fashion; however, Trump made the statement without any qualifiers other than it will happen when Iran is "badly defeated" by the United States. That seems to be the big if in the future scenario.

A Saturday X response from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi asserted the US has zero authority to claim the strait:

"The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian," he wrote, as translated from Persian to English. "This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command."

The Iranian official then claimed all of Trump's assumptions about the conflict were delusional, showing that Washington does "not accept the reality of defeat" and so must stop indulging in its "delusions".

The Iranians have been reiterating that they will continue to enforce their blockade, also as the US Navy continues blocking imports and exports from Iranian ports.

Tehran continues to present the Oman deal - still pending finalization - as completely independent of US desires and conditions, and so better not interfere:

Iran has reached an agreement with Oman on a shipping route map for the Strait of Hormuz after weeks of technical negotiations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has told state-run Defa Press.

"Despite US obstruction, the talks have made positive progress over the past three weeks and an agreement has been reached on the shipping route map."

He added that both sides were still negotiating outstanding issues, including a statement to be issued by Tehran and Muscat, noting that exchanges between the two countries would continue until the process was finalized.

Given the two sides continue holding to conflicting absolutist demands and conditions, there's a likelihood of further fighting - though it could continue to at a limited, tit-for-tat and slow pace.

Some Republican hawks are calling for some kind of bold military action by Trump, such as ordering the takeover of Kharg Island in order to show the Iranians and the American public that Tehran does not have the upper hand ahead of US November midterm elections.

However, the nearly six months of war so far has tended to demonstrate that each new escalation has not tended to go well for Washington, as Iran digs in its heels and escalates a response in turn.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 11:05

Ukrainian Drone Swarm Attack Obliterates Wildberries' Largest Warehouse Near Moscow

Ukraine launched one of its largest kamikaze drone attacks of the war against Russia on Sunday, with Russia's Defense Ministry saying air defenses intercepted 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, including roughly 600 headed toward Moscow.

Ukrainian long-range missiles and drone swarms have targeted high-value military assets and oil and gas infrastructure deep inside Russia this year, with Ukraine stepping up its latest attacks on logistical networks, such as Russia's version of Amazon, called Wildberries.

🔥 Ukraine has taken 7 of Wildberries’ 10 largest logistics hubs out of operation.

On Sunday night, following a large-scale drone attack on the Moscow region, the company’s logistics hub at the Koledino industrial park also ceased operations, alongside the warehouse in… pic.twitter.com/WzqpwdEf5W

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 16, 2026

Another Wildberries logistics warehouse was struck on Sunday, this time near Moscow. That brings the total to 20 of the e-commerce giant's warehouses across Russia that have been targeted by Ukraine since mid-July.

Breaking news Telegram channel Astra reported that the latest Wildberries warehouse to be attacked is in Podolsk, Moscow Region, and is the "largest" warehouse owned by the e-commerce giant.

BREAKING:

Ukrainian long-range drones just obliterated the largest Wildberries logistics center in all of Russia.

A massive fire has engulfed the entire 250 000 sqm logistics center in Koledino in the Moscow region. 13 000 people were employed there. pic.twitter.com/KEwfGqMJnR

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 16, 2026

For context, Wildberries is Russia's largest online retailer and a critical national distribution network, with roughly 98,000 pickup points supporting tens of thousands of merchants.

The latest figures suggest that, as of Aug. 7, excluding the warehouse in Podolsk, Wildberries had 20 facilities and more than 1.18 million square meters of warehouse space, equivalent to over one-fifth of its capacity, taken offline by drone attacks. 

WILDBERRIES BINGO 👌 pic.twitter.com/iISjd3GyVB

— MAKS 26 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) August 16, 2026

The resulting inventory losses and delivery disruptions have sparked concerns about seller bankruptcies, inflation and potential state support.

Wildberries and another Russian e-commerce platform, Ozon, together sell goods and services worth 8.5% of Russia's gross domestic product. They provide jobs for 4 million people, or more than 5% of the country's workforce.

Breaking on Saturday:

• Ukraine Hits Key Russian Space Facility With Flamingo Cruise Missiles

Previous Wildberries reporting:

• Wildberries - Russia's Amazon - Has Seen Four Major Hubs Attacked In Quick Succession
• Yet Another Wildberries Facility - Russia's Amazon - Goes Up In Flames After Ukraine Drone Strike

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continued striking Russian military assets and energy infrastructure in occupied Crimea. Russia retaliated overnight with strikes on Kyiv, targeting what Moscow described as facilities supporting Ukraine's military.

Neither side has demonstrated an ability to shut down the other's expanding long-range strike campaign. Kyiv's attacks on Russia show that targeting is shifting to logistics and economic infrastructure, while Moscow continues targeting Ukraine's defense-industrial base.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 09:55

British Busybodies Flood '999' To Report Neighbors' BBQs After Stupid Government Alert

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Millions of phones across England and Wales blared a sudden siren on Friday evening as the government unleashed its emergency alert system over 'wildfire risk'.

What followed was a wave of neighbour-on-neighbour reporting that left fire services and police inundated with non-emergency calls about barbecues in gardens and parks.

JUST IN – UK Government issues severe national emergency alert over the risk of wildfires. pic.twitter.com/brMgNR6DxU

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 14, 2026

The same compliant instincts that flourished during COVID appear alive and well.

COVID did very strange things to the population. Bootlickers are still everywhere. pic.twitter.com/kR0ES48EOA

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 15, 2026

The alert, described by First Secretary of State Louise Haigh as "the most extensive use of the UK's emergency alert system in response to an active incident," warned of a "very high risk of wildfires nationally."

It instructed residents, landowners and visitors not to undertake any activity that could start a fire, including disposable barbecues, firepits, garden incinerators or fireworks. Even a small flame, it said, could rapidly develop into a major wildfire placing lives, homes, businesses and emergency responders at risk. People were told to report signs of fire immediately by calling 999.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the alert was triggered at the request of firefighters and urged the public to take it "seriously." He has repeatedly described Britain as a "tinderbox right now" after a record stretch of extreme heat and multiple major incidents, including a West Midlands blaze that destroyed 19 homes across more than 500 acres.

Within hours, the practical result became clear. Fire and rescue services reported a high volume of 999 calls about neighbours using BBQs, lighting bonfires or campfires.

Police 'inundated' with calls about BBQs being used after fire alert https://t.co/AcAqBAFVFz

— Wiltshire 999s (@Wiltshire999s) August 15, 2026

Surrey Fire & Rescue Service stated: "Please only call 999 if there is an emergency or a fire producing significant smoke. We understand residents may be concerned, but we are unable to respond to reports of neighbours having BBQs, bonfires or campfires in their gardens unless there is an emergency."

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service asked the public to reserve 999 for "a genuine emergency or an immediate risk to life, property or the environment." South Wales Fire and Rescue Service issued a similar plea for calls only about "a new emergency."

Stop calling 999 to report neighbours having barbecues, fire services say https://t.co/BEqSGWo2c6

— FRSA (@frsa_uk) August 15, 2026

Police forces also felt the surge. Gloucestershire Constabulary received numerous reports of people using barbecues in parks and having bonfires at private properties after the alert. Officers directed the public away from 101 and 999 for such matters and toward the fire service for genuine fire-related concerns.

In a Britain increasingly fractured by mutual suspicion, certain sections of the population have become so warped by division that they actively seek to report their own neighbours to the authorities merely for the act of lighting a barbecue in their private gardens.

Whatever happened to the simple injunction to "love thy neighbour"? Today, not only do many neighbours scarcely speak to one another, but a growing number appear eager to denounce each other, turning ordinary streets into miniature surveillance states.

This is a dangerous path, one that only accelerates if government continues to expand its authoritarian instincts and reward the culture of denunciation.

Criticism of the decision to deploy the full emergency system for this message was swift. The Telegraph described the alert as "this evening's abrupt ululation, issued without warning," calling it "a textbook case of how not to operate emergency messaging software, for the fairly basic reason that there was no emergency involved." The paper warned that Number 10 risks losing the public's attention with unnecessary alerts.

'This evening's abrupt ululation, issued without warning, was a textbook case of how not to operate emergency messaging software, for the fairly basic reason that there was no emergency involved.'

Tap below to read how No 10 risks losing the attention of the public with... pic.twitter.com/P596AYXHqP

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 15, 2026

On GB News, broadcaster Suzan Holder cited the fable of the boy who cried wolf.

'An alert? It's like crying wolf.'

Broadcaster Suzan Holder discusses last night's wildfire alert, that the government sent to mobile phones across the country. pic.twitter.com/wWxpROssOm

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 15, 2026

Political commentator James Price argued it "should probably only be used for things like war and peace" and labelled it "a massive abuse of the system."

'It should probably only be used for things like war and peace.'

Political commentator James Price weighs in on the emergency alert that was sent to people's phones last night, adding 'it is a massive abuse of the system.' pic.twitter.com/wybYdK2aGD

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 15, 2026

Alan Miller of the Together Declaration called the approach "a bit like a nanny intervention" that "undermines the importance of the emergency system."

'It undermines the importance of the emergency system... It's a bit like a nanny intervention.'

Alan Miller of Together Declaration questions the government's use of the emergency alert system to warn Britons against starting fires amid high risk of wildfires. pic.twitter.com/Le09ZMsX7j

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 15, 2026

The government has also imposed a temporary ban on the sale of disposable barbecues and deployed military personnel to assist stretched fire services.

Real wildfires have caused genuine damage and stretched resources. Yet treating ordinary summer behaviour as a national emergency, complete with phone sirens designed for life-threatening situations, carries its own cost.

When every dry spell or heatwave triggers the same system, the next genuine crisis risks being met with shrugs or silenced phones.

Adults do not need a national alarm to understand that lighting fires in extreme drought is unwise. Turning the emergency alert into another tool of nanny-state messaging only deepens the habits of surveillance and division that COVID normalised.

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 Sun, 08/16/2026 - 09:20

How Americans Spend Their Time On Weekdays Vs Weekends

The rhythm of American life changes significantly when the workweek ends.

Weekends and holidays bring more time for rest, recreation, chores, and social connections. At the same time, work and education occupy a much smaller share of the day.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows how Americans aged 15 and older redistribute their time between weekdays and non-workdays.

The data for this visualization comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey.

Work Gives Way to Free Time

Work accounts for the largest shift in Americans’ schedules. Time spent working and on work-related activities falls from 4.26 hours per weekday to 1.11 hours on weekends and holidays, a decline of 3.15 hours, or 189 minutes.

How Americans Spend Time Weekday Weekend Change (h m) Sleeping 9h 32m 10h 26m +0h 55m Leisure & Sports 4h 36m 6h 29m +1h 53m Working 4h 16m 1h 07m -3h 09m House Chores 1h 53m 2h 16m +0h 23m Eating 1h 10m 1h 20m +0h 10m Shopping 0h 40m 0h 44m +0h 04m Caring for Others 0h 41m 0h 34m -0h 07m Education 0h 33m 0h 11m -0h 22m Religion 0h 13m 0h 27m +0h 14m Communication 0h 12m 0h 11m -0h 01m

Educational activities also decrease, falling from 0.55 hours to 0.18 hours per day.

Meanwhile, leisure and sports increase from 4.60 hours on weekdays to 6.48 hours on weekends and holidays. That represents an additional 1.88 hours, or nearly 113 minutes.

Television Absorbs Much of the Gain

Television captures the largest share of Americans’ additional leisure time. Average viewing rises from 2.33 hours on weekdays to 3.27 hours on weekends and holidays, an increase of roughly 56 minutes.

Television represents about half of total leisure time on both types of days. This suggests that Americans spend their additional free time much as they do during the workweek, only for longer.

Socializing and communicating also more than doubles, rising from 0.44 hours to 0.92 hours per day. This adds nearly 29 minutes and highlights the weekend’s role in supporting social life.

By comparison, reading changes very little, increasing by only about one minute per day.

More Sleep and More Time at Home

Personal care activities rise from 9.53 hours on weekdays to 10.44 hours on weekends and holidays. Nearly all of this increase comes from sleep, which climbs from 8.76 hours to 9.68 hours.

Household activities also increase from 1.88 hours to 2.26 hours, adding about 23 minutes.

Housework, laundry, maintenance, and other domestic tasks receive more attention, showing that weekends are not devoted entirely to rest.

Organizational, civic, and religious activities also rise, while time spent caring for household members declines slightly.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out What Medical Care Do Americans Skip Most Due to Cost? on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 08:45

What To Expect From El Niño And La Niña?

As a strong El Niño phenomenon is being predicted for the coming months, large parts of the United States can potentially expect a wet and stormy fall and winter.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, this is seen in data from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University.

You will find more infographics at Statista

While El Niño can also bring excess rain to parts of South America, Central Asia and Africa, it can exacerbate drought conditions in places like the Pacific Northwest, the Amazon, Central America and Southern Peru.

Climatic conditions during La Niña, on the other hand, are predictive of increased rainfall on the northern coast of South America, in Central America and in the Caribbean and dryer periods in the Southern U.S., Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil.

El Niño and La Niña are both a part of the global climate cycle known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

El Niño is produced by the warming of the equatorial Pacific waters, while La Niña is what happens when these waters are cooling below their average temperatures.

During El Niño, trade winds over the Pacific normally moving from east to west weaken or even cease and reverse, making hot Pacific water accumulate near the Pacific coast of the American continent, causing rains and floods in the United States. 

La Niña meanwhile strengthens these trade winds, pushing warm ocean water towards Asia.

If the temperature anomaly the El Niño/La Niña reference area is a maximum of 0.5° Celsius above or below its averages, neutral conditions prevail. Both phenomena normally peak late in the year.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/16/2026 - 07:35

Why Are They Getting Free Sh*t?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A major British telecoms giant is supplying thousands of free SIM cards loaded with six months of data to a charity that hands them out to illegal migrants arriving in the UK via boats, it has been revealed.

The charity Care4Calais has distributed more than 162,000 items to nearly 30,000 people, including 2,221 Vodafone SIM cards, 3,765 hoodies, 3,532 pairs of joggers, 1,174 T-shirts, 1,173 Ramadan food packs around Calais, 2,770 cold-weather "snug packs," and 1,169 weatherproof garments.

The charity also ran 80 drop-in sessions and 17 large-scale distributions at British military bases housing asylum seekers, providing around 23,000 items, plus free haircuts, phone charging, English lessons, Ramadan food packets, and "new arrival packs" for about 1,800 people reaching England's South Coast.

A British charity is distributing thousands of free items to illegal migrants crossing the English Channel from France into the UK, including SIM cards with six months of data, Ramadan food packs, clothing and "new arrival packs."

Care4Calais says its volunteers distributed more... pic.twitter.com/UkBUuRmk7v

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 14, 2026

Reform UK's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has accused Vodafone of "facilitating the invasion of Britain."

In a letter to chief executive Margherita Della Valle he wrote that customers "will no doubt be astounded to hear that a British company of generally good repute is helping to facilitate the invasion of Britain by unvetted, military-age men" and that they "will be shocked to hear that their phone or broadband provider is actively endangering British women and girls."

Yusuf demanded the company cancel the cards, end its relationship with Care4Calais, and hand over tracking data.

Under a Reform government, he said, "we will hold each and every officer and director of Vodafone Group Plc and all relevant subsidiaries personally and criminally liable for distributing SIM cards to illegal migrants. If found guilty, you would be liable to go to prison."

The party has also pledged to review public contracts and exclude the firm from defence, national security and emergency services procurement.

Reform UK accuses Vodafone of 'facilitating migrant invasion' over handing of free SIM cards to asylum seekers https://t.co/y6C7eMMAav

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 14, 2026

Vodafone has rejected the demand. A spokesman said: "VodafoneThree's programme provides mobile SIMs to registered UK charities - against strict programme criteria - for distribution to vulnerable people in the UK. Participating charities, regulated by the Charity Commission, distribute the six months connectivity to those they identify as being in need. All calls, texts and data are for UK use only."

Yusuf later stated that Vodafone had confirmed it would continue handing out the free SIM cards to "charities" helping military-age men enter Britain.

Care4Calais insisted the cards were distributed only in the UK, many at the former RAF Wethersfield site now used for asylum seekers, and that they were obtained through Vodafone's open "charities.connected" scheme available to any registered UK charity.

?UPDATE: Vodafone have confirmed they will continue to hand out free sim cards to 'charities' helping military aged men to break into Britain.

Let's see if they're as bold when Reform makes aiding and abetting illegal entry a strict liability criminal offence.

In any case,... https://t.co/6iEXpINBXB

— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) August 13, 2026

The handouts come as people-smuggling gangs switch to "mega-dinghies." On 10 August a single vessel carried a record 230 people across the Channel, breaking the previous high of 165 set weeks earlier.

French rescuers described the 15-metre boat as "buckling," with passengers forced to dangle legs in the water.

Overall small-boat arrivals so far in 2026 stand lower than the previous year, yet the average number of people per boat has climbed sharply as gangs pack larger vessels to maximise profit and evade beach enforcement.

This is the same system that is now redirecting arrivals into quiet villages under the explicit policy that "all parts of the country need to play their part."

In North Yorkshire the disused RAF Linton-on-Ouse base near a village of roughly 600 people is under active consideration for around 1,200 single adult male asylum seekers.

Local women would be outnumbered six to one.

The site sits beside a primary school and nursery, has limited bus services, and already faces shortages of water, sewage and electricity. Labour MP Rachael Maskell has called it "just the wrong site."

Local councillor Malcolm Taylor said residents moved for "peace, tranquillity and quality of life. This hand grenade has been thrown in."

The same pattern hit the tiny Welsh seaside village of Gronant, population around 1,600. Residents expected 15 new-build homes on the site of the old village hall to go to local families or the open market.

Instead 13 units were handed to Home Office contractor Clearsprings. Blacked-out minibuses arrived without warning. Resident Kerrie Cox said "nobody was told about the arrivals." Another called it an "absolute betrayal."

In Oxfordshire the village of Piddington, population around 350-400, faces plans for 1,250 single adult males on a former Ministry of Defence depot next to a children's playing field. Residents held a symbolic independence referendum in which 96 percent voted to leave the United Kingdom.

Children wrote letters pleading with the Prime Minister not to destroy the only home they had ever known.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has doubled down, insisting middle-class and leafy areas can no longer be shielded. Borders minister Anna Turley has defended the approach as a "more fair and equitable system."

The result is the same template repeated across rural England and Wales: large numbers of mostly young men placed into high-trust, low-density communities with limited infrastructure and stretched policing, while the Channel route remains open and charities continue to supply practical support that makes the journey and the arrival smoother.

Vodafone's decision to keep the SIM programme running under its charities scheme, Care4Calais's open pride in the scale of its distributions, and the government's determination to spread housing deeper into the countryside form a single continuum.

The boats grow larger. The freebies keep flowing. The villages keep discovering they are next.

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 Sun, 08/16/2026 - 07:00