Zero Rss

Trump Left Orders To Obliterate Iran If Assassinated: 'Bomb Them At Levels Never Seen Before'

The Iran war saga has seen its fair share of bizarre and wild twists, and Friday has brought yet another - with the NY Post reporting that President Trump said he "left instructions" for a massive bombing campaign against Iran in the event he's assassinated by Iranian operatives.

"I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with," he told New York Post. Then he followed with: "The only thing is, I've left instructions - if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they've never seen before."

The provocative comment, which has unleashed a flurry of commentary and memes on social media, comes on the heels of Trump stating while at the NATO summit in Turkey this week that the Iranians were seeking to kill him.

He had quipped while in Turkey, "And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long."

It seems Israel has been seizing on the opportunity for escalation of the crisis, given its leaders have made no secret of being deeply dissatisfied with the terms of the MoU.

Just as Tehran and Washington stand on the brink of returning once again to full-scale war, The Wall Street Journal reported the following late Thursday:

Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. that it said indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.

But then in the latest NY Post interview, Trump seemed to downplay if not outright deny the Israeli intelligence. He said instead, "No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no." He then clarified that these are old and persisting, vague threats: "I've been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know," he said, before adding, "I hope you'll miss me." From the NY Post in fuller context:

Asked about recent reports that Israel this week flagged intel of a plot to take out the US president, Trump indicated there was no fresh plan from Iran — but said Tehran has wanted him dead for years.

“No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” he said. “I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.”

As for leaving "instructions" for the US government to bomb Iran "at levels that they've never seen before"... it seems that in Trump's mind the Executive is some kind of hereditary office, as if a 'last will and testament' can be acted upon in the name of the United States merely because a prior president instructed that's what he personally wants to see done.

The interview also highlights how far away we've come from the Constitutional principle of the presidency seeking Congressional approval - or even so much as notifying congressional members - of plans to start major wars.

REPORTER: “Last month you said Iranian leaders were very rational people, nice to deal with, strong and smart. Today you said they're scum, sick people, and being led by sick people. What changed?”

TRUMP: “I got to know them” pic.twitter.com/KZVbKTbpFl

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 8, 2026

But it remains that the media will eat it up, and web traffic and clicks will be generated, fearmongering over Iran will increase, and perhaps that's what it's all about. The threat has to always be inflated at peak levels, especially in the middle of a hot conflict in the Middle East.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 18:30

Russia's New Bullets Disintegrate Into 3 Mid-Flight, Can Hit High-Speed Drones

Authored by Prabhat Ranjan Mishra via Interesting Engineering,

A Russian company has developed a new type of rifle bullets that split into three mid-flight, according to reports. This can help increase hit probability against high-speed drones.

The development of specialized anti-drone ammunition reflects the changing nature of warfare. (Representational image) Jay_Rembert/stevepb

Developed by Russia's Rostec, these multi-bullet "Mnogotochie" rounds can successfully hit drones. Reports have claimed that the first batches of these bullets have been delivered to Russian troops.

Effective option for combating drones

Vysokotochka, a subsidiary of Rostec, has developed "Mnogotochie". These bullets reportedly offer high-density fire for combating drones.

Bekkhan Ozdoyev, industrial director of Rostec's Armament Cluster, had earlier revealed that the Mnogotochie cartridges for rifled automatic weapons provide an effective option for combating drones. These are essentially standard 5.45x39mm and 7.62x39mm cartridges, but with a special bullet that splits into three parts upon exiting the barrel. This provides high-density fire. This means that shooting down a small drone with three bullets at once is much easier than with one.

Rostech previously also revealed that the 5.45x39mm caliber CT 226 and 7.62x54mm caliber CT 228 cartridges contain a three-element bullet that disintegrates in flight.

Standard cartridge case and standard propellant powder are used

The standard cartridge case and standard propellant powder are used, which simplifies serial production of the Mnogotochie at ammunition industry enterprises. Thanks to the design, all three elements are evenly separated upon exiting the barrel, improving firing accuracy and substantially increasing the probability of hitting small targets, reported TASS.

Earlier, Rostec also highlighted that small arms' performance characteristics remain unchanged when using the Mnogotochie, eliminating the need for modifications or installation of attachments. The cartridge can also be fired with a silencer installed.

Footage released by the company shows the 5.45mm variant downing a drone hovering about 10 meters (33 feet) above the ground from a distance of 100 meters (328 feet) after four shots. Full-scale production is underway, with the first batch already delivered to the Russian military. The Mnogotochie's three-piece nose separates after leaving the barrel, creating a controlled spread that allows a single shot to release three projectiles, reported NexGen Defense.

Reports indicate that the anti-drone round is effective at distances of up to 300 meters. While that range is relatively limited compared to dedicated air-defense systems, it is intended for situations where troops need to defend themselves against drones flying close to the battlefield.

Small commercial and military drones have become increasingly common in recent conflicts, performing reconnaissance, surveillance, and precision attack missions. Their relatively low cost and widespread availability have created new challenges for conventional military forces, driving demand for affordable countermeasures.

The development of specialized anti-drone ammunition reflects the changing nature of warfare, where inexpensive UAVs have become an important part of combat operations. Instead of relying solely on costly missile-based air-defense systems, militaries are exploring solutions that allow frontline troops to engage drones using standard firearms equipped with purpose-built ammunition.

If the new ammunition performs as intended in operational conditions, it could provide infantry units with an additional layer of defense against low-flying drones while complementing larger air-defense systems.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 18:05

Netflix's Live TV Pivot Exposes Growing Engagement Crisis As Shares Falter

Netflix shares are teetering on the edge of a bear market after a brutal stretch of underperformance and one of the stock's worst first-half starts in two decades. Subscriber engagement has become an increasing concern for the streaming giant, and a new report suggests management may be considering a risky pivot toward live television to revive viewing time and strengthen its advertising business.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix management is weighing live channels, third-party streaming bundles, and additional sports rights as it seeks to reverse declining subscriber engagement.

Here's more from the report:

To bolster engagement, executives at the company have recently discussed adding live channels that would continuously stream certain programs, or shows and films from a certain genre, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has also explored bundling other subscription-based streaming services, including NBCUniversal's Peacock, into its offering. It would sell those subscriptions through its main app as rivals such as Amazon.com and Apple have long done, some of the people said.

Netflix's discussions about adding TV channels and potentially streaming bundles, which would appear like tiles on the streamer's home page, show how the company is willing to pivot from its roots.

The pivot comes as audience measurement firm Nielsen reports that Netflix's share of TV viewership fell to 7.8% in April, its lowest level since May 2025.

Netflix's share of streaming time has also declined, falling from 21% to 17% over the two-year period ending in March 2026 amid intense competition from rival platforms such as Disney+ and YouTube TV.

Here is what Wall Street desks are saying, courtesy of Bloomberg:

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan

• The plans are "likely to reignite focus on engagement, a key driver of advertising and long-term revenue growth"
• "The strategy makes sense given the launch of French broadcaster TF1's linear channels, which lifted viewing by 16% in three weeks"

Citizens analyst Matthew Condon

• If engagement slows and churn begins to rise, the core structural advantage begins to erode
• "This is ultimately what is prompting Netflix to explore Live TV and subscription bundle partnerships"

Vital Knowledge

• Netflix is facing a dip in subscriber engagement amid rising competition, which is a worrying trend

While Netflix remains the top streaming leader, its shares have nearly been halved since peaking in mid-2025.

Shares so far this year are teetering on the edge of a bear market, with first-half performance among the worst in two decades.

The underperformance in the stock comes not just from the subscriber engagement crisis but also from the company's disappointing guidance for the second quarter, including lower year-over-year operating margins.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 17:40

Trump Administration Launches Major H-1B Visa Fraud Investigation

Via American Greatness,

The Trump administration has launched its first major investigation into alleged fraud involving H-1B and PERM visa programs, expanding its effort to combat immigration-related fraud and protect American workers.

🚨PRESS RELEASE: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General Launches Investigation into H-1B Visa Fraud and Human Trafficking to Protect American Workers

Read:⤵️https://t.co/uBG4GjU1up pic.twitter.com/naWt7h3AP3

— DOL OIG (@DOLOIG) July 8, 2026

Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced the investigation Wednesday during an appearance on Fox Business, saying the probe will examine allegations of H-1B and PERM visa abuse, labor trafficking and the displacement of U.S. workers.

D’Esposito said investigators have already issued dozens of subpoenas as part of the investigation.

“This is another example where fraud is fueling violent crime,” D’Esposito said.

“Much of the visa and the human trafficking that we see when it comes to this foreign labor is tied to cartels, is tied to transnational gangs, and this is the work that we should be doing, not only to make America safe again, but to make America more affordable again.”

According to D’Esposito, the investigation extends beyond traditional labor sectors.

“This is not just people working in factories or actual labor,” he said.

“These are people working in medical facilities and doctors’ offices that are actually putting people in harm’s way.”

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations for an initial three-year period that may be extended to six years.

Technology companies account for an estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of new H-1B visa applications in recent years. Other industries making significant use of the program include consulting and professional services, engineering and manufacturing, health care and medical research, and higher education.

D’Esposito said California, New York and Illinois rank among the top states for H-1B visa applicants.

He said the administration’s objective is to ensure American workers are protected from abuse of the visa system.

The goal, he said, is to make sure hardworking Americans “are not seeing their jobs taken away by foreigners or people who are gaming the system or financially benefiting from bringing these individuals into America and putting them into jobs that, quite frankly, they are not qualified to do.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 17:15

The Token Revolt Goes Mainstream: Palo Alto CEO Demands 90% AI Price Drop

Eight days ago it was Palantir's Alex Karp going ballistic on live television about the "effing insane" economics of renting intelligence by the token. On Thursday it was Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora's turn, and while his delivery was calmer, his number was not: Arora told CNBC that AI token prices need to fall as much as 90% before enterprise adoption can actually scale.

So the chief executive of one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world - that buys this stuff at industrial scale - telling the frontier labs, on their favorite network, that their pricing model is broken by roughly an order of magnitude.

90% Or Bust

Arora wants token costs at roughly one-fifth of current levels within the next 12 months, and down 90% by the year after that. Arora joins a growing list of executives - Karp most loudly among them - calling out runaway token costs, and that the bill shock is already pushing corporate buyers toward cheaper open-weight alternatives, including Chinese models that are rapidly closing the capability gap with the American labs. Regular readers will recognize that migration: we have documented Coinbase cutting its internal AI spend nearly in half by defaulting engineers to Chinese open-weight models, Microsoft weighing a hosted DeepSeek variant for its own agentic tools, and OpenRouter data showing Chinese models capturing - in some periods - north of 60% of global token consumption among top models.

Palo Alto CEO Arora says AI pricing needs to fall 90% as token costs skyrocket | Samantha Subin, CNBC

Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora warned that token costs need to drop as much as 90% to promote large-scale artificial intelligence adoption.

"I think 54% is a good start,"… pic.twitter.com/tMVMd9Eeuf

— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) July 10, 2026 Altman Blinks First

The timing was not accidental. Arora's comments landed the same day OpenAI shipped its new GPT-5.6 family, with Sam Altman telling CNBC the latest model is 54% more token-efficient on agentic coding - a spec sheet line that doubles as a confession about what customers have been screaming at him for months. Asked about it, Arora offered the faintest of praise, calling the efficiency gain a good start before adding: "I think we probably need another turn at it."

Translation: nice 54%, now do it again. Twice.

None of this should surprise regular readers, who know OpenAI has been weighing drastic price cuts to claw enterprise customers back from Anthropic - the start of a classical deflationary race to the bottom - the opposite of what an industry burning tens of billions a year, and hoping to grow into trillion-dollar public valuations, actually needs. Altman himself conceded in June that cost had gone from a non-issue to a major one for customers. A month later, the "drastic cuts" are arriving dressed up as efficiency gains.

Meta Rising?

Also on Thursday, Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1, its first serious run at the agentic coding market that made Claude Code a phenomenon. Per Reuters figures cited by TechCrunch, Meta is charging $1.25 per million input tokens and $4.25 per million output tokens - parked right alongside the budget tiers of its rivals, Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Luna. Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang described the pricing as "very aggressive and attractive," and every new API account starts with $20 in free credits.

The launch was apparently important enough that Mark Zuckerberg posted on X for the first time in three years - his last post came in July 2023 - to pitch Spark as "a strong agentic and coding model at a very low price." Read that again: the CEO of a company spending well north of $100 billion a year on AI infrastructure, a company Wall Street is openly pressing for evidence of AI returns, broke a three-year social media silence to advertise that his product is cheap.

Meta also shipped its Muse Image generation model Tuesday, SpaceXAI dropped a new Grok, and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 family all landed inside the same 48 hours. 

The Math Has Not Changed

Arora's admission is the latest wake-up call - from the tokenmaxxing fiasco and the $500 million mystery Claude bill, to Uber capping AI coding spend after torching its 2026 agentic budget in four months, to UBS checks finding token costs are now a live issue for roughly 60% of enterprise customers - including one that got its first AI invoice and heard leadership respond, flatly, "we don't have the money for this."

And we aren't the only ones concerned about how this will go... As JPMorgan noted one month ago: falling prices do not automatically fix the customer's problem, but they absolutely wreck the seller's. Gartner's own work suggests that even a 90% collapse in inference costs may not shrink enterprise AI bills, because agentic consumption grows faster than prices fall and providers do not pass the savings through. Meanwhile Apollo's chief economist Torsten Slok has laid out the mirror-image problem: if token prices converge toward zero, there is not enough revenue to support the hyperscaler buildout even in a world where compute demand keeps surging. Arora's 90% is the customer's survival number. It may also be the vendor's extinction number.

Meanwhile, the buildout is not slowing down to wait for the answer. Amazon raised $25 billion in debt this week to fund AI infrastructure, a month after SpaceX's $25 billion bond sale - while this very morning, SK Hynix pulled off the largest US listing ever by a foreign company, a $26.5 billion raise that saw its ADRs open 14% above the offer price. The pattern could not be cleaner: the companies selling the shovels are booking record raises at record valuations, on the same tape where the companies selling the tokens are being told to cut prices 90%.

All of which lands at a delicate moment for the two firms the price war is actually about. OpenAI has already pushed its IPO into 2027, and Anthropic's headline $47 billion ARR - a figure we treated with some skepticism when it was paraded ahead of the IPO filing - now faces its first print in a world where the customers have read their invoices and the competition includes Meta at $1.25 per million tokens.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 16:50

Apple Sues OpenAI Alleging Trade Secret Theft In Blockbuster AI Hardware Case

Apple has filed a major lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing OpenAI, io Products, and former Apple executives of misappropriating trade secrets to fast-track AI hardware development.

The complaint details a months-long scheme involving former Apple employees now at OpenAI. Key defendants include Tang Tan (OpenAI hardware lead and ex-Apple VP of product design) and Chang Liu (former Apple senior electrical engineer). Apple alleges they directed recruits to share confidential details on unreleased devices, components, manufacturing processes, and suppliers.

Specific claims, according to the WSJ, include Tan instructing interviewees to bring physical Apple hardware parts for review, retaining and distributing an internal Apple "Need to Know" departure security document, and using stolen supplier information to trick partners into using proprietary techniques. Liu is accused of downloading over a thousand pages of confidential files post-departure via a retained laptop and maintaining improper contacts at Apple for ongoing updates. (MacRumors)

“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI. Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it.”

Apple describes the conduct as “the tip of the iceberg” and states that OpenAI’s hardware efforts are “rotten to its core” due to reliance on misappropriated information. The company first contacted OpenAI in February with concerns but received no response. (9to5Mac)

In a response to inquiry by MacRumors, Apple said: 

“At Apple, our teams are constantly developing breakthrough technologies to create the best products and services in the world, and protecting their work and intellectual property is something we take very seriously. Recently, significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products. We will always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so.”

Apple seeks an injunction barring use or disclosure of the information, plus damages. The suit targets Tan and Liu for breach of contract but does not name Jony Ive or Sam Altman. It notes the Siri/ChatGPT partnership is not at issue and highlights that over 400 ex-Apple employees now work at OpenAI. 

This development occurs amid previously reported tensions, with OpenAI reportedly considering its own legal action against Apple over integration expectations. OpenAI is advancing hardware projects, including potential devices tied to its acquisition of Ive’s io startup. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 16:39

Myth Busted: U.S. Much Safer Than Many Peer Nations

Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearInvestigations,

Conventional wisdom holds that the United States is the most violent and dangerous nation in the developed world. This dark view is frequently invoked by conservatives to demand stronger penalties for crimes and by progressives to argue for stronger gun laws.

At the same time, other nations point to crime as an Achilles heel of the American system. These include two peer nations with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world - Australia and Canada. In 2025, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that "the U.S. generally sees higher violent crime rates than many other countries." Last year, the Canadian Press similarly reported that "the number of police-reported violent crimes for every 100,000 people continue to be higher in the United States than in Canada."

The data, however, undercuts this narrative. While the United States still leads in some categories, on the whole it has significantly less violent crime per capita than those two nations.

Regarding homicide, the most heinous crime of all, it's true that in 2025, the U.S. murder rate was about four per 100,000 people - roughly twice Australia's and Canada's 2024 homicide rate. Yet it's also true that homicides account for only a tiny fraction of violent crime. In 2024, homicides represented just 0.21% of violent crimes in the U.S., based on National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) estimates of rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Murder comprises an even smaller fraction of crimes in Australia and Canada.

Murders in the U.S. are usually highly concentrated geographically, often connected to street gang activity, and threaten only a tiny fraction of Americans. Just 2% of counties account for approximately 54% of all murders, and within those counties roughly two-thirds of killings occur within areas covering only about ten city blocks. By contrast, 53% of U.S. counties report no murders in a typical year, while another 16% report only one.

Moreover, when analyzing the incidence of a broader set of crimes, the U.S. is nowhere near the most dangerous developed country.

Ignoring Police

Because police statistics capture only a fraction of actual crime, the U.S., Canada, and Australia all conduct large-scale victimization surveys that estimate total crime, including incidents never reported to police. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has conducted the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which interviews roughly 240,000 Americans annually, for more than 50 years. Australia relies on a comparable survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while Statistics Canada conducts the General Social Survey (GSS) on Safety and Victimization.

"Anyone who wants to understand the seriousness of crime in Canada needs to recognize that victimization surveys paint a more complete picture than police-reported crime," said Gary Mauser, who has extensively studied crime at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

The gap between police statistics and actual victimization is substantial. In Canada, the police-reported violent-crime rate is 885 per 100,000 people. The GSS reported a violent victimization rate almost 10 times that - 8,300 per 100,000.

Australia shows a similar pattern. Although the state of Victoria did not provide assault data to the ABS, only about 37% of robberies and sexual assaults were reported to police in 2024.

The U.S. data tell a very different story. Although the FBI does not collect national counts of simple assault, it recorded 1,203,808 violent crimes in 2019. During the same year, the NCVS estimated 2,013,220 felonious violent crimes - rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault, excluding simple assault. Police reports therefore captured 59.8% of the NCVS estimate.

Using these broad estimates, Australia's rape and sexual assault rate is roughly three times higher than that of the United States. Australia's assault rate is about twice as high, and its burglary rate is about 2.5 times higher. Robbery is the only category where the two countries report similar rates.

But even this Australian data significantly understates the extent of violent crime because it counts victims rather than the number of crimes, unlike the U.S. data. If someone is robbed or sexually assaulted twice, the Australian survey records only one victimization, while the U.S. counts two separate crimes. As a result, Australia's survey misses repeat victimizations and understates the total amount of violent crime. Even modest adjustments suggest that Australia's violent crime rate is 15% higher than already discussed.

"For decades, researchers have documented that people report crimes more often when law enforcement is more likely to catch and punish the offenders," said David Mustard, a professor and crime expert at the University of Georgia. "The extremely low reporting rates in Australia and Canada therefore raise serious doubts about public confidence in their criminal justice systems."

Normalizing Rape

For example, in Canada in 2019, about 8.1% of total violent crimes resulted in the person being arrested and charged with the crime (210,000 arrested and charged out of 2.59 million victimizations), which is quite low even compared to the 20% rate in the U.S.

In Australia, there are numerous complaints that "Rape is effectively decriminalized." In New South Wales, of the 9,138 sexual assaults reported to police in 2022, there were only 1,016 convictions - just an 11% conviction rate. Indeed, during a recent lecture that I gave to college students in New South Wales in February, several women said there was no reason to report rapes and sexual assaults to the police because they believed nothing would happen to the criminal and it was personally embarrassing to come forward publicly.

As a result, an analysis based solely on police statistics can be misleading when comparing countries. Victimization surveys tell a different story. Although direct comparisons require some caution because the Canadian GSS and the U.S. NCVS define certain crimes like sexual assault differently, those differences generally favor Canada and make the U.S. appear relatively more violent.

Still, the results remain striking. In 2019, Canada's overall violent-crime victimization rate was at least 175% higher than the U.S. after adjusting for different methods. "Anyone who wants to understand just how serious crime is in Canada needs to recognize that crime rates are higher in Canada than in the U.S., according to victimization surveys," Mauser said.

Robbery offers an especially useful comparison because both surveys define it similarly. Canada's robbery victimization rate was 268% higher than the U.S. rate. Property crime follows a similar pattern. Canada's burglary rate was 259% higher than the U.S. rate.

Nor is this pattern unique to recent years. The International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), which used identical questions and definitions across participating countries before the United Nations assumed responsibility for the survey and later discontinued it, reached similar conclusions. In 2000, Australia's violent-crime victimization rate - including robbery, sexual incidents, assaults, and threats - was 104% higher than the U.S. rate. Robbery was 150% higher and sexual assaults 167.9% higher. The survey also found Canada's violent-crime victimization rate to be 40% higher than the U.S.

Few countries conduct victimization surveys, but the historical evidence from older ICVS data paints a similar picture. The ICVS found that England and Wales and Scotland had violent crime rates about 40% higher than the United States, while Finland's rate was about 20% higher. France, the Netherlands, and Sweden recorded rates roughly equal to the U.S., whereas Belgium and Poland experienced violent crime rates about 20% lower.

"The media's emphasis on reported crime badly underestimates how bad the violent crime situation in Australia is compared to the U.S.," Dr. Kesten C. Green, who has studied crime and is a researcher at the University of Adelaide Business School, tells RealClearInvestigations.

"Only victimization surveys capture both reported and unreported crimes, providing a far more complete picture

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 16:25

Mali Govt Says Al-Qaeda Extremists In Region Receive Training, Drones From Ukraine

Via The Cradle

The Malian government announced on Thursday that militant groups with links to Al-Qaeda carrying out terror attacks in the country were trained and armed by Ukrainian specialists.

Fousseynou Ouattara, Vice President of the Defense Commission of Mali's Transitional Council, said authorities identified militants who received training in Ukraine to carry out operations using kamikaze drones produced by Kiev. "These young people are known, we have now added them to our lists, and we have their names," Ouattara said.

Illustrative file image

The militants fighting the Malian government belong to a Tuareg-led separatist group, the Azawad Liberation Front (ALF), and Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM), an extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda.

He added that the militant groups are receiving fighters from Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, as well as training from members of the French Foreign Legion and Ukrainian instructors.

France is allegedly supporting the ALF and JNIM following the Malian government's removal of French troops in 2022. In their place, private military contractors from Russia's Wagner Group were deployed.

After a May 2021 coup in Mali, the country's military junta officially demanded that France withdraw its troops "without delay." French troops had been present in Mali for nine years, allegedly to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgency.

Mali was a French colony known as French Sudan before it gained independence as the Republic of Mali in 1960. However, France has sought to reassert its influence in Mali and in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, which are also former French colonies.

In September 2023, the military leaders of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso established the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which established a partnership with Russia.

Fighting between the Malian army and the ALF and JNIM has escalated in recent weeks. On July 7, the Malian army released a statement saying that "more than 200 terrorists were neutralized during coordinated air and ground operations" conducted in the village of Anefis in the northern Kidal region. The army statement noted that the operation was conducted in response to attacks by armed groups on military positions.

On July 4, Mali's Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs announced that militant groups attacked army positions in Aguelok, Anefis, Gao, Kenioroba, Konna, Sevare, and Somadougou.

Clashes with the militants reportedly continue near Anefis, where a major Malian military base is located. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his AES counterparts held a meeting in which they condemned destabilization campaigns supported by Ukraine and France.

Russia and the AES agreed to expand military cooperation, with Moscow pledging additional support to strengthen the operational capabilities of the armed forces of AES nations.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso described the recent militant attacks on AES countries as "barbaric and ignoble" acts threatening regional stability.

"The two sides firmly condemned such destructive actions aimed at undermining the sovereignty of the AES and regional stability," they said.

via Middle East Eye

The ministers also acknowledged the efforts of troops from AES member states in repelling "terrorist attacks," as well as the contribution of Russia's African Corps to counterterrorism operations in the Sahel.

The Russia-AES meeting took place as French President Emmanuelle Macron visited Syria to meet President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and ISIS commander. During the 14-year war to topple former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, France joined the US and its allies in supporting Sharaa's Nusra Front, which finally took power in Damascus in 2024.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 15:45

US Nuclear Regulator Seeks Simpler Environmental Reviews To Boost Nuclear Expansion

Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on July 8 proposed narrowing environmental reviews for new and renewed nuclear reactor licenses, a move the agency said would reduce costs, as the Trump administration pushes to expand nuclear energy.

In this aerial view, the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stands in the middle of the Susquehanna River near Middletown, Pa., on Oct. 10, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The proposal would change how the NRC implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), limiting reviews to environmental effects that fall within the agency's legal authority.

The NRC described the proposal as the "most comprehensive update to its environmental review regulations in decades," adding that it would remove outdated requirements and make the licensing process more efficient.

NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said the proposal, which is open for public comment until Aug. 21, would better align the agency's environmental reviews with what Congress intended under NEPA.

He told reporters: "For many, many, many years, NRC did much more than required by law in the National Environmental Policy Act. So this really brings us back to what NEPA demands, nothing more, nothing less."

Nieh also said, "By concentrating on impacts the NRC can address, we'll strengthen environmental protection while making licensing reviews more timely and predictable."

He said that the NRC proposes to limit areas where it does not have authority over effects on the environment, such as the construction of nuclear plants.

"Dust, noise, air impacts, non-radiological water, or non-radiological effects, all of those things are examples of where they're outside of our regulatory authority, and so we won't be doing those in the future," he said.

NRC's chief environmental review and permitting officer, Kimyata Savoy, said the proposal would save reactor developers and the agency about $135 million in licensing costs for new reactors and license renewals.

Other measures under the proposal include new categorical exclusions, an update of environmental review procedures, and greater flexibility for applicants in providing environmental information.

The proposal follows a series of actions by President Donald Trump aimed at expanding nuclear power in the United States. Trump signed four executive orders on May 23, 2025, directing the NRC to license 10 new reactors by 2030 and supporting a plan to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050.

One of them, executive order 14300, directed the NRC to reform its licensing process. The White House said the commission had slowed nuclear development by imposing unnecessary regulatory requirements.

U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that last year, nuclear energy accounted for about 18 percent of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation.

Series of Reforms

The July 8 proposal comes one week after the NRC announced broader changes to reactor licensing and radiation safety regulations.

The agency on July 1 proposed replacing a radiation risk model that has guided U.S. nuclear regulation for about 50 years.

The NRC said the changes would modernize regulations and make it easier to build new reactors without reducing safety standards.

The proposal drew criticism from some nuclear safety experts.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in comments submitted to the NRC in July 2025 that there was "absolutely no technical or practical basis" for changing the agency's use of the "as low as reasonably achievable" standard.

The regulatory changes also coincide with progress in the administration's advanced reactor program.

The Department of Energy announced on July 1 that the third advanced nuclear reactor authorized under the administration's pilot program achieved criticality on June 30 at Idaho National Laboratory.

Criticality is the point at which a reactor reaches a stable chain reaction capable of producing electricity continuously.

The reactor, known as Unity and developed by Deployable Energy, met the July 4 deadline established by Trump's 2025 executive order, which required that at least three advanced reactor concepts achieve criticality outside national laboratories.

The cooling towers for units 4 (L) and 3 (R) at Plant Vogtle, operated by Georgia Power Co., in east Georgia's Burke County near Waynesboro, Ga., on May 29, 2024. Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 14:55

Durov Hauled In For Questioning Again In Paris, Telegram Blasts Case: 'Still No Evidence'

As the high-stakes criminal investigation into Telegram nears its second year with no resolution in sight, French authorities have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning. Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported, citing law enforcement sources. He's allowed to travel internationally, and to live at his home in Dubai - though he's agreed specific judicial supervision rules, part of which is to periodically return to France when summoned. 

It marked the fourth time the tech entrepreneur has been interrogated as part of the ongoing investigation, stretching back to his initial arrest in August 2024 at a Paris airport. He was soon after indicted on a dozen assorted charges ranging from complicity in illicit platform activity to non-cooperation with state authorities.

Durov’s legal team confirmed the questioning to AFP, slamming the lack of progress by French prosecutors, decrying that "almost two years after the indictment of Pavel Durov, there is still no evidence to establish the validity of the charges."

via Reuters

And Telegram itself didn't hold back, releasing a statement which reads: "The only change since Durov’s detention in France is that French authorities have started properly drafting requests to Telegram,” the social media platform said separately.

Durov was originally banned from leaving the country, yet the travel restrictions imposed over the case were ultimately lifted, after he complied with court-ordered conditions.

While the French government position has been that Telegram's previous lax cooperation with authorities and lack of restrictions on the app have resulted in extremism and child abuse, there's been plenty of evidence that authorities are seeking to exploit it for surveillance and overreach. 

As an example, Durov in 2025 in a viral post on X revealed that French authorities approached him through an intermediary, demanding Telegram remove several Moldovan channels.

While Telegram did take down some accounts at the time that violated its policies, Durov alleged the plot thickened when the intermediary relayed a shady offer: French intelligence promised to "put in a good word" with the judge overseeing his case if expanded cooperation.

"This was a blatant attempt to manipulate justice," Durov wrote, slamming the move as either interference in his legal case or a ploy to meddle in Moldova's elections. When a second list of "problematic" channels surfaced, the mogul said that nearly all were legitimate, with no violations of Telegram’s rules.

"We refused to comply," the mogul said. "Telegram stands for free speech. We will not remove content for political reasons, and I’ll keep exposing every attempt to bully our platform."

🇫🇷 Europe countries like France are becoming a vigilant bureaucracy against their own citizens free speech: Telegram founder Pavel Durov was grilled for over 6 hours by French investigators.

They accuse the app of weak moderation and not helping law enforcement enough.

His… pic.twitter.com/SzyjZk1NsG

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 10, 2026

Moldova has remained another classic case of a small Eastern European country and former Soviet republic which has been at the center of a pro-EU vs. Russian interests tug-of-war. Durov has continued to slam the whole case against him as a "legal absurdity."

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 14:35

When Uncle Sam Turns Venture Capitalist, What Could Go Wrong?

Authored by James Varney via RealClearInvestigations,

The battery recycler Ascend Elements was riding high in 2023, flush with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.

The seed money provided to the Massachusetts company, which launched in 2017, was one of several large bets the Biden administration placed on the green future as it essentially created a venture capital arm at the Department of Energy and other agencies. In the movies, VCs almost always score big through their early investments in future behemoths (e.g., PayPal or Meta when it was Facebook). In real life, those jackpots are the exception, not the rule - many of the deals go south.

Alas, Washington isn't Hollywood, and the government isn't spending celluloid dollars. In April, Ascend Elements filed for bankruptcy, leaving U.S. taxpayers out nearly $320 million.

Government funding of private companies is receiving new scrutiny as the Trump administration is upping the ante on such efforts by demanding that the feds receive an equity stake for their largesse. While this approach is leading the government into uncharted waters, experts say the operative concept - using taxpayer money to make risky bets on private companies - has a long and troubled history. The bankruptcy of Solyndra, a maker of niche solar panels the Obama administration had given $535 million in 2009, became shorthand for the problems that occur when government tries to pick winners and losers in the marketplace.

"It generally doesn't work," said Steven Neil Kaplan, a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Chicago's Booth business school. "There are three problems with it, namely that the government doesn't usually have the best information; two, it's going to be political; and three, the incentives aren't in place to pay for performance."

It is still too early to assess the Trump administration's investments in private corporations, but the hundreds of billions of dollars shoveled out the door by the Biden administration through the Investment Infrastructure and Jobs Act provide some insight into the challenges the government faces when it turns into a venture capitalist. RealClearInvestigations' review of one sliver of that spending - $1.68 billion in grants awarded in 2023 under the umbrella of "Energy, Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Energy Programs, Energy" - demonstrates how difficult it can be to follow the money and assess the impact when taxpayer funds are doled out to private corporations.

Foreign Assets

The grants reviewed by RCI all went to companies involved in the electric vehicle battery market, either in terms of making the batteries themselves or generating the various elements that comprise an EV battery. Unlike the billions doled out by Biden's EPA through its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund - which made the regulatory agency a large grant maker for the first time - these Energy Department deals went to existing for-profit companies rather than startups or newly formed nonprofit organizations. RCI's analysis of the DOE grants did not find any of the glaring political connections it uncovered in the EPA disbursements.

Ascend Elements marked the biggest taxpayer bet within that package, but there were several others of $100 million or more, according to the Treasury Department's usaspending.gov. The grants represent venture capital-like moves by the Biden administration to jumpstart and expand renewable energy initiatives in the name of fighting global warming.

Although taxpayer money is presumably spent in accordance with the government's enumerated duties and to benefit Americans, some of the large grants went to companies that are enjoying more support abroad than at home.

For example, Synesqo Specialty Polymers USA, a branch of a Belgian company traded on European exchanges, received $178.2 million. Mike Finelli, Syensqo's chief technology and innovation officer, highlighted the company's moves in Europe rather than the U.S. in his response to RCI.

"Syensqo has recently launched a new company in Europe to help scale up commercial demonstration of advanced materials for solid-state batteries in Europe," he said. "In the U.S., although the policy and cost environment is supportive, market growth is evolving at a measured pace. ... Importantly, the U.S. Department of Energy grant awarded in 2023 remains active, with discussions ongoing, and we continue to serve the market from our existing production in France."

Similarly, $100 million went to Group 14, a private company in Washington state that is "building the world's largest factory for advanced silicon battery material."

The company, which says it has raised roughly $1 billion for the Washington facility it hopes to open this year, acquired an ownership stake in a South Korea factory last year.

Group 14 did respond to a request for comment.

Critics of directing government funds to private companies say it can also be difficult to assess the impact of the grants - and how the money was spent - because corporations are not obligated to answer the public's questions about their businesses. While the taxpayers may have provided a substantial chunk of these companies' financing, they are responsible to their shareholders, not taxpayers.

The "Market Test"

Walter Block, an economist on the faculty of Loyola University in New Orleans, said the Energy Department's 2023 grants also raised related questions about whether taxpayers are bankrolling companies that have not yet passed "the market test."

"The government shouldn't be involved in any of that," said Block, a proponent of the Austrian school of economics, which prioritizes free-market principles. "Taxpayers have a right to ask how and why these things were done if the company isn't viable in the market."

Final grades on some of the outstanding grants can be difficult to judge when, as is the case with several of these grants, the recipients are private companies. Synesqo, however, is traded on European markets. When it received a large injection of federal cash in 2023, its stock traded near $95 per share, but its value has since declined by nearly 30%.

And to Kaplan's point about who is making the grant decisions, that remains a mystery. Although Energy Secretary Chris Wright has trumpeted the cancellation of various Biden-era deals, the department did not respond to RCI's multiple requests for comment. Synesqo was the only company to respond to questions.

The hope that the government, with its vast resources, can goose innovation is not new. The U.S. government's longstanding support for basic research has led to many medical and technological breakthroughs, including radar and the Internet.

Many of those achievements, however, have come through more traditional grants to America's great research universities, and a separate batch of such grants was also part of Biden's green energy spending. Governments at all levels have also sought to spur business development and innovation by offering tax incentives, though usually with mixed results.

Venture capital, essentially seed money, is different and unlike more familiar government contracts, such as those for defense contracts or highways and roads. Those arrangements carry their own ethical temptations, ranging from pay-to-play schemes to overt political support, that have made politics infamous, from Tammany Hall to modern-day Chicago or Louisiana. It is those sorts of alleged insider deals that were leveled against the Biden family and now against President Trump and his offspring.

Necessary Investments

Still, not everyone is opposed to the government making admittedly risky bets. Some consulting companies actually pitch businesses on considering federal sources for venture capital.

Fred Block, a sociology professor at the University of California, Davis, whose work has been applied to venture capital models, notes that some level of success has been achieved by the Small Business Administration's Small Business Innovation Research Program.

In addition, a 2006 study by Block and some colleagues on 100 "winners" picked by the trade publication Research & Development showed that at some point in their development, federal money had assisted 88 of them.

"The key point is the necessity of government involvement with cutting-edge projects," Block told RCI. He noted how private research entities like RCA's once-fabled Sarnoff Corporation are no longer around.

"You have to have collaboration between different kinds of specialists and no private company can afford to have all those people on staff," he said.

Kaplan had also cited the SBA loans as a case where government venture money often bears fruit, but those are much smaller investments and must adhere to strict guidelines. And unlike the Energy Department grants under Biden or some of the moves made by the Trump administration, SBA decisions are made by teams of professionals rather than an anonymous federal apparatus. Again, the issue comes back to the quality of information available and who makes the calls.

"They've developed the expertise," UC Davis's Block said. "Now that appears to be gone. Who knows who or how decisions are being made now? Maybe Trump makes them in the middle of the night."

Big Money for Recipients

While none of the individual deals stand out in terms of the federal government's enormous spending, they often represent big money for individual recipients: The $82 million that went to Cirba Solutions, a battery recycling outfit in Charlotte, N.C., for instance, amounted to nearly twice the company's estimated annual revenue of $39.5 million.

That sort of proportion also shows how these Department of Energy grants are different from similar big economic moves Washington has made, such as propping up the savings and loan and auto industries, or trying to keep markets solvent.

Critics of both the gigantic spending on green energy specifically, and the effort to wrench the American economy away from the fossil fuels that power most of it, warned that more Solyndras are possible.

"What's the point of Congress authorizing billions of spending with almost no oversight?" asked Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power The Future, a conservative group concentrating on rural power. "Of course we should be concerned about what might happen. It's absurd to have funneled so much money to green technology companies without market approval."

Yet even in proven markets, the risks inherent in the government taking huge stakes in companies are problematic.

"When there's so much money involved, are there conditions?" asked Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, which does not accept government donations. "There's something very pernicious, very suspect about the idea of the government being venture capitalists, and there's so much more at stake when it's taxpayer dollars involved."

There is also the possibility that a company backed by federal money makes it big, in which case new questions arise about equity, how the government may define success as venture capitalists, and whether the government may try to become an active investor, looking to influence personnel and other decisions at the company. Those factors are on top of the hoary conflicts of interest that have long bedeviled government moves.

Those questions are likely to multiply in the coming years as both parties seem more open to the government owning stock in private companies. The Trump administration has already received billions of dollars in equity stakes for money funneled to private companies (mostly tied to national security), and Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that could give the U.S. a 50% ownership of the largest AI companies. Neither the Trump administration nor Sanders' office responded to requests for comment.

Kaplan outlined some steps the government could take to improve the process, such as only backing companies that have already passed "the market test" or shown an ability to raise significant capital. Even then, however, the same terms should attach to a government grant that do to the private investments, and thus the entire practice is problematic and best avoided, he said.

"It's just rife with conflict and bad information," Kaplan told RCI. "For a private investor, if you're negative, you go out of business. But if it's the government and it goes negative, they raise your taxes."

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 14:15

Federal Judge Orders DHS Not To Obey Order From Another Judge

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge on July 8 said the Trump administration must not comply with an order from another federal judge and must continue to have key functions of an immigration database disabled.

The Department of Homeland Security building in Washington on March 25, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies shall keep disabled the ability to look up Social Security numbers and carry out mass uploads in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.

Sooknanan ordered the Trump administration in June to disable the features, finding that recent updates to the database violated privacy laws by disclosing Americans' Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

Sooknanan said on July 8 that arguments from the government in favor of pausing her previous order were unpersuasive, including the argument that highlighted a July 7 ruling from Judge T. Kent Wetherell II of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida that ordered DHS to enable the functions for four states under a 2025 settlement that he had approved.

Wetherell had noted that he could have waited until the case in Washington proceeded, but that the four states had presented "unrebutted evidence showing that they are suffering real and concrete harm every day that passes without the disabled features of the SAVE system."

He said that Sooknanan could have deferred to his previous determination that the functions were lawful, which was reached, he said, in part because the Social Security Act does not preclude disclosing Social Security numbers for immigration enforcement.

Sooknanan disagreed, describing Wetherell as having "erred in significant ways," including by reaching a decision on the merits in the case without opinions from parties outside the federal and state governments that oppose the governments' position.

Sooknanan said that settlements may warrant reexamination and that she acted properly by enjoining DHS from allowing officials to use the new features introduced in 2025 despite the existence of the settlement.

Even if Wetherell's ruling ends up holding, the settlement is only with DHS, not the Social Security Administration (SSA), and only with four states, the judge wrote, so it would not prompt a stay of her earlier order with respect to the other 46 states.

DHS, which had declined to comment on Wetherell's decision, did not return a request for comment on Sooknanan's ruling by the time of publication.

The four states have not reacted to the competing rulings.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of Women Voters, the plaintiffs in the case overseen by Sooknanan, asked Wetherell this week to allow them to intervene in the case involving the states, citing the contradictory orders and their interest in the situation. He has not yet ruled on the motion.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 13:25

Three Reasons Gas Prices Are Likely To Remain Elevated

The US national average for regular 87-octane gasoline remained uncomfortably above the politically sensitive $4-per-gallon threshold for roughly two and a half months. That stretch pressured lower-income consumers, forcing many to trade down or cut discretionary spending while weighing on broader consumer sentiment. The key question now is whether pump prices have further room to fall or whether current levels will become the new normal this summer.

Answering that question is Goldman's leading commodity expert Daan Struyven, who penned a note on Thursday explaining the three forces keeping pump prices high:

Reason #1: Tight Refining Fundamentals

Exhibit 4: The Global Refining Utilization Rate Was Near Historical Highs Before the Hormuz Shock

Exhibit 5: Refined Oil Products Stocks Are Low

Reason #2: Ongoing Refined Products Supply Shocks

Exhibit 6: Combined Refinery Outages in Russia and the Middle East Are 4.6mb/d Above Their Seasonal Normss

Reason #3: Asymmetric Passthrough

Exhibit 7: Firms Look Much More Likely to Report Selling Price Increases After Energy Prices Rise—Such as in 2021 and 2022—Than Report Selling Price Decreases When Energy Prices Fall—Like in 2023 and 2024

Struyven's three reasons suggest that the recent declines in the national average prices of gasoline, diesel, and other refined fuels may prove limited.

Professional subscribers can read more on energy markets and Gulf/Hormuz at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 13:05

World's First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Set For Launch Aboard SpaceX Rocket

Authored by Mrigakshi Dixit via Interesting Engineering,

Miami-based City Labs is all set to launch the world's first commercial nuclear-powered satellite into orbit.

NanoTritium battery Citi Labs

Solar panels have some challenges. When a satellite slips into the shadow of the Earth, hits a permanently dark lunar crater, or drifts into deep space, its solar arrays become useless. Batteries can step in, but they eventually die.

City Labs thinks nuclear energy could solve this persistent problem. On July 7, the company announced that its BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) satellite had secured a launch slot on a SpaceX Transporter-17 rideshare mission.

According to reports, SpaceX has scheduled the launch of its Transporter-17 rideshare mission for Tuesday, July 7, at 3:10 a.m. ET. The launch will mark a massive historic milestone. BOHR will be the first-ever nuclear CubeSat to enter orbit.

"This is a historic step for commercial nuclear power in space," said Peter Cabauy, CEO of City Labs. "BOHR demonstrates that safe, compact, and regulatory-approved nuclear power systems are ready for routine commercial deployment. This capability enables persistent, always-on payload operations that are not constrained by sunlight or battery life."

Secures FAA approval

Engineered for safe handling, transportation, and integration into standard commercial launch environments, City Labs' tritium-based power systems operate at extremely low radiation levels.

BOHR's core technology is City Labs' proprietary NanoTritium™ betavoltaic system, which generates continuous power from the natural beta decay of tritium rather than nuclear fission.

Compared to space-bound nuclear reactors, betavoltaic cells operate with no moving parts, no liquid electrolytes, and zero risk of fire or thermal runaway. Furthermore, as the tritium fuel naturally decays, it harmlessly transforms into helium-3, a completely stable and non-radioactive isotope.

This process operates at safe, ultra-low radiation levels suitable for standard commercial handling. In this mission, the nuclear battery will run and validate the primary payload independently, while a solar power system manages the main satellite bus operations.

Getting a nuclear payload onto a commercial rocket isn't easy.

In fact, it requires cutting through some of the toughest regulatory red tape on Earth. BOHR represents the first commercial space mission to successfully navigate the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pathway for nuclear launch approval, a framework established under National Security Presidential Memorandum-20. The safety analysis was led by City Labs' Kevin Makinson and independently validated by Sandia National Laboratories.

The FAA issued its definitive payload authorization on September 30, 2025.

Advancing space exploration

Backed by the Department of War, NASA, and the Air Force Research Laboratory, the mission arrives at a key time for space exploration.

NASA's Artemis program aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon. Therefore, the demand for continuous, light-independent power sources is skyrocketing. It could position this satellite as a pathfinder for future deep-space operations.

"This milestone establishes a new class of spacecraft capabilities, enabling persistent operation of critical subsystems where traditional power systems fall short. This includes deep space, permanently shadowed lunar regions, and long-duration autonomous sensor networks," the company stated in the press release.

As a result, the BOHR mission will serve as a vital pathfinder for future nuclear-powered spacecraft supporting both civil and national security operations. When SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifts off, it will be launching the next era of nuclear-powered space exploration.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 12:45

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Illinois Ban On 'Assault Weapons'

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal appeals court on July 9 upheld Illinois’s ban on the sale and possession of “assault weapons” and large capacity magazines, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked enforcement of the law.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law in January 2023 after a gunman killed seven people in a 2022 shooting during an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago. A federal judge overturned the law in 2024, finding it violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but the injunction was later stayed after the state appealed.

In a 2–1 decision on July 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit concluded that the state’s ban is “consistent with the principles that underpin our nation’s tradition of firearm regulation.”

“In short, legislatures have long imposed restrictions on particularly dangerous weapons, and the Act is but another chapter in that story,” the order stated.

The appeals court said that semiautomatic rifles are rarely used for self-defense, citing an analysis that found handguns accounted for the majority of defensive gun uses.

Circuit Judge Michael Brennan dissented, saying the Illinois law contradicts the nation’s regulatory traditions that “forbid governments from prohibiting firearms commonly owned for self-defense.”

“Because the people have overwhelmingly chosen the AR-15 rifle and its magazine as their weapon of choice, they are protected by the Second Amendment,” the judge stated.

In a social media post, Pritzker called the ruling “a victory in the fight to end gun violence.” The governor said the state will continue enforcing its ban on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a plaintiff in the case, said the appeals court erred in its ruling on modern sporting rifles (MSRs) and planned to seek the Supreme Court’s review.

“There are more than 32 million MSRs in circulation today, making these semiautomatic, centerfire rifles commonly owned and commonly used by nearly every standard,” the firearms industry trade association said in a statement.

“Likewise, there are hundreds of millions of standard-capacity magazines owned by law-abiding Americans in the United States.”

The Protect Illinois Communities Act criminalizes the sale and purchase of certain types of semiautomatic rifles and large capacity of ammunition.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement that the weapons ban was intended to protect public safety.

“This is a win that enhances public safety in Illinois,” he said. “We have seen the damage that assault weapons and large-capacity magazines can inflict, and these weapons of war have no place in our communities.”

The Supreme Court said last month that it will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called “assault weapons,” violate the Second Amendment.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 12:05

SK Hynix ADRs Open At $170, Tapping Wall Street Liquidity To Fuel Korea's AI Memory Boom

Summary:

• SK Hynix's ADR Open at $170
• SK Hynix Chairman Tells Bloomberg "Demand Will Be Exponentially Growing In Future" 
• SK Hynix's ADRs Set to Open $175 
• SK Hynix's ADRs Set to Open at $181, 22% Premium Above $149 Offering Price 
• SK Hynix ADRs Priced At 3% Premium As Wall Street Readies Wave Of Leveraged ETFs

SK Hynix's ADR Open at $170 

Shortly after SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won appeared on Bloomberg to promote the listing, the memory-chip giant's ADRs finally began trading at $170 per share, up 14% from the $149 offering price.

SK Hynix's ADRs Set For $175 Opening; Chairman Chey Tae-won Comments On BBG

SK Hynix's ADRs are now indicated to open at $175, about 17% above their $149 offering price.

SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won told Bloomberg's Edward Ludlow earlier that "Demand will be exponentially growing in the future."

"That actually requires a better return," Chey said, adding, "Once we have a better return, then there's more demand. The first thing we have to do is keep the stock price stable, and then hopefully in the long run we can have the upside potential."

Separately on Wall Street, Thornburg Investment Management analyst Di Zhou noted, "We are currently in this memory super cycle. Fundamentals are very strong and SK Hynix is one of the highest quality pure-play memory players globally."

SK Hynix's ADRs Set to Open At Premium

SK Hynix's ADRs, trading under the temporary ticker SKHYV, are indicated to open at $181 per share, 22% above their $149 offering price. The strong opening suggests robust investor demand for the world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory.

As noted earlier, SK Hynix sold 177.9 million ADRs at $149 per share, raising roughly $26.5 billion. Each receipt represents one-tenth of a Seoul-listed common share.

The temporary trading symbol SKHYV will switch to SKHY when regular-way trading begins next Monday.

Roth Capital Partners' sales trading team asked:

One may ask how investors, looking back in two years, will come to view the timing and meaning of SK Hynix’s U.S. offering?

SK Hynix ADRs Priced At 3% Premium As Wall Street Readies Wave Of Leveraged ETFs

The next test of the AI trade arrives today, as South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix's American depositary receipts begin trading under the temporary ticker SKHYV.

Shares were priced at about a 3% premium to Thursday's close of its ordinary shares in South Korea. The $26.5 billion offering attracted demand for roughly seven times the shares available, forcing the chipmaker to scale back allocations to major investors, according to Bloomberg.

The company sold 177.9 million ADRs at $149 each, raising $26.5 billion, surpassing Alibaba's US debut to become the third-largest listing in history. Each ADR represents one-tenth of a Seoul-listed common share, giving US investors direct exposure to the world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory amid the AI boom that could soon unlock the Physical AI boom.

According to the report, Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners received about $5 billion of ADRs, roughly $2 billion less than indicated. Over 500 institutional investors placed orders, including long-only funds, technology specialists, and sovereign wealth funds. The allocation remained concentrated, with 10 investors taking half the deal and the top 25 accounting for about two-thirds.

Wall Street analysts weighed in with their first takes of the deal, courtesy of Bloomberg:

Jung In Yun, CEO at Fibonacci Asset Management

• "I take 3% premium as a constructive signal. It shows that global investors are still willing to pay up for direct US access despite the recent volatility in Korean equities"
• From the company's and banks' perspective, the level looks sensible; it is strong enough to demonstrate demand, but not so aggressive that it creates unnecessary aftermarket risk
• In the current market, a clean, stable debut matters more than squeezing out the last few percentage points of valuation

Sanghyun Park, founder of Clepsydra Capital

• It shows global funds accept paying up to bypass local index and currency friction and direct exposure to the company's HBM dominance
• The banks capitalized on the limit to conversion that prevents arb traders from instantly erasing the spread on the first trading day
• This avoids the typical Korea Discount seen with legacy local names and points toward a TSMC-style scarcity model
• "Since 3% is just the primary floor and the float is so heavily choked, we could easily see the premium gap much higher once US trading opens on Friday"

Travis Lundy, an independent special situations analyst who publishes on Smartkarma

• "To me that is not that much of a premium. Eminently reasonable given the current swap rates on owning SK Hynix" local shares
• The 3% premium to Thursday's close is actually a discounted price to Wednesday's close and every other close for the past few weeks when investor demand was "multiple times" the offering size
• There is an interesting dynamic whereby if the headroom expands, it will take pressure off the banks to fund local into swaps, which should reduce the swap rate, which should in turn reduce the ADR premium slightly

Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone Group

• "The 3% premium tells you the roadshow demand was strong enough to price above Thursday's Korean close — and that's the first concrete evidence that the accessibility premium is real"
• The real test will be the first two weeks of trading before upcoming earnings; if the ADR consistently trades above the Korean share dollar equivalent, it confirms US investors are willing to pay a premium for accessibility — and that should pull the Korean shares higher
• The ADRs could be included in the Nasdaq 100 in December; once that inclusion happens, passive fund inflows from vehicles like the Invesco QQQ become a mechanical buying force

Francis Oh, head of Asia business development at Rex Financial, which provides exchange-traded products

• "The current 3% premium should not be over-interpreted at this early stage"
• "TSMC's 18% premium reflects structural friction that accumulated over years, not a level established immediately post-listing; any meaningful convergence or divergence for SKHY toward comparable levels is more likely to unfold as a gradual"

SK Hynix's ADR offering comes weeks after SpaceX tapped the public markets in the largest initial public offering in history, while Alphabet is raising $85 billion to fund its AI buildout. Traders are betting heavily that AI-related demand is a secular growth story for memory stocks, which have historically been viewed as more cyclical.

Bloomberg expects that the US debut of SK Hynix will unlock a new "wave of leverage ETFs" tied to the chipmaker's American depositary receipts. It expects ProShares, Leverage Shares and Rex Shares are some of the fism planning to products taht offer 2x daily returns on the memory chip giant.

Bloomberg Intelligence noted:

A fresh pool of leveraged US-listed ETPs would mean the daily rebalancing flows would grow larger, potentially fueling already heightened volatility. The size of the leveraged products also made it difficult to meet the promise of delivering twice daily returns, creating a tracking gap.

The key question is whether SK Hynix's blockbuster ADR offering can juice memory stocks again, especially after our note earlier this week, "South Korea Falls Into Bear Market As Memory Euphoria Fizzles."

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 11:55

Watch: New Video Shows McConnell Wheeled Out On Stretcher After June Cardiac Emergency At D.C. Home

New video shows emergency responders loading Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) onto a stretcher and into an ambulance outside his Capitol Hill residence on the morning of June 14, the same day the longtime Senate Republican leader was hospitalized.

The neighbor-recorded footage, first published Friday by CNN, depicts emergency vehicles - including multiple ambulances and a fire truck - clogging the street near McConnell's home as first responders wheel a person identified by witnesses as the 84-year-old senator toward an ambulance. The individual's face is not clearly visible in the video, but their lower legs and feet were seen under an orange blanket.

BREAKING BOMBSHELL

New audio and video have been leaked showing Sen. Mitch McConnell being loaded by stretcher into an ambulance when transported to the hospital - EMS recordings conform they found an unknown person who was "unconscious" due to "cardiac arrest," with "CPR in… pic.twitter.com/F5Aug8pmg8

— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) July 10, 2026 Dispatch Audio Cited Cardiac Arrest And CPR

The video adds new weight to emergency dispatch audio previously obtained by an independent journalist and reported by CNN. In that recording, responders were dispatched to McConnell's known address for an "unconscious" person experiencing a "cardiac arrest," with a paramedic heard saying "CPR in progress."

A neighbor who spoke with CNN said officers described it only as a "medical emergency" at the time but confirmed through another eyewitness that the person on the stretcher was McConnell. No sirens were used as the ambulance left the scene.

Prolonged Hospitalization Raises Questions

McConnell has remained hospitalized for nearly a month. His office has released only terse updates saying he is "receiving excellent care" and "continues his recovery," with few specifics on his condition or prognosis. The opacity has fueled rampant speculation in Washington political circles and on social media.

Some Republican allies, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and commentator Scott Jennings, have said they've spoken with McConnell recently and described his voice as strong. Still, the lack of detailed medical disclosures stands in contrast to the public nature of the emergency response now coming into view. Others mocked it as covering up for 'weekend at Mitch's.'

I spoke to McConnell for about 20 minutes this morning.

He said we should end the war with Iran, quit giving aid to Israel, stop spying on Americans without a warrant, and he’s really sorry about how my primary turned out.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 7, 2026

The incident marks the latest health scare for McConnell, who has a well-documented history of falls, concussions and other episodes. As a towering figure in Senate Republican politics for decades, his extended absence continues to ripple through the chamber and the broader party.

BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Mitch McConnell appearing to have another scary episode in the media gaggle in Covington today. Aides had to step in to help him out and repeat questions. He was eventually lead away. We'll have the full video on @WLWT pic.twitter.com/q9ex5MHxLV

— Hannah Thomas (@HannahPThomas) August 30, 2023

McConnell's office declined to comment on the new video or audio.

This story is developing.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 11:45

RFK Jr. Plans To Create A List Of Injuries Caused By COVID-19 Vaccines

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Health officials are proposing a plan to clarify which COVID-19 vaccine side effects would be eligible for government financial compensation, according to a new notice.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Minneapolis on May 21, 2026. David Berding/Getty Images

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and one of its divisions said in a description of a proposed rule released on July 1 that they plan to establish an injury table for COVID-19 vaccines through the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).

"The Table will list and explain injuries that, based on compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence, are presumed to be caused by covered COVID-19 countermeasures, and set forth the time periods in which the onset of these injuries must occur after the administration or use of these covered COVID-19 countermeasures," a summary of the rule, which has not been made public, stated.

COVID-19 vaccines fall under the CICP because previous health secretaries declared and extended emergency declarations for COVID-19, which opened up the option of emergency clearance of vaccines and other countermeasures under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who just announced that he was ending the emergency declaration, is authorized under the declarations to provide benefits to people injured by the vaccines under the act, HHS officials noted in the proposal summary.

"Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, HHS is restoring transparency and accountability because the American people deserve clear, evidence-based information about both the benefits and the known risks associated with medical countermeasures," an HHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The spokesperson said that more information will be available when the notice is published in the Federal Register.

Aaron Siri, Kennedy's former lawyer, wrote to Kennedy in 2025, urging him to create a COVID-19 vaccine-injury table. He pointed to the readiness and preparedness law, which states that the health secretary "shall by regulation establish a table identifying covered injuries that shall be presumed to be directly caused by the administration or use of a covered countermeasure."

An injury table would help people injured by vaccines apply successfully to the congressionally created program, which requires "compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence" that an injury was a direct result of a countermeasure, Siri wrote on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, which advocates for government transparency and change.

"A well-constructed injury table is needed for the CICP," Richard Hughes IV, a former Moderna executive who is representing health groups in litigation against the administration that has halted some of its changes to vaccine guidance, told The Epoch Times in an email. "The real question is whether this administration would promulgate such a table or weaponize it to further platform misinformation."

Dr. Joel Wallskog, who suffered the neurological disorder transverse myelitis and other issues from COVID-19 vaccination and has sued the government over the CICP, told The Epoch Times in an email that the HHS proposal "is more appearance than substance."

"It appears to do little more than streamline the process for the relatively small number of individuals whose injuries - primarily anaphylaxis and myocarditis/pericarditis - are already recognized under the current system," added Wallskog, also the co-chair of the React19 nonprofit, which offers support to people injured by COVID-19 vaccines. "For everyone else who has been denied, nothing changes."

Erica Samp, who says she was injured by a COVID-19 vaccine, said in a post on X that she supported the plan but that she's watching to see what details are included, including the covered injuries.

The CICP is both administered and adjudicated by HHS officials. It has compensated some people who have said COVID-19 vaccination caused health issues, but rejected others, including people such as Wallskog, whom doctors diagnosed as being injured by COVID-19 vaccines, The Epoch Times previously reported.

The CICP has, through June, compensated 60 COVID-19 vaccine injury claims, nearly all for myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. The average compensation has been $4,000, aside from a few large payments, and about 99 percent of applications have been rejected.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said in 2024 that COVID-19 vaccines definitely cause myocarditis and shoulder injuries, but that other possible harms could not be conclusively linked to the shots.

Some outside organizations, such as React19, have said that the available evidence supports a link between the vaccines and additional problems.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 11:25

Mitsubishi Motors Joins Physical AI Race With Humanoid Robot Production Deal

Mitsubishi Motors shares surged as much as 17% in Tokyo on Friday after the automaker unveiled a deal with the University of Tokyo startup Highlanders to mass-produce humanoid robots, signaling a push beyond its core automotive business and reinforcing a broader trend we have highlighted that could sweep across the global auto industry.

Highlanders signed an MOU with Mitsubishi Motors to develop humanoid robots for automotive factories and mass production at Mitsubishi's Kyoto plant as early as 2027. Early production runs could amount to 1,000 per month. 

The Japanese automaker plans to test the humanoids in its own facilities to address labor shortages and increasingly complex manufacturing, using operational data to guide a broader rollout. Mitsubishi has already invested in Highlanders.

Citi analyst Arifumi Yoshida wrote in his first take that the partnership between Mitsubishi Motors and Highlanders is "positive" for the automaker's stock, as it signals a push into physical AI:

After the July 9 market close, Mitsubishi Motors announced an MOU with Short-Term View: Upside Highlanders, a University of Tokyo startup, for the mass production of Price (09 Jul 26 15:30) ¥330.6 humanoid robots at its Kyoto plant. Production will begin in early 2027, Target price ¥420.0 with monthly production capacity of c1,000 units prepared. Highlanders will handle development and sales, while Mitsubishi Motors will leverage Expected share price return 27.0% its automotive production expertise in quality and other areas to provide Expected dividend yield 3.0% production and development support. Mitsubishi Motors has invested in Expected total return 30.1% Highlanders and is considering additional investment. The company plans Market Cap ¥442,459M to utilize the robots in Mitsubishi Motors factories while marketing them US$2,742M as Japan-originated physical AI products to diverse industries domestically and internationally. Multiple inquiries have already been received. We believe the stock market will welcome this initiative to expand its automotive business expertise into physical AI, which has also been earmarked as a national priority.

Mitsubishi Motors shares in Tokyo closed up 10% on Friday but remain at 2022 lows.

In recent weeks, Bernstein analyst Eunice Lee pointed out, "OEMs are entering humanoid robotics to boost productivity and unlock new revenue streams." Read the note here.

Lee noted, "Automakers have several advantages across hardware, software, and scale. There is significant overlap between vehicle and humanoid components—motors, reducers, sensors —as well as manufacturing."

It appears that Mitsubishi Motors is following other automakers, including Tesla and several Chinese companies, in making a big push into humanoid robotics development and mass production. EVs and humanoid robots share similar component ecosystems, manufacturing processes, and supply chains, giving automakers a potential advantage in scaling up production.

Here is a complete overview of the automakers developing humanoid robots:

Humanoid production ramps globally begin next year. Read report.

Does this suggest that legacy US automakers will eventually partner with humanoid robotics firms? What about Rivian and Lucid? The race for physical AI is underway.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 11:05

UAE Oil Output Hits All-Time High, Doubling Pre-Crisis Levels

Confirming reports from earlier this week, the latest estimates from the International Energy Agency signaled that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which unexpectedly quit OPEC earlier this year in a shock move that threatened the cohesion of OPEC, produced 4.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in June, its highest output ever.

The UAE’s crude oil production jumped from 3.3 million bpd in May to 4.1 million bpd in June after the country left OPEC effective May 1, started raising output, and managed to sneak a lot of exports out of the Middle East even as the Strait of Hormuz was mostly blockaded for the first half of June.

The crude oil production in June, at 4.1 million bpd, was the highest ever on record for the UAE, nearly double the output in March 2026 at the start of the Hormuz crisis. The production level also topped the previous record of 4 million bpd from the spring of 2020 when the OPEC+ producers were fighting for market share in a brief price war during peak Covid, according to OilPrice.com

The UAE has sought to adapt to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by sneaking tankers in dark mode through the Strait and increasingly offering to sell many of its crude grades for loading offshore Fujairah and at Sohar in Oman, outside the Strait.

Moreover, the Abu Dhabi national oil company ADNOC accelerated plans to have a new pipeline operational in 2027 that would double its oil export capacity through Fujairah, which sits outside the Strait of Hormuz.

ADNOC plans to build a new project, the West-East 1 Pipeline, which is expected to become operational next year and double the UAE’s energy giant’s export capacity through the Emirate of Fujairah to meet global demand for energy supplies.

The national oil company also plans to plans to award as much as $55 billion (200 billion UAE dirhams) on upstream and downstream projects over the next two years. The announcement of accelerated growth came days after the UAE said it would quit OPEC effective May 1 to pursue its national interests.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 11:03