Germany Says Russia Using 'Disposable Agents' To Conduct Sabotage

The German government has launched a public campaign warning about Russian attempts to recruit so-called "disposable agents" through social media for espionage and sabotage, AFP reports.

The accusation comes after years of a shadow war which has involved apparent tit-for-tat sabotage attacks and assassinations both in Europe and in Russia. Mystery fires have erupted, for example, in defense sector manufacturing plants on the European continent and in the UK. Also, similar potential sabotage events have been observed inside Russia. Many observers see it as a behind the scenes 'dirty war' which parallels the Ukraine conflict.

German police and intelligence services allege these operations often involve untrained individuals committing acts like arson, property damage, or photographing or monitoring sensitive installations.

People are at first unwittingly recruited through online forums and popular social media sites, and as conversations proceed, targeted individuals are offered sums of money in return for carrying out criminal acts.

According to AFP's reporting on the fresh statements from Berlin authorities:

The campaign warns that suspected Russian spies aim "to destabilize Germany with the help of people in Germany".

"This gives them a decisive advantage: they don't have to 'get their hands dirty' themselves."

Chief of Germany's BND foreign spy agency Bruno Kahl, warned this week, "Sabotage, espionage and propaganda activities carried out by foreign intelligence services deliberately undermine the stability of free societies."

"They are an attack on our democracy through deception, intimidation and subversion," he added. The Czech Republic has reportedly issued a similar public alert.

Telegram is one specific platform named by European authorities as being used by Russian intelligence to recruit unwitting actors. Interestingly, it was of course Telegram which lately came under suspicion and a far-reaching crackdown by French authorities, especially during last year's Pavel Durov arrest saga.

Just this summer, 'Russian saboteurs' were alleged to be behind a suspected arson attack at a Bundeswehr facility in Erfurt, Germany - which destroyed half a dozen large military trucks. NATO and the Ukrainians have been suspected of doing their own dirty war sabotage operations inside Russia as well.

German authorities also just days ago charged that Russian intelligence has been utilizing small drones in order to monitor weapons shipments routes in German border states.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/03/2025 - 06:55

Google's Android Lockdown: Are You Really In Control Of Your Phone?

Authored by Juan Galt via BitcoinMagazine.com,

Android’s new rule requires all app developers to submit personal information to Google, even for apps outside the Play Store. Critics argue this threatens user freedom and ignores solutions...

Android, Google’s mobile operating system, announced on August 25 that it will be requiring all app developers to verify their identity with the organization before their apps can run on “certified android devices.”

While this might sound like a common-sense policy by Google, this new standard is not just going to be applied to apps downloaded from Google Play store, but all apps, even those “side-loaded” — installed directly into devices by side-stepping the Google Play store. Apps of the sort can be found online in Github repositories or on project websites and installed on Android devices directly by downloading the installation files (known as APKs). 

What this means is that, if there is an application that Google does not like, be it because it does not conform to its policies, politics or economic incentives, they can simply keep you from running that application on your own device. They are locking down Android devices from running applications not with their purview. The ask? All developers, whether submitting their apps through the Play store or not, need to give their personal information to Google. 

The decision begs the question, if you can not run whatever app you want on your device without the permission of Google, then is it really your device? How would you respond if Windows decided you could only install programs from the Microsoft app store?

The move has of course made news in tech and cybersecurity media and caused quite a stir as it has profound consequences for the free and open web. For years, Android has been touted as an open source operating system, and through this strategy has gained massive distribution throughout the world with users in developing countries where Apple’s “walled garden” model and luxury devices are not affordable.

This new policy will tighten up controls over applications and its developers, and threatens the freedom to run whatever software you like on your own device in a very subversive and legalistic way. Because of Google’s influence over the Android variety of phones, the consequences of this policy are likely to be felt by the majority of users and devices, throughout the world.

Android justifies the policy change with concerns about the cybersecurity of their users. Malicious apps side-loaded into devices have led to “over 50 times more malware,” Android claims in their announcement blog. As a measure of “accountability,” and with the council of various governments throughout the world, Android has decided to take a “balanced approach,” and the language couldn’t be more Orwellian. 

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”

– Benjamin Franklin

Put in simpler terms, Google is looking to collect the personal information of software developers, centralizing it in its data centers alongside that of all of its users, in order to “protect” users from hackers that Google can’t seem to stop today in the first place.

After all, if Google and Android could actually keep personal user data secure in the first place, this would not be a problem, right?

Google’s solution to user data leaks is to collect more user data, ironically enough, in this case the data of developers who use the Android platform. A remarkable leap of logic, lazy and fundamentally decadent, a sign that they’ve lost their edge and arguably truly forgotten their now scrubbed “don’t be evil” motto.

Information Wants To Be Free

The reality is that Google finds itself trapped by a dilemma set up by the nature of information and the digital age, to quote the 90s cypherpunk Steward Brand, “information almost wants to be free.”

Every hop that personal data — like your name, face, home address or social security number — makes throughout the internet is an opportunity for it to get copied and leaked. As your information moves from your phone, to a server in your city to another server in a Google datacenter, every hop increases the likelihood that your data gets hacked and ends up on the dark web for sale. A thorny problem when user data is the primary business model of a giant like Google who processes it and sells it to advertisers who, in turn, create targeted ads. 

We can measure the truth of Brand’s information principle by looking at two fascinating statistics, which not too many people seem to talk about, oddly enough. The first is the absurd amount of data hacks that have taken place in the last 20 years. For example, the Equifax Data Breach in 2017 affected 147 million Americans, and the National Public Data Breach of 2024 affected over 200 million Americans, leading to leaked data that included social security numbers, likely ending up for sale on the dark web.

While legendary hacks like that of the Office of Personal Management of the U.S. government, compromised a large number of the U.S. Government officials at the time, including everything from social security numbers to medical records.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that a majority of Americans have had their data hacked and leaked already, and there’s no easy way to reverse that. How does one change their face, medical history or social security number after all?

The second statistic, which no one seems to connect to the first, is the rise of identity theft and fraud in the United States. Did you know that in 2012, 24 billion dollars’ worth of identity theft were reported? Twice as much as all other forms of theft combined that same year. Business Insider reported at the time from Bureau of Justice statistics that “identity theft cost Americans $24.7 billion in 2012, losses for household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft totaled just $14 billion.” Eight years later that number doubled, costing Americans $56 billion in losses in 2020. Both of these trends continue to grow to this day. It may indeed already be too late for the old identity system, which we still rely so heavily on. 

Generative AI adds fuel to the fire, in some cases trained on leaked user data with examples of image models able to create high-quality images of humans holding fake IDs. As AI continues to improve, it is increasingly capable of fooling humans into thinking they are talking to another human as well, rather than a robot, creating new attack vectors for identity fraud and theft.

Nevertheless, Google insists that if we just collect a bit more personal user data, maybe then the problem will just go away. Convenient for a corporation whose main business model is the collection and sale of such data. Has any other corporation done more damage to civilian privacy than Google, by the way? (Facebook, I suppose.) 

In Cryptography We Trust

To be fair to the 2000s Web2 tech giants, the problem of secure identity in the digital age is not easy to solve. The legal structures of our societies around identity were created long before the internet emerged and moved all that data to the cloud. The only real solution to this problem now is actually cryptography, and its application to the trust that humans build in their relationships in the real world, over time.

The 90s cypherpunks understood this, which is why they invented two important technologies, PGP and webs of trust. 

PGP

PGP invented in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann, pioneered the use of asymmetric cryptography to solve this fundamental problem of protecting user data privacy while also enabling secure user authentication, identification and secure communication.

How? It’s simple, actually, by using cryptography in a similar way as Bitcoin does today to secure over a trillion dollars of value. You have a secure “password” and keep it as secret as possible, you don’t share it with anybody, and your apps use it carefully to unlock services but the password never leaves your phone. We can do this, it works, there’s even custom-made hardware to lock down precisely this kind of information. The person or company you want to connect with also creates a secure “password,” and with that password we each generate a public address or digital pseudonymous ID. 

The company encrypts a message with their password and your public address and sends you a message. Well, thanks to the magic of cryptography, you can decrypt that message with your password and the company’s public address. That is all we need to secure the web. These public IDs do not have to reveal any information about you and you could have one for every brand or identity you have online. 

Webs Of Trust

But there is also the question of reputation: How do you know that the company you are trying to connect with is who they claim to be? In cybersecurity, this is called a man-in-the-middle attack, where a malicious third party impersonates who you actually wish to connect to. 

The way cypherpunks solved this problem in the 90s was by developing the concept of webs of trust, through real-world ceremonies called “signing parties.”

When we meet in person, we decide that we trust each other or affirm that we already know and trust each other enough to co-sign each other’s public IDs. We give each other a cryptographic vote of confidence — so to speak —  weighed by our brand or publicly known nym. This is similar to giving a follow to someone on a public forum like Twitter; it is the PGP equivalent to saying “I’ve met Bob, I recognize XYZ as his public ID, and I vouch that he is real.”

While this sounds tedious, antiquated and like it would never scale to the whole world, technology has advanced a great deal since the 90s; in fact this fundamental logic is how the internet is sort of secured today.

Remember that green lock that used to be displayed on every website? That was a PGP-like cryptographic handshake between your computer and the website you were visiting, signed off by some certificate authority or third party out on the internet. Those certificate authorities became centralized custodians of public trust and like many other institutions today probably need to be decentralized.

The same logic can be applied to the verification and authentication of APKs, by scaling up webs of trust. In fact, in the open source world, software hashed into a unique ID derived from the data of the software, and that hash is signed by developer PGP keys to this day. The software hashes, PGP public IDs and signatures are all published alongside software for people to review and verify. 

However if you don’t know whether the PGP public ID is authentic, then the signature is not useful, since it could have been created by an impersonator online. As users we need a link that authenticates that public ID belongs to the real-world developer of the app.

The good news is that this problem can probably be solved without having to create a global surveillance state giving all our data to the Googles of the world. 

For example, if I wanted to download an app from a developer in Eastern Europe, I likely won’t know him or be able to verify this public ID, but perhaps I know someone who vouched for someone who knows this developer. While I may be three or four hops away from this person, the likelihood that they are real suddenly goes up a lot. Faking three or four hops of connection in a web of trust is very expensive for mercenary hackers looking to score a quick win. 

Unfortunately, these technologies have not been adopted widely, beyond the high-tech paranoid world,  nor gotten as much funding as the data mining business model of most of the web. 

Modern Solutions

Some modern software projects recognize this logic and are working to solve the problems at hand, making it easy for users to leverage and scale cryptographic webs of trust. Zapstore.dev, for example, is building an alternative app store secured by cryptographic webs of trust using Bitcoin-compatible cryptography, the project is funded by OpenSats, a nonprofit that funds open source, Bitcoin-related software development.

Graphene, an Android operating system fork that’s become popular among cybersecurity enthusiasts, has also implemented an alternative app store that addresses many of these issues without having to DOX app developers, and serves as a high-security operating system, looking to solve many of the privacy and security issues in Android today.

Far-fetched as it may seem, cryptographic authentication of communication channels and digital identities is the only thing that can protect us from personal data hacks. Entropy and the security created from randomness via cryptography are the only things AI cannot fake. That same cryptography can help us authenticate ourselves in the digital age without having to share our personal data with every intermediary out there, if we use it right.

Whether this new policy by Android is sustained, or whether enough public outcry can stop it and better solutions do get popularized and adopted remains to be seen, but the truth of the matter is clear. There is a better way forward, we just have to see it and choose it.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/03/2025 - 06:30

Was Greta Thunberg A Globalist Propaganda Weapon

For years, globalists pushed "climate crisis" propaganda across Western countries, directly attacking the fossil-fuel industry in favor of unreliable "green" energy, while orchestrating a heist on the U.S. Treasury through climate legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act that plowed billions into dark money-funded NGOs.

There was a war on your mind, a war against humanity through climate propaganda.

These radical leftists used children like Greta Thunberg to scare the public into submission and indoctrinate multiple generations into believing a looming climate disaster would wipe out humanity, with the only "solution" being de-growth, nation-killing policies, such as attempting to ban petrol-powered cars, cow farts, and gas stoves - yet leaving private jets and mega yachts untouched, long with more and more and more carbon taxes. 

A newly uncovered U.S. State Department award from the Biden-Harris regime years, found by the X account Alladdin, has many scratching their heads, further suggesting that Greta could've been a globalist puppet, or an indoctrination weapon aimed at the youth. 

"Greta Thunberg: The U.S. State Department funded a $16,633 translation of Greta Thunberg's book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference into Kyrgyz for distribution in Kyrgyzstan," Alladdin said. 

He continued, "What other reason could there be for this expenditure besides the department actively promoting her environmental ideology to sow discord and amplify her global reach?"

Greta Thunberg:
The U.S. State Department funded a $16,633 translation of Greta Thunberg's book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference into Kyrgyz for distribution in Kyrgyzstan. What other reason could there be for this expenditure besides the department actively promoting… pic.twitter.com/VRmgttVttI

— Alladdin (@Alladdin1983) September 2, 2025

Mike Benz commented... 

The book "No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference" compiles Greta Thunberg's very scripted speeches, delivered at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the World Economic Forum, all centered on an alleged climate crisis. Its core theme was the urgent warning about imminent dangers to the planet.

Yet years later. We're still here, and it was just one of the coldest Augusts in some parts of the Lower 48 in decades.

Remember her 2018 prediction?

Why the State Department under the Biden-Harris regime wanted to rile up the youth in Kyrgyzstan about some climate crisis is beyond us - but it certaintly seems as if globalist elites hid behind the child to project their powerful and malevolent green political agenda of power consolidation worldwide.

Greta has moved on from climate to Palestine. Follow the money... 

The truth is, our planet is resilient. It's endured volcanic eruptions, cosmic events, and ice ages. Yet we're pitched that corrupt globalists bent on centralizing power will "save" the planet through banning cow farts and taxing the working class into submission. The period of bullshit is over - folks have caught on.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/03/2025 - 05:45

German Union Demands Climate Policy U-Turn

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

For far too long, entrepreneurs and employee representatives have silently accepted the ecological crash course of politics. Now, the chemical union IG BCE is demanding a shift in climate policy. Slowly, the penny seems to be dropping.

A storm is brewing in Berlin. The faint rumble that barely drew attention weeks ago has now grown into unmistakable thunderclaps: After Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius sent an urgent letter to the Chancellor calling for a return to reality and a rethink of strict CO₂ targets, the chemical union IG BCE has voiced sharp criticism. Their message to policymakers is clear: the destructive climate policies from Brussels and Berlin are pushing industry to the brink of collapse.

End of the German Special Path 

The IG BCE calls for abandoning Germany’s national goal of climate neutrality by 2045. Union leader Michael Vassiliadis emphasized that many companies are fighting for survival. 40,000 jobs are at risk, and 12,000 employees are already on short-time work. Regarding climate targets, even aligning with the EU goal by extending the deadline five years to 2050 could help—but even that is not enough, says Vassiliadis, speaking for 570,000 members. Many companies need immediate support; otherwise, stagnation and job losses are inevitable.

The union is particularly critical of CO₂ pricing. This instrument doesn’t work as intended—it kills businesses, Vassiliadis says. And nowhere else in the world is it applied as harshly as in Germany. While Asia and the U.S. ignore European guidelines, German companies face massive competitive disadvantages. Technologies, infrastructure, and energy sources for climate-neutral production at reasonable costs simply do not exist.

Germany’s “special path” keeps standing out. In the land of devout climate activists, the aim is to set a good example. Realism, global perspectives, and climate facts are ridiculed and dismissed as much as possible by climate proselytes in the media, NGOs, and politics.

The Consequences Are Real 

The hardest hit are energy-intensive sectors—chemicals, plastics, rubber, glass, paper. Production is falling everywhere; entire value chains are disappearing. Vassiliadis’ words send a clear signal: even in traditionally SPD-aligned unions, long conditioned to ecological orthodoxy, open resistance to green climate policy is growing.

The Dam Has Broken 

The dam seems broken; the vow of silence by business and unions has ended. The crisis of the German economy—now in its third year of recession—cannot be ignored. The country has become a location from which capital flees rather than settles. Last year alone, €64.5 billion in net direct investment was withdrawn. These are real investments that create jobs and secure the future.

Across party lines, ecological zeal has caused irreparable social damage. Since 2019, some 250,000 industrial jobs have been lost; in Q2 2025, industrial employment fell 2.1 percent, about 4.3 percent over six years. Currently, 5.43 million people still work in industry, but they sit on a melting iceberg—over 100,000 positions vanished in 2024, including 45,400 in the automotive sector.

Construction is also in retreat: bankruptcies rose 17 percent last year—high interest rates, declining orders, and Kafkaesque bureaucracy paralyze investors and builders.

Industry Raises Sails 

Chemical and steel production, among others, have dropped over 15 percent since pre-COVID times—Germany’s economic decline is absolute, accelerating, and eroding the foundations of society.

Depression, Not Recession 

The numbers describe an economic depression. Calling it a recession would be euphemistic, masking the damage green fanaticism and unbridled regulation have caused. The state has been captured by green-socialist ideologues, turning it into a weapon against the heart of the German economy.

It is regrettable that it took so long for leading economic figures to oppose this destructive course, fulfilling their civil responsibility. The elite has so far failed to meet its rightful high standards. Respect is due to Källenius and Vassiliadis, who now stand against the powerful climate lobby and must hope for allies.

Dealing With the New Command Economy 

Germany—and by extension all EU states—will soon be forced by economic realities to a regulatory pivot: Brussels and national planners are running out of money for further experiments. The same will soon affect the defense industry.

The Argentine model seems paradigmatic: bureaucracy and regulation must be compressed with a shock moment. “Economy before politics” must prevail; all attacks on private wealth and economic freedom—minimum wages, rent caps, heat pump mandates, or the combustion engine ban—must be buried in the swamp of socialist experiments.

That the IG Metall seems ready to convert struggling civilian production into a wartime economy with state aid would be a step from the frying pan into the fire.

We need consensus that state-managed economies fail and cannot work. Agreement is essential to politically and narratively break Brussels’ front.

Brussels in Heavy Turbulence 

Green transformation and the attempted European wartime economy must be understood together. The political aim is to revive idle industrial capacity, control basic industry and energy sectors, and establish a green-socialist command economy. Power is prioritized over societal prosperity and individual freedom—a Brussels minor key.

But the Eurocrats’ score ends abruptly. Public debt, permanent recession, job losses, and growing criticism of Brussels’ ideological course threaten the centralization project. German criticism cannot be ignored; international business representatives will join German “strikebreakers.” The clock is ticking for Brussels.

President Ursula von der Leyen and her EU Commission face a multi-front battle, with the U.S. increasing pressure on Brussels’ regulatory and censorship policies. The coming weeks will be challenging.

Possibly, the last week of August 2025 marks a groundbreaking wake-up call from the German economic elite, finally stirring the sluggish Berlin coalition. Anything less than a complete break with planned climate policy signals either political incapacity or unwillingness to reform. Given deep entanglements with the climate complex, a hard clash between ideology and civil society seems inevitable.

* * *

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

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/03/2025 - 05:00

Escobar: The Tianjin Show - Let's Dance To The Multipolar Groove

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Oh, what a show that was. A pan-Asia, pan-Eurasia, crossover Global South ball, with glittering dynamo Tianjin as backdrop, enjoyed as such by the overwhelming majority of the planet, while predictably generating cascades of sour grapes among the fragmented West – from the omnipotent Empire of Chaos to The Coalition of the Toothless Chihuahuas.

History will register that as much as BRICS finally stepped into the limelight at the summit in Kazan in 2024, the SCO replicated the move at the summit in Tianjin in 2025.

Among a feast of highlights – hard to top Putin and Modi walking hand in hand – this was of course M.C. Xi’s ball. The original RIC (Russia, India, China), as conceptualized by the Great Primakov in the late 1990s, were finally back in the game, together.

But it was Xi who personally set the main guidelines – proposing no less than a broad, new Global Governance model, complete with important ramifications such as a SCO development back, which should complement the BRICS’s NDB, as well as close AI cooperation in contrast with Silicon Valley’s techno-feudalism.

Global Governance, the Chinese way, encompasses five core principles. The most crucial, no doubt, is sovereign equality. That connects with respect for the international rule of law – and not a shape-shifted, at will, “rules-based international order”. Global Governance advances multilateralism. And also inevitably encourages a much-lauded “people-centered” approach, away from vested interests.

Putin for his part detailed the role of the SCO as “a vehicle for genuine multilateralism”, in tune with this new Global Governance. And he crucially called for a pan-Eurasian security model. That’s exactly the “indivisibility of security” that the Kremlin proposed to Washington in December 2021 – and was met by a non-response response.

So taken together, BRICS and SCO are totally engaged in burying the Cold War-era mentality, a world divided by blocs; and at the same time they are visionary enough to call for the UN system to be respected as it was originally conceived.

Now that will be the Mother of Uphill Battles – including everything from taking the UN out of New York to completely revamping the Security Council.

The dance of Bear, Dragon and Elephant

If Xi set up the guidelines in Tianjin, the strategic guest of honor had to be Putin. And that extrapolated to their one-on-one meeting on Tuesday at the Zhongnanhai in Beijing: very private, as only special conversations are held at the former imperial palace. Xi greeted his “old friend” in Russian.

As Putin emphasized the central role of the SCO Development Program for the next 10 years, he was playing it very much the Chinese way, when it comes to all those successive, successful 5-year plans.

These roadmaps are essential to set long-term strategies. And in the case of the SCO, that means organizing its progressive shift from initially an anti-terrorism mechanism to a complex multilateral platform coodinating infrastructure development and geoeconomics.

And that’s where China’s new idea – the establishment of the SCO Development Bank – comes in. It’s a mirror institution to the NDB – the BRICS bank based in Shanghai, and parallel to the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the multilateral bank based in Beijing.

Once again, BRICS and SCO run intertwined, as their key focus is to progressively ditch dependence on Western paradigms and at the same time fight the effect of sanctions, which not by accident hit hard on the four top members of both BRICS and SCO: Russia, China, India and Iran.

And of course, among all the camaraderie in Tianjin, there was Modi in China for the first time in 7 years. Xi went straight to the point: “China and India are great civilizations whose responsibilities extend beyond bilateral issues.” And M.C. Xi once again hit the dancefloor: the future lies “in the dance of the dragon and the elephant.” Cue to the Three Eurasia amigos chatting amicably in the corridors.

The Tianjin Declaration – not as extensive as Kazan last year – still managed to emphasize the key points that apply to Eurasia: sovereignty, above anything else; non-interference in internal affairs of member-states; and total rejection of unilateral sanctions as tools of coercion.

Crucially, that should apply not only to SCO member-states but to partners as well – from the Arab petromonarchies to the Southeast Asian powerhouses. Development strategies of different nations already cooperate, in practice, with BRI projects, from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to the China-Belarus Industrial Park, extrapolating to cross-border e-commerce, AI and Big Data.

The SCO’s astonishing geographic scale, combined with half of the world’s population, carries tremendous potential across the spectrum – for instance on trade, transport infrastructure, cross-border investment and financial transactions. The potential is far from being realized.

But the high-speed trains are already rolling: geopolitical imperatives are guiding increased pan-Eurasia geoeconomic interaction.

Shanghai Spirit eviscerates “War on Terror”

So this is the top takeaway of the Tianjin Show: the SCO affirming itself as a solid strategic pole uniting a great deal of the Global Majority. And all that without the need to metastasize into an offensive military behemoth like NATO.

It’s a long way from a pavillion in a Shanghai park in 2001, only three months before 9/11 – which was marketed by the Empire of Chaos as the foundation stone of the “war on terror”. That other initially modest foundation stone – with Russia, China and three Central Asian “stans” – was the “Shanghai spirit”: a set of principles based on mutual trust and benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations, and an emphasis on common economic development.

How the Shanghai spirit actually outlasted the “war on terror” leaves us with much to ponder.

In his toast at the elegant banquet offered in Tianjin for SCO guests, Xi had to quote a proverb: “In a race of a hundred boats, those who row the hardest will lead”.

Hard work. Results of which can be seen by anyone facing Tianjin’s spectacular development. That has absolutely nothing to do with “democracy” – as debased by its allleged practitioners as it is across the collective West – opposed to “the autocrats”, or “villains”, or Axis of Upheaval, or any other stupidity. It’s always about hard work – for the common good. That’s what BRICS and SCO are fighting for.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 23:45

'Trump Zone' Would See South Lebanon Depopulated For Qatari, Saudi-Bankrolled Projects

Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

The more information we get about the "Trump economic zone" proposal in southern Lebanon, the worse it seems for the people who live there. The latest reports reveal the plan to totally depopulate the south of the country, to place the whole area under US military control, and to grant Israel to right to build “permanent” bases in what are currently Lebanese towns and villages.

The plan first appeared a little over a week ago, with the US presenting it as their proposal while Israel maintains they came up with the idea. The broad strokes are that it is meant to replace border villages with Lebanese government-run industrial zones.

Historic church of St. George in Rmeish, Lebanon. Source: The Wandering Maronite.

But the plan would involve no less than 27 villages being depopulated, spanning the Israel-Lebanon border from Naqoura to Marjayoun. Among those, Israel is demanding it be granted permission to construct permanent military sites within 14 of the former villages.

The plan would involve the absolute destruction of Odaisseh, Kfar Kela, Houla, Markaba, and Ayta al-Shaab. Israel wants rights to occupy those militarily as well as Khiam, Ramiya, Yaroun, Aitaroun, Alma al-Shaab, Al-Dhayra, Marwahin, Maroun El-Ras, and Blida.

Underpinning the plan would be 1,500 to 2,000 US troops occupying the Trump Zone, which will be meant to “assure” Israeli settlers in northern Israel.

It is unclear from the reports if these will be US military personnel or simply American military contractors. Either way though, Lebanon would be ceding all sovereign authority over the south of their country.

The economic aspect of the zone is to create state-run industry in the south, which US officials have suggested would provide jobs even though nobody would be allowed to live there anyway. They have tapped Saudi Arabia and Qatar to bankroll this scheme.

Though presented as mainly about harming Hezbollah, the Trump Zone is depopulating not just Shi’ite villages, but also Sunni towns in the west like al-Bustan and even Christian-heavy towns like Rmesh. Lebanon is known being split among Sunni, Shi’ite and Christian populations, and none of them are spared in this plan.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 22:55

Ukraine Urges China To Pressure Putin As War Overshadows SCO Summit

Authored by RFE/RL staff via OilPrice.com,

• Ukraine called on China to take a more active role in pressuring Russia toward peace as Putin arrived in Beijing after the SCO summit.

• Kyiv criticized the summit’s Tianjin Declaration for omitting any reference to the war in Ukraine.

• European leaders plan to meet in Paris to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, while Trump’s proposed trilateral peace summit remains uncertain.

Ukraine urged China to pressure Vladimir Putin to move toward peace as the Russian president arrived in Beijing following his participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit -- where he defended the war that has killed tens of thousands of people.

"Given the significant geopolitical role of the People's Republic of China, we would welcome a more active role [for Beijing] in bringing peace to Ukraine based on respect for the UN Charter," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement as Putin arrived in the Chinese capital on September 2.

The ministry statement noted that the SCO’s final declaration avoided mention of the conflict, which has become a full-scale war since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“We consider it eloquent that the main final document of the summit, the 20-page Tianjin Declaration, does not contain a single mention of the Russian war against Ukraine,” the statement said.

“It is surprising that the largest war of aggression in Europe since World War II was not reflected in such an important, fundamental document, while it mentions a number of other wars, terrorist attacks, and events in the world.”

It said the failure to mention Russia’s war in Ukraine in the declaration “indicates the failure of Moscow's diplomatic efforts.”

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has consistently called on China -- a close ally of Russia -- to put pressure on Putin to end the war.

Another high-profile diplomatic event in China will be held on September 3 -- a massive military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Many leaders -- including Putin -- are remaining in China after the SCO to attend the parade.

Putin Blames The West

At the SCO in Tianjin outside of Beijing, Putin sent a defiant message against the West over his invasion of Ukraine after standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Putin said the war in Ukraine came about “not as a result of a Russian attack” but because of a Western-backed coup in Kyiv, according to comments carried by the Russian news agency TASS.

That was an inaccurate reference to the Maidan protests that pushed Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014, after he scrapped plans for a trade agreement with the EU and turned toward Russia instead.

Putin added that what he called the West’s attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO posed a "direct threat to Russia’s security," a claim that the military alliance has repeatedly denied.

Meanwhile, Kyiv's European allies in the so-called Coalition of the Willing -- led by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer -- are set to meet in Paris on September 4 to discuss potential security guarantees for Ukraine.

"Together with our partners, and in coordination with NATO, we will work to define robust security guarantees for Ukraine. These are a necessary prerequisite to move credibly towards peace," Macron wrote on X following talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

"We will also review Russia’s stance, as it persists in its war of aggression and continues to reject peace," Macron added.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on August 31 said Kyiv's European allies were working on “pretty precise plans” and a "clear road map" for a potential deployment of troops to Ukraine should a peace deal be struck between Kyiv and Moscow.

Von der Leyen, in comments published in The Financial Times, added that any such venture would have the full backing of the United States, which has swayed back and forth on potential involvement over the past year.

'No Concrete Plans' For Trilateral Summit

Separately, on the sidelines of the SCO, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov said there were no immediate plans for a trilateral meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy, and US President Donald Trump, contradicting recent remarks by Trump that he was arranging such a meeting.

"Now everyone is talking about a trilateral summit...but there has been no concrete agreement on this between Putin and Trump," Ushakov said.

Trump, who has made ending the war a top priority of his administration, has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin's refusal to meet with Zelenskyy but has suggested he was moving toward a trilateral meeting with himself included.

Trump has also expressed anger with Russia's nonstop campaign of air assaults on Ukrainian cities, causing civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure.

On September 2, Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration, said an overnight Russian air strike on the city of Bila Tserkva near Kyiv killed one person and created a massive blaze at a multistory building. Attacks were also reported near the cities of Chernihiv and Sumy.

Inside Russia, the Rostov regional governor reported early on September 2 that some 320 people were evacuated from an apartment block after a Ukrainian drone attack. Details were not immediately available.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 20:25

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios.

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 10:00 AM, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for July from the BLS.

• At 2:00 PM, the Federal Reserve Beige Book, an informal review by the Federal Reserve Banks of current economic conditions in their Districts.

Schools Make Kids Crazy

Authored by James Bovard via The Brownstone Institute,

Almost one-third of government schools nationwide are now surveilling the mental health of students. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed a bill to bring “universal mental health screening” to two million Illinois students as part of his Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative. But this rescue effort will ravage many students and is a warning shot to parents across the nation. Manhattan Institute fellow Abigail Shrier warned that the new Illinois law will mean “tens of thousands of Illinois kids get shoved into the mental health funnel and convinced they are sick. Many or most will be false positives.”

If politicians want to help kids, they must recognize how government schools systematically undermine students’ mental health. 

The Covid school lockdowns nuked the mental health of millions of young Americans. A 2024 JAMA Original Investigation found that between 2018 and 2021, young people saw an almost 300% increase in the number of hospital emergency visits for eating disorders and suicidal ideation. Suicide attempts increased 250% during that time. Depression and anxiety skyrocketed among youth from the start of the pandemic, but politicians and policymakers ignored the mental carnage that Covid policies inflicted.

A 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found that 44% of high school students said they “persistently felt sad or hopeless in the past year.” Females were almost twice as likely to be depressed, with 57% “persistently felt sad and hopeless” versus 31% of male students. School shutdowns dismally failed to thwart the spread of Covid. After schools reopened, students were hassled to comply with idiotic mask mandates that did nothing except multiply anxiety. 

 Schools are subverting students’ mental health by endlessly hectoring them to doubt or despise their own bodies. These school antics reached epidemic level even before the start of the Covid pandemic. In 2019, the state of Maryland issued regulations to promote “viewing each student’s” “gender identity and expression” as “valuable.” Government officials and political appointees arrogated to themselves the prerogative to redefine gender in the state of Maryland. Montgomery County, the largest school system in the state, announced that it would choose books for the curriculum “through an ‘LGBTQ+ Lens’ and ask whether books ‘reinforced or disrupted’ ‘stereotypes,’ ‘cisnormativity,’ and ‘power hierarchies,’” according to a brief filed at the Supreme Court by parents who successfully challenged the school system. That brief also noted that “teachers are told to frame disagreement with [pro-LGBTQ] ideas as ‘hurtful,’ and to counter with examples of ‘men who paint their nails’ or ‘wear dresses.’” The goal is to instill in children “a new perspective not easily contravened by their parents,” as the county school board admitted. 

The indoctrination produced a 582% increase in the number of kids self-identifying as “non-binary” in Montgomery County schools. “Disrupting children’s thinking” has been so successful that almost half of the students identified themselves as non-binary. But non-binary kids are far more likely to suffer mental illness. One survey found that more than half of transgender and non-binary youth considered committing suicide in 2022. That has not stopped other school systems from openly or covertly campaigning to sway children to repent or revolt from how they were born. 

Schools have bludgeoned kids with “Chicken Little – The Sky is Falling!” environmental propaganda for decades. The result, according to the American Psychological Association, is that 58% of American youth are “very or extremely worried about climate change” and 43% said “climate change impacted their mental health.” Harvard Medical Magazine reports that for many young people, “worry over threats of future climate change results in panic attacks, insomnia, obsessive thinking, and other symptoms.”

Schools hold up as a role model Greta Thunberg, the deranged Swedish teenager whose incoherent ravings against the modern world turned her into a saint. It is irrelevant to school masterminds that many of the environmental alarms have proven to be bogus or wildly exaggerated. Children have been taught to dread, and they have been taught to implore politicians to rescue them – two very bad outcomes for mental health. Surveys by Eco-America indicate that between 57% and 70% of teens aged 13 to 17 “report anxiety symptoms linked to climate.” Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, recently lamented on TikTok: “I think everything with the environment is really f—ing getting to me, and it is — I experience a lot of climate anxiety, like all of us do.” Turning climate anxiety into virtue signaling guarantees there will be no shortage of angst. 

Schools are also subverting mental health by vastly exaggerating other perils that students face via bizarre school shooting drills. In Indiana, elementary school teachers were shot as part of a “safe schools” training program. According to the Indiana State Teachers Association, sheriffs’ deputies ordered teachers “into a room four at a time, told them to crouch down and then shot them execution-style with pellets in rapid succession,” leaving several of them bloodied and many of them screaming. The union complained, “The teachers were terrified, but were told not to tell anyone what happened. Teachers waiting outside that heard the screaming were brought into the room four at a time and the shooting process was repeated.”

Schools are “increasingly turning their hallways into an imitation of a real mass shooting, complete with police officers firing BB guns and drama students enlisted to play victims, made up with fake blood and bullet holes. Occasionally, the drills are sprung on teachers and students without warning,” as a student newspaper in Great Neck, New York, observed. A Pennsylvania teacher commented that she was “more traumatized than trained” after teachers were shot with airsoft guns by a fake active shooter. “We had colleagues shooting colleagues, we had people getting hit with [plastic] pellets.…People were screaming, trying to run. People were tripping over each other. It was just horrendous,” Elizabeth Yanelli recalled.

One of the primary beneficiaries of such antics is pharmaceutical companies that hustle anti-anxiety drugs to children. Former policeman Raeford Davis commented on lockdown/active shooter drills, “These simulated execution rituals are conducted for fear-based mass social control purposes to traumatize, instill fear, hopelessness, personal dis-empowerment, reliance on authority figures to save and protect you.” A 2021 study by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers “found that anxiety, depression and stress increase by around 40% after [school shooting] lockdown drills.” Such collateral psychic damage is especially unfortunate since the drills that schools compel students to perform are mostly useless in a real crisis. 

Plenty of students are bummed because they recognize they have practically no escape from surveillance. Schools boast of giving kids free laptops, but that becomes the equivalent of wearing an electronic ankle monitor to track everything a person writes or every step they take online. A recent study found that the vast majority of companies that schools hire to surveil students online actually track kids 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, using school-issued devices. The study found that 29% of the companies “generate student ‘risk scores’ based on online behavior.” (It is not known if such scores are skewed by visiting the Libertarian Institute website.) The Center for Democracy and Technology reported in 2023: “Student activity monitoring continues to harm many of the students it claims to help: Disciplinary actions, outing of students, and initiation of law enforcement contact are still regular outcomes” of surveillance of students’ computer use. 

A recent sea change in federal grant policy hints at how much damage Washington’s mental health interventions have already inflicted on students. In July, the US Department of Education proposed revising guidelines to prohibit federal mental health grants from “promoting or endorsing gender ideology, political activism, racial stereotyping, or hostile environments for students of particular races.”

The fact that a new guideline would be needed for such things is indicative of the follies previously propagated by federal bureaucrats. Will another regulatory change be necessary to stop using federal grants to make kids afraid of the dark? 

Politicians, psychiatrists, and public schools are the last places to trust to safeguard mental health. Young Americans are already suffering from a downward politico-psychological spiral thanks to decades of abusive, repressive policies. Curtailing political and bureaucratic power is a vital first step to make America sane again. 

An earlier version of this piece was published by the Libertarian Institute.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 19:40

Kennedy Derangement Syndrome Running Rampant

Authored by John Klar via AmericanThinker.com,

Sufferers of Kennedy Derangement Syndrome (KDS) pathologically reject beneficial policy prescriptions if they are recommended by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Mr. Kennedy challenged toxic dyes in children’s food. He seeks to improve soil health, conduct more thorough studies of pesticides (and novel drugs), restrict pharmaceutical advertising, restore the integrity of captured regulatory agencies, enhance the quality of school lunches, and undertake a host of other initiatives to improve Americans’ health.

These should not be controversial or partisan in nature. Yet they are, solely because of the name of the person who proposed them.

The adage “Hate the sin, not the sinner” is thus turned on its head.

This is a pattern in KDS, TDS, and MDS (Musk Derangement Syndrome).

Upholding law and order, eliminating graft, and ending wars are all anathema to leftwing sufferers of these demonstrable mental illnesses. A curious commonality to all three conditions is that there a) must be only one political party in America, and b) adherents must kowtow to every single issue in Borg-like conformity.

I was recently conversing with a neighbor whom I know suffers from these syndromes, and I was deliberately trying to find common ground and avoid contention. (Yes, we could discuss the weather, but that might turn to geoengineering, or global warming — nothing is politically safe these days.) Since my neighbor teaches about physical health, I found myself extolling the virtues not just of healthy foods, but also of the essential benefits of regular exercise for longevity, brain health, stress relief, and better sleep, among other things.

My neighbor commented on the gross lack of physical fitness among young people applying for military service and recounted how the standards have been lowered so that would-be soldiers could meet the requirements. That’s when I made a misstep, if amity were my goal: I mentioned that the MAHA Commission Report advocated for improved exercise education for young people.

On Pavlovian cue, my neighbor began to spew heatedly about his contempt for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. One would think I had asked him to allow Charles Manson to babysit his daughter.

His vitriolic diatribe was only half begun when I interjected, “But even if you disagree with Kennedy about vaccine safety, don’t you agree with him about advocating for regular exercise for health?”

This was too much to ask.

A concession for Kennedy on any single issue is verboten to KDS sufferers — for them, one drop of vaccine skepticism spoils the entire MAHA policy platform. I continued by arguing rather ardently that mRNA vaccines were neither safe nor effective, and scoffed that anyone believed they were. I then quickly pivoted back to the exercise issue: couldn’t my liberal friend agree that Kennedy was taking the correct approach to improving Americans’ health by advocating for improved exercise recommendations?

Begrudgingly, my companion conceded the point — then launched into a foamed-mouth tirade against the former Democrat and longtime defender of harbors, oceans, and waterways. Some grave transgression had occurred, that Kennedy would question the regimen of 73 vaccines currently recommended for children, administered by doctors paid handsomely to inject them, and manufactured by foreign multinational corporations afforded complete legal immunity for any harms caused. How dare we MAHA tinhats dare threaten human health by raising critical inquiries or calling for increased drug testing?

Most sufferers of KDS would agree on 9 out of 10 of the MAHA Commission Report’s recommendations if promulgated by AOC or Jasmine Crockett. Yet for these unwell minds, the one perceived poison apple of questioning the integrity of government agencies to adequately study possible links between vaccines and autism spoils the whole barrel. Indeed, to grant Kennedy ground on a single point would open the door to agreement on another. Before you know it, KDS sufferers might consider that since they agree on 9 out of 10, perhaps he is correct on the #1 issue as well!

Many on the Left today seek to undermine Kennedy’s efforts to deny pesticide manufacturers legal immunity for the cancers inflicted by their products, rid their own kids’ and grandkids’ baby foods and school lunches of heavy metals and pesticide residues, or remove unhealthy candies and high fructose syrup sodas from the diets of SNAP recipients in an effort to combat diabetes and obesity. They want tariffs to spike inflation; they want illegal gang members to distribute fentanyl; they want the war in Ukraine to continue.

This pattern of cognitive dissonance is common to all such oppositional derangements. If President Trump declared oxygen salutary, TDS sufferers would promptly seal their lips around tailpipes and inhale deeply.

Next thing you know, KDS victims will object to educating schoolchildren about the many health benefits of regular exercise… solely because Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended it.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 18:20

Trump To Deploy National Guard To Chicago, Baltimore; Maryland Gov. Caught "Half-Naked" On Clooney's Yacht

President Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that he will deploy federal law enforcement to crime-ridden, far-left-controlled Chicago and Baltimore to combat violent crime. These progressive utopias of the Democratic Party have imploded into violent crime and chaos after years of failed social justice policies like "defund the police." 

During a press conference in the Oval Office, a reporter asked the president about sending National Guard troops to Chicago. The president responded: "We're going in," but added, "I didn't say when."

"Chicago is a hellhole right now, Baltimore is a hellhole right now," Trump said, adding, "I have an obligation .... this is a political thing." 

Trump is definitely sending in the National Guard to Chicago…

Chicago is a HELL HOLE
Baltimore is a HELL HOLEhttps://t.co/uc0MvnUlRy https://t.co/YSI8LWNx0A pic.twitter.com/67qIiygTSa

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) September 2, 2025

Just south of Baltimore City, Trump federalized the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department and deployed the National Guard to clean up crime-ridden streets after years of lawlessness in some parts. Crime statistics so far indicate that the administration's move is heading in the right direction to restore law and order. 

"If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up, I would love to do it," Trump said earlier. "Now, we're going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it."

Meanwhile, far-left Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was caught "half-naked" on George Clooney's luxury yacht ... 

Damning photos burn top Democrat Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's 2028 plans to the ground as he's busted half-naked on kingmaker George Clooney's luxury yacht in ITALY while his 'hellhole' state faces crime apocalypse https://t.co/lkQk7yhjo1 pic.twitter.com/kjYYZpVYVM

— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) September 2, 2025

Local Baltimore media reports. 

I am pressing the Lt. Gov.'s office if she was delegated temporary authority to govern in Gov. Wes Moore's absence as he is abroad in Italy, according to pics published by the Daily Mail.

This comes as @realDonaldTrump says he is sending in federal intervention to Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/UhL2a1XmL6

— Gary M. Collins (@realgarycollins) September 2, 2025

Trump is not wrong about labeling Chicago and Baltimore "hellholes." These crime-ridden metro areas are the result of a failed progressive experiment. Democrats own these "hellholes." 

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 18:00

Unqualified Secret Service Snipers Protected President, Inspector General Finds

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Secret Service snipers who worked at events involving President Joe Biden in 2024 failed to complete annual requirements showing they can hit targets, an inspector general said in a report published on Aug. 28.

Countersnipers are required to prove annually that they can shoot accurately at night and during the day. While all countersnipers met nighttime requirements in fiscal year 2024, just 17 percent completed the mandated daytime shooting in the first quarter, and none did in the second quarter, according to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report.

The countersnipers who did not meet the requirements worked at 47 events during the 2024 campaign, including events involving Biden. Those were a wake in Dallas, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2024; campaign receptions in New York City on Feb. 7, 2024; and a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, on March 11, 2024.

Officials who assign countersnipers to events do not always check to make sure they meet qualifications, according to interviews the inspector general’s team conducted. Some said they do check, but still might assign countersnipers who have failed to recertify.

Countersnipers who did not meet the requirements, meanwhile, told the team that they thought nighttime training could serve as a substitute for daytime training.

“It is unclear why the counter snipers believed the substitution was allowed,” the report stated.

“The counter snipers also stated that the firing range was not always available when they needed it and that conflicts with schedules, inclement weather, and a high operational tempo prevented them from going to the firing range and requalifying.”

The inspector general recommended that the Secret Service develop and implement a process that ensures countersnipers meet requirements.

The Secret Service told the team that there is already a process in place and that it has updated the rules to clarify that countersnipers must qualify each quarter in either day or night shooting.

“Secret Service did not address the deficiency we found, namely, counter snipers who did not meet their weapon requalification and were assigned to protective operations,” the inspector general’s office said. It marked the matter open and unresolved.

Staffing Issues

The investigation also showed that the Secret Service’s Counter Sniper Team was not adequately staffed. It was said to have staffing 73 percent “below the level necessary to meet mission requirements.”

The lack of adequate staffing led to countersnipers working 247,887 hours of overtime from 2020 to 2024.

The Secret Service also had to utilize snipers from other Department of Homeland Security divisions during the 2024 campaign and for President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The Secret Service has been hampered by a self-imposed requirement that it only hire from the Secret Service’s Uniformed Division, the watchdog said. And it only accepts officers who have worked for the division for at least two years.

The Secret Service cut that time from two years to 18 months, officials said.

The Secret Service has also boosted recruitment incentives and retention bonuses in recent months.

The agency said it is also developing a new model for staffing that will look at potentially recruiting snipers from law enforcement agencies and military services. That analysis is expected to be completed in August 2026.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 17:40

Dystopian Rollout Of Digital IDs & CBDCs Is Happening

Authored by 'Camus' via X, (emphasis ours)

Whitney Webb breaks down the coordinated global push for a new, dystopian system of control, marrying digital ID with CBDCs...

Whitney Webb breaks down the coordinated global push for a new, dystopian system of control, marrying digital ID with CBDCs. This isn't conspiracy; it's all in their own documentation.

They are building a full-spectrum digital cage, and its two locked doors are Digital Identity… pic.twitter.com/wSaKbKPwUd

— Camus (@newstart_2024) September 1, 2025

This isn't conspiracy; it's all in their own documentation.

They are building a full-spectrum digital cage, and its two locked doors are Digital Identity and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). You cannot have one without the other.

The plan is to replace your government-issued ID with a Digital ID, but it's not just a card in your phone. It is fundamentally built upon your immutable biometrics: your fingerprints, the precise structure of your face, the unique pattern of your iris.

This biometric data is the key.

It is the hard link that ties your physical body directly to your digital identity credential.

Your very body becomes your password. The reason this is so critical for them is the financial system. UN & Bank for International Settlements docs overtly state that Digital ID and CBDCs are designed to be integrated.

The system cannot exist without this biometric digital ID.

Why?

Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols.

For this new digital financial system to function, they must absolutely "know" every single participant. Your digital wallet will be tied to your digital ID, which is mapped to your biometrics. Total financial-biological linkage.

We see the prototypes being rolled out now:

• Sam Altman's WorldCoin lures people to scan their irises for a "unique identifier" and a digital wallet. This is the exact model.

• The UN's "Building Blocks" program forces refugees to scan their iris at checkout to receive food rations. The value is deducted from a wallet tied to that biometric ID.

They justify this total surveillance under the guise of closing the "identity gap," claiming the world's poor need digital IDs to access essential services like banking and healthcare.

The reality?

This is the ultimate onboarding mechanism into a system of programmable control, where your access to society and your own money is permissioned and revocable based on your compliance.

This is the bedrock of the new global financial system.

It is not about convenience. It is about control.

Your body is the new currency, and they are forcing you to hand over the keys.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 17:00

"Plaintiffs Over-Reached": Alphabet Shares Soar After Judge Rules In Antitrust Case

Alphabet, the parent of Google, shares are soaring after hours following a favorable ruling from the federal judge in its anti-trust case.

As a reminder, following a 10-week non-jury trial in 2023, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last year that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly with its online search business.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Mehta wrote in the ruling at the time.

Today we find out the remedies, and they are definitely in Alphabet's favor.

US District Judge Amit Mehta, in a 230-page ruling on Friday, barred Google from having exclusive contracts for its Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app products as part of his remedy to the more than $2 trillion company's monopoly in search.

But the ruling fell far short of some of the most contentious demands from the US government.

Mehta said Google would not have to divest from Chrome or Android.

"Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced divesture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints," Mehta wrote in the Tuesday ruling.

Additionally, Mehta ruled that Google must hand over its search results and some of its data to rival companies

In another win for Google, the judge didn’t bar the company from making payments to third parties for default browser placement.

“Cutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantial — in some cases, crippling — downstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban,” the judge wrote.

Alphabet shares jumped more than 6% in after-hours trading.

BI reports that in an opening statement during the remedies hearing, a Justice Department lawyer said the court must prevent Google from using its search monopoly to dominate the AI market.

"Unless Google's vast payments are eliminated, Google will likely win each search distribution opportunity, given the tremendous advantages it has accrued from over 10 years of monopoly maintenance," DOJ lawyers wrote in a post-trial May court filing.

Google has vowed to appeal Mehta's original ruling deeming the tech giant a monopolist - and it could be years before there's a final outcome.

Meanwhile, Google still has more antitrust headaches ahead.

A Virginia federal judge ruled in April that the company holds an illegal monopoly in certain online advertising technology markets. A remedies hearing in that case is set to begin in September.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 16:39

Erdogan Slams US For Blocking Palestinian Leaders At UN; Belgium Sanctions Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fuming after the Trump administration blocked Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders from attending the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York scheduled for later this month.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is not being issued a visa to enter US soil (along with his delegation), as retribution for his leading the charge in support of a Palestinian state, and for waging a 'lawfare campaign' against Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. Erdogan said this only plays into Israel's hands, which is busy conducting "massacres" and "cruelty" in Gaza.

Source: Xinhua

The move "does not fit the United Nations’ raison d’etre," Erdogan told reporters on a flight after leaving China, where he attended the SCO Tianjin Summit 2025. "The decision needs to be urgently revised. The United Nations General Assembly exists for the issues of the world to be discussed and for solutions to be found," he said.

"The Palestinian delegation not being at the General Assembly would only please Israel," he added. "What is expected from the United States is to say ‘stop’ to Israel’s massacres, cruelty."

Turkey has throughout much of the conflict been hands down the most vocal global critic of Israel, denouncing what Erdogan has called the mass murder of Palestinians and Israel's "genocidal policies". A trade war has also ensued. Many products from Israel have been banned from entering Turkey.

Meanwhile, one of the things that Washington and Tel Aviv fear most is the growing trend of recognition of Palestinian statehood among the West.

Belgium is the latest EU nation to announce it will recognize the State of Palestine at the UNGA. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot announced, "Palestine will be recognized by Belgium at the UN session! And firm sanctions will be imposed against the Israeli government."

The statement said that "Belgium had to take strong decisions to increase pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists." It added, "This is not about sanctioning the Israeli people but about ensuring that their government respects international and humanitarian law and taking action to try to change the situation on the ground." It previewed that "firm" sanctions are coming.

France has meanwhile been leading the way on this, and it's somewhat unprecedented that significant European countries one by one would also be bringing sanctions against Israel. Canada, Australia, and Britain have made similar declarations - ramping up the pressure on Israel. But these sanctions have been limited mostly to products coming from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Belgium’s announcement, urging other nations to also "intensify practical efforts to stop the crimes of genocide, displacement, starvation, and annexation, and to open a real political path to resolve the conflict."

A statement on X said the PA considers Belgium's right actions "to be in line with international law and United Nations resolutions, and protective of the two-state solution and supportive of achieving peace."

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 15:25

'Worst-Smelling Man In Congress' Announces His Retirement

Via Headline USA,

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York says he will not run for reelection next year, according to an interview published Monday night by The New York Times.

Nadler told the Times that watching then-President Joe Biden’s truncated reelection campaign last year “really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that.”

He suggested a younger Democratic lawmaker in his seat “can maybe do better, can maybe help us more.”

Nadler, 78, is serving his 17th term in Congress. He was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2023, then served as ranking member on the panel after Republicans won House leadership. He stepped down from that role late last year.

Nadler’s decision to relinquish that spot came a day after fellow Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin announced his bid for the job and quickly amassed support from colleagues.

“I am also proud that, under my leadership, some of our caucus’s most talented rising stars have been given a platform to demonstrate their leadership and their abilities,” Nadler wrote then in a letter to Democrats that was obtained by The Associated Press.

Without naming names, Nadler suggested to the Times that some of his Democratic colleagues should also consider retirement.

“I’m not saying we should change over the entire party,” Nadler said in the interview posted Monday. “But I think a certain amount of change is very helpful.”

In April, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Nadler was dubbed by his colleagues as the “worst-smelling” man in Congress.

Nadler, who stands at 5-foot-4 and underwent weight-loss surgery in 2002, has been the subject of ongoing criticism and mockery. For instance, President Donald Trump once dubbed him “Fat Jerry.” 

Former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said that Nadler “barrels through everyone” when making his way through the House floor. However, sometimes, he “doesn’t really need to barrel through because his stench kind of clears the way and it equates to his personality, which is nasty and most people want to keep away from.” 

A fellow House Democrat added, “Members of Congress don’t want to sit next to him because of it. Yeah, he smells. I don’t know what he does. Maybe he doesn’t take a bath, I don’t know what it is.” 

A New York congressman echoed these remarks, declaring that Nadler “reeks” before adding: “It’s not just like a guy who didn’t take a shower. I don’t know if it’s surgery or a colostomy bag, but it’s bad.” 

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 15:05

Putin Hits Back At Germany's Merz: 'Stoking Hysteria' With 'Unfounded Nonsense'

President Vladimir Putin while in China vehemently denounced and condemned Western assertions that Russia seeks to expand its special military operation into other European states. He described such statements and assumptions coming out of European officials as either a provocation or a sign of utter incompetence. He said this at a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Beijing on Tuesday.

"They are constantly stoking hysteria that Russia is allegedly nurturing plans to attack Europe. I think that it is clear for same people that this is either a provocation or a sign of utter incompetence," Putin said, as translated in TASS. He appeared to be directly responding to recent words of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Via Associated Press

"Any sane person clearly realizes that Russia has never had, does not have, and will never have any intention to attack anyone," he added.

The Russian leader reiterated that Russia only seeks to protect its legitimate security interests in Ukraine, and that the conflict started with the West and NATO's own behavior. "As for 'Russia's aggressive plans regarding Europe,' I'd like to emphasize once again that this is unfounded nonsense," Putin emphasized.

His words come as hawkish European leaders continue to speak in terms of Cold War-era domino theory, with the assumption that Russia aims to take over European countries one by one.

This is exactly how Chancellor Merz sounded in telling German public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that Ukraine has to be defended, and not compromise, or else Germany could be next to be at risk of Russian invasion. He also said on this basis that the Ukraine war is likely to drag on with no end in sight.

While he described he hasn’t lost hope of a Trump-brokered ceasefire - he said he still "harbors no illusions" and that backing Ukraine's defense remains an "absolute priority".

"We are trying to end it as quickly as possible. But certainly not at the price of Ukraine’s capitulation. You could end the war tomorrow if Ukraine surrendered and lost its independence," Merz said.

"Then the next country would be at risk the day after tomorrow. And the day after that, it would be us. That is not an option," the German chancellor stated.

Putin in Beijing had some further interesting commentary on Ukraine and its security:

In his remarks, Putin said that that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine’s potential membership of the European Union, and dismissed claims that Moscow was somehow planning to attack Europe.

He argued, in comments reported by Reuters, that with Nato expanding eastwards, the alliance wanted to absorb the entire post-Soviet space, and Russia simply had to defend its interests. He also repeated that Ukrainian membership of Nato would have been unacceptable to Russia.

Fico has been receiving severe pushback from other EU countries for attending events in China hosted by President Xi.

Fico tells Putin an ancient Chinese parable.

"As EU and NATO members were talked against coming here. But many in the EU are like the frog in a well. They sit at the bottom, and they cannot see what is happening in the world.

So I would like to say openly - we are interested in… pic.twitter.com/rPG9vUHld9

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) September 2, 2025

The Slovak PM is expected to attend China's big military parade on Wednesday. Putin told him Tuesday that Russia "highly values the independent foreign policy that you and your team, your government, are pursuing."

Meanwhile, on the battlefield Russian forces continue to make gains in the east, with Moscow's Defense Ministry announcing Tuesday the capture of the village of Fedorivka in Donetsk region.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 14:45

Trump Must Finish Off The National Endowment For Democracy

Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

Writing elsewhere last month, I suggested that Donald Trump end the National Endowment for Democracy once and for all. Like most so-called “non-governmental organizations,” the NED is in fact an all-governmental organization. It depends absolutely on a subsidy from the state department, i.e., from the federal government, i.e., from the taxpayer, i.e., from you.

The NED began life in the Cold War as a way of projecting “soft power” against our Communist adversaries. But as James Piereson noted in February of this year, the NED has undergone a familiar process of mission creep and moral and political entropy.

“With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Piereson wrote, “the NED adjusted its mission to support democratic reforms in countries in non-communist countries with authoritarian governments, many of which were never adversaries of the United States in the first place.”

Over the years, the NED adopted a view of democracy that held that nationalist and populist leaders campaigning for office around the world were, in fact, authoritarians and a threat to democracy. Many foreign leaders were tossed into that bucket—not only Russia’s Vladimir Putin, but also Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, and others. Many of these leaders were popularly elected but were nevertheless branded by the NED as authoritarians. It surprised no one when NED officials deemed Donald Trump, too, an authoritarian, lumping him together with these leaders.

The bottom line is that for some $315 million of taxpayer pelf, the NED has been busy fomenting a foreign policy that was not just separate from that articulated by the duly elected president of the United States but actively opposed to it.

So it was no surprise when Trump and his cost-cutters at the Department of Government Efficiency took aim at the NED. Earlier this summer, NED’s subsidy had been zeroed out in Congress’s proposed budget.

But no NGO goes gentle into that good night. When politicians get together to haggle over budgets, lobbyists tag along. Members from interest group A whisper in Congressman X’s ear about their pet—and usually lucrative—project. Words like “constituents” and “donations” are bandied about. Often as not, that line item that had been zeroed out is fully restored. The lobbyists go home happy. The Congressman feels reassured. Only the taxpayers suffer. And the voters, too, whose feelings in the matter are usually completely ignored.

So it was with the NED. What had been zero was suddenly restored to $315 million, with provision for additional contracts added in for good measure.

In olden days, that generally would have been it. A president confronted with such recalcitrance, not to say connivance, would simply have moved on. As usual, Trump’s response was something more aggressive. On Friday, the White House said, in effect, I’ll see your rescission and raise you two.

Employing a seldom-deployed, controversial maneuver called a “pocket rescission,” the White House promised to eliminate “woke, weaponized, and wasteful spending.”

Now, for the first time in 50 years, the President is using his authority under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy a pocket rescission, cancelling $5 billion in foreign aid and international organization funding that violates the President’s America First priorities.

CNN was joined by other dyspeptic chihuahuas—Senator Chuck Schumer, chief among them—to wail that “Trump bypasses Congress to cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid.”

Will the republic survive these cuts? Among the items to flutter to the dustbin of the unfunded are such critical enterprises as efforts to advance “inclusive democracy” in South Africa through the Democracy Works Foundation, which has published articles such as “The Problem with Whiteness” and “The Problem with White People.” That effort was done for $2.7 million, now gone.

Then there was $4 million for the New Alliance for Global Equality to advance “global LGBTQI+ awareness,” $3.9 million to promote “democracy” for LGBTQI+ populations in the Western Balkans, $2 million for “Organizing for Feminist Democratic Principles” in Africa, and $107 million for the International Labor Organization (ILO), “a group that works to unionize foreign workers and punish U.S. corporate interests abroad.” Your tax dollars at work.

Will the NED finally be cancelled if Trump’s “pocket rescission” succeeds?

From what I have read, it is not entirely clear.

Many of the cuts—totaling many hundreds of millions of dollars—are from State Department initiatives that are consanguineous, as it were, with the NED. But I have not seen the NED explicitly named in the cuts.

As I noted last month, what is needed to extinguish the NED is not some magic potion but the concerted attention of Donald Trump. Perhaps, I suggested, the President had thought he had gotten rid of the NED already. I am here to remind him once again that that essential piece of work is yet to be accomplished. It is time to finish the job.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 14:25

Gold Hits New Record High As Dalio Fears Trump Stoking Imminent "Debt-Induced Heart Attack"

The real 'fear' index - of fiscal folly - hit a new record high overnight following its breakout last week...

Finally https://t.co/WYqQNRtc0U pic.twitter.com/oJV68H2DRj

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 29, 2025

...topping $3500 for the first time as hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio warned Donald Trump’s America is drifting into 1930s-style autocratic politics — and told The FT that other investors are too scared of the president to speak up.

The Bridgewater Associates founder told the Financial Times that “gaps in wealth”, “gaps in values” and a collapse in trust were driving “more extreme” policies in the US.

“I think that what is happening now politically and socially is analogous to what happened around the world in the 1930-40 period,” Dalio said.

State intervention in the private sector, such as Trump’s decision to take a 10 per cent stake in chipmaker Intel, was the sort of “strong autocratic leadership that sprang out of the desire to take control of the financial and economic situation”, Dalio said.

Dalio also warned about the threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence days after Trump launched an unprecedented move to sack one of its governors.

Dalio said a politically weakened central bank, pressed to keep rates low, “would undermine the confidence in the Fed defending the value of money and make holding dollar-denominated debt assets less attractive which would weaken the monetary order as we know it.” 

Dalio said he also believed many years of big deficits and unsustainable debt growth had brought the US economy to the brink of a debt crisis, although he noted “presidents from both parties” had overseen a worsening situation before Trump’s latest fiscal plan.

“The great excesses that are now projected as a result of the new budget will likely cause a debt-induced heart attack in the relatively near future,” he said.

“I’d say three years, give or take a year or two.”

The veteran investor also took aim at a rising impulse towards state control under Trump.

Dalio resisted calling the president’s model authoritarian or socialist, but described the mechanics bluntly:

“Governments increasingly take control of what is done by central banks and businesses.”

Read the full catastrophizing interview here at The FT.

Goldman Sachs notes that there was good re-engagement from Chinese specs overnight as LBMA approaches the all-time-highs.

Western macros appear under-positioned given price has ignored all perceived catalysts (US debt, Trump vs Powell etc) until last Thursday / Friday when we saw re-engagement

We’re still ~5% away from the SHFE gold ATH (which is arguably more important given Chinese volumes).

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 14:05

Large US Companies Are Going Bankrupt At The Fastest Pace Since The Global Financial Crisis

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Is the fact that large companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace in 15 years a good sign for the economy or a bad sign for the economy? I don’t even have to answer that question because all of you already know the answer. And as you will see below, other types of bankruptcies are soaring as well. We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt, and now bubbles are bursting all around us. I hope that you have positioned yourself for what is about to happen, because the months ahead are going to be rough.

According to Newsweek, 446 large companies filed for bankruptcy during the first seven months of this year.  That is the highest total that we have seen since 2010…

The U.S. saw a sharp increase in corporate bankruptcy filings in July, according to a recent report, reaching a post-COVID peak and placing 2025 on track to surpass last year’s total.

S&P Global Market Intelligence, the research and data arm of the credit-rating agency, found that filings by large public and private companies rose to 71 last month from 66 in June, marking the highest monthly tally since July 2020. So far in 2025, meanwhile, the total of 446 bankruptcy filings is the highest for this seven-month stretch since 2010.

In 2010, we were experiencing the tail end of the global financial crisis.

So there was a very good reason for why so many large companies were going bankrupt at that time.

What reason do we have for what we are witnessing right now?

Of course it isn’t just large companies that are going bankrupt in staggering numbers…

Personal and business bankruptcy filings rose 11.5 percent in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2025, compared with the previous year.

According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 542,529 in the year ending June 2025, compared with 486,613 cases in the previous year.

Business filings rose 4.5 percent, from 22,060 to 23,043 in the year ending June 30, 2025. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 11.8 percent to 519,486, compared with 464,553 in the previous year.

Wow.

I had no idea that the bankruptcy numbers were that bad.

An 11.5 percent increase in bankruptcy filings in just one year is a really troubling sign.

And it turns out that the number of farm bankruptcies in the United States has been spiking as well…

Hit with high interest rates and labor shortages, more American farmers are filing for bankruptcy, according to new data from the University of Arkansas.

Researchers found that more than 250 farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy between April 2024 and March of this year, marking a sharp increase in financial distress across the agricultural sector.

“We’ve already beat last year in terms of Q1 national filings,” said Ryan Loy, an economist at the university. “Once you see this on a national level, it’s a clear sign that financial pressures that we saw before in the 2018 and ‘19 are kind of reemerging.”

A lot of people out there are in denial about what is really happening to the economy.

We have been on an unprecedented debt binge for many years, and now we are beginning to experience the consequences.

Millions upon millions of Americans are in way over their heads, and there is no easy way out.

At this point, approximately two-thirds of Americans that are carrying debt admit “to minimizing or hiding it from others”…

The study of 1,078 adults by Self Financial exposes a nation drowning not just in debt, but in the shame that comes with it. Of those carrying debt, 66.3% admitted to minimizing or hiding it from others. This breaks down to 28.1% outright lying about their situation, 20.8% downplaying how bad things really are, and 17.4% avoiding the topic entirely.

We may want to hide our financial distress from others, but there is no way to hide it from ourselves.

Americans have become so obsessed with financial troubles that they are thinking about it constantly…

Between bills to pay, tariff news and inflation worries, money is living rent-free in Americans’ minds.

They’re spending nearly four hours a day on average thinking about it, according to new research from Empower, a financial services company.

Needless to say, that isn’t healthy.

Continually worrying about your finances can eat you alive.

But this is what daily life is like for so many people these days.  One recent survey discovered that 53 percent of Americans are feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever”…

At 54%, a little more than half of the 2,206 adults surveyed said they’re thinking about it more than they did last year. In fact, the June survey found 53% of Americans said they’re feeling financial stress “more acutely than ever,” including 62% of Gen Xers and 41% of baby boomers.

One of the biggest reasons why Americans are feeling so much financial stress is because we are spending an average of 42 percent of our incomes on housing costs…

More than half of Americans say they’re paying too much for housing, with the average person spending 42% of their income on housing costs.

Meanwhile, just about everything else that we regularly spend money on has been getting increasingly more expensive.

For example, beef prices just keep hitting brand new record high after brand new record high…

Grocery prices have been climbing and one area where prices have hit a record high is beef, a staple for many households.

Ground beef, usually the inexpensive choice for shoppers, has hit a record high. Shoppers can expect to pay $6.25 per pound, up from $5.49 a year ago and $4.26 five years ago, in July of 2020.

The average price for beef steaks has hit $11.87 a pound as of July. That’s up from $10.85 in July of 2024 and $8.69 in July of 2020.

And coffee prices have jumped more than 30 percent over the past year…

A more than 30% year-over-year rise in retail prices for coffee is staggering — and consumers are not likely to see relief anytime soon, even as a merger between two beverage giants looks to create an entity that can better manage rising costs.

If we stick our heads in the sand and keep repeating “everything is going to be okay”, will that make things better?

Of course not.

We need to realize what is happening and adjust our plans accordingly if we are going to navigate through this very harsh economic environment.

For one thing, if you have a good job right now please do not give it up unless you absolutely must do so.

Mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, and yet another example of this was just in the news…

Nearly 1,000 corporate Kroger employees are losing their jobs after the company previously announced its intentions not to lay off employees.

The layoffs come after the grocer decided to shutter more than 60 underperforming stores by the end of 2026.

Kroger initiated the closures as a way to cut costs following its failed $25 billion merger with Albertsons.

Sadly, I think that a lot more Americans will lose their jobs in the months ahead.

And since most of the population is living paycheck to paycheck these days, those that lose their jobs are at risk of losing everything.

There was no way that we were going to be able to pile up debt indefinitely.

We have now reached the “bubbles are bursting” chapter of our story, and it certainly isn’t going to be pleasant.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Tue, 09/02/2025 - 13:45