Is Ukraine Training Drug Cartel Mercenaries From Latin America?

Authored by Liz Heflin via Remix News,

Recent reports highlight that some individuals, including those with criminal connections, have come to Ukraine to gain experience with drones, learning advanced tactics and hoping to take that knowledge back to their criminal bosses.

It has been well documented that many foreigners, including Latin Americans, have gone to fight in Ukraine. Some go for the paycheck, others for the cause — Ukrainian independence. 

Some apparently were not prepared for all-out war. “There have been instances where, after facing intense combat, some Colombians decided to leave,” reads a CEPA article from October 2024. 

That same article does note one Colombian who told CEPA “he has heard from home that the cartels in Colombia have already taken lessons from the war in Ukraine, and are using First Person View (FPV) drones to strike at the army and police.” 

Rumors that Ukraine directly recruits mercenaries from drug cartels in Latin America have others crying disinformation, although they admit there have been “isolated cases.”

French outlet Intelligence Online, cited by a Russian website, The Insider, reported in July that Mexican intelligence had warned its Ukrainian counterpart that cartel members from Mexico and Colombia had signed up to serve in Ukraine to gain specialized drone training to take back home and use for “foreign criminal organizations.”

They also mention a Mexican and Colombian company by name, one of which popped up in Polish customs reports; both are linked to drug trafficking. Investigation into this report is supposedly ongoing. 

As to such reports being disinformation, a website linked directly to the Russian military does not help dispel this claim. The content appears to be all AI-generated, complete with a byline photo for several articles that looks almost identical (middle-aged White man in dark suit) and with a similar vanilla American name (John Baker, William Moore, Fred Turner). The brief piece linked above from September pushes the line that Ukraine is actively recruiting from criminal groups. 

Hector Bernal, a military instructor, poses for a photo in La Mesa, Colombia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Bernal, a retired combat medic who runs a center for tactical medicine outside Bogotá, says that in the last eight months he’s trained more than 20 Colombians who later went on to fight in Ukraine. He says that a professional soldier who has six years in the army doesn’t make more than $600 a month in Colombia, but in Ukrain,e the soldiers are being paid $3,000 to $4000 a month. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

“Former Colombian officer says Ukraine enlists mercenaries from cartels and guerrilla groups like FARC and ELN, seeking combat training to aid criminal networks,” the lead reads. 

This line was parroted by a Bulgarian site, which went on to say that Colombian President Gustavo Petro had urgently called for a law banning mercenary activity, effectively joining the 1989 convention that prohibits and punishes the recruitment, use, financing, and training of mercenaries. 

Petro did make such a proclamation. But it was in response to Colombian mercenaries serving in Sudan’s notorious RSF, with these Colombians reportedly even being involved with training child soldiers. Oddly, and somewhat embarrassingly for Colombia — and Petro — Colombia reportedly already knew about their citizens in the RSF and issued a formal apology to Sudan for their involvement back in December 2024. 

Petro did just a few days ago call for Colombians to return home from Ukraine and to be allowed to do so in the wake of accusations that volunteers were being forced to sign contracts they did not understand (as they were in Ukrainian) and that they are being held against their will. 

“They have practically kidnapped us. They are armed. They have taken photos of us for the police. They don’t want to let us go,” one soldier told Colombia Reports. These volunteer soldiers, which the portal calls “mercenaries,” are claiming to have suffered “the worst humiliation at the hands of the people we came to help.”

President Petro himself posted on X just last week about the situation: “Ukrainians treat Colombians as an inferior race. I ask the Colombian mercenaries, who are being handled like cannon fodder, led by companies guided from Miami, to return to the country immediately.” 

Los ucranianos tratan a los Colombianos como raza inferior. pido a los Colombianos mercenarios,, que los están manejando como carne de cañón, llevados por empresas guiadas. desde Miami, que regresen de inmediato al país pic.twitter.com/gGlDnGMMy9

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 8, 2025

FRANCE 24 Observers team indicated in November 2024 that Ukraine was posting on social media, including in English and Spanish, to attract soldiers from abroad. It also relayed stories of missing Colombian soldiers and distraught families back home. According to their research at the time, 57 Colombians had been killed in Ukraine and 77 were missing at the time. 

This site also notes that Colombia had “proposed legislation that would ban Colombian citizens from fighting in foreign wars” in August of 2024, whereas Petro only posted about it this past August. 

This is unfortunate timing for Zelensky supporters over in Europe, given the EU–CELAC Summit in Colombia next month. Just a couple of days ago, Petro posted photos of his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, where they were all smiles and full of hope regarding future deals to be done. 

Esperaremos al mundo europeo en Santa Marta. Espero que está inmensa reunión entre América Latina y Europa sea un encuentro de culturas y una alternativa de Nueva Alianza.

Energías limpias, conocimiento, turismo y fibra óptica.

Esperamos al pueblo de Santa Marta en el gran acto… https://t.co/YXQgNOJZzQ

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 10, 2025

Ukraine is actively recruiting, as proven by its military’s own recruitment site. But their pitch isn’t exactly “free drone training for narco bosses.” Instead, it attempts to inspire Latin Americans to see the Ukrainian cause as their own.

The site claims that thousands of Latin American volunteers have joined the war effort and proceeds to give stories of three Ukrainians “whose names are inscribed in the history of various Latin American countries.”

“Now heroic volunteers from various countries of South America have inscribed their names in the history of Ukraine and are writing a new, perhaps the most important, page in the history of Ukrainian-Latin American relations,” it reads. 

This is a far cry from any direct recruitment from drug cartels. And it certainly does not scream any sort of active collaboration or deal between Ukraine and criminal organizations to help get them drone training or technology. 

FILE – In this May 3, 2020, file photo, Venezuelan security forces guard the shore and a boat in which authorities claim a group of armed men landed in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, calling it an armed maritime incursion from neighboring Colombia. A judge in Colombia sentenced three Venezuelan men on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, to six years in prison for helping organize the ill-conceived plot to remove President Nicolás Maduro involving former American Green Berets. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Unfortunately, for those who do sign up, whether they are official mercenaries for drug lords or simply looking to join the cause, the risks don’t stop once they leave Ukraine — if they leave alive. In the summer of 2024, two Colombians on their way home from Ukraine were detained by Venezuela, where they had a layover. They were immediately sent to Moscow, highlighting Putin’s close alliance with Maduro, where they were charged by Russia for serving as mercenaries fighting against Russia. 

According to TASS, both have pleaded guilty and face up to 15 years in prison.. 

Read more here...

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

Tyler Durden Tue, 10/14/2025 - 02:00

These Are America's Most Dangerous Cities, According To Citizens

Where do American’s feel the least safe?

To answer this question, Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu visualized the results of Numbeo’s Crime Index, which reveals how people perceive safety in their own city as of mid-2025.

Unlike FBI or police statistics, this index reflects public sentiment through crowdsourced surveys.

Data & Discussion

Numbeo’s Crime Index uses a scale from 0 (very safe) to 100 (very dangerous), based on residents’ self-reported experiences and perceptions. The survey covers various aspects of crime, including:

• General perception of crime levels

• Perceived safety during day and night

• Concerns about specific crimes (mugging, robbery, car theft, physical attacks, etc.)

• Severity of property crime (burglary, theft, vandalism)

• Severity of violent crime (assault, homicide, sexual offenses)

Overall, this index provides an alternative lens on urban safety that is shaped more by everyday life than by crime reports. Here’s how to interpret the results:

• Very Low Crime: 20 and below

• Low Crime: 20.01-40

• Moderate Crime: 40.01-60

• High Crime: 60.01-80

• Very High Crime: above 80

Rank City State Crime Index 1 Memphis TN 78.0 2 Detroit MI 73.1 3 Baltimore MD 72.7 4 Albuquerque NM 71.7 5 Saint Louis MO 69.7 6 Oakland CA 68.7 7 New Orleans LA 66.9 8 Milwaukee WI 66.7 9 Chicago IL 66.1 10 Philadelphia PA 65.8 11 Atlanta GA 64.6 12 Houston TX 63.2 13 San Francisco CA 60.9 14 Indianapolis IN 60.2 15 Washington, DC DC 60.2 16 Kansas City MO 58.1 17 Portland OR 57.1 18 Jacksonville FL 56.6 19 Las Vegas NV 55.9 20 Minneapolis MN 55.6 21 Tucson AZ 54.8 22 Seattle WA 54.2 23 Los Angeles CA 53.9 24 Phoenix AZ 53.0 25 Miami FL 52.7 26 Dallas TX 51.2 27 New York NY 51.0 28 Columbus OH 49.6 29 Orlando FL 49.5 30 Sacramento CA 49.4 -- National Index Score -- 49.2 Memphis Leads the Rankings

At the top of the list, Memphis, Tennessee registers the highest crime index score at 78, marking it as the city Americans perceive as the most unsafe in 2025.

Residents often cite issues with violent crime and property theft, contributing to its elevated perception of risk.

While Memphis has historically suffered from high crime rates, recent data shows safety is improving. In 2024, total crime in Memphis dropped by roughly 13.3%, with homicide down about 30% and motor vehicle theft down nearly 39%.

Rust Belt and Legacy Crime Centers

Detroit (73.1) and Baltimore (72.7) continue to rank among the top three most dangerous cities in the index.

Since 2008, both cities have struggled with the loss of key industries and jobs, eroding their economic base (and tax revenues). This fuels an increase in poverty rates, reduces the city’s capacity to respond, and destabilizes communities.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Organized Crime Hot Spots Around the World on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 23:00

A Hint Of Opium Wars: Trump's Campaign Against The Fentanyl Epidemic

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The United States is waging a desperate fight against the killer drug fentanyl. Beyond Chinese producers and Mexican drug cartels, the northern neighbor Canada has now come under the American government’s scrutiny. The U.S. finds itself caught in a vise of drug money and asymmetric warfare.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Coast Guard made headlines with two spectacular operations: On September 2, 2025, the U.S. Navy sank a suspected Venezuelan drug boat in the southern Caribbean – according to President Trump, a speedboat operation by a “narco-terrorist” group. Eleven people on board died.

The latest incident occurred on October 3, 2025: another boat was destroyed near the Venezuelan coast, four people killed, large quantities of drugs seized. Two events that highlight a topic that has nearly been drowned out by customs policy noise, the Gaza war, and government shutdowns – the fentanyl epidemic, America’s silent war on the home front.

Echoes of the Opium Wars

The fentanyl crisis in the U.S. has taken monstrous proportions in recent years – documented in countless shocking videos of literally zombified streets in the country’s drug capitals such as Los Angeles or Philadelphia.

Approximately 110,000 people die annually from drug use. Around 75,000 deaths – nearly 200 per day – are attributed to the killer drug.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, roughly 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Even tiny amounts can be lethal, making it the global fuel of a new drug epidemic – cheap to produce, easy to smuggle, deadly. Its characteristics make it an ideal instrument to undermine an external enemy from within and disrupt parts of their social fabric.

As during the Opium Wars of the 19th century – when British opium was used as a geostrategic weapon in the struggle for trade surpluses against China, and Beijing’s resistance was exploited by Western powers to escalate – today’s situation feels like a replay: instead of sailing ships, containers transport industrial precursor chemicals; instead of colonial ambitions, geopolitical interests play a decisive role.

President Trump does not mince words in this conflict and already commented on the situation in February: “The continued supply of synthetic opioids has profound consequences for our nation, including the deaths of about 200 Americans per day. The Chinese Communist Party subsidizes and supports Chinese chemical companies that export fentanyl and precursor chemicals, which are sold to manufacture synthetic opioids illegally trafficked in the U.S.”

Geopolitical Dynamite

These are unmistakable words from the U.S. president. They cast Washington’s harsh trade policy in a new light: this is not merely economic power politics. It is undeniably a response to an industrially organized drug war, whose raw materials – according to allegations – originate in China, pass through Mexico, and ultimately flood American streets as a deadly final product.

Following Trump’s argument, a chilling picture emerges: the state-sponsored Chinese export model implies a diabolical, geopolitically aggressive strategy, coldly calculated and orchestrated by a system that combines economic power with lethal effect.

Against this backdrop, U.S. tariffs on China seem almost restrained – as if Washington wants to lull the opponent into a false sense of security before the big strike.

Shift of Focus to Canada

Looking north, at the Canadian border: journalist Sam Cooper recently highlighted in an interview that Canada has become a money-laundering hub for Chinese and Mexican drug cartels over the years.

He refers to the so-called Vancouver model, which in four years facilitated cumulative money laundering from U.S. drug trade exceeding $300 billion. Cooper criticizes the Canadian legislature for failing to effectively deploy the rule of law against these cartels. Moreover, the country has itself become a net producer of fentanyl, with Vancouver as a central hub of activity.

Here too, President Donald Trump is intensifying measures and directly linking a tough trade policy against Canada with the fentanyl crisis. Trump repeatedly hints that parts of Canada – especially the resource-rich province of Alberta – could one day switch sides and possibly become a new U.S. state – a provocation sending a clear message: we know what you are doing. And we will not yield without a fight.

The Enemy in the North

Canada appears in this light as a hostile state to the north of the United States, installed by the British after the lost War of Independence in 1776. Here again are the protagonists of the 19th-century Opium Wars.

Canada remains part of the Commonwealth of Nations and is formally represented by the English crown. A particularly curious case is the appointment of current Prime Minister Mark Carney: holding both British and Canadian citizenship, he was previously Governor of the Bank of England – an institution acting as a sort of clearinghouse for the City of London, one of the central players on the global financial chessboard.

In general, Carney is a problematic case. Like Mario Draghi (2021), Boris Johnson (2019), Rishi Sunak (2022), and Keir Starmer, he was selected through an obscure, democratically unaccountable process and placed in parliament as prime minister.

The divide between the new, conservative-patriotic, market-oriented U.S. government on one side, and the increasingly paternalistic-centralist forces of London and Brussels on the other, is widening politically and administratively.

Carney’s repeated alignment with European interests makes clear where the geopolitical front lies.

Both Europe and Canada should brace for further harsh responses in trade disputes with Washington. Provocations like the EU digital surveillance or the questionable punishment of American companies under the Digital Services Act will be met with direct sanctions.

Strategy Unfolded

While U.S. President Trump, on the foreign policy front, aims to cut off the sources of the drug war against the U.S. with clear messaging and tough tariffs, the White House also pursues a classic domestic strategy to tackle the fentanyl crisis. In July 2025, Trump signed the “HALT Fentanyl Act,” permanently classifying fentanyl and related substances as Schedule I drugs. The law mandates minimum sentences of ten years for possession of 100 grams or more.

Additionally, the administration tightened visa restrictions for suspected drug traffickers and their networks and is massively expanding border controls. Foreign policy-wise, Trump imposed punitive tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico to pressure the main source countries, always with the unmistakable note of their role in the drug conflict.

Despite initial declines in death numbers, the fight remains complex: local resistance from radicalized leftists, alternative smuggling routes, and international entanglements require a multidimensional approach. Trump’s policy combines law enforcement, border security, and geopolitical pressure as the central pillars in the war against this epidemic.

The fact that Americans are now deploying heavy weaponry in their fight against the drug war – as in the Venezuelan boat case where military force was used – sends an unmistakable signal. Washington is taking the reins decisively and resolutely. The era in which external forces could destabilize the United States without major pushback is definitively over.

* * * 

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 Mon, 10/13/2025 - 22:35

WA Teen Faces Civil Rights Complaint For Refusing To Play Basketball Against Male Athlete

Via American Greatness,

A high school basketball player in Washington state has been accused of bullying, harassment after she allegedly “misgendered” a male opponent who pretends to be a female.

The controversy began when an 18 year old biological male was allowed to play on a junior varsity team in the Tumwater School District, alongside 14 and 15-year-old female athletes.

15-year-old Frances Staudt noticed the obviously male athlete on the opposing team during her warm up for the final game of the season and asked the school’s athletic director whether the player was a male, but  was told that, in accordance with Washington state law, the school will not discriminate based on sexual identity.

Staudt then notified her coach that she was unwilling to play against a biological male opponent.

According to Staudt’s mother Aimee, Frances was so frustrated that, following the game, her daughter walked by the male player and told him, “You’re a man” prompting the school district to investigate Frances for ‘misgendering’ her opponent.

The state of Washington State:

- 15-year-old girl refuses to play basketball against 18-year-old man.

-15-year-old girl is charged with bullying, harassment, intimidation and “misgender*ng” him.

pic.twitter.com/JAErE4mPcO

— PNW Conservative (@UnderWashington) October 11, 2025

Aimee Staudt told Fox News that the school district could have avoided the situation, saying, “They knew, admittedly, that there was going to be this situation, and they had a meeting, the principal, the superintendent, and the athletic director to discuss the fact that this was a potential situation that was coming up.”

Aimee maintains that little controversy would have resulted if families had been notified of the situation beforehand, and players had been given the option to sit out the game.

Staudt said, “But they didn’t do that. They put the kids on the spot, and my daughter was the one that actually stood up in this situation, and… she was exposed… It was awful the way they handled it.”

The New York Post reports that the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) policy states that each athlete will participate in programs “consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed,” and there are not even any medical or legal requirements.

Washington is one of a handful of Democrat-run states that have pushed back against President Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports.

The school district released a statement last week stating, “As a district, we remain committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all students feel safe, supported, and valued.”

According to her mother, Frances received a letter late last week, stating that she had violated WIAA policy and that she could face further discipline if there are any further incidents.

*  *  * Last week's top sellers!

Astaxanthin (super potent natural antioxidant)

ZeroHedge Hat - waxed canvas for your pleasure

ZeroHedge Multitool - Full refund if you're not happy. Will let you keep it. That confident. 

Male Enhancement - Yes. And Yes. (free bottle of Ultra Testosterone for a limited time)

Countertop RO Filter - been flying off the shelf, will have to raise price soon. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 20:05

Ukrainian Drones Spark Massive Blaze At Crimea's Largest Oil Terminal

Just a day after a major report in the Financial Times said that US intelligence has been helping Ukraine conduct long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities since at least July, major oil depot in Crimea caught fire overnight following a Ukrainian drone strike.

This marks the second time in a week that the the Feodosia facility has been struck and gone up in flames. Importantly, it is Crimea's largest oil storage and transshipment hub, with a capacity of around 250,000 tons.

Ukraine has hit a key Russian oil depot in Russia-occupied Crimea, causing massive fires. The key energy resource -- the largest oil storage and shipment hub on the peninsula -- sustained heavy damage, with multiple fires reported. pic.twitter.com/tg8EsqJnvT

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) October 13, 2025

Russian sources say that air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones targeting a fuel storage facility in the port city. The attack resulted in no casualties, amid a large emergency response to battle the blaze.

NASA’s fire monitoring system detected multiple active fires at the site, according to international reports.

In total Ukrainian forces sent some 40 drones to various areas of Crimea, and dozens more were sent against other targets in Russian territory.

Kiev and its Western backers have a clearly articulated objective to disrupt a key source of revenue funding Moscow's war effort - which has resulted in some success, given the reports of fuel and gasoline shortages, and rising prices across Russia.

Ukraine's military leadership has of late boasted that the operation over several months has cut Russia's oil refining capacity by 21%.

A source in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent: "Drones hit at least five tanks. A large-scale fire is recorded on the territory of the oil depot," the source said.

Image: SBU

At a moment Russia's refinery woes are getting worse, the question of the US providing Tomahawks still remains an open one, and the Kremlin has said it would be "surprised" if the White House allowed such a serious and brazen escalation. 

International estimates are that thus far during the war Ukraine has struck at least 21 out of Russia's 38 refineries, some of them more than once, which has proven costly - also as sanctions have made it hard to find parts for quick repairs.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 19:40

Second Amendment Showdown: California Bans Glock Handguns In Major Challenge To Gun Rights

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed the long-anticipated “Responsible Gun Manufacturing Act,” Assembly Bill 1127, a law that may now trigger a major challenge under the Second Amendment. The law banned the Glock semi-automatic handguns that are a favorite of American gun owners, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The law constitutes one of the most ambitious gun bans since the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) that gun ownership is an individual right.

At the time, Justice Antonin Scalia stressed that the Second Amendment protects all types of firearms “in common use at the time” for “lawful purposes like self-defense.”

Gun control advocates have been chipping away at this concept by arguing that a variety of popular weapons, such as the AR-15, cannot be considered “in common use at the time” of the ratification.

Scalia, however, joined Justice Clarence Thomas in 2015 in a dissent in the denial of certiorari in Friedman v. Highland Park, involving a local ban on semi-automatic firearms. Thomas wrote that “several Courts of Appeals… have upheld categorical bans on firearms that millions of Americans commonly own for lawful purposes” and that such rulings are  “noncompliance with our Second Amendment precedents.”

Thomas noted that such rulings suggested that states could ban “AR-style semiautomatic rifles” even though an “overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting. Under our precedents, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons.”

In the case of the AR-15, an estimated one in 20 Americans own such weapons. The Glock is even more popular. In 2021 alone, industry data shows that Glock produced 581,944 handguns with another 465,117 in 2022. It is also the weapon of choice for an estimated over 65 percent of law enforcement agencies.

Notably, we previously discussed how Vice President Kamala Harris made a less-than-convincing pitch to gun owners during her presidential run after years of calling for gun bans. She hailed her Glock as a cherished companion. As it became apparent that Harris was losing men generally, the campaign made ham-handed efforts to reinvent Harris. In a softball interview with Oprah, Harris declared that she is a gun owner and “if somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”

When liberals like CBS’s Bill Whitaker expressed shock at her new gun-toting persona on the campaign trail, he asked if she actually fired it.  Harris then did her best Rooster Cogburn, who noted “Well a gun that ain’t loaded, ain’t much good for nuthin.”

When she was the San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris was one of the signatories on the District Attorneys’ amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller, in support of the handgun ban.

It convinced no one.

The California law will now take effect on July 1, 2026, “[banning] the sale of new Glock-brand pistols and Glock-style clones.” In my view, it is unconstitutional under prior Supreme Court precedent.

Democrats previously called for banning “Glock switches” that can be affixed to the rear of a Glock slide to make the pistol shoot full auto. However, such switches are already unlawful. They are now going after the gun itself, confirming the objections of gun rights groups that such early bans were moves to lay the foundation to ban semiautomatic weapons generally.

That seems borne out by the language of the bill. The text of AB 1127 says:

“A ‘machinegun-convertible pistol’ as any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar that can be readily converted by hand or with common household tools into a machinegun by the installation or attachment of a pistol converter, as specified, and “pistol converter” as any device or instrument that, when installed in or attached to the rear of the slide of a semiautomatic pistol, replaces the backplate and interferes with the trigger mechanism and thereby enables the pistol to shoot automatically more than one shot by a single function of the trigger.”

The legislation makes repeated reference to any weapon that can be “equipped with a pistol converter.” Thus, even though the Glock switches are unlawful, criminals still use them and thus the gun itself falls under this category as a “machine-gun convertible” weapon.

The Supreme Court has fueled these laws by repeatedly turning down review of bans.  States like Illinois outlawed some of the most commonly used rifles and magazines in America. In Bevis v. City of Naperville, the Seventh Circuit overturned the district court’s preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ban on the basis that the plaintiffs were unlikely to prevail.

While various Supreme Court Justices have expressed disagreement with Bevis, the Court refused to take up the case. However, Justice Kavanaugh said that the Court is likely to grant certiorari “in the next Term or two.”

California may have just filled that pledge.

*  *  * Last week's top sellers!

Astaxanthin (super potent natural antioxidant)

ZeroHedge Hat - waxed canvas for your pleasure

ZeroHedge Multitool - Full refund if you're not happy. Will let you keep it. That confident. 

Male Enhancement - Yes. And Yes. (free bottle of Ultra Testosterone for a limited time)

Countertop RO Filter - been flying off the shelf, will have to raise price soon. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 19:15

Watch Live: SpaceX Starship Prepares For 11th Test Flight With Heatshield Stress Test, Orbital Demos

SpaceX is targeting a one-hour test flight of its Starship megarocket, with the launch window opening at 7:15 p.m. ET. This marks the 11th test flight, expanding on the success of the previous mission with a focus on data collection, heatshield stress testing, and orbital demonstrations, such as deployment of eight Starlink simulators. 

Starship Flight 11 aims to build on the momentum from SpaceX's latest and most successful launch of the year in August. That mission, the fourth of 2025 and tenth overall since 2023, signals continued progress as Elon Musk's rocket company seeks to accelerate the development of the fully reusable megarocket designed to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

On track for today’s Starship flight test. The launch window is from 6:15 p.m. CT - 7:30 p.m. CT. Live coverage starts ~30 minutes before launch https://t.co/TSvQZvzB8b

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2025

Here's a breakdown of Starship Flight 11:

Mission Goals: Build on Flight 10's success, focusing on:

• Data collection for the next-generation Super Heavy booster

• Heatshield stress tests

• Return-to-launch-site maneuver simulations

Flight Safety: SpaceX continues coordination with the FAA and international air traffic authorities to minimize disruptions. During Flight 10, affected airspace reopened within 7–9 minutes.

Super Heavy Booster:

• Reused from Flight 8, with 24 Raptor engines.

• Will perform a new landing burn configuration with 13 engines igniting, then shifting to five during the divert phase, and finishing with three center engines for hover and splashdown.

• The booster will not return to Starbase but instead splash down in the Gulf of Mexico to collect data on engine transitions and real-world dynamics.

Starship Upper Stage:

• Conducts in-space objectives, including deploying eight Starlink simulators (same size as next-gen satellites).

• Includes an in-space Raptor relight test.

• Tiles have been intentionally removed to stress-test unprotected areas during reentry.

• Will execute a dynamic banking maneuver and subsonic guidance test before a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Ahead of launch, cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket shows...

Watch Live 

. . . 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 19:00

Syria Set To Allow Russia To Keep Its Strategic Military Bases In Country

Since the fall of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December of last year, which has since drastically changed Syria into a hardline Sunni state no longer aligned with Tehran or Moscow, Russia's military began slowly moving its military assets from the region, essentially packing up its bases. 

Moscow has been seeking to negotiate with the new regime regime in Damascus to keep its two historic bases on the coast, especially the naval base at Tartus, which was for decades Russia's only deep-water Mediterranean naval port.

Source: syria.mil.ru

Behind the scenes negotiations have seem stalled for months, with little news, however, on Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov weighed in after being silent on the issue. Khmeimim Air Base has lately played host to thousands of Alawite and Christian refugees being persecuted by Sunni radicals, including by government Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) troops.

Lavrov made clear that the Sharaa government is looking favorably on allowing Russia to keep its military presence on the coast, but under the guise of a more humanitarian and logistics purpose.

"Syria would like to maintain Russian military bases in the country, but may repurpose them for different tasks amid new realities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting with journalists from Arab countries," according to TASS.

"The Syrian side is interested in maintaining our military bases there. As our president has repeatedly said, we will be guided by Syria’s interests in this matter," he emphasized. "It is clear that under the new circumstances, these bases may play a different role, not just as military outposts," Lavrov added.

"In particular, given the need to establish humanitarian flows to Africa, these may be sea and air bases serving as humanitarian hubs for sending humanitarian cargoes there, including to the Sahara-Sahel zone and other countries in need," Lavrov specified.

Damascus and its new rulers may have come to the practical conclusion that it's better for Russia to have a foothold in the region, at a moment Israel has continued to bomb Syrian cities and military sites with impunity. 

Source: BBC

If nothing else, a superpower's military being on the ground, even if just on the coast, could prove diplomatically beneficial to Syria - at a moment it has no anti-air defenses to speak of.

Russia and Turkey could be seen as playing a balancing act in the region in the face of Israeli aggression. Russia still has its own powerful anti-air defenses which protect its coastal assets, also near Latakia.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 18:50

Peter Schweizer: Mamdani Family Is "Joined At The Hip" With Foreign Radical Powers

Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer joined Fox News' Mark Levin just days ago, revealing that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his family have deep financial ties to Qatar's royal family - the very same family that harbored 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Schweizer told Levin: 

"What people have to understand is that this election for mayor in New York is really a dark echo of the 9/11 terrorist attack. And you wonder, what do I mean by that? Well, look at the family itself, the Mamdani family itself, they are joined at the hip with the royal family of Qatar, the Al Thani family. They have  sent them millions of dollars, they have funded their projects. So why does this family matter? It matters because, back in 1996, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was granted sanctuary by this very royal family."

The investigative reporter continued: 

"He was given a no show job at the Ministry of Water in Qatar, and it was there that he started planning the 911 attacks. The FBI was looking for him, Mark, because he had been involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, as well as other terrorist attacks. So the FBI went to the royal family and said, we want this man for his involvement in terrorism. What did the family do? They hid him and helped him to escape. They tipped him off. And I would encourage a lot of people to go back and look at the statements that Louis Freeh made back in the day, saying, had they gotten, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that would have prevented future terrorist attacks like 9/11. So this is the royal family of Qatar. Why do we care about him in the context of Mamdani? Well, first of all, there's a financial connection that we talked about. Millions of dollars bankrolling the Mamdani family. Second of all, this same family is now on social media around the world. And what are they doing, Mark? They're pushing Madame's campaign. They're pushing his policy positions. They're pushing his poll numbers. They're encouraging people to vote for him, to financially support him. So they're cheerleading for him."

Schweizer noted that Qatari media actively promoted Mamdani's political campaign​​​​​. The socialist even appeared on Qatari TV discussing "verbal jihad"...

Here are the highlights from the remainder of the interview: 

• (03:44 - 05:26) Schweizer also alleges that Iranian and Hezbollah-linked media are praising Mamdani and projecting his future political prospects, including speculation about a role in Homeland Security.

• (05:46 - 06:37) He points to an imam (Wahaj) with family members convicted for involvement in a terrorist attack who supports Mamdani, and argues that Mamdani's campaign and ideology represent an existential threat.

• (07:01 - 07:39) Schweizer warns that Islamist strategy is incremental, seeking local power first (city, council, mayor)—and characterizes Mamdani as a "Marxist Islamist" who "hates America and hates Jews."

Watch 

Related:

• Schweizer Exposes Foreign-Linked Cash Funneled Into NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani's Campaign

By Sunday, The New York Post broke a story about how "Mamdani's campaign quietly took in nearly $13,000 in potentially illegal foreign donations — including one from his mother-in-law in Dubai." 

More and more, Mamdani appears to be a Manchurian candidate for Middle Eastern money.

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 17:20

The Mighty Return Of Columbus Day

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

This weekend, gleeful people all around were wishing each other a happy Columbus Day. What a wonderful thing it is. Not even the schools can lecture students that it is really “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” because it is no longer that.

It is back to being the revered day it always was, a day celebrating the glorious risk-taking and vision it took for the old world to discover the new.

The story of Christopher Columbus has been part of the legend and lore of America for hundreds of years, along with beautiful books for children and the unforgettable Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, plus all the sufferings of that journey. It served as a constant reminder to be grateful for the sacrifices of our ancestors, to adopt a piety towards the past.

No story like this is without blemishes, of course.

The journey did bring the Spanish Empire to the Americas complete with exploitation of natural resources, the furtherance of the slave trade, and new strains of infectious disease (an issue that deserves a separate thoughtful treatment).

At the same time, the coming of the empire also brought technology, Christianity, human rights (eventually), civilized standards of law, jury trials, religious freedom eventually, and opened up half the world to development along with prosperity.

It’s a mixed record because history is complicated.

All history is complicated. In looking at large shifts in population movements and empires, we should give up looking for only saints or only demons. The real story of history is a mixture of both plus institutions and interests that provide mitigation and migration between the two.

The trouble with the anti-Columbus movement born decades ago is that it overvalorized native culture and then created a caricature of the colonial forces that expanded the reach of European culture and people. It did this on ideological grounds rooted in a conviction that all the achievements of the West are rooted in violence. This position was always unsustainable.

As for the indigenous peoples of what is called the United States today, they have never been called that name in all U.S. history. They were native Americans wrongly called Indians simply because Columbus had believed he had reached the East Indies, but he was actually at what was later called the Caribbean or West Indies. The name Indian stuck.

You can discern the dominant attitude toward the natives by looking at the lore of American history. Thomas Jefferson celebrated the culture of the Indians—their deep traditions of independence and bravery—and proudly displayed artifacts in his home. Our coinage also celebrated the Indians, and it remains true now that prominent people proudly brag if they detect even the slightest hint of American Indian.

Here too, the history is not one of good and evil but a mixture. My old family moved from a comfortable stability in New England in 1830 to settle Southwest Texas (it is still not “settled”). Doing so involved cooperative relationships with a huge diverse population that now included Spanish settlers, many and diverse native tribes, plus European migrants from Germany and elsewhere.

There were peaceful trading relations with the Karankawa and other tribes but wars and battles against the hated Apaches and Comanches. The settlers wanted a good life on land that was vast and unsettled, and sought only to protect their families and property against attack. Just as it is overly romanticized to see the settlers as peaceful humanitarians, it’s a stretch to see the savage violence perpetuated by ravaging natives as some kind of anti-colonial resistance.

Again, history is complicated. But in the big picture, what the European settlers achieved in the Americas gave birth to a civilization that built the modern world, wrote constitutions that restrained power, built the cathedrals and cities, brought high art and music, conceived of the idea of human rights, and finally ended slavery on moral grounds.

Is this worth celebrating? It certainly is.

Columbus Day? Absolutely.

It is now wholly and entirely back thanks to a bold Executive Order by Donald Trump. It comes at a time when elite culture in the United States and most of Europe and the UK has lost confidence in all the achievements of the past. A kind of self-loathing has taken over the highest ranks, an attitude born of ingratitude and ignorance toward the tremendous sacrifices made by their own ancestors.

The lack of confidence in the Western idea is obvious in all elite art trends. Today at the Canterbury Cathedral in London, you can see an exhibit of graffiti strewn throughout the cathedral. It’s meant to look like a subway or an urban street taken over by vandals. It was not done by street criminals but elite artists living on grants. This is supposed to be art, and it is fully approved by the dumbest ecclesiocrats ever to hold power.

The history of this cathedral traces to the 6th century, when St. Augustine built the first Christian church in that spot. The construction of the cathedral began in 1067, and took hundreds of years before it was complete. It is the oldest cathedral in London and the very embodiment of the sacrifice, diligence, and resulting magnificence of the Western idea, which boils down to an incredible confidence in the capacity of man, in obedience of God, to rise above the state of nature.

Now the elites are bringing back barbarism and calling it art. The curators are literally desecrating the sacred space and inviting the public in to view the results. Each time something like this happens, one hopes that this will be the last straw, the incident to wake up the masses as to what is really going on and the unfathomable corruption that traces to the top of the social hierarchy.

When the Cathedral of Notre Dame burned in 2019, as a foreshadowing of the hellish years that would follow, we worried that it would be reconstructed according to postmodern standards, with displays of impiety towards the past. That did not happen, thanks to a populist push and plenty of funding from philanthropists who made sure that it would come back more wonderful than ever.

As for London and the politics of the UK, we have dived further down the hole of barbarism and despotism than anyone really thought possible. Maybe the official desecration of the Cathedral will be the trigger finally to turn this disaster around? It will take courageous leadership in politics, religion, arts, education, and in every walk of life to make it possible. One can only hope that it is not too late.

The reemergence of Columbus Day in the United States is a wonderful sign of a possible turnaround. It makes us optimistic that civilization can be saved after all. We need more. Bring back the 19th-century stories of the Founding Fathers. Stop the trashing of geniuses like Thomas Jefferson and the deprecation of that entire generation. Study and learn the real history of this great country.

America may yet lead the way back to the light. The battle is far from over. It has barely begun. Meanwhile, if you happen to encounter any tenured professor at an Ivy League university who wishes you a happy Columbus Day, give him a thumbs-up. He is certainly a lonely figure.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 17:00

US Intelligence Has Been Enabling Ukraine's Destruction Of Russian Energy Sites

Fresh reporting in the Financial Times offers more confirmation that the Trump administration has been escalating the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, in hopes of forcing Moscow to the negotiating table.

The Sunday report makes clear that "The US has for months been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities, in what officials say is a coordinated effort to weaken Vladimir Putin’s economy and force him to the negotiating table."

Via The Atlantic Council

"American intelligence shared with Kyiv has enabled strikes on important Russian energy assets including oil refineries far beyond the frontline, according to multiple Ukrainian and US officials familiar with the campaign," it adds.

One source described Ukraine's drone program as the tool the US is using to weaken Russia's economy and pressure Putin into ending the war on terms more favorable to Kiev.

Washington has sunk billions of dollars in expanding Ukraine’s drone capabilities, with the CIA reportedly supporting the initiative. Attacks on Russian oil and energy sites have become almost a nightly occurrence. In many cases Russian anti-air defense fail to intercept the small drones - or else only destroy some among larger swarms.

FT provides a timeline of when this ramped-up intel sharing began. The program reportedly expanded based on a July phone call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump allegedly asked whether Ukraine could target Moscow if supplied with longer-range weapons.

The report relates this exchange as follows:

Trump signaled his backing for a strategy to "make them [Russians] feel the pain" and compel the Kremlin to negotiate, said the two people briefed on the call. The White House later said Trump was "merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing".

After this, as if to demonstrate its existing capabilities to Washington, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy sites sharply increased in August and September.

Interestingly, the FT notes that the Biden administration had avoided backing such strikes, but still authorized the supply of US Army ATACMS missiles, capable of reaching targets up to about 190 miles away, against Russian border areas.

Ukraine has hit a key Russian oil depot in Russia-occupied Crimea, causing massive fires. The key energy resource -- the largest oil storage and shipment hub on the peninsula -- sustained heavy damage, with multiple fires reported. pic.twitter.com/tg8EsqJnvT

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) October 13, 2025

But Trump's apparent intelligence-sharing escalation is seen in things like the following: "A US official said Ukraine selected the targets for long-range strikes and Washington then provided intelligence on the sites’ vulnerabilities." FT adds: "But others involved and briefed on the operations said the US had also set out target priorities for the Ukrainians."

Meanwhile, the question of the US providing Kiev with Tomahawk missiles remains an open one. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about the issue: "We'll see... I may". The missiles would be "a new step of aggression" in the war, he acknowledged. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 16:40

The Matrix Abides

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Of the 251 hostages seized in the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas raid on Southern Israel, 20 came out alive today, all men. The shockingly low number of survivors altogether should tell you something about the moral disposition of Hamas. World opinion has not processed this in the heat of this moment, with the Gaza War ostensibly resolved, for now. . . or so we’ll see. Soon, the captives’ stories will be told.

Of course, world opinion is not what it used to be even a few years ago. These days, it oscillates around the poles of sane / insane. The Lefty-Woke wine-ladies of the Boston suburbs and their nose-ring Ivy League daughters must have the blues today over the implicit surrender of their heroes, Hamas. The keffiyeh is headed out as a fashion accessory. Who will be their next pet oppressed minority? (The Eskimos? The New York Times will put out a whole cooking section on blubber.) Note to the men (so-called) in their orbits: the gals will be loading up on Paxil and Klonopin, on top of all that Chardonnay. Consider hiding the cars keys.

Meanwhile, over at Conflict Central, the action shifts to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, today for a “peace summit” among the various party’s involved in a war settlement, many of them Arab nations of the region, plus key Euroland players. Somebody will have to police the joint, probably some combo of Gulf State soldiers and American troops. The UK, France, and Germany will have to content themselves with pretending to participate, as they have their hands full just now pretending to ignite a war with Russia. Turkey could be in the mix, too, though the odor of pre-1918 Ottoman subjugation lingers on in that corner of the world. Don’t expect a whole lot to be sorted out quickly.

Donald Trump will take a few brief victory laps and, by Tuesday, all that nasty business might be behind him, at least for a while. . . maybe.

Mr. Trump has a whole lot of fish to fry back here.

He is fixing to disassemble the entire armature of Democratic Party sedition by wrecking the armature of NGOs that feed it — and you should not be surprised to learn that billions of the dollars sloshing through that colossal money-laundry originate in US government tax receipts.

For instance, the diligent “X” account known as “DataRepublican (small r)” reports that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) with gross receipts of $363,001,576 received $362,047,237 from taxpayers, mainly through the State Department (including pre-Trump 2.0 USAID). The org, initially founded by Reagan Republicans, is now controlled by Democrats and their Neocon cronies bent on “nation-building” and color revolutions. Wherever there is turmoil in the world — Ukraine, Sudan, Pakistan, Myanmar — the NED has a piece of the action.

Stanford University, with an endowment of $23,780, 883,880, received $1,518,836,616 in taxpayer funds (those are billions), used to sponsor its Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which spun off the Election Integrity Project (EIP) and the Virality Project. The former was dedicated, under “Joe Biden,” to assist Christophe Wray’s FBI and Homeland Security’s Global Engagement Center, in censoring social media on matters such as the Hunter Biden Laptop .

The Election Integrity Project ran a parallel op under “Joe Biden” tracing 2020 election “disinformation” — i.e., anybody who reported ballot fraud — and the EIP worked to censor such content across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube with help from Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Global Engagement Center (GEC). The Virality Project likewise dedicated itself to Covid-19 speech suppression. A lot of this money was funneled through subsidiary NGOs such as the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Omydyar network (the eBay fortune).

You see what I mean by armature? (And that was a mere schematic sketch of a small part of it.)

This is a vast edifice of funny-money. The Democratic Party had captured all of it, and has been using it largely to maintain its power, which is to say, to keep the colossal money-laundry operating, because the salaries of all the people employed in these supposedly beneficent endeavors support a huge managerial cohort of officers who circulate in and out of government and comprise much of what’s called the “Swamp,” the “blob” or the “Deep State.”

"[S]omebody once observed that so much of leftism is pretending not to understand things that everyone understands."

- Kurt Schlichter on "X"

Jolly Antifas on Parade

This matrix is the same source of funding for Antifa and other Lefty-Woke outfits seeking to sow chaos through our country. The next big event on the agenda is another national “No Kings” protest, scheduled for Saturday, October 18, in over 2,000 US towns and cities. It’s organized by the umbrella NGO, Indivisible, with cash from George and Alex Soros’s Open Society Foundation, the Berger Action Fund (the philanthropic vehicle of Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss), the Tides Foundation, and the Act Blue donation platform (currently under DOJ investigation for campaign contribution fraud). These outfits supply placards, transportation, and protester’s stipends for what amounts to an “astroturf” (fake grassroots) spectacle.

Things should heat up and get spicy this week as that great day approaches.

Antifa is not done trolling the ICE buildings in Portland, Chicago, and the Boston field office in Burlington, Mass. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton will likely get indicted in the days ahead for possessing classified documents he was not entitled to keep (boo hoo). And don’t be surprised if tremors rock the financial markets.

Gold (nearing $4100) and silver (nearing $50) are sending ominous signals.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 16:20

Princeton Joins Move Back To Standardized Testing

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Princeton University announced this week that it will be reinstating the requirement for undergraduate applicants to submit standardized test scores in the 2027–28 admissions cycle. It is only the latest reversal for an ill-conceived and poorly supported movement to achieve greater equity and diversity by eliminating standardized testing in higher education.

Years ago, I wrote columns on the move by many academics to eliminate standardized testing to achieve greater diversity in colleges and universities.

I have long been a critic of this movement given the overwhelming evidence that these tests allow an objective measure of academic merit and have great predictive value on the performance of students.

The University of California system was an early supporter of this ridiculous move.

Notably, academics in the California system came to the same conclusion as some of us who denounced the move. These tests not only have the most significant predictive value for performance but also play an important role in the advancement of minority students. University of California President Janet Napolitano, however, overrode those conclusions.

Napolitano responded to such criticism with a Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. 

Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing.

The task force did find that 59 percent of high school graduates were Latino, African-American or Native American but only 37 percent were admitted as UC freshman students.

The Task Force did not find standardized testing to be unreliable or call for its abandonment, however.

Instead, its final report concluded that “At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.”

Not only that, it found: “Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007 … Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.” In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college.

That clearly was not the result Napolitano or some others wanted. So, she simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions. The system would go to a “test-blind” system until it developed its own test.

Ending standardized testing had an obvious secondary purpose in frustrating new legal challenges on the use of race in college admissions.

Last November, Californians rejected a resolution to restore affirmative action in college admissions.

MIT, Penn, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and other schools ultimately reverted to standardized testing. The fact that these schools even joined this movement shows how faculties and administrators jettisoned educational standards for popular causes.

While originally rationalized due to COVID, the move was widely heralded as a victory for equity and diversity. Notably, the policy outlasted COVID as many academics rejected standardized testing as racist. There have even been calls for random selection of students to achieve greater racial diversity.

In the case of Princeton, the faculty took years to give itself sufficient cover to return to standardized testing by studying the obvious. The announcement comes after a five-year review of data, showing that students who submitted test scores generally performed better academically at Princeton than those who did not.

Just as with earlier studies, a new working paper published on the National Bureau of Economic Research website finds that standardized test scores are stronger predictors of college performance than high school GPA, even after controlling for race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

GPA scores are notoriously unreliable due to grade inflation and varying standards across different schools. In San Francisco, “grading for equity” is a goal in public schools.

The slipping standards recently became evident when Harvard had to create a course to teach basic high school math to its students.

Columbia remains the last Ivy League holdout in dispensing with mandatory standardized testing.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 15:45

JPMorgan Commits $1.5 Trillion To Strengthen America’s Industrial Base

JPMorgan Chase announced a sweeping $1.5 trillion, decade-long initiative to finance and invest in industries central to U.S. economic and national security, committing up to $10 billion of its own capital to select American companies, according to reporting by Reuters on Monday.

The bank is the latest to "fall in line" behind President Trump's continued focus on national security while safeguarding trade and production domestically. 

The plan will channel funds into four core areas — supply chain and manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy independence, and frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. JPMorgan will expand research through its Center for Geopolitics, hire additional bankers, and form an external advisory council to guide the effort.

“This is a JPMorgan initiative,” Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said, stressing that it is “100% commercial” and not driven by the Trump administration.

Sure Jamie. Wink, wink. 

It's probably just a coincidence then that the announcement follows rising trade tensions with China and renewed U.S. efforts to secure critical industries such as semiconductors, minerals, and clean energy.

“It has become painfully clear that the U.S. has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing – all of which are essential for our national security,” Dimon said. “Our security is predicated on the strength and resiliency of America’s economy. America needs more speed and investment.”

Reuters reported that Dimon called for policy changes to remove “excessive regulations, bureaucratic delay, partisan gridlock and an education system not aligned to the skills we need,” urging unity in facing the nation’s “immense challenges.” “We need to act now,” he said.

JPMorgan’s “security and resiliency initiative” will include direct equity and venture capital investments in companies building technologies for defense, AI-driven energy systems, semiconductors, and data centers. “Our support of clients in these industries remains unwavering,” Dimon added.

The announcement comes amid growing debate over artificial intelligence and its economic impact. Dimon told the BBC that while AI will “pay off,” much like the early car and television industries, “most people involved in them didn’t do well.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 15:25

Big Government, No Growth - The Implosion Of Statism

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

Rising government spending and public debt create economic stagnation and declining living standards. Many citizens believe that the state will give them prosperity and equality. However, the state only makes paper promises by issuing debt, creating a constantly depreciated currency. Taxpayers are constantly expropriated, while the recipients of subsidies become a dependent subclass. Who wins? Bureaucrats.

Deficit spending is not a tool for growth. It erodes prosperity, creates persistent secular stagnation, real wage growth decline, and poor productivity growth.

High public spending and government debt falsely inflate GDP through government outlays while, in most cases, masking a private-sector recession underneath. GDP is easily manipulated by increasing government spending and changing the calculation of GDP deflators.

The state issues debt, a form of currency, and establishes a system that continuously suffocates the productive sector. In effect, GDP and CPI serve as measures of economic strength that obscure the imbalances created by the state; GDP overstates real growth by incorporating government spending financed by debt, while CPI, like the GDP deflator, underestimates the currency’s loss of purchasing power.

Major economies face a hidden real recession for households and small businesses using “robust” headline figures bloated by ever-rising government debt. Every new dollar of debt now generates less than sixty cents of nominal GDP in the U.S. However, when we look at countries like Japan, France, the UK or Germany, the multiplier effect of new government debt is either nonexistent or negative. The consequences are evident: true productive economic expansion is hurt by rising taxes, regulatory burdens, and inflation, which reduce incentives for private investment and innovation.

Statism creates enormous disincentives for productive investment and promotes malinvestment and the constant transfer of wealth from the productive sectors to the government. Governments finance their ever-expanding budgets in privileged conditions, creating a crowding out of the private sector that suffers the consequences of persistent inflation and raising taxes.

Remember that high taxes are not a tool to reduce debt but to justify it.

Despite political messages promoting growth and stability, statism results in low productivity growth, which in turn causes declining real wage growth and diminishing purchasing power as governments overheat economies by issuing more currency than the private sector demands while maintaining unsustainable public accounts. Persistent inflation is the systemic result of chronic government overspending and central bank easing to sustain sovereign debt bubbles.

Ironically, many citizens hail politicians and governments who promise to lower inflation by printing more currency through subsidies and government programmes. Governments promise to solve the problems they create, paving the road to serfdom.

Capitalism and social media do not cause inequality and discontent. Governments create inequality in its most severe form, which arises from political favouritism.

Artificial creation of currency is never neutral. It disproportionately benefits the first recipient of new money and governments and hurts the last recipients, wages, and deposit savings.

Workers and the middle class cannot protect themselves against the stealth expropriation of the economy. Those with financial means hedge against currency debasement through asset investments, while wage earners and deposit savers suffer the hidden tax of inflation and the erosion of purchasing power.

The hidden costs of public debt are more evident than ever: governments absorb available credit, banks become reluctant to lend to productive private enterprises, genuine investment suffers, and job creation and long-term productivity weaken. Instead of fuelling sustainable growth, government borrowing absorbs capital to bloat the administration machine and promote asset bubbles. Small and medium enterprises face constant penalties while malinvestment thrives.

Keynesian policies promise prosperity through endless spending, and when it does not work, they always say that they did not spend enough. However, the promises of eternal government expansion meet the reality of the economic, fiscal, and inflationary limits, which have already been surpassed in most developed economies. Tax hikes generate diminishing receipt improvements, while productive investment is penalised. Additionally, debt accumulation meets a loss of investor confidence and erosion of currency stability. Thus, with persistent inflation, the purchasing power of the currency deteriorates.

By manipulating interest rates and maintaining elevated public outlays, governments create a stealthy nationalisation of the economy and a slow-motion crisis. This leads to a gradual decline in both purchasing power and living standards.

The solution is to diminish the power of the state, promote sound money, strengthen the private sector, favour entrepreneurship, and make systematic cuts to government spending. Only by refocusing on genuine market-led investment and trimming bureaucratic overhead can economies escape stagnation, restore real wage growth, and revive productivity. Without decisive spending restraint, citizens remain trapped in a vicious cycle of dependency, currency devaluation, and impoverishment.

Rising government spending and public debt do not deliver productive growth. They create stagnation.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 15:05

Mark Cuban-Backed Startup Lets 'Low FICO' People Tap Used Car Equity - Even If Not Paid Off - For 30% APR

While Mark Cuban may be a 'benevolent pill merchant' - providing low-income Americans with cheap prescription drugs, the 'Shark Tank' billionaire just helped raise $50 million for a Series B round in a Dallas-based financial technology firm that lets people with terrible credit scores tap into the equity in their depreciating used cars at a 30% interest rate - even if it's not paid off - in which case the entire auto loan is transferred). 

The startup, Yendo Inc., makes it even easier to squeeze blood from that stone. After signing up, the company issues the borrower a credit card - which incurs an additional 3% fee if used at an ATM to pull cash out. 

[Yendo] offers credit cards backed by vehicle equity to help customers get access to credit who may not be able to otherwise due to low FICO scores. The credit card functions like a normal card. Instead of a cash deposit, it's secured by the value of a person’s car. -Dallas Business Journal

In addition to Cuban - an early investor in the company, Yendo received funding from Spice Expeditions, Autotech Ventures, FPV Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners and Clocktower Technology Ventures. As Dallas Business Journal notes, Spice Expeditions founder Nick Huber will join Yendo's board, along with Lyft co-founder Logan Green. 

Founded in 2021, the company will use the funding to build an AI-powered digital bank that will decrease onboarding and operating costs - allowing them to focus on "opening doors for underserved Americans." The company says that there's more than $4 trillion in "untapped assets held by nonprime Americans.

Last May, the company raised $165 million in new capital - much if it debt, to increase lending through its asset-backed credit cards. Read more about their history here.

Also - for some reason all of Yendo's advertising shows black people using their lending: 

Mela from Phoenix, AZ "hardly had to leave the couch" to tap into her car's equity. And apparently one of the highest interest rates on the planet "worked great" for her budget. 

So, basically targeting the people screwed over in the Tricolor collapse. 

h/t Capital.news

*  *  * Last week's top sellers!

Astaxanthin (super potent natural antioxidant)

ZeroHedge Hat - waxed canvas for your pleasure

ZeroHedge Multitool - Full refund if you're not happy. Will let you keep it. That confident. 

Male Enhancement - Give her that Falcon Heavy (free bottle of Ultra Testosterone for a limited time)

Countertop RO Filter - been flying off the shelf, probably because we're undercutting everyone else on price (shh). Will have to raise that soon. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 14:45

Victor Hanson: The Pieces Of Trump's Peace

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

What did Donald Trump do differently to obtain at least temporary calm in the Middle East compared to the failed efforts of past administrations, foreign powers, and the United Nations?

Let us count ten different approaches.

1. Trump curtailed a considerable amount of Iranian oil income and its dispersal. He stopped, for the near future, the Iranian effort to build a bomb. Trump also allowed Israel to destroy Tehran’s air defenses, humiliate it militarily, and eliminate many of its top military officers and nuclear physicists. Thus, Israel’s half-century-long worries about Iranian nukes were addressed. At the same time, its stature as a military power soared to an all-time high—even if it became more isolated politically. Israel became more confident but also more sensitive to past, current, and future American military and political support—or pressure.

2. Trump allowed Netanyahu to destroy Hamas, cripple Hezbollah, and retaliate at will against the Houthis. That liberation led to general dejection among Israel’s enemies and a resurgence in Netanyahu’s own political fortunes. And that rise of Israel and the collapse of the Iranian terrorist network—the “ring of fire”— explain the greater chances for a ceasefire and possibly a peace. Trump allowed no daylight between Israel and the U.S., which, under the Biden administration, may have sent the wrong signals to Hamas prior to October 7.

So there is now no terrorist Palestinian leader, such as a Yasser Arafat or an all-powerful Hamas killer, to sandbag negotiations. Instead, Trump involved a number of self-interested surrogate Arab officials who have the money and influence to rebuild Gaza and restore calm on their own terms. Trump and Israel are not just negotiating from positions of historic strength, but they have also empowered the reasonable Arab nations to have honor and clout in Middle East negotiations in an unprecedented fashion.

3. Trump also leveraged all his benefactions to Israel by pressuring it to agree to a ceasefire.

Even the optics of a strong Israeli leader conceding to Trump that there would be no annexation of the West Bank gave the U.S. credibility in the Arab world as an honest broker and yet paradoxically helped Israel’s global reputation—as well as Netanyahu’s—as a more flexible negotiator.

4. Trump used the Abraham Accords and his much-maligned tariffs, along with expanding or curtailing commercial access into U.S. markets, to pressure—or persuade—the Gulf and moderate Arab states to ensure funding for Gaza reconstruction and the continued political weakening of Hamas. There is a sense in the Middle East, as elsewhere, that when it comes to new technologies such as AI, robotics, genetic engineering, and cryptocurrencies, the U.S. will remain the global leader, and thus a nation to court and please.

5. Trump, in carrot-and-stick fashion, promised a defense protection pact with Qatar—the proverbial untrusted wild card of the Middle East.

But his new quid pro quo “protectorate” also implied reining in Qatar if it should resume its customary double-dealing that so infuriates its neighbors and increasingly enrages the West. The Israeli attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar, and the signal Israel could strike again at will, terrified Qatar and drove it to seek protection in—new dependency on—the U.S.

6. Trump dealt with enemies, allies, and neutrals from a position of strength, comparative advantage, and national ascendance, unlike the appeasing and anemic Biden years or the apologetics of Obama. The successful complex bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities and the past elimination of terrorist Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and ISIS founder and thug Bakr al-Baghdadi ensured Trump was seen as more serious than either Obama or Biden ever were.

The Arab world and Israel also understood that there are no alternatives to Trump. Russia’s Syrian outpost is gone. Moscow is bogged down in a forever war in Ukraine and under sanctions. It is no longer a force in the Middle East.

Trump has confronted China and exposed its economic vulnerabilities, ensuring that the Arabs saw no outside power comparable to the U.S.

Chinese and Russian allies, like the Iranian theocracy and the former Assad dynasty in Syria, were also shown over the last year to be shrill, impotent, losing clients. At home, restoring the U.S. border, strengthening NATO, rebooting the U.S. military, fast-tracking energy development, and cracking down on crime fed the impression of an American renaissance rather than the continued Obama-Biden-managed decline.

7. Trump was entirely transactional. Unlike the Biden administration, he did not libel the Saudis, or demonize Netanyahu, or take seriously any of the past proverbial empty “peace plans” of a corrupt UN or of terrified Europeans. He had no sooner destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability than he allowed a ceremonial but innocuous “hit” on a U.S. base in Qatar and then declared he wanted to “make Iran great again.” For someone who is supposedly mercurial, holds grudges, and is reckless, Trump was careful to treat all the major parties with deference and a clean slate and offered them trade and military deals rather than diplomatese and platitudes.

8. Europe went from sandbagging Trump in 2017 to 2021 to calling him “daddy” once they realized that only Trump could save Ukraine and, by extension, Europe from Putin. The result was not an anti-American Europe trying to intrude into the Middle East negotiations or ankle-biting the U.S. To the degree that Europeans save face, it is by symbolically recognizing a Palestinian state, but not materially altering realities on the ground in Gaza.

For the most part, there is now a calmer Europe, relieved that Iran was denuclearized and the Palestinian terrorists in the Middle East might no longer trigger unrest among Europe’s own restive and unassimilated Muslim populations.

9. At this 11th hour, Hamas was reminded that it has no real alternatives—as the rubble of Gaza attests. Trump signaled to Israel that it could and can still go medieval on Hamas and its remnants should they resume terrorism.

Otherwise, Gaza remains a bombed-out wreck. Qatar will be pressured to kick out its conniving Hamas billionaires. The result is a stark choice: any Hamas attempt to rebuild its terrorist networks will ensure that it—and everything around it—will be moonscaped. Trump made it clear there are now no more sacred cows in the Middle East, no more safe spaces, and no more off-limits targets—juxtaposed to numerous win-win incentives that can lead to prosperity and security.

10. The Middle East was not seen as a one-off U.S. peace effort—as is usually the case. Instead, it was envisioned as a continuation of a series of prior successful Trump-led ceasefires between Rwanda and Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan, Kosovo and Serbia, Cambodia and Thailand, and Egypt and Ethiopia. The Israelis and the Palestinians saw Trump’s success elsewhere and may have felt from such momentum that the same might be possible in Gaza.

And if the ceasefire holds, or at least reduces the violence, global attention will next turn to Ukraine.

Expectations in and outside the Middle East will rise that if there can be quiet in war-torn Gaza, then that momentum might lead to progress toward peace on the Ukrainian border as well.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 14:25

Beyond Meat Crashes On Debt-Swap Plan As Fake Food Trend Goes Bust 

Fake food company Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) crashed the most on record today after it announced that nearly all creditors agreed to a debt-swap deal that massively dilutes equity shareholders.

BYND wrote in a press release that 96.92% of holders of its 0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2027 agreed to participate in the debt-equity swap offer, clearing the 85% threshold required for the deal to proceed. 

Under the terms, BYND will issue up to $202.5 million of new 7% Convertible Senior Secured Second Lien PIK Toggle Notes due 2030 and up to 326.2 million new shares of common stock. The exchange aims to reduce leverage and extend debt maturities. 

The transaction, while providing liquidity relief, will heavily dilute existing equity owners and underscores Beyond Meat's struggle to turn the sinking ship amid plunging sales and waning market share in the fake food space.  

In markets, BYND shares in New York crashed the most on record...

...down as much as 58%. Shares of the fake meat company began trading in a 2019 IPO. 

Fake meat has been an utter bust, even after years of globalist billionaires and their allies in the fake news media tried to persuade the world that real food is bad and fake food is good.

Related:

• Beyond Bad: Fake Meat And Other 'Ultra Processed' Vegan Food Linked To Heart Disease, Early Death

Eat real food.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 14:05

Bubble Creation - Friday's Crypto-Carnage As A Canary

Authored by Tuomas Malinen via gnseconomics.com,

On Friday, the largest market liquidation in crypto-market history occurred after President Trump posted on social media, threatening China with 100% tariffs.

Some investors lost their whole portfolio before Mr. President reversed course with a social media entry downplaying the risks.

Those who lost their life savings in yet another crypto-carnage could blame President Trump, and you would be correct, partially. Yet, this figure presents the primary reason we’re here.

Figure 1. The balance sheet of the Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China as a share of gross domestic product of the world. Source: GnS Economics, BoJ, ECB, Fed, PBoC, IMF

I have not really cared to update the graph anymore, but due to the asset roll-off of the Federal Reserve, the share has most likely dropped a bit (see the share that includes all major central banks). That is also not the main point here, but what happened before 2021.

Figure 2. Total assets of the Federal Reserve. Source: St. Louis Fed.

For a very long time, the assets (securities) held by the central banks grew modestly. Unless there was a crisis, the assets usually were below 10% of GDP. Not anymore.

The monetary meddling of the central banks after the GFC led to a massive increase in the money in circulation. This is the most update data on M2 money (“broad money”) in circulation in the world.1 I’ve added a few key policy actions to clarify the message conveyed by the graph.

Figure 3. M2 money as a share of GDP in the world. Source: GnS Economics, IMF.

After the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, where currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar, which was pegged to gold, between 1971 and 1976, the amount of money has grown rapidly. The first “Fed easing” shown in the figure refers to the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates after the shock delivered by Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, which was enacted to curb the runaway inflation caused by the oil shocks of the 1980s. Interest rates in the U.S. reached their peak in the vicinity of 20% in June 1981, after which they were cut to under 10% in two years.

The Dot-com bubble, its implosion, and the lowering of the interest rates from 6.5% to less than 2% in just a year by Fed Chair Alan Greenspan delivered another impulse to the supply of money. However, the major turn came in the Great Financial Crisis and the quantitative easing (securities purchase programs) launched after. They transformed central banks into active participants not only in money creation, a traditionally exclusive role for commercial banks, but also in the markets. I have detailed the (detrimental) effects of these policies in two Epoch Times articles (this and this).

However, the most significant shock came in the spring of 2020. From my Epoch Times piece:

In March 2020, the coronavirus outbreak was freaking out the markets, and on March 16, 2020, they crashed. The volatility index reached 82.69, the highest on record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 2997 points, or 12.9 percent—the worst point drop on record.

On the 16th, the New York Fed announced that it will add $500 billion in the over-night loans to repo-market. On the 17th, the Fed announced that it would use $1 trillion to mob up corporate paper from issuers. On the 18th, the European Central Bank announced that it would buy 750 billion euros worth of bonds and securities. On the 19th, the Fed announced that it would create lending facility to money market mutual funds. On March 25, 2020, interest rates of short-term corporate debt surged to 2.43 percent above the federal-funds rate, the over-night lending rate of the Fed, which led the central bank to issue a program targeted at the corporate markets.

At the end of May 2020, the Fed backstopped “repo” and U.S. Treasury markets, intervened in corporate commercial-paper and municipal bond markets and short-term money-markets, and bought corporate bond ETFs, including some speculative-grade, or “junk,” corporate debt. It also launched its “Main Street Lending” program, where it provided loans to middle-market businesses. Alas, come June 2020, the Fed had become the financial markets of the United States. The bailout operations enacted by Greenspan had reached the point where the fears that the creation of the Fed would ‘socialize’ the economy had materialized.

So, yes, you lost your money, partly because of the reckless tweeting of President Trump, but mostly because central banks have become active players in the economy, printing massive amounts of money, destroying the risk-and-reward relationship.

This is how enormous bubbles form, and they will eventually burst.

The main takeaway from the above is that central banks will, most likely, uphold the bubble by any means necessary, because if they did not, their credibility would be shattered.

While many market commentators are currently (still) celebrating the rally, it would not take long for them to identify the true culprits behind the “exuberance,” that is, the central banks.

The outcome would, (again) most likely be the end of the modern central banks, and while I would welcome such a development, many are very afraid of what it would imply (more on that later).

GnS Economics Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 13:00

Heavily-Shorted Grindr Erupts On Take-Private Report 

Shares of the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr surged around midday in New York after a Semafor report, citing company insiders, said they are "discussing taking the company private after a stock slide forced its owners into a precarious personal financial position."

The report says the two controlling shareholders, Raymond Zage and James Lu, are in talks to secure debt financing from Fortress Investment Group to buy out Grindr.

Before the Semafor's report was published, the dating app company had a market capitalization of about $2.4 billion. 

Here's more about the potential buyout deal:

Zage and Lu have discussed a buyout price of around $15 a share, some of the people said, cautioning that number could change. A deal at that price would value the company at around $3 billion.

Before the report hit the wires, shares were down 30.5% year-to-date. Afterward, the stock jumped 16%.

It's important to note that the float is 32.5% short, equivalent to about 10.5 million shares, with 5.3 days to cover.

More from Semafor:

Any deal would likely carry national-security implications. Grindr was originally owned by a Chinese firm, which sold it in 2020 after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States raised concerns about sensitive personal data — which could be used in blackmail attempts — being accessed by Beijing. Zage, a US expat who is now a Singaporean national, surpassed 50% ownership of Grindr just last month through stock buybacks. Lu is a Chinese-born US citizen, according to the South China Morning Post.

Taking Grindr private could arrest a stock slide that appears to have little to do with the company's financial performance: Profits were up 25% in the second quarter from a year ago, but the stock has fallen more than 20% since late September. Grindr went public in 2022 through a blank-check company.

Corporate filings show that Zage and Lu, who together owned more than 60% of Grindr's shares as of June, had pledged nearly all of their stock for personal loans. That lender, the people said, is SeaTown Holdings, a unit of Temasek, which seized the shares last week after the loans became undercollateralized.

Short squeeze?

Tyler Durden Mon, 10/13/2025 - 12:40