BBC Finds Presenter In Violation Of Network Standards For Correcting "Pregnant People" Reference On Air

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

There is a controversy at the BBC over a correction made by presenter Martine Croxall on air when she changed a reference to “pregnant people” to “women.”

The network later received 20 complaints and agreed that Croxall had violated network policies. (For full disclosure, I previously worked as the legal analyst for BBC).

In the segment, Croxall began by stating, “London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has released research, which says that nearly 600 heat-related deaths are expected in the U.K.” She then added “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people — women, and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.”

When she said “women,” she seemed to briefly pause in frustration in making the change.

According to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), the brief pause and facial expression conveyed bias and a “personal view”:

“The phrase ‘pregnant people’ was followed by a facial expression which has been variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt or exasperation.

Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of ‘people’ to ‘women’ laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.”

I can understand that the network does not want on-air staff to convey their personal views on divisive subjects, particularly controversies that the network is covering.

What I was less clear on was the standard being enforced here.

There is no BBC rule that I know of requiring the use of “pregnant people” as opposed to women.

So, if that is true, the violation was the brief pause and facial expression.

If Croxall had simply made the change without the facial expression, would she be in compliance with network standards?

Croxall clearly disagreed with the nomenclature used by the writers, as many do. The fact that the BBC received 20 complaints is hardly surprising and the reliance on such complaints as proof of meaning is a dangerous practice. It is now common for individuals and groups to file a flurry of complaints against anyone who holds opposing views on issues like transgender rights or identity. The United Kingdom has eviscerated free speech with criminal prosecutions and investigation for years. Flash mobs form quickly to pursue dissenting voices such as J.K. Rowling, who maintain that these policies undermine the progress on women’s rights.

Notably, BBC initially supported Croxall and told complainants that Croxall’s script change was “done for clarity and was in no way meant to be disrespectful. We’re satisfied it was duly accurate and impartial, and in line with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.” As more complaints were filed, the network changed its position.

I understand that BBC does not want presenters to express personal views on such subjects on air, but it has remained uncomfortably vague on how presenters address such issues. Croxall clearly felt that “pregnant persons” was a clumsy and inaccurate expression. Is BBC saying that this is the correct way to speak of pregnant women or can presenters change the language, as did Croxall?

The current position seems the worst of all options for BBC to remain silent on the correct term while finding a presenter in violation for how she corrected it.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 11:40

Trump Announces $2,000 'Tariff Dividend' To Be Paid To Most Americans

President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that most Americans would receive a dividend payment of "at least" $2,000 - paid out of US tariff revenues.

"A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that tariffs have brought in "trillions of dollars," and that 401(k) accounts are the "Highest EVER." He also claimed that the tariffs had caused "No inflation."

"People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!" he continued.

The Treasury Department said in September that it had collected more than $195 billion from tariffs in 2025, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he expects the US to collect $500 billion or more in tariff revenue annually.

On Sunday morning, Bessent told ABC's "This Week" that the administration's goal with the tariffs was to "rebalance trade" rather than simply take in revenue.

But wait!

Bessent also suggested that the $2,000 dividend could come in several forms - between tax decreases, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, or other deductions. 

Bessent: The $2,000 dividend could come in in lots of forms. It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing in the President's agenda— no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, deductibility of older loans— those are substantial deductions.

LOL!… pic.twitter.com/XRl5uTvzrn

— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) November 9, 2025

Trump floated the idea of a $1,000 to $2,000 "distribution to the people" during an October interview with One America News Network, and said they would bring in over a trillion dollars per year. 

Of course, $2,000 for most Americans would be difficult to claw back if the Supreme Court reverses them. 

Crypto markets immediately reacted (positively) to the potential helicopter drop of cash...

We would expected gold to jump once it opens also.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 11:05

Repo Ripples, AI Angst, Bad Breadth, & Stealth QE

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

AI Earnings Not Strong Enough?

This past week, markets continued to digest earnings from key technology and AI-focused companies, as well as the lingering effects of the Federal Reserve’s recent policy shift. Despite a limited macroeconomic calendar due to the ongoing government shutdown, corporate results kept investors engaged. The market struggled with ongoing narrow breadth and growing sensitivity to forward guidance. Major earnings reports from AI-related and large-cap tech firms revealed continued strength in revenue and profit growth, but fell short of overly optimistic expectations.

According to FactSet, the blended year-over-year earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 in Q3 stands at 10.7%, up from 7.9% at the start of earnings season. Revenue growth has reached 4.9%, exceeding both the five-year and ten-year averages. The Information Technology sector is leading the pack with an earnings growth rate of 26.5%. Consumer Discretionary has also rebounded to positive territory, while Communication Services lagged, weighed down by weakness from companies such as Meta, which beat revenue and earnings estimates but was impacted by a one-time tax-related charge.

Many AI-driven firms beat expectations, but markets reacted cautiously to increased capex and tempered forward guidance. Investor response has been mixed. While earnings beats remain high, several strong reports led to muted or adverse price action. This suggests markets are pricing in not just current performance but also cautious sentiment around future growth, margins, and investment intensity, particularly in AI infrastructure.

FactSet reports the forward 12-month P/E for the S&P 500 is now approximately 22.9x, above the five-year average of 19.9x and the ten-year average of 18.6x. These elevated multiples reflect high investor expectations and confidence, raising the stakes for any missteps or negative surprises in guidance. With the macro calendar limited by the federal shutdown, investor focus is firmly on earnings, capital expenditures (capex) trends, and corporate guidance. In this environment, earnings calls and management commentary matter more than usual.

Speaking of earnings, the most notable factor is the elevated expectations of earnings growth projections heading into 2026. While there are a lot of hopes for next year, the vast majority of earnings growth next year is solely dependent on the “Magnificent 7.” Expectations are currently for negative growth from the bottom 493.

This brings to light a few things that investors should be aware of:

• Earnings growth remains strong but is increasingly priced in.

• A narrow group of large-cap tech and AI stocks is leading market gains.

• Valuations are elevated, and participation remains weak.

• Guidance and capital allocation are under heavy scrutiny, especially in AI-related names.

• With macro data limited, earnings and sentiment remain the dominant short-term drivers.

Investors should remain engaged but selective. The market’s technical structure remains bullish, but fragile beneath the surface. Any disappointment in earnings, guidance, or policy could quickly shift sentiment.

Breadth Tumbles

The S&P 500 closed the week at 6,728 after struggling all week to hold its ground. While the index remains in a defined uptrend and continues to trade above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, both of which are still rising, the strength of the move is increasingly in question. Momentum remains constructive, with the MACD in a buy signal posture, and the 20-day moving average held as support. But the underlying structure of the market is weakening.

Breadth has notably deteriorated, with the number of stocks outperforming the benchmark index at levels typically associated with larger market corrective processes. Fewer stocks are participating in the upside, and internal momentum is fading. As of Friday, only 55.4% of S&P 500 components remained above their 200-day moving average, a meaningful decline from earlier levels this year. The number of stocks above their 50-day moving average has dropped even more sharply, down to just 40%, with participation narrowing in key sectors.

The market corrected about 3.5% from its all-time highs and remains above the 50-day moving average for now, keeping the bullish trend intact. However, money flow has deteriorated sharply, although we are seeing some buyers entering the market at the 50-day moving average on Friday, confirming support at that level. Relative strength has essentially reversed most of its previous overbought condition. Still, it remains in negative divergence overall, while momentum has triggered a short-term sell signal, which will keep a lid on advances for now.

Technically, the setup remains bullish based on price action alone, but structurally, it is not robust. Breadth weakness, momentum divergence, and declining volume on rallies are red flags. The rally is vulnerable to sharp reversals if broader participation does not materialize soon. A strong trend built on a narrowing foundation is inherently unstable.

Support and Resistance Levels

• Primary Resistance: ~6,850–6,900 (top of the rising trend channel and previous highs)

• Initial Resistance: ~6,767 (approximate 20‑day moving average)

• Initial Support: ~6,674 (approximate 50‑day moving average)

• Primary Support: ~6,497 (100-day moving average)

• Critical Support: ~6,134 (200-day moving average)

In this environment, investors should remain disciplined. The trend is intact, but fragility is growing. Participation in the rally is permissible, but positions should be hedged or trimmed where appropriate. Stops should be tightened on extended names. Without confirmation from broader market internals or macro data, the path forward could become more volatile.

Repo Ripples Turning Into Waves?

In September 2019, a critical but obscure part of the financial system broke. Overnight borrowing rates in the repo market suddenly spiked from around 2% to over 10% in a matter of hours. Banks and dealers couldn’t get the short-term funding they needed to finance Treasury holdings or settle trades. Liquidity froze. Wall Street was caught off guard. The Federal Reserve quickly intervened, launching emergency repo operations to inject cash into the system. Within days, funding markets stabilized. Over the next few months, the Fed expanded its balance sheet again, but not for QE, they insisted, but to keep repo markets functioning. That quiet intervention helped fuel the final leg of the market’s rally into early 2020.

Currently, we are seeing cracks reemerge in this previously unknown part of the financial system. In today’s commentary, we will discuss what it is and why it matters.

The “repo” market, short for “repurchase agreement,” sits at the heart of the financial system. Critically, and why it matters to the financial markets, is that it allows banks, hedge funds, and dealers to borrow cash by using high-quality securities, typically U.S. Treasuries, as collateral. (This is also how money winds up in the financial markets when the Federal Reserve is doing “Quantitative Easing.”)

The transaction is straightforward and is an OVERNIGHT transaction. During this process, one party sells a security with a commitment to repurchase it the next day at a slightly higher price. That price difference represents the cost of borrowing. Typically, the difference between the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and the Interest Rate on Reserves (IOR) is slightly negative. Currently, that is not the case. Notably, this is not some niche corner of finance. It’s the lifeblood of overnight funding.

Why is this so important? Because TRILLIONS flow through this market every day, and most people have never heard about it.

However, without it, Wall Street doesn’t open.

• Dealers need it to fund their balance sheets.

• Hedge funds rely on it for leverage.

• Money market funds use it to park cash overnight.

• It’s also how the Federal Reserve transmits monetary policy.

When the repo market functions smoothly, short-term interest rates stay in line with the Fed’s targets. When it breaks, liquidity dries up fast. That creates ripple effects in credit, equities, and even Treasury markets.

If repo transactions grind to a halt, it’s not because there’s a lack of collateral or cash, but because of fear. When institutions stop trusting each other, they stop lending to one another. That’s when the financial plumbing clogs, and the consequence of that “clogged plumbing” is rising volatility, strained liquidity, and falling asset prices. The repo market isn’t just important. It’s foundational.

A Redux of 2019? What Does It Mean for the Markets?

Currently, cracks are reappearing. The overnight repo rate is climbing as the use of the Fed’s Standing Repo Facility is increasing, and treasury bill issuance is ballooning.

Most notably, what the Fed once deemed “abundant liquidity” has now fallen below the levels it considers “ample.” The chart shows that the Fed Reserve’s plus Reverse Repos (which, for the past three years, have served as an excess liquidity storage facility used primarily to fund purchases of T-Bills) is now at the lowest level since late 2020.

Sound familiar? It should. The current environment bears a striking resemblance to the lead-up to the September 2019 repo crisis. Back then, the repo rate suddenly spiked from around 2% to over 10% in a single day as Wall Street’s funding machine seized up. Here is an example of what happened.

You have a brand new, fully paid-for Mercedes. You go to your neighbor and ask for an overnight loan of just $10,000, offering him the title to your car as collateral. Your interest rate should be close to the Federal Reserve’s overnight rate, but instead, your neighbor says he wants 10%. That difference is a “risk premium” that is undeserved because the loan is backed by guaranteed collateral, in this case, the car.

But that is what happened in 2019, and the Fed had to intervene with emergency liquidity operations to restore stability.

Why did it happen? In 2019, a combination of tax payments and Treasury auctions drained reserves from the banking system. At the same time, dealers were loaded with collateral they couldn’t finance. Cash lenders didn’t want to step in, even at higher rates, because they were either constrained by regulation or unwilling to take the risk. The repo market, which had always been taken for granted, suddenly became the problem no one was watching.

Today, we’re seeing many of the same ingredients. Heavy Treasury issuance is forcing dealers to take on more collateral, and liquidity is being withdrawn from the system due to the Fed’s quantitative tightening. The problem with the repo market is why the Fed announced it would end the shrinkage of its balance sheet at the end of November. Meanwhile, bank reserve levels have dropped sharply, adding to concerns about overall liquidity.

When stress rises in the repo market, it’s not a technical glitch, but rather a signal that the financial system is under pressure. If this stress deepens, it could lead to a broad tightening of financial conditions that will spill over into the equity and credit markets. Given the Fed’s concern about the “wealth effect” the financial markets provide to economic growth, this has become the third, and unspoken, mandate of Fed policy.

While that may sound frightening, there is a twist. If the Fed steps in to relieve repo pressure, like it did in 2019, it might trigger the opposite of a crash. In other words, the Fed’s actions to stabilize the repo market may lead to a “melt-up” in equities, where risk assets surge, not because fundamentals improve, but because liquidity returns in force. Such a conclusion is not far-fetched, as the Government shutdown has drained over $700 billion from the market, as shown by the sharp increase in the Treasury General Account.

Stealth QE on the Horizon

However, once the Government is reopened, that $700 billion increase in the Treasury General Account will flow back into the economy. That reopening will create a flood of effective stimulus as furloughed workers receive back pay, departments are reopened, and Government contract work resumes. Those dollars wind up deposited into the banking system, increasing bank liquidity. In effect, it is a “stealth QE” that could create a massive scramble for risk assets.

As such, both the end of the Government shutdown and a stabilization of the repo market could have an immediate impact on risk assets. Once dealers can fund collateral without paying punitive rates, liquidity will return, which “greases the wheels” of the entire financial system. Trading flows improve as Hedge funds can effectively re-leverage their portfolios, and credit spreads are expected to tighten.

You will notice in the chart below that this is precisely what happened after the 2019 repo scare. Once the Fed began daily operations to supply liquidity, the S&P 500 rallied to new highs. Then, of course, that liquidity went into overdrive following the onset of the pandemic. While it has since reversed somewhat, there remains, as noted above, “ample” liquidity in the financial system currently.

Just as it was in 2019, the move was not about fundamental improvements; it was simply about “too much money chasing too few assets.”

It is important to note that fixing the repo market isn’t about bailing out Wall Street. It’s about restoring the basic mechanics of financial intermediation. When overnight funding is cheap and available, institutions are willing to trade, lend, and invest. That confidence feeds through to markets. Although most investors don’t track repo rates daily, they feel the effects, as more liquidity means less volatility, tighter spreads, and rising asset prices. At least that is what we should expect in the short term.

However, the resolution needs to be more than a temporary patch. If the Fed signals it’s ready to backstop the market, investors will likely view that as a green light to increase equity risk and change the risk calculus to some degree. The problem is that stocks are already grossly detached from underlying fundamentals, and a resolution to either the Government shutdown or resolving the current repo stress will likely see investors pushing asset prices further away from those fundamentals. But that is how liquidity drives markets, especially when fundamentals look stretched.

For investors, it is worth noting that if the Fed steps in again, the upside could come quickly and substantially. For now, the repo market is the canary in the coal mine. What comes next depends on whether policymakers decide to move soon or wait until stress forces their hand.

Key Catalysts Next Week

The U.S. government shutdown persists, continuing to stall many federal economic data releases. In this environment, the market’s focus shifts sharply to those reports still expected and to key central‑bank commentary. Investors will monitor what limited data is available, along with speeches from Federal Reserve officials and corporate earnings, for directional signals.

In sum, next week offers a sparse macro calendar, making every publication and speech disproportionately important. The NFIB index will serve as one of the few viable high‑frequency signals of business sentiment. The Fed remarks by Cook and Jefferson will be scrutinised for hints of policy shift given the data blackout. With earnings still unfolding, investor attention remains on how companies navigate cost pressures, demand trends, and AI‑driven investment in a constrained economic backdrop. In such an environment, absence of negative surprises may support risk assets, but the lack of fresh data increases vulnerability to unexpected developments.

Trade accordingly.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 10:30

UK Sends Military To Urgently Help Belgium Against Mystery Drone Incursions 

Europe continues to be on edge over 'mystery' drone sightings threatening airspace and commercial aviation traffic at key transit hubs, and now there are further plans for a greater military response.

The United Kingdom is sending military equipment and personnel to Belgium following fresh incidents in the country which have impacted travel at two major airports. One Politico headline from last week said "Drones plague Belgium".

Source: AFP

British Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton said Sunday the military has agreed "deploy our people, our equipment to Belgium to help them" after a formal request for help from Belgian authorities.

"We don’t know – and the Belgians don’t yet know – the source of those drones, but we will help them by providing our kit and capability, which has already started to deploy to help Belgium," said Knighton.

Details of the type of equipment or how many personnel will be deployed were not disclosed. BBC reports that troops of 2 Force Protection Wing and Royal Air Force are likely being sent.

And while Knighton admitted the source of the drones remains unknown, he did name Russia has having conducted pattern of "hybrid warfare" in recent years.

He said it is "plausible" that Moscow is behind it. And the country's Defense Secretary John Healey said: "As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace".

According to more from BBC:

Alongside Nato allies, he added that the UK would help Belgium "by providing our kit and capability" which he said was already being deployed. On Friday the German defence ministry said it would support Belgium with anti-drone measures after a request from Brussels.

About 3,000 Brussels Airlines passengers were affected by the disruption, and the carrier said it faced "considerable costs" from cancelling or diverting dozens of flights.

UK Defense chief discussing response to unknown drone incursions in European airspace:

@ChrisUKSharp

UK military to help protect Belgium after drone incursions.

Sir Richard Knighton:

"We don't yet know... the source of those drones"

UK military personnel and equipment are being sent to Belgium to help it bolster its defences after drone incursions on its… pic.twitter.com/qeWBZkKyjk

— wow (@wow36932525) November 9, 2025

The drone incidents could be a false flag, blamed on Russia as a provocation. Or, it could be a ploy to garner public support for a civilian drone ban. They may represent a precursor to a larger event or "attack" designed to increase tensions between Russia and Europe. 

European military bases are equipped with drone triangulation technology as part of their counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) defenses, but strangely these have apparently not been able to track or identify these mystery drones.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 09:55

US Ends Funding For Anti-Hungarian Propaganda, Says Does Not Serve American Interests To Go After Allies

Via Remix News,

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is officially ending funding for the Hungarian Language Service at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), “Szabad Europa.”

In a letter from USAGM CEO Kari Lake to Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart (FL-26), chairman of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Lake directly references Hungary as a strong ally of the United States and notes how USAGM funding for Szabad Europa served to “undermine” its prime minister, Viktor Orbán. 

“It is the position of the Trump Administration that the original justification for adding Szabad Europa to RFE/RL’s programming lineup in 2019 is not aligned with U.S. national interests. This programming has undermined President Trump’s foreign policy by opposing the duly elected Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán. As you know, Prime Minister Orban was (and is) the leader of Hungary, which is both a strong U.S. ally and a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).”

Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, posted on X to celebrate the news, along with a photo of the letter.

“Originally created to deliver free, uncensored news behind the Iron Curtain, Radio Free Europe once played a key role in promoting liberty during the Cold War,” he posted. 

“Over time, however, the outlet lost its original mission, turning into an ideologically driven platform promoting liberal activism, including LGBTQ and gender campaigns, across Central and Eastern Europe. Under the Biden administration, this shift deepened further, as the service increasingly engaged in politically motivated narratives aimed at undermining Hungary’s democratically elected government.

“The Trump administration’s decision marks a return to sober, ally-based cooperation built on mutual respect and balanced partnership,” Orbán’s political director wrote.

Lake further stated in her letter that taxpayer money would only be used for content and activities that “serve the American people,” adding that “undermining staunch allies does not serve the American people.”

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 09:20

Humanoid Robot Roundup: Tesla Kicks Off Optimus Pilot Production As Goldman Tours China's Supply Chain

At Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, on Thursday evening, more than 75% of investors approved Elon Musk's $1 trillion CEO Performance Award. The package is tied to ambitious milestones, including nationwide robotaxi deployment, large-scale production of the Optimus humanoid robot, and market-capitalization thresholds designed to align long-term value creation with Musk's strategic vision to dominate the 2030s by controlling the most advanced technologies.

A limited internal production of Optimus has already begun at Tesla's Fremont, California factory. The goal next year is to ramp up series production with an eventual goal of a million humanoid robots per year.  

"So we're going to launch on the fastest production ramp of any product of any large complex manufactured product ever, starting with building a one million unit production line in Fremont. And that's Line One. And then a 10-million-unit-per-year production line here (at Giga Texas). I don't know where we're going to put the one hundred million unit production line, maybe on Mars. But I think it's going to literally get to one hundred million a year, maybe even a billion a year," Musk told investors at the annual shareholder meeting yesterday

Elon Musk on Optimus:

"The robots are just walking around the office, 24/7 with no one minding them & then they go charge themselves. It's going to be the biggest product of all time, bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything. There could be 10s of billions of robots." pic.twitter.com/BnrvJLBqIk

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) November 6, 2025

In October, we cited Chinese media that said Tesla placed a $685 million order for linear actuators from Sanhua Intelligent Controls, with deliveries expected to start early next year. 

Tesla is the leader and one of the few U.S. companies that can scale humanoid robot production ahead of the 2030s. 

We shift our attention to China, where rare-earth minerals and high-tech factories are plentiful, and find that a number of robot companies are gearing up for mass production. 

Goldman Sachs analyst Jacqueline Du spoke with a handful of Chinese companies embedded within the humanoid robot supply chain, including Sanhua, Tuopu, Rongtai, Shuanghuan, Minth, Joyson, Zhaowei, Best Precision, and Shuanglin. 

Du found that most of these companies are ramping up series production in China, Thailand, and to a lesser extent, Mexico. 

Here are Du's key takeaways after her meeting with these companies that provide clients with a snapshot of the humanoid robot space in China:

• Most suppliers are actively planning capacity both in China and overseas (primarily in Thailand, and less in Mexico), to support potential humanoid robot mass production, though no company has yet confirmed sizable orders or definitive production timelines. Current capacity planning ranges from ~100k to 1mn robot equivalent units per year (which looks bullish on industry growth outlook vs GSe of 1.38mn units of global humanoid robot shipment by 2035E). Most firms intend to scale up gradually upon actual order placement and therefore not necessarily indicating an imminent oversupply risk but most supply chain companies have an optimistic forward-looking view on industry outlook;

• Across the ecosystem, suppliers are broadening their product portfolios, evolving from single components to integrated modules, expanding product categories from actuators to sensors and structural parts, each targeting ambitious market share gains. It is quite evident that all of these companies that are more or less levered to the automobile industry appear eager to expand into robotics components in search of new growth engines and at the same time to better utilize their existing capacities with certain production synergies;

• Many companies are aggressively showcasing their technical capabilities and scalable production readiness, emphasizing their rapid design-to-product turnaround, agile service as key comparative edge to secure and expand market share in the supply chain. We note mentions of robotics customers such as Tesla Optimus, Agibot, Leju, Xpeng, etc. which could suggest these companies are more likely the earlier ones which rely more on outside suppliers to kick start volume production of robots with timing commonly expected in 2H26E;

• We remain constructive on long run humanoid robot technology trend but will need to monitor the key robot products performance and concrete end-applications to assess whether a technology inflection point will be near in sight. Key checkpoints afterwards are: 1) Tesla Optimus Gen 3 launch by Feb/Mar 2026; 2) Public disclosure of China/global humanoid robot companies' 2026E order/shipment targets by end-2025/early-2026. We are Buy rated on Sanhua H, Inovance and Shuanghuan; Neutral rated on Sanhua A, Leaderdrive, Best Precision and Moon's Electric under our coverage which are related to the humanoid robot space.

Our coverage has focused on the rise of humanoid and robodogs:

• Goldman's Chat With Top Robotics Firm Reveals Skynet Humanoid Timeline

• Goldman's Investing Guide To Skynet

• "Here Come Humanoids": Morgan Stanley Braces For The Looming Phase Shift in AI

• There's An iPhone Moment Happening With Humanoids

• "iPhone Moment" Nears For Humanoid Robots

• China Warns of Rogue Robot Troops Unleashing Terminator-Style "Indiscriminate Killings"

• China Humanoid Robotics Index Jumps After Unitree Debuts "Stellar Hunter"

• Vacuuming, Mopping, Mowing: The Household Robots Are Coming

• Meta Plans For New AI Humanoid Robot For "Household Chores"; Headline Fuels Stock Rally

• A New Fear Unlocked.

• Goldman Finds "Inflection Point" With Humanoid Robots; We Tested Unitree's Robodog

Give it until the 2030s before these bots start entering the average household.

ZeroHedge Pro subscribers can access the full note in the usual spot, including the analyst’s top bullish picks and detailed company breakdowns.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 08:45

BASF CEO: EU CO₂ Trading Is A "Destruction Mechanism" For European Industry

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The roadmap is already set: in the coming years, the EU and its member states will make both businesses and consumers pay even more for CO₂ emissions. BASF CEO Markus Kamieth warns of the enormous destructive potential of this policy.

Truth comes on pigeon feet – Friedrich Nietzsche already knew that. And apparently, the same applies to European climate policy: slowly, but inevitably, the reality of the true costs of the green transformation and its impact on Germany’s industrial foundation is emerging.

On October 29, BASF’s CEO Markus Kamieth faced the press during the quarterly results presentation. What he announced was another cold shower for anyone still hoping for a new economic miracle.

Weak Results in a Stable Environment

The world’s largest chemical company reported a 3% decline in revenue in Q3 2025 compared to last year, while EBITDA fell by 5%. BASF is under massive pressure and has already cut 1,400 jobs to meet growing cost pressures.

BASF’s numbers have to be seen against the backdrop of a slowly recovering global economic cycle. Especially the U.S. economy, growing nearly 4%, is driving strong demand. Economies in China and India continue to expand dynamically, particularly in sectors critical to the chemical industry.

While the global economy gains momentum, BASF – like much of Germany’s chemical sector and the broader industry – continues to lose ground.

BASF CEO Markus Kamieth

The company’s main site in Ludwigshafen is hit hardest, leaving its 33,000 employees facing an uncertain future.

Criticism of the Climate Course

Kamieth was unexpectedly outspoken during the presentation. In addition to criticizing EU trade policy and rising energy costs in Germany, he struck at a rarely openly discussed wound: the EU’s climate policy.

Kamieth didn’t mince words, calling the European CO₂ emissions trading system (EU ETS 2) what it is: an attack on Europe’s industrial foundation.

For BASF alone, if the current climate course within CO₂ trading remains unchanged, annual additional costs of around €1 billion will arise from 2027 onward, when exemptions are removed – costs borne exclusively by European industry, while the rest of the world simply does not participate.

Kamieth hit a sore spot. EU industry is being financially squeezed by an ideologized CO₂ policy. Deindustrialization is – whether unspoken or suppressed – the result of Brussels’ policies and their national enforcers, whose only response to their self-inflicted disaster is ever-new subsidies.

Rare Criticism

Criticism of this centrally planned climate disaster for industry is rare. All the more remarkable are the unmistakable words of the BASF CEO – just two weeks after the sharp critique from Evonik CEO Christian Kullmann. Both direct their warnings to the same address: European isolationism in climate policy.

Kullmann also called for a comprehensive reform of CO₂ emissions trading – or even the complete abolition of the system. He openly called it “economic madness.”

Both CEOs understand global competition. And they know: nobody will follow the Brussels line.

Climate Club Increasingly Isolated

The global climate club is becoming increasingly isolated. At COP30 in Brazil, the U.S. exit from the Paris Agreement confirmed that even leading industrial nations no longer follow Europe’s push for CO₂ dominance.

This development exposes cracks in the belief in a solely CO₂-driven climate change – a signal European climate policy cannot conceal.

Both COP30 and the increasingly frequent EU climate summits reveal the lengths to which authorities go to prevent these doubts from taking root in public consciousness.

Too much is at stake: the gigantic CO₂ tax machine, which in the coming years is designed to funnel massive funds primarily to Brussels’ central EU apparatus.

Ironclad Media Curtain

The situation is similar to nuclear power. Behind an ironclad media curtain spun by the political-media complex around this energy source, the German public remains unaware that nuclear power is making a global comeback – aiming to nearly double capacity in the next three decades.

The silence in climate policy has been bought at a high price – through the climate redistribution machine, which increasingly restrains large parts of the economy.

The annual volume of CO₂ trading is set to nearly triple to around €100 billion in the coming years, plus CO₂ taxes and other climate levies that also hit consumers.

Consider, for instance, the flight levies that are literally wiping Germany off the map as a location for air travel.

Enormous Economic Losses

The actual capital misallocation forced by climate policy and lawmakers is difficult to quantify. We are dealing with a tangle of taxes, subsidies, fiscal advantages, hidden support, and price guarantees.

Yet, it is realistic to estimate that around 4–5% of GDP is being burned outside market mechanisms.

With the expansion of the trading system and the massive increase in climate subsidies, Germany will lose €150–200 billion in productive capital annually. It is therefore no exaggeration to call Brussels’ climate policy a poverty engine – one that is systematically draining Europe’s industrial base in global competition.

The EU has established a Climate Social Fund (CSF), initially equipped with around €10 billion per year, to support households and small businesses in the so-called green transformation. This shows Brussels is fully aware of the consequences – making this policy ethically all the more reprehensible.

We are witnessing increasing centralization of political power in Brussels – justified by the moral imperative of carbon dioxide – a civilizational bow to the climate cult.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 08:10

Hungary Gets Its Badly Needed Russian Energy Exemption After Warm Trump-Orban Meeting

In a hugely significant, though not totally unexpected development, President Trump has exempted Hungary from sanctions over its continued purchases of Russian oil and gas for a period one year, according to a BBC report, citing a White House official.

The news follows Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Friday trip to the Washington where he was hosted for a state visit in the Oval Office. After being received very warmly by the US president, Trump conceded "it's very difficult for him [Orban] to get the oil and gas from other areas".

AFP/Getty Images

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó soon followed with a message on X declaring the US had given Budapest "a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas."

But that's when a White House official told press agencies that it would not be unlimited as Budapest was claiming, but was issued for a one-year period.

Late last month the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed its latest sanctions on Russia's largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil - after Trump had for months delayed this move amid hopes of finding a speedy ceasefire in Ukraine - but has expressed frustration and essentially given up on this, it appears.

Hungary's Foreign Ministry had at the time immediately proclaimed in the wake of that US action, "We are working on how to circumvent this sanction." 

Still, Orban and Trump have long seen eye to eye on blasting 'warmongers' in the EU. Trump alluded to this Friday in stating, "He [Orban] understands Putin and knows him very well... I think that Viktor feels we're going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future."

Orban for his part claimed Hungary is the only US ally in Europe which truly wants lasting peace in Ukraine, and with Russia. "All the other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation," Orban said Friday.

Trump at one point asked him: "So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?" To which Orban replied: "You know, a miracle can happen."

Below: Another interesting moment of shared vision on immigration problems...

Hungary’s Viktor Orban: “We are the only gov in Europe that considers itself a modern Christian gov. All other govs are, in fact, liberal, left-wing governments”

Trump later warned Europe: “There will be no Europe if they don’t stop illegal migration.”

pic.twitter.com/FOQOuQVh5a

— Ben Leo (@benleo444) November 7, 2025

This new one-year exemption for Budapest comes after during the Biden administration Washington and Brussels for years sought to cut off Europe from Russian oil and gas. This meant Hungary would likely be forced to buy more expensive US-produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) - as much of the rest of Europe has done.

But Orban's consistent position has been that as a logistically-challenged, landlocked country it has little choice but to stick with its traditional dependencies in terms of energy sourcing, and that it can't just immediately diversify without tanking the entire national economy.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 07:35

Endgame For Germany's Industrial Power Prices: Green Deal Failure Sparks Subsidy Spiral

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

On Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted top executives from the German steel industry at a summit in the the Chancellery to discuss solutions to the deepening crisis. Since the peak year of 2018, German steel production has fallen by around 25 percent.

Germany’s economic crisis is accelerating. Sky-high energy costs, relentless competition from China and India, and the EU’s absurd push for “green steel”—a climate-neutral variant no one demands on the world market—are pushing companies either into insolvency or out of the country.

Thursday’s meeting will bring together industry representatives, unions, and policymakers to chart the next steps for a sector facing its most severe turbulence in decades.

This is just the latest in a string of crisis summits orchestrated by the federal government for media effect. Awareness is demonstrated—solutions? Not so much. For Germany’s economy, political “solutions” increasingly mean one standard instrument: more subsidies.

A One-Issue Summit

Aside from the expected push for protective tariffs, the summit can be reduced to a single dispute: the so-called industrial electricity price. While many energy-intensive companies already receive partial relief, it is far from enough to remain internationally competitive.

Industrial electricity prices have hovered around 16–17 ct/kWh for months. German industry still pays up to 70 percent more than U.S. or French competitors, who benefit from nuclear power as their energy base.

This is the cost of the green transition.

And with it come job losses, shrinking value creation, and, for the first time, sharply declining municipal tax revenues.

Unsurprisingly, the federal government is ready to approve this subsidy. We are deep in a spiral of interventionism.

Costs Unclear

Economics Minister Katerina Reiche did not provide a specific budget but indicated that state electricity subsidies for energy-intensive industries—from chemicals to steel to paper—could start on January 1, 2026.

The German Economic Institute (IW) estimates the scaled-back industrial power scheme at around €4 billion per year. Two years ago, a parliamentary expert hearing even mentioned €50 billion. Realistically, the final cost will likely land in the low double-digit billions.

As always, taxpayers will foot the bill—either directly through higher levies or indirectly via debt-financed programs, whose costs are offset by inflation.

In truth, the summit is all about subsidies. Were it not for the European Commission, which—surprisingly—is still blocking the plan, insisting on strict state-aid limits: no more than 50 percent of energy consumption and only for three years. Why the Commission blocks here is unclear. But it is the biggest hurdle for this new multibillion-euro subsidy.

Green Deal Fails

The frequency of summits is telling. Germany’s transition to a climate-neutral economy has already failed. Reality refuses to bend to Brussels’ Green Deal diktat.

Meanwhile, thousands of self-appointed climate ideologues gather at COP30 in Brazil, as criticism of Brussels’ climate and regulatory policies grows loud.

German industry sees laws like the so-called Supply Chain Act—as a gateway to full regulatory control along entire value chains—as a major obstacle. Even agreeing on a seemingly competitive industrial power price cannot hide the Kafkaesque bureaucracy from Berlin and Brussels.

In the past three years alone, German companies had to create 325,000 additional positions—not for production, innovation, or export, but solely to meet ever-growing bureaucratic demands. Absurd. Anti-economic. Destructive.

Harbinger of Failure

Now the state intervenes again in a derailed economy. A subsidized industrial electricity price is an unmistakable sign—indeed, a warning—that Germany’s energy transition has failed.

What industry knows and the political-media climate complex denies: under the state-directed green energy market, competitive production of energy-intensive goods is impossible. With cheap Russian gas cut off and nuclear plants being decommissioned, other countries—especially the U.S.—will seize industrial production, leveraging lower energy costs. Deregulation in the U.S. energy sector under Donald Trump’s administration adds to this shift.

Political ethics would demand a candid debate about decades of wasted subsidies, misallocated resources, and collapsing industrial structures. But that is absent.

No Sustainable Solution in Sight

A subsidized industrial electricity price is just another patch in a quilt of subsidies and exemptions. It admits the failure of the green transition and the impossibility of planning complex economic processes on a drawing board.

Returning to cheap Russian gas as a stopgap to ease energy costs is politically impossible under current EU policy. The solution resembles a shell game: money is taken from one group (via taxes or debt, inflation delayed) and given to another—energy-intensive companies.

Europeans must accept importing overpriced U.S. LNG and continuing to fund a failed green subsidy economy. It is time to relearn the basics of economics.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Sun, 11/09/2025 - 07:00

The Day The Guns Fell Silent On The Western Front

Authored by Gerry Bowler via The Epoch Times,

On the stroke of 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, fighting ceased on the Western Front, bringing an end to what contemporaries were calling the Great War—the most destructive conflict in world history up to that point. Rejoicing and relief were the order of the day, at least on the Allied side.

The headlines of the Ottawa Citizen read: “PEACE! World War Ends; Armistice Signed; Kaiser Is Out; Revolution Grows.” In Montreal, Le Devoir reported: “Workers … arrived at their factories with their hearts light, liberated from a great burden. In the animated streets, pedestrians were brandishing newspapers with large smiles, their eyes brimming with fire.” The Winnipeg Free Press reported, “Winnipeg Goes Wild With Joy of Peace.”

Church bells rang across Canada, spontaneous processions broke out, liquor flowed, bands played, and tens of thousands of women and children wondered when their fathers, husbands, and sons would be demobilized and ready to come home.

Among the cities of the defeated Central Powers, the reaction was less jubilant.

In Berlin, the news was, “Berlin Seized By Revolutionists: New Chancellor Begs For Order; Ousted Kaiser Flees To Holland.” The Neue Freie Presse in Vienna read, “The Empire Collapses.”

Front-page stories across Germany and Austro-Hungary covered food shortages, public protests, and the turmoil that followed the proclamation of peace.

In the ranks of the Canadian Corps on the front lines in Belgium there was naturally jubilation, but that feeling was also mixed with anger—anger that their commander, Lt.-Gen. Sir Arthur Currie, had ordered continued attacks on the German-held city of Mons right up until the last moment, even though he knew an end to the war would soon be declared.

Currie’s decision had particular significance for Pte. George Price of Port Williams, Nova Scotia.

Price and his fellow soldiers of the 28th Battalion were advancing against enemy positions in Ville-sur-Haine on the morning of Nov. 11 when he was shot by a German sniper.

He died two minutes before the armistice, the last Canadian soldier and, indeed, the last British Commonwealth soldier, to perish in the war.

A photo of Canadian soldier Pte. George Price is shown in the Belgian village of Ville-sur-Haine on Aug. 3, 2014, the day before a ceremony to commemorate 100 years since the start of World War I. AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

The 28th Battalion was a Western Canadian outfit, with troops drawn largely from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It had fought with distinction in many of the great battles on the Western Front, including the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Hill 70, and the final assault on Mons in 1918.

Price had been working in Moose Jaw for the Canadian Pacific Railway when he was conscripted in 1917; he trained in Regina before being shipped to Europe, arriving with his unit in June 1918. He was wounded in a poison gas attack but rejoined his battalion in time for more fighting at Canal du Nord and Cambrai, before dying on Armistice Day. He is buried in St. Symphorien Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Today, Sir Arthur Currie is remembered as a brilliant military leader, an innovator, an opponent of the “war of attrition,” and an architect of the great Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge.

Immediately after the war, however, he came in for intense criticism.

The nickname “Butcher” was attached to him; some called for his court-martial, and many decried him for needlessly sacrificing lives for what was a symbolic victory.

In 1928, he sued the Port Hope Evening Guide newspaper for accusing him of wasting lives. During the trial, he argued that to cease fighting early would have been disobedience and treason, and that his orders for the last day of the war stressed caution and minimizing casualties. The jury found in his favour but awarded him only a token sum in damages. The trial seems to have broken Currie’s spirit and he died five years later, having never fully recovered his health.

War is cruel, and the worse the conflict and higher the casualty count, the less individual deaths appear to matter.

World War I claimed 20 million lives, a number of dead too vast to imagine - but that figure comprises 20 million individual stories, 20 million tragedies that preceded George Price.

Among those who died in the last minutes of the war were Augustin Trébuchon, a shepherd from Lozère who was the last Frenchman to be killed, a mere 13 minutes before Price died, and Henry Gunther of Baltimore, the last American to die. Gunther was shot in the very last minute of the war, charging a machine gun nest manned by Germans who, knowing of the impending ceasefire, begged him to stop.

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

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 23:20

How Americans Want AI To Support Them

Three years after the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, there’s little remaining doubt that artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s usually referred to, will change our lives in many ways.

In some ways, it already has.

For example, people are searching the web differently, often relying on AI summaries instead of scrolling through and clicking on search results. That is, if they even use a search engine anymore and don’t just ask a large language model like ChatGPT instead.

The potential for AI tools to make our everyday lives a little easier here and there is virtually limitless, but what do people actually want AI to help them with?

Statista's Felix Richter reports that, according to a recent survey by Statista Consumer Insights, 3 in 10 Americans want AI to act as a personal assistant to them, which it is already capable of.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Especially tools baked directly into smartphones and thus able to aggregate information from various apps have the potential to be very effective personal assistants that help with scheduling, reminders and communication.

Other forms of AI support that Americans are keen on include automating everyday tasks, helping with work tasks as well as health and wellness tips.

Looking at the list, it’s clear that AI is already capable of doing all of these things.

For many people it’s just a matter of finding the right tool or workflow to take full advantage of AI tools and their countless possible applications.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 22:45

The False Temperature Claims That Underpin The COP30 Alarmist Agenda

Authored by Chris Morrison via DailySceptic.org,

The next two weeks of COP30 will see three favourite climate scares relentlessly broadcast to promote the fast-fading hard-Left Net Zero fantasy.

They are:

1. breaching a 1.5°C global ‘threshold’ leading to runaway temperatures;

2. human-caused tipping points producing unimaginable natural disasters;

3. and attribution of single-event bad weather to the use of natural hydrocarbons.

The 1.5°C figure is a meaningless number invented by politicians and activists to concentrate Net Zero minds; tipping points are climate model codswallop; and ditto attribution crystal ball-gazing.

None of them are backed up by credible scientific evidence and observation.

Which of course is why political elites have trashed the scientific process of inquiry, banned and cancelled any dissenting discussion and declared the matter ‘settled’.

The foundation scam is temperature. The world is said to be warming dramatically, leading to tipping points and worsening extreme weather. Changes are said to be occurring at unprecedented rates and are caused primarily by humans increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. In fact the temperature rise is small, about 1°C over 200 years (making allowance for all the fake temperature estimates and urban heat-ravaged measurements) and similar rises are commonplace in both the historical and paleo record. The recent ‘hottest evah’ rises have been seen in the past – sudden changes in temperature are caused by sudden local events such as volcano eruptions. As it happens, the underwater Hunga Tonga volcano released vast quantity of water vapour into the upper atmosphere in 2022, a ‘greenhouse’ warming event that would have been helped along by a recent strong El Niño oscillation. Recent accurate satellite measurements show the overall global temperature has been falling during 2025.

Don’t take my word for all this natural movement. Professor Mark Maslin is a Professor of something termed Earth Systems Science at UCL and one of the authors of a recent tipping point report timed for COP30. This particular computer model-based bilge suggested that warm water corals may already be crossing their “thermal tipping points”, despite the fact that coral has been around for hundreds of millions of years and survives in waters between 24-32°C. This would appear to be the same Mark Maslin who as a humble geography lecturer in 1999 wrote a paper that said possibly most of the large climate changes involving movements of several degrees occurred at most on a timescale of a few centuries, sometimes decades, “and perhaps even a few years”. These days he whines that “Earth is already becoming unliveable”, while climate change politics helps build “a new political and socio-economic system”. In 2018, he was one of a number of eco-activists who signed a letter to the Guardian saying they would no longer “lend their credibility” by debating climate science scepticism.

No wonder people like Maslin – needless to say a BBC regular on all learned climate Armageddon matters – walked away from climate science debate.

Tying CO2 levels to rising temperatures to make Left-wing political capital relies on observations from just a few recent years. Widen the observations out to hundreds and then hundreds of millions of years gives a different picture. Sometimes temperatures rise and fall at the same time as CO2, sometimes not. Sometimes even CO2 levels rise before the following temperatures, more often than not they don’t. The simple explanation that warming gases such as CO2 become ‘saturated’ once they pass certain concentrations, with heating falling off a logarithmic cliff, is a scientific hypothesis or opinion, but it has much to offer when past observational evidence is considered.

Let us consider some of these observations starting with the long term record over 600 million years. The graph below shows wide temperature-CO2 divergence.

Over 600 million years it is difficult to observe any general lockstep connection between temperature and gas. It might, however, be noted that over 600 million years, CO2 has generally been declining in the atmosphere to the near denuded levels seen today. As we have seen over the last 40 years even small rises in CO2 lead to significant planet-wide biomass growth. All that CO2 was good for the dinosaurs who roamed the Earth until 66 million years ago, with levels more than three times higher than today. The little extra has also been good for humans since recent crop yields have soared and helped to alleviate naturally-occurring world famine.

These records of course are very long term and are compiled from proxies with accuracy only to a few thousand years. In the more immediate record we find additional and conclusive proof that CO2 is not the main climate thermostat. Temperatures in medieval times were similar to today, possibly slightly higher in the Roman period and often 3-4°C higher in the Holocene thermal maximum around 8,000 to 5,000 years ago. During these periods, CO2 was remarkably stable around 260 parts per million, a mark that is in fact dangerously low to sustain life on Earth. The notorious Michael-Mann-1,000-year temperature ‘hockey stick’ removed the linking problem by abolishing the medieval warming period and the subsequent little ice age that ran up to around 1800.

Remarkable recent scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that abrupt rises in temperature have been a feature of the global climate going back to the iceless Jurassic period over 150 million years ago. Dramatic temperature changes based on 1,500-year cycles, as the younger Maslin can testify, have been known to have occurred in Greenland and the North Atlantic. But a group of French scientists led by Slah Boulila from the Sorbonne found large temperature hikes going back millions of years across the globe. The scientists noted warming up to 15°C within a few decades, “pointing to abrupt and severe changes in Earth’s past climate”. The 1,500 year cycles are often called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events after the scientists who discovered them. Some scientists have downplayed the initial DO findings and suggested the short term temperatures rises of around 1.5°C were caused by specific northern hemisphere oscillations of ice sheets and surrounding waters.

However, the French scientists note: “The 1,500-year cycle is documented in both hemispheres, in other oceans and in continents.” Their work is said to support the global nature of DO-like events, and in particular that their potential primary cause is independent of ice sheet dynamics. Meanwhile, scientific evidence continues to grow indicating much higher temperatures a few thousand years ago. One recent paper found the plant Ceratopteris had grown 8,000 years ago at 40°N in northern China, suggesting winter temperatures 7.7°C higher than today. Another found types of molluscs surviving in the Arctic Svalbard 9,000 years ago that indicated temperatures were 6°C warmer.

The current Net Zero fantasy rests on catastrophising tiny temperature rises that frankly are not even measured properly, demonising CO2 boosts that are helping Earth return to a more healthy biosphere and atmospheric balance, inventing ‘tipping points’ using junk computer models and insulting the intelligence with untestable tales claiming humans are making the weather worse.

And they call us sceptics the ‘deniers’.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 22:10

Judges, Democrat Prosecutor Protect Far-Left Activist Who Doxxed & Stalked Stephen Miller

Two judges and a Democrat prosecutor are protecting a far-left activist who doxxed top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, then showed up to his house - forcing Miller to evacuate his family to a military base. 

The case began on Sept. 11, when the suspect, 66-year-old Barbara Wien, was spotted posting flyers in Miller's Arlington neighborhood which included a photo of Miller with a red circle and a cross through it and read "NO NAZIS IN NOVA," according to court records. The flyers included Miller's home address and a QR code linked to the Instagram account of an activist group - Arlington Neighbors United for Umanity (ANUFH).

Wien also cased Miller's home - making eye contact with his wife Katie Miller, and allegedly making an "I'm watching you" gesture according to a frame grab from a Secret Service surveillance video. This was 24 hours after Charlie Kirk was assassinated - and enough to think Wien had violated Virginia's law against doxxing and a similar federal statute. In response, the FBI sought a warrant for Wein's phone. 

Yet late Wednesday, Magistrate Judge Lindsey Vaala denied the FBI's petition for a warrant to search Wein's phone a move the Justice Department plans to appeal, Axios reports. The agency wants to examine Wein's phone to see if she lied to investigators, or may be part of a larger group that might pose a risk to Miller and his family. 

• When police seized Wien's phone Oct. 1, she spoke with FBI officials who then alleged that she misled investigators, according to a court filing described to Axios. Based on that, the FBI asked for another search warrant, which Vaala denied.
• Vaala contributed to the presidential campaigns of Presidents Obama and Biden before her appointment to the bench in 2022. -Axios

After Vaala denied the request, the Millers went to Virginia State Police - which took the case to judge Judith Wheat, who authorized the warrant on Oct. 1 - which state and federal law enforcement officials say reflects how routine the request was (and how absurd Vaala's denial was) - yet Democrat prosecutor Parisa Dehghani-Tafti threw a fit, demanding that the Wheat limit the warrant, which she then did in order to limit the search and the sharing of information with the FBI. 

"A prosecutor is usually on the same team as the investigators trying to make a case. But in this case, it's the opposite. She's been stymying the investigation, it appears," said Richard Cullen, counselor to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who was brought into the case along with Virginia's Attorney General Jason Miyares' office (via Axios). 

"In all my years, I've never seen anything like the way this case is being handled," said one investigator involved in the case. 

Of note, Dehghani-Tafti's Facebook page is riddled with anti-Miller postings, and she follows ANUFH - of which Wien is a member. Dehghani-Tafti told Axios that she has "performed my duties with integrity and objectivity, and I continue to do so. I have acted in every way to uphold the rule of law."

"The position of the judge and the justice system in Northern Virginia is, Stephen Miller deserves this, so it shouldn't be investigated," a senior administration official told the outlet. 

Of note, Miller's family isn't the only one that's been evacuated from their house - as several admin officials have been housed on bases amid increasing threats from left-wing political violence. As Axios notes further: 

• Other high-level Trump administration officials also have been moved to bases, a sign of the GOP leaders' alarm about angry protests, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the assassination attempts on Donald Trump.

• "A lot of administration officials feel it's a problem that you have to live in Virginia or D.C. or Maryland. But the criminal justice system will not protect you and your family," a White House official said.

Bukele was right... 

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 21:35

Brennan, Page, & Strzok Hit Today With Russiagate Grand Jury Subpoenas, Up To 30 More Pending

Authored by 'Sundance' vua TheConservativeTreehouse.com,

Fox News is reporting that three grand jury subpoenas were issued today for John Brennan, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

Brennan was the former CIA Director during Russiagate, who created the fraudulent Intelligence Community Assessment.  Strzok was the lead FBI counterintelligence agent in charge of Crossfire Hurricane, and Page was the former DOJ lawyer assigned to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  Strzok and Page worked both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump-Russia investigation.

Fox News also reports that up to 30 grand jury subpoenas are anticipated to be served on former government officials involved in “Spygate” and/or “Russiagate.”

[SEE FOX REPORT HERE]

There has been a tremendous amount of external pressure being applied, and thankfully this year a significant amount of key internal pressure has joined that effort.  For the issues surrounding former CIA Director John Brennan, Fox News is citing a declassified “Annex A” of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) which highlights John Brennan including the Steele Dossier in the ICA at the request of former FBI Director James Comey.

Apparently, according to Fox News, the most significant citation against Brennan is an issue we outlined at CTH five years ago [SEE HERE] when we wrote about Annex-A and the implications therein.  President Trump was still in office in 2020 when Annex-A was released. The good news is that Annex-A found its way into evidence that a prosecutor can present to a grand jury.

The outcome of a grand jury subpoena means the primary Russiagate officials will have to lawyer up, spend money and go plead the 5th amendment, the most likely outcome.

From my frame of reference, the evidence against the targets clearly exists and does not need them to make any admissions or denials. 

However, putting them on record in court individually, possibly compelled to testify or invoke the 5th, would perhaps narrow down their options if they were eventually indicted and face a criminal trial.

EXCLUSIVE: A federal grand jury has subpoenaed former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, among others as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, Fox News Digital has learned.

Sources told Fox News Digital Brennan; Strzok, the FBI’s former deputy assistant director of counterintelligence; and Page, a former FBI lawyer, were served with federal subpoenas on Friday.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital that up to 30 subpoenas will be issued in the coming days relating to the investigation.

The grand jury is out of the Southern District of Florida. U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones is supervising the probe. Fox News Digital first reported this summer that Brennan was under criminal investigation.

[…] As for the criminal investigation into Brennan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred evidence of wrongdoing by Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel for potential prosecution, DOJ sources told Fox News Digital.

[…] But back in June 2020, Ratcliffe, while serving as director of national intelligence, declassified a footnote of the 2017 ICA, which revealed that the reporting of Trump dossier author Christopher Steele had only “limited corroboration” regarding whether then-President-elect Trump “knowingly worked with Russian officials to bolster his chances of beating” Hillary Clinton and other claims.

[…] The footnote, also known as “Annex A” of the 2017 ICA, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in June 2020, spanned less than two pages and detailed reporting by Steele, the former British spy who authored the unverified anti-Trump dossier — a document that helped serve as the basis for controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants obtained against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. (read more)

I also find it interesting they begin with “Russiagate”, and I wonder if they will find the “Spygate” that preceded it {GO DEEP}.

Then again, I am thankful for the change and recognize Spygate might just be a little too uncomfy for those who seek to retain continuity of government.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 21:00

Socialism vs. Americanism

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

New York’s incoming mayor has been transparent about his socialist thinking, and history has shown that the kind he subscribes to should be cause for concern.

To put it bluntly, we aren’t talking about a polite and fashionable Fabian socialism of the British upper class of 100 years ago, with its practical desire to construct cradle-to-grave welfare states. Rather it’s the one drawn from the older tradition of Karl Marx and his utterly mistaken attempt to trace all social evils to the existence of private capital. This view is ridiculously old-fashioned, kept alive entirely by the fake world of academia that is wholly shielded from any real-world experience in economics.

Part of that, of course, means not looking at the material world through the lens of objective reality and economics. This worldview imagines that the government can simply make all things free, lower and freeze rents, and deliver groceries by simply announcing it to be so, with some help from heavy taxes on the successful.

When the plan does not work, as it never does, in this worldview, leaders would have to resort to authoritarian measures. This is true everywhere it is tried. New York City is an awful state right now, and this path is guaranteed to make matters worse. One supposes we will see another round of exodus from Gotham in the coming months, not just fleeing capital but fleeing people.

It’s not just large enterprises and big corporations that should worry. It’s all businesses in the city. This point of view regards any surplus flowing to capital as an unjust flow from workers to owners; that is, from value creators to value exploiters.

It’s a relatively simple outlook that is rooted in a single error, one that seems plausible at first but collapses on closer look. It traces the very existence of economic value exclusively to the manifestation of physical toil. It’s called the labor theory of value. This is genuinely an empirical proposition.

In this view, the whole output of industrial production was equal to the value of manual labour and should be allotted accordingly. Any money deducted from labor—to pay owners of capital or for raw materials or new inventions or for marketing or to lenders—is robbery from labor. Ironically, in this view, those who do mental work (the intellectuals) are doing nothing. Except that the socialists came up with an escape hatch for that one: the intellectuals are the vanguard of the proletariat and therefore necessary.

Is it really the case that all toil generates economic value that should always and everywhere flow only to workers and never owners? Clearly not. Anyone anywhere is fully capable of doing anything and everything that is not regarded as valuable by anyone. Labor alone does not cause value to come into being; what generates value is the act of valuing.

The labor theory of value, however, has long roots in history, even hinted at in the works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, points later adopted by socialists to argue for the nationalization of capital.

It was the rise of Marxian theory that provoked great clarity on value theory during the so-called Marginal Revolution of the 1880s. Three theorists—Stanley Jevons, Leon Walras, and Carl Menger—argued persuasively for what came to be known as the subjective theory of value as against the labor theory of value.

Among these works, my favorite is Carl Menger’s “Principles of Economics” (1871). It still makes for a compelling read and a good tutorial on economic basics. On the issue of value, he writes:

“Value is therefore nothing inherent in goods, no property of them, but merely the importance that we first attribute to the satisfaction of our needs, that is, to our lives and well-being, and in consequence carry over to economic goods as the exclusive causes of the satisfaction of our needs. ... It is a judgment economizing men make about the importance of the goods at their disposal for the maintenance of their lives and well-being. Hence value does not exist outside the consciousness of men.”

Once you understand this point, the entire theoretical structure of Marxism and even socialism falls apart. It is the unending process of cooperative exchange, driven by people’s perception of their own needs and nonstop working benefit from satisfying the needs of others, that generates value, which is something imparted by the individual minds.

It is not possible for any politicians, intellectuals, or bureaucrats to replicate this delicate system, much less replace it with a new and wholly externalized vision of what is valuable and what is not. Nor can outsiders slice and dice prices and accounting that results from the market process and say: this is too high, this is too low, and here is a plan to make it right. That kind of planning can only result in wild distortions.

There is a deeper point here that relates to the history of the United States. There is nothing about our history as a nation that has any roots in socialist theory. I cannot think of a single Founding Father who had any interest in pre-Marxian utopian socialist theory. Sure, there were anabaptist sects who held things in common and celebrated community. That’s not the same thing. There were plenty of utopian socialists around from the ancient world to the present but the Founders discussed them not at all.

Indeed, do you know the name of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite economist? It was not Adam Smith. It was the French physiocrat Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne (1727–1781). He was a champion of low taxes, property rights, small business, trade, and the commercial experience generally. It was he who warned the French monarchy to lower taxes and free prices to forestall revolution, a plea that went unheard.

Jefferson was a close reader of Turgot’s great book “Reflections on the Production and Distribution of Wealth” (1766), which pushed the market theory of value long before Menger. His book is meticulous and deeply empirical, laying out the formation of prices via supply and demand and discussing the origin and uses of money.

In his role as adviser to the court, he condemned industrial monopolies and intervention by the Crown into commercial affairs of small business. He was a brilliant innovator. Jefferson admired him so much that he had a bust of him made to display in the main portico of Monticello.

If there is an American economics, this is it: The celebration of private ownership, small business, low taxes, no industrial monopolies, agronomy, entrepreneurship, community service, independence, self-reliance, hard work, creativity, pride in a job well done, frugality, sound money, savings, long-term commitment, family and faith.

To be sure, America has had its debates over economics in the earliest years. The Jeffersonians battled it out with the Hamiltonians. Jefferson hated debt, taxation, was suspicious of banking empires, and opposed forced industrialism and tariffs. Hamilton liked business finance, industry, large banks and leverage, and favored the protective tariff. These are legitimate American debates, deeply rooted in our history. The idea of a national bank went through several rounds of controversy for over a century until the Federal Reserve Act and the income tax came along.

Even with all these disputes and debates, we have no history at all of Hegelian histrionics of the sort that have emerged on the left and sometimes on the right. Not even our earliest socialists like Eugene Debs were communists. His main passion was for free speech, individual rights, and peace not war. This is the long heritage of the American left from a century ago. Woke theory and mass redistribution and fundamental rejection of economic freedom are not really in our DNA.

It’s urgently necessary that Americans reacquaint themselves with the economic system that made this country great. It is inseparable from freedom and rights. What is moral is also practical from an economic point of view. What grants dignity also grants prosperity. That is the American belief and practice.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 19:50

Chinese Astronauts Stranded in Orbit Following Suspected Debris Impact

Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times,

China has delayed the planned return of Shenzhou 20’s crew after the spacecraft was possibly hit by debris, the regime’s spaceflight agency said on Wednesday.

The three-person crew was originally set to return to the Dongfeng Landing Site in Inner Mongolia on Wednesday, after their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.

They handed over of the operation of the space station on Tuesday to their replacements, who arrived aboard Shenzhou 21 on Nov. 1.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Shenzhou 20’s return mission was delayed to ensure the astronauts’s health and safety, as well as the success of the mission.

It did not provide details about where and when Shenzhou 20 was likely hit, but it did say an impact analysis and risk assessment are underway. It did not set a new date for the return mission.

If the return capsule can not be repaired, under protocols established since 2021, there is a backup rocket and spacecraft on standby that can be launched within days to rescue the crew in case of an emergency.

In April, the Shenzhou 19 crew’s return mission was delayed by one day due to weather conditions at the Dongfeng landing site. This is the first time a return mission has been delayed by space debris.

The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of space debris. The debris, also called space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or vessel parts that float around hundreds of miles above the Earth, risking collisions with countries’ active assets.

According to NASA, there are millions of pieces, or nearly 6,000 tons, of debris in low Earth orbit, most of which is flying seven times faster than a bullet.

The Chinese military tested an anti-satellite missile in 2007 and destroyed weather satellite Fengyun-1C, causing global outcry. NASA said China’s “deliberate destruction” of its own Fengyun-1C and and “the accidental collision of an American and a Russian spacecraft in 2009” increased the amount of large space junk by about 70 percent.

In 2016, Mallory Stewart, then-deputy assistant secretary for emerging security challenges and defense policy at the State Department, called the destruction of Fengyun-1C a “remarkable incident of irresponsible behavior” during a speech at the speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington. She said the Chinese regime had since conducted more such tests, albeit they were not debris-generating.

Beijing complained to the United Nations in 2021 that Tiangong had to perform two emergency avoidance manuevers to avoid fragments produced by Starlink satellites, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which predominate in the Earth’s lower orbital paths.

Shenzhou 20’s delayed return comes after a similar incident last year, when U.S. astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams were stranded in space for months because of a spacecraft malfunction.

The NASA astronauts were initially expected to stay in space for just over a week in June 2024, but the capsule returned to earth without them after it was deemed unfit to return them safely. The pair were retrieved in March this year by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 18:40

Comey's Daughter Reportedly Sought To Cut Deal With Epstein To Smear Trump

Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

The former cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein claimed that James Comey’s prosecutor daughter offered the billionaire pedophile a deal to implicate President Donald Trump.

Maurene Comey, who recently resigned as the walls closed in on her notorious FBI father, began serving in 2016 as assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

That put her front and center in the investigations of Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell after Epstein was arrested in July 2019.

While detained in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, Epstein was assigned to a cell with Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who was serving time for kidnapping  and quadruple murder.

Tartaglione was convicted of killing a man he suspected of stealing some $250,000 in drug money, as well as his nephews and a family friend who “were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” prosecutors said, according to the New York Post.

During the month that Epstein was incarcerated before his apparent suicide, Tartaglione claimed in a recent pardon application that his cellmate had the opportunity to save his skin by throwing the sitting president under the bus.

“Prosecutors … told Epstein that if he said President Trump was involved with Esptein’s crimes he would walk free. in a petition to be pardoned,” according to the Post, which said it had obtained a copy of the filing.

“Epstein told me that Maurene Comey said that he didn’t have to prove anything, as long as President Trump’s people could not disprove it,” the pardon application added.

“According to Maurene Comey, the FBI were ‘her people, not his [President Trump’s].’”

Maurene Comey’s father was forced out of his role as FBI director roughly two years prior. However, questions have continued to swirl about the dubious loyalties of officials including then-Attorney General William Barr and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Even so, questions about Tartaglione’s credibility may outweigh the suspicions against the Deep State.

Epstein reported that his cell mate had attempted to attack and kill him during their time together, according to a memorandum from the responding officer.

lol this is the guy who probably tried to kill Epstein the first time https://t.co/lW11rKK0ar pic.twitter.com/a2BCOdHyud

— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 6, 2025

“He sat up on the bed and began telling me that he [thinks] his bunkine … tried to kill him,” the memo said.

Tartaglione contradicted the report, saying he had, in fact, tried to revive Epstein.

No camera footage was available due to issues with the surveillance system.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 17:30

The Shutdown's Fallout Spreads Further

The U.S. government shutdown has entered its 39th day, making it the longest funding gap in U.S. history.

The consequences of the standstill are far-reaching, with food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, having already come to a halt at the weekend. While a judge has ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November food stamps by the end of today, the administration asked an appeals court to block the ruling. Meanwhile, around 1.4 million federal employees are on unpaid leave or working without pay until funding is restored and 10 percent of flights at 40 major U.S. airports have been cut amid air traffic control safety concerns. Trump has responded to these events by calling for Republicans to abolish the Senate filibuster rule that requires the 60-vote majority for legislation to pass.

As Statista's Anna Fleck details below, a recent wave of surveys by polling company YouGov illustrates how the number of adults who feel they are personally being affected by the shutdown is growing.

You will find more infographics at Statista

This pattern is true for both Democrats and Republicans, albeit to a greater extent among Democrats.

On October 10, 21 percent of overall U.S. respondents said they were personally affected by the shutdown either somewhat or a great deal. This had risen to 36 percent as of October 31.

Americans are divided on who they think is most responsible for the standstill, with 35 percent blaming Republicans in Congress, 32 percent blaming Democrats in Congress and 28 percent saying the two groups are equally responsible.

Meanwhile, net approval of Trump’s handling of the shutdown has dropped in recent weeks. On the topic of SNAP benefits, around three quarters of U.S. adults said they should be paid during the government shutdown.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 16:55

Narco-Terrorism? Identities Of Slain Venezuelan Drug-Smugglers Revealed, & The Truth Is Nuanced

Unverified videos shared on social media Friday and picked up in foreign media outlets reportedly showed a group Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets scrambled and patrolling airspace hours after two US B-52 bombers again flew over the southern Caribbean Sea near Venezuela’s coastline on Thursday.

The US bombers' flight marked the fourth such operation in recent weeks, after early this month there were reports that President Trump may order 'imminent' military action targeting the Maduro government and land-based cartel locations. This is an extremely expensive and unprecedented military build-up in these waters over what may in the end be some fairly low-level and typical drug transit in the region. Watch unverified video featured by RT and others of Venezuela scrambling F-16s in response:

Maduro scrambles F-16s after Pentagon B-52s approach Venezuela https://t.co/0IJmyDsW1E pic.twitter.com/MY94AQJQ13

— RT (@RT_com) November 8, 2025

Data from Flightradar24 indicated that the two B-52s flew parallel to Venezuela’s northern coast, circled northeast of Caracas, and then turned back toward the sea and eventually the American mainland.

"Both aircraft are conventionally armed Boeing B‑52H Stratofortress models, according to publicly available flight data on the website Flightradar24," Newsweek reported. "The planes were flying under the call signs TITO41 and TITO42."

"The sorties are the latest in what the Air Force is calling bomber attack demonstrations in the Caribbean region," the report reviews, and tallies: "Last month, three groups of B-52H and B-1B Lancers flew similar publicly visible missions to within tens of miles of Venezuela's coast."

The Associated Press has meanwhile begun interviewing Venezuelan and other eyewitnesses to conclude that at least some of the many dozens of crewmembers killed aboard alleged drug boats by US drones strikes were very low-level criminals who typically worked as fishermen, taxi drivers, or laborers in derelict and impoverished coastal villages.

Analyzing some of the strikes over the last several weeks, the AP writes:

In dozens of interviews in villages on Venezuela’s breathtaking northeastern coast, from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang.

Most of the nine men were crewing such craft for the first or second time, making at least $500 per trip, residents and relatives said. They were laborers, a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver. Two were low-level career criminals. One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers.

That does seem to be outside verification that drug-running boats and organizations have indeed been the targets, but the question of whether these men can in reality be classified as 'narco-terrorists' remains an open one and the AP report paints them as by and large impoverished locals trying to make quick cash.

Over 60 people have been killed and seventeen boats blown up. The AP report paints a humble picture of the 'narco operations': 

The men lived on the Paria Peninsula, in mostly unpainted cinderblock homes that can go weeks without water service and regularly lose power for several hours a day. They awoke to panoramic views of a national park’s tropical forests, the Gulf of Paria’s shallows and the Caribbean’s sparkling sapphire waters. When the time came for their drug runs, they boarded open-hulled fishing skiffs that relied on powerful outboard motors to haul their drugs to nearby Trinidad and other islands.

President Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced.

One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus… pic.twitter.com/4Z64Hm2Dk1

— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) November 8, 2025

The Venezuelan government has rejected Pentagon accusations of organized narco-smuggling and has formally complained to the United Nations that these are "extrajudicial executions."

Certainly drug smuggling into the United States must be stopped, and this is conventionally the role of the Coast Guard, DEA, and other federal agencies - however, are Americans ready to support another war over some low level drug running already long common for decades? 

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 15:45

US To Establish Military Base In Syria's Damascus

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US is planning to establish a military base in Damascus, Syria, Reuters has reported, as the Trump administration continues to strongly back the new Syrian government that’s led by former al-Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The report said that the US will establish a military presence at an airbase on the outskirts of the Syrian capital for the purpose of enabling a security pact that Washington is attempting to broker between Israel and Syria.

Image source: Reuters

The idea would be for the US military to monitor a potential deal that would include the demilitarization of areas to the south of Damascus. Officials compared it to the US monitoring of the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, which Israel has constantly violated, and the ceasefire deal in Gaza, which Israel has also been in breach of.

A Syrian Foreign Ministry official later told Syria’s state news agency SANA that the Reuters report was "untrue" but did not specifically deny that the US would establish a military presence in Damascus.

"The current stage marks a transformation in the US position towards direct engagement with the Syrian central government in Damascus, and towards supporting the country’s unity while rejecting any calls for partition," the official said.

A Syrian defense official told Reuters that the US had flown to the base in military C-130 transport aircraft to ensure the runway was usable, and a security guard at one of the base’s entrances said that American aircraft were landing there as part of "tests".

Previous reports have said that the Trump administration may sign an agreement with the new Syrian government to formalize its military presence in Syria.

The US has been closing bases in northeast Syria but is expected to maintain its presence at the al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.

A well-known American anti-Assad Islamist commentator admits the endgame is US-Israel hegemony and control over Syria:

Exclusive: U.S. Forces Reported at Mezzeh Airbase in Damascus

▪️ Eyewitnesses report U.S. helicopters operating from the Syrian capital.
▪️ Base linked to rumored Tel Aviv–Damascus “security agreement.”
▪️ Bilal Abdul Kareem questions U.S. neutrality: “They arm and fund Israel.” pic.twitter.com/FJbN2UgHMC

— Bilal Abdul Kareem (@BilalKareem) November 8, 2025

President Trump will be hosting Sharaa at the White House on Monday, where he is expected to formally join the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. Ahead of the visit, the US is asking the UN to lift sanctions on Sharaa, which were imposed due to his history as an al-Qaeda commander and associate of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS.

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/08/2025 - 15:10