Elite US Air Force Pilot Arrested For Training The Chinese Military

The following has made for quite the headline, as a retired elite US Air Force pilot is in very hot water and faces US intelligence and military questioning: "A former US Air Force fighter pilot with more than two decades of experience with nuclear delivery systems and aircraft, including advanced F-35 stealth jets, has been arrested and charged with conspiring to help the Chinese military," according to CNN.

65-year old Gerald Eddie Brown Jr. was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on Wednesday after one or more lengthy recent trips to China where it's believed he not only briefed officials from China's defense establishment, but provided training for Chinese PLA military pilots. 

File image: USAF/Anadolu

US interrogators are said to be most alarmed at Brown's vast experience with America's most advanced stealth jet - the Lockheed Martin F-35, as well as nuclear delivery systems and tactics.

"Providing US military training to our adversaries represents a significant threat to national security," Lee Russ, executive director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Office of Special Project, said in an official statement after the retired Air Force pilot's arrest. He's specifically accused of violating the Arms Export Control Act 

Brown retired as a major all the way back in 1996, having served 24 years of active duty Air Force, but he has since been a top US Air Force adviser and trainer of US combat pilots. As Fox reviews:

During his career, he commanded units responsible for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions and worked as a fighter pilot and simulator instructor on aircraft including the F-4, F-15, F-16 and A-10. After leaving the military, Brown worked as a commercial cargo pilot and later as a contract simulator instructor training U.S. pilots to fly the A-10 and the F-35 Lightning II.

The US Attorney’s statement alleged that while in China "Brown answered questions for three hours about the U.S. Air Force on his first day in the PRC and then, on his second day, prepared and presented a brief about himself for the PLAAF,” the statement said. The rest of the time he trained Chinese pilots."

FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle followed with: "Brown’s alleged betrayal exposed sensitive military tactics, threatening the security of our nation, our armed forces, and our allies."

Apparently Brown wasn't quiet at all about his activities in China, and which also comes at a moment of military tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea:

According to the complaint, Brown began negotiating a contract "in or around" August 2023 to train Chinese military pilots, working through a co-conspirator who dealt with Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese national previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiring to hack into the computer networks of major American defense contractors and steal sensitive military data.

Prosecutors say Brown made clear in those discussions that he intended to train Chinese pilots in combat aircraft operations. In a résumé, he listed his objective as "Instructor Fighter Pilot" and later wrote that, upon arriving in China, "Now…. I have the chance to fly and instruct fighter pilots again!"

A former American pilot has in recent years been prosecuted by the DOJ under similar circumstances related to instructing PLA pilots: "Former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan was charged in 2017 of violating the Arms Export Control Act, specifically for allegedly helping Chinese pilots learn aircraft carrier operations," notes CNN.

It's understandable that the US government gets extremely nervous about active or retired officials with nuclear secrets going abroad to rival nations, but there's some lingering questions of consistency. For example, what about Blackwater founder Erik Prince, whose Chinese military ties are so well known as to be featured in his permanent Wikipedia page?

Prince co-founded a firm called Frontier Services Group and until April 13, 2021 he was also chairman. Frontier Services Group is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Frontier Services Group is backed by China's state-owned CITIC Group and Hong Kong-based investor Johnson Chun Shun Ko [zh], with the Chinese government listed as the largest investor. Prince advised and supported Chinese mining and construction firms in Africa.

In May 2017, FSG acquired a 25% stake in a Chinese private security training school called the International Security Defense College, located in Beijing. The college provides training in counterterrorism, high-risk operations, and overseas security for military, law enforcement, and private personnel. FSG has since overseen the school's program of training "overseas security specialists".

There's a good chance that if Brown, on the other hand, was close personal friends with various Trump admin officials, the US government would be looking the other way.

Yet the Intel committee, of which you chair, didn’t ask Erik Prince a single question *when he was under oath* about his security company which is based in China and whose investment arm is his biggest shareholder. https://t.co/TfT9Mot4rD

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) March 26, 2018

Also, the same scenario could have played out with a more 'friendly' country and the investigators probably would not have come knocking. But military tech secrets and China remains a hot, sensitive issue at this moment.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 23:00

Sophie Baker of Pensions & Investments reports liquidity focus pays off for Ontario Teachers’ as dual CIOs mark two-year milestone:

It’s been two years since the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan restructured its leadership team, appointing two people to oversee investments — and despite some major changes and challenges in global markets, the so-called dual CIOs haven’t made any knee-jerk reactions. 

Rather, the focus for the two has largely been creating liquidity in the C$269.6 billion ($197 billion as of June 30) portfolio. 

"We have been quite proactive in terms of generating liquidity on the private asset side, and seen some good success there, particularly in the market," Stephen McLennan CIO-asset allocation, said in an interview. "We're in position now where we would like to deploy into attractive opportunities and continually assess what the right balance is between passive and active to generate active returns." 

"We also want to spend a lot of time focusing on the more technical definition of liquidity, how we manage the balance sheet, what we need for margin calls and making sure we have the flexibility in the portfolio across the markets," he said. 

McLennan and Gillian Brown, CIO-public and private investments were named CIOs in January 2024 by CEO Jo Taylor. Their appointments split the role previously held by Ziad Hindo (now senior advisor at Bridgewater Associates), separating the responsibilities of the position, and Taylor has dubbed them dual CIOs, each with distinct lanes of responsibility, they said. Among the so-called Maple 8 of Canada's largest public pension funds, OTPP is the only with this structure.

The thinking behind splitting the role was to acknowledge a changing world with more geopolitical conflict, greater focus on inflation and central banks, disjointed activity in markets, and disruption to business models, they said.

Taylor looked into how to "lean into value creation, thinking strategically about those businesses and how we go forward," Brown said in the same interview. "It was existential, almost a bandwith questions to involve CIO operating model."

Brown -- previously head of capital markets, who joined in 1995 -- oversees the public and private investment functions, covering equities, infrastructure and natural resources, venture growth, real estate and capital markets investment departments. 

McLennan oversees the overall asset allocation mix, with an eye on total fund performance and management portfolio risk. He's also responsible for the liquidity management, investment allocations and portfolio optimization. McClellan most recently oversaw total fund management comprising the portfolio construction, treasury funding and global trading capabilities, and joined the pension fund in 2003.

Between them, they're running a 475- person investment team. They overlap in a few areas. Two such examples are Europe, Middle East and Africa coverage and Asia Pacific. While both regional teams report to McClellan, they are more active in nature, so in line with Brown's responsibilities, they said. Ass of December 31 2024, 70% of total investments were EMEA and 8% in APAC.

"It's nice for me having a trusted partner," Brown said. Added McLennan: "It's good to have somebody you can trust also deals off challenging -- as well as positive -- circumstances." 

Challenging period since appointments as dual CIOs

Although the executives haven't made any "knee-jerk" moves in the portfolio in response to challenging global markets and powers, that's not to say they haven't had a lot to think about. 

For McLennan and Brown the US administration that came into power in January 2025 has been top of mind with market movements as President Donald Trump unveiled a raft of tariffs, an example of key consideration. However, the portfolio has been steady in light of that volatility, they said. One-third of the gross investments were in the US as of December 31 2024,

"We need to be on top of that since it has impacted global markets, which impacts all the portfolios. McLennan said. "Areas we have been spending some time on equity markets-- public and private fixed income in terms of both interest rates in the US and globally; currencies and commodities we are trying to digest and think through what the new administration means, not only this year, but for the years to come." 

The CIOs have also been cognizant of the need for diversification and when to start looking beyond the US in terms of equity performance that's been dominated by technology stocks. 

"Many are talking including ourselves, about diversification? Are we getting full diversification? Given the equity index is driven by a few names, it's a trend that has been beneficial for all investors, particularly non US investors. But is that going to continue forever?" McClellan said. "It doesn't mean that it's going to end, but at some point, there are valuations and other things we should be cognizant of." 

The fund achieved a 2.1% net return on investments for the six months ended June 30 with the total fund returns driven by public assets. Its asset mix of June 30 was 37% equity, including public and private equity and venture growth. 24% fixed income, 20% inflation, sensitive assets, commodities, natural resources, inflation edge. 24% real assets, real estate and infrastructure, 30% credit and 10% absolute return strategies, the asset mix includes 28% in funding and other assets such as overlays, the five-year and 10-year annualized net returns were 7.5% and 6.9 % respectively. 

Evolving private markets thinking and approaches

OTPP has been looking at where to be a direct investor and to have a more governance and control over private equity holdings, and when to partner with others. The fund's private equity allocation was 21% as of June 30.

"My view is, it doesn't make sense to have really dogmatic approach, and it's more about understanding what we are good at." Brown said. "The partnership question is interesting. Some investors use it to think 'fund- plus-partner'. We want to be humble about where we need more expertise, such as in sectors that require really specialized knowledge. Therefore we pick the right partners to work with on those assets." 

OTPP has always had assets that it co-owns without necessarily having a fund relationship, and has also always "had a lot of partners throughout the portfolio; so it's more about making sure we unlock the right ones to find the right tool for the situation," she added. 

Within its venture growth portfolio, which had C$10.4 billion in net assets as of December 31 2024, 42% was direct investments in North America-based assets, 21% in direct APAC investments, 13% in direct EMEA investments, and the remaining 24% was in funds. 

The fund paused private investment activities in China in early 2023 and more recently, made the difficult decision to close its Hong Kong office. The majority of the staff relocated to Singapore and Asia-Pacific region as a whole remains important. Brown said, with private equity, infrastructure and venture growth teams active in the region. 

At the same time, Bloomberg reported that the Hong Kong office was closed as OTPP optimized its footprint in the region, having added Singapore, Mumbai offices. The team in Hong Kong primarily focused on outward markets -- including Australia, Japan, South Korea -- and the spokesperson said activities could be effectively and efficiently served out of Singapore.

Executives have also been talking about where they see growth opportunities. "I think India has become more of a focus for growth in that context, as a market that is still maturing with good depth of capital markets." Brown added. 

And while the major portfolio changes haven't been in the cards for the dual CIOs, they have made a key addition to their private markets capabilities amid ever-changing investment pacing and exit environments and the increasing importance of accountability and monitoring. In that context, McLennan and Brown said 

In January 2025, OTPP created its portfolio solutions group, a team of 37 people, monitoring and enhancing performance, improving best practice and providing more centralized value creation oversight in a single cross-asset function. About 80% of OTPP's portfolio is actively managed and private markets accounts for a large proportion of that total. 

The team is staffed with existing OTP members, led by Executive Managing Director Kevin Kerr, and works with deal teams on underwriting at point of entry, assists with variations and perspectives, refreshing value creation plans ahead of exits, helps deliver on key performance indicators and gets involved in an asset when it's not performing versus expectation. 

"They have been identifying the important areas where we want deeper subject management expertise, for example, talent management, new relationships, capital market access for technology and data opportunities," McClellan said. "In a world where realizations globally have slowed down, (and) we're owning assets for a longer period, we're making sure the holding period gets more attention, not less." 

The team also brings an impartial view on assets. "At Teachers', we believe challenge is a healthy thing," Brown said. "People can fall in love with them, with assets that they hold, so it's good to have external person say, is that really a good process, a good holding?" 

This is a really great in-depth article which I wanted to share with my readers.

It not only provides a glimpse into the dual-CIO structure at OTPP, how it works, their respective functions, but also how they collaborate with each other and across asset classes, leveraging off external partners and making sure internal teams stick to their value creation plan.

Gillian Brown has been around OTPP for a very long time (since 1995), has worked with some great CIOs (Bob Bertram, Neil Petroff and Ziad Hindo) and she knows her stuff across public and private markets.

Stephen McLennan has also been there since 2003 and he was in charge of total fund management prior to becoming CIO, Asset Allocation. His group has to think more macro and how to extract the most out of the total fund to deliver on their objectives.

The  dual CIO structure has been tried before -- at AIMCo where it unfortunately failed--  but in this case, I really think Gillian and Stephen complement each other well and they're making it work.

Jo Taylor isn't an easy boss, he has high expectations from them and other senior executives and so it all has to work or else he"d be the first to pull the plug.

And the Portfolio Solutions team which Kevin Kerr manages is critically important in this process, they really need to realize on value creation, see when dispositions make sense, and work on assets that need to be worked on. 

One thing Teachers' does well is leverage off its partners, be it in private equity, venture, hedge funds, infrastructure, real estate to really get a good sense of what is going on in each asset class.  

Alright, I'm going to wrap it up there, make sure you read the latest news at OTPP here. 

I will soon be covering OTPP's 2025 results and look forward to catching up with Gillian, Stephen and Jo.

Below, the CNBC Investment Committee debate the software sector as Stephanie Link and Malcolm Ethridge makes some moves in the space. 

Also, Dan Niles, founder of Niles Investment Management, offers a measured view of the stock sell-off driven by concerns over AI disruption, saying companies perceived as linked to OpenAI were caught up in an unsustainable wave of speculative buying. 

I don't know, as I stated last Monday, it's time to nibble on software stocks, I think AI disruption fears are running amok. 

Paramount Wins Bidding War For Warner Bros. After Netflix Drops Out

Late on Wednesday, we highlighted an aggressive options trade where a call spread buyer in Netflix options had bet $14 million that Paramount would end up buying Warner Brothers after Netflix walks, something which Polymarket had indicated very much since the start of this particular M&A saga...

Trader bets $14 million (via NFLX call spread) that Paramount will end up buying Warner. Polymarket agrees

cross-platform arbitrage? pic.twitter.com/lwxgAqPwz7

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 26, 2026

... and 24 hours that unknown trader is richer by about $40 million (and a guaranteed visit by the SEC), because late on Thursday,  Paramount emerged victorious in the fight to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix said it wouldn’t match the David Ellison-led company’s latest offer for the iconic Hollywood property. The news sent Netflix shares soaring 10% after hours, demonstrating what the market thought of the deal (not to mention $2.8 billion breakup fee). 

With the winds of political change shifting, and the DOJ making it very clear that it preferred Paramount to end up the winner in the contested race, Netflix - which would have had to move regulatory mountains to complete the deal - pulled the plug on its deal soon after the Warner board of directors said it determined Paramount’s $31-per-share offer for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s bid for Warner’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service.

“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match,” Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement. “This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the pair said. 

Assuming regulators approve, and they will, Paramount will own not only Warner Bros. and HBO, but also many popular cable networks including the nevertrump collective known as CNN, TNT, TBS and Food Network. The deal would represent a major ground shift for the entertainment industry, which is trying to adapt to seismic shifts in audience habits and technology.

“Once our Board votes to adopt the Paramount merger agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders,” said Warner Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav. 

As the WSJ notes, the culmination of the months-long process marks a stunning come-from-behind win for Paramount, whose overtures had previously been rebuffed at every turn by Warner. After multiple unsolicited bids from Paramount last year, Warner opened a sale process that ended with Netflix as the winning suitor. Netflix in December signed a deal to buy Warner’s studios and HBO Max for $27.75 a share, or $72 billion. Of course, anyone who had been paying attention, and sensed which way the political winds blow, would have known the outcome as far back as December.

Polymarket is now in the merger arb business. And it's not looking good for Netflix pic.twitter.com/KGVwJDw2Lz

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 8, 2025

Shortly after, Paramount launched a hostile takeover effort, going directly to shareholders with a $30-per-share bid for the whole company, including the cable networks Netflix didn’t want.

When Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired control of Paramount last August, going after Warner became his top priority. Paramount was seen as too small to compete against deep-pocketed giants such as Disney, Netflix and Amazon.

Since announcing its deal with Warner, Wall Street has punished Netflix stock which lost over $170 billion in market value since last September, when Netflix was first seen - by those who don't know how to read online betting markets - as a potential bidder for Warner, through this past week.

But then earlier this week, Paramount submitted its revised bid of $31 a share, or about $81 billion, just around the time Trump's DOJ started sniffing around Netflix's business model. The offer included an increased $7 billion termination fee that Paramount would pay if the transaction failed to close due to regulatory concerns. Paramount said it would foot the bill for the $2.8 billion breakup fee Warner would owe Netflix.

Additionally, Paramount accelerated the timing of its proposed “ticking fee” of 25 cents per share, which it would pay to Warner shareholders for each quarter its deal hasn’t closed, to start after Sept. 30 instead of in January.

Paramount’s latest bid came after Warner’s board of directors set a seven-day window for the companies to negotiate, which Netflix permitted.

In an amusing twist, wventually not only the DOJ - which was reviewing the deal - but lawmakers on Capitol Hill had also expressed concern about a combined Netflix-Warner having too much share in the streaming marketplace. As part of its investigation, the Justice Department was looking at whether Netflix has engaged in anticompetitive practices, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Paramount’s deal would also face scrutiny from federal regulators. Paramount’s streaming business is smaller than Netflix’s, but the deal would also put two legacy movie and TV studios under one roof, along with multiple cable networks. Paramount has said it would target $6 billion in synergies (i.e. layoffs) from the deal.

Why was the twist amusing? Because while Democrats - both in the Hill and certainly in Hollywood, as actors were terrified they would face mass layoffs after a Netflix combination - hated the Netflix acquisition, they are about to hate Paramount, which is owned by Trump friend David Ellison, who also owns TikTok and, recently, CBS, even more. That's because once the transaction closes, the company will add that unhinged far-left echo chamber known as CNN to a portfolio that already includes CBS News, effectively leaving the far left lunatic fringe with only MSNBC or whatever it's called these days. 

Ellison has revamped CBS News since taking over Paramount. He installed Bari Weiss, the founder of the digital news and opinion outlet The Free Press, as editor in chief and has said he wants CBS News “to speak to that 70% of the audience that would really define themselves at center-left to center-right.” That particular transaction has so far been a disaster, with CBS losing countless viewers on both sides of the aisle as a result. 

In a memo to staff, CNN President Mark Thompson said “don’t jump to conclusions until we know more.”

Actually jump: “The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN should be unthinkable,” said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of media advocacy group Free Press, adding that the new owner promised President Trump they would “make sweeping changes to CNN given the chance, and we know what that means.”

Yes we do: and to all the soon-to-be-fired CNN staffers we would suggest to "learn to code", only that nowadays is an even more sure way of being unemployed than working at the CNN echo chamber. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 22:35

As US Readies Iran Action, Kim Jong Un Vaunts 'Irreversible & Permanent' Nuclear Arsenal

Kim Jong-un just gave a fresh nuclear speech, vowing that North Korea will expand its atomic arsenal in both scale and sophistication, and that this is necessary given pressure from nuclear-armed "imperialist" superpowers like the United States.

Kim presented the strategy during a weeklong congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, declaring that his country's nuclear-armed status is "irreversible and permanent" (though not for the first time).

He pledged that Pyongyang will continue to strengthen its arsenal "as long as nuclear weapons exist on the earth" and as long as the country faces threats from "US imperialists and their followers," according to state media on Thursday.

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

"We have a long-term plan to strengthen the national nuclear force on an annual basis in the future and will concentrate on increasing the number of nuclear weapons and expanding the means and space for nuclear operation," Kim stated.

Kim earlier warned during a military parade in the capital on Wednesday that North Korea would "deliver terrible retaliatory attacks to any forces" that infringe on the country.

He further signaled Washington that he's able to offer either "peaceful coexistence" or "eternal confrontation" and that the choice is on America - whether it wants to remain a hostile force in the world or not.

The Washington Post, commenting on these latest remarks out of North Korea, calls Kim "emboldened":

In the seven years since President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked away from nuclear negotiations, Kim’s nuclear ambitions and weapons arsenal have only grown more potent. This week, Kim left room for restarting talks with Washington — but only on his own terms.

But what WaPo fails to acknowledge or grasp is that so long as Washington is going around the world conducting regime change operations against countries which never attacked the United States, it incentivizes rival nations to go nuclear, or to quickly expand existing arsenals.

'Rogue' actors like Kim look at the world and see the US mounting its biggest military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion. The target is Iran, which doesn't yet have nukes, and so is essentially defenseless (when it comes down to it, despite conventional ballistic missiles).

More immediately, North Korea feels threatened by the growing joint US war games just south of the demilitarized zone, in South Korea - where over the past several years nuclear submarines have been docked.

Leaders like Kim can only conclude that the way to ensure against attack by the United States is to be a formidable nuclear power. This is the sad reality in a post-Cold War, nuclear world.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 22:10

Is The Trump Admin Planning To Use Banks To Enforce Immigration Laws?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

President Trump’s administration is ramping up its assault on illegal immigration by eyeing a bold new tactic: enlisting banks to verify the citizenship of every customer. 

This potential executive order would mandate financial institutions to collect proof like passports from both new and existing account holders, effectively cutting off undocumented migrants from the banking system they’ve exploited under open-border policies.

It’s a commonsense step to safeguard American resources, but watch as Democrats and their corporate allies howl in protest – the same crowd that fights tooth and nail against voter ID requirements won’t back this either.

NEW: President Trump is reportedly considering forcing banks to help in his administration's illegal immigration crackdown.

According to CNN, the banking industry is "very alarmed" by the potential action.

"Sources do tell CNN that the industry is concerned here because they're… pic.twitter.com/Q8v8avDw3d

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 25, 2026

The move was first reported by the Wall St Journal, with a CNN segment noting “Sources do tell CNN that the industry is concerned here because they’re worried that this kind of action, it could almost compel them to be part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.”

The policy would expand on existing know-your-customer rules, which focus on preventing money laundering but ignore citizenship status entirely. 

Banks currently don’t prohibit non-citizens from opening accounts, allowing illegals to stash funds siphoned from taxpayer-supported programs. 

Under the proposed order, institutions might have to retroactively demand documents like passports, potentially closing accounts for those who can’t prove U.S. citizenship.

A financial industry source told CNN: “Verifying every bank customer’s citizenship status would be unworkable. It’s a bad idea. We are very alarmed.” 

This reaction underscores how entrenched globalist interests are in maintaining the status quo, where banks profit from foreign nationals while American workers foot the bill for unchecked migration.

Reactions poured in on X, with users voicing strong support for the crackdown

Illegals should have all their assets legally seized.

— Paul A. Szypula ?? (@Bubblebathgirl) February 25, 2026

Banks alarmed? Good.

That’s actually a smart idea. Deport by any means possible.

— Kyle Lines (@GrowSoulNow) February 25, 2026

If it's a crime to employ an illegal immigrant it should be a crime to bank them too.

— American Assn of Retired Republicans ? (@aarr_org) February 25, 2026

Some referred to the ‘de-banking’ of conservatives:

CNN says banks are “very alarmed.” How touching. The same banks that freeze accounts for political wrongthink are suddenly terrified of verifying citizenship? If enforcing immigration law makes corporate America nervous, that tells you exactly who they’ve been serving this whole…

— Jane Adams (@iLoveJaneAdams) February 25, 2026

If they can target conservatives, then they can target illegals. Where am I wrong?

— Rich G (@richgoingstrong) February 25, 2026

These voices reflect a groundswell of America First sentiment, tired of seeing resources drained by those who flout laws.

This builds on other Trump-era wins, like barring non-citizens from Small Business Administration loans and revoking guidance that shielded immigrants from credit discrimination based on status.

By forcing banks to prioritize citizens, Trump is delivering on his promise, reemphasised in his SOTU address, to put American citizens first – a vital step in reclaiming control from globalist enablers and ensuring resources stay in the country.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 21:45

Russia Calls Speedboat Shooting Incident Off Cuba An 'Aggressive US Provocation'

The deadly US-registered speedboat shooting incident in Cuba carries the potential to ignite a serious conflict between Cuba and the United States, amid an ongoing investigation into exactly what happened overseen by the White House.

Russia has reacted, on Thursday laying quick blame on the US side for a 'deliberate' act of 'provocation' in order to keep up the pressure on Havana and escalate the situation.

Russian MFA file

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS, "It is an aggressive US provocation, aimed at escalating the situation and triggering conflict."

Moscow has always been a close powerful ally of Cuba, and so it's expected that the Kremlin quickly come to Cuba's side, also after Russian officials vehemently condemned the US raid on Venezuela and Maduro's capture.

The Cuban version of events is that a speedboat out of Florida entered its sovereign waters and that when a Cuban patrol boat approached, people on board opened fire. The Cuban soldiers then fired back, killing four people and wounding six aboard the US vessel.

Notably, Havana has said the commander of the Cuban border patrol boat was injured. The Cuban government described the incident as a "foiled armed infiltration" of the island-nation.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to quickly get to the bottom of what happened, also as some US politicians have demanded that Cuba be crushed because of the assault.

"What I’m telling you is we’re going to find out exactly what happened and who was involved," Rubio said. "We’re not going to just take what somebody else tells us. I’m very confident we will be able to know the story independently."

The Trump administration's current posture toward Cuba is geared toward increasing pressure on Havana and ridding the island of communism, for which grinding sanctions have long been in place - which have by and large hurt the common people.

Rubio: "It is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that."

Secretary Rubio said no US government personnel were involved in the shooting, telling reporters it is "highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that, it's not something that happens every day" https://t.co/CtJpGXuTR0

— Benjamin Alvarez (@BenjAlvarez1) February 26, 2026

A key question remains of how the administration frames the narrative around the maritime incident, whether it uses it to shape public opinion, and whether this marks the early stages of a new narrative that supports future intervention to topple the communist leadership of Cuba.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 21:20

US Tariff Rates To Hit 15% Or More For Some Nations Under New Strategy

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer said tariff rates could climb to 15 percent or more for some nations as the Trump administration conducts probes into unfair trade practices after a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated parts of the previous tariff policy. 

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the White House in Washington, DC. Reuters/Kylie Cooper/File Photo

Greer appeared on Fox Business program Mornings With Maria, and spoke with host Maria Bartiromo about a shift to tools such as Section 301 targets unfair trade practices, including forced labor in supply chains and industrial excess capacity, as the Trump administration seeks to continue its sweeping tariff policy. 

“Section 301 allows the office of the United States trade representative to investigate unfair trade practices on a country by country basis,” Greer said. “And we’ve identified a lot of these. This includes things like people who use forced labor in their supply chains.”

Greer says the new tool also could target countries with excess industrial capacity which builds beyond demand and floods U.S. markets. 

Greer said investigations will include public comments, hearings, and consultations, whereafter Greer’s office will prepare reports of their findings. If countries do not adhere to suggestions in the reports, they could face higher duties. 

“We expect to have continuity in what we’re doing,” Greer said, noting tariffs could exceed 15 percent for certain countries. 

Greer also underscored the importance of enforcement. 

“A big point of all the deals we’ve made over the past year, and these are real agreements, they’re substantive,” Greer said. “And countries have made specific commitments to change some of these unfair trading practices, but we have to make sure they do it.” 

Greer said that the U.S. regularly discusses China’s excess capacity with Beijing. He said he does not expect the country to address the problem fully, noting that tariffs on China would remain 35–50 percent based on products, which aligns with previous agreements. Greer said he expects those deals to remain in place. 

“We intend to really stick to the deal that we had before,” Greer said. 

Greer affirmed that President Donald Trump’s initially imposed a 10 percent global tariff under Section 122, which lasts for up to 150 days, is meant to serve as a bridge to a new policy under Section 301. 

Greer also confirmed the administration’s view that Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 remained law, and could be used in cases where countries discriminate against the United States in trade practices, allowing for a tariff of up to 50 percent on imports from specified countries.  

He underscored his office’s focus was on Section 301 investigations, as well as strategic industry-focused Section 232 national security investigations. 

“They’ve stood up to legal scrutiny in the past and they will again now,” Greer said.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 20:55

House Dem Brought Illegal Alien To State Of The Union, Then Protected Him From Law Enforcement

There were rumors ahead of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday that some Democrats would be bringing illegal immigrants as their guests as some sort of silent protest against Trump’s immigration policies. 

Well, at least one actually did, and may have committed a crime as a result.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) invited a young man with an expired student visa to sit in the gallery for Trump’s speech. Marcelo Gomes daSilva, 19, originally from Brazil, arrived in Milford, Massachusetts, at age six on a visa that has since lapsed. ICE arrested him last May at a holding facility in Burlington after agents initially came looking for his father. He applied for asylum after the detention. Moulton met him outside that facility in June, and the two apparently stayed in touch. Tuesday night's invitation was the congressman's way of giving him a platform.

But the Trump administration knew that Moulton and other Democrats were planning to do this. 

“While Republicans are bringing victims of crimes committed by illegal criminal aliens to the State of the Union, some Democrats in Congress are planning to bring ILLEGAL ALIENS,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X before the speech. “Democrats are once again prioritizing illegal aliens above the safety of American citizens.”

Democrats called out included Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Seth Moulton.

Moulton, “plans to bring illegal alien Marcelo Gomes DaSilva,” the post noted. “Gomes DaSilva is an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation. We are committed to enforcing the law and fighting for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens like him.”

.@RepMoulton plans to bring illegal alien Marcelo Gomes DaSilva.

Gomes DaSilva is an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation. We are committed to enforcing the law and fighting for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens like him.

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) February 25, 2026

It was a shot across the bow, and Moulton's office clearly heard it. Moulton’s chief of staff was forced to hustle the young man out of the chamber mid-speech and into his congressional office, reportedly to keep him away from law enforcement.

"[He] is still an illegal alien and subject to removal proceedings,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country."

Moulton defended his actions after the fact.

“He put a human face on this immigration tragedy, and what I think so many colleagues saw is not just an immigrant, but a great American, a great young American, an amazing patriot, someone whose courage we should all emulate in these challenging times,” Moulton told MSNOW.

What America saw last night was not just "an immigrant," but a great American. A patriot. A reminder of what courage looks like. pic.twitter.com/SKyNaYvOrU

— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) February 26, 2026

Last year, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested and later convicted of felony obstruction charges for helping an illegal immigrant evade arrest. Dugan's case established that the institutional trappings of a public office don't inoculate anyone from the harboring statute, and it will be interesting to see what the Justice Department does in this case and whether Moulton, or perhaps his chief of staff, faces any legal consequences.

Another outstanding question is why Moulton brought Gomes DaSilva to the speech if he knew he was at risk of arrest and deportation? Perhaps the reason is that Moulton is running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democratic Senator Ed Markey and is seeking ways to pander to Democratic primary voters. Democratic primaries reward this kind of performative defiance on immigration. The only person who may not have fully grasped the game is Marcelo Gomes daSilva. Moulton claims he wanted to come to the speech to “confront” Donald Trump and his “MAGA Republican enablers,” but did he realize he was also being used as a campaign prop? 

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 20:30

Researchers Identify Chinese Influence Network That Targeted Trump, Japan Elections

Authored by Catherine Young via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Researchers uncovered a network of more than 330 social media accounts linked to China that targeted U.S. President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, human rights organizations, and other countries to push pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) narratives, according to a Feb. 26 policy brief.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raises her fist as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks aboard USS George Washington on Oct. 28, 2025, in Yokosuka, Japan. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank based in Washington, discovered the network coordinating to push these narratives between December 2025 and February 2026 across X, YouTube, Tumblr, Blogger, and Quora.

The researchers identified six “clusters” of accounts that focused on different narratives, which tended to attack political figures seen as acting against the CCP’s interests.

The largest nexus included 151 accounts that targeted audiences in the United States, including ones posing as American citizens and criticizing Trump’s policies, such as claiming that he had caused or worsened the fentanyl crisis. Notably, accounts with few or no followers made posts that generated thousands of replies, indicating what researchers say is an “inauthentic amplification network.”

“This tactic is used to manipulate platform algorithms into pushing content into the feeds of real users,” the brief reads.

Another cluster attacked Takaichi before the Japanese election, portraying her as “corrupt and militaristic.”

A separate cluster of activity targeted Uyghur activists and promoted anti-Uyghur sentiments among Canadian and Japanese users. The CCP has persecuted the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang for years, which the United States has designated a genocide. The Chinese regime has conducted mass surveillance of Uyghurs and forced them into labor, and there is emerging evidence of forced organ harvesting of the group.

A fourth narrative accused U.S. organizations of “collusion” with Taiwan and payouts to undermine China while denying the CCP’s human rights abuses.

A fifth cluster accused the United States of interfering with Honduran elections, and a sixth amplified criticism of and supported protests against the Philippine president.

In some cases, the inauthentic accounts adopted names and images similar to those of official organizations, such as U.S. agencies.

“Collectively the accounts manipulate recommendation algorithms to push their narratives on unsuspecting social media consumers,” the FDD brief reads.

The think tank recommends that the United States develop counter-influence capabilities, pointing to the recently created position of director of cognitive advantage at the U.S. National Security Council as a fitting option to spearhead such an effort.

FDD researchers said the campaign “closely mirrors” the Chinese Spamouflage operation, one of the best-known CCP-backed online disinformation campaigns.

Research firm Graphika published a comprehensive report on Spamouflage in 2019, following Twitter’s takedown of 3.5 million posts linked to the CCP.

Graphika has published several reports on Chinese online influence campaigns over the years and, along with other researchers, says that influence campaigns using inauthentic accounts are increasingly using artificial intelligence.

Graphika recently uncovered a network of web domains posing as well-known news media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. The domains were used to boost pro-CCP content and attack the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, was introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s and quickly grew; the state estimated that one in 13 Chinese citizens practiced it by the end of the decade, and it is now practiced worldwide. The peaceful spiritual practice is centered on the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance and involves meditative exercises.

In 1999, the CCP effectively banned Falun Gong overnight and launched a violent persecution that continues today. Human rights organizations, independent investigators, and international media outlets, including The Epoch Times, have documented cases of illegal arrests, torture and brainwashing, and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP has been known to carry out transnational repression of overseas practitioners of Falun Gong and foreign officials who have expressed support for the practitioners’ freedom of belief and expression.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 20:05

Bohemian Grove Membership List Leaked

An independent journalist has obtained and published what appears to be the 2023 attendance list for ultra-secretive Bohemian Grove, the annual summer encampment of the all-male Bohemian Club in Sonoma County, California, providing a rare look at the roster of American elites who gathered at the shadowy retreat.

The list, first shared by Substack journalist Daniel Boguslaw and authenticated by at least one club member, lists more than 2,200 names, organized by the club's distinctive “camps.”

The Bohemian Club, which also operates a private clubhouse in San Francisco, has long guarded the privacy of its activities, guided by the motto “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here,” the New York Post  reports.

While the list reflects participation in the 2023 encampment rather than lifetime membership in the club, it includes a notable array of influential figures. Among them are:

• Henry Kissinger - Former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor - one of the most influential diplomats of the 20th/21st century.
• Michael Bloomberg - Billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP, former New York City mayor, and presidential candidate.
• Charles G. Koch - Billionaire chairman of Koch Industries and major political donor/influencer through the Koch network.
• James A. Baker III - Former U.S. Secretary of State (under Bush Sr.) and Treasury Secretary (under Reagan) — a towering figure in modern Republican foreign policy.
• David Rockefeller Jr. - Prominent banker, philanthropist, and heir to the Rockefeller family fortune and legacy.
• Paul F. Pelosi - Businessman and husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - highly recognizable due to his wife's political role, getting hammered. 
• Edwin Meese III - Former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan and key conservative legal figure.
• David M. Rubenstein - Co-founder of The Carlyle Group (one of the world's largest private-equity firms), billionaire philanthropist, and host of major economic forums.
• Harlan Crow - Real-estate billionaire and major Republican donor (notably linked to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas).
• Gen. Richard B. Myers - Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (highest-ranking U.S. military officer) during the early post-9/11 era.

Entire list here:

Daniel Boguslaw Bohemain Grove List-1 by Zerohedge Janitor

The Bohemian Grove drew wider public attention in 2000 when radio host Alex Jones infiltrated the grounds and secretly recorded the club's signature ritual, the Cremation of Care. In the ceremony, robed participants gather before a 40-foot owl statue to symbolically burn an effigy representing “Care” in a theatrical performance featuring dramatic lighting, music, and pyrotechnics. Jones, accompanied by cameraman Mike Hanson, used the footage as the centerpiece of his documentary Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove.

In 1971, then-President Richard Nixon, an occasional attendee of Bohemian Club gatherings, once bluntly told aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman that the retreat was “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine."

What gave it away?

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 19:40

The Graveyard Of Destructive Ideas

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

How do destructive ideas and bouts of collective madness so quickly become policy, law, and the status quo?

After all, most have little public support—and are not Western nations supposedly rationally governed?

There is usually a multi-step process on the road to these self-destructive fits of society-wide insanity.

The suicidal impulse so often begins with left-leaning researchers in elite universities (i.e., the tenured in search of a novel, grant-getting theory). They begin insisting that a new existential threat requires immediate government intervention, novel legislation, ample funding, and public awareness of the impending danger.

So out of nowhere, the public is warned that the scorching planet will be inundated by rising seas in a mere decade. Or that millions of transgender youth are our next civil rights frontier, given that they suffer in silence without political advocacy, new laws, programs, and the chance for “life-saving,” powerful hormonal treatments and radical sex-reassignment surgeries. Indeed, the travel time from an outlandish idea by the faculty lounge to liberal status quo is a mere few years.

Next, the media, hand-in-glove with academia, springs into action to persuade the skeptical public to “follow the science” and “trust the experts.” It castigates any doubters as cranks or “conspiracy theorists” who spread “disinformation” and “misinformation”; or as racists, nativists, sexists, homophobes, and transphobes who must be silenced.

Hollywood and sports celebrities often piggyback on the frenzy, hijacking awards ceremonies and pre-game national anthems to out-virtue-signal each other, warning the public that they must adapt and change—or else!

Almost overnight—to take just one example—going to an isolated beach without a mask during the COVID pandemic, showing skepticism about the efficacy or safety of experimental mRNA COVID vaccines, or daring to believe that the Wuhan gain-of-function virology lab (in part aided and abetted by grants and support from Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health) was the source of a manufactured COVID pathogen became heresies. And the perpetrators, as always, had to be punished either legally or through social ostracism and cancel culture.

Third, liberal foundations begin funding more “research” to “prove” that partisan “experts” should not be ignored. They also fund activist groups that hit the street to gin up popular support, which often results in the required tumult and occasional violence. They embrace the theory that any disruption will so bother the public that it will support almost anything if it just makes the bedlam go away.

New victims and their oppressors are created ex nihilo.

Yesterday’s radical new policy becomes today’s wishy-washy cop-out, as tomorrow’s once-unthinkable radical idea becomes commonplace and institutionalized. So it was that a few years ago, the public was told of a new and huge victimized group in the shadows, suffering from “gender dysphoria”—an age-old malady known to the ancients and, according to modern researchers before the millennium, affecting about one in 10,000–30,000 people.

No matter—almost overnight, transgenderism joined the gay and lesbian community to become the new LGB—T oppressed. Drag shows, once confined to enclaves in San Francisco or New York, were suddenly mainstreamed into military bases, children’s libraries, and cruise ships. Thirty percent of students on some campuses polled said that they might consider “transitioning.”

Abruptly, professors and students began reading emails appearing from their finger-in-the-wind administrators with strange new runes under their titles and names, identifying their “preferred pronouns”—sometimes the standard “she/her/hers” or “he/him/his,” and sometimes the unfathomable, such as “Ze/hir/hirs” or the plural “they/them.”

Groupthink and mob mentality prevail. Soon, not listing pronouns on correspondence indicts someone as a counterrevolutionary, a transphobe, or, worst of all, a Trump sympathizer.

Fourth, fence-sitting liberal and socialist officials and candidates equate the well-funded activism, the performance-art street demonstrations, and the media fixations on victims and victimizers with growing grassroots support for yet another cause.

This is well illustrated by how initially liberal officials—stunned that 70 percent of the public wanted secure borders, no more illegal immigration, and deportation of the 10 million Biden-era illegal aliens—kept quiet about Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

However, after massive and violent demonstrations in major blue cities—with the deaths of two protestors who confronted ICE officers and tried to impede their efforts to detain illegal aliens—biased media blared out that officers were manhandling “mere bystanders.” ICE is now routinely likened by Democratic politicians to the Nazi Gestapo, well beyond the usual boilerplate smears as “pigs” and “fascists.”

The public buys into the fable that ICE agents were not arresting some 4,000 criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota while elected officials were siccing protestors on them, but were instead “murdering” innocent unarmed bystanders, who were harmlessly protesting ICE’s “goon” tactics.

Fifth, once the delusion—whether it is of a doomed sizzling planet, a utopian open border, the systemic oppression of a huge transgendered victimized class, or the habitual and flagrant shooting of innocent unarmed black males by predatory racist police—is institutionalized, then the government and institutions, public and private, ignore public opinion. And they begin passing laws and protocols once deemed unthinkable.

The once-meritocratic SAT, originally aimed at nullifying the old-boy admissions network at the Ivy League, becomes “racist” and is dropped. “Defund the Police” becomes the elite white activist mantra.

Soon, the politicians’ talking points become gospel, as formerly crackpot “critical legal theory” and “critical race theory” are used to “prove” that police hunt down minorities rather than the criminals among them.

Productive, safe nuclear clean-energy plants are shut down. Billions of dollars are invested—and lost—by government mandates aimed at phasing out internal combustion engines and subsidizing unpopular electric vehicles. Government-built high-speed rail boondoggles waste billions before laying a foot of track.

Schools and public offices must suddenly install “gender neutral” bathrooms. What follows is the surreal sight of biological men competing in women’s sports and undressing with teen girls in locker rooms—acts that just a few years prior would have landed someone in jail.

However, there sometimes occurs a sixth stage, which we might call the “Emperor Has No Clothes” wake-up call, that occasionally stops the lemmings in their mad dash over the cliff.

Gradually, the public wonders why it pays twice as much for electricity as it did a mere few years earlier. Supposedly doomed polar bears appear to be thriving in the Arctic. John Kerry is routinely spotted on a carbon-spewing private jet to get to climate change conferences abroad. California’s “permanent” drought strangely ignores near-record wet years and snowfall. Too little rain proves global warming; too much is proof of “climate chaos.”

Barack Obama, the Cassandra of rising seas, nonetheless prefers to buy and live in multimillion-dollar mansions on the Hawaii beach and Martha’s Vineyard seaside.

A few brave reporters cite China building two coal plants a month, even as it brags about the Paris Climate Accords and urges the West to embrace “clean energy.”

The public begins to wonder why, after mass shootings, authorities mysteriously conceal the transgender status of the shooter or suppress the perpetrator’s incriminating target list and diary.

Quietly, university studies start citing the cardiac, pulmonary, and hematological side effects of the mRNA vaccines.

Some universities, without much fanfare, begin to reintroduce the SAT after remedial math courses have had to expand to accommodate nearly half the entering class.

Economists at last come out of the shadows to cite data that shows the massive COVID lockdowns were a catastrophic blunder that permanently stunted the education of millions of youths and birthed an epidemic of psycho-social maladies that disrupted entire communities.

Accusations grow that the architects of Black Lives Matter embezzled millions of dollars in donations and spent freely on upscale homes for themselves. Data drips out that police shoot no more unarmed black suspects than white, when compared to the relative rates of arrests by race. The Somali community—the supposed DEI face of the new Minnesota Democratic majority—is found to be at the heart of a $9 billion fraud epidemic. And so it is revealed as most ungracious, treating its hosts’ magnanimity as naivete to be exploited rather than as generosity to be appreciated.

On the border, the old mantra that the crime rate of illegal aliens is well below that of citizens is revealed as politically tainted. Estimates emerge that 500,000 criminals or more swarmed the border, as the body count of U.S. citizens murdered and assaulted by illegal aliens grows daily.

In sum, just five years ago, when Joe Biden and his masters took control of the government, the orthodoxy was that we were to restructure the entire economy along failed European lines in order to save the planet.

There were no longer to be the two age-old sexes, but a dozen or more in 2021 America.

“Men” could become pregnant (but only if they were born as biological women).

Tampons were politically correct in male bathrooms.

Preferred pronouns dotted memos.

A swarm of 10,000 illegal aliens a day proved America was compassionate and caring while creating a “new Democratic majority,” given that “demography is destiny.”

Blue-city prosecutors released thousands of criminals either without formally charging them or after merely fining them for lesser crimes.

Racial obsessions destroyed merit-based hiring of everyone from air traffic controllers to pilots to professors to museum docents.

And then abruptly in 2025, these destructive manias began shriveling up and were destined for the graveyard of forgotten collective lunacies.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 17:40

Iran Rushes To Load Oil Onto Ships In Anticipation Of US Strikes

Via Middle East Eye

Iran is loading almost three times the amount of oil it normally does onto tankers in the Persian Gulf in a sign it is anticipating a US attack that could prevent its oil from hitting the market. 

Iranian oil exports from Kharg Island reached nearly 20.1 million barrels between 15 and 20 February, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing Kpler data. That is the equivalent of more than three million barrels per day (bpd) and almost three times the amount loaded over the same dates in January, Bloomberg said. For comparison, Iran’s previous three-month average of loadings was 1.54 million bpd.

Oil facilities on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf about 1,250 km south of Tehran, NurPhoto

Kharg Island is home to a massive terminal from which 90 percent of the Islamic Republic’s oil is exported. Iran raced to get its oil out of the country and onto ships for export abroad in June 2025, just before the US joined Israel’s attack on the country.

Kharg Island would also be more vulnerable to attack than the shadow fleet of tankers Iran uses to transport its oil. But Iran is not the only oil producer in the Middle East ramping up exports.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia is increasing its oil production and exports as part of a contingency plan - should a US attack on Iran disrupt supplies.

Saudi Arabia also made a similar decision in June 2025, lifting oil exports by around 0.5 million bpd and shipping crude to overseas storage units around the time of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Reuters reported. 

In a sign that more crude is hitting the seas, the costs of chartering Very Large Crude Carriers or VLCCs have more than tripled since the start of the year to over $170,000 per day, Reuters reported, citing data provided by financial market data group, LSEG.

Shipping rates are determined by supply and demand. The supply of VLCCs available to rent is largely fixed because they are massive vessels that take years to make. Prices rise when more VLCCs are booked.

F-22 fighter jets sent to Israel

Brent crude, the international benchmark, has risen in the past month amid rising tensions. It was trading up .38 percent on Wednesday at $70.84 per barrel.

US President Donald Trump has been toying with a strike on Iran since January, when the Iranian government oversaw a brutal crackdown on protesters. The demonstrations have died down, but Trump has continued to threaten Iran with an attack.

Iran is conducting military exercises on Abu Musa and other islands near Straits of Hormuz — unmistakable threat to shut the Staits if the US attacks. Iran has many drones and mines to put oil tankers at great risk and only need sink a few to shut down shipping lanes for weeks or… pic.twitter.com/7UCm0blu4u

— Robert A. Pape (@ProfessorPape) February 25, 2026

He has ordered the largest build-up of US military assets in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. There are two aircraft carriers in the region along with dozens of F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the US also deployed a group of F-22 Raptor jets to Israel this week. The F-22 is a stealthy fifth-generation fighter jet used for dogfighting and ground strikes. Experts say the deployment of a group of F-22s to a foreign country in peacetime is virtually unheard of, given their limited numbers and advanced features.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 17:00

Dorsey's Block Fires Nearly Half Of The Company In 'Massive' AI Bet, Sending Shares Soaring

One week after WIRED reported that things were pretty dismal over at Jack Dorsey's payment processing company Block (formerly Square), the company announced that they are cutting 4,000 employees - nearly half of their headcount - in order to invest 'heavily' in artificial intelligence tools to run more efficiently, including its own called Goose, Bloomberg reports. 

The news sent shares up over 30% in after hours trade.

"We are taking bold and decisive action here, but we’re doing it from a position of strength," CFO Amrita Ahuja told Bloomberg, adding "We’re doing it in a way that we believe positions us to move even faster for our customers."

The reduction in force, which was announced in a shareholder letter on Thursday, comes after rolling job eliminations that have often been tied to annual performance reviews. 

...

In the shareholder letter, the company highlighted strong financial performance over 2025 including that gross profit growth more than doubled from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. Dorsey, the company’s co-founder, touted how the company has reignited growth of users of its peer-to-peer payments app Cash App, scaled its lending products and accelerated Square gross payment volume. Block reported gross profit of $10.36 billion in 2025, up 17% year-over-year. -Bloomberg

"Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company," wrote Dorsey, adding that "we’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better."

we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.

####

today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are…

— jack (@jack) February 26, 2026

As noted, according to a report last week in WIRED, things are bad over at Block...

"Morale is probably the worst I’ve felt in four years," reads one employee complaint submitted to Dorsey in a recent all-hands meeting (AI workers will notably not be submitting complaints anytime soon). "The overarching culture at Block is crumbling."

"We don't yet know if our livelihoods will be affected, and this makes it incredibly hard to make major life choices without knowing if we still have a job next week," another employee said in a complaint. 

Is this the first domino in the AI-driven layoff dystopia that we have been feamongered about, bringing fictional predictions into factual problems, as companies look upon Block's big gains and stroke their Dorsey-like beards at just how many of the proletariate can be replaced by an agent or two?

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 16:40

As ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on February 11, 2026

As reported by the House Committee on Small Business on February 17, 2026

The Great Reversal: Trump's Real Progress In Tackling Legal Immigration

Via White Papers Policy Institute,

Sixty-plus years of unchecked mass immigration have eroded the fabric of American society to the point where Americans are beginning to wonder if the country can survive. The focus of the media, left and right, when it comes to immigration, has been on the Minneapolis riots over the arrest and detention of illegal aliens.

What goes unnoticed however, is the seismic shift in immigration policy, particularly legal immigration policy, that arrived with the latest Trump administration.

The fantastic truth is that the floodgates that allow more than 1-1.2 million legal immigrants in the United States every year since 1990 are closing. The tide is in fact going out—net emigration of immigrants is becoming the new reality. Under President Trump’s renewed mandate, legal immigration has plummeted. Millions are already departing voluntarily, and millions more who would have come to America have been deterred from doing so. Moreover, projections from within Trump’s administration signal an even sharper decline in legal immigration for 2026 and beyond.

What the executive branch has managed to do, with little help from Congressional leadership, is affect a necessary reset of the legal immigration system that will finally bring an end to the decades of mass immigration that Americans have consistently voted against. While there must be legislation passed by the (as of now) GOP controlled Congress to ensure these immigration changes are enshrined into law, we should take a moment to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of this administration.

The Sharp Drop in Legal Arrivals

In fiscal year 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processed 2.7 million immigration cases in its third quarter. This marked a 16% plunge from the same point 2024. In other words, fewer people are applying for visas, and the government has taken measures to increase processing times. USCIS and DHS are also simply not approving as many visas. According to a great report by the Niskanen Center, approvals cratered by 21%, while work authorization applications halved in October 2025 compared to the previous year. Consulates issued 20% fewer immigrant visas and 16% fewer nonimmigrant visas in May 2025 compared to 2024, with family-based categories hit hardest. For example, there were 6,128 fewer FX1, FX2, and FX3 visas for immediate relatives requesting to relocate to the United States. International student numbers dropped by 17,457 overall, and overseas visitors fell by over 828,000 in the first 11 months of 2025. This isn’t happenstance. It’s the fruit of aggressive enforcement and bureaucratic action that makes potential immigrants think very seriously about their move to America. Potential fraudsters understand they won’t make the cut under more serious scrutiny.

Most importantly, overall net international migration turned negative (net emigration?) in 2025 for the first time in half a century. According to a January 2026 report by Brookings, anywhere between 10,000 and 295,000 more people left the United States than entered the country in fiscal year 2025.

Source

This is a major turnaround from a period when net migration (including legal immigration, 1-1.2 million annually, and illegal immigration together) into the United States has run into the multiple millions since the 1990s. Green cards issued abroad dipped to 560,000-575,000—down more than 100,000 from 670,000 in 2024. Refugee admissions plummeted to 7,600-12,000 from 105,000. And virtually all new refugees are Afrikaners and other White South Africans fleeing the persecution of their post-apartheid ‘rainbow’ government.

The immigrant population shrank from 53.3 million in January 2025 to 51.9 million by June. This is a 2.6% drop, the first decline since the 1960s.

Overall population growth slowed to 0.5%, adding just 1.8 million to the overall American population which sits somewhere between 345 and 355 million. Every state except two experienced reduced growth rates. These declines stem from the administration’s unyielding stance: travel bans, public charge restrictions, and/or visa restrictions on 93 countries, suspension of refugee programs, and restrictions on family sponsorships. This is on top of the new fees, paperwork, and bureaucratic barriers the administration has been steadily putting into place to reduce legal immigration.

Miller’s Projections

The administration appears to be far from done, and the change in public charge rules looks promising in terms of slashing legal immigration even further. Stephen Miller, currently Deputy White House Chief of Staff, expects that the new rules coming into force in 2026 will cut legal immigration by 33% to 50% over four years, denying 1.5 to 2.4 million green cards. Based on FY2023’s 1.17 million legal immigrants, this means 4.7 million over a term without restrictions. We can expect only half that number under the new regime. The new policies are already affecting immigrant’s immediate relatives, who constitute 48% of legal inflows and are already facing more denials under the expanded public charge criteria. The new rules for 2026 and beyond stand to prevent a further 941,000 to 1.65 million family-based immigrants.

We do, of course, wish that Congress and the administration would restrict immigration even further. The H-1B program needs to be abolished, the Optional Practical Training Program needs to be scrapped, and Chip Roy’s PAUSE Act to institute an immigration moratorium is the single most important piece of legislation sitting in Congress right now. Still, we are grateful for the progress in slowing or reversing our replacement.

For 2026, net migration is projected to land somewhere between -925,000 to +185,000 and given the increasing restrictions, it will likely remain on the lower rather than the higher end of that prediction by the Brookings Institution. Green cards could fall to 490,000-575,000, temporary visas to 1.65-1.99 million, refugees are expected to remain stable at roughly 7,500 and overwhelmingly from South Africa. It is important to note, though, that the projections vary and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts net immigration at 410,000 in 2025 and 570,000 in 2026. Though this is a major downward revision from earlier projections due to administrative crackdowns.

As a result of all these fantastic immigration changes by the administration, it is expected that by 2028-2035 the workforce could shrink by 6.8-15.7 million. Progressives and market fundamentalist conservatives would like you to panic about this, but the reality is that there are more than 7 million prime age working males (ages 25-54) currently out of the job market in the United States. Putting these men back to work is far more important than continuing to import immigrants at a large scale who undercut the American job market. These 7 million young men are not included in the further 10.4% of Americans aged 16-24 who are unemployed (and are looking for work) and the 6.1% of recent tech grads who report unemployment. Millions more Americans are “underemployed” and working in part-time or poverty level wage jobs. According to Bloomberg. more than 8% of American workers could now be classified as “underemployed.” Further reporting by The Hill shows that underemployment rates for recent STEM grads now averages 20%. America does not need more immigrants. It needs to fewer so that our own young people can be directed by a healthier market into more productive, well-paying employment.

A Word on Illegals

In 2025, nearly 3 million illegal aliens left according to figures provided by DHS. The department claims that it has facilitated the deportation of 675,000 illegals while 2.2 million more have opted for self-deportation. While there is some disagreement about these numbers, few institutions disagree that interior enforcement, and therefore illegal departures, have risen rapidly. Brookings pegs illegal immigrant outflows at 520,000-720,000, with 210,000-405,000 more voluntary self-deportations than in a normal fiscal year. This is unsurprising seeing as ICE arrests quadrupled, detention doubled to 70,000 daily, and the government continues to build more facilities and hire more agents.

Public charge rules also amplify these departures. The proposed rescission of 2022 regulations expands scrutiny to all benefits, chilling enrollment. At 10-30% disenrollment rates, 1.3 million to 4 million immigrants (both legal and illegal) could forego Medicaid/CHIP benefits. DHS estimates 460,000 disenrollments, but reporting by the KFF shows even broad disenrollment in welfare programs by non-citizens. 11% of immigrant adults avoided programs since January 2025. This “chilling effect” spurs departures, as immigrants weigh benefits against status risks. Past rules caused 18% drops in child participation. Now, with CMS sharing data to ICE, the exodus intensifies.

Toward a Moratorium

Yet projections warn of incomplete victory. Without a full moratorium as proposed by Texas representative Chip Roy and an entirely new immigration system, which we believe should resemble the 1924 Immigration Act proposed here, residual inflows could rebound. If the Congressional GOP does not get its act together and legislate more restrictions into law, a future Democratic president could undue all the Trump administration’s executive actions with executive actions of his or her own. Millions upon millions more legal and illegal immigrants would come pouring into the United States and replacement migration would begin again.

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

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 16:20

 

I am very excited to announce that RWM is coming to San Francisco, California, on April 14th.

Our relationship with the City by the Bay goes back to the early days when Josh, Kris, Michael and I would spend a few days here meeting clients. The tech center of the world is filled with amazing people, companies, and stories. We always had a great time in SF and looked forward to our trips.

But it’s been too long since we were here. I am very jazzed to be coming back to meet wth current and prospective clients, potential advisor hires, and others.

I will be doing several Master’s in Business Live on April 16 at the Bloomberg Pier 3 HQ/Auditorium. We have an outstanding lineup of guests; I’ll share more info as we get closer to the date.

Looking forward to seeing you in Fog City.

~~~

Seats are limited — reach out to us at RWM or Bloomberg for tickets.

For those people interested in learning about how RWM works with clients, or information about the event, reach out to us at Info AT RitholtzWealth.com.

 

The post RWM Coming to San Francisco April 14-16 appeared first on The Big Picture.

Tech Bosses To Meet At White House, Pledge Their Data Centers Won't Boost Electricity Bills

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Leaders in big tech are expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House next week to pledge that their data centers will not increase the energy bills of Americans living near the facilities.

The logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed on a mobile phone and a laptop screen. Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

“Major tech companies will join President Trump at the White House next week to formally sign the Rate Payer Protection Pledge that he announced during his historic State of the Union address,” a White House official told The Epoch Times on Feb. 25.

The March 4 event will include representatives from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI.

The initiative will require massive companies to build, bring, or buy their own power supply for new artificial intelligence data centers in order to avoid causing Americans’ electricity bills to skyrocket.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring American AI dominance while simultaneously lowering costs for working families,” the White House official added on Wednesday.

Trump first revealed the plans during his wide-ranging and record-breaking State of the Union address at the Capitol on Feb. 24.

“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” Trump said on Tuesday night. “They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one’s prices will go up and, in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community, and very substantially down.”

In July 2025, Trump issued an executive order aimed at streamlining data center projects in America.

“These plans include artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and infrastructure that powers them, including high‑voltage transmission lines and other equipment,” the executive order said. “It will be a priority of my administration to facilitate the rapid and efficient buildout of this infrastructure by easing federal regulatory burdens.”

Any data center project must have more than “100 megawatts (MW) of new load dedicated to AI inference, training, simulation, or synthetic data generation,” the order stated.

Surging electricity bills caused by data center development was one of the key issues in the November gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

Customers in New Jersey paid an average of 19 percent more for energy in 2025 compared with 2024.

Virginia customers who already experienced 30 percent hikes from 2020 to 2023 will likely see rate increases up to 21 percent by 2027.

Big tech is planning a series of data center projects, including a 400 megawatt natural gas plant by Meta in New Albany, Ohio, while Energy Northwest and Amazon plan to build a Cascade Advanced Energy Facility near Richland, Washington.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 15:45

Automakers Push Toward "Eyes-Off" Driving Despite Mounting Doubts

Global automakers are zeroing in on a controversial waypoint in the autonomy race: “eyes-off” driving, known in the industry as Level 3, according to a new report by Reuters.

The idea is simple but provocative — motorists could look away to send a message or work on a laptop until the vehicle signals them to retake control.

After years spent refining hands-on driver aids that manage steering and speed, companies see Level 3 as a potential bridge between today’s supervised systems and tomorrow’s fully driverless cars. It could also help justify the billions already sunk into automation. “We can start saving them time immediately, and do it in a very affordable way,” said Doug Field of Ford Motor, which aims to roll out eyes-off capability on lower-cost EVs in 2028.

Yet enthusiasm is far from universal. Some executives question whether temporarily shifting responsibility between human and machine is workable — or safe. Others doubt buyers will pay enough to cover development costs that consultants at McKinsey & Company estimate at up to $1.5 billion for highway-capable Level 3 systems.

Reuters reports that a decade after bold predictions that autonomous cars would be everywhere, most vehicles — including “Full Self-Driving” from Tesla — remain Level 2, requiring constant attention. Besides Ford, General Motors and Honda Motor have outlined Level 3 ambitions.

But pullbacks are mounting. Mercedes-Benz, the only brand to launch Level 3 in the U.S., paused the program amid limited demand tied to speed and geographic restrictions. Stellantis has shelved its effort. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik said attempts so far suggest “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”

Legal exposure adds another layer of risk. Analysts say eyes-off capability increases the likelihood that manufacturers — not drivers — would bear responsibility in a crash, an issue scholars warn could stall deployment without clearer regulation.

Meanwhile, competition from China is intensifying. Automakers such as BYD and Leapmotor bundle advanced driver-assistance features into sticker prices, raising the prospect of a pricing clash if Western consumers resist subscription fees. As one industry strategist put it, “This is a war of global business models.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 15:25

US Treasury To Allow Resale Of Venezuelan Oil To Cuba to Ease Island's Fuel Crunch

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced a new licensing policy to streamline the resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, with the goal of supporting the island’s private sector and bolstering humanitarian efforts amid ongoing fuel crises.

The refinery El Palito in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo state, Venezuela, on Jan. 22, 2026. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) will extend the new licensing policy to specific applications seeking authorization for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba.

The move was done “in accordance with the United States’ support and solidarity for the Cuban people,” reads the new policy.

The policy does not cover entities or persons connected to the Cuban military, intelligence services, or other government institutions, including entities on the U.S. State Department’s Cuba Restricted List.

The Treasury’s Cuban Assets Control Regulations generally already authorize U.S. persons to export oil from the United States to Cuba, or to reexport U.S.-origin oil from a third country to Cuba, where that export or reexport has been authorized by the Commerce Department.

The United States has in recent months placed increased pressure on Cuba’s energy procurement network, especially in the wake of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture in January. Oil shipments to Cuba plummeted, worsening shortages that have disrupted everyday life.

Canadian officials earlier this month advised citizens to prepare for unpredictable conditions in Cuba due to fuel scarcity. U.S. federal advisories warned against nonessential travel, with oil shortages a key issue.

In January, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs via executive order on any nation selling oil to Cuba.

“I find that the policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the executive order reads.

The United States recently eased certain sanctions, permitting established American firms to trade Venezuelan crude under strict conditions, but it prohibits deals with adversaries such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and China.

In an unrelated press briefing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump’s push for reform in Cuba.

“The reason why things are as bad as they are is because they have an economic model that doesn’t work, doesn’t exist anywhere in the world,” Rubio said. “It is not functional. And the only way Cuba is going to have a better future is if it has a different economic model.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/26/2026 - 15:05