Zero Hedge

Voter Files In Arizona's Largest County Illegally Obtained In 2020, Records Show

Voter Files In Arizona's Largest County Illegally Obtained In 2020, Records Show

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Voter files in Maricopa County, Arizona, were obtained illegally before the 2020 presidential election, according to records released on Aug. 6 by the White House.

Authorities discovered that 633,000 voter files had been exfiltrated from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office just before the election, according to logs from the U.S. intelligence community and other documents.

The voter files contained information such as people’s names, birth dates, and addresses.

About 930 of them included information on people such as domestic violence victims, judges, and law enforcement officers.

The files were illegally extracted from the office, the FBI said in a document opening an investigation.

The bureau identified a suspect, who admitted to the crime, according to a document summarizing an interview agents conducted with the man.

The man, who has not been publicly named, used to work for a city whose name was redacted in the FBI file.

He went on to work for himself, fixing computers and removing viruses from machines.

In 2020, he discovered a vulnerability on the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office website while registering to vote.

The man developed a program to obtain voter files from the website and ended up extracting between 1 million and 2 million files to his personal hard drives and an online account, he told investigators.

The man said he did not intend to sell the information.

After he “realized the gravity of the situation,” he “became scared” and knew he would be visited by law enforcement, according to the interview summary.

The man told officials that he destroyed the files shortly before the FBI raided his house in Fountain Hills in November 2020.

The man said he regretted what he did and knew he had to deal with consequences for his actions.

The FBI “spent significant resources solving this cybercrime,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement, but prosecutors in Arizona declined to prosecute the man. He has never been charged.

There’s no evidence that any votes were changed in association with the incident, John Solomon, chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force, told reporters on a call.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 19:15

Watch: Mamdani Booed Off Stage At Pro-Police Event As 9/11 Backlash Builds

Watch: Mamdani Booed Off Stage At Pro-Police Event As 9/11 Backlash Builds

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani got a blistering welcome from Staten Islanders Tuesday night, drowned out by a wall of boos that chased the self-avowed Democratic socialist off the stage in under a minute at a National Night Out Against Crime event.

Mamdani had come to Midland Beach to address thousands gathered for the NYPD's 43rd annual National Night Out Against Crime, an event built around strengthening the bond between police officers and the neighborhoods they protect--however--it did not go as planned.

Videos rocketing around social media showed the crowd jeering as the mayor stepped toward the podium, with attendees shouting at Mamdani to leave and others flashing thumbs-down gestures in the borough long considered the city's most conservative.

“It’s a pleasure to be here, I want to say thank you …” Mamdani began amid loud and lusty boos and a barrage of insults such as “you suck!”

The mayor kept smiling through it.

"Happy Night Out Against Crime. It's amazing to be here for the Staten Island community," Mamdani said, thanking local officials and Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido before wrapping up with, "God bless everyone. Thank you."

The whole appearance clocked in at less than a minute before the mayor walked off. Local reports said Mamdani later stopped to pose for photos with some attendees, hostile reception notwithstanding.

The Staten Island rebuke comes as thousands are protesting Mamdani's presence at 9/11 memorial events. Among those protesting the mayor is Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman vowing to turn his back on Mamdani if the mayor shows up.

"I would equate this to a wake. You don't go to a wake if you're not welcome," Blakeman told reporters, according to the New York Post. 

"I think it's completely appropriate if family members ask him not to come, but if he does come I think there's a respectful and peaceful way to protest that and I would suggest that people turn their back on the mayor," Blakeman said. 

"He's not welcome there because he has yet to say anything in opposition to the global intifada. As a matter of fact it seems like he supports that phrase which is part of the reason why we had the tragedy we had on 9/11."

Staten Island is the most conservative borough in New York City, although it maintains a higher number of registered Democrats than Republicans. As of February 2024, 39.72 percent of registered voters were Democrats compared to 31.46 percent who vote Republican.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 18:50

US Intelligence Assets Said To Descend On Cuba

US Intelligence Assets Said To Descend On Cuba

Authored by John Weeks via News.Anti-War.com,

Writing in POLITICO on Tuesday, Dasha Burns and Nahal Toosi reported that in recent months the US intelligence community has “sent spies and assets” to Cuba. Specifically, they reported the CIA has increased its presence on the island, which sits approximately 90 miles south of Florida.   

Burns and Toosi based their reporting on interviews with “two people familiar with the Trump administration’s plans for the island,” who were left anonymous due to the “sensitive” nature of the information they provided. The authors said the CIA, White House, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all declined requests for comment.

The report claimed the Trump Administration does not believe it has to resolve the war with Iran before taking military action in Cuba and that the Cuban issue is a “huge priority” of Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.

The cityscape of Havana, as Cuba scrambles to reconnect its national electrical grid following a nationwide blackout, in Havana, Cuba August 4, 2026. REUTERS/Norlys Perez

While the accuracy of the inside information cannot be verified, nor whether its status is official or unauthorized, the claims are consistent with recent rhetoric and actions of the Trump administration, and the US did reportedly take similar action before the January 3 attack on Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro.

Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, has been very hands-on regarding Western Hemisphere geopolitics. After the attack on Venezuela, Trump vowed the US would be “running” the country for an indefinite transition period, and Rubio was given that brief within the administration. By all accounts, he is eager to add running Cuba to his area of responsibilities and not optimistic about diplomacy.  

On July 20, his State Department published “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” The nearly 100-page report described the Cuban state as “the center of a vast hemispheric network” intent on destroying the United States and collapsing Western Civilization.

The report depicted the small island nation as a subversive proxy of Russia, China, and Iran, as well as the true power behind several American leftist movements, including Antifa, Code Pink, and Black Lives Matter. It was part of a pattern of the US setting up pretexts for a potential attack on Cuba.

Government officials, from President Donald Trump on down, have described Cuba as a national security threat to the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere.

Washington has engaged in more than rhetoric. In June, massive sanctions were placed on Cuba that are forecast to create a “severe economic crisis.” Under the sanctions regime and a ramped-up oil embargo imposed after the attack on Venezuela, Cuba’s electrical infrastructure and healthcare system have collapsed, causing a major humanitarian crisis.

While crushing Cuba’s economy, Washington has also been sending aid to Cuban citizens run through nongovernmental organizations.

On July 21, the State Department announced “the first flight of humanitarian relief under Secretary Rubio’s historic commitment of $100 million in humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, who are suffering from the consequences of the Communist regime’s kleptocracy, brutality, and economic incompetence.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 18:25

Investigators Unveil Charges Against Dismissed Ukrainian Ambassador To The US

Investigators Unveil Charges Against Dismissed Ukrainian Ambassador To The US

Another top level Ukrainian official has been booted from office over significant corruption allegations, which comes at a moment of a broad shake-up of military and cabinet leadership initiated by President Zelensky.

Olha Stefanishyna was dismissed as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States earlier this week, both local media as as Reuters have confirmed.

via Associated Press

Reuters writes that she is "suspected of illegal enrichment and failing to declare assets, authorities said on Thursday, the latest high-ranking official targeted in an anti-graft probe" - after she reportedly hid two apartments along with other assets worth about $310,000.

She had been a deputy prime minister prior to being appointed top diplomatic representative to Washington, and it's believed that her concealed assets could not have been obtained with her official salary alone. She had also briefly served as Minister of Justice during the war with Russia.

Much of her additional properties and other assets were registered under the names of Stefanishyna's friends and family members. Kyiv Post reports Thursday:

The High Anti-Corruption Court on Aug. 6 set Hr 6 million ($130,000) bail for Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's former ambassador to the U.S., in a corruption case.

She has been charged with illicit enrichment amounting to Hr 13.9 million ($310,000) and lying in her asset declarations. An anti-corruption prosecutor earlier proposed setting bail for Stefanishyna at Hr 13 million ($290,000).

Stefanishyna failed to declare two apartments, worth nearly Hr 11 million ($250,000), that were registered in the name of a friend, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).

She has in the meantime taken to social media to declare there's been no wrongdoing that she doesn't have anything to hide. But she voluntarily submitted her resignation earlier this week, upon which Zelensky dismissed her.

According to a newly published list of the undeclared assets, she tried to 'hide' the following:

  • Two apartments in a residential complex in western Kiev, registered to a friend
  • A luxury apartment in central Kiev, registered to her mother
  • A parking space and several auxiliary premises at the same high-end property, registered to her father
  • A Mercedes-Benz GLC 220 d, registered to a subordinate

"Any procedural actions are part of the lawful work of the law enforcement system and do not amount to a finding of guilt," she wrote on Facebook. "I take these developments calmly and without unnecessary emotion."

Stefanishyna had served as ambassador to the US for the past year, going back to August of 2025. Local media says the alleged concealing of assets took place during that stint, and reports additionally say she was in the process of buying another property - an apartment valued at the equivalent of $550,000 - but backed out of the deal.

Broadly, the Ukrainian population has suffered immensely amid the conflict with Russia, with frequent blackouts and amid a battered wartime economy - and so ordinary citizens get increasingly frustrated and outraged when they see government officials living lavish lifestyles which include luxury cars and multiple homes and properties.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 18:00

US Immigration Agency Asks Public To Report Fraud, Anti-Government Activities

US Immigration Agency Asks Public To Report Fraud, Anti-Government Activities

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The federal agency that processes green cards, U.S. citizenship requests, and work permits this week called on people to report potential cases of immigration fraud through a newly created portal.

In an Aug. 4 post on X, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wrote that anyone who suspects “immigration fraud, criminal activity, or actions by aliens that threaten national security or public safety” can report it to the agency, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“Reports should involve aliens suspected of fraud, unlawful acts, threats, violence, terrorism-related activity, or other conduct connected to immigration,” the agency said.

On Wednesday, it called on anyone who notices or suspects non-U.S. citizens are “committing immigration fraud of any kind, making false claims of U.S. citizenship, or advocating violence or terrorism against America” to report tips.

It then directed the public to a website, titled “Protect America Together,” which allows the public to submit details of suspected fraudulent activity. That can include noncitizens using fake or altered documents, as well as identity, marriage, visa, employment, and asylum fraud.

Tipsters can also submit reports of suspected fraud and abuse within the H-1B visa program, which has been used by companies to employ Big Tech workers for decades, and within the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program.

“Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, including registering or voting in a federal election” can also be reported using the website, it said.

Other activities that can be reported include noncitizens “supporting terrorist ideologies or providing material support to terrorist organization,” “advocating for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government,” “expressing hatred for American values,” working with groups or individuals who are seeking to disrupt public safety or national security, or “engaging in activities that violate the principles of the Constitution or show disloyalty to the United States.”

A spokesperson for DHS told The Epoch Times on Wednesday evening that the website is a new push from USCIS.

“A single tip can help protect the United States from immigration fraud that exploits the American people and undermines America’s legal immigration system,” the spokesperson said.

Immigrants await their turn for green card and citizenship interviews at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Queens office in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City on May 30, 2013. John Moore/Getty Images

When submitting details to the web portal, USCIS directs tipsters to include as many details as they can, including a name, date of birth, or address.

It also directs users to provide information about themselves, including their names, emails, and phone numbers. The reporting form allows for either businesses and companies or individuals to be reported.

According to the agency, users will soon be able to upload screenshots as they report tips to USCIS.

Since President Donald Trump took office last year, his administration has made mass deportations and enforcing laws against illegal immigration a priority. His administration has also moved to tighten legal immigration rules and suspend certain temporary deportation protection programs for certain countries.

The administration has also moved to denaturalize U.S. citizens such as those who were convicted of crimes including sexual abuse of a child, healthcare fraud, and immigration fraud, among other charges.

USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 17:40

Senate Panel Holds Fauci In Contempt For Refusing To Answer Questions

Senate Panel Holds Fauci In Contempt For Refusing To Answer Questions

Anthony Fauci has been held in contempt of Congress by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after he repeatedly refused to answer lawmakers' questions about funding risky research to genetically manipulate bat coronavirus in Wuhan China, and his role in the ensuing lockdown quagmire that cratered the economy after he was put in charge of leading the COVID-19 response. 

Oh, and they obtained a copy of his cell phone. 

In an 8-5 vote brought by Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the contempt vote seeks to refer the case directly to the DOJ for prosecution - bypassing a full vote from the Senate. 

"Seeking the truth is not a witch hunt," Paul said be fore the vote, per the WSJ. "Accountability is not vengeance. Accountability is what stands between the American people and a repeat of the mistakes and the very real consequences of the past." 

The Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, called the investigation "one-sided from the beginning," claiming that "Information has been selectively released to support conclusions that the chairman reached years ago." 

Which of course is complete bullshit. Fauci funded the research, botched the response after COVID-19 broke out, lied about it under oath, and then pleaded the 5th when receipts came out.  

Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., questions Fauci on Wednesday.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Or, as Paul wrote prior to the vote: "Dr. Fauci appeared under subpoena and invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse answering questions. During the hearing, I ruled that the Fifth Amendment did not apply because of the pardon, and that Fauci had waived any remaining privilege by giving opening testimony. I ordered him to answer and warned him about contempt, yet he still refused. That is obstruction of a congressional investigation. The Committee will act accordingly."

Meanwhile, the WSJ reported last night that the panel obtained a copy of Fauci's cell phone.

A Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has obtained a copy of the doctor’s iPhone, potentially securing even more records related to the doctor’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The copy of the phone was transferred by the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.).

This revelation comes just days after copies of Fauci’s journals were publicly released following their transfer from HHS to Congress. Two Republican senators, Johnson and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have increased pressure on Fauci in recent days to answer questions related to pandemic health measures and the origins of Covid-19.

The subpoena, issued in July, directed Fauci to testify on the committee's investigation into "risky life sciences research and the origins of the COVID-19 virus," according to the Epoch Times.

The July 29 hearing itself was a prolonged exercise in refusal. Fauci opened by accusing Paul of an "unhinged obsession" with him and claiming the sole purpose of the session was to trap him into saying something that would land him "behind bars."

From that point forward he answered nothing of consequence. Senators pressed him on gain-of-function research funding, the lab-leak evidence he had privately acknowledged while publicly promoting a natural-origin narrative, lockdown policies, school closures, personal financial awards solicited with federal employees on taxpayer time, and contradictions between his public statements and private diary entries. He declined them all.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 15:55

Judge Rules Trump Admin Can End Temporary Protected Status For Haitians

Judge Rules Trump Admin Can End Temporary Protected Status For Haitians

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge on Aug. 5 allowed the Trump administration to end temporary protected status (TPS) for an estimated 350,000 Haitian nationals following a Supreme Court ruling.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ruled that a previous court order that “had stayed the effective date of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s Termination of the Designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status pending judicial review … is no longer in effect.”

But Reyes also denied the government’s request to halt discovery in the lawsuit that was filed over TPS in Haiti. She told the plaintiffs and the government to provide a new schedule in the order.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year said that around 350,000 Haitian nationals were living in the United States when Noem, who left the administration earlier this year, issued an order ending TPS for the country.

Multiple courts paused enforcement of the order before the Supreme Court in June ruled that the Trump administration could go ahead with rescinding the rule.

Before the judge’s Wednesday ruling at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned in an interview that Haitians under the program should leave the United States.

“We’re going after them right now … these individuals can either self-deport or we’ll arrest you and send you back. It’s that simple,” he said.

Under the Biden administration, TPS policies were expanded, allowing hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Haiti, and other countries to remain in the United States. The Trump administration has moved to revoke TPS for a number of countries, saying that the program was meant to be temporary.

Homeland Security officials said that the TPS program, which was set up under the Immigration Act of 1990, has become a magnet for illegal immigrants in recent years.

“Using TPS to grant temporary status to successive waves of new arrivals from a designated country may generate a significant pull factor for illegal immigration and act in tension with the congressional design,” the agency said in a Federal Register notice.

Meanwhile, DHS said in the Federal Register notice and in court papers that conditions in Haiti no longer justify the designation.

Illegal immigration from Haiti turned into a flashpoint during the 2024 election when vice presidential candidate JD Vance and presidential candidate Donald Trump referred to thousands of Haitian nationals who were living in Springfield, Ohio, generating complaints from residents.

During arguments before the Supreme Court, Geoffrey Pipoly, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, claimed that the TPS termination was due to President Donald Trump’s “racial animus towards non-white immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians, in particular.”

In the high court ruling, a 6–3 majority ruled that the president has the right to start deporting people from Haiti and Syria and that federal law usually bars judicial review of future TPS terminations or designations.

TPS was designated for Haiti in January 2010 following a major earthquake and was extended multiple times.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 15:45

Bus-Bomb Plot By Marxist 'Mad Max' Foiled Ahead Of Trump-Backed Colombian President's Inauguration

Bus-Bomb Plot By Marxist 'Mad Max' Foiled Ahead Of Trump-Backed Colombian President's Inauguration

Less than a week after Colombian authorities blamed a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group for detonating a truck bomb outside police headquarters in the border city of Cúcuta, injuring 11 officers, security forces intercepted a bus carrying a massive bomb.

The local outlet Blu Radio reported that an intelligence operation by the National Police thwarted a "terrorist attack" when authorities intercepted a bus carrying 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in Santander de Quilichao, about 30 miles from Cali.

President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-backed conservative who has pledged to restore law and order and wage war against far-left terror groups, will be sworn in before foreign leaders and senior U.S. officials on Friday.

The report noted that the bus bomb was orchestrated by the far-left, Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to "attack" the military during inauguration celebrations.

The major Colombian news outlet continued:

According to preliminary information, the vehicle had been modified to be used as a bus bomb and, according to the investigation, its objective was to attack military and police installations in Cali during the events related to the inauguration of President-elect Abelardo De La Espriella.

Authorities attribute the planning of the attack to the 'Jaime Martínez' Front, a structure of the Central General Staff of the FARC dissidents under the command of alias 'Iván Mordisco' and point to alias 'Max Max', identified as the main explosives expert of that organization, as responsible for preparing the vehicle.

Military intelligence also maintains that the action was ordered by alias 'Iván Mordisco' himself, with the purpose of generating a high-impact event during the inauguration day.

The vehicle was detonated by authorities. 

El Tigre's rise to power comes amid a once-in-a-generation political shift from left-wing regimes controlling the Americas to a majority of right-wing governments closely aligned with the Trump administration. The State Department has pursued this strategy to secure the West, ensure countries align with the U.S. rather than China or Russia, and promote open and free markets over failed socialist ones.

Americas Political Map: Presidential Shift From Left To Right

Country-by-country presidential shift tracker

"For the first time in 15–20 years, the overwhelming majority of the countries in the Western Hemisphere are now led by pro-American leaders and governments since @POTUS was elected president," Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last week with President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

It is important to note that the Trump administration has declared war on far-left groups throughout the Western Hemisphere - even those that run amok on U.S. soil.

Read:

Colombia's far left, using violence to project power, should serve as a wake-up call to Americans that the far left in the U.S., including the DSA and Antifa, share one stated goal:

Achieving this will not be "mostly peaceful." With riots, intimidation, and attempted political assassinations already part of the threat landscape, the big question is how much far-left political violence Americans will tolerate before demanding a more forceful government response to combat revolutionary Marxist movements intent on destabilizing the nation from within.

Related:

These Marxist movements are one and the same worldwide; united in solidarity, they aim to destroy America and capitalism.

White House finally gets it. 

Should've been a stated goal day one of the second term. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 15:05

Global Diesel Crunch Deepens As Record US Distillate Exports Race To Supply-Starved Europe

Global Diesel Crunch Deepens As Record US Distillate Exports Race To Supply-Starved Europe

US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia's energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America.

To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, "The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot."

Dart warned, "I'd say on the oil side, as I mentioned before, diesel, I think is the oil product that is most vulnerable right now, not just because you have your seasonal demand strength ahead just in the winter, but on the supply side. And to your point in the beginning, it's not just that you run war, it's what's happening to the Russian refineries as well. And Russia is usually a pretty big exporter of diesel. And now they have restricted it."

Last month, Goldman analyst Daan Struyven warned that "Diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze." 

As global supplies dwindle, US energy exporters on the Gulf of America emerged as the winners, shipping a record 1.9 million barrels to overseas customers last week.

Shipments have exceeded 1.5 million barrels a day for five consecutive weeks, with recent cargoes heading to northwestern European ports - the epicenter of a global diesel shortage caused by Gulf area refinery disruptions through Hormuz and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining capacity.

The trade-off from surging diesel exports is that US distillate stockpiles have fallen to their lowest seasonal level since 1996, raising the risk of a tighter domestic market heading into the fall demand surge.

Must Read:

Let’s not forget that Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser warned that even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened today, it could take up to 18 months to replenish global inventories.

All told, America is once again rescuing Europe from a deepening energy crunch - first LNG - this time diesel. You're welcome.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 14:05

New Mexico Sues DOJ For Unredacted Epstein Files

New Mexico Sues DOJ For Unredacted Epstein Files

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

New Mexico is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over unredacted Epstein files, accusing the federal agency of stonewalling the state’s own investigation into alleged crimes at deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.

The legal action, filed Aug. 5, intensifies a politically charged fight over the DOJ’s Epstein files, which have been accumulating since investigations into Epstein began in the mid-2000s.

New Mexico reopened its investigation in February and is seeking access to files relating to who worked at and visited Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, and may have participated in or witnessed crimes.

The DOJ said it has handed over some of the files but is prevented by law from releasing others due to privacy protections.

“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times of its reasons for opposing the lawsuit.

The 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to Epstein and his alleged sex trafficking network. The department was allowed to make redactions to safeguard the privacy of alleged victims or to shield ongoing investigations.

“Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority for the Department, and neither Touhy requests nor a desire to cooperate outweighs that privacy,“ the spokesperson said. ”DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”

According to the complaint, the federal government has acknowledged that “Epstein and his criminal network subjected over 1,000 survivors to egregious and predatory conduct, including vulnerable young girls in New Mexico.”

New Mexico initially made informal requests to the DOJ for unredacted files. The federal agency had promised cooperation, including information sharing on alleged survivors ​and crimes, and told the state to formally file Touhy requests, used for accessing official information, testimony, or documents from a federal entity for use in a legal proceeding in which the U.S. government is not a party.

The complaint said the DOJ rejected the Touhy requests earlier this year. By failing to cooperate, DOJ officials are harming “victims and [undermining] the public interest” by holding up the state’s investigation of the conduct of Epstein and his co-conspirators at Zorro Ranch, it argued.

In 1993, Epstein bought Zorro Ranch and visited the state many times before he died in 2019.

According to state prosecutors, the Epstein files contain more than 13,000 references to the ranch, along with 5,000 references to locations in the state where victims were allegedly trafficked, assaulted, and groomed.

New Mexico alleges the DOJ has failed to properly handle its Touhy requests and violated the Administrative Procedure Act governing administrative law procedures, citing the agency’s refusal to honor its 2019 agreement in which federal prosecutors promised to cooperate with the state after it put its Epstein probe on hold.

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez has “marched through every bureaucratic hoop USDOJ has demanded, only to have years of promised federal cooperation turned into bureaucratic defiance,” the complaint said.

In a call with reporters, Torrez said of the state’s investigation, “We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before ‌we charge ⁠someone.” He said the probe faces considerable obstacles, noting the decades since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the change of ownership of the ranch in ​2023, and jurisdictional issues.

New Mexico’s lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the nation’s capital.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 13:25

Change Of Plans?

Change Of Plans?

By Bas van Geffen, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank

Brent prices held steady just below the $80-level, as Iran said it reached an agreement with Oman on a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s not the Iran-US deal that Trump had been eyeing, but this agreement raises the prospect of more energy flows resuming through the critical waterway.

However, Iran has also said that the deal does not work until the US stops blocking traffic. We are yet to hear when the US lifts its blockade on Iranian ships – if Trump does not revert to threats of air strikes instead. The course of events once again underlines Iran’s relatively strong negotiating position.

Days after the Japanese Ministry of Finance –and the US Treasury– intervened in FX markets to prop up the yen, the cabinet approved a plan to cut the sales tax on food for two years. On top of that, the government is planning handouts to lower-income households. High costs of living are weighing on PM Takaichi’s popularity. So, she wants to lessen the price pressure on households, but these tax measures may shift those pressures elsewhere.

The tax cut costs JPY 4 trillion (around 0.6% of GDP) in lost revenues annually, and the government did not specify how it would fund this shortfall. The prime minister tried to reassure investors that the measures are temporary, and Finance Minister Katayama pledged to refrain from financing this tax cut through Japan’s deficit.

The unfunded tax plan has drawn criticism from both the opposition and people within the ruling LDP, as well as market participants - although today’s 30-year bond auction showed little sign of concern or investor fatigue. Having said that, the real litmus test may be the currency.

Over the past couple of days, the yen has been gradually depreciating again after the joint US-Japan intervention briefly pushed USD/JPY below 156 on Friday. The FX market is probably watching for signs of new interventions, or signs of more structural support for the currency.

Yet, these tax cuts do not lead to investments that could structurally improve Japan’s economic growth – which could have lent JPY some of the necessary support. But, paradoxically, the cost of effective growth-enhancing policies would probably eclipse the budgetary implications of Takaichi’s food tax cuts.

Former prime minister, and advisor to the current PM, Kishida warns of this as well. He advocates a JPY 370 trillion long-term growth strategy, which he believes could largely be funded by Japan’s large amounts of private financial assets: “If we limit our thinking to the government’s own fiscal resources, then that’s the end of it.” He argues the government should merely function as a catalyst for these investments, rather than pony up all the funds.

If the government manages to convince Japanese households, companies, and pension funds, the plans could see Japan clash with allies. These funds are currently invested elsewhere, and the structure of the recent JPY intervention suggests that Washington does not like the idea that Japan could start selling its Treasury holdings. The US Treasury sold euros, rather than dollars, for yens, and it also suggested Japan make use of the Fed’s FIMA (repo) accounts, instead of selling dollar assets outright.

Besides that, the growth strategy itself could also lead to conflicts: Kishida suggests the Japanese economy could benefit from investments in semiconductor and AI industries. Even if these sectors continue to grow in the coming decade, that strategy competes directly with the direction of, say, US, EU, and Chinese policies targeting homegrown chips and AI.

Elsewhere, Fed Chair Warsh is reportedly still in close contact with Trump. The US president discussed the economic implications of various matters, such as the Iran war or AI. It is an unusually close connection between the White House and the Eccles Building compared to their predecessors.

The Wall Street Journal’s sources suggest that these informal calls were mainly Trump seeking council from the Fed chair. Whether that’s true or not, it confirms what our US strategist has been saying: the FOMC will probably be more aligned with the White House going forward.

The Dutch government has endorsed Klaas Knot’s candidacy for ECB president. The Spanish government had already put forward his former colleague De Cos. So, with two candidates in the running, the race to find Lagarde’s replacement is now officially on.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 12:45

"Threat Against American Interests": US Halts Michoacán Avocado Inspections, Putting Critical Supplies At Risk

"Threat Against American Interests": US Halts Michoacán Avocado Inspections, Putting Critical Supplies At Risk

The US suspended avocado inspections in Mexico's Michoacán state after the US Embassy cited a "threat against American interests." Because Michoacán is Mexico's largest avocado-producing region and a top supplier to the US market, any prolonged suspension risks disrupting imports and driving supermarket prices sharply higher.

Michoacán Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said on social media that the temporary halt to inspections was intended to safeguard workers following recent arrests linked to extortion, according to AP News.

Michoacán supplies about 75% to 80% of Mexico's avocados, while Mexico accounted for more than 80% of US avocado imports in 2025, valued at over $3 billion.

Supplies from Peru, California, and Mexico's Jalisco state could limit shortages and price increases if the suspension is brief, Rabobank analyst David Magana said. 

Wholesale prices for first-quality Michoacán Hass avocados sold at Mexico City's Central de Abasto have nearly doubled in recent months, signaling tightening conditions in Mexico's domestic supply chain even before the latest inspection disruption.

"These alternative sources should help mitigate supply shortages and limit upward pressure on prices, particularly if the suspension is temporary," Magana noted.

AP said that the western state of Michoacán is home to four narcoterrorist cartels that make money through drug trafficking, extortion, and even the avocado industry.

The duration of the disruption will determine the extent of upward pressure on US wholesale avocado prices and how quickly those increases filter through to supermarket shelves.

 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 12:05

Moderna's mRNA Flu Vaccine Approved By FDA

Moderna's mRNA Flu Vaccine Approved By FDA

Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna's flu shot for over-50s, marking the first time the agency has licensed a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine for seasonal influenza.

Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic, in Richmond, Va., on November 17, 2022. AP Photo/Steve Helber, File

The shot, known as mFlusiva, was given a traditional approval for adults aged 50 to 64, and an accelerated approval for the over-65s, the pharmaceutical giant said on Wednesday.

Moderna has agreed to run an additional study and submit further data on the over-65s in a bid to demonstrate the vaccine's benefit for that age group.

The approval was based on data from a late-stage trial involving more than 40,000 adults aged 50 and older, which found the shot was 26.5 percent more effective than a licensed standard-dose flu vaccine.

Moderna had to submit separate late-stage data showing the shot generated stronger antibody responses than Sanofi's high-dose flu vaccine in the over-65s after problems with the methodology in its phase 3 trial.

The vaccine uses mRNA technology, intended to prompt the body to produce influenza antigens and trigger an immune response. Scientists say this approach could potentially allow faster updates of the shot to match the ever-shifting circulating strains.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the FDA, announced in August 2025 that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was winding down mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He said that funding would be redirected away from developing mRNA vaccines toward "safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate."

Several FDA officials who had voiced opposition to mRNA vaccines have recently departed the agency.

Flu vaccines can range in effectiveness depending on the season, peaking at 60 percent and dropping to as low as 10 percent in the 2004-2005 season, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC and the FDA both recommend annual vaccines for everyone in the United States, including babies once they are 6 months old.

'Important New Option'

"Flu remains a significant public health challenge, and mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America's seniors," Moderna said in an Aug. 5 statement.

MFlusiva will compete with existing flu vaccines from Sanofi, GSK, CSL Seqirus, and AstraZeneca. Conventional flu shots are largely egg-based and contain viral proteins.

Officials in the spring try to predict which strain of flu will be circulating in the following virus season, primarily in the fall and winter, giving manufacturers about six months to produce shots with updated formulations.

This process can result in a mismatch between targeted and circulating strains, an issue that the FDA and Moderna said the mRNA shot could address.

Higher Rates of Adverse Events

The trial found the Moderna flu shot caused higher rates of adverse events in recipients than the already available vaccines, with side effects including fatigue, headaches, and muscle pain. Serious adverse events were reported in 2.2 percent of the recipients of the mRNA vaccines - with three events considered by the investigator to be vaccine-related - and in 1.9 percent of those who received the standard-dose comparator vaccine.

Vaccines containing mRNA are cleared in the United States for COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus.

The FDA in 2025 narrowed the approval for Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, known as Spikevax, and for Pfizer-BioNTech's rival shot, known as Comirnaty, both of which use mRNA technology.

A French peer-reviewed study published in 2022 concluded that mRNA COVID-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna were found to increase the risk of both myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly in adolescent and young adult males after the second dose.

Moderna withdrew its application for a COVID-flu combination shot last year after the FDA sought additional evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of its flu component. European regulators in April approved the combination shot.

Lost Revenue

Moderna had been counting on the combined shot and the flu vaccine to replace some of the lost COVID vaccine revenue and to prove the long-term commercial potential of mRNA technology.

Jefferies analysts had forecast $750 million generated from U.S. sales of Moderna's flu shot and its combination COVID-flu vaccine by 2030.

FDA reviewers said on June 16 that uncertainties remained about the efficacy of mFLUSIVA, then known as mRNA-1010 before its approval, due to an issue with trial methodology.

The phase 3 trial compared the immunogenicity and clinical results in a group that received Moderna's vaccine with the results from a group that received an authorized, standard flu vaccine.

The U.S. government, though, recommends a higher-dose flu vaccine than a standard shot for adults aged 65 and older.

In a 92-page document, FDA reviewers said, "This limitation affects interpretation of the net clinical benefit in the 65 and older population and is a key issue for Advisory Committee deliberation."

Other lingering questions included vaccine safety, given that adverse reactions were more common among mRNA-1010 recipients, the report said.

Moderna Connections

Multiple FDA committee members who voted in favor of the approval have connections to Moderna, including El Sahly and Dr. Flor Munoz, who was a Moderna adviser from 2022 to 2024 and played a role in recommending that pregnant women should receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Moderna's withdrawal of its combined Flu and COVID-19 shot came amid heightened FDA scrutiny of vaccines under the agency's previous leadership.

Former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and former vaccine chief Vinay Prasad departed the agency earlier this year.

Makary had faced criticism from companies, lobbyists, and others for agency officials declining to approve certain drugs, including a cancer drug made by Replimune. Makary had defended the decisions in television interviews as following the evidence.

Signage outside of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Md., on Aug. 29, 2020. Andrew Kelly/Reuters Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 11:45

Camp David Clash: Trump Hammered Hegseth For Misleading Him On Arms Supply, WaPo Reports

Camp David Clash: Trump Hammered Hegseth For Misleading Him On Arms Supply, WaPo Reports

Following reports that US forces have "used up virtually all" of their precision, long-range missiles in futile attempts to first trigger an Iranian regime change and then to compel Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, now comes reporting that an angry President Trump confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in recent days, accusing the Pentagon of misleading him on critical munitions shortages that leave Trump increasingly powerless in the five-month-old fiasco of a war. 

According to sources cited by the Washington Post, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concern about retaliation, Trump's ire erupted alongside a cabinet meeting held Friday at Camp David. Trump expressed consternation that he'd been assured that the weapon shortage "had been fixed" when that is apparently far from true.     

The Post's administration sources portrayed Hegseth as one of the biggest and most persuasive proponents of launching a regime-change war on Iran (Photo: The Hill)

According to "multiple officials" who -- reading between the lines -- clearly seem to have had it with Fox News talking-head-suddenly-turned-Defense-secretary, Hegseth defended his own actions and tried redirecting the blame to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, a billionaire GOP donor whom Trump plucked out of his role as co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management to give him the number-two job at the Pentagon. Hegseth was said to have thrown Feinberg under the bus for both the shortages and failing to keep Trump fully informed.  

The officials characterized Trump as increasingly exasperated by Hegseth, whom they describe as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of launching a war on Iran, saying he persuaded Trump that victory would come quickly and easily. The war that the administration once projected to last three or four weeks is now in its sixth month. Iran has used both its sophisticated missile technology and its inexpensive but huge arsenal of drones to wreak havoc on US and allied forces around the Gulf. Hammered by a shock and awe campaign peppered with the multiple incidents involving mass casualties among innocents -- including scores of elementary schoolgirls -- the Iranian people have rallied around the Islamic regime, for all its faults. At least 18 US service members lay dead, several hundred have been wounded, and some estimates of the war's cost to date exceed $100 billion.  

Sources tell Reuters the Pentagon has blown through "virtually all" of its long-range ATACMS missiles 

The White House and Pentagon denied the account given by the Washington Post's sources. “This is 100% fake news. Literally never happened. And President Trump has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Post. Speaking more broadly, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said "claims about depleted stockpiles, internal disagreements, [and] the Secretary’s position on Iran" are "fictional." As for Hegseth's job security, Parnell said he "isn't going anywhere."

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the US munitions crisis is even worse than previously understood. In particular, the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) are said to be running critically low. "Washington has used virtually all of these weapons," two sources told Reuters, after several media reports and think tank studies had already sounded the alarm over dwindling missiles amid both the Iran war and in the years-long process of supplying Ukraine. Low Patriot defense missile supplies have also been a persisting issue in the headlines.

Over the weekend, Trump's backtracking on his threat to launch “the biggest attack since World War II" was widely attributed to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urging Trump to refrain, fearing a large attack would accomplish little more than triggering massive and devastating retaliation against the kingdom and other Gulf states. Trump's calculus also likely reflected Pentagon warnings about its shrinking capacity to attack. On Saturday, the Post reported that the commander of US European Command told superiors, in writing, that his forces were stretched thin, and that he might be put in a position where he'd have to choose between defending his "homeland" or the State of Israel.

His candor was praiseworthy, but it may have put a dent in his prospects for advancement. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 11:25

Anti-Trump GOP Governors Plot To Undermine President's Immigration Crackdown With Work-Visa Scheme

Anti-Trump GOP Governors Plot To Undermine President's Immigration Crackdown With Work-Visa Scheme

Two Republican governors with a long history of clashing with Donald Trump are working with Democrats on a plan to hand migrant workers state-issued work permits instead of deportation notices, a direct challenge to the president's immigration crackdown that the four laid out on camera. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt joined Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Matt Meyer of Delaware for a joint interview with Bloomberg, describing a shared position that has far more in common with the Democratic Party and the labor lobby than with the Trump administration's approach to the border.

Left to right: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Utah Governor Spencer Cox

The vehicle for that position is the National Governors Association's Task Force on Immigration Policy, which Stitt built after noticing a pattern among his colleagues. "The reason I set this task force up is because I realized by talking to my colleagues that they're having the same issues," Stitt told Bloomberg reporter Christina Ruffini. "Let's actually have the governors issue workforce permits."

That last line is the whole ballgame. The task force wants Congress to hand governors the discretion to issue migrant work permits at the state level, a proposal that treats illegal immigration less as a legal violation and more as a labor supply problem for agriculture, construction and hospitality. It resembles former President George W. Bush's immigration reform approach, which sent the message to illegal immigrants, "If you're doing a job an American won't do, you're welcome here, for a period of time, to do that job."

Cox framed the alliance as a breakthrough four decades in the making. "For 40 years, we've been trying to do immigration reform and nobody's ever been able to get it done," he said. "But what's different this time is that we have a secure border." He credited that border security to the current administration while working, in the same breath, to carve states out from under its enforcement arm. "We all care - Republicans and Democrats - about a secure border," Cox said, a sentiment that gets considerably murkier once the conversation turns to what happens to people already inside it.

Cox described a February meeting among the governors as almost startling in its unity. "We were together in February and having a conversation about immigration, and we were all shocked at the level of bipartisanship, cooperation, and agreement," he said. "We were really stunned that everybody had kind of the same opinions on what needed to be done." Bipartisan agreement among governors on loosening enforcement is not the reassurance Cox seems to think it is.

Ruffini asked the group for a show of hands on whether ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have been effective. Neither Cox nor Stitt raised one. Cox pointed to enforcement actions in Minnesota as a specific concern, citing "the violence and the deaths that we've seen" and calling the incidents "deeply problematic." Stitt was even more blunt about his overall assessment. "We're not using common sense right now," he said.

Stitt's example centered on a green card holder from Vietnam who has lived in Oklahoma City for 25 years. "We had a person from Vietnam that's been in Oklahoma City for 25 years, legally in the United States, with a green card, working at Hobby Lobby," he said. The man had self-deported after a marijuana arrest then returned to the country legally. "They've been a great citizen chasing the American dream, but they've been picked up for deportation now," Stitt said. Gov. Moore added an economic gloss to the argument, saying a deportation agenda focused on criminals ought to travel alongside pro-growth policy rather than replace it.

Neither Republican governor has a great relationship with Trump, and both have clashed with him politically in recent years, which explains their break with him on immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration clearly isn't on board. Trump won a second term in 2024 in part by promising to close a border that sat wide open for four years under Biden. Immigration has generally been the strongest issue for him, outperforming his approval numbers on the economy and foreign policy.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin set the tone from inside the administration at the same NGA gathering, sitting beside Stitt and offering his own verdict on the odds of any of this actually happening. "Is immigration reform possible? No," Mullin told the assembled governors. "Do you really need immigration reform? Yes, you do, but can we work with the system we have? Yes."

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 10:45

Musk Responds To French Green Leader's Demand That X Be Shut Down

Musk Responds To French Green Leader's Demand That X Be Shut Down

Update (1100ET): Upon seeing this exclamation from the dismally-polling Green leader. Elon Musk took to X (the platform she demands be shutdown for too much free-speechifying) to make some demands of his own...

As Remix News detailed earlier, French Green leader Marine Tondelier has reiterated her calls for social media platform X to be temporarily shut down, claiming its owner Elon Musk is using it to interfere in French politics and promote Marine Le Pen ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Tondelier, general secretary of the Ecologists and a declared presidential candidate, suggested that suspending X for one month would improve political debate in France.

“If X were to stop for a month, it would do a world of good for the French public debate,” she said, as cited by Libération.

She claimed the platform could not be treated merely as a question of freedom of expression or freedom of enterprise because it was controlled from the United States by an owner seeking to influence European politics.

“This tool is owned by someone based in the United States, with a supremacist ideology, who clearly wants to push Europe into total submission to the United States,” Tondelier said.

She also accused Musk of wanting Le Pen elected and argued that his intervention exposed what she described as the “hypocrisy” of the National Rally’s patriotism.

“The algorithm of this social network is rigged,” she claimed.

“The ‘ratings’ meant to indicate the veracity of posts are now a source of further fake news.”

Tondelier also complained that environmental claims she posts on the platform are routinely challenged and said female politicians face persistent cyberbullying.

In January last year, she said, “This network must be banned in Europe. Whether I leave it or not, it will still have an impact on the real world. It will contribute to destabilizing the next elections,” adding that X was a “source of suffering, as a politician and as a woman.”

Her comments followed Musk’s public endorsement of Le Pen last month.

Responding to an American account discussing her polling strength and the possibility of mass deportations under a National Rally government, Musk wrote, “She is France’s last hope.”

Despite the outburst, Tondelier remains a marginal contender in the presidential race.

Recent IFOP polling places her support at about 4 percent, with other surveys putting her between 3 and 5 percent.

Le Pen, by contrast, is polling at approximately 35 percent and is strongly positioned to reach the second round of the election.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 10:30

Hyperscaler Bond Spreads Blow Out After Google Shocks With Another $25 Billion Bond Offering

Hyperscaler Bond Spreads Blow Out After Google Shocks With Another $25 Billion Bond Offering

After tightening sharply following last week's (pre-Situational Awareness) rout which sent hyperscaler CDS to the widest on record, AI bond spreads are blowing out again this morning - with SpaceX bonds - which have quickly emerged as the fulcrum bond security of the AI world - plunging this morning on news that for the third time in a year, Alphabet which has emerged as the credit (both on and off balance sheet) nexus of the AI supercyle, is looking to raise another $25 billion from its latest US investment-grade bond offering, a deal that will again test investor appetite for AI-related debt following a July selloff when bond AI-linked bond spreads exploded to all time wides.

The offering, which will very likely be upsizied (just as the illl-fated SpaceX bond offering) will be Alphabet's third since November.

In February, the Google parent issued more than $30 billion in new debt, including multiple non-US tranches. The offering followed a similar bond issuance from November 2025, when Alphabet sold $25 billion in debt, quadrupling its long-term debt to $46 billion. Since then Google's debt has surpassed over $100 billion and is rising at an astronomic pace; one can only hope the rating agencies don't notice. 

According to Bloomberg, Alphabet is offering notes in as many as 10 parts, with maturities ranging from two to 40 years. Initial price talk for the longest-tenored tranche is a premium of about 1.55 percentage points above Treasuries. No final decision has been made on the size, according to people familiar with the matter, however it is likely that - as always - there will be excess demand leading to significant oversubscription, with the bond then sliding after it starts trading.

Virtually every bank is an underwriter on the offering which will need all the help it can get: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo are managing the sale, Bloomberg said.

Alphabet’s offering comes one month after Amazon issued an identical amount of debt, and just two weeks after the company again raised its 2026 spending outlook, which triggered fresh worries about whether massive artificial-intelligence investments will pay off. Investor appetite for bonds to help fund capex cooled in July as Alphabet increased its forecast to as much as $205 billion, more than double 2025’s outlays.

Meanwhile, as the market finally started paying attention to good, old on-balance sheet debt, the flood of off-balance sheet continued with BlackRock last week selling $12.5 billion of bonds tied to a Meta data center SPV in Texas. Initial demand was very poor, following soft interest for an offering by Amazon.com.

Immediately afterward, bond spreads across the Hyperscaler sector blew out to record wides in the secondary market, as we reported on multiuple occasions. 

However, following the historic short squeeze in the past week (sparked by.... nobody really knows) sentiment improved again as August began, helped by gains in US Treasuries.

“We’ve had a few days now of positive reactions from investors across corporates and especially technology,” said Brett Kozlowski, portfolio manager at GW&K Investment Management. “But another large debt deal will still test the depth of that and be worth watching.”

Sure enough, after sliding by almost 20bps in the past week, hyperscaler spreads have already cut their gains in half after blowing out by almost 10bps since Tuesday, a move that is set to accelerate as even more debt comes to market.

 Alphabet, which sold more than $50 billion of debt in the first half of 2026, and Amazon have led the AI-infrastructure borrowing spree. Alphabet last tapped the US high-grade debt market in February, before selling bonds in Swiss francs, British pounds, euros, Canadian dollars and Japanese yen. It also issued nearly $85 billion of shares two months ago.

The explosive growth in CapEx is why Alphabet posted its first quarter of negative cash flow since its 2004 initial public offering.

The hope is that at some point, all this massive investment will lead to a surge in EBITDA. The only problem is what happens if nearly-free Chinese open-weight models end up dominating the market while US hyperscalers duke it out in the biggest spending spree since the Nuclear arms race. And, as we reported overnight, that's precisely what is happening. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 10:14

Federal Review Finds 90% Of Maine's Autism Support Services Lacks Justification

Federal Review Finds 90% Of Maine's Autism Support Services Lacks Justification

Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed Tuesday that federal investigators have found widespread irregularities in Maine’s support services for adults with autism.

Speaking Tuesday during a Department of Justice anti-fraud press conference in Philadelphia, Oz said investigators have found that 90 percent of autism services provided by the blue state lacked justification.

“Yesterday I was in Maine,” Oz said. “We’re investigating home support services, just like you’re seeing here, for adults, in that case, who have autism.”

“We have massive increases that have grown to the kinds of numbers you could not imagine being able to show on a clipboard, with 90 percent of services billed and paid for—in Maine in particular—where there is no justifiable backup for it,” Oz said. “Nine out of ten services, you can’t justify they should have happened. It’s the opposite of what you’d normally expect.”

The Trump administration has been urging states to increase oversight of Medicaid autism services, and examine whether a massive surge of spending on a new therapy called “applied behavior analysis” is medically appropriate, Axios reported.

During the press conference Tuesday, state and federal prosecutors announced charges of 19 defendants in connection with a $4 million scheme to defraud government-run Medicare and Medicaid system in Pennsylvania.

Federal officials detailed several new anti-fraud initiatives, including “expanded Medicaid Strike Forces, new investigative toolkits for states and enhanced data analytics designed to identify suspicious billing patterns before taxpayer money is paid,” Maine Wire reported.

Oz did not identify the providers under review, specify the total amount of claims being examined or announce any criminal charges connected to Maine. He also did not allege that every unsupported claim constituted fraud. Instead, he said the findings demonstrate the need for significantly greater oversight of Medicaid-funded home support programs.

Nevertheless, his remarks represent a major escalation in the Trump administration’s examination of MaineCare spending.

Federal officials have spent months reviewing Maine’s administration of Medicaid-funded autism and developmental disability services. Earlier this year, federal auditors questioned tens of millions of dollars in payments involving rehabilitative and community support services while requesting additional records from the Mills administration concerning providers and billing practices.

Far-left Maine Democrat Senate candidate Troy Jackson’s health care platform is focused on passing a government run “Medicare for All” insurance system to replace the current system.

Oz said programs that were originally designed to help disabled Americans have increasingly become vehicles for fraud.

“We have no tolerance for anyone who invents hours, invents a disability, invents a workforce at the expense of people who depend on these programs,” Oz said. “And if you love these most vulnerable Americans, you should care as well.”

The CMS administrator told reporters that the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for the explosion of fraudulent Medicaid schemes currently plaguing the country.

“What happened in 2020 that has catalyzed this?” Oz asked. “COVID appears to have unleashed massive fraud because criminals knew the federal government would not follow up on the money that was being sent out.”

The Trump administration, he said, has adopted an “all-of-government” strategy deploying the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and state attorneys general to identify and prosecute Medicaid fraud.

“They’re not just stealing money, they’re stealing our trust,” Oz said of the fraudsters. “And that’s a much more difficult thing to replace.”

At the close of the nearly two-hour long presser, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald delivered a stern warning to those defrauding government health care programs.

“The era of getting rich off the backs of our programs for our sick, elderly and disabled is over,” McDonald said. “Your time is up.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 09:20

Situational Awareness Returns With $400M Investment After Nearly Collapsing

Situational Awareness Returns With $400M Investment After Nearly Collapsing

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, reportedly invested $400 million in a privately held company days after it nearly collapsed under margin calls.

The fund invested $100 million in the same unnamed company in July, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The latest investment was completed on Tuesday.

Cointelegraph has approached Situational Awareness for comment.

Assets at Situational Awareness fell about 78% in July, as an AI-stock sell-off triggered margin calls from Wall Street lenders.

The fund sought fresh capital and considered selling stakes in private companies, according to the Financial Times.

“We took the steps that were necessary to fight another day,” Aschenbrenner told investors in a letter on Friday.

“But our fund must always be structured such that we can take a loss and fight another day. I will make it my mission to ensure that we learn the necessary lessons from this experience.”

The fund subsequently sold most of its public equity portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel, allowing it to repay lenders and retain its private holdings.

Situational Awareness had invested heavily in power and data centers supporting AI, including Bitcoin miners expanding into AI computing.

A May 18 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission covering holdings as of March 31 showed about $1.11 billion in positions across seven Bitcoin mining stocks, including IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 08:50

Initial Jobless Claims Remain Near 57-Year Lows

Initial Jobless Claims Remain Near 57-Year Lows

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time held below 200k again last week...

...basically hovering at its lowest since 1969...

Pennsylvania and New Jersey saw claims rise the most last week while North Carolina and Ohio saw the biggest decline...

Continuing jobless claims ticked up, just above 1.8 million Americans...

After ADP's disappointing job additions, it appears the 'low hire, no fire' economy is entrenched.

Will tomorrow's payrolls print confirm that?

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 08:40

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