Zero Hedge

'Political Coup': Turkish Opposition's Istanbul HQ Seized By Police Amid Clashes

'Political Coup': Turkish Opposition's Istanbul HQ Seized By Police Amid Clashes

Istanbul is on edge and on the brink of more violence amid Erdogan's ongoing crackdown on the country's main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which on Sunday urged citizens and residents of Istanbul to take to the streets and gather after police set up barricades in areas around its Istanbul headquarters.

Authorities are blaming CHP officials for causing unrest while disrupting the public order, after hours of mayhem. The scene outside CHP Istanbul Provincial Headquarters was of tense police clashes with protesters, after which the court-appointed interim leader of CHP finally entered the party’s office under police protection.

Last Tuesday a top Turkish court annulled the results of the CHP’s 2023 Istanbul provincial congress, over alleged bribery that influenced delegate votes. This resulted in the court-ordered the dismissal of the board members elected at that congress.

Source: Turkish Minute

The CHP has rejected the ruling and the bribery claims in particular, arguing that the court has no authority to override final decisions made at the party congress.

The court had named former CHP deputy chair Gürsel Tekin as interim provincial head, replacing Özgur Çelik. The CHP plans will hold an extraordinary congress on September 21, to reassert autonomy and fight back against what it says is a politically motivated persecution by Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

The state-backed targeting of CHP leadership, by the AKP-stacked courts (among law enforcement institutions and prosecutors as well), has only increased in the wake its widespread success in the 2024 local elections.

Clashes amid the fight to defend CHP HQ from police enforcing court ordered leadership change...

CHP leaders have denounced the ruling as "null and void". However, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has denounced those who posted social media content urging crowds to come barricade the CHP building.

"Disregarding court rulings, trying to pour people out onto the streets is openly challenging the law. Nobody is above the law. The state will do what is necessary against any illegal initiative with determination," Yerlikaya stated on X.

But the opposition party has remained openly defiant, worried that if it is silenced, this could be a final death knell and the start of essentially one-party rule and final total victory for AKP:

Speaking at a CHP event in Istanbul, party chairperson Özgur Özel called on Turks to gather and demonstrate against the court decision and the crackdown against his party, as well as the police measures to set up barricades around the headquarters and restrict public access to it.

"From here, I invite all democrats and CHP members whom my words and voice reach to, to protect the home of Atatürk in Istanbul," he said, referring to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, modern Türkiye’s founder.

Erdogan resorts to the usual social media censuring, outright banning several popular platforms:

The opposition leaders do have reason to fear, especially after the major escalation of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest. The prominent opposition figure could be a potential presidential contender against President Erdogan, but he was detained on March 19. 

CHP sources have denounced the 'political coup'...

What ensued was a massive crackdown, with authorities arresting CHP mayors, officials, and politicians on various charges including bribery, which may be trumped-up.

Additionally, some 2,000 demonstrators have been arrested, and there's expected to be more protest action to come centered at the CHP Istanbul headquarters.

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

'Political Coup': Turkish Opposition's Istanbul HQ Seized By Police Amid Clashes

'Political Coup': Turkish Opposition's Istanbul HQ Seized By Police Amid Clashes

Istanbul is on edge and on the brink of more violence amid Erdogan's ongoing crackdown on the country's main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which on Sunday urged citizens and residents of Istanbul to take to the streets and gather after police set up barricades in areas around its Istanbul headquarters.

Authorities are blaming CHP officials for causing unrest while disrupting the public order, after hours of mayhem. The scene outside CHP Istanbul Provincial Headquarters was of tense police clashes with protesters, after which the court-appointed interim leader of CHP finally entered the party’s office under police protection.

Last Tuesday a top Turkish court annulled the results of the CHP’s 2023 Istanbul provincial congress, over alleged bribery that influenced delegate votes. This resulted in the court-ordered the dismissal of the board members elected at that congress.

Source: Turkish Minute

The CHP has rejected the ruling and the bribery claims in particular, arguing that the court has no authority to override final decisions made at the party congress.

The court had named former CHP deputy chair Gürsel Tekin as interim provincial head, replacing Özgur Çelik. The CHP plans will hold an extraordinary congress on September 21, to reassert autonomy and fight back against what it says is a politically motivated persecution by Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

The state-backed targeting of CHP leadership, by the AKP-stacked courts (among law enforcement institutions and prosecutors as well), has only increased in the wake its widespread success in the 2024 local elections.

Clashes amid the fight to defend CHP HQ from police enforcing court ordered leadership change...

CHP leaders have denounced the ruling as "null and void". However, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has denounced those who posted social media content urging crowds to come barricade the CHP building.

"Disregarding court rulings, trying to pour people out onto the streets is openly challenging the law. Nobody is above the law. The state will do what is necessary against any illegal initiative with determination," Yerlikaya stated on X.

But the opposition party has remained openly defiant, worried that if it is silenced, this could be a final death knell and the start of essentially one-party rule and final total victory for AKP:

Speaking at a CHP event in Istanbul, party chairperson Özgur Özel called on Turks to gather and demonstrate against the court decision and the crackdown against his party, as well as the police measures to set up barricades around the headquarters and restrict public access to it.

"From here, I invite all democrats and CHP members whom my words and voice reach to, to protect the home of Atatürk in Istanbul," he said, referring to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, modern Türkiye’s founder.

Erdogan resorts to the usual social media censuring, outright banning several popular platforms:

The opposition leaders do have reason to fear, especially after the major escalation of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest. The prominent opposition figure could be a potential presidential contender against President Erdogan, but he was detained on March 19. 

CHP sources have denounced the 'political coup'...

What ensued was a massive crackdown, with authorities arresting CHP mayors, officials, and politicians on various charges including bribery, which may be trumped-up.

Additionally, some 2,000 demonstrators have been arrested, and there's expected to be more protest action to come centered at the CHP Istanbul headquarters.

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

Putin's Master Plan For The Russian Arctic & Far East Will Speed Up The Global South's Rise

Putin's Master Plan For The Russian Arctic & Far East Will Speed Up The Global South's Rise

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Putin elaborated on his master plan for the Russian Arctic and Far East during his keynote speech at this year’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week.

This piece will summarize what he shared and analyze it in the emerging geostrategic context.

To begin with, he envisages these regions serving as industrial, logistics, and tech hubs due to their location and resources.

Raw materials will fuel industry; rivers and new railways, seaports, and airports will facilitate logistics; and rare earths will drive tech.

Relevant coastal facilities will be constructed in the future, which might be powered by new hydroelectric plants, and these will be connected to one another and hinterland areas (resource deposits and settlements) by an integrated logistics system.

More bridges will be built to China and North Korea too. Existing preferential policies for businesses in some areas and for residents under some conditions will be expanded throughout both regions to stimulate investment and increase the population there.

Reducing population outflow is a priority, as is encouraging the inflow of Russians from elsewhere, which more enterprises can assist with upon the state streamlining last year’s policy of reimbursing them with tax deductions for continuing to build social infrastructure for their employees in remote areas.

The attendant public-private partnership that Putin envisages strengthening can therefore accelerate regional socio-economic development per his master plan for the Arctic and Far East.

The emerging geostrategic context will help achieve these goals. The center of the global economy has shifted from Europe to Asia, and with it, so too has Russia’s overall focus. China, India, and ASEAN (with Indonesia at its core) are considered Russia’s top partners in this regard. The latest updates are that Russia just clinched a long-negotiated deal over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline; Putin plans to visit India by year’s end; and Russia clinched a strategic partnership deal with Indonesia earlier this summer.

Investments in the Transarctic Corridor (the Northern Sea Route plus planned rail-riparian connectivity to there from Siberia and the Far East) and the Eastern Polygon (the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainland railway) will help Russia tap into these near-limitless market opportunities. It would also ideally benefit from trade with and investments from the US, EU, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, but these pillars of the “Global West” decided to sanction Russia as punishment for its special operation.

That was counterproductive since China will now likely play an even more outsized role in the Arctic and Far East’s development, especially as regards resource extraction, thus turbocharging its superpower trajectory and hastening their demise. India and Indonesia can help Russia preemptively avert potentially disproportionate dependence on China, which serves all three’s interests, while the “Global West” will continue harming its own interests by eschewing any role in Russia’s geo-economic balancing act.

Absent a policy reversal, even if only in part and from just some of the “Global West” like nearby Japan and South Korea, the implementation of Putin’s master plan for the Arctic and Far East will provide a powerful impetus to BRICS’ and the SCO’s rise as their members seek to transform global governance.

China will lead the way while Russia, India, and Indonesia will play important supportive roles.

The end result might be the world’s bifurcation into the US-led “Global West” and the Chinese-led Global South.

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

Putin's Master Plan For The Russian Arctic & Far East Will Speed Up The Global South's Rise

Putin's Master Plan For The Russian Arctic & Far East Will Speed Up The Global South's Rise

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Putin elaborated on his master plan for the Russian Arctic and Far East during his keynote speech at this year’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week.

This piece will summarize what he shared and analyze it in the emerging geostrategic context.

To begin with, he envisages these regions serving as industrial, logistics, and tech hubs due to their location and resources.

Raw materials will fuel industry; rivers and new railways, seaports, and airports will facilitate logistics; and rare earths will drive tech.

Relevant coastal facilities will be constructed in the future, which might be powered by new hydroelectric plants, and these will be connected to one another and hinterland areas (resource deposits and settlements) by an integrated logistics system.

More bridges will be built to China and North Korea too. Existing preferential policies for businesses in some areas and for residents under some conditions will be expanded throughout both regions to stimulate investment and increase the population there.

Reducing population outflow is a priority, as is encouraging the inflow of Russians from elsewhere, which more enterprises can assist with upon the state streamlining last year’s policy of reimbursing them with tax deductions for continuing to build social infrastructure for their employees in remote areas.

The attendant public-private partnership that Putin envisages strengthening can therefore accelerate regional socio-economic development per his master plan for the Arctic and Far East.

The emerging geostrategic context will help achieve these goals. The center of the global economy has shifted from Europe to Asia, and with it, so too has Russia’s overall focus. China, India, and ASEAN (with Indonesia at its core) are considered Russia’s top partners in this regard. The latest updates are that Russia just clinched a long-negotiated deal over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline; Putin plans to visit India by year’s end; and Russia clinched a strategic partnership deal with Indonesia earlier this summer.

Investments in the Transarctic Corridor (the Northern Sea Route plus planned rail-riparian connectivity to there from Siberia and the Far East) and the Eastern Polygon (the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainland railway) will help Russia tap into these near-limitless market opportunities. It would also ideally benefit from trade with and investments from the US, EU, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, but these pillars of the “Global West” decided to sanction Russia as punishment for its special operation.

That was counterproductive since China will now likely play an even more outsized role in the Arctic and Far East’s development, especially as regards resource extraction, thus turbocharging its superpower trajectory and hastening their demise. India and Indonesia can help Russia preemptively avert potentially disproportionate dependence on China, which serves all three’s interests, while the “Global West” will continue harming its own interests by eschewing any role in Russia’s geo-economic balancing act.

Absent a policy reversal, even if only in part and from just some of the “Global West” like nearby Japan and South Korea, the implementation of Putin’s master plan for the Arctic and Far East will provide a powerful impetus to BRICS’ and the SCO’s rise as their members seek to transform global governance.

China will lead the way while Russia, India, and Indonesia will play important supportive roles.

The end result might be the world’s bifurcation into the US-led “Global West” and the Chinese-led Global South.

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

Could Trump End Up Triggering The Globalist "Great Reset"?

Could Trump End Up Triggering The Globalist "Great Reset"?

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

The news feeds were buzzing last week over the recent meeting between Russia, China and India at the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi made sure to present a unified front at the event, at least in economic terms, and it’s clear that China and Russia’s military ties are solidifying. The Shanghai Cooperation Gathering is being treated by the media as a warning to the US in the face of accelerating trade tensions.

Western journalists seem rather giddy over the news, suggesting that Donald Trump’s tariff policies are pushing America’s enemies together and forming an anti-US axis. The political left hates Trump so completely that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them cheering for Putin and the BRICS in a year or two.

News flash for those who are unaware: The BRICS have been forming their alliance since the Obama era. It’s nothing new and has nothing to do with Trump.

I’ve been tracking the formation of the BRICS alliance since 2009 and the driving motive behind the economic bloc (on the surface) has always been to break from the dollar as the world reserve currency. BRICS leaders have been calling for the end of the dollar and the introduction of a new global currency system for years. Though, the plan is not as eastern focused as many people assume. That is to say, if you’re hoping the BRICS are going to “end globalism” you are sorely mistaken.

In fact, in 2009 both Russia and China put forward the notion of a global currency managed by the IMF; an organization that many people think is US controlled. The reality is that it is globalist controlled, and globalists have no enduring loyalties to any nation state; they are only loyal to their own agenda.

Some people might argue that the situation has changed dramatically since 2009, but I disagree. China is now inexorably tied to the IMF’s SDR basket and Russia remains an active member of the IMF despite the war in Ukraine. It’s important to understand that there are always two different timelines when it comes to world events – There is the more publicized international theater, and then there are the operations of globalist institutions that exist outside of geopolitics.

In my view, globalists are not necessarily the “engineers” behind every conflict or crisis, but they do position themselves to take advantage whenever possible. And, they do play both sides of every conflagration in order to gain the most benefit. In other words, groups like the IMF, World Bank, the BIS, the WEF, and trillion dollar conglomerates like BlackRock and Vanguard are going to court the BRICS just as much as they court the west when it comes to achieving a centralized one-world economy.

It’s no secret what this “new world order” is intended to look like. The Davos crowd has openly discussed their visions for years and during the pandemic they ripped the mask off and reveled in the “inevitable” implementation of their “Great Reset”. To summarize, this is what the elites want for the future economy:

A global cashless system. A one world digital currency built around a basket of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). AI tracking of all financial records. A “sharing economy” in which all private property is abolished. The use of “de-banking” to control civil discourse – Meaning you can say what you want but you might lose access to your accounts, and perhaps even the jobs market. Population control and reduction. Carbon feudalism in which nations pay tribute taxes to globalists in the name of “stopping man-made climate change” (which doesn’t exist).

These taxes are then redistributed to various nations as a way to incentivize their cooperation. And ultimately, they want the introduction of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a way to make every individual dependent on centralized government for their livelihood so that they never think of rebelling.

This is what the Davos elite mean when they talk about the “Great Reset”. I have noted in recent articles, however, that the globalists have grown disturbingly quiet in the past year. They are not so bold anymore in their speeches as they were during the pandemic and their plans do seem to be hitting a wall.

I’ve seen the media, a number of central bankers and political leaders refer to this issue as Donald Trump’s “economic reset” and I find this narrative fascinating. What exactly are they talking about? Are there competing resets in play, and if so, does this mean the globalist agenda has been derailed?

Trump’s Reset And The End Of Bretton-Woods

Trump’s reset, if we’re to call it that, seems to be rooted in the reversal of the post-WWII Bretton-Woods agreement in which the US was made the de facto financial engine of the global economy. This was when the dollar’s status as world reserve currency was solidified, when America became the consumption hub for the west, and when NATO was formed.

It sounds like a sweet deal for Americans, but playing the role is costly. It is, slowly but surely, destroying our economy through debt and inflation.

Many presidents have used targeted tariffs since WWII, but none have enforced sweeping tariffs like Trump. Often compared to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs under Herbert Hoover which are wrongly blamed for the Great Depression (it was actually international banks and the Federal Reserve that caused the Depression), Trump’s import taxes throw a monkey wrench into the gears of Bretton-Woods trade and stifle globalism by forcing large corporations to reduce their foreign outsourcing.

As I’ve noted many times, global corporations are NOT free market entities, they are socialist entities chartered by governments and protected through special legal and economic privileges. If a company is “too big to fail” and is thus entitled to taxpayer cash through bailouts and QE, then they are not a mechanism of the free market. Therefore, we should not care if they get taxed through tariffs.

Frankly, I think corporate globalism and economic interdependency should be abolished, by force if necessary.

Legitimate Decentralization Or Controlled Chaos?

Trump’s tariffs along with his cuts to foreign subsidies and other economic policies could, in a few years, completely disrupt globalism as we know it. So, in a way, it is indeed a kind of “economic reset”. But here’s the rub: Could Trump’s efforts end up accelerating the globalist reset rather than defeating it?

As noted earlier, the formation of close ties between the BRICS nations has been ongoing since 2009 and their key goal has been to end the structures put in place by the Bretton-Woods agreement. They have stated in the past that they want a new currency system run by the IMF. Whether the BRICS know it or not, their efforts to develop CBDCs and unseat the US play directly into the globalist game plan.

The IMF and the BIS have been working diligently (and quietly) to build a cross-border CBDC framework and the IMF has been planning its own global digital currency built around the SDR basket. The BIS sometimes refers to this system as a “Unified Ledger”.

Are the banking elites setting up an alternative to the dollar in preparation for an incoming clash between the US and the BRICS? And is Trump’s “reset” a catalyst for that crisis?

I support Trump’s tariffs for a number of reasons. I think globalism needs to end. I think domestic production needs to return to the US and I think corporations need to pay a price for their outsourcing. I don’t think that Americans should act as the primary consumer hub for the entire world and I don’t think it’s our job to subsidize the planet. I also think that nothing is going to change unless drastic measures are taken in the near term.

But I also understand the reality that if the US stops playing the role it has been playing since WWII, the majority of nations around the planet are facing a shocking disruption. The US makes up around 30% of global consumption. We supply the vast majority of global foreign aid (around $70 billion to $100 billion annually), which many countries have come to rely on. We are the primary export market for the world and there is no realistic replacement. The dollar and the SWIFT system are the key drivers of global trade.

Would Trump’s reset actually force a majority of nations into a desperate situation? A situation that compels them to look for an alternative solution they would not otherwise accept? Are the globalists waiting in the wings to offer that solution in the form of their own “Great Reset” and one-world digital currency system?

One way or another the existing economic interdependency needs to die. Global corporations need to face a reckoning after decades of protection and special treatment. Production needs to return to the US. Americans need to stop paying for the rest of the world through foreign aid. But if we’re going to take this path then we must also dismantle all globalist organizations in the process.

I believe these institutions plan on exploiting the instability caused by the US breaking from the Bretton-Woods structure. I think they have positioned themselves, as always, to take advantage of any potential conflict that might result. They cannot be allowed to use our necessary reforms as as springboard to achieve the evils of their Great Reset.

A true “reset” will require us to make the destruction of globalist institutions a priority.  Otherwise, any economic action we take could ultimately benefit their agenda.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 23:25

Could Trump End Up Triggering The Globalist "Great Reset"?

Could Trump End Up Triggering The Globalist "Great Reset"?

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

The news feeds were buzzing last week over the recent meeting between Russia, China and India at the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi made sure to present a unified front at the event, at least in economic terms, and it’s clear that China and Russia’s military ties are solidifying. The Shanghai Cooperation Gathering is being treated by the media as a warning to the US in the face of accelerating trade tensions.

Western journalists seem rather giddy over the news, suggesting that Donald Trump’s tariff policies are pushing America’s enemies together and forming an anti-US axis. The political left hates Trump so completely that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them cheering for Putin and the BRICS in a year or two.

News flash for those who are unaware: The BRICS have been forming their alliance since the Obama era. It’s nothing new and has nothing to do with Trump.

I’ve been tracking the formation of the BRICS alliance since 2009 and the driving motive behind the economic bloc (on the surface) has always been to break from the dollar as the world reserve currency. BRICS leaders have been calling for the end of the dollar and the introduction of a new global currency system for years. Though, the plan is not as eastern focused as many people assume. That is to say, if you’re hoping the BRICS are going to “end globalism” you are sorely mistaken.

In fact, in 2009 both Russia and China put forward the notion of a global currency managed by the IMF; an organization that many people think is US controlled. The reality is that it is globalist controlled, and globalists have no enduring loyalties to any nation state; they are only loyal to their own agenda.

Some people might argue that the situation has changed dramatically since 2009, but I disagree. China is now inexorably tied to the IMF’s SDR basket and Russia remains an active member of the IMF despite the war in Ukraine. It’s important to understand that there are always two different timelines when it comes to world events – There is the more publicized international theater, and then there are the operations of globalist institutions that exist outside of geopolitics.

In my view, globalists are not necessarily the “engineers” behind every conflict or crisis, but they do position themselves to take advantage whenever possible. And, they do play both sides of every conflagration in order to gain the most benefit. In other words, groups like the IMF, World Bank, the BIS, the WEF, and trillion dollar conglomerates like BlackRock and Vanguard are going to court the BRICS just as much as they court the west when it comes to achieving a centralized one-world economy.

It’s no secret what this “new world order” is intended to look like. The Davos crowd has openly discussed their visions for years and during the pandemic they ripped the mask off and reveled in the “inevitable” implementation of their “Great Reset”. To summarize, this is what the elites want for the future economy:

A global cashless system. A one world digital currency built around a basket of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). AI tracking of all financial records. A “sharing economy” in which all private property is abolished. The use of “de-banking” to control civil discourse – Meaning you can say what you want but you might lose access to your accounts, and perhaps even the jobs market. Population control and reduction. Carbon feudalism in which nations pay tribute taxes to globalists in the name of “stopping man-made climate change” (which doesn’t exist).

These taxes are then redistributed to various nations as a way to incentivize their cooperation. And ultimately, they want the introduction of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a way to make every individual dependent on centralized government for their livelihood so that they never think of rebelling.

This is what the Davos elite mean when they talk about the “Great Reset”. I have noted in recent articles, however, that the globalists have grown disturbingly quiet in the past year. They are not so bold anymore in their speeches as they were during the pandemic and their plans do seem to be hitting a wall.

I’ve seen the media, a number of central bankers and political leaders refer to this issue as Donald Trump’s “economic reset” and I find this narrative fascinating. What exactly are they talking about? Are there competing resets in play, and if so, does this mean the globalist agenda has been derailed?

Trump’s Reset And The End Of Bretton-Woods

Trump’s reset, if we’re to call it that, seems to be rooted in the reversal of the post-WWII Bretton-Woods agreement in which the US was made the de facto financial engine of the global economy. This was when the dollar’s status as world reserve currency was solidified, when America became the consumption hub for the west, and when NATO was formed.

It sounds like a sweet deal for Americans, but playing the role is costly. It is, slowly but surely, destroying our economy through debt and inflation.

Many presidents have used targeted tariffs since WWII, but none have enforced sweeping tariffs like Trump. Often compared to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs under Herbert Hoover which are wrongly blamed for the Great Depression (it was actually international banks and the Federal Reserve that caused the Depression), Trump’s import taxes throw a monkey wrench into the gears of Bretton-Woods trade and stifle globalism by forcing large corporations to reduce their foreign outsourcing.

As I’ve noted many times, global corporations are NOT free market entities, they are socialist entities chartered by governments and protected through special legal and economic privileges. If a company is “too big to fail” and is thus entitled to taxpayer cash through bailouts and QE, then they are not a mechanism of the free market. Therefore, we should not care if they get taxed through tariffs.

Frankly, I think corporate globalism and economic interdependency should be abolished, by force if necessary.

Legitimate Decentralization Or Controlled Chaos?

Trump’s tariffs along with his cuts to foreign subsidies and other economic policies could, in a few years, completely disrupt globalism as we know it. So, in a way, it is indeed a kind of “economic reset”. But here’s the rub: Could Trump’s efforts end up accelerating the globalist reset rather than defeating it?

As noted earlier, the formation of close ties between the BRICS nations has been ongoing since 2009 and their key goal has been to end the structures put in place by the Bretton-Woods agreement. They have stated in the past that they want a new currency system run by the IMF. Whether the BRICS know it or not, their efforts to develop CBDCs and unseat the US play directly into the globalist game plan.

The IMF and the BIS have been working diligently (and quietly) to build a cross-border CBDC framework and the IMF has been planning its own global digital currency built around the SDR basket. The BIS sometimes refers to this system as a “Unified Ledger”.

Are the banking elites setting up an alternative to the dollar in preparation for an incoming clash between the US and the BRICS? And is Trump’s “reset” a catalyst for that crisis?

I support Trump’s tariffs for a number of reasons. I think globalism needs to end. I think domestic production needs to return to the US and I think corporations need to pay a price for their outsourcing. I don’t think that Americans should act as the primary consumer hub for the entire world and I don’t think it’s our job to subsidize the planet. I also think that nothing is going to change unless drastic measures are taken in the near term.

But I also understand the reality that if the US stops playing the role it has been playing since WWII, the majority of nations around the planet are facing a shocking disruption. The US makes up around 30% of global consumption. We supply the vast majority of global foreign aid (around $70 billion to $100 billion annually), which many countries have come to rely on. We are the primary export market for the world and there is no realistic replacement. The dollar and the SWIFT system are the key drivers of global trade.

Would Trump’s reset actually force a majority of nations into a desperate situation? A situation that compels them to look for an alternative solution they would not otherwise accept? Are the globalists waiting in the wings to offer that solution in the form of their own “Great Reset” and one-world digital currency system?

One way or another the existing economic interdependency needs to die. Global corporations need to face a reckoning after decades of protection and special treatment. Production needs to return to the US. Americans need to stop paying for the rest of the world through foreign aid. But if we’re going to take this path then we must also dismantle all globalist organizations in the process.

I believe these institutions plan on exploiting the instability caused by the US breaking from the Bretton-Woods structure. I think they have positioned themselves, as always, to take advantage of any potential conflict that might result. They cannot be allowed to use our necessary reforms as as springboard to achieve the evils of their Great Reset.

A true “reset” will require us to make the destruction of globalist institutions a priority.  Otherwise, any economic action we take could ultimately benefit their agenda.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 23:25

Watch: IDF Helicopters Chase Yemeni Drone For Several Minutes As Airport Under Threat

Watch: IDF Helicopters Chase Yemeni Drone For Several Minutes As Airport Under Threat

Israel's skies witnessed a lot of dangerous drone activity out of Yemen on Sunday into Monday. Israel's Ramon Airport in the south of the country was directly struck by one of the drones, resulting in all flights having been grounded.

What is unusual is that sirens were not sounded ahead of the attack, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating the incident. Ramon primarily serves the city of Eilat at the southern tip of the country on the Red Sea, and it was completely shut down for 90 minutes after the attack.

Videos showed the airport arrivals hall littered with glass as many windows were busted out in the attack. The Houthis owned up to it, stating that its drone "directly hit the airport and caused the airport to shut down, halting air traffic."

A 63-year-old man was injured in the attack, but no other casualties were reported. It comes after Israel's main Ben Gurion International Airport has come under repeat ballistic missile attack - though most projectiles have failed to hit the target.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree declared Sunday the Houthis "will escalate their military operations and not back down from their support for Gaza" - and warned that Israeli airports "are unsafe and will be continuously targeted."

Reports of more hostile drones over Israel on Monday:

The Ramon airport incident demonstrates that Israel's celebrated multi-layered air missile defense system is struggling to keep up, as drones and missiles have on many occasions slipped through.

Israeli media reports at least three more drones were intercepted on Monday, which again threatened southern Israel.

The drone threat from Yemen has increased of late, which Iranian sources have positively celebrated...

"Monday saw another drone intercepted near the airport, the military said, setting off sirens. Several interceptor missiles were launched over the Eilat area — just south of the airport — to shoot down the drone," reports TOI.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 23:00

Watch: IDF Helicopters Chase Yemeni Drone For Several Minutes As Airport Under Threat

Watch: IDF Helicopters Chase Yemeni Drone For Several Minutes As Airport Under Threat

Israel's skies witnessed a lot of dangerous drone activity out of Yemen on Sunday into Monday. Israel's Ramon Airport in the south of the country was directly struck by one of the drones, resulting in all flights having been grounded.

What is unusual is that sirens were not sounded ahead of the attack, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating the incident. Ramon primarily serves the city of Eilat at the southern tip of the country on the Red Sea, and it was completely shut down for 90 minutes after the attack.

Videos showed the airport arrivals hall littered with glass as many windows were busted out in the attack. The Houthis owned up to it, stating that its drone "directly hit the airport and caused the airport to shut down, halting air traffic."

A 63-year-old man was injured in the attack, but no other casualties were reported. It comes after Israel's main Ben Gurion International Airport has come under repeat ballistic missile attack - though most projectiles have failed to hit the target.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree declared Sunday the Houthis "will escalate their military operations and not back down from their support for Gaza" - and warned that Israeli airports "are unsafe and will be continuously targeted."

Reports of more hostile drones over Israel on Monday:

The Ramon airport incident demonstrates that Israel's celebrated multi-layered air missile defense system is struggling to keep up, as drones and missiles have on many occasions slipped through.

Israeli media reports at least three more drones were intercepted on Monday, which again threatened southern Israel.

The drone threat from Yemen has increased of late, which Iranian sources have positively celebrated...

"Monday saw another drone intercepted near the airport, the military said, setting off sirens. Several interceptor missiles were launched over the Eilat area — just south of the airport — to shoot down the drone," reports TOI.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 23:00

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Withholding Of Foreign Aid Funds

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Withholding Of Foreign Aid Funds

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8 to permit it to withhold billions of dollars in foreign aid previously authorized by Congress.

The Authority of Law statue at the Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 8, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the justices to pause a ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who ordered the federal government to spend about $4 billion in previously appropriated funds.

The money is earmarked for foreign aid and United Nations peacekeeping projects.

The emergency application was filed in two cases, Trump v. Global Health Council, and U.S. Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalitions.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the new application that this is the third time in this case that Ali “has issued an unlawful injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless interbranch conflict.”

In February, Ali gave the federal government 36 hours to pay roughly $2 billion in invoices for past foreign-aid work, which Sauer called “an impossible task,” and one that the judge lacked authority to order. The Supreme Court ended the dispute by granting an administrative stay, a court order that gives the justices more time to consider a matter.

After the deadline was lifted, the government paid “virtually all of the contested amounts,” Sauer said.

Next, Ali issued a “novel injunction requiring the government to obligate tens of billions of dollars in foreign-aid appropriations on the theory that failing to do so constituted an unlawful impoundment in violation of the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974,” Sauer said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifted that injunction and that court allowed its ruling to come into effect on Aug. 28, Sauer said.

Now that its original theory has been “decisively rejected,” the district court precipitated a new emergency “by issuing a version of the same injunction near midnight on September 3,” Sauer stated.

Again, the district court is forcing the government to obligate about $10.5 billion in foreign-aid funding that was due to expire on Sept. 30, according to Sauer. But now the government has been left “with even less time for further review or compliance, with even more deficient legal theories,” Sauer said.

Sauer said the government already intended to obligate $6.5 billion of that funding by Sept. 30, but Ali’s order regarding the remaining $4 billion “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers,” a constitutional doctrine that divides the government into three branches to prevent any single branch from accumulating too much power.

After the D.C. Circuit canceled Ali’s injunction, the president proposed rescinding that $4 billion in funding under the Impoundment Control Act. Under fast-track procedures, Congress has 45 days to consider the rescission request and during that period the president cannot be required to spend the money, Sauer said.

Ali’s new injunction would compel the Executive Branch to begin “obligating those funds at breakneck speed to meet the September 30 deadline, even as Congress is considering the rescission proposal” and before Congress’s 45 days to do so elapse, Sauer said. A panel of the D.C. Circuit denied by a vote of 2–1 a stay of the judge’s order late on Sept. 5, Sauer added.

Also on Sept. 8, Global Health Council and other litigants that want the $4 billion to be released filed a brief opposing the government’s application for an administrative stay of Ali’s order.

“The government’s theory that the agencies need not comply with enacted legislation mandating that they spend funds, because the President has unilaterally proposed legislation to rescind those statutory mandates, would fundamentally upend our constitutional structure,” the brief reads.

It is unclear when the Supreme Court will act on the government’s application.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 22:35

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Withholding Of Foreign Aid Funds

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Withholding Of Foreign Aid Funds

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8 to permit it to withhold billions of dollars in foreign aid previously authorized by Congress.

The Authority of Law statue at the Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 8, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the justices to pause a ruling by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who ordered the federal government to spend about $4 billion in previously appropriated funds.

The money is earmarked for foreign aid and United Nations peacekeeping projects.

The emergency application was filed in two cases, Trump v. Global Health Council, and U.S. Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalitions.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the new application that this is the third time in this case that Ali “has issued an unlawful injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless interbranch conflict.”

In February, Ali gave the federal government 36 hours to pay roughly $2 billion in invoices for past foreign-aid work, which Sauer called “an impossible task,” and one that the judge lacked authority to order. The Supreme Court ended the dispute by granting an administrative stay, a court order that gives the justices more time to consider a matter.

After the deadline was lifted, the government paid “virtually all of the contested amounts,” Sauer said.

Next, Ali issued a “novel injunction requiring the government to obligate tens of billions of dollars in foreign-aid appropriations on the theory that failing to do so constituted an unlawful impoundment in violation of the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974,” Sauer said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifted that injunction and that court allowed its ruling to come into effect on Aug. 28, Sauer said.

Now that its original theory has been “decisively rejected,” the district court precipitated a new emergency “by issuing a version of the same injunction near midnight on September 3,” Sauer stated.

Again, the district court is forcing the government to obligate about $10.5 billion in foreign-aid funding that was due to expire on Sept. 30, according to Sauer. But now the government has been left “with even less time for further review or compliance, with even more deficient legal theories,” Sauer said.

Sauer said the government already intended to obligate $6.5 billion of that funding by Sept. 30, but Ali’s order regarding the remaining $4 billion “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers,” a constitutional doctrine that divides the government into three branches to prevent any single branch from accumulating too much power.

After the D.C. Circuit canceled Ali’s injunction, the president proposed rescinding that $4 billion in funding under the Impoundment Control Act. Under fast-track procedures, Congress has 45 days to consider the rescission request and during that period the president cannot be required to spend the money, Sauer said.

Ali’s new injunction would compel the Executive Branch to begin “obligating those funds at breakneck speed to meet the September 30 deadline, even as Congress is considering the rescission proposal” and before Congress’s 45 days to do so elapse, Sauer said. A panel of the D.C. Circuit denied by a vote of 2–1 a stay of the judge’s order late on Sept. 5, Sauer added.

Also on Sept. 8, Global Health Council and other litigants that want the $4 billion to be released filed a brief opposing the government’s application for an administrative stay of Ali’s order.

“The government’s theory that the agencies need not comply with enacted legislation mandating that they spend funds, because the President has unilaterally proposed legislation to rescind those statutory mandates, would fundamentally upend our constitutional structure,” the brief reads.

It is unclear when the Supreme Court will act on the government’s application.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 22:35

"Careening Towards Bankruptcy": Santa Monica To Declare Fiscal Emergency After Massive Sexual Abuse Settlements

"Careening Towards Bankruptcy": Santa Monica To Declare Fiscal Emergency After Massive Sexual Abuse Settlements

Santa Monica, the liberal coastal enclave in Southern California, is poised to declare a "fiscal emergency" as its financial troubles mount, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times.

The city’s budget has been strained by a staggering $229 million in settlements related to sexual abuse claims against former police dispatcher Eric Uller, with an additional 180 claimants still seeking compensation. Uller was accused of sexually abusing over 200 children, primarily underprivileged Latino boys, from the 1980s to early 2000s. Arrested in 2018, Uller committed suicide before his trial.
The Los Angeles Times reports:

Services in Santa Monica are also suffering, according to the report. During the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders slashed the city’s budget and eliminated hundreds of positions. City services haven’t been restored to pre-pandemic levels, and several capital projects remain unfunded.

Santa Monica’s recently approved budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year expects expenditures of $484.3 million, but $473.5 million in revenue, according to the Times.

City officials have largely avoided comment ahead of a critical meeting, but agenda notes reveal that concerns about Santa Monica’s precarious finances have been escalating since March.

“I’m afraid that we’re careening towards bankruptcy, and I’m worried that we’re thinking a little small here,” Councilmember Dan Hall warned at the time. “Unless this council takes very bold action, we’re not going to cost-correct.”

The severity of the crisis has already forced Santa Monica to abandon plans to host beach volleyball events for the 2028 Olympics, underscoring the depth of the city’s financial distress.

A study released in October concluded that hosting the 2028 Olympics as a venue city would result in a net financial loss of $1.45 million for Santa Monica, further complicating the city’s strained budget, the Times said.

If approved, the financial emergency would authorize Santa Monica City Manager Oliver Chi to “take all necessary steps to address, alleviate, and mitigate this emergency,” according to the proposed measure.

The average household income in Santa Monica stood at $176,289 in 2023. In the 2020 Presidential Election, Los Angeles County, which includes Santa Monica, voted approximately 71% for Joe Biden compared to 26% for Donald Trump.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 22:10

"Careening Towards Bankruptcy": Santa Monica To Declare Fiscal Emergency After Massive Sexual Abuse Settlements

"Careening Towards Bankruptcy": Santa Monica To Declare Fiscal Emergency After Massive Sexual Abuse Settlements

Santa Monica, the liberal coastal enclave in Southern California, is poised to declare a "fiscal emergency" as its financial troubles mount, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times.

The city’s budget has been strained by a staggering $229 million in settlements related to sexual abuse claims against former police dispatcher Eric Uller, with an additional 180 claimants still seeking compensation. Uller was accused of sexually abusing over 200 children, primarily underprivileged Latino boys, from the 1980s to early 2000s. Arrested in 2018, Uller committed suicide before his trial.
The Los Angeles Times reports:

Services in Santa Monica are also suffering, according to the report. During the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders slashed the city’s budget and eliminated hundreds of positions. City services haven’t been restored to pre-pandemic levels, and several capital projects remain unfunded.

Santa Monica’s recently approved budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year expects expenditures of $484.3 million, but $473.5 million in revenue, according to the Times.

City officials have largely avoided comment ahead of a critical meeting, but agenda notes reveal that concerns about Santa Monica’s precarious finances have been escalating since March.

“I’m afraid that we’re careening towards bankruptcy, and I’m worried that we’re thinking a little small here,” Councilmember Dan Hall warned at the time. “Unless this council takes very bold action, we’re not going to cost-correct.”

The severity of the crisis has already forced Santa Monica to abandon plans to host beach volleyball events for the 2028 Olympics, underscoring the depth of the city’s financial distress.

A study released in October concluded that hosting the 2028 Olympics as a venue city would result in a net financial loss of $1.45 million for Santa Monica, further complicating the city’s strained budget, the Times said.

If approved, the financial emergency would authorize Santa Monica City Manager Oliver Chi to “take all necessary steps to address, alleviate, and mitigate this emergency,” according to the proposed measure.

The average household income in Santa Monica stood at $176,289 in 2023. In the 2020 Presidential Election, Los Angeles County, which includes Santa Monica, voted approximately 71% for Joe Biden compared to 26% for Donald Trump.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 22:10

Trump's New War Production Board?

Trump's New War Production Board?

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

The left weighs in on anything that Trump is against, which drives it to lionize criminals like Abrego Garcia, champion open borders, and oppose increased oil and natural gas production.

And they are against anything Trump is for.

So often, they did not care much about big-city crime rates, supported biological men’s usurpation of women’s sports, and opposed taking out the Iranian nuclear threat.

However, recently, some former and, no doubt, current Trump opponents now seem to support both what Trump is for and what he is against—at least in a few areas.

So this past week, Donald Trump hosted some of the richest, most powerful—and most liberal—high-tech CEOs in the country at the White House.

Their shared goal ostensibly is to ensure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic engineering, cryptocurrency, and nearly every other breakthrough field that has both sparked global competition and involves U.S. national security.

In this regard, Trump seems to be channeling Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, during the early years of World War II, enlisted his ideological foes, mostly the nation’s CEOs, to rearm the virtually defenseless U.S. He tasked them to jump-start the moribund American economy to produce in a matter of months the best and most plentiful ships, planes, vehicles, communications, and new military technologies.

Despite their ideological differences, both FDR and Trump knew that only private enterprise could rearm and reboot the nation, and only if the captains of industry were infused with patriotic zeal, guaranteed freedom to innovate and adapt, and able to make a profit on their investments, would they become partners with and not adversaries of the government.

So last week, Trump assembled Michael Kratsios, the administration’s director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, along with David Sacks, the billionaire investor and Trump’s cryptocurrency and AI czar. Joining them were Big Tech CEOs like Google’s Sundar Pichai, Arvind Krishna of IBM, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Elon Musk was not there, though he said he was invited but had a scheduling conflict.

Their joint challenge is to ensure that the U.S. dominates these emerging fields and thereby ensure American prosperity and national security.

A subtext follows that China must not be allowed by hook or crook to steal U.S. research and development breakthroughs and thereby take a lead in these fields. The CEOs are tasked with investing their huge profits inside the United States to ensure jobs for Americans and, to the greatest degree, minimize offshoring and outsourcing whenever possible.

Trump’s duty, in turn, is to reassure the CEOs that under his watch, the government will not pick winners and losers but let them all compete on a level playing field. They will be protected by the government both from European Union ankle-biting regulatory interference and censorship and Washington’s own efforts to micromanage them into stasis. That is the quid. The quo is that the tech leaders must awaken a somnolent U.S. to the technological revolutions underway that will determine the fate of nations in the second half of the 21st century—and then begin producing state-of-the-art products that lead to a more secure and richer U.S.

We should remember what FDR accomplished. World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. At that point, the U.S. military was smaller than those of eighteen other nations. The U.S. Army was less than 200,000 soldiers in size, with only 125,000 sailors in the Navy. In contrast, the German military was already over 1.5 million strong. Its soon-to-be wartime ally, Japan, had under arms 2.5 million combatants, and Italy had another 1.5 million soldiers.

On maneuvers, the American army was short on rifles and used broomsticks. Even after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. lacked both the quality and quantity of German planes, tanks, and artillery. The Japanese Navy roughly matched the American but enjoyed advantages since it was not responsible for a two-ocean deployment, as were the Americans in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Its fighters, torpedoes, and destroyers were deemed superior to their American counterparts.

Yet when the war ended four years later, the U.S. military was well over 12 million soldiers in size. Its navy had more ships and tonnage than all the navies of the world combined.

The U.S. Army Air Forces were larger than all the air forces of the world combined. It possessed the most lethal weapons of the war—the atomic bomb, the massive B-29 bomber, and an array of thousands of superb fighter planes. The Navy grew to over 125 fleet, light, and escort aircraft carriers. At the end of the war, American battleships, carriers, submarines, fighter aircraft, and transport vehicles were the most numerous and best in the world. By 1945, the American gross domestic product was likewise larger than all the economies of all the belligerents combined.

How did the U.S. go from an isolationist and disarmed country mired still in the Great Depression to the most powerful and best-armed nation in world history—and in less than four years?

The neo-socialist president Franklin Delano Roosevelt pivoted. He abandoned the New Deal statist control of the economy and instead unleashed the captains of industry to rearm the United States in the way that they thought best.

FDR tasked General Motors president William Knudsen to round up corporate CEOs, allot them areas of industry, and then, with Roosevelt’s blessing, turn them loose.

Roosevelt appointed his former political enemies to a variety of boards—the War Production Board, the Office of Production Management, and the National Defense Advisory Commission. The great corporations responded. Charles Wilson of General Electric, Henry Kaiser of Kaiser Steel, and Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company quickly built new factories or recalibrated older ones into huge weapons industries.

Soon, Henry Ford was building one B-24 bomber an hour at the huge Willow Run plant in Michigan. Kaiser launched a Liberty cargo ship every few days in his West Coast shipyards. By war’s end, the industrialists had built 300,000 planes and over 14,000 warships and cargo vessels.

Roosevelt’s message to the once-hostile industrialists was simply to employ their initiative, expertise, and resources to outproduce the enemy and to catch up and surpass their head start in the quality of arms. He gave them wide latitude to profit, fast-tracked zoning and building permits, and urged them to use their initiative and coordinate with each other. The only real order was to make better and more plentiful weapons than the Germans, Italians, and Japanese combined.

And they did just that and left a model for our own generation to follow—if it proves as publicly spirited, patriotic, united, and capable as their grandfathers who won the war.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 21:45

AI Has Come To Reshape Education

AI Has Come To Reshape Education

Authored by Lika Kobeshavidze via the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE),

In the last few years, everything has changed for college students. Applications capable of writing assignments suddenly became a part of everyday life.

What is the real impact of artificial intelligence (AI)? Is it a convenient tool for personalized learning or a path to academic dishonesty?

Out of nowhere, AI became students’ best friend.

A tool created in 2022 is now a daily habit. Professors may see dishonesty, but students see efficiency. Is AI additional help or a shortcut to avoid learning?

The real problem is a decline in educational standards. Will over-reliance on AI make students smarter, or does it come with darker consequences?

According to a new study by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the latter might be true.

Researchers found that writing essays with ChatGPT can lead to “cognitive debt” and a “gradual decline in the quality of written assessments.”

Over four months, MIT researchers asked 54 adults to write essays in three groups: those who used ChatGPT, those who used a search engine, and those who used only their own skills. The team tracked brain activity and analyzed the writing to see how engaged participants were. The results were interesting: those who relied on AI showed much less brain engagement and even struggled to remember their own quotes. When later asked to write without AI, they performed the worst of all.

The study was small, with only 18 participants making the final round, but it raises a big question: Does over-reliance on AI make it harder to think for ourselves?

Artificial intelligence is still a relatively new tool. But its rise has created major challenges for academic integrity. This skepticism is not new; people had similar concerns when digital calculators emerged. They were also seen as “easy fixes.” But, in the 1970s, exams were redesigned to match a new reality; instead of calculating by hand, students were expected to use calculators and solve complex problems.

The real challenge is that the institutions haven’t updated their standards or don’t even know how. Teachers still assign the same tasks and expect the same outcomes as five years ago, ignoring the fact that a powerful new tool now exists.

It is essential that current and future generations can think critically and creatively and solve problems. However, AI reshapes what this means. Writing essays by hand is no longer the only way to demonstrate critical thinking, just as long division doesn’t automatically prove numerical skills.

Already, 89 percent of US college students admit to using ChatGPT for homework, despite its limitations. Adaptation is urgent. Some universities, like Stanford, Barnard, and New York University, have begun offering AI literacy courses, where students learn to evaluate the consequences of AI and understand when not to use it.

Europe is taking a slightly different path. The European Commission’s guidelines emphasize transparency, accountability, and fairness in AI education. Instead of banning the tool, they are trying to integrate it into the learning process. Students may use AI to brainstorm ideas, correct grammar, or support research. The goal is for students to understand how it works, its risks, and capabilities.

Asia, however, is the leader of integration. In South Korea and Singapore, students use AI in classrooms and in assessments. Singapore, through its second National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS 2.0), has positioned itself as a global leader. The plan outlines 15 steps over the next 3–5 years to advance AI in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, education, and public services.

AI is a huge part of today’s world. No matter how much universities or schools wish it never existed, it seems like it’s here to stay.

Just as calculators handle our calculations, AI can support learning.

But the real problem is not reliance on AI, but misuse.

Pretending that this technology doesn’t exist or banning it weakens education.

This is not 1955; not all the students write exams by hand. They need to be challenged and taught how to use AI responsibly and ethically.

In fact, mastering AI should be part of academic success.

Ignoring it leaves students unskilled, unprepared, and ultimately less competitive.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 20:55

Border Czar Says ICE Will Target More Businesses After Enforcement Operation At Hyundai

Border Czar Says ICE Will Target More Businesses After Enforcement Operation At Hyundai

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration has plans to target more businesses with immigration enforcement operations after it carried out one at a Georgia Hyundai plant and detained hundreds of illegal immigrants, border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday.

In an interview with CNN, Homan said that the White House is planning to focus more on companies to see whether any illegal immigrants are working at their worksites.

“We’re going to do more worksite enforcement operations,” Homan told the “State of the Union” program, responding to a question about the enforcement operation carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials at the Hyundai battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia, on Sept. 4.

“No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, undercut the competition that hires U.S. citizen employees.”

He said that such practices drive wages down for American workers.

South Korea’s government has since signaled that it would move to pick up around 300 South Korean nationals who were detained after the operation. U.S. federal agents arrested about 475 workers. The South Korean government has expressed regret about the arrests and the release of the footage showing armored vehicles and ICE operatives shackling and detaining the workers.

“What ICE is doing every day on these operations and this worksite enforcement operation also helps us give a secure border, because those who are thinking about coming to the United States illegally know that ... this administration is applying consequences,” Homan also said on Sunday.

In the interview, Homan did not say what businesses could be targeted in the ICE operations.

For months, Homan has warned U.S. companies that they could be subjected to ICE operations, telling reporters at the White House in June that the agency may perform operations at farms and hotels to root out illegal immigrants there.

“I mean, we will concentrate on worksites on a prioritized basis just like we do at large operations,” Homan said at the time. “We’ll prioritize those who have a criminal nexus.”

Weighing in on the Hyundai plant arrests, President Donald Trump said in a social media post that more companies investing in the United States should move to “hire and train American workers” while having them bring in “your very smart people” to work legally.

Trump made the post shortly after telling reporters he would look at what happened but that the incident had not harmed the United States’ relationship with South Korea.

Hyundai said in a statement last week that none of the detained workers worked directly for the automotive company, adding that it has “zero tolerance” for illegal activities.

“Hyundai is committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations in every market where we operate,” the Seoul-based company said.

“This includes employment verification requirements and immigration laws. We expect the same commitment from all our partners, suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors.”

The firm added that it will “continue to invest” in the U.S. market to “create thousands of jobs” while in “full accordance” with immigration laws, according to the statement.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 20:05

A Bill Comes Due: Chicago's Johnson And Teachers' Union Lose Fight For Loan To Sustain Bloated Budget

A Bill Comes Due: Chicago's Johnson And Teachers' Union Lose Fight For Loan To Sustain Bloated Budget

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Mayor Brandon Johnson has long been as popular as Ebola in Chicago, a politician who has continued to spend wildly while virtually chasing businesses from the city. Johnson was brought to power with the support of the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) and proceeded to approve bloated contracts and pensions demanded by the CTU. Now, both Johnson and CTU have lost a fight to secure a $200 million loan to avoid the need to reduce the budget or staff.

A bill has come due, and Johnson is claiming that the criticism by some of his closest allies is due to racism.

Johnson fired the head of the school board and packed the board with his allies in order to secure the loan. However, in the end, his allies could not sign off on what would be a disastrous short-term, high-rate loan to plug the hole in the budget.

Chicago politicians have repeatedly yielded to the CTU on massive pension deals to secure the union’s support and contributions in elections. The pensions have triggered financial crises for years. Johnson’s solution was familiar: just borrow more money at ruinous rates to kick the can down the road. In the meantime, the public schools (despite a $10.2 billion budget) continue to fail students, particularly minority and poor students, in a system producing dismal performance and proficiency levels.

The $10.2 billion budget, approved by 12 of 20 board members, closes a $734 million deficit but does not include a loan, which the mayor’s office sought to cover the pension payment and other unexpected shortfalls.

After the pandemic, money from the Biden Administration ran out, and Johnson actually had to balance the books. That would have involved confronting the CPS staff and the powerful union. Instead, Johnson wanted to sign off on another loan. When the former head of the board floated cutting back on the budget and staff, Johnson and the CTU forced him out.

Even the CPS staff was raising alarms over Johnson’s new math approach to loans. They noted that this loan would be signed without any promise of future revenue. In other words, it would just push the CPS and city closer to insolvency through “crisis borrowing.” The result would be a cascading failure, with expected credit downgrades, despite the fact that CPS bonds are already rated at junk status due to past overborrowing to plug budget gaps.

Johnson, however, thinks that money magically appears with loans and that he can simply continue to borrow his way out of any budget shortfall.

It was too much even for the city council, which has approved overspending for years.

Johnson responded in signature fashion and accused his own allies, many of whom are minorities, of effective racism:

“When you put a Black man in charge of a city, all of a sudden everybody wants to be an accountant.”

Of course, one does not have to be an accountant to see that borrowing almost a quarter of a billion dollars for a system near bankruptcy is irrational, especially when it involves a high-rate loan with no revenue stream to support the added burden. It is like a citizen spending wildly on a credit card without any means to pay the principal, let alone the interest.

The difference is that Johnson is risking insolvency for an entire city, suppressing creditworthiness and increasing the costs of future loans.

CPS itself teaches personal finance subjects to students, though it is so heavily laden with jargon that it is hard to tell it from a social studies class. The course description on “educating for equity” seems geared more to balancing societal shortcomings than personal budgets:

“Financial Education begins with students’ identities and memberships in our communities, extends into disciplinary inquiry-based, culturally sustaining instruction that educates for broad economic inclusion, mobility, critical examination of existing systems, and financially secure individuals and communities.”

In the meantime, Chicago is now facing a $1.15 billion shortfall and Johnson is calling for increasing taxes on the wealthy and businesses despite the fact that Chicago is losing both businesses and residents. The incoming citizens are largely immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, in the sanctuary city. That has driven expenditures even higher for the city while it loses businesses and residents needed for its tax base.

As a Chicagoan, I have no illusions about the city politics. There has never been reasonable fiscal policies in the city in my lifetime. However, Johnson has moved from the dismissive to delusional in ignoring the economic realities growing in the city.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 19:15

Consumer Credit Trounces Estimates On Unexpected Surge In Credit Card Usage

Consumer Credit Trounces Estimates On Unexpected Surge In Credit Card Usage

One month after we reported that US consumers appeared tapped out following the first consecutive 2-month stretch of declines in credit card balances, moments ago the Fed published the latest monthly consumer credit data and once again it was a bit of a brainteaser. That's because after several months of weak credit creation, July saw the second highest monthly increase of 2025 with a total of $16.0 billion in credit, up almost double from the revised June print of $9.6 billion (vs the unrevised number of $7.4 billion), and well above the $10.2 billion median estimate. 

Boring, as usual, growth in non-revolving credit (which is basically auto and student loans) eased back and after 3 consecutive prints at or just shy of $10 billion, the July increase of $5.534 billion was the smallest since February, bringing the total to a new record high of $3.749 trillion. 

While we won't have a detailed breakdown between the two components until the end of Q3, we remind readers that the increase that in Q2 was driven in roughly equal contributions from student loans (+8.1BN) and auto loans (+$6.1).

As usual, the surprise was in the big jump, and sudden reversal in the recent slowdown in credit card debt, which in July surged by $10.5 billion from the upward revised $807 million June (a number which previously was negative).

And just like that the acute slowdown - if not outright decline - in credit card debt which we saw starting in February 2025 and which led to a sizable decline in May (and before the revision, in June), is now over thanks to the biggest monthly increase in credit card debt of 2025, which pushes the total to the highest level since Nov 2024 when we saw a major drop off in credit card balances. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 18:00

Consumer Credit Trounces Estimates On Unexpected Surge In Credit Card Usage

Consumer Credit Trounces Estimates On Unexpected Surge In Credit Card Usage

One month after we reported that US consumers appeared tapped out following the first consecutive 2-month stretch of declines in credit card balances, moments ago the Fed published the latest monthly consumer credit data and once again it was a bit of a brainteaser. That's because after several months of weak credit creation, July saw the second highest monthly increase of 2025 with a total of $16.0 billion in credit, up almost double from the revised June print of $9.6 billion (vs the unrevised number of $7.4 billion), and well above the $10.2 billion median estimate. 

Boring, as usual, growth in non-revolving credit (which is basically auto and student loans) eased back and after 3 consecutive prints at or just shy of $10 billion, the July increase of $5.534 billion was the smallest since February, bringing the total to a new record high of $3.749 trillion. 

While we won't have a detailed breakdown between the two components until the end of Q3, we remind readers that the increase that in Q2 was driven in roughly equal contributions from student loans (+8.1BN) and auto loans (+$6.1).

As usual, the surprise was in the big jump, and sudden reversal in the recent slowdown in credit card debt, which in July surged by $10.5 billion from the upward revised $807 million June (a number which previously was negative).

And just like that the acute slowdown - if not outright decline - in credit card debt which we saw starting in February 2025 and which led to a sizable decline in May (and before the revision, in June), is now over thanks to the biggest monthly increase in credit card debt of 2025, which pushes the total to the highest level since Nov 2024 when we saw a major drop off in credit card balances. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 18:00

Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions On Immigration Stops In Southern California

Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions On Immigration Stops In Southern California

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Supreme Court on Sept. 8 temporarily put on hold a lower court order restricting immigration stops in Southern California.

Three justices dissented from the new order.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started its operations in the Los Angeles area on June 6.

Local and state officials have strongly criticized the effort, saying the federal government is overstepping its legal authority.

Several illegal immigrant advocacy groups are suing the Trump administration over the enforcement program.

The new high court order pauses a temporary restraining order Judge Maame Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued on July 11 that limits the factors law enforcement officials may use when making immigration-related stops and arrests.

Specifically, Frimpong barred the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from stopping or arresting individuals based exclusively on factors such as the language the person speaks or where the person works.

In the emergency application in Noem v. Perdomo, which was filed Aug. 7, the Supreme Court on Sept. 8 granted the stay pending an appeal that is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed an opinion concurring in the stay order.

“It should come as no surprise that some Administrations may be more laissez-faire in enforcing immigration law, and other Administrations more strict,” Kavanaugh wrote, noting the Supreme Court denied efforts to compel the Biden administration to take stronger enforcement actions.

 “Article III judges may have views on which policy approach is better or fairer,” he wrote. “But judges are not appointed to make those policy calls.”

Kavanaugh’s reasoning is simple and correct.

“By illegally immigrating into and remaining in the country, they are not only violating the immigration laws, but also jumping in front of those noncitizens who follow the rules and wait in line to immigrate into the United States through the legal immigration process.

For those reasons, the interests of illegal immigrants in evading questioning (and thus evading detection of their illegal presence) are not particularly substantial as a legal matter.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor filed an opinion dissenting from the new order.  

The government is “seizing people using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions,” according to Sotomayor.

“Nor are undocumented immigrants the only ones harmed by the Government’s conduct.”

Sotomayor consistently refers to illegal migrants as “undocumented immigrants.” In her hierarchy of concerns, the comfort of illegal migrants appears to rank above the good of American citizens. 

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote.

“Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred in the dissent.

Sotomayor writes that “Operation At Large,” an immigration enforcement effort, “has sparked ‘panic and fear’ across Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.” 

Sotomayor offers quotes from Latino U.S. citizens who are worried they might be wrongfully detained.

Could it be perhaps that Los Angeles and its surrounding areas are swarming with illegal migrants who fear deportation. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 17:40

Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions On Immigration Stops In Southern California

Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions On Immigration Stops In Southern California

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Supreme Court on Sept. 8 temporarily put on hold a lower court order restricting immigration stops in Southern California.

Three justices dissented from the new order.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started its operations in the Los Angeles area on June 6.

Local and state officials have strongly criticized the effort, saying the federal government is overstepping its legal authority.

Several illegal immigrant advocacy groups are suing the Trump administration over the enforcement program.

The new high court order pauses a temporary restraining order Judge Maame Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued on July 11 that limits the factors law enforcement officials may use when making immigration-related stops and arrests.

Specifically, Frimpong barred the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from stopping or arresting individuals based exclusively on factors such as the language the person speaks or where the person works.

In the emergency application in Noem v. Perdomo, which was filed Aug. 7, the Supreme Court on Sept. 8 granted the stay pending an appeal that is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed an opinion concurring in the stay order.

“It should come as no surprise that some Administrations may be more laissez-faire in enforcing immigration law, and other Administrations more strict,” Kavanaugh wrote, noting the Supreme Court denied efforts to compel the Biden administration to take stronger enforcement actions.

 “Article III judges may have views on which policy approach is better or fairer,” he wrote. “But judges are not appointed to make those policy calls.”

Kavanaugh’s reasoning is simple and correct.

“By illegally immigrating into and remaining in the country, they are not only violating the immigration laws, but also jumping in front of those noncitizens who follow the rules and wait in line to immigrate into the United States through the legal immigration process.

For those reasons, the interests of illegal immigrants in evading questioning (and thus evading detection of their illegal presence) are not particularly substantial as a legal matter.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor filed an opinion dissenting from the new order.  

The government is “seizing people using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions,” according to Sotomayor.

“Nor are undocumented immigrants the only ones harmed by the Government’s conduct.”

Sotomayor consistently refers to illegal migrants as “undocumented immigrants.” In her hierarchy of concerns, the comfort of illegal migrants appears to rank above the good of American citizens. 

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote.

“Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred in the dissent.

Sotomayor writes that “Operation At Large,” an immigration enforcement effort, “has sparked ‘panic and fear’ across Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.” 

Sotomayor offers quotes from Latino U.S. citizens who are worried they might be wrongfully detained.

Could it be perhaps that Los Angeles and its surrounding areas are swarming with illegal migrants who fear deportation. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/08/2025 - 17:40

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