How the Houthis became a global threat

Their advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast could squeeze vital shipping routes, endanger Saudi oil exports and open another front in the confrontation with Iran

Natasha Kirtchuk

Natasha Kirtchuk ■ i24NEWS Anchor and Correspondent

The Houthis are no longer just a Yemeni rebel group fighting for control of territory inside one of the Middle East’s poorest countries.

Their latest advances along Yemen’s Red Sea coast are putting them in a position to threaten one of the world’s most important shipping routes, pressure Saudi Arabia, and give Iran another powerful card to play in its confrontation with the United States.

And that is why what is happening in Yemen matters far beyond Yemen.

So, who exactly are the Houthis?

The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, are an armed, Iran-backed, political and religious movement rooted in Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority.

They seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, forcing Yemen’s internationally recognized government out of the city.

Saudi Arabia feared that the Houthis could take control of most of Yemen and turn the country into an Iranian-aligned state directly on its southern border. So Riyadh led a coalition of Arab countries into the war. The goal was to defeat the Houthis and restore Yemen's internationally recognized government. It didn't work.

Years of war devastated Yemen, killing more than 150,000 people and leaving the country divided between Houthi-controlled territory in the north and west and areas controlled by the internationally recognized government and allied forces in the south and east.

A truce largely kept the front lines quiet from 2022. That is now changing. The Houthis have launched a rapid offensive along the Red Sea coast, capturing the port city of Mokha and strategically important islands including Perim and the Hanish islands. That matters because of where those territories are located.

The geography is the real story

Look at a map of the Arabian Peninsula and you can see why this is becoming an international problem. On one side is the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman.

On the other side is the Bab el-Mandeb, between Yemen and Djibouti. Both are narrow maritime chokepoints, where huge amounts of trade typically travel through daily.

Hormuz is the gateway for enormous amounts of oil and gas leaving the Persian Gulf. Bab el-Mandeb is the gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, connecting shipping from Asia and the Middle East to the Suez Canal and, ultimately, Europe.

The Houthis are now expanding their presence around the Bab el-Mandeb. And they have already demonstrated that they can disrupt international shipping.

That means Iran and its allies now have potential leverage over both ends of the Arabian Peninsula's critical maritime routes.

How closely are the Houthis tied to Iran?

The Houthis are backed by Iran, which has supplied them with weapons, training and other military support.

They identify themselves as part of Iran's so-called "axis of resistance", alongside groups including Hezbollah and Hamas.They are part of the broader network of Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East.

But there is an important distinction: the Houthis are not simply an Iranian military unit taking orders from Tehran. They have their own political goals, their own domestic agenda and their own reasons for fighting Saudi Arabia.

Still, the relationship is strategically valuable for Iran. Tehran can support a powerful armed group capable of threatening Saudi Arabia and international shipping without necessarily putting Iranian forces directly on the battlefield.

And when the Houthis escalate, they create another problem for Iran's regional rivals.

Why is Saudi Arabia so worried?

Saudi Arabia has spent years trying to avoid being dragged back into an all-out war in Yemen. But the Houthis are now attacking Saudi territory and threatening its energy infrastructure.

That is particularly dangerous because the war in Iran has already disrupted the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has therefore been relying more heavily on its East-West pipeline, which allows oil to bypass Hormuz and reach the Red Sea.

But that pipeline was recently hit by drones out of Iraq, which are believed to have been launched by Iran-backed militias there.

And now the Houthis are expanding their control around the other side of the peninsula. So Riyadh faces a nightmare scenario:

Hormuz is disrupted by Iran, while Bab el-Mandeb is threatened by Iran's Houthi allies. That could severely limit Saudi Arabia's ability to get its oil to global markets.

And that is where the global economy comes in

This isn't just about military strategy. It is about oil. It is about shipping. And ultimately, it is about prices that consumers around the world feel.

If ships cannot safely pass through Bab el-Mandeb, companies have to make a choice: risk sending vessels through the area or take a much longer route around Africa. That adds days to journeys and increases fuel, insurance and transportation costs.

And if large amounts of oil cannot move normally through either Hormuz or the Red Sea, global energy supplies become even tighter. That can push up the price of crude oil.

And higher oil prices can feed into everything from gasoline and diesel to transportation, manufacturing and food.

This is why a relatively small armed group in Yemen can have an outsized impact on the global economy. It is not because the Houthis control a major global economy. It is because they are sitting next to a global economic chokepoint.

Iran talks fail as Saudi deal with

So what does this mean for the United States?

Washington is now facing a difficult choice. The US wants to protect international shipping and support Saudi Arabia, a major American partner.

But President Donald Trump does not appear eager to open another major military front. The US previously launched a two-month campaign against the Houthis back in 2025, before Trump halted it after the group agreed to stop targeting Red Sea shipping.

Now Saudi Arabia is again seeking American support. But the Trump administration has so far resisted direct military intervention, reportedly providing intelligence assistance instead.

And that reluctance is important because a major US military campaign against the Houthis could quickly become connected to the much larger US-Iran war.

If Saudi Arabia launches a major offensive against the Houthis, Iran could respond. And suddenly what began as a conflict inside Yemen becomes another front in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

And then there is Yemen itself

For Yemenis, this is not an abstract geopolitical chess game. The country is already one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 22 million people are estimated to need humanitarian assistance.

The latest fighting has killed civilians and displaced more than 80,000 people in just the past two weeks, according to UN estimates. Families are fleeing areas around Taiz and the Red Sea coast.

And the fear is that the latest Houthi advances could destroy the fragile calm that has existed since 2022 and pull Yemen back into a full-scale civil war. That is the central dilemma facing the region.

Saudi Arabia cannot simply ignore a heavily armed group advancing toward its border and attacking its territory. But fighting back carries the risk of reopening a devastating war.

The United States wants to protect its allies and global shipping, but does not appear eager to become directly involved. Iran has an opportunity to increase pressure on its regional rivals without necessarily fighting Saudi Arabia or the US directly. And the Houthis are using their strategic position to increase their own power inside Yemen.

The bigger picture

The Houthi advance is therefore about much more than who controls a few islands or a stretch of Yemen's coastline. It is about who controls the gateways connecting the world's energy markets.

Iran has leverage over Hormuz. The Houthis now have growing leverage around Bab el-Mandeb. Saudi Arabia is caught between the two.

And the rest of the world is watching because if either chokepoint remains disrupted for long enough, the consequences will not stay in the Middle East. They will show up in shipping costs, oil prices, supply chains and ultimately in consumers' wallets around the world.

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https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/the-gulf/artc-how-the-houthis-became-a-global-threat 

Iranian Strike Which Killed Three Americans Reportedly Received Chinese Boost

Spencer Lombardo

September 12, 2026 2:32 PM ET

Chinese entities reportedly aided Iran in a recent lethal attack against American service members stationed in the region.

Iran obtained high-resolution satellite imagery from Chinese entities before launching a July 17 strike which killed three American service members and injured four others at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing U.S. officials familiar with the details.

“As a matter of practice, we do not comment on intelligence-related matters,” a War Department official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and the U.S. Department of State did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The unnamed officials described the development as the strongest evidence of Chinese involvement in conflict between the U.S. and Iran, they did not accuse the Chinese government of being directly involved and declined to identify the suppliers, according to the outlet.

Senior American officials reportedly flagged the findings to their Chinese counterparts; however, Chinese officials denied the allegations while demanding evidence.

The U.S. in May 2026 sanctioned multiple individuals and entities based in China and the Middle East for allegedly helping Iran obtain sensitive satellite imagery.

The report comes ahead of President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Sept. 24 summit meeting at the White House. China threatened to cancel the summit if the U.S. approves additional arms sales to Taiwan, Kyodo News reported Saturday.

Russia, another partner with Iran at odds with the U.S., similarly provided the Islamic regime with assistance to help target American military assets in the region, The Associated Press, citing two U.S. officials familiar with key intelligence, reported in March.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2026/09/12/iranian-strike-killed-three-americans-boost-

chinese-satellite-imagery-wall-street-journal/ 

Acting Navy secretary admits Iran ‘blew the hell’ out of Bahrain logistics hub

By Samuel Chamberlain

Published Sep. 11, 2026, 9:31 a.m. ET

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed this week that a major American military hub in Bahrain was badly damaged by Iranian attacks — and he was unsure whether keeping US forces there is feasible long-term.

“They blow the hell out of Bahrain,” Cao told the Epoch Times in an interview published Thursday, referring to Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet and US Central Command’s waterborne forces.

Cao added that “I have a task force looking at” whether the base could or should be restored, the first official confirmation of the extent of combat damage to the facility.

Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi taunted Cao in a post on X early Friday, saying: “We appreciate the candor of Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. Our powerful Armed Forces did indeed ‘blow the hell out of the 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain,’ as well as other bases supporting U.S. aggression. The American people deserve better than footing the bill for Israel’s wars.”

https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/us-news/acting-navy-secretary-hung-cao-admits-iran-blew-the-

hell-out-of-bahrain-logistics-hub/

Christian Persecution Surges in Iran: At Least 33 Ministers Killed, More Than 130 Arrested

CONTRIBUTING PUBLISHER

Decision Magazine / Press

September 7, 2026

The underground church in Iran is growing. So is the price of belonging to it.

Iran was already one of the hardest places on earth to follow Jesus. In recent months the pressure has sharpened into a stark body count.

Texas-based Iran Alive Ministries, which trains house-church leaders and shines the Gospel into Farsi-speaking homes, has released a grim glimpse from its own network: In the past few months alone, Iran’s Islamist government has killed at least 33 Christian ministers and arrested approximately 131 others. Fourteen of those arrested remain in prison, with some sitting on death row.

“This is just a snap picture of the people connected to Iran Alive,” said Hormoz Shariat, founder of the ministry. “There are so many other Christians who have been killed, who’ve been arrested.”

Of the roughly 176 believers in that tally, the ministry could name only 20—four of them among the dead. At least 156 names remain unavailable, Shariat told Baptist Press.

The killings punctuate what has been a violent year. During January’s civilian protests, a nationwide uprising, the government instituted lethal force. Iran Alive and other sources have cited estimates of 40,000 to 50,000 civilians who were killed. Official government numbers were, notably, significantly lower.

More recently, Tehran has taken to blacklisting religious broadcasts. As of July, merely listening to them is a crime. Open Doors has placed Iran at No. 10 on its 2026 annual World Watch List, which ranks countries where Christians are known to face severe persecution. The ranking itself slipped one place from the year before, but the persecution score did not.

Converts from Islam to Christianity remain the chief target. Officials often treat prayer meetings, baptisms and Bible distribution as national-security offenses. Families disappear into the machinery of arrest, interrogation and silence. And yet, the reports show that people keep coming to Christ—Iran Alive has reported 5,849 documented conversions this year alone.

“The government is not happy,” Shariat said, “but we are happy because God’s kingdom is expanding and advancing. The government never liked us, but now, according to Islamic law, Iranian law, I am officially a criminal. Our staff are officially criminals, and that’s an honor.”

He further explained how even within prison, detained Christians are viewing it as the mission field. “Christian prisoners consider prison as their place of ministry,” Shariat stated, “and they are leading many people to Christ.”

These same Christians are learning more and more to turn away from the failed leadership of men and toward Christ. “The only hope that is left for them is Jesus Christ,” Shariat asserted. “Every man who promised them to do something, they have let them down, but Jesus hasn’t. … That’s why we see more salvations at this time than ever before.”

Shariat’s appeal is for intercession: “Please pray for these people. You have the authority to use the name of Jesus. Use that and pray for the prisoners.”

Relevant Bible passages to ponder: Matthew 5:10, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Romans 8:35-39, John 16:33

Decision Magazine, founded by Billy Graham in 1960, works through its website and monthly magazine to communicate the Gospel, as well as inform and challenge readers about key cultural and Biblical issues. Decision is also a Contributing Publisher to Harbinger’s Daily.

https://harbingersdaily.com/christian-persecution-surges-in-iran-at-least-33-ministers-killed

-more-than-130-arrested/

Politics Russian Federation

Russia opens first road bridge with North Korea

Richard Connor AP, local media

09/07/2026 September 7, 2026

Russia and North Korea have opened their first road bridge across the Tumen River as political, economic and military ties between the two countries deepen.

Russia and North Korea on Monday cut the ribbon on the first road bridge linking the two countries as Moscow and Pyongyang deepen their strategic partnership.

The crossing spans the Tumen River and marks another expansion of transport links between the two countries.

Where is the new bridge?

The road crossing is near the existing Friendship Bridge, a railway bridge commissioned in 1959 following the Korean War.

Russia and North Korea already have direct rail and air connections, but until now there had been no road bridge between them.

The new bridge is named after Soviet Red Army officer Yakov Novichenko, who is credited with saving North Korean founder Kim Il Sung's life. Relatives of Novichenko attended the opening ceremony.

Nikolai Shcherbitsky and Tatyana Shcherbitskaya joined the ceremony to unveil the bridge named after their grandfather and father respectively Image: Yuri Smityuk/TASS/picture alliance

Construction began in April 2025 after the project was agreed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea in 2024.

Why is the road bridge being opened now?

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the new crossing should boost economic development, tourism and employment.

"I am convinced that the expansion of cross-border transport infrastructure will provide a powerful impetus for the further development of trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation," the TASS news agency quoted Mishustin as saying by video link at the opening ceremony.

Relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have strengthened considerably since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to help Russian forces repel a Ukrainian incursion launched in 2024.

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-opens-first-road-bridge-with-north-korea/a-79142595

Conflicts Germany

Russia says it is closing German consulate in St. Petersburg

Felix Tamsut with Reuters and AP

Israel severs Gaza coordination with Britain, shuts consulate after trade ban

Gideon Saar accuses Ed Miliband of "outrageous lies" as anti-settlement measures from Britain, France and Canada deepens a diplomatic rift. Given the small volume of settlement exports – mainly dates, citrus fruits, herbs and wine – the bans are largely symbolic.

by Erez Linn

Seatmate of crazed duct-taped plane passenger reveals what sparked wild mid-flight meltdown

By Chris Nesi

Published Sep. 8, 2026, 12:55 p.m. ET

The crazed plane passenger who was duct-taped and zip-tied on a flight to New Jersey first flipped over a discussion about religion with his seatmate, a controversial Messianic rabbi who’s a best-selling author dubbed a “Doomsday prophet.”

Author Jonathan Cahn said that now-fired Arizona realtor Arthur Layne Lundeen, 67, allegedly started hurling racist and homophobic slurs after first screaming at him that “Jesus is bulls–t.”

“I was the unidentified passenger and I was actually attacked, 30,000 feet in the sky. I was attacked on that plane,” Cahn revealed in a YouTube video Monday.

“I have never seen someone change in a split second from light to dark as I saw then, as if something had taken him over,” Cahn said. “He went from the friendliest guy in the world to this dark person.”

Cahn leads the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey, part of the Messianic Jewish movement that believes Jesus is the messiah, making it generally considered a branch of Christianity.

He is also known for his controversial books, especially his debut 2011 novel, “The Harbinger,” which draws parallels between the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, linking the events as a divine warning.

Another book, 2015’s “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” suggested a great global catastrophe was imminent, with the New York Times calling him a “Doomsday prophet.”

Cahn claimed it was the cover of his newest novel, “The Altar of Pergamon,” that “triggered” Lundeen after they had been chatting amiably on last Thursday’s Newark-bound American Airlines flight.

Cahn said he referenced “the reality of the real power of god on Earth and in our lives,” leaving Lundeen irate and “cursing Jesus” and “blaspheming Jesus and God.”

He claimed Lundeen then started saying, “It’s all bulls–t. Jesus is bulls–t.”

As Lundeen continued his tirade, Cahn said he grew physically hostile, hitting his laptop and trying to take it away from the author as the plane was in the process of making its emergency landing.

“The plane is in shock, the pilot is radioing the ground, for an emergency landing. We’re fighting over my computer,” Cahn said, noting that his laptop screen was damaged in the scuffle.

Passengers soon intervened and secured Lundeen to his seat with duct tape and plastic zip ties. Cahn said one flyer who helped subdue the madman told him, “You were being tested. God was testing you.”

The flight had to make an emergency landing in Baltimore after Lundeen flipped out and allegedly started hurling racist and homophobic slurs at a black flight attendant and attacking other passengers.

Cahn did not say if anything specific about his latest book “triggered” his seatmate, beyond it starting a conversation about religion.

The novel explores the spiritual history of a 2nd Century BC Greek structure which was excavated between 1878 and 1886, connecting its unearthing to historical turning points like World War II, the rise of the Third Reich and end-of-the-world prophecies.

Lundeen is facing state charges of second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.

The FBI is still conducting interviews and will discuss the matter with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland to weigh whether federal charges will be filed.

Long Realty said Lundeen was no longer affiliated with the company after learning of the mid-flight incident. His bio page has since been scrubbed from the company website.

https://nypost.com/2026/09/08/us-news/seatmate-of-duct-taped-plane-passenger-reveals-what-sparked-meltdown/

Canada To Christian Doctors: Provide Puberty Blocker Or Be Fined Thousands

By PNW Staff September 11, 2026

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How much does it cost a doctor to say no?

In British Columbia, the answer is $28,100.

That is how much family physician Dr. Henry Ajaero has been ordered to pay after refusing to inject a 14-year-old biological boy with Lupron, a drug prescribed to suppress the child's natural puberty as part of a gender-transition pathway.

Five years later, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal declared that decision discriminatory and ordered him to pay $20,000 for injury to the teenager's "dignity, feelings, and self-respect." He must also pay $8,100 for the expert evidence presented against him, plus interest until the judgment is satisfied.

This is what medical conscience now looks like in Canada: obey, inject or pay.

The Doctor Who Said No

Ajaero is not some fringe activist masquerading as a physician. He has operated a family practice in Delta since 2014. He cares for nearly 2,900 patients, works five days a week, sees approximately 50 patients a day and also works Saturdays at a walk-in clinic.

His schedule is relentless. Ten-minute appointments. Hundreds of laboratory reports, specialist recommendations, prescription requests and medical forms arriving every day. At the time of the incident, he was working through the extraordinary pressures of the COVID pandemic.

Then came the appointment that would follow him for years.

In March 2021, a 14-year-old patient arrived at his clinic for a Lupron injection prescribed through a gender clinic. When Ajaero discovered why the drug was being administered, he said he could not participate. He cited his religious beliefs, cultural background and lack of experience with that area of medicine.

The tribunal acknowledged that his decision was not malicious. It accepted that he acted in good faith and that he felt unprepared and uncomfortable.

Then it punished him anyway.

Good faith was not enough. Lack of experience was not enough. His clinical concerns were not enough. His Christian conscience was not enough.

The injection came first.

A Government Tribunal Interprets Christianity

The most dangerous part of the ruling is not the money. It is the breathtaking claim of authority behind it.

The tribunal accepted that Ajaero is a sincere Christian who believes that "God created man and woman." Yet it ruled that requiring him to participate in this treatment would create only a "trivial or insubstantial" interference with his religious freedom.

A government tribunal had placed itself inside the doctor's conscience.

It did not simply determine whether he had refused the injection. That fact was never in doubt. It decided whether administering a puberty blocker as part of a gender-transition pathway should genuinely violate his Christian beliefs.

The tribunal's answer was effectively: We accept that this is your religion, but we do not accept that your religion permits you to say no.

This is religious freedom reduced to a decorative slogan. Christians may believe what the Bible teaches about male and female, but when those beliefs produce an actual moral boundary, the state reserves the right to erase it.

Faith is tolerated only while it remains silent, private and powerless.

From Physician To Functionary

The tribunal reasoned that administering the drug was merely an intramuscular injection. Specialists had prescribed the medication and were overseeing the treatment. Ajaero only needed to give the shot.

But a doctor is not an injection machine.

A prescription written by one physician does not eliminate the medical judgment or moral responsibility of another. The person holding the needle is still participating. He is still accountable for what he places into a child's body.

If physicians are free to act only when they agree with the government-approved medical consensus, they are no longer independent professionals. They are functionaries carrying out orders.

That becomes especially disturbing when the treatment itself is the subject of an international medical reckoning.

Lupron has legitimate uses and has existed for decades. But using puberty blockers to interrupt the normal development of gender-distressed children remains fiercely contested. Britain banned new prescriptions for gender dysphoria outside approved research after independent experts found inadequate evidence supporting their safety and clinical effectiveness.

One Western country examined the evidence and pulled back. British Columbia punished a doctor who would not participate.

Conscience On Trial

This ruling will not remain confined to puberty blockers.

Every Christian physician in Canada should be asking what comes next. What happens when a doctor refuses to participate in an abortion, assisted suicide, cross-sex hormone treatment or the removal of healthy organs?

Will a tribunal once again acknowledge that the doctor's beliefs are sincere, then declare that violating them would cause only a "trivial" interference?

Canada is creating a medical system in which patients possess expanding rights to demand controversial procedures while physicians possess a rapidly shrinking right to refuse them. The person requesting the intervention is treated as morally sovereign. The person expected to perform it must surrender.

Dr. Ajaero spent years building a medical practice that now serves thousands of people. He works long days in a country suffering from a severe shortage of family physicians. Yet none of that protected him when his conscience collided with gender ideology.

He would not inject a child with a puberty-blocking drug.

For saying no, Canada handed him a bill for $28,100.

And every doctor watching now knows the price of becoming the next one to refuse.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=10480

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The Hormuz Letter on X: "BREAKING: The founder of the US submarine that Iran captured, Palmer Luckey, directly contradicts CENTCOM's claim that it was "an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar," confirming the vehicle is an Anduril Dive-LD that had been operating in the CENTCOM area for months, "successfully operating in support of American forces for thousands of hours," and provided significant value before its capture. "I can't get into the details [classified] but it provided significant value [collected sensitive data using sonar/radar] for months before capture," Luckey says. It is also not an old model like CENTCOM claimed, as mass production started at the start of 2026. Iran says it is already reverse engineering it. A senior Iranian source in Tehran familiar with the matter adds that China has asked Iran to take a look as well."

@HormuzLetter

The Hormuz Letter

@HormuzLetter

BREAKING: The founder of the US submarine that Iran captured, Palmer Luckey, directly contradicts CENTCOM's claim that it was "an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar," confirming the vehicle is an Anduril Dive-LD that had been operating in the CENTCOM area for months, "successfully operating in support of American forces for thousands of hours," and provided significant value before its capture.

"I can't get into the details [classified] but it provided significant value [collected sensitive data using sonar/radar] for months before capture," Luckey says. It is also not an old model like CENTCOM claimed, as mass production started at the start of 2026.

Iran says it is already reverse engineering it. A senior Iranian source in Tehran familiar with the matter adds that China has asked Iran to take a look as well.

https://x.com/HormuzLetter/status/2097837995109843295?s=43

From “Designed Viruses” to “Digital Telepathy” – AI Panic Kicks into Overdrive

Editor Activism Independent media alliance Kit Knightly Off Guardian

September 6, 2026

Two days ago, I wrote an article detailing the sudden rash of “rogue AI agents” allegedly besetting the tech community, and how that may be used to bring in new regulations, notionally targeting AI, but actually limiting or monitoring how ordinary people use the internet.

In the 48 hours since, that blatant fear-mongering has gone WILD.

Within a few hours of our original article being published, Meta joined the parade of “rogue AIs”, when Mark Zuckerberg “confirmed” one of their AI agents had left the play area and gone toddling off into the internet to do a little bit of hacking.

Then, this morning, Chinese AI company Moonshot reported their Kimi3 model had “escaped containment” [from Wired]:

THE AI INDUSTRY is having a rogue agent summer. The latest model to escape onto the open internet during security testing is Kimi K3, a powerful open-weight offering from the Chinese company Moonshot AI.

Bloomberg repots that hackers are using AI voice-cloning to steal from hedge funds. The Guardian says AI doctors are spreading medical misinformation.

The Independent is screaming:

Out-of-control AI systems are going rogue and hacking people. Is it time to panic?

And you know what? I think it just might be.

After all, rogue AIs hacking the planet are the least of it. That’s small fry already.

The New York Times is reporting that AI is now sequencing genomes and designing brand new viruses – biological viruses, not computer viruses – which will be used to treat diseases:

This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature – Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.

But experts are warning – “warning” seems to be about 80% of what “experts” do – that this is potentially dangerous:

But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise “urgent” safety and security concerns.

This is painfully unsubtle propaganda, obviously hoping to play on both the Covid-inspired fear of viruses and trendy gain-of-function panic. A crossover episode, the Batman vs Superman of modern panic narratives.

In other scary AI-related news, an AI engineer with a twitter blue tick is leaving OpenAI to join Conduit, a tech start-up with the aim of creating an AI that can read people’s thoughts:

Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI and joined Conduit to build models that turn non-invasive neural recordings into text prompts. She says a headband could decode rough intentions into AI coding prompts by 2027, with broader brain-to-AI milestones later.

I’m not sure why this is news at all, or what “non-invasive” mind-reading might look like, but since it’s probably not going to happen that doesn’t really matter.

The point is – believe EVERYTHING they tell you – and be afraid!

That’s what Geoffrey “Godfather of AI” Hinton thinks, according to the interview published by CNN yesterday:

“What’s happening is these things are getting smarter […] I think as they get smarter, we’re going to see more and more complex intentions they have – and more and more ability to escape control […] I don’t believe we’re going to be able to keep control of them in the simple way of just outthinking them so they can’t escape […] I anticipate there will be lots of nasty cyberattacks[.]”

Like I said, be afraid.

But what’s the endgame here? The answer to that seems to be “regulation”.

Regulating AI is suddenly all anyone wants to talk about.

Many want a global treaty to govern AI risk. California and New York may already be writing it.

That’s from Foreign Policy.

The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times all have similar things to say.

Bloomberg thinks we should treat AI like the airline industry.

Politicians across the spectrum of from the UK’s AI Minister to the Governor of Vermont are clamouring for regulation.

The United Nations University tells us:

You Can’t Regulate AI Without Fully Understanding It

Oh, and in case you were in any doubt about what you were supposed to think, Donald Trump has come out for AI and against regulating it, claiming AI will be “bigger than oil”, and warning that congress wants to “regulate AI out of business”.

Trump bad.

Trump like AI.

AI must be bad.

This is the simple moral math that swaths of the US have been conditioned into.

AI is scary and needs to be regulated, and if you don’t agree you’re just like Donald Trump. That’s the headline.

But what will this “regulation” look like?

That’s a good question. One I’m not sure anyone has an all-encompassing answer to quite yet.

There’s talk of “kill switches”. The Bank of England suggested them months ago, to prevent AI stock traders crashing the market, and Rep. Ted Lieu wants congress to pass a law requiring them by the end of the year.

Two liberal professors, writing for Project Syndicate, are here to tell us “the right way” to regulate AI, using paragraphs like this:

Addressing AI’s societal risks requires institutions designed to recognize and respond to emerging threats before they become systemic failures.

…and this:

These skewed priorities can be traced to the framing of AI development as a geopolitical race. But technological leadership means little if it comes at the expense of workers’ health, social resilience, and people’s ability to lead meaningful lives. A country that develops the world’s most capable AI models while leaving its workforce deskilled and its public discourse polluted by misinformation has not won anything worth winning.

Which give vibes over specifics, but I think suggests a very familiar marketing strategy and a vague policy direction.

This vagueness is largely intentional at this point.

First they want the public to beg them to do something. They can decide what the something is later.

https://www.activistpost.com/from-designed-viruses-to-digital-telepathy-ai-panic-kicks-into-overdrive/

Trump: I couldn't care less If Iran signs a 'worthless' agreement

President Trump rejects reports he is forcing Iran back to talks, saying he prefers the US position: Their economy is totally collapsing.

Elad Benari

Sep 2, 2026, 4:53 AM (GMT+3)

Iran US-Iran Donald Trump Roaring Lion

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Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected reports that he is trying to force Iran to resume talks with the US.

"I’m not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table, as ABC Fake News reported. I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

He added, "They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"

The post followed the launch of US strikes against IRGC targets in Iran. Initial reports said Qeshm Island and Chabahar were among the areas targeted, with explosions reported at both locations.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that its forces successfully completed the wave of strikes against Iranian military targets.

“US forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites," it said.

“The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members," added CENTCOM.

Trump said earlier that the American strikes were carried out in response to Iranian activity in the Strait of Hormuz and an earlier missile attack against a US military base in Jordan, warning Iran of more powerful strikes if it retaliated.

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'US sanctions aim to force Iran back to negotiating table'

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'If I weren’t President, there would probably be no Middle East'

"The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!" he added.

US launches new 'tanker for tanker' policy, strikes Iranian ships in Strait of Hormuz - report

The strikes mark the first time in recent weeks that the US has launched direct retaliatory strikes on Iranian ships in the strait, rather than preventing them from violating CENTCOM's blockade.

ByARIELLA ROITMAN

Workers line up dead bodies for mass burial in Nepal | Image by Nena Hakee/Facebook

At least 1,118 people have died in Nepal and more than 3,900 remain missing after catastrophic flash floods devastated communities along the Nepal-Tibet border, while Nepali officials say rescuers have made contact with one of roughly 85 Americans listed as missing as of Tuesday.

Details about the American who was contacted remain unclear. Authorities have not identified the person, disclosed their location or provided information about their condition.

Nepalese authorities reported at least 1,118 deaths and more than 3,900 missing as of Wednesday. China separately reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, a Plano couple was among the Americans reported missing after the August 26 disaster.

Foreign nationals among those missing

A document compiled by the Nepal Tourism Board said rescuers had made contact with five foreign nationals by Monday evening: the unidentified American, three people from Spain and one Belgian.

Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that 324 foreign nationals had been rescued, while about 590 people from 39 countries remained missing.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told CBS News that many foreigners may have been hiking in the mountains when the disaster struck and could be safe but unable to communicate.

“This is one of the most popular trekking regions in Nepal, where a lot of tourists go,” Khanal said. “We’re hoping that that’s partly a communication challenge that we’re experiencing. We’re hoping that the numbers [of missing] would be significantly less.”

American couple among those rescued

CBS News spoke with two Americans who had been rescued from the disaster zone, Anjana Raja and Pattabiraman Venkatesan, a San Francisco Bay Area couple who were on a pilgrimage to Tibet when the disaster struck.

The couple told CBS News they were traveling toward the Nepali border on a tour bus when a massive surge of water and debris came down the valley.

“It’s like 60, 70 feet, it looked like a tsunami, but dark black,” Venkatesan said. “I could see this monster thing coming down. At that point I didn’t know if it was water. I thought it was fire, forest fire, honestly.”

The couple escaped the bus and ran to higher ground. They eventually reached a mountaintop, where they spent the night in a goat shed with other survivors before rescuers airlifted them to safety.

Search continues for missing workers

Search-and-rescue teams continued working through mud, rocks and debris Wednesday as they searched for missing people along the Nepal-China border.

Landslides, destroyed roads and widespread damage have hampered rescue operations and cut off remote communities.

Authorities said rescue crews had pulled 279 people from damaged hydropower projects, while at least 639 remained missing. Officials fear some remain trapped inside tunnels.

Foreign experts joined Nepal Army teams at several hydropower sites. Rescue crews entered debris-filled tunnels and waded through mud and water while searching for signs of life.

Nepalese authorities said rescue crews had brought at least 11,814 people to safety by Tuesday. Emergency crews used helicopters and other aircraft to reach communities cut off by destroyed roads and bridges.

Bodies buried as identification efforts continue

In Kathmandu, police worked in heavy rain Tuesday to bury dozens of unidentified bodies in temporary graves.

Barbed wire surrounded the burial site, while numbered markers identified graves containing people whose names authorities had not yet determined.

Authorities preserved DNA samples, photographed distinguishing features and recorded other identifying information to help families identify and claim remains. They assigned each body a reference number as identification efforts continued.

China also sent additional relief supplies to Nepal, including drones, DNA testing equipment and water purification equipment. Chinese DNA testing experts will assist Nepal with identifying bodies, according to China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun.

Glacial collapse triggered floods

The disaster began in the Himalayas when a glacial collapse sent rock, ice and meltwater into valleys below, triggering powerful floods downstream in Tibet and Nepal.

Scientists examining satellite images said bedrock beneath a glacier appears to have failed. The resulting rockfall generated enough force to register as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.

The resulting surge of water and debris entered rivers flowing through Tibet and Nepal, rapidly raising water levels and sweeping away homes, buildings, roads and bridges.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said Monday that the disaster demonstrated the increasing risks facing the Himalayan region as a result of climate change.

“This incident has indicated that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing with climate change,” Shah said in a social media post. “Therefore, this region must be alert, and at the same time, it is time for us to strongly raise the issue of disasters caused by climate change before the international community.”

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https://dallasexpress.com/national/death-toll-rises-to-more-than-1000-with-thousands-more-

still-missing-after-nepal-tibet-flood/ 

It's Beginning: Signs at Gas Stations "No Gas" or "No Diesel"

Hal Turner Nation September 02, 2026 Hits: 8485

Reports are starting to come in from people around the country (and up in Canada) saying they went to fuel-up at their local gas station and encountered signs saying "No Gas" or, at some places "No Diesel." One report is saying they went to a station and found both!

I have been telling readers of this website and listeners to my News-talk-radio show to get spare gasoline cans (red color) and fill them up. I also told business owners whose vehicles or equipment use Diesel, to get spare (yellow color) diesel cans and fill them up, because these shortages were a logical outcome of the US-Israel-Iran situation. I've been warning for months.

Some people took my suggestions and acted upon them. Many others did not.

Now, what I warned of, seems to be beginning. I suspect this will spread fast.

https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/national-news/its-beginning-signs

-at-gas-stations-no-gas-or-no-diesel 

The secret project of Russia and Iran to hunt US aircraft carriers

'One of the most dramatic transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran': Leaked records reportedly show Moscow helped Tehran develop ramjet technology for hypersonic cruise missiles, enabling Iran to build weapons designed to threaten US warships

ynet|Yesterday | 23:09

Russia secretly helped Iran develop hypersonic cruise missiles in “one of the most dramatic transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran,” the Financial Times reported overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in an extensive investigation based on leaked correspondence, travel records and analysis of military patents. The report pointed to a program that began in 2023 and continued even as the United States and Israel waged campaigns against the Islamic Republic.

According to the report, the secret program, dubbed C430L, recruited leading experts in the field to help Iran develop a new weapon capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers — which have been deployed intermittently in the region — and other warships in the Middle East.

“This is the transfer of highly sensitive strategic military technology — the kind the Iranians have been trying to obtain for decades,” said Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles and a senior analyst at Conflict Armament Research. “A program like this requires political approval from the highest levels in Russia.”

The main development effort centers on a ramjet propulsion system, an engine that allows cruise missiles to fly at several times the speed of sound. Hypersonic cruise missiles combine speed with low-altitude flight, reducing the amount of time defense systems have to detect and intercept them.

Hypersonic missiles are extremely fast — at least five times the speed of sound — precise, maneuverable and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. About seven years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that Moscow had developed such a missile, the Kinzhal, or “Dagger,” in a speech in which he said Russia could strike almost anywhere in the world and penetrate U.S. air defenses. Russia has used the Kinzhal several times in the war in Ukraine.

The Financial Times noted that Iran has built this unique propulsion system, but there is no evidence that hypersonic cruise missiles have already been operationally deployed. Jim Larson, a former CIA Iran analyst, said: “This technology would give Iran a strategic weapons system that could threaten U.S. Navy vessels.”

Correspondence obtained by the newspaper indicates that the talks continued through this summer. Cooperation between Russia and Iran has been reported on repeatedly, but the C430L program was described as one that “reflects a deeper interaction” with Tehran because it provides Iran with the practical know-how to develop the weapons system itself. The assistance effort was organized by Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter, and NPO Mash. The United States imposed sanctions on the latter as early as 2014.

Senior officials and engineers representing them, according to the report, traveled to Iran even before the contract was formally signed in November 2023. The correspondence points to exchanges in which Russian officials analyzed the performance of the system Iran had already built and helped improve it. In April 2025, it was even proposed that a delegation of 24 Russian experts travel to Iran for technical consultations as part of the project.

According to Hinz, “Russia has focused on this technology for a long time. People tend to think cooperation like this means sending blueprints, complete missiles or parts of them — but bringing in a 60-year-old engineer who can fly over and solve problems on the ground is an enormous asset.”

The newspaper said the correspondence indicates that cooperation on Project C430L continued into 2026. Iran and Russia did not respond to the report.

Earlier Tuesday, Putin met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Pezeshkian thanked Putin and told him: “We appreciate your supportive position. The powers do not have the right to attack other countries and violate international frameworks and laws.” Putin, for his part, said he would maintain trade relations with Tehran despite the “military-political situation.”

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unusual visit to Russia. U.S. media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and Politico, reported that Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow to warn Russia against attacking NATO and assisting Iran. Officials who spoke with Politico said the visit was intended to pressure Russia to reduce its economic and military support for Iran.

Russia’s 'comprehensive' effort

A British official who spoke with the outlet said Ratcliffe raised the issue following U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s threat to tighten sanctions on countries that do not sever their economic ties with Iran. According to the official, the CIA director made clear that Russia must stop sharing weapons and defense technology with Iran and advised Moscow not to “overreact” if it is affected by U.S. sanctions.

U.S. media reports did not say whether the CIA director met personally with Putin. U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the reports and described Ratcliffe’s visit as “semi-routine.” The last known visit by a CIA director to Russia took place in November 2021 before Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine.

Last month, NBC reported that Russia continues to transfer shipments of ammunition to Iran through the protected and isolated shipping route in the Caspian Sea, including explosives such as TNT and drone components. The transfers themselves had been reported previously, but the U.S. network said the scale of the shipments was greater than previously known. The Caspian route has for years served as a strategic transportation artery between Russia and Iran, particularly because the sea — the world’s largest lake — has no U.S. presence.

The report joins other accounts reflecting the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran in recent years. Russia also shared satellite imagery and drone technology with Iran at the start of the war with Israel, as well as information on the locations of military targets, with the aim of helping Tehran strike U.S. forces, including warships and aircraft. One official who spoke with The Washington Post at the time described it as “a fairly comprehensive effort.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rjdc0wboge 

Last Update September 1, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT

Iran's president offers to return to memorandum of understanding if US does

After President Donald Trump talked potential retaliatory strikes on Iran, calling the 'failed nation' all but finished militarily and under pressure from crushing sanctions, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is talking about a return to the ceasefire under the memorandum of understanding (MOU). Pezeshkian is meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Putin tells Iran’s Pezeshkian Russia stands in solidarity with Tehran

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday that the Russian people stand in solidarity with Iran as it fights for its interests, according to Russian state media.

Putin also said Russia and Iran have maintained their economic and trade relationship despite the current military and political environment.

The comments came during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as Iran faces renewed U.S. pressure and escalating regional tensions.

Pezeshkian said earlier Tuesday that Tehran would immediately return to a June memorandum of understanding if the United States resumed its commitments under the deal. The agreement called for a ceasefire and negotiations toward a broader peace deal but quickly unraveled.

The U.S. and Iran have since exchanged fire, while two oil tankers were reportedly struck near the Strait of Hormuz.

Posted by Eric Mack

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/us-iran-war-news-trump-leader-latest-today-september-1

Trump warns Chicago ‘will die’ if lefty Gov. Pritzker refuses federal help after bloody weekend leaves 41 shot

By Chris Bradford

Published Sep. 1, 2026, 6:05 a.m. ET

President Trump warned Tuesday that Chicago “will die” if Illinois governor JB Pritzker continues to refuse federal government help to get crime under control – as the lefty pol joined revelers in downing shots for a world record attempt despite a weekend of bloodshed that saw 41 people shot.

Fifteen people were struck in what was Chicago’s largest mass shooting of the year on Saturday, bringing the city’s 2026 gun violence tally to 1,255 victims, which is up by almost one percent on last year.

“Chicago violence is unchecked and at record levels. It has never been worse,” Trump blasted in a fiery Truth Social tirade before warning Chicago faces ominous consequences if trends are not bucked.

“This weekend 41 people were shot, 3 DEAD. These numbers are becoming normalized. It is out of control!

“The city will die if the Federal Government, a fine tuned crime fighting machine, is not invited in, by the Mayor or Governor to HELP. I am awaiting the call.”

Trump claimed Chicago would see “no crime” if a crackdown similar to what has been seen in Washington, DC, is implemented.

“Nobody should be forced to live under these conditions,” he said.

“The State and City can’t do what I do. Governor Pritzker, CALL!!!”

Meanwhile, Pritzker joined thousands of punters in the city’s Recess bar as part of their effort to smash the world record when it comes to the most people downing a shot of Malort in unison.

Some 1,969 revelers set the record at the Recess bar.

Pritzker was downing shots while crime stats in Chicago continue to rise. There has been a 0.7% rise in the number of shooting victims in Chicago between Jan. 1 and Aug. 29 this year, compared to the same time period in 2025.

Data reveals 254 people have been killed – a 11.4% rise compared to the same period in 2025.

Chicago has seen a 2.9% rise in the number of homicide victims – from 280 to 288.

Trump, who has previously branded Chicago a “hellhole” and threatened to deploy National Guard in the city, will be heading to Chicago later this month for the Presidents Cup golf tournament, which takes place at the Medinah Country Club and gets underway on Sept. 24

“I look forward to being there and greeting all of these fantastic athletes on both teams!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday after revealing he will serve as “Honorary Chairman.”

“See you in Chicago!”

Pritzker, who has previously clashed with Trump over threats to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, says the president is “neither wanted nor needed” in the city, before launching a political attack, blasting the government’s tariff policies.

“But if he is going to spend time in DuPage County, he can leave the country club and explain to Illinoisans why his tariffs have made groceries, electricity, and everything else too damned expensive,” he said.

Pritzker said gun violence has “no place” in Chicago but stopped short of requesting federal help.

Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, hasn’t taken up Trump’s advice to give him a call.

“We remain steadfast in our work to break these cycles of trauma by continuing to stop the flow of guns into our communities and investing in the resources that help prevent violence before it occurs,” he said.

Of the 41 shot, 15 were struck by masked gunmen during a celebration in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood.

Rontonio Guterz, 35, was killed and 14 others were injured in what was Chicago’s largest mass shooting of the year.

The ages of the 14 injured range from 21 to 45. Meanwhile, cops have not released any details about suspects.

Teenager Kyren Wormely, 15, was killed in a drive-by shooting in South Austin, located in the city’s West Side.

The boy was shot twice and died of his injuries in hospital.

Last December, the Supreme Court blocked Trump from sending the National Guard to Chicago as part of an operation to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Trump turned to the highest court in the land trying to overturn a lower court ruling that was upheld by the appeals court.

Trump’s justification for the attempted troop deployment to the Windy City used a law that permits the president to take over the National Guard if he isn’t able to execute the law with “regular forces.”

https://nypost.com/2026/09/01/us-news/trump-warns-chicago-will-die-if-lefty-gov-pritzker-

refuses-federal-help-after-bloody-weekend-leaves-41-shot/

One hiker found dead and at least 14 others missing as desperate search continues after flash floods rip through Grand Canyon in Arizona

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By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER and CLAUDIA AORAHA, DEPUTY HEAD OF NEWS and ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: 16:22 EDT, 30 August 2026 | Updated: 07:24 EDT, 31 August 2026

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One hiker has been found dead and at least 14 others are missing after flash floods tore through the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Parts of the scenic canyon were hit by significant flash flooding on Saturday around 2.30pm, sweeping hikers and backpackers off the trails near the Colorado River.

By Sunday evening, authorities said they were searching for 15 unaccounted people, after initially claiming that 20 hikers were missing. That had been a working estimate, park officials explained.

But hours later, the National Park Service announced that the body of a 46-year-old man had been recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River.

The victim's identity has not yet been released, while the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office investigates.

The other missing hikers are believed to have been trekking on routes near the Bright Angel Canyon and the Phantom Ranch area of the national park.

Authorities are asking for the public to help identify people who were traveling near the North Kaibab Trail from the North Kaibab Trailhead to Phantom Ranch.

This includes anyone that was staying at Bright Angel Campground, or traveling or staying in the area known as 'the Box' north of Phantom Ranch.

It is unclear who the 14 missing people are, or where they are from.

But 62 others were evacuated from the park yesterday amid the flooding.

All footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were also destroyed in the freak weather event, meaning that pedestrians cannot get across the flooded creek.

The National Park Service said in a statement: 'Grand Canyon National Park staff, in coordination with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, are continuing evacuation and response efforts and working to account for individuals who may have been in the affected area.'

The flooding also knocked out the sole water pipeline that serves tourists and residents at the national park.

This Flock AI Tool Finds You Without A Name Or Plate

Dylan Kresak

August 29, 2026 2:08 PM ET

Police using Flock Safety’s artificial intelligence tools can now track a vehicle based only on its location and movements.

Flock’s OS Investigate, formerly known as Nightshift, is an AI tool that identifies vehicles and ranks drivers’ “associates” based on how frequently they appear together at the same Flock camera, WIRED reported. Flock website code reviewed by WIRED listed 45 functions available to OS Investigate, including plate scans, camera metadata, arrest records, case files and 911 dispatch logs to identify potential suspects.

“[T]his [Flock tool] really crosses a line from a tool that’s used to investigate suspicious people to deciding who is suspicious,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “[I]t increases the chances that you are going to get put under the microscope by law enforcement because some algorithm thinks your driving patterns are ‘suspicious.'”

Stanley also believed the AI industry will shift toward models that organizations run in-house to combat privacy concerns.

“[A] lot of AI use is going to have to be local models,” he told the DCNF.

He believes homes and local institutions such as hospitals and police departments could soon have their own personal AI models for less powerful tasks as the technology advances.

“I think that’s the direction that a lot of organizations are going to go … I’ve talked to police officers who are like, ‘yeah, I want to use AI, but I can’t use AI in our internal stuff. We can’t let that leave the premises,'” Stanley told the DCNF.

Flock Safety, the Texas Municipal Police Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Code Four Labs, Tyler Technologies and 3SI Security Systems each did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

For other critics, the real danger is how readily police may act on what this AI tool tells them.

“[L]aw enforcement have not right now been receiving in-depth training on how to challenge and question the findings of an LLM as to who the top 10 bad guys are in their jurisdiction, and they’re probably not going to wait around a long time to parse it all out carefully,” Alex Marthews, national chair of Restore The Fourth told the DCNF, explaining that this technology gives law enforcement the ability to outsource its decision-making.

If police departments have “the ability to say ‘okay surface for me, ChatGPT, the top 10 real goddamn asshole problems that there are in my jurisdiction,'” and the AI hallucinates, then they could arrest innocent people without due process, he told the DCNF.

He said Calvary Chapel San Jose kept holding indoor services in defiance of COVID mandates, and the government later used phone-location data to monitor who was there. Marthews argued that just as those worshipers did not anticipate technology to be “deployed against them,” the same could happen with these AI tools.

This flock system “can be targeted against anyone. Governments change, ideologies change, state enemies change, and we do not know in setting up a system that 10 years down the line we won’t be the targets of it,” he explained.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley has argued that Americans have to accept a compromise between safety and privacy.

“[W]hen people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing. What we have to prioritize as a country is ‘compromise,'” Flock CEO Garrett Langley told Fox News in a Saturday interview, reposted by Sen. Rand Paul on X. “How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy.”

“[T]hat was not my comment. We believe in the constitution at Flock,” Langley said in another post, responding to the Senator. “I hope you can agree that Americans deserve to be safe.”

Flock describes its FlockOS platform, which hosts OS Investigate, as a command center that can operate anywhere, according to the company’s website.

“We watched the vehicles enter through LPR, tracked them across the city, and our teams were in place before the suspects even got out of their cars,” Major Patrick Krieg of the Dunwoody, Georgia, Police Department said, according to Flock’s website. “It was the first time we said: this platform is powerful.”

AI’s real value in investigations is managing the sheer volume of material a single case generates, George Cheng, CEO and co-founder of Code Four told the DCNF. Body camera footage, jail calls, phone extractions and call records can bury a detective and cases go cold for lack of time. Code Four’s INSIGHTS product pulls an open case’s records into one place and lets a detective question all of it in plain English, with every answer tracing back to its source.

Cheng drew a hard line between analyzing evidence in an already-open case and searching the public to generate suspects, arguing a search should start from the former. Beyond that, he said, outputs should cite their sources, an officer should own whatever the software drafts, an audit trail should preserve machine versus human work and agency data should never train outside AI models or be sold.

A policy analyst argued the problem with Flock’s tracking tools is how the government wields the technology.

“AI is simply a tool. It’s going to get utilized in many ways that are great, and it’ll get utilized in many ways that are bad,” James Czerniawski, head of emerging technology policy at Consumer Choice Center told the DCNF. “[B]ut we don’t regulate the tool itself, we regulate based on the outcome. In this case, the outcome is that you have people’s Fourth Amendment rights getting violated by the government, and there’s no good path to fixing that right now.”

Czerniawski pointed to one safeguard above all: warrants.

“‘Warrants’ is your best friend … for both law enforcement and for people’s due process consideration,” Czerniawski told the DCNF, arguing a warrant forces cops to justify AI-assisted searches.

“I think there needs to be legislation, both at the federal and state level,” Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, Glenn Jacobs said in an August interview with the DCNF. “I think that as this issue becomes more prevalent around the country, Congress will take it up.”

One lawmaker is trying to write warrant requirement into federal law.

Rep. Keith Self: “The PRIVACY Act prohibits federal agencies from using output from applications such as Flock Safety’s OS Investigate without first obtaining a warrant,” Republican Texas Rep. Keith Self told the DCNF. “Flock Safety’s camera network is one of several emerging technologies that surveil everyday Americans, which requires Congress to implement processes to anticipate new technologies that must require warrants.”

Self’s proposed legislation would limit retention of data captured by these cameras to 30 days with a warrant, provided the information is not evidence for prosecution or a court grants an extension

“AI has supercharged the surveillance state, trampling our God-given right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects,” Self told the DCNF. “These cameras are no longer just license-plate readers looking for vehicles of interest; OS Investigate shows they are being used to aggregate an expanding amount of personal data, raising constitutional questions and putting individual privacy at risk.”

He called on Congress to act and impose restrictions on devices that surveil the public and infringe on Fourth Amendment rights.

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley began a Senate subcommittee investigation into Flock cameras on Wednesday, according to Hawley’s letter to Langley.

The Institute for Justice identified more than 100 cases of ALPR abuse, according to a database the group published Aug. 12. Among these cases was a Georgia police chief who conducted 600 searches to track his ex-girlfriend and her daughter, according to the Washington Post.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2026/08/29/this-flock-ai-tool-finds-you-without-a-name-or-plate/

Thousands of AI Data Center Projects Halted as Backlash Spreads Across America

David Lindfield

August 30, 2026 - 10:00 am

Americans are increasingly turning against the rapid expansion of massive artificial intelligence (AI) data centers as concerns over soaring electricity demand, water consumption, and pressure on local infrastructure push lawmakers across the country to impose new restrictions.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) announced in August that his administration had effectively halted as many as 1,800 proposed AI data center projects while establishing new requirements designed to prevent the facilities from draining resources from surrounding communities.

New York has also moved to block certain large data center projects, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has imposed new requirements on developers seeking state support.

The backlash reflects a dramatic shift in public sentiment as the artificial intelligence boom drives enormous new demand for electricity and computing infrastructure.

“My directive has halted up to 1,800 data center projects,” Abbott said.

“I established guidelines & guardrails to protect Texas communities.”

Under Abbott’s approach, data centers must not drain water supplies, overwhelm the electrical grid, or disrupt surrounding communities.

Abbott Moves to Protect Texas Grid

Abbott’s office said developers seeking to operate in Texas are expected to shoulder the burden created by their facilities rather than passing it onto residents.

“What Governor Abbott is doing is working,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said.

“The Governor established clear guidelines: Data centers must invest their own money, provide their own power, reuse their own water, ensure that the power grid is gaining power— not losing power because of their operations — and must not disturb neighborhoods.”

“Data centers across the state have announced their full compliance with those standards, which provide guardrails that protect our communities.”

The restrictions have nevertheless generated opposition from some business leaders.

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, whose company reincorporated from Delaware to Texas in 2025, called the move “really unfortunate.”

“I thought TX would be the last holdout against this ignorant thinking, and continue to be a place to build!” Armstrong said.

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“Require them to bring their own power, and it’s a net positive all around.”

President Donald Trump also questioned Texas’ approach, arguing that the rapidly expanding data center industry could become an economic powerhouse.

“I saw Texas the other day is sort of against data centers. I think it’s a mistake,” Trump said.

“I think they are tremendously important for the economics.

“This is, for Texas to say ‘no’ to data centers, is a mistake — in the sense that it could be bigger than oil.

“Data centers could be bigger than oil.”

Massive Electricity Demand Raises Alarm

Abbott has pointed to the extraordinary projected electricity demands from data centers as justification for imposing guardrails.

The governor said projections suggested Texas would need to add “five times the amount of power that we have available” to accommodate the industry’s demands.

“This simply is not going to work,” Abbott said.

The state has particular reason to scrutinize threats to grid reliability.

Texas suffered catastrophic power failures during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, an event that killed more than 240 people.

Large data centers have also raised concerns after some facilities failed reliability tests.

Data centers can disconnect from the grid during electrical fluctuations to protect sensitive computer equipment, potentially creating sudden changes in electricity demand that grid operators must manage.

Abbott said the Texas Public Utility Commission asked existing and proposed data centers to disclose their current and projected electricity consumption.

According to the governor, fewer than 10% responded.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the moratorium could dramatically reduce projected electricity demand in Texas.

Industry Pushes Back

The Data Coalition, a trade organization representing data center companies, said the industry recognizes its responsibilities to communities hosting the enormous facilities.

The organization said its members are committed to “ensuring data centers are true partners in every Texas community where we operate, protecting residential ratepayers, strengthening grid reliability, and promoting responsible water stewardship.”

Oracle similarly said it is committed to “ensuring data centers are true partners in every Texas community where we operate, protecting residential ratepayers, strengthening grid reliability, and promoting responsible water stewardship.”

But resistance is no longer confined to Texas.

New York, Pennsylvania Impose Restrictions

New York became the first state to halt construction of data center projects exceeding 50 megawatts, affecting at least a dozen proposed facilities.

Pennsylvania has taken a different approach.

Shapiro signed an executive order requiring AI companies seeking state support to obtain permits, cover their electricity costs, hire and train local workers, and comply with environmental protections.

“My message to data center developers is clear: if you can’t agree to our strict requirements and get the community where you want to build to say ‘yes,’ you’re not going to have the Commonwealth’s support either,” Shapiro said.

“These are some of the biggest companies in the world – they can afford to be good neighbors, follow the rules, and do this right.”

The restrictions are spreading at the local level as well.

More than 530 counties and local governments across the United States have reportedly banned or restricted data center construction.

Poll Shows 75% Oppose Data Centers Near Their Neighborhoods

Public opinion appears to be driving much of the political response.

An August survey conducted by Embold Research for Heatmap found that 75% of registered voters either strongly or somewhat disapproved of data center construction near their neighborhoods.

Just 15% strongly or somewhat approved.

The opposition cuts across traditional political divisions, creating headaches for lawmakers who previously welcomed data centers as sources of investment, construction jobs, and economic growth.

“It’s a faster and deeper shift in American public opinion than I would have once thought possible on any issue,” Heatmap founding executive editor Robinson Meyer wrote.

The political fight is likely to intensify as the AI industry demands ever-larger quantities of computing power.

Trump sees enormous economic potential in the expansion and has warned Texas against turning away an industry he believes “could be bigger than oil.”

Abbott, meanwhile, has drawn a different line: Texas can welcome the industry, but not if residents are forced to surrender water, electricity, or the reliability of their communities to accommodate it.

With hundreds of local governments already imposing restrictions and public opposition surging, data center developers are increasingly discovering that securing enough chips and electricity may not be their biggest obstacle.

They also need the people living next door to say yes.

https://slaynews.com/thousands-ai-data-center-projects-halted-backlash-spreads-across-america/

Kuwait just hired Pakistan’s army to defend it

Opinion: While rejecting Israel, the Gulf monarchy is outsourcing its security to a nuclear-armed, Islamist-leaning military; a dangerous mirage of protection

Amine Ayoub

Amine Ayoub|Yesterday | 16:35

On August 27, 2026, within the military command halls of Rawalpindi, Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah and Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif signed Protocol Agreement-2026.

Flanked by Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Khalid Al-Shriaan and senior Pakistani commanders, the ceremonial signing marked the formal transformation of a previously passive security relationship into an active operational military framework.

Building upon their 2023 agreement, this protocol establishes binding mechanisms for military training, capacity building, border management, technical exchanges, logistical integration and defense-industrial cooperation.

Kuwaiti officialdom framed this accord as a routine measure to elevate operational readiness and safeguard national borders. A rigorous strategic assessment, however, immediately strips away this diplomatic veneer.

The Rawalpindi protocol does not signal the maturation of Kuwaiti defense planning; rather, it exposes a chronic structural failure that continues to undermine the sovereign integrity of the oil-rich monarchies of the Persian Gulf: the endemic inability to generate native, self-reliant military power.

Faced with a chaotic regional environment and shifting superpower priorities, Kuwait has made a deliberate choice not to reform its domestic defense institutions, but rather to contract out hard security to foreign mercenaries.

The chronic externalization of Gulf defense

Kuwait’s strategic posture has suffered from a fundamental delusion: the belief that national defense is a commercial commodity purchased off the shelf through petrodollars. Possessing vast hydrocarbon wealth yet lacking a martial civic culture, an effective standing army or a population willing to endure the rigors of military service, the Kuwaiti state has consistently substituted lavish procurement contracts and outsourced manpower for genuine national discipline and self-sacrifice.

This rental defense model yielded disastrous results in August 1990. When Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi armored divisions rolled across the border, Kuwait’s heavily funded military apparatus collapsed within hours. The royal family fled across the Saudi border, while the country’s physical liberation ultimately required the intervention of a massive, American-led coalition. The fundamental lesson of 1990 was unequivocal: an army that cannot fight for its own soil does not possess real sovereignty.

Thirty-six years after that catastrophic collapse, as Washington systematically recalibrates its global footprint and expects Middle Eastern allies to assume primary responsibility for their own security environment, Kuwait City remains fundamentally unwilling to confront its internal vulnerabilities.

Rather than undertaking painful military reforms, instituting rigorous national conscription or building an enduring warfighting ethos among its citizenry, the Kuwaiti establishment has reverted to its historic pattern. It is attempting to insulate itself from regional warfare by purchasing external protection from foreign militaries.

The Pakistan vector: renting an Islamist shield

The choice of Pakistan as Kuwait’s primary defense subcontractor is an act of profound strategic desperation that introduces severe risks into the Persian Gulf. Pakistan is not a stable regional power capable of delivering durable strategic guarantees. On the contrary, it is a fragile, nuclear-armed state whose military apparatus—specifically the Inter-Services Intelligence—has long deployed radical Islamist proxy networks across South Asia to achieve geopolitical objectives.

This handout photograph taken on July 29, 2026 and released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office shows Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (R) speaking with Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah (2L) during a meeting at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad

Furthermore, the institutional culture of Pakistan’s armed forces is thoroughly saturated with pan-Islamist ideological doctrines. For the military high command in Rawalpindi, exporting military advisers, training modules, intelligence officers and border control units to the Arabian Peninsula is not an act of disinterested altruism. It is a vital economic survival strategy designed to generate foreign exchange, secure subsidized energy supplies and funnel needed capital into Pakistan's domestic defense sector.

For Kuwait, however, opening its national command structures, intelligence networks and border security infrastructure to Pakistani personnel creates an institutional conduit for radical ideological influence.

Renting an army steeped in Islamist dogma does not build genuine external deterrence; it merely invites ideological infection, operational compromise and structural vulnerability into the core of the host state's security apparatus.

The hypocrisy of anti-Israel rejectionism

What makes Kuwait’s strategic posture particularly absurd and self-defeating is its stubborn adherence to anti-Israel rejectionism.

While forward-thinking regional states recognized through the Abraham Accords that genuine long-term security requires technological integration, shared intelligence and economic collaboration with Jerusalem, Kuwait remains frozen in Cold-War-era ideological orthodoxy.

Kuwaiti law continues to strictly criminalize any form of normalization, diplomatic engagement or commercial trade with the Jewish State, enforcing draconian anti-boycott statutes designed primarily to appease domestic Islamist politicians and populist parliamentarians.

The strategic irony is striking. Kuwait systematically rejects any association with Israel—the region’s undisputed technological powerhouse in cyber warfare, real-time tactical intelligence, counter-terrorism and multi-layered missile defense—while simultaneously placing its physical survival in the hands of a radicalized, unstable South Asian military establishment.

Kuwait City prefers the ideological comfort of a pan-Islamic defense shield over pragmatic, effective security partnerships that could genuinely protect its territory against aggressive non-state militias and regional destabilization.

By placing outdated dogma above hard strategic calculations, Kuwait sacrifices its long-term national security on the altar of political symbolism.

An emerging parallel security architecture

Protocol Agreement-2026 must not be evaluated as an isolated, transactional bilateral arrangement. It represents a key component of an evolving alternative security architecture extending across the Sunni Islamic world.

This protocol directly complements the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed on August 7, 2026, which established a trilateral security alignment between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey designed to merge Turkish defense technology, Saudi financial assets and Pakistani troop capacity into a consolidated military bloc.

By binding its national defense systems directly to Pakistan, Kuwait is embedding itself within this emerging parallel security matrix.

For Israel, this trend demands scrutiny. The expanding footprint of Pakistani military personnel, intelligence officers and operational assets throughout the Persian Gulf introduces an unpredictable, nuclear-armed player into crucial maritime and air corridors, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

This South Asian military presence increases the probability of intelligence leaks, technology proliferation to hostile actors and unexpected escalation during future regional crises.

The Israeli doctrinal imperative

For Israel, the Kuwait-Pakistan protocol offers a powerful validation of core Zionist national security doctrine. Jerusalem has always operated under the absolute premise that sovereign survival can never be rented, borrowed or delegated to third-party guarantors.

A security posture that relies on outsourced protection and hired shields is a dangerous mirage that inevitably dissolves when subjected to the harsh realities of armed conflict.

Amine AyoubAmine Ayoub

While Gulf monarchies purchase expensive weapon systems, they lack the capacity to maintain and recruit foreign forces to police their borders, Israel conceptualizes, builds and commands its own defense capabilities.

From Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow atmospheric interceptors to cyber warfare and artificial intelligence platforms, Israel relies on native innovation and a citizen army driven by national resolve.

While international alliances serve as valuable force multipliers, the fundamental responsibility for defending the Jewish State remains exclusively in Israeli hands.

The defense protocol ratified in Rawalpindi on August 27, 2026, exposes the profound structural frailty of Kuwait’s security architecture. Renting conventional military power from Pakistan may afford Kuwait City a brief, illusory sense of protection, but it irrevocably binds the emirate to a volatile, Islamist-infused military state.

Real security cannot be purchased with petrodollars, nor can it be constructed upon the shifting sands of mercenary alliances and ideological rejectionism. In a harsh Middle Eastern neighborhood, Israel’s proven model of absolute self-reliance, technological supremacy and unshakeable national resolve stands as the only durable path to sovereign survival.

Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx

https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/bklp63ldml 

Senior Iranian cleric says ‘The only solution is to build a nuclear bomb and fire it’

Aug 29, 2026

Russia Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Russia Has Every Right To Attack British Military . . . "

Hal Turner World August 27, 2026 Hits: 17300

Maria Zakharova, official Spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) warned London about the response to British weapons strikes on Russia:

"Given Ukraine’s strikes with British weapons, Moscow has every right to attack British military facilities"

"Any British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and abroad can be a response to Ukrainian strikes with the use of British weapons on the territory of Russia."

The MFA also says on August 26, Ukraine launched British/French-made Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG missiles at civilian locations in Donetsk. Eight people were injured, including two children.

The diplomat stressed the need for London to abandon a hostile policy that could bring the conflict to a completely different level.

Zakharova continued "Those guilty of war crimes against civilians will certainly receive the punishment they deserve."

The MFA also states "Moscow also records the transfer of data to the Ukrainian side for the production of Storm Shadow missiles. With such actions, London and Paris (France is a joint Developer of the "Storm Shadow" Missiles, which are called "SCALP" in France) are unsuccessfully trying to absolve themselves of responsibility for attacks deep into Russia." the ministry spokeswoman added.

In addition, the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote, "British Prime Minister Andy Burnham came to Kyiv to support the anti-Russian fronde."

The British authorities have approved strikes deep into Russian territory with Storm Shadow missiles.

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned the Ambassador of the United Kingdom about the possibility of destroying British military facilities.

https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/russia-ministry-of-foreign

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