Migration Has Cost German Taxpayers At Least €400 Billion Since 2016

Authored by - Remix News Staff - via Remix News,

Germany's migration and asylum policies have cost the state at least €400 billion, according to calculations by Welt journalist Björn Harms. Other estimates have gone far higher, including into the trillions, when broader follow-on effects of migration are included. These massive figure will only add to the growing debate about mass immigration into high social-welfare countries like Germany.

As for the data, much of it comes directly from the German government, according to Welt. The federal government alone recorded over €242 billion in "refugee-related expenditures" from 2016 to 2025. Official figures from Bundestag reports and the Federal Ministry of Finance confirm the annual totals.

If this is broken down by year, it shows €20.1 billion in 2016, rising to peaks of €28.3 billion in 2022 and €29.6 billion in 2023, then €28 billion in 2024 and €24.8 billion in 2025.

The sum over ten years is €242.5 billion, representing roughly 5.8 percent of total federal budget outlays over the period. These cover social transfers after asylum procedures, integration measures, payments to states and municipalities, and related programs.

The 16 state governments also contributed more than €100 billion from their own budgets. Municipalities added further billions, along with follow-on costs in healthcare, education, and the justice system. Independent reconstructions place a consolidated central estimate near €340 billion, while others go up to €450 billion with add-ons.

However, even these numbers pale in comparison to what some academics have researched. For example, top German academic on public finances Prof. Bernd Raffelhüschen of the University of Freiburg, produced a study in 2024 that indicated that mass immigration may cost Germany up to €19.2 trillion. His study also found that mass immigration had already cost the country €5.8 trillion.

Harms and others describe the €400 billion figure as a minimum. The reason why this figure is treated as a "minimum" is because experts have been unable to truly compile costs for a broad range of areas, which surely total tens of billions over the course of a decade. These areas include court costs and criminal justice.

Germany spends between €9 billion and €20 billion a year on criminal justice. As Remix News has reported before, an astronomically disproportionate share of these criminals are foreigners, meaning that foreigners are costing Germany billions every year just on criminal justice.

Just one example involves the case of Saudi national Taleb A, who plowed his vehicle into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing six people and injuring over 300. The custom-built court constructed specifically to host the trial of Taleb A. cost €4.5 million.

This specialized, high-security facility was constructed by the court in Magdeburg to handle the large-scale proceedings, which included accommodations and seating space for more than 170 co-plaintiffs and their respective legal teams.

That is just one migrant.

Many other costs are not tallied in the official figures

The billions in criminal justice costs do not even cover police and internal security. Crime has risen in Germany substantially since 2016. During that year, according to Eurostat records, Germany had approximately 244,318 total police officers. At the time, that equated to roughly 2,992 officers per one million people, or a density of around 301 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Federal Police force has grown to around 55,000 to 60,000 total employees (including roughly 41,000 active frontline officers) to manage expanded mandates across national borders, transportation hubs, and airports.

Paying all these new police officers, who are tasked with policing an increasingly violent country, is not only an enormous cost in terms of money, but has led to tens of thousands of lives shattered and destroyed. When a young woman is raped by a migrant or an aspiring doctor is beaten to the point that he has to abandon his medical career, it is difficult to even calculate the true financial cost of such incidents, but in many ways, these incidents have no price tag. They are too horrific to even quantify.

Of course, there are also tens of billions spent on education for migrants, which are not included in the €400 billion total. In addition, Germany has an extensive network of kindergartens, which foreigners also gain access to. In some states like Berlin, the daycare system is entirely supported by taxpayers to the tune of €2.5 billion a year, while the share of kindergarten-age children with a migration background is at 57.4 percent.

There are also deportation costs, administrative overhead, hospital and medical care, and the list goes on.

The real figure may be difficult to calculate with total accuracy, but it is surely larger than €400 billion.

Germans have also paid in other ways, including in higher rental costs, more traffic, crowded schools, and longer wait times at hospitals. Again, not all of these costs are even quantifiable, but the increase the increase in rental costs alone has cost Germans additional billions.

It is also important to note that there are hundreds of thousands of migrants who are becoming naturalized at a rapid pace and already millions of migrants who have been naturalized in previous decades. These migrants and their children use schools, often require welfare, and also need healthcare. Yet, none of these costs are counted towards the tax burden on Germans. In total, there have been further tens of billions spent on these groups, increasingly in the education system which has the highest share of Germans with a migration background. Many of these groups also continue to be a net economic burden on Germany, such as the Turkish population.

Migrant housing is a huge burden for German taxpayers

Accommodation absorbs a large share. The federal government does not even know the total number of asylum accommodations nationwide. An inquiry by Harms to all 401 districts and independent cities produced responses from 320 (about 80 percent). These authorities reported at least 4,437 communal accommodations housing nearly 295,000 residents as of March 2026 - an average of almost 14 per responding district. Extrapolated nationwide, this implies roughly one person in every 227 in Germany lives in taxpayer-financed asylum accommodation.

Harms notes that hotel owners, private landlords, and public companies have all massively benefited. In Hamburg, the municipal company Fördern & Wohnen, which is 100 percent owned by the city, handles a large share of asylum accommodation. He notes that turnover rose from €60 million in 2013 to €747 million in 2025, and staff grew from 948 employees in 2014 to around 2,228 by 2025.

The company operates more than 200 sites and has expanded capacity amid non-European immigration. A former managing director who served less than five months in 2025 received payments totaling €453,000, including a substantial severance, according to the company's annual report.

Similar patterns appear elsewhere: long-term leases on converted offices and hotels, with public entities acting as both demand drivers and suppliers. In Berlin, a former office complex on Hasenheide in Kreuzberg is becoming an accommodation for up to 921 people. First residents were scheduled to move in from early October 2026. The lease runs roughly ten years, into the mid-2030s, paid from public funds. Conversion costs have not been disclosed, citing commercial confidentiality.

The Hasenheide project and the decade of accumulated costs illustrate the continuity. Rents and operating expenses continue into the 2030s, financed by the same solidarity community that underwrites the wider system.

Migrant welfare is core to the new German economy

The Welt article also notes that immigration since 2015 has driven expansion in the social and welfare sector. The number of social workers and social pedagogues rose from about 278,000 in 2015 to 351,000, with the Federal Employment Agency linking part of the growth to refugee-related demand for counseling, care, and support.

Integration courses illustrate the mixed results of large spending. The federal government has allocated around €1.3 billion in peak years, with 2024 near €1.2 billion before later adjustments. Yet outcomes are limited, according to Welt. Roughly 55 percent of those who take the final test reach the target B1 language level, meaning a substantial share - often cited in the range of six in ten depending on the metric of "graduation" or successful completion of the full course and exam - leave without the intended language qualification. Pass rates for B1 have hovered in the mid-50s in recent data, with many achieving only A2 or lower.

Harms further notes that the business of asylum migration has created durable economic interests. In other words, there are people and institutions getting rich for the millions of migrant who have come, which fuels demands for even more immigration.

Public companies, private landlords, course providers, NGOs, and expanded social services all draw ongoing revenue. Critics note that the loudest advocates of open borders and expansive humanitarianism rarely live next to the accommodations or send their children to the schools under the greatest pressure. Residents in affected neighborhoods and local workers experience the practical strains directly.

While governments speak of a "migration turnaround," the broader pro-migration complex continues. Demands for a world without borders, which claim "no human is illegal," persist among advocacy groups. These powerful groups have a keen interest in keeping the mass migration machine going, and so far, they have largely succeeded even if the majority of Germans are opposed.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/18/2026 - 07:00

Watergate, A Hoax?

Authored by Silvio Canto, Jr. via American Thinker,

If you are a baby boomer, you remember The Beatles, Henry Aaron hitting #715, and President Nixon resigning over Watergate. It was our soundtrack, as they like to say. It gave us words like "Nixonian" and "The Saturday Night Massacre" and Oval Office tapes. It turned the 37th president into an evil man, and everyone took a shot at him. Even the GOP took down his pictures at the party's convention.

As someone who admired President Nixon, bought and read all of his post presidency books, and volunteered as a student for his 1972 reelection campaign, I do believe that revisiting Watergate is a good idea. Maybe The Washington Post will end up returning that Pulitzer? Don't bet on that, but who knows?

What if Watergate was a hoax, as we say these days? Honestly, after watching Russiagate, the New York trials, and everything else, the idea is not so crazy. I'm not ready to call it a hoax yet, but I'm open to a conversation, as they say these days.

Well, some people think so, such as John D. O'Connor:

Many citizens today, with varied sources of information, understand the highly unethical lawfare waged against President Donald Trump, as exemplified by the Russiagate hoax. By contrast, the more restricted media environment of the early 1970s made prosecutorial misconduct during Watergate harder to scrutinize. With fresh eyes now taking a closer look at the reporting and prosecution of Watergate, it is becoming clear that DOJ investigators should sanction prosecutorial misconduct and set the historical record straight on Richard Nixon's innocence.

As a refresher, Watergate refers to a political scandal stemming from the June 17, 1972, burglary of the Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate building by burglars with known CIA ties. After two years of investigations, committee inquiries, and trials, over 40 government officials were convicted or jailed, and President Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office.

Recently, former Nixon aide and historian Geoff Shepard presented his case to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), arguing that the proceedings against Richard Nixon amounted to dishonest, partisan "lawfare" enabled by prosecutorial and Congressional misconduct. Hopefully, the OPR will follow up with a vigorous investigation and clear the record of this unfairly maligned former president.

Clear the record of this unfairly maligned former president? Yes, it's time for a second look at that whole story.

As the article points out:

Why, fifty years later, should we investigate any flaws in Nixon's prosecution? Because key questions remain: 1) was the prosecution of Nixon and aides (with Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator) so clearly unethical that the OPR should conclude formally that the prosecution was fatally and unethically flawed;

and 2) were the Senate investigation and Majority Watergate Report false in material particulars, constituting a willfully false official Report to the public? In light of the attempted replay of Watergate and the Russiagate hoax, these questions are existential.

Bring it on. Maybe it's time to revisit that whole episode that consumed the country for years. I do recall people back then, such as a neighbor historian, saying that there was a lot of hypocrisy in these attacks against President Nixon. I do believe that the collapse of Vietnam and the betrayal of the Shah of Iran would have turned out differently if President Nixon had been in the Oval Office.

So, let's open up the case and hear more about this.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 23:30

US Firms Account For 75% Of Chips Powering Russia's New Jet Drone

Building on our earlier notes mapping out the supply chain behind the Russian one-way attack drone, a new report from a Ukrainian defense news outlet claims that a whopping "three-quarters of the Geran-4's onboard computer consists of electronic components manufactured by American companies."

Militarnyi's supply-chain intelligence investigation into Russian Geran-4 drones identified 80 components from US companies among 105 cataloged parts, suggesting how heavily Russia relies on foreign technology despite severe sanctions from Western governments.

An engineering unit with Ukraine's 1230th Athena Engineering and Technical Regiment examined the chips, recovered from recent Geran-4 drone wreckage with most internal components intact, allowing investigators to inspect markings and serial numbers to identify manufacturers.

Here's what they found:

After comparing board descriptions and manufacturer lists, the researcher was able to identify 105 electronic components. Of these, at least 80 are from American companies, accounting for 76.19% of the total.

Countries are determined based on the parent company's place of registration. Under this approach, Intersil components are classified as products of the Japanese company Renesas, while Zetex components are classified as products of the American company Diodes Incorporated.

Texas Instruments dominates the list of manufacturers by a wide margin. Together with National Semiconductor, which it acquired in 2011, the two companies account for 61 components, or 58.1% of the list. These include, in particular, TMS320F28335PGFA processors for data processing and control of onboard systems, VP230 CAN transceivers for data exchange between modules, MB3238I multichannel transmitters, and PS767D301 voltage regulators. The boards also feature REF3020 reference voltage sources, which provide a stable voltage for measurement circuits.

Militarnyi concluded the report: 

With a production rate of 3,000 units per month, this dependence creates a need for more than two million components from Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor combined each year. This indicates a lack of an effective mechanism for monitoring compliance with sanctions, both at the level of the companies themselves and at the government level.

These new findings build on a separate report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a US government-funded international news organization, that tore down a Geran-4 drone and found the jet's brain was powered by Texas Instruments chips. They also found many other foreign-made components, much of which came from China.

RFE/RL takes apart a Russian Geran-4 drone to uncover what makes the jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) faster, harder to intercept, and capable of operating deep inside Ukraine -- from its turbojet engine and advanced camera to foreign-made communications and navigation components. @cxemu @radiosvoboda

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) September 25, 2026

It remains unclear how and when these chips entered Russia. The recovered chips could have come from inventories stockpiled before sanctions, subsequent purchases through third-country intermediaries or shell companies, or a combination of the two. 

The takeaway we have here is how heavily Russia depends on foreign components to power its new one-way attack drone. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 23:00

The Biggest Winners And Losers From The Petrodollar's Decline

Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

The Iran war is straining US weapons stockpiles and raising doubts about Washington's ability to protect the Persian Gulf.

If that weakens the petrodollar and pushes oil producers away from the US financial system, two assets face clear headwinds: the US dollar and US Treasuries.

The petrodollar system helped create structural demand for both.

If oil exporters sell more energy outside the dollar system, fewer oil dollars need to flow back through Wall Street and into Treasury securities.

At the same time, the US government needs to borrow staggering sums to finance its deficits, military commitments, entitlement programs, and interest expense.

That means rising supply of Treasuries could collide with weakening structural demand.

Watch the 10-year Treasury yield.

The 10-year Treasury yield is perhaps the most important financial benchmark in the global fiat system, as it drives valuations and market trends worldwide. It is widely - and erroneously - regarded as the risk-free rate of return.

The 10-year Treasury yield can be thought of as a key barometer of the US dollar-based fiat system - a critical measure akin to its beating heart.

Bond yields move inversely to bond prices. When bond prices fall, bond yields rise.

A rising 10-year Treasury yield signals trouble for the US dollar because it means investors are selling Treasuries, which pushes up the US government's borrowing costs. That is why the 10-year Treasury yield is a major pain point for the US government.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 3.97% in late February 2026. Now it is around 5.26%, an increase of roughly 129 basis points. 129 bps might not seem like much, but with over $40 trillion in debt and growing, every basis point matters.

At today's debt levels, every 1 basis point increase in the government's average borrowing cost adds roughly $4 billion in annual interest expense. So a 129 bps rise is not trivial - it translates to nearly $516 billion in additional yearly interest costs, materially widening a budget deficit that was already around $1.8 trillion.

I expect the 10-year Treasury yield to keep climbing over the coming weeks and months - until it forces the Fed's hand.

At that point, the intervention will be sold as "stability," but the mechanism will be familiar: suppress yields by debasing the currency.

That feedback loop could become one of the defining investment stories of the years ahead.

The Biggest Winner

The biggest winner should come as no surprise.

Gold.

China and the major Middle Eastern oil producers have accumulated gold for years. I do not think that is a coincidence.

They sit near the center of the changes taking place in the international monetary system.

China produces more gold than any other country and ranks among its largest consumers. Nobody outside Beijing knows how much gold the Chinese state controls, but its official holdings tell only part of the story.

China has also spent years constructing the infrastructure needed to connect yuan-denominated trade with physical gold markets.

That preparation makes much more sense when you view gold not as a commodity, but as a neutral settlement asset.

The last monetary transformation of comparable importance began when Nixon severed the dollar's link to gold in 1971.

Gold traded at $35 per ounce under the old system.

By January 1980, it reached $850 - a gain of more than 2,300%.

I think the monetary shift taking shape today could prove just as important.

For more than half a century, the petrodollar helped create structural demand for dollars and US government debt. It allowed Washington to run deficits and export dollars on a scale no normal country could sustain.

Americans have come to regard that privilege as a permanent feature of the financial landscape.

It isn't.

At first glance, depleted US missile inventories may seem unrelated to the future of the dollar. They aren't. Both depend on the same thing: the ability of the US to convert its enormous financial power into real-world economic and military power.

Washington can create dollars without limit. It cannot create missile factories, rare-earth supply chains, control over the Strait of Hormuz, or confidence in the US security guarantee with a keystroke.

If the Iran war exposes the limits of US military power, pushes the Gulf states toward accommodation with Iran and China, weakens the dollar's role in the oil trade, and accelerates the movement of global reserves toward gold, we could look back on this period as the moment the post-1971 monetary system entered its final stage.

What started with a shortage of missile interceptors leads to a much bigger conclusion: the Iran war is exposing the limits of both American military power and the monetary system that power has supported for more than half a century.

The signals to watch are clear.

Watch the oil producers.

Watch the dollar.

And above all, watch gold.

The petrodollar's decline could push Washington toward more money printing - and put your purchasing power at risk. The time to prepare is before the crisis forces your hand.

For investors, the danger lies in assuming the rules that built yesterday's wealth will protect it tomorrow. A monetary shift of this scale could punish that assumption - and reward those who prepare before the crowd.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 22:30

How I Stopped Worrying, And Learned To Love Data Centers

Authored by Norm Singleton via RealClearMarkets,

During this time of increased political polarization, it is good to know that there is one issue uniting Trump-loving MAGA Republicans, Bernie Sanders-style Democratic Socialists, and everyone in between: opposition to data centers, especially large data centers built for artificial intelligence (AI). Part of the opposition stems from the public's increasing skepticism of AI. An even larger part is generated by concerns over how AI will drive up electricity costs for those living close to the centers, as well as the high amount of water necessary to run the centers.

Many data center critics ignore the fact that these kinds of facilities have been around for years. As the name suggests, data centers are buildings (or centers) that house the infrastructure and data necessary for the operations of digital services such as the cloud. The typical data center includes servers, switches, routers, and fiber optic cables. These data centers make it possible for individuals to use their phones,and tablets to store and share their photos, messages, and documents, as well as to download and use a wide variety of apps.

While some companies, such as JP Morgan Chase, operate data centers for their own use, other companies operate hyperscalers. These hyperscalers are large enough to host multiple clients. Leading tech firms, including Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), Google, and Amazon Web Services operate hyperscalers that provide services to private companies and government agencies.

Data centers are not just the physical foundation of the internet; they are a source of high-paying jobs. For example, data centers transformed Ashburn, Virginia from a small rural town to a technological hub. The tax revenue generated from the center helped fund improvements in infrastructure, public facilities, and schools. Data centers did not became controversial until the need for larger data centers to accommodate AI led many to blame AI data centers for the increase in electric prices.

Since 2020, residential electric prices have risen by more than 36%. However, studies show that data centers pay a large and growing share of utilities fixed charges, thus reducing costs for other consumers. In addition, tech companies Microsoft and Anthropic have both pledged to pay for any increased electric costs incurred as result of their AI data centers. Other technology companies have signed President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge to ensure that increased electric costs from AI Data centers are not borne by consumers.

The problem with the electric grid is not that data centers are using too much electricity, but that public utilities failed to invest resources in infrastructure placement during 20 years of flat demand. The increased revenue from AI data centers can help finance the necessary upgrades to the nation's energy grid. AI companies are also exploring uses of alternative energy as a way to reduce costs. Similarly, many AI data centers, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, are using recycled water to reduce their demand for fresh water. Some technology firms are exploring a way to expand AI data centers without increasing their neighbors' bills by building them in the ocean. Microsoft has already shown that underwater data centers can be just as, if not more, effective than land-based ones.

According to University of North Carolina Management Professor Nir Kshetri:

"In 2015, Microsoft launched a research project to explore the feasibility, benefits and challenges of underwater data centers." Part of that effort included setting up a waterproof data center on the seafloor near Scotland's Orkney Islands in 2018. It contained 864 servers and was connected to shore by an underwater cable.

"After two years, Microsoft reported that the servers in the underwater data center failed at about one-eighth the rate of servers in comparable land-based data centers. The company is still studying the possible reasons but hypothesizes that in a sealed underwater environment the equipment is less exposed to oxygen, humidity, and temperature fluctuations - as well as less jostling from people working to replace broken components."

Unfortunately, despite their initial success, Microsoft has suspended its underwater data centers when they ended the experiment in 2024. Hopefully, Microsoft or another tech company will take up underwater data center development and/or discover other ways to meet the need for AI data centers without increasing other Americans' electric bills. Tech companies can do this as long as government limits its role to ensuring that companies compensate Americans for any harms caused by their operations.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 21:30

Netflix Boots Content Chief As Viewership Sags

Netflix shares are locked in a bear market, down nearly 25% year-to-date, as the platform's viewership growth has slowed and recent shows have seen troubling audience declines in their second seasons.

Bloomberg reports that chief creative officer Bela Bajaria has been abruptly booted and is set to be replaced later this month by veteran entertainment executive Peter Rice.

Rice, a former senior executive at Walt Disney and 21st Century Fox, will take the reins on October 26 and oversee scripted and unscripted series, films, and live events worldwide.

Bajaria's exit comes after more than ten years at the streaming platform, where she was head of global TV from November 2016 to January 2023, then chief content officer until now.

What's notable during that time is that Netflix first snuck woke propaganda into its shows and movies, and that subtle agenda became very overt as the left-wing messaging failed to resonate with a majority of Americans.

The leadership change follows Wednesday's announcement of roughly 1,000 job cuts, equivalent to 6% of the workforce.

Netflix has surpassed 325 million subscribers globally but faces slowing audience and revenue growth.

"Losing Bela Bajaria is a big change, but Peter Rice is very well regarded in the industry," Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese told the outlet, adding, "To us, this is a step forward, or at least a shift in direction."

Young families are increasingly revolting against left-wing streaming platforms like Netflix that indoctrinate kids with shows like this ...

... and that has given rise to alternative streaming platforms such as Angel Studios, which is growing like a weed, doubling its subscribers from a year ago to 3 million in September.

Angel offers "values-based" films and TV series and is free of toxic left-wing propaganda

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 21:00

5 Challenges Facing South America's Copper Boom

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

• Escondida supervisors, about 1,020 workers at the world’s largest copper mine, said they would strike at 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, a week after workers walked out at Centinela.

• Chile’s August copper output fell 12.8% to 369,500 tons, the lowest monthly total since February 2011, and a fatal landslide hit Codelco’s El Teniente on Sunday.

• The IEA still sees primary copper supply about 25% short of requirements by 2035, while Peru targets $33 billion in mining investment and Argentina’s Vicuña aims for a final investment decision by year-end.

Supervisors at BHP's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, said they would strike at 8 a.m. local time Wednesday after government-led mediation failed to produce a contract. The union represents about 1,020 workers at a mine that supplies roughly a quarter of Chile's copper, and the stoppage follows a walkout at Antofagasta's Centinela that began Oct. 7. Both land as governments across the Andes ask miners for far more copper, not less.

Demand will not wait

S&P Global projects that copper demand will climb from 28 million metric tons in 2025 to 42 million tons by 2040, with AI data centers and defense each roughly tripling their consumption, and it warns that supply could fall 10 million tons short. The IEA still sees primary supply about 25% short of requirements in 2035, down from a 30% gap in last year's edition.

Copper runs through grids, electric vehicles, wind and solar farms and the AI data center buildout, which S&P says could account for 14% of U.S. power demand by 2030, so a shortfall in the metal reaches well beyond mining. BloombergNEF has warned that a tight market could bring cost inflation or delays for electrification projects. Peru is targeting at least $33 billion in mining investment over five years, and Chile's pipeline tops $100 billion over the decade.

Chile keeps losing output

Chile's copper output fell 12.8% in August from a year earlier to 369,500 tons, the lowest monthly figure since February 2011, according to national statistics data reported by Bloomberg. On Sunday, heavy rain triggered a landslide at Codelco's El Teniente mine that killed two contractors and led the company to partially suspend operations, and El Niño could bring more rain to Chile and Peru in the months ahead.

Cochilco expects national production to fall 2.6% this year to 5.27 million tons before recovering to 5.55 million in 2027. TD Securities analysts said strike votes, worker fatalities and operational disruptions have helped "maintain a supply-risk premium," and copper has held close to its September record high.

China's acid squeeze

Morgan Stanley estimated in April that 1.1 million tons of Chile's annual leached copper output, more than half its refined production, could be exposed to a Chinese ban on sulphuric acid exports. Miners use the acid to leach metal from ore, and Chinese customs data showed shipments to Chile fell to zero in March, with Beijing reportedly planning a full halt from May.

Permits and protests

Permitting in Chile can take as long as 12 years in some cases, according to GlobalData, and President José Antonio Kast ordered ministers in March to clear 50 pending claims tied to about $16 billion in projects. In Peru, President Keiko Fujimori's government wants to authorize 240 exploration and extraction projects this year, yet the Observatory of Mining Conflicts counts nearly 200 social conflicts nationwide, 64 of them tied to mining and other environmental disputes, and says most of the main mining regions voted against her.

Argentina starts from zero

Argentina has not produced copper since the Alumbrera mine closed in 2018, which makes Vicuña, the BHP and Lundin Mining venture, its biggest test. The project received the top tier of RIGI benefits this year, and its backers are targeting a final investment decision on a $7.1 billion first phase before year-end, with first copper planned for 2030.

In April, a judge in neighboring La Rioja ordered a 30-day suspension and blocked machinery from using an access road through the province, saying the province had been left out of the environmental assessment. A San Juan court allowed work to continue days later.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 20:30

Susie Wiles Reportedly Orchestrated Zacharia's Firing With Hannity Hit

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who did not favor Katie Zacharia for press secretary, helped line up the Fox News interview that ultimately led to Zacharia's being fired from the job, according to two people familiar with internal West Wing dynamics who spoke with Politico.

One source described the appearance as a "sanctioned hit" on Zacharia. The second person said, "[White House spokesperson] Danielle [Alvarez] and Susie fed her to Hannity," and noted that Wiles and Hannity are friendly and speak often. One source said Zacharia had not been Wiles' preferred choice for press secretary.

The account comes as Wiles faces questions about her own standing with the president. As Republicans' midterm prospects worsen, Trump has asked allies about Wiles and floated possible replacements, but the White House denies those reports.

Hannity opened the interview by addressing Zacharia's first press briefing, which ran 14 minutes and included three questions. "It's been widely panned. I'm sure you're aware," Hannity said.

Zacharia responded by laying out a compressed timeline. She said she received the offer by phone the previous Wednesday, flew to Washington for a Friday meeting, went home to California on Saturday, and returned Sunday. She said she started on Monday, the Columbus Day federal holiday, and received briefing materials on the morning of her Tuesday briefing.

"So what I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, shaken, with very little prep time," she said.

Hannity asked whether she believed staff should have prepared her better. Zacharia said she could have limited the session to a brief introduction. "Instead of taking questions, probably should have stepped aside," she said.

Hannity then asked whether she had failed the bar exam. "Yes, Sean," Zacharia said. She told Hannity she had preregistered for the exam before moving to China after graduating from Pepperdine, and that she later worked in the international practice of a Chinese law firm. Asked whether she ever retook the exam, she said, "No, I did not."

Hannity cited a report identifying 15 social media posts in which Zacharia described herself as an attorney. "I think they were retweets," Zacharia said. "I corrected the record and said it's not endorsing the title."

"And why not say, 'I took the bar and didn't pass it'?" Hannity asked. Zacharia said she had four children in six years after returning to the United States and never intended to practice law. She said she held a valid Juris Doctor and offered general legal commentary in media appearances without giving legal advice.

Watch video

Zacharia's performance in the interview drew widespread criticism on social media, and Trump told reporters the next day that he asked Zacharia to consider whether she wanted to stay in the role. "She was on Sean Hannity last night. And Sean was a little bit tough. I saw she was on Fox and Friends this morning. They were a little tough," Trump said.

Trump said he told Zacharia, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

But the White House rejects the claim that Wiles orchestrated Zacharia's downfall. "Susie and Sean do talk, but Susie did not need to feed her to Sean or anybody else. It's not her style," a senior White House official said.

The same official pointed to Zacharia's own media appearances, including a Friday morning interview on Fox & Friends. "And Hannity wasn't the nail in her coffin; her hit [on Fox & Friends] this morning was, as well as her weird answer on being a lawyer," the official said.

Watch video

White House communications director Steven Cheung dismissed the reports of Wiles' involvement. "All of this breathless speculation is just that - speculation. And it's fiction that's not even creative," Cheung said. He added that Zacharia "will continue to support the President as she transitions to a new role." Zacharia declined to comment.

Fox News Media insists that Hannity alone decides whom he interviews and what he asks, and that "Wiles and Alvarez had nothing to do with the booking." A Fox News insider also rejected the idea of a planned hit. "If you can't answer simple questions about your credentials, that speaks volumes," the insider said.

The credentials questions began three days before the Hannity interview, when a reporter shouted a question at a White House departure. "You said she's an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam?" the reporter asked. Zacharia answered "when I moved to China." She later admitted she failed the California bar exam in 2011 and never took it again.

"Not only is Fox News home turf for us, but Katie couldn't manage to answer a basic question about herself that had been brewing in the news for three days," a pro-Trump operative told Politico.

The press secretary job marked Zacharia's second short tenure in the administration. Earlier this year, she spent less than two months at the Department of Homeland Security.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 20:00

California Should Not Get To Set Policy For All Of The US

Authored by Curtis Hill via RealClearMarkets,

California has decided it should dictate how the rest of America packages everything from cereal and soap to industrial spare parts.

Seventeen Republican attorneys general have filed suit to stop it. They are right. The rest of the country should say so - and reject California's attempt to impose its policies on everyone else.

California's Senate Bill 54 effectively tells companies: If you want to sell in California, redesign your packaging, cut plastic on California's timetable, and pay fees to a private Washington, D.C., organization called Circular Action Alliance. CAA sets the fees, keeps its methodology confidential, and handles disputes through arbitration rather than a court.

But packaging is not a California issue. It is a national supply-chain issue. Companies do not invent a unique box for Sacramento and another for South Bend. They build one system. When California attaches conditions to its market, those conditions travel. Costs travel with them - onto manufacturers, distributors, and the families who buy toothpaste and canned goods in states that never voted for this scheme.

California is using the size of its market to impose its preferences on commerce that happens everywhere else. The attorneys general call that what it is: one state trying to set national policy.

I have seen this movie before.

As Indiana Attorney General, I led multistate efforts against this same tactic. California cities tried to use "public nuisance" lawsuits to dictate national energy policy from a courtroom in San Francisco. I argued then that California localities cannot regulate economic activity beyond their borders, and that the nation should not sit idle while California tried to turn itself into a regulatory empire.

We also led a coalition to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging Massachusetts's attempt to tell farmers in other states how to house their hens and hogs as a condition of selling eggs and pork in Boston. Same theory. Same abuse. Market access as a weapon.

California and a handful of like-minded states have a playbook: Pass a rule at home. Make compliance a condition of doing business. Watch national supply chains conform because it is cheaper to surrender than to maintain two systems. Then call the result "progress" and dare anyone to object.

That is not federalism. It is the big dog sitting on the porch, growling at every other house on the street.

Multistate action is how the other states push back. One attorney general filing a brief is a protest. Seventeen states joining a federal lawsuit - alongside a business that has already challenged this model in Oregon - send a message a judge must take seriously.

This is not a trade association seeking a special exemption. It is sovereign states defending their authority to set policy for their own people. And it tells Sacramento that when California exports the costs of its policies, the response will be coordinated legal action - not a press release and a shrug.

That is the point of the office I once held. An attorney general is not a commentator; the job is to defend the state's legal interests when another government tries to impose its policies beyond its borders. California's packaging scheme does exactly that. Fees collected by a private organization with little meaningful public oversight are one back door. So is a mandate that forces a plant in Iowa or a distributor in Indiana to pay for California's regulatory experiment.

None of this requires opposition to clean streets, recycling, or reducing waste. States are free to run recycling programs, set their own environmental policies, and punish fraud or deception in labeling. What they may not do is force businesses across the country to follow one state's rules while handing the collection plate to an unelected private organization. States can pursue their own policies. They cannot conscript the interstate economy into a single regulatory religion.

The seventeen attorneys general are doing the unglamorous work of saying no. They deserve support - from other states, from boards that still remember fiduciary duty, and from anyone who understands that the Constitution divided power for a reason. California is large. It is not the legislature of the United States.

If other states sit this one out, they should not be surprised when the next California rule arrives already attached to their store shelves. Empires are not always built with armies. Sometimes they are built with a market, a mandate, and a fee.

Curtis Hill is Senior Fellow with the Free Enterprise Project and former Indiana Attorney General.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 19:00

The NRC Lost A Sixth Of Its Staff... So Why Are Reactor Reviews Getting Faster?

For the past year, critics have warned that DOGE gutted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission just as the nuclear renaissance was getting started.

If the president really wants to kickstart the "nuclear renaissance," gutting the NRC of its expertise and rubber-stamping projects isn't the way to go. It will only slow processes down, increase the potential for accidents, and erode public trust.

— Josh Freed (@jsfreed) July 30, 2025

The NRC's headcount fell more than 16% between July 2024 and June 2026, from 2,957 to 2,477, according to a new GAO report. About 740 people left, only 270 were hired, and attrition hit 12.4% in FY2025, up from 7.6% a year earlier.

But the GAO never says the agency is broken. Instead, their report says "most stakeholders and NRC officials told us they were not concerned about NRC's ability to ensure safety or the timely review of applications."

Some have also characterized the staffing reduction as a purge. The GAO report objectively contradicts that claim, as the NRC let go of just four, and nine in ten departures were retirements or resignations.

Hiring stalled under a federal freeze, but by this recent spring new hires outnumbered departures again.

"The NRC did not lose its way or the ability to perform its mission," Commissioner David Wright, who chaired the agency through the exodus, said in March. "Instead, everyone stepped up."

Would keeping them have even mattered?

What the GAO is unable to prove is that the NRC would be ready for the coming wave of applications if all those people had stayed.

History suggests it wouldn't be. When the GAO sounded a similar alarm in 2007, the NRC was bracing for "at least 20 applications for 29 new nuclear power reactors." It staffed up to about 4,000 employees by 2010, still took nearly four years to license Vogtle 3 and 4, and watched most of the other applications fizzle.

In other words, the NRC shed roughly 1,000 people in the 14 years before anyone had heard of DOGE.

"In the last renaissance, the NRC hired a lot of people for what they anticipated in new reactor licensing applications," Chairman Ho Nieh told House lawmakers in April. This time, "instead of just hiring people to handle the work, we are fundamentally looking at how we make these decisions."

What the GAO didn't weigh

The report also doesn't test whether that streamlining has made up for the people the NRC lost. 

It's "too soon to assess," the GAO says, and it skips the math of how many applications are coming, how many hours each takes under the new rules, and how many qualified reviewers that requires.

NRC officials told the GAO that new efficiency measures could cut the agency's staffing needs by about 300 full-time positions. That's more than half of what it lost on net.

Asked about staffing at a May Senate hearing, Doug Weaver, the newest commissioner, said the NRC is "not simply doing the same old way of doing our work and trying to do it faster with fewer people. We're fundamentally changing the way we do licensing."

And it's already showing. Late last month, the NRC approved construction of the first BWRX-300 small modular reactor in 14 months. "Four months ahead of schedule is what the new NRC looks like," Nieh said.

But Chairman Nieh is still missing the bulk of the celebration. Back when the NRC was looking at a significantly larger staff, the estimated timeline was 36 months to hear back for the same license. Today, they have less staff and finished 22 months faster.

The DOGE operative

Seth Cohen, the ex-Kirkland & Ellis lawyer who came to the NRC with DOGE and later became the Energy Department's chief counsel for nuclear policy, sat on the steering committee overseeing that rewrite. ProPublica’s Avi Asher-Schapiro made him the face of the "DOGE Goes Nuclear" piece.

Yet Cohen told an American Nuclear Society conference last November that "the NRC is almost certainly going to be growing in the coming years," and denied the goal was to "make this the tiniest Nuclear Regulatory Commission it can be."

When he left government in June, Asher-Schapiro labeled Cohen "one of the key figures reshaping the regulatory environment to benefit Silicon Valley-backed advanced reactor firms."

Cohen's reply? “Get bent, soyboy”

Now that I’m out of government, I can finally respond for myself: Get bent, soyboy. We didn’t do this for “Silicon Valley . . . companies.” We did this for you, for your family, your community, your state, your nation, and your species. Nuclear energy provides the safest, highest density, reliable power available on our planet. My career colleagues at DOE and NRC inspired me to think about nuclear as a way to forge American steel and electrolyze aluminum without releasing particulate matter, to desalinate water in the Middle East and save humanity from resource wars. By rejecting the false narratives and Cold War hysteria, we can secure the next American century while raising whole countries out of poverty. Do you really think I left an incredible career at Kirkland, paid out of pocket for an apartment in DC and dozens of cross-country trips, and left my family on the west coast because I wanted to enrich people I never met before taking this job? I came to D.C. to do something that mattered, to satisfy a driving curiosity (more on that later), and, most importantly, to serve. As I learned more about nuclear energy and its history, I developed a conviction that one nuclear’s biggest issues was a culture of cynicism: nothing new or exciting could happen because it would end in disappointment, and that militated against rocking the boat even a tiny bit. The career staff in government and their industry counterparts lived through dark winters before and stopped believing that warm springs could bloom into summers. I have two core philosophies. First, I believe in ruthless optimism. Rational decision making requires detached risk analysis. But we also cannot win if we believe we can lose. Merging the two requires orienting teams around driving missions. That way, when a real opportunity presents itself, you can take a huge swing. If I take credit for anything—honestly, almost all of the success belongs to the incredible and dedicated people at @ENERGY and @NRCgov—it’s countering the cultural rot and morass that risked forfeiting American excellence. My colleagues and I gave cover to the scientists and engineers, which freed them up to focus on delivering safe power. And, as success materialized, they started to dream again. That’s why the pilot program succeeded, and why I feel confident about the future of NLICs and NRC reform. Nobody needs me anymore because they can innovate on their own. My second core philosophy is to assume positive intent. Avi, I know that you heard about my real motivations from multiple people you interviewed when preparing your hit piece on me. Rather than telling that story, one which could help inspire another generation of people to use their talents for the greater good, you ignored them. Instead, you implied that Peter Thiel recruited me for nefarious purposes. (I’ve never met him, but, @peterthiel, if you’re reading this, I’m a huge fan!) Nuclear regulation starts and ends with safety. I promised everyone I worked with that I would resign before doing or pushing for anything that could compromise public safety. But I also distinguished between real safety and performative bullshit. That’s what the careers came to embrace, too. We love nuclear, why would we do anything that could risk threatening its future? America faces a crossroads. We can either trod a road of cultural decay or hike our way back to the peak of global innovation. Join me on the latter path. Correct the fear mongering and conspiracies and tell the story of America’s great reindustrialization. Tell the story of our public servants, our great entrepreneurs, our scientific dominance. Tell the real story about how DOGE went nuclear.

— Seth Cohen (@OverReactor1776) June 20, 2026

The real competition

Cohen himself now sits on the board of fuel maker Standard Nuclear, which points to the NRC's real staffing problem.

The agency has always lost people to industry, but never to this many well-funded startups at once. Investors have poured $4.6 billion into U.S. nuclear startups this year, as we noted last week, and half the stakeholders the GAO interviewed had hired former NRC staff.

"They're hiring people from the NRC and they're paying them far more than the federal government pays," Nieh said in June.

The NRC hasn't fought back much on pay. Of the hiring, pay and bonus tools Congress handed it in the ADVANCE Act, it has used only 18 performance bonuses worth $335,000 combined. Officials told the GAO that targeted raises would be hard to justify without raising pay across whole job series, which would likely mean higher fees for applicants.

The GAO's fix? Finish a workforce planning tool that has already missed two target dates, and set metrics for whether the NRC's hiring tools are enough.

* * *

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 17:30

Egypt's Sisi Declares His Presidency Will End In 2030

Via Middle East Eye

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has declared that his presidential term will end in 2030 and that the question of his departure from office is now "settled and will not be discussed".

Sisi, 71, said on Saturday during a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy that "the Egyptian constitution would not be touched". He is currently serving a six-year term.

Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi (source: Russian Information Office)

"The year 2030 will mark the end of my presidential term. This matter is completely settled," Sisi said.

"I will not leave the Egyptian state until it is brimming with its own people capable of shouldering responsibility."

The president added that the military academy was creating a new generation of leaders.

Sisi came to power in 2013 after leading a military coup that deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Rights groups estimate that over 60,000 prisoners of conscience are held in Egyptian jails, including more than 1,000 women.

Many prisoners, including former President Morsi and several opposition figures, have died as a result of medical neglect and other inhumane prison conditions, according to rights groups.

Sisi's latest comments come at a turbulent time in the region. Last week, Egypt’s foreign minister reaffirmed the country's support for Saudi Arabia in its conflict with Yemen's Houthis, saying that "Gulf security is integral to Egypt’s national security and our solidarity with Saudi Arabia."

Egypt has also been involved in military conflict with its neighbors. Last week, an Egyptian air strike killed 72 civilian workers at a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border.

Egypt backs the Sudanese Armed Forces in its war against the UAE-backed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Egyptian President el-Sisi on leaving office by 2030: I’m saying this more than 40 months in advance so that no one can claim I’m preparing someone from my family or relatives to take over. No, no, no. Nothing like that. This is a very big country, and such things cannot happen here.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 17, 2026

Sisi's government is also at loggerheads with Ethiopia, which it sees as a potential naval rival in the Red Sea and with which it has a long-standing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Egypt recently hosted a conference with representatives from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea to discuss coordinating military and intelligence efforts should conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea escalate.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 17:00

The post Trumpian Corruption and Minnesota Fraud appeared first on CEPR.

Nurse Deemed 'Not Disabled Enough' For Payout After COVID Jab Paralysis

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

An NHS nurse in the UK has been denied compensation despite being permanently damaged by a COVID vaccine during a trial.

Marie-Claire Hoyle, who volunteered for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial in 2020 developed transverse myelitis two weeks after her second dose, temporarily shutting down the global trial.

The qualified advanced nurse practitioner and NHS England's network manager for high-consequence infectious diseases, lost the use of her hands, became numb from collarbone to thigh, and still carries permanent spinal cord damage visible on MRI. The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme acknowledged the vaccine caused her condition yet refused the £120,000 one-off payment because her disability improved below the rigid 60% lifelong threshold.

Nurse struck by rare condition linked to Covid vaccine 'not disabled enough' for compensation https://t.co/wuobqdFmB0

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 16, 2026

Hoyle that's related how she was on shift when pain hit her neck and spine, spreading within an hour into her shoulders and hands. "I lost the ability to use my hands, I couldn't hold a pen, I couldn't hold a toothbrush. I was completely numb from my collarbone down to my thigh level because the signals from my spine and brain had been damaged."

An MRI confirmed transverse myelitis. The trial paused worldwide while her case was assessed; she survived and recovered enough for it to resume. Permanent damage remains. "I've had an MRI since and there is still damage in my spinal cord, which will never heal. I have really poor grip in my fingertips, so I constantly drop things. I still have nerve pain down the left side of my arm and numbness across my central chest and that will never resolve," she further stated.

She received a high five-figure out-of-court settlement from Oxford University. The VDPS, however, ruled she no longer qualified. "They acknowledged that the vaccine caused my transverse myelitis, based on the evidence I supplied with all my medical records, and at the time I was seriously harmed on a value of up to 60%. However, they said: 'You aren't now, so you don't need the payment.'"

Hoyle, a mother of three who later had her youngest vaccinated and says she continues to support vaccines in principle, wants a scalable system matching actual ongoing harm rather than an all-or-nothing cutoff.

AstraZeneca later withdrew its Vaxzevria vaccine worldwide in 2024, officially citing commercial reasons and the shift to updated formulations. The company had already admitted in court documents that the shot can cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome. Kate Scott, whose husband was left with permanent brain injury, said the decision looked less commercial and more like recognition that the product no longer sat "within the acceptable safety parameters," given 445 confirmed VITT cases and 81 deaths in the UK alone. The company maintained the vaccine had saved over 6.5 million lives in its first year.

Baroness Hallett's COVID-19 Inquiry Module 4 report, published in April 2026, called the scheme "not sufficiently supportive" and demanded urgent reform: raise the £120,000 payment at least in line with inflation (suggesting over £200,000), introduce graduated payments by degree of injury, and scrap or soften the 60% threshold that leaves people with significant neurological damage with nothing.

The government published its response on 16 October 2026, accepting the need for reform and committing to a review to make the scheme "fit for purpose and delivered effectively," while noting concerns over administrative costs.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman offered "deepest sympathies" and said officials were carefully considering the recommendations.

More than 24,260 COVID-related claims had reached the scheme by 30 June 2026, yet only 264 resulted in awards - just over 1%. Roughly 580-603 claims had causation accepted by medical assessors yet failed the 60% disability bar.

Running costs since April 2022 hit £83 million, more than double the roughly £32 million paid to victims. Transverse myelitis was later listed among the vaccine's extremely rare side effects, and dosing intervals were widened after cases like Hoyle's.

Officials maintained benefits outweighed risks, but the scheme's design - built for older industrial-style injuries - fits poorly with the neurological, fluctuating, and sometimes partially recovering harms seen with these products.

Patterns of injury have been gradually acknowledged. Last year, Post-Vaccination Syndrome research from Yale was published, documenting high rates of brain fog, exercise intolerance, extreme fatigue, sleep disruption, tingling or numbness, and confirmed signals for myocarditis, tinnitus, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

A Taiwanese study of 467 healthcare workers, all of whom had received at least three doses, found neurological and psychiatric symptoms matching "long COVID" in a group that had never been infected.

Of the 222 with no record of infection and negative nucleoprotein antibodies, more than 30% reported mild fatigue, nearly 10% reported trouble concentrating, and 11.7% reported worsening memory.

The authors noted no statistically significant difference in symptom severity between those with confirmed infection, asymptomatic infection, and those never infected, yet did not examine vaccination as a possible cause.

A South Korean cohort study of more than 8.4 million people, published in Biomarker Research in September 2025, reported associations between COVID-19 vaccination and elevated risks of six cancers.

Booster doses were linked to a 125% increase in pancreatic cancer risk. Prostate cancer risk rose 69%, lung cancer 53%, thyroid 35%, gastric 34%, colorectal 28%, and breast 20%.

The authors stated that "COVID-19 vaccination could be associated with an increased risk of six specific cancer types" and noted that booster doses substantially affected risks for gastric and pancreatic cancers.

In the United States, the picture is similarly lopsided. The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which covers COVID vaccines, had received 14,250 claims by 1 October 2026, the bulk alleging vaccine injury. Of 8,369 decisions, only 66 had been compensated and 120 found eligible.

A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing in April 2026 examined VAERS data showing COVID vaccines associated with more adverse events and deaths than all other vaccines combined over the system's history, including rates 55 times higher for deaths than the flu vaccine. FDA staff had flagged masking of safety signals and were ordered to stop certain analyses.

Myocarditis and pericarditis signals for the mRNA vaccines appeared in Israel within a month of rollout in early 2021. Israel shared the data with the CDC and EMA in February, yet public and clinician alerts came only months later, after most eligible young people had already received two doses.

An Oxford analysis found an eight-fold risk of myocarditis in under-40s within a week of a second Pfizer dose and a 44-fold risk after Moderna. Hong Kong reported a one-in-3,000 risk in adolescent boys after a second dose and switched to a single-dose policy.

A Thai study of teenagers found 29% with signs of heart disturbance after a second Pfizer dose. No comparable reckoning has followed the delayed disclosure.

In Australia, FOI documents showed 35 people died on the same day as their COVID vaccination. The Therapeutic Goods Administration completed causality assessments for only 24 of them and referred none to its Vaccine Safety Investigation Group.

Of more than 1,000 deaths reported to the TGA's database, only 14 were officially linked to the vaccines. Where timing data existed, one in four occurred within three days and 39% within a week.

Dr Suzanne Niblett called the claim of thorough review "very misleading" when most cases had not been properly analysed. Dr Rado Faleti noted that in the vaccine-injured community, "not a single person reports being followed-up or investigated by the TGA."

Meanwhile, new Moderna formulations for the 2026-2027 season received FDA approval in late August 2026, 81 days before the scheduled start of the human Phase 3b/4 safety and immunogenicity study.

Legislation introduced in September 2026 would further tilt the process: S. 3323 would require the CDC director to adopt ACIP recommendations unless unsupported by a preponderance of peer-reviewed evidence, while raising the bar for withdrawing recommendations or removing entries from the Vaccine Injury Table.

Hoyle's case is not isolated. Hundreds of people whose injuries medical assessors linked to the vaccines sit below the arbitrary 60% line and receive nothing from the state scheme, even as the bureaucracy costs more than the payouts.

The inquiry has forced an official admission that the current rules do not match the injuries that occurred. Whether the promised review produces real graduated support or simply more process remains to be seen.

People who stepped forward under official assurances of safety and necessity now face the same bureaucratic gatekeeping that defined the rollout.

Accountability for the injuries, and the freedom to weigh risks without coercion or denial, still lag behind the volume of claims.

* * *

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 16:00

Groups Sue DHS, Alleging Effort To Compile Voter Data Is Illegal

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Federal officials obtaining and compiling data on voters as part of an effort to combat voter fraud is illegal, three organizations said in an Oct. 15 lawsuit.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compilation of the data from nearly every state violates the Privacy Act, which only lets agencies maintain information that is relevant and necessary for authorized purposes, the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the League of United Latin American Citizens said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia.

"Congress created DHS to prevent terrorism, secure the border, and address other specified threats - not to conduct a voter-fraud dragnet centered on the private voting information of millions of Americans and records reflecting the exercise of constitutional rights essential to democracy," the plaintiffs said.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Federal law requires states to keep lists of registered voters. The lists always have the names of all registered voters, and usually include other details such as their addresses, sex, date of birth, and partial or complete Social Security number.

Certain individuals can request the data from states, but there are restrictions on requesters and other restrictions on disclosure.

For instance, most states do not allow people who obtain the data to disclose Social Security numbers.

The Privacy Act states in part that for information concerning activity protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, agencies can "maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity."

The Department of Justice has been sharing voter lists it obtained with DHS, according to letters released by the government. DHS has obtained some version of voter registration lists from at least 47 states, according to the lawsuit.

The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel said in a May legal opinion that the department "has authority to seek statewide voter lists and share them with the Department of Homeland Security as part of its effort to identify individuals who are ineligible to vote."

The office also said that DHS is "authorized by law to investigate ... voter fraud."

DHS has since been reviewing the data, along with information it purchased from commercial sources, to try to identify people who are not eligible to vote. In litigation filed separately on Thursday, the government said an analysis of the list and federal data showed that more than 20,000 people registered to vote in California are likely noncitizens.

The lawsuit shows that DHS possesses voter files for California and is improperly using them for election administration purposes, the League of Women Voters and the other plaintiffs said in the District of Columbia filing.

They're asking the court to declare the voter data collection policy violates federal law, enjoin government officials from carrying out the policy, and to order officials to delete information it has collected.

"The federal government has no business secretly collecting the sensitive personal information of millions of American voters and feeding it into immigration enforcement systems under the guise of election security," Celina Stewart, the CEO of the League of Women Voters, said in a statement.

"Let's be clear: Voting is a fundamental right, not a privilege granted by this administration, and our personal information is not theirs to exploit. The League will not stand by while this administration weaponizes voter data, undermines public trust, and threatens our fundamental freedoms."

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 13:20

"Replacing Europe": Undercover Film Follows The Money Behind Europe's Taxpayer-Funded Mass Migration Pipeline

A new documentary from investigative outlet Muckraker traces the migrant route from West Africa through Spain and France to Britain, examining what the outlet describes as a network sustained by taxpayer-funded aid programs, NGOs, and even Western governments.

The 47-minute film, "Replacing Europe," draws on months of reporting and undercover footage to investigate the logistics and top NGO players behind the nation-killing mass migration into Europe. 

"The entire migration is a game," says Sheikh M. Kromah, identified by Muckraker as a worker for the UN's International Organization for Migration. He alleges that Spain has a financial incentive to maintain arrivals because reducing them could jeopardize EU funding.

Muckraker claims that publicly funded institutions help sustain the migration flows that European governments publicly promise to control. Its interviews raise questions about oversight, spending incentives and the boundary between humanitarian assistance and facilitating illegal alien border crossings into Europe. 

The broader concern is whether mass migration, malassimilation, and soaring public costs of the European welfare state that cater to migrants could compound fiscal pressure and political instability. 

Here is Muckraker's report:

A UN migration worker admits Spain won't stop the boats because the EU money is too good. A Catholic NGO pulling in €225 million a year moves arrivals to the mainland and pays them to stay. Activists paint a trail to the French border. And the journalists who filmed it were attacked and nearly arrested.

Investigative outlet Muckraker spent two months following the West African migration route from start to finish: from the smuggling hub of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, to Spain's Canary Islands, across mainland Spain and France, and finally to the English Channel and the United Kingdom. The result is a new documentary, REPLACING EUROPE.

The film's central finding is that the movement of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into Europe is not chaos. It is a managed system, run by smugglers, publicly funded NGOs, activist networks and governments, several of which admit on camera that they profit from it.

Among the documentary's findings:

• A worker for the UN's International Organization for Migration says Spain deliberately lets the boats keep coming so it keeps receiving EU money.
• ACCEM, a Catholic NGO that took in about €225 million in 2024, mostly from the Spanish state, moves arrivals from the Canary Islands to the mainland, houses them in camps and pays them a monthly allowance.
• Migrants are flown by the hundreds from Gran Canaria to Madrid.
• In the Spanish border town of Irun, an activist group has painted a trail of footsteps guiding migrants past police and into France, where a city-run shelter takes in people with no papers.
• The UN's own migration agency says the priority should be "facilitating, not restricting" migration.

Where It Starts: Mauritania

Most boats on the West African route leave from Senegal, Morocco, Western Sahara and above all Mauritania. Tens of thousands of the illegal immigrants who have landed in the Canary Islands departed from Mauritania's coast.

Nouadhibou, Mauritania, a key departure point for boats bound for the Canary Islands.

In Nouadhibou, a local source told Muckraker that young migrant women are raped and held "like slaves," and that captors call their families to demand ransom. Asked whether criminals or police were responsible, he said both: "The police do that… because they are working with the criminals who smuggle people." He added that gun and drug traffickers travel among the migrants to get into Europe.

Muckraker also visited a migrant aid center in Nouadhibou run by OAMR (Organisation d'Appui et d'Assistance aux Migrants et Réfugiés), which works alongside the United Nations International Organization of Migration. A banner on the wall reads "Projet Julia Taft – Phase II": a capacity-building project offering training, outreach and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Nouadhibou, with funding listed as "Ambassade des Etats-Unis en Mauritanie" — the U.S. Embassy. Asked whether the United States pays for the center's bakery and computer lab too, staff answered yes.

The Julia Taft Refugee Fund is a State Department program run by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Created in 2000 and named for Julia Taft, who led that bureau under President Clinton, it lets U.S. embassies hand out small grants directly to local NGOs. The U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott's 2022 call for proposals offered up to $50,000 per project and listed migrants among eligible beneficiaries alongside refugees and returnees.

Arrival: The Canary Islands

Off the island of El Hierro, Muckraker filmed a boat packed with migrants, almost all of them military-aged men, being towed in by Spain's Maritime Rescue Service. One man was carried off on a stretcher, apparently lifeless.

Spain's Maritime Rescue Service tows in a boat packed with migrants off El Hierro.

Arrivals are taken to temporary camps. Residents described days with no work ("only eat and sleep") and men who leave to drink and try to come back with knives. A migrant from Senegal described a darker practice on the crossing itself: passengers accused of witchcraft are tied up and thrown into the sea.

Migrants outside a camp in the Canary Islands.The UN Insider: "Migration Is a Game"

On the Canary Islands, Muckraker met Sheikh M. Kromah, who was then working for the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) and has more than a decade in the migrant aid industry. Kromah has been photographed alongside Spain's Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, and local officials on El Hierro.

Sheikh M. Kromah with Elma Saiz, Spain's Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

"The entire migration is a game," Kromah told Muckraker. "Everyone wants to have their share." He said smuggling networks collect between €50,000 and €60,000 per boat.

Asked why Spain doesn't stop the arrivals, he said the government doesn't want to. Every year, he said, Spain receives a huge amount of money from the European Union to manage migration, and if the boats stopped, so would the money. The strategy, in his words, is to "minimize it, but not stop it completely, so that they keep getting the money."

Kromah went further, claiming some of the money changes hands in cash, carried in suitcases into negotiating rooms. He said even the special police deployed to the islands, paid about three times a regular officer's salary, "want the boats to come every day."

"Everybody just wants to make money off everybody here," he said. "So if you look at it, it's a game."

Flown to the Mainland

Then comes the transfer. At Gran Canaria airport, Muckraker found a few hundred African men waiting to be flown to Madrid. This process happens multiple times per week and is managed by ACCEM. 

Migrants waiting at Gran Canaria airport to be flown to mainland Spain.ACCEM: The NGO Running Spain's Migrant Camps

One of the primary organizations responsible for moving illegal immigrants from the Canary Islands to mainland Spain, and housing them in camps once they arrive, is ACCEM.

An ACCEM-run migrant camp in mainland Spain.

ACCEM's full name is the Asociación Comisión Católica Española de Migración, the Spanish Catholic Commission for Migration. According to its own 2024 annual report, as reported by Spanish outlet Infovaticana, ACCEM took in about €225 million in 2024, 88% of it from Spain's central government. It employed 3,839 people and managed 9,812 reception places that year.

ACCEM makes no secret of its goals. In 2023, its president, Pilar Samanes Ara, cosigned a letter demanding more "safe and legal routes" for migrants into the European Union and Spain. The letter tied that demand directly to the UN's 2030 Agenda, describing migration as "a transformative force for growth and development."

Outside an ACCEM camp, Muckraker met a man from Senegal who had lived there for almost a year without a job. He said residents receive about €75 a month from ACCEM, plus bus or metro tickets. Even people who leave the camp without documents, he said, still get the money and a ticket. He knew of a friend who left for another Spanish city and kept being paid.

The UN's Blueprint

What Kromah described is consistent with the framework the UN itself has published. In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, built around 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

In a related paper titled "Migration and the 2030 Agenda," the IOM states that the agenda recognizes migration as "a core development consideration," the first time migration has been integrated explicitly into the global development agenda. The paper calls migrant women, men and children "agents of development" and says migration can be linked to every goal in the 2030 Agenda. Its conclusion: efforts should not focus on stopping migration. Facilitating it, not restricting it, is the priority.

It is the same framework ACCEM's president invoked when demanding new routes into Europe. The UN sets the agenda, NGOs like ACCEM carry it out, and European taxpayers fund it.

A Painted Trail to France

In Irun, the last Spanish town before France, migrants arrive at the bus station on a daily basis. From the bus station, a trail of painted footsteps leads to the Red Cross and on to the town hall, where an activist group called Irungo Harrera Sarea meets migrants every day. Members of the activist group told Muckraker the group has helped some 40,000 migrants to cross the Spanish border into France.

A billboard in Irun, Spain, welcoming migrants and mapping the route from the bus and train station to the Red Cross and town hall.

The man who painted the footsteps told Muckraker the trail exists so migrants can cross the border without being caught by police, and that he plans to paint more "because they get lost." The activists confirmed they tell migrants which buses to take to avoid getting caught. A billboard by the train station maps out the entire route.

The trail leads to Pausa, a shelter in Bayonne, France, that has received millions of euros in public funds. Its director told Muckraker the center is managed by the city of Bayonne's administration and keeps "no photos, no names." Migrants stay a few days, he said, then take the bus and "go all over Europe," with or without documents.

The director of Pausa, a publicly funded migrant shelter in Bayonne, France.Attacked in Paris

At the entrance to the Eiffel Tower, Muckraker found the plaza crowded with migrant street vendors. When the crew began filming, the vendors surrounded them. Muckraker co-founder Josh Rubin (@joshbrubin) was attacked and left bleeding heavily from the head, for pointing a camera.

Muckraker co-founder Josh Rubin after the attack at the Eiffel Tower.

A few miles away, Muckraker visited ARDHIS, an NGO that helps migrants seek asylum as LGBT refugees. A migrant who knows the community said many of those making the claim are not gay: "They say that they just want to get on… the help."

Calais and the Channel

For those headed to Britain, the last stop in France is Calais, where makeshift camps serve as staging grounds for Channel crossings. A local private security guard described migrants stealing from stores and killing a farmer's goat to eat. Human traffickers embed themselves in these camps, which have been the scene of deadly shootings in recent years.

Posing as aid workers and filming with hidden cameras, Muckraker got inside one camp set up in an abandoned warehouse. Men there said they came from Sudan, Morocco and Egypt. The crew counted roughly 100 tents packed under one roof, a prayer area lined with rugs and stacked Korans, and masked men watching the visitors. Once the camera was noticed, the mood turned. "I don't accept that you take photos here," one man said. A crowd closed in and pushed the crew out.

Around 100 tents inside a warehouse camp near Calais. Men pray among the tents inside the camp.

International trafficking networks run the crossings themselves. Many of the traffickers are illegal migrants themselves, often from Iraq, Albania and Kurdish regions. On the evening before a boat leaves, hundreds of migrants move out of the camps to pre-arranged meeting points along the coast. Muckraker spent weeks in Calais watching these movements and gathering intelligence.

Migrants with their belongings gather at a roadside meeting point near Calais.

Getting to a launch was the hard part. An Afghan migrant who planned to make the crossing himself told the crew that smugglers are suspicious of anyone who speaks English or French, assuming they are spies or police, and warned they could be beaten, injured or even killed. Late one night, he sent the crew the location where a boat would leave from, followed by a warning to be careful because the smugglers were armed.

The crew drove to the coast and waited. In the dark, they watched a dinghy head out to open water while groups of men they believed could be smugglers moved along the shore. The boat's plan was to circle back and pick up its passengers from the beach.

At about 5 a.m., more than 50 people ran out of the dunes toward the water, including a man carrying a small child. For more than 15 minutes, not a single police officer was on the beach. By the time police arrived, the boat was loading, and they soon gave up and walked back up the beach and the boat they attempted to stop successfully departed for and later arrived at the U.K.

A migrant confronts a French police officer in the surf as a boat to Britain loads.The United Kingdom

In England, asylum seekers living in a government-funded hotel told Muckraker that housing and food are free, that they receive about £300 a month, and that university is free for them as well. One said he had been living in the hotel for three years.

A hotel in England housing asylum seekers.Watch the full video here: 

* * *

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 11:05

Two More Tankers Hit Off Saudi Coast As Brent Tops $110

Brent crude topped $110 a barrel to end the week for the first time since May as drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure, from the Gulf to the war in Ukraine, cast a very dark cloud over oil and products market ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

The global benchmark rose 3.7% Friday, marking the second consecutive week of gains as traders ramped up bullish bets on crude ahead of the weekend.

Bloomberg reports that two tankers were struck near Jubail, a port city in Saudi Arabia.

• The first tanker, 78 nautical miles northeast of Jubail, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat, causing damage but no casualties.
• The second tanker, 68 nautical miles northeast of Jubail, was struck by an unidentified projectile. Its crew was reported safe and evacuated.

Two tanker attacks in the central Persian Gulf, northeast of Al Jubail, reported to happen yesterday. IRGC appears increasingly emboldened and comfortable, as one tanker struck using an RPG fired from a small boat. https://t.co/65nzcu4qhL

— Mehdi H. (@mhmiranusa) October 17, 2026

The broadening conflict in the Middle East, with Iran-backed Houthis pelting Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones, Tehran causing ongoing trouble in the Strait of Hormuz, and Ukraine continuing to attack Russian energy infrastructure, has renewed fear in the oil market. 

The good news this week is that more than 100 million barrels passed through the waterway, bringing volumes close to pre-war levels, but a nasty global refining crisis may accelerate into the new year. 

Read UBS:

• Iran Hormuz Attack Spree Starts Choking Oil Flows (Again)

"After a brief reprieve, the oil market is having to price risk back in, particularly heading into the weekend," said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group.

Diesel futures settled at $4.90 a gallon in New York, while gasoline also rose. Both fuels are trading at their highest levels for this time of year. Restrictions on Russian diesel are pushing refineries elsewhere to process more crude.

The International Energy Agency warned in recent days that the diesel squeeze will persist through at least the first half of next year, similar to Goldman's recent take (read here).

Vitol CEO Russell Hardy warned, "There aren't any more inventories to drain in the West," as the tail risk of $200 crude lingers if another hard shutdown of the Hormuz chokepoint materializes.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 09:55

Under Pressure From Trump, EU Introduces Corporate Levy Instead Of Digital Tax

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

In the end, are we working only for the state? What was once dismissed as a light-hearted exaggeration is becoming reality step by step. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the end of World War II, Germany has developed a fever for taxation. Berlin is raising levies unreasonably, from the sugar tax to tobacco and alcohol taxes, from higher top income-tax rates and the super-rich tax to the highly probable increase in inheritance tax – increasingly, the substance of the middle class is also coming into the sights of Berlin’s central planners.

Berlin has launched a species-threatening hunt for the taxpayer.

It is truly an absurd idea, if not knowingly destructive policy, to keep expanding the state apparatus at the expense of the private sector in order to overcome a crisis that this very state apparatus has brought about with its ideology, its degrowth policies and its boundless belief in what can be engineered.

But as if this tax policy were not already fatal enough, Brussels too is demanding an increasing share of the shrinking economic pie. The Commission is feeling the growing pressure to finance itself. From 2028 onward, the refinancing of the €800 billion NextGenerationEU Eurobond will come due. Ursula von der Leyen also wants to lock in her two-trillion-euro budget as quickly and quietly as possible. Every new source of tax revenue therefore comes in handy.

The state paradox is this: The more capital or credit politicians have at their disposal, the faster new demands, new follow-up costs and economic ruins emerge – the state is the great maw into which citizens can pour tax money at will – in the end, it always cries out for more and more.

So far, the EU Commission has primarily collected funds from EU customs revenues. There are also extraction vehicles such as the CO₂ emissions trading system and its own plastic tax.

To expand its tax base, Brussels originally planned to introduce a digital levy. Large digital companies, platforms such as Google, Amazon and X, were to be bled for their contribution to the common good, as the argument always goes. The Brussels Commission officially abandoned this plan this week – the pressure from Washington, namely from the US president himself, apparently proved too great to maintain these plans.

Instead, a special levy on large corporations operating economically in the EU is now planned. It would be an annual flat-rate charge for companies with net revenues of more than €100 million. Depending on the revenue class, the contribution would range from €100,000 to €750,000 per year. That sounds like a trifle, payable out of the petty cash of many large corporations. But every little bit adds up. And so Brussels repeatedly succeeds in creating the impression that the gigantic fiscal raid burdens only a few wealthy people, spares the middle class and ultimately remains within limits.

Beyond the fiscal dimension, the planned digital tax naturally also had a trade-policy function. It was conceived as a weapon, directed against the Chinese and American digital corporations that have left the Europeans hopelessly behind technologically. The logic was: If you cannot compete, at least collect plenty of taxes from them.

We know this all too well from Brussels.

With the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, the Brussels Commission developed mechanisms to derive regular heavy fines from the supposed grey zone in which the digital corporations operate – through alleged violations of copyright rules or through a lack of consumer and data protection – an eternal source of irritation and continuing provocations that by no means contribute to pacifying the American-European relationship.

With the planned digital levy, this extraction policy was supposed to be cast into a foundation. A secure financial stream for Brussels was planned, but the White House ultimately eliminated it with a firm hand.

That it is now European companies, of all companies, those economically engaged in the EU, that will step into the breach to fill this already budgeted revenue is typical of this EU: Bureaucracy requires higher tax burdens. A power structure has become entrenched that now increasingly develops its own sources of taxation like an autonomous state.

What we are actually witnessing is a bidding war over the fight for the slowly shrinking tax pie at every level of government.

It must be said plainly: The Brussels power apparatus, having solidified into an extraction mechanism, appears impossible to reform. New political forces will be needed to rebuild this structure so that it serves the interests of European citizens. A common protection of the EU’s external borders and the revival of the single market would be major projects of absolute priority. The taxpayer-funded system of patronage must come to an end.

Economic constructs such as the Green Deal and the absurd subsidy sectors created from it, from the hydrogen economy to the storage of CO₂ in the seabed, consume ever larger sums in subsidies and government support year after year. Uncontrollably high government debt, deepening crowding-out of the private sector in the capital and labour markets, as well as the increasing drain of resources to finance this bankrupt economy, are the harvest reaped by a society that places its fate in the hands of these ideologues.

The debt and tax spirals inevitably turn in sync. They are spinning faster and make it clear that higher government spending and higher tax payments will solve none of the numerous problems created by the modern party state.

European bureaucratism has married German statism. Faith in free enterprise, in the free market economy as an institutional model for prosperity, democracy and individual sovereignty, has been lost in the ever deeper corridors of the administrative machinery.

The wait for EU citizens to recognise the historically well-documented superiority of civil society over every form of statist interpretation has begun – a tough, frustrating undertaking that nevertheless brings us closer, with time, to the inevitable debt crisis. And crisis, as we know, means a turning point.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 09:20

Watch: Migrant Mobs Are Terrorizing German Children At School

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A young German student was punched, kicked in the head, and left defenseless on the ground by a mob of roughly ten youths outside the Heinrich-von-Kleist School in Frankfurt (Oder) this week. The attack is part of a widespread pattern of mobs of feral migrant background youths attacking German children.

The attackers filmed the assault and released it with a gangster rap soundtrack. Police are investigating ten suspects aged 13 to 15 of Syrian, Chechen, Polish, Russian, and German nationality on charges of aggravated assault and robbery.

Videos circulating on social media, which authorities have confirmed as authentic, show the student being confronted and asked for something. He displays empty pockets before one of the group punches him in the face.

JUST IN: A German youth was severely beaten by a mob of migrant youths just outside a school in Frankfurt (Oder).The incident happened in front of the Heinrich-von-Kleist School.The suspects released the video with a gangster rap soundtrack.Follow: @RMXnews https://t.co/UeRGRnEeMW

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 16, 2026

The rest of the mob then joins in with punches and kicks, including to the head, continuing the attack after he falls to the ground.

The victim suffered facial injuries and reported the incident to police the same day.

Headmaster Sören Schunke stated that the attackers were not students at his school. Officers later carried out an operation at the nearby Ulrich von Hutten High School linked to the case.

??? A young German youth is completely surrounded by a mob of migrants and ruthlessly beaten.This same image has been broadcast time after time across Western Europe.Follow: @rmxnews https://t.co/BtGuEYuVz8

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 16, 2026

Frankfurt (Oder) Mayor Axel Strasser said in a statement: "What was done to a young person here in Frankfurt (Oder) leaves me speechless. It hurts to have to witness such violence. And it makes me angry that a youth has to experience something like this."

He added that this level of organized youth violence was previously unknown in the city and that it would not be tolerated. Strasser has spoken with Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann and arranged security talks involving police and school authorities.

The incident occurs against a backdrop of repeated group attacks in the neighboring city of Potsdam. Redmann has described a wave of predominantly migrant-linked youth violence there, including Syrian suspects.

On September 25, roughly 20 people, mostly migrants, entered a private party uninvited and attacked guests. The following day a group of about 25 assaulted three youths. Additional attacks in early October left victims with head injuries requiring hospital treatment.

Authorities are monitoring a group of roughly 25 mostly migrant suspects; two alleged ringleaders are in pretrial detention and police presence has been increased.

Redmann has said foreign perpetrators, particularly Syrians whose protection status can be revoked, could face deportation: "Whoever comes to Germany and simply has no respect for Germany, we will not tolerate that. The rule of law has the final say."

??? "Unbridled and massive violence."Witnesses report that up to 20 people with an "Arab migration background" viciously beat three high school students from the Catholic Marien School in Babelsberg with "massive violence."The two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old were beaten with punches and kicks in the Wannsee district of Berlin last Saturday evening.One of the 17-year-olds lost consciousness.During the assault, the 18-year-old hit his head against a parked car, which required treatment at the hospital."For me, this is attempted murder," said one witness who spoke with the German news outlet Tagesspiegel.The perpetrators fled into the forest and police continue to search for them.The suspects are believed to come from Potsdam, where robberies by youth gangs have become more frequent recently.Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 3, 2026

In one related case in the Wannsee district of Berlin, witnesses described up to 20 people with an "Arab migration background" beating three high school students from the Catholic Marien School in Babelsberg with "unbridled and massive violence."

One 17-year-old lost consciousness and an 18-year-old struck his head against a parked car, requiring hospital treatment.

A witness told Tagesspiegel: "For me, this is attempted murder." The perpetrators fled into a forest. Suspects are believed to come from Potsdam, where robberies by youth gangs have increased.

??JUST IN: Young German students were reportedly hunted and beaten by a group of foreigners in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.On Tuesday, attackers at a train station in Jessen beat a number of German students in random assaults, with the victims stating that they do not know why they were targeted.The German media outlet Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported on the incident, noting that police have so far been unable to locate the perpetrators.Since the initial reports, a video has been published on social media showing the moment the German youths were attacked.Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 3, 2026

Similar patterns of targeted attacks on German students have appeared elsewhere. In July, young German students were reportedly hunted and beaten by a group of foreigners at a train station in Jessen in Saxony-Anhalt.

Victims said they did not know why they were targeted, and police had been unable to locate the perpetrators at the time of reporting. A video of the attack later circulated.

These cases form part of a longer pattern of violence and disorder in German schools with high migrant enrollment. Government data released in response to a parliamentary inquiry showed that in 2024 nearly 40 percent of suspects identified in school violence cases across Germany did not hold German citizenship.

Of 11,558 suspects, 4,254 were foreign nationals, including 1,236 Syrians and 421 Afghans. There were 35,570 violent incidents at schools that year, averaging nearly 100 per day, with more than 740 involving knives.

At the Karolina-Burger high school in Ludwigshafen, police recorded 118 criminal complaints over three years, roughly half involving bodily harm, along with more than 100 false fire alarms. A 16-year-old student attacked a teacher in the staff room with a knife; prosecutors said she acted with the intention of killing her.

Interior Minister Michael Ebling stated: "Violence has no place in our society - and certainly not in our schools." Education Minister Sven Teuber said: "Every child has the right to learn well and safely."

A special education teacher at a secondary school in the Rhineland where roughly 75 percent of students have a migrant background described daily fights, drug dealing on school grounds, and a 15-year-old girl who prostituted herself in the school toilets for drugs and money before becoming pregnant and leaving.

The teacher, who was punched in the face while intervening in a fight, said: "Every day is a challenge. Fights, shouting - this happens in the classroom and on the schoolyard. We are happy if we can teach for a few minutes at a time. Sometimes the police have to come several times a week."

She added that colleagues are insulted, threatened, or ambushed after school and that "No one from the school board ever shows up. They've left us to fend for ourselves."

In Düsseldorf, an 18-year-old Afghan intern at a primary school exposed his erect penis to two second-grade girls at a sink in the classroom while a teacher was present showing a film.

He also admitted to groping the class teacher's buttocks on two occasions. Police opened a criminal investigation, searched his apartment, and notified immigration authorities because of his asylum seeker status.

The internship was terminated and he was banned from the premises. An investigator noted that schools often prefer to keep a low profile in such cases.

Separate stabbing attacks have also occurred. A 13-year-old Arab boy stabbed a 12-year-old German classmate multiple times with a kitchen knife in the locker room of an elementary school in Berlin's Spandau neighborhood; the victim required emergency surgery.

In Remscheid, an 11-year-old Iraqi child stabbed a 13-year-old German boy twice in the leg with a kitchen knife after an arranged fight. Because the suspect was under 14 he faced no criminal charges and was released to his parents under youth welfare supervision.

In the small town of Harsefeld in Lower Saxony, a youth gang active for at least six months committed beatings, threats, extortion, and drug trafficking, uploading videos of the assaults.

Two known leaders had approximately 15 reported crimes each. Citizens formed a vigilante patrol group to protect children after police response was criticized as inadequate. A police spokesperson said: "Yes, of course, we find that quite creepy. A vigilante group doesn't help anyone."

The filmed attack in Frankfurt (Oder) is not an outlier. It is one more instance in which German students have been surrounded, beaten, and filmed by groups that include large numbers of foreign nationals and those with migration backgrounds.

Officials issue statements of outrage and schedule further talks while the underlying numbers on school violence and the composition of the suspects remain consistent across multiple reports. Native German children continue to encounter these conditions on the way to and from school.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 08:10

Zelensky Warns That 20 Million Ukrainians Would Pour Into EU If Russia Wins

Is that a threat?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders on Friday that if his country loses the war to Russia, as many as 20 million Ukrainians could be forced to flee to Europe.

Such numbers would make the 2015 European migrant crisis look like a walk in the park.

Zelensky warns: What will happen if we fall? 20 million Ukrainians will come to Europe because Putin will destroy us and push us out. https://t.co/DKF5jT5jFX

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 16, 2026

"Russia is killing us," Zelensky said while speaking at a summit of European Union leaders. "They [Russia] don’t want to stop" and Ukrainian are being pushed out of their homeland, he said.

"What will happen if we fall? I don't know, 20 million Ukrainians will come to Europe," Zelensky declared.

Earlier this week, Zelensky indicated he felt 'betrayed' by President Trump as relations with Washington spiral, particularly over the diesel deal with Putin and White House pressure for Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries.

Trump has also late this week in a Newsmax interview said that Ukraine should hold a new national election, and added provocatively that that even Putin is easier to deal with than Zelensky.

Indicators inside Ukraine show support for Zelensky's war policy is slipping...

New poll on Ukrainian attitudes on the war finds a strong majority – 57% – support an immediate negotiated peace with Russia and territorial concessions Only 21% support fighting until the Donbass is returned to Ukrainian control Most overwhelmingly favor a national referendum on peace, rather than allowing the president or parliament to decide The survey was taken by Rating Group on October 3-5 It follows a Gallup poll this June showing 66% of Ukrainians favoring an immediate negotiated cessation of hostilities

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) October 15, 2026

Zelensky is clearly trying to keep leverage over his backers in Europe, wanting them to hold the line against Trump, in doing things like invoking the possibility of 20 million Ukrainians pouring into Europe - which would obviously be a catastrophe for Europe from an economic, public services, and political point of view.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 07:35

Le Pen And AfD Join Forces: Heavy Headwinds For Von Der Leyen's EU Mega-Budget

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

A breather in the European bond market.

After yields on ten-year French government bonds brushed against the 5-percent mark in late trading on Friday, the situation calmed again at the start of the week. Two politically significant developments, one from Germany and the other from France, apparently acted like circuit breakers as they are known in the markets.

On Monday, an AfD strategy paper was circulating. In this pamphlet, the party’s European policy experts had apparently agreed on a strategic shift in their approach to the EU and monetary policy. There was no longer any talk of leaving the euro system or even of a Dexit, Germany’s departure from the European Union.

Quite the opposite: The EU is to be transformed into a federation of sovereign nations, with a focus on the internal market, effective protection of the external borders, and coordination among member states on security matters. In general, the goal should be to return political powers to the nation-states — all sensible measures to consolidate the EU’s completely out-of-control expansionism.

As for the shaky euro currency, the authors of the paper argue that it should rest on a solid foundation of individual states taking responsibility for themselves and assuming their own liabilities. Whether this can put an end to the tiresome problem of shifting fiscal responsibility onto German taxpayers remains to be seen.

Important for opponents of fiat money: According to the AfD, the European Central Bank should have its operational scope significantly restricted. Specifically, the paper calls for an end to “indirect ECB financing of governments,” the settlement of Target balances, and an insolvency regime for member states. A ban on financing government debt with the central bank’s money printer would be a revolution in monetary policy. It would be the end of ideological experiments. Politics would have to abandon vehicles such as the Green Deal, since its economic stillbirths can only be kept alive with the help of manipulated borrowing costs. In light of the latest bond turmoil, any means would be justified to leave this destructive path behind.

All of this points in the right direction, but avoids a break with existing power structures. After all, nothing frightens the markets more than uncertainty. A clear horizon is what they are looking for, which is why the news from Germany likely contributed to a collective sigh of relief in the bond market.

France’s opposition leader Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National sounded similarly tame. On Tuesday morning, Le Pen presented her plans to consolidate France’s ailing public finances.

A partial return to the Maastricht criteria, with annual new borrowing below three percent of GDP, is what she is seeking, Le Pen said. That, however, would require a revival of economic activity, in an economy that, much like Germany’s, is bloodless and starved of innovation under Brussels’ climate diktat. The country is heading toward sovereign bankruptcy, the politician said, and by 2032, hard spending cuts are supposed to generate savings of €140 billion.

After just 15 months in office, Le Pen plans to achieve a balanced primary budget, meaning a surplus before interest payments. As in Germany, Le Pen plans to enshrine a debt brake, her “golden rule,” in the constitution by referendum — and we have known since Chancellor Friedrich Merz single-handedly executed the debt brake with an already-defeated Bundestag and the special fund exactly what such political promises are worth.

Le Pen also had a very special message for Ursula von der Leyen. France’s net contributions to the European Commission should immediately be cut back to the level of the early 2000s, to five billion euros. A reduction of around 64 percent.

If Le Pen wins the election, she could put herself at the head of a consolidation movement that clips Brussels’ expansionist wings. Von der Leyen is planning a two-trillion-euro mega-budget for the period from 2028 to 2034 - a hyperbolic expansion of 60 percent, which would send Germany’s contribution to the debt club soaring from around €27 billion today to €40–45 billion a year. Even the otherwise debt-friendly Friedrich Merz is trying to rein in this expansionist drive somewhat. Media theater, without a doubt, but the chancellor senses that there is no longer any backing for this policy.

Ultimately, the question is whether Europe will increasingly pool its debt in eurobonds, into a common pool consolidated under the roof of the European Commission and systematically monetized by the European Central Bank. A shell game: shifting the costs of debt-making onto EU taxpayers, who ultimately become the pack animals of centralism, central planning and state-run economics — all systems that consume more billions year after year.

Perhaps the bond market received reassuring signals from the European right. If it is able to put the brakes on this fiscal crash course, a consolidated EU focused on its core responsibilities could take shape. The AfD paper offers important indications of a realistic path toward that goal.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/17/2026 - 07:00