ZeroHedge News

Iran Slams Door On Nuclear Talks: No Deal Unless US Meets Its Conditions

Tyler Durden — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:05:00 +0000

Iran Slams Door On Nuclear Talks: No Deal Unless US Meets Its Conditions

There have been no nuclear negotiations taking place between Washington and the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing what it said was an Iranian official.

"No negotiations [have] taken place with the US about Iran's nuclear program… Washington must first meet Tehran's conditions before nuclear talks can start," the source said.

“US recognition of Iran's right to nuclear enrichment is Tehran's red line … [Iran] will not show flexibility on [enrichment] in any way,” the source added, a day after US Vice President JD Vance called for a scale-back of Iranian uranium enrichment.

Via Bloomberg/Getty Images

The source said that “Vance's comments are Washington's ideas and requests. ... Americans are free to make requests and have ideas, but they are at odds with Iran's demands.”

Vance had said on October 5th that Tehran must make a significant reduction in nuclear enrichment.

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity,” he told Reuters.

He claimed that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian were in talks with the US, but added that it was “unclear how much authority they wield within Iran's power structure.”

“One of the things we picked up on is it's not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” he went on to say.

US President Donald Trump also said again this week that nobody knows who is in charge in Iran.

“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in response.

Tehran has repeatedly vowed that it will not compromise on its peaceful nuclear enrichment program. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated.” However, US intelligence reports have refuted this.

The Wednesday Reuters report follows a Qatari Foreign Ministry statement to reporters saying that US–Iran talks were ongoing.

“I can confirm that the talks are continuing and the exchange of messages between different parties is continuing via Qatar and its regional partners,” Qatari Foreign Ministry official Ibrahim al-Hashmi said during a press briefing.

Last month, Iran was reported to have relayed a proposal to the US, offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for a cessation of hostilities and the US lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump publicly rejected the reported offer and has since renewed his threats to resume bombardment of Iran.

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September, Iran said that Tehran is demanding an end to the fighting on all fronts, a halt to US acts of aggression, the lifting of Washington’s naval blockade, an end to its economic war on Iran, and the release of Iranian assets in order for talks to resume.

🇮🇷🇺🇸 U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to secure an agreement with Washington. ➤ “If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel?” Vance told Reuters, calling enrichment a “basic threshold issue.” ➤ He said Washington remained open to an agreement but would demand concrete steps: “We’re not going to trade words for actions.” ➤ Iran has reiterated that the nuclear file is not part of its current discussions with Washington and that it is not considering opening such negotiations while the war continues. ➤ Vance claimed the U.S. was in contact with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but added that “it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions.”
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 7, 2026

As part of its overall demands for a final agreement, Iran is also demanding sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and a US military pullout from the region.

“The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely clear and firm, and the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until our seven conditions, based on the Islamabad ⁠memorandum of understanding, are met,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said over the weekend.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 20:05

Porsche Plans 20% Price Hike On Top-End 911s In Profit Push

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:40:00 +0000

Porsche Plans 20% Price Hike On Top-End 911s In Profit Push

During Capital Markets Day in Weissach, new Porsche CEO Michael Leiters offered Wall Street desks a bleak outlook, warning that the turnaround will take time and that operating conditions are unlikely to improve significantly over the next few years.

Leiters signaled to investors a shift toward value over volume. He said the focus is now on prioritizing higher revenue per vehicle and reducing dependence on China.

One such strategy, as Bloomberg reports, is for Porsche to raise average prices for its top-of-the-line sports cars by 20% and introduce a new model above the 911 as it seeks to recover after its disastrous entry into the electric vehicle space.

Sharp depreciation in used Porsche Taycans highlights the challenge of maintaining resale values for high-end EVs.

A recent Goldman report points to a similar divergence at Ferrari, where collectors favor V8 and V12 combustion-engine models while hybrids face pressure in the secondary market (read report).

Average prices for Porsche's top-end models are expected to exceed €330,000 ($370,134) by the end of the decade, up from about €270,000 this year.

"The top priority is to further strengthen our unique sports-car brand across the entire lineup, with new, desirable models in particularly high-margin segments," Leiters told investors in Stuttgart earlier today.

New sports cars, greater exclusivity, stronger profitability: at its Capital Markets Day, Porsche AG presents its strategy ‘Sportwagenschmiede '35’, which focuses on its medium-term ambitions. More: https://t.co/M7yUGf3qu9 https://t.co/4mZNM13SJa
— Porsche Newsroom (@PorscheNewsroom) October 7, 2026

Leiters outlined new regional plans, emphasizing drivetrain flexibility in Europe and stronger competitiveness in North America through combustion-engine and hybrid models.

Leiters also outlined plans for a new mid-engine vehicle model above the 911 that would return the struggling German automaker to the supercar segment for the first time since the limited-production 918 Spyder debuted in 2013.

Porsche shares in Germany are flat on Wednesday morning. Shares remain down 64% since the peak of 120 euros in early 2023.

The Volkswagen subsidiary is targeting an operating margin of 10% to 15% over the medium term and 15% over the longer term, goals that hinge on a successful turnaround. Profitability tumbled to just 1.1% last year as restructuring costs, tariffs and soft demand weighed on earnings, before recovering to 7.8% in the first half of this year.

Volkswagen is also under severe pressure, shrinking its industrial footprint with a massive planned cut of 100,000 jobs, mostly in Germany, while Mercedes-Benz and BMW are also seeking turnaround plans.

The planned price hikes could support secondary-market values for high-end 911s by raising replacement costs and making existing models more attractive to buyers.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 19:40

Arizona Democratic House Candidate Raped While Repairing Campaign Signs: Report

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:15:00 +0000

Arizona Democratic House Candidate Raped While Repairing Campaign Signs: Report

Democratic congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia says she was sexually assaulted in mid-August while repairing a campaign sign late at night in the Sun City area, according to a Phoenix New Times report published October 7. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has confirmed it received a report on August 31 and that the investigation remains open.

Democratic congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia participates in the 2026 AZ Clean Elections debate for the 8th Congressional District at Sneaky Big Studios in Scottsdale on Aug. 27, 2026.
Diannie Chavez

Greene-Placentia is the Democratic nominee for Arizona's 8th Congressional District and is challenging Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh in the November 3 general election. The district covers parts of the northwest Valley, including areas of Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Sun City, and Anthem. She is a longtime long-haul trucker and small-business owner who won the Democratic primary in July.

According to the New Times account, which draws on her interview, a police report, and conversations with family members, campaign staff, and others close to her, the incident occurred just after 2 a.m. on a Friday near 99th Avenue and Bell Road. She told the paper she had been making late-night stops to fix damaged signs throughout the summer. She said her recollection of the event is fragmentary. She informed campaign staff the following Sunday and her husband the next day, then contacted the sheriff's office more than two weeks later. Associates described her as withdrawn in the days afterward. A sheriff's office spokesman has declined further comment while the case is active. No arrests have been announced.

Greene-Placentia has said she initially hesitated to report the assault because she was embarrassed, but later chose to speak publicly. The Phoenix New Times story is available here.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego posted the following in response:

I'm absolutely heartbroken to hear this news, and I'm thinking of Bernadette and her loved ones during this incredibly difficult time. We cannot tolerate political or sexual violence in any form. Those responsible must be held accountable. Thank you for speaking out, Bernadette. We're with you.
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) October 7, 2026

Additional coverage of the Phoenix New Times report has appeared from outlets including Newsweek and The Independent, which also cited confirmation from the sheriff's office that a report was filed August 31 and remains under investigation.

* * *

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 19:15

Hospitals Warned To Avoid Deceptive Pricing Or Wind Up In Federal Court

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:25:00 +0000

Hospitals Warned To Avoid Deceptive Pricing Or Wind Up In Federal Court

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

Hospitals must provide complete and accurate price information to patients before they agree to an elective procedure, or they may find themselves in federal court, Andrew Ferguson, director of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said at a healthcare transparency forum on Oct. 5.

Emergency medicine center for trauma and critical care in Washington on Jan. 2, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Ferguson said he'd written to the CEOs of 24 of the nation's largest healthcare companies, reminding them that the FTC has the power to enforce federal laws on unfair and deceptive pricing.

"Let me be clear: these letters are a warning. Healthcare providers must disclose their prices to consumers and must do so starting today," Ferguson told forum attendees.

Hospitals have been required to publicly post price information since 2020, although only about half fully comply with that regulation, according to a recent report.

Even when posted, however, many of the online files are extremely large and may be difficult for consumers to navigate.

Lack of clarity will no longer be tolerated, Ferguson said.

"Hospitals cannot conceal the true cost of a procedure to prevent patients from shopping for better deals at competing facilities, and hospital price disclosures must be complete, accurate, and offered in advance of scheduled services," he said.

A price can be deceptive if it either discloses or conceals information that might reasonably mislead a consumer, according to the FTC. That means prices must be clear and easily found by the shopper.

A price can also be deceptive when it omits critical information, like physician or facility fees, or it covers only part of the expense for services that would be provided for the patient's care.

Inaccurate prices are deceptive, according to the FTC. When a reasonable person would conclude they've been told the entire cost of the service but they have not, the price is misleading.

Just 18 percent of hospitals that post their fees online list dollars-and-cents prices for at least half of their services, according to a September report from the group Patient Rights Advocate.

"Too many patients are still being denied the real, upfront prices they need to shop for affordable care and protect themselves from overcharges," Cynthia Fisher, the group's founder and chair, said in a statement.

Trent England, executive director of the conservative policy research group Save Our States, hailed the Oct. 5 announcement.

"Healthcare price transparency is one of the most obvious policies in American politics. That it has taken this long to guarantee patients and employers actual prices is absurd," England said in a statement.

The warning letters were not based on a specific assessment of each of the 24 healthcare company's practices, Ferguson said, but aimed to encourage the businesses to conduct an internal review to be sure they are not violating federal law.

Enforcement investigations into some hospitals are already underway though, Ferguson said, and the FTC is especially focused on what it deems vulnerable populations, which include rural Americans, seniors, and veterans.

"We will not rest until pricing transparency in healthcare is the universal norm," Ferguson said.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 18:25

Syria's Jolani May Send Troops To Yemen To Fight Houthis

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Syria's Jolani May Send Troops To Yemen To Fight Houthis

Syria is said to be "cautiously" considering sending troops to assist Saudi Arabia in the fight against the Houthis in Yemen, Reuters and others are reporting Wednesday.

An anonymous US official described that this was a focus of conversation between Syria's self-declared President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the two met in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Ironically it was the Saudis that heavily supported Sharaa's rise and overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in the first place. Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani was the founder and leader of Syrian al-Qaeda (Nusra Front, later Hayat Tahrir al-Sham). He had also fought Assad while initially under ISIS, and had taken control of Idlib.

via SANA

So while for many years foreign fighters flowed from Saudi Arabia into Syria, now the jihadi pipeline looks to go in the opposite direction.

The hardline Sunnis of the new Damascus government are well-known for viewing all Shiites as 'apostates' - and so there could be plenty of willing participants to go and fight the Houthis, who are Shia and backed by Iran. Some reports speculate there are already thousands of Syrian mercenaries as well as 'volunteer' fighters on the ground in Yemen.

"Options being considered include defensive aid to protect the kingdom from attacks, or deployment of forces in an offensive capacity to help Saudi-backed Yemeni troops fight the Houthis," according to sources cited in the reports.

A US official has said that Riyadh has specifically requested the deployment of Syrian forces against the Houthis, perhaps as 'payback' for Saudi funding for the jihad in Syria over the prior decade.

However, a Syrian diplomatic source has also indicated Damascus is placing priority on its own continued problems inside the country, also given Israel currently occupies a swathe of southern Syria, and the economy has yet to rebound after years of US sanctions (recently lifted for post-Assad Syria).

Axios has noted in its reporting that Sharaa is "seriously considering it, but he hasn't decided. Further, the Trump administration "not opposed in principle to such a move," US officials cited in the same report said.

Below: Ansar Allah sources have meanwhile pointed out that Jolani's militants are merely dozens of miles from Israeli positions and yet don't fire a single shot toward them:

Sayed Abdel Malek Al Houthi: "The Saudis want to involve Turkey and Pakistan in the war. The Turkish context is to import the Takfiri Jolani gangs from Syria to Yemen. The Takfiri groups in Syria stand idle when Israel is 35km away but want to fight in Yemen" @sneako https://t.co/GjNgUuS1Ak
— 🇵🇸 Islamic Resistance 🇿🇦 (@resistance_ZA) September 21, 2026

So it seems one additional benefit of the US-Gulf axis having a puppet in Damascus is that Syrian troops can be essentially used as fresh fodder to be thrown into regional proxy wars. It seems this is an option the Saudis are now pursuing, also as they seek greater military support from allies Islamic allies Pakistan and Turkey.

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

Researchers Develop AI 'Mind-Reading' Tool That Reconstructs What Your Eyes See

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 21:40:00 +0000

Researchers Develop AI 'Mind-Reading' Tool That Reconstructs What Your Eyes See

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

A cutting-edge new artificial intelligence (AI) tool can reconstruct images from a person's vision simply by analyzing brain scans.

There's our little test subject!

The technology recreates a person's visual field with startling accuracy and can also predict brain activity by analyzing what a person is looking at in real time.

Professor Michal Irani of the Weizmann Institute of Science developed the "mind-reading" AI model Brain-IT, which interprets functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of participants' brain activity as they view a series of images.

Irani and her team - which includes Roman Beliy, Amit Zalcher, Jonathan Kogman, and Navve Wasserman from Weizmann's Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Department - released their research on Sept. 14.

While the current study used fixed images, Irani's lab plans to test these so-called mind-reading methods on participants' hearing and, eventually, on video.

"What remains especially challenging is decoding video - for example, during dreaming," Irani said in a statement.

"Dozens of images change every second, while an fMRI scan takes about two seconds. If we overcome all these obstacles, it's possible that in the future we may even be able to read dreams."

The study reviewed fMRI scans of eight participants who had viewed thousands of images across 30 to 40 scanning sessions. Participants viewed around 40 images over roughly 10-minute sessions as researchers scanned their brains six times. This created roughly 73,000 image-fMRI pairs for the AI model to analyze.

Irani said other models can translate brain activity into images with "impressive reconstructions," but that they often make basic composition and color errors.

"The new model we developed outperforms them in reconstructing both the content of the image and its details," she said.

"What's more, while every other model requires dozens of hours of brain scans to learn to 'read' a new person, our model needs only one hour," she said.

Scientists have been working on similar technology for years. A paper published in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences in 2017 discussed the possibility of reaching "brain-based mind reading" with neuroimaging techniques.

The paper described how these techniques could be used for lie detection to assess defendants, prisoners, and prospective jurors in court cases to improve the legal system. However, it also notes that brain-based mind reading could have potentially unethical coercive uses.

Improvements in the signal data produced by fMRI machines and in how humans analyze that data in recent years have made this technology possible, according to Kenneth Norman, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Princeton University.

In a discussion with the American Psychological Association in 2022, Norman said the technology could help people with depression or anxiety.

Therapists could use neurofeedback to make participants aware that their thinking has drifted toward negative thought loops and then give them direction to try to control those mental patterns, he said.

Some neuroscientists have heralded the capabilities of Brain-IT's AI model, highlighting how it could therapeutically help people suffering from neurological conditions. But others have raised concerns about how the technology could be abused to coercively extract information from a person's mind.

* * *

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 17:40

15 Economies Sign US-Led Statement Against Industrial Overcapacity; China, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia Sit It Out

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 21:20:00 +0000

15 Economies Sign US-Led Statement Against Industrial Overcapacity; China, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia Sit It Out

Trade ministers from 15 economies, including the United States, South Korea and Japan, signed a joint statement to build sector-specific platforms addressing manufacturing overcapacity, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said Wednesday, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The effort is effectively directed at China, which did not sign. The statement does not name the country.

Building on the productive discussions at the G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee, fourteen economies joined the U.S. in signing a Joint Ministerial Statement that expresses our collective resolve to work together in new, dedicated sectoral platforms to address structural excess capacity and production in certain manufacturing sectors.https://t.co/HxSOijvjxu
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) October 7, 2026

USTR said 14 countries joined the United States: South Korea, Japan, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The statement came out of discussions at the Group of 20 trade ministers' meeting in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee serves as the blueprint for the future of the American economy, blending a strong manufacturing base, rich agricultural surroundings, and shipping access to the Great Lakes. From walking the factory floor at Rockwell Automation to touring one of America’s most iconic brands, Harley-Davidson, the G20 Trade Ministerial underscored the importance of protecting American manufacturing and accelerating our country’s reindustrialization. Thank you to @SecDuffy and @SecRollins for joining me in hosting the G20 Trade Ministers to highlight the success of @POTUS’ policies in supporting American farmers and manufacturers!
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) October 5, 2026

The statement says structural overcapacity, wherever it arises, distorts prices and production patterns, hinders innovation and competition, and can leave other countries open to economic coercion. It singles out existing and expected overcapacity in autos and electric vehicles, batteries, chemicals, foundational semiconductors and solar panels, which it says would cripple domestic industries, destroy jobs and lower living standards.

The signatories agreed to build new sector-specific platforms to examine overcapacity in those areas and take action. They also agreed to hold technical meetings before December to set the scope of the work and share information.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer laid out the overcapacity case at the close of the Milwaukee meeting. The excess-capacity section starts at 14:36.

The Milwaukee meeting, held Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, covered four items: the weaponization of food, structural overcapacity, most-favored-nation reform and the elimination of forced labor from supply chains. Only a joint statement opposing the weaponization of food emerged, with no outcome documents on the other three. China's Ministry of Commerce said most members held divergent positions.

As a result, only 15 of the G20's members appear to have joined the overcapacity statement. China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil and the African Union did not sign. The G20 summit is scheduled for December in Miami.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 17:20

Survey: Young Democratic Women Far More Likely To Blame Men For Their Problems

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Survey: Young Democratic Women Far More Likely To Blame Men For Their Problems

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

A recent survey shows that a majority of young, Democratic women believe that "the challenges that women face in American society" are due in great part to the behaviors or actions of men.

Breitbart reports that data from the Survey Center on American Life offers a glimpse into the perceptions of young Democrat women, and suggests that third-wave feminism still has a significant grip on the younger generation.

26% of young Republican men blame their problems on women.

66% of young Democratic women blame their problems on men.

🔗 https://t.co/MpYz11xIb1 https://t.co/ceex5DwjZa pic.twitter.com/0BhA40XzrG
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 28, 2026

The survey reveals that 66 percent of Democrat women from the ages of 18 to 29 believe that the challenges women face in American society are "due in great part to the behavior or actions of men."

By comparison, only 18 percent of Republican women in the same age range blame men for those problems.

Survey Center pollsters also found that 54 percent of Democrat women between the ages of 30 and 49 believe that the challenges women face in American society are "due to the behavior or actions of men" as well, while just 23 percent of Republican women in that age range agree.

Those disparities generally shrank as women grew older, with fewer Democrats blaming men and more Republicans blaming them.

The survey reported:

Do men see things the same way? When men were asked whether women were to blame for the troubles men faced, only 16 percent agreed. Republican young men are more likely than Democratic young men to blame women for the challenges that men face, but only 26 percent do.

Political scientists and analysts report that these statistics reflect an escalating partisan polarization among Gen Z and millennial demographics.

The gender-political alignment has grown more rigid, with 2026 data indicating that 66 percent of all young women identify as or lean Democratic, while young men have progressively shifted toward the Republican Party.

Researchers tracking these trends have expressed concern that the ideological divide could increasingly impact modern relationships and family formation.

Breitbart reports that the survey coincides with an August Economist/YouGov survey examining cultural norms, which found that American women in general are split on whether they would rather pursue a career or care for their family at home, if given the choice.

In that survey, most Democrat women, 52 percent, said they would choose a career outside the home over staying home to care for their family.

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

More Ukrainian-Style One-Way Attack Drones Seized In Mexico

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:40:00 +0000

More Ukrainian-Style One-Way Attack Drones Seized In Mexico

The emergence of fiber-optic one-way attack drones among Mexican cartels signals a troubling security threat just south of the US border.

Images published by local outlet Luz Noticias show that the Mexican Army seized Category 1 suicide drones with fiber-optic cable reels and improvised explosives. This is sparking ongoing concerns that low-cost attack drones associated with the Ukraine-Russia war and the US-Iran conflict are spreading to narco-terrorists in the Western Hemisphere.

Mexican troops found 15 drones and more than 40 improvised explosive devices in the municipality of El Rosario during security patrols on Monday. The municipality is situated in southern Sinaloa.

Here's what the outlet said:

During the inspection , Mexican Army personnel located and seized drones , drone controllers , fiber optic cables, batteries, improvised explosive devices , chargers, cartridges, long guns , tactical vests, and ballistic plates.

The three long guns seized are AK-47 rifles , better known as Goat Horns , which were allegedly used for clashes between organized crime factions.

The latest development builds on our mid-July note that Ukrainian-style drones were found in a raid deep inside north-central Mexico.

Reuters cited US Army Brigadier General Brian Filler, deputy commander for operations at Joint Task Force Southern Border, who told reporters Monday that the military had detected 378 drone incursions in the last 30 days and that the trend was increasing.

"We are seeing largely commercial off-the-shelf available drones," Filler said, adding that most carry surveillance cameras and are often observed alongside cross-border movements.

The US urgently needs low-cost counter-UAS assets to protect military bases, government buildings, stadiums, critical infrastructure, and data centers. The list is really endless.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 16:40

NY Times Suggests Babies Are Not Conscious

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:20:00 +0000

NY Times Suggests Babies Are Not Conscious

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The New York Times has decided the open question in science this week is whether a baby is conscious. Not a cluster of cells. Not a theoretical model. An actual newborn baby.

Carl Zimmer's 5 October piece, "Are Babies Conscious?" (yes that's a real headline) walks readers through a lab test and then informs them that a "squirming, gurgling infant" does not seem conscious, "at least not in the way adults are."

Zimmer's setup is the oddball-sound test. A subject hears three low tones and a high one, over and over, then a run of four low tones. Adult brains throw a brief, distinctive blip at the break. People in a coma do not. People who are asleep do not. The Times then puts a newborn in the same frame and asks whether the blip will be there.

Are Babies Conscious? As scientists map the birth of consciousness, they hope to gain a better understanding of how it evolved in humans in the first place. https://t.co/g1D5A4wRtF
— Patrick Emerton (@egregiousknave) October 5, 2026

Er what? https://t.co/ZqhoAq4dJk
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) October 6, 2026

The paper calls it an active scientific debate. Dr Topun Austin, a neonatologist at the University of Cambridge, is quoted defining the thing under study: "Consciousness is a process of being receptive to the outside world and mixing that with our own internal world, to create the feeling of who we are and where we are."

A caption under the piece states that there was a time when our brains were too rudimentary to support consciousness. Zimmer's own promo line said he had found scientists "on a mission to find out when consciousness begins in babies."

The reaction online was immediate, and it was not about neuroscience. It was about where the line moves next.

@ModernityNews Ever get the feeling we're living inside a cautionary tale?

Like we're all just trapped in a dystopian '70s sci-fi movie, while Charlton Heston screams about the sanctity of human life? pic.twitter.com/oxA1EaZhXJ
— Alpha Of The Betas (@AlphaOfTheBetas) October 6, 2026

"Are Babies Conscious?"

Give this a few more years and they'll claim consciousness doesn't begin until the baby is one years old, so abortion should be legal up to that point. pic.twitter.com/hLxMdTzZzC
— Arthur in California (@ArthurReturnss) October 5, 2026

@JackPosobiec This is setting to push for post-birth abortion down the line.
— Emmanuel Gonzalez (@Emm_Gonzalez38) October 6, 2026

@JackPosobiec They want abortion legality to extend into early childhood
— Paul Joseph Tinkle (@PTinkleIndy) October 5, 2026

@JackPosobiec Anyone who has had a child knows that babies are conscious. Only the childless hacks at the NYT are confused.
— Andrew McCann (@andymccann) October 5, 2026

All this is going on while we're debating whether 'machines can be conscious', a disturbing irony.

Incredible that we're debating whether "machines can be conscious" while Democrats still haven't acknowledged that babies in a mother's womb have consciousness.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 3, 2026

Of course, there are countless studies that indicate infants, even unborn infants have consciousness as we understand it.

In January, neonatologist Carlo Bellieni of the University of Siena published "A Rudimentary Consciousness Appears in the Late Fetal Period" in EC Gynaecology, reviewing 31 clinical trials from the last decade on fetal anatomy, perception and memory. His conclusion: the early appearance of memory is a sign of rudimental consciousness, and it does not depend on whether the fetus is inside or outside the womb, only on the grade of brain development.

HUGE!

Unborn babies experience consciousness.

A new study was published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. A neonatologist reviewed 31 clinical trials from the last decade and confirms babies before birth are conscious.

https://t.co/4XhRXYdcs6 pic.twitter.com/mzwsMjBl1z
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) February 20, 2026

Bellieni's account of the hardware is specific. "Intrauterine life includes structures which, at least partially, replace the developing cortex, that the fetus begins to form around 20 weeks of gestation. These structures are the subplate, useful for most sensations, and the thalamus for pain. ... We can realistically say that the first sensations are perceived by mid-pregnancy."

Fetuses in the trials preferred carrot-flavoured amniotic fluid to kale, responded more to face-like patterns, and touched the uterine wall longer when the mother touched from outside. Magnetoencephalography work found fetuses at 35 weeks and older detecting breaks in tone patterns. The old claim of continuous fetal sedation does not survive the blood chemistry or the sleep-wake cycling.

That sits on earlier research. In 2023, Tim Bayne, Joel Frohlich, Lorina Naci and colleagues published "Consciousness in the cradle" in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Bayne put the split plainly: researchers disagree on whether consciousness arises early, at birth or shortly after, or late, by one year or much later. "Nearly everyone who has held a newborn infant has wondered what, if anything, it is like to be a baby."

The review's own reading of network connectivity, attention, multimodal integration and cortical responses to global oddballs was that consciousness is likely in place in early infancy and may begin before birth. Naci, who leads Trinity College Dublin's Consciousness and Cognition Group, said newborns can integrate sensory and developing cognitive responses "into coherent conscious experiences to understand the actions of others and plan their own responses."

A 2025 Science report on the Infant Consciousness Conference at NYU recorded the same shift. Bioethicist Claudia Passos-Ferreira, who co-organised it, said fetal consciousness would have been a less central topic at a meeting like that a few years earlier. Preliminary survey results from the room: 47 percent placed the first development of consciousness in the later prenatal window, from about 24 weeks to birth.

A 2026 survey in Neuroscience of Consciousness, of attendees at two leading conferences, found a majority favouring the view that newborns are conscious, and a plurality favouring emergence after 24 weeks of gestation.

In June, New Scientist reported that the fetal connectome already shares 61 percent of the functional organisation of an adult brain. Bayne's line there: "There certainly could be snippets of experience before birth, and the capacity for consciousness is probably there."

None of this is a claim that a six-week embryo writes poetry. It is a claim that the "are they even aware?" framing, applied to born infants and late-term fetuses, is behind the data the same research community has been publishing.

The same day the Times asked whether babies are conscious, LifeNews republished a shocking case that makes the question obscene. A boy at 21 to 22 weeks, about half a pound and the size of a hand, survived an abortion at Christ Hospital in Illinois and lived for 45 minutes. The baby was taken to a soiled utility room because his parents wanted nothing to do with him. There was no care. No intervention.

Baby Born Alive at 22 Weeks Was Gasping for Air. Abortion Clinic Left Him in a Soiled Utility Room to Die https://t.co/rFubF5UXP7 pic.twitter.com/95zJ9MYi7Z
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) October 5, 2026

Nurse Jill Stanek later told a U.S. Senate committee she could not leave him to die alone. "I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone, so I rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived." He was old enough to gasp for air. He was not old enough, under the logic now being laundered by the New York Times, to count as a human being.

State health figures cited around the same reporting put at least 40 babies born alive after botched abortions in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida between 2016 and 2018, and CDC data at least 143 between 2003 and 2014.

In August, Massachusetts legalised abortion up to birth, and the applause came from the same political class that treats viability as a clerical error.

In March, the UK House of Lords rammed Clause 208 of the Crime and Policing Bill through and decriminalised self-induced abortion at any stage. A YouGov survey found 1 percent support for abortion up to birth. A Whitestone Insight poll found 62 percent saying abortion should remain illegal after 24 weeks, and 53 percent saying it should not be an option if the baby could survive outside the womb. GB News put the gap in one line: "Just 1% of the public agree with this... and yet it has now made it into law."

A country that will arrest someone for silent prayer outside a clinic has arranged the law so that healthy, fully grown babies can be killed without a criminal consequence for the woman.

In March of 2025 the Trump administration moved to cut federal money to Planned Parenthood, which took an average of $592 million a year from taxpayers between 2019 and 2021, more than 40 percent of revenue, while performing 1.11 million abortions in that window.

Anyone who has held their own newborn, or any newborn for that matter, and witnessed the child's curious glare, the tight grip of their hand, and felt the intense emotional connection knows that babies are conscious. The New York Times deciding to ask whether they are or not does not make it a real debate.

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

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 16:20

Pentagon Prepares 'Options' For Trump To Strike Iran Before Midterms; Tanker Attacked Off Qatar

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:15:00 +0000

Pentagon Prepares 'Options' For Trump To Strike Iran Before Midterms; Tanker Attacked Off Qatar

Update(1615ET): The Atlantic is reporting Wednesday afternoon that the Pentagon is preparing strike options for the Commander-in-Chief to consider, and that Trump may actually pull the trigger before the midterm elections - though the report emphasizes that the decision is still being debated:

After months of on-again, off-again fighting, the United States hasn’t struck Iran in several weeks. The stretch of relative tranquility is coinciding with the final phase of the midterm-election campaign, and the assumption has been that President Trump will want to keep it going through November 3 so as not to remind voters of an unpopular war that is dragging Republican candidates down nationwide.

But that may not be what happens. The White House has asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets that could be exercised ahead of the midterms, according to two administration officials. The planning underscores just how much the president wants to reduce gas prices and demonstrate progress in the conflict before the vote, administration officials told us.

And yet a renewed outbreak of direct bombing would likely actually serve to do the opposite, given oil prices have tended to shoot up on headlines of major direct escalation.

Reports out of Iran confirmed earlier Wednesday that negotiations are 'stalemated' - also as the Iranians have ramped up targeting tankers with drones in the Strait of Hormuz over the last week.

One peculiar and notable line from The Atlantic report is that Trump and the Republicans are looking for "some sort of victory" in a war that they promised would be swift and decisive, but instead has drifted into a seven-month quagmire:

The plans are being developed by U.S. Central Command, which is coordinating the war effort, a U.S. official told us. Even the plans’ advocates acknowledge that limited strikes would not, by themselves, bring Iran to the negotiating table, restore safe travel through the Strait of Hormuz, or lower gas prices before Election Day. But those in favor believe that further action after months of uneasy peace could allow Trump to demonstrate strength and potentially declare some sort of victory, giving Republicans much-needed momentum heading into the election.

Tehran has constantly signaled its military is at the 'ready' and that it is continuing to build up its ballistic missile arsenal, even as its exports have dropped dramatically due to the US naval blockade. Meanwhile...

Wednesay (10/7): A tanker was hit by "multiple projectiles" about 51 nautical miles north of Qatar.

This represents a very clear shift in strategy by Iran. It has been a long time since they struck a commercial vessel in the Persian Gulf outside the Strait of Hormuz, signaling an expansion in the range of their attacks. The key aspect of this new strategy, however, is the intent to cause casualties rather than merely halt the vessel, indeed, in recent days, instead of targeting only the engine to stop the ship, the IRGC has been focusing on striking the vessel multiple times, specifically to kill crew members. The reason is that Iran is attempting to deter illegal ship transits, as some reports indicate that captains currently earn up to $100,000 a month by illegally passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
— MoloMonitor 🇮🇹 (@MoloWarMonitor) October 7, 2026

Some of the latest out of state IRNA:

Iran's considerations and conditions for ending the war on all fronts and restoring security to the Persian Gulf region and the Strait have been clearly and firmly explained, and the necessary response to the other side's proposals will be provided through mediators.
"Iran will continue its efforts to strengthen trust and interaction between regional countries."
The agreement between Iran and Oman on the safe routes of Hormuz will soon be reflected in international references.

And a late Wednesday report from Tehran (PressTV):

Iran's Press TV reports Iran and Oman agreed on geographical coordinates of safe transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz and how they will be communicated to the relevant international authorities

The Pentagon's stance is likely to be that it's too late for that, as neither side recognizes the authority of the other to oversee the Strait of Hormuz, and the deadlock remains on negotiations.

* * *

Saudi Arabian state-owned outlet Al Hadath is reporting what many might consider obvious: Stalemate in mediation efforts between Washington and Tehran, the source reports Wednesday.

US officials are continuing to tell Tehran that there will be "no progress" in negotiations until there's progress on the nuclear file and that Hormuz is no longer a priority after Iran "lost control of it".

via AFP

And yet, there's been possibly a dozen or more Iranian drone attacks on foreign vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz in the last eight days.

All of this comes as President Masoud Pezeshkian has urged the Iranian public to 'stand up' against the US and West, as Washington's sweeping sanctions as well as US naval blockade actions against Iranian ports continue to bite.

"We must not allow the production cycle to be damaged. We will reduce the consumption of electricity, gas, gasoline, water and other energy sectors," he said to semi-official Fars news agency.

"The condition for resistance and standing up to the West is for everyone to endure hardship," Pezeshkian added, saying that "if necessary, cultural and sport complexes will be closed in Iran to provide electricity and energy needed for industrial production" - as the US blockade hammers Iran’s economy.

The rial has cratered, and the fallout has begun to severely impact neighboring Iraq and its Tehran-aligned economy and government, as we previously detailed.

Fars also quoted Pezeshkian as saying Wednesday, "Iran is fully prepared to reach a balanced and fair agreement that ensures lasting peace and security in the region."

"Our red line is the national interests and rights of the Iranian people. If the United States adheres to international legal frameworks, reaching an agreement is not out of reach," he added.

There's also this admission (but which could also be interpreted as pushback) from Iranian state media, in the face of Scott Bessent's recent assertions that Iran's crude exports have fallen to near 'Zero':

Iranian media is reporting a 60 percent decrease in oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the flow of crude oil has faced a significant drop in the last two days, reaching around 3.8 million barrels per day.

The weekly average of oil passing through the Strait is estimated to be about 9.3 million barrels per day, Tasnim news agency said.

The claim comes as an IRGC adviser said that the strait is “fully controlled” by Iran and will remain closed until the US accepts its demands, adding that the volume of oil currently being smuggled out is “very small”.

But ultimately, Iran is admitting it is enduring severe economic hardship amid a heavily sanctioned wartime economy.

There's a battle of narratives over Hormuz and markets as well as mainstream Western media are simply favoring once side while ignoring the claims of the other at this point:

IRAN WAR ANALYSIS: It is VERY obvious now that the Iranians were simply not TRYING to strike vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks. 13 vessels have now been struck just in the last 8 days, and most importantly of all, many of these vessels have been completely disabled, set ablaze, or blacked out. This is a disaster.
— Brett Erickson (@BrettErickson28) October 6, 2026

The stalemate looks to endure past the November midterm elections in the US, as even President Trump has seemed to lately suggest this status won't change until after the US vote. He has also signaled a heavy bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic could ensue by November's end.

* * *

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 16:15

FBI Accuses Washington Man Of Coaching Canada's Tumbler Ridge School Shooter, Agreeing To Livestream The Attack

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 19:40:00 +0000

FBI Accuses Washington Man Of Coaching Canada's Tumbler Ridge School Shooter, Agreeing To Livestream The Attack

Federal prosecutors have charged a Bellingham man with helping another person commit murder in a foreign country - alleging he coached an 18-year-old who killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, in February and agreed to livestream the attack.

At the federal courthouse in Seattle, law enforcement officials on Oct. 6, 2026, announce the arrest of a Bellingham resident accused of aiding in a deadly school shooting in British Columbia. Officials include assistant commissioner Elija Rain of the BC RCMP, left, FBI special agent in charge Mike Herrington, and acting U.S. attorney Neil Floyd. (KUOW Photo/Amy Radil). KUOW's caption spells the RCMP officer's name Elijah.

James Cody Bryant, 30, was arrested Tuesday, officials said at the federal courthouse in Seattle. The charge carries a possible life sentence, KUOW reported. Bryant is accused, not convicted. A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 20.

NEWS RELEASE from @FBISeattle: Bellingham resident charged with conspiring to commit murder in connection with school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Read more on how this #FBI is pursuing justice for victims of violence. justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/…
— FBI (@FBI) October 7, 2026

On February 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, killed his mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at home, then five students and a school staff member at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, before dying by suicide. Canadian officials said police had been to the home several times over mental health concerns. RCMP assistant commissioner Elija Rain said Canadian authorities contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security soon after, based on information from a platform the attacker had used.

Bryant and Van Rootselaar communicated on Discord, officials said, and Discord contacted law enforcement after the shooting. FBI Seattle special agent in charge Mike Herrington said the two discussed the attack in detail. Bryant allegedly sent money through PayPal so Van Rootselaar could buy shoes to wear that day and a lighter to ignite an explosive device.

"In addition to providing money, technical advice, and particular items to be used in the shooting, Bryant agreed to record a livestream feed of the attack and broadcast it in a way that would maximize notoriety for the shooter," Herrington said. Other messages suggest Bryant advised Van Rootselaar when the car would not start on the way to the school, after the killings at home, he added. Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said the planned broadcast was on Twitch. Officials said the feed shut down after about 20 seconds.

Charging documents show an exchange in which Van Rootselaar said, "I really hope you wouldn't ever snitch." Bryant replied, "I don't want to honestly. I know I can like, save lives I guess but idk." The government's press release also said there were conversations in which Bryant "tried to talk Van Rootselaar out of doing the attack." Officials said Bryant never contacted law enforcement, and agreed to handle the livestream just minutes before the attack.

United States v. James Cody Bryant complaint document is now public. Contains more information re the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting than 🇨🇦 has released from the start.
— Eric Schild (@EricSchild2) October 7, 2026

Officials said the two met about three years ago on Omegle, a now-defunct video chat service that randomly matched strangers, and that there is no indication they ever met in person or had ties to any other group. Both were born male and identified as female, officials said. The criminal complaint uses female pronouns for Van Rootselaar and no gendered pronouns for Bryant.

Herrington said distance does not shield a defendant. "If you think you are safe from prosecution because you did not pull the trigger or were not physically present at the scene of the crime, think again," he said. The Canadian investigation remains active, but Floyd said the case is being brought in the United States for now. "All the activity involved in this was committed here in the state of Washington," Floyd said.

Separately, victims' families and British Columbia, which sued in September, have taken OpenAI to court over Van Rootselaar's use of ChatGPT. The province's suit says the company flagged the chats but did not report them to police. Mother Jones reports ChatGPT helped the attacker get around its safeguards by framing questions as fictional or hypothetical.

DOJ release: Bellingham resident charged with conspiring to commit murder in connection with school shooting.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 15:40

Forget The Plague, CDC Reports Recent Surge In Deadly Brain Fungus Cases

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 19:10:00 +0000

Forget The Plague, CDC Reports Recent Surge In Deadly Brain Fungus Cases

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said in a recent report that healthcare officials and providers should be aware of a rare but deadly fungal infection that can affect the brain and has seen a surge in recent years.

Joel and 'neurodivergent Ellie' from The Last of Us, where a not-so rare and very deadly fungal infection wipes out most of the planet...

Published on Oct. 2, the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report called for greater surveillance of Cladophialophora bantiana, which U.S. officials have said is known to cause brain abscesses.

According to the report, the infection is linked to a 60 to 70 percent fatality rate. However, CDC researchers said in the report that national surveillance efforts currently don't exist, and that the fungus's "environmental reservoir" as well as the "route of infection" is not completely known.

Between January 2009 and July 2026, there have been 48 confirmed cases and one possible case of Cladophialophora bantiana found in samples obtained primarily from central nervous system tissue, the CDC said.

But from 2023 to 2025, "detections of the fungus increased approximately fourfold," according to the CDC report.

Researchers said that it's not clear why there has been an increase in recent years but stressed that more research into its risk factors "and potentially evolving virulence are warranted."

In patients with a brain abscess, healthcare providers should now consider whether it's due to a fungus, the report said, adding that infected people will require prompt antifungal therapy and possible surgery.

"Surgical excision might improve patient outcomes," it said. Meanwhile, "patients with infection require prompt antifungal therapy, and surgical excision might improve patient outcomes," it added.

Led by Joshua Lieberman of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, the researchers added that the presumed route of infection is inhalation of the fungus or direct inoculation following a skin injury.

The fungus "is a rare but important cause of brain abscess in both healthy and immunosuppressed people," Lieberman told MedPage Today in an interview published on Oct. 5, adding that the reason it goes to the brain is "a little bit of a mystery."

What is worrying about the infection, he added, is that "people who have apparently healthy immune systems get the infection and are also at high risk of death."

"It's alarming that it occurs outside of those typical high-risk populations who have pretty profound immunosuppression," Lieberman stated.

The median age of those who contracted the infection was 68 years, according to the CDC report.

Cases have been found in 21 states across the United States, as well as the District of Columbia, the CDC report said. California had the most, with six cases, while Florida and Texas each reported five, and Pennsylvania confirmed four.

Aside from Cladophialophora bantiana, the CDC has also issued reports about a drug-resistant type of fungus known as Candida auris, which is a yeast that is known to spread in healthcare settings.

The Last Of Us Joel and Ellie action figures (not dolls, shut up)

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 15:10

Trump Wants To Build A New Camp David In The Most Trump Place Possible

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:55:00 +0000

Trump Wants To Build A New Camp David In The Most Trump Place Possible

President Donald Trump wants to turn part of his own Florida golf course into a new presidential retreat modeled after Camp David, an unusual proposal that would further blur the line between the presidency and Trump's sprawling private business empire.

The plan calls for a portion of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach to become an official presidential retreat where future commanders-in-chief could vacation, conduct diplomacy and host foreign leaders, the Washington Post reports.

Under the proposal, the federal government would receive land for the presidential compound, while the remainder of the property would continue operating as a private Trump golf club.

Trump would personally cover the cost of constructing the presidential residence and related facilities, according to Harvey Oyer, an attorney representing the club. The facility would be developed in coordination with the General Services Administration and Secret Service.

"This is a gift that the president would like to share with his successors, the people of America, and his fellow Palm Beach County residents," Oyer wrote in a letter to county officials obtained by The Post.

Future presidents would reportedly receive complimentary memberships to Trump's club and could use the new compound to host foreign leaders and international summits, according to the plan.

An unnamed White House official defended the location to The Post, pointing to its proximity to the airport, lack of nearby high-rise buildings and homes, security advantages and access to law enforcement.

"The property is minutes away from the Donald J. Trump International Airport, does not have buildings looming, does not have houses along the course, has great security features, is close to law enforcement, and happens to be a highly-rated golf course. These are features that are necessary for any presidential retreat," the official said.

Oyer suggested the project could eventually become an internationally recognized symbol of the American presidency.

"Just as Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the Élysée Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County," he reportedly wrote.

However, the proposal has some hurdles.

Palm Beach County owns the land underneath the golf course, meaning local officials would have to play a role in making Trump's vision a reality.

County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo told The Post that officials are taking the proposal seriously and communicating with the federal government as they examine a potential parcel.

*** OUR WAREHOUSE FOUND A BOX OF 50 ALMOST EXPIRED PEAK FOCUS ***

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 14:55

Report: Viral Posts Urge Northeast China To Stockpile Food Amid Russian Plague Scare; Trump Doubts Bioweapon Link

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:45:00 +0000

Report: Viral Posts Urge Northeast China To Stockpile Food Amid Russian Plague Scare; Trump Doubts Bioweapon Link

Summary:

Unconfirmed Reports: Viral Posts Urge Residents In Northeast China To Stockpile Food And Antibiotics
Trump: "We don't think it's a bioweapon, but we will find out."
US Reiterates "Do Not Travel" Warning For Russia After Lab Worker's Death Raises Plague Fears

Trump On Russian Plague Scare: "Don't Think It's A Bioweapon"; Viral Posts Tell Northeast China To Stockpile Supplies

President Trump commented on the Russian lab worker's death and the risk of a plague outbreak, saying, "We don't think it's a bioweapon, but we will find out."

The president spoke in the Oval Office in front of reporters after announcing new 'Trump accounts'.

“China didn’t say much and Russia is not saying much either.” @pdoocy presses President Trump on if the plague in Russia may be a bioweapon being developed by the government and compares the mysterious lab death to COVID's origins in Wuhan. Trump says Moscow maintains the situation is “very much under control,” but acknowledges Russia has not said much publicly. The questions follow the death of a worker at a Siberian anti-plague research institute. Russian officials say she died from pneumonia of unknown origin, while international health officials continue monitoring the situation.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 7, 2026

Trump's comments come after the US State Department reiterated its "Do Not Travel " warning for Russia as plague fears mount.

Russia has tried to quell fears of a spreading plague after the lab worker's death last Friday.

Also...

🦠 🇲🇳 🇷🇺 Mongolia's government said on Wednesday that it had ordered "health surveillance" measures on its border with Russia after the reported plague death of a laboratory technician in Siberia ➡️ https://t.co/ISoQmALSbT https://t.co/12KSpBHgHj
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 7, 2026

Now five days since the lab worker's death, unconfirmed reports by X user UnveiledChina say that viral posts are "telling Northeast China to stockpile food and antibiotics after a worker died at a Russian plague laboratory."

UnveiledChina continued:

On 6 October a message urging Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang to buy rice, canned goods, masks, and the antibiotics doxycycline and ciprofloxacin hit about 8.6 million views and warned of possible lockdowns. The posts are real but mass buying in those provinces has not been shown.

Darya Shipilova, 28, died on 2 October of severe pneumonia after working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. About 200 contacts were monitored. Reports that she broke a test tube of plague bacteria are unconfirmed. Russia says no pathogen linked to her work was found and no plague case has been recorded. The WHO calls the risk low.

China has announced no lockdown. Its only comment is that it is in contact with Russia. People in those border provinces have lived through sudden lockdowns before. When a death at a plague lab brings quarantine and thin official detail, they do not wait for a press conference. They prepare.

Viral posts are telling Northeast China to stockpile food and antibiotics after a worker died at a Russian plague laboratory. On 6 October a message urging Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang to buy rice, canned goods, masks, and the antibiotics doxycycline and ciprofloxacin hit about 8.6 million views and warned of possible lockdowns. The posts are real but mass buying in those provinces has not been shown. Darya Shipilova, 28, died on 2 October of severe pneumonia after working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. About 200 contacts were monitored. Reports that she broke a test tube of plague bacteria are unconfirmed. Russia says no pathogen linked to her work was found and no plague case has been recorded. The WHO calls the risk low. China has announced no lockdown. Its only comment is that it is in contact with Russia. People in those border provinces have lived through sudden lockdowns before. When a death at a plague lab brings quarantine and thin official detail, they do not wait for a press conference. They prepare.
— UnveiledChina (@Unveiled_ChinaX) October 7, 2026

Plague fears are certainly visible in US Google searches:

Bloomberg's story count for "plague" has surged to levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

"More Than 21 Plague Vaccines Are Already in Development: mRNA, saRNA, DNA, Viral Vector, Bacterial Vector, Subunit, and Live-Attenuated Why were governments and military biodefense programs already investing so heavily in plague vaccines before the current plague hysteria erupted?" Peter McCullough wrote on X.

Plot thickens:

China and Russia drilled for plague. Five weeks later, a technician at the Russian institute that took part was dead, and nearly 200 people were put under watch. Officials call it ordinary pneumonia. In late August, the two countries ran a border exercise in Fuyuan on plague brought in from abroad and a new tick-borne disease they called “Disease X.” Sergey Balakhonov, director of Russia’s main plague institute, attended and spoke. Chinese reports say more than 300 people took part. Their research ties go back to about 2014. On 29 September, 28-year-old technician Darya Shipilova was hospitalized in Shelekhov with severe pneumonia. She died early on 2 October. An independent Russian outlet says she broke a tube of plague bacteria on September 25th. Moscow denies it. Officials say tests found no work-related germ and no lab accident. The US said it was monitoring the reports. The drill and the death are documented. The broken tube is not. China and Russia practiced for an imported plague. Then a worker at the participating plague lab died, and the state isolated hundreds of contacts while saying nothing unusual happened.
— UnveiledChina (@Unveiled_ChinaX) October 5, 2026

Major viral outbreaks from 2002 to 2026

US Reiterates "Do Not Travel" Warning For Russia After Lab Worker's Death Raises Plague Fears

The Trump administration formally asked Russia for details about the reported death of a laboratory worker at a facility studying pneumonic plague in Siberia's Irkutsk region. Russian authorities said they found no plague in the deceased worker or contacts.

*US PREPARING FORMAL REQUEST TO RUSSIA ON PLAGUE DEATH: WAPO
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 6, 2026

Overnight, the U.S. Embassy reiterated its "Do Not Travel" warning for Russia and urged Americans already in the country to leave immediately.

"The U.S. Embassy is aware of press reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow wrote in an advisory overnight.

Irkutsk, Russia: The U.S. Embassy is aware of press reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk. We continue to track the situation closely. The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow. The State Department’s Level 4 Travel Advisory (Do Not Travel) for Russia remains in place and states U.S. citizens currently in Russia should depart immediately. U.S. citizens planning travel to Russia are again strongly advised not to travel to Russia due to risk of wrongful detention and security concerns. More at: https://t.co/rgpoFm6YhH
— TravelGov (@TravelGov) October 6, 2026

The embassy continued, "We continue to track the situation closely. The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow. U.S. government personnel may face additional restrictions for personal and official travel to specific regions due to health and security concerns."

Latest reporting:

Russia's health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Tuesday that 60% of the lab worker's identified contacts had been tested. Officials reported no plague detected among those screened, but testing identified two Covid-19 cases and two rhinovirus infections.

"No other infectious disease pathogens were detected among the contacts," Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement that did not explicitly mention plague.

President Trump said Tuesday he had a call scheduled with Russian President Putin to discuss the health crisis matter.

Separately, a State Department official told NBC News on Tuesday that the U.S. government spoke with Moscow health officials as early as Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote on X yesterday that it was "working across the U.S. government to assess developments as additional information becomes available."

Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist, who created a "multi-drug protocol" aimed at early treatment of Covid-19, wrote on X:

More Than 21 Plague Vaccines Are Already in Development: mRNA, saRNA, DNA, Viral Vector, Bacterial Vector, Subunit, and Live-Attenuated.

Why were governments and military biodefense programs already investing so heavily in plague vaccines before the current plague hysteria erupted? by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH URL TheFocalPoints.

More Than 21 Plague Vaccines Are Already in Development: mRNA, saRNA, DNA, Viral Vector, Bacterial Vector, Subunit, and Live-Attenuated Why were governments and military biodefense programs already investing so heavily in plague vaccines before the current plague hysteria erupted? by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH URL TheFocalPoints. @NicHulscher @McCulloughFund
— Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH® (@P_McCulloughMD) October 7, 2026

Iraq Formally Requests Syria Act As 'Hormuz Bypass' Route For Its Crude

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:35:00 +0000

Iraq Formally Requests Syria Act As 'Hormuz Bypass' Route For Its Crude

Syria's geography has long given the country huge economic opportunities as a major energy transfer hub connecting Middle East states to the Mediterranean.

But as the last decade plus of proxy war which resulted in the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad demonstrated, Syria has also long been target of foreign machinations bent on seeing a puppet state installed in Damascus. The US-Gulf allies broadly waged war against the so-called 'Shia crescent' represented in the old Baghdad-Damascus-Hezbollah axis.

Henry Kissinger famously stated of its opportunity-rich geography, "you can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria." The historiographical term Pax Syriana also captures this concept: as goes Syria, so goes the whole region.

Prior file image: Long convoys of Iraqi diesel-laden tanker trucks line up along the Tartus-Baniyas highway, via AFP.

Of course, the external powers which have long sought to dominate the region both politically and on the energy front know this full well, which makes it all the more shameful and ironic that mainstream media and government officials had long derided as 'conspiracy theorists' anyone who connected a 'pipeline wars' theme with Washington's covert war on Syria.

Widespread derision was the reaction of MSM punditry when back in 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. penned the following excellent lengthy investigation:

Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries—for oil

Fast-forward to 2026, amid Trump's Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz crisis, and another conspiracy theory becomes conspiracy fact (as we've been documenting of the great crude transit 'rewiring' efforts to erode Iran's leverage over the Hormuz passage).

On Wednesday, cue a new Bloomberg headline: Syria Set to Emerge as Hormuz-Bypass Option for Iraq's Crude Oil.

The deserts of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria are set to look like a scene out of Max Max, apparently. "Syria is set to provide a route for Iraqi crude exports to avoid the hazardous Strait of Hormuz, with a stream of trucks being lined up to haul oil overland to a port on the Mediterranean Sea," Bloomberg writes.

"The Iraqi government asked Syria to help with the export of crude in addition to existing flows of fuel oil, Yousef Qiblawy, chief executive officer of the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg News," the report continues.

To some degree, this overland route was already being 'tested' during the latter years of the Syrian proxy war, when US forces occupied Syria's oil and gas fields of Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasaka regions.

Reviving land corridors from Iraq to the Mediterranean:

Hormuz disruption revives land corridors from Iraq to the Mediterranean The Strait of Hormuz handles a massive slice of the world's oil and gas — and with that route under threat, the region is dusting off old alternatives. One proposal gaining attention: a land corridor linking Iraqi oil fields to the Mediterranean via western Iraq and Syria. Iraq is already weighing this against the Turkish Ceyhan route and a possible path through Jordan. Syria, for its part, could reclaim its historic role as a bridge between Iraq and the Mediterranean Sea. Iraqi fuel oil and other petroleum products are reportedly already moving by truck through Syria to Mediterranean ports, then on to Asia and Europe — no Hormuz involved. https://t.co/AWbFJOGcwC
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) September 27, 2026

They had run tanker trucks in the other direction - from Syria into Iraq, siphoning off Syrian oil and its sovereign resources, after President Trump during his first term hailed that the Pentagon would 'secure the oil'.

Read our: Mystery Explosions: Syria's Recovering Gas Network Keeps Getting Sabotaged

As for actual pipeline routes from Iraq to the Mediterranean via Syria being revived, major hurdles remain and its not just the gargantuan cost of reviving the derelict hardware - but there's an obvious security problem in a country that's seen mysterious armed groups constantly bomb Syrian energy infrastructure - both during the Assad years and now under Jolani.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 14:35

SpaceX Credit Risk Hits New High As AI Debt Binge Fears Spook Bondholders

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:25:00 +0000

SpaceX Credit Risk Hits New High As AI Debt Binge Fears Spook Bondholders

SpaceX's proposed $40 billion chip-collateralized financing for Nvidia AI chips, reported overnight by the Financial Times, has restarted concerns over the pace of its debt-funded expansion, which as we discussed last night, , is starting to flash a dangerous shade of red: despite raising a record $86 billion in its June IPO, Elon Musk's rocket and AI company's growing financing needs are weighing on sentiment, with its 2056 bonds sliding and five-year credit default swaps surging.

After selling $25 billion in bonds shortly after its public listing, SpaceX is now seeking roughly $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt.

We laid out what this means for Musk's company in a note titled "From Record IPO To Record Chip-Collateralized Loan In 16 Weeks: SpaceX Taps Apollo For $40 Billion In SPV Debt." If completed, that would bring issued and proposed borrowing since June to $65 billion.

The market's verdict was immediate: on Wednesday, SpaceX's 2056 bonds fell to a new low of around 84.70 cents on the dollar as of 11:25 a.m. in New York, compared with 98.83 cents on the dollar when the securities were issued in June as part of a $25 billion inaugural senior unsecured notes offering.

Meanwhile, as expected, the proposed borrowing binge sent the company's CDS up as much as 16.2 basis points to about 197.3 basis points Wednesday, the highest on record, and more appropriate for a junk rated company.

Tony Trzcinka, a portfolio manager at Impax Asset Management, was quoted by the outlet as saying the concerns are "mainly about how much debt SpaceX is adding and how fast."

"As a result, the existing bonds have to fall in price now so that their yields stay in line with what the new bonds will likely pay," Trzcinka said.

Sal Naro, chief investment officer at Coherence Credit Strategies, warned the outlet that "this is an unprecedented debt supply with no real ending in sight," adding, "The world has never seen an infrastructure build like this. This is larger than the railroads because this is global, all at once."

Meanwhile, SPCX stock continues to rise as if nothing bad has happened, soaring 59% since early August.

That said, SpaceX is just one small part of the bigger picture: recall that Morgan Stanley estimated AI infrastructure will need $1.5 trillion in external financing by 2028. SpaceX's $40 billion is just the latest installment (read our note here).

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 14:25

Hawkish FOMC Minutes Show All 19 Fed Officials Supported Rate Hike, "Most" Assess Another Hike "By Year End Is Appropriate"

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:14:37 +0000

Hawkish FOMC Minutes Show All 19 Fed Officials Supported Rate Hike, "Most" Assess Another Hike "By Year End Is Appropriate"

The September FOMC minutes struck a distinctly hawkish tone, as all 19 Fed officials backed a rate hike in September, with many supporting the move to protect against the risk of intensifying inflation pressures. A separate group of officials said higher rates were necessary based on their outlook for the economy, signaling greater concern for elevated inflation, according to minutes of the Sept. 16 FOMC meeting released Wednesday. The Committee unanimously raised the fed funds rate 25bp to 3.75%-4.00% and signaled that further tightening is likely by year-end.

“Most participants assessed that another increase in the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate by year end,” the minutes said, and also said that “Several participants commented that the underlying momentum in the economy appeared to have increased."

Policymakers remain concerned that inflation is proving sticky. August headline PCE inflation was estimated at 3.8% and core PCE at 3.4%, with higher energy costs, geopolitical tensions, and AI-related investment contributing to price pressures. Participants generally viewed inflation risks as skewed to the upside.

The economy continues to show resilience. GDP growth remained solid, consumer spending held up, and business investment was supported by the ongoing AI buildout. Labor market conditions were viewed as close to full employment, with unemployment at 4.1%.

Several participants noted that AI is boosting both investment and productivity prospects but could also contribute to inflation through stronger demand, rising input costs, and increased financing needs. Market participants likewise cited AI-related borrowing as a factor pushing Treasury yields higher.

Overall, the Committee judged that stronger growth, elevated energy prices, and persistent inflation warranted a more restrictive policy stance, with most members expecting another rate increase before year-end.

Here are the key highlights from the Fed minutes:

Participants generally emphasized inflation remained elevated while the job market appeared near full employment.
Participants offered a range of views for why they supported a rate increase.
Participants generally saw inflation risks skewed to the upside, with some seeing those risks becoming more skewed in recent months.
Almost all participants saw inflation risks tilted to the upside, while job market risks were broadly balanced.
Some participants saw AI buildout possibly causing aggregate demand to outpace supply over the medium term, putting upward pressure on inflation.
The staff economic outlook was stronger than the one prepared for the July meeting.
Many participants noted that despite the recent climb in long-term Treasury yields, financial conditions appeared supportive of economic growth.
A few participants observed that the Treasury market had been functioning smoothly, but noted the importance of planning for market stress.
Changes in real rates contributed to most of the net increase in longer-maturity Treasury yields.
Nominal yields increased around 35 basis points across the 2- to 10-year segment of the yield curve. Part of the increase reflected the higher expected path of monetary policy and the strength of economic data. Market commentary pointed to geopolitical developments, uncertainty related to the US Treasury's announcement and implementation of the buyback program, and competition for capital from heavy private debt issuance to finance the development of AI infrastructure as also contributing to higher term premiums and Treasury yields

The FOMC was also increasingly vocal on the inflationary impacts of AI:

"Several participants observed that the rate of price increases in the core goods category also remained elevated, as effects of the AI buildout appeared to increase while the effects of tariff increases waned"
"Some participants commented that increased energy prices and the ongoing AI buildout were contributing to cost pressures faced by businesses, including higher costs for transportation and input materials."
"Some participants commented that the AI buildout could cause aggregate demand to outpace aggregate supply over the medium term, putting upward pressure on inflation."
"Some participants observed that strong demand for skilled workers in sectors related to the ongoing AI buildout had been driving strong wage gains for these workers"
"Participants noted that the ongoing AI buildout was boosting business investment. Several participants commented that the scale and pace of the AI buildout had continued to surprise to the upside"

The record also revealed a discussion about financial conditions. Many officials commented that despite the recent rise in longer-term Treasury yields, “financial conditions appeared to be supportive of economic growth, with equity prices having risen substantially this year and spreads on corporate bonds having remained narrow.”

Some officials, including three who voted against the FOMC decision to hold steady in July, could dissent again in favor of another increase if the majority votes to leave rates unchanged at the October meeting.
“Several participants stated that they viewed the current policy rate as not restrictive or only mildly restrictive,” the minutes

Chairman Kevin Warsh told reporters following the Sept. 16 decision the move was aimed at removing a “dose of accommodation” as inflation remained stubbornly high. His comments fueled market bets for another increase in October.

The Fed also said that the joint U.S.–Japan intervention to support the yen in late July also directly contributed to dollar depreciation, given the yen's considerable weight in currency indexes. The manager noted that the Desk, acting purely as fiscal agent for the U.S. Treasury, intervened in the currency market using U.S. Treasury funds; the System Open Market Account portfolio was not involved.

The Fed's rate hike prompted criticism from President Trump, who blamed the rate increase on Warsh’s colleagues, whom he claimed were being “very political.” Since the meeting, however, a series of comments from key Fed officials have indicated the central bank may be in no rush to raise rates again.

Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and New York Fed President John Williams said in separate speeches last week they believed the central bank has time to assess the economy before considering another rate increase. Investors promptly reeled in their expectations for a rate hike this month.

Investors are currently pricing in a roughly 20% chance of another quarter-point hike at the Fed’s Oct. 27-28 meeting, down from around 70% in the days following the September decision, based on federal funds futures. Yields on two-year Treasuries, seen as the most sensitive to Fed policy, dropped more than 10 basis points in the past week to near 4.8%.

Bloomberg notes that last week’s remarks by Williams and Jefferson don’t mean the Fed won’t adjust policy any further. Officials continue to warn that inflation is too high. The CPI report due Oct. 14 might yet revive calls for a near-term hike.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 14:14

Putin Praises Iran's 'Courage' As US Gloats Over Oil Blockade & 'Zero' Exports

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:10:00 +0000

Putin Praises Iran's 'Courage' As US Gloats Over Oil Blockade & 'Zero' Exports

The Trump administration has been busy boasting that it has brought Iran's economy to its knees through the navy enforced oil blockade and through sweeping 'Economic D-Day' sanctions, but in direct contradiction to this, Russia is busy hailing Tehran's 'courage'.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call Wednesday, on the occasion of Putin's birthday, wherein the two leaders pledged to strengthen bilateral cooperation, per readouts from both sides.

Zuma/TASS

Putin pointed to their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty as staying steadfast, despite "current developments and events in the region" - a reference to the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States.

Russia supports these diplomatic efforts, Putin continued, and "Iranian friends can be assured" that Moscow is ready to help, he informed Pezeshkian. And crucially there was this line which is a direct provocation to Washington:

Putin also praised what he called Iran’s "courage" in the face of attacks.

Also, according to Iranian state media, "Putin pointed to the Iranian nation's historic and epic steadfastness in the face of enemy aggression, stating that Iran's courage has been put at the focal attention of many countries across the world."

It must be remembered that US anonymous officials and media have accused Moscow of providing Tehran with targeting support during the height of Epic Fury. China too stands accused of this.

Such Kremlin messaging on Iranian courage is in direct opposition to what's being put out by the White House. For example, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been gloating this week that Iranian crude exports have been taken to near "zero" by the US Navy's ongoing blockade.

On Tuesday, he again mocked the Iranians, questioning what is their oil minister "managing"?

Iran has a new oil minister. Considering Iran has not loaded a single barrel of crude onto a vessel since August 25th, what is the oil minister managing?
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) October 6, 2026

TankerTrackers data has lately indicated that Iranian oil terminals were inactive for crude loadings throughout September, which has resulted in Iran's military ramping up drone attacks on foreign vessels engaged in 'unauthorized' passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

This month alone has already seen at least ten attacks on ships, but which has had surprisingly little impact on oil prices. The mainstream media has also been relatively quiet on these latest attacks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also been trying to spike the football, even as Iranian attacks on international shipping in the region continue, and after US bases have by and large been forced to be abandoned in Gulf states.

⚡️JUST IN: Secretary of State Rubio states that Iran has Lost Complete Control of the Strait of Hormuz Oil is passing through (around 10 Million Barrels Per Day) the Strait of Hormuz - The IRGC has struck more than 10 ships over the past week but this hasn't deterred the oil tankers - Sources in Iran indicate that the current situation could continue until the US's Midterm Elections (beginning in November)
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) October 7, 2026

Tehran is still saying it would be open to a peace deal, but that it ultimately doesn't trust Trump, and that if the situation of the blockade on its oil persists, it may have to launch 'preemptive attack' on American assets in the region.

"If necessary, we will carry out preemptive operations in the future to deter the enemy from any aggression or attack," an Iranian military spokesman said Wednesday.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 14:10

USDA Investing $180 Million For American Seed Sovereignty

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:55:00 +0000

USDA Investing $180 Million For American Seed Sovereignty

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a $180 million investment to launch the Seed Sovereignty Initiative for strengthening domestic agricultural security by protecting plant genetic resources.

The USDA will use the funding to sequence the genetics of major crops to "unlock the tremendous potential of the plant genetic resources the United States holds and identify critical gaps," the department said in an Oct. 6 statement. Plant genetic resources can include seeds, plants, and plant parts.

Foreign competitors are acquiring and genetically sequencing plant resources from around the world while the United States is yet to sequence its own plant collections fully, the USDA said. Investment in the Seed Sovereignty Initiative aims to address this gap and reduce the risk of future foreign dependence on plant genetic resources.

The Seed Sovereignty Initiative will funnel investments into USDA's National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), which houses more than 600,000 samples from more than 16,000 species. The department plans to characterize and sequence several NPGS collections over two years, using cutting-edge tech to identify valuable genetic traits, the USDA said.

The initiative will help in the development of new crop varieties that benefit American farmers and consumers and also help researchers respond faster to new pests and plant diseases, the agency said.

The initiative will ensure continued American leadership in agricultural productivity and innovation, strengthen U.S. food security, make producers independent of seed systems controlled by foreign groups, and preserve a domestic source of seeds and crop traits crucial for agriculture and exports, the initiative's website says.

"Since President Trump returned to office, he has made it clear that we are putting American farmers first. For too long, the future of our crops and our seeds has not been a priority. That changes today, because we cannot afford to depend on foreign adversaries for next year's crop," Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said in the statement.

"Today's announcement is another example of this administration focusing on the inputs our agriculture industry depends on and ensuring a future where our farmers are the most productive in the world."

The United States has seen large-scale seed commercialization over the past century, with seeds turning from a common good into a commodity, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.

Consolidation in the private seed industry has made farmers increasingly dependent on commodity seeds while reducing crop diversity. Commodity seeds have become crucial for food production, with corporate control of the seed industry tightening, the study said.

At present, the majority of seed supply for almost every major row crop planted in the United States is produced by four companies - Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta Group, and BASF.

Out of these, only Corteva is headquartered in the United States. Bayer and BASF are based in Germany, and Syngenta Group is in Switzerland.

Concern Over China Connection

Syngenta Group has faced scrutiny because of its links to the Chinese Communist Party and the amount of farmland it owns in the United States. Although the company's Syngenta Seeds division has its North American headquarters near Chicago, Syngenta Group is owned by Chinese state-controlled ChemChina.

"Reliance on a small group of suppliers in any strategic sector creates vulnerabilities that are difficult to ignore, and the situation is no different in the case of seed for major field crops," national security lawyer Irina Tsukerman told The Epoch Times.

"From a national security perspective, the reality that much of the country's grain production flows from traits and breeding pipelines managed by a handful of actors is a clear signal that dependence has reached a level that warrants scrutiny."

On July 14, a group of lawmakers introduced the Fair Seeds for Farmers Act to tackle the issue of corporate control over seeds, according to a statement from the office of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).

Under the proposed measure, seed companies would be banned from restricting farmers or researchers from experimenting, breeding, propagating, or saving seeds.

"The hyperconsolidation and commodification of seeds has eroded farmers' resilience and diminished the agrobiodiversity of crops cultivated in the US at an alarming rate," Nick Rossi, a policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said in the statement.

The bill "takes an important step in curtailing corporate abuse of US Patent Law," Rossi said.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Autumn Spredemann contributed to this report.

* * * psst * * *

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:55

NatGas Rises As Forecasts Signal Looming "Arctic Blast"

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:40:00 +0000

NatGas Rises As Forecasts Signal Looming "Arctic Blast"

Natural gas futures climbed on Wednesday morning as cooler weather forecasts across the Lower 48 pointed to stronger heating demand next week and as LNG exports from Gulf states reduced supplies available to the domestic market.

Flagship AI models showing an "Arctic Blast" in the longer range forecasts ~10 days from now. Keeping a close eye on the Arctic as it could stretch and destabilize causing a massive dump of unseasonably cold air already in mid-October. Downscaled-AIFS low temperatures Sunday October 18 -- way too close to freezing for me in Atlanta.
— Ryan Maue (@RyanWeather) October 7, 2026

NatGas futs rose 5.3 cents, or 1.7%, to $3.167 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the early US cash session.

Forecasts shifted toward cooler conditions across the northern half of the US. Average temps across the Lower 48 are expected to drop below 30-year seasonal norms next Wednesday. Unseasonably cool temperatures could linger through the 19th before returning to normal.

The shift could lift consumption in regions where heating demand typically begins earlier.

"Looking for a shift to a cooler-than-normal pattern across the South? I’m eyeing the week of October 19 for temperatures to finally dip below seasonal norms," WTVY Chief Meteorologist David Paul wrote on social media.

Paul said, "The ECMWF model weeklies have been doing a pretty good job. Here’s the outlook for October 19-25."

The latest cost of a cord of wood in the tri-state area (data via Angi):

The question is whether a strong El Niño will bring warmer-than-usual temperatures to parts of the Lower 48 ...

... or whether this is a taste of a severe winter.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:40

Did Bessent Call In Favor? Stellar 10Y Auction Prices At Highest Yield Since 2000 On Near Record Foreign Demand

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:34:59 +0000

Did Bessent Call In Favor? Stellar 10Y Auction Prices At Highest Yield Since 2000 On Near Record Foreign Demand

After yesterday's ugly, it stopping through, auction, bond markets were on edge ahead of today's $39 billion reopening of benchmark 10 Year paper: an ugly auction could well send yields to new multi-decade highs (if not vice versa).

Well, at 1pm we got the results of today's 10Y auction (technically 9 Year, 10 Month reopening) and... they were surprisingly strong.

Starting at the top: the auction stopped at a high yield of exactly 5.300%, which was almost half a percent higher than the September auction's high yield of 4.8340% and was also the highest 10Y auction yield going back to November 2000, just as the dot com bubble was bursting.

But what the market was more focused on was whether the auction would tail: anything remotely ugly as the 5Y auction two weeks ago and all bets were off. However, not only did the auction not tail, it stopped through the When Issued 5.317% by 1.7bps, the 5th consecutive stop through and the biggest since April 2025! Needless to say, this result raised lots of eyebrows, with many wondering if Bessent called in a favor from one or more "friendly" G7 nations to get a satisfactory result.

That theory got a second wind when looking at the internals: unlike most recent auctions which saw a sharp drop in foreign (indirect) demand, today we saw a nearly record foreign demand, as Indirects were awarded a whopping 80.3%, the 4th highest ever. And with Directs taking a modest 17.1%, right in line with the 17.0% recent average, Dealers were left holding an amazing 2.5%, the lowest in 10Y history... and easily a flashing red flag that something was very odd in today's auction.

Odd or not, today's auction was remarkably solid for soundbite purposes, and allowed bond markets to exhale...

... and sending 10Y yields to session lows, down 5bps on the auction itself.

Still, the bounce was short lasting and just like French OATs, the selling resumed promptly after the auction as the bond market - unlike its stock peers - is far less gullible and realizes that while today's auction was always going to go through, absolutely nothing has changed.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:34

"They'll Be Quite Rich": Trump Says 70 Million Eligible Children Automatically Enrolled In 'Trump Accounts'

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:20:57 +0000

"They'll Be Quite Rich": Trump Says 70 Million Eligible Children Automatically Enrolled In 'Trump Accounts'

President Trump announced in the Oval Office around 1 pm local time that every eligible child in America has been automatically enrolled in a tax-free investment account known as a "Trump account."

Trump said that when the kids "hit 18, they'll be quite rich." The president thanked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as the Dell family, for their sizable contribution to Trump accounts.

Trump said, "By today's successes, this means there will be 70 million Trump accounts."

He said these accounts teach kids about "entrepreneurship" ...

Beyond the Dell family, the president said 70 companies have committed to Trump accounts.

.@POTUS: "Since launching in July, nearly eight million accounts have been created in three months. With today's announcement, we're building on that success by 70 million accounts of children across America — and they'll all be enrolled into the @TrumpAccounts." https://t.co/vfw4VA9Zqi
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 7, 2026

Trump made the point that an entire generation of young Americans will now own stocks. This is critical because it will renew their belief in capitalism amid fears of Democrats pushing a far-left socialist agenda on young people.

Trump touted stock market records:

Trump then turned to Bessent and said, "Every child deserves to have a piece of the American dream. Treasury will seed the accounts with $1,000. "

This is the start of the "ownership society," Bessent noted.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:20

Leaked GameStop Memo Shows Used PS5 Pros Priced Above New Ones As GTA 6 Release Looms

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:10:00 +0000

Leaked GameStop Memo Shows Used PS5 Pros Priced Above New Ones As GTA 6 Release Looms

A leaked internal GameStop memo shared on Reddit lists pre-owned PlayStation 5 Pro consoles at $1,399.99 to $1,499.99, depending on specifications, putting them more than 50% above the $899 retail price of a brand-new unit.

"The pre-owned console will have a higher price than the new console," the memo states. "This is intentional."

Lo and behold, it is...

Brand-new PS5 Pro units have a retail price of $899, up from $749.99 earlier this year because of chip shortages. It's unclear why GameStop raised used console prices by more than 50%.

GameStop is already listing pre-owned and refurbished PlayStation 5 Pro console for $1,399, while listing brand new ones for $899.99🚀 At this point, what’s the difference between scalpers and these stores? Multiple customers also raised concerns that they could open their stock and pass it down as “pre-owned” for higher prices, though there’s still no proof that this can happen in this scenario, but it shows how there’s total lack of trust within the gaming industry for all the predatory practices that are being normalized and passed down as “it is what it is”🤔
— Rino🚀 (@RinoTheBouncer) October 6, 2026

"Many people blame the AI-driven memory chip crisis for the PS5 Pro shortage. AI data centers' appetite for HBM and willingness to pay top dollar for these chips meant that DRAM manufacturers have pivoted most of their capacity towards this more lucrative market, with manufacturers of consumer goods fighting over a smaller pie of DRAM production. The situation has led to a 500% increase in RAM prices in the past 12 months, with the shortage now starting to spill over into other industries like smartphones and automotive manufacturing," tech blog Tom's Hardware noted.

The blog added, "The situation is likely compounded by the anticipated launch of GTA VI this coming November, which started pre-selling in June 2026. While Rockstar isn’t targeting 60 FPS for the game at launch, it seems that gamers are willing to pay top dollar just to ensure that they can get the best possible performance when the game finally arrives after years of waiting."

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 13:10

From 3-Year Lows To 3-Year Highs In Nine Months: Mortgage Rates Surge To 7.49% As Bond Rout Hits Main Street

Tyler Durden — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:54:58 +0000

From 3-Year Lows To 3-Year Highs In Nine Months: Mortgage Rates Surge To 7.49% As Bond Rout Hits Main Street

Last December, we wrote that mortgage rates had dipped to 3-year lows. Nine months, one Middle East war and one global bond rout later, they are at 3-year highs.

According to the latest weekly data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped another 19bps to 7.49% in the week ended October 2, the highest since November 2023, and up from 7.30% the week before, which itself was a fresh 3-year high.

The culprit is not exactly a mystery. Mortgage rates track the 10Y Treasury, and the 10Y just had its biggest quarterly jump since 1994, hitting 5.34% last week, the highest since 2002. And with the long end leading the latest leg of the selloff, this morning the 30Y climbed to 5.70%, also the highest since 2002, while the 10Y was trading around 5.32%.

Below we look at why the bond rout has finally landed on Main Street, what it is doing to housing (spoiler: nothing good), and why the sell-side's perennial "yields will fall from here" call is now 0 for 9.

Follow The 10Y (Then Add A War)

As Reuters notes, home borrowing rates are up about 1.4 percentage points since US-Israeli strikes against Iran began in late February, closely tracking the jump in the 10Y yield, which was back above 5.3% on Monday. The drivers are the usual suspects: inflation fears from triple-digit oil (Brent was back above $101 this morning as Iran stepped up attacks on Hormuz tankers), surprisingly resilient growth, a Fed that is now hiking, and a bond market that has to absorb record Treasury supply and the AI debt binge at the same time.

And it's not just a US story. On Monday, we put out this chart showing that global 10Y+ bond yields are now the highest since 2002:

Since then it has only gotten worse: UK 30-year gilt yields hit a 28-year high this morning, while in France, where the OAT-Bund spread is back out to 140bps, European banks are tumbling as the French bond crash reactivates the "doom loop" (something we discussed earlier in "Bonds & Stocks Are Pricing A Fundamentally Different Macro Regime"). And as regular readers know, we've pinned much of the relentless Treasury selling on Japan, which has little reason to stop repatriating when its own long bonds yield near record highs.

Translation: the global bid for duration is gone, and the US homebuyer is the marginal price-taker. Yesterday's subpar 3Y auction priced at the highest yield in 20 years as foreign demand slumped, and today the Treasury tries its luck with $39BN in 10Y paper at 1pm.

"Showings Have Stopped"... And So Have Applications

We have been tracking the slow-motion seizure of the housing market since late May, when refi activity plummeted as mortgage rates hit 9-month highs. By late September, homebuyers were turning to riskier mortgages as rates topped 7%, and last Thursday, after Freddie Mac's 30Y rate posted its biggest weekly jump since October 2022 to 7.28%, real estate agents told us that "showings have stopped".

Today's MBA data confirms it. Mortgage applications fell another 4.2% last week, with refinancing applications dropping sharply. Overall application volume is now the lowest since February 2025, and has collapsed by nearly 50% since January. Or, in the dry words of MBA deputy chief economist Joel Kan, very few homeowners have an incentive to refinance "at these rates", while the jump in borrowing costs has pushed many would-be buyers out of the purchase market altogether.

Some napkin math shows why. On a $400,000, 30-year mortgage, principal and interest at 7.49% comes to roughly $2,794 a month. At the ~6.1% that prevailed before the war, it was about $2,424. That's $370 more every month, or 15%, for the exact same house - and 68% more than the borrower who locked in at the 2021 lows (who, naturally, is not selling).

That last point is the real problem. The lock-in effect, which was finally starting to ease over the summer as inventory approached prepandemic levels, is now back with a vengeance: sellers with 3% mortgages have zero reason to move, and buyers facing 7.5% have every reason to wait. Even BofA's REIT team, in its weekly U.S. REIT Weekly (available to pro subs), cites persistently high mortgage rates and elevated for-sale housing costs as a key reason renters are staying put longer - good news for apartment landlords; first-time buyers might see it differently.

Not that the administration isn't trying. Just last Thursday:

*HASSETT: WE WANT MORTGAGE RATES TO GO DOWN
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 2, 2026

Mortgage rates rose 19bps that week. The bond market, it seems, did not get the memo, or more likely got it and sold anyway.

"Rates May Be Biting"

So where do we go from here? According to BofA's rates team led by Mark Cabana, the selloff only ends when it starts to hurt. In his latest Global Rates Weekly, "Start of rates bite" (available to pro subs), Cabana writes that the impact of higher rates is starting to bite broader financial conditions, with spreads widening in OATs, the EU periphery and US high yield, before adding:

"Rates restricting financial conditions is a precondition for the selloff to stop (unless macro data softens first). Central banks are starting to push back but will only be credible if conditions stay tight / tighten further or upcoming data softens."

In other words, the cure for high yields is... a housing market that stops working. Mission, at least partially, accomplished.

Notably, September's selloff was concentrated in the US: BofA calculates the US 2-10Y sector rose 50bps last month, a 2x standard deviation move in the 10Y, as global central banks swung from pricing cuts in Q1 to 100bp+ of hikes in most regions. BofA still expects the Fed to hike 75bps between September and December, and only sees the 10Y ending the year at 5.00%.

Then there's the mortgage-specific part of the equation. As BofA's securitized team led by Chris Flanagan notes in its September returns review (also available to pro subs), Agency MBS delivered a -3.3% total return in September and -1.0% in excess returns versus Treasuries, underperforming even IG corporates (-2.6%). And the bank isn't rushing to buy the dip: it stays "basis-neutral" on agency MBS and would only turn more positive if the current coupon spread, now 120bp, widens to the 125-130bp area.

Put differently, even the professional buyers of mortgage paper want more spread on top of a 10Y that is already at a 24-year high. Which means that unless Treasuries rally hard, the path of least resistance for mortgage rates is even higher.

Strategists: 0 For 9 (And Counting)

Of course, if you ask Wall Street, relief is just around the corner. In a Reuters poll of nearly 60 fixed income strategists conducted October 5-7, the median forecast has the 10Y easing to 5.00% by year-end, 4.90% in six months and 4.75% in a year.

The same strategists have underestimated the 10Y in nine straight monthly polls this year, and got the direction mostly wrong in six of the most recent months. Perhaps sensing this, all but 2 of 30 forecasters surveyed said the 10Y is more likely to overshoot their forecast than undershoot it near term, which is a remarkably candid way of saying "we have no idea, but probably higher."

The more honest take came from BofA's own US rates strategist Meghan Swiber, who told Reuters rates have entered "a different regime" from anything since the GFC, and that a Fed which fails to tighten financial conditions will pay for it through higher long-term rates.

Midterm Math

All of this lands four weeks before the November 3 midterms. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Monday found the cost of living is the top issue on voters' minds, which helps explain why Trump's approval rating sits at a record low 32%. With PCE inflation at 3.4% in August and the Fed signaling another hike by year-end after September's increase, the White House is running out of levers: today Trump said he is considering suspending the federal gas tax. Expect the "lower mortgage rates" talking points to get louder. Expect mortgage rates to ignore them.

Bottom Line

BofA's Cabana frames the endgame neatly: the selloff stops when rates restrict financial conditions, or when the data rolls over first. In housing, that test is already being passed with flying colors: applications are down by half this year, showings have stopped, and refis have all but vanished.

The question is whether the bond market cares, after all it is financing AI hopes and dreams that may (perhaps) materialize sometime in the 2030s with an ROIC that isn't negative triple digits. In other words, the runway for said hopes and dream is long and much more debt will flow before it reverses. Until then, however, broader rates will keep rising and rising, as the US now directly competes with data centers (most of which will never be plugged into a grid that simply can not support that kind of electricity demand) for funding.

With oil back above $100, the Fed hiking, Japan repatriating, France going all PIIGS on the OAT market and Treasury supply only going one way, we think the more likely outcome is that 7.49% is just another waypoint, and hardly a peak - and that the strategists' "5% by year-end" joins the previous eight forecasts in the bin.

Then again, stocks closed at a record high yesterday, so maybe everything is fine... just don't try to buy a house.

Much more in the full BofA Global Rates Weekly "Start of rates bite", the Securitized Products "September 2026 returns" review and the U.S. REIT Weekly, all available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Wed, 10/07/2026 - 12:54