CMR is the leading provider
of funding and management
support for small to
medium-sized businesses and
entrepreneurs
Established 1984 C MR
is the leading venture
capital, management
support and business
services provider for
small to medium-sized
businesses - linking
excellent management
skills with the
substantial financial
resources of a global bank
of private investors.
CMR has over 450 senior
executives, operating
in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia,
Australasia and
globally,
providing both funding and
specialist help for
entrepreneurial
businesses .
For Businesses
CMR provides excellent
resources:
CMR FundEX Business Exchange - gives all companies & entrepreneurs direct access to CMR's global investor base.
CMR Catalyst Group
Programme -
transform
profitability through
merging.
CMR Company Sales Division helps owners to exit
at the best price.
CMR Corporate Recovery
Division -
experts in rescue and
turnaround.
CMR Technology Licensing
Division -
commercialising
innovation.
CMR Executive
Professionals - management support
and consultancy.
CMR Executives-on-Demandâ„¢ Fully experienced
senior executives
available quickly and
cost effectively.
We always welcome
contact with new
business clients- please get in touch
- we will do our
best to match
your needs and exceed
your expectations.
For Investors
Preferential access to new opportunities for investment and/or acquisition
P re-vets
propositions and
provides a
personalised service
to our investors
Syndication service
enabling investors to
link together as desired
Executive and
management support for
investments as needed
CMR's services to
our investors are not
only fast & efficient
but also free
W e
always appreciate new
members- you are welcome
to join as an investor
or as a CMR Executive.
When you
join us as a Senior
Executive:
CMR's strength is in the
skills and experience of
our executive members -
all senior, director level
people with years of
successfully running and
managing companies.
Because the demand for
CMR's support and services
is ever-increasing,
especially as we enter
recessionary times, we
have a growing need for
more high calibre
executives to join us from
every industry and
discipline.
You will be using your
considerable experience to
help smaller businesses
and entrepreneurs to grow
profitably.
We offer full training
and mentoring support to
help maximise potential.
We are
always keen to find more
high calibre senior
executives in all areas-
skills and location.
Make contact with us today
and maximise your
opportunities.
HEAD
OFFICE
124 City Road
London EC1 2NX
Tel: +44 (0)207-636-1744
Fax:+44 (0)207-636-5639
Email: cmr@cmruk.com
Registered Office:
124 City Road ,
London EC1 2NX
Also Glasgow,
Dublin, Switzerland, Europe, USA/Canada
Privacy Statement: CMR only
retains personal details
supplied directly by executives
joining CMR themselves either as
Full Executive Members or
Interim Management Members or
Investors. Those details are
only used within CMR and not
disclosed to any third parties
without that person’s
agreement. We will keep that
data until requested by the
person to be removed – at that
point it will be deleted.
Personal data is never sold or
used for purposes outside of
CMR’s normal operations. Any
correspondence should be
directed to the Managing
Director, CMR,
Kemp House,
152-160 City Road, London EC1V
2N
Senior Executives
CMR is a worldwide network of senior executives. Join us to expand your career and business horizons.
Business Entrepreneurs
CMR has a complete range of resources & services provided by experts to help all businesses to grow and prosper.
Investors & Venturers
CMR has a continuous stream of business and funding propositions, which are matched to investor preferences. Join us - it's FREE!
FundEX
FundEX is CMR's worldwide stock market for small to medium sized companies and entrepreneurs to raise new capital.
Interim & Permanent Management
Many of CMR's executives can be recruited on an interim, permanent or NED basis.
Login
Main CMR Intranet members only
Regional Intranets
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 03:25:00 +0000 The Two Lineages Of Liberty
The Two Lineages Of Liberty
The Two Lineages Of Liberty
Authored by Philippe Lemieux via Mises Institute ,
Liberty's history is often presented as a direct consequence of the Enlightenment: inherited authority was subjected to reason, persecution gave way to toleration, monarchy to constitutional government, and privilege to individual rights. In this account, classical liberalism leads naturally to Austrian economics and modern libertarianism. That sequence is useful but incomplete.
Liberty developed through the convergence of two lineages. The first is the modern lineage of Enlightenment criticism, which required political power to justify itself before reason. The second is an older realist tradition, running from Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas through the School of Salamanca, Richard Cantillon, Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard. These thinkers did not form a single school, nor did they agree on every question. What connects them is a shared orientation: reality has an intelligible order, human action has a structure, and political power cannot be abolished either by command.
The relevant difference is not between the Enlightenment as a whole and an older tradition, nor between reason and faith. Important currents within the Enlightenment, especially the Scottish Enlightenment , recognized that custom, law, money, and markets could arise without deliberate design. The deeper conflict is between a constructivist current within modern thought and an older causal-realist approach to social order. Friedrich Hayek identified the pinnacle of this constructivism as the "fatal conceit ," the erroneous belief that man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes. The realist tradition emphasizes the intelligibility and causal structure of social phenomena, while the constructivist tendency places greater confidence in deliberate organization and direction .
The danger appeared when criticism of inherited institutions hardened into confidence in consciously-designed ones. Locke was not Marx, and constitutional government was not socialism. The continuity lies in method: once social order is treated primarily as an artifact of design, political disagreement increasingly turns on the identity of the designer, the objective of the plan, and the permitted range of control. This tendency appears in social planning, price controls, central banking, licensing, regulation, and the administrative management of economic life.
The older lineage begins from a different premise. Aristotle started with beings as they are and the ends toward which they tend. Human beings choose, deliberate, employ means, form households, exchange goods , and enter associations. Thomas Aquinas carried this realism into law and politics . A command does not become just simply because a ruler issues it. Human law derives its normative order from principles that political authority does not itself create.
Many late Scholastics, particularly the Spanish Scholastics associated with Salamanca , extended this framework to property, exchange, money, and political authority. They increasingly identified the just price with common estimation, shaped by utility, scarcity, and market conditions, rather than with an objective measure of production costs. By situating economic phenomena within moral agency and commutative justice, they placed limits on the arbitrary exercise of political authority in economic life. Within this tradition, thinkers such as Juan de Mariana also articulated strong limits on taxation, confiscation, and monetary debasement .
Richard Cantillon advanced this analysis by placing entrepreneurship, uncertainty, production, and market-price formation near the center of economic life. Merchants and retailers bought at known or fixed prices and later sold at prices they could not foresee, while farmers committed themselves to fixed rents without knowing what their output would command. Profit, loss, and bankruptcy therefore arose from judgment under changing conditions of demand, competition, weather, and consumer preference.
Carl Menger marked a decisive transition within the Austrian tradition. Much of British classical economics, especially in the Ricardian tradition, explained long-run exchange value primarily through labor and production costs. Menger instead began with human needs and with the economizing individual's knowledge of, and command over, goods capable of satisfying those needs. Value was not a substance stored inside an object; it arose from the relation between an individual, his needs, and the goods available to him. Market phenomena therefore had to be traced to individual judgments, choices, and exchanges. Prices, money, and other social institutions could emerge from economizing activity even when no one intended the resulting order.
Böhm-Bawerk extended the analysis to capital and time. For him, social or productive capital consists of intermediate goods used in time-consuming processes of production before final consumer goods become available.
Mises generalized the Austrian insight through praxeology , making economics part of a broader science of human action. The starting point was not an aggregate, a class, or a governmental objective; it was the acting individual employing scarce means to attain chosen ends. Exchange, prices, profit, loss, money, capital, and production are intelligible only within this structure of purposeful conduct. Mises presented praxeology as an a priori science grounded in the category of human action, with implications that could be developed through deductive reasoning independently of particular historical experience.
The extent to which this epistemology should be understood as Kantian, however, is contested. Jörg Guido Hülsmann has argued that Mises is better understood as a representative of Aristotelian realism. Although Mises employed the language of the a priori, Hülsmann points to the method of Mises's actual economic analysis, which repeatedly seeks to identify the nature and necessary relations of economic phenomena. Hülsmann therefore places him within the broader Austrian realist tradition of Menger and Böhm-Bawerk, arguing that his affinities with Kant should not be overstated. On this reading, Mises occupies an intermediate position within the lineage developed here: his epistemological vocabulary is partly Kantian, while the substance of his economic analysis retains an important Aristotelian-realist character.
Mises's critique of socialism demonstrated the practical consequences of this method. Socialist calculation does not fail merely because officials are corrupt, uninformed, or unintelligent. It fails because abolishing private ownership in the means of production eliminates genuine exchange in capital goods. Without exchange, there are no market prices through which planners can compare competing uses of resources by means of monetary calculation.
A planning authority may collect technical information, issue targets, and assign accounting figures. Such figures, however, are not exchange ratios generated by transactions among separate owners. A statistical table can describe quantities, but it cannot determine whether steel should be used for bridges, machinery, railways, or buildings in a way that responds to consumer demand and alternative costs. The defect is not located in the personality of the planner; it is built into the institutional structure of the system.
Rothbard brought this lineage to its most systematic political conclusion. He combined Austrian value theory, capital theory, and economic calculation with a broader theory of natural law, natural rights, property, and the state. His philosophical foundation differed from Mises's. Rothbard retained the praxeological method of deduction but interpreted the action axiom from an Aristotelian-Thomistic epistemological standpoint , grounding it in the nature of reality rather than in Mises's neo-Kantian conception of the action axiom as an a priori category of thought.
Rothbard also rejected the convenient story that economics began with Adam Smith and advanced in a straight line toward modern science. In his history of economic thought , he restored the Spanish Scholastics, Cantillon, the French liberal tradition, and other neglected thinkers to a central place, arguing that their contributions had been obscured by the later dominance of British classical economics.
The administrative state shows what happens when the emancipatory language of the Enlightenment is separated from the limits imposed by human action, scarcity, property, and economic calculation. It speaks the language of rights while turning rights into permissions. It recognizes property and permits markets while reserving the power to direct their use through zoning, licensing, taxation, monetary policy, and regulation. It preserves elections while transferring decisions to agencies, central banks, and experts. The system remains liberal in vocabulary and managerial in operation. Failure is treated not as evidence of institutional limits but as proof that the machinery requires another adjustment, a new rule, a larger staff, or a wider jurisdiction.
The history of liberty, therefore, is not the story of one Enlightenment becoming more consistent, but of two converging lineages. One challenged inherited authority; the other emphasized the limits that human action, causality, property, and economic calculation impose on deliberate construction. Austrian economics stands where they meet. Social order emerges through individual action, exchange, calculation, and cooperation under conditions that no central authority can fully command.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 23:25 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000 Man Accused Of Trying To Set Portland Record Store On Fire After They Wouldn't Buy His Records
Man Accused Of Trying To Set Portland Record Store On Fire After They Wouldn't Buy His Records
A dispute over a record sale escalated into threats and an alleged attempt to set a Portland record shop on fire, according to prosecutor
Read more.....
Man Accused Of Trying To Set Portland Record Store On Fire After They Wouldn't Buy His Records
A dispute over a record sale escalated into threats and an alleged attempt to set a Portland record shop on fire, according to prosecutors.
Adrian Orange, 40, is accused of confronting the owner of Vinyl Resting Place in St. Johns on Aug. 27 after the store declined to purchase records he brought in, according to KATU ABC . Court documents say Orange threatened the owner, calling him a “dead man.”
Investigators say Orange later returned after the door had been locked, placed newspaper beneath the entrance, poured lighter fluid on it and ignited it.
A woman from a neighboring business intervened and extinguished the flames after Orange walked away. Authorities say he threatened her as well.
The KATU report says about 15 minutes later, Orange allegedly returned and kicked the store’s door while making additional threats, including, “One way or another, I’m getting to you.”
Police later located Orange outside a nearby bar. He acknowledged visiting the record shop earlier to sell records and had a lighter with him when officers found him.
Orange was arraigned on attempted arson, two burglary counts, coercion and menacing. A judge ordered him held without bail pending a preventive detention hearing.
Afterward, the store owner wrote on social media about his frustration with the broader mental health crisis, saying he felt he had exhausted his options for dealing with the problem.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 23:00 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:35:00 +0000 Qatar And UAE Turn To Rare LNG Ship Transfers As Hormuz Crisis Drags On
Qatar And UAE Turn To Rare LNG Ship Transfers As Hormuz Crisis Drags On
Qatar And UAE Turn To Rare LNG Ship Transfers As Hormuz Crisis Drags On
By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com
Three LNG carriers loaded from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf have transferred their cargoes onto other vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz in the past month, a move that’s highly unusual for LNG cargoes but one that could raise the crippled LNG shipments from the region.
LNG traffic at the Strait of Hormuz nevertheless remains at a standstill, even though oil flows are estimated to have rebounded in recent weeks.
However, unlike crude oil, it’s much more difficult to shuttle-ship LNG through Hormuz and then reload it via a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer as Persian Gulf producers, including Qatar, have been doing in recent months to ship oil to customers.
The UAE and Qatar appear to have done this with three LNG cargoes in August, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing vessel-tracking data from Vortexa and Kpler.
The three LNG carriers in question include Greek-owned GasLog Shanghai, which was involved in an “incident” in the Strait of Hormuz at the end of July, and transferred its cargo onto GasLog Savannah offshore Oman outside the Strait in late August.
Qatar-owned Al Rekayyat, hit by a projectile near the Strait of Hormuz in early July, also conducted an STS transfer with Qatar-owned tanker Tembek in mid-August, according to the data compiled by Reuters.
The cargo on the Tembek was delivered to India on August 31.
ADNOC’s Mraweh LNG carrier also made an STS onto LNG Enugu outside the Strait offshore Oman in the middle of August, and is en route to deliver the cargo to Japan, according to the data.
The lack of meaningful recovery of LNG flows from the Persian Gulf and Qatar’s extended force majeure on deliveries combined with the U.S.-Iran re-escalation to hike Asia’s spot LNG prices to a five-month high and Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices to a three-and-a-half-year high this week.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 22:35 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:10:00 +0000 Xi In Rare Egypt Visit Blasts 'External Interference' In Mideast, As Iran War Drags On
Xi In Rare Egypt Visit Blasts 'External Interference' In Mideast, As Iran War Drags On
Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare trip to the Cairo told his Egyptian counterpart on Wednesday that "external interference" in the M
Read more.....
Xi In Rare Egypt Visit Blasts 'External Interference' In Mideast, As Iran War Drags On
Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare trip to the Cairo told his Egyptian counterpart on Wednesday that "external interference" in the Middle East should be opposed , Chinese state media reported.
Talks in the Egyptian capital between Xi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi were a first in a decade . Interestingly, Xi at one point pledged Beijing was willing to help protect maritime shipping - though it's anything but clear what specifics would look like, or what bodies of water he had in mind.
via Reuters
"China stands ready to work with countries in the region to safeguard the security of international shipping lanes , advance development cooperation… and eliminate the breeding grounds for conflict," Xi said as quoted in Xinhua.
Ironically the 'offer' comes months after President Trump urged international powers to do just that, but which was met by resounding silence, even among European leaders. Naturally they don't want to get bogged down in yet another US foreign adventure, especially when there's been lack of strategy coupled with repeat contradictions along the way.
As for his remarks about non-interference, Xi clearly had in mind the still-raging US-Iran war, which has turned into a bit of a quagmire for the US, having hit the six-month mark just this week :
"We must uphold the principle that the people of the Middle East are the masters of their own affairs , oppose external interference [and] support regional countries in strengthening dialogue on peace and security."
The other irony on display is that Egypt's is essentially a military government which is bought and paid for by the United States to the tune of around $2 billion or more in bilateral foreign assistance each year. This goes back to the historic peace with Israel, and the Egyptian 'deep state' has been closely cooperative with US intelligence ever since.
Along with talk of how to advance diplomacy related to the Iran war, the two sides signed a significant Suez Canal investment deal :
The talks covered the six-month US-Iran conflict, with both presidents urging "diplomatic solutions" to reach a "comprehensive agreement to end the war", according to a statement from Sisi's spokesperson.
Sisi's office also said the two BRICS members signed an agreement to launch the third phase of the Egyptian-Chinese industrial zone at the Suez Canal , which officials say already hosts 200 companies and investments worth around $4 billion .
The new investments – for which Egypt has not announced a figure – give Beijing even greater influence in the canal zone, a critical artery of global trade, as conflict in the region chokes other conduits.
Regarding the White House's Economic D-Day sanctions on Iran, Beijing last month rejected cooperation with the policy meant to strangle the Islamic Republic.
Egypt stays committed to 'One China'...
China has been pushing back against Trump administration pressure to be part of the "toughest sanctions in history" which has marked a new phase of conflict focused on extended economic warfare, as a military solution has proven increasingly unrealistic and unlikely.
"Regarding the Iran issue, sanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem," Reuters quoted a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Washington as saying in late August. The White House's recent plan hinges on on external countries imposing extreme isolation on the Islamic Republic.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 22:10 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:45:00 +0000 ICE Arrests More Than 120 Illegal Immigrants At Memphis Nightclub
ICE Arrests More Than 120 Illegal Immigrants At Memphis Nightclub
ICE Arrests More Than 120 Illegal Immigrants At Memphis Nightclub
Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times ,
Federal immigration officers arrested 121 illegal immigrants on Aug. 30 at a Memphis nightclub during a targeted multiagency enforcement action, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
New Orleans field office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led Operation Corral Light at the El Corralon nightclub, in which officers executed federal and state warrants, DHS said in a statement on Sept. 1.
The DHS said that those taken into custody included people with criminal histories involving larceny, drug possession, domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, assault, child endangerment, and prostitution.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin tied the arrests to broader efforts to fight crime in the Tennessee city.
"Thanks to President Trump's leadership, crime in the city of Memphis has plummeted. A big part of that success comes from arresting and deporting illegal aliens in the city," Mullin said.
"Through Operation Corral Light, ICE arrested more than 120 illegal aliens in a single day, including child abusers, drug traffickers, and violent assailants."
Scott Ladwig, acting field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in New Orleans, described the effort as a priority.
"This criminal enforcement operation to arrest illegal aliens and eliminate drug activity in our community is part of the highest priorities of this administration," Ladwig said.
"Our officers remain committed to enforcing the law professionally, protecting the public, and upholding the trust placed in us by the American people."
Among those arrested were Ricardo N. Rodriguez Arteaga, a Honduran national with a conviction for larceny and an arrest for commercial sex involving homosexual prostitution. Sergio Vieyra Torres, from Mexico, faced prior arrests for child endangerment and driving under the influence of liquor. Maryari Pamela Lopez Urivina, also from Honduras, had an arrest for aggravated assault. Jeronima Giron Cisneros, another Honduran, was arrested for domestic violence. Miguel Galeas Rodriguez, from Honduras, had a conviction for cocaine possession.
The operation fits into ongoing federal work in Memphis, where the Memphis Safe Task Force, established after a presidential memorandum in September 2025, has tackled the city's high violent crime rates.
FBI data for 2024 showed Memphis with the highest per-capita violent crime rate among all major U.S. cities. The task force had reached 10,000 arrests by June, with more than 1,700 illegal firearms recovered. The group's responsibilities include immigration enforcement alongside other public-safety measures.
The city had a violent crime rate roughly six times the national average in 2024.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 21:45 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:20:00 +0000 MIT Student Claims To Make One Of The World’s Deadliest Chemicals, Sparking HAZMAT Response
MIT Student Claims To Make One Of The World’s Deadliest Chemicals, Sparking HAZMAT Response
A potentially dangerous laboratory incident at MIT triggered a hazmat response last week after a graduate student told medical personnel he
Read more.....
MIT Student Claims To Make One Of The World’s Deadliest Chemicals, Sparking HAZMAT Response
A potentially dangerous laboratory incident at MIT triggered a hazmat response last week after a graduate student told medical personnel he believed he had created dimethylmercury, a highly toxic mercury compound, according to the NY Post .
The student, who has not been publicly identified, went to a local emergency room and reported the possible synthesis. That claim was serious enough to prompt MIT to close Building 18, part of its chemistry complex, while emergency crews and university officials assessed the situation.
MIT later said the student was not authorized to work with dimethylmercury and that the substance was unrelated to his approved research.
As a precaution, the university also took steps outside the laboratory. Shared spaces in the student’s residence hall were professionally cleaned, while the student’s own room was sealed during the investigation.
The NY Post writes that by Saturday, however, the situation had become less clear. MIT said new information had raised doubts about whether dimethylmercury had actually been produced. The university also said the student’s first blood test showed no evidence of mercury exposure, although the student remained under medical observation.
Testing and investigative work continued through the weekend, with Building 18 remaining closed through Sunday.
Dimethylmercury is considered an exceptionally hazardous substance because even a very small exposure can be deadly. The chemical is perhaps best known for the 1997 death of Dartmouth chemistry professor Karen Wetterhahn, who was exposed when a tiny amount reached her hand despite the gloves she was wearing.
The compound has also surfaced in at least one criminal case. It was reportedly used in the 2012 killing of a German labor union official.
MIT has not yet said definitively whether the student succeeded in making the chemical, leaving the central question of the incident unresolved even after the emergency response and cleanup.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 21:20 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:55:00 +0000 Trump's New Foundry School Aims To Train America's Manufacturing Workers Of The Future
Trump's New Foundry School Aims To Train America's Manufacturing Workers Of The Future
Trump's New Foundry School Aims To Train America's Manufacturing Workers Of The Future
Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times ,
The Trump administration will launch Foundry School on Thursday, a national training program meant to prepare entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians, and industrial leaders for a rebuilding of U.S. manufacturing.
Vice President JD Vance is set to headline the event, according to a State Department press release. Foundry School falls under Pax Silica, the department's multilateral effort to lock down trusted supply chains for technologies expected to shape the coming decades.
Officials say President Donald Trump's reindustrialization push has already drawn trillions of dollars in investment to American soil. Foundry School's focus will be to convert that capital into actual employment.
American manufacturers will need an estimated 3.8 million skilled workers by 2033 across semiconductors, defense, energy, and related fields, according to the press release. The program is designed to put American workers first by giving them the skills to bring those jobs home and build careers in sectors tied to economic security.
The launch starts at 8:20 a.m. at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington. Senior administration officials, university leaders, and industry executives are scheduled to speak.
Foundry School was first announced as a Pax Silica project by Under Secretary Jacob Helberg at the Pax Summit on June 25. It is structured as a workforce partnership with Stanford University, which developed the core advanced manufacturing curriculum for American students.
Keystone lectures will come from seven other universities that collaborated with Stanford. They are Arizona State University, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Penn State, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Kansas, and Vanderbilt.
Across the eight campuses, the program will run 17 sessions. Founders and CEOs from advanced manufacturing firms will teach. Those leaders will come from the United States and from Pax Silica partner countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India.
The sessions are meant to cover everything required to build and run a top-tier manufacturing operation. Officials describe it as a single course aimed at making sure the American workforce shares in the industrial expansion.
"The entire Trump economic agenda is about making it easier to do business in America, to create jobs in America, to hire American workers, and to build your factories here in America, not in China, or any other country," Trump said in April 2025.
Studies have shown a skills shortage in the United States. A 2024 Deloitte study estimated 3.8 million new manufacturing positions would open by 2033, with only about half likely to be filled without major training efforts.
The jobs of the future in the modern manufacturing sector are expected to include highly technical and specialized roles, such as in robotics, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing. Experts say that the young generation of workers lack the skills to perform these tasks.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 20:55 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:30:00 +0000 Take-Two Slides Into Correction As Grand Theft Auto Leak Investigation Intensifies
Take-Two Slides Into Correction As Grand Theft Auto Leak Investigation Intensifies
Take-Two Interactive, whose Rockstar Games studio is developing Grand Theft Auto VI , was hit by a series of leaks last month ahead of the fa
Read more.....
Take-Two Slides Into Correction As Grand Theft Auto Leak Investigation Intensifies
Take-Two Interactive, whose Rockstar Games studio is developing Grand Theft Auto VI , was hit by a series of leaks last month ahead of the fall release. Bank of America analysts described the leaked footage as "impressive, but unlikely to surprise ," while TTWO shares have tumbled into a correction since the leaks surfaced online.
The leaked clips reportedly expose plot details, character scenes, and gameplay mechanics, prompting Rockstar Games to call the leaks "gut-wrenching" and warn that some of the game's surprises may have been spoiled.
According to the Dutch news publication TorrentFreak , TTWO has intensified its search for the person who leaked GTA VI , asking a federal court to seal its latest demand for Discord user data, as the company describes its investigation as "rapidly evolving."
The new filing came Friday, one day after Rockstar Games streamed an extended GTA 6 preview on Netflix and months before the blockbuster title's planned November 19 release.
In mid-August, an account named "Cyberleek" began circulating the leaks. TTWO responded with takedown notices and a series of Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoenas targeting Discord, Microsoft, X, and YouTube.
Unlike a conventional lawsuit, a DMCA subpoena allows a copyright holder to seek identifying information from an online platform before suing the alleged infringer.
In the new subpoena , filed Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, TTWO said its "investigation of the infringement at issue is rapidly evolving and ongoing," adding, "Take-Two has identified one additional Discord user and obtained additional identifying information for a previously identified Discord user, as well as additional information concerning the community servers identified in its prior subpoena for which it now seeks more targeted information."
On Monday, the SDNY granted the subpoena request. Last month, Take-Two requested four subpoenas seeking information from Discord, Microsoft, Google, and X as the GTA VI leaks went viral on social media.
TorrentFreak pointed out that TTWO withdrew its YouTube request after facing pushback from a judge.
US technology publication PCMag reported that the leaker, CyberLeek, "has gone silent after posting what appears to be the prologue to GTA 6."
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 20:30 Close
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:05:00 +0000 OpenAI Hits Back At Apple In Trade Secrets Lawsuit
OpenAI Hits Back At Apple In Trade Secrets Lawsuit
OpenAI Hits Back At Apple In Trade Secrets Lawsuit
Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times ,
OpenAI has pushed back against Apple's accusations that it stole the iPhone maker's hardware secrets, blaming the dispute on Apple's own handling of departing employees.
In a court filing on Monday, OpenAI asked a federal judge to deny Apple's request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees from accessing, using, or disclosing alleged trade secrets while the case proceeds.
"This dispute is a mess of Apple's own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else," OpenAI said in the filing.
Apple sued OpenAI in July in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The company accused OpenAI and former Apple employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu of misusing confidential information related to hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain operations.
Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and previously served as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, is now OpenAI's chief hardware officer.
Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer at Apple, now serves on OpenAI's technical staff.
In its complaint, Apple alleged that Tan used confidential project code names during interviews. It also claimed he asked at least one candidate to bring "actual parts" they had worked on at Apple for a "show and tell" session.
Apple further alleged that Liu continued to access company files after leaving by exploiting what it described as a "rare, previously unknown authentication bug."
OpenAI has denied those allegations.
In Tan's case, OpenAI said he returned Apple prototypes before leaving and kept only nonconfidential material.
It also said any components brought to interviews were either old or publicly available and were used only as "demonstration aids."
OpenAI also defended Liu, saying any Apple files he accessed after leaving were retrieved at the request of former colleagues.
According to OpenAI, those employees contacted him for help locating documents or answering questions about his previous work.
The Epoch Times has requested comment from Apple regarding OpenAI's latest filing.
Apple Cites New Evidence
Earlier on Monday, Apple submitted what it described as new evidence against Liu as it sought expedited discovery in the case.
Apple alleged that Liu accessed Apple's confidential "power-converter circuit" schematic while working at OpenAI, and that he used proprietary Apple information to train an AI agent in March.
Apple said the evidence emerged from a MacBook that OpenAI provided to the company on Aug. 21 as part of the legal proceedings. Much of the underlying evidence remains redacted from public view.
"The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting 'fishing expeditions' but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed," the filing states.
OpenAI, however, said the episode only shows Apple's own shortcomings when it comes to offboarding.
According to OpenAI, Apple encourages employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work, making it more difficult to separate personal and company files when they leave.
The company also argued that Apple's practice of immediately escorting some departing employees from its offices can leave little time to return devices, transfer files, or hand over responsibilities.
"Apple blames employees who left the company for taking their personal accounts with them - even though Apple encouraged them to use personal accounts for work," OpenAI said.
The competing filings mark the latest escalation in a lawsuit that could provide an unusual look inside the two tech giants.
As the case moves deeper into the discovery phase, both sides could be required to disclose more details about how they recruit talent, develop hardware, and control who has access to what level of secrets.
From AI Partners to Hardware Rivals
There have been days when Apple and OpenAI enjoyed a less contentious relationship.
The two announced a partnership in June 2024 that brought ChatGPT into Apple products, allowing Siri and other Apple Intelligence features to tap into OpenAI's chatbot for some requests.
But OpenAI has since expanded aggressively into consumer hardware.
In May 2025, OpenAI acquired io Products, a hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
The deal, valued at $6.5 billion, brought Ive and his team into a close partnership with OpenAI as the company sought to develop a new generation of AI-powered devices.
Tan left Apple before joining io and later became OpenAI's chief hardware officer. Apple's lawsuit does not name Ive individually as a defendant.
Apple, meanwhile, has broadened its own AI partnerships.
In January, the company struck a multiyear deal to use Google's Gemini models as the foundation for future Apple Intelligence features, including its revamped Siri.
The legal fight erupted in July, when Apple accused OpenAI of using former Apple employees to obtain confidential information that could help it develop competing consumer hardware.
Apple has also alleged that OpenAI approached some of Apple's business partners using confidential information.
OpenAI has denied wrongdoing and portrayed the lawsuit as Apple's attempt to slow a potential competitor and discourage employees from leaving.
It said in Monday's filing that roughly 400 former Apple employees have joined its hardware efforts.
The ChatGPT maker argued that California law allows workers to move freely between competing companies, and that Apple cannot characterize ordinary employee departures as unlawful just because they join a rival.
"Apple cannot stop the next 400 employees from leaving by filing baseless lawsuits," OpenAI said.
"They can leave a company like Apple that has struggled to adopt AI and move to an exciting startup that builds innovative products," it continued.
"Apple may not like those choices. But it cannot claim those choices are unlawful."
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 20:05 Close
Wed, 02 Sep 2026 23:40:00 +0000 Russia Accused Of Helping Iran Develop Carrier-Killing Supersonic Cruise Missiles
Russia Accused Of Helping Iran Develop Carrier-Killing Supersonic Cruise Missiles
Yet another major allegation against Russia has emerged this week in the pages of the London-based Financial Times , which says that Moscow ha
Read more.....
Russia Accused Of Helping Iran Develop Carrier-Killing Supersonic Cruise Missiles
Yet another major allegation against Russia has emerged this week in the pages of the London-based Financial Times , which says that Moscow has been helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles , in a clandestine program that has been ongoing throughout the war with the US and Israel.
Early in the conflict, it was widely reported that advanced and ultra-fast weapons were used against Israel , which might help explain why the small Mediterranean country suffered so much damage.
The FT cited as part of its journalistic investigation internal Russian evidence it has uncovered including correspondence, travel records and military patents.
The secretive program is being described as "one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran ."
At the center of the new reporting is Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, overseeing a project codenamed "C430L" - and also involving the US-sanctioned NPO Mashinostroyenia, a rocket design company.
Officials from both entities reportedly started frequently traveling to Iran in 2023, with the program having continued into June 2026 - though it's unclear whether the war with the United States has paused or halted it.
The missile reportedly under development would fly at multiple times the speed of sound, and could be an 'aircraft killer' . It should be noted there are entire Reddit threads focused on questions like: Is there any realistic way for a carrier to destroy a super-sonic “carrier killer” cruise missile?
Jim Lamson, a former CIA military analyst focused on Iran, issued a statement to FT explaining, "For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US Navy vessels ."
Another interesting insight is from Fabian Hinz, a senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research. "This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades," he told the FT.
"A program like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia ," he added.
There of course remains the looming question of whether this is all propaganda , designed to put even more Western pressure on so-called 'rogue' actors Moscow and Tehran. It could be, but sharing such technology would also be consistent with recent defense and economic pacts the two sides have inked. This part has been no secret. They are also already deeply involved in drone transfers.
Already Russia witnessed a many years-long push to topple the Assad government in Syria, leading to a broad Russian troop withdrawal from the Levant, and certainly the Kremlin doesn't want to see US-imposed regime change in Tehran as well.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/02/2026 - 19:40 Close