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Social media giant X said on Thursday that it identified a bot farm of roughly 200,000 suspected Chinese accounts – 200 of which were "posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy." In short: the bots were amplifying pitchfork grievances Americans already hold against data centers.

X's Global Government Affairs team wrote:

The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations: We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts.

Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.

The team said the flagged accounts leaned on price and grid fears – and on AI-generated political cartoons:

These posts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense.

The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations:

We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate… pic.twitter.com/Mj0SqerdlH

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 28, 2026

Working The Angles

About those claims: they aren't fringe. PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest grid, serving some 67 million people across 13 states, has an independent market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, whose president Joseph Bowring concluded the last three capacity auctions "were not competitive, primarily as a result of the inclusion of forecast demand for data centers." His firm attributes $29.4 billion – 46% of all capacity charges across the last four auctions – to data center load, and wholesale power costs in the region jumped 76% year-over-year in the first quarter. Among the material X's flagged accounts reportedly shared: news coverage of that same 76% figure.

According to a Gallup poll published in May, 71% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their local area, including 48% 'strongly opposed' - and only about a quarter in favor. Opposition crosses party lines: Gallup's breakdowns showed 63% of Republicans strongly or somewhat opposed to a data center where they live, while a July Fox News poll found that 60% of Republicans and 53% of self-described "MAGA Republicans" oppose data centers where they live.  

So while China clearly benefits from added friction to America's AI buildout, the opposition is real. Now, techbros and X are suggesting that bad actors may be using that to their advantage. 

Earlier this summer, Y Combinator founder Garry Tan, who also founded the civic engagement organization Garry's List, cited a Bitcoin Policy Institute report detailing a "coordinated foreign influence campaign against American AI, running through CCP state media, a Shanghai-based Marxist's nonprofit network, and foreign billionaire dark money that has funneled $2B+ into US advocacy infrastructure."

Garry's List noted, "AI doomerism isn't as organic as it looks."

Two reports from @SamLyman33 and @bitcoinpolicy document a coordinated foreign influence campaign against American AI — running through CCP state media, a Shanghai-based Marxist's nonprofit network, and foreign billionaire dark money that has funneled $2B+ into US advocacy… pic.twitter.com/pWEUv1xwC9

— Garry's List (@garryslist) July 1, 2026

At the center of the nonprofit network is China-based Marxist Neville Roy Singham, who has reportedly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into left-wing nonprofits, media operations, and activist networks - which critics say are built to disrupt, sow chaos, and spread communism inside the US.

In June, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, with authorization from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, moved forward with an investigation to examine whether Singham, NGOs he funded, or their leaders committed wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, or other financial crimes.

Degrowth doomerism is half a foreign psyop and half bad actors who want to destroy American technological infrastructure

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) August 28, 2026

With federal investigators circling the revolutionary Singham NGO sphere, Garry's List noted that Singham's Party for Socialism and Liberation has "run 21 campaigns across 14 states that delayed, scaled back, or blocked $23.6 billion in AI infrastructure investment."

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), whose leadership is drawn directly from executives of Singham's nonprofits, ran 21 campaigns across 14 states that delayed, scaled back, or blocked $23.6 billion in AI infrastructure investment. pic.twitter.com/DWhT1gsLiu

— Garry's List (@garryslist) July 1, 2026

The maximalist version of this case has been made before. Nearly one year ago, we cited a book titled China's Total War Strategy: Next-Generation Weapons of Mass Destruction, published by the CCP BioThreats Initiative and authored by Dr. Ryan Clarke, LJ Eads, Dr. Robert McCreight, and Dr. Xiaoxu Sean Lin. The book argues the CCP has been pursuing an aggressive, multifaceted "total war" against the US that leverages next-generation weapons, including synthetic narcotics, such as fentanyl and cannabinoids; bioweapons, such as COVID-19; psychological manipulation and influence, such as TikTok; and a broad arsenal of irregular warfare tools.

In a similar vein, the State Department has released a new 100-page report, "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism," which details Cuba's foreign subversion apparatus and its deep reach into America's left wing - which, the report argues, seeks nothing less than to destroy the nation from within.

.@RichLowry: Bernie Sanders buys right into China’s psyop, demanding a US moratorium on AI data centers, which plays right into our adversary’s hands. pic.twitter.com/K0et53CkPj

— National Review (@NRO) August 28, 2026

Public Policy Solutions pointed out on X, "More than $2 billion in foreign money is fueling the war on American data centers," adding, "Bernie & AOC's data center ban is China's dream come true. While Beijing builds AI infrastructure at record speed, they're funding the movement to kill ours." 

Both things can be true: Beijing would love more friction in America's AI buildout, and 71% of Americans - including a majority of self-described MAGA Republicans - didn't need Beijing's help to read their own electric bills. Whether 200 accounts ever moved a single vote is unknowable, while the capacity costs they were amplifying land on 67 million ratepayers every month. Heading into November, the question is which opposition the buildout's defenders would rather run against - 200 bots, or 67 million utility bills?

Authored by Connor O'Keeffe

In a year as chaotic, violent, and economically destructive as this one has been, it is interesting that, to many Americans, the great villain of 2026 is turning out to be a traffic camera.

But, indeed, we are seeing visceral, cross-partisan opposition to so-called Flock cameras—named after the leading manufacturer of these automated license plate readers—take hold in communities across the country. And that opposition is, to be sure, entirely legitimate.

Flock’s camera networks are based on the idea that, while it would obviously be illegal and unconstitutional for law enforcement at any and all levels to put GPS trackers in everyone’s cars, it would be legal for a cop standing on some street corner to report that they had seen a specific vehicle drive by if it later turned out that that car had either been stolen or used to commit a crime.

But, taking that idea that public observations are not violations of privacy, Flock and similar companies help set up networks of cameras that record and register the license plate, make and model, and identifiable details of every single passing vehicle into a timestamped and searchable national database. And, as more and more of these cameras are added to streets and parking lots all over the country, and they, therefore, get harder and harder to avoid, the data the government has access to becomes essentially indistinguishable from what they would have if there were government GPS trackers in all of our cars.

There are currently around 120,000 of these cameras across forty-nine states, with more being added every day. And the American people are not happy about it.

In a genuine grassroots movement spreading primarily through local Facebook groups and the like, with little coverage outside local media, concerned citizens are doing everything from pressuring local lawmakers to rescind their contracts with Flock Safety to donning masks and cutting the cameras down with electric saws.

And this opposition is starting to have some success. More than fifty jurisdictions have ended their relationships with Flock after local backlash. And, after Flock tried and failed for months to get the wider public to view organizations that track the location of these cameras as terrorists because some have used those locations to avoid, disable, or destroy some, the company announced last week that it was implementing several changes to try and defuse the public anger.

Starting next year, Flock says it plans to cut the default retention period for data stored on their system from 30 days down to 7 days, require its government clients to use the internal system for detecting unusual or potentially abusive searches, require all searches to be tied with a specific case code (with emergency exceptions getting automatically flagged for review), and a few other changes meant to at least appear like they’re addressing the public’s concerns. And Flock has also already removed all federal agencies from its nationwide search database in an earlier public concession.

It’s notable that a government contractor that does no direct business with the public feels this pressured by that public to change its behavior. But even more notable is how ineffective the normal propaganda that gets rolled out to justify these kinds of advancements in government surveillance has been this time around.

The familiar tropes that government officials are only gathering this kind of data on all of us because it’s crucial for our safety or that it only ought to bother us if we’re criminals with something to hide are not just falling on deaf ears, they’re being widely ridiculed.

That’s certainly, in part, because there have already been plenty of documented cases of police officers and government officials using the Flock database to track the activities of romantic partners, ex-partners, people now dating their ex-partners, and more. All of that, of course, constitutes warrantless government surveillance for the personal interest of the officials with access to the technology, without even the semblance of a legitimate investigation. There have also been several dangerous, nearly-life-threatening cases of drivers being pursued and held at gunpoint because Flock cameras mistakenly identified them as criminal suspects.

But what’s really driving the widespread rage is not how the cameras are currently being used, or misused. It’s how they could be used in the future.

People across the political spectrum are concerned about this technology being used for everything from detecting stay-at-home order violations in a future pandemic to rounding up and deporting people because the government doesn’t like their political opinions. This is a remarkably healthy mindset for the public to hold. Basically, don’t let the government grab power you wouldn’t trust your political enemies to wield.

But also, this is why the controversy surrounding Flock cameras has grown so large and why it’s quickly emerging as one of the major political issues ahead of the midterms. It’s not really about the specific workings of this one brand of automated license plate readers. It’s because the public’s presumption that our elites and institutions are acting in good faith has completely evaporated.

The American people do not trust the people in charge enough to be reassured by promises about how this new surveillance infrastructure will be used. And that is good. Because we should not trust the people in charge. They have, fortunately, made that very clear in recent years—which is why we’re seeing such a political revolt against incumbents.

But, going back, all the government power grabs that have brought us to this point—the PATRIOT Act, the invasion of Iraq, the banker bailouts, the insurance industry bailout known as Obamacare, the covid lockdowns, and more—all of it was only possible because enough of the public fell for the lie that the government was acting in their interest.

The fanatical opposition to Flock cameras is evidence that that lie isn’t working right now. Let’s hope that lesson is not easily unlearned.

Russia on Friday unveiled that it conducted a successful combat training launch of a mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region - host to a key missile defense and aeronautical testing base in the Arctic region.

"A training-combat launch of a mobile-based solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile was carried out at the Plesetsk State Testing Cosmodrome," a defense ministry statement said, citing the work of the Strategic Missile Forces. "The training warheads arrived in the designated area at the Kura test range (Kamchatka Peninsula)."

The Kura test range lies about 4,160 miles to the east of where the Arkhangelsk region launch occurred, making for an impressively distant flight across Russia.

The military confirmed that the "tactical, technical and flight characteristics of the missile system" were monitored and analyzed, and that the flight went off flawlessly.

"All assigned tasks were completed in full," the ministry said, stating that the ICBM maintained a "flawless trajectory." However, the ministry didn't identified the specific missile type used.

Regional outlet Meduza notes that "In May 2026, Russia launched a Yars ICBM from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome toward the Kura test range on Kamchatka" - suggesting that this latest test could be of the same Yars missile type.

A mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile such as the one newly launched, is something which could eventually be used to directly target Ukraine, or else possibly Kiev's NATO backers if a broader conflict were to break out.

Separately, it's being reported this week that another ballistic missile was actually used in combat. "Russia has reportedly used a newly upgraded ballistic missile, provisionally known as the Iskander-1000, for the first time in combat, with Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence reporting that it struck a target in the capital Kiev on August 27," Military Watch Magazine reports.

"The 9M723-2 ballistic missile used is reportedly an upgraded derivative of the 9M723-1 missile used by the older Iskander-M system, and can achieve a 1,000 kilometre range, where the Iskander-M system was previously limited to a 500 kilometre range," the publication continues.

Flexing at the West? Russian military publishes footage of an impressively large rocket launched...

?? ???? Russia’s Defense Ministry said it successfully launched a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Friday.

The missile flew more than 6,700 kilometers to a test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The ministry said the launch checked the… pic.twitter.com/QnKcFWMIU1

— Russia News (@russianews_eng) August 28, 2026

"According to Ukrainian sources, the principal change involves the missile’s propulsion system, as the 9M723-2 reportedly incorporates a larger engine, requiring a corresponding enlargement of the launch tube used by the missile's launcher," the report also describes.

 Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

There is something genuinely entertaining about watching a socialist discover the private sector. For years, Zohran Mamdani has treated capitalism less like the engine that keeps New York City alive and more like an unfortunate infestation to be taxed, regulated and occasionally yelled at from the sidewalk outside a billionaire’s apartment.

Now, eight months into running the city, Mamdani appears to have made an ironic discovery: He needs people who know how an economy actually works to help him.

On Thursday, the mayor announced a 15 member Business Advisory Council, declaring that “the doors of City Hall are always open to New York’s business leaders.” How gracious. Apparently someone finally explained to the mayor that the people who build companies, employ New Yorkers, invest billions of dollars and generate enormous amounts of tax revenue might be worth having a chat with before he finishes chasing them out of town.

The problem, of course, is that Mamdani has spent much of his political career giving those same people reasons to wonder whether they should walk through City Hall’s newly opened doors or simply leave New York as quickly as possible in favor of tax and business friendly states like Texas and Florida.

This is the mayor who embraced the standard progressive fantasy that rich people and successful businesses are basically permanent pieces of municipal furniture, put there only for the good of the elected officials in charge to carry out whatever circus of an agenda they can fantasize while wearing a beret and typing out a PowerPoint slide titled “My Version of Utopia” at a Brooklyn coffee shop. The prevailing sentiment was that the rich can be taxed, squeezed and insulted indefinitely and, for some mysterious reason, will never change their behavior.

In just 8 months, Mamdani met reality: New York Told Ken Griffin To Leave...And He Listened

Capital moves. Wealthy taxpayers move. Businesses reconsider investments. Entrepreneurs decide that perhaps their next store, office or headquarters would be easier to open somewhere that does not regard their success as evidence of a crime. Every dollar of investment that leaves New York is a dollar Mamdani cannot tax to pay for the enormous pile of shit he made back when governing consisted mostly of speeches, slogans and finding new things to declare “free.”

Even his government grocery store fantasy has encountered the annoying problem of actual grocery stores. Local operators have objected to the prospect of competing against stores backed by the city government and taxpayer money.

Who could possibly have anticipated that businesses might dislike being forced to finance their own government subsidized competition?

And so, like a college freshman majoring in Economics who has instead spent half the semester smoking pot, writing poetry and playing “Lesbian Seagull” on acoustic guitar in the park, Mamdani is now in a rush…looking for people who actually know the material.

Enter the Business Advisory Council. According to New York magazine, the council includes figures such as former Blackstone COO Tony James, tech investor Kevin Ryan, RXR’s Scott Rechler and former UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, along with entrepreneurs and executives from several other industries. These are, in other words, people familiar with the obscure concepts of investment, payrolls, risk, revenue and making sure more money comes into an enterprise than goes out.

Former Partnership for New York City CEO Kathryn Wylde called the council an important “sounding board” that could give Mamdani advance warning when concerns are developing in the business community. She also suggested that better communication could prevent “a repeat of the Ken Griffin video,” referring to Mamdani’s stunt outside the hedge fund billionaire’s penthouse announcing his proposed pied à terre tax. No shit.

(Read: Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need)

That is an extraordinary recommendation when you think about it. One purpose of the mayor’s shiny new council is apparently to have successful adults nearby who can tell him when he is about to do something stupid.

This is sad. But this is progress.

Successful cities do not merely need businesses after politicians finish writing policy. They need politicians who understand how businesses will react before writing it. People respond to incentives. Investors respond to risk. Businesses respond to costs. Taxpayers respond to taxes. This is not some dark Koch brothers conspiracy or secret lesson taught at Davos. It is Economics 101.

Raise the cost of doing something and eventually people do less of it. Make New York dramatically more expensive or hostile to investment and some investment will go somewhere else. Treat affluent residents primarily as stationary revenue sources and eventually some of them discover that airplanes exist and land in Miami occasionally.

A government is perfectly entitled to dislike those reactions. It just cannot repeal them.

There is also evidence that Mamdani’s sudden friendship offensive is not exactly causing titans of industry to stampede toward City Hall. New York magazine reports that the council includes no active executives from household name technology companies or top financial firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup or BlackRock. One business leader told the magazine that five major CEOs declined invitations.

“I know of five major CEOs who said ‘no,’ so this was not the group that they initially targeted,” the source said.

Apparently the doors of City Hall are open. The problem is getting people to come inside.

Even some of Mamdani’s most prominent critics welcomed the outreach. Billionaire John Catsimatidis called the council “a step in the right direction.” Partnership for New York City CEO Steven Fulop said any attempt by the mayor to solicit input from business leaders is positive, although he also dismissed a council that meets quarterly as a “performative board.”

They are right that reaching out is a good idea. In fact, it is such an obviously good idea that it raises an awkward question for Mamdani: Why did a politician whose entire agenda depends upon extracting gigantic amounts of money from New York’s economy need eight months in office to discover that perhaps he should listen to the people responsible for producing much of it?

That question gets to the larger problem with Mamdani’s politics. His worldview tends to treat economic outcomes as political choices. Housing is expensive? Government can make it cheap. Groceries are expensive? Government can open stores. Child care is expensive? Government can provide it. Taxes are not producing enough money? Find somebody richer and tax him more. Apparently somewhere beneath City Hall is a giant money faucet that previous mayors were simply too cowardly to turn on.

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Every problem has a government solution, every government solution requires more money and the answer to where that money comes from is always some variation of “rich people.”

But governing has a nasty habit of introducing politicians to the second half of every policy proposal: Then what?

Tax wealthy residents and then what happens when some of them leave? Raise the cost of doing business and then what happens when businesses invest elsewhere? Open government grocery stores and then what happens to the private grocers expected to compete against City Hall? Promise billions of dollars in new spending and then what happens when the tax revenue required to pay for it fails to materialize?

Campaigns are wonderful places for fairy tales because consequences have not arrived yet. Governments are where the invoice shows up.

Mamdani may finally be beginning to understand that. If so, good. New Yorkers should hope the council succeeds because a mayor capable of learning from reality is considerably better than one determined to lose an argument with it.

But nobody should confuse the correction with vindication of the original course. The creation of this council is, in its own small and hilarious way, an admission. The capitalist class Mamdani spent years treating as something between a nuisance and an ATM turns out to possess something City Hall desperately needs besides money.

Knowledge. They know what makes businesses expand and what makes them leave. They understand investment, costs, incentives and risk. They know that wages ultimately have to be paid by something, that revenue must exist before government can tax it and that wealth must be created before politicians can redistribute it.

These are apparently startling revelations at Mamdani City Hall. The socialist mayor came into office promising to remake New York’s economy. Eight months later, he is assembling a room full of capitalists to explain to him how that economy actually works.

Call it the Business Advisory Council if you want. It looks a lot more like Mamdani begging any adults in the room for help.

--

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A Russian drone struck a Ukrainian Defense Forces ammunition storage site in the village of Myla Friday evening, just west of Kiev. The resulting fire and hours of secondary detonations killed at least 37 people, injured dozens more, damaged around 50 residential buildings and a care home for the elderly and disabled, and forced the evacuation of hundreds. Among the dead was the local community head who had gone to help.

Here are some close-up shots from yesterday's explosion at an ammunition depot in the village of Myla, in the Kyiv region. The local population is understandably unhappy. pic.twitter.com/TWJudPFh6j

— Z.O.V Military (@WarHunter2222) August 29, 2026

In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the placement of a weapons depot next to civilians was "terrible negligence." The first impact, he said, hit a depot storing shells, mines, other munitions, and drones that "definitely shouldn't have been there" - while prosecutors in Kiev opened a criminal investigation into the legality of storing explosives next to civilian housing. This is the second such incident in two months. A July strike on a depot in nearby Vyshneve produced similar secondary blasts, deaths, and later detentions of state defense-company executives.  

Footage showing the moment of the secondary detonation at an ammunition depot in Kyiv Oblast following a Russian Geran-4 jet-drone strike. pic.twitter.com/xH7IFTrnk3

— AMK Mapping ???? (@AMK_Mapping_) August 28, 2026

Devastating aftermath in the Bucha district following a Russian strike on an enterprise in the Kyiv region.

The attack triggered secondary explosions, killing at least 27 people and destroying local infrastructure and homes.

Photos: Kostiantyn Liberov and Vlada Liberova pic.twitter.com/RO2QhMbocl

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) August 29, 2026

Russia's Defense Ministry said the Myla site held components and launch boosters for long-range drones. It also claimed strikes on Flamingo cruise-missile related facilities in the Kiev region and on the ports of Mykolaiv and Izmail. Social-media claims that Patriots were stored there remain unconfirmed by official Ukrainian statements.

Some unlucky fella got caught at the epicenter of the explosion at the ammunition depot in the Kiev region and filmed everything. You can hear the ammo going off. The Ukrainian military has consistently used civilians as human shields, but it looks like Putin has run out of… pic.twitter.com/HQmiphLNu4

— Gabriel (@GabeZZOZZ) August 29, 2026

Friday night's blast came amid a multi-day Russian campaign of jet-powered drones and missiles that has produced near-continuous air-raid alerts over Kiev and hit warehouses belonging to supermarket chains, postal operators, retailers, and logistics firms. Ukraine Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi told reporters that, "roughly speaking," about 90% of the food-logistics infrastructure used by major retail chains (large distribution centers serving networks such as Fora, Silpo, NOVUS, and Varus) has been destroyed. That said, Vysotskyi insists this won't result in famine - as chains are switching to more expensive direct-from-producer "on wheels" deliveries. Yet, stores in Kiev are reporting empty shelves for produce, dairy, and staples.

The last operating Epicentr hypermarket in Zaporizhzhia was also hit Friday morning, hours before the Myla blast. 

Both sides have been systematically striking each other's logistics and dual-use commercial infrastructure. Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries, energy sites, and online-retailer warehouses. Russia has answered by going after the warehouses that keep Ukrainian shops stocked. Kiev's air defenses remain constrained by a well-documented shortage of Patriot interceptors - the only system that reliably stops ballistic missiles. Jet-powered drones have added another layer of pressure.

Zelensky's government has framed its own long-range strikes as a way to force Russia to negotiate. The immediate result is visible in the suburbs of Kiev: another poorly sited ammo dump cooking off next to civilians, a retail logistics network that Ukraine's own minister says is 90% gone, and winter approaching. The investigation into who decided to store explosives next to homes will tell one part of the story. The empty shelves and the sirens will tell the rest.

A new report from The Telegraph says the Trump administration is using Britain's sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as leverage to pressure the country into meeting NATO's new defense-spending target. 

What sounds like an "Art of the Deal" tactic by Trump has been described by a senior US official as a plan to push the UK toward NATO's pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defense.

Here's more from the outlet:

A senior US official told The Telegraph that Britain was likely to receive "special attention" in Washington's review of its allies' commitment to Nato, which will examine whether member nations have credible paths toward the target.

Officials in Washington believe that while Britain has the potential to be a leading defence partner, the defence investment plan, announced by Sir Keir Starmer in June, was not enough of a "step in the right direction".

"I would expect the UK to receive special attention because it has so much potential," the official said of the review. "We will therefore continue efforts to incentivize and enable the UK to step up in a major way."

Asked about the prospect of the US changing its position on the Falklands, they added: "I can say that they [conversations] are candid and nothing is being ruled out as far as options for encouraging the sort of burden-sharing that we seek."

The UK has currently budgeted to spend 2.6% of GDP on defense in fiscal 2026-27, rising to 2.7% from 2027-28 onward, according to the government's June plan. Actual defense spending this year topped 2.33%. That leaves Britain well short of NATO's new 5% target by 2035. 

The outlet continued:

Donald Trump's administration is pushing NATO into what officials are describing as a new era of the alliance, dubbed NATO 3.0. This would require European countries and Canada to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe.

"We've seen the defense investment plan, and it is a step in the right direction. But a step in the right direction isn't enough. Given the scale of challenges facing us and our allies, we need allies like the United Kingdom to step up in major, fundamental ways. Fortunately, some already are. We strongly encourage the UK to do likewise," the official added.

The Falklands remain a unique pressure point for Britain, which fought a war over the islands, while Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over them. Trump's move to reconsider the US' position on the Falklands appears to be a big lever over London. Timing is also notable: Trump's alignment with Argentine President Javier Milei is tighter than ever. 

Authored by Julie Kelly via Declassified with Julie Kelly,

"I've done this a long time and haven't seen one quite like this one, I have to say."

So said U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who has sat on the D.C. federal court bench since Ronald Reagan appointed him in 1987, last April.

What exactly stumped the senior judge that day? Another pending mistrial in the government's prosecution of two of MS-13's most notorious gang leaders.

For the second time in five months, a D.C. jury refused to convict Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Ramirez on two racketeering conspiracy counts originating from a 2011 federal indictment (read: brought by the Obama DOJ, not Trump's) for criminal gang activity in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas. It appears from the official court docket that the pair became fugitives before the case could go to trial back then.

But in March 2025, the Trump administration extradited Rivera-Luna from Guatemala to finally face his day in court; Ramirez had been extradited from Honduras in 2022.

"Rivera-Luna is alleged to be an international leader of MS-13 who was sending orders and advice to an MS-13 clique operating in the Washington area via cellular telephone calls from his prison cell in El Salvador," a March 2025 DOJ press release stated. "The indictment alleges that he and another alleged MS-13 leader... also incarcerated in El Salvador directed a coalition of MS-13 cliques to be formed in the Washington area. They advised local clique members that the coalition's aim was to seek and kill MS-13 members who were found to be cooperating with law enforcement officials." The indictment also accused the defendants of "narcotics distribution, extortion, [and] robberies."

Both men pleaded not guilty; the first trial began on December 2, 2025, just a few weeks after the shooting of two D.C. National Guardsmen, which resulted in the death of one, amid strong public opposition of the Guard's presence in the nation's capital. The start of the trial also coincided with nationwide anti-ICE protests including in Washington. And a group called "Free DC" at the time was hosting online seminars as part of its Trump 2.0 resistance operation, advising D.C. residents how to serve on juries to "influence outcomes and help create a more equitable legal process."

Free MS-13 to Show Trump!

Jury deliberations in the Rivera/Ramirez case began December 15, 2025. In a note to Judge Lamberth the following day, the foreperson informed the judge that despite "robust debate," the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. "One juror has expressed an inability to be impartial in their review of the facts and an unwillingness to continue deliberations in a productive manner," the foreperson disclosed.

Lamberth declared a mistrial on December 17, 2025. Vive la résistance!

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, immediately sought to retry the pair. The second trial started on April; jury deliberations began on April 15. History, however, would repeat itself with a note from the jury foreperson just a few hours later, disclosing that the panel was "divided and unable to come to a consensus." They continued to debate but the situation worsened in the jury room:

Lamberth responded with bewilderment, admitting the situation raised profound legal questions. "It's an odd note because their disclosure of the split, assuming that's what it is, is disclosing jury misconduct that would entitle an inquiry into the misconduct of the juror and possible replacement and restart of jury deliberations," he told prosecutors and defense attorneys during an April 17 hearing. "A juror who says at the outset they will not have any problem with never agreeing on a verdict has a problem with me."

The judge released the jury for the weekend and asked both sides to research how to handle such an impasse. But the jury came back with another blow to the government on April 20:

Lamberth called the foreperson into the courtroom to ask what was going on. "For one of the counts, we were in agreement and then this morning, we weren't," the foreperson disclosed. "And then I know we have one juror who is very firm on their stance and doesn't really want to deliberate further on the others. But there are two different jurors, if that makes sense."

Lamberth declared another mistrial that day.

Pirro v Graves: Not Even Close...and Lamberth Knows Exactly Why

So despite breathless headlines declaring Pirro a loser in court once again, it appears the jury in both cases was prepared to convict but prevented from doing so by activist jurors who unabashedly declared their intention to sabotage a guilty verdict. (It is unclear why Lamberth, seeing this happen yet again in the case, did not make an Allen charge to the jury or open an investigation into the rogue jurors. But as part of the ongoing judicial coup against the president, Lamberth possibly wanted to hand the Trump administration another loss.)

Further, Lamberth knows exactly why he hasn't seen "one quite like this." Because it never happened prior to Trump winning the 2024 election and proceeding to use his DOJ, rather than being hijacked by saboteurs like the first time around, to pursue his policy agenda and round up bad guys, white collar and otherwise.

Compare the outcome of Pirro's cases before DC juries to the track record of Matthew Graves, her predecessor in the Biden administration. Not only did Graves secure a 100 percent conviction rate of January 6 defendants before DC juries, those guilty verdicts were returned in record time. Graves won easy convictions in the misdemeanor cases against Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, resulting in prison time for both.

But the same office now struggles to win convictions in those same courtrooms-and the only thing that has changed is the name on the letterhead. Not only have DC juries acquitted or declared a hung jury in at least seven federal cases since her tenure began (not including this one), the DC grand jury has rejected Pirro's pursuit of several indictments including charges against the so-called "Seditious Six."

And no one knows this massive disparity more than Judge Lamberth, who presided over dozens of J6 cases and sent many to federal prison. His feigned shock as to why juries--both grand and petit--are letting criminals off the hook is nothing more than a hollow attempt to pretend the judicial system in Washington, DC resembles anything close to fair, apolitical proceedings.

Lamberth, and Pirro, will get another chance to convict the dangerous gang lords next month. Is the third time a charm? Inside the grotesquely partisan courthouse sitting in the heart of the nation's capital, the answer is probably, no.