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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read UBS:

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

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

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

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

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

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We know this all too well from Brussels.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remnants of the original Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) movement are joining the ongoing far-left riots/protests, potentially broadening social instability and increasing pressure on President Emmanuel Macron as he approaches the end of his term in crisis.

France's political, social and fiscal pressures are increasingly reinforcing one another, with high borrowing costs making its expansive welfare state harder to finance. 

???? ?? President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on the eve of nationwide cost-of-living protests on Saturday that authorities fear could lead to a violent escalation of weeks of student demonstrations ?? https://t.co/Ss9gSyJdMO https://t.co/kIXt5CaPWR

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 17, 2026

France's five-year sovereign credit default swap spread has jumped to about 79 basis points, more than double its recent level near 30 basis points and roughly its highest since 2013. The surge shows investors demand a higher premium to insure French government debt against default as concern over sovereign credit risk mounts. However, the spread remains well below the 222 bps peak seen during the eurozone debt crisis in 2011. 

These pressures have provided tailwinds for Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally (RN), which is positioning itself as an alternative ahead of next year's presidential election. Le Pen's recently unveiled shadow budget proposes spending cuts to restore fiscal common sense and reduce the risk of a sovereign debt crisis.

Le Pen's Polymarket odds of winning next year's election currently stand at ...

Bloomberg quoted the Interior Ministry early Saturday as expecting hundreds of actions, including blockades of motorway toll booths and service stations, alongside 90 marches.

It looks like a new wave of mass protest have erupted in France, the "Yellow Vests" and students are demonstrating against high prices and working conditions. https://t.co/VslD5oH8Ds

— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) October 17, 2026

"We're expecting a pretty big mobilization" by protesters, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media late Friday.

The left-wing CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail), one of France's major trade unions, is expected to participate, as indications suggest that weeks of far-left demonstrations are broadening.

The unrest puts significant pressure on Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he seeks parliamentary support to curb spending and reduce the budget deficit to 5% of economic output in 2027, a target France missed this year. Notably, France last balanced its budget in 1973. 

The Yellow Vests first emerged in 2018 against Macron's proposed fuel-tax increase, drawing support from working-class folks concerned about rising living costs in the welfare state.

An uncomfortable reality is setting in for French elites: throwing more money at handouts and degrading services, on top of mass migration, has been a toxic progressive experiment that appears to be unraveling at the seams.

As Macron and his globalist buddies lose control of France, unrest has spread to other corners of the bloc, including Spain, Italy, Albania, and Belgium.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

A breather in the European bond market.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

In the old days (which, in the age of social media, were only ten years or so ago), every problem in the world was blamed on "global warming."

Hot summers? Global warming. Cold winters? That was global warming, too. Christian churches mysteriously burning to the ground? Ooh...obviously global warming. Endless hordes of foreigners breaking into the country? Global warming disproportionately affects third-world s-holes and causes military-aged men to run North, dontcha know. The spread of COVID? Oh, that definitely didn't come from a Chinese bio-lab receiving money from the esteemed pharmaceutical salesman Dr. Fauci; that virus was totally the fault of global warming!

According to the "experts," global warming caused every policy failure, government screwup, international brouhaha, and economic downturn of the last few decades (at least when card-carrying globalists, "progressives," new-world-order types, or other assorted leftists were in power). "Science" said so. And if you didn't believe the "experts," well, then, you were just an ignorant science-denier!

Since 2016, a new scapegoat - I mean, fact-based and expertly diagnosed cause - for all the world's problems has been hogging global warming's spotlight: Russia, Russia, Russia.

Read something that you don't like? That's gotta be Russian disinformation. The "wrong" candidate wins an election? Never would have happened without Russian social media bots! Energy prices are too low? That's because of cheap Russian oil and gas. Energy prices are too high? That's because Russia - and definitely not Ukraine! - blew up its own Nord Stream pipelines delivering inexpensive energy to Europe. Military-aged Muslims are raping and stabbing Europeans across the continent? Ooh, trick question - that's a global-warming-Russia tag-team! Everybody with a PhD in political science knows that Europe's inability to secure its own borders is totally Vladimir Putin's fault!

Didn't the Norwegian Nobel Committee award the Peace Prize to climate doomsayer Al Gore (who predicted that we'd all be under water by now) and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for figuring out that all of the problems in the world can be traced to hydrocarbons and free markets? Surely the prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, and literature will eventually go to well-credentialed "experts" who determine that Russia is actually to blame for everything.

This Nobel Prize-worthy epiphany has been rattling in my head because I noticed that the United Kingdom's recently installed prime minister, Andy Burnham, is considering whether to reverse Brexit and rejoin the European Union since - you guessed it! - Russia somehow manipulated the 2016 referendum in favor of decoupling! Burnham - who won a small special election to gain his seat in Parliament only last summer and lacks anything remotely approaching a general mandate from the whole kingdom - says Russia's Brexit "interference" was "clear." His pronouncement seems to contradict multiple parliamentary investigations - including those from the anti-Brexit Electoral Commission - which have all concluded that there was "no evidence of successful interference in the EU Referendum."

Other prominent members of Burnham's Labour Party are giddy about the prospect of rejoining the E.U., but all insist that no new referendum should be held for voters to decide the matter. In other words, after nearly eighteen million Brits voted to leave the Brussels Empire ten years ago in the largest referendum in British history, an Establishment-installed prime minister who won a few thousand votes in an overwhelmingly pro-Labour Party constituency last summer wants to cancel the Brexit vote - despite repeated promises from both Burnham and his fellow Labour leaders that they would never do so.

How does the leftist-globalist prime minister of a kingdom that constantly lectures the world about "defending democracy" defend canceling another democratic vote in Europe? Burnham just blames Russia, as has become the custom of all globalist governments across Europe when Establishment politicians suffer defeat. Defending democracy by undermining the legitimacy of elections is the European way!

Burnham continues the charade by claiming that the Russians are responsible not only for Brexit but also for the rise of pro-national-sovereignty politicians such as France's Marine Le Pen and Germany's Alice Weidel: "These things are important now to put clearly on the record and, I believe, help voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely Russia."

Yes, all dissent is Russian disinformation! All politicians who want secure borders are Russian agents! All electoral defeats for the globalists are due to Russian interference! Forget next year's contest for the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Andy Burnham has that prestigious globalist award all sewn up!

Uff da. The Russia, Russia, Russia nonsense is so tiring. In the United States, we have been dealing with this same globalist-instigated circle jerk since President Trump embarrassed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the 2016 election.

Hillary had gotten caught with Top Secret emails on an unsecured server stored in a home bathroom. Additionally, Clinton and Obama were using the FBI and NSA to spy on all of the Republican presidential candidates. In an effort to hide the fact that Russia, China, and other foreign adversaries had easily acquired the highly classified contents of her home-brew server, Hillary attempted to muddy the waters by calling Donald Trump "Putin's puppet" throughout the campaign. When President Trump nevertheless defeated Clinton, both she and Obama needed to fabricate a plausible criminal predicate justifying the FBI's spying operations on Trump (hello, Clinton-funded Steele Dossier!).

That's the rough genesis of the Russia Collusion Hoax, a political scandal of epic proportions that the propaganda press have largely covered up. Had Clinton and Obama successfully tarred Trump as a Russian agent, he would have been removed from office and would most likely be in prison today (a prime objective that Clinton and Obama's accomplices repeatedly tried to carry out after Trump's first term). Clinton and Obama attempted to overthrow President Trump in an Intelligence Community-organized (here's looking at you, John Brennan!) and media-enabled (CNN is fake news!) coup d'état. If there were anything other than two-tiered justice in the United States today, Barack and Hillary would be serving life in prison at the very least.

Because nobody was ever punished for the Russia Collusion Hoax, the perpetrators continue to tell the lie that every non-globalist point of view is "Russian disinformation."

Just the other day, Senator Adam Schiff argued that Democrats must regulate all online information (a goal that his fellow globalists in Europe, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. share). This is the same congenital liar whom the House of Representatives censured three years ago for recklessly dividing the country with the Russia Collusion Hoax. For a decade, Schiff has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin "stole" the 2016 election for President Trump. He pushed outright "disinformation" on the American people, while shamelessly demanding that social media companies censor Trump's defenders for the "crime" of spreading "Russian disinformation" (something most Big Tech companies were only too happy to do).

Schiff, Clinton, Obama, and all their free-speech-hating friends in the Democrat Party have spent the last ten years trying to gut the First Amendment in the name of "fighting Russian disinformation."

Nevertheless, blaming Russia for everything still hasn't gone out of style. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Schiff successfully impeached President Trump in 2019 for speaking to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the Biden Crime Family's quid-pro-quo corruption in Ukraine. Globalist judges in Romania canceled the country's 2024 presidential election by blaming "Russian interference" when the "wrong" candidate won. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his fellow German globalists have repeatedly accused the pro-sovereign-borders party "Alternative for Deutschland" of working for Russia. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez even blamed "Russian disinformation" for the violent migrant invasion of Ceuta under his watch.

Who needs "global warming" when everything is somehow Russia's fault?

Hat tip to "asherpat."

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

China is working on a military vehicle concept that could allow a tank to remain underwater for up to two hours, potentially giving its armed forces a new way to approach enemy coastlines during amphibious operations, according to the South China Morning Post.

The proposed system would allow an armored vehicle to travel at depths of up to 164 feet before emerging from the water and continuing its mission on land. The idea is to give military forces greater flexibility during coastal assaults while reducing their reliance on traditional landing equipment.

SCMP writes that the project, developed by researchers at the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group and Beijing Institute of Technology, is part of a larger effort to create military vehicles capable of rapidly adapting to different battlefield conditions.

Rather than designing separate vehicles for every environment, researchers are experimenting with interchangeable modules that could allow a single platform to perform multiple roles. The proposed vehicles would also incorporate drones to help clear obstacles and potentially accelerate amphibious landings.

On land, the hybrid-powered platform is envisioned as having a range of roughly 373 miles and reaching speeds of more than 43 mph. Researchers are also targeting a nine-second response time between identifying a threat and launching an attack.

Initial testing has demonstrated promising results for the vehicle's modular components, but the underwater capabilities have not yet been proven. The researchers have not disclosed how fast the vehicle could travel underwater or how far it could move while submerged.

The concept is part of China's longer-term military technology planning for the period between 2030 and 2050, as researchers explore how armored vehicles might operate across multiple combat environments.