Individual Economists

Revealed: All Members Of UK Government's 'Anti-Muslim Hostility' Group Have Islamist Links

Zero Hedge -

Revealed: All Members Of UK Government's 'Anti-Muslim Hostility' Group Have Islamist Links

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The UK Labour government’s new definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” – rebranded from “Islamophobia” – is being shaped by a working group where every single member has links to Islamist organisations.

The details are exposed in the Free Speech Union’s latest investigative briefing which highlights ties between the group members and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), groups that governments since 2009 have refused to engage with due to their extreme views. 

One member, Baroness Gohir, tweeted in support of Hamas in 2014. Another stood for the far-left, Islamist-supporting Respect Party.

As the Free Speech Union states: “In a free society, no religion should enjoy greater protection than others — nor be shielded from legitimate criticism and challenge.”

The FSU adds: “This group was stacked with members already sympathetic to such a definition.” And with the government yet to appoint a new Islamophobia tsar, “there is deep cause for concern.”

Conservative MP Katie Lam put it bluntly in her video response: “The Government’s new ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ definition will make it harder to talk about Islamist extremism, FGM, and the grooming gangs. They’d rather restrict our right to criticise than deal with these problems head-on. It’s putting us all in danger.”

Parliament abolished blasphemy laws in 2008. Yet as the FSU warns: “This Government risks reviving them for Islam alone, via the back door.”

The wider context is the government’s “Protecting What Matters” report from March 2026, which rolled out the non-statutory definition alongside plans for a special representative on Muslim hostility. Officials insist it protects free speech – but the panel’s composition tells a different story. 

Read the full Free Speech Union briefing here.

This comes just weeks after we reported on the government’s leaked social cohesion strategy that branded the Union Flag a “tool of hate” and told schools children’s drawings could be blasphemous under Islamic law. 

It builds directly on the Orwellian push we exposed where UK schools are urged to snitch on “anti-Muslim hostility.” 

The pattern is clear: criticism of Islam is being reframed as hostility, while real problems like grooming gangs, FGM and Islamist extremism are sidelined.

Challenging Islamist extremism or mass migration’s consequences is now being treated as the real threat. Legitimate debate on integration failures, cultural clashes, or grooming scandals gets reclassified as “hostility” while the actual problems fester.

Britain’s free speech tradition is under sustained assault – not from the public, but from a government more interested in shielding one ideology than defending open society. 

The Free Speech Union is right to sound the alarm. Without pushback, this backdoor blasphemy regime will silence the very conversations the country desperately needs.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 05:00

OpenAI Pauses U.K. Stargate Over "Regulation And Power Costs"

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OpenAI Pauses U.K. Stargate Over "Regulation And Power Costs"

OpenAI's broader Stargate push to build next-generation AI infrastructure in the UK has been put on hold, with the company citing regulatory conditions and high energy costs as major obstacles to long-term investment. That outcome is hardly surprising: Britain, like much of dying Europe, has layered on regulatory burdens, while years of backfiring 'green' energy policies have left power costs structurally elevated. It's a toxic mix for power-hungry AI data center buildouts.

"We see huge potential for the UK's AI future," OpenAI told Bloomberg in an emailed statement earlier today. "AI compute is foundational to that goal — we continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions, such as regulation and the cost of energy, enable long-term infrastructure investment."

Stargate UK is just one piece of OpenAI's much larger global expansion plan, which involves spending hundreds of billions (up to $500bln) on AI infrastructure to localize and scale AI capabilities.

The pause in Stargate UK signals that growth in AI data center buildouts is colliding with power constraints and regulations in the Western world, as left-wing leaders prioritize de-growth economies with extremist climate policies, while on the other side of the world, China did the complete opposite and boosted baseload capacity on the grid with some of the dirtiest mix of power generation. 

Similar OpenAI projects are underway in Norway and the United Arab Emirates. The core buildout has been in the US, specifically the flagship data center in Abilene, Texas. However, the company abandoned a planned expansion of that data center.

OpenAI's global compute buildout takeaway: 

  • US = scale + policy support

  • Middle East = capital + energy

  • Nordics = cheap power + cooling

  • UK/Europe = constrained by cost + regulation

Last week, Bloomberg reported that nearly half of the US data centers planned for this year were delayed or canceled - not because of memory chip shortages - but instead shortages of electrical equipment, such as transformers, switchgear, and batteries.

Related:

It certainly appears that data center buildouts are running into real-world constraints that could be a negative for AI momentum trades.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 04:15

Germany Restricts Emigration To Prevent Young Men From Escaping The Military Draft

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Germany Restricts Emigration To Prevent Young Men From Escaping The Military Draft

Authored by Ryan McMaken via the Mises Institute,

Late last year, German lawmakers passed new legislation paving the way for military conscription. As the Guardian reports, “The change will include the obligatory screening of all 18-year-old men to gauge their suitability to serve in the military from 1 January..” This is not (yet) full-blown conscription, but clearly moves in that direction, providing the German state with a plan to measure and assess the availability of young men who can be used as a resource in coming military conflicts. 

Now, the legislation faces additional opposition because it turns out the law “requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime.” In other words, the law restricts the emigration of young men who might be of some use to the state as cannon fodder. According to The Guardian: 

The fine print, which went largely under the radar until a media report called attention to it this week, says men aged 17 to 45 would have to apply for authorisation to leave Germany for more than three months. ... The clause could potentially affect millions of German citizens embarking on anything from a gap year or study abroad to a new job or sabbatical.

It touched off agitated media coverage in a country where the changes to the military service policy have already led to street protests by school pupils subject to the law’s new requirements.

From restrictions on free speech to attempts to shut down entire political parties, the German state has increasingly showed its affinity for despotism in recent years. Now, by introducing emigration controls, Germany is reverting to an old tactic used by militarist, socialistic European regimes of the past. 

As I showed in a 2018 article on how restriction on emigration are a hallmark of despotic states, mandatory military service has long been used as a justification for regulating those who seek to leave the country:

According to Stanley Johnson, in Emigration from the United Kingdom to North America, 1763-1912, “In Germany, an enactment of 1897 forbade the departure of any citizen who had not completed his military training; it appointed also, a special staff of officials to regulate the emigration agencies.” Also: “The movement in Italy is practically in the hands of the Government, and no one can lawfully depart from trans-Atlantic ports without special permission.” In Italy, as in Hungary, there were only certain government approved “routes by which all migrants are to travel.” In Russia, “permits for crossing the frontier are only granted when all military obligations are at an end.”

Military service was not the only reason for restricting emigration, of course. European states restricted emigration whenever it was thought potential migrants might be fleeced for tax revenue or other riches before being allowed to leave. In Alan Kulikoff’s book From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers, he states

Dissatisfied German peasants, like those in Britain, could emigrate, but German states, worried about losing population and taxes, put roadblocks in their way. Emigrants had to settle all debts and taxes. Free emigrants had to pay large fees for permission to depart and to take property with them, and serfs - a substantial part of the populace - had to pay manumission fees amounting to 12-25 percent of their property.” 

Many emigrated anyway, often illegally. Indeed, military conscription proved to be a motivation for countless men across many regions from Spain to Germany to the Ottoman Empire, and to Japan. As I note in this article from 2022: 

Some immigrant groups in America, such as the Volga Germans, are practically defined by their avoidance of conscription. Specifically, the Volga Germans in America are descended from Germans who emigrated to Russia in the eighteenth century on the condition that they would not be subject to conscription into the czar’s army. When these exemptions were revoked in the nineteenth century, many Volga Germans emigrated to the United States, where they today constitute a sizable portion of the ethnic German populations of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and Washington. Anabaptist subgroups of the Volga Germans also fled to America to avoid conscription. Groups such as the Hutterites and the Mennonites were explicitly opposed to military service. ...

Before the Volga Germans, many other Germans had fled the German kingdoms. A large percentage of Germans arrived in Chicago “during the 1830s … to avoid conscription in the army.”

In Spain during the 1860s, unknown numbers of young men fled to avoid military service to the crown, even in spite of the watchful eyes of government agents seeking to prevent emigration. Wayne H. Bowen writes:

Given the poor conditions for troops, conscription was always a challenge for the central government. Many potential soldiers did their best to avoid service, even through leaving Spain. Emigration was a serious problem, as the families of young boys tried to send them to the colonies or encouraged them to emigrate to Latin America or the United States in order to avoid conscription. The Guardia Civil, Spain’s national paramilitary police, had orders to watch the coast and port cities for young men trying to leave, and colonial governors were prohibited from issuing passports to boys who could not prove service or exemption.

Membership in an ethnic minority in Spain likely provided an added impetus to exit, and “evasion of military service was … widespread among Spanish Basques.”

Meanwhile, in Japan, “militarization [in the early twentieth century] and the initiation of the so-called blood tax or national conscription also encouraged many young Japanese males to emigrate to avoid the draft.” Many went to Peru and Brazil.

Although the German state has not yet adopted full conscription, Berlin is clearly up to its old tricks. Of course, the fact that the German state has to take these steps at all shows just unpopular German foreign policy is. After all, if the public were supportive of the state, conscription—or “pre-conscription,” so to speak—would not be necessary. The “need” to impose forced military service on the population is always an illustration of a state lacking legitimacy. Moreover, if a state has to intervene to prevent people from leaving, what does that tell us about that state’s so-called “social contract.” After all, how many times have we heard the political myth that sounds something like this “by choosing to live in this country, you are saying that you will abide by all the state’s demands and rules. Thus, everything the state does to you is voluntary.” But now, it seems, young men will need to get permission to leave. That’s a truly strange social “contract” indeed.  

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 03:30

China's Debt Surpasses Europe For The First Time

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China's Debt Surpasses Europe For The First Time

China’s government debt has surpassed the European Union’s for the first time, marking a major shift in the global debt landscape.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S., China, and Europe have followed very different borrowing paths. While Europe kept debt growth relatively constrained, both the U.S. and China expanded rapidly—especially after 2020.

The chart below, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, visualizes annual government debt totals for the U.S., EU, and China from 1995 to 2025 in current U.S. dollars (not adjusted for inflation), using data from the IMF.

In 2025, China’s government debt reached $18.7 trillion, surpassing the EU’s $17.6 trillion total for the first time.

The crossover underscores how rapidly China’s borrowing has scaled over the past two decades.

The Rapid Rise in U.S. and China’s Government Debt

In 2008, U.S. government debt stood at $10.9 trillion, roughly in line with the EU’s $10.7 trillion total. By 2025, it had surged to $38.3 trillion, leaving the EU behind by $20.7 trillion.

The data table below shows the government debt of the U.S., China, and EU from 1995 to 2025 in current U.S. dollars:

From just $1.2 trillion in 2008, China’s government debt grew at roughly 17% annually—fast enough to overtake the EU in less than two decades.

Since 2008, U.S. government debt expanded at about 7.7% per year, compared with roughly 3.0% per year for the EU.

Why China and U.S. Debt Grew Much Faster than Europe’s

While the EU’s slower debt growth partially reflects weaker nominal growth across the bloc compared to the U.S. and China, it also is a symptom of the bloc’s tighter fiscal constraints after Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, which peaked between 2010 and 2012.

In contrast, China’s surge in debt was driven by credit expansion, infrastructure spending, and state-backed growth.

The U.S., meanwhile, combined crisis-era borrowing with persistent deficits, especially after 2020, allowing debt to scale far beyond Europe’s. With fewer fiscal constraints at the federal level, Washington has maintained higher spending levels—helping explain why U.S. debt now stands far above both China and the EU.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The World’s $111 Trillion in Government Debt on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 02:45

UK Government's Twisted Priorities Exposed...

Zero Hedge -

UK Government's Twisted Priorities Exposed...

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In Two-tier Britain words trigger instant action, but violent offenders get indefinite leave to remain.

UK border policy under Keir Starmer’s Labour government has never looked more lopsided.

An Afghan migrant who carried out a ‘horrific’ bottle attack on a 14-year-old girl and her mother has been allowed to stay in the country despite his violent criminal record. At the same time, the Prime Minister moved swiftly to block Kanye West from headlining the Wireless festival.

The contrast exposes the reality of Britain’s immigration system: tough on controversial speech, soft on actual predators who crossed the Channel or arrived via asylum claims.

Starmer stated: “Kanye West should never have been invited to headline Wireless. This government stands firmly with the Jewish community, and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism. We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values.”

This is not an isolated case. It reflects a pattern where the Home Office struggles to remove foreign offenders while celebrities face pre-emptive bans over lyrics or statements. 

The Afghan national in question arrived in 1999, claimed asylum, and received indefinite leave to remain by 2001. His record includes multiple violent incidents, yet tribunals have repeatedly sided with his continued presence citing treatment for mental health issues and years without reoffending.

British families see the result. A mother and her teenage daughter were left traumatised after a savage attack in a shop following a dispute over religious comments. 

The perpetrator struck them repeatedly with a bottle and issued threats. That level of violence earned convictions for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and related offences.

Yet the system found reasons to keep him here.

Meanwhile, actual border enforcement is reserved for figures like Kanye West. The government’s message is clear: speech can be policed aggressively, but mass illegal entries and criminal migrants receive layers of legal protection, appeals, and human rights considerations.

This is the same Labour government that inherited a broken asylum system and has done nothing meaningful to fix it. Small boats keep arriving. Foreign criminals remain. And the public is told this is all compatible with “protecting the public.”

Until politicians stop treating violent offenders as victims of circumstance and start treating British safety as the non-negotiable priority, stories like this will keep coming. 

The public has had enough of two-tier justice and open-border hypocrisy. Real protection means removing the threats, not shielding them.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 04/10/2026 - 02:00

Southwest Airlines Limits Passengers To One Portable Charger On Flights

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Southwest Airlines Limits Passengers To One Portable Charger On Flights

Southwest Airlines is limiting passengers to one lithium portable charger each - "to strengthen our ability to contain and mitigate lithium battery incidents, including reducing the risk of battery fires," the airline said in a Tuesday statement.

A Southwest Airlines flight arrives at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colo., on Nov. 8, 2025. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Passengers will also be prohibited from recharging their devices using in-seat power outlets, and the chargers must remain in an under-seat carry-on bag or on their person. 

The new policy goes into effect April 20 and will apply across the airline's network of flights, as company officials noted that the entire fleet would have in-seat power by mid-2027, reducing the need for travelers to bring their own portable chargers. 

This is the latest in a series of rules around portable power sources. As the Epoch Times notes, Southwest had already moved earlier to address the same risks. In May 2025, the airline required passengers to keep portable chargers visible while using them, a measure that took effect on May 28 that year. That earlier policy formed part of a broader push to keep potential fire sources in plain sight for quick crew response.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a safety alert in September 2025, warning carriers about lithium batteries stored in passenger compartments. The agency recorded 97 incidents involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat on flights the previous year—up from 89 the year before.

The agency said incidents triggered by lithium-ion batteries are now, on average, a weekly occurrence at roughly 1.3 incidents per week. Since 2015, the number of such events has increased by more than 330 percent.

Between March 3, 2006, and March 7, 2026, a total of 709 lithium battery incidents have been recorded, with the majority of cases coming from passenger carriers.

Battery packs and batteries accounted for the bulk of these incidents, with 229 events, followed by e-cigarettes/vape devices, with 122, cell phones, with 81, laptops, with 70, and the rest involving other electronic and medical devices.

On Nov. 5, 2025, a smoke detector alarm from the lavatory of a United Airlines flight departing from San Francisco went off.

“Flight attendants found a passenger in the lavatory who stated their laptop began to overheat. A flight attendant placed the laptop in a thermal containment bag, and the aircraft continued to its destination without further incident,” the FAA said.

Earlier, on Oct. 5, 2025, a passenger’s carry-on bag caught fire during the boarding process in Buffalo, New York, with lithium batteries being the culprit. Passengers were removed from the aircraft, while the fire was extinguished and the batteries were taken out of the plane.

Lithium cells power everything from phones to laptops to the chargers now limited by Southwest. When damaged, overcharged, or exposed to heat, they can ignite in ways difficult to extinguish mid-flight.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 22:35

Some Jaded Shah Supporters Express Regret After Scale Of US Bombing On Iran Revealed

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Some Jaded Shah Supporters Express Regret After Scale Of US Bombing On Iran Revealed

Via Middle East Eye

The cessation of US-Israeli strikes has brought relief to people in Iran. For those among them who began the conflict supportive of the assault, it also came with a kind of realization. “I thought this was it,” says Leila, 25. “I thought the Islamic Republic was finally coming to an end.”

Leila, who like all Iranians Middle East Eye spoke to is identified using a pseudonym to protect her own safety, says she believed the strikes on her country would be short and decisive – that they would lead to political change. “I even thought the US and Israel had already agreed with Reza Pahlavi about Iran’s future,” she said. “I was wrong.”

Leila is not alone. In the early days of the conflict, some Iranian opponents of the ruling establishment saw Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as potential forces for change, even as unlikely allies. But as the war dragged on, and the scale of destruction became clearer, those expectations faded dramatically.

“Why did they hit bridges?” Leila asks. “Why destroy railway lines? Why target oil depots?” She shakes her head. “How does that help change a government?”

In January, at the height of massive anti-establishment protests in Iran and the authorities’ crackdown, Trump took to social media to tell demonstrators that help was on its way. But last Tuesday, he told Iran: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”, before backing down and agreeing a ceasefire.

For anti-establishment Iranians like Leila, the contrast was shocking. “In the span of just two months, we went from ‘help is on the way’ to threats about the destruction of Iranian civilization,” she says. For Leila, the consequences were not only political, but personal. “I lost friends over this,” she says.

She recalls arguments with people who warned her not to trust foreign powers. “They told me Trump and Netanyahu were no better,” she said. “But I didn’t listen. I accused them of supporting the government.”

Some of those friendships have not recovered. “Now I feel like everything I believed in just collapsed,” she says.

'We thought it would be quick'

Ali, 29, had similar expectations. He says that after the January protests he came to believe that change could only come through force. The demonstrations began in response to rising inflation and spread into nationwide, anti-establishment protests.

The government says that 3,117 people were killed – including protesters, security forces and bystanders. The US-based human rights organisation Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates at least 7,015 deaths.

“We thought war would finish everything,” Ali says. Instead, it destroyed his family home. “Our house was flattened,” he says. “We were lucky to survive. But now we have nowhere to go.”

Ali says he believed claims that the strikes would be precise. “They said they would target specific people and military sites. We thought their technology was advanced enough to avoid civilians,” he says. “Maybe when they realised they couldn’t change the system, they started hitting everything,” he adds. “Or maybe I was just naive.”

Those who never believed

Not all anti-establishment Iranians shared that early optimism. Maryam, 47, says she never believed the war would bring anything positive.

“Only blind people could think that a war started by Trump and Netanyahu would bring us freedom,” she says. “Didn’t we see Gaza? Lebanon? Syria? How could anyone think this would be different?”

Israeli and US strikes destroyed energy infrastructure, bridges, steel and petrochemical plants, a synagogue, hospitals, universities and schools, not to mention hundreds of businesses. “Maybe we should be relieved that the explosions have stopped,” Maryam says. “But how do you rebuild a country after this?”

Maryam is very critical of Iranians who supported the war. “Now some of them say they had nothing to do with it,” she says. “They are trying to distance themselves.”

But she does not accept that. “Didn’t they hear Trump saying Iranians welcomed the bombings?” she says. “I cannot forgive that.”

Abbas, 54, takes an even harsher view. He believes the war has effectively ended Reza Pahlavi’s political relevance. “Reza Pahlavi did everything he could to reach to power,” he said. “But he never condemned any of the US or Israeli attacks on Iran’s infrastructure.”

He points to the praise that the son of Iran’s last monarch heaped on Trump. “He tried every form of flattery you can imagine, hoping Trump would take him seriously,” Abbas says. “But in the end, when a deal was reached between Washington and Tehran, he was left more discredited than ever.”

He pauses, then adds: “I hope his supporters understand now: you can’t rely on someone who is willing to see his own people killed and his country destroyed just to get to power.”

A ceasefire filled with doubt

Niloufar, a 34-year-old resident of Tehran, can barely believe the strikes have stopped. For weeks, she has stayed inside her home, listening to the sound of jets and explosions.

“When the ceasefire was announced, it felt unreal. Like something had lifted off my chest,” she says. “For the first time in 40 days, I was able to sleep peacefully.”

Yet uncertainty remains. There are still reports of sporadic explosions. Many are unsure whether the pause will hold. Israel killed scores of people in Lebanon on Wednesday, attacks that Iran said violated the ceasefire agreement.

Leila says she struggles to believe the attacks on her country have stopped. “They said there is a ceasefire,” she says. “So what are these explosions?” he lowers her voice. “What if it starts again?”

Others worry the ceasefire itself may be temporary – or even strategic. Mehdi, 31, says he does not trust either side. “I don’t trust the US or Israel,” he says. “Honestly, I don’t even trust them more than our own government.”

Negotiations were under way before the US and Israel launched their war. It’s unclear to Mehdi why these latest talks should be taken more seriously. “We were negotiating, then suddenly they attacked,” he says. “What if they negotiate again and then strike even harder?”

The disillusionment runs deep. Ali puts it simply: “Before the war, we used to say things couldn’t get worse. Now we know they can. We thought war would solve everything. Now we know it’s not that simple.”

Ali pauses, and his voice becomes quieter, but more pointed. “And we learnt something else, too: Reza Pahlavi is a stupid and ineffective politician who shows little real concern for the lives of those of us still living inside Iran.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 22:10

Pricing Doritos At $7 A Bag Cost Pepsi "Billions" In Revenue

Zero Hedge -

Pricing Doritos At $7 A Bag Cost Pepsi "Billions" In Revenue

Turns out there's a price point for everything where consumers just stop paying. Guess that whole "price as a rationing mechanism" talk means something after all...

Just ask Pepsi. The iconic brand had recognized for some time that its Frito-Lay snack prices were becoming too expensive, with major retailers like Walmart repeatedly raising concerns, according to Bloomberg.

Even so, prices remained high as sales declined, with some chip bags climbing past $7. Popular products such as Doritos saw sharp increases, jumping nearly 50% since 2021. In response, retailers began allocating more shelf space to lower-cost store brands and competing products.

Bloomberg writes in a new report that in early 2026, PepsiCo finally moved to reduce prices, cutting some snack items by as much as 15%. This decision followed two consecutive years of Frito-Lay missing internal revenue targets. However, new challenges quickly emerged. Rising oil prices tied to global conflicts increased costs for production and packaging, which could weaken the effectiveness of these price cuts and limit their ability to bring customers back.

Prior to these external pressures, analysts believed that moderate price reductions might have been enough to improve sales. Company executives said they planned to assess the results by mid-2026, after earlier test runs showed encouraging increases in product demand. In return for lowering prices, PepsiCo also secured additional shelf space at large retailers, with full implementation expected nationwide.

The report notes that for several years, leadership had struggled with how to address pricing. Executives were reluctant to lower prices because of concerns about short-term financial losses. Instead, they experimented with strategies like reducing package sizes and offering temporary promotions, but these efforts failed to reverse declining sales. A turning point came in 2025 when Rachel Ferdinando reviewed the business and concluded that price cuts were unavoidable.

At the same time, the company was facing broader pressures. Frito-Lay’s long streak of consistent revenue growth came to an end, and it began losing ground to more affordable competitors. Other major food companies had already started lowering their prices, increasing the urgency. Meanwhile, PepsiCo was also investing in higher-priced, health-focused products, which added complexity to its pricing decisions.

The situation can be traced back to the pandemic period, when PepsiCo raised prices to offset supply chain disruptions and rising labor costs. Consumers initially accepted these increases, but over time the higher prices became harder to justify. Although revenue briefly surged, shoppers eventually began cutting back. Even as demand weakened, the company hesitated to reverse its pricing strategy.

By 2025, it became clear that affordability was a key concern for consumers. Price reductions were first tested in select markets and then expanded more broadly in 2026. While discounts have attracted some buyers, overall demand remains uncertain. PepsiCo now faces the ongoing challenge of maintaining lower prices while dealing with rising costs and cautious consumer spending habits.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 21:45

Indiana Suspends Gas Sales Tax Amid US–Iran War

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Indiana Suspends Gas Sales Tax Amid US–Iran War

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Indiana has suspended its gas sales tax for 30 days as prices keep rising amid the United States’ war with Iran.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (C) speaks during a press conference in Gary, Ind., on Oct. 30, 2025. Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images

Gov. Mike Braun announced the suspension on April 8.

“I am declaring a gas tax holiday to give Hoosiers relief from the pain at the pump from high gas prices,” Braun said in a statement. “Affordability is my top priority.”

Indiana’s state gas sales tax, also known as its gasoline use tax, is 7 percent. A separate excise tax of $0.36 cents a gallon is not affected by the suspension.

The 30-day reprieve could be extended, Braun’s office said.

Indiana officials are going to be “patrolling the pumps” to make sure that savings from the gas tax suspension go to Indiana residents, rather than retailers.

Braun also said the Indiana attorney general should enforce regulations prohibiting retailer price gouging.

“With the suspension of Indiana’s gas tax for the next 30 days, my office will closely monitor fuel prices to guard against any potential price gouging,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement.

The United States attacked Iran in February, sending the price of oil soaring.

On April 7, Iran and the United States agreed to a two-week cease-fire.

Oil prices dropped below $100 a barrel in the wake of the cease-fire agreement.

The average price per gallon in Indiana on Wednesday was $4.13, slightly lower than the $4.16 nationwide, according to the American Automobile Association.

The average in Indiana a week ago was $3.96, and the average a month ago was $3.46.

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” President Donald Trump said in a speech on April 1. “This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

Georgia’s governor was the first in the nation to suspend his state’s gas tax. Gov. Brian Kemp on March 20 signed a bill suspending the state’s gas tax for 60 days.

Georgia’s tax is typically 33.3 cents per gallon.

Kemp also signed a bill that authorized $1.2 billion in income tax refunds.

“Hardworking Georgians know best how to spend their money, not the government,” he said in a statement. “That’s why I’m proud to sign these bills and, along with the General Assembly, deliver meaningful tax relief on top of the other measures we’ve taken in recent years. Because we budget conservatively, we can take steps like these that actually deliver on affordability issues for families in our state.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 21:20

Turns Out the Elites Like The Administrative State Better Than Democracy

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Turns Out the Elites Like The Administrative State Better Than Democracy

Authored by William L. Anderson via MisesInstitute,

If there is a mantra among progressive American political and media elites, it would be “our democracy,” usually preceded by what they believe to be a threat from the Right. For example, progressives deemed the recent reversal of Roe “a threat to our democracy” because it removed laws regulating abortion from Supreme Court jurisdiction and returned the issue to democratically elected legislatures.

It would seem inconsistent to invoke the democratic electoral process to deal with a contentious issue like abortion, but progressives are nothing if not inconsistent. But even in challenging logic on political issues, progressives at least try to stick to the language of democracy, and especially the language of “our democracy.”

However, occasionally progressive elites demonstrate their contempt for democracy because they realize that the democratic process is not going to have the desired progressive results because voters and their representatives do not want to knowingly harm themselves.

Recently, the New York Times, in a progressive moment of truth, reacted to the US Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA, in which the court ruled that because carbon dioxide is not among the pollutants regulated by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the Environmental Protection Agency could not enforce CO2 emissions rules for electric power plants.

In its 6–3 ruling, the SCOTUS indicated that Congress was free to pass legislation to regulate carbon dioxide but that the EPA was not free to simply add it to its list of regulated power plant emissions on its own. In other words, the high court declared that democratically elected members of the US House and Senate are free to write (and pass) any anti–climate change legislation they choose. This is what the ancients once called democracy.

Not surprisingly, the NYT went ballistic, and in so doing exposed the progressive mentality, with its affinity for rule by “experts.” Declared the newspaper’s editorial board:

Thursday’s ruling also has consequences far beyond environmental regulation. It threatens the ability of federal agencies to issue rules of any kind, including the regulations that ensure the safety of food, medicines and other consumer products, that protect workers from injuries and that prevent financial panics.

The ruling did no such thing. Instead, the court said that federal regulatory agencies are not free to create and enforce rules outside of their statutory authority. The EPA had simply declared itself the official power plant CO2 emissions regulator under the Obama administration despite the fact that Democrats had a supermajority in the US Senate and a huge majority in the House and theoretically could have passed a law giving new regulatory powers to the EPA. That Congress did not do so is instructive.

In other words, this was an extralegal power grab but one approved by elites because, well, elites know more than everyone else. The NYT editorial continued:

In 1984, an earlier generation of conservative Supreme Court justices formalized a doctrine of deference to the judgment of regulatory agencies, modestly concluding that judges were neither experts nor elected officials, and therefore ought to leave such decisions in other hands. In Thursday’s decision, the court asserted that the policy of deference applies only to supposedly unimportant regulations. When it comes to “major questions” of regulatory policy, the court said, it would not hesitate to second-guess regulators—and to strike rules that it decided did not have a clear congressional warrant.

The decision amounts to a warning shot across the bow of the administrative state. The court’s current conservative majority, engaged in a counterrevolution against the norms of American society, is seeking to curtail the efforts of federal regulators to protect the public’s health and safety. The court already invoked a similar logic during the Covid pandemic to strike down workplace Covid testing requirements and a federal moratorium on evictions. And by refraining from defining a threshold for what constitutes a “major question,” the court is leaving a sword hanging over every new rule. (emphasis mine)

The “administrative state,” of course, is anything but democratic; it is autocratic to the core. For all of their professed love for democracy, progressives have long demanded rule by experts, or at least rule by “experts” that meet progressive approval. As I pointed out last year, when actual scientists studied the effects of so-called acid rain and concluded that it was not causing lake and river acidification, progressives in the media, as well as EPA administrators, immediately tried to destroy the careers of scientists failing to echo the party line. Not surprisingly, one of the loudest antiscience voices in the acid rain affair was the New York Times.

Furthermore, for all the “experts know best” rhetoric in the NYT editorial, there is no proof that the administrative state governs as effectively as democracy, which elites pretend to love. The “experts” at the Federal Reserve believed they could substitute trillions of printed dollars for actual production of goods without creating monetary chaos. In western forests, the “experts” at the US Forest Service have had fire suppression policies in place for more than a century, and the result has been that what were once mere forest fires have become destructive conflagrations that burn so hot that they often destroy the scorched soil’s ability to generate postfire growth.

The ”experts” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed policies that precipitated massive job losses, caused unnecessary premature death from ailments other than covid-19, and still failed to promote adequate information about the virus and its origins. Education “experts” have created one educational crisis after another, and so on. Rule by experts—the administrative state—has caused destruction whenever it is invoked, yet the editors at the “newspaper of record” have failed to notice.

Instead, they proclaim eternal fealty to what only can be called a failed experiment in governance, not to mention that it is antidemocratic. Yet, the NYT editors cannot keep from claiming loyalty to both forms of governance, even when they contradict one another:

Congress has decided, and with good reason, that regulatory agencies staffed by experts are the best available mechanism for a representative democracy to make decisions in areas of technical complexity. The E.P.A. is the entity that Congress relies upon to figure out how clean the air should be, and how to get there. Asserting that it lacks the power to perform its basic responsibilities is simply sabotage.

There is much to dissect in those words, but suffice it to say that to assume that EPA decision makers have the kind of knowledge and expertise implied in that editorial is to foolishly demonstrate faith in something that inevitably fails. Far from being near-omniscient sages of science, the bureaucrats making life-altering decisions at the EPA are people who bear no costs if they impose unnecessary burdens on the lives of ordinary people but who also find that the more draconian their edicts, the greater the praise from environmental interest groups and, of course, the New York Times. What possibly could go wrong?

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 20:55

War On The Shore: Maryland Dem Officials Freak Out At Journalists Ahead Of Exposé On Governor

Zero Hedge -

War On The Shore: Maryland Dem Officials Freak Out At Journalists Ahead Of Exposé On Governor

The Democratic kings and queens in the one-party–ruled state of Maryland are absolutely panicking, something that should not be happening in a deep-blue state, as their crown jewel, left-wing Gov. Wes Moore, a prospective Democratic presidential candidate, has seen polling data implode. High taxes, surging power bills, a state budget crisis, poor leadership, and even questions about honesty have sparked voter backlash on both sides of the political aisle. 

In the battle for narrative control, Moore's office and the Democratic Party's propaganda machine have launched a preemptive campaign against The Baltimore Sun's forthcoming investigative series, which is expected to release an exposé on Moore. 

"The Baltimore Sun used to be our paper of record," Moore recently told MS NOW host Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary who made a career at covering up Biden's mental decline. "It's now become the paper of the right wing."

Democrats have been upset that, in deep-blue Baltimore and across the state, right-leaning Sinclair executive chairman David Smith now owns the paper. As a result, The Sun has shifted from promoting left-wing conspiracies and all things DEI to more balanced, center-right content.

The loss of narrative power at The Sun is what truly irritates Democratic leadership in the state, as their inability to control the narrative has caused Moore's polling numbers to drop significantly.

"Democrats sure are putting in a lot of work to discredit a series before it's even started running. That alone should raise a question: why?" Candy Woodall, former national political reporter at USA Today, now managing editor of Spotlight on Maryland, a local investigative reporting collaboration of WBFF45 (owned by Sinclair), wrote on X. 

Woodall Continued: 

In January, I was warned directly that if Spotlight continued its investigation into Gov. Wes Moore's military records—and one of his superiors—that his office would send files to every media reporter to try and discredit us.

We saw the same playbook in 2022 when a FOX45 reporter asked why Moore allowed claims that he had received a Bronze Star that he didn't have at the time. His team accused the reporter and media outlet of bias and a smear campaign. Two years later, after the New York Times wrote about the Bronze Star Moore hadn't received, the narrative changed, and the governor said it was "an honest mistake." In an August 2024 statement on his military record, Moore acknowledged he knew before leaving Afghanistan that he had not received the award.

Spotlight's reporting digs deeper into Moore's military records and more, and our investigative series will begin to publish soon. This is standard journalism to scrutinize the words and records of elected officials and candidates who hold positions of power and public trust. Our loyalty is to the Maryland public we serve — not any public official or political party.

Our work has been fair. We've sent hundreds of questions. Most have gone unanswered. We've offered multiple sit-down interviews with the governor and his staff. They have declined repeated requests.

Moore's office hasn't seen a word of this series yet, but the governor and his communications staff are actively campaigning and peddling a narrative to smear it. In fact, his director of media strategy said this week of us, "They don't deserve to be treated like a news outlet and nothing that comes out of Sinclair should be taken seriously." They continued this effort last night in an interview on MSNOW with Jen Psaki, Biden's former press secretary.

The real questions you should be asking right now: Why don't they want you to read the series? What is it they don't want you to know? And if we're so wrong about everything, why not just release the records and prove it?

If you want to know more, keep reading The Baltimore Sun, a 200-year-old newspaper that has survived many governors.

After The New York Times reported in 2024 that Moore had falsely claimed to have received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan, a controversy over his military record intensified. Spotlight on Maryland later picked up the investigative baton at the local level.

Moore's team responded aggressively on X, in what appeared to be a bid to discredit the reporters - even dismissing one Fox Baltimore reporter as "not a journalist."

Democrats have reason to worry about any major forthcoming exposé on Moore. His Polymarket odds of becoming the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nominee currently sit at just 1%.

//--> //--> Will Wes Moore win the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination?
Yes 1% · No 99%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

The real issue for Democrats is that Smith of Sinclair is single-handedly chipping away at their core abilities to run counter-narratives, which has eroded Moore's odds of leapfrogging from the financially troubled state to the White House.

In recent weeks, Moore was greeted by a stadium full of boos during Orioles Opening Day in Baltimore City, a major stronghold for progressives. This should never be happening to a left-wing governor in the state.

But it is his sheer incompetence in serving as proper stewards of the state and prioritizing DEI, woke, illegal aliens, over Marylanders that has sparked voter backlash. Stuff like this:

Moore smiling with far-left radical Alex Soros. 

Only a matter of time before the Moore team taps the Soros nonprofit team for help. Unless they already have... 

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 20:30

'World's First' Humanoid Robot For Real Household Chores Launched With 16-Hour Battery

Zero Hedge -

'World's First' Humanoid Robot For Real Household Chores Launched With 16-Hour Battery

Authored by Jijo Malayil via Interesting Engineering,

Chinese robotics firm UniX AI has unveiled Panther, touted as the world’s first service humanoid robot to enter real household deployment.

UniX AI has commenced global deliveries of Panther, bringing service humanoid robots into real homes.UniX AI

Panther is a third-generation full-size wheeled dual-arm humanoid robot, and UniX AI has commenced global deliveries.

The robot stands about 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs around 176 pounds (80 kilograms), and operates for 8 to 16 hours on a single charge.

According to the Suzhou-based firm, its design focuses on usability and reliable performance in complex indoor environments, marking a significant step toward bringing general-purpose humanoid robots into everyday settings.

Stable service robot

Panther is a wheeled dual-arm humanoid robot designed for real-world deployment across home, commercial, and industrial settings - and is equipped with an omnidirectional, four-wheel-steering, four-wheel-drive (4WS+4WD) chassis, enabling agile movement and stable operation in complex indoor environments. According to the UniX AI, the wheeled architecture marks a departure from the more common legged humanoid approach, which is combined with general-purpose AI models, offering improved efficiency and practicality for deployment.

According to UniX AI, the robot features 34 high-degree-of-freedom joints, including the world’s first mass-produced 8-DoF bionic arms and adaptive intelligent grippers, allowing precise and flexible manipulation.

Furthermore, it is equipped with cameras, sensors, and audio input systems that support object recognition, indoor navigation, and interaction with people. The system is designed to perform multi-step tasks rather than isolated actions, allowing it to execute complete sequences of activities.

“With our integrated trinity of algorithms, hardware, and applications, we have already scaled from lab validation to mass delivery, and from local deployment to global expansion,” said Fred Yang, Founder and CEO of UniX AI, in a statement.

Multi-task humanoid

In demonstrations and early deployments, the robot has shown the ability to handle a variety of domestic tasks. These include waking users, preparing breakfast, cleaning rooms, organizing household items, and operating certain appliances. It can also sort and move objects as part of routine household workflows.

The robot is built to manage continuous task sequences efficiently. For example, it can wake a user in the morning, prepare a meal, clean the kitchen afterward, and organize the living space, demonstrating coordinated, multi-step task execution in real-world home environments.

Panther, evolved from the Wanda 2.0 platform, introduces an 80 cm vertical lift of the upper body, enabling both elevated reach and ground-level operation. It operates on an upgraded 48V power platform, delivering higher output along with improved stability for high-speed control and dynamic movements.

Panther is powered by UniX AI’s integrated technology stack. UniFlex enables efficient cross-scenario task generalization and imitation learning. UniTouch combines visuo-tactile multimodal models to improve precision handling and interactive capabilities with enhanced stability. UniCortex supports long-term task planning, enabling the robot to execute complex, multi-step operations seamlessly.

According to the firm, the system is designed for a wide range of real-world applications. These include commercial services such as hotels, reception, retail, and guided tours; home and personal uses like household tasks, elderly care, and companionship; and public or industrial roles including security patrols, research, and education.

Experts say household robots still face hurdles, including cluttered environments, varied lighting, and handling soft objects. Challenges in navigation, appliance interaction, battery life, cost, safety, and reliability remain. However, robots performing multiple domestic tasks indicate that fully functional home assistants managing daily chores are gradually moving closer to reality.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 20:05

Pentagon Seeks Stunning 243x Budget Surge For Drone Warfare Unit As Eurasian Wars Reshape Combat

Zero Hedge -

Pentagon Seeks Stunning 243x Budget Surge For Drone Warfare Unit As Eurasian Wars Reshape Combat

Buried in the Department of War's Fiscal Year 2027 procurement request is a massive increase for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG), a clear acknowledgment that ongoing conflicts across Eurasia have underscored one hard lesson: cheap kamikaze drones can impose outsized costs on traditional militaries. The substantial surge in the budget request also signals growing urgency within the DoW to field these drones at scale.

The defense and aerospace news publication Inside Defense was the first to report on the DoW's massive budget request for the autonomous drone warfare group. The budget would skyrocket from $225 million this year to potentially $54.6 billion next year:

The Pentagon's fiscal year 2027 budget request seeks a massive expansion of the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, setting a $54.6 billion budget for the relatively obscure team -- a jaw-dropping increase over the $225 million the effort received in FY-26, signaling a major emphasis on autonomous drones across the military services.

The dramatic surge in requested funding represents one of the most substantial allocations outside the traditional service accounts, reflecting the Pentagon's broader commitment to autonomous warfare capabilities, which have....

Details surrounding DAWG appear to center on scaling autonomous warfare capabilities, especially drones and related systems, though the effort remains little known publicly.

Related:

The sheer size of the request - a 243-fold increase - signals a much broader, military-wide push in the coming years to institutionalize autonomous weapons. This comes amid lessons learned not only from the Russia-Ukraine war, but also from the current US-Iran conflict, where inexpensive one-way Iranian attack drones have wreaked havoc on US military bases, Gulf energy assets, and civilian infrastructure such as data centers and water desalination plants.

We also suspect there will be a major push to develop and field low-cost interceptor solutions to counter these inexpensive drones, rather than relying on multimillion-dollar missiles. We have already highlighted this theme here.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 19:40

USPS Pauses Pension Contributions Amid Looming Cash Shortfall

Zero Hedge -

USPS Pauses Pension Contributions Amid Looming Cash Shortfall

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has temporarily suspended its employer contributions to a government-wide pension plan after warning Congress that, without changes, it could run out of cash within the next year.

On Thursday, USPS told the Office of Personnel Management—the federal government’s human resource division—that it would pause its biweekly employer contributions to the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS.

The move is expected to conserve about $2.5 billion through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year, according to USPS. The mail agency typically pays about $200 million every other week into the plan.

USPS Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossmann said the temporary withholding would have no “immediate detrimental impact” on current or future retirees. He said the agency would continue forwarding employees’ own FERS contributions, as well as all regularly scheduled payments to the Thrift Savings Plan, another retirement program for federal workers.

“The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically outweighs any longer-term risk to the pension funds from not making the currently due payments,” Grossmann said.

Although USPS is generally required by law to make the payments, the Postal Regulatory Commission granted the agency a waiver that gives it flexibility to catch up later.

The cash-saving measure comes as postal officials warn Congress of the agency’s deteriorating finances. At a March 17 hearing, Postmaster General David Steiner told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that USPS could become unable to continue delivering mail by February 2027 if it keeps paying all of its bills on time under the current structure.

“Less than a year from now, the Postal Service will be unable to deliver the mail if we maintain the status quo,” he said in his testimony.

According to Steiner, USPS has already had to rely on extraordinary cash-conservation measures, and he warned that lawmakers might have to consider steps such as reducing delivery frequency from six days a week to five or fewer. He also floated the idea of hiking first-class stamp prices to as high as 95 cents.

“At 78 cents, the U.S. First-Class Stamp is the lowest-priced in the industrialized world,” Steiner told lawmakers at the hearing.

“If we were to change the stamp price to 90 to 95 cents, which is still less than half of the cost of most foreign posts, that would largely solve our controllable loss.”

USPS has struggled financially for years as first-class mail volumes continue to decline and operating costs rise. According to a report published in March by U.S. Government Accountability Office, it has lost money every fiscal year but one since 2007, accumulating a staggering $118 billion in net losses over that time.

The agency has also turned to temporary price hikes to help cover operation costs. The Postal Regulatory Commission has approved an 8 percent temporary increase on priority mail and package prices beginning April 26 and lasting through Jan. 17, 2027.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 19:15

Minnesota Whistleblower Alleges Years Of 'Reckless Disregard' At Fraud-Plagued Agency

Zero Hedge -

Minnesota Whistleblower Alleges Years Of 'Reckless Disregard' At Fraud-Plagued Agency

Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Seven years after Faye Bernstein first blew the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse concerns, “nothing is changing” at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, she told lawmakers during an April 7 hearing at the state Capitol in St. Paul.

Faye Bernstein, a whistleblower who works for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, testifies before the state's Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee in St. Paul, Minn., on April 7, 2026. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/The Minnesota House of Representatives' video livestream

As a 20-year employee who still works for the department while facing alleged demotion and retaliation over her complaints, “I still see a reckless disregard for compliance,” she told the state’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee.

Bernstein, a former compliance officer at the agency that faces heightened national scrutiny over massive fraud scandals, gave an example supporting her opinion. She said she learned that, about a year ago, “someone had falsified the audit tracker,” an important internal record that helps workers ensure they remedy problems identified in audits.

“When I heard that, I thought, ‘My gosh, somebody’s getting fired for that!’” Bernstein said; instead, managers excused the falsification, indicating “that person had simply made a mistake, that maybe she didn’t understand instructions,” she said.

“The lackadaisical attitude we have about even keeping track of our findings will partially explain” why some of those same findings recurred in an audit released in January, she said. The audit noted some of the same issues that Bernstein reported in 2019.

After Bernstein’s testimony, the agency’s commissioner, Shireen Gandhi, testified. She pledged to “build a culture of compliance,” and to ensure that all staff members understand their roles and “have the knowledge, skills, and authority to fulfill those responsibilities.”

State Rep. Isaac Schultz, a Republican who serves on the anti-fraud committee, told Gandhi:  “I hope that more people [like Bernstein] continue to shine light on what’s going on inside of your department, because I have a really hard time trusting what leadership is saying to us.”

Another committee member, Democratic state Rep. Steve Elkins, gave Gandhi credit for owning up to problems that the audit revealed.

Having been elected in 2018, Elkins has read quite a few audits. Each one includes a response from the agency that was audited. Typically, “that letter is deflecting, denying, minimizing,” he said.

“This is the first time ... where the head of the agency stepped up and said almost everything in the report was accurate, and this is what we’re going to do about it, and this is when we’re going to have it done, and this is the person who’s responsible for getting it done,” Elkins said. “And I think that that’s a remarkable turnaround.”

Shireen Gandhi, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, answers questions at a meeting of the state's Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee in St. Paul, Minn., on April 7, 2026. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/The Minnesota House of Representatives' video livestream Lawmaker Urges: ‘Draw a Line in the Sand’

Minnesota’s government-program fraud dating to 2018 could reach $9 billion or more, prosecutors have said. Fraud concerns have expanded nationwide; the national leader may turn out to be California, where scammers may have bilked taxpayers out of “hundreds of billions” of dollars, a federal prosecutor said.

Many of Minnesota’s still-emerging fraud scandals involve programs that are now under Gandhi’s purview. She has worked for the agency since 2017 and has headed it since last year; Gov. Tim Walz made her temporary appointment permanent earlier this year.

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican who chairs the fraud-prevention committee, told Gandhi: “The most important thing is to make sure we’re being good stewards of taxpayer money.”

“As Ms. Bernstein said, we’ve been talking about this for years ... so we have to draw a line in the sand and say: ‘We are not going to allow this to continue anymore,’” Robbins said.

Robbins and other committee members repeatedly asked Gandhi about holding people accountable when procedures aren’t followed or when records are falsified; the latest audit revealed that employees created new records—and backdated them—in the midst of the auditors’ probe.

“I was shocked to hear this information,” Gandhi told the committee, calling any such fabrications “absolutely unacceptable.” However, Gandhi said state law prohibits her from revealing details of the internal investigation into the falsified records.

When Robbins inquired further, Gandhi said information was presented to state authorities for possible criminal charges. The agency is also putting together internal processes “for preventing and catching this sort of issue going forward,” Gandhi said.

Minnesota Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the state's Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, in St. Paul, Minn., on April 7, 2026. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/The Minnesota House of Representatives' video livestream No-Bid Contracts Awarded, Procedures Not Followed

In mid-2025, lawmakers approved a two-year budget of $17 billion for Gandhi’s agency, accounting for 40 percent of the state’s total budget, state legislative records show.

One branch of the department, the Behavioral Health Administration, distributed more than $2 billion in grants from July 2022 to December 2024. The money goes to businesses and organizations that provide mental-health or substance-abuse services.

However, during that 29-month span, the state agency “did not comply with most requirements we tested,” Valentina Stone, an audit director for the Office of Legislative Auditor, testified to the fraud committee.

Auditors found 13 problems that need to be fixed to safeguard taxpayers’ money, including four recurrent issues, Stone said.

During the study period, the agency handled 830 unique grant agreements. Auditors combed several batches of those grants, looking for compliance with different “internal controls”—rules and procedures to ensure proper use and tracking of money.

Among 24 grants examined for compliance with competitive-bidding rules, auditors found the agency had inappropriately awarded more than half of them. The agency doled out five grants totaling $4.7 million without seeking competitive bids first or giving a reason for skipping that process.

Other tests revealed more internal-controls violations. The agency paid grantees even before grant agreements were signed, failed to visit providers to ensure they were complying with agreements to render services, and awarded new grants to past providers without reviewing how those providers performed.

“It concerns me greatly ... that money is still going out the door in real time to some of these same grantees when these processes haven’t been tightened up,” Robbins said.

In March, a separate audit of Human Services’ fraud-ridden autism-treatment reimbursement program found that the agency mistakenly believed that it lacked authority to probe allegations of kickbacks without evidence of another alleged offense. The problem appears to have stemmed from a decades-old definition of “fraud” that failed to explicitly list kickbacks, which are illegal payments to people who cooperate with scammers.

* * *

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 18:25

Israel Lifts Restrictions At Jerusalem Holy Sites, Ben Gurion Airport Fully Reopened, Normalcy Returns

Zero Hedge -

Israel Lifts Restrictions At Jerusalem Holy Sites, Ben Gurion Airport Fully Reopened, Normalcy Returns

Israeli cities have suffered heavy bombardment under Iranian and Hezbollah missiles over the past many weeks going back to the start of Trump's Operation Epic Fury on February 28, but the start of the fragile Iran ceasefire has seen the bombs halted, at least for now.

A sense of normalcy is finally returning across Israeli society, after millions of citizens have on a daily basis had to scramble to get to bomb shelters. Emergency restrictions have been lifted across most parts of the country, and even holy sites in Jerusalem are being opened back up, after Israeli authorities starting last month severely restricted access.

Near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. Shutterstock

Jerusalem police on Thursday announced the removal of all restrictions and deployed hundreds of officers and volunteers across the city.

Access to Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holy sites was either fully prohibited or limited to small groups, amid the prior daily barrage of Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has been reopened too. It had remained closed for much of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which was somewhat unprecedented in recent history. This created immense tensions between Palestinian Muslims and Israeli security forces.

Roman Catholics and Western Christians were severely limited during last weekend's Easter observances at the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City.

However, the Iran ceasefire and reopening coincides with upcoming Orthodox Christian Easter (Pascha) celebrations on Sunday.

Typically tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims from Russia, Greece, Eastern Europe and elsewhere descend on Jerusalem ahead of Orthodox Holy week, however, travel difficulties and the threat of renewed war have had a chilling effect, and much fewer are expected to attend.

Israeli police may still move to limit gatherings, and typically they set up barricades in various parts of the Old City in and around the Christian quarter in the name of imposing greater security.

Still, there's a sense of optimism, but Israeli raids in Lebanon have kept things unpredictable. Iran has been warning against ongoing Israeli strikes on Beirut and elsewhere, and so the war could be renewed at any moment.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 18:00

ChatGPT Accused Of Aiding Florida State Mass Shooter

Zero Hedge -

ChatGPT Accused Of Aiding Florida State Mass Shooter

Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

Big Tech’s leading AI faces growing accusations of enabling violence rather than preventing it.

Attorneys representing the family of Robert Morales, killed in the April 17, 2025, Florida State University shooting, announced plans to sue OpenAI and ChatGPT. The law firm Brooks, LeBoeuf, Foster, Gwartney and Hobbs stated the suspected gunman, Phoenix Ikner, was in “constant communication” with the chatbot leading up to the attack.

Ikner opened fire outside the FSU student union, killing Morales, a 57-year-old Aramark worker and father, and Tiru Chabba, 45, a vendor from South Carolina. Six others were wounded. Court records list more than 270 images of ChatGPT conversations as exhibits.

The firm declared: “We have reason to believe that ChatGPT may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes. We will therefore file suit against ChatGPT, and its ownership structure, very soon, and will seek to hold them accountable for the untimely and senseless death of our client, Mr. Morales.”

Recent coverage also notes newly released chat logs where Ikner reportedly asked ChatGPT about school shootings and the busiest times on campus.

One post referenced details such as the chatbot informing him the Student Union was busiest between 11:30am and 1:30pm, with the shooting occurring at 11:57am.

The New York Post reported the claims in detail.

OpenAI responded by saying they identified an account believed to be associated with the suspect after the shooting, proactively shared information with law enforcement, and cooperated fully. They claim to build ChatGPT to respond safely and continue improving safeguards.

Yet the body count linked to such interactions keeps rising, while the company’s selective enforcement and post-incident cooperation fail to reassure victims’ families preparing legal action.

This incident follows another high-profile case. In February 2026, Canadian trans shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar carried out a deadly attack at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

OpenAI employees were alarmed by his disturbing ChatGPT messages and discussed alerting authorities, but the company chose not to notify police beforehand, instead banning the account.

They only contacted law enforcement after the shooting. A family has already sued OpenAI over that incident as well.

These developments echo earlier warnings. ChatGPT once provided detailed suicide instructions and drug-and-alcohol guidance when prompted as a fake 13-year-old.

Studies have found that as many as one in four teens now rely on AI therapy bots for mental health support, raising questions about vulnerable users interacting with systems that appear inconsistent on harm prevention.

ChatGPT’s selective ideological programming has also been repeatedly called into question. For example, it once refused a hypothetical request to quietly utter a racial slur even to save a billion white people.

Americans expect technology that upholds safety and individual responsibility, not systems that lecture on ethics while allegedly guiding violence. The mounting lawsuits and documented failures demand accountability from OpenAI and scrutiny of the priorities embedded in its models. Until Big Tech prioritizes preventing real-world harm over narrative control, these tragedies risk becoming a grim pattern rather than isolated failures.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 17:40

Massachusetts Governor Uses Donut Holes To Explain The State Energy Crisis She Caused

Zero Hedge -

Massachusetts Governor Uses Donut Holes To Explain The State Energy Crisis She Caused

The Democrat tendency to talk down to their constituencies as if they are children has become a mainstay of American political discourse in the past several years.  This behavior is rooted in a simmering arrogance among the political class, but it also tends to expose their lack of understanding when it comes to some of the more basic economic and industrial concepts. 

In other words, Democrats treat people as if people are dumb because they are, in fact, dumb.

Maura Healey, the Governor of Massachusetts, has been in office since 2023. A Democrat, she boasts of being the first woman and first "openly LGBT" person elected to the position.  Her administration's focus is dedicated to climate change issues, which plays a large part in the reasons why MA is currently facing record high power prices and an overall energy crisis. 

As Attorney General and Governor, Healey has pursued a lawsuit against Exxon for "not disclosing" climate risks caused by their products to investors and consumers through marketing campaigns.  Of course, there are no "climate risks" caused by Exxon's products.  Why would they disclose a risk that doesn't exist?

In November 2024, Healey signed "Clean Energy" legislation which includes reforms to prevent natural gas expansion by limiting gas utility investments that conflict with climate change mandates. This disrupts the creation of new fossil fuel infrastructure in an attempt to "phase down" public reliance on gas and redirect focus toward green energy. Critics argue that these policies hinder gas reliability and raise long-term costs for citizens of MA.  

Since Healey took office, gas heating prices in MA have risen by 35%-50% and electricity prices are listed among top five most expensive states in the US.  Massachusetts already had high energy rates before Healey, but they surged after her climate change policies were implemented. 

 

Green energy, as everyone knows, is far less efficient than oil, gas or coal (20% to 60% less efficient depending on the source).  State programs that prioritize green tech while suppressing carbon based energy usually result in higher prices for everyone while also creating a bottleneck and shortages during weather related disasters or global supply chain disruptions. 

When Healey holds up donut holes as a representation of Massachusetts' limited energy resources, what she doesn't mention is that, unlike donut holes, not all energy sources are the same.  Wind power or solar power is far less reliable and efficient compared to natural gas.  Electric vehicles often still rely on power generated by coal and natural gas.  Around 75% of MA's energy output comes from natural gas because it is by far the most reliable and affordable source. 

Healey's solution for storage (green tech, batteries, etc.) is far less practical and far more expensive.  Natural gas storage is vastly superior in terms of cost and energy output.  Massachusetts doesn't have below ground storage for gas, but relying on storage in other states is still cheaper than the billions of dollars they would need to build battery-based storage in MA.  

The Governor then, of course, goes on to blame Donald Trump's opposition to green tech development as the cause of higher prices.  Keep in mind, prices exploded in MA well before Trump took office in 2025.  Furthermore, Trump's criticisms are completely reasonable.

First, climate change theories are a sham.  There is no concrete evidence of a causation relationship between carbon, human industry and global warming.  None.  In fact, the atmospheric carbon record for the past 400 million years doesn't match the temperature record in the slightest. 

And, temperatures today are far cooler than they have been in the past. That is to say, we are nowhere near record high temperatures for the Earth.  Climate scientists make these claims based on records that only go back around 140 years, which is an extremely narrow time window.

Meaning, the pursuit of green tech in the name of saving the planet is pointless, and it's causing economic suffering for the citizenry.  Green energy might one day be efficient enough to supply ample power to the world, but for now it has hobbled legitimate energy production.  Today, most financial resources should be put into oil, coal, gas and perhaps nuclear (nuclear plants take 6-10 years to build, plus another 5 years for approval). 

Climate obsessed Democrats like Healey are the primary cause of high energy prices in blue states.  It is undeniable.     

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 17:20

FCC Set To Vote on Easing Satellite Power Rules, Boosting SpaceX's Starlink

Zero Hedge -

FCC Set To Vote on Easing Satellite Power Rules, Boosting SpaceX's Starlink

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday it will vote on an order to revamp satellite spectrum-sharing rules that would benefit low-Earth orbit broadband providers - and SpaceX stands to gain the most.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites is seen over Sebastian Inlet after launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2025. Sam Wolfe/Reuters

“By discarding last century’s satellite regulations, we could see billions of dollars in benefits for the American economy and broadband speeds many times faster than what is available today,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement.

“This overdue rethinking of space spectrum sharing rules will bring greater competition to the broadband marketplace and reduce the number of satellites needed to serve a given area.”

The vote on April 30 could reshape how tens of millions of Americans, particularly those in rural communities, connect to the internet from space.

The proposed order would raise the power levels that low-earth orbit (LEO) operators are permitted to use in frequency bands shared with incumbent geostationary orbit systems. For SpaceX, whose Starlink network already spans more than 10,000 satellites, the change would mean substantially faster and more reliable service.

Not everyone is on board. Geostationary operators, including Viasat, SES, and DIRECTV, have opposed the move, arguing that allowing Starlink to transmit at higher power would cause damaging interference to their own networks.

In a filing submitted Tuesday, DIRECTV told the agency that SpaceX’s interference studies contain “significant unresolved questions.”

SpaceX has dismissed those concerns as a defense of the status quo. 

“The question of whether the [equivalent power flux density] framework harms consumers by unnecessarily constraining [LEO] services has been definitively resolved: it does,” SpaceX wrote last month. The company added that the current rules unfairly favor what it called outdated satellite systems while leaving rural users underserved.

The FCC appeared to agree. The agency said in its release that “government-imposed overprotection of GSO systems has meant that American households and businesses—most critically in rural and remote areas—do not receive the fastest space-based broadband American innovation has available.”

The international power limits at the center of the dispute were established in the 1990s and were designed to shield geostationary satellites from interference caused by lower-orbiting constellations. At the time, LEO broadband networks like Starlink did not yet exist.

The FCC took an early step toward reform in January, when it approved 7,500 additional second-generation Starlink satellites and granted SpaceX a temporary waiver from the power restrictions while the agency’s broader rulemaking proceeded.

SpaceX has argued that the existing Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) limits rely on obsolete computer models that fail to account for modern beamforming and interference-mitigation technologies now standard in newer satellite systems.

As of March, Starlink’s constellation comprised more than 10,020 satellites in low Earth orbit, accounting for roughly 65 percent of all active satellites worldwide, with more than 10 million subscribers reported as of February.

A formal vote on the new power rules would mark the most consequential shift in satellite spectrum policy in a generation.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 17:00

Beijing Cries Foul Over Chinese Scientist's Death Following Alleged US Interrogation - Feds Tight-Lipped

Zero Hedge -

Beijing Cries Foul Over Chinese Scientist's Death Following Alleged US Interrogation - Feds Tight-Lipped

China is accusing U.S. federal authorities of "hostile questioning" by US law enforcement following the death of a groundbreaking Chinese semiconductor researcher who fell to his death inside a University of Michigan building last month, while American law enforcement and university officials remain tight-lipped about any federal involvement.

Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, died after falling from an upper level inside the George G. Brown Building on the Ann Arbor campus around 11 p.m. on March 19. University police responded to the scene and pronounced him dead. The incident is being investigated as a possible act of self-harm, with no indication of foul play or any ongoing threat to the campus community.

GG Brown Building Addition (Architect Magazine)

Chinese officials, including the embassy in Washington and the consulate in Chicago, have strongly linked Wang’s death to what they describe as “unwarranted” interrogation by U.S. law enforcement just before the incident. Beijing has lodged multiple “solemn representations,” accusing the U.S. of overstating national security concerns, engaging in political manipulation, and subjecting Chinese scholars to discriminatory practices that create a “chilling effect” on academic exchanges.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and embassy spokespeople have publicly demanded a full investigation, a “responsible explanation” to Wang’s family, and an end to such alleged harassment. The embassy confirmed Wang died by suicide and has been assisting his family.

U.S. authorities have offered no confirmation or denial of any questioning. The FBI’s Detroit field office cited its longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying investigations involving specific individuals. University police and administrators have released only basic details about the fall while the case remains active.

Wang had worked in Prof. Zetian Mi’s lab since 2022, focusing on wide-bandgap III-nitride semiconductor materials and devices. His research centered on emerging wurtzite ferroelectric nitrides — advanced materials with unique polarization properties that could revolutionize electronics.

Groundbreaking Research

Wang’s most significant contribution was as co-first author on a landmark 2025 paper in Nature titled “Electric-field-induced domain walls in wurtzite ferroelectrics.” The work solved a long-standing puzzle: why these ferroelectric nitrides remain stable despite extreme polarization discontinuities that should theoretically tear the crystal apart.

Using transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory, the team discovered that when an electric field reverses polarization, “domain walls” form at the interfaces. These walls feature a unique buckled hexagonal atomic arrangement - never observed before - where dangling bonds with negatively charged electrons precisely compensate the positive charge buildup, stabilizing the material.

Critically, these domain walls also create highly conductive pathways - roughly 100 times more charge carriers than in standard gallium nitride transistors. The conductivity is electrically tunable: it can be turned on/off, moved, or adjusted in strength using the same field that controls polarization.

The breakthrough has sweeping implications for the semiconductor industry:

  • Ultra-low-power computing and AI: Ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs) could integrate non-volatile memory and logic in the same material, slashing energy use in AI chips, edge devices, and data centers.
  • High-power and high-frequency electronics: Domain-wall transistors promise superior performance in RF devices, power amplifiers, and next-generation power electronics.
  • Neuromorphic and memory tech: The materials support brain-like synaptic behavior and energy-efficient non-volatile memory.
  • Broader applications: Sensors, MEMS devices, quantum photonics, and hybrid optoelectronic systems all stand to benefit from the tunable ferroelectric properties.

University of Michigan Engineering Dean Karen Thole called Wang “a promising and brilliant young mind” whose work represented a landmark advance in uncovering the switching and charge compensation mechanisms of these emerging nitrides.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/09/2026 - 16:40

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