US President Donald Trump has published AI-generated clips showing a missile attack on Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub amid a new escalation between Washington and Tehran.
US and Iranian forces earlier exchanged strikes for the first time since late July. On Sunday, the US Central Command said it had targeted two Iranian launchers on Larak Island, near the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz, which it claimed were preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the waterway, accounting for some 20% of global crude oil trade. According to Tehran, the bombing killed several Iranian soldiers and civilians.
Iran retaliated early on Monday, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying its drones and missiles had inflicted “significant damage” on the US military’s King Hussein and Al-Azraq air bases in Jordan.
Following the strikes, oil prices went up in early trading in Asia, with WTI futures growing by 2.47% to $85.46 per barrel and Brent futures climbing by 2.71% to $90.49 per barrel.
Trump did not issue any immediate statements on the escalation on his Truth Social platform, instead posting two short AI-generated videos of multiple missiles striking oil facilities on an island and causing huge explosions.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” the caption to one of the videos read.
The head of the National Iranian Oil Company, Hamid Bovard, ridiculed Trump for posting the clips, saying that his “tweets are laughable and conditions in Kharg are calm and appropriate.”
The energy hub hasn’t been attacked, with routine oil operations continuing there, Bovard said, as cited by Nournews.
According to Reuters, there was no evidence of any strikes being carried out against Kharg Island.
Located around 25 km (15 miles) off Iran’s Gulf coast, Kharg Island handles around 90% of the country’s crude exports, serving as the primary outlet for its oil revenue. The coral outcrop, often referred to by the public as the “forbidden island” because of the tight security, also hosts a major oil storage facility.
The US struck military sites on Kharg Island several times after the start of the conflict in late February, but refrained from targeting energy infrastructure. Trump also mulled a ground operation to seize the oil hub, saying it could be carried out by US forces or by “other people.” However, those plans never materialized.
Tehran has warned repeatedly that it will set the whole oil and gas infrastructure of the US allies in the Gulf States “on fire” if energy facilities on Kharg island are hit or an attempt to capture it is made.
Feedstock Isn’t Fuel: Why Venezuelan Crude Can’t Fix the Diesel and Jet Shortage
by
My friend, Karl Miller, is out with a great piece that exposes Trump’s claims about Venezuelan oil as a massive case of gaslighting. I am summarizing his piece, which is titled,“Venezuela Oil: The Physical Barrel and the Capital Bill,” because it is not publicly available via a link.
On 27 August 2026, President Trump announced what he called the biggest oil deal in world history — a US–Venezuela agreement giving the United States majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves, which he said would “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans.” The pitch landed with gasoline near $4.09 a gallon, about 27% higher than a year earlier and on track for the most expensive August on record, as a six-month Iran war and the Hormuz disruption kept a fifth of world supply under strain — and with the midterms two months away.
Independent analysts noted the arithmetic fails on that timeline: the 30 to 50 million barrels Trump floated is less than half a day of global consumption, the 65 billion is an in-ground estimate rather than available supply, and any price effect would take years. Miller’s briefing goes underneath that objection to the more fundamental one: Venezuelan crude is the wrong substance to fix the shortage Americans feel at the pump. It is not a magical fix. In the near term it is not a fix at all.
The point most likely to be missed
The shortage that bites right now is in product — diesel and jet fuel — and extra-heavy Venezuelan crude is not product. It is refinery feedstock. You cannot relieve a middle-distillate shortage with a barrel that still has to be diluted, blended, upgraded, coked, and hydroprocessed before it yields a usable gallon of anything.
This is why the “turn Venezuela on” reflex fails on its own terms. Even setting aside whether Caracas can produce more, the barrels that already exist do not add supply where the market is tight. Prompt US cargoes would largely be diverted from Venezuela’s current buyers — China, India, Europe — not created on top of global production. That reshuffles refinery slates and trade routes; it does not repair a physical shortage. A barrel moved from a Chinese refiner to a US one is a change of address, not a new barrel, and certainly not a new gallon of jet fuel.
Why the feedstock gap is binding
The nature of the crude is the reason. Roughly three-quarters of Venezuelan production through 2028 is expected to be heavy, extra-heavy, or bitumen, with the Orinoco Belt supplying about 60%. That material is the raw input at the very front of the conversion process; the finished distillate barrel sits many capital-intensive steps downstream — coking and hydroprocessing capacity, hydrogen, refinery uptime, yields, distribution — none of which a cargo of Merey crude supplies. The price tells the same story: Merey 16 averaged $67.36/bbl in July 2026, about $12.35 under the OPEC basket, the market pricing in the cost of converting this crude into something useful. Venezuela cannot repair a current crude or middle-distillate shortage, because the missing piece was never the crude.
The supply side only reinforces it
Nor can the volume be conjured quickly. July 2026 output was near 1.1 million b/d — about a third of the 3.4 million b/d peak of 1998 — and the system that would lift it has been hollowed out: the EIA documents pipelines over 50 years old, power outages, constrained diluent, and impaired refineries, with PDVSA estimating some $8 billion for pipelines alone. Rystad puts full-cycle breakevens at $70–$80/bbl or higher and its base case adds only about 194,000 b/d through 4Q 2028; a return toward 3 million b/d would take well over $150 billion across 10–15 years. Large in-ground reserves, Miller stresses, are not deliverable supply — and the 65 billion barrels in the President’s announcement is exactly that kind of number: a resource estimate, not a delivery schedule.
The revealed preference: what the majors already told the White House
The strongest confirmation is not a model but the behavior of the companies that would have to fund the rebuild. At the White House on 9 January 2026, shortly after the US removal of Maduro, Trump insisted the industry would spend more than $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s oil sector. The room did not agree. ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods told the President to his face that Venezuela is, as it stands, “uninvestable” — that durable legal frameworks, commercial terms, and stability must come first, and that Exxon would send only a technical team to assess. ConocoPhillips’ Ryan Lance said the system needs major restructuring first; both firms had their assets expropriated under Chávez, and by 30 January both Exxon and Chevron said they had no plans to raise Venezuela spending that year. The figures put before that meeting matched Miller’s: Rystad estimated roughly $110 billion merely to double output by 2030, and closer to $185 billion to climb back toward 2000-era levels.
The one enthusiast underscores the point. Chevron — the sole US major already producing there, at nearly 250,000 b/d under a special license — says it could raise flows about 50% in under two years, but even that lifts Venezuela’s total only to just above 1.1 million b/d, against a peak near 4 million. Smaller entrants like Hunt Oil and SLB signed the first fresh PDVSA deals in August, but the supermajors best equipped to finance a rebuild are, on the record, declining to write the checks. When the people holding the capital call a resource uninvestable, it is not a near-term supply solution.
Venezuela is a long-duration heavy-crude redevelopment option, not an emergency supply source — and specifically not a fuel solution. Existing cargoes can be rerouted, but that changes trade maps without adding a net barrel or a finished gallon; meaningful new production is years and well over a hundred billion dollars away, and the firms who would fund it have said so out loud. Whatever the “biggest oil deal in world history” is worth over a decade, it will not lower the price of diesel or jet fuel this year. The distillate shortage will not be solved in Caracas.
[…]
Amish threaten mass exodus from New York over vaccine fight —which is heading to the Supreme Court
By Chadwick Moore
New York’s Amish community is issuing an ultimatum to state bureaucrats: leave us alone or we’re packing up our buggies for greener pastures.
The threat has been sparked by a vaccine mandate fight that the 25,000 strong religious community is taking all the way to the Supreme Court.
It takes place as state Health Department officials continue to slap thousands in fines on tiny, one-room parochial Amish schools which have refused to comply with a Cuomo-era vaccine decree.
“Have we gotten to a place where we aren’t going to make room for the Amish anymore?” Hiram Sasser, an attorney representing six plaintiffs in the case, Miller v. McDonald, asked.
“When you think of Americana—apple pie, fireworks—the Amish are on that list. They’re part of the American fabric. They’re a good litmus test of our religious liberty and our tolerance,” Sasser claimed to The Post.
In 2019, following a measles outbreak in an Orthodox Jewish community, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo rescinded religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates—making it the second state to ever do so, behind California.
Post-COVID, two other states, Maine and Connecticut, removed religious exemptions while West Virginia never had them.
New York state law requires kids to receive between 24 and 27 jabs to attend K through 12 schools, according to the DOH vaccine schedule.
Upstate Amish parents—who generally teach their children in small classes in one-room schoolhouses which receive no public money—have been in court since 2024 fighting Cuomo’s mandate.
Two years earlier the state began issuing $2,000 fines for non-compliance. Three schools listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit—Shady Lane school in Clymer, NY; Pleasant View in Heuvelton, NY and Dygert Road School near Canajoharie—together have racked up $118,000 in fines.
Their attorneys tell The Post every Amish school in the state is in the same situation; the DOH refused to answer The Post’s questions about how many other schools had been fined.
New York has the nation’s fifth largest Amish population, with an estimated 25,000 individuals. Their lawyers say if they are unsuccessful at the Supreme Court, they are leaving the state for good; possibly destined for Pennsylvania, which has the largest Amish population in the country at around 95,000.
For one, the only way the community would be able to meet the fines is if the state confiscated their land to pay them according to Aaron Siri, another attorney representing the plaintiffs.
“Watch ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ It’s the one-room schoolhouse and Laura Ingalls Wilder teaching the kids. It’s a way of life that use to predominate across America, but the Amish are still holding on to it. We’ve acknowledged that as a nation and given them their space this whole time. And now that’s being tested,” claimed Sasser.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the NYC-based 2nd Circuit—which had ruled against the Amish last year—strongly insisting the majority Democrat-appointed tribunal take another look.
However, the 2nd Circuit reissued its original decision and now the Amish will officially petition SCOTUS to hear their case again next month, their lawyers say.
Amish culture generally forbids both litigation and injectables. “The Amish really don’t want to be in this position. They don’t want to be engaging in this lawsuit in any way at all. But they’ve been left with no choice,” Siri told The Post.
In a handwritten letter shared with The Post, plaintiff Ezra Wengerd of Canajoharie, 55, an Amish father of the very conservative Old Order sect explained his community’s refusal to comply with DOH directives.
“We, as a peace loving religious group, are sincerely sorry that we are causing the state a prob [sic]. We are indeed grateful to the state of NY for the many privileges freedoms and protections they have blessed us with, for many years,” Wengerd wrote.
“Our Almighty God wants us to fully put our faith and trust in Him. Which is in conflict to put our trust in vaccines. We are also commanded to not be conformed to this world,” the letter continued.
As luck would have it, when the Amish do end up in court, they have a good track record of victories.
In Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania Amish plaintiffs prevailed in state-level cases from the 1980s to 2020s involving photo IDs, buggy safety equipment and building codes—each time granted reasonable workarounds when the modern hooey of photography, reflective tape and septic tanks threatened their way of life.
But when the Amish return to SCOTUS they won’t have a slam dunk case, Wayne State University law professor Christopher Lund Told The Post.
“The claim in these cases is: you are only entitled to a religious exemption if the law isn’t neutral or generally applicable,” said Lund. “The argument the plaintiffs are making here is, if you’re going to exempt people with medical needs, you also need to exempt people with religious needs.”
The 2nd Circuit has been on a streak slapping down people who’ve challenged vaccine mandates, ruling against at least five other recent plaintiffs fired from their jobs for refusing COVID-19 jabs on religious grounds.
It’s a topic SCOTUS would rather not touch, either.
“I think the [Supreme] court’s always been hesitant about vaccination cases. And when we had church closure cases during COVID the court showed a lot of deference to medical authorities,” said Lund.
“But the state isn’t just thinking about the Amish, it’s thinking about everyone together. I think the Amish are probably a very sympathetic set of plaintiffs, but the state is thinking more widely,” he added.
An NY DOH spokeswoman said in a statement to The Post, its responsibility “is to protect public health, keep New Yorkers and their families safe and enforce the law fairly and equitably,” adding the DOH is “committed to eliminating serious illness and unnecessary deaths caused by vaccine preventable diseases” and school immunization requirements are “based in science.”
[…]
The exodus Israel cannot afford
Photo Credit: The CradleAUG 31, 2026
New Israeli data shows that citizens heading for the exits increasingly include the doctors, engineers, tech workers, and high-income taxpayers on whom the occupation state’s war economy depends.
In the early hours of 7 October 2023, an Israeli journalist identified only as Asaf booked flights for himself, his wife, and their two daughters. The next day, carrying only hand luggage, the family boarded a flight to Berlin. What began as an emergency exit became permanent. Two years later, they had not returned.
Asaf told +972 Magazine that he already believed Israel’s education and healthcare systems were deteriorating. But that morning destroyed his remaining confidence in the state and its military: “By the afternoon of 7 October, we understood that even this wasn’t true.”
His story reflects a larger structural trend. Israel is disproportionately losing the doctors who staff its hospitals, the engineers who sustain its technology sector, the academics who reproduce its scientific capabilities, and the taxpayers who finance its wars.
The numbers Israel struggles to define
Emigration cuts against the Zionist claim that Israel offers Jews security and permanence. Hebrew itself reflects the tension: immigration is aliyah, or “ascent,” while emigration is yerida – “descent.”
An August 2026 Tel Aviv University study, based on Central Bureau of Statistics data, found that 90,922 Israeli citizens remained abroad for at least three consecutive months in 2025, following 91,499 in 2024 and 86,509 in 2023. In total, 268,509 Israelis left for at least three months between 2023 and 2025 – 47 percent more than during 2013–2015.
The three-month measure is not equivalent to permanent migration. But the researchers found a correlation of 0.96 between three-month departures and remaining abroad for at least one year. On that basis, they estimated that 45,000–50,000 Israelis became long-term emigrants in 2025 alone.
Citing official and research data, +972 Magazine put the long-term total above 150,000 over two years and suggested it may have surpassed 200,000 since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government was formed.
Israel’s National Insurance Institute reported 35,625 residency terminations in 2025; 6,651 were requested voluntarily. This administrative measure is neither a count of citizenship loss nor a clean measure of permanent emigration, but it shows that thousands were formally loosening their ties to the state.
Follow the taxpayers
The Israeli Tax Authority has documented a deeper demographic and fiscal shift. Until 2019, emigrants earned approximately the national average. By 2024, their average pre-departure income had reached around 200,000 shekels – 50 percent above the national average and 60 percent higher in real terms than before the pandemic.
As the study’s authors put it: “The pace of emigration among the strong and affluent strata increased, while among the weaker strata it remained almost unchanged.”
According to the Hebrew-language economic daily Calcalist, the departure rate among Israel’s highest income decile rose from approximately 0.3 percent in 2015–2019 to more than 0.5 percent in 2023–2024 – an increase of around 80 percent. That decile accounted for 67 percent of emigrants’ combined income and 86 percent of the income tax they had paid before leaving.
Compared with the 2015–2019 period, the number of people leaving high-tech increased by approximately 150 percent in 2023–2024, while the number departing healthcare more than doubled. Among people aged 40–50, the share of adult emigrants rose from 13 to 20 percent, and their combined pre-departure income tripled to 2.7 billion shekels.
Established professionals, rather than mainly younger workers at the outset of their careers, are increasingly taking their skills, families, savings, and capital abroad. The number reporting overseas transfers exceeding 500,000 shekels quadrupled in 2023–2024.
Official statistics record absence more reliably than destination, but a new geography is visible. A Haaretz investigation found a growing demand for relocation to Portugal, Cyprus, and other European states. Cyprus has become a contingency base for some: in the first days after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, Reuters reported that more than 2,500 Israelis sought refuge there.
Greece is another destination. According to Le Monde, Greek authorities reported an approximately 70-percent rise in “golden visas” issued to Israelis after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Not every visa or property purchase becomes permanent migration, but each relocation lowers the informational, social, and financial barriers facing the next family considering departure.
The fiscal cost of a shrinking base
Each annual cohort that emigrated in 2023 and 2024 had paid approximately 1.2 billion shekels in income tax before departure, compared with around 500 million shekels for cohorts before 2019. The Tax Authority estimates a potential loss of about 700 million shekels per cohort. Some emigrants retain Israeli tax residency, but if similar cohorts accumulate, annual revenue at risk could approach 3.5 billion shekels within five years.
Israel’s high-tech sector produces roughly one-fifth of GDP, more than half of exports, and about one-third of salaried income tax. It also provides expertise in cyberintelligence and military technology. Sustained outflow could weaken both commercial innovation and capabilities central to Israel’s security doctrine.
Israel’s war economy rests heavily on a relatively small, highly productive section of the population, even as its policies push more of these workers and taxpayers abroad. Their departure leaves fewer people to shoulder a growing fiscal and military burden.
The Bank of Israel has separately warned that low labor-force participation among Haredi men and the need to broaden military service remain structural challenges.
For some, relocation is a silent political withdrawal – a vote with their feet against a state increasingly defined by religious polarization and permanent mobilization. Economist Itai Ater warns: “If there is no change, emigration could increase in a way that endangers Israel’s security and economy.”
The state’s attempt to buy time
In March 2026, the Knesset Finance Committee approved a graduated five-year income-tax exemption for qualifying immigrants and long-term returning residents. The ceiling reaches one million shekels in 2027 and 2028; the Finance Ministry initially estimated the five-year cost at 560 million shekels.
Officially, the measure promotes immigration and growth. In practice, it also reveals the scale of the concern: Israel is losing some of those it can least afford to lose and must pay a premium to recover or replace them.
Tax incentives cannot easily compensate for prolonged war, repeated reserve mobilization, political instability, institutional polarization, or an increasingly militarized future.
Physical war damage can be repaired with money. Buildings can be reconstructed and weapons replenished. But when a state loses the people who generate its technology, operate its hospitals, staff its universities, and finance its military, the damage becomes cumulative and structural.
Israel’s most consequential wartime losses may ultimately be the people who quietly conclude that their future lies elsewhere.
[…]
Via https://thecradle.co/articles/the-exodus-israel-cannot-afford
Iran attacks US bases in Jordan after US strikes Larak Island
![Screenshot of Truth Social post on US President Donald Trump’s account on August 31, 2026 [@realDonaldTrump]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-31-at-06.26.52-1-1788150804.png?w=770&resize=770%2C589&quality=80)
30 Aug 2026
The exchange of attacks is the first flare-up in violence between the two sides since late July.
Iran says it launched missiles at two US bases in Jordan following a US attack on Larak Island in southern Iran earlier on Sunday.
In a statement reported by Iranian news agencies on Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the combined missile and drone operation, which it called “Punishment of the Aggressor”, hit the King Hussein and Al Azraq bases in Jordan.
The exchange of attacks is the first flare-up in violence between the two sides since late July.
The IRGC said the strikes “destroyed the technical and repair infrastructure, as well as the enemy fighter deployment sites”, inflicting significant damage.
Jordan reported intercepting eight missiles soon after the IRGC announced the attack.
“Air defence systems intercepted eight missiles that breached the Kingdom’s airspace at dawn today, Monday,” the Jordanian military said in a statement.
No injuries were reported at either base.
In a further development on Monday, the IRGC said it shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Fars and Mehr news agencies cited a statement from the IRGC that said that its air defences had intercepted “a long-range American MQ9 drone” over the Strait of Hormuz, which then fell into the Gulf.
In his first comments since the US attack on Iran’s Larak Island, President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran was “not looking for war”, but would “never sit still in the face of any aggression” either.
Pezeshkian made the comments as he was leaving for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, to attend the summit of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform on Monday, seemingly depicting the bombing of Iran’s Kharg Island.
The footage shows an oil storage tank and an oil tanker exploding, as watched from aircraft above.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” the post reads.
There was no other evidence that the Iranian energy hub was under attack.
Before the war started, Kharg Island handled the majority of Iran’s oil exports, making it a vital economic node.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize or destroy the island since the start of the war.
The strikes risk renewing the military confrontation as Washington shifts from its bombing campaign to a financial pressure strategy on Tehran, and as the US-Israel war on Iran enters its seventh month.
On Monday, the US military denied that its Sunday attacks were an “act of aggression”.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on X that the US took “limited, precise action” to prevent Iranian forces from laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz and blamed Iran for the attacks.
Iran’s Fars news agency said that the attack by the “American-Zionist enemy” killed and injured soldiers, without providing a figure.
In recent weeks, Washington has been claiming control over the Strait of Hormuz, saying that millions of barrels of oil have passed through the waterway under US military protection despite Tehran’s blockade.
Still, attacks on ships in the strait have been reported almost daily, and Iran has maintained that the waterway is closed.
Sunday’s strikes show that the US is still willing to use military force despite the intensified sanctions to pressure Iran to make concessions over its nuclear programme and claims of control over Hormuz.
Iran has previously responded to similar US attacks by launching missiles and drones at military bases hosting US troops in neighbouring countries.
Last week, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced a push to isolate Iran financially by threatening secondary sanctions against countries and companies that do business with Tehran.
But Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has warned that the US is prepared to use military force if necessary.
US officials have been touting what they describe as Tehran’s loss of control over the Strait of Hormuz, while arguing that Iran is on the verge of economic collapse due to sanctions and the US Navy’s blockade of its ports.
Tehran, however, has remained defiant, stressing that it is prepared for a long conflict.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed reports that the US is managing to get large amounts of oil through the strait.
“Our intelligence shows major efforts to game energy markets,” Araghchi wrote on X. “US Govt elements use gullible media to influence prices for personal gain and keep [Trump] mired in a losing war. Israel-aligned actors also promote war with rosy assessments. U.S. consumers feel the real bottom line.”
Despite the reports of the US ending – or at least easing – Iran’s control of the strategic waterway, oil prices have remained high amid supply uncertainty.
The average price of one gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol in the US is still more than $4, up from less than $3 when the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February.
The skyrocketing energy prices, which are driving up inflation in the US, could hurt Trump’s Republican Party’s chances of maintaining control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
[…]
Via https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/30/us-strikes-irans-lark-island-in-first-attack-in-weeks
Texas Governor Orders Halt to State Funding of Flock Cameras
Bob Price
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered all state agencies to stop funding local law enforcement Flock camera purchases and operations. The move comes shortly after the Texas Tribune announced an investigation into $30 million provided to local police departments for Flock cameras.
The order from the Texas governor came Thursday, shortly after an investigation published by the Texas Tribune came online. The investigation revealed that the State of Texas added a $1 fee to car insurance policies. That money was then distributed to local law enforcement agencies to help reduce catalytic converter thefts.
Texas funding led to the purchase of about 2,000 Flock Cameras by the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Board, the Tribune reported. The State funded an additional $15.9 million to Texas DPS to purchase an additional 1,200 cameras.
Abbott’s Communications Director, Andrew Mahaleris, told the Tribune, “To the extent that cities get any funding for those cameras, most of it comes from the federal government. To the extent any funding comes from Texas agencies, those agencies are clarifying that those funds cannot be used for Flock cameras.”
Despite their success in solving many crimes, including the kidnapping of children, the surveillance camera systems have come under massive scrutiny after concerns of abuse of civil liberties arose.
The Tribune reported that the number of Flock cameras purchased by the insurance policy fee may be on the low side, as they had difficulty obtaining complete information from agencies.
Many Texas legislators expressed concern about the excessive use of electronic surveillance through the AI-driven Flock system.
One legislator, State Representative Mitch Little (R-Lewisville), told the Tribune, “The sheer volume of information captured is not something that is entertained, in my view, by the Fourth Amendment.”
In an interview on Bloomberg’s Balance of Power, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed strong disapproval of the threat of over-surveillance posed by these systems. Cruz stated:
I’ll tell you what a Ted Cruz would make of it, which is I don’t like Flock cameras. I don’t like government surveillance, I don’t think the government should be surveilling innocent citizens. We should use law enforcement to go after criminals. But we have a presumption of innocence. And I think the surveillance state — China has built an espionage and surveillance state. I don’t want to see America the same way. I think these Flock cameras really invite abuse, and I’m hopeful the political process will constrain it.
State and local law enforcement praise the technology and its impact in solving or reducing crime. The Dallas Police Department’s Major Felony and Vehicle Recovery Division said the department uses hundreds of cameras to track suspects involved in violent offenses, hit-and-runs, and auto thefts. The clearance time for many of these crimes fell from days to hours, the department stated.
Texas DPS also reports the use of automatic pings to intercept stolen vehicles, fleeing felons, and human smuggling operations along major highway corridors.
Governor Greg Abbott’s abrupt freeze on state funding for Flock cameras highlights a growing collision between law enforcement technology and constitutional privacy rights in Texas. While police agencies credit the AI surveillance network with drastically cutting crime clearance times and recovering stolen property, the revelation of millions in state-funded grants—drawn from auto insurance fees—has catalyzed broad bipartisan pushback.
With state lawmakers questioning the program’s Fourth Amendment boundaries and Abbott shutting off the state spigot, local departments will likely face increased scrutiny and tighter legislative guardrails if they choose to continue funding these automated tracking networks using local or federal dollars.
[…]
DeSantis Orders State Agencies To Pull Down Flock Surveillance Cameras
Automated license plate reader cameras scanning traffic in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Miami Independent
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that state agencies are removing Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras from state rights-of-way, stepping up his campaign to curb what he called an out-of-control surveillance system spreading throughout the Sunshine State.
“Pull ’em down,” DeSantis told reporters at the press conference following his announcement, noting that all of the Flock Safety cameras on state rights-of-way will be removed by state agencies. The governor said that the cameras, which are used by various state agencies, are being removed following his remarks at Florida International University in Miami earlier in the week regarding the Flock Safety cameras and their use as a mass criminal surveillance system with little to no oversight.
Locally, surveillance on roads across South Florida has been the focus of Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers installed by participating state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies. In this region, state troopers used the system to support the federal immigration sweeps of Operation Tidal Wave. Statewide, Reason magazine reported that more than a third of those arrested had no prior criminal history. 404 Media first reported last spring that Florida wildlife officers were accessing the system using the accounts of other law enforcement agencies, including to run immigration related queries, totaling 38 such looks in a single month, without Flock Safety contracts of their own.
Most Flock Safety cameras are owned by thousands of local police and sheriff’s departments, but DeSantis is asking for an accounting of all the cameras that state agencies have and how they are using them. The governor said he is also looking at New Hampshire’s approach to limiting the placement of such cameras on state property as a model for Florida legislation.
“Surveillance state is not where I want to go. The legislation they attempted to pass – that was stalled, a Bill of Rights related to AI – was excellent. It passed the Senate, it died in the House, largely because the Speaker doesn’t want to do anything about it. So it needs to be taken up by the Legislature and I’m willing to support a bill of rights with respect to surveillance by AI.”
This is an issue that is beginning to manifest in the race for Governor, with Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee to succeed DeSantis as Governor calling for a total halt to new Flock contracts throughout the state. Democratic nominee for Governor, David Jolly, is calling for a requirement of a warrant before any information from these surveillance cameras can be pulled by police. Also, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has initiated a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigation into how Flock Safety collects and disseminates this information throughout the country.
[…]
Senior US Defense Commanders submit formal “non-concur” to Hegseth’s directives
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth arrives to attend the closing ceremony of PANAMAX 2026 in Panama City, Panama, August 13, 2026. (Photo: Reuters)
Press TV
Aug 30, 2026
Senior US military leaders have stark warnings for War Secretary Pete Hegseth, cautioning that prolonging large-scale military offensives against Iran is unsustainable and is actively degrading America’s ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the defense of the US homeland.
The warnings, detailed in the classified August 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), reveal deep fractures within the Pentagon over the six-month-old war, according to the Washington Post.
According to individuals familiar with the assessment, the heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, alongside four-star commanders overseeing operations in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and Latin America, have formally registered their concerns.
Leaders of the US European, Indo-Pacific, and Southern Commands, along with the Navy’s top admiral, submitted a formal “non-concur” to Hegseth’s directives.
While they are bound to execute the orders, their dissent highlights a severe strain on US forces.
Ships, aircraft, and personnel have been continuously pulled from other theaters to support the Iran war, severely limiting training and operational readiness.
The material toll of the war has been staggering. Admiral Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, reportedly informed Hegseth that barely one-quarter of the Navy’s destroyer fleet is currently ready to deploy, a sharp decline from pre-war levels.
The Air Force has lost approximately 25 percent of its Reaper drone fleet, and US bases in the region have sustained billions of dollars in damage from Iranian counterstrikes.
Furthermore, the depletion of Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors, exacerbated by previous commitments to Ukraine, has left American facilities and regional allies increasingly vulnerable.
Mounting criticisms of the war strategy
The classified warnings have amplified growing domestic and strategic criticisms of President Donald Trump’s handling of the war.
Critics argue that the administration’s strategy of maximum pressure and naval blockade has devolved into a costly, unwinnable quagmire.
Despite keeping more than 50,000 troops on alert for months and enforcing a stringent maritime blockade to force the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran has refused to capitulate.
Analysts point out that Iran, fully aware of the war’s deep unpopularity among the American public and the mounting toll on the US arsenal, has successfully outlasted Washington’s initial timeline for victory.
Strategic experts have condemned the administration for prioritizing a stubborn, open-ended confrontation over long-term national security.
By draining critical munitions and stretching naval assets to their breaking point, critics warn that the US is inadvertently signaling weakness to adversaries like China and Russia, who are closely monitoring America’s depleted stockpiles and extended deployment cycles.
“The ongoing Iran operation has been ‘too much for too long,’” noted one individual familiar with the assessment, reflecting a growing consensus that the war’s trajectory is not only uncertain but actively jeopardizing broader US strategic interests.
In response to the mounting concerns, the Pentagon has maintained a defensive posture. Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Secretary Hegseth, said that decisions regarding force commitments are based on “current threat assessments, strategic priorities established by the President, and the advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Parnell added that the Pentagon “does not discuss internal operational processes… or specific concurrences, non-concurrences, or risk assessments provided by the Services or Combatant Commands during force allocation deliberations.”
Nevertheless, the rare and explicit “non-concurs” from uniformed leaders mark the most significant internal pushback yet, underscoring a Pentagon grappling with the severe consequences of a stalemated war with no clear end in sight.
[…]
Trump DHS uses obscure law for ‘outrageous’ spy campaign on journalists
US Department of Homeland Security logo is seen during a 2015 news conference in Washington, DC. (Photo by AP)
Press TV
The US Department of Homeland Security, acting with the backing of President Donald Trump, has launched an outrageous surveillance operation against journalists, non-profits and unions by misusing an obscure customs statute, without judicial oversight and in violation of the US Constitution.
The Guardian reported that DHS invoked 19 USC 1509, a little-known law designed to inspect import records and collect duties, to demand phone records, YouTube data and financial information.
Former DHS inspector general John Roth called the tactic “outrageous conduct on so many levels” and “an improper use of the subpoena.” The agency is not investigating any customs violation.
In the case of Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort, the Trump administration obtained six months of her telephone records without notifying her or giving her a chance to challenge the request.
Prosecutors twice sought search warrants for the YouTube channels of Fort and fellow journalist Don Lemon, who covered a January protest at a Minneapolis church. Both have pleaded not guilty.
A judge rejected the warrants for lack of probable cause and said the journalists must be informed. DHS then bypassed the court, serving Google a secret administrative summons under the customs law.
The same summons targeted YouTube accounts belonging to Democracy Now, Megyn Kelly, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager.
The move fits a broader pattern. During Operation Metro Surge — described by DHS as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever, launched in Minnesota in December 2025 — the agency used the same statute to unmask critics of ICE officers and seize financial records of the Sunrise Movement, SEIU, Communications Workers of America and Voices for Racial Justice. None of those groups face charges.
Former DHS lawyer Chris Duncan said the law applies only to customs matters and “has absolutely nothing to do with a domestic situation at a church.”
ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler noted DHS has a long history of stretching this power to target First Amendment-protected speech.
The Fourth Amendment requires probable cause and a judge’s approval for such searches. The Trump administration claims the statute lets DHS investigate any federal crime. Legal experts reject that reading as a blatant overreach.
Google refused to comply in Fort’s case, saying DHS offered no link to a customs investigation. US companies can ignore these summonses if they consider them unlawful.
The New York Times has reported that DHS has already served hundreds of such secret demands on social media companies.
Without public disclosure of how widely the tactic is used, courts, lawmakers and the public have no way to check executive-branch abuse.
[…]
Via https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/30/775367/US-DHS-using-19-USC-1509-espionage
Masked Israeli settlers attack NBC News crew in occupied West Bank
Israeli soldiers are deployed in the Palestinian village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on August 13, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
A Palestinian woman and four members of an NBC News team have reportedly been injured after masked Israeli settlers attacked them while they were reporting in the occupied West Bank.
Press TV
The incident took place Saturday in Jalud, a village near Nablus, where NBC correspondent Matt Bradley and three colleagues were interviewing 51-year-old Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family, according to the US broadcaster.
Abdullah had told the journalists that Israeli settlers had driven her family from their home. The group was walking toward the property when a vehicle with Israeli license plates backed toward them.
At least four masked men then emerged from the vehicle and attacked the group with sticks and stones, NBC News reported.
“They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” Bradley said. He was struck twice in the arm and treated at a nearby clinic, while three other members of the crew also received medical attention.
Abdullah was taken to hospital by the Palestinian Red Crescent. Her injuries were not considered life-threatening.
NBC producer Lawahez Jabari said she saw the attackers carrying sticks and also noticed a firearm, although she said it was not used.
Camera operator Khaldoon Eid also said the crew had not anticipated being attacked while working inside a Palestinian village.
The confrontation was part of a wider series of incidents reported in the area on Saturday. NBC News said masked settlers also used pepper spray against Palestinian workers in the nearby village of Qusra.
Israeli security forces told the broadcaster that they had received reports of violent clashes involving stone-throwing directed at Palestinians and other civilians.
In a statement, the forces claimed that dozens of rioters had barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home while residents were still there. Security personnel said they removed the rioters, separated the groups and seized vehicles suspected of transporting Israelis to the area.
Israeli military and Border Police units remained in Jalud and Qusra to prevent further clashes, according to the statement.
Tensions in the area had already been mounting. NBC News reported that earlier this month, a group of settlers began preventing supplies from reaching Palestinian homes on the outskirts of a village near Nablus, effectively leaving some residents trapped inside.
The Israeli regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned “criminal acts of violence” by “a handful of rioters,” saying those responsible were breaking the law, harming law-abiding settlers, obstructing the Israeli military and damaging Israel’s international standing.
The incident comes as Israel faces growing international criticism over settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
According to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cited by NBC News, Israeli forces or settlers killed 76 Palestinians in the West Bank in the year through July 24, while three Israelis were killed during the same period.
Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to escalating Israeli military actions and settler violence, amid the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 73,000 people in the coastal territory since October 2023.
Since then, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,182 Palestinians across the West Bank, injured thousands, and abducted around 24,000, according to official Palestinian figures.
[…]
The Most Revolutionary Act 