❌

Normal view

The Epstein Digital Financial System is Getting Ready to Replace the U.S. Dollar

9 September 2026 at 22:43

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News

Leah of The Leah Files has just published Part III of her Currency Killer series, The New US Dollar: The One Epstein Built.

This series is, by far, the best intel I have read in the Alternative Media regarding the takeover of the U.S. Dollar in an attempt to replace it with digital currencies.

While she may use AI ethically for research and to help her create graphics (although I have no idea if she does), this is real intel and she provides links to her sources, unlike many Substack Pages that are completely written by AI with no sources given to fact check their content.

We know Leah is a real person (but probably not using her real name), because she has her own YouTube channel.

I have been publishing evidence for years now that the American Financial System is a system built on the Jeffrey Epstein child sex-trafficking network.

And this latest article by The Leah Files provides strong evidence to that fact, and connects all the dots showing just who is doing this in this current Zionist Trump Administration.

You will also learn in this latest article why this Administration gives Argentina such preferential treatment, including giving them better deals on beef than they do to U.S. farmers.

Read Health Impact News‘ coverage of her first two articles in this series, which is our most-read article so far in September, here:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Just Restructured The American Financial System to Destroy the U.S. Dollar

The New US Dollar: The One Epstein Built

Inside the private currency built by Epstein’s crypto network, legalized by this administration, and controlled by the people who killed the old one.

by The Leah Files

Excerpts:

I think they are replacing the US dollar with a private one.

Not in some distant future, not as a theory, but right now. Exposed and documented, happening in front of us, and no one is stopping it. If you haven’t read Parts I or II of my Currency Killer Series, go check them out. This is Part III and it may be the worse one yet.

The United States government banned itself from making a digital dollar. Then it crashed the real one. Then it handed the replacement to a private company connected to $17 billion in organized crime, whose co-founder spent eight years as Jeffrey Epstein’s personal crypto advisor, and whose largest shareholder was convicted of software piracy before becoming the richest man in Italy.

That company is called Tether. It controls $183 billion in digital currency and it is now the 17th largest holder of US government debt on earth. It has never completed a publicly released independent audit. The UN has linked it to $17 billion in organized crime.

Tether is a stablecoin company, but it also owns 210,000 hectares of South American farmland and operates Argentina’s sole fertilizer producer. It holds a majority stake in a brain-computer interface company. It is the lead investor in a humanoid robotics firm. It owns 48 percent of a conservative media platform. Its third-largest shareholder controls a 10 percent stake in the privatized research arm of the UK Ministry of Defence.

Everyone involved is getting rich, except the American people.

Howard Lutnick’s sons’ own a piece of Tether. His firm, Cantor Fitzgerald custodies its reserves. Lutnick’s former minion, Bo Hines, championed the law regulating it from inside the White House and resigned one month after the president signed it, becoming CEO of the company the law was written for.

Scott Bessent is blocking a billion dollars in suspicious Epstein banking records while his old fund was paying an intelligence firm controlled by Epstein’s partner. Trump’s family has made over a billion dollars launching their own stablecoin.

This is not deregulation, it’s a heist. And I am going to show you what they are doing.

Welcome to Part III of the Currency Killer series.

What Is Tether

Most people have never heard of Tether. So let’s start there.

A stablecoin is a digital token pegged to the US dollar. You send a company one real dollar, and they give you one digital token that is supposed to be worth one dollar. The company holds your real dollar in reserve.

The token trades on crypto markets like cash. When you want your money back, you redeem the token and the company gives you a dollar.

Tether is the largest stablecoin on earth.

It has $183 billion of these tokens in circulation. That makes it bigger than the GDP of most countries.

The company is supposed to hold $183 billion in real reserves to back them. It earns interest on those reserves, mostly US Treasury bills, which generated $13 billion in profit in 2024 alone. It has roughly 200 employees.

Here is the problem: the CFTC found in 2021 that Tether was actually fully backed by reserves only 27.6 percent of the time. The company paid $41 million in fines.

The New York Attorney General’s office reached a separate $18.5 million settlement over similar misrepresentations. The UN has linked Tether’s token to $17 billion in criminal activity.

The DOJ has an active criminal probe. And the company has never completed a full, publicly released independent audit.

That is the company at the center of this story.

Now let’s look at who built it because this is where I knew there was something more nefarious happening.

The Man Who Built Tether

His name is Brock Pierce. Before he co-founded Tether, he was the teenage Vice President of a company called Digital Entertainment Network (DEN).

The founder of that company, Marc Collins-Rector, was later convicted of child sex trafficking.

In the late 1990s, Pierce became Vice President of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), a pioneering internet video company founded by Marc Collins-Rector, at the age of 17, earning a salary of $250,000.

At DEN’s Hollywood Hills parties, Collins-Rector and others allegedly sexually assaulted half a dozen teenage boys, including a 15-year-old, according to civil lawsuits filed between 1999 and 2002. When Collins-Rector fled the country to avoid prosecution, Pierce went with him.

They ended up in a villa in Marbella, Spain, which police raided in 2002 and found Collins-Rector, Pierce, and a third DEN executive, along with child pornography and firearms.

Collins-Rector was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2004. Pierce was never charged, but the civil lawsuit resulted in a $2,000,030 default judgment plus $1 million in interest because Pierce and his co-defendants never responded to the allegations of rape, assault, and death threats.

In 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was trying to salvage his reputation after his first sex trafficking conviction. He hired a man named Al Seckel, a serial scammer and self-styled illusionist who had been in a relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister Isabel for years.

Seckel organized a conference for the Epstein Foundation on Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island, called the Mindshift Conference.

Pierce was invited to present on Bitcoin. It was January 2011. Epstein noticed him immediately.

In an email sent under a fake name, Epstein singled out “brock” as “interesting.” Within three months, Pierce was at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse asking for financial advice. Their partnership lasted eight years.

The way they were introduced tells us a lot.

Pierce entered Epstein’s world through a man who was dating the sister of Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who procured and groomed girls for Epstein’s trafficking operation, now serving twenty years in federal prison.

The man who made the introduction, Seckel, was later found dead at the bottom of a hundred-foot cliff in southern France.

And Pierce walked in already carrying a default judgment for rape and an affinity for child porn. Epstein saw exactly what he was getting and Pierce was the perfect target.

What followed was not casual networking. It was an eight-year operational relationship between a crypto pioneer and a convicted predator, documented in thousands of pages of emails released by the Department of Justice on January 30, 2026.

The Emails

The DOJ released over 3.5 million pages of Epstein files, including direct correspondence between Pierce and Epstein spanning 2011 to 2019.

Pierce was mentioned 1,815 times, more than almost any other private figure.

The emails continued for months after Epstein’s second arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. Here is what they show.

By 2012, the correspondence had turned dark. Pierce sent Epstein dozens of photographs of a Ukrainian woman named Anastasia, three days after Epstein asked him to “take photos and find me a present.” Pierce wrote back that “Ukraine is now my favorite country.”

In a separate exchange, Pierce told Epstein there was “a boat in Antigua full of amazing Ukraine’s finest” waiting for him.

In another email, Epstein’s assistant wrote that Brock had a “great time with the girls in St. Barths.” Pierce’s own assistant sent Epstein’s team photos from Ukraine and mentioned upcoming meetings. There were references to visits on Epstein’s boat and coordination around events with Epstein’s inner circle.

These are the emails of a man inside the operation. Not an acquaintance. Not a networking contact. Pierce was coordinating women, referencing boats, sending photographs on request, and maintaining this relationship for years after Epstein’s first conviction.

But the business side of the relationship is what changed the world.

Pierce was not just advising Epstein on crypto. He was the bridge between Epstein’s money and the people who would build the infrastructure that now threatens to replace the US dollar.

He brokered the Coinbase deal.

In December 2014, Pierce connected Epstein to Coinbase’s Series C round through his venture firm, Blockchain Capital. Epstein invested $3 million. Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam emailed asking to meet Epstein in New York.

In 2018, a trust associated with Epstein sold $15 million of Coinbase equity back to Blockchain Capital. Pierce wired $15 million to Epstein.

That $3 million seed investment would eventually be worth billions when Coinbase went public at a $51 billion valuation.

He pitched Bitcoin to Larry Summers at Epstein’s townhouse.

Epstein hosted the meeting. Pierce described himself to Summers as “the most active investor in Bitcoin.”

Summers said he saw “opportunities” but was worried about reputational damage if he lost money. A fact-checker for a planned New York Magazine article in 2015 asked Epstein:

“Did you meet with Brock Pierce to discuss Bitcoin? Did Larry Summers join this meeting?”

Epstein immediately forwarded the questions to author Michael Wolff with a two-word response: “nfw” (no f*cking way).

The article was never published.

The Network

Pierce and Epstein did not operate in a vacuum. Their shared network reached into the political and financial circles that now control American crypto policy.

Steve Bannon. Pierce and Bannon had worked together for seven years before any of this. Pierce hired Bannon in 2005 to run the financial side of his company Internet Gaming Entertainment, later saying

“Steve Bannon was my right-hand man for, like, seven years.”

Decrypt reported that Pierce and Epstein “appeared to use each other’s connections to develop business partners like Andrew Farkas and politicos like Steve Bannon.”

By August 2018, text messages released by the House Oversight Committee show Epstein was coaching Bannon’s media strategy in real time.

During a six-day exchange, Epstein offered line-by-line feedback on Bannon’s MSNBC appearances and crafted talking points on tax cuts, immigration, and security clearance revocations.

After one interview that ran a full hour, Epstein wrote “Atta boy.” In a separate exchange, Epstein asked Bannon about “brocks people,” meaning Pierce’s crypto network.

He suggested the Treasury Department create a voluntary disclosure form for crypto gains. Bannon would later describe cryptocurrency as “disruptive populism” that “takes control back from central authorities.”

Peter Thiel. Epstein invested $40 million into Thiel’s venture firm, Valar Ventures, in 2015 and 2016. Reid Hoffman made the introduction.

That bet became the single largest asset of the Epstein estate, valued at roughly $170 million by the time Epstein died.

Thiel’s proteges now run US crypto policy: JD Vance is Vice President, David Sacks served as crypto czar, and Thiel’s Founders Fund was the largest investor in Polymarket.

Pierce’s direct role in the Thiel connection is not documented, but both men operated in the same small circle of Epstein’s crypto and tech advisors during the same period.

The result: Pierce co-founded Tether, brokered Epstein’s crypto investments, worked alongside Bannon for years, and operated in the same orbit as the Thiel network that now shapes policy.

The man who co-founded the stablecoin holding $135 billion in US government debt was at the center of all of it.

There is a reason we haven’t heard much about Pierce. Now ask yourself why they are they protecting him?

Where Pierce Is Now

Brock Pierce lives in Puerto Rico, where Act 60 allows him to pay near-zero taxes on capital gains. He is still Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation. He still runs the Integro Foundation, whose most recent IRS filing shows $78 in total assets.

He ran for president in 2020 and expressed regret for his ties to Epstein during the campaign. Conveniently he denounces his relationship a year after Epstein was “found dead” in his cell.

In 2025, Pierce was spotted at Mar-a-Lago cutting the ribbon for a golden statue of Donald Trump.

That same year, he gave over $1.1 million to a super PAC supporting the reelection of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, five days before Adams dropped out of the race. When Adams withdrew, Pierce launched a campaign called “Draft Eric Back” to get him to reconsider.

Adams had been indicted on federal corruption charges.

Pierce’s “Pierce School” in Washington, DC is not a school. It is a historic building near Capitol Hill that he purchased and converted into a residential penthouse and event space where he hosts crypto policy roundtables with members of Congress.

In March 2025, he and Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, who served in the IDF, laid a foundation stone for a planned “business school” at Anatevka, a gated compound outside Kyiv.

Pierce’s “charity” has donated at least $630,000 to Chabad-affiliated organizations.

No evidence exists that the school teaches anything, has enrolled students, or has begun operating.

This is a man who was sending photos of Ukrainian women to a convicted sex offender, brokering introductions between that sex offender and the people who now control American crypto policy, and who is now hosting congressional roundtables, attending presidential events, and donating millions to indicted politicians. His foundation holds $78 and looks like a personal shell charity.

Tether Today

Now that you know what Tether is and who built it, here is who runs it.

Who Owns It

Tether has never voluntarily disclosed who owns it. It is a private company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with no public reporting obligation.

The only known ownership data comes from leaked documents reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2023, showing stakes as of 2018. As of those documents, four people controlled 86 percent of the company.

The Empire Build

Starting in late 2023, Tether began spending its profits at an extraordinary pace, acquiring stakes in companies across sectors that have no obvious connection to stablecoin issuance.

The Farmland

This is the part of the story that made me stop and ask what we are actually looking at.

Adecoagro is not a farm. It is a vertically integrated agro-industrial conglomerate incorporated in Luxembourg and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

When Tether took control in April 2025, it took control of the entire chain from soil to supermarket shelf: the land itself, the crops grown on it, the mills that process them, the dairy plants, the rice processing facilities, the peanut sorting plants, the branded consumer products, the export terminals, and the port infrastructure.

In mid-2026, Adecoagro launched a Bitcoin mining pilot at its Brazilian sugar mills, using surplus electricity from sugarcane bagasse cogeneration to power approximately 1,280 mining machines. This connects directly to Tether’s stated goal of becoming the world’s largest Bitcoin miner.

And then there is the fertilizer.

Profertil

In December 2025, eight months after Tether took control of Adecoagro, the company acquired a 90 percent stake in Profertil for approximately $1.1 billion.

Profertil is Argentina’s sole producer of urea, the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer in the world. The plant in Bahia Blanca produces 1.3 million tons of granular urea per year and supplies roughly 60 percent of Argentina’s domestic fertilizer demand.

This means that a company whose co-founder was sending photos of Ukrainian women to Jeffrey Epstein and brokering introductions between Epstein and the people who now control American financial policy now also controls the fertilizer supply that South American agriculture depends on.

Every other farmer in Argentina who needs urea to grow crops is buying it from a Tether subsidiary.

The acquisition nearly doubled Adecoagro’s annual earnings, from $277 million to $467 million in EBITDA.

They also appointed Kyril Louis-Dreyfus to the Adecoagro board. His family founded the Louis Dreyfus Group, one of the four largest commodity trading houses on earth.

Now here is the part that made me consider this one the most important articles of the Currency Killer series.

This is not a hedge fund buying farmland as an inflation hedge. Tether looks to be building something specific.

Adecoagro co-founded a company called Agrotoken, which has already created three grain-backed stablecoins: SOYA, CORA, and WHEA.

Each token represents one ton of grain.

Farmers can use them as currency. Agrotoken partnered with Visa so producers can spend grain tokens with a card. They have already tokenized 230,000 tons of grain and transacted $70 million in deals. Adecoagro’s CEO said the goal was to build “tokenized land.”

Tether told CoinDesk that

“land is a crucial asset class, complementing its existing investments in bitcoin and gold.”

The company is building its own real-world asset tokenization platform designed to create digital versions of bonds, stocks, funds, and physical commodities.

Now connect the pieces.

Tether now controls the land, the crops grown on that land, the fertilizer those crops need to grow, the mills that process the harvest, and the platform that can tokenize all of it into digital currency. It already issues the largest stablecoin on earth.

This is a closed loop. Own the physical asset, process it, tokenize it, and issue the currency it trades in. They are not replacing the dollar with a digital version.

They are building an entire parallel financial system backed by food, land, and fertilizer, controlled by four people who have never disclosed who they are to the public, operating out of the British Virgin Islands.

The Switch

On January 23, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14178. It banned all federal agencies from developing or promoting a central bank digital currency. No government digital dollar.

The only digital dollars allowed in America would be private ones.

That same executive order explicitly promoted “the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide.” They banned the public option and endorsed the private replacement in the same document.

Then they weakened the dollar.

The Replacement

On July 18, 2025, Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law. It created the first federal framework for privately issued stablecoins, the exact product Tether sells.

The law allows stablecoin issuers to operate under a three-year grace period before meeting full compliance requirements and does not mandate independent audits.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that the law “will drive demand from the private sector for US Treasuries,” and indicated that stablecoin firms could buy up to $1 trillion in US government debt.

Here is the logic. Every dollar minted as a stablecoin creates a dollar of mandatory Treasury demand, because stablecoin issuers have to hold reserves.

Unlike normal investors, they are price-inelastic buyers, meaning they buy Treasuries regardless of yield. So you weaken the dollar abroad through tariffs and trade wars, driving countries away from the physical dollar, but you maintain dollar dominance through digital stablecoins that buy Treasuries automatically.

The European Central Bank warned in May 2026 that this “effectively outsources parts of the national debt to the crypto sector.”

But here is what matters, who controls those digital dollars?

It’s not the government, it’s not the Federal Reserve, it’s private companies.

Tether holds $135 billion in US Treasuries, making it the 17th largest holder of US government debt. And the people who own Tether, custody its reserves, and wrote the law that legalized it are all in the same room.

Bessent redefined what “strong dollar” means at his confirmation hearing:

“The price of the dollar has nothing to do with a strong dollar policy.”

He called CBDCs

“a first step toward financial surveillance”

and declared them “off the table.”

The private digital dollar is the only option, and everyone who built the framework is getting paid.

Who Else Is Getting Rich

The Trump Family

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family, has generated over $1 billion in revenue. It launched its own stablecoin, USD1, which was used in a $2 billion investment deal between a Binance-affiliated entity and Abu Dhabi investors.

The president’s memecoin, $TRUMP, briefly hit a market cap of over $14 billion before crashing, with third-party analysis showing retail investors collectively lost approximately $3.8 billion while insiders profited.

The Thiel Network

Peter Thiel took $40 million from Epstein through the Valar Ventures fund, an introduction brokered by Pierce. That investment produced $170 million in returns and became the largest single asset in the Epstein estate.

Thiel’s network has been central to shaping crypto policy: his protege JD Vance is now Vice President, David Sacks served as the administration’s crypto czar for 130 days, and Thiel’s Founders Fund was the largest investor in Polymarket, the crypto prediction market that went from a $350 million valuation to $21 billion under the new deregulatory framework.

Polymarket has Trump Jr. on its advisory board and has flagged $200 million in suspicious trading activity.

The Beef

In February 2026, Trump signed an executive order quadrupling beef imports from Argentina. The order authorized 80,000 additional metric tons of tariff-free lean beef trimmings, allocated entirely to Argentina, with plans to scale to 300,000 tons.

He said it was to lower ground beef prices, which had hit a record $6.90 per pound as the US cattle herd shrank to a 75-year low.

American ranchers called it a “misguided effort” that would “undercut the future of family farmers and ranchers.” The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it “cannot stand behind the President while he imports Argentinian beef.”

China had just rejected 22 tons of Argentine beef over a banned antibiotic. Republican lawmakers opposed it. Ranchers warned it would destroy America’s ability to rebuild its own herd.

Now remember who controls Argentine agriculture.

Tether owns 210,000 hectares of Argentine farmland. Tether owns Argentina’s sole fertilizer producer. Tether owns 14,500 milking cows and two dairy processing plants.

Tether’s subsidiary Adecoagro is one of the largest agricultural conglomerates in South America. And the president just signed an executive order flooding the US market with Argentine beef at the exact moment Tether controls the land, the feed, the fertilizer, and the infrastructure that Argentine agriculture runs on.

The company that prints the digital dollar. The company whose reserves are custodied by the Commerce Secretary’s family firm. The company whose law was championed by a man who became its CEO. That company now sits at the center of a trade deal that undercuts American ranchers to benefit Argentine agriculture, the same Argentine agriculture it owns.

Maybe it is a coincidence. Maybe the president opened the floodgates to Argentine beef imports without knowing or caring that a company connected to Jeffrey Epstein controls the supply chain on the other end. Maybe.

But I do not believe in that many coincidences, especially based on what we have seen over the last year.

The Thread

One man attended a conference to rehabilitate a convicted sex offender in the Virgin Islands. Over the next eight years, he sent photos of women on request, brokered crypto deals that funneled millions through the sex offender’s accounts, and co-founded the company that now holds more US government debt than most countries.

His foundation holds $78. His network moves billions. Nobody has asked him a single question under oath.

The thread runs from a dead man’s island through a crypto pioneer who sent him photos on request, through the deals that funneled millions through Epstein’s accounts, through the network that connects Epstein’s money to the vice president’s mentor and the president’s former strategist, through the company that holds $135 billion in US Treasuries, through the law that legalized it, through the man who championed it and became CEO of it, through the Commerce Secretary whose children own a piece of it, through the Treasury Secretary blocking the dead man’s records, through the farmland and fertilizer in Argentina, and all the way to the executive order that just opened the US market to the country whose agriculture they now control.

Read the Full Article at The Leah Files.

What I have re-published here is NOT the full article! Please consider supporting her work – I do.

Related:

Are People Finally Waking Up to the Fact that the U.S. is Run by Pedophiles in the Jeffrey Epstein Financial System?

This article was written by Human Superior Intelligence (HSI)

See Also:

Understand the Times We are Currently Living Through

Second Edition of eBook Released: The Concept of the American Christian Family is a Myth and is NOT Found Anywhere in the Bible – by Brian Shilhavy

FREE eBook! Restoring the Foundation of New Testament Faith in Jesus Christ – by Brian Shilhavy

The Brotherhood of Satan vs. The Brotherhood of Jesus Christ

KABBALAH: The Anti-Christ Religion of Satan that Controls the World Today

Exposing the Christian Zionism Cult

The Bewitching of America with the Evil Eye and the Mark of the Beast

Jesus Christ’s Opposition to the Jewish State: Lessons for Today

Identifying the Luciferian Globalists Implementing the New World Order – Who are the “Jews”?

The Brain Myth: Your Intellect and Thoughts Originate in Your Heart, Not Your Brain

What is the Condition of Your Heart? The Superiority of the Human Heart over the Human Brain

The Seal and Mark of God is Far More Important than the “Mark of the Beast” – Are You Prepared for What’s Coming?

The Satanic Roots to Modern Medicine – The Image of the Beast?

Medicine: Idolatry in the Twenty First Century – 10-Year-Old Article More Relevant Today than the Day it was Written

Having problems receiving our emails? See:

How to Beat Internet Censorship and Create Your Own Newsfeed

We Are Now on Telegram. Video channels at Bitchute, and Odysee.

If our website is seized and shut down, find us on Telegram, as well as Bitchute and Odysee for further instructions about where to find us.

If you use the TOR Onion browser, here are the links and corresponding URLs to use in the TOR browser to find us on the Dark Web: Health Impact News, Vaccine Impact, Medical Kidnap, Created4Health, CoconutOil.com.

The post The Epstein Digital Financial System is Getting Ready to Replace the U.S. Dollar first appeared on Health Impact News.

More Than 30 Christians Killed in a Month in Nigeria’s Plateau State — But You Probably Didn’t Hear About It

9 September 2026 at 22:37

More than 30 Christians have reportedly been killed in Nigeria’s Plateau State in the past month alone, with the latest attacks occurring just days ago.

Christian Daily International reports that on September 5, three more Christians were killed across two villages in Mangu Local Government Area, one in Fungtim and two in Kinat.

The killings came just two days after two other Christians were killed in nearby Kinat and Kop-Naanle. Among those killed was 78-year-old Bulus Danladi, who was reportedly killed in Kop-Naanle.

The latest deaths followed an August 18 attack at Bin-Per in which 25 Christians were reportedly killed. A spokesman for the Mangu Local Government Council confirmed the death toll.

The news is obviously staggering. And yet, outside Christian and Nigerian media, the killings have received little attention, if any at all.

What’s more, New Life Magazine reported that at least 32 Christians were killed by armed Fulani herdsmen across Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue states in early August alone. The victims reportedly included infants and community leaders, while homes and farmland were destroyed in attacks on rural communities.

One local pastor, mourning members of his congregation, said Christians in Nigeria “deserve to worship in peace, to sleep, and to live without fear.” He called on the Nigerian government and security agencies to act.

The violence has continued through July and August. In one August incident reported by The Gateway Pundit, two Christian villagers returning from a funeral were ambushed and killed by suspected Fulani assailants using gunfire and machetes.

In separate attacks around the same period, more than 39 hectares of crops were reportedly destroyed, threatening the livelihoods of farming communities already living under severe insecurity.

This is not an isolated incident or a problem confined to one village.

Nigeria remains the world’s deadliest country for Christians according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. During its reporting period, from October 2024 to September 2025, Open Doors recorded 4,849 Christians killed for their faith worldwide. Of those, 3,490 were in Nigeria, approximately 72 per cent of the global total.

Plateau State, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, has become one of the principal flashpoints of this violence.

Christian-persecution researchers and parliamentary reporting have documented the activities of militant Fulani groups, including factions accused of embracing radical Islamist ideology and employing tactics comparable to those used by Boko Haram and ISWAP.

These groups have repeatedly been accused of attacking predominantly Christian farming communities, killing civilians and destroying homes, churches and agricultural land.

When predominantly Christian communities are repeatedly attacked, when churches and Christian villages are targeted, and when Christian farmers are killed or driven from their land, it is entirely legitimate to ask whether these attacks are part of a broader pattern of anti-Christian persecution.

Nigeria’s federal government, under President Bola Tinubu, has faced mounting criticism over its handling of the violence. The government has condemned attacks, ordered security agencies to pursue perpetrators and deployed security forces in affected areas.

Yet the continued attacks demonstrate that these measures have so far failed to provide reliable protection for many vulnerable communities, and that cannot be ignored. Nor should the deaths of Nigerian Christians become just another statistic.

More than 30 Christians killed in one part of Plateau State in a single month should be enough to warrant international attention.

It should warrant prayer.

And it should prompt Western governments, churches and media organisations to ask a very simple question: how many Christians have to die before the world decides that their suffering is worth noticing?

Ukraine Carried Out Its Deepest Drone Strike On Russia Ever

9 September 2026 at 22:32

A Russian gas plant more than 1,700 miles from the Ukrainian border was attacked by a drone on Wednesday, Ukrainian and Russian officials said. This is reportedly the longest-distance Ukrainian strike of the war and comes as Kyiv continues to target Moscow’s energy infrastructure. 

“Today, an attack by a drone was repelled against one of the industrial facilities in Noyabrsk,” Dmitry Artyukhov, governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, stated on Telegram. “As a result of the drone’s debris falling, a fire broke out. Emergency services specialists are working at the scene. Most importantly: there are no casualties or injuries. The extent and nature of the damage are being determined.”

“I urge residents of Yamal to remain calm and to rely only on information from official sources,” Artyukhov added. “The situation is under control.”

(Dmitry Artyukhov Telegram)

“The criminal Kyiv regime has, for the first time, attacked the Arctic region of the Ural Federal District,” Artem Zhoga, the Presidential Envoy of the Russian Federation to the Ural Federal District, confirmed on Telegram. “As a result of debris from a drone falling on the territory, a fire broke out at a fuel and energy complex facility in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District… The enemy is trying to damage economic facilities in order to sow panic.”

New range record: Ukrainian drones attack Novy Urengoy – nearly 3,000 km from Ukraine.

The facility in Novy Urengoy that processes gas condensate for transport was hit—one of the most important installations in Russia's gas condensate infrastructure.

The facility has a capacity… pic.twitter.com/gLysVaLjJJ

— Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@jurgen_nauditt) September 9, 2026

The target of the attack was the Novy Urengoy Condensate Stabilization Plant (CSP), according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces General Staff, which took credit for the attack.

“On 9th September 2026, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine struck the Novy Urengoy Gas Condensate Processing Plant in Novy Urengoy, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug,” the general staff claimed on X. “The extent of the damage is being assessed.”

The plant has an annual processing capacity of approximately 19.5 million tons, the general staff added.

“It produces stabilized gas condensate, petroleum fractions, diesel fuel and other petroleum products,” the Ukrainian military pointed out. “Its products are used, among other purposes, to meet the needs of the Russian armed forces. Operations against key enemy military targets are ongoing.”

Ukrainian officials did not provide any details about how the strike was carried out.

⚡⚡ More than 3,000 km away. Novy Urengoy gas condensate processing plant hit

On 9th September 2026, units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine struck the Novy Urengoy Gas Condensate Processing Plant in Novy Urengoy, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, russian federation.

The extent… pic.twitter.com/YrRmHp6NYb

— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) September 9, 2026

One video that emerged from the scene showed a column of flames rising in the distance but does not offer much in the way of detail about where the attack took place or the extent of the damage.

Ukrainian drones have for the first time attacked Russia’s largest gas-production hub, almost 3,000 km from the Ukrainian border.

Ukraine struck the Arctic part of the Urals Federal District. A fire started at a fuel-and-energy site.

The plant is part of the Gazprom structure.… pic.twitter.com/yQjodp2vrE

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 9, 2026

Another video showed smoke rising in the distance, but again offered little in the way of detail about what happened.

❗Ukrainian drones attacked Novy Urengoy in Russia for the first time. That's about 3,200 km from Ukraine!

The Novy Urengoy plant for preparing condensate for transport, located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, was the target. It is one of the region's key gas condensate… pic.twitter.com/KDwOFWicd6

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 9, 2026

The region is a significant target.

“Novy Urengoy is Russia’s unofficial gas capital, located in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district in northwestern Siberia,” according to the Moscow Times. Gazprom “estimated the region’s gas resources at 26.5 trillion cubic meters as of 2020, enough to cover global demand for more than six years.”

In Novy Urengoy, Khanty Mansi AD, west Siberia, Russia,
long-range Ukrainian drones hit an industrial facility in the city located some 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) from the Ukrainian border.https://t.co/bruXXjLYR4

— Alexander Kokcharov (@alex_kokcharov) September 9, 2026

In addition to being the first attack in this region of Russia, this was “the furthest strike since the start of the war,” the Russian Mediazzzona Telegram channel stated. “Previously, the record for distance was the attack on the Omsk Oil Refinery in July 2026. It is located approximately 2,500 km (about 1,550 miles) from the border in a straight line.”

While the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff offered scant details about the strike, officials from the Fire Point weapons company hinted online that one of their drones carried out the attack. 

“Guess who traveled over 3300 km (about 2,050 miles) and successfully achieved their goal,” the company stated on a Telegram post that included video of the gas plant attack.

“3200)),” Fire Point’s founder, Denys Shtilierman, teased in an X post with an image of the burning gas plant.

3200)) https://t.co/Go0EbSm2BS

— Denys Shtilierman (@DenShtilierman) September 9, 2026

Neither Shtilierman nor the company provided any other details; however Fire Point claims its FP-1 drones can now travel about 2,100 miles (3,400 km) with a 60 kg payload.

Despite Fire Point’s hints, there is no confirmation that the company’s weapons had anything to do with this attack. There is also the chance that it could have been carried out by another system or even from inside Russia. Ukraine has, in the past, relied on proxies to stage attacks deep in Russia. In addition, Ukraine last summer carried out a series of remotely launched drone attacks on Russian strategic aviation. Dubbed Operation Spider Web, it included strikes on the Belaya Air Base, about 3,000 miles from the border.

However, a strike from inside Russia is much less likely than one launched from Ukraine given Fire Point chiming in and the increasing reach of Ukraine’s weapons. We have reached out to Fire Point and Ukrainian officials for comment.

You can see video of the Operation Spider Web attack on Belaya below:

Ukrainian drones struck Russian strategic aviation at the Belaya air base in Irkutsk – 4,800 km from Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/UBAi7znioR

— Michael MacKay (@mhmck) June 1, 2025

The Novy Urengoy Gas Condensate Processing Plant wasn’t the only site in Russia affected by drone incursions far from the Ukrainian border today.

“A state of emergency has been declared in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug due to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) activity,” the Russian RIA Novosti news outlet reported on Wednesday. This is located about 1,500 miles from Ukraine. 

“Temporary restrictions have been implemented at the airports of Igra, Nyagan, Uray, ‘Sovetsky,’ Surgut, and Khanty-Mansiysk,” the outlet added.

The publication did not report any attacks and Ukraine did not claim any, but video emerged of what appears to be a Fire Point FP-1 drone flying over the area.

Russian Telegram channels report drones in the area of Khanty-Mansiysk, a city, in west-central Siberia, Russia. pic.twitter.com/in0M552FZN

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 9, 2026

Officials in the region were preparing for a Ukrainian strike, the independent Russian outlet Verstka reported earlier this week.

The area is “a sprawling oil-producing region responsible for roughly 40% of the country’s crude output,” the official Ukrainian United24 media outlet noted.

While the extent of the damage to the Novy Urengoy Condensate Stabilization Plant is unclear at the moment, the attack extends the range of Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s oil infrastructure.

This summer, Ukraine struck nearly all Russian refineries within range, the Kyiv Post noted. 

“Ukraine’s military said in July that the attacks had knocked 43% of Russia’s refining capacity offline, contributing to a nationwide fuel shortage and export restrictions,” the publication reported.

Still, “Russia’s overall oil exports remained relatively stable between June and July, with higher crude exports and energy prices partly offsetting revenue losses,” the Kyiv Post added.

For Russia, the attacks on its energy infrastructure have become so damaging that last month, President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the government to temporarily seize what it deems commercial critical infrastructure that is not sufficiently protected against such strikes. That followed Russia’s move earlier this year to allow private companies to purchase their own air defense systems to protect their own facilities. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing the government to temporarily take control of critical infrastructure if private owners fail to protect it from Ukrainian drone attacks or rebuild it after strikes.

Read more: https://t.co/SzAbSZqobI

— ABC News (@ABC) August 25, 2026

Though Russia is continuing its grinding offensive, the energy infrastructure attacks are clearly taking a major toll. The ability to do so seems to have taken on additional significance in the wake of another round of attempts to end the fighting.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, recently traveled to both Russia and Ukraine seeking to rekindle peace talks. However, there does not appear to be any immediate resolution in sight.

The expanding range and quantity of Kyiv’s long-range strike arsenal gives Zelensky perhaps his most powerful card to play against Russia’s interest in continuing the war. Ukraine has been improving these weapons by the month and the pace of development of its drones and cruise missiles is rapidly accelerating. The country also has several ballistic missile projects in the works, which will only add to the pressure put on Moscow once operational.

Regardless, earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects the war with Russia to continue into the winter at the very least. Given that, Kyiv’s campaign against Russia’s energy infrastructure does not seem like it will end anytime soon, either.

Case in point, Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes continued on Wednesday with another attack on Sochi, a Black Sea resort town often frequented by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And, for the second day, drones were visible over Russia’s remote central high-north energy production hub.

Massive fire erupts at Sochi port, Russia, following reported Ukrainian drone attacks. pic.twitter.com/cm2WsiA4jS

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 9, 2026

Russian Telegram channels report drones in the area of Khanty-Mansiysk, a city, in west-central Siberia, Russia. pic.twitter.com/in0M552FZN

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 9, 2026

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The post Ukraine Carried Out Its Deepest Drone Strike On Russia Ever appeared first on TWZ.

Why the stories working people tell ourselves about ourselves matter

9 September 2026 at 21:49
TRNN Editor-in-Chief and Co-Executive Director Maximillian Alvarez speaks at the Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium in Wheeling, West Virginia, on Sept. 5, 2026. Photo Credit: TRNN.

Over the 2026 Labor Day weekend, I had the honor of speaking at the Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium in Wheeling, West Virginia, organized by the Wheeling Academy of Law & Science (WALS) Foundation. The symposium takes place in Wheeling every year and adopts a different theme each year; this year, the theme was “The Art of Labor.” I got to represent TRNN and speak alongside a truly incredible lineup of artists and working-class warriors, including: Tabitha Arnold, the great textile artist and tapestry maker; Erik Ruin, printmaker and shadow puppeteer; and Shaun Slifer, a multidisciplinary artist and the Creative Director for the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum. 

The text below is a transcript of the talk I gave at this year’s Symposium, which has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. You can also listen to the audio recording of my speech on The Real News Network podcast feed. 

https://www.spreaker.com/show/2952221/episodes/feed

Thank you. It is genuinely an honor to be here on these hallowed grounds with all of you in Wheeling, West Virginia. It really, really means a lot to me to be here with all of you.

I also have to say: I really appreciate it when Vince or anyone else tells me that that first-ever Working People interview I recorded with my dad, Jesus Alvarez, meant something to them—because it meant everything to me. It started everything. 

I didn’t start out to become a labor journalist or to do the kinds of interviews I do with working people. I didn’t set out to make a life reporting on working-class struggles from working-class areas around the country, on the front lines of a class war that is hitting all of us in similar and different ways. I didn’t start out to be or do any of that. I started because I didn’t want my dad, the greatest man I know, to go to his grave feeling like a failure after we had lost everything during the Recession, including the house I grew up in, just like millions of other families. And we have continued to struggle, just like millions and millions and billions of us around the world have continued to struggle. And so, to be here standing in front of all of you—having started the show back then as a ruse to get my dad to talk about something he was so deeply depressed about and wouldn’t talk about—it means a whole lot for me and my family.

I really do want to thank all of you for being here. And of course, I want to thank Seán P. Duffy, Vincent DeGeorge, and everyone at the WALS Foundation for bringing us all together here on this hallowed ground. 

I came here today from Baltimore to talk with you all about why stories matter to me, and why I believe they matter to us, or should matter more. 

I wouldn’t be here without the stories that made me. And the same is true for all of us and every one of us. 

And when I say “I wouldn’t be here,” to start, I mean it literally. I quite literally and very quantifiably would not be standing here right now, speaking in this room with you all, alongside all these amazing people—none of you would have ever had to hear my name or see my ugly face, if I wasn’t such a hopeless, relentless, lifelong lover of stories. 

(Also, I know y’all were hoping Kim Kelly would be here today. I apologize, I am no Kim Kelly. I am a fill-in for Kim Kelly, but I am one-third of the tattoos and one-third of the talent. So that’s what you’re getting today!)

I wouldn’t be doing the work that I do now as a journalist and Co-Executive Director of a news organization, I certainly wouldn’t be doing it the way I do it, I would not have pursued all those ill-advised degrees in literature before that, I would not have written or said or filmed all the things that I have and will, if I wasn’t an eternal believer in the awesome, human-making, history-making, and society-making power of stories. 

Whether I’m reading them, writing them, watching them, listening to them, studying them, teaching them, recording them, filming them, remembering them, dreaming about them, thinking about them, or thinking through them, I love stories, and I need stories to live. Always have, ever since I can remember remembering anything. 

Like any fool in love would do, I followed that need wherever it took me. I have madly chased it headfirst into the best and worst times of my life. It got me to the most beautiful, ivy covered college campuses I’ve ever seen, and it got me through the most body-crushing, mind-numbing, soul-rotting jobs I’ve ever had. It led me to my wife and fellow literature dweeb Meg, who’s sitting back there, and it opened up the path for me to make the purpose-filled life I have now, and to do the purpose-filled work I do now.

I have continued to chase that love and that need for stories headfirst into the best and worst places in the world, where the best and worst of humanity is on display. From picket lines to protest marches, from union halls to student encampments on college campuses, from the horror-filled halls of immigration courts where masked federal thugs are kidnapping and disappearing innocent people daily, to rural, urban, and suburban communities fighting data centers all over the country, from “deep red” Texas to “deep blue” Maryland, from Occupied Palestine to East Palestine, Ohio, from communities that have been devastated by poverty, industrial pollution, and organized abandonment and disinvestment to communities that have been devastated by plant closures and school shootings, from poisoned coal mining towns in West Virginia to poisoned neighborhoods in South Baltimore where that very same coal ends up, where that very same coal sits and moves through the giant coal terminal pier right next to people’s houses, and where that very same coal ends up in the poisoned lung tissue of the people who live there and have been inhaling that toxic coal dust for generations.

I have followed my need for stories and our people’s need to have our stories told and heard. I have followed that need to wherever I need to be, and I have followed it all the way here to Wheeling, West Virginia. (You wanna talk about stories? There are a few more storied places than this.)

And though it has caused me and my family more pain and grief and debt and disappointment along the way than I can ever possibly sum up to you, I have learned to check myself by asking myself: If the need that I have, if the love that I’ve followed, brought me to this beautiful place and gave me the chance to be here now with you beautiful people, then how can it be wrong? 

If that need and that love has led me to my life’s continuing work of lifting up the stories of our fellow workers around the US and around the world, of using every medium and platform and every tool and skill I have to offer to help people find confidence in their own voice and share their story in their own words—if it has guided me to the frontlines of the class war to report the news through the stories and voices and faces and lives and bodies and souls and firsthand realities of the people at the center of “the story”—if that absurd, magical, lifelong pursuit of stories has in any way helped me help other working people like me and my family believe that their stories are actually worth telling and hearing and remembering, that their lives truly do matter more than this world has led us to believe and that we all truly do deserve better than what this world has forced us to accept—and if it has helped me help others see that we can get better and make a better world the better we are to each other and the more we share our stories and listen to each other’s stories—if my love and my need for stories and my belief in stories has contributed anything at all to that, then how can it not be worth it? 

But when I say, “I wouldn’t be here without the stories that made me,” I also mean it in the sense that I wouldn’t be the “I” that I am. I am me because of the stories that made me, the stories that made me more me than who I was before I experienced them, the stories that continue to make me who I am now and who I will be in all those versions of me to come. 

I come from a family of storytellers. Being here in West Virginia, I got a sense you guys will know what I’m talking about. One of many things Mexicans and West Virginians have in common. I am the me that I am because of the people who raised me, the people who are and continue to be my life, the people who taught me how to live and be a person and become a self through their presences, their absences, and their stories. The stories they told and the stories they showed me and my siblings. Stories that hit back to the deepest end of my childhood beginnings of consciousness, stories that built my consciousness, stories that brought me out of human mud and helped shape me into human being. 

For the same reasons I can always remember it being such a natural feeling to look out car windows and be fascinated and dazzled by all the warm lights of being out there, all those other homes and other lives people-like-me-but-not-me are living—for the same reasons I’ve always wondered about those other homes and lives and people—for all the same reasons I have always projected myself outward onto them and thought about them out of genuine curiosity and interest and goodwill—and for all the same reasons I have grown as a person the more I consider selves and lives that are not mine, I have always been naturally drawn to stories as a lifesource. Stories my family told me, stories I heard on the radio or saw on the TV, stories I read, stories I created. 

Stories about human-beings-like-me-but-not-me, living in selves-and-bodies-like-mine-but-not-mine, living in times, places, circumstances, and worlds that are not the ones I live in and experience everyday. Stories that take my lifeworld and my perspective and open them up, open me up, to lives-like-mine-but-not-mine, to human perspectives other than the only perspective I can ever have and have ever had ever since I was born, ever since I’ve been me, Maximillian Lee Alvarez. All those stories now live on in me, and will continue to live on in me, so long as I live on as me.

Those stories live on through me in the impressions they have left on me. And they will continue to live on in me as formative parts of the person I became once those stories and my experiences of them became part of me. And they will continue to be a part of me and every version of me—all those selves I’ll ever become—so long as I am gifted to live on this earth as me. 

These stories live on in the words I say and in the stories I tell to others. Because they have shaped the “me” that I am and the ways I use language to communicate with others and with myself, and the ways I use language to communicate myself to others and to myself.

They live on in the ways I cope with pain and failure, and what I learn from them. 

Those stories live on in my thoughts and in the way I think. Now and for the rest of my life, they have their place in the vast, dazzling multiverse of mindstuff that my mind has to draw upon and remember from and think and dream and imagine with.  

Over my lifetime, the stories I’ve found, the stories I’ve made, and the stories I’ve been told have shaped, challenged, corrected, sharpened, and reinforced my internal sense of right and wrong, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, and what it means to be good, do good, and live a good life. 

And if you’re feeling lost about those things right now, I’m telling you: Go back to our stories! We are not the only ones to face hard times. Our ancestors who faced such times left us their stories so that we would know what to do now. Don’t let those stories go to waste! There is power in them. We have power in them. (More on that in a minute.)

All those stories live on in the ways I try and have tried and will try to live and act and see and be in the world, in the ways I try and have tried and will try to see and treat other people and other life. And again, what I’m saying is true for me is, I fully believe, true for each and every one of us. And that on its own—even if you just take the people here in this room—is a miracle of life and nature and god and a joyous wonder to behold, on par with gazing out at the stars in the sky!

And yet, we so disinterestedly take all this for granted every day. We don’t appreciate stories enough, including our own stories and the stories of others. And I don’t think we appreciate this enough about the stories that make us and the roles stories play in making us human (and the role storylessness plays in our loss of humanity). 

Just like we have been trained and trained ourselves to accept an unacceptable culture of violence and mass death that takes and destroys life everywhere with the kind of scale and self-serving abandon that would make the ancient gods of old blush, we have been trained and trained ourselves to lose touch with the magical, life-giving force of stories. And our life-sustaining love for stories has been beaten out of us by AI slop, by a shitty, commercialized culture industry, by living under capitalism and end-times fascism, etc. I get why we feel that way, and I feel it, too. But there’s something really, really wrong there.

Like our air and water and soil and atmosphere, I think we have been trained and trained ourselves to let stories be poisoned and polluted for so long that we will at worst cheer on their destruction or at best live monotonously without any urgent sense of duty or need to stop the destruction. Both paths inevitably lead to the same place: our own peril as a people, a society, and a species. 

That’s why I think we miss the magic of stories and the magic in stories that’s all around us, available to us in so many forms, living in our heads and shaping who we are every day. 

That’s why I think we tend to look at stories and the stories of others so mistrustfully or disinterestedly or scornfully or selfishly. We tend these days to not look for stories at all, let alone stories that challenge us and grow us. We don’t give them our time, and so many that are shoved in our faces aren’t worth our ime. And when we do look for them, we often look for the stories that we already know or stories that ultimately serve to stop us from growing and knowing more, stories that serve to stunt our being and reinforce the selves and prejudices we already have. What a waste of good magic! 

Of course, we all want stories like that to some extent, and we all need stories that function like that to some extent. We all watched The Office five times during Covid. That’s fine. But what I’m talking about goes much deeper. 

I’ll use myself as an example to try to explain. 

I grew up in Southern California, post-Cold War, in the ‘90s. We were a middle-class mixed-immigrant family. We were the American Dream. And that’s why my dad and my mom and my family were so depressed after the 2008 Crash and the Recession, because we had had and lost the American Dream, and that really does a number on you and your soul.

The era I grew up in before the Crash was an era of America in which a lot of the dreams that I was foolish enough to have for my life still felt possible. And over the last 25-30 years, I think a lot of us have come to the awakening that many of those dreams, our dreams, are not possible in America anymore. At least not for working people like us. And after doing this kind of work for nearly a decade now, I’ve gotten confirmation from working people all over this country that I’m not the only one who feels that way. 

It’s a real gift to contain all those different selves that I’ve been over my life, including the deep-red-conservative, Orange County dumbass who didn’t know much about life. I don’t despise or regret that version of myself, I accept him for all his faults. And I know I had a lot of right reasons for believing the wrong things back then. And I know that I still have so many good parts of me that were there in me when I was a conservative and that are here in me now as the lefty nut job you see before you. Because they’re just good things about being a good person. I don’t care who taught them to me, I’m just grateful they did. 

I don’t see people in rigid identity or ideology boxes, and I try not to see myself that way either. And I definitely don’t like to see stories that way. And it’s in part because of stories that I don’t see the world that way. And yet, in this country, that is the way that we have trained ourselves to see each other and ourselves and our stories.

I remember being that younger, more conservative-type person and going into a Barnes & Noble and saying, “I want to read good, classic literature.” And the employee I talked to was like, “Oh, do you want French literature? Spanish literature? Feminist literature? African-American literature?” And I remember saying, “No, no, no. I want literature. I don’t want any of those ‘special interests.’” 

That was a very juvenile way for me to think and feel about literature, but I think a lot of us can still relate to that feeling. I’m so grateful to literature especially, and to all the storytellers in my life and all the storytellers I’ve come across in my life, for teaching me over time, and for constantly reminding me, that that’s not what stories are there for. I’m grateful to them for teaching me how much it cheapens our relationship to stories—and the potential and beauty and magic we can derive from them—when we look at them and treat them this way. And stories themselves are the cure for this sickness. The more I read literature of all kinds, the less I thought about stories this way. The more I loved and connected with literature of all kinds, the more I grew and felt and thought and developed as a person with different kinds of me inside. 

And so, I learned a very valuable lesson early on in life: That literature about other people, and that stories about other people—from other people’s perspectives, about the ways that they are living as people in this world—are not a threat to who I am. They make me who I am. They grow who I am. 

And it’s for those reasons that it seems so clear and obvious when I say, “I wouldn’t be here without the stories that made me, and you wouldn’t be here without the stories that made you.” 

Think of all those stories that still live in your head today, that you still talk about with your friends and siblings, that you still have living somewhere in the recesses of your mind as warm memories of reading a good book, watching a good movie, or having a good conversation. 

For me, I think about sitting in my living room with my whole family back home, watching the movie Glory, the epic historical drama about the 54th Massachusetts, the first Black regiment to fight in the Civil War. Why did our whole family of Alvarezes connect with that movie? I could go on a whole dissertation about why we connected with that movie (but I won’t do it here, don’t worry). We bawled our eyes out watching it then, and I still bawl my eyes out when I watch it now. We saw so much of ourselves—the Americans we believed we were, the America we believed we lived in and believed we were a part of—in that movie. And we clearly weren’t the only ones. 

It doesn’t matter that I don’t know what it’s like to be a “freed” Black slave in the Antebellum South; and it doesn’t threaten my understanding or sense of being to watch a movie that storytellers, story-makers, and story-actors have produced to try to help me understand. It enhances my being. It gives me more access to beings- and selves- and lives-like-mine-but-not-mine, and they then become part of my experience and shape who I am and how I am in the world. 

That’s part of the magic I’m talking about, the magic that makes us who we are, which we all just take for granted. It’s like we put on glasses that removed the power of stories from our vision, made it invisible to us. But it’s there. It’s all around us. It’s there in us. 

It was there when I was listening to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” while driving here to Wheeling. Truly, one of the most beautiful stories about love and working-class life ever told in our language. And no matter what stage of my life I was in, it didn’t matter to me that I didn’t know what it was like to live as a Black, working-class lesbian in the industrial Midwest around the ‘80s and ‘90s. I still knew enough to know that to live was to love, to seek love, to be loved, and to pursue happiness, and I still knew enough to know why it is a heartbreaking tragedy for someone to have their love and their lives and their happiness denied or taken from them.  

Who among us human beings hasn’t feared making the wrong choice immortalized in Chapman’s line, “We got to make a decision: leave tonight or live and die this way”? Who among us living people cannot relate to the pain and fear and drama and yearning in the stories of other people who spend their precious, short time on this earth living unfulfilled, unhappy lives full of unrequited love and unrealized dreams, even if they weren’t our dreams?

I could relate to that even as a kid. I relate to it so much more now as an adult, now that I am far more aware of the limited time we in general and I specifically have to live. And that gives me so much more capacity to feel empathy and solidarity with others whose lives and loves and happiness and flourishing are beaten, crushed, lost, or denied. How could I feel anything but the natural human solidarity my heart feels when listening to Chapman’s song? And how can I not remember that listening to the song as a kid helped me begin to imagine and explore the unknown emotional depths of my own human heart?

The specifics of the story and the selves involved do not describe the specific story and self I already know as my own, but they still embody dramatically heightened versions of what I have known and experienced in my own life, dramatically and beautifully heightened versions of our human experience of life and love and loss and yearning. 

None of the details that differentiate the story in “Fast Car” and its lovelorn protagonist from my own life story are reasons for me to say, “That’s not my story.” Those are reasons for me to connect with another person’s story—to get closer to them, and to become more myself, the more they and their story become part of me and mine.  

Here’s another story. My wife Megan Berkobien just co-translated this book I’m holding in my hand, Goodbye, Ramona by Montserrat Roig.  

It’s a beautiful, incredible book. Everyone should go read it. It’s a Catalan novel about Spanish Civil War times. I don’t know what the hell that’s like, but for the same reasons that my Mexican ass got two useless degrees in Russian literature, I don’t care. I don’t need anyone’s cultural permission to connect with my fellow human beings. Reading the stories of other people has only ever given me light and goodness. It’s never taken anything away from me or made me a worse person. 

Reading the first chapter of Goodbye, Ramona transports me to the mind of a trapped woman—a woman whose husband is a tyrant and makes her feel powerless—as she wanders like a ghost in the streets looking for him after he has suddenly gone missing in the wake of a bombing in Barcelona. In Roig’s beautiful, harrowing description—and in Meg and Cristina’s beautiful, harrowing translation—you see the damage of his tyranny on her psyche, and you feel the fear and anxiety in the way she describes what she’s doing and what she’s thinking. 

That’s the raw, human stuff that makes me feel as close as I can get to living and seeing through the head of another person. What a gift that is! And how necessary it is, especially in times like these when we live and exist so far away from each other, when we are so alienated from each other and isolated from each other, when we can be standing next to other people in the grocery store line or sitting next to each other in traffic but the spaces between us and our minds and hearts feels as vast as the distance between us and the moon. 

We have stories to bring us closer, and yet we continue to let capitalism, a broken society, and the wickedness of the powerful push us away from each other. But it doesn’t have to be this way. And I hope that the stories that I have helped to tell, all these stories I’ve recorded and published, will continue to remind people of that. I hope these stories remind people of who we really are and who our neighbors really are. I hope these stories by and for our fellow workers not only remind us that every life is precious, but that they remind us what life is all about. I hope that they remind us what a gift it is that we are all here, and what a cosmic tragedy it is that we allow life itself and our lives to be treated with such inhumane disregard.

That’s why I interviewed the family of a Kroger worker, Evan Seifried, who committed suicide just an hour north of here, in Milford, Ohio, in 2021. And that’s why Evan’s story has impacted me so much. 

For 19 years, with a virtually spotless record, Evan worked at a local Kroger grocery store in Milford, where he eventually became the dairy department manager. But from October 2020 to March 2021, Evan suffered a torturous campaign of bullying, harassment, and sabotage from two store managers, and his union abandoned him when he needed help. Evan took his own life, and his family will never be the same, and the world will never be as bright as it was with Evan in it. I thank god that I don’t know firsthand what it’s like to go through such a horrific tragedy, but because I heard them tell it, every other thing about me and my human being feels the Seyfried’s story and their pain and their fight for justice as my own. After learning about Evan’s story and after speaking with his loved ones about his story many times, I am forever changed by him and by them. 

So, of course, I thought of Evan and the Seyfrieds, and I thought of my own family, when I saw the soul-crushing news story this past week of Pierre Damas Bel, the poor 20-year old young man who committed suicide in Springfield and walked into traffic after our government slapped a criminal ankle bracelet on him and told him he was a worthless cockroach. I know what it feels like to have others in my own country, even my own government, see me this way. Everyone here has some way of trying to understand what that feels like, but we don’t try hard enough. Stories help us get better at trying. And we need to get better, we need to do better, we need to be better. For Evan, for Pierre, for all of us. 

I’m not the same person I was when I walked into that Barnes & Noble way back when looking for “just good literature.” I don’t look to stories or look for stories in that same one-way, transactional mode anymore; I don’t look to stories or look for stories that are just going to reflect me back to me. 

I don’t just gravitate to stories that I gravitate to because I see something of me reflected in them. I gravitate to stories because a light in them draws me in, and that light then reflects in me and stays with me after I connect with them. 

Every great human-made creation, construction, and operation embodies a whole that would not exist but for the sum of every worker and every ounce of human work that contributed to its existence. All those workers with all their lives and all their labor contributed to bringing all these magnificent things into existence, and all of us workers with all our lives and all our labor contribute to them, improve upon them, and keep them running. So, too, have all these stories contributed to bringing the me that I am into existence. And these stories will continue their work of shaping how I live and act and see and feel and think.

Stories have been and continue to be the most ever-present, ever-abundant, ever-beautiful reminder that I need other people to live, to be, to be me. 

And the ever-present, ever-abundant, ever-beautiful number and forms of human stories all around us—all the stories that have already been told, all the stories yet to be told, all the stories that live on in our books, our films, our songs, our campfire tales—each and every one of them is a reminder to us that we need each other, too. 

Where Are The Aircraft Carriers?: September 9, 2026

9 September 2026 at 21:49

The Navy says it is making a concerted effort to apply the hard lessons learned from the marathon deployments of the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln, both in combat and in quality of life for the crew, according to a new video posted by the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Daryl Caudle. The changes will be rolled out when USS Theodore Roosevelt deploys following a brief, last-minute, and previously unreported maintenance availability, TWZ has learned. Meanwhile, the United States and Iran are quickly climbing the escalation ladder again, as the latest series of tit-for-tat strikes has resulted in a massive overnight ballistic missile attack on a Jordanian base hosting U.S. forces and the destruction of 10 Iranian commercial oil tankers over the past week.

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s report here.

A high-resolution map featuring the United States Navy's deployed aircraft carrier fleet and big-deck amphibious assault ships, updated weekly as of September 9, 2026. Created by Ian Ellis-Jones and TWZ (formerly The War Zone)
TWZ/IAN ELLIS-JONES (High Resolution)

George Washington Strike Group Evades Iranian Ballistic Missiles

Less than a month after taking up station in the Middle East, elements of the George Washington CSG reportedly came under ballistic missile fire from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on September 5, according to Iranian media. “A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed in a statement, without identifying which warships were targeted. TWZ cannot independently verify the Iranian reports, and the Islamic Republic has frequently leveraged disinformation throughout the war.

U.S. forces responded swiftly the same day, striking three Iranian commercial oil tankers, part of the “shadow fleet” that funds IRGC operations, in a notable step beyond U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently announced tanker-for-tanker policy. “Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost – taking out three of yours,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, warned. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” he added. No U.S. casualties or damage to the American ships was reported.

Video of U.S. Central Command forces striking three Iranian crude oil carriers on September 5, 2026. (USCENTCOM video)

Details surrounding the attack on September 5 are limited, but Iranian-affiliated channels claimed the IRGC fired the Qassem Basir medium-range anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) for the first time. If true, it would represent the first known combat employment of the ASBM since it was unveiled in May 2025 and poses a new threat to Navy warships operating within the 1,200-kilometer, or roughly 750-mile, stated range (although that figure is more than likely overstated). Generally speaking, American cruisers and destroyers can engage ASBMs in two layers, in some cases using Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) in the midcourse phase and SM-6 during the terminal phase. Both are finite resources, and only so many can be loaded in their Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells.

Since the initial exchange on September 5, the tit-for-tat strikes have continued to escalate. CENTCOM destroyed another five crude oil tankers on September 8, bringing the total to 10 in a week, after the IRGC targeted an unidentified Navy warship again with ballistic missiles. Iran answered overnight, launching a huge salvo of ballistic missiles toward Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where a significant contingent of U.S. forces is forward-deployed. Dramatic videos on social media show Patriot batteries firing against the incoming projectiles, with open-source analysts counting at least 60 interceptors employed.

U.S. destroys another five Iranian tankers after the IRGC targets another American warship. (CENTCOM video)

The USS George Washington arrived in the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR) on or around August 19, escorted by a single guided-missile destroyer, USS Shoup. The pairing matches the composition described in CENTCOM’s statement about the IRGC attack on September 5. Washington’s public affairs team reposted the statement on their social media accounts.

The possibility that the second Nimitz class flattop operating alongside Washington in the Middle East, the USS George H.W. Bush, was the target of the attack cannot be ruled out. Both carriers are the same class and look alike from a distance (or through a seeker). The George H.W. Bush CSG is currently composed of a guided-missile cruiser, USS Princeton, and two guided-missile destroyers, USS Ross and USS Donald Cook.

An E/A-18G aircraft launches from the flight deck of USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) during night flight operations while the ship supports enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran in the Arabian Sea. As of Sept. 7, CENTCOM forces have redirected 94 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure complete compliance with the blockade.
An EA-18G Growler launches from the flight deck of USS George H.W. Bush during night flight operations. (CENTCOM photo)
A U.S. Sailor signals an F/A-18F Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 103, on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), Sept. 1, 2026. George H.W. Bush is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East. (U.S. Navy photo)
An F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). (U.S. Navy photo) U.S. Central Command Public Affa

Bush was pictured conducting nighttime flight ops in CENTCOM’s most recent update detailing the status of the ongoing blockade: U.S. forces redirected 94 commercial vessels, kinetically disabled three, and boarded two to ensure compliance, as of September 7.

USS Theodore Roosevelt Undergoes Last-Minute Maintenance Ahead of Deployment

The next carrier scheduled to deploy from the U.S., the USS Theodore Roosevelt, recently got underway after a brief maintenance period. While there was no mention of an upcoming availability in budget documents, we noticed what appeared to be pierside work in commercial satellite imagery, similar to the brief stints Washington and Vinson completed recently while in homeport. In response to our inquiry, a Navy official told TWZ, “Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) is currently in port at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego conducting routine, planned maintenance. While we do not comment on future operations or movements due to operations security, aircraft carriers follow an optimized fleet response plan that provides full realignment of maintenance, training, and deployment cycles to fit in a standard 36-month rotation.”

Roosevelt’s upcoming deployment has been the subject of heavy speculation, as there will soon be no carriers available in Asia should a contingency arise. While Lincoln is currently in the South China Sea, she’s at the tail end of her deployment and in the process of heading home. The same official addressed the coverage gap, telling us, “U.S. Pacific Fleet’s posture across the region remains strong, adaptive, and ready. The U.S. Navy is purpose-built to flex, surge, and sustain across multiple theaters simultaneously – and that flexibility is a strategic advantage, not a vulnerability. U.S. Pacific Fleet’s commitment to the region is enduring – backed by the Joint Force and a strong network of allies and partners – and we will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

U.S. Navy Sailors conduct flight operations on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Sept. 7, 2026. Theodore Roosevelt, flagship of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations conducting advanced training to bolster strike group readiness and capability. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alexander Bussman)
Flight operations on USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Sept. 7, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo) Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexander Bussman
U.S. Navy Sailors direct the launch of an F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 122 on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Sept. 7, 2026. Theodore Roosevelt, flagship of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations conducting advanced training to bolster strike group readiness and capability. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alexander Bussman)
Sailors direct the launch of an F/A-18E Super Hornet on USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). (U.S. Navy photo) Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexander Bussman

Roosevelt departed San Diego on September 5 and is still at sea as of publication. Imagery posted two days later on DVIDS, the military’s content-sharing platform, shows the flattop carrying out flight operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet AOR and conducting “advanced training to bolster strike group readiness and capability.” The carrier was last tracked broadcasting a position publicly with her Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder on, operating to the west of Baja California, Mexico, according to MarineTraffic. It’s unclear if the maintenance has been completed or if additional modifications and training will be required before the CSG deploys.

A screenshot shared with permission from Marine Traffic shows the transit of USS Theodore Roosevelt as it completes Carrier Qualification (CQ) training off the west coast. Source: Marine Traffic
Transit of USS Theodore Roosevelt off the west coast while working up. Source: MarineTraffic/KPLER (Reprinted with permission)

As noted above, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Daryl Caudle, alongside Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) John Perryman, posted a video yesterday with new information on Roosevelt’s upcoming deployment. “The lessons you’re bringing home are helping us better prepare the next team to deploy,” Perryman explained, addressing Lincoln’s crew. “Right now USS Theodore Roosevelt is putting those lessons into action using what we learned from Abraham Lincoln and Gerald R. Ford,” Caudle added. On logistics, that means maximizing the loadout of food, retail products, and hygiene items by converting available spaces into additional storage facilities. Regarding quality of life, improvements include new entertainment, more fitness equipment, and holiday materials purchased in advance.

“Small things matter during a long deployment because taking care of our Sailors is part of maintaining combat readiness,” Perryman noted. Watch the full video below.

CNO Adm. Daryl Caudle and MCPON John Perryman provide an update on USS Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming deployment. (U.S. Navy video)

Three other U.S.-based carriers, USS Carl Vinson, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and USS Ronald Reagan, were recently underway for training but have returned to their respective homeports since our last report on September 1.

Eisenhower returned to Pier 14S at Naval Station Norfolk on September 2 after a 12-day underway for Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) and Training Command (TRACOM) Carrier Qualifications (CQ) in the Virginia Capes and Jacksonville operating areas. Vinson completed 25 days of Tailored Ship’s Training Availability (TSTA) and Final Evaluation Period (FEP) before mooring at Juliet Pier on Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, on September 4. And Reagan, which just finished a nearly 18-month Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA), returned to Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton in Washington state on September 7 after a four-day post-availability shakedown and sea trials. It’s unknown how many rounds of sea trials will be required before Reagan returns to the fleet.

For the time being, America has one carrier coming back online, but the net gain will be short-lived, as Lincoln is expected to begin a DPIA after returning home.

USS Abraham Lincoln Leaves Thailand Looking Like A Different Ship

Elements of the Abraham Lincoln CSG, as well as escort cruiser USS Robert Smalls, arrived in Thailand on September 2 for what the Navy characterized as the “first full port call” of their nine-plus-month deployment. The crew of roughly 5,000 Sailors and Marines was finally able to leave the ship for liberty, with the majority standing on solid ground for the first time since November 2025.

“This port visit to Pattaya was a tremendous opportunity for this crew to recharge and a highlight for the strike group,” Abraham Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, said in a press release. “Thailand has such a rich culture and history, coupled with incredible hospitality, and that all shone through in this port visit. We are grateful to our Thai allies for hosting us, and we look forward to continuing our mission here in 7th Fleet, alongside Thailand and our other regional allies and partners.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) aircraft carrier arrives at Laem Chabang Port on Sept. 2, 2026 in Si Racha, Thailand. (Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images; reprinted with permission)
The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) arrives at Laem Chabang Port in Thailand on September 2, 2026. (Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images; Reprinted with permission)

According to the press release, the crew “experienced all the sights and sounds Thailand has to offer, deepening their understanding of the Thai people and strengthening interpersonal bonds.” Lincoln pulled into port looking worse for wear after 286 days at sea, with noticeable algae and rust spots, conditions that are expected given the high operational tempo endured during nearly seven months of combat. Videos surfaced of the hull being scrubbed by Thai contract crews at a fraction of what the same job would cost stateside. The carrier departed five days later on September 6 in much better shape.

Timelapse video of USS Abraham Lincoln leaving Thailand on September 6, 2026. (Abraham Lincoln video by MC3 Castro)

Lincoln is now continuing the journey home to San Diego, though whether any additional stops will be made along the way is unknown. A single-sourced report from Newsweek, which TWZ has not verified, claimed that another port call might be added, according to the wife of an officer aboard. As of publication, Lincoln is 293 days into the deployment, just 33 days short of the 326-day record set by USS Gerald R. Ford earlier this year.

U.S. Navy Big-Deck Fleet At A Glance

Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed (with one heading home), one is preparing to deploy in the near term, three are working up in various states of readiness, three are in current or upcoming maintenance, and one is being used primarily for training before deactivation next year. One amphibious ready group is deployed, one is forward-deployed and at homeport, four are working up or in port, and three are in maintenance.

Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.

Contact the author: ian.ellis-jones@recurrent.io

The post Where Are The Aircraft Carriers?: September 9, 2026 appeared first on TWZ.

Hermeus Unveils Air-Launched Ramjet Test Vehicle for High-Speed Experiments

9 September 2026 at 21:23

Hermeus is developing an expendable ramjet-powered aircraft, Ramjet-X, which will be air-launched from its reusable, F-16-sized Quarterhorse high-speed drone. The result aims to create a two-vehicle architecture intended to make high-speed flight testing less dependent on expensive, single-use test platforms. That would give Hermeus and potential customers a way to conduct repeated high-Mach flight tests without expending a large booster on every mission.

America didn’t lose ground in high-speed flight because of a lack of ideas. We slowed down because flight tests became too expensive, too rare, and too cautious.

Meet Ramjet-X. Air-launched from the Quarterhorse program, it’s a low-cost, repeatable test vehicle built to fly and… pic.twitter.com/rMed6NhcvD

— Zach Shore (@Zsshore) September 9, 2026

The company unveiled the concept today. Hermeus says the Ramjet-X will be carried beneath Quarterhorse and released at a speed of around Mach 3, at which its ramjet can begin operating. The smaller vehicle will then accelerate, climbing to around 100,000 feet, and a speed in the region of Mach 4. Quarterhorse will then return to base and be available for another mission.

Imagery released by Hermeus shows a Quarterhorse carrying a Ramjet-X mounted on a pylon under each wing, indicating that two different high-speed tests can be carried out in a single sortie. Intriguingly, the Quarterhorse is shown with no fewer than six underwing hardpoints in all, suggesting that other kinds of external payloads are envisaged.

Hermeus has not released detailed performance specifications for Ramjet-X, including its range, payload capacity, or the critical expected cost per flight. We have reached out to the company for more information.

Images released by the company show a relatively compact, missile-like vehicle with delta wings incorporating prominent dihedral. There are no horizontal tail surfaces, but a conventional vertical fin is complemented by a ventral fin. Axios reports that Ramjet-X is approximately 22 feet long and 7 feet wide.

In terms of appearance, and also thanks to its ramjet propulsion system, the vehicle is outwardly very reminiscent of the Lockheed’s D-21 Tagboard supersonic spy drone. However, at more than 40 feet long and with a wingspan of 20 feet, the D-21 was significantly bigger. Overall, the entire concept recalls the Cold War-era D-21 and its M-21 mothership, on a smaller scale.

A D-21 drone. U.S. Air Force
M-21 and D-21 paired together. CIA

The basic concept aims to address a longstanding problem with ramjet flight testing. Unlike a conventional jet engine, a ramjet cannot provide useful thrust from a standstill. The vehicle therefore has to be accelerated to a sufficiently high speed before the ramjet can take over.

That acceleration can traditionally require another propulsion system, including an expendable rocket booster. Hermeus is proposing to substitute a reusable aircraft for that initial boost. It is unclear if the Ramjet-X vehicles are similarly recoverable, but we have asked Hermeus for more details here, too.

As it stands, flight-test programs of this kind are often constrained not only by the cost and availability of test infrastructure, but also by the limited availability of suitable airspace and range access. A reusable carrier aircraft could help address both challenges, allowing multiple Ramjet-X vehicles to be deployed from airports near a designated test range as required and launched only once the vehicle is within the approved test area. That flexibility could reduce the need for a new large booster for every experiment while also making it easier to conduct tests, including at shorter notice, within increasingly constrained airspace.

Hermeus says Ramjet-X is being designed not just for its own development work but as a potential test platform for outside customers. The company is calling the concept “Flight Test as a Service,” with customers able to fly payloads including sensors, communications equipment, computing and autonomy systems, materials, and propulsion hardware.

The program reflects a broader push toward increasing the availability of commercial high-speed flight testing that has attracted U.S. government interest.

Hermeus was also selected by the Defense Innovation Unit for work under its Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing, or HyCAT, effort. That program is intended to use commercial flight-test capabilities to expand the government’s access to relevant high-speed environments.

The company is also pursuing its own increasingly ambitious Quarterhorse aircraft. Its Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 completed an uncrewed supersonic flight earlier this year, reaching Mach 1.21 on its third test flight. The company’s roadmap calls for subsequent Quarterhorse variants to progressively increase speed and address the thermal and propulsion challenges associated with high-Mach flight.

Quarterhorse Mk 2.1. Hermeus

Supersonic. Mach 1.21.

Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 is now the world’s first privately developed, unmanned supersonic jet and the fastest unmanned aircraft flying today.

This flight makes Hermeus the fastest company in aviation history to go from founding to supersonic flight – exactly… pic.twitter.com/wjoIcdiEOj

— Hermeus (@hermeuscorp) May 26, 2026

The imagery released for Ramjet-X shows a different Quarterhorse configuration than the 2.1 version, including beefed-up landing gear with twin nosewheels. The requirement for release of the Ramjet-X at Mach 3 suggests that its launch platform will be the Quarterhorse Mk 2.3, which will be the first to reach this kind of speed. This summer, Hermeus confirmed that its second supersonic aircraft, the Quarterhorse Mk 2.2, and the Mach 3-capable Mk 2.3 aircraft were under construction.

For its future Quarterhorse Mk 3, Hermeus has been developing Chimera, a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system. This is intended to transition from turbine operation to ramjet operation as speed increases.

Ramjet-X effectively separates part of that problem into another aircraft and the system could also be useful for experiments that do not require an entire hypersonic aircraft.

For example, an organization developing a high-temperature material might need to know how it behaves in an actual high-speed flight environment, rather than only in a ground test. The same could apply to weapons, sensors, communications systems, guidance hardware, onboard computers, or other components intended for high-speed vehicles.

So far, however, it’s not clear what kind of flight profiles Ramjet-X will provide. Hermeus has mentioned a cruise phase lasting “tens of minutes.”

The ramjet intake on the Ramjet-X. Hermeus

But a short-duration dash through a high-Mach regime is not equivalent to sustained flight at those speeds. The duration available to an experiment, thermal loads, acceleration, vibration, available electrical power, telemetry, maneuverability, and payload mass will all determine what can actually be tested.

The company says it is already testing the Ramjet-X propulsion system at its High Enthalpy Air-Breathing Test facility in Jacksonville, Florida. High-temperature structures are also under development at its El Segundo, California, headquarters. Integrated vehicle testing is currently planned for 2027.

The HEAT facility itself is part of Hermeus’ effort to establish high-speed propulsion test infrastructure. The company says the facility is being developed to eventually provide continuous high-Mach airflow for more flight-like ground testing.

Ramjet-X has yet to fly, but if it performs as intended, it could help lower one of the major barriers to obtaining real-world flight data at high Mach numbers. At the same time, the company is entering a market that is attracting growing interest from other aerospace firms, which are also expanding their high-speed flight-test capabilities, especially to capitalize on the broader hypersonics boom, including Stratolaunch.

There is fairly clear potential weaponization of this concept, for strike and surveillance missions, as well, although there has been no indication of that being in the works at this time.

The planned 2027 integrated testing should provide the first meaningful indication of whether the concept can progress to become a practical high-speed test capability.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post Hermeus Unveils Air-Launched Ramjet Test Vehicle for High-Speed Experiments appeared first on TWZ.

Despiste de trator faz um ferido grave em Salvaterra de Magos

9 September 2026 at 21:23



Um acidente com um trator agrícola provocou um ferido grave na noite desta terça-feira, dia 8 de setembro, no concelho de Salvaterra de Magos, freguesia de Muge

O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado pelas 20h58, mobilizando de imediato os meios de socorro para o local. Segundo informação prestada pelas autoridades, após a devida estabilização, a vítima recebeu assistência da equipa médica da Viatura Médica de Emergência e Reanimação (VMER) do Hospital Distrital de Santarém, unidade hospitalar para onde acabou por ser transportada em estado grave.



Nas operações de socorro estiveram envolvidos 11 operacionais e quatro veículos dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Salvaterra de Magos e do Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM). A Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) esteve presente na ocorrência e assumiu a investigação para apurar as causas que estiveram na origem do despiste.

Por: Dino Frazão
09/09/2026

————————————————–
© 2026 Os Monhacas. Todos os direitos reservados.
Este é um projeto independente de criação de conteúdos.
Se gostou do que leu e ainda não é seguidor, siga a nossa página para ver mais conteúdos!
————————————————–

O conteúdo Despiste de trator faz um ferido grave em Salvaterra de Magos aparece primeiro em OS MONHACAS.

Divisão de Trânsito da PSP detém 254 pessoas em agosto por crimes rodoviários

9 September 2026 at 21:07

A Divisão de Trânsito da Polícia de Segurança Pública efetuou a detenção de 254 suspeitos durante o mês de agosto por diversos ilícitos criminais no âmbito da circulação rodoviária. Segundo a PSP, estas ações resultam do trabalho operacional direcionado para o aumento do sentimento de segurança da população e para a repressão de fenómenos que contribuem para a diminuição da sinistralidade nas estradas.

Entre as detenções realizadas pela força policial, destacam-se 89 condutores por condução sem habilitação legal, 57 por condução em estado de embriaguez, 54 por especulação decorrente da cobrança indevida de valores no serviço de táxi e 33 por crime de desobediência. Foram ainda registadas 20 detenções por outros ilícitos criminais e uma por posse de arma proibida, nomeadamente uma pistola de calibre 9 milímetros.

A Polícia de Segurança Pública informa que continuará atenta a este tipo de criminalidade e apela a todos os cidadãos para que se abstenham de comportamentos que possam colocar em risco a segurança rodoviária e provocar acidentes.

Por: Dino Frazão
09/09/2026

————————————————–
© 2026 Os Monhacas. Todos os direitos reservados.
Este é um projeto independente de criação de conteúdos.
Se gostou do que leu e ainda não é seguidor, siga a nossa página para ver mais conteúdos!
————————————————–

O conteúdo Divisão de Trânsito da PSP detém 254 pessoas em agosto por crimes rodoviários aparece primeiro em OS MONHACAS.

The Extraordinary Untold Story of Freddie Mercury: Mary Austin on Her Best Friend–and Love of Her Life

9 September 2026 at 20:32

Mary Austin was the woman behind Freddie Mercury, quietly supporting him for decades, from their intense early romance to the long years they remained close friends after accepting that he was gay. The vast legacy he left her—his home, much of his fortune, and his most personal belongings—has been a mixed blessing that she has spent her life trying to navigate with loyalty and discretion. As Simon Hattenstone explores Austin’s life in this interview, the unresolved emotion of the shared past with Mercury is still palpable.

Did the piano change him? “Yes, there was much more purposeful energy. He would sit at the piano, play the odd key, hum a bit and he looked very happy. Transported.” By now they were spending less time together. When she was working at Biba, he would often be sleeping. When she returned home, he would be preparing for a gig.

They’d been living together for four years when Mercury said he had something to tell her. He struggled to get the words out. He said, ‘I think I’m bisexual.’ I said ‘No, Freddie, I think you’re gay.’” He didn’t argue. Was that a huge upset? “No, it was a huge relief, because I wasn’t sure whether we were travelling in the same direction any more. Some time earlier I saw a dress and thought, that would be a really nice wedding dress. I asked Freddie, is it worth me buying it, and he looked at me and shook his head. So I knew from there on …”

UK parliament hosts TRENDS forum on Muslim Brotherhood networks in Europe

9 September 2026 at 20:54

British parliamentarians, former ministers, researchers and security experts gathered at the House of Lords in London for the sixth TRENDS Annual Forum on Political Islam, focusing on Muslim Brotherhood networks in Europe, education, funding and digital influence.

The London meeting opened the first part of the forum, organized by TRENDS Global and TRENDS Research & Advisory. Proceedings will continue on September 10 at the French Senate in Paris, with a focus on legislative responses and cooperation between European and partner countries.

Opening the event, Dr. Mohammed Abdullah Al Ali, Chairman of Trends Group, argued that political Islamist movements operate across borders and can exploit the openness of democratic societies to build influence in education, media, business and the digital sphere. He stressed the distinction between Islam as a religion and Islamism as a political ideology seeking power and influence.

Dr. Khalifa Mubarak Al Dhaheri, Director of Mohammed Bin Zayed University for Humanities, focused on Britain, describing it as a longstanding centre for individuals and networks associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam. He said the organization should not be treated as representative of Muslims in Britain or elsewhere in Europe and warned that ideological loyalties placed above citizenship can create “societies within societies.”

From Education to Funding

The first session examined the Brotherhood’s ideological structures and its influence on education and younger generations. Participants also discussed the Gaza Children’s Village, established in July 2025 by Palestinian-American neurosurgeon Dr. David Hassan in cooperation with IMPACT-se, as an alternative educational model to counter incitement and extremism.

The second session turned to legislation, prevention and enforcement. Lord Walney, who moderated the discussion, urged a review of existing legal tools and warned of a “blind spot” allowing some networks and think tanks to penetrate charities and the education sector. He also advocated greater intelligence sharing and international cooperation.

Baroness Foster of Oxton addressed financial oversight, arguing for tighter scrutiny of charities, their funding and tax benefits. Former MP Daniel Kawczynski urged the Home Office to respond to parliamentary demands to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and designate it as a terrorist organization. Lady Olga Maitland warned that “soft extremism” and structures targeting young people require updated legislation.

Matthew J. Leavitt of the Labour Party described the Brotherhood as a “multi-headed beast” and urged Britain to examine evidence gathered in Austria, Germany and France. Major Jason Olson, a U.S. Navy officer and former counter-extremism official, argued that prevention should begin in schools.

Markus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, identified education as the first line of defence against digital extremism, advocating critical thinking and digital literacy in school curricula.

Pressure for a UK Response

Sir Oliver Dowden, former Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the UK-UAE Parliamentary Friendship Group, addressed the Brotherhood and its links to extremism, noting growing attention to the issue among British parliamentarians and the need for institutions to better assess potential threats to the United Kingdom.

Tom Wilson, Chairman of the Counter Extremism Group, and Dr. Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, highlighted the legal and media difficulties involved in exposing front organizations. They announced the “Ban the Brotherhood” campaign and proposed using parliamentary privilege to bring evidence into the public domain.

Professor Andrew Davies of the University of Birmingham advocated carefully targeted bans on organizations that threaten social cohesion and religious pluralism. Professor David Abrahams, Senior Adviser at the Arab Global Network and former Deputy Chairman of RUSI, described political Islam as an “existential threat” while stressing the need to protect religious freedom and pluralism.

Alessandro Bertoldi, Executive Director of Italy’s Milton Friedman Institute, questioned whether a ban alone would be sufficient without confronting the Brotherhood’s operational tools. He also raised the need to monitor the use of artificial intelligence to spread its messaging.

Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, advocated an international alliance against extremist ideology, noting that Muslims themselves are among its largest victims. Imam Mohammed Tawhidi, counter-extremism adviser at TRENDS, described the Brotherhood as the “parent company” of organizations including al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hamas, while stressing that the vast majority of Western Muslims reject this approach.

Measuring the Brotherhood’s Reach

TRENDS researcher Hamad Al Hosani argued that the Brotherhood increasingly operates through flexible networks and community institutions able to exploit democratic freedoms. Any response, he said, should protect national security without collectively stigmatizing Muslim communities.

Badriya Al Riyami presented figures from the 2025 Global Brotherhood Power Index. Europe ranked fourth at 17.0%, behind the Americas at 24.8%, Asia at 22.5% and Africa at 20.2%. She described Europe as an important political and media base for the organization.

Participants recommended moving beyond procedural bans by addressing networks and ideological structures, strengthening educational programs and improving capabilities to track extremist content spread through digital platforms and artificial intelligence. Citizenship and tolerance education were identified as key preventive tools.

The meeting drew a broad parliamentary and political audience, including Richard Tice, Sir Robert John Blackman, Baroness Deech, Baroness Foster of Oxton, Nadhim Zahawi, Lord Howard of Lympne, Lord Austin of Dudley, Lord Eric Pickles, Sir Michael Ellis and Sir Oliver Dowden.

Journalists attending included Marcus Donaldson of GB News, Camilla Turner of the Sunday Telegraph and Natalie Lisbona of the Daily Mail.

The forum now moves from Westminster to the French Senate, where its second part will examine legislative responses, research cooperation and measures to counter Brotherhood-linked networks while protecting religious freedom and equal citizenship.

Commission promises to cut EU public procurement rulebook from 900 pages to 200

9 September 2026 at 20:36

The European Commission wants to cut the EU’s public procurement rulebook from around 900 pages to 200, in a sweeping reform that aims to simplify tendering while giving governments greater scope to favour European economic and security interests, writes Catherine Feore.

Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné held up the existing body of rules alongside its much slimmer replacement, to illustrate his point. 

“These here are the European rules which currently govern public procurement in Europe: 900 pages,” he said. “And this is what we are proposing today… down to 200 pages.”

The proposed Public Procurement Act would replace three EU procurement directives with a single regulation, with a view to simplifying procurement provisions spread across 26 sectoral laws and cutting the number of procedures from five to three.

The Commission estimates the changes could save businesses and public authorities €650 million a year in administrative costs.

The reform matters because of Europe’s massive purchasing power involved. EU public procurement exceeds €2.5 trillion annually, around 15% of EU GDP, covering everything from trains and hospitals to energy infrastructure, schools and IT systems.

From lowest price to strategic purchasing

The proposal is not just about cutting red tape. Brussels wants governments to use their purchasing power more strategically.

The Best Price-Quality Ratio would become the standard method for awarding contracts, with quality normally accounting for at least 30% of the assessment and 50% for labour-intensive contracts. Authorities could consider environmental and social performance, innovation, security and resilience alongside price.

The commitment to a so-called European preference has been tempered by the EU’s international commitments, but access can be restricted when a country doesn’t reciprocate market access. Restrictions could also be imposed where reliance on foreign suppliers creates security-of-supply dependencies or threatens EU economic security.

“European public money should, wherever possible, create jobs, investment and opportunities in Europe rather than filling the order books of our competitors,” Séjourné said.

Five procurement procedures would become three: open, dynamic and innovation procedures. Each would allow negotiation between buyers and bidders.

The Commission also plans an integrated EU digital procurement marketplace connecting national e-procurement platforms. A company registered through one connected system should be able to bid elsewhere in Europe without repeatedly submitting the same documentation. This is intended to reduce bureaucracy and tackle one of the current system's weaknesses: too little competition, particularly from SMEs and companies bidding across borders.

National, regional and local priorities may appreciate this flexibility in theory, but constrained budgets often mean that price will remain the bottom line for many. This legislation offers greater freedom in determining needs, but it remains to be seen what its impact will be.

PHOTO CREDIT: European Commission Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné says the rules reduced from 900 pages to 200 pages © European Union

Colisão no IC8 na Sertã provoca cinco feridos ligeiros e condiciona trânsito

9 September 2026 at 20:29

Uma colisão entre três veículos ligeiros ao quilómetro 95,8 do IC8, no concelho da Sertã, provocou cinco feridos ligeiros esta quarta-feira, dia 9 de setembro. O acidente ocorreu entre os nós de Pedrógão Pequeno e Carvalhal, no distrito de Castelo Branco.

O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado às 17h47, segundo fonte do Comando Sub-Regional de Emergência e Proteção Civil da Beira Baixa. Devido à necessidade de limpeza das vias e remoção das viaturas envolvidas, a circulação rodoviária foi cortada em ambos os sentidos a partir das 18h21, tendo a via sido reaberta perto das 19h50.

As causas que estiveram na origem do sinistro são ainda desconhecidas. Nas operações de socorro e apoio no local estiveram envolvidos 15 operacionais e seis veículos dos Bombeiros Voluntários da Sertã, da Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) e das Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP).

Por: Dino Frazão
09/09/2026

————————————————–
© 2026 Os Monhacas. Todos os direitos reservados.
Este é um projeto independente de criação de conteúdos.
Se gostou do que leu e ainda não é seguidor, siga a nossa página para ver mais conteúdos!
————————————————–

O conteúdo Colisão no IC8 na Sertã provoca cinco feridos ligeiros e condiciona trânsito aparece primeiro em OS MONHACAS.

O amigo do Flávio Bolsonaro em Angra dos Reis

9 September 2026 at 20:24

Investigamos o que importa para os brasileiros além do que passa na campanha eleitoral. Leia mais reportagens como essa clicando aqui.

Era uma presença discreta no palco montado na Avenida Paulista, em São Paulo, no feriado de 7 de Setembro. Posou para fotos com o deputado federal Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) e com o governador Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos-SP). Abraçou os candidatos ao Congresso Lucas Pavanato (PL-SP) e Guilherme Derrite (PP-SP), gravou vídeos para suas redes com o aspirante a vice-presidente Alfredo Gaspar (PL-AL) e estava sempre perto da vedete mais disputada da tarde, o senador, presidenciável e seu “amigo-irmão”, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ). Para as 28 mil pessoas presentes no ato da direita, era um completo desconhecido. 

Renato Araújo, empresário de 40 anos nascido em Angra dos Reis, tem provocado ciúmes no entorno de Flávio pela proximidade entre eles. “Agora ele só quer saber desse Renato. Com os amigos das antigas, ele nem responde mensagem, deve achar que já está eleito e não precisa mais da gente”, disse à Agência Pública um amigo da família. Nesta eleição, aproximaram-se ainda mais. Tanto que, há pouco mais de uma semana, no dia 29 de agosto, Araújo organizou em Angra uma motociata e uma carreata de barcos em apoio a campanha de Flávio – e para alavancar sua própria candidatura a deputado federal, embora a bênção dos Bolsonaro tenha sido em vão há dois anos, quando foi derrotado ao tentar ser prefeito de sua terra natal. 

Publicação de Renato Araújo durante o ato de Flávio Bolsonaro na Av. Paulista, em SP, no dia 7 de setembro
Publicação de Renato Araújo durante o ato de Flávio Bolsonaro na Av. Paulista, em SP, no dia 7 de setembro

Coordenador regional do Partido Liberal na região da Costa Verde desde maio de 2025, escolhido por Jair Bolsonaro e pelo presidente da sigla, Valdemar da Costa Neto, Renato Araújo passou a figurar nas páginas policiais do noticiário fluminense nas últimas semanas. Em agosto, a Operação Sarasvati, da Polícia Civil, cumpriu 20 mandados de busca e apreensão em sete cidades do estado do Rio, entre elas Angra dos Reis. Os agentes da Delegacia Fazendária bateram na porta da Bravo Construções, empreiteira fundada por Araújo em 2011 e atualmente no nome de sua esposa, Tainá Nóbrega de Souza. Até o ano passado, ele seguia assinando como diretor-geral da construtora.

A investigação revelou um esquema de fraudes na execução de obras em escolas públicas montado na Secretaria Estadual de Educação, que direcionava reformas milionárias na rede de ensino para um grupo de empresas selecionadas – a maioria com pouco tempo de experiência, donos em comum e 13 delas com a mesma contadora. Depoimentos de diretores das unidades escolares indicam que a secretaria os obrigava a contratar essas empreiteiras sob pena de não realização das obras caso houvesse questionamento. Além disso, as intervenções aprovadas não costumavam ter nenhuma relação com o que era solicitado.

Um escândalo de R$ 16 milhões em telhados de escolas

Segundo o deputado estadual Flávio Serafini (PSOL-RJ), presidente da comissão de servidores da Assembleia Legislativa do Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) e responsável pela denúncia que embasou as duas investigações ainda em andamento – da Polícia Civil e uma outra da Polícia Federal –, “há fortes indícios de que a finalidade das obras era lavagem de dinheiro”, disse o deputado à Agência Pública. 

A Bravo Construções recebeu R$16 milhões do erário estadual para realizar reparos em quinze escolas. O gabinete de Serafini visitou três delas entre outubro de 2025 e janeiro de 2026. Em um relatório produzido pelo gabinete e entregue em janeiro de 2026 às autoridades, entre elas o Tribunal de Contas do Estado, constam todas irregularidades encontradas.

Deputado Flávio Serafini, autor da denúncia sobre obras em escolas do RJ, aponta indícios de superfaturamento e lavagem de dinheiro
Deputado Flávio Serafini, autor da denúncia sobre obras em escolas do RJ, aponta indícios de superfaturamento e lavagem de dinheiro

A Pública teve acesso ao documento e conversou com o assessor parlamentar que fez as visitas. No Colégio Estadual Antonio da Silva, em Nova Iguaçu, havia necessidade de reforma hidráulica estrutural para evitar os alagamentos constantes decorrentes da proximidade com o Rio Botas, que fica ao lado da unidade e costuma encher em dias de chuva. No início de 2024, a instituição precisou adiar o início do ano letivo por causa desse problema. Apesar disso, a vistoria promovida pela secretaria desviou-se da demanda apontada pela direção e determinou como prioridade a “substituição de telhas e madeiramento” do telhado. 

As telhas foram retiradas, lavadas e devolvidas, sem sequer serem trocadas, ao custo de R$ 800 mil. O valor causa ainda mais estranheza por se tratar de uma construção pequena, com apenas 12 salas de aula. Outras intervenções na unidade – que não resolveram o problema inicial apresentado pela direção – elevaram o custo para R$ 2,2 milhões. De acordo com o assessor parlamentar que realizou a visita, “não precisava nem ser engenheiro para ver que fizeram uma maquiagem. O negócio foi tão mal feito que a comunidade ficou indignada”.

O segundo colégio visitado – entre os 15 reformados pela Bravo – foi o Embaixador Raul Fernandes, em Niterói. A diretora havia pedido o conserto de uma parede no banheiro, uma solicitação que já havia sido feita anteriormente. O então diretor da regional Baixadas Litorâneas, da Secretaria Estadual de Educação, chamado Jorge Paes, mandou para a diretora a cotação da Bravo por WhatsApp. Contratada pela escola, a Bravo terceirizou a reforma, o que não é permitido pela legislação estadual nos casos em que não há edital de licitação. Mas a vistoria feita pela própria secretaria apontou que a obra a ser feita deveria ser a mesma da unidade de Nova Iguaçu: reforma do telhado, com substituição de telhas, limpeza das calhas e substituição dos rufos. O custo total foi de R$ 1,6 milhão, sendo que esta unidade é ainda menor do que a primeira, com nove salas de aula e 155 alunos.

A terceira unidade visitada pelo assessor legislativo foi um dos maiores colégios do estado, o Albert Sabin, no bairro de Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro, onde estudam dois mil alunos. Havia uma determinação do Ministério Público Estadual para que o governo ampliasse o refeitório. Apesar disso, a obra indicada, novamente após vistoria da secretaria, foi a reforma da cozinha e dos banheiros – trocaram quatro portas e pintaram duas paredes, segundo o assessor que esteve duas vezes na unidade. O valor da intervenção, feita em apenas um mês – entre setembro e outubro de 2025 –, foi fixado pela secretaria em R$ 377,8 mil. 

O esquema se aproveitava da descentralização de recursos da secretaria via Associações de Apoio à Escola (AAEs), um mecanismo criado para permitir que pequenos reparos emergenciais e de manutenção predial sejam resolvidos com menos burocracia, sem licitação. Entre 2018 e 2020, os valores anuais ficaram entre R$ 58,6 milhões e R$ 102,8 milhões, segundo informações do Sistema Integrado de Gestão Orçamentária, Financeira e Contábil (SiafeRio) levantadas pelo gabinete de Serafini. Nos últimos dois anos contabilizados, 2024 e 2025, já no governo do bolsonarista Cláudio Castro (PL-RJ), os valores subiram para R$ 630,2 milhões e R$ 513,3 milhões, respectivamente. 

“O que encontramos foi muito grave: havia indícios de burla à legislação de licitações, com empresas previamente escolhidas e colégios coagidos a contratá-las. As obras tinham valores superdimensionados e os serviços sequer correspondiam ao que estava previsto nos contratos. Uma obra que poderia custar R$ 80 mil era contratada por quase dez vezes mais. Essa diferença, segundo as apurações que motivaram as denúncias, alimentava um esquema criminoso articulado por interesses políticos e empresariais ligados à direita do Rio de Janeiro”, afirma Serafini. 

“As denúncias que fizemos sobre a máfia das obras permitiram estancar um esquema que movimentou mais de R$ 1 bilhão nos últimos dois anos. Em um estado que paga um dos piores salários do país aos seus educadores e que ocupa posições preocupantes no Ideb, é um verdadeiro descalabro imaginar que recursos públicos destinados às escolas tenham sido drenados dessa maneira.”

Serafini cita Renato Araújo ao lembrar que ele chegou a contratar influenciadores para debochar das acusações nas redes sociais e dizer que se tratavam de fake news. “Hoje esse mesmo empresário é apresentado pela família Bolsonaro como aposta do PL para a Câmara dos Deputados. Isso mostra a dimensão política do problema e um saldo estarrecedor desse modelo de gestão bolsonarista no Rio.”

Uma indicação a dedo por Cláudio Castro

O valor dos repasses via AAEs explodiu quando a secretária estadual de educação era Roberta Barreto. Segundo as investigações, ela foi indicada ao cargo pelo então presidente da Alerj, o ex-deputado estadual Rodrigo Bacellar, do União Brasil-RJ, aliado de Cláudio Castro. Bacellar está preso desde março de 2026, acusado de vazar informações de operações para o Comando Vermelho, mas já havia sido preso em dezembro do ano anterior pelo vazamento de informações sigilosas de operação da Polícia Federal para o então deputado estadual Thiego Raimundo dos Santos Silva (MDB-RJ), o TH Joias, ourives de facções criminosas no Rio – e que também está preso sob suspeita de negociar armas para o Comando Vermelho. 

É um caso paralelo, mas dentro do guarda-chuva da operação Unha e Carne, da Polícia Federal, que prendeu este ano mais um deputado estadual: Thiago Rangel (Avante-RJ), envolvido diretamente no esquema das escolas públicas. Nessa mesma fase da operação da PF, foi expedido novo mandado de prisão contra Rodrigo Bacellar (que já estava no cárcere) e também contra Rui Bulhões, seu ex-chefe de gabinete. As duas prisões, de Bacellar e Rangel, foram expedidas pelo ministro Alexandre de Moraes, do Supremo Tribunal Federal. 

As irregularidades na Secretaria Estadual de Educação levaram o Tribunal de Contas do Estado a determinar em abril o fim dos pagamentos às empresas envolvidas. A secretaria prometeu à época uma revisão administrativa dos procedimentos relacionados às obras e citou a Lei de Licitações 14.133 como novo parâmetro, transferindo intervenções mais vultosas para a Empresa de Obras Públicas do Estado (EMOP). À Pública, o governo estadual disse que o contrato referente à execução de obras em colégios já foi encerrado. “A pasta esclarece ainda que, ao longo de 2026, não realizou qualquer repasse de recursos para obras escolares” às empreiteiras investigadas. Existe um processo em curso no Ministério Público Estadual, também motivado pelas denúncias do gabinete do deputado estadual Flávio Serafini, e a Operação Sarasvati foi consequência dele. As investigações da Polícia Civil e da Polícia Federal continuam.

O candidato da família Bolsonaro

Não tivesse sido preso, Bacellar seria o candidato apoiado pela família Bolsonaro ao governo do Rio de Janeiro. Ele foi levado à casa de Bolsonaro em Angra dos Reis pelo próprio Renato Araújo, que passava muito tempo com o ex-presidente – Bolsonaro chegou a ir ao aniversário de seis anos do filho caçula de Araújo, e também passaram juntos uma véspera de Natal, além dos passeios de lancha ou jet ski no mar esmeralda da Costa Verde. Só após a prisão de Bacellar foi lançado o nome de Douglas Ruas, do PL-RJ, que também estava no ato de 7 de Setembro na Avenida Paulista. O amigo da família Bolsonaro ouvido pela Pública confirmou o que já é sabido por muitas pessoas no Rio: já estava definido pelo ex-presidente que Renato Araújo seria candidato a vice-governador na chapa de Bacellar. 

“Em pouco tempo ele virou amigo do Bolsonaro, mas eles só se aproximaram depois da reforma na casa de Angra, que ele fez questão de fazer”, diz essa pessoa próxima da família, informação que foi confirmada pela Pública com outras fontes. A casa em questão fica à beira-mar na Vila Histórica de Mambucaba e foi construída por Bolsonaro nos anos 1990. Nas eleições de 2024, antes de endossar Araújo na corrida para a prefeitura de Angra, o ex-presidente prometeu apoio ao ex-vice-prefeito da cidade, Christiano Alvernaz (PP), mas algo o fez mudar de posição e ele decidiu lançar Araújo nas urnas pela primeira vez. 

O próprio Renato Araújo admitiu, em entrevista ao Metrópoles, que emprestou funcionários da Bravo para a obra, embora tenha afirmado que apenas supervisionou o trabalho e atuou como amigo.. Não se sabe exatamente quanto a obra custou, mas a PF encontrou na sede do PL um contrato não assinado da reforma, no valor de R$ 900 mil, que mencionava trocas de piso e esquadrias, abertura de paredes, reconstrução de um muro, pintura do imóvel por dentro e por fora e conserto do telhado. Em suas redes, o ex-presidente garantiu ter pago tudo no Pix com seu dinheiro. 

Renato Araújo também é sócio-administrador da Bellavista Portogalo Empreendimentos, projeto de condomínio de luxo com 31 mansões planejado para Angra dos Reis em um terreno de 320 mil metros quadrados, o equivalente a 20% do tamanho do Parque do Ibirapuera, em São Paulo. Dessa área total, 8 mil metros quadrados ficam em terreno de marinha, a menos de 33 metros do mar medidos em linha horizontal — exatamente a categoria de imóvel que a PEC das Praias, sob relatoria de Flávio Bolsonaro no Senado Federal, propõe transferir a estados, municípios e particulares, eliminando cobrança de foro, taxa de ocupação e laudêmio (tributo pago à União quando o imóvel é vendido). 

Em agosto de 2024, a revista piauí revelou que o empreendimento acumula problemas como denúncias de degradação ambiental, embargo da prefeitura, laudo da Defesa Civil que aponta risco de deslizamento e uma mudança não autorizada no regime de ocupação de parte do terreno, sem comunicação à Secretaria de Patrimônio da União. Um inquérito criminal sobre o caso foi arquivado em 2023 sem indício de crime; outro, cível e ambiental, seguia em aberto no Ministério Público. Questionado pela revista, Araújo negou qualquer ligação de Flávio – um dos principais defensores da Proposta de Emenda à Constituição em questão – com o empreendimento. Aprovada na Câmara em 2022, a PEC das Praias segue parada na Comissão de Constituição e Justiça do Senado desde dezembro de 2024, quando um pedido de vista suspendeu a votação.

Renato Araújo: da infância pobre aos jet-skis em Angra

Mergulhador experiente, Araújo costuma dizer que teve uma infância pobre e que sua família passava necessidade. Hoje o cenário é bem diferente. Ele declarou ao Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) possuir R$ 3,5 milhões em bens, entre eles dois apartamentos de R$ 400 mil cada, dois automóveis no valor de R$ 250 mil e R$ 330 mil, e dois jet-skis de R$ 40 mil e R$ 100 mil – um deles ele costumava emprestar para Bolsonaro, que lhe deu uma medalha em janeiro de 2024 com os dizeres “imorrível, imbrochável e incomível”. Araújo costuma se locomover de helicóptero em pequenas viagens, como quando participou de um pequeno trecho da “Caminhada pela Liberdade”, em janeiro deste ano, liderada pelo deputado federal Nikolas Ferreira. No seu instagram, há inúmeras fotos com a família Bolsonaro. No último aniversário de Flávio, no dia 30 de abril, ele postou um vídeo em seu Instagram com inúmeras imagens dos dois juntos e um agradecimento: “Aqui você tem um amigo querido, um irmão. Obrigado pela oportunidade que você me deu de entrar na sua vida”. É uma relação tão próxima que, em uma de suas lives, Jair Bolsonaro chegou a dizer que adotaria Araújo.

Na véspera das carreatas de moto e de barco em Angra dos Reis, que se tornaram um grande evento do PL na cidade, Renato Araújo divulgou uma mensagem na qual disse aos seus seguidores: “Não se surpreendam se, na véspera de recebermos nosso próximo presidente, apareça (sic) novamente a covardia dessa política que acha que vai calar aqueles que escolheram o lado do bem”. Ele temia uma nova operação da Polícia Civil, que acabou não acontecendo. Procurado pela Pública, Araújo não respondeu ao pedido de entrevista, assim como Flávio Bolsonaro – o espaço segue aberto para manifestações. Embora não tenha discursado no Dia da Independência para os presentes na Avenida Paulista, Araújo gravou um vídeo em cima do palco para suas redes. Disse que “vivemos um momento de guerra” no país, que “está muito fácil escolher um lado” e que seu lado é “o lado do bem, que defende a família, a liberdade e quem é a favor do crescimento do Brasil”.

Young Voters Confront USPS Board of Governors About Mail-In Ballots

9 September 2026 at 20:01

Young voters interrupted the United States Postal Service Board of Governors closed door meeting to request the Governors reject the administration’s plan to intercede in mail-in ballot efforts. They delivered ballots in USPS official mail boxes asking the Governors to deliver ballots uninterrupted like past election years.

"Postmaster General, Board of Governors, you get to decide, will millions Americans have their ballots tossed out or do Americans still get to pick their own leaders. Can you commit to us, to the public today, that you will mail every ballot out and not cave to Donald Trump's political demands?” asked 24 year old Georgia voter Alex Ames.

"Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We are in a private meeting. We appreciate the feedback,” said Board of Governors Member and Chair Amber F. McReynolds.

"We understand it’s a meeting but this is also an emergency. Ballots have already started getting mailed out..if all these ballots get tossed out potentially young voters, potentially millions of people might not have their ballots delivered,” continued Ames. “Can you commit to not tossing out people’s ballots?”

"Thank you for sharing this feedback but this is a different subject for meeting, " responded McReynolds.

Young voters carried ballots in USPS packages with the words “Let us vote,” “we love the USPS,” and “count my ballot” attached.

"I’m worried young people’s voices won't be heard in November because their ballots won't be delivered. Trump is threatening not just our ability to mail our vote but our right to decide our future and the direction of our country,” said 24 year old voter Stella Lovelady. “Young people, like all Americans, have a right to elect our leaders and have our voices heard. I confronted the Board of Governors because they made a commitment to the country–to not just deliver our mail but to honor our values, protect our constitution and fight for what is just. I have the right to vote, to elect my leaders and I expect the Board of Governors to reject this desperate attempt by the Trump administration to steal that from the people. Speak out Governors–please, fight for me.”

Sunrise Movement, the youth climate action organization, called on the USPS Board to reject Trump’s executive order, noting nearly 47 million Americans vote by mail and calling on the USPS to focus on delivering the mail and not deciding who is eligible to receive a ballot.

"Trump is desperate. He sees the writing on the wall and has decided the only way he can win is if possibly millions of people can’t vote,” said Sunrise Movement Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay. “The American people won't let that happen. We’ll defeat this wannabe dictator in November like we did in 2020–with our votes, our voices and our peaceful actions.”

Sunrise Movement is currently making millions of voter contact attempts to elect progressive, climate champions to Congress like Abdhul El-Sayed, Donavan McKinney, William Lawrence and Troy Jackson. These races currently face threats of electoral sabotage from the administration.

“Israel Revoked the Fourth Amendment”—Spy Tech Infiltrates U.S. Police Cars to Track Your Phone Without Warrant

9 September 2026 at 19:53

US police are now armed with Israeli spy vans carrying Israeli military-grade surveillance hardware that can track every single phone in your pocket, your purse, your child’s backpack, without your knowledge, without your consent, and without a [...]

The post “Israel Revoked the Fourth Amendment”—Spy Tech Infiltrates U.S. Police Cars to Track Your Phone Without Warrant appeared first on The People's Voice.

Israel/OPT: Settlement trade restrictions must be followed by further concrete measures to end Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid

9 September 2026 at 19:34

Responding to the announcement by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK that they plan to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and are considering further measures, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas said:

“The announcement that 12 states plan to introduce restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international humanitarian law, is a welcome, if long overdue, development that must pave the way for the adoption of further measures to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and institutionalized system of apartheid imposed against Palestinians.

“The measures announced so far, while important, fall far short of meeting the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 instructions to states ‘not to render aid or assistance’ in maintaining Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian Territory.

“Settlement creation and expansion – with state-backed settler violence now a central tool driving displacement and dispossession at unprecedented levels under the current Israeli government – are a core component of Israel’s policy and cannot be separated from its overarching system of apartheid.

“Entire Palestinian communities face the imminent risk of erasure in the West Bank amidst an ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign. Meanwhile Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip continue to battle for survival amidst Israel’s ongoing genocide.

To truly tackle the violations stemming from illegal settlements states must go further; they must target the very infrastructure that funds, sustains and supports Israel’s unlawful occupation.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International

“To truly tackle the violations stemming from illegal settlements states must go further; they must target the very infrastructure that funds, sustains and supports Israel’s unlawful occupation. This requires imposing measures on key entities, including Israeli government ministries, implicated in establishing, maintaining and providing material support to illegal settlements and settlement infrastructure, as well as taking effective action to prevent and halt the forcible transfer of Palestinians.

“All states must make absolutely clear that they will no longer provide political, financial and military support that contributes to Israel’s serious and systematic violations of international law.

“They must also impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel Katz and Orit Strock as Israeli officials directly implicated in the ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank, and in maintaining Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid. They must also ban the transfer of arms and security equipment that risk facilitating Israeli violations.

“For their part, EU states must now call on President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to present them with a proposal for a comprehensive EU-wide ban on trade with settlements, and on key states to support it, including Italy and Germany. They must also take the next logical step and suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

“There is no longer any room for excuses, delays or half measures. Failure to act decisively to tackle Israel’s mass violations against Palestinians sends a dangerous signal that states are unwilling to uphold their own legal obligations. It also emboldens the Israeli authorities to continue violating international law with impunity while denying Palestinians meaningful protection.”

Federal Appeals Court Hears Baseless Challenge to the Abortion Pill Mifepristone — Again

9 September 2026 at 19:33

A federal appeals court today will again hear a lawsuit designed to restrict abortion access nationwide by banning mail and pharmacy dispensing of mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in two-thirds of U.S. abortions as well as for miscarriage care. The hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the latest step in a legal battle in which anti-abortion politicians are seeking to make abortion harder for patients to access, even in states where abortion is protected. Today, nearly 30 percent of people who have abortions in the U.S. access care through telemedicine and pharmacy dispensing.

“Abortion opponents will stop at nothing to try to end medication abortion in every state,” said Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. “Preventing people from getting their mifepristone prescription by mail and at pharmacies is just the start. But we’re not standing by as the courts and the Trump administration weigh whether to reduce access based on tired anti-abortion lies. The ACLU will use every tool we have to protect access to this safe and effective medication for people across the country.”

In May, the Fifth Circuit ruled for Louisiana, resulting in a brief disruption of telehealth access to mifepristone before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily paused the appeals court’s decision while the litigation continues. The case is widely expected to return to the Supreme Court. Any decision from the Fifth Circuit to limit telehealth access will be on hold until then.

Legal challenges are not the only threat to patients’ ability to access mifepristone. Despite use by millions of patients, hundreds of studies, and decades of evidence proving mifepristone’s safety, including when prescribed through telemedicine, the Trump administration, after intense lobbying from abortion opponents and their allies in Congress, is conducting yet another review of mifepristone as a pretext for imposing extreme and medically unjustified restrictions on access to the medication. The administration announced the review citing one self-published report that grossly distorts mifepristone’s safety record. This report has since been widely debunked, including by more than 250 experts.

Regardless of whether restrictions on mifepristone come from the courts or from the Trump administration, ending telehealth and pharmacy access will devastate patients’ ability to get this essential medication. Without telemedicine and pharmacy access, patients using mifepristone would be forced to travel, sometimes hundreds of miles, to a health center just to pick up a pill, a requirement that leading medical authorities agree has no safety benefit.

Both the public and experts agree: the federal government should not further restrict mifepristone. A July 2026 survey found that two-thirds of U.S. adults oppose nationwide restrictions on mifepristone and medication abortion. And a wide range of experts — from emergency medicine physicians to experts in intimate partner violence to drug developers — submitted amicus briefs in the Supreme Court and in the court of appeals opposing this nationwide restriction as medically unjustified and harmful to people seeking care.

Héctor Socas, astrophysicist: ‘If a more advanced civilization contacted us, they should be more afraid of us than we are of them’

9 September 2026 at 19:32

Classes are over at Madrid’s Complutense University, and the corridors of the Faculty of Physical Sciences are nearly empty. But Héctor Socas, 53, a researcher at Spain’s Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, is spending part of an early summer morning in a meeting of the international AtLAST consortium, which is promoting the construction of a major radio telescope in Chile. Socas also directs the European Solar Telescope Foundation, one of Spain’s most ambitious astronomy projects.

Seguir leyendo

© Ismael Nasrollah (EL PAÍS)

Héctor Socas in Madrid.
❌