Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The market above the abyss

A densely symbolic illustration depicts a towering financial metropolis at night, rendered in deep blue and incandescent orange. A blazing stock-market graph surges erratically across the skyscrapers before arcing overhead, while a steam locomotive races along a precarious elevated track beside a charging Wall Street bull. Beneath the city, enormous gears, pressure gauges, pistons and pipelines expose a vast industrial mechanism sustaining the apparent prosperity above. A glass lift containing a miniature illuminated skyline descends into the machinery, while an immense fissure opens towards a harbour at sunset, suggesting that spectacular market growth rests upon increasingly unstable foundations.
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Historical precedent and Trump-related chaos suggest a US stock market crash is a legitimate possibility. {The Motley Fool 1 September}

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/stock-market-crash-imminent-under-082601339.html

FTA: The stock market has soared under President Trump. 

But these gains under President Trump have also occurred amid historic bouts of volatility. During the unforeseen COVID-19 crash, the broad-based S&P 500 shed 34% of its value in 33 calendar days. Likewise, the "tariff tantrum" in early April 2025 witnessed the S&P 500 lose more than 10% of its value over just two trading sessions.

It begs the question: Is a stock market crash imminent under President Donald Trump?

While short-term directional moves in Wall Street's major stock indexes can't be guaranteed, 85 years of historical precedent offers an answer -- and investors might not be thrilled with it.

Trump's second term has been packed with geopolitical/major events

Since Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, he's been somewhat of a magnet for major geopolitical and historical events.

There was the aforementioned tariff tantrum, involving the April 2025 unveiling of sweeping global tariffs and higher reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries deemed to have unfavorable trade imbalances with America. The U.S. also bombed nuclear facilities in Iran in June 2025, removed Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, in early January 2026, and began military operations against Iran at the end of February 2026.

Shortly after the Trump-led Iran war began, Carson Group's Chief Market Strategist, Ryan Detrick, published a data set to X (formerly Twitter) examining the performance of the benchmark S&P 500 at various intervals following more than three dozen stock market shock events since the start of 1940.

Using data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, CFRA, and Carson Group's own research, Detrick and his team determined that, on average, the S&P 500 gained 3% one year after a market shock event officially began. Furthermore, the S&P 500 was higher following 65% of qualifying shock events.

Although a 3% gain is well below the long-term annualized return of the broad-based S&P 500, it's nevertheless a positive outcome amid heightened periods of uncertainty.

Based solely on the headline figure from Detrick's data set, a stock market crash doesn't appear likely under President Trump. However, there's a bit more nuance to Carson Group's data set than meets the eye.

One scenario makes stock market crashes likelier, and Trump is overseeing it right now

Though nearly two-thirds of geopolitical and major market shock events spanning more than 85 years were followed by S&P 500 gains after 12 months, several of the losing events shared a common theme: energy supply disruption.

In October 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal, which Egypt had nationalized in July 1956. The closure of the Suez Canal disrupted oil shipments from the Middle East to Western Europe. The S&P 500 was lower by nearly 12% one year later.

The Oil Embargo of 1973 was an even bigger shock to Wall Street. Arab members of OPEC stopped selling oil to the U.S. and other allies of Israel, leading to a petroleum shortage and substantially higher fuel costs. The benchmark S&P 500 lost 35% of its value over the next year.

The ongoing Iran war features the largest energy supply disruption in modern history. Shortly after Trump approved military attacks against Iran, the latter closed the Strait of Hormuz to virtually all maritime traffic. This effectively halted the daily movement of a fifth of the world's petroleum liquids (about 20 million barrels/day).

Energy supply shocks are the one geopolitical/major historical event that history shows Wall Street struggles to put in the back seat. While this doesn't mean a stock market crash is in any way imminent or guaranteed under President Trump, the likelihood of an elevator-down move amid the largest energy disruption in modern history is certainly heightened.

Making matters worse, evidence is mounting that Iran-war-driven Trumpflation has spilled beyond the energy sector. The price stickiness of Core Personal Consumption Expenditures, which excludes volatile food and energy costs and provides economists with a clearer view of long-term price trends, has been stuck at roughly 3.3%-3.4% for months. This suggests that businesses are incurring higher production and transportation costs as a result of the Strait of Hormuz's closure, which are being passed on to consumers.

If Trump-driven inflation (i.e., Trumpflation) entrenches itself in the broader economy, persistently elevated inflation would make outsize stock market returns unlikely.

While there's no imminent threat of a stock market crash under Donald Trump, the historical puzzle pieces do suggest a heightened likelihood of an elevator-down move and/or a substantial pullback in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite.

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Monday, August 31, 2026

Blue hour in the neighbourhood

image generated via ChatGPT

Florida: an eleven-year-old boy menaces other children on the playground with a semi-automatic handgun. {WCJB/Gray News 31 August}

https://www.wafb.com/2026/08/31/11-year-old-threatens-children-with-gun-playground-deputies-say/

FTA: ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. (WCJB/Gray News) - Florida deputies arrested an 11-year-old boy accused of threatening other children with a gun at a neighborhood playground.

Alachua County Sheriff’s deputies say they were called to reports of an armed disturbance in a neighborhood near Eastside High School on Saturday morning. The incident, they said, did not happen on campus.

Two children told deputies that they were inside a home when they saw the 11-year-old suspect through their window on the playground.

An argument broke out, and they said the suspect grabbed a semi-automatic handgun. He then allegedly walked up to the victim’s window and knocked on it with the gun, threatening to shoot them.

An adult in the house called 911, and the suspect left the area. Deputies found the boy at his home and arrested him.

The 11-year-old was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intention to kill.

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In the shadow of the Himalaya

An intricately detailed illustration inspired by Himalayan religious art depicts a catastrophic mountain flood and rescue operation. Beneath immense snowbound peaks, torrents of muddy water and debris descend through shattered valleys, damaged bridges, villages and hydropower installations. At centre, a dark-haired woman in ornate red-and-gold clothing carries a small lamp through the devastation, while other women search flooded ground, operate machinery and enter caves. Below, a cutaway reveals numerous rescuers working within submerged tunnels amid pipes, ladders and rushing water. Decorative floral borders, storm clouds, moonlit mountains and sacred motifs frame the scene, contrasting spiritual beauty with disaster and human peril.
image generated via ChatGPT

Rescue efforts continue in Nepal and Tibet following deadly glacial flooding. {The Guardian 31 August}

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/31/nepal-tibet-floods-rescuers-hundreds-trapped-hydropower

FTA: Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, ​the ⁠country’s disaster ​management authority has said.

The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ​and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 939 people, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. More than 4,400 are missing on the two sides of the border.

About 500 of the missing hydropower workers at projects damaged by the flooding in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts are thought to be trapped in tunnels built to control the flow of water.

As rescue efforts drag on, experts fear the chances of finding survivors in tunnels are diminishing as oxygen levels fall.

Some workers called for help when flooding started on Wednesday and those who had managed to escape tunnels said many of their colleagues were still trapped, said Mohan Kumar Dangi, the president of the Nepal Independent Power Producers’ Association.

Rescue efforts have been complicated by difficult terrain, persistently high flood waters and difficult weather. With more than 40 bridges destroyed, rescuers are relying on helicopters, while India and China are sending prefabricated truss bridges to help restore access.

The swollen Trishuli River has also continued to change course unpredictably, making planning a challenge. Areas that were dry one day are flooded the next, and further floods are a constant concern.

Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, that were swept down the mountains by the torrent, have been buried in shallow graves after DNA testing on the plains ⁠of the Himalayan region.

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The narrative factory

A dark, dystopian editorial illustration depicts a clandestine communications and surveillance centre crowded with machinery, cables, smartphones and illuminated data screens. At centre, a pale, dark-haired woman in a short black dress and stockings sits upon a desk, surrounded by similarly dressed female operatives examining files, devices and network displays. Screens map interconnected anonymous profiles and an official-looking figure, suggesting organised influence operations. Behind them, an ominous mechanical apparatus bristles with cameras beneath red warning lights. A web of glowing cables spreads across the desk and floor, linking numerous phones and evoking covert propaganda, digital manipulation and institutional surveillance.
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Ministers of propaganda: Pentagon found to be secretly installing right-wing military veteran ‘influencers’ in government roles. {WP 30 August}

https://wapo.st/4iExvH4

Hegseth must go. America doth not need this half-baked culture warrior directing the affairs of its armed forces; rather, it requires an individual genuinely competent in the duties and responsibilities attendant upon overseeing the world’s largest fighting force. The incompetence on display is sickening in and of itself, but that they should endeavour to dictate public opinion — at taxpayer expense — on top of it is stunning for its sheer arrogance and effrontery. We are not in World War II, nor in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and the Christian Nationalist agenda now being advanced remains nefarious and thoroughly un-American in every conceivable respect. — 

FTA: The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and corroborating material.

At least some of the influencers have been assigned to civilian roles that could lead to changes in policy, the people familiar with the matter said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Neither the Pentagon nor those involved have disclosed the government roles despite the Trump administration’s claims that they are running the most transparent Defense Department ever.

Those involved include Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel, people familiar with the matter said. Pentagon records reviewed by The Washington Post show that both have active official government email addresses as of this past week and are assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The email addresses include a “.civ” suffix, meaning they are labeled as civilian employees, rather than as military personnel or contractors.

Both served for decades in uniform and, since retiring, have turned from the military to conservative commentary. Maness has more than 135,000 followers on X, while Schlichter has nearly 620,000.

Another retired Army colonel and influencer, Thomas Anderson, was listed in Pentagon records earlier this year with a “.civ” email address and assigned to Tata’s office, according to people familiar with the matter and records reviewed by The Post. An attorney, he writes online under the pen name Cynical Publius and has more than 323,000 followers on X. He was no longer listed in Pentagon records late this past week, the people familiar with the issue said.

The assignments for all three have not previously been reported. Questions have been raised online about influencers’ connections with the Pentagon, including in an article last week by the Bulwark.

Pentagon spokesman Joel Valdez declined to comment to The Post about whether any of the three are drawing a taxpayer-funded salary, what roles they have or how long those jobs are expected to last. Tata did not respond to a request for comment.

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The web tightens

A dark, symbolic illustration depicts a cavernous surveillance chamber dominated by a circular table bearing an intricate silver spider’s web and an array of chess pieces. Glowing monitors cover the surrounding walls with abstract data patterns, while fine strings descend from crossed beams overhead, suggesting manipulation and concealed control. An open steel vault emits an eerie green-white light as loose documents escape into the room, while an hourglass on the table evokes secrecy, power and time running out.
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‘Penetrate the elite’: documents reveal international criminal Andrew Tate urged the lowlifes taking his online courses to engage in espionage against the rich and powerful; also instructed them on ‘building a bottom b**ch’. {Straight Arrow News 28 August}

https://san.com/cc/manosphere-influencer-andrew-tate-faces-sexual-misconduct-charges-a-data-leak-is-exposing-his-secrets/

FTA: A leak of sensitive information from “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate’s online empire reveals that his “War Room” program teaches men to accumulate wealth, attract and control women and “penetrate” the elite, including by exploiting the sexual misbehavior of wealthy acquaintances.

The data provide new insight into the business operations of Andrew Tate, a British-American citizen who has reportedly cultivated relationships with Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump and other figures on the American right even as he and his brother, Tristan, have defended themselves against accusations of sexual assault in two countries.

Material included in the leak shows that the “Penetrating the Elite” class in Tate’s War Room program — little known outside the organization — offers “espionage” training for subscribers aimed at digging up secrets on wealthy individuals for leverage in business deals. Another class teaches participants to categorize women into “exploitable types” who can be manipulated — and, if they don’t follow rules, disciplined.

A security researcher provided the data to Straight Arrow and to the leak-archiving organization DDoSecrets. The researcher detected the leak as the Tate brothers — Andrew is 39; Tristan, 38 — are being held in a federal detention center in Miami while they fight extradition to the United Kingdom to face charges involving at least four alleged victims. In a hearing this week, a federal prosecutor said Andrew Tate is accused in the U.K. of choking and holding victims and raping them, and his brother is accused of human trafficking, money laundering and violence against minors.

“They promote incredible violence against women consistent with the allegations against them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie Waxman told the judge.

Material included in the leak shows that the “Penetrating the Elite” class in Tate’s War Room program — little known outside the organization — offers “espionage” training for subscribers aimed at digging up secrets on wealthy individuals for leverage in business deals. Another class teaches participants to categorize women into “exploitable types” who can be manipulated — and, if they don’t follow rules, disciplined.

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Sunday, August 30, 2026

The papers still fly

A richly painterly illustration depicts a brunette woman seated barefoot upon a cluttered wooden desk in a shadowy academic office at night. She wears an oversized cream shirt loosely draped from one shoulder, with one knee raised as she gazes calmly towards the viewer. Warm lamplight illuminates her figure, an open notebook, scattered papers, spectacles, cameras and coffee mugs, contrasting with the deep blue moonlight beyond tall open windows. Loose sheets appear to flutter through the room on a nocturnal breeze. Outside, beneath a luminous full moon, the Gothic towers of a university campus rise among dark trees, their glowing windows reinforcing the scholarly setting and atmosphere of hard-won intellectual freedom.
image generated via ChatGPT

Federal judge rules the Trump regime cannot deport foreign-born students for being critical of Israel. {AP 29 August}

https://apnews.com/article/israel-protests-deportations-ideological-d3694ba08ab714eb9441ca51a83fa57f

FTA: Judge Noël Wise, in a ruling Friday, delivered a victory for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which has said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat.

“Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only ‘free’ to express complementary views about the government and its leaders,” the judge wrote.

The decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston, who ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.

Wise wrote that the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America’s enduring democracy.” The judge cited free-speech and vagueness flaws that violate the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment as she struck down portions of the provisions that the federal government follows regarding deportations.

Wise cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel’s actions — which a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said amount to genocide. The judge also cited retaliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk after the Turning Point USA co-founder was assassinated last September.

“Tomorrow, or perhaps even today, targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like,” the judge in San Jose said.

“This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely,” she added. “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country’s powerful lack of fear.”

The Justice Department did not respond Saturday to a message seeking comment on the decision.

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Development at the edge of Eden

A richly detailed fantasy illustration juxtaposes sublime wilderness with encroaching development beneath an immense ringed planet. In the foreground, a dark-haired woman in a revealing, windblown black dress and thigh-high stockings stands barefoot upon a rocky ledge, extending one hand towards the viewer. Towering redwoods, deer and a waterfall frame the pristine valley behind her. Across a dramatic chasm, heavy machinery, cranes and unfinished buildings consume a scarred mountainside amid smoke and excavated earth. At lower right, an enormous suited hand hovers over architectural plans and stacks of money, suggesting powerful financial interests directing the destruction. A luminous celestial trail winds through the valley towards the stars.
image generated via ChatGPT

“The political pressure being brought to bear is very unusual.” Trump eager to sell off land around Yosemite to developers. {The Telegraph 28 August}

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/d13546c1f3d93ab2

FTA: Donald Trump is reportedly considering selling off land in Yosemite National Park to a developer.

National Park Service staff were under pressure to transfer a quarter-mile strip of land inside the park to Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a real estate private equity firm, sources told Notus.

The plan has provoked alarm that Yosemite, the 1,200-square-mile park renowned for its granite cliffs and waters, which has been protected under legislation first signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1864, could be sold off for development.

“The political pressure being brought to bear is very unusual,” a person familiar with discussions within the administration told Notus.

Kingsbarn, according to government documents seen by the outlet, plans to develop two 40-acre parcels of land outside the park, located around five miles from one of its ancient sequoia groves, and build a road connecting the property to one of Yosemite’s main thoroughfares.

The road would give the company private access to the park that is otherwise almost entirely surrounded by national forests.

Kingsbarn would in return buy land of equivalent value, either near Yosemite or elsewhere in California, and hand it to the Park Service.

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A Kingdom on watch

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Russia’s former deputy foreign minister warns that Russia is poised to attack ‘legal targets’ in Great Britain. {Daily Mail 29 August}

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16090129/Russia-attack-British-drone-factory-missile-Kremlin-warns-described-UK-evil.html

FTA: Russia is poised to attack Britain – and has singled out a drone factory and a missile company as 'legal targets', it was claimed last night.

A senior adviser to Vladimir Putin warned that the 'highest levels of the Russian government' were considering a 'hybrid attack', such as sabotage or arson, rather than an 'outright military strike' that would unleash a response from Nato.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Andrei Fedorov, a former deputy foreign minister of Russia, described the UK as 'evil number one'. 

Among the Kremlin's targets is a drone factory owned by a British-Ukrainian firm, Ukrspecsystems.

Details of the company's premises next to RAF Mildenhall, in West Suffolk, were made public in April alongside five other European firms that make weapons and drones for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

On Saturday night, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'The reckless rhetoric and attempts at intimidation we have seen from the Kremlin in recent weeks reflects the weakness of Putin's position and we will not be intimidated.

'This has been a bad year for Putin. The front line has barely moved. Russian casualties continue to mount. The Russian people are paying a heavy price for Putin's war.

'It is also in our national interest that Putin's aggression must not be rewarded. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and I are working together to mobilise support for Ukraine ahead of winter.'

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Saturday, August 29, 2026

No peace on the horizon

A richly detailed illustration depicts a blonde woman standing upon a windswept hillside overlooking an expansive Eastern European landscape. Her long hair and sweeping crimson shawl stream dramatically in the wind, while she wears a short white traditional embroidered dress, lace stockings and red boots. Below, villages, farmland and a winding river extend towards distant cities crowned with golden-domed churches. The pastoral tranquillity is threatened by an immense bank of dark storm clouds advancing from the horizon, their lower edges forming ominous block-like silhouettes suggestive of military formations. Shafts of sunlight still illuminate the countryside, creating a stark contrast between fragile peace and the approaching menace of war.
image generated via ChatGPT

Ukrainian intelligence: desperate Putin may be preparing ground assault on Kyiv, possibly involving Belarussian troops. {The Kyiv Independent 29 August}

https://kyivindependent.com/russia-planning-operation-in-northern-ukraine-including-kyiv-military-says/

FTA: Russia's military leadership had been tasked with preparing several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine, with Kyiv and Chernihiv identified as key areas, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa said on Aug. 28 during a closed-door briefing with journalists, Suspilne reported.

Palisa said the information had been verified and that the Presidential Office had received it from several intelligence sources, without specifying whether they were Ukrainian or foreign.

"Indeed, several options were considered (in Russia)," Palisa said at the briefing.

"The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has developed possible response scenarios, including measures to defend, protect, and counter these actions."

Palisa said no new offensive groupings are currently being detected in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions. Kyiv Oblast borders Belarus to the north, while Chernihiv Oblast borders both Belarus and Russia.

"Our top priority is to prevent the conditions from emerging that would allow Russia to launch any offensive operations at all," Palisa added.

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Hoisted by his own petard

A stark editorial illustration depicts an airport departure hall in cold navy and steel-blue tones. At centre, two uniformed officers escort a silhouetted man towards an open doorway flooded with harsh white light, their elongated reflections stretching across the polished floor. An illuminated departures board hangs overhead, while empty seating, an aircraft and control tower appear through windows at left. On the right wall, a world map highlights North America and Australia in red, connected by a sweeping aircraft route. Red-and-white barriers cordon off the terminal. In the foreground, scattered papers surround an abandoned microphone and toppled stand, suggesting a public voice abruptly silenced as its owner is removed.
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A walking contradiction if there ever was one, ICE supporter Milo Yiannopoulos is deported from the US for overstaying visa. {CBS News 29 August}

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/milo-yiannopoulos-deported-us-immigration-arrest-dhs/

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The machinery of compliance

A darkly surreal illustration depicts a vast, decaying institutional corridor transformed into an oppressive mechanical labyrinth. A pale, black-haired woman in a short white slip and black lace stockings presses herself against the cracked wall at left, warily observing several dog-like surveillance robots prowling the passage. Their battered metal bodies carry camera-like heads with glowing red lenses, while additional mechanical eyes protrude from the walls and ceiling. Tangled cables descend among dense pipes, fluorescent lights and endless filing cabinets, with turnstiles blocking the corridor farther ahead. Receding balconies, stairways and galleries make the architecture appear impossibly immense, reinforcing an atmosphere of bureaucratic surveillance, confinement and technological menace.
image generated via ChatGPT

Sci-fi dystopia comes to life: ICE to deploy robot dogs, ostensibly only for operations deemed unsafe for human agents. {WCVB 29 August}

https://www.wcvb.com/article/ice-boston-dynamics-robot-dogs/73559827

Perhaps such once-futuristic technology is reasonable enough on the surface: if we are speaking of apprehending genuinely violent criminals, or deploying these robotic canines within search-and-rescue operations. But can we trust anything this regime puts forth? Should present trends prove any reliable indication, these shall, in due course, be weaponised against non-violent offenders, innocent civilians, and the wider public alike.

FTA: BOSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to deploy a new tool in its mass deportation campaign: a fleet of "robot dogs" that were made in Massachusetts.

The Spot robots were created by Boston Dynamics and will be used in operations deemed unsafe for human agents, like hazardous gas detection, search and rescue, as well as suspicious package investigations.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Boston Dynamics said in part:

"Boston Dynamics sells to many government agencies and public safety organizations and the robots are used to keep people out of harm's way and aid first responders in assessing dangerous situations... any attempted weaponization of Boston Dynamics' robots is strictly prohibited."

ICE put in a $2 million order for the robots, but it's unclear when the agency plans to deploy them.

The technology is also used by the Secret Service.

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Thursday, August 27, 2026

Ink on water

A richly detailed satirical illustration depicts a fantastical confrontation between Canada and the United States over an icy northern lake. At centre, a pale, silver-haired woman in a translucent turquoise gown stands defiantly amid the water before towering glaciers and snowbound mountains. Canadian flags, Parliament-like architecture, a moose and a scarf-clad goose occupy the left, while the American side is crowded with factories, cargo, officials and an Uncle Sam caricature operating an elaborate bureaucratic machine. An enormous suited hand reaches from above with a fountain pen, attempting to rename or redraw the contested water in black ink. Eagles circle overhead, while chains of red, white and blue buoys divide the lake, turning sovereignty and territorial pretension into dark political farce.
image generated via ChatGPT

Unholy toddler Trump renames Lake Ontario 'Lake America' in trade war tantrum, as Canada models response to possible US invasion. {The Independent 27 August}

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-rename-lake-ontario-america-canada-b3040577.html

Are we tired of living in the Twilight Zone yet? 

FTA: Trump had teased the troll-ish renaming order in a video posted to TikTok earlier this week.

In the video, he displayed a map of the Great Lakes and suggested he would do exactly what he did on Thursday.

“We’re gonna make a little change; we’re gonna call it something different than Lake Ontario,” the 80-year-old president said. “We’re gonna call it Lake America. And all it takes is a good pen and some intelligence.”

Trump, a former real estate mogul with a penchant for branding, then used a Sharpie to cross out the lake’s name and write “LAKE AMERICA” above it.

His geographic broadside at America’s northern neighbor is the latest episode in a series of events that have brought the close relationship between the two countries to a nadir.

According to The Globe and Mail, Canadian defense forces have begun modeling a response to a hypothetical U.S. invasion for the first time in more than a century.

Since taking office last January, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to acquire Canada, which he described on multiple occasions as “the 51st state.” And in recent weeks, he’s reportedly turned his attention back to Canada, fixating on the country’s “vulnerability” to foreign adversaries in its Arctic reaches.

At the same time, the 79-year-old president has made clear his desire to take control of Greenland, a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, another NATO ally. The White House, which says it needs Greenland for purposes of national security, sees several options to achieve this goal, including the use of military force.

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When the mountains broke

image generated via ChatGPT

Prayers for all affected by the horrific Himalayan glacial collapse and flooding. {AP 27 August}

https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-nepal-tibet-glacier-collapse-floods-61b592d428e4631add31ce052d0daf1f

FTA: DEVIGHAT, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border, where a deadly torrent of water and mud several stories high swept through communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.

Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up and washed out buildings and bridges. More than 350 people were killed, police said, and more than 1,300 were missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds of others have been displaced across the Himalayan region.

The steep slopes and lush valleys below the Himalayan mountain range — home to many of the world’s highest peaks and remaining glaciers — are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change.

Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and some stunned survivors were caked in mud.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2026

The manufacturing of collapse in Trumpistan

A surreal editorial illustration portrays the American economy as an enormous industrial machine lurching towards breakdown. A glamorous blonde woman stands precariously amid a bewildering forest of levers, gauges, pipes and machinery as workers struggle desperately to keep the apparatus functioning. Mountains of paperwork overwhelm a set of scales, suggesting bureaucracy, debt and fiscal imbalance, whilst shipping containers curve unnaturally through the sky and tumble around a congested port. Packaged beef and cattle move through another mechanical production line, linking trade disruption with food prices. Flying documents, ruptured machinery, smoke and an overloaded gauge transform economic policy into a chaotic system being pushed dangerously beyond its limits.
image generated via ChatGPT

Columnist James Downie: Trump must be deliberately destroying the US economy. {Raw Story 26 August}

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-economy-2677779664/

FTA: Rather than resulting from external shocks, the 80-year-old president's economic struggles stem largely from his own administration's decisions, MS NOW's James Downie argued Wednesday.

The column opens with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's exasperated response Monday, while announcing new sanctions on Iran, to the suggestion he might have deliberately damaged the economy: "Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?"

Downie argues he might have unwittingly made a reasonable point.

"Bessent may think that’s still a self-evidently ridiculous question," Downie wrote. "George W. Bush didn’t want a Great Financial Crisis, nor did Herbert Hoover seek to start a Great Depression. Surely no White House would deliberately hurt the global economy."

"Yet for the first time ever, that’s not the case," he added. "At home and abroad, the past few days have laid bare the extent to which President Trump’s troubles on the economy are self-inflicted."

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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The new household tax in Trumpistan

A warm-toned editorial illustration portrays the mounting financial pressure of tariffs upon ordinary American households. A grocery basket filled with bread, milk, vegetables and other staples is tightly bound in red measuring tape, suggesting prices squeezing everyday necessities. Banknotes fly upwards and away as household purchasing power evaporates, whilst a precarious stack of coins sits beside a cracked kitchen table. Beyond the window, shipping containers and smoking factories evoke the international trade system behind the costs. At right, a petrol pump leaks an expanding golden puddle, extending the metaphor to transport and energy. The domestic setting transforms abstract tariff policy into a tangible portrait of shrinking household budgets and rising living expenses.
image generated via ChatGPT

Study finds Trump tariffs will cost the average American household over $1,000 in 2027; gas currently at $4.07 a gallon. {ABC News 25 August}

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/tariffs-cost-us-households-over-193829042.html

FTA: United States tariffs will cost the typical American household more than $1,000 per year, the non-partisan Yale Budget Lab found in an estimate released on Tuesday.

The forecast arrives amid a flurry of fresh levies imposed on Canadian products after a collapse in trade negotiations over the weekend.

A round of 50% U.S. tariffs on dozens of Canadian goods worth $20 billion took effect on Saturday, followed by a measure unveiled on Monday that will double levies on Canadian cars and auto parts in January.

The US-Canada trade war could push up these prices, analysts say

The new tariffs on Canadian goods accounted for about $30 extra per household per year, the Yale Budget Lab said.

Canada on Tuesday announced levies of its own, to take effect on Sept. 8, that would match the value of goods targeted by U.S. tariffs.

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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Tuesday, August 25, 2026

The harvest of mistrust

A satirical illustration depicts a visibly feverish young Amish woman staggering beside a farmhouse in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Wearing a revealing dark-blue dress, white apron, bonnet and stockings, she presses one hand to her forehead as a conspicuous red rash spreads across her face, chest and limbs. Countless glowing red particles drift from the house and across the surrounding countryside, visually representing measles transmission. Behind her, an Amish horse-drawn buggy passes fields of maize, a red barn and traditional farmhouses beneath an idyllic summer sky. The pastoral tranquillity sharply contrasts with the spreading contagion, whilst a roadside sign reading “A Simple Life …Or So We Thought” gives the scene an ominous, ironic edge.
image generated via ChatGPT

First US measles deaths of 2026 recorded in Pennsylvania; Gov. Shapiro lambasts RFK Jr. for spreading disinformation on vaccines. {CNN 25 August}

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/health/measles-deaths-pennsylvania

The article does not expressly state so, though the circumstances strongly suggest these were Amish folk: notorious for evading all sorts of obligations — paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, sending their children to compulsory high school education, serving on juries, registering for the draft, and vaccinating their offspring — that most of the rest of us are not at liberty to avoid. As a child on a road trip with family in the late 1980s, whilst visiting Lancaster County, it was surreal to observe people living as though the seventeenth century had never ended. I am no longer certain I regard them as quite so quaint and charming these days, all things considered. — 

FTA: Both of the Pennsylvania deaths were in residents of Lancaster County. Health officials said they will not release any additional details.

Pennsylvania has confirmed 393 measles cases in 28 counties in 2026, Bogen said in a news conference Tuesday. Roughly half of them have been in Lancaster County, she said.

About 20% of cases in Pennsylvania this year have required hospitalization. Among measles cases confirmed by the health department, none have been in people who have received both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine, she added.

The highly contagious virus has continued its historic resurgence in the US this year, with a second record-breaking year in a row. The country has recorded more cases than 2,700 cases this year, more than any other year since 1991 – surpassing a grim milestone that was just topped last year.

The disease was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but more cases have been recorded in the past year and a half than there have been in the previous 25 years combined. Experts expect that the US will soon lose its elimination status, the recognition by the World Health Organization that measles is no longer transmitting regularly within a country.

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Mystery meat, imported on faith

A richly symbolic fantasy illustration personifies the United States as a blonde Lady Liberty presiding over an extravagant banquet of steaks, burgers and sausages. Wearing her familiar spiked crown and a flowing sea-green gown, she raises a flaming platter above the feast. Beneath the table, scales weigh raw beef against a hamburger, whilst crates of meat and an hourglass suggest scarcity and rising prices. Beyond, parched ranchland and dwindling cattle herds contrast with an industrial coastline, as glowing trade routes encircle the globe. The lavish foreground is deliberately ironic, representing America’s enormous appetite for beef confronting cattle shortages, constrained domestic production and increasing dependence upon foreign supplies.
image generated via Grok

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins refuses to say where proposed beef imports would be originating; ranchers are furious. {The Independent 25 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-beef-imports-brooke-rollins-b3039094.html

As if much of the food we consume in this country were not toxic enough… Every American ought to feel a profound sense of revulsion, and be even more disgusted still by this regime’s steadfast refusal to disclose the provenance of this miraculous ground beef. In all seriousness, there are occasions of late upon which I find myself thinking I should never wish to eat again. Transparency ought to constitute the bare minimum where the nation's food supply is concerned, but who and what can be trusted these days? —

FTA: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has refused to say which countries the Trump administration is relying on for its plan to temporarily surge beef imports into the U.S. to ease consumer prices.

“I am not privy to talk about that,” Rollins told reporters on Tuesday. “I think the conversations are still going on,” she added, saying that President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were involved.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Trump claimed he had reached a deal to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of meat destined to become ground beef into the U.S. to be sold at reduced prices for the next 90 days without tariffs or quotas. The plan, Trump said, would “substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families.”

A White House official told The Independent last week that Trump would “formally sign an executive order” to execute the agreement “within the next two weeks.”

Since Trump returned to office last year, the price of ground beef has risen from $5.45 per pound to $6.85 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On Monday, an Arizona border crossing reopened to Mexican cattle, as fears have eased over the spread of the New World screwworm through Mexican cattle imports. The U.S. plans to open more border crossings as part of the beef plan.

The Trump administration’s beef deal has met with stiff resistance from ranchers and Republicans, who argue that allowing more imports will do little to change the underlying conditions that have sent beef prices spiking, such as low herd sizes because of drought.

"Despite high beef prices in grocery stores, prices paid to farmers and ranchers for their cattle have fallen sharply over the past two months, and beef packing plants are shutting down across the U.S.,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement after the plan was announced.

"Further undercutting a fragile recovery by swamping markets with foreign products and attempting to manipulate prices threatens to wipe out any progress that has been made,” he added.

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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Monday, August 24, 2026

Weathering in the dark

A darkly whimsical editorial illustration depicts American weather forecasting as an institution collapsing into chaos and obsolescence. Inside a vast, decaying meteorological centre, antiquated instruments, dead computer terminals, tangled wiring, cobwebs and scattered papers surround a handful of exhausted women struggling to keep the operation functioning. At centre, a bewildered forecaster studies contradictory information on her phone whilst sheltering beneath an umbrella from rain inexplicably falling indoors. Beyond her, the weather itself has become absurdly unpredictable: snow, lightning, torrential rain, brilliant sunshine, tornadoes and drifting weather balloons coexist in the same impossible sky. Broken clocks, frozen machinery and neglected equipment reinforce the central metaphor — a once-sophisticated forecasting apparatus starved of expertise, maintenance and resources until Americans can no longer reliably know what tomorrow's weather will bring.
image generated via ChatGPT

Weather forecasting in the former United States is set back decades by the Trump regime. {The Independent 24 August}

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-noaa-weather-usa-b3035937.html

Rapidly descending to the status of a Third World s**thole —

FTA: Experts told Forbes that there are simply fewer weather monitoring instruments being used today than before agencies like the NOAA suffered cuts under the Trump administration

According to the report there are fewer buoys measuring wave conditions than in 2024, and fewer weather balloons being launched to collect data on air pressure, temperature, humidity, and windspeed.

That data feeds weather models, which is then used to build forecasts by weather apps and local forecasters.

One program, enacted 20 years ago to measure arctic ice, was recently cut by the Trump administration. Plans for a next-generation weather satellite meant to replace two older, faltering structures that may begin to fail in the next several years have been scrapped.

Overall, the Trump administration has cut between $1.6 and $1.7 billion in funding from the NOAA’s budget, and more than 800 NOAA workers since February.

The impacts on the nation's ability to reliably produce forecasts isn't just an annoyance for TikTokers. Fishers, farmers, pilots, shipping companies, insurers, utility operators — virtually everyone who has to operate in the physical world to do their jobs relies on accurate weather data.

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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Shattered interdependence

A stark editorial illustration visualises an economic rupture between Canada and the United States. The Canadian side is rendered in glacial blues, dominated by a fractured maple leaf, electrical pylons, ice and deposits of mineral resources. Across a glowing fissure, the American side burns in industrial orange, crowded with smokestacks, factories, assembly lines and unfinished vehicles. A tilted gilded frame containing turbulent storm clouds hangs ominously above the divide. Barrels and raw materials accumulate along the frontier, while severed electrical lines spark overhead, symbolising disrupted trade, energy interdependence and supply chains as two closely integrated economies are forcibly pulled apart.
image generated via ChatGPT

Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatens to cut critical minerals and electricity to the former US over Trump's forthcoming tariffs. {AP 24 August}

https://apnews.com/article/canada-trade-trump-ontario-53c4f83c8365c14b372b314396ae8179

FTA: In the AP interview, Ford said Trump had “declared war, economic war against his closest friend and ally” before invoking Reagan, whose opposition to tariffs Ford previously featured in a television advertising campaign aimed at Americans.

Ford noted that Trump keeps a portrait of Reagan near his desk.

“He’d be throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on, spinning around in his grave right now,” Ford said. “He should maybe take that picture off the wall and move it somewhere else. Because right now, Ronald Reagan would be disgusted with President Trump.”

Ford’s comments came after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade negotiations with the Trump administration late Friday, saying Washington demanded too much in exchange for tariff relief. The United States imposed 50% tariffs Saturday on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Carney announced dollar-for-dollar retaliation beginning Sept. 8.

Ford said “everything is on the table” if the dispute worsens, including cutting off electricity and critical minerals from Ontario. He also called for Canada to consider using oil and potash as leverage.

“I’ll cut them off,” Ford said of critical minerals. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”

Critical minerals are increasingly important to U.S. national security and manufacturing. The Pentagon has sought more secure supplies of minerals used in military aircraft, missiles, munitions and electronics as Washington tries to reduce reliance on China, which dominates the mining or processing of several strategically important minerals.

Ford specifically cited high-grade nickel shipped to the United States and uranium refined in Ontario.

“What would they do without the high-grade nickel that we ship down to the U.S.?” Ford said.

Ford said Canada should consider increasingly severe retaliation if Trump continues targeting Canadian industries, including oil and potash, while Ontario could raise electricity prices or stop sending power south.

“We power 1.5 million homes and businesses,” Ford said. “Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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Friday, August 21, 2026

#MAGA: health insurance costs in Trumpistan already soaring, but just wait until 2027

A richly detailed satirical illustration depicts two women in a hospital room. At left, a petite pink-haired nurse in a revealing traditional white uniform sits beside the bed, gently holding the patient's hand whilst attempting to feed her from a spoon and bowl. The blonde patient reclines beneath rumpled white sheets, visibly ill and distraught, with copious tears streaming down her face as she turns towards the nurse. Medical monitors, intravenous drips and other hospital equipment surround the bed. Behind this intimate scene looms a nightmarish industrial complex dominated by an enormous dollar sign and skull-like machinery spewing torrents of banknotes, symbolically linking the patient's suffering and medical care with escalating healthcare costs, corporate profit and an impersonal healthcare economy.
image generated via ChatGPT

Health insurance costs in the former United States are set to rise another eleven per cent or more in 2027. {IBT 21 August}

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/rising-health-coverage-costs-american-workers-1815469

Words fail me in conveying the full measure of my exhaustion with this cruel and convoluted racket we designate ‘healthcare’, here in this, the so-called ‘land of the free and home of the brave’. Healthcare is merely one symptom of a much broader institutional decay. Another manifestation — and one among many — of an empire that hath grown too overpopulated, too sprawling, too byzantine in its complexity, and which must, in consequence, inevitably fall. Collapse is well under way, if we have not figured it out by now (most are in one stage or another of denial though nearly all sense something hath gone grievously awry). 

American healthcare hath stood as a purely tyrannous engine for at least the past forty-to-fifty years (give or take), and finds itself now crumbling piecemeal beneath its own accumulated burden. Whether one recognises it or not, collapse doth increasingly show itself in every quarter of our lives: the rank incompetence, the pervasive avarice, the worsening sickness and addiction, and the coarsening of public discourse and civic life have together exacted so heavy a toll that there can be no other outcome but the dissolution of this empire. Considerable bloodshed and tragedy shall yet ensue — and a slew of logistical perplexities will have to be sorted out — before #Muricans finally throw in the towel en masse  upon this so-called ‘Great American Experiment’, and resolve to go each their own way. It was a good run before it all descended into perdition.

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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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The price of an empty pasture

A darkly whimsical illustration depicts the collapse of an American meatpacking industry beneath punishing heat and economic strain. A barefoot, red-haired woman in a tattered burgundy slip stands before a vast, rusting meatpacking plant whose machinery, pipes and towers twist into mournful human faces. She holds a nearly empty plate bearing only a tiny sprig of food. Beyond the shuttered factory stretches a parched, cracked landscape scattered with cattle, abandoned feeding troughs and fencing. At right, a skeletal cattle figure presides beside an ornate sign declaring beef an increasingly unaffordable luxury, while an almost grotesquely cheerful sun burns overhead. Cobwebbed controls, empty meat hooks, a discarded steak and an abandoned shopping trolley reinforce themes of plant closures, scarcity, rising beef prices and industrial decline.
image generated via ChatGPT

Will Tyson Foods’ shuttering of two US plants mean even greater pain at the grocery store in Trumpistan?  {The Guardian 21 August}

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/21/tyson-foods-close-facilities-beef-prices-cattle-shortage

Pray the experts have got this one right. Nobody hold their breath, though — 

FTA: Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in the US, announced last week that it is closing two of its facilities in Iowa and Utah and selling a beef facility in Washington state, and will lay off hundreds of workers as the supply of cattle hits a 75-year low.

The historic cattle shortage has been driven by a multi-year drought, rising costs and severe economic pressures, including consolidation among cattle ranchers. Beef prices have soared over the last year due to the shortage, though economists said the Tyson plant closures likely won’t hit consumer prices so hard.

Earlier this month, Tyson reported in its third-quarter earnings that beef volume is down 15.9% and beef operating loss is at $138m.

Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, said the US has had excess capacity for processing and packaging beef for several years now, and beef that would have been processed in Tyson’s Iowa and Utah plants will just be rerouted.

“For the majority of the last 40 years, nationally, the US has had more capacity to harvest cattle than we’ve had cattle,” he said. “Anytime you have too much capacity, or ‘too much’ supply relative to what is needed in the market, that puts downward pressure on the margins in that sector. That’s not new.”

With not enough cattle to harvest, meatpacking plants have been taking measures to slow down operations, including reducing shifts or cutting Saturday workdays. If operations don’t pick up, plants eventually close.

But these closures won’t change the amount of beef that is packed and processed, since the country has enough infrastructure to take on the current supply, experts said. While it may slightly increase transportation costs for the cattle producers who are located close to the shuttered Tyson plants, it is not likely to affect the price of beef overall.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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The Pacific's reckoning

A surreal allegorical illustration personifies El Niño through a dark-haired woman standing amid converging extremes of water, heat and storm. Wearing a translucent ivory dress, she rises from swirling floodwater illuminated by fiery currents, while ghostly counterparts appear across drought-stricken earth, tropical floods and rain-lashed seas. Above, incandescent orange clouds collide with violent blue-purple thunderstorms as a spiralling atmospheric current unites the contrasting climates. Beneath the water, glowing arteries and a human heart transform the ocean into a living circulatory system, symbolising the interconnected forces governing global weather.
generated via ChatGPT

‘Unprecedented’ El Niño forming over the Pacific, could lead to 2027 being the hottest year on record; ‘not beyond the realm of possibility to say this might be the strongest El Niño event in 500 or even 1,000 years’. {BBC 21 August}

https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c3ekg93vjz9o

FTA: The El Niño event that is developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.

The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.

Added to the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" to mean 2027 is the hottest year on record.

There is growing evidence that weather patterns around the world are already being affected, with below-average monsoon rains in India and suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

El Niño could put the UK at greater risk of a wet, stormy autumn.

"We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event", said Prof Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the UK Met Office.

"I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts."

El Niño is a naturally occurring weather pattern, which happens about every two to seven years, lasting for around a year.

Trade winds that typically blow from east to west across the Pacific Ocean can weaken or even reverse, allowing warm water to spread eastwards.

Heat is released from the ocean into the atmosphere, lifting global temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns.

Scientists declare an El Niño when sea surface temperatures in a key area of the Pacific are 0.5C or more above average.

Current measurements show that they are well over 2C above normal.

Latest forecasts from the Met Office suggest that these temperature anomalies could exceed 3C later this year as El Niño nears its peak.

This would be unprecedented in records going back to 1950, and probably the strongest event since the 19th century.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
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