The United States stands with the Philippines, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday, rejecting what he described as China's "destabilizing plans" for a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.
"Beijing claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is yet another coercive attempt to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors," Rubio said in a statement.
Filipino fishermen fear Beijing's plan to create the nature reserve could make it harder for them to operate in the atoll, which is under the constant watch of Chinese vessels.
Scarborough Shoal lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone but has been under Beijing's control since 2012. China claims almost all the South China Sea - a waterway carrying more than $3 trillion of annual commerce - despite overlapping claims by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Rubio said China's actions continued to undermine regional stability, calling on Beijing to abide by the Arbitral Tribunal's unanimous 2016 decision that China had unlawfully prevented Filipino fishermen from engaging in traditional fishing at Scarborough Reef.
The Philippines said on Saturday it had sailed with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Japan's navy off islands in Zambales province, whose coast is around 120 nautical miles from Scarborough Shoal.
Chinese state media Global Times reported on Friday that Manila had held a "joint patrol" in the South China Sea with unnamed countries outside the region.
China's military on Friday condemned the sailing of a US and British warship throughthe sensitive Taiwan Strait, saying it ordered naval and air forces to monitor and warn the two ships.
The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command said the US destroyer USS Higgins and British frigate HMS Richmond were engaged in "trouble-making and provocation".
"The actions of the United States and Britain send the wrong signals and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," it said in a statement.
Britain's defence ministry said the sailing was a routine passage.
"Wherever the Royal Navy operates, it does so in full compliance with international law and norms, and exercises freedom of navigation rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
The US Indo-Pacific Command also described the mission as a routine transit.
"The ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state," it said in a statement. "Navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited."
Earlier on Friday, China's navy said its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which is still undergoing sea trials, had passed through the strait as well.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary said on Friday thatHims & Hers’ Super Bowl advertisement breached federal law as it highlighted the benefits of weight-loss drugs without mentioning side effects. Under federal law, prescription drug ads must present a "fair balance" of risks and benefits, Makary said in JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
He said the FDA used to issue hundreds of warning letters annually in the late 1990s compared with just one in 2023 and none in 2024. The U.S. is one of only two countries globally that allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising, Makary said.
This follows Donald Trump signing a presidential memorandum on Tuesday, urging his administration to strengthen enforcement of DTC pharmaceutical ad regulations to ensure transparency and accuracy.
On the same day, the FDA said it would issue around 100 cease-and-desist enforcement notices and thousands of warning letters to pharmaceutical companies, reminding them to adhere to advertising rules.
Hims & Hers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It had aired an ad during the Super Bowl in February showcasing its compounded versions of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
U.S. regulations permit compounding pharmacies to replicate brand-name drugs during periods of shortage. Wegovy had seen significant supply constraints in the country last year.
Americans unable to afford Wegovy or facing difficulties obtaining it have turned to lower-cost options offered by pharmacies and telehealth providers such as Hims & Hers and WeightWatchers.
"Online pharmacies are advertising drugs with only upsides mentioned, contributing to America’s culture of over-reliance on pharmaceuticals for health," Makary said, adding that the Hims & Hers ad was the most overt breach of FDA’s regulations on advertising.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man who was resisting arrest and subsequently dragged the agent with his car, according an ICE spokesperson.
ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop in a Chicago suburb on Friday morning when the suspect -- identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Silverio Villegas-Gonzales -- "resisted and attempted to drive his vehicle into the arrest team," subsequently dragging the agent, ICE said.
DHS said the suspect dragged the ICE officer "a significant distance."
Police and first responders work at a cordoned-off area following reports that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot an undocumented immigrant during a pursuit in Franklin Park village, northwest of Chicago, in Cook County, Sept. 12, 2025.
Octavio Jones/Reuters
"Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his firearm and struck the subject," ICE said.
Both the officer and Villegas-Gonzales "immediately" received medical treatment and were transported to a local hospital.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the hospital, while the officer suffered serious injuries but is now in stable condition, ICE said.
A suspect was fatally shot and an ICE officer was severely injured during an attempted arrest in Chicago, Sept. 12, 2025, according to an ICE spokesperson.
WLS
"We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Villegas-Gonzales "entered the country at an unknown date and time" and has "a history of reckless driving," DHS said in a press release.
The University of California, Berkeley has provided information on 160 faculty members and students to PresidentDonald Trump's administration as part of a federal investigation into alleged antisemitic incidents, amid a broader crackdown against educational institutions.
The office of the president of the University of California said the institution is subject to oversight by federal and state agencies and that its campuses like UC Berkeley "routinely receive document requests in connection with government audits, compliance reviews, or investigations."
Trump has threatened federal funding cuts for universities over pro-Palestinian student protests. The government alleges universities allowed antisemitism during the protests.
Pro-Palestinian protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Experts have raised free speech, due process and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president's threats. Trump has also attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters but has faced legal hurdles.
"UC is committed to protecting the privacy of our students, faculty, and staff to the greatest extent possible, while fulfilling its legal obligations," a spokesperson of the office of the university's president added.
Local media earlier reported that the names of the 160 students, faculty and staff at UC Berkeley were sent to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and affected members of the campus were notified by the educational institution. The government had no immediate comment.
Rights advocates have noted a rise in antisemitism, anti-Arab bias and Islamophobia due to conflict in the Middle East. The Trump administration has not announced equivalent probes into Islamophobia.
The government has settled its investigations with Columbia University, which agreed to pay more than $220 million, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million. Both accepted certain government demands. Settlement talks with Harvard University are ongoing.
The government has also faced some judicial roadblocks in its drive to freeze federal funding.
The Trump administration had proposed to settle its probe into the University of California, Los Angeles - another UC campus - through a $1 billion payment from the university. California Governor Gavin Newsom dismissed that offer, calling it an extortion attempt.
A tricky gold chart is making the rounds on social media.
The Bloomberg chart in question shows that gold just surpassed its 1980 all-time high, if you adjust for CPI (official government inflation).
Take a gander:
At first glance, this might seem scary if you own gold and miners. Some will be tempted to sell their precious metal investments based on this faulty chart.
The problem, of course, is that government inflation is a horribly flawed measure of price.
For example, if you look at CPI price data for new cars, the BLS tells us that the price of a new auto has increased about 2x since 1980.
However, the average price of a new car in the U.S. back in 1980 was around $7,600. Today it’s around $48,000, about 6x higher.
But CPI tells us that new car prices have only risen 2x since 1980? How come the actual price is up 6x?
This is a great example of how the BLS cooks the books on inflation data (CPI). They say that because modern cars come with electronic windows, airbags, and more efficient engines, the price is basically irrelevant. You’re getting so much more for your money, that the true price increase shouldn’t matter.
What matters, according to government statisticians, is the value received by the consumer. And that is completely subjective. So they use “hedonic adjustments” to make it seem as if inflation isn’t as bad as it truly is.
This manipulation is so pervasive across our society that almost everything is affected by it.
A Better Gold Measure
So CPI is a completely worthless way to adjust for gold’s inflation-adjusted price. What other metrics can we look at?
One of the most straightforward is M2 money supply. Here’s what a chart of gold’s price since 1980, adjusted for U.S. money supply, looks like:
We cannot judge gold’s “true all-time high” by CPI, a critically-flawed measure of inflation.
One More Thing
The 1970s were no picnic. In ‘71 Nixon ended the last of the gold standard, setting off an inflationary mess. The oil embargo caused energy prices to spike to unprecedented levels.
But debt-wise, the ‘70s were tame compared to today. Federal debt-to-GDP levels started the decade off around 35% and ended near that same level.
Today America’s debt-to-GDP is over 120%. More than 3x higher.
The only time in recent history the U.S. has reached these levels was during WW2. We covered the “solution” back then, known as yield curve control, in The Fed Brews Up a Nasty Potion:
Yield curve control (YCC) was instituted between 1942 to 1951 because the U.S. had to issue massive amounts of bonds and notes to pay for WW2. Normally this supply dump would have caused interest rates to soar higher.
But 15% interest rates on the 10-year bond would have been disastrous to federal finances. So the Fed and Treasury capped long-term bonds at 2.5%. Short-term notes were capped at 0.375%.
Even as inflation reached nearly 20% annualized, government bond yields were suppressed at near-zero levels.
Make no mistake. The world is headed for multiple sovereign debt crises. Debt and deficit cannot be sustained at these levels.
Inflation is the most likely outcome. The Fed will print, yields will be suppressed, and savers and bond owners will take the brunt of the punch.
Hard assets offer excellent refuge. Gold and silver being the supreme choices here, naturally.
So when people say gold is looking toppy, or expensive, I have to laugh. They have no idea what’s coming.
Some still think this gold move is just another speculative mania. Nevermind that central bankers are the primary buyers.
When the guys who run the fiat printers are the ones gobbling up gold, that’s a sign this isn’t a regular move.
It’s a signal that something major is approaching. A monetary reboot, if you will.
Bottom line: don’t rely on government data to decide when to buy or sell precious metals. They have a strong incentive to mislead you.
For more on inflation-adjusted highs, be sure to check out Silver’s 3x Upside. There’s a lot more juicy data in that piece.
The biggest cohort involved in gang activity in the United States is youths 13 to 16 years old, the FBI revealed as part of the agency’s Gang Activity, 2021–2024 special report published on Sept. 8.
There were 79,507 offenders engaged in gang activities during the four years, and of these, 19,163 were aged 13 to 16—the highest among all age groups.
This was followed by 17- to 19-year-olds with 13,563 offenders, and those 20 to 24 with 11,452 offenders.
“Over one-third (33.8 percent) of offenders were juveniles under the age of 18, and more than half (58.2 percent) were under the age of 25,” the report said.
Besides being top offenders, the 13- to 16-year age group also accounted for the largest number of victims of gang activity. More than half of the victims were under the age of 30.
“Of known victim-offender relationships for incidents involving gang activity, 67.1 percent of victims knew the offenders in some manner. Conversely, 30.1 percent of relationships described the offenders as strangers.”
According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the juvenile justice system in the United States aims to rehabilitate youth found guilty of crimes rather than punish them.
“In many cases, juveniles face much lower maximum possible sentences compared to adults convicted of the same offense,” the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) justice manual states.
“Juveniles under the age of 18 will not be detained past their 21st birthday, and individuals aged 18 to 21 who are being prosecuted as juveniles will face a maximum of five years.”
Charges against juveniles are not pursued as criminal prosecutions but as delinquency proceedings, it said. Juveniles also have robust privacy protections, including sealed records, non-jury trials, and closed rooms.
When a legal system implements softer punishments for children, it’s an incentive for gangs to recruit kids, Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI special agent, said in a post on LinkedIn.
“Gangs seek petty criminals, and they promote teenage recruits to commit petty crimes—presumably because these young recruits are not only undisciplined and easily influenced but also largely immune to serious legal consequences,” he wrote.
“On some occasions, youth which have proven themselves as trust worthy, may be tasked to conduct more serious acts, such as look out for a homicide, sexual assault, and possibly even murder. The legal consequences are typically very weak for younger criminals, especially at the Federal level, allowing these gangs to get away with these crimes.”
‘Not Afraid of Law Enforcement’
Juvenile delinquency was one of the main reasons cited by President Donald Trump for his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.
“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released,” Trump said in an Aug. 6 post on Truth Social.
He shared a picture of 19-year-old DOGE staff member Edward Coristine, who was attacked last month allegedly by 10 juveniles during an attempted carjacking incident and left bloodied.
“They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” Trump wrote.
Trump federalized the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Aug. 11, ordering 800 troops from the National Guard to assist with law enforcement. This past week, the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration, arguing that “the military should not be involved in domestic law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, crime committed by youngsters in school locations has risen over the past several years, according to the FBI’s Crime in Schools, 2020–2024 report.
In 2024, there were 329,424 criminal incidents, more than triple the 100,810 reported in 2020. The age group most frequently reported as offenders was 13 to 15, the FBI said.
Out of the 1.25 million known offenders over the five years, 478,279 were in this age group, followed by 297,873 who were 16 to 18, according to the report.
“Many of the victims were not hurt or suffered only a minor injury and were acquainted with the offender,” it said.
According to a 2017 post by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), some children and adolescents are motivated to join gangs to have a sense of connection in formative years.
Risks of children joining gangs increase when they grow up in areas with high gang activity, lower adult supervision, a lack of hope about the future due to limited education or finances, a lack of positive role models, and unstructured free time.
Parents may face gang retaliation when confronting a child suspected of being a gang member.
Moreover, parents may be held liable for their children’s past behavior, the AACAP said.
