Toronto-Dominion Bank is weighing a rare type of significant risk transfer to hedge current and future data center exposure as tech companies ramp up artificial intelligence investment.
The initial size of the reference portfolio is around $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential transaction would include a forward-flow arrangement, which allows the bank to increase the size of the SRT over time, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
When creating a short list of nefarious NGOs that manipulate government policy and socially engineer public opinion, the Southern Poverty Law Center is usually near the top. The group has been fading in influence due to excessive exposure, with new and less visible left wing NGOs taking it's place. However, it remains a key pillar of the Democratic Party's propaganda machine and a poisonous cloud looming over grassroots conservative organization.
News from the Trump FBI and DOJ indicates that this reign of political terror may finally be coming to an end. The Southern Poverty Law Center has been indicted on federal fraud charges that accuse it of illegally raising millions of dollars to pay informants in white supremacist and other extremist groups.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC used paid operatives within extremist circles to incite and intensify racial tensions, arguing the group fostered the very threats it claimed to fight. But why was an NGO allowed to operate like a covert federal agency for so long?
These operations were essentially endorsed by the Democratic Party (as well as some Neo-Cons).
One could say that the SPLC had two missions: First, to drum up hysteria among weak minded liberals and make them believe that there are malicious "hate groups" under every rock and behind every tree. Second, to make conservatives paranoid about informants when seeking to build political opposition movements.
Sadly, to this day, the SPLC was rather successful in achieving both goals. The NGO's efforts to create a false model of "hate networks" (especially during the Obama years) was a primary impetus for the eventual rise of the woke activist movement from around 2012 onward. In other words, the insane cult obsessed with race and identity that plagues America today found its roots within the SPLC and their alliance with the Democratic Party.
SPLC "informants" were a constant nuisance among conservative activist and protest groups as well as preparedness groups. Nothing these conservatives did was actually illegal, but, the SPLC had a knack for making it sound as if they were engaging in criminality. Far too many right wingers were frightened into refusing to engage in basic meetings and public discussions, simply on the possibility that SPLC informants might be present.
No such infiltration was used to target left wing extremist groups like Antifa, which have carried out numerous criminal attacks, riots, sabotage and acts of intimidation against their political opponents.
But, times change and the truth cannot be suppressed forever. Conservative and nationalist movements grew exponentially, even if they still suck at organizing formally. And today, the SPLC is a widely known and rightfully despised entity.
The SPLC was specifically integral to the Obama and Biden Administrations, including a direct information sharing relationship with the DHS and FBI. The majority of anti-conservative policy papers published by the federal government during this time were crafted using SPLC propaganda.
The 2009 DHS Rightwing Extremism Report, a unclassified assessment warning of potential "surges" in right-wing extremism, drew input extensively from SPLC info. The report targeted militia groups as potential homegrown terrorists and was partially withdrawn because of political backlash.
A separate 2009 state-level fusion center report - the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) "Modern Militia Movement" report - linked supposedly dangerous militia members to "3rd party political groups" and "supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr." The report flagged symbols like the Gadsden Flag, as well as anti-government, anti-new world order and anti-martial law discussion as potential indicators of homegrown terrorism. The SPLC was a key participant in the formation of the MIAC report.
SPLC President Richard Cohen served on Secretary Janet Napolitano’s CVE Working Group in 2010. Cohen and an SPLC colleague acted as subject-matter experts on right-wing extremism in the DHS Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Working Group. Their purpose was to shift federal law enforcement focus almost entirely from Islamic-based terrorism over to right wing extremism.
Under Biden, the SPLC was highly active in shaping public narratives surrounding the J6 trials. SPLC staff provided training to DOJ prosecutors and SPLC leaders/staff visited the White House at least 11 times. President Biden personally met with SPLC representatives at least 6 times.
With the fall of the SPLC, the Democrats lose a vital tool in their social engineering arsenal. If the accusations turn out to be true and SPLC leaders are convicted, their activities should be considered as treason against the American people. Any and all NGOs participating in social engineering operations against the US populace must eventually be indicted and erased if the country is ever going to rebuild the public trust, but bringing down the SPLC is a good start.
Broadcom Inc. announced on Wednesday an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to launch Cloud Network Insights, a service powered by AppNeta. The tool offers end-to-end visibility across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, helping companies track performance, detect issues, and identify root causes more quickly.
The service aims to improve efficiency and reduce resolution times by revealing whether problems stem from networks or applications. "AppNeta offers proven network performance monitoring and operates with a small footprint, making it an efficient and powerful choice for users," Broadcom VP and General Manager, Agile Operations Division Serge Lucio said.
Separately, Google unveiled another collaboration with Salesforce.
Google Cloud and Salesforce announced on Wednesday that they would expand their partnership on AI and agents. The move is set to enable AI agents to run end-to-end workflows across both platforms, avoiding data and system fragmentation.
Users can deploy AI agents in tools such as Slack and Google Workspace. Agentforce and Gemini Enterprise offer the intelligence and context needed behind the scenes. This enables agents to operate across systems, minimizes risky data transfers, and decreases time spent on switching contexts.
"Businesses are ready to go all in on agentic AI, and that requires infrastructure and models that can operate across the entire enterprise," said Srini Tallapragada, President and Chief Engineering Officer at Salesforce.
Iran's Fars News Agency, with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), published a post on Wednesday saying that Tehran agreed to a ceasefire proposed by the United States, then deleted it a few minutes later.
The news outlet cited Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, who allegedly stated that the country "is accepting a ceasefire mediated by Pakistan."
"The omission of this news indicates that the mentioned news was not true," Fars declared afterwards, adding that its investigation showed that "such news has not been published in any of the official news outlets of the Foreign Ministry spokesperson."
Lebanon officials are seeking to extend the ceasefire with Israel by at least another month, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a political source. "Lebanon will demand an extension for a ceasefire by one month or more," the insider said. The push is part of broader efforts to end the conflict with Hezbollah and to extend the current truce, which began on April 16 and is set to expire on Sunday.
Also, a second round of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the US is scheduled at the White House on Thursday.
Earlier, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun stated that talks are held to prolong the existing 10-day ceasefire deadline with Israel, though he did not specify then how long a prolongation they are looking for.
