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Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Araghchi accuses France of 'hypocrisy'

 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized French foreign policy, stating that its "hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing."

In a post on X, Araghchi asserted that "Countries like France should stop lecturing the world about 'human rights' and international law."

Furthermore, he said that the French "backing of Israel's genocide in Gaza—and aggression against Iran—has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you [France] had."

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Araghchi-accuses-France-of-'hypocrisy'/66910706

Japan 'strongly protests' Putin's visit to Kuril Islands

 Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi stated on Thursday that his country's government "strongly protests" Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the disputed Kuril Islands.

In an X post, Motegi insisted that four of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, which Putin visited, were "inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law."

Motegi's reaction came after Putin's first official visit to the Kuril Islands. Russia claims sovereignty over the entire archipelago, which it has administered since 1945, during the Soviet era. Japan claims four islands, including Iturup, as its own.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Japan-'strongly-protests'-Putin's-visit-to-Kuril-Islands/66910454

'CNBC: Chinese firm has topped Micron and Kioxia in shipments of crucial NAND memory chips'

 Yangtze Memory Technologies is rapidly gaining market share in a critical chip sector, according to Counterpoint Research.

The company, also known as YMTC, landed in third place by shipments globally in the second quarter, behind South Korea’s Samsung and SK hynix but beating out U.S. rival Micron and Japan’s Kioxia, Counterpoint data released Wednesday showed.

That’s when looking at the NAND memory segment, which contributes about one-fourth of Micron’s revenue. NAND chips retain data even when devices are powered off but are slower than DRAM memory chips, which operate more quickly — at a far higher cost, forming about three-fourths of Micron’s revenue.

YMTC reached third place with a 14% share, the report said. It narrowly beat Kioxia a year ago, but fell back behind in following months, Counterpoint Research Director MS Hwang said.

“YMTC is projected to pull further ahead in 2027 and 2028. From that perspective, YMTC achieving third place this quarter carries significant weight in the competitive landscape,” Hwang said.

He said a 15% market share is the minimum needed for a memory manufacturer to fund its own capital expenditures for future growth.

YMTC is preparing to go public in mainland China, following the blockbuster debut of DRAM-focused Chinese memory chip company CXMT last month.

CXMT held 7% of the DRAM market in the second quarter, in fourth place behind Micron, SK hynix and market leader Samsung, a separate Counterpoint report showed earlier this month.

Both DRAM and NAND memory chip markets have reached record sales, at nearly $100 billion and $46 billion, respectively, in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint.

Despite YMTC’s gains in shipments, the company still lagged behind Micron and Kioxia in terms of NAND chip revenue, the research firm said. It noted YMTC still sells more to consumer applications rather than data centers — a business expected to take half of all available NANDs by the end of 2026.

In order to ramp up NAND production, SK hynix is resuming investment at a facility in the Chinese coastal city of Dalian after a four-year pause, Korean media reported this week. SK hynix did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/13/chinese-firm-tops-micron-kioxia-shipments-nand-memory-chips.html

The Cultural Revolution Is In Full Swing

 by Larry Sand via American Greatness,

It’s no secret that socialism is advancing in the U.S. The latest development in this ominous trend occurred on August 4, when Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive backed by democratic socialists, defeated the establishment-backed congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

At the same time, our culture is under constant attack by radicals seeking to transform our national ethos. Despite some claims to the contrary, the cultural upheaval known as “Wokism” is very much alive and well. As John Murawski writes in RealClearInvestigations, the movement in recent years, “from slavery reparations and polyamory to transgender advocacy and anti-colonialism, reveals that this dogma is still percolating through the culture, with some new outbreak almost every week.”

A case in point is a video released by Accuracy in Media from the just-completed American Psychological Association conference, which shows speakers advocating that psychologists use therapeutic approaches to become better “white allies” and advance “antiracist” objectives in their practices, rather than helping patients overcome mental health challenges.

There are myriad examples of woke’s staying power in our nation’s schools, where far-left ethnic studies programs still prevail. In California, the adopted curriculum includes lessons on settler colonialism and the Third World Liberation Front and even uses Black Panther Party newspapers as primary sources. California law encourages districts to develop their own ethnic studies curricula, and many have gone beyond the state model. Some have incorporated materials on the “Land Back” movement, which rejects widely accepted notions of borders and citizenship. These are not fringe supplements, and this content is already in many classrooms.

The teachers’ unions are at the forefront of this fanatical trend. On May Day, the National Education Association issued a toolkit that is essentially an updated version of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto.

As reported by Defending Education, the NEA toolkit contains typical leftist claptrap, including a laundry list of demands for a day of action that stresses “building the Society we ALL deserve.” The union’s agenda includes “stopping the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption within the Trump administration, taxing the rich, and eliminating ICE,” among other measures.

May Day is just one example of students being used as pawns by radicals. Defending Education maintains a “K-12 Student Walkout and Protest Tracker” that documents K-12 student walkouts and protests from 2022 to the present, all orchestrated by left-wing educators.

The group tracks 48 states and Washington, D.C., and found that between 2022 and 2025, 169 school districts experienced teacher-led student walkouts. But this year, there have already been a whopping 402 instances.

Not surprisingly, U.S. colleges are also major purveyors of indoctrination.

“The binary definition of sex in biology is a recent invention,” writes Princeton University anthropologist Agustín Fuentes in his book, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary.

In a phone interview with John Murawski, Fuentes claimed that the biological sciences have been undergoing a paradigm shift for several decades and that “many scholars reject the sexual binary model that says females are defined solely by large gametes (eggs) and males by small gametes (sperm).”

Fuentes relies on “Queer Theory” in his work and maintains that it is an important part of contemporary biological thought. He believes that perceived differences in strength and speed between males and females in sports “are to a considerable extent products of culture, not biology.” He adds that if “society held the same expectations and invested equally in male and female sports, the performance gap between the sexes would narrow significantly.”

Then there is the University of Minnesota, which is developing “therapeutic” transgender dolls for children. The project is set to launch this year.

The MyGender Dolls website states that the dolls are “grounded in gender-affirming clinical practices” and will serve as a “therapeutic” resource for clinicians and educators working with children ages 4 to 10.

In addition to interchangeable genitals, the dolls also come with a wide array of customizable accessories, including outfits and hairstyles, to accommodate a diversity of gender presentations. They come in a wide range of skin tones. The dolls are also deliberately given names that could belong to either gender, such as “Sam.”

Scarily, medical schools are not exempt from the woke movement. As I wrote a year ago, the nation’s leading medical schools are controlled by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion extremists who impose wokist nonsense, including “weight inclusivity,” racial justice, and gender ideology on their staff and students through policies, statements, and curricular mandates.

While some argue that DEI is abating, The Daily Caller reports that there has been absolutely no change to this abysmal set of circumstances. Sometimes the names of efforts have simply been altered. For example, the University of Iowa announced in March 2025 that it was shutting down its Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity following a directive from the Iowa Board of Regents. However, Do No Harm, which represents physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice, found that the DEI office was “still fully up and running,” but under a different name, which amounts to putting lipstick on the proverbial pig.

While U.S. schools were once our country’s most trusted institutions, that era has passed. Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, notes that in 1973, 61 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of Democrats expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in America’s public schools. But 50 years later, those figures have fallen to 43 percent among Democrats and to a mere 14 percent among Republicans.

In higher education, the decline has been even more rapid and dramatic.

In 2010, 75 percent of Americans said college was “very important,” but by 2025, only 35 percent did so.

Ultimately, parents should homeschool if possible; if not, they should send their children to a private school that educates without indoctrinating. Then, instead of sending their teenagers to college, parents should have them attend a good technical school where they can learn a trade, become successful adults, and avoid becoming woke robots.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cultural-revolution-full-swing

Libya Reels From Assassination, Oil Strikes & Central Bank Turmoil

 Via Middle East Eye

Libya was plunged into fresh turmoil this week after a car bomb killed eastern military intelligence chief Fawzi al-Mansouri in Benghazi, drone attacks struck the country’s largest operational oil refinery and the central bank governor resigned from his post.

Mansouri, the military intelligence chief for forces controlling eastern Libya, was leaving a mosque on Monday night when an explosive device attached to his vehicle detonated, the Libyan National Army (LNA) said on Tuesday.

AFP: a fire at the Zawiya refinery, Libya’s second-largest oil refinery, after a storage tank was attacked by unknown perpetrators in Al-Zawiyah on 11 August 2026 

Khaled Haftar, the son of the LNA renegade commander Khalifa Haftar who controls eastern Libya, said authorities had opened an investigation, adding that "indicators point to a despicable terrorist tactic".

"Terrorism is a project targeting the entire region, not just Libya," the statement added.

While no group has taken responsibility for the attack, Hamish Kinnear, principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, told Middle East Eye that "it is a reminder that security in eastern Libya remains fragile despite the domination of Khalifa Haftar’s LNA".

The killing also challenges the Haftar family’s efforts to present eastern Libya as stable after years of conflict. The LNA said it would "not cease fighting terrorism and will continue our struggle for the stability and security of Libya, as well as for the unification of its institutions".

The assassination came as emergency crews fought a major fire at the Zawiya oil refinery, west of Tripoli, following a drone attack on Monday evening. It was the third strike on the facility in two days.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation said a drone directly struck a tank holding about 4.5 million liters of fuel. The resulting fire caused the tank to collapse and prompted the company to warn that further attacks could force it to suspend operations.

Emergency services reported no serious injuries, although medics treated several people for smoke inhalation. Zawiya is Libya’s largest operational refinery and can process 120,000 barrels of oil per day.

“No group has claimed responsibility for the drone strikes, but they came amid an armed confrontation between rival militias in Zawiya and are likely intended as pressure on the Government of National Unity headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah,” Kinnear said.

The turmoil deepened after a letter attributed to Central Bank of Libya Governor Naji Issa circulated widely on social media and local news outlets.

Addressed to the heads of the House of Representatives and High State Council, the letter said Issa would not remain in his post. He declined to explain his decision, citing the "sensitivity" of the reasons.

"Drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, a car bomb assassination in Benghazi and the resignation of one of Libya’s top officials [in a space of 24 hours] underline how quickly Libya’s fragile political and security situation can deteriorate," said Kinnear.

Post-Gaddafi Libya remains divided between the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Haftar.

The hydrocarbon-rich country produces more than 1.3 million barrels of oil per day but continues to suffer prolonged electricity cuts. Blackouts have triggered protests in Tripoli, Zawiya, Misrata and other cities, where demonstrators have demanded reliable power and called for Dbeibah to resign.

"Libya’s energy infrastructure often becomes the target in these confrontations, as it is the easiest means by which pressure can be placed on political leaders and concessions demanded," Kinnear said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/libya-reels-assassination-oil-strikes-central-bank-turmoil

Common Blood Pressure Drug Recalled Nationwide, FDA Says

  by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation recalled some heart failure and high blood pressure medication due to potency issues, according to the Food and Drug Administration's website.

The recall affects one lot of Diovan, Novartis' valsartan brand, according to a report issued last week. The lot includes 160-milligram tablets in 90-count bottles, with the lot number AV5913C, and an expiration date of June 2027.

The drug is prescription-only and manufactured by North Carolina-based Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC and distributed by Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company that is one of the largest in the world.

According to the FDA notice, the reason for the recall is due to "failed dissolution specifications," meaning that the pills may not dissolve correctly in the body when ingested.

The recall was initiated on Aug. 4, while the FDA later classified the recall as Class II, which it describes as "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."

The notice did not say how many bottles of the medication were impacted but added that it is a nationwide recall.

The Mayo Clinic says that valsartan is a type of angiotensin II receptor blocker, which stops "a substance in the body that causes blood vessels to tighten."

It can be used by itself or together with other medicines to treat high blood pressure, heart failure, and left ventricular failure following a heart attack.

Valsartan is commonly prescribed, according to drug database ClinCalc, with around 10.9 million patients taking the medication in 2024.

In 2018, in a separate instance, global health agencies and the FDA launched significant recalls of valsartan after it was linked to contamination produced by Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals, located in Linhai, China. The medications were discovered to have high levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine, which can be carcinogenic.

Other Heart Drug Recalls

Earlier this month, India-based drug manufacturer Alkem Laboratories Ltd. said it was recalling more than 5,600 packages of a heart and blood-thinning medication, dabigatran etexilate, according to an FDA notice.

The recall was due to "failed impurity/degradation specification" in a tested batch of the drug, according to the notice.

Amlodipine and olmesartan medoxomil tablets - in 10 mg and 20 mg doses, respectively - are being recalled nationwide, according to a separate FDA notice in July.

The product was manufactured by Alkem Laboratories Ltd. and distributed by New Jersey-based Ascend Laboratories LLC, according to the report, which added that 6,192 bottles are affected by the action.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/common-blood-pressure-drug-recalled-nationwide-fda-says

White House Ends TikTok Ban On Government Devices

 by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times,

The White House has allowed Executive Branch employees to use TikTok on their government devices.

The Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 10 issued a memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies, stating that “TikTok may be used on government devices.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to TikTok for comment.

This comes after the Department of Justice issued a memorandum on July 17 that said federal employees can again use TikTok on their government devices.

The app was banned in 2022 over national security concerns surrounding TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

The U.S. version of the app is operated by the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture, whose majority ownership consists of American investors.

It has changed the algorithm and cybersecurity measures that were created by the firm.

The joint venture’s managing investors are Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake, owning a total of 45 percent of its shares.

“Employees of Executive Branch agencies may download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency’s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies,” the DOJ said in its memorandum.

According to the DOJ, the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture uses third-party cybersecurity experts to monitor and certify privacy while detecting any vulnerabilities.

“These safeguards would appear to make TikTok USDS just as data-secure as any other social networking service, if not more so,” the DOJ said.

“We conclude that, as a matter of statutory interpretation, the version of TikTok currently available for download in the United States [no longer falls] within that prohibited category of applications.”

The DOJ said federal agencies can independently decide whether to ban TikTok from government devices.

The memo noted that the federal government-TikTok relationship has been strained since at least 2020.

In 2022, Congress passed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, instructing the Office of Management and Budget to provide guidelines for agencies to delete TikTok or any other app developed by ByteDance from government devices.

In 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, making it illegal for any entity to distribute, maintain, or update any foreign-adversary-controlled application.

During his first day in office, President Donald Trump postponed the implementation of the ban. He has since again delayed it.

Following the DOJ memo, the Treasury, Transportation, and Health and Human Services Departments set up TikTok accounts. Last year, the White House created a TikTok account.

TikTok is banned on congressional devices in the House and Senate.

It’s also prohibited on state government devices in states such as Texas and Virginia.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/white-house-ends-tiktok-ban-government-devices