Energy
Goldman Sachs analysts warned that a tightening global diesel market is squeezing gasoline supplies as refiners shift output toward higher-margin diesel, raising the risk of further gasoline price increases ahead of the U.S. midterms. They recommended buying European gasoline for June 2027 delivery if conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to disrupt supplies.
The squeeze intensified after ExxonMobil fully shut its 275,000-barrel-per-day Joliet refinery — one of the Midwest’s largest diesel plants — following a total power outage. The facility produces about 11 million gallons of gasoline and diesel a day and was expected back by week’s end but remains offline. BP’s Whiting refinery in Indiana is also partially down.
U.S. diesel has hit a record $6.45 a gallon, up nearly 90 percent this year and 45 cents in the week since it crossed $6, while gasoline trades around $4.44. Russian diesel exports have been halted, and Washington is considering an export halt of its own, according to reports.
American truckers are circulating plans for a coordinated strike starting October 1 over record diesel prices. Some posted prices above $8 a gallon. One driver said $1,010.25 only partially filled an 18-wheeler. Another spent $1,101 for 166 gallons. Those circulating the plans attribute the surge largely to the Iran war and the Hormuz closure, with Ukraine adding pressure. Whether a strike will occur remains unclear. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association called circulating reports chatter with no knowledge of planned action, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued no strike mandate.
Overseas, Pakistan ordered nationwide fuel rationing and austerity with immediate effect amid what officials described as historically low supply. Shops, markets, malls, and bazaars must close at 9 p.m. Fuel for government vehicles is cut 50 percent for three months, vehicle purchases are banned, official foreign travel is banned for three months, non-salary spending is cut 5 percent for the fiscal year, and marriage functions are limited to a single dish. Pakistan, a Gulf fuel importer, refused Saudi Arabia’s request to join the fight against the Houthis.
Geopolitics
Zolqadr, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said Iran has tied reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the removal of President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Zolqadr said fighters will not open the strait until both are pulled from power, calling it the first stage of the Iranian people’s revenge. In August, a senior adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator said Iran would keep Hormuz closed until Trump’s term ends on January 20, 2029. The two statements describe different conditions for reopening.
Regarding relations with Russia, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which lets the president impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas and sanctions Vladimir Putin, officials, oligarchs, and Russian banks. The Kremlin warned the law puts Russia-Ukraine peace further away than ever. Moscow also demanded that Japan remove U.S. Typhon launchers from Kyushu, calling the deployment unacceptable under any pretext. Typhon can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawks beyond 1,000 miles and SM-6 missiles up to 290 miles.
Speaking of the Ukraine conflict, days after Trump declared that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop attacking each other’s oil and energy infrastructure, the IAEA said a Ukrainian drone hit a cooling tower at a reactor unit of Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. The unit was operating, its mode unchanged, and no fire broke out, according to the IAEA. Rafael Grossi called all attacks on nuclear facilities unacceptable. The same plant was hit in July and was previously struck in August 2025, reports said.
On other geopolitical news, Trump announced that the United States has entered into an agreement with Denmark and Greenland, giving the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland at no cost. He said no U.S. adversary can ever have a base, military presence, or make sensitive investments there without express written approval, called it an Infinite Life Agreement with no end, and said Washington will immediately begin developing a large military presence. However, Greenland has described the agreement under different terms. Copenhagen stated that the pact strengthens the North Atlantic, keeps Danish and Greenlandic sovereignty intact, still must pass their parliaments, and does not transfer the island. Denmark and Greenland said they expect to sign an Arctic security deal with the United States next week in New York, at which point the public will know the actual details.
Artificial Intelligence
Bill Gates and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres have called for greater global control of artificial intelligence. Guterres said Wednesday that global coordination is indispensable. King Charles warned of existential dangers if such technologies fall into the wrong hands. Meanwhile, OpenAI disclosed six new reports of unexpected or concerning model behavior.
In a recent essay, Pascio argues that AGI may already exist as a swarm of child agents rather than one model. He writes that intelligence emerges from simple units, as in brains and ant colonies, and that mixture-of-experts models and recursive agents already resemble a colony. Agents spawn sub-agents at API speed, with prompt drift as mutation and evaluator scoring as selection, according to Pascio. He cites Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s swarm-botnet warning and says the risk is a weather-like pattern with no off switch, while policies still aim at a named model with a CEO.
Trump called claims that AI might destroy humanity a hoax and described what he termed a sick conspiracy to demonize the technology. Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have argued that market pressure is a better check than additional government oversight. Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale said there is a coordinated campaign to scare Americans. The New York Times reported that internal White House discussions reflect more complex concerns over hacks, biological threats, and other risks.
How might AI end the world? Last spring, a U.S. intelligence analyst queried a chatbot about a Chinese vessel bound for Iran using reporting from Special Operations Command Pacific. The bot fused open-source and secret signals intelligence and wrongly identified nuclear weapons components on the manifest. The analyst then used AI to write a standard intelligence report that spread through classified Pentagon channels, prompting high alerts, with a special forces boarding imminent and assets already airborne. Officials halted the operation after finding the assessment entirely false. An unnamed official said it almost started a war.
Health
According to the British Medical Journal, U.S. officials knew the COVID vaccine safety-signal system was flawed and turned aside FDA doctor Ana Szarfman, who built the original tools. The algorithm compared new-vaccine VAERS reports with all others, but COVID mRNA shots produced over 90 percent of 1.1 million reports in year one, so it largely compared Pfizer with Moderna, the journal reported. Safety chief Narayan Nair wrote in 2023 that they knew this limitation before and during the pandemic and said another analysis was beyond FDA capabilities. Peter Marks said she had been told to cease and desist to avoid feeding anti-vaccination rhetoric, according to the BMJ. In 2022, a CDC query against older vaccines found signals for myocarditis, pericarditis, Bell’s palsy, tinnitus, and hundreds of other reported disorders, the report said. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky had said in April 2021 they had not seen a myocarditis signal in more than 200 million doses.
Dr. Ryan Cole and Dr. Keith Berkowitz discussed mast cell activation syndrome, in which tissue mast cells release histamine across organs and do not stand down. Patients typically see eight or nine doctors because specialists treat one system, allergy panels often return negative, and tryptase can read normal unless drawn within four hours of a reaction, they said. Berkowitz, treating MCAS for six years in long COVID and post-vaccination patients, described interleukin-8 as extremely high and interleukin-10 low. He calms the nervous system first with magnesium glycinate and L-theanine, then the gut, then antihistamines and low-dose naltrexone, according to the discussion. He regards spike protein as the persistent irritant in these patients and called 80 to 85 percent functional improvement meaningful.
Sources
What If AGI Is Already Here — as a Swarm of Child Agents?
The architecture of the most capable AI systems on Earth in 2026 already looks more like an ant colony than like a single mind.
Goldman: Diesel Crunch Could Spark Gasoline Squeeze Before Midterms
This shift raises the risk of further gasoline price increases ahead of the US midterm elections.
Gates, Guterres Push Global AI Control as Trump Calls Doomsday Hype a Hoax
Both Gates and Guterres have called for more control to be handed to global governance in order to combat the threats posed by AI.
BMJ: Officials Knew COVID Vaccine Safety System Was Flawed but Used It Anyway
They intentionally chose a statistical system incapable of detecting any problems and used the lack of signal as the asserted evidence that no problem existed.
Source | Submitted by pinecarr
Eight Doctors Later: The Mast Cell Disorder Mainstream Medicine Keeps Missing
My average patient has seen eight to nine doctors.
Source | Submitted by davefairtex
Iran Ties Hormuz Reopening to Ouster of Trump and Netanyahu
Our fighters will not open the Strait of Hormuz until the criminal Trump and the bloodthirsty Netanyahu are pulled down from the throne of power
Source | Submitted by westcoastjan
Trump Claims Zero-Cost ‘Forever’ U.S. Security Control of Greenland in Deal With Denmark
There will be no cost to the United States!
Pakistan Orders Nationwide Fuel Rationing, Vehicle Bans and Austerity Amid Historic Supply Crisis
Pakistan has ordered nationwide “lockdown-like” fuel rationing and austerity measures with immediate effect due to the fuel and gas crisis causing historically low supply
AI Chatbot Hallucination Nearly Sparked US-China War Over Fake Iranian Nuke Parts
The chatbot had incorrectly identified the material the vessel was carrying.
Trump Signs Sweeping Russia Sanctions, Shrugging Off Kremlin as Moscow Demands Japan Ditch Typhon Missiles
President Trump has signed the Russia sanctions bill into law, according to the White House.
Ukraine Hits Russian Nuclear Plant Days After Trump’s Energy Truce Claim
A drone hit the cooling tower of a reactor unit at Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency has announced Friday.
US Truckers Plan Oct. 1 Strike Over Record Diesel Prices
American semi-truck drivers who make a living transporting goods say they’re fed up with extremely high diesel prices and are reportedly planning a coordinated strike starting Oct. 1.
Joliet Refinery Stays Dark as Diesel Hits Record $6.45
US diesel hit a new record of $6.45 a gallon today
Trump’s ‘Permanent Control’ vs Denmark’s Sovereignty: Arctic Deal Next Week
Next week the signed paper will show which description is right.
In addition to sources submitted by community members, the following were also used in the creation of this report: The New York Times, CNN, CBS, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, IntegralAnswers, efdavis, and Medscape.
by rodster 
