Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Bill Gates Calls For Globalist Crackdown On AI


Bill Gates Calls For Globalist Crackdown On AI


Bill Gates has a new emergency. With the climate apocalypse no longer selling, the Microsoft co-founder is touring the press circuit warning that artificial intelligence is an "alien intelligence," that no government on earth is ready for it, and that the only fix is an international organization to police the technology.

President Trump has already rejected the pause. The left, the globalist class, Beijing's spy chief, and now a Sundance-to-Netflix documentary are all at once selling the same story.

In a Reuters interview published Tuesday, Gates said no capital is prepared for what is coming. "I don't think any government is nearly as deep on this as they have to be," he told the outlet. "Governments are way behind on this one."

He compared AI to a Hollywood invasion plot in which Washington and Beijing suddenly hold hands. "There's all sorts of movies where some aliens are coming, and magically the US and China and everybody comes together to solve the problem," Gates said. "AI is kind of like this alien intelligence. It's here, and we better do like it shows in those movies."

The New York Post framed it as a "terrifying warning." Forbes led with the line Gates attached to his foundation's Goalkeepers report: left to the market, "AI will be designed by and for the richest people in the world."

He wrote that AI could be "a great equalizer - or widen the gap," and that choices made in "the next 12 to 18 months" will decide whether the tools "benefit the people who already have the most or reach those who have the least." He added that the good outcome "won't happen by accident."

On The Times Tech Pod, Gates went further and called for a dedicated global apparatus. Industry, he said, should not be trusted to police itself. "It's not the role of the industry to self-regulate or understand the whole-of-society impact that comes out of AI," he argued. "The depth of understanding of AI ... is too low in every entity, including the government."

In a late-August essay, Gates wrote that "the transition to the AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history" and that "unfortunately, right now, we are not preparing for it."

He floated a new international organization built from pieces of nuclear inspections, aviation rules, and ozone treaties - a permanent cross-border watchdog for a technology American labs still lead. He has been pitching the same idea to Trump's team and says he wants a meeting with China's Xi Jinping later this year. 


While Gates talks crisis, his foundation is writing checks to expand the thing. On Tuesday the Gates Foundation pledged at least $1 billion over two years to spread AI in education, health, and agriculture - 40 percent tutoring and classroom tools, 40 percent diagnostics and drug discovery, the rest farming advice and the data layer that makes models work in languages other than English. The money sits inside a previously announced $9 billion-a-year spend.

David Sirota caught the split in one line.


That is the move. Sound the alarm. Demand a global referee. Keep a foundation-sized stake in the rollout.

This is not Gates' first end-of-the-world product. For years he sold net-zero as civilization's last exit - fewer cows, fake meat, the whole ritual. Then the data-center boom needed power, lots of it, and last October he allowed that climate change "won't lead to humanity's demise." Trump treated the climbdown as a concession speech. "I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax," he wrote. "Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue. It took courage to do so, and for that we are all grateful. MAGA!!!"


The scare apparatus was not retired. Once everyone realised the planet was not going to cook on schedule, the same network needed a replacement threat big enough to justify treaties, inspectors, and "international coordination."

AI arrived on cue: jobs, cyberattacks, companions, bioterror, "loss of control." All of it real enough to discuss. None of it a license to park American development under a UN-flavored commission while Beijing keeps shipping cheap open-weight models.

The entertainment wing has added its own contribution in the same news cycle. Netflix has just put up The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, the Sundance premiere from Oscar-winner Daniel Roher (Navalny) and Charlie Tyrell. The film sits Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, Reid Hoffman, Yuval Noah Harari, and the usual "humane tech" chorus in front of a camera and walks the audience through impending AI dread dressed up as a father-to-be's anxiety.

One of the producers said the hope was that it would work "kind of like 'An Inconvenient Truth' or 'The Social Dilemma' for AI." That is the tell. Same template. New monster.

The film premiered at Sundance in January, played theaters in March, and dropped on Netflix this week - the same week Gates, Obama's orbit, Bernie Sanders, and the lab CEOs were all pushing slowdown and supervision.


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Lavrov Warns That If NATO Attacked Russia, War Would Be "Very Short"


Lavrov Warns That If NATO Attacked Russia, War Would Be "Very Short"
TYLER DURDEN


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has again responded to allegations of European officials that Moscow seeks to expand the war beyond Ukraine.

We earlier detailed how recent drone spillover from the conflict, including explosive-laden drones coming out of Belarusian territory and threatening the Baltics, has resulted in Western officials increasingly alluding to NATO 'collective defense'.

This is highly dangerous as it means the situation could rapidly escalate into full-blown Russia-NATO direct confrontation on the basis of a single aircraft shootdown.

In his fresh remarks from Ekaterinburg, Russia - where he was addressing the International Youth Festival on Wednesday, FM Lavrov made clear that Russia has not intent of ever attacking Europe.

But he coupled the statement with a very severe and ominous warning, that could have nuclear implications.

"I would like to emphasize that we have no interest in engaging in this [attacking Europe], but if Europe, which is talking about preparing for war against Russia on a daily basis, attacks Russia, it will be a completely different war, and it will be very short," Lavrov said in remarks translated by national media.

According to more:

The minister also expressed the hope that Europe had heard the warning about a short war in the event of an attack on Russia.

Sergey Lavrov expressed doubts regarding the idea that the world is being governed based solely on agreements between the United States and China, noting that China has a completely different approach to global affairs.


Again, though not expressly stated, Lavrov's warning hints a using nuclear weapons - given the emphasis on such a conflict being "short".

Reading between the lines, he is saying that while Russia doesn't want to go to war with Europe, the only scenario where that would be possible is if Russia is under direct attack and deems its existential survival at stake. Such a thresh-hold reached would likely justify use of strategic forces if President Putin made the decision. 

What's different or curious about the veiled Lavrov warning is that it is typically the 'hawk' Dmitry Medvedev making them. The former Russian president and current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council is typically the one making such maximalist warnings.

All of this suggests the Kremlin sees escalation with NATO in the atmosphere, which it authentically doesn't seem to want.



Von der Leyen’s EU speech: sweeping expansion of EU authority over security and social media, billions for Ukraine, nothing for Europeans freezing this winter


Von der Leyen’s EU speech: Billions for Ukraine, nothing for Europeans freezing this winter



  • Von der Leyen announced an undefined "associate membership" status for Canada during her EU address.
  • She confirmed up to €15 billion in unspent defense loans will fund joint arms projects with Ukraine.
  • Her proposed EU Kids Act would restrict social media access for children under 15.
  • Lawmaker Patryk Jaki cited over €4 billion in wasted vaccine spending and growing EU bureaucracy.
  • Von der Leyen offered no new relief for Europeans facing soaring energy and heating costs this winter.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her sixth State of the Union address Wednesday to announce a sweeping expansion of EU authority over security and social media, including the creation of an undefined "associate membership" status for Canada.

Speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen declared Canada the first nation to receive the new designation, a legal status not found in any EU treaty. The move came alongside calls for a new "European Security Council" involving Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Norway and other allies.

Unspent defense loans redirected to Ukraine arms deals

Von der Leyen confirmed that between €10 billion and €15 billion in unspent EU defense loans will fund joint weapons projects with Ukrainian manufacturers. The money, left over from the Security Action for Europe program after member states reduced commitments, will support efforts like the modular missile system known as Freyja.

"Here we bring together Ukraine's combat experience and innovative strength with Europe's technological leadership," von der Leyen said.

The commission chief also called for tightening restrictions on Russia and announced a "European Heatwave Plan" after a summer in which, by her own count, 660,000 hectares of forest burned across the continent.

Social media restrictions proposed for children under 15

The centerpiece of von der Leyen's domestic agenda was the proposed "EU Kids Act," which would ban social media access for users under 13 and restrict access for those under 15. The legislation would shift the burden of proof to technology companies to demonstrate their platforms are safe.

"We do not have to accept addictive features," von der Leyen said. "...Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide our rules, not big tech."

Lawmaker cites billions wasted on vaccines, bureaucratic bloat

Not every critique waited for the floor debate. Patryk Jaki of the European Conservatives and Reformists used his response to tally von der Leyen's six years in office, citing data from 19 European countries showing more than €4 billion wasted on vaccines and, in Poland, public funds spent on swingers clubs, tanning beds and pizzerias. Jaki also accused the commission of expanding its own staff despite a 2020 promise to cut bureaucracy, saying von der Leyen "managed to tighten bottlecaps and turn Europeans into involuntary rubbish collectors" — a reference to the EU's recycling mandates — before accusing her of pushing internet censorship under the guise of protecting children online.

French MEP Jordan Bardella delivered a separate rebuke, noting that EU bureaucrat salaries have increased by 49% and spending on private jets by 59%, while European families face 50% higher costs for petrol and heating.

"Every year we hear you glorifying what you've done and every year we hear Europe is about to be relaunched," Bardella said. He called for ending "the aggressive ideology of de-growth" and protecting European farmers from unfair competition.

Von der Leyen offered no new measures to address the energy crisis or rising cost of living facing European consumers as winter approaches.


For a bloc grappling with soaring heating bills and empty union coffers, Wednesday's address offered plenty of new commitments — billions more for Ukraine's arms industry, an expanded security council, a fresh EU taxing authority — but little accounting for money already spent. As lawmakers itemized wasted vaccine funds, ballooning staff costs and six-figure salary hikes for Brussels bureaucrats, it was ordinary Europeans, facing another winter of high heating bills, who were left waiting for relief.



Police Use Flock to Jail Completely Innocent Woman for Weeks


Police Use Flock to Jail Completely Innocent Woman for Weeks


When 23-year old Lindsey Brooke Isaacs surrendered to police at the advice of her attorney, she was treated like a hardened criminal. Facing eight felony charges, including three counts of vehicular homicide, she spent her first days in custody in solitary confinement, separated from the rest of the jail population.

Having been denied bond, Isaacs would spend nearly two weeks in jail, swallowing the prospect of spending the rest of her life behind similar bars. 

“I was devastated, I was scared,” Isaacs told Fox News. “I thought my life was over.”

As grim as it looked, the Florida woman did have one thing going for her: she was completely innocent.

Isaacs’ arrest was first reported by WESH2 in June, but resurfaced by Fox News, which notes that the case around Isaacs proceeded solely based on evidence gathered from an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) provided by the extremely controversial company Flock Safety. Her charges stemmed from an incident in October 2025, when a horrific crash in DeBary, Florida killed three people, including a county official and his wife. One driver involved had fled, leading police to conclude that they were behind the tragic accident.

Using the Flock’s network of ALPRs, investigators canvased hours of surveillance footage recorded near the incident, following a tip by witnesses. The fleeing vehicle had been identified as a Dodge Durango — the exact kind of vehicle Isaac drove.

Sure enough, Fox News reports Isaacs’ Durango was traveling in the area at the time. A Flock ALPR had identified her vehicle three miles away from the crash site two miles prior to the incident, moving in the direction of the fatal crash. But that sighting is where the coincidences end, and the life-altering guesswork began.

During the investigation, witnesses and residue left on the impacted vehicle both pointed to a maroon-colored vehicle. On top of sporting a black paintjob, Isaacs’ Durango bore no damage indicating it had even scratched another vehicle per a Florida Highway Patrol analysis, let alone hit one hard enough to kill three people.

“Where is the damage on the vehicle?” the woman told Fox News, recalling her discussion with police, who impounded her car anyway. “Because I’m standing right in front of it and I don’t see any damage.”

Half a year later, Isaacs received the call from her attorney, informing her of the charges and advising her to surrender to police. After a 13-day stint in jail, she was released, after the Florida attorney general declined to bring any of the eight charges police had attempted to stick her with. Another woman was later identified as the driver of the maroon SUV and arrested on nine felony charges.

For her part, Isaacs says she’s filed a federal civil rights suit against two Florida Highway Patrol officers, claiming false arrest, wrongful imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.

“This took and is going to take maybe years to get better mentally, physically, emotionally,” she told Fox News of the ordeal. While the director of the Florida Highway Patrol extended a personal apology, it’s an insufficient gesture in the face of obviously shoddy police work and abuse of the ALPR network.

Even for the wrongfully accused, a two-week jail term is difficult to come back from. If Isaacs had a job she likely lost it, and there’s no telling what kind of reputational harm the ordeal will have on her career or her relationship with her community. That’s to say nothing of the psychological scars that come along with wrongful imprisonment, let alone a holding period in solitary confinement.

And though Flock was the technical lynchpin in this case, Isaacs told Fox News she holds more blame for police officers eager to snag a conviction, regardless of whether the accused was innocent or guilty.

The sad fact is that police in the US have long behaved this way, and there’s no reason to believe they’ll stop on their own. But now with unfettered access to Flock’s network of over 100,000 ALPRs, it’s becoming remarkably easy for officers to sculpt a criminal to fit their crime — inculpatory evidence be damned.


EU Pushes Digital ID AGE CHECKS To GAME, Use Social Media


EU Pushes Digital ID AGE CHECKS To GAME, Use Social Media


Brussels is preparing to treat a new Steam account the same way it treats a passport check. The forthcoming EU Kids Act, due to be unveiled by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and tech chief Henna Virkkunen, would force age verification on social media, video-sharing sites, “risky” online games and AI chatbots. 

Officials are wrapping it in child protection. The machinery looks a lot more like a continent-wide identity gate.

Internal documents obtained by Euractiv set the tone. “The EU Kids Act will oblige providers of social media services and video-sharing platforms to perform age verification when a user opens a new account.” 

Those checks would run through an EU age-verification tool or another solution prepared by public authorities. Tech firms would also pay the Commission “enforcement costs.” Spain and the Netherlands pushed last week to drag games and AI companions into the net.

The draft sets an EU-wide minimum age of 15 for an autonomous account, with a ladder of controls below that. Children under three would be barred from high-risk services. 

Ages three to 13 would get parent-controlled “child-friendly” access. Thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds would need parental “introductory” accounts with limited features. Even 15- to 18-year-olds would remain under “safe by design” rules targeting infinite scroll and other so-called addictive features. 

Existing accounts would face “proportionate” checks. Which games count as “risky to minors” is still conveniently vague.

Von der Leyen is expected to preview the plan in her State of the Union address, with the formal pitch on Thursday. The Commission already has an age-verification “mini wallet” built on the same specs as the European Digital Identity Wallet due by the end of 2026. 

Officials sell it as privacy-preserving proof of age. Platforms in Britain and Australia have already demanded phone numbers, facial scans, government ID or credit cards.

 Sony locked PlayStation comms features in the UK and Ireland behind those checks. Steam in Australia now wants an Australian credit card for R18+ titles, locking out adults who only hold debit cards.

PlayStation’s 2011 breach exposed data on about 77 million users. Asking the same industry to hoard fresh biometric and ID data, then invoice Brussels for the privilege of policing it, is not a child-safety plan. It is an identity architecture.

The next move is already on the record. When users try to route around the gates, Brussels wants the exits sealed.

Virkkunen has said preventing circumvention of age-verification systems would be among the “next steps” policymakers need to examine. Von der Leyen frames the whole project as a way to “defend children’s rights.” 

France has already pointed at VPNs after its own under-15 social media clampdown. Once every login needs a state-approved age token, a VPN is no longer a privacy tool. It is a loophole.

This is not a one-off gaming rule. It sits on top of a stack Brussels has been assembling for years.

Chat Control would force providers to scan private messages and break end-to-end encryption in the name of finding child sexual abuse material. Signal’s Meredith Whittaker warned it “could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe.” WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart said the presidency text still “breaks end-to-end encryption, risking everyone’s privacy and security.”

The so-called Democracy Shield layers the Digital Services Act with “disinformation” codes, trusted flaggers and political-ad rules that treat speech about family, nation or faith as a moderation problem. 

Jerzy Kwa?niewski of Ordo Iuris put it plainly: under the banner of protecting democracy, the EU is rolling out regulations that “curb free expression, sideline conservative voices, and reshape the public sphere through opaque moderation, labeling, and algorithmic controls.”

When member states lag, the Commission sues. Brussels has already taken countries to court for failing to enforce its digital rulebook hard enough.

Washington noticed. President Trump has weighed travel bans on EU officials behind the DSA, a law the White House treats as an attempt to export European speech controls onto American platforms and users. The State Department said it was “monitoring increasing censorship in Europe with great concern.”

If you want to know what the finished product looks like, take a peek across the Channel. Former British PM Keir Starmer announced a social media ban for under-16s and said, “We’re giving children their childhoods back.” The fine print is mandatory age verification for adults: facial scans, passports, credit cards. 

Elon Musk called it “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” whose “real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.”

Telegram founder Pavel Durov saw the pattern immediately. “Once somebody says child protection, all of a sudden it triggers very ancient, very deep parts of our brain. Who would be against protecting children? It completely bypasses logic.” His verdict on the West: “Our ship has already hit the iceberg.”The policing stats are not theoretical. Big Brother Watch’s FOI haul found at least 62,199 arrests for communications offences in England and Wales between 2021 and 2025 — about 34 a day. Only about one in five of those arrests produced a conviction. The knock on the door is the punishment.

That is the sequence. Ban the kids. Verify the adults. Scan the devices. Flag the posts. Call it safety.

Gamers are simply the next population Brussels can march through the same gate. Parents already have tools, ratings and the off switch. What they are being offered instead is a Commission-approved age token, a bill sent to Silicon Valley, and a standing excuse to treat VPNs, anonymous accounts and unapproved speech as a child-protection emergency.