=====================================================
AI assistants can be hijacked and manipulated by inaudible sounds
Hidden audio commands can hijack AI voice assistants and transcription tools without users hearing anything unusual, according to new research set to be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy next week.
The study shows that carefully crafted audio clips can elicit unauthorized actions from audio-language models (LALMs), including downloading files, sending emails, and performing web searches.
https://cyberinsider.com/ai-assistants-can-be-hijacked-and-manipulated-by-inaudible-sounds/
================================================================
Iran has downed 42 US fighter jets as Trump's war costs spirals to $29 billion
According to a congressional report, the U.S. has lost or damaged 42 aircraft during the Iran War, pushing the Department of War's cost estimate for the operations to $29 billion.
The report emerges just days after Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III testified at a 12 May hearing that the department's cost estimate for military operations in Iran had risen to $29 billion.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2207938/iran-has-downed-42-us
============================================================
Alpha-Gal Syndrome Up 5,566% in Ten Years
“On December 18 last year, Donald Trump signed into law an order to “review and report on biological weapons experiments on and in relation to ticks [and] tick-borne diseases.” The investigation is long overdue but even so, the facts it uncovers will come as a shock to many. A growing body of evidence shows that during the Cold War ticks were tinkered with and used as delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents. And these weaponized ticks may have been released both intentionally and unintentionally on an unsuspecting public by the US military…
I met a man in his seventies who had been in black ops in the CIA. He told me that the strangest thing he ever did was drop infected ticks on Cuban sugarcane workers in 1962. I verified the details of what he told me – it turned out that the dropping of infected ticks in Cuba was a subproject of Operation Mongoose, which aimed to weaken Fidel Castro’s position in Cuba by destroying its economy...
The US entomological bioweapons program was directed by the Chemical Corps, headquartered at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2026-05-20/alpha-gal-syndrome-5566-ten-years-when-cia-carpet-bombed-cuba-weaponized-tick
=======================================================
US Army ignoring safety concerns before Iranian strike led to mass casualty, soldiers say - report
At least one soldier who was killed in the Iranian strike on a US military outpost in Kuwait could have survived if requests for medical supplies weeks before had not been ignored, survivors said, in a report CBS published on Tuesday.
According to several soldiers, neither their unit nor the facility was prepared for the strike, which killed six US soldiers and wounded 20, the day after the war began on March 1.
The unit had expressed concerns weeks before about both the number of medical personnel on hand and the availability and accessibility of medical supplies, CBS wrote. They received no response.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-896736
==============================================================
Michael Burry draws dot com parallels on AI debt frenzy, bulls ignore the warning signs.
Michael Burry and other macro bears are publicly drawing parallels between the current AI debt frenzy and the 1999 dot-com bubble…
Foreign capital is fleeing the Indian and UK markets to chase the semiconductor “golden goose” in Asia…
Investors are pivoting from broad “growth” stocks to hyper-specific AI component suppliers, ignoring broader industrial weakness…
Everyone is acting like AI demand is infinite, but history says the crash is always quiet until it isn’t…
https://citizenwatchreport.com/michael-burry-draws-dot-com-parallels-on-ai-debt-frenzy-bulls-ignore-the-warning-signs/
==========================================================================================
First day of warm weather and police had to impose an emergency 8PM curfew in Long Branch, NJ
https://citizenwatchreport.com/first-day-of-warm-weather-and-police-had-to-impose-an-emergency-8pm-curfew-in-long-branch-nj/#more-221187
==============================================================================
NYC hotel housekeepers seal huge wage pact to over $61 hourly by 2034
These union clowns just priced normal people right out of visiting their own damn city…
New NYC hotel union contract (just ratified yesterday):
housekeepers go from ~$40/hr base to >$61/hr by 2034, with average annual pay headed over $100k.
Next time you go to NYC, understand that the reason your room is so expensive is because the workers are overpaid… and for about half of you, the person cleaning your room is making more money than you are.
https://citizenwatchreport.com/nyc-hotel-housekeepers-seal-huge-wage-pact-to-over-61-hourly-by-2034/#more-221244
================================================================================================
Washington State Under Federal Investigation For Housing Men In Women's Prisons
A women’s prison is supposed to protect women...
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/washington-state-under-federal-investigation-housing-men-womens-prisons
=====================================================
West Virginia Has America's Highest Gas-Price Burden
Americans are still paying elevated prices at the pump in 2026, but the biggest financial burden is falling on states with lower household incomes rather than the highest fuel prices.
This map, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, shows where gasoline is least affordable by comparing the cost of a standard 15-gallon fill-up against median weekly household income across all 50 states.
The Highest Gas Burdens Aren’t in CaliforniaWest Virginia ranks as the state where gas prices hit the hardest, with a 15-gallon fill-up consuming 5.2% of median weekly household income.
West Virginia’s fuel prices are not especially high by national standards. Instead, lower household incomes mean a routine fill-up consumes a larger share of weekly earnings
(California is still high. Tn is lower. But yjr gas price they list seems to be out
of date if you go to the source URL)
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/west-virginia-has-americas-highest-gas-price-burden
==============================================================================
Semi-Truck Driver Arrested For Killing Two People in Hit-and-Run Near Sacramento is Illegal Alien From India
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/05/semi-truck-driver-arrested-killing-two-people-hit/
====================================================================
UNLICENSED Illegal Alien Driver Causes Accident on Freeway Right Next to ICE Arresting Another Illegal (VIDEO)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/05/insane-illegal-alien-driver-causes-accident-freeway-right/
==============================================================================
Tucker Destroys Israeli Journalist
==========================================================
All This over Epstein
#1: Horse To: Horse (#0)
Iran Now Has More Incentive To Resist US Demands, Even If War Restarts: Israeli Think Tank
At this point even hawkish Israeli think tank pundits are increasingly admitting that Iran currently has certain leverage and an edge when it comes to dealing with the United States, and the so far stalled and failed peace talks to end the war.
President Trump has just described that he called off planned renewed airstrikes on Iran, at the request of Gulf allies - who claim efforts toward getting back to the table and reaching a deal are close, despite that Iran's position on its nuclear program has not budged.
Shutterstock/US NavyWhen the White House first initiated Operation Epic Fury, it was hyped as presenting the opportunity for a clean tactical victory likely to result in swift regime change (Venezuela-style); however, it has officially morphed into yet another classic, grinding Washington Mideast dilemma - just as critics loudly warned would happen.
President Trump now finds himself boxed into a high-stakes corner with no easy exit ramp in sight - he can appear 'weak' through inaction, or pursue escalation and potential quagmire with likely disastrous economic and political consequences at home. In such situations each new and 'next' military action which gets presented as a 'way forward' actually often serves to make a conflict more unpredictable, sinking the US into a deeper escalation trap.
And now enter aforementioned Israeli think tank hawks. Raz Zimmt, the Director of the Iran and the Shiite Axis program at the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), has pointed out that Trump's pull-back from 'planned' new airstrikes will leave Tehran leaders with some clear conclusions. It should be remembered that the INSS, which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University, is Israel's most premier defense establishment think tank.
"Whether or not it was indeed requested to do so by the rulers of the Gulf states, Tehran draws two main conclusions this morning from the president's statement," Zimmt, whose work is often promoted by Axios Barak Ravid, began in a thread on X (machine translated).
Here's how the Israel-based pundit lays it out (emphasis ZH):
A. It has once again been proven that Trump is not interested in war. From Tehran's perspective, this does not mean there will be no war, and therefore it is preparing for a resumption of hostilities. However, this strengthens its perception that the fear in the US and the Gulf of the consequences of renewing the campaign outweighs the fear in Iran.
B. It is impossible (and this too, of course, is not a new insight in Tehran) to rely on any word coming from Trump's mouth or keyboard in his endless frenzy. Therefore, not only must it refrain from agreeing to concessions that amount to capitulation to US demands—for example, forgoing nuclear capabilities, such as enrichment infrastructure, and not just the products of the program, such as uranium enriched to 60%—but it must continue to insist, already in the first stage, on security and economic guarantees: a complete end to the war, easing of sanctions or unfreezing of frozen Iranian assets, and management arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz that express recognition of Iran's control over the strait. And the problem is that it is doubtful whether this perception will change even in a scenario of renewed hostilities, unless a way is found to incorporate within its framework an action or actions that succeed in denying or significantly weakening one of the two cards in Iran's hand: control of Hormuz and the nuclear assets.
President Trump on Monday actually said "hopefully, maybe forever" when asked about the decision to delay the Iran attack. This was certainly not missed in Tehran.
A Trump-Iran pattern?
• Wed: Iran wants a deal. They called us
• Thu: We are looking at proposals
• Fri: We might be close. Very close
• Sat.: Iran knows what to do
• Sun: OBLITERATION. TOTAL. COMPLETE. They have 24 hrs.
• Mon. : The storm is coming
• Tue.: I’m giving it more time
[Return to Wed.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-now-has-less-incentive-capitulate-us-demands-israeli-think-tank
Horse posted on 2026-05-20 22:55:23 Reply Private Reply
#2: Pinguinite To: Horse (#0)
>Iran has downed 42 US fighter jets as Trump's war costs spirals to $29 billion
Saying Iran "downed" 42 fighter jets is certainly not correct, and in fact Iran damaged aircraft that were not fighters. I would give them credit for the friendly fire downing of 2 or 3 F-15s as it resulted after an attack on the base in Kuwait. But most of the aircraft damaged or destroyed were on the ground. We have no info on how many Israeli aircraft were damaged or destroyed as Netanyahu is keeping ALL damage and casualty info secret. Rumor had it Iran damaged lots of F-35 aircraft in a single attack, but the only way to really know that is if Israel places a lot of new orders to replace them.
Pinguinite posted on 2026-05-21 00:07:25 Reply Private Reply
#3: Pinguinite To: Horse (#1)
> It has once again been proven that Trump is not interested in war.
I don't think that's true. Trump would easily pull the trigger as he's done many times before. I think it's a combination of frustration and bluff. If Trump attacks, oil markets are going to go way up and that hurts both the US and lots of US & developed world allies. And he can't walk away because of his ego.
If stockpiles of oil really are shrinking and thinks are about to hit the fan in the next 6 weeks or so, then it's a test of will between Iran and Trump in terms of how long each country can survive without oil flowing.
Pinguinite posted on 2026-05-21 00:15:13 Reply Private Reply