New York Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted by a Virginia grand jury on a federal charge of bank fraud. [INDICTMENT HERE]

WASHINGTON — New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who has clashed with President Donald Trump, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia, three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.

James was charged with one count of bank fraud after Trump publicly called for his Justice Department appointees to bring charges against her.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, a Biden appointee. (more)

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The heart of the European industrial economy is Germany, and there’s major trouble afoot within the largest industrial sector within Germany.

Following the “Build Back Better” agenda, the EU went all in for green energy proposals.  EU banking and finance followed suit, funding investment capital for electric vehicles (EVs) to replace combustion engines.  Unfortunately, this put the EU, specifically Germany, in the position of competing against the largest EV industrial base in the world, China.

The second major flaw was capital only flowing to the EV sector, and Europeans -along with the majority of the industrial west- are just not buying EVs at a production capacity to match prior investment.

Put it all together and Germany is trying to compete with China to produce a product their consumer base doesn’t want.

GERMANY – ZF Friedrichshafen’s announcement that it is cutting 7,600 positions adds to the German supplier industry’s troubles as parts makers struggle to manage the shift to EVs, along with falling demand for combustion engine components and increased competition from Chinese suppliers.

Including job losses at Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche, the German auto industry is expected to eliminate nearly 100,000 jobs by 2030, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on CNBC to discuss the second full day of the government shutdown and the potential ramifications therein.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is meeting with President Trump today to discuss the facets of the government that will be closed and for the duration therein.  Secretary Bessent is asked if the furloughs will be a long-term feature of the backfire created by the Democrat strategy.

Bessent reemphasizes he personally joined the Trump administration to shrink the scale of government spending, and the administration is not going to flinch on any CR agreement that backtracks on existing spending reductions.  WATCH:

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It is not hyperbole to think the Moldovan election today may possibly determine whether a NATO war with Russia takes place, or whether the NATO desire for conflict slowly begins to dissolve. {GO DEEP}

The small country squeezed between Romania (the largest NATO super-base constructed) and Ukraine, is located in a critical area. Whether Moldova joins the EU, or whether Moldova remains independently free from Brussels influence, is part of the outcome. The Moldova Parliamentary Elections are today.

The EU/NATO are at a zero-sum inflection point. THIS is the tinderbox.

There are roughly 2.5 million registered Moldovan voters living in Moldova. However, the govt of President Maia Sandu and her EU control agents expect 500,000+ votes from outside Moldova to determine the election outcome.

Of the 3,000 poll watchers, 900 members of the international coalition to influence critical elections (aka western intelligence operatives) are currently active in Moldova providing real-time voter feedback.

The non-pretenders will note the intelligence these operatives return helps western IC determine how many mail-in ballots are needed for EU/NATO success to support President Sandu.

There are 300 polling stations opened across 41 countries. Britain hosts 24 stations, Germany 36, Italy 75, and Russia has two.

Voting in Moldova ends at 21:00 local (9pm)/15:00 ET, but mail in ballots will continue flowing. The first preliminary results should become known around 23:00 (11pm local). [5pm Eastern US.]

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When it comes to presidential candidates, it’s worth remembering: The Kentucky Derby is won by horses, but it’s the owners who get the prize money.

In my opinion, Larry Ellison (Oracle) is the most strategic billionaire influencer, a long-term thinker, in the modern era.  Larry Ellison is about to take control of TikTok, while his son David Ellison gains CBS and will likely move Bari Weiss into content control. Next up, CNN.  Funnily enough, while Elon was the shiny thing, Larry smiled. Keep watching.

The framework of the U.S. TikTok deal is becoming clear. The New York Times has the best write up.

(NEW YORK TIMES) – The software giant Oracle will oversee the security of Americans’ data and monitor changes and updates to TikTok’s powerful recommendation technology under a new deal to avert a ban of the service, according to a senior White House official.

A copy of the algorithm, the recommendation engine that powers the app’s addictive feed of short videos, will be licensed from China to an American investor group that will oversee the app in the United States, the official said.

Oracle will also invest in the new American TikTok, as will the private equity firm Silver Lake, another senior official said.

It will be “secured” in the United States outside the control of TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, one of the officials said. The U.S.-run TikTok will work to retrain the copy on users’ data in the United States, and China will not have access to the data, the officials added.

The deal is an effort to meet the requirements of a law that would have banned TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance relinquished control of the app. It was intended to address national security concerns that the app’s ownership could give Beijing a channel to spread propaganda or to collect sensitive data about Americans.

[…] Under the terms of the deal, American companies will own around 80 percent of the American version of the app. ByteDance and other Chinese investors will own less than 20 percent.

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U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer has filed a motion with the Supreme Court [SEE HERE] requesting intervention in a lower court ruling that blocks President Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

As noted in the filing, “As her removal notice observed, before taking office, Cook had made contradictory representations in two mortgage agreements a short time apart, claiming that both a property in Michigan and a property in Georgia would simultaneously serve as her principal residence. Each mortgage agreement described the representation as material to the lender, reflecting the reality that lenders usually offer lower interest rates for principal-residence mortgages because they view such mortgages as less risky. When her apparent misconduct came to light, the President determined that Cook’s “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter” renders her unfit to continue serving on the Federal Reserve Board, and at a minimum demonstrates “the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question[her] competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.” App., infra, 29a. To this day, Cook has never attempted to reconcile these representations.” (READ MORE)

“The Federal Reserve Act’s broad ‘for cause’ provision rules out removal for no reason at all, or for policy disagreement,” Sauer wrote. “But so long as the President identifies a cause, the determination … is within the President’s unreviewable discretion.”

“The President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself — and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,” Sauer wrote.

Cook maintains she dindunuffin.

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I had not been paying close attention to the overarching issues of President Trump removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook for cause – fraudulent filings on her three mortgage applications. However, the appearance of Norm Eisen as her lawyer certainly highlights the political nature of the defense effort.

Norm Eisen is a well-known Lawfare operative, second only to Mary McCord in his high visibility and connections to all of the anti-Trump efforts. Eisen, like McCord, is at the center of the leftist effort to stop the Trump agenda through the manipulation of the courts, ie. ‘Lawfare.’

Norm Eisen left, Abbe Lowell right. Both lawyers for Lisa Cook

WASHINGTON – A federal judge likely will not rule until next week on whether Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve board, can remain in her job despite President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her.

At the first hearing on Cook’s lawsuit against Trump, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb grappled with the legal issues raised by Trump’s unprecedented move against Cook but offered few hints about how she might rule. The judge, an appointee of Joe Biden, acknowledged the limits of the courts’ power to question the president’s motives, while expressing concerns about the lack of due process afforded to Cook. (more)

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Moldova was always important for the goals of the EU elites against the influence of Russia. However, after Georgia rejected the EU manipulation, Moldova became even more important; very, very important.

Moldova is now the frontline battle of the EU Central Bank against pesky Russian ideological intransigence.  All your democracies are belong to us, comrade.  In the background the EU economies are beginning to quiver, led by Germany.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is worried that if Moldova gains EU membership before Ukraine, his battleground position could be compromised. ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’re no more corrupt than they are.’ Ukraine wants simultaneous attention, priority and ascension.

Moldovan President Saia Sandu squeaked a win in her election with the use of overseas ballots. The highly divided Moldovans living in Moldova didn’t support Sandu, but the mysterious Moldovans who do not live in Moldova supported her. The EU leadership doesn’t want too many people to notice that.

BRUSSELS ― The leaders of France, Germany and Poland are converging Wednesday on tiny Moldova to urge voters to keep turning away from Russia and support their country’s pro-EU government.

The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, and her governing Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) face a critical Sept. 28 parliamentary election amid warnings that the Kremlin is working to influence the result and derail the country’s efforts to join the EU.

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India is now facing a 50% import tariff against the majority of their goods (electronics and pharmaceuticals exempted). However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed not to yield to the pressure. Modi said the world was witnessing a “politics of economic selfishness.”

For approximately a decade many western countries including the U.S. have heaped effusive praise on India as corporations viewed the massive Indian population, the world’s largest democracy, as both workers and consumers.  However, after the western sanctions against Russia were delivered, India -a BRICS nation- began pulling back from western alignment and influence.

Western sanctions map against Russia (yellow = agree with USA).

What we are witnessing now is one of the ramifications of the U.S. forcefully putting an “us or them” aspect into the strategic economic relationship, where “them” is Russia.  Currently, India is not flinching.

One could make the argument that undeveloped regions in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) contain the majority of the valuable rare earth minerals and magnets the ‘western’ nations need for manufacturing.  BRICS has a pressure point to apply leverage, but no global trade currency, if the trade conflict escalates.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Fox Business to discuss some very important current issues in the world of finance, banking and trade.

Bessent begins by answering questions about the U.S. government taking equity interests in companies that come to the U.S. for support.  Bessent then notes the potential for the Trump administration to construct a taxpayer stake in Fannie and Freddie, before the Treasury Secretary moves on to talk about the trade issues with India.  WATCH:

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