Could India Be the Straw That Broke the Silver Camel’s Back?

Money Metals News Service
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Could India Be the Straw That Broke the Silver Camel’s Back?

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Could India be the straw that broke the silver camel’s back? Most people associate India with gold, but the country also ranks as the world’s top silver consumer.

As we reported yesterday, one of the reasons for silver’s surge to record levels in recent days is a shortage of available silver in London. This is being partly driven by voracious demand in India.

India’s silver market reveals deep structural problems indicative of the broader global market.

Simply put, there isn’t enough silver. And risks of a major blowup are mounting.

Demand for silver in India began to surge earlier this year after the white metal zoomed to new all-time highs in rupee terms.

With growing investor interest in silver during an environment when gold seems pricey, a silver supply shortfall in India also sent the price to a significant premium locally.

Supply simply can’t keep up.

Indian silver imports exploded in January and February, but fell off as the year progressed. According to Reuters, through the first eight months of this year, demand was down about 42 percent from the same period in ’24. Rising demand in recent weeks soaked up the surplus imported last year that now needs to be met through additional imports today.

Initially, Indian buyers were primarily sourcing silver from Hong Kong, but they reportedly shifted more toward London during the Chinese Golden Week Holiday in the first week of October. This has exacerbated the silver shortage in London.

The free float of available silver in London was already down by over 75 percent, thanks to a recent explosion in silver ETF demand. Large silver shipments to the U.S. earlier this year, due to worries about tariffs, exacerbated the situation.

Indian traders are trying to get their hands on metal wherever they can. At least one major silver fund in India halted acceptance of new investors, citing a lack of metal. However, other investment vehicles are still accepting new funds. This raises worries that they might be unable to source the needed metal.

Meanwhile, Money Metals Exchange just arranged for a massive shipment of 1,000-ounce silver bars destined for India via Dubai from the U.S. to Dubai. Money Metals CEO Stefan Gleason said, “We might be doing this daily for a while.”

Bullion banks are engaged in similar operations, standing for delivery of silver on the COMEX and airlifting silver bars to Europe and beyond.

According to an article in BW Businessworld, an Indian financial publication, demand for silver is “frenetic.”

“Shelves are empty; mints are running overtime.”

However, there is an unusual anomaly in the Indian market. MCX futures are trading by as much as ₹20,000 per kg below the street price. Businessworld said this isn’t a “small kink.”

“It’s a gaping hole in India’s precious metals market — and it’s getting wider.”

A commodity strategist who requested anonymity told Businessworld, “This isn’t a normal backwardation.”

“This is market stress. It’s a signal that someone, somewhere, can’t deliver metal.”

And therein lies the rub. There simply isn’t enough silver to meet the surging demand. And it’s not just an India problem.

The global silver market is on track for its fifth straight structural market supply deficit.

Global demand outstripped the silver supply for the fourth consecutive year in ’24. The structural market deficit came in at 148.9 million ounces. That drove the four-year market shortfall to 678 million ounces, the equivalent of 10 months of mining supply in 2024.

The Silver Institute projects a fifth straight supply deficit this year.

When miners can’t produce enough metal to meet demand, users must source silver from existing above-ground stocks. But to entice people to let their silver go, the price must rise.

Last year, there was record industrial demand for silver, but investment demand was tepid. But as the price neared record levels this year, investment demand has surged as well, stressing the market close to a breaking point.

As Businessworld put it, “Globally, silver inventories are collapsing.”

“Borrowing costs for the metal in London have spiked to multi-decade highs. ETFs and industrial consumers — from solar manufacturers to electronics firms — have swallowed available stock. Refiners in Canada, Australia, and even Vietnam are reporting backlogs.”

Businessworld reports that the silver shortage has turned the physical silver market in India into a “feeding frenzy.”

“So acute is the shortage that India’s biggest fund houses — Kotak Mahindra, UTI, and SBI — have suspended fresh subscriptions to their silver ETFs, citing ‘market conditions’ and ‘supply constraints.’”

This chaos is bleeding over into the MCX (the Indian futures market, similar to the COMEX in the U.S.). Silver stocks in MCX vaults are getting thin.

“If even a fraction of contract holders demanded delivery, there isn’t enough metal,” a bullion trader told Businessworld.

Businessworld explained that trading physical silver for futures contracts looks like a no-brainer on paper. But it is an arbitrage few will touch. (Arbitrage is the practice of buying and selling an asset simultaneously in different markets to profit from a temporary price difference.)

Under current market conditions, a trader could sell silver at ₹1.70 lakh/kg, buy MCX futures at ₹1.46 lakh/kg, take delivery on Dec. 5, and pocket ₹24,000/kg in profit.

Who could resist?

Right now – almost everybody.

A trader quoted by Businessworld explained why.

“Who will trust delivery in this environment. Even if you have cash and contracts, you can’t be sure you’ll get the metal.”

This situation is most acute in India. However, it is indicative of the global market and explains why prices have risen so quickly.

We could see easing pressure in the upcoming weeks as metal moves to the areas of highest demand, but there is no easy fix for the underlying problem.

There is a lot of demand for silver. And there isn’t a lot of silver to meet that demand.

Again, this isn’t just about India. Gleason summed it up.

“Maybe India is the straw that has finally broken the silver camel’s back. Given India demand was heavily skewed to gold, just a small switch to silver can make a big difference in a small physical market dominated by leverage.”

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Trump Suggests One of His Biggest Donors Cares More About Israel Than the US

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Suggests One of His Biggest Donors Cares More About Israel Than the US

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump on Monday suggested that Miriam Adelson, one of his biggest donors during his 2024 campaign, “loves” Israel more than the United States, comments he made during an address to the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem.

“I’m gonna get her in trouble with this one, but I actually asked her once, ‘So, Miriam, I know you love Israel. What do you love more? Israel. The United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer. That might mean Israel,” the president said.

Miriam’s late husband, Sheldon Adelson, was also a major contributor to Trump’s previous presidential campaigns, and Trump credited the couple for pro-Israel moves he made in his first administration, including recognizing the Israeli annexation of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

“Miriam and Sheldon would come into the office, they’d call me. I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else I could think of. Look at her sitting there so innocently, she got $60 billion in the bank … and she loves Israel,” Trump said in his Knesset address, which Miriam attended.

“Her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him, very supportive of me. And he’d call up, ‘Can I come over and see you?’ I say, ‘Sheldon, I’m the president of the United States, it doesn’t work that way. He’d come in and do good, though. But they were very responsible for so much, including getting me thinking about Golan Heights,” Trump added.

The president made similar comments while on the campaign trail last year. “Miriam and Sheldon would come into the White House, probably more than almost anybody outside of people that worked there. And as soon as I’d give them something, always for Israel, as soon as I’d give them something, they’d want something else. I’d say, ‘give me a couple of weeks, will you please,’” he said at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in September 2024.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

 

Trump and Zelensky To Discuss Tomahawk Missiles at the White House on Friday

Headline USA Editor
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Trump and Zelensky To Discuss Tomahawk Missiles at the White House on Friday

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, and the two leaders are expected to discuss the possibility of the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, Axios reported on Monday.

The US provision of Tomahawks would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war since they are nuclear-capable and have a range of more than 1,000 miles, but the Trump administration has confirmed it is considering sending the weapons. Trump suggested on Sunday that he may attempt ot use Tomahawks as leverage with Russia, saying he “might have to speak with Russia” about the missiles.

“Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so. I told that to President Zelensky, because Tomahawks are a new step of aggression,” the president told reporters. “I might say, ‘Look, if this war is not gonna get settled, I may send them Tomahawks.’ Russia doesn’t need that. I think it is appropriate to bring that up.”

Russia has continued to warn strongly against the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that the provision would significantly damage US-Russia relations and reverse the diplomatic progress made since President Trump returned to office at the beginning of the year. Other Russian officials have raised the possibility of US military personnel being directly involved in the targeting process.

The feasibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks remains unclear since the Ukrainian military lacks the ability to fire them. Tomahawks are designed to be fired by US Navy warships and submarines, and the US has only recently developed a mobile, land-based launcher for the missiles, a system that was previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019.

The Trump administration has found other ways to support long-range strikes inside Russia, including by providing intelligence for Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Such attacks always risk a major escalation from Russia.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

Virginia Guv. Candidate Worked at Saudi Extremist School

Jose Nino
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Virginia Guv. Candidate Worked at Saudi Extremist School

(José Niño, Headline USA) Democratic Virginia gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger once worked for a Saudi government–controlled school known for ties to extremist teachings and Hamas-linked figures, according to a report by Just The News. 

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and congresswoman, taught English at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in northern Virginia during the 2002–2003 school year, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. 

The academy, fully funded and overseen by the Saudi royal government, had long been under scrutiny for using textbooks that preached hatred toward non-Muslims and Jews and for associations with radical Islamic figures.

When the position became public during her 2018 congressional campaign, Spanberger said she was “proud” and “not ashamed” of her background, calling the students she taught “normal kids.”

By the time Spanberger joined the ISA, the school was already linked to disturbing controversies. Hamas political chief Mousa Abu Marzook, later deported from the U.S., had sent his children there in the 1990s, according to a report by The Washington Post. The school’s comptroller, Ismail Selim Elbarasse, shared a bank account with Marzook and was later tied to the Justice Department’s Holy Land Foundation investigation for funneling money to Hamas, per a subsequent report by The Washington Post. 

In 2002, the Washington Post reported that ISA textbooks taught that “the Day of Judgment can’t come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews.” 

One 11th-grade book said Jews would hide behind trees, which would cry out, “Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him.” The Post reported that Saudi officials later admitted that the school’s materials had contained “inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s.” 

The Post noted that ISA also lost its accreditation that same year after investigators questioned its funding and oversight. The school’s own website stated that it was “funded by and subject to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Earlier reports from The Post and CNN revealed that two recent ISA graduates were detained by Israeli authorities in 2001 over suspicions they planned a suicide attack. One pleaded guilty to passport fraud in the United States. A few years later, the school’s valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.

The controversies led even Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to call for a federal probe, warning in a 2005 press release that the academy’s “continued association with individuals linked to terror and the teaching of hateful ideology” demanded attention.

Spanberger maintains she took a temporary substitute job there while awaiting CIA security clearance and insists she had “nothing to hide.” USA Today reported that she verified the arrangement with CIA recruiters before accepting the position.

Her Republican critics were less forgiving. Then-Rep. Dave Brat, R-V.A., called the academy “Terror High,” arguing that its record was “openly anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian,” as the Post previously reported. GOP groups accused Spanberger of concealing the employment, noting it did not appear on early campaign materials.

Spanberger countered that she later served the CIA “running a large-scale program aimed at thwarting terrorist threats,” per a report by The Washington Times. She also enlisted ex-CIA officer John Sipher—later one of the signatories of the disputed Hunter Biden laptop letter—to defend her. Sipher said, “Associating Abigail with terrorism is laughable… The CIA trusted her with top-secret clearances. For Dave Bratt or anybody else to twist that and turn it against her and claim that Abigail aided terrorists? It’s dangerous and unpatriotic.”

Spanberger, for her part, has dismissed the controversy: “I’m proud of my background and my service… I have nothing to hide.”

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Democratic ‘No Kings’ Protests Funded by Billionaire George Soros

Luis Cornelio
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Democratic ‘No Kings’ Protests Funded by Billionaire George Soros

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The liberal “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump have been tied to none other than George Soros, the notorious billionaire and one of the world’s wealthiest men.

The “No Kings” movement consists of small demonstrations opposing Trump’s policies, which the left has dubiously portrayed as authoritarian or even fascist.  

Yet, an investigation by the X account “DataRepublican” found that several of these protests appear organizationally linked to Soros’s Open Society Foundations and its network of activists. 

One of the primary groups behind the protests, Indivisible, has received more than $7.6 million from OSF since 2018, according to public records reviewed by Headline USA. 

The ties run deeper than funding.  

Indivisible co-founder and co-executive director Leah Greenberg previously worked for former Rep. Tom Perriello, who later led OSF and helped Indivisible secure early funding in addition to institutional support. 

Her husband and fellow co-founder, Ezra Levin, also maintains ties to the Soros network. Levin sits on an advisory board for Supreme Court Voter alongside Marc Elias, the Soros-backed attorney behind the leftist group Democracy Docket. 

Marielena Hincapié, Indivisible’s founding board president, formerly led the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), which has received direct grants from OSF, according to DataRepublican. 

Heather C. McGhee, another Indivisible board member, also sits on the OSF board, creating a direct overlap between Indivisible’s leadership and Soros’s foundation. 

Meanwhile, Angel Padilla, Indivisible’s former national policy director, previously worked at NILC before joining the organization. 

Despite access to millions of dollars in leftist dark money, the “No Kings” rallies have drawn only small crowds and achieved little to no influence within the Trump administration. 

Read part of DataRepublican’s probe below:

 

 

Dems Avoid Crediting Trump for Released Israeli Hostages

Luis Cornelio
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Dems Avoid Crediting Trump for Released Israeli Hostages

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) High-profile Democrats jumped through hoops to celebrate the release of Israeli hostages without giving President Donald Trump or his administration a shred of credit.

The legacy media has widely acknowledged that the peace agreement between Hamas and the Israeli government resulted from intense negotiations led by Trump, who campaigned on a promise to end the war and bring every hostage home. Most of the Israel-Hamas conflict occurred under the watch of the Biden administration.

Despite this, several prominent Democrats omitted Trump from their statements, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

On the House side, the silence was echoed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Reps. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich.; Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y.

Former President Barack Obama, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and other Democrats also praised the outcome without once mentioning Trump’s role.

As seen in screenshots shared online, most Democrats expressed relief over the hostages’ return and sympathy for the lives lost, while others used the moment to push for a two-state solution.

Their silence on Trump stood in sharp contrast to how even former Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden publicly credited the incumbent president for securing the deal.

“I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line,” Biden wrote.

Clinton added in a separate statement: “President Trump and his administration, Qatar, and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached.”

The hostages’ release ends years of suffering that began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250.

Israel launched a full-scale war in response, killing thousands of Palestinians.

Biden repeatedly tried and failed to broker peace, but Trump ultimately succeeded in pressuring both sides to end the conflict once and for all.

Answers in Tennessee Deadly Explosion Could Take Weeks

Headline USA Editor
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Answers in Tennessee Deadly Explosion Could Take Weeks

(Kim Jarrett, The Center Square)  The losses at the Accurate Energetic Systems are staggering, Gov. Bill Lee said of the explosion that killed 16 people on Friday.

The explosion at the plant in Bucksnort was so strong it registered as an earthquake with a 1.6 magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Center. Bucksnort is on the Humphreys and Hickman county line, about 50 miles west of Nashville.

The National Response Team for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is working with a number of federal and state agencies to investigate the cause of the explosion and to identify remains.

Tyra Cunningham, assistant special agent in charge for the bureau’s Nashville office, said Sunday she didn’t want to speculate on how long the investigation would take.

“Where it goes from here is of course we are at day two of the National Response Team being on the ground,” Cunningham said. “They are doing their walkthroughs right now and then they will begin to process the scene. Once they have left whether it’s weeks or months, we do have more work to do on the backend which is the laboratory work, the origin and cause reports.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is identifying the remains.

“So we are currently and as a matter of fact, just started the second set of the process of identifying remains,” said David B. Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. “And so the first part was getting standards from family members and so we’ll be able to do some comparisons with DNA. We’re using the newest technology, rapid DNA, here on site.”

Lee toured the scene and met with families before holding a news conference that was lives streamed on local media outlets.

“The losses are staggering and quite frankly, to know that the world knows and to know that the nation is focused is a part of that sense of, you know, ‘someone sees me and someone knows that this has happened to me,’ I think that is important,” Lee said. “It doesn’t solve the problem for them. It doesn’t bring their loved one back. But to be heard and to be seen is part of the healing process for every family.”

Accurate Energetic Systems processes ammunition and explosives but does not manufacture them, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in its Sunday update.

The agency said it is continuing to dispose of unstable or hazardous materials and residents could hear the explosions and see black smoke.

GOP Stands up for U.S. Military Strikes on Suspected Drug Boats

Headline USA Editor
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GOP Stands up for U.S. Military Strikes on Suspected Drug Boats

(Brett Rowland, The Center Square)  President Donald Trump and the Pentagon show no signs of changing course on using military strikes to destroy suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

“We are taking the fight out to the seas where it needs to be,” U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, told The Center Square. “We’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people who are being murdered by drugs. They’re illegally pouring in over our borders.”

Her Republican colleagues in the Senate shut down a Democrat-led proposal this week that would have required Trump to get congressional approval before using the military to destroy suspected drug boats in the region.

In a 51-48 vote, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted with Democrats in favor of the measure. Republicans blocked it with help from Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, didn’t vote on the measure.

Last month, when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the military strikes would continue, Fetterman was all for it.

“Fully support confronting the scourge of cartel drug trafficking to our nation,” he wrote in a post on X.

Trump’s use of military strikes on suspected drug boats marks a new strategy in the war on drugs. Previously, U.S. forces stopped suspect vessels, made arrests, and seized drugs.

Last week, Trump told Congress that the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean after ordering at least four military strikes on suspected drug boats in the region.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” according to the confidential notice the administration sent to Congress. Trump directed the U.S. Department of War to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”

Trump ordered military strikes on Sept. 2, Sept. 15, Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. Trump said the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was using the boats to smuggle drugs to the U.S.

After one of the U.S. strikes against a speedboat, agents from the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate and the Dominican Republic Navy seized 377 packages of suspected cocaine about 80 nautical miles south of Beata Island, Pedernales province.

On his second day in office in his second term, Trump issued an executive order designating Mexican cartels, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and Salvadoran La Mara Salvatrucha (known as MS-13), as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists under the U.S. Constitution, Immigration and Nationality Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The U.S. said the four boat strikes resulted in 21 deaths. The Sept. 2 attack killed 11. The strike on Sept. 15 killed three, as did the strike on Sept. 19. The Oct. 3 attack killed four. U.S. officials have released a few details about the strikes. Trump posted videos of two strikes on social media. He told reporters about the third. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted a video of the fourth strike, which killed four people, on social media on Oct. 3.

The strikes prompted criticism from Democrats and others, including some Republicans.

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said the military strikes were a significant change in U.S. policy and could pose legal challenges.

“The strikes are both illegal and unconstitutional,” he previously told The Center Square. “The law is clear that the military is only authorized to intercept vessels to communicate with them and refer them to civilian law enforcement. The Constitution prohibits war without congressional authorization, and even in a war, the military may not intentionally kill civilians.”

Senators questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi at a hearing this week about what advice she provided to the administration to justify the strikes. She responded: “I’m not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have given or issued at the direction of the president.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro – who earlier this year said cocaine is no worse than whiskey – has been critical of the strikes.

“A new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean,” he recently wrote on X. “Indications show that the last boat bombed was Colombian with Colombian citizens inside it. I hope their families come forward and report it. There is no war against smuggling; what there is is a war for oil and it must be stopped by the world. The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The White House disputed those comments and called for Petro to retract his claims.

Petro proposed Thursday that Qatar could serve as a mediator to help stop the strikes.

Venezuela produces cocaine, but not fentanyl, according to the DEA. The bulk of Venezuela’s cocaine is sent to Europe.

Trump said a sharp decrease in boat traffic in the region shows his strategy is working.

Bier said drugs continue to flow into the U.S.

“It will certainly reduce drug trafficking by boats near Venezuela, but will do little to reduce total supply coming to the United States because drug trafficking is a global phenomenon with a variety of channels,” Bier told The Center Square.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes from The Center Square during a partial government shutdown due to a funding lapse.

Charlotte Train Stabbing Footage, Charlie Kirk Assassination Censored in Australia

Ken Silva
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Charlotte Train Stabbing Footage, Charlie Kirk Assassination Censored in Australia

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Australia’s authoritarian eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has ordered U.S. tech platforms to remove footage showing the murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death by a homeless man on a Charlotte train on Aug. 22.

According to the Australian news site news.com.au, Grant sent a letter to Twitter/X on Sept. 26, flagging 23 posts to be censored. The accounts listed include Headline USA, which was the first outlet to obtain and publish the full footage of Zarutska’s murder.

Grant, a former Twitter employee, issued a press release about the censorship on Friday, claiming to have received “multiple complaints from Australians about extreme graphic footage appearing online.” She said she also ordered the takedown of footage showing the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and the beheading of Indian-American motel manager Chandra Nagamallaiah, which both took place on Sept. 10.

“eSafety recognises the importance of news reporting and public commentary on current events – especially such tragic, disturbing ones as these – and has no role regulating opinion, commentary or political speech,” her press release says.

“eSafety does, however, have a role in enforcing Australia’s Online Safety Act to keep Australian citizens safe from online harm, especially children. That includes preventing accidental, inadvertent or unnecessary exposure to harmful violent online imagery of real killings where that material has been assessed RC.”

According to Australian political commentator Topher Field, Twitter/X has thus far complied with the takedown notice—geo-blocking the footage of Zarutska’s death to avoid a fine of $825,000 per post per day.

However, the advocacy group Free Speech Union of Australia has challenged the eSafety Commissioner’s ruling.

“Although she claims to be censoring the video, really this is about censoring the tweets, as our submissions make clear,” the pro-speech organization said on Twitter/X.

Inman Grant has a long history of trying to censor Twitter and other tech platforms.

In April 2024, for instance, she ordered Twitter to remove content surrounding the stabbing of an Australian bishop—not just from Australia, but from the whole world. Even the stabbing victim opposed her order, and an Australian court eventually ruled that it was illegal.

Twitter/X has not immediately responded to an email query about whether it will challenge Inman Grant’s latest attack on free speech.

The full footage of Zarutska’s murder can be found here.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Trump Says US Troops Will Get Paid Oct. 15 Despite Funding Lapse

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Says US Troops Will Get Paid Oct. 15 Despite Funding Lapse

(Brett Rowland, The Center Square)  President Donald Trump said Saturday that America’s 1.3 million military service members will get paid on Oct. 15 despite a congressional budget lapse that led to a partial government shutdown.

Typically, military members don’t get paid when Congress fails to approve funding. However, Trump said he directed U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to find the cash to make sure U.S. troops get their next paycheck on Oct. 15. Many were preparing to go without, as they had in previous shutdowns.

The president invoked his authority as Commander in Chief of the armed forces to pay service members.

“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS. I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday.

Some 334,900 civilian employees at the Department of Defense were set to be furloughed during the government shutdown, according to a Pentagon contingency plan released before the shutdown took effect.

Each day the federal government remains closed costs U.S. taxpayers about $400 million just in salary for about 750,000 furloughed federal workers.

Workers generally don’t collect that back pay until after they return to work when the shutdown ends. The practice upends the lives of federal employees and their families for an uncertain period while Congress struggles to pass a funding bill. Each party has blamed the other for the shutdown.

The ongoing government shutdown stretched into its tenth day on Saturday.

The previous government shutdown lasted 35 days during Trump’s first term.

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