[Townhall] Another day, another case of massive SNAP fraud. Tomorrow, there will be more.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as "food stamps," is designed to help Americans put food on the table. Its sheer size and complexity, however, make it vulnerable to fraud, and nationwide the amount of fraud is eye-popping.
With an annual budget exceeding $90 billion, SNAP serves roughly 42 million Americans. Most recipients need help, but the program’s structure, especially the use of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, broad eligibility, and limited in-person oversight, encourages opportunities for endless abuse. The upshot? Billions of taxpayer dollars are ripe for exploitation.
LET US COUNT THE WAYS
SNAP fraud takes multiple forms. One major category is "trafficking," whereby benefits are sold for cash or for non-food items. The USDA Office of Inspector General reported more than $320 million in trafficking nationwide in 2022, while other estimates suggest that the dollar figure could be even higher.
Organized crime rings have been caught running "EBT resale" operations from New York to Los Angeles. In 2021, federal authorities in New Jersey busted a group that trafficked more than $2 million in EBT benefits, converting taxpayer-funded groceries into cash at local corner stores.
Eligibility fraud is a major concern. To qualify for benefits, some recipients underreport income or fail to disclose assets. In 2021, the USDA estimated that billions in SNAP benefits went to ineligible recipients. While small relative to the program’s total budget, this money could otherwise support truly needy households.
[Reuters] A suspected member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, which says it stole data on every FBI employee, was detained in Jordan this week and is cooperating with the FBI, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Saif al-Din Khader was detained by Jordanian authorities, the three sources said. Two of them said he was brought into custody on Tuesday. Reuters could not immediately determine the circumstances of Khader’s detention or where he is being held. Two sources said that he is helping the FBI and global law enforcement locate the other hackers in the group.
The FBI declined to comment on any specific arrest or activity abroad but said that the bureau "continues to aggressively investigate the recent cyber incident allegedly involving ShinyHunters, having already worked with partners to arrest multiple subjects — and we will spare no resource in bringing each of the responsible individuals to justice."
The detention of Khader — whose alleged hacker nickname is Rey — is the latest twist in the case of ShinyHunters. The prolific cyber extortion group, which has a long history of targeting major corporations around the world, is believed by experts to consist mainly of young, English-speaking hackers focused on data theft and extortion.
Their theft of what they claim are mountains of data on every single FBI employee has drawn comparisons to the allegedly Chinese-linked intrusion at the US Office of Personnel Management in 2015, which compromised sensitive details on millions of Americans who had been vetted for security clearances.
There have been hints for days that ShinyHunters was experiencing disruption following the announcement of its break-in at the FBI. Beginning on Tuesday, Reuters was unable to reach ShinyHunters through the online account it previously used to communicate with journalists. Then, on Wednesday, the group’s dark web site, where it had previously posted threats to the FBI, disappeared.
FBI Director Kash Patel had been hinting at more arrests following the announcement that another alleged ShinyHunters member, Pepijn van der Stap, had been detained in the Netherlands.
KHADER'S IDENTITY LONG KNOWN
Khader’s identity, and his alleged connection to ShinyHunters, have long been known to security researchers.
So in accordance with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, because they knew who he was, they could not know where he was?
Last year, the independent journalist Brian Krebs reported that Khader was a key member of Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an umbrella group of hackers that included ShinyHunters. Krebs, who said he spoke to Khader over Signal, quoted the teenager as saying he had quit the world of data breaches and extortion and was cooperating with law enforcement.
But ShinyHunters continued its hacking spree into 2026, claiming credit for break-ins at video game developer Rockstar Games, the maker of "Grand Theft Auto," and a May intrusion involving education tool Canvas that caused widespread disruption across US schools.
Law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have struggled to arrest and prosecute members of related groups such as Lapsus$ or Scattered Spider, Reuters has previously reported.
Sources told Reuters that the difficulty stems from the hackers’ young ages, which can make prosecutions complex, or because the groups they belong to are so chaotic and informal, or because victims of their extortion attempts often decline to help investigators.
[FoxNews] The Gulfstream G100 medevac plane lost contact with air traffic control early Saturday, officials say
U.S. Coast Guard search crews located a debris field off the Nantucket coast that has been confirmed to be associated with a medevac flight with six people on board that disappeared Saturday morning while en route to Boston from Bermuda.
Crews are continuing to search for potential survivors, and the Coast Guard cutter William Sparling will continue search efforts throughout the night. The Coast Guard said it would hold a news conference Sunday morning.
Authorities are searching for the Gulfstream G100, a twin-engine, midsize jet, off Nantucket. Both air and surface crews have been deployed to the area, according to the Coast Guard Northeast District.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported losing contact with the aircraft early Saturday, the Coast Guard said.
Earlier Saturday, the FAA issued a statement that said it is "coordinating with the Rescue Coordination Center and the U.S. Coast Guard to locate the aircraft."
According to data from FlightAware, the plane took off from Bermuda L. F. Wade International Airport at 11:41 p.m. ET.
The FAA told Fox News Digital it issued a Search and Rescue Alert Notice at about 1:20 a.m. ET.
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which operates the state's three major airports, confirmed that the aircraft did not arrive at Boston Logan International Airport as scheduled.
"Our thoughts are with those on board and their loved ones as the search continues," the agency said.
The Canadian-registered aircraft is owned by Latitude Air Ambulance, the company confirmed to Fox News Digital, adding that it was a medevac flight.
Two Canadian pilots, two medical workers, one patient and a patient's companion were on board.
Latitude Air Ambulance is a medical transport company that brings patients home from around the world when they require specialized care.
Latitude Air Ambulance said the flight was supposed to take about two hours.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told Fox News Digital that it is currently gathering information and declined to provide an update on the situation.
"My thoughts are with the six people aboard the missing air ambulance traveling from Bermuda to Boston, and their families," Bermuda's Premier David Burt said in a statement. "Government has contacted the family and US search and rescue authorities. We are praying that everyone will be found safe."
The plane plummeted from 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet in just three minutes at around 1 a.m., according to data from FlightAware.
Skyport, the company that manages the airport in Bermuda, confirmed that a "Canadian-registered air ambulance departed L. F. Wade International Airport for Boston at approximately 12:41 am on Saturday, October 3, 2026, with six souls on board, including four crew members and two passengers."
"The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has advised that air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and a search is currently underway. Skyport has no further information to provide at this time," the company added.
"This aircraft was dealt a dire one-two punch: a critical safety in-flight problem, followed almost immediately by a perilous weather event and an 11,000-foot plunge," former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo said in analysis shared with Fox News Digital.
In every generation, there are those who dare to speak the truth—who believe that honesty, courage, and faith can still move a nation.
Truth Under Fire: The Framing of Charlie Kirk explores what happens when truth itself becomes a target.
Charlie Kirk was a man of deep faith and conviction who believed that civil discourse could bridge division. Through his words and actions, he became a pioneering voice in America’s modern culture wars—his message inspired millions of young people while provoking a storm of criticism, distortion, and hostility from those who opposed him.
As false narratives spread through the media and character assassination intensified, Charlie became a lightning rod—a symbol in a divided nation, and ultimately a target of violence. Told through the voices of those who knew him best, this documentary reveals how truth can become a casualty to outrage and cancel culture, which blur the line between fact and fiction—and how one man’s courage to stand for truth cost him his life.
Yet out of darkness came renewal. In the wake of Charlie’s death, a movement arose—people rediscovering their faith, seeking truth over ideology, and finding the strength to forgive. It marked not just the end of one story, but the beginning of a turning point for America.
This is more than one man’s story. It’s a reflection of our times—and a call to remember what’s at stake when truth itself is under fire.
[France24] Rebels from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in Ethiopia were abandoning their regional capital of Mekkele in the north of the country on Saturday, according to local reports. The TPLF has been fighting against federal forces and pro-government militias since September 23 and launching attacks into neighbouring states, raising fears of an all-out civil war similar to that of 2020-2022.
Tigray rebels were abandoning their regional capital in northern Ethiopia on Saturday, a local journalist and residents told AFP, as pro-government forces advanced on the city.
Fighting erupted on September 23 in northern Ethiopia as the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks into neighbouring states, raising fears of a return to the devastating 2020-2022 civil war.
But federal forces and pro-government militias have pushed them back and are heading north towards the capital, Mekelle, having seized the city's airport on Friday.
"TPLF militants and leaders are leaving Mekelle," the journalist said.
Federal forces had not yet been seen inside the city.
The conflict has triggered a breakdown in Ethiopia's relations with Eritrea and Egypt, who it accuses of supporting the rebels.
Ethiopia expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats and shut its embassy in Asmara on Thursday, while Eritrea responded that it would "sever all diplomatic ties".
Eritrea has long feared landlocked Ethiopia plans to invade and seize access to its coastline.
The TPLF's leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, said in a video published late Thursday that "the war is regional and it is a war to control the Red Sea".
Ethiopia also expelled an Egyptian diplomat without explanation, prompting a reciprocal move by Cairo.
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
The rebels initially made advances in neighbouring Afar and Amhara states, working alongside local militias.
But they were pushed back this week, and the government launched a counter-offensive into Tigrayan territory along three axes towards Mekelle, according to the Critical Threats Project, part of the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
A pro-government militia of Tigrayans said on Friday that it had "taken full control of Mekelle Alula Aba Nega Airport" roughly 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the city.
Earlier, a humanitarian source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the TPLF had been entirely pushed out of Afar.
[BB] CNBC reports that the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) says AI-assisted coding helped drive $942 million in additional costs over that span, much of it from secondary diagnoses that pushed patients into higher-paying reimbursement categories. Medical coders translate procedures and diagnoses into standardized codes used for insurance claims and billing, and the rise in what BCBSA calls “complex coding” lines up with a period when roughly 60 percent of hospital systems adopted AI coding tools.
About 70 percent, or $653 million, of the billing BCBSA flagged involved additional diagnoses that came with no change in a patient’s actual care, according to Luke Chalker, the association’s senior vice president of product and data science. Many of these secondary diagnoses, the BCBSA report said, “may be derived from single laboratory values, making it particularly well suited for detection by AI tools.” Its conclusion: “There is a clear disconnect between coding and treatment.”
Christopher Whaley, a health economist at Brown University who studies hospital coding, sees it differently: AI isn’t creating new billing incentives, he said, it’s exploiting ones that already exist. The technology is “accelerating, and in some sense making it easier to capture, the existing and underlying billing incentives that are in the system.” He cautioned against assuming the added diagnoses are improper. “In many cases, the diagnoses are legitimate and weren’t captured,” he said. Still, some flagged conditions “clinically just don’t really matter and don’t influence the patient’s care,” even though they can still support higher billing.
The American Hospital Association pushed back hard. A spokesperson told CNBC that “patients today are older and more clinically complex” and that AI tools help providers “appropriately capture their patients’ conditions to aid in care planning.” The group argued that “the BCBSA’s analysis lacks the context needed to meaningfully assess how these tools impact healthcare quality, patient access, or spending.” Then it turned the criticism back on insurers, calling it “particularly troubling to see insurers raising concerns about provider coding while continuing to rely on automated downcoding and denial practices that can impede coverage of medically necessary care, add burden on the workforce, and increase costs through administrative waste.”
[Reuters] Spanish police arrested three members of a far-right group and fired rubber bullets on Saturday night in Madrid after tens of thousands had marched across the country to demand action to tackle a housing crisis.
Far-right activists, some of whom performed Nazi salutes, tried to reach demonstrators camped out in the Puerta del Sol, a central square in the Spanish capital, to protest the housing crisis, the Spanish government said.
Earlier, some demonstrators waved posters calling for a general strike after the measures drawn up to address mass anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid, and other housing issues, were rejected in parliament on Friday.
"It's a shame," said Nando de Anguulo, 26, who joined Saturday's protest in Madrid. "It only proves that it is us, the people, who have to adapt to the political parties, and not the politicians to what the people want, and this can't go on like that."
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez might call a snap election for November after the legislation failed to pass and would be watching the strength of Saturday's protests before deciding, Spanish media reported on Friday.
In the southeastern city of Valencia, demonstrators clashed with police who fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up protests.
About 30 protesters entered the City of Arts and Sciences, a landmark cultural complex, before police ousted them. Other demonstrations in 50 Spanish cities were peaceful.
Valeria Racu, spokesperson for the Tenants Union, told reporters in Madrid that a general strike would be called after talks with labour unions.
About 70,000 protesters took part in Saturday's demonstration in Madrid, the Spanish government said.
Protests planned in Barcelona and the nearby city of Hospitalet de Llobregat were called off because of heavy rain.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Crows in Prince George, British Columbia have been finding opioids left over by addicts in the crime-ridden city.
The city decriminalized possession of drugs in a disastrous woke 2023 pilot program which it chose not to renew in early 2026 - but the consequences continue to be felt locally.
A shocking video shared to social media shows a twitching bird prone on the ground with its head bowed after consuming the drugs.
The problem has become so widespread that volunteers from animal rescue group Good Caws Crow Rescue Society have been forced to carry naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication usually used to save the lives of human beings.
Volunteer Dayna Slater says the group has dealt with more than a dozen suspected drug overdoses among crows this year.
'It's disheartening, it's scary,' Slater told the CBC.
'It's a whole bunch of factors coming together to make, like, the perfect storm.'
Slater said overdosing birds are showing up in increasing numbers in an area of Prince George where illegal drug use is known to occur.
The stricken crows can be seen with their wings spread wide, eyes shut and with extremely slow heart rates. Some birds have died as a result of overdoses.
They remain alive but appear completely unresponsive. In some cases, she said, a brown liquid foam has emerged from their beaks.
Slater believes the birds are picking up traces of toxic drugs from garbage left exposed on city streets.
'A crow doesn't know the difference between a sandwich bag and a bag that had something in it,' Slater said.
And the amount required to cause harm can be tiny.
'It takes something the size of like a grain of sand to affect a bird,' she said.
Slater said most of the birds treated by the rescue group have recovered sufficiently to be released within 24 hours.
Veterinarian Dr Kaitlyn Liukaitis, of Birchwood Veterinary Clinic, has treated some of the birds and said their symptoms are consistent with toxic drug exposure.
In January 2023, British Columbia premier David Eby decriminalized drugs in the province - a move he later admitted was a mistake.
'I was wrong on drug decriminalization and the effect it would have,' he said during a speech in October 2025.
'What it became was a permissive structure that... it was okay to use drugs anywhere that resulted in really unhappy consequences.'
However, after decriminalization of possession was put in place, British Columbia became a mecca of open-air drug use.
And while British Columbia chose not to continue with the pilot program in 2026, the province and its cities remain plagued by criminality and squalor as a result of the experiment.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
