🇺🇸 Trump threatens to withhold federal funds from NY after Hochul’s ‘shocking’ Mamdani endorsement

President Trump threatened early Monday to withhold federal funds from New York after Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “shocking” endorsement of socialist Zohran Mamdani to be the Big Apple’s mayor.

“Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has Endorsed [sic] the ‘Liddle Communist,’ Zohran Mamdani, running for Mayor of New York,” the president wrote online. “This is a rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City.”

“How can such a thing happen?” Trump continued, adding, “Washington will be watching this situation very closely.

https://nypost.com/2025/09/15/us-news/trump-threatens-to-withhold-federal-funds-from-ny-after-hochuls-shocking-mamdani-endorsement

🇸🇾🇺🇳🇺🇸 For the first time since 1967, the President of Syria will attend and address the United Nations directly, with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa scheduled to travel to New York City next week for the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

This will also be al-Sharaa’s first visit to the United States since he came to power following the ousting of Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad in January. In addition to this already historic trip, President al-Sharaa is also scheduled to be a speaker alongside hundreds of other world leaders and influential figures at the 15th Annual Concordia Summit.

🔗 OSINTdefender

🇵🇱🇺🇸🇺🇦 Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect Europe from Russian strikes, following last week’s drone attack by Russia against Eastern Poland.

“We as NATO and the E.U. could be capable of doing this, but it is not a decision that Poland can make alone; it can only be made with its allies,” he said. “Protection for our population — for example, from falling debris — would naturally be greater if we could combat drones and other flying objects beyond our national territory. If Ukraine were to ask us to shoot them down over its territory, that would be advantageous for us. If you ask me personally, we should consider it,” Sikorski added.

🔗 OSINTdefender

🇷🇺🇺🇦🇺🇸 Medvedev says no-fly zone over Ukraine will mean NATO-Russia war

The creation of a no-fly zone over Ukraine will mean the outbreak of a war between Moscow and NATO, Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

In a statement on Telegram, Medvedev said he was “amused” by Eastern Sentry, a new NATO initiative launched to shield and protect allies in the eastern flank after drone incursions into Poland last week.

“But seriously, the implementation of the provocative idea of ​​… creating a ‘no-fly zone over Ukraine’ and the ability for NATO countries to shoot down our UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will mean only one thing - a war between NATO and Russia,” Medvedev said.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/medvedev-says-no-fly-zone-over-ukraine-will-mean-nato-russia-war/3687796

🇺🇸 The U.S. is looking at producing its own rubber; the industry could offer a hardy crop, jobs and less foreign reliance

Made-in-America rubber may become a new crop for farmers and a new manufacturing industry for the United States. "Scientists, farmers and major corporations are working together to lay the groundwork for domestic rubber production," reports Kate Morgan of Ambrook Research. Even though rubber is in "roughly 50,000 different products across U.S. manufacturing sectors, almost all of the 1.5 million metric tons or more, worth $2 billion — is imported, mostly from Southeast Asian rubber plantations." However, considering how much rubber the nation uses, reliance on a single foreign regional supplier may leave U.S. manufacturing vulnerable.

American rubber production begins with growing rubber plants, such as guayule (pronounced "why-you-lee"), which "grows wild in parts of Texas and Mexico, but it's also easy to cultivate and grow on farms throughout the region. Drought-tolerant and disinclined to disease, there's not much that bothers it," Morgan explains. When Guayuule stems are ground up and put "through a process of distillation and filtration, the result is a high-quality natural latex" for producing "everything from surgical gloves to car parts. . . . Many believe this shrub is the best candidate for developing a domestic rubber market."

The U.S. has put off rubber plant production partly because of the extreme labor used in hand-tapping Hevea, the most commonly used rubber plant. Research shows that other types of plants work better with less work. "Rubber-producing plants could be grown in the U.S. — not to mention planted and harvested mechanically, rather than with the arduous manpower required for Hevea — on a massive scale," Morgan reports. "Guayule offers many opportunities for farmers, especially in parts of the U.S. that are growing more difficult to irrigate and cultivate."

The next hurdle for American rubber production is finding a manufacturer. Katrina Cornish, professor of horticulture and biological engineering at Ohio State University, told Morgan, "It's all there, there's just no processing infrastructure. We've got farmers who are willing to grow these crops and lots of companies wanting to buy the latex. We need a full-scale processing plant, and we're looking at somewhere around a $70 million price tag." Morgan reports, "Once it's refined, Cornish added, rubber made from guayule or any other plant could be used — it could upend our entire rubber supply chain."

https://ci.uky.edu/irj/rural-blog/us-looking-producing-its-own-rubber-industry-could-offer-hardy-crop-jobs-and-less