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Rooney and Kate Mara Are Brilliant in Werner Herzog's Fractured Fairytale Bucking Fastard
Almost nothing in Werner Herzog’s fractured fairytale Bucking Fastards, playing in competition here at the Venice Film Festival, makes literal sense. But it all makes a kind of sideways sense, especially if, before watching, you can will yourself into a Herzogian brainspace, a place where possibly nonexistent elephants roam the Earth, where ancient cave drawings bear witness to the enduring creativity and wonder of humankind, where mad dreamers insist it’s possible to haul a multi-ton ship over a mountain. In that context, two inseparable sisters who speak only in unison, who are crazily lovesick over the man who has spurned them, and who believe they can dig a literal tunnel into a land of freedom, acceptance, and love: in a world where our deepest desires are so seldom met, how nuts does that really sound?
Real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara play Joan and Jean Holbrooke, sisters living in Ireland—they are not, they adamantly insist, twins—who share every emotion, every thought, every waking moment as if they were a single entity. They dress exactly alike, in droopy trenchcoats and modest granny-style skirts; they both wear their long, silky hair parted neatly in the middle and tied partially back, like identical waterfalls. They don’t finish each other’s sentences; instead, they form their thoughts and words in unison and speak as one. It’s an eerie effect the first time you hear it. Even more unsettling, it comes to sound completely normal as the movie wears on.
Joan and Jean have fallen for a single man, their handsome rapscallion neighbor Gareth Mulroney (a saucy, salacious Orlando Bloom). It’s love at first sight—or is that sights?—when he bursts into their local church, a tankard of beer in hand, stirring up nothing but trouble. Afterward, they breathlessly wait for him to emerge through the church doors. Their eyes gleaming like double constellations, they proposition him: “I’d love to show you my inner cowgirl!” they tell him, the words tumbling out more like a song than a sentence. He’s charmed, intrigued; he’s horny. The trio land in bed, with Gareth in the middle flanked by his semi-nude cutie cowgirls, who ooh and ahh over him adoringly. They’re Goldilocks and he’s their just-right. This is how a sex scene, as imagined by Herzog, plays out.
But their bliss is short-lived. That meet-cute and its aftermath are relayed in flashback as the sisters huddle together in a courtroom, essentially defending themselves against charges of stalking. Gareth, after dallying with Joan and Jean for a time, has thrown them over and taken a wife. They can’t believe it—in their futile rage, they set the interior of his car on fire. (Their procurement of the gasoline they use to do so is a cracked mini-adventure by itself.) They also set the postbox outside his house aflame. Before the bewigged judge, Gareth’s lawyer tries to argue that the relationship was purely sexual. Joan and Jean justify their actions plaintively. “It was love!” they cry in unison, and later, “I am never going to stop loving him!”
But there’s no hope. Their linked hearts are broken, and the court case has brought them both fame and embarrassment. A kind villager (John Kavanagh) takes pity on them, knowing that the best thing for them is to get away. He offers them the use of a flat he doesn’t need, located in another town. He urges them not to open the door to strangers, people who want only to take advantage of them. From there, Bucking Fastard becomes a set of wriggly vignettes more than a linear story. There’s a sleazy neighbor (Malcolm Adams) who attempts to take, and post on the Internet, pictures of them undressing. (They put their heads together and cook up a giggly-devious plan to outwit him.) A kind social worker, played by Domhnall Gleeson, tries to show them how to collaborate in the task of opening a tin of sardines. But soon even their cozy flat comes to feel like a prison: they strike out on an adventure, going to live with an aunt who loves them (Marion O’Dwyer) and who encourages them to explore a mysterious cave near her country property, one whose twists and turns ignite their two-for-one imaginations. A fox named Cupid, with a perpetually alarmed-looking face, becomes their mascot. Through it all, they continue to mourn their lost love. But perhaps they can find a new one?
What does any of this mean? Though the story was inspired by real-life twins from York, England, Freda and Greta Chaplin—who spoke in unison and, like Jean and Joan, did everything together—the meandering storyline is pure, sweet, gaga Herzog. The picture’s most radiant sequences take place in the girls’ beloved cave, where they toil for years to dig their way, admittedly nonsensically, to a better life. Herzog and his frequent cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger film the two of them, within a halo of light as they dutifully chip through a rocky passageway—their twin images are as luminous as a delicately carved shell cameo.
The Mara sisters are brilliant here, their eyes as hungry and haunted as those of an orphan in a Keane painting. You laugh with them, not at them, when they take revenge on that peeping tom. But there’s also something deeply touching about their refusal to give up on love. There’s a metaphorical idea shimmering beneath the surface of Bucking Fastard: it’s as if, through this strange and somewhat simple story, Herzog were trying to explore the things women want but don’t dare demand. Here, those longings are voiced in stereo. And yes, men can sometimes drive you crazy. What can you do?
The ending of Bucking Fastard might be considered a flaw; it’s hard to know exactly what has happened, or what it means. But then, an ambiguous ending is one we’re free to write ourselves. How can you not want the best for these dreamy, heartbroken girls, who at one point race through their cave in matching gauzy white gowns, like freedom-loving butterflies? You’ll want to believe that their hearts have at last found a home—a cave not of forgotten dreams, but of remembered ones, made sweeter with every recounting.
Tesla Cybercabs stock crashed 6% in an hour this morning following news of a compliance audit.
Yesterday, Tesla commercially deployed Cybercabs onto public streets in Austin, Texas. By the end of the day, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) quietly opened a new probe, Audit Query AQ26002, of up to 1,000 Tesla vehicles, which would more than cover the company’s Cybercab fleet of only a few dozen vehicles.
Tesla stood behind its claim that “Cybercab is engineered to be the safest car on the road.”
The NHTSA doesn’t typically pre-approve vehicles for compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).
Manufacturers self-certify compliance with FMVSS standards, or request a limited exemption in advance.
Whenever the NHTSA suspects non-compliance with FMVSS standards, the agency may probe conduct and pursue remedies. In Tesla’s case, the NHTSA said it “is opening this AQ to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.”
Cybercab has no permanently attached steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal, or rearview mirrors. In Tesla’s view, these omissions make the car look futuristic and are safe.
An Audit Query is not an allegation of misconduct. The NHTSA’s Cybercab notice doesn’t announce a recall or any current determination of noncompliance.
Read more: CHART: Value of Tesla’s BTC holdings have fallen by two-thirds
Tesla self-certifies Cybercab, sought no exemption
Last year, the NHTSA announced three proposed rules for automated vehicles without manual controls.
Its existing route allows manufacturers to sell up to 2,500 vehicles per year that don’t fully comply with traditional FMVSS.
Zoox is a recent example of an NHTSA audit ending unremarkably. In its case, the NHTSA closed its self-certification inquiry in August 2025, delivering a list of requests to Zoox that the company fulfilled. Zoox then received a formal, temporary FMVSS exemption for its commercial deployment that began July 2026.
Zoox may legally operate cars on public roads under this exemption.
Tesla chose the bolder route. It began commercial deployment with a self-certification, rather than proactively applying for a special exemption.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on yesterday’s NHTSA audit.
By noon in Nasdaq’s trading session today, shares of Tesla were trading 6.5% below yesterday’s closing price despite a relatively sideways Nasdaq 100 index at -0.5%.
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The most consequential device in cryptography does not exist yet. Quantum memory, an Oxford lecturer argues, will decide whether Bitcoin (BTC) breaks or gets replaced by something better.
Stefano Gogioso published that argument on Tuesday. He says the promise of quantum cryptography now rests on building a single piece of hardware.
“The development of portable long-term quantum memory will be one of the most consequential milestones of quantum technology. These devices will power an entirely new class of applications, such as quantum money, the ultimate incarnation of a digital store of value.”
Gogioso, a quantum computing lecturer at the University of Oxford and co-founder of quantum security firm Spooqy, told BeInCrypto.
The Bottleneck Quantum Money Never Cleared
An earlier report from the BeInCrypto Experts Council ended on an unsolved problem. Quantum money cannot be forged, because quantum states cannot be copied.
Nobody, however, can hold those states for long. The best laboratory systems keep one alive for seconds, which is why the case for quantum money has stayed theoretical.
Gogioso’s post sets out what a usable device would actually need. Stability measured in months, or ideally forever. Portability, first inside a shipping crate and later inside a pocket. Capacity running to billions of separate states.
He also rules out the more familiar idea of quantum RAM. Nothing in his design needs random access or in-place editing. States are drawn in order and spent once.
The distance between seconds and months is the entire problem.
Why Gogioso Calls Quantum Memory Inevitable
His answer arrives in two steps, and the first one is categorical.
A fault-tolerant quantum computer must keep fragile states alive at scale, against noise, for as long as a calculation runs. That requirement is what fault tolerance means.
Remove the computing, Gogioso argues, and a quantum memory device is what remains. Denying one therefore means denying the other.
The reframing matters commercially. Billions of dollars are already committed to fault-tolerant machines. The memory sits inside those roadmaps as an unavoidable step.
His second step concerns portability. Machines running at cryogenic temperatures will keep their states at the bottom of a refrigerator for years to come.
Atom-based designs are different. They store information in properties that nature already keeps isolated. That turns the problem into hard engineering rather than physics.
Gogioso also lowers the bar in a way the debate has mostly ignored. A memory does not have to survive decades. A sealed single-use cartridge, filled at a facility and spent state by state, would serve every application he describes.
The Same Machine Breaks Bitcoin and Builds Its Replacement
Follow that argument into crypto and it produces an awkward symmetry.
In March, Google Quantum AI worked with the Ethereum Foundation and Stanford on the cost of attacking Bitcoin. The team put the requirement at fewer than 500,000 physical qubits.
Such a machine only works if it is fault tolerant. And fault tolerance, by Gogioso’s own definition, is quantum memory.
The conclusion is uncomfortable for both camps. The hardware that would expose Bitcoin’s signatures would also fuel quantum money.
Every dollar chasing fault tolerance therefore funds both futures at once. No version of this story exists where quantum computers break Bitcoin and the alternative stays impossible.
Gogioso and Daniela Herrmann, chief executive of quantum firm Dynex, made the wider case on the panel above.
Why a Stolen Shipment Would Not Matter
The security model behind all of this inverts an old assumption.
Classical key material is dangerous in transit. Whoever copies it owns it, and leaves no trace of having done so.
An entangled pair carries no information at all while it sits in storage. The randomness that becomes a key appears only at the moment of measurement.
A hijacked crate would therefore cost a supplier its stock rather than its secrets. Gogioso writes that the worst a corrupt supplier can deliver is a tank of useless gas.
A second consequence is stranger. These resources burn. A key consumes entangled pairs, and a banknote gets spent across its own verifications.
Gogioso calls the effect cryptography by combustion. Money built this way would arrive with a fuel gauge.
Q-Day Has a Calendar. Quantum Money Does Not.
The two halves of this story move at very different speeds.
The attack side is full of dates. IBM expects quantum computing to move its earnings by 2028 or 2029. Hong Kong has set its banks a quantum readiness deadline of 2030.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to retire current elliptic-curve signatures by 2030. It would disallow them outright by 2035.
The replacement side has no calendar whatsoever. Gogioso declines to supply one. His post argues for the inevitability of the resource, not the imminence of a product.
He was more forward-looking on the panel, suggesting provably impossible applications within five to seven years. That estimate covered quantum resources broadly, not a memory small enough for a wallet.
Herrmann drew the same boundary during the discussion.
“Quantum money is the vision, once this all plays out. Right now, quantum money as such isn’t available yet. But as soon as the chips advance, these things have to be handled with real responsibility.”
What the Argument Leaves Open
Two questions survive it.
Somebody still has to fill the memories. That leaves an issuer inside a system advertised as having no custodian.
A bearer instrument with no ledger also has no recovery. A note that is lost, stolen, or simply left to decay takes its value with it.
The industry is building the machine regardless. It has not yet decided which of the two things it wants.
The post Quantum Memory: The Device That Breaks Bitcoin and Replaces It appeared first on BeInCrypto.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs ended August on an impressive note and appear to have continued to build momentum, recording $731 million in net inflows on September 3rd, their strongest single-day performance since January.
Now, a pattern has sparked speculation over whether Bitcoin could see another short-term top following the latest surge in ETF demand.
ETF Buying Explodes
Analyst Ted Pillows said that on the previous two occasions when Bitcoin ETFs recorded daily inflows above $700 million, first in October 2025 and then in January 2026, BTC went on to form a local peak shortly afterward.
Despite a minor hiccup on September 1st, which saw outflows of over $236 million, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have bounced back strongly. Total net assets reached $103.34 billion, representing just over 6% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows since the ETFs launched in January 2024 stood at $55.44 billion.
Data shared by SoSoValue revealed that BlackRock’s IBIT led the gains with around $454 million. Next up was Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB at $137.7 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at $74.4 million. Grayscale’s two products attracted a total of $57 million in capital.
On the other hand, VanEck’s HODL and WisdomTree’s BTCW were the only funds to have posted outflows of $20 million and $5 million, respectively.
Over the past month, Bitcoin saw around 105,000 BTC equivalent in net capital inflows, and the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for approximately 42,800 of that total. According to Axel Adler Jr., the fund inflows accounted for about 41% of the overall capital entering the market during the period.
Bear Market Debate Continues
Alongside these inflows, Bitcoin surged by over 4% to trade near $81,130. Open interest on Binance and Bybit reached levels not seen since May 5, which suggested that derivatives activity is rebuilding alongside the latest price advance. These developments have prompted some experts to believe that the crypto bear market may be coming to an end.
However, Fidelity believes that the recent recovery does not yet prove the bear market is over. The firm noted that BTC’s historical four-year cycle could leave room for another market low around November 2026, although the pattern is not guaranteed.
The latest technical setup, however, looks more bullish. Bitcoin moved back above the weekly EMA ribbon after recently falling below it, a level that previously signaled the start of a sell-off. Dami-Defi explained that the EMA ribbon currently sits between about $71,000 and $78,000. The reclaim is seen as a positive shift, but the crypto asset still needs to hold above the ribbon on weekly closes. If it does, the next major resistance level to watch is around $95,000-$96,000. A drop below the ribbon, however, could invalidate the recovery.
The post Bitcoin ETF Inflows Exceed $700M as Historical Pattern Points to BTC Local Top appeared first on CryptoPotato.
August’s rebound in crypto did more than lift prices—it reshuffled attention toward the companies most exposed to Bitcoin and Ether beta. Bitcoin miners are again trading like a levered play on BTC, while corporate treasuries continue to add to their holdings during the same recovery window.
At the same time, traditional finance is moving closer to stablecoins for settlement and payments. And in Ethereum’s market, Bitmine’s persistent spot buying has pushed it close to a major share-of-supply milestone.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin miner stocks surged in August after a stretch where investors favored AI- and HPC-oriented infrastructure plays.
- Strive and Strategy added thousands of BTC in late August, extending a corporate “buy the dip” pattern as digital-asset risk appetite returned.
- A consortium of 21 major financial institutions is planning a G7 stablecoin initiative with a targeted launch in the first half of 2027.
- Bitmine’s 65-week ETH buying streak has lifted its holdings to about 4.9% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, nearing its 5% goal.
Miners regain leverage as BTC rallies
Bitcoin’s rally in late August helped reverse a prior trend that had benefited some miners less than others. According to BlocksBridge Consulting, Bitcoin-linked mining equities rose sharply—up as much as 67%—at a time when the market had been more focused on miners pivoting toward AI-driven demand.
BlocksBridge reported that Bitcoin’s roughly 23% jump in late August outperformed much of the AI-linked infrastructure space. It cited gains ranging from about 41% to 67% for Canaan, American Bitcoin, and Cango, compared with around 21% for CoreWeave, 17% for Nebius, and 15% for IREN. Other miners with greater exposure to AI and high-performance computing were flat or declined.
The newsletter pointed to several drivers behind the miner rebound: expanding US Treasury-related buybacks that support liquidity, renewed regulatory optimism following a White House meeting on crypto, and a short squeeze that BlocksBridge said liquidated more than $1.6 billion in positions.
For investors, the message is straightforward: when BTC momentum returns, the market appears willing to reward direct exposure and operational leverage again. Still, BlocksBridge also flagged a lingering risk for the sector—high costs tied to scaling AI data-center capacity. That tension helps explain why AI-forward strategies may not always capture the same upside during pure BTC-driven rallies.
Strive and Strategy extend BTC treasury buying
Corporate treasuries were another focal point during the recovery. In the final week of August, Strive and Strategy both made additional Bitcoin purchases that pushed their holdings higher and reinforced the idea that balance-sheet conviction is still alive.
Strive bought 1,800 BTC for approximately $143 million, per earlier reporting, lifting its holdings to 23,156 BTC. The company paid an average of $79,431 per BTC (including fees and expenses) after purchasing 1,110 BTC the prior week at an average price of $73,409.
Strategy, meanwhile, acquired 4,603 BTC at an average price of $80,318. Those purchases lifted its holdings above 845,000 BTC after four sales since May, according to the same coverage. Together, the two companies illustrate how the late-August bounce translated into concrete treasury actions rather than purely speculative positioning.
BlocksBridge-linked commentary also tied the timing to a broader digital-asset recovery that began Aug. 19 after the US Treasury announced plans to double certain long-term bond buybacks. While that doesn’t “explain” every corporate decision, it provides context for the return of risk appetite across markets—including crypto.
Stablecoins move toward a G7 push for 2027
Beyond BTC and ETH, stablecoin development is drawing renewed momentum from traditional financial institutions. A consortium of 21 major firms—including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Citi—plans to establish a new company to develop and issue stablecoins, representing another step in the long-running effort to build “digital dollars” for real-world payment rails.
The group intends to launch a US dollar-denominated stablecoin in the first half of 2027, with plans to expand to other G7 currencies afterward—starting with a euro offering. The stated objective is to support wholesale, institutional, and retail use cases, including cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement.
The stablecoin initiative builds on an earlier announcement from last October, when 10 banks explored a 1:1 reserve-backed form of digital money on public blockchains. The consortium now spans regions including North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and aims to comply with both the US GENIUS Act and the EU’s MiCA framework.
For market participants, this matters because stablecoin issuance and distribution directly affect on-chain settlement liquidity, off-ramp/on-ramp rails, and how quickly traditional counterparties can connect to tokenized assets. The 2027 target also provides a concrete timeline for builders and compliance teams watching regulatory clarity in major jurisdictions.
Bitmine nears 5% of ETH circulating supply
In the Ethereum segment, Bitmine’s accumulation pace remains unusually persistent. The company extended its ETH buying streak to 65 consecutive weeks, adding 53,501 ETH in the latest reported period as broader crypto prices recovered.
As a result, Bitmine’s holdings rose to more than 5.9 million ETH, valued at roughly $14.8 billion based on an ETH price of $2,511 as of Sunday, in line with the figures reported in the earlier coverage. That put Bitmine’s stake at approximately 4.9% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million circulating supply—leaving it close to its stated 5% goal.
Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said Ether, Bitcoin, and Solana were the three best-performing major assets since June 30, with ETH leading gains. He also argued that the relative performance against other macro assets should encourage institutions to add to their crypto holdings.
Still, the accumulation has not erased the accounting reality of a drawdown recovery story. According to DropsTab data referenced in the report, Bitmine is sitting on about $5.1 billion in unrealized losses on its Ether holdings—reflecting sustained buying through a downturn that began in late 2022. The company’s willingness to keep absorbing that gap while the market rebounds is central to why its supply share has climbed despite volatility.
What to watch next
With miners responding sharply to BTC momentum, treasuries continuing to add during recovery phases, and major institutions pushing stablecoin plans toward 2027, the next signal will be whether these themes hold as volatility returns—particularly whether AI-linked infrastructure continues to lag (or catch up) when Bitcoin’s direction changes.
Hargreaves Lansdown now sells Bitcoin (BTC) to about 2 million clients. However, it arrives five months too late, given that the tax break its savers wanted was closed in April.
Buy Bitcoin through a rival last winter, and the profit is tax-free for life. Buy the same thing at HL today and the taxman takes a cut.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Bitcoin is for £100,000 Earners
According to a report in the Financial Times, nine products went live, delivering notes that track the Bitcoin price, and run by firms like BlackRock, Invesco, and CoinShares. Fees range from 0% to 0.35% per year.
HL was the last big British platform to say yes, waiting 330 days after the rules changed. However, on closer inspection, you notice that it only changed its shelf, not its mind, since they still label these products as high risk.
Most clients cannot buy them anyway, as HL requires £100,000 in yearly income or £250,000 in savings. Buyers also sit a short test and wait a day.
There is a catch in the product too. You never own any Bitcoin. Instead, you own a promise from the firm behind the note.
That makes 2 million the client list, not the buyer list, and anyone who qualifies must use a taxed account, or a pension they cannot touch until 55.
“After an appropriateness test and a 24-hour wait, a SIPP or Fund and Share account on HL can take listed Bitcoin exposure, even though you still do not hold the coins and a standard Stocks and Shares ISA remains closed to new buys,” one user noted.
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Britain’s Tax-Free Window Lasted 180 Days
That taxed account is the whole problem because savers once had a better option, and now it has gone. Britain barred ordinary savers from these products for years. The Financial Conduct Authority lifted that ban on 8 October 2025.
For a while, savers could hold Bitcoin inside an ISA. That is the tax-free account millions of Britons already use. Money made inside one is never taxed.
The tax office shut that door on 6 April 2026. The window had been open for 180 days. HL now turns up 150 days after it closed.
Savers who moved in time keep the tax break for good. The tax office left their holdings in place. HL’s clients get nothing.
Here is what that is worth. Put £20,000 in an ISA, double it, and you owe zero. Double it in a normal account, and the tax bill is about £4,080.
BeInCrypto called the reopening a symbolic step when Bitcoin ETNs returned to Britain. That reading holds up. The firm that said Bitcoin was no asset class now sells it. Just to the rich and in the wrong account.
Ministers say ordinary ISAs may get these notes back later.
The post Biggest UK Investment Platform Lists Bitcoin For 2 Million Users appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The U.S. is investigating a strike on a wedding in southern Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday, as reports suggest American weapons killed at least five people and injured dozens of others.
“We’re investigating it because obviously we care,” Vance told reporters. “We want to know.”
The strike represents the U.S.’s latest controversial action in its war with Iran, raising questions about its conduct and civilian harm. Washington and Tehran have escalated their attacks this week, ending a lull in hostilities since July.
But Vance said he was “extremely skeptical” about reports coming from Iranian state media, arguing they have “not been a very good scribe about what’s happened in the conflict thus far.”
Iranian state media reported that a residential building in Kuhestak was attacked on Tuesday evening, where a wedding was being celebrated. Among the casualties was a 4-year-old kid. Reuters and the New York Times independently verified footage from the scene and found that a wedding was taking place when the building was struck.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it “will respond to these savage crimes with firmness”—and responded to a broader barrage of American attacks by launching missiles and drones at sites used by the U.S. in Middle East states. The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group, also urged a probe from the International Criminal Court to assess potential violations of international law.
The U.S. Central Command said Wednesday it was already looking into reports of the incident but argued that the “U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps],” referring to Iran’s armed forces branch.
Vance also defended U.S. military action, telling reporters: “If we do make mistakes, again, this is a big difference between us and Iran: when our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them.”
What we know about the strike
On the evening of Sept. 1, CENTCOM reported strikes on military targets, including “air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.”
Iranian media later reported four deaths and at least 68 injured in Kuhestak, a coastal town on the Strait of Hormuz, where trade has been bottlenecked since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in late February. The strikes happened at around 9:30 p.m. local time, per the Red Crescent.
Analyses of footage from the incident conducted by Reuters and the New York Times reveal that wedding guests were gathered in a Kuhestak building. Amid the celebration, what was likely a U.S. munition hit the building and, as the Times put it, “brought down the roof.”
Experts told Reuters and the Times that weapon fragments seen in Iranian media were consistent with what Americans have used.
The attacks on Kuhestak also hit a communications tower roughly 100 m away from the building. A human rights group told the Associated Press that one of the four people initially reported killed—a 16-year-old—was struck by shrapnel near the tower rather than at the wedding. Iranian state television said Thursday that a 22-year-old woman had since died in hospital following the strike, bringing the reported death toll to five.
Axios reported that CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper ordered an internal review of the strike.
Civilian casualties raise concern
The Red Crescent sent a letter to the International Criminal Court Wednesday calling for “an independent, impartial, thorough, and effective investigation,” citing the “civilian character” of the strike’s location.
The organization also argued that under the Rome Statute, intentionally directing attacks on civilians and knowingly launching a clearly excessive attack may constitute “war crimes.” However, both Iran and the U.S. are nonparties to the Rome Statute, so the ICC does not have automatic jurisdiction over them.
Still, “the laws of war state that civilians are protected from military attacks,” Melanie O’Brien, a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, tells TIME. “A wedding is not a military objective, particularly in a civilian residential building. It is clear that there was a direct missile hit to the home. This would render the attack unlawful.”
It’s also not the U.S.’s first involvement in strikes that hit civilian structures without obvious military use and that endangered or killed civilians. On the first day of the war with Iran on Feb. 28, a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit a primary school in Minab—just 30 km (18 mi) away from Kuhestak—where more than 100 children were killed.
O’Brien, however, says she is skeptical about any result from the U.S.-led investigation of the wedding strike: “The U.S. track record is to only investigate when allegations gain significant public traction, and even when any convictions occur, the penalties are minor or pardons are given.”
[PRESS RELEASE – Chicago, United States, September 4th, 2026]
Liquid Mercury today announced that ACQUA1, LLC completed the initial closing of its MERC exchange offering on September 1, 2026.
ACQUA1 is a Liquid Mercury subsidiary that operates Liquid Mercury’s Lab Company program, licensing Liquid Mercury technology to companies primarily tokenizing real-world assets and receiving fees plus a minority equity stake in return. Liquid Mercury is the majority holder and Manager.
“Over the past 18 months, dozens of companies have approached Liquid Mercury seeking to tokenize their assets,” said Tony Saliba, CEO and founder of Liquid Mercury. “Many assumed they would need to raise capital and build this infrastructure from scratch. Licensing Mercury RWA lets them launch on systems that were already live and proven, at a fraction of the time and cost. ACQUA1 token holders now own a slice of the business that earns equity, plus fees from the companies in the Lab Company program.”
Verified accredited investors subscribed by exchanging MERC for non-voting Class B units of ACQUA1 at the initial conversion rate of 10 MERC per unit. Under its operating agreement, ACQUA1 must burn 100% of the MERC it receives at each closing within five business days and may not transfer, trade, lend, stake, pledge, or otherwise deploy it.
On September 2, all 563,230,000 MERC received at the initial closing were burned via a transfer to the dead address, as the offering documents require.
Initial Closing Highlights
- Initial closing: September 1, 2026
- MERC burned: 563,230,000
- Transferred to the dead address September 2, 2026
- Units issued: 56,323,000
- Non-voting Class B units of ACQUA1, LLC under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D
- 10 MERC per unit
- Evidenced on-chain by ACQUA1-C tokens
- ACQUA1-C tokens convert one-for-one into ACQUA1 tokens upon issuance
- Remaining closings: On or about October 30 and December 31, 2026
- ACQUA1 may skip or terminate at its discretion
- The conversion rate at subsequent closings may differ
Verification Links
Verified accredited investors can request full terms at acqua1.liquidmercury.com/contact.
About Liquid Mercury
Liquid Mercury powers professional crypto trading and digital asset marketplaces. The company delivers institutional-grade infrastructure, access to deep liquidity, and best-in-class trading tools and workflow automation across its Pro, OTC, and RWA platforms. Through Mercury RWA, Liquid Mercury is extending that infrastructure into tokenized real-world assets, with $MERC serving as the access and platform layer token. For more information, visit www.liquidmercury.com.
Investor Notice
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Class B units of ACQUA1, LLC and the ACQUA1 tokens representing them are offered and sold in reliance on the exemption from registration provided by Rule 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, solely to verified accredited investors as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D, and solely pursuant to ACQUA1’s confidential private placement memorandum, as supplemented, and definitive subscription documents, which contain important information, including risk factors. ACQUA1 tokens are restricted securities, are subject to transfer restrictions under ACQUA1’s operating agreement and may remain illiquid indefinitely; investors should not assume that Rule 144 will be available. Statements regarding future revenues, valuations, portfolio performance, and subsequent closings are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ materially. The MERC contract has no burn function; tokens are removed from circulation by transferring to the dead address. Supply outstanding excluding the dead address is 5,436,770,000 MERC, as of the date of publication.
The post Liquid Mercury Announces Initial Closing of ACQUA1 Offering appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Signage is seen outside of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission headquarters in Washington, Aug. 30, 2020.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
The White House has vetted candidates for the four open commissioner positions at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, three people with knowledge of the matter told CNBC. When — or if — the White House will ultimately act on those potential candidates isn’t clear.
The CFTC’s five commissioners are mandated to be members from the political party in the White House and two from the opposing one. But at the moment, the CFTC — which regulates derivatives contracts — currently only has one, chairman Michael Selig.
Bloomberg News reported earlier this year bipartisan names that the White House was potentially considering for the open seats. In early July, the Trump administration sent a letter to Senate leadership claiming Democrats hadn’t delivered recommendations for vacancies on both the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission, explaining why it had yet to fill openings on both Wall Street regulatory bodies.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter at the end of July with suggestions for the open Democratic slots at both regulatory agencies.
“Democrats support having full, bipartisan commissions,” a spokesperson for Schumer’s office said in a statement. “We have done our part and sent the White House names for the Democratic vacancies on the CFTC and SEC.” The spokesperson added the office hasn’t heard anything back from the White House, and that if the administration has vetted candidates and is ready to place nominations, it should act quickly and work with Democrats.
The White House did not respond to a request to comment for this story.
CNBC could not verify the names of who Schumer sent or if they were included in the candidates vetted by the White House.
As the Senate looks to pass the Clarity Act, a cryptocurrency market structure proposal, Democrats — whose votes are needed to receive the required 60 to pass — have criticized the White House for leaving the spots reserved for Democrats on the SEC and four bipartisan slots at the CFTC empty.
Michael Selig, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026.
Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
One of the people with knowledge of the vetting situation and a Republican working on Clarity noted that it would be a key concession by the White House to guarantee it will fill vacant spots on the CFTC in order to secure passage of Clarity. However, the issue is just one of many dogging down the legislation, which include ethics concerns about President Donald Trump’s family’s crypto interests.
The Senate is set to have a key procedural vote on the Clarity Act on Sept. 15.
But the Republican working on the law told CNBC that if the proposal doesn’t get Senate approval, they expect that the White House won’t fill any of the four remaining commissioner seats at the CFTC, despite in their personal capacity preferring a full slate.
Calls for the White House to fill the four open commission slots at the CFTC have been bipartisan. In May, the House Agriculture Committee’s chairman Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania and ranking member Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota called on Trump to nominate commissioners to the vacancies. The committee handles issues related to the CFTC in the lower house.
Craig reiterated that call in a statement to CNBC. “The Trump administration needs to ensure CFTC has the staff and resources it needs to fulfill its mission, and that includes a full bipartisan panel of commissioners.”
On Tuesday, Thompson said that, similar to Schumer’s office, he has yet to hear anything from the White House about potential nominations.
“I’ve had no feedback,” he said. “But I truly believe that good governance means that the qualified people are put forth to be Senate confirmed to serve in those positions.”
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Adam Telle, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will temporarily replace Dan Driscoll as the Army’s top civilian leader following Driscoll’s abrupt resignation from the role earlier this week.
Trump lauded Telle as “a Great Patriot, who is respected by all” in a Truth Social post, saying Telle would take over as acting Army Secretary “effective immediately.”
The news comes after Driscoll, who Trump nominated as Army Secretary last year after returning to the White House, stepped down amid reports of tension between him and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth praised Trump’s announcement on Thursday, calling Telle “strong and whip smart.”
“Huge congrats to Adam,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “He is indeed a great Patriot — and will be an immediate asset to the @USArmy.”
Here’s what to know about Telle.
Telle has overseen the Army Corps of Engineers since last year
Telle was sworn into his current role as the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works last August, becoming the second person nominated by the President to an Army position in Trump’s second term to be confirmed by the Senate, according to Telle’s biography on the U.S. military’s website.
In that position, Telle has served as a civilian official in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an agency that builds and maintains infrastructure, including dams. According to his bio, he has had “principal authority to establish policy direction and to provide supervision of all aspects” of the civil works tasks that the agency performs for the Army, including projects aimed at reducing flood and storm damage.
Telle previously worked under multiple Republican senators
Before being appointed to his current role in the Trump Administration, Telle served as the chief of staff to Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee from 2021-2025, according to Legistorm. He previously worked under another Republican, then-Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, for about a decade from 2007-2017, and held various roles in the office, including deputy chief of staff and legislative director, according to Legistorm. While serving in Cochran’s office, he helped with the lawmaker’s work on Hurricane Katrina recovery, according to his Army bio.
Telle also served on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee that was responsible for overseeing the Department of Homeland Security’s budget, according to his bio.
Telle served in the first Trump Administration
During Trump’s first term in the Oval Office, Telle served on the White House Office of Legislative Affairs’ Senate team and “was President Trump’s chief liaison to the Senate,” according to his Army bio.
Telle will take over as acting Army Secretary at a tumultuous time
Telle will step into his new role in the Army at a time of turmoil both abroad and within the Department of Defense.
The war in Iran, which began on Feb. 28, has now stretched on for longer than six months and has sparked backlash from many Americans.
And Telle will also be taking on the new position amid upheaval within the U.S. military’s senior ranks. About 20 military and civilian leaders have been ousted or have resigned since Hegseth took over the Department of Defense, including Driscoll earlier this week. Even some Republicans have criticized Hegseth for the chaos at the agency, including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has called on Trump to replace the Defense Secretary.
“[Hegseth] is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks,” Tillis said in a social media post this week. “I urge the President to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.”
Crypto’s August rally put corporate conviction to the test. Bitcoin (BTC) miners that spent much of the crypto downturn courting AI investors are once again trading like leveraged bets on BTC, while Strategy and Strive are adding thousands more Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
The same concentration is playing out elsewhere. Bitmine is closing in on owning 5% of Ether’s (ETH) circulating supply despite billions in unrealized losses, while 21 major financial institutions are taking a different approach by developing stablecoins for payments and settlement.
Bitcoin rally puts miners back in the spotlight
Bitcoin’s August rally lifted beaten-down mining stocks by as much as 67%, reversing a trend that had favored miners pivoting to AI and underscoring the sector’s continued sensitivity to BTC market conditions.
BlocksBridge Consulting reported in a recent newsletter that Bitcoin’s roughly 23% rally in late August outpaced most AI-linked infrastructure stocks. Canaan, American Bitcoin and Cango gained between 41% and 67%, compared with about 21% for CoreWeave, 17% for Nebius and 15% for IREN. Meanwhile, some miners with greater exposure to AI and high-performance computing were flat or declined.
BlocksBridge cited three catalysts for the rally: an expansion of US Treasury liquidity-supporting buybacks, renewed regulatory optimism following a White House crypto meeting and a sharp short squeeze that liquidated more than $1.6 billion in positions.
The outperformance suggests investors may once again be rewarding direct Bitcoin exposure, although the sector still faces risks from the high costs of building out AI data-center capacity.
Strive, Strategy add to Bitcoin holdings as BTC rallies
Strive and Strategy added billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to their corporate treasuries in the final week of August, with Strive buying 1,800 BTC for approximately $143 million and Strategy acquiring another 4,603 BTC.
Strive’s purchases between Aug. 24 and Aug. 28 lifted its holdings to 23,156 BTC, making it the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder. The company paid an average of $79,431 per BTC, including fees and expenses, after buying 1,110 BTC the prior week at an average price of $73,409.
Strategy, meanwhile, resumed buying, acquiring 4,603 BTC at an average price of $80,318 and lifting its holdings above 845,000 BTC after four sales since May.
The purchases coincided with a broader digital asset recovery that began Aug. 19, after the US Treasury announced plans to double certain long-term bond buybacks.
21 financial institutions plan a G7 stablecoin venture for 2027
A consortium of 21 major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citi, plans to establish a new company to develop and issue stablecoins, marking another sign of traditional finance’s push into digital dollars as regulatory frameworks take shape.
The group intends to launch a US dollar-denominated stablecoin in the first half of 2027 before expanding to other G7 currencies, with a euro offering next. The stablecoin will target wholesale, institutional and retail markets for cross-border payments and digital asset settlement.
The venture builds on an initiative announced last October by 10 banks exploring a 1:1 reserve-backed digital money on public blockchains. The consortium now spans North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and intends to comply with both the US GENIUS Act and the EU’s MiCA regulation.
Bitmine nears 5% of Ether supply after 65-week buying streak
Bitmine has extended its Ether buying streak to 65 consecutive weeks, adding 53,501 ETH last week as a broader crypto market recovery lifted the value of its digital asset portfolio.
The latest purchase brought Bitmain’s holdings to more than 5.9 million ETH, valued at roughly $14.8 billion based on an Ether price of $2,511 as of Sunday. The company now owns 4.9% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million circulating supply, putting it within striking distance of its stated 5% goal.
Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said Ether, Bitcoin and Solana have been the three best-performing major assets since June 30, with ETH leading gains.
“We believe this sets the stage for institutions to add to their crypto holdings given the substantial outperformance versus other macro assets,” Lee said.
Despite the accumulation, Bitmine is sitting on roughly $5.1 billion in unrealized losses on its Ether holdings, according to DropsTab data, reflecting sustained buying through the downturn that began in late 2022.
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