Europe's Suicide Pact: Debt, War Economy, And The Climate Cult

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The EU summit on Thursday in Brussels focused primarily on security issues. To put it bluntly: Ukraine must somehow turn its lost war against Russia into a victory, and the EU must be militarily ready for action by 2030. The fact that this would only be feasible with a functioning economy has apparently not yet dawned on the power center in Brussels. Instead, they are preparing for a major fiscal “liberation strike,” giving bureaucracy a lush boom of its own.

When German Chancellor Friedrich Merz traveled to Brussels for the EU summit, his fiery rhetoric about EU bureaucratization followed him closely. “Let me put it in very vivid terms: We need to stick a branch into the wheels of this Brussels machine so that this stops,” Merz declared in September at a conference of the SME and Economic Union — playing, for a brief moment, the role of someone who understands the concerns of the small-business community.

Empty Media Theater

Given today’s Kafkaesque bureaucratic pressures, Merz will likely resort more frequently to this kind of small-business slang in the coming months — whenever the complaints from industry grow louder and demands to end pointless regulatory harassment reach public consciousness.

But no one should expect serious reforms. The example of relabeling “citizen’s income” to “basic security” without any structural change shows that the German government’s policy amounts to a media performance, buying time to defend Brussels’ eco-socialist course at any cost.

The summit confirmed this: Some “mini-reforms” are allowed to release a bit of pressure — but the fundamental line is untouchable. By 2040, the EU must produce climate-neutral output, no matter the cost — either through radical de-growth like in Germany or via buying CO₂ indulgences from elsewhere. As long as the climate books balance, nothing else matters.

Loyal Climate Disciple

Despite the sharp rhetoric, Merz remains a loyal disciple of Brussels’ regulatory-and-climate policy. Along with 19 other European leaders, he presented a sweeping reform proposal to strengthen EU competitiveness. In a letter to EU Council President António Costa, they demanded the Commission review all rules by year-end, scrap outdated and excessive regulations, and reduce new legislation to an “absolute minimum.”

This is rhetorical shadowboxing. Tough talk about regulatory madness — followed by nothing. At best, critics are pacified with subsidies. It’s the oldest EU trick: today’s credit-financed subsidy silences dissent and shifts the price — inflation and higher taxes — into the future.

Masters of Concealing Causality

Brussels is world champion in disguising cause and effect.

In fact, the EU is already preparing a €2 trillion heavyweight budget to be launched in 2028 — with green subsidies and new war machinery, all centrally orchestrated and embedded into national bureaucracies. In Germany’s case, Brussels’ debt wave is complemented by another €50 billion per year from “special funds.” Thousands of new government jobs will be needed to distribute this credit shock.

That this will inevitably trigger major inflation and further tax hikes is something the Chancellor prefers not to mention. The public mood is already… let’s say: tense. No need to pour fuel on that fire.

War Economy = More Bureaucracy

The build-out of a European war economy — with Germany as the main engine — will further swell the state apparatus. Defense and green sectors together form a massive impoverishment program targeting the European middle class, which is being milked more bluntly than ever.

Rising carbon taxes, an EU-wide plastic levy, higher business-tax multipliers, exploding labor costs — the construction of a EU super-state and the financing of its climate ambitions is a costly pleasure.

Germany’s companies are suffocating under mountains of freshly minted EU regulation. Direct bureaucracy costs alone amount to about €70 billion annually, according to a study by the Bundesbank.

Bureaucratic Burdens Keep Growing

If Chancellor Merz now wants to cut bureaucracy and reduce the public workforce by 8% — after contracting 50,000 new state employees in just 12 months — while also reducing bureaucratic burdens by a quarter… it basically means one thing: the green-socialist ideology would need to be deeply curtailed.

But the summit made one thing clear: While awareness is slowly growing in the badly battered economies of Germany, Italy, and France, the climate path remains sacred. Net-zero stays — whether the target year says 2040 or 2045. Any concessions? Shell games designed to reshuffle burdens without altering policy fundamentals.

Privatizing State Bureaucracy

How detached this ideological steering is from economic reality becomes crystal clear in new labor-market data. In the past three years, regulation has “created” 325,000 new jobs in medium-sized companies. The press cheers this as a labor-market success.

But these positions are merely outsourced government bureaucracy — financed by companies and customers. They produce nothing, improve nothing, and respond to no market demand. They are barriers — new cost centers imposed by a metastasizing regulatory regime.

Industrial Exodus Accelerates

The fallout is obvious. A recent survey of 240 executives in energy-intensive industries like steel and chemicals shows: 31% of major companies in Germany are shifting production abroad. Another 42% are delaying investment or moving it to other European locations.

Energy prices, overregulation, and rising trade pressure from the U.S. — all accelerating Germany’s deindustrialization — and strengthened by a bureaucracy that keeps multiplying like bacteria in a petri dish.

Yet neither CEOs nor unions dare challenge the grotesque EU climate agenda. Brussels’ climate crusade increasingly resembles a sectarian conspiracy against rationality and economic logic.

The solution already exists — straight from former ECB chief Mario Draghi: more debt, another €800-billion megaprogram to “boost productivity” — meaning: more central control in Brussels. Add climate ideology plus war economy — and the recipe for the EU’s future is complete.

Climate Bureaucracy: The Last Fortress of Power

For Ursula von der Leyen and her Commission, climate politics is existential. Over the years, Brussels has built a tentacled, subsidy-fed bureaucracy that expands its power in direct proportion to regulatory intervention in the economy.

Wherever a “climate compliance officer” files reports on EU deforestation rules, Brussels is lurking close by.

“Ubi Brussels, ibi Imperium.”

Even U.S. tech giants are discovering Europe’s censorship apparatus — targeting platforms like X and Google to secure control of the public narrative and silence criticism of Brussels’ growing influence and failed transformation agenda.

An open debate about the failed green regulation project? Absolutely forbidden. The entire power architecture of the Brussels bureaucracy rests on CO₂ panic. If that panic dies, Brussels dies with it — and they know it.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/26/2025 - 09:20

Hungary Scrambles To 'Circumvent' US Sanctions On Russian Oil Majors

Via The Cradle

Hungary is seeking to circumvent new US sanctions on Russian oil companies in an effort to avoid disruptions to the country's energy supplies, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

In press statements, Orban emphasized that banning cheap and reliable oil and gas from Russia would significantly increase the energy bills of the Hungarian people. "We are still fighting. So, we haven't lost the battle yet. We need serious maneuvers. We need leadership that will defend this. We are being pressured."

PAP/Pool

Hungary relies heavily on oil transported through the Druzhba pipeline from Russia through Ukraine and Slovakia. MOL Group, which operates refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, processes 14.2 million tons of Russian crude oil a year.

Orban said he has spoken with MOL Group about the sanctions, which come into effect in November. "We are working on how to circumvent this sanction," he said in an interview with state radio Kossuth.

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed the new sanctions on Russia's largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, on Wednesday.

The Treasury said its actions would increase pressure on Russia's energy sector and degrade the Kremlin's ability to fight its war against Ukraine. The sanctions drove up oil prices this week and raised questions regarding how Hungary and Slovakia can continue to meet their energy needs.

Until now, the two Eastern European nations have been able to continue Russian oil purchases despite the war by securing exemptions from EU restrictions.

Hungary was scheduled to host a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a peace deal in the Ukraine war, but this effort has appeared put on pause.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency on Friday that the summit would move ahead, though the dates have not been determined. Recent news reports claimed the summit had been canceled.

Following the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Washington and Brussels sought to cut off Europe from Russian oil and gas, forcing the continent to buy more expensive US-produced liquefied natural gas (LNG).

On Thursday, Reuters reported that Germany is seeking an exemption from US sanctions on Rosneft's German business, citing a person with direct knowledge of government discussions of the matter.

After the US sanctions were announced, several German banks said sanctions could stop them from dealing with the local energy supplier.

Reuters notes that Rosneft's German business is controlled by the German government but is Russian-owned. "It is a key supplier, routing and refining oil to petrol pumps and some airports in Europe's biggest economy," the agency reported.

Germany's economy has suffered since the start of the Russia–Ukraine war, in particular after flows of cheap Russian oil ended to Europe's largest industrial economy after an explosion destroyed the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline in September 2022. The explosion was widely viewed as the result of sabotage by a state actor.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/26/2025 - 08:10

Chinese Nationals Arrested In Georgia For Attempting To Buy Black Market Uranium 

In an entirely bizarre and alarming story emerging out of the Republic of Georgia, the country's State Security Service announced Saturday that three Chinese nationals had been arrested in Tbilisi for allegedly attempting to illegally purchase two kilograms of uranium.

They are accused of attempting to illegally obtain "nuclear material," Interpress news agency reported as cited in Reuters. It's unclear whether the suspects have any official links with the Chinese government or its military or intelligence services, however. The suspects intended to buy the uranium for $400,000 and smuggle it to China through Russia, Georgian security and intelligence officials detailed further.

Via AP

Statements from Georgian security services describe a case where the traffickers were caught red-handed. "According to the authorities, a Chinese citizen already in Georgia, who was in breach of Georgian visa regulations, brought experts to Georgia to search for uranium throughout the country," CBS writes.

"Other members of the criminal group coordinated the operation from China, the statement said." Further:

The perpetrators were identified and detained while "negotiating the details of the illegal transaction," the security service said.

The suspects are facing charges which could bring up to ten years in prison. The scenario of foreigners on risky missions to procure nuclear material in Georgia is not far-fetched, given reports of similar illicit trafficking instances over past years.

For example, one US think tank which monitors the Caucasus region reviews of the abundance of Soviet-era nuclear material there:

The Georgian government has attempted to enhance the safety and security of the nuclear materials under its control, but, prior to the August 2008 war, the anarchic conditions, weak law enforcement, and porous borders in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have permitted widespread smuggling with neighboring Russian regions, as well as into Georgia. This condition has facilitated trafficking in nuclear materials as well as more conventional forms of contraband such as; narcotics, counterfeit currency, and young women. Georgia’s pivotal location at the crossroads between Europe, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East has raised concerns that transnational trafficking networks could move nuclear materials from Russia through Georgia to international terrorist groups.

The same report highlights out the post-Soviet dissolution and border problems made things very complicated:

During the 1990s, Georgia suffered a series of worrisome incidents involving the discovery of scattered, low-level radioactive materials “orphaned” after the USSR’s collapse. Many of the country’s scientific, medical, industrial, and other facilities contain radiological sources such as Caesium-137 and Strontium-90. With the assistance of IAEA monitors and funding from the U.S. government, Georgian authorities have recovered hundreds of such radioactive sources in abandoned factories, waste depositories, and even private homes. 

As for the newly detained Chines individuals, it has not been stated what their motive or purpose may have been behind seeking to acquire nuclear material.

This and other cases may bring greater scrutiny on such materials in the strategically located region, and international help from US or European monitoring agencies.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/26/2025 - 07:35

Over 100 'BSL-4' Bioweapons Labs Now Operate Worldwide, With More Under Construction

Authored by Jon Fleetwood via Substack,

Over the past few years, the world has entered a new era of high-containment biological research—marked by a dramatic expansion of laboratories capable of working with the most lethal viruses known to man.

These include facilities built to the highest biosafety standard, Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4), and they carry not only the broken promise of defending us from pandemics but also the danger of enabling bioweapons creation, whether by accident or deliberate misuse.

Strikingly, a May 2025 Journal of Public Health study found that more than 90% of the countries with at least one BSL-3 laboratory lacked oversight or regulation of dual-use research of concern.

Dual-use research refers to experiments that can be used for good (e.g., alleged drug development) but also for harm (e.g., creating a bioweapon).

The Journal of Public Health study aimed to investigate the worldwide distribution of BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories.

Alarmingly, it found that:

“No international organization has a comprehensive register or global oversight of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3)/BSL-4 laboratories. Different countries use different standards for designation of pathogens and laboratories.”

“More than 90% of the countries with at least one BSL3 laboratory have no oversight/regulations regarding dual-use research.”

BSL-3 laboratories work with serious or potentially lethal pathogens that can be transmitted through the air and usually have available treatments or preventions, such as tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID), and avian influenza “bird flu.”

BSL-4 laboratories handle the most dangerous and exotic pathogens that often cause fatal diseases with no available vaccines or treatments, such as Ebola and Marburg viruses.

Taken together, the proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs around the world raises national security, informed consent, and conflict of interest concerns.

• They raise national security concerns because accidental or intentional lab leaks put American lives at risk, clearly proven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, and the CIA have confirmed that the COVID pandemic was likely the result of lab-engineered pathogen manipulation.

• They raise informed consent concerns because citizens are often unknowingly and/or unwillingly exposed to risks from nearby labs or experimental pathogen releases conducted without public awareness or approval.

• They raise conflict of interest concerns because many of these labs are funded by entities that profit from the development of pathogens and drugs that target those pathogens, meaning they benefit financially from an accidental or intentional lab leak-caused outbreak.

Even former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci—who dismissed claims that a lab leak caused the COVID pandemic—has admitted in print that the greatest biosecurity threat regarding dangerous pathogen research is laboratory “insiders who have direct access” to the pathogens or “outsiders who collaborate with or subvert insiders.”

Given the mounting evidence of accidents, secrecy, and conflicts of interest, the continued operation of these bioweapons labs poses an unacceptable threat to humanity’s safety.

The only responsible course is to shut down all BSL-4 facilities worldwide and impose a global moratorium on high-risk pathogen experiments in order to prevent further catastrophe.

But governments all over the world are doing the opposite.

The Journal of Public Health authors warn in their conclusion:

“The number of BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories is continually increasing, and many do not have adequate biosafety guidelines.”

Dr. Richard Bartlett warned that COVID-19 resulted from dangerous lab experiments and urged a global ban on bioweapons, calling the unchecked spread of BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs—where such pathogens are made—an existential threat to humanity.

“President Trump recently spoke to the UN General Assembly, stating that COVID was the result of risky laboratory experiments and that the United States would lead an effort to ban bioweapons,” he told this website.

“The White House, U.S. Congress, FBI, CIA, German intelligence, and the Department of Energy’s intelligence division have all acknowledged that COVID ‘may have’ originated from a lab. Bioweapons are developed in BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories. Yet no one has been held accountable for the worst catastrophe in U.S. history. The continued proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs worldwide shows that we have learned nothing from this disaster. Bioweapons, like nuclear weapons, are weapons of mass destruction—and the stockpiling of pathogens such as avian flu represents an existential threat to humanity.”

Worldwide Surge of Bioweapons Labs

Before the COVID pandemic, only a modest number of BSL-4 labs existed worldwide.

Mapping studies published earlier this year show there are now more than 100 operational BSL-4 labs across 34 countries.

Researchers identified a staggering 3,515 BSL-3 laboratories in 149 countries.

They write in their Journal of Public Health publication:

“We identified 3,515 BSL-3 laboratories in 149 countries, with nearly half (47.1%) in the United States. Details on geolocations and pathogens they handled are publicly available for 955 of these labs. The United Kingdom had the highest rate (N = 9) of BSL-3 labs per million population, while Bangladesh had the lowest. High-income countries house 82% of these laboratories. There are 110 BSL-4 laboratories in 34 middle- and high-income countries, and 46% are in the WHO’s Europe region. Notably, from the health security index perspective, 91.6% of countries with at least one BSL-3 laboratory lack guidelines for dual-use research of concern.”

India’s Ambitious Expansion

In India, the Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior inaugurated a BSL-4 facility in November 2024, aimed at experimenting with Nipah virus and Crimean‑Congo hemorrhagic fever virus.

Additional high-containment labs are planned, potentially creating one of Asia’s largest BSL-4 networks.

Russia’s ‘Sanitary Shield’ & Maximum-Containment Ambitions

Russia’s flagship BSL-4 facility at State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR (Koltsovo) is already a key part of its bio-infrastructure.

Under the national “Sanitary Shield” program, Moscow announced plans for up to 15 new “maximum-biosafety level” labs by 2024.

While not all details are public, satellite imagery and defense analysis suggest that several facilities—such as the site at Sergiev Posad‑6 near Moscow—exhibit features consistent with BSL-4 design.

United States: Updating an Already Extensive Network

The United States remains home to one of the largest portfolios of BSL-4 labs globally, with around 14 active facilities as of 2023.

These include institutions such as the Galveston National Laboratory, Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and others managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Construction is underway for a new state-of-the-art BSL-4 laboratory at the CDC’s Roybal campus in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the CDC’s 2025 Masterplan.

The new facility, called the High Containment Continuity Laboratory (HCCL), will be a 160,000-square-foot, multi-story research building designed to accommodate approximately 80 laboratory researchers.

Latin America’s Entry: Brazil & Argentina

In Brazil, the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) broke ground in 2024 on a proposed BSL-4 complex dubbed “Orion,” to be integrated with the country’s Sirius synchrotron light-source.

If realized, it would become South America’s most advanced high-containment biology facility.

In Argentina this month, the Malbrán Institute in Buenos Aires opened the country’s first BSL-4 lab.

As an international hub for migratory birds traveling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Argentina’s position makes it a strategic focal point in the global network of avian flu surveillance and experimentation—placing it squarely within the larger international orchestration of a potential bird flu pandemic currently underway.

Bottom Line

The global explosion of BSL-4 laboratories represents not progress, but peril.

What governments call “pandemic preparedness” has become an uncontrolled arms race in bioweapon capability, with more than 110 BSL-4 labs now operating across 34 countries—most in nations that have no enforceable oversight of dual-use research.

The same systems meant to prevent pandemics are engineering the conditions that could ignite the next one.

With over 90% of countries hosting BSL-3 labs lacking any regulation of dual-use research, humanity is effectively constructing a worldwide bioweapons network under the banner of science.

These facilities have already demonstrated fatal lapses, secrecy, and conflicts of interest—and the agencies that fund them often profit from both the creation of pathogens and the “solutions” they sell afterward.

Given this reality, nothing short of a global moratorium on high-risk pathogen research and the immediate closure of all BSL-4 laboratories can protect public safety.

The question is no longer if another lab-engineered outbreak will occur, but how many more chances we are willing to give it to happen again.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 23:20

Maduro Boasts He's Moved Thousands Of Russian Anti-Air Missiles To Venezuela's Coast

Venezuela’s president has been warning that his armed forces have deployed 5,000 Russian-made Igla-S anti-aircraft missiles across its territory, at a moment President Trump has ordered an unprecedented force build-up in the Caribbean.

"Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S, and Venezuela has no less than 5,000," Nicolas Maduro said during a televised address to military personnel.

Illustrative file image

The Pentagon confirmed Friday it has redirected a carrier strike group from the Mediterranean to the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) are of operations to join the significant amount of warships already patrolling waters of Venezuela's coast.

On Friday, Trump was asked about recent reports that Maduro offered "everything in his country, all the natural resources" to ease tensions with Washington. Caracas has denied these reports.

But contradicting the denials, Trump said at the White House that Maduro had offered "everything" because "he doesn’t want to f**k around with the United States."

Weekend reports say that the Venezuelan military continues to deploy additional arms to its coast, in anticipation for possible US military action. Trump has said that "land" targets are an option on the table.

It's unknown whether Venezuela's military actually has thousands of Igla-S systems. The weapon is typically compared to the US Stinger missile, as it can hit  low-flying aircraft, drones, and helicopters at ranges reaching a little less than four miles.

Maduro orders 'ALL' Russian arms to coast opposite Pentagon mass buildup pic.twitter.com/wFvvHxBw0P

— RT (@RT_com) October 25, 2025

The source Army Recognition writes:

President Maduro’s focus on MANPADS (MAN-Portable Air-Defense missile System) SA-24 Igla-S fits a broader picture of Venezuelan point-defense layers built over the past decade, in which shoulder-fired systems complement legacy short-range air defenses and anti-air artillery. Recent technical reviews describe an inventory that pairs MANPADS such as the Russian Igla-S with Sweden’s laser-guided RBS-70, backed by mobile batteries and radar coverage designed to complicate any attacker’s route selection at low altitude. The concept is not to defeat a modern air force outright but to raise attrition and force higher-risk flight profiles.

But these short-range missiles will be no match for large American warships, and certainly not the Ford Carrier Group - said to now be en route.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 22:45

Queensland LNP Government Restores Biological Definition Of 'Woman'

Authored by Crystal-Rose Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Queensland’s Minister for Women Fiona Simpson has restored the state’s official definition for a woman.

A sign indicating an 'all gender' facility at Sydney Airport in Australia on Oct. 12, 2025. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

Under the previous Labor government, the definition was widened to encompass “all people who identify as a woman or girl,” according to the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Strategy 2032 (pdf).

It came amid broader changes to the Human Rights Act in June 2023—coming into affect a year later—which loosened the requirement for changing the official gender on a birth certificate, to the point where children 12 and up could change their gender without needing surgery or treatment.

“Despite repeated claims to the contrary there is no evidence from any jurisdiction to suggest women will have fewer rights, or be less safe, as a result of these changes,” then-Women’s Minister Shannon Fentiman told Parliament in June 2023.

The centre-right Liberal National Party (LNP) and conservative-leaning Katter Australian Party opposed the law at the time.

This year on Sept. 16, KAP Leader Robbie Katter asked the current LNP Minister Simpson for her definition during Question Time.

“Will the minister (a) define ‘women’ as it is used in the Department of Women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Multiculturalism; and (b) detail if the minister and department consider transgender people as women?” Katter said.

This week, a response was provided where Simpson officially stated that: “(a) A woman is an adult female human being; and (b) A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is opposite to the sex the person was born with, male or female.”

Fiona Simpson, Queensland LNP minister for women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, and multiculturalism at the Queensland Parliament in Brisbane, Australia on Aug. 7, 2025. AAP Image/Darren England How Many Have Changed Their Official Gender?

Katter also asked Attorney-General Deb Frecklington how many people had changed their gender on their birth certificate since Oct. 27, 2024, when the LNP came to power.

Katter also asked how many people were 16 or under, and how many were aged 16-18.

In turn, Frecklington recently responded to the question saying the Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages does “not formally report” on changes as it was “considered sensitive information.”

“Children under 16 seeking to change their sex must have their parents or persons with parental responsibility apply to Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM) on their behalf, or must obtain an Order of the Children’s Court,” Frecklington said.

“The BDMR Act requires an assessment of the child by a developmentally informed practitioner confirming that the child understands the meaning and legal implications of altering their record of sex.

“People over the age of 16 are required to provide a statement of support from an adult who has known them for 12 months or more, confirming they believe the application is being made honestly and in good faith.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 22:10

US Flying Surveillance Drones Over Gaza To Monitor Ceasefire

The White House has promised no boots on the ground in Gaza as part of Trump's peace plan, which has resulted in a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel holding for two weeks, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have assets in the air.

The United States has begun deploying surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip to verify that both Israel and Hamas are adhering to the ceasefire, according to The New York Times on Saturday.

Via AFP

The American drones are said to be operating over the Strip with Israel's coordination and approval, but precise locations or flight paths haven't been disclosed.

The drone flights support the operations of the newly established Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), staffed by some 200 American troops and officers, along with participating allied nations.

The NYT also revealed that the Pentagon had previously used drones to assist the Israeli military in locating hostages in the Strip, or else finding terror cells.

The Pentagon used MQ-9 Reaper drones in Gaza to for these earlier missions. Interestingly the NY Times report actually hints at growing distrust between the US and Israeli sides in terms of implementing the ceasefire:

A former American diplomat and defense official, like some Israeli officials, expressed surprise at the latest U.S. surveillance missions in Gaza, given the two countries’ close military ties.

“This is a very intrusive version of U.S. monitoring on a front where Israel perceives an active threat,” said Daniel B. Shapiro, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama and as a special envoy to Israel on Iran under President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

“If there was total transparency and total trust between Israel and the U.S., there wouldn’t be a need for this,” Mr. Shapiro said. “But obviously the U.S. wants to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding.”

That distrust was on display also while Vice President JD Vance and other top White House officials were in Israel this week.

Israel's parliament days ago gave initial approval to a controversial bill that would extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, widely viewed as tantamount to full Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territory. A Knesset statement said the proposal seeks "to apply the sovereignty of the State of Israel to the territories of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)."

This largely 'symbolic' vote angered Vance and the American delegation, as it was seen as a provocation which could sink the ceasefire deal - at a moment they were on the ground inspecting the situation in southern Israel.

Vance denounced the "stupid political stunt" which was an "insult" led by hardliner MPs. But he also said it may have merely been "symbolic" but it was "weird" to do especially while he was still in the country.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 21:35

California Has Largest Population Of Centenarians: Census Report

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Golden State has the largest number of residents living well into their golden years, according to a new U.S. Census report issued on Sept. 22.

A 100-year-old American World War II veteran, Harold Terens, and his 96-year-old bride, Jeanne Swerlin Terens, toast each other with glasses of champagne after their wedding at the Carentan-les-Marais Town Hall in Carentan-les-Marais, France, on June 8, 2024. Win McNamee/Getty Images

California reported 10,623 residents older than 100 years old, followed by New York (6,921), Florida (6,580), and Texas (4,435) as the top states with the highest population of centenarians.

Alaska recorded only 94 centenarians, which was the fewest, followed by Wyoming (126), Vermont (167), and Delaware (197), with each having fewer than 200 centenarians statewide, according to the census report.

The new report “Centenarians: 2020” examined living arrangements and other details of the 80,139 people living in the U.S. who were 100 years old or older in 2020.

“Living to the age of 100 is extremely rare,” the census wrote in the report.

In 2020, U.S. residents who lived until the age of 65 were expected to reach about 83.5 years old on average.

“Centenarians ... defied those odds,” the census reported.

Beyond living arrangements and locations, the census also found that more men were living past age 100 in 2020, when compared to 2010 census tallies.

Centenarians remain overwhelmingly female—accounting for nearly 79 percent of the population. But that percentage has declined. In 2010, nearly 83 percent were female.

“Centenarians, a largely White alone and female population, became slightly more racially diverse and male in 2020,” the census reported. “The increase in racial diversity (i.e., about an 8 percentage-point decline in the White alone share) was on par with what was shown for other age groups among the older population.”

The only group of centenarians to decline in the past decade was African Americans, who dropped to 10.3 percent in 2020 from 12.2 percent in 2010.

Age and Sex Differences

More than half—or nearly 61 percent—of the centenarians in the U.S were 100 or 101.

100-year-old Vee Duurloo attends a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Prescott Valley, Ariz., on Oct. 13, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Super-centenarians—people who were 110 or older—numbered 1,933 nationwide, according to the census.

According to a recent National Center for Health Statistics report, females generally live about 5.7 years longer than males. Women are expected to live to 79.9 years on average, while men live to about 74.2 years, according to the census.

State Proportion Numbers

According to the numbers from the 2020 U.S. Census, Hawaii had the largest proportion of centenarians. It was the only state with more than four—4.44 to be exact—centenarians per 10,000 in 2020. Puerto Rico reported 4.14 centenarians per 10,000 people.

States with relatively high proportions of centenarians—between 3.5 and 3.99 per 10,000 people—were Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Connecticut.

The nationwide centenarian proportion is 2.42 per 10,000, the census reported.

Utah and Alaska had the lowest proportion of centenarians per 10,000, according to the census.

Marie Hendrix (L) and Gabrielle Vaudremer, 100-year-old Belgian twins, celebrate their birthday. Nicolas Lambert/AFP/Getty Images Global Comparisons

The number of U.S. centenarians was among the largest of all countries, the study revealed.

Globally, Japan had the highest proportion of citizens aged 65 and older in the world, while Italy had the highest proportion of 65 and older residents in Europe, according to the census.

The U.S. proportion of 2.42 centenarians per 10,000 people was slightly smaller than Italy’s figure of 2.48. It was also less than half of the share for Japan, which recorded 6.37 centenarians per 10,000 people, according to the census.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 21:00

Huge Mellon Donation: Secretive Banking Heir Revealed As $130M 'Private' Benefactor To Pay Troops

Based billionaire recluse Timothy Mellon has been revealed as the (now formerly) anonymous private donor who gave $130 million to the US government to help pay troops during the shutdown. Hell, the virtuous (signaling) Mark Cuban - who's worth more than Mellon, won't even do that for Ukraine where 'half his family' is from.

The massive donation was announced Thursday night by President Donald Trump - who only referred to the donor as a "patriot" and friend who "doesn't want publicity." 

“He called us the other day and he said, ‘I'd like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democrat shutdown. I’d like to contribute, personally, contribute any shortfall you have with the military, because I love the military and I love the country, and any shortfall, if there’s a shortfall, I’ll contribute it...'’’

“He doesn’t really want the recognition, if you want to know the truth, but he gave us a check for $130 million, which was sort of a shortfall, and that’s going to go to the military." -Trump

Today, the NY Times leaked it. 

Mellon, a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate who lives a quiet life in Wyoming, has been giving tens of millions of dollars to groups backing Trump and Republicans in general - including $50 million last year to a Trump super PAC, one of the largest single contributions ever disclosed. 

He's also a big supporter of RFK Jr. - giving money to his presidential campaign, as well as Kennedy's group, Children's Health Defense. 

According to the report, the Pentagon accepted the donation under the "general gift acceptance authority," and was "made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members’ salaries and benefits," Pentagon spox Sean Parnell said. 

And yet... (of course)

THE NY TIMES IS SALTY ABOUT IT

While just about anything in Washington might violate any law at any time - the Times drops this little nugget towards the end; 

Still, the donation appears to be a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money in excess of congressional appropriations or from accepting voluntary services.

Oh no, the thing that's happened over 80 times between 2018-2024 alone (GAO) and has never been prosecuted in its 155 years of existence. 

Does anyone on the left have the balls to bring that lawsuit? 

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 20:25

"I Am Not Done" - Kamala Harris Teases New White House Run

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times,

Kamala Harris isn’t ruling out another run for the White House.

The former vice president hinted that she may run for president again in 2028 during an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuessenberg.

Kuessenberg brought up Harris’s young nieces and asked, “When are they going to see a woman in charge in the White House?”

“In their lifetime, for sure,” Harris responded.

"Could it be you?” Kuessenberg questioned.

“Possibly,” Harris replied.

Harris became the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024 and endorsed her.

The 61-year-old politician confirmed to the BBC that a bid for the presidency in 2028 is still on the table, and said that her career in politics will continue.

“I am not done,” Harris said.

“I have lived my entire career, a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve. I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I am doing right now.”

BBC: In the campaign, you said Donald Trump was a fascist. Do you think he's running a fascist authoritarian government?

Kamala Harris: I was asked if he was a fascist and I said yes. Look at what’s happening right now.

pic.twitter.com/CxXQzhj4bH

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) October 25, 2025

The former U.S. senator has been on tour promoting her book, “107 Days.”

The book, which detailed the 107 days she spent running for president against President Donald Trump after Biden exited the race, was published on Sept. 23 and is on track to become the best-selling memoir of 2025, according to a statement from her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Harris served as the first woman district attorney in San Francisco from 2004 to 2010 before being elected Attorney General of California.

She served as a U.S. senator representing California from 2017 to 2021, unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 race, and was selected as VP on Biden’s ticket, making her the 49th vice president of the United States.

An Emerson College Poll from June 2025 showed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as the early frontrunner to lead the Democratic Party into the 2028 election.

Harris admitted that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was her first choice for vice president when she ran in 2024, but she did not think a Harris-Buttigeig ticket would beat Trump.

“He would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,” Harris wrote in her book “107 Days.”

“But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman. A Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say ... let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk. I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 19:50

Trump Hikes Canada's Tariffs By 10% for Not Pulling Anti-Tariff Ad Immediately

President Trump announced on Saturday afternoon that he will increase tariffs on Canada by 10% in response to an anti-tariff advertisement by the province of Ontario that featured Ronald Reagan, and which is roiling one of the world’s biggest bilateral trade relationships.

Trump said the ad campaign misrepresented Reagan’s speech on tariffs, and aimed at interfering with the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on his administration’s global tariffs.

“Canada was caught, red-handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s Speech on Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“The Reagan Foundation said that they, ‘created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of President Ronald Reagan. The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address,’ and ‘did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter.’”

“Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD. Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now.”

The US president didn’t specify the scope of his new measure. While Canada faces a US base tariff of 35%, the rate doesn’t apply to most Canadian goods because of an exemption for products and shipments made within the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Steel and aluminum products don’t have that waiver — and Canadian-made cars and trucks are only partially eligible for exemption from Trump’s 25% tariffs on most foreign autos.

“Tariffs at any level remain a tax on America first, then North American competitiveness as a whole,” Candace Laing, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa, said in a statement. “We hope this threat of escalation can be resolved through diplomatic channels and further negotiation.”

Canada PM Mark Carney has been engaged in talks with the US to lower the levies and Ontario Premier Doug Ford has pledged to pause the Ontario-funded ads in the US on Monday after speaking to Carney in hopes that the talks could resume. After Trump first halted the negotiations, Carney said Ottawa was prepared to resume discussions “when the Americans are ready,” and said that the two sides had been making progress on steel, aluminum and energy.

In contrast, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Friday that negotiations with Canada have “not been going well” and Trump is “very frustrated.”

Trump said the ads appear to be timed to influence a US Supreme Court case challenging the legality of many of his global tariffs, threatening a pillar of his reelection campaign and subsequent economic agenda. The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Nov. 5. Trump said SCOTUS would create a disaster if it overturns his country-based tariffs, including forcing the US government to refund companies billions of dollars in duties.

Trump said Thursday he’d end all talks with Canada because of the ad, which used excerpts from a 1987 Reagan speech defending free trade and slamming tariffs as an outdated notion that stifles innovation, drives up prices and hurts US workers.  When Reagan delivered the radio address, he had just placed “select” tariffs on Japanese electronics for what he considered unfair trade practices. 

The Reagan quotations were edited together from different parts of his speech, prompting the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute to complain that the ad misrepresented the full address. The foundation said it’s reviewing its legal options.

The Government of Ontario just spent $75 million on a pro-trade/anti-tariff ad starring... Ronald Reagan. pic.twitter.com/uD5wJgZEzv

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) October 15, 2025

Trump made his latest announcement while en route to a three-country trip to Asia that includes stops at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. Asked if he had any plans to meet Carney during the two summits, the US president said as he began his trip that “I don’t have any intention of it, no.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 18:40

'Gapazoid' The Suicidal Pedo Who Rushed Wikipedia Conference Stage With Gun Was Ex-Editor

A gunman who rushed the stage at the Wikipedia WikiConference in New York City last week was a suicidal pedophile who was going to kill himself in protest of the propaganda website's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy when it comes to adults who fantasize about sex with children. 

Richard Knipel, rear, rushed to grab a man with a gun after witnesses said the man threatened to shoot himself at a Wikipedia conference in Manhattan on Friday.Credit...Bill Adair, Duke University

Connor Weston, 27, allegedly rushed the stage, pointed a loaded revolver at his head, and declared "I’m a non-contact pedophile. I want to kill myself." 

Of note, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said in leaked e-mails that there would be a secret prohibition on self-identifying pedophiles that he made official policy in 2010. Under these rules, editors identifying as pedos are banned indefinitely. Weston posted under the name 'Gapazoid,' according to a statement. 

The gunman stepped on stage next to Maryanna Iskander, the Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation that owns Wikipedia, during her keynote address and announced that he was an “anti-contact no-offending” pedophile who was planning to kill himself in protest of the site’s child protection policy.

He described the child protection policy as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a term used by site co-founder Jimmy Wales in leaked e-mails to describe a secret prohibition on self-identifying pedophiles that Wales officially made public policy in 2010. Under current policy, editors identifying as pedophiles are banned indefinitely. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” references a policy previously in place in the U.S. military regarding homosexuality prior to allowing homosexual individuals to serve openly. -Breitbart

Weston was eventually subdued by two volunteer security members at the conference (wut?) - Richard Knipel and Andrew Lih, site admins who edit as “Pharos” and “Fuzheado” respectively. One day later, Arbitration Committee member “ScottishFinnishRadish” (SFR) published revealed that Weston was behind the Gapazoid account, and that they had implemented a global ban after SFR banned his account on the English Wikipedia site in February. 

SFR admitted that he was violating a non-disclosure agreement by commenting on the incident, though a majority of committee members endorsed the publication of his comment. 

A pedophile activist has been arrested after storming a Wikipedia conference and threatening to commit suicide on stage.

Connor Gardner Weston is a member of a prominent pro-pedophile group that has been promoted by academics and the media.

READ: https://t.co/X5ShJKaSFf pic.twitter.com/PGk8zqB5yF

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) October 19, 2025

According to Breitbart, "Weston had made over a hundred edits and translated an article from the Japanese Wikipedia, before commenting on the discussion page of the child protection policy to complain the policy conflated “non-offending pedophiles and supporters of child sex abuse.” He was banned several days later."

What's more, Weston emailed Wikipedia notifying them of his intent to protest at the Foundation headquarters.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

In 2007, Wales wrote this in response to a thread about banning pedophiles;

I agree with this completely.

This is a thorny issue, and I have little to add to it. We don't want a
witch hunt. We also don't want a huge press scandal.

It is inevitable that at some point a reporter is going to come to me
and tell me about a user I don't know about, asking "Why does Wikipedia
allow a self-confessed pedophile to edit articles about children?"

And my response is going to be: "O RLY? *block*"

I will use "disruption" as my reason or "useless editor" or whatever
seems to suit the circumstance.

At the same time, other than that, I think our best approach is just
like our best approach with other types of problems:

1. Quiet diplomacy is good
2. Don't ask, don't tell is good

--Jimbo

So the plan when it comes to outed WikiPedos (since we're guessing there's a bunch) is to call it a distraction, or minimize the pedo's import to the organization. 

'You know it's bad when...'

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 18:05

Japan Will Play A Much Greater Role In Advancing The American Agenda In Asia

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Putin’s senior aide Nikolai Patrushev gave an interview to Arguments and Facts about Japan on the 80th anniversary of its unilateral surrender in World War II in early September that’s important to raise wider awareness of after the appointment of its new ultra-nationalist prime minister. He began by reminding everyone that “Tokyo zealously cultivated an open racism that surpassed German Nazism in its absurdity and inhumanity. And the sovereignty of other countries was considered an empty phrase there.”

Patrushev then touched upon Imperial Japan’s failed geopolitical plot to turn the Sea of Japan into an inland sea and even seize Kamchatka so as “to gain undivided possession of the Sea of Okhotsk” too. He assessed that Japan’s current campaign for “’justice’ on the issue of the so-called ‘northern territories’” is just a disguise for a similar plot to obtain control over new marine (seafood and mineral) resources. Patrushev accordingly warned that it’s planning to make new claims to Russian maritime territory.

The emerging trend of misportraying Imperial Japan as the “victim” of Soviet aggression in 1945, despite the Allies having agreed in advance that the USSR would open up the Manchurian Front three months after the Nazis’ defeat, is meant to lend false legitimacy to these claims. This threat shouldn’t be downplayed, Patrushev warned, since Japan’s “Self-Defense Forces” de facto function as national armed forces, are NATO-backed, and are “systematically building a powerful and ultra-modern submarine fleet”.

In his words, “Japan is one of the most powerful naval powers in the world today. Its fleet is capable of solving almost any task even in remote areas of the World Ocean. The Japanese Navy closely cooperates with the NATO fleet, and at any moment they can be integrated into Western coalition formats.” Even more concerning are Japan’s nuclear breakthrough capabilities: “it is capable of creating its own nuclear arsenal and means of delivery in a few years” if the decision is made, according to Patrushev.

Nevertheless, these threats shouldn’t be exaggerated either since Russia is “building up defensive potential in the Far East and strengthening our naval power in the Pacific Ocean”, thus meaning that it’s more than capable of defending itself from Japan. Rather, “The threat lies not so much in the destroyers and missiles, but in the fact that the national consciousness of the Japanese is shifting from pacifism to rabid revanchism”, which he attributed to a long-running “aggressive propaganda” campaign.

The purpose is to precondition the population to accept the risks associated with Japan more actively advancing US interests in the region via the “Squad” (those two, Australia, and the Philippines), which is envisaged as the core of AUKUS+, the US’ desired NATO-like regional analogue. Japan’s place in the US’ Chinese Containment Coalition just rose as a result of the unexpected Sino-Indo rapprochement, prior to which the US wanted India to play a complementary role, so Japan is now at the forefront of this effort.

The trend is that New Cold War’s focus is shifting from US-led NATO’s containment of Russia in Europe to US-led AUKUS+’s containment of China in Asia, all while the TRIPP Corridor injects Western influence into the Eurasian Heartland to stir trouble for both. India’s Pakistani rival is also poised to play a supportive role on the Central Asian front if tensions with the Taliban abate.

Altogether, Poland, Japan, Turkiye, and possibly Pakistan are now the US’ top containment allies, which isn’t lost on Russia, India, and China.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 17:30

Virginia Governor Declares Emergency Over Looming Loss Of SNAP Benefits; USDA Warns Funds Running Out USDA Warns It Can't Use Contingency Funds To Cover SNAP In November

The federal government shutdown entered Day 25 on Saturday, with cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket showing odds in the single digits that Democrats and Republicans will reach a resolution before November 3. The market currently assigns a 15% probability that the shutdown will end between November 12 and 15.

We have warned readers of the potential for major disruptions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) if the federal government remains closed. Betting odds markets and limited political chatter in the Capitol Beltway this weekend (so far) suggest a resolution to the shutdown remains muted for next week.

Must Read:

• What Are The Chances Of A Food Stamp Collapse In November?

• 5 Key Dates To Watch As Shutdown Drags On

In 2025, around 42 million people relied on SNAP benefits, which accounted for 12% of the population. This is more than enough people to create chaos should SNAP funds run dry in the coming weeks.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) warned:

Due to Congressional Democrats' refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive their SNAP benefits come November 1

The USDA states that SNAP's contingency fund cannot legally be used for regular monthly benefits during a lapse in appropriations. That fund is intended for emergencies such as Disaster SNAP after hurricanes or floods, not to replace missing federal funding. The agency also warned that shifting money from other food programs would undermine school meals and WIC (infant formula and nutrition support), adding that states cannot step in to front the money, because SNAP benefits are fully federally funded and there is no legal way for states to be reimbursed.

Recall from our note citing Goldman analysts over the summer: here is the SNAP exposure for discount chains Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

 SNAP exposure for DG stores

SNAP exposure for DLTR stores

It's a helpful way to visualize where clusters of SNAP benefits are primarily used geographically.

And now, as Jill McLaughlin details below for The Epoch Times, Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency in Virginia on Oct. 23 to provide relief for residents at risk of losing federal food benefits next month.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivers his annual State of the Commonwealth address before a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond on Jan. 13, 2025. Steve Helber/AP Photo

The ongoing government shutdown will cause low-income residents in the state to lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits starting Nov. 1 if lawmakers are unable to reach an agreement to pass a budget bill and reopen the government.

Over 850,000 residents in the state could lose benefits, according to the governor, a Republican, who blamed Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.

“This is an extraordinary action and is only necessary because of the shamelessness of congressional Democrats,” Youngkin said in a statement.

The declaration allows Youngkin to spend state emergency funds to protect the “health, welfare, and safety of Virginians,” according to the governor.

Virginia’s poverty rate is about 10 percent, according to the latest census. The national rate is 12.4 percent.

The federal nutrition program provides monthly payments to eligible low-income households, allowing them to buy food. The average monthly payment is about $332 per household, with most living at or below the poverty level. Households with children receive an average of $574 per month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Four out of five households that receive SNAP payments include either a child, an elderly person, or someone with a disability, the USDA reported.

Other states have also taken emergency action over the looming loss of SNAP funds.

California announced Wednesday that the state was fast-tracking up to $80 million in state funds and deploying the National Guard and state volunteers to support food banks during the shutdown. About 5.5 million Californians are expected to lose SNAP benefits in November.

"This is serious, this is urgent—and requires immediate action,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said on Oct. 22 that he has requested that state lawmakers consider using up to $10 million of the state’s general fund to support food banks and pantries.

A sign alerting customers about SNAP benefits is displayed at a Brooklyn grocery store in New York City on Dec. 5, 2019. EBT stands for electronic benefit transfer. Scott Heins/Getty Images

Multiple states have also warned SNAP holders they need to prepare to lose benefits next month.

In Washington on Thursday, the Senate failed to pass a bill to pay U.S. troops and active federal workers during the shutdown. The Republican-led “Shutdown Fairness Act” failed on a cloture vote of 54–45, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

The SNAP program is set to change Nov. 1. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July, recipient work requirements will apply to adults 18 to 65, unless they are unable to work due to a physical or mental limitation. Other changes to exemptions will also apply.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 16:55

"You Have To Be Scared... Forcefully Rise Up": Democrat Leaders Ramp Up Resistance Rhetoric

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Despite calls for many Democratic politicians and pundits to temper their inflammatory rhetoric, this week has proven a further escalation in this dangerous form of rage rhetoric.

DNC Chair Ken Martin just told MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “we may be nearing” the moment when “elections don’t matter and then the resistance looks completely different.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on people to “forcefully rise up.”

With political violence on the rise, these leaders are clearly fueling the mob in hopes that they and their party can ride the wave of rage back into power. 

History suggests that it is a foolish delusion. Today’s revolutionaries quickly become tomorrow’s reactionaries.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who pictures himself brandishing a baseball bat has previously called upon people to “fight in the streets.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom previously declared, “I’m going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger  called upon her supporters to “Let your rage fuel you.” She then refused to withdraw her support for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, who once expressed his desire to kill his political opponents and his children.

In his podcast with co-host Al Hunt, James Carville was again spewing unhinged hate. He returned to treating Trump and others as Nazis and their supporters as “collaborators.” I previously criticized Carville for that analogy. He later attacked me.

Doubling down, Carville declared

“You know what we do with collaborators? I think these corporations, my fantasy dream is that this nightmare ends in 2029 and I think we ought to have radical things. I think they all ought to have their heads shaven, they should be put in orange pajamas and they should be marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and the public should be invited to spit on them.”

To be sure that his menacing words were not lost, he then added “The universities, the corporations, the law firms, all of these collaborators should be shaved, pajamaed and spit on.”

There was no later push back by his co-host Hunt or anyone else associated with the podcast.

[ZH: Carville later ratcheted up the Trump hysteria with a full-blown doomer meltdown, raging that Trump "hates the United States” and that Americans should be living in fear.

“You have to be scared…there is no hope…there is fear…I know I’m an old man, but I’m one scared dude."]

James Carville ratchets up Trump hysteria, has full blown doomer meltdown: Rages that Trump "hates the United States” and that Americans should be living in fear.

“You have to be scared…there is no hope…there is fear…I know I’m an old man, but I’m one scared dude."… pic.twitter.com/TbLob8cbsc

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 25, 2025

As one of those Carville has already attacked, I expect he has a haircut and public humiliation in mind for me and a significant number of others deemed insufficiently committed to the resistance.

Even with the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the attempts on Trump and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, these politicians and pundits are still fueling the madness. Even with the sniper attack on ICE officers, they are still calling these law enforcement officers “Gestapo” and “Nazis.”

In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about rage and the uncomfortable truth for many engaging in rage rhetoric:

“What few today want to admit is that they like it. They like the freedom that it affords, the ability to hate and harass without a sense of responsibility. It is evident all around us as people engage in language and conduct that they repudiate in others. We have become a nation of rage addicts, flailing against anyone or anything that stands in opposition to our own truths. Like all addictions, there is not only a dependency on rage but an intolerance for opposing views. … Indeed, to voice free speech principles in a time of rage is to invite the rage of the mob.”

The appearance of guillotines has become commonplace in left-wing protests. From protests against Trump to those against Israel, the symbol of the Terror is being rolled out as a warning to those with opposing views: “We got the guillotine, you better run.”

It is the ultimate expression of an age of rage. There is no question that it is protected speech. However, it is part of what I have called “rage rhetoric,” and it is meant to inflame others. It suggests that the only solution to these issues is what the French called “the razor of the Republic.”

In the French Revolution, the irony is that those who turned the guillotine into the symbol of revolution were themselves beheaded on the same platforms. Robespierre and others would ultimately be dispatched in the same atmosphere of rage and revelry.

As my new book discusses, most revolutions are driven by establishment figures who seek to capitalize on the wave of popular rage to gain power. We are seeing that today with many Democratic leaders using rage rhetoric to appeal to the far extremes of their political bases.

Some have. Protesters are burning cars, dealerships, and even lawyers and reporters on the left are throwing Molotov cocktails at police.

In the end, today’s pseudo-revolutionaries are likely to find themselves tomorrow’s reactionaries. Leading mobs is rarely a safe place to be as more radical elements take hold of a movement. The result is an inexorable pattern that runs throughout history as revolution devours its own.

*  *  * YOU CLEANED US OUT OF CREATINE (resupply in two weeks)

But it's in this too...  not just for workouts. It's also a nootropic and, energy / focus drink that's sugar-free. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 16:20

US Slaps Extensive Sanctions On Colombian President & Family Over Narco-Trade

Amid an ongoing verbal spat and back-and-forth between Washington and Bogotá, the United States on Friday announced extensive sanctions against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, along with his family and a senior cabinet minister.

The Trump White House has accused the Colombian administration of enabling drug cartels and facilitating narcotics trafficking to North America, at a moment of immense US military build-up near Venezuela and Latin America.

Via CBS News

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that ever since Petro took office in 2022, "cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest level in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans."

He hailed Trump's "decisive action to protect our nation" which sends "a clear message that drug trafficking will not be tolerated."

The sanctions also target First Lady Verónica del Socorro Alcocer García, Petro’s son Nicolás, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti - all alleged to be the Colombian leader's "accomplices."

American citizens and companies are now effectively barred from doing any business with these listed entities, and they will also see any assets held in the US frozen.

Petro has loudly denounced and rejected the accusations against his country, saying he's long aggressively fought the significant drug trade in his country.

The NY Times notes that a rise in illegal drugs out of the country has been a trend which began before Petro took office, though the cocaine trade has continued to worsen under his leadership.

"The cultivation of coca, the base product in cocaine, has soared since Mr. Petro took office in 2022. It also soared under his predecessor, Iván Duque, a conservative and close ally of Washington Republicans," the publication writes.

"In the CIA, we didn’t give a hoot about democracy. It was fine if a government was elected and would cooperate with us, but if it didn’t, then democracy wouldn’t mean a thing to us."

-Former CIA Agent Philip Agee

‘In the CIA, we didn’t give a hoot about democracy. It was fine if a government was elected and would cooperate with us, but if it didn’t, then democracy wouldn’t mean a thing to us’

-Former CIA Agent Philip Agee

Democratically elected Presidents overthrown via CIA-backed coups… https://t.co/RyK8J2aNoc pic.twitter.com/OVkMAKHGbF

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) October 24, 2025

The NY Times reviews further:

Mr. Petro, a leftist, is one of few leaders in Latin America who have been vocal in their criticism of Mr. Trump’s decision to bomb boats carrying people his administration says are drug traffickers. The bombings have killed dozens of people, and Mr. Petro has said that Colombians have been among them and has accused the United States of committing murder.

Mr. Trump has responded by calling Mr. Petro “an illegal drug leader” and said that he would cut off aid to Colombia. About $377 million was designated to Colombia in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service. About a third of that money is meant for law enforcement and narcotics control.

But when it comes to the many decades-long so-called 'war on drugs' - there's plenty of blame to go around. The CIA has at times even participated in it at times, to raise funds for the Nicaragua Contras in the 1980s, for example.

Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to record high rates, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans. President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity. Today, President Trump is… https://t.co/8ONvbFFPFr

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) October 24, 2025

Days ago the US for the first time attacked alleged drug smuggling boats on the Pacific side of South America for the first time, suggesting these operations could geographically expand at any time.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 15:45

US Says First Day Of China Trade Talks "Very Constructive"

Amid mounting trade war tensions which saw the market suffer its biggest drop since April two weeks ago following a post on Trump's Truth Social in which he threatened a fresh surge in Chinese tariffs over its retaliation with rare earth minerals, the latest round of talks between the two superpowers in Malaysia started off on the right foot after the US said it held “very constructive” discussions with China as President Donald Trump began his trip to the region including a meeting with the Chinese leader next week.

As Bloomberg reports, Chinese and American officials met in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday for a new round of talks aimed at defusing a standoff between the world’s two largest economies. A spokesperson for the US Treasury gave a brief description of the exchange and said it will resume Sunday.

The Chinese delegation made no public remarks after the 5.5-hour-long meeting at Merdeka 118, the world’s second-tallest building. Vice Premier He Lifeng led the Chinese side and was joined by Trade Representative Li Chenggang and Vice Finance Minister Liao Min. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent headed the US team.

As a reminder, two weeks ago, when the trade relations between the two countries suddenly collapsed, Bessent lashed out at Chenggang calling him “unhinged”, as he announced the US is planning “price floors” and “forward buying” to prevent future supply chain disruptions by Beijing’s export controls. Bessent made the remarks five days after President Trump threatened an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s rules requiring companies to seek permission to export products made with rare-earth or critical minerals, reducing the flow of batteries, magnets and semiconductors to the US.

Bessent revealed more of the backstory behind China’s surprise rule changes announced Oct. 9, claiming that the bellicose Li Chenggang “showed up uninvited” in DC on Aug. 28 and threatened that “China would unleash chaos on the global system” if the US didn’t abandon docking fees for Chinese ships. 

“There was a lower level trade person who was slightly unhinged here in August … threatening, saying China would unleash chaos on the global system if the US went ahead with our docking fees on Chinese ships, and this is something they clearly were planning all along,” Bessent said during CNBC’s “Invest in America” forum.

We expect many questions why China decided to deploy Chenggang again, knowing well it would antagonize the US Treasury Secretary, unless of course that was its intention.  

Bessent and He, a longtime associate of Xi, face the task of negotiating down new escalatory measures imposed by their countries against one another. They are also setting the stage for expected talks on Thursday between Xi and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in South Korea. 

Ahead of the meeting, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he and Xi have “a lot of things to discuss” and expects both sides to make compromises, although he won’t put odds on getting a deal.

“They have to make concessions. I guess we would too. We’re at 157% tariff for them. I don’t think that’s sustainable for them, and they want to get that down, and we want certain things from them," Trump said Friday on his way to Asia.

Asked what odds he would put on imposing the additional 100% levies on China, Trump said: “I don’t know. I have no odds. I don’t think they would want that. It would not be good for them. I wouldn’t like to see it.” 

The US president will meet with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Sunday to discuss trade, investment and security. Bloomberg News previously reported he looks to sign economic agreements and critical minerals deals with trading partners during the trip, the first to the region during his second term.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Trump said he wants to extend a pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing resuming American soybean purchases, cracking down on fentanyl and backing off restrictions on rare-earth exports. Earlier in October, Trump lashed out against Beijing’s vow to broaden controls on rare-earth elements, raising the prospect of setting a sky-high tariff rate on Chinese goods and even canceling his first in-person meeting with Xi since he returned to the White House this year. His comments sparked a painful if short selloff. 

At stake is a trade truce that’s set to run out on Nov. 10 unless extended. Months of tentative stability in the US-China relationship have been upended in recent weeks after Washington broadened some tech restrictions and proposed levies on Chinese ships entering US ports.

China responded with parallel moves and outlined tighter export controls on rare earths and other critical materials. On Monday, the Ministry of Commerce convened an unusually large meeting in Beijing with foreign businesses, in an effort to reassure them that its latest export controls aren’t meant to restrict normal trade.

The global ripples of China’s export controls underscore how the trade war has injected uncertainty into the world economy and trade. Chinese shipments to Southeast Asia and the European Union have jumped this year as US tariffs soared, which may pressure local manufacturers. 

After meeting south-east Asian leaders in Malaysia on Sunday, Trump will fly to Japan to meet Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s new prime minister. 

In a post on X on Saturday, Takaichi said that she had held a “good and candid” with Trump. Takaichi, who became prime minister this week, added that she would seek to strengthen Japan’s alliance with the US.

Had a good and candid conversation with @realDonaldTrump today and truly appreciated his warm congratulatory message on my appointment as Prime Minister. Together with him, I am determined to elevate the Japan–U.S. Alliance to even greater heights.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be…

— 高市早苗 (@takaichi_sanae) October 25, 2025

On Friday, she announced plans to increase Tokyo’s defence spending, in a move that analysts said would give her scope to pledge further expansion of the military budget during Trump’s visit.

Speaking at the Mount Fuji Dialogue forum in Tokyo on Saturday, US ambassador to Japan George Glass said Trump was visiting Japan “at a time of rising tensions in the region”.

“This is a very tough neighbourhood,” Glass said. “The US-Japan alliance and our partners face determined and dangerous adversaries, adversaries that will do whatever it takes to undermine our alliance and weaken our regional partnerships.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 14:35

America's Population Is Dropping - Here's Why It Matters

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The data are in: The United States is getting older and welcoming fewer babies. This decades-long phenomenon is creating a demographic squeeze that some anticipate will affect nearly every aspect of the nation’s economy and infrastructure over the next couple of decades.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

“I see a total reshuffling of our economy and society, brought about by historic demographic turnover,” regenerative medicine specialist Dr. David Ghozland told The Epoch Times.

In a report for the American Enterprise Institute, economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde called falling U.S. fertility rates “the true economic challenge of [the] time.”

The number of adults aged 65 and older is forecast to hit 82 million by 2050 and will make up 23 percent of the population, according to the Population Reference Bureau. That is a 42 percent increase from 58 million people aged 65 and older in 2022.

Meanwhile, the general fertility rate—the number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age—has dropped to record lows. The North American rate plummeted from 3.1 in 1950 to 1.6 in 2023, according to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis published in January.

Ghozland said he believes that this population inversion will force structural changes at the budget and care level, potentially leading to what he called a “cruel choice” in the next 10 years.

“We will experience a regulated destruction of safety nets such as Medicare,” he said, calling the rapidly aging population the “primary political and economic competition of [the] era.”

Health Care Upheaval

Ghozland said he is already seeing a dramatic change in the health care industry.

“We are currently observing the boom of the longevity business, which is going to become a multibillion-dollar industry exceeding 30 trillion [dollars] that will integrate biotech, wellness, and regenerative medicine,” he said.

Medicine and wellness care focused on supporting longevity is no longer a niche industry, according to Ghozland. However, he said this new economic driver in the health care sector hides a “great threat.”

Ghozland said that population inversion, aside from putting more pressure on existing U.S. health care resources, will lead to the long-term disintegration of the “social contract.”

Aspen Economic Strategy Group Director Melissa S. Kearney wrote in a September 2024 essay for The Dispatch: “We should not blithely declare that falling birth rates are of no real consequence, or even something to be celebrated. An increasingly aging and childless culture poses problems for individuals, families, and nations.”

Staffing shortages within the health care sector are already creating challenges. A recent AAG Health report on staffing statistics stated that the United States is already short 500,000 nurses this year, with a 10 percent shortage projected to last through 2027. Based on current industry trends, the United States could face a dearth of 3.2 million health care workers by 2026.

In a 2024 study published in the journal Aging, researchers said the health care system, as it stands, is “underprepared for the onslaught of demands this aging population will impose.”

In his work in reproductive care, Ghozland has seen the other side of the U.S. population inversion.

A woman pushes Fred Lear in a wheelchair after he had a physical therapy session at the LifeLong Medical Marin Adult Day Health Care Center in Novato, Calif., on Feb. 10, 2011. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“There is a greater social-psychological cause of declining birth rates that I term ‘procreative dissonance,’” he said.

“My patients maintain the optimal levels of health and are biologically young even in their 40s. This creates a robust yet untrue feeling of suspended biological time, which comes into conflict with the fixed timetable of female ovarian aging.”

Ghozland said he believes that this contradiction—between readiness to have children and the biological window of time in which to have them—is “a dividing line” that prevents many couples from starting a family. Data also support his observation.

Between 2023 and 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed a decline in birth rates among females in the 15 to 34 age category, while women in the 40 to 44 age category showed an increase in births. This tracks with the established national trend of declining teenage pregnancies, which fell by 28 percent between 1990 and 2002.

Moreover, some evidence suggests that adults are not simply waiting longer to have children; many are opting out of parenthood entirely. A 2024 Pew study reports that the number of adults younger than 50 without children who say they are “unlikely to ever have kids” rose by 10 percent between 2018 and 2023.

While some researchers say the dangers of this demographic shift are overstated, others believe that it will have a massive effect on the economy.

The McKinsey analysis stated that younger generations will inherit “lower economic growth and shoulder the cost of more retirees, while the traditional flow of wealth between generations erodes.”

At the same time, according to analysts, nations, including the United States, need to raise fertility rates to avoid a passive “depopulation.”

Economists and the Social Security Administration have warned for years that more beneficiaries and fewer people paying into the program will make it insolvent. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, in a 2022 report, stated that by 2034, Social Security costs will exceed Social Security revenue to the tune of $437 billion.

Labor Market Transformation

The labor market will also undergo a drastic transformation as fewer people enter the workforce over the next several decades. Meanwhile, adults are choosing to work longer into what traditionally would have been their retirement years. Some are even reentering the job market.

“It’s not so much the average age of the population that will be ... important, [but rather] the average age of the workforce,” Scott Siff, CEO of Pivoters, told The Epoch Times. Pivoters helps match job seekers older than 55 with employers seeking talent.

“At the moment, there are around 110 million people in the population over 55, and only about 37 percent are working,” Siff said. “But 74 percent of them want to be working.”

Figures vary, but the number of U.S. adults older than 55 is estimated to be near 103 million, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“The biggest change we can look for is that the entire concept of retirement will change dramatically, and perhaps fade away entirely,” Siff said.

Siff said he believes that as overall population growth begins to slow, millions of adults older than 55 will start reentering the workforce en masse—and only partially because of lack of retirement savings.

While they need to work for financial reasons, “increasingly, they also want to work because of the dramatic positive impacts work has on longevity, happiness, health, and sense of purpose,” he said.

“The median savings today for people reaching so-called retirement age is about $50,000, but now that people can live decades past this notional retirement age, estimates are that people need to have $1 million saved for retirement,” Siff said.

Annual retirement costs for more affordable states in the Midwest and South run to about $50,000, according to a Visual Capitalist analysis. Consequently, this puts many in the age range of 55 and older in a financial bind.

Read the rest here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 14:00

Florida Judge Halts Alligator Alcatraz Lawsuit Over Government Shutdown

Authored by Jill McLaughlin & Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

An appeals court in Florida paused a lawsuit Wednesday over the South Florida Detention Center, also known as Alligator Alcatraz, after the Trump administration argued its attorneys were furloughed during the ongoing government shutdown.

The entrance to the state-managed immigration detention center dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Florida Everglades in Ochopee, Fla., on Aug. 3, 2025. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Judges on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the federal government’s motion to halt litigation and directed the administration to let them know when it can continue.

Environmental groups sued the government in June, alleging that authorities rushed to build the facility without public comment or an environmental review, a process typically required under federal law.

The same appeals court blocked a federal judge’s order to dismantle the facility in an earlier ruling issued in September.

In August, a district court sided with environmentalist groups, including Friends of the Everglades and Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, finding that the federal government had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in failing to conduct an environmental impact review before construction of the facility.

The district court also ruled that the operation of the facility was not in the public’s best interest, nor would closing it result in irreparable harm.

The appeals court disagreed with both of these rulings in a 2–1 decision, with circuit court judges Barbara Lagoa and Elizabeth Branch siding with the defendants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Lagoa said the defendants were likely to demonstrate on appeal that they did not violate NEPA or the APA, because the court found no evidence that federal funding had been formally committed to the project.

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental organizations suing the administration over the illegal immigrant detention center, alleged that the government was further harming the environment with the request to pause the lawsuit.

“With this delay, the government is dodging accountability and imposing even more harm on the fragile Everglades,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

The group said it was determined to shut down the facility to protect Florida’s environment.

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians will join the Friends of the Everglades and other protesters in a demonstration outside the center’s gates in the Big Cypress National Preserve on Sunday.

The Friends of the Everglades also plans to hold a weekly vigil.

The groups said the Everglades is the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. It was designated as an endangered UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 12:50

Trump Wants New "Golden Fleet" Of Future Battleships For Hemispheric Defense

America is back in the Americas.

President Trump's Monroe Doctrine 2.0 plan, focused on hemispheric defense, centers on securing the homeland and the wider Western Hemisphere. The first visible military reposturing came with Trump's announcement of the Golden Dome continental missile defense shield, followed by renewed pressure on Venezuelan narco-terror networks and new attention on far-left political influence operations being exported from South America. Trump has also worked to wind down foreign conflicts, recently stating that he deserves credit for ending six or seven wars in his first months in office. He is now attempting to end the Ukraine-Russia war. If he succeeds, hemispheric defense will move into high gear.

Prioritizing the Western Hemisphere after decades of endless wars in the Middle East may also require upgrading America's naval fleet, as the proliferation of hypersonic weapons and drones by foreign adversaries could render some warships in the current fleet obsolete.

The replacement fleet of next-generation warships, referred to internally as the "Golden Fleet" by senior White House and Navy officials, is intended to secure the Western Hemisphere as the world moves toward a bipolar state in the 2030s, repel Chinese influence in the Americas, and maintain a naval edge in the Pacific theater, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

At the center of the Golden Fleet are plans for a 15,000 to 20,000-ton "future battleship" equipped with long-range, hypersonic missiles, described as the modern equivalent of the World War II battleship. Instead of cannons, these next-gen warships will be optimized for missile warfare.

Here's more from WSJ:

Under the Golden Fleet concept, the Navy wants to move away from a specific number of ships as a goal, Clark said. Instead, officials will focus on a fleet of roughly 280-300 crewed ships, plus large numbers of unmanned vessels—called "robotic and autonomous systems"—to bridge the gap. The drone ships would act as "hedge forces" in each maritime theater to make up the difference between what the fleet can do day-to-day and what might be needed in conflict, Clark said.

. . .

Senior Navy officials see alignment between their own goals and the president's interests, said Clark, who is involved in Navy wargames meant to inform the Golden Fleet. The Navy has found that today's fleet is struggling to keep up with modern threats, for example the Yemen-based Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Clark said.

. . .

Clark acknowledged that it could take many years to build new, large warships from scratch, and the ship likely wouldn't see the light of day until after Trump leaves office. Plans for a replacement cruiser, the canceled CG(X) program, indicate such a ship would take five years to design and another five to seven years to build, according to a former official.

Next-gen battleships have been on Trump's mind for some time. In late September, while addressing military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, the president spoke about the urgent need for new battleships.

President Trump says the U.S. military is “seriously considering” bringing back Battleships.

“I think we should start thinking about battleships.”

“It is something we're actually considering, the concept of battleship. Nice six-inch side solid steel. Not aluminum, aluminum… pic.twitter.com/a7dQwzNOik

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) September 30, 2025

. . .

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 09:55