"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

They're Coming For Your Wood-Burning Stove... Again

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

The weather is getting colder, and that means getting back to anti-wood-burning propaganda.

Did you know a wood burner can kill you? They pollute more than cars and cause cancer, “similar to cigarette smoke,” and so on.

Jeremy Vine is asking if it’s time to ban them.

This isn’t new – for want of a better word – “information”. We covered this last Christmas. Then over the summer, it was folded in with a barrage of “indoor air quality” fear-mongering, only to re-emerge now that the days are getting shorter again.

Sort of like reverse-hibernation.

A trendy wood burning stove almost killed me…they need to be banned before they do anymore damage

…screams the Daily Mail.

I like the word “trendy” — they keep using it — it’s so shamelessly manipulative, painting the humble stove as some pretentious luxury accessory, rather than the basic means of heating your home for literal millennia.

Anyway, the crux of the story is that this lady – Lizzie – had a severe asthma attack, and she “believes” it was linked to wood-burning stoves.

So they should be banned. Or something.

Then they quote a doctor:

‘This is why we want the government to launch a public awareness campaign on the health impacts and sources of pollution to empower the public to make cleaner choices and protect lung health, and other people like Lizzie.’

Then come the graphs. It’s all very predictable.

The Telegraph, more refined and less hysterical than the Daily Mail (which admittedly isn’t saying much) goes with…

Wood burners are bad for you. Here’s why you didn’t notice.

Detailing how new research has shown that wood burners are really terrible for everyone who uses them, but we just never noticed before.

Why didn’t we notice?

Oh, because the people who use them are “mostly” otherwise healthy and wealthy so the data was disguised by demographics.

Now, you might think that “research” which concludes “wood burning might make you sick, but being poor, eating badly or smoking are worse” is a shoe-in for the Well Duh! Prize at the annual Waste of Time Awards, but you’re wrong. It’s very serious.

Anyway, here’s their version of the doctor quote:

“It would be good to see increased awareness on the impact of wood burners, with clearer information and guidance from the Government on the health impact, as well as increased regulation around domestic wood-burning.”

No graphs this time, which is nice. But notice, like the Daily Mail article, the repeated association of wood burning with the upper class. It’s a luxury, not a right. That’s the message. The “expert” in the Telegraph even says, “primarily the reason for having a wood burner is the aesthetic of it.”

That’s a common sentiment, always presented without evidence.

That’s something I still find hilarious about the press — perhaps the British press in particular. These are identical stories, just in a house style. It’s like AI image filters, where you upload a photo of yourself and ask, “Show me this image as if it were painted by Van Gogh.” Or Rembrandt. Or Picasso.

“Tell me burning wood causes cancer in the style of the Guardian”. Or the Mirror. Or The Sun.

The aesthetic changes, the message does not.

And, of course, it’s not just the UK. When is it ever?

The devolved Scottish Parliament has already banned wood burners in newly built homes, with some local councils banning the installation of wood-burners in their council houses.

The anti-stove agenda clearly summers in Australia, because back in July, ABC were reporting on “the silent killer” of wood smoke, and how experts were calling for bans.

In New Zealand, government-commissioned research is blaming not just wood-burning stoves, but open fires, gas heaters and gas ovens for thousands of deaths per year.

In Canada, British Columbia is enforcing a registry for those who want to burn solid fuel domestically.

It comes back around to “indoor air quality”, the trendy new public health concern I wrote about back in July:

Reports are asking for new legislation to enforce limits and bans, and so on.

The European Public Health Alliance is demanding a “dedicated, harmonised EU framework for indoor air quality”, calling “healthy air” a human right:

Healthy air is a human right, and indoor air is no exception. It should be a shared global goal to make sure that this right is adequately and urgently enshrined, providing stronger legal tools for people to claim protections against environmental harms, including poor indoor air.

Investment in clean indoor quality is “vital preparation for the pandemics and climate emergencies to come”, apparently.

The United Nations launched a brand new Global Healthy Indoor Air Commission just last month; they are developing a “Global Framework for Action” even as we speak, to be published next year.

Consider buying a Smart Air Monitor, says the New York Times.

The Smart Air Monitor is the thing to watch here, I suspect. Full-on banning wood burners is a difficult sell – especially in the US – so the “compromise” measure may be mandated air quality meters to replace the smart meters in electrically heated homes.

Data and obedience to authority. That’s what this is actually about.

Yes, I’m sorry to have to disillusion anyone; it’s not really about asthma attacks.

The people that nailed you inside your house and forced you to mask up and vaccinate don’t actually care about whether or not you have asthma, Lizzie. They don’t really care about your well-being at all.

I’m sorry to have to tell you.

Likewise, it’s not about climate change. The preening idiots who fly private jets to catered global summits care about the planet about as much as they care about you. Or Lizzie.

It’s about information, not even important information, or useful information…just information. And control too, of course, how could we forget that part?

Information and control. The system is a machine designed to acquire both, forever. It requires we tell it everything and that everyone be dependent on it…for everything.

Wood burners — like people who keep chickens or dig their own wells or live without electricity — realistically represent only a small percentage of the population, but their existence poses nagging questions.

Questions like, How much wood are they using? How warm are they keeping their houses? For how long?

And most importantly: Who the fuck do these people think they are?

Burning your own fuel in your own house is about far more than the “aesthetic of it”, no matter how hard the papers try to tag it with that superficial label. A wood burner offers energy independence, and for that reason, like everything else that offers any kind of independence, they are considered a threat.

The existence of anyone or anything outside of the system, even in token or vestigial ways, threatens the idea that the system is even necessary. Therefore they must be attacked.

It’s an autoimmune response, a reflex; they can’t help it.

They need to know everything you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why.

And, more importantly, they need you to be OK with that, to welcome it, even thank them for it.

They need you to know that is the safe; the normal; the only way the world works.

So, expect this messaging to continue until the ban is in place, or licenses are required, or they manage to wire a smart meter to a wood axe.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 09:20

Germany And Poland Are Growing Weary Of Ukrainian Refugees And War

Via Remix News,

New data from Germany and Poland is putting a spotlight on aid to Ukraine, including welcoming refugees who end up receiving benefits from the state. These countries are now asking just how much more they are willing to give.

Ever since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Ukrainian citizens aged 18 to 60 have been able to leave the country only with official permission. But at the end of August, Kyiv decided to liberalize the law, allowing young men aged 18 to 22 to travel abroad. 

According to data from the German Interior Ministry, the number of Ukrainians coming to Germany per week increased from just 19 in August to over 1,000 in September.

In October, the number increased even further to 1,400-1,800 per week.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder has now called on the EU to respond to a massive influx of Ukrainian refugees. 

“We must control and significantly limit the rapidly increasing influx of young men from Ukraine,” Söder said in an interview with the Bild daily, as cited by Do Rzeczy.

“The EU and Berlin must influence Ukraine to change its liberalized exit regulations again,” he added. 

A new survey by the INSA Institute for “Bild” has also shown that the majority of Germans do not want to finance benefits for refugees from Ukraine.

Currently, only 17 percent of respondents answered “yes” or “rather yes” to the question about citizenship benefits for refugees from Ukraine. The majority, 66 percent, are against it, and 7 percent of respondents indicated that it makes no difference to them. The remainder either did not answer or selected “don’t know.”

The survey also asked about the idea of ​​mandatory return of Ukrainian men to their homeland to serve at the front. 

Sixty-two percent of respondents believed that able-bodied Ukrainian men who arrived in Germany after the outbreak of the war should be allowed to return to their homeland. Eighteen percent of Germans surveyed opposed this, while 8 percent indicated they were indifferent, and 12 percent did not provide a clear answer.

Over in Poland, there has also been a report published highlighting just how much aid that country has provided to Ukraine. 

Paweł Kowal, Chairman of the Council for Cooperation with Ukraine, presented the “Polish Aid to Ukraine 2022–2023” report on Thursday.

The total cost of free assistance, including training, logistics, repairs, and medical support, exceeded $4 billion by March of this year. In 2022, it reached $1.6 billion, and in 2023-2024, $1.3 billion. Poland has also donated over 19,500 Starlink terminals to the front.

In total, aid for Ukraine represented 3.83 percent of Poland’s GDP. 

The report’s authors, notes Do Rzeczy, also highlighted assistance for Ukrainian refugees, including access to healthcare, the labor market, and the education system. Poland additionally supported Ukrainian entrepreneurs by facilitating their business operations.

The report also notes that Ukraine did purchase €2.2 billion worth of weapons from Poland between 2022 and 2023. 

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/25/2025 - 07:00

The Green Mirage: The Hidden Costs Behind The Electric Car Hype

Authored by Mark Keenan via AmericanThinker.com,

In Sweden, a two-kilometer stretch of electrified highway allows electric vehicles to charge while they drive — a prototype for 3,000 kilometers of such roads planned by 2045.

It all sounds sleek, modern, and progressive, like something from a futurist’s dream.

Eddie Grant once sang, “We’re gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.”

But before we charge headlong into this electric future, we should pause to ask: is any of this really helping the environment?

The answer, inconveniently, is no.

Electric vehicles are not the sustainable miracle they’re marketed to be — this article details the hidden environmental toll of battery production, the inefficiency of “green” energy systems, and the deeper agenda behind the global push toward EVs and UN-driven sustainability mandates.

The prevailing narrative of “zero-emission” transportation falls apart with documented evidence, industry data, and science itself.

The green movement’s corporate and political drivers open up broader questions of personal freedom, economic control, and truth in environmental science.

Why Electric Cars Are Fake Environmentalism

The truth is that electric cars represent not genuine environmental progress, but a triumph of corporate marketing — or, depending on your view, outright deception. Buyers are told they’re saving the planet, but the materials required for millions of lithium-ion batteries — lithium, rhodium, cobalt — must be mined and refined in massive industrial operations powered by diesel and coal.

Those mining and processing sites, particularly in rural China and Mongolia, have left behind serious air, water, and soil contamination. These are real environmental problems — not the imaginary CO2 “crisis” that global bureaucrats prefer to talk about.

In a recent article, I describe how 2,000 scientists from over 30 nations have signed a declaration stating there is no “CO2-induced” climate emergency — a document I also signed.

In the book Climate CO₂ Hoax I detail that modern environmentalism has been hijacked by a communist-type agenda of political control aligned with the deceptive U.N. Sustainable Development Goals; and is also designed to compel us all to buy millions of so-called green products, such as EVs.

“Buy an [expensive] electric car to save the planet” is one of the great marketing lies of our time — a devastator, as I call it, a lie so large it bewilders the public.

Furthermore, when a cold snap hits an EV can lose 10%–50% of its driving range; and can take two to three times longer to charge.

Consider this image: a lithium leach field so toxic that a bird landing on it dies within minutes. This is what your “eco-friendly” battery is made of. Yet we are told to congratulate ourselves for saving the environment.

The Carbon Footprint of an EV is Worse Than Diesel

Governments are now pushing to eliminate gasoline and diesel cars by 2035 in favor of EVs.

But once you factor in the energy and pollution costs of mining and manufacturing, the carbon footprint of an EV is worse than that of a diesel vehicle.

Even after production, most EVs run on electricity generated from fossil fuels. Despite decades of subsidies, wind provides less than 5% of global energy and solar just 1%.

According to a European Commission study, the total “well-to-plug” efficiency of electric energy — after accounting for production and distribution losses—is only 37%.

The electric dream, then, is profoundly inefficient.

Marketing, Not Miracles

The first illusion came with the “hybrid.”

These cars are still gasoline-powered; the tiny battery is charged by the engine itself. A hybrid that gets 55 mpg is no cleaner than a conventional car achieving the same mileage. A planet full of hybrids would remain 100% addicted to oil.

Elon Musk’s Tesla marketing has taken this one step further.

Musk writes that Tesla’s mission is to move humanity from a “mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy” to a “solar electric economy.” He argues that even if EVs use fossil-generated electricity, they emit less CO2 per mile than conventional cars.

But Musk omits five crucial facts:

1. Repurposing the world’s industrial base for “green” energy demands a vast new fossil-fuel expenditure — factories, grids, and distribution systems—all still dependent on diesel, coal, and mining.

2. The energy return on investment (EROEI) for solar and wind is too low to sustain modern civilization without subsidies.

3. Mining for rare earths — lithium, cobalt, rhodium — remains devastating to land, air, and water.

4. The full life cycle of an EV, from mining to manufacturing, shipping, and eventual disposal, consumes enormous energy. Charging from solar barely scratches the surface of this embedded cost.

5. CO₂ itself is not the problem as detailed in the book Climate CO2 Hoax.

As a former technical expert at the U.N. Environment Programme, I have seen firsthand what real pollution looks like.

CO2 is not soot, not poison, and not a pollutant. It is an odorless gas and an essential plant nutrient. The Earth’s biosphere runs on CO2 — without it, crops and forests would die.

Climate shifts, meanwhile, are natural. The Little Ice Age ended around 1800; a modest warming since then is hardly cause for alarm. Periods of warming and cooling have defined our planet for billions of years.

The Physical Cost of a “Zero Emission” Car

The reality of EV production should end the myth. A single Tesla Model Y battery demands massive resources — about 12 tons of lithium ore, 5 tons of cobalt minerals, 3 tons of nickel ore, and 12 tons of copper ore. Roughly 250 tons of soil must be moved to yield small amounts of these metals. Each battery also requires hundreds of pounds of aluminum, steel, plastic, and graphite.

The giant Caterpillar machines used in this mining can burn hundreds of gallons of diesel every 12 hours. Once complete, we get a so-called “zero-emission” car — built with materials largely sourced from China or Africa, often mined by child labor.

Tesla battery packs cost $5,000–$20,000 and last about ten years. It takes roughly seven years for an EV to reach “net-zero” carbon parity with a gasoline car — by which time the battery’s life is nearly over, and the cycle begins again.

The Real Agenda

The green revolution, like so many fashionable causes, is less about saving the planet than consolidating control — over energy, your money, and your freedom. The word “sustainable” has been hijacked by mega-corporate interests and global institutions, such as the U.N., the WEF, and the Davos elite. Behind the U.N. slogans lies a communist-style totalitarian vision of control over the people: “sustainability” as perpetual dependency, “carbon neutrality” as bureaucratic rationing, and “climate emergency” as a tool of economic centralization.

Electric cars are not liberation — they are compliance devices.

It’s time to call the bluff: driving an electric car does not make you a defender of nature. It makes you a customer in the most profitable deception of the modern age.

*  *  *

Mark Keenan is the author of Climate CO2 Hoax: How Bankers Hijacked the Environment Movement and The War on Men: How the New Gender Politics Is Undermining Western Civilization. A former UN technical expert, he writes on culture, science, and the ideological forces reshaping the West.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 23:25

What Americans Worry About

More than half of Americans said that they considered the cost of living among the biggest issues plaguing the country.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, this is more than any of the other 17 issues surveyed by Statista Consumer Insights among 60,000 Americans between October 2024 and September 2025.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Around 40 percent of respondents considered crime, the economy, health and social security as well as poverty and housing major issues.

Approximately a third of respondents said the same about education, immigration, unemployment and climate change.

Worry about inflation was very widespread among the 21 countries in the survey.

Many nations collectively rated it as the biggest issue right now - not surprising in the current global environment of rising or persistently high prices.

A problem the United States rated higher than other countries was crime.

Only between a quarter and a third of people thought it was a major issue in several European and Asian locales as oposed to 42 percent in the United States.

On the other hand, worry about climate change was lower in the U.S. at only 30 percent worrying about it to a high degree.

In other developed countries, this rate was closer to 35 or 40 percent, with the issue normally reaching rank 5-8 among important problems, ahead of rank 10 it occupies in the United States.

Immigration was not rated as big a concern by Americans, however, when compared to other nations. 31 percent of Americans said they thought it was a major issue, compared to around 40 percent in Italy, Sweden and Germany and even higher ratings in Turkey (49 percent) and Chile (62 percent).

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 23:00

China Envisions 'Dry Canal' To Compete With Panama Canal

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In response to the Trump administration’s new U.S. policy of reasserting control over the Panama Canal, China and Brazil are exploring the possibility of building a transcontinental railway to provide an advantageous alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed rail system would potentially run from Brazil’s Atlantic coast, perhaps Ilhéus, Bahia, to Peru’s Pacific coast at Chancay.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (L) talks to Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Zhu Qingqiao at the Palacio do Planalto in Brasilia on Feb. 3, 2023. Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images

The project, known as the Central Bi-Oceanic Railway Corridor (CRBC), has been in consideration since at least 2017. Other proposed projects of a similar nature and objectives have been considered since at least 2013. There are other terms applied to the transoceanic railway project, but essentially, the system would cut across the Amazon rainforest and go over—and likely tunnel through—the Andes mountain range, linking Atlantic and Pacific port facilities.

Many Obstacles and Risks to Overcome

Of course, there’s often a wide gap between planning a project and actually doing it successfully. There are certainly formidable obstacles that would have to be overcome for the project to move forward to completion. The geographic and topographic challenges are considerable. Clearing a path through the Amazon rainforest or tunneling through the Andes mountains aren’t easy engineering feats.

There would also be legal challenges over land rights and environmental resistance to the project and against the development of the necessary supporting infrastructure along the way. The initial costs incurred by each country would also be a significant challenge, as would be establishing a sustainable debt service and maintaining the political will to stick to the plan when these and other obstacles arise.

The Trade Advantages Would Be Significant

Although it would be a complex, multi-year project with significant costs and engineering challenges, there would also be several advantages in doing so. For one, proponents estimate that it would cut shipping time to Asia by 10 to 12 days. With shipping costs rising and economies struggling, those factors aren’t easily ignored.

View of the Chancay "megaport" in the small town of Chancay, 78 kilometers north of the Peruvian capital Lima, on Oct. 29, 2024. The port will be inaugurated on Nov. 14, 2024, by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima. Cris Bouroncle/AFP via Getty Images

But it’s not just a railway system that would be built. The system will be a key addition to the deep-water port that China is building in Chancay, Peru, on the Pacific Ocean. Deep-water ports enable the largest cargo ships and container vessels to dock and transfer their goods quickly and easily, without the complications of moving through various locks and channels that come with relying on the passage through a very crowded and slow Panama Canal transit.

A similar deep-water port would be constructed on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, with both ports providing a much smoother and more economical way to move goods around the world.

Much More Than Just a Railroad

Chinese planners envision the CRBC as a comprehensive project that serves the entire trade and transportation cycle. This “dual-track” logistics corridor—combining port infrastructure, rail links, logistics hubs, and industrial zones to permit transit from Pacific to Atlantic (or vice versa)—could well prove to reimagine and redirect global and regional trade flows.

It would also reduce the canal’s chokepoint dependencies and potential vulnerabilities. Compared to all of the benefits the proposed railway, the Panama Canal would become seen as more burdensome—not less—to global trade, rendering it a less-desirable, more costly and time-consuming option.

The transformative potential of the CRBC project cannot be overstated. It would be a continuation of China’s role as a major player in ports, dams, energy, and other infrastructure in the region.

Gaining Strategic Regional Leverage While Avoiding US Control

From China’s perspective, the proposed transcontinental rail system is a way to minimize or even eliminate U.S. dominance of interoceanic trading in the region. The proposed overland route would significantly reduce Beijing’s vulnerability to U.S. control, blockades, and trade leverage over canal access.

That alone is a compelling reason to pursue the project.

But developing an economically superior alternative to the Panama Canal also gives Beijing more leverage and influence over their Latin American trading partners. That influence would largely come at the expense of U.S. influence, thereby diminishing American power in the region. It would also add proof of concept and gravitas to China’s Global South initiative and help expand the BRICS currency influence and use in the Americas.

All of these factors would give China added leverage over its Latin American partners. Those countries helping to build and host parts of the railway system will certainly gain strategic importance. At the same time, their dependency on Chinese capital, products, and technical assistance would expand, allowing Beijing to embed itself into those regional governments and economies more deeply.

Furthermore, the development of deep-water ports in both Brazil and Peru will give the Chinese regime safe havens to park its rapidly expanding navy, and the pretext to establish and maintain a large and adversarial naval warship presence in America’s backyard. A regional threat on such a scale would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. It could reasonably be compared to the re-colonization of the region.

A Multidimensional, Long-Term Impact

Beijing’s plans for the CRBC are as expansive as they are threatening to U.S. regional hegemony and beyond. The resulting impact of the CRBC would be transformational in a multidimensional context, and for the long term. Beijing would reasonably be able to shape trade terms, shipping standards, customs operations, and logistics norms in the region, and much of the rest of the world.

If Beijing succeeds in its CBRC plans, it could elevate the blighted Belt and Road Initiative up to a new level and lift China to the pinnacle of global power. The United States, on the other hand, would find itself out-hustled, out-traded, out-funded, and out-gunned by China in the Americas.

Let’s hope that the United States has plans to preempt or prevent China’s big move in America’s backyard.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 22:35

Political Protests Have Tripled Since Trump 1.0

The number of political protests held during Trump’s first nine months in office this year have more than tripled compared to the same period in his first term.

As Statista's Anna Fleck details below, using data collected and analyzed by Harvard University and University of Connecticut titled the Crowd Counting Consortium, there had been 29,138 political protests as of September 30, 2025, compared to just 8,314 on September 30, 2017.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The organization includes a wide range of protest types within its scope including, but not limited to, rallies, counter protests, marches, civil disobedience, vigils, student-led walkouts, encampments and banner drops. These cover a range of issues, from calls for a ceasefire in Gaza to justice for police brutality.

Saturday October 18, 2025 saw anti-Trump protests across the United States, under the “No Kings” movement. The Crowd Counting Consortium is yet to add the data for the total number of protests and events held across the country on that day. However, according to G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers, the median estimate for protester figures, based on local officials, protest organizers and attendees, stands at 5.2 million.

According to the Harvard data platform, as of September 30, the biggest day for protests in 2025 was June 14. Coinciding with Trump’s birthday, this was when the first nation-wide No Kings rallies were held, with a total of 2,363 protests counted in one day. The next biggest day for protests was April 5, when the Hands Off wave of demonstrations took place. These were also against the Trump administration’s policies, including decrying newly imposed global tariffs, cuts to government agencies and the federal workforce, as well as broader concerns such as democratic backsliding.

In 2017, the biggest day of protests was January 21, which was one day after Trump entered office for the first time and marked the Women's March.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 22:10

Civilian Casualties Reported As US Conducts Record Number Of Somali Drone Strikes

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

A drone strike that hit southern Somalia on Tuesday may have caused civilian casualties, according to Somali media reports.

Garowe Online reported that the strike hit the Lower Shabelle Region, which neighbors Mogadishu, in an area controlled by al-Shabaab militants. The report did not say how many civilian casualties were caused by the strike, which was likely carried out by US Africa Command.

Source: US Air Force

So far, AFRICOM hasn’t said it launched an airstrike in the area that day, but the command typically reports airstrikes a few days after they occur. Turkish drones are also known to carry out strikes against al-Shabaab in Somalia, but on a much less frequent basis.

Garowe Online also reported that the US-backed Somali government claimed it killed seven al-Shabaab fighters in an operation with support from AFRICOM, though it was conducted further north in the central Hiraan Region.

If the drone strike in Lower Shabelle is confirmed to have been carried out by the US, it would mark at least the 84th US airstrike launched in Somalia this year, as the Trump administration has been bombing the country at a record pace.

The current administration has shattered the record for total US airstrikes in Somalia in a single year, which President Trump previously set at 63 during his first term in 2019.

Last month, AFRICOM took credit for an airstrike in the northern Sanag region that killed a prominent clan elder. AFRICOM claimed he was an al-Shabaab weapons dealer, but that was strongly denied by family members and locals who say the victim, Abdullahi Omar Abdi, was known as a peacemaker.

The US has also been bombing the ISIS affiliate in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland region, where it is backing local forces. AFRICOM said this week that it launched a strike in Puntland on October 20.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 21:45

Duffy Threatens To Strip California Of Ability To Issue Commercial Driver's Licenses

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Oct. 23 that California could lose its ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses and risk losing more funding if it fails to comply with federal transportation rules.

The Transportation Department has already withheld more than $40 million in funding from California after an investigation found that the state had not met federal English-language proficiency standards for truck drivers, Duffy said in a post on X.

Harjinder Singh is escorted onto an airplane by Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and law enforcement in Stockton, Calif., on Aug. 21, 2025. AP Photo/Benjamin Fanjoy

In an interview with Fox News aired on Oct. 23, Duffy threatened to pull another $160 million from California if it refused to adhere to federal regulations governing the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses.

“I’m doing a quick review of [the state’s] lack of compliance for our rules. I have the ability and I’m going to pull almost another $160 million,” Duffy said.

“And then I have the ability for California to say, listen, you don’t follow any of these rules that keep Americans safe, we’re going to revoke your ability to issue a commercial driver’s license.”

As The Epoch Times' Aldgra Fredly reports below, in a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom dated Sept. 26, the department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) stated that its investigation found that California had issued commercial driver’s licenses to nondomiciled drivers that were valid beyond the expiration of their work authorization in the country.

The agency required that California implement corrective measures, warning that failure to do so could result in the loss of certain federal highway funds and the decertification of the state’s commercial driver’s licensing program.

The state was ordered to pause issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to nondomiciled drivers, identify all unexpired nondomiciled drivers who failed to comply with federal regulations, and conduct an internal audit to identify procedural and programming errors in the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses, among other requirements.

The Epoch Times reached out to Newsom’s office for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

The department initiated an investigation into California’s compliance with federal safety rules following a fatal crash in Florida on Aug. 12 that involved a semi-truck driver who illegally entered the United States in 2018 through the southern border.

The truck driver, identified as Harjinder Singh, an Indian national, allegedly made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike on Aug. 12, causing a minivan to collide with his commercial semi-truck. All three of the minivan’s occupants were killed in the crash.

Singh was issued a commercial driver’s license in July 2024 by California, despite being in the country illegally. He had also obtained a full-term commercial driver’s license in Washington state in July 2023. Singh also did not pass English-language and road tests, according to officials.

On Oct.23, federal immigration authorities filed an arrest order for an Indian national who is alleged to have killed three people in California while driving a semi-truck under the influence of drugs. The incident occurred on Oct. 21.

Three people died instantly in the accident, and several others were injured, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.

ICE lodged an arrest detainer on Oct. 22 for Jashanpreet Singh, 21, who they said is “a criminal illegal alien from India.”

The Trump administration paused the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers on Aug. 21, stating that the increasing number of foreign drivers was “endangering American lives” and undercutting jobs for American truckers.

California’s Department of Transportation issued an emergency ruling last month that prohibits the state from issuing or renewing limited-term legal commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 21:20

Prominent Personalities Sign Letter Seeking Ban On 'Development Of Superintelligence'

Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times,

Hundreds of people, from conservative commentators to prominent tech executives, have signed a letter seeking a ban on “the development of superintelligence.”

This year, leading technology firms such as Google, Meta Platforms, and OpenAI have accelerated efforts to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of outperforming humans across a broad spectrum of elementary and complex tasks.

A growing chorus of prominent people thinks that it is time to hit the brakes—at least temporarily.

The letter, put together by the Future of Life Institute, calls for a ban on advancing superintelligent AI until there is public demand and science charts a safe path for the technology.

“We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in,” reads the brief statement, released on Oct. 22.

The Future of Life Institute has spent the past decade sounding the alarm over the existential risks posed by advanced AI. Its petition has drawn thousands of signatures and support from hundreds of high-profile figures aligned with the group’s mission, including AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton.

Bengio said AI systems could outperform most individuals in various cognitive tasks in the next few years. While they will bring advancements, they could also “carry significant risks,” Bengio wrote in a personal note released with the letter.

“To safely advance toward superintelligence, we must scientifically determine how to design AI systems that are fundamentally incapable of harming people, whether through misalignment or malicious use,” he wrote.

“We also need to make sure the public has a much stronger say in decisions that will shape our collective future.”

The letter warns of increasing threats to the world, including the loss of freedom, civil liberties, and “human economic obsolescence and disempowerment.”

Among the other signatories are conservative media personality Glenn Beck, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and political commentator Steve Bannon.

The letter expresses consternation over the rapid development and deployment of AI across a wide array of industries, political ideologies, and religious sects.

“The future of AI should serve humanity, not replace it,“ Prince Harry, one of many signatories alongside his wife, Meghan, said in a personal note released with the letter. ”The true test of progress will be not how fast we move, but how wisely we steer.”

Stuart Russell, an AI pioneer and computer science professor at the University of California–Berkeley, said that the statement is not a prohibition or moratorium “in the usual sense.” Instead, he wrote, it is a proposal to install the necessary safeguards for a technology that “has a significant chance to cause human extinction.”

“Is that too much to ask?” Russell wrote.

In a 2015 blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote that the rise of “superhuman machine intelligence (SMI) is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Building a Legacy: Remembering Charlie Kirk memorial event at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sept. 21, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, told podcast host Joe Rogan earlier this year that there is “only a 20 percent chance of annihilation.”

“The probability of a good outcome is like 80 percent,” the billionaire entrepreneur said.

It is not only experts and famous individuals who voice caution.

The Future of Life Institute cited a recent national survey of 2,000 adults that found only 5 percent support for “the status quo of fast, unregulated development.” Close to two-thirds (64 percent) think that superhuman AI either should not be created until it is proven safe and controllable or “should never be developed.”

AI on the Street and at Work

For the past three years, Wall Street has been immersed in the rise of AI, with many market watchers comparing it to the dot-com bubble 25 years ago.

Others say it is very different from the exuberance of the late 1990s, when investors poured billions of dollars into companies with “dot-com” in their names.

“Overall, there are some similarities (increasing market concentration in tech stocks; aggressive capital investment ahead of revenues),” John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

“But I think it is oversimplifying things to say we are in a ‘bubble’ (almost certainly not in a valuation bubble; but an argument to be made that there is some recent froth in earnings streams).”

Whether the AI bubble is real or not, companies are pressing ahead with AI, and U.S. workers are worried.

According to June data from FactSet Insights, during the second quarter, more than 40 percent of S&P 500 firms commented on “AI” during earnings calls. This is the fifth consecutive quarter in which more than 200 S&P 500 firms have done so.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted this past summer found that 71 percent of respondents were worried about AI “putting too many people out of work permanently.”

While AI has yet to spur widespread job displacement, member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Christopher Waller said last week that more companies are preparing for the new technology in their day-to-day operations.

“Retailers in particular are cutting back on employment for call centers and IT-related occupations,” Waller said at an Oct. 15 DC Fintech Week event. “So far, most say this is being handled through attrition, but a number of retailers say that there is the potential for downsizing next year.”

Even employees working in the AI field are facing job cuts.

Meta announced on Oct. 22 that it is eliminating about 600 positions in its Superintelligence Labs, which will affect Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research and other AI and AI-related products and infrastructure.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 20:55

Pentagon Orders Carrier Strike Group To Join SOUTHCOM Operations Near Venezuela

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has on Friday ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the US Southern Command area of responsibility, joining what is already an unprecedented US military build-up in the southern Caribbean off Venezuela. 

And so after nine attacks on alleged narco-smuggling boats, it looks as if the strikes on cartels will only intensify, also after President Trump suggested that "land" operations could commence against the Maduro government.

US Navy file image

"The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere," the Pentagon says.

"These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs," the statement adds.

Below is the list of assets which will join at least eight warships already deployed to the waters, led by the SS Gerald R. Ford:

• Arleigh Burke-Class Guided-Missile Destroyers
• USS Mahan (DDG-72)
• USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81)
• USS Bainbridge (DDG-96)

These are being redirected from the Mediterranean Sea to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Area-of-Responsibility near Venezuela.

Already the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and several other air and naval assets are currently operating off Puerto Rico with an eye on Venezuela. 

Trump’s Venezuela task-force counts 140,200 tons of ships. That’s more than the UK’s only carrier strike group. The deployment’s firepower is about equal to half of the entire Royal Navy’s warship and attack submarine displacement. pic.twitter.com/dDVLsKUYEo

— barry with the NED (@bonzerbarry) September 8, 2025

President Trump has insisted he doesn't need a formal war authorization from Congress to conduct anti-Venezuela operations aimed at 'terrorists' and 'narco-traffickers' and has at various times threatened regime change in Caracas.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 20:30

Gen Z's Grim Economic Prospects

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The generation of young people just starting out in their careers faces an uphill battle unlike anything confronted by their parents and grandparents.

For them, the promise of the American Dream is elusive at best.

Everything is more expensive. The job market is frozen for pay for which they were hoping. Industry is changing so fast that educational credentials are ever less valuable.

There is real panic in the air among them, which is why so many have turned to substance abuse and far-flung hopes of making it rich in crypto or the influencer economy.

A new survey on the expenses faced by this generation has appeared that frames it up in alarming terms.

Over 20 years from 2005 to 2025, the cost of all essentials has soared:

• Housing (rent) is up 120 percent.

• Transportation is up 86 percent.

• Education is up 133 percent.

• Groceries are up 79 percent.

• Entertainment is up 100 percent.

• Utilities are up 53 percent.

• Time to save for house down payment has gone from 8 to 14 years.

• The average student debt burden has moved from $20K to $30K.

• The real increase in salaries is 12 percent.

• Health insurance these days is a killer of living standards, averaging $27,000 from the business side and that’s without using it.

• Housing ownership seems largely out of the question.

In general, this whole generation has a delayed wealth curve that is 7 to 10 years relative to prior generations. In other words, it’s a lost generation, with a financial challenge that is matched by the trauma of pandemic lockdowns, ill-education, and digital addiction.

Behind all this is a hidden force at work, the dramatic devaluation of the currency over five years. During this time, the dollar lost 25-35 percent of its value, depending on the service or good in question. Salaries simply are not keeping up.

All this began to unfold in 2020 when the Federal Reserve accommodated the wildest spending binge by Congress in American history. The result was debt, which the Fed purchased with newly printed cash, which was then dispersed to the public in the form of stimulus payments.

Anyone with a modicum of economic knowledge could foresee the problem. This was not like the quantitative easing of 2008 which deployed an accounting trick to keep the new money locked up in bank vaults. The monetary expansion of 2020-2023 resulted in hot money on the street, which translates directly to higher prices and a lower purchasing power.

There are many ways to represent the impact on income but consider what has happened in the world center of markets for a century, New York City. What we see is a picture of massive disruption over five years, to the point of absolute calamity. Real median household income is lower now than five years ago. Many businesses were driven out or died completely. Some of the most productive residents left.

The reality on the ground is worse than it seems. The city is unaffordable for any regular income earned by a young person. Even worse, the physical conditions of the city have deteriorated dramatically. If you haven’t visited in 20 years, you will likely find the place unrecognizable. The same can be said of many U.S. cities, the very places where young people once depended upon for career starts.

All the political winds in D.C. right now are demanding lower and lower interest rates so as to make servicing the new debt more affordable. The problem with this strategy is that artificially lowered rates send distorted signals to industry. The message is borrow, expand, build in leverage or get wiped out by the competition. At some uncertain point in the future, the pattern breaks as consumers are completely tapped out.

The economy cannot operate as a perpetual motion machine. Prosperity cannot be maintained by endless cycles of fakery, with fresh money fueling higher financials and rewarding people on the other side of the divide. Anyone with a million in the bank can sit back and live off the proceeds forever while young workers just starting out can hardly pay the bills.

This is combustible, politically and culturally.

What is the solution? As with every inflation in history, the first step is to stop the money printers. That is easier said than done simply because the entire financial system today is addicted to debt finance which in turn depends on a Fed forever cranking out the fiat. The fear here is that the fix will be worse than the disease.

Today, it is widely accepted that inflation should run hotter than it has normally been in the entire postwar period, so between 2 and 3 percent. Many suspect that the Fed has quietly changed the target to 2.5 percent. There is plenty of evidence that this is true, in which case there will be no real solution forthcoming.

The latest CPI data is running hot at 3 percent, further suggesting the possibility of a second wave. This would be a disaster, sealing the fate of a generation. Meanwhile, there is no mystery about the cause: it’s the money printing!

It was four decades ago when I graduated from college without a thought about a job, debt, or paying the bills. I wasn’t irresponsible. These were not issues my generation confronted. We just assumed that if you had skill and will, everything else would fall into place. You found a place to live, worked hard, and everything worked out.

We had no idea at the time that we were living in a rare moment of history. Low inflation, low unemployment, high growth, freedom and ebullience all around. Now that moment is entirely gone, replaced with anxiety that is mutating to panic and despair. Old people don’t care much because they are doing just fine—perhaps the last American generation that can count on being comfortably well off.

The only way that Gen Z can battle this problem is by a big change in spending habits. The same survey cited above reports that young workers are spending on average $300 per month on restaurants and bars. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much but simply changing that habit—cooking at home instead of throwing away money on expensive dining—would make a big difference.

A major problem here is that Gen Z needs to change its expectations, all of which are rooted in class fears fueled by social media nonsense. They have to be at the right spots, wear the right clothes, live in the best places, and drive fashionable cars. These are extremely powerful psychological pulls. Corporate finance is there to seem to make it all possible for a while.

In the last three years, myriad companies have sprung up to give cash advances by linking one’s bank account on the spot while shopping. The fees are high because they are not classified as interest, and they evade regulatory controls. What these companies are doing is exploiting class insecurity and pillaging the people who can least afford it.

The only real solution here is the traditional value of frugality. It’s possible to buy groceries from less-fashionable places, dial back amenities in apartment living, buy used clothing from online marketplaces, and forgo vacations and entertainment. You can cut the bills, with the goal of having zero debt. This is the only way to live as a young person if you have any hope of building a secure future.

Economic headwinds are leaning hard against Gen Z and this has produced a kind of demoralization. Nothing works as it once did. Policymakers and parents can help but the ultimate solution is going to come down to a change of priorities.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 20:05

Atlanta At The Center Of Nationwide Boom In Rental Application Fraud

Atlanta has become the center of a nationwide boom in rental-application fraud, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

With average rents for two-bedroom apartments nearing $2,000 a month—well above what many locals can afford—some renters are turning to fake documents and fabricated financial details to qualify for luxury apartments.

Social media has fueled the trend. TikTok influencers promote “rental packages” with doctored pay stubs, false employment letters, or fake Social Security numbers. One influencer bragged, “When that apartment package got you approved for your luxury apartment in two weeks even though you had two evictions and a 500 credit score.”

Source: WSJ

Greystar, the nation’s largest apartment landlord, says up to half of its applications in some Atlanta buildings are fraudulent. “Anybody that says they want to move in today or move in tomorrow, it’s fraud,” warned Kori Sewell, an Atlanta apartment manager.

The WSJ writes that the rise stems from a mix of factors: a glut of high-end apartments after Atlanta’s building boom, shrinking affordable housing, and advancing technology that makes falsifying documents easy. Between 2018 and 2023, the region lost more than 230,000 affordable rental units.

Nationally, nearly three-quarters of landlords reported a 40% increase in rental fraud last year. “It’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem coast to coast,” said Damon McCall, CEO of ApproveShield, a fraud-detection software firm.

Source: WSJ

Fraud carries legal risks but is rarely prosecuted; landlords usually focus on evictions. Some scammers pay rent for a few months before defaulting, forcing landlords to absorb losses and write off bad debt. Others never pay at all—like one Atlanta tenant who said, “Basically, the entire building was filled with people who got in fraudulently.”

To combat the issue, many landlords now use verification software. As fraudsters adopt AI tools to fake documents, detection firms are responding in kind. “We fight fire with fire,” said Kyle Nelson of Snappt.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 18:50

Congress Takes A Page From Louisiana: The Case For An American Energy Renaissance

Authored by Cameron Sholty via RealClearEnergy,

When Louisiana enacted Act 462 earlier this year, it did more than redefine “green energy.” It redefined leadership. Under Governor Jeff Landry’s direction, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to recognize natural gas and nuclear power as a clean, affordable, and reliable energy source – cementing its place as a model for states and, now, for the nation.

Last Friday, Congressman Troy Balderson introduced federal legislation building on Louisiana’s landmark law. The measure takes the same common-sense approach: prioritizing American-made energy, reducing reliance on adversarial nations, and ensuring that “green” energy policy reflects economic and scientific reality.

Governor Landry had urged exactly this kind of action from Washington. When he signed Act 462, he called on Congress to adopt a national energy security strategy built around America’s abundant hydrocarbons – particularly natural gas and nuclear. His argument was simple: energy security is national security, and no country should be dependent on supply chains that run through Beijing, Moscow, or child-labor camps in the Congo.

The new federal bill answers that call.

A Return to Reality in Energy Policy

For too long, federal energy policy has been guided by slogans rather than science and economics. Policymakers in Washington have subsidized unreliable energy sources, ignored full life-cycle costs, and allowed critical infrastructure to depend on foreign materials produced under appalling labor and environmental standards.

Louisiana broke that mold. Act 462 directed state agencies to consider affordability, reliability, and domestic sourcing when evaluating energy projects. It mandated a new method to calculate the cost of energy that includes the hidden expenses of foreign supply chains – like child labor, environmental destruction, and geopolitical vulnerability. And it treated hydrocarbons such as natural gas not as an enemy of the environment, but as an ally of prosperity and innovation.

The federal legislation now mirrors those principles. It redefines “green” and “clean” energy to include not just intermittent renewables but also natural gas and nuclear power – resources that provide stable, dispatchable power without the economic and moral costs of dependence on foreign critical minerals.

An Abundance Waiting to Be Used

America’s natural gas reserves are among the largest in the world, yet federal policy has often treated them as a liability. Governor Landry challenged that mindset, arguing that America’s abundant hydrocarbons are a strategic advantage to be leveraged, not a problem to be managed.

By unlocking domestic production, the U.S. can achieve three vital goals: lower costs for consumers, greater resilience for the electric grid, and stronger national security. Every cubic foot of gas produced in Louisiana, Texas, or Ohio displaces energy that would otherwise come from countries that do not share our values. Every pipeline and LNG terminal built here strengthens our economy and weakens our adversaries.

The Louisiana model recognizes this interconnected truth. The federal version now before Congress brings that logic to the national stage.

Leading by Example

Louisiana’s success story demonstrates what happens when energy policy is grounded in reality. Since passing Act 462, the state has attracted new manufacturing investments, expanded LNG exports, and secured thousands of high-paying energy jobs. Businesses value predictability and affordability – two qualities that hydrocarbon energy delivers.

Governor Landry’s message to Congress was clear: Build energy policy around American resources, American workers, and American values. Representative Balderson’s introduction of this new federal legislation proves that message was heard.

A New Energy Consensus

The debate over energy is no longer between “green” and “dirty.” It’s between the real and the imaginary. The real path to clean, affordable, reliable energy lies in embracing the resources beneath our feet – using innovation, not ideology, to reduce emissions and expand opportunity.

By adopting a new framework, Congress is taking a crucial step toward restoring balance, security, and common sense to national energy policy. The era of energy dependence and self-inflicted scarcity can end – if Washington has the will.

Louisiana showed the way. Now it’s time for Congress to finish the job.

Cameron Sholty is the Executive Director of Heartland Impact, the advocacy arm of The Heartland Institute.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 18:25

'Chexican' Narco-Financier Ran New York Fentanyl Cell With Mexican Operatives, US Indictment Shows

Submitted by The Bureau's Sam Cooper, 

Newly unsealed U.S. government filings reveal that Zhi Dong Zhang — an alleged global fentanyl kingpin with reported ties to Chinese diplomats in Canada, accused of supplying precursor chemicals and laundering funds worldwide for Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels — commanded a New York–based fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine cell composed of Hispanic traffickers.

According to the Eastern District of New York indictment, Zhang coordinated a network including Lorena Solano Castro, Christian Alan Soto Espinoza, and Cosme Avendaño Soto, operating from Brooklyn to distribute synthetic narcotics, collect proceeds, and wash drug money via U.S. financial institutions and Chinese underground banking.

The New York indictment is separate from a broader case unsealed in Atlanta, but part of what filings depict as a globally integrated criminal enterprise under Zhang's direction. His network allegedly moved multi-ton quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine between 2016 and 2021, channeling proceeds through Brooklyn, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Michigan, and feeding a hemispheric supply chain linking Chinese chemical exporters, Mexican super-labs, and U.S. distribution hubs.

As The Bureau reported yesterday, Zhang was detained in Cuba after a spectacular escape from a Mexico City residence, where he had been under judicial supervision pending extradition to the United States. Mexican reports say he fled through a tunnel, attempted to reach Russia, and was arrested in Cuba recently. U.S. and Mexican authorities are now reportedly anticipating a swift extradition, as Washington intensifies counter-cartel military deployments and strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific regions.

A Canadian intelligence source told The Bureau that Zhang had direct contact with Canadian authorities while his organization was being probed across the United States—well before the charges became public. In February 2017, he was stopped at Vancouver International Airport carrying an illegally obtained Mexican passport, more than C$10,000 in cash, 14 bank-security fobs, and contact numbers for Chinese diplomatic offices. Agents—who nicknamed him "the Chexican"—questioned him about links to a money-laundering network in Mexico City and a parent company in China, but, due to what the source called "bungling" between the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Zhang was released and allowed to leave Canada. A phone search, the source added, revealed numbers for diplomats at Chinese missions in Ottawa and Vancouver, as well as contacts for lawyers in Toronto and Vancouver.

As The Bureau reported exclusively, Canadian investigators later connected Zhang to Mexican mining firms cited in a U.S. FinCEN advisory. Records show that a China-based mining enterprise directed by Zhang controls tracts of land in Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Sinaloa and Arizona. Open-source corporate filings also point to a similarly named Vancouver company, linked to a Chinese investor who owns six B.C. properties and a Hong Kong–registered machine supplier.

Reporting from Mexico — where Zhang escaped house arrest in July 2025 shortly before his scheduled extradition to the United States — indicates that his networks extend across Asia, the Americas, and Europe, operating through multiple layers of money laundering and logistics fronts.

Zhang — known to his associates by several aliases, including "Brother Wang," "Kun Li Hernandez," and "Nelson Mandela" — allegedly oversaw bilingual command cells: Spanish-speaking couriers handled street-level cash collection and deposit structuring, while Chinese brokers managed offshore transfers, trade-based remittances, and layered currency conversions.

The EDNY indictment, which lay dormant for several years, saw renewed movement in recent weeks with new prosecutor appearances. The case signals Washington's intent to treat Zhang's syndicate as a top-priority transnational narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy.

Prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia have also charged Zhang with narcotics-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracies.

Investigators linked his organization to roughly 150 shell companies and 170 bank accounts and uncovered more than $20 million in proceeds moved through major U.S. banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase. Encrypted intercepts recovered on WeChat, DingTalk, and Signal show Zhang directing shipments of fentanyl ("coffee"), cocaine ("food"), and methamphetamine through U.S. distribution hubs.

A cooperating witness, Ruipeng Li, described a two-tier operation: a Mexican cell that collected street proceeds, and a Chinese cell that converted that cash into wire transfers and investments across the Pacific. Authorities estimate that, between 2020 and 2021, Zhang's organization moved more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,800 kilograms of fentanyl, and 600 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Tyler Durden Fri, 10/24/2025 - 17:40