Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Senior White House aide Stephen Miller had some choice words during a Friday interview for Democrats over their faux outrage concerning President Trump’s upgrade to the East Wing, and the addition of the grand ballroom.

“The ‘scandal’” Miller noted, “is how Democrats on the left have scarred the landscape of our country with grotesque, so-called ‘modern art’ that celebrates ugliness, that celebrates defacement.”

“The ‘tragedy’ is a political party and a movement that has ripped down our statues, our monuments, our holidays, our heroes, our heritage!” he added.

“Now he’s repairing, finally, an area of the White House that has been left in disrepair for decades,” Miller further noted.

“The East Wing, which importantly is not part of the White House, it is not part of the residence, it was a cheaply built add-on structure in the mid-20th century,” he further explained.

“It houses offices, is not a residence, nobody lives there, is badly in need of refurbishment, repair, and renovation,” Miller explained.

“President Trump is making sure it’s in the neoclassical design around which our nation’s architecture has long been directed – up until, again, recently when we begin seeing these modern art structures…these brutalist structures and many other buildings that have been horrible and depressing to look at!” he further urged.

Watch:

🚨 JUST IN: Stephen Miller DECIMATES Democrats’ hypocrisy of being outraged about President Trump’s upgrade to the East Wing, which is in total DISREPAIR.

“The ‘SCANDAL’ is how Democrats on the left have scarred the landscape of our country with grotesque, so-called ‘modern… pic.twitter.com/EEqMSsnhwJ

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 24, 2025

As we previously highlighted, Democrats have gone all in on the hoax that Trump is literally destroying the White House by carrying out the refurbishments.

Miller’s point about leftists enforcing brutalist ugly modern architecture is no where more evident than in Barack Obama’s Presidential campus project which literally resembles a dystopian tower of doom.

Compare it to Trump’s classical construction projects.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

We’re obviously living in tumultuous times. If investors sense they’re on a financial roller coaster, they’re right.

Recently, I scanned my market tickers and saw that everything was up. Stocks, bonds, gold, silver, the dollar, cryptos and commodities were all advancing. Of course, that didn’t last. The next day cryptos crashed and stocks were down sharply. Even gold suffered its worst day in a decade on Tuesday, a day after notching new record highs.

In these markets, volatility is the one constant.

These types of markets demand discipline, but they also give rise to what I can only describe as fringe theories.

Even highly seasoned market analysts with great reputations will write to me with theories they’ve heard asking what I think about them.

We don’t have space to go into all of them (and many are just nonsense and not worth going into), but the main theme is that somehow the U.S. Treasury is working on a technical default on government debt.

Theory #1 – A U.S. Debt Default

The easiest way to default is simple inflation. Even 4% inflation will cut the value of the dollar in half in just 18 years and half again in another 18 years. That means the dollar will lose more than 75% of its purchasing power in a typical 40-year career beginning at age 23 and retiring at age 63. Inflation higher than 4% will decimate the dollar even faster. The simplest form of protection is to allocate half your portfolio to hard assets like gold, silver, land or other natural resources.

There will not be a formal default on U.S. Treasury debt or anything like it, including forced debt swaps or maturity swaps.

The U.S. can always find buyers for Treasury debt, starting with the big U.S. banks and the Fed if needed. Inflation is still a risk (as noted above), but outright default will not happen and it is not necessary.

This does not mean that high deficits and high debts are a free ride. The key metric is the debt-to-GDP ratio. Right now, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is 124%. Anything above 90% has a Keynesian multiplier

You can still have high debt and deficits. But if the debt-to-GDP ratio is dropping, we’re moving in the right direction, and the market will give the U.S. time. That ratio dropped from 114% in 1945 to 32% in 1980, so we’ve been here before and got out of it over the course of 35 years. Deficits and annual debt were both 3 times higher in 1980 than in 1945, but growth was 10 times higher, so the ratio dwindled. That’s the key.

What’s impressive about the U.S. effort to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio between 1945 and 1980 was that it was bipartisan. That effort was pursued by Democrats like Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ, and Jimmy Carter as well as Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. It was not a highly politicized issue. Leaders knew what needed to be done and they did it. They may have argued about everything else, but the need to reduce the debt ratio was not politicized. Unfortunately, that’s not true today, which makes the task more difficult.

Theory #2 – A Dual Debt System

Another theory floating around is that the U.S. will go to a dual debt system with a gold-backed dollar for domestic transactions and a pure paper dollar for foreign transactions. That’s extremely unlikely.

Dual systems don’t work absent extreme capital controls. The reason is arbitrage. Once you create any kind of dual system using the same currency (and gold), hedge funds will drive the two types of dollars to parity or make the holders of paper dollars go broke in the process.

Another side effect would be Gresham’s Law, which says that bad money drives out good. As applied to this scheme, investors would hoard the “gold dollars” and dump the “paper dollars” at every opportunity. Sooner than later, no gold dollars would be found.

A Global Liquidity Crisis

No one really understands the dollar. People talk about the dollar being “up” or “down” or “sideways.” My question is: compared to what? On a given day, the dollar can be up against the yen, down against gold and sideways against the euro. Was the dollar up, down or sideways that day? It was all three. You can’t have an intelligent conversation about dollar valuation until you define your metric.

I use gold because it’s money, but it’s not a currency. Gold still plays an important role in the fate of the dollar.

If you use gold as a way to measure the dollar, don’t look at the dollar price per ounce. Instead, ask what weight of gold you get for $1.00. The answer in 1971 was 0.02857 ounces. The answer in 1980 was 0.00125 ounces. That’s a 95.6% devaluation in nine years.

That was the real collapse of the dollar, but everyone missed it because they were looking at yen, sterling and Deutsche Marks.

If you had the same devaluation (measured by weight of gold) today, then gold would be over $94,000 per ounce. Again, there’s your devaluation. I’m not necessarily forecasting that price level, but history says we should not rule it out.

That said, the dollar compared to other currencies is strong and getting stronger. There’s a global dollar shortage. To find it, don’t look at the central banks; look at commercial Eurodollar banks.

The Treasury monthly TIC reports show that foreign central banks are not dumping Treasuries. They wish they had more. To the extent they sell any (or let them roll off at maturity), it’s because they’re desperate for the cash to prop up their own currency or bail out their own banks. Treasuries are dollar-denominated, but they are not dollars. You have to sell them to get dollars. Based on this global dollar shortage, we may be on the verge of a global liquidity crisis.

The truth is we don’t have to search for fringe theories to see if there’s something wrong with the financial system. The evidence is all around us hiding in plain sight.

The Internal Revenue Service on Oct. 23 issued a fact sheet confirming that the higher reporting threshold for Form 1099-K has been restored under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, reversing changes made during the Biden administration.

Form 1099-K applies to individuals who earn money through gig work or sell goods online. Third-party settlement organizations (TPSOs)—including platforms such as Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and Venmo – must send copies of the form to both the IRS and taxpayers, detailing the total payments received for goods and services.

Return to the Pre-2021 Standard

Before 2021, TPSOs were required to issue a Form 1099-K only if a seller received more than $20,000 and conducted at least 200 transactions during the year.

The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act lowered that threshold to $600, triggering widespread criticism from taxpayers and digital-payment platforms who warned the rule would swamp casual sellers with unnecessary paperwork.

The IRS initially attempted to phase in the lower limit—proposing $5,000 for 2024, $2,500 for 2025, and $600 from 2026 onward—but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, permanently repealed those reductions.
As a result, TPSOs are again only required to issue Form 1099-K if both of the following are true:

1. The gross payments to a payee exceed $20,000, and

2. The number of transactions exceeds 200.

The IRS noted that some states maintain lower thresholds that remain in effect locally.

Income Still Taxable, With or Without a Form 1099-K

The IRS emphasized that the reporting threshold affects only who receives the form, not what is taxable.
“All income, no matter the amount, is taxable unless the tax law says it isn’t—even if you don’t get a Form 1099-K,” the agency said. That includes cash, property, or services received in exchange for goods or labor.

The Coalition for 1099-K Fairness – representing payment platforms and small-business advocates – praised the rollback. The group argued that the $600 rule “threatened to overwhelm small businesses and individuals utilizing payment apps with confusing tax forms and expose millions of transactions to unnecessary scrutiny.”

Reinstating the pre-existing standard, it said, “brings clarity and consistency back to hardworking Americans and reduces administrative waste for both taxpayers and the IRS.”

The fact sheet reiterates that personal transfers, such as gifts, reimbursements, or shared expenses, should not trigger Form 1099-K reporting.

Examples include splitting the cost of a meal, receiving birthday money, or getting repaid by a roommate for rent or utilities. Users are encouraged to label these as “non-business” transactions within payment apps when possible.

If You Receive a Form 1099-K in Error

Taxpayers who receive a Form 1099-K in error should contact the issuer (whose details appear in the upper-left “Filer” section of the form) and request a corrected version.

The IRS advises keeping the original form and any correspondence for records and filing a return on time even if a corrected form cannot be obtained before the filing deadline.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

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

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

Empty Media Theater

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

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

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

Loyal Climate Disciple

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

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

Masters of Concealing Causality

Brussels is world champion in disguising cause and effect.

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

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

War Economy = More Bureaucracy

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

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

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

Bureaucratic Burdens Keep Growing

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

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

Privatizing State Bureaucracy

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

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

Industrial Exodus Accelerates

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

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

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

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

Climate Bureaucracy: The Last Fortress of Power

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

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

“Ubi Brussels, ibi Imperium.”

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

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

* * * 

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

With Election Day in New Jersey ten days away, early in-person voting begins today. The New Jersey governor’s race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli is tighter than ever.

On Friday, President Trump spoke for about ten minutes via a tele-rally for Ciattarelli, saying, “Mikie, as they call her, the only thing she’s got is an unusual name. Other than that, she’s terrible,” adding, “He’s running against a fake and corrupt radical left Democrat opponent who had lots of problems in school, lots of problems with honesty for a long time.”

The latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll shows Sherrill at 50 percent and Ciattarelli at 45 percent. The 5-point spread has collapsed from the summer, when Sherrill held a 20-point lead.

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Trump-backed New Jersey governor candidate Jack Ciattarelli has now gained the endorsement of nearly a DOZEN prominent state Democrats.

This is HUGE. In-person voting begins tomorrow!

“Ciattarelli has secured endorsement from local Democratic officials, including… pic.twitter.com/OsuNu3oj5Z

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 24, 2025

With the final stretch underway, New Jersey Republican State Senator Michael Testa released a new political ad urging residents to “Vote Republican” to avoid a worsening power bill crisis driven by backfiring green energy policies amid rapid data center expansion.

Testa wrote on X:

Electricity prices are OUT OF CONTROL and leaving New Jerseyans HOT under the collar.

Are you tired of getting burned by the New Jersey Democrats?

Then it’s time to tell your friends and neighbors to flip the switch. VOTE Republican on Tuesday, November 4th!

Electricity prices are OUT OF CONTROL and leaving New Jerseyans HOT under the collar. 😉

Are you tired of getting burned by the New Jersey Democrats?

Then it’s time to tell your friends & neighbors to flip the switch. VOTE Republican on Tuesday, November 4th! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/IOQLTiLuPE

— Mike Testa (@TestaForNJ) October 24, 2025

It appears politicians are finally acknowledging the power bill crisis spreading across the Mid-Atlantic, fueled by backfiring green mandates and soaring electricity demand from data centers. Energy affordability has rapidly become a defining kitchen-table issue.

Related:

•  Power-Bill Crisis Spreads From Maryland To New Jersey, May Doom Democrats As ‘Green’ Implodes

• MSM Finally Understands Power Bill Crisis “Now A Major Political Issue”

Just remember.

In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site pic.twitter.com/h93gWXMoNL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025

The battle to control the narrative on the power bill crisis is underway.

Via The Cradle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Via Middle East Eye

A court in Ankara has dismissed a corruption case that sought to unseat the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), saying it had no substance. The case against Ozgur Ozel, which focused on alleged vote-buying at the CHP primary in November 2023, was rejected as “moot” by a judge at the Ankara 42nd Civil Court of First Instance.

A lawyer for the party welcomed the result. “This decision was in accordance with the law,” said Caglar Caglayan, speaking to reporters. “We’ve been saying these cases need to be removed from our country’s agenda. As of today, I hope this will happen. Politics will also return to its normal course.”

Although the case was officially brought by a CHP faction that lost the leadership elections, it was widely seen as part of a government crackdown on the opposition party, which has also seen the arrest and suspension of CHP Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

At an extraordinary congress on September 21, the CHP re-elected Ozel, reaffirming his legitimacy, a fact cited by the judge in dismissing the case.

Onur Yusuf Uregen, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters that they would be filing an appeal against the ruling. “We weren’t expecting the case to be dismissed, it was a surprise,” he said.

Had Ozel been removed, he would have been replaced by a court-appointed trustee, similar to many other local opposition politicians across the country, particularly those associated with pro-Kurdish parties.

Stocks rallied following the news Friday, while the lira rose after weakening to a record low earlier in the day.

The CHP, Turkey’s largest opposition party, has accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of targeting it after its widespread success in the 2024 local elections.

Imamoglu, a popular opposition leader and upcoming presidential candidate who could potentially challenge Erdogan, was arrested on 19 March.

A number of other CHP mayors, officials and politicians have also been swept up in arrests since then. The arrests have sparked regular street protests and rallies by opposition leaders and activists, including those unaffiliated with the CHP. Authorities have responded by detaining nearly 2,000 people, most of whom were later released.

#TurkeyWatch🇹🇷: Yesterday, Turkish authorities did what they do almost every day. They detained 13 opposition figures in Ankara over concerts run by the opposition party, CHP.

PRES. ERDOGAN’S TURKEY = NO OPPOSITION = NO PROBLEM. pic.twitter.com/TAqoAFnkVv

— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) September 25, 2025

Imamoglu’s arrest has galvanized a wide cross-section of Turkish society, who see it as perhaps the final nail in the coffin of an already fragile democracy.

Authored by Jon Fleetwood via Substack,

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

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

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

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

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

Alarmingly, it found that:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But governments all over the world are doing the opposite.

The Journal of Public Health authors warn in their conclusion:

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

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

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

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

Worldwide Surge of Bioweapons Labs

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

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

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

They write in their Journal of Public Health publication:

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

India’s Ambitious Expansion

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

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

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

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

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

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

United States: Updating an Already Extensive Network

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

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

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

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

Latin America’s Entry: Brazil & Argentina

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

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

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

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

Bottom Line

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

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

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

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

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

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

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