China’s investigation into its top general is taking President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge into his innermost circle, underlining that even close personal ties do not offer protection…
from japantoday.com
03 World
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has emerged as President Donald Trump’s “quiet hammer,” a source close to the White House told Breitbart News for an in-depth profile of the world’s premier spy agency in the first year back in office for Trump.
This source specifically pointed to how Trump sent Ratcliffe down to Venezuela just 12 days after the daring mission in which U.S. forces captured now-ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. Ratcliffe met with acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodriguez, Trump’s highest-ranking and first Cabinet-level official to visit the nation since Maduro’s capture.
“Ratcliffe has become Trump’s quiet hammer,” this source close to the White House said. “He goes in, accomplishes whatever mission the President gave him, then disappears back into the shadows. The Agency seems to have adopted the same approach, so Trump actually deserves credit for turning the CIA into an instrument of America First power.”
As an American carrier strike group closes in on Iran, a new report said its leader is living in hiding.
U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its support ships are “currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability.”
Sailors aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) perform routine maintenance as the aircraft carrier sails in the Indian Ocean, Jan. 26. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability. pic.twitter.com/dkuN946hce
The world watches closely as the brave people of Iran protest against the Islamic Republic (IR) regime. Regime security forces have killed thousands of people as part of a crackdown on the protests, with an estimate placing the death toll for January 8 and 9 at more than 36,500. President Trump urged Iranians to “keep protesting,” telling them that “help is on the way.”
China made a major announcement over the weekend, saying it was investigating the army’s top general for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
Gen. Zhang Youxia was the highest military member just below President Xi Jinping.
The Defence Ministry said Saturday that authorities were investigating Zhang, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, China’s top military body, and Gen. Liu Zhenli, a lower member of the commission who was in charge of the military’s Joint Staff Department.
UN chief warns ‘law of the jungle’ is replacing rule of law UN News
from news.google.com
Donald Trump’s Arctic strategy has been 500 years in the making.
When Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic in 1492, he intended to find a direct path from Europe to Asia.
In my column last week about the situation in Iran (“The Fog of Prewar in Iran”), I wrote:
Many commentators, noting Trump’s oft-proclaimed desire for “peace on earth,” believe he has paused to see if negotiations with Iran might end the slaughter. I doubt it. Trump’s desire for peace is perfectly genuine. But I note that the last time he said he wanted “peace on earth” was when he was asked whether he had any New Year’s resolutions just a couple of weeks ago. That was mere hours before he unleashed hell against the Venezuelan tyrant Nicolás Maduro, extracting him and his wife from their heavily fortified compound in Caracas and whisking them to New York in a stunning and perfectly executed special operations raid.
In case you aren’t familiar, Canada has a federal program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Here’s more about it:
Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a process that allows someone who is found eligible to be able to receive assistance from a medical practitioner in ending their life. The federal Criminal Code of Canada permits this to take place only under very specific circumstances and rules. Anyone requesting this service must meet specific eligibility criteria to receive medical assistance in dying. Any medical practitioner who administers an assisted death to someone must satisfy certain safeguards first.
Only medical practitioners are permitted to conduct assessments and to provide medical assistance in dying. This can be a physician or a nurse practitioner, where provinces and territories allow.
The U.S. and Taiwan recently reached a historic trade deal. Taiwanese companies will invest at least $250 billion in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chipmaker, pledged $100 billion in U.S. investment in 2025. Taipei will provide an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to Taiwanese companies.
The United States will be able to buy sovereign base areas in Greenland that will become legal U.S. territory “forever” under the terms of a NATO-brokered deal at Davos, reports claim.
A “framework” for a future deal negotiated in meetings at the Davos summit in Switzerland this week will see the United States get a sovereign base area modelled on Britain’s military bases on the Island of Cyprus, it is stated. While those bases are not on the British mainland, the UK owns approximately three per cent of the island in two exclaves, which are legally and internationally recognised as an overseas British territory.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Jan 15) announced the formation of a Gaza “board of peace,” a key phase two element of a US-backed plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding that the members of the body will be announced “shortly”.
“I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” Trump said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has raised eyebrows by openly praising Canada’s growing cooperation with Communist China and declaring that the partnership is helping shape a “new world order.”
Carney made the stunning remarks during a high-profile visit to Beijing this week, marking the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in nearly a decade and celebrating the two countries becoming so-called “strategic partners.”
“Mine is the first visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to China in nearly a decade,” Carney told senior Chinese Communist Party officials, including Xi Jinping.
“The world has changed much since that last visit.
“And I believe the progress that we have made and the partnership sets us up well for the New World Order.”
“It’s a partnership with new focus and greater depth and a sense of purpose, and I look forward to realizing its promise and building on it in the years to come,” he added.
Donald Trump said the United States will gain “total access” to Greenland under a developing arrangement with NATO allies, declaring that the deal would give Washington sweeping military reach over the strategically vital territory.
The president also said part of America’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system would be built in Greenland.
“Essentially, it’s total access,” Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday during an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “There’s no end, there’s no time limit.”
President Donald Trump has announced that he’s reached a preliminary framework agreement with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte regarding Greenland, a development he said will pause a looming round of punitive tariffs on European nations.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the discussions produced a framework for a future deal covering Greenland and the broader Arctic region.
The development prompted the president to cancel tariffs that were set to take effect on February 1.
Well, as expected when the progressive Democrats took full control of Richmond, they quickly passed legislation last week that will place an unlimited abortion clause in the Virginia Constitution.
The Constitutional Amendment on abortion will now go to a statewide vote in November and if passed, Virginia would join states like New York, California and Vermont where their extreme abortion laws are enshrined in their constitutions.
Planned Parenthood and other left-wing, pro-abortion groups will now spend millions to influence voters in Virginia to support this drastic change to our constitution. We Must Fight Back!
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari couched a chilling prediction within a warning at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon control not only most of the world’s legal, education, and healthcare systems, “AI will take over religion.”
“This is particularly true of religions based on books, like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism,” the homosexual atheist claimed.
“Anything made of words will be taken over by AI,” said Harari, so, “What happens to a religion of the book when the greatest expert on the holy book is an AI?”
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — For days it seemed there was no way out of the latest standoff between Europe and the United States: U.S. President Donald Trump insisted he must have Greenland — and would settle for nothing short of total ownership.
Even after he dropped the threat of force in a speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, the impasse remained. Enter: Mark Rutte.
The NATO secretary-general appears to have been instrumental in persuading Trump to scrap the threat of slapping punitive tariffs on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland — a stunning reversal shortly after insisting he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership.”
China’s loans to Africa plummet as Beijing pivots to strategic investments Semafor
from news.google.com
China Wins as Trump Cedes Leadership of the Global Economy The New York Times
from news.google.com
At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about her government’s transfer to the United States on Tuesday of 37 cartel figures. (Read Mexico News Daily’s report here.)
She also offered some advice to cell phone users to help them avoid becoming victims of crime, and took a moment to endorse the speech Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Here is a recap of the president’s Jan. 21 mañanera.
Haiti crisis at breaking point as gangs tighten grip ahead of transition deadline UN News
from news.google.com
Qatar and Turkey join ‘Board of Peace’ despite Israeli protest, highlighting Trump’s autocratic approach Washington Examiner
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Marine Le Pen spent more than ten hours at the stand on Wednesday, for a second consecutive day of questioning before a Paris court, as part of a crucial appeal trial that will determine whether she can run in next year’s presidential election.
As on the previous day, she repeatedly defended her position and said she “formally” contests the existence of any generalised fraudulent system set up by the party to siphon EU funds between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors accuse Le Pen and ten other defendants of employing parliamentary assistants who were paid with EU money even though their actual work primarily benefited the French National Front party (renamed the National Rally in 2018).
China Rewards Central American Allies With Major Projects While Nicaragua Gets Little La Prensa – Noticias de Nicaragua y el mundo
from news.google.com
He’s killing it
“The USA is the economic engine of the planet, and when America booms, the entire world booms.
History shows that when America goes bad, the whole world goes bad.
When we go down, you follow us down. When we go up, you follow us up”
Trump on the burgeoning US economy in Davos ‘Instead of hiring bureaucrats we’re firing them”
Federal prosecutors served six grand jury subpoenas Tuesday to Minnesota officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded federal law enforcement during a sweeping immigration operation in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a person familiar with the matter said.
The subpoenas, which seek records, were sent to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the person said.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A United Nations initiate designed to give administrative flesh to President Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan is feared to become its replacement. What started as a board of invested actors to help manage the transition in Gaza from Hamas to something else is now taking on a global scope as mission creep has taken hold at an ecumenical scale. Trump said of the board that it would “get a lot of work done that the UN should have done.”
Maya Ungar, a UN analyst, is sounding the alarm, claiming, “If member states, if countries do decide to sign up – and not just to sign up, but to really institutionalise and move along with this Board of Peace process – it is going to become a parallel or competing structure to the UN Security Council, which is an institution that has already been facing immense legitimacy as well as financial concerns over the past few years.”
The Board of Peace was initially given a limited mandate by the UN Security Council last November, endorsed strictly as a mechanism to support the peace process in Gaza.
But recent developments suggest the project is rapidly expanding beyond that scope. Its draft charter reportedly makes no mention of Gaza at all.
Instead, the body is described as an organisation designed to “secure peace” in regions threatened by conflict – a remit strikingly similar to that of the UN Security Council.
Maya Ungar, a UN analyst at the Intern