Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.
Prior to a 1974 coup that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie, his ancestors had been ruling Ethiopia continuously since 950 BC. With Emperor Fasilidis defeating Portuguese invaders in the 16th century and Menlik thwarting Italy’s attempt at conquest in 1896, the African country also enjoys the distinction of escaping European colonization.
Archeologists have found signs of human development dating back 4 million years in the northern Ethiopian highlands. When the first Europeans arrived, Ethiopia was the only country on the continent using ox-drawn plows (dating from 2,000 BC).
Tradition holds that Menlik I (975-950BC), Ethiopia’s first king, was the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Queen McKakla). It’s still claimed that Menlik brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, where, too sacred for publicly viewing, it’s preserved to this day in a sacred Aksum shrine. Judaism was Ethiopia’s official religion until it converted to Christianity in the 4th century AD.
A huge thriving city-state in the first century AD, Aksum once ranked alongside Rome and Persia as a major world power. See Urban Life After the Fall of Rome
Coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia in the 9th century AD, and it’s always been an important source of frankincense, which grows wild there.
Most of the film concerns art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford’s search for proof that Ethiopia’s emperors are descended from Solomon and Sheba. In northern Ethiopia, he finds evidence in the form of inscriptions written in Greek, Darian (common Ethiopian language) and Sabian (Yemenite language spoken in the region the Queen of Sheba came from); a 500 BC temple (contemporaneous with the Old Testament prophets) containing an altar for animal sacrifice; and a second 500 BC temple with an incense burner inscribed in Sabean.
To this point, there’s no alternative explanation for the country’s conversion to Judaism between 1500 and 500 BC nor for its widespread use of Sabean (long designated an official Ethiopian language).
Before he even takes office, President-elect Trump has buckled to the CIA and its supporters in the U.S. Senate. Trump intended to appoint Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who is married to the son of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as deputy director of the CIA. Given opposition among CIA supporters in the U.S. Senate, however, Trump has buckled and is withdrawing Fox Kennedy’s name from consideration.
But wait a minute! The office of deputy director of the CIA doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Trump has the authority to follow through with his plan and appoint Fox Kennedy to the post regardless of what any member of the U.S. Senate — or, for that matter, any member of the CIA — says.
Of course, it’s not surprising that the CIA or its supporters in Congress would fiercely oppose the appointment of any close relative of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as the CIA’s deputy director. What if one day Fox Kennedy, for example, were to send out an order stating the following: “I want to see the CIA’s files relating to George Joannides (or any other files or records relating to the JFK assassination). What then? CIA personnel would then be forced into a position of refusing to obey an order of the agency’s deputy director to produce such records for her review.
During the 1970s, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations had reopened the investigation in the JFK assassination, with a major focus on the CIA. The CIA appointed Joannides to serve as a liaison to the House Select Committee, with the ostensible aim of assisting investigators to secure whatever CIA records they needed. As it turned out many years later, it was a standard CIA lie. In actuality, Joannides was appointed to serve as an obstacle, with the aim of preventing the House investigators from accessing CIA records relating to the assassination.
It gets worse. As former Washington Post investigative reporter Jefferson Morley discovered after the Assassination Records Review Board had gone out of existence in the late 1990s, Joannides had played a critically important role in matters relating to the assassination back in 1963. He had served as the CIA liaison to a group of Cuban exiles in New Orleans called the DRE, which the CIA was funding generously and supervising — secretly, of course.
Immediately after the assassination, the DRE sent out a press release detailing the communist bona fides of Lee Harvey Oswald, thereby quickly establishing the image that the president had been killed by a “communist.”
When former head of the ARRB, federal judge John Tunheim learned about Joannides’s secret role with the DRE, the stated that CIA has misled the ARRB and that had the ARRB known the truth about Joannides, he would have been called as a witness.
Morley fought an 11-year court battle to secure the CIA’s records on Joanndes. Why 11 years? Because the CIA fought fiercely to protect the secrecy of its Joannides records. Not surprisingly, the federal judiciary ended up ruling in favor of the CIA. To this day, the CIA fiercely protects the secrecy of its Joannides files.
Can you imagine the internal CIA uproar if Fox Kennedy issued an order to place the Joannides files on her desk? They wouldn’t have any excuse to say no, like they did with Morley. That’s because Fox Kennedy worked as a CIA official for some ten years and, thus, surely would have all the required security clearances to review the files. The CIA obviously could not let a Kennedy family member see those files.
Needless to say, it is extremely disappointing to see Trump buckle on any matter relating to the CIA before even he takes office. It would have been nice to see him stand up to the CIA and its supporters in Congress and stick with his initial plans to appoint Fox Kennedy as deputy director.
But of course this is not the first time that Trump has buckled when it comes to the CIA. The last time he was president he announced that he was going to order the release of the long-secret CIA records stretching back to the ARRB’s term in the 1990s. In the week before the scheduled release, however, Trump received a visit by the CIA director. After that visit, Trump announced that he was no longer going to release the records.
Moreover, I am confident that it will not be the last time that Trump buckles with respect to the CIA. Before his election, Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan that if he were to be reelected, this time around he would order the release of those long-secret records. My prediction? The CIA will visit Trump again and oppose the release of its long secret records, at which point I predict that Trump will buckle again, release a few records to make it look good, but keep the vast majority of them secret. Assuming that Trump doesn’t indefinitely delay making a decision, we will soon find out if I am right.
Russia’s Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile grabbed the attention of military observers the world over after it was fired at a major defense-related enterprise in Dnepropetrovsk days after the US and the UK okayed the launch of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles at targets deep inside Russia.
The West is in denial about Russia’s Oreshnik missile that defense systems are powerless to counter, Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Pentagon, told Sputnik.
He pointed out that Russia’s multi-warhead, nuclear-capable Oreshnik has left the United States far behind.
“The US not only does not have a hypersonic offensive system – it doesn’t even have a defensive system that has any hope of stopping Oreshnik and the new class of missiles that are coming out,” the veteran analyst maintained.
While the US scrambles to be in the vanguard of such cutting-edge weapons systems, in effect it tends to “put all the bells and whistles on a system, overprice it and then fall behind,” said Maloof.
Washington is reluctant to acknowledge that both Russia and China have weapons systems that the US does not have, namely, hypersonic missiles.
he pundit speculated that if the United States had remained in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a missile like the Oreshnik might not exist today. He observed that Russia’s clear demonstration of the missile’s unmatched capabilities serves as “another way of Putin telling Trump to maybe reconsider.”
“I think in order to lessen the threshold of war […] and this would be a good start and, at least, beginning with the United States and Russia. And the other countries can follow suit,” said Maloof, adding:
“It’s something that the world needs to really focus in on, recognize, and deal with constructively.”
Roger Ver is facing life in prison for revealing how the US government worked secretly to subvert cryptocurrency and prevent economic freedom. More people should hear this story.
Roger Ver is widely known as “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early promotion of the cryptocurrency. In 1999, at age 19 while in college, Ver founded MemoryDealers.com, the first business to accept bitcoin as payment. Around 2017, the multi-millionaire Bitcoin advocate switched his allegiance to Bitcoin Cash.
Ver calls Bitcoin “one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind.” He is best-known for managing Bitcoin.com from 2015-19. Ver says in the video further below with Tucker Carlson that he bought bitcoin when it cost less than $1. This month, Bitcoin broke through $100K for the first time. Ver points out that some people are now using Monero for more privacy.
Ver relocated to Japan in 2006. When he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, Ver became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis. In April this year, Ver was arrested in Spain at the behest of U.S. authorities while on a trip to Barcelona to attend a crypto conference. The Biden administration wanted to put Ver in jail for 109 years! However, the crypto-friendly Trump administration is unlikely to do that.
US authorities are seeking his extradition on charges including tax evasion, mail fraud, and filing false tax returns. Prosecutors claim Ver undervalued his assets and failed to report ownership of about 131,000 bitcoins. Ver denied the allegations in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Dec. 10. “I wasn’t an American citizen or living in the US at the time these claims were made,” Ver said.
Ver accused the US government of being “angry” not about taxes but about his “lack of obedience.” The Bitcoin evangelist also linked his indictment to the publication in April 2024 of book Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC which he claims exposes government interference in the cryptocurrency industry. Ver is contesting charges made against him by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Tucker Carlson Interview
According to a Bloomberg report, Ver was permitted to leave jail on May 17 on the condition that he hand in his passport and remain in Spain pending a decision on his extradition to the U.S. where he faces $50 million tax evasion charges. Ver was released on bail after posting a €150,000 bail. Ver must report to court every two days and must remain on the island of Maiorca.
Ver says in the video below that only Tucker has interviewed him since his arrest in April. Ver asks people to sign at https://www.freerogernow.org/. The site currently has 16,812 signatures with the goal of 20,000.
Roger Ver is facing life in prison for revealing how the US government worked secretly to subvert cryptocurrency and prevent economic freedom. More people should hear this story.
Known for his early investments in bitcoin (BTC) and his libertarian advocacy, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver faces potential extradition to the United States from Spain on allegations of tax evasion—charges he strongly contests.
“I think they’re not really angry about taxes at all,” Ver told Carlson during his interview, emphasizing what he perceives as the U.S. government’s disapproval of his long-standing promotion of financial autonomy through cryptocurrencies. Often referred to as “Bitcoin Jesus,” Ver was one of the earliest adopters and proponents of cryptocurrency, investing heavily in its ecosystem.
The entrepreneur always advocated for bitcoin to function as peer-to-peer cash, Ver explained, criticizing how he believes the leading cryptocurrency has been transformed into a speculative asset. According to him, early hopes for bitcoin as an alternative to fiat currency were subverted by a combination of intelligence agencies and institutional players.
He detailed these claims in his book, “Hijacking Bitcoin.” Carlson noted the ideological shift in cryptocurrency. The podcast host explained how the promise of bitcoin was freedom—autonomy over your own money, but now it felt different. Carlson said he was “very interested in how that happened.” The interview delved into Ver’s assertions that U.S. agencies have sought to stifle the potential of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
He accused intelligence agencies of intervening early on to promote narratives that reduced bitcoin’s use as a medium of exchange. Ver claimed that online forums such as bitcointalk.org and the Bitcoin subreddit r/bitcoin were manipulated through censorship and propaganda, which allegedly steered the currency away from its decentralized roots.
He asserted that moderators aligned with U.S. intelligence agencies suppressed discussions about scaling bitcoin for global use. Ver, who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014 and adopted St. Kitts and Nevis nationality, questioned the legal basis for his extradition. He emphasized that he was not a U.S. citizen during the years in question and adhered strictly to his tax obligations through legal counsel.
Carlson asked Ver if he felt Bitcoin was originally crafted by U.S. intelligence agencies. “I don’t think it was created that way initially, but I am suspicious and I do think the intelligence agencies and other groups have converted it and hijacked it into becoming a financial trap,” he said.
Despite facing a possible 109-year prison sentence, Ver maintained optimism. He expressed hope that the Spanish courts would reject the extradition request and emphasized the need for public advocacy. “There’s a lot of ways to stop this but the most useful way I think is to get the public to speak out,” Ver remarked. “The more people speak out, the safer all of us can be.”
Ver told Carlson that his supporters set up a website at freerogernow.org and said that the website hosts his Motion to Dismiss. “[This is] where you can literally see for yourself with your own eyes, the U.S. government is literally lying in their indictment and the proof is up there with the emails between myself and my attorneys,” Ver stated. “You can go and see it. Please go take a look at it.”
The bitcoin entrepreneur added:
Don’t take my word for it, take a look at that Motion to Dismiss, they’re lying … they’re lying to the court in Spain they’re just lying every which way, because they don’t want the world to know the truth about cryptocurrencies.
“I’m a little bit surprised that the government of Spain is honoring the extradition request,” Carlson remarked during the interview, diving straight into the heart of the matter with Ver. Calling the U.S. government’s charges “absurd on its face,” Tucker questioned why Spain would even consider going along with such an extreme move. Ver, ever the composed optimist, praised his Spanish attorney’s efforts, sharing that his lawyer in Spain remains “optimistic about the situation,” despite the looming uncertainty. Ver remarked that he is “cautiously optimistic that Spain will see through this.”
Ver stated: President Biden can do the right thing. He just recently pardoned his own son. He can issue a preemptive pardon for me. Trump when he gets into office, if anyone knows what it’s like to be the victim of lawfare, it’s Trump. So I think he’ll be able to see it with this case as well. [Trump] can issue a preemptive pardon for me as well, and for a bunch of other people that deserve it.
“That is just one of the craziest stories I think I ever heard,” Carlson concluded. “Roger, Godspeed, we are just rooting for you fervently and I hope this helps in some small way. You’re in our thoughts.”
Bitcoin was promised to be a liberating technology, a free market alternative to state-controlled money. But that promise was broken after a small group of insiders took over the project and fundamentally changed Bitcoin’s design.
Few people know the true history of Bitcoin and its original design due to years of heavy censorship, social media engineering, and tight information controls online. Hijacking Bitcoin destroys the most popular narratives that surround Bitcoin and sets the historical record straight.
The Biden regime is set to rescind the $10 million bounty on Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of the jihadist terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), following his pivotal role in toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
This decision coincided with al-Jolani’s initial direct talks with U.S. diplomats in Damascus.
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now referring to himself by his birth name as Ahmed al-Sharaa (Muhammad al-Jawlani), is the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian militant group that evolved from the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.
He remains closely associated with the ANF faction and its al-Qaeda ties, raising questions about governance, stability, and the group’s true intentions.
Al-Jolani has been working to persuade the international media and foreign powers that he has transitioned from a terrorist commander to a statesman, but skepticism remains about whether such a transformation is genuine. Even if his intentions are sincere, HTS does not control all of Syria.
Power is shared with groups like the Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish-backed coalition of rebel factions operating primarily in northern Syria.
Now, the Biden regime is set to rescind the $10 million bounty placed under the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program on Abu Mohammad al-Jolan.
However, the U.S. State Department, while lifting the bounty, continues to designate HTS as a terrorist organization.
The declaration of emergency gives California state and local resources to contain the outbreak, including hiring staff or issuing contracts for things like tests or personal protective equipment (PPE).
Governor Gavin Newsom said the move would free up funds and ‘streamline and expedite’ the state’s efforts to tackle the outbreak.
California also declared an emergency over the Covid pandemic, which was lifted in February 2023 after nearly three years.
California has identified H5N1 in 645 dairy herds since its first detection in late August and nearly half of those were reported in the past 30 days, highlighting the rapid spread of the virus.
Thirty-four of the US’ 61 human bird flu cases have also been in California.
California has declared a state of emergency over the emerging bird flu pandemic (stock of workers wearing hazmat suits). The above shows workers in tthe Eden Valley, Minnesota, in 2015. They were responding to a bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm
Many commentators, including officials at the World Health Organization, have criticized the U.S. response to the outbreak.
Experts have described it as a pandemic ‘unfolding in slow motion.’
Until last month, nearly all testing of cattle and of people exposed to infected cows voluntary.
Announcing the state of emergency today, Newsom said: ‘This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak.
‘Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry [and] ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information.
‘While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.’
The CDC also insists the risk of H5N1 spread to people is low and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, which would be needed to cause a large outbreak.
There have been 61 official human cases since 2023, with the CDC identifying seven more ‘probable’ cases.
Thirty-seven of the 61 cases have been traced to interaction with infected cattle, with the remaining infections caused either by diseases birds or an unknown source.
The outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cattle is thought to have begun in Texas early this year. As of Wednesday, 865 infected herds had been identified in 16 states.
But there is growing concern among experts that if allowed to spread unchallenged, the virus will evolve to infect people better.
Every time the virus spreads, particularly between two different species, it acquires mutations which could change the way it behaves.
The US already has a stockpile of about 20million bird flu vaccines in its national stockpile, officials say, which are ‘well matched’ to the H5N1 virus.
It also has the capacity to quickly make 100million more if necessary. There are also supplies of antivirals such as oseltamivir — used to treat the latest US bird flu patient — available. [Ed: why on earth aren’t they stockpiling ivermectin, a well-studied protease inhibitor with proven safety and efficacy in wide spectrum of viral infections?]
There is work ongoing to develop a bird flu vaccine for poultry and tests showing human antivirals work just as well on sick cows.
The above map shows bird flu cases by state in the US that have been recorded this year. The cases are among people
California’s governor has signed more than 20 state of emergencies this year covering all or part of the state. Many of these have been linked to wild fires.
A state of emergency is a formal declaration issued when a significant threat or crisis occurs — such as a natural disaster like flooding, a wildfire or a disease outbreak.
It enables state agencies to use emergency funds and sign contracts with more staff to tackle an emerging threat.
In 2020 when the Covid emergency was declared, Newsom said that the emergency would allow authorities to access more medical supplies ‘without hurdles.’
After California, Washington state has the second highest number of H5N1 infections in people at 11, and Colorado the third highest at 10 people.
The above shows detections of bird flu in wastewater. There is a cluster of detections in the California area
California is also one of two states that has conducted recalls of raw milk after these were found to be contaminated with bird flu.
Almost all milk sold in the US goes through pasteurization, where the milk is quickly heated and cooled to kill off any viruses or bacteria that may be lurking in it.
But raw milk does not go through this process, with experts having raised concerns that this could lead to it transmitting bird flu to consumers.
Earlier this month officials were probing a case of a child who was sickened with bird flu in California to establish whether they caught the disease from raw milk.
In the Louisiana case reported today, investigators say the individual who had fallen severely ill likely caught the disease after handling sick and dead birds in a backyard poultry flock.
No further details on their symptoms were released other than they were ‘severely ill’ with the virus.
The patient is currently being treated in a local hospital and it is not thought that they passed on the infection to others.
The CDC said the patient was infected with the D1.1 strain of the virus, which is linked to wild birds and domestic poultry.
It differs from the strain that is currently circulating among cattle.
With Assad gone, Syria’s future hangs in the balance as foreign powers and internal divisions threaten to pull the country apart. Can a unified state emerge, or is partition inevitable?
For years, discussions of Syria’s Balkanization have lingered as a realistic option that could be imposed on the country one day. The recent political upheaval – marked by the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad – has brought the break-up of the Syrian Arab Republic back into focus.
Over the past decade, Syria has become a stage for competing foreign powers. Russia and Iran supported the Assad government, while the US and its allies, including France, the UK, and Italy, aligned with opposition groups. The actions of Turkiye, and to a lesser extent Qatar, meanwhile, reflected their own ambitions in the fertile crescent of the Levant.
Until recently, four countries – Russia, Iran, Turkiye, and the US – maintained a significant military presence in Syria, collectively controlling 801 bases and outposts, according to this year’s data from the Jusoor Center for Studies.
Competing for influence
Each country’s strategy reflects its interests – with Turkiye supporting the dominant militant faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a UN-designated terrorist organization, and Washington backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ultimately, they all contribute to Syria’s fragmented sovereignty and the competing agendas that dominate its future.
With the collapse of Syria’s former authority, Iran and Hezbollah’s withdrawal, and Russia’s growing uncertainty about its future military presence, new dynamics have emerged that could determine the country’s future. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are taking steps to counterbalance the growing power of HTS and its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, more commonly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.
These Persian Gulf states view recent developments as both a threat and an opportunity. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi fear the return of political Islam, heavily backed by Ankara and Doha, through a Damascus-led gateway. Simultaneously, they see a chance to strengthen their investments in opposition groups to secure influence in shaping Syria’s next ruling structure.
Other than Israel, which now controls swathes of southern Syria, Turkiye has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Assad’s fall. Long opposing his rule, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his stance as early as 2011, warning Assad that his reign would inevitably end.
In November of that year, the Turkish president reportedly told Assad at a meeting in Istanbul: “You can stay in power with tanks and cannons only for a certain period. The day will come when you will leave as well.”
Map showing Syrian territories seized by the Israeli military following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Turkiye and the Kurdish threat
Ankara has consistently pursued its strategic goals in Syria, particularly in curbing Kurdish territorial ambitions. Erdogan repeatedly vowed to launch military operations in northern Syria, aiming to eliminate fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara, the US, and the EU have officially designated a terrorist organization.
The fall of Assad offered Turkiye an unprecedented opportunity to assert its dominance and block the formation of an independent Kurdish entity, and Ankara’s early support of Julani provided it with leverage over its rivals.
Fighting escalated between Turkish-backed forces, including the Syrian National Army (SNA), and US-supported Kurdish militants in the northeast as HTS-led forces gained momentum. Recently, clashes intensified around Ain al-Arab (Kobani), where Turkish troops and their allied militias reportedly massed, raising fears of a new cross-border offensive.
Washington brokered a ceasefire earlier this month between Ankara, Turkish-backed militants, and US-backed Kurdish forces, which has now been extended to the end of this week, according to the US State Department.
However, a Turkish Defense Ministry official disputed this claim on 19 December, telling Reuters that there is no talk of a ceasefire.
Turkish forces continued strikes in areas like Ain al-Arab and Ain Issa, showcasing Ankara’s readiness to capitalize on its current strategic advantage.
Erdogan’s confidence stems from Turkiye’s strengthened position as rival powers like Iran and Russia diminish in influence. Meanwhile, Ankara’s growing sway complicates the SDF’s ability to garner regional support, leaving the group at its weakest point.
The SDF’s recent decision to adopt the three-starred Syrian independence flag suggests an attempt to integrate into Syria’s post-Assad political framework, but its future remains precarious, with fears of renewed attacks by ISIS and other adversaries.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration described the flag as a “symbol of this new stage, as it expresses the aspirations of the Syrian people towards freedom, dignity and national unity.”
Partition: A divisive question
The question of Syria’s partition remains unresolved, influenced by overlapping local, regional, and international factors. The idea gained traction during the so-called Arab Spring and has recently resurfaced, as has the notion of a revival of the Arab Spring and its loosely defined ideals.
Assad’s fall has reignited speculation about splitting the state into distinct entities, including a Sunni-majority region, a Kurdish-controlled federal zone, an Alawite stronghold along the coast, and a Druze enclave in the south.
The transitional government’s ability to maintain Syria’s unity will be a critical factor in testing its stated intention to keep Syria’s territorial integrity whole. Opposition forces, now returning to their original territories, may reorganize and seek roles in shaping the country’s administration.
This recalls the emergence of ‘Rojava’ in northeastern Syria, where the Kurds, in March 2016, declared a federal system from the province of Hasakah. While the Syrian government and most opposition groups rejected this move, the Kurds managed to maintain control over nearly a third of Syria in the intervening years.
Alongside this, discussions about an Alawite stronghold along the coastal Sahel and a Druze entity centered in Suwayda have also regained momentum. In southern Syria, some local armed groups from Suwayda and Daraa, which border Jordan, have actively participated in joint operations with opposition factions.
Map showing the partitioning of Syrian territories based on the speculations that first emerged during the so-called Arab Spring, and are now resurfacing after Assad’s fall.
Holding together a fragile state
It must be noted that the exit of opposition militants from northern Syria and their entrance into all Syrian territories means that the groups once under HTS rule in Idlib have today returned to their basic geography and demographics. This raises the possibility that these groups will reconstitute themselves in their areas and demand a share within the new administration of the country.
The current political stage is marked by anticipation of whether HTS and the interim government can prevent further chaos and consolidate governance under their umbrella. Its leader, Julani, appears to be racing against time to establish a new authority before internal divisions grow insurmountable, all while Israel maintains its grip on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
His strategy includes preserving state institutions, accommodating both resident foreign fighters and minority groups, and sending overtures to Arab states and western powers.
These overtures focus on economic recovery, avoiding incendiary Islamic rhetoric, downplaying Israel’s massive territorial grab in southern Syria, and distancing Damascus from Iran and its allies, all while aiming to encourage the west to lift sanctions. The biggest challenge facing the new authorities is whether they can achieve stability and unity, or whether internal fractures and external pressures will drive Syria further toward chaos and fragmentation.
Map showing the current distribution of control accross Syrian territories.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was originally created in 1906 to protect public safety, but food industry lobbyists gradually gained influence and forced out its first leader Harvey Wiley, who had fought against harmful food additives
Under the FDA’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) designation, many potentially harmful food additives have been allowed into the food supply, with nearly 99% of new food chemicals since 2000 exploiting this loophole
The FDA has consistently opposed natural therapies like DMSO (a chemical shown to help with pain, neurological conditions, and injuries), raw milk, and certain stem cell treatments, while pushing potentially dangerous pharmaceutical alternatives
Historical FDA vaccine scandals include the 1955 polio vaccine contaminated with SV40 virus, the 1976 swine flu vaccine that caused Guillain-Barré syndrome, and Gulf War Syndrome linked to mandated experimental vaccines. Recent controversial FDA approvals include SSRI antidepressants despite known suicide risks, Alzheimer’s drugs with dangerous side effects, and Ozempic for weight loss without sufficient long-term safety data
Proposed reforms include separating approval tracks for conventional and alternative medicines, implementing stronger conflict of interest laws, making trial data public, and creating better mechanisms to revoke approvals of harmful drugs
For most of my life, I’ve observed the FDA belligerently suppress natural treatments and any unorthodox therapy which threatens the medical monopoly while simultaneously railroading through a variety of unsafe and ineffective drugs regardless of how much public protest the agency meets. Consider this 2004 Senate testimony by the FDA scientist who got Vioxx banned that accurately described exactly what would come to pass with the COVID vaccines two decades later: Video Link
As such, I do not hold the FDA in a positive light, especially given that during COVID-19, I (like many others) spent hundreds of hours trying to get the agency to allow the limited use of off-patent therapeutics for COVID-19 — all of which ultimately went nowhere due to the unjustifiable roadblocks the agency kept putting up.
Over the past year, especially since Trump’s election, I’ve received many questions about FDA reform. To address the issue properly, I’ve carefully examined both sides.
In medicine, “sensitivity” refers to a test’s ability to correctly identify those who have a condition (e.g., detecting an infection), while “specificity” measures how well the test avoids false positives (i.e., correctly identifying those who don’t have the condition). The challenge is that improving one often reduces the other.
For example, increasing the PCR cycle threshold in COVID tests made it more likely to detect infections (higher sensitivity), but also increased false positives (lower specificity). This trade-off leads to problems, like breast cancer screenings, where high sensitivity can result in unnecessary “treatments” for women who don’t actually have cancer.1
The FDA faces a similar challenge: it must prevent harmful foods and drugs from reaching the market while ensuring useful products aren’t blocked. Though this seems straightforward, it’s incredibly difficult, and the FDA has often failed at both, even with leadership dedicated to public health.2
Crime Against the Food Law
In the late 1800s, food producers were selling adulterated products, and pharmaceutical companies peddled medicines with secret ingredients like opium and alcohol. Public outrage grew, especially after exposés like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle,3 which helped spark the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.4 This law gave the Bureau of Chemistry the power to ensure accurate labeling and prevent harmful additives in food.
The director of the Bureau of Chemistry (and thus the first head of the FDA), Harvey Wiley5 conducted tests on food additives, proving they made healthy volunteers sick. While the public and many scientists supported his findings, the food industry fought back with powerful lobbyists and legal tactics.
[…]
Gradually, the food industry hijacked the presidency, and in 1912, Wiley resigned, realizing he could achieve more for America’s health as a private citizen than within the government.
Wiley’s book “The History of a Crime Against the Food Law”6 details much of the same abhorrent industry tactics we see happening now. For example, a series of investigative reports7 have recently shown that the processed food industry’s lobbyists are now working fervently behind the scenes to block RFK’s nomination and ability to Make America Healthy Again.
Those tactics also highlight a key point Wiley made — the only way to create change in this industry is to coax the public at large to demand it, as the moment you rely upon the members of the government to fix it, lobbyists will crush those efforts.
[…]
The DMSO Saga
Over the last three months, I’ve begun exploring a remarkable forgotten side of medicine — DMSO. This simple and freely available natural chemical is incredibly effective at treating a variety of (often “incurable”) conditions, including many that are otherwise impossible to treat including:
Strokes, paralysis, a wide range of neurological disorders (e.g., Down Syndrome and dementia) and many circulatory disorders including Raynaud’s, varicose veins, hemorrhoids (discussed here).
Chronic pain (e.g., from a bad disc, bursitis, arthritis or complex regional pain syndrome) and a wide range of tissue injuries including sprains, concussions, burns, surgical incisions, spinal cord injuries (discussed here).
A wide range of autoimmune, protein and contractile disorders such as scleroderma, amyloidosis, and interstitial cystitis (discussed here).
A variety of head conditions, such as tinnitus, vision loss, dental problems, and sinusitis (discussed here).
A wide range of internal organ diseases such as pancreatitis, infertility, and liver cirrhosis (discussed here).
A wide range of skin conditions including acne, herpes, hair loss, varicose veins (discussed here).
Likewise, since publicizing this research, I’ve received over a thousand reports from readers who then took it and had almost unbelievable results that precisely match what many reported in the 1960s and 1970s.
This all raises a simple question. How is it that no one knows about DMSO or that an agent that could dramatically reduce the need for opioids18 or prevent millions with stroke and spinal cord injury from having a life of disability19 never saw the light of day?
As DMSO rapidly spread across America in the 1960s, the FDA reversed its initial positive stance, declaring DMSO dangerous without evidence. This move aimed to avoid processing a flood of new drug applications, protect the status quo and then justify the FDA’s newfound police powers.
Despite extensive safety studies showing DMSO posed no risk to humans,20 for decades, the FDA continued to demonize it, claiming a lack of evidence for efficacy21 (as DMSO’s characteristic effects make blinded trials with it impossible).
Because of this, DMSO only became available decades later after the public got fed up with the FDA targeting natural medicines and the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act22 was enacted (which removed the FDA’s ability to regulate natural medicines).
The FDA’s War Against Natural Medicine
Shortly before the election, RFK Jr. gave what I considered to be one of the most important statements in the entire campaign:
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This tweet23 touched upon the fact that for decades the American Medical Association has done everything it can to remove life-changing natural therapies from the market that compete with the medical monopoly (e.g., ultraviolet blood irradiation and alternative cancer cures) and the FDA has followed in their footsteps. For example:
GHB — In the 1990s, a life-changing natural sleep aid spread across America that safely cured insomnia — so the FDA banned it. In contrast, sleeping pills block restorative sleep (which is critical for health) and make you 2 to 5X more likely to die.
Psychedelic therapy — MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is the only existing effective treatment for veterans with PTSD, but the FDA has blocked its approval despite compelling (“uncontrolled”) clinical trials.24 Veterans hence often seek treatment abroad due to FDA restrictions.
Chelation therapy — EDTA chelation therapy (especially a low doses25) is effective for cardiovascular health, but the FDA has consistently targeted it despite the NIH reluctantly proving it worked.26
Umbilical cord blood stem cells — FDA regulations under Biden made it difficult to offer this life-changing therapy and shut down the companies who provided it.
Raw milk — The FDA has targeted raw milk sellers, despite growing demand and evidence that pasteurization destroys critical nutrients and creates allergens.
[…]
Infant formula and seed oils — The Infant Formula Act of 1980 mandates formulas include problematic seed oils, which may contribute to childhood obesity, as they impair metabolism and promote rapid weight gain.29
Vaccine Coverups
Many have been horrified to learn that the FDA and CDC systematically ignored every possible sign the COVID vaccines were dangerous as they pushed it on more and more people (e.g., recently leaked recordings show how stubbornly the head of FDA’s vaccine division refused to acknowledge any of the evidence brought forward by a group of permanently injured vaccine recipients).
This severe betrayal of trust from our authorities thus made many ask, “How could this have happened?” In truth, this did not come out of nowhere. Rather it was simply the subsequent escalation of a longstanding tendency by the government to push vaccines they knew were unsafe and ineffective to market.30 Video Link
Vaccine coverups and failures by the FDA and CDC
Historical vaccine disasters — Many vaccine-related issues have been ignored or covered up by health authorities, including many deadly “hot lot” incidents.
Polio vaccine issues — In the 1950s, defective rushed polio vaccine contained live polio viruses and caused cases of paralysis. Further, it was later discovered that the vaccine contained SV40,31 a cancer-causing virus, which was also not disclosed to the public. Around 40 to 98 million Americans were exposed to SV40, leading to a massive wave of cancer cases.32
[…]
Influenza vaccine failures — In 1945, a government scientist discovered that early flu vaccines were ineffective and unsafe. Despite this, the scientist faced retaliation and the vaccines were released. This led to a 1972 Senate hearing that removed 32 dubious vaccines from the market.
Swine flu vaccine disaster (1976) — The swine flu vaccine, released despite evidence showing the flu posed no risk, caused hundreds of cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome, paralysis, and deaths. Like the Polio vaccines, the FDA was warned by its own scientists these vaccines were not safe but nonetheless pushed them to market.
However it occurred in an era when 60 Minutes was willing to do a segment on the disaster (which has numerous remarkable parallels to what happened during COVID-19). Video Link
Gulf War Syndrome — During the Gulf War, the FDA waived the protections soldiers had from experimental drugs and U.S. soldiers were given many,34 including a disastrous anthrax vaccine35 (which due to its rushed “emergency” production was contaminated). A wave of severe chronic illness (Gulf War Syndrome) followed, affecting 250,000 veterans (discussed further here). Despite this, the vaccine remained mandated for decades until a court overturned it in 2004.
HPV vaccine controversy — The lucrative HPV vaccine, was approved by the FDA despite red flags throughout the clinical trials (e.g., high rates of autoimmunity, death, and it causing cervical cancer — discussed further here). Once it hit the market, a tsunami of injuries occurred, yet the FDA and CDC continued to relentlessly defend and promote the vaccine.
Other disastrous drug approvals
SSRI antidepressants — The FDA approved SSRIs like Prozac despite poor evidence for their effectiveness36 and known severe side effects including suicidal tendencies, emotional numbness, violent behavior and mass shootings. These risks were concealed from the public, despite extensive complaints and lawsuits later showing those dangers were detected in the trials.37
Alzheimer’s drugs — A new and misguided class of Alzheimer’s drugs,38 despite failing to show efficacy and causing dangerous side effects like brain swelling and bleeding in 40% of participants,39 was approved by the FDA after bypassing an advisory committee’s negative vote. The agency’s manipulation of the approval process raised red flags, leading to widespread scrutiny.40
This is 0.05% of the corpses of Ukrainian and NATO soldiers currently littering Kursk Region
Dmitry Orlov
As the date of Trump’s second inauguration approaches, various talking heads are devoting more and more breath to the topic of peace negotiations that Trump will enter into with Putin to end the conflict in the Ukraine. All of them assume that Trump can win valuable concessions from Putin. The NYT has for the first time admitted that the patient (the Ukraine) is dead and starting to smell, and it’s time for them to start planning the post-war phase of the conflict. Here is a rundown of the offers the talking heads consider possible. The experts there see just four versions of the agreement to be signed, which has to guarantee the Ukraine’s security in some way (to make sure that “Russian aggression” is kept under control).
1. Russia keeps the formerly Ukrainian territories it has liberated so far while the rest of the Ukraine joins NATO. But there is no consensus within NATO on allowing the Ukraine to join and, more importantly, Trump is opposed. And all of that is irrelevant since the Russian position since 1991 is that the Ukraine has to be militarily neutral and not a member of any military blocs or alliances. Let us strike this one off the list right away: anybody who uses the words “Ukraine” and “NATO” in the same sentence is wasting your time.
2. Russia keeps the formerly Ukrainian territories it has liberated so far while the rest of the Ukraine is to be patrolled by some consortium of European peacekeeping forces. This seems reasonable at first glance, since Trump certainly won’t send any US forces to do this dirty work, except… the Russian position since 1991 is that the Ukraine has to be militarily neutral and not a member of any military blocs or alliances. And having foreign troops on Ukrainian soil doesn’t qualify it as neutral; therefore, these forces will be dispatched to God or Allah or whatever upon arrival and, consequently, sending them to the Ukraine is definitely not a step toward peace. Strike this one off the list as well: anybody who suggests that European peacekeeping forces be deployed in the Ukraine is wasting your time.
3. Same thing, except European peacekeeping forces would be under NATO command. It doesn’t matter whose command these Europeans would be under; they’d still end up dead, so strike this one off the list as well.
4. “Armed neutrality”: Russia keeps whatever territory it controls at the moment while the Ukraine gets to flex its military muscle not subject to any restrictions on the size of its army or the number and type of conventional weapons at its disposal. The eggheads at the NYT think that this is the most achievable plan, although not as advantageous for the Ukraine (since they’d have to actually do something — flex, that is). Except that the Istanbul memorandum— the last deal negotiated between the Ukraine and Russia back in 2022, and which the Ukraine then refused to sign — spelled out the exact type and number of troops and weapons the Ukraine would be allowed to keep in its neutral, demilitarized, denazified final form. And it is this memorandum, updated to reflect new facts on the ground, that the Russians would be willing to go back to if negotiations were to resume.
As you see, the US, NATO and Europe have nothing. It seems very likely that the current bout of bargaining, as a stage of the grieving process, has to do with Trump waving good-bye to the Ukraine, wanting to extricate the US from the proxy conflict with Russia his predecessor started as quickly and cheaply as possible, without accepting any responsibility for anything and certainly without extending any security guarantees to the Ukraine. All that remains is to get the Russian side to make a concession — any concession, no matter how symbolic and inconsequential — so that the abandonment of the Ukraine doesn’t look like an outright defeat. That seems like a plan, except…
Except that Russia is at this point no longer interested in any negotiations with the Ukraine, the US, NATO or the EU over the fate of the Ukraine. Ever since the coup in 2014, Russia has tried repeatedly to come up with some nonviolent way to resolve the conflict between the West and the Ukraine’s Russian majority, but to no avail — because it was lied to at every step. Minsk 1 and 2 agreements were all entered into with the goal of buying time to arm and train the Ukraine’s troops, not in pursuit of peace. Istanbul was negotiated successfully but then Boris Johnson flew to Kiev and demanded that the war continue down to the last Ukrainian (which it almost has by now, given that the Ukrainians are getting ready to start drafting 18-year-olds). At this point, even Bloomberg’s analysts admit that “Russia has no motives to compromise because it is winning.”
Furthermore, Russia has no reason to want to enter into any sorts of negotiations with Trump or with the EU/NATO people that Trump’s people will soon start pushing around. Last summer, Putin specified that in order to start the negotiations, all sanctions on Russia would have to be lifted. Russia doesn’t need to have these sanctions lifted (its economy is growing nicely even with the sanctions in place) but it’s a point of law: these sanctions are not approved by the UN Security Council and are therefore illegal. And why would Russia enter into negotiations on the basis of state-legal relations with entities that are in violation of international law? Here we have the irresistible force that are the sanctions meeting the immovable object that is Russia and the obvious result is no negotiations at all.
If the EU and the US were to have an epiphany, realize that their 40 thousand illegal sanctions hurt them and help Russia, and swiftly repeal them all (unlikely as that seems), the next stumbling block is the idea of freezing the conflict along the current line of separation. The line of separation is in motion and by the time the negotiations are over it could be someplace else entirely. Also, the line of separation runs across Russian territory since the regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson were accepted into the Russian Federation in their entirety, not piecemeal, and as both Putin and FM Lavrov said, Russian sovereignty is not for sale. Furthermore, the line of separation runs through parts of Kharkov and Sumy regions, but this by no means completes the list of formerly Ukrainian territories that will become (once again) part of Russia. Not knowing what it is you are negotiating over is not a good position from which to enter negotiations.
Lastly, even if all such roadblocks were to be removed, an ultimate roadblock would remain: Russia has nothing to gain from entering into negotiations with Trump, the EU or NATO. It is to Russia’s advantage to simply continue doing what it is doing. What the Russian people want is not some negotiated peace with negotiating partners they no longer trust at all because they know them to be liars, war criminals and terrorists. What the Russian people want is outright, total victory — glory for their troops and humiliation for the enemy. Ideally, the victory would come in time for the 80th anniversary celebration on May 9th, 2025 (and if you don’t know what that anniversary is of, you know nothing about Russia). In turn, Russian politicians would only be too happy to oblige, seeing as that is the direction in which developments on the battlefield are moving. Don’t bother the Russians — they are busy winning!
If negotiations are impossible, what is left? “Escalation,” some would eagerly exclaim; “World War III!” Well, the Russian leadership has addressed this question during Putin’s recent address before the Ministry of Defense. To summarize briefly:
• The year 2024 has put Russian forces firmly in control of strategic initiative over the entire line of contact in the Ukraine. Thousands of square kilometers of territory and scores of population centers are being cleared of Ukrainian troops.<
• Russia’s military now numbers 1.5 million men, many of them battle-tested, while breakthrough weapons such as Oreshnik, which obviates the need for a nuclear response, are entering mass production.
• Russia is preparing to respond to any provocation, including armed conflict with NATO in Europe during the next decade. Given than Russia now has the strongest and most battle-tested military force on the planet, it is in NATO’s and Europe’s interest to avoid armed conflict with Russia at all costs.
The conclusion of the conflict in the Ukraine has already been written down. That document resides at the Kremlin and no, we won’t be told what’s in it. No US, EU or NATO involvement in considering it or revising it is called for or will be accepted. Russia is winning. The objectives of its Special Military Operation in the Ukraine are being achieved.
But the fact remains that the Ukrainian proxy war, instigated in early 2022 and perpetuated ever since by the Biden clan, has cost over a million Ukrainian lives and an order of magnitude fewer but still a considerable number of Russian lives. Since the Ukraine always was and always will be a part of greater Russia (check historical maps if you have any doubts about this), those Ukrainian lives are Russian lives as well. Take this to mean that American actions have resulted in the deaths of over a million Russians. Rest assured that Russia will find a way to avenge their deaths. The Russians, by their nature, are not vindictive. They just have very good memory and they like to settle scores. They are also very patient and will wait to act until the US is at its weakest.
And so, I have some good news for Americans as well as some bad news.
The good news is that they won’t die in a nuclear inferno any time soon. Russia will be too busy winning to bother with them. And then, as Putin put it during yesterday’s marathon 4-hour public Q&A, the Russians will have to “think about home.” The key topics for Russians, as summarized by artificial intelligence from the over 2 million questions they asked, are, in order of their prevalence, as follows: housing and subsidized mortgages, medicine, transportation, finances, welfare of servicemen, pensions and hooking up rural residences to gas pipelines. America, if you notice, is nowhere on this list.
The bad news is that Americans will eventually have to pay for the crimes committed by their government.
Nearly all the preconditions for a market bubble are met, says UBS.
Market meltdown incoming?
This is 0.05% of the corpses of Ukrainian and NATO soldiers currently littering Kursk Region
The Most Revolutionary Act 