By Jack Phillips of the Epoch Times

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s military has taken over a buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established decades ago, after Syrian opposition fighters ended the rule of President Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long reign.

The reason Israel seized the territory is because “we have to take action against possible threats” caused by the power vacuum left by the Assad regime’s collapse, he said.

“We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel,” the prime minister added. “This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”

Netanyahu said Assad’s downfall is a “historic day” for the region, adding that the the new situation in Syria “offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers.”

His announcement was delivered in Golan Heights.

Syria’s collapse, he also said, is the result of Israeli action against Iran and the Hezbollah terrorist group, which had been allied with both Iran and Assad for years. Iran and several groups loyal to Tehran had long used military bases in Syria, while Israel at times carried out air strikes against those positions over the years.

“It set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its oppression,” Netanyahu said.

Israel is extending “a hand of peace to all those beyond our border in Syria: to the Druze, to the Kurds, to the Christians, and to the Muslims who want to live in peace with Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We’re going to follow events very carefully. If we can establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that’s our desire.”

“But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel.”

On Sunday, rebel groups and militias cooperating with terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting, witnesses said.

“The future is ours,” he said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV after his forces took over Damascus.

Underscoring the major changes, Iran’s embassy was stormed by Syrian rebels, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Syria’s fate is the sole responsibility of the Syrian people and should be pursued without foreign imposition or destructive intervention.

Continue reading at the Epoch Times

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Until recently, a serious geopolitical working hypothesis was that West Asia and Ukraine were two vectors of the standard Hegemon modus operandi, which is to incite and unleash Forever Wars. Now both wars are united in an Omni-War.

A coalition of Straussian neo-cons in the US, hardcore revisionist Zionists in Tel Aviv and Ukrainian neo-nazi shades of grey is now betting on a Final Confrontation – with several overtones ranging from expanding lebensraum to provoking the Apocalypse.

What stands in their way is essentially two of the top BRICS: Russia and Iran.

China, self-protected by their collective lofty dream of “community of a shared future for mankind”, warily watches on the sidelines, as they know that at the end of the road, the true “existential” war by the Hegemon will be against them.

Meanwhile, Russia and Iran need to mobilize for Totalen Krieg. Because that’s what the enemy is launching.

Undermining BRICS and the INSTC

The total destabilisation of Syria, with heavy CIA-MI6 input, now proceeding in real time, is a carefully engineered gambit to undermine BRICS and beyond.

It proceeds in parallel to Pashinyan removing Armenia from the CSTO – based on a US promise to support Yerevan in a possible new clash with Baku; India being encouraged to ramp up a weapons race with Pakistan; and across-the-board intimidation of Iran.

So this is also a war to destabilize the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), of which the three major protagonists are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India.

As it stands, the INSTC is totally geopolitical risk-free. As a top BRICS corridor-in-the-making, it carries the potential to become even more effective than several of China’s cross-Heartland corridors of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The INSTC would be a key lifeline for a great deal of the global economy in case of a direct confrontation between the US/Israel combo and Iran – with the possible shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz leading to the collapse of a multi-quadrillion pile of financial derivatives, economically imploding the collective West.

Turkiye under Erdogan, as usual, is playing a double game. Rhetorically, Ankara stands by a genocide-free and sovereign Palestine. In practice, the Turkiye supports and funds a motley crew of Greater Idlibistan jihadis – trained by Ukrainian Neo-nazis in drone warfare and with weapons financed by Qatar – who have just marched on and conquered Aleppo, Hama, and possibly beyond.

If this army of mercenaries were real followers of Islam, they would be marching in defense of Palestine.

At the same time, the real picture inside the corridors of power in Tehran is extremely murky. There are factions favoring getting closer to the West, which clearly would have ramifications for the Axis of Resistance’s ability to fight Tel Aviv.

On Lebanon, Syria never wavered. History explains why: from the point of view of Damascus, Lebanon historically remains a governorate, so Damascus is responsible for the security of Beirut.

And that’s one of Tel Aviv’s key motives to propel the current Salafi-jihadi offensive on Syria – after smashing virtually every communication corridor between Syria and Lebanon. What Tel Aviv could not accomplish on the ground – a victory over Hezbollah in southern Lebanon – has been replaced by isolating Hezbollah from the Axis of Resistance.

When in Doubt, Re-Read Xenophon

Wars in West Asia are a complex mix of national, sectarian, tribal and religious vectors. In a sense, they are endless wars; controllable to an extent, but then back again.

The Russian strategy in Syria seemed to be very precise. As it was impossible to normalize a completely fragmented nation, Moscow opted to free the Syria that really matters – the capital, the most important cities, and the Eastern Mediterranean coast – from the Salafi-jihadi mobs.

The problem is that freezing the war in 2020, with direct implication by Russia, Iran and (reluctantly) Turkiye, did not solve the “moderate rebel” problem. Now they’re back – in full force, supported by a vast Rent-a-Jihadi mob, with NATOstan Intel behind them.

Some things never change.

2012. Jake Sullivan, then an aide to Hillary Clinton: “AQ [al-Qaeda*] is on our side in Syria.”

2021. James Jeffrey, special envoy to Syria under Trump (2018-2020): “HTS [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*] is an asset to the US’s strategy in Idlib.”

There could not be better timing for the revival of the HTS “asset”. HTS if filling an enormous void; beware when that happens in West Asia. Russia is fully concentrated on Ukraine. Hezbollah suffered heavily from Tel Aviv’s bombings and serial killing. Tehran is fully concentrated on how to deal with Trump 2.0.

History always teaches us. Syria is now a West Asian Anabasis. Xenophon – a soldier and writer – tell us how, in the 4th century B.C., an “expedition” (“anabasis”, in Ancient Greek) of 10,000 Greek mercenaries were engaged by Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes II, King of Persia, from Armenia to the Black Sea. The expedition miserably failed – and the painful return journey was endless.

2,400 years later, we see governments, armies and mercenaries still plunging into the endless West Asia wars – and extracting themselves now is even more insoluble.

Syria now is tired, attritted, with the SAA becoming complacent with the long freeze of the war since 2020. All that coupled with the vicious starvation siege unleashed by the US Caesar Act, and the impossibility to start rebuilding the nation with the help of at least 8 million citizens who fled the endless war.

Over these past 4 years, problems piled up. There were endless breaches of the Astana process and Israel bombed Syria almost daily with impunity.

China was basically immobile. Beijing simply did not invest in the rebuilding of Syria.

Perspective is sobering. Even Russia – which is a de facto Resistance icon in itself, even if not formally part of the West Asian Axis of Resistance – has taken nearly three years of hard slog in its fight with Ukraine.

Only a cohesive, consolidated Axis of Resistance – after getting rid of countless 5thcolumnists working inside – would have a chance against being picked off one by one by the same consolidated enemy, over and over again.

Sometimes it feels like the BRICS – particularly China – haven’t learned anything from Bandung in 1955, and how the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) was neutralized.

You can’t beat a pitiless hegemonic hydra with flower power.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned Department of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy that Senate Republicans are moving to allow the Department of Defense, which has failed seven audits in a row, to exceed its spending limits. The Kentucky Republican highlighted the issue this week on Fox News’s ‘The Ingraham Angle.’

Sen. @RandPaul warns DOGE leaders @elonmusk and @VivekGRamaswamy that Senate Republicans’ first proposed budget reconciliation seeks to bust the Pentagon’s spending caps. pic.twitter.com/zmLEWiQTYV

— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) December 9, 2024

LAURA INGRAHAM: I know you have been constantly focused on this, and you have been with Vivek this week. What ideas have you given him because he is looking to you for ideas, other than, of course, as we were saying, getting the federal workers.

SEN. RAND PAUL: One of my favorite examples of federal workers not showing up is from a few years ago. We had an assistant to the head of the EPA, and he told his boss that he also worked for the CIA. He said he would be gone for six months at a time. Finally, during a government shutdown, someone said, “Hey, Mr. Smith, we understand this guy works for you. We haven’t seen him in six months.” They replied, “Who?” They had never heard of the guy.

The man completely made up a story about working for the CIA, and for nearly a decade, millions of dollars were paid to him while he didn’t show up. He’d be lounging around saying, “I’m on a secret mission to the Middle East, can’t talk.” That kind of stuff runs rampant throughout government.

People say you can’t balance a budget by making people go back to work, but you certainly can start. When Elon Musk told Twitter employees to go back to work, a third of them quit—they weren’t used to working. Then, when he told them they’d have to do overtime, another third quit. You can get rid of a lot of people, and that saves a lot of money.

There are many rules that protect federal workers, but some of these need to change, and we need to outsource certain things. I had it out with the Postmaster General the other day. Two years ago, the Postal Service lost $6.5 billion. Last year, they lost $9.5 billion. The only way to fix this is to implement better rules that require accountability. You can’t keep hiring more government employees. You have to make them nongovernmental employees.

LAURA INGRAHAM: How difficult is that process? Everybody knows that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are both brilliant individuals. They are extremely capable—obviously, Elon is the richest person in the world. Washington, however, is its own beast. As smart as they are, getting stuff done will be a challenge. A lot will rest with you in Congress.

SEN. RAND PAUL: One of the big things Elon did with SpaceX to reduce costs was to move away from cost-plus contracts to competitive contracts. I think that can be done by the executive branch. They can lay off people, downsize, and switch to competitive contracts. Is that going to balance the budget? Not alone.

I’m for getting rid of all this waste. When the federal and state governments cut welfare, aid, and food stamps, the states need to take on more responsibility. Because the Federal Reserve and our debt are financing the federal portion, states will have to become more fiscally responsible. They’ll either need to raise taxes to fund benefits or be more conservative about who qualifies.

To be clear, I’m for looking at entitlements, waste—everything—because it’s such an enormous problem. If you put the military off the table and entitlements off the table, you’re left with only 16% of the budget. Even if you eliminate that, you don’t get anywhere close to balancing the budget. So, while I’m for eliminating waste, I’m also for reviewing all spending.

LAURA INGRAHAM: The Pentagon, which I mentioned, has so much waste and so many duplicative initiatives inside the Defense Department. They fail the audits year after year. Have you been on top of this? Republicans, frankly, have been rubber-stamping the Pentagon budget for decades. That has to change.

SEN. RAND PAUL: It’s worse than that, Laura. Right now, the first budget reconciliation that the Republicans are proposing is to bust the Pentagon caps. We have military spending caps, but spending is still going upwards. All the old guardrails in the Senate—you know who they are—are going to bust the military caps with their first budget reconciliation. Same as the first budget.

Authored by Randy Tatano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—unless you have no idea what to buy someone, you receive an absolute disaster of a gift, or someone gives you a present when you haven’t bought them anything.

Fear not, for there is help for those who find the whole concept of shopping and gift exchanging stressful. We asked three experts in etiquette (yes, that still exists) to help take the anxiety out of the process.

Finding the Elusive Perfect Gift

Your rich aunt doesn’t need anything, your best friend never wants anything, and you have no idea what your favorite coworker does for fun. You’re clueless as to what to buy these people. Turns out, you simply need to put on your thinking cap or ask a question or two.

“It’s just about paying attention to the people in your life, being really thoughtful, and thinking from their shoes,” said Jennifer L. Scott, bestselling author of the “Madame Chic” series on etiquette and manners. “What would they really like to receive?”

If there’s someone on your gift list you don’t know that well, talk to someone close to that person to get some ideas.

“It’s such a great strategy to ask people who know them better than you do. The people closer to them will be able to help you,” Scott said.

Diane Gottsman, who runs The Protocol School of Texas, suggests even asking the recipients themselves.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong within your own family or within your own friend group saying, ‘Hey, listen, what do you need? What would you like? What would light up your life?’” she said. ”You have to think about each person if you really want to do it right. You’re fine-tuning it for that individual.”

Bethany Friske, founder of Doors of Success School of Etiquette, agrees that being thoughtful requires what the word implies: some thought. Know enough about the person on your list.

“You want to be aware of the person’s personality and not give them something that they would never, ever use just because it’s something that you like,” she said. If you don’t know someone well, she recommends against giving a gift that is super personal, such as jewelry or home decor.

“I love to give something that the person didn’t know they needed or wouldn’t spend on themselves, yet I know the person well enough [to know] that they would love it—filling a need that they didn’t know they had,” she added. For example, her mother had a Christmas figurine set from her own mother, from the 1950s, with a broken piece. Her sister found and gifted her a replacement. “My mom was overjoyed and completely blessed by the thought of this gift!”

Friske also suggests keeping a record of your gifts so you don’t end up giving someone the same present twice, especially if someone’s been on your gift list for years. She keeps a gift-giving journal.

“You can go back and find out what you gave to the person, and even how much you spent,” she said.

And if all else fails, cash or gift cards get Gottsman’s stamp of approval. But again, she suggests putting some thought into it to make it look like an actual present.

“It’s the presentation that counts,” she said. Don’t just stick it in a plain envelope; put it in a pretty card or a beautifully wrapped box.

“Cash is king, because when you give a beautiful holiday card to someone and insert cash, that gives them the freedom to buy whatever they would like,” she added. Just make sure any gift cards are for stores or restaurants the recipient actually likes.

Scott says cash is a great gift for young people: “Cash gifts for older children are always appreciated.”

For younger kids, she adds that classic toys that will last a long time are always a good idea.

“I think it’s nice for children to give them timeless, high-quality things, rather than toys that are going to break down,” she said. A little girl who receives a beautiful dollhouse might keep it forever as a reminder of her best childhood memories, and eventually might pass it down to her own daughter.

Remember that a beautiful package is often the one that’s opened first, so make sure your gifts stand out. Thankfully, someone figured out that most guys can’t do a decent job wrapping a box or tying a pretty bow. So whoever came up with the idea of the colorful gift bag, every man thanks you.

Professional Gifts Should Be Professional

If you have coworkers or clients on your Christmas list, remember, it’s business. Gottman says you shouldn’t get too personal with gifts, like perfume or a massage.

“You want to keep it professional,“ she said. ”Maybe tickets to a theater, or to a game that you know they like. Something generic, but nice. Something thoughtful.”

Scott suggests if you have a lot of coworkers, you might want to give them all the same thing. “Generic but nice” works here, too.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big ticket item,” she said. “Maybe bake cookies for all of them and wrap them up in pretty packages. Homemade cookies—who wouldn’t want to receive that?”

Significant Gifts for Your Significant Other

Your current significant other might be your soulmate—or might not. Too early to tell? You want a gift that’s thoughtful without possibly scaring the other person away. Gottsman suggests something “lighthearted and kind,” such as a dinner at that person’s favorite restaurant.

Read the rest here…

Authored by Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov via Headline USA,

The Los Angeles Times’ owner recently revealed that the newspaper will add a bias meter to its website in 2025…

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who acquired the newspaper in 2018, told CNN political commentator Scott Jennings on his Flyover Country podcast that he’s been “quietly building” an AI meter “behind the scenes,” adding that it would be available on the website in January 2025.

“Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias,” he said.

“And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias and then that story automatically, the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story based on that story and then give comments.”

He then stated that the reason why the mainstream media is dying is because the major news outlets failed to separate news and opinion sections.

The Los Angeles Times Guild, the union representing hundreds of the newspaper’s newsroom staffers, criticized the Times owner for claiming that the newspaper is highly biased, stating that Soon-Shiong didn’t provide any evidence or examples.

“Our members — and all Times staffers — abide by a strict set of ethics guidelines, which call for fairness, precision, transparency, vigilance against bias and an earnest search to understand all sides of an issue,” the union stated Thursday.

“Those longstanding principles will continue guiding our work.”

The recent news came after the newspaper decided not to endorse former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for president, which resulted in leftists canceling their newspaper subscriptions and journalists at the Times quitting their jobs to protest the decision.

Soon after the 2024 election, the newspaper’s leadership announced that it fired everyone on its far-left editorial board to ensure the newspaper would become politically neutral. After doing that, the Times hired Jennings to be a part of the new, unbiased editorial board.

Since the overnight hours Damascus has been under the control of the Islamist militants led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and backed by Turkey. The country’s President Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown, and his whereabouts are unknown, after the extremely rapid insurgent advance out of Idlib, where city after city fell starting with Aleppo in a matter of about a mere week. And just like that 50 years of Assad family rule has ended, and a new extremely unpredictable era of Syria begins. 

Will the country hopelessly fracture as did Iraq and Libya for years after their strongman leaders were overthrown? Will there be mass reprisal killings? Will Christians, Alawites, and Shia be subject to mass persecution and extermination? Will the country, which has already been through over 13 years of horrific proxy war, descend into sectarian and factional chaos and hell? Will Sharia law be enforced by gunpoint? Or will some semblance of a stable transitional government emerge? 

One thing is for sure, a US-designated terrorist has emerged as the current de facto ruler of Damascus and of Syria. At this very moment Washington has a $10 million bounty on his head, given his career as a jihadist began with al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) which was killing American troops in Iraq. 

The jihadist factions entered Damascus overnight without a fight from the Syrian Army, and videos quickly emerged of armed fighters entering both the presidential palace (or office) as well as Assad’s private residence in Malki neighborhood.

State television stations broadcast a message from HTS leaders urging calm and a stable transition of power. New rules for Damascus include a curfew imposed from 4pm to 5am local time, according to the local Al Watan newspaper.

Rule by ‘Al Qaeda in suits’… technocratic jihad:

While the mood on the streets has been generally jubilant, gunfire has been heard – but more likely this is from anti-Assad fighters firing in celebration into the air. Western mainstream media has also been celebratory, generally ignoring HTS’ obvious Al Qaeda links past and present.

But for every scene the media highlights of a few hundred people celebrating in a central square, there are many more thousands of families huddled and fearful in their homes, not knowing what entity or Islamist faction controls the checkpoint around the block.

So far at least one central building has gone up in flames – the former government’s passport and immigration building. It remains unclear why or what the precise cause was.

Amid all of this Israel has continued to attack some locations in Syria, also with reports overnight that Israeli tanks pushed further into a strip of southern Syria in the Golan area. Other buildings are on fire elsewhere in the Damascus region.

Al Jazeera writes:

Images show a building on fire in Damascus after a suspected air attack. It’s believed that the Israelis may have struck what is believed to be a munitions depot close to the airport.

The Israeli media reported earlier on Sunday that the Israeli air force has bombed weapons depots in southern Syria and Damascus to prevent opposition groups from seizing them.

Syrian Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali might be installed to head of a transitional government amid promises of stability, based on a potential deal or ‘security guarantees’ involving Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the Gulf powers.

Syria’s🇸🇾 Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali leaves his hotel to officially hand over power to the terrorist groups led by Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham, after the fall of President Assad.

Washington has succeeded; after punishing the Syrian people with crippling sanctions that… pic.twitter.com/d7butlCiqs

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) December 8, 2024

As for Assad’s current whereabouts, The Wall Street Journal speculates as follows:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was in Damascus on Saturday, fled the country early Sunday local time but his current whereabouts were still unknown, according to Syrian security officials and Arab officials. Russia’s foreign ministry said later in the day that he had stepped down and left the country.

Assad had announced he would address the nation at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, but the speech never occurred. The president’s wife and children left for Russia in late November, while his brothers-in-law left for the United Arab Emirates, Syrian security officials and Arab officials said.

Below: the breaching of the presidential palace, where Assad had conducted daily work in his office…

Syrian rebels have entered the presidential palace gates in Damascus..pic.twitter.com/ymz8JqHhPh

— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) December 8, 2024

Will the transition from Assad to “al-Qaeda in suits” be stable? Will a ‘Taliban-lite’ emerge? Is Sharia law coming… implemented by a terror and Islamist iron fist?

Never forget what happens when you turn your brain off pic.twitter.com/cbx2nN23eQ

— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) December 8, 2024

Nothing is certain at this point, and there are likely more dark days ahead. 

U.S. Embassy Syria, 16 May 2017: https://t.co/f6EteiE8Zg pic.twitter.com/A98iHnulbK

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 8, 2024

developing…

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

We haven’t published anything about bird flu since June. There hasn’t been much to say. Nevertheless, I still regularly comb through journals and news sites, ensuring we don’t miss anything potentially important.

During one such search yesterday evening I found this article in the journal Science, its title asking simply:

Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started?

…and, you know what, that’s a good question. Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started?

Not literally, of course. The bird flu “pandemic” won’t ever really start. If or when it is declared it will be a lie, just like Covid.

The question is why haven’t they started the big roll out yet?

That is obviously the plan after all.

The establishment has been signposting “the next pandemic” since before Covid sidled off the world stage. “Pandemic preparedness” has been a buzz phrase at all the intergovernmental panels and UN summits for at least two years. All the indications were that bird flu was the anointed successor.

But it’s all come to nothing so far.

Bird flu hasn’t become “the next pandemic”, it hasn’t become really anything at all, it’s barely even grazed the major news cycle.

Instead, the story has been stuck in a strange holding pattern, circling around with dire warnings of imminent danger, only to swoop away from the runway before its wheels touch down.

A pot that never boils despite the fact nobody’s really watching.

Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic happened yet? What are they waiting for?

Well, Donald Trump, apparently, amongst other things.

That’s isn’t speculation, it’s definite messaging. It looks as if some sort of narrative about Trump failing to do enough, or the right things to handle the “crisis” might be in the offing.

Earlier today, MSNBC ran the headline:

Why the threat of bird flu makes Trump’s transition problematic – Could an unqualified public health leadership team deal with a new pandemic?

Mother Jones thinks “Avian Flu Could Define Trump’s Second Presidency”, the Nation asks simply “Will There Be a Bird Flu Epidemic Under Trump?”, AXIOS claims Trump’s potential bird flu response “raises alarms”.

NOTUS is already explaining why Trump’s planned mass deportations will make bird flu worse.

On November 26th, a guest article in the New York Times headlined “I Ran Operation Warp Speed. I’m Concerned About Bird Flu”, which opens:

As Donald Trump gets ready to return to the White House on Jan. 20, he must be prepared to tackle one issue immediately: the possibility that the spreading avian flu might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission.

Hmmm… so why must Trump be prepared to tackle bird flu “immediately” when they admit it has been hovering around being essentially harmless for two years already? Are they perchance conditioning us for what they already know they have planned?

Beyond Trump, the bird flu narrative has been migrating to the front pages in the weeks since the election (just in time to drive up the price of Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys too – every little helps in the drive to impoverish and immiserate the 99%).

On November 25th, New York magazine was warning us about the USA’s “alarming bird flu strategy”.

The next day, the Independent reported:

Experts say bird flu is more widespread than we think: ‘We are in a soup of virus’

The New Scientist says “H5N1 bird flu is closer to gaining pandemic potential than we thought”, Scientific American that “Bird Flu Virus Is One Mutation Away from Binding More Efficiently to Human Cells”.

These are both stories from the last 24 hours.

Earlier today, TIME published a long piece headlined:

It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu

There are other developments to – some potentially a lot more meaningful than your run-of-the-mill fear porn.

On November 19th, a child in Canada reportedly tested positive for bird flu without coming into contact with birds or animals. The next day, the same exact thing was reported in California.

These “cases” allegedly indicate “the virus is showing signs of adaptation to human hosts”. A Dutch study done on ferrets and published three days ago, claims the latest variant of bird flu shows increased aerial transmissibility.

Just today, the US government ordered that – going forward – all milk has to be screened for bird flu before being pasteurized.

We’re being told about new test kits too, a breakthrough that can distinguish flu strains in just 3 hours.

The European Union has announced they will be “increasing monitoring” for bird flu going forward. Euractiv reports “Europe increases bird flu monitoring – is it the next Disease X?”

Chinese experts are warning that another strain – H2N2 rather than H5N1 – may have already jumped to humans. The Chinese government is reportedly planning to increase testing and surveillance.

In the UK, the Cambridge University journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology published new recommendations for the potential containment of avian influenza in “healthcare settings”.

And of course there’s the vaccines, let’s not forget those. Keir Starmer’s government just signed a supply contract for five million doses. Very odd for a country without a single case so far.

Again, all those stories are from the last 2 or 3 days, and they hit some major talking points. Transmissibility, tests, adapting to humans, containment measures for hospitals, “increased monitoring”, buying up vaccines…these are major red flags.

This is exactly in line with our predictions for the next pandemic made back in April:

When will the “next pandemic” happen? Probably not until the winter, I would guess January 2025 at the earliest, for two reasons:

1. They need it to be flu season so they can co-opt normal seasonal deaths into their “pandemic” narrative.

2. I think they’ll want to wait until after the “big election year” is over so there are fresh governments in place.

Is that why the bird flu pandemic “hasn’t happened yet”? Were they waiting to get other pieces in the right places on the board?

Maybe 2025 is the year it all comes together.

Bird flu has been useful for driving up the cost of food, campaigning against organic farms, further impoverishing farmers and demonising raw milk, but it was meant for bigger things.

After Donald Trump takes office, don’t be surprised of Bird Flu is finally allowed to spread its wings and fly.

Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times,

CVS Health has removed photographs of its executives from the company’s website, a move confirmed to NTD News in an emailed statement on Friday. The reason for this action remains undisclosed.

“We can confirm that we removed the photos from our website, but have no other comment,” CVS told NTD News.

This decision comes in the wake of heightened security concerns within the health care industry, following the recent fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.

In response to the incident, several health insurance companies have taken precautionary measures. Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm serving 1.5 million customers across 12 states, announced the temporary closure of all six of its locations.

“Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution,” Medica stated. The company also removed biographies about its executives from its website as an extra safety measure.

UnitedHealth Group, Thompson’s employer, took similar steps by removing photos of its top executives from its website hours after the shooting, later removing their names and biographies as well.

Centene Corp., a major government health insurer, has moved its upcoming investor day on Dec. 12 to a virtual format.

CEO Sarah London said in a news release she was saddened to learn of the news.

“All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected,” she stated.

Authorities continue to investigate Thompson’s murder, exploring potential leads including the suspect’s possible bus travel from Atlanta to New York in late November, using information collected from Greyhound.

In a recent interview, New York Mayor Eric Adams told TV station WPIX he was confident the suspect would be caught.

“We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” he said.

The incident has sparked discussions about the security of executives across various industries.

According to Fred Burton of Ontic, a provider of threat management software, “I’ve been on the phone all day with some organizations asking for consultation, saying, ‘Am I doing enough?’” he told The Associated Press.

Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, told AP that investor meetings like the one Thompson was going to attend when he was shot are often considered high-risk because of how they’re publicized.

“It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” he said.

Authored by Joe Lauria via ConsortiumNews.com,

A bill introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) would prohibit the U.S. from sending long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine to be fired into Russia.

ATACMS missile firing in May 2006. (U.S. Army/Wikimedia Commons)

As U.S. personnel and satellites are required to fire the missiles from Ukrainian territory, Moscow considers it a direct U.S. attack on Russia putting it in a state of war with the U.S. which could lead to nuclear conflict. 

To remove the potential of nuclear war, the proposed legislation seeks to end ATACMS launches into Russia. The bill reads:

(a) Prohibition.—For the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending at the close of January 20, 2025, notwithstanding any other provision of law, during any period for which a state of conflict exists between Ukraine and the Russian Federation—

1) no Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) may be transferred to Ukraine; and

(2) U.S. Military Services or intelligence agencies may not provide support to Ukrainian units operating High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HMARS) platforms utilizing ATACMS munitions to strike outside of internationally recognized Ukrainian territorial borders—

(A) targeting intelligence support;

(B) mission planning support; and

(C) any other type of support.

Several members of Congress and their staff said they were taken off guard by President Joe Biden’s reversal of his previous decision not to allow the use of ATACMS to be fired into Russia from Ukraine.

The  members and their staff made these remarks during meetings on Thursday on Capitol Hill with former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter and activists of Code Pink, led by Medea Benjamin.

Biden Breaks With Realists

Biden had twice before sided with the Pentagon to avoid direct war with Russia.

In March 2022 he overruled his Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scotch plans for a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine, which could have lead to direct conflict with Russia.

Biden opposed the no-fly zone, he said at the time, because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”

Then in September Biden deferred to the realists in the Pentagon to oppose long-range British Storm Shadow missiles from being fired by Ukraine deep into Russia out of fear it would also lead to a direct NATO-Russia military confrontation with all that that entails.

Putin warned at the time that because British soldiers on the ground in Ukraine would actually launch the British missiles into Russia with U.S. geostrategic support, it “will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” 

That was a clear warning that British and U.S. targets could be hit. Biden thus wisely backed off. 

But after he was driven from the race and his party lost the White House last month, Biden suddenly switched gears allowing not only British, but also U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles to be fired into Russia. It’s not clear that the White House ever informed the Pentagon in advance.

Higgin’s bill was introduced as H.R. 10218 on Nov. 21, but none of the other House members that Ritter and Benjamin met with on Capitol Hill had heard of it. Nor was it reported in the mainstream media.

“We found that commonsense is actually alive and living here in the halls of Congress,” Ritter told Consortium News. 

“Members of Congress and their staffs understand the danger of nuclear war.  We found that there was a bill already written … that sought to achieve what we were trying to get them to do.”   

Benjamin said:

“We are excited to push this bill, which we just found out about. … It will not pass, but the idea is to get momentum for it so that message is coming out there that there are members of Congress who want to see this reversed and that in the next Congress, they will introduce it again with a lot more momentum.”

“To stop a nuclear war comes down to one issue,” Ritter said:

“The United States has to stop attacking Russian soil with American-made ATACMS missiles. Even though we use a Ukrainian cutout, it’s American provided, American targets and American intelligence. It’s the Americans attacking Russia. From the Russian perspective, the United States is at war with Russia … which has triggered their nuclear doctrine.”