Via The Cradle,

Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned Tel Aviv after Israeli airstrikes struck Damascus in the early morning of Sunday, killing at least five people and critically wounding 15 others (some reports say as many as 15 were killed). According to state-run news agency SANA, the ministry urged “international action” to prevent further attacks on Syrian soil.

“Syria expects the United Nations Secretariat and Security Council to condemn Israeli aggression and crimes, take the necessary measures to deter them, hold them accountable, punish their perpetrators, and ensure they do not recur.” The ministry further remarked that this attack comes in the context of recurring Israeli attacks against civilian targets and coincides with the recent attack by ISIS in Homs, which left at least 53 dead.

Local reports indicate that the Syrian air defenses incepted most of the missiles, adding that the air strikes also hit locations in Damascus’ countryside, including on the outskirts of Shahba and in the north of al-Suwayda in southwestern Syria.

Photos and videos of the bombardment have surfaced on social media, showing severe damage to residential areas and revealing the deceased of the attack, such as Syrian national and pharmacist Lilian Aoudi. Among those who died during the attack include a doctor and an engineer.

“The strike on Sunday is the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The Israeli air strike assault comes as Syria continues to reel from a devastating earthquake that left close to 6,000 dead and leveled large swathes of the country’s northwest region.

Earlier this month, an unnamed Israeli military official told Saudi Arabia’s Elaph newspaper that Tel Aviv will not hesitate to bomb Iranian aid deliveries to Syria under claims that Tehran seeks to “take advantage of the tragic situation … to send weapons and equipment to Hezbollah.”

As a result of western sanctions, aid deliveries for Syria have been largely hindered compared to the flow of aid entering neighboring Turkiye, forcing Damascus to rely on allied nations like Russia and Iran for assistance.

Israel just bombed a residential building in Damascus, Syria.

Is Israel competing with the earthquake? pic.twitter.com/fMuKmcadKj

— Kevork Almassian🇸🇾🇦🇲 (@KevorkAlmassian) February 18, 2023

Israel’s newest attack comes just three weeks after its drones bombed three Iranian food trucks loaded with flour and rice as they headed from Iraq into Syria.

Syria frequently accused Israel of attacking its national territory repeatedly. Still, the authorities in Tel Aviv rarely admit to the incursions, although the Israeli national press gives ample coverage to such operations without mentioning the perpetrators.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has given Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from January 6th, 2021, according to Axios, which reports that excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.

Last week, Carlson’s producers were on Capitol Hill to begin reviewing the trove – which includes various camera angles from around the Capitol complex.

The archive was previously reported at ‘just’ 14,000 hours.

“[T]here was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret,” Carlson told Axios. “If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”

According to the report, the process to give Carlson access began in early February, according to a communication between the show and a McCarthy aide shown to Axios.

In January, McCarthy told reporters in Statuary Hall that he thinks “the American public should actually see all [that] happened instead of a report that’s written [on] a political basis.”

Carlson, meanwhile, railed against Washington’s “regime of secrecy and deceit.”

Will the new footage shed light on whoever unlocked the doors and encouraged protesters to come inside the Capitol?

Who unlocked the magnetic doors on the east side of the Capitol on January 6? When George Tenney first tried to open them, both were locked. Then after he pointed at the doors and said something, the left door opened. #SmokeyInsider #GreenSidesPack #ScruffyBouncer #January6 pic.twitter.com/4VlH2pIlhJ

— 🇺🇸 (@FreeStateWill) January 29, 2022

Or what Ray Epps was up to during the entire day?

Only time will tell…

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and macro strategist,

Company margins have come down in recent months but remain high versus pre-pandemic levels. This will contribute to entrenching inflation and thus keep liquidity conditions tight, posing a continued headwind for risk assets.

We got the other side of the inflation story last week, with the release of PPI. This gave us valuable information on a key element for understanding inflation’s path in the current regime: profit margins.

Initially it was the price of commodities that rose, pushing PPI higher than CPI. This allowed firms to increase their margins. But as price rises have begun to filter across the economy, pushing CPI higher, consumers have become increasingly squeezed. As PPI is now falling relative to CPI, margins are beginning to adjust lower.

But after one of the largest rises ever seen as firms took advantage of the unique circumstances of the pandemic, they may not fall back to pre-pandemic levels, helping keep inflation sticky.

The BLS attempts to infer company margins in the PPI report. PPI measures prices received for goods and services for non-retail firms. A wholesaler’s value-add comes from the service it provides to its customers, e.g. selling and promoting, transporting and providing market information. But this is not directly measurable for the retail sector.

According to the BLS measures, most types of companies’ margins are falling on an annual basis, with the businesses that saw the largest rise in margins now seeing the biggest falls, such as vehicle dealers and freight transportation.

But compared to where they were before the pandemic, margins are still high, and this is supporting CPI, especially the significant services component. As the chart shows, there has been no relief in inflationary pressures here.

While CPI is currently in a downtrend, this may reverse sooner than the market expects due to a global cyclical upturn. Sticky margins would further keep consumer inflation from continuing to fall — certainly down to the 2.5% expected by inflation-fixing swaps by June.

This will ensure risk assets continue to face resistance from poor liquidity conditions. Despite some discussion of green shoots for global liquidity, it is still too early to sound the all clear.

During President Biden’s surprise Monday trip to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where he was seen in a warm embrace with Zelensky, it’s been revealed that at least there are minimal levels of communications happening between Washington and Moscow a year into the Russian invasion. It demonstrates that everyone still is of rationale enough mind to want to do everything possible to avoid triggering WW3 (perhaps just barely).

The White House hours into the trip confirmed that US and Russian officials had communicated just ahead of Biden’s trip in the form of an advanced warning that Biden would enter Ukraine. This was in order to avoid a possible huge escalation of tensions, given the danger and high security environment. At one point air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv while Biden was meeting with Zelensky – though it’s also possible this was staged for dramatic effect…

⚡️Biden and Zelensky walking around Kyiv during the alarm pic.twitter.com/8ucgshisbq

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 20, 2023

“We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kyiv. We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told a press briefing.

Sullivan didn’t disclose what the immediate Moscow response was to the notification, but Sullivan stressed it was for security reasons. Of course, if during the time Biden was on the ground missiles had pummeled the capital, which though rare has happened on multiple occasions over the course of the one-year long war, this would have marked an act of war against the US from Washington’s perspective.

“This was a historic visit, unprecedented in modern times, to have the president United States visit the capital of the country of war, where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure,” Sullivan said.

But so far, and despite the sporadic air raid alert sirens, there doesn’t appear to have been any military action by the Russians directed against Kyiv on Monday.

Biden during the visit delivered remarks alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv and announced new military aid worth $500 million, according to AP News. The new military aid includes anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars, howitzers, shells, ammunition, and other support but no new advanced weaponry. 

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Former White House physician Ronny Jackson has accused the Biden administration of ‘covering up’ Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, asserting that his “ability to think and reason is GONE!”

Following a physical exam last week, which the White House says found that Biden “remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male,” and is “fit for duty,” Jackson stated that Americans “learned nothing” from the announcement.

“Is he on ANY drugs to treat his mental decline? This exam was a JOKE. COVER UP!!” Jackson tweeted, noting that no cognitive test was undertaken.

We learned NOTHING from Biden’s physical exam. How bad is his cognitive issue? Is he on ANY drugs to treat his mental decline? This exam was a JOKE. COVER UP!!

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 16, 2023

“Trump had one, why not him? Biden’s ability to think and reason is GONE! He SHOULD NOT be President!!” Jackson, now a Republican Representative added.

WHY ON EARTH did Biden not get a cognitive exam? Trump had one, why not him? Biden’s ability to think and reason is GONE! He SHOULD NOT be President!!

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 16, 2023

The media is SILENT about the LACK of a cognitive exam for Biden. The American people want to know this information, and the media is doing NOTHING. They’re letting this incompetent buffoon drive our country over a cliff!!

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 17, 2023

Remember when the media went BALLISTIC wanting Trump to have a cognitive exam? Where are they today with Biden? It’s SILENCE!!

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 16, 2023

Our “president” can barely read off a teleprompter. Do you REALLY think his cognitive ability is 100%? If he doesn’t have a cognitive exam, then they’re COVERING SOMETHING UP!!

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 16, 2023

In comments to Fox News, Jackson further stated “the majority of Americans can see that Biden’s mental health is in total decline,” adding that this “further confirms that this administration is still adamant about concealing the truth.”

“Everyone can see something is wrong – the cover-up needs to end,” Jackson urged.

Last week when Biden struggled to read a teleprompter and again appeared lost, Jackson called for him to be subjected to an immediate cognitive examination.

WOW! What is going on with Biden here??? He’s TOTALLY lost. This man needs a cognitive exam NOW. There’s NO WAY he’s ok!!pic.twitter.com/5nIAqmMSft

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 8, 2023

Prominent Democrats also continue to raise concerns about Biden’s age in advance of his decision on whether or not to run again for president in 2024, but are afraid to say so publicly, according to a report by Politico.

Top Dems Still Privately Opposing Biden Running For Re-Election in 2024

In addition, a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll found on Friday that 57% of Americans have doubts about Biden’s mental fitness, with 67% saying Biden is too old to lead the country.

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

President Biden departed from Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland, early Sunday morning. He stopped at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before making an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday morning. The visit comes ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Biden’s visit comes as Russia prepares for a massive spring offensive. Western countries are racing to flood Ukraine with new weaponry, including main battle tanks and armored vehicles. Biden delivered remarks alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv and announced new military aid worth $500 million, according to AP News. The new military aid includes anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars, howitzers, shells, ammunition, and other support but no new advanced weaponry. 

“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said in joint remarks with Zelenskyy. He said, “I’m here to show our unwavering support for the nation’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” 

Zelenskyy thanked Biden for coming to Kyiv “at a huge moment for Ukraine.” He said he and the US president would hold talks about the war and what’s happening on the frontlines and also “about the people, about Ukrainians, about Americans . . . what we have to do to stop the war, to have success in this war . . . and how to win this year”.

Biden said, “I am meeting with President Zelenskyy and his team for an extended discussion on our support for Ukraine.” He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “dead wrong,” believing he could instantly take Ukraine during the invasion nearly one year ago. 

“Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic, and humanitarian support – and that support will endure,” he continued.

Biden also said, “We will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.” 

The president’s social media team was busy tweeting this morning. 

Biden’s long-term support for Ukraine shows the war is far from over, with both sides preparing for spring offensives. 

After Ukraine, Biden will visit Poland. He’s expected to deliver a speech on the war efforts and talk with Polish president Andrzej Duda as well as other European leaders.

By Marcel Kasumovich, deputy CIO of One River Asset Management

Forecasts were for a “digital kill switch” in the SEC’s custody proposal. The weather forecast was wrong. Instead, the SEC’s custody proposal provided a runway. Who gets to take off as the clouds part? The details, as ever, will decide.

“No honest business need fear the SEC.” The first Chair of the SEC, Joseph Kennedy, was charged with the task of bringing full disclosures to the public when companies issued securities. Of course, this was after the hands-off policy of the roaring 20s and the 1929 Crash. Kennedy observed “it was prophesied that the securities markets…would dry up within a few months,” only to see every major American stock exchange register, thrive, under the SEC.

Cryptoassets had their 1929 moment last year, and the post-crash regulatory response is uncertain. The safeguarding of client assets is at the heart of investor protection. And market concern of a severe response was palpable heading into this week’s SEC custody proposal. No honest business would argue against the spirit of the proposal: to “expand and enhance the role of qualified custodians…to help ensure that advisers don’t use, lose, or abuse investors’ assets,” as Chair Gensler said.

It’s not a kill switch. The market feared a shuttering of US activity in digital assets – the SEC eliminating a pathway to being a qualified custodian, the Treasury outlawing self-custody, and the Fed culling banking ramps to digital business. Through enforcement and proposal, clarity is emerging that centers around avoiding a repeat of 2022. The SEC’s proposal will remain open to public feedback for 60 days before going live in a year. It’s a short and bumpy runway. But there’s a route to lift off.

Details matter – a lot. “We understand, for instance, that it is decreasingly common for banks acting as custodians to do so in a fiduciary capacity. These changes in the industry have caused us to reconsider the role of a ‘qualified custodian’,” is an example of a stern assessment of custodians (our emphasis). State laws are key. Segregated customer funds in their name are likely bankruptcy remote. This opens a lane to holding cryptoassets in a “qualified custodian”. Advisors can service cryptoassets.

But details matter to regulators, too. Investor protection is the natural domain of the SEC. With a broader assessment of assets captured by the proposal – including previously exempt private assets – the issue of being a security or not doesn’t matter in the custody proposal. All cryptoassets will apply. But the SEC isn’t the regulator for custodians! What if proposed guidelines aren’t met? Regulators, including States, will need to work cooperatively. It’s not all about the SEC, after all.

These are not new issues. Last Spring, the SEC sprung SAB 121 on cryptoasset custodians. It effectively took banks out of the market with onerous capital requirements relative to the custody of traditional assets. It also required new disclosures in the industry to reflect uncertainty around bankruptcy protection. This, too, is at the heart of investor protection. Upon bankruptcy, the goal is to ensure that custodied assets are returned to clients, rather than being the property of the defunct entity.

The benefit of living through 1929-like crash is that we now have case precedent. Things to avoid in the future. Like Celsius. On January 4, 2023, the bankruptcy court ruled that a significant portion of customer assets were the property of the debtors’ estate – customers were deemed general creditors. Those assets were held in the “earn” program – not segregated. Celsius deployed those assets to generate returns in a discretionary manner, and their contractual terms were explicit. There was no protection.

Celsius customer risk is exactly what the SEC is aiming to guard against, reasonably. That’s good for the industry. The Commission can also communicate through disclosures of publicly traded companies under their supervision. That’s Coinbase. Their latest 10K observes that “we place great importance on safeguarding cryptoassets we custody and keeping them bankruptcy remote…in June 2022 we updated our Retail User Agreement to clarify the applicability of UCC Article 8 to custodied crypto assets.”

The Uniform Commercial Code – UCC – are the laws governing all US commercial transactions. It’s State law. Article 8 is used by the crypto industry to indicate their intended custodial standards are the highest of investment securities. But it’s just a bridge until digital assets are fit into UCC – Article 12. That article provides a clear definition to controllable electronic records, and it’s passing through State legislatures now. Article 12 is key to bankruptcy –custodial relationships can be clearly defined, and not as general creditors.

Make no mistake – there is a sense of urgency in regulatory policy since the crypto crash. This is the historic norm. The SEC’s proposed custody rule makes three key strides. First, it reaffirms that all cryptoassets will apply to the rule. Second, it sets the standard that a “qualified custodian” intermediary will need to ensure client assets are remote from bankruptcy beyond any doubt. And third, it advances dialogue with the industry.

Clarity is arriving in the same way that the picture of a puzzle becomes visible – piece by piece. It’s not just the SEC, or the Treasury, or the Fed. It is a broad integration – State laws play a big role, too. But don’t look to regulatory policy to mark a new, positive trend in digital asset markets. That’s not the point. Clarity clears a path for the drivers of value – innovation, use cases, and adoption.

Authored by The Jamestown Foundation via OilPrice.com,

• Russia is looking to grow the size of its armed forces to 1.5 million by the end of 2026.

• According to the Russian population census of 2020–2021, the number of men 18–26 years old in Russia was around 7.21 million in 2021.

• The number of young men in Russia is inevitably decreasing, presenting a challenge that make realizing its military ambitions impossible.

In December 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced its ambitious plan for increasing the size of the Russian Armed Forces to 1.5 million personnel by the end of 2026. To this, the number of contracted soldiers within the Russian Armed Forces has to be increased significantly as well: to 521,000 by the end of 2023 and 695,000 by the end of 2026, adjusted from the previous plan of increasing this number from 405,000 in 2020 to 500,000 by 2027. Besides this, the conscription system will also be adjusted, with the age range for conscription being changed from 18–27 years old (at the moment, Russian men are not conscripted once they reach age 27) to 21–30 years old (Rg.ru, March 25, 2020; Mil.ru, December 21, 2022).

Recently, this author estimated that the only hypothetical way for realizing the planned increase would be a massive campaign of coercion for military service in Russia: from forcing young drafted soldiers to sign two-year service contracts to extending the network of military training centers within the universities, among other strategies (see EDM, January 6). However, a more serious issue looks to restrain the planned increase in the Russian Armed Forces faces—namely, Russia’s mounting demographic challenges (see EDM, January 10).

According to the Russian population census of 2020–2021, the number of men 18–26 years old in Russia was around 7.21 million in 2021. Using this census data, the number of men 18–26 years old will decrease to 7.18 million in 2023 and should then slightly increase to 7.22 million in 2026. Moreover, those who will be between the ages of 18 and 26 in 2023 are the same people who will be 21–29 years old in 2026, when the new conscription rules should be functioning (Rosstat.gov.ru, accessed February 16).

Yet, in fact, these projected numbers should be lower as annual mortality rates count 1,700–1,900 for those 10–14 years old (here and further, the mortality rates include both males and females, but the share of boys always exceeds 50 percent); 4,000–4,200 for those 15–19 years old; and 6,500–8,000 for those 20–24 years old (Rosstat.gov.ru, June 21, 2022).

For comparison, according to the 2010 census, about 10.6 million men ages 18 to 26 resided in Russia and about 12 million men of the same age group, according to the 2022 population census. Considering the planned increase of the conscription age, less than 7.16 million men ages 21 to 29 will be present in Russia in 2030 (Rosstat.gov.ru, accessed February 16).

Briefly speaking, the number of young men in Russia is inevitably decreasing. In previous decades, the Russian military leadership tried to take into consideration the long-term consequences of this process. For instance, the seasonal conscription in 2002 counted around 160,000–170,000 soldiers, and the spring conscription six years later numbered 133,000 soldiers (Iz.ru, April 25, 2002; RBC, October 17, 2002; Gazeta.ru, April 1, 2008). At that time, the term for conscripted military service was two years.

However, in 2008, when the term for military service was reduced from two years to one, the Russian Ministry of Defense tried to increase the number of drafted soldiers. In this way, the 2008 fall conscription enlisted 219,000 soldiers, the 2009 spring conscription numbered 305,000 soldiers and, during the further seasonal conscription campaigns of 2009 and 2010, around 270,000–280,000 soldiers were drafted (RIA Novosti, October 2, 2008; RBC, April 1, 2009; RIA Novosti, July 16, 2010). Thus, as the demographic of young Russians within the country began to dwindle, the total number of conscripted soldiers decreased from 640,000–660,000 to 540,000–560,000 during the 2000s.

Then, from 2012 to 2022, the number of soldiers drafted during each conscription campaign decreased from 200,000 in the spring of 2011 to an average of 130,000–140,000 (RBC, April 1, 2011; Rg.ru, December 31, 2021). Meanwhile, the number of contracted soldiers (including sergeants and noncommissioned officers) increased from 150,000 in 2010 to 405,000 in 2020 (Interfax, June 9, 2010; Rg.ru, March 25, 2020)—though, during these years, the number of conscripted soldiers and the number of contracted soldiers represented overlapping sets. That means the total number of soldiers, both drafted and contracted, decreased from almost 700,000 in 2010 to between 560,000 and 600,000 at the beginning of the 2020s.

In addition, it must be mentioned here that the total labor pool in Russia, made up of those people who should feed into the armed forces, also decreased from 93.1 million in 2010 to 89.1 million in 2020. And the number of those employed decreased from 71.5 million in 2010 to 69.5 million in 2020 (Rosstat.gov.ru, accessed February 16).

Consequently, the planned increase for personnel in the Russian Armed Forces seems to be impossible within the current demographic, economic and even political circumstances. The threshold of 695,000 contracted soldiers by 2027 means that one in ten Russian men between the ages of 21 and 30 could be called up to active service at any moment. In truth, this increase would only be possible if Russia was a truly democratic federation facing an existential foreign threat. Another option would be if Russia drafted young women together with men and those women signed formal service contracts—though, given the domestic demographic problems, this option looks even more impossible in Russia. As a result, the Russian Ministry of Defense may believe that it can close the gap by recruiting young migrants from Central Asia in exchange for Russian citizenship, which adds another dimension to Russia’s growing desperation in the face of declining demographics at home and manpower shortages in Ukraine.

Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via Remix News,

The European Commission’s decision to sue Poland over its constitutional court rulings is making the European Court of Justice a de facto Supreme Court of Europe…

The European Commission has decided to challenge the Polish constitutional court over not only its assertion of the supremacy of the Polish constitution over European law, but also to question the appointment of three justices of the court as well as the election of the chief justice herself. This move escalates the rule of law dispute to a new level.

The European Commission is effectively arguing that Poland’s constitutional court has ceased to be an independent entity and is now a creature of the government. 

The commission is taking an unprecedented step. It will be the first time the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been asked to assess the functioning of a member state’s constitutional court and its verdicts. If the European court rules in favor of the commission, its ruling will have consequences that go way beyond the dispute over the observance of the principle of the rule of law in Poland.

It will mean that the ECJ has asserted its right to review the work of member states’ constitutional courts and to challenge their verdicts. In this way, the ECJ in Luxembourg would effectively become a Supreme Court of Europe able to interpret and adjudicate the constitutional laws of the member states. 

The European Commission’s decision cannot but affect the political situation in Poland. Last Friday, President Andrzej Duda submitted the legislation passed by the Polish parliament on disciplinary procedures for judges for review by the constitutional court. The law was passed in order to change the very procedure objected to by the European Union so that the Commission would unblock Poland’s share of the EU Recovery Fund.

The Polish president’s move looks like a further delay to Poland’s access to its EU recovery fund allocation is inevitable, but the European Commission’s decision to question the credentials of the constitutional court complicates matters still further.

This is because it is more than likely that the ECJ will suspend the workings of the court, just as it did with regard to the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court. Or it may suspend the four justices whose appointments have been challenged, therefore making it impossible for the court to sit in full session until the ECJ has made a final ruling, a process that could take years. 

The latest developments have not brought Poland any closer to unlocking EU funds and threaten a political conflict between Warsaw and Brussels that could lead to a chain reaction. The constitutional court could simply refuse to suspend its working and the ruling majority could opt for a full-scale confrontation with the European Commission, with the ruling conservatives going to the electorate, blaming Brussels, and accusing it of attempting to deprive Poland of its sovereignty.

Several of the UK’s most respected TV shows, movies, and works of literature have been included in a list of works that could potentially encourage far-right sympathies, compiled by the taxpayer-funded and government-led ‘Prevent’ counter-terrorism program.

As The Daily Mail reports, works by some of the world’s greatest writers were included as examples of warning signs of potential extremism, including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson, Orwell, Huxley, Kipling and Edmund Burke.

The flagship Prevent scheme, recently the subject of a scathing audit, singled out comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare as possible red flags of extremism.

Prevent is a key part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy as a means to safeguard against “vulnerable people being drawn into criminal behavior”.

In practical terms, it places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene in their lives before it is too late.

If the local panels find someone who is at risk of becoming a terrorist, the Prevent teams use specialist mentors or other support programs to turn around their lives.

It said the works of fiction were “key texts” for “white nationalists/supremacists”.

Right-leaning writer Douglas Murray obtained the full list and discovered that one of his books had been given a red flag by Prevent.

He wrote in The Spectator:

“A number of books are singled out, the possession or reading of which could point to severe wrongthink and therefore potential radicalisation.

It seems that RICU [Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit ]  is so far off-track that it believes that books identifying the problem that it was itself set up to tackle are in fact a part of the problem.”

House of Cards screenwriter Andrew Davies said:

“It almost seems like a joke. House Of Cards was actually a satirical view of Right-wing politics. This list includes more or less the entire classical canon of literature and some of the very best British television programs ever made.”

The list has emerged following a major review criticized the Prevent scheme by William Shawcross.

His report, published earlier this month, criticised the £49million-a-year scheme Prevent scheme, saying it applied  a ‘double standard’ to Islamist and far-Right threats, prioritizing the latter.

The BBC reports, Mr Shawcross said he had been consistently unable to determine how many community organisations receiving a slice of the Prevent budget were having any impact.

“Funding too often goes towards generic projects dealing with community cohesion and hate crime, and few [community organisations] could be seen publicly to contest extremist discourse.

“Some have promoted extremist narratives, including statements that appear sympathetic to the Taliban.

As The Mail reports, a Home Office spokesman said:

“The Home Secretary made clear that Prevent will now ensure it focuses on the key threat of Islamist terrorism, as well as remaining vigilant on emerging threats.

We’ve accepted all 34 recommendations [from the Shawcross review] and are committed to protecting our country from the threat posed by terrorism.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman told MPs that Prevent needs major reform: “Prevent has shown cultural timidity and an institutional hesitancy to tackle Islamism for fear of the charge of Islamophobia. Prevent’s focus must be solely on security, not political correctness.”