Authored by Justin Pak via The Mises Institute,

Money is often described as neutral, technical, or merely instrumental—a passive medium facilitating exchange within an otherwise political society. This view is not only mistaken; it is profoundly misleading. Money is the hidden constitution of every political order. It determines which actions are possible, which institutions survive, which risks are rewarded, and which failures are forgiven. While constitutions proclaim rights and legislatures debate policy, money silently governs outcomes.

For this reason, the structure of a monetary system is never merely economic. It is moral, political, and civilizational.

From the perspective of Austrian and heterodox political economy, the modern fiat monetary system represents not a refinement of earlier monetary forms but a radical departure from them—one whose defining feature is the removal of constraint. Historically, money emerged as a market phenomenon rather than a state creation. Carl Menger demonstrated that money arises organically as the most saleable commodity within an economy, a process driven by voluntary exchange rather than decree. Ludwig von Mises later formalized this insight through the regression theorem, showing that money must originate in a good valued for its non-monetary uses in order to acquire exchange value at all. Gold and silver did not become money because states declared them so; states declared them money because markets already had.

Fiat money reverses this logic. It does not arise from scarcity or market selection but from legal privilege. Its acceptance depends not on earned trust but on enforcement through legal tender laws, taxation, and institutional inertia. What presents itself as sovereign currency is, in practice, state credit circulating as money. This distinction is not semantic. It marks the difference between a system disciplined by external reality and one governed by discretion.

That discretion is concentrated in the institution of central banking. Central banks are often portrayed as neutral guardians of stability, technocratic referees standing above politics. In reality, they function as cartel managers for the financial system, coordinating outcomes that could not survive under competitive conditions. By suppressing interest rates, guaranteeing liquidity, and acting as lenders of last resort, central banks shield privileged institutions from failure while preserving the appearance of market order. Failure is not abolished; it is postponed. And because it is postponed, it accumulates, growing larger and more destructive with each cycle.

This structure produces an inversion of capitalist discipline. In genuine markets, profit and loss serve as signals, rewarding foresight and penalizing error. Under central banking, profits remain private during credit-fueled expansions, while losses are declared systemic during contractions and transferred to the public through bailouts, inflation, and monetary debasement. Risk-taking is rewarded precisely because it is underwritten; prudence is punished through negative real interest rates and competitive disadvantage. Institutions that restrain leverage are displaced by those that exploit it. What remains is not capitalism but state-protected finance, sustained by political necessity rather than economic viability.

The manipulation of interest rates lies at the heart of this transformation. In classical theory, interest rates coordinate time preferences across society, balancing present consumption against future uncertainty. They are prices, emerging from the interaction of savers and borrowers. In modern fiat systems, interest rates are no longer prices at all. They are policy signals, imposed to achieve macroeconomic targets defined by central planners. This substitution of administrative judgment for market coordination creates a profound monetary hierarchy.

Those closest to the source of money creation enjoy the lowest borrowing costs. Sovereign governments finance deficits cheaply, substituting monetary expansion for taxation. Large banks access central liquidity directly. Major corporations issue debt at compressed spreads, insulated from true risk. As one moves farther from the issuance point, costs rise. Small businesses face higher rates and tighter conditions. Households absorb inflation and credit costs simultaneously. Peripheral nations borrow in foreign currencies, exposed to exchange risk they cannot control. Proximity to money creation becomes a determinant of survival. Access replaces productivity as the primary economic advantage.

Because money enters the economy unevenly, monetary expansion always entails political choice. There is no neutral increase in the money supply. Every expansion selects beneficiaries. The era of quantitative easing made this impossible to deny. Liquidity flowed overwhelmingly into financial assets—equities, bonds, and real estate—while wages lagged and productive investment stagnated. This outcome was publicly justified as a “wealth effect,” the belief that rising asset prices would stimulate broader economic activity. In practice, it functioned as asset patronage, enriching those who already owned capital while widening the gap between financial wealth and earned income.

The productive economy increasingly gave way to financial engineering. Growth appeared robust on balance sheets even as real capacity hollowed out. The illusion of prosperity was sustained by rising asset prices rather than rising productivity. What was described as stabilization was, in reality, a redistribution of claims on future output toward those nearest the monetary spigot.

Creation, however, is only one side of the monetary cycle. Fiat systems must also retrieve money, and they do so through inflation, interest, and dependency. Inflation silently erodes savings, punishing deferred consumption and rewarding leverage. Interest extracts future labor, binding individuals to obligations denominated in a currency whose purchasing power is systematically diluted. Debt concentrates ownership, converting missed payments into asset transfers and accelerating consolidation during downturns. Citizens are increasingly compelled to borrow not to expand opportunity but to survive—to obtain housing, education, healthcare, or even the means to start a business. Debt becomes a mechanism of behavioral control. Default becomes a tool of dispossession.

This system depends on opacity for its survival. Modern monetary regimes are deliberately complex. Emergency facilities are disclosed after the fact. Beneficiaries are obscured. Balance sheets are framed as technical artifacts rather than political instruments. Language is abstracted to discourage scrutiny. Inflation becomes “accommodation.” Bailouts become “liquidity support.” As Murray Rothbard observed, complexity functions as camouflage. A system that cannot withstand transparency relies on obscurity to preserve legitimacy.

The corruption of fiat money does not end at national borders; dollar hegemony globalizes it. Because the US dollar functions as the world’s reserve currency, Federal Reserve policy becomes global monetary policy by default. Foreign states must hold dollars to stabilize trade, borrow in dollars to access capital, and absorb the consequences of US monetary decisions over which they have no control. When the Fed eases, capital floods into emerging markets, inflating bubbles and encouraging dollar-denominated debt. When the Fed tightens, currencies collapse, debts become unpayable, and crises erupt. What appears as domestic stabilization at the center manifests as devastation at the periphery.

This arrangement constitutes a form of seigniorage imperialism. The issuing state acquires real goods, labor, and assets in exchange for liabilities it can expand at will. The costs are exported through exchange-rate volatility, debt crises, and externally imposed austerity. Fiat corruption thus scales globally, transforming monetary dominance into an instrument of geopolitical power.

History offers abundant confirmation. From the credit expansion of the 1920s and the deepening of the Great Depression through intervention, to the abandonment of gold convertibility in 1971 and the explosion of debt that followed, to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath of bailouts and consolidation, the pattern repeats. Each crisis is framed as exceptional. Each intervention becomes precedent. Each rescue increases fragility. The pandemic-era monetary expansion merely accelerated a trajectory already in motion, normalizing levels of creation once reserved for war.

From a Rothbardian perspective, such a system cannot be reformed. Monopoly over money inevitably produces abuse, not because individuals are uniquely corrupt, but because unchecked discretion always is. The problem is not mismanagement; it is structural. Fiat money—insulated from competition and constraint—transforms money from a medium of exchange into an instrument of hierarchy.

A free society cannot rest on a monetary foundation that requires ignorance to function. Constraint is not the enemy of prosperity; it is its precondition. Without it, prices lie, capital misallocates, and responsibility dissolves. Fiat money does not merely finance power. It becomes power. And when money itself is corrupted, everything built upon it follows.

The ultimate question, then, is not how to manage fiat money more skillfully, but whether liberty can coexist with a monetary order insulated from consent, competition, and consequence. History suggests it cannot.

There are reports that during the Trump-ordered military raid on Venezuela to oust and capture President Nicolás Maduro, at least one US helicopter was hit by surface fire or possibly small missile, but the chopper managed to keep flying – with the pilot wounded – and the damaged aircraft made it back from the mission safely.

But this raised the question: what happened to Venezuela’s Russian-supplied anti-air defenses, including S-300 and Buk-M2 surface-to-air missile systems purchased in 2009?

While at this point it is well understood that the US military and CIA had help from inside the Venezuelan government – making it essentially a US-backed coup topped off with a special forces nab and grab against Maduro and his wife, there’s still the question of whether the entire Venezuelan armed forces were ordered to stand down, or else that their defense systems simply didn’t work or were inactive.

The New York Times says it was actually more the latter scenario – Russian-built air defense systems stationed in Venezuela were mostly inoperable and did not react to the major initial US strikes which paved the way for the ground operation in Caracas.

When American military aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace on Jan. 3, the missile systems were not even linked to radar, according to US officials privy to the mission to The New York Times.

The publication further explained the systems were not integrated with one another and may have actually been unusable for several years. Satellite imagery and photographs further suggest that critical elements of the air defense systems were being kept in storage rather than deployed.

Interestingly the Ukraine war has played a role, after early in the conflict US defense officials said they would support and supply the Zelensky government in order to ‘weaken’ Russia by bogging it down in a proxy war.

US officials explained to the Times that Venezuela (and presumably other Russian defense allies) has faced ongoing difficulties maintaining its Russian-made air defenses because of limited access to Russian technicians and spare parts – all of which have had to be diverted to support Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

Much of the initial US strikes appeared to focus on areas where Buk missile systems had been positioned or stored, and locations close to the capital.

“The Venezuelan armed forces were practically unprepared for the U.S. attack,” Yaser Trujillo, a military analyst in Venezuela, told The New York Times.

“Their troops were not dispersed, the detection radar was not activated, deployed or operational. It was a chain of errors that allowed the United States to operate with ease, facing a very low threat from the Venezuelan air defense system,” Trujillo added.

And a separate source concludes: 

Venezuela’s much-touted antiaircraft systems were essentially not connected when U.S. forces entered the skies over Venezuela’s capital, and they may not have been working for years, former officials and analysts said.

“After years of corruption, poor logistics and sanctions, all those things would have certainly degraded the readiness of Venezuela’s air defense systems,” said Richard de la Torre, a former C.I.A. station chief in Venezuela who now runs Tower Strategy, a Washington-based lobbying firm.

The below OSINT account predicted this outcome back in mid-November:

For some context to those who haven’t been following for a while.
This is Venezuelas S-300 system and its storage at Captain Manuel Rios airbase in Guarico.
The missiles for the unit are stored just 100m away from the vehicles in a hangar.#Venezuela https://t.co/ka06CDPnVt pic.twitter.com/PqlCOZurqS

— CNW (@ConflictsW) November 15, 2025

The report throws open another interesting possibility, with two former US officials stating their view that Moscow may have permitted the systems it sold to Venezuela to fall into disrepair in order to avoid escalating tensions with Washington.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Melissa Martin, a veteran Texas educator with some 30 years of experience, was thrilled when the state passed a law in 2025 that required the state’s 9,000 public schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

For Martin, it was a bright spot—a swing back toward classical education rooted in Western civilization in an otherwise liberal teaching environment.

Her excitement quickly turned to disappointment at the Houston-based public charter school in which she works.

“I was real surprised when they didn’t jump at putting the Ten Commandments up,” she told The Epoch Times.

​Texas’ Senate Bill 10 has sparked the nation’s largest state-led effort to put the Ten Commandments into schools—and it is facing concerted legal challenges. A hearing on the constitutionality of the new law is scheduled before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month.

The Ten Commandments, fundamental to both Judaism and Christianity, are credited with influencing Western values and are the basis for laws against killing, theft, adultery, and perjury.

Martin believes public schools have ignored the significance of foundational works such as the Ten Commandments and their role in preserving “our democratic Republic for future generations.”

She said she is retiring this month, fed up in general with a public education system that she feels has failed students.

As a board member of Innovative Teachers of Texas, an alternative to liberal teacher unions, Martin hopes to spend her time establishing a Christian classical school.

Christopher Rhoades, a minister and math teacher in the Alvin Independent School District south of Houston, told The Epoch Times he believes the law is a positive change but worries it could open Pandora’s box.

“I mean, it definitely returns us to a point of values,” he said. “You know, my concern is always with whatever precedent is set. What does it open the door to that I wouldn’t like if someone else was in power?”

The law says public schools “shall display” a poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in a conspicuous place in each classroom. Schools must accept donated posters that meet the law’s specifications but aren’t required to purchase them.

Critics of the law argue that requiring the Ten Commandments to be hung in every classroom violates the separation of church and state and offers little educational value.

Teacher Rachael Preston testified against the bill in Austin last spring.

“I’m curious about how displaying the Ten Commandments … is relevant enough to the teaching of mathematics to be displayed in a math room,” she told state lawmakers.

Sarah Morrison, who taught in public school for 15 years before becoming a math instructor at Paris Junior College, told The Epoch Times via text that she believes the law is unconstitutional.

“As both a Christian and an educator, I believe that requiring the Ten Commandments goes against the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and treats Christian faith as the state’s preferred religion instead of recognizing the diversity I see in my classroom every day,” she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Texas chapter quickly challenged the law by filing two lawsuits. Two federal district judges blocked the 25 school districts named in the lawsuits from displaying the posters.

The civil rights organizations filed a third lawsuit in December 2025. This time, the federal class-action lawsuit names another 16 districts and seeks to block all Texas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments.

Legal observers believe the issue will likely end up before the Supreme Court.

A case related to a similar Louisiana law and one of the Texas cases are scheduled to be heard by the full Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 20, according to the ACLU.

Wider Efforts

The Texas law is part of a larger state effort that has focused on putting God back into schools—a move grassroots conservatives in the red state applaud.

Texas passed a law in 2021 requiring public schools to display the national motto, “In God We Trust.” In late 2024, the Texas State Board of Education approved the “Bluebonnet Learning” curriculum, which integrates Bible stories and Christian values into K-5 language arts lessons.

In the town of Rockwall, just east of Dallas, attorney Lorne Liechty and his family purchased Ten Commandments posters for their local school district, which serves some 19,000 students. The posters were hung in classrooms before the ACLU filed its lawsuit; they now sit in storage as the issue winds its way through the courts.

Liechty, who had two children attend Rockwall schools, said that besides being good rules to live by, the Ten Commandments are foundational to America and its history.

Liechty, also a Rockwall County Commissioner, said prayer was allowed in school until the early 1960s; and he vividly recalls when his third-grade teacher told him it was outlawed.

“The Ten Commandments, Bible verses, and prayer were taken out of the schools,” he told The Epoch Times. “So I had a chance to try and restore them. I wanted to do that.”

Lawsuits Either Way

The Ten Commandments controversy has left some Texas schools in a quandary.

School districts outside Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio were named in the lawsuits and have been forced to remove Ten Commandments posters.

Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued school districts in Galveston, Leander, and Round Rock for failing to display donated posters.

“America is a Christian nation, and it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country,” Paxton said in a news release.

North of Houston, Shepherd Independent School District, which serves about 2,000 students, didn’t need an extra push to post the Ten Commandments.

Rebecca Nix, an administrator with Shepherd schools and a former teacher, said the posters have sparked classroom discussions.

“It’s been good fodder for conversation in some of the high school English classes,” she told The Epoch Times.

Read the rest here…

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

Young people who used to identify as transgender have filed dozens of lawsuits in the past few years, but have yet to win a verdict in their favor.

They are known as “detransitioners,” those who regret changing their gender identity, often after making irreversible changes to their bodies via medication and surgery on the advice of medical professionals.

This year, several cases that have survived dismissal and arbitration, are making their way into courtrooms across the country.

​These cases face obstacles, including statutes of limitations, caps on medical malpractice awards, and huge legal bills for cases that can drag on for years.

​One case in New York, scheduled to go to trial this week, involves a then 16-year-old girl who thought she was a male and underwent a double mastectomy in December 2019, according to court documents. She has since detransitioned.

The case, Fox Varian vs. Kenneth Einhorn et. al, was filed in the Westchester County Supreme Court in 2023 against the teenager’s therapist and doctor and the medical facilities involved.

​The significance of the lawsuit is apparent to attorneys at Fiedler Deutsch, an experienced New York law firm representing the detransitioner in the medical malpractice suit.

​It “may be the first case of its kind in the nation to go to trial,” the firm’s website noted in an April 2025 post titled: “Understanding Detransition Cases: Legal Recourse for Minors Impacted by Gender-Affirming Care.”

​Medical professionals involved in the case are accused of negligence and causing pain, suffering, and mental anguish “of a permanent nature” to the plaintiff, formerly known as Isabella Basile, according to court documents.

​Defendants allegedly failed to inform the teen of “the risks, hazards, and alternatives” involved in the medical procedures she underwent, according to the lawsuit.

​Defendants have denied any wrongdoing, saying in court documents that at the time of surgery, “the plaintiff still identified as a male, was happy without breasts, and did not regret her decision.”

​Neither the defendant’s nor the plaintiff’s lawyers wished to comment on the case when contacted by The Epoch Times.

Detransition advocates meet outside the annual Pediatric Endocrine Society conference held in San Diego on May 6, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

​Nick Whitney, now a partner with Childers Law in Florida, knows first hand what it takes to win a major medical malpractice case.

He was a trial attorney representing a family in a “medical kidnapping” case against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The case was made famous by Netflix’s 2023 documentary “Take Care of Maya” and resulted in an initial $261 million verdict against the defendants—the largest in the state’s history.

​Whitney told The Epoch Times via email that a victory in the New York detransitioning case would shock the medical establishment.

​“The hospitals and doctors will act like ants running around in a sugar bowl if one of these brave plaintiffs prevails,” Whitney predicted.

​A win would potentially change the way pediatric gender dysphoria is treated in the United States, he said.

​“The more immediate and substantial effect will be a forced reckoning—the doctors and hospitals will have to adjust their risk-calculus and decide if their legal exposure still justifies them victimizing children and adolescents,” he said.

​Jonathan Hullihan, general counsel of Remnant Law Firm in The Woodlands, Texas, who defended doctors over standard-of-care issues that arose over ivermectin prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, said a win in the New York case could be a game-changer in states with more generous statute of limitations deadlines.

​Despite the dramatic increase in transition procedures and surgeries on minors, detransition lawsuits face significant hurdles, he said.

​For example, the Themis Resource Fund lists 23 detransitioner cases, with most filed between 2022 and 2024. However, many have been dismissed, settled, or are pending.

​Tort reforms, such as damage caps and statutes of limitations, are major roadblocks, Hullihan said. The cost of securing medical experts to evaluate deviations from the standard of care can exceed $50,000.

“These reforms in place often obstruct valid claims and insulate providers from accountability, particularly when regret from often irreversible surgery manifests years later,” Hullihan told The Epoch Times.

People gather to share about detransitioning in front of the California State Capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., on March 10, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

​Besides the New York case, two other detransitioner cases are expected to go to trial this year.

​Those include the high-profile California case brought by Chloe Cole against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, doctors, therapists, and others.

​Cole is an outspoken detransitioner and critic of medically transitioning gender dysphoric children. She sued Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and others after surgeons removed both her breasts when she was 15.

​Her case, filed by the Dhillon Law Group, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and the Center for American Liberty, is headed toward trial after California’s Third Appellate District ruled this fall that the case did not have to go to arbitration.

​The lawsuit claims defendants “engaged in fraudulent, oppressive, and malicious conduct by giving her incorrect/false information about suicide risk and by reinforcing her erroneous belief that gender transition services would resolve her mental health issues.”

​Doctors intervened medically, failing to address her mental health and autism-like symptoms beforehand, she told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.

Cole began identifying as a boy during adolescence and sought physical changes to match. She was prescribed puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13. Ultimately, surgeons performed a double mastectomy.

​Cole said she expects to get a trial date this year or next.

​“I also am really looking forward to being able to expose the things that Kaiser has done, not only to me, but to thousands of children in California and across the United States,” she said.

​“My biggest concern is making my case a precedent, showing other children, other families, that they can seek justice.”

​Kaiser has denied wrongdoing and sought dismissal of the lawsuit. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Detransitioner and children’s rights advocate Chloe Cole in Phoenix, Ariz., at Turning Point USA’s AmFest conference on Dec. 20, 2025. Lei Chen/The Epoch Times

Another upcoming trial is the Nebraska case of Luka Hein, which names the University of Nebraska Medical Center Physicians, Nebraska Medical Center, doctors, therapists, and others as defendants.

​The Hein case, filed in 2023 by attorneys from the Thomas More Society, the Center for American Liberty, and Nebraska malpractice attorney Jeff Downing, is scheduled for trial in August. It must first survive summary judgment motions during a Feb. 4 hearing.

​Hein had both breasts surgically removed in 2018, when she was 16, as the first step in her “gender affirming care” provided by doctors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, according to the lawsuit.

​The lawsuit alleges her doctors and the medical center were negligent and violated Nebraska’s Consumer Protection Act—accusations which the defendants deny.

​“I was going through the darkest and most chaotic time in my life, and instead of being given the help I needed, these doctors affirmed that chaos into reality,” Hein said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. “I was talked into medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long-term impacts and consequences of.”

​Hein attended a “gender care clinic” operated by the medical center faculty. While there, University of Nebraska Medical Center staff did not question Hein’s self-diagnosis of transgender identification, according to the lawsuit.

​“By immediately affirming Luka, defendants developed a type of transgender tunnel vision that blocked out the other factors that were or may have been the cause or causes of Luka’s dysphoria,” the lawsuit alleges.

University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty use the “gender affirming” model, the lawsuit says. They “affirm” the patient’s chosen gender and then approve medical procedures based on the “Dutch Protocol,” which calls for puberty blockers, and gender-related hormones and surgery, according to the lawsuit.

Detransitioner Luka Hein speaks at the California State Capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., on March 28, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

​That protocol model was based on weak evidence that transgender patients benefited from medical interventions, according to the complaint.

This spring, the Department of Health and Human Services released a 409-page review of medical procedures used for gender dysphoric children. The report advocates for psychotherapy as a “noninvasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions,” since the benefits of hormones or surgery have not been established.

Likewise, European countries have moved away from medical intervention following the 2024 release in the UK of the Cass report, which resulted in a shift away from the “gender affirmation” model for children.

Doctors have a responsibility to rule out other potential causes of a patient’s distress before turning to irreversible procedures such as a double mastectomy or hysterectomy, the Hein lawsuit said.

​In marketing their services, the lawsuit said the defendants used descriptions such as “masculinizing hormone therapy” to describe medical interventions for gender dysphoria.

​These innocuous-sounding procedure descriptions marketed by the defendants are deceptive because they are not therapy, according to the lawsuit.

​“In fact, they are the opposite. Rather than healing, these procedures inflict harm that causes malfunctioning and malformation of the teenage body and brain,” it alleges.

​An attorney for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by The Epoch Times.

The NY Times had called it a warning delivered to Europe at Mach 10: “The message came screaming through the skies at 8,000 miles per hour. Early Friday morning, for just the second time since its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Russia fired a nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile — a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic weapon that until recently was banned under international treaty,” the publication wrote.

The Ukrainian side, along with some evidence available from circulating videos, pointed to a hypersonic projectile having been used against the far western Ukrainian city of Lviv, but the question of just what the Russians were targeting with such an advanced and devastating weapon remained an open one.

Russian state media and the military have officially disclosed the apparent target, however, and it reveals something about what type of targets Moscow is prioritizing, now nearly four years into the grinding ‘special military operation’ which it should be noted President Putin has still refrained from calling a full state of war.

RT has featured a fresh Monday defense ministry statement indicting Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system destroyed a Ukrainian aviation plant in Lviv. The military-purposed plant was repairing and servicing warplanes, as well as producing long-range drones, but has been effectively disabled.

“In a statement on Monday, the ministry said, citing several independent sources, that the attack successfully hit a facility which supported the operations of Ukrainian Soviet-era warplanes, including MiG-29 jets, as well as Western-supplied F-16s,” RT writes.

These long- and medium-range drones have wreaked havoc on Russian oil and energy production, and the last many months have seen them strike targets deep inside Russia with great effectiveness.

Russia’s military is now going after production centers, and especially ones that might be tied to Western and NATO supporters of the Zelensky government.

The plant made drones “used for strikes against Russian civilian targets deep inside the territory of the Russian Federation.”

“The ministry added that the strike hit production workshops, storage facilities holding finished drones, and infrastructure at the plant’s airfield,” the RT report adds.

“Officials also noted that the same attack involving Iskander and Kalibr missiles struck drone production facilities in Kiev,” it continues.

Russia fires Oreshnik hypersonic missile at Lviv, first confirmed strike in western Ukraine

Mayor confirms 6 explosions targeting infrastructure near Poland 🅱️order

Hypersonic IRBM traveled 1,500km in 7 minutes at Mach 10

No air defense can intercept this weapon system pic.twitter.com/wZE2X8YFYz

— Boi Agent One (@boiagentone) January 8, 2026

Last year a huge drone production facility supported by the Turks was reportedly hit by a large Russian aerial attack and was severely damaged by the resulting fire. Russia appears to be taking its time, slowly and systematically obliterating Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Journalist Alex Newman, author of the popular book “Deep State” (which is soon to be massively updated and re-released), thinks evil powers trying to overthrow America are distraught because their money and plans are drying up. 

Newman says, “I think the globalist Deep State is in panic mode, and I think the Left is as well…”

“The operation against Maduro sent a massive shock wave through the global Left.  

I see the global Left as a tentacle of the global Deep State.  It runs right through Venezuela, and it runs right through Minneapolis. 

Let’s not forget what happened in 2020. . .. The so-called uprising was organized by Rockefeller front groups, and these are paid professional revolutionaries.  

Yes, they are useful idiots . . . but they have huge money at their disposal.”

In late November, Newman warned “Leftist Marxists Preparing Now to Take Over America.”  Then, Venezuela President Nicholus Maduro was arrested, and that threw a cold bucket of water on those plans.  Newman points out,

“Venezuela was the cash cow that was funding this entire subversive movement through drugs and oil. 

Donald Trump, in one fell swoop, took out that massive piece of their architecture, and they are pooping bricks. 

They are absolutely terrified about what may come next.”

We already know the payments in the so-called Somali welfare fraud have been cut off by the federal government.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is also cutting off billions of dollars of more fraud by changing money transfer rules.  On top of that, Newman says Trump has given a huge blow to the globalist UN climate treaty that also is cutting off big money.  Newman says, 

“The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this is the foundation of the UN climate regime and Donald Trump just utterly obliterated it.  This is some of the best news we have heard in a very long time.  The UN is very mad, and their chief spokesman is saying the US has a legal obligation to keep paying them.” 

That is not going to happen, which means more cash cut from evil people trying to destroy America.  Newman adds,

“This is just the beginning, and they have done a yearlong review of UN agencies that are useless, anti-American and wasteful.  The first 66 just dropped, and we expect more.  This is Earth shattering news.  This is huge news and really significant.”

The other really significant thing about Venezuela is the voter fraud that has rigged elections in the Western hemisphere for many years.  Newman says, “In Caracas, with Cuban help, they created lots of tools to steal elections…”

“ It was not just in Latin America but here in the United States.  There are a lot of people in the Trump Administration who know about this.  I think this was one of the big things on Trump’s mind when he started thinking about what do we do with Venezuela?  We have had multiple whistleblowers come out and confirm almost all of this involvement in voter fraud. 

The big take away here is . . . they created software to rig and steal elections in Latin America and here in the United States, and the Trump Administration knows about it.”

There is much more in the 60-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog as he goes One-on-One with hard-hitting journalist Alex Newman, founder of LibertySentinel.org, where he talks about the increasing violence by the globalist Deep State to take down America and why they are prepping for civil war now.  Newman is also the author of the newly released book “Woke and Weaponized.”  This is a stark warning for all parents about the communist plan to control and brainwash the next generation in our public schools for 1.10.26.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reports that the Department of Justice has charged a Venezuelan national, who was shot by Border Patrol in the Portland metro area last Thursday, with aggravated assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon after allegedly using his red pickup truck to ram a federal vehicle. This follows the recent ICE shooting in Minneapolis that left one far-left activist dead. Additionally, attacks on federal agents are on the rise.

Melugin further explained how the DoJ arrived at the charges and provided additional color about the ramming attack carried out by the illegal, who is allegedly tied to the Tren de Aragua (FTO designation):

DOJ has just charged the Venezuelan illegal alien shot by Border Patrol in Portland on Thursday with 18 USC 111 (aggravated assault of a federal officer w/ a deadly weapon), and they’ve provided photos of the badly damaged BP vehicle they say he rammed several times during the targeted arrest. According to DOJ, LUIS NINO-MONCADA, allegedly affiliated with Tren de Aragua, admitted to intentionally using a red pickup truck to ram the federal vehicle, said he knew they were immigration agents, and said “fuck ICE” while having a tourniquet applied to his gunshot wound by medics. DOJ says MONCADA was ordered deported by an immigration judge in Denver, CO in November 2024.

According to the criminal complaint, the actual target of Border Patrol’s operation was MONCADA’s female associate, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, a Venezuelan illegal alien and suspected TdA associate who was caught and released at the Texas border by the Biden administration in September 2023. She was ordered to check in at an ICE officer after release, but never did, making her subject to immigration arrest. DOJ says she is also believed to be involved with a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring, and was connected to a July 2025 shooting in Washington County during a prostitution deal that went bad.

FOX is told that Zambrano-Contreras is also now in federal custody, and is being charged by DOJ in the Western District of Texas with 8 USC 1325, illegal entry by an alien (yes, crossing the border illegally is a federal crime).

BREAKING: DOJ has just charged the Venezuelan illegal alien shot by Border Patrol in Portland on Thursday with 18 USC 111 (aggravated assault of a federal officer w/ a deadly weapon), and they’ve provided photos of the badly damaged BP vehicle they say he rammed several times… pic.twitter.com/3Ciy1EZd35

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 12, 2026

Melugin posted a snippet of the DoJ federal complaint:

From the DOJ federal complaint as to what happened when Border Patrol initiated a traffic stop to make the arrest. pic.twitter.com/BkIc7LIEoD

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 12, 2026

“He should NEVER have been in our country to begin with, and we will ensure he NEVER walks free in America again,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote on X.

Anyone who crosses the red line of assaulting law enforcement will be met with the full force of this Justice Department.

According to a newly unsealed complaint, Luis Nino-Moncada — an illegal alien in Portland, Oregon with ties to Tren de Aragua — is alleged to have repeatedly… pic.twitter.com/uC6rk4Uode

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 12, 2026

Related:

• Minneapolis ICE Shooting Shows Left Wing’s Protest Industrial Complex Wants Another ‘George Floyd’-Type Riot

The Venezuelan illegal alien with ties to TdA is exactly the type of person the Democratic Party is protecting. The party’s left wing has made it clear it puts everyone except American citizens first.

Authored by Martin Young via CoinTelegraph.com,

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is reportedly updating its guidelines to allow corporations to invest in digital assets after a nine-year ban. 

Listed companies and professional investors will be able to invest up to 5% of their equity capital in crypto assets, reported local news outlet Seoul Economic Daily on Sunday. 

According to the report, a senior FSC official familiar with the matter said the authorities will “release the final guidelines in January [or] February and allow virtual currency transactions for investment and financial purposes by legal entities.”

The move overturns a nine-year ban on corporate crypto investment dating back to 2017, when financial authorities banned institutional participation amid concerns over money laundering.

However, investments will be limited to the top 20 crypto assets by market capitalization and can only be made on Korea’s five largest regulated exchanges. 

The inclusion of dollar-pegged stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT is still being discussed, the report noted. 

The FSC shared the latest guidelines with its crypto working group on Jan. 6 and first announced plans for a phased approach to easing rules for corporate crypto investments in February 2025.  

Potential bullish impact on Korean markets 

The move could bring tens of trillions of won into crypto markets. South Korean internet giant Naver, which has 27 trillion won ($18.4 billion) in equity capital, could theoretically buy 10,000 BTC, according to the report. 

It added that the launch of a national stablecoin and spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds is also expected to be accelerated once the corporate investment capacity is secured. Support for crypto ETFs has been building across the country, but regulatory approval remains stalled. 

The move could also result in an expansion of local crypto companies, blockchain startups, and digital asset treasuries (DATs) while boosting domestic investment in digital assets. 

Large South Korean companies have been forced to invest overseas to avoid local restrictions, it added. 

CBDC and stablecoins focus of the economic strategy

The outlet reported on Friday that the South Korean government announced an ambitious digital currency strategy with a primary goal of executing 25% of all national treasury funds through a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2030.

The initiative, which is part of the 2026 Economic Growth Strategy, also involves introducing a licensing system for stablecoin issuers, such as Tether, requiring 100% reserve asset backing and legally guaranteeing users’ redemption rights. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Jan. 12 that she had a productive dialogue with President Donald Trump on efforts to combat drug trafficking and other issues of mutual concern.

“We had a very good conversation with the President of the United States, Donald Trump,” Sheinbaum wrote in a post on X on Monday.

“We discussed various topics, including security, with respect for our sovereignty, reducing drug trafficking, trade, and investment. Collaboration and cooperation within a framework of mutual respect always yield results.”

As The Epoch Times’ Ryan Morgan reports, the conversation between the two heads of state comes as Trump has raised pressure on Mexico and other Latin American states to increase cooperation with the United States, particularly in efforts to curb drug trafficking.

After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a pre-dawn raid on Jan. 3, Trump said Mexico needs to “get its act together” when dealing with drug cartels and reiterated offers to send U.S. forces to assist in such efforts.

On Jan. 8, Trump raised the stakes further, suggesting U.S. military strikes could focus on land-based cartel targets in Mexico in the future.

Thus far, Sheinbaum has been opposed to U.S. military action in Mexico.

Speaking with reporters at a Monday press conference, Sheinbaum said she and Trump again discussed a U.S. force deployment to Mexico and said Trump was understanding as she reiterated her opposition to such a move.

“He didn’t insist either; rather, it was in the tone of, ‘If you want us to help you more with our forces in Mexico,’ I told him, ‘Well, no, I’ve already told you several times that that’s not on the table,’ but we continue to collaborate within the framework of our sovereignties,” Sheinbaum recounted of the conversation.

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment on the call between Trump and Sheinbaum but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a separate call with Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente on Jan. 11.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the two discussed “the need for stronger cooperation to dismantle Mexico’s violent narcoterrorist networks and stop the trafficking of fentanyl and weapons.”

“Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to stopping narcoterrorism and stressed the need for tangible results to protect our homeland and hemisphere.”

Colombia and Cuba also face increased pressure from a Trump administration emboldened by the Maduro raid.

Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have traded barbs in recent weeks, with the U.S. president faulting his Colombian counterpart for not cooperating closely enough on efforts to stamp out Colombia’s cocaine production.

Last week, Trump reported a productive phone conversation with Petro and indicated plans to host him at the White House in the near future.

U.S. pressure on Cuba remains high.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Sunday, said he had cut Cuba off from Venezuela’s oil supply.

“There will be no more oil or money going to Cuba—zero! I strongly suggest they make a deal, before it is too late,” Trump wrote in mostly all caps.

The United States has limited its engagement with the Cuban leadership for decades, after the Caribbean island nation came under communist control following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

In a press statement following Trump’s latest comments, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said U.S.-Cuba relations “must be based on International Law rather than on hostility, threats, and economic coercion.”

After it quietly faded away in late summer, that trade war with China is about to make a triumphal reappearance.

In a day that was already flooded by a relentless firehose of newsflow, Trump added to the leaning tower of chaos when said on Truth Social that he was imposing a 25% tariff on goods from countries “doing business” with Iran (most notably China which is its largest oil client), ratcheting up pressure on the government in Tehran that has been rocked by widespread protests.

Trump said that the new duty would be “effective immediately,” without providing any details about the scope or implementation of the charges, leaving traders to act first and ask questions later if at all (a big reason why there is zero liquidity in the market is because people are trading with zero conviction and unwind trades just as fast as they put them on).

The action has the potential to disrupt major US trading relationships across the globe: as Bloomberg notes, Iran’s partners include not only neighboring states, but large economies including India, Turkey and especially China.

“Any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This Order is final and conclusive,” he said.

Previously, Trump had imposed tariffs as high as 50% on Indian goods tied to their purchase of Russian oil, and while India initially reduced its purchases of Russian crude it has since ramped them back up; China on the other hand, never even noticed the Trumpian edict.

Needless to say, the additional 25% tariff – assuming it sticks – hitting Beijing exports risks upsetting the trade truce Trump negotiated with Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year. China is the world’s top buyer of Iranian crude and the nation’s independent refiners were increasing their intake of the oil as of last month.

While the lack of details in the Trump declaration was confusing, adding to the sheer chaos is an impending decision by the US Supreme Court on the legality of Trump’s global tariffs. If the justices rule against him, it could hamper his ability to quickly impose duties on Iran’s partners. The court’s next opinion day is Wednesday.

As for Iran, it has been experiencing weeks of mass unrest, which was initially sparked by a currency crisis and worsening economic conditions but has increasingly been aimed at the regime. It’s amounted to the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic’s ruling system since 1979. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime has weathered protests before, the demonstrations are spreading and drew hundreds of thousands of people, by some accounts, across the country over the weekend. Iranian authorities have sought to stamp out the protests with more than 500 people killed so far and more than 10,000 arrests, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Trump has openly backed the protesters and warned Tehran against violently repressing the demonstrations. In an interview on Fox News last week, he said the US would hit Iran “very hard” if it continued to shoot at protesters.

As reported earlier, Trump president told reporters on Sunday that the Iranian leadership has reached out to seek talks and that a meeting is being set up, without offering details on timing. Still, he said that his administration is considering potential options and indicated he was coordinating with allies in response to Iran.

“We’re looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters. “I’m getting an hourly report and we’re going to make a determination.”

Also over the weekend, a White House official said that Trump has been briefed on a range of options for military strikes in Iran, including nonmilitary sites. The president is seriously considering authorizing an attack, according to the official who requested anonymity to detail internal discussions.

Still, there is hope for a peaceful resolution: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has opened channels of communication with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, a spokesman from the ministry said Monday.

Meanwhile, Iran has warned the US and Israel – which coordinated to carry out strikes on nuclear facilities in the country last year – against any attempt to intervene. Tehran and Washington have not had formal diplomatic ties for decades.

Trump’s threats to Iran have the region on edge, coming on the heels of a US strike earlier this month in Venezuela – another oil-rich country – which led to the capture of strongman Nicolas Maduro. Should the US or its ally, Israel, intervene, that threatens to draw neighboring countries into the crisis and risk access to the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy exporters.