Articles well worth a read ............ January 24, 2026

 

https://thegrayzone.com/2026/01/20/google-suspends-mossad-recruiter/

Grayzone report prompts Google to suspend ads from Atlanta influencer recruiting Iranians for Mossad

Jack Poulson  January 20, 2026

Following reporting by The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal, Google confirmed it has suspended the account of Desi Banks Productions LLC for violations of advertising policies and deleted the Mossad recruitment ads from its transparency portal.

This article was originally published by All-Source Intelligence.

The Mountain View-based advertising and technology giant Google confirmed on Tuesday that it has suspended the advertising account of the Atlanta-based comedian Desi T. Banks Jr., Desi Banks Productions LLC, following exposure of a months-long, international ad campaign attempting to recruit family members of Iranian government officials as agents of Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad...............

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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-flights-linked-sudan-war-tracked-israel-ethiopia

 

 By Simon Hooper and Oscar Rickett

Exclusive: UAE flights linked to Sudan war tracked from Israel to Ethiopia

As Saudi Arabia-UAE rivalry intensifies, cargo plane connected to Mohammed bin Zayed conducts multiple flights across Middle East, Horn of Africa, and beyond 

 

 

A cargo plane previously linked to the supply of weapons to UAE-backed fighters in Sudan and Libya has made a number of flights in recent days between military bases in Abu Dhabi, Israel, Bahrain and Ethiopia, Middle East Eye can reveal.

While the purpose and any connection between the flights is unclear, they have taken place against the backdrop of a spiralling power struggle between the UAE and Saudi Arabia across Yemen and the Horn of Africa that has upturned the geopolitics of the region and prompted concerns of a new escalation in the Sudan war.

The UAE has been thrown onto the back foot after Saudi Arabia launched military action to oust the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) from the Yemeni port city of Aden, and has been forced to withdraw from its key military base in Bosaso on the opposite Somali coastline.

Meanwhile, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, where the UAE maintains another military base and controls the port of Berbera, has further destabilised the regional order and prompted speculation that Ethiopia, which is closely aligned with Abu Dhabi, could be poised to do the same in return for access to Berbera.

The war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023 and has led to the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, is now firmly part of this struggle, with Saudi Arabia – alongside Egypt and Turkey - stepping up its military support for the SAF in an attempt to counteract the UAE’s longstanding patronage of the RSF...................

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https://news.antiwar.com/2026/01/21/the-gaza-board-of-peace-is-dividing-the-globe/

The Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ Is Dividing the Globe

Netanyahu Reverses Course, Now Says Israel Will Join

by Alan Mosley | January 21, 2026

 

A fractious global debate over the newly proposed Gaza “Board of Peace” has intensified as countries publicly declare whether they will participate in a U.S.-led body that its proponents say could oversee Gaza’s post-war reconstruction and, potentially, broader conflict resolution. European powers have split sharply over involvement, Middle Eastern governments are lining up to join, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reversed an earlier refusal to participate, agreeing to take Israel’s seat.

French, Scandinavian, and other Western European governments have been among the most vocal in declining invitations, citing concerns about the board’s mandate, structure, and potential to undercut established international institutions. France, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia have announced they will not join at this time, rejecting both the board’s expanded ambition beyond Gaza and the requirement – articulated in draft terms shared with invited nations – to contribute roughly $1 billion for permanent membership status.

Paris’s refusal stems in part from worries that the board, as envisioned, would duplicate or weaken the United Nations’ roles on peace and reconstruction. European officials have warned that a parallel forum dominated by a single national leader could fragment international diplomacy and erode multilateral norms. Norway and Sweden similarly pointed to a lack of clarity about authority and oversight, choosing to withhold endorsement until those issues are resolved.

Other European states have not yet committed. Britain, Germany, Italy, and the executive arm of the European Union have each acknowledged invitations but stopped short of agreeing to join, leaving their positions open amid domestic debate over the board’s purpose and governance. Russia, China, and Ukraine similarly remain noncommittal, having received invitations but offering only preliminary assessments of the proposal.

By contrast, a swath of Middle Eastern and allied countries have accepted invitations to participate. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey, and Pakistan are among those that have publicly signaled their intent to join the board. Several Central Asian and other non-Western nations – including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Kosovo, Armenia, Belarus, Indonesia, and Vietnam – are also planning to sign on........................

 

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https://dissidentvoice.org/2026/01/carney-at-davos-removing-that-sign-in-the-window/

Carney at Davos: Removing that Sign in the Window

by Binoy Kampmark / January 22nd, 2026

“It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry – that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.” These were the grave reflections of Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, delivered in his January 22 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

With such Thucydidean tendences in international relations bothering the PM, Carney feared that “strong tendency of countries to go along, get along to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety.” In abjuring this tendency, options beyond accommodation and grudging acceptance had to be considered. Who better to inspire than the meditations of Czech dissident author Václav Havel, whose 1978 essay “The Power of the Powerless” had conspicuously moved Carney?

Carney homes in on Havel’s reference to the greengrocer who places a sign in his window each morning with the slogan “Workers of the world unite.” Neither he, nor anyone else believes it. “But he places the sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along.” (Havel argues that such formulations help “the greengrocer to conceal from himself the low foundations of his obedience, at the same time concealing the low foundations of power. It hides behind the façade of something high. And that something is ideology.”)

As every shopkeeper on the street follows the ritual “the system persists – not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.” Such a performance bolsters the lie, nourishes it, and sustains the system. Its strength is also its signal weakness. “When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack.”.......

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https://consortiumnews.com/2026/01/23/the-police-state-of-america/

 

The U.S. government, like authoritarians throughout history, is seeking to silence the speech it hates and fears

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

 

In recent days, the government in America has not only failed to protect the freedom of speech, it has attacked it.

Like authoritarians throughout history, it has sought to silence the speech it hates and fears. But most authoritarians did not have a Constitution that was written as an intentional obstacle to them.

In Miami last week, Raquel Pacheco posted a Tweet/X calling out Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner’s “blind support for Israel.” She called him a hypocrite for supporting the free speech of those who want Israel to take over Gaza, but opposing the free speech of those who want a Palestinian state.

When she received a visit from two Miami Police detectives asking if she had placed that post, she politely declined to answer. Pacheco told them that she has the right to remain silent. When she asked them to leave the front porch of her home, they did.

Two weeks ago in Minneapolis, Susan Tincher was arrested for following Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and persistently videotaping them. She was shoved to the snow on her belly and handcuffed behind her back.

 At an ICE detention facility, her clothes and her wedding ring were removed from her — the latter by a bolt cutter. After five hours of confinement, an ICE supervisor decided to release her. ICE agents returned her destroyed wedding ring but not her clothes, which they told a federal judge had been lost......

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https://ronpaulinstitute.org/arctic-craziness/

Arctic Craziness

by Eric Margolis | Jan 23, 2026

 What ever happened to the Epstein scandal? Gone. Out of sight. Hey presto, vanished by the wave of a magic wand. It seems that Master Illusionist Donald Trump has dodged this lethal bullet – at least for the time being.

Trump’s Invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping its president Maduro, a former bus driver, removed Epstein from the news. Now Trump and his henchmen are beating the drums over his claim to world greatness launched at Davos, Switzerland. This rather ugly alpine resort – which is not great for reliable skiing – was the perfect venue for showman Trump. The annual Davos jamboree is the world stage for big egos, conmen and show-offs.

Chief among them was former British prime minister, Tony Blair, a politician of unparallel slipperiness and the ability to sugar-coat lies and half-truths. Blair has just agreed to join Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, a collection of louche politicians. The entry fee is $1 billion, a typical Trump fund-raiser.

Blair acted as a US mouthpiece during the invasion of Iraq, standing in for the inarticulate George W. Bush to sell the US invasion to the world that may have resulted in close to one million casualties. Today, oil-rich Iraq remains a US occupied state.

Europe, except for two members, refused to play along with the so-called Board of Peace charade. Canada, normally obedient to Washington’s demands, refused to join marking an important step forward in its independence from US tutelage. Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister, stood firm against Trump’s blandishments and threats to invade while many other US allies shivered in their boots or longed for the placid says of dotty old President Joe Biden. We applaud Carney’s courage.

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