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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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
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/
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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