Submitted by SouthFront, The existing system of international relations and arms control treaties is slowly, but steadily crumbling. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is dead, with both Washington and Moscow publicly developing previously banned short-to-medium range missiles. The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) is also moving towards its end in 2021, and it is […]

One of the architects of the US government’s waterboarding program, known as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” confirmed the role of a CIA officer known only as “the Preacher,” who would provoke detainees on a deeply religious level while working to extract information from them. According to James Mitchell – one of three men authorized by the […]

Authored by Tim Kirby via The Strategic Culture Foundation, Goldman Sachs has made a major stand for diversity by declaring that they are going to start “refusing IPOs if all directors are white straight men”. This is unusual because most diversity pushes come from the mainstream media or companies that offer concrete consumer products and […]

How quickly the tables can turn… Disgraced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes literally phoned in her defense in an Arizona fraud lawsuit after her civil lawyers quit due to non-payment.  Holmes still maintains a team of “high caliber” attorneys for her criminal case in San Jose federal court, according to Bloomberg. But in the concurrent civil suit […]

Authored by Cat Ellis via The Organic Prepper blog, One of the problems with prepping for a pandemic is getting accurate information. When there’s a potential for a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease, people panic. Governments do what they can to minimize panic. This includes protective measures, like restricting travel. It can also mean controlling the […]

update: A US offical has confirmed to CNN that a total of three rockets struck the US Embassy in Baghdad Sunday evening. And importantly, the US has further confirmed one injured in the attack. There’s still been no claim of responsibility, however the State Department pointed the finger at Iran-backed militias, following over a dozen similar […]

Authored by Jon Queally via CommonDreams.org, A nearly 90-minute audio recording of a private dinner that took place with numerous individuals and President Donald Trump in 2018 was made public Saturday evening by the legal team of Lev Parnas, a close associate of the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, in which the president can be […]

Authored by Satyajit Das, op-ed via Bloomberg.com, Encouraging trends in emerging markets belie their volatility since the taper tantrum of 2013, when the Federal Reserve signaled it was pulling back on quantitative easing. Further turbulence is likely, despite the improving outlook for advanced economies, easing trade tensions and accommodative monetary policy. The International Monetary Fund estimates that growth […]

Surprise! After White House lawyers’ brief rebuttal (less than 3 hours) managed to tear apart Rep. Schiff and the House Managers’ 20-plus-hour ‘odyssey’ in the Senate impeachment trial, is anyone surprised that – right at the last minute – a ‘bombshell’ is leaked to the media that promises – as always – “this time we […]

Update (2020ET): China’s FTSE A50 Futures have collapsed over 5% in early trading and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is collapsing… Source: Bloomberg And Treasury yields are plunging… Source: Bloomberg *  *  * While gold is spiking higher and stocks are getting hammered lower after a weekend of ugly headlines surrounding the lethality and spread of […]

Authored by Andrey Schevchenko via CoinTelegraph.com, Tether is now supporting a gold-backed stablecoin, Tether Gold (XAU₮), according to a Jan. 23 press release. One token represents ownership of one troy fine ounce of physical gold, currently worth approximately $1,550. image courtesy of CoinTelegraph The new product is available as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, […]

A caravan of Central American migrants was stopped in its tracks last week by the Mexican National Guard, which arrested migrants as they crossed the river at the border town of Tecun Uman and hauled them off to a detention center in the nearby city of Tapachula. “I can see that these caravans are no […]

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) defended her plan to pay off college loans after being confronted by a father in Iowa in an exchange that went viral. Senator Elizabeth Warren is confronted by a father who worked double shifts to pay for his daughters education and wants to […]

Over the weekend, there were numerous media reports published in hopes of easing fears that the coronavirus spread was uncontained, and informing the general public just how seriously China takes its quarantine of no less than 17 cities and roughly 60 million people. Take this report from AFP, according to which Police at a roadblock […]

Italians in Emiglia Romagna and Calabria are heading to the polls on Sunday to vote in critical local elections that could dramatically shift the balance of power in the Italian government, and possibly trigger the collapse of a fragile ruling coalition already showing signs of strain. The candidate of the League-led center-right coalition is expected […]

Authored by Richard Mills via SafeHaven.com, Owning gold is a way to get out of this “debt trap”, but governments don’t want you to own gold, especially in Germany Germans, like Indians and Chinese, love their gold – although their reasons for buying and keeping bullion are somewhat different.  In China and India, gold jewelry […]

Nancy Packes Inc., an online real estate data services covering the five boroughs of New York City and all residential transactions, reports that nearly half of all new condo units built after 2015 in Manhattan, or about 3,695 of 7,727 apartments, remain unsold. Despite trillions of dollars printed by global central banks and hundreds of […]

Summary: Over 2000 cases, 56 Official deaths Incubation is asymptomatic, contagious, and can be as long as 14 days 5M may have left Wuhan for Lunar New Year 1st case was Dec 1 NOT Dec 31 so infect pop may be much bigger US, Russia, Thailand begin plans for evacuation *  *  * Update (0950ET): […]

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk, The alleged masterful Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, failed his primary mission. Yet he’s still the EU’s negotiator. Barnier Flashback Revealing words from Michel Barnier in 2016, quoted in @LePoint. “I would have succeeded in my task if, in the end, the deal is so hard on the British that […]

Update (11:54 am EST.): Yesterday it was the U.S. and Russia arranging charter flights to evacuate their citizens from the epidemic-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan.  Now Thailand has four Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes on standby to airlift its citizens from the city as the coronavirus outbreak spreads uncontrollably, reported the Bangkok Post.   Royal Thai Air Force Chief […]

Authored by Eric Margolis, Plagues from the east are nothing new… The Black Death and other epidemics arrived in Europe from China during the 1300’s, killing a large percentage of its population. Much of this pestilence came from rats that stowed away on merchant ships coming from the east. At the end of World War […]

About a decade ago, a powerful earthquake triggered a 15-meter tsunami that disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  The accident led to nuclear cores of three reactors to meltdown, causing widespread radiation release, along with the evacuation of thousands of people within a 30-kilometer radius.  Tokyo Electric […]

Submitted by Great Game India Last year a mysterious shipment was caught smuggling Coronavirus from Canada. It was traced to Chinese agents working at a Canadian lab. Subsequent investigation by GreatGameIndia linked the agents to Chinese Biological Warfare Program from where the virus is suspected to have leaked causing the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. Coronavirus Bioweapon – […]

Credit-card lenders are calling it the ‘Golden Age of Plastic’. But that’s mostly because they’re the ones hoarding all the gold. Gloom-and-doom economists who have portended the imminent collapse of the American consumer (we don’t want to name names) might have a reason to put off their calls for a downturn of epic proportions just […]

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News, The Chinese government forced the host of a TV show which popularized eating bats to apologize in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, which scientists have linked to the consumption of wild animals. Bat soup is a delicacy in some areas of China and was known to be […]

As the world’s cortisol and stomach acid levels rise every hour in parallel with the number of officially reported Coronavirus infections (and deaths), which as of Saturday morning was roughly 1,400… Source: Johns Hopkins GIS and Data. … the world has an unpleasant flashback to 2003 when for weeks Beijing would lie and hide the […]

The Associated Press reports a staggering surge of US troops into the Middle East since last Spring: “Over the past eight months, the United States has poured more than 20,000 additional troops into the Middle East to counter the escalating threat from Iran that peaked with the recent missile attack on American forces in Iraq.” This despite President Trump’s […]

Via PeakProsperity.com, OK, there’s a LOT of uncertainty and confusing/conflicting information currently circulating right now about the new coronavirus outbreak that has suddenly erupted out of Wuhan, China. What’s really going on? What exactly is the ‘coronavirus’? And most important: How worried do we need to be? Given the poor communication so far by government health […]

A story and “justification” so absurd and absolutely bonkers that we sincerely wish this was The Onion and not from the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States and at one of the nation’s most elite Ivy League schools:  Yale will stop teaching a storied introductory survey course in art history, citing the impossibility of […]

Authored by Daniel Lazare via AntiWar.com, All the usual suspects are praising Adam Schiff’s marathon two-and-a-half-hour Senate speech on Wednesday to the skies. Neocon columnist Jennifer Rubin calls it “a grand slam” in the Washington Post. Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin describes it as “dazzling” on CNN.  Hillary Clinton: “Every American should watch this” John Legend: “This is brilliantly argued […]

A week to go until the Iowa caucuses, and a new Times-Siena poll published Saturaday shows Bernie Sanders opening up a sizeable lead, with Biden dropping to third under Buttigieg. Sanders is now 7-points ahead of the closest Democrat contender in Iowa, which marks an impressive 6-point jump since the last Times-Siena College survey of likely caucusgoers done in […]

Authored by David Stockman via LewRockwell.com, There were a reported 119 billionaires attending the Davos confab this year – plus the Donald, who took a day off from Impeachment to address this august gathering of the world’s movers and shakers. There was also 1500 private jets crowding the surrounding airports – plus the notable train-traveling […]

After being held captive for three days while House Democrats litigated their impeachment case against President Trump, House Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff (D-CA) enraged Senate Republicans last night during his closing remarks when he referred to an anonymously sourced media report that they would face retribution from the White House if they voted to convict […]

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Don’t be too sure that the coronavirus will blow over and have no effect on global growth. If there is anything that characterizes this moment in history, it’s complacency: everyone’s so sure that current trend lines will continue, onward and upward, and risk has been tamed for the […]

As we move into Saturday evening on the ground in Wuhan, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to the broader global community that China’s authoritarian government has failed to contain this viral outbreak. Chinese authorities expanded the travel restrictions on Saturday to cover 56 million Chinese, Al Jazeera reports. At least 18 cities in central Hubei are […]

Watch Live: [embedded content] Update: Trump’s lawyers began their opening arguments Saturday by slamming Democrats for having “no evidence” to support their argument that Trump’s conduct with Ukraine warrants impeachment and removal. “They’re asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election but, as I’ve said before, they’re asking you to remove […]

When it comes to estimating the human capital and potential fallout from a highly contagious epidemic, arguably the most important variable is the R0 (“R-naught”) value of the disease, which represents the average number of secondary cases arising from an average primary case in a entirely susceptible population. That’s the technical definition, a simpler one […]

Paging all European investment bankers (or at least the ones who still have jobs): If you haven’t already, now would probably be a good time to update your resume and reach out to that old counterparty at JPM. Because Barclays is the latest European investment banking giant to slash banker bonuses for 2019, despite all […]

Authored by Jonathan Turley, We have often discussed the struggle of women in Muslim countries in resisting religious-based requirements for coverings and limitations on their movements and interactions. Turkey was once the exception among these countries as a secular, modern nation. That was before the rise of Islamic parties under the authoritarian President Recep Tayyip […]

Every once in a while, medical researchers simply have a stroke of good luck. In this case, that “stroke of good luck” could have a profound effect on the medial community.  Researchers at Cardiff University that were in the midst of analyzing blood from a bank accidentally stumbled into an “entirely new type of T-cell”, according […]

Via The Strategic Culture Foundation, There was good reason why Polish President Andrzej Duda was prevented from addressing the Holocaust memorial event in Israel this week. The organizers anticipated he would use the event to make ugly and foolish accusations against Russia for having alleged complicity in the Nazi genocide. On being refused the opportunity […]

With an 89 percent approval rating from Republicans and 7 percent approval rating from Democrats, President Trump has set a new high for partisan divide in 2019 with an 82-point gap between Republican and Democrat approval, according to Gallup. You will find more infographics at Statista The new record in polarization beats Trump’s 2018 partisan […]

Authored by Iman Ghosh via VisualCapitalist.com, In 2018, trade accounted for 59% of global GDP, up nearly 1.5 times since 1980. Over this timeframe, international trade has transformed significantly – not just in terms of volume and composition, but also in terms of the countries that the rest of the world leans on for their most […]

Smartphones continue to be one of the biggest distractions that teachers of all levels have to deal with in the classroom.  Now, according to the WSJ, teachers are dealing with a consequence that nobody ever could have imagined when taking kids phones in order to provide a distraction-free learning environment: separation anxiety.  Teachers across the […]

Authored by Ben Borton via TheGrayZone.com, In testimony before the United Nations Security Council, former OPCW inspection team leader and engineering expert Ian Henderson stated that their investigation in Douma, Syria suggested no chemical attack took place. But their findings were suppressed. A former lead investigator from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons […]

Luxury homes in South Florida have been selling like hot cakes – mostly because mansion taxes and the capping of SALT deductions have pushed many from Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to the tax-friendly environment of Florida. “I’ve been selling real estate for 34 years,” said real estate broker Rob Thomson, a Mar-a-Lago club member and […]

Authored by Jim Rickards via The Daily Reckoning blog, I’ve been documenting financial warfare in my articles for years, but it still doesn’t get the mainstream attention it deserves. Because as you’ll see below, it can directly impact your wealth. Financial warfare tools include account seizures and freezes, expulsion from global payment systems, secondary fines […]

Flower arranging, outside of traditional florists, used to just be limited to housewives in the 1950s. Now, thanks to Instagram, the practice is coming back in style, attracting a younger crowd that seeks to impress their social media followers. For instance, Sage, a flower shop in South London, has seen a “huge increase” in interest from […]

Submitted by Jan Nieuwenhuijs from Voima Insights, Are the underlying mechanics of the largest gold ETF a cause for concern? Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are an important element in the global gold market. The largest gold ETF is the “SPDR Gold Trust,” which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca) under the […]

Al Jazeera English is reporting that thousands of Iraqi protesters have hit the street in Baghdad after the influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a “million-strong” march to demand the withdraw of U.S. coalition forces from the country.  NBC News Tehran Bureau Chief & correspondent Ali Arouzi said hundreds of thousands of protesters marched across Baghdad […]