Named by Gizmodo as the most influential source of news on Israel/Palestine on Twitter/X, Visegrád 24 has shot to prominence, amassing more than one million followers across social media platforms. Yet it has consistently shared blatantly false information in an attempt to ramp up support for the state of Israel’s crimes in Gaza. Worse still, the semi-anonymous account pushing a far-right agenda worldwide is known to be funded by the deeply conservative Polish government.

Mars, the maker of some of America's most beloved candies, has been exposed for using child labor to harvest cocoa beans in Ghana, a new bombshell report found.

CBS News visited Ghana's remote cocoa belt and found children as young as five working on farms that supply the chocolate giant - despite the company's pledge to protect children.

Shocking footage shows small children carrying machetes into the fields, with one nearly taking his fingers off as he hacked open a cocoa pod. 

The M&M and Snickers manufacturer said it has a monitoring system to keep children in schools - but CBS News obtained copies of the list and confirmed that some of the kids were working in the fields.

'Personally, I've made up lists before. And I can say on authority that almost every data, almost every data is cooked,' said one cocoa field supervisor.

Joe Biden is facing a significant internal revolt against his administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas war, insiders have said - reflected in nationwide unease at the conflict, and his dismal polls.

The president has been determined to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel following the Hamas terror attack of October 7, which killed 1,200 people.

But he warned Israel's leaders in private and in public not to repeat America's mistakes post 9/11, and be blinded by rage and a desire for revenge.

With 15,000 Gazans killed in seven weeks of bombardment, many inside the Biden administration feel that the White House should do more to rein-in Israel.

Only one person has publicly resigned due to the Gaza onslaught - Josh Paul, a director in the State Department's political-military affairs bureau, which oversees U.S. arms transfers.

When “Gross domestic product (GDP) and income have recently diverged by a large margin,” it implies that there’s a significant difference or gap between the overall economic output of a country (as measured by GDP) and the income earned by individuals or households within that country.

India produced a record amount of electricity from coal in October to make up for a shortfall in hydro generation following lower-than-normal monsoon rains.

Coal remains fundamental to the country’s energy security, despite rapid deployment of wind and solar generation, underscoring the challenge of reducing emissions.

The Obama administration, just 17 days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, revised the guidelines of Section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333, "Procedures for the Availability or Dissemination of Raw Signals Intelligence Information by the National Security Agency."

Although widely overlooked, the implications were broad and far-reaching.

Under the new procedure, agencies and individuals could request the National Security Agency (NSA) for access to specific surveillance simply by claiming the intercepts contain relevant information that's useful to a particular mission.

No privacy protection of the raw data was undertaken. Under the new rules, sharing of information was significantly easier–and the information being shared was raw and unfiltered.

At the time I wondered about the timing of the order. But what I found particularly curious was that it was enacted so late. Allow me to explain.

A major charity in the UK has dismissed its entire board claiming that they are all too “white and privileged”.

The Daily Mail reports that The Tudor Trust, which has a net worth of £288million and gives away around £20 million a year, is ‘rethinking’ its future, pledging to be a “more diverse group” and to put “social justice and anti-racism” at the centre of its activity.

The government of Viktor Orban in Hungary has blasted a proposal to admit Ukraine into the European Union as "completely premature". Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, on Thursday told a news conference in Budapest that it is too early to so much as begin formal talks on the matter, according to the AP.

"We are dealing with a completely premature proposal," Gulyas emphasized, explaining that Hungary "cannot contribute to a common decision" on inviting Ukraine to join the bloc.

Iowa Republicans will be the first in the nation to weigh in on the competitive Republican presidential race, as they continue their long-time Iowa Caucus tradition on Jan. 15 next year.

But Democrats—with a virtually noncompetitive race, a presidential call to ditch caucuses, and memories of the bungled 2020 caucus—are turning entirely to mail ballots for the 2024 caucuses in Iowa.

If 2020 was the year of election anomalies, the first irregularity was the Democratic Iowa Caucus which was rife with technical flaws, offered no results on election night, and left the Associated Press unable to ever declare a winner.

The Feb. 3, 2020, Democratic Iowa Caucus used a freshly developed smartphone app to communicate caucus results, but the app got glitchy, and a hotline to call in results was overwhelmed, preventing results from being available on caucus night. By the next day, just 62 percent of the Democratic results were counted. A week later, folks were losing patience.

The White House announced on Nov. 29 that Ms. Harris, along with "dozens of senior U.S. officials representing more than 20 U.S. departments and agencies" will be headed to the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28, being held in the United Arab Emirates' capital.

In a Wednesday afternoon press call, Ike Irby, deputy domestic policy advisor to the vice president, said the visit builds on the administration's "leadership on bold global action to address the climate crisis."

"Throughout her engagements in Dubai, Vice President Harris will highlight the administration's historic investments to address the climate crisis at home and abroad and announce several initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions support, adaptation, and boost climate resilience alongside global partners," he said.

Russia has long faced widespread international condemnation for what outside countries have decried as a crackdown on sexual minorities. President Vladimir Putin has persisted in stressing that Russia must safeguard traditional family values, and that this means protecting children from the pervasive propaganda of the West which seeks to sexualize young people.

Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday in an official ruling designated what it called the "international LGBT public movement" as a banned "extremist" organization. The new ban is expected to take full effect by early next year - but some reports have said it is effective immediately - and while specifics haven't been forthcoming, the label would clearly give state authorities much broader powers to go after activist groups.

A rule to redefine what doing business as a gun dealer means—proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—is supported by a majority of public commenters, with 10 days left in the comment period.

On Nov. 27, more than 230,000 of the 280,098 comments supported the plan. This is an estimate based on a review by The Epoch Times.

A search of the comments section revealed that 237,172 comments include the opening sentence about loopholes in federal law from a sample email posted on the Everytown for Gun Safety webpage.

Everytown for Gun Safety (Everytown) did not respond to an email seeking comment for this report.

On its webpage, Everytown claims that “loopholes” in the law allow the sale of guns to criminals through online sales, private transactions, and gun shows.

“The regulation goes directly to the loopholes we have been trying to close for years by expanding background checks to guns offered for sale online or at gun shows, keeping weapons out of the hands of dangerous people, and ultimately saving lives,” the webpage reads.

“But for ATF to finish the job on this life-saving action, it needs to know that the public supports closing these dangerous loopholes. ATF needs to hear from us.”

Many of the online comments use language similar to the Everytown email, with some posting the sample message word-for-word.

Webmaster addition: This is called Grass Roots Lobbying and the targeted media outlets and politicians usually fail to see it is an organized PR campaign!

An extensive review of images of Gaza after seven weeks of Israeli bombing shows extensive damage to the infrastructure within the Strip. According to a human rights monitoring group, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza.

Satellite and drone images examined by the BBC show nearly 100,000 buildings have sustained damage. Most of the destruction has occurred in the northern half of the Strip, including the destruction of entire neighborhoods. 

However, Israeli strikes have destroyed large areas in the south. In Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, 15% of buildings have been damaged by Israeli strikes. As Israel began its operations in the Strip after October 7, Tel Aviv ordered the Palestinians in northern Gaza to leave for the southern half. 

In addition to the bombing, Israel has used bulldozers to clear areas for military roads and bases. Israeli forces even used military vehicles to carve a Star of David into the earth in Gaza City. 

The market’s recovery, reminiscent of historical patterns like the Nifty Fifty era, raises concerns about the sustainability of the current narrow leadership dominated by a select few mega-cap stocks.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is joined by New York Times Magazine staff writer Ronen Bergman to discuss his stunning report that Israeli intelligence was aware of a blueprint for an attack from Hamas more than a year ago that was similar to the attack on October 7th.

The Israeli government is implementing significant amendments in the usage and access of biometric data, which could have profound implications for privacy rights, per recent reports from the Calcalist.

This move demonstrates a radical shift in the control of civilian and private biometric data, especially during the country’s wartime.

The series of altered data permissions are presently making their way through the Knesset, the country’s legislative body, taking the form of regulatory modifications and legislative memos. This proposes a scenario where, barring judicial resistance, the Israeli military, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement could acquire increased surveillance authority.

The Knesset-approved shift in data access is far-reaching and profound, seeking to overturn previous government resolutions. Central to these changes is the all-encompassing access granted to the National Biometric Database. The Israeli government maintains that the purpose of this database is “to protect the identity of the Israeli citizens and to ensure that every person has only one set of official documentation and one unique identity — the person’s true identity.”

The CIC is a physical body representing the action arm of the ESG concept. It is meant to create incentives and punishments for the business world based on their compliance with the values of globalism and woke socialism, as well as their submission to the climate agenda. I have written about this issue extensively, but my article ‘What Is The “Council For Inclusive Capitalism?” It’s The New World Order’ is probably the best overview of the group and their intentions.

The idea is simple: Bring the majority of corporations into line with the far-left political order. Once this is done, they will force those companies to use their platforms and public exposure to indoctrinate the masses. We have seen this strategy in action over the past several years, with many companies producing a steady stream of products, media content and marketing rife with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion propaganda, not to mention anti-west and anti-conservative propaganda.

These corporations have been so ingrained into the DEI and ESG format that many of them are willing to alienate the majority of their customers and lose vast profits. The last vestiges of free market economics are thus destroyed, because the profit motive has been replaced with a political motive.

Webmaster addition: When corporations merge with government, you get fascism.

The legacy corporate news media remains disturbingly silent as the United States hurtles toward a financial abyss, ignoring the glaring signs of an impending debt crisis, potential banking collapse, and an economic downturn that threatens the nation’s stability.

In a striking irony, the Democratic Party’s primary strategy for the 2024 presidential election involves efforts to imprison their prominent opponent, utilizing a dual strategy of fraud (Russiagate) and censorship (Hunter Biden docs) with the collaboration of corporate media. 

As many as 36 groups advocating free speech, the Free Speech Alliance, have turned to US Congress with a request to stop any further funding of NewsGuard.

NewsGuard is an outfit that describes itself as countering “misinformation on behalf of news consumers, brands and democracies.”

That “mission” also includes (trust) rating system for news sites – right in people’s browsers.

But members of the Free Speech Alliance, and those supporting it are not buying this pitch, summing up and denouncing NewsGuard instead as an ideologically-motivated “internet traffic cop.”

And they are warning that taxpayer money should never have been spent on financing it, and its ilk – and even less so, that the US authorities should continue to spend taxpayer money on what is described as politically motivated censorship of speech.

Sometimes, this is all it takes…those darn real estate bubbles.

Congressional leaders with the House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee will question CDC Director Mandy Cohen tomorrow in what should be an interesting hearing on restoring public trust.

The hearing “should” be interesting, because this committee has a long history of holding corporate and government leaders accountable.

However, we have yet to see this committee get any actual explanation for a rash of mistakes and failures during the COVID pandemic.

Global banks’ increasing liquidity hoarding, seen in the eurodollar space and reflected in the record highs of the Federal Reserve’s BTFP balance, heightened borrowings instead of repaying emergency funds, and a surge in the Foreign Repo Pool at FRBNY, indicates widespread caution.

In a new media landscape dominated not by Western media giants but by Instagram reels, TikTok videos and YouTube shorts, Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip is more than televised.

Audiences across the world, and especially young people, have been watching the devastation caused by Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of the Palestinian enclave on their preferred social media platforms, in real-time, for over a month. Anyone with internet access has seen countless videos of babies torn apart by bombs, women crushed under tonnes of concrete and mothers cradling the dead bodies of their children.

Israel, of course, still continues with its usual efforts – and more – to control the narrative about its bloody wars and decades-old occupation.

Islamic Jihad militants captured Israeli intelligence servers while participating in the Hamas attack on Israel last month, the group’s representative in Iran claimed on Wednesday. Nasser Abu-Sharif said the servers contained the names of multiple Israeli spies, some of whom were operating in Iran.

During the October 7 assault, “the resistance managed to take the Israeli regime’s intelligence servers to Gaza,” Abu-Sharif announced at an event in Tehran, according to Iranian media. 

“The servers contained the names of many spies, even those who were inside the Islamic Republic [of Iran],” he added.

Appropriately it was along Unter der Linden Stasse, inside the foyer of a palatial office building that had served as headquarters of the Nazi regime's Gestapo secret police and Soviet East Germany's Stasi spy service, that I had the dubious honor of shaking hands with Heinz "Henry" Kissinger, or perhaps that gesture was in dishonor, a low point for both the great man and this lowly investigative journalist, who did not cross swords with the grand-master of global affairs. Such is this Universe, a constant clash of destruction and reconstruction, of courage and ignominy.

The occasion was a conference celebrating the millennium, sponsored by a major German-European publishing house, focused on assessing Germany's foreign policy priorities in the post-Soviet rubble. Kissinger spoke of the need to cobble together the many fragments a global consensus, however fraught with distrust and misgivings. My much lesser role, as a American reporter with long experience in China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the USA, was to discuss the vexing issue of maintaining a cool demeanor toward a Beijing leadership eager to fill the Soviet vacuum. Since the forum focused on reconciliation, and cooperation in global power relations, past history with its horrifying brutalities went mostly unmentioned and indeed unnoticed, given the great man's utterances of political assurance.