Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise visit to the Donbass region was largely “spontaneous” and effectively turned into a full-fledged “working trip,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed on Sunday.

The overnight trip was the first time Putin has visited Donbass since it broke away from Ukraine in 2014. It was eventually incorporated into Russia following referendums last year.

During Putin’s stay in the city of Mariupol, he met locals and visited flats in a newly constructed residential building. The city was the scene of intense fighting early in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and ended up being heavily damaged in the process.

Rasmussan Reports has published a recent poll and almost half of Americans 49% believe that someone they know has died of COVID 19 vaccine complications and 28% believe that it’s highly likely. So, why the hell is it not being covered by the mainstream media?

Have you heard of Uche Nwaneri, he was a National Football League offensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars who recently made this tweet.

Twenty years ago, the world was shaken by one of the major geopolitical events of this century. On the morning of March 20, 2003, the US officially launched its illegal invasion of Iraq. The rationale was based on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties with terrorists, and intelligence regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, both claims turned out to be false and were later refuted.

Russian political analysts believe that the real reasons behind the invasion of Iraq included a desire for control over oil fields, the naive hope of creating a ‘showcase of democracy’ in the Middle East, and a demonstration of the ‘fight against terrorism’ to US voters. None of these goals were achieved, but the grievous consequences of the endeavor are evident. 

Last week, amidst a great deal of pomp and ceremony at a San Diego, California naval base, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed off on the AUKUS submarine deal with the United States and the UK.

Under this extraordinary arrangement, Australia agreed to pay $368 billion for eight nuclear-powered submarines to be manufactured mostly in America and Britain. The staggered delivery dates stretch decades into the future.

The AUKUS pact, however, is not just about the purchase of a few over-priced submarines that may be technologically obsolete by the time they are built. The pact also firmly binds Australia to the wheels of the US and UK in respect of security issues in Southeast Asia.  More importantly, this week’s submarine deal represents an important shift in Australia’s foreign policy settings towards craven dependence on the US and UK, and away from its recent rapprochement with China.   

Last-minute talks failed to avert a Tuesday strike that will shut down Los Angeles public schools and lead to a massive disruption in the nation’s second-largest school system.

There had been some hope of averting the walkout based on the formal resumption Monday afternoon of discussions between the school district and the union that is leading the strike, Local 99 of Service Employees International Union.

But hopes for a last-minute breakthrough were dashed by a statement from Local 99 Monday afternoon.

There was a time when American manhood stood up for law, order, liberty, tradition, the vigorous expansion of man’s power by scientific, technological, and agricultural innovation, the proliferation of classical and modern learning, the triumph of the arts in a characteristically American vein though building upon traditions more than 2,000 years old, and the deepening and purifying of religious faith in the souls of the people. 

We hear now that the great majority of young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24—it is a mark of the madness and unseriousness of our times that the report I have read did not specify whether these were men only or men and women both—are unfit for military service. It is not clear to me what they or the rest of us are fit for, as we spend down our cultural heritage. I say it not in anger, but in urgency.

I have before me a birthday present, volume 43 of The Century Magazine, November 1891-April 1892, and I find the following poem, “Richard Henry Dana,” a pair of sonnets written by Darwin E. Ware, a close friend of Dana’s and fellow graduate of Harvard:

The funniest thing I have read in, well, at least the last several hours, comes from Manhattan’s George Soros-funded affirmative-action district attorney, Alvin Bragg. Responding to the uproar that greeted Donald Trump’s all-caps Truth Social warning that he would be “arrested” on Tuesday, Bragg sent ’round a memo to his staff informing them, and the world, that “This office is full of the finest public servants in the country.” 

The comedy didn’t end there, however. 

“I am committed to maintaining a safe work environment where everyone is able to continue to serve the public with the same diligence and professionalism [!] that make this institution so renowned. In the meantime, as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly . . .” 

What a card! And, yes, that’s my emphasis but his credulity-breaking bluster. 

“Evenly and fairly,” forsooth. Everyone knows that Alvin Bragg does not apply the law at all evenly or fairly. Favoring and disfavoring certain groups is what he is famous for doing. It’s his standard operating procedure. When it comes to your common or garden variety violent thug, especially those of a swarthy disposition, Bragg is the Angel of Mercy. 

An influential US medical panel is warning about the dangers of a rapidly spreading deadly fungus — just a week after the hit zombie show The Last of Us wrapped up.

The American College of Physicians (ACAP) said the rise and spread of antibiotic-resistant cases of Candida auris, also known as C auris, is 'particularly concerning'.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) already described the fungus, which kills up to 60 percent of people it infects, as an 'urgent threat' in 2019. 

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) slammed President Joe Biden for vetoing a bipartisan anti-ESG bill and prioritizing a “radical policy agenda” over getting the “best financial returns for millions of Americans’ retirement investments.”

“This Administration continues to prioritize their radical policy agenda over the economic, energy, and national security needs of our country, and it is absolutely infuriating,” stated Manchin, who is up for reelection this cycle.

Manchin was referring to Biden issuing his first veto on Monday to reject a bipartisan bill, H.R. 30, that would nullify his Labor Department rule allowing left-wing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies to be considered in retirement investing.

House Republican conference chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told Breitbart News exclusively that she believes Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should be called to testify before the U.S. Congress as soon as possible under oath to explain his decision to pursue what she called “political” charges against former President Donald Trump.

“I think we should hear Alvin Bragg testify before Congress, under oath, about his vision and the fact that this is wildly political and the fact that this was not pursued by federal courts and the fact that the Department of Justice passed on this,” Stefanik said in an interview at the House GOP retreat. “I also want to hear his answers about funding from George Soros. I want to hear his answers about the crime crisis in New York. So, at the same time like I said that you have him lowering felonies to misdemeanors you have something that is beyond the statute of limitations and is a political witch hunt. So I absolutely want to hear Alvin Bragg testify before Congress.”

Wayward royals Harry and Meghan have “partnered” with an organisation that, reports note, promotes childhood transgenderism.

Harry and Meghan’s Archewell charity has teamed up with the Global Boyhood Initiative, an NGO that has publicly backed teaching transgender ideology to children. The partnership is prominently displayed on the NGO’s own website.

The Global Boyhood Initiative, which aims to crush “toxic manhood” and stop parents from pushing “gender roles” on their children, is primarily backed by Equimundo, an NGO aimed at achieving gender equality worldwide.

Equimundo in turn receives funding from both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, as well as a variety of other corporations, NGOs and government organisations.

Two banks connected with the late Jeffrey Epstein will face lawsuits over claims they enabled his sex trafficking, a US court has ruled.

Two women who say the financier sexually abused them brought the case against JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.

Judge Jed Rakoff also gave the go-ahead to a case against JP Morgan from the US Virgin Islands.

The banks deny being aware of Epstein's abuses.

In a four-page order Judge Rakoff wrote that the women and Virgin Islands government could try to make the case the banks had "knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture".

Webmaster addition: What about the clients? You know, those people who paid to have sex with under age children?

Police in major US cities are preparing for potential unrest in case ex-President Donald Trump is arrested this week as part of a hush-money inquiry.

Authorities in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles are ramping up their law enforcement presence.

A Manhattan prosecutor may charge Mr Trump over claims that he paid a porn star to keep quiet about the affair they allegedly had.

It would be the first criminal case brought against a former US president.

Steel barricades were being erected on Monday outside the Manhattan Criminal Court, where Mr Trump could be charged, fingerprinted and photographed if charges are filed this week, as US media widely anticipate.

Increased police presence has also been seen outside Trump Tower in the city.

Video footage has emerged of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Washington D.C. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser making a series of house calls during the pandemic as they attempted to convince vaccine-hesitant residents to get the coronavirus injection.

In a clip released from a new PBS documentary about Fauci, 82, who retired on Christmas Eve, the former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of United States can be seen going door to door, only to be rejected by one homeowner after another, who are not convinced of the benefits of the jab. 

The footage, shot in 2021, shows Fauci face questioning from a man in Anacostia, in southeast D.C., who flatly refuses to get the vaccine despite the nation's former top doctor attempting to offer several reasons as to why he should.

This is the dramatic moment a Russian fighter jet intercepted a pair of US nuclear bombers over the Baltic Sea, just days after an American drone was downed.

Russia's defence ministry said a single Su-35 was scrambled to meet the B-52 strategic bombers that were flying in the direction of the Russian border on Monday, but that it returned to base after they moved away.

The development came as Moscow said it had flown two of its own nuclear bombers over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours, in a statement released as Japan's prime minister was beginning a surprise visit to Ukraine - and as China's premier Xi Jinping continues his own visit to Moscow.

A disruptive journalist has accused the White House of racism and claimed press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre 'ignored him' - as he explained his reasoning for derailing the press briefing and berating her on Monday in front of the cast of Ted Lasso.

Simon Ateba, a Cameroonian correspondent for Washington DC-based Today News Africa, said he had been waiting for seven months to ask a question in the room.

On Monday, during a special visit to the press room by the cast of Ted Lasso, Ateba demanded once again that he be allowed to ask a question.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article today by Nicholas Goldberg about the Pledge of Allegiance. Goldberg praises those independent-minded students and parents who have challenged its enforcement in public (i.e., government) schools. 

The Pledge of Allegiance has been used as a symbol of patriotism for more than 100 years. Today, it is recited by children in public schools and and also by adults at various events.

Conservatives are among the most ardent proponents of the Pledge. That’s ironic because it was written by a self-avowed socialist, a man named Edward Bellamy. Conservatives profess to oppose socialism and support “free enterprise.”

One of the funniest parts of the history of the Pledge was the manner in which public-school students were expected to recite it. American students were long expected to extend their right arms outward while reciting the Pledge. You know, like the Nazi salute. Officials decided, for appearance’s sake, to change it to the right hand over the heart.

Another interesting aspect to the Pledge is that our American ancestors lived without it for the first 100 years of American history. I guess proponents of the Pledge would say that they weren’t very patriotic. 

Webmaster addition:

Expect more details—and more controversy—coming soon on the Chinese origins of COVID-19 as a House select committee continues its investigation. While many in government in early 2020 immediately began pushing the narrative that the coronavirus came from nature, several scientists and the U.S. State Department had serious doubts and pointed to the large amount of circumstantial evidence that the virus originated in a Chinese lab.

At the first hearing on the origins topic, Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, announced that he was not only inviting Drs. Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health to testify on the topic but also key personnel of other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of State.

The key question for Congress and the nation: Did COVID-19 have a natural or a laboratory origin? There is disagreement among scientists; and among U.S. intelligence agencies, no consensus exists.  

If it isn’t already, surviving economic collapse should be at the forefront of your mind. And with good reason; the pitiable state of the economy has sparked fear that the world is to face an even larger economic collapse in the coming year. We are truly in a precarious position. The moment the United States dollar experiences a weakening, and the value of basic commodities like oil, gold, and grain skyrocket, a lot of people will be scared for their own daily survival. But, is there still a way of surviving total economic collapse if this event were to take place? The good news is, the answer is yes. The bad news is, while every one of these tactics are absolutely achievable, most Americans will never take the care to implement them. For this reason most will either suffer terribly, or perish in the wake of this disaster. There are various survival skills, both physically and financially, which you can learn and implement now, in order for you and your family to survive in case there is a total economic meltdown.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy met with other lawmakers for the House Republican Policy retreat in Orlando. One America’s Neil W. McCabe has more from McCarthy’s opening press conference.

One section of Credit Suisse's bondholders is set to be wiped out following the struggling bank's takeover by UBS, causing them to see investments worth 16 billion Swiss francs ($17 billion) become worthless.

The Swiss regulator FINMA announced Sunday that the so-called additional tier-one bonds, which are widely regarded as relatively risky investments, will be written to zero as part of the deal.