USA - General Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Central Command, has accused Iran of being “morally responsible” for drone and missile strikes by the Houthi militia of Yemen against the UAE and Saudi Arabia. McKenzie is currently visiting the United Arab Emirates to give Abu Dhabi “assurance” that the US stands with the Gulf country against what he described as a threat from Tehran.

UK - The first Queen Elizabeth transformed her country into a world power. The second, through no fault of her own, has overseen the reverse. There’s no doubt that Queen Elizabeth II is a wonderful monarch, perhaps one of the greatest Britain has ever seen. To put her long reign in perspective, she ascended to the throne only seven years after the end of the Second World War, and Winston Churchill was her first prime minister. Her commitment to duty and to her people are beyond reproach, and, as a result, her jubilee will be met with a swathe of celebratory television documentaries and news articles.

UK - Legendary television presenter turned farmer Jeremy Clarkson has spoken out for his fellow farmers of Oxfordshire, England, who held a protest on Tuesday after local officials decided that only vegan products would be served at council events. “Farmers of Oxfordshire. I wish I’d known about your protest today. I’d have been there like a shot,” Clarkson posted on Twitter. Sharing a link to local news coverage of the demonstration, he criticized the council’s move to ban non-vegan foods at municipal events as “utter utter madness.” “Why are Liberal Democrats always Stalinist?” the presenter added. On Tuesday, local farmers staged a demonstration at County Hall in Oxford to protest the decision made by the Liberal Democrat and Green alliance council. The protesters also called on the authorities, as well as Oxfordshire residents, to better support the British agricultural sector. The council, which passed plans for the move in December, said the measure was part of its efforts to tackle climate change.

USA - Fact-checking is one part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality. Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains how virtually everything you see and hear online has been co-opted, or taken over to serve a greater agenda. Instead of real journalists and reporters, the media is infiltrated with propagandists who dictate what’s “fake news” and what’s not. The public is being manipulated to want their information censored by third-party “fact”-checkers, which were introduced as a tool to confuse and control the public further. “Conspiracy theory”, “debunked”, “quackery” and “antivaccine” are examples of terms that are being used as propaganda tools; if you hear them, it should make you dig deeper for the truth. Those who rely solely on the internet for their information are at serious risk of being controlled; you can fight back by doing your own research, trusting your cognitive dissonance and using your common sense.

ISRAEL - Those who fantasize that ‘Israel’ is against Russia and/or China are irredeemably delusional. Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid commented on the New Cold War’s Western Eurasian theater in exclusive comments to Axios on Wednesday. In his words, “At the moment, the [Israeli] assessment is that we don’t see a violent confrontation soon. I also don’t think a world war is about to start there… We have a duty to act with caution about the Russia-Ukraine crisis that no other country has.” The Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel promptly responded with fury, even going as far as to ridiculously imply that his hosts are Russian puppets when writing on Facebook that “Mr Minister reiterates rhetoric of Russian propaganda and ignores the disturbing messages from his own strongest allies – USA, Britain and EU regarding the high possibility of full scale Russian military invasion into Ukraine in coming weeks.” It’s simply enough for the reader to know that Israel isn’t an American puppet but is fiercely independent in terms of its foreign policy and that the US’ two top rivals have successfully cultivated excellent ties with it that are mutually beneficial. Those who fantasize that “Israel” is against Russia and/or China are irredeemably delusional.

UK - Yesterday, the United Kingdom announced that it was adding itself as a party to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute between the European Union and China, as part of a growing row between Beijing and Lithuania over the launch of a Taiwan representative office in the Baltic country. She accused China of “economic coercion” – a buzz phrase which has gained currency among the media and political classes to describe Beijing’s retaliation towards countries hostile to it, such as Australia. Since the end of World War II, the story of Britain’s foreign policy is one of contradiction, to put it mildly. It is the tale of a declining empire, which has repeatedly failed to be realistic about its place in the world, and this has manifested itself in its constant tilting between the US and Europe. The so-called “special relationship” with America embodies the nostalgia of empire, the belief in the supremacy of Anglophone capitalism, clashing with the more mundane reality of Britain being in Europe. This has created longstanding disorientation, ranging from Charles de Gaulle’s rejection of Britain’s entry to the bloc on the basis of its relationship with the US, to Euroscepticism and Brexit itself.

USA - In a joint press conference from the White House on Monday, Germany’s recently installed left-wing chancellor, Olaf Scholz refused to confirm his country’s position on the controversial (Nord Stream 2) pipeline should Russian forces cross into Ukraine. Despite lifting sanctions on the pipeline put in place by Donald Trump, President Joe Biden said per a White House readout: “If Germany — if Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the — the border of Ukraine again — then there will be — we — there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” Though American sanctions could hinder the project, the construction is basically complete and opening of the pipeline is ultimately in the hands of Germany, with approval required from the country’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). The German chancellor promised to act with “one voice” on the Ukrainian issue with the United States, yet he failed to support the threat to shut down Nord Stream 2.

USA - 30 Trillion in debt and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. What else do we get? Rising inflation and rising interest rates. Mortgage rates are rising rapidly as The Federal Reserve contemplates 5-7 rate increases over the next year and removing their balance sheet stimulus. Yes, I want to see how The Federal Reserve will navigate the rising rate scenario in the face of $30 trillion … and growing … Federal debt load. Instead of Tennessee Ernie Ford, I want to hear Delaware Joe Biden explain this to us.

USA - It's probably not the endorsement Biden's flailing administration wanted. In a time when social networks have been swamped with photos of empty shelves from across the nation, Goldman's head commodity strategist and one of the closest-followed analysts on Wall Street, said he’s never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now. “I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen markets like this,” Currie told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday. “This is a molecule crisis. We’re out of everything, I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out of it.” The shortage of, well, everything has translated into record prices of virtually all commodities: the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index, which tracks 23 energy, metals and crop futures, has touched a record this year. That has been driven in part by surging oil prices, which have hit their highest level since 2014 and earlier today Brent rose as high as $94, assuring even more pain at the pump.

USA - Supplies of diesel and heating oil in the United States have dwindled as refiners are having trouble replenishing the domestic fuel supply this winter, which may keep oil prices elevated for months. Heating oil futures reached $2.83 per gallon at the market’s close on February 4, the highest price in seven years. US and global benchmarks for crude-oil futures hit above $90 a barrel, as a harsh winter storm affected large portions of the country, adding to existing supply concerns. The latest national average price for diesel was at $3.78 per gallon, the highest since September 2014.

USA - President Joe Biden will welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House on Monday to discuss Russian aggression against the Ukraine and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as tensions mount in Eastern Europe. Scholz's visit comes as both Democrats and Republicans - along with American allies in Western Europe - have accused Germany of being 'missing in action' on Ukraine and expressed frustration Berlin hasn't done more to help its fellow NATO members in Eastern Europe as Russia builds up its military force on the Ukraine border. Scholz has said that Moscow would pay a 'high price' if it attacks. But concerns have been raised about his government's refusal to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, to increase Germany's troop presence in Eastern Europe or to clarify which sanctions it would support should Russia act.

CHINA - The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, recently attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The next day, he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People, where he signed Argentina up to the Belt and Road Initiative, while also penning an $8 billion nuclear power plant deal to be financed and built by Chinese firms. In a joint statement, both countries also affirmed Argentina's sovereign claims over the disputed Malvinas/Falkland Islands – a gesture which, while not a new position for either country, drew the ire of UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Twitter. In tandem with this, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, was also in town, and, despite his government traditionally being a more US-aligned administration, he later announced talks on a bilateral free trade agreement with China. While the Winter Games go on, so do the political games. In the space of just a few days, it seems clear where the gold medal for seizing the diplomatic initiative is heading.

USA - The lack of critical thinking that we see in the world of journalism today is absolutely frightening. Way too often, the mainstream media simply takes the information that it is being fed and packages it as “truth” for an unsuspecting public. And since the general public does so little critical thinking at this point, most of the time the misinformation that is being foisted upon us goes virtually unchallenged. On Friday, NPR was thrilled to report that the US economy “added 467,000 jobs last month”… But the US economy did not add 467,000 jobs last month. It actually lost 2.8 million jobs. So how does a loss of 2.8 million jobs become a gain of 467,000 jobs? That is where “seasonal adjustments” come in, and as one expert quoted by Zero Hedge noted, “there has never been a January Seasonal Adjustment of this magnitude”… I would recommend examining all of the evidence and coming to your own conclusions. Things just keep getting worse, and at this point it is hard to imagine how anyone can be optimistic about the months ahead.

USA - In order to understand how far we have fallen as a society, we need to take a look back at how Americans once lived. Because the way that we live today would be unrecognizable to those that inhabited our cities in the middle of the last century. We like to think of ourselves as the most advanced and most sophisticated generation that the United States has ever produced, but the truth is that we are filthy, disgusting “pig people” compared to the generations that have come before us. Today, we take great pride in being as informal as possible. Or, putting it another way, we have become a nation of complete slobs. Sometimes we like to laugh at “People of Walmart”, but the truth is that the entire country is filled with “People of Walmart” at this point. From coast to coast, our nation is degenerating at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking. If you walk down the streets of any of our major cities today, you aren’t going to encounter highly civilized people... Instead, you may run into some “woke” young adults that our rapidly decaying system of education has recently produced.

USA - Scientists at MIT have developed a material that is as light as plastic — but stronger than steel. They believe the material could revolutionize the car, mobile phone and building industries. The easily manufactured substance – up to six times more difficult to break than bulletproof glass – is the result of an engineering feat previously thought to be impossible. It is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets. Now, its developers hope the material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or mobile phones. It could also serve as a worthy candidate for the construction of office buildings, bridges or other structures.