USA - Despite the mewling of the spineless American media, the real coup this week wasn’t committed by President Trump’s supporters, but by his opponents. They’re writing a manual on modern regime change, and it’s ready for export. When President Donald Trump’s supporters forced their way inside the US Capitol on Wednesday, they did not act as a unified force bent on seizing power. Instead they snapped selfies, looted souvenirs, and engaged in petty vandalism. While the rampage ended in tragedy for the protester shot dead by police, the police officer fatally injured, and the three others who suffered “medical emergencies” and died, it was soon snuffed out and Congress returned to work that evening to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

USA - Mozilla, the non-profit company behind Firefox browser, has joined the fight against free speech, motivated by the narrative about what happened at the US Capitol on January 6th. In tandem with other tech giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google, the CEO of Mozilla Mitchell Baker called for “more than de-platforming”.

USA - As Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives becomes ever more flagrant and overt, the old arguments about protecting the sanctity of the modern public square are now invalid. From “shadowbans” on Facebook and Twitter, to demonetization of YouTube videos, to pulled ads for Republican candidates at the critical junctures of election campaigns, the list of violations against the online practices and speech of conservatives is long. I certainly had my suspicions confirmed when Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, “accidentally” censored a post I made regarding the Jussie Smollett hoax, which consequently led to me hearing from hundreds of my followers about how they’ve been having problems seeing, liking or being able to interact with my posts. Many of them even claimed that they’ve had to repeatedly refollow me, as Instagram keeps unfollowing me on their accounts. While nothing about Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives truly surprises me anymore, it’s still chilling to see the proof for yourself.

UNITED NATIONS - In January, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, tasked his Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, to “present a global plan of action against hate speech and hate crimes on a fast-track basis”. Speaking at a press conference about the UN’s challenges for 2019, Guterres maintained, “The biggest challenge that governments and institutions face today is to show that we care — and to mobilize solutions that respond to people’s fears and anxieties with answers…” One of those answers, Guterres appeared to suggest, is shutting down free speech. “We need to enlist every segment of society in the battle for values that our world faces today – and, in particular, to tackle the rise of hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance. We hear troubling, hateful echoes of eras long past” Guterres said, “Poisonous views are penetrating political debates and polluting the mainstream. Let’s never forget the lessons of the 1930s. Hate speech and hate crimes are direct threats to human rights…”

USA - Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and reliable partner of the United States, and yet for several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts. The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. No more. Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions. Executive branch agencies should consider all “contact guidelines” regarding relations with Taiwan previously issued by the Department of State under authorities delegated to the Secretary of State to be null and void.

IRAN - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards unveiled an underground missile base at an undisclosed Gulf location on Friday, Iranian state media reported, at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and the United States. "The base is one of several bases housing the Guards' Navy's strategic missiles," the state media quoted the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, as saying. Last year, the Guards said Iran had built underground "missile cities" along the Gulf coastline, warning of a "nightmare for Iran's enemies". "These missiles have ranges of hundreds of kilometres, enjoy pinpoint accuracy and huge destructive power, and can overcome the enemy's electronic warfare equipment," Salami said. He said the base was "one of several bases housing the Navy's strategic missiles".

USA - Today, President Donald J Trump declared that an emergency exists in the District of Columbia and ordered Federal assistance to supplement the District’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24, 2021. The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the District of Columbia. Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 100 percent Federal funding.

USA - With unilateral censorship of a sitting US president, Big Tech has proven it’s more powerful than any government. Big Tech’s moves to muscle President Donald Trump off social media have been heralded by some as victory. But a corporate-run state with politicians serving as mere figureheads amounts to the very fascism they claim to oppose.

USA - The Trump campaign is now blocked from emailing their millions of supporters after being suspended by their email service provider. The suspension comes shortly after President Donald Trump and his campaign were permanently banned from Twitter. The email service, Campaign Monitor, confirmed the suspension of the account to Financial Times’ Dave Lee. The Nationalist Review reports “the move effectively cuts off communication between his team and his core supporters. What is not clear however, is what other services have banned his team. The Trump campaign sends out a massive amount of emails — 33 in January so far. But, it has been 48 hours since the campaign has reached out to its supporters via email, prompting most journalists to speculate that other providers have shut off access as well.”

USA - Attorney Sidney Powell Now Suspended from Twitter – Joins the Growing List of Trump Supporters Being Silenced. Powell joins General Flynn as the latest in what appears to be a massive purge of Trump supporters from the platform. Stop the Steal organizers Michael Coudrey and Ali Alexander were both banned the evening of the protest on the Capitol. Lin Wood was kicked off the next day. The Gateway Pundit’s Joe Hoft was suspended last week for putting up a post about Hunter Biden. The purge is hitting both small accounts and those of President Trump and his prominent supporters and allies. They seem to be targeting just about anyone who questions the 2020 election results. The platform temporarily suspended President Donald Trump himself the day of the Capitol protest and has threatened to ban his account permanently in the future. Facebook banned President Trump’s account permanently this week.

USA - Droves of people are reportedly ditching WhatsApp for its rival apps after users were told they must share sensitive personal data with Facebook — or have their account closed. WhatsApp, which uses Signal's encryption technology, laid out fresh terms on Wednesday, asking users to agree to let owner Facebook Inc and its subsidiaries collect user data. Otherwise, their accounts would be cancelled. This includes account information like your phone number, logs of how long and how often you use WhatsApp, information about how you interact with other users. Other data that could be shared are device identifiers, and other device details like IP address, operating system, browser details, battery health information, app version, mobile network, language and time zone. But privacy activists questioned the "accept our data grab or get out" move on Twitter, and suggested users to switch to apps like Signal and Telegram.

USA - After the election of Joe Biden, who supports the killing of the unborn almost without limit, voters in Georgia apparently have given two Senate seats to Democrats who are part of a "demonic-driven abortion agenda," says evangelist Franklin Graham. Consequently, he warned Wednesday, "God's judgment is coming." "The votes are in, but is the election over? I have no clue," he wrote on Facebook. "I guess we just have to wait and see. But I do know that we need to pray for our nation. We are in trouble," he said. "I believe God’s judgment is coming, for the sins of our nation are great and they are a stench in the nostrils of our Creator." Abortion represents the biggest, most significant INJUSTICE of our time in history — genocide of entire masses of babies," Graham said.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan’s national power grid has failed, leaving almost the entire country in the dark. With officials blaming a mysterious “plunge in the frequency,” conspiracy theories quickly proliferated. "A countrywide blackout has been caused by a sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system," Pakistani power minister Omar Ayub Khan wrote on Twitter, shortly after the country was plunged into darkness before midnight on Saturday. Pakistanis soon shared pictures of their blacked out cities and towns, with the starry night sky clearly visible above without the usual light pollution. While rebel attacks have caused massive blackouts in Pakistan before, the country’s crumbling infrastructure and growing demand for power often leave citizens without power for hours on end. However, new Chinese-built power stations and supply lines are beginning to make up the shortfall.

USA - Nearly 80% of health care workers in Illinois and half of staff in Texas and North Carolina refuse coronavirus vaccines - and it's holding up the rollout of shots across the US. To-date, just 6.25 million Americans have been vaccinated, according to tracking from Bloomberg News. At this rate, it could take years for the US to reach herd immunity. In a race against coronavirus, which is infecting some 250,000 Americans a day and yesterday killed a record 4,085 people, slow uptake could be deadly. 'I don't think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,' said Dr Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon in Portland, Oregon, who is postponing getting vaccinated. 'At the end of the day, as a man of science, I just want to see what the data show. And give me the full data.'

USA - Wanting to turn back the clock and restore the American Empire to what it was before Donald Trump’s presidency is a fool’s errand. It’s already a thing of the past – and the storming of the US Capitol was just the last straw. Don’t take my word for it, though. “If the post-American era has a start date, it is almost certainly today,” argued none other than the head of the Council on Foreign Relations – the foremost think tank advocating for the Empire in Washington – after Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol by several hundred Trump supporters protesting the certification of the election for Biden. “No one in the world is likely to see, respect, fear, or depend on us in the same way again,” lamented CFR president Richard Haas.