WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump lashed out Friday over plans for the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff during his upcoming inauguration to honor the late President Jimmy Carter ‒ but the White House said it isn't reconsidering the order.

Only in the world of political make-believe we inhabit in the West would the Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.

And only in a world in which the billionaire-owned media alone constructs and polices what counts as reality would the WSJ be able to run this story without also being expected to consider what it signifies about America’s professed democracy.

The emperor, we are now told, was naked all along. How did it take more than four years for the fearless, tenacious billionaire-owned media to notice?

The WSJ reports that even back in 2021 Biden had what his officials described as “bad days” when his mind worked so poorly he had to be kept away from senior Congresspeople and his own cabinet colleagues.

The Manhattan judge who presided over former and future President Donald Trump’s hush money trial has denied the motion to dismiss the case and set the sentencing date for January 10, just ten days before his inauguration for a second term.

Judge Juan Merchan stated in his ruling on Friday that Trump can appear in person or virtually for the sentencing and indicated that the President-elect will receive an unconditional discharge, avoiding jail time.

China scholar Mark Wang still remembers a time in the 2000s when Australia’s China studies was vibrant and in a leading position in the world.

“At that time, the student interest, government policy and funding for China studies in Australia were really strong,” said Professor Wang, the director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies.

“Australian universities once hired so many China-related experts like myself, researching and teaching specialised knowledge about China.

Those currently celebrating the US and Israel’s decisive military victories against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and possibly the defeat of Ansar Allah in Yemen may soon discover the pyrrhic nature of “reshaping the Middle East” in the interests of Western civilization.

Military actions enabled by Washington have left Israel more strategically dominant than it has ever been, but it is also now more politically isolated: in significant regions of the world including Europe and East Asia, it is now a pariah state.

Biden blocks $14.9 billion US-Japan steel deal over national security concerns
AMERICASUS President Joe Biden on Friday blocked the sale of US Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel, citing concerns that the deal could threaten national security and industrial supply chains. The companies said that the move was a "clear violation of due process and the law" in a joint statement.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250103-biden-blocks-us-japan-steel-deal

MEANWHILE:

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The US State Department has approved a possible sale of advanced AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 air-to-air missiles and related equipment to Japan for $3.64 billion, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock were in the Syrian capital for talks on behalf of the European Union, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad

Twin violent incidents rocked the US on New Year's Day, with an ex-US Army vet plowing a pickup into a crowd in New Orleans and going down guns blazing in a firefight with police, and an active-duty Green Beret blowing up in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Sputnik asked renowned former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to weigh in.

“Right now, the FBI is trying to present this as what they call a ‘lone wolf individual’, acting on his own by himself. I know that’s the story. I don’t find it to be particularly credible,” Johnson said, commenting on the terror attack that rocked New Orleans and claimed scores of lives January 1.

Blue chip business lobby the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce is associated with funding illegal settlements in Israel and sponsorships by notorious Elbit Systems whose weapons are deployed in war crimes. Yaakov Aharon reports.

Israel’s “innovation ecosystem will be supercharged” by the war, Dave Sharma said. Indeed, the bloody rubble of Gaza has been a human testing ground for drones and all manner of new military technologies.

Sharma, the Liberal Party senator and former ambassador to Israel, was addressing corporate moguls at the 2024 summit of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC). 

Russia has officially ceased gas transit through Ukraine to the EU as of 8am Moscow time on January 1. Russian energy giant Gazprom announced the halt after negotiations to extend the transit agreements with Ukrainian companies Naftogaz and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, which have been in place since 2019, fell through.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, Gazprom said, “Due to the repeated and clear refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal opportunity to supply gas for transit through Ukraine starting from January 1, 2025.” As a result, gas supplies to Europe via this route are now completely suspended.

The Israeli occupation continues the genocide in Gaza in a frenzied manner, with the pace of assaults increasing daily. For 450 days, the occupation has persisted in killing civilians, displacing them, and attacking hospitals and civilian institutions protected by all international laws and regulations. Every new day in this genocide brings with it pain and brutality equal to all the previous days combined. Every moment in this inferno in Gaza is a stain on the false humanity that never acts when Israel is the aggressor.

On this New Year’s Eve, billions of people will gather with friends to ring in 2025 with the hope of a better year to come.  For the first time in many years, free-speech advocates have a reason to celebrate.

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has sparked speculation after changing his name on his social media platform X to "Kekius Maximus". 

The tech mogul - and close confidant of US President-Elect Donald Trump - offered no immediate explanation for the name or his new profile image which depicts the character Pepe the Frog - a meme that has been used by far-right groups [In the fall of 2016, the ADL teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to form a #SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.]. 

It is some years now since a lot of people began imagining the specter of World War III in the near or middle distance. This kind of thinking has been especially common since the U.S., with determination and purpose, provoked Russia to intervene in Ukraine three years ago this coming February. A few weeks later President Biden defended his decision to block the transfer of fighter jets to the Kiev regime by famously remarking, “That’s called World War III.”

White House aides covered up President Biden’s apparent mental decline from Day 1 of his presidency, shielding the aging commander-in-chief from the public and even rearranging his schedule after scatterbrained performances, an explosive report revealed Thursday.

The lack of access to the nation’s oldest-ever president has been well known in Washington — with Biden hosting the fewest large press conferences in modern history and frequently descending into gaffes at the podium when he appeared — but how much the White House made up for the haziness had until now been hidden, according to aides, Democratic lawmakers and donors who spoke with the Wall Street Journal.