On his last show before Election Day, John Oliver allowed himself to dream a little dream. Mr. Oliver, whose “Last Week Tonight” speaks to a mostly left-of-center crowd, spent most of the episode making the case for Kamala Harris. But also, he asked his audience, wouldn’t it be nice, for the first time since 2015, to have the option of simply ignoring Donald J. Trump’s existence? “I want so badly to live in that world!” he said.

James Poniewozik

As soon as President-elect Donald J. Trump won the presidential race, influencers on Rumble, the right-wing alternative to YouTube, flooded the platform with a simple catchphrase: “We are the media now.”

The idea seemed to capture a growing sense that traditional journalists have lost their position at the center of the media ecosystem. Polls show that trust in mainstream news media has plummeted, and that nearly half of all young people get their news from “influencers” rather than journalists.

There was no shortage of cunning showmanship when the Coalition stumped up to release its long-awaited $331 billion nuclear power plan.

Having failed to follow through on previous pledges to detail the cost of establishing seven government-owned nuclear power plants, the Coalition waited for a Friday less than two weeks from Christmas to deliver the news.

Cunning showmanship as Coalition conflates details to sell its $331b nuclear power plan
     By Brett Worthington

Kahanist Israeli lawmaker (Otzma Yehudit, Jewish Force) and chairman of the National Security Committee Zvika Fogel pushed through the Knesset in September a law authorizing the police to conduct widespread surveillance using new technologies without judicial oversight.

In November, he pushed through the first reading of a law authorizing a police commander and other officials to request permission from the president of a district court or his deputy to access a personal computer or cell phone.

He has just passed a third law empowering the police, on the instructions of the prosecutor, to take measures restricting freedom, which the accused must comply with or risk four years in prison. This could include administrative detention, i.e. without trial, on the sole basis of classified information, without the police having to provide any evidence.

Russian marines have recaptured fortified positions used by Ukrainian forces in the border area of Russia’s Kursk Region, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced on Thursday.

According to the MOD, marines belonging to the Pacific Fleet from the ‘North’ group have driven Ukrainian troops out of an administrative building in one of the settlements in the Kursk border area.

The MOD statement says the continuous monitoring of the area with UAVs had helped to “quickly detect the main resistance centers and drive the enemy out of their strongholds.” 

The marines attacked from several sides at once, the MOD said, adding that the Ukrainian forces had fired back with machine guns and grenade launchers, but were unable to hold out.

Putin made the right choice, which was always motivated by his rational calculation of what was in the objective interest of Russia as a state, and not because of “Zionist influence” as some in the alternative media community are now ridiculously claiming to smear him after being furious that he did not lift a finger to save the Resistance.

by Andrew Korybko

Medhurst was born in Damascus, Syria. His father is English and mother is Syrian. Both his parents served in United Nations Peacekeeping and Observer missions and were among the UN Peacekeepers awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. Owing to his parents’ professional mobility, he has lived in Syria, Pakistan, Switzerland, and Austria. He speaks four languages fluently: English, Arabic, French, and German.

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed his third prime minister this year, after the two previous heads of government resigned after just months in office.

Veteran centrist Francois Bayrou was announced as the new premier on Friday after a “tense” two-hour meeting with Macron, Politico reported. The 73-year-old politician, who is a former presidential candidate, will now try to steer France out of a political and budgetary quagmire.

“The president of the Republic has appointed Mr Francois Bayrou as prime minister and tasked him with forming a government,” the French presidency said.

Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, had been in office for just over three months. He resigned on December 5 after losing a no-confidence motion in parliament.

The EU has failed to overcome its dependence on Russian energy, and needs a new plan to wean itself off Moscow’s supplies, the bloc’s new energy chief told Politico on Thursday.

In his first interview since taking the post, Dan Jorgensen highlighted the growth in Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases.

The share of Russian LNG on the EU market reached 20% this year, according to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, despite Brussels’ pledge to stop consuming Russian fuel by 2027.

“It’s obvious to everybody that something new needs to happen because… now it’s beginning to go in the wrong direction,” the EU Energy commissioner said, while pledging to present “a tangible roadmap that will include efficient tools and means for us to solve the remaining part of the problem.”

Six European NATO members have released a joint statement, backing Ukraine’s plan to join the US-led alliance and promising to support the peace terms offered by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to Russia. Moscow has previously rejected Zelensky’s insistence on restoring Ukraine’s 1991 border as completely unacceptable.

The foreign ministers of the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Police [sic = Poland] signed a declaration after meeting with theшк [sic = their] Ukrainian counterpart in Berlin on Thursday. 

“The goals of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine and durable security for Europe are inseparable. Ukraine must prevail,” the statement said. 

The countries pledged to support an end to the conflict in accordance “with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Sacrifice zones are areas where people have been left to live in conditions that threaten life itself, from toxic industrial pollution to the deadly, intensifying effects of man-made climate change. In a more just and less cruel society, the very concept of a “sacrifice zone” wouldn’t exist. And yet, in America, after decades of deregulation and public disinvestment, more working-class communities are becoming sacrifice zones, and more of us are being set up for sacrifice at the altars of corporate greed and government abandonment.

The Western world has many enemies – China, Russia, Iran, North Korea – but none is more potentially lethal than its own education system. From the very institutions once renowned for spreading literacy, the Enlightenment and the means of mastering nature, we now see a deep-seated denial of our common past, pervasive illiteracy and enforced orthodoxy.

The American university is rotting from within
The modern academy is a threat to reason, liberty and Western civilisation.

JOEL KOTKIN

The standard modus operandi of the Hegemon is always Divide and Rule. Cornered by the inexorable rise of the multi-nodal (roman Pepe) reality, they saw an opening for an imperial reboot, betting everything on establishing the “Greater Middle East” outlined still during the Cheney era.

Death of a nation: Black Flags, massacres, land grabs as vultures feed on the carcass of Syria

BY Pepe ESCOBAR

The iron axis of Straussian neocons, Zio-cons and Old Testament psychos in Tel Aviv is no-holds-barred obsessed on destroying the Axis of Resistance, using their transnational network of bloody killers to extend chaos and sectarian civil war all across West Asia. Throughout this ideal scenario they dream of mortally hitting the head of the snake: Iran.

‘God Mode’: Like an invincible gamer, Gautam Adani’s rise as a global industrialist parallels that of India
He’s into ports, airports, energy and defense. His foreign forays echo PM Modi’s diplomacy. His ambitions know no bounds – despite recent legal troubles in the US

By Ushinor Majumdar