Hungarians have decided they do not need any more genders, but would like to see “more Chuck Norris,” the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban told an American crowd on Thursday.

Addressing this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Dallas, Texas, Orban touched upon a range of his signature issues, including immigration, globalism, and woke culture. “[Hungarians] decided we don't need more genders — we need more rangers,” Orban said. 

“Less drag queens and more Chuck Norris!” he added, referring to the famous American martial artist and actor.

Orban delivered his remarks to rally the crowd ahead of the keynote speech of former US President Donald Trump, scheduled for Saturday. On Tuesday, he visited Trump at the latter’s golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Since 2000, nearly 100 former lawmakers have become lobbyists for countries like Saudi Arabia and China in Washington.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress that, among other important provisions to combat undue foreign influence in politics, would ban former members of Congress from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. 

New Quincy Institute research finds that this congressional action is long overdue as the revolving door from Congress to lobbying on behalf of foreign interests has been spinning feverishly.

By the time a cell senses that it’s been infected by a virus, it generally knows it is doomed. Soon, it will be busted up by the body’s immunological patrol or detonated by the invader itself. So the moribund cell plays its trump card: It bleats out microscopic shrieks that danger is nigh.

The Coronavirus Has One Strategy We Can’t Vaccinate Against

It may be getting better at dodging one of the immune system’s main defenses.

By Katherine J. Wu

Nearly a third of foreign retailers have left Russia following Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, Russian daily Izvestia reported on Thursday.

A total of 27% of companies that leased premises in shopping centers decided to terminate their activities in Russia, consulting company CORE.XP (formerly CBRE) told Izvestia. A further 51% of foreign brands suspended business operations and 22% are undergoing restructuring.

Among those who announced their departure are H&M Group (which operates COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, H&M home, Arket and other brands), Nike, Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Lush and Lego. Among the brands currently undergoing restructuring are Levi’s (JNS), and L’Occitane (Л’Окситан), Izvestia says.

One of NATO’s main goals in the Ukraine conflict is preventing a “full-scale war” with Russia, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. 

“In this conflict, NATO has two tasks: supporting Ukraine and preventing the war from escalating into a full-scale war between NATO and Russia,”Stoltenberg said in a speech in Norway.

The military bloc’s chief described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “the most dangerous situation in Europe since World War Two” adding that Moscow must not be allowed to win. “If Russia wins the war, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will be convinced that violence works. Then other neighboring countries may be next,” Stoltenberg argued.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Amnesty International of siding with “terrorists” after the organization condemned the Ukrainian military for placing weapons in civilian areas in violation of humanitarian law.

“Today we saw a report by Amnesty International, which unfortunately tries to amnesty the terrorist state and shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” Zelensky said in a video address on Thursday evening. 

“If someone makes a report that puts the aggressor and the victim on the same level, this cannot be tolerated,”he said, repeating three times that “Ukraine is a victim,” and adding that “anyone who doubts this is an accomplice of Russia – a terrorist country – and a terrorist themselves and a participant in the killings.”'

This is the way the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) ends, over and over again: not with a bang, but a whimper.

Two Hellfire R9-X missiles launched from a MQ9 Reaper drone on the balcony of a house in Kabul. The target was Ayman Al-Zawahiri with a $25 million bounty on his head. The once invisible leader of ‘historic’ Al-Qaeda since 2011, is finally terminated.

All of us who spent years of our lives, especially throughout the 2000s, writing about and tracking Al-Zawahiri know how US ‘intel’ played every trick in the book – and outside the book – to find him. Well, he never exposed himself on the balcony of a house, much less in Kabul.

Another disposable asset

BY PEPE ESCOBAR.

Kate Middleton won a sailing race with Great Britain during a visit to the British SailGP Team during the Commonwealth Games.

The Duchess of Cambridge took part in a special one-off friendly victory over New Zealand, watched by thousands in Plymouth.

Kate was also teaching young people about sustainability on the visit earlier today.

She raced alongside Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie on the GB team’s F50 catamaran in the event.

Sir Ben said: ‘She’s a really good sailor in her own right, she has sailed with me on foiling boats as well and we’re expecting a little bit of extra help.’

Screaming and kicking, the West is being brought to heel. Colonialism, superiority, currency manipulations via deceitful world banking organisations, enrichment of the rich, control of various populations, wars and hypocritical conducts are being gamed down — slowly. 

Is it for the best? We have created history with a few goals in mind, yet the thrust of our information is geared to hide the ultimate goals with moralistic fudge. We want to own everything.

The war in Ukraine is not really about Ukraine—it is not about Ukraine’s sacrosanct borders which have been supposedly violated by Russia. And it is most certainly not about the vaunted “defense of democracy,” as we constantly hear screamed in our ears by the media and by a broad panoply of American (and European) political and cultural leaders, from Nancy Pelosi to Lindsey Graham to Boris Johnson.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Tuesday that the fighting in Donbass was “hell,” claiming that Kiev’s military remained heavily outgunned and even outnumbered by Russia and appealing to the US and its allies for even more weapons such as the HIMARS rocket launchers.

In a five-minute address to Ukrainians, Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden and NATO for sending the rocket artillery, calling it “very effective” and vowing to inflict “more painful losses”on the Russians, whom he described as a “horde” of invaders.

“The word ‘HIMARS’ has become almost synonymous with the word ‘justice’ for our country,” Zelensky said.

Pentagon Wiped Jan. 6 Texts From Phones Belonging to Top Military Generals, Court Docs Reveal

News that texts between high-level generals can’t be located come as Democrats seek to portray the post-office deletion of messages from a number of influential Trump administration officials’ phones as a conspiracy headed up by the former president–but the DoJ says it’s standard practice.

Text messages exchanged among top US military generals during the January 6 Capitol riot were wiped by the Department of Defense (DoD), newly released court filings have revealed.

Every leader and top official now in power in the so-called Western World seems to have forgotten that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as an alliance that was ostensibly defensive in nature, intended to counter the expansion of Soviet style communism in Europe. That role continued to be the raison d’etre of the organization until communist governments themselves collapsed in both Russia and in the Eastern European states that collectively made up the Warsaw Pact during the 1990s. After that point, NATO no longer had any reason to exist at all as the alleged military threat posed by the Kremlin and its allies vanished virtually overnight.

New $500 million scoping plans for the Powerhouse at Ultimo have been condemned as an attempt to transform the museum into an entertainment centre by the overwhelming majority of public submissions.

Only six of 104 public submissions backed the concept plans for the 2.4-hectare site that potentially allow for a new public square, entrance, and a multistorey annex on the museum’s Harris Street forecourt.

The International Council of Museums made one of the 91 objections lodged with the Department of Planning: “This looks to be the removal rather than the redevelopment of a Museum,” its vice chair Alex Marsden said.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her visit to Taiwan in “no way contradicts” Washington’s long-standing policy on the self-governed island after touching down in Taipei on Tuesday, despite stark warnings from China.

"Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy," Pelosi said in a statement after landing. 

The US official said her discussions with Taiwan's leaders would focus on "reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region."