Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will join an emergency video conference with other BRICS leaders on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group, the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday. The presidential administration provided no further details about the upcoming event. 

Earlier on Monday, the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he will chair an extraordinary joint meeting on the situation in Gaza. South Africa currently chairs the BRICS group, which also includes Russia, China, Brazil, and India. 

In addition to the regular BRICS members, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates were invited to join the event as well.

Recently, the 2002 ‘Letter to the American people’ by then-Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden went viral on TikTok after young Americans rediscovered it and, apparently, became disillusioned with their country. This was because Bin Laden had, we may assume, some astute observations about the US – at least as far as some young people see it.

It turns out, of course, that Bin Laden was not only a very well-educated man but also wrote quite a lot. Daniel Dumbrill, a China-based social-media influencer, clued his audience on X (formerly Twitter) into one of Bin Laden's other letters, where he specifically mentioned current US President Joe Biden and why he, the leader of a terrorist outfit wanting to overthrow the US, actually preferred then-Vice President Biden to President Barack Obama.

Webmaster addition: I am not sure what the purpose of this 2002 letter was supposed to be, but Osama did not write it. The real Osama Bin Laden dies in late 2001 of natural causes! Every Bin Laden since then has been a propaganda fake!

President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping are planning to meet again following their four hour talk in San Francisco that cemented agreements on fentanyl and defense contacts, the White House said Monday.

National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters another high stakes meeting was on the agenda as he defended Biden's comment last week where he stood by calling Xi a 'dictator.'

The comment did not go over well in China's state-run media, although Xi Jinping gave a speech to American CEOs Wednesday immediately after his sit-down with Biden where he declared China is 'ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.'  

Israel’s going to have a lot of these sorts of problems going forward, and also, presumably, many much worse problems.

Joe Biden mixed up Taylor Swift and Britney Spears as he went off script while pardoning two turkeys at the White House.

The president, who is celebrating his 81st birthday today, also joked about his age, saying he was really only turning 60.

He undertook the traditional presidential duty of pardoning turkeys for Thanksgiving, this year sparing a pair named Liberty and Bell.

Biden said the birds had to 'beat some tough odds and competition' to be with him on the White House lawn.

He went on: 'You could say even harder than getting a ticket to the Renaissance tour...or, or, or...Britney's tour...she's down in...it's kind of warm in Brazil right now.'

The national debt has reemerged as a paramount economic issue for the first time in nearly a decade, raising alarms from Congress to Wall Street.

Investor sentiment surveys are expressing overwhelming positivity, suggesting a rosy outlook, while economic surveys paint a contrasting picture, indicating a deteriorating situation. This stark dichotomy between investor optimism and the grim economic reality underscores a perplexing divergence in current perceptions.

How did the Left go from defending the free speech rights of neo-Nazis to demanding censorship, falsely accusing their opponents of being fascists, and seeking their incarceration?

When Donald Trump became president, Democrats predicted the worst.

“Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy,” David Remnick wrote in the New Yorker the day after the election.

Trump, Remnick said, was an authoritarian who disdained civil liberties and whose election was “surely the way fascism can begin.”

Liberal commentators have compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler over and over again.

On Tuesday, Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley went on television and declared that it was absolutely necessary to deanonymyze the internet, justifying the idea as a “national security” prerogative.

"Every person on social media should be verified by their name" because of "national security,” she said on a Fox News voter panel.

Webmaster addition: "But we don't need ID to vote because it's racist!"

A growing number of Americans think that ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment, according to a recent survey from a university.

About 26 percent of respondents believe that the drug—long used to treat parasites—can treat the virus, according to the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. That's up from 10 percent who thought the same in September 2021.

The percentage of people who called that statement "false" also rose to 37 percent in November 2023, up from 27 percent in September 2021, the survey found. The overall number of people who aren't sure declined, from 63 percent to 38 percent in the same time period.

Without elaborating, the survey's authors said that the 26 percent "incorrectly" said that ivermectin is effective, while it has pointed to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) statements saying the agency has not authorized or approved the drug for preventing or treating COVID-19, and it has claimed that data shows it isn't effective against the virus. It has been approved to treat a variety of other illnesses, namely ones caused by parasites, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has regarded it as an essential medicine to treat a number of different ailments.

Webmaster addition: I wish the government was this interested in limiting the use of Fentanyl!

Update (2015ET): Texas AG Ken Paxton has officially opened an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity: 

The Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) is opening an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity.

Under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the OAG will vigorously enforce against nonprofits who commit fraudulent acts in or affecting the state of Texas.

Attorney General Paxton was extremely troubled by the allegations that Media Matters, a radical anti-free speech organization, fraudulently manipulated data on X.com (formerly known as Twitter).

“We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” said Attorney General Paxton.

Trust fund stock guru Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) can't stop saying stupid things.

Or lying.

And so when Adam Schiff's budget mini-me piped up over the weekend to say that former President Donald Trump "has to be eliminated," eyebrows were raised over exactly what he meant.

"His rhetoric is really getting dangerous. More and more dangerous. And we saw what happened on January 6th, when he uses inflammatory rhetoric. Now, in his recent Truth Social posts, is incredibly, incredibly scary for anyone uh, that, might be trying to work in government - and, it is just unquestionable at this point that that man can not see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be eliminated," Goldman told MSNBC's Jen Psaki.

The US military will deploy new medium-range missile systems to the Pacific region next year for the purpose of “deterring” China from invading Taiwan, the commander of US Army Pacific Forces said on Saturday.

According to Defense One, Gen. Charles Flynn said the deployment will include a land-based version of the Tomahawk missile, which was previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty with Russia the US withdrew from in 2019.

“We have tested them and we have a battery or two of them today,” Flynn said. “In 2024. We intend to deploy that system in your region. I’m not going to say where and when. But I will just say that we will deploy them.”

The INF Treaty previously banned the development of land-based missiles with a range between 310 to 3,400 miles. The US’s new land-based batteries that use Tomahawk missiles can hit targets of up to 1,000 miles. The US Marines Corps activated its first Tomahawk battery over the summer at a base in California.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to President Biden, is in Israel to hold talks with Israeli officials on preventing a major war with Lebanon as fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces across the Israel-Lebanon border continues to escalate, Axios reported on Monday.

Hezbollah rocket strikes on Monday caused heavy damage to Israel’s Birant military base near the Lebanon border, but no casualties were reported. Israel’s military said it responded with fighter jets, helicopters, and tanks, which targeted Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.

According to Axios, there’s growing anxiety in the White House that Israel’s military action could lead to a regional war. Some Biden administration officials believe Israel is trying to intentionally provoke Hezbollah to create a pretext for a wider war in Lebanon that can draw in the US.

From the outset, Paris sought to ensure an independent deterrent separate from that of the United States – and to develop sufficient nuclear firepower not to utterly destroy its presumed Soviet adversary in the event of war, but enough to dissuade an enemy from an attack on France. During the Cold War, France’s deterrent featured land, sea and air-based components, with the mission handed over entirely to the Navy in the 1990s.

“France is a member of NATO but thanks to General De Gaulle, we have kept a minimum of dependence toward NATO” as far as nuclear weapons are concerned, Colonel Jacques Hogard, a 26-year veteran of the French Army and Foreign Legion and Special Forces officer, told Sputnik, when asked about the origins of France’s independent deterrent.

France’s nuclear doctrine “guaranteed and still guarantees” the nation’s “independence as a nuclear power,” and was made possible “purely because of the will of General De Gaulle, who imposed it on the Americans,” Hogard explained.

The central point of the French nuclear deterrent is “precisely so as not to depend on the American umbrella,” with the matter constituting an “essential question” and key pillar of the France’s military doctrine, which concedes the possibility of alliances, but not at the expense of Paris’s strategic security, the expert said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday showed up in Kiev during an unannounced visit, and at an awkward moment for US-Ukraine relations given President Zelensky has been publicly complaining over a decrease in artillery shell supplies, given they are now going to Israel for its war in Gaza. 

"I was honored to meet with President @ZelenskyyUa in Kyiv today to reaffirm the United States’ steadfast support for Ukraine," Austin wrote on X. "We, along with our allies and partners, will continue to support Ukraine’s urgent battlefield needs and long-term defense requirements," Austin added.

This convenient shift of Washington and the Pentagon to talking mainly about "long-term defense" began occurring as it became clear Ukraine's counteroffensive was failing.

Lachlan Murdoch, who took the reins of Fox Corp. and News Corp. last week, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev over the weekend. So what exactly prompted this trip?

Lachlan, 52, is the eldest son of now-retired Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born American media mogul, who announced his retirement in September. Last week, Lachlan Murdoch officially became the sole chair of News Corp and the executive chair and chief executive of Fox.

Remarkably, the first foreign leader the new head of the media empire hastened to meet was none other than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Axios, Lachlan Murdoch traveled to the Ukrainian capital over the weekend, accompanied by two reporters – Benjamin Hall from Fox News and Jerome Starkey from the Sun.

Hall conducted an interview with Zelensky that is expected to be aired on Tuesday night's episode of "Special Report with Bret Baier," according to the media outlet.

Over 8,000 evacuees from the Gaza Strip have arrived in Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, including 6,713 foreign nationals and dual citizens, Egypt's State Information Service reported on Monday.

The information service said that 929 Egyptian nationals had crossed the country's border from the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, Egyptian hospitals have admitted 236 patients and 197 accompanying persons from the conflict-torn enclave, according to the information service.

The Rafah crossing is the only route in and out of Gaza for the civilian population there, as well as the main artery for humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli warplanes delivered airstrikes on Hezbollah command centers and infrastructure facilities in Lebanon to retaliate launches from there, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday.

"In response to the launches from Lebanon toward Israel throughout the day, IDF fighter jets struck Hezbollah operational command centers and terrorist infrastructure," it said. "Additionally, earlier today, the IDF struck a terrorist cell in the area of Metula, northern Israel."

What the Israeli military did at the Indonesian Hospital has resulted in the complete loss of medical services in the north of the Gaza Strip, Munir al-Bursh, general manager of the Health Ministry of Gaza said in an interview with the Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera.

"The Israeli forces' attack on the Indonesian Hospital marks the end of any possibility to provide medical services in the northern Gaza Strip," al-Bursh said. "The hospital currently has at least 100 patients in need of urgent surgery, but health workers are severely limited in what they can do," he explained.

He also said that there are Israeli snipers in buildings adjacent to the hospital. "We are afraid that the massacre that Israel staged yesterday could be repeated," al-Bursh added.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced Washington's allocation of an additional $100 mln military aid package to Kiev, the Reuters news agency reported.

According to Reuters, the package will include anti-tank weapons and missiles for air defense systems.

NATO is looking into a more permanent increase in the number of troops in the Western Balkans to keep tensions under control, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization sent hundreds of additional forces to Kosovo from Britain and Romania after a battle between police and armed Serbs holed up in a monastery turned a quiet village in northern Kosovo into a war zone on Sept. 24.

"We are now reviewing whether we should have a more permanent increase to ensure that this doesn't spiral out of control and creates a new violent conflict in Kosovo or the wider region," Stoltenberg told reporters on a visit to Kosovo.

The gunbattle in September prompted new international concern over stability in Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla uprising and a 1999 NATO intervention.

The United States urges Ukraine to carry out maximum mobilization and call up women, minors and the elderly, according to Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin.

"The West demands from the regime of (Ukrainian President Vladimir) Zelensky to ignore losses and demonstrate to the world community the impossibility of the Russian victory in the Ukrainian conflict. In particular, the reliable data obtained by the SVR show that the US orient the Ukrainian leadership towards maximum active mobilization events to replenish huge losses sustained by the Ukrainian armed forces during the failed counteroffensive," the SVR quoted him as saying.

"The American and British curators of Kiev recommend to the Ukrainian military-political leadership to decrease to 17 years and increase to 70 years the call-up age and additionally mobilize women," he said.

Webmaster addition: Near the end of WW3, Germany was drafting women and children. It's a sign of desperation IMHO!

The Department of Defense relies on hundreds, if not thousands, of weapons and products such as uniforms, batteries, and microelectronics that contain PFAS, a family of chemicals linked to serious health conditions.

Now, as regulators propose restrictions on their use or manufacturing, Pentagon officials have told Congress that eliminating the chemicals would undermine military readiness.

PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and can build up in the human body, have been associated with such health problems as cancer. In July, a new federal study showed a direct link between testicular cancer and PFOS, a PFAS chemical that has been found in the blood of thousands of military personnel.

Congress has pressured the Defense Department to clean up U.S. military sites and take health concerns more seriously. Under the fiscal 2023 James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon was required to assess the ubiquity of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in products and equipment used by the military.