Government shutdown threats are becoming constant now that government power is nearly evenly split between Left and Right political parties. It used to be that the impasse would only occur every 3 or 4 years, and then it became an annual occurrence. Now the compromises and blocking mechanisms in Congress keep inhibiting the passage of any comprehensive budget, thus shutting down parts of government every few months. Get used to it. It is never going away unless one side or the other gains totally majority control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. And then, heaven help us as the unchecked power to creates law and executive orders will inevitably evolve into tyranny. This week, we saw Republicans make major concessions to the Left, even though another temporary partial budget was passed, evading the controversial funding of the Department of Homeland Security. The only thing different about shutdowns happening under Trump is that he is only allowing portions of government to be shut down instead of everything like the Democrats used to do in order to hold citizens hostage to essential services unless Republicans relented and voted for what they want. Now, Republicans are still compromising but in more hidden ways. This week, I’ll also give readers my general assessment of the recent Epstein revelations, and what I think is still being hidden. To receive a free one-time sample of the Brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a Sample on the left.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. Temperatures in Kyiv fell to minus 4 degrees during the night and stood at minus 3 on Tuesday.
A recent jury verdict marks the first tremor in a building earthquake that may sever the transgender child mutilation pipeline, setting the stage for a host of lawsuits that threaten to end the medical establishment’s promotion of “gender-affirming care.”
Because no one can trust the Post anymore, subscriptions, clicks, and advertising revenues have plummeted to a point where the Post’s shameless purveyors of lies, misinformation, and hoaxes are losing a reported $100 million per year. Over five years, after paying $500 million for the Post, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly poured another $300 million to keep the doors open through 2023.
The Affordable Care Act caused a cracked insurance market and skyrocketing premiums, now at an average of nearly $500 per month for a 40-year-old to be insured.
President Putin in his Wednesday video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping underscored that the last major nuclear treaty with the United States is on the eve of collapse. New START is set to expire on Thursday. Putin notified Xi that Washington has not yet responded. "As you know, on September 22, 2025, we proposed to the Americans to extend the key quantitative limits for one year as voluntary self-restrictions. However, we have not yet received an official response from the Americans," Putin said, as quoted in state media.
"It was Sunday to Sunday, and it opened up and he hit them hard last night," Trump explained at the White House on Tuesday. "He kept his word on that… we’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there."
Calling out the “fascism in our streets,” Nadler suggested that citizens could be justified in shooting masked agents, a chilling claim made earlier by other Democratic leaders.
Three U.S. warships have been sent to Haiti as part of Operation Southern Spear, a military operation in the Caribbean to counter narcotics trafficking.
The mayor doesn’t have direct authority to freeze rents city-wide.
One welcome immediate repercussion to the fresh Epstein dump of millions of files is that things have finally started happening in terms of a real domino effect in elite circles...
China and India have to regularly shift their oil purchases due to US sanctions on major crude exporters
The Ilyushin Il-76, operated by the government-linked airline Aviacon Zitotrans, is reportedly under US sanctions as it has a well-documented history of ferrying military gear to Latin America.
On Friday, January 30, 2026, the world learned (or rediscovered) just how grotesquely rigged the paper gold and silver markets truly are.... But was it really any “magical” coincidence that JP Morgan was able to exit its massive (and fatally stupid) short exposure at the absolute bottom/floor of the silver price on Friday? That is, at the perfect moment? Was it also any coincidence that the London Metals Exchange went completely dark on that very same day? And was it just an equal coincidence that HSBC, the second largest silver short holder on the LBMA, went completely offline as the choreographed Friday massacre in silver took place?
The IDF’s admission came in a Thursday briefing given to reporters by a senior military official. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said approximately 70,000 people have died in Gaza since the Oct 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by Hamas militants. As of Sunday, Gaza health officials say 71,795 have died.
Just because someone declares they are a "journalist" does not mean they're protected from consequences if they commit a crime. Furthermore, the political left seems to believe that the 1st Amendment gives them the right to disrupt the free speech of others as long as they are protesting: This is a dangerous fallacy.
Reports say the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has pulled back about 1,400 km from waters near Iran’s Chabahar Port, repositioning toward the Gulf of Aden amid rising regional tensions — but the U.S. has not officially confirmed the withdrawal.
Menefee, 37, the former Harris County attorney, won a runoff election against fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards, 44, a former Houston city council member. The two were seeking to replace late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) in the state’s solidly Democratic 18th congressional district, which includes most of Houston’s inner city and the surrounding areas.
A jury awarded $2 million in damages to a 22-year-old woman who underwent breast removal surgery as a teenager.
As part of the deal, the United States will cut its reciprocal tariff rate from 25 percent to 18 percent, Trump wrote on Feb. 2 in a post on Truth Social. In exchange, he said, India has agreed to “move forward to reduce their Tariffs and Non Tariff Barriers against the United States to ZERO.”
Beijing Weaponized the West’s Own Wiretap Infrastructure to Execute the Greatest Intelligence Coup Since Cambridge Five
In October 2020, Guan traveled to the Xinjiang region alone. He released most of his video footage on YouTube in October 2021, the same month he arrived in Florida by boat after sailing from the Bahamas, to which he had traveled from Ecuador after fleeing China, according to the advocacy group.
The Make Elections Great Again Act would also require states to use auditable paper ballots.
Tehran has unveiled a network of “underwater missile tunnels” and has warned that the Strait of Hormuz will “not be safe” if the Islamic Republic is attacked by the US, Iranian state television reported.
"If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure — generation facilities or any other energy assets — we will not strike theirs," Zelensky told reporters in Kiev. "We want to end the war and we are ready for de-escalation steps."
‘This most beautiful system ... could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being,‘ wrote Newton.
The video, verified by the BBC, captures what appears to be Pretti screaming at federal agents while they were driving away during a Jan. 13 protest. As their SUV leaves, he kicks the taillight - breaking it, causing agents to exit the vehicle and tackle him to the ground. The agents continue to hold him down until he retreats and joins a crowd shouting at agents, as his gun is visibly tucked into the back of his pants.
The United States has gathered more firepower in the Middle East than we have ever seen before. It exceeds anything that we witnessed during Operation Desert Storm, it exceeds anything that we witnessed during the war in Afghanistan, and it exceeds anything that we witnessed during the war in Iraq. That doesn’t necessarily mean that war is imminent. President Trump could ultimately decide not to pull the trigger. But without a doubt, at this moment we are exceedingly close to a cataclysmic showdown in the Middle East.
A saturation strike involving hundreds of Iranian missiles poses a severe challenge to the finite ammunition of US Aegis shields in the narrow Persian Gulf.
For its third aircraft carrier, Fujian, China built its first flat-deck ship, complete with an advanced electromagnetic catapult. The Pentagon report assessed that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy has plans for six more aircraft carriers by 2035, bringing their total to nine within the next decade.
'Because of the cold –– extreme cold –– I personally asked President Putin not fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week. He agreed to do that. I have to tell you, it was very nice,' Trump said. Trump added that Putin has 'agreed to that,' but there was no confirmation of that from Russia.