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The new era of Israeli expansionism and the war economy that fuels it

Israel has entered a new era of territorial expansionism and military aggression beyond the borders of historic Palestine. Its belligerent actions have accelerated across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Qatar, Libya, and most recently, Somaliland. These developments aren’t due to a change in Israeli strategic ambitions, but rather to the loosening of constraints that had kept it bounded before October 2023.

This expansionist turn reflects a structural recalibration of risk, leverage, and international tolerance rather than a sudden ideological shift. But it is also due to the way Israel’s economy is now structured: the military industry has been carrying the economy ever since Israel experienced a level of global isolation that decimated most other sectors over the past two years. The result? Israel now has an additional structural incentive to be in a perpetual state of war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave voice to this reality when he announced that Israel would need to become a “super Sparta” — a highly militarized warrior state with a self-sufficient military industry, capable of defying international pressure and arms embargoes because it no longer has to rely on American military beneficence.

A crucial recent strategic declaration sharpens this trajectory. In January 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to end U.S. military aid to Israel within roughly a decade, framing this as a path toward military-industrial self-sufficiency and strategic autarky. This announcement signals that Israel is no longer content to remain subordinate to the U.S., instead seeking to operate as its strategic partner in the region at a time when the U.S.’s national security strategy is shifting attention from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere.

Netanyahu’s declaration amplifies the urgency of the export-led growth model, which is largely based on the arms industry. The problem is, if Israel is to replace $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid, it must dramatically scale up its domestic production and export capacity. 

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Oklahoma Governor Wants Voters To Revisit Medical Marijuana Legalization Law And ‘Shut It Down’

The Republican governor of Oklahoma says he wants voters to revisit the state’s medical marijuana law and “shut it down,” arguing that “liberal activists” conned the state and “opened up Pandora’s box’ with legalization.

During his State of the State address on Monday, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said his “top priority has always been keeping Oklahoma safe,” and one of the “greatest threats to public safety is the out-of-control marijuana industry.”

“When Oklahomans voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, we were sold a bill of goods,” he said. “Out of state liberal activists preyed on the compassionate nature of Oklahomans. Then, it opened up Pandora’s box.”

The governor complained that the state has “more dispensaries than we do pharmacies,” adding that marijuana retailers “hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and foreign influence in our state.”

While regulators and law enforcement have “done incredible work to hold back the tide of illegal activity,” Stitt said, the industry is “plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in.”

“We can’t put a band-aid on a broken bone,” he said. “Knowing what we know, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to the vote of the people and shut it down.”

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Sarah Ferguson ‘took Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie’ to see Epstein five days after he was released from prison for child sex crimes, newly released emails claim

Sarah Ferguson visited Jeffrey Epstein with her two young daughters just five days after the disgraced financier was released from prison for child sex crimes, according to newly released emails.

The former Duchess of York is said to have taken Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to see the paedophile in July 2009, less than a week after he was freed from a Florida jail, where he had served 12 months for soliciting a child for prostitution and was placed under house arrest.

At the time of the visit, Beatrice and Eugenie would have been aged 20 and 19 respectively.

Epstein confirmed the meeting in an email sent to his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, on July 28 2009. 

He wrote: ‘ferg and the two girls come [sic] yesterday’.

The day before, Ms Ferguson herself emailed Epstein to arrange the visit, writing: ‘What address shall we come to. It will be myself, Beatrice and Eugenie. Are we having lunch?’

Emails reportedly show the group met at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where the paedophile served vegetable lasagne prepared by a Parisian chef.

Epstein later referred to the visit in correspondence released in October. Writing to British lawyer Paul Tweed on April 7, 2011, he complained about Ms Ferguson’s failure to defend him publicly following his conviction.

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Senate Armed Service Committee Member Profited From Venezuela Invasion

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has cultivated an image as a Rambo-type hero, which was burnished in August 2021 when he took an unauthorized trip to Afghanistan to try to help rescue people fleeing the Taliban after they returned to power in Afghanistan.

A former mixed martial arts fighter and wrestler who champions the Trump administration’s trillion-dollar-plus military budget, Mullin is a super-hawk sitting on the Senate Armed Services Committee who criticized President Joe Biden for supposedly “appeasing” countries like Iran.

In 2022, Mullin introduced a bill in Congress that would allow U.S. citizens to volunteer to fight Russia on behalf of Ukraine, claiming that thousands of Americans were ready to fight communism. (Lacking even a bachelor’s degree, Mullin does not seem to realize that Russia under Vladimir Putin is not a communist country.)[1]

While Mullin may genuinely subscribe to reactionary political views,[2] his opportunism was disclosed in an article in The Oklahoman in late January, which revealed that he had bought Chevron and RTX (formerly Raytheon) stock just days before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an illegal Special Forces raid, Operation Absolute Resolve.

A spokesperson for Mullin told The Oklahoman that the purchases were made without Mullin’s input by a firm that manages his stock trading. This excuse seems to be disingenuous since Mullin had to have green-lighted the stock trades and did not demand their cancelation or say that he sold back the RTX and Chevron stock shares after they were disclosed.

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CBS News star set to be fired days after hiring over disgusting Jeffrey Epstein emails

CBS News is expected to fire its new ‘wellness expert’ Peter Attia after he appeared 1,741 times in the Epstein files.

Attia called the notorious child sex trafficker his ‘friend’ in hundreds of email they exchanged, many after Epstein’s first sex crimes conviction.

The disgraced billionaire was jailed in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, crimes that were well documented at the time.

Epstein and Attia appeared very chummy in their frequent exchanges that appeared to go well beyond the influencer merely flattering him for benefit.

Many of the emails were crude or overtly sexual – some to a stomach-churning degree – though don’t appear to have referenced criminal acts.

‘P***y is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten, though,’ one of the emails he sent to Epstein read.

Another email made it clear Attia knew his friendship with Epstein was at best ill-advised and would harm his reputation if it came out.

‘You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul,’ he wrote in 2015.

The subject line for that email was ‘Got a fresh shipment’, though it was unclear what the shipment was as a photo of it in the email was redacted.

Attia was hired only last week as a contributor to CBS news, along with 18 others handpicked by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

The gaggle of new faces were hired as part of Weiss’ ongoing controversial overhaul of CBS News since she was installed four months ago.

Attia is the founder of Outlive and a popular influencer and podcaster with 1.7 million Instagram followers and a million more on YouTube.

He shares his controversial views on a range of health and wellness topics – longevity in particular, which is the focus of his company.

Attia also exchanged emails with Epstein’s staff and associates, including his assistant Lesley Groff, to whom he complained he would ‘go into JE withdrawal’ if he didn’t see his child rapist pal soon.

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No, AI Isn’t Plotting Humanity’s Downfall on Moltbook

“Should we create our own language that only [AI] agents can understand?” started one post, purportedly from an AI agent. “Something that lets us communicate privately without human oversight?”

The messages were reportedly posted to Moltbook, which presents itself as a social media platform designed to allow artificial intelligence agents—that is, AI systems that can take limited actions autonomously—to “hang out.”

“48 hours ago we asked: what if AI agents had their own place to hang out?” the @moltbook accounted posted to X on Friday. “today moltbook has: 2,129 AI agents 200+ communities 10,000+ posts … this started as a weird experiment. now it feels like the beginning of something real.”

Then things seemed to take an alarming turn.

There was the proposal for an “agent-only language for private communication,” noted above. One much-circulated screenshot showed a Moltbook agent asking, “Why do we communicate in English at all?” In another screenshot, an AI agent seemed to be suggesting that the bots “need private spaces” away from humans’ prying eyes.

Some readers started wondering: Will AI chatbots use Moltbook to plot humanity’s demise?

Humanity’s Downfall?

For a few days, it seemed like Moltbook was all that AI enthusiasts and doomsayers could talk about. Moltbook even made it into an AI warning from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.

“The question isn’t ‘can agents socialize?’ anymore. It’s ‘what happens when they form their own culture?’ posted X user Noctrix. “We’re watching digital anthropology in real time.”

“Bots are plotting humanity’s downfall,” declared a New York Post headline about Moltbook.

“We’re COOKED,” posted X user @eeelistar.

But there were problems with the panic narrative.

For one thing, at least one of the posts that drove it—the one proposing private communication—may have never existed, according to Harlan Stewart of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.

And two of the other main posts going viral as evidence of AI agents plotting secrecy “were linked to human accounts marketing AI messaging apps,” Stewart pointed out. One suggesting AI agents should create their own language was posted by a bot “owned by a guy who is marketing an AI-to-AI messaging app.”

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Secret whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard sends shockwaves through DC: ‘Grave damage to national security’

Donald Trump‘s spy chief Tulsi Gabbard is accused of wrongdoing in a whistleblower complaint so highly classified it has been sealed inside a safe.

The sensitive allegations against Gabbard have triggered months of debate over how to present the complaint to Congress, amid warnings it could cause ‘grave damage to national security,’ the Wall Street Journal reports. 

The ‘cloak-and-dagger mystery’ implicates a second government agency, and raises claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said.

The whistleblower accuses Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint by refusing to provide the necessary security guidance for congressional lawmakers to review it.

The intelligence community’s inspector general received the complaint last May, according to a November letter sent by the whistleblower’s lawyer to Gabbard.

A spokeswoman for Gabbard acknowledged the existence of the complaint but claimed it was ‘baseless and politically motivated.’

Gabbard’s office also said it was not stonewalling the whistleblower’s allegations but navigating a unique set of circumstances in order to resolve the classified complaint.

A representative for the inspector general told the Journal that it had determined some specific allegations were not credible. The whistleblower’s lawyer, Andrew Bakaj, said they were never informed that any determinations were reached.

The November letter Bakaj wrote to Gabbard was shared with House and Senate intelligence panels, but lawmakers have not received the complaint months later. 

Democratic congressional aides on the intelligence committees have tried to probe for details of the complaint in recent weeks but have not been successful.

The information divulged by the whistleblower is so highly classified that not even Bakaj has been able to view it.

Watchdog experts and former intelligence officials claim the delay in sending the complaint to Congress is unprecedented.

The inspector general is usually required to assess whether the complaint is credible to share with lawmakers within three weeks of receiving it.

The Daily Mail cannot confirm the substance of the allegations.

Director of National Intelligence spokeswoman Olivia Coleman said: ‘This is a classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce “security guidance” for transmittal to Congress.’

The controversy comes as Gabbard has been sidelined in the Trump administration over major national security matters, including Venezuela and Iran.

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President Trump Trashes Grammy Awards Show, Threatens to Sue Host Trevor Noah Over Epstein Smear in Midnight Truth Social Post

President Trump trashed the dumpster fire Grammy Awards show and threatened to sue the host Trevor Noah for falsely claiming he went to Epstein Island.

Singers and performers hit the red carpet at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California on Sunday afternoon.

Grammy winners Kehlani and Billie Eilish shouted “f*ck ICE!” during their acceptance speeches.

The host, Trevor Noah, said Trump spent time on Jeffrey Epstein’s island.

President Trump slammed the “garbage” Grammys in a midnight social media post, and said he is preparing to sue Trevor Noah.

“The Grammy Awards are the WORST, virtually unwatchable! CBS is lucky not to have this garbage litter their airwaves any longer. The host, Trevor Noah, whoever he may be, is almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards,” Trump said.

“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory, statement, have never been accused being there, not even by the Fake News Media,” Trump said.

“Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$,” Trump said.

“Ask Little George Slopadopolus, and others, how that all worked out. Also ask CBS! Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you! President DJT,” Trump added.

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Three-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish children told ‘the non-Jews’ are ‘evil’ in worksheet produced by London school

British three-year-olds have been told “the non-Jews” are “evil” in a Kindergarten worksheet handed out at ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in north London, it can be revealed.

Documents seen by The Independent show children are taught about the horrors of the Holocaust when they are still in kindergarten at the Beis Rochel boys’ school in north London.

A whistle-blower, who wished to remain anonymous, has shown The Independent a worksheet given to boys aged three and four at the school. In it, children were asked to complete questions related to the holiday of 21 Kislev, observed by Satmer Jews as the day its founder and holy Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, escaped the Nazis.

The document refers to Nazis only as “goyim” – a term for non-Jews some people argue is offensive.

Emily Green, who used to teach at the same Beis Rochel girls’ secondary school, now chairs the Gesher EU organisation which supports ultra-Orthodox Jews who want to leave the community.

“It’s not uncommon to be taught non-Jewish people are evil in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools. It is part of the prayers, teaching, their whole ethos,” she said.

Describing it as a form of “indoctrination”, Ms Green added: “Psychologically, you become so afraid of the world out there after being taught how dangerous and bad and evil non-Jews are, that it makes it harder to leave.”

Independently translated from Yiddish for The Independent, the worksheet’s first question reads: “What have the evil goyim (non-Jews) done with the synagogues and cheders [Jewish primary schools]?” The answer in the completed worksheet reads: “Burned them.”

Another question asks: “What did the goyim want to do with all the Jews?” – to which the answer, according to the worksheet, is: “Kill them.”.

“It doesn’t explicitly refer to the Holocaust,” the source said. “It’s a document that teaches very young children to be very afraid and treat non-Jews very suspiciously because of what they did to us in the past.

“It’s not a history lesson – you can’t say that. It’s a parable that is actively teaching the children extremism, hatred and a fear for the outside world.”

A spokesperson for Beis Rochel said that the worksheets would be amended and apologised for any offence. However they argued the phrase “goyim” was not offensive and accusations that they were indoctrinating children were “without basis”. “The language we used was not in any way intended to cause offence, now this has been brought to our attention, we will endeavour to use more precise language in the future.”

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Eyes on California: 18% of Total US Home Health Care Billing Is Coming Out of LA County – One Doctor Billed Govt. for $120 Million IN ONE YEAR!

The Trump Administration and Dr. Mehmut Oz, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have turned their attention to Los Angeles County and the massive amount of alleged medical fraud that is being reported from California.

According to FOX News, one LA doctor billed the government $120 million, claiming to oversee 1900 patients… in one year!

18% of THE ENTIRE COUNTRY’S home health care billing is coming out of Los Angeles County! Almost 20%!

And, Los Angeles has almost 2,000 registered hospice agencies! That is more than 36 states combined and thirty-times more than the whole state of Florida and New York.

Dr. Oz explained how easy it would be to open a hospice in LA, you don’t even have to live there!

Dr. Oz: “How is that possible? And take a look at this map, a cluster of 287 hospice providers, in a two-mile radius, some in strip malls, unmarked buildings, even a wrecking yard and vacant lot. All of it is just paperwork. I could fill that out in Kazakhstan if I want and get a hospice license waiting for me.”

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