Inside China, there is a nickname for US President Donald Trump that tells you everything you need to know about how his actions are being viewed in Beijing. They call him “Chuan Jianguo,” which translates roughly to “Trump the nation-builder”. It is a mocking title, of course, suggesting that the US president’s foreign and domestic policies are actually doing more to build up China than they are to help the United States.

While Trump insists his “America First” agenda is designed to counter threats from China and Russia, the reality on the ground is proving to be quite different.

Today, we’re going beyond the propaganda to look at how Trump is inadvertently driving the world—including the US’s most traditional allies—straight into the warm embrace of Beijing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkR6Q_2pMmQ

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined Christians from around the country earlier this week at the Museum of the Bible for a national day of repentance, while highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide.

Speakers at the four-hour 2026 National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, which was hosted by the Family Research Council (FRC) on Wednesday, also urged listeners to remember the Christian heritage of the United States and to return to God as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.

'Let us be found faithful'

A threatened Aussie tiddler flashes a fin for tiny freshwater fish worldwide, toxic PFAS chemicals are all around us and deep inside us and never go away, and illegal gold mining in Congo destroys the environment and communities.

Tiny fishes – miniature marvels that slip through the net

Peter Sainsbury

Swedish Palace Confirms Princess Sofia Met Jeffrey Epstein Multiple Times as She Quietly Skips Nobel Prize Ceremony
The news comes weeks after King Charles stripped his brother Andrew of his royal titles and honors due to his connections to Epstein

• The Swedish Royal Court confirmed that Princess Sofia met Jeffrey Epstein after an outlet published emails connecting them

• Although the palace said she was introduced to Epstein around 2005, she hasn't had contact with him in 20 years

• Sofia, a former reality TV star and model, skipped the Nobel Prize ceremony with the Swedish royals one day after the report

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia in Moscow, urging ethnic and religious solidarity as the Ukraine war continues. Invoking historic battles against foreign enemies, Putin said Russian soldiers fight as brothers across faiths, as crowds rallied behind the Kremlin’s push to sustain public support amid prolonged conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ab8KTVJqwA

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An NGO bankrolled 47 percent by the German federal government and 26 percent by the EU is now suing X for “access” to Hungary’s election data. They dress it up as transparency. It’s nothing of the sort. This is institutionalized surveillance masquerading as democracy promotion — the same Brussels–Berlin complex that lectures nations about sovereignty while quietly trying to override it.

The EU is Trying to Steal Hungary’s Elections

by Gerry Nolan

When a foreign-funded NGO like Democracy Reporting International demands privileged access to a sovereign country’s electoral discourse, that’s not oversight — it’s power projection. Hungary’s elections belong to Hungarians, not EU technocrats, not German ministries, and certainly not NGOs operating as policy cut-outs. 

US President Donald Trump on Thursday posted an election conspiracy video that depicted former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, drawing condemnation from prominent Democrats.

Near the end of a one-minute-long video posted on Trump's Truth Social platform, the Obamas are shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.

The song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays in the background when the Obamas appear.

Nord Stream (1224 km) and Nord Stream 2 (1200 km) are gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, running under the Baltic Sea, allowing gas supplies to bypass transit countries.

• 
  Each pipeline consists of two strings with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The total design capacity of both pipelines is 110 billion cubic meters.
• 
  Total project investment: €7.4 billion.

History of Pipeline Construction

I can see why people do not care

About the Epstein saga to be aware

They think if they do think which is debatable

about the next meal to place on their table

While some young one prepares for a nose piercing

A tasteful tattoo on the left buttock and a penis ring

Some young girls go for the cheapest make up

At the pharmacy that tells them that down is up

Fashion lips need to be red, black and glossy 

The next favourite song is already a day old

Politics are the least of all human’s hobby

Economics annoys everyone young and bold

With cash rates, slithery silver and bullion gold

Making it impossible to afford a shanty

Even share a place with careless tenants

Who can’t even say what are their wants

The world is run by brothel owners we know

Vile debauched degrading disgusting porno

In Qatar on Thursday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz signaled Germany would be willing to increase arms exports to countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia as "reliable cooperation partners."

Merz is on a three day tour of Gulf states along with the CEOs of German energy company Uniper, and Diehl Defense, among others, to explore potential oil, gas and arms deals as part of a push to attract more business to Germany as US tariff policies, and high energy prices in Europe, put pressure on the economy.

Speaking to reporters in Doha, Merz said Germany would work "more intensively in arms cooperation than in recent years" with partners in the Gulf region.

In the midst of the euphoria surrounding Venezuela's aggression, Trump and Marco Rubio sounded the death knell. After 67 years of resistance against the empire, the Cuban revolution was supposedly finished. Cuba was expected to fall this year, the US administration proclaimed daily, in every possible tone.

BY Maïté PINERO

Cuba: in defense of the honor of humankind.

History offers a warning about unchecked power. As Donald Trump reshapes US foreign policy, the risks of personal rule and predatory hegemony are becoming harder to ignore.

Mark Beeson

While everyone is scouring over the millions of newly released Epstein documents, which continue to expose the disgusting depths of depravity among Western elites, a familiar discredited voice has surfaced with a convenient alternative tale: blame Russia.

Where did the “blame Russia for Epstein” conspiracy come from? 

The conspiracy, first pushed in London by the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, and later in the day by the New York Post, began claiming that Epstein, the proudly Jewish, pedophile financier, was somehow linked to Russia. Former BBC host Andrew Marr delivered an 11 minute sermon to his listeners on LBC radio on the same theme. No sense of coordination here at all, obviously.

The World Economic Forum claims to represent global cooperation, but its structure, silences and hierarchies tell a different story about who sets the agenda – and who is expected to listen.

Chandran Nair

Davos and the myth of a global conversation