Large Rocket Barrage Slams Into US Base In Iraq, Injuring Americans

A missile barrage has reportedly struck the Al-Asad Airbase — a U.S. military facility maintained in Iraq since 2003 — according to Reuters accompanied by videos on X alleging to show the missiles raining down:

The Al-Asad base is the same that suffered retaliatory strikes in January of 2020 after then-President Trump killed Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani.

US defense officials at the time said just 10 missiles managed to make contact with the base. It appears fewer than 20 missiles were fired in Saturday’s attack — with an unknown number intercepted by missile defense systems — though the story continues to develop.

According to further details:

US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was seriously wounded in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base on Saturday, a US official said, citing initial assessments, which are subject to change.

At least a dozen missiles were fired at a military base used by US-led coalition forces in western Iraq, a US defense source and Iraqi police told AFP.

Al-Asad was the second largest base constructed during George Bush’s "Operation Iraqi Freedom," — wherein ‘freedom’ in Neocon-speak of course refers to 300,000 dead Iraqi civilians — an operation which ostensibly ended in December of 2011.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/large-rocket-barrage-slams-us-base-iraq-injuring-americans

Quebec Premier Legault Demands Canadian PM Justin Trudeau ‘Stem the Flow of Refugees’, Says Provinces Services Are ‘at a Breaking Point’

Problems with unchecked mass migration is not a ‘privilege’ of the US, as Canada is also facing an invasion that is wrecking their society.

Of all the Canadian Provinces, French-speaking Quebec has been the most affected, receiving more than half the migrants arriving in the country.

Now, Quebec Premier Francois Legault is urging Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to both ‘stem the flow of refugees’ into the province and to compensate it the costs it generates.

Reuters reported:

“Unfortunately, we are close to the breaking point because of the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month,” the center-right nationalist added. ‘The situation has become unbearable’.

Nearly 60,000 new asylum seekers were recorded in Quebec in the first 11 months of 2023 and another 65,000 are expected in 2024, Legault said. ‘On a per capita basis, Quebec has accepted three times as many asylum seekers as the rest of Canada’.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/quebec-premier-legault-demands-canadian-pm-justin-trudeau/

Cocaine found in Swedish parliament – media

Traces of the drug were discovered in bathrooms inside the Riksdag building in Stockholm, according to a local newspaper

Traces of cocaine have been discovered during a narcotics analysis of bathrooms inside Sweden’s parliament, according to a report by the Aftonbladet tabloid.

In its Wednesday piece, the widely read newspaper said that its reporter conducted swab tests of seven bathrooms inside Stockholm’s Riksdag with ‘cocaine wipes,’ which can detect trace amounts of the substance from surfaces that have come into contact with the narcotic.

The daily claimed that the swab tests revealed the presence of cocaine in four bathrooms inside the national legislature.

“In all the samples we received, we found cocaine,” hospital chemist Anders Helander, who performed subsequent analysis on the samples, said according to Aftonbladet.

The newspaper added that the drug was found in bathrooms predominantly used by lawmakers from four political parties: the Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats, Left Party and the Liberals.

Representatives of each of the parties said that they were surprised by the findings of the analysis but added to Aftonbladet that the bathrooms in question are accessible to the public and could have been used by anyone.

“Our 28 toilets are available to everyone who needs them,” Erik Kristow, a senior member of Sweden Democrats, said to the tabloid, adding that people including “journalists, administrative staff and other visitors to our office” have access to the facilities.

A spokesperson for the Social Democrats said the prevalence of drugs in modern society is a “big problem” but stressed of the Riksdag bathrooms that “we cannot control who has access to them.” However, the representative of the party added that it is taking the results of drug tests “very seriously.”

Citing an anonymous source, Aftonbladet wrote that an internal meeting was held within the legislature this week during which officials said they would support anyone who has possible drug problems. However, they ruled out forced drug testing of lawmakers and parliament employees.

Niklas Astrom, head of security at the Riksdag, also said per the newspaper that local police are aware of the issue and an official report is being prepared.

Sweden has for several years held a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to drug prevention as part of a broader plan aimed at reducing both the supply and demand of illegal narcotics within its borders.

Despite this aggressive policy, a port in the country’s south has become a European hub for drugs smuggled to the continent from South America, Swedish customs officials said last year. Between September 2022 and May 2023, some 1.3 tons of cocaine destined for the European market were seized by Swedish customs authorities.

https://www.rt.com/news/590991-sweden-cocaine-found-parliament/

Israel strikes residential building in Syrian capital – media

Several Iranian advisers were killed in the attack, SANA news agency said

An Israeli airstrike has hit a residential building in the Syrian capital, killing several people, the state-run SANA news agency has reported.

The “Israeli aggression” took place in the Mezzeh neighborhood of southwest Damascus on Saturday morning, the agency said.

According to SANA, several people, including a “number of Iranian advisers,” died in the bombing raid.

Unverified videos on social media showed a major explosion and a building in the capital being reduced to rubble.

A security source told Reuters news agency that the Israeli attack was aimed at members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and that several were killed and wounded.

Syrian political analyst Taleb Ibrahim, who spoke to RT from Damascus, said that “dozens of civilian were buried [in the debris], some of the Iranian military advisers were assassinated by this airstrike.”

According to Ibrahim, the attack was carried out by IDF jets from the airspace of the Golan Heights, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. A total of four missiles were fired at the Syrian capital, he added.

Speaking about the presence of advisers from Tehran in Damascus, the analyst insisted that “Syria as a state has a right to cooperate with Iran, Russia, China to bolster its military capabilities.”

Israel has repeatedly struck Syrian territory since the outbreak of civil war in the country in 2011. Several such incidents have occurred since October 7, when the IDF launched its military operation in Gaza in response to a deadly incursion into Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

“Israel said they’re attacking Iranian forces inside Syria, and this is a very very big lie. Actually, they want to weaken the Syrian military capabilities,” Ibrahim claimed.

The analyst also warned that with its strikes on neighboring countries, including Syria and Lebanon, Israel might “open the gates of hell” and provoke “a big war” in the region.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled Iran “the head of the octopus,” which has its “tentacles” behind Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups. “Who says we are not attacking Iran, we are attacking,” Netanyahu insisted when asked by reporters about why Israel hasn’t been striking Iranian territory directly.

https://www.rt.com/news/590995-syria-israel-damascus-iran/

France Angrily Denies Russian Claim Of Mercenaries In Ukraine

France has rejected Russian defense ministry statements saying that a missile strike on Kharkiv took out a unit of French mercenaries earlier this week. Russia's military claimed that "several dozen Frenchmen" were killed in the Tuesday night strike.

"France has no mercenaries, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike certain others," France’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs responded on Thursday. This is after Russia also summoned France's ambassador to Moscow, Pierre Levy, to its foreign ministry demanding an explanation of the foreign fighters' presence in the conflict zone.

The French government statement continued, "France helps Ukraine with supplies of military material and military training, in full compliance with international law, in order to help Ukraine in its fight to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity."

This flatly contradicts the Russian Defense Ministry's initial statement, which said: "On the evening of 16 January, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a precision strike on a temporary deployment point of foreign militants in the city of Kharkiv, the core of which were French mercenaries."

Ukraine acknowledged large-scale destruction in the ballistic missile attack on Kharkiv, but there was no mention of foreign troops being hit. And yet Moscow said a lot were killed: "More than 60 fighters were killed, and more than 20 were taken to medical facilities," the MoD claimed. Of course, if it did happen, neither Kiev nor Paris would want it known.

Regardless of the particular claims and counter-claims in the Kharkiv attack, the reality over the past nearly two years of war has been that Western mercenaries had flooded Ukraine in the early months of the war. It has been especially US and UK mercenaries and volunteers showing up in footage and photos on the battlefield, in some cases being confirmed killed or wounded.

It is indeed very likely that France also has an abundance of volunteers and security contractors on the ground, also given it has an entire famous French Foreign Legion which typically gets deployed to proxy wars like this (albeit often covertly).

French ambassador was grilled by Russian media when seen leaving the foreign ministry in Moscow..

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/france-angrily-denies-russian-claim-mercenaries-ukraine

France can’t stop mercenaries going to Ukraine – defense chief

Sebastien Lecornu has admitted that some “French civilians” are fighting against Russia

On Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry insisted that “France has no mercenaries, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere.” Speaking to the broadcaster LCI on Friday, however, Lecornu admitted that this was not entirely true.

“There are French civilians who went to fight in Ukraine in Ukrainian military uniform,” he said. “We can’t ban them from doing that, we are still a democracy.”

Lecornu insisted, however, that “these people have no connection with the French armed forces, do not wear French uniform and are not associated with the French military institutions.” He refused to comment on the matter further, saying that anything else would be used by Russia in its “information war.”

https://www.rt.com/news/590976-france-lecornu-mercenaries-ukraine/

Senior NATO Official Says There Will Be A Hot War With Russia

Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of Nato’s Military Committee, told reporters following a meeting of Nato defence chiefs in Brussels that governments need to start putting preparations in place, and that civilians will need to be mobilised on a large scale.

“We have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [Nato forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia,”Baur declared.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/senior-nato-official-says-there-will-be-hot-war-russia

WEF: Biometric Digital ID Cards Could Track Vaccination Status, Dutch Queen Máxima Says at Davos

Queen Máxima, a longtime social justice campaigner who has served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) since 2009, urged for the wider adoption of biometric digital ID cards globally during a WEF panel discussion titled “Comparing Notes on Financial Inclusion” on Thursday.

“When I started this job, there were actually very little countries in Africa or Latin America that had one ubiquitous type of ID, and certainly that was digital and certainly that was biometric… We’ve really worked with all our partners to actually help grow this, and the interesting part of it is that yes, it is very necessary for financial services, but not only.”

https://youtu.be/ZWBqLizLc1s

Meta’s Facebook Lists ‘Voting Rights & Elections’ Position on LinkedIn

Suppression and further censorship await social media platforms, particularly Meta's Facebook, running up to the 2024 presidential election.

Big Tech is at it again, setting its sights on the 2024 presidential election. Meta’s Facebook posted a job listing on LinkedIn for “voting rights & elections,” granting a reasonable suspicion after social media platforms censored the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 election.

The job description details a position under Meta’s Civil Rights Team with an expected “expertise in voting rights, elections, and democracy issues.”

The scope of the job will include research, analysis and communication strategy overseen by Roy Austin, VP and Deputy GC, CR, and Legal Manager, according to the original post on LinkedIn.

https://nationalfile.com/metas-facebook-lists-voting-rights-elections-position-on-linkedin/

Pentagon Declares ‘We Don’t Think We Are at War’ with Houthis as US Bombs Yemen for 7th Time

President Joe Biden admitted the attacks were not curbing Houthis attacks but said the attacks would continue

A Pentagon official explained that the US government does not believe it is at war in Yemen. On Friday, the US bombed the Middle East country for the sixth time in just eight days. President Joe Biden admitted the bombing was not curbing Houthi attacks on shipping but vowed the US would continue striking the country.

US officials speaking with the Associated Press said F-18s conducted the sixth round of strikes in Yemen. The US claimed it hit anti-ship missiles. An official from the ruling Houthi government explained that US air raids took place in Hodeida.

Last Thursday, the US and UK fired hundreds of bombs and missiles against dozens of targets in Yemen. Since then, the White House has authorized near-daily strikes in Yemen.

The Biden administration claims it needs to conduct the operations against the Houthis because the group has barred Israeli-linked shipping from transiting the Red Sea until Tel Aviv ends its military operations in Gaza.

In response to the American strikes, the Yemeni people have rallied around the Houthis, and the group has stepped up strikes on American-linked shipping in the Red Sea. US Central Command posted on X that the Houthis attacked an American-owned tanker Thursday night with anti-ship missiles. CENTCOM said there was no damage to the ship or injuries to the crew.

In comments to the media on Thursday, Biden admitted that bombing Yemen was not making the region safe for shipping; however, he added that the bombing will continue. “Well, when you say ‘working’ — are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” he said.

Following Biden’s remarks, a Pentagon official explained that Washington does not believe the US is at war in Yemen. “We don’t think that we are at war. We don’t want to see a regional war,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. “The Houthis are the ones that continue to launch cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles at innocent mariners, at commercial vessels that are just transiting an area that sees, you know, 10 to 15 percent of world’s commerce.”

The Houthis maintain that they will not end their attacks on US and Israeli shipping until Tel Aviv relents in Gaza. The group says it allows shipping for other countries to continue through the Red Sea.

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/19/pentagon-declares-we-dont-think-we-are-at-war-with-houthis-as-us-bombs-yemen-for-sixth-time/

Federal secrets spill on COVID origins amid rodent research on risks of lab mods, vax in pregnancy

Fauci advisor who said he used Gmail to avoid FOIA allegedly denies bad behavior in congressional interview. "Autism-like behavior" observed in male rats whose pregnant mothers were given Pfizer COVID vaccine.

The National Institutes of Health appears to be struggling to hide its dirty laundry on COVID-19 origins against a rash of leaks, congressional probes, and Freedom of Information Act requests, even when officials are determined to thwart sunlight.

The ongoing exposure of their communications and actions isn't the only thing likely worrying federal scientists.

Chinese researchers claim to have modified another animal virus that killed every humanized lab mouse it infected, while Turkish researchers said the male offspring of pregnant rats they inoculated with Pfizer's COVID vaccine exhibited "pronounced autism-like behaviors."

House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said he plans to dig through the "personal email account" for Dr. Anthony Fauci's senior scientific adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, David Morens, following a six-hour transcribed interview Thursday with "limited obstruction."

Morens was supposed to testify just before the new year, but the Department of Health and Human Services refused to let him answer questions about COVID origins, Wenstrup said. HHS didn't answer Just the News queries about its initial objections and any conditions it set for the new interview.

"HHS continues to withhold requested documents and objected to various questions under questionable pretenses during the transcribed interview," subcommittee spokesperson Olive Coleman told Just the News when asked to elaborate on the "limited obstruction."

In 2021 Morens told other scientists trying to discredit the lab-leak theory, including one who said SARS-CoV-2 looked "potentially" engineered, that "I try to always communicate on Gmail because my NIH email is FOIA'D constantly" and that "I will delete anything I don't want to see in the New York Times."

On Thursday, however, Morens "denied deleting any COVID-19 origins material or forwarding any federal records to his Gmail in an effort to avoid FOIA," Wenstrup said. "The Select Subcommittee has serious questions about the legitimacy of these claims."

NIH removed Morens from his position and put him on administrative leave after the subcommittee "revealed his potential federal records violation last year," Wenstrup said.

His panel initially sought documents and communications from Morens' personal cellphone and email last summer, then subpoenaed the agency in the fall after "months of stonewalling" and a "lackluster production of documents."

The subcommittee has yet to release transcripts from interviews with Fauci, the former NIAID director, and former NIH Director Francis Collins, just select quotes and paraphrases. Both allegedly recanted their portrayals of lab-leak as a conspiracy theory. (The theory is that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.)

An animal-testing watchdog sued NIH earlier this month for allegedly stonewalling nearly four years of FOIA requests for documents relevant to its funding of the EcoHealth Alliance, the Wuhan Institute and gain-of-function research, which seeks to learn more about viruses but also makes them more lethal or transmissible.

The feds are also on the defensive after House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans published documents that show Beijing-based Institute of Pathogen Biology scientist Lili Ren uploaded a SARS-CoV-2 sequence to NIH's GenBank Dec. 28, 2019.

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/federal-secrets-spill-covid-origins-amid-rodent-research-risks-lab-mods

ISRAEL LAUNCHES MORE STRIKES AGAINST HEZBOLLAH, THREATENS LEBANON WITH ESCALATION

On January 20, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said that it had carried out a wave of airstrikes against targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The targets hit by Israeli fighter jets included an observation post, a rocket launch position and other infrastructure belonging to the group near the town of Odaisseh, according to the IDF, which also said that its main battle tanks carried out shelling in the Shebaa Farms -claimed by Lebanon and occupied by Israel-, to “remove a threat” overnight.

Separately, an Israeli combat drone targeted a vehicle near the southern town of Bazourieh. Lebanese security sources told Reuters that two Palestinian fighters of the Hamas Movement were killed in the strike. Hezbollah also mourned a fighter, who was reportedly killed along with the Palestinians.

The last wave of Israeli strikes didn’t deter Hezbollah. During the day, the group attacked three gatherings of Israeli troops in Honen Castl, al-Dhahira military site and Zarait Barracks. Hebrew media didn’t report any casualties, although this may be due to the IDF censorship.

The attacks were carried out “to support the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance,” Hezbollah said in separate statements announcing the attacks.

The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border first broke out after the start of the war in Gaza, with Hezbollah and its allies carrying out attacks in support of the Strip.

Israel increased threats to Lebanon over the border clashes in recent weeks. According to a recent report by The Washington Post, Israel is eyeing an end-of-January timeframe for reaching a long-term diplomatic agreement with Lebanon, but will likely escalate fighting with Hezbollah if a deal is not secured.

A United States official told the publication that Israel has not put forward a “hard deadline,” but said that the window of opportunity for talks was narrowing.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told The Washington Post that “the Israeli position is that we prefer a diplomatic solution, and if a diplomatic solution will not be possible, we will have to act on our own.”

In a recent call, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that Israel was nearing a decision on Lebanon.

Lebanese officials said earlier this week that Hezbollah had rebuffed Washington’s initial proposal for stopping clashes with Israel, including pulling its fighters further from the border, but remained open to U.S. diplomacy to avoid a ruinous war.

As of January 18, the border clashes have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of nine IDF soldiers. On the Lebanese side, more than 200 have been killed. The toll includes 152 Hezbollah fighters, 14 of whom were killed in Syria, 28 Palestinians, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 24 civilians.

4 vids in link

https://southfront.press/israel-launches-more-strikes-against-hezbollah-threatens-lebanon-with-escalation-videos/

Below, courtesy of Thomas Massie, is the most damning and explosive J6 footage yet released.

In my view this will end up demolishing the Regime's J6 narrative and with it a major pillar of Dem's 2024 strategy.

You paying attention Kamala?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1748093132044980447.html

Thousands Protest Across Israel Against Netanyahu's Government

Thousands participate at a demonstration in Tel Aviv's Habima Square, calling for the immediate dissolution of the Knesset and the announcement of elections.

Noam Alon, the sister of Capt. Dor Sade who was killed on October 7, said at the demonstration: "Our grandfather, Yitzhak, was a combat medic in the armored corps, and was killed in the Yom Kippur War. Exactly 50 years have passed, and again a surprise, again avoiding responsibility, again 'we didn't know,' again, 'we were not told'. The values that led Dor and my grandfather, the values on which this country was built, were abandoned. These were replaced by political survival, bickering, and incitement. But this is not our fate, we have the power to change and fix it. This government needs to go home now."

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-20/ty-article-live/dozens-protest-outside-netanyahus-house-for-release-of-israeli-hostages-in-gaza/0000018d-24bd-db77-ad9f-ffbfec830000

Russia called the French ambassador for an explanation: The dead French in Kharkiv were members of the regular French Army - They were not mercenaries…

Direct French involvement in the war - Russia hardens its stance

https://warnews247.gr/i-rosia-kalese-gia-exigiseis-ton-gallo-presvi-meli-tou-taktikou-gallikou-stratou-oi-nekroi-galloi-sto-charkovo-den-itan-misthoforoi/