USA - It is often said that life imitates art, and these days that is particularly true on the mean streets of our major cities. Violent criminals just keep getting more brazen, and murder rates are soaring all over the nation. As you will see below, one official in Los Angeles is actually comparing what is now happening to a horror movie that came out a number of years ago called “The Purge”. But in that movie, violent criminals only had one night each year to run wild. Unfortunately, in America today they are running wild every single night.

UK - The number of people with Omicron in UK hospitals according to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has been revised down from 250 to ten, with government officials claiming the minister had “misspoke” in earlier interviews. The UK’s deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, has revised the number of people in hospital with the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus from 250 to ten, over three interviews given on Tuesday morning. Raab had initially told Sky News that the number of people in UK hospitals with the variant was 250 the “last time [he] looked”. However, Raab later told BBC Breakfast that only nine people in hospitals were suffering from the disease. “I think we have one death,” Raab said regarding Omicron in the UK. “I think we’ve got nine people who are in hospital with it.”

USA - In an appearance on Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, argued that by and large, what has characterized the entire CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has been a “degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.” “Overall, I’d say that we’ve had a pandemic of fear. And fear has affected almost everybody, whereas the infection has affected relatively few,” said Risch. “By and large, it’s been a very selected pandemic, and predictable. It was very distinguished between young versus old, healthy versus chronic disease people. So we quickly learned who was at risk for the pandemic and who wasn’t. However, the fear was manufactured for everybody. And that’s what’s characterized the whole pandemic is that degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

UK - A lack of transparency over the UK's first Omicron death prompted fury today, as a doctor told the Government to release more details to stop 'unnecessary alarm'. Experts are demanding answers about the UK's first Omicron fatality, such as the individual's vaccination status, if they were part of a group vulnerable to Covid, and if the virus was the leading cause of death. Professor of medicine and consultant oncologist Karol Sikora said the Government was not providing the nation with enough information about the death, and that this was causing 'unnecessarily alarming'.

KOREA - There’s been no formal treaty ending the 1950-53 Korean War. So South and North Korea are still technically at war, backed by the US and China, respectively. South Korea President Moon Jae-in gave the declaration adding that the talks have yet to begin because of North Korea’s demands, reports BBC. North Korea consistently objects to the presence of US troops in South Korea; the joint military drills held every year between US and South Korea; as well as US-led sanctions against North Korea’s weapons programme. But the US has repeatedly said that North Korea must first abandon its nuclear weapons before any sanctions can be lifted.

SOUTH KOREA - Reports that there is an agreement in place to bring the Korean War to an end should not be taken seriously. This would be of no benefit to the United States, which for various reasons wants to maintain the status quo. The US will never accept a formal end to the Korean War because maintaining the status quo remains firmly in its geopolitical interests. The ‘frozen conflict’ is ultimately what allows Washington to host 30,000 troops on the Korean peninsula in the effort to contain North Korea, sustain operational command over South Korea’s entire army and control the border via the United Nations Command. South Korea is a pillar of its military projection in Asia, with China firmly in view. To end the Korean War would immediately negate the purpose and legitimacy of America’s presence, culling the idea of its ‘saviour narrative’ and empowering suppressed political movements who want the US to leave (both in South and North Korea).

USA - All of a sudden, inflation is one of the hottest political issues in America. Most people seem surprised that inflation has gotten so wildly out of control, but the truth is that this should not be a surprise to any of us. We have been warned for years that this was coming. Whenever our corrupt politicians in Washington authorized trillions more in spending that we couldn’t afford, we were warned that this would eventually cause extremely painful inflation. But it didn’t happen immediately, and so most Americans didn’t take the warnings seriously. And as the “experts” at the Federal Reserve kept pumping trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system, we were warned that there would eventually be severe consequences. But those consequences did not arrive immediately, and so most Americans didn’t take the warnings seriously. But now a day of reckoning has arrived, and conditions are only going to get worse from this point forward. So what are our politicians in Washington planning to do to get us out of this mess? Well, the Biden administration wants to spend trillions more. They just can’t stop.

TURKEY - Here in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s hometown on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, residents are questioning the leadership of their city’s favorite son amid an economic crisis that is driving up the cost of food, gasoline and medicine. Turkey’s currency has lost as much as 45% of its value this year, largely triggered by Mr Erdogan’s own economic policies, economists and former Turkish officials say. The crisis has sparked outrage among poor- and middle-class Turks who have made up Mr Erdogan’s power base for nearly two decades but are now turning against him in record numbers, opinion polls show.

JAPAN - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of five struck eastern Japan on Sunday. The quake's epicenter was in the southern part of Ibaraki prefecture, east of Tokyo. Buildings shook in the capital, but no damage was reported. Earlier this month, a swarm of quakes was reported near Mount Fuji, and the Tokara Islands, an archipelago that falls within Kagoshima Prefecture, an ominous warning that the next big natural disaster could be nearing. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that experts and government agencies have asked the public to remain calm. They said multiple earthquake swarms near Mount Fuji and the Tokara Islands do not suggest an impending disaster like the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Attempts to keep the public calm are not working as planned. Asahi newspaper alerted readers that "the frequency of tremors indicates that a megaquake could occur in the near future" and warning of "impending doom."

INDONESIA - An "extreme" earthquake has rocked Indonesia and led experts to issue a subsequent tsunami warning. The earthquake, which is believed to have struck at around 3.20am GMT, is reported to have struck 71 miles north of Maumere. However, the American-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is believed to have warned waves could possibly reach coasts "within 1,000 kilometres of Indonesia quake centre". Maumere is the largest city on the north eastern coast of Flores Island.

USA - A dozen US cities just broke records for annual homicides, a feat that should shake the political establishment to its very foundations. But because these cities are run by Democrats, the mainstream media has given them a pass. A pandemic is tearing a path of pain and suffering across the American heartland, where the very bonds that hold communities together are being tested like never before. Yet this malignancy requires no microscope to witness. From Toledo, Ohio to Albuquerque, New Mexico, people are having their lives cut tragically short due to cold-blooded murders, oftentimes through the cold middleman of a firearm.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Naftali Bennett departed to Abu Dhabi on Sunday to meet with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on the first trip by an Israeli prime minister to the United Arab Emirates. Bennett was greeted by an honor guard and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed. “I’m excited to be here, on the first official visit of an Israeli leader here,” Bennett said. “We look forward to strengthening the relations between the countries.” Bennett said on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport that Israel-UAE relations are “excellent and extensive,” and called to “nurture and strengthen them, and build the warm peace between the two nations.” Bennett is set to meet with MBZ, as the Emirati leader is known, on Monday, as well as with other ministers and senior officials.

RUSSIA - A flatbed rail wagon speeding through south-west Russia last week carried an ill omen for negotiations to avert a larger war with Ukraine. On board was a Buk-M1, the kind of medium-range surface-to-air missile system that became notorious in 2014 after a missile fired from territory controlled by Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine shot down a Malaysian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard. If Russia goes to war in Ukraine, it still needs to take a number of steps: establishing fuel supply lines, opening field hospitals and deploying air-defence systems such as the Buk that would protect its heavy weaponry and troops near the front. Even as Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin were sitting down to talks meant to end the crisis, Russia was inching closer to being ready to launch a full-scale ground invasion of its neighbour. Despite the Putin-Biden talks, the crisis is growing deeper.

CHINA - Beijing’s had enough of Taipei’s posturing and the stream of support being drummed up for Taiwan across the West. Military action’s unlikely, but it will use its economic and diplomatic muscle to punish the island’s supporters. It’s been another busy week on China-related matters. Unsurprisingly, in line to manufacture consent for America’s and the Anglosphere world’s diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, there’s been a coordinated frontloading of anti-China content from various US affiliated groups and organizations. In addition, the US Congress has sought to advance a number of anti-China bills and resolutions. Most seriously, tensions over Taiwan are ratcheting up yet again. Just as President Joe Biden undertakes his self-proclaimed “democracy summit,” which Taipei has been invited to, Beijing has been making its furious opposition known, not just in words, but with actions, too.

USA - The federal government collected a record $565,135,000,000 in total taxes through the first two months of fiscal 2022 (October and November), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. The federal government also collected a record $282,094,000,000 in individual income taxes in the first two months of this fiscal year. While collecting its record $565,135,000,000 in total taxes in the first two months of this fiscal year, the federal government spent $921,526,000,000 — resulting in a deficit of $356,390,000,000 in the first two months of the fiscal year.