PAUL THACKER—Since the pandemic’s beginning in early 2020, an increasing number of online discussions have been shut down by social media companies—labeled disinformation or “conspiracy theory”, although how these companies determine the truth remains a black box. In many cases, social media companies got it wrong and censored information as false, when it was actually true: natural immunity does protect against the virus, COVID-19 vaccines never stopped transmission, and evidence shows that the pandemic might have started from a lab accident in Wuhan China.

ERIC ZUESSE—Both the growing power and extremism of the Orthodox in Israel was highlighted in the last week of January when one of their most influential rabbis, Shmuel Eliyahu, publicly came to the defence of five students accused of murdering Aisha Rabi, a Palestinian mother of eight. Back in October they stoned her car near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, forcing her off the road.

Eliyahu is the son of a former chief rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, and himself sits on the Chief Rabbinical Council, which controls many areas of life for Israelis. He is also the municipal rabbi of Safed, a city that in Judaism has the equivalent status of Medina in Islam or Bethlehem in Christianity, so his words carry a great deal of weight with Orthodox Jews. 

BATIUSHKA—Some write that Russia can only win the war in Ukraine as long as it can help the US to save face after its defeat and then the collapse of NATO and the EU. Remember Saigon? Remember Bush and his ‘Mission Accomplished’? (The world laughed at his farce, but plenty in the US were convinced by it). Remember Kabul? The US just left them and pretended to be in denial about them. Like the British at Dunkirk in 1940, who left their French allies in the lurch, they just ran away back to their island, declaring victory, though leaving lots of their equipment behind them. The Americans can also run away, saying: ‘Forget it. They are not worthy of us’.

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate are joined by activist and comedian Randy Credico to discuss the pathetic state of Democracy Now, once a beacon of antiwar journalism and now a reliable fount of regime change propaganda that sandbagged Julian Assange when he was fighting for his freedom against the CIA.

ERIC ZUESSE—At the same time when News Guard was threatening Modern Diplomacy and perhaps forcing that site to reject all future submissions from me, the news-site, Consortium News, was likewise being threatened by Brill’s shills. On December 29th, Consortium News headlined “On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine: A short history of neo-Nazism in Ukraine in response to NewsGuard’s charge that Consortium News published false content about its extent”. That, too, is an excellent example of censors killing truths and leaving only lies. However, mega-corporate America has a number of such ‘fact-checking’ truth-destroying organizations: New Guard is only one of them.

Unions have called for a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations and hope to repeat the large turnout seen on the first major protest on Jan. 19, when more than a million people marched against the reform. Strikes that day also halted trains, blocked refineries and curbed power generation. A second nationwide strike on Tuesday will disrupt French public transport amid protests across the country, in a backlash against the government’s plans to make people work longer before retirement.

JIMMY DORE—Recent years have witnessed a great deal of turmoil in the nation of Haiti, and recently the United States has threatened to invade militarily in order to “restore order.” Which really means to exert control over the country in service of the rich and powerful. As documentarian and journalist Dan Cohen explains, one figure targeted by elite interests in Haiti and the U.S. is ex-cop turned revolutionary leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier. Jimmy speaks with Cohen about the unique role Chérizier plays in current Haitian politics and what the United States is doing in an effort to dislodge him.

Muckraking conservative journalist James O’Keefe and his colleagues at Project Veritas have set their sights on Pfizer, and recently released an explosive video featuring Jordan Tristan Walker, the company’s Director of Research and Development- Strategic Operations and mRNA Scientific Planning, explaining Pfizer’s secretive research practices involving gain of function research mutating the COVID-19 virus, and how the revolving door between the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies works to screw over the public. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss Walker’s comments, including his description of COVID as a “cash cow” for Pfizer.

PEPE ESCOBAR—Those behind the Throne are never more dangerous than when they have their backs against the wall. Their power is slipping away, fast: Militarily, via NATO’s progressive humiliation in Ukraine; Financially, sooner rather than later, most of the Global South will want nothing to do with the currency of a bankrupt rogue giant; Politically, the global majority is taking decisive steps to stop obeying a rapacious, discredited, de facto minority.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—If you say you oppose Russia because you’re an anti-imperialist but you don’t oppose the US empire for its role in starting and perpetuating this war, then you’re a liar. You don’t oppose Russia because you’re an anti-imperialist, you oppose Russia because you’re an imperialist.