“French far-right leader Marine Le Pen at an appeals trial on Tuesday rejected her party having had any ‘system’ to embezzle European Parliament funds, as she seeks to save her 2027 run for president. A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution. It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a ‘system’ from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France. Le Pen, 11 others and the party are appealing.” (01/20/26)
“As a ‘stealth tax,’ inflation requires no legislation to impose, no agency to collect, and diverts responsibility for damages onto politicians’ favorite whipping boys. It gives government the ability to buy almost anything for nothing, while creating endless problems that serve as a pretext for intervention. Inflation is the foundation of arrogant government and a prescription for our own demise.” (01/20/26)
“In what amounts to an extraordinary admission of guilt regarding their historic complicity in the US’s post-9/11 torture program, it was announced on January 11, the 24th anniversary of the opening of the ‘war on terror’ prison at Guantánamo Bay, that the British government has reached a ‘substantial’ out-of-court settlement with Abu Zubaydah. Abu Zubaydah … was the first and most notorious victim of torture in the CIA’s post-9/11 program of extraordinary rendition and torture, which involved the establishment of secret torture facilities in pliant countries around the world — Thailand, Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Morocco — as well as in US facilities in Afghanistan. He was held and tortured in all of these CIA ‘black sites’ for three years and five months from April 2002 until his transfer, in September 2006, to Guantánamo, where he has been held ever since without charge or trial.” (01/20/26)
“U.S. Treasury yields jumped on Tuesday as investors weighed renewed tariff threats from Washington that revived fears of a trade war with Europe. Yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury were last seen trading around 6 basis points higher at 4.287%. Yields on longer-dated 20- and 30-year Treasurys spiked, adding 9 basis points to trade at around 4.885% and 4.93%, respectively. One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions. Trump announced on Saturday that [American buyers of goods from] eight European allies would face increasing tariffs, starting at 10% on Feb. 1 and rising to 25% on June 1, if a deal is not reached that allows Washington to ‘buy’ Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.” (01/20/26)
“James Konkin is a son, a friend, a student, a churchgoer, a weightlifter, and a vinyl collector. He’s also an anarchist. That is to say, he’s an opponent of the use of coercion in human relationships. Anarchists are people with principles, unpopular principles, but principles nonetheless. James’[s] principles include freedom, self-defense, and self-expression. He’s being punished for holding those principles. James has been targeted by the fascist regime, arrested and charged for constitutionally protected anti-ICE posts. He’s been released on bond for now, but his bail conditions preclude him from using social media so we haven’t heard from him in months.” (01/19/26)
“An explosion tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in a hotel in a heavily guarded part of Afghanistan’s capital on Monday, killing a Chinese national and six Afghans and injuring several others including a child, officials said. The restaurant was in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw neighbourhood of Kabul that includes office buildings, shopping complexes and embassies, police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said. The district is considered one of the safest in the city. The Afghan branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, saying in a statement that it was carried out by a suicide bomber. The Chinese restaurant was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim man, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, and served the Chinese Muslim community, Zadran said.” (01/19/26)
