Source: Reuters
“Amazon’s AWS launched a new cloud service located entirely in Europe on Thursday, addressing user concerns about the data security delivered by mainly U.S.-based providers by offering the continent’s own independent alternative. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud’s data centres are physically and legally separate from the U.S.-based company’s other servers, the world’s largest cloud provider said. This will allow the cloud to operate even if the European Union were disconnected from the internet or the United States were to prohibit software exports, AWS Germany Chief Technology Officer Michael Hanisch told Reuters.” (01/15/26)
https://archive.is/OoCgT
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Doug Casey: Is the US Empire Rising or Falling?” (01/15/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2726-doug-casey-is-the-us-empire-rising-or-falling/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano
“In a scene in Robert Bolt’s famous play ‘A Man for All Seasons,’ about the treason trial of St. Thomas More, More argues with the attorney general of Wales about the law. The attorney general says he’d cut down all the laws in England to get to the Devil. More reminds him that the laws were written to protect us from those who’d cut them down, because, More asks, when the Devil turns round and seeks you, where would you hide, the laws having been flattened? Answer: nowhere. The recent statement of President Donald Trump in an interview with The New York Times that on the international stage only his ‘own morality’ and his ‘own mind’ can restrain him is a direct repudiation of his oath of office because it effectively cuts down the laws.” (01/15/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/01/14/an-assault-on-the-republic
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin
“The plan violates multiple constituitonal provisions and goes against Supreme Court precedent. If somehow allowed to stand, it would gravely imperil federalism and the separation of powers.” (01/15/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/01/15/trumps-unconstitutional-plan-to-withhold-all-federal-funding-from-sanctuary-cities-and-states/
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) said it will not be extending its controversial drug decriminalisation project, allowing it to expire at the end of January. The programme began in 2023 as a three-year pilot agenda. It was a landmark policy meant to help tackle the province’s deadly opioid addiction crisis, which has claimed thousands of lives in the last decade. But the scheme has faced pushback over concerns around public disorder and drug use. BC’s health minister Josie Osborne said the province is now backing off from the pilot because it ‘hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for’. At a news conference on Wednesday, Osborne said it is ‘difficult, if not even possible’ to determine whether the programme led more people struggling with opioid addiction to receive treatment. BC was the only province in Canada to implement a drug decriminalisation pilot programme.” (01/15/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrz1nwz590o
Source: Engadget
“After reaching a proposed settlement last year, the FTC has banned General Motors from sharing specific consumer data with third parties, TechCrunch reported. The finalized order wraps up one of the more egregious cases of a corporation collecting its customers’ data and then using it against them. Two years ago, the New York Times released a report detailing how GM’s OnStar “Smart Driver” program collected and sold detailed geolocation and driving behavior data to third parties, including data brokers. Those brokers in turn sold the data to insurance providers, which jacked up the rates for some drivers based on the data. … According to the terms of the settlement, GM is barred from sharing specific user data with consumer reporting agencies for a five year period. The automaker is also required to request user permission before collecting, using or sharing vehicle data with any third party.” (01/15/26)
https://www.engadget.com/transportation/ftc-finalizes-gm-punishment-over-driver-data-sharing-scandal-130012313.html
Source: Semafor
by Andy Browne
“Just days before US special forces grabbed Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan strongman, China rehearsed a ‘decapitation’ strike against its own nemesis, Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te. The drill was part of an intensifying military pressure campaign to intimidate the Taiwanese leadership, demoralize the population, and wear down the island’s resistance to unification with the mainland. The PLA Daily claimed that Lai, aware of the drills, had ‘outwardly feigned composure, but inwardly felt extremely fearful.’ Could Lai be the next Maduro? Many US commentators and analysts see heightened risks of just that: In their telling, the Trump administration’s defiance of international law and diplomatic norms to seize Maduro has set a precedent for Beijing, or that President Donald Trump’s claims to US dominance of the Western Hemisphere — the ‘Donroe’ doctrine — implicitly offers Chinese leader Xi Jinping a freer hand in his own backyard. These concerns sound plausible — but are mostly wrong-headed.” (01/15/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/15/2026/the-flaws-in-the-venezuela-taiwan-worldview
Source: The Dispatch
“Must and May.” (01/15/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/must-and-may/
Source: CounterPunch
by Robert Harris
“The partisan charade boils down to a question of appearances. For Democrats, Trump is not guilty of war crimes so much as bad manners, crassly admitting that he is after the oil. Better to put lipstick on the pig and claim the empire is ‘promoting democracy.’ All the whining is about Congress being left out of the action.” (01/15/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/15/i-used-to-be-a-critic-of-the-two-party-system-now-i-wish-we-had-one/
Source: Common Dreams
by Rainer Ebert
“Just a week after Donald Trump first took office as president, he signed Executive Order 13769—his first travel ban. It halted refugee admissions and suspended entry into the US for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. All of these countries have a Muslim majority. Because of that, and also because Trump had previously said that he intends to ban Muslims from the US, critics referred to the order as a ‘Muslim ban’. The backlash was immediate and broad, coming from Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as US diplomats, business leaders, universities, faith groups, and international organizations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. Protests erupted in airports and cities across the US. A friend and I (both of us immigrants to the US ourselves) spontaneously drove to the international airport in Houston to express our outrage, along with hundreds of other protesters. I remember I felt hopeful.” (01/15/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-travel-ban-39
