Source: Axios
“After numerous bid rejections, Paramount Skydance is officially waging a proxy fight against Warner Bros. Discovery’s board. Paramount has refused to increase the price of its offer for WBD, arguing its bid is financially superior to Netflix’s. It’s now become clear that it believes its best path to winning WBD is through legal pressure. Paramount on Monday sent a letter to WBD shareholders saying it intends to nominate directors for WBD’s board and that it filed a lawsuit to force the company to disclose ‘basic information” about the bidding process to enable shareholders to “to make an informed decision as to whether to tender their shares into our offer.'” (01/12/26)
https://archive.is/TEobi
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The government of Greenland has firmly rejected threats from United States President Donald Trump, stating that it will not accept a US takeover under ‘any circumstance.’ The self-governed Danish territory also underscored its NATO membership in a statement on Monday, saying that the territory’s defence falls to the transatlantic alliance. … Trump has continued to insist that he will seize Greenland, threatening that the territory will be brought under US control ‘one way or another.’ Those threats have sparked outrage from European allies who have warned that any takeover of Greenland would have serious repercussions for ties between the US and Europe.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/greenland-rejects-us-takeover-under-any
Source: The Bulwark
“Venezuela Was Not Liberated (w/ Quico Toro).” (01/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-0lVgVj0sY
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“Regarding the 2002 invasion and occupation of Iraq, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned then-President George W. Bush, ‘if you break it, you own it.’ He elaborated, ‘if we take out another country’s government by force, we instantly become the new government, responsible for governing the country and for the security of its people until we can turn all that over to a new, stable, and functioning government.’ … Owning the consequences was a risk as soon as the U.S. moved to depose Maduro. Whatever the outcome, it would have been set in motion by American actions. By supporting the continuation of Maduro’s regime under new management, the Trump administration is implicitly endorsing the censorship, fixed elections, corruption, and brutality that have kept that government in power since it took office under Hugo Chavez.” (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/12/the-trump-administration-owns-responsibility-for-whatever-comes-next-in-venezuela/
Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Crouere
“The protests in Iran have been building for weeks. Initially, the demonstrations were organized by merchants in December in response to a huge fall in the value of the Iranian Rial, their currency. Soon thereafter, the protests expanded to include students and workers and became a massive outpouring of citizens rejecting the country’s tyrannical Islamic regime. This theocracy has been ruling Iran with an iron grip since the overthrow of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979. Since then, Iran has become the largest benefactor for the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In response to the protests, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that the government ‘would not back down.’ This statement is not surprising as the radical Islamic leaders of Iran have brutally responded to previous protests.” (01/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2026/01/12/real-protests-vs-fake-protests-n2669303
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, during which the Venezuelan leader asked him to intercede for the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in the Latin American country. The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details. Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December after 11 months in hiding to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. … Pope Leo has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after U.S. forces [abducted] former President Nicolás Maduro in his compound in Caracas and took him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/12/pope-meets-venezuela-opposition-machado/
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Following the invasion of Venezuela, there have been suggestions that President Trump will direct the US military to invade other countries as well. For example, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said, ‘if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ To no one’ s surprise, Senator Lindsey Graham was delighted by the possibility that Venezuela was just the first of many regime change wars President Trump will wage. … President Trump’s newfound love of regime change wars may be one reason why he is seeking to increase the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars.” (0/12/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/making-imperialism-great-again
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Bathers found five severed heads displayed on a beach in Ecuador in what appears to be a warning to gang members who have been threatening local fishermen. The gruesome discovery was made on Sunday on the beachfront in Puerto López, a town which has been wracked by gang violence. Next to the body parts, locals found a sign threatening those stealing from and extorting fishermen with the same fate. Ports and towns by the Pacific Ocean are among those worst hit by gangs which smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to the US and Europe. Police have identified the remains as those of five men who had been reported missing days earlier. They ranged between 20 and 34 years in age. Officials told local media one of them had a criminal record for gun possession. Their bodies have not yet been located.” (01/12/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2e13mlr17go
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“These days, often your best bet to learn about what’s coming next, from hot-button political topics to shifts in cultural trends, is to check in with the round-the-clock traders on Polymarket and Kalshi. On the two foremost major prediction market websites, people bet real money nonstop on real-world events. Though both platforms have been operable for the better part of half a decade, it’s been the later stage of this year that has witnessed unmistakable growth in volume and name recognition for both. So much so that the two platforms are suddenly signing major deals with global tech and financial leaders amid their rise as the latest darlings of the internet these final months of 2025.” (01/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-rise-of-the-prediction-markets/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I hate this. I hate waiting for the next imperial act of war. I hate having to be aware of sunrise time in Iran so I can relax knowing they made it through another night without US airstrikes. I hate having to wonder which empire-targeted population is going to get hit next. The imperial murder machine has been so frenetically active these last few years. When I first started writing about the US empire it was the beginning of Trump’s first term, at a state of relative calm. There were mounting cold war tensions with Russia and the US-backed Saudi atrocities in Yemen, a faltering dirty war in Syria and a half-assed coup attempt in Venezuela, but these frenzied nonstop regime change ops and brazen power grabs weren’t so much a thing back then.” (01/12/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/01/12/the-imperial-murder-machine-is-in-a-state-of-hyperactivity/
