For free speech advocates, there are few images more chilling than that of Nina Jankowicz singing her now-infamous tune as "the Mary Poppins of Disinformation."

The woman who would become known as the "Disinformation Czar" sang a cheerful TikTok parody of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to rally people to the cause of censorship.

When the press caught wind of President Biden's plan to appoint Jankowicz as head of the Department of Homeland Security's new "disinformation board," Fox News said she "intended to censor Americans' speech."

The backlash was swift. Plans for the board were suspended, and Jankowicz resigned in 2022. She then sued Fox News for defamation.

GOP Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina pressed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday on reports that the Pittsburgh Secret Service field office sent four times the number of additional agents to cover a first lady Jill Biden event than to former President Donald Trump's July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot.

Cheatle neither confirmed nor denied that was the case.

Biden was speaking at an event at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh for approximately 300 people close to the same time Trump was speaking at his rally attended by several thousand, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune.

Timmons started out his questioning of Cheatle asking if she agreed with the statement that Secret Service resources allocated to a particular events should correspond to the risk profile of it.

Israeli attacks have likely killed many more than the nearly 40,000 people reported, and even more will yet perish.

Earlier this month, the Lancet published an article estimating that the total number of Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks since October 2023 could be nearly five times higher than the official death toll, and could reach "up to 186 000 or even more." It noted that "this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip."

According to the piece, the latest available count of Palestinians killed - 37,396 - is far too low, based on the fact that it is still unknown how many more lie under the rubble, how many are missing but not accounted for among the dead, and how many will perish due to starvation, dehydration, or diseases.

"Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases."

However, even this Lancet estimate of nearly 200,000 dead might be only half the actual number of Palestinians killed, according to some counts.

On 16 July, Jürgen Elsässer (67) woke up startled at 6 a.m., opened the door of his house while still in his dressing gown, and in front of him were dozens of police officers, some with their faces covered, heavily armed, in a surreal image befitting any authoritarian state. However, it was in Brandenburg, on the outskirts of Berlin, in the Germany of the tragicomic Scholz government, aka the 'Traffic Light' coalition.

The police were about to raid his house, while more than 200 federal and Brandenburg state agents were deployed to carry out further searches in eight other houses and offices in the region. Other raids were carried out in the states of Saxony, Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt, ordered by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), who had ordered Compact to be closed by decree as an 'association', when it was legally a publishing house. She also banned any activity by the audiovisual company that produced Compact's content, such as its YouTube, Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The minister later explained that Compact 'incites hatred against Jews, against people with a history of migration and against our parliamentary democracy in an indescribable way'. According to the Ministry, the legal basis is the Law on Associations, according to which organisations that are directed against the free and democratic basic order can also be banned.

This week a fresh United Nations assessment estimated that the Israeli military (IDF) has placed more than 80% of the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders or designated "no-go zone" - Al Jazeera reports, underscoring this means Palestinians have nowhere to go.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the statement said:

"As of July 22, nearly 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as 'no-go zones' by the Israeli military."

The latest order has urged some 400,000 Palestinians out of eastern and central Khan Yunis, where the latest IDF offensive is happening. The new order encompasses nearly nine square kilometers of land.

The OCHA report continued:

"The area of the 'humanitarian zone' as designated by the Israeli military has thus decreased by 14.8 percent, from 58.9 to 50.2 square kilometers."

The crisis of "where to go" for internally displaced refugees has been exacerbated already as much of the Strip lacks water, food, and electricity.

Meanwhile President Biden has newly pledged to end the fighting in Gaza by the time he leaves office at the end of this year.

Hacker group Anonymous gives "Israel" a 48-hour ultimatum to stop its war on Gaza, or else it will publish confidential information and sensitive files in its possession of the Security Ministry.

A load of documents, including identity cards, cheques, and personal data, were posted online by the hacking group Anonymous for Justice in Palestine on Tuesday, noting that the materials came from systems used by the Israeli Security Ministry. This marks the second time after documents earlier this year of the military and justice ministries were hacked and made public.

The Israeli Security Ministry has not yet commented.

Hacker group "Anonymous" also issued a warning to "Israel" to stop its war on Gaza within 48 hours, or else it will publish confidential information and sensitive files in its possession of the Security Ministry, alongside data from the "Justice Ministry" from an earlier occurrence.

Will they put Biden to sleep like they did with king George V in 1936 when they were brewing up WWII?

One week ago today, the most powerful man in the world, US President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID (Covid-19 according to CNN and just Covid according to most other outlets). Who knew that they were still testing the President for the virus that allegedly produced a pandemic five years ago? But how can there be any doubt?

As we have learned over the past few years, the PCR and other tests are very exact and reliable and if they come out positive, that can only mean one thing: the President's got Covid. Covid 19, or whatever. Thankfully, the president has been vaccinated against this terrible disease, otherwise he probably would have tested even more positive and he would have to isolate even harder.

I can hardly help my sarcasm from spilling all over my keyboard: the narrative management politburo must be the most talent-free bunch of apparatchiks ever assembled and their media toadies the most talent-free, supine bunch of stenographers ever recruited. As a result, the news today read like the inmates have taken full control of the asylum.

Are they planning to put Joe to sleep?

I can understand that they wanted to remove Biden from the limelight to interrupt his series of spectacular gaffes. I can even understand that some might want to remove him from the scenes altogether and some day announce how sad it is that Mr. President succumbed to the terrible disease.

That could give quite a PR boost to the DNC. Imagine: suddenly, we'd have an outpouring of sympathy for the man... The state funeral would be such a solemn, sobering event, it would absorb the nation's and the world's attention for day and criticizing the late President would become utterly distasteful. The party could now call for the nation to come together during this sad and difficult moment, bla, bla, bla... Hugs and unity would flood all over the place and the DNC could all play the good guys like it's 1999.

The internationally recognised government of Yemen has signed an agreement with the Houthi movement to "de-escalate" tensions between the two sides, relaxing restrictions on the banking sector and resuming flights by the national airline.

According to a statement by the UN, the two sides informed the special envoy of the secretary-general for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, of the new agreement on Monday.

Among the points listed in the agreement were "cancelling all the recent decisions and procedures against banks by both sides and refraining in the future from any similar decisions or procedures", as well as "resuming Yemenia Airways' flights between Sanaa and Jordan and increasing the number of flights to three daily flights, and operating flights to Cairo and India daily or as needed."

Georgia's state intelligence agency has announced the opening of an investigation into a plot to "violently overthrow" the government.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the State Security Service of Georgia said it is "investigating criminal activities" aimed at creating unrest, including a plot to kill Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of the governing Georgian Dream party.

The statement accused "former high officials" of being behind the plot, with local media reports suggesting links to Ukraine. The announcement came amid heightened tension in Georgia over the introduction of a "foreign influence" law that opponents say illustrates the government is moving closer to Russia.

John Healey has said the army faces "very serious challenges," according to national media

The British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force are all struggling with "hollowed out forces, procurement waste, [and] low morale," British Defense Secretary John Healey has warned.

In a grim assessment of the state of the UK military, Healey told the British Army's annual Land Warfare Conference in London on Monday that the nation's armed forces face "very serious challenges," according to Sky News.