Far from being a war against "white supremacy," the Biden administration's new "domestic terror" strategy clearly targets primarily those who oppose US government overreach and those who oppose capitalism and/or globalization.

In the latest sign that the US government's War on Domestic Terror is growing in scope and scale, the White House on Tuesday revealed the nation's first ever government-wide strategy for confronting domestic terrorism. While cloaked in language about stemming racially motivated violence, the strategy places those deemed "anti-government" or "anti-authority" on a par with racist extremists and charts out policies that could easily be abused to silence or even criminalize online criticism of the government.

Even more disturbing is the call to essentially fuse intelligence agencies, law enforcement, Silicon Valley, and "community" and "faith-based" organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, as well as unspecified foreign governments, as partners in this "war," which the strategy makes clear will rely heavily on a pre-crime orientation focused largely on what is said on social media and encrypted platforms. Though the strategy claims that the government will "shield free speech and civil liberties" in implementing this policy, its contents reveal that it is poised to gut both.

Indeed, while framed publicly as chiefly targeting "right-wing white supremacists," the strategy itself makes it clear that the government does not plan to focus on the Right but instead will pursue "domestic terrorists" in "an ideologically neutral, threat-driven manner," as the law "makes no distinction based on political view — left, right or center." It also states that a key goal of this strategic framework is to ensure "that there is simply no governmental tolerance . . . of violence as an acceptable mode of seeking political or social change," regardless of a perpetrator's political affiliation.

US authorities have seized the web domains of Iran's international media outlets Press TV and Al-Alam, along with the Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, run by the Houthi faction.

Visitors to the three domains were greeted on Tuesday with a notice that they were seized under US laws that allow civil and criminal forfeiture of property involved in "trafficking in nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons technology or material, or the manufacture, importation, sale, or distribution of a controlled substance."

The seizure notice by the US Department of Justice also invokes a law governing presidential authority in dealing with "unusual and extraordinary threat; declaration of national emergency," which includes the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005 and the ironically named Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006.

Publicly, US authorities have rigidly stuck to the story that no one saw the January 6 Capitol ruckus coming. But the publication of internal documents is casting further doubt on the established version of events.

On June 21, NBC News reported on a recent court filing that raises further questions about whether the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) foresaw what happened in Washington DC on January 6 and, if so, why the agency failed to sound the alarm in good time.

The document in question is an FBI investigative report on social media activity prior to that fateful day, produced in February, showing that enraged Donald Trump supporters were openly talking about bringing firearms to the Capitol in order to instigate a "revolution." The offending posts were used as justification to launch a probe into protest attendee Thomas Webster, a former New York Police Department officer, who was indicted the following month for attacking a Capitol Police officer.

China has a choice of either giving in to the Western powers' demand and allowing another WHO-led probe into Covid-19's origin or being ostracized by the international community, Joe Biden's security adviser Jake Sullivan warned.

The US president's national security adviser issued the stern warning to China during an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Asked whether Biden intends to insist that a potential second probe into the origins of the virus must be an "independent" investigation, Sullivan said that the president had convinced Washington's allies in the G7 to pile pressure on Beijing.

"It is that diplomatic spadework - rallying the nations of the world, imposing political and diplomatic pressure on China, that is a core part of the effort we are undertaking to ultimately face China with a stark choice," Sullivan said.

Heavy downpours triggered floods in parts of Flanders last night. In Wallonia, strong gusts of wind caused a lot of damage in the municipality of Beauraing, where there are reports of 17 injured people. Beauraing is talking of a "mini-tornado". As many as 92 houses were severely damaged, 10 have been declared unfit for habitation. Over a dozen cars were damaged.


Beauraing, a town in Namur province, was hardest hit. The local disaster plan was started after what local authorities are labelling as "a small tornado". 17 people sustained light injuries and some 90 homes were heavily damaged, Beauraing announced in a press report. The local cultural centre offers shelter for those that sustained damage.

Several people got injured when an outdoor construction at a café terrace was swept away by a gust of wind. "The wind was incredibly strong. Houses and cars got damaged, trees were uprooted", Beauraing Mayor Marc Lejeune told the Francophone public broadcaster RTBF.

The VRT's weather presenter Frank Deboosere thinks this phenomenon can be either a local tornado or a strong downwind, triggered by the enormous downpour that created a downward air movement.

Of all the questions asked, words spoken, and ink spilled on the so-called "Capitol Siege" of January 6, 2021, none hold the key to the entire event quite like the question Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked of Christopher Wray.

The Democrat from Minnesota asked the Trump-appointed FBI Director: Did the federal government infiltrate any of the so-called "militia" organizations claimed to be responsible for planning and executing the Capitol Siege?

The full segment is available on YouTube.


Christopher Wray is able to uncomfortably weasel his way out of answering the question directly, partially because Klobuchar does him the courtesy of not asking him the question directly. Klobuchar instead asks the FBI director if he wishes he had infiltrated the militia organizations allegedly involved in 1/6 — assuming from the outset that there was in fact no infiltration, thereby providing the FBI director an easy way to avoid addressing the question one way or another.

Court filings suggest that FBI operatives were among the mob who stormed the US Capitol in January, and may have set up the riot. With the riot used as justification for new terrorism policy, the media is downplaying the story.

Fox News broadcast possibly the most consequential report in recent cable news history on Tuesday night. Fox host Tucker Carlson alleged that the Capitol Hill riot on January 6 - dubbed an "insurrection," an "assault on our democracy," and "domestic terrorism" - may have been, at least partly, an inside job.

Democrats and the mainstream media have been aggressively denouncing the Maricopa County, Arizona election audit from the beginning.

At first I didn't understand why.

I thought that it was because they were afraid of what the results would be, but I now believe it's something far worse.

The Democrats aren't "just" afraid of the outcome - but they're afraid that the audit results will be irrefutable and unimpeachable. They know that their efforts to discredit the audit process in Arizona will not stand up to scrutiny and here's why.

The Arizona audit is being run impeccably, utilizing security and surveillance procedures with a longstanding track record of effectiveness.

To say that I was impressed after viewing the audit process for myself would be a massive understatement. I've spent decades working in security and law enforcement at the highest levels, and this is exactly the level of conscientiousness and attention to detail that I would demand for a sensitive or high-profile investigation.

They're not trying to reinvent the wheel; they're using the same methods casinos have used for decades to catch cheaters.

It's common knowledge that casinos are exceptionally good at catching cheaters, and if anybody tries to pull a fast one during the Arizona audit, they face the same long odds of getting away with it.

Before a person can even enter the premises, their name must be on a pre-approved list. After winding their way through a maze of corridors, they arrive at a security checkpoint where their ID is checked.

Lebanon has been suffering the worst economic crisis in decades. In fact, it could be ranked as one of the world's three most severe financial crises since the mid-19th century. The latest newsletter from Father Daniël - who survived the attempted take-over by jihadis in Syria - included an interview with Sister Carmel van de H. who has been involved in delivering humanitarian aid in Lebanon. Since 1994, she has assisted Syria's sixth-century Mar Yakub monastery in the city of Qara, 90 kilometers north of the capital Damascus. In 1994, she met Mother Agnes-Mariam, the founder of the Mar Yakub monastery, and together they founded the 'Son of Man Association' in 1996. She started providing humanitarian aid in Lebanon after the Beirut port explosion (likely caused by Israel) in August 2020. Since the explosion, they managed to "open three medical centers, provide hot meals for thousands of people, repair or rebuild hundreds of houses destroyed by the explosion and set up long-term agricultural trial projects".

On why the country, which used to economically support the entire Middle East, is currently in more need of help than Syria, she notes: "A plan to destroy Lebanon has been unfolding for two years now. After devastating Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, the West is now attacking Lebanon. Lebanon has the largest gas reserves in the world. Europe is dependent on gas from Russia, so they are attacking Lebanon together with the US to take out Russia. The port of Beirut was blown up and the next day the largest ships were in port to get gas; this is a masked world war. [...] The West has imposed a heavy embargo on our country and our people are starving. All this for gas."