Drug cartels already function similarly to paramilitaries. If these criminal organizations suddenly get a surge of members with battlefield experience in NATO-occupied Ukraine, this could dramatically exacerbate the security situation in all of Central and South America. The US could then use this as an excuse to escalate its aggression within the framework of the resurgent Monroe Doctrine.

The United States claims that its ongoing escalation with Venezuela is due to the latter's supposed "involvement in drug trafficking". Although concrete evidence for such accusations is sorely lacking, Washington DC is now seriously contemplating direct aggression on Caracas based precisely on these fabrications.

After the deployment of US Navy warships and USMC troops in the vicinity of Venezuela's coasts, the US keeps increasing its military presence in the area. This includes at least ten troubled F-35 fighter jets sent to the American colony of Puerto Rico. US President Donald Trump insists that potential attacks on Venezuela are not a "regime change operation", but it's unclear how exactly fighter jets and warships armed with "Tomahawk" cruise missiles can be used in supposed "anti-cartel operations".

Warsaw wants consultations with bloc members after an alleged violation of its airspace by drones it identified as Russian.

Poland has formally invoked Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty following what it described as "an act of aggression" by Russia. The article provides for consultations in case one of the bloc's members believes its security is threatened.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he made the request after informing lawmakers on the alleged airspace violations. Russia has yet to comment on the accusations.

According to Tusk, the Polish military detected 19 separate violations of its airspace over seven hours, with at least three and possibly four drones downed. He claimed the aircraft came from Belarus rather than Ukraine, and characterized the incident as a Russian "provocation."

The Belarusian military earlier reported having given their Polish counterparts early warning that some drones used by Ukrainian and Russian forces for mutual attacks "lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties' electronic warfare assets. This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty," said General Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff of Belarus.

Update(1120ET): Minutes ago, President Trump issued a somewhat cryptic statement on his Truth Social, as part of his initial reaction to the overnight alleged Russian drone breach incident in Poland.
Stating "Here we go!" is a bit ominous, given it sounds - depending on the president's intent behind the words - a bit like George W. Bush's infamous "Let's Roll" related to Iraq.

Crude markets suspect so, with oil spiking...
Russia has rejected Polish and Ukrainian accusations that it sent a drone swarm to 'attack' Poland, a longtime NATO member. But likely the US will try to manufacture leverage over Moscow with this dangerous incident, where NATO planes were scrambled, civilian airports were closed, and ground air defenses put at the ready.

The US journalist says his forthcoming documentary series on the 9/11 attacks will explore overlooked truths.

Israeli intelligence knew beforehand of the 9/11, American journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed. The topic, as well as other long-buried facts, will be explored in his upcoming documentary series on the attacks.

Carlson made the remarks on Tuesday when he appeared on Piers Morgan's Uncensored News. The journalist pointed out the Israeli leadership never actually hid its attitude to the attack and believed they had a positive impact on the US-Israel ties.

"Of course I didn't allege that the Jews did it. I don't even know what that means. I think, in fact, saying things like that is a way to discredit real questions.

"Benjamin Netanyahu on camera, right after [the attacks] he said it was a good thing because it brings the United States into a conflict that we've been involved in on an existential level for decades."

Carlson apparently referred to the remarks Netanyahu made back in 2002 during the US House hearings, when he said that the democracies "sometimes have to be bombed into going to war" and likened the 9/11 events to the Pearl Harbor attack.

Last night, I wrote about the 9/11 attack on the twin Towers in New York, comparing it to Israel's attack on Gaza. Gaza is 9/11 many times over - many times worse.

Both are "terrorism".

But why is Gaza worse? .

Scale

The first point is scale. Only 3000 people, a little fewer, lost their lives on 9/11.

Israel by contrast has killed somewhere between 70,000 and the hundred thousand people in Gaza - not counting the people he has killed in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and now Qatar.

Symbolism

The 9/11 attack was largely symbolic-- focusing on the US's preeminent symbol of power and hegemony, it was carried out with very limited resources and focused on a target whose vulnerabilities the attackers were well aware of after their attempted bombing in 1993. The World Trade Towers were built in 1960 standards-- but a lot of things had changed.

Still, the hijackers could not have expected the towers to collapse in the way they did-- which was the result of engineering for a different era.

The replacement for the World Trade Center has been built differently — drawing on the lessons of 9/11. Had the original been engineered in this way, there would've been far fewer casualties, likely only those at the point of impact, the top floors.

But,as I have mentioned. the goal of the "terrorists" was not massive casualties, as occurred due to engineering flaws that could not have been anticipated, but rather a message of defiance - the symbolism of an airliner crashing into the top floors.

This was not an act of war as much as it was a declaration of another people's desire to throw off the yoke of neocolonial control.

Palestine had shown that protests and banners get you nowhere - and negotiations lead to further oppression. I am not trying to justify terrorism, bombings, killings and the like-- nor the toxic ideology of groups like Al Qaeda, which had been nurtured by the US. But looking at things objectively you can see the logic.

Facing insurmountable backlog, Thune moves to allow consideration of multiple nominees as a group.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first procedural step Monday toward changing the chamber's rules to speed up the confirmation of lower-level Trump nominees, saying the move is necessary to combat obstruction from Democrats.

Democrats this Congress have forced the GOP majority to use valuable floor time on procedural votes, slowing down the confirmation process and leaving spots unfilled in the Trump administration.

Republicans argue Democrats are destroying a Senate tradition of quickly confirming noncontroversial nominees regardless of the party of the president. But Democrats contend the posture is a needed negotiating tool as Trump has burned through government norms and at times embraced an authoritarian attitude of executive power.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a memorandum that aims to crack down on direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads, in a move that stops short of an outright ban.

The pharmaceutical industry's ability to advertise drugs directly to consumers has long been a target of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who floated a ban on those ads in November and has argued that they lead Americans to use more prescription medications. But senior administration officials on Tuesday said the new memorandum goes beyond drugmakers and traditional TV advertising by also targeting ads on social media and digital platforms.

The measure directs Kennedy and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary to take actions to ensure transparency and accuracy in drug advertising, including by increasing the amount of information related to any product risks, officials said.

Yesterday, Israel conducted strikes on the Qatari capital city of Doha, allegedly targeting (and supposedly killing) key members of the Hamas leadership.

An unprovoked attack in direct violation of another nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Textbook breaking of international law.

This is not unusual. Israel's contempt for international law is nothing new and is far from under-reported.

The wrinkle is the response from world leaders, which has been somewhat chillier than you'd expect.

The attacks were roundly criticised by puppets the world over - Canada's Mark Carney, Britain's Keir Starmer, Australia's Albanese, France's Macron and more.

In her State of the Union address, EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen warned the EU should "consider our bilateral support" for Israel.

Even Donald Trump's White House distanced themselves from the plan, which is as close to a full repudiation as you'll get from that quarter.

Earlier in the week, the Spanish government announced they were closing their airspace and naval ports to any planes or boats carrying weapons to Israel.

Expressing anti-Israel sentiment is becoming more and more common on a political stage where support for Palestine was once purely the domain of Cuba, Venezuela and other designated "enemies" of The West.

Israel is responding by doubling down, unleashing further strikes - this time on Yemen - earlier today.

Rather than allowing French voters to select their next government, President Macron appointed another loyalist to the Hôtel Matignon just hours after receiving the resignation of Prime Minister François Bayrou.

Armed Services Minister Sébastien Lecornu has been appointed as the next prime minister of France, the third such appointment by President Macron over the past year, Le Figaro reports.

Previously a member of the centre-right Les Républicains, the neo-liberal Lecornu joined Macron's Renaissance faction in 2017 and has served in the cabinet of multiple prime ministers. He will become the fifth prime minister since President Macron was reelected for a second five-year term in 2022.

"An example that shows the radical devaluation of thought is the transformation of words in propaganda; there, language, the instrument of the mind, become 'pure sound,' a symbol directly evoking feelings and reflexes."

- Jacques Ellul, Propaganda

"A leader or an interest that can make itself master of current symbols is the master of the current situation."

- Walter Lippman, Public Opinion

Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was a non-teaching day for me. I was home in Massachusetts when the phone rang at 9 A.M. It was my daughter who lived and worked in New York City and was on a week's vacation with her future husband. "Turn on the TV," she said. "Why?" I asked. "Haven't you heard? A plane hit the World Trade Tower."

I turned the TV on and watched a plane crash into the Tower. I said, "They just showed a replay." She quickly corrected me, "No, that's another plane." And we talked as we watched in horror, learning that it was the South Tower this time.

Sitting next to my daughter was my future son-in-law; he had not had a day off from work in a year. He had finally taken a week's vacation so they could go to Cape Cod. He worked on the 100^th floor of the South Tower. By chance, he had escaped the death that claimed 176 of his co-workers. My father's good friend, retired from a NYC job and living in Pennsylvania, had a one-day-a-month consultancy job at the Twin Tower. Tuesday the 11^th was his day to die in the North Tower.

That was my introduction to the attacks.