Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone this week, and the issue of extending the vital New START nuclear treaty is now as good as settled.

The presidents gave their orders, setting the cogs of the bureaucratic behemoths in motion. And it seems like they'll make it in time - by February 5, when the treaty is officially set to expire. So, what's next? Nothing, really. Any excitement or hopes one might have for better relations between Russia and the US would be misplaced.

We should thank the new US administration for being so open and frank - when it comes to Russia, at least. Right after Biden's inauguration, his team announced that the US would seek to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) for five years, as set out in the initial document. And that will be the extent of any positive developments. Renewing this treaty will be an isolated case that will have no real impact on the generally antagonistic atmosphere. There are no plans for any kind of common agenda.

A family foundation linked to President Joe Biden's senior director for cyber policy on the White House National Security Council donated more than half a million dollars in recent years to the main pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington, according to public records.

The donations, first reported by David Corn of Mother Jones magazine, do not appear to pose a legal issue, but some current and former national security officials told NBC News they risk creating the possible appearance of bias in favor of Israel by a top American official. While Israel is a close American ally, it operates in its own interest and aggressively spies on the U.S., including using cyber capabilities, current and former officials say.

Other current and former officials disagreed, saying they do not think the donations pose a problem.

The lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, describes itself as a "bipartisan American organization that advocates for a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship." Most Republicans and many Democrats are closely allied with the group, while other Democrats are not.

The official, Anne Neuberger, recently was named senior director for cyber policy on the National Security Council. She spent the last decade at the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's digital spying arm, where she worked her way up the ranks to become head of a newly created cybersecurity directorate. Neuberger did not immediately respond to email and phone messages.

Former President Donald Trump met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and issued a statement that should provide a lot of hope to Republicans who are watching in horror and disbelief as the Biden administration issues executive order after executive order that attacks the very institutional foundations of this country.

The statement on Donald Trump's meeting reads as follows:

"The meeting between President Donald J. Trump and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was a very good and cordial one. They discussed many topics, number one of which was taking back the House in 2022. President Trump's popularity has never been stronger than it is today, and his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time."

"President Trump has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House. They worked very well together in the last election and picked up at least 15 seats when most predicted it would be the opposite. They will do so again, and the work has already started." - January 28, 2021

Notably, the press release, as reported by CBS News, refers to Donald Trump as the "President." Recently, Donald Trump opened up the Office of the Former President. As stated in that release:

"Today, the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, formally opened the Office of the Former President. The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump's correspondence, public statements, appearance, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump administration through advocacy organizing and public activism. President Trump will always and forever be a champion for the American People."

The latest presidential approval ratings show that Americans are already tired of Biden's broken promises on fighting the pandemic, the sagging economy and radical pipedreams.

Now, that Gallup has wisely bailed from the presidential polling business ahead of the Biden administration, the only game left in town is Rasmussen. The polling firm reports that the Biden presidency is already trending back downwards after a blip of a "honeymoon period" that was shorter than Rock Hudson's.

The polling firm Rasmussen reports:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, Sponsored by SLANTED from Sharyl Attkisson, for Wednesday shows that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden's job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 34% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 41% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7.

Just for context, Biden briefly was gaining traction and actually moving upwards from his extremely low entry approvals (lower than Trump's and much lower than Obama's), but a slew of executive orders, many of them controversial and quite radical, have begun to sink the Biden presidency's approval with Americans faster than even many analysts expected.

US climate envoy John Kerry reckons any energy workers laid off by President Joe Biden administration's environmental orders can simply "make solar panels" instead. His advice was ripped apart online.

Joe Biden's day-one axing of the Keystone XL pipeline project immediately killed 1,000 jobs and scuppered the pipeline company's plans to create 8,000 more this year. Republicans and energy industry spokespeople say his ban on new oil and gas permits - implemented by executive order on Wednesday - could cut a million more jobs by 2022.

With so many people's paychecks on the line, Biden's new climate envoy, John Kerry, was asked what he would say to oil and gas workers who are "seeing an end to their livelihoods."

China toughened its language towards Taiwan on Thursday (Jan. 28), warning after recent stepped-up military activities near the island that "independence means war" and that their armed forces were taking action to respond to provocation and foreign interference.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported multiple Chinese fighter jets and bombers entering Taiwan's southwestern air defense identification zone over the weekend, prompting concern in Washington.

China believes that Taiwan's democratically-elected government is moving the island towards a declaration of formal independence, though President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly said they are already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.

Asked at a monthly news briefing about the air forces' recent activities, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said Taiwan was an inseparable part of China.

"The military activities carried out by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the Taiwan Strait are necessary actions to address the current security situation in the Taiwan Strait and to safeguard national sovereignty and security," he said.

If the sudden popularity of the encrypted messenger Signal has seemed suspicious to you, you may be onto something - the app is at least partially funded through American foreign influence cutouts.

On January 4, WhatsApp announced sweeping changes to its privacy policies, affecting the vast bulk of its approximately two billion users globally.

The poorly explained rules were interpreted by many as proof that the messaging service was about to commence sharing users' private data, including their conversations, with parent company Facebook, and in response millions the world over began flocking to alternative messaging services that offered end-to-end encryption.

President Biden on Tuesday said that there will be enough vaccines for 300 million people by the end of summer as his administration is ramping up efforts to get vaccines in the arms of as many Americans as possible to rein in the deadly coronavirus.

"This will be one of the most difficult operational challenges we've ever undertaken as a nation. I've said that before, but I must say it again because we're going to do — we're going to do everything we can to get it done. But a lot of things can go wrong along the way," Biden said during a news conference Tuesday.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is looking to possibly enlist the help of Big Tech to help censor offending online voices after he and US Covid-19 czar Anthony Fauci were victimized by "evil" conspiracy theories.

"Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in really kind of evil theories about - did we create the pandemic, are we trying to profit from it? - and on and on," Gates said on Wednesday in a Reuters interview.

Gates, whose foundation has committed upward of $1.75 billion to help fight the global pandemic, questioned how many people believe such theories and said he hopes such discussion "goes away." But he noted that there are "millions of messages out there" targeting him and Fauci, and he hinted that censorship may be needed to combat them.

A draft law on dual citizenship submitted to the Ukrainian parliament calls for the limitation of rights for passport holders of so-called "aggressor countries" - a label that Kiev has been using to describe neighbor Russia.

At present, rules forbid Ukrainians from having the citizenship of another state, but they don't provide for any punishment for such a violation. Many people have taken advantage of this loophole to obtain foreign passports, including Russian ones. In 2020 alone, more than 400,000 Ukrainians were granted Russian citizenship.


In order to bring clarity to the situation, the ruling Servant of the People faction of President Volodymyr Zelensky has prepared a draft law on dual citizenship. According to MPs, it will allow foreign passport holders to embed themselves into Ukrainian life and become, or legally remain, part of the political process in the country, while maintaining their foreign allegiance.