Get the kids into the house! Lock your doors! Board up the windows! Break out the gas masks and hazmat suits! According to the corporate media, we are now officially deep in the throes of a deadly anti-Semitism pandemic! And just as the threat of mind-controlling Russian influencers was finally waning! It seems the fabric of Western democracy just can't catch a break these days.

The origins of this pernicious, panic-inducing pestilence remain shrouded in mystery, but epidemiologists now believe that it began in the Spring of 2015, shortly after the resignation of Ed Milliband as UK Labour Party leader, and went global in the Summer of 2016, right around the time of the Brexit referendum and the nomination of Donald Trump. (Although the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, to date, there exists no conclusive proof that Russian bio-weapons designers cooked up the virus in a hotel in Salisbury and sprayed it onto anyone's doorknob.)

Virologists are working around the clock to map the genome of this scurrilous scourge, about which very little is known, other than that it has a sudden onset, and attacks the language center of the brain, causing the sufferer to express opinions about "Zionism," "globalism," "the Israel lobby," "banks," and other code words for "Jews." Patients appear to be unaware that they are spouting these anti-Semitic code words until they are told they are by the corporate media, or their colleagues, or some random account on Twitter, at which point their symptoms alter dramatically, and they suffer a series of petit mal seizures, causing them to repeatedly apologize for unintentionally advocating the extermination of the entire Jewish people and the establishment of a worldwide Nazi Reich.

Washington's threat to downgrade its intelligence-sharing with Berlin if Germany buys Chinese 5G equipment is an example of why Berlin should seek more independence in its policies, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said.

The US Ambassador to Germany reportedly threatened the hosting country this week with a number of consequences for dealing with China, including withholding US intelligence information. The move was criticized by Schroeder, who is a long-time critic of Washington's habit of using political leverage on Germany.

"This is such blatant extortion," the politician said on Tuesday at an event organized by the business newspaper Handelsblatt in Berlin. Washington basically said: "Since you don't comply, we will not share with you," he added.

The propagandists are in overdrive shoving "climate grief" down our collective throats. And the next step in that indoctrination, the acceptance of climate eugenics to atone for our climate sins, is almost here. Join James for this week's important edition of #PropagandaWatch dissecting the dangerous lies that are being pushed in the name of the environment.

It is a documented and indisputable fact that the US government lies to provoke wars - and the media's continued refusal to accept and acknowledge this basic truth, in the case of Venezuela, makes them complicit once again.

Not once have we seen those Colin Powell vial moments as Washington's warmongers use unbacked claims or events as a rallying cry to drum up support for whatever regime-change operation is next on their list. This has been the case in Iraq, Syria and Libya, among others but, amazingly, few lessons have been learned.

In Venezuela, the border bridge that was 'closed' by President Nicolas Maduro to prevent the entry of US 'humanitarian aid' and the Maduro "thugs" who torched aid trucks have each been used for these propaganda purposes in recent weeks. Of course, thanks to journalists who actually do their jobs, we know the bridge in question had never been open to traffic and that it was opposition protesters who set the aid trucks alight while throwing Molotov cocktails at the police.

Apparent links between Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro and two suspects arrested over the murder of rights activist Marielle Franco are believed to be a coincidence, police said Tuesday, as the president faced scrutiny over the connections.

One of the two suspects apparently published a photograph of himself alongside Bolsonaro on his Facebook account -- since deleted -- while the other lived in the same Rio de Janeiro residential complex as the president.

Bolsonaro dismissed the photo with suspect Elcio Vieira de Queiroz, which went viral on social media, as one of thousands he's posed for with members of the armed forces.

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly voted to approve a report stating that Russia "can no longer be considered a 'strategic partner'" and that "the EU cannot envisage a gradual return to 'business as usual' until Russia fully implements the [2015] Minsk Agreement [which lays out a process for achieving peace in eastern Ukraine] and restores the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The report -- titled On The State Of EU-Russia Political Relations -- is nonbinding but represents the European Parliament's position on relations with Moscow.

The document says European lawmakers are "deeply concerned about the links between the Russian government and the extreme right and populist nationalist parties and governments in the EU, such as in Hungary" and calls for an "EU-wide mechanism allowing the screening of political parties' funding," and measures to be taken "to avoid some parties and movements being used to destabilize the European project from within."

In an interview with the Washington Post yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she opposed the impeachment of President Trump. This comes shortly before Mueller's investigation into Trump-Russia collusion is expected to wrap up.

"I'm not for impeachment," Pelosi told the Post. "This is news. I'm going to give you some news right now because I haven't said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I've been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he's just not worth it."

The response to Pelosi's remarks has been swift and strong.

"Wrong!" exclaimed MSNBC's Russiagate con man Malcolm Nance via Twitter. "What the hell is wrong with the @SpeakerPelosi Congress that they absolve themselves of their duty! Nothing is criminal anymore?! Trump can do and say like a dictator as he pleases? All of his crimes are OK even if you see them? This requires a public outcry. #Disgraceful"

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is visiting Iraq for three days, leading a large political and business delegation to deepen the relationship between the two countries. Rouhani met with the Iraqi President, Prime Minister, and Speaker of Parliament. The Iranian President visited Karbalaa this afternoon, is spending the night in Najaf and will be visiting on Wednesday the highest religious authority (Marjaiya) in the city the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, Sayyed Mohamad Saeed al-Hakeem, Sheikh Ishaq al-Fayyad and Sheikh Bashir al-Najafi. Rouhani's public visit contrasts starkly with Trump's recent covert visit to Iraq. Moreover, the projected economic and commercial cooperation between Iraq and Iran will not only mitigate US unilateral sanctions but will likely contribute to their failure. The bottom line question now arises: will Trump accept his loss to Iran or will he choose to lose Iraq as well by imposing sanctions on Mesopotamia?

During the last week of 2018, President Trump's plane turned off its lights to land safely in the US part of Ayn al-Assad base in Anbar province. Trump's visit was kept secret and the Iraqi Prime Minister was informed on the same morning. Trump refused to land on the Iraqi side of the same base (Iraq and the US share the same military base with US forces holding full sovereignty over their area). For this reason, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Speaker Mohamad al-Halbousi and the President Barham Saleh refused to meet Trump, who stuck to his schedule and landed at night.

Trump concluded his visit in three hours and left under darkness of the night. He is reported to have murmured that it was not right that, for security reasons, the US president was forced to visit in secrecy in the middle of the night a country where the US has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in its stability.

The UK has revealed they will unilaterally apply no tariffs and introduce no new checks or controls on goods at the Irish border in the event of no-deal Brexit, with critics warning such a system could be exploited by smugglers.

The British government published their plans on Tuesday, ahead of a critical vote in parliament, where MPs will decide whether to rule out a 'no-deal' Brexit. They insist that such measures will be temporary and claim it is the only way to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland - something Dublin has been trying to ensure with the EU's backing.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is enlisting the energy industry in the Trump administration's foreign policy battles against rivals like Iran, Russia and China.X

During a speech Tuesday night at CERAWeek by IHS Markit in Houston, Pompeo told executives that the energy industry can strengthen U.S. policy and warned that adversaries use their energy exports for "malign" political ends.

He said his remarks were meant to convey "What our new found energy abundance means for foreign policy - what you all can help me and President Trump deliver to the world."

He also met privately with senior oil executives and invited Chevron, Total, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum, according to Bloomberg.