Journalists need crises to dramatize news, and government officials need to appear to be responding to crises. Too often, the crises are not really crises but joint fabrications. The two institutions have become so ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that the news media are unable to tell the public what is true and the government is unable to govern effectively.

That is the thesis advanced by Paul H Weaver, a former political scientist (at Harvard University), journalist (at Fortune magazine), and corporate communications executive (at Ford Motor Company), in his provocative analysis entitled News and the Culture of Lying: How Journalism Really Works. Journalists and politicians have become ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that misleads the public. [A version of this article appeared in the May–June 1995 issue of Harvard Business Review.]

The crown prince claimed “he will not deal with the US administration anymore,” the document says, promising “major economic consequences for Washington.” Eight months later, Biden has yet to impose consequences on the Arab country and Mohammed has continued to engage with top US officials, as he did with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the seaside Saudi city of Jiddah this week.

The dramatic changes in Saudi foreign policy come as Washington seeks Saudi help on some regional matters. Days before Blinken’s arrival, Saudi Arabia announced it would deepen oil production cuts in July on top of a broader OPEC Plus agreement to limit oil supply in an effort to raise prices — a move opposed by the Biden administration. “The administration has a big agenda for Blinken to work with the Saudis: Keeping the cease-fire in Yemen, getting one in Sudan, fighting ISIS, and above all keeping oil prices from rising out of control,” Riedel said.

The geographic space of Northeast Asia holds a unique position because it is the only region where China and Russia share a frontier with Japan. As Tokyo pushes itself towards American-supported remilitarisation, it has increasingly made itself an adversary of both Moscow and Beijing. Here, the two powers are working together against this resurgent US client.

The archipelago which makes up the territory of Japan is a critical outpost for American dominance over Asia, allowing for the projection of force directly onto the Eurasian continent targeting both China and Russia, as well as extending southwards into the critical “first island chain” along the continent’s eastern shores. Following the surrender of Japan to the US after World War II, America transformed the country into a vassal state to host its own forces amidst the emerging Cold War, establishing military bases on Japanese soil and using Japanese ports for US ships, including aircraft carriers.

However, as American priorities in Asia expand, the dynamic is changing. In addition to the existing US military presence, Washington has given Tokyo the green light to supersede its own constitutional limits and pursue a full-scale rearmament with a pledged long term increase of over 60% in defense spending. This, in turn, has been emboldened by military and historical revisionists for the Imperial era taking political ascendancy. With Japan being denialist and unapologetic of its WW2-era atrocities, the re-emergence of a nationalist and militarist Tokyo poses a threat to the entire region of Asia and raises the danger of an arms race against Russia and China.

Doug Casey: I hate to say that things like COVID or a rabid belief in anthropogenic climate change are parts of a conspiracy — although it often seems that way. I tend to discount conspiracies for a number of reasons. It seems more likely they’re mass hysterias — the type of thing that happened in Salem at the end of the 17th century, except on a gigantic scale. Versions of the kind of “group think” that captured a number of countries in the 20th century, as well.

In any event, what appears to be a war against agriculture on the part of “the elite” is both real and serious. People in power are anxious to control every aspect of the plebs’ lives, usually either for the supposed good of humanity or the planet itself. They believe there should be rules governing where the plebs live, what they can say and think, and even what they eat. The “elite” like to say farm animals are partly responsible for global warming by emitting methane.

But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe it’s a general belief, even among the plebs themselves, that the world’s population, composed mostly of useless eaters, is too high. The powers that be have said on any number of occasions that eight billion people is “too many” and that an optimal level would be less than a billion. No matter what a farmer produces, he can rely on lots of oversight from a regulator who is intent on justifying his existence.

“In recent decades, there has been an unexplained and alarming growth in the prevalence of chronic illnesses and health problems, especially in children. We’ve seen a stunning rise in autism, auto-immune disorders, obesity, infertility, serious allergies, and respiratory challenges. It is time to ask: What is going on?

Is it the food that they eat? The environment that we live in? The over-prescription of certain medications? Is it the toxins and chemicals that are present in our homes? Every year, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars to treat these chronic problems rather than looking at what is causing them in the first place.” — Donald J Trump

Leaked information from a videoconference revealed that European activists have been training new recruits in the US, teaching them strategies to raise funds, increase membership, and identify individuals willing to participate in aggressive protests and potentially violent riots. While these groups have successfully mobilized tens of thousands of protesters and caused substantial economic losses in Europe, it remains to be seen whether they can replicate the same scale of disruption in the US.

He also doubled down on his remarks by saying that he sees “more courage on this lawn than any time I’ve seen in the recent past.” It’s ironic that he, the Commander-in-Chief, would refer to gay and transgender Americans as the “some of the bravest and most inspiring people I’ve ever known,” instead of lauding the troops who literally put their lives on the line to fight and even die for this country.

“Every day that you’re alive and someone loves you is a miracle,” Jill Biden said, quoting feminist author Rita Brown. The true miracle would be if the White House could go a single day without playing the victim card in a pandering speech. The Democratic Party continuously seeks to capitalize on making minorities in America feel like persecuted victims instead of fellow US citizens that have equal rights and live in a free country.

Sheehan said that space was not the only warped dimension around the craft. 'He staggered back out after being in there a couple of minutes, and outside it was four hours later,' he said. 'There was all kinds of time distortion and space distortion.'

But Sheehan declined to give further details – including a location and date of the incident – and said he was unable to provide evidence for the claims. The lack of details, documents and photos are leading skeptics to dismiss as tall tales the stories of off-world UFOs stored by secret government programs.

Somehow the old proverb (spoken by Goldfinger to James Bond) comes to mind: “Mr. Bond, they have an old saying in Chicago: ‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action'.” Or at least something to ponder … and a wakeup call for us conservatives to be more cautious about swallowing up tales of the unknown than some of our heroes seem to be.

The "proof" never came, and those reporters who fell for the trap were discredited. Subsequent claims by qualified observers, such as pilots, radar operators, and the like, could then be lumped in with the discredited reports, using the tactic of guilt by association. The public would be deceived. The tactic of disinformation is always a potential threat to any honest reporter.

It seems that left-leaning news outlets are not reporting about UFOs as they did until recently. Some have suggested that the government is seeking to trap conservative reporters and commentators, to destroy their credibility, advising the others to steer clear. The saying made famous by the fictional X-Files TV show is that "the truth is out there." Indeed it is, but so are deceivers, and in great numbers.

It’s also unnerving economists and supply-chain experts. Just as the world’s delivery bottlenecks are easing, Panama’s drought and worrisome weather patterns elsewhere threaten to revive some of the chaos of 2021, when a surge in shipping costs and consumer demand resulted in shortages of goods, helping to drive US inflation to a four-decade high.

Making matters worse, an El Niño system is building in the western Pacific Ocean and is expected to upset normal weather patterns by the end of this year. While this can cause heavy rainfall in some regions, in Panama it typically means severe drought and higher than normal temperatures. Erick Córdoba, the head of the canal’s water department, in an interview said El Niño could mean a longer dry season for Panama in 2024, which would also affect water levels.