MIDDLE EAST - Iran and Saudi Arabia are preparing to reopen their respective embassies in Tehran and Riyadh, and will re-establish full diplomatic ties, an Iranian lawmaker has said. Relations between the two major regional powers are “being revived” and the embassies are “preparing to open,” Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy tweeted on Saturday. “This has important implications on reducing regional tensions and increasing cohesion of the Muslim world,” he added. He ended by calling on media and security agencies around the world to beware the “depravity of Zionists” and “stupidity of extremists.”

USA - A tsunami warning was put into effect for the US West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii on Saturday, after a volcano erupted in the South Pacific near the island of Tonga. Videos of the ensuant flooding have been posted on social media. Officials in California told those near coastal areas to move to higher ground, although they said the waves were not expected to reach more than two feet. Residents were warned that “pulses of surging water” could be just as dangerous as high waves, however. Although there was none of the kind of major damage in the US that tsunamis usually create, footage posted online showed flooding in Santa Cruz and Sacramento, and the effect on beachside businesses. The US tsunami warning was issued for not only the entire California coast, but also parts of Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington.

JAPAN - A tsunami warning has been issued for Japan's entire east coast, as well as the southern Amami island and the Takara island chain. A tsunami triggered by the undersea volcanic eruption has already hit the Pacific nation of Tonga and prompted multiple other nations to issue warnings, including the United States and Japan. The eruption was so big it was seen from space. Residents were warned to evacuate from coastal and riverside areas and seek higher ground for the early hours of Sunday, January 16, with waves expected to reach as high as three meters.

SYRIA - Syria’s inclusion in the Belt and Road Initiative is the final act in a long saga against American imperialism that shows how China and Russia can effectively counter US intervention in the future. Damascus officially joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Wednesday, which will provide a massive lifeline to the country that has been torn to shreds after more than a decade of war and Western sanctions. But more than this, this development has set a precedent that will fundamentally change the geopolitical landscape. This is because the decade-spanning Syrian conflict has hosted several proxy conflicts, which has invariably left the United States and its Western allies the losers.

GERMANY - The new German Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz may have been groomed as a Stasi agent, according to explosive new charges from Germany’s former top spy. Renowned Stasi expert Hubertus Knabe documented Scholz’s intimate involvement with the East German communist party in a recent Dossier. Scholz was vice-chair of the Young Socialists 1982 to 1988 and opposed Reagan’s arms build-up in response to the Soviet Union’s deployment of mid-range SS-20 nukes. West Germany was faced with a “right-wing shift” which would mean “complete submission under the US imperialist strategy of global offensives,” Scholz wrote in the Magazine for Socialist Politics and Economics 1982.

USA - Prices are rising at levels not seen for 40 years. Pile that on top of the pandemic, racial tensions, and bitter political divisions, and America could be in for a lot of social unrest. Even as the US reels under the assault of the Omicron variant that has pushed Covid cases to record levels, Americans aren’t worried so much about their health as they are about their pocketbooks, as inflation surges. A December survey of voters revealed that 68% of Americans mentioned the economy as one of their top concerns, while only 37% named Covid.

USA - Slavoj Zizek, the “most dangerous philosopher in the West,” joined Tara Reade on her RT podcast ‘The Politics of Survival’ to discuss the censorship that is currently growing and happening on both sides of the political aisle. New forms of “de facto censorship” are appearing today, Zizek told Reade during their wide-ranging conversation, and much of it is beginning to come from liberals, who are introducing an “even worse censorship” hidden under the guise of “progressive” politics.

GERMANY - “Germany is home to outstanding aerospace expertise and innovation and we look forward to expanding our partnerships locally for Germany’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler fleet,” said Dr Michael Haidinger, president of Boeing Germany, Central and Eastern Europe, Benelux and the Nordics. “With this partner expansion strategy, we are laying the foundation for new business opportunities for German industry champions, high-skilled new jobs and long-term economic growth.” With the lowest operating costs of all US tactical aircraft in production ($19,500 USD / €17,000 per flight hour, source: US DoD Special Acquisition Report), combined with low procurement costs, the Super Hornet saves billions of dollars/Euros over its entire service life of +10,000 flight hours. This makes the Super Hornet the most cost-effective solution for the German Luftwaffe.

USA - Another 1,000 military health workers are deploying to six US states to help hospitals overwhelmed by a surge in Omicron-related COVID-19 cases, the White House said on Thursday. The teams of between seven and 25 military doctors, nurses and other personnel will begin arriving in Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island next week to support emergency rooms and allow hospital staff to continue with other care, a White House official said. "The number one request continues to be staffing," Criswell told CNN, adding that other states would likely need reinforcements of military and other federal doctors and nurses to help with COVID-19 and other care as the Omicron wave envelops the country.

UK - Buckingham Palace has announced that Prince Andrew’s “military affiliations and Royal patronages” have been returned to Queen Elizabeth as he faces a civil lawsuit in the US linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The announcement was made by the palace in a brief statement on Thursday. “With The Queen’s approval and agreement, The Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen,” the statement reads. “The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.” Earlier on Thursday, more than 150 military veterans petitioned the Queen to ask her to strip her son of his honorary military roles, and floated the idea of having him dishonorably discharged as well. “We are particularly upset and angry that Prince Andrew remains a member of the armed forces and continues to hold military titles, positions, and ranks, including that of Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy,” the veterans said in an open letter.

USA - Six-time New York Times bestselling investigative author Peter Schweizer’s past books have sparked an FBI investigation and exposed congressional insider trading. But Wednesday the nonpartisan investigator said the bombshell revelations contained in his upcoming book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win (HarperCollins) are the “scariest” in his quarter-century career. The book, which is slated for a January 25 release, was announced exclusively Wednesday by Politico Playbook and will reportedly “expose bad actors on both ends of the political spectrum and their willingness to do China’s bidding.” Schweizer’s statement that Red-Handed contains the “scariest” revelations of his career is eye-opening. His 2015 investigative blockbuster Clinton Cash launched an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Schweizer’s last two #1 New York Times bestsellers, Profile in Corruption and Secret Empires, exposed systemic corruption among the Washington elite.

NORWAY - One of the two cables in Norway’s remote, but vital, Svalbard Undersea Cable System suffered a ‘power outage’ last week. Operations at a crucial Arctic undersea fiber-optic cable providing a data link to polar-orbiting satellites have been disrupted since Friday, after its Norwegian owners identified a mysterious “fault in the power supply.” The affected cable is part of the remote Svalbard Undersea Cable System that connects the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Circle to mainland Norway. The two-cable system serves SvalSat park, the largest commercial ground station of its kind, with more than 100 satellite antennas.

GERMANY - Since the September election, two important announcements were made regarding future German activity in the region. In November, the chief of the German Navy, Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, said he would send vessels into the Indo-Pacific every two years with the intention of increasing cooperation with Japan, Australia and the US, and to advocate for peace, free navigation and maintenance of the rules-based international order in the South China Sea. The announcement came during a visit to Tokyo by the German frigate Bayern on its seven-month voyage through the region.

MIDDLE EAST - One of Beijing’s priorities for 2022 is to secure a free trade agreement with the Gulf states looking to diversify their interests beyond oil – sending a firm message to the US that its influence over these countries is waning. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, and the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) arrived in Beijing for a four-day visit aimed at strengthening economic ties with China. Top of the agenda is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the Gulf states and Beijing. Talks on this actually got under way back in 2004, but have stagnated. It’s now hoped they will find new momentum in a visit described by the Global Times as “unprecedented.” It comes just weeks after the United Arab Emirates dumped a deal to buy F-35 fighter jets from the United States following Washington’s attempt to make dropping use of Chinese telecommunications provider Huawei a condition of purchase.

USA - New Yorkers Raise Hell Over COVID Segregation In Nike Store, Whole Foods: “This is the same thing they did in Nazi Germany, everybody was ‘just doing their job’ until the holocaust happened”. The mainstream media and tyrannical government would have you believe that Americans are taking the COVID mandates lying down, but millions of patriots across the country are fighting back. In New York City, those who refused to comply with the mandate to receive two doses of a Covid vaccine were fired from their jobs and are barred from entering nearly every indoor venue. For many, standing up for freedom is worth more than their careers and navigating through financial uncertainty. In New York, 85 percent of the state, or 16,552,607 people, has received at least one dose and 72 percent of New York’s population, or 14,066,003 people, has been fully vaccinated, according to USA Facts. Many suspect the figures are inflated in an effort to persuade more people to cave in and vaccinate.