China's senior-most general is accused of leaking information about the country's nuclear-weapons program to the U.S. and accepting bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to defense minister, said people familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations. The briefing—attended on Saturday morning by some of the military's highest-ranking officers—came just before China's Ministry of National Defense made the bombshell announcement of an investigation into Gen. Zhang Youxia, once considered Chinese leader Xi Jinping's most-trusted military ally. That statement gave few details beyond a probe of severe violations of party discipline and state laws.

A key Iranian military commander warned President Trump that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is ready to fight — "finger on the trigger" — if the U.S. attacks the Islamic regime. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour delivered the defiant remarks as U.S. warships headed toward Iran amid shocking reports that Iranian security forces, including Gen. Pakpour's Revolutionary Guard, killed or executed at least 40,000 anti-regime protesters on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 — a death toll much higher than international observers had originally feared.

Dozens of CEOs have called for the lowering of tensions in Minneapolis, Minnesota, pleading for a return to normalcy in the aftermath of anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti being fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent. The 60 business leaders called for cooperation between Mayor Jacob Frey, Governor Tim Walz, the Trump administration. The letter was published by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and signed by the CEOs of companies and organizations such as Target, UnitedHealth Group, U.S. Bancorp, Minnesota's professional sports teams, the Mayo Clinic, and Land O'Lakes, among others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an agreement on US security guarantees for his country is "100 percent ready" to be signed after talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi. Speaking at a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was ready to send the agreement to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification.

Two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the United States wrapped up Saturday with "constructive" discussions on "possible parameters" for ending the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Negotiators will return to the United Arab Emirates for the next round on Feb. 1, according to a U.S. official who described the meetings as upbeat and positive. The talks are the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington's push for progress to end Moscow's nearly 4-year-old invasion.

The word "actual" entered the English language in the early 14th century before the suffix "-ly" was added a hundred or so years later. Back then, "actually" meant "real and existing" as opposed to "in possibility". But recently it has taken on a second meaning: to highlight unexpectedness or to contrast with expectation. There is no greater purveyor of "actually" and its new meaning than Tucker Carlson. Tune into any one of his podcasts, interviews or speeches and the adverb's all-encompassing power is on full display. "Damn you, actually"; "He is evil, actually"; "Who is actually for open borders?"; "If there's one lesson in American politics, it's that people in charge lie, actually, they do!"

There's A Ghost In My House... The post Mark E Smith on the power of northern soul: “You never know the names” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

At WEF’s annual meeting last week, President Donald Trump said that the origin of the pandemic was tied to military operations. In the context of the military defending the US from CBRN […] The post Trump: Covid was a military operation first appeared on The Expose.

Los Angeles is full of glitz and glamour, but it's also full of nerds. Here's where those nerds go to eat and drink, according to our local nerd.