Masonic leaders say the Metropolitan Police’s new requirement is discriminatory
Freemasons have asked the UK High Court for an emergency injunction to block the Metropolitan Police’s new requirement that officers and staff must declare if they are members of Freemasonry or similar groups, according to media reports.
The policy is part of ongoing investigations into alleged masonic influence within the department.
The move seeks to halt enforcement of the rule while a full judicial review is prepared, the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) reportedly said on Monday.
UGLE, which represents Freemasonry in England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, has opposed the policy, arguing that classifying Freemasonry as a “declarable” association amounts to religious discrimination.
Under the policy introduced in December, officers and staff must disclose current or past membership in any organization that is “hierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other.”
In its court filing, UGLE said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley “is making up the law on the hoof” and accused the force of “whipping up conspiracy theories” about Freemasons’ influence.
UGLE grand secretary Adrian Marsh said the police decision to add Freemasonry to the force’s declarable association list was made without adequate consultation and risks impugning members’ integrity.
“There is a contradiction between the Met acceptance of our request for fuller consultation… but then refusing to suspend the decision pending the outcome of that consultation,” The Guardian quoted Marsh as saying.
He previously stated that there are 440 Freemasons among the Met’s 32,135 officers, asserting that it is “inconceivable” for this small number to exert any influence on the force.
The Metropolitan Police has said it will “robustly defend” the policy, which it views as part of efforts to restore public trust and confidence. A spokesperson said the changes were made to ensure there is “no opportunity for secret loyalties” to affect policing.
The requirement follows a recommendation from the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel, which examined police handling of the unsolved 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. The panel’s 2021 report said officers’ links to Freemasonry had been “a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust” during investigations and followed decades of inquiries that raised allegations of corruption.
As the US-led military bloc divides, a pro-war cabal has been shouting loudest but changing little
A year of anniversaries – and alarms
While 2025 marked 80 years since the end of the Second World War, in which up to 40 million people died, it seems that NATO members and executives are dangerously keen for a repeat. Senior bloc officials, generals, and EU political leaders repeatedly warned their publics to prepare for war with Russia – including the possibility of sacrificing their children, rationing civilian life, and accepting permanent militarization.
This surge in rhetoric came as the West polarized. US President Donald Trump’s diplomatic push for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine conflict exposed the division and democratic deficit in the EU as much as it revealed polarization in NATO led by a coalition pushing maximalist, war-ready messages.
Western Europe has produced no coherent strategy, only a noisy, megaphone diplomacy that spiked in inverse relationship to the group’s ability to actually influence the course of events.
The ‘coalition of the willing’
At the center of this shift was the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ – an informal grouping of NATO members, mostly from Western and Northern Europe, that positioned itself as the moral and military vanguard of confrontation with Russia.
It operates through political signaling and rhetoric. Its members talk more than they deploy, warn more than they plan, and issue ever-graver statements about existential threats while insisting they are independent of Washington for any actual military escalation.
As NATO, the EU, and individual member states found themselves increasingly misaligned in 2025, this group filled the vacuum with rhetoric – megaphone diplomacy and posturing substituting for strategy.
In December, Britain’s most senior military officer, Richard Knighton, publicly warned that citizens must be prepared to sacrifice their sons and daughters in a future war with Russia. The statement was not tied to any imminent threat or declared operational plan. Seriously.
Weeks earlier, France’s army chief, Fabien Mandon, delivered a similar message to local officials, declaring French people should be prepared to lose their sons in a war with Russia.
Warmonger-in-chief, the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte, has had an extraordinary year, demonstrating a sycophantism above and beyond duty. Rutte’s opportunism to call for sacrificing social benefits in order to hit that NATO 5% target is both unsurprising and sad. In December he announced that the people of Europe should be ready for a war akin to that fought by their grandparents (Rutte’s father lived in Indonesia, a Dutch colony, didn’t fight, and was interned by Japan).
This from the man whose obsequious posturing inured him to “Daddy” Trump, following the US president’s F-bomb-laden remarks over Middle East ceasefire failures.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a threat to European liberty greater than at any time since the 1940s, while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared that Europe faced its most dangerous moment since the war’s end.
What united these statements was not intelligence disclosures or new strategic realities, but timing.
Despite the intensity of its language, Western Europe’s war posture in 2025 was marked by limited material capacity and increasingly shrill statements. EU states struggled to meet existing weapons production goals, failed to force through a move to steal Russia’s assets frozen in the bloc, and remained dependent on US to put its money where their mouths were.
The shrill, ahistorical, war-hungry rhetoric was ratcheted up across the ‘coalition of the willing’ in the aftermath of a devastating corruption scandal involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle and the US move to suddenly launch a peace initiative that sidelined Western Europe in an extraordinary weekend of diplomacy.
On October 1, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen stated that Europe faces its most dangerous situation since WWII. You’d think she’d be more worried about the US taking Greenland and training her security forces on what an actual drone threat is and why warning of one when there is none is counterproductive.
The largely impotent European Commission, the very group that failed to steal Russia’s assets despite months of wrangling, got in on the act by issuing guidance for citizens to stockpile 72 hours’ worth of supplies in the event of war with Russia. Imagine we are back to “climb under the table” rhetoric.
Corruption scandals inside Ukraine further undermined confidence in the sustainability of prolonged escalation. Yet rather than prompting reassessment, the graft scandals and failures coincided with louder calls for sacrifice and confrontation.
War talk as political insurance
By mid-2025, escalation rhetoric had begun to serve a secondary function. As the Trump administration pushed diplomacy and signaled reluctance to bankroll an open-ended proxy war, parts of the European establishment appeared to hedge against peace itself.
Military Keynesianism – sustaining economic activity through defence spending – became an unspoken assumption. So did the political utility of external threat narratives, which helped deflect attention from economic stagnation, institutional weakness and leadership failures within the EU.
In this context, warnings of war did not reflect momentum toward conflict so much as anxiety about losing relevance if peace arrived on American terms.
The louder NATO and European leaders warned of war in 2025, the clearer it became that rhetoric was compensating for a lack of control. As Washington explored diplomatic exits and Moscow waited for concrete proposals, Western Europe’s most vocal hawks found themselves shouting from the sidelines.
In general, we can assume that NATO and the EU have a vested interest in war – they have bet on military Keynesianism to keep their ailing economies turning over, and fill the hole left by Trump’s refusal to pursue a war Biden sold to Brussels.
The closer to peace the Trump-led initiative can bring Ukraine and Russia, the more we should expect toxicity from NATO, the EU, and the ‘coalition of the willing’.
The investigation comes after a YouTuber claimed to have uncovered a massive Somali-run scam to steal taxpayer money
US federal agents kicked off a large-scale investigation in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday after a massive fraud scheme involving Somali-run childcare centers appeared to have been uncovered in a viral video, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
The probe follows an expose posted by YouTuber Nick Shirley last week, in which he visited facilities like the Quality Learing Center – notable for its misspelled sign – showing tinted windows and empty parking lots, but no children. He alleged that these centers have received millions in taxpayer dollars for non-existent services, saying his crew had uncovered over $110 million in fraud in just one day. The video caught the attention of US Vice President J.D. Vance and billionaire Elon Musk.
In response, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud,” posting videos of agents questioning business operators. FBI Director Kash Patel said resources had been “surged” to Minnesota, warning that these cases were just “the tip of a very large iceberg” and that perpetrators could face “denaturalization and deportation.”
DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites.
The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found. Under the leadership of @Sec_Noem, DHS is working to deliver results. pic.twitter.com/7XtRflv36b
A federal prosecutor estimated half or more of the $18 billion in federal funds sent to Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. The overwhelming majority of defendants in recent years have been of Somali descent, including in the ‘Feeding Our Future’ case, where $250 million were reportedly stolen through a COVID-19 food aid scam.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz has defended his administration, while lauding the state’s diverse makeup and large Somali community. Meanwhile, state officials have disputed Shirley’s findings, claiming the centers featured in his video had been inspected within the last six months with “no findings of fraud.”
However, conflicting reports have since emerged regarding the now infamous Quality Learing Center. State officials have told the media that the center was shut down last week, but the New York Post reported from the scene on Monday that it had suddenly been overrun by children. A local resident told the outlet that they had never seen kids go in there before, while an employee of the daycare center told the Post’s reporter to “get the f**k out of here.”
The US president has demanded that the militant group lay down arms
US President Donald Trump has warned Hamas of severe consequences if the Palestinian militant group doesn’t disarm within “a short period of time.” Trump made the remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in early October under Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which envisions Hamas disarming and Israel pulling out of Gaza.
”They’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said. “If they don’t disarm, as they agreed to… then there’ll be hell to pay for them,” he added.
Asked what the consequences would be for Hamas, Trump said “it would be horrible for them,” and suggested that nations in the Middle East and beyond that supported the ceasefire would “wipe out” the militant group.
Asked about whether Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza, Trump said it was “a separate subject” and claimed Israel “has lived up to the plan 100%.”
Hamas has maintained that it has a right to armed resistance, while saying it was ready to discuss “freezing or storing or laying down” arms during the truce.
On Monday, Hamas’ armed wing said the group remained committed to the ceasefire despite “repeated Israeli violations.” It reiterated, however, that it would not surrender its weapons “as long as the occupation remains.”
Hamas’ disarmament is a prerequisite for Phase Two of the peace plan, which would see a new governance entity installed in Gaza. Phase One, which includes the ceasefire, return of hostages, and humanitarian aid, is largely in effect.
Israel launched its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave in response to a surprise attack by Hamas in October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. The ensuing Israeli operations have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to the health authorities in Gaza.
The US president will be the first non-Israeli to receive the country’s highest civilian honor, breaking decades-old tradition
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to award the Israel Prize, the country’s highest civilian honor, to US President Donald Trump – the first time the accolade will be bestowed upon a non-Israeli or a sitting foreign head of state.
Speaking after a meeting at Trumpэs Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Netanyahu said the decision reflects “overwhelming sentiment” in Israel regarding the US president’s support for the nation. The announcement breaks a 72-year tradition of honoring Israeli citizens for excellence and follows Trump’s exclusion from the Nobel Peace Prize shortlist in October.
“President Trump has broken so many conventions,” Netanyahu remarked, adding that Israel had therefore decided to “break a convention, too.”
Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu and staunch supporter of Israel, called the award “surprising and very much appreciated.” While the Israel Prize typically requires recipients to be citizens or residents of Israel for at least three years before nomination, there is an exception for those who have made a “special contribution towards the Jewish people,” according to Jerusalem Post.
In October, Netanyahu lauded Trump as Israel’s “greatest friend ever” following Hamas’ release of the last 20 surviving hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks, as part of a Gaza peace deal facilitated by the US leader and his team.
Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, Trump claimed that “almost every hostage released was due to my efforts… none were released during the Biden administration.” However, 107 hostages were freed in 2023 while Joe Biden was president, with another 33 returned in early 2025 under a deal negotiated before the end of Biden’s term.
In various speeches and interviews, Trump has asserted that he has “stopped eight wars,” positioning himself as uniquely capable of imposing order on global conflicts through his personality and negotiating skills.
The strikes targeted an alleged weapons shipment arriving from the UAE for an Abu Dhabi-backed faction fighting for control of the country’s south
A Saudi-led coalition has carried out what it called a “limited airstrike” on a key seaport in Yemen, targeting an alleged weapons shipment intended for UAE-backed separatists.
In a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA on Tuesday, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen – a Saudi-led alliance formed to fight Houthi rebels in 2015 at the request of Yemen’s internationally recognized government – said the strike targeted weapons and combat vehicles unloaded from ships arriving from the UAE. The military supplies were allegedly bound for the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is seeking self-rule in the south.
According to the statement, two ships arrived from the UAE port of Fujairah over the weekend without government authorization and entered Mukalla – the only seaport in Yemen’s southern Hadramout governorate. The vessels allegedly disabled their tracking systems and unloaded large quantities of military equipment intended “to support the STC.” At the request of Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi, coalition air forces carried out a strike on the unloaded supplies early Tuesday, saying it caused no casualties or collateral damage.
An infographic titled “Saudi-led coalition launches ‘limited’ airstrike against 2 ships at Yemen’s Mukalla port” on December 30, 2025.
The STC separatists initially fought within the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen after the outbreak of civil war in 2014 but later pivoted toward seeking self-rule in the south.
Since 2022, they have controlled much of southern Yemen as part of a power-sharing arrangement and seized large swathes of territory, including in the strategically important Hadramout and Mahrah provinces, both of which border Saudi Arabia. The Houthis hold northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, having driven the Saudi-backed government south. Tuesday’s strike follows reports that Saudi Arabia has recently launched air attacks on separatist positions in Hadramout.
The UAE’s foreign ministry did not immediately comment. Alimi declared a 90-day state of emergency in Yemen, imposing a 72-hour air, sea, and land blockade, and canceled a security pact with the UAE after the strike. In a televised address, he ordered the STC to hand territory over to Saudi-backed forces, branded the separatist advance an “unacceptable rebellion,” and demanded that UAE forces withdraw from Yemen within 24 hours.
Saudi Arabia warned that the UAE’s backing of the separatists poses a “threat to the Kingdom’s national security, as well as to security and stability in Yemen and the wider region,” while urging Abu Dhabi to comply with Yemen’s demand to withdraw its forces.
#Statement | Pursuant to the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 25/12/2025 corresponding to 5/7/1447 regarding the Kingdom’s concerted efforts, working with the brotherly United Arab Emirates, to end and contain the escalatory steps taken by the Southern… pic.twitter.com/lTyU0gLgpf
Khaleda Zia, who was the country’s first female head of government, had been suffering from a prolonged illness
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia passed away at the age of 80 in a Dhaka hospital on Tuesday after battling prolonged health issues, her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said in a statement.
She was the South Asian nation’s first female prime minister, serving as the head of the government from 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006.
“I am deeply saddened and grief-stricken by her death,” Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh said. He added that Zia “represented an important chapter” in the history of Bangladesh.
“Despite political differences, her long political journey dedicated to national welfare, her people-oriented leadership, and her firm resolve always showed the way,” Yunus said.
Zia’s death was also mourned by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Besides serving as leader of the opposition twice, Zia was the country’s first lady from 1977 to 1981. Her husband Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh’s sixth president, was assassinated by members of the country’s army in 1981. A bitter rival of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Zia faced several corruption cases but was acquitted by the country’s Supreme Court.
Last week, her son Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the BNP, returned to Dhaka after nearly 17 years in exile. Rahman is projected to be a key contender in the country’s general elections, which are to be held in February.
On Monday, the National Citizen Party (NCP), which was born out of the protest movement that ousted Hasina last year, said it has formed an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami – an Islamist party. This has caused a rift in the NCP, which has positioned itself as a centrist, reformist alternative to the BNP and Hasina’s Awami League.
In recent days, Bangladesh has seen a wave of violence prompted by the murder of Sharif Osman Hadi, one of the most prominent leaders of the 2024 uprising, who was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka earlier this month.
Following his death, protesters took to the streets throughout the country, demanding the arrest of the assailants, chanting anti-India slogans, and rioting. Protesters attacked and set fire to the offices of two prominent newspapers.
The Pentagon has yet to unveil details of the first known land attack
President Donald Trump has stated that US forces destroyed a “big facility” along the shore of Venezuela, marking what appears to be the first known land strike by the US within the country.
On Friday, Trump first mentioned the US military action in an interview on WABC radio, saying, “We just knocked out… a big plant or big facility where the ships come from. So we hit them very hard.”
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Trump described the target as an “implementation” area allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said.
Details surrounding the operation remain scarce. The location of the facility, method of attack, inflicted damage, and possible casualties are all currently unknown. The Pentagon and US Southern Command have deferred questions to the White House, which has not yet issued a comment.
Trump has previously hinted that the US could launch land strikes inside Venezuela and has authorized covert CIA operations within the country as part of a broader effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. The US president refused to clarify whether the CIA was involved in the latest strike.
“I don’t want to say that,” Trump said. “I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was. But you know, it was along the shore.”
The Venezuelan government has yet to publicly acknowledge the purported attack. Caracas has repeatedly denied that it is involved in drug trafficking, saying the allegations are being fabricated to justify a regime-change operation.
The move follows months of escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela, with the US military hitting at least 30 alleged drug trafficking boats since early September, resulting in at least 107 deaths. The US has built up its military presence in the Caribbean, with 15,000 troops and several warships positioned in the region.
The US has also seized several tankers transporting Venezuelan oil in international waters, claiming the vessels were operating in violation of Washington’s unilateral sanctions. Authorities in Caracas have denounced the seizures as “piracy,” while accusing Trump of trying to gain control of the country’s oil reserves.
The US president has indicated he would support Israeli military action if Tehran rebuilds its nuclear program
President Donald Trump warned the US could carry out further military strikes against Iran if it attempts to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. He made the remarks to journalists alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday.
In June, the US and Israel carried out coordinated airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, claiming they were intended to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear program. Tehran has vehemently denied seeking nuclear weapons and condemned the strikes as unprovoked violations of its sovereignty. Iranian officials have stated that the damaged facilities will be rebuilt and uranium enrichment will continue.
“If it’s confirmed, they know the consequences, and the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time,” Trump said on Monday. “We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
The US president indicated he would “absolutely” support Israeli military action against Iran’s missile program, saying the US would act “immediately” against any nuclear advances.
.@POTUS on Iran: "I hope they're not trying to build up again, because if they are, we're going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup. So, I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I've been reading." pic.twitter.com/vcrqEQqA3J
“We know exactly where they’re going, what they’re doing, and I hope they’re not doing it, because we don’t want to waste the fuel on a B-2 – it’s a 37-hour trip both ways,” he added.
Trump noted it would be “much smarter” for Tehran to “make a deal” with Washington, claiming that Iran missed an opportunity “the last time, before we went through a big attack on them.”
Omani-mediated US-Iran negotiations were suspended earlier this year after Washington joined Israel’s 12-day bombing campaign. In October, the EU and UK reimposed sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal that the US withdrew from during Trump’s first term in office. Tehran has since said it is no longer bound by the 2015 agreement.
Iran has insisted it remains open to reaching a deal with the US, but only if Washington stops setting what Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously described as “impossible and unacceptable preconditions.”
Moscow has warned of a “non-diplomatic” response to Kiev’s act of “state terrorism”
The United Arab Emirates and Nicaragua have strongly condemned the attempted Ukrainian kamikaze drone attack targeting the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kiev launched 91 long-range strike drones at Putin’s state residence in Novgorod Region on the night of December 28-29, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. Russian officials said all the drones were intercepted, with no casualties or damage reported.
In a statement released on Monday evening, the UAE Foreign Ministry expressed solidarity with President Putin and the people of Russia, reaffirming Abu Dhabi’s “unwavering rejection of all forms of violence.”
“The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the attempt to target the residence of His Excellency Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and denounced this deplorable attack and the threat it poses to security and stability,” the ministry said.
The co-presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, sent a letter to Putin, expressing their “most active solidarity in the face of the terrorist attack by Ukraine.”
“It is only logical that fascism behaves in this way, attempting to nullify the strength of the conversations that seek to bring peace closer,” they wrote, as cited by El 19 Digital.
Moscow has warned that its response to the attack will not be diplomatic and that targets for retaliatory strikes have been determined. Foreign Minister Lavrov stated Russia’s negotiating position will be revised in light of what it calls Kiev’s “reckless actions” and “state terrorism.”
US President Donald Trump reportedly expressed “shock” and “outrage” during a phone call with Putin, stating he was grateful the US had not provided Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has denied any involvement in the attack, accusing Moscow of fabricating the incident.
Russian lawmakers have uniformly condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism” and a deliberate attempt to disrupt ongoing peace negotiations between Russia and the United States. Some officials have called for decisive retaliation, including strikes against Ukrainian government buildings.
