Vanessa and I mark a rapid return into 2026, as we’ve witnessed the first three weeks come at full force starting with the attacks on Venezuela, taking us into the clear Zionist-led targeting of Iran. The global landscape looks dire and yet the veils are falling off, as this accelerated and coordinated U.S.-led campaign against nations comprising the Axis of Resistance and the remaining true, anti-imperialist bastions, nears completion. Coming to you from Lebanon and South America, we discuss the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro which was merely the opening salvo in a broader strategy, immediately followed by engineered riots in Iran—facilitated by tools like Starlink and resulting in significant civilian casualties—which is now culminating in a massive military buildup near Iran, involving multiple U.S. aircraft carriers poised for a potential sustained bombing campaign.
Beyond immediate military threats there’s a clear pattern of systemic destabilization, with tactical releases of ISIS elements in Syria and their transfer into Iraq as a deliberate strategy to weaponize terrorism against Iraqi resistance factions. Simultaneously, Vanessa notes escalating Israeli strikes in Lebanon and northeastern Syria, as efforts to “keep the resistance factions busy” and prevent a unified response ahead of a potential attack on Iran. This multi-front pressure is designed to stretch and weaken the network of allied states and movements simultaneously.
There’s also the question of a lack of action coming from major BRICS powers Russia and China, both who—not surprisingly to us but to the dismay of others—are staying clear of the conflicts (save strong verbiage) and are even negotiating with both the U.S. and Israel; effectively not providing a meaningful counterbalance. Instead Moscow and Beijing are acting as pragmatic transactional powers rather than ideological allies of the resistance—which is again what we have been trying to get other journalists and analysts to understand or admit, in an effort to see the Grand Chessboard more clearly, instead of cheerleading a tainted rose-colored hologram to their viewers. We provide more evidence of this from Russia’s muted responses to U.S. actions in Venezuela, to their own captured ships and men onboard, their desire to make deals with Washington in the Arctic, and their diplomatic overtures to Trump’s “Board of Peace”. There’s clear evidence of a desire for normalization that borders on naivete or perhaps the influence of 5th columnists within Moscow or both as I conclude. More importantly as there is a respect for the decisions of sovereign states, there is also an absence of a robust external counterforce, leaving vulnerable targets like Iran and Venezuela dangerously isolated for capture or massive infiltration.
For years now we’ve noted that peace cannot exist between Zionist Israel, which wishes to control and own the entirety of West Asia, and Palestine, Iran or any of its neighbors. There’s no viability to a two-state solution when one state seeks to eradicate an entire population—that’s equivalent to suggesting you can have a Nazi state exist next to one that is full of those they seek to eradicate. Therefore the newly formed “Board of Peace on Gaza,” championed by the Trump administration, international elements on the right, some Russian officials and online pundits, is anything but peaceful and is rather a Zionist-led board of war. The exclusion of Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Venezuela, Cuba, and others from this “peace board” is a clear indication signaling which states are marked for continued aggression or subjugation. The inclusion of figures like Jared Kushner and advisors linked to plans for Gaza’s “Dubaification” suggests that the board is an outright tool for imposing a U.S.-Zionist vision, potentially extending similar models of economic control and digital surveillance globally.
In other words, the Western empire as we know it is crumbling but in its crumbling it is transitioning into an international class of elites that is now less about states and more about transactions—the powerful are taking more and unfortunately winning. As this happens we note that they’re racing to gain as many resources as they can by going full-speed on their plans, because they can’t just get rid of us all so they need to divide, isolate, destroy. So while we do see for example, the U.S. in decline, inflation globally and especially in the West, we are seeing the direct targeting of the last bastions actually opposing hegemony. One by one, each is being persecuted and the reality is this is not coincidental but long-planned and intentional. Instead of opposing these evil actions, many great world powers are simply shifting to the multipolar new world order, which is more powerful seats at a global table but the lives of the majority of the people in these countries are still declining. Wars make profit and we currently have lots of that going on, but not for the vast majority of people to reap.
Despite our very real and grim assessment, we ended on a note of cautious, long-term optimism rooted in the resilience of grassroots resistance and the potential for overextension by the aggressors. We do acknowledge the growing awareness among global publics, including those of you reading this (we do truly appreciate you), regarding the realities of multipolarity and transactional capitalism. The inherent difficulty of physically annihilating determined resistance movements, coupled with the breakneck speed and breadth of the current offensive, leads us to conclude that the U.S.-led alliance may be overreaching, creating vulnerabilities and fostering greater unity among those under attack.
Ultimately, the early weeks of 2026 have intensified a clash between a hegemonic project seeking to consolidate control over resources and strategic geography, and a disparate but enduring force of resistance. Their intent is clear: target, divide and destroy. The solution we must gather is then unity. We need a greater humility among one another and strategic unity among targeted states, rather than complacency or the arrogant belief that any nation is “too big to fall.” As the situation develops, we will see what each of these nations chooses to do, but we are and have entered the age of normalization. One key litmus test for Venezuela is whether it continues vital oil shipments to Cuba, which will reveal its true depth of solidarity and future trajectory. There’s very few remaining states built on true resistance against neocolonial powers, but those that remain should work together as they’re being attacked by the same evil and it will take a solid, united front to defeat what’s coming.
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