End Times Headline News. January 18 2025

Trump's Inauguration Moved Indoors. Russia & Iran Sign 20-Year Defense, Energy Pact. Lavrov's warning to the West. WHO issues new warning. Bill Gates excited following his meeting with Trump

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Trump Orders Inauguration Moved Indoors Due To 'Dangerous Conditions'

"Is there a security threat other than extreme cold temperatures?"

In a post to Truth Social, Trump said that the weather forecast, including "the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows."

"There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don't want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way," Trump's post continued, adding "Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985."

Authorities Preparing For "Worst Case Scenarios" Ahead Of Trump Inauguration

Pilots scanning DC for "nuclear irregularities"...

Authorities in Washington DC are scanning for “nuclear irregularities” while the Secret Service preps for “worst case scenarios” as security preparations kick into high gear ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Trump will be sworn in for his second term in office on Monday, January 20th. A report by CBS News reveals how Department of Energy helicopters are flying in grid patterns around the city from only 150 feet in the air in order to “scan for radiological or nuclear irregularities.” Officials are attempting to map a “blueprint” of normal radiation readings over Washington in order to detect anything unusual like potential dirty bombs.

Several D.C.-Area Police Departments Say They Won’t Assist With Trump Inauguration Security: Report

Several Washington, D.C., metro-area police departments say they will not assist the capital city with security measures for President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

A disagreement over the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has led to around a half-dozen local law enforcement agencies declining to provide support for the high-security event—likely depriving the city of hundreds of additional officers. “I was just told that based on the current MOU, we will not be assisting Metro PD,” a spokesman for Maryland’s Montgomery County Police Department said regarding the decision. Joining Mongomery County are several other Maryland police departments, including those for Howard and Queen Anne’s Counties and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department.

Pence planning to attend Trump's inauguration, New York Times reports

Former US vice president Mike Pence is planning to attend US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing two people with knowledge of planning.

Pence, vice president during Trump's first administration, ran against the former president to be the Republican party's presidential nominee for last year's election

Biden considered pardoning Trump – NBC

The comments reportedly came after Trump won the 2024 election

Outgoing US President Joe Biden reportedly thought about pardoning his successor, Donald Trump, before leaving office, NBC News has reported, citing a White House source. Trump faced a flurry of federal felony charges levied by Biden’s Department of Justice in the run-up to the 2024 election, which he described as political persecution intended to prevent him from returning to office. Biden “privately mused” about the idea of pardoning Trump after his victory in the 2024 election as “a magnanimous move,” NBC reported on Friday, citing a person “directly familiar” with his comments who wished to remain anonymous.

Russia & Iran Sign 20-Year Defense, Energy Pact 3 Days Before Trump Inauguration

Putin says the allies are also working on linking national payment systems

President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran on Friday signed a 20-year pact between their countries at the Kremlin, just three days before Trump's inauguration. Dubbed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty, the Kremlin is hailing it as bringing relations with the Islamic Republic to a new level, enshrining the two countries' status as strategic partners. Putin hailed the "real breakthrough, creating conditions for the stable and sustainable development of Russia, Iran and the entire region."

Putin finds alternative destination for Russian gas instead of Europe

The head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, has found an alternative destination for Russian gas instead of Europe. This involves tens of billions of cubic meters per year, according to The Moscow Times.

At this stage, Moscow and Tehran are discussing technical issues related to plans for the export of Russian gas to the country. "As for the volumes of potential supplies, we believe that it should start with small volumes, up to 2 billion cubic meters," Putin said at a press conference following talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Overall, he noted, this could eventually reach up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year in supplies to Iran.

Sergei Lavrov's stark warning to the West

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a cautionary note to Western nations regarding Moscow's nuclear capabilities during an appearance on Rossiya-1’s ‘60 Minutes’ program, as reported by the Russian News Agency TASS.

Lavrov is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and was the latest leading Russian political figure to caution the country’s enemies about challenging the Kremlin's willingness to use nuclear weapons if the security of the Russian state is threatened. "We do not aim to escalate the risks of nuclear weapon usage as we strongly uphold the principle that there are no winners in a nuclear conflict," Lavrov said during his interview according to a translation of his remarks published by TASS.

Three Navalny lawyers sentenced to years in Russian penal colony for 'extremist activity'

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found guilty by a Russian court on Friday of belonging to an extremist group and sentenced to years in a penal colony.

Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev were arrested in October 2023 and added the following month to an official list of "terrorists and extremists". They were sentenced respectively to 3-1/2, 5 and 5-1/2 years after a trial held behind closed doors in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. "Vadim, Alexei and Igor are political prisoners and must be released immediately," Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late politician, posted on X.

REPORT: Putin Is Expecting a ‘Special Guest’ From the US for the 80th Anniversary of WW2’s Nazi Defeat on the May 9 ‘Victory Day’ Parade

In just three days, the wait will be over. Donald J. Trump will be sworn into office and will put his plan to work from minute one to Make America Great Again.

But, as the year moves on, there’ll be other momentous dates and celebrations – and one of the most relevant is bound to be the 80th-year celebration of the defeat of the German Nazis in WW2. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set preparations into motion for the annual ‘Victory Day’ military parade on May 9 – and the report now arises that he is expecting a special guest from the US, according to a Kremlin insider.

EU’s Kallas rules out lifting Russia sanctions

Hungary has refused to commit to renewing the Ukraine-related restrictions

There is no reason for the EU to drop its sanction “leverage” against Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said as Hungary’s potential veto looms over their extension. Brussels has imposed 15 rounds of restrictive measures against Moscow since the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022. Extending the sanctions past January 31, however, requires a unanimous vote by all EU member states. “We definitely need the sanctions in place. This is our leverage, and it would be very strange to give it away,” Kallas told reporters on Friday.

German FM blasts own govt over Ukraine aid

Berlin is not seen as a “driving force for peace” as it does not do enough for Kiev, Annalena Baerbock has claimed

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has lashed out at Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet over what she has called a lack of aid to Ukraine. She told Politico on Friday that the country’s leaders are so consumed by upcoming snap elections that they have started prioritizing national interests over “responsibility for securing Europe’s peace” and trust in the nation’s allies. Her rebuke came as Scholz allegedly expressed his opposition to a new military aid package to Ukraine, amounting to €3 billion ($3.1 billion). Der Spiegel reported last week that the chancellor deemed it unnecessary, believing that Kiev still had sufficient funds available from Berlin’s earlier contributions. Scholz also reportedly did not want to alienate voters ahead of the snap vote.

Romanian Presidential Election To Be Held AGAIN in May – Conservative Georgescu Still in the Lead – Globalists Impose Draconian Rules To Try to ‘Regulate’ Social Media

2024 was the ‘biggest electoral year of all time’, with votes taking place in more than a hundred countries.

Out of all these ballots, with the possible exception of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro sham re-election, the greatest electoral scandal of the year was the Romanian Presidential election. It proved that under the nefarious European Union Globalist players, an election can be scrapped if the ‘wrong’ candidate wins. Calin Georgescu is everything they fear: pro-family, pro-religion, against Euro-liberalism in its many forms, a skeptic of the ‘church of the Global Warming’, against NATO’s expansion to the east, against military aid to Ukraine…

German MEP calls Romania’s canceled elections the biggest scandal in EU history

“Votes stolen, election canceled, social media censored.” German MEP exposing top-level corruption in the EU & Romania.

South Korea Looks To Boost American Oil & Gas Purchases To Appease Trump

"Other countries are all talking about how they need to ease the growing trade deficit under the Trump administration..."

South Korea is looking at a plan to purchase more US oil and gas to diversify its energy sources, and also 'potentially head off the threat of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs,' Bloomberg reports. The possible move would be aimed at reducing the trade surplus with America, as well as improving the country's energy security, according to Thursday comments in Seoul from Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ahn Duk-geun. The country is also considering additional government support for companies so they can import more oil and gas from countries outside the Middle East.

CIA employee charged with leaking Israel's plan to attack Iran pleads guilty

ACIA employee accused of leaking classified information regarding Israel's October plans to attack Iran pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of willfully retaining and sharing national defense information, according to the US Department of Justice.

Asif William Rahman, who had been employed at the US intelligence agency since 2016, confessed to illegally downloading, printing, and distributing classified materials on multiple occasions, including several incidents in 2024. The FBI apprehended Rahman in Cambodia in November, later transferring him to federal court in Guam to face charges.

We weathered Trump before and will again, Iran's IRGC says

The spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards downplayed concerns in Tehran about incoming US President Donald Trump, who imposed heavy sanctions on Iran during his previous term.

"Some people express concern and attempt to alarm us over Trump’s return," Ramezan Sharif said on Friday. "We have faced and overcome every American president, all united in their hostility toward the Revolution. We endured Trump’s four-year term, and he, more than most, understands the strength of Iran." During his first term, Trump enacted a series of measures to weaken Iran’s economy and diminish its regional influence, particularly targeting its nuclear program. He withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. His policy became known as "maximum pressure."

On Iran, Trump team is keeping their cards close to their chest

The incoming administration of Donald Trump has revealed little about their policy toward Iran, with many in Washington debating the next moves on sanctions, the nuclear issue, and Tehran's broader role in global stability.

On Thursday, I had a brief encounter with Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Senator Marco Rubio, in the halls of the Senate Russell Building. When asked about the United States’ current sanctions on Iran, Rubio offered a succinct justification. “If Iran didn’t flow money to terrorist groups, there would be no sanctions,” he said, stressing his belief that the Iranian regime prioritizes its geopolitical ambitions over the welfare of its citizens. “I see no evidence that the regime spends the money they generate for the people of Iran,” he added.

Vitriol In Qatari Press Against Donald Trump During His First Term In Office: He Is 'Vulgar,' 'Insufferable,' A 'Nightmare' For The World, A More Horrifying Version Of Nazism

In the recent years, the Qatari press, both within Qatar and outside it, published many articles and cartoons vilifying U.S. President Donald Trump and condemning him, both as an individual and as a statesman.

This was especially noticeable during Trump's first term in office in 2017-2021. For example, during the 2020 presidential race and after he lost to Joe Biden, Qatari writers expressed satisfaction over his defeat and described him as "a nightmare weighing on the heart of the world," as a "vulgar" person who "lies constantly" and as an "insufferable" man who would have destroyed the U.S. political system. They also described him as "the main and official sponsor of all forms of terror everywhere" and as a new, "more horrifying version" of Nazism.

Government ministers vote in favor of approving hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas

24 cabinet members back agreement, which Netanyahu’s office says will enter into force on Sunday, while 2 members of ruling Likud party join far-right ministers in voting against

The full Israeli government voted early Saturday in favor of approving the hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas, after the security cabinet gave its blessing to the deal on Friday. The Prime Minister’s Office issued a brief statement after 1 a.m. confirming the government approved the deal after meeting for more than seven hours, which Hebrew media outlets reported 24 ministers voted in favor of and eight opposed. The statement added that the deal will enter into force on Sunday, when the first three Israeli hostages are to be freed. Thirty-three hostages are to be freed in the first, 42-day phase of the deal.

Abbas: PA ready to assume ‘full responsibility’ in Gaza Strip when ceasefire begins

President of Palestinian Authority, which isn’t a party to Israel-Hamas deal, said to issue 4-page document outlining the plans of his West Bank-based government for ruling Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that the PA is ready to assume “full responsibility” in post-war Gaza, in his first statement since mediators announced a hostage-ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday. The statement came as the PA reportedly issued a document outlining its plans for the Gaza Strip — without stating a role for Hamas — and sent a high-level delegation to Cairo to hammer out the fate of the enclave’s Rafah Border Crossing, which Israel has sought to keep out of the Palestinian Authority’s hands.

Palestinian Authority, Jenin Battalions sign truce following month of clashes - report

The Palestinian Authority (PA) signed a truce with the Jenin Battalions following over a month of fighting, a senior advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas told Al Arabiya on Friday.

PA security forces had been attempting to capture or kill Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in Jenin for the past month. The Jenin Battalions are composed of members of both organizations. Clashes between PA security forces and the Jenin Battalions led to the deaths of about 15 Palestinians, including eight civilians.

10 charged over Beirut port blast as probe resumes after Hezbollah accusations of bias

Investigation into 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Lebanon’s capital, restarts after 2-year hiatus

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast on Thursday, charging 10 people including security, customs, and military personnel, a judicial official said. The fresh charges come after a two-year hiatus in the investigation into the August 4, 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands, and devastated swathes of Lebanon’s capital. Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years.

Liberal government anti-oil and gas policies made Canada vulnerable to Trump: Poilievre

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blamed the Liberal government’s attack on the oil and gas sector for making Canada vulnerable to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

As 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports to America are just days away, Poilievre blames the Liberal government’s “radical ideology” for Canada’s weakened position ahead of imminent trade deal talks with the U.S. During a press conference about Poilievre’s proposed tax cuts for workers and producers, which he’d pay for by “slashing” corporate welfare, Poilievre noted that due to Liberal policies, Canada now heavily relies on the U.S. as its nearly sole customer for oil and gas.

Carney calls cops on journalists at cringy campaign launch

David Menzies and Sheila Gunn Reid react to Mark Carney's Liberal leadership bid kick off in Edmonton, where the police were called on independent journalists prior to Carney delivering a low-energy speech.

NEW: Trump Admin to Carry Out Large-Scale Immigration Raids in Chicago Next Week

The Trump Admin will carry out its first large-scale deportation operation in the ‘sanctuary city’ of Chicago next Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan vowed to prioritize the deportation of criminal aliens. Last month Mr. Homan spoke to a crowd in Chicago and was met with cheers and applause as he described how deportations were going to start right there in the Windy City. Tens of thousands of illegal aliens have flooded into Chicago over the past four years. Illegal immigrants are taking over homeless shelters and are even being housed at airports.

Mexico's Tijuana Declares Emergency In Anticipation Of Mass Deportations

“Once they are deported, they are guaranteed to be treated with dignity with full respect for their human rights...”

The city council in Tijuana, Mexico, a border city located 20 miles south of San Diego, unanimously passed an emergency declaration on Jan. 13 to allocate city funds for the anticipated arrival of deportees from the United States after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump made mass deportations an integral part of his campaign platform and said in November 2024 that he would declare a national emergency to carry them out. The council voted on the additional funds in a virtual meeting, the office announced in a statement on social media. Tijuana Mayor Ismael Burgueño said the city is working closely with Mexico’s federal government.

U.S. Government Awards Moderna $590 Million to Advance Bird Flu Vaccine Development

The United States government has allocated $590 million to Moderna to develop a vaccine for avian influenza, part of an initiative to address the increasing incidence of human infections.

This is in addition to the $176 million allocated last year for late-stage development and testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza. Moderna announced on Friday that the funds will expand clinical investigations for up to five additional pandemic influenza subtypes. Since 2022, Moderna’s revenues have been precipitously declining. This is because the market for the COVID-19 vaccine has stagnated, and the business has declared considerable cost reductions to maintain its cash reserve and avoid the necessity of raising additional capital.

WHO issues new warning over 'mystery' virus and demands key pandemic restrictions return

As HMPV – once thought to be a mystery virus – appears to sweep the globe , officials at the World Health Organisation have called for the return of three key Coronavirus pandemic restrictions

World Health Organisation bosses have demanded the reintroduction of three key coronavirus restrictions as “mystery” HMPV virus cases grow. Since the start of 2025, the Daily Star has been reporting on rising cases of what was at one point thought to be a mystery virus, but later turned out to be Human Metapneumovirus. But with Chinese hospitals still swamped, UK cases soaring and many other countries still struggling to deal with the issue, experts from the WHO have no issued new guidance on how to deal with it – and it very much has 2020 vibes to it.

Bill Gates expresses being "impressed" and "excited" following his meeting with Trump: "He showed significant interest in the topics I presented."

Musk warns of US bankruptcy

The tech billionaire is set to co-lead a new agency tasked with tackling budget inefficiency

The US is at risk of bankruptcy unless “major and immediate” action is taken to address government spending amid mounting federal debt, Elon Musk has warned. The SpaceX CEO and owner of X is slated to co-lead the upcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an agency tasked with reducing unnecessary federal expenditures once President-elect Donald Trump assumes office. Musk, who has previously raised concerns about the possibility of US bankruptcy, reiterated his warning in a post on X on Friday.

Trump’s Treasury nominee warns of US economic crisis

The middle class will face the largest tax hike in history unless cuts made during Trump’s first term are extended, Scott Bessent has said

The US is headed towards an economic crisis by year’s end, Scott Bessent, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, has warned. During his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, the former hedge fund manager predicted that the country would face a “gigantic” middle class tax increase in a few months unless it extends the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is set to expire at the end of 2025. The TCJA was a major tax reform law signed by Trump during his first term in office in December 2017. It reduced individual and corporate tax rates, nearly doubled the standard deduction, and introduced a 20% income deduction for small businesses. While corporate tax cuts were made permanent, individual provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Bank of England to Open “Digital Pound Lab”

The Bank of England announced yesterday that they will be launching a “digital pound lab” to “experiment” with different “use-cases” and set-ups of the UK’s planned Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

This signals the end of the “consultation and response phase” and the beginning of the “design phase”, according to the BoE’s website. This is the first real news on the digital currency front for some time. In fact, after an action-packed 2023 saw at least 135 of the world’s 197 nation states developing a digital currency, things have been eerily quiet on that front. Some nations – including Japan and Canada – have paused or even entirely scrapped CBDC development.

Capital One 'technical outage' leaves customers reporting issues with deposits for over 24 hours

Capital One customers have been struggling to make deposits since the banking service crashed Wednesday.

The bank revealed Friday that 'technical issues experienced by a third-party vendor' are to blame for the nationwide outage. 'Specifically, this has delayed processing of some transactions including direct deposits and Early Pay credit for direct deposits, as well as electronic payments and transfers (ACH),' Capital One shared in a statement. The vendor behind the outage is FIS Global, a provider of financial tech services to several major banks. Capital One's social media page states it is 'actively working with the vendor to resolve the issue and restore services, and apologize for the inconvenience.'

Hackers who breached AT&T’s systems may have handed criminals roadmap to FBI informants

Recent developments have emerged regarding a breach of AT&T’s systems that has raised significant concerns among federal law enforcement officials.

According to alarming information disclosed on Thursday, the hackers may have provided criminals with access to sensitive information that could endanger FBI informants, potentially compromising ongoing investigations and jeopardizing lives. Investigations indicate that the breach, which took place last year, likely resulted in the unauthorized acquisition of extensive call and text records associated with federal agents. This situation has prompted heightened anxiety regarding the safety of confidential informants, as reported by Bloomberg News.

WEF Director Backs UN's Pro-Censorship AI Watchdog, Praises France's AI Summit on Control, and Announces 2025 Focus on AI Governance

WEF to Push Global AI Governance Agenda Amid Rising Concerns Over Censorship and Surveillance.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting is coming up and top representatives of this unelected group gathering global elites are “coming out of the woodwork” once again, together with a predictable set of policy endorsements. Many of those policies are built on ideas that originate and were first publicly voiced at the Davos meetings, to then over time become formalized by top-level international institutions like the United Nations (UN), making it somewhat difficult to understand which is older – the chicken or the egg. Ahead of the start of this year’s summit, WEF Managing Director Mirek Dusek told a news conference that the 2025 WEF meeting will focus on “AI” – specifically around “AI governance” and how governments handle the technology.

Huge Fail: Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights

Six years after this UN Declaration was ratified, the field of NBIC (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno) science exploded, and with it, the lust for Transhumanism was set on fire.

NBIC was conceived by the National Science Foundation of the United States in a 2003 paper titled “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance,” authored by Mihail C. Roco and William Sims Bainbridge. Within a few short years, NBIC spread to every major university worldwide; private research facilities sprung up everywhere with foundation grants. Thereafter, science threw the UN’s Human Genome Declaration in the trash.

Supreme Court will decide if religious parents can opt their kids out of LGBT curriculum

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an important case regarding parental rights in education, specifically focusing on the ability of parents to opt their children out of certain curriculum content in a Maryland school district that they believe promotes LGBT ideology contrary to their religious beliefs.

The case, titled Mahmoud, Tamer, et al. v. Taylor, Thomas W., et al., centers on whether parents in Montgomery County Public Schools can exempt their children from lessons that include LGBT-related themes due to their religious objections. The Becket Fund, a nonprofit organization that advocates for religious liberty, is representing the parents in this legal matter and has a history of involvement in similar cases before the Supreme Court.

Christian religious liberty group warns LGBT art exhibit could advance normalization of pe***hilia

A Christian religious liberty group is warning that an ongoing photography exhibit at a Texas museum could lead to the normalization of pedophilia and abuse after authorities reportedly seized obscene images from the exhibit.

Police have reportedly removed four photographs from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth exhibit “Diaries of Home” by acclaimed photographer Sally Mann after a number of Republican officials alleged the exhibit was promoting child pornography, according to KERA, a National Public Radio-affiliated outlet in North Texas. A Fort Worth police spokesman confirmed to The Christian Post Wednesday that an investigation is underway but would not provide any further details. This post will be updated if any additional details are disclosed.

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