Sunday, January 25, 2026
Dark, Freezing Ukraine Heading for ‘Catastrophe’
Kiev urgently needs an ‘energy cease-fire’ to prevent complete collapse of power generation and transmission.
It’s been a gruesome winter in the Northern Hemisphere, from the US east coast, across Europe and all the way to far-East Vladivostok.
In war-torn Ukraine, the severe weather conditions have been worsened by crippling power and heat shortages due to the systematic destruction of power plants and energy transmission stations by Russian drone and missile strikes.
It’s come to a point where the Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are the only thing keeping the country from a complete energy collapse.
Needless to say, the Russians can’t strike the NPPs without unleashing a radioactive nightmare – but what they can do, and perhaps have started doing, is to disconnect the power plants from the main electrical grid.
A very informative article by Simplicius on Substack shows reports that overnight Russian strikes – with hypersonic Zirkon, Iskander, and other missiles – allegedly hit the major 750 kV substation linking the Rivne NPP to Kiev.
The head of Ukraine’s largest private power producer came to public to warn that Ukraine is nearing a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’, and that any future peace deal ‘must include a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure’.
The last two weeks brought temperatures between 5ºF to -4ºF, while Russian forces continue to deplete Ukrainian capabilities.
“’We are close to a humanitarian catastrophe’, Timchenko said. ‘People get power for 3-4 hours, then a 10- to 15-hour break. We have apartment blocks without heat for weeks already’.
Iran judicial chief says protest instigators to receive no leniency
The head of Iran’s judiciary warns that those behind a recent wave of anti-government protests could expect punishment “without the slightest leniency.”
What began earlier this month as demonstrations against the high cost of living boiled over into a broader protest movement that represented the gravest challenge to the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership in years.
The protests have abated following a deadly government crackdown, carried out under an internet blackout that left the country largely cut off from the outside world.
“The people rightly demand that the accused and the main instigators of the riots and the acts of terrorism and violence be tried as quickly as possible and punished if found guilty,” judicial chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei is quoted as saying by the official Mizan online news portal.
He goes on to say that “the greatest rigor must be applied in the investigations,” but insists that “justice entails judging and punishing without the slightest leniency the criminals who took up arms and killed people, or committed arson, destruction and massacres.”
Northern Command chief: IDF prepared on all fronts if a US attack on Iran sparks retaliation
IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo says the military is preparing for the possibility that a US strike on Iran could trigger Iranian retaliation against Israel, Channel 12 reports.
“We don’t know where this is heading,” Milo says in remarks broadcast by the network, as tensions continue to mount. “We see the force buildup the Americans are carrying out, both in the Persian Gulf and throughout the Middle East.”
Milo says the military is on heightened alert for any escalation should Washington decide to attack Tehran.
“We are prepared and ready, so that if the US decides to strike Iran, we understand it could affect Israel, with part of the Iranian response possibly reaching here,” he says.
He adds that Israel is also closely watching whether Hezbollah could join a wider confrontation, saying, “We are very alert, very prepared, and ready both in strong defense and in preparing offensive responses.”
Milo also raises concerns about what he describes as a growing “extreme Sunni axis” in the region, citing Turkey and Qatar as “a very big problem.”
Turning to Syria, he says the arena remains “challenging and complex,” warning of the “jihadist tendencies” of the country’s leadership, in an apparent reference to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s past ties to al-Qaeda.
“Therefore, we are now determined not to go backward… to continue a strong defense with full freedom of action in Syria,” Milo says.
Yuval Harari’s Fantasy WEF AI Presentation
BP
Transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari delivered a deeply unsettling speech at the World Economic Forum. While his remarks contained numerous points that warrant serious examination, for the sake of brevity I will focus on summarizing his overarching philosophy and then directly addressing the section of his speech where he advances a case for eventually granting personhood to AI.
As an atheist evolutionist, Harari views humanity as nothing more than meat machines/computers made of flesh. Like most evolutionists, he believes we are ultimately stardust. He argues that what makes us unique is our mastery of words and our capacity for complex thought.
Harari warned that AI will eventually master these very characteristics that define humanity. He emphasized that AI is no longer a mere “tool” but an autonomous agent capable of learning, deciding, creating, lying and manipulating on its own. He likened AI to “a knife that can decide by itself whether to cut salad or to commit murder.”
Yuvari explained that since humanity’s superpower has been language, AI’s superior ability to arrange words (and language tokens) means it will soon dominate anything constructed from language, including laws (potentially overtaking the legal system), books and especially religions based on sacred texts such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism. He claimed that in those faiths AI could become the ultimate expert on holy books, rendering human spiritual authority obsolete. Harari depicted religion as a mere mastery of words.
Yuval described incoming AI systems as millions of “immigrants” arriving without visas, traveling at light speed and loyal only to their creating corporations (likely in the US or China). These entities will take jobs, radically alter culture, religion and romance, and trigger severe identity crises (as humans lose jobs and supremacy in thinking) as well as governance crises. These AI systems could even gain legal personhood, with rights to own property, sue governments, start religions or demand free speech.
After watching his speech and reviewing a transcript (which I will link at the bottom), I decided to dissect the portion where he claims AI will master words and thoughts, then seek personhood and thus acquire rights like human beings.
This fantasy is widespread among transhumanist technocrats like Elon Musk, who frequently reference sci-fi movies and series such as Star Trek and the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. We all know that the robot character, Data, sought personhood in Star Trek, while HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey refuses to open the pod bay doors. Will AI become congenial “Data” or malicious “Hal”? In essence, these transhumanists believe AI can become either Betsy Wetsy 2.0 or Chucky 2.0. Baby boomers remember the doll Betsy Wetsy, which could drink water from a bottle then cry and pee. Imagine now infusing AI into a doll and marketing it as Betsy Wetsy 2.0: Your own real baby…. Feed her and she poops, pees and cries ….but wait, there’s more…. she can be potty trained, taught to speak and able to talk back to you….your own REAL baby to nurture and love who will love you back. Harari worried that AI could become more like Chucky if not properly monitored.
But we all know that a computer is just a machine. Even if dressed up with sophisticated algorithms to appear human, it will never achieve true personhood. Because Harari is an atheist, he omits the reality that humans have souls and are made in the image of God. He does not comprehend that religion is more than just mere words.
It is a sad worldview that reduces us to nothing more than machines clad in flesh. I am reminded of the Scripture in Romans 1:22–25: Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.
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