GERMANY - Germany’s Social Democrats backed formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel after a divisive party convention, marking a potential breakthrough toward her fourth term and an easing of political uncertainty in Europe’s biggest economy. A narrow majority of the 600 SPD delegates gathered in Bonn voted in favour of negotiations to renew the “grand coalition” with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union-led bloc. The ballot followed pleas by party and labour leaders to move forward with a joint policy outline reached on January 12, rather than walk away from government. “If we can achieve something good for people in this country, if we can achieve something good for the peoples of Europe, then we should do it,” SPD Chairman Martin Schulz said in his closing appeal before the ballot.
JORDAN - The US vice president has said that he and King Abdullah II of Jordan have “agreed to disagree” over the impact of the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Mike Pence met with the monarch in the Jordanian capital of Amman Sunday as part of his three-country Middle East tour. Speaking at a media conference, Abdullah told Pence that he looked to Washington to build “trust and confidence,” but added that Jordan viewed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “potential major source of instability” in the region. Pence said he wanted to maintain Jordan’s role as custodians of Jerusalem’s holy sites and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution. "We take no position on boundaries and final status. Those are subject to negotiation," Pence said.
USA - President Donald Trump continued to challenge Democrats for shutting down the government over amnesty demands for illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. “The Democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Not good!” Since the Government shutdown began on Saturday, the White House has repeatedly challenged Democrats for failing American citizens in favor of illegal immigrants. Trump added that Democrats were “powerless” to resist left-wing activists in their party. “Democrats have shut down our government in the interests of their far left base,” he wrote. “They don’t want to do it but are powerless!”
USA - In a desperate maneuver to deflect attacks, Silicon Valley is attempting to blame such attacks on the so-called ‘Alt-Right’, which they say is fueled by racists, neo-Nazis and Fascists, and lump all other critics in with these groups. This could not be further from the truth as rank-and-file conservatives from all walks of life are the real protestors against Silicon Valley over-reach. ⁃ TN Editor
USA - Parents of school-age children in Wisconsin are making their grievances known about the latest onslaught of racist curriculum to creep into the state’s public “education” system. According to reports, eighth-graders in West Bend, a northwest suburb of Milwaukee, are apparently now being taught that they’re bad people if their skin color is white, or if their families have two parents of the opposite sex who are still married.
UK - In January this year the Express ran a story that claimed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was calling for an EU army to defend Europe. The article itself had no real substantiation for the claims but nonetheless was picked up by several other news outlets as well as social media users. On the 10th February, the Express issued a correction, stating that the piece was based on their own interpretation of Merkel calling for ‘more responsibility’ as meaning increased military assets. They stated that they had been asked to issue a statement, and that the headline was misleading in suggesting that they were quoting Merkel directly.
SOUTH AFRICA - The City of Cape Town announced last week that the forecast date for ‘Day Zero’ has been brought forward by another week to 21 April 2018. What is most concerning about this revised date is that just one month ago (12 December 2017) the forecast date was May 18th. Thus, between 12 December and 9 January (28 days), the forecast Day Zero date was brought forward by a full 26 days. More simply put: for every day we march towards Day Zero, the forecast date is brought closer by a day. The latest date in April leaves the city with just 94 days before the taps run dry, and if last month’s trend continues, then a more realistic Day Zero date would be roughly March 5th – seven weeks from now.
CHILE - Pope Francis has triggered anger in Chile after accusing victims of a paedophile priest of slander. Francis said there was "no proof" for their claims that abuse by Father Fernando Karadima had been covered up by another man, Bishop Juan Barros. "There is not one single piece of proof against him (Bishop Barros). It is all slander. Is that clear?" the Pope said. One Karadima victim said the Pope's earlier plea for forgiveness over clerical sex abuse was "empty". The Pope made his comments on Thursday before celebrating Mass outside the city of Iquique in northern Chile. "The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk," the Pope told journalists.
USA - New research just published confirms what other studies have already shown: that the H1N1 swine flu vaccine actually made flu symptoms worse. This was widely reported in 2010 in Canada, after the flu season that year. The new research just published examined swine that received the H1N1 vaccine, and were subsequently exposed to a related strain of the same virus they were vaccinated for. The result: “enhanced pneumonia and disease after H1N1 infection.”
MIDDLE EAST - For decades, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has been touted by American leaders as a moderate man of peace. US leaders from George W Bush to Barack Obama, and from Condoleezza Rice to John Kerry, all insisted that Abbas is the Palestinian leader who will make an historic deal with Israel. President Donald Trump has met three times with Abbas since taking office.
ISRAEL - It began with a regular tour of the Temple Mount compound by a group of 42 Jews, which included rabbis and politicians. At some point, they ran into a provocation of local Arabs and Waqf officials, who got in their faces and verbally attacked the group, yelling the familiar pre-detonation slogan, “Allahu Akbar.”
SWEDEN - For the first time since World War II, Sweden is preparing to distribute a civil defense brochure to some 4.7 million households, warning them about the onset of war. What if the threat is not from Russia, but one that is domestic?
GERMANY - The chances are you have never heard of Kevin Kühnert. Until a couple of months ago, few had heard of him in his native Germany. But this weekend, the 28-year-old political novice could become the man who ends the career of Angela Merkel. Mr Kühnert is leading a grassroots rebellion in the centre-left Social Democrat Party (SPD) against joining a new coalition under Mrs Merkel. A party vote on the decision this Sunday that was expected to be a formality now looks too close to call. If Mr Kühnert wins, it will plunge Germany into political chaos. Mrs Merkel will have nowhere left to look for a majority and be left with a choice between new elections or trying to form a minority government. It could be the beginning of the end for the woman who has dominated German politics for more than 12 years.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz clashed over immigration in their first meeting Wednesday, with the seasoned German chancellor saying Vienna's resistance to sharing out refugees across the bloc was "wrong". Kurz, at 31 the world's youngest leader after forming a government with the far right last month, said following talks with Merkel that the debate about mandatory migrant quotas "took up too much space".
CHINA - The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times argued in a column Wednesday that the “Divided States of America” faces a growing identity crisis before the “increasingly confident Chinese people,” failing to note growing separatist movements and political dissidents within its own borders. The Times argues that alleged chaos in the United States is making it increasingly difficult for other countries to know how to conduct relations with the United States, while China’s authoritarian communist regime offers predictability.