USA - On Tuesday, D James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM) filed a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the charity navigation organization GuideStar, and Amazon for defamation, religious discrimination, and trafficking in falsehood. The SPLC listed DJKM as a "hate group," while GuideStar also categorized it in those terms, and Amazon kept the ministry off of its charity donation program, Amazon Smile.
USA - If one moment stands out as the clearest signal yet of US President Trump turning his back on supporters, it was his announcement this week to re-escalate American military intervention in Afghanistan. His signature campaign promise of putting “America First” and ending the folly of overseas wars launched by previous administrations was shredded on prime time television when he gave orders for thousands more US troops to be sent to Afghanistan.
ISRAEL - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner on Thursday as part of a US bid to find ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Speaking alongside Kushner before the start of their meeting at IDF Headquarters in the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said he believed peace was “within our reach.” “We have a lot of things to talk about. How to advance peace, stability and security in our region — prosperity too — and I think all of them are within our reach,” he said.
UK - Britain is to push for personal data to flow easily between the UK and the European Union (EU) without companies having to take on extra financial costs. In the latest of up to a dozen position papers over the future relationship between the UK and the continent, the British Government will later today propose the move it says will protect Britain’s £119 billion digital economy. The fifth position paper published by Brexit secretary David Davis will say the sector is reliant on the free flow of data ahead of the third round of Brexit negotiations in Brussels next week. It will add: “Any disruption to these cross-border data flows could be costly to both Britain and the EU." The document will set out plans for a "unique approach" to ensure continued close co-operation between public authorities, law enforcement agencies and data protection regulators in the UK and EU.
USA - In case you haven’t kept up with the increasing insanity of the intolerant Left in America, ESPN has pulled an Asian-American announcer named “Robert Lee” from a college football game because his name might have “triggered” fragile snowflakes who have been transformed into shivering blobs of lunacy by the Left’s relentless attack on logic and reason.
UK - A 3,700-year-old clay tablet has proven that the Babylonians developed trigonometry 1,500 years before the Greeks and were using a sophisticated method of mathematics which could change how we calculate today. However unlike today’s trigonometry, Babylonian mathematics used a base 60, or sexagesimal system, rather than the 10 which is used today. Because 60 is far easier to divide by three, experts studying the tablet, found that the calculations are far more accurate. “This is a rare example of the ancient world teaching us something new.”
VATICAN - In a rare appeal to his magisterial authority as the Roman pontiff, Pope Francis stated Thursday that the changes made to the Catholic liturgy by the Second Vatican Council are “irreversible.” In a lengthy discourse to a group of liturgical experts, the Pope said: “We can affirm with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible.” Francis was referring to the changes in Catholic rituals that included the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular languages, the priest facing the people, and a more active participation of the congregation. This is not the first time that Pope Francis has expressed his esteem for the 1970 liturgical reform.
GERMANY - Germany's central bank has moved £21.8 billion (€23.6 billion) worth of gold bars back to Frankfurt as the Eurozone continues to falter. The Bundesbank today announced it has shipped the last of the gold it had been storing at France's central bank, Banque de France. The lot of 53,780 bars, each weighing 27.5lbs, will now be kept in vaults beneath the bank's Frankfurt headquarters.
GERMANY - In the US, the dominance of high-ranking military officers over the government has been increased in the aftermath of a series of White House personnel changes, including the firing of Donald Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon following the fascist rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia. A similar process is underway in Germany, where the general staff is rearming and preparing once again to intervene actively in foreign and domestic affairs.
GERMANY - Germany enjoys high regard around the world. But with American power weakening and authoritarian powers rising, the country needs to abandon its military reluctance and finally lead in Europe. There was no violence at all in Germany in 1989. Instead, the East German state just gave up. It did so in part because the regime had lost confidence, and was no longer willing to use violence to stay in power. But it also gave up because it was inexorably drawn to West Germany. The attractions were clear: West Germany was peaceful and rich, open and generous, an integral part of a great Western, democratic alliance. Even from the very first days, unification seemed obvious: Why would anyone want anything else? And with amazing speed, it happened.
GERMANY - Following the discovery of a far-right group, involving army officers who planned terrorist acts and would then blame refugees, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced a review of the Bundeswehr and its traditions. She declared that the modern Bundeswehr had nothing in common with Hitler’s army and promised to rename barracks that bear the names of leading Nazi officers. Her proposal was criticised at the time by leading generals.
GERMANY - The German government is worried that Brexit will wreck the country's economy, a new report has revealed. Berlin's Finance Ministry fears the UK leaving the EU without a trade deal could plunge the Eurozone's biggest economy into crisis. Officials also raised fears about Donald Trump's protectionist trade policies and the emissions scandal ensnaring German carmakers.
GERMANY - She has a 15 to 20 point lead in the polls. She has a growing economy, falling unemployment, and personal approval ratings that are way off the charts, while her opponents are hopelessly split. There are plenty of things the markets are worrying about right now. But Angela Merkel losing power in Germany next month is not one of them.
GERMANY - The German right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Monday proposed that all migrants and refugees that have just arrived from North Africa be sent back and placed in asylum centers while their applications are reviewed. The AfD believes that refugees from African states should stay at asylum centers near their countries and that only those who are most vulnerable be accepted into Europe under the EU resettlement program.
GERMANY - Michael Theurer, who is standing for election to the Bundestag in the state elections this September, put the failure of the EU down to individual member states and promised to bring "truly European thinking" to Germany in order to revitalise the bloc from the outside.