EUROPE - Scotland has established an investment center in Berlin, thereby reinforcing its economic ties to the EU and causing - with German support - new tension in Great Britain. According to critics, in its intended secession from the United Kingdom, for which it must establish economic security, the Scottish government is relying on German help.

USA - Using data from human "quality raters," Google hopes to teach its algorithms how to better spot offensive and often factually incorrect information. Google is undertaking a new effort to better identify content that is potentially upsetting or offensive to searchers. It hopes this will prevent such content from crowding out factual, accurate and trustworthy information in the top search results. “We’re explicitly avoiding the term ‘fake news,’ because we think it is too vague,” said Paul Haahr, one of Google’s senior engineers who is involved with search quality. “Demonstrably inaccurate information, however, we want to target.”

CHINA - China pledged to have a “firm response” if Japan further fans regional tensions and “threatens China’s sovereignty and security.” The statement comes after a Reuters report that Japan will send its largest warship to the disputed South China Sea. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing on Thursday that based on its own interests, Japan has recently been compromising stability in the South China Sea, “causing strong dissatisfaction and opposition from the Chinese people.” “If Japan persists in taking wrong actions, and even considers military interventions that threaten China’s sovereignty and security… then China will inevitably take firm responsive measures,” she said.

USA - The  US has increasing security concerns about China’s first overseas military base close to the hub of operations for US Africa Command in Djibouti, a US commander told Congress Thursday. Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer. Without getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh “and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location.” The Chinese base would be about four miles from the US base at Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign military installations.

USA - This may be the closest that we have been to war with North Korea since the original Korean War ended in 1953. The North Koreans are feverishly working to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that could strike the US mainland, and meanwhile Donald Trump has not moved from his position that North Korea will simply not be allowed to have ICBMs.

TURKEY - In addition to his customary invective against European governments for refusing to allow his ministers to rally Turkish expatriates behind him, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that the EU’s new ban on headscarves in the workplace would launch “a struggle between the cross and the crescent.” “Where is the liberty of religion? They have commenced a struggle between the cross and crescent. There is no other explanation than this. I am saying this clearly: Europe is heading toward the days just before World War II,” said Erdogan, as rendered by Hurriyet Daily News. In a tirade on Wednesday, Erdogan said the “spirit of fascism is roaming the streets of Europe,” comparing the treatment of Muslims to how the Nazis treated Jews.

Also speaking on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu predicted that “holy wars” would soon begin in Europe.

USA - Infamous globalist George Soros’s shady funding of radical leftists around the world may have finally caught up with him, as Congress announce a “full investigation” of his affairs, starting with his attempt to install leftist regimes in Eastern Europe with the help of US taxpayer’s money. 

EUROPE - Anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders may have fallen short in this week's election in the Netherlands, but his views were shared by all the Dutch parties and are pushing Europe towards "wars of religion", Turkey's foreign minister said on Thursday.

USA - A Patriot missile - usually priced at about $3 million (£2.5 million) - was used to shoot down a small quadcopter drone, according to a US general. The strike was made by a US ally, General David Perkins told a military symposium. "That quadcopter that cost 200 bucks from Amazon.com did not stand a chance against a Patriot," he said. Patriots are radar-targeted weapons more commonly used to shoot down enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles. However, General Perkins suggested deploying large surface-to-air missiles as a defence was probably not economically wise. The missiles themselves travel at five times the speed of sound, whereas a quadcopter drone typically has a top speed of 50mph (80km/h).

USA - Texas is the eighth state this year to introduce legislation that would protect teachers who present science, including evolution, as a debatable theory. Critics contend these bills are a way to open the door to religion in the classroom. The Lone Star State joins Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma and South Dakota as states that have proposed so-called academic freedom or “teach the controversy” bills, which allow public school teachers to include “opposing points of view or beliefs” when teaching scientific topics like global warming, evolution and the origins of life. The Supreme Court banned the teaching of creationism in science classes in a 1987 decision, ruling that teaching that a supreme being created humankind endorses religion.

USA - On Wednesday, the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling ended, and so now the federal government is not going to be able to go into any more debt until the debt ceiling is raised.  For the moment, the Trump administration can implement “emergency measures” to stay under the debt limit, but it won’t be too long before we get to a major crisis point because the federal government is quickly running out of cash. 

USA - If you find yourself torn between cravings and ethical concerns every time you tuck into a chicken nugget, there might soon be a way you can have your meat and eat it too. Memphis Meats has just served up chicken and duck meat cultivated in a lab from poultry cells, meaning no animals were harmed in the making of the meal.

EUROPE - Paul Nuttall has launched a scathing attack on the European Union, branding it a “political monster” ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Thousands are preparing to take to the streets of the Italian capital on March 25 to celebrate 60 years of the development which laid the foundations for the fundamentals of the bloc.

UK - Scientists have discovered that spiders gorge themselves on up to twice the total weight of animals that humans consume each year. The insatiable eight-legged predators munch through 800 million tonnes of insects every year. And while the squeamish might find the thought of a spider’s dietary habits a bit stomach-turning, scientists point out the arachnids are actually performing an important civic duty. Because without them, we would all be waist-deep in creepy-crawlies. More than 90 per cent of the spider diet is made up of insects and insect-like springtails. And researchers say by devouring several hundred million tonnes of these tiny pests every year, spiders play an essential role in keeping natural ecosystems in check.

EUROPE - The EU is facing an existential crisis and does not look like it will survive the massive political and financial challenges it is faced with. This has ramifications for investors in the EU itself and globally as the collapse of one of the world's largest trading blocs will badly impact already fragile global economic growth and increasingly "frothy" looking financial markets - particularly stock and bond markets.