JAPAN - Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbor. Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead on its US ally to take the fight to its enemies. But the growing threat posed by Pyongyang, including Monday's simultaneous launch of four rockets, is adding weight to an argument that aiming for the archer rather than his arrows is a more effective defense.
USA - Secretary of Defence James Mattis said the US "remains steadfast in its commitment" to the defence of its allies.
Donald Trump is reportedly planning to send nuclear bombers to the Korean peninsula as tensions in the region reach breaking point.
North Korea and the US have been teetering on the brink of war for months after Kim Jong-un carried out a series of controversial missile launches. Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan. Now US military chiefs are reportedly planning to fly in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show America has had enough, according to the Korea Times.
UK - Stephen Hawking has warned that technology needs to be controlled in order to prevent it from destroying the human race. The world-renowned physicist, who has spoken out about the dangers of artificial intelligence in the past, believes we need to establish a way of identifying threats quickly, before they have a chance to escalate. “Since civilisation began, aggression has been useful inasmuch as it has definite survival advantages,” he told The Times. “It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war. We need to control this inherited instinct by our logic and reason.” He suggests that “some form of world government” could be ideal for the job, but would itself create more problems.
EUROPE - "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied," they use to say in days of the Soviet Union. Today, the same is apparently true for the European Union. After years of official denials, the EU has announced its plans to build a unified military command in the Belgian city of Brussels — a move set to take NATO’s European partners away from the existing transatlantic alliance. Germany’s state-run ARD broadcaster called it an “attempt to transform European Union into a real defense union”.
EUROPE - Plans for an EU nuclear weapons arsenal under the control of Brussels were branded "insanity" by a senior Tory MP today. Under the idea being discussed by European politicians, the missiles would be located around the continent and overseen by a command centre appointed by Eurocrats.
AFRICA - Famine killed nearly 75 million people in the 20th century, but had virtually disappeared in recent decades. Now, suddenly, it is back. In late February a famine was declared in South Sudan, and warnings of famine have also recently been issued for Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen.
UNITED NATIONS - Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, an occasion for celebrating what is unique about women’s contribution to society: their irreplaceable role as mothers, homemakers, educators, nurses - in short, all the person-centred and nurturing activity that they typically excel at and with which they increasingly transform other professions and society at large.
USA - Yes, the government can use your phone, your computer and even potentially your television to spy on what you are doing inside your own home. On Tuesday, Wikileaks released thousands of documents that prove what virtually every “conspiracy theorist” in America has been saying for years about government spying.
USA - The Trump administration has informed Planned Parenthood it will have to quit performing abortions in order to keep its federal taxpayer funding. “As I said throughout the campaign, I am pro-life and I am deeply committed to investing in women’s health and plan to significantly increase federal funding in support of nonabortion services such as cancer screenings,” Trump reportedly said in a statement to the Times. “Polling shows the majority of Americans oppose public funding for abortion, even those who identify as pro-choice. There is an opportunity for organizations to continue the important work they do in support of women’s health, while not providing abortion services.”
CHINA - New analysis by the Financial Times shows China's banking system has overtaken the eurozone to become the world’s biggest by assets. The status reflects the country’s increasing global influence and its reliance on growth driven by debt. According to FT, China’s GDP surpassed the EU’s in 2011 at market exchange rates, but its banking system did not take over the top spot until the end of last year. That lag was fuelled by an extraordinary increase in bank lending since 2008 when the Chinese government unleashed aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus to soften the impact of the global crisis.Statistics show Chinese bank assets hit $33 trillion at the end of 2016, versus $31 trillion for the eurozone. US assets stood at $16 trillion and the Japanese at $7 trillion.
SOUTH AMERICA - The ninth largest economy in the entire world is currently experiencing “its longest and deepest recession in recorded history”, and in a country right next door people are being encouraged to label their trash so that the thousands upon thousands of desperately hungry people that are digging through trash bins on the streets can find discarded food more easily. Of course the two nations that I am talking about are Brazil and Venezuela.
USA - It is simply a matter of time before a major earthquake hits Southern California, according to a new study by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which examined patterns of historic quakes. The only question is how long it will be before the ‘Big One’ strikes. The study – the most extensive of its kind – examined a section of the San Andreas fault that runs along Interstate 5, near Frazier Mountain in northeast Kern County.
USA - Hail to the herd! The herd is all! The concept of herd immunity (protection for the population) is often used by vaccine addicts as a way to push guilt at people who don’t line up their children for shots. “Your unvaccinated child is a danger to my vaccinated child!” Excuse me? Protecting children who are already vaccinated? Really? Little Jimmy, whose parents have decided not to vaccinate him, will pass diseases on to kids who are already vaccinated? What? Oh, you mean those immunized kids aren’t really safe? Then why did you vaccinate them in the first place?
USA - An army of subversives is attempting to undermine the Trump administration from within the government, and at the same time a whole host of prominent leftist leaders are fueling the flames of hate against Trump and are promoting riots, civil uprisings and in some cases even violence. And of course the mainstream media is a more than willing accomplice, because pretty much everyone that works in the mainstream media absolutely hates Donald Trump.
USA - The United States federal government in Washington is under attack today. Our nation’s capital is presently under siege, not from military bombs or rockets fired by any foreign enemy but from powerful enemies within.