UK - Gluten-free diets have taken off rapidly in the past few years. But new research suggests those choosing to follow the trend are exposed to high levels of two toxic metals. Those going gluten-free have double the amount of arsenic - a known cause of cancer - in their body, scientists found. While traces of mercury - another deadly chemical - are almost 70 per cent greater, experts claim. Study author Dr Maria Argos said: 'These results indicate that there could be unintended consequences of eating a gluten-free diet.' However, she added that further research is needed to determine the health effects of consuming both metals.

RUSSIA - Russia won’t give Crimea back to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to White House comments that Donald Trump expects Moscow to “return” the peninsular. “We don’t return our territories. Crimea is a territory of the Russian Federation,” Zakharova said at a weekly news briefing on current foreign policy issues. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that US President Donald Trump has been tough on Russia and expects Moscow to “return” Crimea to Ukraine. “President Trump has made it very clear that he expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea,” Spicer said. “At the same time, he fully expects to – and wants to – get along with Russia.”

USA - It has been a tireless first three weeks for the Trump Administration; the president’s team continues to be hit from all sides, including federal judges who seek to disrupt the new status quo. But that streak has just ended. Vessel News reports that the 7th US Circuit of Appeals in Chicago has now ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, as well as local law enforcement, now have the legal ability to deport illegal voters. For one of the only times in US history, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a way that helps America.

USA - What in the world has happened to America? We live in a society where perversion and sexual violence have become essential elements of our entertainment. In fact, these days it seems like we can’t get through a major awards show or a Super Bowl halftime celebration without being forced to see things that would have been absolutely unthinkable in this country just fifty years ago.

GREECE - Greece could be poised to humiliate Brussels by ditching the euro and instead choosing to be tied to the US dollar, Donald Trump’s reported pick as EU ambassador has sensationally claimed. Professor Ted Malloch revealed that senior Greek economists have enquired about the possibility of adopting the greenback if the country crashes out of the single currency. He asserted that Athens is so desperate it is prepared to tie itself to the dollar on the same terms as the likes of Puerto Rico if it means being able to quit the eurozone. And Professor Malloch said German leaders including Angela Merkel were “freaked out” at the humiliating possibility of losing Greece to a rival currency, which would be a devastating blow to the EU project.

USA - Billionaire Elon Musk is known for his futuristic ideas and his latest suggestion might just save us from being irrelevant as artificial intelligence (AI) grows more prominent. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said on Monday that humans need to merge with machines to become a sort of cyborg. "Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk told an audience at the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he also launched Tesla in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). "It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output."

JAPAN - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stressed the importance of dialogue between Russia and the US in resolving global challenges such as Syria, Iran, and Ukraine during his talks with US President Donald Trump. In an interview with the NHK news channel after his return to Japan on Monday, the PM said Trump is a leader who is open to hearing new ideas. “Surprisingly, President Trump is a good listener. He is open to turning his ears to others, and he is friendly and open,” Abe told NHK, as cited by the Associated Press. “I was able to discuss frankly where Japan is headed to.” During the talks with Trump, Abe outlined Japan’s plans and secured the US leader’s “understanding” of the importance of dialogue to resolve the territorial dispute with Russia.

USA - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J Chaput told a radio talk show host Monday that he believes fewer than 25 percent of those working in the “mainstream … elite” media have religious faith, and expressed surprise at what he termed was media hostility to President Trump. “It’s just amazing to me how hostile the press is to everything the president does,” Chaput told the California-based Hugh Hewitt, a Catholic conservative. “I don’t want to be partisan in my comments here, but it seems to me if we are really serious about our common responsibilities, we support the president. The elite, of course, kind of pooh-pooh religious faith ... very deliberately,” Chaput said. “It is important to us not to desire to be a part of that with the elite, to the point that we give up our faith.”

USA - A new recession is coming, and Donald Trump needs it to begin sooner rather than later.  As I explained last week, most American voters tend to care about their pocketbooks more than anything else.  If the next recession were to officially start during the first quarter of 2017, it would be very easy for Trump to blame it on Obama, and then he could portray himself as the one that pulled the US economy out of recession in time for the 2020 election.  But if the next recession does not begin until 2018 or 2019, everybody is going to blame it on Trump even if it is not his fault.  In politics, who gets the blame for whatever goes wrong is often the most important thing, and if Trump wants to avoid blame for the next recession he needs for it to start as quickly as possible.

USA - Evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people living below the tallest dam in the United States remained in place early on Monday after residents were abruptly told to flee when a spillway appeared in danger of collapse.

USA - Lately, there’s been a lot of rhetoric comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. The concern is that a Nazi-type regime may be rising in America.  That process, however, began a long time ago.  In fact, following the second World War, the US government recruited Hitler’s employees, adopted his protocols, embraced his mindset about law and order, implemented his tactics in incremental steps, and began to lay the foundations for the rise of the Fourth Reich. Sounds far-fetched? Read on. It’s all documented.

USA - Why are so many US senators more responsive to the FBI’s desire for Gestapo police power than they are to the civil liberties embodied in the US Constitution? FBI Director James Comey got Hillary off the hook but wants to put you on it. He is pushing hard for warrantless access to all of your Internet activity. Comey, who would have fit in perfectly with Hitler’s Gestapo, tells Congress that the United States is not safe unless the FBI knows when every American goes online, to whom they are sending emails and from whom they are receiving emails, and knows every website visited by every American. In other words, Comey wants to render null and void the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and completely destroy your privacy rights.

JAPAN - In the age of Trump, America’s biggest foreign creditors are suddenly having second thoughts about financing the US Government. In Japan, the largest holder of Treasuries, investors culled their stakes in December by the most in almost four years, the Ministry of Finance’s most recent figures show.

GERMANY - Hardline German minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has warned the only way Greece's loans can be written off is through the country leaving the eurozone, as the debt crisis once again blows up. Angela Merkel's finance chief ruled out cutting the amount of money owed by the struggling Mediterranean state in an interview on German television. He insisted creditors must keep the pressure on Greece to meet the strict terms of its bailout programme or kick it out of the single currency. Markets reacted with alarm after the minister raised the prospect of a Grexit. Germany is Greece's biggest eurozone creditor and wants to claw back all the money it lent to stop Athens collapsing into bankruptcy amid the financial crisis. But fellow creditor the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week admitted Athens' debt load is unsustainable.

EUROPE - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he fears Britain will divide the European Union's 27 remaining members by making different promises to each country during its Brexit negotiations. "The other EU 27 don't know it yet, but the Brits know very well how they can tackle this," Juncker told Deutschlandfunk radio. "They could promise country A this, country B that and country C something else and the end game is that there is not a united European front." Mr Juncker also reportedly said he would not seek a second term as European Commission president when his five-year term expires in 2019.