UK - Prison wardens are too scared to tackle extremism within their walls for fears of being called racist, a Government official has said. Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and senior Home Office official who is leading the review, said there was “significant fear among staff” to tackle Islamic extremism.
EUROPE - European Union (EU) bosses have announced “strict” new rules to prevent a repeat of last summer’s crisis which saw 1.8 million people enter the bloc. New arrivals who refuse to give fingerprints in the country they first step foot in, or move between member states, will automatically have their asylum claims rejected.
USA - Vaccine industries have their sights set on a new market that they hope will someday be as massive as that created by the just-shy-of-obligatory childhood vaccine schedule: pregnant women. The industry is working with the FDA to create new rules to test and develop vaccines designed to be given to pregnant women, in order to pass antibodies on to their unborn infants. The fact that this protection would only be short-term is not viewed as a problem. Indeed, the industry is elated at the possibility to start vaccinating – via their mothers – babies too young to receive traditional vaccines. In spite of CDC recommendations, most vaccines – including flu and Tdap vaccines – have not been proven safe for pregnant women. Just take a look at the FDA package inserts.
USA - In a lawsuit filed in Texas, Larry Klayman - a former prosecutor for the US Department of Justice and founder of the conservative watchdog organizations Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch - has accused President Obama, Black Lives Matter founders and former US Attorney General Eric Holder among others, of fueling a race war that led to the murder of police in Dallas last week.
EUROPE - Desperate Donald Tusk has said the EU must NOT let Britain profit from leaving the crumbling bloc as it could inspire other states to follow suit. The president of the European Council said it would be "lethal" to let the UK walk away scot-free as he attempts to avoid a domino effect across the continent in the wake of Brexit.
ITALY - Italy's economy is around halfway through a lost two decades, following a slow and painful recovery from the financial crisis that still has a long way to go, according to alarming analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
EUROPE - Europe's top stock markets were firmly in the red again today amid spiralling concerns for the European Union's future without Britain. On the other hand, London's top index the FTSE 100 was reaping gains of around 0.4 per cent, after already touching the highest level in almost a year after the vote to leave the bloc.
EUROPE - China has been told it must close down steel mills dumping excess production in Europe if the country is to be admitted to the global club that will allow it to trade freely with other nations.
GERMANY - The German cabinet approved on Wednesday a revised security policy "white book" that reflects the country’s new role on the global arena, the government said in a statement. The White Book on Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr was presented earlier in the day by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. "Our security is based on a strong and committed North Atlantic Alliance as well as a united and resilient European Union," Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote in a foreword to the policy paper. Merkel said the policy, which has been reviewed for the first time since 2006, aims to increase Germany’s capability to respond faster to conflicts abroad. Germany will stand by the UN politically and militarily in its missions, the document says.
GERMANY - At the 2014 Munich Security Conference, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier declared that Germany was “too big merely to comment on world affairs from the side-lines,” and that “Germany must be ready for earlier, more decisive and more substantive engagement in the foreign and security policy sphere.”
USA - For most of the country’s history, white Christian America — the cultural and political edifice built primarily by white Protestant Christians — set the tone for our national conversations and shaped American ideals. But today, many white Christian Americans feel profoundly anxious as their numbers and influence are waning.
RUSSIA - We always knew that this was coming. For years, the horrifying persecution of Christians in the Middle East has made headlines all over the globe, but now we are seeing very disturbing examples of government-sanctioned persecution literally all over the planet. As you will read about below, Russia just banned virtually all types of evangelism outside of a church or religious site. And China has been tearing down thousands of crosses and has been demolishing dozens of churches in a renewed crackdown on the growth of Christianity in that nation. Overall, there are 53 countries that now have laws that restrict the Christian faith according to one recent report.
ITALY - We have numerous reports of BANK RUNS taking place right now throughout Italy. Reports of lines of people at ATM's are draining the automatic tellers of all cash. This comes after weeks of speculation about the health of several Italian banks, including the oldest Bank Monte dei Paschi, which has been in business since the year 1472 - twenty years before Columbus discovered America!
UK - With her pledge to put worker representatives on the boards of big British companies, Theresa May seems to be reaching for inspiration to Germany. The proposal sounds a lot like Mitbestimmung, or co-determination, a system of joint decision-making between employer and employee that has become a defining feature of German capitalism.
USA - As the West’s elites growl about “Russian aggression” – as they once did about Iraq’s WMD – NATO leaders meet in Poland to plan a costly and dangerous new Cold War, while shunning the few voices of dissent, John V Walsh warns. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s cry of distress is that of a man watching a tidal wave of destruction gathering force, similar to ones that have engulfed his country twice in the Twentieth Century.