GERMANY - The “White Paper 2016 on the Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr [Armed Forces]” presented by the Ministry of Defence marks a new stage in the return of German imperialism and should be taken very seriously by workers and young people.
USA - The controversy surrounding the Colorado primary has stirred up Donald Trump supporters, but it may only be the beginning. In Colorado, Trump has decried a primary system which he says is “rigged” by “the bosses” of the GOP, which keeps voters from choosing the winner in the state.
GREECE - Pope Francis transformed the lives of a dozen Syrian refugees on Saturday when he plucked three families from a crowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos and took them back to Rome.
NETHERLANDS - A man lies on a hospital bed, conscious and fully aware of his surroundings. As family members look on, a doctor injects him with two drugs. The first renders the patient unconscious, putting him in a coma, the second, a muscle relaxant, stops his heart.
USA - Why is the crust of the Earth shaking so violently all of a sudden? Over the past 48 hours, there have been five major earthquakes globally, and one prominent seismologist has declared that “catastrophic mega earthquakes” could be on the way. In fact, seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado has made headlines all over the world by warning that “current conditions might trigger at least four earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude”.
ECUADOR - The death toll from Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades stood at 233 today as rescuers used their bare hands to scour the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors. More than 1,500 were injured when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, struck 16 miles off the coast of Musine - a fishing town popular with tourists.
SWITZERLAND - Switzerland has announced it is considering stationing a tank battalion at its southern border with Italy, after news that Austria is ready to completely shut down the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria.
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
USA - The German Air Force is terminating its contract to train its pilots at Holloman Air Force Base, a potentially major economic blow to the Alamogordo region. The Luftwaffe has had a presence at Holloman since 1992, but the cancellation of the contract to train German pilots in Tornado aircraft means the mission will end by 2019. The German defense ministry said the decision affects approximately 450 military staff and their families as well as the 14 Tornado weapon systems stationed at Holloman. The decision had been expected, though political and business leaders in New Mexico had been lobbying the Germans to continue the mission. Colonel Heinz-Josef Ferkinghoff, the Commanding Director of the German Air Force Flying Training Center said the main reason why the ministry is terminating their training at Holloman is due to tactical and logistical reasons more so than finances.
JAPAN - Forty-one earthquakes in 7 days show a clear pattern: the southern island of Kyushu, Japan seems to be splitting apart! Gaping cracks, 100's of feet wide and hundreds of yards long have appeared in the ground. The media has been calling them "landslides" but what they actually look like from the air is an enormous crack forming in the island; a crack showing the island is breaking apart. It appears that Kyushu is breaking apart, in a similar manner to the way Shikoku broke away from the main island of Honshu. One can almost draw a straight line through the middle of the quakes, to get from Kumamoto to Yufu, in the Oita province to get an approximation of how the island may split apart …the flooding may not be from rivers, it may be the ocean pouring in!
USA - It's harmful to call breastfeeding "natural," says CNN in this astonishing demonstration of medical illiteracy, because it might encourage women to engage in other "natural" behaviors. CNN, which is funded by pharmaceutical interests, harkens back to the days when infant formula manufacturers told women that breastfeeding was a barbaric practice and should be replaced with factory-made infant formula.
ECUADOR - A powerful earthquake killed at least 77 people, injured hundreds more, ravaged coastal towns and sent residents fleeing for higher ground in Ecuador on Saturday night. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast and was felt hundreds of miles (km) away in the capital of Quito as well as in the large commercial city of Guayaquil, where rubble lay strewn in the streets and some buildings were cracked or partially collapsed. A bridge in the city collapsed on top of a car, crushing it. The earthquake was Ecuador's worst in decades and officials said the death toll was likely to rise even higher as rescue teams headed into the hardest-hit areas.
TONGA - A 5.8-magnitude has hit the coast of the Pacific island nation of Tonga, USGS reported. The tremor with a depth of 66km, struck 287km from the county’s capital of Nuku'alofa. The part of the South Pacific Ocean where Tonga lies is considered to be one of the most seismically active areas in the world due to convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates, the USGS said. In March, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Tonga and the Samoa islands, Geoscience Australia and the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The quake occurred just 96km from the town of Hihifo in Tonga.
USA - Bernie Sanders took a private jet to the Vatican to address a conference on wealth inequality on Friday, hours after attacking Hillary Clinton over her stance on fossil fuels. He told the audience that rather than a world economy that looks out for the common good, "we have been left with an economy operated for the top 1 percent, who get richer and richer as the working class, the young and the poor fall further and further behind". "We don't choose to politicise the pope," Mr Sanders told attendees, "but his spirit and courage and the fact, if I may say so here, that his words have gone way, way, way beyond the Catholic Church".
UK - Quitting the EU would leave Britain facing "more complex problems", the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has claimed. Cardinal Vincent Nichols called on voters to think about the human impact that leaving would have, insisting "economics is not the crucial issue in this debate". The intervention came after a "good-spirited debate" between the bishops about the historic in/out referendum on June 23. Cardinal Nichols said he believed that the UK would face "more complex problems" than if it played an "active" role within the 28-member bloc. He also claimed "the Catholic stance towards an effort such as the EU is largely supportive". In a statement, the bishops acknowledged the "justifiable concerns that many people have in relation to the European Union". But they warned the "outcome will have consequences for the future not only of the United Kingdom, but for Europe and for the world".