MIDDLE EAST - The six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council has designated Lebanon's Hezbollah movement a terrorist group. The GCC's secretary-general accused the Iran-backed Shia group of recruiting youths from Gulf states for attacks. Hezbollah is a key political and military force in Lebanon, and is involved in the conflict in Syria. The GCC decision appears to be the latest measure by Saudi Arabia and its allies aimed at countering Hezbollah's power over Lebanon's government. The GCC's designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation brings it into line with the United States and the European Union, although the latter has only blacklisted the group's military wing.
USA - Are you a religious extremist? For years, world leaders have been endlessly proclaiming that we need to eradicate “extremism”, but what actually is “extremism”? Many would point to the ISIS jihadists over in the Middle East that are beheading people that don’t agree with them as examples of religious extremists, and I think that very few people would argue with that.
USA - The Daily Signal has done extensive reporting on an ongoing train-wreck in a public elementary school in Minnesota over the imposition of the transgender ideology on kindergarteners. The debate pits parents of kids just out of diapers against school administrators in league with transsexual activists and at least one professional guild of psychologists.
RUSSIA - A Russian faces up to a year in prison for saying "there is no God" during an argument on social media, his lawyers said Wednesday. Viktor Krasnov also wrote the "Bible is a collection of Jewish fairy tales" during the discussion on European social networking site Vk.com in 2014, lawyer and human-rights activist Pavel Chikov posted on his Facebook page. Krasnov, whose offending posts have been deleted, is on trial in his native city of Stavropol in southern Russia, according to the local magistrate's website. Charges were filed in the fall of 2015 and the trial began on Monday, according to his lawyer.
EUROPE - A recession in Europe could lead to the collapse of the eurozone, as the single currency would buckle under the political turmoil unleashed by a fresh downturn, a leading investment bank has warned.
USA - When one of our major politicians gets something exactly right, we should applaud them for it. In this case, Donald Trump’s call to audit the Federal Reserve is dead on correct. Most Americans don’t realize this, but the Federal Reserve has far more power over the economy than anyone else does – including Barack Obama.
GERMANY - Homesick and eager to be back with his wife and four small children in Basra, Abdulla was giving up his refugee status as he boarded a crowded Iraqi Airways flight from Berlin's Tegel Airport to Baghdad that would whisk him and 150 other disillusioned former refugees back home in five hours.
RUSSIA - With Russia mired in the longest recession in two decades, there hasn’t been a lot of good economic news lately. But there’s one indicator that’s looking up, and it’s the one that matters most to Vladimir Putin: His hard-currency reserves. The central bank held $379 billion in foreign exchange and gold as of February 19, up $29 billion from lows touched last April, making Russia the only major emerging market with a gain. While China and Saudi Arabia have spent tens of billions of dollars to shore up their currencies, the central bank in Moscow has gone cold turkey on intervention...
USA - There will be no parades and no media shows which start out as… “we interrupt this broadcast to bring you this breaking news item…”, but the almighty Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) has spoken and they are endorsing Hillary Clinton, but mostly they have issued a position statement that Donald Trump must be stopped at all costs.
USA - Despite a growing string of victories in the Republican primaries, the DC-Wall Street cabal that has dominated the GOP since 1988 has no intention of letting the billionaire real estate mogul be nominated. None other than Karl Rove has insisted the stop-Trump effort is not too late and can succeed.
USA - Civil war has erupted in the Republican Party, and the Republican establishment is in full-blown panic mode. Donald Trump was never supposed to get this far, and now party insiders are scrambling to come up with a plan to block him from securing the nomination before the convention. After winning seven states on Super Tuesday, you would think that the Republican Party would be rallying around Trump and preparing for a tough general election battle with Hillary Clinton. Instead, the goal is now to stop Trump at all costs.
INDONESIA - A 7.8 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia, killing an unconfirmed number of people. The country has issued a tsunami warning, the National Meteorological Agency reported. The shallow quake led to multiple deaths, according to Indonesia's search and rescue agency. "There are some who have died," said Heronimus Guru, the agency's deputy head of operations, as quoted by Reuters. He declined to provide further information. The shallow quake, which hit southwest of the island of Sumatra on Wednesday, had a depth of 24 kilometers (15 miles). The epicenter was located 808 kilometers (502 miles) southwest of Padang. Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning for West Sumatra, North Sumatra, and Aceh, according to the National Meteorological Agency.
EUROPE - Europe could see €28 billion wiped off the value of its economies as it faces the imminent collapse of the Schengen system of open borders, according to a leading investment bank.
HUNGARY - The euro zone's troubles are forcing its member states to forge closer integration and Hungary will have to decide in coming years whether to give up some sovereignty in economic policy and join the group, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday. Orban, in power since 2010, has clashed with Brussels on a range of issues from the economy to immigration. A feisty nationalist, he has often accused the European Union of meddling in areas he says should be the preserve of national governments. All EU states are required eventually to join the euro, except Britain and Denmark which have legal opt-outs. Orban's right-wing government has not set a target date for joining the euro and the constitution, which stipulates that the forint is the national currency, would first have to be changed.
UNITED NATIONS - The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned EU leaders that the continent is facing a “self-induced humanitarian crisis,” with over 24,000 people stuck on the Macedonian border, and with as many arrivals in two months of 2016 as in the first six of last year.