USA - Apparently a tech company called Chaotic Moon is looking to take advantage of the 20% of humans who already have a proclivity toward tattoos. For the rest? An appeal to safety and security, of course, and an assurance that a future offering could be a “Band-Aid-like package.”
UK - Britain's exit from EU would open a 'Pandora's Box' in Europe, a threat which has been underestimated by financial markets, warn analysts. A British exit from the European Union could see the UK becoming a "safe haven" amid a disintegrating Europe, Barclays has said. Analysis from the bank said a 'leave' vote would open a "Pandora's Box" in the crisis-hit continent, and could dissuade Scotland from breaking away from the relative safety of the UK. Barclays said financial markets had failed to grasp the sheer "breadth" of the British vote, calling it one of "the most significant global risks of the year", and one which could lead to the collapse of the European project.
JAPAN - Central bank "crosses the Rubicon" with shock move, joining the ECB in its attempts to stimulate growth. Japan shocked financial markets by becoming the latest major central bank to slash interest rates into negative territory, in another bid to stimulate its moribund economy.
EUROPE - Sharing the stage with leaders of other European populist parties, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Friday that Europe's nationalist parties are ready to step in and clean up when European structures fail under current immigration and monetary policies.
BRAZIL - Here’s what happened in Brazil, where Oxitec has been conducting massive experiments with genetically modified mosquitoes. Brazil has opened its first-ever, large-scale genetically modified mosquito farm in an effort to reduce the incidence of dengue fever.
GERMANY - Deutsche Bundesbank has just released a progress report on its gold bar repatriation programme for 2015 – “Frankfurt becomes Bundesbank’s largest gold storage location“. During the calendar year to December 2015, the Bundesbank claims to have transported 210 tonnes of gold back to Frankfurt, moving circa 110 tonnes from Paris to Frankfurt, and just under 100 tonnes from New York to Frankfurt.
USA - The Baltimore mosque President Obama has chosen as the first US-based mosque to visit during his presidency has deep ties to extremist elements, including to the Muslim Brotherhood.
USA - An overlooked story on CNBC a couple days ago told us that in 2016, anywhere between a half-a-million and a million people will lose their food stamps this year as states across the country revert back to a strict 3-month limitation on benefits.
SAUDI ARABIA - With the price of oil plunging and increased military spending in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is dipping into its reserves to make ends meet. In December alone, the kingdom blew $19.4 billion of its now remaining $608.4 billion.
USA - Finally serious economists are considering a position I have been maintaining and writing about since the 2008 financial meltdown. Whatever its name — erasure, repudiation, abolishment, cancellation, jubilee — debt forgiveness, will have to eventually emerge forefront in global efforts to solve an ongoing systemic financial crisis.
JAPAN - Japan says it has deployed two Patriot missile interceptors in Tokyo to counter North Korea’s activity. The deployment comes amid reports that Pyongyang is preparing for a space rocket launch. Two ground-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers were installed near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters on Saturday morning, according to the Japan News website. The Ministry said they had been set up as a safeguard in case it became necessary to shoot down a North Korean missile or any debris that might fall from one onto Japanese territory. Earlier this week, Japan’s Defense Minister, General Nakatani, announced that he had issued a “destructive measures order,” which authorizes the country’s armed forces to destroy long-range ballistic missiles if they pose any danger to Japan.
USA - Four members of the Phoenix City Council moved late Friday to block a Satanist group from delivering the traditional prayer before a council meeting next month. Members of the Satanic Temple of Tucson are scheduled to deliver the invocation February 17.
UK - Government survey asking 13-year-olds to pick from 25 genders is as absurd as it is dangerous. Try to imagine a world populated by teenagers who are neither boys nor girls but have three genders at once: they are male, female and androgynous, making them ‘tri-gender’. Other young people are known as ‘demi-boys’ and ‘demi-girls’. Some drift between genders in a variety of ways. Some are ‘bi-gender’; still more are ‘trans-girls’ and ‘trans-boys’, while yet another tribe identify themselves as ‘gender fluid’.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel is a 'narcissist' whose refusal to curb immigration may be a sign of a 'mental breakdown, according to a celebrated German psychiatrist. The German Chancellor has been heavily criticized over her 'open border' policy, which resulted in 1.1 million refugees and migrants entering Germany last year.
GERMANY - Forty percent of Germans are apparently not satisfied with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy and want her to resign, according to a recent poll. The Insa survey for Focus magazine polled 2,047 German citizens January 22-25, Reuters reported.