UK - Research by the House of Commons Library found that defence spending has increased in some of the biggest recipients of British taxpayers' aid cash. The billions of pounds of British taxpayers money spent in developing countries is helping to “subsidise” their defence budgets, MPs say.
EUROPE - Time is running out for Syriza and Greece's lenders to find common ground, European leaders warn. Greece's creditors are losing patience with the country's uncompromising stance on its debt obligations, with the heads of the European Parliament and Commission calling on Alexis Tsipras's government to find common ground for a deal or face "dramatic consequences".
VATICAN - Pope Francis's critique of free-market economics has made him an icon for the Left and prompted claims that he is a communist. The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics has called capitalism a source of inequality at best - and at worst a killer. Is the Pope, as his critics claim, a red radical?
USA - Earlier this week, using hacked and leaked documents and pdfs created by, among others, George Soros' most recent wife who is less than half his age, we showed something fascinating: the puppetmaster behind the entire Ukraine conflict may be none other than George Soros himself.
UK - An education system that makes lab rats of our children "could do better", says Allison Pearson. Three years ago, my daughter opened her GCSE results and promptly burst into tears. Had she failed a subject she was hoping to take at A level? No, she had “only” got 5A*s and 5As. If you think that sounds crazy then, strictly speaking, you are correct, but chances are you don’t have a teenager of your own. Craziness is where the young live now.
USA - For a magician to fool his audience his deceit must go unseen, and to this end he crafts an illusion to avert attention from reality. While the audience is entranced, the deceptive act is committed, and for the fool, reality then becomes inexplicably built upon on a lie. That is, until the fool wakes up and recognizes the truth in the fact that he has been duped.
USA - They are nimbler, lighter and work better with humans. They might even help bring manufacturing back to the US. A new generation of robots is on the way — smarter, more mobile, more collaborative and more adaptable. They promise to bring major changes to the factory floor, as well as potentially to the global competitive landscape.
USA - The United States has devolved into a “soft-core totalitarian dictatorship” and other nations should begin to disassociate from it, according to an American activist and radio host in California. Rodney Martin, the chairman of the All Nationalist Association and former US congressional staffer, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday, commenting on the approval of a bill that will allow resumption of the government’s sweeping surveillance program.
EUROPE - German and French politicians are calling for a quantum leap in how the EU’s single currency is run, proposing an embryo eurozone treasury equipped with a eurozone finance chief, single budget, tax-raising powers, pooled debt liabilities, a common monetary fund, and separate organisation and representation within the European parliament.
GREECE - Thunder and lightning rumbled and flashed across the sky over Athens yesterday, as if the ancient gods knew that after a week of brinkmanship between the economic masters of the eurozone in Berlin and the leftist Greek government of Alexis Tsipras, a critical debt payment to the International Monetary Fund of €300 million would not be paid – and Europe would lurch to the brink of crisis once more.
BOSNIA - Pope Francis urged Bosnians on Saturday to seek lasting ethnic and religious harmony to heal the deep, lingering wounds of the 1992-1995 war that devastated the former Yugoslav republic. "The cry of God's people goes up once again from this city, the cry of all men and women of good will: war never again," he said at a Mass for some 65,000 people at the stadium of the city that was once a symbol of ethnic and religious diversity in socialist Yugoslavia.
BOSNIA - Pope Francis on Saturday attacked "the atmosphere of war" currently besetting the world as he urged Bosnians to pursue reconciliation efforts, 20 years after a conflict that ripped the country apart.
USA - In recent days, an ominous sign has appeared throughout Texas. "Eggs are not for commercial sale," read warnings, printed on traditional 8 1/2-by-11-inch pieces of white paper and posted at H-E-B grocery stores across Texas. "The purchase of eggs is limited to 3 cartons of eggs per customer."
USA - Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican for Alabama) the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, has written a scathing new letter to President Barack Obama pressuring him to explain why Obamatrade has been so secretive.
IRAN - Iran’s Deputy Chief of Staff reiterates his country will not allow any inspection of its military sites. Iran’s Deputy Chief of Staff reiterated on Friday that the Islamic Republic will not allow any inspection of its military sites, PressTV reported. “We will never allow any kind of visit to military centers, whether it is limited and controlled, or unlimited or in any other form,” Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said, according to the report.