ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a rare midweek press conference on Thursday to emphasize that Israel would continue to fight in Gaza, and defend its interests in spite of international pressure to end the war. Netanyahu spoke in the wake of a stampede in northern Gaza in which dozens of Palestinians were killed as they mobbed humanitarian aid trucks before dawn Wednesday morning. During the chaos, which reportedly occurred in several waves, Israeli soldiers were charged by civilians and opened fire when the crowd ignored warning shots. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its soldiers were responsible for no more than ten of the deaths in the incident. The incident illustrated the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which persists because Hamas, the terror organization that launched the war October 7, has refused to accept a temporary ceasefire unless Israel ends the war and leaves.

USA - Ed Pierson stepped down from his high-ranking position at Boeing in 2018, a move prompted by a devastating crash that year, and another in 2019. He felt he could no longer be part of the 737 MAX program, citing concerns over its safety and the compromised quality of work. Mr Pierson was stationed at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, production facility. It was there that he witnessed a major decline in employee morale and also observed that safety protocols and oversight were being ignored. After raising these issues with his superiors to no avail, he opted to retire. The fatal crashes of the MAX 8 in 2018 and 2019 pushed Pierson to discuss these matters publicly and also before Congress. You might also remember the recent incident on an Alaska Air flight where a door came off mid-flight. This happened on a MAX plane, indicating that issues with safety standards are clearly ongoing.

BRAZIL - Officials overseeing the Brazilian Amazon registered almost 3,000 fires during February, marking a new record for the South American country, according to data released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). According to the institute, 2,924 fires were documented in February as of the Tuesday, February 26, cutoff date, up from 2,049 registered in January. February’s data marks a new record of rainforest fires registered since it began logging them in 1999. February 2024’s record represents a staggering 298 percent increase. INPE recorded 734 fires in February 2023. According to local media, the Brazilian Environment Ministry is yet to publicly comment on the report at press time. Experts stressed to local Brazilian media that the forest rarely catches fire on its own and most fires involve criminal human action. In most cases, the fires are used to open up new areas for grazing.

CANADA - German Chancellor Scholz’s innuendo that France and the UK have clandestinely deployed troops to Ukraine to assist with “target control” against Russian forces prompted a harsh reaction from the British, but his slip of the tongue simply spilled the beans on this proxy war’s worst-kept secret. No honest observer believed the prior denials about Western troops in that country since their Ukrainian counterparts couldn’t realistically be trained to operate such modern-day arms in such a short time.

UK - Britain for sale: The country's biggest firms are being picked off 'one by one' as foreign predators pounce. First it was Wincanton, then Currys and now Direct Line. Companies at the heart of the UK economy are being preyed on by foreign suitors – and it could be just the start. As global dealmaking comes back with a bang after a long hiatus, private equity barons and cash-rich corporations see listed British businesses as a bargain. And some observers fear the worst. ‘The situation is looking structural and terminal for UK mid-cap businesses,’ said Richard Bernstein, boss of activist investor Crystal Amber.

USA - Macy’s announced this week that they are closing 150 stores across the country. San Francisco Store Says Rampant Shoplifting to Blame for Closing. Macy’s will close 150 unproductive namesake stores over the next three years including 50 by year-end, the department store operator said Tuesday after posting a fourth-quarter loss and declining sales. In San Francisco, the flagship store is closing and as usual, theft was a big reason. San Francisco is going to be a ghost town if it continues down this road.

USA - Federal and state officials in California are allegedly ignoring the radioactive waste dumped into the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast, even after new reports reveal it is even worse than expected. According to the Los Angeles Times, researchers discovered that the thousands of barrels of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) disposed of into the ocean were not contained in barrels. The harmful pesticide used in agriculture was directly poured into the ocean.

USA - The Satanic Temple released a statement on the proposed Florida bill that would allow volunteer chaplains in public schools, stating that it looks forward to the opportunity. Penemue Grigori, the Satanic Temple's director of ministry, wrote about the bill in an email and said: "Any opportunity that exists for ministers or chaplains in the public sector must not discriminate based on religious affiliation," according to the Tallahassee Democrat. "Our ministers look forward to participating in opportunities to do good in the community, including the opportunities created by this bill, right alongside the clergy of other religions," said Grigori.

USA - “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s World Economic Forum-controlled government is planning to outlaw Christianity with the introduction of an amendment to the Criminal Code that could see believers face jail time for expressing historic Christian teachings.” The problems are found in Canada’s Bill C-367 that “will make it illegal to reiterate parts of the Bible, stripping away the ‘good faith’ defense for what is deemed by the state as ‘hate speech’ or ‘antisemitism.’”

USA - The threat of antibiotic resistance is increasing as the pharmaceutical industry continues to pump out new antibiotic drugs to replace old antibiotic drugs that no longer work. Believe it or not, most antibiotics sold in the United States are administered to livestock used in the meat industry. And they are typically given to healthy animals for purposes other than treating sickness – this includes for prophylactic and growth promotion purposes. As of 2020, upwards of 69 percent of the US antibiotic supply is found in meat that people and other animals eat for sustenance. Since the drugs often persist in meat tissue, many people are thus consuming a steady dose of antibiotic drugs on a daily basis with every meal.

UK - The future of Britain's second aircraft carrier is under threat due to funding issues, naval sources have claimed. Senior figures have spoken out after it emerged next week's Budget will not include any significant rise in defence spending. They fear HMS Prince of Wales, which cost £3.5 billion to build, could be mothballed or sold for a knockdown price to a friendly nation, over the fleet's flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth. The possible move would probably be divisive. But the decision could be forced upon commanders as soon as 2028 if the state of defence finances does not improve.

GERMANY - Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was time for Germany to be "a grown up country" in terms of security policy. Pistorius said Russia's war against Ukraine had altered the role of Germany and the Bundeswehr. Germany plans to accelerate reforms of its military bureaucracy as part of an ongoing overhaul of the country's military, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius outlined in a document presented on Thursday in Berlin. The revamp of the military seeks to make the force more capable of defending Germany and its allies.

IRAN - The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly given its most powerful terrorist proxy group — the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization — permission to escalate its attacks against Israel. High-level Iranian and Lebanese sources reportedly told the Arabic Post this week that Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has told Hezbollah to launch a full-scale attack against Israel if Israel moves ahead with going into the Gazan city of Rafa as part of its military operation to destroy Hamas following the October 7 terrorist attack. Iran gave the order because it believes that once Israel is done eliminating terrorists inside Rafa, it will then attack Hezbollah’s positions in southern Lebanon.

UK - A school has sparked fury after allowing pupils to wear fake eyelashes as part of their uniform. Parents of children attending Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, Kent, have been left horrified by the new rules, saying the school is giving in to pupils' demands amid peer pressure from other classmates. Headteacher David Collins said the decision came after students were missing school to have their lashes removed or refusing to attend without them. But one mother said the new policy was 'making eye-lashes part of the uniform', adding: 'There is a lot of peer pressure at the school. The next thing would be that they're going to announce false nails and then where does it end? 'We're a society being run by children, which I'm not going to stand for. Rules are rules and that's the end of it.'

USA - If you want to determine what people believe, don’t listen to what they say. Rather, closely watch what they actually do. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have all sold big chunks of shares in their own companies. How come? Bezos is way out in front after offloading 50 million shares of Amazon in just nine trading days this month, pocketing an estimated $8.5 billion. Zuckerberg cashed in almost 1.8 million shares of his social-media empire for more than $400 million in the last two months of 2023. JPMorgan’s Dimon joined the club this month, jettisoning about 822,000 shares of the bank he leads for about $150 million.