GERMANY - The German government has announced a plan to target the bank accounts of people who donate money to groups and causes deemed to be ‘right wing extremists’. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced a raft of measures this week, that critics say are a direct attempt to reign in the popularity of the right wing opposition Party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). One such measure, as reported by Jurist, is to freeze the bank accounts of those found to have donated money to any group the government declares to be ‘far-right’. Another of the measures is the creation of a special unit called the ”early recognition unit” that will “detect far-right disinformation campaigns,” identify “disinformation campaigns,” and “cut their funding models.” Support for the AfD has surged to over 20% of the electorate, meaning the Party is the strongest opposition to the current German government, a coalition led by the über left wing Social Democratic Party.

GERMANY - Japan’s economy and currency weakened somewhat more than expected in 2023, causing it to slide behind Germany to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. According to current projections, India will pass both countries by 2030 to become the number three economy, behind the United States and China. Barron’s on Wednesday quoted analysts who said the big problem for Japan was a “sharp fall in the yen against the dollar.” Japan’s economy grew 1.9 percent in 2023 while Germany’s contracted by 0.3 percent, but the yen took a 20-percent nosedive against the US dollar over the past two years. The weaker yen may have helped Japan with some key exports, such as automobiles, but it left the total value of Japan’s GDP at $4.2 trillion, losing third place in the world rankings to Germany’s $4.5 trillion.

EUROPE - The SPD’s lead candidate for the upcoming European elections, Katarina Barley, is not ruling out the procurement of nuclear weapons by the EU. “On the path to a European army,” says Barley on Tuesday, an EU nuclear bomb “could also be a on the table.” The call for Germany, or alternatively the EU, to arm itself with nuclear weapons is nothing new. Nuclear options were openly discussed in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016, and then again during his 2020 US election campaign. The reason given at both junctures was the perceived need for a replacement deterrent in the event of the US removing its nuclear shield across Europe. The latest demands are accompanied by a clamour for an unprecedented conventional arms build-up, with hawks citing a sum of 300 billion euros for new weaponry.

GERMANY - If the United States were to abandon its protection of Europe, the German arsenal of weapons would barely be enough to defend the country. Companies like Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann are trying to change the status quo, but the industry is still too weak.

CHINA - China has crafted an unstoppable military under Xi Jinping's ruthless dictatorship which poses the greatest threat to the world order, experts have warned. As the West steels itself for global conflict, Europe is struggling to keep up with Beijing's formidable £175 billion army and nuclear arsenal. China has the world's biggest army - with over two million active personnel. China also boasts a terrifying nuclear arsenal - fast tracked in recent years as the global order has been rocked by more and more conflict. It is believed that Xi could now have around 500 nuclear warheads, and more are on the way for future weapons of mass destruction. There are fears among Western countries that we won't be able to match China's formidable resources. China also has a wide array of dubious allies including Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia - meaning the expansion of its military and nuke stores could be bolstered by relationships with other ruthless dictators.

USA - Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is predicting political turmoil, civilian unrest, war and a big economic downturn in 2024 in a new report called “The Year from Political Hell.” It’s not just a US election year, but it is an election year for more than half of the world. This is a global phenomenon of which no one can be sure of the outcome. Armstrong explains, “This is not just the United States election. This is what you hear on the news locally. However, step outside this country, and, for example, Indonesia just voted in a leftist government. You have the EU going for elections. You have on May 2nd all the local elections in Britian. You have Russian elections on May 7th. 60% of the world is going to the polls in 2024 to vote for a new government. You might as well throw them into a tumbler, shake well and see what comes out. I mean it’s all over the place.”

USA - January inflation numbers showed that prices increased by 3.1 percent over what they were a year ago, indicating that the fight against inflation, while progressing, has not been won. Overall, prices have surged by nearly 18 percent since January 2021 when President Joe Biden took office. Americans are struggling in an economy in which, by official statistics, nearly one-fifth of the value of their dollars has evaporated in three years — though many will say the cost of food and other essentials has become more expensive than what the official numbers state. "Complying with net-zero emissions policies and corporate ESG reporting requirements will increase prices of farm inputs, the costs of which will ultimately be passed onto consumers at grocery stores and restaurants,” the report states.

SWITZERLAND - Commemorating the 1,700th anniversary in 2025 of the Council of Nicaea is an inspiration to Christians today to work for the unity of the church, says Rev Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. The First Council of Nicaea, was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea, now İznik in Turkiye. It was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine I and it met May to the end of July AD 325. At the Council of Nicaea, bishops representing the whole of Christendom gathered for the first time to discuss the faith and witness of the church.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has today warned there is no point in Gaza truth talks until Hamas drops its 'delusional' demands. Netanyahu said that he had sent negotiators for truce talks in Cairo, as requested by US President Joe Biden, but they did not go back for further talks because of these demands. He said critics calling for Israel not to mount military action in Rafah were effectively telling the country to 'lose the war' against Hamas.

USA - The chorus of warnings is hard to ignore. International organizations, rights group advocates and even a growing number of Western leaders are all urging Israel to refrain from launching a full-scale ground offensive on Rafah, the overwhelmed city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Close to a million and a half displaced Palestinians are crammed in makeshift encampments there, the majority having fled other parts of Gaza already ravaged by the Israeli military campaign that followed the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

ISRAEL - Israel will continue to oppose international recognition of a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, warning that it could prevent the settlement of the conflict in Gaza. Netanyahu was responding to a report on Wednesday by the Washington Post, which cited diplomatic sources as saying that the US and several Arab nations were discussing a plan for long-term peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

ISRAEL - Israel has formally complained after a senior Vatican official spoke of “carnage” in Gaza and what he termed a disproportionate Israeli military operation following the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Israeli Embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, “regrettable.” In a statement Wednesday, the embassy said Parolin had not considered what it called the relevant facts in judging the legitimacy of Israel’s actions.

UNITED NATIONS - In a recent interview, a United Nations official sparked controversy due to his comments about terrorist group Hamas, which is currently embroiled in a war with Israel in Gaza. Despite the history of the conflict in the Middle East, the official insisted that Hamas is not a terrorist organization. During a Wednesday interview with Sky News, UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths was asked by the interviewer about Israel insisting that Hamas has no part in a future governing body for Gaza. Griffiths stated in his answer that the UN instead considers Hamas to be a “political movement,” not a terrorist organization. "I think it’s very difficult. And as you said, I’ve worked with many, many, many different terrorist and insurgent groups. Hamas is not a terrorist group for us, of course, as you know, it’s a political movement."

EUROPE - The EU signed a migration pact that would allow 75 million “migrants” onto the continent. It’s being called the “suicide” pact. Europe will take in millions of unvetted, uneducated people with totally different values who have lived in primitive circumstances, often in rape cultures. What could go wrong? That brings us to the border bill that US senators passed. It was a modified version of this. They wanted to legalize illegal immigration, with 5,000 illegals a day. They said it would eventually become zero, but who could count on that? The European Parliament’s LIBE committee passed the act on Wednesday, which formalizes the distribution of migrants to member states and punishes those that refuse to take them, Modernity reported.

USA - Interesting analysis this morning from Axios in a “Deep Dive: Inside the Mind of Gen Z.” The piece pulls together a bunch of data points and quotes from experts to provide a snapshot of a generation that, at least in my humble opinion, is in deep trouble. By the numbers: Gen Z (defined as people roughly ages 12 to 27) reports the poorest mental health of any generation, according to a Gallup and Walton poll.