EUROPE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called on EU member states to invest heavily in the defense industry. These efforts should see the creation of weapons that will ensure the dominance of their armies on the battlefield, she said. Von der Leyen also equated European security with continued support for Ukraine, which she said Brussels will keep providing “for as long as it takes.” Addressing a congress of the European People’s Party in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday, von der Leyen said that the bloc needs to “turbo charge our defense industrial capacity in the next five years.” She added that this push would “help us fill the urgent need to rebuild, replenish and modernize Member States’ armed forces.”

USA - The late James Q Wilson, professor of government at Harvard University, wrote in his book, The Marriage Problem, back in 2002, “It is not money, but the family that is the foundation of public life. As it has become weaker, every structure built upon that foundation has become weaker.” Over the past 50-plus years, we have heard a constant stream of rhetoric from secular elites that “you can have it all” — career, money, marriage, and family. The result has been sadly the opposite. You cannot “have it all,” and two of these eventually trump the other two in taking up our time and energy. Increasingly, for many Americans, it has been money and career, and our society, and we as individuals, are suffering the consequences.

UK - Hundreds of primary schools could be forced to close by the end of the decade because of a dramatic fall in the number of births. The population of young children is expected to plummet by more than half a million by 2030 – the equivalent of 17,000 classes or 1,800 schools – the latest data analysis has suggested. A baby boom in the early 2000s, partially fuelled by migration, fizzled out and births began to decline from 2010. It has meant primary schools that were once scrambling to acquire extra classrooms are now unable to fill places, which has already led to dozens facing closure in Yorkshire, Norfolk, Cumbria, Brighton, Wigan, Bristol and London.

USA - There has been increasing talk about the potential restoration of a gold standard arising from people and governments across the world seeking to protect themselves from the weaponization of the United States dollar’s world reserve currency status. How long can dollar hegemony last when the government behind the dollar is sanctioning people and governments around the world with abandon? There must be a way out of this mess, and the many centuries long history of using gold as money points to one tried-and-true path.

GERMANY - The windmills are spinning golden subsidies in the central German ‘fairy tale’ forest of Reinhardswald, but the payment is the partial destruction of the 1,000 year-old ancient wood itself. Work has started on the clearing of up to 120,000 trees in the forest, the setting for many of the Brothers Grimm mythical stories, to provide access for an initial 18 giant wind turbines around the Sababurg ‘Sleeping Beauty’ castle.

USA - Multiple United States government websites went down as President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address. Websites for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service displayed technical difficulty screens for 20 minutes on Thursday night. The cause for the outages is unknown. According to Search.gov, a search engine by and for the federal government, planned maintenance was scheduled between 3 pm to 6 pm on Thursday. While the government agency websites were down, much of the nation was watching Biden’s pivotal State of the Union.

USA - US Dollar death spiral ‘crisis’ fears grow after Bank Of America issues shocking ‘$1 Trillion every 100 Days’ warning amid Huge Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Crypto price boom. The bitcoin price has topped $60,000 per bitcoin, making it a $1 trillion asset again, while the combined ethereum, XRP and crypto market is well over $2 trillion — triggering a serious warning of "massive collateral damage." Now, as new emails reveal "staggering" clues to the true identity of mystery bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, Bank of America BAC +0.8% analysts have warned the US debt load is about to ramp up to add $1 trillion every 100 days — fueling a bitcoin price surge. Bitcoin's historical halving that's expected to cause crypto price chaos is just around the corner!

USA - The college horror stories are endless. A mandatory Title IX training session at Harvard instructs students that “fatphobia” and “cis-heterosexism” perpetuate violence and that using the wrong pronouns constitutes abuse. Yet, hatred against Jews is tolerated at the school. In California, community colleges teach that if someone claims they are not a racist, they are in denial and that colour-blindness “perpetuates existing racial inequities and denies systematic racism.” A Michigan college held a “queer” abortion stories event earlier this year. The once-venerable University of Chicago is planning to host a “kink and consent” workshop...Yet, the conservative Turning Point USA was denied a campus chapter at Cortland, part of the State University of NY. So much for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

UK - The next five years could be the hardest for a Chancellor since the Second World War, the IFS warned today. The respected think-tank delivered a chilling warning about the task facing whomever wins the next election in its traditional verdict the day after the Budget. Director Paul Johnson voiced doubts about the government's ability to stick to its tight spending plans - adding that he was 'at least as sceptical' that shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves would oversee deep real-terms cuts. And he repeated his view that the tax burden will not come down to pre-Covid levels 'in my lifetime', despite Jeremy Hunt's claim that he had put the country on track for lower taxes. Mr Johnson said the 'underlying facts' in the public finances were going to 'constrain chancellors for the foreseeable future'. 'Fiscal rules or no, fiscal realities bite,' he told a briefing.

YEMEN - Popular internet platforms owned by Meta – including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads – experienced global disruptions lasting for over two hours on Tuesday. Google services were affected to a lesser extent, with reports claiming that the outrages may have been caused by Houthi militants severing Red Sea cables. Several Asia-based telecom operators warned as early as last week that four underwater internet cables had been severed in the Red Sea. In recent months, the area has seen repeated attacks on civilian cargo ships by Yemeni Houthi militants, who describe the assaults as retaliation for Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza. The Houthis, however, have denied cutting internet cables in the region. Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Telecom Ministry issued a statement denying reports “by the Zionist-linked media outlets” that the armed group was responsible for damage to the cables. The Houthis are “keen to keep all submarine telecom cables… away from any possible risks,” the statement added.

UK - For the past 18 years, customers have been flocking to Salah’s takeaway — ‘Best for value, Best for Food’ — on the bustling Leeds Road in Bradford. The outlet, with its hard-to-miss red façade and décor, has become something of an ­institution, serving kebabs, burgers, wraps and speciality fried chicken late into the night. Locals often have to wait in a long queue to be served, such is the popularity of Salah’s. But violence recently erupted outside the popular fast food outlet. The window of the restaurant was smashed, the door was ­damaged, the police were called and arrests were made. So what do you think was the cause of the near-riot. Was it: (a) a drunken brawl on the pavement; (b) the culmination of a feud between rival gangs; or (c) the fact that Coca-Cola was being sold at Salah’s?

ARGENTINA - On February 23, I addressed an important international conference, or congress as it was called, organized by Norma Pimienta in Argentina. The conference addressed international concerns about the failure of Western leadership to put the world on a peaceful path. I used my opportunity to address the congress to speak about the importance of truth and of the determination of the elites who control America to destroy all vestiges of truth because truth stands in their way. The Western world comprises the first empire in history that is destroying itself and the institutions of freedom to which the West gave birth:

USA - According to the Federal Reserve, credit card delinquencies increased by 50 percent in 2023, while consumer debt grew to 17.5 trillion dollars. A recent survey by Clever Real Estate found that three in five Americans have credit card debt and that 23 percent of Americans increase their credit card debt every month. The survey also found that 48 percent of Americans (including 59 percent of millennials) use credit cards for essential living expenses. The overreliance on credit cards and the accompanying increase in consumer debt are consequences of our fiat money system. Since Richard Nixon severed the last link between the dollar and gold in August of 1971, the dollar’s value has declined by 87 percent based on the government’s understated Consumer Price Index numbers. This means that even though Americans’ nominal wages have increased, their real wages have declined as their dollars buy less.

USA - Elon Musk Warns “groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11”. X owner Elon Musk has once again spoken out on the Biden Administration’s complete neglect to secure the Southern border, and facilitation of mass illegal immigration, warning that with the amount of unvetted foreigners being freely allowed into the country, there is sure to be some major catastrophic event being planned. In a post to X, Musk wrote “This administration is both importing voters and creating a national security threat from unvetted illegal immigrants.”

SWITZERLAND - The World Economic Forum (WEF) is calling on governments to ban the general public from growing their own food at home by arguing that they are causing “climate change.” According to so-called “experts” behind a recent WEF study, researchers apparently discovered that the “carbon footprint” of home-grown food is “destroying the planet.” As a result, the WEF and other globalist climate zealots are now demanding that governments intervene and ban individuals from growing their own food in order to “save the planet” from “global warming.”