GERMANY - The German government will be constructing a house of worship for all faiths in Berlin, at a site where a church was torn down in East Germany by the Soviet Union while the side was under occupation, following the end of World War II. The House of One in Berlin, being referred to as "churmosquagogue," is intended to bring those of all faiths and no faiths together as a sign of coexistence and solidarity, according to a report by The Guardian. “The idea is pretty simple,” said Christian theologian Roland Stolte, one of the organizers of the project, according to The Guardian. “We wanted to build a house of prayer and learning, where these three religions could co-exist while each retaining their own identity," he said. “There are many different ways to God, and each is a good way," said Andreas Nachama, a rabbi involved with the project, according to the report. “It is more than a symbol. It is the start of a new era where we show there is no hate between us.”

GERMANY - Not since the demise of Nazi Germany have fears — and ambitions — of a so-called “Fourth Reich” reached their current level of intensity, according to the author of a new book. In “The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present,” historian Gavriel D Rosenfeld brings his counterfactual “what if” approach to the idea of a new empire based on Nazi ideals. It’s a dystopian future founded on a decades-old phenomenon.

USA - California, and Southern California in particular, is bone dry. The calendar says spring officially begins with the equinox March 20, but the meteorological winter — consisting of December, January and February — is already in the record books. In other words, the wettest months are over. Let's take a look at where the Golden State stands. Downtown Los Angeles received 1.84 inches of rain in December, when it normally would get 2.33 inches. Some 2.44 inches of rain fell in January, when LA normally expects 3.12 inches. And just a trace (that is, not enough to be measured) fell in February, when 3.80 inches normally falls. January and February are normally the two wettest months in LA, after which the chances for rain diminish rapidly with the approach of spring and the end of the rainy season.

USA - I didn’t think that this would happen. A few years ago when the US national debt crossed the 20 trillion dollar mark, I didn’t think that it would ever get to 30 trillion. But at this moment the US national debt is around 28 trillion dollars, and our politicians in Washington are about to pass a 1.9 trillion dollar “relief bill”. We are going to have to borrow every single dollar that we spend in that bill, and that will be on top of all of the “normal” borrowing that we are already doing. So by the end of 2021, the US national debt will cross the 30 trillion dollar mark.

USA - Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Thursday he will join Texas state Senator Bryan Hughes on Friday to discuss the proposed bill prohibiting far left social media companies from censoring viewpoints. Governor Abbott follows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who announced legislation in February that would prevent Twitter, Facebook-Instagram, Google-YouTube, Amazon, and Apple from censoring content or selling users’ data. According to a press release, Governor Abbott will be joined by Senator Bryan Hughes to discuss Senate Bill 12 (SB12) which “will help prohibit social media companies from censoring Texans based on the viewpoints they express.”“I am joining @SenBryanHughes to announce a bill prohibiting social media companies from censoring viewpoints. Too many social media sites silence conservative speech and ideas and trample free speech. It’s un-American, Un-Texan, & soon to be illegal. — Greg Abbott, March 5, 2021”

GERMANY - The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) may not call the largest opposition party in the German parliament “suspect” of extremism, the Cologne District Court ruled Friday. The secret political police “may not term the plaintiff a 'suspect', surveil or monitor them, or make any public announcement to this effect”, the verdict read. Publicly denouncing a certain political party violates the principle of equal treatment, the Cologne court ruled, finding “indications that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution violated its non-disclosure agreement, or did not ensure procedural information does not become public.” Alice Weidel, AfD co-chair in the Bundestag, commented: “This is a major setback for the Verfassungsschutz‘s dirty PR campaign. The propaganda onslaught against the AfD is now revealed to be nothing but mud slinging by the ruling parties. I wonder if the retraction will be as widely publicized as the announcement of the surveillance” of the AfD, Weidel wrote on Twitter.

USA - Can anyone just tell us who is running our federal government right now? A weird Tron video this week appeared to show Mr Biden interfacing with House Democrats in Congress. Digitally, of course. He droned on for a few minutes using scripted psycho-pablum, sitting alone at a table. The table was empty except for his instruction manual. As he spoke haltingly, he looked up at a giant screen from which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stared awkwardly, fake smiling. The digital president then opened the floor for questions. “I’m happy to take questions,” he said, pretending for a moment to actually be the leader of the free world. They immediately issued a long censorship “beep.”

USA - It is just a matter of time before one of the big volcanoes on the west coast erupts again. For years, I have been warning about Mount Rainier, and I will continue to sound the alarm about it. When it finally goes, the death and destruction it causes could be off the charts. Of course there are other volcanoes along the west coast that we need to be watching as well. Although it doesn’t receive as much attention as Mount Rainier, some experts are becoming concerned that Mount Hood could soon erupt. On Monday, dozens of earthquakes shook the volcano for 45 minutes, and the USGS is trying to calm the frayed nerves of nearby residents… Hopefully the USGS is correct in this instance.

USA - Cybersecurity firm FireEye has warned Americans that they’ll be targeted by the next big cyberattack, whether they know it or not. Disrupted supply chains and the chaos of cellular and internet networks crashing will follow. “The next conflict where the gloves come off in cyber, the American citizen will be dragged into it, whether they want to be or not. Period,” FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia told Axios on HBO on Sunday.

ISRAEL - Israeli officials were “very pleased” with US airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria Thursday, and were informed by the Biden Administration before the attack, Walla reported Friday. The strikes were a retaliation for a February 15 rocket attack in Erbil, Iraq that killed a civilian contractor and injured an American service member. They came as President Joe Biden navigates a tense standoff with Iran over a possible return to the nuclear deal struck in 2015 by Barack Obama and abandoned in 2018 by Donald Trump. Israeli officials said that the US gave advance notice about the strikes, as would be routine ahead of such actions, and that the attack would send a strong signal to Iran. “The Iranians didn’t realize that Biden is not Obama, and that in the end they will miscalculate and get hit,” an Israeli official told Walla. The military action — the first of Biden’s presidency — killed at least one individual and destroyed facilities near the Syrian border with Iraq used by Iran-backed militias...

USA - The ‘science is settled’ but scientists keep changing views on daily basis. Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on COVID-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the pandemic. Murray had until recently been hopeful that the discovery of several effective vaccines could help countries achieve herd immunity, or nearly eliminate transmission through a combination of inoculation and previous infection. But in the last month, data from a vaccine trial in South Africa showed not only that a rapidly-spreading coronavirus variant could dampen the effect of the vaccine, it could also evade natural immunity in people who had been previously infected.

UNITED NATIONS - Almost one-fifth of all food that’s produced to be eaten by consumers goes to waste, the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) said in a new report, noting that most of the waste (61 percent) is actually produced by households. The global food waste index, released by the UNEP on Thursday, found that 17 percent of the food – some 931 million tons – produced in 2019 ended up in bins. The startling figure does not include food that was wasted during production or while in storage and which never made it to consumers. Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP, said that reducing food waste would cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature, enhance food availability and save money at a time of global recession. The UNEP said that 690 million people were affected by hunger in 2019 and three billion unable to afford a healthy diet.

NEW ZEALAND - A magnitude 8.1 earthquake rocked New Zealand today, prompting tsunami alerts and widespread evacuation orders along New Zealand's coast. The earthquake, which struck the Kermadec Islands, is the most powerful quake the world has felt in nearly two years. The earthquake struck at 8.28am local time on Friday (7.28pm GMT) hundreds of kilometres from the coast of New Zealand. The quake's epicentre was traced to a depth of about 10km or 6.2 miles at the Kermadec Islands which sit 800km from mainland New Zealand. The country's National Emergency Management Agency confirmed it was the third earthquake to hit the Pacific Island today. People have been told to immediately evacuate as far inland as possible and to seek high ground. Tsunami activity is expected along the coast for several hours and the first wave to arrive may not be the biggest.

CHILE - A massive 6.8 magnitude earthquake has struck Chile today leaving thousands at risk in the South American country. Chile’s 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck around 95 miles west-northwest of Valdivia, Chile at a depth of around six miles (10km). Valdivia was the site to the strongest recorded earthquake in history in 1960, with a staggering 9.4-9.6 magnitude causing havoc across Chile. The death toll for the 1960 Valdivia quake was never officially determined, with Government estimates held at 1,655, and the total economic damage from the quake reached $550 million.

GREECE - A strong 5.0 magnitude earthquake in the Mediterranean Sea has rocked the nearby Greek and Turkish islands. The earthquake in the Med has been confirmed by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). In its latest update, the EMSC said the earthquake struck at 1.36pm local time and had a depth of 12km. The epicentre of the quake was 52km north of Sitia in Greece and 11km east north east of Irákleion, also located in Greece. This is the latest in a series of earthquakes that have shaken nearby towns and buildings around the world over the past 24 hours. On Thursday, a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 shook eastern Japan, the country's Meteorological Agency confirmed. The epicentre was north of the capital Tokyo, in Ibaraki prefecture. On Wednesday, the EMSC said a magnitude 5.8 earthquake had struck New Guinea, Papua New Guinea.