USA - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called on Congress to reduce the US federal budget deficit to ensure the central bank could adequately respond to a financial crisis or recession. Powell told a House committee Tuesday that lawmakers should curb federal spending while the economy is running strong before a downturn forces Congress or the Fed to pump stimulus spending into the US. “Putting the federal budget on a sustainable path when the economy is strong would help ensure that policymakers have the space to use fiscal policy to assist in stabilizing the economy during a downturn,” Powell said Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee. “A more sustainable federal budget could also support the economy’s growth over the long term.”

USA - Americans increased their borrowing for the 22nd straight quarter as more households took out loans to buy homes or refinance existing mortgages, according to a report released today from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Total US household debt rose by $601 billion in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, or 1.4%, surpassing $14 trillion for the first time, the New York Fed’s quarterly household credit and debt report showed. That’s $1.5 trillion above the previous peak in the third quarter of 2008. Overall household debt is now 26.8% above the second-quarter 2013 trough.

USA - Our in-depth research has repeatedly verified that red meats are essential for the vision and immune systems of all developing children. There is no substitute for beef. Take for instance the iron supplements that are intended to compensate for diets lacking beef: the body absorbs less than 10% of these chemically manufactured iron supplements, and increasing their dosage quickly makes them toxic, and sometimes fatal.

IRAN - A senior Iranian official who was the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that Iran is just looking for an excuse to “raze Tel Aviv to the ground,” accusing Israel of helping the US in its assassination of top commander Qassem Soleimani. Asked on Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen TV station whether Iran planned on following through with its threats to attack Israel in the event of a war with the US, adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Mohsen Rezaee answered in the affirmative. “You should have no doubt about this. We would raze Tel Aviv to the ground for sure. We have been looking for such a pretext,” Rezaei said according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “If they (the US) do something, we can use it as a pretext to attack Israel, because Israel played a role in the martyrdom of General Soleimani,” he said.

Cases: 60,360

Deaths: 1,369

GERMANY - Angela Merkel’s chosen successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has thrown in the towel. Expect fierce leadership and policy struggles. First, the next leader of Germany’s conservatives will be a man — and politically quite different from Chancellor Angela Merkel and her preferred successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who announced her resignation on Monday. Personally speaking, my money is on Jens Spahn, the current health minister, over the former CDU grandee Friedrich Merz and North Rhine-Westphalia State Premier Armin Laschet.

GERMANY - The announcement of Angela Merkel's heir apparent, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, saying that she is resigning as her party's head and won't run for the post of chancellor, has stirred up a political storm in Germany. Merkel reacted to the announcement by saying “I greatly regret it.” She suggested that “this wasn’t an easy decision” for Kramp-Karrenbauer, and thanked her fellow party member for agreeing to stay in charge until a new chancellor candidate is selected. The 57-year-old's partial departure — already dubbed the CDU "earthquake" — was met with mixed reaction in Berlin. Dietmar Bartsch, faction chief of the Left Party, went even further, claiming the coalition government made up of CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU and the Social Democrats is about to collapse. "The grand coalition is finished," he argued, because Europe's largest economy "cannot afford a one-and-a-half year stalemate" until the next elections are held in 2021. "The CDU is currently unable to govern. Down with that government," Bartsch said.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel’s critics have often mocked her for making a fetish of “stability”. As she enters the twilight of her chancellorship, some of those critics — in Berlin and Brussels — are realising that stability might not be so bad after all. Yesterday’s news that Merkel’s struggling heir apparent Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) will step down as leader of the Christian Democrats and end her chancellorship aspirations has sparked a leadership battle that is being portrayed as a fight for the heart of a party dominated by Merkel for two decades. Der Spiegel’s Melanie Amann calls AKK’s retreat the squandering of a “historic opportunity” to ensure a “dignified” end to Merkel’s reign. Amid the recriminations, four men will probably be battling it out for the succession. Bloomberg profiles the candidates: “dark prince” Jens Spahn; AKK’s defeated rival Friedrich Merz; towering Bavarian Markus Söder; and a name that will be familiar in Brussels circles, former MEP Armin Laschet. He’s arguably the most centrist of the four and thus the continuity candidate.

EUROPE - Public support for NATO has seen a notable decline in France, Germany and the US, according to a new poll. The alliance has suffered from months of budgetary in-fighting and mud-slinging among member states. While the Pew Research study noted that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization still enjoys general support across member states, it pointed out that several countries "have soured on the alliance." The decline in public support can be attributed to a number of factors, including months of heated debate over defense spending among member states. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly chastised alliance members for not meeting their military spending commitment of two percent of GDP, while arguing that the United States pays far too much for Europe's defense.

USA - Big Pharma is taking the next big step toward enforcing total compliance. The pharmaceutical industry is introducing a new type of drug – pills that contains computer chips that track your adherence. Once the chip hits the stomach, information is relayed to a skin patch. The skin patch sends information to a computer, where a physician, researcher, hacker, or government official can track your compliance to the drug and learn more about your habits.

REUNION ISLAND - A volcano on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is spewing red hot lava into the surrounding countryside and sending plumes of smoke into the air. Dramatic footage filmed from a helicopter has captured the molten rock pouring out of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano and stretching across the striking landscape as smoke fills the air. The squat volcano is one of the most active in the world, periodically erupting for long stretches of time. The current eruption began all the way back in October 2019 and is still going strong. Reunion is part of France, though it lies 175 kilometers (109 miles) off the coast of Madagascar.

Cases: 45,188

Deaths: 1,116

GERMANY - The sheer scale of BlackRock's finances makes its influence on the world unlike that of any other company. Now one of its board members in Germany, Friedrich Merz, wants to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has sat on the boards of several major companies, including Commerzbank, HSBC, the insurance company AXA, and the German real estate developer IVG. During his career as a Bundestag member, he opposed the minimum wage and argued for cutting social benefits and limiting the power of trade unions. His possible ascension to the chancellery would therefore grant the financial power broker unprecedented control of Europe's largest economy.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s succession plan was upended Monday when the head of her conservative party said she wouldn’t run for the chancellery and would step down as party leader later this year. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer defeated rivals to become chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union with the backing of Ms Merkel in late 2018 but her tenure has been marred by criticism in the media, weakening opinion-poll results and electoral setbacks. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, who will continue to serve as Germany’s defense minister, cited her refusal to work with fringe parties on the left and the right — a position that has been increasingly questioned by midlevel party officials — as one reason for her decision, according to party officials.

UK - On February 6, the Financial Times bannered a scoop under this headline: “Donald Trump ‘apoplectic’ in call with Boris Johnson over Huawei.” The argument was over the decision of the British prime minister to allow the Chinese-government-controlled tech manufacturer Huawei to participate in Britain’s next-generation cellular network, known worldwide as 5G.