GERMANY - This year's edition of the world's biggest industrial technology fair will give visitors glimpses into the factories of the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her opening speech to issue a stark warning. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Sunday in a speech to mark the opening of the Hannover Messe that the EU needed to become more competitive in next-generation industrial technologies.

VATICAN - Pope Francis used strong language to condemn populism Sunday, suggesting that it gains followers through fear as Hitler did in the 1930s. “I see that many people of good will, not only Catholics, are a bit gripped by fear, which is the usual message of populism,” the pope told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Morocco to Rome.

USA - At a recent conference, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos stated that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has “more data about what people want to do online than anyone else in the world.” CNBC reports that speaking at the Washington Post’s technology and policy conference on Wednesday, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos explained how Mark Zuckerberg manages to make decisions and business moves that eventually prove profitable but seem like huge gambles initially.

UK - Theresa May’s bitterly divided Cabinet is on the brink of collapse as ministers on both sides of the Brexit debate prepare to walk out on her. Mrs May is facing revolts from both Remain-backing and Brexiteer members of her top team as she collects herself and plans her next move following a humiliating third defeat of her deal. While those in favour of a hard Brexit or a no deal Brexit are heaping pressure on the premier not to accept a customs union, many of those on the Remain wing of her Cabinet will resign in protest if she backs a no deal option. The Sunday Times reported that while at least six ministers are willing to leave their posts if the UK crashes out of the bloc without a deal, a string of Brexiteer ministers are also warning they are not prepared to stay on if the UK ends up in a soft Brexit.

UK - Cabinet ministers will attempt to take control of Brexit by telling Theresa May it is “time to embrace no deal” after her EU Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by MPs for a third time. Mrs May will hold a conference call with ministers on Sunday night amid calls for a Cabinet vote on how to proceed. Senior backbenchers said the Prime Minister had reached the end of the road and should now quit, but Mrs May stood firm and wants to put her deal to a Parliamentary vote for a fourth time next week. She hinted that if MPs refuse to follow her she might call a general election to break the impasse, warning MPs: “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House.”

UK - Conservative MPs from across the party are threatening to vote down any attempt by Theresa May to lead them into a snap election, warning it would split the Tories and exacerbate the Brexit crisis. In a sign of the collapse in authority suffered by the prime minister, cabinet ministers are among those warning that there will be a serious campaign by Conservative MPs to vote against an election headed by May, a move she hinted at last week to break the Brexit deadlock. The threat of an election immediately angered both pro-Brexit and pro-Remain MPs. May would need a two-thirds majority in the Commons to secure one, meaning a serious rebellion by Tories could block it. May would then be forced to secure an election by backing a no-confidence vote in her own government, which only requires a simple majority of MPs. Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said: “If we have a general election before Brexit is resolved, it will only make things worse.”

USA - Citigroup has issued an explicit recession warning for the United States, advising clients to wind down exposure to risky assets and prepare to ride out the storm. The bank’s global investment team said the US Federal Reserve over-tightened monetary policy last year, waiting too long to stop raising interest rates or to slow the pace of quantitative tightening (reverse QE). The economy is already shot below the waterline and will mostly likely succumb to the textbook pathologies of a fading expansion. “The US economy seems to be transitioning into a stagnation phase after a brief period of goldilocks on a sugar high of fiscal stimulus. We advise investors to prepare for recession,” it said.

USA - Germany is being pressurized to act against its own economic interests – and put those of US business first. A key reason behind the recent ratcheting up of Cold War tensions by the US has been to try and get Germany to cancel its involvement in Nord Stream 2, which is currently 70 percent complete. In late 2018, Ambassador Grenell warned that German companies involved in Nord Stream 2 could face sanctions. The US really hates it when there’s a competitor in town. Europeans shouldn’t buy the cheapest gas, but what the US wants to sell them.

RUSSIA - The Trump administration should make good on its own promise to pull troops out of Syria before telling others where they should or shouldn’t be, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in reply to Washington’s threat over Venezuela. “Before they have their say in the lawful interests of other nations, I would advise the US administration to fulfill the promises that it had given to the international community,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to get American troops out of Syria.

USA - For many the real meaning of life, the universe and everything has infinite possibilities. Across our existence, debate has raged as to what the answer is. But the key to unlocking the universe may now have finally be revealed. And the answer is 137. According to How Stuff Works, Arthur Miller, a professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London, believes the number still holds the mystery and significance to alter the universe. He said: “137 continues to fire the imagination of everyone from scientists and mystics to occultists and people from the far-flung edges of society. Physicists say that 137 is the approximate measure of the strength of the electromagnet force which powers electron and muon particles.” Leon Lederman, an iconic American physicist, once said that 137 “contains the crux of electromagnetism, relativity and quantum theory”.

UK - MPs have rejected Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement on the day the UK was due to leave the EU. The government lost by 344 votes to 286, a margin of 58. It means the UK has missed an EU deadline to delay Brexit to 22 May and leave with a deal. The prime minister said the UK would have to find "an alternative way forward", which was "almost certain" to involve holding European elections.

UK - Theresa May and her cabinet are looking for ways to bring her EU withdrawal agreement back to the Commons for a fourth attempt at winning MPs' backing. The PM said the UK would need "an alternative way forward" after her plan was defeated by 58 votes on Friday. MPs from all parties will test support for other options during a second round of "indicative votes" on Monday. However, Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis said the government did not support any of those options. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to say whether his party would offer an option to remain in the EU during these votes, but said the obvious choice was "a good economic relationship with Europe". The latest vote came on the day the UK was supposed to leave the European Union: 29 March. The date was postponed to allow Mrs May more time to find a Brexit solution.

EUROPE - The ‘yellow vests’ (France), the pro- and anti-Brexit protests (UK), the German political crisis (Germany), the Catalan independence movement (Spain), the budget battle (Italy), the labour law reform (Hungary), the Marrakesh agreement and ministerial reshuffle (Belgium)… the European element in the increasingly violent crises currently feeding the national news is striking.

USA - Sometimes you write about the most obvious thing in the world because it is the most important thing. Reaction to the outcome of Robert Mueller’s investigation shows Americans again how divided we are. If you are more or less of the left, you experienced the probe as a search for truth that would restore the previous world of politics. Instead the traitor got away with it and you feel destabilized, deflated. If you are of the Trumpian right, it was from the beginning an attempted coup, the establishment using everything it had to remove a force it could not defeat at the polls. You are energized, elated.

NEW ZEALAND - In the wake of the Christchurch mosque attack, we come to find out that New Zealand has removed references to Jesus from the parliamentary prayer, sparking outrage among the country’s Christian population. Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, made the decision to drop references to Jesus in order to make the prayer “more inclusive” for all parliamentarians. The Guardian reported: A reference to “almighty god” remains, but it is not a specific reference to a Christian god. The protesters want Jesus’s name reinstated, and held signs reading “Dishonourable Judas Mallard”. Around 1,000 people protested on the steps of parliament house in Wellington, arguing that New Zealand was a Christian nation and Mallard had no authority to axe Jesus’s name. “He needs a good kick in his pants, and he needs to actually be removed because this is a Christian nation”, protester Rieki Teutscher told Radio NZ. “We don’t share his atheism.”