GERMANY - Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Saturday accused Vice President JD Vance of unacceptably interfering in his country’s imminent elections on behalf of a party that has played down the atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago. A day after Mr Vance stunned the Munich Security Conference by telling German leaders to drop their so-called firewall and allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to enter their federal government, Mr Scholz accused Mr Vance of effectively violating a commitment to never again allow Germany to be led by fascists who could repeat the horrors of the Holocaust. “A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,” Mr Scholz said at the conference on Saturday morning, in an address opening the gathering’s second day.

EUROPE - Afroditi Latinopoulou, a Greek member of the EU parliament representing the “Voice of Reason” party, delivered an epic and fiery indictment of Europe’s socialist policies. Latinopoulou argued that 50 years of socialist rule and the modern pervasiveness of woke ideology have decimated economies and destroyed Europe, not the “far right.” Latinopoulou began, “Seriously, ladies and gentlemen? Did the right destroy industry? Did the right idolize Greta Thunberg? Did the right impose green energy at the expense of industry, destroying the EU’s competitiveness? Or was it the socialist governments that have been ruling the European Union for 50 years? France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and my homeland Greece have been devastated by groundless socialist policies. And today you, the destroyers of Europe, have the audacity to point fingers at us, saying that we conservatives are a threat to Europe? Lower taxes, increase competitiveness, bring back plastic straws, leave lignite alone, invest in the industry and, above all, face reality: YOU HAVE FAILED.”

USA - The Department of Government Efficiency has managed in just a few weeks to inspire dread among various contributors to and beneficiaries of government waste. After making its penetrating gaze felt at over a dozen federal agencies, including the US Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the DOGE set its sights on the Internal Revenue Service. Sure enough, bureaucrats at the organization that the Obama administration weaponized against conservatives have begun to panic. Two unnamed sources said to be familiar with the matter told Reuters that one of Elon Musk's top DOGE staffers, Gavin Kliger, arrived at the IRS Thursday to scrutinize the agency's operations. Kliger reportedly met with top executives at the agency who were separately instructed in an email to identify all "non-essential" contracts for termination.

GERMANY - Yet another asylum seeker has just launched a deranged attack out of nowhere on innocent members of the public. This time, the horror is unfolding in Munich, where 28 people have been injured, some critically, by a car crashing into a modest trade union demonstration near the main station. ‘You see – it has happened again,’ says Florian Wiese, pointing to the breaking news on the television in his insurance office on the main road running through Furstenwalde. It only reinforces his view that the hard-Right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party will sweep the board in this part of Germany come polling day.

UKRAINE - Zelenskyy's Europe armed forces call is harsh truth that London, Paris and Berlin needed to hear. It is time for an armed forces of Europe. This was the key message from Ukraine's president at a major security conference in Munich that has brutally exposed European irrelevance when the US is not onside. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said such a force would not replace the transatlantic NATO alliance, but it would instead ensure that Europe is as strong as Washington - and taken seriously by friends and foes once again. "We must build the armed forces of Europe so that Europe's future depends only on Europeans and decisions about Europe are made in Europe," he said, speaking on the main stage at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. He then asked the audience of European politicians, diplomats and military chiefs in Munich: "If Russia came for you, could your army fight the same way?" An uncomfortable question for deeply uncomfortable times.

GERMANY - Mainstream politicians have failed to grasp the scale of the country’s immigration issue. More tragedy is inevitable. An empty pram lies forlorn, on a street covered in debris and police tape. In Munich, a failed Afghan asylum seeker has driven his car into a crowd. Among the injured are a mother and her small child, who are still struggling for their lives. Like many German mothers, I find myself wondering how safe it is to push my 14 month old daughter through the town where we live.

GERMANY - As Germany’s economic miracle unravels, its dark past is coming back to haunt it. Next Sunday, Germany goes to the polls. The federal republic’s most important election since reunification in 1990 coincides with its longest peacetime recession. As shadows lengthen across Ukraine, Germany has once again had to confront its demons, recalling the darkest moments of the past. Old slogans of the Nazi era, such as Alles für Deutschland (“Everything for Germany”), have resurfaced as dog whistles.

UK - Gen Z is the gift that keeps giving, though this generosity is not a welcome one. Just when you think there couldn’t be a more barmy, navel-gazing, trouble-making, nihilistic bunch of young people, you get served up another mind-bending insight into their worlds: this or that cult figure, whether Greta Thunberg or Luigi Mangione, the celebrated young killer of the insurance executive Brian Thompson; this or that reason for opting out of work or family, for being mortally offended and ethically outraged; this or that protest for Palestine and human rights and so on.

USA - Council meetings are often drab affairs in which officials in suits debate bin collections and the minutia fire safety regulations. But a meeting in Massachusetts this week bucked the trend as drag queens, pastors and a seven-year-old boy pleaded to councillors, one by one, to designate their city a safe haven for transgender people. Around 200 residents packed into the wood panelled committee meeting in Worcester City on Tuesday, where members of the gallery held up signs saying “silence = death” and heckled their opponents.

UK - Children need the best start in life - and the authors of a new report warn too many young people face a mental health crisis. Britain is a “global leader in family breakdown” with devastating consequences for mental health, a leading think tank has warned. Young people whose families break-up before they reach the age of 18 are nearly twice as likely to suffer from mental ill-health, according to the Centre for Social Justice. It argues that securing “stronger families” is key to improving mental health across the nation. Researchers are alarmed that “a fifth of children aged eight to 16 have a probable mental health disorder, up from 12.5% in 2017”.

USA - America is no longer interested in underwriting Ukrainian and European security and it’s time for Britain to face this reality. In what Donald Trump called a “highly productive” phone call, he and Vladimir Putin “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”. If that is what happened, it is a great victory for Putin’s world view. The Russian president has always believed that only those countries that decide the fate of others can be truly sovereign.

EUROPE - Europe can no longer count on the United States to come to its defence if Russia attacks, Pete Hegseth warned NATO allies on Wednesday. The firebrand US secretary of defence said the Continent would have to step up to support Ukraine and confront the threat of Russia as his country shifts its focus to tackling China and securing its domestic borders. He also ruled out sending US troops to help keep the peace in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

MIDDLE EAST - The Hamas terrorist group said Thursday it would reverse its previous threat of non-compliance and will now continue freeing Israeli hostages as set out in the Gaza agreement. The Financial Times reports the group had previously announced it would suspend releases of hostages “until further notice” inside the parameters of the six-week ceasefire deal, citing supposed Israeli violations of the original agreement. In response, Israel threatened to resume the war if the next group of hostages were not freed as scheduled on Saturday. Hamas said after talks with mediators it had received assurances that they would remove the “obstacles” to the deal.

USA - America is about to take the red pill. This nation is about to find out some ugly truths about vaccines in general; the deadly Covid vaccine in particular… Never in this nation’s history has a critic and foe of Big Pharma been allowed to get near HHS (Health and Human Services), let alone run it! But Bobby Kennedy Jr now runs HHS. Now RFK Jr is in charge, I’m certain he wants dramatic change. But I’m also certain the forces of evil are lining up to stop him with all the power, money and influence they have. Now let’s see what Bobby Kennedy Jr is able to achieve. Whoever wins will determine if we will “make America healthy again.”

GERMANY - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday said a deal to end the Ukraine war should not be imposed on Kyiv as European leaders warned of security implications on the continent after US President Donald Trump agreed to open negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call. European leaders scrambled on Thursday to try to get a seat at the table in Ukraine peace talks after US President Donald Trump announced the start of negotiations after speaking directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.