GERMANY - Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was time for Germany to be "a grown up country" in terms of security policy. Pistorius said Russia's war against Ukraine had altered the role of Germany and the Bundeswehr. Germany plans to accelerate reforms of its military bureaucracy as part of an ongoing overhaul of the country's military, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius outlined in a document presented on Thursday in Berlin. The revamp of the military seeks to make the force more capable of defending Germany and its allies.

IRAN - The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly given its most powerful terrorist proxy group — the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization — permission to escalate its attacks against Israel. High-level Iranian and Lebanese sources reportedly told the Arabic Post this week that Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has told Hezbollah to launch a full-scale attack against Israel if Israel moves ahead with going into the Gazan city of Rafa as part of its military operation to destroy Hamas following the October 7 terrorist attack. Iran gave the order because it believes that once Israel is done eliminating terrorists inside Rafa, it will then attack Hezbollah’s positions in southern Lebanon.

UK - A school has sparked fury after allowing pupils to wear fake eyelashes as part of their uniform. Parents of children attending Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, Kent, have been left horrified by the new rules, saying the school is giving in to pupils' demands amid peer pressure from other classmates. Headteacher David Collins said the decision came after students were missing school to have their lashes removed or refusing to attend without them. But one mother said the new policy was 'making eye-lashes part of the uniform', adding: 'There is a lot of peer pressure at the school. The next thing would be that they're going to announce false nails and then where does it end? We're a society being run by children, which I'm not going to stand for. Rules are rules and that's the end of it.'

USA - If you want to determine what people believe, don’t listen to what they say. Rather, closely watch what they actually do. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have all sold big chunks of shares in their own companies. How come? Bezos is way out in front after offloading 50 million shares of Amazon in just nine trading days this month, pocketing an estimated $8.5 billion. Zuckerberg cashed in almost 1.8 million shares of his social-media empire for more than $400 million in the last two months of 2023. JPMorgan’s Dimon joined the club this month, jettisoning about 822,000 shares of the bank he leads for about $150 million.

RUSSIA - Leaked military documents outline Russia's doctrine for tactical nuclear weapons use, including the minimum criteria for using tactical nuclear weapons, the Financial Times (FT) reported on February 28. Russia's tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield in Europe and Asia, and have a more limited range compared to strategic nuclear weapons, which could reach the US. The 29 Russian military files, which date from between 2008 and 2014, indicate a threshold "lower than Russia has ever publicly admitted, according to experts who reviewed and verified the documents," the FT said.

USA - Hamas’ savage attack on Israeli civilians on October 7 sparked “woke” leftist protests at prestigious universities. The protestors sided with the terrorists' butchers, indulged antisemitic and genocidal chants and slogans, and threatened the well-being of Jewish students. Campus “cancel culture,” the silencing of dissenting opinions and ideas, ran amok. Worse, many university administrators sided with what could only be described as “hate speech,” and refused to commit to a clear condemnation of the terrorists and their student cheerleaders. Instead, they relied on weasel words like “context” to avoid their students’ wrath. The First Amendment and academic freedom, long ailing in our premier universities, are now languishing on life-support.

CHINA - Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping is once again urging US students to visit China, where they can be more effectively lied to and brainwashed to believe China is a socialist paradise whose government does not want to destroy America. Foreign exchange programs between American schools and Communist China can constitute a serious problem, as the CCP obviously only wants American students to see a false front of prosperity, happiness, and cultural richness. The students will not see the CCP's horrific religious, political, and ethnic persecution and mass murder. Just as the CCP establishes institutes and infiltrates institutions in America to propagandize Westerners, foreign exchange programs can merely be opportunities for the CCP to present Americans with a very one-sided view of Communist China.

ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia, one of Africa's largest countries, has always been ambitious and eager for economic development. Recently, the country has joined BRICS. BRICS membership could have a profound impact on Ethiopia and its economy. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the Russian Federation Uriat Cham Ugala in an exclusive interview with TV BRICS said that BRICS will allow Ethiopia to move to a new economic level: “This is an opportunity for Ethiopia to grow. The BRICS countries account for about 40 per cent of the world's population. In addition, the economies of all these countries are growing rapidly. Joining the alliance opens up for Ethiopia broad prospects for co-operation in many different areas. So our leadership has many expectations.”

USA - (The US Government Believed That About 90% Of The World Population Would Die in An Attack With Nuclear Weapons.) An engagement of a few hundred strikes, in tit-for-tat waves, over the space of a few days, targeting military installations. It would disproportionately affect Russia as the US missile defence system, while far from perfect, is more advanced and would be more successful at knocking some incoming missiles out. There would be frantic diplomatic work from neutral parties to try and de-escalate. When it fizzles out, there would be hundreds of thousands dead, predominately military personnel. Hundreds of separate wildfires in forests and grasslands would cause a slight, temporary decrease in global temperatures.

USA - Seizure fever is toxifying law enforcement across the nation. For more than thirty years, federal, state, and local government agencies have plundered citizens on practically any harebrained accusation or pretext. You could be at risk of being pilfered by officialdom anytime you sit behind a steering wheel. Between 2001 and 2014, lawmen seized more than $2.5 billion in cash from sixty thousand travelers on the nation’s highways — with no criminal charges in most cases, according to the Washington Post. Federal, state, and local law enforcement have institutionalized shakedowns on the nation’s highways to the point that “forfeiture corridors are the new speed traps,” as Mother Jones observed.

USA - Ultra-processed foods are industrially formulated with added sugar, artificial sweeteners, additives and flavorings to be highly rewarding and even addictive. They can alter the brain’s reward pathways the same way that other addictive substances do, making them challenging to consume in moderation. In fact, a body of scientific research has emerged in recent years to show that some ultra-processed foods (UPFs) can be as addictive as cigarettes and cocaine. Several major food brands were once owned by the world’s largest tobacco companies. Evidence suggests the same tactics used to formulate and market cigarettes were used in the creation of food products. Manufacturers of ultra-processed foods often seek to find the most alluring combination of salt, sugar, and fat in their products. This point of perfection is known as “the bliss point,” a term coined by American market researcher and food scientist Howard Moskowitz in the 1990s.

VATICAN - Pope Francis, who has had a mild flu in recent days, was taken to a hospital in downtown Rome on Wednesday, reviving concerns about the 87-year old pontiff’s health. The Vatican said in a statement that he had gone for “some diagnostic tests,” but did not offer details about a visit that lasted less than an hour. Francis’s health has been a source of concern. The pontiff has been hospitalized three times in two years, most recently in June, when surgeons operated on an incisional hernia, typically a consequence of previous operations, that had been causing painful intestinal blockages. He also had colon surgery in 2021, and in March last year he was hospitalized because of a respiratory infection.

WALES - It's thought to be the largest protest event in the Senedd's history. Thousands of farmers descended on the Senedd and a long line of tractors shut a major road in Cardiff in a protest over issues threatening the industry. Protests have been taking place across Wales over the last few weeks triggered by the Welsh Government's sustainable farming scheme which the government itself admits could result in 5,500 direct job losses.

EGYPT - Egypt warned on Tuesday that Israel's planned ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would have "catastrophic repercussions" for peace in the Middle East. Foreign ministers from Arab League countries told the United Nations Human Rights Council that some nations were turning a blind eye to the suffering in Gaza. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the extreme polarisation exposed by the Gaza war had laid bare the double standards of some members of the UN's top rights body. Israel has said a truce with Hamas would delay, not prevent, a ground invasion of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge from the war.

LEBANON - A Hezbollah official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity said that at least two fighters were killed in the strikes, adding that an Israeli munition had struck a food storage warehouse used for civilian purposes. Another unnamed Lebanese official added that a Lebanese Army regular was also seriously wounded in the raid, and noted that the soldier’s son had also sustained injuries, without elaborating. The militia group later said it responded by firing 60 Katyusha rockets toward an Israeli Army command center in the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel seized following the Six-Day War of 1967.