SWITZERLAND - Reducing the global population by billions is fundamental to achieving the WEF’s Great Reset agenda. WEF’s Young Global Leaders, like Sadhguru, have long openly advocated for depopulation and are galvanizing public support for reducing the world’s population. “All of the religious groups are against me because I’m talking about population. They want more souls, I want less on the planet,” Sadguru boasted during an interview at a WEF summit. In a video published on Sadhguru’s YouTube channel, which has amassed 10.4 million subscribers, the WEF spiritual leader champions people having fewer and fewer children and insists the global population, which currently stands at 7.9 billion, must be reduced by at least half by 2050. “Because you can’t expand the planet you have to decrease the population. There is no other way. Either you do it, or nature will do it. When nature does it, it’s not going to be nice, it’s not going to be nice at all.”

BAHRAIN - Pope Francis warned in Bahrain on Friday that "opposing blocs" and global divisions have put humanity on a "delicate precipice", a veiled reference to the Ukraine war. "We are living at a time when humanity, connected as never before, appears much more divided than united," he said during a speech to religious leaders in the Gulf kingdom. "We continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall." Francis, who has made religious dialogue a pillar of his papacy, was speaking on the first full day of his trip to the tiny island state, where he arrived on Thursday afternoon. His visit comes with the Ukraine war in its ninth month, and tensions growing on the Korean Peninsula.

USA - US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declared on Thursday that any nuclear attack against the US or its allies by North Korea “is unacceptable, and will lead to the end of the Kim regime.” With the US and South Korea holding military exercises, Pyongyang has launched hundreds of projectiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile. Austin delivered his warning in a joint communique with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, explaining that the US would defend South Korea “utilizing the full range of [its] defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities and advanced non-nuclear capabilities.”

RUSSIA - The world's five nuclear superpowers are 'on the brink of a direct armed conflict' which will have 'catastrophic consequences', Russia has warned. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that avoiding a nuclear clash between the world's nuclear powers was its first priority, but accused the West of 'encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction'. Western capitals have said Moscow is behind a ramping up of nuclear rhetoric since Russia invaded Ukraine in February - most recently by repeatedly accusing Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive 'dirty bomb' without offering evidence. Kyiv has denied having any such plan. Moscow said it stood by a joint declaration issued together with the US, China, Britain and France in January affirming their joint responsibility for avoiding a nuclear war.

UK - The Bank of England has warned the UK is facing its longest recession since records began, as it raised interest rates by the most in 33 years. It warned the UK would face a "very challenging" two-year slump with unemployment nearly doubling by 2025. Bank boss Andrew Bailey warned of a "tough road ahead" for UK households, but said it had to act forcefully now or things "will be worse later on". It lifted interest rates to 3% from 2.25%, the biggest jump since 1989.

USA - With the homelessness crisis cited among their top concerns, Oregon voters are taking note of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s declaration of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the state’s largest city. Oregon has among the highest homeless populations in the nation per capita. According to DHM Research, 9 of 10 voters statewide identify homelessness as a “very big problem” as Election Day draws near.

UK - One in five bar staff are now graduates and experts say it is because university leavers find it increasingly hard to find professional work. Nineteen per cent of bar workers went to university, compared with 3 per cent 30 years ago, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found. The research, based on data from 6,000 workers, also found that 17 per cent of waiters are graduates, compared with 2 per cent three decades ago.

SCOTLAND - Western nations around the world have fallen prey to the gender identity craze that is harming the lives of children. Perhaps no other country exemplifies this madness more than Scotland. The ruling Scottish National Party has proposed a piece of legislation called the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The proposed law would remove this requirement and allow people to change their gender by self-declaration. The bill also seeks to reduce the age at which someone can apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate from 18 to 16 years. Current Scottish law requires individuals to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria before obtaining a gender recognition certificate.

USA - California recently passed SB 107 allowing children from all 50 states to seek transgender medical services in California, even if a parent does not approve. A new state law in California could incentivize “bad actors” from around the world to skirt custodial laws by relocating to the Golden State, a conservative legal group claims.

UK - The BBC made up a story about a Russian 'attack' on a Ukrainian city's water supply – Britain's state broadcaster claimed that Moscow's troops tried to create a drought in Nikolaev, using false information. Don’t take RT’s word for it. The BBC itself seems simultaneously uncertain as to whether the deliberate destruction it claims the pictures show is in fact destruction at all. Descriptive texts accompanying the two highly pixelated, blurry shots – which may suggest they were taken on extremely dated photographic equipment, and/or aren’t at all recent – add a small but hugely significant caveat to the allegation.

GERMANY - The far right in Germany isn’t all angry young men with shaved heads, baseball bats and black boots. There are those who appear respectable, even intellectual. The Reichsbürger movement includes accountants, teachers and academics; many members are middle-aged. It’s a fractured network with vastly diverging world views, united in their belief that the current government is illegitimate.

GERMANY - I am a child of the post-Cold War order. Peace and prosperity in a united Europe were my reality, but those certainties no longer exist. A radical rethinking has begun, as we realize that there is no natural law protecting freedom. Europe’s systemic rivals will openly challenge the rules-based international order and our ways of life. In Germany, we coined a term for these strategic challenges of the future that concern us all: Zeitenwende—a turning point. As I travel to Washington this week to meet with US defense officials and others, here’s what the United States should know about this term and this pivotal moment in time for Germany. Put simply, the Zeitenwende marks the beginning of a new history. We must adjust our minds accordingly, and actions will follow.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to visit China this week. It marks his first ever trip to the Asian country, amidst growing tensions between Beijing and the West. But the decision to make the trip and the timing behind it is no coincidence. Scholz is sending a deliberate message to the US that Germany isn’t going to close the door on China, as Washington attempts to force countries to take a side.

EUROPE - “If you can move every human into a digital concentration camp, empty their bank account any time you want, and tell them what they can and cannot spend money on, you’ve got complete control.” – Catherine Austin Fitts. Central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) are digital currencies issued directly from a nation-state’s central bank and serve as legal tender. Critically, CBDCs are controlled by governments and therefore represent the polar opposite of the ideas – decentralisation, open-source software, permissionless, peer-to-peer transactions – that made Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such a revolutionary technology.

USA - The importance of a strong power grid cannot be emphasized enough. Often, when a grid fails, the results are terrifying. Of all the major power grids in the world, the United States’ is one of the more vulnerable to attack. State-sponsored hackers from the likes of Iran, Russia, and, unsurprisingly, China pose a real threat to the United States’ electrical transmission lines. However, there’s another (far less obvious) threat to the grid: electric vehicles (EVs).