ITALY - Say goodbye to your freedoms. From the end of January you will need a Greenpass to enter banks in Italy. For the time being they still accept a negative test with Greenpass basic but if they ever upgrade to Greenpass Super - and I am sure they would love to - only proof of boosting will be accepted and your access to the financial system will be severely limited if you are not up to date with your quarterly shots. The Italian government has recently stated that they are not responsible if you die from vaccination because it was your choice to take the vaccines.

USA - Negotiators for the United States are planning to show up to talks with their Russian counterparts Monday with proposals to discuss the placement of missiles and scope of military exercises in Europe, according to a senior administration official and others familiar with the plans. The White House is looking to test whether Moscow is serious about ending the Ukraine crisis through diplomacy or is making unworkable demands as a delay tactic or pretext for a new invasion. The bilateral talks in Geneva - with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman leading the US delegation and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov serving as lead representative for the Russians - come as Moscow continues to mass forces and materiel on the border with Ukraine, threatening to take military measures if Washington and its allies fail to address the Kremlin's security concerns.

USA - A Constitutional law professor has predicted that the US Supreme Court is likely to overrule Roe vs Wade. While speaking with The Catholic Spirit, University of St Thomas law professor Teresa Collett argued that abortion “has no roots in the Constitution.” “Roe is purely a judicial creation — it has no roots in the language of the Constitution, American history, or our legal traditions. As such, what the Court created, the Court can reject,” she told The Catholic Spirit. After nearly 50 years of abortion on demand, Collett said the court finally may overturn Roe. “Truth is on our side,” she said. “As a majority of the judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recognized in Planned Parenthood vs Rounds, abortion terminates ‘the life of a whole separate, unique living human being.’”

USA - Getting “vaccinated” for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) could mean losing your life insurance coverage. According to reports, many who took the experimental gene therapy from Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” program are now coming to the realization that their death benefits have been voided. Apparently the life insurance industry considers the emergency use-authorized injections to be an “experimental medical intervention” – which is exactly what they are. Consequently, they do not qualify for a payout. Only vaccines that have undergone the normal testing and vetting process are covered…

USA - There’s a growing global potato shortage — a real problem for a planet addicted to French fries and chips. A number of popular items, including Marmite and cream cheese, have faced scarcities amid supply chain disruptions wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and extreme weather. Potatoes are the latest to join the list, becoming unevenly available in some countries and fast-food chains because of a confluence of factors. In Japan, McDonald’s locations stopped offering large and medium-size french fry orders late last month, after pandemic-related supply chain issues and floods in the Port of Vancouver delayed potato shipments. Days later, South Africa’s leading makers of potato chips warned that potatoes were in disturbingly short supply after a bad frost and excessive rains led to low local yields, on top of global sourcing shortages.

USA - With NASCAR’s move, virtually every American sport league is now actively, unashamedly pro-LGBT, committed to promoting sodomy as good, and essentially tossing the complementarity of man and woman into the dumpster of history. NASCAR, the nation’s premiere stock car competition organization featuring the biggest names in auto racing, announced Wednesday that it has partnered with an LGBTQ+ organization to “promote diversity, equity, and inclusion training.” “NASCAR is excited to partner with the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce,” said Brandon Thompson, NASCAR’s vice president of diversity and inclusion. “We know that fans of NASCAR look different, they love different, they’re differently able,” Thompson told radio station WFAE in December after NASCAR made “a major donation” to the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce. “This gives us an opportunity to let them know that we see them as well as support them.”

FAR EAST - McDonald's has run out of hash browns in Taiwan and limits fries to small-size one for a second time in Japan due to global supply chain havoc. The fast food company in Taiwan said it was running out of hash browns imported from the United States and would have to suspend sales due to 'unstable global shipping supply'. McDonald's put up signs in some storefronts announcing the suspensions while the item is listed as 'temporarily unavailable' on its menus. 'There is a shortage of hash browns in McDonald's restaurants and sales will be temporarily suspended after they are sold out,' a statement posted on the company's website said. Supply chain shortages have rippled across the globe during the coronavirus pandemic affecting everything from building materials, wood and food to books, microchips and electronics.

GERMANY - For the first time in the country's history, Germany has appointed a commissioner for the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity. Green Party lawmaker Sven Lehmann will oversee a LGBTQ national action plan: the "Federal Government Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity". Lehmann said "everyone should be able to live freely, safely, and with equal rights." Cologne is home to one of the country's largest gay communities. The German Society for Trans Identity and Intersexuality (dgti) also said it looked forward to working with Lehmann on the path to a "better world for all trans, inter and non-binary people."

MOROCCO - Beijing’s new deal with Rabat, which could turn Morocco into a key trade hub for Europe and Africa, shows how China is using strategic thinking rather than military muscle to extend its influence globally. Morocco is a strategically important North African country that sits at a crossroads between multiple regions of the world. To its immediate north is the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea. To the south and east is the rest of the African continent, and to the west is the vast Atlantic Ocean and the Americas.

GERMANY - Germany and the EU are at risk of losing out in the world's most significant growth region, business representatives warn, regarding the world's largest free trade agreement RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), which became effective on January 1, and is still hardly known in Germany. RCEP is a free trade agreement (FTA) between 15 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes the world's second and third largest economies – China’s and Japan’s respectively. Together, the RCEP countries represent nearly a third of the global GDP. RCEP has the potential of consolidating international supply chains within its member countries, luring production sites away – also from Germany, for example – and to set globally important trade norms and industrial standards. The new free trade alliance is a structural consequence of the shift in the balance of forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific and of former colonies turning their backs on their former colonial powers. German business representatives are calling for swift action to prevent potential losses to the German industry.

USA - PragerU founder and radio host Dennis Prager discussed Facebook’s so-called “fact checkers,” telling Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that if the statement “men give birth” is considered a fact, “then the word ‘fact’ means nothing.” Prager and Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow sat down at Turning Point USA’s recent AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where Marlow mentioned that Facebook has admitted their fact checks are opinion, not facts. “Well, that should be clear,” Prager said. “If ‘men give birth’ is offered as fact, then the word ‘fact’ means nothing.”

GERMANY - The thorny issue of how to face up to Vladimir Putin's Russia is one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for Germany's new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. In the coalition agreement that forms the basis for Germany's three-party government of center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP), there is one sentence that could spark any manner of friction and tension. It reads: "We need a resolute and substantial foreign, security, development and human rights policy that is integrated and cohesive."

EUROPE - Emmanuel Macron is plotting to turn the EU into a "powerful" sovereign bloc to counteract China and other authoritarian regimes, a senior official from his government has revealed. The French President inaugurated his country's presidency of the EU Council on Thursday with EU Commissioners in Paris. Mr Macron, who is also expected to run for a second term at the April presidential elections, will pursue his plan to turn the EU into a power player against China during the country's six-month rotating presidency of the bloc.

EUROPE - Emmanuel Macron has demanded discussions for the formation of a European Union defence capability get underway at a summit in March. Speaking to DW News on Thursday, Jacob Ross of the German Council of Foreign Relations said the French President made it clear at a speech in December discussions for a raft of summits to shape the direction of the European Union will take place in the first three months of 2022. Mr Ross added how President Macron and France now "have the tools to set the agenda to bring their priorities to the European stage" with the presidency of the European Council.

USA - They are hypocrites that preach ‘tolerance’ for everyone – except for the groups that they really, really hate. If you are a global leader, millions upon millions of people are deeply affected by the public statements that you make. So when you are in such a position, it is absolutely imperative to be incredibly careful with your words. Unfortunately, prominent politicians all over the globe are increasingly spewing hatred for certain groups even as they pretend to be champions for “tolerance”. When ordinary citizens hear such hateful statements, many of them inevitably come to the conclusion that it is okay to hate those groups too. Nearly a century ago, the Germans gave us a prime example of where this sort of hatred can ultimately lead, and we never want such a thing to ever happen again.