JAPAN - First reported in Japan's Kyodo news agency on Thursday, unnamed Japanese officials detailed the plan was struck between the US and Japanese militaries, and arranges for a forward operating base to be establish on southwest islands, where the US Marine Corps would rapidly deploy troops. Kyodo details that "Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military have drawn up a draft joint operation plan that would enable the setup of an attack base along the Nansei island chain in the country's southwest in the event of a Taiwan contingency, according to Japanese government sources." This comes as the past year has seen Tokyo go from a much more neutral stance on the Taiwan issue to firmly and vocally being in Washington's corner, which has resulted in Beijing lashing out with warnings and threats on multiple occasions.

JAPAN - According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, an earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km. The earthquake of magnitude 5.9 struck the Ryukyu Islands in the southwest of Japan. According to the EMSC, the quake was registered about 232km from the city of Naha, Japan. No damage or casualties have as yet been reported. No tsunami warnings have been issued. Japan is located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire and regularly suffers from powerful earthquakes.

EUROPE - Two decades ago, a new currency was introduced across Europe. Since then, its limitations as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for diverse economies have been exposed, and its future is as uncertain as the EU’s itself. The euro became legal tender in 12 European Union member states on that day. Gone were the Deutsche mark, the franc, the peseta, the Italian lira – to name but a few – and in came the Frankfurt-controlled euro. It was a day to be celebrated by those who had dreamed of a federal Europe for many years. A few weeks back, the eurozone’s finance ministers gathered in Brussels to toast the 20th anniversary of the currency. There would have been lots of back-slapping and champagne drunk no doubt. But will the euro see its 30th, 40th, or 50th birthday? I am not so sure. Cracks within the EU are widening, and at some point in the future the bloc will have to decide what it wants to be: either a European superstate or a looser collection of independent states. If it fails to make this decision, the EU may well fragment – and the euro will inevitably suffer the same fate.

EUROPE - Poland’s deputy prime minister has accused Germany of trying to create a Fourth Reich, claiming it’s taking advantage of the European Union to deprive other nations of sovereignty and force them into a modern form of “serfdom.” “If we, as Poles, agreed to such contemporary serfdom, we would be degraded in various ways,” he said, adding that if Poland followed the EU’s approach to economic and energy policy, it “would mean that our citizens would be poorer in a few years than they are now.”

UK - Children are being 'brainwashed' by TikTok videos on ‘cool’ trans surgery viewed 26 billion times, campaigners claim. Campaigners have accused TikTok of helping children to be ‘brainwashed’ by hosting viral social-media videos that promote changing sex as ‘cool’. Material posted by transgender influencers on the social networking service – in which they provide advice on transitioning and accessing hormone therapies – has been seen by millions of young viewers. Some parents are concerned the involvement of TikTok, which became the UK’s most downloaded app last year, is fuelling a ‘social contagion’ of pressure on impressionable youngsters and the rise in teenagers who are identifying as trans. A spokesman for TikTok said: ‘We are honoured that the LGBTQ+ community has embraced TikTok from our very early days, as a platform for self-expression, education, community-building and joy.’ A spokesman for Stonewall said: ‘Our content allows young LGBTQ+ people to know that they are not alone in their experiences.’

USA - They are working relentlessly to transform our society into a dystopian “big brother” hellhole. The past two years have fundamentally transformed just about every nation on the entire planet, and there will be no going back if the elite have their way. For more than a decade, I have been warning about the rapid growth of the “Big Brother” control grid all around us, but in 2020 and 2021 things have gone to an entirely new level. The pandemic has given them the perfect excuse to impose lockdowns, mask requirements, vaccine passports and mandatory injections all over the globe. They have used fear of the virus to get the vast majority of the world population to accept measures that they never would have accepted during normal times. As a result, now they can monitor us, track us and control us like never before.

RUSSIA - During his marathon annual year-end press conference Q&A, which this year lasted about four hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again vowed to defend Russian society against the intrusion of the corrupted values of the West, in particular blasting the "gender obscurantism" pushed by the United States and Europe. "I am a proponent of the traditional approach that a woman is a woman and a man is a man," Putin laid out, which it goes without saying also reflects basic Biology 101 and humans' self-understanding for thousands upon thousands of years.

UNITED NATIONS - The release of the most recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was met with widespread international alarm. The BBC wrote that this was “code red for humanity” and the New York Times warned, “A Hotter Future Is Certain.” A Guardian headline stated that major changes to the climate were “inevitable” and “irreversible,” while both the BBC and the Guardian seemingly celebrated a survey that showed 4 in 10 young people now have almost uncontrollable anxiety about the climate.

USA - US Pacific coast is shaking! M6.0 earthquake hits Iliamna Volcano near Anchorage, Alaska just 2 days after M6.2 quake hits California. The quake was centered near Iliamna Volcano about 138 miles southwest of Anchorage. The quake was reported at a depth of 98.4 miles and shook the region at 1:42 pm. The jolt, which occurred across Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula, was felt widely throughout much of the state, with reports from as far away as Fairbanks, Kodiak and Valdez. More than 1,500 people reported feeling it on the USGS website.

USA - The world's flagship science instrument took flight from South America early Saturday, a high-stakes mission that, from well beyond the moon, will peer deeper into the universe's 13.8 billion-year history than ever before. Once unfurled and in its orbit beyond the moon about a million miles from Earth, Webb will use a massive, 21-foot primary mirror made up of 18 gold-coated hexagonal tiles to study the cosmos. Its standout capability is infrared observation, meaning obstacles like dust clouds won't be an issue. Scientists will be able to see the early phases of star formation and even the atmospheric compositions of promising far-off planets.

UK - Weaponised asteroids, "rods from god" raining down on Earth and cannon firing molten metal - it sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. But these bizarre weapons may soon become a reality as space becomes the final frontier for superpower warfare. The reality of a space war moved closer today as Putin revealed a new alliance with China to create space weapons that could unleash havoc in the West if its satellites were targeted. Speaking at his annual news conference, the Russian strongman leader said the partnership was “strategic” amid growing tensions with NATO.

USA - A Covid-19 outbreak has forced the USS Milwaukee littoral combat ship to halt its deployment and employ an “aggressive mitigation strategy” to contain the virus. The US Navy refused to disclose how many personnel tested positive for Covid-19 but emphasized that the crew was fully vaccinated. It’s not the first US warship that had to implement quarantine measures to combat an outbreak of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. In the most scandalous incident, thousands of sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt were forced to quarantine last year, and at least one died, while the carrier’s captain was fired for sending an email begging for his ship to be evacuated.

YEMEN - Yemeni Houthi rebels fired rockets into Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing two people. The rebels threatened more cross-border attacks if Riyadh continues to drop bombs on the civil war-torn country. Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Al-Hammad, the spokesperson for the Saudi General Directorate of Civil Defense, said that a projectile launched from Yemeni territory hit a shop in the southern Jizan Province, killing two people and wounding seven others with shrapnel. Houthi officials previously promised to retaliate against a Saudi airstrike in Yemen’s Al-Mahwit Province on Thursday.

SAUDI ARABIA - Evidence [has emerged] that Saudi Arabia has begun domestic manufacture of ballistic missiles using technology obtained from China, global news network CNN reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources and satellite images of what appears to be a production and testing site near the central town of Dawadmi. According to CNN, multiple US officials have been briefed on “classified intelligence revealing multiple large-scale transfers of sensitive ballistic missile technology between China and Saudi Arabia” which it said could potentially hinder efforts to convince Tehran to limit its own ballistic missile program.

GERMANY - Germany has long been ahead of the curve as a source of technical innovation and manufacturing. Now it is leading much of the developed world toward a demographic cliff edge that could put a damper on Europe’s largest economy, raising pressure on its pension system and pushing inflation higher for years to come. Economists forecast that Germany’s workforce could peak as soon as 2023 and then shrink by up to five million people by the end of the decade. While the pandemic has exacerbated the trend, it is the impending retirement of the baby boomers that is fueling the labor crunch, economists say.