GERMANY - Released on Thursday, the 600-page report was compiled by historian Friedrich Kiessling and legal scholar Christoph Safferling, and covers the Cold War period running from the early 1950s until 1974. The work was commissioned by the federal prosecutor’s office. The researchers found that, at one point during the 1950s, roughly three in four top officials in the federal prosecutor’s office had been members of the Nazi Party. It took until 1972 before former Nazis were no longer in the majority in that office, and until 1992 before the judicial system had been fully purged of ex-members of the fascist party. “There was no break, let alone a conscious break, with the Nazi past,” the researchers said of the situation. Presenting the inquiry’s findings, state secretary at the justice ministry Margaretha Sudhof said the country has “long remained blind” to the presence of ex-Nazis in senior positions after the end of the Second World War.

CANADA - Jordan Peterson says he spoke to a senior government adviser who told him Canada’s COVID restriction policies are completely driven by opinion polls and not science. “In relation to the COVID restrictions, I talked to a senior adviser to one of the provincial governments a couple of weeks ago,” said Peterson. “He told me flat out that the COVID policy here is driven by nothing but opinion polls related to the popularity of the government,” he added. “No science, no endgame in sight, no real plan, and so what that means is that the part of the population that is most afraid of COVID,” are driving the policy. Peterson pointed to figures that prove people vastly exaggerate the risk of being hospitalized by COVID due to relentless government fearmongering campaigns. Governments scare the living hell out of citizens to elicit a fear reaction, then point to poll numbers calling for more lockdown measures in order to justify more lockdown measures.

RUSSIA/CHINA - Russia and China have struck up an alarming pact after an expert told Express.co.uk that this week's missile weapons test "cements Sino-Russian cooperation in space". It comes after Russia blew up one of their old satellites in a missile test in space that sent space debris whizzing past the International Space Station (ISS). The move forced NASA astronauts to take cover in their spaceships and sparked fury in Washington with the debris also threatening China’s space station, Tiangong. But Brandon Weichert, author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, told Express.co.uk that the move will only deepen the cooperation between two of the West's biggest adversaries. He said: “If anything this is going to cement Sino-Russian cooperation in space. Technically, Russia is the second-best space power behind the US and slightly ahead of China."

USA - The budget reconciliation package pushed by Democrats creates a new expanded child tax credit (CTC) that would pay illegal immigrants some $10.5 billion next year. All immigrants with children are eligible, regardless of how they got here and whether their children are US-born. This includes the roughly 600,000 unaccompanied minors and persons in family units stopped at the border in FY2021 and released into the country pending a hearing. Cash welfare to illegal immigrants is not just costly; it also encourages more illegal immigration. Although it is referred to as a “refundable credit,” the new CTC, like the old additional child tax credit (ACTC) it replaces, pays cash to low-income families who do not pay any federal income tax. The new program significantly increases the maximum cash payment from $1,400 per child to $3,600 for children under 6, and to $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. After 2022, the maximum payment would be $2,000 per child, but advocates hope the much larger payments will be extended.

USA - Some 100,306 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses in the 12 months leading up to April 2021, according to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Opioids were responsible for just over three-quarters of these deaths, with synthetic opioids – including fentanyl, a drug 50 times more potent than heroin – responsible for more than six in 10 fatalities. In a statement marking the “tragic milestone,” President Joe Biden said his administration is “doing everything in our power to address addiction and end the overdose epidemic.” To that end, he pledged to deliver better healthcare and mental health services, and boasted that his American Rescue Plan has already delivered nearly $4 billion “to strengthen and expand services for substance use disorder.”

USA - Here are some comments from ex-President Trump. “They [Big Media] has one subject they don’t want to talk about – the 2020 Election scam. It all involves around that. We’re not going to have a country in three years. This guy did this in nine months. He destroyed our country. You know I say Make America Great Again. That was my theme and it was going to be Keep America Great. I gave that away… America’s not great now. America is a laughing stock all over the world. At first, I thought they were incompetent and now I realize they want it [the Southern Border] open. Look at the money they make. They’re full time politicians. Pelosi, and all these people, Waters, Obama. I expected to lose a lot of money. I lost millions. I expected that. I was ok. These people made money being President. I don’t think it’s a 50/50 country. When you have things like voter ID, defund the police, open borders, sanctuary cities, all of the stuff they have. I don’t believe 50% of the people vote for them. I think they cheat on elections, and they do other things, and that gets them up to that 50%. But they can’t have 50% with those policies.”

USA - Last year a US general made an ominous revelation: two Russian satellites in orbit were stalking a US spy satellite high above the earth. It wasn't clear if the Cosmos satellites could attack US-245, an American surveillance spacecraft. "It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space," said General Jay Raymond, head of the Pentagon's Space Command. The incident passed, but it marked a new stage in the mounting arms race in space, where potentially bomb-armed satellites, laser-shooting spacecraft and other technologies have moved from science fiction to reality. The stakes were made clear Monday when Russia launched a missile from Earth and blasted to pieces one of its satellites in a show of force. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called the act "reckless." "It demonstrates that Russia is now developing new weapons systems that can shoot down satellites," he said at a meeting Tuesday with EU defense ministers.

EUROPE - The EU is risking backtracking on its climate targets after Russia's gas squeeze on the bloc has reportedly brought the dirtiest fossil fuel back into action. The Kremlin tightened supplies of gas flowing into Europe while it awaited the approval of the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the hope of speeding up the certification process. But instead, the German regulators suspended the approval of the system, which is supposed to transit gas from Russia into Germany, bypassing Poland and Ukraine. This move could further anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose next move could cause even more damage to the EU if it decides to use its vast network of pipelines to restrict more gas transiting into the bloc. Europe’s gas prices have skyrocketed to record highs overnight and now some countries are said to be ready to return to coal-burning after fears of energy shortages soared.

USA - They both refuse to admit that their policies - the neocons’ promotion of perpetual war and the Fed's manipulation of the money supply - are complete failures, having produced the opposite of the promised results. The latest example of the Federal Reserve engaging in Bill Kristol-like levels of denial is the Fed’s continued insistence that the return of 70s-style inflation is a “transitory” phenomenon resulting from the end of the lockdowns. The Fed has acknowledged the “transitory” inflation will last until at least 2022, yet it is still determined to keep interest rates at or near zero until the “jobs situation” improves. Despite the looming fiscal crisis, Congress is unlikely to cut spending anytime soon. Instead, Congress members are debating a 1.75 trillion dollars “social spending” plan, having just passed a 1.2 trillion dollars infrastructure bill. Contrary to the claims of President Biden and his allies, this new spending will not reduce inflation. What it will do is hasten and deepen the inevitable economic crisis caused by government overspending.

USA - Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute from their highly successful COVID-19 vaccines while the world's poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated, according to a new analysis. The Alliance estimates that the trio will make pre-tax profits of $34 billion this year between them, which works out to over $1,000 a second, $65,000 a minute or $93.5 million a day. Currently, 98 percent of people in low-income countries have not been fully vaccinated.

RUSSIA/CHINA - Washington is nonplussed that Russia has conducted what the US calls a “dangerous and irresponsible” missile test. It targeted one of Russia’s own satellites as part of an apparent anti-satellite missile system. The US says that the test endangered the crew of the International Space Station (ISS).

GERMANY - Germany's energy regulator has suspended approval for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline hours after Boris Johnson told the EU it must choose between Ukraine's freedom or buying gas from Moscow. Construction of the pipeline, which will carry Russian gas directly across the Baltic to Germany, was delayed by United States sanctions and is strongly opposed by many European countries who believe it is designed to freeze Ukraine out of transit fees for shipping Russian gas. German regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, said on Tuesday it had suspended the certification process because the Swiss-based consortium behind Nord Stream 2 needed to form a company under German law to secure an operating licence. Skyrocketing gas prices jumped 9 per cent on the regulator's move amid fears that Europe will face a crippling shortage this winter and be forced to bow to Vladimir Putin's demands to keep houses warm on the Continent.

INDIA - Lockdown to combat air pollution: New Delhi prepares to ban non-essential travel and close offices due to toxic smog even though India torpedoed Cop 26 coal deal. India’s Supreme Court has called for a lockdown in New Delhi to try and reduce air pollution by banning non-essential travel and closing offices. The proposal, the first of its kind, comes as the city of 20 million battles smog which has forced schools to shut for a week to keep children from breathing in toxic air. The Delhi government on Monday pushed back hard against the call by the country’s top court, arguing that without a concerted effort by other states, the lockdown would have little impact on air quality.

ISRAEL - Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s a fact that much of the rest of the world is belatedly accepting. If only Israel could get its own government ministries to do the same. Israel Today has in the past spoken to Israelis who complained that it was no use trying to convince the rest of the world that Jerusalem was the capital of the State of Israel when its own Ministry of Defense and other major government bodies remained in Tel Aviv. Israel’s new “government of change” is looking to, well, change that.

NEW ZEALAND - Despite having a vaccinated population of 80%, leftist PM Jacinda Ardern says she will force healthcare workers and other businesses to get the COVID vaccine. Thousands gathered on Tuesday at New Zealand’s Parliament, in Wellington, to protest COVID vaccine mandates and other strong restrictions imposed in the Oceania country during the pandemic. In significant police presence, demonstrators carried signs with messages such as “Freedom,” “No more control,” or “My body, My choice,” as seen in local media footage. The Prime Minister, who from the onset of the pandemic opted for harsh restrictions such as the closing of borders or selective confinements to eliminate COVID-19, announced last month that she would make the vaccine mandatory for workers who are in contact with clients, as well as teachers and health sector personnel.