JAPAN - The Japanese government is seeking a "short and powerful" state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures, with restrictions to contain the coronavirus similar to those imposed last spring, a cabinet minister said on Friday. Under the new state of emergency between April 25 to May 11 and including the prefectures of Kyoto and Hyogo, the government would ask restaurants, bars, and karaoke parlours serving alcohol to close, and big sporting events to be held without spectators, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said. He was speaking at the start of a meeting with a panel of experts to discuss the proposed measures, which are expected to be formally approved later on Friday.

USA - Did you know that the number of reported UFO sightings has increased dramatically over the past two years? I didn’t realize this either until I looked up the numbers. Of course the skeptics will always find a way to explain away any facts that they do not like, but to me it appears that something very unusual is happening. According to the New York Times, more than 7,200 sightings were reported to the National UFO Reporting Center in 2020, and that represented an increase of “about 1,000” from the year before…

USA - Over the past 10 years, George Friedman, founder and President of Stratfor, has created controversy among political scientists with his two books on the future of the world. Their titles are “the next 10 years“ and ”the next 100 years”. Today, by quoting his book ”The Next 100 years”, we will take a look at the potential intentions of the United States for the next 100 years of the world and our region.

USA - How can America unite again to do great things if we are led by people who believe America suffers from a great sickness of the soul, an original sin that dates back to her birth as a nation? Consider. After his long night of prayer for “the right verdict” to be pronounced — Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts — Joe Biden stepped before the White House cameras to tell us what it all meant.

ISRAEL - You won’t hear the corporate media say very much about the “shadow war” that Israel and Iran are currently engaged in, because the corporate media is absolutely obsessed with covering the internal strife that is tearing the US apart right now. But if they were doing their jobs correctly, corporate media outlets would be focusing on the Middle East, because the conflict between Israel and Iran could literally spark a major global war at any moment.

USA - The Texas A&M Heisman winner is no stranger at all to social media, and during his downfall, he was constantly all over it. Now, he wants people to know that it’s not always a great place. He said the following on the latest episode of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast: It takes a very special person to not be affected by social media in 2020. I think just watching the way things are going in life and in the world right now, you know, social media is almost a dangerous place at times. You can use it in the right way or you can very easily use it in the wrong way. I think for awhile I just tried to stay off of it as much as I can.

RUSSIA - Russia will begin withdrawing its military forces from the Ukrainian border starting Friday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Thursday, after the buildup had raised alarms in the West of renewed clashes. Speaking during snap readiness exercises in annexed Crimea, Shoigu ordered the general staff of the armed forces, military chiefs and the airborne troops to begin returning to their home bases from the Russian-Ukrainian border and Crimea starting April 23. “I believe that the goals of the snap inspection have been fully achieved,” Interfax quoted Shoigu as saying. “The troops demonstrated the ability to reliably defend the country.” “In this regard, I have decided to complete the Southern and Western military district reviews,” he added.

USA - The Communist Chinese regime is behind another hack attack on the US. This time they are using a vehicle that many individuals and companies use to remotely connect to the Internet. NBC reported today: China is behind a newly discovered series of hacks against key targets in the US government, private companies and the country’s critical infrastructure, cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday. The hack works by breaking into Pulse Secure, a program that businesses often use to let workers remotely connect to their offices. The company announced Tuesday how users can check to see if they were affected but said the software update to prevent the risk to users won’t go out until May.

USA - On Wednesday, Joe Biden warned that Americans may be forced to cancel their plans for celebrating the 4th of July this year if too many Americans choose to not get a coronavirus vaccine, as reported by the New York Post. Although over 51 percent of Americans have already received some form of the vaccine, Biden was still hesitant to declare that the country was free to celebrate its Independence Day. He referred back to a speech he gave in March, which was widely criticized, in which he outlined “conditions” that had to be met in order to allow for “small” 4th of July gatherings.

INDIA - India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge hits the world's second-most populous country, sending more and more sick people into a fragile health care system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen. The 314,835 infections added in the past 24 hours raise India's total past 15.9 million cases since the pandemic began. It's the second-highest total in the world next to the United States. India has nearly 1.4 billion people. A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine and are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ordered an extensive lockdown last year, in the early stages of the pandemic, but has been wary of the economic costs of more tough restrictions. In recent weeks, the government has come in for criticism for holding packed political rallies for local elections and allowing a Hindu festival at which millions gathered.

USA - Even if the calendar says "spring," a wintry storm will be bringing a late round of snow, record low temperatures and severe storms to the Northeast on Wednesday, in a sign that Old Man Winter isn't loosening his freezing grip on millions of people just yet. Freeze warnings are currently in effect for over 70 million people from the Plains through the Northeast for Wednesday night into Thursday morning. "Ironically, today is considered the start date for the growing season across this area," said the National Weather Service (NWS) office in New York. These warnings mean freezing temperatures are likely and could kill crops and sensitive plants while also possibly damaging outdoor plumbing, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below average across much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation. In some areas, highs could be 30 degrees cooler than the typical high temperature for this time of the year.

USA - The Biden administration and the Israeli government are increasingly at odds over the ongoing US-Iran talks in Vienna, with Israel believing its concerns regarding a US return to the 2015 nuclear deal are not being taken into consideration. According to a report in Axios Wednesday, Israeli officials involved in the ongoing dialogue with the US on Iran said that things came to a head at a meeting between senior US and Israeli officials, two days after what is widely believed to be an Israeli attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility earlier this month.

MIDDLE EAST - In less than nine months, an assassin on a motorbike fatally shot an Al Qaeda commander given refuge in Tehran, Iran’s chief nuclear scientist was machine-gunned on a country road, and two separate, mysterious explosions rocked a key Iranian nuclear facility in the desert, striking the heart of the country’s efforts to enrich uranium. The steady drumbeat of attacks, which intelligence officials said were carried out by Israel, highlighted the seeming ease with which Israeli intelligence was able to reach deep inside Iran’s borders and repeatedly strike its most heavily guarded targets, often with the help of turncoat Iranians. The attacks, the latest wave in more than two decades of sabotage and assassinations, have exposed embarrassing security lapses and left Iran’s leaders looking over their shoulders as they pursue negotiations with the Biden administration aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement.

ISRAEL - After Israir Airlines and Tourism was purchased in January by a group that includes BGI Investments, controlled by Shalom Haim and supermarket magnate Rami Levy, it was clear that its days operating flights on the Jewish Sabbath were numbered. Israir is now removing all the flights scheduled to depart on the next few Friday nights and Saturdays from its reservations website, both those to Eilat and to overseas destinations. Israir flights to Eilat will begin again only after Shabbat ends on Saturday night. Before this change, 10 percent of the airlines’ flights were on Shabbat.

AFRICA - A recently completed pier at the Chinese naval base near the entrance to the Red Sea is large enough to support an aircraft carrier, the top US commander for Africa told lawmakers on Tuesday. Referring to the Chines naval base in Djibouti, US Africa Commander Army General Stephen Townsend told the House Armed Services Committee that the People’s Liberation Army was expanding its existing naval installation adjacent to a Chinese-owned commercial deep-water port and also seeking other military basing options elsewhere on the continent. “Their first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can even support their aircraft carriers in the future. Around the continent they are looking for other basing opportunities,” Townsend told the HASC.