GERMANY - Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the BfV, has classified the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “suspected” extremist group, according to the media. The move allows extensive surveillance of the party. The BfV’s head, Thomas Haldenwang, has informed the agency’s regional offices about the decision taken on February 25, several German news outlets, including Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and Der Tagesspiegel, reported independently, citing their sources. Such designation allows the German domestic security service tasked with combating terrorist and extremist activities to monitor a group’s actions by employing extensive intelligence and surveillance means, including tapping into phone conversations, monitoring emails and requiring informants from within the group’s ranks.

USA - In the sixty-four-page order, Judge Jeff Weill not only calls for a new election but also finds evidence of fraud and criminal activity, in how absentee ballots were handled, how votes were counted, and the actions by some at the polling place. In his ruling, the judge said that sixty-six of eighty-four absentee ballots cast in the June runoff were not valid and should never have been counted. Nicholas Holliday was declared the winner by a 37 vote margin. Robert Devaull challenged the results in court. Judge Weill found many irregularities with absentee ballots. He issued a bench warrant for notary Dallas Jones, who notarized absentee ballots. During a hearing, Jones admitted violating notary duties. “When you have an absentee ballot, there’s an envelope, you vote, fold the ballot, put it in an envelope, lick the flap, sign across the flap, then notary signs your election certificate, she testified that she didn’t sign in front of anybody, didn’t see anybody sign it, she just notarized it, just stamped them,” said Lydia Quarles, attorney for Robert Devaull.

INDONESIA - Vulcanologists recorded 13 separate blasts as Mount Sinabung erupted on Tuesday, spewing a tower of ash. Sinabung, a 8,530-feet-tall volcano in Indonesia, was dormant for centuries before roaring back to life in 2010. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and islets, has nearly 130 active volcanoes. Mount Sinabung volcano erupted on Tuesday morning spewing a spectacular column of ash thousands of feet into the air, nearly obscuring the powder blue sky from the view of locals watching below. Vulcanologists recorded 13 separate blasts as Mount Sinabung leapt to life, belching debris up to 16,400 feet (5,000 metres) above Sumatra.Mount Merapi on Java island, one of the world's most active volcanoes, also erupted this week, spewing lava down one of its flanks.

ITALY - Town residents had to use brooms to sweep up piles of pyroclastic dust and tiny pebbles of hot rock after Italy’s most killer volcano Mount Etna erupted on the last day of February. The mammoth volcano spans 22-miles at its base and skyscrapers 11,050 feet above the sea, making it hard to miss in the Sicilian landscape. And as of late, the fiery monster has been spewing gas, lava, soot, dust, and even chunks of rock, signifying that the half-a-million-year-old beast has once again awakened.

GERMANY - Germany's next chancellor will in all likelihood be one of two current state premiers: Armin Laschet or Markus Söder. So, where do the two conservative hopefuls stand on foreign policy? Germany's electoral race is beginning in earnest as the top candidates to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel jockey for position and credibility. Germany's conservatives are expected to decide in late May who will be their official candidate for the chancellery. And given Berlin's increasing weight in the European Union and internationally, the stakes are high: whoever wins the top job in German politics is going to face some very tough challenges...

USA - Texas businesses will be able to operate at full capacity and state residents will no longer be required to wear masks to visit them, Governor Greg Abbott said Tuesday. “It is now the time to open Texas 100%,” Mr Abbott, a Republican, said during an announcement in Lubbock. “State mandates are no longer needed.” The easing of restrictions will take effect on March 10. After about a monthlong shutdown last year, Texas allowed businesses to reopen to varying degrees beginning in May. Mr Abbott instituted a mask mandate in July, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations increased. More than 44,000 Texans have died of Covid-19. The state has logged nearly 33,000 new cases in the past week, an increase from mid-February, but a significant decrease from January. Mr Abbott’s move, affecting some 29 million residents of the second-largest state, comes after some smaller states, such as Iowa, Montana and North Dakota, have removed mask mandates.

USA - Mayors and county judges in some of Texas’ largest urban areas criticized Governor Greg Abbott over his decision to lift the statewide face mask mandate next week, saying it contradicts health officials’ advice as infections continue to spread throughout the state, which averaged over 200 reported deaths a day over the last week. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, a fellow Republican, called Abbott’s order “premature” and asked him to allow more people to get the vaccine. “I am calling on Governor Abbott to open up additional vaccine tier categories so that more people are eligible to get a vaccine if they want one,” Price said in a statement. “As the state’s directive has changed, so must our response. Now, more than ever, vaccines and testing must be readily available.” City and county officials urged residents in their areas to still follow recommendations from health experts and officials that call for wearing face masks in public.

USA - “We are health professionals of the international collective: United Health Professionals, composed of more than 1,500 members (including professors of medicine, intensive care physicians and infectious disease specialists) from different countries of Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Oceania and, on August 26, 2020, we addressed to governments and citizens of countries around the world an alert message regarding the COVID outbreak.

USA - In a year filled with civil unrest and the deepest political divisions in recent history, America is coming together on one issue — COVID-19 relief in the form of continued stimulus checks. A new survey finds generous financial recovery plans win bipartisan support from voters across the United States. Unfortunately, Republican and Democrat voters show bitter divides on most other political issues. In fact, three in 10 Americans say their differences are so irreconcilable they support their state seceding from the US. While Americans agree on the need for stimulus checks during the pandemic, the events surrounding the 2020 presidential election and President Trump’s subsequent impeachment continue to divide voters. Researchers find just 22 percent Republican respondents have confidence in the integrity of the 2020 election results. That’s far less than the 42 percent of Republican policy experts polled by the survey. The survey finds the political divide in America has gotten so bad 29 percent of voters would entertain the idea of spitting the country into smaller regions. One in three Republican respondents support their state seceding from the union.

SAUDI ARABIA - A swarm of locusts flies through Saudi Arabia as stunned people stare and watch and record on their phones. The desert locust has been active since 2020 following a period of wet weather. In a nightmarish clip, filmed by someone standing in the street on February 23, the locusts hang overhead like a swirling black cloud as they fly around outside people's homes. As the camera is turned around 360 degrees, it becomes clear nearby buildings are all completely surrounded by the ravenous insects as far as the eye can see. The footage continues for several more minutes, and the locusts just keep on coming as the swarm apparently grows in size.

CHILE - The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January, and Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. “Today,” he said, “is a day of joy, emotion and hope.” The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press. With just four of China’s many vaccine makers claiming they are able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year, a large part of the world’s population will end up inoculated not with the fancy Western vaccines boasting headline-grabbing efficacy rates, but with China’s humble, traditionally made shots.

USA - US foreign policy has clearly continued in the same direction, without missing a beat. Biden’s first speech regarding foreign policy since taking office, now posted on the White House’s official website and titled, “Remarks by President Biden on America’s Place in the World,” reveals that, if anything, US belligerence on the global stage is set to only expand. Biden’s opening remarks attempt to suggest that America has drifted away under his predecessor US President Donald Trump. But when he says “America is back,” we are left to assume he means “back” to what the US was doing under the administration of US President Barack Obama under which he served as vice president.

GERMANY - Interest rates have been negative in Europe for years. But it took the flood of savings unleashed in the pandemic for banks finally to charge depositors in earnest. Germany’s biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank AG DB 2.93% and Commerzbank AG CRZBY 0.61% , have told new customers since last year to pay a 0.5% annual rate to keep large sums of money with them. The banks say they can no longer absorb the negative interest rates the European Central Bank charges them. The more customer deposits banks have, the more they have to park with the central bank.

USA - Ever since last summer, a federal moratorium on evictions has prevented landlords from evicting millions of tenants that are behind on their rent payments. This moratorium has caused extreme financial distress for many landlords, but it has also kept us from witnessing millions upon millions of Americans being thrown out into the cold streets.

AUSTRALIA - Australia is now paying the price economically for its hostility to China and slavish loyalty to the US. The consequences of Canberra’s unconditional alignment with Washington in the cold war against Beijing are becoming clear. How long can Australia afford to be overtly hostile towards China, its biggest benefactor? A recent study by the Australian National University found that Chinese investment in the country fell by more than 60 percent in 2020.