ISRAEL - Chairman of far-right party, which is enjoying growing popularity, is a longtime advocate of Jews’ rights on Temple Mount and has called for increased Israeli control over site. The head of the far-right quasi-libertarian Zehut party said Wednesday that he wants to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem immediately.
UK - The leader of the English Democrats has launched a High Court battle claiming that the UK has already left the EU. Robin Tilbrook argues that Britain left the union on March 29 as originally planned, saying the PM's extension was not legally valid. The legal bid will be seen as a Brexiteer equivalent to Gina Miller's battle with the Government over triggering Article 50 in 2016. In the judicial review application, the English Democrats argue that Mrs May did not have the power to extend the exit date past March 29. 'Her purported request for an extension of the date of departure and the Government's purported agreement to such an extension is and was unlawful and is and was null and void,' the legal argument reads. ‘The Government's proceeding on the basis that we're still in. We're saying that's not the case. If there's a declaration from the High Court that we're out, the Government's got a new reality to deal with.'
EUROPE - EU Council chief Donald Tusk this evening urged European leaders to be patient with Theresa May after the Prime Minister requested yet another extension to Brexit – but Brussels is set to reject her plan, Express.co.uk understands.
UK - The European Union will “eventually fail” and it is now time for Britain to leave the Brussels bloc on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, the founder and CEO of British company Ebac has said. John Elliott, the founder of the manufacturer of washing machines and dehumidifiers in the UK, has called for Britain to leave the European Union with no deal and “play hard” in order to get a pragmatic response from the Brussels bloc. Speaking to BBC 5 Live’s Emma Barnett, Mr Elliott said: “I think the problem with the EU is it is not a very good organisation – they add nothing but cost and bureaucracy. So, that’s why, I think, the European Union will eventually fail.”
USA - If you were to put $5,000 in a regular Bank of America savings account (paying 0.01%) today, in a year you would have collected only 50 cents in interest. That’s true for most of us, but banks themselves are earning 2.4% on their deposits at the Federal Reserve.
GERMANY - Mirjam Heine, a German medical student at the University of Würzburg in Germany, made some deeply disturbing assertions last week in her TEDxTalk, “Why perception of pedophilia has to change.” She claimed that, according to current research, “pedophilia is an unchangeable sexual orientation just like, for example, heterosexuality. No one chooses to be a pedophile, no one can cease being one.”
MEXICO - The most dangerous volcano in Mexico just erupted 200 times in a 24 hour period, but there has been an almost total blackout about this in the US media. Authorities are saying that the odds of more volcanic activity at Mount Popocatepetl are “immediate to high”, and if a full-blown Plinian eruption were to occur it would be the worst natural disaster in the modern history of North America. Approximately 26 million people live within 60 miles of Popocatepetl’s crater, and so we are talking about the potential for death and destruction on a scale that is difficult to imagine. In ancient times, Mount Popocatepetl buried entire Aztec cities in super-heated mud… What we have witnessed over the last several days has been nothing short of stunning.
UNITED NATIONS - A new report on famine around the world makes for grim reading, showing starvation ravaging 53 countries, mostly due to conflict and climate shocks. In some places, like Yemen, the crisis is almost entirely man-made. Some 113 million people in 53 countries, the majority of them in Africa, faced chronic food shortages last year. Another 143 million people in 42 countries were found to be living in “[s]tressed conditions, on the cusp of acute hunger.” The growing problem is reflected in the increasing global spend on humanitarian aid, which rose from $18.4 billion in 2013 to $27.3 billion in 2017. Despite the rise in aid, the report’s authors argue that “humanitarian assistance does not address the root causes of food crises.”
ISRAEL - A woman in her 40s has been taken to hospital in Israel with brain damage after being put on a strict juice diet. The woman, who was not identified, had been on the diet for three weeks after visiting an 'alternative therapist' in Tel Aviv. As part of the diet she was only allowed to consume fruit juice and water, which caused an imbalance of salt in her brain.
UK - Edward Heath claimed he would not have taken Britain into the EEC – the precursor to the EU – without “the full-hearted consent of Parliament and the people”, but he then brought forward legislation to join the bloc and did not hold a referendum, unearthed reports reveal. As Brexit chaos looms, newly resurfaced reports reveal that former Prime Minister Edward Heath was also accused of betrayal but for taking the UK into the bloc in the first place.
UK - As we began our Common Market membership in January 1973, the then Conservative PM Edward Heath told the nation on TV:
‘There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified.’
Seventeen years later, in 1990, he said the opposite on BBC TV’s Question Time:
Peter Sissons: The single currency, a United States of Europe, was all that in your mind when you took Britain in?
Edward Heath: Of course, yes.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel will this week stage her most significant intervention in the Brexit process in more than two years, as the European Union moves to shield itself from the fallout of political chaos in Britain. The German chancellor is to hold talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Thursday and demand a plan to protect Ireland’s border should the UK crash out of the bloc without a deal, which could come as soon as April 12. The EU now sees this as a serious possibility and is focusing almost all of its work on how to contain the consequences, EU officials said.
GERMANY - This year's edition of the world's biggest industrial technology fair will give visitors glimpses into the factories of the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her opening speech to issue a stark warning. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Sunday in a speech to mark the opening of the Hannover Messe that the EU needed to become more competitive in next-generation industrial technologies.
VATICAN - Pope Francis used strong language to condemn populism Sunday, suggesting that it gains followers through fear as Hitler did in the 1930s. “I see that many people of good will, not only Catholics, are a bit gripped by fear, which is the usual message of populism,” the pope told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Morocco to Rome.
USA - At a recent conference, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos stated that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has “more data about what people want to do online than anyone else in the world.” CNBC reports that speaking at the Washington Post’s technology and policy conference on Wednesday, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos explained how Mark Zuckerberg manages to make decisions and business moves that eventually prove profitable but seem like huge gambles initially.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.